Hindus'Tantrum: Sid Harth
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Jay Stevens is a novelist, historian, and journalist with a special
interest in states of consciousness. He is the author of Storming
Heaven: LSD and the American Dream, and co-author of Drumming at the
Edge of Magic with Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart and
ethnomusicologist Fredric Lieberman. He lives most of the year on a
farm in Vermont, where he writes and continues the alchemical family
tradition of making maple syrup. At present he is finishing two
companion volumes to Storming Heaven entitled Burning Down the House
and Consciousness Wars.
Books by Jay Stevens
Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream (Grove Press 1998) ISBN
0-8021-3587-0
Drumming at the Edge of Magic (with Mickey Hart & Fredric Lieberman)
(1990 Harper San Francisco) ISBN 1-888358-18-1
Planet Drum: A Celebration of Percussion and Rhythm (with Mickey Hart
& Fredric Lieberman) (1998 Harper San Francisco) ISBN 1-888358-20-3
External links
Jay Stevens' website
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Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream (Paperback)
~ Jay Stevens
Jay Stevens (Author)
(Author) "Had you asked your average hippie about beginnings, you
would have discovered there were as many as there were hippies-
everyone had a favorite chronology..." (more)
4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
Customer Reviews
Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream
(34 customer reviews)
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
"Turn On" To This Fascinating Book!
I was born in 1960, so I was a little to young to appreciate the
"Summer Of Love", Haight-Ashbury and the entire late 60's counter-
culture movement. My fascination with that era began with Jimi Hendrix
and other musicians associate with it. Most of the social aspects I
was aware of were written by the "slanted" view of the media,
teachers, politicians and parents; not the...
Read the full review ›
Published on April 4, 2003 by "The Woj"
5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
A comfortably mediocre history of the 1960s
I'm at a loss to understand why everyone likes this books so much. One
guess is that that the "five star" rating reflects the weirdness and
coolness of the events portrayed rather than the history itself.
Personally, I find the historical and bibliographic breadth limited,
and the author's analysis and discussion of the events unfortunately
never gets beyond...
Published on July 3, 1999
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
"Turn On" To This Fascinating Book!, April 4, 2003
By "The Woj" (Downers Grove, IL) -
I was born in 1960, so I was a little to young to appreciate the
"Summer Of Love", Haight-Ashbury and the entire late 60's counter-
culture movement. My fascination with that era began with Jimi Hendrix
and other musicians associate with it. Most of the social aspects I
was aware of were written by the "slanted" view of the media,
teachers, politicians and parents; not the most objective of
viewpoints
When I heard about this book I picked it up ... ASAP and was not
disappointed. I will not go into lengthy discussions of this book like
other reviewers (or even spell all the words correctly). While
reading, Jay Stevens was placing me "there", "right there" where is
was all happening from Aldous Huxley, to Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey.
The story unfolds "expertly" and the characters involved are so well
described, it feels like I've met them personally.
While much of the information is public knowledge, there are many
fascinating, generally unknown tidbits: from the CIA's LSD involvement
to insights on Leary & Kesey.
Anyone who holds any interest in this subject will not be disappointed
with this book. From someone who grew up on The Brady Bunch, The
Monkees & Happy Days....this book is a definite eye opener into a
cultural wave I wish I had been riding.... so "Turn On, Tune In & Get
This Book". Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
A Fascinating History, March 2, 2001
By nonamespecified -
It seems to me, as others have said, that the discovery of LSD ranks
up there with the top scientific discoveries of the century. The mere
fact alone that there exists a substance, 50 micrograms of which,
would be sufficient to perhaps reorient your entire life and
understanding of the universe, whether or not one ever actually tries
it, is well worth remembering on those occasions when we get a little
too self-preoccupied. This book documents the history of the reactions
of various individuals as they encountered this substance through an
amazingly varied set of contexts, and through an intricately woven web
of connections. I have a mild annoyance with the book in that the
author is relentless in his effort to remain 'above it all' and
regards everything with an amused and detached air. It is a puzzling
attitude in a way. But the stories he tells are all well-crafted and
make compelling reading. His lack of reflection on the ultimate
meaning of LSD for our view of what it is to be 'normal' may be quite
intentional, but it seems to give the book an unnecessarily
superficial orientation which I found a bit strange. Help other
customers find the most helpful reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
The Politics of Consciousness, January 17, 2006
By Mr Potato Head (Sierra Foothills CA) -
What if you could take a pill or otherwise ingest some substance that
would make you see your whole world totally differently than you have
seen it before? How do you think your life would change, or would you
be any different at all?
As we all know, even if we weren't there...this is a large part of
what the 1960's were about. And this book provides a window into the
web of events and players that emerged during that turbulent time in
our evolution. In my view, it presents an unbiased social history of
consciousness expanding chemistry and it's consequences on the human
mind and by extension, upon the greater society as a whole. The author
uses scenes that are vivid and intimate into the players that had
major roles in this upheaval of the status qou - Tim Leary, Allen
Ginsberg, Richard Alpert(aka. Ram Dass), Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey,
Aldous Huxley, to name just a few. And of course, they all had their
own opinions on how the revolution was to proceed, with frequent
disagreements. There is also considerable light shed on the fact that
LSD, mescaline, psilocybin, and other compounds were being used with
considerable effectiveness within parts of the psychoanalytic
community for several years before the powers that be came in and put
them back in the box. But even if they hadn't passed laws against
these tools, it would have eventually come crashing down of it's own
weight. In the end, it was too radical a departure from the societal
norms and the movement itself had no real leaders. Leadership was
anathema to the revolution, the paradox being that authority was what
was being disempowered. The result is that the dream spiraled out of
control and we eventually ended up with Ronald Raygun as President and
we haven't quite been the same since.
The central question posed by this book seems to be: Who is the
ultimate arbiter of what you do with your consciousness? I would
suggest that if your answer involves anyone or anything outside your
self, then you are not truely free. Help other customers find the most
helpful reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
A very thorough and valuable history of the early years, May 6, 2001
By Martian Bachelor (Feminacentric America) -
This investigative tour de force covers in great detail the years from
1943 (and a little before) up through the LSD hysteria circa 1965-7.
I'm marking it down a star because of its inexplicable lack of an
index, which greatly reduces its value as a research reference --
which it surely deserves to be. There are so many biographies trying
to be told simultaneously here that it sometimes got a bit confusing.
It also tends to go off on occasional tangents, digressing at what to
me seemed like too great a length regarding some of the characters of
the story which (again) to me seemed more like minor ones not worth
the many background pages devoted to them. But those are rather small
quibbles really.
Stevens is pretty good at keeping central issues front and center as
events unfold: eg, how the psychological models evolved over time, and
the socio-political question of whether the power of this amazing
molecule was for the masses or just for the few -- both of which
became more or less moot as events over-ran things.
I liked "Acid Dreams" a microgram or two more than this book, probably
because it emphasizes cultural rather than personal history more, but
still had a difficult time putting "Storming Heaven" down for very
long. It's extremely information-rich and well-written -- it's rather
dispassionately objective while still being interesting. It would
probably only disappoint those looking for simple answers.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
It pulls all of the loose ends together, September 28, 2005
By Umberto (Kansas City) -
The author takes the reader on a fascinating journey to visit the
people, places, and cultures of the psychedelic movement. This book
contains interesting inside information about Albert Hoffman, Aldous
Huxley, Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, Jack Kerouac, Alan Ginsberg,
Neal Cassady, Ken Kesey, Owsley, and a myriad of minor players whose
names are fading into history. The story is chronicled from the Swiss
Labs where LSD was first discovered to its legitimate use in the
psychiatric profession to the artistic salons of the 50's to Harvard
to the native villages of Mexico to Leary's temporary home at the
Millbrook mansion to Kesey's Prankster hang-out in La Honda to the
Haight-Ashbury to the streets of America. An enjoyable peek into
diverse cultures from the psychiatric clinicians to world renowned
authors and artisans to the faculty of Harvard and Berkley to pre-
Columbian mushroom cults to the Beat poets to the Hell's Angels to the
Hippies. It is The Doors of Perception, The Psychedelic Experience, On
the Road, Howl, Holy Goof, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, and Living
with the Dead all rolled into one. Exhaustively researched, a very
entertaining read from front to back. Like the era that it chronicles,
I hated for the book to end. Help other customers find the most
helpful reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Five stars plus, January 6, 2007
By Brian P. Akers -
It is no fluke that this book has an average rating of five stars from
amazon.com readers. This is simply one of the most informative,
enjoyable and engaging presentations ever written on the subject of
hallucinogenic drugs in modern history, and how they made their way
from the obscurity of laboratories and clinical research to become a
fixture in the counterculture of the 1960's and beyond. The
complexities of the story make it a formidable challenge for any
narrator, but Stevens proves easily equal to the task. In the pages of
this book, the reader is introduced to the dramatis personae with an
immediacy as though meeting them in person. Many of the facts
discussed herein have been recounted before by many capable others.
But never have they been put into such a vivid and vibrant perspective
as this, so thorough and rich with nuance. That's important because
the depths of this story, stranger as it is than any fiction, are
where its meaning emerges most clearly. Ever since the impact of LSD
and its profound, pervasive influences on our life and times, modern
society will never be the same. And it is impossible to imagine what
popular culture would now be like without the psychedelic revolution
of the 20th century. "Storming Heaven" offers the best single account
of how and why this is so. This is a real page-turner, very difficult
to put down, and is highly recommended for the interested reader. Help
other customers find the most helpful reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Rare Insight into Drugs & Counterculture in the Postwar US, January
6, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Storming Heaven: Lsd and the American Dream
(Hardcover)
Stevens transports us to times and places that *should* be alien, and
*should* be unusual, but instead takes us into parlors, labs, music
halls, and jungles to give us what sounds and tastes like the real
poop on how, and more importantly, why a drug culture was so
ferociously and speedily born in postwar America. So real are his
profiles, and so uncharacteristically down to earth compared to the
other well known and more academic studies of the genre, that we, as
readers, can easily see and identify with why Hoffman, the Wassons,
Alpert, Leary, Huxley, et al took to these unique alkaloids in an
ongoing attempt to seek new truths, often to to validate inner
yearnings. Stevens feels like he was there, and so will you. If
nothing else, "Storming Heaven" is a great read simply because Stevens
is so very, very *on*. A must read if you are even remotely interested
in the modern drug phenomenon, with a few bonuses of drugs in history
(and theory) thrown in for good measure. I lent my copy out four years
ago, never got it back, and have since regretted it! Help other
customers find the most helpful reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
The Sixties, Microgram by Microgram, February 21, 2008
By JOHN J. MCGRAW "author of Brain & Belief" (Solana Beach, CA USA)
-
This is the definitive account of the 1960s psychedelic drug scene.
Stevens does a great job of conveying the highs and lows of LSD and
its proponents. His ability to relate endless facts while retaining a
fast-paced narrative structure is amazing. I found this one of the
most "addicting" books out there about the significance of drugs in
American culture. Stevens reviews all the major personalities: Albert
Hoffman, Timothy Leary, Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, the
Grateful Dead, Alan Watts, Jack Kerouac, Aldous Huxley, and more. If
you're interested in this electric decade, the power of psychedelics
to warp the mind, or any of the poet-prophets who were compelled to
experiment with and sing the praises of acid then this book is sure to
delight. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Quality journalistic-type writing, March 27, 2003
By Ross James Browne (Atlanta, Georgia United States) -
_Storming Heaven_ is a non-ficticious account of the history of the
spread of LSD in America and England during the 50's and 60's. It
gives detailed accounts of all of the major players in the early days
of the synthesization and distribution of this drug. It is not as
thoughtful or philosophical as I hoped, and has little to say about
the implications and nuances of the actual effects of the drug.
However, I came to accept this book for what it is, which is a matter-
of-fact description of how this drug progressed from the university
offices and laboratories to the streets of San Francisco. This book
has much to say about both the east-coast and west-coast acid scenes
of the 50's and 60's. In the east, you have Timothy Leary, Richard
Alpert, and Alan Watts, and their whole gang of weirdos hanging out in
an acid-soaked mansion in Millbrook NY. It is very interesting to read
about the(mis)adventures of these three men, all of whom (especially
Alan Watts) are gifted and accomplished writers. For those who are
fans of their work, _Storming Heaven_ is a must-read if for no other
reason than to get some idea of the formative influences of these
writers.
The west coast scene, in contrast, was less intellectual and more of a
free-for-all. Jay Stevens describes the exploits of Ken Kesey, and the
riders of his magic bus. Of course any discussion of Ken Kesey will
inevitably lead to a discussion of the Grateful Dead, and the
handiwork of their "chemist" mr. Owlsley. Stevens also covers the
involvement of the Hell's Angels in this west coast movement. All of
this makes for very entertaining, albeit light, reading.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
enthralled, February 5, 2000
By A Customer
Storming Heaven chronicles the advent of LSD (as well as many other
halucinagens) from its early days as a pharmaceutical curio to
indispensable ingredient of sixties social upheaval. In rich detail it
explains how, from the Sandoz pharmaceutical labs in Switzerland it
made its timely way to American shores where it found, in the form of
Timothy Leary, (and before him Aldous Huxley) its high priest. Help
other customers find the most helpful reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
The Battle betwen God's Flesh and Green Money, September 6, 1999
By A Customer
Segue to the end: money wins. Personal greed (or some variant of
Maslow's hierarchy) triumphs over freedom of the mind. How pure these
early pioneers of mind expansion were in their intentions. And how
naive.
What kind of society could sustain a populace of blissed-out fun-
seeking consumer bees more bent on self-discovery than on collecting
and distributing green pollen? The answer to this question posed such
a threat to the established system that what resulted was no less than
a civil war, with one side winning a smashing victory.
Life in the trenches is so boring, we need our legal opiates to blot
out the meaninglessness. How dare a group of outsiders suggest an
alternative marketing channel! What would hapen to G.M., Seagram's,
the Papal seat, and the organized crime syndicates working in the
underground economy? Better to have a bloodless revolution (well,
almost...see Chicago in 1968 and Kent State University in 1970) than
to tolerate such an open threat to income production and distribution.
This book is a fine social study that is a "must" reading for anyone
who would attempt to explain the America we live in today. Going
beneath the headlines without sounding too much like Oliver Stone
opens up other interpretations of what happened and suggests what
could have been.
If you were born between 1945 and 1965 and want to know why you and
your friends are doing this instead of that, read this book. If you
are a student of modern American history, read this book. I have read
it three time since it was first published (just finished it again),
and as a baby-boomer born in 1952, I can appreciate just how close to
the mark the author makes his shot.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
An incredible slice of modern history, November 13, 2009
By J. C. Walker (London, UK) -
Storming Heaven is a book that will forever stay dear to my heart as
it literally changed my life. I can't expect anyone else to have the
same experience I did, and it changed it in a way you probably
wouldn't imagine, but I can definitely recommend you this book and say
it is a fantastic read. Jay Stevens has written a completely non-
sensationalistic, thoroughly researched and extremely compelling
account of a chapter in modern history that has, unfortunately, become
distorted in contemporary consciousness. This book doesn't create a
rose-tinted view of the American 60's cultural revolution, but instead
unearths its roots, explores its good side and bad, and never forgets
to remain dogged in pursuit of the truth. That isn't to say that the
book is dry, far from it, this is a page-turner that will ultimately
break your heart.
The story contained within is fascinating, far broader than mere drug
experiences and filled with unforgettable characters. It is an
incredible history lesson about a recent time you probably thought you
already understood, but after reading this, will realize you didn't.
If you have any interest in modern history, American culture, or
indeed the potent chemical mentioned in the book's title, this is
*essential* reading.
It expanded my perceptions without the use of drugs, I hope it will do
the same for you. Help other customers find the most helpful
reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Superb analysis of the causes of the Sixties phenomenon, June 2,
2009
By Morley Chalmers (Toronto, Ontario Canada) -
What a fabulous piece of writing Storming Heaven is! Simply superb. It
helped connect the dots on that incredible decade, the Sixties, like
nothing I've ever seen before. The rise, the cresting, and the fall.
Greatly appreciated Help other customers find the most helpful
reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Superb, August 3, 2008
By Alistair. S. Praties "Buzzardwarrior" (Edinburgh, Scotland) -
This is one of the best books I have read -certainly the best in the
category of social history. Jay Stevens has researched his material
meticulously and has delivered the narrative in a most enthralling
manner. I found it hard to lay the book down. Whether, like me, you
lived through the psychedelic experience of the sixties or you have
but a passive interest, you will be amazed to learn of the full impact
that the psychedelic culture has had on Western society, religion and
philosophy -right through to the chemical hedonism of today.
This is truly a superb read! Help other customers find the most
helpful reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Gotta throw in my five stars too-, July 1, 1999
By A Customer
Fascinating history of psychedelic drugs that weaves it's way through
pharmacology, psychiatry, academia and ends up in the middle of Haight
Street... Mr. Stevens beautifully summarizes the cultural mindset of
the 50's and 60's. What amazes me is how fast everything soured... I
can't say enough good things about this book. What a trip... Help
other customers find the most helpful reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Tune in, turn on, drop out!, March 8, 2008
By Doc Smiley (Studio City, CA USA) -
I bought this on the recommendation of Dr. Stanley Krippner in a
lecture on ayahuasca. It is absolutely the best book I have read on
the history of the psychedelic movement during the past 100 years or
so. Timothy Leary is not dead - he's only outside looking in. :-) Help
other customers find the most helpful reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
An absolute gem!, July 28, 2000
By Richard J Murphy (London) -
I loved this book. It had me gripped to it from start to finish. It
facinated, humoured and impired me. If you have any interest in this
remarkable substance and the psycho-social revolution it unleased then
buy this book. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
a missing part of american culture revealed, March 20, 2000
By Tim Shortnacy "followingthepath" (round rock, texas... just north
of austin..) - See all my reviews
if they taught this kind of history in school, I don't think i would
have ever been bored enough to draw stupid comics of stick figures
running about the pages of my notes and classwork.... a truly
inspiring journey into the souls of some truly brave people in their
journey to break on through..... Help other customers find the most
helpful reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
read this now, you are late, March 18, 2000
By A Customer
This book is a fair account of the affects and consequenses of mature
ingestion of the chemical Lysergic acid---please read thids book it is
an eye opener for the skeptic--get it in the library first if you
doubt this quick review. Help other customers find the most helpful
reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Once one begins Storming Heaven one can't put it down, March 29,
1999
By A Customer
Storming Heaven is by far the most informative and comprehensive work
I have ever read about the 60's Psychdelic movement! A breathtaking
roller coaster ride down the steep inclines of the human psyche. If
this subject at all perks your interest you won't be able to put it
down! Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A Real Mind Opener, May 29, 1998
By John Walker (j.c.w...@bigfoot.com) (Sheffield, UK) -
This review is from: Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream
(Paperback)
This is a brilliantly researched and executed book. It will change
your view on a lot of things (from religion from politics). There is a
LOT more to this book than just LSD, it is an expose on an incredible
(and misunderstood) time in recent history. This is a brilliant book.
I assure you it is worth your time and effort. Grab a copy if you ever
see it. It WILL open your mind. Help other customers find the most
helpful reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
The Best History of the Psychedelic Movement, May 26, 1996
By A Customer
This review is from: Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream
(Paperback)
If you read the literature on the psychedelic movement widely enough,
it can all become a bit of a jumble -- "Hey, haven't I read about this
same party in four different memoirs?" Jay Stevens does a wonderful
service by telling this incredibly complex tale with grace, economy
and clarity. He's fair, compassionate, and unlike a lot of other
people who have written about the counterculture lately, he "gets it."
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
lost history, August 22, 2007
By j0e_x (Canopus) -
This should be required reading in American History. Who knew Canada
had legal LSD centers? And the characters- Nin, Huxley, Kesey, Leary
and Capt.Al Hubbard (??). Will we ever see their like again? Really a
very sad story, and a fascinating one. Nice to see the Chief Boo Hoo,
old Art Kleps in there as well. Sen. Kennedy: "Is your title really
Chief Boo Hoo?" Art Kleps: "I'm afraid so, sir." Help other customers
find the most helpful reviews
An Exceptional Weave of an Interesting History, January 16, 2003
By Norm Zurawski (Millington, NJ United States) -
In the spirit of the subject matter, the best word to describe this
book is...cool. The author appears to have a genuine desire to
objectively explore the history, for better or worse, of LSD and its
role in American culture. Stevens does not approach this work being
for nor against LSD. He just looks. As a result, this book comes out
with flying colors...pun intended.
This book is a diamond in the rough for those who wish to take that
same exploratory approach in reading about LSD and the history of this
potent and controversial drug. It's not geared for people who are
vehemently pro/anti LSD. Preconceived notions should be checked at the
door before embarking on this adventure.
Stevens looks at LSD from its very beginnings, where characters such
as Hoffman, Osmond, and Huxley help pave the way for much of what
comes later in the book. As the narrative moves on, familiar names
such as Ginsberg, Leary, Burroughs, Kerouac, Alpert, Metzner, Kesey,
Cassady, Weil, Watts, and Wolfe, among others, enter and exit the
stage like bit actors in this great showcase. If you've ever been
enamored with the doings of any of those names, this book weaves a
pattern from threads of various legacies in one fascinating tapestry.
As a caveat to the above paragraph, none of those characters is
covered in much detail, with the exception of Timothy Leary. This is
more a result of Leary's intense involvement with the scene than
Stevens' focusing on one extraordinary character. Some of those people
(Burroughs, for instance) make very brief but interesting
appearances.
In addition to those mentioned, many unknown but intriguing characters
fill the pages of this book. More than likely, every one of them will
lead you to read on, until another name segues into the narrative.
Stevens does a great job researching this story and presenting it to
the reader in one piece.
Every time I review a book I do my best to find something which was
lacking, no matter how much I enjoyed it. In this particular case, I
have a hard time pinpointing anything to find fault with. The only
complaint I might have is that it was too short. One imagines that
pages and pages of material never made it to press and it's a shame
this book had to end where it did. I would have kept reading if it
were twice as long.
I do have to cede a point that one other reviewer makes. He comments
that the prevalence of 5 star ratings, "reflects the weirdness and
coolness of the events portrayed rather than the history itself." I do
have to lend some credence to that point and admit that this may be
true. However, as this subject matter is relatively new to me, the
book still rates 5 stars in terms of an introduction to the subject.
As a history on the subject, it's the role of the author to tell the
story, and Stevens does that well.
In all, a great read. A fascinating perspective brought to you by
someone trying to elucidate the ups and downs of LSD and the movement
it helped create. Again, this is not going to be a favorite of the pro-
LSD hippie or the anti-drug conservative. But for those of you who
want a fairly balanced, comprehensive view of the history of LSD and
how it influenced culture in America, I strongly recommend this book.
Very well done.
A trip, October 13, 2000
By Jay Stevens (Missoula, MT) -
Let's get a couple of things straight: No, I am not the author. No,
I'm not related to the author. So despite the name, I think I'm pretty
unbiased, although some might think otherwise after reading the
following glowing review of Jay Stevens' book, "Storming Heaven."
This was a great book.
Mr. Stevens tracks LSD from its inception through San Francisco's "the
Summer of Love" in late 60s. He artfully describes the discovery of
the drug and its effect on the psychologists who first used it on
their patients and on themselves. He introduces Alduous Huxley, Tim
Leary, and Ken Kesey-the pied pipers of LSD-and explains their
fascination for psychedelics. He discusses the drug's decline, its
unpopularity with government officials, its abuse by "untrained"
American kids, and the progressive marginalization of the drug's
"prophets." And all the while, Stevens skillfully gives voice to the
drug's proponents' vision of a "metal frontier" to be crossed using
LSD, pushing human beings along the evolutionary path.
It is clear from Mr. Stevens' book that LSD played a major role in the
fundamental changes wrought in the 1960s. LSD tore down personal
constructs and unveiled egos. LSD gave everyday Americans a chance to
experience mystical visions. LSD gave many new insight into the nature
of being. It was a psychological drug, and explains why most of the
social change that occurred in the 1960s was psychological in nature.
But while Mr. Stevens in his Epilogue seems to laud the continuation
of psychological exploration by a handful of "inner" explorers who use
a series of newly developed designer psychedelics, I think he
misrepresents the importance of these drugs.
First, the assumption that LSD will lead man (and woman) along the
evolutionary path assumes that this path is straight and pointed in a
forward direction. That is, that evolution is a natural process from
simple to complex, from amoebas to man and beyond. Instead, science
now concludes that evolution is more of a willy-nilly process. Species
constantly bloom a number of seemingly useless mutations, and changes
in environment conditions dictate which mutation reigns supreme. After
all, it seems that the next species to inherit the planet is likely to
be the cockroach, for the cockroach has the rigor and hardiness to
withstand the destruction of the planet by humans. And cockroaches are
hardly superior in intelligence or complexity.
Second, is the assumption that LSD can "lead" us anywhere. While LSD
gives visions, reveals fundamental truths about personality, it
doesn't change anything. It's up to the individual in the end to enact
change, to mutate. We only have to look at the example of Tim Leary to
realize this. While Mr. Leary was turned on to the drug and believed
its in therapeutic value, in the text he remained a womanizing,
upperly-mobile egoist; he just traded in his tweed for buckskin, and
academia for psychedelia.
Basically LSD is a shortcut. It's a quick-fix buzz. In that way, it's
the ideal substance for America. "Vision in a can." "Become a mystic
in 12 easy hours." I would've liked to Mr. Stevens explore this facet
of LSD a little more. But he seems to be totally enchanted with the
cosmic possibilities...
In any case, the writing is superb. It's the perfect book to read to
begin exploring the important texts of the 20th century bohemian
movement. Read this alongside "Brave New World," "One Flew Over the
Cuckoo's Nest," "On the Road," "Electric Cool-Aid Acid Test," and
"Howl," among other texts.
Technicolored Masterpiece of a Maelstrom, January 8, 2000
By Ian Hough (Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts) -
This is very likely the best book I have ever read. It gave me a taste
for any non-fiction which is written in "story" form. Jay Stevens
leads us down a realistic but picturesque garden path, stopping at
many points along the way to point out the more fascinating
individuals and descriptions of the world, created by this incredible
chemical. He quotes one voyager as saying "I was struck more by its
strangeness than its beauty." Obviously a man with some experience of
that other world, Stevens is slick as well as humane in his treatment
of what it did to a generation, and what happened to them when it was
over. From the moment Albert Hofmann accidentally ingested the stuff
in Basle, to the studious setting of Huxley's awakening, to Tim Leary
and his anti-establishment stance in the bowels of Harvard, to Allen
Ginsberg's being born again, and on into the psychological armageddon
beyond Altamont, Stevens' voice never wavers, but becomes ever
clearer, more colorful and true. I lay on a bed for two days straight
and read this big book. It was a trip, and the volume stands in a very
convenient spot on my bookshelf. It shines. Help other customers find
the most helpful reviews
Superb in every way, May 1, 1999
By A Customer
This is simply one of the greatest works of non-fiction, and I only
stop there because it's so difficult to categorize. History,
biography, science and sociology seamlessly mingle in some of the most
ecstatic -- yet not over-the-top -- prose one is likely to encounter.
This is one of those books that you are truly sad to see end, so rich
is Stevens' portrayal of a time and its remarkable characters, Leary
and Kesey foremost among them. For once a book that deserves the
epithet 'remarkable'. Help other customers find the most helpful
reviews
Excellent Psychedelic History, September 30, 1998
By A Customer
This book is pure information. And I cannot get enough of it. Help
other customers find the most helpful reviews
5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
A comfortably mediocre history of the 1960s, July 3, 1999
By A Customer
I'm at a loss to understand why everyone likes this books so much. One
guess is that that the "five star" rating reflects the weirdness and
coolness of the events portrayed rather than the history itself.
Personally, I find the historical and bibliographic breadth limited,
and the author's analysis and discussion of the events unfortunately
never gets beyond the obvious. A somewhat better bet is Acid Dreams by
Lee and Shlain. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
The book itself is mind-expanding!, June 18, 1999
By A Customer
Obviously, the subject of LSD is a touchy one, yet Jay Stevens'
painstaking research gains the trust of the reader early and maintains
it throughout. I am a chemist, and he describes the circumstances
surrounding the discovery of LSD perfectly. My father is a
psychologist, and he was surprised at Jay Stevens' insights into the
state of psychological research in the post-war era. This book is much
more of a social history than it is a history of LSD- I only wish Jay
Stevens would write more books. Help other customers find the most
helpful reviews
of 2 people found the following review helpful:
For those that were there and for those that were not there!, May 18,
1999
By god...@aol.com (Las Vegas, Nevada) -
An amazing compilation of the scene! If you took the psychedelic
drugs, you were blown away by what was happening. If you didn't take
the psychedelic drugs, I hope you were blown away by what was
happening. If you weren't taking the drugs and/or weren't blown away,
then read this book, it is your last chance. War, Karma, Instant
Nirvana, the nature of consciousness and mental illness...It is your
mind; examine it! Help other customers find the most helpful
reviews
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Allowing "Generation X " to understand "Generation?", September 30,
1997
By A Customer
This review is from: Storming Heaven: Lsd and the American Dream
(Hardcover)
When generation X looks back on the past, it's easy to get the
picture. Cheech and Chong and Woodstock right? Jay Stevens who
obviously feels this stereotyping is getting out of hand, sends us 19
to 30 range on a magic carpet ride. Storming Heaven distributes the
controversial substance LSD in a form uunlike most non fiction.
Labratories and bordellos, parks and experiments come to life, while
Stevens carefully rations narcotic expertise with historical fact.
This books provides anyone wanting crystal clear perspective about LSD
as well as history in the last half century. Right down to the bicycle
ride home.(I'll let you find out) Help other customers find the most
helpful reviews
7 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Very good but ignores many facets of certain indivuals, February 10,
2007
By Cwn_Annwn (Copenhagen, Denmark) -
This was a very good book. You get lots of interesting stuff about
Aldous Huxley, the famous beat writers, Owsley, Timothy Leary, Ken
Kesey and the evolution of the so called counterculture as a whole.
The problems that I have with Storming Heaven is not for what was in
it but what was left out. For one Stevens was WAY too easy on Timothy
Leary. The author seemed almost like a school girl with a crush when
he recounts his visit to Learys home for an interview for the book. He
comes off more as a fan than he does an objective writer at times when
he deals with Leary. Why wasn't it mentioned that it has come out that
Leary was a government informant and information he gave led to the
death of two members of the Weather Underground? Its also a known fact
that Leary was surrounded by CIA assets and there is a lot of evidence
that he was a government agent himself, and at the least he was
feeding them information.
There is also a fleeting mention that wasn't elaborated on about Ken
Kesey that he had LSD experiments done on him at Stanford by the guy
that ended up in charge of the CIAs Mkultra mind control program. This
really makes me wonder about Kesey. Its more or less accepted history
that the first LSD to get out on the street level was what Kesey stole
from the medicine chest at his job as a night shift janitor at a
mental hospital and distributed it among his elitist friends. Kesey
went from writing what was probably the best novel written during the
1960's to, while becoming a counterculture hero, never writing another
thing worth reading again. Did doing too much LSD scramble his brains
and ruin his creativity or was his creativity nullified by Mkultra
programming? Its hard to say for sure but I have to wonder if Kesey
was not under some sort of mind control or was being used by the CIA
in one way or another. There are a lot of unanswered questions in my
mind about Kesey.
They also fleetingly mention the Brotherhood of Eternal Love who were
major LSD distributors and were known to be full of CIA people and had
a close association with a Jewish man named Ron Starks who was a CIA
spook that also happened to the biggest LSD dealer in the world.
Starks was not even given the first mention in this book!
I mean with all these ivy league, Mkultra and CIA connections to the
elites of the so called counterculture I have to seriously wonder how
much of the hippy movement of the late 60's was an organic rebellion
against what was (and still is) a very repressive society both
socially and politically and how much of it was intentional social
engineering that came from the highest levels of the power structure.
Many people believe that the anti-war movement was flooded with drugs,
in particular LSD, by federal agents. Its well known that the
government tried to subvert and destroy the anti-war movement with the
cointelpro program so why wouldn't they also use drugs to try to
destroy it? While it can't be denied that LSD has enhanced many an
artist, writer and musicians work can you honestly say that sitting
around frying on acid all the time is going to do anything but disable
political activists who in many cases were in a life and death
struggle? Besides that the fact remains that many people became
permanently damaged as result of doing acid.
All that said I would definitely recomend reading or of you can get it
cheap, buying Storming Heaven. I could hardly put it down once I
started reading it. I realize that this book was more geared toward
looking into what psychelic drugs can do with the mind and its
exponents history and theories on the subject than any conspiratorial
maneuverings by the US government involving LSD but it just didn't go
deep enough into the rabbit hole for my tastes. Help other customers
find the most helpful reviews
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Entheogens: Professional Listing, April 30, 1999
By A Customer
"Storming Heaven" has been selected for listing in "Religion and
Psychoactive Sacraments: An Entheogen Chrestomathy".
http://www.jaystevenslighting.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jay-stevens/3/b32/a63
http://pictures.wizardofthenet.com/v/jaystevens/
Rational and Irrational Beliefs: Research, Theory, and Clinical
Practice (Hardcover)
~ Daniel David (Editor), Steven Jay Lynn (Editor), Albert Ellis
(Editor)
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Ethical Educational Leadership in Turbulent Times: (Re) Solving Moral
Dilemmas (Paperback)
~ Joan Poliner Shapiro
Joan Poliner Shapiro (Author)
(Author), Steven Jay Gross (Author)
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Ethical Educational Leadership in Turbulent Times: (Re) Solving Moral
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
ethical framework, February 18, 2008
By Jolanta M. Smolen - See all my reviews
Since I'm taking a class that requires this book, it was not a free
choice of book. However, so far it's proving to be an interesting
framework for ethics in education. Help other customers find the most
helpful reviews
Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining the Scientific Evidence
(Hardcover)
~ Etzel Cardena (Editor), Steven Jay Lynn (Editor), Stanley C.
Krippner (Editor)
Key Phrases: anomalous healing experiences, strong synesthesia,
anomalous healing events, New York, Journal of Near-Death Studies,
Journal of Parapsychology (more...)
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Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining the Scientific Evidence
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59 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
This book is a gem., June 19, 2000
By Sharon S. (Bethesda, MD) -
How fortunate we are to now have in one volume a comprehensive and
scholarly review of the scientific evidence for anomalous experiences.
The fascinating subject matter of this book includes such diverse
phenomena as lucid dreaming, out of body experiences, past life
experiences, and alien abduction. What makes this book different from
other treatments of some of these topics is that the authors have no
hidden agenda or viewpoint that they are trying to put forth. They are
not trying to convince you that something does or does not exist.
Instead it is an even-handed look at the available data and various
competing explanations. And even though it is a scholarly review, it
is well written, engaging, and easy-to-read. Varieties of Anomalous
Experience: Examining the Scientific Evidence belongs on the bookshelf
of anyone who has an interest in understanding and explaining these
unusual phenomena. You won't be disappointed. Help other customers
find the most helpful reviews
34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
Essential Reading on the Topic, August 7, 2002
By James S. Taylor (Scarborough, Ontario Canada) -
Books surveying anomalous experience have tended to come from the
skeptic side of the fence and have leaned toward the debunking end of
the spectrum. While they have their uses, there's always the nagging
suspicion that they might not be fair to all the evidence. While this
book isn't as easy reading as those of the skeptics, it really shoots
at being a balanced examination of the evidence, pro and con, with
intelligent discussion about where the weight of what we know falls.
Each chapter tackles one anomalous phenomenon and follows a consistant
structure. First, the experience is clearly defined so that we know
what is and is not being addressed. Then, the actual phenomenology of
the phenomenon out in the field is surveyed. Since the book is geared
toward those in the psychological and helping professions, the
emotional, physical, and mental aftereffects of having the experience
are then examined. The range of differences between experients is
presented,then issues involving psychopathology, clinical assessment,
background theories, and methodology of research are shown. Each
chapter is written by an authority on that specific phenomenon and
they provide a summation conclusion at the end where they render their
professional judgment on the topic. If you're looking for a
sensational or spooky handling of the subjects, this isn't your book;
but if you want a very level headed analysis of what is happening in
these fields of research, you need to be familiar with this work. Even
better, each chapter provides pages worth of bibliography, pro and
con, on each subject, that will keep you going for years. Help other
customers find the most helpful reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Psychology and parapsychology, February 24, 2007
By Sean K. Sayers Montalvo -
Excellent book. I never thought that it could have been posible to
explain parapsychology and psychology in the light of each other. It
has been a great text book for one of my courses. It has helped to
create a more in depth vision of the relationship between both areas.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Look No Further, Seek No Other;, March 24, 2004
By A Customer
What a delight, I first became interested in the paranormal and this
weird stuff after reading Jerry D. Coleman's "Strange Highways" and
was very glad to see that another book such as "Varieties of Anomalous
Experience" could be on the same tone, meaning, well written,
informative and most important left up to me to decide and draw my own
conclusions! Great book, a wonderful read! Help other customers find
the most helpful reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Varieties of Anomalous Experience., February 23, 2009
By New Age of Barbarism "zosimos" (EVROPA.) -
_Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining the Scientific
Evidence_, first published in 2000 by the American Psychological
Association, and edited by psychologists Etzel Cardena, Steven Jay
Lynn, and Stanley Krippner is a collection of various essays examining
experiences which may be classified as "anomalous" from the
perspective of psychological science. The title for this book is
derived from a similar book written by the famous psychologist and
philosopher William James entitled _The Varieties of Religious
Experience_ which examined varieties of religious experience from the
perspective of a psychologist. This book considers anomalous
experience to be defined as "an uncommon experience (e.g. synesthesia)
or one that, although it may be experienced by a substantial amount of
the population (e.g., experiences interpreted as telepathic), is
believed to deviate from ordinary experience or from the usually
accepted explanations of reality." Anomalous experiences are thus
considered in light of "unusual people", parapsychological phenomena,
altered states of consciousness, and psychopathology or abnormal
psychology, and in terms of various cultural factors. In the current
culture, there is widespread mention of such experiences (through for
example such television programs as _The X-Files_) and in the past
science has frequently taken a hostile view to such experiences,
arguing for skepticism. This book however is unique in that all
viewpoints including non-skeptical ones are given a full hearing.
Also, many of the articles that appear in this book take a sympathetic
approach to non-skeptical interpretations of anomalous experiences.
This first article to appear in this book is entitled "Introduction:
Anomalous Experiences in Perspective" by the editors Etzel Cardena,
Steven Jay Lynn, and Stanley Krippner. This article defines the terms
"anomalous" and "anomalous experience" and provides an understanding
of what is meant by such experiences. It then provides a history of
the study of anomalous experiences and provides some detailed critique
of investigations into such topics as parapsychology. Then appears the
outline for the chapters in the book and finally the purpose of the
book mentioning reasons why one might study anomalous experiences and
concluding that a psychology that takes the challenge of William James
to build a comprehensive study of human experience must also examine
those experiences which may be considered anomalous.
Section I of this book is entitled "Conceptual and Methodological
Issues". The first article in this section is entitled "Anomalous
Experiences, Peculiarity, and Psychopathology" by Howard Berenbaum,
John Kerns, and Chitra Raghavan and considers the role of peculiarity
and psychopathology and their possible relationships to those who have
anomalous experiences. The second article is entitled "Methodological
Issues in the Study of Altered States of Consciousness and Anomalous
Experiences" by Ronald J. Pekala and Etzel Cardena and provides an
examination of some methodological issues in the study of altered
states of consciousness and anomalous experiences including
phenomenological and psychophenomenological approaches to these
issues. The authors conclude this article with some recommendations
for researchers.
Section II of this book is entitled "Anomalous Experiences". Each of
the articles in this section consider a different type of anomalous
experience. They consider these experiences in terms of human
differences, cultural factors, and psychopathology. They also provide
various explanations and theories of these experiences considering
both skeptical and non-skeptical interpretations and offering reasons
that support each of these theories. This section contains several
useful and interesting articles that offer a truly open-minded
approach to anomalous experiences that takes these experiences
seriously (while in the past they may have been taken less than
seriously by prior researchers). The articles included in this section
are:
"Hallucinatory Experiences" by Richard P. Bentall,
"Synesthesia" by Lawrence E. Marks,
"Lucid Dreaming" by Stephen LaBerge and Jayne Gackenbach,
"Out-of-Body Experiences" by Carlos S. Alvarado,
"Psi-Related Experiences" by Elisabeth Targ, Marilyn Schlitz, and
Harvey J. Irwin,
"Alien Abduction Experiences" by Stuart Appelle, Steven Jay Lynn, and
Leonard Newman,
"Past-Life Experiences" by Antonia Mills and Steven Jay Lynn,
"Near-Death Experiences" by Bruce Greyson,
"Anomalous Healing Experiences" by Stanley Krippner and Jeanne
Achterberg,
"Mystical Experience" by David M. Wulff.
These articles provide interesting studies of various anomalous
experiences that may not fit into previous scientific or religious
understandings of reality. In particular, for example psi-related
phenomena challenge current scientific understandings and near-death
experiences offer the possibility of the survival of human personality
after death. As such, these experiences prove highly interesting and
this book offers a truly open-minded approach from the perspective of
psychology that examines such experiences. For too long, modern
science has conveniently ignored or tried to deny such experiences and
it is precisely for this reason that this book serves as such a
valuable contribution. This book offers one of the unique studies on
such experiences from the perspective of mainstream modern psychology
and is published by the APA, the main organ of mainstream psychology.
As such, this book gives some legitimacy to experiences and theories
that have previously been ignored or denied. As the editors maintain
however, if one is to offer a comprehensive psychology as William
James suggested, then one must provide a study of all human experience
including those experiences which are deemed anomalous. This book
offers exactly such a study.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Serious, trustworth writing., February 15, 2010
By Vanessa Corredato (São Paulo, BR) -
This book was written by well-known researchers. It is a recognized
textbook in the field and expresses serious, trustworth opinions.
Highly recommended. Help other customers find the most helpful
reviews
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Texts and Contexts (4th Edition) (Paperback)
~ Steven Jay Lynn (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Texts and Contexts (4th Edition)
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Clever but too simplfied, July 2, 2007
By Lit. Prof. (Lima, Ohio) -
I assigned this book in an undergraduate course that included an
introduction to critical theory. The book is cleverly written and is
intended to be accessible. It features sample analyses for each of the
theoretical approaches, and keeps things light with occasional jokes
and cartoons, which help keep theory from being intimidating. Indeed,
the book is frequently entertaining. It outlines six major schools of
literary criticism (New Criticism, Reader-Response, Deconstruction,
Psychological criticism and gender criticism), and the chapters are
well-organized. The front cover features a useful set of summaries for
each approach: its assumptions, practices, and typical questions. All
this is good. I found, however, that the book is so intent on
summarizing the theories briefly and clearly that it oversimplifies
and leaves out important points. I therefore found myself filling in
the gaps and sending my students to supplementary readings from other
textbooks that I had NOT adopted and had instead put on reserve as
supplementary readings (Lois Tyson's Critical Theory Today and Charles
Bressler's Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Literary Theory and
Practice). So I'm back to looking for a text for my class. I would
recommend Lynn's book as a back-up (the way I used Tyson and Bressler)
and as brush-up reading for people who already have some background in
theory. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
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Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology (Paperback)
~ Scott O. Lilienfeld Phd (Editor), Steven Jay Lynn Phd (Editor),
Jeffrey M. Lohr Phd (Editor) "As Bob Dylan wrote, "The times they are
a-changin'..." (more)
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Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology
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36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
Well researched, balanced, and provocative, January 31, 2003
By Eric G. Mart (Manchester, NH United States) -
This review is from: Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology
(Hardcover)
This edited volume contains chapters which provide critical analysis
of a variety of important subjects in clinical psychology. Lillienfeld
et al take a hard look at general issues such as diagnosis and
treatment as well as specific issues including New Age treatments for
psychological disorders and tests and personality measures. It also
examines other subjects such as controversial interventions for ADHD,
trauma and autism. The book will spark a great deal of argument and
some outrage, since there are a lot of oxen and sacred cows being
gored therein. But it is long past time that the yawning chasm between
science and clinical practice was addressed, and this volume does an
admirable job. I recommend this book to all thoughtful clinicans, as
well as general readers with an interest in clinical psychology. Help
other customers find the most helpful reviews
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
Well written, but may be missing something., December 27, 2006
By Bookworm -
This review is from: Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology
(Hardcover)
As a psychologist who is aware of some of the questionable research
and clinical practices in psychology I read this book with interest.
Many of the chapters were interesting and the criticisms valid. I was
disappointed, however, that a book that claims to debunk pseudoscience
seemed to have a major blindspot. For example Waschbusch and Hill's
chapter examines treatments for ADHD without reference to the
controversy that exists about the validity of ADHD as a
neurobiological syndrome. There is debate about the unscientific
manner in which groups of nonspecifc behaviours are named as
syndromes, in the absence of any physical evidence. Discussing
treatments for these "disorders" without mentioning this at all seems
a glaring oversight in a book that devotes so much attention to issues
of diagnosis and assessment and claims to expose pseudosicence. It
hardly takes courage or insight to criticise the fringe elements, but
what about blatant pseudoscientific practices carried out by
mainstream psychologists? Help other customers find the most helpful
reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Timely exploration of controversial topics, November 1, 2006
By Karen Franklin "Forensic Psychologist" (El Cerrito, CA, USA)
-
Why do clinicians keep practicing forms of therapy that lack
scientific support?
This edited book explores the widening gap between scientists and
practitioners in the field of clinical psychology. It covers many of
the most pressing controversies surrounding diagnosis, treatment
methods, specific disorders, and the self-help movement.
It is well written and exceptionally balanced. I recommend it highly
to my clinical psychology graduate students, but I think it is also
valuable for practicing clinicians and for other people who are
interested in the specific topics covered, including recovered memory
therapy, autism treatment, ADHD, new age therapies, multiple
personality disorder (aka dissociative identity disorder), trauma
treatment, herbal antidepressants, and - one of my favorite chapters -
substance abuse recovery. Help other customers find the most helpful
reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Clarity, November 6, 2006
By A. Montgomery (Victoria, Australia) -
Although largely aware of the plethora of pseudoscientific nonsence
that besets the field of mental health, it is very refreshing to have
this collation of information brought together in one volume. As a
clinical psycholgist I am confronted daily by people who have been
referred to purveyors of unscientific, and often damaging,
"interventions". All too frequently, these people have been referred
to such snake-oil sellers by mental health professionals -
psychologists, psychaitrists, medical doctors etc. This book, and
hopefully further editions of it, should be compulsory reading for
everyone seeking to work in the mental health and forensic fields.
Only by truly embracing scientific methodology and an unremitting
scepticism can we hope to move forward in understanding mental health
and criminal problems. Our patients, their families, and the public
deserve no less.
Alex Montgomery
Clinical Psychologist
Victoria, Australia Help other customers find the most helpful
reviews
32 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
A must read, March 15, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology
(Hardcover)
I am finishing my Ph.D. in psychology this year, and this is a
definate read for anyone in the field, espececially those who are
considering persuing a career in psych. This book has confimed my long-
standing fears as a graduate student: That there is much non-science
in the field of psych and the profession is openly hostile to those
that say so, while at the same time donning the semantically garb of
"scientist". The truth is there is very little science in psych these
days, and it is psychology's "dirty little secret". Help other
customers find the most helpful reviews
15 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
A Must Read for People on Both Sides, February 6, 2004
By Monica Pignotti (Tallahassee, FL, United States) -
This review is from: Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology
(Hardcover)
In the preface, the editors noted that this book will make a lot of
people angry, especially proponents of the therapies being critiqued
in this book. While this is undoubtedly true for many such proponents,
I think it would be a serious mistake for such people to dismiss what
is being said in this book. I am one of the top practitioners of
Thought Field Therapy and found this book to be of tremendous value
and feel gratitude, not anger towards its authors. Having explored
many of the controversial, new therapies, I know better than anyone
the pitfalls and hazards of drifting into pseudoscience and quite
frankly, have repeatedly been dismayed at what I have seen in terms of
a complete inability to engage in critical thinking on the part of
many people involved in the endless array of "alternative" therapies.
Much of the problem, I believe, comes from ignorance of the principles
outlined in this book. The list of features of pseudosciences is
especially helpful and should be read and carefully considered by all
proponents of unconventional approaches. In this way, as Carl Sagan
puts it, "deep truths can be winnowed from deep nonsense". This book
should be required reading in graduate schools, as well as courses
that train people in any of these controversial, new approaches and I
intend to incorporate this into what I teach. Help other customers
find the most helpful reviews
10 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
The "James Randi" of Psychology, April 24, 2005
By S. W. Helms "Professor of Psychology" (San Ramon, CA) -
Lilienfield does a bang-up job debunking some of the long-held myths
in Clinical Psychology. Don't allow that to lead you to conclusion
that this book is about bashing the Science of Psychology, however!
Clinical Psychology is something quite different from the evidence-
based side of the field, and this book illustrated that it is infested
with more pseudo-science than science. That's partly because such a
large percentage of the public has no critical thinking skills, and
cannot see the difference between self-help nonsense and real science.
Lilienfield does a good job helping us start on the road toward
discerning the snake oil from the medicine.
It's almost laughable that one reviewer showers this book with
accolades while also touting herself as a top expert in yet another
pseudo-scientific "therapy," Thought Field Therapy. Lilienfield et al.
actually cover that idiocy in this marvelous book, pointing out that
there's no such thing as "thought fields," and no validity to the
notion that TFT has any effect on mental or physical health! Like the
great Investigator of the Supernatural, James Randi, Scott O.
Lilienfield will be very busy writing new editions of this useful
book. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Classics of Organization Theory (Paperback)
~ Jay M. Shafritz (Author), J. Steven Ott (Author), Yong Suk Jang
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50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread
Misconceptions about Human Behavior (Paperback)
~ Scott O. Lilienfeld (Author), Steven Jay Lynn (Author), John Ruscio
(Author), Barry L. Beyerstein (Author)
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Customer Reviews
50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread
Misconceptions about Human Behavior
11 Reviews
5 star: (8)
4 star: (2)
3 star: (0)
2 star: (0)
1 star: (1)
(11 customer reviews)
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
A must-have mythbuster!
After reading the editorial reviews on this book, I decided to
purchase a copy. It is a treasure trove of examples of behavior and
myths that we believe to be true - but are actually false. Written by
psychologists and based on science, this book describes the most
common myths that people hold about a variety of human experiences.
For example, does handwriting reveal...
Read the full review ›
Published 4 months ago by Reader
› See more 5 star, 4 star reviews
28 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
superficial and misleading
Unfortunately this book is a rather sad attempt to "bust" some events
that psychologists and psychiatrists currently disagree about. both
sides can raise literature that supports their viewpoint. Novices
lacking substantial experience can easily be misled by some statements
contained here that are in themselves inaccurate and poorly analyzed.
Take for example hypnosis...
Read the full review ›
Published 27 days ago by royal see
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
A must-have mythbuster!, October 3, 2009
By Reader "NY" (New York) -
After reading the editorial reviews on this book, I decided to
purchase a copy. It is a treasure trove of examples of behavior and
myths that we believe to be true - but are actually false. Written by
psychologists and based on science, this book describes the most
common myths that people hold about a variety of human experiences.
For example, does handwriting reveal your personality? Does playing
Mozart to infants boost their intelligence? Do opposites attract? Is
the polygraph really an accurate means of detecting dishonesty? If you
think the answer to any of these questions, is "yes," you need to read
this book. I couldn't put it down as I went from myth to myth learning
about the facts based on science versus the myths we have believed for
decades. I agree with the reviewer who says that this is a much-needed
mythbuster for consumers. Easy-to-read and fascinating facts! I
couldn't put it down. Highly recommended, a must-have mythbuster! Help
other customers find the most helpful reviews
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
Timely publication!, October 12, 2009
By David K. Hogberg (Albion, MI) -
Although I have been long retired from teaching (psychology), Scott's
book makes me wish to return to the classroom. There can never be too
much urging to become or remain critical in one's thinking about the
outlandish claims that've been made over the years about what
psychology is not. I recommend 50 Great Myths to people who have read
only little or a lot about what people do when they behave. DKH
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
Instant Classic, November 6, 2009
By Jerry Haeffel (Notre Dame, IN) -
There are now two books that every psychology undergraduate (and
graduate) student should be required to read and own -- Stanovich's
"How to Think Straight about Psychology" and this book. This book is a
ray of hope during a (frightening) time when subjective experience is
favored over objective/empirical data. Chalk one up for science. Help
other customers find the most helpful reviews
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
Psychology 101 Redux, November 30, 2009
By Brandon Schultz -
There are two very impressive aspects of this book: 1) the types of
"myths" that the authors tackle, and 2) the quality of their
literature reviews. On the first point, I was excited to see the
authors make strong evidence-based critiques of the Alcoholics
Anonymous model of addictions treatment, the long-term effects of
childhood sexual abuse, the autism 'epidemic,' and others. It would
have been easy to write another 'skeptics diary' of obvious
psychomythology (e.g., phrenology, ESP, etc), but the authors really
stick their necks out in some instances. On the second point, the
authors' conclusions are well-supported by the research they cite. As
a school psychologist, I was impressed to see a very thoughtful
handling of the research on so-called 'learning styles,' for example.
I've not seen a better handling of this topic in any book meant for
mass consumption, and this section alone was worth the purchase. So
overall, I would describe the book as a very well-written Psychology
101 Redux that debunks a lot of common misconceptions.
However, I would take issues with a few of the "Other Myths to
Explore" at the end of the chapters, which could be easily
misinterpreted. For example, on page 63 the authors claim that
"children with extremely high IQs have much higher levels of creative
accomplishment in adulthood than other children." While this is
generally correct, it ignores research showing that 'extremely' high
IQs do not predict the next Einsteins or Lincolns. In Lewis Terman's
famous study, his high IQ group did very well into adulthood, but not
up to Terman's predictions of greatness--in fact, most turned out to
be very average adults. Such 'nuggets' at the end of the chapters are
a little too concise, and this is why I give the book 4 stars rather
than 5.
And if the authors are reading, I recommend the following myths for
future editions:
Stimulant use in childhood increases the risk of addictions in
adulthood
ADHD is caused by video games and excessive television viewing
It is easy for criminals to fake mental retardation in order to avoid
the death penalty
Boys are more aggressive than girls
"Wilderness Programs" are highly effective for juvenile delinquents
The DARE program is very effective in reducing/preventing drug use
Adolescents with jobs are less likely than their unemployed peers to
engage in risky behavior
Child abuse is much more common now than ever before
I could go on, but I'll stop there. The point is, even though
psychology is a 'soft science,' there are issues around which
consensus has been built. Yet, many misonceptions still exist. Indeed,
many readers unfamiliar with the field may find some of the authors'
conclusions controversial (autism and the MMR vaccine leaps to mind),
but the research evidence to the contrary is very compelling. This
book does a great job explaining how. Help other customers find the
most helpful reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
What we might want to believe, February 2, 2010
By Edward M. Freeman "Ioannis Edward M. Freeman" (Miami, Florida)
-
Myths, like memory, can reconstruct events for ceremony and solace. In
its cultural or religious sense, myth can serve as transformer. That
is not the sense of myth utilized in this book.
In this book, a myth is a false and misleading conclusion, which urban
legend supports despite evidence to the contrary. The purpose of this
book is to present evidence to the contrary, still encouraging readers
to decide for themselves. I appreciated an authorial tone of respect
for readers throughout the book. Along the way, however, the book does
more. It also questions the motives of myth extenders--the people who
benefit by keeping the myths alive.
Hapless myth extenders for 50 urban legends have been exposed. Of
course, some of these myth extenders have built empires on charisma
and mumbo-jumbo. However, who among us has never been an unwitting
accomplice to the charade? Not I.
I have participated by having made conjectures contrary with myths
that these esteemed authors collected, analyzed and exposed in this
book. After I had become aware that I should check my sources before I
spoke a next time, I should have identified a questionable conclusion
with more scruple in speech. The value of this book in my opinion is
that it collects 50 prominent myths, and raises sufficient caution in
evidence that the book taught me academic humility again. Evidence
speaks louder than charisma and mumbo-jumbo.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
A must read book for all intelligent people, November 25, 2009
By D. Gerzon (Paramus, NJ United States) -
I want to say that this book was like a breath of fresh air in the
ocean of "garbage" that is constantly unleashed on all of us in today.
It seems that almost anybody with access to a computer can write a
book today with dubious claims that takes time and efforts to avoid.
So it was with great pleasure that when I finally got my hands on this
book I felt once again that there are still healthy and sane people
around me who do care for scientific facts. I got recommendation for
this book from newsletter sent by Stephen Barrett, M.D from [...] and
as always I was not disappointed.
You would think that books like that would become a must read not only
for adults but for teens and young adults who just start their lives
and are very receptive to all this popular psychology that flies
around. I would insist that both my children (8 and 13) read this book
and discuss it with us. It's very important for us as parents to teach
our children to be able to distinguish the pop-psychology from
scientific facts. But most importantly I want my children to
understand that some of those myths can be not so innocent and can
create real damage.
So 5 stars for this book are well deserved. Thank you. Help other
customers find the most helpful reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A dose of science, February 1, 2010
By Max Polun (Hamilton, NJ USA) -
All too often the popular perception of psychology has been clouded by
a great many myths, misconceptions and outright falsehood. This book
give a dose of what the current mainstream scientific views are on a
great number of subjects (the 50 myths are just the ones that are
explained, each chapter has a list of short items that are given 1
sentence answers). The book honestly points out where legitimate
controversy still exists, but most of the myths discussed are not
particularly controversial. The only thing keeping it from perfection
is a somewhat dry style, that may keep it from being the best for the
general audience.
A good read for anyone with an interest in science or psychology, but
not necessarily any formal psychological training. Help other
customers find the most helpful reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Required Reading1, December 23, 2009
By D. Flaten -
This book should be required reading for anyone currently or proposing
to go into education. It forces us to take another look at current
misconceptions that may affect our teaching and other educational
services. Every statement is supported by research. The book included
an extensive list of sources. Read it slowly and enjoy. Help other
customers find the most helpful reviews
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
A fine pick for any psychology collection, January 12, 2010
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) -
50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology offers both students of
psychology and consumers a fine book discussing science and everyday
psychology. It offers facts and pinpoints fallacies about psychology,
debunking popular myths and presenting evidence that also explains why
people come to believe in these falsehoods. It's a fine pick for any
psychology collection. Help other customers find the most helpful
reviews
28 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
superficial and misleading, January 26, 2010
By royal see "roman" (missoula) -
Unfortunately this book is a rather sad attempt to "bust" some events
that psychologists and psychiatrists currently disagree about. both
sides can raise literature that supports their viewpoint. Novices
lacking substantial experience can easily be misled by some statements
contained here that are in themselves inaccurate and poorly analyzed.
Take for example hypnosis. While hypnosis does not register as delta
wave sleep or even rem sleep, yet anyone who has deep experience with
the phenomenon knows that it is not alpha nor beta wave wakefulness as
wakefulness is normally defined. in fact deeper hypnotic states
contain more theta waves akin to deep meditative states that are not
sleep yet are not exactly normal wakefulness. hundreds of EEGS have
been conducted on hypnotized and deeply meditating subjects that show
little alpha or beta.this is enough to bust the mythbusters myth. Then
again when hypnosis is properly conducted with the right subject the
bodily physiological changes and heightened susceptibility to
suggestions is unmistakable. While people may snap out of a deep state
if asked to violate a personal value, yet with proper manipulation
people can do rather strange things they would normally never do.
Lets bust another of this silly books myths.The book claims that anger
is not too helpful and it is but a catharsis.It seems that whoever
wrote this does not exactly seem to comprehend that anger is a
biological evolutionary organismic state that serves a function in
most common species.While some individuals use anger as a defense
against deeper hurts in an inappropriate and sometimes unhealthy
manner, i speak of rage-aholics who derive no benefit from raging
other than a "catharsis",...yet for many others expressing anger can
constitute a breakthrough in their healing.The expression needs to be
expressed in a non harmful way perhaps in one's privacy or in session
away from the target of the anger. When expressed genuinely and as a
reaction to some hurt or neglect or other abuse, anger will no longer
be a "catharsis" per se rather it will be a well formed well expressed
affect, emotion or feeling in therapy jargon and it can have a healing
effect especially if connected to the underlying hurt.
Another myth this book creates is the view that memory is only
reconstructive and hence the implication is that it most probably is
tainted by later cognitions perceptions and errors. This smells to me
like the unholy controversy about uncovered or repressed memories.
This controversy is not scientific and never was. Anyone who has
worked deeply with simple and traumatic memories recognizes that BOTH
kinds of memories are available either via visual remembrances or body
movement in addition to the more common verbal thought memories.
Moreover any scientifically disciplined worker with memory research
will tell you that while reconstructive memories may be prone to
interferences and errors yet other deeper memories are almost like
recordings. One of my patients uncovered a conversation with her
deceased dad at age two or so where he tells here about a suitcase
buried under a sofa in the old house that was currently occupied by a
relative. The patient had enough courage to check her revelation, took
permission to look at the recalled location and found a case with
parting letters to her explaining the conditions of her adoption. a
letter to an uncle, a handgun and 2 kilos of gold jewelry belonging to
her deceased at birth mother! The woman had no previous recollection
of any of this at any point in her life. she was in her early forties
when this emerged. I provide this as one of dozens of anecdotes in
only one practice,where the patient rediscovered verbatim previously
unknown things. A male patient in his thirties wailing non verbally in
terror and contorting his body in typical birth movements of the legs
torso head and neck pointed to his temples suggesting pain there
accompanying the deep fear. After working with him for a while ,he
relaxed and reached a closure but was not sure what his body was
reliving. He was asked to have his mother call me. asked about a
complicated delivery , she was stunned affirming that the head would
simply not emerge for painfully excessive stretches of time. She asked
how i had known and and was surprised even further when asked if
forceps extraction had been used extensively.Again she was stunned and
admitted that no one knew this but the forceps had been used very
intensely and the baby had almost died , that he cried constantly for
over a week. To any clinician experienced enough to recognize a body -
expressed memory, this would be a bullet through the heart of this
book's memory myth. We have just busted the busters again. And to nail
the coffin of that myth ,there is EEG work plus SPECT scan imaging
showing unusual and uncommon brainwave and brain activity patterns
when deep accurate memories emerge indicating a special theta -delt-
beta combination of brainwaves when this happens, a highly unusual
mixture in perfectly normal brained people who are actually re living
mind and body an old usually traumatic situation.
I highly recommend the title"pseudoscience in biological psychiatry"
in addition to "the love that wasnt" and "blaming the brain" amongst
other works to allow the layman and the serious and aspiring therapist
not to be mislead by superficial attempts like this reviewed title
sometime making sweeping statements based on one or two measly studies
to attempt to disprove perhaps a hundred years of solid clinical
experience. Rather sad. I will use an example from nutrition to
demonstrate that studies are deceptive and frequently twisted to back
up ones own subjective opinion. In the case of vitamin C, one pathetic
study came out saying that 200 milligrams daily was more than enough
and another said that 500 is the redline for humans. The media ran
this one disparaging study and people started fearing vitamin C. What
the foolish media did not tell everyone was that there were upwards of
13000 (that's correct thirteen thousand ) studies globally
demonstrating the safety and effectiveness of vitamin C for humans
including megadoses of 10-20000mgs per day and even more if given IV.
Interestingly, a sober statistical research of scientific and medical
articles showed that in only a few years after publication and
universal acceptance as scientific truths, approximately 60 percent
prove to be worthless,either outright faked or erroneous in execution
and interpretation.60 percent of what science and medicine believe
today will metamorphose into worthless garbage in a few years.
Shamefully sad. i believe this book is one of these silly superficial
books that may mean good and sounds scientific here and there but in
the end tends to propagate its own myths. I fear the emperor has no
clothes!
To be fair ,my evaluation was based on partial reading of the contents
and thus the book may possibly contain some acceptable material along
with this gibberish that i found myself forced to comment about. Help
other customers find the most helpful reviews
1 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Very interesting, November 14, 2009
By Diana "dazed and confused" (Las Vegas, nv USA) - See all my
reviews
This is written in more of a textbook style and not for the pop
psychology reader. It has a lot of very useful information. Help other
customers find the most helpful reviews
Classics of Organization Theory (Paperback)
~ J. Steven Ott (Author, Editor), Jay M. Shafritz
Jay M. Shafritz (Author, Editor)
3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews
(8 customer reviews)
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Customer Reviews
Classics of Organization Theory
21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
Delivers what it says....
I used this book (actually the 3rd edition) in preparing for my
comprehensive exams for my master's degree. The title is descriptive.
The book is short excerpts of key writings on the organization theory.
The selection of readings is appropriate. The only complaint I have is
that sometimes I wished I had the complete book in question! On the
other hand, some of this stuff...
Read the full review ›
Published on March 14, 2000 by M. Broderick
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Boring
This is a very boring and dry read. The print is small and the
chapters are long. I had a hard time reading even portions of this.
Get it at the library if you have to read this book for a class.
Published 11 months ago by Rick
21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
Delivers what it says...., March 14, 2000
By M. Broderick "mikebinok" (Oklahoma City, OK USA) -
I used this book (actually the 3rd edition) in preparing for my
comprehensive exams for my master's degree. The title is descriptive.
The book is short excerpts of key writings on the organization theory.
The selection of readings is appropriate. The only complaint I have is
that sometimes I wished I had the complete book in question! On the
other hand, some of this stuff is really dry. If you are pursuing the
field in an academic way, this is a valuable book. But I can't imagine
reading it for enjoyment or idle curioisity. Help other customers find
the most helpful reviews
Somewhat Boring, but Necessary, November 20, 2009
By Lakeesha L. Washington "LLW" (CA) -
This review is from: Classics of Organization Theory (with InfoTrac )
(Paperback)
The first 45 pages of this book were extremely BORING! Once you get
through them, the rest of the book is a pretty good read. Make sure
you read the introduction to each chapter and article. Help other
customers find the most helpful reviews
Org Mgt, November 16, 2009
By S. Wise -
This review is from: Classics of Organization Theory (with InfoTrac )
(Paperback)
This book is the same book that was suggested on my syllabus for my
graduate Management Theory class, but was a whole lot cheaper online!
It arrived in a very timely mannner - and its soft cover!
The introductons are the best because it overs a clear overview of the
each section - some of the outdated writing of the articles can be a
bit tough to read through - so the intro's help a lot. Help other
customers find the most helpful reviews
Dense, but well worth the read, October 30, 2009
By Wordworm -
This review is from: Classics of Organization Theory (with InfoTrac )
(Paperback)
If you want to know what was, and how we got to where we are today,
you'll get that with this book. I've been in public administration for
about 10 years. It's providing me with some great ah-ha's. Help other
customers find the most helpful reviews
great transaction, September 22, 2009
By Robin M. Wagner - See all my reviews
This review is from: Classics of Organization Theory (with InfoTrac )
(Paperback)
I received exactly what I was hoping for and it was delivered quickly.
Highly recommend. Help other customers find the most helpful
reviews
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Boring, March 23, 2009
By Rick -
This review is from: Classics of Organization Theory (with InfoTrac )
(Paperback)
This is a very boring and dry read. The print is small and the
chapters are long. I had a hard time reading even portions of this.
Get it at the library if you have to read this book for a class. Help
other customers find the most helpful reviews
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Good reference book, June 29, 2008
By Gordon J. Brenner -
This review is from: Classics of Organization Theory (with InfoTrac )
(Paperback)
I have used this as a required textbook for one class, and referred to
the articles and references numerous times over the years. Help other
customers find the most helpful reviews
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
dull, dull, dull, April 16, 2007
By Monica (Campbell, CA, USA) -
This review is from: Classics of Organization Theory (with InfoTrac )
(Paperback)
Had to slog through this book for an OB class, never did see the
relevance. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0534504175/ref=nosim/veryclever-20
...and I am Sid Harth
chhotemianinshallah
(1 user) More options Feb 22, 7:20 pm
From: use...@mantra.com and/or www.mantra.com/jai (Dr. Jai Maharaj)
Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:20:50 GMT
Local: Mon, Feb 22 2010 7:20 pm
Subject: THERE'S A TROJAN IN THE EVM!
Forwarded message from S. Kalyanaraman
Monday, February 22, 2010
There's a Trojan in the EVM!
A Surya Prakash
The Pioneer
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
The debate on the integrity of the electoral process when electronic
voting machines are used to cast votes got a fillip recently when a
group of concerned citizens organised workshops in New Delhi and
Chennai and invited some international experts who have played a part
in the abolition of electronic voting in some countries of Europe and
in a majority of the States in the US.
Among these experts was Mr Rop Gonggrijp, a computer hacker from the
Netherlands who hacked a machine on a live television show and became
instrumental in the banning of EVMs in his country; Mr Alex
Halderman, professor of computer science at the University of
Michigan and an authority on electronic voting security; and, Mr Till
Jaeger, the attorney who argued against the use of EVMs before the
German Federal Constitutional Court leading to the order banning of
these machines in Germany. The Indian viewpoint on the vulnerability
of EVMs was offered by Mr Hari Prasad, a noted 'hactivist' from
Hyderabad, who first raised the red flag about the integrity of the
EVM-based election process.
According to Mr Gonggrijp and Mr Halderman, EVMs can be tampered with
either at the manufacturing stage or when they are stored in State
capitals for deployment in elections or at the polling booths. They
are convinced that Indian EVMs are no different from those that were
deployed in the Netherlands, Germany or Ireland, before they were
discarded in those countries. One of the ways to rig an election is
to introduce a Trojan in the display section of the control unit.
This chip would give 'fixed' results on the EVM screen. In other
words, whatever the voters' preference, the control unit would
display numbers as per the hacker's plan.
Mr Gonggrijp is a prominent campaigner for election transparency and
verifiability, and his technical opinion appears to have clinched the
issue against electronic voting in Germany as well. "When the vote
count happens inside a machine and there is no way in which the
result can be cross-checked, the election ceases to be transparent,"
he says. The lack of transparency appears to be the Achilles heel of
electronic voting. Nobody knows what goes on inside these machines.
This is the point on which the German Constitutional Court has held
the deployment of EVMs as un-constitutional. It says the Constitution
emphasises the public nature of elections and requires all essential
steps to be open to public scrutiny.
While all these experts are categorical in their rejection of
electronic voting devices, EVMs enjoy a great deal of credibility and
public trust in India. This is so because the campaign about the
unreliability of these machines is yet to get off the ground.
However, politicians of various hues appear to be wary of these
machines and have even accused rivals of 'manipulating' them, albeit
without a shred of evidence to establish mischief.
However, there are those like Mr Hari Prasad who have been demanding
that the Election Commission offer opportunities for them to
demonstrate the vulnerability of EVMs. The EC initially went along
with the idea but developed cold feet and abruptly stopped one such
exercise by Mr Prasad and his colleagues last September. Why did the
EC back out?
Two other Indians who have plunged into this campaign are Mr
Subramanian Swamy, whose petition against EVMs is currently before
the Delhi High Court, and Mr GVL Narasimha Rao, election analyst and
author of Democracy at Risk -- Can We Trust Our Electronic Voting
Machines?. This book outlines the story of EVMs in India, Europe and
the US, and describes how the non-response of the EC to questions
raised by Mr Gonggrijp and Mr Hari Prasad has contributed in no small
measure to the growing concern in political parties about the
reliability of voting machines.
According to Mr Rao, among those who have raised doubts about EVMs
are Mr LK Advani, leader of the BJP, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union
Minister and Congress leader who attributed his party's defeat in
Odisha last year to "manipulation" of EVMs, Mr Prakash Karat, general
secretary of the CPI(M), Mr Sharad Yadav, president of the JD(U), Mr
Mulayam Singh Yadav, president of the SP, Ms Mamata Bannerjee,
president of Trinamool Congress, Mr Chandrababu Naidu, leader of the
Telugu Desam, Ms Jayalalithaa, leader of the AIADMK, and leaders of
the Pattali Makkal Katchi. One look at this list and you realise that
there is a doubting Thomas everywhere -- in every one of the three
known national coalitions and in different regions.
Mr Karat has formally written to the EC. He has said there are
several questions in regard to the reliability of EVMs. Among them
are: Possibility of incorporating a Trojan in the chip; possibility
of manipulation of the chip at the manufacturing stage; lack of EC
control over the technical process; and lack of third party
inspection. He has said the EC must control the manufacture of EVMs,
allow third party inspection and randomly shift EVMs from State to
State.
After talking to experts, Mr Rao lists eight situations in which EVMs
can be rigged. The EC has sought to counter these arguments by saying
that the Indian EVMs are standalone machines which are not part of
any network. Therefore, any surmise based on operating system based
EVMs would be completely erroneous.
These arguments have been countered by Mr Ulrich Wiesner, a physicist
and software engineer, who was the petitioner before the
Constitutional Court in Germany. In a statement that is part of the
rejoinder affidavit filed by Mr Swamy in the Delhi High Court, Mr
Wiesner has said that EVMs in the Netherlands, Germany and Ireland
were also standalone machines with no connection to the Internet. He
says, "It is common sense that someone who has sufficient access to
open the machines and replace the software or hardware can implement
virtually any functionality . . . that would not be spotted by
tests."
The EC is a public body with a fat budget. If it is to command the
confidence of all stake-holders in the democratic process, it must
function in a transparent manner and answer the questions raised by
these citizens and experts. The inflexible and non-transparent
attitude of the commission is lending credence to the argument that
possibly it has no answers or, worse, it has something to hide.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/237973/There%E2%80%99s-a-Trojan-in-the-EV...
End of forwarded message from S. Kalyanaraman
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
chhotemianinshallah
chhotemianinshallah
> http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thre...
>
> ...and I am Sid Harth
chhotemianinshallah
> On Feb 23, 11:21 am, chhotemianinshallah <citad...@gmx.com> wrote:
>
> >http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thre...
>
> > ...and I am Sid Harth
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thre...
>
> ...and I am Sid Harth
chhotemianinshallah
> On Feb 23, 11:23 am, chhotemianinshallah <citad...@gmx.com> wrote:
>
> > On Feb 23, 11:21 am, chhotemianinshallah <citad...@gmx.com> wrote:
>
> > >http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thre...
>
> > > ...and I am Sid Harth
>
> >http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thre...
>
> > ...and I am Sid Harth
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thre...
>
> ...and I am Sid Harth
chhotemianinshallah
> On Feb 23, 11:25 am, chhotemianinshallah <citad...@gmx.com> wrote:
>
> > On Feb 23, 11:23 am, chhotemianinshallah <citad...@gmx.com> wrote:
>
> > > On Feb 23, 11:21 am, chhotemianinshallah <citad...@gmx.com> wrote:
>
> > > >http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thre...
>
> > > > ...and I am Sid Harth
>
> > >http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thre...
>
> > > ...and I am Sid Harth
>
> >http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thre...
>
> > ...and I am Sid Harth
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thre...
>
> ...and I am Sid Harth
chhotemianinshallah
> On Feb 23, 11:27 am, chhotemianinshallah <citad...@gmx.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Feb 23, 11:25 am, chhotemianinshallah <citad...@gmx.com> wrote:
>
> > > On Feb 23, 11:23 am, chhotemianinshallah <citad...@gmx.com> wrote:
>
> > > > On Feb 23, 11:21 am, chhotemianinshallah <citad...@gmx.com> wrote:
>
> > > > >http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thre...
>
> > > > > ...and I am Sid Harth
>
> > > >http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thre...
>
> > > > ...and I am Sid Harth
>
> > >http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thre...
>
> > > ...and I am Sid Harth
>
> >http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thre...
>
> > ...and I am Sid Harth
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thre...
>
>
> - Show quoted text -
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/7f3d6d9fcdffee77#
chhotemianinshallah
chhotemianinshallah
chhotemianinshallah
chhotemianinshallah
chhotemianinshallah
chhotemianinshallah
chhotemianinshallah
> http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thre...
>
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/506aec0e32b97c17#
Sid Harth
> On Feb 23, 11:41 am, chhotemianinshallah <citad...@gmx.com> wrote:
>
> >http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thre...
>
> > ...and I am Sid Harth
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thre...
>
> ...and I am Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/0fdfc6d4d57b88a9#
Sid Harth
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Dr. Jai Maharaj View profile
More options Jan 10, 9:08 pm
From: use...@mantra.com and/or www.mantra.com/jai (Dr. Jai Maharaj)
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:08:30 GMT
Local: Sun, Jan 10 2010 9:08 pm
Subject: A NOTE ON MUSHRIF'S BOOK 'WHO KILLED KARKARE?' *** Jai
Maharaj posts
A note on Mushrif's book "Who killed Karkare?"
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Forwarded message from A Chowgule
In October 2009, Pharos Media Publishing Pvt Ltd published a book by
SM Mushrif entitled "Who killed Karkare?". Mushrif retired as the
Inspector General of Police, Maharashtra, in 2005, apparently before
he was due to officially leave the police force. What the back cover
of the book says is quite instructive:
"Political violence, or terrorism, by State as well as by non- State
actors has a long history in India. The allegation that sections of
and individual Indian Muslims indulged in "terrorism" surfaced for
the first time with the ascent of the Hindutva forces in mid-1990s
and became state policy with the BJP's coming to power at the Centre.
With even "secular" media joining the role as stenographers of
security agencies, this became an accepted fact so much so that
common Indians and even many Muslims started believing in this false
propaganda. This book, by a former senior police officer, with a
distinguished career that included unearthing the Telgi scam, peeps
behind the propaganda screen, using material mostly in the public
domain as well as his long police experience. It comes out with some
startling facts and analysis, the first of its kind, to expose the
real actors behind the so-called "Islamic terrorism" in India whose
greatest feat was to murder the Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare
who dared to expose these forces and paid with his life for his
courage and commitment to truth. While unearthing the conspiracy
behind the murder of Karkare, this book takes a hard look at some of
the major incidents attributed to "Islamic terrorism" in India and
finds them baseless."
Essentially the contention of Mushrif is that terrorism in the name
of Islam is a fiction, and what we are seeing in India is actually
violence being organised by 'Hindutva forces'. The book also
contends that there are what are called Brahminical elements in the
nation at various level, whose objective is to capture the state
power by any means.
It would seem that various events conspired to expose these
'Brahminists' whose plan for domination of India was unravelling.
The investigation into the alleged acts of terrorism by Sadhvi Pragya
Singh and Lt Col Shrikant Purohit was the main point which was in the
process of turning the needle of suspicion to these 'Brahmanical'
forces, and so put an end to their 'evil' programme. These
investigations were led by Hemant Karkare who was, at the time of his
death, the head of the Anti-Terrorist Squad in Maharashtra.
Mushrif contends that the terrorist attack on November 26, 2008,
provided the 'Brahmanical' forces an opportunity to reverse these
events. It would seem that two or three days prior the intelligence
agencies in Maharshtra had specific information that some
organisations in Pakistan had firmed up plans to send terrorist by
boat to Mumbai, with the targets being the Taj Mahal Hotel, the
Oberoi hotels, the Leopold Café and the Nariman House. Instead of
increasing the security to the city, and so thwart the plans of these
Paksitani organisations, the 'Brahmanical' forces devised a plan to
use the opportunity to kill Karkare and so stop the line of
investigation that he was pursuing.
Mushrif contends that these terrorists had no intention of striking
at the Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus, one of the main railway station
in Mumbai. The ones who conducted these attacks were individuals
provided by the 'Brahmanical' forces in the police. It would seem
that the 'Brahmanical' forces in the police have a stock of such
people in their control, who can be unleashed to create mayhem at
their beck and call. Through various stratagems, Karkare was enticed
to go to Cama Hospital near the railway station, where he was
ambushed by the two 'terrorists' from the police stock.
After this, according the plan, these two 'terrorists' apparently
fled in a car, which was also part of the 'armoury' available to the
'Brahmanical' forces in the police - Mushrif contends that the
hijacking story by the 'alleged' owner of the car is fake one. The
police force waiting at Chowaptty had information that the car was
heading in their direction, and they were instructed to kill one of
the two and keep the other alive, so as to provide 'evidence'
pointing out that the act was actually a part of Islamic terrorism.
In such involved situations, all things do happen as planned, and
both the 'terrorists' were killed. However, there was a contingency
plan in place, and a third individual from the stock was provided to
take the place of the person who was to survive.
As conspiracy theories go, this must surely take the cake. That the
'Brahmanical' forces in the police can come out with such an
elaborate plan in a matter of two days would make these people to be
highly innovative. Furthermore, the 'revelation' that the police
have people in stock to undertake such activities must be seen as a
source of deep worry.
What I would like to deal in this note is not to evaluate the
'startling facts and analysis' provided by Mushrif, but the
implications that would automatically follow if Mushrif is right.
First, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab is innocent, and that it is incumbent on
his defence lawyer to present the book in the court. He was not part
of the original team of two who created the mayhem at the railway
station, nor was he even remotely involved in the killing of Karkare.
He was put in place, only by accident - that is the original two were
killed, one by design and the other inadvertently.
Second, the conspiracy of the 'Brahmanical' forces should be
thourougly investigated. The various members of the 'civil society'
who forever rant against such 'Brahmanical' forces are silent on the
issue, given that the book has been in print for three months. Even
now it is not too late for the members to take up the cause of Kasab.
These members are always on the look out to establish what they call
their 'secular' credentials, and are in the forefront of projecting
themselves as defenders and benefactors of the Muslim community in
India.
Thridly, Pakistan should highlight 'startling facts and analysis' at
international forums. It is probably the best ammunition that it has
to establish its claimed innocence.
It would also be interesting to narrate what are the implications if
Mushrif is wrong.
First, obviously Mushrif has allowed himself to be a tool in the
hands of forces whose interests are not inimical to the well-being of
our nation.
Second, the role of the publishers in printing all this should also
be investigated. I understand that the book has been printed in Urdu
and Hindi, obviously to try and influence the minds of the Muslims in
India, and so increase their alienation.
Thirdly, the silence of the 'concerned society' has to be
investigated. They are forever looking out for opportunities to
condemn the various Hindu organisations at the drop of a hat.
Mushrif's book is, in more sense than one, a dynamite. It cannot be
allowed to go into obscurity by the society, if the institutions that
are an integral part of keeping it sane are to function in the way
they should. No one can be allwed to mess around with them.
End of forwarded message from A Chowgule
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
Forwarded message from K Malhotra
JSK. Ignoring the facts; assuming things, spreading false and
baseless reports; and above-all protecting and supporting terrorists
makes Mushriff himself a terrorist? He should be sued and arrested.
JSK.
End of forwarded message from K Malhotra
Forwarded message from Vranivanji
Sunday, January 10, 2010
One can't find a better example of Al Taqiyya. This fine muslim --
Mushrif beats even ChaNakya!!!
End of forwarded message from Vranivanji
Forwarded message from M Iyer
Sunday, January 10, 2010
world over, there are worries about islamic terrorism. we must know
who is behind the publishing house and what are Mushrif's connection.
yes, he is right - the kashmiri muslims who massacred and ethnic
cleansed pandits, are brahmins. pakistani muslims who indulged in
genocide of hindus, are brahmins. bangladeshi muslims who indulged
in genocide of hindus, are brahmins. afzal guru, kasab, musharaf,
zardari, are, brahmins. the muslims who ruled us for 700 years were
brahmins - at that time, they committed the greatest genocide of
hindus - 100 million hindus were massacred. muslim invaders thought
that by killing brahmins, they could destroy hinduism. so, the
muslims killed maximum number of brahmin priests. the funny thing,
the invaders were brahmins who killed fellow brahmins. the invading
muslims - sorry brahmins, destroyed thousands and thousands of hindu
temples.
you all remember a posting - that Saudi people paid some 10 million
dollars to two top channelists of India, to cover only the muslim
side of the gujarat riots. all of you know, how the coverage was.
it is quite possible that the government to avoid criticism, may have
encouraged the publication of such a book..in India, anybody can
write anything and get away with it.remember, the entire media is in
the hands of minorities and their coverage is always anti-hindu and
anti-india.the Italian led, UPA is bent upon destroying hindu
renaissance by floating theories like saffron terror, hindu terror,
right wing terror and now brahminical terror.
see the fun - with one purohit and a lady sanyasin, mushrif says that
it is brahminical conspiracy. he desserves a nobel, a pulitzer and a
booker.
End of forwarded message from M Iyer
Forwarded message from Ishwa
Sunday, January 10, 2010
I couldn't suppress a big smile when reading the whole note, here a
selection:
"Essentially the contention of Mushrif is that terrorism in the name
of Islam is a fiction, and what we are seeing in India is actually
violence being organised by 'Hindutva forces'."
"The book also contends that there are what are called Brahminical
elements in the nation at various level, whose objective is to
capture the state power by any means."
"The investigation into the alleged acts of terrorism by Sadhvi
Pragya Singh and Lt Col Shrikant Purohit was the main point which was
in the process of turning the needle of suspicion to these
'Brahmanical' forces, and so put an end to their 'evil' programme.
These investigations were led by Hemant Karkare who was, at the time
of his death, the head of the Anti-Terrorist Squad in Maharashtra."
"Instead of increasing the security to the city, and so thwart the
plans of these Paksitani organisations, the 'Brahmanical' forces
devised a plan to use the opportunity to kill Karkare and so stop the
line of investigation that he was pursuing." etc.
This last allegation is the biggest joke of the whole writing.
Instead of nailing and punishing the obvious AtankvAdIs, the blame is
put on others. , now was this also planned by "Hindutva forces" or
"Brahminical elements"?
How stupid and amateurish can an ATS managing team be, to go with
three leaders in one car, and that at a terroristic attack. This is
an invitation to trouble. What was Karkare thinking? He showed his
""(in)capability" and "ir)responsibility then. A laughing stock
internationally!
The role of the ATS, their connections/interacions with the leading
national and local political parties and how they treated Pragya and
Purohit has raised many eye brows.
What's new with these allegations. That someone really cares to take
this serious is something to wonder about.
The aim of Mushrif is obvious when he says that "terrorism in the
name of islam is a fiction". Let's forget the native Dawood
Ibrahims....or one has to see in him an (i)Brahimin. Does Mushrif
where a Chador before his eyes here? There goes his credibility.
His next move is also obvious, the scape goat has to be found with
the "Hindutva forces". Now, which politically motivated groups have
problems with any "Hindu(tva) forces"?
Not completely happy with that, the further focus has to be on the
"Brahminical elements". The line of thinking will bring you to the
right direction of groups who are targetting these "elements". And
let's accept, these "elements" are the traditional scape goats from
the colonial period on, with getting even support from some
AryasamAjIs. (sorry to say this, as my sympathy is with the great
work done by SvAmI DayAnanda SarasvatI and the Arya Samaj. But this
stereotypical "anti-Brahminical attitude" of some persons within this
group, and the misplaced appeasing and apologetic Muslim attitude of
the Agni(d)veSHas is too much.)
We don't have to look far away to find the political groups who are
supporting the theory and allegations of this book, within India and
outside.
And beware if you accuse a Pakistani citizen (as an Indian): he
cannot be a terrorist, he has a poor background or is maltreated by
Hindus and is a victim of the Indian system ......A real success
formula of the media and Muslim voter/minority. A base psychology
trick of the cold ground.
The real heroes of India are not the Karkares with their dubious
actions and affiliations, but the jawans, security personnel, etc.
They sacrificed their lifes for the nation, but corrupt police and
politicians behaving in an appeasing and vote-minded way supported by
equally corrupt media are the real supporters or stimulators behind
the success of the real actors, who happen to be most often: Muslim
terrorists.
Mushrif's Muslim motives are very clear. He lost immediately his
credibility when he didn't accept the reality of terrorism in the
name of Islam, forgetting the local Dawood Ibrahims (not to say all
the AtankVadis like the GhaznavIs, TimUrs, etc. who in the name of
Islam killed thousands of innocent citizens). And what about Afzal,
etc.?
The taboo, dogma and denial connected with Islam and Muslims to
anything that is unfavorable for that category is the real issue.
This category has real records behind their heinous deeds. The stupid
and uqually clever tactics to divert attention of their deeds to the
"Hindutva forces" and "Brahminical elements" i the result of a good
(direct or indirect) cooperation with the pseudo-secular forces.
End of forwarded message from Ishwa
Forwarded message from Ravi
Sunday, January 10, 2010
The saving grace is that Mushrif (with reluctance) acknowledges that
26/11 was a Paki operation. How magnanimous that he has not accused
the Brahminical forces. Isn't that a great concession? That proves
that he is secular :-)
Who knows? this book might be prescribed as a text for class X by
West Bengal, Kerala or other Congy governments!!!!!!!! Conspiracy
theories seems to thrive in this group. 9/11, Christmas bomber, and a
host of other Islamic terror is being white washed as Zionist (and
Brahminical) mischief.Time-pass I suppose.
End of forwarded message from Ravi
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/ed6818853a128dd8#
Sid Harth
This is a registry of published predictions of future events and
trends.
Please click here to mail submissions or corrections.
Prediction by Dr. Jai Maharaj
Subject: JYOTISH YIELDS CORRECT PREDICTION - AGAIN
From: j...@mantra.com (Dr. Jai Maharaj)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian,alt.jyotish,alt.fan.jai-maharaj,
alt.astrology,alt.astrology.asian,hawaii.nortle
Message-ID: <Jyotish-1...@news.mantra.com>
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 1998 19:03:44 UTC
Om Ganeshaayae Namah!
I bow to Shree Ganesh Jee, and to our ancient sage-scientists
who passed down Jyotish knowledge to us.
The science of Jyotish, Vedic astrology yields
correct results, once again. Two items follow --
my post of January 27, 1998 and excerpts from today's news:
[ Subject: Re: GOOD NEWS - SONIA WILL NOT BECOME P.M.
[ From: j...@mantra.com (Dr. Jai Maharaj)
[ Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian,soc.culture.indian.delhi,
[ alt.fan.jai-maharaj,soc.culture.indian.karnataka,
[ soc.culture.indian.kerala,soc.culture.indian.marathi,
[ soc.culture.indian.gujarati,soc.culture.tamil,
[ soc.culture.bengali,hawaii.nortle
[ Message-ID: <Bharat-05...@news.mantra.com>
[ Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 05:37:23 UTC
[
[ In article <6aj9el$4f$5...@eros.clara.net>,
[ 11305...@compuserve.com (Mo) wrote:
[ > Gujral was not an MP , neither was Gowda. Sonia will come
[ > back as a compromise PM , but far better would be Priyanka
[ > -isnt she gorgeous ?
[
[ Yes, it is possible that some people try to bring Sonia
[ in as a PM, but from the perpective of Jyotish, I do not see
[ that happening as a result of these elections. There are
[ some strengths in her favor about May, June of this year
[ but I do not predict that they mean that she will reach
[ prime ministership. As far as "gorgeous" Priyanka is
[ concerned, what kind of a house is being considered here? :)
[
[ Jai Maharaj
[ Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
[ Correct predictions published before events occurred
[ Current Moon phase, Panchang, Hindu calendar and over
[ 20,000 links to similar and other posts available at:
[ http://www.flex.com/~jai
[ Om Shanti
[
[ Copyright (C) 1998 Mantra Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
The following excerpts are from today's
news, confirming the above:
Excerpts
[...]
"India's Congress party will not stake claim to power,
Sonia Gandhi, the party's new president, said on Sunday.
"The Italian-born widow of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi
[no relation to Mahatma Gandhi] told reporters after a meeting
with President K.R. Narayanan: 'We don't have the numbers to form
the government, so we are not staking claim.'
"'We have informed the president of our decision.'"
[...] End of Excerpts
- Agence France-Presse, Naee Dillee (New Delhi), March 15, 1998.
In the past, correct Jyotish-based predictions published
by yours truly have included ones predicting the loss
in elections of George Bushe (prediction made before
even he was a candidate), the acquittal of O. J. Simpson
(published only days after his arrest), the fall of
Pakistan's prime minister Benazir Bhutto (predicted
months before it happened), the fall of Bharat's prime
minister P. V. N. Rao (predicted months before it happened),
the finding of "not guilty as charged" verdict in the
matter of British au pair Louise Woodward (published the
night before the sentence was reduced), and others.
I bow to Shree Ganesh Jee, and to our ancient sage-scientists
who passed down the knowledge to us.
Jai Maharaj
Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
Correct predictions published before events occurred
Current Moon phase, Panchang, Hindu calendar and over
20,000 links to my posts available at:
http://www.flex.com/~jai
Om Shanti
Edited and formatted by Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
Main Page | Registry Contents
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Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
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Copyright � 1997 Mantra Corporation. All Rights Reserved. The
information contained at this site may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten or otherwise distributed, or stored without prior written
authority of Mantra Corporation.
Prediction Registry
This is a registry of published predictions of future events and
trends.
Please click here to mail submissions or corrections.
Contents
White House acts on Jai Maharaj's recommendation, October 17, 2002
Prediction by Jai Maharaj about the reunification of south Asia
Prediction by Jai Maharaj about no war in summer, April 30, 2000
Prediction by Jai Maharaj about calm in Kargil, June 29, 1999
Prediction by Edmond Wollmann for the USA, June 27, 1999
Prediction by Jai Maharaj about military action in Kargil, June 13,
1999
Prediction by Jai Maharaj about Louise Woodward
Prediction by Jai Maharaj about Sonia Maino-Gandhi, January 27, 1998
Predictions by Edmond Wollmann based on US chart, July 4, 1997
Predictions by Edmond Wollmann for the USA, July 1998 to July 1999
Correct astrology prediction by Jai Maharaj useful to client, July 24,
1998
Inaugural message by Jai Maharaj; predictions by Chakrapani Ullal
Copyright � 1994-2000 Mantra Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
White House acts on Jai Maharaj's recommendation
Subject: White House acts on Jai Maharaj's recommendation
From: Dr. Jai Maharaj
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian,alt.fan.jai-
maharaj,alt.jyotish,alt.astrology,sci.astrology.hindu
Message-ID: <Jyotish-13...@news.mantra.com>
Date: 17 Oct 2002 19:23:44 UTC
The White House and other world leaders have taken advantage of the
auspicious time window I recommended five days ago:
Two items below:
o October 12, 2002 - Jai Maharaj recommends (US-Iraq)
o October 17, 2002 - U.S. Offers compromise
My previous post, posted on October 12, 2002:
Subject: Jai Maharaj recommends (US-Iraq)
From: use...@mantra.com (Dr. Jai Maharaj)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian,alt.fan.jai-
maharaj,alt.jyotish,alt.astrology,sci.astrology.hindu
Message-ID: <Jyotish-US-Ira...@news.mantra.com>
Date: Sat, 12 Oct 2002 19:32:09 UTC
Jai Maharaj recommends (US-Iraq)
An auspicious window for the US-Iraq situation begins at 5:40 p.m.
(HST) on October 15, 2002 and ends at 4:37 a.m. (HST) on October 18,
2002. It is this during period that I recommend that world leaders
take important steps.
HST is 10 hours behind UTC.
Jai Maharaj
Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti
The above article is archived by Google at:
Today's news:
U.S. Offers U.N. Resolution Deal
By Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
Thursday, October 17, 2002 at 12:42 p.m. ET (6:42 a.m. HST)
United Nations (AP) - Facing strong opposition from dozens of nations,
the United States has backed down from its demand that a new U.N.
resolution must authorize military force if Baghdad fails to cooperate
with weapons inspectors, diplomats told The Associated Press on
Thursday.
Instead, the United States is now floating a compromise which would
give inspectors a chance to test Iraq's will to cooperate on the
ground. If Iraq then failed to disarm, the Bush administration would
agree to return to the Security Council for further debate and
possibly another resolution authorizing action.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said he believes there are now
"favorable conditions" for council agreement on a resolution that will
lead to the quick return of inspectors.
The new compromise also drops tough wording explicitly threatening
Iraq upfront, although the diplomats, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said a threat of consequences will be implied.
The diplomats said France, which has been the main stumbling block for
the United States, was studying the new offer amid a flurry of
diplomatic activity aimed at solving an impasse among the Security
Council powers on Iraq. . . .
[...]
This is only an excerpt -- read the complete news at:
Jai Maharaj
j...@mantra.com
Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti
Main Page | Registry Contents
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trademarks of Mantra Corporation. Copyright � 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997,
1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 Mantra Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
The information contained at this site may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, or stored without prior
written authority of Mantra Corporation.
REUNIFICATION IN THE NEWS CONSISTENT WITH PREDICTION
The following posts are archived in the Google and other archives:
Subject: REUNIFICATION: BHARAT AND PAKISTAN
From: Dr. Jai Maharaj
Newsgroups: alt.fan.jai-
maharaj,soc.culture.indian,soc.culture.pakistan,alt.jyotish,alt.politics.bush
Message-ID: <Bharat-041...@news.mantra.com>
Date: Sun, 09 Jun, 2001
Three items of interest:
o December, 1993 - India-Pakistan Reunification
- Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
o April, 1994 - Reunification appears to be a certainty
- Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
o June, 2002 - 'If Germany can unite, so can India, Pak'
- Home Minister L. K Advani
ITEM 1 - My 1993 post
[ Subject: India-Pakistan Reunification
[ From: [old e-mail address] (Jai Maharaj)
[ Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
[ Message-ID: <2dtanh$2...@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>
[ Date: 5 Dec 1993 18:53:37 UTC
[ Namaskaram! and Aloha from the 50th state of the U.S. --
[ Hawaii:
[
[ I have often mentioned in this forum that nearly all
[ great Vedic astrologers in the world agree that India
[ and Pakistan will reunite shortly after the year 2,000
[ (I have presented the month and year in SCI and
[ alt.astrology in March).
[
[ What do the intellectual geniuses of SCI think how this
[ process will begin, what agreements/conditions will be
[ signed, who are the key players, will the international
[ community take part in the process, and so on . . .
[
[ -=Om Shanti=- Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
[
[ Jai Maharaj
[ http://www.mantra.com/jai
[ Om Shanti
The above post is archived by Google at:
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=g:thl1097737655d&dq=&hl=en&lr=&selm=2dtanh%2426r%40usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu
ITEM 2 - My 1994 post
[ Subject: Re: India-Pakistan
[ From: [old e-mail address] (Jai Maharaj)
[ Newsgroups: alt.astrology
[ Message-ID: <2ng8pe$k...@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>
[ Date: 1 Apr 1994 04:43:26 UTC
[ Wrote Mahesh Nawani (naw...@netcom.com):
[> It shall be really interesting to note if any
[> progress is done by [...]
[
[ Namaste! Yes, I have also had the good fortune and
[ Parmatma's blessings to examine the possiblity of the
[ reunification of the countries in question. The
[ reunification appears to me to be a certainty soon
[ after the turn of the Gregorian century.
[
[ -=Om Shanti=- Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
[
[ Jai Maharaj
[ http://www.mantra.com/jai
[ Om Shanti
The above post is archived by Google at:
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=2ng8pe%24k23%40usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu&output=gplain
ITEM 3 OF 3 - Today's news
'If Germany can unite, so can India, Pak'
NEW DELHI: Home Minister L K Advani has
said if East and West Germany could unite,
there was no reason why India and Pakistan
could not form a confederation.
Indo-Pak confederation possible: Advani
PTI
The Times of India
Saturday, June 8, 2002
Indraprasth - Home Minister L K Advani has said if East
and West Germany could unite, there was no reason why
India and Pakistan could not form a confederation of
their own free will after resolving all problems through
dialogue and not by violence or terrorism.
"If East and West Germany could unite despite acrimonious
political relations, why not India and Pakistan? There
may be difficulties, but it is not impossible.
"A day will come when the people of both countries will
realise that partition has done no good to them," Advani
said on Saturday after launching a monthly journal, South
Asia Politics, here.
"The most important thing to move towards a confederation
is that all disputes and problems between India and
Pakistan be resolved only through dialogue and not by
violence or terrorism", the home minister said.
Referring to an assessment of the US Administration about
existence of a possibility of "revolutionary change" in
Indo- Pak relations during the Lahore bus trip by Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he said this could not
happen "as the then Pakistan army chief (Pervez
Musharraf) had other things in mind which led to the
Kargil war".
In Agra too, Musharraf described terrorists as "freedom
fighters". But now, the world community had accepted the
reality about cross-border terrorism and asked Pakistan
to "act in accordance with the promises (to contain
terrorism) it has made", Advani said.
Source - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Articleshow.asp?art_id=12389045
Jai Maharaj
Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
[ Subject: REUNIFICATION IN THE NEWS CONSISTENT WITH PREDICTION
[ From: Dr. Jai Maharaj (http://www.mantra.com/jyotish)
[ Organization: Mantra Corporation
[ Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian, alt.jyotish, soc.culture.pakistan,
[ soc.culture.bangladesh, alt.fan.jai-maharaj, hawaii.nortle
[ Date: February 9, 1998
Excerpts from today's news:
"New Delhi - The leader of India's [Bharatiya
Janata Party] expected to top upcoming national
elections, said here Friday that Pakistan and
Bangladesh should reunite with India.
[...]
"[L. K. Advani] said people should realise that
the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 'has
not served the interest of any section of undivided
India.'
"He said the countries should 'voluntarily' come
together either as a confederation or a single
country, following the example of Germany or the
European Union."
[...]
End of Excerpts
- Agence France-Presse, February 9, 1998.
The news item is consistent with published predictions:
It was several years ago that I had occasion
to post in alt.astrology and soc.culture.indian
the findings using Jyotish, Vedic astrology, that
Bharat (aka India) and Pakistan are destined for
reunification soon after the end of this Gregorian
century (the year 2000). Later, other countries
in south Asia will reunite as well. A few other
Jyotishis have reached the same conclusion. The
credit goes to our ancient sage-scientists for
developing the science of Jyotish for thousands of
years.
In my posts, I have expressed the opinion that the
best way to begin the process of reunification is
to bring down the trade barriers which exist at
the borders. No self-serving politician, no religious
fanatic, no communist-leftist will be able to act
against a process which benefits the majority. Money
talks these days in the way governments are run.
The latest world news is only a click away at
http://www.flex.com/~jai
Happily for more than a billion people on our
planet in south Asia, and for many more, today's
news brings:
January 15, 1998
Correspondent Report
By Douglas Bakshian
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Introduction
The leaders of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan say economic
cooperation among their nations will bring an era of
prosperity to south Asia. VOA correspondent Douglas Bakshian
reports from Dhaka.
Text
Addressing a one-day business and trade summit in the
Bangladeshi capital, the leaders of the three largest nations in
south Asia spoke of the potential of a bright new future for the
region.
Indian prime minister Inder Kumar Gujral said economic
cooperation and the free movement of capital, goods and services,
will pave the way to prosperity.
Inder Kumar Gujral:
I am confident that in the next century our region will
successfully overcome poverty and usher in an era of
prosperity. Our products will once again be recognized
for their excellence, even as our workers will be prized
for their skill and ingenuity.
As one immediate measure to improve trade, Mr. Gujral said India
is prepared to double the number of freight trains running
between Pakistan and India to 30 a month. He also called for a
regional investment treaty and efforts to ease the tax burden on
regional business people.
Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif, for his part, said
investment and trade polices of south Asian nations should be
coordinated to make doing business easier throughout the region.
He also emphasized the role of foreign investment in bringing
prosperity to south Asia.
Nawaz Sharif:
South Asia is fast becoming attractive to foreign
investment. They seek both our markets as well as
relatively cheaper skills and resources. In the
emerging international economic environment our hope of
socio-economic prospect (progress?) lies in our ability
to attract foreign investment.
Mr. Sharif said Pakistan is committed to establishing a free
trade area in south Asia in the near future -- however, he also
warned that south Asia must rid itself of long-standing tensions
if the region is to make progress. He gave no examples, but
Pakistan and India have a history of bad relations, and have
fought three wars.
Meanwhile, Bangladeshi leader Sheikh Hasina praised Mr. Sharif
and Mr. Gujral as men of vision. She said peace between their
nations is essential for stability in south Asia as a whole.
Sheikh Hasina:
These two visionary men have shown a sense of
determination to put India-Pakistan relations on a
better footing. Peaceful co-existence between India and
Pakistan is of great importance in ensuring peace,
stability and economic development in south Asia.
More than one-hundred business people from India, Bangladesh and
Pakistan are taking part in the summit. The business leaders
are exchanging ideas and proposals on ways to improve trade and
commerce in the region. (Signed) neb/db/mmk
15-Jan-98 6:59 am EST (1159 UTC) nnnn Report 2-225314
Source - Voice of America
Copyright (C) 1998 Mantra Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Two of numerous previous posts on the subject:
[ Subject: Re: Reunification: NAO!
[ From: j...@mantra.com (Dr. Jai Maharaj)
[ Date: February 16, 1996
[ Message-ID: <6rNJxQ9z...@mantra.com>
[ Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian,soc.culture.pakistan,
[ alt.fan.jai-maharaj,soc.culture.bangladesh,soc.culture.nepal,
[ soc.culture.sri-lanka
[
[ Perhaps the most important benefit of reunification is the
[ synergistic advantage of pooling resources and strategies for
[ common regional goals. The reunification of countries in south
[ Asia appears to be the only solution for lasting peace and
[ prosperity. Reunification will make it easier for south Asians to
[ compete globally because we will not be fighting against each
[ other. Moreover, why should we allow the seeds of discord and
[ divisionism planted by foreign occupiers to continue to take root?
[
[ New Asian Order - NAO!
[
[ Jai Maharaj <j...@mantra.com> Om Shanti
[
[ In the article <4fvtqu$2...@cronkite.seas.gwu.edu>,
[ of 15 Feb 1996 18:25:34 UTC,
[ fa...@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu (Fatima Ibrahim Al-Shirawi) wrote:
[ > Since reunification should theoretically be beneficial for each
[ > of its components, perhaps someone could elaborate on the
[ > specific advantages towards reunification for other countries
[ > besides India . . . Pakistan in particular. I must confess, I
[ > see little benefit in Pakistan and India being reunited.
[ > Signed: Saif Al Shirawi (Fatima's brother).
[ Subject: Reunification - Bring Down Trade Barriers
[ From: j...@mantra.com (Dr. Jai Maharaj)
[ Date: June 26, 1996
[ Message-ID: <0sL0xQ9z...@mantra.com>
[ Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian,soc.culture.pakistan,
[ soc.culture.sri-lanka,soc.culture.bangladesh,soc.culture.nepal,
[ alt.fan.jai-maharaj,hawaii.nortle
[
[ > From: j...@mantra.com (Dr. Jai Maharaj)
[ > Date: Sat, 13 Jan 1996 20:21:16 -1000
[
[ I think that many influential people in all south
[ Asian countries are beginning to realize that the time
[ for wars among ourselves is over.
[
[ As soon as trade barriers are brought down -- the
[ latest news stories exhibit much promise in this regard
[ -- large corporations and banks are going to prevail
[ over battle-happy politicians and generals.
[
[ *** Reunite South Asia For Lasting Peace ***
[
[ Jai Maharaj <j...@mantra.com> *-=Om Shanti=-*
Jai Maharaj
j...@mantra.com
Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti
The expression "Prediction Registry" and its variations, are
trademarks of Mantra Corporation. Copyright � 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997,
1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Mantra Corporation. All Rights Reserved. The
information contained at this site may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten or otherwise distributed, or stored without prior written
authority of Mantra Corporation.
http://www.flex.com/~jai/registry/reunification.html
Sid Harth
The following post is archived in the Deja News and other archives:
[ Subject: 'Astrologers see war - Is this true ????' Jai Maharaj
answers
[ From: address....@web.site www.mantra.com/jyotish (Dr. Jai
Maharaj)
[ Organization: Mantra Corporation
[ Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian,alt.fan.jai-maharaj,
[ alt.jyotish,alt.astrology,soc.culture.pakistan
[ Message-ID: <Jyotish-16...@news.mantra.com>
[ Date: Wed, 03 May 2000 03:15:20 UTC
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
An recent exchange of messages by e-mail is offered:
[ Subject: Re: Astrologers see war for - Is this true ????
[ From: Dr. Jai Maharaj
[ To: [...]
[ Cc: [...]; [...]; . . .
[ Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2000
April 30, 2000
Namaskaram
I am grateful to [...] in bringing us together by means
of his e-mail message (appended below).
There will be no war between Bharat and Pakistan this
summer. Violence in Jammu and Kashmir, and elsewhere
in Bharat, perpetrated by the Terrorist State of Pakistan
and Muslim terrorists will continue as it has since 1947.
When news stories about the possibility of a Bharat-
Pakistan war in the summer began to appear earlier this
year, I examined the Jyotish charts of both countries
(based on August 14/15, 1947 times) and was *not* able to
predict even a Kargil-level war for this summer, and had
occasion to post this conclusion in the Usenet newsgroups
in March.
Other Jyotishis have been reported as predicting a war,
and if the newspapers have accurately published the news
items, then I respect the fact that they must have a
reason for the predictions -- a reason that is not yet
evident to yours truly.
In service to Dharm, I remain,
Jai Maharaj
Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Predictions Registry
http://www.flex.com/~jai/registry
Om Shanti
The above message is in response to the following:
----- Original Message -----
> Subject: Astrologers see war for - Is this true ????
> From: [...]
> To: "Dr. Jai Maharaj"; [...]; [...]; . . .
> Date: Saturday, April 22, 2000
>
> [...]
> http://www.deccanchronicleonline.com/cover6.htm - 23-apr-2000
>
> Nasty lineup of stars spells war with Pak
>
> Hyderabad: Predictions from professional astrologers is
> nothing new. But a rare planetary formation due to take
> place in May has emboldened them to state that natural
> and man-made calamities are in store for the country,
> including the possibility of a war over the next few
> months.
>
> According to the astrologers, during the first week of
> May, all the planets are expected to assemble in "Mesha
> Rashi" compressed between Rahu and Ketu, which, they
> said, was not auspicious for mother earth and humankind.
>
> Panchangam expert Madugula Nagaphani Sarma predicted a
> war with a neighbouring country and added that the
> country would emerge victorious due to the presence of
> "Sani, Guru and Kujudu' at one place.
>
> Eminent astrologer V V Rao too predicted a war and said
> conglomeration of planets in Mesha Rashi with Rahu and
> Ketu holding sway over them were the definite signs of a
> possible war looming large over the country besides a
> political uncertainty continuing to haunt the nation.
> Another astrologer, Mohan Ram, told Deccan Chronicle that
> the rare celestial event called "Shastagruha Kutami" was
> most likely to occur on May 3 and would have adverse
> affects on human beings.
>
> "The planets cannot exercise their individual powers as
> they like, and the conglomeration of planets would lead
> to a tussle to exercise their powers, and would have
> adverse affects in the crust of the earth resulting in
> the formation of lava and ultimately causing
> earthquakes", he said.
>
> In July, a pournami (full moon) will occur sandwiched
> between two amasvasyas (new moon) which is also
> considered inauspicious, according tothe astrologers.
> While this amasvasya will occur on July 1 and July 31
> respectively, the inauspicious full moon is due on July
> 16, they said.
>
> There is also the possibility of the Ionosphere getting
> damaged further which in turn would cause radiational
> effects leading to widespread allergic diseases and also
> aggravation of asthma.Ram, however, sought to dispel the
> fears that the diseases would effect only those whose
> stars would be weak during the particular time and also
> depending upon the time and stars during which they were
> born.However, there is a positive side too to the
> celestial event.
>
> Children born during the particular period of the
> conglomeration of planets would not only be born with
> valour,vigour and bravery but will also possess shrewd
> brains due to the presence of Sani, Guru and Kujudu."It
> is a very rare combination of valour, vigour, bravery and
> brains found in the human beings since their origin and
> those born during such a time are really lucky", said
> Nagaphani Sarma.
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Jai Maharaj
j...@mantra.com
Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti
Main Page | Registry Contents
The expression "Prediction Registry" and its variations, are
trademarks of Mantra Corporation. Copyright � 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997,
1998, 1999, 2000 Mantra Corporation. All Rights Reserved. The
information contained at this site may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten or otherwise distributed, or stored without prior written
authority of Mantra Corporation.
http://www.flex.com/~jai/registry/nowar.html
Correct prediction by Jai Maharaj about calm in Kargil
According to Jyotish, the Divine Science of Light:
Summary: Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer, made the prediction
about Kargil on June 20, 1999 at 2230 hours UTC that "a calm
approaches within 192 hours from now." The 192-hour time window ended
on Wednesday, July 7, 1999 at 2230 hours UTC, that is, on Thursday,
July 8, 1999 at 0400 hours IST. The Indian Express reported that "The
Shrinagar-Leh highway, closed to civilian traffic since the Kargil
crisis broke out in early May, was reopened for the public" on July 8,
1999 (read this and other news articles below).
Withdrawal confirmed; fighting stops
By Harbaksh Singh Nanda
United Press International
Monday, July 12,1999 at 0540 hours UTC
DRASS, India, July 12 (UPI) -- There is a lull in fighting along the
Pakistan-India border as artillery on both sides has been silent for
several hours.
Both Indian and Pakistan say today that Islamic rebels are
withdrawing from disputed territory and India is claiming victory,
saying that very soon the Indian-controlled Kasmir will be free of
infiltrators. An Indian senior military official, without confirming
an
official cease-fire, said: ``We do not shoot people in their back. If
they are going back, we will let them.''
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Sunday said,
``Pakistani intrusion has decisively been turned back.''
After a meeting with top India army commanders Vajpayee said: ``The
turning point has come. Operation Vijay (Victory) is going to be a
great
Vijay.''
He asserted the rebels will soon be evicted from Kashmir. The Indian
army has not specified a timeframe for when this will happen.
In Islamabad, the Pakistani Cabinet has endorsed President Clinton
and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's appeal to Islamic rebels
to
withdraw from Kashmir.
So far 1,150 people have been killed in the conflict, of which 785
are Pakistani Islamic rebels. However, independent observers and
soldiers on both sides say the figure is much higher.
Fighting in the mountainous Kashmir began in May, when Indian troops
unleashed an operation to push out what it calls are Islamic
mercenaries
and Pakistani army regulars from the Indian side of the disputed
Himalayan region.
Neighboring India and Pakistan both claim the whole of Kashmir. India
controls two-thirds of the border region and Pakistan holds the rest.
Since simultaneous independence in 1947 India and Pakistan have
fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir.
Subject: 192-HR COUNTDOWN: SHRINAGAR-LEH HIGHWAY REOPENED TO PUBLIC
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian,alt.fan.jai-maharaj,
alt.culture.kashmir,soc.culture.indian.marathi,alt.politics.clinton,
alt.politics.usa.congress,soc.culture.pakistan,hawaii.nortle
From: address....@web.site (Dr. Jai Maharaj)
Message-ID: <Bharat-18...@news.mantra.com>
Keywords: Jyotish, defence, defense, BJP, Hindu, Bharat, Kashmir,
Kargil, India, Sensex, USA, Sharif, Clinton, Pakistan, Jai Maharaj
Date: Thu, 08 Jul 1999 18:42:36 UTC
Please note: the 192-hour countdown is based
on the following June 29, 1999 prediction:
[ Subject: Re: Patience or cowardice?
[ From: Dr. Jai Maharaj <j...@mantra.com>
[ To: [A writer]
[ Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1999 12:43:00 -1000
[
[ [...] with Congressman Bob Barr's legal complaint
[ against the White House.
[
[ But war is what *is* happening right now in Kashmir.
[ How else do you define war? According to my Jyotish-
[ based estimate, a calm approaches within 192 hours
[ from now -- 2230 hours UTC on June 29, 1999.
[ [...]
[ Namaste, Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer Om Shanti
Most of the military action moved from Kargil to
Batalik and Dras areas during the past 72 hours.
The latest news from the Indian Express,
and previous posts are offered:
Kargil Special
SHRINAGAR-LEH HIGHWAY REOPENED TO PUBLIC
The Indian Express
Thursday, July 8, 1999
Shrinagar: The Shrinagar-Leh highway, closed to
civilian traffic since the Kargil crisis broke out in
early May, was reopened for the public today, officials
here said. The 434 km-long National Highway 1A, the
lifeline linking Leh with Shrinagar via Drass in Jammu
and Kashmir, was reopened for the public following the
recapture of Tiger Hills in Drass and Jabar Hills in
Batalik sector in Kargil district by the army from
Pakistani intruders who had been targeting the road,
reports PTI.
The reopening of the highway would facilitate the
supply of foodgrains, petroleum products and other
essential commodities to Leh and Kargil districts for
the entire winter. The highway remains blocked during
winter because of heavy snowfall.
Jai Maharaj
Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti
[ Subject: 192-HR COUNTDOWN: KARGIL OPERATION
[ WILL END SOON, SAYS THAKRE
[ From: address....@web.site (Dr. Jai Maharaj)
[ Message-ID: <Bharat-18...@news.mantra.com>
[ Date: Thu, 08 Jul 1999 18:34:55 UTC
KARGIL OPERATION WILL END SOON: THAKRE
Patna, July 8, 1999 (UNI, The Hindu) - BJP president
Kushabhau Thakre today said the Kargil operation would
end "very soon." "Our soldiers have gained control of
almost all the sensitive posts in the sector," Thakre
told reporters here. Criticising the Congress for
saying that the Lahore bus diplomacy has failed, he
said "the entire nation knows that only due to Prime
Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's visit to Lahore, the
country could get outside support on the Kargil issue."
Even Pakistan's long-time friendly countries like
China, the United States and the Gulf Nations
"supported us," he said. "The bus trip paid us" the
reward for our honest approach to bring a conducive
atmosphere in the region and to have friendly relations
with the neighbouring countries," he added. Replying to
a question on the convening of a special Rajya Sabha
session to discuss the Kargil issue, Thakre said there
was no need and pointed out that eminent leaders
including two former Prime Ministers Chandrashekhar and
H. D. Deve Gowda and a majority of Chief Ministers had
expressed their views against such a demand.
[ Subject: 192-HR COUNTDOWN: SHARIEF WILL IMPLEMENT
[ ACCORD, SAYS U.S.
[ From: address....@web.site (Dr. Jai Maharaj)
[ Message-ID: <Bharat-05...@news.mantra.com>
[ Date: Wed, 07 Jul 1999 05:26:00 UTC
SHARIEF WILL IMPLEMENT ACCORD: US
By C. K. Arora in Washington
Rediff On the Net
Wednesday 7, 1999
The United States is confident about the ability of
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief to redeem the
commitment he had made to President Bill Clinton that
his government would take steps to restore the sanctity
of Line of Control in Kashmir and de-escalate tension
in the Kargil sector.
Both the White House and the state department made
statements to this effect, trying to set at rest doubts
raised about Sharief's competence to deliver on his
promise.
''Certainly we believe, he (Sharief) is the prime
minister of Pakistan and that he speaks on behalf of
the government,'' state department spokesman James
Foley remarked.
To drive his point home, he made a reference to
Pakistan army Chief Pervez Musharraf's statement
supporting the US-Pakistan accord.
Foley said the comment of the army chief in the last 24
hours indicating support for the restoration and
sanctity of the LoC was 'very important'.
He said it was in the interest of both India and
Pakistan that de-escalation be achieved as the first
step in order to return to the sanctity of the LoC.
''I think it is our presumption that the government of
Pakistan has the influence necessary to defuse the
situation,'' a White House official said.
When asked to comment on Pakistan Foreign Minister
Sartaj Aziz's statement that the restoration of the LoC
should be linked to the resolution of the larger
Kashmir issue, he said, ''It is our understanding that
the sequence of events would be concrete steps in line
with the Simla accord followed by cessation of
hostilities and then re-invigoration of the Lahore
process and declaration made in February that they will
engage on all issues related to the relationship
between Pakistan and India including Kashmir.''
''I think Pakistan, India and US all recognise the
danger of the current situation and the need to take
appropriate steps to defuse the situation rather than
risk further escalation,'' he added.
- UNI
Source - http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/jul/07kash2.htm
BLAIR BACKS US-PAK ACCORD
Rediff On the Net
Wednesday 7, 1999
British Prime Minister Tony Blair met Pakistan Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharief yesterday and backed a
Washington accord designed to resolve the Kargil
conflict, officials said.
Blair and Sharief, en route back to Pakistan after
talks with US President Bill Clinton, met for half an
hour to discuss the fighting in Kargil.
A spokesman for Blair said Britain welcomed the joint
US-Pakistan statement issued on Sunday in which Clinton
and Sharief agreed that concrete steps should be taken
to restore the military Line of Control dividing the
forces of the two countries.
''(Blair) said the statement represented real progress
towards reducing tension with India. The prime minister
and Sharief agreed on the importance of swiftly
implementing the actions proposed in the statement,''
the spokesman said.
- UNI
Source - http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/jul/07kash1.htm
[ Subject: 192-HR COUNTDOWN: PAK ARMY NOT AGAINST PULL-OUT,
[ SAYS MUSHARRAF
[ From: address....@web.site (Dr. Jai Maharaj)
[ Message-ID: <Bharat-19...@news.mantra.com>
[ Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 19:36:05 UTC
PAK ARMY NOT AGAINST PULL-OUT: GEN MUSHARRAF
Mujahideen will be told to withdraw
The Times of India
Wednesday, July 7, 1999
Islamabad - Giving the first indication of pulling out
from Indian territory in Kargil, Pakistan said on
Tuesday it would ``appeal'' to the infiltrators to
withdraw. Its army also set at rest speculation that it
was opposed to the move by maintaining that it had
``complete understanding'' with the government on the
issue.
Making a statement in the National Assembly, minister
of state for foreign affairs Muhammad Saddiq Kanju said
that the Pakistan would appeal to the Mujahideen to
withdraw. He added that the question of withdrawal of
Pakistani forces from the Indian side did not arise
``as they have not crossed the LoC''.
Mr Sharif had agreed to urge the Mujahideen, mostly
activists of Pakistan-based militant groups, to return,
he said even as the opposition severly criticised Mr
Sharif's ``deal'' with US President Bill Clinton.
Explaining the phrase ``concrete steps'' in the joint
Clinton-Sharif statement, Mr Kanju said: ``As we have
no presence across the LoC, the only step on our part
can be to appeal to the Mujahideen (to withdraw).''
Trying to rebut the criticism for the climbdown, Mr
Kanju said: ``This is the first time that the US has
agreed to play a direct role in the search for a final
settlement of the Kashmir dispute.''
He claimed that the Clinton-Sharif statement recognised
Kashmir's ``centrality to peace and stability in South
Asia''. Mr Kanju's statement aimed at Jamat-i-Islami
and other fundamentalist groups which called a
nationwide shutdown and Black Day to protest ``sell-
out'' by Mr Sharif on Kargil.
In Rome, Pakistan's special envoy Mian Khurshid Mahmood
Kasuri said Pakistan would welcome a ceasefire to cool
the Kashmir conflict and avert a full-scale war for
which it was ready but not willing.
Pakistan army chief General Pervez Musharraf said in
Islamabad that any decision on withdrawal would be
taken only after Mr Sharif returned from the US. About
1,500 to 2,000 ``highly-trained'' Mujahideen were still
fighting against the Indian Army, he said.
Gen Musharraf told the Urdu daily Jung that ``there is
complete understanding between the (Pakistani) army and
the government'' on Mr Sharif's Washington mission. On
how the withdrawal would be conducted, Gen Musharraf
said: ``These Mujahideen will be asked to change their
positions. We have to see how they respond to that
request.''
The army chief, however, declined comment when asked
what the plan of action would be if the Mujahideen
refused to return but admitted that he was concerned
about the developments.
He also ruled out that Pakistan would go for quid pro
quo for withdrawing from Kargil by asking India to pull
out from Siachen, saying: ``There is no question of
exchanging Kargil with Siachen.''
The director-general of Inter-services public
relations, Brig Rashid Qureshi, meanwhile, ruled out
withdrawal of Pakistani troops from the LoC. He said
Pakistan army positions were ``on the LoC'' and it
continued to observe all vehicular movements on the
Drass-Kargil road.
``That road shall remain under threat,'' Brig Qureshi
said, adding that Pakistani troops were able to fire on
the Drass-Kargil road as any convoy moving on it could
not avoid their eye. He alleged that Indian troops
indulged in intense artillery firing into the Pakistani
side and some Indian planes even dropped bombs across
LoC but without violating Pakistani airspace.(Agencies)
[ Subject: 192-HR COUNTDOWN: SENSEX, RUPEE JUMP ON PEACE SIGNS
[ From: address....@web.site (Dr. Jai Maharaj)
[ Message-ID: <Bharat-23...@news.mantra.com>
[ Date: Mon, 05 Jul 1999 23:43:06 UTC
SENSEX JUMPS 112 POINTS, RE 16 PAISE ON PEACE SIGNS
Business Times Bureau
the Yimes of India
Tuesday, July 6, 1999
Mumbai - The stock markets in India and Pakistan
welcomed the diplomatic breakthrough in Washington
wherein Pakistan has assured to take concrete steps to
restore the line of control in Kashmir. This has given
a feeling that chances of war between India and
Pakistan have subsided.
Though the mood was still cautious, there was a sense
of optimism among the market players. Reflecting the
trend, in the forex market, the rupee gained by about
16 paise as it closed sharply higher at 43.23/24
compared to 43.39/40 of Friday last.
The BSE Sensex closed at 4,306.40--its highest level
since August 1997, against last Friday's close of
4,194.55, netting a sharp gain of 111.85 points or 2.67
per cent.
In Pakistan, the Karachi Stock Exchange's 100-share
index went up by 18.01 points, representing 1.63 per
cent.
In the Indian forex market, forward rates tracked the
spot market. Monthly premiums on an average fell by 4-5
paise. The sixth month and the yearly annualised
premium closed lower at 4.87 per cent and 5.52 per
cent, respectively against 5.13 per cent and 5.88 per
cent of the previous day.
In the stock markets, the broad-based BSE Natex,
comprising 100 stocks, rose by 53.72 points or nearly 3
per cent to close at its 52-week high of 1,854.23 from
the previous close of 1,800.51. On the National Stock
Exchange, the S&P CNX Nifty advanced further to close
at 1,230.25, showing a rise of 32.40 points or 2.7 per
cent over its previous close of 1,197.85.
According to market circles, a host of reasons were
responsible for this surge in sentiment. First, the
markets believed that a political solution to the
Kargil crisis is in sight, following US mediation.
Second, reports that the Indian army recaptured key
peaks on the India-Pakistan border meant that even if a
political solution was not forthcoming, a military
victory was inevitable.
Third, there were signs of imminent economic recovery.
The latest data pointed to improving industrial output,
exports, bumper crops and strong rural consumption.
In fact, the latest data on wholesale price index
showed inflation at its lowest levels since the early
1980s. Market analysts said that the country appeared
to be recovering from a three-year slowdown in
industrial growth.
Fourth, operators at NSE squared up their short
positions due to approaching end of account on Tuesday.
This along with speculative buying on BSE, led to
handsome gains in many of the counters.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) too reportedly
made all-round purchases focussing their attention on
software and pharmaceutical scrips. However, domestic
institutions chose to book profits in scrips like
Reliance, BPL Ltd, Bajaj Auto, NIIT and others.
Several marketmen said that the Sensex was now tipped
to cross the 4320-level. The next resistance is
expected to be at the 4390 level, dealers said.
Describing Monday's movements, a leading stockbroker
said that there was no runaway bull charge surge, as
the market was still cautious. ``However, if a solution
really comes through, then the Sensex would go for the
4,500-level,'' he added.
Meanwhile, at the forex market, heavy dollar unloading
by banks and corporates contributed to the
strengthening of the rupee. Opening higher at 43.29/39,
which itself was the day's low, the rupee continued its
rally as the market virtually turned into a sellers'
one.
Corporates and banks offloaded their dollar position
expecting further rise of the rupee value in the wake
of the encouraging India-Pakistan development.
Importers, however, preferred to stay away, awaiting
further appreciation of the Indian unit, dealers said.
While winding up of long positions was cited as the
main factor behind the rupee's upsurge, a section of
the forex market believed that the currency was over-
valued in the longer term and needed to correct itself.
[ Subject: 192-HR COUNTDOWN: SHARIF ASSURANCE TO
[ CLINTON ON WITHDRAWAL OF FORCES
[ From: address....@web.site (Dr. Jai Maharaj)
[ Message-ID: <Bharat-18...@news.mantra.com>
[ Date: Mon, 05 Jul 1999 18:08:04 UTC
SHARIF ASSURANCE TO CLINTON ON WITHDRAWAL OF FORCES
Washington, July 5, 1999 (UNI) - The end to the two-
month-old conflict in Kargil appears imminent following
an assurance by Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
to US President Bill Clinton that he would withdraw
soon his forces, including the Mujahideens, who crossed
into Kashmir. US officials, who briefed the press after
a three-hour meeting between President Clinton and
Pakistani Prime Minister, gave this indication, saying
``our understanding is that there will be withdrawal of
the forces now.'' They, however, declined to spell out
exactly when the forces would pull out. ``I think it is
safe to say that the President and both Prime Ministers
have a great sense of urgency here, and that we would
like to see positive steps in the very near future,''
one of the officials said.
The latest news from UNI, and previous posts are now offered:
[ Subject: 192-HR COUNTDOWN: U.S.-PAK AGREE FOR
[ PAKISTAN TO WITHDRAW
[ From: address....@web.site (Dr. Jai Maharaj)
[ Message-ID: <Bharat-23...@news.mantra.com>
[ Date: Sun, 04 Jul 1999 23:36:01 UTC
Sunday, July 4, 1999 at 2259 hours UTC
Correspondent Report
By Deborah Tate
The White House
Introduction
The United States believes that under an agreement
reached between president Clinton and Pakistani prime
minister Nawaz Sharif Sunday, guerrillas who crossed
into Indian-held Kashmir will be withdrawn. VOA's
correspondent Deborah Tate reports from the White
House.
Text
After a hastily-arranged three-hour meeting here in
Washington requested by Mr. Sharif, Mr. Clinton and the
Pakistani leader issued a joint written statement
saying they agreed that 'concrete steps' will be taken
to restore the line of control dividing Kashmir.
A senior U.S. official who did not want to be
identified says it is the United States' understanding
there will be a withdrawal of guerrilla forces from the
Indian side of Kashmir.
In the joint statement, Mr. Clinton urged that once
such action is taken there be an immediate end to
hostilities. Mr. Clinton called Indian prime minister
Atal Behari Vajpayee to brief him on the meeting with
Mr. Sharif.
India launched an offensive to push Pakistani-backed
guerrillas out of Indian-controlled Kashmir in late may
-- raising fears of a wider conflict on the
subcontinent. Islamabad has insisted it was not behind
the invasion, a position Washington has disputed.
(Signed) neb/dat/pt
July 4, 1999 6:59 p.m. EDT 2259 hours UTC Report 2-251419
Source: Voice of America
Jai Maharaj
Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti
[ Subject: 192-HR COUNTDOWN: U.S. SAYS PAKISTAN WILL WITHDRAW FORCES
[ From: address....@web.site (Dr. Jai Maharaj)
[ Message-ID: <Bharat-23...@news.mantra.com>
[ Date: Sun, 04 Jul 1999 23:12:36 UTC
U.S.: PAKISTAN WILL WITHDRAW FORCES
By Lawrence Knutson
The Associated Press
Sunday, July 4, 1999 at 18:40 hours ET
Washington (AP) - Pakistan's prime minister met with
President Clinton for more than three hours Sunday and
agreed ``that concrete steps will be taken'' to restore
the ``Line of Control'' separating Pakistani and Indian
forces near Kashmir.
``Our understanding is that there will be a withdrawal
of the (Pakistani) forces now,'' said a U.S. official
who briefed reporters on the meeting under condition of
anonymity. ``Both have a great sense of urgency. We
want to see steps taken very quickly.''
The officials declined to elaborate on exactly what
``concrete steps'' Pakistan might take.
``Our position has been that the forces across the Line
of Control need to be returned to the Pakistani side,''
the U.S. official said.
Another said, ``The prime minister will have to make
those decisions himself on how he will undertake to
implement the decisions contained in this document.''
``The president urged an immediate cessation of the
hostilities once these steps are taken,'' a joint
statement issued by the two leaders said.
The statement, issued by Clinton and Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif, said that the two agreed that an Indian-
Pakistani dialog begun last February in Lahore
``provides the best forum for resolving all issues
dividing India and Pakistan, including Kashmir.''
``The president said he would take a personal interest
in encouraging an expeditious resumption and
intensification of those bilateral efforts, once the
sanctity of the Line of Control has been fully
restored,'' the statement said.
The two leaders called the current fighting in Kashmir
dangerous and said it ``contains the seeds of a wider
conflict.''
The statement did not spell out what specific steps
Pakistan might take, nor was there any indication of
what India's response might be.
Clinton also repeated his intention to visit South Asia
in the relatively near future.
Sharif requested the meeting and flew from Islamabad,
the Pakistani capital, to attend. The president agreed
to meet with the Pakistani leader after conferring by
telephone Saturday with Sharif and Indian Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Officials said that Clinton again called Vajpayee
during a break in the meeting to keep him informed of
the course of the conversation and that National
Security Adviser Sandy Berger called his counterpart in
India when the meeting had concluded.
White House officials said Clinton would not attempt to
mediate the dispute. They said he continues to believe
that the Kashmir problem must be resolved by direct
dialogue between India and Pakistan.
But White House officials said Saturday that Clinton,
Sharif and Vajpayee all agree ``the situation is
dangerous and could escalate if not resolved quickly.''
The meetings between Clinton and Sharif occurred at
Blair House, the official government guest house that
is across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House.
For more information, please visit the following links:
Kashmir Information Network
http://207.159.86.9/
The Real Kashmir Story
http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/may/28jk.htm
Satyamevajayate
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
The Holocaust of Hindus site 1
http://www.geocities.com/~lavlesh/islam.html
The Holocaust of Hindus site 2
http://members.tripod.com/~sudheerb/holocaust1.html
Posted on 07/04/1999 16:10:14 PDT by Jai
Sources of the above and more news and discussion:
http://www.freerepublic.com/
Archives of similar posts here:
http://www.flex.com/~jai/posts.html
A previous post:
[ Subject: 192-HR COUNTDOWN: CLINTON INTERRUPTS I-DAY
[ TO MEET SHARIF
[ From: address....@web.site (Dr. Jai Maharaj)
[ Message-Id: <Bharat-20...@news.mantra.com>
[ Date: Sun, 04 Jul 1999 08:52:27 UTC
192-hr countdown: Clinton interrupts I-Day to meet Sharif
[ Subject: Re: Patience or cowardice?
[ From: Dr. Jai Maharaj <j...@mantra.com>
[ To: [A writer]
[ Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1999 12:43:00 -1000
[
[ [...] with Congressman Bob Barr's legal complaint
[ against the White House.
[
[ But war is what *is* happening right now in Kashmir.
[ How else do you define war? According to my Jyotish-
[ based estimate, a calm approaches within 192 hours
[ from now -- 2230 hours UTC on June 29, 1999.
[ [...]
[ Namaste, Jai Maharaj Om Shanti
A news report from the Voice of America:
Sunday, July 4, 1999 at 0340 hours UTC
Correspondent Report
By David Golust
Washington
Introduction
President Clinton is interrupting his Independence Day
holiday for some personal diplomacy on the Kashmir
crisis. He meets in Washington Sunday with Pakistan
prime minister Nawaz Sharif. More from VOA White House
correspondent David Gollust.
Text
The meeting -- to be held at the Blair House official
guest residence near the White House -- was requested
by Mr. Sharif, who flew to Washington after a Saturday
telephone talk with Mr. Clinton.
The president also conferred by phone with Indian prime
minister (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee, who Clinton aides say
raised no objection to the Washington meeting.
A brief statement by the White House says all the
parties agree the Kashmir situation is dangerous and
could escalate, if it is not resolved quickly.
White house officials say Mr. Clinton is concerned by
the hostilities. He has had repeated contacts with
both sides, as he did a year ago when the two south
Asian powers tested nuclear weapons.
They say the president does not intend to try to
mediate the Kashmir conflict and wants the parties,
themselves, to quickly resume a high-level dialogue.
(Signed) neb/dag/wd/wd
July 3, 1999 11:40 p.m. EDT 0340 UTC Report 2-251400
Source - Voice of America
A news report just in:
BHARAT SAYS RECAPTURES KEY KASHMIR STRATEGIC HEIGHT
India Says Recaptures Key Kashmir Strategic Height
Reuters
Sunday July 4 3:20 AM ET
Nayee Dillee (Reuters) - India said Sunday it had captured
the strategic Tiger Hill on its side of a military line
of control in Kashmir after a fierce night-long battle.
``I am delighted to tell you that a battalion of the
Grenadiers recaptured Tiger Hill after a long and
bloody battle,'' a senior defense official told Reuters
on condition of anonymity, referring to the 15,060-foot
peak that commanded a vital stretch of the Indian
highway through northern Kashmir.
``I am not a religious man, but I prayed very hard this
morning,'' the Indian defense official said.
Military officials said troops launched their final
assault on Tiger Hill Saturday, with intense artillery
exchanges between Indian and Pakistan gunners on both
sides of the Line of Control (LOC) that slices through
the Kashmir valley.
Tiger Hill looks down on India's National Highway 1-A,
the main supply route for India's northernmost region
of Ladakh as well as troops holding the Siachen Glacier
north of the Drass and Kargil sectors where the
fiercest fighting is now raging.
India launched an intense air and ground offensive in
May to dislodge guerrillas occupying strategic heights
on its side of the military Line of Control dividing
Kashmir and accused Islamabad of backing them with
regular soldiers. Pakistan denies the charge, saying it
gives no more than moral and political support to what
it calls Kashmiri ``freedom fighters.''
Jai Maharaj
j...@mantra.com
Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti
The expression "Prediction Registry" and its variations, are
trademarks of Mantra Corporation. Copyright (C) 1999 Mantra
Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Predictions by Edmond Wollmann
Subject: US 99/2000
From: Edmond Wollmann <woll...@my-deja.com>
Newsgroups: alt.astrology,alt.divination,alt.paranormal,
alt.astrology.metapsych
Date: Sunday, June 27, 1999 10:43 PM
The year revolves around urgent issues (requiring closure) regarding
flexibility of the imagination and ocean discoveries, other
dimensional
perspectives (UFO), dreams, drugs, intrigue, spying, deception
regarding humanitarian concerns and humanitarian equality issues. A
contradiction, conflict and paradox regarding human resources that
will
not find easy resolution is indicated. Also, regarding the unreal and
camouflage with reference to social interactions, the congress (and
the
president's resources), and hopes for the world economic structure
stabilization. An international power struggle from this deception,
especially with resources and international law (or religious
beliefs),
is very high in manifestation probability. Difficulty resolving
diplomatic issues and gaining control by the US (re: Legal conflicts
with other countries) initiates an urgent war (most probable
economic).
China, is front and center. The Middle East accelerates in conflict
along with India and Pakistan. Tensions are high and global economic
tensions heighten as well. But this is because the world is
accelerating in conscious awareness in the transformation age. Issues
that have been ignored and suppressed are now rising to be resolved
(yes, there is a collective Unconscious).
These issues are in high negative profile beginning with the
lunar eclipse of July 28, 1999 and August 11 (when the president,
national security, and the status of a nation is questioned: Who knew
what and when? re: resources). A reckless need for the US to prove
itself brings legal complications and exaggerated stubbornness by
economic partners. A powerful opponent must NOT be underestimated.
Congress (the Republican right) comes under fire for deceit and
limiting the country in so doing to promote more "right wing judgment"
issues. The youth of the nation are especially oppositional. Poor
judgment in foreign policy threatens with tremendous enduring
difficulties as a result. All of the issues find positive resolution
beginning on January 24, when an Arthurian perspective begins that
colors speculation about the future.
Religious power struggles continue. The Pope may not make it
past the spring of the new Millennium. This event is symbolic in that
the Religious structure will begin to destructurize itself as the
momentum of rigidity and judgment creates an implosion. The science of
following must end. Ritual has little to do with "spirituality", it
only induces the powerless to continue to follow and discount their
own
connection to "All That Is" wherein a "personal relationship with
"God"
is a GIVEN. The dark moon now becomes more powerful (black Moon in
astrology, which symbolizes where the positive infusion of perspective
results from the removal (destructurization of unnecessary fears) of
superficial and out of integrity support relied upon in the past).
The new moon of December 7, brings powerful spiritual issues to
the forefront. The eclipse of January 21 brings issues of air power
and
higher ideals into the world (Altair, the Flyer is emphasized) and an
urgent new beginning is called for. The intellect begins to become
more
highly valued. February 5 completes a humanitarian alteration of
consciousness and awakening of the unconscious phase 1 (the beginning
was delineated by myself in the 1993 Horoscope Yearbook entitled "The
Uranus/Neptune Conjunction: A Collective Unconscious Awakening".
By the beginning of May 2000 the picture brightens when an
inspirational infusion of the spiritual awareness of youth
demonstrates
the victorious triumph of integrity on the 1st, 13th, 29 and 30th of
this month. Love is now seen to be a state of being, not
something "given." The public consciousness begins to real-ize a
recognition of choice with reference to political leaders and the
president.
This completes the initiation of the Arcturian1 phase 1. More to come.
Best to all.
"I believe I shall, in some shape or other, always exist; and, with
all
the inconveniences human life is liable to, I shall not object to a
new
edition of my life, hoping, however, that the errata of the last may
be
corrected." Benjamin Franklin on reincarnation
Edmond H. Wollmann P.M.A.F.A.
� 1999 Altair Publications, SAN 299-5603
Astrological Consulting http://www.astroconsulting.com/
Artworks http://www.astroconsulting.com/personal/
Edited and formatted by Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
The expression "Prediction Registry" and its variations, are
trademarks of Mantra Corporation. Copyright (C) 1999 Mantra
Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.flex.com/~jai/registry/wollmann990627.html
Sid Harth
According to Jyotish, the Divine Science of Light:
[...] More of the same will continue, the activity getting more
intense beginning at a point during the next 72 hours or so.
- Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi, Saturday, June 13, 1999
at 0317 hours UTC, Bharatvarsh Mailing List
http://www.egroups.com/group/bharatvarsh
News excerpts:
FORCES PUT ON HIGH ALERT
Nayee Dillee - The Army, the Navy, the Air force and the Coast Guard
are all in a state of ``high alert'' following Pakistani troop
movements along both the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir and the
entire India-Pakistan border. [...]
- The Times of India, Tuesday, June 15, 1999
MASSIVE ASSAULT LAUNCHED TO RECAPTURE TIGER HILL
Nayee Dillee - In what may well mark the turning point in the 23-day-
old Operation Vijay, the Indian Air Force's Mirage-2000 jets struck
with devastating effect over the past 48 hours, killing at least 100
intruders and pulverising more than 80 structures containing
ammunition and military stores in Muntho Dalo, north-east of Batalik.
The air superiority Mirage-2000 fighters unleashed 500-pound bombs
with lethal accuracy on Pak intruder positions, situated at a height
of 14, 600 feet at Muntho Dalo. The target area was being used as a
staging-cum-supply camp by the Pakistan Army for launching operations
in the Ladakh sector. [...]
- The Hindustan Times, Thursday, June 17, 1999
Jai Maharaj
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti
The expression "Prediction Registry" and its variations, are
trademarks of Mantra Corporation. Copyright (C) 1999 Mantra
Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Prediction by Dr. Jai Maharaj
Om Ganeshaayae Namah!
[ Jai Maharaj
[ Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
Jai Maharaj
Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
Correct predictions published before events occurred
Current Moon phase, Panchang, Hindu calendar and over
20,000 links to my posts available at:
http://www.flex.com/~jai
Om Shanti
The expression "Prediction Registry" and its variations, are
trademarks of Mantra Corporation. Copyright (C) 1997 Mantra
Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.flex.com/~jai/registry/maharaj980127.html
Predictions by Edmond Wollmann
Subject: Re: PREDICTIONS BY ASTROLOGERS - REGISTRY INAUGURATED
From: Edmond Wollmann <woll...@aznet.net>
Newsgroups:
alt.astrology.metapsych,alt.astrology,alt.jyotish,alt.astrology.asian...
Message-ID: 33E4D3...@aznet.net
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 1997 08:08:32 -0700
Predictions based on US chart. July 4, 1997
The year revolves around relationships and the psychology of them with
regard to government officials and the public consciousness. There is
a profound defensiveness and protectiveness by government officials
and their positions as the public consciousness gets very personal
into the lives of leaders. The indirect manipulations of propoganda
invites cageyness. Elusiveness will do no good. The world will be in
your living room. The home and family issues of the government come to
the fore as a direction.
Also at issue, the debts of the nation and financial relations with
other countries, the trade deficit and deaths of those in government
office. All of these affairs are subject to compulsive and
temperamental disruption.
Political funds of BOTH parties and the speculation and extension
profile of the nation are under extreme change and revelation. All
forms of advisory groups for and of the people are extremely
unstable.
The women of the nation become a prominent force, and the extension
and love giving idea with regard to the feminine aspect will have
great power and commands center stage. The avant garde with regard to
relationship becomes the national topic. More revelations with regard
to Military sexual harrassment are VERY likely (Please see my "Jupiter/
Uranus conjunction Intellectual Revelations" article) and the militia
issue continues.
Foreign countries test our intelligence network and in science great
benifits are discovered through space exploration by July 14th. This
is also a date for public issues regarding those in government
positions and their sexual escapades. On August 1st-4th new domestic
policies, home, family and womens issues rise to prominance. Foreign
intrigue and camouflage possible on October 20-22-compassion is
needed. By November 18-22 the intensity of relationship and monetary
issues and the recklessness in their handling becomes common knowledge
that disrupts the status quo. The status of the country is tested and
pressed by February 20-21, 1998 along with the president. The clash of
egos. By May of 98 more militaristic or scientific revelations -this
time of a positive nature. By May 30th women speak out as emotional
issues of law, religion or public opinion threaten.
As Pluto crosses the 7th of the US in February the alteration of the
populace will begin to shift dramatically as belief coercion becomes
public knowledge. The position of President is seen for what it is.
Thank you for allowing me to post this. I had to repost this
Subject: Usa 97 From: Edmond Wollmann
Date: 1997/08/03
Newsgroups: alt.astrology.metapsych
because the original dated 6/19/97 was cancelled from the archives or
removed somehow.
-- Edmond H. Wollmann P.M.A.F.A.
� 1997 Altair Publications Astrological Consulting
Edited and formatted by Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
Main Page | Registry Contents
The expression "Prediction Registry" and its variations, are
trademarks of Mantra Corporation. Copyright (C) 1997 Mantra
Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.flex.com/~jai/registry/wollmann970930.html
Predictions by Edmond Wollmann
Subject: USA 98
From: Edmond Wollmann [alch...@email.msn.com]
Message-ID: <01bdb271$2c3a2aa0$c381400c@default>
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 10:26:17 -0700
The year (from July 98 to July 99) revolves around the law,
philosophy, spiritual understanding, truths, beliefs and the conflict
possible through the interaction of diverse truths.
The law with reference to national security, the public and secrets
held for manipulative advantage are exaggerated and come under public
scrutiny. The public security and public trust is at issue.
International agreements and shared responsibilities of their leaders
are required to reassess peace offerings and the religious and
philosophical conflicts of their peoples. The armed services
exaggerate information to force a view. The public consciousness
shifts to greater issues of purposeful existence. By May of 99 US
secrets and communication of them accelerates empathy rather than
strategy. If this is resisted and strategy continues, the bureaucracy
experiences a RESOURCE CRISIS. The forcing of values and views implies
the dis-belief by the forcing party in them, and in their validity.
The public mind challenges the governmental manipulation of
information. New information of a scientific nature with reference to
our place in the universe trips up efforts to "spin." Revelations in
understanding begin. On September 23, 98 and Jan 3, 99 the public
philosophic perspective is clear. The propagandic spin machines reap
what they have sown. A country of the people is exercised. The
possibility of visitor interaction is great on these dates. Confusion
is the beginning of wisdom. More control is assumed by a once
complacent populace. On September 27 an out of control public view is
best left to unfold naturally. On October 2, the armed forces again
spin the need for their level of readiness for rapid deployment-
deception is possible on these dates. Other countries expansion and
changed status initiates another level of developmental challenge to
the national philosophy. Problems the US refuses to look at are
brought front and center. Power decentralization threatens the status
quo. There is room for all truths. By the end of November, the
challenges to the technological/territorial materialistic domination
view undergo the final phase of de-structurization. Obsession with
domination and control will quickly be doused. Racial and belief
system conflict is exceedingly high at this time. Spiritual knowledge
MUST be integrated into the world view.
By Christmas day the avant garde individualistic pioneer challenges
the system of Orion domination and control!! Time to wake up to Orion
light! The direction of a nation is challenged! Nothing makes the
darkness go-like the light! The knight is proven worthy. Dis-covery
and exploration is the sign of the healthy ego and path to heaven. On
January 3 the spiritual are clear, and the fearful, confused. By the
end of January 99 the Uranus/Neptune conjunction is in full swing and
the rigid and powerless are revealed. There is NO ONE TRUTH!
Maliciousness, does not "kill" truth. Changes in the "status" of a
nation are underway. Security concerns MUST be replaced with growing
trust. By February 14 the intent of the founding fathers is revealed
in the brilliance of the inventor, the seeker, the "awakened ones" and
the individualistic pioneer who accelerates the collective. To be
continued upon further momentum real-izations. Edmond H.
Wollmann P.M.A.F.A.
� 1998 Altair Publications, SAN 299-5603
Astrological Consulting http://www.astroconsulting.com/
Edited and formatted by Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
Main Page | Registry Contents
The expression "Prediction Registry" and its variations, are
trademarks of Mantra Corporation. Copyright (C) 1998 Mantra
Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.flex.com/~jai/registry/wollmann980718.html
Excerpts from actual correspondence:
Message from a client:
[ Subject: new info
[ From: W.
[ To: Dr. Jai Maharaj
[ Cc: L.
[ Date: Tuesday, July 21, 1998 1:28 p.m.
[
[ Dear Jai,
[
[ I wanted to let you know that I
[ have made a few appointments here.
[
[ july 23 signing . . .
[ [...]
[ thanx, peace,
[ W.
The astrologer recommends about 3 hours later:
[ Subject: Re: new info
[ From: Dr. Jai Maharaj
[ To: W.
[ Date: Tuesday, July 21, 1998 4:11 p.m.
[
[ Namaste!
[ Dear W.:
[
[ 1. My recommendation is that the July 23
[ task be moved to the forenoon of July 24,
[ if possible.
[ [...]
[
[ Jai Maharaj
[ Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
[ http://www.flex.com/~jai
[ j...@mantra.com
[ Om Shanti
The client writes back on the recommended day:
[ Subject: Re event update
[ From: W.
[ To: Dr. Jai Maharaj
[ Cc: L.
[ Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1998 14:00:49 -0400
[
[ Dear Jai,
[ update on events......
[ went to . . . on the 23rd as scheduled (couldn't change)
[ but BEHOLD!! none were available, they called me at
[ 12:43 pm to tell me one is available the 24th!!
[ signing contract for a year . . .
[ [...]
[ W.
I publish actual examples of success with the science
of Jyotish, Vedic astrology periodically to sing the
praise of Paramatma (Divine Supreme Soul) and our
sage-scientists who passed down the knowledge to us
through our previous generations. Readers are invited
to read about more such examples and other information
by visiting the web site mentioned below:
Jai Maharaj
Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
About 25,000 links to posts by yours truly:
http://www.flex.com/~jai
Om Shanti
http://www.flex.com/~jai/registry/predictionuse.html
PREDICTIONS BY ASTROLOGERS -
REGISTRY INAUGURATED
From: j...@mantra.com (Dr. Jai Maharaj)
Newsgroups: alt.astrology,alt.jyotish,alt.astrology.asian,
soc.culture.indian,alt.religion.hindu,alt.fan.jai-maharaj
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 1997 21:08:46 UTC
Readers always send e-mail after they see a post by me about this or
that prediction coming true. Many ask for more information, some ask
about the services I provide as a consultant, critics send threats and
vulgarities, and a few offer congratulations.
That is not fair. Only the errors are of my own making.
Jyotish, known in the West also as Vedic, Hindu, Indian or Eastern
astrology, is a science that was developed by our sage-scientists for
thousands of years. If you wish, please see "A Brief History of
Astrology" at http://www.flex.com/~jai/articles/history1.html
Most of the work, perhaps all of it, has already been done. We in the
modern times sift through the huge pile of coal accumulated over
generations to find the jewels of wisdom that will help us through.
In order to focus attention more on the science and less on any one
astrologer, I will begin posting predictions published by other
astrologers. Here is one from Chakrapani Ullal:
[About a comet hitting Jupiter] "It is looked at as an omen affecting
mostly heads of state, also religion and holy people, but not really
holy people. It will have similar effects as Rahu conjunct Jupiter,
which happened last in 1987-88, when all the spiritual people,
priests, gurus got into trouble. It may also take the form of more
health problems requiring surgery. The results will not be strongly
seen until six months later, in 1995." - Hinduism Today, June 1994.
A collection of published predictions is also being offered in the
PREDICTION REGISTRY (tm) -- soon available at the web sites mentioned
below.
Also available is a mailing list about Holistic Jyotish. If interested
in joining, please write to me about more information.
Jai Maharaj
Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
http://www.flex.com/~jai
http://members.aol.com/Jyotishi
Om Shanti
The expressions "Prediction Registry" and "Holistic Jyotish", and
their variations, are trademarks of Mantra Corporation.
Copyright (C) 1997 Mantra Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.flex.com/~jai/registry/predictionreg.html
Sid Harth
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Dr+Jai+Maharaj&FORM=IGRE#
WHY DOES HATE-SPEWING BIGOT "Dr" JAI MAHARAJ HAVE HIS OWN FAQ?
Anonymous Wrote:
FAQs about "Dr." Jai Maharaj, aka Jay Stevens:
Usenet's Racist Vegetarian Hate Criminal
http://www.geocities.com/drjosemariachi/jay_faq.html
On Sat, 13 Dec 2008 16:38:48 -0800 (PST), fanabba <...@aol.com
Sine you cannot refute his arguments, you are making personal attacks
on Dr. Jai Maharaj.
Anonymous Wrote:
fanabba ("Dr" Jai Maharaj sock puppet) squealed:.
What arguments?
Can you dispute the fact that he (you) is a hate-spewing bigot?
Your (his) bigotry is self evident.
On Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:25:20 -0500, Patriot Games <...@America.Com
On Sun, 14 Dec 2008 18:58:29 -0600, Peter Perfect
<...@gSNIPTHISPARTmail.com
Yep, that would be YOU.
And:
"Peter Principle" <...@CUTITOUTgmail.comhttp://groups.google.com/group/
alt.politics/msg/c2c1c07 657947d08?hl=en&dmode=source
Yep, definitely a FRAUD.
Anonymous Wrote:
In article <...@4ax.com pete...@gmail.com posted:
You or some other posted appears to be claiming that
I have sockpuppets posting here. That is not true
as far as I know. Also, no one can substantiate the
claim that I have sockpuppets posting in the
USENET newsgroups or anywhere else because it is false.
Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/24fq83
http://www.mantra.com/jai
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti
Anonymous Wrote:
"Dr". Jai Maharaj, THE HATE-SPEWING BIGOT squealed:
.
As far as you know?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
How could you possibly not be sure about
whether or not
you are inventing false identies or not
and responding to your own posts?
Wouldn't that be something anyone would be *completely*
certain about?
BRHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Anonymous Wrote:
There are forgers around -- I've exposed many of them.
Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/24fq83
http://www.mantra.com/jai
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti
Discussion Title: WHY DOES HATE-SPEWING BIGOT "Dr" JAI MAHARAJ HAVE
HIS OWN FAQ?
Title Keywords: DOES HATE-SPEWING BIGOT "Dr" MAHARAJ HAVE
FAQ?
Who is Dr. Jai Maharaj? And why is he here?
Author Name Remember Me?
Who is Dr. Jai Maharaj? And why is he here?
#1 November 29th 04, 07:37 AM
tony roberts
external usenet poster Posts: n/a
Who is Dr. Jai Maharaj? And why is he here?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How did you people find your way into rec.aviation.piloting?
We ALL rush to misc.writing screenplays and alt callahans anyway to
hang
on your every word,
So to read them again here is just sensory overload.
We therefore request that you to drop the crosspost to us - thereby
leaving us free to look forward to, and savour each and every word of
every post to misc.writing.screenplays.
Thank you so much - we appreciate it.
Tony
--
Tony Roberts
PP-ASEL
VFR OTT
Night
Cessna 172H C-GICE
Anyone know why Dr. Maharaj posts more than anyone else on this and
most of
the other boards?
tony roberts
Ads
#2 November 29th 04, 04:04 PM
Ken Brod
external usenet poster Posts: n/a
From: "Peter Duniho"
Newsgroups:
misc.writing.screenplays,alt.callahans,alt.tv.rea l-
world,alt.tv.sopranos,alt.writing,misc.writing.sc
reenplays,rec.arts.movies.current-films
Subject: Who is Dr. Jai Maharaj? And why is he here?
Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 20:32:50 -0800
Please don't cross-post so liberally. This thread has nothing to do
with
rec.aviation.piloting. If the person in question does post "more than
anyone else on this [sic] and most of the other boards [sic]", it's
only
because he or someone else put so many damn newsgroups on the
"Newsgroups:"
field.
Nor is it okay for you to cross-post so liberally. Please don't cross-
post
in response to an improper cross-post.
k.
Ken Brod
#3 November 29th 04, 04:11 PM
G.R. Patterson III
external usenet poster Posts: n/a
Ken Brod wrote:
Nor is it okay for you to cross-post so liberally. Please don't cross-
post
in response to an improper cross-post.
The only way to reach the original poster and his ilk is to cross-post
exactly
like the original poster did.
George Patterson
My mother is 82 and she still doesn't need glasses.
Drinks right out of the bottle.
G.R. Patterson III
#4 November 29th 04, 04:28 PM
Ken Brod
external usenet poster Posts: n/a
"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message
Ken Brod wrote:
Nor is it okay for you to cross-post so liberally. Please don't
cross-post
in response to an improper cross-post.
The only way to reach the original poster and his ilk is to cross-post
exactly
like the original poster did.
George Patterson
My mother is 82 and she still doesn't need glasses.
Drinks right out of the bottle.
No, that's not true. Another way is post a single message in each
group.
Yes, it's a pain in the ass, but two wrongs don't make a right. My
post is a
good case in point: your response went to exactly one group--this one.
And the person to whom I responded did *not* post exactly like the
cross-posting original poster; he cross-posted to every other group
*but*
this one. He obviously thinks it's okay to clutter up other groups
with his
garbage, but not his own.
k.
Ken Brod
#5 November 29th 04, 04:55 PM
G.R. Patterson III
external usenet poster Posts: n/a
Ken Brod wrote:
And the person to whom I responded did *not* post exactly like the
cross-posting original poster; he cross-posted to every other group
*but*
this one. He obviously thinks it's okay to clutter up other groups
with his
garbage, but not his own.
Peter cross-posted to all the other groups and not to this one because
he
knows that the original poster does not frequent this one and would
not see
the message if it appeared here. Peter, on the other hand, does not
frequent
the others, so he doesn't know where the other poster is. It is also
highly
desireable that other posters in those groups see this complaint.
And there's no difference to a reader whether a message is cross-
posted or
individually posted to several groups. In fact, some browsers will
mark a
message as read in all newgroups once someone reads it in one if it's
cross-posted, so cross-posting is preferable for this type of post.
Peter behaved exactly as he should have.
George Patterson
My mother is 82 and she still doesn't need glasses.
Drinks right out of the bottle.
G.R. Patterson III
#6 November 29th 04, 04:58 PM
Ken Brod
external usenet poster Posts: n/a
"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message
Ken Brod wrote:
And the person to whom I responded did *not* post exactly like the
cross-posting original poster; he cross-posted to every other group
*but*
this one. He obviously thinks it's okay to clutter up other groups
with
his
garbage, but not his own.
Peter cross-posted to all the other groups and not to this one because
he
knows that the original poster does not frequent this one and would
not
see
the message if it appeared here. Peter, on the other hand, does not
frequent
the others, so he doesn't know where the other poster is. It is also
highly
desireable that other posters in those groups see this complaint.
Peter cross-posted having no idea whether his message was relevant to
the
groups to which he posted. That's wrong. In fact, that's the same
criticism
Peter had for the original poster.
The conversation you and I are having right now is of no relevance to
any
other group. That's I am not involving any other group.
And there's no difference to a reader whether a message is cross-
posted or
individually posted to several groups. In fact, some browsers will
mark a
message as read in all newgroups once someone reads it in one if it's
cross-posted, so cross-posting is preferable for this type of post.
There's a big difference: When people reply to a cross-post, they
generally
repeat the sin of the original post. Again, my posts here are a good
case in
point: We are not bothering any other groups with this exchange. Nor
should
we.
Peter behaved exactly as he should have.
Again, no. Cross-posting material not relevant to a group is wrong.
Period.
And that some knuckle-head (the original poster, not Peter) started it
all
does not transform an irrelevant post into a relevant one. I.e., just
because the original idiot encroached on my group does not make it
okay for
Peter to do the same.
k.
Ken Brod
#7 November 29th 04, 05:22 PM
G.R. Patterson III
external usenet poster Posts: n/a
Ken Brod wrote:
Again, no. Cross-posting material not relevant to a group is wrong.
Period.
I would agree with that. Where we disagree is this. I feel that
Peter's post was
relevant to all of the groups to which it was posted. It was a plea to
not
cross-post to this group.
George Patterson
If a man gets into a fight 3,000 miles away from home, he *had* to
have
been looking for it.
G.R. Patterson III
#8 November 30th 04, 03:32 AM
Walter Bushell
external usenet poster Posts: n/a
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In article ,
"N9NWO" wrote:
"Herbert Becker" wrote in message
...
: Anyone know why Dr. Maharaj posts more than anyone else on this and
most
of
: the other boards?
He is an anti gun idiot who got chased off of Talk.Politics.Guns.
The guy is so political that he needs to be examined by the courts for
mental illness.
He is the reason for soc.culture.hawaiian he caused so much (off
topic)
noise on the alt group, so they wouldn't have to listen.
--
Guns don't kill people; automobiles kill people.
http://www.aviationbanter.com/showthread.php?t=19031&mode=linear
Welcome back, Dr. Jai Maharaj Ji !
On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 05:38:15 -0800 (PST), fanabba <...@aol.com
Welcome back, Dr. Jai Maharaj Ji !
We missed you.
On Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:55:12 +1100, "Dr. Sir John Howard, AC, WSCMoF
" <...@kangarooistan.com is Malcum Fabian, a lying, arselifting piece
of abo shit ."
Next time aim better.
--
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ipvdBnU8F8
- KRudd at his finest.
"The Labour Party is corrupt beyond redemption!"
- Labour hasbeen Mark Latham in a moment of honest clarity.
"This is the recession we had to have!"
- Paul Keating explaining why he gave Australia another Labour
recession.
"Silly old bugger!"
- Well known ACTU pisspot and sometime Labour prime minister Bob
Hawke
responding to a pensioner who dared ask for more.
"By 1990, no child will live in poverty"
- Bob Hawke again, desperate to win another election.
"A billion trees ..."
- Borke, pissed as a newt again.
"Well may we say 'God save the Queen' because nothing will save the
governor
general!"
- Egotistical shithead and pompous fuckwit E.G. Whitlam whining about
his
appointee for Governor General John Kerr.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU DUMB CUNT!"
- FlangesBum on learning the truth about Labour's economic
capabilities.
"I don't care what you fuckers think!"
- KRudd the KRude Rat at his finest again.
"We'll just change it all when we get in."
- Garrett the carrott
Anonymous Wrote:
In article <...@1g2000vbm.googlegroups.com fanabba <...@aol.com
Dhanyavaad, fanabba ji!
And dhanyavaad for your service to Hindu dharm.
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 06:11:05 -0800 (PST), uNmaiviLambi <...@yahoo.com
On Dec 16, 8:38 am, fanabba <...@aol.com
Welcome Maharajji!
suswaagatham
Anonymous Wrote:
In article <...@r1g2000vbp.googlegroups.com uNmaiviLambi
<...@yahoo.com
Dhanyavaad uNmaiviLambi ji.
Dhanyavaad for your continued service to Hindu dharm!
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:48:51 -0600, "harmony" <...@hotmail.com
"uNmaiviLambi" <...@r1g2000vbp.googlegroups.com...
On Dec 16, 8:38 am, fanabba <...@aol.com
<<Welcome Maharajji!
suswaagatham
well, i see a lot of good decent folks are signing up.
i am planning to host a party for jai maharaj ji in houston.
security will be tighter than was at the whitehouse to discourage
gatecrashers like beer belly.
Anonymous Wrote:
In article <...@news.suddenlink.net "harmony" <...@hotmail.com
Dhanyavaad. I trust that it won't be too humid in Houston that time
of year. These bullet-proof vests can get quite uncomfortable, you
know. When we met earlier this year a moving-target strategy was
used. You may recall that the seating arrangement had to be changed
at one point. No armor was worn, and you and I were safe, thanks to
the excellent work by the security sleuths.
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
On Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:53:37 -0600, "harmony" <...@hotmail.com
<...@mantra.com and/or http://www.mantra.com/jai (Dr. Jai
Maharaj)message news...@WUyRO...
folks, this is an invitation for signing up for a party.
we need one volunteer who can identify the beer belly 50ft away for
pre-emption.
Anonymous Wrote:
In article <...@news.suddenlink.net "harmony" <...@hotmail.com
Dhanyavaad for the invitation. I'm bringing the guava juice, or
maybe the mango-guava-passion-fruit nectar.
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
On Fri, 18 Dec 2009 06:58:52 +0900, Hunter <...@iinet.net.au
We'll be able to pick you and jai from a mile away.
http://gadgets.kenxu.com/assets/uploads/2008/12/banana-bros-monkey-salt-and-pep
per-set.jpg
On Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:27:05 +0900, Hunter <...@iinet.net.au
HAHAAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA! You think you peices of shit are remotely
significant in the scheme of things??? Don't worry, I don't think
anyone
would waste the cents it would cost for the bullets to put you dogs
down, I'm sure everyone is happy to let the rabies run its' course!
Hahaha stupid fucktards. What happened, did India open it's asylum
doors
and point all of their residents to the West?
On Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:48:42 -0500, "P. Rajah" <...@newsguy.com
You will note that Jay is apparently having a "conversation" with
"harmony" aka pradipshithead parekh, about what supposedly occurred
during their alleged meeting. Obviously, there is not a shred of
validity to Jay's remarks, for two reasons. One, they would have
already
discussed any "strategy" during the alleged meeting. Second, the
scoundrels and blackguards who form Jay's coterie of VHP terrorists
already converse in password-protected web forums rather than on sci,
and meetings if any are discussed and arranged there. Jay's bombast
here
is merely to stoke his broken ego(and to encourage pradipshithead to
keep sucking his ass) with pretensions of importance.
Discussion Title: Welcome back, Dr. Jai Maharaj Ji !
Title Keywords: Welcome back, Maharaj
Mumbai Attackers were 'Hindus' & 'White Men' (hey isn't 'Dr' Jai
Maharaj a hindu?)
Anonymous Wrote:
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com/
Anonymous Wrote:
Jay Stevens, aka ""Dr." Jai Maharaj", is a white guy who has delusions
of being an Indian Swami.
BTW, does anybody know where he was when all this crap was happening?
"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."
Albert Einstein
On Sat, 29 Nov 2008 22:32:22 -0500, "leo...@primus.ca" <...@primus.ca
On 11/29/08 9:49 PM, in article
d31c...@k12g2000yqk.googlegroups.com,
"mob...@yahoo.com" <...@yahoo.com
Not true!!!
Anonymous Wrote:
moby...@yahoo.com is a Muslim troll. The troll (Faris Jawad)
emigrated from southern India to Canada, where he makes a living as a
computer programmer. One of his IP addresses points to the
intersection of Victoria Ave. and Pinnacle St. in Belleville, Canada,
about 200 km east of Toronto. His account has been banned because he
violated the Google Groups Terms Of Use. The troll uses many
sockpuppet names including: Brain-dead Republicunts, The Pretzel,
Islam, Ramabriga, ourf...@lycos.com, Cosmic programmer,
visu...@yahoo.com, LeBlanc, Islamaphobia, Yaako Warrior,
glob...@yahoo.ca, whil...@live.ca, Matt, Anti-Muslim
Bigots, V-for-Vendicar, fruitella, Zionism equal Racism, The Chemical
Oil Nazi, LORD RAMA RANTER, Muslim With Mission, Wayne, Ian Balchin,
Qahir Al-Ashrar, Venkataraman the Biiiig Hindu, Liu Yan, ISLAMOPHOBIA,
Möbius Pretzel, Buddy III, Mujahid, V i v a P a l e s t i n e!,
Burhan, Farid Ahmed, Kope, Death to Israel..Israel has no Right to
Exist, Franko Pizza, rick murphy, rich murphy, ISLAM - THE SOLUTION OF
MODERN PROBLEMS, Faris Jawad, Sabastawi, The Founding Church, Ilan
Ramon: Kike Lost in Space. Proudly serving Islam and al Quds, Katrina,
Ahura Mazda, TROLLS HUNTER, Kayid Al-Kuffar, Firnando, R Geovani,
Blondes Gaulloises, Zimbawi, Muslims Always Victorious, Islam Will
Replace Collapsing Amerikan Empire, Muslims Are Good Folks, Katucha,
katucha is the zionists worst nightmare, We are Muslims, and we are
extremely proud of it, Born To Serve Islam, All praise is due to Allah
Lord of the Worlds, the Owner of all of the creation, Ardalan
Keykavoussi, Tommy Davis, LORD RAMA. (The 19 terrorists who attacked
our nation on September 11, 2001 used a total of 364 aliases.)
Islam is a supremacist political ideology. The Arabs, especially the
Quraish tribe, are, according to Islam, the master race of the
universe. Other Muslims are their helpers, and the rest of us are
called kuffars. According to the sharia law, Arab women cannot marry
non-Arab men because Allah has chosen the Arabs above others. The word
kuffar is as pejorative as the word nigger; it means a non-Muslim
beast in a human form. Muslims who treat the kuffars as human beings
are apostates, so they must be killed, preferably by their own
families. (According to the hadith, a special reward in paradise is
reserved for the killers of apostates.)
Muslims broke world records of genocide (270 million victims),
slavery, religiously sanctioned rape, abuse of human rights, and
prohibition of scientific inquiry. Two years after Adolf Hitler became
the Chancellor, the Haavara Agreement permitted emigration of German
Jews to Palestine. Haj Amin El-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem,
persuaded Adolf Eichmann and Adolf Hitler that Jews should be killed
before they flee Germany.
Islam forbids Muslim emigration to the lands of the infidels because a
Muslim minority cannot enslave the infidel majority. Despite this
prohibition Muslims emigrate to the West, not as migrants, but as
conquerors. They live in sharia mini-states and expand these mini-
states by terrorizing infidel neighbors and driving them out. Any
society not willing to subjugate itself to Islamic authority is,
according to Islam, in a state of war, or Dar al-Harb, with Islam.
Arabic proverb says "first comes Saturday, then Sunday." It means that
Arabs are going to exterminate Jews before they exterminate
Christians. It also means that Israel is the first line of defense
against Islam. Another Arabic proverb (al-fikr kuffar) says that the
very act of thinking (fikr) makes one an infidel (kuffar).
Islam, like cancer, has the sole purpose of making more of itself. It
will kill our civilization unless it is cut, poisoned, and radiated
into remission.
The essence of Islam is intense hatred of the kuffars for the sake of
Allah. Every Muslim indoctrinates his children with this hatred. If
you remove hatred from Islam there is nothing left.
_____________________
“Unbelievers are the vilest of created beings.” - Koran (98:6)
“I have been made victorious with terror.” - Muhammad (according to
Bukhari: 4.52.220)
"Human blood is the life-line of Islam, violence its hallmark, and
hate its foundation. In the beginning, Islam lives on the blood of
infidels. When that is unavailable, or becomes difficult, Islam must
cannibalize itself." - Abul Kasem
In a poll taken for the Davos World Economic Forum, stunning numbers
of Europeans fear a "threat" from Muslims with whom they "interact":
79 percent of Danes, 67 percent of Italians, 68 percent of Spaniards,
65 percent of Swedes and 59 percent of Belgians. source:
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0408/blankley042308.php3?printer_friendly
Islam is already the fastest-growing religion in Europe. Driven by
immigration and high birthrates, the number of Muslims on the
continent has tripled in the last 30 years. Most demographers forecast
a similar or even higher rate of growth in the coming decades. source:
http://pewforum.org/docs/index.php?DocID=60
Europe’s Muslim population is set to increase from around 13% today to
between 22% and 37% of the population by 2025. source:
http://news.scotsman.com/europeanunion/CIA-gives-grim-warning-on.2595505.jp
The average European couple now has fewer than 1.4 babies, compared to
3.6 babies born to the average Muslim immigrant couple in Europe.
Across Western Europe 16 to 20 percent of babies are being born into
Muslim families… By 2025, one-third of all European children will be
born to Muslims… In Italy, 95% of all rapists are Muslims. Eighty-five
percent of all murderers are Muslims… France will have a Muslim
majority in less than 25 years! Another telling statistic is that
although the Muslims are 12% of France's population, 70 percent of a
total of 60,775 prisoners in France are Muslims! All of France's urban
suburbs are being roamed by Muslim black African or Arabic gangs… A
very high proportion of French Muslims are in the underclass, that
segment of the population that relies not so much on education and
work as on welfare and predatory activities. In fact, over one
thousand Muslim neighborhoods are under monitoring throughout France.
Seven hundred of those Muslim neighborhoods are listed as "violent"
and nearly 400 hundred are listed as "very violent." Violence ranges
from rape (95% of rapists are Muslim), murder (85% of murderers are
Muslim), theft and looting of cars (58% committed by Muslims) and
street fighting to assault on teachers and civil servants… source:
http://www.masada2000.org/islam.html
Muslim per-capita arrest rate on terrorism-related charges in the
United States is 2.5 times higher than in Europe… If the United
States, despite the much better socio-economic standing of its
Muslims, suffers from 2.5 times more terrorism per capita than does
Europe, socio-economic improvements are unlikely to solve Europe's
problems.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=932DF90B-4644-49A7-A754-C26
3BF74DE9B
"Like children playing with dynamite, Western intellectuals,
journalists, and diplomats fantasize that they are achieving results
in the Middle East with their words, promises, apologies, money, and
concessions. Yet how can such innocents cope… with polities and
societies whose basic ruling ethos is that of the serial killer?… Can
anyone really expect a stable society capable of progress in Pakistan
when a large majority of the population expresses admiration for Usama
bin Ladin? And what about the Saudi system where, as one local writer
put it, the big Usama put into practice what the little Usama learned
in a Saudi school?… The radical forces in the region are not expecting
to retain or gain power by negotiating, compromising, or being better
understood. They believe they are going to shoot their way into power
or, just as good, accept the surrender of those they have intimidated.
That is why so much of the Western analysis and strategies for dealing
with the region are a bad joke." - Barry Rubin, source:
http://globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=3952&cid=6&sid=20
"Europe is being targeted for deliberate colonization by Muslim
states, and with coordinated efforts aimed at our Islamization and the
elimination of our freedoms. We are being subject to a foreign
invasion, and aiding and abetting a foreign invasion in any way
constitutes treason. If non-Europeans have the right to resist
colonization and desire self-determination then Europeans have that
right, too. And we intend to exercise it." - "Fjordman" source:
http://www.islam-watch.org/Fjordman/European-Declaration-Independence.htm
"We must not recognize any government authority, or any authority at
all besides Allah… We are not Americans. We are Muslims… We will burn
down the master's house. We reject the U.N., reject America, reject
all law and order. Don't lobby Congress or protest because we don't
recognize Congress. The only relationship you should have with America
is to topple it… The so-called terrorists are the only people who
truly fear Allah… We must join with these organizations. They are the
only worthy causes, and the mighty superpower only fears them…
Eventually there will be a Muslim in the White House dictating the
laws of Shariah." - Muhammad Faheed (Muslim Student Association
speaker, USA) source:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31571
It is Islamic violence which threatens Holland and all of Europe.
Exactly as in the 1930s, it is the weakness of European leaders which
allows the threat to grow. Just as the League of Nations refused to
stand up to fascism in pre-WW2 Europe, the United Nations grovels
before Islam today. source: http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/2414
"There does not exist an identifiable body of Muslims, substantive in
number or an outright majority, who could be described as "moderate"
by their repudiation of Muslim extremists. Violence has been an
integral part of Muslim history, irrespective of whether it is
sanctioned by Islam, and Muslims who unhesitatingly use violence to
advance their political ambitions have created a climate within their
faith culture that any Muslim who questions such practice is then
deemed apostate and subject to harm. Consequently, what might pass for
"moderate" Muslims, the large number of Muslims unaccounted for as to
what they think, in practical terms constitute a forest within which
extremists are incubated, nurtured, given ideological and material
support, and to which they return for sanctuary." - Salim Mansur
"A Muslim apostate once suggested to me a litmus test for Westerners
who believe that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance: try
making that point on a street corner in Ramallah, or Riyadh, or
Islamabad, or anywhere in the Muslim world. He assured me you wouldn't
live five minutes." source:
http://citizenwarrior2.blogspot.com/2007/10/taqiyya-religious-deception.html
“Muslims who share the same goals as Osama bin Laden but are pursuing
them through non-violent means are celebrated by gullible Westerners
as moderates.” - Robert Spencer
65% Muslims favor Caliphate, 71% Muslims favor “strict application of
Shari’a law in every Islamic country.” source:
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/pdf/apr07/START_Apr07_rpt.pdf
(Only the Caliph can wage offensive jihad and offensive jihad is his
main duty.)
"To say that moderate Islam is the solution to radical Islam implies
several things: that moderate Islam exists; that it represents the
true (though perhaps currently disregarded) norm of Islam; and that
radical Islam is a departure from that norm." - Lawrence Auster
At what point is it okay to fight dictators like Saddam or the al
Qaeda terrorists who want to take his place? It turns out that the
answer, according to Gandhi, is NEVER. During World War II, Gandhi
penned an open letter to the British people, urging them to surrender
to the Nazis. Later, when the extent of the holocaust was known, he
criticized Jews who had tried to escape or fight for their lives as
they did in Warsaw and Treblinka. “The Jews should have offered
themselves to the butcher’s knife,” he said. “They should have thrown
themselves into the sea from cliffs.” “Collective suicide,” he told
his biographer, “would have been heroism.” source:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTM1NTg1YjFhMGE5MzZjZDUzNzNhNzdkMjE2YmEyNT
Y
What Islam is not: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8789NMWZ9EI
Tears of Jihad: http://www.politicalislam.com/tears/pages/tears-of-jihad
Muslim persecution of Christians: http://tinyurl.com/5rro8p
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/07/islams_global_war_against_chri.html
American Muslim leader Khalid Abdul Muhammad speaks about whites (2
min. video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJh_mNXPw-E
Hate preaching in Western mosques (2 min. video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1tWTtveFL8
Muslims in America (3 min. video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLK1Xpc7SMQ
Islam's war on freedom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIq7tsVvEoY
Islam is conquering England: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8aQtoE4nZM
Young Talib beheads Ghulam Nabi: http://tinyurl.com/2rb2e3
Shariah finance = jihad with money:
http://www.actforamerica.org/index.php/home/18-headline-item/518-shariah-compli
ant-finance-jihad-with-money
The Third Jihad (32 min. video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a11RyysChYc
History of Jihad: http://www.wikiislam.com/wiki/History_of_Jihad
Islam = illiteracy, poverty and backwardness:
http://www.islam-watch.org/SujitDas/Holy-Islam-Illiteracy-Poverty-Backwardness.
htm
Obsession - Radical Islam's War Against the West: http://europenews.dk/en/node/5811
Brigitte Gabriel explains Islamic terror (40 min. video):
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=9D6A6635769F608D
Latest offerings from the religion of peace: http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
Brigitte Gabriel founded ACT, the most effective anti-Islamist
organization in the U.S.: http://www.actforamerica.org/
ACT also has international chapters:
http://www.actforamerica.org/index.php/local-chapters/international-chapters
Anonymous Wrote:
The bushfilth gets off on torture and murder,
even that of children and babies.
Discussion Title: Mumbai Attackers were 'Hindus' & 'White Men' (hey
isn't 'Dr' Jai Maharaj a hindu?)
Title Keywords: Mumbai Attackers were 'Hindus' 'White Men' (hey
isn't 'Dr' Maharaj hindu?)
Thank you, Dr. Jai Maharaj
On Sun, 15 Mar 2009 06:38:51 -0700 (PDT), fanabba <...@aol.com
Thank you, Dr. Jai Maharaj, for your timely and important postings in
this newsgroup.
Anonymous Wrote:
In article <...@j35g2000yqh.googlegroups.com fanabba <...@aol.com
You are quite welcome.
Jai Maharaj
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti
On Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:12:33 -0500, "harmony" <...@hotmail.com
"fanabba" <...@j35g2000yqh.googlegroups.com...
jai maharaj ji: the one and only, the vip of newsnet.
i say it with all sincerity.
Anonymous Wrote:
On Mar 18, 1:12 am, "harmony" <...@hotmail.com
The good doctor is the longest serving sci member. He's outlasted all
his detractors.
Three cheers for him.
On Wed, 18 Mar 2009 04:17:28 GMT, NYST <...@you.know
Unlike his "detractors", Jay Stevens is on the payroll of the saffron
klan. His website underwent a major redesign in 1998 when the BJP
formed
the government in New Delhi. People who have regular jobs are
absolutely
unable to flood Usenet with the consistency and volume that Jay puts
out. As a matter of fact, Verizon considers him a major spammer, and
filters him out of their newsfeeds. A good thing too. Tens of millions
of Americans don't have his sh*t inflicted on them.
Sid Harth
"Dr." Jai Maharaj is actually Jay/Johnny Stevens from Hawaii. He has
no
higher education qualifications and is not a doctor of anything. This
claim to being a doctor is just one of his many lies that he uses to
try
and prey on people who are in pain in order to get at what little
money
they have. He is a spammer of long standing on usenet (newsgroups). He
is also an anti-Christian and anti-Muslim religious bigot.
The liquidateous History of Christianity
"Dr. Jai Maharaj" Information
This person's game is to use outdated articles to attract people to
his website, where he sells psychic services. What's most amusing is
that many of the groups to which his messages are crossposted do not
exist. He plagues many USENET groups. His standard method of
responding to an attack on his credibility is to repost the original
article or to post the sender's personal contact information and
threaten to report the sender to his-her ISP for spamming or making
threats (the very definition of irony).
Some info re: Jai Maharaj:
Chinas Coming Collapse A Danger To Us All
On Mon, 26 Jun 2006 21:02:18 GMT, Otis Willie PPP: China has gone
through many unthinkable hardships to come...
mantra.com Mantra Corporation P. O. Box 1919 Honolulu HI, 96792-68
plus 119 US IP Address 206.126.0.13 flex.com Business Enbreasty Name:
MANTRA CORPORATION Record Type: Master Name for a Domestic Profit
Corporation File Number: 82087 D1 Status: Active Purpose: BUSINESS
CONSULTING, MARKETING,ADVERTISING AND RELATED SERVICES Place
Incorporated: Hawaii 1919 WAIANAE Hawaii 96792-68 plus 119 United
States of America Officer Information STEVENS,JAY R (possibly "Jai
Maharaj") MILLER,JOAN E (possibly "Harmony") 11-30-1990 Articles of
Incorporation
Flex.com 206.126.0.0 - 206.126.15.255 P.O.Box 22481 Honolulu, HI
96823-2481 US
IP Address 206.126.0.13
EMAIL PROTECTED Flexnet, Inc. Flex Information Network 808.732.8849
HAWAII Email: PROTECT ED 's First Public Access Internet Provider IP
Address: 199.201.240.1
hindu.org Himalayan Academy *107 Kaholalele Road* Kapaa, HI 11111 US
IP Address 64.75.159.118
Quite a few domains not worth mentioning here...
His "real" name is supposed to be Jay Stevens.
A member of the "flame Jay Stevens" group is "Jose Mariachi", )another
self-proclaimed "doctor"?)..."Mariachi" web site could be another
bogus cash grab remarkably similar to Stevens' site, mantra.com.
Here's a Jai FAQ long
http://www.jucee.org/China/The-liquidateous-History-of-Christianity.html
Sid Harth
TOPIC: broken heart quotes sayings Jai Maharaj posts
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#2367
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broken heart quotes sayings Jai Maharaj posts
My country demands answers, Antonia Maino
Forwarded message
My country demands answers, Antonia Maino.
http://tinyurl.com/ny8u5 Or, http://vivekajyoti.blogspot.com/2005/08/my-country-demands-answers-an...
End of forwarded message Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi Om Shanti
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broken heart quotes sayings Jai Maharaj posts
When I feel ashamed to be a Muslim!
By Firoz Bakht Ahmed
IANS
Thursday, August 17, 2006 at 12:35 IST
As a Muslim, my head goes down in shame each time I find a Muslim name
attached to insane acts of terror. I feel let down by such Muslims. It
agonises me when I hear that Muslim tenants are refused accommodation
in many cities. Recently, in London, a Muslim of Indian origin was
arrested for suspected _link_s to the terror plot aimed at blowing up
planes flying from Britain to the US. Sane Muslim voices aren't loudly
heard. Even British Muslims condemning the July 7 London bombings
added a but (root cause) to their denunciation. Killings of innocents
cannot be justified for any reason. Many Muslims are guilty of not
speaking out against what happened in Darfur while many are guilty of
being sympathetic to Saddam Hussein who was responsible for the deaths
of thousands. Many Muslims are guilty of not speaking out against the
unjust acts of fellow Muslims against non-Muslims. O terrorists!
Whatever you do, however many of us you kill will not stop life where
freedom is strong and people can live in harmony. Whatever you do,
however many you kill, you will fail. Extremist attacks anywhere are
acts depravity and wickedness - planned to take innocent lives. It is
not the weapon of the weak against the strong but one of the angry
against the defenceless and innocent. The terror attacks on the
makeshift Ram temple at Ayodhya was aimed at derailing the India-
Pakistan peace process besides damaging the country's secular fabric.
Muslims must openly condemn terror attacks so that they do not get
clubbed with the terrorists on account of their silence. Note that
'jehad' is the most misunderstood and misconstrued concept by non-
Muslims, and even Muslims. The true concept of jehad is not to be
against other communities, groups or religions but against one's
selfish nature, vices and shortcomings. First an individual wages
jehad against himself to get cleansed. He then continues the efforts
with his wife, family, locality and the entire community. This is
Jehad-e-Akbar, the right meaning of jehad. Muslims must come out
openly on the streets against terror outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Al
Qaeda, Harkat-ul- Ansar, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Sipah-
e- Sahaba and such others. Today Islam is under scanner because many
people have come to believe that the religion advocates violence. Not
all of them can be wrong as people judge by what they see. Today
terrorists speak and act violently in the name of Islam. The
terrorists who struck on Mumbai's trains in July sought to drive a
wedge between Hindus and Muslims. Militants have no religion except
death and destruction of the innocent. At the same time, the
government must find out if these tragedies take place because of
security lapses or whether the fight against terrorism has slackened.
It is perplexing how terrorists repeatedly gain entry into sensitive
areas despite heavy security. Indian Hindus and Muslims are to be
congratulated for acting with restraint following the Mumbai disaster.
Given the fluid communal situation in India, the saner elements in the
communities should take adequate steps to thwart attempts by
communalists to play up such incidents. (Firoz Bakht Ahmed, writer of
this article, is a commentator on social, educational and political
issues. He can be reached at firozba...@rediffmail.comThis e-mail
address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled
to view it ) More at:
http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IEH20060817021347&_title_=T...
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi Om Shanti
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the
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use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107
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#2369
Dr. Jai Maharaj (Visitor)
broken heart quotes sayings Jai Maharaj posts
Pakistan let al-Qaida front fund UK plot
GLOBAL INSECURITY Pakistan let al-Qaida front fund UK plot Terror war
'ally' didn't outlaw 'charitable' group even after U.S. blacklisted it
WorldNetDaily.com Wednesday, August 16, 2006 WorldNetDaily has learned
that ally Pakistan failed to outlaw an al-Qaida charitable front after
it was tied to last year's London bombings, and the inaction allowed
the charity to finance the new London-_base_d plot to bomb U.S.-bound
jetliners. On April 28, the U.S. Department of State added Pakistan-
_base_d Jamaat-Ud-Dawa to its blacklist of Specially Designated Global
Terrorist Organizations. But the Pakistani government did not follow
suit. Islamabad neglected to blacklist Jamaat-Ud-Dawa (JUD) or freeze
its assets, allowing the al-Qaida front to continue to operate legally
inside Pakistan's borders. Authorities have traced money for the
British sky terror operation back to the JUD charity. Funds were
funneled through three separate bank accounts in Pakistan. The money
was to be used by the Pakistani-British suicide bombers to buy plane
tickets for dry runs and the final targeted flights. JUD is _base_d in
Lahore, where at least one of last year's London bombers received aid,
and maintains branches in Karachi and Peshawar. Ringleader Mohammed
Sidique Khan visited a madrassa (Islamic school) run by JUD in Lahore
just before the July 2005 attacks. Sources say Scotland Yard is
furious that terror-war partner Islamabad failed to dismantle the
Pakistan-_base_d terror infrastructure that supported the London
bombings. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf vowed to crack down on
militant groups in Lahore and Karachi in the wake of last year's
attacks. U.S. authorities, meanwhile, are pressing Musharraf to close
at least four known al-Qaida training camps operating inside Pakistan.
Experts say Al-Qaida's inner circle has found sanctuary in Pakistan.
Osama bin Laden is hiding in Pakistan in the northern tribal areas
above Peshawar, says recently retired CIA officer Gary Schoen. - - -
Related offers: Everlasting Hatred: The Roots of Jihad
http://shop.wnd.com/store/item.asp?ITEM_ID=897 The Politically
Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)
http://wndbookservice.com/products/BookPage.asp?prod_cd=c6805 Previous
stories: U.S. braces for waves of sky terror suspects
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51539 Dolls,
coats next carry-on items banned?
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51521
Experts: London plot not Osama's encore
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51535
DHS scrapped flight-list plan as transatlantic threat grew
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?
ARTICLE_ID=51510 UK plot resembles 1995 al-Qaida plan
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?
ARTICLE_ID=51475 More at: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51567
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi Om Shanti
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the
educational purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of
this post may not have been authored by, and do not necessarily
represent the opinion of the poster. The contents are protected by
copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted
works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name,
current e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone
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o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others
are not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read
the article. FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted
material the use of which may or may not have been specifically
authorized by the copyright owner. This material is being made
available in efforts to advance the understanding of environmental,
political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific, social, and
cultural, etc., issues. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair
use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107
of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with _title_ 17 U.S.C. Section
107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those
who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes
by subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more
information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml If
you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from
the copyright owner. Since newsgroup posts are being removed by
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London Muslims call for armies of Islam to be unleashed
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1686785/posts Facts about
terrorist Islam and Muslims http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi Om Shanti
#2371
Dr. Jai Maharaj (Visitor)
broken heart quotes sayings Jai Maharaj posts
Jonah Goldberg: Islamic radicals, Nazism _link_ed
Facts about terrorist Islam and Muslims:
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
Jonah Goldberg: Islamic radicals, Nazism _link_ed
By Jonah Goldberg The Union Leader Manchester, N.H.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
The Jews everywhere are the Muslims' bitter enemies, said a prominent
Islamic leader. Throughout history, the irreconcilable enemy of Islam
has conspired and schemed and oppressed and persecuted 40 million
Muslims, he said. In Palestine, the Jews are establishing a _base_
from which to extend their power over neighboring Islamic countries.
And, he proclaimed, this war, which was unleashed by the world Jewry,
provided Muslims the best opportunity to free themselves from these
instances of persecution and oppression. Sound like Hezbollah leader
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah? Or perhaps Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad? Nope. It was the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-
Husseini, in 1942. An ardent Nazi supporter, al-Husseini delivered his
speech at the opening of the Islamic Institute in Berlin, one day
after the Allies denounced the Nazis, for carrying into effect Hitlers
oft-repeated intention to exterminate the Jewish people in Europe. Al-
Husseini's address was approved by Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von
Ribbentrop, and Joseph Goebbels was in attendance. The Reich press
office widely distributed the comments. President Bush undoubtedly
didn't have any of this in mind last week when he dubbed our enemies
in the War on Terror Islamic fascists. But his comments
#2372
Dr. Jai Maharaj (Visitor)
broken heart quotes sayings Jai Maharaj posts
Tirupati Declaration:
Hindus of the world unite
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
With Hinduism under siege from various quarters, it was time for a
show of unity and purpose. And that is what was witnessed at the
historic meeting of Tirumala Tirupati Samrakshana Samiti (TTSS) at
Tirupati Saturday last. The meeting's purpose was simple and
straightforward ? to show in no uncertain terms the protest against
the rampant and brazen evangelical activities in Tirupati and Tirmula
by Christian missionaries. Led by the two most respectable and revered
sawmijis in our midst today, Swami Dayanand Saraswati and Vishveshwara
Theertha Swami of Pejawar Mutt, the meeting, made a clarion call
against the sinister attempts at proselytization by the missionaries
and adopted the historical Tirupati Declaration. The following are the
three cardinal Articles of this Historic Declaration: I) We Hindus
assembled here declare that we do not support, directly or indirectly,
any group, institution, religion, media, or political force, which
preaches, practices or works against Hindu dharma in this country. ii)
We appeal to all the Hindus in this country and elsewhere to subscribe
to and support this declaration, the Tirupathi declaration. iii) We
want all the Hindu religious endowments to be managed by Hindu bodies,
and not by the government. We want the secular government to release
all religious endowments from its hold. In addition to the above
declarations, the following resolutions were also adopted unanimously:
a) Immediate action must be taken to bring under TTD control over 250
sq. kilometre area covering various Theerthams closely associated with
the legend of Lord Venkateswara as against the 27.5 sq. kilometres
under Andhra Pradesh Government order (G.O.) No.338. In this context,
they quoted Mackenzie's manu_script_ of the year 1801 as per which the
Seven Hills extended up to the Swarnamukhi River near Sri Kalahasti in
the east, Nagapatala Devarakonda in the west, Yerraguntla Thota in
Rayachoti Taluk in the north and Pillari Kanuma near Narayana Vanam in
the south. Such a law would ward off any threat of non-Hindu
activities on the Seven Hills. b) Only Hindus by law should be made
eligible for appointment in TTD Service. c) Andhra Pradesh Government
should immediately give up its plans to convert Tirumala into a luxury
tourist spot. d) There should be a legal ban on all non-Hindu
activities in TTD. medical and educational institutions. e) TTD funds
should be used only for Hindu spiritual activities. f) The Dharma
Prachara Parishad should be renamed as Hindu Dharma Prachara Parishad.
Speaking on the prohibition of non-Hindu appointments in TTD, the
Swamijis urged that immediate steps should be taken to deport 40
Christian employees and other non- Hindus at Tirumala. The Swamijis
alleged that the TTD's medical and educational institutions have
become centres of proselytisation by non-Hindus. They demanded that
the Devastanam should punish those non-Hindus indulging in such
evangelical activities and identify the TTD and State Government
Officials encouraging them directly or indirectly and to transfer them
from Tirupati forthwith. The TTSS also charged TTD with diverting
devotees' offerings to other activities owing to Government political
pressure. 'These offerings made by Hindu devotees were meant for
running temples, conducting religious festivals and providing pilgrim
amenities and propagating Hindu Dharma. They are not meant for the
evangelization programmes of Andhra Pradesh Government under a
Christian Chief Minister,' they said. The TTSS also expressed its deep
concern over the increase in evangelical activities at Tirumala and
Tirupati and cited the documentary evidence adduced by the Five Member
Fact Finding Committee appointed by the Pontiff of Pejawar with
Justice Bikshapathi, former High Court Judge as its head. The meet
also cited High Court Ruling which said: 'The rights of Tirumala-
Tirupati vest with Lord Venkateswara himself and the Trust Board and
the EO are only trustees of the property. None can take any measures
violating the right. All the Seven Hills fall under Tirumala (W.P. No.
26145 of 1996-97(2) and 59 (D dated 7.9.1996). In conclusion, Pejawar
Swamiji categorically told media persons that the Members of the TTSS
fervently hope that their legitimate demand would be acted upon before
9 August, 2006 and that further action by the TTSS would be decided
after ascertaining the nature, intention and direction of Government
response. A host of other influential Swamijis from different parts of
India including Varada Ramanuja Jeeyar from Uttar Pradesh and Members
of the Tirupati Fact Finding Committee, T S Rao, former Director
General of Police, R. Srihari, former Vice Chancellor of the Dravidian
University, Krishniah, State Backward Classes Welfare Leader and other
prominent persons also attended the meeting. Several thousand Devotees
deeply concerned about the need for protecting the Seven Hills and the
Tirupati Temple joined in in the call. V.Sundaram In News Today More
at: http://www.rss.org/New_RSS/News/NewsDetail.jsp Jai Maharaj,
Jyotishi Om Shanti
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#2373
Dr. Jai Maharaj (Visitor)
broken heart quotes sayings Jai Maharaj posts
Divine will inscrutable
The Hindu A paradox that often confounds the common man is why even
those who are righteous often face sorrows and moral dilemmas testing
their fidelity to Dharm. As all human beings are subject to Karm, they
have to face both joy and sorrow in worldly life and hence adherence
to Dharm is bound to create conflict in the mind in life situations
but it is essential to resolve doubts that arise in day-to-day life.
Yudhishthir's predicament after the Mahabharat war is a pointer that
even the virtuous person finds it difficult to face the vagaries of
life with equanimity. In his discourse, Nochur Shri Venkataraman said
Dharmputra's (Yudhishthir) allegiance to Dharm was so total that even
the Lord came only second in his reckoning. So he blamed himself for
bringing about the fratricidal war, which had resulted in so much loss
of life. It did not occur to him who was a devotee of Krishna that
Dharm was subject to the divine will and that there is no Dharm above
the Lord. He had only a role to play in the divine scheme and thus
there was no need to blame himself for the outcome of the war. Lord
Krishna had gone as the envoy of the Pandavs to Hastinapura to convey
Yudhishthir's wish to find an amicable solution and avert a war. But
that was not to be. Only Vidur and Krishna remained unperturbed during
this calamity because the former was a man of wisdom and the latter
the Almighty, who had manifested in the world to reinstate Dharm. Thus
even a righteous person will face sorrows in life and only a realised
person will remain unaffected by the vicissitudes of life. Dharmputra
expressed his remorse when Lord Krishna came to bid farewell to Kunti
and the Pandavs, and it was then that He directed him to Bheeshm, who
was lying on a bed of arrows, awaiting for the auspicious hour
(Uttarayan) to shed his mortal coil, to learn the nuances of Dharm
from him. The Pandavs and Lord Krishna accompanied him. Bheeshm then
advised Yudhishthir, No man can ever discover the intention of Shri
Krishna; even seers get bewildered in their seeking to find it out.
Therefore, knowing it for certain that all these events depend on the
will of Providence, O chief of Bharatas, follow His will, ruler of
men, and protect the helpless people, as you are their sole monarch.
Then he enlightened Yudhishthir about the intricacies of Dharm. More
at: http://www.hindu.com
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the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use
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#2374
Dr. Jai Maharaj (Visitor)
broken heart quotes sayings Jai Maharaj posts
UNDERSTANDING ENGINEERS
Forwarded message Understanding Engineers -
Take One Two engineering students were walking across a university
campus when one said, Where did you get such a great bike? The second
engineer replied, Well, I was walking along yesterday, minding my own
business, when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike, threw it to the
ground, took off all her clothes and said, Take what you want. The
second engineer nodded approvingly and said, Good choice; the clothes
probably wouldn't have fit you anyway. Understanding Engineers - Take
Two To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the
glass is half empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it
needs to be. Understanding Engineers - Take Three A priest, a doctor,
and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularly slow group
of golfers. The engineer fumed, What's with those blokes? We must have
been waiting for fifteen minutes! The doctor chimed in, I don't know,
but I've never seen such inept golf! The priest said, Here comes the
greens keeper. Let's have a word with him. He said, Hello, George!
what's wrong with that group ahead of us? They're rather slow, aren't
they? The greens keeper replied, Oh, yes. That's a group of blind fire
fighters. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last
year, so we always let them play for free anytime. The group fell
silent for a moment. Then the priest said, That's so sad. I think I
will say a special prayer for them tonight. The doctor said, Good
idea. I'm going to contact my ophthalmologist colleague and see if
there's anything he can do for them. The engineer said, Why can't they
play at night? Understanding Engineers - Take Four What is the
difference between mechanical engineers and civil engineers?
Mechanical engineers build weapons; civil engineers build targets.
Understanding Engineers - Take Five The graduate with a science degree
asks, Why does it work? The graduate with an engineering degree asks,
How does it work? The graduate with an accounting degree asks, How
much will it cost? The graduate with an arts degree asks, Do you want
fries with that? Understanding Engineers - Take Six Three engineering
students were gathered together discussing the possible designers of
the human body. One said, It was a mechanical engineer. Just look at
all the joints. Another said, No, it was an electrical engineer. The
nervous system has many thousands of electrical connections. The last
one said, No, actually it had to have been a civil engineer. Who else
would run a toxic waste pipeline through a recreational area?
Understanding Engineers - Take Seven Normal people believe that if it
ain't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain't broke,
it doesn't have enough features yet. Understanding Engineers - Take
Eight An engineer was crossing a road one day, when a frog called out
to him and said, If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess.
He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket. The frog
spoke up again and said, If you kiss me and turn me back into a
beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week. The engineer
took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to the
pocket. The frog then cried out, If you kiss me and turn me back into
a Princess, I'll stay with you for one week and do ANYTHING you want.
Again, the engineer took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back
into his pocket. Finally, the frog asked, What is the matter? I've
told you I'm a beautiful princess, and that I'll stay with you for one
week and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me? The engineer
said, I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog, now
that's cool. End of forwarded message Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi Om
Shanti
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#2375
Dr. Jai Maharaj (Visitor)
broken heart quotes sayings Jai Maharaj posts
CHRISTIAN PASTOR CONVICTED OF RAPING 3 WOMEN
Pastor guilty of sex assault Hornbuckle drugged, attacked 3 women,
jury finds after 33 hours
By Jeff Mosier
The Dallas Morning News Wednesday,
August 23, 2006 Fort Worth -
Terry Hornbuckle bowed slightly and church members held hands as a
judge announced Tuesday that the Arlington minister was guilty of
sexually assaulting three women. [Caption] Terry Hornbuckle (center)
is facing two to 20 years in prison, but could also be eligible for
probation. The Tarrant County jury's verdict ended more than 33 hours
of deliberations spanning a week. Jurors began hearing testimony
shortly afterward to determine whether Mr. Hornbuckle deserves
probation or two to 20 years in prison for his crimes. The sentences
will run concurrently. Photo by Michael Ainsworth / DMN I think that
the evidence was strong, and the defendant was guilty, prosecutor Sean
Colston said after the verdict was announced. That's what turned the
case. Mr. Colston said that anything less than the maximum sentence
would be inappropriate for Mr. Hornbuckle, founder of Agape Christian
Fellowship church. Two of his victims were church members, and one
testified that she was a virgin when the minister drugged and raped
her shortly after her 21st birthday. Defense attorney Mike Heiskell
said that he never argues with the jury's decision but that he would
try to convince them that probation is a fair sentence. Mr. Hornbuckle
has no prior criminal record. We hope the jury will see the redemptive
side of Terry Hornbuckle, Mr. Heiskell said. The three women all
testified that Mr. Hornbuckle drugged them. Two said they were raped
either while they were blacked out or groggy from a drug. One of the
victims tested positive for benzodiazepine, a class of drug that can
cause drowsiness and amnesia. Defense attorneys argued during the
trial that Mr. Hornbuckle was a playboy outside the pulpit and that
any extramarital sex was consensual. Mr. Hornbuckle's wife, Renee, who
is now senior pastor at Agape, declined through a spokesman to comment
after the verdict. Charles Richardson, chairman of the Agape board of
directors, said church officials would make a statement after the
trial ends. Mrs. Hornbuckle, who sat through the entire trial -
including testimony about her husband's womanizing and drug use - sat
ramrod straight when the verdict was read by state District Judge
Scott Wisch. The handful of church members remaining in the courtroom
held hands, a common practice during Agape services. Mr. Richardson
grasped Mrs. Hornbuckle's shoulder and murmured: I'm sorry. I'm really
sorry. In accordance with Judge Wisch's warnings, there was no crying
or other overt display of emotion in the audience when the verdict was
read. Church members had filled the courtroom at the beginning of the
three-week trial, but the number had dwindled to barely more than a
half-dozen at the end. Leon Haley, one of Mr. Hornbuckle's attorneys,
said this week he was hopeful of a not-guilty verdict. He said that a
lawyer's rule of thumb is that the longer a jury deliberates, the
better the chance that it will find the defendant not guilty. The
prosecutors, defense attorneys and judge said they had never
participated in a case in which a jury deliberated so long. Jurors
began discussing the cases about 4:15 p.m. the previous Tuesday. They
sent 41 notes to the judge asking to look at evidence, requesting
legal definitions and calling for copies of testimony. Judge Wisch
said this week that there was no indication that the jury was
deadlocked despite the large number of notes and long deliberations.
About 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, the jury sent its 42nd note, saying that it
had reached a unanimous verdict. For two weeks, the jury listened to
sordid and sometimes explicit testimony about the three separate rape
cases. The first victim, a longtime Agape member, told jurors that her
mistake was trusting the man who baptized her. The woman said Mr.
Hornbuckle lured her to a Euless apartment, where he fed her drugged
punch after she rejected his repeated requests to get her drink on.
After waking up naked, she tried to get dressed but was held down by
Mr. Hornbuckle and raped, she said. The second victim, who used the
pseudonym Jane Doe on the witness stand, said that Mr. Hornbuckle
began counseling her when her boyfriend left. She said she didn't want
to have sex with the minister but that he exploited her emotional
vulnerability and his position of authority. The third victim, whose
pseudonym was Kate Jones, was not an Agape church member. She said she
met Mr. Hornbuckle at a Bedford health club, where he used a fake name
and claimed to be a counselor for Dallas Cowboys rookies and a former
NFL p_layer_. She testified that she and Mr. Hornbuckle smoked
methamphetamine before he drugged and raped her in her home. The
punishment phase started late Tuesday afternoon with testimony about a
glass pipe, lighter and bag of methamphetamine in Mr. Hornbuckle's
Cadillac Escalade after he was arrested. Mr. Heiskell noted that there
has already been testimony about Mr. Hornbuckle's drug problems, and
he called his client a meth addict. Mr. Hornbuckle's bail was revoked
twice for failing drug tests and once for failing to provide a urine
sample for a drug test. He has been held in the Tarrant County jail
since March without bail. Testimony will continue at 9 a.m. today.
Staff writer Laurie Fox contributed to this report. THE CHARGES A look
at the rape charges against Terry Hornbuckle: o The first accuser, a
member of Mr. Hornbuckle's church, testified that he served her fruit
punch with a drug in it and that she woke up naked. The woman said
that when she tried to get dressed, Mr. Hornbuckle held her down and
raped her. o The second accuser, using the pseudonym Jane Doe, said
her pastor made sexual advances after she went to him for counseling.
She said she eventually had sex with him because it seemed easier. o
The third woman, who testified as Kate Jones, said she met Mr.
Hornbuckle at a fitness club. She said Mr. Hornbuckle drugged and
raped her after they smoked methamphetamine together. TIMELINE 1986 -
Mr. Hornbuckle founds Victory Temple Bible Church in Arlington with 15
members. 1987 - He moves his church to a vacant Dairy Queen. Nov. 26,
1988 - Mr. Hornbuckle and Renee Fowler marry. 1988 - Victory Temple
moves to Fort Worth with 165 members. 1992 - Victory Temple changes
its name to Agape Christian Fellowship. 1995 - Agape moves to an 8,000-
square-foot building. It has 250 members. May 16, 1999 - Agape holds a
grand opening for its 30,000-square-foot church called The Destiny
Center. July 27, 2003-Sept. 1, 2004 - Time period in which Mr.
Hornbuckle's three accusers say he raped them. Dec. 29, 2004 - Mr.
Hornbuckle is accused of tampering with a witness. Dec. 30, 2004 - Mr.
Hornbuckle is accused of retaliation. March 11, 2005 - Mr. Hornbuckle
is indicted on four counts of sexual assault involving three women. He
is arrested and found with methamphetamine. April 15, 2005 - Mr.
Hornbuckle is charged with possession of methamphetamine. April 17,
2005 - Mr. Hornbuckle is reinstated as senior pastor of Agape. He had
been suspended after his arrest.
Also Online Video WFAA-TV's Jim Douglas reports
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/VideoP_layer_/videoP_layer_.php?v...
More at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/tarrant/stories...
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi Om Shanti
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#2376
Dr. Jai Maharaj (Visitor)
broken heart quotes sayings Jai Maharaj posts
NUCLEAR WAR-FEAR Cataclysm fears raised on Islamic 'holy' date Mideast
experts worry Islamic fanatics seeking heaven may spark violence
August 21, 2006
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51627 Facts
about terrorist Islam and Muslims: http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi Om Shanti
.
#2377
Dr. Jai Maharaj (Visitor)
broken heart quotes sayings Jai Maharaj posts
Bharat-US nuke deal: BJP'S STAND VINDICATED
BJP's stand vindicated
By Vivek Gumaste
The Pioneer Tuesday, August 22, 2006
The assertion that the BJP's strident agitation against the proposed
India-US civil nuclear cooperation deal has fallen flat in the face of
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's feisty rejoinder in Parliament is a
simplistic conclusion to a complicated issue. It belies the fact that
Mr Singh's much delayed rebuttal was prompted by the relentless
opposition of the BJP for whom it represents the successful
culmination of a long and conscientious campaign. An analysis of the
sequence of events following the July 18 deal tells the story of a
model Opposition guided by national security and genuinely empathetic
to the concerns of its scientists, rather than one driven by partisan
political interests. The sweeping claim by some that the BJP's
argument was inherently fragile and _base_d on blind opposition to the
UPA Government is fallacious. As recently as three days prior to the
Prime Minister's path-breaking speech in Parliament, eight eminent
scientists, including three former chairmen of the Atomic Energy
Commission (AEC), voiced specific _object_ions to the nuclear
cooperation deal. The fact that this time Mr Manmohan Singh consulted
with AEC chairman Anil Kakodkar, till recently a staunch critic of the
deal, in preparing his response, validates the stance of the
Opposition. Another key factor was former Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee's opposition to the deal. The admission by Mr Manmohan Singh
that goal posts have been changed and the reassurance that subsequent
additions by extraneous sources like the US Congress and NSG will not
be allowed to influence the agreement, vindicates this anxiety and
aborts backdoor methods to muzzle India's strategic intentions.
Executive decisions regarding international treaties have so far
remained beyond the purview of Parliament. The Prime Minister's offer
to have the final treaty ratified by Parliament along the lines of the
US system is a welcome by-product of this imbroglio, reinforcing the
principle of collective responsibility. In contrast to previous
statements, Mr Manmohan Singh's latest speech was a success as it was
a frank, honest and sincere attempt to address the concerns of all
parties involved: A change effected in no small measure by the BJP in
particular and the Communists to a lesser extent. More at:
http://www.dailypioneer.com Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi Om Shanti
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the article. FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted
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#2378
Dr. Jai Maharaj (Visitor)
broken heart quotes sayings Jai Maharaj posts
DUTCH HOLDING MUSLIMS FROM NORTHWEST FLIGHT
Facts about terrorist Islam and Muslims:
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
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DUTCH HOLDING MUSLIMS FROM NORTHWEST FLIGHT
[ Subject: DUTCH HOLDING MUSLIMS FROM NORTHWEST FLIGHT [ From:
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[ Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2006 21:20:57 -0000
'Our relatives are traders not terrorists'
By Syed Firdaus Ashraf in Mumbai
Rediff Thursday, August 24, 2006
Is keeping beard a sin in this world? screams Abdul Kadar Kolsawala,
70, on the top of his voice in his two- room apartment at Memon Colony
in Jogeshwari, a north- western suburb of Mumbai. The terrorists get
away all the time but it is only innocent Muslims who are caught, says
Kadar. It has become difficult to move around with a beard. The police
doubt your credentials all the time. My son is innocent and he has
nothing to do with terrorism, he adds. Kolsawala's son Ayub was
detained by the Dutch police along with eight friends and two cooks at
Schipol airport, Amsterdam, on Wednesday. He was one of the passengers
travelling by a Northwest Airlines flight to Mumbai on Wednesday,
which flew back to Amsterdam after the pilot asked for help. The plane
was escorted back by F-16 fighters. My son had gone with friends in
connection with his garment business in Port of Spain in the West
Indies, said Kolsawala. According to him, Ayub must have been seated
with his group, which probably raised the suspicions of the cabin
crew. Eleven Muslim passengers sitting together must have made the
airline crew uneasy, says Kolsawala. Ayub Kolsawala and with his group
had gone to attend a trade fair and had been in Trinidad for the last
35 days. They go to different trade fairs abroad where they sell
garments from India. They have been doing so for the last 10 years and
have visited many countries. We knew they were on the plane which was
grounded but were shocked to see their names in the detained list on
television, said Shabana Batliwala, wife of Iqbal Batliwala, a friend
of Ayub. My husband goes abroad regularly for business trips and he is
a trader. He has nothing to do with terrorism. I am shocked that he
has been detained, she adds. Out of the 12 passengers, six are from
Memon Colony in Jogeshwari, three from the nearby Behram Baug and
three are from South Mumbai. The entire neighbourhood in this colony
of Muslims in Jogeshwari, is shocked to learn that their neighbours
have been detained. The Memons hail from Gujarat and are Sunni
Muslims. They are mostly involved in trading or business. The family
members are also upset that no one from the Indian consulate in teh
Netherlands or the Mumbai police had bothered to inform them about
their relatives' detention. Farzeen Chotani started crying when she
came to know that her husband Shakeel Usman Chotani had been detained.
My husband travels frequently. He has nothing to do with terrorism. I
just hope he is released soon, said Farzeen. Shakeel last called
Farzeen on Monday when he told her about his travel plans to Mumbai. I
thought he would arrive by Wednesday night. When I came to know that
plane was grounded, I thought he would be a delayed by a day or two.
Now, I am in shock to know that he is being labelled a terrorist, adds
Farzeen. P.S. Those detained were identified as Sohail Abdul Aziz
Nizami, Ayub Qadir, Sajid Qadir, Yusuf Haji Ghaffar Memon, Nur
Mohammed Batliwala, Shakeel Usman Chotani, Ayub Khan, Ehsan Farooqi,
Ghulam Mustafa, Mohammed Yusuf, Mohammed Imran and Mohammed Iqbal
Batliwala.
http://us.rediff.com/news/2006/aug/24plane1.htm
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#2379
Dr. Jai Maharaj (Visitor)
broken heart quotes sayings Jai Maharaj posts
Traveling exhibit seeks to replace misconceptions about Hinduism
By Gloria Labounty Sun Chronicle Staff
The Sun Chronicle Attleboro-North Attleboro, MA
Aug 14, 2006 Attleboro -
It's one of the oldest religions of the world and one that is becoming
more prominent in this area, but it is also one of the most
misunderstood. With its unique view of divinity, its belief in a
cyclic universe and its stress on spiritual exploration, Hinduism is a
faith that many Westerners fail to grasp. There are a lot more
misconceptions than real knowledge, said Sampath Kumar of Attleboro.
Now residents of this area will have a chance to learn more. Kumar has
arranged a two-day visit by a traveling exhibition that depicts,
through 30 posters, some of the aspects of Hindu faith, culture and
traditions. The free exhibit will be at the Attleboro Public Library
on North Main Street from noon to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 23, and
Thursday, Aug. 24, and will be open to the public. Sponsored by Hindu
Swayamsevak Sangh, a non-profit cultural organization aimed at
promoting and preserving Hindu culture, the exhibit has been making
its way around the country and has been well received by both Hindus
and non-Hindus, said Kumar, who is a member of the organization. The
posters touch on various themes, including Hinduism's basic concepts
and way of living, its temples and traditions, its contributions in
math and science, its Yoga and dharmic nature, its roles for women,
and its art, architecture, dance and music. Kumar, who came to this
country 16 years ago from his homeland of India, is now enlisting the
help of other local Hindus to staff the exhibit and answer questions
posed by visitors. Hindu families moving in A number of Hindu families
have been moving to the Attleboro area and buying homes here, he said,
but their culture and their faith may not be as readily understood
because Hinduism is not an organized religion the way Christianity is,
and is not as visible. Although Hindus have temples, such as the ones
in Ashland and Fall River, they do not gather there frequently and
instead pray any time of the day, and often pray at home, where many
of them have set aside special rooms with altars. For Hindus, Kumar
said, the focus is on looking inward, toward peace and meditation, and
on a one-on-one communion with God. This is a very different approach
to spirituality, he said. Hindus do not proselytize and have no
mandate to convert others, Kumar said, so the exhibit is not meant to
influence anyone's religious perspective. There is no one message, no
one book, no one messiah in Hinduism, he said, and people are free to
explore and to inquire, because the more they ask, the more they will
realize. Simple answers to spirituality do not satisfy people, he
said. In general, Hindus see the divine in every living thing, and
believe in gods and goddesses, but as manifestations of the one God, a
view that is often misconstrued. Yet Hinduism is not only about God.
It is also about art, architecture, science, math, and many other
aspects of Hindu culture and tradition that American Hindus are hoping
to preserve through the younger generations, and hoping to demonstrate
through this exhibit. Kumar hopes people will come to see Hinduism as
a gentle, tolerant religion that focuses on harmony and mutual
respect. Hindus, he said, are a model ethnic group that is generally
well educated, law abiding and family focused. We have set the right
tone to be accepted into American society, Kumar said. Ever since the
terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he said, Americans have become
more aware of the need to understand other religions and cultures. He
wants that awareness to include Hinduism, which he said is now a
permanent part of the American landscape. The more we know about each
other, the more understanding we have, the more we appreciate each
other, Kumar said. To learn more about the traveling exhibit, visit
www.hssus.org . More at: http://www.thesunchronicle.com/articles/2006/08/15/city/city6.txt
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi Om Shanti
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#2380
Dr. Jai Maharaj (Visitor)
broken heart quotes sayings Jai Maharaj posts
From India business schools to top of world's boardrooms
By Mary Jane Credeur and Ashok Bhattacharjee
Bloomberg News
International Herald Tribune Thursday, August 24, 2006 Atlanta -
When Rajat Gupta could not find a decent job in India after earning a
degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of
Technology in Delhi in 1971, he did what many of his compatriots did.
He moved to the United States. He attended Harvard Business School,
then landed a job at the New York office of McKinsey in 1973. Twenty-
one years later, in 1994, Gupta, 57, became the first foreign-born
chief executive of the consulting firm. As Gupta's rise illustrates,
PepsiCo, which last week named Indra Nooyi as its next chief
executive, was not the first global corporation to recognize the
caliber of executive talent from India. The annual reports of many
large companies show Indians are landing big jobs. And like Gupta and
Nooyi, most are products of an investment in higher education the
country made more than 40 years ago. There is a huge demand for Indian
executives, said Rana Talwar, the former chief executive of Standard
Chartered in London who runs Sabre Capital, a buyout firm. The quality
of the education is very good. And Indians can adapt to any
environment. When we grew up, we got used to adverse conditions. Those
coming of age in the executive suite often were educated at one of two
institutions founded in the 1950s and 1960s: IIT or the Indian
Institutes of Management. Created after India achieved independence
from Britain in 1947, they were designed to train leaders for India's
postwar industrial development. They did, but not only for India. Arun
Sarin, chief executive of Vodafone Group in Newbury, England,
graduated from IIT in Kharagpur. So did Ajit Jain, a potential
successor to Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway in Omaha, Nebraska.
Nooyi, 50, earned her degree at IIM in Calcutta. At least eight of the
500 biggest companies in the world are headed by Indians. Lakshmi
Mittal, chairman of Mittal Steel, _base_d in Rotterdam, runs the
world's largest steel maker; Mukesh Ambani is chief executive of
Reliance Industries, the largest nonstate company in India; and Ramani
Ayer is chief executive of Hartford Financial Services Group, _base_d
in Hartford, Connecticut. Part of what makes Indian graduates
desirable is their willingness to move for a job, said Ajay Banga,
chief executive of Citigroup's $18.3 billion Global Consumer Group
International in New York. Banga should know. He has relocated 10
times in 25 years. Banga's first job was with Nestlé in Delhi 1981,
which moved him to Calcutta and Mumbai. He returned to Delhi to work
for PepsiCo in 1995, then went to Madras when he was hired by
Citigroup in 1996. Three months later, the bank offered him a senior
marketing position in London. My boss said 'Ajay, you've got
aspirations beyond what you're doing. Come to London and be the
marketing head,' Banga said. If I had stayed in India, I would have
been lucky to just become the marketing director of some company
there. Nooyi's older sister, Chandrika, paved the way for her to leave
India, moving to Beirut with Citibank shortly after graduating from
IIM in Ahmedabad. Nooyi left next, followed by her younger brother,
Narayanan, who studied at Yale in 1981 when he was 17, Nooyi's mother,
Shantha Krishnamoorthy, said. There was a lot of opposition at home
from the elders to letting Chandrika go to Beirut then, Krishnamoorthy
said during an interview from Madras. I would console my mother by
saying that 'The candle has to melt to let the light shine,' she said.
She told her mother to think of her as the candle. Someone has to make
a sacrifice if the children are to do well. The attitude complements
the rigorous education, much of it American-inspired, at the IIT and
IIM schools. One in 50 applicants to the IIT schools is accepted, and
at the IIM management college in Ahmedabad, the rate is one in 532,
according to the Economist Intelligence Unit rankings. At the Stanford
Graduate School of Business, one in 13 is accepted. Even with the
education, staying in India would have meant working for the
government or a private company making the equivalent of $60 or $70 a
month, said Vinod Gupta, who went to the University of Nebraska after
graduating from IIT-Kharagpur in 1967. Gupta, no relation to
McKinsey's Rajat Gupta, founded InfoUSA in 1971 after his job was
eliminated at a mobile- home manufacturer. InfoUSA, _base_d in Omaha,
Nebraska, owns a data_base_ of consumers and businesses used by
Internet sites. When Gupta visited his hometown of Rampur, a few years
ago, he ran into an old IIT classmate. He was selling vegetables from
a small stand on the sidewalk. If I had not come to America, I might
be stuck in that same village selling vegetables, Gupta said. But
things are changing. With India's economy growing 9 percent to 10
percent annually, many graduates - and some who left the country - are
remaining in the country, or returning home. Ten years ago, an
overseas posting for a colleague would be viewed with envy, but today
it is not a big deal, said Roopa Kudva, director and chief rating
officer with Standard & Poor's Crisil in Mumbai. There are more people
who want to work here because India itself is turning out to be a
bigger story. More at:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/23/bloomberg/bxindia.php Jai
Maharaj, Jyotishi Om Shanti
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#2381
Dr. Jai Maharaj (Visitor)
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MICHEAL WITZEL'S TERRORIST FRIENDS GET LOCKED UP
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[ Subject: Micheal Witzel's terrorist friends get locked up
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[ Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 13:49:41 -0000
LTTE funded U.S. Congressman' s 2005 trip to Vanni in Shri Lanka:
A sequel to Asian Tribune report Daya Gamage - US National
Correspondent for Asian Tribune Thu, 2006-08-24 17:45
Washington, D.C. 24
August (Asian Tribune.com) - United States Congressman Danny Davis'
trip to Shri Lanka from March 30 to April 5, 2005, spending most of
his time in the regions of the Vanni and Kilinochchi Districts,
controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, was in fact funded
by the Liberation Tigers, it was revealed by federal authorities,
according to an August 23 datelined report in Chicago Tribune. The
Democratic Congressman from Illinois says that he was unaware that the
Tamil Tigers paid for the trip and on his required congressional
disclosure form has reported that the trip was paid for by a Hickory
Hills, Illinois- _base_d Tamil cultural organization, the Federation
of Tamil Sangams of North America. According to the Chicago Tribune
report Davis had believed that the trip was paid for by the Tamil
federation, which in accordance with congressional ethics rules sent
to him a written statement of travel expenses, more than US $7,000
each for Davis and his aide, Daniel Cantrell. Congressman Danny Davis
said he knew that the group was associated with the Tamil Tigers but
did not realize that the trip's costs were covered with the funds
controlled by the (Shri Lanka) rebel group. Davis' seven day trip to
Shri Lanka's Tamil Tiger territory came under scrutiny this week
following the arrests of 11 supporters of the Tamil Tigers in New York
on charges of participating in a broad conspiracy to support the
terrorist group through money laundering, arms procurement and bribery
of U.S. officials, the Chicago Tribune reports. Asian Tribune on 15
April (2005) under the caption Tamils Want Peace With Dignity and
Justice, says U.S. Congressman who toured Shri Lanka carried an
exclusive interview in which this Online Daily said that the trip was
organized by Tamil expatriates who have _link_s to the Tamil Tiger
outfit. This week, the Asian Tribune report became the catalyst for
one of the authors of the Chicago Tribune report Mike Dorning to
scrutinize Congressman Davis' exclusive visit to Shri Lanka's Tiger
territory. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or popularly known as
Tamil Tigers is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization in the
United States since 1997. The Tigers have been fighting the Government
of Shri Lanka to win a separate independent state for the Tamil
minority (12.5%) in this South Asian island-nation' s predominantly
Tamil north and east districts since mid eighties. They accuse the
government, which they say is largely controlled by the ethnic
majority Sinhalese (74%), of discriminating against the Tamil minority
which the government denies. A Norwegian-brokered ceasefire was signed
between the two warring parties in 2002 but was mostly confined to the
paper as Shri Lanka's military stepped up its offensive against Tiger
positions in early this month. The Shri Lanka government has
repeatedly said that they were prepared to sit with the Tamil Tigers
for a dialogue and that the government favors devolution of political
and administrative powers to the periphery. Congressman Danny Davis
told last year's Asian Tribune interview that a group of Shri Lankan
expatriates wanted him to visit their country to examine how tsunami
disaster funds are being disbursed as a substantial amount has been
collected in his congressional district to which he agreed. The Asian
Tribune, in an editorial comment, said in the body of the April 15,
2005 interview with Davis that it was a strategic move on the part of
the LTTE to get a United States Congressman to tour the areas they
hold for a political lecture while completely blocking the dissenting
opinion reaching the American lawmaker. The Congressman told this
correspondent during the interview that he was aware he was visiting
only the LTTE controlled areas in Shri Lanka. As to why he did not
make any effort to meet non-LTTE officials or Shri Lanka Government
officials, the Davis told Asian Tribune that it was not on his agenda.
Chicago Tribune report _link_s Danny Davis to some of the activists of
the Tamil Tigers who were taken into custody by the United States
authorities on Monday allegedly conspiring to procure military
hardware, surface-to-air missiles, AK 47s, communication equipment and
attempt to bribe U.S. officials to remove LTTE from the State
Department Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list. Chicago Tribune
says that Congressman Davis past Saturday (19) talked in Chicago with
a supporter of the Tamil Tigers who was among 11 people arrested on
charges of conspiring to aid the rebel group through money laundering,
procurement of arms, including surface-to air missiles and bribery of
public officials. That Tamil Tiger supporter , says Chicago Tribune,
Murugesu Vinayagamoorthy, was described in a federal criminal
complaint as a high-level operative who served as an intermediary
between the Tigers' leaders and foreign backers. Davis said he first
met Vinayagamoorthy, a 57-year-old London physician, at a Tamil
cultural event in the Chicago suburbs at which both of them gave
speeches a few years ago. Vinayagamoorthy also participated in several
of the meetings that Davis held while visiting Shri Lanka, the
congressman said. The criminal complaint against Vinayagamoorthy
asserts that he had direct and frequent contact with leaders of the
(Shri Lanka) rebel group and was often dispatched to facilitate Tamil
Tiger projects around the world. The Chicago Tribune continued to
report in its August 23 edition that without mentioning Davis or his
aide by name, the complaint (before the U.S. District Court in
Brooklyn, New York) describes a series of transactions in which
Vinayagamoorthy and others charged in the case allegedly laundered US
$13,150 in Tamil Tiger funds at the direction of a top guerilla leader
to pay for travel of two individuals to Tamil-controlled Shri Lanka.
The two individuals were Davis and Cantrell, Law enforcement officials
said, the Chicago Tribune says. Another person arrested in the case,
Nachimuthu Socrates, was listed as a director in 2004 of the Tamil
cultural organization, the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North
America, which Congressman Danny Davis listed in public disclosure
forms (to Congress required by law) as trip's sponsor. Davis told the
Chicago Tribune that he always assumed that the organization had a
connection with the Tamil Tigers. Congressman Danny Davis' visit to
Shri Lanka's Tamil Tiger controlled areas prompted Asian Tribune to
unleash a scathing criticism of the Shri Lanka Embassy in Washington
in its analysis of 18 April (2005) captioned Shri Lanka's Foreign
Public Diplomacy in U.S. in Jeopardy. In that analysis the Asian
Tribune said Asian Tribune in its month-long monitoring found that
Shri Lanka mission has absolutely no idea of LTTE front organization
operations even much closer to its own location in the eastern states
of the United States. If the Tiger activities are on the downward
trend, according to (Shri Lanka deputy chief of mission in Washington)
Mr. Bandara's understanding, Asian Tribune is at a loss to know a
Tiger front organization, which the Shri Lanka embassy has no interest
to find out, strategically organized Congressman Davis' tour to the
Tiger land. In fact, a senior State Department official told this
correspondent that the Tiger activists in Chicago gave the United
States Congressman the impression that he was touring the tsunami
disaster region in the eastern Shri Lanka but was tricked to enter
Vanni, the Tiger stronghold. Asian Tribune, in conclusion, said in
that analysis So, this then is the plight of the Democratic Socialist
Republic of Shri Lanka, with a foreign office that does not know what
direction it is going and reducing its Washington, D.C. sub office
merely to a visa issuance agency while intense lobbying is undertaken
by front organizations of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. It is
reported that a location in Hickory Hills, Illinois which has
connections to the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America was
searched on Sunday in connection with the Tamil Tiger investigation.
As part of the investigation, F.B.I. agents searched the Cumberland,
Maryland offices of a charity. The court papers filed at the U.S.
District Court in New York identified it as a suspected front for a
Tamil Tigers fund-raising organization. Asian Tribune
http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/1707 This was the same
FETNA which allied with Witzel and assorted gang in the California
textbook case. If the US Hindus are smart they would urge the gov't to
ban it or atleast put it under their watch for terrorist supporting
activities, it's sweet revenge for what they did in California.
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#2382
Dr. Jai Maharaj (Visitor)
broken heart quotes sayings Jai Maharaj posts
'Jesus Camp' closes after film sparks protest Staff and agencies
Guardian Unlimited
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ Thursday, November 9, 2006
[Caption] Summer of worship ... a scene from Jesus Camp
A children's summer camp that was featured in a recent documentary
about evangelical Christians has been forced to close after a reported
storm of protest. The camp, in Devils Lake, North Dakota, played a
central role in the film Jesus Camp, which opened in the US in
September. Jesus Camp focused on the training methods of camp
organiser and Pentecostal pastor Betty Fischer and the activities of
the children sent to her for instruction by their evangelical parents.
Children are shown speaking in tongues and being urged to campaign
against abortion. They are warned off reading Harry Potter books, and
are told: in Old Testament times, he would have been put to death. In
one scene, the students appear to be worshipping in front of a
cardboard effigy of president Bush. In the wake of the film's release,
Fischer claims to have received hate mail and abusive phone calls and
has seen the camp targeted by vandals. We have decided to hold
different activities in future, she told Reuters yesterday. More at:
http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1943156,00.html?82%3A+Film+news
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi Om Shanti
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the
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#2383
Dr. Jai Maharaj (Visitor)
broken heart quotes sayings Jai Maharaj posts
Religion of Peace Strikes in Thailand http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1693507/posts
Facts about terrorist Islam and Muslims: http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi Om Shanti
#2384
Dr. Jai Maharaj (Visitor)
broken heart quotes sayings Jai Maharaj posts
Aryabhatta, Varahamihira's mathematical science vindicated
zeenews.com Friday, August 25, 2006 Mumbai, Aug 25: Indian astrologers
today said the announcement about dropping Pluto as a planet had
endorsed the mathematical and astrological treatises written by
Aryabhatta and Varahamihira centuries ago. Indian astrology did not
include Pluto as a planet and the latest announcement by leading
global astronomers after a marathon week-long meeting at Prague
yesterday only endorsed the Indian mathematical astrology of
Aryabhatta and Varahamihira in the sixth century, eminent mathematical
Astrologer Mangal Prasad told today. Western astrology uses Pluto as a
planet while Pluto was always out of Indian astrology and we do not
use it in our calculations. This is the practice from the days of
Aryabhatta and Varahamihira, Prasad said. Indian astrology is
mathematically concerned with the nine planets, two of which are Rahu
and Ketu that are nothing but derivatives from the diameter of Earth,
which is a circle having a value Pi (22/7) imbedded in the equator of
Earth, he said. This was discovered and mathematically shown by
Aryabhatta and Varahamihira in the sixth century during the golden
period of the Guptas, said Prasad, the author of books _base_d on the
work of the two great sixth century scientists. Indian astrology is
concerned more with astronomy and the derivations are from the equator
of the Earth, diameter of the moon, the solar year and how the planets
are viewed in the northern latitudinal region during January and
February, soon after the Sun has crossed the Tropic of Capricon and
moved towards the northern part of the Hemisphere, he said. Bureau
Report More at:
http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=318058&sid=ENV&ssid=27
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi Om Shanti
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by others are not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not
have read the article. FAIR USE NOTICE:
This article may contain copyrighted material the use of which may or
may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This
material is being made available in efforts to advance the
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interest in receiving the included information for research, comment,
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#2385
Dr. Jai Maharaj (Visitor)
broken heart quotes sayings Jai Maharaj posts
Paramount cry for a Hindu nation - VII By V. Sundaram
'A Hindu nation founded on Sanatan Dharm ought to be the cherished
goal of all the Hindus in India today and not a fraudulent nation
founded on pseudo- secularism'.
Hundreds of holy sites of the Hindus, famed in song and legend and the
_script_ures dating back to the dawn of history ??be they in Ayodya,
Mathura, and Kasi, or in Ujjain, Dwaraka, Devagiri, Patan, Ajmer,
Kangra, Thanesar or anywhere else ? are being trampled down till this
day under monuments of victory erected by alien invaders. We have not
been able to liberate them. Even our inherited, inalienable,
indivisible, inexorable and immutable historic right to liberate them
has not been conceded by the pseudo-secular Indian State after our
independence. On the contrary, the Indian Parliament passed a law that
'any attempt to liberate them would be construed as a serious criminal
offence'.
The greatest treasure and the finest heritage which India possesses is
the Sanskrit Language. Sanskrit is a most wonderful language.
Friedrich Schlegel, the great German Indologist who established the
first Chair of Indology in Germany at Hanmoben paid his tribute to
Sankrit language in these words: 'Justly it is called Sanskrit, that
is 'Perfect and Finished'. Sanskrit combines these various qualities
possessed separately by other tongues: Grecian copiousness, deep-tone
Roman force, the divine afflatus characterising the Hebrew tongues.
Judged by an organic standard of the principal elements of language,
Sanskrit excels in grammatical structure and is indeed the most
perfectly developed of all idioms, not excepting Greek and
Latin.'
The Government of India under the stranglehold of the Congress Party
starting from August 15, 1947 has been systematically trying to edge
out Sanskrit, the sacred language of the Hindus from the days of the
Vedas and the Upanishads, with professional thoroughness and political
vendetta. Most of the State Governments have taken 'effective'(!)
steps to even throw it out of the school curriculum. By contrast, Urdu
which is primarily the language of Muslims, which is written in a
foreign _script_, which is the official language of Pakistan and which
had played an important role in fanning Muslim separatism ever since
the creation of the Muslim League by Lord Minto in 1906, is being
blatantly and unabashedly encouraged through a subtle process of State-
sponsored incentives and grants. To quote Abhas Chatterjee in this
context: 'Today Urdu is made the official language of some States,
tomorrow it is recognized as a medium of examination, the day after it
becomes the language of Doordarshan and so on'.
If any citizen in India wants to start a school to impart education
in Islamic or Christian theology, the Central and State Governments
will come forward enthusiastically to give grants to them. In certain
cases, they may even be willing to meet the entire expenditure
connected with the running of school on many fronts. But if you were
to start a school where you want to educate your children about Hindu
Dharma and Culture, teaching them the Bhagavat Gita with invocations
to Goddess Saraswati, neither the Central Government nor the State
Government will be willing to fund such a school. The UPA Government
is capable of coming out with a Hitler or Stalin type legislation
completely prohibiting the teaching of ancient Indian _script_ures
like the Bhagavat Gita, the Vedas and the Upanishads! I am constrained
to say this because one of the text books produced by NCERT described
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa as 'a mentally unbalanced man'. The minions of
pseudo-secular Arjun Singh in the NCERT may not be aware of the fact
that Romain Rolland (1866-1944), who was awarded the Nobel Prize for
literature in 1915, had this to say about Ramakrishna
Paramahamsa:
'Ramakrishna Paramahamsa with his intuitive genius for souls, for
whom time was not, and who could discern in the twinkling of an eye
the whole flood of the future, believed, that he had seen his great
disciple Naren, later to become Swami Vivekananda, in the womb of the
elect before he met him in the flesh. His judgement was a sound one.
He needed a strong body, arms to turn over the earth, legs to journey
over it, a bodyguard of workers and the head to command them, in
addition to his great heart charged with love for the whole world.
Ramakrishna has to be commended for seeing at once in this wavered
tormented and storm-tossed adolescent, as Narendra then was, the
future leader, exactly the Evangelist he was expecting.'
The baggage of every Hindu who lands today at the Airports of Dubai,
Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Tehran, etc. is searched. If it yields even a small
portrait of a Hindu God or Goddess, a copy of the Bhagavat Gita or
Satyaprakash, or a locket of Shri Ram, the _object_s are pulled out of
the bag, broken and violently consigned to the trash bin. Government
of India does not consider this as an affront to the dignity of Indian
culture. Nor does it care for the dignity and self-respect of
individual Indians. According to Government of India, all non-Hindus
by birth, by definition and by law ?including the most dreaded and
known terrorists ? are Indians. Not all the Hindus are considered as
Indians either by birth or by definition or by law. This is the
quintessence of the fraudulently malicious superstructure of pseudo-
secularism erected by the Congress party after independence, taking
advantage of the colossal ignorance of myriad millions of
India.
Swami Vivekananda and Shri Aurobindo declared that the Hindu nation is
rooted in Sanatana Dharma. Sanatana Dharma does not mean 'Varnashrama
Dharma'. Those who interpret Sanatana Dharma as Varnashrama Dharma are
either steeped in Himalayan ignorance about Sanatana Dharma or are
interested only in communal vote bank politics for getting into
positions of pelf and power in the India of today. The wisdom of
inspired Seers and Sages is recorded in various Samhitas, Sutras,
Smritis and other fragments. The corpus of all these is 'SANATANA
DHARMA', Eternal Order or Dharma. Through millennia, Hindu society has
been moulded by it. Though necessarily Indian and Hindu in garb, its
principles have a timeless relevance to any society, anywhere, any
time. As Annie Besant and Bhagavan Das, who jointly authored an
Advance Text Book of Hindu Religion and Ethics en_title_d 'Sanatana
Dharma' in 1898, rightly observed: 'The religion _base_d on the Vedas,
the Sanatana Dharma or Vaidika Dharma, is the oldest of living
religions and stands unrivalled in the depth and splendour of its
philosophy, while it yields to none in the purity of its ethical
teachings, and in the flexibility and varied adaptation of its rites
and ceremonies. It is like a river, which has shallows that a child
may play in, and depths which the strongest diver cannot fathom. It is
thus adapted to every human need, and there is nothing which any
religion can add to its rounded perfection. The more it is studied and
practiced, the more does it illuminate the intellect and satisfy the
heart.' A Hindu nation founded on Sanatana Dharma ought to be the
cherished goal of all the Hindus in India today and not a fraudulent
nation founded on pseudo-secularism.
All the Roman Catholics have their own nations. All the Protestant
Christians have their own nations. All the Muslims have their own
nations. The Hindus have been the primordial citizens of Akhand Bharat
from the beginning of pre-history and they cannot be denied a
spiritual and physical space of their own in their own native land.
The saddest part of the story is that the dastardly policy of pseudo-
secularism has made all the peace-loving Hindus neglected, sidelined
and discarded refugees in their own native land. In this context, Shri
Aurobindo spoke for all the Hindus for all time on April 18, 1923 when
he said: 'I am sorry they are making a fetish of this Hindu-Muslim
unity. It is no use ignoring facts; some day the Hindus may have to
fight the Muslims and they must be prepared for it. Hindu-Muslim unity
should not mean the subjection of the Hindus. Every time the mildness
of the Hindus has given way. The best solution would be to allow the
Hindus to organize themselves and the Hindu-Muslim unity would take
care of itself; it would automatically solve the problem. Otherwise,
we are lulled into a false sense of satisfaction that we have solved a
difficult problem, when in fact we have only shelved it.' In my view
Shri Aurobindo was no less patriotic than Sonia Gandhi, Arjun Singh,
A.R. Antulay and Dr. Manmohan Singh!!!
To routinely dismiss all Hindus as fundamentalists or fascist as the
pseudo-secular politicians in India do today, in my view, is a gross
abuse of language. To conclude in the beautiful words of David Frawley
(better known as Vamadeva Shastri): 'What Hindus need is to wake up
and unite, to recognize their common spiritual heritage and work
together to manifest it in the world today, just as modern teachers
like Vivekananda and Aurobindo demonstrated through their lives and
teachings. Such teachers did not speak of Hindu fundamentalism. They
recognized Hindu backwardness, but sought to remedy it by going to the
core of Hindu spirituality, the spirit of Unity in recognition of the
Divine in all, not by trying to cast a shadow on Hinduism as a
whole'.
(The writer is a retired IAS officer) More at:
http://www.newstodaynet.com/2006sud/06jun/3006ss1.htm
[ Now a dead _link_; search for _title_.] Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi Om
Shanti
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the
educational purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of
this post may not have been authored by, and do not necessarily
represent the opinion of the poster. The contents are protected by
copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted
works. o If you ... read more »
http://www.lonelyperson.net/forum/4/2361/24/broken-heart-quotes-sayings-jai-maharaj-posts
bademiyansubhanallah
Vice President
Vishwa Hindu Parishad
Maharashtra, India
Access contact information!
Find more info on this person at Intelius.com
Ashok's profile was created using:
53 online sources [ view sources ]
. Employment History
Vice President
Vishwa Hindu Parishad
President
Vishwa Hindu Parishad
President of Maharashtra State Unit
Vishwa Hindu Parishad
Executive Director
Chowgule and Co.
Chairman and Managing Director
Chowgule and Co.
President
VHP-America
Senior Member
VHP-America
President
Maharashtra
President
Goa Pranth
Shipyard-Division Executive Director
Goa Pranth
Vice President
Vishwa Hindu Paris
Board Memberships and Affiliations
Honorary Secretary (past)
Baripada Leprosy Home
Certifications
No certification information is available.
Education
Economics and Statistics
Bristol University
Case Western University
Biography
No biography information is available.
1-10 of 53 online sources for Ashok Chowgule
www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamWarWithinIslam_1.aspx?Ar - [Cached
Version]
Published on: 11/10/2009 Last Visited: 12/9/2009
Ashok Chowgule,Vice-President, VHP
...
From: Ashok Chowgule
To: Sultan Shahin Edi...@NewAgeIslam.com
...
Ashok Chowgule, Vice-President, Vishwa Hindu Parishad
...
Ashok Chowgule
...
From: Ashok Chowgule
...
Ashok Chowgule
www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?Artic - [Cached
Version]
Last Visited: 12/10/2008
Ashok Chowgule
Ashok Chowgule
...
Ashok Chowgule
www.sprisminvest.com/CompanyProfile/corporateinner.aspx - [Cached
Version]
Published on: 2/5/2009 Last Visited: 2/5/2009
Ashok V Chowgule
www.christianaggression.org/item_display.php?type=NEWS& - [Cached
Version]
Published on: 10/30/2003 Last Visited: 12/10/2007
Ashok Chowgule
Deceased Graham Stewart Staines (hereinafter referred to as 'Staines')
as an Australian National whose tryst with Mayurbhanj in Orissa began
in the year 1965 when he made rendezvous with its District Headquarter
at Baripada for treatment and eradication of Leprosy amongst the poor
and did an excellent job in the field.He became the honorary Secretary
of Baripada Leprosy Home.He was also the Secretary of the Evangelical
Missionary Society of Mayurbhanj (EMSM).As a missionary, he was
preaching Gospel and spreading the tenets of Christianity in jungle
camps held in different tribal belts in the district of Mayurbhanj and
Keonjhar.
www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamRadicalIslamismAndJihad_ - [Cached
Version]
Published on: 9/29/2009 Last Visited: 12/9/2009
Ashok Chowgule, Vice-President, VHP
...
Ashok Chowgule, Vice-President, Vishwa Hindu Parishad
conoship.com/uk/press/page55.htm - [Cached Version]
Published on: 10/6/2006 Last Visited: 9/8/2007
Yard boss Ashok Chowgule says Indian coastal shipping is still
undeveloped and presents revenue-earning opportunities.
...
Ashok Chowgule: in shipbuilding for the long haul.
...
The industrial and shipping group was started by Chowgule & Co
executive director Ashok Chowgule's grandfather with a small
manufacturing business.
Today, the group is involved in industrial explosives, salt and gases,
as well as brewing, marketing agencies and machine fabrication.Its
iron-ore mining generates around three million tonnes of exports per
year, some two million tonnes to Japan and one million tonnes to
China.All are free-onboard (FOB) contracts.
Involved in the business are the Chowgule brothers, Ashok and group
chief executive Vijay, and their first cousins.Ashok and Vijay's
father is now 91 years old but is described as being "still not
exactly retired".
Ashok says India's manufacturing strength is not appreciated given its
educated workforce, industrial knowledge and strong, commercial and
legal infrastructure, 'which, he claims, makes it relatively easy to
operate in the country.
Things happen slowly in India but those who get into shipbuilding,
given the environmental-impact hoops they have to go through, are
serious players and will be there for the long term, says Ashok
Chowgule.
www.hinduvoice.net/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?flavor=archive - [Cached
Version]
Published on: 5/24/2007 Last Visited: 5/24/2007
On 5/22/07, Ashok Chowgule
www.letindiadevelop.org/resources.html - [Cached Version]
Published on: 4/24/2006 Last Visited: 5/18/2009
by Ashok Chowgule in association with Hindu Vivek Kendra
www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamDebate_1.aspx?ArticleID= - [Cached
Version]
Published on: 7/14/2009 Last Visited: 12/9/2009
Ashok Chowgule has posted an 18 month old off-topic article in this
dicussion of the veil. While sanghis and VHP-ites write frequently in
Muslim oriented outlets, Muslim community leaders, including even the
editor of Milli Gazette, cannot get their letters published in
newspapers such as the Pioneer!
7/15/2009 9:50:11 AM Ashok Chowgule, Vice President, Vishwa Hindu
Paris
...
Ashok Chowgule
toSultan Shahin...@NewAgeIslam.com
...
Ashok Chowgule, Vice President, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)
www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamWarOnTerror_1.aspx?Artic - [Cached
Version]
Published on: 11/1/2001 Last Visited: 12/9/2009
Ashok Chowgule
With reference to the enclosed article.
...
Ashok Chowgule, Vive President, Vishwa Hindu Parishad
10/31/2009 1:42:21 AM
11-20 of 53 online sources for Ashok Chowgule
www.conoship.com/uk/press/page54.htm - [Cached Version]
Published on: 9/8/2007 Last Visited: 9/8/2007
Yard boss Ashok Chowgule says Indian coastal shipping is still
undeveloped and presents revenue-earning opportunities.But first,
cargo has to be generated.
Chowgule Group is widely known for its iron-ore mining activities and
bulker fleet but it is now playing a key role in the country's rise to
prominence on the international shipbuilding scene.
Early last year, Chowgule secured contracts for six multipurpose
cargoships (Multi Purpose Cargos) from a joint venture involving
Navigia, the Dutch affiliate of Germany's Rudolf Schoning, and Hamburg
based Apollo Shipping.
...
All this is a huge leap from Chowgule building inland barges for the
domestic market.Its sights are now set on constructing coastal vessels
for the group's own use and eventually containerships and products
tankers.
Chowgule's international presence has been achieved by becoming an
associate member of the Groningen, Holland-based Conoship marketing
and design organization.
Conoship is assisting Chowgule develop its Loutulim and Rassaim yards
in the state of Goa and has put it in touch with equipment suppliers,
including hatch-cover and main engine manufacturers.It has also
organised the design house in Holland for the Multi Purpose Cargo
production drawings.
Also, Conoship helped educate Chowgule in how ships of this size are
produced in Holland.New computer numerical control (CNC) cutting
equipment was purchased from Australia based on broad specifications
outlined by Conoship.The 20 identical Multi Purpose Cargo's of 4,450
dwt have an aggregate price of around $120m based on an average of $6m
per unit.
Ashok Chowgule, the group's shipyard division executive director, says
the origins of the shipyard business can be traced back to the
family's iron-ore mining activities and its building and repair of
mechanized barges for hauling the ore by river to ports.
Grab and suction dredgers, deep-sea fishing trawlers, tugs, hopper
barges and coastal ships have all been produced over the years - more
than 100 so far in total.But Ashok Chowgule says that for a long time
it remained a relatively small production, partly because of India's
environmental regulations preventing the establishment of large
private-sector shipyards.When circumstances changed in the 1990s,
Chowgule started investing and within the space of 18 months built
around 23 inland barges totaling roughly 55,000 dwt.
Infrastructure improvements have in recent years included upgrading
Rassaim from repair to newbuildings, concreting areas of the yards and
currently converting workshops for fabrication usage.Also, new covered
areas are manufacturing hatch covers designed by Roden Staal, which
will also be present to supervise final construction and fitting.
Currently, the Chowgule yards employ around 45 people in
administration, accounts, commercial and technical roles, while around
500 to 600 workers are subcontracted in depending on requirements.
"We have invested in getting them trained for the requirements of a
modern yard," insisted Ashok Chowgule.He claims that as regards
steelwork, standards are already 99% of those found inEurope.The
quality of machinery installation is less clear, although still "good"
with the help of sup- pliers.
Much depends on improving management skills and giving them the "right
tools to do the job" adds Chowgule.
There are no European managers employed at the yards but overseas
consultants are used regularly.
Ashok Chowgule concedes that India has benefited from the general
overspill of work from full yards in China.One obvious advantage,
however, is labour costs being a fraction of competitors in the West.
Typical yard pay is about EUR 0.50 ($0.60) per hour, as compared with
EUR 20 in Holland.
Conoship introduced owners to Goa, where Ashok Chowgule says it did
not take long to convince them of its potential.The initial contact
with Conoship took a long time but it did not take long to persuade
them to work together. . Holland was targeted as a partner because of
its excellent track record in building smaller cargoships.
The shipyard chief hopes that within the next few months, when
Chowgule is scheduled to deliver the first Multi Purpose Cargos, it
can prove it has fast-tracked in achieving European levels of
workmanship.
Its 20-strong series of Multi Purpose Cargos is scheduled for
completion between January 2007 and December 2009.Ashok Chowgule
believes that because of investments in the yards, the last may even
be a few months early.
...
Yards in the global market as reliable suppliers of cargoships of up
to 6,000 dwt, says Ashok Chowgule.They will focus on building
containerships and possibly products tankers once the Multi Purpose
Cargos are delivered.
"At the moment we aren't actively in those markets because we want to
concentrate our energies in making the yards efficiently" he said.
We have introduced many new things and know it will take a lot of
effort and a certain amount of time.
He estimates the Multi Purpose Cargos are costing between 5% and 7%
below European prices.
www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamWarOnTerror_1.aspx?Artic - [Cached
Version]
Published on: 9/28/2009 Last Visited: 12/9/2009
Objective Condition/Matter is the primary source for the idea, It can
lead Buddha to go to jungle in search for Nirvana, conditions could
lead a small time thief Ajmal Kassab to come to India along with his
compatriots on a so-called Jihad mission and kill innocent civilians,
Conditions is the First and foremost factor that it can give a super
constitutional authority to Mr Chowgule to put to test any Muslim
citizen in India for trustworthiness, religious beliefs etc.
...
Instead of welcoming this great moment and great efforts on the part
of two dignitaries, who are an authority in their respective field,
Mr. Chowgule has targeted the integrity of Malauna, who really don't
need any certificate from anyone, including Sang Parivar and its
progenies to prove his credentials.
...
If Ajma Kassab and Ashok Chowgule are the faces of same coin, so
please don't be surprised if you may come to know, Afghan Jihadi-Anti
War Forces are two sides of the same coin.
...
Ashok Chowgule, Vice-President, VHP
...
From: Ashok Chowgule
...
Ashok Chowgule, Vice-President, Vishwa Hindu Parishad
9/30/2009 5:43:48 AM
www.hvk.org/specialarts/ichr/articles/0009.html - [Cached Version]
Published on: 7/8/1998 Last Visited: 3/23/2007
Posted By Ashok V. Chowgule (ash...@giasbm01.vsnl.net.in)
www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleListWithGroup.asp - [Cached
Version]
Published on: 12/10/2008 Last Visited: 4/7/2009
Ashok Chowgule, Vice President, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)
www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamLetters.aspx?GroupID=43 - [Cached
Version]
Last Visited: 12/9/2009
Ashok Chowgule, Vice President, Vishwa Hindu Parishad
...
Ashok Chowgule, Vice President, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)
www.hvk.org/ram/a3.html - [Cached Version]
Published on: 3/23/2007 Last Visited: 3/23/2007
Ashok Chowgule President, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Maharashtra
The Ram Janmabhoomi issue has revolutionised the politics of the
country.A fragmented Hindu samaj has been united to an extent unheard
of in recent times.
www.hvk.org/ram/a4.html - [Cached Version]
Last Visited: 3/23/2007
Ashok Chowgule President, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Maharashtra.
www.hvk.org/Publications/ludden.html - [Cached Version]
Published on: 8/7/2006 Last Visited: 3/23/2007
Ashok Chowgule, President, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Maharashtra, India
www.conoship.com/content/view/62/59/text/javascript/tex - [Cached
Version]
Last Visited: 9/27/2008
Yard boss Ashok Chowgule says Indian coastal shipping is still
undeveloped and presents revenue-earning opportunities.
...
Ashok Chowgule: in shipbuilding for the long haul.
...
Ashok Chowgule
...
The industrial and shipping group was started by Chowgule & Co
executive director Ashok Chowgule's grandfather with a small
manufacturing business.
...
Involved in the business are the Chowgule brothers, Ashok and group
chief executive Vijay, and their first cousins.Ashok and Vijay's
father is now 91 years old but is described as being "still not
exactly retired".
Ashok says India's manufacturing strength is not appreciated given its
educated workforce, industrial knowledge and strong, commercial and
legal infrastructure, 'which, he claims, makes it relatively easy to
operate in the country.
Things happen slowly in India but those who get into shipbuilding,
given the environmental-impact hoops they have to go through, are
serious players and will be there for the long term, says Ashok
Chowgule.
"Desaffronization" or Apology? - [Cached Version]
Published on: 1/30/1995 Last Visited: 7/7/2004
Ashok Chowgule, President of Maharashtra State unit of the Vishwa
Hindu Parishad in his book Christianity in India - The Hindutva
Perspective has narrated the acts of atrocities by the Catholic Church
on the Hindus.
21-30 of 53 online sources for Ashok Chowgule
9. Are Indian tribals Hindus? - [Cached Version]
Last Visited: 3/10/2009
But there is also, mostly in the BJP, a strong no-nonsense wing of
businessmen, more or less the old (pro-Western, anti-socialist)
Swatantra Party constituency, which has no patience with such
sentimentalism, and refuses to "turn India into a conservation site".
116 Thus, the VHP president for the Mumbai region, Ashok Chowgule,
owned (until 1998, when he sold it) a company which furnished cement
to the Narmada Dam.
A Factual Response to the Hate Attack on the India... - [Cached
Version]
Published on: 4/24/2006 Last Visited: 5/18/2009
At the time, the President of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP),
Maharashtra Pranth, Ashok Chowgule commented as follows:
...
To this, Ashok Chowgule responded as follows:
...
[107] This section draws extensively from "An analysis of the report :
'The Foreign Exchange of Hate - IDRF and the American funding of
Hindutva' " prepared by Ashok Chowgule in association with Hindu Vivek
Kendra (http://www.hvk.org)
A Factual Response to the Hate Attack on the India... - [Cached
Version]
Published on: 4/24/2006 Last Visited: 12/25/2008
Ashok Chowgule is an industrialist, managing sections of the family
business, a well-known, successful, and respected business house. The
group is headquartered in Goa. The family has set up schools and a
college in Goa, operations in which Ashok takes keen interest.
Ashok completed his schooling in Belgaum, India after which he went on
to graduate in Economics and Statistics from Bristol University in the
U. K., and completed his business studies at the Case Western
University in Cleveland, Ohio. Upon returning home, he has looked
after the finance and administration of the business group, and lately
has been supervising the shipbuilding component of the family
business.
As a part of his social responsibilities, he has been actively
involved in the Vishwa Hindu Parishad since 1991, and at present is
the President of the Maharashtra State unit of the organisation. He
has written several articles and books on the socio-political issues
of Hindutva. Ashok and Hindu Vivek Kendra (HVK) have also recently
published an analysis and of the Sabrang/FOIL Report titled "An
Analysis Of The Report 'The Foreign Exchange Of Hate."
A Tribute to Hinduism - [Cached Version]
Published on: 10/30/2000 Last Visited: 7/10/2006
By Ashok Chowgule
...
(Ashok Chowgule, President, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Maharashtra).
AWAAZ - South Asia Watch - [Cached Version]
Last Visited: 8/17/2008
But VHP's Ashok Chowgule said in an interview: "We deny all the
allegations.
...
But Ashok Chowgule, a senior member of the VHP (World Council of Hindu
Churches), a prominent affiliate of the RSS, said: "We deny all of the
allegations.
Adelaide IMC: newswire/8876 - [Cached Version]
Published on: 9/9/2004 Last Visited: 8/13/2005
Ashok Chowgule, president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Maharashtra
region, counters in an email statement that 'if this provocation
argument has to be accepted, then we have to accept that the terrorist
attacks of September 11 on the USA was entirely justified because the
terrorists have said that they have been provoked by the policy of the
USA'.
Ashok Chowgule | Rating of NGOs | www.karmayog.org - [Cached Version]
Published on: 6/2/2007 Last Visited: 11/25/2008
Ashok Chowgule ash...@chowgulegoa.com
Assocham -- Managing Comittee Members - [Cached Version]
Published on: 6/12/2000 Last Visited: 2/2/2001
Mr. Ashok V. ChowguleDirectorChowgule & Co.Ltd.Bakhtawar4th Floor,
Nariman PointMUMBAI - 400 021
BJP FRIENDS - Old Article - [Cached Version]
Published on: 4/17/1996 Last Visited: 2/16/2009
Ashok Chowgule
Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue To Hold... - [Cached
Version]
Published on: 10/12/2004 Last Visited: 10/23/2005
BANGALORE INITIATIVE FOR RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE (BIRD) & THE CAREY SOCIETY
(United Theological College) have jointly arranged a talk by Mr. Ashok
Chowgule, President, Maharashtra unit of the VHP, on "The Hindu view
on Religious Conversions", followed by an interactive session, at 5.30
p.m., Thursday, 5 August 2005, at the United Theological College, 63
Millers Road.
31-40 of 53 online sources for Ashok Chowgule
Campaign to Stop Funding Hate - [Cached Version]
Published on: 3/8/2004 Last Visited: 11/7/2009
But VHP's Ashok Chowgule said in an interview: "We deny all the
allegations.
Campaign to Stop Funding Hate - [Cached Version]
Published on: 2/26/2004 Last Visited: 11/7/2009
But Ashok Chowgule, a senior member of the VHP (World Council of Hindu
Churches), a prominent affiliate of the RSS, said: "We deny all of the
allegations.
Campaign to Stop Funding Hate - [Cached Version]
Published on: 4/12/2006 Last Visited: 2/7/2010
Ashok Chowgule, the suave spokesman for Hindutva gave us a hint of the
post script even as IDRF kept insisting carefully that it has no
connections with the RSS.
...
Ultimately, did Ashok Chowgule, Vinod prakash, Narayanan Komerath,
Ramesh Rao Yvette Rosser and Belu Mehra and lesser planets, asteroirds
and others who pulled their weight behind the 200 page report support
the emergence of an ugly world ? Legally no.
ChaloMumbai.Com - The Complete Digital Guide to the... - [Cached
Version]
Published on: 3/3/2002 Last Visited: 3/3/2002
For a man who almost brought Mumbai to a halt on March 1, Ashok
Chowgule, president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Mahrashtra is
a picture of peace.Seated in his high-rise apartment at Peddar Road,
which is painted white and has huge paintings adorning the walls,
Chowgule said that the Ayodhya mission is not the culmination of
failed talks with the Muslims but with so-called secularists.
At what point did the dialogue with the Muslim leadership fail?Why
such haste in the plans?It is not failed talks with Muslims that has
created this situation but the failure of talks with those who call
themselves secularists that has made us more steadfast in our aim.And
we had explained our plans in great details earlier.After the 100-day
maha yajna ends on March 15, we will claim what is ours at Ayodhya.
ChaloMumbai.Com - The Complete Digital Guide to the... - [Cached
Version]
Published on: 3/14/2002 Last Visited: 3/14/2002
Ashok Chowgule, the state unit president of the organisation is out of
India, according to the organisation's activists.
VHP are expected to offer what they call 'nam smaran' pujas in temples
like the Sanyas Ashram, Khar.The pujas involve chanting of Lord Rama's
name.
Chowgule Steamship taps into coastal trade | Conoship... - [Cached
Version]
Published on: 12/29/2008 Last Visited: 1/8/2010
Yard boss Ashok Chowgule says Indian coastal shipping is still
undeveloped and presents revenue-earning opportunities.
...
Ashok Chowgule: in shipbuilding for the long haul.
...
Ashok Chowgule
...
The industrial and shipping group was started by Chowgule & Co
executive director Ashok Chowgule's grandfather with a small
manufacturing business.
...
Involved in the business are the Chowgule brothers, Ashok and group
chief executive Vijay, and their first cousins. Ashok and Vijay's
father is now 91 years old but is described as being "still not
exactly retired".
Ashok says India's manufacturing strength is not appreciated given its
educated workforce, industrial knowledge and strong, commercial and
legal infrastructure, 'which, he claims, makes it relatively easy to
operate in the country.
Things happen slowly in India but those who get into shipbuilding,
given the environmental-impact hoops they have to go through, are
serious players and will be there for the long term, says Ashok
Chowgule.
Companies & Industry - [Cached Version]
Published on: 10/1/2005 Last Visited: 10/31/2005
All vessels are of 4450 DWT capacity which will be delivered in next
three years," Chowgule and Company Ltd Executive Director Ashok V
Chowgule said.
With this new orders, Chowgule's shipbuilding division is marking
change in its profile by building cargo ships, he said.At present, the
company is focussing on iron ore barges, passenger vessels, deep sea
refrigerated fishing trawlers, grab and cutter suction dredgers, tugs,
twin hull catamarans and floating restaurants.
"The shipyard will not be accepting any fresh orders as the capacity
is full.It is planning to upgrade its capacity to construct 8 vessels
against existing capacity of three years per year," he said.
Chowgule said the company would invest Rs 40 crore to upgrade the
existing facilities by inducting advanced machines.
"It has already invested Rs 10 crore and has installed CNC Plasma
cutting machine which can cut steel plates of 12 metres," he said.
The shipyard, located at Loutulim (Goa), has a good water front, two
construction bays, full fledged workshop, outfitting jetty and
sufficient skid for pre-fabrication facility.
Commenting on the possibilities of acquiring minor shipbuilding
facilities, Chowgule said that the company is now more focussing on
organic growth and would concentrate on ensuring quality of
construction and punctuality in deliveries.
Cybernoon.com - [Cached Version]
Published on: 4/6/2004 Last Visited: 4/7/2004
I discovered that the person was Mr. Ashok Chowgule, the President of
the VHP in Maharashtra and Goa.He obviously felt that I needed to know
more about the plight of the Hindu pandits in Kashmir who had been
mercilessly driven out of their homeland to languish in camps across
Jammu and Delhi.
...
I am grateful to Mr. Ashok Chowgule for sending me the book first and
then the film narrating the tales of terror and horror amongst the
survivors who are living in makeshift tents for the last twelve years
with nowhere to go in their own country and no one to listen to their
tales of horror and anguish.
Differences between people and the need to value the... - [Cached
Version]
Published on: 5/1/1999 Last Visited: 1/15/2005
Says Ashok Chowgule, spokesperson of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad,
Mumbai, "Conversion is an attack on the Hindu ethos."Ask Immanuel
Kingsley of the Pentecostal group, House of Prayer, and he will tell
you with terrifying certainty, "We are not intolerant but we love
people and want to take them to Jesus so they will not perish in
hell."
Fundamentalist political parties such as the Shiv Sena are challenging
all forms of freedom of expression.
Divyabhoomi - an encyclopaedia of Indian Culture - [Cached Version]
Published on: 3/6/2003 Last Visited: 3/6/2003
Ashok V Chowgule Ashok Chowgule is an industrialist and the Executive
Director of Chowgule and Company Limited.With degrees in engineering
and business management from England and the United States of America,
he has been Managing Director, Narmada Cement, the country's first
large private sector cement plant, until recently a Chowgule group
company.He has been instrumental in achieving a sustained growth for
the group over the past few decades.A keen student of Indian culture,
he is the president of the Maharashtra and Goa Pranth of the Vishva
Hindu Parishad.
Nanik Rupani The Chairman of Priyadarshni Academy, Nanik Rupani is a
self-made, first-generation entrepreneur with interests in industries
as diverse as telecommunications, information technology, electronics
and finance.A humanist and a patron of Indian art and culture, he has
been instrumental in promoting and encouraging several deserving
organisations, programmes and individuals aimed at bettering the human
condition as well as art and culture.The Academy recognises persons
who have contributed exceptionally to society and presents awards
every year.He is a director on the board of many leading institutions
and companies and a philanthropist.
Jayraj Salgaokar Publisher and Managing Director of Sumangal
Publishing that brings out India's largest selling publication,
Kalnirnay, Jayraj Salgaokar has played a key role in making his brand
a household name not just in India but in Indian homes across the
world.Kalnirnay today is as successful a product as it is an
advertising vehicle.He reads widely on Indian culture and is a
connoisseur of performing art and Marathi literature.He writes and
lectures on mass communication, printing technology and management at
institutions and universities.
41-50 of 53 online sources for Ashok Chowgule
Freeindiamedia.com, Express your impartial, radical,... - [Cached
Version]
Published on: 9/29/2003 Last Visited: 5/28/2006
In the words of the President of Maharashtra VHP, Ashok Chowgule, "The
Ram Janmabhoomi issue has revolutionised the politics of the country.
GOANEWS - BY SANDESH PRABHUDESAI - [Cached Version]
Published on: 10/11/2000 Last Visited: 8/21/2003
"The final decision would be taken at the Dharm Sansad, based on a
concrete proposal which would be discussed at the Goa meeting",
informed Ashok Chowgule, the VHP president for Goa and Maharashtra,
who is also a leading mine owner here.
In fact Goa's all the three leading industrial houses have come
together to organise the meeting at Ramnathi temple with Shivanand
Salgaoncar heading the reception committee while Shrinivas Dempo
heading the organising committee.
As half of the ongoing work of carving of pillars for the Ram temple
at Ayodhya and Rajasthan would be completed by next year, Chowgule
says the process to decide about the construction date should also
begin.
"It cannot be at any other place than where the Babri masjid was
situated", he asserts, adding that seeking permission of the central
government to begin the construction work would also be one of the
main issues to be discussed at the Ramnathi meeting.
Stating that the VHP has its own agenda than the Bharatiya Janata
Party, Chowgule also informed that the Bajrang Dal and Durga Vahini
would not be involved in the meeting officially but only its
activists.
...
Equally topping the agenda of the meeting is the issue of religious
conversions allegedly carried out by the Roman Catholic Church and
alleged terrorist activities at the behest of the Baptist churches in
the North Eastern region, informs Chowgule.
The meeting, he said, would also discuss the threat caused to Haridwar
and Ganga due to the Tehri dam and a grand ceremony to be organised
next year on the occasion of completion of 50 years of the Somnath
temple.
Objecting strongly to the statement made by Pope John Paul II that
mankind can get salvation only through Jesus Christ, Chowgule also
demanded a reaction from the Indian church whether they have a
different viewpoint on it.
Justifying the demand made by the RSS for a swadeshi church, he also
reiterated the VHP stand that Hinduism is the real nationalism in
India and those who believe in Hindu civilisation can only be called
the nationalists."I am not saying that Indian Christians are anti-
nationals", he added.
Expressing fear over Pope's call to dedicate the new millennium to
convert whole Asia into Christianity, he said the margadarshak mandal
would deliberate upon how to counter the threat of religious
conversions and save Hinduism in the Asian region.
Goan Voice UK: Newsletter. Issue 2006-46. Nov. 16, 2006 - [Cached
Version]
Published on: 11/16/2006 Last Visited: 2/7/2010
Goa's Chowgule Group is mulling an entry into building ships for
overseas markets, Ashok Chowgule, the group's shipyard-division
executive director revealed during a visit this week to London. They
are currently building ships at their Loutolim and Rassaim yards in
the state of Goa
ITI-GOA-photogallery - [Cached Version]
Published on: 2/11/2006 Last Visited: 11/6/2009
Chowgule seen 'inking' the M.O.A.
State Director & Shri. Ashok Chowgule, Exec. Dir., M/s. Chowgule
Shipyard Pvt. Ltd., Vasco exchanging the M.O.A. documents State
Director giving a listening ear to our Hon'Minister, Shri.
Iraq\'s maritime industry expects boost with Gulf... - [Cached
Version]
Published on: 11/6/2004 Last Visited: 4/10/2006
Ashok Chowgule, chairman and managing director of Chowgule and Co. in
India, as a Gulf Maritime participant, agreed.
?We specialize in building barges and other carriers for many years in
India.Gulf Maritime, we are confident, will give us the opportunity to
tap the increased demand for the same in this region,?Chowgule said.
MiddleEastEvents.com - The rebuilding of Iraq to fuel... - [Cached
Version]
Published on: 9/11/2003 Last Visited: 9/5/2006
Mr. Ashok Chowgule, Chairman and Managing Director of Chowgule and Co.
from India, a participant at Gulf Maritime readily confirms this
trend.
Navhind Times on the Web: Openspace - [Cached Version]
Published on: 8/30/2003 Last Visited: 9/4/2003
The President of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (Goa and Maharashtra) Ashok
Chowgule asks in an interview with Umesh Mahambre why no Christian
organisations are protesting when the churches in UK and US disallow
yoga classes inside their premisesThe VHP welcomed the Tamil Nadu
legislation banning religious conversions, saying it should be adopted
by all states.Isn't it an anti-constitutional demand?
‘RSS-VHP Serve Their Political Agenda'
The activities of Graham Staines - Christian Aggression - [Cached
Version]
Published on: 10/30/2003 Last Visited: 4/1/2008
Ashok Chowgule
Deceased Graham Stewart Staines (hereinafter referred to as 'Staines')
as an Australian National whose tryst with Mayurbhanj in Orissa began
in the year 1965 when he made rendezvous with its District Headquarter
at Baripada for treatment and eradication of Leprosy amongst the poor
and did an excellent job in the field.He became the honorary Secretary
of Baripada Leprosy Home.He was also the Secretary of the Evangelical
Missionary Society of Mayurbhanj (EMSM).As a missionary, he was
preaching Gospel and spreading the tenets of Christianity in jungle
camps held in different tribal belts in the district of Mayurbhanj and
Keonjhar.
The zealots who would inherit - [Cached Version]
Published on: 2/16/1999 Last Visited: 5/1/2002
From: Ashok ChowgulePresident,
Vishva Hindu Parishad - [Cached Version]
Published on: 2/5/2002 Last Visited: 6/29/2006
SECULARIST ANGST - ASHOK CHOWGULEVishva Hindu Parishad
51-53 of 53 online sources for Ashok Chowgule
nude police -- nude police - [Cached Version]
Published on: 1/12/2001 Last Visited: 7/2/2006
NEWS : Police question Husain over nude painting Posted By Ashok V
Chowgule (ash...@giasbm01.vsnl.net.in) Sat, 18 Jan 97 22:30:33 EST
Messages sorted by: [ author ] [ date ][ subject ][ thread ...
‘I want what is mine’ - [Cached Version]
Published on: 7/27/2001 Last Visited: 4/14/2002
‘I want what is mine' Ashok Chowgule, explains the logic behind the
VHP's agenda
For a man who almost brought Mumbai to a halt on March 1, Ashok
Chowgule, Maharashtra president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), is
a picture of peace.Seated in his high-rise apartment at Peddar Road,
which is painted white and has huge paintings adorning the walls,
Chowgule said that the Ayodhya mission is not the culmination of
failed talks with the Muslims but with so-called secularists.
At what point did the dialogue with the Muslim leadership fail?Why
such haste in the plans?
It is not failed talks with Muslims that has created this situation
but the failure of talks with those who call themselves secularists
that has made us more steadfast in our aim.And we had explained our
plans in great detail earlier.After the 100-day maha yagna ends on
March 15, we will claim what is ours at Ayodhya.
‘I’m happy organisers had sense’ - [Cached Version]
Published on: 2/19/2007 Last Visited: 2/19/2007
When contacted, VHP president Ashok Chougule said, "I am happy the
organisers had some sense in them."
http://www.zoominfo.com/Search/PersonDetail.aspx?PersonID=39038676
...More to follow about this Hindu rascal
bademiyansubhanallah
The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam
Biography, Audio
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Preface: The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam By Dr.
Muhammad Iqbal
Lecture 1: Knowledge and Religious Experience
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Focus on Islam, Jihad and Terrorism
Condemning "Islamist" terrorist attack on Mumbai in harshest terms
Can Ulema save Muslims from Radical Islamism?
Indian Ulema have no time to lose, must call warlike Quranic surahs
obsolete.
Jihadism gets sustenance from verses of war in the Quran
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Dr. Zakir Naik on Yazeed and Osama bin Laden - A New Age Islam Debate
Unveiling Zakir Naik: Terror cannot be fought with Terror
Comments - 148
On Televangelist Zakir Naik: Don't give in to pretenders
Comments - 31
Beware of the Kafir-manufacturing factories: Maulana Nadeem-ul-Wajidi
responds to the Fatawahs of Kufr against Dr. Zakir Naik
Comments - 41
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Comments - 163
The War within Islam
10 Nov 2009, NewAgeIslam.Com
Drama at Deoband: Spurious claims of Indian Muslim leadership
Murky goings-on within the Jamiat-ul-ulema
‘You won’t spot a single modern-educated Muslim in this huge
carnival’, said Faisal, the owner of a bookshop located adjacent to
the Darul Uloom. ‘The maulvis shun them, not just because they donâ
€™t find them religious enough but also because they fear that they
will challenge their hegemony’. He indicated the crowd surging past
his shop. Their features, dress and mannerisms all revealed, he said,
that they were all poor peasants, madrasa teachers or maulvis. ‘The
maulvis have little or no understanding of the modern world, so how
can they provide us Muslims with proper leadership?’, he continued. â
€˜But because the Muslim middle class remains indifferent to community
issues, engrossed in their pursuit of material acquisition or simply
too scared to speak out against the mullahs’ obscurantist views, the
mullahs’ hold on the community continues unchallenged’. ‘Thatâ
€™s why lakhs of Muslims have so easily been mobilized by the Jamiat
for this mela’. -- Yoginder Sikand, Islamic affairs analyst
URL of this Page: http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamIslamicWorldNews_1.aspx?ArticleID=2079
-----
Drama at Deoband: Spurious claims of Indian Muslim leadership
By Yoginder Sikand, TwoCircles.net
9 November 2009
Last week, tens of thousands of men—this was a strictly all-male
gathering—descended on the town of Deoband in Uttar Pradesh’s
Saharanpur district to attend the 30th annual convention of the Jamiat
Ulema-I-Hind, a leading body of Muslim clerics of the ultra-
conservative Deobandi sect. Sources claimed that the gathering
numbered over five hundred thousand, brought in from across India.
Impassable crowds clogged the narrow, dusty pathways leading to the
venue of the rally, and so, although I had travelled all the way from
Bangalore to report on the event, I had to content myself by listening
to the speeches relayed by loudspeakers while sitting a mile away, in
the portals of the Darul Uloom, possibly the world’s largest madrasa
and the nerve-centre of the Deobandi movement.
The event commenced with a maulvi reciting an Urdu poem extolling the
sacrifices of the ulema of the Jamiat in India’s freedom struggle. â
€˜Were it not for us’, he burst forth, ‘you’—by which he
probably meant the Hindus of India—‘would still be labouring under
the yoke of the British.’ ‘We stiffly opposed the creation of
Pakistan. We have sacrificed our lives for the country. We condemn all
forms of terror. We love our India, whether or not you believe thisâ
€™, he went on. The men sitting around me—dressed, like the rest of
the crowd, in white kurta-pyjama, and sporting unkempt beards and
white skull-caps—enthusiastically shook their heads in agreement.
Like the maulvi-poet, they laboured under the burden of being forced
to prove their patriotism, their anti-Pakistani credentials, and their
opposition to terrorism—an unenviable predicament they were
compelled to share with the rest of their co-religionists at a time of
heightened Islamophobia the world over.
More than the speeches delivered at the rally it was the response of
some of those who attended the event, including a number of students
and graduates of the Darul Uloom, that interested me. And, among
these, it were the cynics who impressed me the most. ‘This is just a
political stunt orchestrated by the self-styled head of the Jamiat,
Maulana Mahmud Madani’, said Akram, a peasant from a village near
Saharanpur. ‘The rally is simply a show of strength, to impress upon
the Congress his claim to be the leader of the Muslims, and to curry
favour with Congress bosses’.
Akram spoke of murky goings-on within the Jamiat. ‘These selfish
mullahs can never agree, though they keep harping on Muslim unity.
They love nothing more than fighting among themselves.’ The Jamiat
had split into several rival groups, he explained. One was led by the
recently deceased Maulana Fuzail. The other two were headed by Maulana
Arshad Madani and his nephew, Maulana Mahmud Madani, respectively.
Maulana Arshad had recently organized an anti-terrorism conference,
which had invited much media attention. Not to be outdone, Akram
explained, Mahmud, who had emerged as his principal rival, had now
arranged for this mammoth rally. ‘A petty game of one-upmanship’,
Akram remarked. Mahmud’s branch of the Jamiat, he claimed, had
splurged vast sums of money for this purpose, subsidizing train fares
to the men who had been brought in, lured by the prospect of a free
holiday in Deoband and free chicken biryani - ‘neither of which’,
Akram joked, ‘a true Deobandi could ever refuse’. ‘How can these
mullahs unite the Muslims and speak for us, when they cannot even
unite among themselves?’, he angrily spluttered.
‘You won’t spot a single modern-educated Muslim in this huge
carnival’, said Faisal, the owner of a bookshop located adjacent to
the Darul Uloom. ‘The maulvis shun them, not just because they donâ
€™t find them religious enough but also because they fear that they
will challenge their hegemony’. He indicated the crowd surging past
his shop. Their features, dress and mannerisms all revealed, he said,
that they were all poor peasants, madrasa teachers or maulvis. ‘The
maulvis have little or no understanding of the modern world, so how
can they provide us Muslims with proper leadership?’, he continued. â
€˜But because the Muslim middle class remains indifferent to community
issues, engrossed in their pursuit of material acquisition or simply
too scared to speak out against the mullahs’ obscurantist views, the
mullahs’ hold on the community continues unchallenged’. ‘Thatâ
€™s why lakhs of Muslims have so easily been mobilized by the Jamiat
for this mela’.
Bilal, a student of the Darul Uloom, decried the opposition of the
Jamiat leaders to madrasa reforms, which was reflected in the
resolution they passed at the conclusion of the conference decrying
the suggestion that the Government set up a national madrasa board. â
€˜These politically influential maulvis send their sons to modern
schools and even abroad, but they won’t let us madrasa students,
most of who come from very poor families, learn anything about the
modern world. They want us to remain ignorant so that they can
continue to play politics in our name.’ He pointed to an open drain
that ran along the wall outside the madrasa, clogged with grey water,
plastic bags and blobs of fresh human refuse, out of which emerged an
overpowering, nauseous sulphurous stench. Ahead, built into the
outside wall of a mosque, a door-less toilet was littered with
excrement that spilled out onto the street. ‘According to a saying
attributed to the Prophet, cleanliness is half of faith. And so, as
you can see, here half our faith is in the gutters!’
Bilal took me around the hostels of the madrasa, into dark, dingy
airless rooms, each shared by more than half a dozen students. Cobwebs
hung like thick curtains in corners, and the floors were strewn with
filth. The scenario was even more pathetic at the nearby Darul Uloom
Waqf, a madrasa set up by a rival group of Deobandi maulvis in the
wake of a coup engineered by the Madani family that forcibly ousted
the then rector of the Deoband madrasa, Maulana Qari Tayyeb, in 1980.
Vegetable peels and waste daal and rice law thrown around in large
puddles outside the students’ rooms, under vast armies of flies. â
€˜The maulvis here, who never tire of claiming to be heirs of the
Prophet, simply don’t care about all this. All they hanker after is
power and fame’, Bilal rued.
The next morning’s newspapers gave wide coverage to the Deoband
rally, focusing particularly on one of the many resolutions that the
Jamiat had passed—its opposition to the compulsory singing of the
Vande Mataram song. Rizwan, a graduate of the Dar ul-Ulum, now
teaching in a Deobandi madrasa in Agra, summed up what seemed to be a
widely-shared feeling among the participants at the rally. ‘We love
India, but it is ridiculous to demand that our loyalty be tested on
the basis of our attitude to this song.’ The song, originally
contained in a book that openly spewed hatred against Muslims, had
generated a major stir even in pre-independence days, he explained. It
was also, he pointed out, unacceptable not just to Muslims but to
other monotheists, for it spoke of the worship of the motherland as a
deity. At the same time, he added, there was simply no need for the
Jamiat to have raked up the issue that had been lying dormant for
years. ‘It’s probably a deliberate tactic of Maulana Mahmud and
his cronies to leap into the limelight by igniting a controversy and
then presenting themselves as leaders of the Muslims’, he mused.
Rizwan was equally critical of the media coverage of the rally. ‘The
media has pounced on the Vande Mataram issue, conveniently ignoring
the other resolutions passed at the rally—the Jamiat’s
condemnation of terrorism, its demand for the implementation of the
recommendations of the Sachar Committee report, its call for combating
communalism and providing security to Muslims and so on’. ‘Like
our self-styled leaders behind this Jamiat-sponsored drama’, he
added ‘the media, too, is simply not interested in the welfare of
the Muslim masses. They both revel in stirring wholly avoidable
controversies, while it is the hapless Muslim masses who continue to
suffer, and whose voices continue to go unheard.’
URL of this Page: http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamIslamicWorldNews_1.aspx?ArticleID=2079
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COMMENTS
11/15/2009 4:02:40 PM Ashok Chowgule,Vice-President, VHP
From: Ashok Chowgule
To: Sultan Shahin Edi...@NewAgeIslam.com
Date: 2009/11/15
Subject: On Yoginer Sikand
Dear Sultanji,
Pranam,
In the article, available at twocircles.net and posted on your
website,
http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=2094
Yoginder Sikand says: "A recently-reprinted Urdu booklet published by
the Jamiat provides the best guide to the Jamiat's committed patriotic
stance since pre-1947 times."
Perhaps you may wish to forward the enclosed two articles to him. The
first expands on what Smt Tavleen Singh wrote in March 2008 on the
Jamait, and the second is a very recent article by Smt Singh herself.
In addition, could you also please bring to his notice what the Jamait
had to say about itself as far back as 1924? This is what Hamid
Dalwai wrote:
"Mauè¡ ana Hussain Ahmad Madni was considered a great 'Nationalist
Muslim' leader. He was President of Jamiat-e-Ulema-i-Hind. When the
ulema convened a conferè‹Ÿnce in Delhi in the year 1945, he said in
his presidential address, 'It is the non-Muslims who are the field of
action for this 'tabligh' of Islam and form the raw material for this
splendid activity....We are opposed to the idea of limiting the right
of missionary activities of Islam within any particular area. The
Muslims have got a right in all the nooks and corners of India by
virtue of the great struggle and great sacrifices of their ancestors
in this country.
Now it is our duty to maintain that claim and try to widen its scope,
instead of giving it up.' (The Deoband School and the Demand for
Paki貞tan, Z H Faruqi, Asia Publishing House, Bombay, 1963, p
117.)....The same learned Maulana has said elsewhere, 'If Dara had
trièµ´mphed, Muslims would have stayed in India, but not Islam. Since
Aurangzeb triumphed, both Muslims and Islam were here to stay.'" [Shri
Hamid Dalwai, Muslim Politics in Secular India, pp 62-3. Latest
edition. Dalwai Hamid, "Muslim Politicis in India", Indian Secular
Society, Mumbai, 2002. pp 47-48]
As I had said to you before, I think the problem for the Muslims in
India is not the obscurantist leadership, but the moderate Muslims and
the secular Hindus who bend backwards to rationalise these
obscurantists.
Namaste
Ashok Chowgule, Vice-President, Vishwa Hindu Parishad
----
In The Obscurantist "World Of Fatwas"
Letter To 'The New Indian Express'
Dear Sir,
Reference the report "Vande Mataram Remains Out Of Tune With Islam" -
(TNIE-04 NOV)
In a 'revealing' article entitled "Reading between the lines of
Deoband fatwa " in your sister publication - Indian Express of 01 Mar
2008 - columnist Tavleen Singh wrote: "The scariest religious
institution I have ever been to is the Darul Uloom in Deoband. In the
hour I spent wandering about its grounds on my single uninvited visit
a couple of years ago I understood why it had inspired the Taliban. It
is an institution that remains frozen in seventh century Arabia, a
time when men were primitive and women got a primitive deal. I saw one
woman while I was there and she was veiled to the eyeballs. The angry
young students I met were Islamists to a man and the maleficent power
of Saudi Arabia manifested itself in their refusal to speak to me
because they were only allowed to speak Arabic. So they said. This
most important Islamic seminary on the Indian sub-continent may not be
directly training jihadis but it is responsible for perpetuating a
narrow, literal interpretation of Islam which is the ideology that
inspires the jihad ". Your report also spoke of the Home Minister
'singing paens' for the Deoband Fatwa on Terror issued in 2008.
However, Tavleen Singh presents a more realistic contrarian opinion in
the article: "Last week, when I heard the Darul Uloom had condemned
terrorism, I went disbelievingly to their website to download a copy
of the declaration made at the end of the conference of bearded
mullahs. This is what I found. - - - . So far so good, but the next
paragraph and the one after clarifies that the Darul Uloom's idea of
terrorism is different to yours and mine. It's not attacks by Islamist
suicide bombers on us idol-worshippers that they are worried about but
attacks on Muslims. Listen. 'The Conference expresses its deep concern
and agony on the present global and national alarming conditions (sic)
in which most of the nations are adopting such an attitude against
their citizens, especially Muslims, to appease the tyrant and colonial
master of the West . . . the conference strongly demands the Indian
Government (sic) to curb those maligning the madrassas and Muslims'.
As I suspected, nothing has changed in the cloistered world of the
Darul Uloom. If it had the declaration should have contained at least
one reference to innocent infidels being killed by Islamist suicide
bombers as they prayed in temples and went home from work on Mumbai's
commuter trains ".
Dr Walid Pares, a former PLO Jihadi commented on the Fatwa as follows:
"These statements could be seen as impressive when quoted by news
agencies rushing to break the good news, but to the seasoned analysts
of Salaafism, the solid doctrinal roots of jihadism were kept
untouched. The logic of "we are Muslims and we are against terrorism"
helps significantly the disassociation between the community and the
acts of violence. However, without criticising the ideological roots
of this violence, the fatwa seems to state a wishful thinking, not an
injunction. A more powerful fatwa should have openly and expressly
said: "We reject the calls for violent jihad regardless of the
motives." For the followers of jihadism do not consider their jihad as
'terrorism'. Their answer has always been - to these types of fatwas -
"but we aren't performing terrorism, we are conducting jihad". Thus,
at this crucial level, the Deobandi fatwa missed the crux of the
problem. The fatwa is concerned with geopolitics more than theological
reform. Concern for the safety of one's co-religionists is of course
legitimate and should be addressed. But jihad, the legitimising root
of political violence, cannot be ignored in any effort to protect the
lives of Muslims. But instead of using their religious prominence to
remove the theological weapon from the hands of the jihadis, the
Deobandi clerics are attempting to shield the jihadis from the actions
of Governments by denying that these extremists are indeed using - and
abusing – religion. Therefore, in terms of identification of terror
entities, the edict has failed to show its followers who is the terror
perpetrator. This text simply doesn't bring novelty to the debate
about jihadi-rooted terrorism". So much for the 'P.C. Paens'!!!
Let's turn to the 'un-Islamic' practice of singing the Vande Mataram.
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's sublimated love for Mother India was
adopted by the Congress in pre-Independent India to be sung before the
start of every AICC session. The first banner of revolt against its
singing was raised by Maulana Mohammad Ali (of the Khalifat Infame) at
the 1923 Kakinada AICC session. He reasoned that in Islam, music was
forbidden.
Earlier, in 1922, to appease Muslim sentiments, Iqbal's " Sare Jahan
Se Acha ", had been adopted by the 'dhimmi' Congress as 'Associate
National Anthem'. But it was in 1937, the fuse blew on this 'revered
hymn' of Indians. The Muslim League had then instructed "Muslim
members of various Legislatures and public bodies in the country not
to associate themselves in any manner with this highly objectionable
song ", and termed it as "callous, positively anti-Islamic, idolatrous
in its inspiration and ideas, and definitively subversive of the
growth of genuine nationalism in India ". In an act of 'craven
capitulation', the CWC in Oct 1937 at Kolkata, decided to retain only
the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram and scrapped the rest on the
logic they "contained certain allusions and a religious ideology which
may not be in keeping with the ideology of other religious groups in
India ", and upheld " the validity of objections raised by Muslim
friends to certain parts of the song ". Forgotten by the 'dhimmi'
Congress was how this Hymn played a stellar role in the reunification
of Bengal in 1911 after its Partition in 1905!!
I have also observed the usage of the term 'saffron' in a pejorative
sense by the ' convent school educated-English speaking-deracinated-
'secular' Indian scribes', as Anita Saluja has done on the inside page
of date!! One wonders if the likes of Anita and ilk are aware of the
fact that the AICC session of 1931 in Karachi, had recommended on the
basis of a report by a 'Committee of Seven ' the National Flag to be:
'Saffron in colour with a charkha in reddish-brown in the extreme left-
hand corner '. This 'dirty & communal seven ' were: Sardar Patel,
Pandit Nehru, Maulana Azad, Master Tara Singh, D.B. Kalelkar, Dr.N.S.
Hardikar, and, Dr.Pattabhi Sitaramaya. The Committee stated, among
others: "If there is one colour that is more acceptable to the indians
as a whole, even as it is more distinctive than another, one that is
associated with this ancient country by long tradition, it is the
kesari or saffron colour". Says all about the cancerous deracination
that has set in, in present day Indians!! How the tri-colour came into
being is another instance of 'Congress Appeasement'!!
Media reports earlier had also alluded to the Muslims objecting to the
worship of the 'Mother'. 'Spins' and obfuscations on the subject
notwithstanding, a plausible explanation for this Muslim objection may
be found in the 'Hadits' by Shahi Muslim. In his excellent research &
scholarship, Arun Shourie, in his "The World of Fatwas: or The Sharia
in Action ", wrote: " There are different reasons for it. [For the
prophet being forbidden to pray at his mother's grave]. The one
obvious reason is that the mother of Hazrat Mohammad (may peace be
upon him) was not a believer in the technical sense of the term. [She
died when the prophet was six years old and before he had received the
revelations]. She had lived in the intermittent period. Her status in
religion is, therefore, best known to god. The holy prophet (may peace
be upon him) was, therefore, forbidden to seek forgiveness for her,
since her position as a believer was not explicit. If the holy prophet
had been allowed to do this, it could lead to misgiving among the
people and they would believe that forgiveness could be even sought by
non-Muslims" (pp- 183-184).
Thus, technically the Prophet's mother died a 'Kafir'. If that be so,
then what status for 'Kafir - Mother India'? And, India is Dar-ul-
Harb !! So no to 'Vande Mataram'. No more. No less.
A question arose in my mind - why should a 'secular' Union Minister
pay obeisance to such a crass 'fundamentalist organization'? Again,
Shourie gives us the illumination: "The Indian State is of course
worse. As the ulema control the community, it is to the ulema, and to
those who speak their language [like the AIMPLB] that the state
genuflects. As the state has got weaker, the ulema have been able to
press their campaigns with greater and greater ease. And in turn they
have been able to fortify their hold over the community by
demonstrating that it is to them that the state bends- outside the
legal system of the country". (pp - 63-64)
In a hard-hitting opinion entitled " The clash of uncivilisations ",
written about the prevailing mores in the U.K., Melaine Philips wrote:
" Liberal society cannot see them as a threat [ Islamofacism ]
because, under the prevailing doctrines of multiculturalism and moral
relativism, minorities can never be guilty of prejudice or bad deeds.
Only the 'far right', it appears, can be racist".
How very true of the Indian scene also? !! Explains the 'crawling' of
P.C. at Deoband!! JAI HO!!
"VANDE MATARAM"
Warm Regards
H.Balakrishnan, CHENNAI - 600 090
11/13/2009 8:23:05 PM Ashok Chowgule
From: Ashok Chowgule
Date: 2009/11/13
Subject: Article by Yoginder Sikand
To: Sultan Shahin Edi...@NewAgeIslam.com
Dear Sultanji,
Pranam,
In the article, posted on your website, the introduction starts as
follows:
'You won't spot a single modern-educated Muslim in this huge
carnival', said Faisal, the owner of a bookshop located adjacent to
the Darul Uloom. 'The maulvis shun them, not just because they don't
find them religious enough but also because they fear that they will
challenge their hegemony'.
But haven't the modern-educated Muslims praised the Jamait for their
fatwa against terrorist?
As as the Jamait is concerned, this is what Hamid Dalwai, who was one
of the founders of Muslim Satyashodak Manch, had written some time in
the 1960s:
"Mauè¡ ana Hussain Ahmad Madni was considered a great 'Nationalist
Muslim' leader. He was President of Jamiat-e-Ulema-i-Hind. When the
ulema convened a conferè‹Ÿnce in Delhi in the year 1945, he said in
his presidential address, 'It is the non-Muslims who are the field of
action for this 'tabligh' of Islam and form the raw material for this
splendid activity....We are opposed to the idea of limiting the right
of missionary activities of Islam within any particular area. The
Muslims have got a right in all the nooks and corners of India by
virtue of the great struggle and great sacrifices of their ancestors
in this country.
Now it is our duty to maintain that claim and try to widen its scope,
instead of giving it up.' (The Deoband School and the Demand for
Paki貞tan, Z H Faruqi, Asia Publishing House, Bombay, 1963, p
117.)....The same learned Maulana has said elsewhere, 'If Dara had
trièµ´mphed, Muslims would have stayed in India, but not Islam. Since
Aurangzeb triumphed, both Muslims and Islam were here to stay.'" [Shri
Hamid Dalwai, Muslim Politics in Secular India, pp 62-3. Latest
edition. Dalwai Hamid, "Muslim Politicis in India", Indian Secular
Society, Mumbai, 2002. pp 47-48]
Namaste
Ashok Chowgule
11/11/2009 8:25:22 PM Juhi
The cynicism of people participating in the rally is eye-opening. A
common person understands the politics behind the stance the 'ulama
take. And that their disinterest in the cleanliness in and around the
madrasa is symptomatic of the larger disease of not caring much about
education as a means of participating in the modern world. They can
probably teach a centuries-old syllabus with no changes to generations
of people, but ignore that the Prophet said to go as far as China to
acquire knowledge. Of course, it wasn't religious knowledge he was
talking about.
On the other hand, what the media chose to concentrate on also
perpetuates the same backwardness. How about bringing up every day the
concerns raised by Sachchar Commission? How can the media expect
Muslims (who are educationally and economically not doing well) to
talk rationally?
Islam,Terrorism and Jihad
29 Nov 2008, NewAgeIslam.Com
Massacre in Mumbai: L-e-T role clear. Should Muslims continue to be in
denial?
When terrorist attacks on Mumbai started taking a toll of lives and
news started coming of ATF chief having been gunned down, it was a
natural, though too hasty, reaction on the part of many, Muslims as
well as liberal Hindus, that Hindutva terrorists must be somehow
involved. Martyred State ATS chief Hemant Karkare was being threatened
by Hindu right elements for his painstaking investigation into
Malegaon blasts in which the needle of suspicion has started clearly
pointing to Hindutva elements. But now there seems to be clear
evidence that this was the handiwork of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba terrorists.
As reported by Praveen Swami of The Hindu (posted below), last month,
the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba’s supreme religious and political head, Hafiz
Mohammad Saeed, made a signal speech to top functionaries: “The only
language India understands is that of force, and that is the language
it must be talked to in.†Lashkar founder Hafiz Mohammad Saeed’s
October 19 speech, delivered before an audience of key Lashkar leaders
including Maulana Amir Hamza, Qari Muhammad Yaqoob Sheikh and Muhammad
Yahya Mujahid at the organisation’s headquarters in Lahore, has come
to light. He reportedly stressed the point that he saw India as an
existential threat. India, he claimed, was building dams in Jammu and
Kashmir to choke Pakistan’s water supplies and cripple its
agriculture., earlier too, in an October 6 speech, Saeed claimed that
India had “made a deal with the United States to send 1,50,000
Indian troops to Afghanistan,†and that it agreed to support the
U.S. in an existential war against Islam. Finally, in a sermon to a
congregation at the Jama Masjid al-Qudsia in Lahore at the end of
October, Saeed proclaimed that there was an “ongoing war in the
world between Islam and its enemies.†He claimed “that crusaders
of the east and west have united in a cohesive onslaught against
Muslims.â€
Nothing could make L-e-T’s intentions clearer. This apart, there are
any number of statements available in the public domain of L-e-T’s
desire to derail India-Pakistan peace process. Their objective of
waging what they call a holy war against the whole world to establish
the supremacy of what they call Islam is well-known. One compilation
made by K P S Gill of a few such statements is being posted below.
Yet the Batla House syndrome seems to have taken hold of our minds so
powerfully that some of us are still seeking to find holes in the
official view of what transpired in Mumbai. Ghulam Muhammed’s
QUESTIONS IN PUBLIC ARENA ABOUT THE NIGHT OF TERROR IN MUMBAI is also
being posted below for reference. So is Amaresh Misra’s rather hasty
conclusions drawn on the very night the terrorist strike started.
I would appeal to NewAgeIslam.com’s reader’s to go through these
documents and debate whether Muslims in India should appear to be
batting for Lashkar-eTayyaba’s terrorists, as they would appear to
be doing if this syndrome persists and more Muslims started talking in
these terms. Let us nip this menace in the bud.
Sultan Shahin, Editor, NewAgeIslam.com
URL: http://newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1030
****
2008/11/27
From: Ghulam Muhammed
To: Sultan Shahin <edi...@newageislam.com>
Thursday, November 27, 2008
QUESTIONS IN PUBLIC ARENA ABOUT THE NIGHT OF TERROR IN MUMBAI
1. With death threats against him already on record, why ATS Chief
Hemant Karkare exposed himself on the streets of Mumbai as shown by TV
clips, putting his safety helmet on? Who shot him? The terrorists or
some insider? Had he got his fate sealed with his successes in
exposing the hitherto hidden Hindu terrorism side of Hindutva
movement in India?
2. How 'Nariman House' came into the focus of the terrorists? Why
Indian TV Channels refrained from mentioning that the building was a
residence of Israeli Jews in India, owned by a Jewish trust, Chabad-
Lubavitch, as reported by Jerusalem Post. JP reported: Chabad-
Lubavitch fears for the safety of its Mumbai rabbi.
3. Why there was no news of any harm done to either the hostages in
the Nariman House or the two five-star Hotels? Why the 'terrorists'
became so coy in carrying out their 'mission'. It smacks of some
dubious antecedents of the 'terrorists'.
4. Has the 'terrorist' attacks in Mumbai, has some connections with
the Delhi elections. It is being reported that BJP was to end up third
after Congress and BSP in the elections. If BJP were to do so badly in
Delhi elections, they would have to write off their hopes for a come-
back in next Lok Sabha elections.
5. Why CNN is connecting a local 'terrorist' attack to Al Qaida and
making grounds for US/UK/Israel to muscle into the imbroglio as
'interested parties', so as to dictate terms on Indian government.
Could it be a classic covert operation of entrapment of India?
6. Is India being prepared for a localized war with Pakistan?
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2008 10:48:21 +0530 [11/27/2008 10:48AM IST]
From: Ghulam Muhammed <ghulamm...@gmail.com>
To: Sultan Shahin <Edi...@NewAgeIslam.com>
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2008 10:48:21 +0530 [11/27/2008 10:48AM IST]
From: Ghulam Muhammed <ghulamm...@gmail.com>
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Amaresh Misra <<misra....@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Nov 27, 2008 at 4:50 AM
Subject: urgent
Mumbai and India Under Attack
It is 4AM in India right now. I am in Mumbai reporting from the
ground. I have not slept a wink. Mumbai is under attack. People and
forces who killed Mahatama Gandhi, who demolished the Babari Mosque
have triumphed. More than 16 groups of terrorists have taken over Taj,
Oberai and several hotels. Hundreds of people are dead. For the first
time no one is blaming Muslim organizations. The Mumbai ATS chief
Hemant Karkare and other officers of the ATS have been killed. These
were the same people who were investigating the Malegaon Blasts--in
which Praggya Singh, an army officer and several other noted
personalities of the BJP-RSS-Bajrang Dal-VHP were arrested. Karkare
was the man to arrest them. Karkare was receiving threats from several
quarters. LK Advani, the BJP chief and several other prominent leaders
of the so-called Hindu terrorism squad were gunning for his head. And
the first casualty in the terrorist attack was Karkare! He is dead--
gone--the firing by terrorists began from Nariman House--which is the
only building in Mumbai inhabited by Jews. Some Hindu Gujaratis of the
Nariman area spoke live on several TV channels--they openly said that
the firing by terrorists began from Nariman house. And that for two
years suspicious activities were going on in this house. But no one
took notice.
Our worst fears have come true. It is clear that
Mossad is involved in the whole affair. An entire city has been
attacked by Mossad and probably units of mercenaries. It is not
possible for one single organization to plan and execute such a
sophisticated operation. It is clear that this operation was backed by
communal forces from within the Indian State. The Home Minister
Shivraj Patil should resign. The RSS-BJP-VHP-Bajrang Dal should be
banned. Advani and others ought to be arrested. Today is a day of
shame for all Indians and all Hindus. Muslims and secular Hindus have
been proven right. RSS type forces and Israel are all involved in not
only destabilizing but finishing India. India should immediately snap
all relations with Israel. We owe this much to Karkare and the brave
ATS men who had shown the courage to arrest Praggya Singh, Raj Kumar
Purohit, the army officer and several others.
A photograph publushed in Urdu Times, Mumbai,
clearly shows that Mossad and ex-Mossad men came to India and met
Sadhus and other pro-Hindutva elements recently. A conspiracy was
clearly hatched.
This is a moment of reckoning especially for Hindus
of India. The killers of Gandhi have struck again. If we are true
Sanatanis and true Hindus and true nationalists and true patriots we
have to see this act as a clear attack by anti-national deshdrohi
forces. Praggya Singh, Advani and the entire brand is anti-national.
They ought to be shot. Any Hindu siding with them is hereafter warned
of serious consequences.
This is a question of nationalism. If no one else,
the Indian army will not take this lying down. Communal, anti-national
forces have attacked the very foundation of the Indian constitution
and the nation. We will fight a civil war if need be against the pro-
Hindutva, communal forces and their Israeli backers.
Amaresh Misra
Pakistan - Voices of Jehad
"May Allah destroy America and Britain… May Allah help the
Mujahedeen in Iraq, Kashmir, Palestine, Chechnya and around the
world."
Maulana Mohammed Ishaq, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) leader,
Islamabad, April 11, 2003.
"The holiest soil on earth is that of Pakistan and we cannot tolerate
the unholy presence of Nancy Powell on our holy land. Her presence
keeps us away from Allah's blessings. Pakistan should cleanse itself
from her unholy existence… Allah has told us to make atom bombs.
America is telling us not to. Who should we listen to O Muslims, Allah
or America? Kashmir will not be solved by talks, not by American
arbitration, not by its division but only by jihad, jihad, jihad!...
The Hindus were terrorists yesterday, they are terrorists today and
they will remain terrorists tomorrow. We are right in seeking revenge
from these spawns of evil."
- Taped speech of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, chief of Lashkar-e-Toiba,
played on Kashmir Day,
at the Jamia Mosque Ghousia, Rawalpindi, February 2003.
"I have come here because this is my duty to tell you that Muslims
should not rest in peace until we have destroyed America and India."
- Masood Azhar, Chief of Jaish-e-Mohammad, January 5, 2000.
"We pray that Iraqis would continue to resist American tyranny and
terror and we believe victory will come to them in the long run…
History would record the sacrifice of Iraqi people in defence of their
sovereignty and independence threatened by US imperialism… The
attack was motivated by US designs to grab oil resources of the Iraqi
people and enslave them."
- Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, Islamabad, April 10,
2003.
"We have the nuclear capability that can destroy Madras (India),
surely the same missile can do the same to Tel Aviv. Washington cannot
stop Muslim suicidal attacks. Taliban are still alive and along with
"friends" they will continue the holy jihad against the U.S. America
will destroy Iraq and later on repeat the same act of war against
Pakistan, Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia."
- Gen. Hamid Gul, former ISI chief, Islamabad, March 2003.
Many Western Scholars have pointed their accusing fingers at some of
the … verses in the Qur’an to be able to contend that world of
Islam is in a state of perpetual struggle against the non-Muslims. As
to them it is sufficient answer to make, if one were to point out,
that the defiance of God’s authority by one who is His slave exposes
that slave to the risk of being held guilty of treason and such a one,
in the perspective of Islamic law, is indeed to be treated as a sort
of that cancerous growth on that organism of humanity, which has been
created "Kanafsin Wahidatin" that is, like one, single, indivisible
self. It thus becomes necessary to remove the cancerous malformation
even if it be by surgical means (if it would not respond to other
treatment), in order to save the rest of Humanity… The idea of Ummah
of Mohammad, the Prophet of Islam, is incapable of being realised
within the framework of territorial states much less made an enduring
basis of viewing the world as having been polarised between the world
of Islam and the world of war. Islam, in my understanding, does not
subscribe to the concept of the territorial state…
Allah Buksh K. Brohi, "Preface", in Brigadier S.K. Malik,
The Quranic Concept of War, 1986, pp. xix-xx.
"Terror struck into the hearts of the enemies is not only a means, it
is the end in itself. Once a condition of terror into the opponent’s
heart is obtained, hardly anything is left to be achieved. It is the
point where the means and the end meet and merge. Terror is not a
means of imposing decision upon the enemy (sic); it is the decision we
wish to impose upon him."
- Brig. S.K. Malik, The Quranic Concept of War, 1986, p. 59.
America wants to destroy all Muslim countries one after another, so
let us go and fight in the way of Allah.
- Maulana Rahmatullah, Tanzeem-i-Ulma, Peshawar, April 3, 2003
If the U.S. attacks Iraq, the MMA alliance and all their supporters
will attack Washington and Tel Aviv.
- Sami ul-Haq, MMA leader, Islamabad, March 2003
There are thousands ready to go for Jihad but they are waiting for the
request from the Taliban.
- Maulana Mohammad Alam, Leader of Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi,
Peshawar, November 8, 2001
We will provide logistic support to the Taliban and will also provide
information about Americans if the present regime did not stop
supporting the US troops stationed in Pakistan.
- Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, Deputy Secretary-General, Jamaat-Ulema-e-Islam
(Fazlur faction), Hyderabad, October 30, 2001
The Taliban are a symbol of Islam. This will be a long war against the
infidel forces. They want to eliminate Muslims.
- Maulana Samiul Haq, Chief of his own faction of Jamaat-Ulema-e-
Islam,
Karachi, October 26, 2001
The United States has waged a crusade against the Muslims and,
unfortunately, Pakistan's rulers are supporting her to carry out the
genocide of Afghans in the name of curbing so-called terrorism…
Musharraf is playing the role of an informer of the US and Islam
declares the death penalty for such people.
- Sheikh Aqeelur Rehman, District President, Jamaat-e-Islami,
Muzaffarabad, October 26, 2001
American repression and imperialism is a challenge for the entire
Muslim world… [linking Osama with attacks in the US is part of a
plan to pave wave for the US’] sinister plans to strike against
Afghanistan.
- Joint statement by Jaish-e-Mohammad, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen,
Al Badr and Jamiat-ul- Mujahideen, September 19, 2001
The real war has just started… After Palestine and Afghanistan, now
Iraq will also give birth to holy warriors. Who will free me from the
clutches of Jews?
- Zarb-e-Momin, publication backed by Jaish-e-Mohammed, April 2003.
Muslim blood is being extracted to serve Jews' interest.
- Zarab-e-Taiba, publication backed by Lashkar-e-Toiba, April 2003.
"This is a matter of happiness for us that we are going to announce
the holy war against Bush and his cronies from NWFP where the members
of religious alliance are in power… It's enough and an eye opener
for the Muslim Ummah to retaliate immediately as God's enemies
(Americans and Britons) have imposed the worst kind of brutalities on
the innocent Muslims… The MMA government must take steps for sending
the faithful to Iraq to fight alongside their Iraqi brothers… Jihad
is the lone weapon with Muslims to safeguard their rights and honour
while such US attacks and cruelties on the Muslim would open more
doors of the holy war."
- Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, chief of Lashkar-e-Toiba, Peshawar, March 30,
2003.
"We do not consider ourselves separate from Taliban or Afghanistan.
Our history, our religion and blood and culture are the same. The
Taliban government is our ideal government and we want a similar one
in Pakistan because it has peace, equality and justice. We consider
the war against Osama and Taliban a war against us, Pakistanis and
Pakistan."
- Maulana Azam Tariq, Member of National Assembly from Jhang
constituency and chief of Sunni group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, January
2003.
The US can declare us terrorists, but even then, we will continue
waging war in India… The military government's biggest mistake is
that it is not wising up its own people on the crucial juncture in the
freedom movement in Kashmir… Pakistan must complete its nuclear
programme and strengthen its defence missile system to apply pressure
on India besides taking its own people into confidence… We must not
toe the US line in Afghanistan as it would be our greatest support in
case of war with India. Support from China and the Islamic world
should also be sought in this regard.
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, chief of Lashkar-e-Toiba, Karachi Press Club,
May 11, 2001.
Bush wants the world to embrace Christianity. Muslims are being
oppressed in Kashmir, Palestine, Bosnia, Chechnya and India. Muslim
women are being raped in these countries. Jihad, under such a
situation becomes obligatory… Jamaat will not confront with the
army, but continue to wage jihad in the world. War with the infidels
will not end through negotiations but through fighting. There is no
possibility of compromise with the infidels.
Hafiz Abdul Salam, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Patoki, Punjab province, during a
three-day convention, December 2002.Compiled by K. P. S. Gill,
strategic analyst, former DGP, Punjab, India.Source:
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/kpsgill/2003/chapter4.htm
India’s strategic deafness & the massacre in Mumbai
Praveen Swami
Had our political establishment acted on intelligence warnings, at
least 127 people who made the mistake of being in Mumbai on November
26 would still have been alive.
Last month, the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s supreme religious and political
head, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, made a signal speech to top functionaries:
“The only language India understands is that of force, and that is
the language it must be talked to in.â€
Had India’s strategic establishment listened, at least 127 people
who made the mistake of being in Mumbai on November 26 would still
have been alive. If more carnage is to be prevented, it is imperative
to understand the culture of strategic deafness that facilitated the
murderous attacks.
From the testimony of the arrested fidayeen Ajmal Amin Kamal, the
Maharashtra police have got their first insight into the role of
Lahore and Karachi-based Lashkar commanders in organising the attacks.
Both the Maharashtra police and other intelligence services of the
nation seem confident that they will succeed in demonstrating that the
guns in the hands of Kamal and his terror squad were directed by
commanders in Pakistan.
Comparison with U.S.
But even as India debates what the authorship of the attacks will mean
to Pakistan-India relations, commentators have been scrambling to
contrast India’s responses to terror with that of the United States.
While the U.S. has succeeded in blocking successive attempts to
execute attacks on its soil since the tragic events of September 11,
2001, the argument goes, India’s failure has been dismal.
Politicians have been quick to agree, blaming India’s intelligence
services for failing to predict the Mumbai terror attack. In fact, the
available evidence suggests that the boot is on the other foot:
despite credible intelligence that terrorists were planning attacks in
Mumbai and elsewhere, India’s political leadership failed to act.
Back in 2002, Indian intelligence informants began reporting that
Lashkar operatives were being trained in marine commando techniques
along the Mangla Dam, which straddles the border between Pakistan-
administered Kashmir and the province of Punjab. It soon became clear
that the Lashkar, which found it increasingly difficult to penetrate
India’s Line of Control defences, was hoping to open new routes
across the Indian Ocean — routes which would give it easy access to
key cities like Mumbai.
In 2006, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil was disturbed enough by
what India’s covert services were telling him to make a specific
mention of the need to step up counter-terrorism defences. Among the
intelligence that Mr. Patil based his speech on was the evolving story
of Faisal Haroun, a top Lashkar operative who commanded the terror
group’s India-focussed operations out of Bangladesh. In September
2006, Haroun was briefly held by Bangladesh authorities before he was
quietly deported. But a west European covert service obtained
transcripts of his questioning by Bangladesh’s Directorate-General
of Field Intelligence — evidence which shook up even India’s Home
Minister.
Haroun, it turned out, had been using a complex shipping network, and
merchant ships and small fishing boats, to move explosives to the
Lashkar units operating in India. Among the end-users of these
supplies was Ghulam Yazdani, a Hyderabad resident who commanded a
series of attacks, including the assassination of Gujarat pogrom-
complicit former Home Minister Haren Pandya and the June 2005 bombing
of the Delhi-Patna Shramjeevi Express. Investigators probing the
Haroun story determined that his network had helped to land a giant
consignment of explosives and assault rifles on the Maharashtra coast
for an abortive 2006 Lashkar-led attempt to bomb Gujarat.
India’s intelligence services determined that Haroun had been
attempting to set up an Indian Ocean base for the Lashkar. Along with
a Male-based Maldives resident, Ali Assham, Haroun had studied the
prospect of using a deserted island for building a Lashkar storehouse,
from where weapons and explosives could be moved to Kerala and then to
the rest of India. In 2007, when evidence emerged of heightened
Islamist activity in Maldives — including the bombing of tourists in
Male’s Sultan Park and the setting up of a Sharia-run mini-state on
the Island of Himandhoo — the seriousness of the threat to India’s
western seaboard became even more evident.
Last year, the Lashkar’s maritime capabilities were underlined once
again, when a group of eight fidayeen landed off Mumbai’s coast. On
that occasion, a superbly crafted intelligence operation enabled Coast
Guard ships to track the landing. Police in Maharashtra and Jammu and
Kashmir, acting on information provided by the Intelligence Bureau,
arrested the fidayeen. However, it was clear that the networks Haroun
was able to build were up and running.
Based on these warnings, New Delhi moved to step up coastal counter-
infiltration measures. In its 2007-2008 Annual Report, the Union
Ministry of Home Affairs detailed the measures put in place for â
€œstrengthening coastal security arrangements, to check infiltration.â
€ In liaison with the nine coastal States and Union Territories, it
said, funds had been earmarked to set up “73 coastal police stations
which will be equipped with 204 boats, 153 jeeps and 312 motorcycles
for mobility on coast and in close coastal waters. The coastal police
stations will also have a marine police with personnel trained in
maritime activities.â€
Painfully slow
Precise figures are unavailable, but officials in three States told
The Hindu that progress in realising the scheme was painfully slow.
Both Maharashtra and Gujarat inaugurated over a dozen coastal police
stations over the last year, but neither State set up a trained marine
police. Fewer than a dozen new boats were made available to the two
police forces. Without sophisticated surveillance equipment fitted on
board, their use for counter-infiltration work was at best
rudimentary. And while the Intelligence Bureau received sanction for
hiring small numbers of new personnel to man new costal surveillance
stations last year, it got neither boats nor observation equipment.
Despite credible intelligence of an imminent fidayeen assault,
emerging from the interrogation of Lashkar operative Fahim Ansari,
hotels and businesses failed to enhance their internal security
systems. Neither the Trident Hotel nor the Taj Mahal Hotel, for
example, had access control systems or a system to deal with a
terrorist attack or bombing. For weeks before the attacks, police
sources told The Hindu, Maharashtra police officials met with top
corporate security heads, attempting to convince them of the need to
invest in defending their facilities. Nothing was done.
Less than a week before the attacks, additional security stationed in
south Mumbai was withdrawn. Maharashtra — which at just 147
policemen for every 1,00,000 population or, expressed another way,
49.9 to guard every 100 square kilometres, falls well short of global
norms — simply did not have the resources to keep men tied up to
guard every potential target.
Even if police personnel had been stationed near the terrorist
targets, it is improbable that they could have intervened effectively.
Mumbai, unlike any western city of scale, had no specially-trained
emergency response team or a crisis-management centre with an
established drill to deal with a catastrophic terrorist assault. In
this, it was not exceptional: no Indian city has any crisis management
protocol in place. “People contrast the United States’ post-9/11
successes with our failures,†notes a Maharashtra police officer, â
€œbut they should also be contrasting the billions spent by that
country with the peanuts we have invested in our own security.â€
“The whole system is premised on the assumption that our
Intelligence Services will get a hundred per cent heads-up on the
precise timing of a terrorist attack,†one intelligence official
says, “but nowhere in the world does this happen. Intelligence is
only an aid to on-ground policing, not a substitute†.
India’s strategic responses were no better. Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh and his foreign policy advisers failed to read the sign that the
jihadist groups in Pakistan were sharpening their swords.
In Saeed’s October 19 speech, delivered before an audience of key
Lashkar leaders including Maulana Amir Hamza, Qari Muhammad Yaqoob
Sheikh and Muhammad Yahya Mujahid at the organisation’s headquarters
in Lahore, he made it clear that he saw India as an existential
threat. India, he claimed, was building dams in Jammu and Kashmir to
choke Pakistan’s water supplies and cripple its agriculture.
‘Ongoing war’
Earlier, in an October 6 speech, Saeed claimed that India had “made
a deal with the United States to send 1,50,000 Indian troops to
Afghanistan,†and that it agreed to support the U.S. in an
existential war against Islam. Finally, in a sermon to a congregation
at the Jamia Masjid al-Qudsia in Lahore at the end of October, Saeed
proclaimed that there was an “ongoing war in the world between Islam
and its enemies.†He claimed “that crusaders of the east and west
have united in a cohesive onslaught against Muslims.â€
India has learnt that not all terrorism stems from Pakistan: the
country has faced attacks from Indian Islamists, Hindutva groups, and
ethnic-chauvinist organisations in the northeast. Each form of hate
has fed and legitimised the other. But this circle of hate has been
driven by organisations based in Pakistan too — jihadist groups
which have demonstrated that while they are friends of the Inter-
Services Intelligence Directorate, they are enemies of the people of
Pakistan. In his recent address to the nation, Prime Minister Singh
warned that he intends to “raise the costs†for those waging war
against India. He could start by demanding that Pakistan President
Asif Ali Zardari act against such groups — and then consider what
can be done, if need be, to compel him to do so.
http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/29/stories/2008112953970800.htm
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
CIA, MOSSAD HAND BEHIND SANGH PARIVAR'S EXTREMISTS! - Rashtriya
Sahara, Urdu Daily, Mumbai
ViaMedia.MumbaiNews
FRONT-PAGE AND EDIT PAGE NEWS AND ANALYSIS FROM MUMBAI'S URDU
NEWSPAPERS TRANSLATION FROM URDU FREE SERVICE FOR WORLD MEDIA
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Rashtriya Sahara, Urdu Daily, Mumbai
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Front Page News
CIA, MOSSAD HAND BEHIND SANGH PARIVAR'S EXTREMISTS!
Central Intelligence Agencies vigilant investigating in the aftermath
of Malegaon blast; Enquiry being held into the February 2007 visit of
prominent Israeli religious delegation and meetings with Hindutvadi
Sadhu, Sanths and political leaders; Mossad infiltration a cause of
deep concern for Intelligence officials
New Delhi, November 25: (Agencies) – According to an exposé in a
national daily published from Madhya Pradesh and several other cities,
in the aftermath of the arrests of Sadhu, Sadhvi, and other extremist
Hindutvadis as involved in the Malegaon bomb blast, Intelligence
agencies are now concentrating on foreign connections of the radical
Hindutvadis.
In an special report published by the national daily, it has exposed
this sensational news that in central intelligence agencies are to be
believed, extremist Hindutvadis have got support and motivation from
Israeli secret agency, Mossad's operations against the Arab and Muslim
countries in the past.
The newspaper writes that relations between Mossad and CIA are world
known. Report mentions that intelligence agencies are worried about
the infiltration of Mossad and CIA in the country. According to
undisclosed sources, Indian intelligence agencies are now examining
the full details of the visit of Israel's religious leaders to India
and their meetings withSadhu, Sanths. Intelligence agencies are
investigating all those Hindu and Muslim leaders that the Israeli
religious delegation had met.
According to the newspaper, it was during the rule of BJP's Atul
Behari Vajpayee; a beginning was made for the visits of Hindutvadis,
and especially Sadhus anddharam gurus of the Sangh Parivar to Israel.
These visits have been on the increase. It was during Vajpayee's time,
that the visits to Israel and consequently the relations and contacts
of Sangh Parivar Dharam gurus and Hindutva leaders with
Israelincreased manifold.
According to the newspaper, for last ten years, the central
intelligence agencies have been closely studying and analyzing the
growing strength of Hindutvadi and Sangh Parivar organisations and the
increasing violence through these organisations against Muslims,
Christians, and minorities in Gujarat,Orissa, Karnataka and other
states. Intelligence agencies have disclosed that the visits of Jews
and Israeli rabbis was not very frequent in the past, but it has
increased to worrisome proportions, during last few years. Of all, the
most studied is the February 2007 visit to Delhi of the delegation of
Israeli Jewish religious leaders. The delegation was headed byIsrael's
Chief Rabbi, Yonah Metzger.
In this delegation, Jewish religious leaders from Israelas well as
others rabbis from Belgium and Spain too were included. In India, the
Israel Jewish religious delegation met important Hindutva leaders,
which included especially the RSS Chief K. S. Sudharshan, President of
VHP, Ashok Singhal, VHP leader Vishnu Hari Dalmia.
After the meeting of the Sadhu Sanths and Jewish leaders, both
delegations had issued a common manifesto.
In this meeting, Jewish Rabbis expressed grave concern over the
details of the terrorist attacks allegedly carried out by Muslims, as
narrated by Hindu dharam gurus. Secret Service sources disclosed that
at the invitation of Israeli Jewish religious leaders, a delegation of
Hindutva leaders had visited Israel this year. In this, some leaders
of Sangh Parivar too were included.
The national daily, published from Madhya Pradesh and other places, in
its report has exposed that the officials of the national intelligence
agencies have categorically stated that American secret service
agency, CIA together with Israel's secret organisation Mossad, has
carried out several secret operation all over Asia.
And now that the bomb blast of Malegaon and Modasa had involved the
names of the fake Shankaracharya Amaranand alias Dayanand Pande,
Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, enquiries and investigation of relations between
Jewish and Hindutva religious leaders from Israel and India are being
severely felt and is being analyzed. This was disclosed by the
newspaper report.
(Translation from Urdu)
Rashtriya Sahara, Urdu Daily, Mumbai
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Front Page News
Why investigation of Israeli connection of Hindutvadis?
New Delhi, November 25: The way ATS has arrested Hindutva extremists
belonging to Sangh Parivar, in connection with Malegaon bomb blast,
facts have emerged of international networking and support to Hindutva
radicals. This has alarmed national intelligence community. India's
internal and external intelligence agencies and RAW have got busy
trying to figure out if there is some big international conspiracy is
being hatched behind the activities of hardline extremists of Sangh
Parivar. According to secret sources, back in February 2007, an
Israeli delegation headed by Israel's Chief Rabbi, Yonah Metzger, and
accompanied by several high ranking Jewish religious leaders, had
visited India. This Jewish Religious delegation held meetings with
many Sadhus, Sanths and Dharam gurus. The delegation also met some
Muslim leaders. Now intelligence agencies have started investigations
of the meetings of the Israeli delegation and local Sadhus, Sanths and
dharam gurus. It is mentioned that the delegation of Israeli Jewish
religious leaders has met leaders and dharam gurus from RSS, Sangh
Parivar, VHP and BJP. Lal Krishna Advani had arranged a dinner for the
visiting Israeli Jewish religious leaders' delegation and others
included in the delegation, at his own residence. According to high
official, though the meeting of Sangh Parivar's leaders to Israeli
delegation is not of undue importance, but the way America's secret
service, CIA and Israel's secret agency, Mossad, are infiltrating in
Central Asian and South Asian countries, it is giving strength to the
suspicions that in such delegations, members of foreign intelligence
get included and through interaction and infiltration, secret
operations are carried out. Those organisations that organise and
support such visits and meetings, may or may not be aware of the
secret mission of foreign agencies, the truth can come out only on
investigations. For this reason, the national agencies are now
concentrating on investigation of Sangh Parivar and its connections
with Israeli lobby and Mossad.
(Translated from Urdu)
# posted by GHULAM MUHAMMED, MUMBAI @ 6:30 AM
Comments:
MOSSAD+CIA+INDIA=9-11
# posted by Anonymous: 6:29 PM
Mossad uses these extremists for terrorist acts that are eventually
blamed on Muslims.
The Israelis have convinced the Hindu extremists that they can help
wipe Islam from India and since the Muslims of India are mostly law
abiding citizens the Israelis have concocted these terror plots to
generate hate for Muslims and start a sectarian incident in which the
Muslims are too out numbered.
This is sad for India-because in the end citizens of India will be
hurt, which will hurt India as a country.
Hindus and Muslims must both join hands against these evil forces to
protect India.
The Israelis want Muslims weakened all over the world-it would love a
nuclear confrontation between India and Pakistan. A prospect that
could lead to the annihilation of Pakistan but India could be
destroyed too....but the Israelis really don't care. They're our
friends as long as they can use us after that we're on our own.
# posted by Anonymous : 6:26 AM
But, as we have been seeing, the Western Media …. the CIA’s Might
Wurlitzer is already chanting Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda… â
€˜Problem, Reaction, Solution’ …. the same, tediously continuing,
formula. The ‘Solution’ this time will be more bombing of
Pakistan.
# posted by Shrink Rat : 9:08 AM
We must win the war FOR PEACE between nations and religions against
those mother fuckers of the "intelligence" community that promote the
clash of civilisation and perpetual wars for their masters to make
money of
# posted by Anonymous : 12:28 PM
If it is true that Israel has convinced India that they wipe Islam
out, I am all for it. Islam is a disease that has infected humanity
for the past few centuries & we now need to find a cure for it.
# posted by Anonymous : 5:20 AM
JEWS are FILTH, I'm not a MUSLIM but my HUMAN DUTY to FLUSH EVERY JEW
and AMERIKKKAN that comes MY WAY
JEW ARE DEVILS they CAN NOT BE TRUSTED,JEWS MUST BE BURNED ALIVE as
they ARE THE KILLERS OF GOD.
# posted by Anonymous : 7:37 AM
Anonymous @ 7:37 AM is an obvious troll who just throws in a few
odious profanities to poison the well of thoughtful and rational
debate. totally typical.
if you're not a troll then you are doing the real criminals a great
service.
# posted by Anonymous : 9:51 AM
Actually real Jews support Muslims all the way, see www.nkusa.org.
The Zionist trolls say the most hateful things. False flag all the
way.
# posted by Anonymous : 10:36 AM
The jew is the eternal evil, inbred rodent, bloodsucking, parasiting,
warmongering, cowardly, mass murdering, virus of humanity and cancer
of earth that must one day be dealt with once and for all.
If the Indians ever figure out who perpetrated this war crime (shouldnâ
€™t take more than 3 seconds if you can actually think) in Mumbai they
need only point their nuclear warheads at that shitty little "country"
and international terrorist rat hole known as that sewer "Israel".
The only good Jew terrorist rodent scum and the only good American
terrorist rodent scum (same disease) is a dead Jew American terrorist
rodent scum.
# posted by Anonymous : 1:37 PM
there are good Jews Hindus Christians and Muslims, no group of people
should be lambasted as by some here on this comment line, those who
comment like this are the ones who are terrorists .. I am Indian
origin and us citizen there are always good people in all races and
only a few bad greedy people. Please retract your hateful comments.
GOD bless all, and GOD bring peace to our hearts. Story of Lord
Krishna is same as Prophet Moses being put in river.. etc. etc. we are
all children of ONE God. Be wary of divide and rule and always see who
gains from this... those who gain are likely doers.
# posted by Anonymous : 2:15 PM
http://ghulammuhammed.blogspot.com/2008/11/cia-mossad-hand-behind-sangh-parivars.html
----
Is Mossad Hand Behind Mumbai Train Blasts?
Publication time: 3 August 2006, 15:27
Mumbai's Urdu Daily 'Sahara' Headline
MOSSAD, an Israeli intelligence agency, is cited as possible organiser
of Mumbai train bomb blasts. Immediately after the blast, Mossad was
reportedly engaged by Sai Baba Mandir trust to provide security to the
famous religious shrine.
The newspaper clarifies that till now the Mumbai authorities have not
confirmed as to why the Sai Baba Trust had to employ a foreign
intelligence agency for its protection or if Maharashtra Government
and Central Government have cleared the hiring of Mossad intelligence
agency?
Sahara News Bureau [SNB] report on the front page of Sahara Urdu Daily
of July 27, further adds that "some security experts have wondered if
through the excuse of security of Hindu temples, Mossad, which is
notorious for counter-terrorism and counter-espionage all over the
world and especially in Arab and Muslim countries, is allowed to step
in Maharashtra state, the conditions will seriously deteriorate not
only in Maharashtra, but all over India".
SAHARA further quotes an anonymous retired Muslim police officer, who
was commenting on the news of Mossad security for Sai Baba Mandir: "
To get into Maharashtra, Mossad itself may have arranged the Mumbai
train blasts in such a way that the whole blame should fall on SIMI,
the banned Muslim Students organization" [which is now legal at least
in India largest state of Uttar Pradesh] and other Muslim
organizations.
SAHARA URDU is published from Mumbai, Delhi, Lucknow, Gorakhpur,
Kolkatta and Patna.
No English media with all their patriotic pretensions has yet found it
necessary to report on entry of Israeli intelligence agencies in
Maharashtra or in India. That probably suits private media interests,
but is fraught with most sinister development for the nation, in times
to come.
Ghulam Muhammad can be reached at ghulam_m...@yahoo.co.in
Source: Dailymuslims
http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2006/08/03/5177.shtml
----
Attack on U.S. Embassy in Yemen Linked to Mossad
U.S. embassy in Sanaa, Yemen
Remember the attack on the U.S. embassy in Yemen last month that took
the lives of eighteen people? A group calling themselves "Islamic
Jihad" claimed responsibility for the blast. It has a nice, scary ring
to it hasn't it? "Islamic Jihad" also happens to be the name of a
group that operates out of Gaza.
"Islamic Jihad" pointedly mentioned its affiliation with al Qaeda
after claiming responsibility for the September 17 U.S. embassy
bombing:
"We, the Organisation of Islamic Jihad, belonging to the Al-Qaeda
network, repeat our demand of (Yemeni President) Ali Abdullah Saleh to
free our detained brothers within 48 hours," said a statement signed
by self-proclaimed leader Abu Ghaith al-Yamani.
Former agent for French military intelligence Pierre-Henry Bunel has
this to say about 'al Qaeda':
"The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al
Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is
a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an
identified entity representing the 'devil' only in order to drive the
'TV watcher' to accept a unified international leadership for a war
against terrorism..."
Well now the Yemeni authorities have arrested a group of these al
Qaeda-backed militants with, surprise surprise, links to Israeli
intelligence.
From BBC News:
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has said the security forces have
arrested a group of alleged Islamist militants linked to Israeli
intelligence.
Mr Saleh did not say what evidence had been found to show the group's
links with Israel, a regional enemy of Yemen.
The arrests were connected with an attack on the US embassy in Sanaa
last month which killed at least 18 people, official sources were
quoted saying.
Israel's foreign ministry has rejected the accusation as "totally
ridiculous".
"A terrorist cell was arrested and will be referred to the judicial
authorities for its links with the Israeli intelligence services," Mr
Saleh told a gathering at al-Mukalla University in Hadramawt
province.
"Details of the trial will be announced later. You will hear about
what goes on in the proceedings," he added.
The 17 September attack was the second to target the US embassy since
April. Militants detonated car bombs before firing rockets at the
heavily fortified building.
Mr Saleh did not identify the suspects, but official sources were
quoted saying it was same cell - led by a militant called Abu al-
Ghaith al-Yamani - whose arrest was announced a week after the
attack.
An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman said the Yemeni president's
statement was without foundation.
"To believe that Israel would create Islamist cells in Yemen is really
far-fetched. This is yet another victory for the proponents of
conspiracy theories," Igal Palmor said in remarks reported by AFP.
And from the Yemen Observer:
President Saleh revealed on Monday that security forces in Yemen
caught an espionage network for Israel made up of Arab nationals. This
announcement came during his speech in front of MP's, Shura Council
members, local council members, scholars and military and security
leaders at Hadhramout University.
According to the president the suspected spies will be brought before
the courts shortly in a public trial after investigations are
complete.
The network was comprised of 40 people from different Arab
nationalities spying for Mossad, the Israeli international
intelligence said sources from National and Political Security Units.
The members of the espionage network entered Yemen on the premise of
conducting business, tourism and even for preaching in mosques. Saleh
said that the suspected spies form a terrorism cell that uses also
Islam to reach their targets.Members were arrested individually and
found to be in possession of detailed maps for sensitive security
sites, intelligence telecommunication units and advanced tracking
devices.
Article continues here.
And from another Oct 8 news report:
Dubai, Oct 8 (IANS) A terrorist cell busted in Yemen last month after
a suicide attack on the US embassy there had links with an Israeli
intelligence agency, the state-run Saba news agency reported.The
report, quoting an unnamed source, said investigations and data
retrieved from a computer seized from the cell, showed there was
correspondence between the Islamic Jihad group’s deputy leader
Bassam Abdullah Fadhel Al-Haidari and an Israeli intelligence agency.
Saba quoted the source as saying that the correspondence between the
two sides included a request from the Israeli side to implement
terrorist attacks inside Yemen.
Update: Here is the Saba news report mentioned above.
Keep track of news regarding the Israeli connection to Islamic Jihad
here.
http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/8534
"Islamic Jihad" arrested cell links to Israeli intelligence
[07 October 2008]
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news165472.htm
SANA'A, Oct. 07 (Saba) - Investigations with the six-member terrorist
cell of "Islamic Jihad" arrested late in September have disclosed an
alleged link to Israeli intelligence, a security source said on
Tuesday.
The investigations and the computer seized with the cell have revealed
of correspondence between the cell's deputy leader named Bassam
Abdullah Fadhel al-Haidari and an intelligence body in Israel, which
has been included a support request to implement terrorist acts inside
Yemen, according to the source.
Investigations are still underway, the source said, adding that when
completion, the case's file would be sent to justice.
During his meeting with officials and dignitaries in Hadramout
governorate, President Ali Abdullah Saleh unearthed last Monday
arresting a terrorist cell has links with Israeli intelligence,
despite raising a banner for Islam.
The cell included six members led by Emad Ali Saeed al-Rwoni, known as
"Abu al-Gaith al-Miqdad al-Yamani". It has sent several threatening
letters of targeting Arab and foreign embassies in Yemen such as
embassies of Britain Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
The cell has been arrested after a terrorist attack on the U.S.
embassy on Wednesday September 17, when a twin car bomb has rocked the
US embassy in Sana'a killing 16 people including seven of troops
guarding the embassy and four civilians and six attackers. The
civilians included two Yemenis, an Indian women and a US citizen from
a Yemeni origin.
AF/AF Saba
URL: http://newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1030
COMMENTS
1/15/2009 8:31:06 PM Syed Mohammad Sanaullah
Obama and Kashmir
The man who will be inaugurated 44th President of the United States on
January 20 has certain ideas on Kashmir that have raised concerns in
India’s official and political establishment — and enthused
separatist elements in Jammu & Kashmir. These ideas, which go back
some way, were detailed in an October 2008 interview to Time magazine
and touched upon during a December 5 interview to the same
publication. Winning the war in Afghanistan, w hich increasingly looks
like a pipe dream, is one of Barack Obama’s top priorities. Somewhat
naively, he approaches Pakistan-India relations and the Kashmir
dispute through the prism of “managing a more effective strategy in
Afghanistan.†That, in his view, calls for a viable strategy with
Pakistan’s civilian government, its military, and the Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) to “root out militant terrorists.†And this
brings Mr. Obama to the idea of “working with Pakistan and India to
try to resolve the Kashmir crisis in a serious way.†Despite
recognising Kashmir as “a potential tar pit diplomatically,†Mr.
Obama has gone on record favouring mediatory intervention between
India and Pakistan through a high-powered special envoy.
These ideas may be unwelcome in New Delhi but there is no cause for
alarm, assuming of course that official India can work out a clear and
resolute strategy of dealing with the Kashmir issue in its external
and internal dimensions. In particular, there is no need to get hot
under the collar over the prospect of any return to hyphenation. India
must be clear and resolute that the only way to resolve the Kashmir
issue in its external dimension along with other key issues is through
comprehensive bilateral talks with Pakistan. It must act on the
realisation that Mr. Obama’s principal focus for quite a while will
be on the economy. But as soon as the opportunity arises, New Delhi
must disabuse the new administration of any notion that the Kashmir
issue can be approached in the way Mr. Obama has proposed. The U.S.
cannot possibly mediate between Pakistan and India on Kashmir or other
critical issues unless New Delhi allows it to do so. India-Pakistan
relations are in crisis. But it must be hoped that sooner than later,
a sustainable solution will be found through political and diplomatic
means to the issue of cross-border terrorism so that the two countries
can resume their composite dialogue and get back on the cooperative
track. Mr. Obama is welcome to take on the political challenge of
pressuring and encouraging Islamabad to deliver on its anti-terrorism
commitments on the Afghan as well as Indian fronts. But
internationalisation of the Kashmir issue through Washington’s
intervention must be ruled out of court.
http://www.hindu.com/2009/01/14/stories/2009011455840800.htm
1/15/2009 7:39:46 PM Syed Mohammad Sanaullah
Obama and Kashmir
The man who will be inaugurated 44th President of the United States on
January 20 has certain ideas on Kashmir that have raised concerns in
India’s official and political establishment — and enthused
separatist elements in Jammu & Kashmir. These ideas, which go back
some way, were detailed in an October 2008 interview to Time magazine
and touched upon during a December 5 interview to the same
publication. Winning the war in Afghanistan, w hich increasingly looks
like a pipe dream, is one of Barack Obama’s top priorities. Somewhat
naively, he approaches Pakistan-India relations and the Kashmir
dispute through the prism of “managing a more effective strategy in
Afghanistan.†That, in his view, calls for a viable strategy with
Pakistan’s civilian government, its military, and the Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) to “root out militant terrorists.†And this
brings Mr. Obama to the idea of “working with Pakistan and India to
try to resolve the Kashmir crisis in a serious way.†Despite
recognising Kashmir as “a potential tar pit diplomatically,†Mr.
Obama has gone on record favouring mediatory intervention between
India and Pakistan through a high-powered special envoy.
These ideas may be unwelcome in New Delhi but there is no cause for
alarm, assuming of course that official India can work out a clear and
resolute strategy of dealing with the Kashmir issue in its external
and internal dimensions. In particular, there is no need to get hot
under the collar over the prospect of any return to hyphenation. India
must be clear and resolute that the only way to resolve the Kashmir
issue in its external dimension along with other key issues is through
comprehensive bilateral talks with Pakistan. It must act on the
realisation that Mr. Obama’s principal focus for quite a while will
be on the economy. But as soon as the opportunity arises, New Delhi
must disabuse the new administration of any notion that the Kashmir
issue can be approached in the way Mr. Obama has proposed. The U.S.
cannot possibly mediate between Pakistan and India on Kashmir or other
critical issues unless New Delhi allows it to do so. India-Pakistan
relations are in crisis. But it must be hoped that sooner than later,
a sustainable solution will be found through political and diplomatic
means to the issue of cross-border terrorism so that the two countries
can resume their composite dialogue and get back on the cooperative
track. Mr. Obama is welcome to take on the political challenge of
pressuring and encouraging Islamabad to deliver on its anti-terrorism
commitments on the Afghan as well as Indian fronts. But
internationalisation of the Kashmir issue through Washington’s
intervention must be ruled out of court.
http://www.hindu.com/2009/01/14/stories/2009011455840800.htm
12/7/2008 12:52:23 AM Aamir Mughal
K P S Gill and Pakistani Major General Retd Naseerullah Babar should
not be the Role Models for Indians and Pakistanis both instead of
these two butchers we should eulogize the Police Officer like
mentioned below:
Kavita Karkare at the funeral
OPINION Last Rights By avoiding the usual signifiers of grief, Kavita
Karkare let her will win Shefalee Vasudev Magazine | Dec 15, 2008
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20081215&fname=TCol+Shefalee+(F)&sid=1
Kavita Karkare, slain Maharashtra ats chief Hemant Karkare's wife, did
not meet Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi when he dropped by at
her home to offer condolence. Two days later, an image of dignified
restraint, she came before the eyes of the tearful police force,
friends and thousands of Mumbaikars who came to bid goodbye to her
martyr husband. In both her actions, she made a choice. Blink, and you
will miss the inspiration in that choice that needs to be emphasised.
In a society where grief over death is rarely a private practice,
where formalised mourning rituals encourage families and communities
to survive loss by reliving it through loud expressions, where
bereaved women are expected to wear white and look distraught, Kavita
Karkare refused to mount her sorrow publicly. The light had gone from
her eyes, leaving behind an opaque curtain of despondence. But she
held through, unknowingly conveying the power of personal will.
Dressed in a red and light brown sari, a small bindi on her foreheard,
a red bangle on one of her arms, her hair neatly combed, she projected
an image of forbearance that badly needs to be registered in our
collective consciousness as dark fears surround us.
The life-denying white of widowhood is now being given a decent
burial. Let's hope cinema also takes note and rewrites cliched film
versions of funerals where women in extreme white bid theatrical
goodbyes to fallen soldiers. Remember Kareena Kapoor in LOC Kargil?
Kavita may not be the first woman to wear a red bindi at her husband's
funeral, but as the stoic wife of a martyr, she should inspire women
who feel pressurised to lament death in socially accepted ways. Or
suffer because people want them to suffer. Years back, after the death
of her husband Dr Bali, renowned dancer-actress Vyjanthimala continued
to sport marital symbols, confessing that they resonated remembrance
and love for her husband. All of us know a few women who made similar
choices. Instead of abandoning them within hours, using signs of
marriage as support systems in loss is a touching way to cope with
heartbreak such as Kavita's. In all our talk of the women's movement
in India and stories of personal evolutions, we have forgotten to list
how some women now deal with mourning and widowhood. Why some no
longer want to be a part of the chest-beating community where bangle-
breaking, wiping off the bindi and appearing dishevelled is considered
appropriate widow response. Kavita, just by being herself, mirrored
this change that must be noticed. Instead of breaking down in copious
tears or succumbing to fainting spells before the world, she stood
silently, struck mute by grief. What comes across—and not all of it
can be emotional paralysis—is will over obligation. Let's salute it.
Nobody judges people by the way they grieve. There is nothing wimpish
about white or black, both significant colours of death in different
cultures. We don't even know how Vinita Kamte, spouse of ACP Ashok
Kamte, or encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar's wife reacted to the
news of their husbands' deaths. Yet, none of them was seen screaming
in front of TV cameras. If they had, nobody would have raised an
eyebrow. The fact that they did not is noteworthy. What matters is
that Kavita spoke of Modi—a man who slandered her husband a few days
back for manipulation of the Malegaon blasts probe—as an "elderly
man". The image we will remember is of her deathly calm during the
funeral. Not of a wailing widow, cursing politicians because the
situation gave her sanction. This image should remind us that
individuality is our closest friend in bereavement.
Kavita's personalisation of grief during the very public funeral of
her husband is an interesting starting point to understand how
cultural changes in India emerge even in death.What an unlikely time
to realise with reassurance and respect how stereotyped widowhood is
changing without opening rebellious fire on anyone's feelings.
In this confessional era of ours when TV acts as mediator, offering
conversation and commiseration; when the internet has opened
graveyards to bloggers, when the rudaalis of the past are replaced by
bereavement websites, candlelight marches and empathetic SMSes, Kavita
Karkare's restraint is indicative of how we learn to form our
boundaries, creating a private space for grief even when it is invaded
by goodwill. When an entire nation mourns the passing away of a loved
one, resilient silence is a new rite of passage.
12/5/2008 11:24:31 PM Aamir Mughal
Dear Sultan Sahab,
K P S Gill shouldn't be the example here!
1 - Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindrenwale (1947 - 1984) - 1
http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2008/10/sant-jarnail-singh-bhindrenwale-1947.html
2 - Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindrenwale (1947 - 1984) - 2
http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2008/10/sant-jarnail-singh-bhindrenwale-1947_31.html
3 - Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindrenwale (1947 - 1984) - 3
http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2008/10/sant-jarnail-singh-bhindrenwale-1947_2964.html
Punjab
The 1947 partition of Punjab between India and Pakistan resulted in
intercommunal violence that was the worst, and most indiscriminate,
that the Indian subcontinent had experienced for centuries. Widespread
massacres occurred between Muslims and Sikhs (the latter occupying the
western portion of Punjab, the latter the eastern regions). As many as
half a million people died, and two million more were left homeless
and destitute. Eventually, western Punjab was incorporated into the
new Pakistani state, while eastern Punjab became part of India.
Growing alienation from, and claims of exploitation by, Indian
authorities spawned a powerful militant movement in the early 1980s,
calling for the creation of an independent Sikh state of Khalistan. As
in many such conflict situations worldwide, the economic and societal
plight of younger males figured prominently the uprising. "Central to
the present Sikh unrest is the excess numbers of young male Sikhs over
the amount of honorable employment available," wrote Conor Cruise
O'Brien in 1988. "To own even a tiny farm is honorable, but the
subdivision of the farmland appears to have reached its limit. ...
What career is open to a young male Sikh who doesn't have a farm of
his own and hasn't been able to get a place in the defense forces or
any other branch of government service? That question remains
unresolved, and in the meantime there are too many young [male] Sikhs
who find no suitable outlet within the law for their abundant
energies." (O'Brien, "Holy War Against India", The Atlantic Monthly,
August 1988.)
As in Kashmir, "disappearances" have been central to the Indian
state's counterinsurgency strategy in Punjab:
The scenario for a disappearance case is familiar. Plain-clothed
police officers or members of the paramilitary forces stop a man in
the street (disappearance victims are almost always young men who are
suspected of being members or having support for one of India's many
armed militant groups), or they may pick him up from his place of work
or his home. Often the abduction is done at night, but the disregard
for the law and the lack of political will to eradicate these
practices means the security forces are equally protected if the
abduction takes place in broad daylight. ... Many cases of
disappearances result in death, disfigured bodies found in canals, by
railway tracks and roadsides are testimony to the cover-up of state
murder that is so much a part of everyday life in some parts of India.
If suspicion of the killing is successfully laid at the feet of the
police, it is often denied or invalidated by one of two improbable
excuses; that whilst trying to escape he was shot or that he died in
an encounter. (Khalsa Human Rights, "'Disappearances' in Punjab".)
According to Joyce Pettigrew, "many young people killed have not been
engaged in armed combat. They have been ordinary boys who have
disappeared on an errand for their parents, visiting relatives, or
while working in their fields, or who have been picked up from their
own or their in-laws' home. ... Disappearances occurred primarily in
the under-thirty age group. Some villages had lost more than forty
young men. Sursinghwala in Amritsar district had lost seventy young
men. Buttar Kalan, in Gurdaspur district, lost twenty. Each village
has not kept a separate account of its losses. Erring on the
conservative side ... it is highly probable that most villages in the
Amritsar district would have lost on average ten young
men." (Pettigrew, "Parents and Their Children in Situations of Terror:
Disappearances and Special Police Activity in Punjab," in Jeffrey A.
Sluka, ed., Death Squad: The Anthropology of State Terror [University
of Pennsylvania Press, 2000], p. 211.)
Patricia Gossman cites the comments of an Indian police officer who
claimed that when armed conflict broke out between Sikh militants and
Indian security forces in the early 1980s, "a profile was developed of
who was considered to be antigovernment and pro-Khalistan. Based on
that profile, young Sikh men between the ages of 18 and 40, who have
long beards and wear turbans, are considered to be pro-Khalistan.
Whenever the police receive a report from an informant or any other
individual that Sikh militants have visited the home of a Sikh family,
the police are dispatched to raid the home of that family. Pursuant to
that raid, any Sikh male who fits the profile described above is
arrested." (Gossman, "India's Secret Armies," in in Bruce B. Campbell
and Arthur D. Brenner, Death Squads in Global Perspective: Murder with
Deniability [St. Martin's Press, 2000], pp. 266-67.)
The failure to turn up a sufficient quantity of young men for
persecution and execution sometimes leads to the detention of female
relatives. Though they are rarely killed, rape is common. "When
mothers and sisters have been held in custody by the police, their
ultimate fate unknown, not all fathers and brothers have been able to
cope with the threat of what might happen to them and to remain
underground to fight. As one old lady from Sabrawan village, Amritsar
district, told me, referring to the many abductions of young girls by
the police, 'In every village and each house there is sadness.' Hence,
to protect their sisters or indeed some other family member, some
young militants and their sympathizers have compromised and become
informers." (Pettigrew, "Parents and Their Children," pp. 211, 219.)
Like their Kashmiri counterparts, Punjabi militants have also resorted
to terrorism, committing a number of gendercidal massacres as well as
indiscriminate attacks against women, men, and children. Buses
travelling along rural roads have been a favourite target. One such
massacre, "the worst carnage of all in the [then] five-year history of
blood, gore and terror in Punjab," took place in August 1986, when 14
Hindu men were killed and seven injured by terrorists brandishing
machine-guns and automatic pistols. "There was ... added cruelty this
time in the manner the killings were executed, letting out women and
children, making the clean-shaven men bury their heads between their
knees and then shooting each one turn-by-turn while shouting, for the
benefit of the survivors, that they wanted to teach a lesson to 'these
fat Hindus.'" (Shekhar Gupta with Gobind Thukral, "Punjab: On a Short
Fuse," India Today, August 15, 1986.) Two much larger massacres
occurred aboard passenger trains in Punjab in June and December 1991.
Some one hundred people, overwhelmingly men, died in the first attack
on two trains, when Sikh "gunmen ran alongside the train, ordering
women, children and Sikhs to descend" before opening fire on the
remaining passengers. (Tony Allen-Mills, "Sikh Train Massacres Derail
Poll in Punjab," Sunday Times, June 23, 1991.) In the December attack,
"Hardeep Singh was playing cards in his railway compartment when the
killers, all wearing distinctive khaki-coloured turbans, burst in.
'While all the Sikhs, women and children were ordered off the train,
the others began pleading for mercy. The militants assured us that
they would only be taking us somewhere and then letting us go. ... But
then they bolted the doors and opened fire.'" Fifty-one people died in
the attack. (Tim McGirk, "India Train Massacre Caps Year of Violence,"
The Independent (UK), December 29, 1991.)
Such tactics turned most of the Punjabi population against the
militants, whose struggle has now subsided within the state itself.
"The last few years of the Punjab conflict largely consisted of an
inter-gang war of unprincipled thugs who had no legitimacy whatsoever
in the community," notes Canadian scholar Hamish Telford. "In fact,
most citizens in Punjab seem to accept the actions of the police and
army because the insurgents became so unscrupulous in the end. The
Khalistan option is now only advocated by fundamentalist Sikhs in
Canada, the U.S., and the U.K."
The Delhi Massacre, 1984
On June 3-6 1984, in Operation Bluestar, Indian forces laid siege to
the Golden Temple, Sikhism's holiest shrine, in the Punjabi city of
Amritsar. The temple had been occupied by heavily-armed Sikh militants
under the leadership of Sant Bhindranwale. In the massacre, and in
dozens of other mass killings that took place simultaneously at
religious sites throughout Punjab, thousands of Sikhs were murdered by
Indian security personnel. At the Golden Temple, according to Human
Rights Watch, "Indian government forces were guilty of outrageous
violations of fundamental human rights -- deliberately attacking the
temple at a time they knew thousands of religious pilgrims were
inside, not offering an opportunity for surrender, and summarily
executing those it captured." ("India: Arms and Abuses in Indian
Punjab and Kashmir", September 1994.) Many children and women were
killed in the assault, along with a preponderance of Sikh men. "Civil
liberties organisations, such as the Movement Against State
Repression, have claimed that the total number killed in Operation
Bluestar exceeded ten thousand. Thousands of young men also went
missing in the period after Bluestar." (Joyce Pettigrew, The Sikhs of
the Punjab: Unheard Voices of State and Guerrilla Violence, p. 24 [n.
10].)
On October 31, 1984, the Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, who had
ordered Operation Bluestar, was assassinated in a revenge attack by
her two Sikh bodyguards. Over the following five days, one of the
worst gendercidal massacres of modern times took place in the Indian
capital, Delhi. The victims were Sikh males of all ages. At 10 p.m. on
the evening following the Prime Minister's assassination, widespread
killings broke out across Delhi, apparently organized by the Hindu
extremist parties that have become prominent players in Indian
politics. Hindu men roamed the streets, declaring an open season on
Sikh males (those who were religiously observant were easily
identified by their long hair and turbans). The gendercidal character
of the killings was indeed almost total. According to the Indian
feminist Madhu Kishwar.
The nature of the attacks confirm[s] that there was a deliberately
plan to kill as many Sikh men as possible, hence nothing was left to
chance. That also explains why in almost all cases, after hitting or
stabbing, the victims were doused with kerosene or petrol and burnt,
so as to leave no possibility of their surviving. Between October 31
and November 4, more than 2,500 men were murdered in different parts
of Delhi, according to several careful unofficial estimates. There
have been very few cases of women being killed except when they got
trapped in houses which were set on fire. Almost all the women
interviewed described how men and young boys were special targets.
They were dragged out of the houses, attacked with stones and rods,
and set on fire. ... When women tried to protect the men of their
families, they were given a few blows and forcibly separated from the
men. Even when they clung to the men, trying to save them, they were
hardly ever attacked the way men were. I have not yet heard of a case
of a woman being assaulted and then burnt to death by the mob.
(Kishwar, "Delhi: Gangster Rule," in Patwant Singh and Harji Malik,
eds., Punjab: The Fatal Miscalculation [New Delhi, 1985], pp. 171-78.)
A typical account of the atrocities was provided by a female witness
whose "husband and three sons ... were all killed on 1 November." As
investigators summarized her testimony:
When a mob first came the Sikhs came out and repulsed them. Three such
waves were repulsed, but each time the police came and told them to go
home and stay there. The fourth time the mob came in increased
strength and started attacking individual homes, driving people out,
beating and burning them and setting fire to their homes. The method
of killing was invariably the same: a man was hit on the head,
sometimes his skull broken, kerosene poured over him and set on fire.
Before being burnt, some had their eyes gouged out. Sometimes, when a
burning man asked for water, a man urinated on his mouth. Several
individuals, including her sister's son, tried to escape by cutting
their hair. Most of them were also killed. Some had their hair
forcibly cut but were nevertheless killed thereafter. (Quoted in
Khalsa Human Rights, "Cases of Victims".)
The estimate of 2,500 dead offered by Kishwar (above) is almost
certainly too low. The New York Times in 1996 cited the research of
Sikh activist Gurucharan Singh Babbar, who "has piles of affidavits
from victims' families that prove, he says, that 5,015 Sikhs were
killed, more than double the official figure ..." Whatever the exact
death toll, it was "one of the darkest chapters in [India's] half-
century of independence." (John F. Burns, "The Sikhs Get Justice Long
After A Massacre," The New York Times, September 16, 1996). Throughout
the massacre, Indian police and security forces stood by or assisted
in disarming Sikhs, rendering them defenceless. An Indian Supreme
Court Justice, V.M. Tarkunde, stated in the aftermath of the slaughter
that "Two lessons can be drawn from the experience of the Delhi riots.
One is about the extent of criminalisation of our politics and the
other about the utter unreliability of our police force in a critical
situation." (Quoted in Khalsa Human Rights, "The Delhi Massacre: An
Example of Malicious Government".)
It is important to note that while few if any Sikh women were
intentionally killed, hundreds, if not thousands, were raped --
sometimes repeatedly -- by rampaging Hindu men. Many of the female
survivors of the massacre today live in Tilak Vihar, a quarter of
Delhi that has become known as the "Widows' Colony." Since 1984, they
have pressed for justice in the killings, and finally achieved some
success in 1996, when "a magistrate ... imposed a death sentence on a
butcher found guilty of two Sikh murders in the riots. Evidence
presented in court indicated he was also involved in at least 150
other killings." The justice in question, Shiv Narain Dinghra, has led
a "personal crusade" of his own, sentencing dozens of rioters to five
years' "harsh imprisonment." Nonetheless, official Indian attitudes
toward the slaughter reflect a belief that "the massacre was necessary
to teach a lesson" to the Sikhs, according to Dinghra. (Burns, "The
Sikhs Get Justice.")
12/4/2008 9:14:34 AM Aamir Mughal
Commandos killed Jews, says Israeli rescue group By Jawed Naqvi
December 03, 2008 Wednesday Zilhaj 4, 1429
http://www.dawn.com/2008/12/03/top6.htm
NEW DELHI, Dec 2: A private rescue group from Israel has claimed that
Indian commandos inadvertently killed some of the hostages in the
terror attacks in Mumbai, and the claim has evidently embarrassed both
governments, news reports said on Tuesday.
“Based on what I saw, (although) I can’t identify the type of
bullets in the bodies (of the victims), I don’t think the terrorists
killed all the hostages, to put it gently,†Mr Haim Weingarten, head
of the six-member team of Zaka voluntary organisation dealing with
rescue and recovery, told The Jerusalem Post.
Press Trust of India said from Jerusalem that the claim had
embarrassed the Israeli government, which is worried about its fallout
on ties with the Indian government.
According to PTI, Mr Weingarten told the Post from Mumbai that all the
six Jewish and Israeli hostages found dead in the Chabad House were
killed by either gunshot wounds or shrapnel from grenade blasts, or
both, and that he didn’t know who threw or fired the grenades that
wounded the hostages.
Although lacking forensic tools to determine the time of death, Mr
Weingarten was quoted as saying that his team’s observations led him
to believe that “some of the hostages were killed on Wednesday (when
gunmen first entered the building), some on Thursday, and some on
Friday morning (during the start of the commando raid)†.
Zaka officials believe that in a final act of love, the director of
the Chabad House, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, wrapped the body of his
wife Rivka in a tallit (prayer shawl) before succumbing to his own
wounds during the final hours of the siege, it said.
The volunteers on the scene found the bodies of Israeli grandmother
Yocheved Orpaz (62) and Jewish Mexican national Norma Shvarzblat
Rabinovich (50) bound to one another with a phone cord.
Meanwhile, the Indian foreign ministry held a briefing “to convey
the deepest condolences of the Government of India to those countries
whose nationals were killed in the terrorist attack in Mumbai.â€
Heads of mission from these countries were present in the briefing. â
€œThey were also informed of details of the terrorist attack and the
investigation so far,†the ministry said.
Possibly following the briefing, the Israeli government slammed the
Zaka group for alleging that Indian commandos might have inadvertently
killed one or more Jewish hostages during the Nariman House operation,
saying the “irresponsible†comments could cause considerable
damage to bilateral ties.
“They are causing all kinds of problems,†a senior Israeli foreign
ministry official said about the six-member team of the Zaka voluntary
group that flew on Thursday “on its own volition†to Mumbai for a
rescue operation after the deadly terror strikes.
“They are selling all kinds of stories to journalists looking for
stories, and taking credit for things they didn’t do,†the
official told The Jerusalem Post. It remains a mystery why India has
allowed a clearly unauthorised group from Israel to carry out its self-
styled rescue at the site of a mind-boggling crime. Usually such
sensitive sites are sealed off to visitors till official
investigations are underway.
chhotemianinshallah
Sundaram Brake Linings Ltd
Chairman & Managing Director K Mahesh
Director K Ramesh
T Kannan
P S Raman
Ashok V Chowgule
Executive Director Krishna Mahesh
Company Secretary R Mani Parthasarathy
The activities of Graham Staines
Posted October 30, 2003
Ashok Chowgule
Deceased Graham Stewart Staines (hereinafter referred to as 'Staines')
as an Australian National whose tryst with Mayurbhanj in Orissa began
in the year 1965 when he made rendezvous with its District Headquarter
at Baripada for treatment and eradication of Leprosy amongst the poor
and did an excellent job in the field. He became the honorary
Secretary of Baripada Leprosy Home. He was also the Secretary of the
Evangelical Missionary Society of Mayurbhanj (EMSM). As a missionary,
he was preaching Gospel and spreading the tenets of Christianity in
jungle camps held in different tribal belts in the district of
Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar. One such camp was being annually held soon
after Makar Shankranti (after 14th in the month of January) at
Manoharpur, a sleepy tribal village under Anandapur police station in
the district of Keonjhar Graham Staines's missionary activities did
lead to conversion of tribals belonging to Ho and Santal tribes to
Christianity. The tribals converted to Christianity distanced
themselves from the non-Christian tribals and adopted anti-tribal
customary practice of eating beef and ploughing land during Raja
festival (when according to the tribal custom the land was to be kept
fallow). They also played Christian audio cassettes in marriage
functions to the chagrin of tribals. Tension was brewing between
Christian and non-Christian community because of spread of
Christianity. In the meantime, there appeared in the scene a slim tall
bearded man from Auriya in Uttar Pradesh named. Rabindra Kumar Pal
alias Dara Singh, the principal accused in this case (hereinafter
referred to as 'Dara Singh'). While teaching Hindi in Maliposi School,
he gained confidence of local tribals. Arrogating the role of saviour
of cows, Dara Singh with his group of men headed a crusade against
Muslims trading in cattle, attacked their trucks transporting cattle,
rescued and distributed cattle amongst the tribals and burnt trucks.
Some of the non-Christian tribals of Manoharpur and nearby villages
seething at the behaviour of tribal converts in shunning tribal
traditions found a Messiah in Dara Singh. Dara Singh held Staines
responsible for spread of Christianity and hatched a criminal
conspiracy with them to physically liquidate Staines to arrest
conversion.
http://www.zoominfo.com/Search/ReferencesView.aspx?PersonID=39038676
, NewAgeIslam.Com
A Values-Based Islamic Approach to Inter-Community Dialogue
Chandra Muzaffar critiques self-styled Islamist groups for misusing
the doctrine of jihad to legitimize the killing of innocent people,
non-Muslims as well as Muslims, including perfectly innocent
civilians, something that has played a major role in worsening
relations between Muslims and others in recent years, besides giving
Islam a bad name. Chandra recognizes the justice and legitimacy of
certain causes that radical Islamists champion, such as countering
Zionist occupation in Palestine or opposing the American invasion of
Iraq. He also recognizes that Islam allows for armed defence as a form
of jihad under certain extreme circumstances. Yet, he points out,
Islam does not sanction indiscriminate violence against non-Muslims in
the name of jihad or preach hatred for people of other faiths, as some
radical Islamists claim. He regards this tendency to be a major hurdle
to inter-faith dialogue and improving relations between Muslims and
others. -- Yoginder Sikand
Photo: Chandra Muzaffar
URL of this page: http://newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1818
-----
Radical Islamism & Jihad
29 Sep 2009, NewAgeIslam.Com
A Values-Based Islamic Approach to Inter-Community Dialogue
By Yoginder Sikand
Chandra Muzaffar is one of Malaysia’s best-known human rights
activists and public intellectuals. Born in a Hindu family with
origins in Kerala, South India, he converted to Islam as a young man.
Having worked at several Malaysian universities, he now heads the
Kuala Lumpur-based Just World Trust, an NGO dedicated to promoting
inter-community dialogue and justice.
Author of numerous books, Chandra is a prolific writer, having
published widely in Malaysia and abroad. One of his principal
concerns, in his writings and activist involvement, is to promote an
Islamic ethic of inter-religious dialogue. Such dialogue, he believes,
is an Islamic imperative, besides being indispensable in today’s
multi-ethnic and multi-religious Malaysia. It is also crucial, he
stresses, at the global level, particularly since many conflicts
across the globe, while rooted in economic and political factors, are
sought to be projected and legitimised as religious conflicts between
Islam and other faiths and ideologies.
‘Muslim, Dialogue and Terror’ is Chandra’s principal work on
Islam and inter-faith dialogue, in which he seeks to articulate an
inter-faith ethic rooted in an expansive understanding of Islam
(available online on www.muslimsdialogueandterror.blogspot.com) This
article examines the methodology and the arguments that he employs in
the book to articulate this project.
Like many other contemporary socially-engaged non-ulema Muslim
scholars, Chandra seeks to directly approach the Quran in order to
understand and interpret his faith, largely by-passing the corpus of
traditional fiqh, and making only passing reference to the corpus of
Hadith. This is hardly surprising since the latter two sources contain
numerous prescriptions that are plainly inimical, to put it mildly, to
harmonious relations between Muslims and others. In approaching the
Quran, Chandra does not rely on the works of traditional exegetes
(mufassirun), whose views and perceptions were undoubtedly influenced
by their own socio-historical contexts, and many of who were sternly
prejudiced against people of other faiths. Instead, Chandra seeks to
interpret the Quran on his own, guided by a deep concern for justice,
peace and equality that transcend narrowly-inscribed religious and
communitarian boundaries.
Islamic Inter-Faith Theology: A Values-Based Approach to Re-
Interpreting Islam and Inter-Community Relations
Chandra describes the Quran as ‘in essence, a Book whose fundamental
aim is to raise the spiritual and moral consciousness of the human
being.’ This understanding of the Quran leads him to stress what he
sees as the underlying spirit or ethical values of the text over its
letter. Some of the fundamental values that he discerns in the Quran
are freedom, accountability, justice, kindness, mercy, love, equality,
honesty, compassion, fairness, and devotion to the cause of the poor
and the oppressed. These values he regards as universal, not limited
in their applicability to fellow Muslims alone. In this way, he is
able to articulate an Islamic ethic of inter-faith dialogue that is
Quranic, that prioritizes the spirit over the letter of the text, that
is based on what he regards as the fundamental and universal values of
the text, and one that is also contextually-relevant.
Chandra describes this way of relating to the Quran as a ‘values-
based approach’. He contrasts this with the traditional ‘fiqh-
based ‘approach, which prioritises the letter of the Quran over its
spirit, draws heavily on the cumulative fiqhtradition, and stresses,
to the point of obsession, forms, externalities, symbols, rituals,
laws, regulations and narrowly-construed understandings of Muslim
identity. The former is universal, flexible, open, and inclusive,
while the latter is particularistic, rigid, closed and exclusive. The
former stresses justice, freedom, love, compassion and equality, the
latter authoritarianism, control, harshness and hierarchy. The former
is open to non-Muslims, actively embraces them as fellow human beings
and appreciates the common values that their religions share with
Islam. The latter is stridently hostile to people of other faiths, or
only grudgingly tolerates them at best.
Appealing for this fundamental transformation in Islamic thought based
on the ‘values-based’ approach to the Quran, which would also be
reflected in the way Islamic theology and jurisprudence are imagined,
including with regard to non-Muslims, Chandra argues:
It is only too apparent that a non-dogmatic approach to Islam, which
recognises the primacy of eternal, universal spiritual and moral
values while acknowledging the importance of rituals, symbols and
practices, is the most sane and sensible way of living the religion in
today’s world. The values approach to Islam—the antithesis of the
rituals and symbols approach—is not only legitimate from the
perspective of the religion but also necessary at this juncture in
history.
Making a broad survey of relations between Muslims and others in
various countries, and at the global level as a whole, Chandra argues
that a host of factors have contributed to increased polarization
between them in recent years, particular after 9/11. Much of the
responsibility for this rests on the Muslims themselves, he says, but
he also regards what he calls ‘the politics of global hegemony
emanating from Washington’s imperial ambitions’ as a major factor.
This latter points leads him to argue, as he does in many of his other
books, that inter-religious and inter-communal solidarity for peace
and justice must necessarily also require a forceful challenging of
the structures of power at the global level, most importantly Western,
and, in particular, American, political, economic and cultural
hegemony, because this is one of the major causes for conflict between
Muslims and others.
This task, Chandra insists, must go hand-in-hand with a willingness on
the part of Muslims themselves to introspect, and to cease blaming
others for all their ills. In turn, this requires a fundamental re-
evaluation of the way Muslims understand their religion, identity and
tradition. In particular, it requires, Chandra says, ‘breaking
through the hardened crust of exclusive, dogmatic thinking’, and
embracing ‘an inclusive, universal approach’. Seeking to pre-empt
critics who would regard this as compromising on Islamic teachings, he
insists that it is perfectly in consonance with Islam, which â
€˜regards all human beings as brothers and sisters, imperilled by the
same human condition.’ The pathetic state of most contemporary
Muslim societies and states, including the increasingly strained
relations between Muslims and others, have much to do, he says, with a
dogmatic understanding of Islam that negates the fundamental Quranic
values that he distils from the text, as mentioned above.
Chandra traces this ‘dogmatic’ understanding of Islam to the deep-
rooted tradition of taqlid, strict adherence to received
understandings of Islamic theology and jurisprudence, and a dogged
refusal to re-examine and re-interpret these in changing contexts.
These understandings reflect deep-rooted biases against non-Muslims
(and women) and an underlying notion of Muslim supremacism and
communalism. New understandings of Islamic theology and jurisprudence
are thus urgently required for Muslims to be able to seriously
dialogue with others and work together with them for peace and
justice. As Chandra puts it,
‘The taqlid-conditioned notion of morality will have to yield to a
concept of ethics which articulates in crystal clear terms the Islamic
commitment to justice, compassion, freedom and equality […] Such a
view of morality, there is no need to emphasise, would be true
embodiment of the spirit of the Quran and Sunnah.’
For this new approach to Islam and Islamic morality to emerge as a
dominant paradigm would require Muslims to ‘re-orientate their
thinking on Islam’, focusing particularly on what Chandra regards as
the basic moral values of the Quran. From this would emerge
understandings of Islamic theology and jurisprudence that are rooted
in these values—values that are universal, not limited just to Islam
alone. Accordingly, Chandra writes, received theological notions and
fiqh prescriptions that depart from these values would no longer be
considered relevant, normative and binding. This values-based
understanding of Islamic theology and fiqh would, clearly, be more
receptive and conducive to genuine inter-faith and inter-community
dialogue, something that traditional understandings upheld by
conservative ulema and radical Islamists greatly militate against.
Were Muslim societies and countries truly committed to the Quranic
vision and values that he outlines, Chandra argues, relations between
Muslims and others, both within countries and at the global level,
too, would have been vastly different than they are today. True inter-
faith dialogue and solidarity thus urgently require these fundamental
Quranic values to inform, once again, Muslims’ understanding of
their faith as well as their behaviour. Chandra does not consider
these values to be exclusively Islamic, though. He regards all
religions as reflecting, in various ways and to various degrees,
precisely the same values. This being the case, genuine inter-
community solidarity and understanding must be built on the firm
foundation of these values that are common to all religions.
Inter-Community Dialogue and Social and Political Activism
The sort of dialogue that Chandra envisages departs from the
traditional approach that involves religious ‘leaders’ from
different faith communities coming together to discuss their
respective religious beliefs and practices, an approach characteristic
of many religious groups that use dialogue simply as a means for
missionary work. For Chandra, dialogue goes much beyond this and seeks
to bring people of different faith traditions together to recognize
their common humanity and the common values that their religions
uphold, and to work together for common social purposes, including
peaceful resolution of conflicts and challenging despotism,
dictatorship, injustice, imperialism, radicalism in the name of
religion (including Islam) and the global capitalist system and its
underlying materialistic and consumerist ethos or what he calls â
€˜moneytheism’.
Aware of the growing influence of conservative as well as radical
groups that are vehemently opposed to inter-faith dialogue and
interpret Islam accordingly in a narrow, exclusivist fashion, Chandra
insists that Islam calls upon Muslims to dialogue with others. He
points out, for instance, that the Quran exhorts Muslims, Jews and
Christians to come together on the basis of certain shared beliefs and
values. He also regards the Pact of Medina, between the Muslims, led
by the Prophet, and the Jews and pagans of the town, and the Pact of
Najran between the Prophet and Christians, as the Prophet’s
practical expression of the Quranic call for inter-faith dialogue and
solidarity and the imperative of ‘coming to terms with “the otherâ
€ ’.
Chandra critiques self-styled Islamist groups for misusing the
doctrine of jihad to legitimize the killing of innocent people, non-
Muslims as well as Muslims, including perfectly innocent civilians,
something that has played a major role in worsening relations between
Muslims and others in recent years, besides giving Islam a bad name.
Chandra recognizes the justice and legitimacy of certain causes that
radical Islamists champion, such as countering Zionist occupation in
Palestine or opposing the American invasion of Iraq. He also
recognizes that Islam allows for armed defence as a form of jihad
under certain extreme circumstances. Yet, he points out, Islam does
not sanction indiscriminate violence against non-Muslims in the name
of jihad or preach hatred for people of other faiths, as some radical
Islamists claim. He regards this tendency to be a major hurdle to
inter-faith dialogue and improving relations between Muslims and
others.
Islam opposes every form of injustice and oppression, Chandra writes,
and it is thus the duty of Muslims to actively seek to oppose and end
injustice and oppression, even if it is perpetrated by Muslims
themselves against others. This struggle against injustice and
oppression is a form of jihad. Critiquing the tendency to equate jihad
with warfare, he writes that non-violent forms of protest and
mobilization, are themselves forms of jihad and are often more
efficacious, besides being approved of in Islam as well. He cites in
this regard the peace treaty entered into by the Prophet and his
Meccan opponents at Hudaibiyah, and the valiant resistance put up by
Imam Husain to the forces of the tyrant Caliph Yazid at Karbala, which
he characterizes as ‘the noblest instance of resistance to
injustice, motivated by principle and conscience.’
Critique of Religious ‘Revivalism’
Chandra finds much of the phenomenon of the contemporary global rise
of religious ‘revivalism’, including of Islam, deeply problematic.
While he recognizes that, in many cases, such ‘revivalism’
represents a protest against despotic ruling elites or Western
political, cultural and economic hegemony, or forcible occupation of
Muslim lands, as in Iraq, Kashmir and Palestine, he points out that
for many ‘revivalists’ religion is deployed simply as a
mobilisational device, often used as a means to bolster a narrow
understanding of religious and community identity as pitted against
what are portrayed as menacing ‘others’. In such cases, religious â
€˜revivalism’ is simply another term for communalism and a potent
tool for identity politics and conflicts. This, in turn, completely
over-turns and thoroughly undermines what Chandra regards as the
fundamental values of religion. Accordingly, Chandra appeals for inter-
communal solidarity and dialogue to challenge narrow communalism that
often masquerades in the guise of ‘religious revivalism’. His
opposition to radical Islamist groups demanding the creation of an â
€˜Islamic state’ in Malaysia, which he regards as a threat not just
to the country’s non-Muslims but also to his own understanding of
Islam, is a case in point.
Critique of the ‘Islamic State’
A fundamental concern of contemporary Islamic ‘revivalists’ is the
establishment of what they call an ‘Islamic state’—that is to
say, a state ruled in accordance to what is commonly regarded as the
shariah. Chandra has consistently opposed the notion of such a state,
arguing that it would inevitably harm non-Muslims, women and even
Muslims themselves, and deleteriously impact on inter-community
relations. One reason for this is that the historical shariahthat
Islamists as well as the conservative ulema seek to impose, based
mainly on the inherited corpus of fiqh rather than on a direct reading
of the Quran, is heavily biased against women and non-Muslims.
Besides, it is sternly authoritarian and anti-democratic, and for
centuries has been cynically employed by oppressive regimes to
legitimize their rule in ‘Islamic’ terms and to crush dissent. A
state based on the historical shariah would thus lead to tyranny,
repression and dictatorship, ironically in the name of Islam, a
religion that, Chandra argues, is stridently opposed to every sort of
oppression. Hence its legitimacy even in Islamic terms is
questionable.
Thus, Chandra elaborates:
‘There is another equally serious threat to freedom and civil
society in the Muslim world. It comes from a trend that is often
described as “Islamic resurgence†. Though in their drive to
establish an Islamic State, these resurgents, like other dissidents,
espouse the ideals of freedom, human rights and civil society, a close
examination of their ideology and their performance in power reveals a
pronounced proclivity towards authoritarianism and hegemonic
dominance. The contrast between the Islam of the Prophet and the Islam
of the resurgents is so stark that one wonders whether the resurgence
that is occurring today is Islamic at all. Can we call this an â
€˜Islamic resurgence’ if it does not bring into fruition the eternal
values of love and compassion, of justice and freedom, of equality and
dignity embodied in the Quran and exemplified in the life of the
Prophet? Or, is this resurgence the contemporary expression of some
other trend in Muslim history? […] It is [a] reactionary,
conservative, law oriented, power centred Islam that the resurgents
have inherited and seek to propagate.’
By thus seeking to distinguish Islam from the historical forms it has
taken and in which it has been understood, and by offering a values-
based approach to the Quran, stressing its underlying moral principles
over external symbols and rituals, Chandra is able to articulate a
refreshing alternative to stultified Muslim discourses about Islam’s
approach to other religions and ideologies and their adherents. In
this way, he points to the rich theological resources that the Quran
contains to argue the case for a true global ecumenism, a universal
ethic that he regards as indispensable in today’s context to promote
justice, peace and inter-community solidarity and to challenge all
forms of oppression.
Chandra Muzaffar can be contacted on cmuz...@gmail.com, The website
of his Just World Trust is www.just-international.org, [1] The book is
available on www.muslimsdialogueandterror.blogspot.com
URL of this page: http://newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1818
Forward to a friend
COMMENTS
9/30/2009 9:18:42 AM Ashok Chowgule, Vice-President, VHP
from Ashok Chowgule
to Sultan Shahin <Edi...@NewAgeIslam.com>
Article by Sikand at your website
Dear Shahinji,
Pranam,
In the article by Yoginder Sikand available at:
URL: http://www.newageislam.net/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1818
Yoginerji writes: "While he recognizes that, in many cases, such
'revivalism' represents a protest against despotic ruling elites or
Western political, cultural and economic hegemony, or forcible
occupation of Muslim lands, as in Iraq, Kashmir and Palestine, he
points out that for many 'revivalists' religion is deployed simply as
a mobilisational device, often used as a means to bolster a narrow
understanding of religious and community identity as pitted against
what are portrayed as menacing 'others'. "
Do you accept that there is a forcible occupation of Kashmir by non-
Hindus?
Namaste
Ashok Chowgule, Vice-President, Vishwa Hindu Parishad
The Devaswom Ordinance and its consequences (Sanjeev Sharma)
From: sanjeev...@gmail.com Date: Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Why government gets a chance to encroach into temples.
I am strongly against government control of temples.
However, it is our own greed that has given an opportunity to
government to encroach into religious space of Hindus.
On a not so distant in time visit to Shimla and Kalka , the contrast
between the government controlled temples in Himachal Pradesh and the
non-government controlled temple in Kalka (Hayrana/HP border) was so
glaring.
The temples in HP were well managed, clean and the priests were
available in temple i.e. all temples I visited, I could ask any
question and they would try their best to answer any query. There were
hardly any begger near any temple.
The temple in Kalka was a different matter. This temple is very
famous, but I was surrounded by beggers before entering who did not
leave until I got well away from temple, and inside the temple...the
priests were as busy as a government bureaucrat not doing anything.
The temple was nowhere compared to cleanliness I observed in temples
in Himachal Pradesh. The reason, apparently it is still not government
controlled and priests/managers usurp all the money coming in temple.
Sanjeev Sharma
On 5/22/07, Ashok Chowgule <ash...@chowgulegoa.com wrote:
The Devaswom Ordinance and its consequences
Author: Kummanam Rajashekaran
Publication: Haindava Keralam
Date: May 21, 2007
URL: http://www.haindavakeralam.org/PageModule.aspx?PageID=3777&SKIN=i
The Devaswom Ordinane, signed by the Kerala governor on February 4,
has given rise to much protests and controversy. The minister in
charge of devaswoms claimed that this ordinance protects the temples
and is the most beneficial law for devotees after the Temply Entry
Proclamation. The NSS gave its full and hearty support for the
ordinance. At the same time, the SNDP called it anti-democratic and
dangerous. The Hindu Aikya Vedi called it a temple destroying
ordinance.
Though the response to the ordinance was mixed, the majority of Hindu
organizations warned about the dangerous consequences of the ordinance
and called upon Hindu society to oppose it united. It is an
encouraging sign that most Hindu organizations have succeeded in
creating an opinion against the ordinance.
The governor signed the ordinance on the morning of February 4 after
long discussions and scrutiny. Attempts to change the law on devaswoms
had begun a month ago when the devaswom minister wrote a letter
containing 15 suggestions to the LDF convener. Among the main
suggestions were:
a) end the right of the high court to audit devaswom accounts, b) give
the government revision rights, c) make the number of devaswom board
members nine and d) give the government the right to dismiss the
devaswom board.
Hindu organizations came expressed strong displeasure as soon the
contents of the letter were revealed. They submitted petitions to the
chief minister, devaswom minister and the LDF convenor. The petition
requested that devaswom rules may be amended only after consulting
Hindu organizations, that the devaswom board should not lose its power
of self-governance and that devaswom board should include
representatives of devotees. The council of ministers twice discussed
a draft ordinance prepared by the law ministry based on the
suggestions of the devaswom minister. They then left it for the LDF's
consideration. The government was perturbed by the strong negative
reactions of Hindu organizations. LDF constituents like RSP and Kerala
Congress expressed complete disagreement with the government's attempt
to control the devaswom board. Based on this, the council of ministers
again discussed a draft ordinance on January 30. Conditions like
submission of the devaswom's audit report to the legislature,
implementation of the government's suggestions about the audit report
by the devaswom board and the requirement that devaswom board members
should take their oath of office in front of the chief secretary, were
removed from the ordinance. The council of minister approved the
amended ordinance and the governor signed it on February 4.
FAULTY CONDITIONS STILL REMAIN
Many faulty and dangerous stipulations remain even in the amended
ordinance signed by the governor. Some changes made in the conditions
that were severely harmful to the temples and which put them in strict
control of the government, are welcome. The most important point
about
this ordinance is that the government is unwilling to give the right
of unconditional self-governance to the devaswom board as a basic
right of Hindu society.
The following are the clauses in the ordinance which can harm Hindu
society:
Following the ordinance, the governance of the temples under the
Cochin-Travancore Devaswom Board was handed over to a government
secretary (Section 13A).
From now on, devasom board members must take their oath of office in
front of the government secretary (Section 2AA).
The devaswom commissioner must submit a working report on the devaswom
board to the government once in three months (Section 29, sub-section
3A).
The devaswom board must submit an annual audit report to the
government (Section 32, 8A).
The Public Service Commission will appoint employee of the devaswom
board (Section 20, 29A).
The above clauses reduce the devaswom's board right to self-governance
and are harmful to the right of worship and religion of those who
believe in our temples. The deveaswom ordinance is therefore anti-
Hindu and unconstitutional.
The governor has said this in the preamble to the ordinance: "It has
become necessary to take this urgent action, that is why the state
governor has signed this ordinance." This statement is baseless.
Nothing has happened that makes a drastic change in the governance of
temples necessary. There is no crisis in temple management. There is
no rebellion or conflict and no temple has closed down. The ordinance
does not clarify what are the circumstances that made it necessary to
bring out the ordinance.
It is clear that there was no need to bring out an ordinance just a
few days before the legislature was to meet. But there is one thing
that the devaswom minister keeps saying again and again - corruption.
He keeps repeating that this ordinance has been brought to save the
temples from corrupt temple managements. Even if we assume this to be
correct for the sake of argument, the question remains as to why the
government has not invoked the provisions of the Devaswom Act until
now to take strict action against those it considers to be corrupt.
According to Clause 69 of this act, the High Court can removed members
of the devaswom board after receiving a complaint from the advocate-
general. According to Clause 124, the government can file a suit
against devaswom board members in the district court. Clause 226 gives
the high court the right to take strong action the devaswom board.
Moreover, since the anti-corruption laws cover the devaswom boards,
the government can even prosecute the board on charges of corruption.
The government's evil intentions are clear from the fact that it
dismissed the devaswom board even when such provisions exist for
taking strong action against corruption.
If corruption is the reason for dismissal, why was the Cochin Devaswom
Board dismissed even though there is no vigilance case against it? The
minister says that it was the hurry to appoint a scheduled caste man
in a powerful position that the reason for the hasty dismissal of the
devaswom board. Was it out of love for the scheduled castes that a
devaswom board, which had SC man A.C.Velayudhan as a member, was
dismissed? Was it done because of corruption? Both are not true.
THE PROBLEM OF REPRESENTATION
The government claims that scheduled castes and women have been given
representation by its 'revolutionary' act. That these sections of
society have been assured membership of the devaswom board is welcome.
No one has opposed it. But leaders of the CPM and Congress must
clarify why these sections of society were kept away from positions of
power or why a scheduled caste brother was never made the chairman of
the devaswom board though existing laws do not prevent it? These
leaders must apologize to these sections of society.
It is clear that it is neither opposition to corruption or love for
the scheduled castes or women that is the reason for this ordinance.
The only objective of dismissing the devaswom board after reducing its
tenure was to infiltrate relatives into positions of power. Every one
knows that a mere two years is just not enough to administer the
Travancore and Cochin devaswom boards which have 1300 and 400 temples
respectively under their control. The political gain of this ordinance
to the LDF government is that it can infiltrate its own people into 12
positions of power in the two devaswom boards twice during its tenure
of five years.
RULE BY GOVERNMENT SECRETARY
With this ordinance, nearly 1700 temples in the Cochin and Travancore
regions have come under the control of a government secretary. The
government will administer the devaswom boards directly until the new
boards are constituted. No 'secular' government of Kerala has directly
managed the temples in the past for such a long time. When the
devaswom boards were dismissed, the government should have handed over
the management of temples to the devaswom commissioner. It was to
ensure government control over Hindu temples that a government
secretary was appointed as the devaswom administrator. During this
period, all activities of temples in Cochin and Travancore will be
conducted under the supervision of the government secretary.
For example, for the first time ever, the Shivaratri festival on the
banks of the Periyar river in Aluva was conducted under the
supervision of a 'secular' government. Even the Kumbhamasa pooja at
Sabarimala temple was done under the supervision of the Achuthanandan
government. That an IAS officer -- who draws his salary from the
government's treasury and who functions as a representative of a
government - should become the administrator of places of worship of
people belonging to a particular religion, is against India's
constitution. In the Guruvayur Devaswom case, the high court had given
its verdict that a government officer should not manage temples
(Devaswom Act 2004, 6A). The ordinance requires the devaswom boards to
submit a working report to the government once in three months. The
ordinance is silent on what action should be taken if the report is
unacceptable to the government. This is intended to create conditions
for total government control over the devaswom boards.
AUDIT REPORT AND PSC
The ordinance compels the devaswom board to submit audit reports to
the government. Accounts are to be given final approval by the high
court. The court also has the right to seek explanations and take
corrective action. That same report is to be submitted to the
government. The government is duty-bound to table in the legislature
all reports submitted to it. Which means the devaswom reports will be
discussed in the legislature. The decisions that follow will surely be
binding on the devaswom boards.
The requirement that devaswom board members must take their oath of
office in front of a government secretary shows that the board will be
under the full control of the government. A government secretary is a
representative of the government. If board members take their oath of
office in front of the government, the board will be bound to accept
the government's decisions. Till now, board members used to take their
oath in front of the devaswom board secretary.
It is clear that the government wants to assert its full control over
the devaswom boards because it want the boards to give up their right
to appoint their staff to the Public Service Commission. The PSC is a
secular institution. The PSC will not able to advertise, conduct
examinations and recruit people belong to a particular religion. The
ordinance gives a Hindu member of the PSC the right to make
appointments. But the ordinance does not say that only Hindus must be
appointed. The remark of PSC member P.R. Devadas that a secular
institution like the PSC has never conducted a selection process for
members of a particular religion, is noteworthy.
If the devaswom boards give up their right to make appointment to the
PSC, it is not unlikely that the government will gradually take over
all the remaining duties of the boards. It is probable that the
government will seek to transfer all construction work at the temples
to the PWD giving the excuse of preventing corruption. Will it be
wrong for devotees to fear that the government's finance minister will
soon ask the devaswom boards to transfer all the funds and gold in the
temples to the treasury on the pretext of 'transparency' of financial
deals?
The Hindu religious instiutions law that governs the temples of
Malabar is a good example of very old social practices. This outdated
law will affect the survival of temples. The salaries of temple staff
are pitiable indeed. The governments that have come and gone never
cared to improve the conditions. They ignored reports of commissions
and court verdicts. The government callously ignored the request of
devotees and temple employees. It is important that a devaswom board
for Malabar is created and changes made in the management of temples.
Creative and urgent steps must be taken to save the temples of
Malabar.
ARE TEMPLES MILCHCOWS?
Kerala's temples are in crisis because of the interference and
negative approach of the ruling class. All the lands belonging to the
temples were made part of government revenue during the time of
Colonel Monroe itself. Devotees did not have the strength to react or
protest at that time. Not only those lands have not been returned to
the temples till now, the temples were not even given adequate
compensation for the lands taken over. If Colonel Monroe hindered the
development of temples, Minister Sudhakaran is now attempting to
concentrate power by capturing the management of temples. What is the
difference between the two?
The present government has the evil intention of laying its hands on
the incomes of the Shabarimal and Guruvayur temples after tightening
its grip over the devaswom boards. The Shabarimala temple's annual
income comes to about Rs200 crore. The Guruvayur temple has fixed
deposits of about Rs350 crore. Besides that, 2500 kilograms of gold
and assets worth crores. It is possible that the government, facing a
cash crunch, may compel these temple funds to be deposited in the
treasury. Despite not having this authority, governments have twice in
the past attempted to get temple funds deposited in the treasury.
No one buys a milchcow to give it a bath and decorate it. You can
extract milk from it and, when that is no longer possible, it can be
killed for meat. This is the mentality of the buyer of a milchcow. No
seller of cow meat has ever been known to have revered the cow as
mother or done anything to protect her. The government is interfering
in the management of temples only with an eye on temple funds. The
minister's claim that the changes in the laws are being made for the
benefit of the devotees, is unbelievable. If the interests of the
devotees are to be protected, the devotees must be given
representation in the management of temples. The new rules deny the
devotees even the right to approach the court for redressing
grievances. All existing devaswom rules are outdated and need
amendments. The Kuttikrishna Menon Commission appointed by the
government in 1965 had studied devaswom rules and had given clear
recommendations. The commission said devotees who drop money into
boxes in temples must have decisive influence in the management of
temples. Following the meeting of leaders of Hindu organizations led
by the late H.H. Swami Chinmayananda in 1982 with the then chief
miniser K. Karunakaran, a commission to reform devaswom rules was
created under K.P. Shankaran Nair. He recommended that temple
committees where devotees are represented and devaswom boads free of
politics must be created.
Shankaran Nair submitted his 400-page report to the government after
visit several temples in Kerala and collecting evidence from several
representatives of devotees.
Neither the Kerala legislature nor the council of ministers is known
to have discussed the reports of both the commissions. No action has
been taken. In 1986, the government of Chief Minister E.K.Nayanar
appointed Jacob Thambi as a member the Guruvayur temple management
committee. There were widespread protests against this following which
Jacob resigned. The agitation transformed into a temple liberation
movement. There were dharnas, picketing, public meetings and
demonstrations all over the state. The then devaswom minister
Vishwanatha Menon gave the assurance that representation of devotees
in the management of temples will be considered. The agitation was
temporarily halted. Later, Hindu organizations filed a case in the
high court seeking the same rights. The court gave its verdict in 1994
and 1996 that devaswom boards free of political influence must be
created. That a Malabar devaswom board must be created was also
recommended.
Despite commission reports and court verdicts in favour of devotees,
the Nayanar government in 1998 and the Antony government in 2002
introduced bills in the legislature to amend devaswom rules. The
government could not turn the bill into law following strong
opposition by the Hindu public. The matter was left to select
committees. The Achuthanandan government has brought forward, in the
form of an ordinance, the same devaswom amendment bills that had been
kept in abeyance by previous governments following strong protests by
Hindu society. The previous two
bills gave the government the right to take over temples, ashram and
other Hindu institutions without any advance notice. The temple
liberation 'yathra' in January 1999. led by Prakashananda, head of the
Varkala Sivagiri Mutt, was a historic event.
WHO SHOULD MANAGE TEMPLES? GOVERNMENT OR DEVOTEES?
Who should manage temples? A secular government or devotee who comes
to temples for worship? This is a basic question that has been raised
by Kerala's Hindu society. It is ridiculous that political parties
belong to the left and the right, that talk day in and day out about
decentralization of power and people's participation, forget these
principles when it comes to management of Hindu temples? On the one
hand, power is being transferred to the people through programmes like
'janakeeyasuthranam.' People's participation is ensured both in
planning
and implementation of programmes. It is regrettable that the
government is trying to concentrate the power to manage temples in its
hands at a time of decentralization of power. If this government
believes in democratization and decentralization of power, it should
transfer the right to manage temples to the devotees.
The Shankaran Nair Commission reports gives clear suggestions on how
to find representatives of devotees. Today, committees of devotes are
able to conduct festivals and yagnas in temples very well. Such people
can undoubtedly manage temples efficiently. Today, temple committees
temple protection committees and advisory committees are functioning
robustly with the participation of devotees.
TO PROTECT TEMPLES, HINDUS MUST UNITE
What will happen to temples when politicians and the government leave
the management of temples? Does Hindu society have the ability to
manage their places of worship? To whom must management be handed
over? Kerala's Hindu brothers and sisters will no longer be shaken by
such questions. They will not shy away from their duties. Devotees are
not people who do not have the ability to manage temples. Temples in
which they have participation are progressing step by step. This is an
occasion when Hindu society must join hands to protect their temples.
Hindu society must be able to set aside their caste differences,
political rivalries and regional problems to join hands for the
benefit of society to liberate their temples from the grip of the
government and protect the interests of the temples and devotees. All
sections of Hindu society unite to draw up programmes to achieve this.
In 1924, Hindus agitated for the right to walk on the road near the
Vaikkom temple. In 1931, a historic agitation for temple entry took
place in Guruvayur following which the temple entry proclamation was
made in 1936.
In the year 2006-2007, which is the platinum jubilee year of the
Guruvayur agitation and the 70th anniversary of the temple entry
proclamation, may Kerala launch a great agitation by Hindu devotees
for ENTRY INTO TEMPLE MANAGEMENT.
Yes, one more proclamation is need, this time for entry into temple
management
"A Factual Response to Hate Attack on IDRF" by “Friends of India”
The Sabrang/FOIL/FOSA “FAQ” meets reality
A critical look at FAQ on "The campaign to stop funding hate" site
Excerpts from India's Prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's musings
from Goa (12/31/2002). Please click here for the full text of his
message.
" ..... As a matter of fact, there are tens of thousands of unsung or
little-sung heroes of development, both individuals and organisations,
all over the country. They are inspired by the spirit of nationalism
and the true meaning of religion as service to society --- Nar Seva is
Narayan Seva.
Many of them are young people. Few things bring me greater joy than
when I get to meet these selfless volunteers with soaring idealism.
May the number of such individuals and organizations increase a
thousand fold, and may they inspire each of us to do something more
for our country in the New Year. ......"
An analysis of the report 'The Foreign Exchange of Hate IDRF and the
American funding of Hindutva'
by Ashok Chowgule in association with Hindu Vivek Kendra
Marxism and Saffron Wave
by Francois Gautier in Rediff
Facts about the attack on IDRF by Sabrang communications and FOIL
Accusations versus Reality
Miraj Medical Center is in the "Religious" category, and its main
activity is “welfare/health care”. “Religious”? True enough, but only
the curious reader would bother to discover [7,8] that ".. the Miraj
Medical Center, affiliated with the Church of North India, is the only
fully comprehensive health care entity in a 150 mile radius...Ref. [7
&8 ] are the websites of the Presbyterian Church, USA, and the Church
of North India, respectively.
The International Center for Cultural Studies, Nagpur, is also R-
rated. It is also classified as being into “Hinduization”. ICCS has
established enough credibility with Maoris of New Zealand to be
running joint programs with them, according to the New Zealand website
[14]. "Hinduizing" Maoris ?
Ambedkar Vaidyakeeya Pratishthan (Ambedkar Medical Establishment).
Sabrang /FOIL rating: “R”. Activity: “e” – religious conversion. Dr.
Ambedkar, world renowned jurist was one of the fathers of the Indian
Constitution. He was a passionate advocate of the interests of
underprivileged, so-called “low-caste” people – the people whom
Mahatma Gandhi named “Harijans” or “The Lord’s People”. They are
Hindus. The following unsolicited letter was received on Dec. 1, 2002
from a gentleman who has been there.
Read more... [PDF]
Where there's no will to reform, there's extinction
Varsha Bhosle in Rediff
Reporting Bias
Francois Gautier on The Pioneer
We Need Development
Compiled by Friends of India
Sabrang's Anti-India Credentials Exposed
Study by Indiacause.com
Campaign to Halt funding for the upliftment of Dalits and Adivasis
Study by Indiacause.com
Independent Reports
Anonymous Einsteins try to mislead LetIndiaDevelop Petition Signers
Behind The Axis of Evil! Foiling Pseudo Secularists
More on this Hindu hoodlum...
chhotemianinshallah
The Sabrang/FOIL/FOSA “FAQ” Meets Reality
Updated January 5, 2003
Shortly after their Report, “The Foreign Exchange of Hate” and their
Stop-Funding Hate Petition came out, realization apparently started to
set in that they could not afford to have people actually reading
their report. So Sabrang /FOIL/ SACW/ FOSA started the process of
backpedaling and covering up. They published a “Frequently Asked
Questions” (FAQ) page [i] linked to the “Campaign To Stop Funding
Hate”. Below we compare the statements made by Sabrang / FOIL / SACW /
FOSA in answer to their own “Frequently Asked Questions”, (or is that
"Falsely Answered Questions? ) with what the same entities wrote and
published in the “The Foreign Exchange of Hate” - and with facts
readily available elsewhere.
Note to readers: We noticed that shortly after we posted this page,
the Sabrang / FOIL moved the location of their FAQ page!!! Not
surprising, of course.... The version we use is the one they claimed
was "updated December 8, 2002"- though that doesn't mean in any way
that it was not updated since - remember who we're dealing with here.
The underlined hyperlink above was working as of 10:26am, January
5,2003, US Eastern Time, but it may be as slippery as its content. We
have the original archived, of course ....
We too have a “classification system” to use with Sabrang / FOIL /
SACW / FOSA's "FAQ".
L: Lie
H: Half-truth
S: Sermonizing
W: Whine
M: Misrepresentation
Laf: Laugh
Classification
Statement
Reality
H1
Q 1. Who is involved in the Campaign to Stop Funding Hate? A. We are
a diverse group of people of Indian origin living and working in
India, United States, and Europe.
Sabrang Communications Private Ltd, Bombay. [[ii]]
South Asia Citizens (Communist?) Web, France [ [iii]]
Forum of Indian Leftists, worldwide, but mostly US. [[iv]]
Communist Party (Marxist) of India [ [v]]
PROXSA, worldwide, but mostly US-based – anti-Hindu front organization
for Indian Communists and Pan Islamic Ummah sympathizers[vi]
Friends of South Asia, Palo Alto, CA (FOSA) [[vii]], [[viii]]
Indians for Collective Action, California [[ix] ]
The claim of Indian origin is far-fetched.
At least 10, and probably more, of the 20 Muslim-named “Faculty”
appearing on their Faculty Petition are of Pakistani/Iraqi/Indonesian
origin, and probably of the same loyalty[[x]]. Applying the same ratio
to the Muslim-named signors of their Petition it is seen that about
40% of those signing their Petition are in fact Pakistani or other
Middle-eastern Islamists, whose only interest in “secular democratic
India” is to see it destroyed.
L1
Where do your funds come from?
We contribute personal time and money to this work and do not accept
any institutional funding from anywhere.
Sabrang collects funds through the SINGH Foundation [ [xi] ] .
“SINGH”, a convoluted acronym apparently set up to convey a Sikh
identity, stands for “ Secular India’s National Growth and Harmony”.
Public records show that of $125,800 collected by SINGH FOUNDATION in
4 years (1998-2001), the programs expenses were less than 50% of total
expenses! This level of administrative expenses would be rated as an F
by non-profit organization rating agencies. OVER $39,000 was used to
fund “travel” outside "programs" expenses. Where the rest went is
anyone’s guess, but the “Communalism Combat” page of Sabrang [[xii]
suggests that a lot of it may have gone to pay Sabrang’s Teesta
Setalwad and Javed Anand, and perhaps the authors of "The Foreign
Exchange of Hate" got their cut back from there.
From [ [xiii]] : “To put it on a personal note, when we both left our
jobs over two years ago, we were jointly earning around Rs.25,000 p.m.
Our labour apart, we have since managed with just Rs.10,000 p.m. and
have both declined job offers which would have meant well over Rs.
25,000 p.m for either one of us. This is not to tell you about the
great "spirit of sacrifice” -.. . While we are on the subject, may we
make a suggestion to individuals and groups from the U.S. (and
possibly Canada, too) who would like to respond to this SOS. As many
of you are already aware the New York-based "Singh Foundation" .. is
registered as a charity under U.S. law and donations to it are
entitled to tax benefits. You might wish to consider the option of
multiplying your contribution to us -- at no extra cost to yourself --
by directing your subscriptions to us through "Singh Foundation or
some other such trust. Waiting anxiously for a reply and with warm
regards. - Javed Anand, Teesta Setalvad “
They have also been funded by the Congress Party, Communist Party,
several “NGOs” and from foreign sources for election propaganda –
enough to pay for full-page ads in the Times of India.[[xiv] ]
Where the South Asia Citizens’ Web receives or sends funding, is
anyone’s guess. They are not telling.
L2
We found each other - via the internet and through personal contacts
- in the aftermath of the Gujarat riots earlier this year.
Consider the honesty of that statement. They have been members of the
Forum of Indian Leftists for decades. They have been working on their
“Report” for at least 5 years, by their own claim! See the
crosslinking between websites of FOIL, SABRANG, PROXSA, FOSA and
ICAOnline in the Endnotes of this page.
H2
Among us there are professionals, teachers and students belonging to
various faiths and political persuasions.
Marxist, Pakistan/Taliban supporters, Congress Party workers,
professional Welfare Queens and other anarchist fundamentalists.
L3
We are bound by one common goal: an India without hatred,
Much more by a dream of an India without Jammu&Kashmir, and parts of
Rajasthan and Gujarat [[xv]] – which they dream of giving to Pakistan,
and .. An India without our north-east, which will presumably be given
to Communist China..
Laf1
where people are not persecuted because of their faith or political
beliefs.
The FOIL/PROXSA web page lists speeches by Cuban dictator Fidel
Castro, [ [xvi]]well-known proponent of “freedom and non-
persecution”,
Biju Mathew’s webpage at Rider U. features a link to the UnaBomber
Manfesto [ [xvii] ] – another anarchist hero.
Sabrang has authored and propagated teaching material that includes
supporting the viewpoints of Pakistan, noted haven of political and
religious freedom.
L4
Q 2. Are you opposed to religion ? Are you opposed to Hinduism in
particular?
A. No, we are not opposed to religion.
See Page 1, line 1 of the Sabrang/FOIL/FOSA report: “Hindutva, the
Hindu supremacist ideology” - a characterization in sharp contrast to
the Indian Supreme Court's definition of Hindutva.
And page 4: “Hindutva – which translates literally to Hinduness or
Hinduhood”.
See Mathew and Prashad’s articles in the Weekly Organs of the
Communist Party (Marxist) – with the Red Flag and the Hammer and
Sickle [[xviii]]. Respect for religion?
L5
We abide by the vision of the authors of Indian Constitution, who
envisaged an India where all religions will be treated equally and all
citizens are free to practice any religion of their choice without
fear of persecution.
The Emblem of India says “Satyam eva Jayate” – something completely
alien to Sabrang/FOIL/FOSA . Even on this "Petition", they tried to
cheat voters by cyber-squatting with a plagiarized website name -
under an "anonymous" registration - until smoked out into the open.
They STILL link to that bogus site from their Hate Petition site!!
The Constitution also protects the right of every citizen to be
considered innocent unless and until proven guilty of some crime.
Sabrang/FOIL /SACW and their Communist – Islamic Fundamentalist allies
have never been blamed for observing such niceties, and their Report
is clear proof of their smear tactics.
One of Sabrang/FOIL’s "Faculty" supporters is on record as condoning,
if not approving, physical assault against wives by their husbands for
perceived disobedience / refusal for sexual services on demand. Cites
“religious authority” for that outrage against the Constitutions of
India, Canada and the United States, and all other civilized
societies. [ [xix]]
Dr. Vinay Lal, Sabrang/FOIL spokesman and Associate Professor of
History at University of California at Los Angeles (as he never fails
to remind us), explains Sabrang’s concept of treating all religions
equally – when he tells us that the Taliban was justified in
destroying the Bamiyan Buddhas [[xx]] - since they represented other
religions.
M1
Yes, we are opposed to Hindutva and Sangh Parivar. Hindutva is
different from Hinduism. Most followers of Hinduism, like the
followers of any other religion are peaceful, non-violent and
tolerant.
See page 4 definition of “Hindutva” in their report - "Foreign
Exchange of Hate". Contrast with the Supreme Court of India’s
definition of “Hindutva”. [7]
M2
Hindutva is a political ideology. It advocates use of violence,
confuses nationality with culture and religion, is supremacist and
exclusionary. It believes that only people who support it should have
first class citizenship in India. All others should be second class
citizens.
See Supreme Court of India definition of “Hindutva”.
“Ordinarily, Hindutva is understood as a way of life or a state of
mind and it is not to be equated with or understood as religious Hindu
fundamentalism . A Hindu may embrace a non-Hindu religion without
ceasing to be a Hindu. and since the Hindu is disposed to think
synthetically and to regard other forms of worship, strange gods and
divergent doctrines as inadequate rather than wrong or objectionable,
he tends to believe that the highest divine powers complement each
other for the well-being of the world and mankind. Few religious ideas
are considered to be finally irreconcilable.”
Don’t the Sabrang/FOIL diatribes show who the real “hate-mongers”
are?
S1
Nazism in Germany under Hitler said the same thing
Thus, by the above, Sabrang equates all Hindus to Nazis.
And their own combination of Goebbels / Lenin / Musharraf propaganda
tactics to “secular democratic freedom-loving” “people of Indian
origin”.
S2
We all know what happened when Nazism was allowed to grow.
Yes they obviously know Nazism very well – and they are imitating the
work of Goebbels perfectly
Laf2
Sangh Parivar is a loose network of organizations led by the RSS
We will leave it others to argue about the RSS and Sangh Parivar, and
expose Sabrang / FOIL's lies about them - other then a few more laughs
below.
Laf3
whose founders were admirers of Adolf Hitler.
Interesting point. The "Sangh Parivar"’s Founders must have lived in
the days of the British Empire – and like most others enslaved by the
British, had excellent reason to look with admiration on anyone who
could stand up to the British – no endorsement of the Nazis’ own
actions implied.
But lets see what Sabrang's own spokesman, Associate Professor Dr.
Vinay Lal of the University of California, Los Angeles, has to say on
the subject: [xxi]]: “ Under British rule in India, peasants lived in
"abject misery", the "forces of law and order were almost invariably
deployed in favour of their oppressors", agricultural productivity in
most of the country was "dismal", famine was recurrent, industries
declined.. Few "serious thinkers and historians" will be found in
India "who see anything good in the imperial record" (p. 358). He
notes that even the indefatigable Anglophile, Nirad Chaudhuri, much
admired in the West like Naipaul, "described the British in India in
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as 'the Nazis of
their times'".. No doubt the British were gentler Nazis, but that is
why their empire has a rather more ominous quality to it. The
'responsibilities' once exercised by the British have now devolved
upon the Americans. In that most cliched formulation, the sun never
set on the British empire, and now the Americans are asking us to
behold the thousand points of light. They live in darkness and call it
light " - recent quotes from Associate Professor Dr. Vinay Lal of the
University of California, Los Angeles.
Laf4
Q 3. Why don't you criticize other religious groups who send money to
India?
They can’t afford to answer their own question- See their answer!
Laf5
A. First of all, IDRF is not sending money to a religious group.
Question was NOT :”why don’t you criticize the sending of money to
religious groups? “ See facts of where the money actually reaches.
M3
It is sending it to the Sangh Parivar.
OK, so Sangh Parivar is not a religious group.
Laf6
We are not opposed to religious groups sending money to India, per
se.
Wonderful statement! Could it be that Sabrang / FOIL depends on
funding from subversives, foreign "missions" [[xxii]], Taliban –
admirers, and a spokesman who calls President Bush a worse than Osama
bin Laden [[xxiii] ]?
L6
However, the money that IDRF sends encourages divisiveness and
violence.
A typical Sabrang/FOIL lie – as shown in Section 3.
Laf6
We do condemn all acts of hate and violence - regardless of religion
or ideology.
In fact they don’t do anything other than “condemn” or “agitate”.
Nothing constructive. Even their “lesson plans” which they foist upon
innocent children at the Bombay International School are subversive.
[[xxiv], [xxv] ]
Laf7
The reason for our focus on Sangh Parivar is that we are committed to
an India that is democratic, secular and embodies equal respect to all
religions.
Sabrang/FOIL is dominated by Pakistan-supporters, Red China-aping
Marxist Communists, admirers of Fidel Castro, and apologists for the
Taliban’s destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas. [30] Some commitment to
“democratic, secular..” indeed!!
Laf8
Q 4. Is IDRF breaking the law in supporting Hindutva groups?
IDRF is not in the business of supporting “Hindutva” groups,
nor “Pakitva”, “Talibantva”, “Marxistva” , Sabrangtva", “FOILtva” or
any other “tva”.
It is in the business of conveying funds to projects approved
specifically by the Government of India, using means and organizations
which are specifically approved by the Government of the United
States.
Whether Sabrang/FOIL is violating laws of India, by propagating the
Pan –Islam terrorist dreams of the Caliphates of South Asia, by taking
tax-free charitable funds and using it on anarchist travel, and by
other writing slanderous reports without an iota of truth in them,
remains to be seen.
Laf9
If missionaries can raise money for Christianity, Muslims can raise
money for Islam, why can Hindu organizations not do the same?
IDRF does not waste time asking such questions, since they spend
their time working to help the poor, and welcome the efforts of other
helpful people – example: Miraj Medical Center, which Sabrang/FOIL
spokesman Associate Professor Dr. Vinay Lal of the University of
California, Los Angeles specifically condemned as a camouflaged RSS-
affiliated hate-mongering organization. [ [xxvi]]
L7
A. IDRF is misrepresenting itself as a non sectarian non political
organization.
IDRF represents itself as exactly what it is. Sabrang/FOIL
misrepresent themselves as “concerned Indians who aim for secular and
harmonious”, propagate incendiary Pakistani versions of maps from
India, try to subvert democratic elections in India, spread hatred,
and obstruct aid to India from NRIs - and sponge off donations sent by
people who think they are funding secularism and communal harmony
L8
But 80 per cent of the money raised by IDRF goes to organizations
belonging to the Sangh Parivar, a loose network of Hindutva
organizations.
Sabrang / FOIL cook their numbers to come up with 80% here, 82%
there, 83% elsewhere: whatever they feel like tossing out on the spur
of the moment. 80 percent of Indians are Hindus – so why is it
surprising if 80% of funding to India, which is 80% Hindu, indeed went
to organizations run by Hindus? IDRF exists to get useful work done
where it can get it done - not to satisfy demographic quota systems.
There is no lack of opportunity in India to help people - of any
caste, creed or tribe. What stops Sabrang from doing something usefu?
Lets compare how they spent $125,800 in 4 years, with how IDRF spends
money..
W1
It raised $ 3.8 million last year from non-resident Indians and in
matching grants from corporate houses.
Accusation, or whine? In 2001, Biju& Co. through SINGH managed to
raise only some $3000 for Gujarat earthquake relief. Where it went
remains to be seen.
Laf10
The donors are told that the charity will go towards socio-economic
development in India.
And it does, obviously to anyone whose mind is not closed by Sabrang/
FOIL’s bigotry.
Laf11
In reality, it goes to support the activists trained by the Sangh
Parivar employed in various schools, relief centers etc
In other words, it goes to people trained to deliver relief after
natural disasters, trained to teach, trained to heal and otherwise
trained to help people. Not to Marxist anarchist fundamentalists whose
record of flexibility with truth and political morality are as well-
known as their record of productive service to humanity.
S3
IDRF should openly declare that it is a part of Hindutva ideology.
No more than they should declare that they are human beings, just to
please Communists and Pan-Islamists
Laf11
All evidence shows that it is.
In the eyes of Communists and Pakistan agents, maybe, but not to sane
and fair people. Since they have not an iota of evidence, and they
cannot afford to have people read their report to realize that, they
think this grand declaration will cover up their lies.
Laf12
Q 5. Does not IDRF support developmental projects in India? Their
records show that they support education, tribal welfare, healthcare
and women and children. Is that all lies ?
No, the lies are in the contortions and data-cooking that Sabrang/
FOIL do in their Report and their FAQ page
Laf13
The support that IDRF offers to educational institutions and tribal
welfare programs is very selective and geared towards promoting a
specific ideology.
It is far less “selective” than the “education” which Sabrang imparts
to Bombay International School students whom Sabrang tricks into
drawing Pakistan / Pan Islam Caliphate -propaganda maps.
Laf14
Almost all of the large scale money transfers relating to the Orissa
Cyclone and the Bhuj earthquake have been to Sangh Parivar
organizations in India.
Who did “almost all” of the first-on-scene rescue work, regardless of
religion, tribe or caste [ [xxvii]].
Laf15
Indeed, it has been documented that money raised for these
humanitarian causes was used in a partisan, sectarian manner, to
benefit only the majority community (See Appendix E of the report, A
Foreign Exchange of Hate).
This “documentation” must be seen by all – please do visit this
“Appendix E” and take 5 minutes to do Google searches on a couple of
the slandered organizations. It will be more “research” than Sabrang/
FOIL ever bothered to do.
Laf16
Legally, the IDRF is entitled to donate to any organization of its
choice.
Yes, as long as those organizations are approved by Government of
India to receive foreign currency for charitable purposes. For
example, we doubt if Sabrang or FOIL would qualify.
L10
The organizations chosen by IDRF however belong to an ideological set
that openly declares that non Hindus ought to be deemed second class
citizens in India.
This is a blatant lie, as shown by numerous examples.
Also irrelevant, unless those organizations are eating that money like
Sabrang/FOIL does with SINGH donations, instead of using it to help
the poor.
Laf14
According to the public records, the majority of instances where
money was sent to truly non-sectarian NGOs was when donors
specifically designated such organizations as the recipients.
Accusation or a whine? In other words, IDRF respects donor’s wishes,
and yes, IDRF DOES send a lot of money to what Sabrang “certifies” as
“truly non-sectarian”. Given the complete debunking of FOIL’s system
for designating “sectarian” vs “truly non-sectarian” everything else
here is nonsense.
Laf15
Even here, it is important to note that the IDRF takes a ten percent
cut of all such donations and only accepts such donations if they are
over one thousand dollars.
If this is OK with donors, what is Sabrang/FOIL’s problem? Why should
IDRF collect money and try to send it to a zillion different
organizations? To send a cheque to India, certified, costs over $5. On
$1000, that’s already 0.5% expense. On $100 it would be 5% expense.
IDRF’s people are volunteers – they have to use their time wisely.
Laf16
The ten percent 'fee' is generally sent to Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram or
other RSS/VHP projects in India,
In other words, 100% of donations are used for education/relief etc.
– IDRF doesn’t take donor’s money to travel, run newsletters and
conduct agitations like Sabrang/FOIL do.
L9
who turn around and use it to spread sectarian hatred as has been
shown elsewhere.(Part 4 of the report, A Foreign Exchange of Hate).
Nothing of the sort has been shown, nor is there anything to show,
because this is another blatant lie.
Laf17
Q 6. What is wrong with IDRF being part of Hindutva ideology,
especially if they are doing relief and rehabilitation work and within
legal framework ?
Nothing, even if they were part of any ideology.
Sabrang/FOIL are Left Anarchist Fundamentalists, yet it's not because
of anyone’s obstruction that they don’t do anything useful
Laf18
A. Please n
ote that we are not saying that IDRF is directly funding the
acquisition of weapons.
Wow! In other words, Sabrang/FOIL would be happy if they WERE buying
AK-47s and "IEDs" to blow up buses like Sabrang/FOIL’s friends in the
Taliban, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Marxist terrorist groups in West Bengal
and Orissa?
Laf19
We are saying that IDRF offers a cover of respectability for funding
organizations engaged in hate campaigns.
In other words, all they can see is that IDRF is respectable.
Their claim about the “organizations” being engaged in “hate
campaigns” is thoroughly debunked by just thinking a minute about the
organizations so slandered.
L10
Its (IDRF’s) volunteers are all trained political activists of the
Sangh Parivar,
FLAT, BLATANT LIE. The author of this analysis is also a “volunteer”
for IDRF, and can assure readers, with plenty of people to confirm
it, that Sabrang / FOIL / FOSA is lying here.
The fact that Sabrang / FOIL /FOSA KNOW they're lying is proved by
their backpedaling elsewhere [[xxviii] ] – accompanied by continued
display of this lie as answer to Frequently Asked Questions
L11
and the Sangh creates the conditions in which communal violence
easily springs up.
What does that mean? That it feeds people? That it teaches people
that the secessionist hatred preached by the Marxists, Pan-Islamists
and Jubilee Church is not true?
Laf19
The Rashtriya Swayamsevk Sangh (RSS) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad
(VHP), key organizations in the Hindutva movement, are shadowy
organizations
They have existed for over 77 years, and are completely public. They
are grassroots organizations of dedicated social workers, not top-down
Politburo-type Marxist organizations, nor Pakistani military-terrorist
juntas
Laf20
which have been banned several times in India for fomenting communal
violence.
By political micro-dictators - and they were un-banned whenever the
courts intervened, obviously.
Laf21
VHP and RSS workers have been implicated in murderous activities.
“Implicated” by the likes of Sabrang/FOIL is a far cry from “proven
to be guilty by due process of the law”. The number of RSS/VHP
“workers” even accused of violence is nowhere near that of Communists,
Congress (I) and Pan-Islam terrorists shown to be guilty of violence
Laf22
Numerous judicial inquiries have noted the role of RSS in creating
conditions for communal riots.
Anything ever stick in a court of law in a proper trial?
Laf23
Now, as a matter of strategy, RSS and VHP operate through front
organizations which are legally registered and function as charities.
Thanks! In other words, deleting the hype, Sabrang admits that “RSS
and VHP operate through legally registered, functioning charities.”
W2
RSS itself has no legal status.
Accusation or whine? What “legal status” does one need to help
others? Maybe in Communist / Shariah paradises, not in free
democracies. “RSS” stands for “Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh” –
National VOLUNTEER helpers’ group.
W3
It maintains no membership rolls.
Nor does “it” need to. It's not the Communist Party (Marxist) which
hosts the "intellectual work" of the Sabrang/ FOIL authors Biju Mathew
and Vijay Prashad.
W4
It has no internal democracy
It “operates” in the world’s largest democracy.
W5
and its accounts are never audited publicly.
Audits are conducted of individual organizations which handle money.
A group of people sharing common ideals has no need of any “audit”
except in communist or Shariah dictatorships
M3
Q 7. But Hindutva organizations claim that it is the missionaries and
madarsas which initiate the problem. Is this not true ?
IDRF has not "claimed" anything of the sort - the facts speak for
themselves. This is Sabrang/FOIL at their old game: divide Indians and
Indian-Americans along communal lines, and spread hatred.
M4
A. It is mostly not true.
What does “mostly” mean? 3%? 25%? 50%? 75%?
Laf24
There may be missions which convert.
Wonder if they thought they should check into that – if the terms
“fairness” or "objectivity" ever occurred in their “research”?
Laf25
There may be madarsas where hatred is taught.
Element of doubt, always the element of doubt….
All those reports from Pakistan are false, heh?
Laf26
But there is a difference. Christian missions in India have also done
a lot of educational and medical service.
In other words, Sabrang claims that if any organization does “a lot
of educational and medical service”, there is a “difference”, even if
some of those organizations “teach hatred” and “convert”!
L12
Similarly there are many Hindu religious missions which do not preach
communalism for instance, the Ramakrishna Missions).
Of course there are MANY "Hindu" religious missions which do not
preach communalism - hard to think of any that DO "preach
communalism" . However, that statement is placed here by Sabrang /
FOIL / FOSA to convey that "Sabrang/FOIL does not oppose Ramakrishna
Missions. "
That is a blatant, disgusting lie to hide Sabrang/FOIL’s own agenda
and history. Sabrang’s Report explicitly categorizes organizations of
the Ramakrishna Mission as “RSS-affiliated” and “hate-spreading”.
Again, they want to keep people from actually READING their report,
and the “basis” for their hoopla.
In 1985, Ramakrishna Mission was FORCED to declare itself a "NON-
HINDU" organization to avoid takeover and destruction of its
hospitals, medical colleges, and orphanages by the Marxist Communists
of West Bengal and Kerala - Sabrang / FOIL's sponsors and idols.
Laf28
India has a tradition of social work inspired by religion.
Correct. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with IDRF founders
being likewise “inspired by religion” to do their excellent social
work, nor in their selecting NGOs in India which are likewise
“inspired by religion” to to do excellent, efficient, effective social
work. This is a heck of a lot better than being inspired by General
Musharraf, Karl Marx, Mao ze Dong or Osama bin Laden to conduct
anarchist propaganda, as Sabrang / FOIL’s crew appears to be.
Laf29
Mahatma Gandhi is a great example of how one can learn good things
from all religions.
Correct. And the Marxists and Pan-Islamists opposed Mahatma Gandhi
bitterly all his life. Sabrang / FOIL's Marxist Communists, Pakistan-
loyalists, wife-beating proponents and other anarchists here are not
good examples for anyone.
Laf30
The Sangh Parivar is however different. Their social work is always
motivated by a program of communal politics.
Sabrang / FOIL’s bigoted political agenda comes through loud and
clear.
Laf31
Q 8. How exactly is IDRF misleading donors? Doesn't it tell
contributors through its web-site where the money is going?
Sabrang / FOIL's own answer: “Yes, IDRF does put the list of the
recipients of its fund on its web-site.”
Laf32
A. Yes, IDRF does put the list of the recipients of its fund on its
web-site.
Yes. They should know. That's about the only source that they used in
what they call their "meticulous research"!
Laf33
However, merely revealing the identities of the receiving
organizations does not inform people about the true nature of their
activities.
Neither does a bunch of bigots downloading a list posted by IDRF,
and sorting organizations into “RSS-affiliated” and “Hinduization /
conversion” - nor advertising that as a “Comprehensive, In-Depth
Report” as the Sabrang/FOIL crew has done
L13
As the report "A Foreign Exchange of Hate" shows, an overwhelming
number of organizations receiving IDRF funding are Sangh fronts.
As any child can determine by looking at the “data” in said report,
it shows exactly the opposite.
Laf34
It took meticulous research to establish this connection.
Let us enjoy a moment of laughter.
L14
Most ordinary donors take IDRF's contention at face value and give
their money thinking that they are funding welfare projects for the
poor.
Not ONE out of the 2766 seen until January 1, 2003 on the Sabrang/
FOIL Petition says anything close to “I am an IDRF donor, not happy
with what IDRF did with my money”
L15
They are therefore not aware of the fact that their money is
distributed to support Hindutva's communal politics.
Because it is not.
Laf35
IDRF knows that if it were upfront about its connection to the Sangh,
many decent and fair-minded contributors would refuse to give it any
money.
Many people have sent in contributions to IDRF citing the need to
counter Sabrang/FOIL’s lies.
Of all (2766) Hate-Petition [5] signers seen to-date (Jan.1) there is
NOT a SINGLE “dissatisfied IDRF donor” !!!
L16
That is why even though evidence shows overwhelmingly that IDRF is
part of the sangh parivar, it continues to claim that it does not have
anything to do with the Sangh Parivar.
The evidence shows nothing of the sort, and IDRF claims nothing of
the sort . IDRF does insist that organizations be willing to work for
relief and education in India, for Indians, and not try to foment
secession, terrorism, anarchism or hatred. Sabrang/FOIL won’t
qualify.
Laf36
We are "not objecting to people giving their money to a cause of
their choosing,…
Obviously they would like people to contribute to the SINGH
Foundation instead, as the Sabrang “SOS” on Biju Mathew’s web page
pleads. [ [xxix]]
Laf37
..however reprehensible that may be.
They are "not objecting” – they just call it “reprehensible” !!
Laf38
We are concerned that IDRF is collecting this money under false
pretences.
Although they don’t contribute a penny themselves….
Laf39
Q 9. How exactly is IDRF misleading corporations?
A. IDRF states that it does not subscribe to any religious, political,
or sectarian agendas. Furthermore, it claims that it does not
discriminate against any religion, sect, or race in either the
collection or distribution of funds. The facts belie this contention.
As the report, A Foreign Exchange of Hate demonstrates clearly,
IDRF does not subscribe to any religious, political, or sectarian
agenda. Correct.
It does not discriminate against any religion, sect or race in either
the collection or distribution of funds. Correct.
The facts support these, despite Sabrang/FOIL’s trying to twist and
misrepresent them.
The Sabrang/FOIL report clearly demonstrates the gross disregard for
the truth by its authors and supporters.
L17
IDRF does operate in a sectarian fashion
Goebbels / Musharraf School : Repeat a lie many times, because fools
may believe it then.
L18
and does send money almost exclusively to organizations that are not
only explicitly religious, but also subscribe to a divisive ideology
that seeks to construct India as a monotheistic and intolerant state.
Please see the list of organizations that IDRF supports, and decide
for yourself whether orphanages, schools, hospitals, leprosy-patient
care centers, yoga centers, agricultural Extension Centers, are all
“explicitly religious and subscribe to divisive ideology” – or whether
the divisive ideology is in the hate-authors’ sick minds.
Laf40
Most corporations and donation portals have criteria and guidelines
that make religious and political organizations ineligible for
receiving matching donations.
Sabrang/FOIL should know, because chances are that most corporations
are too smart to fund the SINGH foundation to help “needy” communists
and Islamic anarchists fly around the world.
L19
IDRF has gone to great lengths to conceal its sectarian and
discriminatory agenda and has posed as a development and relief
organization in order to qualify for such grants. This is deceptive..
IDRF posts everything about it on the internet. See http://www.idrf.org
Sabrang/FOIL’s websites are increasingly disappearing behind “members-
only” walls. [[xxx]]
Laf41
and should give corporations enough reason to dissociate themselves
from IDRF.
If the corporations were run by Communist anarchists...
In other words,after five years of doing nothing but agitating, and
then laying a rotten egg full of lies and bloopers, they have nothing
better than this whine of envy to show the corporations.
Laf42
It should be also noted here that despite repeated requests, the IDRF
has refused to set up funds for sectarian violence in India when
Muslims or Christians are the primary victims.
Freudian slip, perhaps, but Correct. IDRF refuses to fund sectarian
violence or any other violence against anyone, including Muslims and
Christians. The motivations of those who “repeatedly request” IDRF to
set up funds for sectarian violence, should of course be questioned.
Sorry to disappoint them - perhaps they should have their heads
examined, though..
Laf43
This is especially striking when one realizes that IDRF has made a
lot of noise and collected funds for Hindu victims of communal carnage
in other countries, but never for Muslim victims in India.
Sabrang/FOIL collect money mainly for themselves, so it is
especially interesting that they should be “struck” by IDRF’s claimed
inability to reach all needy people.
IDRF does help people in cases of natural disasters – without regard
for religion, caste etc. IDRF does help war victims. IDRF conveys
money to approved organizations based on donor requests. Elsewhere in
their Foreigh Exchange of Hate Report and Hate websites, Sabrang/FOIL
claims that IDRF’s collection of money for the families of New York
firefighters and other casualties of the 9/11 terrorist strike was
also “anti-Muslim".. ” because, according to Sabrang / FOIL, “the
attackers were Muslims!!! "
Analysis of Sabrang / FOIL / SACW / FOSA's Falsely Answered Questions
(FAQ):
Lies – 19 (24.675%)
Half-truths - 3 (3.896%)
Sermons – 3 (3.896%)
Whines - 5 (6.493%)
Misrepresentations: - 4 (5.195%)
Laughs – 43 (55.844%)
This is presented in a convenient graphical form, below:
Summary of the Content of the Sabrang/FOIL “FAQ” page.
ENDNOTES
[i] Sabrang Communications / FOIL/SACW/FOSA , “The Campaign to Stop
Funding Hate - Frequently Asked Questions – Updated 12/08/2002”
http://stopfundinghate.org/resources/FAQ.htm
[ii] Sabrang Communications web page. http://www.sabrang.com
[iii] South Asia Citizens Web. http://www.mnet.fr/webparticulier/a/aiindex/
[iv] Forum of Indian Leftists website at the PROXSA site:
http://www.proxsa.org/resources/foil/foilpg.html (See PROXSA below)
[v] Mathew, B., Prashad, V., “Hindutva for a Few Dollars a Day”.
People’s Democracy, Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India
(Marxist), Vol. XXV, No. 12, March 25, 2001.
http://pd.cpim.org/2001/march25/march25_biju_vijay.htm
[vi] Progressive South Asians, PROXSA www.proxsa.org/ (See FOIL site
above)
[vii] Friends of South Asia http://fosa.ektaonline.org/
[viii] The Campaign To Stop Funding Hate, P.O. Box 20136 Stanford, CA
94309 / The Friends of South Asia, PO BOX 20136, Stanford, CA.
http://www.mindspring.com/~akhila_raman/fosa/
[ix] Indians for Collective Action. California, USA http://www.icaonline.org/
(Also see SINGH Foundation below)
[x] FOIL Faculty Petition Signers’ Pakistan links - webpage
[xi] SINGH Foundation. http://www.icaonline.org/ (See Indians for
Collective Action Above)
[xii] Communalism Combat Appeal & thanks
http://www1.rider.edu/%7Ewebcis/mathew/ccsos.html
[xiii] “Communalism Combat – SOS” http://www1.rider.edu/%7Ewebcis/mathew/ccsos.html
[xiv] Rs. 15,000,000 Advertisement campaign launched by Sabrang
Communications on behalf of Congress state governments, Communist
Party of India and several individuals. November 1999.
http://www.humanscapeindia.net/humanscape/hs1199/hs11997t.htm
[xv] About Sabrang Communications / Forum Of Indian Leftists (Foil) /
South Asia Citizens' Web (SACW)
http://www.geocities.com/charcha_2000/essays/sabrang_foil_sacw.html
[xvi] “Speech by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, President of the
Republic of Cuba. Havana.
Author/Source: Fidel Castro Date: September 22, 2001”. The Progressive
South Asian Exchange Net (PROXSA), 9-11 Resources. .org/resources/9-11/
castro010922-speech.htm
[xvii] “Check out the Unabomber manifesto “. Web Page of Jesse E.
Harper Associate Professor Dr. Biju Mathew at Rider University, New
Jersey. http://www1.rider.edu/%7Ewebcis/mathew/bijumain.html
[xviii] Prashad, V., “War Against the Planet - the 5th Afghan War,
Imperialism and Other Assorted Fundamentalisms.”. New from LeftWord,
http://pd.cpim.org/2002/jan27/01272002_leftword.htm
[xix] Badawi , Jamal, “Gender Equity in Islam”. American Trust
Publications, Plainfield, Indiana, 1995. Endnote [14]
http://www.jannah.org/genderequity/equitynotes.html
#note14. Excerpts: “Instead of divorce, the husband may resort to
another measure .. a gentle tap on the body, but never on the face,
making it more of a symbolic measure then a punitive one… qualified
permissible "striking" as that which leaves no mark on the body. a
"permissible" act is neither required, encouraged or forbidden. In
fact it may be better to spell out the extent of permissibility,”
[xx] Lal, Vinay, “After Bamiyan” http://www.littlemag.com/mar-apr01/vinay.html
[xxi] Vinay Lal : “Good Nazis and Just Scholars: Much Ado About the
British Empire”. Originally published as "Good Nazis and just
scholars: much ado about the British Empire", review of P. J.
Marshall, ed., Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire,
Race and Class 38, no. 4 (April-June 1997):89-101.
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/British/BrEmp.html
[xxii] Jubilee Church. Here is an example: Pastor Kluane Simonds
Spake, PhD, India Ministry, Part 2, http://www.spake.org/spake/india2.htm
Excerpts from the “About us” page: “Dr. Spake served as founder and
senior pastor of Jubilee Church on the Island of Guam for fourteen
years. She recently moved to Georgia and now ministers around the
world in services, conferences, crusades, and pastor’s meetings.
Pastor Spake has a strong educational background with a Masters degree
from Trinity Theological Seminary and a Doctorate in the Philosophy of
Theology from Vision University. She is listed as primary faculty for
Vision International University.” From her “India Ministry Part 2:
“….. The children happily lined up on the dirt driveway to eat rice
and water, while the pastor sat watching. .. My first preaching
service was to Moslem and Hindu converts all dressed in their national
clothes and seated on the floor mat, trying to out-sing the clanging
noise makers and drums that frenziedly beat out their stridently
rhythmic tunes. They sang praises with such gusto that the bulging
cords on their necks compressed their voices into the atonal sounds so
typical of this region. The aggressive hammering of the silvery
rattles demanded that their newly found God heed these praises…I stood
there in my new Punjabi, feeling ghastly pale amongst this colorful
palate of believers. I shared how even though our outsides may look
different, the same blood flows in our veins. Jesus. He's the only
One. The endless prayer line kept coming, while the local pastor
shouted that we must hasten to the next church… Once again we lurched
through streets of mud covered cardboard huts, down to the distant
loud speaker in the next village. Upon stopping, the driver whispered,
"These are the untouchables," and we walked inside. A curious white
bearded man gestured for me to come forward, and soon I found myself
telling them how I had traveled almost around the world to tell them
that Jesus cares. More precious believers struggling to find hope
formed prayer lines. … a street ministry that didn't start until
"after dinner," which turned out to be 10 PM. Another sea of burdened
faces needing…. wanting… weeping…. over undue affliction, poverty,
cancer, joint pain, and lumps.
… drive hurriedly to the famous Hindu city of Vijayawada, where we
could catch an express train. After all that rushing, the train was
three hours late! Time to really see the beggars desperately sighing
and pointing to their empty stomachs. A ragged old lady peering
through cloudy eyes. A grimy man about twenty-five, wandering about in
seeming unawareness of his lower body being totally exposed. Hundreds
of lame people sleeping on the stairs, grabbing toward my direction.
“
Just in case you feel that’s a wee bit on the negative side, take
heart – the National Anthem of India plays when you open this web
page.
[xxiii] Professor Vinay Lal comments on President Bush, Osama bin
Laden, and his own preferences: Terrorism, Inc, or the Family of
Fundamentalisms, The Little Magazine, Vol II, Issue 5, September-
October 2001.
http://www.littlemag.com/sep-oct01/vlal.html
Excerpts: “George W. Bush had abandoned the capital. His entire
deportment marred by an offensive smirk, the vocabulary of a high
school student and painfully evident difficulties in thinking beyond
the limited briefings devised for him by his equally mediocre
advisers, the present occupant of the White House has never cut a very
dignified figure..”..” Who could have thought that the lines which
Auden appears to have scripted for Osama bin Laden — "In a lonely
field the rain / Lashes an abandoned train; / Outlaws fill the
mountain caves" (‘The Fall of Rome’) — would serve as an apt
description for an outlaw president gone into hiding? The similarities
between bin Laden and Bush merely begin here.. ..” Bush and bin Laden
have much more in common.. If anything, bin Laden’s parochialism is
slightly less offensive: whereas Bush concludes his addresses to the
nation with "God bless America", as though God should care about
nation-states or has earmarked America as especially deserving of His
approbation, bin Laden is content to observe, "God is great, may pride
be with Islam." The fundamentalism of fanatical conviction knows no
boundaries; rogues do understand each other. The world is caught
between two long arms of extreme parochialism.” Terrorism, Inc, or the
Family of Fundamentalisms, The Little Magazine, Vol II, Issue 5,
September-October 2001.
http://www.littlemag.com/sep-oct01/vlal.html
[xxiv] Sabrang Communications: “Khoj, The Secular Education Program”.
http://www.sabrang.com/khoj/
Excerpts: “This page is for all of you. To share your thoughts through
drawings and writings on topics like these “…Since August, 1994,
Teesta Setalvad and other consultant volunteers -- have been engaged
in a weekly, one-period programme with students of standard V, VI &
VII of the Bombay International School ..”
Note: See Ms. Setalwad’s “explanation” of how a map showing a
mutilated India minus the entire Northeast, the entire J&K, and parts
of Gujarat and Rajasthan, and a “greater Pakistan” including all of
J&K, came to be displayed as the logo of her web-pages:
“"November 27, 2002
Dear Visitors to Aman,
After five years of being on the website, www.sabrang.com, the child's
drawing of a map logo picturing India-Pakistan friendship has suddenly
brought in a flurry of responses wondering 'how such a representation
of maps could be carried!!' The drawing was done by a child of the
Bombay International School and is simply a child's representation of
India and Pakistan. It is a measure of the disquiet and insecurity of
our times that simple things like child drawings draw out surprise,
questions, and even vitriol. It is not surprising that the hawkish
columnist on rediff.com, Varsha Bhosale, who features our group every
so often in her columns (and for which free publicity we remain
grateful to our saffro-sis), was the first to draw attention to this,
followed by a few other e-mails on the subject. (Since the logo
appears to 'offend', we have removed it but we still appeal for
rationality, humour and sane dialogue rather than perpetually
'outraged sentiments'). In understanding, Teesta Setalvad "
[xxv] Reference with a copy of the above “child’s drawing of the map”
and Ms. Setalwad’s “explanation” discussed:
http://www.geocities.com/charcha_2000/essays/sabrang_foil_sacw.html
[xxvi] “Vinay Lal, Associate Professor, Department of History, UCLA,
Response to IDRF Press Release, Brief Comment on IDRF Press Release:”,
The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate, December 24, 2002.
http://stopfundinghate.org/faculty/Lal122402.htm
Excerpts showing the Associate Professor’s attitude, clarity of
though, and general competence level: “Much has been made by the
IDRF's defenders in this and previous documents about the 5000
signatures it has purportedly gathered on the petition to "Let India
Develop". At least a third of these signatories are in India”….” one
shudders to think who might be the other signatories of this campaign.
But that is scarcely all: these so-called 5000 signatures are set
against the signatures of more than 300 faculty..”..” Many of these
faculty have devoted years of study to communalism and to the
organizational structures of Hindutva; they are also charged with
educating students in this country about the history, politics, and
culture of South Asia, and their views cannot be taken
lightly.”Understanding of democracy –
“Moreover, if we are to believe that justice and truth lie on the
side of those whose numbers are greater. .. sadly, something more
resembling the herd instinct.” Anarchist ideology: “No one who
understands that the nation-state is itself the most gross perpetrator
of human rights abuses and atrocities..” but while he condemns the
“nation-state”, he does want “parameters established by the
Constitution of India”. Referrring to the Miraj Medical Center, an
affiliate of the Church of North India, and his own deep study of the
facts: “Everyone who is familiar with the often complex ways in which
overseas funding of a large array of political and non-political
organizations takes place -- and not only with respect to India -
knows fully well that it will not, to take one example, suffice to
exonerate an organization that is charged with promoting Hindutva by
suggesting that it is supported by the Church of North India.
Organizations promoting violence have everywhere learned how to
camouflage themselves; their networks are vast, capillary, and
polycentric.”
[xxvii] Lavakare, Arvind, “The Saffron Flutters High, Yet Again”,
Rediff.com, February 13, 2001. http://www.rediff.com/news/2001/feb/13arvind.htm
Excerpts: “ It has been unbelievable and perhaps unparalleled: the aid
has been as quick and colossal in coming as the tragedy itself. ..
What has also been unbelievable in the country's worst natural
disaster in decades is the encomium showered by the 'secular' press on
the relief work of the RSS that has in recent months been so often
debunked as a 'fanatic-cum-Fascist' Hindu organisation, 'barbaric and
uncivilised.'
Chris Tomlinson of the Associated Press filed a story datelined
February 2, detailing the splendid work of those who walk the streets
of Bhuj with 'Saffron scarves flung around their necks and pickaxes
and shovels slung over their shoulders, collecting the dead.' His
report concluded with the quote of a swayamsevak summing the RSS creed
that "Everyone here is a volunteer and we do not receive any pay. We
take India as our mother, not just a nation, and this is our duty."
Even our swadeshi Outlook magazine, that otherwise doesn't spare a
chance to spit at the 'lunatic fringe in khaki knickers,' devoted a
full-page article, written by one bearing a Muslim name, extolling the
role of the RSS in Gujarat. And even that fundamental 'secularist'
newspaper, The Times of India, headlined the praise for the RSS given
by Tushar Gandhi, the Mahatma's great grandson who is normally
allergic to the Sangh Parivar. .. It is ironic that almost exactly a
year ago BJP's political allies and opponents alike succeeded in
insistently demanding that the employees of the Gujarat government
should not be allowed to be associated with the RSS. Completing the
irony was that the Congress Seva Dal, that suffers no such ostracism,
was not on the scene in Ahmedabad or Anjar or Bhachau or Bhuj.
(Of course, that was February 13 – just 2 weeks after the earthquake.
Within a couple of months, Sabrang and the rest of the anarchists had
recovered, rallied around and resumed their obfuscation, distortion
and general hate-mongering.)
[xxviii] Sabrang/FOIL backpedals further, but leaves the lies on their
“FAQ” page unmodified. Proof that Sabrang knew they were lying in
their FAQ: On the same day as the FAQ was “last updated”, (December 8,
2002) they published this: “ ‘STOP FUNDING’ Hate Campaign responds to
IDRF’s rebuttal”, The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate,
http://stopfundinghate.org/actions/press/120802.htm Excerpt: “3) Most
of the office bearers of IDRF are members of the Sangh.” But see the
statement left unchanged on the FAQ: “ Its (IDRF’s) volunteers are
all trained political activists of the Sangh Parivar”.
[xxix] Sabrang SOS on Associate Professor Dr. Biju Mathew’s Rider
University web page “Communalism Combat – SOS”
http://www1.rider.edu/%7Ewebcis/mathew/ccsos.html
[xxx] FOIL paper by Dr. Biju Mathew, no longer accessible. The Forum
of Indian Leftists http://www.foil.org/twa/bijudump/unitedway.doc
(Note: this site has locked out non-members – an event that obviously
occurred after Nov. 20, 2002. Given what one sees still out there, one
wonders what is in here that needs locking up..).
http://www.geocities.com/charcha_2000/essays/sabrang_faq_meets_reality.html
chhotemianinshallah
IDRF and the American funding of Hindutva'
by
Ashok Chowgule
in association with
Hindu Vivek Kendra
1 Summary of the analysis
2 Introduction
3 Biju Mathew
4 Sabrang
5 Thank you
6 Conclude first and then get the data
7 Three analysis
8 A hidden target
9 Selective targeting
10 Sources of information for the Report
11 Guilt by association
12 Agenda of the authors of the Report
13 Sangh and the judiciary
14 The Christian link
15 On Kashmiri Pandits
16 On Godhra
17 Perversions in the Report
18 Guilt by association - Part 2
19 To whom is the Report addressed
20 Conclusion
21 Annexure 1
22 Annexure 2
23 Annexure
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/hate/index.html
1. Summary of the analysis
1.1 This analysis deals with a report entitled "The Foreign Exchange
of Hate - IDRF and the American funding of Hindutva" (referred to as
the Report hereafter). The Report seeks to implicate Hindutva
organisations in indulging in violence against the religious
minorities as well as the dalits in India. It then accuses that
because IDRF provides donations to some of the social service projects
started by the Hindutva organisations, IDRF is funding the violence.
1.2 The analysis first deals with the political agenda of one of the
authors, namely Biju Mathew, and one of the publishers, namely
Sabrang. It seeks to establish that the political agenda is that of
the communists, and that they are the virulent opponents of the
Hindutva organisations in India.
1.3 The Report follows the standard communist strategy of putting a
label on the person, and then dealing with the issues. This is
equivalent to first coming to a conclusion and then seeking data. What
does not conform to the conclusion is ignored or dismissed.
1.4 Another strategy that is followed is that of guilt by association.
For example, the Hindutva organisations are accused of being fascist
on the grounds that the mentor of the founder of the RSS had contacts
with Mussolini. The fact that the intensity of the contact was minor
is completely ignored. Innuendos and vague statements are used to
justify the guilt.
1.5 The Report indulges in perverting the data to suit the pre-
determined conclusions. In many cases, it does so in such a blatant
manner, that we think that they have a very poor opinion of the
readers.
1.6 The analysis exposes the double standards of the authors of the
Report. For example, while they have heaped calumny against the
Hindutva organisations, they seem to be rationalising the terrorism
that is being indulged in the name of Islam and Christianity.
1.7 The analysis shows that the specific target of the report is
neither IDRF nor Sangh in general. It is the activities of the
Hindutva organisations in the Vanvasi (tribal) areas. The analysis
alleges that this has been chosen as a target because it has affected
the conversion activities of the Christian organisations in
particular.
1.8 The analysis shows that the target audience of the report is not
the government of USA, but the various corporates which give matching
funds for the charity to which their employees contribute. The
objective is to create a scare in the minds of the corporates and
encourage them to take a line of least resistance.
1.9 The analysis asks the supporters of the Report to introspect and
inquire if the guilt by association principle is not applicable to
them.
1.10 The analysis concludes by asking the authors of the Report to
stop indulging in negativism and divert their energies in doing
something positive. There is nothing that stops them from raising
resources from the Indian Diaspora, as well as the coroporates, for
worthy causes which would help the downtrodden in India.
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/hate/1.html
2. Introduction
2.1 We do not intend to make a response to a report entitled "The
Foreign Exchange of Hate - IDRF and the American funding of
Hindutva" (referred to as Report in the rest of this essay). A
response is a rebuttal of the information provided. This is done only
when the information has some modicum of validation, and based on a
reasonable level of truth. What we intend to do, for two reasons, is
to analyse the Report, along with other statements made by the authors
of the Report prior and subsequent to its public relase. The first is
that anyone who makes an accusation has to first prove it with
rigorous data and proper interpretation. It is not for the accused to
prove his/her innocence, but for the accuser to prove the guilt of the
accused.
2.2 The second reason is that it is well known that the work done by
India Development Relief Fund (IDRF) in mobilising resources from the
Indian Diaspora is legendary. In some ways, it appears that the
authors of the Report feel jealous about this positive work being
done, since they themselves have nothing to show about their
contribution. The work done by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(Sangh), and its affiliates, is also legendary. It is not for nothing
that an organisation, started in 1925, with active government
opposition for most of its life (having been banned three times in the
post-Independence period), is today the largest Non-Government
Organisation (NGO) in the world.
2.3 Almost the whole of the so-called intellectual class in India has
been actively opposing the Sangh, and has made serious attempts to
spread venom against it. Despite this, the support for the Sangh is
continuously increasing in all spheres of the society. If the Sangh is
the devil that the Report seeks to project, it would be really
insulting the intellectual of the masses that they will allow such a
large presence amongst its midst. Yes, you can fool some of the people
all the time. But, surely 77 years is quite a long time to fool so
many millions.
2.4 So, we do not think it is necessary to defend either the IDRF or
the Sangh. The activities of the IDRF and the Sangh are above board.
The people of the country have given their verdict on them a long time
ago.
2.5 Earlier we had come out with a comment and an analysis to two
reports which sought to defame Hindu organisations. The comment was to
the Srikrishna Commission Report, which went into the communal riots
in Mumbai during December 1992, and January 1993. The Commission had
already decided what its conclusions would be, and the whole process
of taking evidence was a sham. We have given many instances of the
internal discrepancies in the report, and in some cases, the
Commission gave diametrically opposite statements on the same
incidences. This response is available at the following URL:
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/skc/main.html
2.6 The analysis was to the report prepared by the Editors' Guild of
India into the communal riots that took place after the murder of 58
Hindus at Godhra. This response is available at the following URL:
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/guild/index.html
2.7 The second response started with the following two paragraphs:
· "In setting out in its task to report on the 'ordeal by fire in the
killing fields of Gujarat', the Editors Guild Team set out in its task
in the standard Marxist methodology. As Nikolay Valentinov (in
"Encounters with Lenin") recounts Lenin telling him, "Plekhanov once
said to me about a critic of Marxism (I've forgotten his name), 'First
let us stick the convict's badge on him, and then after that we will
examine his case.' And I think that we must 'stick the convict's
badge' on anyone and everyone who tries to undermine Marxism, even if
we do not go on to examine his case. That's how every sound
revolutionary should react."
· "The Editors Guild Team put the label of a convict on the Gujarati
language media, and then went about the task of evaluating its report.
We would like to first discuss the ideology of the English media in
India to enable us to put forward our analysis of the report."
2.8 The Report follows the same traditions as the earlier ones. Those
who go under the rubric of secular intellectuals have opened up yet
another front in their programme of sowing confusion in the society.
Their objective is not to enlighten but to indulge in negativism that
they seem to have made a special feature in their character.
2.9 They have no intention to tell the truth, but seek to propagate
their own agenda. If in the process the society gets hurt, they think
it is a small price to pay. This they have done this in the past, and
we are sure that they will do so in the future. So, to understand the
primary objective of the Report, the background of the persons
involved in the publication should be understood.
2.10 The Report gives names of seven persons who have contributed to
its preparation. They are: Girish Agarwal, Angana Chatterji, Shalini
Gera, Biju Mathew, Ali Mir, S Ravi Raja and Elahe Heptullah, who we
have defined as authors of the Report. (It is not clear if they are
the authors because their contribution has been acknowledged as giving
'assistance in locating and compiling the material used in this
report'.) Since it was Mathew who released the Report in India in a
press conference in Delhi on November 20, 2002, only his background is
given.
2.11 Simultaneously, it is necessary to go into the background of one
of the publishers, namely Sabrang.
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/hate/2.html
3. Biju Mathew
3.1 He is Assistant Professor of Business at the Rider University. He
describes his work as follows:
· My work revolves around three primary thematics: Hindutva,
Migration, and Globalization and attempts to explicate the inter-
relations between these three nodes of interest for contemporary South
Asian scholars and activists. On Hindutva, my work is largely on
Hindutva's relation to the politics of identity within diasporic
Indian-American communities and on the specific aspects of caste and
class that make Hindutva such a potent force in diasporic life.
Further it locates the flourishing of Hindutva in North America within
the context of globalization. The other mode by which the thematic of
globalization is reflected in my work is through a critical
examination of the discourses of globalization and its
(dis)connections with post-80's South Asian labor migration into the
US. Much of this work is related to my work as a volunteer organizer
for the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/
lweb/data/indiv/area/idsas/MATHEW,Biju.htm )
3.2 Thus, we are not provided with any information about the
professional interest in business studies of Mathew. However, from the
above it is quite clear that he has an obsessive interest in
Hindutva.
3.3 What is missing from the information is Mathew's ideological
inclination. From http://www.proxsa.org/yss/org.html, we discover that
he is a coordinator of the Forum of Indian Leftists. The communists in
India, except those who are in the electoral politics field, rarely
talk about themselves as being communists. Instead they arrogate
themselves to labels like leftists, liberals, progressives, etc. In
addition, he has written articles in the Communist publications in
India. One such article was "Hindutva For a Few Dollars a Day" co-
authored with another known communist of Indian origin, Vijay Prashad.
It appeared in the People's Democracy (Weekly Organ of the Communist
Party of India (Marxist)) on March 25, 2001 (http://pd.cpim.org/2001/
march25/march25_biju_vijay.htm).
3.4 While the Nazi's crimes against humanity have been well documented
and commented upon, there is very little mention about the role of the
Communists in this respect. A study done by some French writers has
documented the infamous history of communism in the places where they
were in power. This book was translated into English under the title
"The Black Book of Communism - Crimes, Terrors, Repression" and
published by the Harvard University Press in 1999.
3.5 The writers have also clearly shown that the devastation done by
the communist rulers was justified in terms of their ideology, and not
as mere acts of individuals. For example, immediately after the
Bolshevik revolution, a large number of so-called bourgeoisie and so-
called kulaks were killed. This was rationalised on the grounds that
to create an egalitarian social order, the society will have to be
first cleansed of elements who would probably come in the way. This is
similar to the argument by label mentioned at the beginning.
3.6 Stalin, Lenin and Mao are guilty of overseeing the deaths of
millions of their own countrymen. It was not merely the deaths caused
by erroneous policies implemented in the name of communism, for
example man-made famine. But, it was also murder of a large number of
political opponents. No communist anywhere in the world is asked to
dwell upon such crimes against humanity. But, these same communist
will hold forth against allegations of similar misdeeds of others.
3.7 The various communist parties in India have portraits of people
like Lenin and Stalin prominently displayed in their offices. Their
public meetings have huge cut-outs of such persons in the background.
It is a tragedy of discourse in India that no one has ever questioned
these parties for such a blatant display of persons who have to be
discussed only in terms of their record of crimes against humanity.
And it is the same persons who hurl accusations of fascism, etc.,
against their opponents.
3.8 It needs to be mentioned that the communists in India supported
the creation of Pakistan, and went further to say that India should be
divided into 19 nations. During the Chinese attack on India in 1962,
the same communists also supported the actions of Mao, and went on to
say that Chairman Mao was their chairman too!
3.9 Mathew's links with the Communists in India is further reinforced
given the fact that the press conference in Delhi to release Report
was organised by SAHMAT, a well-known communist organisation. It was
founded in 1989, in memory of Safdar Hashmi, who was an activist in
the labour movement. He was killed by what the communists allege to be
a mob hired by the Congress party. Strangely enough the communists and
the Congress party are in active collaboration in the political field
against the Hindutva ideology.
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/hate/3.html
4. Sabrang
4.1 What is of equal interest is the background of one of the
publishers, namely, Sabrang Communications Private Limited. (The other
is The South Asia Citizens Web, France, of which we have not bothered
to find much.) Sabrang is promoted by the husband-wife duo of Javed
Anand and Teesta Setalvad. Together they edit a magazine called
Communalism Combat, set up some seven/eight years ago. They claim to
be intrepid fighters of communalism of all hues. However, in a recent
editorial they have said:
· Whenever Communalism Combat is blamed for being 'too pro-minority',
we hold the sangh parivar and the rest of the saffron brotherhood
responsible for this editorial 'tilt'. Had Hindutva not hijacked the
national agenda and targeted the country's religious minorities, so
much time and attention would not have been needed to defend Muslims
and Christians from the vitriol, vilification and violence that is
deliberately directed at them. In fact, but for the hate mongers, this
magazine itself would not have been necessary. In such an imagined
paradise of communal peace, had your editors still been involved in an
issue-based publication, it would have very likely have focussed on
how one half of India (comprising Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs
and men who respond to other identity markers) treats the other half -
women. (Editorial, "Minorities within minorities", Communalism Combat,
May 2001.)
4.2 At the time, the President of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP),
Maharashtra, commented as follows:
· According to the husband-wife duo, the Sangh is a very responsible
organisation - it is responsible for all the evils in the country!
Secondly, the national agenda was being set by non-Sangh (perhaps anti-
Sangh) organisations in the past, but is now being set (their word is
'hijacked') by the Sangh. Third, there are deliberate attacks
(physical and non-physical) against the religious minorities. Fourth,
the reason for the existence of "Communalism Combat" is the Sangh.
· The first allegation is too comical to be commented upon.
· The second allegation in many ways is a credit for the Sangh. I do
not think that I would be wrong if I say that it is only since 1985
that the Sangh started to influence the national agenda. Until that
time, the dominant ideology at the intellectual level was what was
professed to be Marxism. The alleged practitioners of this ideology
had a completely open field, and in addition they demanded and
received more than adequate funding from the people, through state
patronage.
· I hope that the husband-wife duo is not arguing that there was a
paradise prevailing at the time when the Sangh started to influence
the national agenda. I think it can be quite easily established that
by any factor the country is not any worse off today than what it was
then, and that in many factors it is in fact better off.
· So the issue that the duo has to handle is why was India not a land
of milk and honey in 1985. Given their predilection, I am sure that
they will refuse to do this analysis, since it would establish why the
Sangh has been able to dominate the national agenda today. Their use
of the word 'hijack' more than clearly establishes their mind set, as
well as their agenda. In this they do not wish to even face the truth,
because not only would it be uncomfortable for them, but would also
expose their hollowness.
· It is because of the abject failure of those who claim to be Marxist
that the people have turned to the Sangh and the ideology of Hindutva.
Shri Arun Shourie in his speech to the RSS cadre from all over India
in November 1992, said: "Causes which the RSS has taken up have (now)
been embraced by the country.... That you will persevere for as long
as that turning around takes, about that I have little apprehension:
the way you have persevered over the last 50 years itself assures us
of that."
· If this is to be called hijacking, I will not argue about it.
· The third allegation is a canard that is standard in the practice of
secularism in this country. The secular fundamentalists have to go to
this extent now that they are cornered. Commenting on a bombing of a
church in Bihar recently, an editorial in an English paper from Goa,
commented: "Seemingly, the act was committed by unknown miscreants to
issue threatening notes in Hindi with saffron ink, asking Christians
to leave India. The question is: is it the handiwork of the Pakistan's
ISI, which is bent on fanning communal frenzy, to belittle Indian in
the eyes of the world? Unless the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) or the
Centre establishes that, one will assume, it is the design of the old
anti-Christian communal outfits, like Bajrang Dal."
· It does not matter to the secular fundamentalists that there is
something called natural justice. It does not matter to them that many
of the extreme cases of the attacks on Christians have been proved to
be either secular acts or downright fabrication by the Christian
organizations. It does not matter to them that the communal acts have
been after extreme provocation by the Christian organizations. You
see, the Sangh is a very responsible organization!
· Re the fourth allegation. I guess the husband-wife duo should really
be giving a royalty to the Sangh for ensuring their existence as
alleged journalists, or whatever they call themselves.
4.3 Interestingly, the editorial further says:
· The large-scale gender killings through the obnoxious practices of
foeticide, infanticide, dowry-related murders and deaths through acute
malnutrition of the girl child have led to a situation where the
number of women per every thousand population is on a dangerous
decline. It's an ugly reality that should make every Indian of the
male gender hang his head in shame, but the high command of Hindutva
particularly so as the 'national mainstream' which they claim to
represent contributes more than its share to what is nothing short of
homicide.
4.4 To this, the VHP functionary wrote as follows:
· So, you see, the Sangh is not only behind all sorts of abuses
against women, but it is actually a murderous organisation! Since the
husband-wife duo is fond of filing public interest litigations, I am
sure they will filing one in the Supreme Court asking the honourable
justices to direct the government to file a case against the Sangh for
gender cleansing.
4.5 It would not be out of place to mention that even after the reply
was sent, the same old rhetoric is repeated. In Augutst 2002, Setalvad
said the following in a public speech: "The tragedy of this country is
that with the dominance of the ideology of Hindu rashtra in public
life, with proponents of it gaining power, every real issue that we
need to tackle has got sidelined." (http://www.sabrang.com/news/
teesaward.htm) A poser to Setalvad. Perhaps she could work towards
tackling these real issues, even as the Sangh keeps on undertaking
what she calls a destructive programme.
4.6 Another interesting aspect of Sabrang was its very active
involvement in running an advertisement campaign during the 1999
General Elections against the BJP. In an interview (http://
www.humanscapeindia.net/humanscape/hs1199/hs11997t.htm, "The Displaced
And The Dispossessed", Humanscape, November 1999), Setalvad clearly
stated that the initiative was taken by Communalism Combat to seek
funds from three political parties - the Congress, the Communist Party
of India, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) - and 'ten
prominent individuals'. The cost of the campaign was Rs 1.50 crores.
4.7 This interview took place after the elections were over. While the
election process was on, Setalvad was asked about the source of
finance. In The Asian Age (September 4, 1999), Setalvad had said that
the support comes from four political parties, some corporate house
and certain NGOs. In India Today (September 13, 1999), she said it was
"from a wide spectrum of well-wishers including corporates, trade
unions, women's group and NGOs." There is an axiom that it is very
hard to be consistent when one is telling lies. The reports also said
that Setalvad and her team for this campaign operated from the
residence of a Congress leader, and worked closely with the media cell
of the party.
4.8 Sabrang, therefore, sees no inconsistency in asking for
transparency of others, without reciprocating itself.
4.9 Setalvad is also a well-travelled person. Between August 31 to
September 7, 2002, she was at Durban to attend a United Nations'
programme called "World Conference Against Racism". The Statesman
( September 30, 2001) carried a picture of her sitting next to one
John Dayal. Dayal has a placard around his neck which says: "Hindutva
- rapes and kills Dalits, Muslims, Christians in India". This is the
same Dayal who has been prominent in calumnising the Sangh,
particularly in context of the violence against Christians.
4.10 It needs to be stated that the link between Mathew and
Communalism Combat is nothing new. In January 1998, Rediff on Net,
carried a profile, in two parts, of VHP-A by Mathew, which said that
it was an arrangement with Communalism Combat. These reports are
available at:
http://www.rediff.com/news/1998/jan/03vhp.htm and
http://www.rediff.com/news/1998/jan/03vhp2.htm
Whether Mathew chooses to be a Communist, or whether Communalism
Combat chooses to be anti-RSS, is a decision that they are free to
take themselves. However, just as they claim to expose the ideological
position of the Sangh, it is necessary for them to state their own
ideological stance. If in this stance, they wish to oppose the Sangh,
then there is an obligation on them to stand up to a higher test of
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/hate/4.html
5. Thank you
5.1 One of the books that is often quoted in anti-RSS tracts is 'Khaki
Shorts Saffron Flags', by Tapan Basu and four others, and published by
Orient Longman (1993). However, the effect it had on Ansar Hussain
Khan is as follows:
· "The authors of Khaki Shorts Saffron Flags have done a signal
service to the cause of India's future by drawing attention to (the
social service part) of the Sangh's work. But then they try to give
these positive observations an unfavourable twist. Looked at another
way, their criticism of the Sangh is in fact in many parts
favourable." (The Rediscovery of India, Orient Longman, India, 1995, p
249.)
5.2 In many ways the authors of the Report should also be thanked for
listing out the various charity activities being done by members of
the Sangh Parivar. Is it not amazing that IDRF has given donations to
such a large number of organisations spread all over the country? I
think all Indians (including the authors of the Report) should feel
proud that, unlike what is normally said, the people of India are very
interested in undertaking welfare programmes outside the ambit of the
government.
As said before, the Sangh Parivar is the largest NGO in the world. By
listing out even part of the activities of the Sangh, the authors of
the Report should be thanked for confirming this claim!
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/hate/5.html
6. Conclude first and then get the data
6.1 At the beginning we have pointed out that the standard communist
technique is to first put a label of a convict on their opponent, and
then examine the case, if possible, but do not worry about such
formalities. The programme of 'warning' the donors to stop assisting
IDRF is not new. These 'warnings' have been coming for a long time -
that is even before the so-called analysis was completed in the form
of the Report. This then becomes a standard Goebbles technique of
stating a lie a hundred times so that eventually it becomes the
truth.
6.2 One such warning came on 14 September, 1999, when the All India
Christian Council, based in Andhra Pradesh, came out with a press
statement with the following subject line: "How the Parivar gets its
dollar funds from innocent and not so innocent organisations abroad.
Church funds too find their way to killers of Christians". It alleged
that "the Parivar is using its money to train killer gangs who wreak
murder on the minorities, torture and rape the Dalits, and otherwise
work very hard to demolish the plural heritage of the country and the
secular character of its democratic Constitution."
6.3 This press statement also alleged that even Christian
organisations, like the Salvation Army, were funding VHP-America, and
gave out what it called a truncated list of the donors. What the
Council did was to visit the website of VHP-America, and then with a
simple switch, changed recipients of moneys from this Hindu
organisation into donors. Everything else in the list was kept
identical. This is the manner in which 'evidence' is collected.
However, since the objective is to create confusion, a tactics of spit-
and-run is quite sufficient.
6.4 We have mentioned the article ("Hindutva for a few dollars more")
written by Mathew and Vijay Prashad in a communist publication in
India in March 2001. On May 23, 2002, The Wall Street Journal
published an article "India Confronts Its Own Intolerance", by Kanwal
Rekhi, the global chairman of The Indus Entrepreneurs, an organization
of South Asian businesspeople, and Mr. Henry S Rowen, a professor
emeritus at Stanford and senior fellow of the Hoover Institution. In
it they said:
· Many overseas Indian Hindus finance religious groups in India in the
belief that the funds will be used to build temples, and educate and
feed the poor of their faith. Many would be appalled to know that some
recipients of their money are out to destroy minorities (Christians as
well as Muslims) and their places of worship. Mr. Vajpayee could deal
a severe blow to such covert causes by simply labeling them as
terrorists.
6.5 Rekhi-Rowen do not say what is the evidence they have to make this
statement. Since the authors of the Report say that they have been
working 'meticulously' for the last so many years, could they be the
source? Life is interesting if one is permitted to speculate!
6.6 In the week starting May 27, a USA based organisation called
Coalition against Communalism, issued full page ads in India Abroad
and India West, in which they asked "Did our generosity fund the
carnage in Gujarat?" It had the Rekhi-Rowen quote, and in addition
there was a quote of IG Patel, former governor, Reserve Bank of India,
taken from Rediff.com of May 13, 2002. Patel appeals as follows:
· I earnestly request NRIs not to donate money to spread hatred in
India, neither to the VHP nor to Islamic fundamentalists�Don't give it
to people who propagate violence. (http://www.ektaonline.org/cac/
actions/gujarat/nriad.htm)
6.7 We do not know if Patel has specifically identified any of the
Islamic fundamentalist organisations, or the basis of his information.
In any case, if he has the information, it would be interesting to
know if he has passed the same to the government authorities in
India.
6.8 The statement of Rekhi-Rowen triggered an article entitled
"Deflections to the Right" in the Outlook (July 22, 2002). In its very
first paragraph the above Rekhi-Rowen quote is mentioned. This article
seems to be a summary of the Report that has now come out, and has
also specifically targeted IDRF. Of course, there is no mention that
there are some seven intrepid souls who are working diligently and
will soon be coming out with the Report.
6.9 It would not be out of place to mention here what the editor of
Outlook had to say in June 2002 at a workshop organised by the Network
of Women in Media, in Bangalore entitled `Covering Communal Conflict:
Lessons from Gujarat 2002'. According a report by Jyoti Punwani,
(http://www.thehoot.org/mediaactivism/workshop.asp) he 'argued that it
was time journalists became activists to dislodge the BJP government
at the Centre'.
6.10 Here one needs to look at an article by Vijay Prashad, which we
are not sure if it has appeared in the print version of Outlook, but
exists in the internet version (July 22, 2002). Entitled "Suburban
Whites and Pogroms in India" (http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?
fodname=20020722&fname=vijay&sid=1), he talks about how the 'Suburban
Whites' not only provide 'legitimacy' but also funds for the 'Hindu
Right', and by association involves the former into what is called
'Pogroms in India'. (The plural is in the original.) The article also
says: "A bumper sticker that says "Free Tibet" seems to offer an entry
into a transcendental politics, far removed from the social melancholy
of suburban life." Tibet has been occupied by communist China since
1957, and is making serious efforts to change demography of the place,
as well destroying the indigenous culture. (How a free Tibet and
'pogroms in India' simultaneously interests the 'suburban whites' is
left unexplained.)
6.11 Interestingly, he avers:
· For about a decade, Biju Mathew (best known for his work with the
New York Taxi Workers' Association) and I have conducted research on
the Hindutva Right in the US and we've found that millions of dollars
travel each year through illegal and legal networks to finance right-
wing activity in the subcontinent.
6.12 This is the same Mathew who is one of the authors of the Report.
Actually, it has intrigued us that Prashad is not identified as one of
the authors, since the partnership between him and Mathew is quite
legendary. The article in the communist publication, mentioned above,
were co-authored by them.
6.13 In the Outlook article, to no surprise, Prashad also mentions the
above quote of Rekhi-Rowen.
6.14 The role of Angana Chatterji, another of the authors of the
Report, in the build up is interesting, particularly considering that
her writings appeared in two Pakistani papers. She wrote an article in
the Daily Times, and a letter to a Pakistani newspaper, Dawn. The
article, "Indian Diaspora Funding Hindu Extremism", in the Daily Times
(July 31, 2002) begins as follows:
· It is now no secret that the Sangh Parivar, the collective name
given to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Vishwa Hindu Parishad
(VHP), the Bajrang Dal and other Hindu extremist organizations, is
exploiting religion (Hindutva) to foment communal violence in India.
To this end they are organizing the ultra-right, non-secular and
undemocratic forces in India. What is less known is how these forces
of injustice and bigotry are funded, especially by the Indian-Hindu
communities living abroad.
6.15 It then refers to the Outlook article of July 22, just as the
letter in Dawn (August 6, 2002) does. Nowhere does she refer to the
Report that would be published in another three months, nor about her
role in it. The impression given is that she is basing her views on
the Outlook article.
6.16 In the August 8, 2002, issue of The Hindu, Robert Hathaway of a
Washington based think tank, Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars, entitled "Charity� or terrorism?" said: "It is probably
advisable for the American Government to hold an official inquiry into
fund-raising in the U.S. by groups implicated in the Gujarat
violence." He also says:
· Credible reports have recently suggested that substantial sums of
money are sent from Indians resident in the U.S., and from American
citizens of Indian origin, to groups and organisations in Gujarat and
elsewhere in India that are directly linked to the violence in
Gujarat. I do not know if these accounts are true. But respected
Indian journalists have uncovered disturbing linkages. If these
reports prove accurate, then it is possible that such financial
transactions violate U.S. anti-terrorism statutes.
· Alternatively, issues of fraud may be at issue. Responsible sources
report that some U.S. residents make financial contributions to
overseas religious groups in the belief that these funds are to be
used for religious or humanitarian purposes, when in fact the monies
so raised are used to promote religious bigotry.
· In either event, it is probably advisable for the American
Government to hold an official inquiry into fund-raising in the U.S.
by groups implicated in the Gujarat violence, to ensure that U.S. laws
are not being violated. Legitimate organisations need not fear such an
investigation, which would serve to clear their names and reassure
potential donors about the legitimacy of their fund-raising
activities.
6.17 Hathaway talks about 'credible reports', 'respect Indian
journalists', and 'responsible sources'. (How he attributes these
adjectives to the various nouns is not clear.) And he also says: 'I do
not know if these accounts are true.' If this the standard of scholars
at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, then��.
6.18 In June 2002, Hathaway has made a deposition in front of the US
Commission on International Religious Freedom. The Outlook article
says:
· Hathaway asked the commission to recommend an inquiry into fund-
raising activities in the US by groups implicated in the recent
violence in Gujarat. He told the commission that "some US residents
make financial contributions to overseas religious groups in the
belief that these funds are to be used for religious or humanitarian
purposes, when in fact the monies so raised are used to promote
religious bigotry".
6.19 One assumes that a genuine scholar would not make such statements
in a flippant manner. Thus, what is pertinent is to know if Hathaway
has provided to the concerned authorities the evidence that he has
based on which he asks his government to make an investigation. If he
has, there is no news about it. And given the manner in which the
Report has been covered in the media, one has to wonder if Hathaway
has provided the information to anyone. Or, for that matter, he has
any 'evidence' at all.
6.20 (A detailed critique of Hathaway's article has been made by Dr
Koenraad Elst, and was published in two parts by Rediff on Net. They
are available at:
http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/aug/30guest.htm and
http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/sep/03guest.htm)
6.21 Efforts had been made to give the Report wide publicity even
before it was officially released. In this endeavour, members of all
sorts of organisations in India were used. We have evidence with
respect to three - namely Insaniyat, Network for Women in Media (NWM)
and Oxfam. Sandhya Srinivasan posted a message on the NWM discussion
list, forwarding a request received from Insaniyat, which itself
received a communication from a person in Oxfam in Ahmedabad. The
communication said that "a report is going to be released today (Oct
30) documenting the sources of money for the IDRF." Interestingly, it
also said; "The goal of releasing this report is to pressure several
big electronic portals, credit card companies and banks to stop
funding IDRF because its money is sent back to help Sangh Parivar
agendas." The communication further said there was a need for
"committed journalists in India who will help give publicity to this
story." (Since this document highlights the mode of working of the
groups involved in preparing the Report, we are giving the full text
as Annexure 1. Moreover, does Oxfam permit its employees to be so
involved?)
6.22 So, what do we have? Mathew-Prashad have been studying the
foreign funding of the Sangh for the last decade. However, Mathew has
recently said (http://www.stopfundinghate.org/resources/FAQ.htm) that
the group which prepared the Report got together after the Gujarat
riots, that is sometime after March 2002. In May 2002, Rekhi-Rowen
make allegations of illegalities of this funding, without mentioning
what the source of information they have. In the same month, an
advertisement is published in two publications in the USA asking the
NRI's not to give money to the VHP. In June 2002, in his presentation
to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, Hathaway asks
the USA government to investigate the funding by IDRF to various
organisations in India. In July 2002, Outlook comes out with an
article with what appears to be a summary of the Report. In the same
month, Chatterji writes, allegedly based on the Outlook report, an
article and a letter in two separate Pakistani publications. In August
2002, Hathaway also makes similar allegations, again without stating
the names of sources, which he thinks are credible, etc., but is not
sure if they are accurate.
6.23 Thus, there seems to be a concerted attempt to build up a
momentum to build up to a crescendo to coincide with the official
release of the Report in November 2002, to much media fanfare, a
Report which is claimed to be meticulously prepared. The use, in this
case, of international organisations like Oxfam for the purpose of
conducting political propaganda is nothing new, and has been done in
the past in many cases.
6.24 Since Prashad's name is not included as one of the authors, we
are not sure if the evidence collected by Mathew with the help of
Prashad forms the basis of the data. It just seems a little odd to us
that even after this decade long investigation, the only evidence that
they are able to provide is from the websites of those whom they
accuse of undertaking a fraud. Perhaps Prashad and Mathew will come
out with another report soon, setting out further 'evidence' on the
subject. Or perhaps not!
6.25 Interestingly, Prashad has written an article in Frontline (which
is an active promoter of the communists in India), in which he says:
· Until the report by the Campaign to Stop Funding Hate most of what
we knew had been by innuendo and through interviews with exiles from
the land of Yankee Hindutva. Now we have information and documentation
that largely proves the culpability of guilty dollars in the barbarous
acts of the Sangh Parivar. ("Countering Yankee Hindutva", December
7-20, 2002.)
6.26 And then we read the ubiquitous Rekhi-Rowen quote. So, is it
Rekhi-Rowen who set the ball rolling this 'meticulous' inquiry of how
the Hindus in the USA are funding 'hate in India'? Or is it that the
ten years of investigation by Mathew-Prashad that is the basis? We
wonder if we will ever know.
6.27 But, in the July 2002 article (that is five months ago) in
Outlook, Prashad categorically states that, in their ten years of
investigation, he and Mathew 'found that millions of dollars travel
each year through illegal and legal networks to finance right- wing
activity in the subcontinent." Is this one more example of the
definition of meticulousness that the communist are notorious for?
6.28 At a larger level, does this mean that when he (along with
Mathew) wrote the article "Hindutva For a Few Dollars a Day" (People's
Democracy (Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist))
March 25, 2001), he had based it on innuendos? And that the All India
Christian Council, Rekhi-Rowen, Hathaway, Outlook magazine,
Chatterjee, etc., were all going on the basis of innuendos? And what
about the ten years of effort that Prashad and Mathew claim that they
have been making? Things do get very curious, and we hope we have
confused the reader of the analysis as much as we ourselves are!
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/hate/6.html
7. Three analysis
7.1 In an article titled "Attack on IDRF: Little Method to Their
Madness" (December 11, 2002, http://www.sulekha.com/column.asp?cid=274949),
Prof Beloo Mehra has analysed how the Report fits in the standard
communist technique. In the introduction to the article, Dr Ramesh Rao
makes the following comment:
· The attack against IDRF ("The Foreign Exchange of Hate: IDRF and the
American Funding of Hindutva") compiled in the 91-page report is a
rehash of much that the Forum of Indian Leftists (FOIL) has published
over the past five years.
7.2 However, as mentioned above, a fiction is being created that the
Report is a new revelation, meticulously compiled, supported by hard
facts and razor-sharp analysis.
7.3 Some quotes from the article will clearly establish the agenda of
the authors of the Report.
· This response to Sabrang report looks at Chapter 1 that outlines the
purpose, methodology, and organization of the report. The emphasis is
on understanding and critiquing the methods employed by the
researchers and writers of this report. The objective is to determine
if the methodology withstands a rigorous critical examination.
· In the first paragraph of the report, section 1.1. titled, "Purpose"
the last sentence reads, "The Foreign Exchange of Hate' establishes
that the IDRF is. ." Now anyone who has done any semi-academic writing
knows that the 'purpose statement' is first and foremost about
INVESTIGATION rather than ESTABLISHMENT of facts. (Emphasis in the
original.)
· Chapter 1 is titled "Purpose, Methodology and Organization," but
only one page is devoted to these three sections. Authors then go on
to present a two full page "Summary of Findings" - something that is
not mentioned in the title. Why this deceit?
· One reason perhaps why it has not been done so is because the focus
of this report is to show the link between IDRF and violence against
religious minorities in India. Does this suggest an innate bias or a
pre-determined conclusion of the researchers even before doing the
content analysis of the selected documents?
· Even before the reader is made aware of the origins of Hindutva as a
political ideology, he or she is asked to believe that it is "Hindu
supremacist ideology" and has been responsible for much of the
"communal violence" in India. Is this a case of reaching at a
conclusion even before any evidence is presented?
· Section 1.4 titled, "Summary of Findings" starts with the sentence:
"The purpose of this report is to DOCUMENT the links between IDRF and
certain violent and sectarian.." Is this an admission on the part of
the writers that their purpose is to DOCUMENT rather than to FIND if
any such links exist? Is the starting assumption of these writers that
such links exist? (Emphasis in the original.)
· Another example of writers' rhetoric intent is obvious in section
1.4, where the writers depict the Hindutva movement as a "violent
sectarian movement - similar to the Nazi idea of a pure Aryan
Germany."
7.4 A similar exercise was done by Aseem Shukla in analysing the
report prepared by Human Rights Watch on the post-Godhra communal
violence in Gujarat. His article is titled "The HRW Report on Gujarat:
Another Assassination" (May 13, 2002, http://www.sulekha.com/articledesc.asp?cid=199895)
7.5 Quotes from the article would give a flavour of the methodology of
labelling that we have mentioned.
· I was drawn to this report for this very reason. For as the personal
accusations reached a crescendo over the last 6 weeks, despite my
compulsive search of all accounts from Gujarat, I had not seen any
substantiation to the charge that the State government carried out the
attacks on Muslims. Of course, there is no dearth of accusations --
and the headlines in the Indian press, never known for the mastery of
subtlety, skip words like "complicity" and just accuse Modi of murder.
Yet here was a report from a foreign organization, no less, that
confidently declares state participation and complicity in the
massacres. Now I had read the 1999 report on Kashmir by the HRW, an
amalgamation of Indian Army human rights abuses that failed to devote
even a sentence to the plight of Kashmiri Hindus. I was eager now to
understand what this inexplicably often-quoted organization had to say
of Gujarat.
· So I downloaded this now infamous report (at
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/india/gujarat.pdf) with great
anticipation -- perhaps this was the definitive report, the Holy
Grail, so many sought to accurately accuse the BJP. Ah, but I expected
too much. Scanning the summary I realized quickly that this document
owed its genesis to the same biases, the same perverse equations and
the very same sources that had vitiated the atmosphere in Gujarat for
eight weeks prior.
· Ostensibly written as an account of a tragic, maniacal orgy of
murder, this 75-page report evolves into nothing more than a
politically charged and hopelessly biased self-serving account.
· The first salvo without which this report would not exist -- the
Godhra train burning -- merits exactly 1 paragraph on page 13. That's
correct -- 3 sentences out of 75 pages describe the killing of
innocent Hindus that sparked a national nightmare. The remainder of
the Godhra chapter exhaustively quotes Celia Dugger of the New York
Times and Rajiv Chandrasekaran of the Washington Post and their long-
exposed, sadistic, blame-the-Hindu victim journalistic gymnastics.
· In its haste to blame the government, the report again overlooks the
facts of rapid police deployment and the massive police firing that
disproportionately killed Hindu rioters: 90 companies of the State
Reserve Police were called in on February 27, 2002 itself, and over
3,900 rounds of ammunition killed close to 100 rioters. The Gujarat
Police overlook a population of 50 million (that would rank as the
22nd most populous country in the world) and have largely succeeded in
keeping violence at a minimum within one city since the initial days
of madness.
· If the rest of the 73 pages of anti-Sangh hatred are not enough,
though utterly unrelated, almost 2 pages are devoted to anti-Christian
violence. Keep in mind again that the Godhra train killing merited 1
paragraph!
· Why do I devote this article to a report written by an insignificant
paper-pusher with no journalistic integrity securely sheltered in New
York City? This report is a convenient summary of a rampant dogma
among circles immersed in a modern day political witch-hunt. A witch-
hunt aimed at discrediting an opposing ideology -- it is tantamount to
an arrogant rejection of Indian democracy, Gujarati electoral
intelligence and due process. For evidence of immediate repercussions,
just wait until the next session in the United States Congress when
the shrinking, yet shrill, India-baiters begin spewing their venom
India's way. You can count on them being armed with the HRW report
making its way through Washington.
7.6 Shukla was right on the button. Such reports are a staple in the
campaign of spit-and-run.
7.7 A third analysis is an article "Politics by Other Means", which
looks at a few of the recent reports by Human Rights Watch on India.
This article was written by Arvin Bahl, an undergraduate student at
Princeton University, and is Chapter 31 of the book "Gujarat after
Godhra - Real violence, selective outrage", edited by Ramesh Rao and
Koenraad Elst, and published by Har-Anand Publications. Bahl says:
· Upon closer examination, however, extensive and systematic bias
exists in HRW's reports on human rights and communal violence in
India. The most glaring defect of HRW's reports is the lack of concern
for the rights and lives of Hindus. Incidents of communal violence in
which both the Hindu majority and a particular minority community are
involved in, and share the blame, are portrayed as one-sided attacks
by Hindus against 'innocent minorities'. Human rights abuses against
Hindus are ignored or downplayed compared to attacks against other
religious groups.
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/hate/7.html
8. A hidden target
8.1 A feature of the Report is the allegation that the Sangh is
working towards making the Vanvasis into Hindus. It is well known that
it is not possible to define a Hindu in a way that it is possible to
define a Christian, or a Muslim, or a Communist. The programme to take
the Vanvasis out of the Hindu fold is not a new one, and is a
continuation of the colonial programme of divide and rule. But, study
after study has shown that there are many characteristics of the
people dwelling in the forests, which closely match with those who
live outside.
8.2 Satyakam Joshi, who did his doctorate in studying the Vanvasis in
and around Dangs in South Gujarat, discusses the self-identification
of the people in the area in the larger Hindu fold. He says:
· Strong community solidarities are apparent also in the way the
people worship and celebrate festivals. The people, whether kokna,
bhil or varli, share a common cosmology which incorporates local
deities as well as Hindu gods and goddesses….. There is a common
belief that Ram and Sita passed through the Dangs in their travels.
According to the bhil raja of Gadhvi: "Before there were human beings,
the Dangs was full of rakshashs (devils). When Ram and Sita passed
through the Dangs they killed all rakshshas and gave birth to us. Ram
had created us. Ram is our God." Even today when Dangis meet they use
the greeting 'Ram-Ram'. It is notable also that almost all villages
have an image of Hanuman, the disciple of Rama, and during festivals
and religious ceremonies the people worship and give offerings to this
deity. ("Tribals, Missionaries and Sadhus: Understanding Violence in
the Dangs", Economic and Political Weekly, September 11, 1999.)
8.3 What is, however, absolutely clear is that the Vanvasis are
definitely not Christians or Muslims. The authors of the Report seem
to imply that they see nothing wrong if a church or a mosque is
constructed amongst the Vanvasis, but complain about a temple being
built. They see nothing wrong in the Vanvasis being converted to
Christianity or Islam, but when those converted are reverted to their
ancient traditions, then it is wrong.
8.4 All this makes one wonder if the authors are working along with
the aggressive proselytisers of these two religions. The funding to
the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram seems to be a special target. And it is well
known that due to the activities of the VKA, the proselytisers have
now to work harder in their business programme of raising money for
conversion, since they are not able to show the results that they
alleged to have achieved in the past.
8.5 The Outlook article of July 22 also dwells quite a bit on the
activities of the Sangh in the vanvasi area. Furthermore, journalist
Varsha Bhosle noted in her article "Where there's no will to reform,
there's extinction" (http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/nov/
23varsha.htm):
· If you read Chapter 4: Funding Hate of the "report," you quickly
realise that the only aim of the campaign is to halt the funding of
the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad, Vivekananda
Kendra, Vanvasi Seva Sangh, Sewa Bharati, and Ekal Vidyalays -- ALL
being educational institutions set up for the upliftment of Dalits and
Adivasis. Those whom the vultures target... (Emphasis in the
original.)
8.6 Let us also have a look at a PTI news item, "Foreign funds -- VHP
too a recipient, say Catholic Union", (The Indian Express, Nov 2,
1999). It quotes Dr Walter Fernandes, former director of Indian Social
Institute (ISI) as follows:
· The VHP receives the same if not more funds from western countries
through fund raisers and other events. Organisations like Akhil
Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram have launched advertisement campaigns
in western media to raise money in the name of tribal uplift.
8.7 Dr Walter Fernandes is a Jesuit priest, and is one of the persons
actively involved the propaganda section of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Indian Social Institute is a front for the Roman Catholic Church,
and tries to give a secular image to communal programmes. One has also
to note the date of above news item, namely November 1999, and then
consider if there is not a sustained campaign to try and stop the work
of the Sangh in this are.
8.8 As if on cue, after the Report comes out, the All India Christian
Council takes cognisance of it, and as per a report in The Hindu ("VHP
carrying out hate campaign: Christian council", November 29, 2002).
· "The Ekal Vidyalayas were indulging in hatemongering and
perpetrating hatred against Christians by assiduously building up hate
zones, and the Christian community in those areas were living in
fear," according to Sajan K. George, national convener of the
Council.
8.9 In its response to the press statement issued by IDRF, we can see
yet another example of the hidden target. At one place, the authors of
the Report say:
· The nature of "education" supported by IDRF is geared towards
generating a militant Hindu revivalism and promoting bigotry (see the
article "Hindu Right Goes to School to Build a Nation" in the New York
Times on May 13, 2002). The focus on "tribal welfare" is a euphemism.
The Sangh Parivar has realized that the continued existence of
indigenous tribal identities is a threat to its totalitarian project.
Its "tribal welfare" programs are therefore aimed at "re-converting"
tribals to Hinduism (notwithstanding the fact that these tribal
communities were never Hindu to begin with). (http://
stopfundinghate.org/actions/press/120802.htm)
8.10 The tragedy is that the authors of the Report criticise the
Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram for undertaking service programmes in the
region, which have had a more lasting effect than that of the
Christian missionaries. It would appear to us that the reason is that
the activities of the Sangh in the Vanvasi areas has given a severe
setback to the proselytisation activities of the Christian
missionaries. Sulekha.com reports:
· The greatest challenge to the Bible inspired mission of the NLFT
comes from the Sangh Parivar's Banbasi Kalyan Kendra. The dedicated
life workers of RSS have started empowering the tribals by running
many educational institutions which while empowering them through
imparting secular technical education also retain their tribal
cultural and spiritual identity. Rather than making them disown their
roots, the Kendra made the tribals feel proud of their culture. ("NLFT
- The Christian Al-Qaeda", S. Aravindan Neelakandan, May 2, 2002,
www.sulekha.com/articlede...cid=195857, full article is reproduced as
Annexure 2.)
8.11 It would not be out of place to mention that there is an alleged
link between NLFT and the Congress party. Seema Mustafa writes:
· The Congress, guided by Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, has struck a deal
with the relatively new Indigenous National Party of Tripura that has
been reportedly floated by the National Liberation Front of Tripura.
In a bid to cut into the votes of "these Marxists," Mr Aiyar has now
picked up on a relationship with the tribal extremists that was
started by his friend and mentor, the late Prime Minister Rajeev
Gandhi. (The Asian Age, December 21, 2002.)
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/hate/8.html
9. Selective targeting
9.1 The authors of the Report make no mention about the funding by
Christian organisations for conversions specifically targeted against
the Hindus, or the funding of the madrasas, where Islamic terrorists
are bred. Sabrang has made clear in their mission statement that they
think that the only thing that is of concern to them is the acts of
the Sangh. But the real intention of the authors of the Report is no
different.
9.2 At the new website they have created, there is a section called
"Frequently Asked Questions". The answer to question number 3 gives
their justification for the selective targeting.
· Q 3. Why don't you criticize other religious groups who send money
to India?
· First of all, IDRF is not sending money to a religious group. It is
sending it to the Sangh Parivar. We are not opposed to religious
groups sending money to India, per se. However, the money that IDRF
sends encourages divisiveness and violence. We do condemn all acts of
hate and violence - regardless of religion or ideology. The reason for
our focus on Sangh Parivar is that we are committed to an India that
is democratic, secular and embodies equal respect to all religions.
9.3 Are the authors of the Report contend that the monotheistic
religions of Islam and Christianity, which also believe in aggressive
proselytising, practice the principle of 'equal respect to all
religions'? And was it not Marx (one of the founding fathers of
communism) who said that religion is the opium for the poor?
9.4 When the Pope came to India in November 1999, he used the
opportunity to ask his clergy and laity to work towards converting the
whole of Asia to Christianity - and we think that India is part of
Asia, and that the Hindus are 85% of the population. The Christian
missionaries utilise all sorts of means to take their proselytising
programme forward. An article from the website of Rationalist
International on the question of the way Christian missionaries are
using the funds for conversions in an unscrupulous manner. The article
is that it has named three office bearers of All India Christian
Council, namely the president Dr. Joseph D'Souza, the vice-president
John Dayal and the general secretary Dr. K P Yohannan, as funding a
programme of the Dalits to convert to Buddhism with an eventual target
of converting them to Christianity. The article (November 2001) is
available at: http://www.Rationalistinternational.net/archive/en/rationalist_2001/83.htm
(Full article is available at Annexure 3.)
9.5 The funding by various Islamic countries of the madarasas is not
restricted to India. While such institutes in Pakistan have been a
fertile ground to nurture that Talibanists who have created such a
havoc in Afghanistan, the spread has been far and wide. With the
terrorist bombing in Bali, the activities of such institutes in
Indonesia have come into the limelight.
9.6 Organisations like the Human Rights Watch show an exceptional
concern where the victims are non-Hindus. However, when it comes to
the plight of the Hindus not just in India, as in the case of the
Kashmiri Pandits or the Hindus in the Northeast, but also of the
Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh, they seem to have a mental block.
There is a large exodus of Hindus from Bangladesh with the formation
of the new government there with the help of Islamic parties. It took
a lot of prodding by the Hindus in the USA for the various groups
which claim to be concerned about human rights to even come out with a
press statement. And after a perfunctory report, no further effort at
follow-up is made.
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/hate/9.html
10. Sources of information for the Report
10.1 It is interesting that the information about the various Sangh
organisations contained in the Report has come from the websites
maintained by them. Thus, what is in public domain is what is stated
in the Report. They did not have to go away from their computers to
access the data that they needed. Is it not strange that organisations
that have an intention of indulging in vandalism should be so open
about their data? Or is it that the data is perverted in a manner
which the authors of the Report wish to convey?
10.2 We guess that the arrogance of the authors of the Report cannot
stoop to the level of not examining the case of the persons/
organisations that they have labelled as convicts. True
revolutionaries no longer have the luxury of undertaking a showcase
trial, as Lenin, Stalin and Mao could have done. They have to make a
pretence of being fair. So, they have to resort to equally abhorrent
methods of distortion to achieve their goal.
10.3 One can also look at the various non-Sangh sources that they
quote. It can be quite easily established that each of them is based
on an ideology which is opposed to that of the Sangh. For example, the
ideological orientation of the editorial policy of The Hindu (head
quarters in Chennai) is set by N Ram, an avowed Marxist. As stated
earlier, the editor of Outlook wants the journalists to become
activists to dislodge the BJP government in Delhi.
10.4 The Report takes quotes from various so-called human rights
organisations. While they have highlighted about non-Hindu victims in
various riots and incidences of violence, they are invariably quiet
when the non-Hindus are the aggressors, as in case of Islamic
terrorists all over the country, and the Christian-supported
terrorists in the North-East. Furthermore, they refuse to take serious
cognisance of the plight of the Hindus in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Fiji,
etc.
10.5 As mentioned above, Prashad wrote that he and Mathew have been
investigating for a decade the source of funding of the Sangh from the
Indian Diaspora. He says that they kept a track of both legal and
illegal sources. The Report makes no mention of any special
information that is available with them on the illegal sources, and
the legal sources are those available from the websites of the various
organisations mentioned in the Report. Quite a small amount of
'findings' for two people who spent ten years on the job.
10.6 But did they really spend this much amount of time? In the FAQ on
the Saffron Dollar Project, the answer to the first question gives
some different answer.
· Q 1. Who is involved in the Campaign to Stop Funding Hate? Where do
your funds come from?
· We are a diverse group of people of Indian origin living and working
in India, United States, and Europe. We found each other - via the
internet and through personal contacts - in the aftermath of the
Gujarat riots earlier this year. Among us there are professionals,
teachers and students belonging to various faiths and political
persuasions. We contribute personal time and money to this work and do
not accept any institutional funding from anywhere. We are bound by
one common goal: an India without hatred, where people are not
persecuted because of their faith or political beliefs.
10.7 So we have a disparate group of people who did not know each
other earlier and it was the Gujarat riots that got them together. And
about not accepting institutional funding, we guess that this does not
include Sabrang.
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/hate/10.html
More on this self=styled Hindu hound dog...
chhotemianinshallah
11.1 A feature of the Report is to establish guilt by association. The
case that the authors of the Report are trying to build up is on the
basis that the Sangh is a fascist organisation. For this purpose, they
rely on an article ("Hindutva's foreign tie-up in the 1930s: Archival
Evidence", Economic and Political Weekly, Jan 22, 2000) by Marzia
Casolari, identified as an Italian scholar, on the alleged links
between Mussolini and the RSS. The information provided by Casolari
makes them to arrive at the source of what they call the 'violent
underpinnings of Hindutva'.
11.2 So, a detailed analysis of this article will enable us to shed
some light on this whole fascist thing. Casolari says, "�.the fascist
ideological background of Hindu fundamentalism is taken for granted,
(but) never proved by a systematic analysis." And so, she says, she
will do so in her article.
11.3 She also says: "More generally, the aim of this paper is that of
disproving Christophe Jaffrelot's thesis that there is a sharp
distinction between nazi and fascist ideology on one side and RSS on
the other side as far as the concept of race and the centrality of
leader are concerned."
11.4 Jaffrelot has written an anti-RSS book, based on a detailed field
study of the activities of the organisation in Madhya Pradesh. He is
often invited to speak and write against the Sangh at various forums.
In his book ("The Hindu nationalist Movement and Indian Politics 1925
to the 1990s", pp 61-62, Viking Publication, 1993.), Jafferlot wrote:
· The kind of metaphor used by Golwalkar � echoes his scientific
education. Students of natural science were always strongly
represented in the RSS, possibly because of the importance of
organicism in its ideology. Hedgewar was a doctor, Golwalkar studied
and taught zoology, Rajendra Singh, who became sarsanghchalak in 1994,
graduated in physics; H.V. Seshadri, who was to become General
Secretary of the organisation, in chemistry; and K.S. Sudarshan in
engineering.
· The organicist character of Golwalkar's ideology is reminiscent of
certain aspects of Nazism. There are more obvious affinities between
the two than between Hindu nationalism and Italian fascism since both
share a strong emphasis on ethnic homogeneity. However, three
differences remain. First, as emphasised in the previous section, the
supreme concept in the RSS's doctrine is not race but society. In
Golwalkar's works the promotion of an organic society is more
important than the purity of the race. Second, even though Nazism
attributed more importance than did Italian fascism to the organic
nation in comparison to the state, Hitler was nostalgic for the 'old
Reich' and valued the state as a means to promote the interests of the
race. According to Hitler the 'mission' of the Nazi movement was 'the
creation of a Germanic State'. This explains his preoccupation with
the need to capture power as a matter of urgency, as attested by the
aborted coup of 1923. The RSS, by contrast, is not a putschist
organisation and Golwalkar considered that Hitler's capture of the
state was a mistake.
· (Golwalkar said:) Hitler's movement centred round politics. We try
to build life without being wedded to politics. It is many times found
that many are gathered for political purpose. But when that purpose
fails, unity is lost. We do not want any temporary achievement but an
abiding oneness. And so we have kept ourselves aloof from politics.
11.5 So, we are expected to believe Casolari who has done some
archival study, and some conjecture, all based on deskwork, and ignore
one who has done a more detailed study on the aspect of fascism of the
Sangh.
11.6 In any case, let us analyse the 'proof' provided by Casolari. The
Report says Dr. B S Moonje, a well-wisher of the founder of the RSS,
Dr Hedgewar, 'visited and met with Mussolini and was granted
permission by Mussolini to observe and understand the nature of the
fascist organisational structure.' This gives an impression that
Moonje had a fascist inclination and had undertaken a special visit to
Italy for the purpose studying fascism in greater detail.
11.7 The facts, as narrated by Casolari, are that Moonje went on a
tour of Europe between February and March 1931, on his return from the
Round Table Conference in London. He spent nine days in Rome between
15 to 24 March, out of which he spent one day, March 19, visiting six
organisations working towards the fascist programme of Mussolini.
Casolari says: "The same day, namely on 19 March 1931, at 3 p.m., in
Palazzo Venezia, the headquarters of the fascist government, he met
the Italian dictator." And she further says that Moonje recorded in
his diary that he spent thirty minutes with Mussolini. She also says:
"The description of the Italian journey includes information regarding
fascism, its history, the fascist 'revolution', etc, and continues for
two more pages."
11.8 So this is the sum-total of contact between Moonje and Mussolini
and his organisations. Casolari says, "Moonje's trip to Italy,
contrary to what happened in the case of Subhas Chandra Bose and other
nationalists, did not give place to any further cooperation between
Hindu nationalism and the fascist regime. However, these contacts were
important at the ideological and organizational level." She offers no
proof, except innuendos, for the latter part of this quote. In this
context, she has used the words 'must have' five times in the
following context:
1. This interest (of Hindu radicalism in Italian fascism) was commonly
shared in Maharashtra, and must have inspired B.S. Moonje's trip to
Italy in 1931.
2. (I)t makes sense to think that the entire circle of militant
Hinduism must have been influenced by Moonje's Italian experience.
[Note from the Hindu Vivek Kendra: Makes sense to whom?]
3. The influence of fascist ideology and practice must have gone far
beyond the limits of the main organizations of the Hindu militant
nationalism and must have extended to the wide and intricate net of
secondary militant groups and centres of physical education or
paramilitary training.
4. The aggressive racial policy carried out by Germany must have
played a fundamental role in this shift of interest from Italy to
Germany.
5. Accordingly it makes sense to think that the organizations of
militant Hinduism must have perceived the necessity to rehabilitate
their political past and re-invent a more clear-cut anti-British
stand.
11.9 The only time she has used the words 'must have not' is in
context of placed the Muslims in a favourable light, as follows:
"Apart from the fact that this must have not been the attitude of most
of Indian Muslims, militant Hindus had exaggerated claims towards the
Muslims."
11.10 And then she has also used the words 'most probably' five times
(is five Casalori's lucky number?) as follows:
1. Less well known is the fact that, as showed by a confidential
report circulated within the Congress most probably at the time of the
first ban of the RSS, after Gandhi's assassination, the similarity
between the character of the RSS and that of fascist organizations was
already taken for granted.
2. Fascist ideas were widespread among the Hindu nationalists, at
least in Maharashtra. The above mentioned script had been printed in
the form of a pamphlet and distributed not only among the people
Moonje tried to involve in his project, but, most probably, to an even
wider public. Fascism therefore, had a certain popularity, which,
unfortunately, is at present difficult to be measured.
3. The contacts that Savarkar tried to establish with the consulates
of the Axis powers in Bombay did not bring any noticeable result. Most
probably this happened because the outbreak of the war made any
possible activity in collaboration with foreign powers much more
difficult.
4. The only result of these contacts - which could materialize only
through the German consulate - was, most probably, the circulation of
the already mentioned speech of Savarkar in the German newspapers, in
exchange for articles in favour of Germany's Jewish policy in the
Marathi newspapers.
5. It is difficult to establish if the organizations of militant
Hinduism were arming themselves against possible foreign invaders, the
internal enemy, or the British. Most probably they aimed at arming
themselves against all of them together, with the purpose of taking
advantage of any possible solution.
11.11 Of course, this is not the only basis on which Casolari talks
about the Mussolini influence on Moonje, and through him on the RSS.
She mentions that the Marathi press discussed fascism right from the
early phase of the Italian regime. As a proof of this, she says that
'from 1924 to 1935 "Kesari" regularly published editorials and
articles about Italy, fascism and Mussolini.' She does not give the
number of editorial and articles that appeared during this time.
(Perhaps they do not amount to five, her lucky number.) However, she
says that 'what impressed the Marathi journalists was the socialist
origin of fascism and the fact that the new regime seemed to have
transformed Italy from a backward country to a first class power.'
11.12 Casolari, at the beginning of her analysis, does say, "Indians
could not know, then, that, behind the demagogic rhetoric of the
regime, there was very little substance." However, she ignores this
caveat in the rest of her writings, and based on allusions proceeds to
'demonstrate' that there exists 'direct contacts between the
representatives of the fascist regime, including Mussolini, and the
Hindu nationalists.'
11.13 It is well known that in 1931 it was not only Indians who did
not know that there was little substance in the Italy of Mussolini, or
the way the things would unfold in the next fifteen years. The
admiration for the methods of Mussolini and his Fascist Party had a
good spread, even in Europe.
11.14 We thus see that at best Casolari has established only a tenuous
link between fascism and Moonje. We do not know who, other than
Casolari, the authors of the Report, and all those who are associated
with them, will even come to start to believe that a half an hour
meeting between Mussolini and Moonje would have such a profound
impact.
11.15 The other aspect of guilt by association relates to the whole
thing about attributing the violence against religious minorities,
dalits, vanvasis, etc., in India to the Sangh. Of course, all this
flows from the fact that the Sangh is a fascist organisation, which is
supposed to have been inspired by Mussolini.
11.16 As in the case of the Mussolini association, in this aspect too
there are innuendos and vague accusations. There is no evidence
provided where courts have prosecuted any of the Sangh organisations
or individuals associated with it. They refer to commission reports,
but do not mention that in no case there is a follow up done in terms
of taking the matter to the appropriate courts.
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/hate/11.html
12. Agenda of the authors of the Report
12.1 We can give many examples which will more than amply prove that
the authors, and the publishers, of the Report have an agenda. For
example, the Report says that the first Indian act of Hindutva was the
murder of Mahatma Gandhi. What the communists about the Mahatma is
well documented. But these same communists also know very well that
even after serious attempts by a regime that was virulently opposed to
the RSS, no evidence could be found about its involvement or of its
members.
12.2 It is true that Nathuram Godse was a member of the RSS for about
two years in the early 40s. But, then, Godse was also a member of the
Congress Party and assisted it in the independence struggle.
12.3 The Report talks about rapes of Christian nuns. The most
notorious incident was that of four nuns in Madhya Pradesh. The
Congress government there has confirmed that the dastardly act was
done by some 24 tribals, half of whom were converted to Christianity.
In another case in Orissa, the forensic report clearly showed that
there was no rape. (In this latter case, one has to wonder about the
state of mind of the persons who asked the nun to come out in the
public and make a false claim of rape.)
12.4 Of course, people will mention about the burning of Graham
Staines and his two sons. Here too the Sangh organisations have been
cleared of any guilt in the incident by the Wadhwa Commission.
However, it is pertinent to reproduce two of the recommendations of
the Commission:
· Point No. 9: There should be a Code of Conduct for the political
parties when their leaders make statements without verification in a
situation like the present one. Leaders cannot make statements merely
for gaining political mileage. Their statements should be subdued and
not to fan the fire when the atmosphere is communally surcharged. It
is the duty of everyone to have regard to each other's faith and to
spread a message of love, peace and kindness. Murderer is a murderer
to whichever faith he may belong. A criminal is a criminal. Religion
need not be brought in such matters. Allow the police to make
independent investigation of the crime uninfluenced by politics or
religion or caste.
· Point No. 10: Media, both print and electronic, has also to exercise
restraint. Screaming headlines should be avoided which have the effect
of misleading the public and creating more tension and suspicion among
different communities. News headlines in the cases of rape of nun and
murder of a Christian boy and girl after rape have been noticed. One
cannot imagine the damage that might have been caused to the polity by
such headlines and reporting. Reporting of communal strife should not
be done without proper verification or an ordinary crime given a
communal twist.
12.5 The Report also alleges that in the distribution of the relief
after the Gujarat Earthquake of January 2001, the Sangh was
deliberately not making it available to the Muslims and the dalits. In
this respect, it would be worthwhile to quote from an editorial in The
Times of India.
· "The RSS has been very active in relief and rehabilitation
work�..There are, however, unconfirmed reports from Gujarat that the
ideological bias of the RSS towards certain communities and castes is
already evident even in the task of providing relief." (Editorial,
"Political Aftershocks", The Times of India, Feb 6 2001.)
12.6 Eleven words of praise, based on confirmed reports. And 29 words
of damnation based on unconfirmed reports. Strange seems to be the
manner of professionalism in Indian journalism.
12.7 Within a couple of days, the RSS spokesman wrote to The Times of
India asking for the details of these unconfirmed reports, so that the
organisation could take the necessary corrective actions. As of this
date no such information has been received. One does guess that it is
difficult to provide details of unconfirmed reports.
12.8 Moreover, a photo, from a website of the Times of India group
which showed a Muslim family, along with many others, in a huge tent
set up by the VHP, was sent to the editor. A photo of a couple of nuns
of the Missionaries of Charity bringing a patient to a VHP medical
camp was also sent. Was there an acknowledgement of the blatantly
false charge by The Times of India? If there was, at least this
section of the Report need not have been written.
12.9 When there was a mid-air collusion just over the village of
Charhi Dadri in Haryana, the first group of people to reach the site
were members of the Sangh. That a large number of victims were Muslims
did not deter them in providing the necessary assistance in pulling
out the bodies from the wreckage and helping in undertaking the final
rites. This effort was recognised in the Saudi newspaper Al-Riyad.
12.10 A couple of other points need to be taken up. The authors of the
Report talk about Hinduism as a religion. Obviously the level of
scholarship of the authors must be quiet low, and their integrity non-
existent, if they stoop to this low level. All serious scholars on
Hinduism would clearly state that referring to it in the same context
as Christianity and Islam would guide the person in a completely wrong
direction.
12.11 The essence of Hinduism can be taken up from Prof Klaus
Klostermaier, who spent quite some time in India before quitting the
Jesuit order, has to say.
· "Hinduism will spread not so much through the gurus and swamis, who
attract certain number of people looking for a new commitment and a
quasi-monastic life-style, but it will spread mainly through the work
of intellectuals and writers, who have found certain Hindu ideas
convincing and who identify them with their personal beliefs. A fair
number of leading physicists and biologists have found parallels
between modern science and Hindu ideas. An increasing number of
creative scientists will come from a Hindu background and will
consciously and unconsciously blend their scientific and their
religious ideas. All of us may be already much more Hindu than we
think." (A Survey of Hinduism, p 414. Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers
Pvt Ltd, Delhi, 1990.)
12.12 A second point needs to be mentioned is about Friends of India
Society International (FISI). This organisation came to be to co-
ordinate the opposition to the Emergency declared by Smt Indira Gandhi
between 1975-77. A large number of persons of Indian origin, living in
the UK and the USA, came together as a spontaneous act to oppose this
rape of democracy. In a very short time, the persons involved came to
realise that a huge majority of them had a Sangh background. Just as
in India, where the major ground level opposition was by Swayamsevaks,
the international experience was no different.
12.13 The organisers of FISI decided to continue with the organisation
in the post-Emergency period, so that there is a forum availed to the
Indian Diaspora to take up issues which are of concern to the land of
their ancestors, without in any way hurting the interest of the land
where they are now settled. And yet the authors of the Report allege
that this organisation, which worked so hard to help in restoring
democracy in India, is itself an undemocratic organisation. Perhaps
they do so because the Communist Party of India, under instructions of
the erstwhile Soviet Union, supported the Emergency.
12.14 To fully understand the agenda of the authors of the Report, we
should also take cognisance of what they have to say on the subject of
the Report and has been published after the Report has been released.
At http://www.stopfundinghate.org/resources/FAQ.htm, we find the
following:
· Q 7. But Hindutva organizations claim that it is the missionaries
and madarsas which initiate the problem. Is this not true?
· It is mostly not true. There may be missions which convert. There
may be madarsas where hatred is taught. (Emphasis added.)
12.15 Obviously the authors of the Report have a poor opinion of the
intelligence of their readers. But, then they do seem to have proved
this right at least in case of those who have come out in their
support!
12.16 In addition, the authors of the Report seem to be such experts
in identifying the castes of people by merely looking at the names,
and that too even if the first name is provided. They have created a
website called http://stopfundinghate.org, where they make the
following statement:
· Signatories on a counter-petition launched by a group called "Let
India Develop" http://www.letindiadevelop.org are almost exclusively
from Hindu upper castes. (http://stopfundinghate.org/actions/press/
120802.htm)
12.17 In the same spit-and-run tactics, the authors of the Report
say:
· The Rashtriya Swayamsevk Sangh (RSS) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad
(VHP), key organizations in the Hindutva movement, are shadowy
organizations which have been banned several times in India for
fomenting communal violence. VHP and RSS workers have been implicated
in murderous activities. (http://stopfundinghate.org/resources/
FAQ.htm)
12.18 The RSS has been banned three times. The first time was in the
aftermath of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. It has been more
than adequately established that this was a political move, to try and
destroy an organisation which was thought to come in the way of
implementing the political agenda of Nehru. The second time was during
the Emergency of 1975-77. During this period many other organisations
were banned for the simple reason that they all opposed the Congress
Party of Indira Gandhi. (Which Congress Party was approached by
Setalvad of Sabrang to finance the anti-BJP campaign at the time of
the last elections.) The third time was after the demolition of the
Babri structure that stood at the Shri Rama Janmabhoomi. This ban was
not confirmed by the commission which went into the legality of the
ban.
12.19 The VHP was banned two times. The first was along with the third
ban on the RSS. The second one was after the statutory period of this
ban was over, and this was summarily overturned by the concerned
commission. Thus, it is clear that yet again the authors of the Report
have to resort to being economical with the truth in trying to take
forward their agenda.
12.20 The authors claim that their Report has been 'meticulously
researched'. If so, could they list out the cases where the 'VHP and
RSS workers have been implicated in murderous activities'?
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/hate/12.html
13. Sangh and the judiciary
13.1 In line with the standard canard against the Sangh, the Report
alleges that 'numerous government reports have clearly indicted the
Sangh for fomenting communal violence.' The authority used to justify
this claim is that of AG Noorani, a known communist in India, and his
article "A Half Century's Gory Record" in The Statesman, January 15,
2000. The article was accompanied by a cartoon showing a person in
shorts (on which was inscribed the letters RSS) shooting at Mahatma
Gandhi. The RSS filed a case against the publication, Noorani, and the
cartoonist in the High Court of Delhi. In March 2002, The Statesman
said in the court, "We wish to clarify that the publication was made
without malice and with no intention to denigrate or defame any person
or persons or RSS. We regret the publication." It should be stated
that Noorani failed repeated to appeared before the Court and a non-
bailable warrant had to be issued against him.
13.2 This is yet another example of the spit-and-run tactics in line
with a 'true revolutionary' that is commonly applied when calumny
against the Sangh is indulged in. Either the authors of the Report are
ignorant of this case, or the Goebbles tactics of telling a lie a
hundred times is put in place.
13.3 The allegation that evidence of Sangh's involvement in anti-
social activities has a long history. When the Sangh was banned
immediately after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal
Nehru wrote in a letter dated November 10, 1948, to MS Golwalkar, as
follows:
· In the course of the last year both the Central Government and the
Provincial Governments have received a mass of information in regard
to the objectives and activities of the R.S.S. This information does
not fit in with what has been stated by you in this behalf. Indeed it
would appear that the declared objectives have little to do with the
real ones and with the activities carried on in various forms and ways
by people associated with the R.S.S. These real objectives appear to
be completely opposed to the decisions of the Indian Parliament and
the provisions of the proposed Constitution of India. The activities,
according to our information, are anti-national and often subversive
and violent. You would appreciate, therefore, that mere assertions to
the contrary do not help very much. ("Justice on Trial", p 16, Suruchi
Prakashan, 1962.)
13.4 However, the Sangh was not charged either in the case of the
assassination of Mahatma Gandhi or the 'mass of information' was ever
presented to a court of law to establish the charge of being 'anti-
national, subversive and violent'.
13.5 Similarly, the allegation of the involvement of the Sangh in
creating communal disturbance, as alleged by various commission of
inquiry reports mentioned in the Report have never resulted in
prosecution of any of the Sangh activists. Given the 'strong evidence'
as claimed by the authors of the Report, it is indeed strange that
governments which have been inimical to the Sangh have not found it
worthwhile to prosecute the activists.
13.6 Government employment rules prohibit the employee to be a member
of a political party. On this ground, many Sangh activists have had
their services terminated. In each case, the courts have held the
termination to be illegal, and the persons have been reinstated. This
issue has been dealt with in a booklet entitled "Truth Triumphs: What
the High Courts have to say on RSS" (ed Ram Mohan, Suruchi Sahitya
Publication, 1977). The first paragraph of the booklet goes as
follows:
· There could be nothing better than the considered pronouncements of
the highest judiciaries of the land in exposing the outrageous
falsehoods, -canards, allegations and mudslinging of the lowest order
being repeatedly indulged in by the Govt. -against the RSS. High Court
after High Court in different states have quashed the illegal malafide
orders of suspension or dismissal issued by the Govt. against the RSS
workers in the govt. service. The top insinuations of the RSS being
'subversive', 'violent' 'secret', 'communal', 'anti Muslim',
'political' and so on, have all been subjected to impartial judicial
scrutiny & found to be entirely baseless. As many as ten High Courts
Judgements - Indore (1955), Patna (1961), Bombay (1962), Allahabad
(1963), Jodhpur (1965), Banglore (1966), Chandigarh (1967), Ahmedabad
(1970) and Allahabad (1971) - have given identical verdicts nailing
the charges leveled by the Government against the RSS.
13.7 Ram Mohan summarises these cases as follows:
· The above judicial verdicts not merely up hold the absolute
innocence of RSS, they also reveal the mean and jaundiced attitude of
the Govt. The utterly and irresponsible way in which the various State
Governments have made such serious allegations as "subversive".
"secret", "anti-secular", "violent" etc. against RSS is simply breath-
taking. The high Courts even in their restrained language, have
described the various charges as "without foundation", "a very
unsatisfactory explanation", there is no evidence", "it would not be
within reason to accept", founded on irrelevant consideration
"arbitary" etc.
· In every case, the Government's order of suspension or dismissal of
RSS workers, has been quashed and the Government was ordered to pay
the costs.
· That the Government is even today indulging in the same old exploded
allegations against the RSS and has even banned it as 'a danger to
national security', only shows to what depths of falsehood & chicanery
the Govt. can descend.
13.8 Mohan has also dealt with a case filed against the second chief
of the RSS. he writes:
· No less a person than the previous Sarsanghachalak of RSS, Shri M.S.
Golwalkar himself was tried in a court of law by the Government for
this offence. The case against him was that he had delivered a speech
at Darbhanga (Bihar) which had promoted or attempted to promote
feelings of enmity or hatred between Hindus and Muslims and Christians
of this country.
· The High Court of Bihar at Patna, (criminal) Revision No. 607 of
1959) carefully presented the RSS view point vis-a-vis Muslims and
Christians, and held: analysed the entire speech in which Shri
Golwalkar had said-
· "...... It is submitted that the principal object of the petstioner
in delivering the speech was to point out the objectives of the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and to emphasise that the members of the
Sangh should strengthen Hindu Culture for the advancement of the
Country. In my opinion the submission of learned counsel for the
petitioner are not without force.
· "It is difficult to conclude from the speech read as a whole, that
the intention of the speaker was either to promote feelings of enmity
or hatred between different classes of the citizens of India or that
the speaker had deliberately attempted to promote such feeling ... It
has been submitted that section 153 A of the I.P.C. ought not to be
applied to the case of an honest agitator where primary object was the
redress of wrong, real or fancied, and who is not actuated with the
mentality of a more mischief monger . In my opinion, in the instant
case also, it is different to hold that the speaker had intended to
promote feelings of hatred between different classes of citizens of
India, not to speak of having delivered the speech with malicious
intentions.
· "In my opinion ... it must be held that the ingredients of the
offence under sections 153 A of the I.P.C have not been established in
this case."
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/hate/13.html
14. The Christian link
14.1 We have mentioned some instances of the Christian link earlier.
One relating to the blatantly false allegations of the All India
Christian Council. The other was a statement from a Jesuit priest
associated with a front for the Roman Catholic Church.
14.2 In today's context, it would be interesting to view the manner in
which the Christian organisations reacted to an invitation from the US
Commission on International Religious Freedom on the issue of attacks
on Christians. The commission held a hearing on September 18, 2000,
the day after Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Prime Minister of India,
completed his visit to the capital of the USA. The commission admitted
that the date chosen was a deliberate one since the media focus would
be highlighted on India.
14.3 The Catholic World News (September 14, 2000) said,
· "The Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) had described as
"unwarranted" the proposed hearing on religious freedom in India
scheduled for Monday by a US congressional committee on international
religious freedom. "The CBCI does not believe that the present
situation warrants an international hearing," said Father Donald
d'Souza, CBCI deputy secretary general, when asked about the Church's
reaction to the proposed hearing on religious freedom in India."
14.4 Yet, the Report deals quite extensively on the issue of attacks
on Christians. It is pertinent to note that the Commission itself was
not exactly above board. In a letter dated September 6, 2000 Chairman
Elliott Abrams had urged President Clinton to "impress on the Prime
Minister (at his meeting on the 15th) that promotion of religious
freedom is indispensable to healthy relations between India and the
United States." Thus the hearing, which was held on September 16 was
an eyewash, the conclusions were arrived at much prior to the whole
tamasha. The conclusions were arrived at even prior to taking on board
the comments of the various people.
14.5 But then, such tactics are quite normal to those who wish to be
economical with the truth, a politically correct phrase for liars.
14.6 It is also necessary to discuss the role of the Christian
missionaries in terrorist activities in the North-East. We can do no
better than quote from the US Commission on International Religious
Freedom:
· In Christian majority areas, Christians sometimes are the
oppressors. In Tripura, there were several cases of harassment of non-
Christians by Christian members of the National Liberation Front of
Tripura (NLFT), a militant tribal group with an evangelical bent. For
example, NLFT tribal insurgents have prohibited Hindu and Muslim
festivals in areas that they control, cautioned women not to wear
traditional Hindu tribal attire, and prohibited indigenous forms of
worship. In Assam, where the population is increasing rapidly, the
issue of Bangladeshi migrants (who generally are Muslim) has become
very sensitive among the Assamese (predominantly Hindu) population,
which considers itself to be increasingly outnumbered. (http://
www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2002/14023.htm)
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/hate/14.html
15. On Kashmiri Pandits
15.1 One of the features of the debate on communalism in India is that
the attacks on Hindus are to be given a secular colour, even when the
perpetrators say that they are doing a communal act. This is best seen
in terms of the issue of the Kashmiri Pandits is handled. Many
analysts have highlighted the double standards of those who have the
same ideology as the authors of the Report. However, even today, if at
all the Kashmiri Pandits are mentioned, they are done in a perfunctory
manner.
15.2 The cavalier treatment of the plight of the Kashmiri Pandits by
Teesta Setalvad, one of the two primary promoters of Sabrang, needs to
be highlighted. The people who are shedding crocodile tears over the
Muslims in Gujarat, have not even done this with respect to the more
than 300,000 Pandits who are living as refugees in their own country
for the last thirteen years. In a speech in Delhi on August 20, 2002,
she said:
· "For, while there are the hapless and forgotten Kashmiri Pandits
also displaced and bitterly abandoned in Jammu and Delhi camps, they
have been innocent victims of foreign-bred mercenaries not home grown
terror bands; terror bands who moreover speak of a narrow sense of
Indian patriotism and nationhood." (http://www.sabrang.com/news/
teesaward.htm)
15.3 Thus in a speech of about 900 words, only 47 are devoted to the
Kashmiri Pandits, while the rest deals with the violence in Gujarat
after the burning of the Hindus in Godhra. Interestingly, the word
Godhra does not occur even once in her speech. It should also be
noticed that the plight of the Kashmiri Pandits are not treated with
sympathy, but an attempt is made to explain the problem away.
15.4 The Kashmiri Pandits are refugees in their own country for the
last 13 years. Except for the Hindu organisations, their plight is of
no concern to anyone else - political or secular organisations.
According to Ashish Nandy of the Centre for the Study of Developing
Societies, secularists have been foolishly soft on minority
communalism. He said:
· "When Hindus began to be exterminated systematically in Kashmir and
to leave in large numbers, our secularist friends said then governor
Jagmohan had deliberately organised the forced migration. I would like
to see people leaving their ancestral homes with a sack in hand just
because the governor of the state asks them to do so! When questioned
later as to how the killings of Hindus were not condemned strongly
enough, some of them said newspapers had refused to carry their
statements." ("A Dangerous Symbiosis", Outlook, April 1, 2002.)
15.5 There are many explanations for the silence of the secularists
with respect to the Kashmiri Pandits. What Nandy informs is one of
them. Another has been given by one Asha Kachru, in a letter to
Manushi, in its issue nr 113. She wrote:
· "I (feel) no one wants to talk about the (Kashmiri) Pandits�.., Now
because of the Pandit-BJP nexus I also feel uncomfortable raising the
issue."
15.6 So, tomorrow if the Sangh says that sun rises in the East, there
will be a sustained campaign amongst the intellectuals to say that
this is yet another falsehood propagated by the Sangh!
15.7 Setalvad has written extensively about the Kashmiri terrorists
(she calls them militants, mercenaries, etc., but never terrorists),
both foreign and home-grown, in quite favourable light in the past.
But this is probably the first time that she has condescended, even in
a perfunctory manner, to talk about the Kashmiri Pandits. She has
visited and talked to the terrorists in Jammu & Kashmir quite a few
times. But, she never found it necessary to even make a fleeting visit
to the refugee camps of the Kashmiri Pandits.
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/hate/15.html
More on this Hindu-hunde...
chhotemianinshallah
16. On Godhra
16.1 The communal riot that took place in Gujarat in March 2002 had
its trigger in the burning of 58 Hindus (26 women, 12 children, 20
men) in the early morning hours of February 27, 2002. They were
returning from Ayodhya after taking part in a programme to rebuild the
temple at the Shri Rama Janmabhoomi. A mob of 2000 Muslims in Godhra
attacked the train carrying these people and set fire to one of the
bogies.
16.2 Given the ideological orientation of the authors of the Report,
they do not find it incongruous to treat the event in a cavalier
manner. In the Report, consisting of more than 25,000 words of primary
text, the sum total of the depiction of the event is in the following
35 words:
· "On February 27, 2002, a train carrying Hindu activists was set
afire in Godhra, a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat,
allegedly by a Muslim mob, resulting in the death of 58 people." (The
only other time the word Godhra appears in the primary text is in
context of a resolution passed by the Sangh.)
16.3 Thus the action taken by about 2000 Muslims in the burning of the
Hindus, is termed as 'allegedly', while the actions taken against the
Muslims and Christians are definitely attributed to the Sangh Parivar.
16.4 While the Report does not make any mention of the reason why the
Hindus were burned, there is another report prepared by an
organisation called "Concerned Citizens Tribunal" says the following:
· "The Sabarmati Express train started from Ahmedabad for Ayodhya on
February 22, 2002, with kar sevaks on board. It appears that on its
onward journey to Ayodhya, there was an incident at Dahod railway
station where the kar sevaks indulged in vandalism and terrorising of
Muslim vendors at the station. According to another version, the Dahod
incident took place on the return journey. There is no clear evidence
of the date of the incident but it is clear that it took
place." (http://www.sabrang.com/tribunal/volI/godhra.html)
16.5 This is the manner in which evidence is collected, and it is a
feature of the communists writing on issues that they call as Hindu
fundamentalism. A rumour is to be treated as a fact if it means that
it can 'prove' the case against the one who is already labelled as a
convict. Or, perhaps one should invent a rumour if it does not exist.
As Lenin said : "That's how every sound revolutionary should react."
16.6 And if one sees the composition of these so-called concerned
citizens, the ideological inclination to the left (even extreme left)
of the political spectrum is quite clear. And the report of these
'concerned citizens' follows this time-honoured modus operandi in its
entirety.
16.7 In this modus operandi, the burning of the 58 Hindus at Godhra
has always been rationalised. (Just as the attacks on the Swami
Narayan Mandir in Gujarat on September 24, 2002, and the Ragunath
Mandir in Jammu on March 31 and November 24, 2002,was rationalised as
a reaction to the post-Godhra communal violence in Gujarat.) The
comments of Setalvad, of Sabrang, are relevant here. She said:
· "While I condemn today's gruesome attack, you cannot pick up an
incident in isolation. Let us not forget the provocation. These people
were not going for a benign assembly. They were indulging in blatant
and unlawful mobilization to build a temple and deliberately provoke
the Muslims in India." (Washington Post, February 28, 2002.)
16.8 This was before the Hindu reaction had even started. (One wonders
if Setalvad would also not pick the demolition of the World Trade
Centre in 'isolation', and talk about the 'provocation' provided by
the Americans in supporting Israel.) Incidentally, in the speech
referred to above, which dealt extensively about the riots in Gujarat,
she did even utter the word Godhra even once.
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/hate/16.html
17. Perversions in the Report
17.1 As Beloo Mehra pointed out in his analysis, "even before the
reader is made aware of the origins of Hindutva as a political
ideology, he or she is asked to believe that it is "Hindu supremacist
ideology" and has been responsible for much of the "communal violence"
in India." The definition of Hindutva that is being applied in the
Report is not what the proponents of the ideology say it is, but what
the opponents say it is. What Hindutva is has been a matter for court
decisions. Some of the proponents, in the electoral politics arena,
have had cases against them for setting aside their elections.
However, the Supreme Court decided in the favour of the proponents of
Hindutva, and accepted that their definition can in no way be
construed to be sectarian or communal. This has been reiterated by LK
Advani, Home Minister, in the Parliament on November 18, 2002. He
said:
· I will say our concept is the one which the Supreme Court wrote.
Justice Verma in his judgement wrote: ''The words Hinduism or Hindutva
are not confined only to the strict Hindu religious practices
unrelated to the culture and ethos of the people of India depicting
the way of life of the Indian people. These terms are indicative more
of a way of life of the Indian people, and are not confined merely to
describe persons practising the Hindu religion as a faith.'' We in the
Government accept that the meaning of Hindutva is the one which the
Supreme Court accepts and what Swami Vivekanandaji and others
recognised. (The Indian Express, November 23, 2002.)
17.2 The inherent tolerance of the Hindus, an integral part of their
ethos, is well accepted. The Jews, the Parsis, the Syrain Christians,
and the Tibetians had to flee their own land because of persecution by
the Christians, the Muslims, the other Christian sects, and the
communists, respectively. It was only amongst Hindus that they were
able to survive - not only in terms of keeping their own faith alive,
but also in material terms. On December 19, 2002, the Holywood actor,
Richard Gere, during his visit to India, said:
· No nation has helped the Tibetans more than India. Its contribution
remains unparalleled as the displaced people have not only been able
to rebuild their monastic institutions but have also prospered
materially. (http://headlines.sify.com/1546news3.html?
headline=Richard~Gere's~'Light~of~Truth'~award~for~Indians)
17.3 However, Hindus have resisted those who came here with an
intention of destroying their culture and civilisation. The interface
of Islam and Christianity in Indian history can be said, at the very
least, to have been architecturally and spiritually harmful on a
fairly vast scale. This is a continuing story, with the threat still
persisting. Because of the strong resistance, Hinduism today is the
oldest surviving civilisation.
17.4 The Report defines the gurukul system of education in India as
"Hindu religious schools, equivalent of the Islamic madrassas." The
gurukul system provides the students with a modern and secular
education, even as it inculcates the traditional values of our
civilisation. Perhaps the authors of the Report could give examples of
terrorists that have been bred in this system. Only a perverted mind
would do link the gurukuls with the Madrasas, which have become jehadi
factories all over the world. For the authors of the Report, only some
Madrasas, but all gurukuls, teach hatred.
17.5 Even as the authors have never criticised the jehadi factories
that the madarsas are all over the world, they have brought down an
ancient system of education down to the level of the madarasas. The
authors also allege that the 'Hindu madarsas' are operating not only
in India, but also abroad.
17.6 One of the comments that the authors of the Report frequently
make is that the Sangh is a secretive organisation. Given the extent
of the size of the organisation, as admitted by the authors, one would
find it very hard to believe this charge. Only if the Sangh had
complete control over all branches of the government, right from the
panchayat to the centre, can such a state of disguise be maintained.
And, experience all over the world has shown, that even this is not
possible for a length of time. And the Sangh is today 77 years old.
17.7 Perhaps it would be instructive to read a quote from an article
by a known Sangh-baiter, Amulya Ganguli.
· "If there is one aspect of the RSS-led Sangh parivar which evokes
admiration, it is candour. In a day and age when false smiles and
unvarnished lies are the politicians' stock-in-trade, it is always
refreshing to hear the clear, if grim, articulation of their deadly
plans for India from the saffron stalwarts, including another "epic
war" between Hindus and anti-Hindus. What is remarkable is that even
when they are aware that they may be revealing their secrets, or that
they are embarrassing a government which is nearer them ideologically
than any other will ever be, the high priests of Hindu rashtra are not
bothered. Either they have complete faith in the ultimate success of
their mission, or they are incapable of terminological inexactitude,
the polite term for being economical with the truth. Irrespective of
how provocative their statements may be, they have no hesitation in
standing by them." ("The RSS game plan", The Hindustan Times, March
27, 2000.)
17.8 The Report alleges that the IDRF raised money for the Bangladeshi
Hindus who are once again being driven out of their homelands, the
350,000 Kashmiri Hindus who are living as refugees in their own
country for the last 13 years, and given a token donation for the
victims of the World Trade Centre, because the perpetrators of the
crime were Muslims. (At a polemical level, perhaps one should be
amused that the authors of the Report do admit that the perpetrators
are Muslims.) By the same logic, one would come to the conclusion that
given that IDRF raised large sums of money for the Gujarat earthquake
and the Orissa cyclone, these and other such events were actually not
natural calamities, but were done by the Muslims! We guess if we are
to take the Report with even a modicum of seriousness, we will have to
take special precautions that we do not lose our sanity.
17.9 The Report gives an impression that various corporates are giving
funds to IDRF directly. The truth is that many coroprates have a
policy of grants which match the fund raising activities of their
employees. This is supposed to give an encouragement to the employees
to be more involved in the welfare of the society. For this purpose
the concerned charity has to be registered with the corporate
concerned. According to the article by Varsha Bhosle (http://
www.rediff.com/news/2002/nov/23varsha.htm), Cisco 'has given grants
to, amongst others, Catholic Charities Euclid Girls' Home, Jewish
Vocational Services, and St Vincent de Paul Society of San Mateo
County.'
17.10 This is only a glimpse of the type of perversions that the
authors have to resort to, as true revolutionaries as commanded by
Lenin. A group called Friends of India are making their own analysis
of the Report. They have taken the trouble to find out the antecedents
of ten of the recipients, identified as being sectarian, of the
donation from IDRF. One of them, Miraj Medical Centre, is run by the
Church of North India. Janan Prabodhini receives funds from colleagues
of the authors of the Report, namely Asha and AID, in the USA. The Dr.
Babasaheb Ambedkar Vaidyakiya Pratishthan is identified as involved in
'Hinduisation, tribal or education'. In actual fact, this institute
runs a very large hospital in Maharashtra, along with some outreach
centres in the surrounding villages. The donors to this institute
include organisations like the Tatas in India. So much for the level
of meticulousness that the authors of the Report claim.
17.11 Similarly, while discussing one of the in-house fund raising
project of IDRF, namely "Martyrs for National Integration
Fund" (MNIF), the authors of the Report have put the words 'terrorist
war' in inverted commas. It would appear to us that this has been done
because they do not accept that what is happening in Jammu & Kashmir
cannot be classified as terrorism. Given that those creating a problem
are receiving substantial material assistance from Pakistan (a fact
admitted by Setalvad in her August 2002 speech mentioned above), the
contention of the authors of the Report can only be defined as a
perversion. They seem to have no appreciation of the tremendous
sacrifice made by thousands of our soldiers, from all parts of the
country, to keep our country intact.
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/hate/17.html
18. Guilt by association - Part 2
18.1 The authors of the Report lay a lot of emphasis on the theory of
guilt by association. This is particularly the strategy followed to
label the Sangh as a fascist organisation. Moonje visits Italy as part
of a two-month long trip to Europe in February/March 1931. He spends
nine days in that country, out of which one day is spent in visiting
various institutes of the party of Mussolini. In this one day, he
spends thirty minutes in a meeting with Mussolini. All this is
supposed to have influenced Moonje to such an extent, that without any
other contact with the fascists, he models himself on the basis of
their philosophy. All that we are told about future influences in on
the basis if innuendos - five 'must have' and another five 'most
probably'.
18.2 Since Moonje was closely associated with the founder of the
Sangh, ipso facto the fascist leanings of Moonje was absorbed by the
Sangh. Small, irritating details like the fact that Moonje spent two
months visiting various countries in Europe, only one day out nine
when he was in Italy in interacting with Mussolini's organisations,
had a thirty minute meeting with Mussolini, was never a member of the
Sangh, and that the Sangh was formed six years prior to the Moonje-
Mussolini meeting, are to be discarded. They do not fit in with the
conclusions that were drawn prior to the seeking of data.
18.3 However, if guilt by association is to be held as valid, should
we also not look at the associations of Mathew and Sabrang, and make
some conclusions on them? At least in case of the authors of the
Report, the association is strong, even if they make serious efforts
to underplay the contacts.
18.4 We have mentioned about what the founders of Sabrang have to say
about their mission in life - that is they hold the Sangh responsible
for all that is wrong in the country and so the primary task is to
fight it, and keep all other tasks on hold until this is finished.
Setalvad has admitted in her own words that she was part of a group
which approached the Congress Party and two Communist parties for
monetary assistance to launch an anti-BJP campaign during the last
General Elections. It would not be out of place to mention that the
November-December 2002 issue of "Communalism Combat", published by
Sabrang, has two full pages of advertisement from the Madhya Pradesh
government, and one by the Rajasthan government. (The only other
advertisement is a half-page display by a private-sector company.)
Both are ruled by the Congress party. Given that Sabrang was actively
campaigning against the BJP, with an admitted financial assistance
from the Congress Party, it would seem to us that the link is a
continuing one.
18.5 We have mentioned that we believe that Mathew is a communist, and
also an activist in propagating this philosophy. In the Frequently
Asked Questions about the Saffron Dollar Project (http://
stopfundinghate.org/resources/FAQ.htm), the strong antipathy of the
authors of the Report against the Sangh comes out quite clearly.
18.6 On the basis of guilt by association, would we be right if we now
allege that all those who support this programme against the IDRF to
be anti-Sangh, as well as supporters of communism? In this 'all' we
also include the 245 academics who signed the petition asking
corporations to end matching funds and other support to IDRF. We are
not making an allegation - we just asking all these supporters to come
out and make their own political agenda clear to the people at large.
Just as the authors of the Report say that IDRF should be transparent,
it is first necessary for those making the allegation against IDRF to
be equally transparent.
18.7 And they should also say why the guilt by association is a
legitimate tool when it comes to IDRF, and why it is not when to comes
to themselves.
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/hate/18.html
19. To whom is the Report addressed
19.1 It may appear that the intention of the authors of the Report is
to mount a judicially sustainable case so that the USA government
would take the necessary action. After the attacks on the World Trade
Centre on September 11, 2001, just like many of the so-called
charities run by Muslims which have been found indulging in
channelling money to terrorist organisations, IDRF could be similarly
banned. Of course, it is after a great deal of effort applied by the
various governments all over the world, the fronts for the Islamic
terrorists were identified. The Report relies only on twisting the
publicly available information gleaned from the websites of the IDRF
and the recipient organisations, innuendos, and blatant lies.
19.2 The primary objective of the authors of the Report is to sow
confusion, and so create a doubt amongst the less informed sections of
the society about the work being done by the IDRF. Many of the
organisations in the USA do not want to get themselves involved in any
type of media controversy, irrespective of the merits of the case. So,
such a type of Report can easily frighten them into taking an action
of the type desired by the authors of the Report, without even making
an attempt to even try and understand if there is infinitesimal
justification provided.
19.3 That the authors of the Report accept that they do not have even
an iota of a legal case is clear when they give no indication that
they want the USA government to proceed against the IDRF at any legal
platform. This is clear when they state that Campaign to Stop Funding
Hate seeks to do the following (http://stopfundinghate.org/actions/
press/120802.htm):
1) We want to expose the link between IDRF and the sangh, so that well-
intentioned donors are not misled into thinking they are giving money
for "development and relief" while their funds actually go towards
supporting sectarian POLITICAL work.
2) We want U.S. corporations to stop their matching donations to the
IDRF based on their formal, stated policies of not supporting any
religious and political organization.
3) We also want to make it clear that while we are politically and
morally opposed to the Sangh Parivar, and by extension, the IDRF, we
hold that individuals who want to send their money to the Sangh
Parivar through the IDRF, they should be able to do so, based on
informed consent. Our Campaign is directed against the deception that
the IDRF employs to cloak its political affinity.
19.4 In a legal challenge, it is necessary for a person to be proven
guilty, and not for the person to prove his/her innocence. The USA
government has applied such rigid standards in the past, as is evident
from the following news item in the San Jose Mercury, September 13,
1999:
· "In terms of a determination, we have not reached a legal conclusion
that Pakistan has received full M-11 missiles," the official said. He
noted that the United States has a responsibility to impose "very high
evidentiary standards" before imposing sanctions, especially when a
government like China has denied providing Islamabad with complete
missile systems.
19.5 Perhaps the authors of the report were forewarned in the way the
USA government dealt with accusations of serious nature.
19.6 Earlier in this analysis we had pointed out that people like
Rekhi-Rowen, Hathaway, etc., have never said what evidence they have
to make their accusations against the IDRF. And even if they have some
evidence, they have not stated that they have made them available to
the concerned authorities in their country. We think that they are
resorting to subterfuge only because they have no case to make, except
on the basis of innuendos and falsehoods. This is nothing new, if one
has to see the record of the debate on issues surrounding Hindutva,
not just in India but also all over the world.
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/hate/19.html
20. Conclusion
20.1 As we had said before, we would first like to thank the authors
of the Report for listing out the various social service activities of
the Sangh. An allegation that is often hurled against the Sangh and
other Hindu organisations is that they do not indulge is such creative
work. We would also like to thank the authors of the Report for
reviving the support base for IDRF. It is heartening to note the
number of people who have shown courage in standing up and be counted.
But, then, this is not what the authors had set about to do! Their
objective is sow confusion, as mentioned in the previous section.
20.2 Having sown the confusion, it becomes necessary for the target of
such maliciousness to spend their own resources in counteracting the
same. This is unproductive work - but then being unproductive is a
hallmark of those who believe in communism. They do not want to be
involved in positive works, but in whining. Hence we find the
following mention in the Report:
· "Hindutva organizations in the US do extensive publicity and
fundraising for the IDRF. Often the IDRF and the VHP-America are the
only 'service organizations' recognized by these groups, completely
neglecting respected non-sectarian development and relief
organizations, such as Association for India's Development (AID), Asha
for Education, Pratham-USA, Child Relief and You (CRY), India
Development Service (IDS) and Indians for Collective Action (ICA)."
20.3 The success of the volunteers for IDRF, despite the sustained
negative projection over such a long period of time, is a clear
indication of their dedication and sincerity. If the authors of the
Report had spent the same amount of energy that they claim to have
done in compiling the data, perhaps they could have been even more
successful than the IDRF volunteers. But, then, perhaps they really
did not spend much time on this so-called meticulously prepared
Report.
20.4 With the increase in the economic well being of the people of
Indian origin in the USA, there is a large amount of interest amongst
them in doing something for the land of their ancestors. Some people
have taken individual initiatives. But this is a luxury that is
available to a few. Others do rely on specialised fund-raising
organisations, like the IDRF, to guide them in making sure the funds
are used properly. One of the things that has impressed the people
about the IDRF is its very low level of overheads, and the individual
commitments of the people actively working for it.
20.5 The donors are not unintelligent persons who are not able to
distinguish between who spreads hatred and who does not. And if the
authors of the Report are so concerned about the situation, why have
they and their group not organised themselves in the same efficient
way that they seem to criticize the Sangh for doing? Would it not have
been better if the authors of the Report involved themselves in
undertaking something positive and approach a larger section of the
Indian Diaspora and so garner more development funds for India? Given
the large media publicity that their Report has got, it would appear
that they should have better means of reaching the people at large.
20.6 After all, the donor is looking for ways to do some charity.
Instead of nit-picking, the authors of the Report should work towards
offering a better alternative for people to route their inclination to
do some good. If they have resources to come out with a Report on what
they claim to be is an extensive survey, surely they could have
utilised the same to organise themselves in a way that the Sangh is
not able to do.
20.7 The Sangh has always recognised that the work to be done in the
society is beyond the capabilities of a single organisation. Thus,
where possible, the Sangh works along with others, and so instead of
competing, there is a synergy. In this way, the society will gain
immensely, and instead of undertaking a programme of creating
confusion, the authors of the Report can better involve themselves in
doing something positive.
20.8 We also have a request to make of those who seem to be lending
support to the authors of the Report - like, Rekhi-Rowen, Hathaway,
the faculty members who have signed a petition, etc. We would like
them to consider this analysis that we have made. If we are at fault,
we would be happy to receive your comments. If even some of the points
that we have made have merit, we would like them to acknowledge the
same.
20.9 A more important request is to start working in a positive way
and raise funds for the needy in India. The activities of the IDRF and
of the Sangh will move forward - facing canard and growing despite the
various obstacles put in the way is something that they are use to
throughout their existence. The matching funds that are provided by
the corporations are only a small part of the collection. However,
their denial will not mean that the IDRF and the Sangh will find
themselves in difficulties. It is the beneficiaries who will suffer.
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/hate/20.html
21. Annexure 1
Msg from an Sandhya Srinivasan
http://www.symonds.net/pipermail/nwm_mumbai/2002-November/000336.html
(This message has been changed from the original only in terms of
formatting to make for easier reading.)
[Nwm_mumbai] Fw: [INSAANIYATBOMBAY] Help needed.
sandhya srinivasan sandhya srinivasan" <san...@bom3.vsnl.net.in
Mon, 4 Nov 2002 20:06:15 +0530
Previous message: [Nwm_mumbai] Follow Up on Survey
Next message: [Nwm_mumbai] No communications since 7th
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]
----- Forwarded by Roopa Rathnam/Ahmedabad/International/Oxfam on
10/31/02
Check it out - see the website especially the sister organisations in
guajrat !!!!
- this is soemthing that has to be EXPOSED even more.
do you knwo any journos etc who can do this. please ask roopa or
someone to get in touch with anjali for more information at
aka...@yahoo.com
its urgent savio - blatent fueling of communalism!!!
rt
hey folks
i have a question/proposal for y'all and i'm trying to reach everyone
who is somewhat interested in politics and is able to decide (to some
extent) about the stories they are writing.
ok, basically, a report is going to be released today (oct 30)
documenting the sources of money for the IDRF (india development and
releif fund) and BIG among their sources is our favourite SANGH
PARIVAR. (for more of a clue about what idrf does, check out www.idrf.org)
The goal of releasing this report is to pressure several big
electronic portals (paypal, bit pal, c2it), credit card companies and
banks to STOP FUNDING IDRF because its money is sent back to help
sangh parivar agendas.
the people who have researched the sources of funding and where the
money goes are hoping to snowball this report into a huge embargo
against IDRF starting november 7-nov 15. all the portals will be
pressured to take them off their list and (apparently some portals
have already agreed, so it will happen in a staggered way and the
story will be burning for at least a month)
what they need are committed journalists in india who will help give
publicity to this story. it doesn't matter where you are or how small
of a paper/tv channel you work ffor -- if you're interested in workign
on this or if you (AND THIS IS IMMPORTANT) know people in your
organization who can carry this story, please let me know. i will
contact my friend (who is now in india and incidentally one of krishna
ananth's close friends as well! how's that for a plug;)) and he will
get in touch with you.
this is really important for several reasons: nri's in america give
thousands of dollars every year for what they think is relief work in
india -- but under the front of an orgn like idrf, the money is sent
bank to the vhp.
please help make this campaign happen and use your power as people in
the media.
lots of love and best wishes
in solidarity
anjali
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/hate/ann1.html
22. Annexure 2
NLFT - The Christian Al-Qaeda
Author: S. Aravindan Neelakandan
Publication: Sulekha.com
Date: May 2, 2002
URL: www.sulekha.com/articlede...cid=195857
I came to bring not peace but a sword - Jesus Christ
For seven-year-old Shreema, 13th Jan 2002 was a special Sunday. All
through the year, the girl had awaited the dawn of this day. For, that
was the day one goes out and purchases new clothes, new toys and
sweets, as the next day would be Makar Sankranthi -- the harvest
festival celebrated throughout India. The Singicherra Bazar was
bustling with activity. Like Shreema's family there were many people
looking forward to a happy Makar Sankranthi. But they didn't realise
that they were violating a fatwa issued by the Baptist Church-created
Christian Al-Qaeda, the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT).
Nor did they know that they would pay with their lives for celebrating
a heathen festival of their motherland.
Shreema would never again celebrate Makar Sankranthi. She died, along
with sixteen others, on the spot as 13 terrorists of the NLFT
encircled the people shopping for the festival and fired
indiscriminately[1]. The soldiers of Christ have done again in Tripura
what they have been doing for centuries to heathens throughout the
world.
The Baptist Church of Tripura is not just the ideological mentor of
the NLFT; it also supplies the NLFT with arms and ammunition for the
soldiers of the holy crusade[2]. Never mind that the holy war involves
killing infants and torching the huts of 'heathen Hindoos'. The NLFT
does all these to bring to the infidels the peace and love of Christ.
So, when Nagmanlal Halam, secretary of the Noapara Baptist Church in
Tripura, was arrested by the Tripura police he had rather curious
tools for evangelisation, which included along with the gospel 50
gelatin sticks, 5 kg of potassium and 2 kg of sulphur and other
ingredients for making explosives. Mr. Halam confessed that his
activities for the saving the heathen souls involved buying and
supplying explosives to the NLFT over the past two years. Another
church official, Jatna Koloi, who was also arrested, admitted that he
received training in guerrilla warfare at an NLFT base last year.
Surely, gelatin and AK-47s have more efficiency when it comes to
bringing the light of the only revealed truth to the disbelievers
suffering in 'spiritual darkness'. Those who are in doubt can check it
out with another great light-bearer of the other 'only true book',
Osama bin Laden (that is, when and if the prophet of terror is
captured).
The Baptist Church of Tripura was initially set up by proselytizers
from New Zealand 60 years ago. Despite their efforts, even until 1980,
only a few thousand people in Tripura had converted to Christianity.
Then the Church used one of its most efficient and time-tested weapons
of evangelisation -- creating racial and ethnic divide among the
people. In the aftermath of one of the worst ethnic riots, engineered
by the Church[3], the NLFT was born -- but not without the midwife
role of the Baptist Church. From its very inception, the NLFT has been
advancing the cause of Christianity through armed persuasion. Every
trace of indigenous culture is being eliminated through violent means.
Every resisting group is made to bleed its way to extinction.
The case of Jamatya tribals provides a telling example. These tribals
have strong spiritual leaders and a network of social service
organisations headed by their religious leaders. These indigenous
sects are neither exclusive nor expansionist. The Baptist Church has
always failed miserably in its conversion efforts with regard to this
well-knit community. Hence, it is no wonder that the NLFT has made
Jamatya institutions and their religious leaders the targets of their
attacks. In the August of 2000, religious leaders of the Jamatya
community like Jaulushmoni Jamatya and Shanti Kumar Tripura were
killed by the NLFT, and Jamatya families were uprooted from their
homelands and made refugees. The death threats issued by the NLFT to
the inmates of these institutions have already forced the closure of
11 Jamatya institutions like schools and orphanages, set up by the
slain religious leaders in various parts of Tripura[4] .
Interestingly, these tribals are not close-minded fanatics. For one
thing, they do not mind teaching the theory of evolution in their
schools.
The greatest challenge to the Bible inspired mission of the NLFT comes
from the Sangh Parivar's Banbasi Kalyan Kendra. The dedicated life
workers of RSS have started empowering the tribals by running many
educational institutions which while empowering them through imparting
secular technical education also retain their tribal cultural and
spiritual identity. Rather than making them disown their roots, the
Kendra made the tribals feel proud of their culture. It even conducts
national level tribal sports festivals. If the NLFT is to carve out a
kingdom for Christ out of the secular republic of India, it has to
make sure that the Kendra activities are stopped at all costs. In July
2000, armed NLFT militants torched a residential school and students
hostel run by the Seva Mission in the remote Ananda Bazar area of
North Tripura[5]. They had also taken hostage four RSS life workers.
These RSS workers were all in their sixties. The crime committed by
these old men was that they had dared to run educational institutions
for tribals while preserving the tribals' culture. Later, all four
were killed by the NLFT.
The NLFT has been an active partner of the Baptist Church in winning
converts to the Christian creed. They have killed tribal priests to
threaten communities and effect mass conversions. But those tactics
have obviously backfired. In 2001 alone, the NLFT killed more than 20
Hindus who refused to 'accept the love of Christ'. They also torched
to death a Hindu family sleeping in a hut[6]. In 2001, community
chiefs and religious heads of 19 tribes formed the 'Tribal Culture
Protection Committee' to counter the threat posed by the NLFT[7].
Despite the NLFT taking all possible steps to enforce conversions, the
conversions are still slow. Frustrated, the NLFT has now begun an all
out war against Hindu tribals. They have issued fatwas against infidel
activities. These fatwas prohibit people from celebrating festivals
like Durga Pooja and Makar Sankranthi, listening to Indian music,
watching Indian TV channels and films, and prohibit women from wearing
bangles or sporting bindis , etc. Just a year before the NLFT started
all these atrocities in India, the Southern Baptist Church of the
United States of America had given a clarion call to bring the light
of the gospel to "millions of Hindus and Jews lost in the darkness" of
their religions[8].
Shreema, the seven-year-old girl from Tripura, died with bullets
pumped into her tender body. Her crime was that she violated the
Christian fatwa which prohibited her from celebrating an Indian
festival. She was not just a victim of barbaric terrorism but she is
also a martyr for Indian culture, a culture that has preserved
thousands of tribal customs from barbaric persecution. Yet, she will
not make it to the glossy covers of the weekly magazines of English
speaking Indian media. Unsubstantiated, fabricated stories of Hindu
fundamentalists (an oxymoron) killing Christian priests have been
making their headlines. However, these fabrications have their use.
They do help in the covering up of such acts of Christian love like
killing in cold blood a seven-year-old girl or burning a family to
death.
References:
1. 16 shot dead by NLFT in Tripura - PTI, January 13, 2002.
2. Church backing Tripura rebels - BBC, April 18, 2000.
3. India's North-East Resurgence: Ethnicity, Insurgency and
Governance, Development by B.G. Vargheese, 1996, p.175.
4. Militants raid Hindu Ashram - The Telegraph, December 5, 2000.
5. NLFT curb on Hindu institutions - The Telegraph, September 14,
2000.
6. Three killed by Tripura rebels - BBC, April 14, 2000.
7. Tribals unite against conversions in Tripura, Syed Zarir Hussain,
www.rediff.com/news/2001/aug/02trip.htm
8. Southern Baptists target Hindus, Julia Lieblich, The Associated
Press, October 21, 1999.
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/hate/ann2.html
More on this Hot'N'Tot Hindu'Bot...
chhotemianinshallah
God longs for all Hindus!
Covert Operations Of The Evangelical Church In India
Sanal Edamaruku
http://www.Rationalistinternational.net/archive/en/rationalist_2001/83.htm
Rathionalist International, Bulletin Nr 83, November 29, 2001.
Why does the Evangelical Church secretly sponsor a mass conversion of
"untouchable" Hindus to Buddhism?
They came from all parts of India, from Bihar, Maharashtra, Madhya
Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu to participate
in a gigantic mass ceremony in New Delhi, which should change their
lives. Thousands of men, women and children from the bottom of the
Hindu caste hierarchy have joined Buddhism. The ancient Brahmins
called these people too low to have any caste, the British called them
"Untouchables", Gandhi called them Harijans, and today they call
themselves the Dalits, which means: the oppressed. Leaving Hinduism
and joining Buddhism was an act of liberation from the age-old unjust
and inhuman social order, which is still spelling discrimination,
oppression and atrocities for many born into stigmatized families.
This mass exodus from Hinduism followed a historic example. In a
similar ceremony, in October 1956, half a million Dalits became
Buddhists. Their leader was Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, the father of the
Indian constitution, who was the first "untouchable" to get a high
school degree, a Bachelor of Arts degree, a doctorate and a law degree
and became the revered patron of the Dalit movement. Since Hinduism
was founded on scriptures that sanctioned the caste-based social
order, Ambedkar asked his people to seek social justice and dignity
outside this religion. Missing the historic chance to consequently
promote atheism, he called for joining Buddhism, which he found to be
the most peaceful among the established religions.
Thirty per cent of the Indian Hindus (that is nearly one fourth of the
total one billion population of the country) are Dalits. One of them
is K R Narayanan, the Indian President, which shows that things are
changing. The Indian constitution bans untouchability and guards a
legal system guaranteeing equality. There are special laws regulating
the reservation of proportionate quota in education, government jobs
and positions for Dalits. Social life, especially in the cities, has
undergone a tremendous transformation since Ambedkar's times. But the
old order does not go easily. Recently a young couple in a village in
Uttar Pradesh was publicly hanged by their parents in front of the
village elders for breaking the caste-norms with their secret
marriage. This was only the latest of a series of brutal reminders
that the dark ages are still lurking behind the accomplishments of
fifty-one years of democracy and social progress in India.
The Delhi ceremony was a perfect replica of its predecessor. Thousands
echoed the Buddhist priest's traditional chants in Pali, a dead
language. After their leader was tonsured on behalf of all of them,
they repeated the 22 basic vows as formulated by Ambedkar, denouncing
all Hindu gods and rituals and the belief in reincarnation. And
raising their hands in agreement they became Buddhists. Everything was
exactly the same as 46 years before - but still there was a major
difference.
Official organizer of the Delhi meeting was the "All India Conference
of Scheduled Castes and Tribes", an umbrella organization of
government employees with a membership of more than three millions.
Secret wire puller and financier of the event, however, was the All
India Christian Council (AICC), an outfit of the Evangelical Church,
which comprises of all kinds of neo-protestant "born-again" and
missionary organizations and is dominated by Baptists and
Pentacostals. Special guests on the dias were AICC president Dr.
Joseph D'Souza, vice-president John Dayal and general secretary Dr. K
P Yohannan. Dayal, a retired journalist, is the key figure of the
recent PR-campaigns, projecting harassment of Christians in India,
which are securing substantial support from Christians in the USA.
Yohannan is the dynamic top conversion driver of the Pentacostals in
their hotbed Kerala and known for his enormous capacities to mobilize
Dollar donations.
Why does the Evangelical network sponsor a mass conversion of Hindus
to Buddhism?
A PR-campaign, launched in June for supporters and donators in the USA
and elsewhere, opened hearts and purses by giving the wrong impression
that a big catch was heading straightly for the Christian net. "Gospel
for Asia", the "largest church-planting movement in the subcontinent",
started focussing on the plight of the Dalits and their plan to leave
Hinduism. "… The news from around India is that Dalits also plan to
move to the Christian faith. The Indian church is therefore presented
with a challenge of enormous proportions. It will either stand or fall
by the stand it takes during the coming months", informed AICC-
president D'Souza. He added carefully: "The Church will also have to
support the larger move of the Dalits because it represents freedom of
choice, … and now will have to respect and support whatever choices
the Dalits make…."
This was the time when a movement for Dalit Human Rights started to
get international attention in connection with the Durban World
Conference Against Racism. The Evangelical Church sailed with the wind
and sponsored - under the shroud of secrecy - the participation of 300
Dalits in the Durban conference, the biggest, best-coordinated and
most vocal group. There was, of course, a strategy behind the generous
support. The Durban conference, was the calculation, would cause great
embarrassment to the Indian government. Already blamed for Hindu
fanatic leanings, they would be held responsible for Human Rights
violations against the Dalits, and under scrutiny by a sensibilized
international public, they would have to carefully avoid any future
offence against them. The Dalits would - in a new sense - become truly
"untouchable". So beneficial this outcome may be, it was not for the
Dalits' sake that their cause was supported. They were only build up
to become proper carthorses for vested interests.
On 7 September, immediately after the Durban conference, a meeting
took place in Hyderabad. 740 Evangelical leaders and 26 Dalit leaders
discussed the further procedure and fixed the date for the first one
million conversions. The AICC leaders started to "mobilize the Church
body to respond to this most urgent challenge". Excited newsletters
started rejoicing through cyberspace announcing a miracle: 300
millions of Hindus have expressed the heart's desire to join
Christianity! Can you help them? - Money flew generously. But while
advertising the big catch, the AICC leaders knew and appreciated very
well that the Dalits would convert to Buddhism only. Their targets
were not the converts of Delhi, though they used them to water their
donators' mouths. Their plan was to use the Buddhist conversions as a
wedge to open the gates of India for the great millennium crusade.
This plan could only succeed under the condition that the missionary
finger in the pie remained unseen in India.
The Anti-Conversion-Bill, established in the early fifties, long
before the now ruling Hindu party came to power, bans proselytizing by
force or by promise of advantage. Change of religion is only allowed
as considered individual decision. The old missionary practice of mass
conversions, threatening uneducated poor people or luring them with
little gifts and promises in order to baptize them village by village
and tribe by tribe, is punishable. Major parts of India's North East
have been conquered this way. And missionaries still try to advance
into the tribal areas using the rough conversion method of St. Francis
Xavier, who managed to obtain permission of the local King to baptize
in seven days as many of the poor fishermen as he could. His
proselytes were thousands. He called them together by ringing bells,
wetted them with huge water sprayers and declared them Christians
without wasting further words.
Throughout history, many attempts have been made by Christian
missionaries to use the situation of the "untouchables" to harvest
souls. But once they were baptized, they had to experience that
equality and justice did not come nearer: as Christians they remained
as "untouchable" as they had been as Hindus. Especially the priesthood
hierarchies of the established orthodox, catholic, protestant and
anglican churches kept themselves strictly Dalit-free. There is no
single priest - let alone bishop or cardinal - down history, who was
born an "untouchable". There is, despite all crocodile-tears for the
oppressed, still no quota for Dalit Christians in the thousands of
institutions, schools and hospitals owned by the Christian churches.
While the Indian government as well as the general public are alert
against Christian conversion attempts, the change from Hindu religion
to Buddhism is not taken as conversion and does therefore not fall
under the Anti-Conversion-Bill, since Buddhism is understood to be a
branch of Hinduism. Hinduism knows about 330 millions of gods and
goddesses, and Buddha is one of them. While being freed from the caste
system, the Dalits-turned-Buddhists don't loose their right on the
provisions of the reservation bill, while Dalits-turned-Christians do
- good reasons to follow Ambedkar's example rather than turning to
Christianity.
But once, under the shield of its historic predecessor and under
protection of the watchful international public, Dalit mass
conversions to Buddhism have successfully taken place, an example is
set. When thousands of Hindus are allowed to become Buddhists one fine
afternoon, just by echoing some chants and raising their hands, no
moral or legal right could prevent St. Francis Xavier's resurrection!
"God longs for the whole Hindu people to know Jesus Christ and live
under His Lordship", revealed the Consultation of World Evangelization
in their meeting in Thailand in 1980. The "Thailand Report on Hindus"
delivered appropriate missionary know how for the harvest. The Hindu
belief system was introduced with special attention to those of its
elements, which could be used in the conversion process. "Miraculous
healing", for example was recommended as successful technique.
"Demonstrating social concern, for example for scheduled castes and
tribes or other `untouchables' of the Hindu community (lepers,
prostitutes etc.) was another proposed technique.
"The oppressed and the poor have always been receptive for the Gospel
down the centuries in India and elsewhere… The poor have a natural
capacity to put their trust on almost anything. They are not dogmatic.
This has always been the 'entry point' in the structure on any
society, through which we can easily enter."
It was warned, however, to avoid "premature reaping": "If, as
frequently occurs, the first converts are those who are socially
isolated for one reason or another reason from the community,
premature reaping may create serious barriers to the establishment of
the Body of Christ in that area. We must exercise patience as we sow
the seed, create a hunger, and work for the conversion of the opinion
leaders of the community…"
Despite great efforts and considerable collections abroad, the "Gospel
for Asia" brigade was generally not very successful in India. The
"Joshua-2000-Project", which announced a kind of missionary world
conquest before the dawn of the new millennium and gathered great holy
excitement and still greater donations, did not come up to the
expectations. The current grand Dalit-project may have a similar fate.
But donators seem to be a confused lot with short memories. Religious
action provides entertainment and excitement for its armchair
supporters and the satisfactory feeling of contributing considerably
to the improvement of the world. Who would want to seriously
understand the conditions of real life as long as the show goes on!
This approach is unfortunately not limited to the customers of the
Evangelical Church.
This gives at last some hopes for the Dalits. They may finally get rid
of their new piggy-back riders, provided their own leadership is not
too corrupt. Their weak and unprotected situation has made them ideal
victims for all kinds of deals of politicians and missionaries
throughout history. They all tried to save them from one thing only:
from becoming Equals and stopping to be the Oppressed.
The recipients of Rationalist International Bulletin may publish,
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the source, Rationalist International Bulletin # 83
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Honorary Associates: Dr. Pieter Admiraal (The Netherlands), Prof. Mike
Archer (Australia), Katsuaki Asai (Japan), Sir Hermann Bondi (UK),
Prof. Colin Blakemore (UK), Prof. Vern Bullough (USA), Dr Bill Cooke
(New Zealand), Dr. Helena Cronin (UK), Prof. Richard Dawkins (UK),
Joseph Edamaruku (India), Prof. Antony Flew (UK), Jim Herrick (UK),
Christopher Hitchens (USA), Ellen Johnson (USA), Prof. Paul Kurtz
(USA), Lavanam (India), Dr. Richard Leakey (Kenya), Iain Middleton
(New Zealand), Dr. Henry Morgentaler (Canada), Dr. Taslima Nasreen
(Bangladesh), Steinar Nilsen (Norway), Prof. Jean-Claude Pecker
(France), James Randi (USA), Dr G N Jyoti Shankar (deceased, USA),
Barbara Smoker (UK), Prof. Harry Stopes-Roe (UK), Prof. Rob Tielman
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and Prof. Lewis Wolpert (UK).
Sanal Edamaruku, President of Rationalist International, can be
contacted at Edam...@rationalistinternational.net
http://www.hvk.org/specialrepo/hate/ann3.html
Varsha Bhosle
Where there's no will to reform, there's extinction
Project Saffron Dollar and The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate has been
an eye-opener. Say what you like but I can't help feeling admiration
for the single-mindedness with which the cabal of pinkos+Christians
+Muslims relentlessly attacks Hindu activism. And that's how it should
be: identify the enemy and attack, attack, attack till it exists no
more. At this point of time, I'm certain that, sooner or later, this
coterie will succeed in making Hindus a minority in India: If not the
total obliteration of Hinduism, that has always been their aim. And I,
for one, wish them luck.
Wish them luck...? Decidedly! Over the last four months, I've come to
the conclusion that Hindus really aren't worth the trouble, and I have
reasons to think so. From August 12 to September 9, I did a 5-part
series on Towards Balkanisation, listing the various fronts on which
Hinduism is under attack, and the various dramatis personae in that
war -- including IDRF and the anti-Hindu cabal. However, compared to
what I typically receive, the mail for all five parts was so scant
that I finally had to inquire whether something was wrong with the
mail server (nope). And what mail I got was mainly the abusive sort
from pinkos and, especially, Catholics. The Great Hindu Readership had
either tired of the topic or wasn't moved by it: One memorable message
said, "nice article" -- as if I'd talked about the menu in some
restaurant...
Then, I wrote on Dalits, attacked "upper caste" Hindus, and picked on
Brahmins. And guess what, I received an unprecedented amount of email
-- far more than the base of the MORI survey. Of those who wrote in,
only 10 or so were non-Hindu; almost 85 per cent declared themselves
Brahmin, of which, every second mail was from the brain-dead type --
the ones who:
gave that same old asinine explanation about caste not being a Hindu
problem since the form that exists isn't endorsed by the scriptures:
"The Vedic varna was based on occupation and not birth. Some people
chose to be warriors" etc;
took umbrage at the reference to the Shankaracharya of Kanchi: "You
seem to thrive in this country by writing wrong stories without facts
and live on a moments' glory of clappings all around -- if you are a
born Hindu -- there is One watching and He will sue you";
whitewashed Hindus' rotten deeds by attacking other religions: "There
is even a code of conduct for these slaves, eg, in Jewish religious
books any person who gives shelter to a runaway slave has to face
death. In Islam a person can have sex with or rape a slave girl... On
the other hand we do not find any such barbarity in Hindu religion";
deemed me a "secularist": "I think you are just one of those bitchy
hypocrites who wants to make a name for herself whipping up sentiments
of people who can't think for themselves";
defended their own ilk by abusing others: "The atrocities and acts of
violence that you list have been carried out by Thakurs, Jats and
other upper castes like Kshatriyas. However, none of these castes get
a mention in your article. But the word Bram or Brahmin? It has the
privilege of appearing six times in your article";
slammed reservations: "I am an engineer and have seen the people who
got lower marks but still got admissions to the college on the basis
of their caste";
denied that casteism exists: "It is a horrible custom and it is
vanishing fast. Once it was the rule in all of India, and now it is
exception. There were no 'dry latterines' in the places I lived and
that usually were pretty low middle class localities";
believed Hinduism is defined by the priestly class: "If a person like
Shankaracharya (who has studied Hindu scriptures), says something on
Hinduism, that is the true Hinduism";
took a bovine to be holy: "And yeah Cow is not God damn animal, it's
God blessed animal who serves the society like mother. If infant's
mother dies cow's milk is the only substitute for the milk."
In short, half of the educated Hindus, also prosperous enough to
access the Net, are living in a state of blessed self-delusion, with
no interest in understanding the dire straits that Hinduism is in;
with not a sliver of sensitivity to grasp the pathos of the Broken
People; with no integrity whatsoever to look within themselves and at
their own kind as they look upon others; with no intellect to
appreciate the non-dogmatic characteristic of Hinduism -- the very
antithesis of Semitic religions. Should such people last...?
The more I ponder, the more convinced I am that everything that made
Hinduism survive centuries of aggression is waning fast. Where there's
no will to learn, to reform and to adapt, there is extinction -- and
no species has escaped that law of nature. "All things being equal" is
a neat springboard for scientific speculation, but in the real world,
things are never equal: Problems, arms, methods, attacks, assailants
-- all change, and radically, within a decade. What helped Hindus
survive in 1600 ain't gonna work in 2010 -- and that doesn't penetrate
the thick skulls of these self-satisfied, self-deluding "upper caste"
dorks.
One such novel attack is Project Saffron Dollar. Its result: Sun
Microsystems stated that all donations to the IDRF have been placed on
hold pending a directive from the IRS; Cisco has terminated all
matching donations to the IDRF; and Intel has promised to "see that
they do not commit the same mistake." And what are the IDRF's sins...?
According to Biju Mathews & Co:
Funnelling millions of dollars every year to be used by "violent,
sectarian Hindu supremacist orgs."
"The IDRF has funded numerous relief efforts in response to natural
disasters, communal violence, and other social crises. However, the
distributive mechanisms utilised by the IDRF have consistently
discriminated against Muslims and other minorities in India."
"The IDRF's relief efforts are frequently divisive and have supported
the further communalisation of Indian society."
"In recent times, the organisation has raised funds for Bangladeshi
Hindu victims of communal violence, Kashmiri Hindu victims of
terrorism, and relief efforts following the September 11 attacks in
the US."
"In contrast, to date, IDRF has not announced any relief for the
victims of communal riots in Gujarat in February and March 2002."
If you read Chapter 4: Funding Hate of the "report," you quickly
realise that the only aim of the campaign is to halt the funding of
the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad, Vivekananda
Kendra, Vanvasi Seva Sangh, Sewa Bharati, and Ekal Vidyalays -- ALL
being educational institutions set up for the upliftment of Dalits and
Adivasis. Those whom the vultures target...
Secondly, despite a long list of footnotes, almost all directing one
to news reports from -- ha-ha! -- The Indian Express, The Hindu,
Outlook and Human Rights Watch, there is not even a semblance of proof
that any of these institutions are responsible for spreading communal
hatred or indulging in communal violence. Was IDRF money used to pay
the rioters in Gujarat or to finance any violent activity perpetrated
by Hindu terrorists...? Not a word. Did students of Ekal Vidyalay
commit murder...? Not a line. Only suggestions, insinuations and more
insinuations! And yet, the chapter concludes with, "The documentation
presented leads us to a simple and single conclusion -- the IDRF does
fund hate."
Let's look at Biju Mathews -- promptly given so much space by Rediff's
Josy Joseph. (Question: Why hasn't Joseph investigated Evangelical
groups that collect money in the name of charity and spend it on
printing tracts to convert Hindus...?) Mathews is a fixed feature in
pinkodom, often writing for puke-sheets like "Rethinking Marxism" and
with a presence on every pinko website. So of course, the garden
variety Hindu "secularist" has accepted him as an atheist/secularist
with nothing but the good of oppressed humanity in his noble heart...
The Federation of Indian American Christian Organisations of Northern
America has demanded a probe by the US Congress into IDRF and also
asked the IRS to blacklist it and withdraw its tax exemption status.
Meaning, World Vision, Southern Baptist, Seventh Day Adventists, and
hundreds of other Christian missionary groups which seek to obliterate
Hinduism from India can keep funding their nefarious activities here
-- but IDRF can do nothing to offset it.
And guess who's the prime sponsor of the report: Teesta and Javed
Anand's Sabrang Communications, of course! Take a look at their India-
Pakistan friendship forum's logo on the Aman page: Observe the
relative scaling of the two countries. Note the drawing of India --
with the State of Jammu & Kashmir lopped off. Not pushing towards
Balkanisation...?
US corporations routinely match donations by their employees to all
sorts of organisations, as long as these are registered as non-profit
in the US. Such organisations include churches, temples, mosques,
universities, etc. In fact, Guidestar lists 850,000 non-profits in the
US, including Evangelical organisations, and groups with links to
outfits many would consider objectionable. Examples of non-profits in
the US, donations to which are matched by US corporations:
India Rural Evangelical Fellowship Inc, Park Ridge, IL -- dedicated to
bringing Jesus to the illiterate masses of rural India.
Quentin Road Ministries, Lake Zurich, IL -- "Our goal is to spread the
good news of Jesus Christ to the world."
Andhra Adventists Association, Hyattsville, MD -- "Adventist."
According to "Cisco Systems Foundation Awards Grants to Hometown
Charities," the company has given grants to, amongst others, Catholic
Charities Euclid Girls' Home, Jewish Vocational Services, and St
Vincent de Paul Society of San Mateo County. Then, "Who Serves Sunday
Dinner" at the Catholic Charities, Diocese of Santa Rosa? "Hewlett
Packard Employees, Of Course!" So what's with the bar on funding a
charity of and for Hindus...?
According to a report in europemedia.net, a survey taken after 9/11
found that "After the attacks, well over $120m (€136.7m) was raised
online in individual contributions." Which prompted AOL, Cisco and
Yahoo to launch an e-philanthropy portal called Network for Good. Are
we to believe that Americans donated some of that money to Islamic
charities post-9/11...?
According to Mathews, IDRF has raised funds for Bangladeshi Hindu
victims of Muslim violence, Kashmiri Hindu victims of Islamic
terrorism, and relief efforts following the Islamic terrorist attacks
in the US. Er... what's evil about that? Does raising money for the
victims of Islamist crimes amount to spreading hatred...?
In which case, why don't these dorks ask for a ban on all madarsas
(which also receive foreign funds) for spreading hatred? Why aren't
all "minority institutions" banned for spreading hatred? Just because
Hindus are a majority, anything Hindus do for Hindus is tantamount to
spreading hatred...? And what about the Islamists going around killing
Hindus???
Such is the current attack -- one devoid of reason, bereft of honour
and lacking in morality. But I still wish it succeeds! For, if "upper
caste" Hindus refuse to recognise their own perversions, they continue
to shove Dalits and Adivasis into the rich and waiting arms of the
missionaries. Such Hindus themselves accelerate not only the
diminishing of Hinduism, but also the borders of India as we now know
it. Jaisa karo waisa bharo...
Varsha Bhosle
http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/nov/23varsha.htm
Concerted Attack on the India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF)
Exposing Biju Mathew, A.K.Sen, Sabrang.com, and the "Campaign to Stop
Funding Hatred"
Narayanan Komerath
Contact: (remove the spaces) narayanan @ att. net
Please sign the Petition to Let India Develop: http://www.letindiadevelop.org/SignPetition.asp
NEW REPORT! Friends of India - "A Factual Response to the Hate Attack
on IDRF"
Local archive of the friends of India Report: "A Factual Response to
the Hate Attack on IDRF"
Earlier Articles:
For your enjoyment: "Sabrang / FOIL 's 'FAQ' Meets Reality"
Please read and pass on - "Consider - Facts About the Attack.." -
written by friends of India (PDF version)
Developing Report on the Hate Attack:
Evolving Report: "A Critical Look at the Organized Labor of Hate- Part
1: Any Substance To Their Five-Year "Foreign Exchange of Hate"?
Evolving database: The FOILies - Who Are The Real Hate-Mongers?
Sabrang / FOIL 's slander against hospitals, orphanages, schools and
anyone else who lives a useful life
Sulekha article by Dr. Beloo Mehra, Dec. 11, 2002: "No Method to Their
Madness"
BRF discussion on the campaign against IDRF, Nov. 20 - Nov. 24, 2002
Attacks on IDRF
The discussion is presented verbatim and in chronological order, with
posting times given in U.S. Central Standard Time. It does take some
patience to read this, as with any debate where several points of view
and several motivations are involved. However, the patient reader is
invited to see how the discussion developed -
initial concern to a bold airing of the issues, a search for all
information relevant to the issue, and then the formation of opinions
from the facts as they came out, and debate on the implications and
suggested courses of action.
Unlike the "91-page Report" compiled over many years of a labor of
love (or is it really hate?) by the "Campaign to Stop Funding Hatred",
we do not have a "single, simple conclusion" developed before looking
at the evidence. We do see several interesting facts, for example:
The Report authors appear to assume that any grassroots charitable
work done by organizations whose members believe in the Hindu religion
must be done with evil intentions. They seem to think that this is so
obvious to the reader that it needs no proof. And of course it does
not appear to have occurred to them that 80% of Indians, and perhaps
an even greater percentage of IDRF donors, are Hindu.
Further, the Report authors appear to be even more upset by the
recipients of the aid being non-Hindu minorities! It appears that the
authors' organizations were sorely lacking in breadth or diversity of
thought or opinion, for this laughable inconsistency in their logic
appears to have entirely escaped this galaxy of academics, throughout
their marathon five-year effort to seek evidence of wrong-doing
against IDRF.
The Report authors' previous work is often found in Marxist Communist
media ("Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) ")
displaying the Red Star and the Hammer and Sickle.
Articles reflecting the attacker's point of view are also found in
(and their "Hate" report relies for support partly on references
from ) the web pages of "Markazdawa.org", which represents the banned
Islamic Terrorist Group, Lashkar-e-Toiba (L-e-T), based in Pakistan. L-
e-T is widely reported to be responsible for the attacks on the Indian
Parliament, the Jammu & Kashmir Legislature, and numerous other
terrorist attacks. The L-e-T was also well represented on the Shomali
Plain north of Kabul in October 2001, waiting to kill Americans until
the USAF B-52s ended their wait.
The web pages of Sabrang.com, the organization listed as sponsor on
their "Signature Campaign" makes no secret of its aim to see India
broken into several pieces, with all of Jammu-Kashmir conquered by
Pakistan, and all of North-East India captured by either Islamists in
Bangladesh, or Communist China.
Upon investigation, we are beginning to find several instances where
the report is simply dishonest, far more than just misleading. For
instance, some of the Indian organizations classfied as "Hindu
Extremist" are easily seen to be in fact organizations run or
sponsored by a Christian Church in one case, or are organizations set
up to provide guidance and technical assistance to farmers. The list
of sponsors of several organizations include the Government of India,
major Indian corporations, and various organizations from outside
India other than IDRF. We are unable to understand why a team of
dedicated academics, laboring over five years, was unable/unwilling to
see what it took us minutes to find, on the published web pages of
these organizations. The most "charitable" interpretation we can see
at present is that these authors are grossly and pathetically
incompetent, and so blinded by their own hatred that they assumed that
anything with a Hindi / Sanskrit name must be a "hate-sponsoring"
organization.
In several cases, organizations associated with the "RSS" and the very
organizations to which IDRF sends money in India to disburse to the
grassroots level, are also used by other charitable organizations such
as "Asha for Education" and "AID" which have aligned themselves with
Sabrang/FOIL to attempt to destroy IDRF. Site visit reports by ASHA
(Seattle) members confirm in their own words that these organizations
are non-discriminatory and non-"sectarian" - simply organizations of
simple people immersed in service to others less fortunate than them.
The Report Authors, being aligned with these other agencies must have
been aware of these facts if they had done even the most elementary
research. Yet they describe these organizations as "sectarian", "hate-
spreading" and otherwise slander them in the report.
Several incidents of gruesome violence, for which the Report authors
accuse the "RSS" or other "Hindu" organizations, have in fact been
proven in the courts to have been the work of local criminals. The
authors of the Report MUST have been aware of these when they made
those accusations. Our investigations are continuing.
While professing themselves to be in favor of peace, love and
nonviolence, several of the authors openly associate with and publish
in the organs of the Communist Party (Marxist) . Communist
organizations are reported to have caused over 65 million violent
deaths over the past century, and are still very much in that business
- Marxist-Leninist terrorists kill people frequently in India, the
Phillippines and other countries. The CPI(M-L) which calls itself the
People's War Group has openly put out death threats against serving,
elected Chief Ministers of three Indian states.
The Sabrang/FOIL Report (see pages 11 - ) twists facts to make it
appear that it is sinister for an Indian-American charitable
organization to have the unofficial Ambassador of India to NRIs in
America, as one of its founders!!!
Biju Matthew
IDRF Rebuttal
What is the IDRF?
A list and discussion of IDRF funded projects Consider - Facts About
the Attack..written by friends of India (PDF version)
BRF discussion on the campaign against IDRF IDRF's website
Who are Sabrang/FOIL/SACW?
Sabrang hides Pakistan Approved Map With Bad Grace & Ludicrous Excuses
Whipped by Popular Opinion, Sabrang/FOIL Try Cyber-Flimflam to Mislead
Voters
The Defamation Campaign The Dubious "Honor(?)" Roll: Those who Rushed
to Jump on the FOIL Hatewagon
Behind the Axis of Evil
Satyam Eva Jayate
Charcha Home
http://www.geocities.com/charcha_2000/essays/attack_on_idrf_by_mathew.html
Debate
14 Jul 2009, NewAgeIslam.Com
Asad Farooqui responds to Maulana Nadeemul Wajidi’s view of Hijab
The one defence of this inhuman practice of the Burqa, making Muslim
women one-eyed creatures, is the Aya 53 of Surah Al-Ahzab. Obviously,
the Maulana doesn’t seem to understand or is probably being
mischievous when he ignores the fact that this Aya only came to teach
good manners to the uncouth and illiterate Bedouins among whom Islam
came to begin with and addressed them directly in the first
instance.
… but to stretch it to justify the inhuman practice of putting women
under the leash of the burqa is truly a travesty of Islam. It amounts
to demeaning and belittling the great religion of Islam which came in
the world to liberate and not to enslave humanity.
But the Maulana is so grateful to Allah for making him an ‘Islamic
scholar’ that he doesn’t want to leave anything to Him. He makes
his own lexicon of what is good and what is bad and in his own
imaginary world keeps manufacturing a ‘unanimous’ opinion of â
€˜Islamic scholars’. -- Asad Farooqui
URL: http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1547
A Rejoinder to the most ungracious Maulvi with the most negative
traits for the success of Islam in the World
By Asad Farooqui
Whenever I study the Holy Quran, I am deeply convinced of
its wisdom in giving the right message to the Mankind for the
establishment of peace in the world through a certain disciplined
society.
The provision of Hejab in the entire Quran has been
explained again and again. Keeping one’s gaze below is very clear;
drawing of a cover over the bosom has also been recommended. These
things should be followed by the entire society in the whole world.
But the present shape of ‘Burqua’ in which the poor women can be
allowed to see the world only with one eye and that too behind a
netted hole. The Maulana knows that Allah again and again says that He
knows everything, that if He had desired the entire world would have
consisted of Believers and Believers alone. He confirms that He is the
Most Merciful and Forgiving. But it is a shame that the self-absorbed
Maulana apparently doesn’t believe in any of this.
The one defence of this inhuman practice of the Burqa, making Muslim
women one-eyed creatures, is the Aya 53 of Surah Al-Ahzab.
As for the frequently quoting Ayah by the Maulana, it must be
understood that it was necessary to teach good, civilised manners to
the rude Arabs of those days.
Abdullah Yusuf Ali has very aptly explained the meaning of this Ayah
in the following manner:
The rules of refined social ethics is as necessary to teach to-day as
it was with the rude Arabs whom the holy Prophet had to teach in his
day. Those mentioned in this verse may be briefly recapitulated thus:
(1) Enter not a friend's house without permission; (2) if invited to
dine, don't go too early; you are asked to dine, not to wait for the
preparation of the food; (3) be there at the time appointed, so that
you enter when you are expected and invited; (4) after the meal, don't
get familiar with your host, especially if there is a great distance
between him and you; (5) don't waste time in tittle-tattle, causing
inconvenience and perhaps annoyance to your host; (6) understand what
is proper behaviour for you: he may be too polite to ask to depart.
All this has a social bearing: respect and delicate consideration for
others are among the highest virtues.
Obviously, the Maulana doesn’t seem to understand or is probably
being mischievous when he ignores the fact that this Aya only came to
teach good manners to the uncouth and illiterate Bedouins among whom
Islam came to begin with and addressed them directly in the first
instance. These people needed to be taught god manners and perhaps
some Muslims around the world still need to be taught these good
manners. Hence the relevance of this Aya even today, but to stretch it
to justify the inhuman practice of putting women under the leash of
the burqa is truly a travesty of Islam. It amounts to demeaning and
belittling the great religion of Islam which came in the world to
liberate and not to enslave humanity.
Indeed, perhaps the single most important contribution of Islam,
among many such could be the emancipation of women from the clutches
of male chauvinists like these Maulanas. Of course, we should have
built on Islamic teachings through the practice of Ijtihad and gone
forward in the process initiated by Islam. We haven’t, and so Islam
appears to be a backward religion today in comparison with some other
systems that have moved ahead. But preaching that Islam taught us to
keep women inside their homes is truly a mischief when we had a
prophet who actually was an employee of the business lady who later
became his wife and remained his only wife till her death.
This obnoxious Maulana appears to go against everything God
tells him. He is showcasing Muslims not as a community that will make
every effort for the unity of Mankind; it is being most insensitive
that he forgets that the message of Islam is ‘Peace’. He wants â
€˜Muslims’ to be portrayed as a ‘chosen race’, the idea most
abhorrent to by God.
He forgets the meaning of ‘righteousness’ as given in
surah Baqarah, but makes his own definition by adopting an
unreasonable attitude. On the other hand Allah, in the most Graceful
manner wants to teach him a flexible approach when He says “It is
not righteousness that ye turn your faces toward East or West…….â
€ Surah Baqarah: 177. The Maulana doesn’t bother about priorities;
he is not bothered about orphans, practicing regular charity and to be
patient in pain. He is most bothered about his wives’ ‘Burquas’
and his ‘beard’. And how come the subject of ‘beard’ has crept
onto the discussion about the hapless woman, I wonder!
Another complaint with the Maulanas is that they completely
ignore the fact that Islam presents a most secular image. Tthe Maulana
only narrowly thinks that the Hell is made for all the non-Muslims,
for all times, and for all the Muslims, if they follow “the
unanimous opinion of all Islamic scholars (read ‘Maulanas’). Allah
has already made the provision of ‘paradise’ for them only. And
for the Hoors-in-Waiting for the Maulana, the ‘Islamic scholars’
are yet to devise a sort of ‘Burqua’.
He forgets all the provisions of the Holy Quran,
particularly the forceful plea of Allah in Surah 109: Al-Kafirun. He
helps only those who are believers ‘according to the unanimous
opinion of the Maulanas’. And he picks up fight with those who
differ with the Maulanas. The most pitiable state is that of such
Maulanas who forget that God is the only one and ever since the
creation, ALL human beings have been made by Him, and that on the Day
of Judgment, each and every body (the French President and the Maulana
included) would be resurrected and would be accountable before God for
their ‘good’ and ‘bad’ deeds. But the Maulana is so grateful
to Allah for making him an ‘Islamic scholar’ that he doesn’t
want to leave anything to God. He makes his own lexicon of what is
good and what is bad and in his own imaginary world keeps managing a â
€˜unanimous’ opinion of ‘Islamic scholars’.
Our maulvies have spread so much darkness, I apprehend in some of my
cheeky moments, that one day they might reverse the role and laud the
beard on a woman’s face and wear ‘Burqua’ themselves! That would
be the real piece of entertainment, much better than the amusement
they constantly provide through their fatwas and other pronouncements.
If they were not so tragic, in their implications, the pronouncements
of Maulanas and Maulvis could just be treated as a perennial source of
amusement.
Note: This article is in response to The Practice of Veil in Islam â
€“ Its Obligation and Utility by Maulana Nadeemul Wajidi available at:
http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1544
New Delhi-based writer Asad Farooqui is a retired civil servant.
URL: http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1547
© Copyright 2008-2009: www.NewAgeIslam.com
COMMENTS
7/15/2009 8:54:19 PM Mubashir Inayet
Any body who calls himself a "Maulana" or expects people to call him
one should repent and seek forgiveness from Allah. Maulana means
"Master" and is reserved for Allah "Anta Maulana...".
Enough of this idol worship!!!
7/15/2009 1:28:49 PM Anonymous
Ashok Chowgule has posted an 18 month old off-topic article in this
dicussion of the veil. While sanghis and VHP-ites write frequently in
Muslim oriented outlets, Muslim community leaders, including even the
editor of Milli Gazette, cannot get their letters published in
newspapers such as the Pioneer!
7/15/2009 9:50:11 AM Ashok Chowgule, Vice President, Vishwa Hindu
Paris
Ashok Chowgule
to Sultan Shahin Edi...@NewAgeIslam.com
date 15 July 2009 08:51
An article from 18 months ago, in an Irish publication.
Namaste
Ashok Chowgule, Vice President, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)
I have no respect or tolerance for Sharia
By Ian O'Doherty
December 03 2007
So the story gets more interesting. The so-called "Qatif Girl", the
truly heroic woman who now faces 200 lashes after being gang-raped had
more than just the authorities of this savage kingdom to worry about
--
it has recently emerged that her own brother tried to kill her when he
realised she had been repeatedly violated.
Here in the West, if a brother discovers his sister has just been gang-
raped he will have murder on his mind, for sure, but it would be
directed towards those responsible, not his sister.
But in the twisted world of male Islamic pride, the poor girl who had
been through an experience so traumatic that it is actually impossible
to even contemplate, the family's spurious "honour" maintained
precedence.
Although a world where "honour" consists of killing a rape victim is a
world where "honour" has a very different meaning from how we
understand it.
And that sense of honour being besmirched is what has driven those
charming Sudanese chaps to go completely mental at the "leniency"
shown to Gillian Gibbons.
Once their Friday prayers to the most merciful Allah were over, they
spent the day demanding that the woman -- who was surely misguided in
going to such a backwards hell-hole in the first place -- be executed
by firing squad.
But what has been particularly nauseating has been the British
government's handling of the affair. According to the Foreign Office,
they were "very disappointed" at the verdict.
Really? Why didn't they simply say that the next aid bundle to Sudan,
worth nearly £200m, was off the table and if anything further
happened to the woman then crippling sanctions would be applied?
But no, instead we got a load of mealy-mouthed rubbish about how this
was a localised incident, that it didn't represent Islam and hopefully
we can all hold hands and sing songs around the proverbial camp fire.
But the problem is that this is representative of Islam. Anywhere in
the world where Sharia law is practised, such barbaric and disgusting
practises take place on a regular basis.
Don't believe me? Well, Iran has been in the news for the most recent
example of a woman being sentenced to death by stoning. But they are
also partial to hanging gay people and women with too much attitude.
And they quite like a bit of eye-gouging as well, when the mood takes
them, such as the woman who had her eyes gouged out in a public square
because she fought off a man who tried to rape her. Check that out on
the internet when you fancy losing your lunch.
Or what about precious little Palestine, where 50 women have been
killed by their own families this year alone, and where the beating of
women who aren't sufficiently "modest" is common under the fanatics of
Hamas.
Or Afghanistan, where women are routinely raped and murdered by family
and strangers with impunity? Or Chechnya? Or Somalia? Or anywhere
Sharia is practised.
And yet we are constantly instructed by the multicultural, liberal,
chattering classes to show "respect" and "tolerance" towards Muslims
who want to practise their cultural heritage in Western countries.
Well, you know what? I don't have any respect or tolerance for not
just the actions, but also the mentality.
And before you start to think that this is something that is happening
thousands of miles away, refer yourself back to the case of Birmingham
woman Banaz Mahmoud, who was kidnapped, raped and tortured by her
uncles last year before being killed and buried in a suitcase. Her
crime? She
had a boyfriend. She was one of at least 12 women killed by their
families in Britain last year to protect their "honour".
And before we start to think that these are isolated incidents by
extremists, the Muslim Council of Britain, the supposed "moderate"
wing of mainstream Islam, still claim that death is too good for
Salman Rushdie and they regularly rail against gays.
Oh, and for the record, 40pc of British Muslims want Sharia to be
instituted in Britain. Hardly a lunatic minority, surely?
While we don't have the same sort of problems here -- yet -- we still
have a situation where Ali Selim, the chief spokesman for Irish
Muslims and a supposed moderate, refuses to condemn Osama bin Laden,
and thinks that what goes on with those two women in Sudan and Saudi
are "internal matters" and none of our business.
And, of course, anyone who writes about this is immediately accused of
being Islamophobic and racist.
Well, I am Islamophobic in the sense that I'm phobic towards the
notion of treating women as third-class citizens, flogging people and
killing them for having an independent thought.
I'm phobic towards the idea of killing Theo Van Gogh because he made a
movie they didn't like. I'm phobic towards killing a Japanese
translator because he worked on the Satanic Verses.
I'm also rather phobic to the notion that the Muslim world has the
right to riot and kill each other because of a few unfunny cartoons in
an obscure Danish publication.
As regards the spurious accusation of racism which is bandied about
against anyone who criticises Islam, let me make this clear – you
cannot change the colour of your skin. Pigmentation is irrelevant. But
you can dislike someone's superstition and in Islam's case, even among
other superstitions, they are particularly horrible.
No, my Muslim friend, it's your religion and your Sharia law I am
criticising. It has nothing to do with the colour of your skin. And
you know what? In a free democracy we still have the right to say
things
like that.
7/15/2009 8:16:54 AM Ghulam Mohiyuddin
I fully agree with Mr.Asad Farooqui. Islam is a religion of
liberation, common sense and progress. It should not be used to
straitjacket either men or women. It should not be used to enslave our
minds.
War on Terror
30 Oct 2009, NewAgeIslam.Com
Why must America bleed for Afghanistan?
My last guiding principle: We are the world. A strong, healthy and
self-confident America is what holds the world together and on a
decent path. A weak America would be a disaster for us and the world.
China, Russia and Al Qaeda all love the idea of America doing a long,
slow bleed in Afghanistan. I don’t.
The US military has given its assessment. It said that stabilising
Afghanistan and removing it as a threat requires rebuilding that whole
country. Unfortunately, that is a 20-year project at best, and we canâ
€™t afford it. So our political leadership needs to insist on a
strategy that will get the most security for less money and less
presence. We simply don’t have the surplus we had when we started
the war on terrorism after 9/11 — and we desperately need nation-
building at home. We have to be smarter. Let’s finish Iraq, because
a decent outcome there really could positively impact the whole Arab-
Muslim world, and limit our exposure elsewhere. Iraq matters. --
Thomas L. Friedman
URL of this Page: http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamIslamicWorldNews_1.aspx?ArticleID=2019
Why must America bleed for Afghanistan?
October 29th, 2009
By Thomas L. Friedman
It is crunch time on Afghanistan, so here’s my vote: We need to be
thinking about how to reduce our footprint and our goals there in a
responsible way, not dig in deeper. We simply do not have the Afghan
partners, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies, the domestic
support, the financial resources or the national interests to justify
an enlarged and prolonged nation-building effort in Afghanistan.
I base this conclusion on three principles. First, when I think back
on all the moments of progress in that part of the world — all the
times when a key player in West Asia actually did something that put a
smile on my face — all of them have one thing in common: America had
nothing to do with it.
America helped build out what they started, but the breakthrough didnâ
€™t start with us. We can fan the flames, but the parties themselves
have to light the fires of moderation. And whenever we try to do it
for them, whenever we want it more than they do, we fail and they
languish. The Camp David peace treaty was not initiated by Jimmy
Carter. Rather, the Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat, went to Jerusalem
in 1977 after Israel’s Moshe Dayan held secret talks in Morocco with
Sadat aide Hassan Tuhami. Both countries decided that they wanted a
separate peace — outside of the Geneva comprehensive framework
pushed by Mr Carter.
The Oslo peace accords started in Oslo — in secret 1992-93 talks
between the Palestine Liberation Organisation representative, Ahmed
Qurei, and the Israeli professor Yair Hirschfeld. Israelis and
Palestinians alone hammered out a broad deal and unveiled it to the
Americans in the summer of 1993, much to Washington’s surprise.
The US surge in Iraq was militarily successful because it was preceded
by an Iraqi uprising sparked by a Sunni tribal leader, Sheikh Abdul
Sattar Abu Risha, who, using his own forces, set out to evict the pro-
Al Qaeda thugs who had taken over Sunni towns and were imposing a
fundamentalist lifestyle. The US surge gave that movement vital
assistance to grow. But the spark was lit by the Iraqis.
The Cedar Revolution in Lebanon, the Israeli withdrawals from Gaza and
Lebanon, the Green Revolution in Iran and the Pakistani decision to
finally fight their own Taliban in Waziristan — because those
Taliban were threatening the Pakistani middle class — were all
examples of moderate, silent majorities acting on their own.
The message: “People do not change when we tell them they should†,
said the Johns Hopkins University foreign policy expert Michael
Mandelbaum. “They change when they tell themselves they must†.
And when the moderate silent majorities take ownership of their own
futures, we win. When they won’t, when we want them to compromise
more than they do, we lose. The locals sense they have us over a
barrel, so they exploit our naive goodwill and presence to loot their
countries and to defeat their internal foes.
That’s how I see Afghanistan today. I see no moderate spark. I see
our secretary of state pleading with President Hamid Karzai to re-do
an election that he blatantly stole. I also see us begging Israelis to
stop building more crazy settlements or Palestinians to come to
negotiations. It is time to stop subsidising their nonsense. Let them
all start paying retail for their extremism, not wholesale. Then youâ
€™ll see movement.
What if we shrink our presence in Afghanistan? Won’t Al Qaeda
return, the Taliban be energised and Pakistan collapse? Maybe. Maybe
not. This gets to my second principle: In West Asia all politics —
everything that matters — happens the morning after the morning
after. Be patient. Yes, the morning after we shrink down in
Afghanistan, the Taliban will celebrate, Pakistan will quake and Osama
bin Laden will issue an exultant video.
And the morning after the morning after, the Taliban factions will
start fighting each other, the Pakistani Army will have to destroy
their Taliban, or be destroyed by them, Afghanistan’s warlords will
carve up the country, and, if Bin Laden comes out of his cave, he’ll
get zapped by a drone.
My last guiding principle: We are the world. A strong, healthy and
self-confident America is what holds the world together and on a
decent path. A weak America would be a disaster for us and the world.
China, Russia and Al Qaeda all love the idea of America doing a long,
slow bleed in Afghanistan. I don’t.
The US military has given its assessment. It said that stabilising
Afghanistan and removing it as a threat requires rebuilding that whole
country. Unfortunately, that is a 20-year project at best, and we canâ
€™t afford it. So our political leadership needs to insist on a
strategy that will get the most security for less money and less
presence. We simply don’t have the surplus we had when we started
the war on terrorism after 9/11 — and we desperately need nation-
building at home. We have to be smarter. Let’s finish Iraq, because
a decent outcome there really could positively impact the whole Arab-
Muslim world, and limit our exposure elsewhere. Iraq matters.
Yes, shrinking down in Afghanistan will create new threats, but
expanding there will, too. I’d rather deal with the new threats with
a stronger America.
Source:http://www.deccanchronicle.com/dc-comment/why-must-america-
bleed-afghanistan-017
URL of this Page: http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamIslamicWorldNews_1.aspx?ArticleID=2019
COMMENTS
10/31/2009 10:17:02 PM Ashok Chowgule
With reference to the enclosed article. We have had many such
conferences in India in the recent past on the same subject as the one
reported.. I believe there was also a rally some time back in Delhi
on the subject, and the way it was reported one would get an
impression that the terrorist attacks in India would stop completely.
But, of course, nothing like this has happened.
I have said in the past that the objective of such conferences is to
lull the secular Hindus into thinking that something good is happening
on the subject. But it is a classic tactics of trying to make the
Hindus bring their guard down. Dr Al-Nabulsi wrote some time back as
follows: "The fact that to date no fatwa has been issued (calling to
kill bin Laden) is what strengthened bin Laden, his men and al-Qaeda
and it is what is encouraging them to expand the circle of murder and
terrorism in the Arab world. Moreover, al-Qaeda interpreted the
Islamic legal scholars' silence as an endorsement of their
crimes." ["Why has there been no fatwa against bin Laden" by Dr Shaker
Al-Nabulsi. Communalism Combat.]
Secondly, such programmes should be held in the areas where the lay
Muslims are going to be impacted. In places like Bhendi Bazar in
Mumbai, or Aligarh Muslim University.
Namaste
Ashok Chowgule, Vive President, Vishwa Hindu Parishad
10/31/2009 1:42:21 AM Admin
On trail of Al Qaeda operative Said Bahaji
By Zaffar Abbas
Friday, 30 Oct, 2009
ISLAMABAD: In November 2001, Pakistan’s prestigious Herald magazine,
in an investigative story, had given a detailed account of how Said
Bahaji along with two of his accomplices, had arrived and stayed in
Karachi shortly before the dastardly 9/11 attack and how they had
managed to slip out of the country, with at least two of them crossing
into Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden had his base under the Talibanâ
€™s protection.
The detailed report in the magazine said that on arrival at the
Karachi airport the three had identified themselves as Abdellah
Hosayni, a Belgian citizen of Algerian dissent, Ammar Moula of
Morrocan origin but travelling on a French passport, and German
national Said Bahaji. In a normal hustle bustle at the airport, no one
noticed that all three got into the same taxi. They then headed for a
hotel which none of them had mentioned in the disembarkation card
submitted with the Pakistani immigration authorities.
The three remained as anonymous as any other tourist until all hell
broke loose in the US on September 11, 2001. The massive manhunt that
followed soon spread to Hamburg and Paris, and with the help of
Pakistani security agencies, a connection was established with these
three mysterious characters who had arrived in Karachi exactly eight
days prior to the attacks in New York and Washington.
No one knows where these men went after they left their hotel on
September 5, 2001. But the paper trail followed by Pakistani sleuths
at the time led to some startling disclosures about the trio’s
earlier activities. Investigators believed they had unearthed the
first direct link between Afghanistan — and possibly Osama bin Ladenâ
€™s Al Qaeda movement — and the events of September 11.
It all began when authorities in Hamburg, acting on a tip from US
investigators, raided a flat which had been frequently visited by one
of the main suspected hijackers, Mohammed Atta. Sifting through the
few items found in the flat, German investigators were able to
determine that someone by the name of Said Bahaji, among others, had
been in close contact with Mohammed Atta. Soon they also tracked down
a shipment slip which revealed that a packet, ostensibly containing â
€˜religious literature’, was sent to Bahaji on March 30, 2001 from
an address in Karachi.
The German authorities then passed on a list of telephone numbers to
their Pakistani counterparts, primarily to confirm whether any calls
were made to these numbers from this country. This really set the ball
rolling. Within days, Pakistani security agencies were able to
pinpoint the location in Karachi from where calls had been placed to
one of the suspect numbers 0049-40-76757634. Additional spade work
soon linked this telephony to the three mysterious men who arrived in
the city on September 4, 2001. Three calls were made to the above
number in Germany from a World Call phone booth in PECHS Block 6 in
the Nursery area. The first call was made on August 31, another was
placed on September 2, and the third on September 4. Investigators
believe the first two calls were made by Said Bahaji’s local contact
while the third was the work of either Bahaji or his associates after
the trio landed in Karachi.
The Herald report said, working on assumption that the person making
the calls must have been lodged at a nearby hotel, security operatives
found their way to a Hotel Embassy on the main Sharae Faisal. It was
here that the investigators hit the jackpot. Pakistani law requires
foreign visitors to provide hotels with photocopies of their passports
and these documents offered a wealth of information. The hotel record,
meanwhile, showed that all three men had stayed in the same room (318)
for one night, paid for it in cash and had not used the hotel
telephone. A trip to Hotel Embassy by the Herald correspondent left
little doubt that the staff had been through ceaseless questioning by
more than one security agency.
According to information gleaned by investigators at that time from
the hotel record, Said Bahaji was travelling on a genuine German
passport (L8642163). Bahaji had Morrocon father and German mother and
was married to a Turkish woman called Nezy. Bahaji was clean shaven in
his passport photograph but was sporting a beard when he applied for a
visa.
Abdellah Hosayni’s Belgian passport was also deemed genuine.
However, subsequent investigations in France revealed that the third
occupant of room 318 had been travelling on a fake passport. The real â
€˜Ammar Moula’ had by then been tracked down by French authorities.
Apart from getting information about the possible presence of Al Qaeda
supporters in Karachi, investigators said that circumstantial evidence
suggested that at least two of the men boarded a PIA flight for Quetta
the following day. They did not book into any hotel in Quetta and
might have slipped into Afghanistan the same day.
At that time there was a strong suspicion that at least one member of
the trio, most likely Said Bahaji, left Pakistan on Sept 5 on a fake
passport and under an assumed name. Pakcom internet service record of
that period showed that an email in German was sent that day to
Hamburg from the Quaid-i-Azam, International Airport’s departure
lounge, probably by Said Bahaji to his mother. The airport record
showed that two flights took off in this period and investigators were
of the view that Bahaji most probably flew to Bahrain.
Although the trail went cold here, senior security officials at that
time said their work had earned praise not just from the Germans but
also the FBI and other organisations which have been working round the
clock to corner the group responsible for the 9/11 attack.
The recovery of Said Bahaji’s passport during the current security
operation in South Waziristan suggests that the Al Qaeda operative at
some point must have returned to the area. It’s, however, not clear
if he was still alive, and was travelling within or outside the
country under an assumed name.
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/04-said-bahaji-qs-01
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Islam,Terrorism and Jihad
28 Sep 2009, NewAgeIslam.Com
Jihad in the Gita and the Quran
War and Peace, It’s in the Mind
Islamic scholar and peace advocate Maulana Wahiduddin Khan and Hindu
spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar talk about jihad in the Qur’an
and the Bhagavad Gita. Sadia Khan, the Maulana’s 24-year-old
granddaughter, adds a youthful perspective with her questions. The
dialogue was moderated by Narayani Ganesh
URL of this page:
http://newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1815
War and Peace, It’s in The Mind
26 Sep 2009
TOI: What do the Qur’an and the Bhagavad Gita say about violence and
conflict resolution in the context of jihad and Kurukshetra?
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan: Let’s discuss the misunderstanding of the
term jihad. Jihad is an Arabic word that has neither a mysterious
meaning nor relation to any sacred duty. Jihad is a simple word; it
means to struggle, to strive. Jihad is to achieve a positive goal in
life through peaceful means.
The Prophet of Islam has said: “Do jihad against your own desires.â
€ That is, doing jihad against yourself. So jihad means to control
your desires. Jihad is to discipline your own behaviour. The Qur’an
says: “Do jihad with the help of the Qur’an†(25:52). The Qurâ
€™an is a book of ideology; it is not a weapon. So doing jihad with
the help of the Qur’an means to try to achieve one’s goals through
an ideological struggle.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna said to
Arjuna: The perpetual enemy of an enlightened person is agyaan or
ignorance and desires. The shatru or enemy is desire. Our own mind
behaves as both friend and enemy. When you have control over your mind
it is your friend; when you don't have control, the mind is your
enemy. The mind is the cause of your bondage and liberation. The mind
you have no control over is frustrated and so is self-destructive.
That is the mind you need to wage war with before dealing with outer
war.
Before getting into outer war Sri Krishna said to Arjuna: There is
Daivi Sampath and Asuri Sampath — those that take you to higher
evolution and those that take you down — the divine versus the
demonic aspects in you.
MWK: You’re right. According to the Qur’an every individual must
inculcate spirituality in himself to control his desires. You have to
win over yourself by seeking guidance in divine knowledge enshrined in
the Qur’an. To control one's desires with the help of spirituality
is the gist of all religions.
TOI: But isn’t the desire to control desires also a desire?
SSRS: Don’t you put alum in water to clean the water? After it
cleanses the water, the alum dissolves itself. Similarly, one desire
of the highest helps overcome lower carnal desires and then dissolves
itself.
MWK: The desire to control is a positive desire. We try to discipline
our negative desires through positive thoughts. The most important
thing is to be positive always.
TOI: How does one reconcile higher spiritual goals like enlightenment
with the responsibilities of daily life?
SSRS: Highly regarded spiritual goals should not be thought of as
being too highbrow and impractical. And bookish knowledge alone is not
enough. You need to also connect to day-to-day life and its
responsibilities. You need to have a bigger vision and know also that
it is possible to achieve that higher goal with the help of spiritual
experiences. For instance we find that children come up with great
ideas — but they might suddenly find that their ideas are not
working out and that it is difficult to be honest, to speak the
truth... they become frustrated. At such times spiritual and religious
reinforcement becomes necessary. To close the gap between idealism and
practicality, spirituality is necessary. Youth can greatly benefit
from spiritual guidance.
MWK: Coming back to the subject of jihad, every aspect of life
involves (peaceful) struggle. Islam wants us to always remain
positive. This goal can be achieved only through continuous spiritual
effort. This is called jihad in Islam. But jihad is different from
qital. Jihad is peaceful resolution while qital is to go to war. In
Islam, war is permitted in defence alone. No other kind of war is
allowed in Islam.
SSRS: I’d like to add one point. There is the chatur upaya or four
ways: Sama (tolerance), Dana (forgiveness), Bheda (indifference) and
Danda (to wield the stick). When the first three ways fail, one has to
be strict to deal with injustice or unrighteousness. All the four
upayas are used to discipline children, too, because discipline is
absolutely essential in childhood as well as in a larger sense in
society. It is not violence, but a stringent method to deal with the
necessity of defence and discipline.
MWK: All these are part of peaceful struggle. But qital refers only to
war in case of armed aggression from outside. But even in qital you
cannot kill non-combatants. Also, in Islam there is no room for
guerrilla or proxy warfare or for undeclared war or aggression. At
present some Muslims are engaged in violent activities, which they
claim to be jihad. But these people belong to non-governmental
organisations. In Islam, only the state is allowed to go to war; all
non-state warfare is unlawful. Even proxy wars between governments are
unlawful.
SSRS: I totally agree with you — the two big epics of India, the
Ramayana and Mahabharata, had wars as prominent features but they are
called “Dharma Yuddha†— where righteousness reigns. The parties
fight till sunset, and after that they visit each other’s camps to
enquire about each other’s welfare. These wars were not waged in an
inhumane manner; they kept virtues and values intact. When Rama fells
Ravana in the battle, he tells his brother Lakshmana: “Go, learn
from Ravana.†And when Lakshmana goes to Ravana to learn as a pupil,
Ravana gives profound knowledge to him. Thus wars were fought because
of inevitable reasons and to uphold righteousness and defend the
people.
MWK: In Islam, there is no war against injustice. The problem of
injustice must be resolved only through peaceful means. The only
exception in this regard is when a country is attacked. Then, it can
wage war in self-defence.
Sadia to SSRS: You say that youngsters have grand goals but they soon
find themselves facing frustration and that spirituality could help
them achieve their goals. Could you explain how?
SSRS: Spirituality gives you strength; it helps you become more
enthusiastic; it increases your energy levels and gives you a broader
understanding of life. You would be able to face conflicts and resolve
problems peacefully. Spiritual guidance could give you broader vision,
more hope and faith and enforce the importance of service to others.
When you serve others, your problems appear small and you can handle
them better. It will help you to cope better with setbacks.
Sadia: OK, so how different would that be from going to a
psychiatrist?
SSRS: Well, psychiatry might be a modern version of what was once only
spiritual counselling. However, spirituality would possibly do more
than help you resolve your current problem since it promotes the
importance of service and looks beyond the situation at hand.
Psychiatric counselling, in the process of helping you recollect and
remember past anger – maybe anger at parents, friends or the system â
€“ in order to overcome it, might end up making you even more angry!
Or, at best it could provide you temporary relief, but the soul
remains dry. Spirituality, on the other hand, nourishes you from deep
within.
Sadia: Dada, what would you say?
MWK: I’m not an expert on psychiatry but as far as my knowledge
goes, psychiatry is an external discipline, just like other
disciplines, while spirituality deals with your inner capacity. So
when you try to unfold your inner potential you become spiritual.
Perhaps this is the difference between internal and external healing.
TOI: In Islam, God is perceived as being formless whereas in the Hindu
tradition, there is a whole pantheon of gods in human and other forms.
There is the concept of ishta devta.
SSRS: God can be adored in all forms. He is also formless. Ishwara is
Satchitananda. He is chaitanya, consciousness, beyond name and form
but he can be adored in 1,000 names and 1,000 forms. However, whatever
devta you choose, your chant says divinity is beyond form as well as
it represents form: One in All and All in One. When propitiating
Ganesha, the chant says: “You are Rudra, You are Shiva, You are
Vishnu, You are Devi...â€
So in one form you see all aspects but for purpose of celebration you
might choose a particular name and form for convenience. Many aspects
of the Divine are forgotten, so these are ways to remember them. You
cannot understand Vedic rituals without understanding Vedanta, the
ultimate knowledge. Maulanaji?
MWK: There are two different concepts of God: the impersonal God and
the personal god. The impersonal God is a philosophical concept of
God, which has become a part of different religious traditions. Some
Sufis have also adopted this concept of God, in the name of Wahdat al-
Wajud. The concept of a personal god is called Tauhid. That is, there
is no God but One God — “La Ilaha Illa Allah.†Most philosophers
were believers. In Islam, the Creator and the created are two
different entities. In monism, both are one and the same.
SSRS: God is considered Omnipresent, Omniscient and Omnipotent. There
is Purusha and Prakriti, personal and impersonal. The Ashtada prakriti
are: Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect and ahankar or
ego. Personal form is important for ishta devta but that’s also the
one universal God, the Devta. The Vedic concept is of saakaar and
niraakaar, that we are a combination of form and formlessness — the
body has form, the mind is formless. The universe is a form of the
Divinity. Yet the universe itself is not God. But Divinity also is
part of the universe. It lives in it and comes out of it as well. In
the Bhagavad Gita chapter 9, Sri Krishna says: “The whole of this
universe is permeated by Me as unmanifest Divinity, like ice by water
and all beings dwell on the idea within Me. But, really speaking, I am
not present in them.†This is pretty much in tune with quantum
physics.
"Isn’t the desire to control desires also a desire? How different is
spiritual guidance from psychiatric counselling?"
URL of this page: http://newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1815
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COMMENTS
10/3/2009 1:45:43 PM Shamshad Elahee Ansari - Dubai (U.A.E.)
Say it Talk or an interview with Maulana Wahiduddin Khan and Sri Sri
Ravi Shankar under the caption War and Peace, It’s in The Mind.
Thanks to New Age for re-producing this article from TOI and many
thanks to those readers who spared their time to indulge in a debate
on the issue. All religion defends the Platonic theory on priority and
superiority of Mind over matter. We have not a single case in the
entire human history that there is any civil disobedience against any
rule without objective condition. Objective conditions are the mother
of a thought/idea/ideology or say it mind. Sri Sri Ravishankar/Maulana
and even Mr Ashok Chowgule are the products of specific conditions.
Objective Condition/Matter is the primary source for the idea, It can
lead Buddha to go to jungle in search for Nirvana, conditions could
lead a small time thief Ajmal Kassab to come to India along with his
compatriots on a so-called Jihad mission and kill innocent civilians,
Conditions is the First and foremost factor that it can give a super
constitutional authority to Mr Chowgule to put to test any Muslim
citizen in India for trustworthiness, religious beliefs etc. Actually
both are ugly face of same coin.
Instead of welcoming this great moment and great efforts on the part
of two dignitaries, who are an authority in their respective field,
Mr. Chowgule has targeted the integrity of Malauna, who really don’t
need any certificate from anyone, including Sang Parivar and its
progenies to prove his credentials. Communal Forces cannot accept any
such action which can unite the followers of two different religions.
They will always welcome the acts of divide, they need only Ajmal
Kassab, not any act of unity.
Let me come again on the philosophical aspect of the debate. I
disagree to this reference that WAR is the state on mind. WAR is an
objective reality. It has it economy, it serve some vested interest,
and RELIGION has played a very important role to fill the coffers of
rulers. Let us be objective on Jihad, it’s a billion dollar
industry, Jihadi are being sold and purchased, to make this job easy,
they use IDEOLOGY. Islam is the most salable commodity to produce
Jihadi and in turn, we have a Counter jihadi force.
If Ajma Kassab and Ashok Chowgule are the faces of same coin, so
please don’t be surprised if you may come to know, Afghan Jihadi-
Anti War Forces are two sides of the same coin.
Please debate this
issue, take this issue to the grassroots, Let us hope, the ignorant
people will see the light of the truth themselves, without any help of
any Guru or Maulana.
Best Regards
10/1/2009 12:05:24 AM S. Haider Salman Naqvi
DENIAL OF JUSTICE LEADS TO TERRORISM. TERRORISM WILL DIE A NATURAL
DEATH IF JUSTICE IS ASSURED
9/30/2009 11:01:43 AM Ashok Chowgule, Vice-President, VHP
From: Ashok Chowgule
Date: 2009/9/29
Subject: On Maulana Wahidudin Khan
To: Sultan Shahin Edi...@NewAgeIslam.com
Dear Sultanji,
Pranam,
In the context of India, I would like to propose the following test
for who can be considered a moderate Muslim: Does he want India to
become an Islamic country? If the answer is yes, then he cannot be
considered to be a moderate.
The following quote from an article by Maulana Wahidudin Khan would
indicate where his sympathies lie: "On one occasion, when Aurangzeb
(1618-1707), the last great Mughal emperor of India had just completed
his prayers he again raised his hands in supplication, his eyes
filling with tears. In this state he continued to pray in silence for
a very long time. All the while, his minister stood by his side. When
the emperor's supplications finally came to an end, the minister,
Sadullah addressed him thus: "Your Majesty, the flag of your empire
can be seen flying everywhere, right from Kashmir to the Deccan. Is
there still some wish in your heart which has been left unfulfilled
and because of which you are so grief-stricken?" Aurangzeb remained
silent for a while, then, his voice changed (sic) with emotion, he
replied, "Sadullah, marde khwaham." (Sadullah, I need a man.)
"Aurangzeb's plan of action lacked nothing, and he had all the
resources necessary for good government. Yet he failed to consolidate
the Mughal rule, because he had no worthy successors to shoulder this
responsibility. If Aurangzeb had a team of true, sincere people, the
course of history after his reign would have been very different from
what it was, and what we see it as today."
"The Revival of Islam", Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, from the website of
Al-Risala (http://www.alrisala.org), a magazine edited by Maulana
Wahiduddin Khan.
I think the Maulana answer to the test I have proposed is: "Yes, he
wants India to become an Islamic country."
Namaste
Ashok Chowgule, Vice-President, Vishwa Hindu Parishad
9/30/2009 5:43:48 AM Susmita Dasgupta
There is a concept of the epical warfare to wage a war to end all
wars. But is the modern day Islamic warfare a war to end wars, or is
it a provocation to warfare? Are Islami terrorists the Kauravas or the
Pandavas? Are they like Ravana who provokes war or are they like Rama
who fights in self defence? As a victim of Islamic terror we must
understand this. If Islamic terror is Rama, then how come I am Ravana,
if Islamic war is dharma, then how come I am Duryodhana? Please answer
me ASAP.
9/29/2009 10:44:37 AM vgopal
Dear Sir,
Your efforts are indeed laudable. The debate above is interesting and
stimulating as well. There is indeed a very burning problem
confronting the entire civilized world- The terrorism and how innocent
and poor youth are sucked in to it and brainwashed in to killing
innocents and causing incalculable harm, by a few distorted minds. How
do we tackle this problem? I feel all those at helm in Governments,
thinking societies and forward looking moderate groups have to apply
their mind to this serious problem before it goes out of control. What
do you think?
regards
gopal
Letters to the Editor
17 Mar 2009, NewAgeIslam.Com
Let Varun Gandhi not succeed where the worst terrorists have
failed
Under the circumstances Muslim leaders should realize that the Varun
brigade is spoiling for communal clashes and provoking the Muslim
community to react. Restraint is what needs to be exercised by
Muslims. Communal harmony should be maintained. Let not Varun Gandhi
succeed where the worst terrorists have failed. Let not Muslims fall
into the trap and be provoked. They should follow the example of
Hindus who refused to be provoked by any number of terror attacks. --
Dr. Mookhi Amir Ali, Mumbai
With Taliban at the door in neighbouring Pakistan, we need a secular
government in India, not a party with a communal agenda. We must set a
better example to hate-filled Pakistan than electing our own venomous
leaders. -- A.M. Jamsheed Basha
The comments of the news channel (CNN-IBN) are of an editorial nature
and not news reporting. I wonder what is communal about this speech.
Ashok Chowgule, Vice President, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)
URL for this Page: http://newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1253
Let Varun Gandhi not succeed where the worst terrorists have failed
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 03:04:51 +0000 [08:34:51 AM IST]
From: Dr A R Mookhi To: Sultan Shahin Edi...@NewAgeIslam.com
Subject: Yet Another Hindu Hriday-Samrat?
Varun Gandhi has succeeded in getting all the attention on himself by
his outrageously communal tirade. While he has enraged Sikhs and
Muslims, every right thinking person has been shocked. Bharatiya
Janata Party leaders have openly expressed disapproval of this style
of communal campaigning. One BJP leader has even threatened to
disassociate himself from Varun’s campaign. Apparently a “highly
objectionable slang used by Varun in his reference to Muslims could
just spark off a violent communal clash.”
Under the circumstances Muslim leaders should realize that the Varun
brigade is spoiling for communal clashes and provoking the Muslim
community to react. Restraint is what needs to be exercised by
Muslims. Communal harmony should be maintained. Let not Varun Gandhi
succeed where the worst terrorists have failed. Let not Muslims fall
into the trap and be provoked. They should follow the example of
Hindus who refused to be provoked by any number of terror attacks.
If Haroon Ahmed of the Samajwadi Party has an audio-recording of
Varun’s words running down Muslims it is best that he does not gather
an audience of Muslims to play the audio to. He should trust Varun’s
rival or the Election Commissioner or the Law Enforcement agencies to
take the appropriate action.
If as he says Muslim leaders “have been restraining” Muslims “from
retaliating” it is a sensible and Gandhian thing to do. It is in the
interest of the country and the community. However his question in the
next breath “but how long can we stop people from reacting?” does not
sound so Gandhian. Such subtle provocation is best avoided.
Dr.Mookhi Amir Ali
Sushma, Dadabhai Rd., Santacruz West,
Mumbai 400054 170309
Date: 17 Mar 2009 14:52:24 -0000 [03/17/2009 08:22:24 PM IST]
From: jamsheed basha abumohammed
To: Sultan Shahin Edi...@NewAgeIslam.com
Dear Sultan Shahin,
I am very much disturbed at the hatred-filled speech of Varun Gandhi
against Muslims, which was unwarranted at this stage. I have thus
expressed my views in the following article.
Jamsheed Basha
Varun Gandhi’s Tirade Against Muslims: BJP’s Communal Agenda Exposed
By A.M. Jamsheed Basha, Chennai-based Columnist.
Posted: 17.3.2009 7.35 p.m.
BJP is in tatters over internal squabbles between the top brass of the
party. Varun Gandhi's speech at Philibhit, came as a shocker sending
tremors within the party. BJP’s Muslim poster boy Mukhthar Abbas
Naqvi, VP, instead of condemning the speech of Varun Gandhi in
Philibhit, has blamed his Congress lineage calling it a manifestation
of his family’s past Congress culture and that his outburst did not
reflect BJP’s traditional culture.
Many BJP leaders were speechless and unable to hide their resentment
over the remarks which were uncalled for and unnecessary given the
charged atmosphere prevailing in the country over India’s fight
against terrorism. BJP unable to come to terms with two of their top
leaders: Arun Jaitely and Rajnath Singh are on logger heads over
Mittal factor. The crisis in the party is deepening with Arun Jaitely
and Yedurruppa skipped the important poll panel meeting held today. At
this stage when the BJP is still to come to terms with its internal
dissension and conflicts, Varun Gandhi’s speech has added to its woes
and it was a perfect fodder for secular front to lambast the saffron
party for its communal outlook. RSS spokesperson came in high defence
of Varun and tried to justify his speech, while BJP’s leadership
expressed their anguish over it.
All said and done, immeasurable damage has been done by the young
Gandhi to the Party and its tremors would be felt all over the country
in the coming elections. This single speech though made inadvertently
or at the behest of communalists, is going to cost too much for BJP in
the elections. It is now clear that BJP has its hidden agenda and any
outward secular projection is only to deceive Muslim voters. They have
thus been exposed. Muslim voters would now have a clear view of the
saffron agenda and would certainly rally around the secular outfits.
It is time for Congress and other allies believing in secularism to
tighten the noose around the BJP and its allies to expose their hidden
agenda. India does not need a communal party to form the next govt, is
for sure as barbaric forces of the Taliban are sounding their presence
not far away from India. India needs to fight its own battle against
the growing menace of the Taliban and their terror outfits as US and
allies have their own agenda fixed in the region and they did not wish
to do away with Pakistan in their fight against terror. In such a
situation, only a secular combination would provide a very stable govt
to tackle these situations.
It is therefore UPA, who else, with its secular credentials intact
would be the best option for Muslims to vote en block, to safeguard
their interest and that of the country. Such a derogatory speech
coming at a time when there was a marked change in the overall
attitude of Muslims towards Indian nationalism following the dastardly
attack on Mumbai on 26/11 in which more than forty Muslims were also
killed, was most unfortunate.
Muslims demonstrated their love for the country expressing solidarity
and unity during the trying hours following 26/11. The Muslims of
Mumbai even travelled an extra mile to demonstrate their loyalty to
the country by refusing to bury the dead militants even though they
were Muslims, for the reasons that those who carried out the heinous
attack on the innocent civilians in Mumbai were not Muslims but
criminals and they cannot be buried in a Muslim cemetery. What better
example one can give of Muslim change of attitude than the one above
demonstrated by the Muslims of Mumbai? The bodies of dead militants
are still lying in morgue in Mumbai. At this stage, when Muslims have
thrown their weight with the government and security forces to combat
the menace of terrorism, Varun Gandhi’s speech against Muslims, was
very unfortunate and it only reveals the extent to which this young
man was indoctrinated with hate-Muslim agenda by the communal
elements.
What is now required on the part of the Muslim community is to react
proactively to such tirades and hate campaigns through ballot by
casting their votes to the secular parties and only to those parties
which promise to safeguard their interest and secure their future.
Nothing should be done to disturb the placid waters of communal
harmony prevailing in the country. Muslim leaders and Muslim
intelligentsia have an important role to play and to rise above
fissiparous tendencies at this hour and express their anguish at such
insinuations against Muslim community.
It is for sure that what Varun Gandhi said was certainly not the view
of the majority of Hindus in the country. Muslim voters may be
educated to guard against such parties and support only those who
stand for India’s unity in diversity and promise to implement all the
recommendations of Sachar Committee report which is gathering dust in
the Central Secretariat. What is needed today is a strong government
to lead India without any discrimination on the basis of religion,
region, caste or creed. India’s basic strength lies in its unity of
people of all faith, and Muslims form an important link of the long
chain of all faiths. BJP’s image has now touched the rock bottom
after the hate-speech of Varun Gandhi. It has to do damage control in
the wake of the arrest warrant issued against Varun Gandhi on the
basis of the swift action taken by the Election Commission.
Condemning the tirade of Varun Gandhi, Congress spokesman Abhishekh
Singhvi said "Varun is associated with a party which has this ideology
(anti-minority) and culture". BJP seems to be much embarrassed and was
quick to issue an advisory to all its nominees for the polls to
“practice caution” in their speeches. When asked whether the party
would initiate disciplinary action against Gandhi for his inflammatory
speech, party spokesperson Siddhart Nath Singh said, "that is to be
seen but we do not subscribe to such views and this is sure."
A bare reading of the speech of Varun Gandhi would reveal his bent of
mind. What he said at rallies in Philibhit is too offensive to be
published in any media, though some sections of the electronic media
are telecasting some of the less hateful remarks he made at one of the
rallies.
I leave it to the readers to draw their own conclusion from the venom
spewed by none other than the young scion of estranged Gandhi family,
Varun Gandhi, and a member of BJP. A call to Muslims to maintain
unity at any cost. Jai Hind.
from Ashok Chowgule
to Sultan Shahin Edi...@NewAgeIslam.com
date 17 March 2009 11:16
subject VIDEO OF VARUN GANDHI'S SPEECH
The comments of the news channel are of an editorial nature and not
news reporting. I wonder what is communal about this speech. As far
as a 'new low' is concerned, the media should be concerned about the
support that the Marxists (and even the Congress party) are giving to
a known terrorist in Kerala. And they should be concerned about
comments like 'Maut ke Saudagar" by Sonia Gandhi during the time of
the Gujarat elections.
Do see the video:
http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/87851/varun-gandhis-speech-marks-a-new-low-in-indian-politics.html
Namaste
Ashok Chowgule,
Vice President, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 07:14:40 -0400 [04:44:40 PM IST]
From: The Wisdom Fund To: Sultan Shahin Edi...@NewAgeIslam.com
Subject: Grandson of Indira Gandhi Targets Indian Muslims
March 17, 2009
Varun Gandhi Targets Muslims, BJP Shocked
If anyone raises a finger towards Hindus then I swear on the Gita that
I will cut that hand, says Varun
Pilibhit (Uttar Pradesh): The strident communal overtones of the
campaign being run by Varun Gandhi has left his own party (BJP)
workers shocked.
The 29-year-old son of Maneka and late Sanjay Gandhi is contesting his
maiden Lok Sabha election from Pilibhit constituency. Maneka Gandhi
gave up the seat to ensure his easy entry into the Lok Sabha.
On Sunday Varun was issued a notice by the district authorities in
Pilibhit. What came as a shocker is his staunchly pro-Hindu and rabid
anti-Muslim vitriolic that his opponents and supporters say could
trigger a communal clash.
From taking up issues like the ban on cow slaughter to asking a Sikh
leader to leave a Hindu meeting, Varun has been ruffling feathers
everywhere.
Though just one offensive remark captured by a TV channel drew the
attention of the local authorities, the scion of the estranged Gandhi
family has been busy making such statements all over Pilibhit.
While "Jai Shri Ram" is his battle-cry at all roadside meetings or
assemblies, some of the other slogans being used are "Gau hatya
rukwana hai, Varun Gandhi ko jitana hai" (Cow slaughter must stop,
Varun Gandhi must win) and "Varun nahin yeh aandhi hai, doosra Sanjay
Gandhi hai (Varun Gandhi is like a storm, he is another Sanjay
Gandhi)".
Varun has already addressed three 'Hindu sammellans'. While the
district administration has taken cognizance of his utterances at a
meet in Barkhera on March 8, those at earlier meetings in Dalchand on
March 6 and at Lalori Khera locality on February 22 have almost gone
unnoticed.
On March 6, he said at the Dalchand meeting - "Agar kissi galat tatv
ke aadmi ne, kisi Hindu pe haath uthaya ya hinduon ke upar yeh samajh
key ki yeh kamzor hain, unke peeche koi nahi hai... hinduon ke upar
haath uthaya, mein geeta ki kasam khake kehta hoon ki mein uss haath
ko kaat daaloonga. (If somebody lifts a hand against Hindus, or thinks
they are weak, there is nobody behind them, then I swear on the
(Bhagvad) Gita that I will cut off that hand)".
It has left even leaders who are working for his victory
flabbergasted.
"I am a BJP activist and a Hindu too. But I am not in favour of
launching a communally charged campaign. If Varun Gandhi persists with
such style of campaigning, I would be compelled to keep myself away
from it," a popular BJP leader in Puranpur, Naresh Verma told IANS.
"Varun is going out of hand. If he is not restrained, this election
could end in a bloody communal clash," added another BJP veteran
Gurdial Singh.
The 70-year-old Sikh from Ramnagar village was even asked to leave one
of the Hindu meets being addressed by Varun.
"He neither has respect for any other religion nor even for elders. In
his arrogance, he has gone to the extent of forgetting that his mother
was also a Sikh before her marriage," Gurudial said.
If the BJP is alarmed, other parties are determined to ensure that
this stops.
"We have audio-recordings of the provocative language used by Varun
Gandhi to run down Muslims," claimed a local Samajwadi Party leader,
Haroon Ahmad.
"We have been restraining our people from retaliating because that
will lead to a clash, but how long can we stop people from reacting?"
he asked.
Varun's Congress rival VM Singh said he was "going to make a detailed
complaint in this regard to the Election Commission".
"I have been gathering all the evidence against him so far but now I
am going to make a written complaint," Singh added.
"The highly objectionable slang used by Varun in his reference to
Muslims could just spark off a violent communal clash here."
---
Political Parties Response:
Congress leaders meet EC officials to complain over Varun’s speech
Posted by Ash gee on Tuesday, March 17, 2009, 14:41
This news item was posted in Latest News About India News category and
has 0 Comments so far.
New Delhi: Congress leaders on Tuesday met Election Commission
officials in New Delhi to complain about Bharatiya Janata Party’s
Pilibhit candidate Varun Gandhi and his alleged hate-Muslim speeches.
“Whatever Varun Gandhi has said is not only deplorable but deserves
action by the Election Commission. We have put up a verbal complaint.
We are trying to acquire the CDs. Once we get them, we will file a
formal complaint,” said Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh, who
is party in-charge of Uttar Pradesh.
Digvijay Singh, who was accompanied by state party chief Rita Bahuguna
Joshi, also accused BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate LK Advani for
communalising Indian politics.
“LK Advani through his Rath Yatras has communalised Indian politics.
Whenever polls come up, BJP does this,” he told reporters.
The 29-year-old son of Maneka and the late Sanjay Gandhi - younger son
of former prime minister Indira Gandhi - was on Sunday issued a notice
by the district authorities in Pilibhit, the constituency so carefully
nurtured by his mother who gave up the seat to ensure his easy entry
into the Lok Sabha.
Varun Gandhi said in Pilibhit on Tuesday that the CD containing his
speech had been tampered with.
He also said that he would address a press conference in Delhi from a
proper party platform on Wednesday and clarify his stand on the
controversy.
BJP ISSUES ADVISORY
BJP asks leaders to be careful after Varun's hate speech
CNN-IBN: Published on Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 12:01, Updated on Tue, Mar
17, 2009 at 15:37 in March 16, 2009
New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has issued an advisory to all
its candidates to refrain from targeting any particular community
during election rallies after the Election Commission issued a notice
to Varun Gandhi after he reportedly delivered a speech against
Muslims.
"BJP has advised all the candidates in the election fray to maintain
caution and restrain while giving their speeches and otherwise as
well. This issue has been answered by Varun and EC has taken note of
this so let EC decide on it. We must understand that Varun says this
CD is tampered," BJP media cell convenor Siddharth Nath Singh said in
New Delhi on Tuesday.
The party also admitted that Varun Gandhi's speech has affected BJP's
image.
"BJP believes in integration and what we have seen on TV is
unacceptable. This is Congress culture. This is not our culture. Yes!
the BJP's image has been affected by his comments BJP has instructed
all its candidates to integrate and we will decide what action has to
be taken against him by party after his explanation," said BJP leader
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
However, Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, a prominent Muslim leader of the BJP
demanded that Varun Gandhi publicly apologise for making the speech.
EC slaps notice on Varun for anti-Muslim speech Varun's speech marks a
new low in Indian politics Varun Gandhi made the hate speech targeting
Muslims during his election rallies in Pilibhit from where he will be
contesting Lok Sabha elections for the first time.
The Election Commission will meet on Tuesday to discuss the issue and
has also asked for the tapes to review his speech.
CNN-IBN on Monday showed Varun making a provocative speech targeting
Muslims in which he reportedly said that he will cut the hands of
those who target Hindus.
A Congress delegation led by All India Congress Committee member
Digvijay Singh will also meet Chief Election Commissioner N
Gopalaswamy at Election Commission office in New Delhi on Tuesday
afternoon.
----
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COMMENTS
3/27/2009 2:28:37 AM Dr A R Mookhi
Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 13:23:28 +0000 [03/24/2009 06:53:28 PM
IST]
From: Dr A R Mookhi
To: Sultan Shahin Edi...@NewAgeIslam.com
Subject: Varun, is he for real?
Varun, is he for real?As the facts of the Varun Gandhi Hate Speech
episode sink in and one finds time to contemplate the speech one cant
help wondering if so much vitriol is possible in the blood of a chubby
boy apparently still wet behind the ears. Can such a foul language
come out of the mouth of a sophisticated mother’s son? Can a young
man of education and excellent breeding be capable of vilifying an
entire community? The speech had no precaution not to fall foul of the
law. Can it be that the boy was acting out somebody’s script under
somebody’s direction? Was he a scapegoat unleashed by some forces? Or
something more diabolic than that?Dr. Mookhi Amir Ali,
Dadabhai Road, Santacruz West,
Mumbai 400054
Tel 26614703 240309
3/26/2009 1:14:53 PM Jamsheed Basha, Chennai
Dear Sultan Shahin,
My hearty congratulations to you for your outstanding work was finally
recognised by no less a national daily than the accredited newspaper
"The Hindu" which chose to publish your photo and applauded your
efforts to project Islam in its correct perspective, allowing a
healthy debate on various issues etc.
http://www.hindu.com/2009/03/24/stories/2009032450460900.htm
I think with the exit of third rated commentators, albeit on my
suggestion, the website is now a truly worthy website for all Muslims
who believe in civility to participate in the debate on various
subjects of importance relating to Islam and Muslim Ummah. Perhaps,
with wider readership and more participants joining the debate, New
Age Islam.com would grow further in the days to come.
The true fight would begin now. We have to fight to free Muslims from
the clutches of the radical elements and their Jamaats, who did more
harm than good for the cause of Islam. We must also work hard to
transform those living in 7th century AD to 21st Century and make them
believe that Islam indeed is a religion for all ages which is simple,
flexible, accommodative and above all a peaceful religion preaches
peaceful co-existence with people of all faiths in a sprit as
enshrined in Sura Al-Kafirun.
An effort may be made to widen the scope of the subjects in the
website dealing with socio-economic problems and possible solutions to
eradicate poverty, illiteracy, and social backwardness among the
Muslim masses. An effort may also be made to force the Govt of the day
to implement all recommendations of Justice Sachar Committee Report
which deals with the problems facing the Muslims in India.
Muslims intelligentsia should also fight to secure all the rights
including due representation to Muslims in Govt administration,
legislatures, armed forces, police based on the population and fight
to remove social discrimination against Muslims. We need to be united
to fight the communal forces in the country and against extremism
whether within Islam or outside, especially in the wake of the hate-
speeches given by Varun Gandhi, a reflexion of a hidden agenda of the
Saffron parties, a dangerous mindset beset in these elements.
Muslim reaction to such hate-speeches was subdued, understandably as
more secular parties have taken up the cause on our behalf. We must
inculcate in the young minds that Muslims are as much Indians and
committed to patriotism as anyone in the country. We have to live and
die here in our land. All our energy should be channelized to promote
unity of the country, by remaining within the mainstream of national
life. We must banish the growth of radical jamaats that are
responsible for spreading extremism through their radical views on
Islam with all force at our command. Once this is done and liberal
views take deep root in the psyche of the youth among Muslims,
extremism would die on its own. Let us hope this happens some day.
Sooner the better.
With good wishes, all the best for future.
Jamsheed Basha
3/25/2009 7:18:49 AM Seyan hameed
Varun Ghandhi is too small a fry to confront. It is the index of the
dejected and cowardish mindset of sffron clans of India which always
claims to stand for secularism and communual amity. So let us be
patiant and let all like-minded secularists of this great nation speak
for us.
Seyan Hameed,
Kadayanallur-627751
Tamil Nadu
3/23/2009 2:02:28 PM Shamshad Elahee Ansari
Dear All,
To comment on Varun is a waste of time. It was all his conscious move
to attract media attention and Media did it well. He is new recruit to
BJP/RSS/VHP bandwagon so he need to speak loud to tell their mentors
to please them. As a matter of fact, Varun do not deserve for any
publicity on his stupid remarks which are totally against the ethos of
India. Had he learnt a little bit about her grandmother Indira Gandhi
and her role during 1947 riot, he would have never said it. Anyway, he
is a gone case for Nehru dynasty as her mother Menka. Let alone the
votary of Pilibhit decide about his fate. Poor guy, don’t have guts to
face little educated voters of any City hence he is trying his luck in
one of the most backward bordering district of U.P.
Secular force should have a common agenda to make sure that such
elements will not get entry in the parliament. We all need to educate
the voters whose sentiments are whipped by such political parties
which don’t have any constructive program or agenda for the masses of
India.
Let BJP/RSS/VHP enjoy the rotten remnant of Nehru dynasty.
Best Regards
3/18/2009 10:44:26 AM S K Fatma
‘Badey daraawne naam hotey hain inke... Karimullah, Mazharullah...
Varun Gandhi kaat daalega...’
Express news service Posted: Mar 18, 2009 at 025
New Delhi: The following are excerpts from speeches that Varun Gandhi
is shown as delivering in at least two locations earlier this month in
Pilibhit, from where he is contesting as the BJP candidate. The
speeches figure in a video recording viewed by The Indian Express. On
the directions of the Election Commission, the police today registered
a criminal case against Gandhi.
Yeh panja nahi hai, yeh kamal ka haath hai. Yeh kat** ke galey ko kaat
dega chunaav ke baad. Jai Shri Ram! Ram ji ki jai! Varun Gandhi kaat
daalega! Kaat denge us haath ko, kaat denge, kaat daalega!
[This is not the (Congress symbol) ‘hand’, this is the hand of the
‘lotus’. It will cut the throat of the (derogatory reference to a
Muslim) after the elections... Varun Gandhi will cut... Cut that hand,
cut it, cut it.]
Apne jao, apne gaon mein jao aur halla karo ki saara Hindu ek tarfa ho
jao, chhetra ko Pakistan hone se bachao, aur saara Hindu ek tarfa ho
jao!
[Go to your villages and give the call that all Hindus must unite to
save this area from becoming Pakistan…]
Kya yeh sach nahin hai… ki usko bola gaya ki mataji aapka naam kya
hai... agar usne bola ki Bimla Devi, to usko kahaa ki dekhenge,
sochenge... pehle paanch hazaar rupaye do... aur agar uska naam hai
Saira Bano ya jo bhi Begum Hukum Begum... hum to jaante nahin hain...
badey daraawne naam hotey hain inke... Karimullah... Mazharullah....
agar raat ko kabhi dikh jaayen... to darr rahen hain...
[Is it not true... that if (a woman) is asked her name and she says
Bimla Devi, she is told we’ll see, we’ll think (about giving
Government aid), give us Rs 5,000 first... But if her name is Saira
Bano or whatever begum Hukum Begum... I don’t even know... These
people have such scary-sounding names... Karimullah, Mazharullah... If
you ever encountered them at night, you’d be scared...]
Meri ek behan hai... to ek pamphlet chhapa tha jisme saare
pratiyashiyon ka picture likha hua hai... toh meri behan... us bitiya
ne kaha... Bhaiya mujhe nahi pata tha ki aapke chhetra mein Osama bin
Laden chunaav lad rahein hain... Maine kaha beta Osama bin Laden ko to
America pakad nahi liya lekin Varun Gandhi ke to pakad mein bahut aane
waale hain chunaav ke baad!
[I have a sister… there was a pamphlet with pictures of all the
candidates… so this child told me, ‘I didn’t know that Osama bin Laden
is contesting from your area.’ I told her, ‘America couldn’t get
Osama, but Varun Gandhi is going to get a lot of people after the
elections.’]
Jo aadmi thappad aapko maare, aapko kya karna chahiye? Doosra gaal
aage kar dena chahiye… Usse bewakoofi ki baat maine suni nahi hai aaj
tak. Agar koi aadmi aapko thappad maare, to saale ka haath kat do ki
kisi ko phir thappad nahi maar paaye baad mein.
[If someone slaps you, what do you do? (They say) turn the other
cheek ... I haven’t heard a stupider thing. If someone slaps you, you
should cut off (expletive) his hand, so he can never slap anyone
later.]
...Agar kisi ne, kisi galat tatv ke aadmi ne, kisi Hindu pe haath
uthaya...to main Gita ki kasam khake kehta hun ki main us haath ko
kaat daalunga!
[If any wrong element, raises his hand on a Hindu...I swear on the
Gita that I will cut off that hand!]
http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1253
Letters to the Editor
17 Mar 2009, NewAgeIslam.Com
Let Varun Gandhi not succeed where the worst terrorists have failed
COMMENTS
3/18/2009 10:42:38 AM S K Fatma
Varun says tape doctored, denies charge
Posted: Mar 17, 2009
New Delhi: Under attack from within and outside his party for his
alleged anti-Muslim remarks, an unapologetic Varun Gandhi of the BJP
refuted the charge he had made inflammatory comments and claimed that
the tapes aired on TV channels in this regard appear to be doctored.
Gandhi (29), the BJP cadidate from Pilbhit for the Lok Sabha polls,
said he was strongly committed to the ideals of secularism.
"I strongly refute the charge of making any communal or divisive
statements as part of my election campaign. In this climate of
terrorism, I have spoken only about standing firm against the anti-
national and anti-social forces that threaten this nation," Gandhi
said in a statement.
"I categorically reiterate my family's and my own unwavering
commitment to the ideals of secularism," he said.
Gandhi blamed the controversy on his ‘frustrated electoral rivals’ for
making ‘a crude and vicious attempt’ to malign him by doctoring his
speech.
"I unequivocally state that that (the speech CD) is neither my voice
nor my language. The tape in question appears to have been doctored,"
Gandhi claimed.
"These are purportedly two weeks old. None of what I have actually
said was either intended or taken to be communal which is testified to
by the fact that this intervening period there has been no communal
tension or untoward incident," he said.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/varun-says-tape-doctored-denies-charge/435702/
3/18/2009 10:40:35 AM S K Fatma
May I add the latest to Traveller's news for more information to New
Age Islam readers?
FIR against Varun for communal speech
18 Mar 2009, 0016 hrs IST, TNN
NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW: BJP nominee from Pilibhit Varun Gandhi's debut in
electoral politics has seriously embarrassed the party and could well
invite
a serious rap on his knuckles if the charge of his making a communally
inflammatory speech deriding Muslims is proved.
The Election Commission left no room for the son of late Sanjay Gandhi
and BJP leader Maneka Gandhi as it asked UP chief electoral officer
Anuj Bishnoi to file an FIR against Varun under sections 153A
(inciting communal hatred) and 188 (unlawful assembly) of the Indian
Penal Code and section 125 of the Representative of People's Act.
Soon after, station officer of Barkhera in Lakhimpur district
registered an FIR against the young leader who is standing from a seat
nurtured by his mother. EC has separately issued notice to Varun and
BJP, transferred two officials and suspended another two. The charge
of inciting enemity between communities can result in three years in
jail -- a sentence of two years can bar a person from contesting
polls.
Though Varun claimed he stood by secular values, invoked his Nehru-
Gandhi lineage and alleged the CD has been tampered with, EC sources
said prima facie the CD did not look tampered. Two of BJP's Muslim
leaders -- Shahnawaz Hussain and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, both contesting
Lok Sabha polls -- severely criticised Varun for his offensive
remarks. Hussain demanded an "unconditional apology" from Varun.
Seizing an opportunity, Congress threatened to file a legal case
against him in EC. Senior leader Digvijay Singh in his complaint to
the EC said the speech was "highly deplorable and deserves proper
action".
This is the third FIR against Varun the constituency that Maneka has
vacated for him after deciding to move to neighbouring Aonla.
Under Section 153A of IPC, a person can be held guilty for promoting
enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, place of
birth, residence, language, etc, and doing acts prejudicial to
maintenance of harmony. A person held guilty can be imprisoned for
three years.
Section 125 of RPA is equally stringent. It says that any person who
promotes enmity between classes on grounds of religion, race, caste,
community or language, feelings of hatred shall be punishable with
imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine,
or with both.
According to RPA, any person convicted and sentenced to imprisonment
for over two years shall be disqualified from contesting elections.
3/18/2009 12:31:37 AM traveler
Latest News is that a formal FIR has been lodged against Varun in
Pilibhit,and the kid has absconded his constituency on pretext of
addressing a press conference in Delhi...
More on this"Devil's Advocate"...
Sid Harth
Muzamil Jaleel
Posted: Thursday , Feb 25, 2010 at 0356 hrs
Sopore:
A day after a Captain and two personnel of the elite 1 Para were
killed in a gunbattle in Sopore, a militant emerged from the rubble of
destroyed houses this afternoon and opened fire at the troops,
injuring a jawan who later died. The militant then tried to get past
the security cordons but was killed in retaliatory fire.
The jawan killed today was said to be from the 22 Rashtriya Rifles.
Bodies of two militants have been recovered and police believe that
another two are buried in the rubble. Though police are sure that four
militants, including Harkat-ul-Mujahideen’s Kashmir chief Nouman, have
died in the encounter, there is no confirmation yet.
Police sources said the other three militants believed killed are
Salahuddin, Maviya and local militant Touseef alias Cepa. There is no
word on the fate of another top Harkat militant Basharat Saleem, a
Sopore resident. Police said the two bodies recovered today didn’t
match with Nouman’s picture in their records.
This standoff, which began in the early hours of Tuesday, and the
level of training of militants, their understanding of military
tactics, motivation have surprised security agencies who think it all
points to a shift in militant strategy. The militants are not
following their earlier strategy of digging in for a long standoff and
battling till death.
What they are now trying to do is attempt to break the security cordon
at the very beginning. There have been five encounters recently where
the militants have escaped as soon as the first security cordon has
been laid. And the manner in which the militants took on the first
assault party of the para commandos yesterday also suggests that they
had possibly laid a trap.
In New Delhi, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, speaking at the NDTV
Indian of the Year Awards function, said the militants at Sopore were
“very determined and hardened guys... we are up against a very
determined adversary.”
He said the security forces were still looking for two more bodies
“but they could still be alive under the debris... this enemy is no
different from the Taliban or al-Qaeda.”
FS-level talks: Chidambaram not very optimistic
Agencies
Posted: Wednesday, Feb 24, 2010 at 2054 hrs
New Delhi:
India will seek access to Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and other handlers of
the 26/11 terror attack during the FS-level talks with Pak.
India will seek access to Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and other handlers of
the 26/11 terror attack during the Foreign Secretary-level talks with
Pakistan on Thursday, a "not very optimistic" Home Minister P
Chidambaram said on Wednesday.
The issue of 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai will be high on the agenda
of the Indian delegation as it will enter "talk about talks" during
the Foreign Secretary-level deliberations.
Chidamabaram said these talks will be "without a preset agenda" with
both sides bringing the issues that concern them to the table.
"We will bring to the table as the top issues terrorism, pending
issues of 26/11, the need to arrest a number of people. I have just
got the dossier ready...the need to give us access to those suspects
or accused and then whatever Pakistan brings you can't stop the
country from bringing on the table just as they can't stop us from
bringing to the table what we think is important," he said.
According to Chidambaram, New Delhi is "not going to enter into
substantive talks on these issues as the External Affairs minister
said these are talks about talks".
When asked if anything has emerged from Islamabad that makes the
government optimistic, he said "optimism is a state of mind."
When pressed further on what his state of mind is, the home minister
replied "not very optimistic".
"We have not gone back on our position that Pakistan must take action
against those who are behind the 26/11 attack nor have we diluted our
stand that Pakistan must dismantle terror infrastructure and I think
tomorrow you will find the Foreign Secretaries put forth these points
firmly and clearly but how long can you say this is my stand. I stand
here and I won't move at all...we can't change our neighbours.
"We have tried to change our neighbours' attitude and approach but we
may not be successful even in that," Chidambaram said.
"We are going to the table without a pre-set agenda because we are
talking about an agenda. So, when we go to the table we will take to
the table issues that concern us...," he said.
Comments (2) |
We cannot trust Jihadistan
By: Nautankee | 25-Feb-2010
We have one of the best Home minister in Chidambaram.India should not
negotiate with Pakistan any more, because we have always been deceived
many times before by them.On the contrary,Indian and allied forces
should chalk out a plan to help each other. We should include Russia,
China, Israel and other countries as well to fight terrorism
comprehensively.
Talks over Talks
By: Anant Sheth | 25-Feb-2010
Ms. Rao, Hit Pak hard. If his response to B'bay attack is not to your
full satsfaction, drop further talk. Certainly no talk on Kashmir at
all. Make them repent.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/fslevel-talks-chidambaram-not-very-optimistic/583983/0
Sikh beheading issue being taken up with Pak: Govt
Agencies
Posted: Wednesday, Feb 24, 2010 at 1443 hrs
New Delhi:
This barbaric and heinous crime is deplorable in the strongest
possible terms: Krishna
Terming the beheading of a Sikh in Pakistan as a matter of ‘deep and
serious concern’, the Government said on Wednesday that the issue is
being taken up appropriately with the Pakistani side.
Making a suo motu statement in the Lok Sabha on 'beheading of a Sikh
in Pakistan', External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said, "I rise to
strongly condemn the beheading of Sardar Jaspal Singh in the tribal
areas of Pakistan. This barbaric and heinous crime is deplorable in
the strongest possible terms.
"This incident of kidnapping and killing of Sikhs in Pakistan is a
matter of deep and serious concern to the government, and is being
taken up appropriately with the government of Pakistan," he said.
The President of Pakistan has strongly condemned the incident and
asked the authorities to investigate and take stern action against
kidnappers in accordance with the law, the Minister told the House.
"He (the Pakistan President) has also directed that effective measures
be taken to stop the recurrence of such incidents in the future,"
Krishna said.
He said the abductors, reportedly the Taliban, committed the crime
when Singh's family was not able to pay a ransom. "The President of
Pakistan has also directed the authorities in Pakistan to take swift
action for the release of a Hindu, kidnapped on February 19, 2010 by
unknown persons," Krishna added. An identical copy of the statement
was laid in the Rajya Sabha by the minister.
Comments (6) |
Talk, what else Congress can do ?
By: Boby Mehta | 25-Feb-2010
Three Sikhs beheaded brutally in Pakistan. Where is Teesta Stalvad,
Mahesh Bhutt, EU delegation and Congress rage ? Will Obama refuse visa
to Gilani ? Don't blame anyone when Indian politicians are down right
rotten, cowards and criminals. We haven't seen a franzied hysteria in
Indian media. Manmohan Singh will score some points by raising this
Quranic rule of Islam.
uproot or wipe of congress and its politicians rise before you fall
further
By: jigna | 24-Feb-2010
hat's only one day work what about 364 days is it watching khan films,
boozing, traveling, taking bribes, terrorist attacks, land grabbing
and enjoying other ways of enjoying our tax payers money. Then fooling
people by travling by trains and publicizing srk films and rewarding
these useless actors for their most ridiculous awards. Shame on you
politicians for swindling our country all the time. If there are any
nationalists politicians like Lal Bahadur shastri, shivaji, laxmi
bhai, Bhagat singhs, and those who follow the path of Guru Gobind
singh make a party and throw this congress out of gear. How long can
we tolerate their injustice against the majority of us. If you care
for your religious freedom and protection of our rights come forward
and star a stir and uproot them from the palaces of luxuries. They are
nothing better than dawood in fact with him hand and glove. Right
Rahul? How could this creep support a srk low callibre actor for
ridiculing our nation and demeaning our pro India politicians. We will
not forget nor forgive this creep.
present leaders of india
By: ramesh | 24-Feb-2010
agony and mental tensions with which family is suffering is hard to
imagine.these politicians will never realise unless untill their own
member has to go through same circumstances.Still they are (INDIAN
LEADERS) busy in their own world.Not speak of media people who are at
present busy in selecting heigh profile persons for irrelevent awards.
HELPLESS GOVT
By: N.ASTI | 24-Feb-2010
This UPA Govt is totally helpless.When it has failed to protect common
man even within the country,what can it do at international level?For
any terrorist act on Hindus/Sikhs whether inside or outside the
country,at the most,it will protest on a piece of paper,and with one
word from US/PAK,it will kneel down.The foolish Indians who brought
UPA to power are responsible for sky-Rocketing prices and Nation
placed in a humiliating situation thro' begging for talks in spite of
such massacres.For these voters no worry for price-rise as well as
National security,Only Congress must rule.Now enjoy the fruits.
Sikh beheading in Pakistan
By: A. Pradeep | 24-Feb-2010
The Goverment of India cannot protect its own citizens from terrorism.
To score political points, they are amplifying the sound bytes with
Pakistan. If they are so concerned about Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan,
issue them visas and bring them home. To those who say how many can
India take, I say, how many illegals from Bangladesh and Pakistan have
you taken?
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/sikh-beheading-issue-being-taken-up-with-pak-govt/583937/
Pak FS hopeful of bridging differences with India
Agencies
Posted: Wednesday, Feb 24, 2010 at 1856 hrs
New Delhi:
Pak Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir arrives at the international
airport in New Delhi.
Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir arrived here on Wednesday for
talks on Thursday affirming that he was hopeful of a "positive
outcome" but it was clear that India was not expecting any
breakthrough given the "trust-deficit" post Mumbai terror attacks.
"It is good to be back. I have come here to bridge the differences. I
am hopeful of a positive outcome," said Bashir, who is heading a five-
member delegation, on his arrival at Delhi international airport.
Ahead of the talks between Bashir and his Indian counterpart Nirupama
Rao, both sides were wary of pre-judging the outcome but sources here
said New Delhi was "fully conscious of the limitations imposed by
trust deficit post-Mumbai(attacks)."
However, the sources said, India was not "pre-judging the outcome", a
view echoed by the Pakistan Foreign Secretary, who in Lahore prior to
his departure for India, said it was better not to view the talks
"from the point of success or failure." It would be better to wait
till on Thursday, he said.
Issuing a statement on Bashir's arrival, External Affairs Ministry
said during his stay, the Pakistani Foreign Secretary is also
scheduled to call on minister S M Krishna and National Security
Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon.
Indicating the sharp diversions of view on key issues, sources here
said no joint statement, after the talks, was contemplated.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/pak-fs-hopeful-of-bridging-differences-with-india/583976/
Pak again violates ceasefire, jawan injured in firing
Agencies
Posted: Wednesday, Feb 24, 2010 at 1057 hrs
Jammu:
In yet another ceasefire violation, Pakistani troops fired on a
forward post along the Indo-Pak border in Samba sector early on
Wednesday, leaving a BSF jawan injured.
BSF officials said there was small arms firing from Pakistan on
forward border post of Karotana-Manarain along the International
Border in Samba sector, about 55-kms from Jammu.
In the firing, a BSF jawan constable Krishan was injured, the
officials said, adding the firing continued for 30 minutes.
The officials said they would lodge a strong protest over the truce
violation with their Pakistani counterparts at a flag meeting later in
the day.
Pakistan has violated the ceasefire along the border for the tenth
time this year. The last ceasefire violation took place on February 14
when Pakistani troops fired rockets on Indian posts along the LoC in
Poonch sector.
Comments (2) |
Cross Border Firing
By: A. Pradeep | 24-Feb-2010
Can the Pakistani Army be classified as non state actors? While the
Indian Goverment holds tea parties with Pakistani officials, our
soldiers and citizens are paying with life, limb and blood.
How many subjects for 25th Indo-Pak discussion?
By: shanthanu | 24-Feb-2010
No results for 26/11 terror attack NO TALK, no result for terrorism by
LET on Pak soil NO TALK, no answer of Pune bomb attack,NO TALK, and
now cross border firing NO TALK.Mr.Anthony and PC please shut your
mouth.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/pak-again-violates-ceasefire-jawan-injured-in-firing/583893/
bademiyansubhanallah
Tarannum Manjul
Posted: Thursday , Feb 25, 2010 at 0221 hrs
Lucknow:
A BJP booklet to inform the masses about BSP government’s “crimes and
corruption” appears to have backfired.
In the villages where these have been distributed, the people —most of
them uneducated — consider it a work laudatory to Mayawati, thanks to
a colourful caricature of the chief minister on the cover.
The booklets, grumble BJP workers, have ended up bringing more
publicity to Mayawati and while some of them have sent back the
copies, others have distributed these only after removing the cover
page.
Titled Uttar Pradesh ki BSP sarkaar ke viruddh jannyayalay mein
chargesheet, the 32-page booklet has been printed in Lucknow and is
one of the biggest projects undertaken by the party’s state unit.
The party’s state office had printed around 20 lakh copies to be
distributed is every village across the state.
Costing around Rs 4 each, the “chargesheet” has a colourful cover,
showing a caricature of chief minister Mayawati wearing a crown and
riding on a blue elephant. The elephant is seen trampling common
people, indicating that state government’s policies are crushing the
poor.
The booklet has charges framed under 10 heads: insult to
constitutional bodies, use of mafia for crime and intimidation,
protection of the mafia elements, siphoning of state funds, extortion
from the common man, framing innocents in fake cases, violation of
human rights by police, blackmarketing of essential commodities,
exploitation of farmers, kidnapping and exploitation of businessmen.
In January, the copies were sent to all district units. The workers
were told to distribute them among the rural folk at meetings on price
rise and inflation. But within a month, the district unit workers
began complaining to the state unit about the cover page.
A district coordinator from Sitapur said: “The booklet brings forth
information about the atrocities of the state government. But the
cover page is a major drawback, as on the first view, it looks like a
booklet for Mayawati rather than against her.”
Another worker from Azamgarh said he was shocked to hear the villagers
call it “Behanji ki kitaab”. “When we told them that this booklet is
by the BJP against the poor governance of the Chief Minister, they
could hardly believe it,” he said. “We had to show them the back
cover, where the photograph of state president Ramapati Ram Tripathi
and the party symbol have been placed.” The man literally behind the
booklet sets aside these arguments, saying it is perfect to highlight
the increasing corruption and criminalisation in the state.
The chargesheet,” said BJP state president Ramapati Ram Tripathi, “has
been framed after much research and the cover is a perfect
idea”.Regarding the confusion among people, he said: “We finalised the
cover ourselves as it is a wonderful caricature showing Mayawati and
her elephant crushing people. The material will remove any confusion
and people should read the chargesheet.”
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/bjp-booklet-on-maya-misgovernance-brings-her-publicity/584195/0
Raj Thackeray surrenders in court in rioting cases; gets bail
Agencies
Posted: Thursday , Feb 25, 2010 at 1320 hrs
Aurangabad:
MNS chief Raj Thackeray on Thursday surrendered before a court here in
connection with four cases of rioting registered against him in 2008,
and was later released on bail.
Raj presented himself in the court of Judicial Magistrate, First
Class, in Gangapur area here in Central Maharashtra. The court
released him on a bail of Rs 15,000 in all the four cases.
He was accompanied by his lawyer Sayaji Nagare.
The MNS leader was arrested on October 21, 2008 in Ratnagiri for the
anti-North Indian agitation launched by his party. Following his
arrest, riots broke out in Mumbai and various parts of Maharashtra and
several cases were registered against Raj and his supporters.
In the cases registered at Gangapur, Raj has been booked under IPC
Sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 341 (wrongfully restraining
persons), 336 (rash and negligent act endangering life of others), 427
(mischief) and 109 (abetment).
On February 22, Raj had surrendered in a court in
Jalgaon, North Maharashtra, in another case of rioting and was
released on bail.
Leveraging Gadkari’s entreaty: Chance to undo Congress’s treachery
Submitted by admin4 on 24 February 2010 - 11:05am.
ArticlesIndia PoliticsIndian Muslim
By NM Sampathkumar Iyangar,
While reiterating the BJP’s commitment about building a temple at the
location of the since-demolished Babri Masjit, Nitin Gadkari has made
an entreaty to Muslims. He asked them to donate the disputed land at
Ayodhya to the party’s traditional vote bank – right-wing Hindus.
There have been angry outbursts from Muslim sections at “adding insult
to injury.” The community is understandably furious not only at
repeated scuttling of the judicial process in the Ramjanambhoomi title
suit, but for imprisoning thousands of Muslim youth across the country
on specious grounds. They are tired of being marginalized in every
sphere and targeted as the culprit behind any terror attack.
Gadkari’s entreaty, however, needs to be viewed in the context of what
can be said to be the emergence of a New-BJP. Ignoring, trashing or
rejecting it outright may not be the wise thing to do. The need is for
presenting a unified stand after dispassionately weighing the current
situation. The pragmatic response must be bereft of excessive
emotionalism.
What BJP is openly asking Muslims now – “Be generous towards Hindus
and facilitate construction of a grand Ram temple” – has always been
the goal of the supposedly secular Congress party. But, clandestinely
so. The game plan started in 1949 when the Nehru regime collaborated
in the illegal occupation and takeover of the “abandoned” mosque,
trashing the 300-year-old land title. Four decades later, when BJP
mobilized a mob of two lakh people to bring down the structure, the
hatchet job was virtually presided over by Narasimha Rao. Rao was not
as successful as the Vallabhbhai-Rajendra Prasad axis under Nehru that
had played exactly the same game in Somnath.
The stark reality of India is that its elite judiciary has
consistently failed to maintain neutrality. It has an inglorious
record of always conniving with the ruling classes. In this scenario,
it is bootless to place any trust in the courts. If and when there
would be fair verdict, ruling against the dominant forces, the
administration will not implement it. Numerous past incidents have
shown that. While the BJP has been flexing muscles and making
belligerent demands to dispossess the title-holders, the Congress has
been doing it by frustrating obfuscations and Liberhans!
Let there be no illusion. There is NOT going to be any credible
justice. Powerless sections will be compelled to be ‘generous’. This
leaves but one option open. The question to be asked before responding
to Gadkari’s initiative is: “So, why not extract a good price for the
‘generosity’ due to the inevitable injustice?”
He should be asked to make an offer that cannot be resisted. As long
as the ‘generosity’ can be linked to equitable representation in
governance to end the current farce of vote-bank elections, a
“composite dialogue” with BJP cannot worsen the situation any further.
The negotiations may include Ayodhya as the core issue. But, they must
encompass a variety of issues facing the oppressed sections. Only, it
will need to be mediated and guaranteed by a credible outfit of
impeccable credentials – such as an International Commission or Court
of Justice.
It would be wise to leverage Gadkari’s compulsions of showing concrete
results during his term to gain back legitimate rights and liberties.
The community had surrendered many of its rightful privileges that the
colonial rulers were prepared to concede during negotiations to
transfer power. The faith reposed in the Congress party while
endorsing a common electorate has been belied by the Grand Old Party
and its leaders. They violated the specific commitment that the State
will not trample on the Muslims’ distinct identity. The government was
not to deny – in the guise of non-discrimination – accelerated avenues
for development to the oppressed classes.
There is a chance – of whatever probability – of cooperation and
tactful negotiation with BJP will lead to equitable and meaningful
participation by the marginalized sections in governance. This would
be a mirage in a farcical vote-bank democracy created by universal
franchise that blindly imitates western societies.
[The author is an unattached policy analyst based at Ahmedabad, India]
http://twocircles.net/2010feb23/leveraging_gadkari_s_entreaty_chance_undo_congress_s_treachery.html
Terror acquittal: But five years lost to prove his innocence
Submitted by admin3 on 23 February 2010 - 10:58am.
Indian Muslim
Mohammad Iftekhar Ahsan Mallick (26), former B.Sc. (Bio-tech) student
By Mahtab Alam, TwoCircles.net,
Late night on March 7, 2005, Mohammad Iftekhar Ahsan Mallick, a B.Sc.
(Bio-tech) II year student at Dehradun’s Dolphin Institute of
Biomedical & Natural Sciences was preparing for his final examinations
at his friend’s place. But he had to face ‘greater’ exam that was to
last for five years.
Around midnight, some unidentified people with guns forced their way
into his friend’s house and took him away, without informing who they
were and what they wanted? At first instance, Iftekhar thought that it
is kidnapping but later he was told that his kidnappers were actually
Delhi Police’s Special Cell who were taking him to Delhi for
‘questioning’ regarding his ‘role’ in a terror plan. He was severely
tortured during the police custody and made to sign ‘confessional’
statements.
Torture is still etched in his mind and he rather not talks about it.
Iftekhar pleaded his innocence but was made to suffer. He also
appealed for speedy trial but even then it took five long years.
Iftekhar was jailed on the charges of being a Lashkar-e-Taiba
terrorist plotting to carry out a suicide attack on the Indian
Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun. The Special Cell claimed to have
recovered a diary containing ‘inflammatory’ passages from the Quran,
which talks about taking revenge of 2002 Gujarat carnage and a pass to
an IMA parade. Police also claimed, Iftekhar had been in touch with
the Pakistani terrorist Shams, who motivated him to attend Students
Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) meetings in his native town and his
name was referred as “Shahid” in Shams’ diary and that the Lashkar had
sponsored his education. But Delhi Court refused to believe
prosecution stories and Iftekhar was ordered to be released.
After almost five years of imprisonment, on January 8, 2010 Additional
Sessions Judge Dharmesh Sharma ordered his release.
“January 2010, not only proved a real New Year for me but brought a
new life in real sense for me”, Iftikhar told TwoCircles.net.
Now, he is all set to start his studies once again and will be soon
enrolling himself in Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) in Bihar. “The
entire period is full of nightmarish experiences but I want to begin a
new life, a respectful life”, he asserts. But he doesn’t want to move
out of Bihar as his family is afraid. Iftekhar, who was always hopeful
about his acquittal confessed, “no matter how much I try to forget all
this, how can I forget those golden years”. He asks painfully “Who
will return those five years and how?”
Talking to TwoCircles.net he said there seems to be some planning to
malign Muslims and therefore youths are falsely accused of terrorism
charges and are made to rot in jail for years. But he has not
completely lost faith in the system and suggests Muslims and secular
Indians to come forward to make a platform that can fight for justice
by preventing abuse of innocent Muslims.
(with Video and Photo by TwoCircles.net Patna Correspondent Manzar
Bilal)
wrongful detention
Submitted by jyoti (not verified) on 24 February 2010 - 8:19pm.
pl sue the police for compensation.
wrongful detention - who will pay compensation???
Submitted by An Indian (not verified) on 25 February 2010 - 3:28am.
Thank you "jyoti" for your humble suggestion. Did you hear about any
compensation from Police Authorities in India, anytime earlier. I
would be pleased ((I mean - most delighted)) to know an instance,
where police PAID compensation for "wrongful detention".
Let's assume, the above victim is compensated by police.
Can the victim get back his five precious years of his youthful
life ???
Can the victim get back his B.Tech. education, and lost companionship
of his family ???
Can the police pay back his "lost credentials", I mean, "tainted
name" (badnaami) from police records ???
Can the police "reverse" or "erase" his memory from "scars of
horrible" TORTURE ???
Don't you feel pity looking at his "innocent" picture ???
Even, recently slain Advocate - Late Shahid Azmi was "wrongly
detained" under POTA. After completing his Law education, when he
tried to protect WRONGLY ACCUSED persons from clutches of "police and
government" EXCESSES / ABUSES, he was killed in TARGETED KILLING using
SUPARI at hands of Goons (street goondas) by acting "behind-the-
screen" interested politicians.
But, I would be pleased to know about compensation from police,
government, or whoever is responsible for "wrongful detention".
An Indian
Above acquital of an INNOCENT, is just "tip of an iceberg"
Submitted by An Indian (not verified) on 24 February 2010 - 1:32am.
We all know, above-mentioned article and statement from acquitted - I
mean INNOCENT YOUTH, who LOST his FIVE-precious-YEARS of his life,
including his B.Tech career LOSS, is just the "TIP OF AN ICEBERG".
Just imagine, if any reader were this YOUTH's close-friend, relative,
class-mate, or even an Indian OR human ???
It's a living PROOF of POLICE / POLITICIANS / Saffron-Parivar
supporter's "twisted" logic of chasing, arresting, portraying,
INNOCENT Muslim youth as CULPRITS on TV, and releasing them in middle
of night - "back-doors" of police chowki, in India.
Wake up Indians, before India with one-billion plus population, is
tainted as BIASED / UNJUST / CASTE-RIDDEN / HINDU-RELIGIOUS or RACIST
bigots, in front of world.
An Indian
The work of meritorious govt agents
Submitted by M Naqqaad (not verified) on 23 February 2010 - 7:22pm.
How come the Qur'an, revealed 1400 years ago be instructing someone to
take revenge on 2002 Muslim pogroms??
Come on India, just purge yourself of ghetto mentality and play in the
hands of people whose only aim to kill humane people. Moses, Jesus and
Muhammad were the victims. India can ill afford to fall in this trap.
We are more than a billion on 'own' land and not on the mercy of some
apologists!!
May Allah make good sense prevail in my country. Aameen
http://twocircles.net/2010feb22/terror_acquittal_five_years_lost_prove_his_innocence.html
Talibans: Thugs or torch-bearers of Islam?
Submitted by admin3 on 23 February 2010 - 11:06pm.
ArticlesIndian MuslimMuslim World News
By Dr. Shah Alam Khan,
The news of beheading of two Sikh youth in the Peshawar region of
Pakistan has not come as a surprise to the world. What more can we
expect from a rabid race of Talibanis, born and brought up on the
fodder of hate and violence. The news in fact brings to light the
hollow rhetoric of the Pakistani establishment when they claim to have
contained the menace of Taliban.
What surprises me is the eerie silence of the Muslim ulema in the
subcontinent (particularly in India) in their condemnation of this
cowardly act of appalling brutality. Where are those who leave no
opportunity to condemn what is inconvenient to them, no matter how
comfortable it might be to Islam in general and Muslims in particular?
What happens to all those voices which grow louder at times of trivial
issues which they think place Islam in danger? What more danger can
await a religion than accusation of the kind which we see after such
heinous atrocities? When can the Islamic ulemas realize that acts such
as these are the ones which actually put Islam in danger.
The blood of innocents in Palestine is mourned. The brutalities of
Narender Modi’s pogrom in Gujarat were mercilessly damned. Then what
happens when it’s time to condemn the most bigoted and rabid of
Muslims? By being mum to the brutalities of Taliban the Muslim ulemas
are giving voice to those who perpetrate violence. What justification
can we give to the condemnation of the likes of Modi and Sharon in
future? What message is passed on to those who stand and fight for the
cause of underprivileged and minorities in this country? Shouldn’t
this usual tale of the ‘victim becoming the perpetrator’ be put to
rest once and for all?
The threat from Taliban is not confined to Sikhs, Jews or Hindus. They
are running amok with a real danger to the spirit of Islam. Non
Muslims across the globe can secure themselves against any Talibani
attack. They can build fences, walls and iron shields. But what
happens to the global Muslim community? What fence can stop the
condemnation of Islam in global drawing rooms? What wall can prevent
the filtration of pure hate against Islam and its proponents amongst
Sikhs? Where do we buy an iron shield to repel the cutting suspicious
look against a bearded Muslim at an airport?
There are many who argue that Taliban does not represent true Islam.
Definitely yes, they do not represent the common Muslim of the
subcontinent. But unfortunately they have been made to appear as the
face of real Islam in this polarized world. They are the ones who get
the media attention and most unfortunately they are the ones who think
that THEY represent Islam in their own brutal way. How much we may
argue, for an innocent Westerner, Taliban is the face of Islam.
There is a war between moderation and fanaticism, between love and
hate. The esoteric Islam of the subcontinent faces a monster in the
new, cruel definition of the religion. It’s time we realize this
danger before the monster grows too large to restrain. The means to
contain this ogre are many. Physical force, debate, condemnation,
every weapon in the armamentarium should be used. We are already
fighting a losing battle. The tacit support of the Pakistani and
American establishment at one time has fed the Taliban strong. It
requires real commitment of the moderate Muslim forces in the region
to come out and take the bull by its horns.
My heart aches for Jaspal Singh, who was murdered by a group of thugs
who are the so called torch bearers of Islam. Can we imagine his pain
and fear as he would have been finally dragged to the altar amidst a
sea of drolly dressed men chanting “Allah-o-Akbar”? What all might
have gone through his head in his final moments? How detestable he
would have been to Islam and its followers? His pain, his trepidation,
his final gasps for breath, all for perpetrating the cause of Islam? I
am sure that day, it wasn’t Jaspal Singh who was beheaded, it was the
teaching of Islam that was beheaded in Peshawar and we all should
mourn this death.
Comment
re: Taliban, thugs or torch-bearers of Islam
Submitted by Qasim Rashid (not verified) on 25 February 2010 - 3:20am.
You Said it Right:
I'm afraid this time, you have said it wrong. I'm not sure what your
first few sentences meant because grammatically they don't make sense.
I am glad TCN published my comment - it lends to their objectivity
rather than biasedness that you're showing.
However, yes, I agree, a Muslim is a Muslim without prefix or suffix.
However, we are Muslims who believe in the Messiah, and want nothing
to do with the violent Islam practiced by all to many others who call
themselves Muslim.
And you only proved my point. Rather than following our lead, you
launch baseless allegations that we are supported by Jews and USA etc.
Rather than seeing that we are Muslims living in peace, resolving
conflicts, and creating a positive impression on the world, it just
burns you up that you and yours can't do the same.
Muslims who have accepted Hazrat Ahmad (as) as the Imam Mahdi and
Messih, foretold by the Master Prophet Muhammad (sa) provide all the
financial support to run this Jamaat. Not a single penny comes from
outside - check every government record and it will prove it as such.
Interesting how you bring Ghandi into this; as I recall, it was the
KHilafat Movement of those who rejected Hazrat Ahmad (as) as the
Messih who went to Ghandi for help to elect a Khalifa. All the while
the true Khalifa of Islam at that time, Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin
Mahmood Ahmad (rz), was screaming from the highest rooftops that Allah
has already established Khilafat. Yet, you refused to listen, and went
to Ghandi anyway. Becareful who you accuse of what my friend, for it
seems you are the guilty party quite clearly.
The invitation to accept the Messih is and always will be open.
However, Allah does not allow compulsion - you must make the choice to
follow His Messiah; no one else can do that for you.
Who mourns Palestine really?
Submitted by HoosierDONK (not verified) on 24 February 2010 - 9:31pm.
"The blood of innocents in Palestine is mourned."
Mourned by who? Please tell me who mourns Palestine? Who? The ONLY
people who truly mourn Palestine are those individuals around the
world who have hearts. If you behead someone you don't have a heart
you don't mourn Palestine, you don't mourn anything. To mourn is to
feel. If you have it in you to kill another human you can't feel. You
have no heart. I mourn for Palestine more than anyone don't do me
disrespect by placing me with "them."
Now let us list who does not mourn Palestine, they use Palestine for
their own agenda and cover that easily by proclaiming Palestine
Palestine We Mourn Palestine.
United States of America
Israel
Great Britain
Iran
Iraq
Syria
Hamas
and who else? Feel free to add to the list. None of these governments
mourn Palestine. Palestine is a chess piece for every one of them.
Palestine should be a country, modern, historical for everyone. A
beautiful country. It would be a great thing for humanity if this were
true. I hope to see this before I pass..
But the question is...
Submitted by M Naqqaad (not verified) on 24 February 2010 - 7:50pm.
How many churches or Pandits have been critical of acts of terror by
outfits carrying name of their religion, USA et al.. Were people deaf
and blind when ulema came strongly against any acts of these thugs?
Many times, their stand has been dismissed as media management. Why to
invoke the Qur'an if there are clear signs that the claimant are
outright wrong. By the way, we are talking the beheading of two Sikhs
in Pakistan, in an area which is lawless. What about the thousands of
Sikhs and Muslims killed in past in our 'law abiding' India. Surely,
two wrong do not make a right but fact are facts. What locus standi we
have when we are yet to bring to book people involved in .... or 1984
or 2002 or ......
Please do not quote the Qur'an if you do not even bother to write the
Books name properly.
The moderates are just show boys, we have seen one here in India
withought even fake canines. There is not value to moderates because
moderates as defined by the Islamophobes do not take any stand. Are
the questioning people able to extract a small concession from the
forceful implementation of thing called democratic or their own way of
life. All the reaction would cease if the extremism of the power those
be ceases. Are the moderate willing to question on this issues? I am
afraid they are not. So, do not assign things to Islam if carried out
by Muslim names people as you never do it for Hindus or Christians or
Jews. Is not my demand fair and 'moderate'??
America & its' War on Terror'
Submitted by mamboleo (not verified) on 24 February 2010 - 2:13pm.
NEARLY A DECADE LATER AND WE HAVE NOTHING WAS THE ENTIRE “WAR ON
TERROR” A RUSE?
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor – www.veteranstoday.com
It is 2010 and we know less about 9/11 each day. One “fact” after
another comes into question until there are now none remaining. Same
thing with the invasion of Iraq. No weapons of mass destruction
existed, no “mobile bio-labs,” no nuclear program, no ties to Al
Qaida, nothing. It was all invented, we have proven that much in 7
years of looking and not one piece of paper, not one shred of
evidence. It turned out that the “yellow-cake uranium” was actually
Hostess Twinkies.
We have been in Afghanistan even longer. We have never found those
magical “training camps” we were looking for. We never found Usama bin
Laden. In fact, we have found nothing at all. What should we have
found? If 9/11 was planned in Afghanistan this is what should have
been there:
• Mock-ups of each of the Israeli run American airports including
equipment to manufacture keys, employee uniforms, and full information
on security protocols, airport personnel and schedules
• Mock-ups of the aircraft, showing seat positions and staging
rehersals for controlling passengers and crew and taking over the
flight deck
• Access codes and sophisticated hacking equipment that could order a
“stand down” of NORAD to allow planes to proceeed despite procedures
in place that required they be stopped by Americas’s air defenses
• Information on the personal schedules of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld,
making sure they were in meetings that would preclude them from being
notified of an impending national security threat, activities like
kindergarten visits or “breakfast with staff.”
• Secret data on aircaft performance that would enable non-pilots to
encourage cumbersome aircraft to perform maneuvers beyond their
structural capability.
Picture a day in one of the classrooms at the Al Qaida Center for
Insurgency and Terroristic Studies at Tora Bora:
HOUR 1:
“Mohammed, you have to walk up to the guy and be more confident, try
it again:” “Hey ‘bro,’ remember me from down at the Synagogue last
week, the guy with the big bag of bagels and lox? Can you carry these
box cutters onto the plane for me and place them in the back of these
seats?” “Then you give him the map of the plane showing him where to
hide the weapons. These Mossad trained security people are dense, you
know how incompetent the Mossad is.”
“Don’t worry, nobody will know you are a terrorist, no matter how many
watch lists you are on or that your visa had expired and you should be
in an immigration detention facility awaiting processing. If anyone
asks you if you are from the Middle East, tell them you are Mexican.
Mexicans never blow up planes.”
HOUR 2:
“These are your uniforms, security keys and airport identification
cards with security strips all currently cleared thru the computer
systems. We had one of our girls enter you as employees while she was
at the Airport Security Command Center. We told the Israelis that we
had a new service, free of charge, “keyboard dusting, cleaning and
testing.” What a pack of suckers they were.” The last half of the hour
will be spent walking thru our airport layout so you know where the
security doors are and don’t have to ask directions.”
HOUR 3:
“Fooling NORAD into grounding all American fighter aircraft would
normally be something impossible but we have “friends” who will be
helping us with this one. We are going to break for lunch. Osama told
me that the next person to pull a Budweiser and ham sandwich out of
his lunch box is going to lose more than just a hand.”
HOUR 4:
“Aircraft capability is going to be a problem. Not only can none of us
fly planes but the planes themselves won’t be able to maneuver. The
biggest problem will be to get the plane crashing into the Pentagon to
fold up into something very small. We have an expert on origami coming
from Japan that will help us with that. We have been told that special
auto-pilots will have to be installed that can make airliners perform
advanced aerobatics required to fly inches above the ground without
disturbing the lawns or be seen by any of the dozens of video cameras
around Washington. Get out your manuals on these systems and we will
go into how to activate them.”
(prayer break)
HOUR 5:
“We had a kindergarten invite President Bush to Florida to read to
children. Knowing that he is dyslexic and getting through a children’s
book will tax his capabilities, we can expect him to be no problem. We
aren’t going to worry about Rumsfeld, General Myers or Vice President
Cheney. I can’t get into that right now, but they aren’t going to be a
problem. Also, news coverage has been arranged and a film team in a
white van is waiting to get really good shots of WTC. “Friends” were
kind enough to help us on that one too.”
“Those of you who won’t be on the planes, the planning teams, will be
flown to Saudi Arabia. You won’t believe who will order the flight and
block the FBI from questioning you. Suffice it to say this order will
come from the top. Cars will be picking you up at your apartments. You
will know them by their license plates. They will all say, ‘US
Government’ on them”
(care and feeding of camels)
HOUR 6:
“Expect a worldwide manhunt for everyone involved and severe military
repercussions. None of us will be in any danger, of course. Some of
you have been supplied with “dopplegangers” recruited from mental
institutions. Most of you will be able to return to your day jobs. As
a joke, we are going to dismantle this entire facility and send it via
Fed Ex to Israel. Most of the equipment was made there anyway and we
don’t need it anymore. The Americans are really going to be pissed
when they come in here and only find a pile of camel dung.”
WHY AFGHANISTAN FOR PLANNING THE MOST ADVANCED TECHNOLOGICAL WARFARE
ATTACK IN HISTORY?
Nobody has been able to come up with a reason so far.
BARN DOOR LEFT OPEN, BUT THEY NEVER HAD HORSES IN THE FIRST PLACE
With 140,000 Americans along with British and Afghani forces running
around Afghanistan killing everything that moves in retaliation for
9/11, a few questions come to mind. Without a shred of evidence that
any aspect of 9/11 was ever planned in Afghanistan, why is any of this
going on?
When we shoot at farmers they are “Taliban” and we build an army out
of druglords, they are “loyal freedom loving Afghanis.” Anyone see a
touch of irony in this?
Why is the only result of the US occupation of Afghanistan a 500%
increase in opium production?
Has anyone really asked, “What the hell is it we are doing in
Afghanistan anyway?”
“IT HURTS SO MUCH, WHY STOP NOW?”
Without delving into conspiracy or “false flag”operations, our
response to “terrorism” that has existed since the beginning of time
has been the self mutilation of a demented soul. We have gouged out
our own eyes, disfigured our culture and mortgaged ourselves for
generations.
How do we even discuss what we do when nobody can agree on what the
subject is? Are we changing a regime in Afghanistan? We already
replaced the religious extremists with druglords and gangsters. Wasn’t
that enough?
If nobody killed bin Laden, his bad kidneys or simple loneliness would
have finished him off by now. We talk “terrorist training camps” but
nobody has ever seen one nor even caught a single “foreign terrorist.”
We don’t even know who they are? Who would be dumb enough to go to
Afghanistan to hide, hide under American predator drones, surrounded
by spies and stuck in the middle of one of the most primitve and
dangerous warzones in history.
Aren’t real terrorists like our “heroes” in the Pentagon? Shouldn’t we
look for them on golf courses or in hotel bars?
WAITING TO POST THE PHOTOGRAPHS
After 9 years of war in Afghanistan, fought only to find the tens of
thousands of terrorists in training camps all over Afghanistan being
trained in sophisticated facilities to plan attacks designed to bring
the western world to its knees, could we please have at least one
photograph of a terrorist training center that looks like more than a
place where two guys and a herd of goats spent sleeping on the ground.
I am thinking there must be a giant underground facility somewhere
with miles of corridors, a monorail, minions in jump suits and the
millions of dollars of high tech equipment that Islamic charities
supposedly have been buying around the world and sending off to
Afghanistan.
How are we missing it?
From the efforts we are making, we should have found the equivalent of
NASA Flight Control in Houston hidden somewhere in southern
Afghanistan. With all our drones, spy planes, satellites, paid spies
and “special op’s” people, we couldn’t even come back from bin Laden’s
headquarters in Tora Bora with a mobile phone.
Are we going to kill half of Afghanistan searching for the “Al Qaida
Terrorst University” after 9 years of coming up empty? Is Fox News
running running the Pentagon? It would almost seem so. What if someone
were simply making it all up just to justify a phony war?
Would we do that? Have we been caught doing that before? Are we still
doing it? So far all we have gotten is poor Saddam Hussein, an old man
hiding in a hole, former American ally like bin Laden, like Noriega,
someone we got tired of and needed to get rid of.
Why do the promises and threats always end up with an empty net?
Taliban - Thugs or torch-bearers
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on 24 February 2010 - 12:44pm.
First of all,
What people have to realize that they should not start judging other
people without adequate facts and just by relying on the media
reports.
Second,
Muslims especially indians(because they are the least informed
people), should know that there is a great difference between the
Taliban in pakistan and the taliban in afghanistan.
The Afghan taliban never attacks civillians(period). Their War is with
the invaders and thats whom they fight with. They always follow the
Islamic norms of jihad in THEIR fight against terror and to say that
they are wrong to fight U.S(when the same U.S is killing millions of
afghani people), would be a real shame..
The Pakistani Taliban on the other hand, is made up of mostly tribal
leaders whom Mullah omar had thrown out of the Original taliban...
because of their unislamic behaviour....
take a note that i said mostly not all of the pakistani taliban are
like that...
anyways those tribal leaders who use the name of taliban in their
horrendous acts of murder are the ones who are supported by the CIA
and Indian RAW with the aim to destabilise Pakistan.
It is rather funny that when a terrorist attack takes place in India,
people are very quick to believe that ISI was behind it. But no one
points to Indian agencies when the terrorist attacks take place in
pakistan(except ofcourse the pakistanis, but then again who listens to
them)...so whatever murderous acts the pakistani so-called taliban is
committing should not be blamed on Afghan Taliban.
Lastly, i will say that its about time Muslims stop being on the
defensive so much...Nobody asks Communists in India to clarify their
position if China does something wrong. But everybody excepts Muslims
to clarify THEIR position when something wrong happens in pakistan.
Communist parties send their delegations to china, carry out talks but
nobody questions their intentions when china starts eating up Indian
territories the same time. But Muslims are supposed to explain
everything no matter where in the world it happens.
Those who say that Muslims
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on 24 February 2010 - 9:15am.
Those who say that Muslims are not condemning the act seems not
following the TCN new. I can see the condemnation from all sections of
Muslims.
But the things is that when talibnis kill 2 sikhs it big new there is
protest across the globe. But when there are news about civilians/
Afghanis are being killed in drone attack there is no condemnation
from anybody. Nor from so called ulemas neither from so called
moderate like you.
I have doubt that blood of those afghani Muslims might be real cheap
or having no value, that's why nobody complains about there blood
bath.
Wrong! You are just another
Submitted by Outside Looking In (not verified) on 24 February 2010 -
8:26pm.
Wrong! You are just another one sided propaganda machine. People all
over the world protest the killing of innocence in drone attacks. For
your information I believe no price tag can be put on any human life
and I don't end that statement by saying "BUT" and then proceed to
tear down any individuals belief system. No matter where a muslim
stands they always put BUT at the end of any statement and then
continue on with their one sided view of life. Tearing down anything
that doesn't believe as them. We are all one, the killing will end
from both sides when we all educate ourselves enough to understand
that we are all one.
This is not to say that there is not evil within our system. Of course
there is.. There is evil everywhere! This evil on both sides want us
to continue this religious war. I ask you, when the time is right will
you be able to walk away from your beliefs and stand with humanity or
will you continue to praise evil and lead mankind down the road of
self destruction?
I leave you with this... Peace
From a distance the world looks blue and green
And the snow-capped mountains white
From a distance the ocean meets the stream
And the eagle takes to flight
From a distance there is harmony
And it echoes through the land
It's the voice of hope, it's the voice of peace
It's the voice of every man
From a distance we all have enough
And no one is in need
There are no guns, no bombs, no diseases
No hungry mouths to feed
From a distance we are instruments
Marching in a common band
Playing songs of home, playing songs of peace
They're the songs of every man
Allah (God) is watching us, God is watching us
Allah (God) is watching us from a distance
From a distance you look like my friend
Even though we are at war
From a distance I can't comprehend
What all this war is for
From a distance there is harmony
And it echoes through the land
It's the hope of hopes, it's the love of loves
It's the heart of every man
Thugs or Torchbearers?
Submitted by Abdulameer (not verified) on 24 February 2010 - 1:53am.
You say: "There is a war between moderation and fanaticism, between
love and hate." You are engaged in wishful thinking. There is no war
at all because the side of "moderation" and "love" is missing in
action. You ask where the ulema is? Their silence, and the silence of
the majority of Moslems is just further proof that there is no war.
The hate-filled fanatics have all the theological support from the
Koran and the Hadith. That is why they quote the Koran and Hadith all
the time. Here is just a small sample of what is in the Koran:
-- The unbelievers among the people of the book and the pagans shall
burn forever in the fire of Hell. They are the vilest of all
creatures. (98.6).
-- Surely the vilest of animals in Allah’s sight are those who
disbelieve. (8.55)
--The unbelievers are your inveterate enemy. (4:101)
-- Mohammed is God's apostle. Those who follow him are ruthless to the
unbelievers but merciful to one another. (48:29).
-- It is unlawful for a believer to kill another believer, accidents
excepted. (4:92)
-- Believers, take neither the Jews nor the Christians for your
friends. (5:51)
-- Make war on them until idolatry shall cease and God's religion
shall reign supreme. (8:40)
-- Fight against them until idolatry is no more and God's religion
reigns supreme. (2:193)
-- The true believers fight for the cause of God, but the infidels
fight for the devil. (4:76)
-- We will put terror into the hearts of the unbelievers. (3:151)
-- I shall cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off
their heads, strike off the very tips of their fingers. (8:12)
And we have not even begun to talk about Muhammad!
Thugs or torchbearers? What's the difference? They are one and the
same. They have the Koran on their side.
Quoting Quran out of context
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on 24 February 2010 - 12:43pm.
Quoting the Holy Quran out of context will serve no purpose other than
strengthening prejudices against Islam and Muslims. One should desist
from such a practice and concentrate on the real issue of Talibans'
claim of representating Islam.
Talibans: Thugs of the Worst Kind
Submitted by Ghulam Mohiyuddin (not verified) on 24 February 2010 -
12:12am.
I fully agree with Dr.Khan that our ulema and other Muslim leaders
must thoroughly condemn the killing of two Sikhs by the Taliban. The
Taliban and Al Qaeda are the biggest threat to Islam. Their ideology
is not just backward, it is repugnant to Islam. Muslims should never
say anything good about them. We should support all military as well
as political efforts to destroy the Taliban as well as Al Qaeda.
re: Taliban, thugs or torch-bearers of Islam
Submitted by Qasim Rashid (not verified) on 24 February 2010 -
12:02am.
While I agree with the authors sentiment that the Taliban must be
stopped, I fail to understand his concern that moderate Muslims,
particularly in India, are not speaking out.
It was on the very soil of India that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, whom
Ahmadiyya Muslims consider the long awaited Messiah and Mahdi,
declared over 100 years ago that violence has no place in Islam. Since
he established the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in 1889, this community
of moderate Muslims has expanded to every country of the world with
tens of millions of adherents.
Most importantly, in the 121 year history of the Ahmadiyya Muslim
Community, there has not been a single act of violence perpetrated by
any Ahmadi Muslim. On the contrary, Ahmadi Muslims have continually
condemned violence in the name of Islam in every fashion. They have
reached out to Sikh, Hindu, Jewish, and Christian leaders to forge
bonds of unity and peace.
However, rather than follow the example of the Ahmadiyya Muslim
Community, the so called ulema has condemned them as heretics, and
therefore unworthy to follow. Let the ulema say what they will, but a
better example of Muslim who preach and practice peace, does not exist
on this earth.
reply
You said it right
Submitted by M Naqqaad (not verified)
on 24 February 2010 - 7:45pm.
Qasim Rashid,
So why you are to reach out to the Jews, Sikhs, Christians and Hindus?
May be you are not accepted a Muslim. The call of insistance that you
are a Ahmadiyya Muslim shows how well your principles are valid.
Muslims are Muslims without a prefix or suffix. What Ghulam Ahmad of
Qadiyaan did is well known and the aim of his supporters too us a
knowledge. Thank TCN for having published your comment. Your logic of
enemy's enemy, a friend is showing.
By the way, why dont you ask and get peace from your Jewish contacts
and in Iraq and Afghanistan from USA. What is moderation if it does
not carry a weight. However you call oneself moderate, if you are not
able to bring solace to the affected, you moderation turns into
pacifist extremism. Invoking Gandhi!! Just imagine all followed
Gandhi's ways. We could have been all christians with Qasim Rashid
speaking against all the christians.
http://twocircles.net/2010feb23/talibans_thugs_or_torch_bearers_islam.html
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Islamic World News
18 Feb 2010, NewAgeIslam.Com
Give up Babri Mosque Claim: Hindutva Leader's Appeal to Muslims
Bomb at Pakistan Mosque Kills Dozens
Ministry Will Monitor Whipping Sentence On Muslim Women - Shahrizat
One former terrorist is now dedicated to fighting radical Islam and
teaching peaceful interpretation
http://rethinkingislam-sultanshahin.blogspot.com/2010/02/islamic-world-news-18-feb-2010.html
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
gandhi patel
a humourous post by one reader in outlook rant and raves
This conversation is reported to have taken place a few hours after
Nitin Gadkari, the young president of the BJP sang a song during his
speech to the delegates at the party's national conference in Indore.
The telephone rings; Ahmed Patel sleepily lifts the phone,
simultaneously looking at the clock.The time is 12-15AM. "Patel here"
he says. "Ahmed Bhai", Sonia says at the other end. (She is careful
not to call him Patel, lest people become nostalgic about the Gandhi-
Patel team of old; not that that itself is bad, she thinks, but
though, fortunately, the Indian people have forgotten that she herself
is a fake Gandhi, Ahmed is a real Patel and unfortunately the Indian
people remember this part of their history rather too well.)
Patel is instantly alert, not forgetting to bend at the waist. Gandhi
says, "Challo, Challo, jaldhi karrro, come here fowrrrraaannn."
Ahmed Patel rushes through the gates of 10, flashing his new hi-tec ID
specially designed by Gucci (of Italy, if you don't know) and presents
himself in front of the party 'presidente'. She doesn't waste time in
greetings and comes straight to the point. "What is this Gadkari?" she
angrily questions.
'You mean 'who', madam?' Patel ventures to ask.
'Yes, yes, woheeee'.
'He is the new, young president of the BJP, madam'
Gandhi: 'But, why does he sing, that too during a presidential speech?
Damn it, Ahmed, he sings in what these Indians call 'soooorrrr'. He
sang that Elvis Priestly song rather well, I hate to admit.'
Ahmed: 'It was not an Elvis song, madam, it was a Bollywood song sung
by Manna Dey in a film called 'Anand', which means happiness'. As to
your 'why', even our intelligence bureau chaps were totally taken by
surprise, madam. Ever since you threw Narayanan out, these
intelligence spooks are running like headless chickens, madam'.
Gandhi: 'Why didn't my speech-writers ever think of including songs
for me to sing in my 'speeches'? Can at least Rahul be made to sing
some wild samba songs, which the young, the poor, the dalits and
adivasis will like?' You call Javed Akhtar right now and ask him to
design a song for Rahul Baba immediately'.
Ahmed: 'Madam, pardon me for reminding you, but you know what a stink
Javed's " Mauth ka saudagar" speech caused! Moreover, Javed Bhai is
only a part time poet who also writes filmi songs. He is not a music
director. I will ask Meira Kumar if she can help'.
Gandhi: why Kumar?
Ahmed: 'Even when she speaks, madam, she sing-songs. Rahul Baba has
only to get a few tips from her on singing while giving speeches.'
Gandhi: OK, OK, do what you should. But, tell me Ahmed, why have our
media boys gone ga ga over this Gadkari and his song? What are Shekhar
Suman, Rajdip Sardesai, Barkha et al are doing? Have all our Padma
awards gone waste?'
Ahmed: 'You don't, by any chance, mean Shekhar Gupta, madam? 'No such
luck for the BJP, madam. The media is solidly with us. Even the
foreign media is backing us to the hilt. Once we unleash Rahul Baba's
songs on the media, you can bet your last Lira the media girls will
cry copiously and any doubting Thomases will be shouted down by
Manish, Singhvi and Jayanthi on panel discussions. We can even manage
an EMMY for Rahul with a little help from you know who.'
Gandhi: 'Ahmed, we have no time to lose. Get to work on the media. Let
it be known that there are more padmas from where they came'.
A rejuvenated, purposeful Ahmed Patel leaves, with the song, "I have
miles to go before I sleep" on his determined lips. The rest, as they
are going to say, will be history (of the secular veriety, no doubt)
http://stepstosecondpartition.blogspot.com/2010/02/gandhi-patel.html
If Nitin Gadkari is as good a politician as he is a singer (http://
bit.ly/c7V6Bm), the BJP is doomed.
9:05 PM Feb 23rd via TweetDeck
iyerdeepak
Deepak Iyer
http://twitter.com/iyerdeepak/statuses/9562421614
Shiv Sena flays Nitin Gadkari for appeals made to Muslims
Shiv Sena on Saturday flayed BJP chief Nitin Gadkari for his appeal to
Muslims to adopt a "generous" attitude on the Ram temple issue, saying
it was an insult to hundreds of kar sevaks who became "martyrs" in the
movement.
"Appealing to Muslims (to help in building Ram temple) is an insult to
hundreds of kar sevaks who became martyrs during the Ram temple
agitation," Sena chief Bal Thackeray said in an editorial in party
mouthpiece Saamana.
He made a "sincere appeal" to BJP that it should stick to the Hindutva
ideology.
"The Prime Minister of this country says Muslims have the first right
over India's resources and 80 crore Hindus tolerate it meekly. Muslims
have everything and Hindus don't even have their Ram temple. Things
have come to such a level that Hindus have to plead to Muslims (to
allow Ram temple)," Thackeray said.
"Gadkari has appealed to Muslims. Exactly to whom has he appealed
because the leadership of radical and jehadi Muslims is no longer in
India but in Pakistan, where terror outfits wield the remote,
dictating Muslims in India what to do and how to behave," the Sena
chief, who belongs to Gadkari's home State, said.
Thackeray asked "If permission of Muslims is to be sought for building
the Ram temple, why was the temple agitation launched in the first
place?"
"Hindus could have fallen at the feet of the Imam of Jama Masjid and
got a piece of land for Ram temple. It was easily possible. But Hindus
have shed blood for the Ram temple," he said.
Date : 20/02/2010. News by Newsofap.com
M F Hussain gets Qatar's nationality
India’s eminent but controversial bare-footed artist M.F. Husain, who
has been under attack from Hindu fundamentalists for his paintings of
Hindu goddesses and has been living in Dubai and London, has becomce a
Qatar national, thanks to the Qatari ruling family.
“I, the Indian origin painter M.F. Husain at 95, have been honored by
Qatar nationality,” the celebrated artist, who is in self-exile, wrote
above a line sketch of a horse, the leitmotif of much of his work. The
black and white drawing was carried by widely circulated The Hindu
newspaper, reported IANS.
In a signed article, The Hindu editor N. Ram wrote that the artist had
given him the news from Dubai “by reading out the few lines he had
written on a black-and-white line drawing that he released to The
Hindu”.
According to the report, Husain did not apply for the nationality but
it was conferred on him at the instance of the emirate’s ruling
family.
Date : 25/02/2010. News by Newsofap.com
http://www.newsofap.com/newsofap-6898-25-m-f-hussain-gets-qatars-nationality-newsofap.html
Around 6,470 Indians lodged in jails across the world
Over 6,470 Indian nationals were lodged in different prisons of 71
countries across the world, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.
Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor in a written
reply said Indians in foreign prisons comprised of 6,313 men and 157
women.
He said 1,226 Indians were in Saudi Arabian jails whereas 1,092 of
them were in jails in UAE.
Violation of entry provisions and breaching laws pertaining to
security are the main charges against 842 Indians in Pakistani jails.
365 men and 12 women are in Nepalese jails for various charges ranging
from murder, robbery, illegal trafficking of animals to poaching.
China has put 174 Indian nationals behind bars for crimes including
credit card forgery, money laundering, rape and drug trafficking.
"Through our missions and posts, we make all possible efforts with
foreign governments to provide necessary assistance to the Indians in
foreign jails," the Minister said.
He said Indian missions and posts in foreign countries are in regular
touch with the families of the arrested Indians.
Replying to another query, Tharoor said six Indian fishermen have died
in Pakistani jails while in custody between 2004-10.
A total of 1,909 Indian boats were released by Pakistan between
2005-10, he said.
Date : 24/02/2010. News by Newsofap.com
'Officials who worked for Afzal Guru's mercy plea cannot be named'
The Home Ministry has refused to disclose details of its officials who
have given opinion on the mercy petition of Parliament attack case
convict Afzal Guru, saying it involved national security.
A Mumbai-based RTI activist Vatsa Raj had sought details from the
Ministry on the file movement in connection with the petition along
with details of the officials and sections that dealt with it.
He also asked the Ministry to provide him copies of file notings by
the officials, recommendations made by Delhi Government and other
related details on the mercy plea.
The Ministry, in its reply, informed him that the information could
not be disclosed as it involved "security and safety of the country".
"Further, recommendation of the Government on the mercy petition of a
condemned prisoner is in the nature of advice by the council of
ministers to the President which cannot be inquired into by any court
of law under Article 74(2) of the Constitution of India," the reply
said.
The Supreme Court had in 2005 upheld the verdict of the trial court
which had awarded capital punishment to him for his role in the
conspiracy behind the December 13, 2001, terror attack on Parliament.
The sentence was scheduled to have been executed on October 20, 2006,
but it was stayed after his wife moved a mercy petition.
When the matter came before the Central Information Commission, it
rejected the Ministry's argument that advice by the council of
ministers to the President cannot be inquired into in any court of law
under Article 74(2).
"The respondent submitted during the hearing that no recommendation
has yet to be made on the matter of Mohd Afzal. Hence, reference to
Article 74(2) of the Constitution is not relevant in the present
case," Information Commissioner Sushma Singh said.
She, however, upheld withholding of information pertaining to the file
notes and identity of persons dealing with the mercy petition.
"After hearing the respondent and on perusal of the documents, the
Commission finds merit in the contention of the Respondent that the
provisions of Section 8(1) (g) of the RTI Act, 2005, are attracted
regarding the information on file noting and identity of persons
dealing with this matter in the Home Ministry," she said.
Date : 24/02/2010. News by Newsofap.com
'Jahan E Khusrau', Sufi music festival in New Delhi
Its mysticism and appeal cuts across religion and boundaries and with
Humayun's tomb as the backdrop, Sufi music festival 'Jahan E Khusrau'
is bound to give music lovers a reason to smile.
The three day music festival to be held from 26th-28th February will
see Sufi artists from across the world get together to commemorate the
death of famous Sufi poet Amir Khusrau.
"The major highlight this year is the blending of traditional and new
age sounds at both the domestic and International level. Khusrau
symbolised the composite culture of India, spirit of experimentation
so there are are lot of experiments this time.I am just trying to
reinvent my art.
Sufism over the yeras has thrown light on my concerns and has more
humane and love angles," filmmaker Muzaffar Ali, who conceived the
festival told.
Date : 24/02/2010. News by Newsofap.com
1984 anti Sikh riots : CBI told to give witnesses version copy to
victim
A Delhi court on Wednesday asked CBI to provide a copy of witnesses'
statements to a victim in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case allegedly
involving former union minister Jagdish Tytler to enable her to file a
petition against the clean chit to the Congress leader.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Rakesh Pandit directed the
probe agency to furnish a copy of four statements and three different
affidavits of witness Surinder Singh and the statement of another
witness Jasbir Singh, besides the copy of closure report to widow
Lakhwinder Kaur.
The court's order came after Kaur's counsel Rebecca M John and Brinda
Grover pointed out that they were not supplied with the documents
including the statements of the witnesses.
CBI counsel Sanjay Kumar, who initially tried to oppose the plea of
the victim's counsel, readily agreed to provide the copies on the
court's direction.
The court, meanwhile, also asked Kaur's counsel to file their protest
petition within a week and provide a copy of it to CBI so that the
matter could be fixed for arguments.
It fixed the matter relating to the killing of three persons on
November one, 1984, near Gurudwara Pulbangash in north Delhi in the
aftermath of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination,
for further proceedings on March 23.
CBI had on February 10 completed its arguments on the closure report
giving clean chit to Tytler on April 2 last claiming lack of
sufficient evidence against him and terming the witnesses' statement
as "false and concocted".
Surinder (already dead) and Jasbir, residing in California now, had
made statements only to implicate Tytler, CBI had alleged.
The Delhi High Court had on February 8 directed the lower courts to
wind up the trial of all pending anti-Sikh riots cases, including
those related to Congress leaders Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler,
within six months.
The alleged role of Tytler in the case relating to the killing of
three persons including Kaur's husband Badal Singh on November one,
1984, near Gurudwara Pulbangash in north Delhi, was re-investigated by
CBI after a court had earlier refused to accept a closure report filed
by the agency against him in December, 2007.
Date : 24/02/2010. News by Newsofap.com
Diversity of the nation being exploited: RSS chief
Kollam, Thursday 25 February 2010: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)
Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat has said the Central government is taking
no clear stand on countering cross-border terrorism despite continuing
attacks on the country.
He was addressing a ‘pranta sanghik’ (State assembly) of the RSS here
on Wednesday.
The RSS veteran said the diversity of the nation is being exploited by
forces across the border to keep the nation divided. The forces who
are trying to gain control over the world are ruled by selfishness and
extreme intolerance. They nurse a wishful thinking that they can
achieve a world of their own. This is impossible because unity needs
uniformity, and the world is not uniform.
Intolerance also creates problems. The votaries of intolerance resort
to even mass killings to make others toe their line. Only Hindutva
tolerates everything in the world. The foundation of the RSS is based
on Hindutva. Though some may term Hindutva as obsolete, in reality,
Hindutva is not only modern but post-modern as well. Even the votaries
of capitalism are working overtime to make the country toe the line of
the United States.
Countries that form just 4 per cent of the world are trying to take
over the entire resource of the world. Only the Hindu society takes a
genuine stand against such selfish outlook. So only Hindutva can save
the world.
Hindutva is not an ism but a ‘vishwa darshan’ that can lead the world.
The unity of Hindus is imperative for the dawn of a better world. For
the past 85 years, the RSS has been striving for that unity. One has
to experience the RSS to get a true picture of the organisation, he
said.
The RSS leader said all those living in India are Indians and they can
go to any part of the country. This means not only to Mumbai but to
Kashmir as well. But why Kashmir is being kept isolated for the vast
majority of Indians, he asked. Even when courts state that religion-
based reservation is unconstitutional, the West Bengal government is
implementing such a reservation policy.
The RSS chief said India needs a swadeshi policy. The country does not
need Bt brinjal. Instead of promoting a mechanisation spree, the human
resource potential of the country has to be utilised.
(News agency)
By KOL News , Written on February 25, 2010
http://www.asianetindia.com/news/diversity-nation-exploited-rss-chief-2_131357.html
India is a Hindu nation: RSS chief
Jaipur, Tuesday 07 April 2009: The RSS said on Tuesday that Hindutva
is the “identity” of the country and asked the people to be proud of
it.
“Our identity is Hindutva and the people should be proud of it. The
society should work for removal of evils and the welfare of the
country,” RSS chief Mohan Rao Bhagwat said while addressing volunteers
at a gathering in Jaipur. “India is a Hindu nation, which is an
eternal fact,” he claimed.
Bhagwat said shaping the present “modern” society along the lines of
traditional Hindu culture and traditions will be the ideal route to
social welfare.
He said the RSS wants to make people “responsible, and dedicated”
towards the nation, which, according to him, was above all.
“Creating a well-cultured society is our aim and not contesting
elections or winning seats,” Bhagwat said.
During the discourse, the RSS chief said the poll season has come and
there will be plenty of assurances from candidates to seek votes, but,
after winning elections, they will appear only before the next polls.
He met Kanchi Peeth Shankracharya Jayendra Saraswati in Jaipur on
Monday when he visited the city.
By KOL News , Written on April 7, 2009
http://www.asianetindia.com/news/india-hindu-nation-rss-chief_31499.html
Mohan Bhagwat Live: Hindus hv bn tolerant. When pakistan was formed,
muslims drove out almost all Hindus to India. Hindus did not do that.
about 21 hours ago via web
ZoomIndianMedia
Zoom Indian Media
http://twitter.com/ZoomIndianMedia/statuses/9574885362
Mohan Rav Ji Bhagvat first speech as a new RSS Sar Sanghchalak Part 2
Chalak
Param Pujya Shri Mohan Rav Ji Bhavgat guiding Swyamsevaks after
getting responsibility of Sar Sangh Chalak
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bademiyansubhanallah
RSS eye on progeny
RADHIKA RAMASESHAN
(Top) Nitin Gadkari; RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat
New Delhi, Feb. 13: “Big brother” RSS is keeping an eye on its
“errant” offspring.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh today did something it has never done
— it sent someone to check how preparations were going on for the
February 17-20 BJP national council in Indore.
The Sangh asked joint general secretary Suresh Soni, who occasionally
doubles as the interface with the BJP, to see how things were shaping
up on a 90-acre sprawl outside the city that would be home to some
5,000 party delegates the next few days.
The delegates will welcome new chief Nitin Gadkari and witness the
passing of the baton from the old guard.
While the Sangh routinely nominates a functionary to “observe” and
“report” on council sessions, it has never bothered with the
preparations. “Soniji checked each and every detail,” said a Madhya
Pradesh MP of RSS provenance.
Those in the BJP who had thought the Sangh’s role would end with
Gadkari’s anointment admitted that the “big brother” would stare
unblinkingly at what a party official called its “errant political
progeny”.
Which means, BJP delegates had better not expect the seven-star fare
the late Pramod Mahajan had dished out at a national executive in
Mumbai in 2004 or the lavish meals served up by party chief ministers
on such occasions.
Party insiders said every delegate — from L.K. Advani and Gadkari
downwards — was resigned to a stay in tents and a Spartan diet of
vegetarian food. Not that this is the first time tents are being used,
though leaders like Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha have, in the
past, been excused from staying in them for personal convenience.
“Convenience and comfort are words that the RSS has banished from our
dictionary,” cribbed a BJP MP.
Another recalled Sarojini Naidu’s famous remark about the costs
entailed to keep Mahatma Gandhi in poverty and wondered how much
poorer the Madhya Pradesh government would be after the four-day
austerity binge.
The only “concessions” are 25 “A-listers”, including security-padded
leaders like Advani, Narendra Modi and Murli Manohar Joshi, would live
in single-room tents with attached bathrooms. For the rest, there will
be four-bedded shelters and a common washroom.
The choice of names for the venues for the various sessions is also
not coincidental. The campus has been christened Kushabhau Thakre
Nagar after a former chief who continued to live in a sparsely
furnished room in the BJP headquarters till the last and used an air-
conditioner only on medical advice.
But the RSS is not only concerned with symbolism.
Aware of the dwindling returns of Hindutva card, the three resolutions
the council is expected to debate and adopt will be on price rise,
security and climate change.
BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who briefed the media today,
said: “Politics for development is Gadkari’s main mantra. There will
not be much focus on ideological issues.”
The security resolution will be confined to the UPA government’s
“declining control” over Jammu and Kashmir and the resumption of
dialogue with Pakistan with the underpinning that Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh’s “strategic” moves were governed by “external
pressure”.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100214/jsp/frontpage/story_12104293.jsp
RSS sounds minority warning on statehood demand
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, Dec. 26: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has given a
communal twist to the demand for small states, claiming that Muslims
see a higher possibility of domination if some of these are created.
“Muslims see a great chance of domination in a new Harit Pradesh; they
view it as a throwback to the Nizam days when they speak of Telangana.
These have dangerous dimensions,” warns an editorial in the latest
edition of the Sangh’s weekly journal, Organiser. The editorial is on
the journal’s website; the issue will be published tomorrow.
The article rejects the adoption of “religion and language” as
criteria for carving out new states — although religion has never been
an official criterion for statehood.
Asked to react, Asaduddin Owaisi, Hyderabad MP and leader of the
Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, said: “We have not publicly stated our
position (on Telangana statehood).”
However, sources said that in the Majlis’s internal discussions, a
view had been expressed that the BJP could gain ground over time in a
Telangana state where Muslims would make up 14 per cent of the
population. In undivided Andhra Pradesh, they are 9.4 per cent.
“The Hindutva mindset is very much prevalent in Telangana although the
BJP might not be strong in the region at the moment,” a source said.
Rashtriya Lok Dal leader and Harit Pradesh statehood spearhead Ajit
Singh dismissed the Sangh’s suggestion. “(Mohan) Bhagwat (the Sangh
chief) endorsed Harit Pradesh in a statement in Agra. In any case, we
are not asking for it on the basis of caste or religion,” he said.
Ironically, at a time the Sangh is trying to appropriate and run it,
the BJP has been the only party, apart from the Telangana Rashtra
Samiti (TRS), to have consistently supported statehood for Telangana.
The BJP has long supported the creation of smaller states and
expresses pride that Uttarakhand (then Uttaranchal), Chhattisgarh and
Jharkhand came into being without controversy during the NDA’s tenure.
The party now backs the demand for Gorkhaland following its alliance
with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha during the last Lok Sabha elections.
The Organiser editorial grudgingly endorses the idea of linguistic
states. It says that although “unimaginative” to start with, the
states evolved into a “workable model over the years”.
“A certain level of emotive integration and development structure
emerged over a period which brought both political stability and
national integration. This is not the time to rake up fresh
controversies. This is not the way other developed or developing
countries manage their affairs,” it adds.
The editorial uses economic and political arguments to discredit the
case for small states. Its suggested solution is a “strategy for
seamless economic and emotional unity and not more states and more
political loot at the expense of the taxpayer”.
The editorial accuses Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi of fomenting the
Telangana trouble. “It was Sonia Gandhi’s midnight political harakiri
in offering Telangana to the agitating TRS that has helped sprout such
demands instantaneously from almost all parts of the country by little-
known organisations.”
About TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao, it says: “Local politicians
are prone to foment and support the demand as it helps their career
advancement.”
The editorial claims that Rahul’s attempts at nurturing his political
career in Uttar Pradesh by “exploiting the backwardness of Bundelkhand
and eastern Uttar Pradesh” has provoked Mayavati to demand the state’s
trifurcation.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091227/jsp/nation/story_11912918.jsp
Khaki goes chic
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is trying to bring a whiff of
modernity in its functioning. But are the changes merely cosmetic,
asks Radhika Ramaseshan
It’s time for a shakha session, and the pracharaks — or preachers —
are all ready for it. But instead of congregating in the local park,
where the young and the old gather in their khaki shorts for a drill
and discussions, the men are sitting in front of their laptops. They
log on — and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) gets ready for
another meeting on its cyber shakha.
The old order is changing. The RSS, long accused of existing in a time
warp, is seeking to function in real time. A debate has engulfed the
group. Should members be allowed to junk their khaki shorts and white
bush shirts for track suits? Do they have to trundle along in slow
trains, or are they allowed to fly? In short, can the RSS move with
the times? The questions are crucial — for the issue at hand is
change. The savants are thinking hard in their fortified campuses in
Nagpur and Delhi. On the agenda is almost everything. Issues such as
members being allowed to play cricket and football in the shakhas and
whether they have to shun sex if they want to go up the RSS ladder are
being discussed. How should they save the cow and the Ganga and — most
importantly — salvage the battered Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the
RSS’s political progeny?
Many in the RSS believe that one way of saving the BJP — which was
swept out of power at the Centre in 2004 and is racked by dissidence —
is by strengthening the RSS itself. For that, the RSS, whose shakhas
have been declining in recent years in numbers, has to attract more
people. And to be able to do that, it needs to answer some questions
that its members have been asking.
“The RSS is going through a churning, organisationally, on its
relations with its affiliate organisations and flexibility in its
ideology,” says a leader who sat on a privileged perch in the Sangh
and the BJP and claims he can take a “distant” view of both. The
churning, he says, has been triggered among other reasons by the RSS’s
diminishing inability to attract young people and the “declining”
quality of the pracharak.
The RSS banks on the character of its member, and any dilution, says
K.N. Govindacharya, a former pracharak and a former BJP ideologue, can
spell disaster for the organisation. “He is the steel frame of the
organisation, and he should be of 24 carat, not more or less. He
should be like an aircraft and not the pilot, always on radar and
properly tanked up to land safely. So, if a hundred potential
pracharaks are contacted, the chances are 30 will come to the shakhas
and of them, only 10 will become regulars,” he says.
Not surprisingly, the number of shakhas has decreased in the last few
years. In 2006-07 (March), the RSS had 44,417 shakhas in 30,981
places. In 2008-09 (January), it had 43,905 shakhas in 30,015 places.
On the other hand, till January 2004, when a BJP-led government was at
the Centre, the RSS had 48,329 shakhas in 33,758 sites. Govindacharya
attributes the relatively high attrition rate to full-time jobs,
domestic responsibility, tuition classes, TV and the Internet.
Clearly, for the young, the early morning exercises at the
neighbourhood RSS shakha are just not attractive enough.
The future of shakhas came up at the central working committee meeting
of the RSS at Rajgir in Bihar last week. RSS head Mohan Bhagwat, who
is specifically targetting the youth, has been mulling over changes to
get around these problems. “We introduced new dimensions to our
working system in the last several years,” says pracharak pramukh
Madan Das Devi. “We have designated pracharaks to restructure our
activity among the college-going youths, professionals, etc.”
Bhagwat, 58, educated in veterinary sciences, is “eminently suited” to
“re-orient” the organisation because he’s “modern-minded and vibes
well with scientists from the US National Aeronautics and Space
Administration and students from the Indian Institutes of Technology
and the Indian Institutes of Management,” says BJP spokesman Prakash
Javdekar, who counts himself as his disciple. Walter Andersen, co-
author of The Brotherhood in Saffron and a professor of South Asian
studies in the Johns Hopkins University, stresses that Bhagwat has
been seeking to attract the young. “The young in India are now better
educated, more ambitious and I think Bhagwat senses this,” he says.
Information technology milans (get-togethers) are a part of Bhagwat’s
innovations that are flourishing in Bangalore. Young techies, up to
their eyebrows with work and money, are being encouraged to move
towards the RSS. The meetings are marked with bouts of soul-searching
on “cultural nationalism”, the RSS core belief. The milans have been
taking place since 2007 on festive occasions such as Vijaya Dashami,
Holi or Diwali, when the chief RSS leader delivers his annual lecture.
The meetings end with the members singing the Sangh anthem — Namaste,
sadaa vatsale mathrubhoomi (salutations, ever-loving Motherland) with
their right hand placed over the chest.
The IT pull was propelled by former IITians and engineers working full-
time with the Sangh, who demolished the conservatives’ resistance to
the computer by uncovering its potential. “An alternative to the
shakha has been devised. We call it a cyber shakha. Instead of
congregating in a public place, members sit in their rooms and chat on
the net on a mutually chosen date and time,” a source says.
Milind Oak, who looks after the RSS’s archives and the website, claims
the ‘e-shakhas’ have wowed its diaspora in the West. “Persons living
apart by 300 kms or more, but wedded to a common cause and ideology,
stay connected. There is no way of verifying the antecedents of the
netizens. But we take the minimum caution of checking the e-mail IDs
and ensuring they don’t spam,” says the former computer engineer.
The RSS has relaxed the shakha rules and drill to facilitate other
professionals such as doctors and lawyers to participate after duty
hours. “After 8 pm, obviously nobody can play kabaddi or do strenuous
exercises (which are the norm in the morning shakhas). So we’ve
introduced what we call intellectual yoga. Meditate and discuss the
important issues of the day,” says Ram Madhav, a member of the central
working committee of the RSS.
The 84-year-old uniform or gana vesh may also give in to blue trousers
and a white shirt. Insiders say there has been a demand — ironically
from married or older members — who either complained that their
children were too “embarrassed” to see them in outsized khakis or
their legs freeze in winter. BJP lore has it that its senior leaders
stay away from the shakhas because their shorts don’t fit them anymore
or their children have hidden them away.
However, the question of lifting the embargo on marriage remains
unresolved.
In 2005, the Sangh floated a trial balloon on its web-site, www.rss.org,
in the form of a poll on whether pracharaks should marry. About 57 per
cent said ‘yes,’ 32 per cent said ‘no’ while the rest were undecided.
The link was later taken off.
In 2004, a pro-RSS journal, Hinduism Today, carried a news report that
the Sangh was relooking the celibacy rule because bachelorhood
apparently made the 50+ swayamsevaks cynical and reclusive. But a
proposal to relax the norm for those in the second and third rungs of
the hierarchy has been shot down. “Family life distracts people and
encourages corruption,” a pracharak states baldly.
The Sangh evidently seems open to cosmetic tweaks — such as
“tolerating” younger pracharaks who wear Fabindia kurtas, zip around
in chauffeur-driven cars, fly instead of taking a train and meet their
acquaintances in coffee shops and clubs. However, it is unprepared to
“compromise” on its basics and militates against “change” in an
intrinsic sense. “Flexibility in articulation, yes, but the core
ideological belief will remain unchanged,” emphasises Seshadri Chari,
a former editor of the Organiser, the RSS mouthpiece.
So, on the sticky area of majority-minority relations, its view
essentially remains frozen in time, despite it venturing to take a few
steps forward. So while Bhagwat tasks Indresh (he goes by his first
name), a pranth pracharak, to “disabuse” the Muslims and Christians of
the RSS’s low tolerance of non-Hindus, Indresh himself has strong
views on the subject. “Let Christians go to the Vatican and Muslims to
Mecca and Medina. But when in India, they must be ready to offer their
heads to the nation when called to,” he says.
That within the RSS little has changed was evident when a cow
protection campaign was flagged off by the RSS in Kurukshetra in
August. While the Sangh speakers tried hard to project the issue in
economic idiom and invoked M.K. Gandhi and Aurobindo, in the presence
of Muslim representatives roped in by Indresh, Ashok Singhal of the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad urged the crowd to chop off the hands of the
kasais (but-chers) if they killed cows.
However, Andersen feels the RSS should be given the benefit of doubt.
“There is a lingering suspicion that Muslims and Christians to a less
degree have links outside the country. To a large extent, this is a
residue of the colonial experience, missionary activity and then the
Partition. But I see less of it mentioned in RSS publications that I
have read recently.”
So is the world going to see a new improved RSS in the years to come?
“Like most entities, the RSS’s slow to change,” says an insider. For
the time-being, the shakha in the RSS is losing its central role. The
real tests, however, are yet to come.
Illustration: Suman Choudhury
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091018/jsp/7days/story_11628344.jsp
Sangh plays protector to Mumbai migrants
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, Jan. 31: Hindi-speaking residents of Maharashtra have found
a protector — in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
The RSS has directed its swayamsevaks in the western state to rise
above regional bias and protect non-Maharashtrians who have been
targeted by the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena for
“taking away” the livelihood of the Marathi-speaking population.
“We have told our volunteers to try and contain the spread of anti-
Hindi feeling in Maharashtra and protect everyone’s source of
livelihood. Incidents like those that happened should not be
repeated,” Sangh spokesperson Ram Madhav told The Telegraph.
The cue for the Sangh’s directive was a statement by chief Mohanrao
Bhagwat while addressing reporters in Guwahati yesterday.
Bhagwat said India belonged to every Indian and nobody could take away
the right to earn a living in any part of the country. “Language,
caste, sub-caste groups, tribes can be different but all are sons of
India,” he said.
Bhagwat questioned the Sena and the MNS claim that Marathi-speakers
were not getting jobs because of migrant influx. “This is a
misconception,” he said, adding that the solution to this grievance
did not lie in refusing people of one state entry into another. “The
solution can be found if the administration and the government are
dedicated.”
Bhagwat urged all political parties to rise above “vote-bank politics”
and “consider the issue”. “National integration is above all else,” he
said.
BJP leaders of the Hindi heartland sounded relieved at the statement,
more so as it came from a Maharashtrian who heads the fountainhead of
a stream of politics that is identified more with chauvinism and not
inclusiveness.
“It is consonant with a position that we have consistently held and it
will send a positive message across the country,” said spokesperson
and Bihar Rajya Sabha MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
Bihar goes to polls in October and the BJP was concerned about the
implications of the tirade against Hindi speakers but could say or do
little because it was caught between two allies: the Sena in
Maharashtra and the Janata Dal (United) in Bihar.
“By speaking for us, Bhagwatji has resolved the issue. We hope the
Sena takes it in the intended spirit,” a BJP functionary said.
An insider, however, said elections were not the sole consideration
for the RSS. “The sarsanghchalak’s statement is not to bail out the
BJP but to restate the Sangh’s conviction in nationalism. The message
for Maharashtra should be read in tandem with what he said about the
militant group Ulfa.”
Bhagwat had rejected the idea of talks with Ulfa and other insurgent
groups in the Northeast, saying India’s sovereignty and integrity were
non-negotiable.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100201/jsp/nation/story_12051412.jsp
Sangh hunts for BJP point man
RADHIKA RAMASESHAN
Nitin Gadkari
New Delhi, Jan. 3: Having installed a BJP president of its choice, the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has turned its attention to picking the
“right” man for party general secretary (organisation), the main
interface between the BJP and the Sangh.
A Sangh official said the organisation was keen to restore to the post
the primacy it had in the ’80s and ’90s when the likes of S.S.
Bhandari and K.N. Govindacharya held their own against their bosses
and sometimes had their way on crucial matters.
“Actually, it was not so much about having their way as enforcing the
Sangh’s will on the BJP,” clarified a BJP national executive member
who is close to the Sangh.
The post, however, fell into disuse when the BJP was in power, and was
further undermined with individual party leaders developing their own
Sangh links bypassing the general secretary (organisation).
In the end, the post was disgraced by Sanjay Joshi, who got enmeshed
in a sex scandal.
The Sangh is giving the matter priority because Nitin Gadkari is
expected to announce his team soon — after the party national council
formally ratifies his appointment as BJP president in mid-February.
The Sangh sees current general secretary (organisation), Ram Lal, as
“nice but ineffective”. He is likely to return to his parent outfit.
His replacement could be the “tried, tested and trusted” Dattatreya
Hosabale, Sangh joint secretary.
Hosabale was apparently a “success” as an organising secretary of the
Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the Sangh’s student wing, and was
later put in charge of its thinkers’ cell.
“He combines organisational prowess with strong ideological
commitment,” a swayamsevak said.
However, Hosabale, who is in his early 50s, has told close associates
that the job is a “bed of thorns” and not something he is looking
forward to. “More so because he is considered a prospective Sangh
chief. He perhaps doesn’t want to blot his record,” the swayamsevak
said.
One of the clearest instances of how the Sangh can control the BJP
through the general secretary (organisation) came after the 1996
general election. The BJP was then inching towards a decision to lead
a coalition at the Centre even if that meant shelving its “core”
issues.
The Sangh used Govindacharya, then general secretary (organisation),
to scuttle the plan. He publicly stated the BJP would not renounce the
Ayodhya, common civil code and Article 370 planks, thus turning away
possible “secular” allies.
The Sangh has made it clear that Gadkari’s team will be “youthful and
socially inclusive”.
Among the “youths” on the Sangh’s radar are Uttar Pradesh MLA Raghav
Lakhanpal Sharma and Lok Sabha MPs Anurag Thakur and Anant Kumar
Hegde.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100104/jsp/nation/story_11939671.jsp
FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS
- The BJP has to open its doors to diverse currents and interests
Swapan Dasgupta
Earlier this week, a BJP-watcher in the media proffered the novel
suggestion in a web article that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
chief, Mohan Bhagwat, should hold concurrent charge of the Bharatiya
Janata Party. “I would go a step further,” she wrote, “and state that
since he is so clearly the Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesh of the BJP/RSS he
should also take-over the constitutional post of Leader of the
Opposition … In fact, Bhagwat should eventually consider being Leader
in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha but since that would involve
amending the Constitution of India he should first focus on fixing the
BJP Constitution to ensure him unlimited power and authority that he
seems to enjoy anyway.”
Since irony and sarcasm in the English language tend to go largely
undetected, this plea for one-man-all-posts could well be interpreted
as a logical extension of Arun Shourie’s theatrical pronouncement that
the RSS should “take over” the Bharatiya Janata Party. Conversely,
since Bhagwat has affirmed many times over in his media interactions
that the RSS is merely a “cultural organization” that doesn’t give
gratuitous advice to the BJP, many will view the suggestion as simply
insolent.
It is difficult to anticipate how the RSS will react to the suggestion
that it shed all pretence and assume a formal political role. It is
said that Sardar Vallabbhai Patel once suggested precisely such a
course to “Guruji” M.S. Golwalkar, the iconic, second RSS chief. It
was rejected because Golwalkar believed that politics is a “cesspool”
and jumping into it would contaminate the RSS’ s larger “nation
building” project. Since then, keeping an arm’s length from politics
has defined RSS orthodoxy. This detachment, however, has never negated
the discreet advice of the organization to its swayamsevaks in public
life. Occasionally, as happened during the tenure of K.S. Sudarshan,
the distinction between advice and instruction was almost obliterated.
Despite Bhagwat’s denial that the RSS was assuming charge of the BJP,
there is an impression that last week’s crisis management sessions in
Delhi resulted in a coup and the quiet transfer of control of the BJP
from the politicians to the RSS. L.K. Advani’s resignation from the
post of leader of the Opposition — a post he unwisely held on to after
the May 16 defeat — is now a foregone conclusion, as is the non-
renewal of Rajnath Singh’s term as party president. More to the point,
the RSS appears to have indicated that it has no confidence in the
ability of the BJP’s second-rung leadership to steer the party out of
its present disarray.
The RSS has mounted a global search for a new face who can undertake
the party re-building project. The choice may well be a politician
(even one with a mass base), but real decision-making will be vested
in the hands of full-time RSS pracharaks on deputation from Nagpur. As
things stand, the organization secretaries (deployed at all levels)
undertake party responsibilities, but are not subject to the political
control of the party. Their appointments and removal are the sole
responsibility of the RSS.
It is undeniable that many despondent BJP workers, perhaps a majority
of them, have reacted favourably to the RSS chief assuming a pro-
active role. The impression that a fractious and ambitious bunch of
politicians were incapable of extricating the BJP from the depths to
which it has sunk may be over-simplistic, but at the same time it was
very real. Since the RSS chief wields both moral and organizational
authority within the larger sangh parivar, his no-nonsense
intervention has been heartily welcomed, even if it involves replacing
dual control with just one power centre.
A comparison of the RSS “takeover” with a military coup ostensibly
aimed at saving “the nation” from democratic turbulence is
irresistible.
The problem with authoritarian solutions in argumentative societies is
that the immediate exhilaration at the restoration of order is
invariably replaced by long-term disappointment. Apart from a mismatch
between the Sergeant-Major mentality and competitive politics, the
honest brokers soon find themselves sucked into the role of
participants. The RSS should know the feeling. In 2006, after Advani
was removed as party president following his controversial remarks on
Jinnah, the RSS sent some 250 pracharaks into the BJP to bolster the
organization. They were appointed organizing secretaries at the
Central and state levels and the 2008 Uttar Pradesh election was
managed almost entirely by pracharaks on special deputation.
The overall experience wasn’t happy. Apart from the uneven quality of
personnel deployed, the image of the RSS as a distant moral authority
was subsumed by the emergence of the RSS as a faction, often at
loggerheads with mass politicians. The factionalism in Gujarat, Uttar
Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan were a consequence of
troubles fermented by those who claimed to speak in the name of the
sangh. If the process of pracharak implantation is speeded up without
a thorough assessment of the past experience, there is a possibility
that the BJP could witness even more strife and major desertions.
Bhagwat needs to be mindful that greater RSS control of the BJP is a
high-risk strategy.
Secondly, an unstated feature of the RSS intervention is the belief in
the vanguard role of the RSS and the superior qualities of those who
have dedicated themselves full-time to the sangh. Compared to the
“lateral entry” politician who is in the BJP because it is the most
meaningful non-Congress formation, the swayamsevak is projected as
something akin to a chosen people. Apart from the sheer arrogance of a
belief that casts all those who didn’t attend shakhas as lesser beings
— and this includes every woman — this caste system runs counter to
the very purpose of a political party — to win the support of the
majority and create a representative leadership profile. The
cultivation of enhanced self-worth may be necessary to nurture
commitment to a religious order or a brotherhood, but political
leadership cannot be settled on the strength of Indic versions of the
old school tie and membership of a Masonic Lodge — at least not in a
21st century where hierarchies are constantly being unsettled.
The fundamental question the BJP has to address is: why is it in
existence in the first place? If upholding Hindu interests is its main
leitmotif, it is not dissimilar to a grander version of the Majlis-e-
Ittehad-ul-Musalmeen, which controls the Muslim ghettos of Hyderabad
and routinely wins a Lok Sabha seat. The MIM, an offshoot of the
original Razakars, resonates with nostalgia for a lost sovereignty and
an eroding high culture. It will always be a factor in Muslim politics
of the Deccan but a non-starter in all calculations of governance.
If the BJP wishes to be a party aspiring to some 80 Lok Sabha seats,
with a presence in the Hindi-speaking states, it can persist with the
cohesiveness of the erstwhile Jana Sangh. If its ambitions are greater
and it seeks to challenge the Congress’s all-India presence, it has to
open its doors wider to diverse currents and interests. The RSS is an
important input into the BJP, but it is not the only input. If the BJP
wishes to mirror the richness of the nationalist experience, it must
become a Kumbh Mela of diverse tendencies. With his stature and
goodwill, Bhagwat can play a constructive facilitator of such a
process. However, the creation of “structures and procedures” he has
repeatedly stressed must be premised on the principles of
inclusiveness, accommodation and, above all, competence. A one-size-
fits-all approach based on loyalty is too eerily reminiscent of the
failed ideologies of the 20th century.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090904/jsp/opinion/story_11449246.jsp
Last leg of pracharak era
RADHIKA RAMASESHAN
Manmohan Singh offers condolences at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi
on Tuesday. (PTI)
New Delhi, Oct. 6: Pyarelal Khandelwal, among the last of a generation
of Sangh pracharaks loaned to the BJP, has died. He was 80.
A Rajya Sabha MP, Khandelwal, who was battling cancer, died this
morning at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences where he had
been shifted five days ago.
Top leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Vice-
President Hamid Ansari, visited the BJP headquarters on Ashoka Road to
pay their last respects to the man whose tryst with fame had lasted a
few hours.
Days after Jaswant Singh was expelled from the BJP, he wrote a letter
to party president Rajnath Singh, calling it “unconstitutional” and
“unfair”. He also made it a point to publicise his act in sound bites.
In the 65 years or so that Khandelwal lived first in the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh and then the BJP, he was another apparatchik:
faceless, faithful to his masters in the Sangh and the party. So, when
he died this morning, old-timers turned misty-eyed at the passing away
of a generation of “pracharaks” who were leased out by the Sangh to
the BJP to straighten out the apparatus as and when the Nagpur high
command thought it appropriate.
It isn’t easy being a pracharak. Any “swayamsevak” with a year’s
experience is qualified to be one. But that is just looking at it from
the outside. A pracharak gets no salary and is required to work
anywhere in the country — forests, hills, deserts — while the RSS
takes care of his minimum requirements.
He has to remain celibate and virtually sever relations with his
family.
However, the Sangh, known as much for its pragmatism as its
doctrinaire policies and discipline, has maintained a fuzzy line
between a pracharak and a political worker. So, persons like
Khandelwal and his more illustrious predecessors, Sunder Singh
Bhandari, K.N. Govindacharya and Kushabhau Thakre continued to be
called pracharaks even after they were inducted into the BJP and
plunged full-time into politics.
As the BJP tasted and savoured power, the pracharak’s image got
burnished. There were also times when big reputations fell, implicated
in scams and personal scandals, as the average swayamsevak and the
party worker puzzled over what had happened to the leaders’
“commitment” to terms like morality, integrity and incorruptibility.
The pracharaks, however, continued to stay in their Spartan quarters
at the BJP headquarters — single rooms with a cot, a couple of plastic
chairs, a study table and a ceiling or pedestal fan — while ministers
and MPs moved into sprawling bungalows and flew first class.
The pracharaks also shared a common bath and toilet and ate in a mess.
Those like Bhandari and Khandelwal, who became Rajya Sabha MPs, were
granted the privilege of living in official houses. But it is said the
RSS fought a “moral” battle with itself before letting them.
The “advantage” a BJP “pracharak” had over his colleagues was the
moral authority that enabled him to hold his own against top leaders
as Bhandari did.
Bhandari, whose death too had prompted a visit by the Prime Minister
to the BJP office, was known to tell off L.K. Advani and Atal Bihari
Vajpayee at internal meetings.
The BJP’s ups and downs with the RSS have seen fewer pracharaks in its
midst. Especially since Sanjay Joshi was disgraced after a CD
allegedly showed him making out with a woman. The RSS quickly
distanced itself from Joshi.
Ram Lal is the only pracharak left after Khandelwal. Nobody knows how
long he will last in the BJP.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091007/jsp/nation/story_11585585.jsp
RSS conclave begins
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Patna, Oct. 9: With border security, environment and rural development
challenges on its agenda, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) today
began its three-day national working committee meeting at Rajgir in
Nalanda, the home district of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.
The Hindu outfit’s spokesman, Manmohan Vaidya, informed reporters of
the multi-pronged agenda soon after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat
inaugurated the meet. RSS sources said that “Maoist menace” had turned
out to be an obstacle in the way of rural development and that RSS top
brass would work on the strategy to counter the “violence”.
Apparently, drought, recurring floods and global warming will also be
in focus.
The mother outfit of the Sangh Parivar would also examine the role and
relationship of the BJP with the Nitish Kumar-led government and issue
a guideline for the future course of action. Senior BJP leaders,
however, were conspicuous by their absence.
Asked about the absence, Manmohan Vaidya said: “It is an internal
meeting with 350 cadre are participating.” He refused to say anything
further on the matter.
Sources revealed that the top VHP leaders — another wing of the RSS —
Praveen Togadia and Ashok Singhal would join the conclave tomorrow.
RSS’s karyawahak mandal (working committee) meet, first of its kind
and that too in Nitish Kumar’s home district has triggered a war of
words between the ruling JD(U) and its rival RJD.
RJD general secretary Ramkripal Yadav said that the RSS meet would
trigger communal tension in Bihar. “The likes of Praveen Togadia and
Ashok Singhal were not allowed to enter Bihar when Lalu Prasad’s RJD
was in power,” Ramkripal said, adding: “The state has been treating
leaders of the communal outfit as its guests.”
The JD(U) responded by stating that the “RSS is not a banned outfit
and as such it is entitled to organise its meeting anywhere it likes”.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091010/jsp/nation/story_11596897.jsp
Gadkari spoiler in Sangh plan
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, Dec. 19: One of the first effects of Nitin Gadkari’s
appointment as BJP president may be to force his principal backer to
abandon a key blueprint.
Gadkari’s desire for a Rajya Sabha berth may handicap the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh, which wants a clear separation between the BJP’s
parliamentary wing and the party organisation.
The Sangh, which scripted Gadkari’s elevation to tighten its grip on
the BJP, believes that top party posts, especially those of general
secretary, should be withheld from MPs so that the organisation is not
neglected.
The proposal had put a question mark on the continuance of three MPs
who double as general secretaries: Ananth Kumar, Gopinath Munde and
Vinay Katiyar.
Three vice-presidents — Bal Apte, Shanta Kumar and Bijoya Chakravarty
— too are MPs, but since a vice-president’s post is not as important
as a general secretary’s, they might have kept their party jobs even
if the Sangh implemented its plan.
However, an official said that if Gadkari got a Rajya Sabha seat from
Maharashtra in the April elections, the plan may have to be junked.
The Sangh-BJP has emulated the Congress by amending the BJP
constitution to create the parliamentary party chairman’s position for
L.K. Advani after he resigned as leader of the Lok Sabha Opposition.
The Congress parliamentary party chairperson’s post was similarly set
up for Sonia Gandhi in 1998 because she was not an MP. However, once
she was into full-time politics, the Congress felt she should play an
active part in the party’s parliamentary arm.
But while the Congress tweaked the rules to bridge the party-
parliamentary wing divide for Sonia, the Sangh’s rationale was to
separate the two so it could reign supreme over the party and let
Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley run parliamentary affairs.
Minutes after Gadkari’s appointment, his picture replaced Rajnath
Singh’s on the BJP’s portal and was positioned with the faces of
Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
With that, lobbying started for the positions that have fallen vacant.
The deputy Opposition leader’s post in the Lok Sabha is likely to go
to Gopinath Munde although Ananth Kumar and Yashwant Sinha too are
keen. But since Gadkari, Sushma and Jaitley are all Brahmins, the BJP
is unlikely to induct a fourth Brahmin, Ananth.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091220/jsp/nation/story_11888015.jsp
Sangh tied up in knots on marriage
- Website pops the question in a poll
RADHIKA RAMASESHAN
ON NEW ROAD? RSS workers marching in Bhopal. File picture
New Delhi, Sept. 5: If you are a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
pracharak, you stay that way all your life: single, celibate and
without an office of power and patronage.
Should you wish to unshackle yourself from the cloister of Nagpur and
Jhandewalan, you cease to be a pracharak ? propagandist in translation
and whole-timer in transliteration.
But the times they are a-changin’ and nothing reflects it more
tellingly than a poll on the Net. If you click www.rss.org and access
the media site, you will chance upon the “poll of the day”: should
Sangh pracharaks be allowed to marry?
The results show of the 708 votes polled so far, 57.2 per cent (405)
said yes, 32.6 per cent (231) said no, 7.3 per cent said maybe, while
the rest had no opinion.
The “survey” carried a quote, presumably sent by a pracharak, Chetan,
who wrote: “When people have no time to even attend a shakha (an RSS
branch) or visit this site regularly, then why such a poll, just like
armchair philosophy. Let this matter be decided in any karyakarni
(working committee meet) at the national, state or district levels.”
Chetan’s take was endorsed by RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav, who said:
“The order of brahmacharyas (celibates) is part of Hinduism. Several
religious missions practise it. Not just the RSS.”
He maintained that brahmacharya was an “unwritten rule” of the Sangh
because it was “impossible for a householder to devote full time and
attention to a pracharak’s job”.
Asked if the “poll” indicated the Sangh’s changing mindset or the
start of a debate on marriage versus bachelorhood, Madhav denied that
the exercise was inspired by the RSS. “We will have to delink this
particular site from our website,” he said.
Madhav’s disclaimer notwithstanding, the debate had bobbed up last
year when a journal with RSS leanings, Hinduism Today, put out a news
item in its August issue claiming that the Sangh was taking a relook
at the rule that banned pracharaks from marrying.
The journal even quoted a “study” purportedly carried out by a group
of unnamed Mumbai psychologists who said bachelorhood induced cynicism
in several swayamsevaks once they crossed 50. The study suggested that
marriage was the only way to prevent the Sangh’s geriatrics from
becoming recluses. It was of the view that their spouses could work
with them in rural areas.
The item irked the RSS. “An honest peep into the working of the RSS
will convince one that for any pracharak, service to the nation is the
only main purpose of his life, not marriage, nor comforts and not fame
or any personal gain,” Balram Mishra, a veteran swayamsevak, had
written in the Organiser, the Sangh mouthpiece.
“It is absurd to say that pracharaks tend to be reclusive mid-life.
The more they age, the more they get national consciousness.”
A former swayamsevak had contested Mishra’s view in private, saying
that the oath of celibacy and a diktat not to set eyes on anything
“worldly” was one reason why RSS shakhas no longer drew youths even in
small towns and villages.
He had said there was a dominant opinion that allowing pracharaks to
marry was the only way to avoid the occasional “scandal” ? remember
K.N. Govindacharya and Uma Bharti? ? and ensure that the swayamsevaks
were looked after in old age.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050906/asp/nation/story_5202780.asp
bademiyansubhanallah
wagwanblad
July 31, 2007
HELP BAN THE RSS BY SIGNING THIS PETITION
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/bantherss/
The RSS- Rashtriya Swaymsevak Sangh is a Hindu Extreamist Organisation
in India and across the World..They aim to create a Hindu Superstate
within India,they have openly Oppressed Sikhs,Muslims,Christians along
with Dalits,GENOCIDE HAS BEEN CARRIED OUT ON ALL THESE MINORITIES
WITHIN INDIA, Amnesty International and other groups document this
Minorities are brutally killed by this group and their funding comes
from Various sources across the UK.Groups such as Sewa International
Hindu Swaymsevak Sangh,Bajrang Dal,and the VHP fund these groups
openly.THEIR FUNDING NEEDS TO STOP,IF THE OPPRESION OF MUSLIMS ,SIKHS,
CHRISTIANS, & DALITS(LOWER CASTE PEOPLE)IS TO END (more)
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Joined:August 25, 2008Last Sign In:55 minutes ago
Subscribers:245
Website:http://www.faithfreedom.org/WAKE UP! TIME IS YOURS
Oh Hindu! rise for the cause of people at least in the name of
Humanity. Discard the cowardice mentality inherited as a result of
foreign rules for a long time and stand for the truth and dare to look
at the suffering of Hindus in South Asia and around the world. Just
unite for once. Remove the curtain of cultism disguised as religions.
Bring the peace and truth to the world. This will be a great service
to Humanity. Don't be confused while defending Dharma or truth with
word 'secularism'. The followers of a religion who dont believe in
conversion are secular. So you all are secular. Dont be confused with
this word. Dont believe in the Indian history written by communists
for whom Hindu dharma is a primitive religion. Dont believe that
Muslims were peacefully ruling this country and thus you forget the
sacrifice of lives of crores of your ancestors who fought to save this
Dharmic tradition. Country:United StatesOccupation:Research
ScholarCompanies:To read latest entry into my blog click below
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?
fuseaction=blog.view&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;friendID=441606880&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;blogID=460018863
Hobbies:science, Hindu History, Hindu philosophy, religion , thinking
in solitude, making people aware of their great history and heritage
which has been neglected by current educational system of course at a
personal levelMovies:Remember yours this beautiful country has only
Hinduism as the common thread amongst the whole range of diverse
cultures, dharmic ways, spritual traditions, practices, and places. Oh
Hindu! for God sake don't lose your Dharma and your country. For your
information
Indian economy=whole muslim world economy.* No. of Hindus(peace loving
and freely thinking+No. of Buddhists(freely thinking and peace loving)
=No. of muslims( haters)
* Hinduism the fastest growing religion in USA.* Hinduism the fastest
growing religion in Iran.* Hinduism the fastest growing religion in
Australia, Canada and Newzealand. However, immigration is also one of
the causes of above facts. Also 4% of USA population practice Yoga and
meditation. Alsothe obviously seen gift to the world today from the
Hinduism is Yoga and Meditation which bring inner happiness and peace.
In comparison try to find out the gift of Islam to the world, only
chaos, disorder, terrorism, killing, barbarism etc (self-acclaimed
religion of peace lol!) I think the definition of peace must be
changed so that it can suit also to the muslimsMusic:Bhajan, Old
songs, or songs from mid 80s.Books:tired of reading, click on the
following to read my argument with a Muslim propagandist.Recent
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(3 days ago) Om Namah Shivay
I've seen the factual video you've created about the original historey
of taj mahal and like it well. i wish if all Hindu get togeather and
wipe out all muslims out of this world. I just have one request, could
you change the font colour to something that is more legiable, so
everyone can read it well. also increase the time it takes to show
another scene.
Jai Hind
Jai Hind
fossils666
(1 week ago) JAI SHRI RAM
Gorgina010
(2 weeks ago) great channel, subscribed.
HinduIndianPeace (1 month ago) FLASH NEWS:
READ:
LOL... dr.kaaffir naik.. oops sry dr. zakir naik openly emraced
eternal Hinduism(sanadhan dharma) by accepting that prophet mohamad
was given flying horse buraq by LORD SHIVA...
dr.kaafir naik aka zakir naik openly embraced HINDUISM in front of
thousands of terrorists(yea moo-slimes) by admitting that mohamad's
father was ACTUALLY A SLAVE OF VISHNU......!!!!
for accepting the Great Vedic Hinduism dr.zakir naik has been
announced as a KAAFIR by sunni muslims organisations... LOL........ my
Hindu friend pls send this important message to all Hindus and
muslims... lets celebrate..!! JAI HIND... HINDUSTAN FOREVER!!
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(1 month ago) PLEASE SUPPORT Vrindavan dham the land of Krsna, which
is in danger, please all sign the petition at my channel! JAi Sri
Krishna!
Ghost77Riders (1 month ago) I support India.. :)
jyoluch
(2 months ago) "When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in
the face, and I see not one ray of hope on the horizon, I turn to
Bhagavad-Gita and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin
to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. Those who meditate on
the Gita will derive fresh joy and new meanings from it every day."
~ Mahatma Gandhi
jyoluch
(2 months ago) "When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in
the face, and I see not one ray of hope on the horizon, I turn to
Bhagavad-Gita and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin
to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. Those who meditate on
the Gita will derive fresh joy and new meanings from it every day."
~ Mahatma Gandhi
strojec1
(2 months ago) Hindusium is the oldest religion.
Vedas was divided and subdived. rishis spoke the language
xXx0Sanctuary0xXx
(2 months ago) Secular India<<<<<<LOL. India doesnt even support its
HINDU neighbour NEPAL. See what I mean. By the way I am Indian not
Nepalese so dont take it the wrong way
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyuqXros4AI&feature=related
bademiyansubhanallah
hoveian
January 16, 2007
Exclusive footage from 1998 of physical training inside the RSS.
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UKGSTSEVA
April 08, 2009
A speach about the RSS. We will look at how they infiltrate Sikh
institutions & gurdwara's in India & around the world.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh & Rashtriya Sikh Sangat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnvEj8pWdYg
Sangh Shiksha Varg-Tritiya Varsh, Samapan, 9th June, Nagpur. Sharirik
Karyakram Part-1
RSSOwner
June 28, 2009
On 9th June, in soaring sun and hot environment of Nagpur (45 C temp)
around 1000 Swayam Sevak completed third year training camp of sangh,
this video is all about demonstration of physical activities learnt at
camp, like Yoga, War Defense Training and many such.....RSS arrange
such training camps all over Nation vary from 3 day to 1 month final
year camp means 3rd camp is always at Nagpur RSS Head Office.
SANGH IN KERELA
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chhotemianinshallah
Book:
RSS PRIMER
Based on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh documents
by Shamsul Islam
Price: Rs 20 + Regd Postage Rs 18
Pages: 32 / Paperback
ISBN-10: 81-7221-039-6
ISBN-13: 978-81-7221-039-7
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh unveiled in simple questions and answers
What the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is all about?
All that you would ever want to know about the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh
A simple guide to the past and present of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
What Sangh Parivar Stands for?
Sixth Edition, 2010
(Earlier editions published as Know the RSS)
PUBLISHERS
Pharos Media & Publishing Pvt Ltd
D-84 Abul Fazl Enclave - I
Jamia Nagar, New Delhi-110 025, India
Tel. +91-11-26947483
Email: bo...@pharosmedia.com
Website: www.pharosmedia.com
Table of Contents
Introduction
Is it true that the RSS idolizes fascism Hitler?
Is RSS loyal to National Flag?
Is RSS loyal to Constitution of India?
Does RSS have faith in Democracy, Secularism and Federalism?
Why was RSS banned after the murder of Gandhiji?
Did RSS support the Freedom Movement?
Does RSS respect martyrs of the Freedom Movement like Bhagat Singh and
others?
How does non-political RSS manipulate national politics?
Is BJP independent of RSS?
Is RSS helping organizations like ISI?
Does RSS believe in Two-Nation Theory like pre-Partition Muslim
League?
http://www.pharosmedia.com/india-books-bookstore/RSS_PRIMER_Rashtriya_Swayamsevak_Sangh.htm
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
About Organisation
{{POV}}
{{Hinduism small}} The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ({{lang-hi|
राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ}}, {{lang-en|National Volunteers' Union}}),
also known as the Sangh or the RSS, is a Hindu nationalist
organization in India. It was founded in 1925 by K.B. Hedgewar. The
RSS is active throughout India and abroad as the Hindu Swayamsevak
Sangh.
Their general philosophical outlook is cultural nationalism known as
integral humanism, aimed at preserving the spiritual and moral
traditions of India.Christophe Jaffrelot, The Hindu nationalist
Movement in India, Columbia University Press, 1998 The RSS believes
that Hinduism is not a religion but a way of life.
http://www.rss.org/New_RSS/Mission_Vision/Why_RSS.jsp
The proclaimed purpose of the organization is "serving the nation and
its people in the form of God - Bharata Mata (Mother India) and
protecting the interests of the Hindus in India".
They have engaged in numerous social, service charity, and relief
works, and engaged in inter-community dialogues, as well as actively
participated in the political process. They are well-organized and
have a heirarchial structure to their organization, with the
sarsanghchalak being the highest rank.
The RSS was banned in India thrice during periods in which the
government of the time considered them a threat to the state: in 1948
after Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, during the 1975 Emergency in
India, and after the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition, in order. The bans
were subsequently lifted after the Supreme Court of India declined to
uphold the bans due to lack of evidence of their involvement in the
alleged activities{{Fact|date=April 2007}}.
The RSS continues to be viewed as controversial due its commitment to
stop conversions of Hindus and to "organise" Hindu society,
allegations of its "Fascist" tendencies and it's alleged involvement
in several communal riots (the latest being the riots in Gujarat in
2002). These allegations are made by various academics, politicians
and commentators, but disputed by other academics.
Its numbers have been bolstered by the rise of its associated Sangh
Parivar members, especially the Bharatiya Janata Party.
History
In 1925, Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, a Nagpur doctor influenced by
recent Hindu-Muslim riots in his town, formed the Rashtriya
Swayemsevak Sangh aiming to protect Hindus by organizing
together.Curran, Jean A. Jr. The RSS: Militant Hinduism Far Eastern
Survey, Vol. 19, No. 10. (May 17, 1950), pp. 93-98. Hedgewar proposed
the Hindu masses must be united to combat the challenges facing them
and protect the freedom and diversity of Indian civilization. In the
1940s the development of the RSS was fueled by a desire of some Hindus
to organize themselves in reaction to the growing mobilization,
sometimes in paramilitary form, of Muslim separatist movements. The
response was strongest in areas where the Hindus were in the minority.
RSS benefited from support from local community leaders. The
"pracharaks" or "full-time workers", who were dispatched on the
recommendation of such patrons, gathered support and coordinated their
efforts from their headquarters in NagpurK R Malkani: The RSS Story.
During the Indian independence movement, the RSS campaigned alongside
the Indian National Congress for national independence at first
keeping its organization separate and core mission different. However
when some Congress leaders tried to subsume RSS into the Congress and
urged the RSS leaders to dismantle the organization, they slowly
diverged away from the Congress.
Partition activities
The Partition of India was a very traumatic event in the young
nation's history. Millions of people, both Hindu and Muslim, attempted
to migrate from India and Pakistan/East-Pakistan through the violence
and the death toll was considerable http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat3.htm#India.
The organization gained considerable strength and support because of
its various relief activities organized for the migrating Hindus and
successful protection of Hindus in the Hindu-Muslim riots during the
time of the partition. At the time, its alleged contribution to the
spread of communalism led to allegations of it being anti-Muslim.
Banning and revival
After Mahatma Gandhi's death in 1948, the RSS was accused by the
Government of India for taking part in the plot to assassinate the
Mahatma. Jawaharlal Nehru, in his opposition to the RSS, believed that
the murder of Gandhi was part of a conspiracy on the part of the Hindu
Nationalists to "seize power", and he claimed that the RSS was the
power behind this conspiracy.For Nehru's claim that the RSS was
involved with a conspiracy to seize power and analogy to Europe on the
eve of fascist takeovers, see: Nussbaum, p. 167. Nehru saw the
situation as analogous to that in Europe on the eve of the fascist
takeovers.Quotation from Nehru provided in: Nussbaum, p. 167. .
However, without conclusive evidence on the conspiracy of the
assassination, the government banned the RSS on February 4, 1948.
Following an intervention of the Supreme Court, the government agreed
to lift the ban on the condition that the RSS adopt a constitution.
The second sarsanghchalak, Golwalkar began drafting a constitution for
the RSS which he sent to the national government in March of 1949. In
July of the same year, after many negotiations over the consititution
and its acceptance, the ban on RSS was lifted.
Over the 1950s and 1960s, under Golwalkar (usually called "Guruji" by
members), the RSS regained its following slowly and steadily. It
embraced the Cow Slaughter Ban Movement and the Ram Janmabhoomi in
Ayodhya movement. In 1967, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad was founded as an
adjunct body, initially to organise the religious leaders of various
Hindu sects and streamline religious doctrine.
It has a following throughout India.
Organization
The RSS has over 4.5 million members. BBC News, RSS: An in-depth
Analysis. Retrieved 12-May-2007. The RSS organises itself
hierarchically.
Sarsanghchalaks
The Sarsanghchalak is the family head of the RSS organization. The
individuals who have been Sarsanghchalkas are:
•Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar (founder), also known as Doctorji
(1925-1940)
•Madhavrao Sadashivrao Golwalkar, also known as, Guruji (1940-1973)
•Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras, also known as, Balasaheb (1973-1993)
•Rajendra Singh, also known as, Rajjubhaiya (1993-2000)
•Kuppahalli Sitaramayya Sudarshan (2000-present)
The position is decided by nomination followed with elections held at
the annual "Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha" meeting. The current
sarsanghachalak of RSS is K.S. Sudarshan.
Shakha
"Shakhas" means "branch" in Sanskrit.
Most of the organisational work of the Sangh is done through the
coordination of shakhas, or branches. These shakhas are run every
morning (prabhat shakha), evening (sayam shakha) or night (atisayam
shakha) for 1 hour in public places and are open to people of all
castes, creeds or social and economic status. Currently more than
50,000 shakhas are run throughout India. Apart from 42,000 daily
gatherings, there are about 5,000 weekly and 2,000 monthly gatherings
conducted throughout the length and breadth of the country{{Fact|
date=April 2007}}.
These shakhas are usually operated in playing grounds without any
offices. At the end of the shakha the prayer "Namaste Sadaa Vatsale
Matrubhoome" (which means "My salutation to you, ever loving
motherland") is recited.
These shakhas are the core building blocks of RSS structure. During a
Shakha, the activities consist of yoga, games, discussions on broad
range of social topics, prayer to Bharat Mata and an inspirational
session (baudhik). The RSS uniform consists of a black cap, white
shirt and khakhi-coloured shorts. On the day of 'Guru Poornima' the
RSS vounteers pay tributes to the 'Bhagwa Dhwaj' - the saffron flag,
which has considerable symbolic importance.
An RSS volunteer who attends shakha is referred to as a "Swayamsevak".
A Swayamsevak is sometimes appointed as a Sanghchalak, meaning group
administrator, and is given the task of leading and organizing the
Shaka's events.
Ideology
The primarily goals of the RSS are a revival of Hindu tradition and to
be an advocacy group for Hindus, whom they feel are being slowly
marginalized due to alleged "negationism" in India and the acts of
appeasement against them from the left-wing political parties and
politicians in favor of extremist elements of other religious
denominations. Their core ideology is based on Integral humanism and
Hindutva, a form of Hindu Nationalism. They describe themselves as an
"antidote to self-oblivion", and their goals as an attempt to
inculcate Indians with the "A burning devotion to the Motherland
(India), a feeling of fraternity among all citizens, intense awareness
of a common national life derived from a common culture and shared
history and heritage", as well as to "activise the dormant Hindu
society (of India), realise its past mistakes, to instil in it a firm
determination to set them right, and finally to make it bestir itself
to reassert its honour and self-respect"Mission & Vision,RSS Web
Page.
Views on other religions
The Sangh has declared publicly that its Hindutva philosophy states
that Hindutva supports the philosophy Ekam Sat Viprah Bahudha Vadanti
Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (translated to Truth is One, Sages Call it by
Many Names. The Whole Universe is one Family).BJP Philosophy -
Hindutva However, it feels this society has been threatened by
repeated persecution of Hindus, especially by Muslims. According to
the BJP, a member of the Sangh Parivar:
Thus, the seeds of today's Hindu Jagriti (awakening) were created the
very instance that an invader threatened the fabric of Hindu society
which was religious tolerance. The vibrancy of Hindu society was
noticeable at all times in that despite such barbarism from the
Islamic hordes of central Asia and Turkey, Hindus never played with
the same rules that Muslims did.BJP Philosophy - HindutvaThe RSS
believes that provided better circumstances the a majority of the
Muslim population of India would 'revert' to Hinduism, believing that
most Indian Muslims can trace their ancestry back to those with a
Hindu background. The BJP, the RSS' political wing, has expressed its
beliefs on this matter: bjp.org :
The RSS entirely agrees with Gandhiji's formulations that "There is in
Hinduism room enough for Jesus, as there is for Mohammed, Zoroster and
Moses" and that "majority of the Muslims of India are converts to that
faith from Hinduism through force of circumstances. They are still
Hindu in many essential ways and, in a free, prosperous, progressive
India, they would find it the most natural thing in the world to
revert to their ancient faith and ways of life."
The RSS believes all non-Hindus in India should adopt a stance of
religious tolerance towards the native religions, or otherwise they
should face intolerance in return. This lines up with the RSS's belief
that all religions should have the same rights and responsibilities in
terms of laws. Regarding non-Hindus in India, Madhav Sadashiv
Golwalkar, an RSS leader in the past, had also stated (in the 1940s)
that:
"The non-Hindu peoples in Hindustan must either adopt the Hindu
culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence the
Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of glorification of
Hindu race and culture, i.e., they must not only give up their
attitude intolerance and ungratefulness towards this land and its age-
old traditions but must also cultivate the positive attitude of love
and devotion instead-in a word they must cease to be foreigners, or
may stay in this country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation,
claiming nothing, deserving no privilege, far less any preferential
treatment-not even citizens' rights."Craig Baxter, The Jana Sangh: A
Biography of an Indian Political Party (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1969), p. 31.
With regards to claims of having an anti-Muslim stance, RSS
spokesperson Ram Madhav has stated that such claims are a "distortion
of RSS ideology". He asserts that the RSS "believes in the oneness of
our culture and the country", and that "any opposition to this view
could lead to disintegration as it in fact happened with the
Partition. This accent against divisiveness should therefore not be
seen as hatred towards any particular religion.Q&A: Ram Madhav,The
Hindu.
The RSS denies that they are intolerant of any other religion, citing
examples of RSS-dominated communities in India that have lived in
relative peace with adherents of other religions.
Views against the Caste system
Historically, the RSS has had several Dalit and Middle-Caste members
in their fold, several of whom are in key positions along their rank-
and-fileSunday Mail, December 23, 1990.Originally, the RSS was formed
by members of the upper caste Brahmin community. However, that
situation has changed considerably over time. An RSS sarsanghchalak
quotes:"All our best attended shakhas are in the poor areas, not in
the alienated middle class or rich upper caste suburbs or cities or
towns. In simple words, the new Sangh Swayamsevak is mostly a backward
caste or Dalit".
The RSS has recently expressed concern over caste-based political and
social conflicts, they have urged Hindus to "get rid of this evil at
the earliest"India's RSS urges war against 'evil' of
casteism,''Freerepublic archive from the Times of India''.Their
resolution adopted at a national executive meeting said:
"Hindu society should take all necessary measures to ensure entry and
access to every Hindu, irrespective of his caste, to their homes,
temples, religious places, public wells, ponds, and other public
places..Hindu society will have to get rid of this evil at the
earliest."
The organisation further contends that "caste-based untouchability"
and "feelings of high caste and low caste" were the main evils
haunting the Hindu society and aims to eradicate Casteism from Indian
society. To that end, the R.S.S have tried to reach out to prominent
Dalit (traditionally the "Untouchable" Caste) leaders in India, such
as poet and leader of the Dalit activist group "Dalit Panthers" Namdeo
DhasalDalit leader buries the hatchet with RSS,Times of India. The
Dalit Panthers have been traditional adversaries of the R.S.S and
peceived them as an "upper-caste" dominated party. However,
negotiations with RSS chief K.Sudarshan on August 2006 led to
reconciliations, when Sudarshan declared that the R.S.S categorically
rejects all forms of caste discrimination in the organization. He
further said:
The Dalits are our own flesh and blood, but because of some ill
practices and social evils the practice of untouchability has brought
havoc on those who were an integral part and defenders of Dharma. This
has to be corrected through our deeds and actions."
Namadeo Dhasal said at the meeting with the RSS, "Yes, I do feel that
the fight to eradicate caste has to be fought by Dalits and caste
Hindus together carrying forward the tradition of Adi Sankara, which
got broken somewhere in between."
Sudarshan then said, "I fully agree with what you have said here
today".
In addition, the RSS has advocated for training Dalits and other
backward classes to be temple high priests (a position traditionally
reserved for Caste Brahmins and denied to lower castes). They argue
that the social divisiveness of the Caste system is responsible for
the lack of adherence to Hindu values and traditions and reaching out
to the lower castes in this manner will be a remedy to the problemRSS
for Dalit head priests in temples,Times of India.
Appealing for social harmony and Hindu brotherhood, the organisation
warned the community against the political parties, which it said had
been drawing "political benefits" out of casteism and "Inventing caste
based new conflicts in the Hindu society for the sake of political
benefits [which has] has become a trend of many politicians these
days."
Views on votebank politics
The RSS has spoken out against votebank politics of politicians who
encourage caste based rivalries and have urged political parties to
keep away from caste based politics and give an Indian culture to
democracy.
"No religion or sect is inferior to others. The whole society should
be aware that every sect and caste of Bharat has a glorious
history..The entire society should fully realize the essence of 'Na
Hinduh Patito Bhavet' (No Hindu shall ever come to grief)"
Views against Islamic Terrorism
The RSS has spoken out against Islamic Fundamentalism and acts of
Islamist terrorism carried out in various parts of India in recent
years. A Senior RSS leader Madan Das has said that there should be "no
hesitation whatsoever in fighting against those who do not want peace
and added that the world communities should fight terrorism together".
They have labelled Islamists as "anti-national elements" and have
alleged Pakistani involvement in the various terrorist actsBe vigilant
against ‘jehadis’: RSS leader,The Tribune. In addition, the Islamist
terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba is suspected for carrying out an
unsuccessful attack on the headquarters of the RSS in Nagpur on June
1,2006Lashkar-e-Toiba,South Asia Terrorism Portal Lashkar attack on
RSS HQ foiled; 3 ultras shot,The Tribune, inviting condemnation of the
outfit from politicians across the spectrumTerror attack on RSS HQ
foiled, 3 Lashkar men shot dead,Times of India.
Position on Israel and Zionism
A recent issue of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-backed weekly
Organiser has gone out of its way to support the Zionist cause,
arguing that the recent violence was the result of Palestinian
intransigence.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1722/17220140.htm.
This follows the rise in support for Israel in India in recent
years.Israel's War and India: Aftershocks. This has invited scathing
attacks on the party from anti-Zionist elements.
http://ghadar.insaf.net/June2004/MainPages/zionism.htm.
In addition. RSS welcomed the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon to India in 2003.Sharon's visit was widely condemned by the
left-wing parties and MuslimsPress spotlight on Sharon's India
visit,BBC.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh unilaterally condemned these protests
and statements.RSS slams Left for opposing Sharon's visitGoogle Cache
of above. R.S.S spokesperson Ram Madhav said:
The entire world acknowledges that Israel has effectively and
ruthlessly countered terror in the Middle East. Since India and Israel
are both fighting a proxy war against terrorism, therefore, we should
learn a lesson or two from them. We need to have close cooperation
with them in this field.
The R.S.S newspaper "Panchjanya" dubbed those advocating friendship
with Pakistan as ones responsible for encouraging terrorist activities
in India, and described the visit of Ariel Sharon as an opportunity
for India to get closure to Israel and fight terrorism jointly .
Political influence
{{Hindu politics}} In 1973, Golwalkar passed away and Balasaheb Deoras
took over the leadership, and continued until 1993, when Dr. Rajendra
Singh took over from him. During this period, came the rise of the
Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the political front of the RSS. Between 1975 and
1977, the RSS, along with socialists like Jayprakash Narayan launched
a civil disobedience movement, to reject the national emergency and
postponement of elections by Prime Minister and Congress President
Indira Gandhi. The Jana Sangh was an integral part of the Janata Party
coalition that defeated Indira Gandhi's Congress in a landslide in
1977.
It was in fact the close relationship between the Jan Sangh and the
RSS that proved to be the Janata coalition's undoing, as non-Sangh
constituents of the coalition insisted that all members of the Union
Cabinet distance themselves from the RSS, as they were now members of
the Janata Party. When Vajpayee and Advani in particular refused to do
so, the coalition collapsed over what came to be known as the 'dual
membership' issue.
The RSS saw its stock rise as the BJP thrived upon the disenchantment
of the masses with the Congress-led governments. By 1988, the BJP had
88 seats in the Lok Sabha, lower house of Parliament, and by 1996 it
was the single-largest party. In 1998 it went on to head a coalition
government that survived six years and another election in 1999.
During recent time, people who share RSS's ideology, many of whom have
been swayamsevaks or former swayamsevaks have gone on to achieve the
highest political positions in the Indian Politics. These leaders
include Atal Behari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani, Narendra Modi,
Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Pramod Mahajan, Gopinath Munde and Ram Prakash
Gupta.
Sangh Parivar
{{main|Sangh Parivar}} Organizations which are inspired by the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's ideology refer themselves as the members
of the Sangh Parivar. In most of the cases Pracharaks (Full time
volunteers of the RSS) were deputed to start and manage these
organizations. The largest organizations within the Sangh are the
Bharatiya Janata Party, Vishva Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal.
Numerous other Hindutva organizations take inspiration from the RSS's
actions.
Social Activity
The RSS has also participated in relief efforts in the Indian State of
Kashmir, which has been besieged by Islamic terrorism (see Terrorism
in Kashmir). An RSS-affiliated NGO, Sewa Bharti, has adopted 100
children, most of them Muslims, from militancy affected areas of the
region to provide them education at least up to Higher Secondary
levelJK: RSS adopts militancy hit Muslim children,''oneindia.in''.Sewa
Bharati has also collaborated with several relief groups, such as the
Catholics Bishops Conference of India to conduct relief operations in
the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Activities included
building shelters for the victims, providing food, clothes and medical
necessitiesRelief missions from Delhi,The Hindu. In 2006, RSS
participated in relief efforts to provide basic necessities such as
food, milk and potable water to the people of Surat, Gujarat who were
affected by massive floods in the regionRSS joins relief operation in
flood-hit Surat,Organiser.org.
Khushwant Singh credits members of the RSS with helping and protecting
Sikhs who were being targeted be members of the Congress(I) political
party during the 1984 Anti-Sikh RiotsK. Singh: “Congress (I) is the
Most Communal Party”, Publik Asia, 16-11-1989. . He said:
"It was the Congress(I) leaders who instigated mobs in 1984 and got
more than 3000 people killed. I must give due credit to RSS and the
BJP for showing courage and protecting helpless Sikhs during those
difficult days”
The RSS also rendered relief work during the 2001 Gujarat Earthquake
http://www.guardian.co.uk/naturaldisasters/story/0,7369,430302,00.html
and the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake and the subsequent Tsunami
http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/dec/29tn3.htm.
Criticism
Allegations of Fascistic tendencies
Some Indians criticize the RSS for its "Hindu supremacist philosophy"
and "campaigns" against other religions in India. In addition,
academic observers have described it as a "reactionary group of Hindu
fanatics with Fascist tendencies."Curran, Jean A. Jr. The RSS:
Militant Hinduism Far Eastern Survey, Vol. 19, No. 10. (May 17, 1950),
pp. 93-98.. Martha Nussbaum wrote in her book on the rise of the Hindu
right that "The RSS is possibly the most successful fascist movement
in any contemporary democracy."{{cite book |last=Nussbaum |
first=Martha |authorlink=Martha Nussbaum |coauthors= |title=The Clash
Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future |year=2007 |
publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |
location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn=0-674-02482-6 }} p. 155.
Jawaharlal Nehru attacked the RSS when he compared their efforts to
fascism. In December 1947, following allegations of RSS's involvement
in the Gandhi assassination, he wrote to the provincial governors
saying "We have a great deal of evidence to show that the RSS is an
organization which is in the nature of a private army and which is
definitely proceeding on the strictest Nazi lines, even following the
technique of organization....Quotation from Nehru provided in:
Nussbaum, p. 167."
Some academics, such as Ian McDonald of the University of Brighton,
compare the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and it's concept of
"organicism" with 19th century European Nationalism and European
Fascism, calling the "apotheosis of RSS's intellectual and physical
development the physiological patriot, a Hindu homo-fascitus", and
that "the argument of its fascist ideology and methodology" is
"profoundly disturbing"Fascism, Physical Culture and Hindu
Nationalism,by Ian MacDonald, Univ of Brighton, England
In his book Fascism: Theory and Practice, Dave Renton mentions that in
the 1990s RSS has used Communal riots as form of popular politics
against the state. Rention further goes to state that, since RSS has
adopted only adapted "parts" of Fascist ideology and is NOT a full
fledged movement against the state, they cannot be labelled as
"Fascist"
Other academics, such as David James Smith, Professor of Indian
Religions at Lancaster University, writes that despite the
organizations past links with fascist ideologies, it's decentralized
nature and lack of emphasis with a supreme leader, and the central
position that it awards to social system (rather than race), means
that describing them as "fascist" is inappropriateSmith, David James,
Hinduism and Modernity P188, Blackwell Publishing ISBN 0-631-20862-3.
Vincent Kundukulam, a Christian priest at St. Joseph Pontifical
Seminary in Aluva, Kerala, has written a Ph.D thesis in Sorbonne
University, Paris, France, that claims RSS to be neither nationalist
nor fascist RSS neither Nationalist nor Fascist, Indian Christian
priest's research concludes,Christian PostGoogle Cache of above RSS
neither nationalist nor fascist, says Christian priest after
research,The Indian ExpressWeb Archive,ibid. He states that that RSS
cannot be considered as a nationalist organisation in the sense in
which the term 'nationalism' is generally interpreted in India. He
points out that Indian nationalism and religion are mutually
exclusive. Since RSS's primary loyalty is to the Hindus, it can't be
called 'nationalist'. He also argues against branding the RSS ideology
as "Fascism", "Nazism", "Fundamentalism" and "Communalism". He said
the terms fascism, Nazism, and fundamentalism are much abused terms in
India. They have a different connotation and meaning in the European
context that don't apply to an Indian sociopolitical context. He
argues that since communalism is not a part of religion, RSS can be
called "communal" only in a limited way.
In addition, accusations of "fascism" have been critiqued by former
political philosopherProfile, Jyotirmaya Sharma and Times of India
commentator Jyotirmaya Sharma as inappropriate: a "simplistic
transference has done great injustice to our knowledge of Hindu
nationalist politics"Hindu Nationalist Politics,J. Sharma Times of
India.
References
Publications
•{{cite news| url =http://www.panchjanya.com/ | title = Panchajanya |
publisher = RSS weekly publication| language = Hindi}}
•{{cite news | url =http://www.organiser.org/ | title = Organiser |
publisher = RSS weekly publication| language = English}}
•{{cite book |title= Bunch of Thoughts |year= 1966|publisher= Sahitya
Sindhu Prakashana|location= Banglore, India |id= ISBN 81-86595-19-8}}
- Collection of Speeches by Golwalkar.
Books
•{{cite book |last=Anderson |first=Walter K. |coauthors=Damle, Sridhar
D. |title=The Brotherhood in Saffron |year=1987 |publisher=Vistaar
Publishers |location=Delhi, India}}
•{{cite book |last=Nussbaum |first=Martha |authorlink=Martha Nussbaum |
coauthors= |title=The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and
India's Future |year=2007 |publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard
University Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |
isbn=0-674-02482-6 }}
See also
{{sangh}}
External links
•RSS - official website•Accusations gone rancid, without remorse-
Criticism of smear campaigns against RSS
Sangh Parivar Hindutva
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh hi:राष्ट्रीय
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mr:राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh
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The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
Hindu revivalism remains a growing force in India today. It is also a
concern among the millions of displaced Hindus scattered around the
world. Its roots lie in the belief that Hinduism is an endangered
lifestyle. This notion is fuelled by the political assertiveness of
minority groups, efforts to convert Hindus to other faiths, suspicions
that the political authorities are sympathetic to minority groups and
the belief that foreign political and religious ideologies are
destroying the Hindu community. Every morning at sunrise, groups of
men in military-style uniforms gather together before saffron coloured
flags, in all parts of India, to participate in a common set of
rituals, physical exercises and lessons. For one hour each day, they
are taught to think of themselves as a family with a mission to
transform Hindu society. (Andersen and Damle 1) They are the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the largest and most influential organization
in India committed to Hindu revivalism. The RSS or National Volunteer
Organization, is perhaps the most interesting of any of India's social
movements. The growth of the RSS provides a detailed illustration of
India’s changing face. The purpose of this paper is to provide the
reader with an early twentieth century view of an organization that
emerged out of frustrations among India’s Hindu revivalists. These
revivalists were discontent with the work of nationalists in politics,
and determined to unify the Hindus of India against the “alien”
threats within the nation. The origins of nationalist movements in
nineteenth century India can be traced to the expansion of Western,
English education. Those attracted to the new education came primarily
from high caste Hindu groups. Many of the proponents of social,
political and religious reform among Hindus were drawn from this
English educated class. Until very late in the nineteenth century,
most politically articulate Indians were willing to collaborate with
the colonial administration. However, a shift from collaboration to
criticism began in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Two
broad movements emerged among Hindus seeking to define their national
identity: modernists and revivalists. The modernists adopted models of
social and political change based upon Western patterns; they
appreciated many of the Western philosophies and wanted India to
follow suit. The revivalist view was based on returning to a Hindu
antiquity that was thought to be superior for governing India—a
“Hindu” nation. Many felt that this desire to recreate the age of
Hindu grandeur was also a result of English education; ideas of
patriotism and nationalism crept into these peoples way of thought. It
was the English study of the Indian way of life that added to the
revivalist movement. Revivalism included those who wanted to preserve
the traditional social order as well as those who sought to reform
Hindu society as a way of strengthening Hindu solidarity. The RSS
traces its roots to the revivalist feelings that were present at that
time. The Hindu revivalists sought to recover fundamental truths about
their people. They argued that the loss of national consciousness had
created conditions that facilitated British domination of the land. By
appealing to an idealized past, the revivalists reminded the Hindu
public of the suffering and degradation experienced under British
rule. The call for independence was a logical next-step, for the
degraded present could only be overcome by eliminating the foreign
intruders who had supposedly disrupted the original blissful society.
Muslim rulers and the British were identified as sources of that
disruption and many revivalist spokesmen sought to place limits on
their political power and on their cultural influence. The proposed
changes in Hindu society were justified by the proposition that the
changes were not new at all, but were in fact a revival of older,
purer forms of Hindu culture that had degenerated during foreign rule.
Opposition to British rule increased among both the moderates and the
more extremists, as the contradictions between colonial rule and new
aspirations became obvious. Criticism of India’s colonial status was
supported by observation of British attitudes. The British viewed
Indians and Indian culture as inferior. Educated Indians were
considerably upset when the British began to characterize them as
feminine, cowardly and unrepresentative of the native culture. The
racial arrogance often expressed by European officials, businessmen
and missionaries, made a substantial contribution to the nationalist
sentiment. Constitutional reforms that offered increased Indian
participation in the legislative bodies and bureaucracy did not match
expectations. The Western educated Indians believed that they should
enjoy the same civil liberties as the English. With the development of
new techniques of agitation, the government undermined popular trust
by enforcing regulations that further diminished civil liberties. The
claims that British economic policies caused a drain of wealth from
India, further enforced the view that the British were fundamentally
unconcerned with the country’s well being. (Andersen and Damle 30)
Developments in the late nineteenth century created conditions
conducive to the expansion of revivalism. Nationalism was beginning to
assert itself. The revivalist message, based on traditional Hindu
concepts regarding society, was appealing to many Indian Hindus. In
pre-independent India, the premier nationalist organization was the
Indian National Congress, an umbrella organization that accommodated a
variety of interests including those of the revivalists. However, the
Congress was not entirely successful in adequately satisfying all
groups. Many Muslim leaders felt that Westernized Hindu elite, who
controlled the Congress, did not adequately respond to Muslim
interests. The same sentiments were shared by Hindu revivalist leaders
regarding the Hindu community. The founder of the RSS doubted whether
the Congress, which included Muslims, could bring about the desired
unity of the Hindu community. As the Hindu and Muslim leaders within
these communities continued to feel unfairly represented, they turned
to forming other political organizations claiming to represent their
respective groups. It would be appropriate to note that there was no
cohesive community, either Hindu or Muslim, in India that was united.
These communities were divided by many barriers, and developed in each
region differently, both politically and socially. What these
organizations did represent was a certain aspect of their respective
communities that was very defensive in nature. The RSS was established
in 1925 as a kind of educational body whose objective was to train a
group of Hindu men who would work together to unite the Hindu
community, so that India could once again become an independent
country. The RSS emerged during a wave of Hindu-Muslim riots that had
swept across India at the time. The RSS viewed communal rioting as a
symptom of the weakness and division within the Hindu community, and
argued that independence could be achieved only after the splintered
Hindu community, divided by caste, religion, language, and sect,
united. (Andersen and Damle 32) The formation of the RSS can be
attributed to the defensive nature of the Hindu community at the time.
The deterioration of Hindu-Muslim relations and the continual
frustration with the Indian National Congress led to the rise of the
RSS. During India’s pre-independence period, the two leaders of the
RSS, its founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar and Madhav Sadashiv
Golwalker, felt that a fundamental change in social attitudes was a
necessity before any changes occurred in the nation. The creation of a
properly trained force of nationalists would be the first step in
altering such attitudes. Most revivalists argued that Gandhi’s efforts
in the early 1920s to strengthen Hindu-Muslim bonds by lining up the
Congress organization behind the Muslim protest against the
dismemberment of the Turkish Empire encouraged Muslim separatism. When
he launched his first major non-cooperation movement in India on
August 1, 1920, one of the issues was the British unwillingness to
satisfy Muslims on the Turkish issue. Gandhi called for a complete
boycott of government institutions, while simultaneously including the
doctrine of ahimsa as an integral part of the movement. A considerable
number of Congress members, including many revivalists, opposed both
the objectives and tactics of the boycott. Widespread communal rioting
followed the apparent failure of Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement.
(Malkani 5) Hindu revivalists were particularly alarmed by the
widespread communal rioting which took place on the Malabar coast of
southwestern India during August 1921. Events there, emphasized the
revivalist concern about the dangers facing the Hindus of the
subcontinent. Muslim resentment against British rule in the Malabar
area, was coupled with anti-Hindu sentiment, and the rioting grew to
such proportions that the civil administration was unable to contain
the violence in many places. This uprising confirmed the fears of many
Hindus that the violence on the Malabar coast was a covert attempt to
enhance the political influence of Muslims at the expense of the Hindu
community. It was difficult for many to conceive how a country
comprised of 85% Hindus could be unable to defend themselves in that
situation. Many Hindus feared that similar outbreaks would occur
elsewhere, and these apprehensions fuelled revivalist sentiments. The
challenge from Islam in the early 1920s was viewed by many Hindus as a
threat to their self-esteem. The proliferation of Hindu sabhas, and
other “defensive” Hindu associations, were reactions to the growing
communal violence, the increasing political articulation of Muslims,
the cultural “Islamization” of the Muslim community, and the failure
to achieve independence. Thus, this set the stage for the emergence of
the RSS within the historical setting of modern India. The RSS’s
discipline and ideological framework were shaped by Dr. Keshav Baliram
Hedgewar, a medical doctor who had abandoned a potentially lucrative
practice to participate in the struggle against colonialism. As a
youth, Hedgewar was keenly interested in history and politics. During
the early 1920s, Hedgewar became deeply engaged in Congress Party
activities. At the 1920 annual Congress session in Nagpur, Gandhi had
promised freedom within the year through peaceful non-cooperation.
Many including Hedgewar, decided to give the experiment, in non-
violent disobedience, a chance to prove its effectiveness. The year
1921 ended without the promised swaraj. Gandhi called off the much
heralded non-cooperation campaign in early 1922, because a mob had
killed a number of policemen in the United Provinces. Hedgewar felt
Gandhi had made a serious tactical mistake. Hedgewar became
increasingly disenchanted with Gandhi and politics. (Malkani 10) The
outbreak of communal rioting in 1923 caused Hedgewar to question the
previously attempted methods used to rid India of colonial rule. The
riots in his view, were the signs of a deeper social problem—disunity
among Hindus—that would have to be addressed if India were to become
independent. During this period of escalating Hindu-Muslim animosity,
Hedgewar began to develop the intellectual foundations of the RSS. A
major influence on his thinking was Vinayak Damodar Sarvarkar’s
Hindutva, which advances the thesis that the Hindus are a nation.
While Sarvarkar’s work may have provided Hedgewar with an intellectual
justification for the concept of a Hindu nation that embraced all the
peoples of the subcontinent, it did not give him a method for uniting
the Hindu community. From his youth, Hedgewar searched for a reason to
explain India’s inability to ward off foreign domination. He was
disturbed that a small group of colonial administers could rule a vast
country like India with such ease. Hedgewar felt that much of India’s
ancient territory, referring to Tibet and Afghanistan, had been lost
due to a lack of Hindu unity. He believed that independence and
national revitalization could be achieved only when the root cause of
India’s weakness was discovered. Some time between 1924 and 1925,
Hedgewar satisfied himself that he had discovered the cause; the
fundamental problem was psychological and what was required was an
inner transformation to rekindle a sense of national consciousness and
social cohesion. Once having created a regiment of persons committed
to the national reconstruction, he believed there would be little
difficulty in sustaining a movement of revitalization, which of course
would include independence as one of its objectives. In its inception,
the RSS had two basic aims: (1.) to unite and train Hindus to face the
enemy, any alien party that was attempting to subjugate Hinduism; and
(2.) to radicalize the Hindus to hasten the British withdrawal from
India. It was founded on the auspicious day of the Hindu festival
Dusherah. The first recruits were largely Brahmin, although all Hindus
were encouraged to join. Gymnasiums or Akharas, associated with the
Kshatriya life style, proved to be the most successful grounds for
finding recruits. (Jayaprasad 58) These trained recruits would go on
to be the future leaders of the country, and keep with them the
teachings and discipline of the RSS. They would also keep a close
network with the organization. The RSS argued that their strengths lay
in their ability to develop close bonds among their members and to
sustain links when members moved on or joined various RSS affiliate
groups. In the communal riots of September 1927 in Nagpur, RSS took
steps which captured the attention of Hindus far beyond the city.
Eighty-nine RSS members were organized into sixteen squads to protect
various Hindu neighbourhoods. This generated widespread publicity and
captured the attention of Hindus everywhere. The paramilitary nature
of the RSS soon convinced the Central Provincial government that the
RSS could develop into a dangerous revolutionary group. It soon became
the most successful of a class of associations, which specialized in
recruiting young men and adolescents into uniformed militia bands
called Shakhas. The Shakha was the first stage of involvement, where
boys would work and train together and develop a camaraderie. Those
that excelled were moved up into the full-time rank of the organization
—an organization that was extremely effective in managing and
mobilizing many people. These Swayamsevaks belonging to the “Sangh
Brotherhood” were dedicated to the improvement of Hindu society,
culture, religion, and to the eventual creation of a Hindu Rashtra or
Hindu nation. Shakha technique was evolved by Dr. Hedgewar to achieve
these aims. It offered a unifying experience, stressing commitment and
loyalty to the ideologies of the RSS. The uniqueness of the technique
lay in the active participation on national affairs by each and every
member. The physical, intellectual and mental training was designed to
prepare all sections of society for effectively involving themselves
in nation building (i.e. a grass roots philosophy). The membership was
free to all castes of Hindus as equal participants, without prejudice.
The RSS believed in the equality of all castes. They did not accept
the practice of untouchability. All members must participate in common
meals, a controversial practice at the time, but one that was used by
many reformers such as the Arya Samaj, Swami Vivekananda, and Gandhi.
All followers had to conform to the behavioural standards of the RSS,
which appeared to be a mix of Brahmin and Kshatriya standards. Prior
to his death on June 21, 1940, Dr. Hedgewar chose the RSS general
secretary at the time, Golwalker, to succeed him as leader. Under the
new leadership, the RSS continued to expand rapidly during World War
II. With the pressing for an independent Muslim state by the Muslim
League, the period between 1945 to 1948 saw sharp increases in
membership within the RSS, including lower caste Hindus in areas that
are now Pakistan, Punjab and Delhi. RSS membership had previously been
largely, upper caste Hindu’s in Maharastra. The RSS was beginning to
attract, and continues to attract, low income Hindus and small
shopkeepers, who were concerned with their opportunities in a
government that favoured the high class or minorities. The RSS always
kept a certain mystery and secrecy of their membership and their
future plans. It was always under some form of scrutiny or ban from
the political authorities. Under the leadership of Hedgewar, the RSS
remained a cultural and social organization committed to the
advancement of the Hindu people. Although, the RSS trained its
disciples to be aggressive and protective of their culture, Hedgewar
insisted that they not get confrontational or purposely attack other
communities. Hedgewar also insisted that the RSS remain out of
politics totally. Members were allowed to join politics on their own,
but the organization was to remain completely apolitical. Hedgewar
felt that politics was a “dirty” business and he was more concerned
with training the youth, which would have a domino effect on later
politics in India. His successor, Golwalker, respected his wishes and
kept the RSS out of politics. However, with Golwalker the RSS began to
receive an anti-Muslim sentiment directly from the leader. The RSS
membership always seemed to have contempt for the Muslims as well as
the British, but it was now more evident in the writings of their
leader. In his book, We or Our Nationhood Defined, Golwalker made
claims of a Hindustan that was to be the land of the Hindus where they
could practice their all-prevailing religious traditions without
contamination from European or Muslim culture. “Any non-Hindus in
India must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must
entertain no idea but those of glorificationof the Hindu race and
culture, and could only stay in the country wholly subordinated to the
Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any
preferential treatment.” (Brown 347) With the insurgence of new blood
into the RSS from its many student affiliate groups, the RSS began to
grow and expand. The RSS membership began to divide on its future
objectives and goals. The traditionalist of the Sangh wanted to
concentrate on character building within the Shakha and keep out of
the country's politics. The new members of the Sangh, saw the RSS as a
growing force on the subcontinent and wanted to use the influence in a
more aggressive and political way. In the end, the traditionalist of
the RSS won and the RSS stayed out of the pre-independence politics of
India. The RSS came under harsh criticism for this move, as many
supporters felt that the RSS was the only organized and influential
group that could have prevented partition. Lord Mountbatten, the last
British Viceroy, announced the partition of the Indian subcontinent on
a communal basis on June 3, 1947, and termination of colonial rule on
August 15, 1947. The British created a boundary force to keep law and
order during partition but dissolved it in September 1947. Millions of
Hindus and Sikhs were left unprotected in West Punjab, and the same
for Muslims in East Punjab. Violence was everywhere as early as June
1947 and reached its peak in September 1947. It only subsided when the
minority communities of West Pakistan (formerly West Punjab) fled to
India. Golwalker had set an example of fearlessness by moving through
riot torn areas consoling refugees in their flight to India. The East
Punjab government provided assistance, including the issuance of
weapons to the RSS, while they were organizing rescue squads to bring
refugees to India. Armed Swayamsevaks were assigned to guard Hindu and
Sikh homes. They even retaliated against Muslims in Pakistan when
danger was imminent. Their rescue efforts helped bolster confidence
and pride among the demoralized Hindus and Sikhs of the Punjab area.
The growing popularity and activism of the RSS proved it an
influential force to be reckoned with. (Andersen and Damle 52) The RSS
‘s humanitarian efforts during the partition had won it respect from
the people of the newly established India. However, the government was
wary that the RSS posed a political threat to the stability of the
country. Many Muslim leaders in India were growing fearful of the anti-
Muslim sentiment that the RSS members characterized. The RSS did
realize that it had to take a more active role in the political
activities of India. During the Kashmir war, when Pakistan sent in
armed raiders, the Indian Armed forces supplied arms to the RSS
volunteers. These Swayamsevaks fought the enemy on the side of the
Indian soldiers. The RSS kept the supply lines moving and carried arms
and ammunition for the soldiers through hazardous areas. (Andersen and
Damle 53) In the closing months of 1947, senior political figures
became increasingly outspoken about the danger of the RSS becoming an
independent political force. The national Herald of Lucknow expressed
this fear in editorials published. It compared the RSS with the
paramilitary form of the German Nazi party. The RSS had been accused
of being a secret society in that what they said or showed was mostly
meant to hide the reality. The daily activities of the RSS were said
to be a means of organizing Hindu society and promoting Hindu culture.
To be political is no crime, and in a democracy every individual and
association has the right to act politically. However, the RSS has
been accused of being an organization that tries to camouflage its
characters and objectives, thus giving many, every reason to be
suspicious of its on goings. Many felt that the RSS had all the
characteristics of a fascist organization. (Goyal 14) Many senior RSS
figures maintained a hesitant attitude regarding party politics in
Independent India. Many felt that this was a corrupt system and the
RSS should have no involvement. Nevertheless, the more activist youths
were demanding some RSS involvement in politics. The main objective
was to gain political protection as the RSS was banned after the
assassination of Mahatma Gandhi; an event many people held the RSS
responsible for. The RSS was reinstated only after presenting a new
constitution to the government which stated that it was a non-
political, cultural organization and would preach religious tolerance.
(Brown 348) But by this time contempt for the RSS had risen to the
most top level of government—Prime Minister Jawarhalal Nehru. Nehru
and his successors would all keep a watchful eye on the RSS with
continuous scrutinizing and banning of many of its activities. The RSS
maintained a strong relation and presence with student groups. These
groups were a pool for new membership for the Sangh. The RSS wanted to
expand its base and get involved with the masses of India. It was very
successful in aligning itself with several labour unions and
agricultural unions. The RSS kept away from the large capitalistic
businesses. Even though the RSS won the support of these unions, the
ideology of the organization never appealed to the common peasant in
India. The Hindu Mahasabha, the Arya Samaj and the RSS were the most
prominent organizations dedicated to Hindu revivalism. There was a lot
of cross membership between these groups. However, the RSS steered
away from the political Hindu Mahasabha, as much of the public also
considered this group responsible for Gandhi’s death. The Mahasabha
became insignificant in Indian politics. The RSS gave its support to
the new Jana Sangh, the predecessor of the Bhartiya Janata Party
(BJP). It was time that the RSS expand its affiliation with other
groups; it was now a reality if the organization was to improve the
country it had to be involved somewhat in politics. Of the religious
organizations, the Arya Samaj in Northern India was a close ally of
the RSS. The Arya Samaj predates the RSS in its Hindu revivalism
movement. They often supported the RSS or its affiliates, but also
kept themselves separate. Other religious organizations came directly
from the RSS family tree, the most prominent of these is the Vishwal
Hindu Parishad (VHP). The VHP was seen as the more extreme religious
arm of the RSS, just as the Jana Sangh (later the BJP) had been seen
as the political arm of the RSS. Many criticize the VHP as an
organization that takes on more extreme projects on behalf of the RSS,
such as the destruction of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya, December 6,
1992, allowing the RSS to maintain its claim to being purely a
cultural organization. The VHP has also grown to become a large
organization and is at present comparable to the RSS in strength,
numbers and ideals of higher morals. There was lots of cross
membership within the different organizations. The RSS lent its
prominent members to these groups to help serve or organize projects
and campaigns. The RSS’s support of the VHP allowed its members to
participate in more activist projects concerning Hindu revivalism. Its
support of the Jana Sangh and the BJP also allowed its members to get
involved on the Indian political scene in a very large way. Although
these organizations—the RSS, VHP, BJP, Arya Samaj, Hindu Mahasabha and
others—differ in their ideologies or methods, they all seem to be
connected by a strong network and a commitment to Hindu revivalism. In
recent years, these groups have received a strong nod of popular
support and political importance. India’s current government will most
likely be a coalition formed around the BJP. The new millenium will be
an interesting and trying time for the 1 billion plus of India. Being
the major exponent in spreading Hindu nationalism, the RSS had come
under much attack for their actions, policies and supposed hidden
agendas. They have always maintained themselves as a cultural
organization, despite other allegations. One cannot help but
sympathize with them for the concept they uphold based on valid fears
when one takes a look at Indian history and politics. The RSS have
been credited for much humanitarian efforts during partition and
after, but they have also been a factor in the rising communal
feelings in India. Albeit the RSS is considered by many as a secret
organization, its claims of rather being a silent organization still
remains with its ultimate goal of seeing India realizing Hind Swaraj.
The only thing the RSS must remember is that they are not the only
nationals of India. In a democratic state such as India all voices
must be heard. Mother India has many other children, whether they are
Hindu, Sikh, Christian or Muslim.
Bibliography
Andersen, Walter K., Damle, Shridhar D. The Brotherhood in Saffron:
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Hindu Revivalism. Colorado:
Westview Press, 1987. Brass, Paul R. The Politics of India Since
Independence. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Brown,
Judith M. Modern India: The Origins of an Asian Democracy. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1994. Goyal, D. R. Seminar: Secret Societies—
RSS. New Delhi: Romesh Thapur, 1972. Jayaprasad, K. RSS and Hindu
Nationalism. New Delhi: Deep and Deep Publications, 1991. Malkani, K.
R. The RSS Story. New Delhi: Impex India, 1980. South Asia: After
Ayodhya: BJP and the Indian Political System. Nedlands: University of
Western Australia Press for the South Asian Studies Association, 1994.
Spitz, Douglas. The RSS and Hindu Militancy in the 1980's. Internet
Article: http://www.monm.edu/academic/Classics/Speel_Festschrift/spitz.htm
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http://www.freeessays.cc/db/40/rcj186.shtml
The Rajput Who Was Expelled
Posted on 04 September 2009. Tags: Bharatiya Janata Party, Jaswant
Singh, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Rajya Sabha, Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh
I have known Jaswant Singh for nearly 30 years — almost all the time
since he had been an important pillar of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
We hit it off from the first day we met and continued meeting each
other on and off in our respective homes. He was not the stereotype of
the image I had nurtured in my mind of other members of his party. He
was not a khaki- knickerwala in white shirt, black cap and gym shoes
wielding a lathi, as ordained by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He
is more conscious of his Rajput lineage than of being a Hindu, more an
English country gentleman than a desi bhai. He enjoys having vintage
Scotch in the evenings and makes no secret of his contempt for
prohibitionists. He is the epitome of a pucca brown sahib.
I had occasion to see him in action as a member of the Opposition in
the Rajya Sabha. He took his job seriously. He had a staff to do
research on topics raised in the question hour and on bills being
debated. I never saw him while away his time in gupshup and coffee in
the Central Hall, as most others members of parliament did and still
do. Jaswant Singh being among the ablest and the most conscientious of
MPs, I was not the least bit surprised when the BJP came to power and
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee chose him as his foreign and
finance minister. He had neither time nor patience to nurture his
constituency. When he lost his Lok Sabha general election, he was
elected to the Rajya Sabha because he was trusted and indisputable.
His crowning moment was exchanging jihadi terrorists with over 150
Indian passengers travelling by Indian Airlines held as hostages by
terrorists at Kandahar airport. Whether or not it was a wise decision
is debatable but at that time it was the unanimous decision of the
cabinet to do so. The only one who undertook to carry out the
dangerous mission was Jaswant Singh. He showed nerves of steel, flying
out with dangerous criminals to hostile territory and bringing back
his countrymen and women safely home. That was the Rajput in him.
Jaswant’s book on Jinnah reflects his personality. He must have known
that it would get many of his party members’ hackles up. He could not
give a khota naya paisa for their reaction. But expelling him without
having read his book was a foolish thing to do. As for Narendra Modi
banning the book in Gujarat, the less said the better. It smacks of
fascism and bigotry. You can be sure there will be more demand for the
book in Gujarat than in other states of India. It is men of the Modi
mentality who have given BJP a bad name. With a friend like him who
needs enemies? I am convinced that by expelling him, the BJP has lost
more than just Jaswant Singh.
Too late in life
I had met Jatin Das at exhibitions of his paintings. Since he was a
good, innovative artist, I assumed he must be Bengali. His first wife,
Varsha, was a colleague of my daughter, Mala. Their daughter, Nandita,
went to the same school as my granddaughter. I had never set my eyes
on her but seen her pictures in the newspapers. She looked like a
beautiful Bengali girl, but I was wrong. Jatin Das is not Bengali but
an Oriya from Baripada. Varsha’s mother is a Gujarati from Mumbai. So
Nandita is half-Oriya, half-Gujarati, but having been born, brought up
and educated in Delhi, is really a Dilliwali.
One evening, the ghazal singer, Deepmala Mohan, brought her over to
meet me. I was bowled over by her looks and unpretentiousness. She was
coy about her private life but eager to tell me about her films,
particularly Firaq, which had earned her worldwide acclaim. It is
about the anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat in 2002. It was shown in
Pakistani cinemas and audiences were amazed that an Indian could so
boldly expose the country’s soft underbelly to ridicule. Needless to
say, it also brought her a lot of hate mail from Hindu
fundamentalists. She took it as a double victory. I looked through all
the material on her on the internet and invited her for a second
meeting. She came, but was evidently uneasy with the questions I put
to her. I am determined to write a profile on her, though it may not
be to her liking.
Generous party
There is not a greater believer in democracy/ Than the BJP/ How I wish
the Congress and the communists had half as much freedom of
expression/ And do what BJP has done./ Jaswant Singh is the latest
beneficiary/ Of the party’s free-wheeling generosity/ Jinnah is indeed
an anathema to the BJP/ For, he is venomously responsible for the
partition of this country./ But Advani can ‘pay respectful homage to
the great man’/ And praise Mohammad Ali/ And still remain the top
leader of the party/ In spite of this generosity, if the ex major
suffered expulsion/ It is because he did not do what if he were in the
shaakha he would have done.
{Source: The Telegraph}
Posted in Features, OpinionComments (0)
BJP distances itself from key strategist's comments
Posted on 08 June 2009.
NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday distanced itself
from the comments of Sudheendra Kulkarni, a key aide of LK Advani,
that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was responsible for the
BJP’s debacle in the Lok Sabha polls.
“The BJP distances itself from the remarks of Sudheendra Kulkarni. It
is his personal analysis as an independent journalist,” the party’s
deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj told reporters here.
“Neither the party nor Advaniji agree with his analysis or his views
on the RSS,” she said.
Writing in the Tehelka newsmagazine, Kulkarni, who was a key poll
strategist of the party, blamed the BJP leadership and the RSS for the
debacle in the elections and said they made Advani “look weak,
helpless and not fully in command”.
While he urged the party to introspect, he said the “the RSS needs it
no less.
Its leaders must ask themselves, and answer the question honestly and
earnestly. Why is the acceptability of the RSS and the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad limited in Hindu society itself?”
He said the party “did nothing” while its allies started moving away
because of the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Sushma Swaraj said there were several reasons for the party’s defeat
not just one and “these would all be looked into at a meeting of the
national executive (of the BJP).” It meets June 20 and 21.
Posted in NewsComments (0)
Protest against Advani
Posted on 02 June 2009. Tags:
Murmurs of protest have started in the Bharatiya Janata Party against
LK Advani’s election as leader of Opposition with party vice-president
and Rajya Sabha member Pyarelal Khandelwal complaining about it to BJP
chief Rajnath Singh. In a letter to Singh, Khandelwal, a senior leader
from Madhya Pradesh, took exception to the party deciding on Advani as
unanimous candidate without first calling a meeting of the BJP’s
parliamentary board.
Reliable party sources said Khandelwal wrote that the party should
have followed a procedure and called a meeting of the parliamentary
board, its highest decision-making body, before naming Advani the
opposition leader.
The sources also said this could be the beginning of troubles for
Advani and cited the meeting between senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi
and Khandelwal on Tuesday evening.
Joshi is considered to be in the camp in the party opposing Advani.
“Do you think I am here to hatch some conspiracy?” Joshi retorted when
the waiting reporters outside Khandelwal’s home asked him what
transpired in the meeting.
When pressed further, he said: “No bytes.”
As the reporters requested him to say something, Joshi, who won the
election from Varanasi, snapped: “I don’t bite.”
A meeting of the BJP’s Lok Sabha MPs Sunday elected Advani as the
leader of the legislature party and thus the leader of the opposition
in the lower house.
Advani, the party’s prime ministerial candidate, had offered to resign
from the position – which he held in the last Lok Sabha too – on the
day of the election results May 16.
He agreed not to press with his resignation after the party requested
him, the sources say, at the instance of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(RSS) leaders.
Meanwhile, the BJP’s parliamentary board Tuesday kept in abeyance a
possible decision on appointing Sushma Swaraj as deputy leader of the
party in the Lok Sabha.
The sources said this was because the party wanted to consider other
names too.
“There are other senior leaders and we have to ensure there is no
controversy at this juncture,” a BJP strategist told IANS.
http://despardes.com/wp/tag/rashtriya-swayamsevak-sangh/
The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India (Paperback)
~ Christophe Jaffrelot
Christophe Jaffrelot (Author)
(Author) "Hindu nationalism was constructed as an ideology between the
1870s and the 1920s..."http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0231103352/
ref=cap_pdp_dp_0#noop
Editorial Reviews
Review
"The most exhaustive book on Hindu nationalism... A scholarly tour de
force." -- New York Review of Books
The most exhaustive book on Hindu nationalism. . . . A scholarly tour
de force. -- New York Review of Books
This is the most systematic study I have seen on the topic of Hindu
nationalism, a movement that has grown rapidly over the past decade
and now poses a challenge to India's secular government. . . . For the
expert on South Asia, this book is an absolute must. -- Walter
Andersen author of The Brotherhood in Saffron: A Study of Hindu
Revivalism
Review
"The most exhaustive book on Hindu nationalism.... A scholarly tour de
force." -- New York Review of Books
Review
"This is the most systematic study I have seen on the topic of Hindu
nationalism, a movement that has grown rapidly over the past decade
and now poses a challenge to India's secular government.... For the
expert on South Asia, this book is an absolute must." -- Walter
Andersen, author of The Brotherhood in Saffron: A Study of Hindu
Revivalism
Product Description
A detailed account of the Hindu nationalist movement in India since
the 1920s arguing that political uneasiness, created by real and
imagined threats of colonialism and the presence of minority groups,
paved the way for militant Hinduism on the Indian subcontinent.
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French --This text refers to the Hardcover
edition.
About the Author
Christophe Jaffrelot is director of the Centre d'Etudes et Recherches
Internationales (CERI), part of the Fondation Nationale des Sciences
Politiques in Paris. He is the author of India's Silent Revolution.
Product Details
Paperback: 536 pages
Publisher: Columbia University Press (October 15, 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0231103352
ISBN-13: 978-0231103350
Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.1 x 1.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8
customer reviews)
(8 customer reviews)
The most helpful favorable review The most helpful critical review
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
An interesting exploration of nationalism in India
This was part of required readings for one of my university courses on
India. It provides a great deal of information for discussion for
scholars and those interested in South Asia. The RSS, BJP, Jana Sangh,
VHP, and Janata Party are all discussed, as well as key issues such as
the temple/mosque contreversy in Ayodhya, and cow protection movement
in Madhya Pradesh...
Published on October 19, 2004 by JHF
9 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
Informational but biased
For the scant amount of literature on the Hindu Nationalist
Movement(BJP and RSS) this book should have filled in many gaps, and
in some ways it does but in its biased, elitist manner it misses the
point. In condemning the destruction of the Babri Masjid this book
doesn't seem to point to any of the reasons for it. Not once is one
given the context of the...
Published on December 26, 2004 by Seth J. Frantzman
9 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
Informational but biased, December 26, 2004
By Seth J. Frantzman (Jerusalem, Israel) -
For the scant amount of literature on the Hindu Nationalist
Movement(BJP and RSS) this book should have filled in many gaps, and
in some ways it does but in its biased, elitist manner it misses the
point. In condemning the destruction of the Babri Masjid this book
doesn't seem to point to any of the reasons for it. Not once is one
given the context of the rise of Hindu movements. No one is told that
millions of Hindus were killed in Genocidal operations in Pakistan in
1948, ethnically cleansed from their ancient homes. Not once are we
reminded of the 1000 years of British and Muslim imperial domination
and colonialism of India.
Rather this book assumes the Hindu movements and their chauvinist
nature came from no where and thus the author takes them to task and
skewers them for their militancy. While this book seem to understand
and commiserate with Muslim militancy, it never once excuses the same
violence in communal riots from the other side, although the
statistics are usually shown, giving evidence of the two sided nature
of the rioting, where members of both communities are killed.
The tragedy of this book is that it is very detailed but
overwhelmingly biased. Many times we hear that the Hindu movements are
`elitist, brahmanical' without any correleatons to he reasons why. The
book says the movements harked back to a fake `golden age' but doesn't
think to describe the reasoning for this. Thus anyone interesting in
the BJP and the like will be displeased here unless you are
fanantically anti-hindu.
Seth J. Frantzman
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
An interesting exploration of nationalism in India, October 19, 2004
By JHF -
This review is from: The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India
(Hardcover)
This was part of required readings for one of my university courses on
India. It provides a great deal of information for discussion for
scholars and those interested in South Asia. The RSS, BJP, Jana Sangh,
VHP, and Janata Party are all discussed, as well as key issues such as
the temple/mosque contreversy in Ayodhya, and cow protection movement
in Madhya Pradesh. Jaffrelot draws upon classic social science
literature, including books by Peter van der Veer, Victor Turner, Paul
Brass, and Benedict Anderson. In all, a good source for understanding
some of the issues surrounding Hindu nationalism in India, but should
be placed into a broader context (read some of the books by the
authors listed above, for example) for complete understanding.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A Pathetic Choice for Understanding Hindu Nationalism, June 4, 2009
By IndianTwilight (Washington, DC) -
I just finished reading this book. I am surprised that it was used an
academic text for a class! This person has no understanding of the
roots and beginnings of RSS et al. I could not agree more with Seth
Frantzman's remarks. As for R.S. Ali--check you umbilical cord (my
review below will clarify this clearly).
The problem with such authors is their restricted understanding of
Hinduism as a religion before the advent of Islam and Christianity.
Another problem in assessing Hindu Nationalism is in understanding
Hindus in context vis-à-vis their immediate environment and
neighboring countries. Wearing religion, faith and culture are somehow
accepted realities for the adherents of Abrahamic faiths and also the
Buddhists; however, in the name of religion, for instance a show of
faith by Hindus is not acceptable.
The common expectation is, "are you not a submissive and non-violent
group of people who accept and embrace everyone at the expense of your
own identity?" Further, "are you not a group of people who allowed the
freedom to all other religious groups who came in and converted many
of your own people; why do you worry about it now?" Continue to
forsake yourself! Is it not pertinent to examine history in which
thousands of Zoroastrians fled Islamic persecution in Persia and
arrived in India; and, Jews fleeing both Christian and Islamic
persecution arrived in India?
Perhaps, Hindu Nationalism is less about Hindu chauvinism and more
about others in the country still acting as transient takers? It is
less about Hindu intolerance and more about making India a
battleground between Islam and Christianity where both religions,
fearful about losing in numbers, are interested in either multiplying
through progeny or conversion. So, in this globally religiously
charged environment, why is Hindu Nationalism so offensive? Democratic
Muslims want to better their societies by imposing varying forms of
Shariah, identifying it as better than any other socio-political
prescription; Christians can elect George Bush with Evangelical
support, Buddhists can kill Hindus in Sri Lanka and yet in the
original and perhaps only authentic ancient real-estate available to
Hindus, "why should the Hindus not want a socio-political environment
more conducive to their existence?"
It is time perhaps for the non-Hindu Indians to examine carefully and
truthfully where their umbilical cord is connected to and then examine
carefully and truthfully if Indian Hindu accusations against the non-
Indian Hindu communities, by-and-large, are or are not true. This
honest self-examination, without the feeling of proselytizing will be
one adventure for non-Hindus to contend with...some examples to look
at -- no problems between Jews and Hindus and no problems between
Parsis (Zoroastrians) and Hindus. How about it, Muslims and
Christians? Is there something inherently dangerous about
proselytizing?
3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Poor taste - Are you paid by a christian organization?, August 23,
2007
By Praseeta Mundayattu "Think Global" (North Carolina, USA) -
Yesterday, I saw God's warriors about christian organization and
Islamic organizations on CNN by Christian Amanpour. Christian
missionaries have converted pooor pooooor people in front of my eyes
in India, there are cheap cheap humans who tell lies that show on
stage that cancer is cured, blind gets eye, people who were
handicapped could walk after the stage drama etc. If it is all legal,
if BJP or RSS opposes and if its illegal, then what is illegal to you
is legal to us, in India.
Shameless guy who wrote this should be part of the same network. Look
at secret mix of religion and politics in legal system, in everything,
in west and in middle eastern countries and then talk about India. No
body is going to buy your piss poor taste book for 28$ for things that
you write are in bad taste and also of things that new generation that
do not even know or want to know. See how hinduism is reviving...
6 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
A corrective to bsastry@ucla, November 23, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India
(Hardcover)
This work is an instrumental and precise review of the rise of
fascistic movements in the formation of the Indian state. Groups like
the RSS, which can be collectively brought under the umbrella moniker,
"Sangh Combine", continue to operate today with the strength of other
groups like the VHP ever increasing. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
is the current Hindu nationalist party in power in India, and
represents the kinder, gentler, more compromising face of Hindu
nationalism that has fascistic groups like the RSS and VHP controlling
them behind the scenes. The particular danger of supporting bsastry's
views are that they play into the RSS's hands. The RSS has been
particularly effective in states like Maharashtra, and the same
involvement in education he is talking about has to do with the
manipulation of childrens' educations to raise new Hindu nationalists.
These textbooks are particularly instructive in demonstrating how
children are brought up to think of Muslims as "others", with word
problems and demonstrations often comparing productive people with
Hindu names with lazy and slow people with distinctly Muslim names.
Poems children recite in school smack of Nazi-type nationalist
language that picks out images like "Mother India (Bhaarat Maataa)" as
the national goddess (a particularly "Hindu" image). Gandhi has been
wiped out of textbooks in this state completely (an RSS member
assassinated him for "pandering to Muslims"), and the RSS continues to
think that was a good decision. This is a very complicated topic to
deal with in a book review, but Dr. Jaffrelot's dissertation is a
brilliantly written analysis of how this movement has paced along in
the past 75 years. Indeed, Hindu nationalism has been part of the
formation of the Indian state from at least the 1870's, and rests
heavily on colonialist discourse about Hinduism as a unified
tradition, and of "Hindu" scriptures like the Vedas as India's
original religion. The search for origins has much more to do with
'othering' minority groups--in this case Muslims--and putting forth a
nationalist agenda that attempts to 'protect threatened majorities'
from 'unfair' quotas for minorities. Hindutva is not a call to true
'Indian-ness', but rather a particular rhetoric for putting forth
fascistic ideas in a democratic state. I encourage anyone looking into
this topic seriously to read Achin Vanaik's "The Furies of Indian
Communalism" (London: Vasco Inc.(?)), a Marxist critique of the
possibilities of Indian fascism and the resetting of a sane picture of
Indian politics wrested from these nationalists, traditionalists, and
subalternists. Jaffrelot's work is seminal and important for
evaluating the history and current development of post-colonial
formations of religion in politics in India.
17 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
a flawed book, June 3, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India
(Hardcover)
I wonder which RSS leaders Jaffelot has talked to, in depth. I have
talked to many RSS people and have understood their ideology to the
best of my ability. Jaffelot's view of hindutva is extremely flawed.
he doesn't seem to realize how important the hindutva movement is. It
is NOT a militant movement like Taliban, and groups that practice rank
terrorism. The amount of schools and social service projects run by
VHP, RSS, etc. is incredible. I saw the statistics in a book titled
"Seva Disha 97" or something like that. I have visited a couple of RSS
run schools and seen a slide show which showed photographs of the
various service projects run by RSS sponsored organizations. It is the
hindutva based organizations like VHP and RSS that have worked
relentlessly to eradicate evils like untouchability and casteism that
creeped into the Indian society. Reformist is a far better term to use
than militant, aggressive, etc in describing the hindutva movement,
but Jaffelot gives that flawed impression. Zakir Hussain, a muslim and
former president of india had praise for the RSS as did Mahatma
Gandhi. India is fortunate to have organizations like the RSS, VHP,
etc. which are revitalising India for the better. Jaffelot has not
done a good job in emphasizing the positive, but rather portrays the
whole hindutva movement as if it is something that is potentially
dangerous. Quite a dissapointing book.
5 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
Very Informative., August 25, 2003
By R. S. Ali "SoOn" (Ontario, Canada) -
As a muslim whose parents come from india i never really had an
interest in my homeland until the late 1990s. I started to pay more
attention to news coming from india, but my love for india was
shortlived. In 2002 a muslim mob set fire to a trainful of indians who
were reportedly holding two muslim girls hostage. I was naturally
upset about reading this and i prayed the indian government would find
the people responsible for the train fire and bring them to justice. I
was not prepared however, for what happened next and the wave of hindu
nationalist violence that followed. I was thinking surely the
government will step in and stop this but then i read a statement from
the BJP leader of Gujarat Narendra Modi, who said he was pleased with
the way hindu nationalists were handling the situation (while reports
were streaming in about gang rapes of women who were then set on
fire). I was genuinely disgusted by those comments. Suffice it to say
the incident encouraged me to learn more about the darker side of
india and this book has helped me learn a great deal. It is very
informative and comprehensive. I also recommend a book called "Saffron
Wave" which was three years after this book.
5 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
A colonialist view, October 14, 2002
By A Customer
This book is a perfect example of the double standards being used in
the narratives on the erstwhile colonies. Indian nationalism is to be
termed fascism whether it flies in the face of facts or not.
Jaffrelot's scholarship is biased and he is not able to rise above the
one-sided Leftist critiques that are to be encountered in the English
press in India. This book fails to show the light.
Comment (1)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0231103352/ref=cap_pdp_dp_0#reader_0231103352
Accounting for Fundamentalisms: The Dynamic Character of Movements
(The Fundamentalism Project) (v. 4) (Paperback)
~ Martin E. Marty
Martin E. Marty (Editor)
(Editor), R. Scott Appleby (Editor), Nancy T. Ammerman (Editor),
Robert Eric Frykenberg (Editor), Samuel C. Heilman (Editor), James
Piscatori (Editor)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226508862/ref=cap_pdp_dp_1#reader_0226508862
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226508862/ref=cap_pdp_dp_1#sipbody
Citations
54 books cite this book:
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Globalizing the Sacred: Religion Across the Americas by Manuel A.
Vasquez
Back Matter http://www.amazon.com/Globalizing-Sacred-Religion-Across-Americas/dp/081353285X/ref=sid_av_dp
Fundamentalism: The Search For Meaning by Malise Ruthven
Back Matter http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentalism-Search-Meaning-Malise-Ruthven/dp/0192840916/ref=sid_av_dp
The Church on the World's Turf : An Evangelical Christian Group at a
Secular University (Religion in America Series) by Paul A. Bramadat
Back Matter http://www.amazon.com/Church-Worlds-Turf-Evangelical-University/dp/0195134990/ref=sid_av_dp
Biblical Fundamentalism: What Every Catholic Should Know by Ronald D.
Witherup S.S.
Back Matter http://www.amazon.com/Biblical-Fundamentalism-Every-Catholic-Should/dp/0814627226/ref=sid_av_dp
Fundamentalism: A Pastoral Concern by Eugene Laverdiere
Back Matter http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentalism-Pastoral-Concern-Eugene-Laverdiere/dp/0814627137/ref=sid_av_dp
Religion, Mobilization, and Social Action by Bronislaw Misztal
Back Matter http://www.amazon.com/Religion-Mobilization-Social-Bronislaw-Misztal/dp/0275956253/ref=sid_av_dp
Nation and Religion by Peter van der Veer
Back Matter http://www.amazon.com/Nation-Religion-Peter-van-Veer/dp/0691012326/ref=sid_av_dp
Spokesmen for the Despised: Fundamentalist Leaders of the Middle East
by R. Scott Appleby
page 109 http://www.amazon.com/Spokesmen-Despised-Fundamentalist-Leaders-Middle/dp/0226021254/ref=sid_av_dp
Ethics and Values in Psychotherapy by Alan C. Tjeltveit
Back Matter http://www.amazon.com/Ethics-Values-Psychotherapy-Alan-Tjeltveit/dp/0415156645/ref=sid_av_dp
Colonial Childhoods: The Juvenile Periphery of India 1850-1945 (Anthem
South Asian Studies) by Satadru Sen
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Israel: The Dynamics of Change and Continuity (Israeli History,
Politics and Society) by David Levi-Faur
page 224 http://www.amazon.com/Israel-Dynamics-Continuity-Israeli-Politics/dp/0714650129/ref=sid_av_dp
Studies in Contemporary Jewry: Volume XVIII: Jews and Violence:
Images. Ideologies, Realities (Vol 18) by Peter Y. Medding
page 88 http://www.amazon.com/Studies-Contemporary-Jewry-Ideologies-Realities/dp/0195160096/ref=sid_av_dp
Islam and Mammon: The Economic Predicaments of Islamism by Timur
Kuran
Back Matter http://www.amazon.com/Islam-Mammon-Economic-Predicaments-Islamism/dp/0691115109/ref=sid_av_dp
The Aftermath of Partition in South Asia (Routledge Studies in the
Modern History of Asia) by Gyanesh Kudaisya
Back Matter http://www.amazon.com/Aftermath-Partition-Routledge-Studies-History/dp/0415172977/ref=sid_av_dp
Islamic Leviathan: Islam and the Making of State Power (Religion and
Global Politics) by Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr
Back Matter http://www.amazon.com/Islamic-Leviathan-Making-Religion-Politics/dp/0195144260/ref=sid_av_dp
I Will Dwell in Their Midst: Orthodox Jews in Suburbia by Etan
Diamond
Back Matter http://www.amazon.com/Will-Dwell-Their-Midst-Orthodox/dp/080782576X/ref=sid_av_dp
Social Theory and Religion by James A. Beckford
Back Matter http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Religion-James-Beckford/dp/0521774314/ref=sid_av_dp
Religions in Global Society by Peter Beyer
Back Matter http://www.amazon.com/Religions-Global-Society-Peter-Beyer/dp/0415393191/ref=sid_av_dp
Exotic No More: Anthropology on the Front Lines by Jeremy MacClancy
page 144 http://www.amazon.com/Exotic-No-More-Anthropology-Front/dp/0226500136/ref=sid_av_dp
The Primitive Church in the Modern World by Richard T. Hughes
page 32 http://www.amazon.com/Primitive-Church-Modern-World/dp/0252021940/ref=sid_av_dp
Religions in the Modern World: Traditions and Transformations by Linda
Woodhead
page 315 http://www.amazon.com/Religions-Modern-World-Traditions-Transformations/dp/0415217830/ref=sid_av_dp
A Nation Divided: Diversity, Inequality, and Community in American
Society (ILR Press Book) by Phyllis Moen
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Marks of the Beast: The Left Behind Novels and the Struggle for
Evangelical Identity by Glenn Shuck
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Fundamentalismo: Una Preocupacion Pastoral (Spanish Edition) by Eugene
Laverdiere
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The Book of Jerry Falwell: Fundamentalist Language and Politics. by
Susan Friend Harding
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Islam and Democracy in the Middle East (A Journal of Democracy Book)
by Dr. Larry Diamond
page 282 http://www.amazon.com/Islam-Democracy-Middle-East-Journal/dp/0801878470/ref=sid_av_dp
The Hidden Hand: Middle East Fears of Conspiracy by Daniel Pipes
page 349 http://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Hand-Middle-Fears-Conspiracy/dp/0312162545/ref=sid_av_dp
Faithlines: Muslim Conceptions of Islam and Society (Oxford Pakistan
Paperbacks) by Riaz Hassan
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The Battlefield: Algeria 1988-2002, Studies in a Broken Polity by Hugh
Roberts
page 248 http://www.amazon.com/Battlefield-Algeria-1988-2002-Studies-Broken/dp/185984684X/ref=sid_av_dp
bademiyansubhanallah
J P Yadav
Posted: Friday , Feb 26, 2010 at 0111 hrs
New Delhi:
Lalu Prasad accused the Congress of turning 'arrogant', while the
Mulayam Singh regretted having supported it in power.
In the political wilderness, both Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh Yadav
on Thursday made an unusual appeal to the BJP. Had the party not
brought down the Babri Masjid, they said, all of them would have still
been together. They also urged Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who
is being made the punching bag for rising food prices by ally
Congress, to switch over.
Participating in a discussion over price rise in the Lok Sabha, the
RJD president accused the Congress of turning “arrogant”, while the SP
chief regretted having supported it in power. Both also said that but
for the Babri factor, things could have been different between them
and the BJP.
“Aapne agar masjid nahi giaraya hota to aaj hum bikharte nahin (Had
you not demolished the Babri Masjid, we would not have fragmented),”
Lalu said as the BJP members listened quietly.
In fact, he hoped that despite their disunity they could come together
to bring down the Congress-led government. “Despite being in different
parties, we can coordinate and organise a countrywide bandh... This
government will not last its full term,” Lalu said, with BJP members
thumping their desks this time.
Reaching out to Pawar, Mulayam said: “The Congress is telling its
cadre that you (Pawar) are responsible for price rise. Come out of the
UPA and we will work together.” As Lalu sitting beside him seconded
the proposal, the SP chief turned towards JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav
and said: “We will bring him too.”
If Mulayam expressed regret at having supported the Congress, Lalu
raised the row over Maharashtra’s domicile condition for taxi drivers
to term the party more dangerous than Bal Thackeray and Raj Thackeray.
“The Congress act will endanger the unity and integrity of the
country,” he said.
Lalu was heard telling Congress president Sonia Gandhi to convene an
all-party meeting over price rise at her residence. A little later he
walked up and sat beside Pawar and talked to her.
13 Comments |
Congress has done a good job..
By: shifad | Friday , 26 Feb '10 12:03:13 PM
Apart from the recent food crisis, congress (UPA) is doing a pretty
fair business at the center. The way we tackled the financial crisis,
Our economic growth , the way the perspective of all the countries
towards us changed in the last 5 to 6 years are all example of it.
These laloos and mulayams will do anything to get to power and once
they gets it they will again start fighting. This is not what we need
in the current scenario. In that aspect the Congress is doing a good
job and they know what they are doing....
bad governance
By: taks | Friday , 26 Feb '10 17:59:58 PM
Fair in what sense. Living has become hell and you are just brushing
it aside saying "apart from food crisis". What do you know about how
many people have become unemployed from the textile sector alone. If
it was not thankfully for recession, we would not have had roofs on
our heads. Just managing image only will not do..
Congress
By: nihichsu | Friday , 26 Feb '10 16:30:20 PM
You are absolutely wrong. The present UPA government is just building
on to the foundations laid down by NDA government of Mr. Bajpayee. Had
this foundation not been laid by BJP led NDA, the Congress would have
not been able to get the momentum that it is getting.
They will never learn any lesson
By: Rahul Shankar | Friday , 26 Feb '10 11:16:47 AM
lalus and mulayams are never going to learn any lesson. Still they are
talking about bringing down the government, utter nonsense on their
part.
Bunch of losers....
By: Roy | Friday , 26 Feb '10 10:58:05 AM
all mentioned in the article are....it will be no surprise if the
extreme right wing RSS controlled BJP join hands with the irrelevent
parties mentioned. If they can go hand in hand with a convicted
criminal in Jharkand then why not with those mentioned. As for
Pawar...a supply chain manager is responsible for distribution....as
Minister of Agriculture he is also responsible for imports of
essential goods when local produce is given short shrift. The Congress
is the only alternate as the others are just 'KICHIDI' who will fight
amongst themselves...remember the Janata Party. Uncouth people must be
kept away from ruling a country like India...people we are an economic
power now.
Fake congress
By: India | Friday , 26 Feb '10 11:34:24 AM
Congress is a natural ally of RJD, SP and they need no allies of
criminal background as they themselves have different types of
criminal right from match-fixers, dqwood-aides to expert-murders. They
hardly have any pro-development person who does not rely on vote-bank
politics. Janata Party was a failure being lead by Janata Dal which
was a party of leaders not activists. BJP being party of grass-root
activists and able leaders is the future. Where is Rahul-Sonia's so
called Karishma? why are they mum on inflation, terrorism?
Selective amnesia
By: Boby Mehta | Friday , 26 Feb '10 11:14:12 AM
That "convicted criminal in Jharkand" was a senior minister in
Congress government.
UPA - TOTAL FAILURE
By: Ravi | Friday , 26 Feb '10 17:06:01 PM
UPA govt. is a BIG failure .. only Congis should say jai ho ... jai ho
to this inefficient govt.
When has Laloo thought of anything beside himself
By: rajendra nath | Friday , 26 Feb '10 10:57:55 AM
Laloo is a dog with a snake's brain. The moment the Congress throws
him a chewed up bone he will do a somersault and start licking Sonia's
feet again. Mulayam is a nincompoop and totally lost without his aide
Amar Singh. The earlier these 2 jokers fade away from the scene the
better for the whole of India.
Laloo
By: B Basu | Friday , 26 Feb '10 9:48:42 AM
Let Laloo rest in peace. Castism, kidnapism, goondaism can't be the
base of ones political carrier. Lalooji, take sannyas and have peace
of mind. Thanks
Lalu
By: ahirwan | Friday , 26 Feb '10 13:45:05 PM
He played the race card for too long!..without any national
innovations.
Laloo
By: Awake | Friday , 26 Feb '10 9:14:32 AM
I hope the BJP doesn't make the mistake of associating with Laloo and
his goons. It is time for him to disappear into the sunset and leave
India to march forward.
It is not yet over...You still can come up if you take care of
public's welfare.
By: Avinash Baranwal | Friday , 26 Feb '10 9:09:39 AM Reply | Forward
It is never too late Mr. Lalu and Mr. Mulayam. Take your time and
think where exactly you missed the good and wise decisions. Also,
think about the common people, if you want your name to be alive for
good reasons. Manage media well(they are also full of castist and
business minded people). You had the widest vote bank, still you
failed. Think...Think...Think. Nothing wrong ammending oneself for
good.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/lonely-lalu-mulayam-remind-bjp-of-prebabri-good-times/584619/0
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Reinvigorating the BJP
India's new opposition leader Nitin Gadkari has a chance to make a
fresh start.
By SWAPAN DASGUPTA
Barely 10 months ago, India's elites agonized over the possibility
that the general election would produce an unstable and fractious
coalition government that would jeopardize the country's economic
growth. Today, with a stable government in place and the Congress
Party having clearly established its political primacy, Lutyens' Delhi
resonates with whispered concern over the absence of a purposeful
opposition.
The concern is based on a string of misgivings. The Manmohan Singh
government is perceived to have grown utterly complacent. With
inflation having crossed 8% and the price of food having registered a
sharper increase, there is a feeling that the government is letting
matters slide because it doesn't fear political opposition and social
unrest. There are fears that political considerations are preventing a
robust response to the Maoist threat. Finally, in the aftermath of the
Copenhagen summit and the resumption of dialogue with Pakistan, there
are concerns that the prime minister is obliging the Obama
administration excessively.
Since it lost power in 2004, the Bharatiya Janata Party, India's
principal opposition party, has lost its earlier appeal among the
middle classes and the youth. This erosion of support was a
consequence of a tired leadership, internal feuding, the pursuit of a
policy of blind obstruction to all government initiatives and a
failure to check sectarian hotheads identified with its Hindu
nationalist ideology. From being a party of conservative Middle India,
the BJP ceded its centrist space to the Congress Party. In recent
months, it has been paralysed by a failure to counter the appeal of
Rahul Gandhi, the Congress heir-apparent.
The national convention of the BJP, held last week in the contrived
simplicity of a tented township in Indore, saw the appointment of a
new president. The affable 52-year-old Nitin Gadkari, a self-made
businessman from Nagpur, endeared himself to the 4,000 delegates with
his disarming frankness. He readily admitted the party's lapses—the
disagreeable leadership spats and the debilitating effects of cronyism—
and promised an internal regime based on fairness and performance.
With the party's earlier prime ministerial candidate, the 82-year-old
L.K. Advani, elevated to a ceremonial role, Mr. Gadkari promised to
induct representatives from the "third and fourth generations" and
women into positions of responsibility. Finally, but without saying so
too explicitly, Mr. Gadkari sent out a clear signal that the BJP would
shun sectarian shrillness to recover its lost centrist space. He
offended Hindu hardliners by opposing the regional xenophobic agenda
of their Shiv Sena party allies and suggested an out-of-court,
political settlement of a 60-year-old case over a site in Ayodhya that
Hindus believe is especially sacred but which was also the site of a
16th century mosque.
Bolstering the morale of the faithful is the first step in a program
of political revival. To that extent Mr. Gadkari has made a good start
and has earned himself considerable goodwill. The more difficult
journey involves winning the trust of voters, particularly that
generation which never experienced the heady Hindu mobilization of the
early 1990s. For the moment, the BJP's focus is on establishing itself
as a vigorous but responsible parliamentary opposition. Arun Jaitley,
its leader in the Upper House, has already made an impact with his
penetrating scrutiny of the government. Sushma Swaraj, its new leader
in the Lower House, is expected to complement him with her spirited
oratory.
However, galvanizing voters is only a fraction of the task before the
BJP. Far more daunting is coping with the challenge of Rahul Gandhi.
The young Congress general secretary has based his appeal on nebulous
invocations of "youth power" and "modernity"—themes unrelated to the
Singh government's performance. Mr. Gandhi's famous name is a big
advantage, too. If the BJP has to counter Mr. Gandhi, it has to come
up with its own big ideas.
Unfortunately for the BJP, this is the area where confusion persists.
It has been subjected to very contradictory political pulls, best
personified by the divergent approaches of its two most successful
provincial governments. On the one hand is the Shivraj Singh Chauhan-
led Madhya Pradesh government that prides itself on its compassionate
development and sensitivity to cultural norms. On the other hand is
the Narendra Modi-led government in Gujarat which has made rapid
economic growth and modernization its signature tune. Although Mr.
Modi remains controversial for his alleged complicity in the infamous
sectarian killings in 2002, his government is marked for its
efficiency and single-minded pursuit of economic growth rather than
the advocacy of Hindu nationalism.
Mr. Gadkari's presidential speech in Indore was replete with noble
messages: connecting with Village India, reaching out to the last man
in the last row and undertaking voluntary work. But it was also lifted
by a remarkably clear statement of principle: "The government's duty
is confined mainly to strategic planning, legislation of sound laws
and their effective enforcement. The actual business of performing
economic activities should be left to non-governmental enterprises."
The seeds of an alternative approach to governance exist in the BJP.
It is now up to its leadership to nurture them.
Mr. Dasgupta, a Delhi-based political commentator, is a former
managing editor of India Today.
Asian Wall Street Journal, February 25, 2010
Posted by Swapan Dasgupta at 1:29 PM
5 comments:
ŠĦÅŠĦWÃT said...
Are customary references to RJM & post-Godhra riots prerequisite for
writing on the BJP in a 'phoren' daily?
February 25, 2010 3:00 PM
Anonymous said...
@ Shashwat:
No, they are prerequisites for honesty and journalistic integrity. And
that is why we read SD's blog and not the loony right's. Any problems?
JK
February 25, 2010 7:15 PM
my_two_cents said...
I would love to see the BJP re-invigorated. But for that to happen,
they need to build a base in the 5 coastal states.
More importantly, they need a lot of support from an alternative
intelligentsia, as you (and your colleagues at Pioneer) have been
saying for a decade. And that means a whole bunch of newspapers (and
TV news channels) with edit policies that are openly supportive of the
alternative development strategy and news coverage that does not tilt
left.
In the US, that job is performed by the WSJ, Fox-News and a bunch of
thinktanks such as Heritage Foundation, Hoover institution at Stanford
University, Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC), Human
Events and so on.
With that intelligentsia in place, the BJP will grow faster. Once in
power, the BJP will not need to appease the Left-Lib bunch either. The
last time they were in power, they were stymied because they spent an
awful lot of time currying favour with the Left-Lib bunch.
February 26, 2010 1:47 AM
Dhruv said...
I was under the impression that journalists like you know Modi
well ... But when you try associating him with words like
'controversy' and 'complicity' even if 'alleged' , I am confused.
There is nothing 'controversial' about him for people like me ...
Whether writing for desi or firang media ... please write what you
feel .. not what people like sardesai and channel like ndtv make you
feel .. Also you need not compromise with your writing or fine-tuning
it to the taste of the audience ....I thought you were one of the few
exceptions in Indian media but not sure anymore !!
February 26, 2010 3:43 AM
Pilid said...
Excellent article. Don't know if you noticed but the BJP website has a
line saying it stands for 'strong national defense, small government
and free-market economic policies' (see here).
Building up a coherent doctrine for an alternative approach to
governance going beyond the usual catch all bromides of Hindutva and
integral humanism is going to be a big challenge assuming the party
even wants to take it up. It would have to weave a narrative that
appeals to urban middle class libertarians, Hindutva groups and also
non-ideological/ideologically confused folks in both urban and small
town India. The Republican party in the US achieved just this by
bringing together small town religious Christians, libertarians and
pro-business groups but the slog is harder for Indian parties to make
such a shift because of their inherently closed nature and intolerance
of open dissent. A grass roots change is also very difficult to
achieve for that reason not to mention the fact that the Sangh
organizations supplying its cadre are not fundamentally attuned to
such views.
February 26, 2010 5:00 AM
Swapan Dasgupta
Gender: Male
Industry: Communications or Media
Occupation: Political analyst
Location: New Delhi : India
About Me
The Right is an endangered community in India's English-language
media. I happen to be one of the few to have retained a precarious
toehold in the mainstream media. I intend this blog as a sounding
board of ideas and concerns. You can read the details of my education,
professional experience and political inclinations on Wikipedia
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swapan_Dasgupta). RIGHT ANGLE is an
archive of my published articles. USUAL SUSPECTS is my blog.
My Blogs Team Members
Right Angle http://swapan-dasgupta.blogspot.com/
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Blogs I Follow
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http://www.swapan55.com/2010/02/reinvigorating-bjp.html
Monday, December 21, 2009
A challenge for BJP’s GenNext
On a late spring evening more than a decade ago, some of us had
gathered at Pramod Mahajan’s apartment — he hadn’t moved into a
Lutyens’ bungalow till then — to discuss ideas for the 1996 general
election campaign. Mr LK Advani had already declared Mr Atal Bihari
Vajpayee as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate and there was a
palpable surge of support for the party which corresponded with the
waning of the Congress. Despite the framing of Mr Advani and other
senior leaders of the BJP in the Jain hawala scandal by a desperate PV
Narasimha Rao (he even turned on his colleagues in the Cabinet who in
turn turned against him and resigned from the Congress) there was
great enthusiasm among party cadre. Mr Advani had seized the moral
high ground and converted what Rao had thought would be a disadvantage
into a clear advantage. In that election, Mr Advani was the non-
playing captain though he led his team from the front.
Over chai and samosas ordered from an eatery downstairs, ideas were
tossed around on how to package the BJP’s core message — good
governance — and portray it through the persona of Mr Vajpayee. Till
then, the BJP had not projected any single leader in any election; it
was always the party’s ‘collective leadership’ that was projected as
an alternative to the Congress’s dynastic leadership. The tragic
assassination of Rajiv Gandhi midway through the 1991 general election
had forced a break in the Congress’s tradition, catapulting Narasimha
Rao to power. Since the Ram Rath Yatra days, Mr Advani had emerged as
the most prominent face of the BJP; to suddenly weave a campaign
around Mr Vajpayee posed a challenge to even Pramod Mahajan who was
never short of ideas, especially when it came to election campaigns.
Among those invited for that meeting was an impetuous young man
representing a big advertising agency which had offered to help plan
the campaign — as had some others. This man suddenly said, “It would
have been a lot easier had Mr Vajpayee been a younger man.” There was
stunned silence. Obviously ignorant of the esteem in which Mr Vajpayee
was — and still continues to be — held in the party, he had clearly
upset everybody. Pramod Mahajan looked at him coldly and bitingly
said, “This isn’t America where young upstarts are elected to high
office. We value experience and we respect age. Please tell your
agency we aren’t interested in its services.” The poor sod was halfway
through his samosa and didn’t know what to say. “Ab aap jaaiye,”
Pramod Mahajan added, literally asking him to leave the meeting.
I don’t recall whether anything concrete emerged from that particular
meeting, but over the following weeks a campaign was painstakingly put
together centred around Mr Vajpayee and based on the theme, ‘The man
India awaits’, which, incidentally, was the headline of an interview-
based article I had written at that time. That election saw the BJP
emerge as the single largest party and form a Government led by Mr
Vajpayee. The Government lasted for a fortnight, but it helped the BJP
come to power two years later. The rest, to quote a cliché, is
history.
The reason I cite this particular incident is to highlight the point
that too much is made of a leader’s age by the New Delhi-based
commentariat, more so when it comes to the BJP. Voters are less
persuaded by a candidate’s age than by his or her perceived ability to
deliver on promises. It is the sum total of a leader’s qualities that
matters, not his or her age. Equally important is a leader’s ability
to connect with the masses, to strike a rapport and secure their
confidence.
Mr Vajpayee was not a young man when he became Prime Minister, nor was
Mrs Indira Gandhi in the prime of her youth when she swept back to
power in 1980. If Mr Manmohan Singh is widely respected at home and
abroad, it has nothing to do with his age but his ability to project
himself as an earnest and humble person of unimpeachable integrity.
And, the BJP’s defeat in last summer’s general election was more on
account of a poorly planned campaign and shoddy political management
than either Mr Advani’s age or his leadership which has been variously
described as ‘uninspiring’ and ‘jaded’ by his critics within and
outside the party. But for bogus pollsters, stupidly brash aides and a
‘war room’ whose most creative contribution was the astounding promise
of gifting every family living below the poverty line with a smart
phone, perhaps the results would have been vastly different. Nor can
we overlook the Congress’s surge in States where the BJP is at best a
marginal player.
It would, therefore, be self-defeating for the BJP to believe that
with Mr Advani standing aside for the next generation of leaders to
take charge of the party’s affairs, the 2014 general election will be
a cakewalk. Today’s ‘young’ leaders will be five years older when
India votes to elect a new Lok Sabha, which means they will be pushing
60. If between now and then those who find themselves propelled to the
frontline are unable to tackle the many illnesses that plague the
party and fashion an alternative agenda distinctively different from
that of the Congress and in tune with the aspirations of today’s
voters, the BJP’s tally could dip below the 100 mark. The battle for
votes has always been a battle of ideas; in 1996, 1998 and 1999, Mr
Advani and Mr Vajpayee had the right ideas largely because they went
with their instincts. It’s only when they allowed their ideas to be
swamped by the mumbo-jumbo of courtiers and time-servers that they
faltered and fell.
Contrary to what is being claimed, the BJP’s main problem is not the
RSS but the BJP itself. Last week’s transition will be meaningless
unless it is accompanied by a tectonic shift in the way the BJP sees
itself. It can either choose to position itself as the only
alternative to the Congress by being distinctly, ideationally and
ideologically different, or it can persist with fashioning itself as a
clone of the Congress, a holdall party with neither beliefs nor
commitments but driven by the cynical pursuit of power as an end and
not the means to an end. Mr Vajpayee had vision; he was the ‘big
picture’ man who couldn’t bother about the details. Mr Advani had
ideas; it was his job to fill in the details of Mr Vajpayee’s vision.
What the BJP needs to regain its position as an unassailable foe of
the Congress is a new generation Vajpayee and a new generation Advani,
if not a leader who can combine the qualities of the two stalwarts who
still tower above everybody else in the party. Age won’t be a
criterion in deciding who qualifies as the new generation Advani or
new generation Vajpayee. Nor can the choice be limited to Dilli4.
Posted by Kanchan Gupta at 3:52 AM
1 comments
Vishwa said...
I second the whole post...
Thanks..
Monday, December 21, 2009
http://kanchangupta.blogspot.com/
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Tiger’s roar turns into a whimper
Friday has come and gone. Shahrukh Khan’s film, My Name is Khan, has
been released in theatres across the country and around the world. The
Shiv Sena’s protest against the movie has fallen flat. Television
channels that went to town over the Shahrukh Khan-Shiv Sena spat are
gleefully toting up ratings. Expectedly, the film has received rave
reviews. Both Shahrukh Khan and Karan Johar are celebrating their
latest success. The tamasha, thankfully, is over and we can get back
to less exciting issues like food prices, Maobadi excesses, taxpayer-
funded assistance for Islamic terrorists, and the Prime Minister’s
renewed grovelling before a smugly arrogant, terror-sponsoring
Pakistan at America’s instruction.
It would, however, be instructive to revisit the Mumbai stand-off that
turned into a damp squib. Shahrukh Khan (and consequently My Name is
Khan) managed to earn the Shiv Sena’s ire by describing Pakistan as a
“great neighbour”. The comment was made in the context of IPL
franchises not picking up Pakistani cricketers and the subsequent
media-generated ‘outrage’ over what was described as a “deliberate
snub” which some said was at the Government’s behest, a charge that
has since been stoutly denied by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and
lesser worthies of the UPA 2.0 regime. It was frightfully stupid of
the Shiv Sena to seize upon Shahrukh Khan’s stray comment, possibly
made keeping in mind audience and fans across the Radcliffe Line, and
question his patriotism. There is no reason to disbelieve the actor
(he describes himself as a “performing artiste”) when he says (as he
did on Twitter): “Hate: Anyone or anything that threatens my country…
I have never hurt anybody’s sentiments… religious, nationalist or
personal wittingly. I am pro-relationship but not at the cost of my
nation… Feel awful that Balasaheb and Uddhav have misconstrued my
words...”.
Conspiracy theorists would say that Shahrukh Khan (or his publicists)
sensed a great opportunity in the brouhaha that followed the IPL
franchises ignoring Pakistani cricketers to trigger a controversy on
the eve of the release of My Name is Khan. After all, a million
dollars and more spent on publicising the film could not have fetched
such frenzied and sustained media reportage for nearly a fortnight.
They would also slyly point out that perhaps the actor’s run-in with
American immigration officials (who are known to be intellectually
challenged) on account of the ‘Khan’ part of his name, which resulted
in his being detained for two hours at Newark Airport and massive
(media-instigated) outpouring of rage in India, may not have been
entirely coincidental.
After all, Shahrukh Khan did try to kick-up a similar controversy by
claiming security staff at Heathrow Airport asked him to sign prints
of his full body scan showing his (what are coyly referred to as)
‘private organs’. Apparently, he was happy to ‘autograph’ the prints.
British immigration officials, sharper than their friends across the
Atlantic, however, were not too happy about the colourful story
finding its way into media reports, and issued a formal statement
denying that he had been body-scanned and pointing out that such
scanners do not come attached with printers, nor can these images be
printed on paper. In brief: It was a cock-and-bull story. But that did
not dampen the enthusiasm of his fans, some of whom are believed to
have paid as much as a thousand euros to attend the first day, first
show of My Name is Khan in European theatres.
Shahrukh Khan (I must, alas, use the actor’s full name since I am
neither his fan and have in fact not seen any of his films, nor can I
claim, unlike many of my colleagues, to know him socially), of course,
describes these conspiracy theorists as “sickos” and wants them to
“shut up”. Some would say this does not suggest that he is as tolerant
about others as he expects them to be about him. But there really is
no percentage in getting involved in a protracted debate on the actor
(whose first interview to a mainstream newspaper appeared in The
Pioneer at my suggestion some 18 years ago if I am not mistaken; the
then editor, now a leading member of the Left-liberal intelligentsia,
had squawked: “Shahrukh who? That runt?”) or his latest film.
Nor shall any purpose be served in debating the media’s astounding
role in converting the Shahrukh Khan-Shiv Sena spat into a morality
play in which the good, the liberal and the tolerant were called upon
to take a stand against the bad, the illiberal and the intolerant and
protect, of all things, “India’s integrity”. I am still struggling to
figure out how a Bollywood film and the nation’s integrity are linked.
The media-manufactured outrage, however, was sufficiently effective to
make a young woman, allegedly educated enough to be employed as a
content writer, pathetically tweet (to @iamsrk) on Thursday night,
“Dear Shahrukh I am always being there for you, no need for you being
sad. It is kismat! :).” On @iamsrk’s timeline there’s a corresponding
tweet which says, “Yipeee!” Presumably such exchanges bear evidence to
the correctness of media going berserk over what finally turned out to
be a non-event. News judgement couldn’t have been more appropriate in
the times we live in.
Yet, the hullabaloo has proved to be useful insofar as it has
demonstrated beyond doubt that the Shiv Sena is now a pale shadow of
its past, drained of energy and stripped of its legendary clout to
shut down Mumbai in less than an hour’s notice. Worse, the Marathi
manoos, for whose rights the Shiv Sena claims to be fighting for, is
no longer willing to take to the streets at the drop of a hat: The
Pramukh’s wish is no longer considered a command, nor is Matoshree any
more seen as the centre of real power in Mumbai. Young Indians,
increasingly mobile and constantly looking for fresh opportunities in
new places, are loath to subscribe to the Shiv Sena’s narrow
parochialism, which does not necessarily mean they subscribe to the
bogus liberalism propagated by our media either. Successive electoral
reverses and desertion from its ranks have only served to defang the
ageing ‘tiger’: Many of Balasaheb Thackeray’s storm-troopers are now
beneficiaries of Congress largesse.
There’s a message for the BJP in Friday’s abject defeat, if not
humiliation, of the Shiv Sena: The party’s oldest ally is now a
liability. Politics is largely about popular perceptions, and the most
popular perception of the moment is that the Shiv Sena story is over,
it’s a relic of the past which has no place in India of the future.
The nation, as the RSS has emphasised while berating the Shiv Sena for
its hoodlum politics, takes precedence over obscene parochialism. A
separation can no longer be put off indefinitely; the BJP must
exercise its choice or risk getting tarred by the same brush. This is
not about standing by Shahrukh Khan, but upholding the principles of
enlightened Hindutva.
[This appeared as my weekly column 'Coffee Break' in The Pioneer on
14/02/10.]
Posted by Kanchan Gupta at 11:50 AM 3 comments Links to this post
"Tiger’s roar turns into a whimper"
3 Comments -
Shankara said...
My take is that Balasaheb speaks like a common Hindu on the street.
Something a auto driver or cart puller, sabji wala may feel and they
are the real Indians not us. The problem is that the left
intelligentsia, media picks on him paints him and his comments as auto
driver, cart puller, sabji wala type. Middle class Indians then doesnt
want to be seen as that. Middle class India the pseudo puritans of the
society steer clear even if they think like Balasaheb.
I am not a fan of SS or Balasaheb but I respect him. We need more
people like him but their ire should be directed at the right agenda
and person. SRK deserved what he got from SS and Balasaheb.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Anonymous said...
Shahrukh was only maximizing returns for his venture he got what he
wanted, but no amount of public opinion orchestration by the media can
save itself from financial losses as NDTV is about to sell itself to
Ranbaxy after suffering consistent losses. People are wiser than is
perceived by these media guys.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
kp11 said...
On the other hand, it did send the message that there is atleast
someone who can berate pakistan lovers openly. Newly liberated highly
mobile or whatever Indians will not squeak even if someone says 'we
are slaves of pakistan' in public, no matter how much they dsilike the
left-liberal media. What did we lose if the film earned money? We must
look at the benefits it achieved. In fact Shiv Sena should be
applauded that it took a bold stand in spite of getting no support
from any party. Hindus might hate BJP even more if they break-up with
Sena over this matter
Friday, February 19, 2010
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=32951515&postID=7881068057898530727
BJP MP, workers arrested for damaging railway property
Bhopal, Feb 27
A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and over 300 party workers were
Friday arrested after they tried to set a train on fire and damaged
property at Jabalpur railway station, alleging the city's interests
were overlooked in the railway budget, police said. All were later
released on bail.
The violent workers were protesting extension of Jabalpur-Mumbai Garib
Rath up to Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh and Jabalpur not getting a
railway division status.
Government Railway Police (GRP) baton charged the workers to disperse
them. More than a hundred protesters, led by BJP MP from Jabalpur
Rakesh Singh, courted arrest against the move to extend Garib Rath's
run to Allahabad.
"Railway administration have lodged a case with the Government Railway
Police (GRP), the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and the state police
against the persons who have caused damage worth over Rs.4 lakh to the
railway property," railway's Chief Public Relation Officer Piyush
Mathur told IANS on phone.
"Rakesh Singh and 334 workers were arrested and later released on
bail," said Jabalpur GRP Police Superintendant S.K. Pande.
Last updated on Feb 27th, 2010 at 00:16 am IST--IANS
http://www.prokerala.com/news/articles/a118042.html
Budget flawed, inflationary: Prakash Karat
February 26, 2010 17:27 IST
Prakash Karat, general secretary of Communist party of India-Marxist,
termed the Budget 'flawed'.
While speaking to rediff.com, he said, "The increase in indirect taxes
will add to inflation. The government is neither going to achieve
growth nor it will be able to contain inflation with this budget."
He said the Budget is anti-poor, "because of the increase in customs
and excise duty which will aggravate inflation ending in a rise in
prices. This will burden the poor. One fails to understand the logic
behind this Budget. At a time when food prices are so high in the
country, such a move will only add to the woes of the people. Food
inflation will soar with hike in petrol and diesel prices."
Karat also dismissed the government's allocation of around Rs 5,000
crore (Rs 50 billion) for education projects. He said it is too meager
in light of the importance of the sector. He also said in view of the
cut in subsidy on fertilizers, the allocation of Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30
billion) for it is not enough for the farmers.
When asked if the opposition 'walkout' in Parliament against the
announcement of petro-price hike in the Budget was a planned strategy,
Karat firmly denied it. He said, "That is possible only if government
had told us in advance! How can we know what is in the Budget?"
The Left parties are normally shy of joining hands with the Bharatiya
Janta Party on most issues inside or outside Parliament. In opposing
the Indo-US nuclear deal Karat's CPI-M [ Images ] and BJP were on the
same side inside Parliament.
On Friday, once again on the issue of the hike in petrol and diesel
prices, the BJP and the Left parties got together in opposing the
government.
Karat said, "The walkout by my party members was necessary because
this Budget is pampering the rich people and burdening the poor. The
government is unable to recognise the fact that the Budget would
enhance inequality within India [ Images ]. The Budget is against the
declared aim of the government's inclusive growth claims."
BJP observes 'black day' across UP
STAFF WRITER 19:43 HRS IST
Lucknow, Feb 26 (PTI) BJP today observed a 'black day' across the
state in protest against alleged police excesses during a maharally
here even as state unit president Ramapati Ram Tripathi and former
national president Rajnath Singh's son were taken into custody for
violating prohibitory orders.
Besides, Rajnath Singh's son Pankaj, BJP vice president Surya Pratap
Shahi and two MLAs were arrested when they were protesting against
"police atrocities" on partymen during a clash that erupted after they
were prevented from marching to the state assembly yesterday after the
maharally against price rise.
Nearly 35 persons, including Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, some senior leaders
and policemen were injured in the clash.
BJP workers wearing black bands took out a silent march from the party
office to the Gandhi statue where they staged a dharna."Black day has
been observed across UP," Tripathi said.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/539436_BJP-observes--black-day--across-UP
(RPT)
STAFF WRITER 18:56 HRS IST
BJP members to bring cut motions, vote against budget
New Delhi, Feb 26 (PTI) After staging a walkout from the Lok Sabha in
protest against an "inflationary" Union Budget, BJP today said it
would move cut motions and oppose the budget when it is put to vote.
"We are going to oppose the Budget. Cut-motion is a prerogative
available in the Lok Sabha and we will definitely bring it to censure
the government on its anti-people policies," senior BJP leader and
former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said.
He asserted that though there were several announcements in the Budget
which were "anti-people", when Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee
announced customs duty on petroleum products "he crossed the limit of
tolerance of the people" and the party "spontaneously" decided to
stage a walkout.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/539281_BJP-members-to-bring-cut-motions--vote-against-budget
BJP stumbles again in MCC
TNN, Feb 26, 2010, 09.45pm IST
MYSORE: The BJP on Friday stumbled again in the MCC despite
engineering defection in JD(S) during the mayoral polls, which were
put off following the procedural lapses.
There are now indications that the election of mayor and deputy mayor
could be delayed because of legal wrangles.
The BJP's shot at power in the civic body for the third time led to
cross voting from JD(S) members. While some went ahead, others stopped
on the tracks and did not sign the papers, a requisite to count the
votes.
In the end, the BJP was told that it has the support of 30 members
which was contested by the saffron party claiming that 37 members were
on its side. As the issue led to deadlock, mayor Purushothama put off
the election meeting for three days.
Outside the House, the mayor was not too sure whether he could hold
the elections in three days. "I will consult others and see what the
law says," he told reporters. According to him, 34 members had raised
their hands to express their support for the BJP candidate but only 30
signed the papers. The House has 78 members.
While the BJP continues its losing streak in the civic body, JD(S)
suffered defection with at least five of its members cross-voting.
Surprisingly, city JD(S) chief K T Chaluvegowda, a three-time
corporator and one of the major contenders for the post, raised his
hands when polling began for BJP candidate Nagendra. But he later
retracted and did not sign the register to formalize his voting. He
was not available for comments.
This is the third time the BJP is unsuccessful in getting the mayor's
gaddi, but its leaders are content that the polls are put off
indicating that the legal ways are open to them. BJP MLA S A Ramadass
claimed the support of 37 members.
Though alliance partners Congress and JD(S) entered the fray fielding
P Devaraj and S Satish (Sandesh Swamy), it was projected as a
strategy. "The alliance is still on and we will support the JD(S),"
former minister and Congress MLA Tanveer Sait told The Times of India.
Sait, along with MP H Vishwanath, managed the party's business but
were seen holding parleys with BJP leaders in the House prompting
JD(S) to suspect their moves. Sandesh Swamy attributed cross-voting by
its members to Congress leaders opposed to opposition leader
Siddaramaiah. It is a ploy to defame him since he has agreed to abide
by the understanding, he stated.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mysore/BJP-stumbles-again-in-MCC/articleshow/5621513.cms
Varun wants BJP focus on the Ganga, cows and temples
IANS, Feb 6, 2010, 07.04pm IST
BULANDSHAHR (Uttar Pradesh): Contrary to new party chief Nitin
Gadkari's campaign for development, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP
Varun Gandhi Saturday said the party should focus on the Ganga, safety
of cows and care of temples.
"Price rise is an issue alright, but we should not forget what our
party was formed for. We should not compromise on our self-respect,"
he said while addressing a rally at Shikarpur here.
"If we don't fight for our self-respect, the Ganga (river), Gau mata
(cows), our temples and the youth, then everything else will fall
apart," he added.
He said he has constructed around 200 temples in his parliamentary
constituency of Pilibhit with his own money.
"While I was coming here. I saw many minars on the way. But I don't
have any problem with that. What I feel bad about is the poor
condition of our temples today. They are the signs of our faith and we
should do everything to take care of them," Gandhi said.
Even as slogans of "Jai Shri Ram" raged on, Gandhi said: "I will
ensure that no cow slaughter takes place here and if you hear of any
such case, you can call me any time and I will be there. We will get
our hands cut off, but won't let any cow get slaughtered".
Gandhi said the country wants strong leadership today.
"People want a completely new kind of politics. They don't want
leaders to sit in their bungalows and not visit their constituency.
Unlike others, even after I won the elections, I regularly keep
visiting my constituency," he said.
Gandhi also spoke about issues of land acquisition and the plight of
farmers.
Will RSS relieve Modi from poll worries?
TNN, Aug 22, 2009, 02.20am IST
AHMEDABAD: The Narendra Modi camp is hoping for a clear mandate from
the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to the sangh's cadres to support the BJP
in by-elections to seven assembly seats.
Modi's relations with wings of the Sangh Parivaar have been strained
and the cadres have stayed away from the BJP's campaign in recent
elections. The VHP leader Ashok Singhal even described him as 'Ghazni'
after a series of demolitions of illegal temples in Gandhinagar some
months back.
But, if sources in the BJP are to be believed, Bhagwat wants the
entire force of the parivaar to put the BJP on the road to recovery.
RSS sources said Bhagwat is scheduled to visit Ahmedabad just before
the by-elections scheduled on September 10. The Modi camp believes
Bhagwat is expected to tell a large gathering of swayamsevaks that
they should work for BJP's victory.
For Modi, personally, these by-elections are a clear test of strength
after having fought a drawn match with the Congress in Gujarat in the
last Lok Sabha elections. Unfortunately for him, six of these seven
seats were Congress held.
RSS does not run the BJP: Mohan Bhagwat
PTI, Dec 5, 2009, 05.00pm IST
CHANDIGARH: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Saturday said his organisation
does not "run" the BJP, which he described as an "independent
political outfit".
"We don't run the BJP, which is an independent political outfit. We
also don't have the time to run it," Bhagwat said addressing a 'meet-
the-press' programme in Chandigarh.
He, however, clarified that if BJP seeks help on any constructive
issue, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is always ready to help.
On several queries on the BJP leadership issue, Bhagwat said it is
BJP's internal matter and hoped the political party will resolve it.
"To decide on who will be the next president of BJP is their
prerogative," he said.
When asked whether the RSS was keen to have the next BJP chief from
outside Delhi, he said, "this is not true, but in fact this had been
communicated to us by them (the BJP)... we don’t know who their next
head will be".
On the charges that the organisation indulged in "moral policing",
Bhagwat said there was no truth in this. "After India became
Independent, we have always submitted ourselves to the law of the land
though we have our own ideology and we follow that".
When asked to make a choice between BJP and the Congress, he said, "we
are not to make this judgment. This choice is made by the people
whenever the elections are held."
Reader's opinions (3)
Premraj Narkhede Calicut 05/12/2009 at 07:17 pm
Post it in Jokes column
satyendra singh noida 05/12/2009 at 07:17 pm
hi, this is satyendra singh. I am regular viewer of toi. This is one
of best which provide me a lot of knowledge.i am very much intrested
about the economical and sports news. pls send me reguler details of
it. satyendra singh
AZIM QATAR 06/12/2009 at 06:31 pm
joke of the centuary If u have guts then tell the truth to the world
that BJP/BAJRANG DAL/VHP/RSS is one party It is like pakistan says ISI
does not belong to us or Osama says Al-Qaida does not belong to him U
demolish the mosque and then say we have not done it U kill the
innocent people in gujrat and then say we have not done anything U
kill the cristians and then say we are not involved U collect
thousands of crore rupees and dont build ram temple while in power U
are using religion for politics to gain power The nation with 85%
hindu population but still u are out of power because you people are
from upper cast and accounting for only 2% of population
bademiyansubhanallah
Orissa police in service of Hindutva (and POSCO)
Posted in Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, hindu fundamentalism, hindutva,
neoliberalism by ravi on December 11, 2008
The Orissa police has arrested writer Lenin Kumar and two of his
associates, Ravi Jena and Dhananjay Lenka, for publishing his book
Dharma Naanre Kandhamalare Raktanadee (Bloodshed in Kandhamal in the
name of religion). They have been charged under Sections 153A, 295A
and 34 of the Indian Penal Code.
Section 153A: Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of
religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing
acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony
Section 295A: Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage
religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious
beliefs.
Section 34: Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common
intention [When a criminal act is done by several persons in
furtherance of the common intention of all, each of such persons is
liable for that act in the same manner as if it were done by him
alone]
For those who have been following recent events in Orissa, sections
153A and 295A read like a description of the Sangh Parivar’s
activities. However, Lenin Kumar and his associates have been arrested
for raising their voices against the Parivar. According to Pramodini
Pradhan, Convenor of PUCL (Bhubaneswar Unit): The specific section of
the book – pages 38 to 41 – (which has been cited by police) relates
to a letter allegedly written by the RSS to its members for anti-
dalit, anti-minority activities.
A report in the Indian Express has more details:
Quoted in these pages are parts from a piece written by CPI leader D
Raja and first published in the June 18-24, 2000, issue of the party’s
mouthpiece New Age. This piece, say the police, makes various
allegations against the RSS, including that the Hindutva outfit asks
followers to store firearms for use in riots, coerces Dalit Christians
to chant ‘Shri Ram’ and ‘Om’ and forces Dalit, Muslim and Christian
girls into prostitution.
Apparently, the same objectionable (for whom?) material has been
published in various outlets in and outside Orissa. The Indian Express
report also quotes a civil rights activist, Sudhir Patnaik, on
violations of due process in the arrests:
The two sections under which Lenin was held warrant that police take
permission from either the state Government or Centre before an arrest
is made. How can Lenin be arrested for writing against communal
violence while organisations like the RSS and VHP, which incited
communal disharmony in Kandhamal through their writings and press
statements, have not? (emphasis mine)
While the stated reason for the arrests is the printing and publishing
of the said book, and the police also confiscated about 700 copies of
the book and shut down the press, Deputy Commissioner of Police
(Bhubaneswar) Himanshu Lal has claimed that some Maoist literature was
also seized from the press and more charges will be pressed against
Kumar. A confusing report in The Hindu also insinuates a Maoist
connection, though the logic escapes me:
The police had swung into action and booked Mr. Kumar in the wake of
the appearance of Maoist posters in different localities of the
Capital city. The posters, which bore the name of Communist Party of
India (Maoist), warned people against joining organisations such as
the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. The police had seized some posters and
registered a case, but no one has been arrested in this connection so
far.
The Orissa police seem to have taken a leaf out of their Chhattisgarh
colleagues in harrassing and imprisoning dissenters as Maoists and
Maoist sympathizers. This August, advocate Protima Das, anti-
displacement activist Pradeep and U.S.-based educator Dave were
detained while on a fact-finding trip. Upon his return to the U.S.,
Pugh wrote:
At approximately 8 pm, the car transporting us was pulled over by
local police for a traffic-related reason. My translator Pratima Das,
my guide Pradeep, our driver, and I were taken to a police station for
questioning. For the next eight hours, all of us were interrogated,
first by the local police, and then by the chief police official of
the state of Orissa. The latter was particularly hostile, accusing me
of being an “anti-government agitator.” When I insisted that I was a
teacher researching the issue of forced displacement in India, he
insisted that only “communists” would be interested in speaking with
villagers. (emphasis added)
These arrests triggered a debate on whether the police was seeking to
muzzle the voices of anti-displacement activists by dubbing them as
Maoists. Interestingly, the police seem to have attempted to concoct
a Maoist link with Lenin Kumar at that time, by placing reports in the
media that the arrested suspects (whose links with Maoists were not
proven) had named Kumar’s magazine Nishan. Kumar’s observations then
have now proven prescient:
[Kumar] alleged that of late voice of protest against government
policy or system in Orissa has been branded as an act of treason or
terrorism. He referred to the Dr Binayak Sen case and noted Orissa may
soon witness many more Binayak Sens being put behind bars.
Related articles (to be updated):
Journalists Protest against arrest of writer Lenin Kumar
STOP PROSECUTING LENIN ROY: IMPOSE CEILING ON PROPERTY
PUCL Condemns the arrest of Lenin Kumar; it throttles freedom of
expression
Arbitrary and illegal arrest of ‘Nishan’ Editor Lenin Roy
Sanghis set books on fire
Posted in Bharatiya Janata Party, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh,
hindutva by ravi on November 23, 2007
[Source: Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (archive), a Hindutva outfit]
Varanasi: A book fair was organized by National Book Trust, Delhi on
Beniabaug Grounds. Some publishers were displaying and selling books
that were anti-Hindu Dharma, denigrating Hindu deities, saints and
Holy Scriptures. Devout Hindus came together and protested against
these publishers. A book titled “Ramayana, a new perspective” was
burnt under the leadership of Swami Jagajeetan Pandeya, Secretary of
Akhil Bharateeya Dharma Sangh as it hurt religious sentiments of
Hindus whereas some books were thrown away from the book fair and the
book sellers were warned to destroy such books.
Some book-sellers were deliberately displaying books with titles like
“Rati-Purana”, “Ramayana- Ek Naya Drusahtikon”, “Hindu Dharma ke
Padabhrashta Tulsidas”, “Tantra-Mantra-Yantra”, “Hindu Sanskruti”,
“Sree Krushna Aur Unaki Geeta” etc. There was furor among Hindus all
through the city as they came to know about such display and sale.
There were protests in different parts of the city in various manners
against this incident. Shri. Balendu Shekhar Tripathi of RSS and Shri.
Gulshana Kapur of Shiv Sena visited the book stalls and checked such
controversial books. They also brought this matter to the notice of
City Magistrate. 13 anti-Hindu books were confiscated and ban was
imposed on their sale. Workers of BJP – Youth Wing burnt effigy of
Ramaswamy and a book written by him titled ‘Sachchi Ramayana’ since it
insulted Sree Rama.
When police arrested agitators, the organizers of the book fair were
expressing apology to them instead of taking action against them.
Anhad et al statement on the Tehelka Sting
Posted in Bharatiya Janata Party, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Vishwa
Hindu Parishad, hindu fundamentalism, hindutva by ravi on October 29,
2007
It has been proved beyond doubt by the Tehelka investigations into the
2002 massacre of Muslims in Gujarat that Narendra Modi, the then Home
Minister Gordhan Zadaphia, the then Ahmedabad Police chief P. C.
Pandey actively colluded in killing Muslims and planning their mass
murder and destruction of the property. The Chief Minister, Home
Minister and their whole administration not only planned, provoked and
encouraged the massacre of Muslims and destruction of their property
but also ensured that mass murderers and rapists got a safe hiding.
Active subversion of the fundamental principles of secular governance
is a continuous and running theme in the Gujarat governance as has
been comprehensively demonstrated on camera that all the arms of the
state of Gujarat willingly abdicated their constitutional
responsibility to safeguard the life, liberty, dignity and property of
the citizens even after the killings, rapes, loot and destruction
subsided. What is even more reprehensible is that the whole system of
Judiciary stands exposed as it has been claimed by the government
counsels that the judges at different levels were actively subverting
the course of justice.
The Tehelka tapes present incontestable evidence of the involvement of
state machinery in the 2002 Gujarat pogrom. It captures several
confessions including that of:
The state prosecutor Arvind Pandya who stated that the mass killings
of Muslims in Gujarat should be celebrated every year as a victory day
and that Every judge was calling me in his chamber and showing full
distance… the judges were also guiding me as and when required… how to
put up a case and on which date… because basically they are Hindus
sympathy for me… giving full cooperation to me, but keeping some.
Maza aata hai na, saheb [I enjoy it]… I came back after I killed them,
called up the home minister and went to sleep – Babu Bajrangi
Another confession came from Babu Bajrangi who stated that to get me
out of jail, [Chief Minister] Narendra Modi changed judges thrice.
Yet another MLA acknowledged that Modi gave him three days to do
whatever violence they wanted.
We the undersigned endorse the above statement are calling upon the
The President of India, The Chief Justice Supreme Court, The Election
Commission and The Prime Minster of India:
The immediate dismissal of the Narendra Modi administration and
imposition of President’s rule in Gujarat.
Cancellation of the present election dates as elections cannot be held
in Gujarat in the present circumstances.
Requesting the Election Commission to ask the Supreme Court to
constitute a CBI probe under a supreme court judge and if there is
prima facie case then BJP should be barred as a political party.
Govt of India should sign the Genocide convention and Modi needs to be
tried by a tribunal
The immediate arrest of the all criminals who have confessed their
crimes in the Tehelka tapes.
RSS, VHP , Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena be declared unlawful
organizations and a high level enquiry under the aegis of the Supreme
Court of India be set to uncover the designs of these organizations
whose top leaders have proudly claimed on camera that they were
involved in rapes, looting, making of bombs, rockets.
Re-investigate Nanded bomb blast case and following bomb blast cases
where activists have pointed out the involvement of the RSS. Now there
is clear evidence on tape that the Sangh is involved in large scale
Bomb making exercise and killing innocent people.
It is a test case for the Indian state and if the Supreme Court and
the Central Government fail to act they would sow a seed of
destruction of secular polity.
Apoorvanand
Gagan Sethi
Shabnam Hashmi
and many more
BJP chief admits to RSS running the BJP
Posted in Bharatiya Janata Party, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh by ravi
on July 31, 2007
Why is this newsworthy? Because the Sangh is admitting the truth!
Here’s an excerpt from the Outlook interview.
Question: On January 29 this year, you had removed Modi from the BJP’s
highest decision-making body—the parliamentary board. At the same time
Arun Jaitley was removed as chief spokesperson of the BJP. Did you act
under RSS pressure or advice?
Rajnath: The media made too much of it. These were routine changes.
Okay, the RSS was consulted. In Modi’s case it was 70 per cent RSS and
30 per cent my decision. In Jaitley’s case the responsibility was
50:50.
As pointed out by the Times of India,
The statement undercuts the denials by both BJP and RSS about the
latter’s involvement in the party’s decision making. While organically
linked, BJP has preferred to keep up the pretence of autonomy vis-a-
vis Sangh, while Sangh itself professes disinterest in the affairs of
the party.
Here’ s the rest of the TOI report (all emphases mine):
The Sangh leadership was, naturally, not amused by the statement which
can be a weapon in critics’ hands. Approached by TOI, RSS leader Ram
Madhav said, “He has to clarify what he means by 70% and 30%.
Decisions are taken by the party. You can consult anyone including the
RSS, that’s a normal practice, but on what basis do you say that the
decisions were taken by the Sangh… of course there is a possibility
that he (Singh) may have been misquoted.”
The controversial statement comes in the aftermath of the perception
about RSS getting increasingly involved in the routine affairs of BJP
under the current leadership. Singh took over the party’s reins from L
K Advani who was asked to step down by Sangh leadership because of his
controversial remarks on Jinnah.
Advani had made his displeasure known by complaining about Sangh’s bid
to micro-manage party affairs. While his protest did not evoke much
support, the perception about Sangh’s interference has led to
heartburn.
While no one has gone public, it is only because of the reverence for
senior Sangh leaders. Murmurs against RSS functionaries who have been
imposing their choices have been on the rise. Their role has been
called into question also with regard to the recent UP polls. Party
circles lament that while they have got the flak, Sangh functionaries
who interfered at every stage have gone unscathed.
If the RSS is not happy about an open acknowledgment of its
relationship with the BJP, Rajnath’s statement has got to be
retracted, right? This is exactly what the BJP has done. Here is its
letter to Outlook, reproduced in full:
Dear Shri Mehta,
The Bharatiya Janata Party and its National President are deeply
distressed over the cavalier manner in which your magazine Outlook
(dated 06 August 2007) has published the interview of Shri Rajnath
Singh ji. The interview contains certain statements which he never
made, his observations have been deliberately distorted and quoted out
of context and there is a palpable attempt to maliciously convey a
negative image.
It is evident that there appears to be a motive behind this distortion
and the fact that the interview of Shri Rajnath Singh ji was given in
Hindi and has been published in English; has been conveniently
manipulated and distorted to suit this purpose. In particular, I would
like to emphasize that Shri Rajnath Singh ji never made the
uncharitable comments or statistical reference in the decision making
process against his party colleagues and the two senior leaders of the
party Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Shri L K Advani. Many of the
observations about the RSS were either not made by Shri Rajnath Singh
ji or have been quoted out of context.
The party would like to place on record its contradiction and
condemnation of the objectionable manner in which your publication has
gone ahead and distorted the interview.
Yours truly
(Ravi Shankar Prasad)
Spokesperson
I can only hope Outlook recorded the interview, and can call the BJP’s
bluff! If your appetite hasn’t been whetted yet, here’s another juicy
excerpt from the Outlook interview (all emphases mine).
Question: Your critics say that some RSS leaders have begun to have
second thoughts about your leadership and that you will be nothing
without the RSS…
Rajnath: The media is really trying to create a story. The RSS is
united and does not have factions. I am loyal to the RSS and it backs
me completely. I have worked for the Sangh from my early youth. I have
propagated their ideology from the beginning. Yes, you are right I
would be nothing without the RSS.
Save Gandhian institute from takeover by RSS
Posted in Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, hindu fundamentalism, hindutva
by ravi on July 28, 2007
[Source: DailySouthAsian]
The Sangh Parivar has been trying to takeover the Gandhian Institute
of Studies in Rajghat, Varanasi for some time through an expelled
employee of the Institute Smt. Kusum Lata Kedia. The Institute was
founded by late Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) in 1960 with the purpose of
building a closer relationship between grassroots movements and
academia so that both would benefit from each other. The land was
given on lease by Sarva Sewa Sangh and support for construction
provided by U.P. Gandhi Smarak Nidhi. JP ran the Institute without any
government support from its inception till 1977. It was only during
the Janata Party regime that it was decided that Institute would meet
its running expenses with support from ICSSR and the UP Government.
K.L. Kedia, with affiliations to RSS, joined the Institute and
initiated the downfall of this prestigious Institute. She had to be
expelled from the Institute in 2002 by its Board of Management after
recommendations given in by a committee headed by late Usha Mehta, on
disciplinary grounds. However, she schemed with then HRD minister
Murali Manohar Joshi and got the funds from ICSSR to the Institute
stopped. She got herself declared as the acting director by the ICSSR.
It was when she had started abusing the Institute’s property that a
dharna was organized by the Board of Management, now headed by
legendary Gandhian Acharya Ramamurti, in 2003 to ask the
administration to step in to prevent her from doing so. The local
administration put a lock on the main building. Meanwhile, she
continued to occupy the director’s residence.
With the coming into power of Congress led government at the centre,
funds from ICSSR resumed. Arjun Singh described this as a test case
for freeing an academic institution from saffronization. Sarva Sewa
Sangh allowed the Institute to function from its adjacent premises
with a Professor of BHU, Prof. Dipak Malik as its new Director and
Muniza Rafiq Khan as its acting Registrar. However, the Mulayam Singh
government was unable to get the Institute begin functioning from its
main premises. In fact, a minister in his government, Omprakash Singh,
was instrumental in getting the application for renewal of
registration of the Society which runs the Institute rejected. With
the coming of Mayawati Govt. we expected quite rightfully that it will
announce final exit of the RSS led conspiracy managed by Ms. K.L.
Kedia but in a queer turn of events here too a former RSS functionary
and currently higher education minister Rakesh Dhar Tripathi a close
disciple of Murli Manohar Joshi taking pretext of a District Court
order while the case is already subjudice in the High Court at
Allahabad has forced the Principal Secretary, Education, UP
Government, to form a committee headed by K.L. Kedia, who was given
the highest honour in the Sangh Parivar Hedgewar Award, to oversee the
running of the Gandhian Institute of Studies. The rest of the
committee is also packed with people close to RSS. This is an ill omen
for newly formed Govt. in U. P. where RSS infiltrators are trying to
sabotage the agenda of the newly elected Govt.
This is a momentary defeat for the Gandhian and secular community in
saving the Institute from falling into the hands of Sangh Parivar
which has been responsible for Gandhi’s murder as well as assault on
his ideology from time to time.
Gandhian Institute of Studies must be saved from takeover by RSS. It
has to be restored to its original mission as envisioned by JP. Please
call the UP C.M. at 0522-2236181, 2239296 (o), 2236761, 2750458 (h) or
send a fax at 0522-2223000 to register your protest.
Akhil Bhart Sarva Seva Sangh, Gandhian Institute of Studies, Lok
Vidya, Sarnath Varanasi, Prarana Kala Manch, Asmita, Mahila Chetana
Samiti, Lok Samiti, VISION, Manawa Adhikar Jan-Nigarani Samiti, Path,
Mitra, Varanasi.
Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, New Delhi
Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, Uttar Pradesh
Shram Bharti, Khadigram, Jamui (Bihar)
Asha Parivar, Lucknow.
National Alliance of People’s Movement
Center for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai
Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi
AIPSO, Uttar Pradesh
Ramanand Pustakalay, Aazamgarh
Sajha Sanskriti Manch, Samanvaya
MSU redux (on the continued targeting of Professor Shivji Panikkar)
Posted in Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, free speech, hindu
fundamentalism, hindutva by ravi on July 28, 2007
We, the undersigned, strongly condemn the continued targeting of
Professor Shivji Panikkar of Maharaja Sayajirao University, and his
allies. The Sangh Parivar’s actions constitute an attack on civil
liberties and academic freedom, and violate the right to freedom of
movement and the right to freedom of information.
The Sangh Parivar attacked and disrupted the National Student’s
Festival for Peace Communal Harmony and Justice on July 6, 2007. The
organizers at Anhad, Act Now for Harmony and Democracy, had invited
Professor Shivji Panikkar to inaugurate an exhibition of student
artworks. On his arrival, a Hindutva (Hindu nationalist/extremist) mob
surrounded Professor Panikkar’s car, shouting slogans. When Professor
Panikkar stepped out of the car, he was physically assaulted. The mob
proceeded to throw bricks and an iron drum at the car, injuring the
driver and smashing the windshield. Police intelligence, it has been
made known, was involved and informed the crowd of the arrival of
uniformed police, which allowed the mob to disperse.
On July 8, Deepak Kanna, Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Maharaja
Sayajirao University resigned in protest of the attack on Professor
Panikkar. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has called for
Professor Panikkar’s exile from Gujarat, and the Akhil Bharthiya
Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) began a signature campaign on the Maharaja
Sayajirao University campus on July 11 in protest of Professor
Panikkar’s alleged comments on Hindu bhajans (devotional songs).
Earlier this year, on May 11, 2007, Shivji Panikkar, Dean of the
Faculty of Fine Arts at Maharaja Sayajirao University, was suspended
by the university administration from his appointment, for upholding a
student’s academic right to freedom of expression. Sangh Parivar
groups had attacked student Chandra Mohan’s works, displayed as part
of an examination procedure, and had the artist arrested on May 9,
2007. Other students protested Chandra Mohan’s arrest by exhibiting
erotic works from the school’s archives on the faculty porch, which
the administration ordered to be shut down, which Professor Panikkar
refused. The attacks against them had forced both Professor Panikkar
and Chandra Mohan into seclusion out of fear for their lives.
We also condemn that such targeting has become indicative of the
culture of fear and repression that is allowed to continue in Gujarat,
where, following the genocide against Muslims in February-March of
2002, insufficient and negligent action has been taken to bring
restorative justice to the survivors of the brutal, gendered and
sexualized, violence. Failure to apprehend and bring to trial the
perpetrators of criminal acts on the part of the Gujarat state
administration has continued to subject minority and disenfranchised
communities to a reign of terror. These acts of violence and
repression are produced in particular by the complicity of state and
national governments. The Government of India has failed to restore
democracy by holding accountable the perpetrators, including the Chief
Minister Narendra Modi and other government and law enforcement
officials for the state’s proven complicity in aiding and abetting the
violence of 2002. The Government of India has also failed to hold
accountable the perpetrators among the cadre of Sangh Parivar groups
for inflicting the violence, and, as applicable, refused to revoke
their charitable status.
OUR DEMANDS
We call for an immediate inquiry into the events that targeted
Professor Shivji Panikkar.
We demand that the as yet outstanding case against Chandra Mohan be
dismissed.
We ask that suitable action be taken against the perpetrators.
We demand that the police take official cognizance of the
documentation produced by ANHAD, Act Now for Democracy and Harmony,
regarding the identity of the perpetrators, rather than restricting
its actions to filing a First Information Report (FIR) against unknown
assailants.
We call for the restoration of Professor Panikkar’s appointment.
We call for the restoration of law and order, and academic freedom, on
the Maharaja Sayajirao University campus. In this regard, we demand
accountability from the Vice-Chancellor of Maharaja Sayajirao
University, Manoj Saini, who has direct responsibility for maintaining
academic freedom on campus.
We call for an independent inquiry into the activities of Sangh
Parivar organizations that are involved in this case, such as the
Akhil Bharthiya Vidyarthi Parishad, Bajrang Dal, Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh, and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
We call for an independent and impartial judicial enquiry into the
government’s repeated inability or refusal to maintain law and order.
SIGNATORIES
Organizations
1. GMAA, Gujarati Muslim Association of America
2. AIM, Association of Indian Muslims of America
3. CSDI, Coalition for a Secular and Democratic India
4. CSFH, Campaign To Stop Funding Hate
5. Dharma Megha
6. Educational Subscription Service
7. FIACONA, Federation of Indian American Organizations of North
America
8. Friends of South Asia
9. India Development Society
10. India Foundation
11. IACP, Indian American Coalition for Pluralism
12. ICF, Indian Christian Forum
13. Indian Muslim Council-USA
14. IMEFNA, Indian Muslim Education Foundation of North America
International Service Society
15. INSAF, International South Asia Forum Bulletin
16. Non-Resident Indians Coalition for Justice
17. Non-Resident Indians for a Secular and Harmonious India
18. SANSAD, South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy
19. Seva International
20. Supporters of Human Rights in India
21. Vaishnava Center for Enlightenment
22. Vedanata Society of East Lansing
23. Washington Watch
Individuals
(Note: Organizational affiliations for individuals are listed for
identification purposes only)
1. George Abraham
2. Rasheed Ahmed
3. Dr. Angana Chatterji, Associate Professor, Anthropology, California
Institute of Integral Studies
4. Rebecca Kurian
5. Dr. Khursheed Mallick
6. Saeed Patel, Non-Resident Indians for a Secular and Harmonious
India
7. Devesh Poddar, Director, Washington Watch Incorporated, East
Lansing, Michigan
8. Mayurika Poddar, Director, India Foundation of Michigan
9. Shrikumar Poddar, President, Vaishnava Center for Enlightenment,
Okemos, Michigan
10. Raju Rajagopal
11. Dr. K. S. Sripada Raju, Director, International Service Society,
East Lansing, Michigan
12. Dr. Hari Sharma, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Simon Fraser
University
13. Amin Tejani, President, Shanti International, East Lansing,
Michigan
14. Dr. Shaik Ubaid, Indian American Coalition for Pluralism
15. Sandeep Vaidya
Intro to the Hindu(tva) American Foundation
Posted in Hindu American Foundation, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh,
caste, hindu fundamentalism, hindutva by ravi on July 27, 2007
<!--[if !supportLists]-->[Excerpts from an amicus curiae brief filed
in the Superior Court of the state of California (Sacramento county)
opposing Hindutva attempts to saffronise school textbooks in
California]
The United States of America is home to one of the strongest overseas
networks of the Sangh Parivar, with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of
America (VHPA) and the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) being the main
affiliates. The VHPA’s projects include the creation of the Hindu
Students Council which since its founding spawned several committed
Hindutva activists like Mihir Meghani, the founder and President of
the Hindu American Foundation. The efforts to rewrite textbooks in
California by the HAF, and its allies the Hindu Education Foundation
(HEF, an educational project of HSS) and Vedic Foundation (VF, an
Austin, Texas based organization with close ties to the VHPA) are
related directly to efforts by the broader network of Hindutva
organizations based in the U.S. coordinating with the India-based
RSS.
Specifically, the textbook campaign of the Hindutva organizations in
the U.S. is linked to largely unsuccessful efforts by the RSS to do
the same in India. Several key players involved in the textbook effort
are also leaders and officials of various Hindutva organizations. Ved
Nanda, advisor to the HEF is the founder and supreme leader of the
HSS, which created the HEF. (See Charts detailing key organizations
and individual ties between the HAF, HEF, and VF and Hindutva Groups,
attached as Exhibits A and B, respectively).
It is important to point out that the current textbook efforts of
Hindutva organizations in the U.S. bear more than a coincidental
relationship to similar efforts in India. Starting in 2002, when the
Sangh Parivar’s political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was
in power in India, the Sangh Parivar made an abortive attempt to
doctor school textbooks in India. This effort was defeated by a
coalition of scholars, intellectuals and secular activists in India
and elsewhere. The interventions in California are a continuation of
the Sangh Parivar’s failed attempts in India; as a HEF volunteer
proudly proclaimed in a recent gathering of Sangh Parivar activists
from all over the world: Through the Hindu Education Foundation run by
the RSS in California, we have succeeded in correcting the misleading
information in text books for primary and secondary classes.
The seeds for the current controversy were sown in 2003, when the
Hindu Students Council (HSC) — a project of the VHPA — organized the
Dharma Conference. A large number of U.S. based Hindutva luminaries
participated along with the BJP’s Human Resources and Development
Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi. Mr. Joshi led the efforts by the RSS to
write new school textbooks, produced by the National Council of
Educational Research and Training (NCERT), with highly offensive anti-
minority propaganda. These social studies texts produced by the NCERT,
under the direction of Mr. Joshi and the RSS, badly distorted Indian
history with arguments and omissions shaped by the RSS’s Hindu
supremacist ideology. The Dharma Conference of 2003 led to the
creation of a new organization called Educators Society for the
Heritage of India (ESHI), which itself held a conference in 2004 to
mobilize supporters from the VHPA’s Hindu University.
A parallel initiative, Hindu-International.org, launched an
unsuccessful textbook rewrite campaign in Virginia. This organization
headed by S. Kalyanaraman and Abhinav Dwivedi, both advisors to the
HEF, used the above-mentioned NCERT textbooks as its resource, with a
publication prepared by the VHP’s UK branch titled Explaining Hindu
Dharma – A guide for Teachers Hindu-International’s website also
includes images of the cover page of the textbook and the VHP
publication.
The HSC/VHPA co-sponsored a Dharma Summit with the Hindu International
Council Against Defamation (HICAD) in August 2005. This event served
as the immediate impetus behind the launch of the HEF and VF’s
campaign in September 2005. At this conference, Hindutva luminaries,
including RSS Chief K. Sudarshan participated and launched the Hindu
Council Initiative. This initiative explicitly ties the India efforts
of the Hindutva movement to efforts in the U.S. – as evidenced in this
excerpt from a report prepared by the Hindu Press International, the
media wing of a publication entitled Hinduism Today which supports the
VF’s textbook efforts:
Youth education and guidance were foremost on most speakers’ minds,
with a secondary issue being the treatment Hinduism receives in the
dozens of textbooks used in American schools and colleges…. Textbooks
were rapidly prepared to cover these new courses, which have been
incorporated in most schools. However, the books have given shabby
treatment to Hinduism. Different speakers explained how to approach
the local school board at the time the books were up for adoption, how
to influence the selection and even future editions of the books.
There was, many noted, a lot of room for improvement! Rajiv Malhotra
explained at length the way in which the American and European
academics had thoroughly distorted the understanding of Hinduism and
ways Hindu communities and leaders can correct this situation.” Hindu
Press International, August 16, 2005.
In support of the HEF/VF efforts in California, ESHI also contacted
Prof. J.S. Rajput, former President of the National Council for
Educational Research (NCERT), India, to write about the efforts of
textbook corrections in India. Rajput’s central role in the NCERT
textbook rewrite campaign led by the RSS was widely condemned not only
for the crude insertion of RSS propaganda into textbooks, but also for
harassment of NCERT scholars unwilling to toe the RSS line.
The above evidence clearly gives the lie to the plaintiffs’ denials on
the Hindutva links of the HEF, VF and HAF, and establishes the motives
behind their involvement in the California textbook adoption process.
We now address in detail the plaintiffs claims
on the nature of the HAF. The HAF’s founder and president Mihir
Meghani began his career in sectarian politics as an early leader of
the Hindu Students Council (HSC). He has been a member of the Hindu
Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), and served the VHP-America as a governing
council member and volunteer coordinator. His views on Hindutva are
expressed most eloquently in his essay, Hindutva: The Great
Nationalist Ideology hosted on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s website.
In the essay, Meghani writes: The future of Bharat is set. Hindutva is
here to stay. It is up to the Muslims whether they will be included in
the new nationalistic spirit of Bharat.
The above evidence, drawn from Hindutva websites, clearly establishes
Meghani’s association with the Sangh Parivar and the Hindutva cause.
Evidently, the plaintiffs’ claims that the HAF headed by Mihir Meghani
has no political agenda and is not affiliated with Hindutva groups in
India are patently false. Occasionally, the HAF has also come out
openly in support of Hindutva ideologues; the denouncing of a
congressional resolution against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi
(for his role in the killing of nearly 2,000 Muslims in Gujarat in
March 2002) as Hinduphobic is a case in point. Given the HAF’s links
with the Sangh Parivar (which has repeatedly been condemned by human
rights organizations for violence against religious minorities, its
forceful condemnation of religiously-based violence is utterly
hypocritical and is no more than an attempt to pass off as a human
rights organization amongst well-meaning but gullible Hindus and non-
Hindus in the US.
The plaintiffs further claim that the HAF has forcefully condemned
caste violence, but the timing of this is nakedly cynical. For
instance, the HAF’s first report on Hindu human rights, and its
numerous press releases until December 2005 avoided any mention of
caste violence caste violence. It was only after the HAF’s active
involvement in the California textbook controversy and after it was
called out in public for its links with the Sangh Parivar that it
suddenly woke up to the plight of Dalits and issued a few token
declarations. In the context of the California textbooks, the HAF has
sought to replace Dalit with the condescending Harijan, and elide
mentions of caste (or downplay its severity) in the textbooks. For
instance, the plaintiffs claim that for the most part, people could
eat with anyone from a different class. Given the context, we presume
they meant caste rather than class, in which case they seem to be
blissfully divorced from reality. During mid-day meals (a government
scheme to provide free lunch to poor children), there have been
instances of Dalit school children being segregated from upper-caste
children, Dalit children drinking from separate pitchers, and Dalit
cooks facing resistance from upper-caste parents [one of whom threw
sand in a meal cooked by a Dalit woman]. Dalit children who tried to
inter dine with their upper caste classmates have also been denied
food and chased out of school.
Such practices aptly demonstrate upper caste aversion to the polluting
presence of Dalits, one of the fundamental beliefs undergirding caste
prejudice. As one upper caste parent observed: Today the government
says that you must eat food cooked by a Dalit. Tomorrow they will ask
what is wrong with a Dalit marrying an upper-caste person. We must
curb this at the initial stage … We have preserved our caste
traditions for hundreds of years. Why should we break it now?
Far from being a human rights organization concerned with the rights
violation of Hindus, the HAF has functioned more as a human rights
front for the Sangh Parivar with its discourse of Hindu victimhood,
obfuscation of the centrality of caste in Indian society and its
comical attempts at denying the Dalits their chosen Dalit identity.
References
[1] The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) is the religious wing of the RSS.
Several VHP units were established in countries outside India to
facilitate coordination and unity of purpose between themselves and
with the VHP unit in India. The VHP website lists VHP of America as
one of the VHP units outside India.
[2] According to one Hindutva website, HSS is started in the USA and
other parts of the world to continue what RSS is doing in India. The
RSS website says: The Sangh’s full name is Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh
(H.S.S.); only in Kenya, it is Bharatiya Swayamsevak Sangh and in
Myanmar, it is Sanatan Dharma Swayamsevak Sangh.
[3] Hindu Students Council was started by the VHPA in 1987 as
documented on the VHPA’s webpage here and here. Hindu Students Council
was the primary organiser for the Dharma Conference 2003 as quoted in
Tanmaya Kumar Nanda, Dharma for the new generation. Meghani’s role as
founder of the University of Michigan chapter of the HSC in 1991, is
documented here: Searching for Our Roots.
[4] According to Nandini Sundar: “The NCERT social science/history
textbooks are not only shockingly low on both grammar and fact, but
also reflect many of the RSS’s pet themes – e g, the urge to prove
that Indian civilisation is synonymous with Hinduism, which in turn is
synonymous with the ‘Vedic civilization.’ This Vedic civilisation is
portrayed as the fount of all things great in the world, while all the
evils that beset India are traced to foreigners – Muslim invaders and
Christian missionaries.”
[5] “Rakeshji and KalyanRamanji did a lot of research in finding the
many references to support comments made on the contents of text book.
Initially ‘A teachers guide on Hinduism’ a UK approved text book
prepared by a committee headed by VHPA, UK and the NCERT social
studies books of India, released in India during year 2003 were used
to prepare the comments.”
[6] HICAD is an entity founded and led by Ved Chaudhary, who is also a
founding member of ESHI, which he leads along with Kanchan Bannerjee,
co-founder of HSC and the VHPA’s “Vice President for Youth.”
[7] Lakshmi Ravu, Report on the Dharma Summit 2005: “Some of the most
important Hindu leaders in the world were present for this event.
Including: Sri Swami Dayananda Saraswatiji (the inspiration behind the
Dharma Summit, and convener of the event), Sri Chidananda Muniji (the
creator of the Hindu Encyclopedia project), Sri Bodhinatha Veylanswami
(Publisher of Hinduism Today Magazine) and several of his sannyasis,
Sri K. S. Sudarshan (leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the
largest Hindu service organization on earth), Dr. Pranav Pandya
(leader of the several million members of the Gayatri Pariwar), Sri
Swami Jyotirmayananda (Ramakrishna Order), Dr. David Frawley (Vamadeva
Shastriji), Dr. Frank Gaetano Morales (the well-respected American
Hindu intellectual and philosopher), Sri Steven Knapp (a prolific
American Hindu author), and many others. These Hindu lights and
dignitaries all filled the first row of the auditorium. Several Jain,
Buddhist, and Sikh leaders were also present.”
[8] Rajput ran a reign of terror, stated Anil Sadgopal, BJVJ (Bharat
Jan Vidyan Jatha – an all-India peoples’ science network) vice-
president and education professor at Delhi University. Nobody dared
speak his mind at his meetings. People at NCERT refer to that period
as a bawander (whirlpool), a toofan (cyclone) that has now hopefully
passed. So many who asserted themselves were abruptly transferred. See
also Communalization of Education, The History Textbook Controversy:
An Overview, Mridula Mukherjee and Aditya Mukherjee, Professors of
History, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University,
22 December, 2001 (If this is not bad enough the NCERT has appointed
to its Executive Committee and Departmental Committee … a self
proclaimed RSS activist whose only claim to fame is his confession
that he killed a Muslim woman during a riot); Hindutva Ire, Praful
Bidwai.
[9] According to the Human Rights Watch: The Hindu organizations most
responsible for violence against Christians are the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad (World Hindu Council, VHP), the Bajrang Dal,and the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteer Corps, RSS). According to a
former RSS member, these groups cannot be divorced from the ruling BJP
party: “There is no difference between the BJP and RSS. BJP is the
body. RSS is the soul, and the Bajrang Dal is the hands for beating.
The groups most directly involved in the violence against Muslims
include the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council, VHP), the
Bajrang Dal, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) that heads the Gujarat state government. Collectively,
they are known as the sangh parivar, or family of Hindu nationalist
organizations.
[10] The HAF’s first annual survey of human rights, released on Jul
13, 2005, makes no mention of the violation of Dalits’ rights. Its
second report, released on Jun 27, 2006, admits that it “does not
cover the important human rights issues that Hindus face within other
parts of India including caste discrimination, women’s issues,
terrorism, and discriminatory laws.” The HAF’s indifference to the
daily violations of the human rights of 160 millions Dalits in India
is hardly surprising, given the Sangh Parivar’s celebration of caste
as a precious gift.
[11] See The future of mid-day meals. By and large, Dalits still
continue to be served beverages in separate glasses (reserved
exclusively for them) to assuage upper caste sentiments. This practice
is commonly referred to as the two-tumbler system.
[12] Vile as these practices sound, in the nineteenth century “Dalits
had to beat a drum to signal their arrival so the brahmin knew where
to hide or how to protect his food. The brahmin is most vulnerable to
pollution when he is eating, so if a shadow of a dalit fell on his
food, the food too became Untouchable.” On occasion Dalits had to wear
a spittoon so that his spittle did not fall on his surroundings and he
could never stand in the way of a wind that might carry his smell or
breath to a brahmin. In a Jataka story (377. III. 154), a Brahmin
cries, “Curse you, ill omened candala [dalit], get to
leeward” (Sagarika Ghose, “The dalit in India – caste and social
class,” Social Research, Spring 2003.)
The rise and rise of Ramesh Kallidai
Posted in Hindu Forum of Britain, Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, India
Development and Relief Fund, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Sewa, hindu
fundamentalism, hindutva by ravi on June 19, 2007
A few weeks ago, I had written about the Hindu Forum of Britain’s
rumor-mongering against British Muslims (the alleged forcible
conversions of Hindu and Sikh girls by Muslim men) and the underlying
anti-Muslim sentiment.
The HFB’s concern about mistaken identities leading to Islamophobic
attacks on Hindus suggests that it’s pretty well aware of the painful
manifestations of Islamophobia, so its broadside against Muslim males
can only be interpreted as a malicious act intended to whip up more
Islamophobia.
I had also pointed to the similarity between the HFB’s stereotyping of
Muslim men with that of the Hindutva ideologue Savarkar. And
Kallidai’s eulogizing of RSS sarsangchalak Golwalkar clearly showed
where his sympathies lay.
Shortly thereafter, Awaaz issued a PR on the irony of having such a
guy on the Secretary of State’s Commission on Integration and
Cohesion. And Andrew Gilligan of the Evening Standard has now come out
with a report on Kallidai (The rise and rise of the Hindu
fundamentalist father). The ES report has some interesting nuggets,
here’s a summary and more:
Kallidai defended the VHP while testifying to the Home Affairs Select
Committee in 2004. Here’re some excerpts:
Q: VHP, as I understand it, is an organisation of Hindu extremists.
Would that be right?
RK: No, that, of course, we would vehemently deny. There have been a
lot of media reports about the VHP, of course.
Q: What is the VHP?
RK: The VHP is an organisation that works with social and moral
upliftment of Hindus and the VHP UK is a totally autonomous body from
VHP India. The VHP had issued a public statement in 2002 saying that
terrorism of any form is to be condemned. I think it is wrong, on the
basis of media reports, to adjudicate an organisation … VHP has never
had in any court of law any evidence proved or provided to link them
to a terrorist organisation. So, on the basis of media reports, we
should not quickly judge and label an organisation.
Q: It is simply a bona fide organisation concerned with the welfare of
Hindus?
RK: Most of the Hindu community in the UK and the world consider the
VHP to be a peaceful organisation.
Hindu Aid and the Hindu Forum of Britain share an office and a lot of
top-ranking personnel. Kallidai is the Vice-Chair of Hindu Aid, and
Secretary General of HFB. Arjan Vekaria is Chair of both Hindu Aid and
HFB, Mahendra Pattni is Treasurer at both Hindu Aid and HFB, Sanjay
Gadhvi is an Executive Member at both Hindu Aid and HFB, Venilal
Vaghela is an Executive Member at Hindu Aid and Trustee & Vice
President (London and South) of HFB.
Hindu Aid’s campaigns page lists some flood relief work done by Sewa
Bharati, and a little research reveals that the Hindu Aid’s report on
Sewa Bharati’s flood relief activities is very similar to reports by
Sewa International UK, Sewa USA, India Development and Relief Fund,
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and the Organiser. A few noteworthy
differences follow:
Where Organiser refers to 600 swayamsevaks, Hindu Aid refers to 600
volunteers of SEWA Bharati.
Where Organiser says: According to Shri Lalit Bansal, Vibhag Karyavah
in Surat, more than 80,000 packets of food, 4,500 milk pouches and
1,11,000 pouches of drinking water have been provided to the flood
affected people by August 9; Hindu Aid says: Till date the volunteers
of Sewa Bharati (partner organisation of Sewa International UK) have
distributed 80,000 food packets, 4,500 milk sachets, 1,11,000 water
sachets in the flood affected areas.
Where Organiser says: In Surat, the RSS has set up four relief centres
for collecting and distributing relief material under the supervision
of senior Sangh activists Shri Nandkishore at Jainnagar, Shri
Rajeshbhai Shah at Miranagar-Udhana, Shri Rajkumar Sharma at Bathar
Road and Shri Ajaybhai Desai at Station Road; Hindu Aid says: Relief
centres at four places in Surat have been started to meet to the needs
of the people & attend to the victims without delay.
Where Organiser says: In Ahmedabad collecting and packaging of relief
material is being carried out at 55 centres and swayamsevaks of the
entire city are engaged in the collection and preparations of the
relief material; Hindu Aid says: 50 centres at Ahmedabad are busy
preparing food packets under the supervision of SEWA volunteers.
In short, Hindu Aid has deliberately removed all mentions of RSS,
swayamsevaks etc. in its report back on the flood relief activity.
This is because thanks to the RSS’s well-deserved notoriety,
identifying oneself with the RSS would mean relinquishing the well-
trodden ground of multiculturalism, something that the Sangh Parivar
organizations abroad are loath to do. Therefore, the RSS’s fundraising
fronts abroad raise funds in the name of proxies — Sewa Bharati, for
instance. As I mention elsewhere, Sewa Bharati is the service wing of
the Sangh and was inaugurated in 1979 by Balasaheb Deoras, the then
supremo of the RSS. At the local level, Sewa Bharati and the Sangh
merge into one; a distinction between the two is made solely for the
purpose of raising funds abroad.
In short, Hindu Aid deceptively provides material and/or public
relations support for the Sangh Parivar. Sewa International UK (SIUK)
is no different, as is evident from a similar analysis of its report.
However, even as the SIUK website only mentions Sewa Bharati, photos
of relief work done at Surat clearly show RSS banners.
Such deception is not new to Ramesh Kallidai. In fact, after Awaaz
released In Bad Faith, a report documenting SIUK’s links with the RSS
in India, Kallidai quickly jumped to SIUK’s defense and sought to
discredit the report saying:
If you look at Awaaz’s report, they never substantiate their claims
with facts and figures.
Ha! None so blind as those who refuse to see. When the British Charity
Commission launched a probe, SIUK/HSS wriggled out claiming there is
no formal organisational links with RSS and that there is only an
ideological commonality between the two organisations. Not
surprisingly, Kallidai has now adopted a similar stance and claimed
that the HFB and VHP have no formal relationship. Will he stay afloat
with such partial truths (that hide more than they reveal)? Or will he
get away playing the aggrieved Hindu? Stay tuned for more.
[If you have read this far, you might also be interested in A lot of
bull to save a bull!, The Myth of the Holy Cow, and The myth of the
rapacious Muslim]
HSC pays homage to Guruji
Posted in Golwalkar, Hindu Students Council, Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh,
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, hindu
fundamentalism, hindutva by ravi on June 19, 2007
I just found that the Organiser carried the Hindu Students Council’s
second press release (laden with ad hominems). Besides the content,
perhaps the style was also to its liking The PR as such doesn’t merit
a detailed response, but it was nice to see an official publication of
the RSS ganging up with the National HSC. (Interestingly, the Stanford
chapter of the HSC has called on the National HSC to retract this PR)
Just for the heck of it, I googled for other mentions of HSC in the
Organiser. And sure enough, there was one more.
Last October, the HSC participated in a Grand Hindu Sangam in Silicon
Valley. The Hindu Sangam was organised by Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh with
the support from over 40 SF Bay Area organisations including Sunnyvale
Hindu Temple as one of the grand sponsors … to celebrate the birth
centenary of Shri Guruji, the second Sarsanghachalak of Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
RSS Sarkaryavah Mohan Bhagwat was the chief guest. Keenly aware of his
new ambience, he deviated from the Indianise/Hinduise Islam &
Christianity mantra and extolled diversity:
Diversity is to be accepted, not just tolerated. This is what Bharat
stands for seeing diversity as the expression of unity.
On terrorism, he toed the USINPAC line. Here’s what the Organiser
report says:
He further said the world has been shaken by religious intolerance and
the resulting effects of terrorism. The answer to this problem can be
given to the world by the two great nations—India and America,
together. “They have to come together, stay together and work together
to address this issue,” he added.
N.V. Raghuram of SVYASA, one of the ideologues on board HinduYuva’s
Speaker on Campus project, was the keynote speaker at the yoga track.
HinduYuva, by the way, is a HSS project. Its homepage exhorts the
reader to join a shakha and become a swayamsevak:
Shakha is the place where we practice our traditions, values, connect
with the past, present and work for a better future. Join us in this
sacred mission of ennobling the world through the traditions, values
of SANATANA DHARMA. So, all you have to do is – just attend Shakha,
because once a Swayamsevak, always a Swayamsevak!
It’s all in the family, eh? Wait, I’m not done yet. The Sunnyvale
Hindu Temple, one of the grand sponsors, has hosted Sangh Parivar
dignitaries in the past (Ashok Singhal in October 2004) and has held
at least one joint event with the VHPA and HSS. Sri Sri’s Art of
Living was also a participant in the Hindu Sangam, and so was the VHPA
(which along with the Sunnyvale Hindu Temple and a local restaurant
ensured a never-ending supply of food and water). Most interestingly:
Hindu Students Council (HSC) from UC-Berkeley and UC-San Diego
chapters and Hindu Awareness Club (HAC) of Monta Vista High School
presented some of the issues faced by Hindu students and the
importance of maintaining ones Hindu identity.
What were these HSC members doing in a function organized by the Sangh
Paivar to celebrate the birth centenary of Shri Guruji, the second
Sarsanghachalak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)? What exactly in
Golwalkar do they find laudable? Or, were/are they not aware of his
antecedents? Did they know the antecedents of those they were rubbing
shoulders with (in the Hindu Sangam)? It’s questions like these that
Lying Religiously seeks to pose.
Why is the National HSC Scrambling to restrict access to its archives?
Posted in Campaign to Stop Funding Hate, Hindu Students Council,
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, hindu
fundamentalism, hindutva by ravi on June 11, 2007
Last week, we had pointed to the National HSC changing the domain
registration details for hscnet.org and the contact page on Hindunet
in an effort to distance itself from the Sangh Parivar’s electronic
infrastructure that it had set up and continues to maintain (see our
Week #2 question to the National HSC). This week, we look at yet
another belated and unsuccessful attempt by the National HSC to hide
its ideological affinity with the Sangh Parivar.
Before the world wide web became popular in the mid-1990s, Usenet
newsgroups were used for communication and sharing information.
Through the early 1990s, the Hindu Students Council’s announcements
and discussions were carried extensively on the Usenet newsgroup
alt.hindu. GHEN/Hindunet maintains an archive of alt.hindu, and this
was one piece of evidence we used in our report to establish the
ideological and/or material linkages between the National HSC and the
Sangh Parivar. This archive was public when our report was published,
but now it requires a password for access. If one goes by the dates on
Google caches of alt.hindu messages, this change happened some time in
May 2007. The timing of this change coincides with changes made to the
WHOIS domain registration pages of the National HSC website (we
discussed these in our last week’s question to the National HSC, but
there has been no response yet).
Our question to the National HSC for Week #3: Why has the National HSC
password protected the alt.hindu archives? Why has it NOW sought to
hide discussions that happened in the public domain in the mid-1990s?
The most plausible explanation is that the National HSC is trying to
hide virulent Hindutva content in the alt.hindu archives. As we scan
through the archives, we find that even as HSC chapters posted
announcements about meetings and so on, National HSC leaders and other
Sangh ideologues posted Hindutva propaganda including strong
statements of support on the destruction of the Babri Masjid, the
programs of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and
VHP of America, as well as glowing tributes to Hindutva (samples).
Besides, alt.hindu messages in 1994 and 1995 acknowledged HSC as being
sponsored by the VHPA, even as the HSC’s history page says that in
1993, “HSC becomes an organization by itself is run independently of
VHPA.”
The alt.hindu archives going back to 1994 are available on the
Internet archive and an incomplete archive of the newsgroup is also
available on Google Groups. We will be glad to share the archives, as
a zip file, with anyone interested.
P.S. Last week, the Stanford HSC held a discussion on our report. We
thank them for inviting us to the discussion, and for reading out our
letter. In days to come, we will address some of the issues raised in
the discussion. A video of the discussion is available here.
Blog at WordPress.com. Theme: The Journalist by Lucian Marin
http://sanghsamachar.wordpress.com/category/rashtriya-swayamsevak-sangh/
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(Paperback - 2004, Hindi)
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Publishing Date: 2004
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Number of Pages: 195p
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Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Aur Usaki Vichardhara(Paperback - 2006,
Hindi)
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Muslim Aatankwad Aur America(Hardcover - 2002, Hindi)
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Sanskriti Aur Dharam Kosh (2 Khando Main)(Hardcover - 2007, Hindi)
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Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) - A movement to unite the Hindu
nation
http://www.sanghparivar.org/rashtriya-swayamsevak-sangh-rss-a-movement-to-unite-the-hindu-nation
Deport illegal Bangladeshi migrants: RSS chief
February 4th, 2010 - 12:53 am ICT by IANS -
Panaji, Feb 3 (IANS) Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan
Bhagwat Wednesday asked the central government to implement the
Supreme court guidelines and deport lakhs of Bangladeshi migrants
illegally residing in India.
Bhagwat, who was speaking at a public meeting organised by the RSS
here, also said petty vote bank politics indulged in by political
parties had compromised the security of the nation.
“Bangladeshis illegally staying in India should be sent back to their
country. Their names should be deleted from the ration cards and
electoral roll,” Bhagwat said, adding that the Supreme Court
guidelines even specified that such illegal residents be put in
internment camps until their deportation proceedings are completed.
“How can we ignore the fact that Bangladesh’s vision document which
was drafted after its creation, clearly states that since Bangladesh
is hard-pressed for land, it would have to claim territory from
neighbouring Assam,” he said.
“I was in Guwahati before coming to Goa. People there have begun to
fear whether Assam will remain in India! Bangladeshis are coming into
Assam by the crore,” Bhagwat said, adding that the security and
stability of the nation was at threat with such rampant influx of
illegal migrants from Bangladesh.
This is Bhagwat’s first trip to the state since taking over as RSS
chief. There are more than 100 RSS branches in Goa, since it was
started here in 1962.
Cracks in Hindutva camp spells doom for doctrine (Comment)
February 6th, 2010 - 1:37 pm ICT by IANS -
By Amulya Ganguli
The saffron brotherhood has generally been known for its unity. The
reason is despite its long history - the Hindu supremacist Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was founded in 1925 - its constituents have
been late entrants to the corridors of power. As such, they did not
have to contend with the pulls and pressures of competitive politics
or internal personality clashes. It is only now that they have started
experiencing such problems, which led to the split in the Shiv Sena in
Maharashtra.
It is this rupture that is behind the present confrontation between
the RSS and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on one side, and the Shiv
Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) on the other.
At its root is the politics of one-upmanship between the Shiv Sena and
the MNS. Since both use street violence as their main political
tactic, they need different enemies. The Shiv Sena’s targets have been
the Muslims. The MNS, however, has chosen the north Indians, mainly
the Biharis, as its adversaries, presumably to underline its
difference from the parent organisation.
Herein lies the basic reason for its confrontation with the RSS-BJP
since a large proportion of the latter’s base of support is in the
Hindi belt. There was no way, therefore, for the RSS to keep quiet
while the Biharis lived in fear of being attacked in Mumbai. The BJP
was largely silent in the initial phases, evidently hoping the MNS
would see reason or turn to some other community to vent its ire.
But the forthright manner in which the RSS, the head of the Sangh
Parivar, stepped into the fray with its strident criticism of the MNS
left the BJP with no option but to fall in line. This assertiveness of
the RSS bears the distinct stamp of its new chief, Mohan Bhagwat, who
is also believed to have selected the BJP’s new president Nitin
Gadkari.
Apart from the dangerous antics of the MNS, other issues too have
cropped up such as the inclusion of Pakistani cricketers in the Indian
Premier League, which has been strongly articulated by Bollywood star
Shah Rukh Khan. The Shiv Sena has been more vociferous on this matter
because of the Muslim factor. But the clash between the two sections
of the saffron camp is mainly over the targeting of Biharis.
Since there is no meeting ground between the two - as on the issue of
castigating Muslims, for instance - there is little immediate chance
of a resolution. For the MNS, there is no question of a retreat
because of the political gains it has been able to make in the Mumbai
area because of his aggressive espousal of the cause of the Marathi
manoos or people.
It is a classical fascistic way of garnering support by blaming the
immigrants for all the social and economic woes of the locals. The
suspicion that MNS leader Raj Thackeray has succeeded in hitting the
right chord among a section of Marathis, especially the lower middle
class, explains why the Congress-led coalition government of the state
has been reluctant to take tough action against the rabble-rouser and
his hoodlums.
This permissive attitude of the state government is not a new
development. The Shiv Sena, led by Raj’s uncle Bal Thackeray, had also
succeeded in striking roots in the 1960s because of the indulgence
shown by the then Congress government, which used it to intimidate the
communist trade unions.
The ruling Congress might have continued to be soft on the uncle and
nephew (particularly the latter since he helps to divide the saffron
vote) if Rahul Gandhi had not stepped in with his criticism of the
MNS. The state government is also facing a court case charging it with
inaction.
But any toughness it may show will be resented by the Congress’s
coalition partner, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), an
essentially Maharashtra-based outfit which has no option but to play
the parochial card.
While the involvement of Rahul Gandhi and Shah Rukh Khan has enlivened
the scene, the entry of the RSS-BJP duo into the fray has queered the
pitch for the Hindutva brigade. As long as the Muslims were the common
enemies of the RSS-BJP and the Shiv Sena, as during the communal riots
of 1992-93, they could act in unison. Their alliance also brought them
to power in the state in 1995 for four years.
But now that they are virtually on a collision course, it is bad news
for the saffron lobby. For one, the division of the far right vote
will ensure a safe passage to the Congress. For another, the fallout
from the rupture in the Hindutva camp will not remain confined to
Maharashtra alone.
The departure of the Shiv Sena and the MNS from the BJP-led National
Democratic Alliance (NDA) will be yet another occasion when a partner
of the NDA will have left the alliance in recent months - the others
being the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) of Orissa and the Trinamool Congress
of West Bengal.
However, the fact that unlike the BJD and the Trinamool Congress, the
Shiv Sena and the MNS are avowedly saffronites means that even the
Hindutva camp has started to disintegrate, thereby marking the end of
the Hindu nationalist campaign which began with the Ramjanmabhoomi
movement two decades ago. Nothing can be more disheartening for the
BJP after its defeat in two successive general elections.
But beyond the parting of ways in Maharashtra, what is noteworthy is
how the pursuit of sectarianism leads to more and more divisive
policies by targeting different communities. The BJP’s political
advance was based on the whipping up of anti-minority sentiments. As
that wave started to recede with the electorate becoming wise to the
party’s cynical mixing of religion and politics, the cracks in the
Hindutva camp in Maharashtra have virtually rung the death-knell for
the conflict-ridden doctrine.
(06-02-2010-Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. He can be reached
at agan...@mail.com)
RSS chief quotes Hollywood film to explain climate change
February 3rd, 2010 - 11:33 pm ICT by IANS -
Panaji, Feb 3 (IANS) Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan
Bhagwat is in sync with Hollywood. He tried to explain the perils of
climate change using the recent Hollywood blockbuster “2012″ as an
example at a public meeting here Wednesday.
“Climate change is an issue which is in focus. Everyone says that if
it is not settled, then the world will end. People have even predicted
dates like Dec 21, 2012. Movies have been made and we watch it,”
Bhagwat said referring to the John Cusack-starrer Hollywood film,
which quotes an ancient Mayan calendar that predicts that the world
would end Dec 21, 2012.
“Of course, climate is a serious issue. But the world will not end
that way (as shown in the film), but it is a worrying thing. It
worries people when they see the movie,” Bhagwat said, addressing a
few thousand uniformed RSS workers and the audience.
Underlining the importance of preserving the environment and
maintaining climatic balance, Bhagwat said that countries like the
Maldives and Nepal had already tried to convey the seriousness of the
issue by holding cabinet meetings under water and at Himalayan heights
respectively.
Bhagwat said that the deteriorating climate situation demanded an
urgent switch in lifestyle and change from materialism and consumerism
to living in tune with nature.
Former BJP MP forms new political party
February 1st, 2010 - 9:39 pm ICT by IANS -
Bhubaneswar, Feb 1 (IANS) Former Lok Sabha MP M.A. Kharavela Swain,
who last month quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), floated a new
political party called ‘Utkal Bharat’ Monday.
Swain told reporters that he was the “alternative” to Orissa Chief
Minister Naveen Patnaik and his would be a regional party with a
national perspective.
The bureaucrat-turned-politician was a member of the 12th, 13th and
14th Lok Sabha. He ended his 20-year relationship with the BJP to
protest the alleged interference by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(RSS) in party affairs.
He was also vice president of the state BJP from 1993 to 2000 and
president of the youth wing of the party in 1991-93. He was deputy
chief whip of the BJP parliamentary party in the Lok Sabha in 2004-09.
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/politics/former-bjp-mp-forms-new-political-party_100313200.html
BJP will never accept dilution of Indianness: Gadkari
February 1st, 2010 - 6:30 pm ICT by IANS -
New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS) In a categoric rejection of its ally Shiv
Sena’s “Mumbai for Marathis” stand, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
president Nitin Gadkari said Monday that identities based on language,
region or religion should not dilute “Indianness”.
“All citizens of India may be attached to a particular language,
region or religion. These identities have never diluted their
Indianness. The Bharatiya Janata Party will never accept the
philosophy that there is a conflict between the two,” Gadkari said in
a statement here.
He said the BJP had always recognised linguistic, regional and
religious identities as a reality, but the “strength of India’s unity
in diversity is achieved when all these identities eventually converge
into a larger national identity of Indianness. There is and can never
be a conflict between these.”
Gadkari said it had been a consistent stand of the BJP and earlier the
Bharatiya Jana Sangh that “constitutional guarantee under Article
19(1) (e) that all Indians shall have ‘the right to reside and settle
in any part of the territory of India’ aids and enables national unity
and integration.”
Recalling his party’s opposition to Article 370, which gives special
status to Jammu and Kashmir, Gadkari said the BJP had always viewed it
as an impediment to national unity.
Gadkari’s remarks come close on the heels of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat’s call against linguistic
discrimination.
Speaking in Guwahati Saturday, Bhagwat said there could be grievances
about job losses due to migration but it was wrong to tell people from
outside not to come.
“Language, caste, sub-caste, groups, tribes can be different but all
are sons of India,” Bhagwat said and called upon political parties to
eschew vote-bank politics.
RSS leader Ram Madhav had backed Bhagwat’s remarks a day later by
asserting that the Sangh had asked its volunteers in Maharashtra to
try and prevent the spread of anti-north India and anti-Hindi
feelings.
M.F. Husain to accept Qatar citizenship, says son
February 27th, 2010 - 12:12 pm ICT by IANS -
By Subhash K. Jha
Mumbai, Feb 27 (IANS) India’s most celebrated artist Maqbool Fida
Husain, who has been under attack from sections of the Hindu right,
has accepted Qatar’s offer of an honorary citizenship as having a
“sense of belonging” was important at this stage of his life, said his
son Owais Husain, who added that his father “missed home in India
terribly”.
M.F. Husain, 95, has dozens of lawsuits against him across the country
for his paintings of goddesses that some Hindus find sacrilegious. The
artist has been living abroad as a fugitive since 2006.
The celebrated painter left Dubai for Qatar Friday, his son filmmaker-
writer-painter Owais Husain told IANS on phone from Dubai.
“Yes, he has left for Qatar where he was warmly received by a large
welcoming committee. I was supposed to accompany him from here in
Dubai to Qatar. But at the last minute I couldn’t go. He travelled
alone, as he has all his life, to his new home.
“My father has definitely accepted their offer (of Qatari
citizenship). After years of being away from his real home (in India)
this sense of belonging, albeit in an adopted country, was I think,
very important at this stage of his life,” said Owais, who shuttles
between Dubai and Mumbai.
After Qatar made the citizenship offer to Husain and people in India
got know about it, his fans and noted artists demanded that his return
to India be facilitated.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) said Husain was free to live
anywhere in the country, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stressed
that the artist “did not face danger to his life”. But he still faces
threats from fringe groups in the Hindu right, apart from the court
cases.
Owais in Dubai seemed unaware of the sudden interest in India to get
the artist back.
“Do they really want him back now? Isn’t it a bit late? My father has
been a nomad all his life. But he has been rendered homeless in recent
years. He stayed close to me in Dubai and I tried to make him feel at
home. But I had my own work too. I know he missed home in India
terribly,” said Owais, who is now completing a documentary on his
father’s life.
“I’ve titled it ‘Letters To My Son About My Father’. My son is four
years old. When he grows up he should know what a luminous legacy he
has to uphold. My father is older than modern independent India. As a
child he struggled to make ends meet. During British India he painted
slogans against the rulers. In independent India he painted pictures
that sold for astronomical sums of money. He didn’t plan any of this.
He didn’t plan his exile in Dubai and now his citizenship in Qatar.”
In Qatar, Husain has big plans, include a new feature film, revealed
his proud son.
“I plan to fly down to Qatar and we will be discussing projects
together. I don’t know how to end my documentary on my father.
There’re no full stops to his life. His life has been charted by
destiny.”
As Husain makes Qatar his adopted home during his final years, his son
said: “He will continue to miss his real home wherever he is. You can
take M.F. Husain out of India. But you can’t take India out of M.F.
Husain.”
bademiyansubhanallah
Q: Is RSS a political organisation?
A: It is not political in the sense that it does not participate in
day-to-day elections, the race for power and all that. It is a
cultural organisation, which emphasises the oneness of the country and
the people. If there are any things, which appear to be detrimental to
the oneness of the country, we try to express our views and educate
the people about them.
Q: How can you hope to carry out your policies and programmes without
political power?
A: There are two ways of carrying out a national programme. One,
through the state power; the other, by changing the people's
attitudes. We have chosen the latter path.
Q: How is it you often express yourself on political questions?
A: There are many matters which are not merely political. It may well
be that a matter has cultural as well as political import.
Q: Do you accept or reject the use of violence in any form for the
furtherance of political aims?
A: There should be absolutely no violence between one citizen and
another.
Q: Do you think violence can be justifiable to effect a change in
Government?
A: When, say, an extreme situation obtains in which the limits of
oppression have been reached, the people are undergoing acute
suffering, the rulers have become autocrats, veritable monsters, and
all peaceful avenues of changing them have been clogged - violence in
such circumstances would be justified.
Q: Our state is secular. The Government may, therefore, well fear that
the Hindu cultural organisation of the Sangh may uproot secularism.
A: The question is hypothetical. Who says the secular state does not
permit cultural activities? It is perfectly legitimate for the Sangh
to integrate the various castes and sects within the Hindu fold on the
basis of our common culture.
Q: Is it true that Sangh teaches hatred for non-Hindus?
A: This is one of the most irresponsible and despicable charges
against Sangh. The whole world is aware of the utter catholicity and
tolerance of the Hindu culture. The Hindu, even in his dreams, cannot
hate a person merely because he happens to belong to another faith.
How can Sangh, which is dedicated to rejuvenation of such a sublime
culture, be ever conceived of as teaching hatred?
Q: Some people charge you with violence.
A: They are led by Communists who believe in violence and practise it
and want to destroy the Constitution. It is our detractors who are
violent. Look at their violent language and their violent threats.
Q: Some persons charge that the RSS has a hand in communal riots.
A: Their imagination seems to run riot! The charge is ridiculous in
the extreme. The riots are not of recent origin. Such disturbances
have taken place in our country even before the RSS was born. There
were the gruesome Mopla killings and Baluchistan riots. At Nagpur too
there were riots during 1923-27. In fact, there have been no riots
since 1927 in Nagpur, after the RSS grew strong there. If the RSS were
to have engineered riots, then no non-Hindu would have been living
there, its headquarters, by now. The disturbance that took place about
two years ago in Nagpur was in that part of the city where we have no
branch. Even the government admitted that we hastened to calm the
situation. A strong RSS alone, instead of being the cause for riots,
can permanently put a stop to them.
Q: RSS is a good organisation. But there is some sort of suspicion in
the minds of the public. Why is it so?
A: We should thank the leaders and their slander campaign for that.
Q: Some are very loud in their opposition to the theory of Hindu
Rashtra.
A: The very same people accept it in private!
Q: There is an impression that RSS is confined only to the educated
classes and has little to do with the downtrodden and the backward
sections of society.
A: All work begins with the educated class. Then only it reaches the
substratum of the society. We are now fairly on the way to embracing
every section, howsoever unfortunate or weak it may be.
Q: Some feel that ideas like Hindu Sanghatan are useless in the
present context; it is only total revolution doing away with all that
is old, which can deliver the goods.
A: There have been no doubt revolutions in the world. But mostly they
have been in the nature of 'continuance' or 'revolutionary
evolutionism'. Where the traditional link has been snapped there the
whole social life has become extinct.
Q: How about China?
A: They have not broken with their past. Wait for some more time. All
their traditional ways will become patent again. Their present designs
to spread their tentacles of power and influence are in keeping with
the tradition of their old emperors.
Q: But Buddhism must have made a change in that?
A: Buddhism never entered deep into the soil of China. It was worn
only as an outer garment and not accepted as a way of life. A scholar
has written that even now China is essentially the land of Confucius.
But even that is only partially true. A little of Confucius and a lot
of their old emperors form the mainstream of their life. Communism is
also a temporary phase. Their life had become so very corrupt that
there was no escape from a terrible armed revolution.
Q: Hitler also started in a manner similar to yours, collecting youths
and instilling in them disciplines and unity. But later, he suppressed
all the other political parties. What is the difference between that
Nazi organisation and yours?
A: Hitler's movement centred round politics. We try to build life
without being wedded to politics. It is many times found that many are
gathered for political purpose. But when that purpose fails, unity is
lost. We do not want any temporary achievement but an abiding oneness.
And so we have kept ourselves aloof from politics.
Q: How is it achieved?
A: We achieve it by ourselves leading a life of sacrifice for the
society. When a sufficient number of persons are induced to think and
act in this manner, the rest of the society will follow.
Q: The mission of Sangh is described as sarva-vyapi - all pervasive.
But what does this word exactly connote?
A: To give a comparison : Light is sarva-vyapi, but it does not carry
out all the works. It only dispels the darkness and shows the way for
all. That is the nature of the Sangh-work also. If the Sangh were to
take to preparing and executing plans of action in every field of
life, then there will be confusion all round. It would have to prepare
thesis on any and every problem. And that would result in the stoppage
of the basic work of social rejuvenation and there would be only
theses and theses galore!
Q: Within how many years are you going to achieve your goal?
A: About that I shall narrate a small story. Dr. Johnson, the great
lexicographer, and some other top ranking persons of those times used
to meet almost every night in a small club. The famous writer
Goldsmith was also one of the members. One night when they were
sitting down for supper the moon shone in the sky. Goldsmith was
enraptured. A queer idea came to his mind. He asked, "Well, Dr.
Johnson, how many fish will be required to reach from here to the
moon?" Nobody had any reply. Irritated at the queer question, Dr.
Johnson said, "Well, we do not know. You tell." Then Goldsmith said,
"Even one, if it be long enough!" So that is always my reply to those
who ask how long we will take. It may be done even tomorrow, if we all
join together!
(A press correspondent:)
Q: Who after Golwalkar?
A: Well, you! Why not you?
Q: Thank you. To occupy Gurupeetha, it is not so easy!
A: Well, you have to fortify yourself if it is not easy! Now this
question does not arise with us at all. It comes only when a man is
taken to be an indispensable entity in the organisation. The Sangh has
not been built up in that fashion. Someone will come forward and
shoulder the responsibility. On my part, I have already told my
friends that I am fairly on the way out like a batsman going back to
the pavilion.
Religious Matters
Q : In view of the arduous religious practices traditionally
prescribed, our common mass of people are unable to adopt them in
their daily life. Are there any simple practices and 'samskaars' which
can be prescribed for them?
A : I would say that for them initiation into any one of our simple
devotional practices, even Raama-naam or any of the names of God, will
be potent enough. To say that merely because there is no formal
initiation into any particular Mantra or sect they are devoid of
devotion, is not correct. The common mass of our society have produced
some of the greatest spiritual stalwarts who have commanded
spontaneous homage from even the so-called higher castes. Over
centuries, they have cultivated, through simple methods, pure
devotion. It is up to our Dharmagurus to go to them now and invoke the
latent devotion and virtues in them.
Q: The Mathaadhipatis are attached exclusively to their own
'sampradaayas'. How can they be expected to teach universal precepts
of brotherhood?
A : Of course, they will have to guard themselves against the
prevalent practice. Doubtless it is their duty to uphold certain
traditional methods of worships so far as their respective Mutts are
concerned. But when they come in contact with the general mass of
people, they will have to emphasise only such points as will be
applicable to one and all. Preaching or arguing in favor of a
particular system of philosophy and particular form or name of God and
criticizing all others will not be conducive to the mission of
consolidating the entire Hindu people.
Q : There is a plan to start a Vidya-Peetha (in Kerala) to train
'Archakas' in temples. What should be the guidelines for admission of
students and the course of study?
A : The course should be decided by some learned men. The students can
be taken at the age of 8 or 9 years and their upanayana done by expert
priests, preferably after their coming to the Vidya-Peetha. Admission
at an early age is necessary because the complete study will take 7 or
8 years.
The atmosphere in the Vidya-Peetha should remind one of the ancient
Gurukula. A vast plot of ground could be acquired and young boys in
their leisure time can tend the gardens and do some farming. In our
ancient Gurukulas even the so-called menial jobs were done by the
disciples. That was part of the training which moulded great
personalities. If sufficient farming could be done the Vidya-Peetha
may well become self-sufficient in the matter of articles of food etc.
Q : Should they be given modern education also and made to sit for
some Government examinations?
A : Let them have some modern education, but they need not go for the
examinations because their life is to be dedicated to serve as
priests. They should not hanker after any other job. They should have
the certificate of the Vidya-Peetha and that should be the
qualification on which they should be appointed as priests. The Pooja-
Padhati and Veda-Pathas could be taught in the morning, in the
afternoon some general education could be given, and during the
evening hours some practical training in the Poojas could be given.
Thus the scheme should be made all-comprehensive.
(With Some Women Social Workers)
Q : We have a plan to undertake a literacy campaign among women. Your
suggestions?
A : First, and foremost, inculcate noble samskaars in them. Then only
think of literacy.
http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-guruji/interviews/shri-gurujis-interviews/religious-matters
Shri Guruji's Interviews
Shri Guruji toured the entire Bharat at least twice every year, from
1940 till 1973. All along, he interacted with various people. As part
of those interviews, Shri Guruji spoke on various issues concerning
the society. Those questions and answers are presented here in a
categorized form.
Economic Development http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-guruji/interviews/shri-gurujis-interviews/economic-development
Social Problems
http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-guruji/interviews/shri-gurujis-interviews/social-problems
The Educational System
http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-guruji/interviews/shri-gurujis-interviews/the-educational-system
The Language Problem
http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-guruji/interviews/shri-gurujis-interviews/the-language-problem
Issues with Indian Muslims
http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-guruji/interviews/shri-gurujis-interviews/issues-with-indian-muslims
The Indo-Pak Problem
http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-guruji/interviews/shri-gurujis-interviews/the-indo-pak-problem
In The Wake Of Pak Aggression In 1965
http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-guruji/interviews/shri-gurujis-interviews/in-the-wake-of-pak-aggression-in-1965
Prior To The Tashkent Agreement
http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-guruji/interviews/shri-gurujis-interviews/prior-to-the-tashkent-agreement
Bangladesh War And Aftermath
http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-guruji/interviews/shri-gurujis-interviews/bangladesh-war-and-aftermath
Simla Pact
http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-guruji/interviews/shri-gurujis-interviews/simla-pact
Kashmir Problem
http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-guruji/interviews/shri-gurujis-interviews/kashmir-problem
Communism and other 'isms'
http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-guruji/interviews/shri-gurujis-interviews/communism-and-other-isms
Government Policies
Foreign Policy
http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-guruji/interviews/shri-gurujis-interviews/government-policies/foreign-policy
Communal Riots, Secularism
http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-guruji/interviews/shri-gurujis-interviews/government-policies/communal-riots-secularism
Constitution
http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-guruji/interviews/shri-gurujis-interviews/government-policies/constitution
Re-organization of States
http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-guruji/interviews/shri-gurujis-interviews/government-policies/re-organization-of-states
Cow Slaughter
http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-guruji/interviews/shri-gurujis-interviews/government-policies/cow-slaughter
Agitations
http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-guruji/interviews/shri-gurujis-interviews/government-policies/agitations
Other Topics
http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-guruji/interviews/shri-gurujis-interviews/government-policies/other-topics
The Country and Its Culture
http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-guruji/interviews/shri-gurujis-interviews/the-country-and-its-culture
Our Cultural Characteristics
http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-guruji/interviews/shri-gurujis-interviews/our-cultural-characteristics
Spiritual, Philosophical Aspects
http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-guruji/interviews/shri-gurujis-interviews/spiritual-philosophical-aspects
Religious Matters
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-guruji/interviews/shri-gurujis-interviews
bademiyansubhanallah
K.L.Kamat/kamat.com
Volunteers of the RSS
Aggressive training of volunteers at a branch of RSS
Guruji Golwalkar
Picture No.: 2684
Copyright: © K.L.Kamat. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.kamat.org/picture.asp?Name=2684.jpg
RSS
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
The Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh -- RSS or the National Association of
Self-helpers, is a very large, voluntary organization focusing on
development of the society based on Hindutwa -- the essence of
Hinduism.
The RSS was founded by Dr. K.B. Hedgewar in 1925 when he unfurled the
Bhagawadhaj-saffron flag-at a camp in Amaravati. Hedgewar talked of a
Hindu-Rashra, but was his successor, M.S. Golwalkar, popularly known
as Guruji who expounded its ideology.
Hindu youths were recruited into RSS and trained in self-defense.
They were told that the fight for freedom of Hindus should take
precedence over the fight for freedom of India. The spate of communal
riots from 1924 to 1927 helped the RSS movement grow. After the
partition, the RSS concentrated its activities in around Delhi where
Hindu refugees from West Pakistan were migrating in hundreds of
thousands. Its membership grew by leaps and bounds.
RSS has been banned in India twice but has remained a strong and
popular political force. Soon after Mahatma Gandhi's assassination,
there was anti-RSS violence, as the rumors spread that the many of the
conspirators were members of the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha. In February
of 1948, the RSS was declared an unlawful organization and the ban
continued over a year. Indira Gandhi again banned RSS during the
emergency, but its forces were instrumental in defeating Mrs. Gandhi
in the subsequent elections and RSS flourished under the Janata Party
rule.
Today, the core of RSS has been weakened by differences in political
ideology, its branding as a communal force by its rivals and the
weakness of its own leadership.
IN October, Karnataka was mired in political shenanigans and
uncertainties. With the transfer of power from the Janata Dal
(Secular) to its coalition partner, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),
not taking off, hell broke loose as the political . . . . ("The
Ideology Is Only In Speeches": , Frontline, Ravi Sharma , Nov 07,
2007)
No soon do elections come around that the political parties start
looking for the voters they had discarded for the previous five years.
(Clueless Congress, Asian Age, Seema Mustafa, Nov 05, 2007)
In Communist-ruled West Bengal, people have risen in revolt against
the continuing scandal of fair price shops and food riots have broken
out. (Charity Begins At Party Office, Pioneer, Balbir K Punj, Nov 02,
2007)
The last two times I had made an educated guess about elections —
first,when I expected the Mamata Banerjee-led coalition to gloriously
dislodge West Bengal’s Left Front government in 2001; second, when I
thought that the NDA would return to . . . . (Gather Round That Totem
Pole, Hindustan Times, Correspondent or Reporter, Nov 02, 2007)
The former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Uma Bharti, has advocated a
“Hindutva-oriented third front” to defeat Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi of the BJP, while denying the Congress the advantage of
capitalising on the “anti-Modi sentiments.” (Uma Bharti Supports
Keshubhai’S Candidature , Hindu, Correspondent or Reporter, Nov 02,
2007)
I HAVE reasons to believe that Atal Bihari Vajpayee, when he was
Prime Minister, wanted to dismiss Nahrendra Modi and had planned to do
so after his visit to Ahmedabad. (Raj Dharma Fails In Gujarat,
Tribune, Kuldip Nayar, Nov 02, 2007)
Already facing lack of issues after its agenda was hijacked by the
Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP), the formation of
the district unit of the Jammu State Morcha (JSM) Progressive has
added to the difficulties of the Udhampur BJP. (Jsm Unit In Udhampur
Leaves Bjp Worried , Tribune, Dinesh Manhotra, Oct 31, 2007)
On the face of it, the latest sting operation by Tehelka, also being
telecast on TV, appears to expose those responsible for the post-
Godhra riots in Gujarat in February 2002. (In Modi’S Best Interests,
Hindustan Times, Editorial, HindustanTimes, Oct 29, 2007)
Accusing successive Congress governments of "inept handling" of
internal security, senior BJP leader L.K. Advani on Sunday said the
"faulty" policies of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru are
responsible for the Kashmir problem. (‘Nehru’S Policies Caused Kashmir
Problem’, Asian Age, Correspondent or Reporter, Oct 29, 2007)
Reacting to the Tehelka sting operation on the 2002 Gujarat riots, a
coalition of Indian-American organisations, the Indian National
Overseas Congress and Indian Muslim Council-USA have demanded action
against the persons who admitted on tape to participa ('Punish Those
Shown Guilty On Tehelka Tapes' , The Economic Times, Correspondent or
Reporter, Oct 27, 2007)
Denies confrontation with State RSS leadership (Rajasthan Bjp Chief
Rules Out Removal From Post , Hindu, Correspondent or Reporter, Oct
26, 2007)
Bhagat Singh and his comrades belong to those momentous decades in
Indian history – the late 1920s and 30s – when options were more open,
popular aspirations ran high and “revolution” and “national
liberation” were current in the political . . . . (A Radical Legacy,
Frontline, Correspondent or Reporter, Oct 24, 2007)
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has offered himself for direct election
only once: In 1999, when he was the Congress candidate for South
Delhi. (False Eloquence Does Pm In, Pioneer, Swapan Dasgupta, Oct 22,
2007)
Some FAQs on Burma that the foreign policy establishment would duck
in the 'national interest' (South Block's Lowest Hour, Pioneer, Udayan
Namboodiri, Oct 13, 2007)
The Communist Party of India(Marxist) on Thursday sought a
clarification from the Election Commission on the two-phase Assembly
elections in Gujarat on December 11 and 16, claiming that the
Commission was “applying different . . . .. . (Why Different
Yardsticks For Different States, Cpi(m) Asks Ec, Hindu, Correspondent
or Reporter, Oct 12, 2007)
IN the entire corpus of American writings on India, this book stands
out in all its uniqueness. (Path To Partion:, Frontline, A.G. NOORANI,
Oct 12, 2007)
The decision to hold two-phase elections in Gujarat has drawn flak
from the CPM which hinted at the Election Commission's institutional
bias against the Left. (Cpm Poses Uneasy Questions To Ec, New Indian
Express, Correspondent or Reporter, Oct 12, 2007)
Critics might claim otherwise, but both the Left and Right surely
seem to have fully mastered the praxis of democracy. It is doubtless
due to its moral virtues that the Left is able to lecture its
considerably larger allies on weighty issues like coalitio (In Praise
Of The Other , The Economic Times, Editorial, Economic Times, Oct 12,
2007)
The Organiser is agitated over Sonia Gandhi representing India at the
UN. (Real Gandhi, Indian Express, VARGHESE K. GEORGE, Oct 11, 2007)
With reference to the interview with the former Karnataka Chief
Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, published in The Hindu dated October 10,
the zonal secretary of the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) from
Bangalore, K. Narahari, writes: (Rss Denies Kumaraswamy’S Claim,
Hindu, Correspondent or Reporter, Oct 11, 2007)
http://www.whatisindia.com/issues/rssgroup/index.html
Articles 21 through 120 of 500:
I Rejected Rss Bid To Rework Pact: Kumaraswamy (Hindu, S. Rajendran,
Oct 10, 2007)
The former Chief Minister, H.D. Kumaraswamy, has said that he firmly
rejected a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) attempt to rework a fresh
agreement with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Karnataka Heading For President's Rule (Pioneer, Correspondent or
Reporter, Oct 09, 2007)
On a day when it was proved that anything can happen in politics, the
beleaguered Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy resigned late on
Monday evening amid speculation that his Janata Dal (Secular) party
wanted to support a BJP-led Government . . . .
Failure, Raw & Hurting (Pioneer, Correspondent or Reporter, Oct 08,
2007)
All Intelligence agencies are paranoid about secrecy. Retired spooks
are actively discouraged from writing colourful memoirs and speaking
to the media. In 1977, the British Government deported Philip Agee, an
American writer with . . . . .
Wheat Deal Is Mother Of All Scams: Rss (New Indian Express, ANITA
SALUJA, Oct 08, 2007)
With snap poll staring in the face of the nation, the RSS has
identified an issue that has the potential to hit the Congress where
it hurts it the most: Its electoral plank of ‘aam admi’.
Swamy To The Rescue? (Deccan Herald, Correspondent or Reporter, Oct
06, 2007)
Is the stormy petrel of Indian politics Subramaniam Swamy again
stepping in to repair the collapsing bridge between the Bharatiya
Janata Party-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition in Karnataka?
Family First, Nation Later (Pioneer, Balbir K Punj, Oct 05, 2007)
More by coincidence than design, the Congress, by making Mr Rahul
Gandhi the general secretary of the party, has tried to capitalise on
the increasingly recognised global success of India's youth power. But
no one with a sense of history has . . . .
Normality Was Ensured On Bandh Day: Karunanidhi (Hindu, Correspondent
or Reporter, Oct 04, 2007)
Normality was ensured in the State on the bandh day though the Supreme
Court’s orders staying the October 1 bandh were received late the
previous night, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said on Wednesday.
Not Just An Urban Phenomenon (Hindu, A N Sudarsan Rao , Oct 03, 2007)
Ethnographic account of the emergence of Hindu nationalism in a tribal
community in Chhattisgarh
‘I Am The President. Vajpayee, Advani Are Leaders Of The Party. They
Are Above Me’ (Indian Express, Varghese K George, Oct 01, 2007)
BJP President Rajnath Singh is doing a tightrope walk, trying to
consolidate his authority even as the party is pulled in different
directions by factionalism.
Setback For Cpm's Woo-Muslim Policy (Pioneer, Correspondent or
Reporter, Sep 29, 2007)
The CPI(M) Kerala unit's efforts to woo the Muslims of the State
suffered a setback on Friday with four Marxist party workers being
hacked at Tirur in Malappuram, a Muslim-majority district, on Friday,
during the holy month of Ramadan.
No Space For Bsp In Gujarat (Pioneer, Prafull Goradia, Sep 28, 2007)
On September 16 was held a public meeting in Vadodara where Ms
Mayawati inaugurated the arrival of the BSP in Gujarat.
Political Project (Frontline, Venkitesh Ramakrishnan, Sep 26, 2007)
The Sangh Parivar revives a campaign that it had not so long ago found
hard to sell.
Bjp Poser To Dmk On Bandh (Tribune, Correspondent or Reporter, Sep 26,
2007)
The BJP today questioned the DMK about its rationale of holding a
bandh in Tamil Nadu on the Ram Setu issue.
Former Bjp Chief Jana Dead (Telegraph, Correspondent or Reporter, Sep
26, 2007)
Former BJP president Jana Krishnamurthy died here today after a
prolonged illness. He was 79 and is survived by his wife, two sons and
three daughters.
For National Interest's Sake (Hindustan Times, Correspondent or
Reporter, Sep 26, 2007)
For all of the last month or so, people have been stopping journalists
in the streets and asking the same questions: will there be an
election? And when exactly will this mid-term poll be called?
Bjp Signals It Is Ready For Polls (Hindu, NEENA VYAS , Sep 24, 2007)
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s message from Bhopal was loud and clear:
it is ready to face the electoral challenges ahead with the help of a
strengthened and expanded National Democratic Alliance to once again
emerge as a claimant to power at the Centre.
Security Issues On Bjp Poll Plank (Statesman, Correspondent or
Reporter, Sep 24, 2007)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will approach the electorate on the
issues of national, social, food and economic securities, party
president Rajnath Singh said Sunday.
Party Without A Pm Candidate (Statesman, Correspondent or Reporter,
Sep 24, 2007)
The three-day national conclave of the BJP concluded here today but
the party failed to reach a consensus on the Prime Ministerial
candidate.
Kumaraswamy Apprehensive About Bjp Rule (Hindu, Correspondent or
Reporter, Sep 22, 2007)
No pressure on police to go easy on probe into violent incidents:
Gowda Will hand over power but with a condition: CM “No compromise
with communal forces”
Violence Is Plot To Stall Work On Sethu: Karuna (Asian Age,
Correspondent or Reporter, Sep 20, 2007)
Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi on Wednesday alleged that the
violence in Karnataka was part of a "conspiracy" to stall the
Sethusamudram project and reiterated his stand that Ram was a mythical
figure and there was no historical evidence of his
Ramar Sethu Issue: Rss Directs Its Organisations To Work Together
(Hindu, NEENA VYAS , Sep 20, 2007)
A Ramar Sethu Raksha Samiti has been set up for the purpose. BJP, VHP
say there is no contradiction between what both want to do on the
issue RSS does not want the issue to be victim of political
compulsions as in Ayodhya issue
Confused Contradictions (Statesman, Editorial, Statesman, Sep 19,
2007)
It’s almost as if it wasn’t in the same city that the two events took
place.
Bjp’S Pm, Rss Choice (Statesman, Editorial, Statesman, Sep 19, 2007)
Politically, the Hindutva lobby is disoriented. That reality ought to
be acknowledged by the RSS and the likes of Yashwant Sinha as they
attempt to drive a wedge between Vajpayee and Advani.
Mk Daughter’S House Attacked, Two Killed As Tn Bus Set Afire (New
Indian Express, Correspondent or Reporter, Sep 19, 2007)
In an apparent reaction to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s
statements on Lord Rama and the Ramar Sethu controversy, miscreants
pelted stones and hurled petrol bombs at his daughter’s house near
Ragigudda in J P Nagar.
For The People, All The People (Hindustan Times, Editorial,
HindustanTimes, Sep 17, 2007)
The controversial affidavit on the Sethusamudram project filed by the
Centre in the Supreme Court is a classic case of the UPA handing over
an issue to the BJP on a platter. And that, too, prior to what seems
like a virtually imminent mid-term . . . .
Lord Ram Row: Advani Lodges Protest With Pmo (Deccan Herald,
Correspondent or Reporter, Sep 14, 2007)
Senior BJP leader L K Advani on Wednesday lodged his protest with the
Prime Ministers office (PMO) over the Government's submission in the
Supreme Court that there was no historical evidence to establish
existence of Lord Ram.
Rajnath On Rss (Indian Express, A N Sudarsan Rao , Sep 13, 2007)
An interview with BJP president Rajnath Singh is the lead in the
Organiser. Besides the BJP stand on the nuclear deal, Singh also
explained the party’s relations with the Sangh: “I emphasise that the
RSS and the BJP have completely harmonious. . .
Battle For The Top Post (Hindustan Times, Editorial, HindustanTimes,
Sep 10, 2007)
Signs of a fierce power struggle within the Sangh parivar were visible
as senior RSS and BJP leaders gathered for a four-day Samanvaya
baithak at Bhayandar near Mumbai, obviously in anticipation of an
early parliamentary election.
Kanimozhi Is Rising Delhi Star (Asian Age, Harish Gupta, Sep 10, 2007)
Kanimozhi, daughter of Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi, wants
to learn Hindi. These days, she is getting the maximum attention in
Central Hall of Parliament.
Edits (Statesman, Editorial, Statesman, Sep 08, 2007)
The UPA and “Left” have formed a home-made panel to investigate the
Indo-US Nuclear Deal. It includes some persons who are not members of
either House of Parliament. And obviously it does not represent many
recognised political formations in . . . .
Bjp Has Many Leaders Who Can Grace The Prime Minister’S Office:
Yashwant Sinha (Hindu, NEENA VYAS , Sep 08, 2007)
Will the Leader of the Opposition, L.K. Advani, be projected as the
Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate by virtue of his
position?
Our Violent Streak (Hindustan Times, RAMACHANDRA GUHA , Sep 07, 2007)
As part of its celebration of the 60th anniversary of Independence, a
leading newspaper ran a series of exhortations from nationalist
leaders of the past. One came from Subhas Chandra Bose.
Patil Said It (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Sep 06,
2007)
The Organiser’s editorial criticises the government’s handling of the
Hyderabad blasts. “The Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil made an
interesting statement.
Our Violent Streak (Hindustan Times, Correspondent or Reporter, Sep
06, 2007)
As part of its celebration of the 60th anniversary of Independence, a
leading newspaper ran a series of exhortations from nationalist
leaders of the past.
N-Deal Will Lead To American Supremacy: Rss (Pioneer, Correspondent or
Reporter, Sep 05, 2007)
The RSS has warned that the Indo-US nuke deal will lead to American
supremacy over the country's strategic programme and said the country
should not open any nuclear facilities for IAEA inspections.
Rss Warns Against Iaea Inspections (Times of India, Correspondent or
Reporter, Sep 05, 2007)
Reiterating its opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal, the RSS has
warned that it will lead to American supremacy over India’s strategic
programme and the country should not open any nuclear facilities for
IAEA inspections.
Nuclear Nihilists (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Sep 01,
2007)
This could be dubbed Jinnah-II for L.K. Advani. Except that the RSS
leadership was this time on Advani’s side.
Rising Partnership (Indian Express, Correspondent or Reporter, Aug 30,
2007)
Prakash Nanda, in an article in the Organiser, places India’s
engagement with Japan in the context of the Japan-China-India
triangular relations.
Rss Backs Advani On Nuke Deal (Indian Express, Varghese K George, Aug
29, 2007)
Leader of the Opposition L K Advani’s efforts to amend his party’s
strident posturing on the Indo-US nuclear deal has found some support
in the RSS.
The Four That Got Away (Tribune, Bhai Mahavir, Aug 27, 2007)
The morning of June 1975 dawned routinely, but it was a dawn with a
big difference.
Nine Decades Of Non-Violence (Hindu, P. SAINATH, Aug 23, 2007)
Countless rural Indians sacrificed much for India’s freedom, to fade
into oblivion later, seeking neither reward nor recognition. Gandhian
Baji Mohammed, who has been active for 70 years in one or the other
cause, is amongst the last of this dying tribe.
Sex Education Runs Into Trouble (British Broadcasting Corporation,
Correspondent or Reporter, Aug 23, 2007)
The Indian government's recent attempt to introduce sex education for
school children has provoked a vigorous debate. In the second of two
articles, the BBC's Jyotsna Singh considers the case against a more
open discussion of sex in schools.
No Thank You, America (Indian Express, Correspondent or Reporter, Aug
23, 2007)
Organiser columnist M.V. Kamat says the only question one needs to ask
before signing the 123 agreement with the US is, “Can we trust
America?” And, “The plain and simple answer is: We can’t.”
What Bjp Rule Meant (Times of India, Correspondent or Reporter, Aug
21, 2007)
For the first time in post-independence India, Hindu nationalists were
in a position to rule the country between 1998 and 2004.
Strings Unattached (Tribune, Correspondent or Reporter, Aug 21, 2007)
THE BJP and the RSS have always stoutly denied that the latter is
instrumental in the party’s decision-making process.
Sangh Poori Bahar (Indian Express, Correspondent or Reporter, Aug 20,
2007)
The RSS, according to a report in this paper, has decided on a “phased
withdrawal” from the BJP’s day-to-day affairs, it will “micro-manage”
the party no more.
Lies Become Truth (Pioneer, Correspondent or Reporter, Aug 18, 2007)
Leftist historians are using their clout with Government and media to
establish Karl Marx as a supporter of the Indian people during the
1857 revolt.
Gujarat Rebels Give Bjp Leaders A ‘Last Chance’ (Statesman,
Correspondent or Reporter, Aug 16, 2007)
Disgusted with the Central leadership’s continued indifference to
their appeal for a change in leadership, BJP dissident leaders will
give “a last chance” to party leaders here to redress their grievances
before the Gujarat Assembly elections . . .
Pyre In The Graveyard (OutLook, Khushwant Singh, Aug 14, 2007)
The recent history of Gujarat could be divided into two: the Gandhi-
Sardar Patel era and the Advani-Narendra Modi era. In the first,
relations between Hindus and Muslims were better than in any other
state.
It’S Modi Vs Patels, Rss, Vhp In Gujarat (Asian Age, Correspondent or
Reporter, Aug 13, 2007)
New Delhi’s posh Chanakyapuri area witnessed a strange brawl between
two IAS officers over a stray dog. Rashmi Priyadarshini is posted as
joint secretary in the ministry of rural development and lives in a
government accommodation on Vinay Marg.
'Nuke Deal Won't Hinder Strategic Programme' (New Indian Express,
Correspondent or Reporter, Aug 06, 2007)
The civil nuclear deal with the US does not hinder India's strategic
programme and leaves enough room for conducting an atomic test in a
changed geo-political situation, former diplomats have said.
Home Alone (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Aug 03, 2007)
The BJP recently suspended five rebels out of the six who voted for
the UPA candidate in the presidential poll. The party bosses in Delhi
know that disciplinary action is not the solution to the problem. More
than one-third of the BJP MLAs in the . . . .
Cleric For All Seasons (Indian Express, RAJEEV P I, Aug 03, 2007)
A decade and a half ago, before the first of his many brushes with the
law for his communally charged speeches after the Babri Masjid fell,
Abdul Nasser Mahdani was little more than a local cleric in Kollam
with a particularly fiery tongue . . . .
Court Lets Off Madani In Advani Murder Plot (Pioneer, K
Venkataramanan, Aug 02, 2007)
Radical Islamist Abdul Nasser Madani was on Wednesday acquitted of all
charges in the Coimbatore serial bomb blasts case, along with seven
others, but Syed Ahmed Basha, leader of an outlawed fundamentalist
group, was convicted of involvement in . . . .
Bjp Confident, But Looks At Alternatives (Deccan Herald, B S Arun, Aug
01, 2007)
Party incharge for Karnataka, Yashwant Sinha reiterated that there
would be smooth transfer of power and that the entire party stood
solidly behind B S Yediyurappa for chief ministership from October 3.
Congress Leaders Fear Fate In Polls (Asian Age, Venkatesh Kesari , Jul
30, 2007)
The absence of regional heavyweights in key states will affect the
Congress' electoral prospects in the coming Assembly polls and in the
general election as well, fear senior party leaders even after the
massive victory in the presidential election.
‘In ’93, Rao Turned Down Move To Set Up Anti-Terror Mechanism’ (Indian
Express, Correspondent or Reporter, Jul 26, 2007)
“The first suggestion to establish an anti-terrorism mechanism with
Pakistan had come after the 1993 Mumbai blasts.
The Right's Wrongs (Frontline, A.G. NOORANI, Jul 25, 2007)
PUBLISHED on May 15 this year, this book makes a timely appearance.
Superstar Dhasal (Frontline, SUDHANVA DESHPANDE, Jul 25, 2007)
THERE is nothing that can quite describe the sensation of reading the
poetry of Namdeo Dhasal. One's hair stands on end.
A Rebel's Journey (Frontline, Venkitesh Ramakrishnan, Jul 25, 2007)
ONE of the most enduring images of former Prime Minister Chandra
Shekhar, who passed away on July 8, relates to the Bharat Yatra that
he undertook as an opposition leader in early 1983.
Shaken Bjp Suspends 5 Anti-Modi Mlas (Tribune, Satish Misra, Jul 24,
2007)
A crisis-ridden Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today sought to arrest
growing dissidence in the party by suspending five known anti-Narendra
Modi MLAs in Gujarat.
Tales From A Forgotten World (Telegraph, Khushwant Singh, Jul 21,
2007)
It is not surprising that many of our top writers of English fiction
prefer to live abroad rather than in their own homeland.
Modi Versus Bjp? (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Jul 21,
2007)
In a presidential poll in which the winner has been all but declared,
the political frisson has to do with the final vote tally.
U-Turns But Advantage Pratibha (Tribune, R. Suryamurthy, Jul 20, 2007)
Legislators across the country today voted to elect the 13th
President, with UPA-Left candidate Pratibha Patil all set to become
the first woman to occupy the Rashtrapati Bhavan as the Head of the
State.
2 Bjp Allies To Abstain, Patil To Gain (Asian Age, Sonal Kellogg, Jul
19, 2007)
The battlelines were drawn on the eve of the presidential elections as
the BJP was dealt a double blow on Wednesday with both the Trinamul
Congress and Karnataka coalition partner JD(S) deciding to abstain.
Fading Saffron (Tribune, Amulya Ganguli, Jul 18, 2007)
A defeat invariably undermines the position of the party chief. Nor is
it unusual for inner-party groups opposed to him to take advantage of
his discomfiture to run him down.
A View From North Block (Hindu, Harish Khare , Jul 17, 2007)
Memoir relating the inside story of the reforms and the opposition
that tried to derail the process.
Committed To People, Says Pratibha Patil (Hindu, Correspondent or
Reporter, Jul 14, 2007)
The Presidential election will be a significant moment in the history
of India’s democracy, United Progressive Alliance presidential
candidate Pratibha Patil said, while addressing West Bengal MLAs at
the State Legislature here on Friday.
Pro-Jinnah Article In Gujarat Journal Irks Rss (Statesman,
Correspondent or Reporter, Jul 14, 2007)
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) today took a dim view of a pro-
Jinnah article in a recent issue of the Narendra Modi government’s
official journal in Gujarat, saying its critical views on Pakistan’s
founder do not need to be repeated.
Confessions Of The Real Yashwant (Frontline, A.G. NOORANI, Jul 13,
2007)
Yashwant Sinha cannot be faulted if he has not heard of Lord Mancroft.
He would, however, find a study of Lord Jowitt very instructive.
Congress, Bjp Devalue Office Of President (Asian Age, Kuldip Nayar,
Jul 11, 2007)
Mudslinging surrounding the highest office of the country is, no
doubt, unfortunate. But it is more than that. It is in bad taste,
something which should never be done.
Democratic Worries (Frontline, Rita Manchanda, Jul 10, 2007)
IT is over a year since the April 2006 Jana Andolan II forced an all-
powerful King Gyanendra to bow down before a massive countrywide
popular agitation and announce the restoration of people's sovereignty
in Nepal.
Congress, Bjp Devalue Office Of President (Asian Age, Kuldip Nayar,
Jul 09, 2007)
Mudslinging surrounding the highest office of the country is, no
doubt, unfortunate. But it is more than that. It is in bad taste,
something which should never be done.
Crisis Of Confidence (Statesman, Editorial, Statesman, Jul 09, 2007)
It was generally expected that the CPI-M would celebrate the 30th
anniversary of the Left Front by mobilising thousands of party cadres
on the Maidan.
A Major Player Has Gone (Hindustan Times, Editorial, HindustanTimes,
Jul 09, 2007)
Three leaders have left an indelible impression on Delhi for their
ability to not only identify with the people’s issues but also for
their genuine desire to solve their problems — Chaudhury Brahm
Parkash, Delhi’s first chief minister, HKL Bhagat, . . .
Our Next President (Deccan Herald, Khushwant Singh, Jul 07, 2007)
If Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh think Pratibha Patil is most suited
to become Head of the State, what are opinions of ignoramuses like me
worth?
Upa Gets Tough On Patil Attack (Deccan Herald, Correspondent or
Reporter, Jul 04, 2007)
The UPA-Left, in its first major offensive countering the NDAs smear
campaign against its presidential candidate Pratibha Patil, on Tuesday
described the Opposition-backed Independent candidate B S Shekhawat as
a long-time member of the fascist RSS...
A Ghashiram Kotwal For Our Time (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian
Express, Jul 03, 2007)
Recently Vijay Tendulkar’s Ghashiram Kotwal, a contemporary classic,
was staged in Delhi and the response of the theatregoers was
overwhelming. People are still enamoured by scheming, lecherous Nana
and the transformation of Ghashiram from . . . .
Party Without A Difference (Hindustan Times, Editorial,
HindustanTimes, Jul 02, 2007)
Differences within the BJP were out in the open yet again at the
meeting of its national executive in the capital last week.
Waiting For The President (Hindustan Times, Editorial, HindustanTimes,
Jul 02, 2007)
The UPA-Left alliance’s decision to field Pratibha Patil as their
candidate for the Presidency of Republic took me, as it did the vast
majority of my countrymen, by surprise.
North Block In The Rearview Mirror (New Indian Express, Bibek Debroy,
Jul 02, 2007)
This seems to be the season for Indian finance ministers to produce
books. Jaswant Singh, P Chidambaram, and now, Yashwant Sinha (YS).
Media never tires of ranking FMs since 1991.
Potential Cure For Hiv Discovered: Study (Indian Express,
Correspondent or Reporter, Jun 30, 2007)
In a breakthrough that could potentially lead to a cure for HIV
infection, scientists have discovered a way to remove the virus from
infected cells, a study released on Friday said.
Pratibha Chosen For Loyalty (Tribune, Kuldip Nayar, Jun 30, 2007)
But for the strong opposition of the Congress and the Left, India
would have had Dr Abdul Kalam as the next President.
Waiting For The President (Hindustan Times, Editorial, HindustanTimes,
Jun 30, 2007)
The UPA-Left alliance’s decision to field Pratibha Patil as their
candidate for the Presidency of Republic took me, as it did the vast
majority of my countrymen, by surprise.
Cong Seeks Disqualification Of Natwar (Tribune, Correspondent or
Reporter, Jun 27, 2007)
In a bid to embarrass NDA-backed presidential nominee Bhairon Singh
Shekhawat on the issues of constitutional propriety and conflict of
interest, the Congress today moved a revised petition for the
disqualification of former union minister . . .
Rajnath Gets It From Advani: We Need To Discuss Up, Lok Sabha Polls
Not Far (Indian Express, Varghese K George, Jun 27, 2007)
Eighteen months after he was forced to hand over the BJP mantle to
Rajnath Singh, senior leader L K Advani had a go at his successor,
demanding an “honest introspection and self-critical analysis” of the
party’s state of affairs, particularly the . . . .
Shekhawat A Non-Partisan Candidate, Says Vajpayee (Hindu, NEENA VYAS ,
Jun 27, 2007)
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K.
Advani on Tuesday used the party’s national executive committee to
project Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, their colleague of 50 years, as a
“non-partisan” candidate in the presidential poll.
Bjp Blames Everyone But Itself For Its Up Disaster (Indian Express,
Correspondent or Reporter, Jun 26, 2007)
Meeting for the first time after the rout in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP
national executive today absolved the party leadership of all blame,
attributing the results to “an overwhelming polarisation of votes
against the Samajwadi Party” while . . . .
Prez Earns Sonias Ire: Rss (Deccan Herald, Correspondent or Reporter,
Jun 25, 2007)
President A P J Abdul Kalam earned Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s
wrath for his consistent support for Indian interests, according to
RSS mouthpiece ‘Organiser.’
Inheritance Of Loss (Hindustan Times, Editorial, HindustanTimes, Jun
22, 2007)
Within minutes of Pratibha Patil being ‘chosen’ as the UPA’s candidate
for president, a chain sms was floated: “After 300 years... the
Marathas are finally set to conquer Delhi”, a reminder that defeat in
the third battle of Panipat still rankles.
Basha Acquitted In Rss Office Blast Case (Hindu, Correspondent or
Reporter, Jun 22, 2007)
Three awarded life sentence, eight others rigorous imprisonment
3 Get Life Term In Rss Office Blast Case (Deccan Herald, Correspondent
or Reporter, Jun 22, 2007)
The special CBI court, which tried 18 accused under the now-defunct
Terrorist and Disruptive Activities( Prevention) Act, however,
acquitted four others, including Al-Umma founder S A Basha.
Left, Others Say No To 2nd Term For Kalam (Asian Age, Venkatesh
Kesari , Jun 22, 2007)
The Left parties and two UPA constituents, the Rashtriya Janata Dal
and Nationalist Congress Party, on Thursday followed Congress
president Sonia Gandhi’s line by refusing to back President A.P.J.
Abdul Kalam for a second term in Raj Bhavan.
Four Acquitted In Rss Blast Case (Statesman, Correspondent or
Reporter, Jun 22, 2007)
Bringing to an end a long-drawn trial on a sensitive communal blast
case, a designated Tada court today passed orders which acquitted four
persons including SA Basha, the former leader of the banned Al Umma,
while convicting 11 others in the 1993 . . .
Pratibhatai: A Reward For Obedience (Deccan Herald, Editorial, The
Deccan Herald, Jun 22, 2007)
Was anyone really interested in questioning how the very Maharashtra
politicians, who were taking delight in Pratibha Patil's choice as the
candiate for President, had been responsible for banishing her from
the state not so long ago?
Kalam Should Resign Gracefully: Lalu (Singapore Times, Correspondent
or Reporter, Jun 22, 2007)
Rejecting Third Front's plea for consensus on a second term for
President A P J Abdul Kalam, RJD chief Lalu Prasad today said Kalam
should step down gracefully.
Trojan Horse In ‘Q’ Scam (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express,
Jun 21, 2007)
Former CBI director Joginder Singh, a regular contributor to the
Organiser, blames the law ministry and law officers for yet again
failing to secure the extradition of Ottavio Quattrochi who remains a
key accused in the Bofors payoff case.
Make Stand Clear, Upa Told (Asian Age, Correspondent or Reporter, Jun
21, 2007)
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati on Wednesday signed the
nomination papers of UPA presidential candidate Pratibha Patil as the
third proposer.
Mayawati Is Third Proposer For Patil (Asian Age, Correspondent or
Reporter, Jun 21, 2007)
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati on Wednesday signed the
nomination papers of UPA presidential candidate Pratibha Patil as the
third proposer.
Rajnath Singh’S Thirteen Statecraft (Hindu, Harish Khare , Jun 21,
2007)
The BJP resembles George Clooney’s cool gang inOcean’s Thirteen, which
gives its best only when prompted by a burning desire to get even. A
party that seeks to rule a country needs a better raison d’etre.
http://www.whatisindia.com/issues/rssgroup/rssgroup_more.html
Articles 121 through 220 of 500:
Kalam Reluctant To Enter Fray (Tribune, T.R. Ramachandran, Jun 20,
2007)
President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is believed to have conveyed to AIADMK
supremo J. Jayalalithaa over the telephone yesterday his reluctance to
enter the Presidential fray.
History, Abridged (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Jun 18,
2007)
Given how seriously the RSS insists that history is serious business,
it is extraordinary that it should display such naiveté in dealing
with a pretender claiming to possess science-backed historical
insight.
Anti-Modi Mla Gets Notice For Dissidence (Asian Age, Correspondent or
Reporter, Jun 18, 2007)
A BJP MLA who had said that Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi was
busy promoting himself at the cost of the BJP in the state has been
served with a showcause notice and could be suspended soon.
Mulayam’S Dilemma: To Back Bjp Or Defeat Cong? (Indian Express, ALKA
PANDE, Jun 18, 2007)
Teaming up to declare themselves a non-Congress and non-BJP
alternative, the eight-party grouping of regional parties, meeting in
Chennai tomorrow, faces a predicament in deciding a strategy on the
Presidential election.
Ulfa Blames Rss-Backed Ngo For Bullut Blast (Indian Express, Samudra
Gupta Kashyap, Jun 16, 2007)
A day after two people were killed in a blast at Bullut Bazar, a
weekly market in a Muslim-dominated area of Kamrup district, the
outlawed ULFA held the RSS responsible for the incident.
Ulfa Blames Blast On Rss (Tribune, Bijay Sankar Bora, Jun 16, 2007)
The banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) has accused hand of
the Rashtriya Sawayamsevak Sangh (RSS) behind June 13 bomb blast at a
market near Hajo in Kamrup district in which 2 persons were killed and
over 30 injured.
More Sinha Than Sinned Against (Hindustan Times, Correspondent or
Reporter, Jun 13, 2007)
Yashwant Sinha's account of the time he spent in North Block is
significant not only for what has been stated but also for what has
not.
Tada Court Again Postpones Verdict In Rss Office Bombing Case (New
Indian Express, Correspondent or Reporter, Jun 12, 2007)
A designated TADA court on Monday once again put off the verdict in
the 1993 case involving a bomb blast which killed 11 people at the RSS
office here and fixed June 21 as the date of delivery of judgement.
'I Will Not Be Remote-Controlled Or Bullied By Anyone' (Deccan Herald,
Editorial, The Deccan Herald, Jun 12, 2007)
Goa's new Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, a former BJP man now with the
Congress, spoke to Devika Sequeira of Deccan Herald about his
political leanings and his plans for the state.
One Millennium Of Unease (Pioneer, Surajit Dasgupta, Jun 11, 2007)
This book is not a generalised comment on the Hindu-Muslim equation.
Nor is it a deliberate imposition of the inanely saccharine idea that
everything was hunky dory between the two communities until the
British came and vitiated our oh-so-innocent minds.
Karan Singh Seeks To Neutralise Left (Pioneer, Santanu Banerjee, Jun
08, 2007)
As confusion prevailed in the UPA camp over the presidential nominee,
one of the contenders, Karan Singh, met CPI general secretary AB
Bardhan on Thursday in an apparent move to soften the Left parties'
reported objection to his candidature.
Quota Politics Dividing Society: Rss (Tribune, Correspondent or
Reporter, Jun 08, 2007)
As Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje's pre-election reservation
promise to Gujjars backfired on the BJP, the RSS has flayed the quota
system for Dalits, calling it a technique to divide society for
power.
Signalling A Wide (Hindustan Times, Editorial, HindustanTimes, Jun 06,
2007)
The BJP’s problem is not the Muslims or Christians whom it scorns; it
is the Hindus it woos. India is not shining, but is very much on the
move.
God Is For All? (Pioneer, Editorial, The Pioneer, Jun 02, 2007)
Saturday Special examines the issues behind the Kerala temples row.
The priests dare the Communist Government to intervene, but the
Achuthanandan regime, though willing to wound, prefers to postpone the
moment to strike. At any rate, the educated . . .
Resistance To Change (Pioneer, Udayan Namboodiri, Jun 02, 2007)
Watching Rahul Eshwar on TV last week holding forth on the virtues of
"consensus" over legislation in settling whirlwind disputes over
rights of temple entry, many people secretly congratulated India's
temple orthodoxy for giving the Hindu-baiting . . .
Rajnath Gives Home Turf To Jaitley, Ravi Gets Tn, Malhotra Loses Delhi
(Pioneer, Rajeev Ranjan Roy, May 30, 2007)
The man who scripted victory for the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar,
Karnataka, Gujarat, and Punjab would now revive the party's sagging
fortunes in Uttar Pradesh, where the party suffered a debacle in the
recently concluded Assembly polls.
Caste Stalls Communalism (Asian Age, Kuldip Nayar, May 30, 2007)
When I said in the Rajya Sabha a few years ago that caste was bound to
stall the spread of communalism one day, I did not know that this
would happen in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
Secularism From A Christian Perspective (Asian Age, Seema Mustafa, May
28, 2007)
There are some books that do not make it to the better known list
because of the inability of publishers to push it through the crowded
and competitive publishing world, but that definitely deserve to be in
the spotlights. John Dayal’s A Matter . . .
Two Parties Only (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, May 24,
2007)
Endorsing President Abdul Kalam’s call for evolving a two-party system
in India, the Organiser’s editorial states, “India has two distinct
ideological poles, represented by the BJP and the Congress.
Are Puri, Sringeri, Dwaraka And Badri Acharyas Anti-National, Dr Mk?
(New Indian Express, S Gurumurthy , May 21, 2007)
"Sethu critics anti-national, says MK." This is how a newspaper front-
paged Dr M Karunanidhi's address at a public meeting in Chennai held
in defence of the Sethu Samudram Project.
A Void On The Right (New Indian Express, Swapan Dasgupta, May 21,
2007)
In a recent interview to Tehelka on his new book on post-Independence
Indian politics, Ramachandra Guha mentioned in passing that whereas
liberals and the Left play a meaningful role in the country’s
intellectual and political . . . .
Cong, Bjp Both At Fault (Pioneer, Swapan Dasgupta, May 21, 2007)
It should be a matter of utmost reassurance to Uttar Pradesh that the
mother and son duo which owns the Congress merely blamed the party
organisation for failing to translate the apparent goodwill and
enthusiasm for the family into votes and seats.
Bjp Decline, Congress-Style (Indian Express, Sanjay Kumar, May 19,
2007)
A serious analysis of the BJP’s debacle in UP must begin by noting
what went right, or seemed to go right, with the party in this
election.
Beauty And The Beast (Times of India, Editorial, The Times of India,
May 17, 2007)
Who is Chandramohan Srilamantula? Is he such a famous artist that the
entire art community is staging protests against his arrest? Actually,
Chandramohan is only 23 and still a student, and it is his project
work that’s made an impact far beyond . . .
Uphill Task For Mayawati (Pioneer, Anuradha Dutt, May 17, 2007)
Stumped by the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party's victory in the Uttar
Pradesh Assembly election, analysts have begun to reassess their view
of the Dalit leader.
In A Time Warp (Deccan Herald, Editorial, The Deccan Herald, May 17,
2007)
The BJP strategy was based on the presumption that the House would be
hung and it could play the king-maker.
‘Bjp Failed To Convince People’ (Asian Age, Correspondent or Reporter,
May 16, 2007)
Describing as "unexpected" the outcome of the just-completed Uttar
Pradesh Assembly elections, senior BJP leader L.K. Advani on Tuesday
said that the party failed to convince the people of the state that
they could be an alternative to the . . . .
Clashes Between Sikh Sects Across Punjab (Times of India,
Correspondent or Reporter, May 16, 2007)
Punjab exploded in a rage of protests on Tuesday as followers of Dera
Sacha Sauda, a cult with a following large enough to help the Congress
win 15-20 seats during the February Assembly elections, clashed with
members of various Sikh groups for . . . .
Parivar Bashing (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, May 16,
2007)
The latest issue of People’s Democracy is dedicated to 1857:
‘Understanding 1857, The Left perspective’.
‘Obscene’ Artist Freed As Outcry Gets Louder (Telegraph, Correspondent
or Reporter, May 15, 2007)
The Maharaj Sayajirao University student arrested for putting up
allegedly obscene paintings was released today, but the art fraternity
kept up the heat.
Tolerance Begins In The Classroom (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian
Express, May 14, 2007)
It has been empirically verified that a child is likely to develop a
healthy attitude of tolerance if he or she studies in a school where
children of diverse socio-cultural and socio-religious groups are
fully represented.
Beyond Winners And Losers In U.P. (Hindu, Harish Khare , May 12, 2007)
The verdict will need to be understood in the larger context. The
Uttar Pradesh voter has introduced a new element of clarity and
unambiguity.
Unexpected, Shocking: Rajnath (Hindu, Correspondent or Reporter, May
12, 2007)
Mayawati's anti-Mulayam credentials were stronger than ours: Arun
Jaitley Worst performance since 1989, when the BJP won in 57 Assembly
constituencies BJP projected itself as an alternative to the Samajwadi
Party too late: Sushma Swaraj
Bjp Defeat Cheers Left (Tribune, Correspondent or Reporter, May 12,
2007)
There was a stunning silence at the BJP's central office here as the
UP Assembly election results decimated the saffron party.
Bjp Stunned Over Up Poll Results (Tribune, Correspondent or Reporter,
May 12, 2007)
There was a stunning silence at the BJP's central office here as the
UP Assembly election results decimated the saffron party.
Modi’S Gujarat Is A Blot On India, But Cong Won’T Move Against Him
(Tribune, Kuldip Nayar, May 12, 2007)
The BJP should feel humiliated, if not ashamed, of what has overtaken
the government in Gujarat.
Right Awaits Its Moment (Pioneer, Swapan Dasgupta, May 10, 2007)
In a recent interview to Tehelka on his new book on post-Independence
Indian politics, Ram Guha mentioned in passing that whereas liberals
and the Left play a meaningful role in the country's intellectual and
political discourse . . . .
Up Chessboard’S Set Up (Hindustan Times, Correspondent or Reporter,
May 07, 2007)
BSP supremo Mayawati is at the pole position as the UP assembly
election enters the last lap on Tuesday.
Theocons And Theocrats (Pioneer, MV Kamath, May 07, 2007)
According to Phillips, the United States faces three major perils in
the 21st century: Reckless dependence on shrinking oil supplies,
reliance on borrowed money and religion getting increasingly
radicalised. Americans are slowly moving . . . .
All In The Family? (New Indian Express, Swapan Dasgupta, May 07, 2007)
From all accounts, the ongoing Assembly poll in India’s largest state
is not going to be remembered as a landmark election.
The Moderate Face (Asian Age, Editorial, The Asian Age, May 07, 2007)
Two years ago the RSS sarnsanghachalak K.S. Sudarshan had advocated
that veteran BJP leaders Atal Behari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani should
retire.
'Vajpayee Wants To Quit Active Politics' (Hindustan Times,
Correspondent or Reporter, May 03, 2007)
Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who addressed an election
rally in Uttar Pradesh as late as in the fourth phase of the assembly
polls, has expressed his desire to quit active politics, says RSS
mouthpiece "Panchjanya".
Vajpayee Wants To Quit Active Politics (Statesman, Correspondent or
Reporter, May 03, 2007)
Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee would like to quit active politics, according
to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)’s mouthpiece, Panchjanya.
Rss Calls Sikhism A Separate Religion In ‘Hindu Samaj’ (Tribune,
Correspondent or Reporter, May 03, 2007)
The RSS has described the Sikh faith as a separate religion belonging
to “one great Hindu samaj”.
Theocons And Theocrats (Pioneer, Correspondent or Reporter, Apr 30,
2007)
According to Phillips, the United States faces three major perils in
the 21st century: Reckless dependence on shrinking oil supplies,
reliance on borrowed money and religion getting increasingly
radicalised.
Purohit's Revelation Of Rajiv-Rss Pact Leaves Cong Dumb (Pioneer,
Correspondent or Reporter, Apr 27, 2007)
Former Congress MP Banwarilal Purohit's statement about a secret pact
between the Rajiv Gandhi Government and the RSS in 1989 to allow
shilanyas and construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya has left
Congressmen ducking for answers.
Print Pick (Hindu, Correspondent or Reporter, Apr 26, 2007)
A film director asks Binod, who is a journalist in Bombay, to produce
a portrait of a murdered girl — a poet killed by a politician by whom
she is pregnant.
A Pact Between Rajiv And Rss? (Times of India, CP Bhambhri, Apr 26,
2007)
In a startling disclosure, former Congress MP Banwarilal Purohit
claimed on Wednesday that the government led by prime minister Rajiv
Gandhi had forged a secret pact with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in
1989 to allow 'shilanyas' and construction of . . .
Two-Man Army (Frontline, Venkitesh Ramakrishnan, Apr 25, 2007)
Veterans Rajnath Singh and Kalyan Singh do it for the BJP with a mix
of opposition politics and Hindutva.
Election Mantra (Tribune, S. Nihal Singh, Apr 24, 2007)
There comes a time in the life of a political party when it must stand
up to be counted.
The Idea Of Being Indian (Hindu, Mrinal Miri, Apr 24, 2007)
A critical examination of Golwalkar's thought and his legacy: his
conception of Indianness
Orientalist Confection (OutLook, DILEEP PADGAONKAR, Apr 23, 2007)
Sharma's study of Golwalkar's worldview shows beyond a shadow of doubt
that it is the very antithesis of what holds us Indians together.
Time For A Rethink On Reservation Issues (Deccan Herald, Firoz Bakht
Ahmed, Apr 19, 2007)
The minorities should accept the challenges of a competitive life. A
concerted affort must be made to give priority to education.
Stern Action (Deccan Herald, Editorial, The Deccan Herald, Apr 18,
2007)
The acts of extremism that Hindu right-wing groups have been
unleashing on the public over the past week call for stern action.
Diktats have been issued and mobs have gone on rampage in the name of
defending Hindu values and Indian culture.
In Silent Mode, Bjp Surges Ahead (Pioneer, Sidharth Mishra, Apr 15,
2007)
The improved performance of the BJP in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly
election, which is taking pollsters by surprise, is not just fuelled
by SIMI-Afzal-bashing, as a majority of analysts would like to
believe.
Uma Gives Bjp Right Of Way (Telegraph, Correspondent or Reporter, Apr
14, 2007)
Uma Bharti today announced that she would withdraw all her party’s
candidates from the Uttar Pradesh elections to prevent a split in the
BJP’s votes.
Uma Pulls Out Her Men For The Sake Of The Parivar (Indian Express,
Correspondent or Reporter, Apr 14, 2007)
The BJP’s most famous rebel, Uma Bharati, today decided to withdraw
all her party candidates in the ongoing Uttar Pradesh elections.
Who Will Be Our Next President? (Deccan Herald, Khushwant Singh, Apr
14, 2007)
To break the deafening silence, I blurted out : “Who do you think will
be our next President? Kalam is due to retire in three months.”
Koda Tests Water In Delhi (Telegraph, Correspondent or Reporter, Apr
13, 2007)
Chief minister Madhu Koda today called on Congress president Sonia
Gandhi in New Delhi, amid speculation that the state is inching
towards a spell of President’s Rule.
In Heart Of Cong’S Muslim Bastion, Voters Prefer To Ride On Mulayam’S
Cycle (Indian Express, Correspondent or Reporter, Apr 11, 2007)
Of the 25 odd seats that the Congress won in the 2002 Uttar Pradesh
elections, the victory in Aligarh was arguably the most significant.
Kerala’S Muslim Groups Unite Against Fundamentalist Ndf (Indian
Express, RAJEEV P I, Apr 11, 2007)
For the first time, almost all Muslim political and community
organisations of consequence in Kerala are burying their quarrels and
are bonding to take on the National Development Front (NDF), the
state’s powerful militant Islamic outfit now . . .
Golwalkar’S Book (Tribune, Amulya Ganguli, Apr 11, 2007)
While lavishing praise on M.S.Golwalkar on the occasion of the
centenary of his birth last year, the saffron brotherhood virtually
contradicted its adulation . . .
Cheap Charges (Pioneer, Editorial, The Pioneer, Apr 11, 2007)
It is regrettable that Nepal's Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala
should have used his visit to New Delhi for the SAARC Summit to lodge
complaints against "Hindu organisations" for fanning the Madhesi
agitation in his country's southern districts.
Don't Walk Away (Times of India, SWAGATO GANGULY, Apr 09, 2007)
The prime anarchist gesture of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the
nation, was to turn away from its governance the moment it came into
being.
'Hindu Nationalism Has Changed... Sometimes Tactics May Affect
Strategies' (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Apr 05, 2007)
The core ideas of Hindu nationalism have not changed over almost one
hundred years. First, the Hindutva ideology has always been rooted in
a deep sense of vulnerability of the majority community.
‘Rss View Of Hindu Rashtra An Anachronism’ (Deccan Herald, Editorial,
The Deccan Herald, Apr 04, 2007)
Jyotirmaya Sharma, author of `Terrifying Vision', a book about MS
Golwalkar of the RSS, in an interview with Deepak K Upreti of the
Deccan Herald comments on the controversial legacy of the leader.
Doing Business, With Help From Millions Of Friends (Hindu, John
Naughton , Apr 02, 2007)
Does the networking phenomenon have anything to offer?
Amazing Hypocrisy (Pioneer, Ajoy Bose, Apr 02, 2007)
Maharashtra Government's decision to withdraw sex education from
schools is plain stupid, given the rise in HIV/AIDS cases
Raje Raj (Indian Express, Coomi Kapoor, Apr 01, 2007)
Most chief ministers take the conventional route for raising funds, by
holding road shows abroad for NRIs from their home state. Rajasthan
Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje, has done one better.
Blurring Identities (Frontline, Correspondent or Reporter, Mar 31,
2007)
A FALLOUT of the naxalite violence in Chhattisgarh is the gradual loss
of identity among Adivasi boys and girls. Tribal children who have
either lost one or both parents in naxalite attacks, or whose parents
have been lodged in Salwa Judum camps . . .
No Clear Winner In Up (Pioneer, Kalyani Shankar, Mar 30, 2007)
Though it is premature to predict the results of Uttar Pradesh
Assembly election, a fractured mandate is quite likely
The Killing Of Gandhi: Clearing Away The Overlay (New Indian Express,
Correspondent or Reporter, Mar 28, 2007)
The legacy of the man runs like a tangible thread of khadi ….under the
Indian sun you can still feel the rough comfort of authentic homespun,
under the seven veils of stifling hype flaunted as “Indianness”.
Ndf Activists Attack Kottakkal Police Station; 27 Arrested (Hindu,
Correspondent or Reporter, Mar 23, 2007)
Protest against arrest of NDF State president and former chairman
Uma Hits At Cong Over Rahul's Babri Comment (Hindustan Times,
Correspondent or Reporter, Mar 22, 2007)
Training guns on Congress, Bhartiya Janshakti (BJS) President Uma
Bharti on Wednesday said the reported comment of MP Rahul Gandhi on
Babri mosque demolition depicted the 'dynastic rule prevalent in the
party'.
Rss Leaders To Monitor Bjp Campaign In Up (Tribune, Satish Misra, Mar
17, 2007)
The BJP today unveiled its plan of using the RSS in a big way to win
the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
Holding The Centre (Telegraph, RAMACHANDRA GUHA , Mar 17, 2007)
For the past decade and more, the Republic of India has faced a strong
threat from right-wing extremism.
Temples In Malaysia (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Mar
15, 2007)
In an article that takes up the entire front and back page of the
Organiser, editor R. Balashankar slams the Malaysian government for
demolishing “thousands of Hindu temples” in the country over the
years.
Deconstructing Hindutva (Frontline, Ram Punyani, Mar 15, 2007)
A well-researched study of the politics of Hindutva.
`We Can Continue Winning' (Frontline, Purnima S. Tripathi, Mar 14,
2007)
BHARATIYA Janata Party insiders say that the perception within the
Sangh Parivar is that party president Rajnath Singh's standing as a
national leader has risen after the BJP's electoral victories in
Punjab and Uttarakhand.
The Hedging Game (Telegraph, Swapan Dasgupta, Mar 09, 2007)
As a city of movers, shakers and fixers, Delhi is blessed with a
sensitive antenna. For the past fortnight or so, those who make it
their business to monitor such things have been reporting a new trend:
the revival of interest in the Bharatiya . . .
http://www.whatisindia.com/issues/rssgroup/rssgroup_more_00001.html
Articles 221 through 320 of 500:
Praful Bidwai: Mulayam's Real Achilles' Heel (Frontline, Praful
Bidwai, Mar 06, 2007)
The Mulayam Singh government's record is poor and increasingly
communally compromised. But Article 356 is not the remedy.
One Side Of Two Coins (Indian Express, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Mar 05,
2007)
It is tempting to over-analyse elections for their deep hidden
meanings. But the beauty of messy political numbers is that each
interpretation raises only further questions.
One Side Of Two Coins (Indian Express, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Mar 04,
2007)
It is tempting to over-analyse elections for their deep hidden
meanings. But the beauty of messy political numbers is that each
interpretation raises only further questions.
1957, Not 1857 Or 1757 (Hindu, RAMACHANDRA GUHA , Mar 04, 2007)
The importance of the year 1957 in Indian history has barely been
appreciated.
Pronounced Guilty (Telegraph, RAMACHANDRA GUHA , Mar 04, 2007)
Indian communists are often chastized for not supporting the Quit
India movement of 1942. But a far greater crime of which they were
guilty is little talked about nowadays.
One Side Of Two Coins (Indian Express, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Mar 03,
2007)
It is tempting to over-analyse elections for their deep hidden
meanings. But the beauty of messy political numbers is that each
interpretation raises only further questions.
Pronounced Guilty (Telegraph, RAMACHANDRA GUHA , Mar 03, 2007)
Indian communists are often chastized for not supporting the Quit
India movement of 1942. But a far greater crime of which they were
guilty is little talked about nowadays.
After Six-Hour Marathon, General Wins Cm's Race (Pioneer, Sidharth
Mishra, Mar 02, 2007)
Trained to build bridges in difficult terrains, Maj Gen BC Khanduri, a
retired Army engineer, overcame one of the severest challenges of his
career to emerge as the leader of the BJP legislature party in . . .
In Victory Glow, Recharged Bjp Gives Notice To Upa, Sets Up As Next
Target (Indian Express, Manini Chatterjee, Feb 28, 2007)
Verdict shows how all fell in place: RSS help, collective leadership
despite ego clashes; high ‘strike rate’ in Punjab adds to Jaitley’s
medal tally
Hindu Divided Family (Telegraph, MAHESH RANGARAJAN, Feb 26, 2007)
Wonders never cease. The tumult at the apex of the Bharatiya Janata
Party comes just at the time when there are signs of a recovery of its
flagging fortunes in the urban centres of north and west India that
powered its ascendancy in the Nineties.
Samjhauta Blasts: Terrorists Get It Wrong (Times of India, Editorial,
The Times of India, Feb 25, 2007)
The spate of terror attacks on public transport struck again with the
blasts on the Samjhauta Express that has killed 67 and injured many.
Up And Down (Hindustan Times, Pankaj Vohra, Feb 24, 2007)
It is almost certain now that the Mulayam Singh Yadav government in
Uttar Pradesh is on its last legs. Whether the government gets
dismissed by the Centre in the wake of the Supreme Court judgment
disqualifying 13 BSP MLAs, leading to a strong . . .
Lest We Ignore Terrorism Of A Different Shade (Deccan Herald,
Editorial, The Deccan Herald, Feb 23, 2007)
The cowardly attack of terror was aimed at disrupting not just Indo-
Pak peace talks but also harming intra-community amity.
Rescue Golwalkar From The Secularists (Indian Express, Rakesh Sinha ,
Feb 23, 2007)
The Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh has been celebrating the birth
centenary of its second sarsanghchalak, M.S. Golwalkar, popularly
known as Guruji, for the last one year.
Up And Down (Hindustan Times, Pankaj Vohra, Feb 23, 2007)
It is almost certain now that the Mulayam Singh Yadav government in
Uttar Pradesh is on its last legs. Whether the government gets
dismissed by the Centre in the wake of the Supreme Court judgment
disqualifying 13 BSP MLAs, leading to a strong report . ..
Mature Response (Statesman, Editorial, Statesman, Feb 22, 2007)
If there was one positive angle to the fall-out of the Samjhauta
Express tragedy it was the restrained reaction of the Indo-Pak
leadership: in happy contrast to what followed the blasts in Mumbai’s
locals it must, regretfully, be added.
Up And Down (Hindustan Times, Pankaj Vohra, Feb 22, 2007)
It is almost certain now that the Mulayam Singh Yadav government in
Uttar Pradesh is on its last legs. Whether the government gets
dismissed by the Centre in the wake of the Supreme Court judgment
disqualifying 13 BSP MLAs, leading to a . . .
Samajwadi Party Withdraws Support To Upa (Hindu, Correspondent or
Reporter, Feb 22, 2007)
Congress has struck an unholy alliance with communal forces, says
Mulayam Singh SP has 42 MPs in Lok Sabha, 16 in Rajya Sabha `Exercise
to impose Article 356 aimed at Presidential elections'
Up Raises Political Heat On Budget Eve (Business Line, Rasheeda
Bhagat , Feb 22, 2007)
L'affaire Uttar Pradesh is throwing up various political combinations,
with foes lining up on the same side and allies opposing each other
over the fate of the Mulayam Singh government.
Thus Spake Golwalkar (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Feb
22, 2007)
The year-long birth centenary celebrations of the second RSS
sarsanghchalak M.S. Golwalkar concluded on February 18 this year. This
week’s issue of Organiser gives detailed round-ups on how the year was
observed through innumerable meetings and . . .
Up And Down (Hindustan Times, Pankaj Vohra, Feb 21, 2007)
It is almost certain now that the Mulayam Singh Yadav government in
Uttar Pradesh is on its last legs.
Up And Down (Hindustan Times, Pankaj Vohra, Feb 20, 2007)
It is almost certain now that the Mulayam Singh Yadav government in
Uttar Pradesh is on its last legs.
Terrorism Emerges As Core Concern At Rss Conclave (Pioneer, Rajeev
Ranjan Roy, Feb 19, 2007)
The threat from terrorism emerged as the core concern for the
country's leading religious leaders assembled on Sunday at the grand
'social harmony' congregation to mark the conclusion of centenary
celebration of the birth . . .
The Man Was The Message (Pioneer, Editorial, The Pioneer, Feb 18,
2007)
MS Golwalkar was the greatest intellectual genius of the latter half
of the 20th century. His message was one of love and unity of
humanity. He also left a positive impression on both friends and
adversaries
A New Age (Pioneer, Editorial, The Pioneer, Feb 18, 2007)
In Kerala, as in other States of India, Golwalkar's birth centenary
was a year-long programme aimed at stimulating mass opinion on the
single most important issue before the nation: Terrorism
Genius With Relevance (Pioneer, Rakesh Sinha , Feb 18, 2007)
At the conclusion of the birth centenary celebrations of MS Golwalkar,
it's time to take his message into the new century
It Is Neither High Nor Commanding (Hindu, Harish Khare , Feb 14, 2007)
It is time for the Congress and the BJP to restore the efficacy of the
institution called high command if the polity is not to suffer further
fragmentation.
The Importance Of Political Dissent (Pioneer, Seema Sengupta, Feb 14,
2007)
In the last three decades, the West Bengal Government has turned the
State into an autocracy as it always comes down heavily on dissent,
says Seema Sengupta.
Statutory Warning (Pioneer, CP Bhambhri, Feb 13, 2007)
Constitutional legacies of the country are sacrosanct; its opponents
are committed to a questionable definition and idea of India, says CP
Bhambhri.
Starry Wars (Indian Express, Coomi Kapoor, Feb 11, 2007)
Despite the mandatory denials, the war between Shahrukh Khan and
Amitabh Bachchan is hotting up.
New Stirrings In The Sangh, But How Serious? (Indian Express,
SUDHEENDRA KULKARNI , Feb 11, 2007)
Two interesting reports about the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)
appeared last week. One informed us that the RSS has invited Congress
president Sonia Gandhi for a function to mark the birth centenary of
M.S. Golwalkar ‘Guruji’, its second . . . . . .
Who Rules The Roost? (Hindustan Times, Pankaj Vohra, Feb 10, 2007)
So much has already been written about how BJP chief Rajnath Singh cut
to size two of his senior colleagues, Arun Jaitley and Narendra Modi,
while revamping the party organisational structure.
Politics Or Politicking? (Telegraph, Swapan Dasgupta, Feb 09, 2007)
One of Indira Gandhi’s most enduring but disagreeable contributions to
public life lay in obliterating the distinction between politics and
politicking. In 1969, she sacked Morarji Desai, her main rival in the
Congress, and then proceeded to . . .
Small-Timers In A Big Party (Pioneer, ASHOK MALIK, Feb 08, 2007)
The BJP gives the impression it couldn't care less for what its
adherents are telling it - or simply doesn't know the difference
Well Done, Rajnath (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Feb 08,
2007)
BJP president Rajnath Singh’s new team may have caused a lot of
controversy within the party, but the Organiser thinks he has done a
great job and praises Rajnath’s “assured and nuanced approach to
issues.”
The Left Protests Too Much, Wethinks (Hindustan Times, Editorial,
HindustanTimes, Feb 08, 2007)
Rahul Dravid attending a children’s function organised by Vidya
Bharati, an RSS-affiliated body, has set the Indian cricket captain
among the communist pigeons.
Who Rules The Roost? (Hindustan Times, Editorial, HindustanTimes, Feb
08, 2007)
So much has already been written about how BJP chief Rajnath Singh cut
to size two of his senior colleagues, Arun Jaitley and Narendra Modi,
while revamping the party organisational structure.
Secular Challenge (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Feb 07,
2007)
It is not surprising that the CPM has attributed the recent communal
skirmishes in the country, especially the one in Gorakhpur in Uttar
Pradesh to the “gameplan of the BJP-RSS combine”.
Bjp’S Future (Statesman, Editorial, Statesman, Feb 07, 2007)
The NDA’s showing in the Maharashtra civic polls is a shot in the arm
for the BJP. But the euphoria is misplaced. Last week when BJP
President Rajnath Singh reshuffled his secretaries it attracted media
speculation.
Scrapping Constitution (Tribune, Amulya Ganguli, Feb 07, 2007)
The DMK's plea for rewriting the Constitution to negate the Supreme
Court's verdict on the Ninth Schedule sends a disturbing message about
the Indian political class. For a start, it shows a casual, even
frivolous, attitude to what is no less than . . .
Who Rules The Roost? (Hindustan Times, Pankaj Vohra, Feb 06, 2007)
So much has already been written about how BJP chief Rajnath Singh cut
to size two of his senior colleagues, Arun Jaitley and Narendra Modi,
while revamping the party organisational structure.
How To Catch A Money Launderer (Asian Age, Harish Gupta, Feb 05, 2007)
After scrapping Fera, the government brought in the Prevention of
Money Laundering Act (PMLA), which, however, did not have any impact.
A Prattler’S Rattle (Asian Age, M.J. Akbar, Feb 05, 2007)
Deep into Dr Ashok Mitra’s new book, A Prattler’s Tale: Bengal,
Marxism and Governance (Samya, Rs 595), I began to feel a growing
sense of irritation.
Who Rules The Roost? (Hindustan Times, Editorial, HindustanTimes, Feb
05, 2007)
So much has already been written about how BJP chief Rajnath Singh cut
to size two of his senior colleagues, Arun Jaitley and Narendra Modi,
while revamping the party organisational structure.
Monopoly Claims Annoy Cpi(m) (The Economic Times, V KRISHNA ANANTH,
Feb 03, 2007)
The celebrations observing the 150th anniversary of the events of 1857
is now cause for some political debate in Delhi.
Narendra Modi Is Just Being ‘Rested’ (Tribune, Vijay Sanghvi, Feb 03,
2007)
While reconstituting the Central Parliamentary Board and the Central
Election Committee of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), its president
Rajnath Singh has dropped the Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi
from the top decision-making bodies of the party.
Walking On Thorns (Hindustan Times, Pankaj Vohra, Feb 03, 2007)
The spotlight will be on the BJP shortly, with its central leadership
likely to announce some important changes. The saffron party is
desperately trying to cope with unexpected developments, including the
decision of . . .
Hoisting The Saffron Flag (Hindustan Times, Editorial, HindustanTimes,
Feb 03, 2007)
Some of my best friends are Muslim. At the height of the American
struggle for racial equality it became a badge of honour for whites to
proclaim that some of their best friends were black.
Big Brother’S Dimming Shadow (Indian Express, Coomi Kapoor, Feb 03,
2007)
The question has intrigued all who have dealt with the BJP over a
quarter century. What is the exact nature of its relationship with the
RSS? Critics, especially the Left, tend to spot the ‘sinister hand’ of
the RSS behind every major move by the BJP.
Limited Hand (Telegraph, Editorial, The Telegraph, Feb 02, 2007)
It took Mr Rajnath Singh, the Bharatiya Janata Party president, nearly
13 months after his initial appointment to make a decision about his
team. When he finally did, after carefully avoiding various
inauspicious phases of the stars and planets, he . . .
The Two Modi(y)s Of Gujarat (Deccan Herald, Rajdeep Sardesai, Feb 02,
2007)
There are two Mr Modis I know in Gujarat, one spells his surname with
an 'i', the other with a 'y'. Mr Narendra Modi is a familiar household
name.
Rajnath's Task Cut Out (Pioneer, Kalyani Shankar, Feb 02, 2007)
The BJP president should rise above internal politics and make the
party a force to reckon with in the Assembly elections
Only By Akhand Bharat (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Feb
01, 2007)
The front page of the latest issue of Organiser is taken up by a
detailed report on the speech delivered by RSS general secretary Mohan
Bhagwat at Bhubaneshwar as part of the ongoing Golwalkar Birth
Centenary Celebrations.
Bangalore: Stoking Up Hatred (Dawn, PARVATHI MENON, Feb 01, 2007)
The recent incidents in Bangalore expose the hollowness of the Janata
Dal government's claims of principled adherence to secularism.
No Rajnath Stamp (Deccan Herald, Editorial, The Deccan Herald, Feb 01,
2007)
Much as the RSS leadership would have liked Rajnath Singh, its
handpicked nominee to head the BJP, to emerge out of the shadows of A
B Vajpayee and L K Advani, it became rather obvious this week that the
BJP is not yet ready for that.
Hoisting The Saffron Flag (Hindustan Times, Editorial, HindustanTimes,
Feb 01, 2007)
Some of my best friends are Muslim. At the height of the American
struggle for racial equality it became a badge of honour for whites to
proclaim that some of their best friends were black.
Walking On Thorns (Hindustan Times, Pankaj Vohra, Feb 01, 2007)
The spotlight will be on the BJP shortly, with its central leadership
likely to announce some important changes. The saffron party is
desperately trying to cope with unexpected developments, including the
decision of Uma Bharti’s newly-formed . . .
Rajnath Has His Team (Pioneer, Editorial, The Pioneer, Jan 31, 2007)
With his job confirmed at last December's National Council meeting in
Lucknow, BJP president Rajnath Singh has at last put together his own
team of office-bearers to assist him over the next three years.
Walking On Thorns (Hindustan Times, Editorial, HindustanTimes, Jan 31,
2007)
The spotlight will be on the BJP shortly, with its central leadership
likely to announce some important changes.
Hoisting The Saffron Flag (Hindustan Times, Gautam Bhatia, Jan 31,
2007)
Some of my best friends are Muslim. At the height of the American
struggle for racial equality it became a badge of honour for whites to
proclaim that some of their best friends were black.
Snakes And Ladders, Bjp-Style (Telegraph, Poornima Joshi, Jan 31,
2007)
Nobody in the BJP, least of all “Hindu hriday samrat” Narendra Modi,
had expected the relatively low-profile party president Rajnath Singh
to make the sweeping changes he did in the party structure.
Team Rajnath (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Jan 31, 2007)
Those searching for a larger message in BJP president Rajnath Singh’s
announcement of his new team are likely to find no more than this: the
inner-party jostling that xwas bared to public view after L.K.
Advani’s exit as party president has not . . .
Left Out In The Cold (Tribune, Editorial, The Tribune, Jan 31, 2007)
THE reshuffle Bharatiya Janata Party chief Rajnath Singh effected in
the decision-making bodies of the party would not have attracted much
attention but for his decision to drop Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra
Modi from the Parliamentary Board.
The Reshuffle In The Bjp And The Message (Hindu, NEENA VYAS , Jan 31,
2007)
The move is a clear signal that no leader, howsoever powerful, is
above the party.
Bjp Reshuffle Has Many Surprises (Pioneer, Rajeev Ranjan Roy, Jan 30,
2007)
The new team of Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh
declared on Monday saw the baptism of former Maharashtra deputy Chief
Minister Gopinath Munde and senior RSS Pracharak Ram Lal as general
secretaries.
Rajnath Singh Displays Insecurity, Removes Challengers From Team (The
Economic Times, Correspondent or Reporter, Jan 30, 2007)
Mr Rajnath Singh on Monday amplified his determination to persist with
old skirmishes and inner-party feuding when he denied a place for
perceived challengers Mr Narendra Modi in the BJP’s top decision-
making body Central Parliamentary Board and . . .
Modi Loses Top Bjp Posts (Hindu, Correspondent or Reporter, Jan 30,
2007)
RSS pracharak replaces Sanjay Joshi Advani will have one voice less
More work for Jaitley
Suspense Over Jaswant’S Resignation Letter To Vajpayee (Statesman,
Correspondent or Reporter, Jan 28, 2007)
The BJP’s inner circle here is abuzz with talks of possibility of a
new incumbent replacing the leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha,
Mr Jaswant Singh, before the next month’s Budget session of
Parliament.
Cabinet Nod For Eleventh Plan (Hindu, Correspondent or Reporter, Jan
25, 2007)
Kerala not to ban Gujarat Chief Minister's visit: Achuthanandan
Increase In M.P. Terrorist Activities, Says Congress (Hindu,
Correspondent or Reporter, Jan 25, 2007)
State Govt. criticised for trying to saffronise education `CDs
exhorting people to take to terrorism or fund the jehadis being
circulated' `High Court has said that Surya Namaskar cannot be made
compulsory for all'
Riot Slur (Tribune, Editorial, The Tribune, Jan 24, 2007)
Communal violence in any part of the country is condemnable, all the
more so in Bangalore, a reputed centre of cosmopolitan modernity.
1 Killed In Firing As Mob Goes On Rampage (Asian Age, Correspondent or
Reporter, Jan 22, 2007)
One person was killed and 19 others suffered serious injuries when the
police opened fire on a mob which indulged in arson, looting and
violence in East Bangalore on Sunday. Eight of the injured were
policemen.
Anti-Conversion Law Mooted (Deccan Herald, Correspondent or Reporter,
Jan 22, 2007)
A demand for a law against conversions and an appeal to Hindus to work
at bringing back those who have already left their fold figured
prominently at Viraat Hindu Samajothsavas ...
1 Dies In Firing (Statesman, Correspondent or Reporter, Jan 22, 2007)
One person was killed and three were wounded when police fired to
quell communal violence during a RSS function in Cantonment here
today, Bangalore city police commissioner Mr N Achut Rao said.
Shivajinagar and Bhartinagar, which was tense since . . .
Pros: Bjp’S Suitable Boys (Telegraph, Radhika Ramaseshan, Jan 22,
2007)
Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri’s name may not spring to mind as a bellwether
of Indian politics, yet his choice as the BJP candidate for
Uttarakhand chief minister underlines an increasingly obvious trend.
Violence Erupts In Bangalore, One Killed (Times of India,
Correspondent or Reporter, Jan 22, 2007)
At least three buses were set on fire and scores of vehicles damaged
in violence during a procession heading towards “Viraat Hindu
Samajotsav" here on Sunday.
State Polls Herald Change In India (Singapore Times, Correspondent or
Reporter, Jan 20, 2007)
Midway through the term of the United Progressive Alliance in power in
New Delhi, India will soon witness a series of elections to the
legislatures of Punjab and Uttarakhand in the North, Manipur in the
Northeast, and to municipal corporations . . .
Bjp Open To Non-Nda Tieup In Up, Says Rajnath (Asian Age,
Correspondent or Reporter, Jan 17, 2007)
The BJP is "open" to the idea of a tieup with "non-NDA" partners and
"regional outfits" in the crucial Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections,
the dates for which are expected to be announced soon.
Bjp Chastened (Hindustan Times, Correspondent or Reporter, Jan 11,
2007)
Six of the eleven MPs expelled after the cash-for-question sting
operation belonged to the BJP. And the party did not hide its
“dissent” when Parliament acted against them in December 2005.
Bjp’S Hindutva Won’T Find Political Support (Asian Age, Kuldip Nayar,
Jan 10, 2007)
The BJP is determined to resurrect the discarded ideology of Hindu
Rashtra. It had tried to do so earlier, and had failed.
http://www.whatisindia.com/issues/rssgroup/rssgroup_more_00002.html
Articles 321 through 420 of 500:
The Fight For India (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Jan
10, 2007)
In the latest issue of People’s Democracy, the CPM proclaims its
intention to highlight various aspects of the anti-imperialist
struggle going back to the freedom movement.
Goa Bjp Mla Is Now Back In Congress Fold (The Economic Times,
Correspondent or Reporter, Jan 09, 2007)
With Assembly elections scheduled to be held early this year, state
politics in Goa seems to be slipping into a phase of utter turmoil.
Terror Trail Rings Alarm Bells In State (Deccan Herald, Correspondent
or Reporter, Jan 09, 2007)
In the wake of reports that many terrorists, mainly of Kashmir origin
and trained in Pakistan, have landed in Bangalore, the government has
decided to upgrade the State Intelligence and the Anti-Terrorists
Squad.
Why Quota For Muslims? (New Indian Express, Swapan Dasgupta, Jan 08,
2007)
Those who have read William Dalrymple’s The Last Mughal, an evocative
reconstruction of the final days of the Timurid dynasty, would have
noticed something odd about the rag-tag court of Bahadur Shah Zafar:
the near-total absence of Hindus.
Gowda For Nda Alliance (Pioneer, Correspondent or Reporter, Jan 07,
2007)
Under attack from a section within the Janata Dal(S) for the party's
alliance with the BJP in Karnataka, former prime minister HD Deve
Gowda said he is ready for issue-based coordination with the NDA at
the central level.
Winds Of Hope In Up (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Jan
04, 2007)
The BJP’s good showing in the mayoral elections in UP has suddenly
changed the atmospherics not just in the party but also in the Sangh
Parivar and the pages of the Organiser reflect this new buoyancy.
The Die Is Caste (Pioneer, Prafull Goradia, Jan 03, 2007)
A consensus on caste that achieves Hindu consolidation is essential
for saving our civilisation, says Prafull Goradia.
Refuge In Hindutva (Frontline, Venkitesh Ramakrishnan, Jan 03, 2007)
At the Lucknow conclave, the BJP comes up with the most concrete
Hindutva formulation of recent times.
Looking To The Right (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Jan
03, 2007)
In a full-fledged response to the BJP’s national council and national
executive meetings recently in Lucknow, the CPM says that the BJP has
resurrected a right wing, communal platform, its highlights being
minority baiting, right wing economic . ..
Summing Up 2006 (Deccan Herald, Khushwant Singh, Dec 30, 2006)
It’s been a good year, arguably the best since we became an
Independent nation. We have never been as well-off as we are today.
Back To Basics (Tribune, Inder Malhotra, Dec 29, 2006)
NO one need be surprised by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s return to
hard Hindutva as its sheet anchor.
Bjp: Return To Temple Politics (Hindu, K. N. Panikkar, Dec 29, 2006)
The attempt to invoke the name of Ram will hardly work a second time.
Bjp Enlists Rss Support For Uttaranchal Polls (Hindu, Correspondent or
Reporter, Dec 29, 2006)
Three "pracharaks" from Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh "loaned" to BJP
Two Sad Centenaries (Deccan Herald, Amulya Ganguli, Dec 29, 2006)
The centenaries are remembered for the damage they are causing to the
national psyche.
Nexus Continues Between The Bjp And Mulayam (Tribune, Satish Misra,
Dec 27, 2006)
The principal opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is
yet to recover from its loss of power at the Centre in 2004, is aiming
to recapture Delhi’s throne in 2009.
Cry Goes Unheard (Deccan Herald, Editorial, The Deccan Herald, Dec 27,
2006)
No mainstream political party is better than the other when it comes
to protecting the common man’s rights.
Bjp Plays It Safe, Ducks Leadership Bouncers (The Economic Times,
DEVESH KUMAR, Dec 26, 2006)
The BJP’s national council which concluded in Lucknow on Sunday, will
be remembered for the steps taken by the party to remove the
“ideological confusion” that had come to grip it in the past few
years, and return to its aggressive Hindutva ways.
Old Tricks (Deccan Herald, Editorial, The Deccan Herald, Dec 26, 2006)
Hindutva is back in the BJP’s future agenda.
Back To Laboratories (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Dec
25, 2006)
With the American legislation enabling global nuclear cooperation with
India in place and a divisive Parliamentary debate on it behind us,
the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) must now dare to imagine a
forward-leaning agenda for itself.
Rss `Pracharaks' Will Be Inducted Into Important Positions In The Bjp
(Hindu, NEENA VYAS , Dec 24, 2006)
Constitution amended for primacy over legislature wings Party
president will get more powers Secretaries will have nothing to do
with government
Modern Times (Telegraph, RAMACHANDRA GUHA , Dec 23, 2006)
The nurturing of a somewhat democratic and mostly united India is a
miracle of modern times. No nation was born in more difficult
circumstances, or made out of less likely raw materials.
Kashmir: Blunders Of The Past (Frontline, A.G. NOORANI, Dec 22, 2006)
A volume of letters exchanged between Jawaharlal Nehru and Karan Singh
shows up the latter's parochial commitments.
Rss Chief Backs Bjp, Opposes N-Deal (Indian Express, Correspondent or
Reporter, Dec 20, 2006)
The RSS has put its weight behind BJP’s opposition to the Indo-US
nuclear deal “which compromises on India’s strategic interests and
casts a shadow over its independent foreign policy positions”.
We Have A Very Bitter Experience Of Alliances In Uttar Pradesh. We
Will Not Support Any Other Party’ (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian
Express, Dec 18, 2006)
Rajnath Singh, a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, is the
president of a party that’s out of power and going through the
difficult paces of readying for an Assembly election in his home state
next year and the general election in two and a . . .
Bjp’S Tale Of Two Leaders And Their Foundering Party (Indian Express,
Tavleen Singh, Dec 17, 2006)
The latest hullabaloo in the highest echelons of the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) certifies for those who may still have doubts that the
party’s two aged leaders will hammer the last nail into the coffin of
Hindutva before they . . .
Commitment To Ideology Key To Credibility: Bjp Chief (Pioneer,
Correspondent or Reporter, Dec 16, 2006)
Ahead of the ratification of his re-election to the post, BJP chief
Rajnath Singh has said the party's commitment to ideology is key to
its credibility and there should not be any deviation from it for vote
politics.
The Singur Saga (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Dec 14,
2006)
Two front page articles in the latest issue of Organiser focus on the
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government’s alleged ‘Singur landgrab plot’.
'My Highest Moment Is... When Vajpayee Became Pm' (Pioneer, Editorial,
The Pioneer, Dec 13, 2006)
The following is the full transcript of Mr LK Advani's interview,
telecast by CNN-IBN on Monday evening:
Bjp Mum Over "Prime Minister" Advani (Hindu, NEENA VYAS , Dec 12,
2006)
Party leaders surprised at his dragging Vajpayee's name into the
controversy 2009 elections far away, say party leaders Statement not
expected at this point: Ram Madhav
Bjp Maintains Silence On Advani Remarks (Hindu, NEENA VYAS , Dec 12,
2006)
Party leaders surprised at his dragging Vajpayee's name into the
controversy 2009 elections far away, say party leaders Statement not
expected at this point: Ram Madhav.
Special Article (Statesman, Sumer Kaul, Dec 09, 2006)
Is the socially divisive reservation genie going to graduate from
caste to religion?
Indian Identity (Statesman, Editorial, Statesman, Dec 09, 2006)
Is the socially divisive reservation genie going to graduate from
caste to religion?
Bjp To Back Kalam Again For Rashtrapati Bhavan (Indian Express,
Correspondent or Reporter, Dec 03, 2006)
The presidential election may be a good seven months away, but the BJP
is already pitching in for incumbent A P J Abdul Kalam.
Rajnath Again (Tribune, Editorial, The Tribune, Nov 29, 2006)
The election of Mr Rajnath Singh as President of the BJP for a full
term of three years was a foregone conclusion.
Rudderless Leaders (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Nov 28,
2006)
Rajnath Singh’s election as BJP president for a full three-year term
was unsurprising.
Rajnath In Poll Saddle (Telegraph, Correspondent or Reporter, Nov 27,
2006)
The BJP today re-elected Rajnath Singh as its president for a full
three-year term, signalling the RSS favourite would lead the party in
the crucial Uttar Pradesh polls as well as the next general election.
The Guru Of Hate (Hindu, RAMACHANDRA GUHA , Nov 27, 2006)
Golwalkar's book disparages democracy as alien to the Hindu ethos and
extols the code of Manu...
Dalit Blood On Village Square (Frontline, LYLA BAVADAM, Nov 25, 2006)
The murder of four Dalits in Khairlanji village illustrate that
casteism still flourishes in Maharashtra.
Bjp Strategising For Up Polls (Pioneer, Rajeev Ranjan Roy, Nov 24,
2006)
In view of the forthcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to coronate Rajnath Singh as
the party president in Lucknow where the National Council and
Executive Committee would meet on December 22-24.
Victims Of Terror (Times of India, Jyoti Punwani, Nov 22, 2006)
With Malegaon also being attributed to Muslims, the alienation is
complete. Initial fears of a communal backlash to the July 11 bomb
blasts in Mumbai quickly disappeared as the media flashed images of
Muslims helping out feverishly at blast sites . . .
Future Of The Right Wing, There And Over Here (Hindu, Harish Khare ,
Nov 22, 2006)
The political change in America has relevance in India. For, the BJP
and the rest of the sangh parivar have long sought intellectual
respectability and political inspiration from the American right
wing.
Visitor From Nepal (Pioneer, Editorial, The Pioneer, Nov 21, 2006)
By design or otherwise, this past week's triumphalist visit to Delhi
by Mr Prachanda, the chief of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) or
CPN(M), and his deputy, Mr Baburam Bhattarai, became an astonishing
display of contradictory signals.
Hope Blooms (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Nov 16, 2006)
Sounding as joyful as that old jingle ‘Happy days are here again¿’ the
latest issue of Organiser exults over the BJP’s results in the UP
civic polls and victories in the Bihar and Madhya Pradesh
byelections.
Blair Calls For New Focus On Israeli- Palestinian Conflict (Christian
Science Monitor, Correspondent or Reporter, Nov 15, 2006)
In a major policy speech Monday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair
called for renewed effort on finding a solution to the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict, which he called the "core" to a wider peace in
the Middle East.
More Charges Against B2 Bomber Designer Accused Of Spying (Christian
Science Monitor, Correspondent or Reporter, Nov 14, 2006)
Noshir Gowadia, one of the lead engineers on the US B2 stealth bomber
project, has been charged with additional counts of spying in an
indictment returned by a grand jury last week.
Encounter With A “Terrorist” (Tribune, Editorial, The Tribune, Nov 14,
2006)
It was a rainy, chilly winter night in January, 1989. Terrorism was at
its peak in Punjab and whole of north India was under the grip of fear
due to terror-related incidents at the behest of Punjab terrorists.
No Reason To Ban Women From Sabarimala: Rss (Indian Express,
Correspondent or Reporter, Nov 13, 2006)
Controversy over the ban on entry of women into Kerala’s Sabarimala
temple still fresh, the RSS has joined issue and lend its voice for
opening up the shrine to any woman who wanted to visit the celibate
god.
Truce With Israel Over, Says Hamas Head After Beit Hanoun Deaths
(Christian Science Monitor, Correspondent or Reporter, Nov 10, 2006)
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Thursday he was "very
distressed" about a pre-dawn Israeli artillery attack that killed 18
civilians, mostly women and children, in the Gaza village of Beit
Hanoun Wednesday.
No Pointers To Abortion Ruling (Washington Post, Correspondent or
Reporter, Nov 09, 2006)
Two hours of oral argument on a federal "partial birth" abortion ban
at the Supreme Court yesterday showed that the justices are intensely
focused on the procedure's medical details and health implications --
but produced few clues as to how they . . .
Up For Grabs (Times of India, Editorial, The Times of India, Nov 09,
2006)
Billed as a semi-final to the assembly elections some time early next
year, the civic polls in UP have indicated that the ruling Samajwadi
Party is on a sticky wicket.
Indian Is As Indian Does (Hindustan Times, Sujata Anandan, Nov 08,
2006)
When I first set course on my career as a political correspondent with
a wire service, the chief reporter at the agency gave me a piece of
advice which I then could not quite fathom.
Swamy Shares Dais With Bjp Man (Asian Age, Correspondent or Reporter,
Nov 07, 2006)
Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy on Monday shared the platform
with BJP spokesperson Prakash Jawadekar at the Jawarharlal Nehru
University campus to address a gathering of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi
Parishad (ABVP).
‘In Up, The Scene Is Changing In Favour Of The Bjp’ (Deccan Herald,
Editorial, The Deccan Herald, Nov 06, 2006)
The cautious BJP veteran Rajnath Singh, who is bracing up for the
crucial polls in Uttar Pradesh, spoke to Deepak K Upreti of Deccan
Herald on a number of controversial issues, including the induction of
RSS pracharaks into the party.
Cong Backs Pm On Minority Jobs, But Steers Clear Of Quota (The
Economic Times, Correspondent or Reporter, Nov 04, 2006)
The Congress on Friday backed the prime minister’s call for a ‘fair
share’ of jobs for minorities in government offices and private
sector, but steered clear of the issue of a separate quota for
Muslims.
Doctor Needles (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Nov 03,
2006)
PM’s uncharacteristic political barb is proof how much the BJP needs
to rediscover itself
Us Accuses Syria, Iran, And Hizbullah Of Plot To Topple Lebanon
(Christian Science Monitor, Correspondent or Reporter, Nov 03, 2006)
The Bush administration has accused the governments of Syria and Iran,
as well as the militant Lebanese group Hizbullah, of plotting to
overthrow the elected government of Lebanon.
Tony Blair Narrowly Avoids New British Inquiry Into Iraq War
(Christian Science Monitor, Correspondent or Reporter, Nov 02, 2006)
Just a week before the US public votes in elections seen by many as a
referendum on the Iraq war, Britain's Labour government narrowly won
its own referendum in the House of Commons, voting down a call for an
"immediate investigation" into the war.
British To Evacuate Basra Consulate Staff (Christian Science Monitor,
Correspondent or Reporter, Oct 31, 2006)
The British consulate in Basra, in the south of Iraq, will evacuate
all but a skeleton staff from "its heavily defended building" within
the next 24 hours over safety concerns.
When News Value Overrides Reader Sensitivities (Hindu, Editorial, The
Hindu, Oct 30, 2006)
Has the publication of visuals come under your scanner at any point of
time after your taking over as the Readers' Editor, asked Vasudevan
Sundaram of Secunderabad a few months ago. It has, and it continues
to.
Us Now Ranks 53rd In World Press Freedom (Christian Science Monitor,
Correspondent or Reporter, Oct 28, 2006)
The news media advocacy organization Reporters Without Borders
released their fifth annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index this week,
and it shows that the United States has dropped 9 places since last
year, and is now ranked 53rd, alongside . . .
Poetic Justice For Modi (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express,
Oct 26, 2006)
The Gujarat High Court’s dismissal of the U.C. Banerjee Committee —
set up by the union railway ministry to probe the fire on the S-6
coach on the Sabarmati Express at Godhra on February 27, 2002 — as
illegal is cause for much joy in the Organiser . . .
Rss In Civil Service (Frontline, A.G. NOORANI, Oct 26, 2006)
The Madhya Pradesh government's removing the ban on RSS membership for
its employees violates the Constitution.
Salad Bowl, Not Melting Pot (Deccan Herald, Amulya Ganguli, Oct 23,
2006)
The point of multiculturalism is that whether one approves of it or
not, there is no alternative.
Meet And Greet (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Oct 23,
2006)
Diwali and Id are the time when most Indians meet and greet their
neighbours.
Emerging Global Power (Hindu, Harish Khare , Oct 17, 2006)
Paradoxes of a country undergoing transformation that will affect the
rest of the world
Wilting Lotus (Tribune, Amulya Ganguli, Oct 17, 2006)
If Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee reminded the BJP during its recent conclave
about the wisdom and experience of its senior leaders, the reason was
apparently the restiveness in the party on the leadership question.
Rss Stands Willing To Strike But Is Afraid To Hurt (Deccan Herald,
Deepak Upreti, Oct 17, 2006)
The RSS is willing to strike but afraid to hurt. Barring the ‘forced
exit’ of L K Advani from the post of Party President last year, not
much seemed to have moved in the BJP on the lines prescribed by the
Nagpur outfit.
Mangalore On Slow Boil (Indian Express, JOHNSON T A, Oct 17, 2006)
The prosperous Karnataka coastal district of Mangalore — generally
referred to as a place where there’s a ready smile on every face — has
a few scars to show for the communal tension that lurks below the
surface of life in the district.
Ideological Bankruptcy (Pioneer, Ajoy Bose, Oct 16, 2006)
Using a 30-year-old slogan to win votes shows the Congress is going
backward, not forward,says Ajoy Bose
Hindutva Dishonesty Is Exposed (Deccan Herald, Ramakrishna Upadhya,
Oct 14, 2006)
The proponents of Hindutva, more specifically, the Sangh Parivar
followers, are generally peeved that the mainline media distrusts
them, and that their activities mostly attract negative publicity.
Stranger’S Tales (Telegraph, Sunanda K. Datta-Ray, Oct 13, 2006)
Reading this engaging book brought to mind Graham Greene’s comment
that if he wanted to be understood or understand, he would have
bamboozled himself into belief.
Afzal And Human Rights ‘Perverts’ (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian
Express, Oct 12, 2006)
The Organiser is in a paroxysm of rage over the demands for clemency
for Mohammad Afzal, sentenced to death in the Parliament attack case.
Take Afzal To Gallows Or Take Back Ashok Chakra’ (Statesman,
Correspondent or Reporter, Oct 11, 2006)
The widow of an assistant security officer killed when Parliament came
under a terrorist attack threatened to return the Ashok Chakra he had
received posthumously if Afzal Guru was allowed clemency.
Menon & The Marxists (Statesman, Editorial, Statesman, Oct 11, 2006)
New Foreign Secretary starts on the wrong foot
Savarkar ‘Fan’ Advani Says Gandhi Impressed Indians Most (Daily
Excelsior, Correspondent or Reporter, Oct 09, 2006)
Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda were the two people born in 19th
century who impressed Indians the most, senior BJP leader L K Advani
today said.
Bjp, Sad Try To Work Out Seat-Sharing (Asian Age, Correspondent or
Reporter, Oct 09, 2006)
Top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the RSS and the Shirmoni
Akali Dal met at a Sikh religious event in the capital on Saturday
evening, even as they are still trying to work out seat sharing for
the forthcoming Assembly polls scheduled for . . .
Gandhi Vs Gandhi (Indian Express, Manini Chatterjee, Oct 09, 2006)
Both are poignant Prince Charmings of sorts, their lives laced with
early tragedy and redolent with future promise, sharing the most
famous surname — and a legacy to match — in the politics of this
country.
Politics And Postures In The Heartland (Indian Express, Pradeep
Kaushal, Oct 03, 2006)
Madhya Pradesh Governor Balram Jakhar used an apt phrase to
characterise the Madhya Pradesh government’s lifting of the ban on
government employees joining the RSS.
Bjp Justifies Death For Afzal (Tribune, Correspondent or Reporter, Sep
30, 2006)
Justifying the capital punishment awarded to Mohammad Afzal Guru in
the Parliament attack case, the BJP today demanded that the Congress-
led UPA government should make its stand clear on calls in Jammu and
Kashmir for pardon to the convict.
More Than Friends (Indian Express, Rajeev Shukla, Sep 30, 2006)
Mulayam Singh Yadav owes the public an explanation over his growing
intimacy with George Fernandes.
http://www.whatisindia.com/issues/rssgroup/rssgroup_more_00003.html
Articles 421 through 520 of 500:
Sonia To Kalam: Don’T Let Mp Allow Staff To Join Rss (Indian Express,
Correspondent or Reporter, Sep 29, 2006)
Congress president Sonia Gandhi today petitioned President A P J Abdul
Kalam against the move by Madhya Pradesh government to let its
employees take part in RSS activities. Seeking Kalam’s intervention,
she sought reversal of the order.
Cong Seeks Kalam's Intervention On Mp Allowing Govt Staff . . .
(Pioneer, Correspondent or Reporter, Sep 29, 2006)
Once again raising the boggy of communal poralisation against its
principal opposition the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress on
Thursday sought the President's intervention against Madhya Pradesh
Government's move to allow its employees to take . . .
A Litmus Test Of Impartiality (Frontline, Praful Bidwai, Sep 28, 2006)
Fairness of the investigations into the Malegaon blasts will decide
whether the Indian state can re-establish its secular credentials and
win Muslim hearts.
Manmohan Bin Tughlaq (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Sep
28, 2006)
In a detailed article headlined ‘Capitulation! Manmohan as Mohammad
bin Tughlaq’, Organiser’s foreign affairs expert M.D. Nalapat launches
a no-holds-barred attack against the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi
for allegedly surrendering India’s . . .
Is The Bjp Out Of ‘Bad Patch'? (Daily Excelsior, Sunil Gatade, Sep 24,
2006)
Ahead of the Assembly elections in four states, especially Uttar
Pradesh, the question being asked in political circles is whether the
BJP is out of the bad patch ?
Praying To Be Secular (Indian Express, Pradeep Kaushal, Sep 24, 2006)
Vasundhara Raje’s handling of the Haj House issue has upset the Sangh;
it’s the dilemma she faces in trying to woo all communities.
Cooking Up An Identity Crisis (Hindustan Times, Editorial,
HindustanTimes, Sep 24, 2006)
Give them a loophole and they will, to mix metaphors, take a mile. The
passing of the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Bill, 2006,
earlier this week, is a consequence of loophole- hunters within the
state’s ruling party deciding to play . . .
Who Is Terrorising Pak?’ (Hindustan Times, Correspondent or Reporter,
Sep 24, 2006)
BJP Leader AB Vajpayee has termed the Indo-Pakistan joint statement in
Havana a “conspiracy” against the country.
Cooking Up An Identity Crisis (Hindustan Times, Editorial,
HindustanTimes, Sep 23, 2006)
Give them a loophole and they will, to mix metaphors, take a mile. The
passing of the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Bill, 2006,
earlier this week, is a consequence of loophole- hunters within the
state’s ruling party deciding to play . . .
Reckless Breeding Must Stop (Deccan Herald, Khushwant Singh, Sep 23,
2006)
There must be times when you get seriously worried over the state of
affairs in our country and think, if you could help in changing them
for the better, what would you do? I think it is the duty of every
citizen to ponder over questions like why . . .
Praying To Be Secular (Indian Express, Pradeep Kaushal, Sep 23, 2006)
Ever since she became CM Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje seemed to be in
constant communication with the Gods. Every time the state needed a
divine intervention to end human misery, she was at the doorstep of
some temple or the other making a public . . .
Congress Turns Ram's Votary (Pioneer, Anuradha Dutt, Sep 22, 2006)
No single party or religious group can decide the Ayodhya issue on its
own and the Congress needs to understand this, says Anuradha Dutt
Coalition Dharma In Karnataka (Hindu, PARVATHI MENON, Sep 22, 2006)
What is it that cements the alliance between the Janata Dal (Secular)
and the BJP?
Minority Panel Slams Gujarat Conversion Act (Indian Express, Jayanth
Jacob, Sep 21, 2006)
The National Commission for Minorities has decided to write to the
Gujarat Government to rectify the “mistake” of including Buddhists
among Hindus in the controversial Gujarat Freedom of Religion
(Amendment) Bill 2006, which the state assembly . . .
Pm’S ‘Please Pak’ Move Wrong (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian
Express, Sep 21, 2006)
The editorial in the latest issue of Organiser sharply attacks the
latest turn in the tortuous India-Pakistan peace process following the
Manmohan-Musharraf Havana talks last week.
Nightmare Of Kubla Khan (Pioneer, Editorial, The Pioneer, Sep 21,
2006)
The India Islamic Culture Centre is nothing more than a symbol of
cynical opportunism
Gujarat Faces Ncm Fire On Law (Asian Age, Correspondent or Reporter,
Sep 21, 2006)
The National Commission of Minorities feels that the amendment brought
by the Gujarat government in the Freedom of Religion Act is in
contravention to the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992 by
implication so the NCM has urged the state . . .
Needless Quibble (Deccan Herald, Editorial, The Deccan Herald, Sep 21,
2006)
A wrong way to look at Tipu and history.
Conversions The Real Threat: Rss Chief (Hindu, Correspondent or
Reporter, Sep 19, 2006)
Religious conversions are the real threat in India, K.S. Sudarshan,
Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh leader, said here on Monday. He said an
invisible and silent attack was being made against Hindus to weaken
the community from inside.
Reasons For Alienation (Deccan Herald, Amulya Ganguli, Sep 19, 2006)
The efforts of the BJP to divide India on communal lines has been a
failure. A fe w Muslim youth may be misled.
Injustice In Kerala (Pioneer, Editorial, The Pioneer, Sep 19, 2006)
Candles won't be lit for Kim Karunakaran, Sujith and Anu.
Geographically, they were murdered in the wrong place. Unlike
Priyadarshani Mattoo or Jessica Lall, they were not residents of Delhi
commanding the power of national media coverage.
Ec Clean-Up For Up Begins (Indian Express, Correspondent or Reporter,
Sep 18, 2006)
Ahead of Assembly elections in May next year, the Election Commission
has begun the process of tidying up the Uttar Pradesh electoral
rolls.
Mp Cong Goes Ballistic, Equates Rss With Simi (Pioneer, Correspondent
or Reporter, Sep 18, 2006)
Madhya Pradesh Congress president Subhash Yadav on Sunday sought to
hog headlines by equating the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) with
Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) that had been banned by the
UPA Government.
Winds Of Mid-Term Polls Blowing Again (Daily Excelsior, Sunil Gatade,
Sep 18, 2006)
The going seems to be good for the Congress despite the not so good
showing of the UPA coalition at the Centre and the party has reasons
to be on cloud nine.
The New Govt Will Complete Its Full Term (Deccan Herald, Editorial,
The Deccan Herald, Sep 17, 2006)
The UPA knows how to handle bureaucrats. My government will listen to
the grievances of common people, not thekedars." Madhu Koda,
Jharkhand’s CM designate
India Moving Forward `On A Remarkably Stable Trajectory' (Business
Line, D. Murali , Sep 16, 2006)
Edward Luce's book In Spite of the Gods takes one on a quick ride
across an India characterised as much by a `schizophrenic economy' and
shrewd businessmen as by vedantic detachment and Gandhiji's legacy. D.
MURALI recommends this meandering read.
Bhopal Lifts Ban On Babus In Shakhas (Telegraph, RASHEED KIDWAI, Sep
15, 2006)
Government employees in Madhya Pradesh will henceforth be able to
attend RSS shakhas and participate in their activities.
Mp’S Bjp Govt Lets Its Staff Attend Rss Meets, Cong Says Wait
Till . . . (Indian Express, Milind Ghatwai, Sep 15, 2006)
The BJP government in Madhya Pradesh has formally cleared its
employees to take part in the activities of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh, saying that the RSS is a socio-cultural organization and not a
political entity. In doing so, it has only . . .
Moving Up The Ranks, Koda Becomes Jharkhand Cm (New Indian Express,
Correspondent or Reporter, Sep 15, 2006)
Patahatu village of Jharkhand is in the spotlight now and it does not
take long to find out why. This village surrounded by the iron ore
mines of Gua amid the green canopy of Saranda, Asia's largest sal
forest, has got its 'Sanghi', Madhu Koda.
Munda Skips Test, Quits (Tribune, Ambarish Dutta, Sep 15, 2006)
Chief Minister Arjun Munda tendered his resignation marking a pre-
mature exit of the 18-month-old NDA government in Jharkhand after
failing to muster the required numbers to prove majority in the
Assembly today.
Defending Abvp (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Sep 14,
2006)
The BJP leadership may have ticked off MP CM Shivraj Chouhan for
mishandling the Ujjain students’ agitation that led to the death of
Prof. H.S. Sabharwal but the RSS is firmly backing ABVP, the Sangh’s
student wing .
Nun Séance (Pioneer, Editorial, The Pioneer, Sep 13, 2006)
In a city where university and college politics are defined by
violence, Lucknow's better-known schools have been oases of relative
peace.
Munda Govt Teeters On The Bring (Daily Excelsior, Ravindra Shukla, Sep
12, 2006)
The political crisis in Jharkhand depended with Opposition MLAs
regrouping in New Delhi to demonstrate their strength before staking
claim to majority support in the State Assembly.
Probe Into Indian Bombings Evades Evidence Of Hindu Involvement (Daily
Times, Iftikhar Gilani, Sep 12, 2006)
While the intelligence agencies are once again suspecting outlawed
Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), atleast three senior Indian
ministers have shown discontent at the investigations of the Malegaon
bombing.
Sept 7 Not Vande Mataram Centenary, (Tribune, Correspondent or
Reporter, Sep 11, 2006)
Admitting that a mistake had been made in fixing September 7 as the
date of commemorative function on Vande Mataram, the Congress today
criticised the BJP for its attempts to derive political mileage from
the controversy over government circular on . . .
Upa Soft On Terrorism: Bjp (Daily Excelsior, Correspondent or
Reporter, Sep 10, 2006)
With the Malegaon blasts sending shockwaves across the country, the
BJP today sought to put the ruling UPA in the dock accusing the
Congress-led coalition of being soft on terrorism due to its votebank
politics and appeasement tactics.
Let Wanted To Kill Vajpayee, Advani (Times of India, Correspondent or
Reporter, Sep 08, 2006)
Two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists arrested in connection with the
IISc attack have revealed during a narco-analysis test that they had
planned to attack Vidhana Soudha, Hewlett-Packard (HP) buildings, a
mosque and the RSS building on HAL Road.
Bjp Waiting For Spring (Deccan Herald, Deepak K Upreti, Sep 08, 2006)
The Bharatiya Janata Party is yet to discover a strong Central leader
since losing power.
Vidhana Soudha On Lashkar Radar (Deccan Herald, Correspondent or
Reporter, Sep 08, 2006)
Two Lashkar-e-Toiba men, arrested by the City police following an
attack on IISc Bangalore in December 2005, have revealed during narco-
analysis tests that they had planned attacks on vital installations
such as the Vidhana Soudha, offices of . . .
Cpi For Backing Jan Dal, Cpm Not Quite Enthused (Indian Express,
Correspondent or Reporter, Sep 07, 2006)
Differences over the electoral strategy for next year’s Assembly polls
in Uttar Pradesh kept Left parties from reaching an agreement on
alliances.
Wither Nda? (Deccan Herald, Editorial, The Deccan Herald, Sep 06,
2006)
The Hindutva party is now looking at strengthening its position vis-a-
vis the BJP.
Sangh Parivar Patriarch Takes Rss, Bjp To Task (The Economic Times,
Correspondent or Reporter, Sep 02, 2006)
In yet another indication that all is not well with the BJP, or, for
that matter, its paterfamilias, the RSS, leading social worker and
former Rajya Sabha member Nanaji Deshmukh has criticised the two
organisations for straying from their path.
Pinch Of Saffron (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Sep 01,
2006)
The report by a high-level BJP panel set up to probe the party’s
defeat in a Thiruvananthapuram bypoll freeze frames the petrol pump
scam. But that’s not the most striking part of this story anymore.
Battle Of The Bahus (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Aug
31, 2006)
The lead story in the latest issue of Organiser, titled “Sonia’s
vendetta on Maneka’’, gives a detailed account on the CBI’s “witch-
hunt’’ against the BJP MP over the release of funds to a couple of
NGOs in Pilibhit when Maneka Gandhi was the social . . .
Atal Blows Sangh Trumpet (Telegraph, Correspondent or Reporter, Aug
28, 2006)
Who is responsible for India becoming a nuclear power? Who ended the
“licence quota raj”? Who annexed Kashmir to India? The Jan Sangh and
the RSS, if A.B. Vajpayee is to be believed.
Atal: We Made India N-Power To Reckon With (Pioneer, Rajeev Ranjan
Roy, Aug 28, 2006)
Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Leader of Opposition LK
Advani on Sunday said the six-year rule by the BJP-led NDA Government
had not only successfully heralded the era of coalition politics in
India but also made India a nuclear power.
N-Credit To Bipolar Politics (Indian Express, Pradeep Kaushal, Aug 28,
2006)
The release of two special issues of RSS monthly Rashtradharm —
focussing on the BJP and the Jana Sangh — turned into an occasion for
two veteran swayamsewaks, former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Leader of
Opposition in the Lok Sabha . . .
A Non-Existent State (Hindustan Times, Correspondent or Reporter, Aug
26, 2006)
This is apropos of In a world of its own (August 19).
Adults Like It, You Know (Hindustan Times, Editorial, HindustanTimes,
Aug 25, 2006)
In the gigantic crèche that is India, adult content in television
channels has always created a flutter among those wracked with
Freudian neuroses.
Terrorism After Babri Demolition: Mulayam (Hindu, Atiq Khan, Aug 24,
2006)
Targeting Muslims and attacking madarsas as centres of "ISI
activities" would weaken the country: CM.
Organised Riots & Structured Violence In India (Hindu, Editorial, The
Hindu, Aug 23, 2006)
What are called Hindu-Muslim riots in India are, in fact, more like
pogroms, and have recently, in Gujarat and elsewhere, taken the form
of genocidal massacres and local ethnic cleansing as well.
Dull Dogma Doesn’T A Syllabus Make (Indian Express, Pratap Bhanu
Mehta, Aug 22, 2006)
It would be a shame if the parliamentary furore over NCERT textbooks
provides yet another occasion for a display of anti-intellectualism
and partisan crossfire.
Religion As Currency (Pioneer, Sandhya Jain, Aug 22, 2006)
Archbishop Mar Varkey Vithayathil recently startled India's
intellectual elite with his call for more babies to arrest the decline
of Kerala's Catholic community.
Bjp's Existential Crisis (Daily Excelsior, Kedar Nath Pandey, Aug 18,
2006)
The old horse of the BJP, L.K. Advani, is once again jockeying for the
presidentship of the party as the term of the present incumbent Mr.
Rajnath Singh will expire in November.
Advani Sole Bjp Leader In Rss Film On Hindutva, Akhand Bharat (Daily
Excelsior, Correspondent or Reporter, Aug 17, 2006)
Barely seven months after he quit as BJP president over a row with the
sangh for his comments on Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah,
party leader L K Advani has appeared as a commentator in a film on
core RSS ideology of Hindutva and Akhand Bharat.
Advani Keen To Return As Bjp Chief (Statesman, Dipankar Chakraborty,
Aug 13, 2006)
Currently cooling his heels in the party, with little or no direct
role in the organisational decision-making process, Mr LK Advani is
keen to make a comeback as the BJP president at the party’s scheduled
election to the top post in November.
Hyderabad Now On Lashkar Radar, Warns Intelligence (Deccan Herald,
Correspondent or Reporter, Aug 12, 2006)
After Mumbai, it’s Hyderabad’s turn to come under the terror scanner.
Kudos For Karat (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian Express, Aug 10,
2006)
A rather unexpected recipient of some praise — albeit left-handed — in
the pages of Organiser is CPM general secretary Prakash Karat. It
appears in a long article on the government’s “total isolation” over
the nuclear deal issue.
Will Pakistan Ever Stop Its Terror Tap? (Daily Excelsior, J N Raina,
Aug 09, 2006)
Pakistan stands fully exposed. It has flaunted its insidious role of
sponsoring genocide of common people in India.
Ideology And Confusion (Statesman, DIPAK BASU, Aug 08, 2006)
Hinduism and India’s cultural heritage now have to contend with two
major adversaries, apart from its traditional enemies such as the
Islamic warriors and Christian missionaries.
Why We Need To Be On Our Toes (Daily Excelsior, Editorial, Daily
Excelsior, Aug 04, 2006)
On an average the terrorists inflict two heart-rending tragedies in
the country every month.
Jaswant Faces Privilege Notice (Statesman, Correspondent or Reporter,
Aug 03, 2006)
A day after being pilloried and savaged by an aggressive Prime
Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and his Congress colleagues in the Rajya
Sabha over his inability to identify the “mole” in the Narasimha Rao
PMO, the senior BJP leader, Mr Jaswant . . .
A Reporter Remembers The Babri Demolition (Tribune, Satish Misra, Aug
02, 2006)
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Lal Krishan Advani has again
come under the scanner on account of a book by the former Police Chief
of Faizabad district, D B Rai, who has stated in his book ‘Ayodhya Ka
Sach’ that Mr Advani had addressed . . .
A Leadership Vacuum (New Indian Express, Swapan Dasgupta, Jul 31,
2006)
Here are some moments in the life of a nation when people eschew
individualism and look for leadership.
The Mole And The Fox (Indian Express, Shekhar Gupta, Jul 30, 2006)
Did someone in Rao’s PMO leak nuclear secrets to the US? Or were
Americans told what Rao wanted them to hear?
The Mole And The Fox (Indian Express, Shekhar Gupta, Jul 29, 2006)
Be it New Delhi or New York, I am no early riser. So it is never
welcome when the phone rings at 6 am, as it did at Manhattan’s (then)
Taj Group Lexington Hotel in the fall of 1997.
Lashkar’S Mumbai Chief Walked Out Of Home 5 Yrs Ago, Family Clueless
(Indian Express, Correspondent or Reporter, Jul 29, 2006)
Police are yet to pin down the role of alleged Mumbai LeT chief Faizal
Ataur Rehman Sheikh (30) in the serial blasts of Terrible Tuesday, but
a bizarre coincidence has added another twist to the case—the chairman
of the housing society where . . .
Cops Arrest Mumbai Lashkar Chief, He’S ‘Brother’ Of Bangalore Techie
(Indian Express, Correspondent or Reporter, Jul 28, 2006)
The Anti-Terrorist Squad tonight arrested Faizal Atur Rehman Sheikh
(27), who Crime Branch officials say heads the Lashkar-e-Toiba’s
Mumbai operations. ATS officers are now investigating how involved he
is in the serial blasts of Terrible Tuesday.
Bjp Leader Contests Advani’S Deposition (Tribune, Correspondent or
Reporter, Jul 28, 2006)
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani’s woes appear to
know no end as another party colleague D.B. Rai, former Faizabad
district police chief, has challenged the former’s deposition before
the Liberhan Commission.
Protestations Of The Credulous (Pioneer, Balbir K Punj, Jul 28, 2006)
It might appear preposterous to the rest of the country, but two
Ministers from the Congress, a CPI(M) top brass and one Muslim maulana
distinguished themselves by offering alternate theories on 7/11.
Uproar Over Simi, Rss Comparison (Tribune, Correspondent or Reporter,
Jul 27, 2006)
There was commotion in the Rajya Sabha again this evening leading to
adjournment for the day as agitated BJP members trooped into the well
of the House objecting to Samajawadi Party member Janeswar Misra’s
remarks on the banned organisation SIMI . . .
On Our List, Gujarat Cops Who Didn’T Act: Terror Suspect (Indian
Express, Stavan Desai, Jul 27, 2006)
Sohail Md Sheikh, a Pune-based Lashkar-e-Toiba suspect who was
arrested yesterday, has told police that his module had been
instructed to draw up a list of Gujarat policemen “who didn’t react
sufficiently” during the 2002 riots, sources in the . . .
More On ‘That Shameful Chapter’ (Indian Express, Editorial, Indian
Express, Jul 27, 2006)
The Organiser’s editorial this week, just as last week, is on the
challenge posed by terrorism to the country. But while the UPA
government’s ‘‘soft line’’ continues to be targeted, the editorial
subtly attacks the BJP leadership as well.
Indian In Coma In Lebanon Hospital (Asian Age, Correspondent or
Reporter, Jul 26, 2006)
Tanveer Ansari, arrested in connection with the serial bomb blasts of
July 11 in Mumbai, is suspected to have been involved in the
conspiracy to attack the headquarters of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(RSS) in Nagpur. Ansari may be brought to the . . .
Jaw-Jaw Better Than War-War (Deccan Herald, Kuldip Nayar, Jul 26,
2006)
I am somewhat worried by the lack of out-of-box thinking within the
Indian and Pakistani media.
Mulayam Exploring All Options (Tribune, SURENDRA MOHAN, Jul 26, 2006)
The National President of the Samajwadi Party and Chief Minister of
UP, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, will have to face a tough general election
for the State Assembly early next year.
Terror Accused Mahdani Most Valuable Ally For Left, Cong (Indian
Express, RAJEEV P I, Jul 25, 2006)
If the DMK government in Tamil Nadu is arranging for 1998 Coimbatore
blast accused Abdul Nasser Mahdani’s Ayurvedic massages, the Left and
the Congress in Kerala have been doing the stretching—prostrate at his
feet.
How Vulnerable Is Coimbatore To Terror Attacks? (New Indian Express,
Correspondent or Reporter, Jul 24, 2006)
The arrest of five persons on charges that they have conspired to
plant explosives in several places in the city including the
Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) on Saturday and the seizure
of explosives, some documents etc., from them has . . .
Good Hindus Are Present In All Political Parties: Rss (Pioneer,
Correspondent or Reporter, Jul 24, 2006)
In a significant move, the RSS has asked the Hindu community to
organise themselves under Dalit leadership and said "good Hindus" were
present in all political parties.
Pm Dares Jaswant To Name Us Mole (Hindustan Times, Correspondent or
Reporter, Jul 24, 2006)
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday challenged Jaswant Singh to
name the US mole who the latter alleged had snooped on PV Narasimha
Rao’s PMO.
http://www.whatisindia.com/issues/rssgroup/rssgroup_more_00004.html
chhotemianinshallah
S.O. News Service, Saturday, 27 February 2010 - 21:35:50 IST
New Delhi: Mr Syed Shahabuddin, President, All India Muslim Majlis E
Mushawarat (AIMMM)issued a statement on 23rd of February, 2010
demanding BJP and VHP to commit themselves to accept the final
judicial verdict.
In the statement, AIMMM mentioned the views of the president of BJP
Shri Nitin Gadkari on the Babri Masjid question and his appeal to the
Muslim community to facilitate the construction of the proposed Ram
Temple on the Babri Masjid site.
An opinion in the statement was that Gadkari, being new to the job may
be unaware of the developments since 1986. Since then and even after
1992, there were several rounds of negotiation with the RJB movement,
the last at the highest level of the Shankaracharya and all the
negotiations failed because the Hindu's insisted on building a temple
and rejected several compromises offered by the Muslim, including the
construction of Mandir with Ram Chamber as the base next to the Babri
Masjid.
The release mentioned that both VHP and BJP had offered to build
magnificent Masjid outside Ayodhya if the Muslim community surrenders
the Babri Masjid and its site. Since then, in total defiance of the
law, the BJP organized 'Kar Seva', demolished the Babri Masjid and
built a makeshift temple covering most of the Masjid.
The statement cited that the Supreme Court had ruled in October, 1994
that the Special Bench of the Allahabad High Court would resume
hearings on title to the Babri Masjid site & also laid down a road map
for the construction of both a Masjid and a Mandir near each other
within the Acquired Area. However, the title suit hearing is nearing
its completion. The Muslim community at various levels has reiterated
its willingness to accept the final judicial verdict, whatever it be.
Unfortunately, no leader of the BJP or VHP or the Ramjanmabhumi Nyas
has made a parallel commitment to the rule of Law.
The AIMMM notified Shri Gadkari that according to the tenets of Islam
it is the site consecrated for worship which constitutes the essential
Masjid and not the structure. Therefore, even after the Demolition the
Masjid continues to exist. Also, the Muslim community has repeatedly
rejected any substitute for the Babri Masjid.
The AIMMM considers that the Gadkari proposal is meaningless because
national interest demands that both sides await the final judicial
verdict and accept it without any murmur.'
Posted By : Reema
State rejects police plan to ban Sanatan Sanstha
Times of India/Mateen Hafeez, Tuesday, 27 October 2009 - 14:21:37 IST
MUMBAI: The state government has sent back to the state police, a
proposal seeking a ban on the right wing organisation, Sanatan
Sanstha. The Home department has made some queries and told the state
police to give a comprehensive explanation.
This was the second proposal sent by the state police to the Home
department, seeking a ban on the Sanstha, a Hindu revivalist group and
sister organisation of the Hindu Janjagruti Samiti. On September 6,
2008, TOI was the first to report about a proposal being sent by the
state anti-terrorism squad (ATS) to the government. The second
proposal was sent in September this year.
Last week, the state police received a list of queries from the state,
which require clarification, before the state gives a green signal to
the proposal and sends it to the Union government. S S Virk, director-
general of police, said that they were examining the case. "The
proposal was sent by the intelligence agencies to the state but the
Home department has returned the proposal to us with some queries. We
are trying to answer all of them and check the latest activities of
Sanatan Sanstha, its members, to find out if they are still active
(terror-related action),'' said Virk.
On October 16, a motorcycle blast in Goa killed two Sanstha members,
Malgunda Patila and Yogesh Naik, both residents of Maharashtra. "After
the Maharashtra link cropped up in the Goa blast, we sent our team
there to see if Sanstha members were involved in the blast. However,
the evidence and our information does not corroborate their
involvement,'' added Virk.
The state police chief said the Sanstha members were working on the
lines of Bajrang Dal but refused to comment on why Bajrang Dal has not
been banned so far. According to him, there was not sufficient
evidence against Bajrang Dal too. "Members are performing their
activities 'silently' and their involvement was also found in Miraj
and Sangli,'' he added. A police team also conducted a thorough search
of Patil and Naik's residences in Maharashtra but was tightlipped
about the results.
The ATS had last year arrested six persons including two Sanatan
Sanstha sevaks-Ramesh Gadkari and Santosh Angre (20). They were
accused of making and planting bombs at three places in Thane, Vashi
and Panvel. A play, 'Amhi Pachpute', was to be staged at a Thane
theatre where the bomb exploded. The Sanstha had protested against the
play, saying that it showed Hindu gods and goddesses in a "poor
light''.
Posted By : I.G. Bhatkali
http://www.sahilonline.org/english/news.php?catID=nationalnews&nid=6644&viewed=
RSS controlling BJP openly: Congress
PTI, Saturday, 14 November 2009 - 20:36:55 IST
ADVERTISEMENT
New Delhi: Taking a swipe at the RSS, Congress today said the Sangh
which was controlling the party from the remote earlier, is now doing
it openly.
"Earlier, the RSS was behind the scenes and running the BJP through
remote. Now it has come out of the shadows and trying to run the party
openly," party spokesman Mohan Praksh said.
He was reacting to questions on the attempt of the RSS to find younger
leaders in the BJP and the possibility of Nitin Gadkari taking over
the post soon.
Praksh said the BJP required a surgery and it has been pointed out by
their leaders.
"But now I have sympathy for the party as its treatment is being done
by a veterinary doctor (RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat). I have sympathies
for the party," he added.
Posted By : Staff Correspondent
http://www.sahilonline.org/english/news.php?catID=nationalnews&nid=6808&viewed=
Key changes in offing in BJP parliamentary party
IANS, Friday, 18 December 2009 - 02:39:31 IST
New Delhi: Ushering in a generational change in the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP), senior party leader L.K. Advani is likely to resign as
Leader of Opposition at the BJP parliamentary party meeting here
Friday.
Party sources said that the BJP constitution is expected to be amended
to create a post of chairman of the parliamentary party, which would
be offered to Advani.
This would pave the way for elevation of Sushma Swaraj as Leader of
Opposition in the Lok Sabha, where she is deputy leader of the party
at present.
Although the parliamentary party was to meet Monday, the meeting has
been advanced in view of the likelihood of the government pushing for
closing the winter session of parliament on Friday, the party sources
said.
Nitin Gadkari, Maharashtra state BJP chief, is expected to be
appointed new president of the party on Saturday.
With this, the party will have a new chief and a new Leader of
Opposition in the new year.
The changes are being made in consultation with the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh, which wanted a young leadership to take over the
party's reins before the end of the year.
Rajnath Singh's term ends in a couple of days. Arun Jaitley is Leader
of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.
According to party sources, Advani is being elevated as chairman of
the parliamentary party so that the BJP benefits from his experience
and vision.
Posted By : I.G. Bhatkali
Gadkari won't contest LS, RS polls for three years
PTI, Sunday, 20 December 2009 - 21:50:15 IST
NAGPUR: The newly elected BJP president Nitin Gadkari will not contest
Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha elections for the next three years.
"I will not fight any Parlilamentary election during my three year
tenure as National BJP president", Gadkari told reporters in an
informal chat in Nagpur.
"I have already made clear that my agenda will be politics of
development", he said.
On future programmes, Gadkari said he would be addressing his first
press conference on December 24 in Delhi and spell out the party
policies.
Gadkari, presently a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council,
said he would retain the same national executive which was headed by
his immediate predecessor Rajnath Singh.
Earlier, Gadkari was accorded a grand welcome by workers and office
bearers of BJP on his arrival for the first time after becoming the
national party chief.
BJP state leader Kirit Somayya, Hansraj Aher, MP (Chandrapur) and a
number of Vidarbha BJP legislators including Chainsukh Sancheti,
Sudhakarrao Deshmukh, Davendra Phadanvis, Chandrashekhar Bawankule,
City Mayor Maya Iwnate and former MP Banwarilal Purohit were present
at the airport to receive him.
Posted By : I.G. Bhatkali
http://www.sahilonline.org/english/news.php?catID=nationalnews&nid=7029&viewed=
"Why are you saying all this in public?" BSY yells at legislator
S.O. News Service, Tuesday, 02 February 2010 - 02:56:41 IST
Bangalore: Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa Monday lost his
temper at a public meeting and shouted at a legislator who made an
issue of not being brought to the function in the chief minister's
car.
"Why are you saying all this in public?" Yeddyurappa yelled at
Chandrashekar Patil Revoor, who in his speech at the meeting, said:
"If you do not want local legislators to be present at local
functions, tell us so."
The bizarre incident took place at the launch of a free health check-
up camp, 'Vajpayee Aarogya Shree', named after former prime minister
and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee,
at Gulbarga, about 660 km from here.
Revoor represents Gulbarga south in the state assembly.
"I had to take a lift in the car of Janardhana Reddy (Tourism
Minister) and Sriramulu (Health Minister) to come to the function,"
Revoor complained as Reddy, Sriramulu, IT Minister Katta Subramanya
Naidu and officials on the dais looked on.
As Revoor continued with his grouse, an agitated Yeddyurappa stood up
and shouted: "What are you talking, why are saying all this in
public?"
An unrelenting Revoor shot back: "Sir, I am hurt and expressing it."
"What hurt and why?" Yeddyurappa yelled back. Revoor ended his speech
and took his seat but continued to argue with the chief minister as
the next speaker was called.
The Gulbarga incident came a day after BJP president Nitin Gadkari, on
his first visit to the state after taking over as party president,
warned of strict action against partymen airing differences in
public.
http://www.sahilonline.org/english/news.php?catID=statenews&nid=7356&viewed=
After BJP, another ally JD(U) targets Shiv Sena
PTI, Friday, 05 February 2010 - 22:16:51 IST
New Delhi: After the BJP, another NDA ally JD(U) today targeted
alliance partner Shiv Sena in its current face-off with Bollywood
superstar Shah Rukh Khan, saying the Sena's stand is "completely
wrong."
"Shah Rukh Khan has said the right thing. What the Shiv Sena or Raj
Thackeray are doing is completely wrong. The entire country is against
it," senior JD(U) leader and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said
when asked to comment on NDA alliance paratner Shiv Sena's threats
against the actor.
The Shiv Sena has warned Khan to apologise for backing the Pakistani
cricketers at the IPL and making the remark that Mumbai is for all
Indians. The party stated that his films would be banned in the city
if he doesn't offer an apology but the Baadshah is not bowing down to
their demands.
Shah Rukh has hit back at the Shiv Sena by saying that he would stand
by his statements and that his take on the issue is very strong. He
added that there is no excuse for his statement and believes that he
is an Indian and rejected the demand for an apology.
On February 1, BJP had joined the Sangh parivar founthead RSS to take
on its key ally Shiv Sena head on asserting that the party does not
believe in any regional identity that "discriminates" Indians in the
backdrop of the Sena's opposition to "Mumbai is for all" stand.
"We respect as a ground reality that at a regional level there is
tradition, heritage and language identity. But there is no conflict
between regional and national identity.
"And so, we do not believe in any linguistic, religious or regional
identity that discriminates or differentiates," BJP president Nitin
Gadkari had said.
Posted By : I.G. Bhatkali
http://www.sahilonline.org/english/news.php?catID=nationalnews&nid=7382&viewed=
Rajnath, Naqvi injured in police clash during protest against price
rise
S.O. News Service, Thursday, 25 February 2010 - 21:08:59 IST
Lucknow: Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh
and party vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Thursday bore the
wrath of Uttar Pradesh government while protesting against the rising
prices here.
Singh, who spearheaded the demonstration, said that the government was
trying to suppress people's voice as the police lathicharged and used
water cannons to stop BJP workers.
The ugly incident occurred when BJP workers clashed with police as
they were prevented from moving towards the state assembly complex
during a rally organised by the party against price rise, leaving many
injured.
Protesters tried to march towards the assembly during the rally and
got indulged in brick-bating when police tried to prevent them.
Other than the party leaders, several people, including policemen,
were also injured.
Initially, party president Nitin Gadkari was to spearhead the
demonstration but cancelled his visit as he had another programme
lined up in Jammu.
Posted By : Aynaz
http://www.sahilonline.org/english/news.php?catID=nationalnews&nid=7518&viewed=
Miffed Munde quits BJP posts
Sunday, 20 April 2008 - 00:00:00 IST
Mumbai: Senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde dropped a bombshell on Sunday
by resigning from all party posts in protest against the "undemocratic
functioning of the party" in Maharashtra.
The former deputy CM's decision shocked BJP workers since he was a
known public face of the party and was being projected as a chief
ministerial candidate.
Without naming any party leader, Munde said, "Some people have turned
the party into a kitchen cabinet and are treating it like their
personal fiefdom. Democratic ways have become extinct. I have already
communicated my decision to the party's national president, Rajnath
Singh."
The immediate provocation for Munde's action was the appointment of
Madhu Chavan, MLC, as president of the Mumbai unit of the party in
place of Prakash Mehta, who has completed his three-year term.
Apparently, Munde, an all-India general secretary, wanted Kirit
Somaiya, a former MP, or Raj Purohit, an MLA, as the city president.
Party insiders say that for the past several months a bitter battle
has been raging between Munde and the state unit president, Nitin
Gadkari.
Ever since the gunning down of Pramod Mahajan, senior BJP leader and
brother-in-law of Munde, the latter has found himself increasingly
marginalized. Mahajan loyalists like Munde were allegedly finding
themselves systematically sidelined by Gadkari with the tacit support
of the party's central leadership.
In fact, Munde, who was heading BJP's state legislature wing, was
given an all-India position so that he would be out of Gadkari's way.
But Munde managed to retain his ties with Maharashtra.
Six months ago, a three-member committee comprising Ram Naik, Bal Apte
and Vedprakash Goel met Mumbai BJP activists to find a successor to
Prakash Mehta. Apparently, most of them favoured Madhu Chavan. More
recently, all-India secretary P Sateesh too undertook a similar
exercise and backed Chavan.
On Saturday, Rajnath Singh called Gadkari and asked him to announce
Chavan's appointment. After this, all hell broke loose with Munde
stepping down from all posts.
He alleged that there was no intra-party democracy in the
organization, either in Maharashtra or Delhi. He said this was the
view of a majority of party workers. He said even though the president
was to be elected, Chavan was nominated — a practice generally
associated with Congress.
"I will go to every nook and corner of the state to meet party workers
and find out their views. They too are not very happy with the overall
functioning of the party in the state," he said.
Indications are that Munde, who is known to have a soft corner for NCP
president Sharad Pawar of late, may quit the party if pushed into a
corner. If that happens, it will be a major setback for BJP at a time
when it is preparing for next year's general elections.
Munde, who is a prominent OBC leader, has a mass base unlike Gadkari,
a Brahmin.
Incidentally, a few months ago, Munde had shared a platform with noted
OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal of NCP.
The OBCs form a substantial chunk of the electorate in Maharashtra and
BJP cannot afford to alienate them by neglecting Munde.
BJP's state general secretary, Vinod Tawde, may emerge as the winner
of the ongoing tussle between Munde and Gadkari. He enjoys the support
of RSS and is known for his organizational skills.
As a fallout of Munde's resignation from the party, which he had
joined 25 years ago, a number of party office-bearers too have
resigned from their posts in the Marathwada region.
Posted By : Aynaz
http://www.sahilonline.org/english/news.php?catID=nationalnews&nid=2065&viewed=
Munde says he will not visit Delhi to meet central leadership
Monday, 21 April 2008 - 00:00:00 IST
Mumbai: In a clear disregard to summons from the BJP central
leadership, Gopinath Munde, who has resigned from all party posts, on
Monday said he will not be visiting Delhi and will instead be
represented by two senior state BJP leaders.
In an apparent damage control exercise, the BJP leadership called
Munde as also his detractor Nitin Gadkari to Delhi to sought out the
differences in the state unit.
When asked if he is going to New Delhi to meet the party central
leadership, Munde said he had conveyed his sentiments to party leaders
in the state assembly, Eknath Khadse, and in the council, Pandurang
Phundkar.
"I have full faith in their leadership and they will go on my behalf,"
he said, adding that he planned to attend the ongoing session in the
Maharashtra legislative assembly.
Munde, who tendered his resignation on Sunday, also said he was in
touch with senior party leaders including party president Rajnath
Singh since Sunday.
Denying that he was being isolated in the party, Munde said his
grievances were about the party's style of functioning and not over
the appointment of any particular person as the head of BJP's Mumbai
unit.
"You are wrong if you interpret that I am being isolated. I have lakhs
of followers and party workers behind me," Munde said. "My anger is
against the manner in which the party was functioning and not against
the appointment of Madhu Chavan (as BJP's Mumbai chapter chief)," he
said.
He denied that he was trying to build pressure on the party by
tendering his resignation. "I have taken this decision after much
thought," he said. When contacted, Gadkari said he was scheduled to
meet with party leaders in Delhi on Monday evening.
Posted By : I.G. Bhatkali
http://www.sahilonline.org/english/news.php?catID=nationalnews&nid=2072&viewed=
Hindu bombers break myth; Two terrorist arrested
Tuesday, 17 June 2008 - 14:51:11 IST
Mumbai: Two Hindu “terrorists” were arrested today for allegedly
planting bombs at theatres, prompting the Maharashtra chief minister
to say this had shattered “the myth” that all bombers came from a
particular community.
Ramesh Hanumant Gadkari, 50, and Mangesh Dinakar Nikam, 34, are
accused of targeting shows of Ashutosh Gowariker's film Jodhaa Akbar
and a Marathi play that is a spoof on the Mahabharat. They are charged
with two blasts that injured several people and an attempted bombing.
Police said the duo were members of the Sanatan Sanstha and the Hindu
Jana Jagruti Samiti, organisations involved in protesting
“denigration” of Hindu religious icons as in, allegedly, M.F. Husain's
paintings.
“These (the bombings) were definitely terrorist acts as they were
carried out by people motivated by an ideology,” said Hemant Karkare,
chief of the anti-terrorist squad that nabbed the accused.
“The arrests� have broken the myth that persons belonging only to a
particular community are involved (in blasts),” chief minister
Vilasrao Deshmukh said.
Those arrested were produced before the Mazgaon court and sent to
police custody till June 24.
According to information collected by the ATS, the Hindu Janjagruti
Samiti was formed by Dr Jayant Athawle in 2002. It has protested
against three major issues - paintings of Hindu deities by M F
Hussain, the Marathi play Yada Kadachit now called Amhi Panchpute, and
the movie Jodhaa Akbar.
“Their sphere of activities extends into the hinterland. While we do
not have evidence to directly link them to the Bajrang Dal or the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad, they have protested together on occasions,”
said Karkare, denying any link between the two accused and the Nanded
blast and adding that all three were 'clearly terrorist acts motivated
by ideology'.
The ATS has indicated that more arrests are likely to follow in this
case. “Gadkari and Nikam are full-time sevaks for Sanatan for the last
three years. Their links with any terror outfit is yet to be
established. Nikam taught Gadkari about bomb-making and one of the two
bombs was manufactured within the premises of Sanatan Ashram,'' said
investigating officer B B Rathor. Nikam had provided a detonator and
explosives to make the bomb.
The police got the clues from the number of the motorcycle used by the
bombers. The licence number was entered in the log book of the Thane
theatre's parking lot. “We have got evidence of their involvement and
are looking for at least half a dozen accused in this case,'' said
Param Bir Singh, additional commissioner of ATS.
Posted By : I.G. Bhatkali
http://www.sahilonline.org/english/news.php?catID=nationalnews&nid=2440&viewed=
Combat Terrorism : Faces of Terrorism in India
Saturday, 23 August 2008 - 08:33:32 IST
Terrorism is a political virus. Greed for power, injustice and
intolerance breed terrorism. No one in the world is immune from the
direct or indirect affect of terrorism now.
History of Terrorism
According to sociologists and experts on terrorism the French
Revolution provided the first uses of the words terrorist and
terrorism. The use of the word terrorism began in 1795 in reference to
the 'Reign of Terror' initiated by the Revolutionary government in
France during the French Revolution. The agents of the Committee of
Public Safety and the National Convention that enforced the policies
of "The Terror" were referred to as 'terrorists'.
The French Revolution provided an example to future states in
oppressing their populations. It also inspired a reaction by royalists
and other opponents of the Revolution who employed terrorist tactics
such as assassination and intimidation in resistance to the
revolutionary agents. Systematic use of terror as a policy is first
recorded in England in 1798.
The words terrorism and terrorist were first used as political terms
to describe atrocities of an occupying establishment - say colonial
government.
Researches done on the history of terrorism reveal that 'terrorist' in
the modern sense dates to 1947, especially in reference to Jewish
tactics against the British in Palestine - while earlier it was used
for extremist revolutionaries in Russia (1866). The tendency of one
party's terrorism said to be another's guerilla war or fight for
freedom was noted in reference to the anti-British actions in India
(1857), Cyprus (1956) and the war in Rhodesia (1973). The word
terrorist has been applied, at least retroactively, to the Marquis
resistance in occupied France in World War II.
The Britain has first used the terms 'terrorism and terrorist' to
describe anti -establishment forces or those who used hit-and-run
practices against British colonialism.
It is relatively hard to define terrorism albeit it is not a new
phenomenon for the world. A Western writer argues, 'Terrorism has been
described variously as both a tactic and strategy; a crime and a holy
duty; a justified reaction to oppression and an inexcusable
abomination.' Obviously, a lot depends on whose point of view is being
represented. Terrorism has often been an effective tactic for the
weaker side in a conflict. As an asymmetric form of conflict, it
confers coercive power with many of the advantages of military force
at a fraction of the cost.
Definition of Terrorism
World's popular online encyclopedia -- Wikipedia, notes 'The word
"terrorism" is politically and emotionally charged, and this greatly
compounds the difficulty of providing a precise definition. A 2003
study by Jeffrey Record for the US Army quoted a source (Schmid and
Jongman 1988) that counted 109 definitions of terrorism that covered a
total of 22 different definitional elements. Record continues
"Terrorism expert Walter Laqueur also has counted over 100 definitions
and concludes that the 'only general characteristic generally agreed
upon is that terrorism involves violence and the threat of violence.'
Yet terrorism is hardly the only enterprise involving violence and the
threat of violence. So does war, coercive diplomacy, and barroom
brawls.''
The lack of agreement on a definition of terrorism has been a major
obstacle to meaningful international countermeasures.
Faces of Terrorism in India
The media and law inforcement agencies' onslaught with assumptions and
deliberate repetitions of Muslim names after each terror attack in
India made a penetration into common hearts and it ultimately implies
that terrorism is a Muslim specialty in the country.
In India, the terrorists in Kashmir are Muslims. But they are one of
several terrorist groups operating in the country. The Punjab
terrorist are Sikhs. The United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) is a
Hindu terrorist group. Tripura has a history of rise and fall of
several terrorist groups, and so have Bodo terrorists groups, mostly
Christians which killed hundreds of Muslims in 1993 for autonomy, some
of them are now in Assam's Tarun Gogoi's cabinet as ministers.
Christian Mizos mounted an insurrection for decades, and Christian
Nagas and Manipuris are still heading militant groups. They have
bombed trains, assassinated hundreds of innocents men, women and
children. This year they called a boycott in at least five states out
of seven northeastern states of India to disrupt 15th August
(Independence day) celebrations of India.
But most important of all are the Maoist terrorist groups that now
exist in no less than 150 out of India's 600 districts, according to a
report in a national English daily. They are attacking police
stations, and killing and razing innocents villagers who oppose
them,and there is nothing Muslim about these groups.
In September 2, 2006 another national English daily published from
Mumbai reports elaborately about few dozen 'Hindu Mujahideen' working
with Hizbul Mujahideen of Kashmir for years in Jammu and Kashmir. The
newspaper publishes statistical information with real Hindu names, age
and year of attachment with H M along with their native locations in
Jammu region. Similarly in some other non-Muslim outfits such as ULFA
in Assam, Muslim members are not barred from joining theedir
resistance.
On 24th February 2008, bomb blasts occurred in the RSS office and the
Bus Stand in Tenkasi, Tamil Nadu, one of India's southern states. The
media carried big stories about the blasts. The Sangh Parivar
organised demonstrations in various parts of the state, demanding the
arrest of Muslim 'terrorists', who according to them had committed the
crime. However the Tamil Nadu police acted sensibly. A special team
led by Mr. Kannappan, DIG, Tirunelveli range made a thorough
investigation and arrested 3 persons S Ravi Pandian (42), a cable TV
operator, S Kumar (28), an auto driver, both from Tenkasi, and V
Narayana Sharma (26) of Sencottai, all Sangh Parivar activists. The
last accused had assembled 14 pipe bombs in the office of Ravi
Pandian, as excposed in press reports.
A Mumbai daily newspaper 'Urdu Times' reported (18 April 2008) about
Malegaon police raid in a patho-laboratory which is situated in
basement of a private hospital and recovered revolver, RDX and fake
currency note of one thousand rupees. Police have arrested 3
terrorists, Nitish Ashire (20) Sahab Rao Sukhdev Dhevre (22) and
Jitendar Kherna (25). The last one is the owner of Smith Pathology
Laboratory which is situated at the basement of More Accident Hospital
of Camp Area. One pistol, 5 live RDX bombs, 3 used RDX cases, four
fake notes of one thousand rupee, laptop, scanner, 5 thousand cash
rupees and 2 mobiles were recovered during the raid, detailed the
newspaper report.
After the Jaipur serial blasts on 13th May the police were reportedly
on the hunt for a woman who allegedly promised Rs.100,000 to a
rickshaw puller to carry out the terror attacks.
"We are looking for a woman, identified as Meena, who tried to lure a
rickshaw puller, Vijay, to carry out the attacks," a police officer
said on the condition of anonymity, according to a report in the
press.
Vijay, allegedly a resident of Mumbai, said before Ajtak TV channel
camera, "Stop the lady (Meena) or she would explode bombs at Katwali".
By that time a bomb was already exploded at Katwali area. Vijay was
detained just hour after the Jaipur blasts who also told the police
that Meena lives near one of the blast sites.
What happened to Meena and Vijay, and what the police later got from
Vijay is still unreported - the Jaipur case is still unsolved.
The Maharashtra Police on 16th June arrested two people from Navi
Mumbai in connection with a series of bomb blasts in the area in which
seven people were injured. The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) reportedly
swooped down on the Sanatan Ashram and nabbed the two men, identified
as Hanumant Gadkari (50) and Mahesh D. Nikam (35).
Mumbai ATS chief Hemant Karkare said the duo belonged to the Hindu Jan
Jagriti Manch (HJJM) and between February and June were responsible
for three bomb blasts in the Navi Mumbai area.
Two bombs exploded outside a theatre June 4 on the eve of T20 Indian
Premiere League finals. Two others were exploded in Navi Mumbai May 31
and in Panvel February 20. The ATS also seized a motorcycle registered
in Ashram's name and the vehicle's logbook entries enabled the
investigators to zero in on the prime accused. The motorcycle had been
extensively used in January-February for reconnaisance trips in Navi
Mumbai and other areas for identifying sites to set off the
explosions.
The HJJM, led by Jayant Athavale, had also protested in 2002 against
celebrated artist M.F. Husain's paintings of Hindu deities.
In July 2008 Mumbai High Court freed the accused in Nanded blast for
insufficient evidence where two Bajrang Dal activists were killed in
April 2006 while preparing bombs. Later, one of the survivors of the
Nanded episode during narco-analysis asserted, "We Hindus should also
do the acts of terror". The same statement was publicly reconfirmed by
Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackery and his shivsainiks through his mouth-
piece 'Samna' and posters in Mumbai appeared in June after the arrest
of Hindu Jan Jagriti Manch activists for Navi Mumbai blasts.
In late July 2008, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Surat were struck with
exploded and unexploded serial bombs. The police investigating the
case, which killed at least 42 and injured more than 200 people,
traced an email claiming responsibility to a Mumbai apartment.
But at the address, rather than seizing terrorists from the 'Islamist'
group which said it carried out the attack, they found an American --
48-year-old Kenneth Haywood-- a Christian preecher in Mumbai high
profile society.
The IP address for the email claiming responsibility for an obscure
group called the Indian Mujahideen was traced by police to Haywood's
laptop. "He has never been detained, but we have called on him and
questioned him as part of the investigation," said Parambir Singh, a
senior officer in the anti-terrorism squad. Now Haywwod has already
flown from India even after a 'No-go' warnning from Mumbai's ATS!
If the same laptop had been in possession of a Muslim, would the ATS
officers demonstrate the same caution, a genuine question every
conscious person should ask?
The hunt for those behind the blasts in Ahmedabad and Surat should be
centred on Mumbai. Since some of Mumbai's politicians have given a
green signal to terrorism a month ago in June this year. And more so
the police also believe the plot was hatched in the suburb of Navi
Mumbai, from where four cars used in the attack were stolen.
Terrorism is a political virus. Greed for power, injustice and
intolerance breed terrorism. No one in the world is immune from the
direct or indirect affect of terrorism now. Terrorists have a common
goal -- attack and create fear -- in whichever way that easily leads
to their nefarious ends. Their religion is terrorism and nothing else.
This one formula can at least lead Indians to a solid counter
terrorism measure.
M. Burhanuddin Qasmi is editor of Eastern Crescent and director of
Mumbai based Markazul Ma'arif Education and Research Centre.
Posted By : I.G. Bhatkali
http://www.sahilonline.org/english/news.php?catID=specialreport&nid=3136&viewed=
An open letter to the PM; Will action be taken?
Wednesday, 24 September 2008 - 23:53:32 IST
Dear Dr. Manmohan Singh,
The blasts in Delhi (September 12, 2008) are another in the series of
tragic blasts in which scores of people have been killed. We strongly
condemn the blasts and demand a proper, unbiased investigation into
the same. We demand that the guilty be punished. At the same time it
seems that our investigating agencies are ignoring some thing very
crucial in the matters of investigating the acts of terror.
The acts of terror have been occurring and Home Ministry is watching
helplessly. While the current investigation is totally focused around
SIMI, many an alleged culprits have been put behind the bars, despite
which now some unknown entity Indian Mujahideen seems to have been
projected as being responsible for the current ones. At the same time
another stark truth is being deliberately sidelined and undermined.
And that relates to the blasts done by Bajrang Dal and Hindu Jagran
Samiti. We fail to understand as to why the investigation authorities
are turning a blind eye to some of the well established facts.
1. In a serious case of blasts in Nanded in April 2006 two Bajarang
Dal workers died when making bombs. Similar incidents of bomb blasts
were witnessed in many places around that time, Parabhani, Jalna and
Aurangabad in Maharashtra. Most of these were in front of the mosques.
The Nanded investigation 'leads' were not followed. On the contrary
the investigation in that direction was not pursued at all. The
attitude of police in this investigation has been totally lax. Social
activists made the complaint about this to Human Rights commission.
The commission summoned the Superintendent of police, Nanded, in its
hearing held on 17thJune. The SP failed to turn up for hearing! There
seems to be a deliberate cover up of this important finding of
Maharashtra Anti terrorist Squad. ATS did investigate the links of the
dead with Bajrang Dal, an RSS affiliate. At the same time the injured
were visited in the hospital by the top brass of local BJP and
associates. Local BJP MP told the police not to harass those related
to the culprits in the wake of the Bajrang Dal involvement in the bomb
making. In Nanded, ATS also found fake moustache and pajama kurta, the
idea being that the culprits will dress like a Muslim while doing
these black deeds.
2. A bomb blast took place at the RSS office at Tenkasi, in the
Tirunelveli District of Tamil Nadu on January 24. After a thorough
investigation, the Tamilnadu Police had arrested 7 persons belonging
to Sangh Parivar outfits. They had confessed that they indulged in
this terror act to instigate the local Hindu population against the
Muslims.
On further investigation, the Tamilnadu Police arrested Siva Alias
Sivanandam, who is the General Secretary of Hindu Munnani at
Kadayanallur, a neighbouring town of Tenkasi. Formed in 1980, Hindu
Munnani is a frontal organisation of Sangh Parivar operating in
Tamilnadu.
Siva, who has earlier worked in quarries in the neighboring state of
Kerala had supplied the ammonium nitrate and other raw materials for
preparing the bombs.
3. The bombs which exploded in Gadkari Rangayatan on 4th June 2008
injured seven people. Again Maharashtra Anti Terrorist Squad succeeded
in nabbing the culprits. The culprits were part of Hindu Janjagaran
Samiti (HJS), an outfit of Sanatana Ashram in Panvel. These culprits
were also involved in other blasts, in Vashi, Panvel and Ratnagiri. We
have not heard anything about the further tracing of this very
important lead.
4. On 24th August, in Kanpur two Bajrang Dal workers died while making
bombs. Rajiv alias Piyush Mishra and Bhupinder Singh were killed while
making crude bombs on Sunday afternoon.
On 25th August, Monday, police recovered some crude hand grenades,
lead oxide, red lead, potassium nitrate, bomb pins, timers and
batteries from the spot, inside a hostel in Kalyanpur area of Kanpur,
about 80 km from Lucknow. No further investigation, why?
Every time there is a bomb blast immediately the agencies and the
media declare that it is done by some Muslim organization without any
proof. Hundreds of innocent young boys are picked up, what follows are
illegal detentions, torture, arrests, harassment of families, forcing
the families and victims to sign blank papers. For years these
helpless victims are tortured in jails, denied legal aid, even lawyers
who try and fight their cases are attacked openly in courts. Their
images tarnished for life time. If they are lucky they get let off
after years as neither the agencies or the police have any proof
against them. The cacophony of stricter laws rises so that a police
can extract a confession by third degree torture and present that as
evidence. Through this systematic vilification campaign the process of
demonization of minorities continued unabated.
If we look at the timing of the terror attacks it is very clear that
one and only one political outfit is gaining from it and that is
Sangh. With their eyes on the central government their agenda of
polarizing the voter is going ahead successfully.
On the other hand there are constant attacks on minorities on one
pretext or another. Orissa thousands of Christians have been attacked,
rendered homeless, their homes ransacked and looted and burnt down,
churches attacked and even orphanages are not left alone.
Karnataka a similar picture is emerging. We have personally briefed
very senior people in the government and the Congress party about the
Karnataka situation and that it might explode but nothing was done and
we have seen what has happened yesterday.
While we write to you now, the police are firing at Muslims in
Yakutpura in Vadodara. Yesterday during the Ganpati procession a local
dargah was broken down and shops of Muslims looted and ransacked.
Already one boy has died and many are injured.
Last few days the only Muslim village Nandepeda in the Dangs, Gujarat
has been attacked, ransacked. Villagers have been beaten up brutally
including women and children. All men have fled to the jungles. The
police not only took away all the goods but before going they poured
kerosene into the eatable good so that they could not eat anything
too. A proposed VHP rally today was stopped after spending 4 hours on
the phone and pressuring various police departments.
UPA had formed the National Integration Council under tremendous
pressure. The first agenda papers which were prepared, if you
remember, were highly communal and objectionable. A number of us had
raised it during the meeting and the Home Minister had replied' treat
them as scrap' in your presence. Probably the Home Minister realized
that people like us were too uncomfortable to have in the NIC, who
would raise these questions. The NIC was never convened again. It was
supposed to meet every six months.
The country unfortunately has been given on a platter to the Sangh and
the government looks helplessly in providing security to ordinary
citizens whether they are victims of terror attacks or victims of the
constant attacks by the Sangh Parivar's various outfits.
We hope you will intervene and question why are such clear cases of
involvement of RSS affiliates in terror attacks being ignored. It
seems the investigating authorities deliberately want to cover up the
role of RSS affiliates in these acts of terror. Can the real truth
behind the dastardly acts come out without properly investigating
these incidents, where the culprits' involvement is very clear? We
urge upon you to instruct the investigating authorities to pursue the
investigation in an unbiased, honest and professional manner. The life
of innocent citizens is at stake and such irresponsible cover will
definitely prevent the real truth from coming out. For the sake of
fairness, honesty and the values of our constitution, we need to
pursue these cases in their logical direction.
Can we look forward to you, Mr. Prime Minister to make your Government
to rise above partisan attitude and unravel the truth behind the
blasts which are rocking the country in a painful way?
Sincerely
Shabnam Hashmi
(Member, National Integration Council)
Ram Puniyani
(Social Activist and writer)
http://www.sahilonline.org/english/news.php?catID=guesteditorial&nid=3457&viewed=
Yogi Aditya Nath goes berserk, challenges central government
Thursday, 13 November 2008 - 02:43:37 IST
Mumbai/Gorakhpur: A team from ATS has left today to UP to question one
of BJP's important Hindutvadi leaders in connection with the Malegaon
Bomb Blast. While on the one side, it is being revealed that it is
possible that the investigative team may question the Mahant of
Gorakhnath Mutt; on the other side, the Mahant as well as UP's most
important BJP leader and a Member of Parliament, Yogi Aditya Nath had
gone berserk. Their agitation came to light when speaking with the
media, he termed the Malegaon Bomb Blast investigations to be a
conspiracy to defame 'Hindu organisations' and to blame RSS for
involvement in terrorist activities. Further, naming out ATS and Union
Home Minister Shivraj Patil, he challenged the government to dare to
arrest him or his supporters. His statement gives support to the
widely held guesswork that the name that had cropped up of the
Hindutva leader during the cross-examination of Col. Purohit could be
that of the Yogi Aditya Nath. However, ATS sources are silent on this
matter.
Sensational turn in investigation
It may be noted that the Malegaon Bomb Blast investigations have taken
a very sensational turn. According to reports, on the basis of cross-
examination of the arrested Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit, doubts are being
cast on the role of Hindu Vahini Sena President, Gorakhnath Mutt chief
and Member of Parliament in the Malegaon Bomb Blast.
In this regard, the prosecution's lawyer, Ajay Misr, without naming
the name of BJP leader, has informed Inquilab on phone, that in
connection with the Malegaon Bomb Blast, on the basis of statements of
the arrested accused, ATS has approached the court to get permission
to question a BJP leader and court has accorded them the permission
and had asked the UP Government to cooperate with the ATS.
On the other hand, ATS has confirmed that its team has left for Uttar
Pradesh, but it has refused to give any further information.
Exposure of vast network expected
According to information from sources, during the cross-examination of
Malegaon Bomb Blast accused, the arrested Lt. Col. Purohit, the name
of the jailed Sanatan Sanstha member, Dr. Hemant Chalke has cropped up
in connection with bomb blasts at Thane, New Panvel and Vashi. Now ATS
is once again trying to get custody of Dr. Hemant Chalke who had
purchase a timer from Lohar Chawl area for bombing Gadkari Drama
Theater in Thane.
Kanpur bomb-making accident victims have connection with Yogi
According to information from ATS sources, in the after math of last
month's bomb blast during bomb-making at Kanpur on August 24, in which
2 persons died, ATS had recovered from the accident site, 2 mobile
phone numbers and 2 landline phone numbers. On the basis of further
investigation of the phone numbers it turned out that the mobile
numbers were registered in fake names. However during the
investigations, it was found that the dead during the bomb-making had
contacts with Gorakhnath Mutt head and president of Hindu Vahini Sena,
Yogi Adityanath.
VHP threatens nationwide agitation
Meanwhile to get the accused Hindutva terrorists released, VHP has
threatened to start nationwide agitation. For subjecting the Malegaon
Bomb Blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Thakur to narco test for 4 times, VHP
officials have warned that if ATS officials are harassing Sadhvi in
such manner, VHP will organise large-scale nationwide protests. In
speaking with the press, VHP's national secretary Vinayak Deshpande
has mocked the police and asked if they had narco-tested all
'terrorists' for so many times.
Deshpande has accused ATS for bringing out a new face of terrorism and
they got the excuse of 'Hindu terrorism'.
ATS by projecting Hindus as terrorists is defaming the whole majority
community. He said, I wish to ask the central government why so many
excuses are used to postpone the sentencing of Afzal Guru.
Translated from Urdu Inquilab daily, dated 12 Nov 2008
Posted By : I.G. Bhatkali
http://www.sahilonline.org/english/news.php?catID=nationalnews&nid=3926&viewed=
BJP President Gadkari deplores resumption of dialogue with Pakistan
February 27th, 2010 SindhToday
New Delhi, Feb 27 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Nitin
Gadkari has criticized the Centre for resuming dialogue with
Pakistan.
Gadkari said, ‘Our country’s government has tried to resume dialogue
with Pakistan, which has begun a proxy war against us, which
encourages cross-border terrorism, the country where nobody listens to
the government, and the dialogue has completely failed.’
Gadkari also slammed the Congress led United Progressive Alliance
(UPA) government’s proposal to offer amnesty to Kashmiri youth, who
had crossed over to the Pakistan administered Kashmir and are now
willing to surrender and return home.
‘The people who are behind killing many innocent people, the Congress
is trying to welcome them from Pakistan administered Kashmir. There
has not been any terror incident in America after September 11, and
there have been such incidents in our country one after another,’ he
added.
The first official talks between the two nations after the 26/11
Mumbai terror attacks ended on Thursday with only an agreement to
‘keep in touch’, signalling that relations between the nuclear-armed
rivals remain frosty.
Neither diplomat said if there would be a next round of talks, though
the Prime Ministers of the two countries have an opportunity to meet
at a regional summit in Bhutan in April.
The two countries did not appear to agree on which subjects should be
covered in the talks; India wanted to focus on terrorism while
Pakistan eyed the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir that has been
the cause of two of their three wars.
Although India and Pakistan both said that the foreign secretary level
talks is a ‘first step’ towards the resumption of formal dialogues,
certain differences could be sensed from the outcome of the
discussions, which included serious issues like terrorism, Mumbai
attacks, Kashmir and Balochistan.
After the discussions, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir
described his meeting with his Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao, as a
useful meeting and said it could be a good platform to restart broader
bilateral discussions, but added that the two sides should not link
individuals or incidents of terror to the talks. (ANI)
[NF]
Veteran social activist Nanaji Deshmukh passes away
February 27th, 2010 SindhToday
Chitrakoot, Feb 27 (ANI): Renowned social activist and former Member
of Parliament Nanaji Deshmukh died on Saturday evening at Uttar
Pradesh’s Chitrakoot district.
He was 97. Deshmukh was suffering from age related illness from a long
time.
Hailed from the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sabgh background, Deshmukh was
also associated with the Jan Sangh, Janta Party and the Bharatiya
Janata Party.
Deshmukh was born on October 11, 1916 at Kadoli, a small town in
Parbhani District of Maharashtra and was actively participated in
Bhoodan Movement started by Acharya Vinoba Bhave.
When Jai Prakash Narayan gave the call for “Total Revolution” he
responded by giving total support to this movement.
Deshmukh was elected to the Lok Sabha from Balrampur parliamentary
constituency in Uttar Pradesh.
In 1969, Deshmukh founded the Deendayal Research Institute to work in
rural development sector.
He has also established Chitrakoot Gramodya Vishwavidyalaya in
Chitrakoot- India’s first rural university and went on to become it’s
first Chancellor.
In 1999, Deshmukh was nominated to the Rajya Sabha.
Former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, BJP president Nitin Gadkari,
former minister Ram Naik, Opposition party leaders in the parliament
Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley also condoled Deshmukh’s sad demise.
(ANI)
[NF]
http://www.sindhtoday.net/news/2/110658.htm
BJP protests against fuel price hike in Amritsar
Amritsar, Feb 27(ANI): Members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
took out a bicycle rally in Amritsar on Saturday to protest against
the hike in petroleum prices in the Budget.
The rally saw provincial lawmaker Anil Joshi with scores of workers
ride bicycles, raising slogans against the Congress-led Union
Government, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister Pranab
Mukherjee and party chief Sonia Gandhi.
“All the (party) workers took out a rally on bicycles to protest
against the hike in petrol and diesel prices (petroleum products). As
a result of this hike, the prices of other commodities will go up. We
can travel on bicycle but what we will eat,” Joshi said.
The government has announced a hike in excise duty on petrol by one
rupee.
Rising inflation, particularly food inflation, has sparked street
protests and put political pressure on the Congress-led government to
find a solution without hurting economic recovery.
Food prices rose 17.9 percent in the 12 months to January 30, higher
than an annual rise of 17.6 percent in the previous week, according to
data released on February 11. (ANI)
[NF]
http://www.sindhtoday.net/news/2/110657.htm
Police stop religious procession on Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi in Srinagar
February 27th, 2010 SindhToday
Srinagar, Feb 27(ANI): Jammu and Kashmir Police used force to disperse
a religious procession of separatists on Saturday in Srinagar.
The activists of Democratic Political Movement (DPM) were prevented
from carrying out the procession on the occasion of Eid-e-Milad-un-
Nabi, the anniversary of the birth of Prophet Mohammad.
Though the activists claimed the procession was purely religious, the
police thwarted the procession.
“Today we are taking out a procession. It is purely a religious
procession. We have been taking it out since 1986,” said Muhammad
Shafi Rather, a senior DPM leader, Democratic Political Movement
(DPM).
Taking out a procession on Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi is banned by the Jammu
and Kashmir Government. (ANI)
[NF]
http://www.sindhtoday.net/news/2/110655.htm
http://www.sindhtoday.net/news/2/110447.htm
chhotemianinshallah
Anita Joshua
PTI BJP leader Yashwant Sinha. File photo
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday accused Union Finance
Minister Pranab Mukherjee of adding fuel to the fire by rolling back
the duty cuts on petroleum products. “The nation was hoping for a
remedy against back-breaking prices. Instead, people have been given a
budget that will further push up prices,” said BJP leader Yashwant
Sinha in the party’s critique of the budget.
Instead of meeting the challenge posed by runaway inflation, the
Minister has buckled under it. Now inflation and price rise cannot be
contained, Mr. Sinha said, briefing the media after the budget was
presented.
Justifying the Opposition walkout, he said Mr. Mukherjee violated the
limits of tolerance of the masses with his announcements on fuel
pricing. This time the government has given up the distinction between
diesel and petroleum while tweaking prices. It has used the tax route
to alter the price structure, and kept the difference in the hike of
petrol and diesel at only nine paise, the former Union Finance
Minister said.
Taking a dig at Mr. Mukherjee’s claim that “this budget belongs to the
aam aadmi,” he said this was not reflected in the proposals. No
attempt has been made to tackle urban unemployment and the Rs. 1,000
crore increase in the allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Scheme was not even sufficient to take care of
the rate of inflation. As for the agricultural sector, the allocations
were too little to make any impact on the agrarian crisis.
Rationale questioned
Mr. Sinha has also questioned the rationale in the proposal to set up
a ‘Coal Regulatory Authority.’ Does this mean that the government
plans to open the coal sector to private players, he asked. If this
were the case, then the government should come clean on it and admit
that it wants to amend the Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act.
In a separate statement, the former BJP president, Rajnath Singh,
said: “The budget has not only disappointed the people but also dealt
a body blow to the expectations of some announcement of concrete
measures from the government to counter the mounting inflationary
pressures on our economy.”
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article114359.ece
New Delhi, February 27, 2010 No alternative to dialogue to resolve
issues with Pak: Manmohan
PTI
AP Border Security Force soldiers and Pakistani Rangers lower their
respective national flags at the daily retreat ceremony on the India-
Pakistan border at Wagah, near Amritsar on February 25. Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh said there was no alternative to dialogue to resolve
issues with Pakistan.
In his first comment on the recent talks with Pakistan, Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh has said there was 'no alternative' to dialogue to
resolve issues which 'divide us' and that India was ready to discuss
all matters including Kashmir in an atmosphere free from terror.
Dr. Singh said India seeks “peaceful and normal relations” with
Pakistan and “in that quest we have consistently sought to engage
those in Pakistan who are ready to work with us.”
In an interview to Saudi journalists ahead of his visit to Riyadh that
begins on Saturday, he said it was in the common interest of India and
Pakistan to cooperate in fighting the menace of terrorism which hurts
both.
“There is no change in our position... We should be good neighbours.
There is no alternative to dialogue to resolve the issues that divide
us,” he said.
Dr. Singh was responding when asked whether the decision to have
Foreign Secretary-level talks with Pakistan reflected a change in
India’s stand that the stalled peace process can resume only if
Islamabad acts against the planners of the Mumbai attack.
To a question on talks with Pakistan, he said, “Today the primary
issue is terrorism.”
Asked how serious was the Pakistan Taliban threat to India, especially
to Jammu and Kashmir, Dr. Singh said that as a neighbour, India could
not remain immune to the rise of extremism and terrorism in Pakistan
or on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article123393.ece
Opinion » Lead
February 16, 2010 The need to give dialogue a chance
Sherry Rehman
The Hindu Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and Pakistan High
Commissioner Shahid Malik at a function in New Delhi. File Photo:
Shanker Chakravarty
Giving dialogue a chance is critical for taking Pakistan and India out
of a bilateral cold war time-warp.
Resuming dialogue is always weighed down by anxiety over the outcome.
But India and Pakistan need not worry. Nobody realistically expects
too much out of tentative renewals. They hold little promise of
anything except an exchange of chai and samosas. Yet these renewals
are bright arcs in the treacherous sky that hangs over the nuclear
neighbours. The mere return to dialogue signals a recognition by both
parties that a ritual has its uses. It breaks the ice, presages hope,
promises substance, and sets the stage for road maps and change.
For those who want to teach the other state a lesson or negotiate a
more nationalist identity by spurning dialogue, there is comfort in
the sulphur of emotion. They are yet to understand that national
security, or its pursuit, through non-coercive diplomacy is a ruthless
business. It bets on the long term and looks at maximising optimal
outcomes. If a military solution is the best option, then all
resources such as anger, ballistic missiles, artillery and the best
planners need to be marshalled on the table. If a military outcome is
not in the best interest of either side, then it is chai, samosas and
gritted charm.
At a recent track-two dialogue between experienced interlocutors of
Indo-Pakistan strategic nodes in Bangkok, one thing was clear: despite
the Indian Premier League issue that sent alarm bells ringing across
Pakistan when its cricketers were excluded from the bids, civil
society in India still seeks to do business with Pakistan. This was a
very important signal for those of us who have invested in cross-
border meetings and relationships as a way of broadening the peace
constituency. The backlash against the Shiv Sena that the Shah Rukh
Khan episode generated also demonstrated that support for peace in
South Asia is not just a wishy-washy Leftist dream.
Sustainable peace is a not a prelude to concessions by either state.
But it should signal the willingness for flexibility on key issues.
New Delhi will serve the region better if it shelves the threat of
suspending dialogue every time there is a terrorist strike. The good
news is that templates exist for many of the smaller conflicts in the
Indo-Pakistan terrain. It is Kashmir and terrorism that loom large on
the road map, while the conflict in Afghanistan also provokes
responses that muddy the pool. Water in South Asia is a contentious
issue and, if left unresolved, could spark conflict between riparian
states of the Indus Water system. Where do we stand on all of the
above?
On terrorism, Pakistan is facing a blitz. It is a capacity deficit,
not a commitment lag. The question that needs addressing is a vexing
one for New Delhi. How much power does it want to concede to
terrorists? Democratic governments may be weak everywhere, perhaps
more so in Pakistan, but they hedge their futures against war. They
seek opportunities for peace and trade, not because they are nice but
because they are accountable for losses. War with India is really not
an option when more people die in Pakistan from acts of terror than in
war-torn Iraq or, for that matter, anywhere in the world. New Delhi
should, therefore, grasp the magnitude of the war roiling Pakistan
before it makes dialogue hostage to the terror that rips through the
region. This is not to say composite dialogue is some metric for
success. Far from it.
In fact, in the last lap, it looked like an instrument that would lose
all shine if not shot in the arm with some political will. After the
fourth round of composite dialogue sorted out the fine print on many
well-worn CBMs, the inertia of leaden intentions dragged movement at
its usual pace. Then Mumbai, or 26/11, happened. Suddenly, the state
became hostage to terrorists and their goals. The dialogue screeched
to a halt, and the power of setting the agenda landed in the
terrorists’ laps. This is what has to change for all countries of the
region to combat terrorism together. We must seek to marginalise those
who promote the terrorist cause.
The identity of most terrorists seeking to rob Pakistan’s citizens of
their peace may not be trans-national at a glance but the
sophisticated military resources and funds that drive them do not
originate in Pakistan. In the last two years alone, over 5,000 people
have lost their lives to terrorism. Our children are afraid of going
to school and our hospitals are bomb-sites. This is a war Pakistan
expects its neighbours to help it with and, try as it may, Islamabad
cannot possibly provide a guarantee against bombs in India if it
cannot guarantee such a thing in its Military’s General Headquarters.
On this count, dialogue should lead to the construction of joint
mechanisms for intelligence-sharing, best practices and optimal
outcomes. Intelligence is the first line of defence in terrorist
terrain, and we need to bolster our states with a formal architecture
for interaction between India and Pakistan. Terrorism cannot be
tackled alone, and while both states have skeletons in their
unofficial closets, these and other mutual embarrassments should be
discussed across the table, not on the airwaves, making our media
combatants in a virtual war. Interrupting dialogue will only reify
hardened positions, not create room for cooling off.
Second, structured talks on Kashmir will have to resurface, even if
they inch forward. If New Delhi refuses to include Kashmir at a later
stage on the formal table, the dialogue will lose momentum and
political traction in Pakistan. Peace-making governments will
increasingly become hostage to shrill nationalist voices and the
project of Pax South Asia will again flounder on the rocks of
gratuitous intransigence. Talks on Kashmir will also profit from a
back channel, as well as the quiet inclusion of Kashmiri opinion in
any dialogue for it to remain credible. Representation from Kashmir on
both sides of the border is essential if the process is not to be seen
as an exercise at appropriating real estate.
On Afghanistan, Pakistan is only one of the smaller elephants in the
room. Islamabad’s fear of Indian encirclement will lighten if
international strategies to build a nation out of that failing state
succeed. Troop surges will likely tip the scales in the short run for
the U.S.-NATO forces to negotiate with the Taliban but are unlikely to
square the stability and governance circle on its own. International
support for a broad-based ethnic mix in Afghanistan will be the only
way forward if the region is not to lapse into a lawless buffer zone
for extremists to build an infrastructure of dominance and pseudo-
Shariah to terrorise the region with. Islamabad’s cavil about Baloch
insurgents finding sanctuary in Indian consulates can be resolved if
New Delhi provides transparency. Indian protests about Pakistan
sponsoring terrorist attacks on its embassy can be rationally resolved
through mutual exchange and dialogue.
Four, the widespread anxiety in Pakistan over Indian dams on rivers
that deplete the Indus downstream can actually be discussed in a
permanent dialogue mechanism that can be established between the two
countries, without prejudice to the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT). The IWT
has stood the test of time. But in case of violations, it depends
ultimately on arbitration, which is not always to the satisfaction of
either party, as was the case in Baglihar. Pakistan is dangerously
water-stressed and its depleting rivers and reservoirs can benefit
only from a joint working commission with India. There is scant
awareness in India of Pakistan’s concerns over the potential damming
of the Chenab. This is one conflict that can snowball as water is not
always a renewable resource in South Asia. Urgent planning is needed
by both countries for conservation that is both sustainable and
mutually acceptable.
Shifting a state’s strategic calculus in a conflict is always a
challenge. Giving dialogue a chance is critical for taking Pakistan
and India out of a bilateral cold war time-warp. While the rest of the
world forges ahead, meeting in Paris to re-think global nuclear
stockpiles, South Asia’s two dinosaurs remain wedded to regimes that
are based on mutual opacity, while their conventional arms race
remains unfettered by nuclear deterrence. Giving China a role in a
separate trilateral commission for nuclear and other talks can help
ease that neuralgia.
India’s military focus is still Pakistan, in terms of brigades and
hardware. That forces the military in Pakistan to keep the troop
strength balanced when all resources are needed on another, dispersed
battlefield. Here, history for once, can show the way. In the 1960s,
Islamabad withdrew its forces quietly when New Delhi was facing down
China in Aksai Chin, as all responsible accounts from Washington will
testify. (They should know, as they had asked General Ayub Khan to do
that). If one is looking for a game-changer, this will be it. For
Pakistan, the potential theatre of conflict will shift where needed,
and threat perceptions will slowly start shifting closer to the real
ground zero at home. The trust deficit will move down multiple notches
and a structured, monitored dialogue can cash in on the space afforded
by such a seminal act of courage and statesmanship.
The Indian leadership should strengthen its Prime Minister’s hand to
fashion such a grand strategic bargain for South Asia. For, without
one, dialogue will go round and round in vilified circles, becoming a
low-intensity space for conflict prevention. We need to go beyond
crisis management. We need to shift into conflict resolution and
business momentum mode. But for all that to happen, we need to give
dialogue a chance.
(Sherry Rehman is former Minister of Information and Broadcasting and
Member, National Assembly, Pakistan.)
Keywords: India, Pakistan, Indo-Pak talks, Sherry Rehman, former
Minister of Information and Broadcasting, CBMs, Kashmir, New Delhi,
Islamabad, international relations, Afghanistan, peace talks
Comments:
Wishful thinking ! The common people of Pakistan may want peace with
India, but neither the ISI, nor the government wants it.
The Pakistani elite want it because they see the writing on the wall
and are looking for a comfortable berth in India. The ordinary people,
the craftsmen, the agriculturists etc. will be left to face the music
if the U.S. cannot defeat the Taliban.
from: Dr. Vijaya Rajiva
Posted on: Feb 17, 2010 at 04:39 IST
All these years, having denied that terrorists ever existed on its
soil,now Pakistan is in a quandary as to how to put the Genie back in
the lamp. No amount of wishful thinking is going to change the fact
that Pakistan either wants Kashmir to be an independent buffer nation
or as a part of Pakistan. This is unacceptable to India.Adding to
this,India's difficulty in negotiating lies in the fact that there are
multiple centers of power in Pakisthan, whose modus operandi is not
necessarily congruent.These are the government of Pakisthan, the
ISI,the Army and the Terrorists.
from: Vinod Vinjamuri M.D.
Posted on: Feb 17, 2010 at 07:27 IST
Finely worded article coming forth from a modern mind. Actually, a
dialogue--comprehensive and composite--would succeed when the
modernists in Pakistan meet the modernists in India. The problem is
with extremists who use modern science and technology to go back to
their literal translations of Islam and Islamic rule. So if South Asia
has to be rid of terror, and if peaceful coexistence and partnership
among the nations of the region have to be achieved, first Pakistanis
need to introspect on their own institutions and redesign them first.
Till then dialogue will only be an euphemism from bullying. Extremists
would bully the interlocuters into accepting their agenda or else
escalate their violent terrorism.
from: M N Panini
Posted on: Feb 17, 2010 at 08:03 IST
Agreed that Pakistan itself is suffering from terrorism, but it has
never shown the will to counter it. Even more than one year after
Mumbai attacks, it still has done nothing against the perpetrators.
The Pakistani Govt. made all the flip-flop statements day-in and day-
out. Whom were they trying to fool? It is a known fact that terrorists
always had the backing of Pakistan in past , and they still do have it
at present. That is why my opinion is that instead of focusing on
increasing their military strength to counter India's military ,
Pakistan should first use this military strength to undermine the very
basic foundations of the terrorism inside its own state.
Secondly, coming back to the point that Mr Rahman has made that
bilateral talks should continue amidst any possible terror threats and
attacks , this can be seen as a rhetoric statement unless and until
Pakistan govt shows a pragmatic approach in dismantling the terror
camps on its soil. Our past experience tells us that Pakistan govt has
failed to do. No doubt, some people were cornered and a they were put
through a judicial trial , however it was not more than a gimmick.
Therefore, the onus is on Pakistan to ensure that terrorist attacks do
not happen if it wants the bilateral talks with India to succeed.
from: kunal sumbly
Posted on: Feb 17, 2010 at 09:19 IST
If a new beginning has to be made in building bridges of friendliness
between India and Pakistan, some enabling conditions will have to be
created. The verbal belligerence that informs comments on Indo-Pak
affairs on our TV news channels and newspaper pages and the often
vitriolic pronouncements on these by the spokespersons of political
parties are not conducive to achieving peace in the sub- continent.
The opinion makers in the country will have to rein in their ultra-
patriotic instincts and bring more sobriety and objectivity to what
they say. In the government itself, one finds various senior ministers
other than the External Affairs Minister freely making public comments
on Pakistan’s intentions and actions which is not helpful to improving
relations with our neighbour through formal dialogue. The government,
on its part, has to work out various problem-solving options, hold
confidential parleys with opposition leaders and build a national
consensus on these options before sitting down with the leaders of
Pakistan for a formal dialogue. Playing to the gallery should be
definitely taboo. Only a well-ordered disciplined approach can solve
any problem.
from: K.Vijayakumar
Posted on: Feb 17, 2010 at 10:51 IST
Pakistan is suffering because of its internal problems and it's
support for militancy and jihadis in general. I have seen countless
articles and requests by Pakistani civil society to start the talks
again after 26/11. Now when India offered to talk, their ignorant and
popularity seeking ministers were quick to portray as if India had
kneeled and offered to talk themselves and as if they actually didn't
ask for it. Now what do you make of it?
from: Naveen Kumar
Posted on: Feb 17, 2010 at 14:34 IST
For a dialogue with pakistan to achieve something, there should be a
stron pak. govt., a government that is in control of the army and ISI.
Alas, history has shown that it is the other way and there lies the
conumdrum for India. It is also an oportunity for India to rise to the
occassion and negotiate with the superpowers in brokering a deal with
Pakistan. if the West could collectively work to break the Taliban
stranglehold and then negotiate with it - there is a lesson to be
learnt by India. Indian diplomacy must go up by a few notches to
achieve anything significant. this can be done. India needs to use its
new found status as a world power. India is part of the G20 and it
should use its status to force the agenda of sub-continental stabilty.
After all this is a region that has traditionally attracted the West's
attention and it would help everyone is having stabilised sub-
continent rather than a war-ravaged one.
from: Jayanthi Mondi
Posted on: Feb 17, 2010 at 19:16 IST
Whether it be the shrill cries of the "Dr" Hamids rallying ignorant
Pakistanis to raise their flag on Delhi's Red Fort or the London-
Lahore-Defence Colony clutch of smoking sophisticates such as Ms.
Rehman, they posit that India is the spoiler. That, but for India and
the threat it poses to Pakistan, the Land of the Pure would have
achieved its manifest destiny visualized by the philosopher king Mr.
Jinnah. But then, never do they - even the elites - admit that the
problem are really much more fundamental. And so organic. That nation
is close to implosion. Indian machiavellis hiding a Baloch aberrant in
their embassies will not impact it any worse even if it really
happens. Choking off the water in Indus will not make more productive
an economy that is founded on the religious alms of Saudis or the
bribes of the USA or the charity of the Bangladesh jute industry ..
The Kashmiri bouquet will be never be delivered, of course, but even
if it were, it's not going to change the negative dynamics of Pakistan
around, it won't stop the perverse tectonics in motion ever since its
formation. That is because the very reason and ideology of its
founding is faulty. The opportunists (the few business families) who
set it up were only equipped (intellectually and administratively) to
set it up (well, I'm not giving Montgomery any credit here). It was -
and is - beyond these elites' capacity to take it further.
This is not to say that Pakistan has no right to exist as a nation. Or
that its people shouldn't have a decent chance to lead a peaceful
life. They deserve it as any other. As if the founding itself wasn't
shaky, a series of terrible actors in lead roles - Liaquat, Ayub,
Yahya, Zia, the Bhuttos, Sharif, Musharraf - set off policies that
aided that inevitable implosion. Was there one leader who built any
lasting political institution (no, I don't mean buildings), forget
setting on building a whole new nation?
[If The Hindu's readers haven't read Margaret Bourke-White's interview
of Mr. Jinnah, please do before your eyes tear up to Ms. Rehman's
seeing pleas of reason]. Here's a clutch of people infecting millions
of people with an uncontrollable plague and deprivation and they come
to the neighbors for a pinch of salt! The implosion is imminent
because there is not much there that will hold it together. If we are
smart, we'll get EVERY Indian an ID card in a hurry and seal the
borders off! That's not being alarmist or paranoid but being well
planned. Save this note.
from: Ramaiah
Posted on: Feb 18, 2010 at 02:38 IST
For once, let us all stop this so called peace initiatives between
"elites" of Pakistan and India. Let us not get fooled by this "elite"
talk. How many of you people have met the average Pakistanis to know
their mindset. Just visit Lahore/Karachi and attend one of their many
meetings where thousands throng with full vengeance against India in
their minds. Sherry Rehman portrays the picture as if the extremists
are a minority. I beg to differ that they are in absolute majority.
The Pakistani government is playing a great game where it is bleeding
hundreds of thousands of innocent Indians and putting the blame on so
called "Non State Actors". We have been talking all along. We have
seen that India is going to be bled again and again, no matter what we
talk with these Pakistanis. The end result is the same - blood of
Indians.
Please keep your peace arguments and candle light vigils to yourself.
No amount of money/words can ease out the pain and suffering of people
like the mother, who lost both her children (Ankik and Anindyee Dhar)
in Pune blast to the blood thirsty terrorists from across the border.
PM Manmohan Singh must not talk with Pakistan at the cost of the life
of innocent Indians. The Indian government is just making statements
which clearly shows that it does not have any unambiguous Pakistan
policy.
from: Senthil Kumar S
Posted on: Feb 18, 2010 at 07:27 IST
Pakistan must look into itself and stop advising and finding faults
with others.
from: Anand
Posted on: Feb 18, 2010 at 09:02 IST
I totally agree with M N Panini's comment that dialogue with Pakistan
at this stage means that extremists would bully the interlocuters into
accepting their agenda or else escalate their violent terrorism. They
see it as a win-win situation.
Just think about this- the ISI under Hamid Gul created the Kashmir
insurgency and after 22 years of murder,rape and arson they want us to
‘talk’. Isn’t it amazing how they have succeeded in legitimizing a
terrorist act? Any further dialogue with Pakistan will be a dangerous
precedent.
from: DEBARATA BHATTACHARYA
Posted on: Feb 18, 2010 at 17:34 IST
On the 17th of this month, sent a note to you which you have not
selected to publish. I wanted to comment that the note is not very
different in tone or content from many of those that you have
published here. I'm neither a trouble making antagonist nor a
fanatical patriot. What I said was very matter of factly. I'm Indian.
I read most English language newspapers of Pakistan EVERY day. What I
said (except the last sentence making the case for ID cards for all
Indians) has been the tone, content, and fear expressed in frequent op-
ed pieces of Pakistan. Go figure!
from: Ramaiah
Posted on: Feb 19, 2010 at 19:00 IST
http://beta.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article107788.ece
Opinion » Op-Ed
February 18, 2010 For Indo-Pakistan concord
V. R. Krishna Iyer
PTI Building Peace: This file photo shows a Pakistani soldier greeting
a BSF jawan on the occassion of Holi at the Attari - Wagah
International Border. A powerful awakening among the masses on both
sides is required for the successful India-Pak relationship.
The supreme act of patriotism for both Indians and Pakistanis will be
to stop the confrontation between their two countries and establish
just peace.
Who but the justices of the sub-continent will tell the governing
classes of India and Pakistan to go for an “ephphatha” to make both
countries listen to possible settlement measures as an urgent
desideratum for survival and development? (Ephphatha is an Aramaic
word that means “to be opened.”)
We are ready for peace talks, India had said. That statement was
welcomed by Pakistan. The start of a serious, responsible dialogue is
bound to produce — if it turns out to be successful — peace and
prosperity, and augur well for a new world order. But communal views
today mar harmony among the Indo-Pakistan humanity. Such an epic event
cannot happen merely by the leaders meeting and talking. It requires a
powerful awakening among the masses on both sides.
At the bottom of it all is the Kashmir dispute, which is now communal
as well as military. Meanwhile, China and the U.S. tacitly support
Pakistan.
Is Jammu & Kashmir a theological state? No. It was not an Islamic
state because its royal ruler was a Hindu. Nor was it a Hindu state
since the bulk of its population was Muslim. The Hindu ruler acceded
his territory to the Indian Republic, a secular, socialist state. And
the only political organ of J&K was the National Conference, which was
Muslim-oriented. Its outstanding leader was Sheikh Abdullah. The
leader of the pro-Pakistan group, and Pakistan's first President, was
M.A. Jinnah. This thoroughly westernised barrister was in his younger
days a member of the Congress, before switching over to the Muslim
League. His first messages to Pakistan were secular in nature.
When the second Prime Minister of India, Lal Bahadur Shastri, suddenly
died in Tashkent in the Soviet Union, his bier was carried, among
others, by the President of Pakistan who was there for bilateral
talks. What a fine gesture it was. A notable memorial for Shastri
today stands in Tashkent. There is indeed a bedrock of sanity and
amity between the two peoples and their leaders.
A resident of Tirur in Kerala's Malabar region was the secretary of a
political party in Pakistan, and on the few occasions I visited
Pakistan decades ago he used to call on me with affection. There was a
People's Human Rights Commission headed by a former Chief Justice of
Pakistan who cherished my presence. When Zia-ul Haq, the President of
Pakistan, died, a Chief Justice was made pro-tem President. He invited
me to his palace. He said that house was honoured by my entry.
Political obscurantism
Indo-Pakistan friendship will thrive if it is cultivated. It will mark
a benign portent if both countries come to terms with each other. A
21st century Indo-Pakistan concord will be a historic event in Asia.
What then stands in the way? It is nothing but political obscurantism.
The army can win only with the common person supporting it. If it is
to become feasible, there must be a people's peace movement. So we now
want people's peace.
“There never was a good war or bad peace,” wrote Benjamin Franklin.
The supreme act of patriotism for Indians and Pakistanis will be to
stop the confrontation between their countries and establish just
peace. A creative federalism can end the war tomorrow.
What is the way to create Indo-Pakistan understanding and friendship?
This should be done not only by politicians but also by the people.
Islam stands for peace and stability. Unfortunately, Jinnah,
Pakistan's founder-leader, was secular and loved his Malabar Hill
bungalow in Bombay till the end. But since then communalism has
conditioned the people's outlook. Therefore the mullahs and the
moulvis and other theological species have made Pakistan an Islamic
state. It is said that Jinnah did not know how to read the Koran. But
today the Koran is the Constitution and the political leaders are
intrinsically Islamic.
One of the first pre-conditions for Indo-Pakistan rapport is a
solution to the J&K issue. The legal accession by the Maharaja made
that State an integral part of the Indian Republic. Nevertheless,
certain determined elements are today ready to die for the “cause.”
The Indian Constitution stands for religious liberalism, and J&K need
not worry even for a moment that Islam would be in danger or the faith
would be fouled by it being a part of India. The huge expenditure on
maintaining war-readiness is a grave drain on the resources of both
countries. The role of the U.S. in subsidising Pakistan with weapons
has, over time, made it a dependant of America. It is a pity the U.S.
moved huge quantities of weaponry into Pakistani hands on the pretext
of driving out the Soviet Union from Afghanistan. That military
assistance still swells Pakistan's arms arsenal.
When Jawaharlal Nehru once protested to President Eisenhower about the
inequity, he virtually advised India to beg the U.S. for arms. Nehru,
with his characteristic pride, famously told the U.S. President that
Indians were no international mendicants for weapons. What is more
disconcerting is that China is today with Pakistan. Equally
unfortunate is the fact that the Soviet Union, which was once a close
ally and could balance out the U.S. aid to Pakistan, is no longer
around, and its successor-state is not as powerful as the Soviet Union
was. These developments in China and Russia have made an adverse
difference to India.
Statesmanship argues powerfully for a settlement of the Indo-Pakistan
estrangement.
Today both countries are largely insensitive to the cause of peace.
Some Jesus must whisper into their minds an ephphatha. Let us prove
the Mahatma right when he observed: “A day will come when the world
will approach India in its quest for peace and India will become the
light of the world.”
There are many Hindu religious centres and even a Hindu college still
on Pakistan territory. The converse is true, too: Ajmer in Rajasthan
is an important religious centre for the Muslim community. General Zia
used to make pilgrimages to the Ajmer shrine. Religion is irreligious
if it divides. Allah is the cosmos of one world; so is Adi Sankara's
Advaita. The state is secular. There is no Islamic Pakistan or Hindu
Bharat; all belong to the same universe. Bigotry is anti-God. God is
no fanatic; he does not kill but integrates and fraternises. We are
all one.
The possession of nuclear weapon capability by both countries is a
grave danger. Either ban it from both, or have a joint control body.
Or else, at some stage of the conflict both New Delhi and Islamabad
will turn to ashes. These thoughts have burning relevance now since
representatives of both countries are going to meet later this month,
apparently without reservations. India had suspended a four-year-old
peace process with Pakistan after the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai by
Pakistan-based Islamist militants in 2008.
When Nikita Khrushchev sent Soviet warships to Cuba with nuclear arms,
John F. Kennedy said his fleet, duly armed, would stop that advance. A
world-scale confrontation seemed imminent. At that point, one great
man, Bertrand Russell, travelled from city to city and held press
conferences. In London he told the British people that unless the
disaster was averted they would not eat their breakfast the following
day. But none, not even Nehru, woke up to his message. Except one man:
Khrushchev himself. He withdrew the Soviet fleet, and saved the world.
A similar drama awaits us unless potential nuclear terrorism is
stopped right now. Dinner parties in Delhi and Id events in Islamabad
will all end. Tomorrow may be too late. It needs no astrologer to
predict that the Asian humanity's survival is in peril. Awake, arise.
It's now or never.
Experts back India-Pakistan dialogue
India to Pakistan: No composite dialogue
Outcome of Feb. 25 talks not to be prejudged: Pak
Comments:
An excellent article by Mr V R Krishna Iyer. Our political leadership
should come out of prejudices on bilateral relationship with Pakistan.
We should not allow mayopic media and bellicose nationalists to
dictate our agenda on our neighboring state. Peaceful co-excistence of
both the countries is necessary for the socio-political and economical
development of the region. For that, ruling elites should allow people
from both the countries to mingle freely.
from: Jyothis K A
Posted on: Feb 18, 2010 at 17:40 IST
V. R. Krishna Iyer's is an impassioned plea to the people, opinion
makers and the rulers of India and Pakistan to think of ways to bring
lasting peace to our sub-continent. From the decades old confrontation
between India and Pakistan, only the arms sellers of the world have
benefitted. Competitive military build-up has bled the two countries
of funds so vitally needed to fight poverty and disease in both of
them. Any attempt to foster friendly relations between the two
countries, will call for a give and take approach and this will need
conditioning the minds of the people on both sides. The governments
and the opinion makers in the two countries have to take up this
responsibility. Words of wisdom from the learned jurist have to be
heeded.
from: K.Vijayakumar
Posted on: Feb 18, 2010 at 18:10 IST
The most sensible Article and comments, I have read after long time.
There is no other solution to the problems of Indian Sub-continent ,
except peace and respect of each other. Terrorists will be defeated
naturally when these two countries would respect feelings and vision
of majority of their people who want to live in peace and friendship
since seperation and independence. I come from Lahore but our elders
were all born and bread in India. How can we forget mother land when
extremists on both sides continue to create hurdles on the road to
peace. We all should stand up together and fight those who are
opposing peace talk between the two countries where all problems can
be resolved.
Otherwise, the whole region will engulf in flames without any shadow
of doubt and if Indian Political and Extremists Groups are of the
vision that they can defeat Pakistan with power, then they are all day
dreaming. IF the World together can not fight only Khans, how India
alone with help of its close allies would defeat the Muslims in whole
of sub-continent with power and arms?
from: Javed Iqbal
Posted on: Feb 19, 2010 at 05:33 IST
It is nicely written. While I was in Libya some two decades back,
fellow Pakistanis always used to blame their politicians for dividing
India and Pakistan. Sentiments are okay. But we have to be careful
about the political and military establishments of Pakistan, who seem
to propogate the policy of hatreness.
from: S.R. MURALIDHARAN
Posted on: Feb 19, 2010 at 18:26 IST
http://beta.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article108484.ece
Jammu, February 25, 2010 Indo-Pak talks a 'futile exercise', says BJP
PTI
The Hindu BJP president Nitin Gadkari. Photo: S. Gopakumar
U.S. for resumption of direct India-Pakistan talks
Indian networks behind terror attacks in India: Rehman Malik
I have come to bridge differences: Salman Bashir
Bracketing Saeed with talks counter-productive, says Pakistan
Terming the Indo-Pak Foreign Secretary-level talks on Thursday a
“meaningless and futile exercise”, the BJP said it failed to
understand why New Delhi should hold dialogue with the government of a
country whose people do not listen to it.
“Today is a black day in Indian history. Pakistan is supporting
terrorists. It does not stop cross-border terrorism. It does not have
control over terrorists moving freely in that country. Pakistan
government is allowing terrorists to use their soil and groom them.
With such a country, Government of India is holding talks”, BJP
president Nitin Gadkari said while addressing a rally here.
“It is shameful. It is a black day for us. I do not understand what
pressures are forcing India to hold talks with Pakistan”, he said.
Mr. Gadkari said, “Today talks are going on with Pakistan government.
I don’t understand why we are holding talks with Pakistan government
when the people of that country do not listen to its government”.
“There is no meaning in these talks. It is a futile exercise”, the BJP
chief said.
“What happened after 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks? People of Pakistan
refused to take the bodies of the slain terrorists, who were
identified. Their families and places were also identified. Pakistan
government first denied involvement in the incident but when the
entire plan was exposed, they kept mum. And we are holding talks with
this government”, he said.
“Pakistan started proxy war with India (in Jammu and Kashmir),” he
said, adding it was being continued. “They (Pakistan) are fuelling
cross-border terrorism. They support Lashkar, Taliban, al Qaeada and
ISI.”
Accusing the Congress of being supporting minorities and militant
forces in the country in “the garb of secularism”, Mr. Gadkari said,
“By all this Congress has created a new country within the country.
They have committed this sin for which they will have to pay.” On
Kashmir, he said as long as the Congress was in power at the Centre, a
solution to the Kashmir issue was “impossible”.
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/article113457.ece
chhotemianinshallah
February 23, 2010 Trying to change
At the Bharatiya Janata Party's National Council meet at Indore, the
new man in, Nitin Gadkari, scored high on style quotient. Summing up
the mood were the lyrics from an old Bollywood song to which he
swayed: life is a puzzle; it makes you cry and it makes you laugh.
With two defeats in succession, the BJP has lately had more occasions
to cry than laugh, and it was clear to those who watched the
proceedings that Mr. Gadkari — his easy, genteel manner
notwithstanding — was not about to let the drift continue. In his
addresses, the BJP chief touched upon a multiplicity of issues:
indiscipline in party ranks; the trend in the upper echelons towards
ostentation and personal ambition; the need to widen the party's
catchment area by roping in the poor, especially Dalits; and of
course, the mandatory doffing of the hat to Ayodhya and the Ram
Mandir. Mr. Gadkari set himself apart in other ways too, plainly
telling partypersons not to touch his feet or flatter him in the hope
of easy rewards.
For the BJP, Mr. Gadkari is its first bit of good news in a long time.
Whatever the impact of his plain speaking on the party's squabbling
second-rung leadership, it is a fair bet that the rank and file will
welcome the shift towards commitment and hard work. Yet his objectives
are easier outlined than achieved. Personal ambition and factionalism
have taken deep root in a party once known for its difference but now
self-avowedly revelling in “seven-star” culture. Nor can an innately
exclusivist party suddenly train itself to embrace a broad-based,
inclusive agenda. Mr. Gadkari's own words illustrate the inherent
difficulty of achieving this transition. The BJP chief pleaded with
the Muslim community to voluntarily hand over the Ram Mandir site to
Hindus and, in the same breath, decried the “appeasement” of Muslims.
A spokesperson's clarification that the reference was to the Congress
general secretary, Digvijay Singh visiting alleged terrorists in
Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh made the meaning worse. It implied that
visiting alleged terrorists amounted to appeasing Muslims. In setting
a broader agenda for the BJP, Mr. Gadkari is simply trying to make a
virtue of necessity. In truth, the BJP is in dire straits. Its May
2009 general election performance was its worst in two decades. The
party's allies have deserted it and its equations with those that
remain, including the trusted Shiv Sena, are shaky. And while Mr.
Gadkari may have taken potshots at the Gandhi dynasty, he ought to
know that that function is fulfilled in the BJP by its mentor in
Jhandewalan.
Comments:
"Power corrupts people" is so true to BJP. While ruling,the leaders
needed so called go-getters around, even giving by to means and
methods. So staying away from power is usually a blessing, and
hopefully the party will go back to its moorings. Putting a no-one-
like as the president has helped to at least end the avalanche of
negativity from the media and other quarters. As a party BPJ, has yet
to create a viable idealogical space before running power rides.
from: S.Sistla
Posted on: Feb 23, 2010 at 06:51 IST
The media which was largely behind the BJP during its "India shining"
days took an about turn after the NDA lost power in 2004.Even though
the internal dissensions adversally affected BJP in the 2009 Lok Sabha
and State elections, it was the media playing its adversorial role to
the hilt that knocked the BJP out. The CPM, with its transgressions
from its core ideology in West Bengal had already dug the political
grave for the Left parties and with the BJP ceasing to be a formidable
opposition party, the political opposition in the country has become
ineffective.The Congress and its allies did not therefore had to face
a storm against them which would have been kicked up by the
unprecedented increase in prices of foodgrains etc if a strong
opposition were in place. If Nitin Gadkari could strngthen the BJP
politically, taking care not to inflame communal passions in the
process, he would be doing a great service to the world's largest
democracy. Indian democracy cannot survive without a strong opposition
in parliament.
from: K.Vijayakumar
Posted on: Feb 23, 2010 at 16:51 IST
http://beta.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article111650.ece
INDIA & PAKISTAN
Back to talks
JOHN CHERIAN
As the Foreign Secretaries meet in the resumed dialogue process, India
will prefer cross-border terrorism to be on top of the agenda.
V. SUDERSHAN
U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates with External Affairs Minister
S.M. Krishna in New Delhi on January 19.
The announcement by the Indian government in early February that it
was ready to start talking with Pakistan again has been hailed by the
international community as a positive move. Domestically, barring the
dissonant voices from the Bharatiya Janata Party and its smaller right-
wing allies, the move has been generally welcomed.
The terror blast in Pune on February 13 has not derailed the meeting
of Foreign Secretaries scheduled for February 25. External Affairs
Minister S.M. Krishna, reacting to the Pune incident, said that “the
dark forces of terrorism are against peace and amity between the two
neighbours”. The Indian government has reiterated that the talks will
go ahead. At a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) held
a few days after the explosion, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao was
asked to raise the issue during the talks in case evidence of a
foreign hand emerged.
New Delhi, anyway, had already let it be known that it would prefer
the focus of the scheduled talks to be the threat posed by cross-
border terrorism. The CCS stressed that the future of the talks
depended on Pakistan’s willingness to discuss terrorism emanating from
within its borders. Islamabad, meanwhile, has signalled that it wants
the talks to continue within the format agreed on in 2004, when the
two countries resumed their dialogue after a long break. In the
“composite dialogue” that followed, all outstanding issues between the
two countries, including Kashmir, were discussed.
India has said that it wants the new round of talks to be “open-ended”
so that all issues affecting peace and security can be discussed.
Indian officials, however, emphasised that the predominant issue for
them would be “counter-terrorism”. Pakistani officials have said that
they will not allow the dialogue process to be bogged down in the
issue of the format of the talks. At the same time, they would be
pushing for discussions on all the major issues.
The current stance of the Indian government is in marked contrast to
the hard-line posture it adopted until very recently. Senior officials
in the External Affairs Ministry were ruling out talks until late
January. “Terrorism and negotiations cannot go on together. Pakistan
has to do much more for the dialogue to resume,” said an official.
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram stated that Pakistan was not doing
enough to combat terrorism on its soil. He went on to add that
Islamabad would be held accountable for any new acts of terror on
Indian territory.
According to observers, many factors have influenced the sudden
reversal of the stance New Delhi adopted after the Mumbai terror
attacks of November 2008. The most obvious one is the growing American
pressure to resume the dialogue process. A host of leading United
States officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and
Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, have been visiting India to pile on
the pressure. Its “Af-Pak” envoy, Richard Holbrooke, too made a couple
of trips to New Delhi to persuade India to go back to the negotiating
table.
It is no secret that the U.S. considers the Kashmir issue an important
factor in the ongoing efforts to find a political and military
solution to the conflict in Afghanistan. Senior American officials
have been saying that the tensions between India and Pakistan are
seriously undermining the U.S. war efforts. President Barack Obama is
due to visit India in the middle of this year.
The London Conference on Afghanistan, held in January, may also have
influenced the thinking of the Indian government. The conference was a
diplomatic morale-booster for a beleaguered Pakistan as the
international community acknowledged its key role in Afghanistan.
Islamabad also successfully lobbied to deny New Delhi a meaningful
role in the diplomatic efforts under way to bring peace to
Afghanistan. India was not even invited to the recent Istanbul summit
on Afghanistan because of pressure from Pakistan. “India knows the
only way it can edge into the Afghan dialogue and hope to influence
the Taliban negotiations is to first reopen the diplomatic channel
with Pakistan,” the international security company Stratfor noted in a
recent paper.
The Pakistan government has been loudly complaining that because of
India’s military belligerence and stonewalling of talks, the Pakistan
Army is being forced to fight a war on “two fronts”. Senior Indian
government officials have warned on several occasions that another
terror attack on its territory could mean war. In a speech made in
December, Indian Army chief Gen. Deepak Kapoor said that the country
had to be prepared for a “two-front” war, with China and Pakistan, and
this gave Pakistan another reason not to withdraw troops along the
Indian border and deploy them in the fight against the local Taliban.
Gen. Kapoor had also made the alarming claim that the “possibility of
a limited war under a nuclear overhang is still a reality, at least in
the Indian subcontinent”.
Pakistan Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani told the Pakistani media
in early February that though the army was alert to the threat posed
by local militants, it would remain an “India-centric” institution
unless Kashmir and the water issues were resolved. Pakistan has been
claiming that dams built by India have seriously affected the flow of
water into the Indus valley. In a meeting held in Lahore in the second
week of February, officials of the two countries agreed to hold
further talks on the issue in March and May this year in order to
expedite the pace of dispute resolution.
Pakistan’s insecurity
Gen. Kayani said that peace and stability in South Asia should “not be
made hostage to a single terrorist act by a non-state actor”,
referring to the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Other complaints of Islamabad
against New Delhi relate to the alleged support provided by India to
separatist elements in Balochistan and the Indian role in Afghanistan.
All these factors, coupled with India’s status as the predominant
regional power, have added to Pakistan’s growing sense of insecurity.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said recently that his
country too was facing Mumbai-type attacks. “We cannot protect our own
citizens. How can we guarantee that there wouldn’t be any more
terrorist hits on India?” he said.
In a survey released in the third week of February, a United Kingdom-
based risk assessment agency, Maplecroft, listed Pakistan third and
India sixth in its annual Terrorism Risk Index. Robert Gates, during
his visit to New Delhi in January, warned that Al Qaeda and regional
terrorist groups aligned to it were determined to incite a war between
the two nuclear-armed Asian neighbours. Indian and Pakistani leaders
will meet formally at the South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC) summit in April in Bhutan. A favourable diplomatic
climate will go a long way in making the summit a success. According
to reports, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his new National
Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon were in favour of a resumption of
the dialogue process.
The sudden about-turn by India has been welcomed warmly by the U.S.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State P.J. Crowley acknowledged that the
U.S. had been “encouraging steps that both India and Pakistan could
take to address mutual concerns and to take appropriate steps so that
tensions can be reduced”. Crowley added that dialogue between India,
Pakistan and Afghanistan was key to achieving stability in the region.
This shows that the Obama administration views India-Pakistan
relations and the Kashmir problem as being inextricably linked with
the ongoing war in Afghanistan. It wants to exit from Afghanistan with
minimum collateral political and military damage, and Pakistan’s role
is crucial to achieve this. The U.S. wants the Pakistan Army to focus
all its energy and firepower on the Afghan front.
Washington has also been trying to reassure New Delhi that it is not
once again tilting towards Islamabad. U.S. officials accompanying
Gates during his India visit said that their country viewed India as
“a regional and an emerging world power”. Gates even expressed his
understanding of the Indian position on terror attacks, which New
Delhi claims are either instigated or organised by Pakistan-based
militant groups. “I think it is not unreasonable to assume that Indian
patience would be limited if there are further attacks,” he added.
Another prominent U.S. visitor to New Delhi was the Chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, John Kerry. After a meeting with
Manmohan Singh on February 15, Kerry said the Foreign Secretary-level
talks between India and Pakistan should proceed as scheduled despite
the Pune incident. He said if there was evidence of a Pakistani hand
in the Pune bombing, then “it should be the first thing on the table”
during the talks.
The Pakistan Prime Minister told Kerry in Islamabad that his
government had once again offered to enhance intelligence sharing with
India after the Pune blast. He said that the blast was part of the
terrorist agenda to derail bilateral talks between the countries.
Volume 27 - Issue 05 :: Feb. 27-Mar. 12, 2010
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20100312270502500.htm
TERRORISM
Pune’s turn
LYLA BAVADAM
in Pune
The February 13 explosion seems to follow the same pattern as the
26/11 attacks in Mumbai in 2008.
REUTERS
Firefighters at the site of the explosion on February 13.
North Main Road in Pune’s Koregaon Park has always been an upmarket
area. When Pune was not quite on everyone’s map, the Koregaon Park
road was scrub jungle with a few bungalows scattered alongside the
riverbanks – an elite but remote area. With the arrival of Osho
(Acharya Rajneesh) in the 1970s, the population of the area increased
suddenly. In the wake of Rajneesh devotees came street vendors,
autorickshaws and roadside cafe shacks.
German Bakery is one such cafe. It was an instant hit with visitors
for its eclectic menu and laid-back atmosphere. Its small shack-like
structure added to its hippie feel. Local residents usually avoided
it, saying it had an unsavoury reputation, allegedly for drugs and
prostitution. For the person or persons who placed the bomb in German
Bakery on February 13, the reputation of the place was clearly of
little consequence. What mattered presumably was that it attracted
foreigners, was across the road from the lane that led to the Osho
Ashram and was diagonally across the road from the Pune Chabad House,
which is easily identifiable with a large signboard proclaiming
“Mashiach is On His Way” (the Messiah is Coming) mounted on the single-
storey building. The Chabad House is about 200 metres away from German
Bakery.
It was 7-30 in the evening when the explosive device went off. It was
clearly heard over the din of the Saturday evening traffic as far as
two kilometres away. Initial reports that a gas cylinder had exploded
were quickly dismissed – the charred bodies and the obvious power of
the blast pointed to a bomb. Besides, investigators found that the
cylinders in the kitchen were intact.
At the site, the destruction was surprisingly localised. The blast
damaged two nearby shops minimally – the liquor shop immediately next
to German Bakery had its shutters down, but Cafe Coffee Day, located
after that, had shattered glass strewn all over and upturned
flowerpots and its signboard was missing.
German Bakery was, of course, totally destroyed. It had an outer wall
of splintered bamboo painted green and an acrylic sheet for a roof.
The bamboo was blasted right across the road and bits of the acrylic
sheet were thrown up onto a Gulmohar tree nearby – they dangled
precariously. One limb of the tree was ripped off.
The bakery was situated at the corner of a small lane. Across this is
the five-star O Hotel. The police later said the CCTVs of the hotel
might prove to be of use. Further down the lane is Hotel Surya Villa,
where, the police say, David Coleman Headley stayed while
reconnoitring the area. Under interrogation in Chicago, where he is in
custody, the Pakistani-American reportedly told investigators that he
had visited the area twice within a year – before the November 2008
attack in Mumbai and in March 2009.
According to Rajendra Wanjale, the local Maharashtra Navnirman Sena
(MNS) corporator, people rushed to help the injured immediately after
the bomb went off. He said some MNS workers present near the site
assisted the emergency services in carrying victims and collecting
dismembered bodies. The police cordoned off the area soon after and
only investigating agency personnel, journalists and some local
politicians were allowed in, though a few political party workers
managed to get in too. Among these the Sena ones were the most
officious; they brandished the bamboo sticks that were blown off the
wall of the bakery and used them to patrol the edges of the
barricades.
Soon after the blast, a team of army explosives experts arrived in an
army truck with “The Blasters” emblazoned on its side. Also present
were teams from the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and the Police
Forensics Department. Ramesh Bagwe, Maharashtra Minister of State for
Home, announced that the ATS would handle the investigation, thereby
making it clear that it was an attack by terrorists.
Over the next few hours a small parade of politicians passed through
the site. They included the Nationalist Congress Party’s Ajit Pawar,
Minister for Water Resources and Guardian Minister for Pune; the
Congress’ Harshvardhan Patil, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs; and
Ramesh Bagwe, also of the Congress; and Rajendra Wanjale.
Prakash Javadekar, spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party, who
hails from Pune, held an impromptu press conference a few yards from
the site of the explosion. “Terror and talks can’t go together,” he
said. Some journalists asked him if this was the appropriate forum for
pushing his party line. Blood was splattered everywhere and bits of
charred flesh lay scattered – some on the further side of the wide
road.
Around midnight, there was a small fracas at the barricade. There were
crowds of curious people, and the police pushed out the cordon so that
the blast site was far from the crowds. A policeman was trying to
prevent a large blonde woman from entering the area. She shouted that
she wanted to go in and take pictures of the site. She then
belligerently announced that she was from the Chabad House, which
immediately had reporters surrounding her. That seemed to be what she
wanted, for within seconds she pushed forward a rabbi who was
introduced as Rabbi Kupchik. The latter hesitantly addressed the media
after being egged on by the vociferous woman who, it turned out, was
his wife. He talked of the coming of the Messiah and how Chabad
believed in peace. His wife provided more newsy titbits. “We are very
safe… we are very happy with the security given to us by the police,”
she said.
PTI
The road near German Bakery two days after the explosion. Foreign
tourists are a common sight on this road.
Two small boys dressed in traditional Jewish clothes tugged at her
dress nervously. She ordered them back to the Chabad House, and they
walked the 100 m back alone. At the Chabad, lights were blazing in all
the rooms and there were many people inside. They seemed to be seated
around a large table, but policemen did not allow anyone to linger.
Clearly, they were all making a point, as was the rabbi’s wife, that
they were not scared of anyone.
At about 1-30 a.m., Pune Police Commissioner Satya Pal Singh spoke
informally to the media. An impressive amount of information had been
collected, given that the blast had taken place just five hours
earlier. He said the bomb had been placed in a bag next to a wall of
the bakery. The bomb blasted a six feet by four feet hole in the wall,
which absorbed much of the impact and possibly prevented greater
damage.
The bakery staff were immediately questioned by the police. They said
one of the customers had reported an unclaimed bag to a waiter. The
Police Commissioner said the police were working on whether the bomb
exploded when touched or whether it had a timer or whether it was
detonated by a remote-controlled device. He discounted rumours that
another bomb had been found in an abandoned rickshaw close by.
The army team worked quietly and rapidly, using its kit to test bits
of material from inside the bakery. Beyond a curt reply that the kit
aided in identifying the type of explosive used, the army men were
reticent. There were rumours that the explosive used was ammonium
nitrate and that the bomb was a crude one.
Though not as specifically or viciously targeted as the Mumbai terror
attack, the German Bakery blast is part of an unmistakable pattern. It
is not difficult to piece it together – a popular place that attracted
a transient population of foreigners and near a Jewish prayer house.
The pattern resembles that of the attacks on the Taj and Oberoi hotels
and the Chabad House in Mumbai.
In a manner of speaking, the Pune attack was waiting to happen. Both
the Osho Ashram and the Chabad House had been given warnings to be
alert. After the Mumbai attack, the Osho Ashram has been cautious
about allowing visitors in. This correspondent was told at the gate
the evening before the blast, “You can only come in if you register
and are wearing these robes.”
Immediately after the Mumbai attack, the Chabad House in Koregaon Park
was given protection as were the synagogues in Pune. At the time
Solomon Sopher, president of the Baghdadi Jewish Community, told
Frontline that he was in regular touch with the Police Commissioner of
Pune and that the community had been advised to make private
arrangements for security at synagogues; install CCTVs and grills; and
raise the outer walls by at least three feet. Sopher said, “Indian
Jews are not scared. We still believe the attacks are anti-Israel and
that it is not Indian Muslims per se but a larger network of Islamist
militants who are involved.” Policemen have been manning a sandbagged
post outside the Chabad House gate ever since 26/11. A scanner
apparently checked all pedestrians and vehicular traffic around the
Chabad House.
The Mumbai attack provided a pattern, and security agencies have been
working on that from the point of view of preventive action as well as
for ongoing investigations. The pattern indicated that terrorists
targeted foreigners, tourists, Jews in general and Israelis in
particular. A senior police officer in Pune told Frontline: “The idea
is to destabilise the economy, and to include India in the larger
fight against anti-Islamist forces… or what they perceive as anti-
lslamist forces such as the U.S. and Israel.” After 26/11, all Chabad
houses in India have either police or private security. The purpose of
a Chabad house is to reach out to Jews, and so all such institutions
are in areas that are popular with Israeli and other Jewish
travellers.
In the same way as Chabad houses are located in tourist areas, there
are “German Bakeries” all over India in areas frequented by
international travellers. At one time German bakeries existed in many
parts of India and were ventures started by German missionaries who
baked a variety of breads and made cheese to fund their charities.
They developed a reputation for their excellent fare. Now, even though
there are no German-owned bakeries, the name is maintained as part of
the tradition and, of course, to attract foreigners. Many German
bakeries still survive all over India, especially in hill stations
where they have been bought over by local residents who run them on a
commercial basis. By an eerie coincidence, there are a number of
“German Bakeries” close to Chabad houses in a number of places in
India.
Volume 27 - Issue 05 :: Feb. 27-Mar. 12, 2010
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20100312270502700.htm
TERRORISM
Sitting ducks
ANUPAMA KATAKAM
The Pune explosion confirms the fear that any number of urban centres
in India are vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
VIVEK BENDRE
Relatives grieve for Saied Abdul Khani, the Iranian national who was
killed in the February 13 explosion.
Mumbai was on high alert for the past couple of months. There was
credible information that another terror attack was planned, the
police said. Popular restaurants, cinema halls, tourist sites and
other public places were warned to step up security. According to
informed sources, other cities were also warned of possible attacks,
but they may not have taken the threat seriously. Pune, unfortunately,
became the latest victim of what seems a deliberate attack by Pakistan-
based terrorists.
The February 13 bomb explosion at the popular German Bakery in Pune,
which killed 11 people and injured close to 60, came a little more
than a year after the gruesome 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai.
Militant jehadi groups across the border, such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba
(LeT), have been planning strikes in Indian cities. The Indian
Mujahideen (I.M.), a home-grown Islamist terror group, appears to act
as foot soldiers for the jehadis. Foreigners in India, particularly
Israelis, seem to have become major targets, a source said.
Pune, incidentally, has been housing active militant/terror modules,
investigations have revealed. Two names that have cropped up in
connection with the blast are those of men who originally belonged to
Pune. Though their families still live in the city, the men have gone
missing and are probably based in camps across the border.
Preliminary investigations reveal that a bag loaded with explosives
was left under one of the tables at the bakery by two men. CCTV
footage from a hotel opposite the bakery was expected to provide
crucial details of this part of the operation, said Satya Pal Singh,
the Police Commissioner. Satya Pal Singh told the media that a remote-
controlled device may have been used to trigger the bomb. He added,
however, that terror attacks in the country in the past were not known
to have been carried out by devices controlled from significant
distances. The inference, therefore, is that the perpetrators were
present nearby. The Pune police, which have launched a massive hunt
for the suspects, said that they had a few good leads that were
expected to yield results soon.
The police said that available evidence pointed to the involvement of
jehadi groups. Satya Pal Singh said what caused the blast was a
mixture of RDX, ammonium nitrate and petroleum hydrocarbon oil. The
combination resembles what militant groups used in the attacks in
Ahmedabad and Surat in July 2008, for which the I.M. was held
responsible. Satya Pal Singh said the stamp of the I.M. could be
recognised in the Pune bombing.
Why Pune?
German Bakery at Koregaon Park was a sitting duck for a terror attack.
Pune attracts hundreds of foreigners every year, mainly because of the
Osho Ashram, which is one of the first ashrams in the world to offer a
free-spirited and liberated atmosphere for mind healing and so on. The
teachings of the controversial guru Rajneesh, the ashram’s founder,
have drawn people to it from across the globe for decades.
German Bakery has been around for 22 years and is a favourite with the
ashramites. It was one of the few places in Pune that served
international food and was frequented by people of all nationalities
including Indians, particularly college students. Investigators
believe that this is what made it a target, apart from its proximity
to the Chabad House, a Jewish religious centre, which is just across
the road. There was an Iranian and an Italian among the 10 people who
died in the explosion.
Chabad houses are established all over the world by an orthodox Jewish
religious group called the Lubavitch. These centres are known to host
programmes, activities and services for local Jewish communities and
tourists. The Mumbai branch, located in Nariman House, was a target of
the 26/11 attacks.
There is believed to be evidence suggesting that the Lashkar has been
recruiting in the city, and several key I.M. operatives are known to
have lived here, a city known for its automobile and engineering
industries, IT industry, universities and military base, and the
National Defence Academy.
Militants and Pune
Reportedly, David Headley, the Pakistani-American jehadi arrested in
the United States, had visited the city and even German Bakery twice.
The inference is that he did a “recce” of the area, which again
suggests that the Lashkar was involved.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the U.S.,
Headley spoke of a “Karachi Project” that would involve using Pakistan-
based Indian operatives to renew attacks on India. Union Home
Secretary G.K. Pillai told the media that the “project” involved the
recruitment of Indian youth by the Lashkar with the help of local
terror kingpins, training them in Pakistan, and then sending them back
for terror strikes in India.
The arrest in 2008 of Mansoor Asghar Peerbhoy, an I.M. operative,
proved that the jehad cell was operative from 2006. Peerbhoy graduated
from Pune University in 1998 and became a software engineer.
Although he worked with several U.S.-based off-shore companies in the
city, he was unhappy with what he was doing. He turned to religion,
seeking solace. Initially he stuck to the purity of Islam and stayed
clear of its politics. However, a chance meeting and subsequent
conversations with a fellow student of Quran studies altered his
thinking.
He later met Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal or Shahbandari in Pune, who
recruited him to work on Internet security that would help the Lashkar
communicate safely. The two brothers are on the most wanted list of
I.M. terrorists. Riyaz, a one-time member of the Students Islamic
Movement of India (SIMI), which is now banned, is apparently the
I.M.’s top military commander. Iqbal is an Islamist ideologue who is
mainly responsible for brainwashing and recruiting directionless
youth.
It is believed that the brothers recruited several men from the Pune
area for the Lashkar’s work. However, it is not clear whether Peerbhoy
met any of the other recruits.
Unfortunately for Peerbhoy, he was arrested in a national
counterterrorism operation in 2008. This arrest gave security agencies
details confirming the Bhatkal brothers’ involvement with militancy.
The Bhatkal brothers managed to evade arrest by going back to their
village near Bhatkal in Karnataka. It is believed they are in Pakistan
now.
Informed sources say another key operative from Pune is Mohsin
Chowdhary, who was probably recruited by the Bhatkal brothers and is
now on the loose.
The police say he could be the main person behind the German Bakery
attack, but they do not have substantive evidence.
Chowdhary apparently left his Pune home a year and a half ago and has
not been seen since. Informed sources say he was recruited by Iqbal
and trained by Riyaz. Chowdhary’s story is quite typical. He lived in
the Khondwa locality, which housed many refugees from the 1992-93
communal riots. Horror stories and the persecution of this community
over the years perhaps led to his indoctrination and radicalisation.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson identifying himself as “Abu Jindal” called
The Hindu’s correspondent in Islamabad and said it was his
organisation – the Lashkar-e-Taiba al Almi – that carried out the bomb
attack. This group split from the Lashkar because it took orders only
from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
The caller told the paper that the bombing was carried out because of
India’s refusal to discuss the Kashmir issue in the coming talks with
Pakistan. He said he was calling from Miramshah in North Waziristan,
and the telephone number used to call the paper had an area code
similar to the Waziristan tribal area and the Bannu region in the
North-West Frontier Province. When The Hindu tried calling back, a
recorded voice message said the number was temporarily out of order.
The Indian government said that it had no data on an organisation by
this name. It said it believed this could be a red herring to deflect
the attention from the Lashkar, the main suspect. After the 26/11
attacks, Pakistan has been under increasing pressure to dismantle
terrorist and religious fundamentalist groups such as the Jamaat-ud-
Dawa. Nothing has happened so far.
It seems clear that although the Maharashtra Police have leads and
have even got their systems in place to issue alerts, there is nothing
more they can do to contain terror attacks, that is, until Pakistan
makes a concerted effort in this direction.
Volume 27 - Issue 05 :: Feb. 27-Mar. 12, 2010
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20100312270503000.htm
THE STATES
Cut to size
LYLA BAVADAM
in Mumbai
For a change, the government calls the Shiv Sena’s bluff in the name
of the “My Name is Khan” episode.
THOMAS PETER/REUTERS
Shah Rukh Khan arrives for the screening of his film "My Name is Khan"
at the 60th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin on
February 12.
For most Mumbaikars, the release of the Shah Rukh Khan starrer My Name
is Khan on its scheduled date of Friday, February 12, came as a
surprise. Inured as they were to the Shiv Sena having its way because
of threats of violence, the firm stand of the State government and the
police and the faith reposed in them by theatre owners were something
of a first.
The situation had brought to the fore an old, unhealthy relationship
between the government and the Shiv Sena. Just as it has become a
habit for the Sena to threaten violence if its diktats are challenged,
it has also become a pattern for the state to adopt a soft stand in
response. Whenever the Sena raised the red flag, shops would down
shutters, cinemas would agree not to screen films, writers would
apologise and playwrights would rewrite their work.
This time, however, it was a different story. According to a source in
the Congress, the Centre took a “special interest” in the matter and
instructed Chief Minister Ashok Chavan to ensure that the Sena was not
allowed to have its way. Though the Sena vandalised some theatres and
threw stones at vehicles, 36 single-screen theatres and more than half
of the multiplexes in Mumbai decided to run the film. There is no
doubt that the additional security reassured theatre owners. But the
Sena is known not to have backed off so easily in the past. According
to the grapevine, the Sena had another agenda and used its time-
honoured tactic of intimidation disguised as protest as a means to top
up its coffers. When this need was satisfied, the party let the issue
die down.
The film played to packed houses, albeit with strong police
protection, and grossed Rs.8 crore on the first day of its national
release. Pune, which along with Mumbai accounts for among the highest
shares of box office takings, turned out to be a no-show on the first
day because theatre owners responded to the Sena threat rather than
the government’s assurances. The film was released in Pune later in
the same week. Had the city screened the film on the scheduled day the
total income would have crossed Rs.10 crore, trade journals say.
Redeploying police personnel from areas with naxalite activity and
posting them temporarily for duty so that My Name is Khan can be
safely screened might appear a little absurd, and even the Chief
Minister said that “it is not fair or correct that this has to
happen”. However, given the Sena’s record in Mumbai, it was
unavoidable. Pathologically possessive of the city, the Sena has held
it to ransom over the decades.
But even a casual analysis would show the party’s history of
hypocrisy. From severe water shortages and a steep rise in the prices
of essential commodities to a worrying increase in the number of
suicides by students and the lack of affordable housing, there is no
dearth of issues for the Sena to take up and play a valid role as a
party in opposition. But it is typical of the Sena leadership to raise
its voice against a Bollywood actor-cum-cricket team owner who merely
stated that his choice of players would depend on what his team
required and if that player happened to be a Pakistani then the Indian
Premier League should allow it.
VIVEK BENDRE
A girl holds up her ticket for the film at a theatre in Mumbai on
February 12. Youngsters reacted with joy as the film opened to packed
houses.
The joyful reactions of Mumbaikars – especially the younger generation
– at the release of the film exposed how tired the city is of the
Sena’s coercive tactics. The incident has also brought up old and
inconvenient questions relating to the effectiveness of Uddhav
Thackeray’s leadership. Bal Thackeray’s wisdom in passing on the
mantle to his son also came into question. Invariably, comparisons
between his nephew Raj Thackeray and Uddhav arose.
Raj played his cards in a canny manner in this case. Despite the
announcement of an ambitious agenda when he started the Maharashtra
Navnirman Sena (MNS) four years ago, he has done little. While
effectively staying away from the My Name is Khan episode, he chose to
pepper it with the incendiary suggestion that the Sena should attack
not just Khan but also Amitabh Bachchan for participating in an
advertisement that promotes harmony between India and Pakistan. A
source in the Congress explained, “The comment was a barbed one – Raj
was actually throwing a challenge to Uddhav since Balasaheb and
Amitabh Bachchan are respectful of each other.”
The quashing of the Sena threat was a boost for the Congress-
Nationalist Congress Party coalition and a shot in the arm for their
cadre, for whom it has been a given that when it comes to street
fighting the Sena will win regardless of who is in power.
In the aftermath of the film’s release, there has been no significant
reaction from the Sena. A Congressman shrugged this off saying, “Maybe
they realise there are more serious issues to be dealt with, and in
the aftermath of the Pune blast even they possibly think it is wrong
to continue with this non-issue.”
Volume 27 - Issue 05 :: Feb. 27-Mar. 12, 2010
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20100312270503200.htm
THE STATES
Spectacle tactics
LYLA BAVADAM
Interview with Jayant Lele, political commentator.
BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Jayant Lele says that the Shiv Sena’s project has always been power.
Professor Jayant Lele is arguably the best-known Indian commentator on
political, social and religious movements. His incisive and widely
quoted critique of the Shiv Sena, “Saffronisation of Shiv Sena:
Political Economy of City, State and Nation”, was written after the
1992 riots in Mumbai in which the Sena played a major role. The paper
traced the history of the organisation and set an agenda so as to be
able to meet the challenge of the Sena in the future. He has also
written on the history of the emergence of Maratha domination in
Maharashtra, in which he looks at the role of the Sena in the State.
Prof. Lele is currently teaching at Chulalongkorn University in
Bangkok, Thailand. He shared his views with Frontline on the Shiv Sena
in an interview in the context of the party’s most recent jingoistic
outburst.
What exactly is the Shiv Sena hoping to achieve when it chooses to
protest against things like Shah Rukh Khan’s support to hiring
Pakistani cricketers? Does the party see itself as defending Hinduism
or as defend ing the country?
I remember the story about how Uddhav [Thackeray] panicked when Sena
workers dug up the cricket pitch in Mumbai protesting against the
Pakistan team playing a match there. The only cause that he knew would
turn large sections of the population against the Sena. But the times
have changed after the Mumbai event. Anti-Pakistan posturing is more
than ever fair game in India and no mainstream political party seems
to be immune to its appeal. For what each party claims to be doing,
one better look up the speeches of the leaders for a clue. As for
Uddhav, one cannot deny the possibility of his needing one-upping with
Raj [Thackeray] while still attempting to show that the Sena’s “all-
India” Hindutva alliance is still alive.
Is there actually a seductive capacity for self-glorification that
politics like that of the Sena offers – a mixture of defenders of the
realm and defenders of the faith that directly appeals to
individuals?
Once you equate the realm with faith, then defence of the realm as
defence of the faith follows. It is the subterranean current of a
widespread belief that India that is Bharat is in essence, both
culturally and socially, a Hindu nation that was nurtured even in
Gandhiji’s nationalist politics – hence neither [M.A.] Jinnah nor [Dr
B.R.] Ambedkar could ever contemplate an alliance with it – that makes
such an equation appealing and it does not have to be made explicit
when the ostensible enemy is also believed to have originated in a
nation-state that equates faith with realm.
Violence in politics
There seems to be a general acceptance by politicians and the public
that it is natural for religion to be a part of politics. It also
follows that violence is acceptable. Could you trace the changes in
politics that have brought in this legitimacy? And why do parties that
have no real tradition of violence, like the Congress, overtly support
this? For example, the state has rarely, if ever, really clamped down
on the Sena when it issued threats.
What was subterranean under Gandhi and surfaced at times with the
tension between [Jawaharlal] Nehru and [Sardar] Patel or in the
election of [Purshottam Das] Tandon as president, etc., became overt
with the launching of the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] under the
tutelage of the RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh]. Its legitimacy got
established with the Janata Party, when blessed by Jayaprakash
Narayan, and was further bolstered when the Congress turned to
Hindutva first under Indira Gandhi and then Rajiv Gandhi. So slogans
of secularism – it was always “sarvadharma samabhava and not politics
sans religion – notwithstanding religion has always been acceptable to
people in India – “public” is something else, for me. It was only
formally not on the agenda of most parties because it was taken for
granted by people and politicians in post-Partition India and not made
“public” so as to not stir passions or to alienate the Muslim vote.
As to violence, my, not yet fully explored, sense is that the new
proliferation of violence is directly related, at least in part, to
the “anything goes” ideology that has come to prevail with the
neoliberal turn in Indian economy, which I believe started in the
1970s under Indira Gandhi and was entrenched by Rajiv Gandhi and
formally adopted by his successors.
PTI
A Shiv Sainik attacks a north Indian candidate for the Rail Board
examination in Navi Mumbai in October 2008.
Deng Xiaoping described it as “black cat, white cat” and violence is
now legitimate in all circles as long as it brings success. The
Congress party used it sparingly when it was hegemonic because it did
not need to. As to the Shiv Sena, there seem to be two reasons for the
state to be complicit in its violence – fear of greater violence in
retaliation and its neglect by a complicit police force, and the need
for some of its aspiring leaders to keep the doors open for future
alliance if the internal squabbles of the Congress stifle their
ambitions.
Could you explain the Sena in the context of its history – from when
it started off demanding better economic opportunities for
Maharashtrians to the present, when power is grasped for power’s
sake?
Its project has always been power, and that means “whatever works” –
or, as in American political science, “Politics is the art of the
possible.” Even in its Mumbai politics, it displayed well its penchant
for opportunistic alliances. The Sena did rather well in Mumbai with
its focus on economic opportunities for Maharashtrians, but its
history shows that Bal Thackeray hit upon it somewhat intuitively and
it worked at the time. With the Congress powerful and well entrenched
in the rest of the State, especially in its rural base, there was no
opportunity to extend its tentacles much further.
But by the end of the 1970s, and in the 1980s in particular, the State
Congress was on shaky ground for a variety of reasons that have to do
with the politics at the Centre and in the State as well. But
chauvinism of the kind that worked in Mumbai would not be enough for
such a move.
But once Jayaprakash Narayan legitimised Hindutva at the Centre
through coalition politics, an opportunity seemed rather obvious. Bal
Thackeray’s choice of the party name, his choice of symbols for his
various forms of spectacle, as well as the undercurrent of pervasive
middle-class sentiment in the State against Muslims as aliens –
especially among the white-collar RSS supporters – were all part of
the bundle that helped the Sena to find a niche in the rest of
Maharashtra. Hence its alliance with the BJP has been relatively more
convenient and hence more long lasting.
Its steadfast adherence to agitational, provocative, catchy, seductive
– in short, spectacular – style and an ongoing search for issues that
can grab immediate attention of the media and hopefully also bring an
increment to a somewhat more stable/stagnant electoral support form
the key to the understanding of its politics.
Chauvinistic vision of regional imbalance
With reference to Maharashtra and the issue of “outsiders”, could you
explain regional chauvinism in the context of regional developmental
imbalances?
The history of a chauvinistic vision of regional imbalance in
Maharashtra goes back to the days of the Samyukta Maharashtra
movement. It brought together all major political parties, with all
shades of ideology (perhaps for the first and the last time) to demand
the creation of a Marathi state. The visions ranged from that of a
battle against “internal colonialism” to recreating and extending a
“Shivaji state”. Bombay was the bone of contention and it was felt
that alien (read Gujarati) capital was creating obstacles for the new
state. One dimension of this was the grievance against the dominant
Gujarati-Brahmin Congress leadership (Morarji-Kher) and was centred on
the Gujaratis.
That issue went on the back burner once the State was granted but with
a promise by the State Congress elite (Y.B. Chavan in particular) to
fully protect its interests. The lingering anti-Gujarati (and anti-
capitalist) sentiment had to be extinguished. However, expectations of
the Marathi citizens of Mumbai for a better life (textile workers and
white-collar lower middle-class employees in public and private
sectors) had been raised. Since capital and its logic do not recognise
language distinctions (unless they are profitable), for both mill and
other blue-collar Marathi workers of Mumbai, things did not change
substantially in terms of wages and benefits (the Congress had major
parts of them mostly under its unions, given the close rural family
links of most of them).
However, it seems, some of the more militant unions had “South
Indians” as leaders who could have nurtured the anti-capitalist
sentiment. For similar reasons Mumbai continued to attract, in large
enough numbers, English-educated, relatively less demanding, young
applicants for white-collar (mostly clerical) jobs from the South.
It is not at all clear that Bal Thackeray’s intuition in making anti-
Southerner chauvinism an issue was based on any clear analysis of the
situation, but the fact is that it clicked. To an extent the interests
of some of the Congress elite seem to have matched. The Sena was seen
by some analysts, for good reason, as the “gendarme of the
bourgeoisie”. Bal Thackeray combined the grievances of white-collar
workers with the still prevailing sense of Marathi pride and his acid
sense of humour, and used them to great advantage. He also added the
presence of other South Indian workers to his list of targets, thus
reaching into the rapidly expanding numbers of the Marathi “informal
sector” workers and the unemployed. While the targets have shifted
since then for contingent reasons, the driving force behind the Sena’s
(and Thackeray’s in particular) appeal (and of its more recent
offshoot) has been the claim that they are the real and only
protectors of Marathi interest from the unending influx of
“outsiders”.
It would seem that parties that thrive on regional chauvinism actually
feed off poor governance, unemployment and unrest. Do you see this
being played out in Maharashtra, and, specifically Mumbai?
All political parties use “poor governance” as a whip to thrash the
government (read the party in power) for its inaction and poor
performance. Chauvinists perhaps gain some electoral advantage by
focussing on the unemployment of native sons as an example of the lack
of correct policy and poor governance. Pointing to the freedom given
to alien entrepreneurs to amass wealth at the expense of local
consumers can also add to the list of examples.
Spontaneous and spotty unrest may arise from the people because of the
experience of exploitation and discomfort and is interpreted in
chauvinistic terms. Organisations like the Sena are also good at
creating unrest and then using it as an example of poor governance by
the party in power.
Cashing in on grievance
The Sena has never really come up with any economic plan for the
development of the State and it views development issues purely from
the point of view of infrastructure. And yet it has an impressive list
of members – over 20 lakhs some years ago. How would you account for
this?
Membership of a major mainstream political party is rarely a function
of rational calculation and choice in terms of its public policy
postures (let alone its performance). The Sena has cashed in on a
permeating sense of grievance among people and a vague but powerful
chauvinistic sense of identity among different classes in the State,
both sustained through varieties of spectacle, from demonstrations and
riots to displays of the leaders’ “grandeur” and apparently apt but
rather cutting, bitter and penetrating wit. It displayed a distinct
urban bias, given its mainly urban, largely Mumbai-based leadership,
in its infrastructure projects which included a failed populist
project of free homes for some 40 lakh slum-dwellers. And its other
infrastructure projects seemed to be aimed at building support bases
for a large number of its emerging local leaders in rural areas
through a large number (mostly failed) public sector undertakings
(irrigation, roads, etc). Ad hocism rather than planning is its style
and it counts on spectacle here as well.
Dual nature of support base
The Sena has always been criticised, and in fact it uses the criticism
to sustain itself – especially among its lower cadre, who see it as a
validation. Do you think the criticism against the Sena needs to be
taken to another level instead of the standard current one which
consists of either labelling it “fascist”, “lumpen” and so on? And
does the criticism stem from a simplistic understanding of the Sena?
What do we need to understand about the Sena before embarking on a new
criticism about it?
If one wants to grasp and expose the real basis of the Sena’s
resilience and relatively intact voter support (except for the most
recent MNS show) then one should focus on the dual nature of its
support base. It has of course systematically cultivated a lot of
underclass support, and for that its spectacle tactics should be given
credit. These – riots and street gang violence – also have a dimension
of material gain, along with the sense of empowerment that they bring,
however fleeting. When you ransack a place and are allowed to get away
with it (by a co-opted or incompetent police force), you get to take
away a few coveted consumer goods. Because of such rampant defiance of
the law and the state’s often compliant neglect of it, one sees angry
judgments of lumpenisation of politics used against it.
But there is another, a far more solid, base of support of the Sena
among the lowest of the working classes, in the so-called informal
sector, and that comes from the use of its cadre and shakhas, now
spread over all major streets in most cities, for grievance
alleviation of ordinary citizens, who have neither the means nor the
power to command the attention of public officials or corporate
executives to get their difficulties solved.
PTI
Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray on his 84th birthday on January 23.
The use of violence, if necessary to get that attention, calls for
special skills of the cadre along with the clout of a party like the
Sena. This, I believe, ensures and consolidates support as well as a
sense of loyalty from many sections of society, including white-collar
middle-class workers. This aspect receives little attention from
critics who routinely label it “fascist” or “lumpen”.
What future do you see for the Sena? Do you see a place for it in
Maharashtra politics? And what will it have to do to attain political
maturity and overcome its present stagnation?
The question of its future no more hangs by the life span of its
founder-leader; that much is clear, the succession has stabilised. The
spectacle has had one of its prime elements in the aura and myth that
has been built around the founder, but that is not the only one.
The spectacular behaviour of Sainiks seems to have gained a certain
autonomy and routinisation. But the chances of the party itself being
able to stand on its own and develop what you call political maturity
(I am not sure what it means, but perhaps it means abandonment of its
current style and adherence to “normal”, “rule of law” practices) seem
at the moment somewhat dim.
The rivalry between the cousins seems to exacerbate rather than calm
down the rhetoric and the associated spectacular practices. It may
temper those, perhaps, if its factions find a way to come together
again. But even then its future will always depend on the continuity
and resilience of its machine that now extends across the State and
remains fairly active in garnering support and delivering votes. That
is the part that other parties in search of allies will continue to
find attractive.
As for developing a niche of issues that will distinguish it from
others, I expect that the bankruptcy of its imagination will continue.
Its chances of emerging as a stand-alone alternative are, in my view,
non-existent. It could still hop along for a long time under the
current interregnum as a useful ally for one or the other party, but I
am afraid it will neither improve nor die.
Volume 27 - Issue 05 :: Feb. 27-Mar. 12, 2010
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20100312270503400.htm
COMMUNALISM
Probing questions
VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN & ANUPAMA KATAKAM
The Supreme Court directive to the Special Investigation Team adds a
qualitative dimension to the Gujarat riots cases.
AJIT SOLANKI/AP
R.K. RAGHAVAN, chief of the SIT. He has said that the response to the
Supreme Court will be filed before the March 15 hearing.
On February 10, the Supreme Court directed the Special Investigation
Team (SIT) investigating the 2002 communal riots cases in Gujarat to
respond to allegations that it had withheld vital evidence regarding
the involvement of senior politicians and top bureaucrats in the
riots. The SIT has to file its response before the next hearing in the
case, scheduled for March 15.
The development highlights once again the tortuous course of the probe
into one of the worst communal carnages in independent India. In fact,
the intervention of the Supreme Court led to the setting up of the SIT
under R.K. Raghavan, a former Director of the Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI).
But even that happened in March 2008, nearly six years after the
bloodbath in the State. This was followed by the May 2009 order
stipulating trials under the supervision of the SIT. Barely a year
later, a new chapter has been added to the investigations.
The February 10 directive of the Supreme Court has come in the wake of
petitions filed by a number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
and social activists such as Devendra Bhai Pathak and Teesta Setalvad
of Citizens for Justice and Peace. They expressed serious concern
about the manner in which the trials were proceeding and alleged
serious lapses in the progress of the SIT investigation itself. The
petitioners alleged that the SIT refused to look into key aspects of
further investigation, especially those dealing with mala fide
intentions and complicity of state actors. The petitions stated that
police witnesses, working directly with the SIT, had turned hostile,
much to the shock of the trial court, and that the SIT did not ensure
adequate safety for the witnesses. The petitions also pointed out that
several people, including Chief Minister Narendra Modi, had not been
questioned by the SIT.
Affidavits, which run into 3,000 pages and include those of several
riot victims, filed along with the applications of the NGOs and
separately, give crucial and detailed information on the handling of
the communally charged situation after the Godhra train burning
incident. They relate essentially to nine cases being probed by the
SIT and cover a variety of facts such as the phone records of
policemen and the key perpetrators, locations of officers and
statements of witnesses.
The documents emphasise the tacit involvement of top police officers
in the carnage and the fact that most of them hold prominent positions
in the Gujarat government now. The petitions and the affidavits also
assert that the build-up of arsenal, men and arms for the post-Godhra
riots has not been investigated sufficiently.
The build-up, according to the petitioners, was exposed in Tehelka’s
Operation Kalank and the affidavits of police officers R.B. Sreekumar
and Rahul Sharma. The petitions also alleged that the SIT failed to
investigate thoroughly the documentary evidence, including phone call
records, mobile van records, control room registers, station diary
entries and fire brigade registers. A scrutiny of these would have
indicated the extent of “pre-planning” that went into the post-Godhra
violence, the petitions stated.
Highlighting SIT’s lapse
They pointed to the failure to take adequate steps to prevent threats
to witnesses and also highlighted the SIT’s lapse in not seeking the
cancellation of bail of influential accused persons, who remain free
during the trials.
Thematically, the affidavits relate to eight cases concerning
incidents and personalities. According to Devendra Bhai Pathak, in the
cases relating to the Naroda Patiya and Naroda Gam incidents, in which
more than 110 persons were brutally murdered and many women and girls
were raped, the SIT has not recorded the statements of 129 witnesses.
Additionally, witnesses referred to the active involvement of
Inspector K.K. Mysorewala (now a Superintendent of Police) in ordering
police firing on Muslims after discussions with former Minister
Mayaben Kodnani, but he has not been arraigned. Incidentally, Maya
Kodnani was arrested following investigations by the SIT in the early
phases. According to witnesses, Mysorewala is said to have told those
seeking protection that there were “instructions/orders from higher
authorities not to protect you. There is no order to save Muslims… you
have to die today.”
PTI
Former Gujarat Minister Mayaben Kodnani and VHP leader Jaydeep Patel,
both accused in the Naroda Patiya riot case, outside a court in
Ahmedabad in April 2009.
An analysis of calls from Mysorewala’s phone, as reflected in Pathak’s
petition and the affidavits, shows that he received a call from Vishwa
Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Jaydeep Patel, who is accused in the
Naroda Patiya and Naroda Gam cases. The timing of the call, as
recorded, was when the massacre was at its worst, says the petition.
Witnesses also recount Special Reserve Police (SRP) officer K.P.
Parekh as telling the hapless victims that no one would save them as
they had orders from higher authorities to kill them. Parekh has not
yet been arraigned.
The infamous case of Babu Bajrangi has also been brought up in the
petitions. Pathak’s petition says 15 witnesses named Bajrangi as the
leader of a mob that slaughtered 95 people and cut open the abdomen of
Kauserbanu and killed her foetus. The SIT has not sought the
cancellation of his bail, and he has been allowed to travel abroad.
According to the petitioners, 53 witnesses named Suresh Langda Richard
Chara as the person who led a mob to kill, rape and burn Muslims.
Chara roams free and the SIT has not arraigned him either.
In spite of cries for help, as is evident from the hours and hours of
recorded phone records, no help came to the Gulberg Society, where 70
Muslims were burned or hacked to death over a period of 11 hours.
Congress Member of Parliament Ahsan Jaffri was one of them. The
petitioners said the SIT had failed totally to “inquire/investigate
into the circumstances in which repeated calls for police assistance
went unheeded”. In this case the SIT has arraigned 25 persons,
including Inspector K.G. Erda of the Meghaninagar Police Station, who
was in the area at the time of the carnage. The petitions state that
Erda’s phone records show that during the hours of the carnage on
February 27 and 28, 2002, he made several calls to the police control
room, Police Commissioner P.C. Pandey, Joint Commissioner M.K. Tandon
and Deputy Commissioner of Police P.B. Gondia.
While the SIT has interrogated Tandon, it has taken little action, say
the petitioners. In fact, Tandon admitted to the Nanavati Commission
that he was informed that Ahsan Jaffri was in danger. Pandey, the
records show, had even visited Jaffri and told him that police
protection would be provided. Phone records prove that both Tandon and
Pandey were in touch with the police officers in the riot-hit areas.
Yet, Jaffri was killed. The petitions point out that there were
records to show that Jaffri made nearly 200 calls for assistance. Some
of these were to the police control room. At the time, Cabinet
Ministers Ashok Bhatt and I.K. Jadeja were in the control room, but no
one helped Jaffri.
The case of Shivanand Jha, Assistance Commissioner of Police,
Ahmedabad, is even stranger. He was in charge of the control room at
that time and the needle of suspicion should point to him. But he is a
key member of the SIT.
There has been no further investigation by the SIT in the Godhra trial
too. The petitioners say the SIT has accepted the investigation
carried out by a clearly biased Gujarat Police. The affidavits delve
largely into the actions of senior policemen. Many pages are dedicated
to location details and phone calls made by the victims. Ahmedabad
Police Commissioner Pandey was given a clean chit by the SIT in April
last year as he claimed that he was in charge of the bodies of those
who died in the Godhra train fire and was unaware of the actual
situation in the city. Phone call records indicate that he was very
much in touch with police personnel in all the riot-hit areas during
the worst hours of the massacre.
Activists such as Teesta Setalvad have said there should be a re-
investigation into his partisan role. They wonder why the Police
Commissioner was handling dead bodies when the city was burning.
Similarly, Tandon’s actions on that day have not been questioned. He
visited Naroda Patiya after speaking to Pandey. Once there, he found
the crowd restive and so was compelled to order a curfew, at 12.29
p.m. Yet he left the area at 12.33 p.m. without ensuring that it was
implemented. Naroda went up in flames soon after.
The petitioners believe that the singular lack of investigation has to
be viewed in the context of the fact that the main investigation
officers of the SIT – Geeta Johri, Shivanand Jha and Ashish Bhatia –
are all Gujarat-cadre officers who were subordinate and answerable to
Pandey until recently.
SAM PANTHAKY/AFP
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Social activists have pointed
out that the SIT did not question several people who allegedly played
a role in the riots.
They are also in the service and under the control of the Gujarat
government, which for obvious reasons has resisted any form of
investigation into the riots. Johri’s role in the Sohrabuddin
encounter case was criticised recently by the Supreme Court itself. In
the context of all this, Teesta Setalvad and many other activists have
demanded the reconstitution of the SIT.
On the overall treatment of the victims, the National Human Rights
Commission (NHRC) had filed a petition against the Gujarat government,
pointing out that the government was hostile towards them. The manner
in which evidence was being recorded and the questionable trial court
procedures were also in focus. For instance, the NHRC says that in the
Gulberg Society trial it has been noticed that there is a significant
change in the manner in which the court is treating the witnesses
after four or five crucial witnesses deposed.
In the case of Saeed Khan Pathan, while he was attempting to explain
how he was being threatened by the accused, the court refused to
record his explanation. Even after his lawyer made a detailed
application saying his explanation should be recorded in its entirety,
the judge refused to oblige. Three Muslims visiting from the United
Kingdom in 2002 were hacked to death by a group of people near Pratij
in Gujarat. Two eyewitnesses have turned hostile in this case, too.
The petitioners have sought better security measures after a car with
shaded windows drove dangerously close to one of them within the court
premises.
It remains to be seen how the SIT will respond to the Supreme Court
directive. Speaking to Frontline on the phone, its Chairman, R.K.
Raghavan, said that the response would be filed before the March 15
hearing. He added that the SIT had responded to many of the issues
raised by the petitioners in the note it had given to the amicus
curiae.
“Now, the court wants to take a look at our responses directly. It
will be placed before the court in a sealed cover. It is up to the
court to decide whether to make it public or not,” Raghavan said.
Hemantika Wahi, counsel for the Gujarat government, told Frontline
that the State government would have no role in preparing the response
and it was wholly up to the SIT to draft the response.
Clearly, the court directive has added a qualitative dimension to the
Gujarat carnage cases. Whether this will ultimately result in justice
for the victims depends on several factors, including the SIT
response.
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chhotemianinshallah
Society and law
V. VENKATESAN
An elaborate attempt to unravel the complexities of social justice in
India.
The easy way to understand justice is to consider it as a response to
injustice. The idea of justice, in its philosophical sense, is rather
esoteric, and no practical purpose is served by attempting to define
it. The four volumes under review implicitly accept Amartya Sen’s well-
articulated thesis in his recent book The Idea of Justice that the
search for a perfect set of arrangements for society to ensure maximum
justice can distract us from tackl ing real-life, immediate
injustices. The volumes deal with both niti (institutional justice)
and nyaya (realised justice), which Sen has painstakingly
distinguished in his book. While niti aims at perfect justice, even if
the results are extreme, nyaya aims to prevent manifestly severe
injustice.
Sen believes in the efficacy of nyaya compared with niti in addressing
issues of injustice because a consensus on what a perfectly just
society would look like is always elusive. It would appear that the
range of the subjects covered in these volumes suggests that they make
no such distinction between niti and nyaya.
Yet, Sen’s significant recent contribution to the understanding of
justice is likely to influence the way we observe issues of injustice,
some of which are dealt with in these volumes.
In his series introduction, Ranabir Samaddar, director of the
Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (CRG), tries to bring some degree
of conceptual clarity, but he is by and large not very successful in
this mission. He claims that the essays throw light on the limits
within which democracy will permit justice, social justice in
particular. Soon, however, he confronts the dilemma of having to
answer the question whether the essays are conflating democracy with
justice.
Other, related questions vie for answers: Are the essays confusing
justice with rights or law or equality? Do they overwhelm the idea of
justice with its notions of social justice, burdening it with too many
ideas, realities and expectations?
Samaddar finds that answers to these questions can be found in the
reality of our time. If the society of the propertied weighs
everything with money and transforms everything with its Midas touch,
the society of the subjects weighs everything with the criterion of
justice. The entire series is, he claims, as if caught in a cleft
stick, between the governmental and popular notions of justice. If we
were to be faithful to the realities of justice, he suggests, we could
not have quarrelled over its definition beyond a point and laboured it
to death.
This observation echoes Sen, but it should be understood with a
caveat. Sen would have rejected governmental notions of justice as
they represent niti and not nyaya.
Cast in an archaeological mode of inquiry, the volumes seek to find
layers in the practices of and discourses on social justice. The
essays thus deal with how time, place, history, perceptions,
arrangements or apparatuses (such as legal, judicial, constitutional
and administrative apparatuses) play significant roles in influencing
the regime of social justice. Conflicting terrain of social justice
appears to make Samaddar unhappy since he thinks it makes conventional
democracy unstable.
One wishes he had elaborated his thesis that the contentious politics
of justice creates deep fissures within democracy’s constitutional
unity and the primacy of the rule of law. But to me, Sen sounds more
accommodative of the plurality of competing principles, which may be
relevant to the assessment of justice in a given situation. Samaddar
claims that these volumes make a more significant point that
conventional democracy has little room for considerations for justice
while it has more room for liberty, fraternity and equality.
The essays point out the possible ways in which democracy can take the
issue of justice as one of its essential parts, which can, as a
consequence, propel democracy towards becoming more democratic. The
method adopted here, Samaddar suggests, can at best be called guerilla
work in philosophy because it subverts many philosophical assumptions
without putting on a philosophical garb. Several unexpected questions
came out of the justice dialogue, he points out.
Samaddar comes to grips with the idea of social justice by suggesting
that some of the issues of our life become social because they raise
the question of marginality, and, therefore, of justness. Likewise,
these issues become issues of justice because they have refused to be
exhausted by governmental, including juridical, ideas and practices
and have become social.
Institutions such as the court, the executive, the legislature and the
bureaucracy are conscious of the limits to ensuring justice and
justify them as they have to be balanced with considerations of
security. Security means taking care of and avoiding risks, which
include inflation, food crisis, weakening of borders, infiltration and
disasters. Governing in risk society means engaging with risks,
reorienting policies and ensuring security so that the risks can be
calculated and mostly avoided.
Governments would answer in the affirmative the question whether a
criminal can be kept long enough in jail to keep society free of
crimes, whereas social justice would demand that she be set free once
she has been indicted for crime, satisfying the requirement of
justice. Minimal justice would mean at least openness of the discourse
for claiming redress for the wrongs done – a recognition of the wrong,
a provision of redress, a guarantee that the wrong will not be
repeated.
The first volume presents four chapters on the state of social justice
in West Bengal. Based on ethnographic studies, they try to demonstrate
that while democracy may widen through the mass entry of workers and
peasants and the rural and urban poor, and this may indeed facilitate
long-denied political justice for them (like rights of unionisation),
this does not ensure social justice per se. This is, of course, a
truism.
Samaddar’s observation here, however, is open to challenge. He finds
it ironic that the champions of political democracy, like the ruling
Left Front in West Bengal, may not even recognise and, therefore,
acknowledge that political democracy does not ensure social justice
automatically. On the contrary, as the many obituaries on Jyoti Basu,
West Bengal’s tallest leader, observed, Basu was acutely conscious of
the limitations of the Left in parliamentary democracy.
Samaddar’s other contention is equally debatable. He suggests that the
Left parties may even say that the struggles and contentions for
social justice are counter-productive for the democracy they guarantee
because these contentions target the hegemony of the political class,
overwhelmingly coming from the upper/middle caste and with liberal,
leftist backgrounds, and this hegemony is essential for the democracy
they have ushered in or have widened.
Contrary to what Samaddar believes, the Left parties do not appear
desperate to halt the struggles for social justice, and his
apprehensions are just that: exaggerated. Samaddar also joins issue
with Sen who found nothing wrong in the West Bengal government’s
forcible acquisition of land in Singur and assured the people whose
lands were taken that industrialisation would solve the basic poverty
there as it had done elsewhere.
The second volume includes a combination of case studies built on the
theme of law and democracy’s engagement with issues of social justice.
The editors, Ashok Agrwaal, a lawyer, and Bharat Bhushan, an eminent
editor, assert that social justice is the process of unsettling the
status quo. While law has played a pivotal role in the betterment of
people’s lives, it has been an inadequate partner of justice, they
say.
One of the chapters in this collection documents nearly 60 years of
Constitution-based social justice policy and programming, examining
the impact of politics and considerations of reality upon the goals of
the Constitution. According to Bharat Bhushan, the author of this
chapter, politics rather than law played the primary role in
determining both the nature and extent of reservation and the timing
and manner of its implementation. The role of law, and the judiciary,
he says, is more in the nature of umpire-cum-police, using the
normative standards given to it to blow the whistle, return the
contending parties to their respective corners, and once the heat of
the moment has passed, allowing them to slug it out again.
A.M. FARUQUI
In a case of people’s struggles to rectify losses, oustees of the
Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar dam projects take out a rally under the
banner of the Narmada Bachao Andolan in Bhopal. A file photograph.
Another chapter deconstructs the role played by the Supreme Court in
the failure of the social justice mandate inherent in Article 16 of
the Constitution – reservation for Dalits and Adivasis – in the course
of over 50 years of judicial review litigation. Ashok Agrwaal, author
of this chapter, argues that the Supreme Court has collectively
displayed a singular lack of clarity and will, verging on the
culpable, in delineating its vision of social justice for Dalits. The
court’s quest for balance, he says, helped perpetuate the inequality
and imbalance, negating the purpose of reservation.
The last chapter examines the ways in which the law constructs sexual
minorities as anti-citizens, denying them equality.
The third volume is edited by Paula Banerjee and Sanjay Chaturvedi,
both academics and members of the CRG. This volume discusses the
situation of people living on the margins and their relationship with
communities that enjoy enough material well-being to secure their own
rights. In such a situation, the editors argue, rights empower the
strong at the cost of the weak. When the state uses the rights
argument for not interfering, it means that it is unable or unwilling
to protect the marginalised from the tyranny of the elites. This
volume discusses five such situations and concludes that rights might
not be the best way for accessing justice. According to the editors,
people’s struggle offers an alternative path to justice.
The fourth volume is co-edited by Samaddar with Sanam Roohi, also of
the CRG, and includes much primary material that can be of use to a
researcher on social justice. This volume is divided into five
sections. The first, “Development and Discontent”, includes articles
on ethnicity and land use in the North-east, the case of Kutch in the
Sardar Sarovar Project, the environmental movement spawned by the
Supreme Court’s judgment in the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company case,
Sanhati’s report on the struggle in Nandigram and the impact of
riverbank erosion in West Bengal. All the essays describe the local
people’s struggle to rectify their losses.
The dimensions of Development Induced Displacement and Resettlement
(DIDR) have been explored by different authors. Most of the articles
and material that appear in the remaining sections were published
elsewhere but have been reproduced in this volume in view of their
significance in the literature on social justice. By republishing
them, the editors have not only made them accessible to interested
readers but enabled these individual essays to mesh together,
complementing one another.
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BOOKS
The switch to jehad
A.G. NOORANI
An authentic documentation of the process of radicalisation of the
Jamaat-e-Islami.
A Democracy proves its vitality by absorbing in its processes far-out
dissent, and dissent shows its maturity by taking the democratic path.
Indian democracy is a success story. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, no
longer secessionist, is a respected participant in Indian politics as
are the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India
(Marxist). The Calcutta thesis of 1948 has long been discarded. The
Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh floated a political front, the Bh aratiya
Janata Party; but, for all their professions, neither sincerely
believes in a secular democracy.
The Indian state has followed a strange policy towards the Jamaat-e-
Islami, equating it with the RSS whenever it took action against the
latter. But the Jamaat has no private army, like the Bajrang Dal; no
record of violence during the riots and no sign of the obscene
affluence of the Sangh Parivar. It has a reactionary, and an utterly
bigoted worldview, abhorrent to most Muslims. Even in Kashmir, it made
a poor showing at the elections. The Jamaat in Pakistan fared poorly
in the 2009 general elections.
Irfan Ahmad is an anthropologist and Assistant Professor of Politics
at Monash University in Australia, where he helps to lead the Centre
for Islam and the Modern World. This book, his first, is a work of
thorough research and rigorous analysis.
The Jamaat was founded in 1941 by Abdul Ala Maududi, whose gifts in
polemics impressed many to the point that they considered him erudite.
The truly erudite Fazlur Rehman judged him correctly: “Though not an
alim [an erudite man], nonetheless a self-taught man of considerable
intelligence and had sufficient knowledge of Arabic to have access to
the classical Arabic literature of Islam. He was by no means an
accurate or a profound scholar, but he was undoubtedly like a fresh
wind in the stifling Islamic atmosphere created by the traditional
madrassas….
“But Maududi displays nowhere the larger and more profound vision of
Islam’s role in the world… for the faithful, Maududi’s statements
represented the last word on Islam – no matter how much and how
blatantly he contradicted himself from time to time on such basic
issues as economic policy or political theory” (Islam & Modernity;
page 116).
“Newsman & Agitator”
He imparted a comforting certitude and his influence spread. The
famous Egyptian journalist Mohamed Heikal called him “a newsman and
agitator” whose ideas were taken up by Syed Qutb of the Muslim
Brotherhood. He opposed the Muslim League as a Jamaat-e-jahiliyat (a
party of the pagans). Two weeks after Partition, he left for Lahore.
The author traces the Jamaat’s origins and its chequered career in
India, including its breakaway faction, the Students Islamic Movement
of India (SIMI), taking in his stride politics in the Aligarh Muslim
University in Deoband, the role of madrassas and concepts like jehad.
He discusses in context the role of the Sangh Parivar and the
shortcomings of our democratic process. Field work, access to works in
Urdu, tables of statistics and documentation make this a dependable
work of reference. It is by far the best book on the Jamaat-e-Islami;
thorough, courageous and honest.
Saffron wave
It describes how the Jamaat came to accept enthusiastically secularism
and democracy, concepts it had earlier rejected, as it had
participated in elections.
Since Muslims did not respond, the Jamaat was isolated. An Islamic
state was its main objective. It was India’s secular democracy that
brought about the change. “My argument so far that secular democracy
catalysed the moderation of the Jamaat, one may point out, fails to
explain the radicalisation of the SIMI. But far from weakening my
argument, I hold that the SIMI’s radicalisation strengthens my
contention. In Chapter 6, I showed that the SIMI radicalised in
response to the saffron wave; that is, the SIMI began to radicalise
with the rise of Hindutva following the Ayodhya campaign that left a
trail of brutal violence throughout India, costing thousands of lives
(mostly Muslims) and leading to the demolition of the Babri mosque.
P.V. SIVAKUMAR
A protest near Charminar in Hyderabad, in the wake of the demolition
of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.
“Until the late 1980s the SIMI’s prime concern was moral and
educational. Neither jehad nor a caliphate were on its agenda (see the
2003 interview of its founding president, Siddiqui). The SIMI’s
radicalisation from the 1990s on – centred around the Babri mosque –
was expressed in three issues; the call for jehad, the declaration of
India as dar al-harb, and the installation of the caliphate. All these
matters were intimately linked to state practices.
“The point is that Hindutva’s agenda of the Hindu state and its fierce
anti-Muslim nature spurred SIMI’s radicalisation. Worth noting is that
over fifteen per cent of its total members came, according to an ansar
(worker) of SIMI, only from the state of Maharashtra where the Shiv
Sena, a constituent of the Sangh Parivar, had been in power and
involved in one of the worst riots ever in Bombay. This also explains
SIMI’s diatribe against polytheism and Hindutva.
“As long as the Nehruvian project of a plural, non-monopolistic,
secular, and democratic India (Khilnani 1997) was hegemonic, Islamist
radicalisation was almost non-existent. Even a party as rigid as the
Jamaat underwent moderation. This is not to say that the Congress was
divinely secular. The state under its dispensation also practised
communal policies, but its communalism was pragmatic. By contrast, the
communalism of the Sangh Parivar was programmatic.”
This thesis is fully established by the author’s authentic
documentation. It should make all secularists sit up and ponder.
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BOOKS
1971: Kremlin key
A.G. NOORANI
Jamsheed Marker’s record of his days as Ambassador in Moscow is of
enduring relevance.
“You listen too much to the soldiers …. You should never trust
experts. If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome; if you
believe the theologians, nothing is innocent; if you believe the
soldiers, nothing is safe.”
– Lord Salisbury’s warning to Lord Lytton (A.L. Kennedy; Salisbury
1830-1903: Portrait of a Statesman; page 106).
Jamsheed Marker has been the world’s longest serving Ambassador, from
1965 to 1995, making a mark in every single country in which he
served. He was a prosperous businessman in Karachi, a bon vivant,
cultured and widely read, noted for his commentary at Test cricket. He
was not a career diplomat but took to diplomacy as an envoy to the
manner born. A gentleman to his fingertips is a praise one hears of
him from one and all. Students of diplomacy mi ght ponder as to why
some non-professionals excel in the craft, as Foreign Ministers or
envoys, while some professionals stumble. Training is important but it
cannot supply qualities essential to success – calm, understanding,
tact and the indefinable quality, personality.
Marker’s memoirs were awaited keenly and for long. The reader is not
disappointed. The book grips his interest by its flashes of humour,
its impeccable language and wise observations. Any of the anecdotes he
records can find a place in the British Ambassador Sir John Ure’s
delightful and well-researched compilation Diplomatic Bag (John
Murray; 1994. Surely a second edition is overdue). Lively accounts of
stewardship of the Embassy in each capital and each chapter with a
brief survey “Meanwhile in Pakistan”. Marker always held an ear to the
ground.
There are some factual errors that are astonishing in a person so well
read and experienced. The “inaugural conference” of the Non-Aligned
Movement was not held “in Bandung” (page 46) but in Belgrade in 1961.
As every schoolboy knows, to borrow Macaulay’s stock phrase, Bandung
hosted an Afro-Asian summit in 1955, at which Mohammed Ali Bogra
represented Pakistan, then a “much-allied ally” of the United States.
It made its debut in NAM at the Havana summit in 1979, where Marker
was present.
THE HINDU ARCHIVES
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and External Affairs Minister Swaran
Singh with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev during their visit to Moscow
in July 1966. The Soviet Union held the keys to the fateful events of
1971. It was against a break-up of Pakistan. When that became
inevitable, it did its best to see that the rest of Pakistan was
preserved.
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 shocked the world. But it
is an error to speak of a newly christened “Brezhnev Doctrine” (page
258). It was propounded in 1968 in the wake of the Soviet invasion of
Czechoslovakia.
Even more astonishing is the assertion that it was Indira Gandhi who
“uttered the pre-agreed code words for success ‘Larka Lai’ [it is a
boy; page 188]”. Uttered to whom? He does not reveal. As Benazir
Bhutto recorded in her memoir Daughter of the East, that was a code
arranged between father and daughter, which he uttered when he
returned from a successful meeting with Indira Gandhi.
A Norwegian Ambassador claimed that Jawaharlal Nehru had “about eight
or ten of his aides seated behind him at a respectful distance” when
he met the Prime Minister (page 6). If Marker can believe this, he can
believe anything he is told of Nehru or India. For, that envoy is
singular in imagining such a scene. He contrasted this with Ayub
Khan’s simplicity and remarked, “Can you tell me which one of these is
the democracy and which the dictatorship?” The absurdity of the
inference escapes Marker, who adds, “The question has never really
lost its relevance” (page 6).
This, from one who readily and admiringly served every military
dictator though he was not a career diplomat obliged to stay at his
post. He could have resigned. Z.A. Bhutto is justly censured for his
“latent fascist inclinations”. One looks in vain for comparable
censures for the hideous Zia-ul-Haq and for Yahya Khan.
THE HINDU ARCHIVES
Indira Gandhi and Pakistan President Z.A. Bhutto signing the historic
Shimla Agreement on bilateral relations on July 3, 1972.
It is, perhaps, not without significance that a book which lavishes
praise, on almost every other page, on contemporaries, not one Indian
counterpart at any of the capitals in which he served receives even a
little of his munificence. The three Indians who do were in the employ
of the United Nations. Incidentally, he was born in Hyderabad and
educated at the Doon School.
These flaws are unfortunate in a person like Marker. The reader will
find accounts of his stays in Ghana, Romania, Bulgaria, Finland,
Canada, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, the German Democratic Republic,
Ireland, Japan, Germany, France and the U.S. fascinating, even more so
of his tenure as Permanent Representative at the U.N.
But what is of enduring relevance is the record of his days as
Ambassador in Moscow from 1969 to 1972. The then Foreign Secretary
Sultan Muhammad Khan’s memoirs, Memories and Reflections (1997),
recorded the moves by the Foreign Office. It was Marker’s lot to be
posted to a country that held the key to the fateful events of 1971.
His book is a solid contribution to diplomatic history and a service
to the historical truth. Marker has received high praise; yet, he has
received little recognition for the fight he put up for his country
against all odds. The book belies the glib notion that Ambassadors do
not matter.
THE HINDU ARCHIVES
Lieutenant General A.A.K. Niazi (right), chief of Pakistan's Eastern
Command, signing the unconditional surrender of Pakistani troops in
Dhaka in December 1971. The Indian side was represented by Lt Gen.
J.S. Aurora (left).
Tashkent was a personal triumph for Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin. The
Soviet Union began to speak of “the two countries of Hindustan”. In
1968, Kosygin went so far as to write to Indira Gandhi urging her to
settle Kashmir and the Farakka Barrage disputes. After his highly
successful visit to Pakistan in April, Russia announced in July 1968
its decision to supply arms to Pakistan, an ally of its estranged
neighbour China. Both India and Pakistan vied with each other in
proclaiming their dissociation in the United Nations Security Council,
on August 23, 1968, from Western censures of the Russian invasion of
Czechoslovakia.
V.K. Krishna Menon rushed to Moscow’s defence on the arms deal, on
July 18, 1968, with a remark whose significance was overlooked: “We
are not the Soviet Union’s military ally.” When in February 1969
India’s Ambassador D.P. Dhar expostulated to Kosygin about the supply
of arms to Pakistan, “the idea of a treaty first came up”. It was
formally put forward by Defence Minister Marshal Grechko in his talks
in New Delhi with Defence Minister Swaran Singh. Grechko arrived on
March 2, 1969, the very day armed clashes took place at the Ussuri
between Russian and Chinese forces. He carried a letter by Brezhnev to
Indira Gandhi dated February 28. A formidable delegation of the top
brass of the Army, Navy and the Air Force, along with A.A. Fomin,
Director of the South Asia Department in the Foreign Office, came with
him. Grechko’s draft treaty did not contain Article 9 of the treaty
that India and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) signed
on August 9, 1971, pledging: “In the event of either Party being
subjected to an attack or threat thereof, the High Contracting Parties
shall immediately enter into mutual consultations in order to remove
such threat and to take appropriate effective measures to ensure peace
and the security.”
Grechko left for Pakistan on March 9. India learnt to its chagrin that
its suitor had already sent to Pakistan nearly 40 tanks with adequate
spare parts to equip a new armoured division plus spare parts for the
MiG-19s it had obtained from China. Russia could not have been too
pleased when Indira Gandhi held out an olive branch to China on New
Year’s Day 1969. The mild-mannered Swaran Singh made an angry
statement in Parliament on April 9, 1969, on Moscow’s change of front.
THE HINDU ARCHIVES
Alexei Kosygin, then Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR,
addressing Members of Parliament in New Delhi in March 1979.
Between that outburst and Foreign Minister Dinesh Singh’s visit to
Moscow in September 1969, Moscow took two major initiatives. One was
Kosygin’s plan for an overland trade route between India and the USSR,
running through Pakistan and Afghanistan, which he mooted in New Delhi
when he arrived on May 5 to attend the state funeral for President
Zakir Hussain. The other was Brezhnev’s plan of June 7 for “a system
of collective security in Asia”. Pakistan publicly rejected both.
India did so publicly on the first and tacitly on the second.
Whatever be India’s motives, to the Soviet Union bilateral security
treaties were links in the Brezhnev Plan. It signed one with the
United Arab Republic (UAR) on May 27, 1971, Iraq on April 9, 1972, and
Somalia on July 11, 1974. (For the texts, see the writer’s book
Brezhnev Plan for Asian Security, 1975.) By March 1970, Soviet arms
supplies to Pakistan ended.
Marker came to Moscow at a crucial moment. On his advice Yahya Khan
did not raise the arms question during his visit to Moscow in June
1970. Surprisingly, Fomin asked Marker why Yahya had not raised the
issue. The Ambassador advised the President to do so. After his return
to Pakistan, Marker received a message from the Foreign Secretary that
President Nikolai Podgorny and Prime Minister Kosygin had both
“confirmed to the President the Soviet Union’s decision to resume arms
supplies to Pakistan, and that I should take immediate steps with the
relevant Soviet agencies for its implementation”. Yahya jubilantly
informed the General Headquarters (GHQ) of the Pakistan Army. But when
Marker pursued the matter, he drew a blank. Kosygin would neither
confirm nor deny his talk with Yahya. “The entire phenomenon has
remained a mystery, and even though nearly forty years have passed it
continues to puzzle me. I can find no clue or explanation for this
bizarre episode.” This is understandable, but he might have guessed
that the change was prompted by progress in possible parleys with
India which had begun in 1969.
Four truths
The year 1970 ended with that impasse. In March 1971 came Yahya’s
brutal crackdown in Dhaka, and the challenges facing Marker mounted.
Four truths must be faced alike by Pakistanis and Indians. First,
Indira Gandhi had decided to break up Pakistan as early as “on 6
April”, A.K. Ray, Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs Branch
Secretariat in Kolkata from May 1971 to February 1972, authoritatively
disclosed (Indian Express, December 19, 1996). The memoirs of Lt.
General J.F.R. Jacob, Chief of Staff of the Eastern Command, who
oversaw the surrender at Dhaka, confirm this (pages 35-36). The
refugee influx which followed was a false pretext.
Secondly, after the brutal crackdown, East Pakistan was lost. Burke’s
wise words on March 22, 1775, are apposite: “Terror is not always the
effect of force; and an armament is not a victory.” That is, even if
force succeeds. But, “if you do not succeed you are without resource;
for conciliation, failing force remains; but, force failing no further
hope of reconciliation is left.”
Thirdly, the Soviet Union was agains t a break-up of Pakistan. When it
became inevitable, it did its best to see that the rest of Pakistan
was preserved. On December 12, 1971, Brezhnev wrote to Nixon: “Our
contacts with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi suggest that Indira Gandhi
does not intend to take any military action against West
Pakistan.” (Anatoly Dobrynin; In Confidence; page 236. Dobrynin was
then Soviet Ambassador to the U.S.) This was a mild version of the
strong demarche Soviet Ambassador Pegov had made to the Prime
Minister. It was not the treaty in August but Indira Gandhi’s visit to
Moscow in September that compelled the USSR to support her fully.
Pakistan’s existence is a vital Great Power interest. Moscow was torn
between losing a growing alliance with India and impairment of that
interest.
Lastly, the U.S. was clueless. Kissinger moved from wooing Awami
Leaguers in Kolkata to instigating China on December 10 to attack
India. China knew better. Its military attache Chao Kuanchih had been
warned off in Kathmandu on December 8 or 9 by Loginov, defence attache
in the USSR Embassy. As early as on June 3, before Indian help and
operations had increased, Kissinger said, “Our judgment is that East
Pakistan will eventually become independent…. The problem is how to
bell the cat. The President has chosen to do it gradually. In all
honesty … the President has a special feeling for President Yahya. One
cannot make policy on that basis, but it is a fact of life” (National
Security Archive’s The Tilt: The U.S. and the South Asian Crisis of
1971; edited by Sajit Gandhi; December 16, 2002; Document 13). His
attempts to “bell the cat” failed because he sought to preserve
Pakistan’s unity for some time (“gradually”) when time was fast
running out.
Hostile messages from USSR
These were the harsh realities that Pakistan and its envoy in the key
capital faced. Moscow began early, in March, with “friendly attention”
and polite concern. Marker reproduces the contents of “an Oral message
from Kosygin” to Yahya on March 28, which was delivered to him in
Karachi.
It pleaded for an end to the bloodshed. President Podgorny’s message
to Yahya on April 3 was badly received. “On 17 April Kosygin sent
another message to Yahya. It was somewhat cold and formal in tone and
continued to stress the need for peaceful settlement, but for the
first time made an ominous reference to ‘the lawful wishes of the
parties’ and to ‘the interest of the population of both West and East
Pakistan’. Yahya did not respond to this message but sent instead a
special envoy M. Arshad Husain, a former Foreign Minister of Pakistan
and also former Ambassador in Moscow. He was received by Kosygin on 26
April, and although the meeting was lengthy and frank, it was by no
means friendly …. In my report to the Ministry, at the conclusion of
Arshad Husain’s visit I stated that …. They would, in the overall
interests of peace and stability, prefer a united Pakistan, but they
had doubts about our ability to bring the situation in East Pakistan
under control, and feared that a continuation of instability would
help Chinese interests to prosper in the region.”
It was a sound assessment. “From July onwards Soviet messages became
increasingly hostile, and so did our responses resulting in a mutual
contribution to deteriorating relations.”
The author reproduces texts of the exchanges. On June 22, a desperate
Kosygin, hemmed in between a deaf Yahya and a shrill Indira, told him,
“Please understand me, Mr. Ambassador. The President will be speaking
at an acute moment upon issues which are almost about war and peace.
If the President’s statement does not take into consideration the
Indian attitude there will be a sharp response from the other side. If
both sides make sharp public pronouncements then it would be difficult
to control the situation.” Marker notes that “Kosygin spoke more in
sorrow than in anger”, but he answered back as duty required of him.
He is less than objective in attributing Kosygin’s stance to Swaran
Singh’s eloquence.
The author has done well to set out the record of the long meeting on
June 22 at some length: “Mr. Ambassador, I do not want to turn this
conversation into a debate. You are not a defendant and I am not a
Prosecutor. We are both men of state who are discussing grave issues
in a serious and friendly manner. I want you to know that we are very
anxious for all disputes between Pakistan and India to be settled
peacefully …. We say it to you and we say it to India …. We do not
want to interfere in your internal affairs. This is for you alone to
decide. We think a democratic government should find its legitimate
rights. It will find it, sooner or later.”
THE HINDU ARCHIVES
General Yahya Khan was aware of what was in store as he went into the
1971 war.
Kosygin remarked, “I want to tell you that your mission is not an easy
one.” Marker notes that for quite some time “the Kremlin attempted to
maintain a semblance of balance between India and Pakistan. The
controlled Soviet press was, for example, much less anti-Pakistan than
the free press in the West. All this suddenly changed, however, with
the news of Kissinger’s visit to Peking [now Beijing], and of Nixon’s
forthcoming visit to China.”
D.P. Dhar, former Ambassador to the USSR, dashed to Moscow on August
2, followed by Andrei Gromyko’s equally sudden visit to New Delhi on
August 7. The treaty was signed on August 9. It did not include “a
clause obliging the parties to come to each other’s aid in case of a
military attack”.
Article 9 quoted above was much weaker. The Soviet Ambassador to the
U.S., the legendary Anatoly Dobrynin, held that it was “not the mutual
assistance pact Indira Gandhi was seeking. As long as India stayed
outside the nuclear club, the Soviet leader considered granting it
protection against a nuclear threat by India, but caution
prevailed” (In Confidence; page 236).
The finalised text was received by Dhar in Moscow. He apparently
succeeded in correcting Gromyko’s impression, which had been conveyed
to him by Ambassador Pegov, that the signatures were to take place in
Moscow and by the heads of government and that Foreign Ministers would
only be initialling it in Delhi.
On recognising Bangladesh
It was signed in Delhi by the Foreign Ministers. The Times (London)
correspondent in Moscow, David Bonavia, reported the impression in
Moscow that the Russian Foreign Minister had “doubtless emphasised to
his hosts that the Soviet Union will expect India to behave
responsibly and avoid all possible causes of an armed conflict with
Pakistan” (August 10).
The American impression, also, was that the Soviet Union had by
signing the treaty with India dissuaded it from recognising
Bangladesh, an act which would have provoked a war between India and
Pakistan.
“According to intelligence reports reaching here,” The New York Times
correspondent in Washington, Tad Szulc, said, “the message of India’s
planned Monday (August 9) recognition of Bangladesh was delivered in
Moscow by Durga Prasad Dhar, former Indian Ambassador to the Soviet
Union, apparently acting as a special envoy for Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi. Mr. Dhar flew to Moscow on August 2.” Gromyko was reported to
have warned that recognition of Bangladesh could provoke a war and he
himself proposed to visit New Delhi to use “whatever pressure was
necessary” to dissuade Indira Gandhi from recognising Bangladesh at
this time. Szulc added, “American officials surmised that Gromyko was
successful in persuading India to defer its recognition of Bangladesh
when he agreed to sign a friendship treaty immediately.”
Revealing document
A revealing document of the kind that normally does not find its way
to the press was published shortly thereafter which fully bore out the
impression that Russian policy regarding the recognition of Bangladesh
had not changed much even after the signing of the treaty. It was the
minutes of a meeting of Pakistani Ambassadors, which was held in
Geneva on August 24-25, 1971, and was presided over by Foreign
Secretary Sultan M. Khan. According to the minutes, the Foreign
Secretary mentioned a letter which Kosygin wrote a week after the
signing of the (August 17) treaty “promising Russia’s continued desire
to help Pakistan”. Pakistan’s Ambassador to the USSR Marker gave his
assessment: “Ambassador Jamsheed Marker believes that the Russians
have no intention of severing ties with Pakistan and that the Indo-
Soviet Treaty was mainly aimed at extending Russian influence in South-
East Asia. He regarded the Treaty as more anti-Chinese than anti-
Pakistan. The Soviet Union has given no indication that economic aid
to Pakistan would be reduced.”
Next, “Ambassador K.M. Kaiser said that China wanted non-intervention.
He stated that China had advised a political settlement maintaining
the integrity of Pakistan. China suspects the Indian motives in
supporting Bangladesh. China is ready to give aid for rehabilitation
of E. Pakistan economy. The Chinese press did not publicise the Indo-
Soviet Treaty and China believed that it is directed against China.
China intends to strengthen her relations with Afghanistan, Ceylon,
Nepal and Burma. China would like to see Pakistan active in the
politics of Indo-China. Ambassador Kaiser was not sure about the
nature of Chinese help in case of a war between India and Pakistan….”
Shortly thereafter Pakistani Foreign Secretary S.M. Khan went to
Moscow where, he claimed, on September 10, his hosts showed “deep
interest in the unity and integrity of Pakistan”.
Marker rightly laments that a Foreign Office that once had such a
galaxy of talent was undermined by Bhutto’s “lateral” entrants, his
political appointees. The minutes were published in full in a Calcutta
weekly edited by Samar Sen, Frontier, of October 30, 1971. Even after
the treaty was signed, Pravda and Izvestia continued to publish
together reports from India and Pakistan. The Russian stand at the
Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference on September 10, which Dileep
Padgaonkar reported, was that they “would have nothing to do with a
text that alluded even remotely to a reprimand of the Yahya Khan
regime” (The Times of India, September 23, 1971).
Indira Gandhi decided to bring matters to a head. She went to Moscow
(September 27-29) and ensured a change. It was the subject of a
brilliant article by Alain Jacob in Le Monde entitled “A puzzling
policy switch”. However, what Kosygin said to Indian correspondents
surprised many of them. “This basic problem must be solved by peaceful
political means and not by military conflict.”
The events were taking place in Pakistani territory, he said, and
remarked, “What pretext can Pakistan use for a military conflict with
India?” India’s sole concern was the return of refugees. The rest was
an “internal matter of Pakistan”. Later, he sought to allay Indian
disquiet by criticising the atrocities committed by Pakistan.
The Russians did not look too kindly on Indira Gandhi’s visit to the
Western countries but she stuck to her plans. A mere 36 hours before
her departure, Nicolai Firyubin, the Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister,
descended on New Delhi to the embarrassment of his hosts.
He was in New Delhi from October 22 to 25. The joint statement that
was issued on October 27 contained these significant words: “The
consultations took place in keeping with the existing procedure of
annual bilateral consultations and also under the provisions of
Article IX of the Soviet-Indian Treaty of Peace. The consultations
were held in connection with the tense situation in the Indian
subcontinent, a situation which endangers the cause of peace in the
area. The two sides reached full accord in the assessment of the
existing situation.” Three days later, the Commander-in-Chief of the
Soviet Air Force, Air Marshall P.S. Kontakhov, arrived in New Delhi.
At the Cochin Congress of the Communist Party of India in October, the
delegates of the French and the Indian Communist parties characterised
Bangladesh’s struggle as a national liberation movement. In communist
parlance, this meant a lot.
Marker was sceptical. “In my discussions with Firyubin and Fomin I was
given the official party line that the Indo-Soviet Friendship Treaty
was not directed against any third country and was a device to ensure
peace in the subcontinent. Firyubin added that Soviet objectives in
the treaty ‘were not to encourage India but to restrain her’. Firyubin
did not respond when I said that even he would find it hard to really
believe that.”
Gromyko’s correction
Sultan Khan was sharply told by Gromyko, “Please do not take any
action that would oblige us to fulfil our obligations to a country
with whom we have a Treaty of Friendship. At this point Gromyko
stopped the interpreter, and looking long, hard and directly at Sultan
Khan, he said in English: ‘The interpreter did not interpret me
correctly. I did not use the word ‘please’. I think you understand my
meaning.’”
Marker’s remarks on the Soviet Union’s pursuit of its “hegemonic
interests entirely at the expense of my own country” are as wide of
the mark as his disparagement of “the Polish resolution” which Sultan
Khan also shares (pages 382-385 of his memoirs), and less excusably
Hasan Zaheer in his able work The Separation of East Pakistan (Oxford
University Press, Karachi; pages 413-416).
Mujib’s release
It must be read in the context. In a letter to Nixon on December 3,
Kosygin proposed release of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman from prison and
negotiations with him “to begin at that stage where they were
interrupted in March…. We are addressing ourselves” to both sides.
The Soviet resolution of December 7 in the General Assembly urged “a
political settlement giving immediate expression to the will of the
East Pakistan population as expressed in the elections of December
1970” and a ceasefire once Pakistan took “effective action” to that
end.
On December 14, Poland tabled Resolution S/10453 in the Security
Council calling for the immediate release of Mujib, a ceasefire after
the process of transfer of power had begun, withdrawal of Pakistani
troops and civilian personnel, withdrawal of Indian troops and return
of both sides to their pre-war positions in the west. The next day it
revised the draft in two respects, both in Pakistan’s favour. The
reference to Mujib’s release was dropped and there was a tighter
provision for withdrawal of India’s forces. “The Indian armed forces
will be withdrawn from East Pakistan.” It spelt an orderly transfer of
power, withdrawal of India’s troops in both sectors to pre-war
positions. Not a single Pakistani prisoner of war would have been left
and there would have been no Shimla Pact.
Richard Sisson and Leo Rose write, on the basis of interviews in
India, that it “was the most controversial and potentially
embarrassing of the resolutions … since it was the only resolution
that had a high probability of adoption … [and] aroused considerable
distress in New Delhi” (Pakistan, India, and the creation of
Bangladesh; page 219).
They add, “Indeed, several key figures in India could not understand
why Pakistan did not readily agree to the proposal, since it would
have left India in a most difficult and compromising position
(interviews, India, 1978). In our interviews with him in 1979, Yahya
Khan related a rather curious account of his experience with Bhutto on
the Polish resolution. Yahya had been talking to Bhutto – who was at
the U.N. meetings in New York – by telephone about several matters. At
one point Yahya said that he was far away, of course, but that the
Polish resolution looked good, and ‘we should accept it’. Bhutto
replied, ‘I can’t hear you.’ Yahya repeated himself several times, and
Bhutto kept saying ‘What? What?’ The operator in New York finally
intervened and said, ‘I can hear him fine,’ to which Bhutto replied
‘Shut up’. Yahya seemed still bemused and bewildered by all this in
1979” (page 306).
But the resolution would have left Yahya in power. Bhutto was all set
on his ouster. It matters not whether he tore up the draft or some
other paper. At a breakfast at the Waldorf Towers earlier, on December
11, Kissinger scolded him like a schoolboy for his “mock-tough
rhetoric … we should not waste them [the next 48 hours] in posturing
for history books”. (Nixon, Indira and India by Kalyani Shankar;
Macmillan, 2010; pages 234, 278-279.)
I.H. Burney’s intrepid weekly Outlook (of May 25, 1974), in a detailed
report on “The War Commission and the Surrender”, sharply criticised
Bhutto for rejecting the Polish initiative (page 10). Marker’s point
about the timing is well taken, but even at the late hour it would
have recorded a compact with Soviet endorsement. That terms would have
gone into effect despite the surrender in Dhaka. Was that surrender
preferable to “the formal abdication of national sovereignty” in the
Polish draft as Marker puts it? There is another aspect. The terms
were not new. Active diplomacy could have ensured their acceptance
earlier.
Yahya was well aware of what was in store. Iman Ullah revealed in The
Nation of August 23, 1990, that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
had “placed a copy of the Operational Instructions (of the Indian
Army) on the table of the President of Pakistan General Mohammed Yahya
Khan on 16 September”. It had been signed on August 19, 1971, and
fixed November 21 as D-day. The war began that day when Indian armour
entered East Pakistan, not on December 3 as India has falsely claimed.
Sydney Schanberg of The New York Times reported it but was scolded by
officials. The Prime Minister was angry at “the leak”, the papers
reveal.
Bhutto wisely repaired to Moscow on March 16, 1972, to mend fences. It
was on the next day that Bhutto suggested the phrase “Line of Control”
to replace the “ceasefire line”. Marker is all too right when he avers
that the origins of the Shimla Conference “can clearly be traced to
the Bhutto-Brezhnev meeting in Moscow in March 1972”. Kosygin kept
Indira Gandhi well informed of Bhutto’s overtures preceding the
meeting – so that he could pursue his interests thereafter. His was an
invisible presence at Shimla, a factor few care to notice. Indira
Gandhi snubbed P.N. Dhar, who suggested stalling on the Indian troop
withdrawal. He rightly sensed that Soviet pressure accounted for the
wrath she visited on him (page 209).
Marker’s lament at the misfortune that befell Pakistan would have been
more poignant had he been more critical of Yahya. The quote from
Ghalib is misplaced. The poet lamented the misfortune that befell an
innocent soul. But was Pakistan so innocent of the parleys between the
USSR and India? Did its ally, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA),
which had a mole in the Indian Cabinet then, not keep it in the know?
India-USSR parleys
The writer is most appreciative of and indebted to the Nehru Memorial
Museum & Library in New Delhi for access to the papers on which this
account is based. After the Grechko visit in March 1969, D.P. Dhar
called on External Affairs Minister Dinesh Singh on April 2, 1969.
Foreign Secretary T.N. Kaul was also present. Dhar “recounted his
recent talks with Grechko and Ambassador Pegov and mentioned, in
particular, that Grechko had assured him that the Soviet Union would
come to India’s assistance in case of aggression from China or
Pakistan. Both Grechko and Pegov had suggested some kind of a Treaty
of Friendship and Co-operation between India and USSR which would be
in consonance with India’s policy of non-alignment. India had signed
such treaties with other non-aligned countries like Iran. Dhar felt if
we agreed to consider this, the Soviet Union would perhaps be inclined
to supply us the more sophisticated weapons, bombers, etc. which we
badly needed. We could also project our needs for accelerating the
processes of self-sufficiency in the field of defence production. It
might also be possible for us, once this was done, to reduce our
foreign exchange expenditure and our total expenditure on defence. He
expected that the Soviet Union would, perhaps, in the altered
circumstances, be willing to give us defence equipment and know-how on
long term credits. He, therefore suggested that we should explore the
possibility of cashing in on this offer and if the Soviet Union was
forthcoming and made certain commitments, then we might agree to enter
into a Treaty of Friendship and Co-operation with them.” Dinesh Singh
suggested a study of the implications of signing the treaty.
Romesh Bhandari, then charge d’Affaires ad interim, had reported to
Dhar on March 27, 1969, his talks with Pegov at a lunch. “One of the
major objectives” of Kosygin was to bring about an India-Pakistan
rapprochement, Pegov said. He brought up the treaty on which Moscow
was extremely keen. It would “be a very good insurance against any
possible aggression by China or Pakistan. Confidentially he mentioned
that Pakistan had been asking the Soviet Union to enter into a treaty
of friendship. The Soviet Union had so far not responded as it was
their desire to enter into such an agreement with India first…. My
impression is that Ambassador Pegov was referring to this treaty of
friendship after clearance of Chairman Kosygin. He kept referring to
this treaty several times and whenever I talked about possibilities of
increased co-operation in different fields he kept suggesting that all
these could be facilitated once the treaty was signed. He further said
that the treaty should not affect our policy of non-alignment. In fact
the USSR had treaties of friendship with countries like Finland, U.K.
etc. We should, therefore, have no hesitation in entering into a
treaty with them. If we were able to achieve this then it would indeed
be a most significant step forward in Indo-Soviet relations. If not,
our relations would of course continue in the way they had been in the
past.”
D.P. Dhar and Dinesh Singh were the treaty enthusiasts, but Kaul did
not lag behind. P.N. Haksar, to be sure, approved of it as did G.
Parthasarathi. The Congress split threw a spanner in the works. Dhar
wrote to Kaul on October 9, 1969: “The document seems to have been put
into cold-storage for the time being. Contrary to what you had told me
and you repeated the instructions on the telephone. FM handed over the
final draft to Gromyko in a formal manner. Though earlier it had been
agreed that for some time more we would continue to handle this draft
informally at my level. If we had wished to play for time, we could
have done that without raising a suspicion of dilatoriness on our part
or again, if we wished to finalise it we could have achieved that
purpose also within a week or so. This is what we had decided to do.
But then suddenly he emerged from his separate talks with Gromkyo and
asked for the draft. He handed it over to him, and in my opinion set
the seal of approval of the Government of India to its contents. How
long can he delay its finalisation without risking to create suspicion
in the Soviet mind? I would suggest, as I had advised earlier, the
finalisation of draft, once again at my level. Then we can buy time by
invoking the assurance of Kosygin to PM about determining the wisdom
of the occasion for concluding the ‘document’ formally in accordance
with her assessment of the objective situation. Fast changes are
taking place in Sino-Soviet relations, Pakistani-Soviet relations, and
if we are wide awake, we can convert the course of these changes to
our advantage.”
Dhar was impatient. He, as well as the other three, were contemptuous
of Dinesh Singh and rightly so. Haksar, to be sure, had his
reservation about the volatile Kaul and the none too able and overly
cautious courtier, Parthasarathi. Dhar was not happy with “the long
list of amendments” that Dinesh Singh had handed over to the Soviets.
Fomin assured Dhar that they would be able to dispose of them to
mutual satisfaction. Fomin had mentioned the treaty even before the
polls. It was always “the Document” to Dhar.
The China factor
Indira Gandhi’s massive victory in the Lok Sabha elections in 1971 and
Pakistan’s crackdown in Dhaka in March that year predictably revived
interest in the treaty. The Soviets had used their good offices to
allay Mujib’s suspicions of Yahya and felt let down. Dhar, now on
transfer to Delhi, wrote to Kaul on June 5 in terms which reflect an
enthusiasm by no means caused only by localities. He enclosed a
memorandum of his conversation with Grechko that day. Dhar’s memcons
were notoriously long, not seldom exaggerating his own contribution,
as the Prime Minister once remarked. Grechko said, “If I were you I
would not be worried by Pakistan. You should take into account the
unpredictable enemy from the North” – China.
It knew that India was militarily weak. “We must be ready to fight the
Chinese aggression very seriously.” He further stated that it would be
of vital importance both to India and the USSR if our friendship was
“fixed” in a treaty of mutual help “of the kind recently concluded by
the USSR with the UAR. He added that such a treaty would demonstrate
to China, Pakistan and any other potential aggressor the solidarity
between the peoples of the two countries. Such a document would deter
anyone from embarking on an adventure against India. He further stated
that he had spoken to Sardar Swaran Singh about three years ago to
have such a treaty and had also shown him the draft of a possible
document. He as Defence Minister had shown that treaty to Sardar
Swaran Singh, who also at that time was the Defence Minister of India,
only because of his friendship for him as he knew that these matters
did not fall within the purview of Defence Ministers….
“The Ambassador stated that he had been fully associated with this
matter. He was working at it for six months and he had been authorised
by his government to discuss the draft of such a Treaty with the
Soviet Foreign Office. As a result of these discussions, an agreement
had been reached in principle at their level on the text and contents
of the proposal document. The job had thus been done at the diplomatic
level and ‘Abede’ (meal) was ready on the place…. The Marshal
reiterated that what he had said was his personal view and he felt
that a treaty between the two countries at this time would be
opportune and appropriate and he would suggest that it should contain
some reference to military cooperation also. The Ambassador said that
in principle we had never been opposed to the suggestion for having
such a treaty. The only question that had to be determined was the
appropriateness of the occasion and also that of the time so that such
a treaty should not cause any harm to the interests of the two
countries … that any mention of military cooperation would have to be
done in a very lukewarm manner in the document itself.
“Perhaps, the same purpose could be achieved by an exchange of letters
or record of the exchange of views on mutual assistance. In any case,
like the Marshal, these were, the Ambassador said, his personal views
…. The Ambassador, however, wanted to ask a question from the Marshal
as to whether in view of the present tensions which existed between
Pakistan and India as a result of the direct action of Pakistan in
East Bengal and on our borders abetted and aided by China, it would be
appropriate at the present moment to conclude such a treaty. The
Marshal was of the categorical view that such a treaty would perhaps
act as a strong deterrent to force Pakistan and China to abandon any
idea of military adventure.”
To Kaul, D.P. reported: “The mention of this document in various forms
from Pegov to Grechko, from our Central Committee contact to a junior
dignitary as Labochev in Foreign Office makes it clear that in spite
of the developing crisis in our relations with Pakistan with the
Chinese intervention as a distinct possibility the Soviet would be
prepared to accept the responsibilities and obligations which would
devolve on them as a result of such a commitment.” He wondered
“whether we are being wise in reacting in a lukewarm manner to the
Soviet offer of unequivocal help to us. The pros and cons of this
proposal and its present and ultimate utility can best be judged in
New Delhi in consultation with the Foreign Minister and other
concerned authorities. It is, however, important that we do have some
sort of an understanding of what we expect the Soviet Union to do for
us in the event of our country being involved in a conflict with
Pakistan singly or alone with her allies. I am not talking merely in
terms of the political requirements of the situation as it will
develop as a consequence of a conflict of this type. I am more
interested in the military aspects of the aid and assistance which we
will need and which we are bound to seek….
“I am not sure whether the conclusion of a treaty in the form in which
it was discussed in the year 1969 would satisfy the needs of the
present situation. Perhaps, an exchange of letters which would set out
the same objectives as were contained in the treaty would be an
equally good substitute for the treaty at the present juncture. Or,
again, we could think in terms of a secret document which could emerge
as a result of the joint consultations between the General Staffs of
the two countries or as a result of consultations which could be held
on purely political level….”
On June 7 and 8, a much abler External Affairs Minister, Swaran Singh,
was in Moscow. By 1971 the situation had changed. Swaran Singh met
Gromyko on both days. Gromyko seized on his hint of “appropriate
steps” by which China’s support to Pakistan can be “counter balanced”
to remind him of earlier talks on “some sort of a Document, some sort
of a Treaty”, adding, “You will kindly recall that sometime ago we
held an exchange of view regarding the desirability of signing some
sort of a Treaty. These discussions had reached a fairly advanced
stage. But then, if I remember correctly, because of the pre-election
events, because of the development of a certain type of political
situation in your country, this exchange of views was discontinued.
What do you think about the feasibility or otherwise of resuming this
exchange of views and ideas regarding the Draft Document?”
Swaran Singh replied, “We can work on this Document and discuss it and
arrive at a suitable agreement. You will recall that this Document was
a subject matter of discussion during the course of several meetings
with our Ambassador and H.E. Mr. Firyubin, and if I remember rightly,
they had produced some sort of a draft…. As far as I can remember, the
main crux of the Treaty was implied in the clause which provided for
immediate consultations in the event of a certain situation
materialising suddenly. That is good as far as it goes. But what do we
do now if a situation develops, an unfortunate situation which will be
neither of our nor of your choosing. What do we do? What would your
country do to the preservation of peace in this region and it may
constitute one great single factor for averting the present threat to
peace.”
Gromyko asked, “In what way do you want us to make this statement? In
what way should we formulate our attitude? You have to be more
concrete.” Swaran Singh remained vague, “There can be various ways.”
Gromyko then said: “As far as the contents of the Treaty are
concerned, it is possible that it may need further exchange of views
in order to amend or alter the contents of the draft …. I wish to say
that perhaps it may need some changes or modifications.”
On June 8, Swaran Singh recalled the text Grechko had brought “some
sort of a text of the Treaty. We accepted the suggestion of the Treaty
in principle and it was on that basis that subsequent talks took place
between our Ambassador and your Foreign Office. During the course of
these discussions a good deal of agreement was arrived at on the
structure and the main contents of the Document…. We should also pick
up the threads as suggested by you or, to be more exact, as mentioned
by you and resume discussions on the text. We feel that such an
agreement will act as a great lever for peace and also as a deterrent
to China and Pakistan against embarking on any military adventure.”
Swaran Singh met Kosygin on June 8 and returned to the theme of a
statement by Moscow to warn off China. Gromyko intervened to say that
they were discussing a treaty. The talks progressed sufficiently for
Kaul to draw up a comprehensive memo on June 15 comparing India’s
draft with the UAR Treaty. He rejected suggestions of a secret
exchange of letters. Two paragraphs bear quotation. Swaran Singh had
told Kaul that “Marshal Grechko had mentioned to him during his last
visit that a Treaty would help in further cooperation between the two
countries in the field of defence, and the Soviet hesitation in
supplying certain items to us was due to the absence of a Treaty.
Marshal Grechko had also indicated this to our Ambassador. Since the
possibility of a war with Pakistan cannot be ruled out, and since
China is giving Pakistan all out military help and assistance, and
Chinese intervention in the event of such a conflict cannot be ruled
out, it is submitted that the conclusion of a Treaty with the Soviet
Union would deter China from embarking on a military intervention in
the event of a conflict between India and Pakistan, and thus safeguard
our national interests. If it is considered desirable we could offer a
similar Treaty to USA and some of our neighbouring countries like
Afghanistan.” He doubted if the U.S. would agree.
The Soviet Union had done all the running, using its arms to Pakistan
and India as tools. Marker is still perplexed why the supplies ended
despite promise of renewal. Obviously, Moscow did not risk its major
project with India.
Years later the treaty met the same fate as did the U.S.’ pact with
Pakistan assuring help against aggression from any country. As de
Gaulle shrewdly remarked, “Treaties, like roses and pretty girls, last
only so long as they last.”
Volume 27 - Issue 05 :: Feb. 27-Mar. 12, 2010
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20100312270508500.htm
http://www.flonnet.com/fl1706/17061090.pdf
BOOKS
A Pakistani perspective
A. G. NOORANI
Kashmir Dispute: An International Law Perspective by Ijaz Hussain;
Quaid-i-Azam Chair, National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-
Azam University, Islamabad; pages 309; Rs.450.
"THE Kashmir dispute which has bedevilled relations between India and
Pakistan for the last half century has been the subject of a number of
political and historical studies. However, its legal perspective has
been largely ignored. For example, there are some old publications by
Indian writers (Agarwal, H.O., Kashmir Problem: Its Legal Aspects,
1979; Khan, R., Kashmir in the United Nations, 1966; Rao, H.S.G.,
Legal Aspects of Kashmir Problem, 1967) but they are far from adequate
as the treatment, apart from being antiquated, is either polemical or
pseudo-legal or both," writes Ijaz Hussain.
After citing three other books by Western writers which did not focus
on the legal aspect, the author continues with great modesty: "The
result is that no professional systematic and serious study of the
subject from the international law perspective exists in the English
language, and perhaps in any language. The present book attempts to
fill this huge gap by approaching the subject in a professional,
dispassionate and exhaustive manner."
Ijaz Hussain's comments on the three Indian works are justified. They
belong to an era and tradition in which Indian and Pakistani scholars
vied with each other in producing apologias to establish that their
own country's case in any dispute with any other state, particularly a
neighbour, was right and the adversary was wrong. But what Ayesha
Jalal said of South Asian historians who "privilege the gloss of
nationality rather more than the thrust of scholarship" is all too
true of Ijaz Hussain himself.
His book appears incongruously at a time when many thinking Indians
and Pakistanis have begun to pose questions about the morality and
expediency of their countries' policies. Yet his work is one of the
worst specimens of the earlier tradition. This is a great pity. He has
laboured hard on the legal aspect and has served his country as a
member of its delegation to many an international conference.
The book makes pathetic reading. At places it amuses the reader as a
lawyer would amuse the judge by pleading that his client did not
conclude any contract so that the charge of its breach is groundless;
assuming he did, he performed it; in the alternative, the contract was
concluded under coercion; in any event it is void for several reasons.
Now sample this: "Reacting to these massacres (in Jammu) and to those
taking place in East Punjab, on 22 October a large lashkar from
Pakistan's tribal areas poured into Kashmir with the aim of liberating
it from the Dogra forces. By 24 October the lashkar captured the power
house near Srinagar and could have posed a threat to the airport but
for the fact that good part of the forces stayed back as it got
engaged in pillage."
We are next told that "since the Maharaja invited the Patiala troops,
in violation of the relevant rule of international law, Pakistan
retaliated by sending tribesmen to help the Kashmir rebels win the
power struggle in Kashmir." So, it was an officially sponsored
venture; not a spontaneous one by tribesmen.
On page 109 emerges another thesis: "We can say that the counter-
intervention by Pakistan through the tribesmen on behalf of the
Kashmir rebels was justified as it fulfilled the conditions laid down
by the right of collective self-defence... Pakistan has, however,
claimed that she was not involved in the tribesmen's intervention and
that the latter's intervention was spontaneous being in response to
the massacres and atrocities of their co-religionists in the Jammu
region and that in view of the prevailing enraged sentiments, she
could stop the tribesmen only at her own peril." This joke is also
accepted and retailed on page 118: "In our estimation, the present
case is a good candidate for exoneration for mitigating circumstances
that accompanies the tribesmen's incursion into Kashmir."
Only a wrong is "exonerated" or "mitigated"; virtuous conduct calls
for neither. At yet another place (page 114) he suggests that "the
(tribal raid into Kashmir) was private". Which was it - a private
affair or the government of Pakistan's "counter-intervention"?
Of what avail the many legal citations when the author cannot bring
himself to face and state the truth on a matter of such crucial
importance? He writes: "In view of the fact that the Indian troops
were present in Srinagar when the Instrument of Accession was signed
points (sic) to the use of force in obtaining consent of the Maharaja
to the said Instrument. This makes it patently defective." Now, it is
no one's case that the Maharaja felt oppressed by the arrival of
Indian troops. As everyone knows, he felt relieved. He had sought
India's help against the raiders.
There is an attempt to suggest that Jinnah was "completely taken by
surprise." The Governor of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP),
Sir George Cunningham's diary recorded that Jinnah had heard of the
venture a fortnight earlier but said "Don't tell me anything about it.
My conscience must be clear" (vide R. J. Moore; Making the New
Commonwealth; p. 51).
None in Pakistan contests the fact that it had launched Operation
Gibraltar and Operation Grand Slam in 1965 to settle the Kashmir
question by force. Can Pakistan hope to get by plebiscite what it lost
at its own chosen forum, the battlefield? What is the relevance of
"the U.N. resolutions" when Pakistan violated the U.N. charter? The
resolutions themselves it tore into shreds. Under the resolution of
the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan of August 13,
1948, Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir was to be "administered by the local
authorities under the surveillance of the Commission." The Commission
having vanished, Pakistan installed a government there under a
Constitution which bars the cry of plebiscite and debars non-Muslims
from public office. Under "the U.N. resolutions" Pakistan has not a
leg to stand upon. Apologias like Ijaz Hussain's, like narcotics,
constitute nothing but a flight from the reality. Ijaz Hussain has
taken considerable pains to demonstrate with the help of Indian and
U.N. documents that the Kashmir question is very much a "dispute". One
thought that was overdone. Agra makes one think that his labour was
not expended in vain.
Volume 18 - Issue 18, Sep. 01 - 14, 2001
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://www.flonnet.com/fl1818/18180720.htm
ESSAY
Menace to free speech
A.G. NOORANI
Throughout history, free speech has been threatened not only by state
power but also by the mob which stifles dissent. But India has
witnessed in recent years a new menace - the mob in partnership with
the state. The courts have not always protected dissent when it
battles against popular frenzy.
THE HINDU PHOTO LIBRARY
Shiv Sainiks protesting against the screening of Fire at Delhi's Regal
Theatre.
"Persecution for the expression of opinions seems to me perfectly
logical. If you have no doubt of your premises or your power and want
a certain result with all your heart, you naturally express your
wishes in law and sweep away all oppositions. But when men have
realised that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to
believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own
conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade
in ideas, that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to
get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth
is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried
out."
- Justice Oliver Wendell Homes' dissent, with Justice Louis D.
Brandeis, in Abram vs. United States, 250, U.S. 616 (1919).
IN 1927, Brandeis wrote this dissent in which Holmes concurred: "Those
who won our independence believed that the final end of the state was
to make men free to develop their faculties, and that in its
government the deliberative forces should prevail over the arbitrary.
They valued liberty both as an end and as a means. They believed
liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of
liberty. They believed that freedom to think as you will and to speak
as you think are means indispensable to the discovery and spread of
political truth, that without free speech and assembly discussion
would be futile, that with them, discussion affords ordinary adequate
protection against the dissemination of noxious doctrine, that the
greatest menace to freedom is an inert people; that public discussion
is a political duty... . Believing in the power of reason as applied
through public discussion, they eschewed silence coerced by law - the
argument of force in its worst form. Recognising the occasional
tyrannies of governing majorities, they amended the Constitution so
that free speech and assembly should be guaranteed." Whitney vs.
California 274 U.S. 357 at 376-7 2 at 673.
Justice Felix Frankfurter predicted that Holmes' dissent "will live so
long as English prose retains its power to move". Max Lerner ranked it
with Milton and John Stuart Mill. In 1929, Holmes excelled himself in
this immortal dissent: "If there is any principle of the Constitution
that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other, it is the
principle of free thought - not free thought for those who agree with
us but freedom for the thought that we hate." U.S. vs Schwimmer 279
U.S. 664 at 653.
These men had drunk deep at Mill's essay On Liberty and remembered his
admonition: "If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only
one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more
justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power,
would be justified in silencing mankind."
Throughout history, free speech has been threatened not only by state
power, but also by the mob which stifles dissent. But India has
witnessed in recent years a new menace - the mob in partnership with
the state. To add to the distress, the courts have not always
protected dissent when it battles against popular frenzy.
Actor Shabana Azmi lighting a candle outside Home Minister L.K.
Advani's house in December 1998, protesting against the attack on
actor Dilip Kumar's Mumbai home.
The mob-state entente is a subversion of India's Constitution. Its
framers learnt a lot from British and American constitutional history.
This was particularly true of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. They knew of times
when English judges were the King's men and the jury was the only
protector of the citizen. The Bar has known no greater advocate in the
cause of free speech than Thomas Erskine. Our founding fathers knew
how the executives' excesses were curbed by courts and public opinion
and how, in former years, the British Parliament abused its privileges
to silence criticism. But they could not have dreamt that this country
would one day see a repressive government in cahoots with an
intolerant mob; when men in power would condone, if not instigate,
violent attacks on those who disagreed and judicial help, at most
times, would either be late or inadequate or simply refused.
Dilip Kumar, the veteran film actor, remarked in a press interview
published on December 9, 1998, apropos of the Shiv Sainik's attack on
December 4 on a cinema house screening Fire: "How can you appeal to
the government when Chief Minister Manohar Joshi [a Sainik] is himself
encouraging threats of vio<147,1,7>lence... by congratulating the
miscreants?" On December 12, members of the Shiv Sena, in their
underwear, surrounded his house and hurled abuses at him. How many
public figures denounced the attacks or the abuse?
The creeping menace of violent intolerance has developed a modus
operandi. If a historical figure is criticised, let loose the dogs of
barbarism on the critic, no matter how erudite, reasoned and
distinguished. The state does not protect the scholar. Instead, it
robs him of the rewards of scholarly labour by banning the book;
citing a "threat" to law and order. The arrogant insolence and the
shameless, brazen abuse of power go unchecked in some cases. Because,
in those cases, even judges, otherwise willing to curb executive
wrong, are reluctant to act against "popular sentiment". One is
reminded of Justice Benjamin Cardozo's famous reminder in his classic
The Nature of the Judicial Process: "The great tides and currents
which engulf the rest of men do not turn aside in their course and
pass the judges by."
Neither Macaulay's Indian Penal Code (IPC), enacted finally in 1862,
nor the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) of 1898, re-enacted in 1973
with some illiberal additions, sanctions the abuse. But there lurk in
the edifice of our criminal jurisprudence some crevices, some nooks
and corners on which excrescence has grown over time. They need to be
removed for they pose a danger to free speech. English law has moved
far ahead; especially on libel, contempt of court and parliamentary
privilege. Indian law has stagnated.
RAJEEV BHATT
Dilip Kumar, who had abuses hurled at him for defending the screening
of Fire.
Surely, in a country of continental size, it is preposterous that any
publicity seeker, say, in Guwahati, should be able to drag the editor,
printer and publisher of a journal published in Mumbai or Chennai
before a magistrate by filing a complaint charging him with
"obscenity"; quite regardless of whether the journal has a wide
readership in his city or the offence is grave enough. Reform is
called for, sorely.
Obscenity apart, religion and history provide the busy body with a
fertile opportunity. He complains of "hurt feelings" as a devotee of a
national or regional hero if not, indeed, a direct lineal descendent
of the great man who died over a century or two ago. As was pointed
out earlier by this writer, India's criminal law of libel is
constitutionally void entirely ("A void libel law", Frontline; April
5, 1996).
The Select Committee which vetted the Penal Code in the clime of the
19th century emphasised that it did not prevent rational discourse.
Two important provisions were inserted in the Penal Code. One was
Section 153A, the other was Section 295A. The former underwent many
amendments. In the wake of the Jana Sangh's programme of
Indianisation, precursor to the Bharatiya Janata Party's Hindutva
plank, the National Integration Council recommended changes. As it now
stands, it penalises promotion of disharmony "between different groups
or communities on grounds of religion, race, place of birth,
residence, language, caste or communities." Section 153B followed, in
train, to penalise imputation of disloyalty to India on any of these
grounds.
VIVEK BENDRE
Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray.
The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)
and the Shiv Sena have with ease made a mockery of these provisions
and exposed the hypocrisy of those who enacted them. On November 26,
2005, Bal Thackeray said: "We will pick a prominent Kannadiga settled
here [in Mumbai] and thrash him if there is news of even a single
attack on our people there [in Belgaum]" (Hindustan Times, November
27). (Emphasis added, throughout.)
Section 295A was inserted in the Penal Code in 1927. It penalises
"insults" to "religion or the religious beliefs" of any group if made
"with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging" their
"religious feelings".
The Select Committee in its report stated: "To make it clear that an
attack on a founder is not omitted from the scope of the section, we
have specifically made punishable an insult to the `religious beliefs'
of the followers of any religion." Its companion is Section 298A which
punished words uttered "with the deliberate intention" of wounding the
religious feelings of any person. Two features deserve note. There
must be a deliberate intention to hurt and what is protected is
religious feeling, not devotion to historical figures. Its draftsmen
said: "We wish to allow all fair latitude to religious discussion and
at the same time to prevent... . under the pretext of such discussion
intentional insults."
Mohammed Ali Jinnah struck a fair balance in his speech in the Central
Legislative Assembly on September 5, 1927: "There can be no question
that we in this House wish to make it clear that in future no wanton
vilification or attack on any religion shall be permitted - then let
us proceed with this Bill." He said that "scurrilous writers" should
be punished. But he did not stop at that. He added also: "I thoroughly
endorse the principle, that while this measure should aim at those
undesirable persons who indulge in wanton vilification or attack upon
the religion of any particular class or upon the founders and prophets
of a religion, we must also secure this very important and fundamental
principle that those who are engaged in historical works, those who
are engaged in bonafide and honest criticisms of a religion shall be
protected."
S.R. RAGHUNATHAN
Suhasini Maniratnam.
This brings us to two dark crevices - group libel and criticism of the
dead. Section 499 of the Penal Code defines defamation. Explanations 1
and 2 are relevant. Explanation 1: "It may amount to defamation to
impute anything to a deceased person, if the imputation would harm the
reputation of that person if living, and is intended to be hurtful to
the feelings of his family or other near relatives." Explanation 2:
"It may amount to defamation to make an imputation concerning a
company or an association or collection of persons as such."
How can Explanation 1 apply to one who died decades ago? For, it
cannot possibly "be hurtful to the feelings of his family or other
near relatives". Two other factors are relevant - the gravity of the
imputation and that it must be "intended to be hurtful to the feelings
of his family". The target is not the deceased but his survivors.
Criticism of historical figures cannot possibly fall within
Explanation 1.
The very sweep of Explanation 2 ("collection of persons") suggests a
need for confining it to reasonable dimensions. The Supreme Court's
rulings are unsatisfactory. In Sahib Singh Mehra vs. State of U.P
(1966) 1 SCJ 294, the court had to consider this sweeping charge in a
periodical published in Aligarh: "illicit bribe money... into the
pockets of public prosecutors... " It ruled: "The language of
Explanation 2 is general and any collection of persons would be
covered by it. Of course, that collection of persons must be
identifiable in the sense that one could, with certainty say that this
group of particular people has been defamed, as distinguished from the
rest of the community. The prosecuting staff of Aligarh or, as a
matter of fact, the prosecuting staff in the State of Uttar Pradesh,
is certainly such an identifiable group of collection of persons.
"There is nothing indefinite about it. This group consists of all
members of the prosecuting staff in the service of the Government of
Uttar Pradesh. Within this general group of public prosecution of U.P.
there is again an identifiable group of prosecuting staff, consisting
of Public Prosecutors and Assistant Public Prosecutors, at Aligarh.
This group of persons would be covered by Explanation 2 and could
therefore be the subject of defamation. We have not been referred to
any case relating to Section 499, Indian Penal Code, in support of the
contention for the appellant that the Public Prosecutor and Assistant
Public Prosecutors at Aligarh could not form such a body of persons as
would be covered by Explanation 2 to Section 499, Indian Penal Code."
That was unfortunate. English cases were not considered at all.
G. Narasimhan & Ors. vs. T.V. Chokkappa (1972) 2 SCJ 596 arose out of
a conference organised by the Dravida Kazhagam (D.K.) over which E.V.
Ramaswamy Naicker presided. The Hindu and other papers reported that
it had passed a resolution to ensure that "coveting another man's wife
is not made an offence" under the IPC whereas the resolution had said
that "it should not be made an offence for a person's wife to desire
another man". Its object, avowedly, was "to achieve total emancipation
of women".
The court ruled: "A collection of persons must be an identifiable body
so that it is possible to say with definiteness that a group of
particular persons, as distinguished from the rest of the community,
was defamed. Therefore, in a case where Explanation 2 is resorted to,
the identity of the company or the association or the collection of
persons must be established so as to be relatable to the defamatory
words or imputations. Where a writing inveighs against mankind in
general, or against a particular order of man, e.g. men of gown, it is
no libel. It must descend to particulars and individuals to make it a
libel. In England also, criminal proceedings would lie in the case of
libel against a class provided such a class is not indefinite, e.g.
men of science, but a definite one, such as, the clergy of the diocese
of Durham, the justices of the peace for the county of Middlesex. If a
well-defined class is defamed, every particular member of that class
can file a complaint even if the defamatory imputation in question
does not mention him by name."
REUTERS
Khushboo.
How did the prosecutors of Uttar Pradesh qualify then? The court drew
a distinction between the D.K. as a party and the conference, leaving
open the question whether a political party would fall within
Explanation 2. The prosecution failed, however, in the case against
The Hindu.
On both defamation of the dead and group libel, English law is more
precise and should help us to redefine the law. Neither furnishes
ground for a civil suit. Criminal prosecutions lie; but only on narrow
grounds. The hoary Halsbury's Laws of England requires "intention, or
possibly... a tendency to injure the reputation of his surviving
relatives" and that to this degree - "so that they may be excited to
revenge and to a breach of peace" (Volume 28, fourth edition,
paragraph 6). The Faulks Committee on Defamation (1978) suggested a
time limit of five years after the death and confined the remedy to a
declaration that it was untrue. There must be some time limit on
prosecutions too, surely.
Gatley on Libel and Slander, a legal classic, says: "It is a criminal
offence to write and publish defamatory words of any deceased person
if it be done with intent to injure and bring contempt on his family
and so provoke them to a breach of the peace. A mere vilifying of the
deceased is not enough. There must be a vilifying with a view to
injure his posterity."
In R. vs. Topham, the defendant was indicted for publishing of the
late Earl Cowper a libel which imputed to him unmanly vices and
debaucheries. He was tried and convicted. In his judgment Lord Kenyon
C.J. said: "To say, in general, that the conduct of a dead person can
at no time be canvassed, to hold that, even after ages are passed, the
conduct of bad men cannot be contrasted with good, would be to exclude
the most useful part of history. And therefore it must be allowed that
such publication may be made fairly and honestly. But let this be done
whenever it may, whether soon or late after the death of the party, if
it be done with a malevolent purpose, to vilify the memory of the
deceased, and with a view to injure his posterity, then... it is done
with a design to break the peace, and then it becomes illegal."
Courts owe a clear duty when faced with works of scholarship, to
uphold the right of free speech and summarily dismiss attempts to curb
it at the very outset instead of issuing process to the writer.
A standard Indian work Law of Crimes by Ratanlal and Vakil says: "The
essence of the offence of defamation consists in its tendency to cause
that description of pain which is felt by a person who knows himself
to be the object of the unfavourable sentiments of his fellow
creatures and those inconveniences to which a person who is the object
of such unfavourable sentiments is exposed." Where the complainant did
not claim himself to be a descendant of the deceased person who had
been allegedly defamed, no action would lie since he was not an
aggrieved person. "The mere fact that he was a devotee and an admirer
of the deceased person would not be sufficient to maintain an action
against the accused."
In short, the law on group libel and on libel on the dead furnishes no
ground for legal action of the kind we have seen lately. Pleas of
"hurt feelings", wrath or shame and the like are irrelevant. That is
why the entente is forged. Section 95 of the Criminal Procedure Code,
1973, empowers State governments to ban journals or books if inter
alia they violate Sections 153-A, 153-B, 295-A of the Penal Code. Once
an agitation is whipped up and the agitators take recourse to
violence, State governments have, in cases more than one, stepped in
to invoke Section 95 of the CrPC and ban the book. "State governments"
is a euphemism for politicians in power. The ones in the Opposition do
not hesitate to jump on the bandwagon.
M. VEDHAN
A Dalit Panthers of India demonstration against Kushboo's remarks on
women.
However, Section 96 of the CrPC enables "any person having any
interest" in the publication to challenge the ban in the High Court.
The petition must be heard by a bench of three Judges. Gopal Godse vs.
Union of India (1970) 72 Bombay Law Reporter 871 is an instructive
case. Aspects of Justice Y.V. Chandrachud's judgment are disturbing;
but the fundamental principle of law which he propounded is sound -
the writing must directly incite ill-feeling between two groups. A
book or an article which a group claims insults its "hero" or its
"culture" cannot be banned. The ban on Gopal Godse's book Gandhi
Assassination and I was set aside. Gandhi was killed because the
Godses accused him of "appeasement" of Muslims. The court ruled,
nonetheless: "Its accent is not on the social relationship or the
political association between Hindus and Muslims in India, nor does
the book at all deal with any contemporary problem having communal
ramifications. The setting of the book is the events that led to the
division of the country, the thesis of the writer is that Gandhiji
wrongly pursued the policy of appeasement and his conclusion is that
this policy led to Gandhiji's murder. The book is thus an attempt to
explain what is indisputably a historical fact by marshalling support
from what are said to be clear facts of history."
Justice Chandrachud, who delivered the judgment, found: "The best part
of the book deals with these facts and events, the theme being that
Gandhiji was assassinated for political, not personal, motives by
those who loved their motherland as much as any one else did. The
theme, in other words, is that Gandhiji's life is the price which was
paid for the decision that the country be partitioned and the
subsequent decision to pay the cash-balances to Pakistan in the face
of its aggression on Kashmir."
He added: "The book read as a whole cannot be held to contain matter
which promotes feelings of enmity and hatred between Hindus and
Muslims in India. Frankly, the total effect of the book would not be
to inflame communal passions. It contains no appeal to those passions
- no direct appeal certainly and the supposed veiled meaning is much
too veiled for the common reader. What will linger in his mind after
he keeps down the book is that the integrity of the country should not
have been broken and that Gandhiji's policy of appeasement led to
partition and the untold miseries which it brought in its wake. What
will move the reader is the account of those miseries, and more so the
account of the sufferings of the aged parents, the wife and the
helpless children of the author."
The Judge's assessment of the book is wrong. But his ruling on the law
is sound and this ruling knocks the bans which we have suffered lately
for a six.
S. Rangarajan vs. P. Jagjivan Ram & Ors. (1989) 2 SCC 574 concerned
the film Ore Oru Gramathile, which attacked the policy of reservations
on the basis of caste. The Supreme Court struck down the censors'
orders. Its observations will continue to ring in our ears for a long
time. "In the affidavit filed on behalf of the State government, it is
alleged that some organisations like the Tamil Nadu Scheduled Castes
Scheduled Tribes People's Protection Committee, Dr. Ambedkar People's
Movement, the Republican Party of India have been agitating that the
film should be banned as it hurt the sentiments of people belonging to
Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes. It is stated that general secretary
of the Republican Party of India has warned that his party would not
hesitate to damage the cinema theatres which screen the film. Some
demonstration made by people in front of The Hindu office on March 16,
1988, and their arrest and release on bail are also referred to. It is
further alleged that there were some group meetings by Republican
Party members and Dr. Ambedkar People's Movement with their demand for
banning the film. With these averments it was contended for the State
that the exhibition of the film will create very serious law and order
problem in the State.
"We are amused yet troubled by the stand taken by the State government
with regard to the film which has received the national award. We want
to put the anguished question, what good is the protection of freedom
of expression if the state does not take care to protect it? If the
film is unobjectionable and cannot constitutionally be restricted
under Article 19(2), freedom of expression cannot be suppressed on
account of threat of demonstration and processions or threats of
violence. That would tantamount to negation of the rule of law and a
surrender to blackmail and intimidation. It is the duty of the state
to protect the freedom of expression since it is a liberty guaranteed
against the state. The state cannot plead its inability to handle the
hostile audience problem. It is its obligatory duty to prevent it and
protect the freedom of expression."
This was said on March 30, 1989. Two years later, the Supreme Court
considered a petition against the serialisation of Sanjay Khan's film
The Sword of Tipu Sultan on Doordarshan. It was based admittedly on
Bhagwan Gidwani's novel, a work of historical fiction. The lapse on
the part of the Supreme Court is saddening. Doordarshan's formulation
was made worse by the court sanctioning the words: (it) "has nothing
to do with either the life or rule of Tipu Sultan". This is manifestly
incorrect and makes a mockery of the very concept of historical
fiction; it is fiction inspired by history. Disposing of a special
leave petition seeking a ban on the airing of the serial, the Supreme
Court directed in February 1991 that the following announcement be
made along with the telecast of each episode: "No claim is made for
the accuracy or authenticity of any episode being depicted in the
serial. This serial is a fiction and has nothing to do either with the
life or rule of Tipu Sultan. The serial is a dramatised presentation
of Bhagwan Gidwani's novel."
By 1991, the BJP had fouled the atmosphere in the country. The Supreme
Court's order was as unfortunate as it was devoid of jurisdiction. It
gave a handle to the bigots. Besides, courts have no right or power to
judge a film except on the anvil of the law. The correctness of
depiction of history or the accuracy of a historical statement is
entirely for the viewers to judge; not for judges to pronounce upon.
It only remains to add that both Khushboo and Suhasini Maniratnam were
entitled to say what they said. The attacks on them, physical and
verbal, were a blot on the great and ancient Tamil culture.
Volume 22 - Issue 26, Dec. 17 - 30, 2005
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2226/stories/20051230001705200.htm
chhotemianinshallah
Hindutva turmoil
VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN
in New Delhi
Hindutva politics has reached an advanced stage of decay if incidents
such as Uma Bharati's revolt and expulsion, the bribery scandal
involving some BJP Members of Parliament, and the feud in the Shiv
Sena's first family are any indication.
PRAKASH HATVALNE/AP
Uma Bharati during her Ram-Roti Yatra, at Raisen, 50 km from Bhopal,
on December 4.
A FEW days before the expulsion of former Madhya Pradesh Chief
Minister Uma Bharati from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), former
Union Law Minister and party spokesperson Arun Jaitley made a
statement that should rate high on a scale of political candour.
Talking to a group of media persons outside Parliament House, he said
the developments relating to Uma Bharati had indeed caused setbacks to
the moves of the BJP and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to
launch a concerted political offensive against the United Progressive
Alliance (UPA) government. "Here we were fresh from the confidence-
boosting victory in the Bihar elections and raring to put the
government on the mat on the Volcker Committee Report, but Uma Bharati
chose that very moment to revolt against the selection of the new
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister. Her actions, driven solely by self-
interest, not only work against the larger concerns and initiatives of
the party but have brought public focus on our organisational
differences," he said.
Jaitley's effort, of course, was to portray the "Uma Bharati
imbroglio" as something caused by the former Chief Minister's "self-
interest" and lack of appreciation for the "larger concerns and
initiatives" of the BJP. But the firebrand sanyasin had her own take
on Jaitley's remarks. "Perhaps Jaitley should try and remember," she
said, "who overlooked the party's larger concerns and initiatives when
I was chosen to lead the Hubli-Jalianwala Bagh Tiranga Yatra last year
and how efforts were made blatantly to sabotage the yatra and its
message." Uma Bharati did not mince words and added that it was a
clutch of BJP leaders, including Jaitley, who had tried systematically
to prevent the success of the yatra. "And, they were all driven by
self-interest and personal insecurities," she said.
Commenting on this jousting between the two leaders, a senior Hindutva
ideologue, who did not wish to be named, told Frontline that this
could not be seen merely as a verbal tussle between two politicians
who have fallen out with each other. "It is symptomatic," he said, "of
a larger malaise that has afflicted not just the BJP, but a number of
prominent organisations of the Sangh Parivar, and consequently the
practice of Hindutva politics itself."
Both Jaitley and Uma Bharati, the ideologue added, were accusing each
other of self-interest and lack of concern for the party's larger
goals and, when you take a comprehensive view, both were correct. "Uma
Bharati's actions in November-December this year were motivated
essentially by self-interest and the ambition to re-occupy the Chief
Minister's chair. Similarly, the driving force that brought Jaitley,
Pramod Mahajan, Sushma Swaraj and Venkaiah Naidu together to gang up
against Uma Bharati and her Tiranaga Yatra in August-September 2004
was self-interest coupled with the urge to prevent her rise to a
superior position in the party."
The Hindutva theoretician added that such tendencies dictated by
personal ambition and political careerism were on the rise in the BJP
for some time, but in the context of Uma Bharati's expulsion they rose
to an all-time high. This observation has immense merit because the
political and organisational degeneration in the BJP has manifested
itself not just in the affairs of the Madhya Pradesh unit of the party
or in matters relating to Uma Bharati. Barely a week after Uma
Bharati's expulsion, in a shocking incident in the national capital,
as many as six Members of Parliament of the BJP were caught on hidden
camera accepting bribes to raise questions in Parliament. Those shown
on television included senior members such as M.K. Anna Patil and Y.G.
Mahajan of Maharashtra as also Pradip Gandhi of Chhattisgarh and
Suresh Chandel of Himachal Pradesh. The party suspended all of them.
In Kerala, too, where the BJP organisation is driven almost directly
by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the fountainhead of the
Sangh Parivar, the party is under the cloud of a major corruption
scandal and massive infighting consequent to the scam. The corruption
charges are about the trading of votes to ideologically disparate
parties such as the Congress, and senior State leaders, including
former Union Minister O. Rajagopal, are talking about how large
sections of the party indulged in corruption and how sections of the
RSS condoned it (see separate story).
The theoretician's point has been accentuated by the developments in
Maharashtra, too, where the Bal Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, which belongs
to the Hindutva ideological brotherhood though not technically a part
of the Sangh Parivar, is going through extreme organisational turmoil,
caused by the tussle for organisational and political power between
two younger-generation leaders, Udhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray (see
separate story).
Talking to Frontline, Acharya Giriraj Kishore, leader of the Vishwa
Hindu Parishad (VHP), the ideological sword-arm of the Sangh Parivar,
said all these developments highlighted the point that the Hindutva-
oriented political outfits, which were once called cadre-based,
ideologically motivated "parties with a difference", no longer had
such lofty characteristics.
In Giriraj Kishore's view, the developments relating to Uma Bharati as
well as those in Maharashtra and Kerala have even brought down the
sense of elation of Sangh Parivar and NDA activists on account of the
Bihar victory. "It is as though the BJP has worked the victory
celebrations into such tumultuous levels that it has descended to a
chaotic gloom." Echoing Jaitley, the VHP leader said the prevailing
climate in the BJP and the larger Hindutva parties would militate
against fresh and creative moves in terms of practical politics and
ideological initiatives.
Though the leadership of the RSS has refused to get into a debate on
Uma Bharati's expulsion or the situation in Kerala, it is no secret in
the Sangh Parivar that the RSS is constantly monitoring all these
developments. In fact, the RSS had, as early as July last year, warned
the BJP against the trends that led to the latest
developments.
V. SUDERSHAN
At the meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Board in New Delhi on November
30.
At its Chintan Baithak (brainstorming session) held in Goa from July
29 to August 1 last year, the RSS had pointed out that the primary
cause of the BJP's shock defeat in the Lok Sabha elections was the
mistakes of the party and its leadership, which manifested themselves
as neglect of the Hindutva ideology and the interests of the party's
social base. It was pointed out at the Baithak that during the six
years of NDA rule, several senior BJP leaders had got so attached to
the trappings of power that they were ready to give up Hindutva
completely. The Baithak concluded that the aberrations in the
lifestyles of many of them pointed to gross corruption and ideological
compromises.
Ironically, Uma Bharati's Tiranga Yatra was conceived as a major agit-
prop instrument to correct these tendencies and bring the BJP back to
the path of ideological commitment. The RSS leadership had blessed it
and had seen it as an important initiative that could take the BJP and
the Sangh Parivar out of the political, ideological and organisational
morass they had got into after the shock defeat in the 2004 Lok Sabha
elections. The context of launching the yatra, the ideas propounded in
it, as well as its leadership were all rated as ideal tools to
restructure and repackage Hindutva.
The yatra was launched after Uma Bharati resigned as Chief Minister of
Madhya Pradesh in the wake of being charge-sheeted in a 10-year-old
rioting case in Hubli, Karnataka. That the riot case related to
attempts to unfurl the national flag in a communally sensitive area in
Hubli, the RSS opined, imparted both nationalistic and Hindutva
dimensions to the yatra. At the campaign level, this assessment
manifested itself as expressions against the "foreigner leadership of
the UPA and the Congress" which is targeting a "nationalist" like Uma
Bharati.
Equally important, Uma Bharati belongs to the Other Backward Classes
(OBC) Lodh community, and this too was rated as a factor that would
help the BJP's renewed and repackaged promotion of Hindutva,
especially in the northern States, where OBC assertion was a dominant
phenomenon. In the background of these perceptions about the Tiranga
Yatra, sections of the RSS and the Sangh Parivar had talked about
grooming and, in some fora, even projecting Uma Bharati as the most
important icon of the BJP after the big two, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and
Lal Krishna Advani.
But this very projection of Uma Bharati and the "corrective measures"
launched as part of the yatra led by her produced results that were
contrary to what the RSS had hoped for. In fact, it worsened the
intrigues in the party.
Even as the yatra was launched, other second-generation leaders such
as Mahajan, Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and M. Venkaiah Naidu were devising
plans to play it down. Sushma Swaraj went on a much-publicised
`Andaman Satyagraha' taking scores of MPs to the precincts of the
Cellular Jail in Port Blair, apparently to protest the belittling of
"Veer" Savarkar by the UPA government. Uma Bharati was upset with this
programme as she saw it as an attempt to deflect attention from the
yatra.
Mahajan, on his part, routed the Maharashtra segment of the Tiranga
Yatra through remote areas with the muted argument that too much of
Hindutva propaganda would be counter-productive in the (then)
impending Assembly elections in the State. He even addressed a press
conference in New Delhi during this period, deriding the yatra as one
without much consequence or national importance. Clearly, the new icon
was being trashed thoroughly and sidelined by fellow leaders of the
BJP.
Uma Bharati did see through these games but was not able to counter
this with political tact or shrewdness. Given to wild mood swings and
intemperate behaviour, she complained, rather publicly and crudely, to
the top leadership of the RSS and the BJP against those who had
connived against her, and sought retribution. When these pleas did not
produce the results that she wanted, her frustration became more
obvious and her passionate outbursts more frequent. So much so, that
Uma Bharati even got into an open spat with Advani in front of
television cameras. She was once shown the way out of the party for
this, but was allowed to come back primarily on account of the mass
following she has as an OBC leader.
But, that return was followed by organisational machinations, both by
Uma Bharati, to reoccupy the Chief Minister's position in Madhya
Pradesh, and by her detractors, to prevent her from getting any
primacy in the affairs of the party or the State government. These
machinations have manifested themselves in various forms during the
past one year. In the process, even those sections of the RSS and the
rest of the Sangh Parivar that had supported her projection as the
third important leader of the BJP distanced themselves from the
tempestuous sanyasin. By the third week of October, this departure of
RSS supporters from Uma Bharati's side was complete and the RSS
national executive meeting at Chitrakoot indicated that the RSS had no
soft corner for her. Her expulsion from the BJP was the culmination of
all these developments.
After her expulsion, Uma Bharati has raised new challenges to her
detractors in the BJP and the rest of the Sangh Parivar. She has
characterised the action against her as a reflection of the gender and
caste biases that exist in the higher echelons of the BJP and other
Parivar outfits. She also started a "Ram-Roti Yatra" from Bhopal to
Ayodhya to highlight her positions.
Significantly, none of the senior OBC leaders of the BJP, including
former Uttar Pradesh unit Chief Minister Kalyan Singh and former State
party president Vinay Katiyar, have publicly opposed Uma Bharati's
line. When contacted by Frontline, both leaders maintained that they
would not say anything about the expulsion or the events that had
preceded and followed it. Equally significantly, the VHP has stated
that it will support Uma Bharati in the yatra and after that if she is
really committed to Hindutva.
In the meantime, the Uttar Pradesh unit of the BJP has launched a
Hindutva agitation of sorts in eastern Uttar Pradesh, based on the
protest agitation against the killing of Krishnanand Rai, a BJP member
of the State Assembly (see separate story). Leaders such as Advani and
Vajpayee have associated themselves with the agitation. Yet, the
movement has not acquired credibility or momentum even among
supporters of the Hindutva ideology, essentially because Rai was known
to be associated with mafia groups and his killing is widely perceived
to be the result of a gang rivalry.
P.V. SIVAKUMAR
K.N. Govindacharya.
Sections of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar, including leaders such as
Jaitley, are trying to depict Uma Bharati's expulsion as the beginning
of a real corrective process in the organisation. This projection,
however, is viewed by large segments of the Hindutva combine as
simplistic. As pointed out by the Hindutva ideologue, the expulsion of
one leader or the promotion of another is not going to reverse the
basic alterations that have taken place in the organisational systems
and ideological moorings of the Hindutva cadre across the country. "It
would take detailed planning and operation all over India for the kind
of change that is required," he said. He was not aware whether the RSS
and the rest of the Sangh Parivar have launched any move in that
direction.
According to K.N. Govindacharya, one of the top RSS and BJP
intellectuals who were active during the 1980s and 1990s, and who is
credited with having coined the BJP's "social engineering" strategies,
told Frontline that the Sangh Parivar as a whole, and the RSS in
particular, was aware of the need to adapt the Hindutva ideology to
the changing times. Govindacharya himself was on a long "ideology"
study leave until recently.
Apparently, he has been working on new concepts that focus on an
economic policy initiative for the Sangh Parivar. The concept,
Govindacharya says, squarely rejects the economic policy practised by
NDA regimes under the leadership of Vajpayee and Advani. "In a sense,"
Govindacharya says, "a large number of party legislators took the path
of corruption when they realised that our economic policy was no
different from that of the apologists of liberalisation like the
Congress."
Obviously, such a realisation diluted the adherence to other concepts
of the party, too, and finally even to the circumvention of the core
Hindutva ideology. The RSS and the rest of the Sangh Parivar have been
grappling with this organisational reality for the past one year and
all attempts at a revival are impeded by the continuing absence of an
alternative economic policy and the steadily decreasing mass appeal of
the communal `Hindutva' politics. Given this background, the churning
and turmoil in the Sangh Parivar and the parties of Hindutva is bound
to be a long-drawn-out and possibly tortuous process.
Volume 22 - Issue 26, Dec. 17 - 30, 2005
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2226/stories/20051230006400400.htm
COVER STORY
Caste calculations
PURNIMA S. TRIPATHI
in Bhopal
With Uma Bharati giving enough hints that she will play the caste
card, politics in Madhya Pradesh is in for a churn and the worst
sufferer may be the BJP.
A.M. FARUQUI
Shivraj Singh Chauhan, the new Chief Minister.
IT was only two years ago that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) routed
the Congress to end the 10-year-old rule of Chief Minister Digvijay
Singh in Madhya Pradesh. The party won a two-thirds majority and an
overwhelming 42.5 per cent of the votes polled by riding the "bijli,
sadak and paani" wave, thus making bread and butter issues and not
Hindutva its main campaign plank for the first time. The task of
proving that the BJP cared for much more than Ram and Hindutva was
assigned to Uma Bharati, the saffron-clad sanyasin with mass appeal
and oratorical flourish. She led the BJP to a victory that took even
her party colleagues by surprise.
Uma Bharati's persona added to the magnetic pull of "bijli, sadak and
paani", along with issues such as unemployment, poverty and hunger.
There was a rare sincerity in her message and appeal, which people
believed. She reduced the Congress to just 38 members in the 230-
member House, its vote share a mere 31 per cent; it seemed as though
the party would be gone from the State's political horizon for a long
time. That, however, may not be the case now. Not because of the
Congress has redeemed itself, but because the BJP has frittered away
its mandate.
Three Chief Ministers in two years, and dissent, rebellion and even
brawls within the party have dominated the BJP's rule so far. On
November 28, when Shivraj Singh Chauhan was to be named the third
Chief Minister, party workers clashed and threw chairs and tables at
each other in public, and chaos reigned. To top it all, Uma Bharati
was thrown out of the party twice, first in November last year and
again now, for "indiscipline".
The sanyasin who led the BJP's return to power in Madhya Pradesh in
November 2003 is now on a padayatra from Bhopal to Ayodhya to protest
against the "hijacking of the party by a handful of individuals". She
has declared war on the BJP for giving up its core ideologies of
suraj, swaraj and shuchita (good governance, self-rule and probity and
purity in public life). "Mine is not a fight for power but for
principles," she declares.
Where does all this leave the BJP? How much more damage can Uma do to
the party when she charts her own course? Unlike last November, when
the party took her back, this time the mood is decisively against her
and Uma Bharati too is bent on proving that she represents the "real
BJP" in Madhya Pradesh. Her strength is her mass appeal; whether she
is in the BJP or out of it, she commands a considerable following.
Her yatra, though without any organisational backing or publicity, has
drawn a reasonably good response and at least a few hundred people
walk with her at any given time. On the Bhopal-Raisen road, for
instance, this correspondent saw people who had nothing whatsoever to
do with the BJP falling at her feet, vowing to follow her until
Ayodhya, garlanding her and requesting her to stay the night at their
houses. A visually impaired beggar, Balmiki, though not a supporter of
the BJP, was walking with "Uma didi" until Ayodhya, supported by his
seven-year-old son Lal Vikramaditya, because he believes that "Uma
didi is right".
"My whole fight is for principles: whether a group of four or five
people can dictate terms to elected MLAs who represent lakhs of people
or whether MLAs should have the right to elect their own leader? I
have nothing against Shivraj Singh Chauhan but he was imposed on the
MLAs against their wishes by the group of four who have hijacked the
party. The MLAs were threatened with anti-defection law to secure
their consent. This cannot be allowed in a democracy," Uma Bharati
told Frontline.
She said she had no lust for power and had not demanded that she be
made the Chief Minister. But, she added, the democratic process should
have been followed in electing the new Chief Minister. Asked whether
her expulsion from the BJP would lead to her forming a new party, she
shot back: "Which BJP? The BJP is not these four-five people. The real
BJP is the lakhs of people who have associated themselves with it and
who are with me."
Senior BJP leaders, however, dismiss the response to her yatra as
nothing more than curiosity, which can do no harm to the party.
"People flock to see her out of curiosity, as they would to see a
monkey or a bear," said former Chief Minister Babulal Gaur. Gaur
became the Chief Minister after Uma Bharati resigned because of the
Hubli flag-hoisting case and subsequently he stepped down after the
party leadership yielded to pressure from Uma Bharati.
Gaur does not think Uma's ouster will damage the party. His reasoning
is bizarre, though. He said: "Madhya Pradesh has seen 28 Chief
Ministers since its creation. This has been the style of politics
here. If it has not damaged the Congress, why should it damage the
BJP?" In his opinion, the BJP is better off without Uma Bharati. He
sees no future for her outside the party. "She will dry off like a
drop out of the ocean," he said.
At the BJP office in Bhopal, other State leaders, too, agree with this
assessment, in what seems like a celebration of her departure.
"Personality politics has no future here, the organisation is supreme
and now we will run the government in a remarkable way," said BJP
general secretary Anil Dave, He said that though the events in the
last two years had eroded the BJP's credibility somewhat, ultimately
"results will speak, as they did in the case of Narendra Modi in
Gujarat". He added that since the party had the "right media fora and
a positive public perception now", the Uma episode had been
neutralised.
Uma Bharati's supporters on the rampage at the BJP office in Bhopal in
protest against the party leadership's choice of Shivraj Singh Chauhan
as the next Chief Minister.
However, if the party considered Uma's logic strong enough to remove
Babulal Gaur, why did it not reinstate her as promised? BJP spokesman
Nitish Bhardwaj (of Krishna fame in the television serial Mahabharat)
said: "She committed the blunder of trying to destabilise our own
government, as is evident now, under the pretext of Dusshera milan."
He said many MLAs who had signed a letter to the party president
demanding that Gaur be replaced later said they were forced to do so."
According to Nitish Bhardwaj, the way Uma Bharati conducted herself in
recent times, the things she said, the way she promoted hooliganism,
all combined to this outcome. "Besides, she was not acceptable to the
MLAs. They were jittery of her return," he said, adding that they
wanted Gaur's removal but did not want her back. "People want somebody
who is mature and stable as Chief Minister," he said. "She is a loose
cannon who can only damage herself now."
Uma Bharati's supporters, however, are optimistic that she will
establish her independent political identity. Though Madhya Pradesh
politics has been generally devoid of the caste angle so far, Uma
Bharati seems to be taking it in that direction. She alleges a "caste
bias in the BJP". "Look at the Parliamentary Board. It represents only
10 per cent of India (upper caste). Where is the other 90 per cent?"
she asks. She has given enough hints that she could be launching her
own brand of politics with caste as its pivot.
"There is enough scope for caste-based political parties, otherwise
parties such as the Bahujan Samaj Party [BSP] or the Gondwana
Gantantra Party [GGP] would not have carved their own space," said
Prahlad Patel, former Minister, who has now been expelled from the BJP
for supporting Uma Bharati. What Patel says carries weight because in
a two-party situation even the GGP managed to win three seats in 2003,
getting over 8 per cent of the votes polled in the seats it contested.
The Samajwadi Party (S.P.), which entered Madhya Pradesh in a big way
for the first time in 2003, won seven seats out of 161 it contested,
getting over 5 per cent of the votes. The BSP, too, has its own space,
commanding a 10 per cent vote share, though it won only two seats in
2003. By this logic the BJP could find the going tough if Uma is on
her own. The OBCs (Other Backward Classes) form a substantial 40 per
cent of the population in Madhya Pradesh, of which a large section
used to support the BJP because of "mass leaders" such as Uma Bharati
or Prahlad Patel.
According to political observers, this class of voters could react
now. Said Patel: "Our self-respect has been hurt and now the backward-
caste people could vote for anyone defeating the BJP because it has
proved that it does not respect people who have struggled their way up
from the grassroots level."
Whether the BJP will suffer a loss or not, the Congress is already
celebrating. State Congress leaders are jubilant that Uma has paved
the way for their return to power. "The BJP will never return to power
now. The party is finished. Its vote will get divided and we will come
back with a bigger majority," said Jamuna Devi, leader of the Congress
Legislature Party in the State. She said if elections were held today,
the Congress would form the government.
But how much the Congress can capitalise on the BJP's woes is
questionable because of its own internal dissensions. There is a
strong section in the Congress that does not want to see Digvijay
Singh back. "The Congress lost because of Digvijay Singh. People are
still with us and want us back but minus him," said a senior Congress
leader. Political observers in Madhya Pradesh, however, are unanimous
that the direction Madhya Pradesh politics takes now will
substantially depend on what Uma Bharati does.
Volume 22 - Issue 26, Dec. 17 - 30, 2005
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2226/stories/20051230006700800.htm
COVER STORY
`Have one set of rules for everyone'
Huffing and puffing her way through the cheering, slogan-shouting
crowd, hugging a woman here, a child there, feeding a cow by the
roadside, grabbing a mike to address a group of children, that is Uma
Bharati, the expelled BJP leader, on her Ram-Roti Yatra. She is
defiant and snappy, and has her forehead smeared with roli (red
coloured powder) as usual. Unmindful of what lies ahead for her, she
has hit the road with a gusto typical of her. Ask her why a sanyasin
should take the road to rebellion for the sake of the chief
ministerial chair, and she snaps back: "When did I ask to be made the
Chief Minister. My fight is for principles, not for power, and the
fact that I am a sanyasin makes it possible for me to take up this
fight because I have no lust for power."
She says action should also be taken against L.K. Advani and Atal
Bihari Vajpayee for the same offence: speaking out openly against her.
"I have never spoken out openly against anyone but only replied to
what they have said. When they speak out against me that is not
indiscipline, but when I reply to them it becomes indiscipline," she
said in an interview to Purnima S. Tripathi. Excerpts:
Why are you on this yatra?
My yatra is for Ram and roti and that is why I have called it the Ram-
Roti yatra. It was planned a year ago, and L.K. Advani was to flag it
off but he asked me to postpone it because some people in the party
opposed it. In the changed circumstances I decided to start it
immediately. I wanted to reinforce the point that the BJP has deviated
from the real issues of Ram and roti, which are the issues that helped
us to come to power. Once in government we forgot all about them.
But the perception now is that since you were denied the Chief
Minister's post you resorted to this form of protest.
I never demanded the Chief Minister's post for myself. All I wanted
was that the MLAs should be allowed to elect their leader. Shivraj
does not have the support of the majority of the MLAs. Had he been
elected by the MLAs I would have had no objection.
But the party says 154 MLAs supported him when the motion was put to
vote in the legislature party meeting?
There was no motion to vote. They simply announced the decision and
the MLAs were indirectly threatened with the anti-defection law in
order to support him. Can anyone dare oppose in this situation?
But except for the fact that you yourself wanted to become the Chief
Minister, what else do you have against Shivraj Singh Chauhan?
I have nothing against him. He is my elder brother and I wish him good
luck. But the manner in which the four-five people sitting in Delhi
conducted the entire affair is not proper. I am protesting against
that. The Parliamentary Board has all the power to take a decision,
but the announcement is made only after taking the MLAs' point of
view. Here the process was reversed, the announcement was made in
advance and the MLAs were merely supposed to attest it. This is
against democratic norms.
But the BJP says your name was announced in a similar fashion?
My case was different. The Parliamentary Board did make the
announcement but I had to pass the people's test, then only I became
the Chief Minister.
Is it not strange for a sanyasin to take to the street just for the
sake of a Chief Minister's post? Are you not supposed to be above
these worldly concerns?
Because I am a sanyasin I can take up this fight, which is not for
power but for principles. I am here to uphold democratic norms. In a
democracy, a party's strength lies with the people. You espouse
certain causes and people associate with you and vote you to power.
But once you come to power you give up those causes. Then you are no
longer leaders, you become hijackers. I want to ask those sitting in
Delhi what has happened to our concepts of "suraj, swaraj and
shuchita". These people who you see with me today have associated with
the BJP for a certain cause and if you betray those causes you have no
longer the moral right to lead these people. Those sitting in Delh,
who have no connection with these people, fail to realise this. It is
to highlight these issues that I am on the road today.
Now that you are outside the BJP, what next after this yatra?
Who says I am outside the BJP. What is the BJP? Is it those four-five
people sitting in comfortable rooms in New Delhi? The real BJP is
these lakhs of people and nobody can take me away from that BJP.
But is it not a fact that having revolted against the Parliamentary
Board, which is the supreme party organisation, you have committed an
act of indiscipline?
What is indiscipline? I always wanted a debate in the party on this.
When Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani speak out openly against me
that is not indiscipline, but when I reply to them it becomes
indiscipline. This dual standard of behaviour will not work anymore.
There has to be one set of rules for everyone.
Do you see a caste bias in all this?
It is for everyone to see. Even I have started feeling it now. Look at
the Parliamentary Board structure: Atalji, Advaniji, Joshiji, Sushma
Swaraj, Mahajan, Jaitley. They all represent only 10 per cent of
India. Where is the other 90 per cent? Where is the Dalit, the OBC
representative in this supreme body? Only a handful of people taking
private decisions are now running the party.
Is it not ironic that things have come to this stage in a party that
placed much emphasis on discipline, that called itself a party with a
difference?
Our problem is we have not been able to keep pace with the expansion
of our party. The party organisation failed to keep up with the
party's base and that has created all these problems. That is what I
have been saying all along: open up, expand, have one set of rules for
everyone. There should be no place for individualistic politics.
`System se chalo'.
But has it not isolated you now?
I am not isolated. Those four-five people have been isolated but they
are not able to realise it at the moment.
Volume 22 - Issue 26, Dec. 17 - 30, 2005
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2226/stories/20051230005600900.htm
COVER STORY
Shiv Sena in crisis
LYLA BAVADAM
in Mumbai
The Shiv Sena, which has lost two senior leaders in the past year,
seems to be in trouble after the latest blow, Raj Thackeray's
resignation from all party positions.
VIVEK BENDRE
Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray at the Dasara festival in Mumbai in
October.
BAL THACKERAY'S paper Saamna has always been an easy billboard to air
the Shiv Sena chief's views. So when the time came to give some sort
of explanation for his nephew Raj's resignation from his party posts,
he naturally conveyed this through an article in it, instead of
directly responding to the media's queries. Published on December 10,
the column, worded in the earthy style so beloved of his supporters,
said: "Stop worrying about whether there will be a split [in the
party]. Whether it will be vertical or horizontal. Worry about
Maharashtra and yourselves. We are competent to defend our fort.... I
want to tell the media that whatever is in your minds is not going to
happen.... The Shiv Sena is invincible and indestructible."
Thackeray then went on to dismiss rumours about Raj's plans to leave
the Sena and start another party. "The Marathi manus and Hindus will
not pay heed to someone setting up new temples in the name of Shiv
Sena," he wrote.
The column is generally pompous, but two lines stand out especially
for their denial of reality. One is the assertion that "I have lived
my life like a sanyasi" in reference to his preference for `remote
control' politics to the challenges of contesting elections, taking
charge and being accountable. The other is: "The more you try to
suppress the Shiv Sena, the more it will rise."
Thirty-nine years after its formation, the process of disintegration
seems to have begun in the Shiv Sena. For those who have watched the
party's meteoric rise and its increasing dynastic tendencies, the
events of the last fortnight seem to suggest that the party is coming
apart, which again would indicate a retreat of saffron politics in
Maharashtra. Three important resignations in the party this year are
undeniable evidence that the Sena is not the monolith it once
projected itself to be.
Former Sena Member of Parliament Sanjay Nirupam, who is now with the
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), resigned in March on the grounds of
being prevented from fighting nepotism and corruption in the party.
The Sena-Nirupam relationship had always been an uneasy one since it
was based largely on mutual convenience. The Sena used Nirupam's
Bihari origins to whitewash its anti-North Indian image and he used
the Sena for personal power. The tie ended when Nirupam wanted to
raise the issue of a huge allotment of Reliance Infocomm shares to the
Bharatiya Janata Party's Pramod Mahajan. To prevent any embarrassment
to his coalition partner, Thackeray asked Nirupam to desist but he
refused. The reality behind the split was nepotism, which led to
rebellions at many levels in the party.
WHILE Nirupam's exit was a relatively small blow to the Sena supremo's
self-importance, the next resignation certainly hit hard. Dissident
Sena leader Narayan Rane, who joined the Congress, went on to retain
his hold on the Malvan Assembly seat, doubling his victory margin from
last time. The victory, which was expected, was not so much a
milestone for him personally as it was a signpost for the Sena. As a
politician with a strong grassroots background, Rane is a welcome
asset for any party. The departure, and the subsequent electoral
triumph, of this longstanding Thackeray loyalist have implications for
the future of the party and its grip on the Konkan.
The debacle in Malvan was one of the worst defeats of the Sena, and it
forced the realisation upon its leaders that an individual Sainik
could be more popular than the supremo and that Uddhav Thackeray had
failed as a campaign leader. Indeed, some of the slogans bandied about
in the election campaign must have caused much agony to the greenhorn
Uddhav - "Narayan Rane angaar hai, baaki sab bhangaar hai" (Rane is
the personification of fire. All others are like bits of scrap). But
what surely hurt more was his cousin Raj's resignation in the wake of
the Sena's defeat.
Immediately after the Konkan debacle, Raj wrote to Thackeray asking
for an explanation for the hammering the Sena received. Audacious as
this sounds - the cub questioning the tiger - the letter was a
culmination of many years of rage that have been building up in Raj on
account of what he had begun describing as his sidelining in the party
hierarchy. Without naming Uddhav, Raj reportedly said that a
"sycophantic quartet" was misguiding Thackeray. The reference was to
Uddhav and three other Sainiks, including his aide Milind Narvekar and
Sena leader Subhash Desai, who guide him.
BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Uddhav (left) and Raj Thackeray after a meeting with Bal Thackeray in
Mumbai in August this year.
The quarrel between the cousins has been simmering ever since the post
of executive president was created for Uddhav three years ago. Since
then, the party's cadre have been divided, with the majority staying
with Uddhav because he had his father's blessings. But Raj's
resignation from party posts has plunged the party into a crisis.
When answers were demanded, Thackeray, in true Sena style, was
evasive, saying it was a "family affair". Most Sena leaders were
unavailable for comment, but some inside views of the situation did
emerge. Here is how one senior Sena member understood the `story':
"If the antics of Raj Thackeray are to be summed up it would amount to
this: As the nephew of Bal Thackeray, Raj has undoubtedly had a head
start over other Sainiks. Thus, he has benefited from the very
nepotism that he has now raised a banner of revolt against. However,
unable to bear the promotion of Uddhav over him, he threw in his
resignation. Balasaheb refused to bite - possibly because of the loss
of face after Rane's resignation - and after a tense week-long
standoff, Raj realised that he was in deeper waters than he had
intended. Now each likes to think the ball is in the other's court,
but the truth is that it is for Raj to take a step - he is the one who
will lose more. Uddhav is very comfortable."
If this is a true reflection of what is happening in this very public
battle between the two cousins, then Uddhav has definitely won the
first round. But he has won it by proxy - by being his father's son -
and not because of a superior strategy. This brings the Sena back to
square one: Who can be the future leader of the party?
BEFORE Uddhav's entry into politics, a strong bond had developed
between Raj and Rane. The two of them are close, both ideologically
and in style of functioning, and many Sainiks saw them as the future
of the party. Speculation about the connection between Rane and Raj
continues, despite the former's departure from the party, and both are
silent on the rumours. However, when the Sena lined up its top
campaigners for the Malvan byelection, Raj had only a small role to
play.
The smashed car of Sanjay Rout, executive editor of Saamna, after
members of the Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena, the Shiv Sena's student wing,
went on the rampage in Mumbai on November 27 following Raj Thackeray's
announcement that he was resigning all party posts.
When Rane left the Sena, the party claimed the disagreement as only 15
days old. Rane said it had been brewing over five years. The Shiv
Sainiks have always believed that the party ticket should go to loyal
party men and not to newcomers who ride piggyback on the Sena and are
willing to spend money on the ticket. In the last Assembly elections,
however, Uddhav denied the ticket to loyal party workers. It was a
gamble that did not pay off, particularly in the coastal Konkan
region, traditionally a Sena fortress. Though Rane, who is from the
region, retained his seat, he was angered at the way the elections had
been managed and how loyal Sainiks had been passed over in the
nomination process. He had Raj's support, but both Thackeray and
Uddhav chose to ignore his objections.
To that extent, both Raj and Rane are on the same side of the fence.
But when it comes to leaving the party, Raj's dilemma is different
from Rane's. As an elected representative, Rane commanded the support
of his workers, his voters and of other political parties. So when he
quit he was a prize catch for rival parties. Rane did not face the
threat of losing his identity in a larger party like the Congress or
the NCP. As a four-time elected representative, he could hold his own
and command senior and high-profile positions in his new party. Raj,
however, does not have this option. He stands to lose far more than
Rane if he quits the Sena. Raj is now paying the price for benefiting
from family ties. His options are fewer than Rane's. He would be
unable to swing the lead in any other party and is likely to lose the
identity that has been so crucial to his rise. He would be valuable to
any other party only to the extent that his departure weakened the
Sena.
The BJP, a Sena ally, has few scruples about taking advantage of the
chaos in the Sena. It has always rankled with the BJP that despite
being the bigger partner at the national level, it plays second fiddle
to the Sena in the State. When Rane left and threatened to take Sena
legislators with him, the BJP saw its chance and demanded the post of
Leader of the Opposition in the House. Nothing came of it, but in the
wake of Raj's resignation the BJP is waiting for its chance again.
Narayan Rane (above, after his recent election victory as a Congress
candidate), former Shiv Sena leader, retained his hold on the Malvan
Assembly seat in the bypoll, doubling his victory margin from last
time. The victory, which was expected, was not so much a milestone for
him personally as it was a signpost for the Sena.
The implications a split in the Sena will have for saffron politics in
the State are not far to seek. Thackeray's December 10 article, which
contained proud references to the Sena's role in the 1992-93 riots in
Mumbai when the party "protected our Hindu brethren from the `green
locust', gave some indications.
The Rane-Raj episode has also awakened the predatory instincts of
other parties. Political poaching has begun and Rane is pushing hard
to try and destabilise the NCP as well as the Sena by winning over at
least 10 Sena MLAs to the Congress so that the party's strength goes
up to 79, surpassing the NCP's 72.
That the Opposition is in complete disarray because of the events was
only too apparent during the winter session of the State Assembly.
Despite a number of counts on which the ruling coalition could have
been attacked, the Opposition failed to get its act together.
Volume 22 - Issue 26, Dec. 17 - 30, 2005
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2226/stories/20051230005901100.htm
COVER STORY
Not quite a family affair
LYLA BAVADAM
in Mumbai
THE HINDU PHOTO LIBRARY
During the anti-Muslim riots spearheaded by the Shiv Sena in Mumbai in
1992-93.
TO all appearances, the Shiv Sena has no great concern for principles.
Its style is to take up a populist issue and dump it when it is no
longer useful politically. Many of its campaigns were too simplistic
and yielded results it never bargained for. For instance, through the
Shivaji cult it apparently sought to elevate the national hero, but
its methods actually cheapened the iconic figure. The infamous
zunkhabhakar food stalls, touted as bringing cheap and nutritious
local food to the masses, very soon became valuable real estate. A few
of these are still in existence, but most have been leased out to
other businesses, often run by the very communities the Sena has at
some point targeted. Then there was the Michael Jackson concert, meant
to raise money for a youth employment scheme which never quite got off
the ground. There was never any public accounting of the money
collected.
As the Sena gathered political strength, its inconsistencies
increased: the double take on Enron, the backtracking on the promise
of free housing to slum-dwellers in Mumbai, the James Lane incident in
which the American scholar was threatened because of certain
`inaccuracies' in references to Shivaji in his book, the mishandling
of Mumbai's real estate, the muzzling of the Srikrishna Commission
report and the complete betrayal of Mumbai's mill workers. The Sena's
role in the 1992-93 Mumbai riots was a `high point' in its career,
which deeply tarnished its image.
When Bal Thackeray established the party in 1966, it was with more
than just a little behind-the-scenes assistance from some Mumbai
industrialists. His mandate then was to destabilise the Communists,
who were establishing themselves in the city through a strong trade
union movement. In this, he had the tacit support of the political
establishment and the police. In fact, the Sena was used by the
Congress in the 1967 election to disrupt the campaign of the Left-
leaning independent candidate, V.K. Krishna Menon. The success with
which this was achieved possibly emboldened the Sainiks in what they
saw as a mission - the complete destruction of the Communist movement
in the city.
While responding enthusiastically to the anti-Communist call of the
government, Thackeray also had an agenda of his own. For him, forming
the Sena was a natural response to what he saw as a simmering demand
of the 1960s in the aftermath of the Samyukta Maharashtra movement
which resulted in the birth of the State. Incidentally, Thackeray's
father, Prabhodhankar Thackeray, was a major player in this movement.
THE HINDU PHOTO LIBRARY
A riot victim.
The backbone of Thackeray's party - its membership and its philosophy
- was based on the `Maharashtra for Maharashtrians' principle - the
infamous `Marathi manus' standard, by which practically everyone in
Mumbai was an `outsider' except the 28 per cent or so of
Maharashtrians in the city. This displayed a lack of understanding of
who and what made Mumbai, and also a denial of the historical context.
This attitude evolved recently into the `Mee Mumbaikar' campaign - a
supposedly milder attempt of `integration', but this too was nothing
more than cloaked violence. In essence, it asked `outsiders' to give
up their culture and "integrate". While there was no outward threat of
violence, the familiar `or else' clause of the Sena was only too
clear.
The Mee Mumbaikar campaign was meant largely to `integrate' the North
Indians - the Sena's latest bugbear. It died a natural death after
serving to highlight the hypocrisy of the Sena. Despite its avowed
sons-of-the-soil policy, the Sena has unfailingly chosen non-
Maharashtrians as its Rajya Sabha nominees. The Sena supremo's excuse
for nominating Chandrika Kenia, Mukesh Patel, Pritish Nandy and Sanjay
Nirupam was to have a diverse representation at the Centre. But the
choices rankled with the Sena's Maharashtrian voters, who recognised
the real reason for the choices - a penchant to be associated with
wealth rather than faith in Marathi manus.
The violence that the Sena indulged in in its early years lessened
slightly with time, but it did not stop entirely. Always parochial,
the Sena leadership has unfailingly managed to rally its troops around
with a call to arms. This ability was terrifyingly displayed during
the Mumbai riots of 1992-93, when Bal Thackeray unleashed his troops
on the city's Muslims and established himself as the self-proclaimed
saviour of Hinduism.
This ability was first exhibited in the 1960s. The initial victims
were skilled labourers, primarily from the southern States, who came
to Mumbai looking for jobs provided by new industries. It was a
situation of mutual benefit until the Sena decided that the newcomers
were depriving the local labour pool of jobs. That was when the
migrant workers were branded as "lungi-wallas" and the businesses of
South Indians were attacked ruthlessly. The pattern established then
is still being played out. After the lungi-wallas, it was the turn of
the Gujarati entrepreneur and more recently, it is the North Indian or
`Bihari' migrant. It is ironical that during the Mumbai riots of
1992-93 the Sena allied itself with these communities to target
Muslims. From ethnicity, the focus shifted suddenly to religion.
Such irrational shifts became a trademark of the Shiv Sena over the
years as it became a party with elected members in the Mumbai
Municipal Corporation and finally the dominant partner in the ruling
coalition in the State, between 1995 and 1999.
The Sena has always expected the support of the Maharashtrian
community, though it was hardly consistent with its initial pledge of
"Maharashtra for Maharashtrians". This once vocal support group is now
silent and brooding, and this is perhaps where the greatest threat to
the Sena lies. This is a group that has watched the Sena ride to power
on its votes, but has seen none of its promises fulfilled.
Distrust of the Shiv Sena started growing when the Sena-Bharatiya
Janata Party combine came to power and Thackeray's position in the
government became a moot point. He resolved the issue by saying that
he would not accept any official position but would exercise "remote
control" on the party. There was a collective squirm of embarrassment
from his electorate who felt he was ducking his promises and duties.
However, that was allowed to pass. Then came the Ramesh Kini case in
which his nephew Raj Thackeray was embroiled in a real estate-related
dispute that led to a murder. But that was hushed up. Once again, it
was allowed to pass. However, the recent family feud has exposed the
hunger for power that drives the Sena to the disgust of the party's
core electorate. This "family affair" could be the proverbial last
nail in the coffin.
Volume 22 - Issue 26, Dec. 17 - 30, 2005
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2226/stories/20051230006201400.htm
COVER STORY
On a suicide mission
R. KRISHNAKUMAR
in Thiruvananthapuram
The BJP in Kerala wants desperately to break the stranglehold of the
two coalitions but finds that even its own supporters would not vote
for its candidates until the party proves that it indeed has the
strength and the credibility to win elections in the State.
MAHESH HARILAL
BJP leaders (from left) C.K. Padmanabhan, O. Rajagopal, L. Ganesan and
P.S. Sreedharan Pillai with L.K. Advani in Thiruvananthapuram.
THE Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been a curious phenomenon in
Kerala, masquerading as a ferocious lion with its eyes set on the
jugulars of the ruling and Opposition coalitions in the State but
proving to be a lamb when election results are announced.
The question what ails the BJP in Kerala where it has had all the
trappings of saffron popularity but failed to transform these to
votes, has stuck to the party like a birthmark. Its leaders have often
tried to wish it away by claiming that the party is a victim of bi-
polar coalition politics and caste-based political divisions and that
it is gaining ground steadily, increasing its share of votes in every
election.
Such statements seemed justified when, in the 2004 Lok Sabha
elections, its candidate, former Union Minister O. Rajagopal, got a
never-before 2,28,052 votes (29.86 per cent of the votes) in the
prestigious fight in Thiruvananthapuram and P.C. Thomas, the leader of
the nascent IFDP, then a partner in the National Democratic Alliance
(NDA), won the Muvattupuzha seat in a keen three-cornered fight.
In the local body elections of September 2005, the BJP was the
deciding factor in about 60 local bodies that gave hung results,
though it did not win many seats. It won five panchayats and became
the party with the highest number of seats in nearly 10 others. It
also won double the number of seats it did in the 2000 local body
elections. Its most impressive victories were in Palakkad, Kasargod,
Thrissur and Pattanamthitta districts.
But now the cat is out of the bag.
In the November 18 Lok Sabha byelection in Thiruvananthapuram,
necessitated by the death of P.K. Vasudevan Nair (CPI), Rajagopal's
victorious rival in the 2004 election, the BJP fielded one of its most
prominent leaders, former State unit president C.K. Padmanabhan,
giving the impression that the party wanted to consolidate the gains
made in Thiruvananthapuram in 2004.
But what followed was a lacklustre campaign. The BJP failed even to
provide its candidate with agents in many polling booths and
Padmanabhan could manage only 36,690 votes, a mere 4.83 per cent of
the total votes polled. He lost his deposit in the only Lok Sabha
constituency where the BJP proved its strength in 2004.
The majority of the party's supporters, especially cadre of the
Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), were absent from the campaign scene
during this round.
The question what ails the BJP in Kerala was finally answered by
Rajagopal in an anguished response to Padmanabhan's humiliating
defeat. In an interview to a magazine, Rajagopal admitted what the
BJP's critics had been hinting at all along: despite the occasional
gains, and although it was nowhere near the seat of power, the party's
State unit was a deeply divided one, with one group, which claimed the
support of the RSS, opposing the leadership of Rajagopal, State
president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai, and former presidents K. Raman
Pillai and Padmanabhan.
Rajagopal said the division in the party was not over ideology or
individuals but the result of an attack mounted on the others by a
minority who were eager to protect and nourish the huge wealth they
have amassed using the party's name. This group did not have the
support of a large section within the party, nor did it have the
support of the RSS (as was being claimed). He argued that the problem
was not rampant, and was confined to Thiruvananthapuram.
He alleged that Padmanabhan was so thoroughly defeated in
Thiruvananthapuram because this section indulged in large-scale
trading of votes and that, though he was yet to obtain concrete and
complete evidence about it, "circumstantial evidence indicated that
the needle of suspicion pointed towards P.P. Mukundan" (a prominent
State leader known for his close links with the RSS).
C. RATHEESH KUMAR
P.P. Mukundan.
Rajagopal, who perhaps represents the most credible face of the BJP in
Kerala, pointed out that the party had earlier found Mukundan guilty
of trading its votes to the Congress-led United Democratic Front
(UDF), and had removed him as organising secretary and asked him to
shift his headquarters to Chennai. When he refused, the then party
president, M. Venkaiah Naidu, had personally intervened to shift him
to Chennai. But in the run-up to the Thiruvananthapuram byelection,
Mukundan pitched tent at the party headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram,
ignoring the directive of the leadership, he said.
Rajagopal also alleged that Mukundan had struck vote-switching deals
with former Congress leader K. Karunakaran, especially in
constituencies where the latter had a personal interest, and said that
it was significant that both the leaders were in Thiruvananthapuram
during the byelection. (Karunakaran's Democratic Indira Congress-
Karunakaran supported Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate Panniyan
Raveendran of the CPI in the byelection.)
Rajagopal said a large section in the RSS had turned against
Padmanabhan during his tenure as BJP State president after he
criticised its role in the widespread violence unleashed in
Thiruvananthapuram during an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)
student agitation three years earlier.
Over 50 RSS cadre were among the accused in the case filed in
connection with the incidents and Rajagopal said the "financial and
physical hardship" that the RSS and its cadre were going through to
fight the case was enormous. He alleged that Chief Minister Oommen
Chandy had "taken the lead in giving an assurance that the government
would be willing to offer concessions to the RSS cadres involved" in
this case as well as some other such serious cases in Kannur district.
He said it would not be surprising if ordinary RSS cadre facing
personal hardships because of the cases against them took the bait and
voted for the UDF candidate, former MP V.S. Sivakumar.
In reply to another question, Rajagopal alleged that a sort of "double
trading" had taken place in Thiruvananthapuram this time, "with a
section in the Sangh that had some empathy with the Left" voting in
the latter's favour when it found that votes were otherwise being
shifted en masse to the UDF. He also alleged that the party State
committee member M.S. Kumar was responsible for it.
He said he had information that during the campaign, a car belonging
to the CPI had made regular night trips to the residence of a BJP
State vice-president and that "there were doubts that money had
changed hands".
Rajagopal asserted that he was saying this openly because it had
become imperative to conduct a surgery to remove the cancer that was
afflicting the party for a long time. Asked whether the guilty would
be removed from the BJP, Rajagopal made the most startling of all his
allegations. He said: "The troubles within the party are being
engineered by those who amassed wealth using the party's address. It
is said the individual wealth today of the most prominent among them
would be over Rs.10 crores. You must be aware of the petrol pump
deals. One of them has very close links with a construction company
that is associated with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. This individual
has even acquired a residential flat from them for free."
So, would the State BJP's troubles be over if such leaders are removed
from the party? Ever since it came into being in Kerala in the early
1980s, the BJP, and even its predecessor the Jana Sangh, caught as it
was between the two prominent political coalitions in Kerala, had
utilised vote trading as a political art that gave it at best a
wishful influence in Kerala politics.
At times, it seemed that the party prided itself on the fact that at
least in some constituencies it could tip the balance by making its
cadre vote against its main rival in the State, the CPI(M) and the LDF
it leads, and in favour of the Congress, the BJP's main rival in the
rest of India.
For example, when the party began to ride the saffron wave unleashed
by the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, the BJP garnered over 10.5 lakh votes
in the local body elections held in January 1991. But in the Assembly
elections that followed five months later, the party won a mere six
lakh votes, an obvious result, as a party inquiry revealed, of the
vote-trading engineered by most of the prominent leaders who now find
themselves in opposite camps in the State party.
Even its most popular leader, K.G. Marar, was defeated in Manjewaram,
where the party then had its most prominent presence. According to one
of the members of the party inquiry committee, trading votes with the
Congress-led coalition also led to the Muslim League, a UDF
constituent, getting the maximum number of seats in the State Assembly
then.
From all indications, what started as a strategic trade-off with the
UDF, perhaps under the genuine impression that the UDF would then help
the BJP to win a seat or two in the Assembly or in the local bodies,
soon deteriorated into regular vote-for-money deals that were used by
a section of leaders to amass wealth - an allegation raised against
the BJP by its political rivals for long and now corroborated by the
statements of O. Rajagopal.
But what the State BJP leadership perhaps fails to realise is that
when over a period of time as it encouraged sympathisers to vote for
non-BJP candidates, initially as a matter of party strategy for long-
term rewards and then, as Rajagopal now alleges, as part of an
individual strategy for personal gains, it was pushing the party into
a political trap.
The BJP's would-have-been voters, a large majority of them without any
firm ideological commitment, soon needed no goading to look for
alternatives independently whenever they found that the BJP candidate
had no chance of winning in an election (as is the case in almost all
constituencies in the State).
It may be true that, rightly or wrongly, some BJP leaders can now
claim credit for making supporters vote against party candidates. But
what has become a real challenge for the party is that none of its
leaders may now be able to do the opposite - make them all vote for
the BJP itself.
The party wants desperately to break the stranglehold of the two
coalitions, led by the CPI(M) and the Congress, but finds that even
its supporters would not vote for its candidates until the party
proves that it indeed has the strength (and now the credibility) to
win elections in the State. It is the BJP's own undoing in Kerala, a
sort of vicious cycle engineered by its own leaders.
Volume 22 - Issue 26, Dec. 17 - 30, 2005
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2226/stories/20051230005801500.htm
COVER STORY
Rule of the outlaw
AMAN SETHI
in Ghazipur and Mau
In Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, the melding of politics, religion and gang
rivalry leads to the killing of BJP legislator Krishnanand Rai and a
round of communal riots.
BJP president L.K. Advani paying his respects to slain BJP MLA
Krishnanand Rai in Varanasi on December 6.
"THEY say that after killing a hundred men, even a tiger dies of sin,
but in Ghazipur they have long crossed that number," proclaims Vijay
Singh, a shopkeeper in the town. The mafia-style killing of
Krishnanand Rai on November 29 was only the latest incident in a place
where shootouts are routine. But the manner of Rai's killing was
extraordinary even by Ghazipur's standards. Gangsters on five
motorcycles and a Tata Sumo surrounded his car and cut him down in a
hail of gunfire.
Rai represented Mohammadabad in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly and was a
key member of the Purvanchal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Besides, he belonged to the powerful Bhumihar caste and was close to
local mafia don Brajesh Singh.
Rai's supporters stormed the town the following day, focussing their
ire on rival gang leader Mukhtar Ansari, who represents Mau in the
Assembly as an independent. The mob attacked shops owned by Muslims
and destroyed a mosque at Marda, besides burning buses, motorcycles
and even the Dhodade railway station in the town. A First Information
Report (FIR) was filed at the Ghazipur police station, naming Mukhtar
Ansari, his elder brother and the Samajwadi Party's (S.P.) Lok Sabha
member from Ghazipur Afzal Ansari, and Munna Bajrangi, said to be a
contract killer from Benaras, as responsible for the killing.
In the wake of the riots in Mau, BJP supporters clash with the police
in Lucknow in November.
Rai's supporters were not satisfied with this. The same day former BJP
Chief Minister Rajnath Singh sat in dharna before the Varanasi
District Magistrate's office demanding that the Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI) should investigate the killing. Meanwhile,
instances of sporadic communal violence were reported from villages
and small towns around Ghazipur.
Soon the national leadership of the BJP, too, joined the agitation,
with BJP president L.K. Advani launching a `Nyay Yatra' on December 6.
He toured the districts of Varanasi and Ghazipur and visited Rai's
bereaved family at Gadaur village near Mohammadabad. By that time
mosques had been attacked in villages such as Reotipur and Veerpur.
Even as the BJP campaign continued, both Mukhtar Ansari and Afzal
Ansari, separately denied to Frontline their involvement in the
killing. Afzal said he was in Delhi at the time of the killing and
Mukhtar was in Ghazipur jail on charges of rioting and inciting a mob
during communal violence in Mau in October. (He was later shifted to a
Lucknow jail.) However, it is said that Mukhtar directed his business
from jail using a mobile phone. Munna Bajrangi was known to be a close
associate of Mukhtar.
SUBIR ROY
MLA from Mau Mukhtar Ansari.
On the street, the feud between Mukhtar Ansari and the Krishnanand-
Brajesh Singh duo was well known and the gangs clashed frequently. The
Mukhtar Ansari-Brajesh Singh feud, it is said, has its roots in a
conflict over a plot of land near Saidpur in the early 1980s between
two groups, one led by Makhanu Singh and Sandhu Singh and the other by
Sahib Singh and Ranjeet Singh. The matter was decided when Makhanu
Singh killed Sahib Singh and swift and brutal reprisals followed.
Over the years, the original plot of land was forgotten, but the feud
was not. In his early days, Mukhtar Ansari swore allegiance to Makhanu
Singh's gang, while Brajesh Singh joined Sahib Singh's. Soon Mukhtar
Ansari and Brajesh Singh were fighting for control over Ghazipur's
lucrative thekedari or contract work mafia. Estimated at more than Rs.
100 crores a year, the racket, in Ghazipur and its neighbourhood,
encompasses areas such as coal mining, railway construction and scrap
disposal, Public Works Department construction, and the liquor
business.
Apart from contract work, the gangs are involved in extortion,
kidnapping, and extraction of protection money and `Goonda Tax'.
Thekedari was introduced in the region in the mid-1980s and was
controlled by Tata Birender Singh, a local strongman. However, his
reign was cut short when he was killed and Brajesh Singh allegedly
took over the empire. In the early 1990s, Brajesh Singh cast his net
wide and consolidated his empire. However, the friction with the
Mukhtar Ansari gang was growing. Mukhtar Ansari entered politics
around 1995 and started building an empire of his own.
Mau Mukhtar Ansari brother Afzal Ansari, MP from Ghazipur, before he
surrendered on December 8.
Tensions between the two gangs came to a head in 2001 when Brajesh
Singh ambushed Ansari's convoy on the Mau-Lucknow highway. In the
shootout that followed, Mukhtar Ansari lost three of his key men and
Brajesh Singh was critically injured and declared dead soon after.
Mukhtar Ansari was `crowned' the undisputed king of Purvanchal.
However, a year later his men spotted Brajesh Singh in the Mau-
Ghazipur area and the feud resumed.
Krishnanand Rai entered the Singh-Ansari feud when he contested the
Mohammadabad Assembly seat in the 2002 elections and won it. His
opponent was Afzal Ansari. Local people say Brajesh Singh financed and
supported Rai's campaign. It is said that Rai used his political
office to pass on all contracts to Brajesh Singh's gang. In fact, in
several statements to the press, Mukhtar Ansari claimed that
Krishnanand Rai and Brajesh Singh were working as a team and were
planning to eliminate him.
Rai's murder is widely seen as a product of inter-gang tensions, but
it also has deep links with the political climate in the region. The
region has a numerically significant and politically influential
Muslim population, and a Hindu polity that is split on caste lines.
Given the strong, and growing, presence of parties such as the S.P.
and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the BJP has found it
difficult to harness the Hindu vote. People like Mukhtar Ansari also
find it useful to play the Muslim card during elections. As a result,
even incidents that are only tangentially linked to religious
identities and issues snowball into communal avalanches.
The intersection of politics, religion and gang interests has resulted
in particularly high-risk political strategies in the region. The
destruction of a mosque in Marda and the attack against three other
mosques, and the looting of Muslim-owned shops in the wake of Rai's
killing seem to be part of a larger strategy to consolidate the Hindu
vote ahead of the elections in early 2007.
A similar situation has been observed in nearby Mau, where a communal
riot on October 13 resulted in a curfew that lasted nearly a month.
The riot allegedly occurred when the Bharat Milap festival of Hindus
coincided with the Muslim Roza rituals. While this has been a
communally sensitive issue for years - the Bharat Milap procession
passes in front of the Shahi Khatri Mosque - the Ramlila Committee and
the mosque's management usually work out an arrangement to safeguard
the interests of both communities.
This year, as part of the arrangement, the Bharat Milap procession was
postponed to October 29. However, members of the Hindu Yuva Vahini
refused to accept the revised schedule and insisted on using
loudspeakers just outside the mosque during prayers. A few Muslims
disconnected the loudspeaker wires, and this led to rioting. The local
BJP units issued statements denouncing the "slaughter of Hindus" and
Mukhtar Ansari was arrested on the charge of inciting people during
the riots.
In Lucknow, BJP members at a dharna demanding a CBI probe into
Krishnanand Rai's killing.
Matters reached the point where almost any issue could evoke a
communal response. Mohammed-Ur-Rehman, the Imam of the Shahi Khatri
Mosque in Mau, told Frontline that recently a Muslim youth was lynched
by relatives of a Hindu girl he allegedly raped. "For many days the
atmosphere was highly charged." said the Imam. "But after a point,
both communities realised that the incident, though reprehensible and
undesirable, was a rape case and not a communal one."
In the Mau-Ghazipur belt, indeed in most of eastern Uttar Pradesh,
violence is routinely justified on the grounds of religion, and
religious violence is often used as a cover for furthering political
and gang agendas. Several interest groups, including the real estate
lobby, used the communal riots in Mau to settle individual scores. The
first targets in the riots were shops in the main street where
landlords and tenants have been engaged in bitter struggles over the
ownership of shops. Many of the shops targeted were those with
histories of tenancy disputes. In many cases, landlords set fire to
their own shops to destroy the businesses of their tenants and regain
control. On the other hand, in the Ghazipur riots, inter-gang violence
was given religious overtones in an attempt to make political
capital.
In terms of the immediate effect of the Mau incidents of October and
the Rai killing, the BJP has undoubtedly sensed an opportunity to
reactivate its Hindutva politics in the region as well as its cadre,
demoralised by a string of electoral reverses in the State. Whatever
dimensions and direction the pursuit of this politics takes, there is
little doubt that an atmosphere of communal tension is steadily
spreading across eastern Uttar Pradesh. This tension is also
characterised by a foreboding that the Brajesh Singh gang will soon
avenge Rai's killing, sparking the next round in the unending gang
wars of Ghazipur.
Volume 22 - Issue 26, Dec. 17 - 30, 2005
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2226/stories/20051230004301700.htm
LITERATURE
A rebellious Turk
SHELLEY WALIA
Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk holds a mirror up to the state against its
atrocities while he advocates holding on to values that are dear to
his country which is both Islamic and European.
JEAN-PIERRE MULLER/AFP
Orhan Pamuk.
ORHAN PAMUK, Europe's most prominent novelist, has been persecuted in
Turkey for his "irreverence" for the state, especially his
condemnation of the large-scale killing of Kurds and Armenians. His
reference is to the civil war that raged in the Kurdish regions of
Turkey in the 1980s and 1990s and to the massacre of Armenians during
the First World War. In his own words, he is a spokesman "for those
who cannot speak for themselves, whose anger is never heard, and whose
words are suppressed".
When I asked for Noam Chomsky's response, he wrote back saying: "The
suppression of such opposition is criminal. I have personally been and
still am closely involved with many such cases. As you may know, I
once went to Istanbul and insisted on being a co-defendant in a trial
of a publisher for publishing a book of mine that had some (absolutely
accurate) material on United States-backed crimes against the Kurds in
the 1990s, which were horrendous (and almost entirely suppressed in
the U.S., still unknown). There was too much publicity, I guess, and
the Security Courts, which are of course a joke, dismissed the charges
on the first day of the trial. But there's another similar one under
way right now: same publisher, similar charges."
The state's assault on constitutional freedom and due processes in the
name of "patriotism" is a blemish on the institutions of democracy and
is sure to provoke such opposition. People such as Pamuk, who value
their freedom and stand up against any curb on independent thought and
expression, care enough for their rights as well as for the rights of
others. Confrontational protest activities have always played an
important role in the struggle for political and social justice.
Pamuk is one such dissident writer who has risen above mere academic
debate to challenge with passion and verve the government policy in
Turkey. He has supported the rights of the minorities and can be
compared with the inspirational examples of Rosa Park, Martin Luther
King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi. Injustice has to be exposed. Rational
politics is essential for challenging the status quo.
Defending and rationalising inequality is the central logic of all
systems of oppression. Pamuk's theory of liberatory politics is
integral to his praxis and his fiction, a drive towards coming to
grips with identity politics and the challenge to power. He works
under structural and ideological constraints with a creativity that is
based inherently on compassion, solidarity and the yearning for
freedom. And he exists in a universal space bound neither by national
boundaries nor by ethnic identity.
In spite of his scathing attack on the Turkish state, he was
designated as the state artist, an award he refused, saying: "Thirty
thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in these lands and
nobody but me dares to talk about it." He has stood up against
authoritarianism and the repression of personal behaviour by the
state, which refuses to understand the plight of the marginalised.
This is not, in the words of Edward Said: "[O]pposition for
opposition's sake. But it does mean asking questions, making
distinctions, restoring to memory all those things that tend to be
overlooked or walked past in the rush to collective judgment and
action. With regard to the consensus on group or national identity it
is the intellectual's task to show how the group is not a natural or
god-given entity but is a constructed, manufactured, even in some
cases invented object, with a history of struggle and conquest behind
it, that is sometimes important to represent" (Representations of the
Intellectual).
Young Turks see in him the future of a peaceful Turkey where some day
the two opposing forces of religion and secularism, of East and West,
would stand reconciled and Turkey finally integrated into Europe where
it belongs rightfully both geographically and politically. Pamuk is
the only European writer who could become the much-needed bridge
between the West and the East, between an ancient Islamic culture and
the contemporary dream of an economically prosperous nation.
Pamuk is of the view that "when we in Turkey discuss the East-West
question, when we talk of the tensions between tradition and modernity
[which, to my mind, is what the East-West question is really all
about], or when we prevaricate over our country's relations with
Europe, the question of shame is always lurking between the lines".
For him, there is no place for the narrow European Christian values or
the extreme fundamentalist Islamic religion within the programme of
world peace intended to bring to an end centuries of war and conflict.
Pamuk makes a case for the European acceptance of Turkey's gesture for
peace and "the security and strength that will come from a Muslim
country's desire to join Europe. He has stood against American
unilateralism and terror politics that have ravaged the world
recently. But he does not put the blame on Islam: "It is neither Islam
nor even poverty itself that directly engenders support for terrorists
whose ferocity and ingenuity are unprecedented in human history; it
is, rather, the crushing humiliation that has infected Third World
countries." And for this the West has to be held responsible because
it has failed to comprehend the shame and the humiliation that has
fallen upon the poor nations. Hot-headed military operations and wars
will only take us away from the order of peace.
Pamuk's rather controversial novel, The White Castle, which was
translated into English in 1985, is a perfect example of this
amalgamation of faith and aggressive science and is a landmark in his
rise to international fame. My Name is Red and Snow also bring the
opposites of tradition and modernity together in a style that has the
wonderful lightness of being as well as the inherent tensions between,
what Pamuk maintains, "the writer and the `other', and `the question
of the `stranger'". In his uncomplicated and compelling talk given on
receiving the 2005 Friedenspries, the Peace Prize of the German Book
Trade, he speaks of the need of the novelist to recognise the
marginalised such as Daniel Defoe's Friday, Cervantes's Sancho Panza
or the slaves in Faulkner: "Likewise, a Turkish novelist who fails to
imagine the Kurds and other minorities, and who neglects to illuminate
the black spots in his country's unspoken history, will, in my view,
produce work that has a hole in its centre." He emphasises that "the
novelist will also know that thinking about this `other' whom everyone
knows and believes to be his opposite will help to liberate him from
the confines of his own persona. The history of the novel is the
history of human liberation: by putting ourselves in other's shoes, by
using our imagination to free ourselves from our own identities, we
are able to set ourselves free."
His most political novel Kar (Snow, 2002) tells the story of the
protagonist Ka who travels to an Anatolian town of Kars to look into
the horrifying event of mass suicide by girls of a school who had been
forbidden to wear headscarves. The little town is covered by snow like
a scarf, which is paradoxically denied to the inhabitants. The end
comes with Ka's assassination, but his redemption lies in the
regaining of his poetic voice, which is an act of resistance through
the imagination. Poets and political refugees like him work on the
frontline of imagination and make all the difference in raising the
oppositional voice and "having the ability to convey meaning to
others". This, Pamuk argues, "is humanity's greatest power".
My interest in Pamuk goes back to 1995, when I came across his A New
Life, a poetic rendition of his theory of fiction based on the post-
modernist notion of false concepts of reality derived from the written
word. As is clear in his fictional work, especially The Black Hole, he
has a propensity to delve into religious and historical themes,
stories within stories, paradoxes and complex narratives dealing with
protean identities. Pamuk is a qualified journalist and an architect,
and his first novel, Cevdet Bey and His Sons, appeared in 1982 -
exquisitely subtle account of the Turkish middle class.
Pamuk argues: "The challenge of a historical novel is not to render a
perfect imitation of the past, but to relate history with something
new, enrich and change it with imagination and sensuousness of
personal experience." There is inventiveness and the art of combining
details, of going into minute details learned by examining Islamic
miniatures so as to recall tales from the past now forgotten and to
give some insight into the soul of one's nation and the ever-present
history. The past has to be remembered and any amount of
westernisation cannot justify the forgetting of one's history. "If you
try to repress memories, something always comes back," reiterates
Pamuk. "I'm what comes back." He has a deep fixation for Istanbul,
which figures in many of his novels in all its antique beauty and
unchanging contradictions in the same way that Dublin exists for James
Joyce.
Pamuk is a die-hard lover of Istanbul where he was born and where he
lives: "Istanbul's fate is my fate: I am attached to this city because
it has made me who I am." It is understandable that anyone obsessed
with nationalism would make his city of love central to his writings.
Here lies the need to arouse the conscience of his community over its
history and its injustice. The need to write makes possible the vision
of making real another world where pain and suffering have no place.
And as Edward Said says: "The hardest aspect of being an intellectual
is to represent what you profess through your work and interventions,
without hardening into an institution or a kind of automaton acting at
the behest of a system or method."
Volume 22 - Issue 26, Dec. 17 - 30, 2005
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2226/stories/20051230000807900.htm
BOOKS
The "other" Orientalism
RAFIA ZAKARIA
Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of
Islamism by Janet Afary and Kevin Anderson; The University of Chicago
Press, 2005; pages 312, cloth $60, paper $24.
MICHEL FOUCAULT'S anti-imperialist and anti-modernist philosophy is
emblematic of post-modern thought. His characteristic archaeological
method, with its careful and meticulous deconstruction of modern life,
excavates and lays bare the "micro power" systems implicit in modern
existence and has long been the darling of Western leftists and post-
colonial theorists alike.
Foucault's suspicion of utopianism, his hostility to grand narratives
and universals and his stress on difference and singularity fuel the
engines of cultural relativist discourse. It is predictable,
therefore, that when Janet Afary and Kevin Anderson embark on a
deconstruction of the follies of Michel Foucault, specifically his
near uncritical celebration of the Iranian Revolution, in their book
Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of
Islamism, they disconcert many Western leftists.
The reactions to the book, such as the review by Jonathan Ree in The
Nation, have been intriguing exercises in exposing the cherished image
of post-modernists and Western leftists as self-styled champions of
the "other". Their incantations in defence of Foucault represent their
discomfort at being the subject of critique that has been
traditionally reserved for "orientalists" whose transgressions in
"writing the other" were so popularly articulated by Edward Said over
20 years ago.
The book is an engaging and arduously assembled critique of Michel
Foucault's previously un-translated writings on the Iranian Revolution
written for the Italian newspaper Corierre de la Sera (1978-80). In
it, Afary and Anderson lay bare how certain important themes in
Foucault's own philosophy challenge the much-celebrated Foucauldian
immunity to romanticised notions of "an authoritarian politics that
promised radically to refashion from above the lives and thought of a
people for its ostensible benefit". Afary and Anderson take their
readers through the theoretical and philosophical foundations of
Foucault's thought, painting assiduously the philosopher's mental
landscape, its gradations of thought and valleys of doubts. They
explicate the bases of Foucauldian philosophy: the centrality of power
in Foucauldian discourse; Foucault's descriptions of modern power as
"pervasive" and insidious, seeping through the web of all social
political and economic relations "down to the very depth of society".
Afary and Anderson go on to point out, again to the chagrin of some,
that while the dualism in Foucault's work centred around the modern
and the pre-modern, his descriptions of "pre-modern" were often
Eastern and a "counter-discourse that appropriated oriental lore in
opposition to Western strategies of control". Foucault's counter-
discourse, they allege, reifies the oriental (presented as the pre-
modern), in stark opposition to the traditional orientalists who
denigrated the barbarism and uncivilised "otherness' of Eastern
thought. It is thus a final and complete reversion of its modern
predecessor. Having laid the philosophical foundations of Foucault's
thought, Afary and Anderson transpose on the presented philosophical
landscape, the historical event that is the subject of the treatise.
Hence, the cataclysmic reaction between the anti-modern philosophy of
Foucault and the anti-modern but unassailably theocratic movement
precipitated by Ayatollah Khomeini is exculpated. On the one hand is a
philosopher whose world view is a scathing and seething reaction
against the modern world; on the other, a theocratic leader whose
rallying cry managed to appropriate the unifying rhetoric of anti-
imperialism to institute a draconian and repressive order in Iran.
In recounting the evolution of the Iranian Revolution, Afary and
Anderson pay careful attention to its Constitution as a particularly
modern movement. The discussion of Ali Shariati, the leftist
intellectual whose ideas were later appropriated into the rhetoric of
revolution, represents how Western existential thought was synthesised
into Islamist discourse to produce a starkly anti-traditionalist
version of Shia Islam. The recasting of the martyrdom of Hussein (a
paradigmatic story known to every Shia Muslim) in revolutionary terms
relating to contemporary politics and the overthrow of the Shah, the
epitomisation of jehad and death as the ultimate life experience
uniting the martyr with his divine destiny, are all presented with
attention to their synthetic and hybrid ingenuity and their contrast
to traditional Shia modes of understanding rituals of mourning during
Muharram.
In tracing the transformation of traditionally significant epithets of
Shia Islam, Afary and Anderson bring attention to the question of
whether the "pre-modern" East truly exists outside the philosophic
imagination of the Western Left represented here by Foucault.
Having established the modern and synthetic nature of the rhetoric of
the Revolution, Afary and Anderson present the piece de resistance,
Foucault's actual writings on the Iranian Revolution (these are
presented in their entirety in the appendix of the book). Foucault's
enthusiastic embrace of the ritualistic, anti-modern and anti-
imperialist face of the Revolution appears almost naïve in "its
uncritical stance" towards the politics of Islamism. Equally shocking
is Foucault's inability to envision within the Islamist project the
repressive and autocratic regime that eventually emerged under the
Ayatollah.
In one particularly damning passage Foucault says: "One thing must be
clear. By `Islamic government' nobody in Iran means a political regime
in which the clerics would have the role of supervision or control."
When challenged by critics, Foucault emphasises the crucial place of
"political spirituality" in Iran and laments the loss of such
spirituality in early modern Europe whose possibility, he wrote, "we
(the Europeans) have forgotten ever since the Renaissance and the
great crises of Christianity". The embrace of the Islamist rhetoric,
with its beguiling attire of tradition, spirituality, anti-modernism
and anti-imperialism, coalesces successfully with Foucault's own work
prior to his writings on Iran. While the authors acknowledge that
Foucault never explicitly recognised in his writings the search for a
tangible anti-modernity, tangibility and concretisation being the
death of the uncertainty he so celebrated, the juxtaposition of his
philosophy with his journalistic endeavours in Iran presents
Foucault's perhaps unconscious but nevertheless observable
predilection towards discovering a manifest extra-political and anti-
modern reality.
A striking and perhaps most troublesome exchange is Foucault's
exchange with the Iranian feminist referred to as Atoussa H.
Foucault's blindness to the repression promised and eventually
perpetrated on Iranian women by Khomeini is the strongest retort to
the blindness of his appraisal of the Revolution. The scathing
critique of Foucault's inability to give due consideration to gender-
based critiques of the revolution, to place any legitimacy in the
protests of Iranian women forced to leave the workforce and don black
chadors, to find not at all disturbing the introduction of laws that
allowed polygamy and reduced women to half persons in matters of
testimony and inheritance, presents a picture that is deeply troubling
and irksome. It is heightened tragically by the authors' presentation
of Foucault's response to the exiled Atoussa H. in which he wrote that
the woman could not understand the power and importance of the
Revolution because she approached it with a "hatred" that blinded her
to its importance.
Read narrowly, the response represents quite simply a disregard for a
political position by a journalist espousing a contrary political
stance, but as Afary and Anderson successfully allude, Foucault's
particular response to Atoussa H. represents broadly the problems with
cultural relativism and its relation to gender politics in general. It
brings attention to the problems inherent in understanding the "other"
through the Foucauldian lens, one which suggested that an Iranian's
own opposition to the anti-modern stance of the Revolution was
inherently inauthentic.
Interestingly, the debate continues today at the fault lines of
interaction between liberal Western legal regimes and group rights
initiatives in multicultural societies in Western Europe and Canada.
Similar views have been expressed by proponents of Sharia courts in
Ontario, Canada, who implicitly place authenticity in static notions
of culture and disregard gender-based critiques against the
implementation of Sharia as inauthentic and as products of Western
imperialism.
THE critics of Foucault's stance towards the Iranian Revolution are
interesting also because of their own position on the Western
political and intellectual spectrum. Maxime Rodinson, France's leading
authority on Islam at the time and an implicit critic of Foucault's
effervescence in evaluating the Iranian Revolution, has been described
by many of Foucault supporters as an "orientalist". It is this
labelling that leads us to the central question that the book seems to
ask: If "orientalist" discourses about Islam and the "other" were
borne from, as Edward Said put it, a desire to facilitate the
political project of colonialism and project essentially a "false"
image of Arabs and Muslims, then what can be made of the stance
towards the "other" represented by Foucault? Is this "other"
orientalism the penchant to reify those aspects of the East that
appear pre-modern, untainted by modernity or better still, a fitting
antithesis to the modern world a better alternative?
Anderson and Afary's endeavour casts critical light on these very
questions. In the quest for understanding, is the post-modern
glorification of the "other" a valuable corrective to the repressive
orientalist discourses that preceded it? Does either do justice to the
reality of engaging the "other" devoid of predeterminations?
Foucault's Iranian escapade seems particularly to raise these
questions. As Anderson and Afary illustrate, the very notion of pre-
modernity itself is a glorified fiction motivated possibly by the post-
modern dissatisfaction with their own world, a world that takes for
granted the advances of modernity in terms of individual freedom.
Their thesis exposes the limits of cultural relativism in its
inability to give credence to real desires for freedom and liberation
that may be stymied by culture traditions reified for their apparent
pre-modernity or "otherness" in relation to modernity. In essence,
Afary and Anderson expose the "other" orientalism, a phenomenon
perhaps as dangerous and disconcerting in its passive encouragement of
fictive and retrogressive notions; their value is coined not in the
cultures where they exist but in that of a West that nostalgically
laments their loss.
Rafia Zakaria is a Ph.D student in Political Science at Indiana
University, Bloomington.
Volume 22 - Issue 26, Dec. 17 - 30, 2005
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2226/stories/20051230001007500.htm
COLUMN
End of `social engineering'
PRAFUL BIDWAI
Uma Bharati's expulsion from the BJP represents the collapse of
`Mandir-plus-Mandal' politics and the `social engineering' strategy.
This will cost the BJP heavily. Its sole Hindutva ally, Shiv Sena, is
in even worse shape with the Raj-Uddhav rift.
JUST when the Hindu Right seemed poised for a comeback following the
election results from Bihar, it has been wracked by serious political
and organisational convulsions. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has
expelled Uma Bharati after pulling out the rug from under her bid to
return as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. A furious Bharati, who had
combatively defied the BJP's top leaders, is now lashing out at them
for having reduced it to a party without "ideology" or "principles".
The parting of the ways with Bharati is likely to inflict heavy
political costs upon the BJP - and not only in Madhya Pradesh.
At the same time, Maharashtra is witnessing a crisis of unprecedented
ferocity as the Shiv Sena teeters on the brink of a split. Raj
Thackeray, the Senapati's nephew, has unfurled the banner of revolt
against his cousin and Bal Thackeray's heir-apparent Uddhav by
quitting Sena posts. All attempts at conciliation between the rivals
have failed. It would be a miracle if Raj Thackeray does not set up a
parallel Sena, delivering a heavy blow to the parent party.
Both events have a strong personality-based component. Bharati is
infamous for her tantrums, and her abrasive style and often abusive
language. Raj Thackeray competes with his uncle in angularity and
intolerance. But underlying the organisational rifts are major
political processes, including serious crises of strategy. These
fateful changes spell the Hindutva Right's political decline.
Of the two, the Shiv Sena's crisis is much the easier to understand.
It comes on top of two successive defeats of the Sena-BJP alliance in
the Maharashtra Assembly elections, an erosion of the Sena's influence
in numerous municipal bodies, a significant loss of its OBC (Other
Backward Classes or intermediate and low caste) base in Marathwada and
Vidarbha, and the recent expulsion of its sole leader with a well-
defined political base - former Chief Minister Narayan Rane, who is
rooted in the coastal Konkan region. But the proximate cause of Raj
Thackeray's disaffection - the Sena's shock defeat at Rane's hands in
the Malvan byelection in November - is far less important than the
long-term or structural causes of the Sena's predicament.
Malvan, in which the Sena candidate lost his deposit, showed that Bal
Thackeray is, or on the way to becoming, a spent force. But of far
greater importance is the increasing ineffectiveness of the measures
the Sena leadership took to stem the rot after its four-year-long
spell in power ended in 1999. In that election, the Sena-BJP coalition
was replaced by the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance, a
remarkably effete and unstable combination. But the Sena-BJP failed to
put the alliance on the defensive. Its basic survival instincts had
become blunted. It lost the 2004 election too.
It is as if the Sena-BJP's 1995-99 spell of success in Maharashtra was
destined to be ephemeral, largely premised as it was upon the Sena's
polarisation of politics along communal lines through the instigation
of the terrible post-Babri Masjid demolition violence in Mumbai. Once
that momentum ran out, the Sena contented itself with enjoying the
gains amassed in its years in office through the award of crony
contracts, and individual leaders' investments in real estate, the
film industry, and other shady activities.
There is another way of looking at the Sena's historic decline. The
Sena was created in 1966 and forged as a repressive and undemocratic
instrument by powerful cynical business groups in Mumbai. They
deployed it against a growing militant trade union movement. A small
group of industrialists mentored and tutored Bal Thackeray into
working for a range of right-wing causes - from defeating V.K. Krishna
Menon in the 1967 Lok Sabha elections at the instance of the Mumbai
Congress strongman S.K. Patil; supporting the Congress Syndicate
against Indira Gandhi in her "radical" phase of the late 1960s;
building up the cult of Sivaji and thus buttressing Maratha power; and
creating a climate of intense parochialism and "sons-of-the-soil"
chauvinism in industrial Mumbai.
This "anti-outsider" campaign was directed primarily at semi-skilled
Left-leaning South Indians, who had recently migrated to Mumbai and
become highly effective unionists in technologically advanced
industries like electrical engineering, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
Sena goons targeted them, accusing them of snatching jobs away from
Maharashtrians. They disrupted union meetings, beat up activists and
smashed union offices. In all this, they had the full support, not
always tacit, of the State government, whose leaders were hand-in-
glove with Mumbai's increasingly belligerent industrialists. The
latter had persuaded Congressmen like V.P. Naik that if Mumbai were
not to go Kolkata's way with its bandhs, industrial unrest and capital
flight, they must ensure industrial peace by repressing the Communists
who were a growing force. The Sena would play the key role here.
By the mid-1970s, scores of Left-affiliated and independent plant-
based unions had been considerably weakened and demoralised. The pro-
employer Bharatiya Kamgar Sena had spread its tentacles into many
factories. A measure of "containment" was thus achieved - but at an
enormous cost to democratic freedom, labour rights, fair industrial
relations practices, and multiculturalism, and harmony between
different linguistic-ethnic groups.
The Sena's historic role was not confined to repressing the working
class movement. It extended to spreading xenophobic ideas,
communalising politics with the able assistance of the BJP, and
reversing the gains of the 150-year-old social reform movement in
Maharashtra of which Shahu Maharaj, Jyotiba Phule and B.R. Ambedkar
were the greatest representatives and products. The profoundly
reactionary Sena set society and politics back by decades. It is
impossible to comprehend the intolerance, parochialism and criminality
that Maharashtra has witnessed in recent years - including the burning
of books, attacks on institutions of higher learning, physical
assaults on dissident journalists, and cultural policing - without
referring to the Sena's predations.
Once it lost State power in 1999, the Sena concentrated on business.
Intense rivalries appeared in the party. Its leadership got
restructured along personal and family lines. In 2001, Thackeray
appointed his son as executive president. Rane and Raj were
increasingly marginalised as the Senapati's ways became more paranoid,
arbitrary and authoritarian. Today, the Sena seems to have politically
reached the end of the road. Its supporters are likely to split three
ways - two of them being Raj and Rane. The Sena will probably cease to
exist in its present form.
The setback to the BJP from Uma Bharati's expulsion will appear minor
to those who emphasise her maverick and erratic character, her
megalomania, her mercurial temperament, and her appetite for
melodrama. She might also appear unpardonably naive in espousing crass
communalism centred on Ayodhya and Islamophobia.
However, the Bharati phenomenon is more complex. She represents that
unique amalgam between "Mandal" and "Mandir" or "Mandal" and
"Kamandal" (OBC-Hindutva politics), which catapulted the BJP to pre-
eminence in the Hindi heartland and eventually to power nationally.
The BJP's purpose in creating this amalgam was to appeal to two
important issues that energised the Hindi belt during much of the
1990s - majoritarian communalism, and the "Forward March of the
Backwards", or OBC self-assertion.
To reconcile the inherent tensions between the two agendas, the BJP
devised what it called "social engineering". It would give prominence
to leaders from the intermediate and low castes in campaigning for
Hindutva. This would at once help the BJP to free itself from the
confines of its traditional identification with upper-caste Hindus,
sink roots among the OBCs, and further an ideological-political vision
drawn from the savarna tradition.
"Social engineering's" chief ideologue was K.N. Govindacharya who
persuaded the BJP to promote leaders like Kalyan Singh, Vinay Katyar,
Narendra Modi, Sushil Modi and Bangaru Laxman, besides Bharati. Only
two of them produced "magic moments" for the BJP in the shape of
handsome electoral gains: Kalyan Singh and Bharati. In Bihar, Sushil
Modi could not capture the OBC banner in the face of strong claims
from Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar. In Gujarat, Narendra Modi
emphasised his militant Hindutva identity virtually to the exclusion
of the caste identity, especially during the pogrom of 2002, in which
the dominant participants were upper-caste Patels and Banias.
"Social engineering" was a noteworthy achievement for the BJP. But it
did not last. Some BJP leaders, including Atal Bihari Vajpayee, were
always suspicious of it. Kalyan Singh lost the Uttar Pradesh elections
in 1999. He was progressively marginalised in the party and expelled.
He returned to it as a much-weakened leader. Bangaru Laxman, a Dalit,
became party president, but had to quit after the Tehelka expose which
showed him collecting money. (The BJP did not defend him as strongly
as it defended George Fernandes, a non-party member.)
Govindacharya incurred the party's wrath for his remark about Vajpayee
being a mukhauta (mask). He was stripped of all his powers. He quit
the BJP altogether. For the past three years, he has concentrated his
energies on building the swadeshi (self-reliance) platform in economic
and foreign policy. He speaks a radical language but locates that
radicalism firmly within Hindutva.
Govindacharya is Uma Bharati's principal adviser and can be expected
to prescribe a version of "social engineering" with emphasis on
Hindutva, which in any case comes naturally to her. He brands the BJP
a "corporatised" party, which has sold its soul to Big Business. A
"nationalist" people-centred alternative should be built to it. He has
now floated a "steering committee" of the "Rashtriya Swabhiman
Andolan", including former Jharkhand Chief Minister Babulal Marandi,
Shailendra Mahato and others to correct India's currently "lopsided
foreign policies".
Remarkably, Uma Bharati pitches her criticism of the BJP along caste,
class and gender lines - which are eminently compatible with the
"social engineering" approach. She says the BJP leadership is hostile
to the OBCs, the working poor, and to women. (Sushma Swaraj is only a
"token" feminine presence in the leadership.) Bharati accuses the
parliamentary board of being "unrepresentative" of 90 per cent of the
people, including OBCs, Dalits, peasants and women. She has declared,
in unison with Govindacharya, that the BJP "experiment has failed"; it
is time to "relaunch" the party.
It is reasonable to expect that Govindacharya and Bharati will attempt
to do just this - in Madhya Pradesh, and more important, Uttar Pradesh
and parts of Bihar, where he has old contacts with RSS karyakartas.
They will also try and win over a section of the Sangh Parivar
hardliners, especially from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the RSS,
besides the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, which is close to Govindacharya.
At the moment, neither the RSS nor the VHP is supporting Bharati.
Whether Bharati and Govindacharya succeed remains to be seen. But they
could give the BJP leadership a hard time. There is a fair amount of
sympathy for Bharati in the party's Madhya Pradesh unit because she is
seen to have been unfairly denied the State's chief ministership after
being discharged by a Hubli court which had issued a warrant against
her in August 2004. The party leadership deliberately prolonged the
tenure of the "temporary" Chief Minister, Babulal Gaur - leading to
Bharati's famously televised intemperate attack on Advani on November
10 last year. In November, It appointed Shivraj Singh Chauhan as Chief
Minister.
This was seen as unfair by many in the BJP because Bharati was
primarily responsible for the November 2003 election that produced a
three-fourths majority for the BJP in Madhya Pradesh. This sympathy,
and the fact that Bharati is drawing crowds during her Ram-Roti yatra
to Ayodhya, might draw them close to her.
Where does all this leave the BJP? The party has more or less
abandoned the "social engineering" strategy of political mobilisation.
But it does not have a half-way coherent alternative strategy which
can help it expand its base outside of the traditional savarna
confines. It is in extremely poor shape in Uttar Pradesh, where large
numbers of karyakartas have left its ranks. In Bihar, the BJP has
undoubtedly made gains, emerging as the number two party, with 55
seats, compared to the Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) 54. But these
gains are largely attributable to its alliance with the Janata Dal
(United), which managed to consolidate both Most Backward Castes and
"upper-caste" support.
Unless the BJP somehow expands its base in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar,
there is a serious chance that it will be confined to the periphery of
the Gangetic plain - with its base limited to the Western States of
Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. As things stand,
the BJP leadership does not seem to have the energy, imagination or
enthusiasm to innovate a strategy to rejuvenate itself through another
significant electoral victory. The Hindutva movement's crisis of
strategy stands significantly aggravated.
Volume 22 - Issue 26, Dec. 17 - 30, 2005
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2226/stories/20051230007013100.htm
JAMMU & KASHMIR
The new face of terror
PRAVEEN SWAMI
in Srinagar
A string of intelligence-led police operations against the Lashkar-e-
Taiba offer glimpses into the terror cells behind the series of high-
profile strikes in Jammu and Kashmir and outside it since October.
JASMIN SHAH
Srinagar-based Lashkar-e-Taiba organiser Shabbir Bukhari.
DIRECTOR-GENERAL of Police Gopal Sharma applauded politely as the
young university student standing on the podium at Srinagar's Mahatma
Gandhi Bhawan denounced terrorist violence and delivered a well-
structured speech defending Jammu and Kashmir's accession to India.
The year: 2003. But Shabbir Bukhari's speech did not come as a
surprise to his friends or his peers at Kashmir University's Law
Faculty.
Bukhari had maintained a studied distance from campus Islamists and
Kashmir nationalists, the two main ideological tendencies amongst the
university's largely bourgeois student body. Besides, his father, Syed
Ghulam Mohiuddin Bukhari, was a well-known Sufi mystic, a repository
of a religious tradition hostile to Islamists and their pro-Pakistan
political project.
At the Lashkar-e-Taiba's command headquarters in Muzaffarabad,
however, Bukhari went by the code-name `Abu Sumama', a top covert
operative of the terrorist group in Jammu and Kashmir. Bukhari had
been recruited by the Lashkar in 2002, and worked undercover as a
courier, recruiter and propagandist. Less than a year after his 2003
speech, Bukhari commanded a unit which carried out a series of
fidayeen suicide-squad attacks in which dozens of civilians and
security force personnel, many of them DGP Sharma's men, died.
Today Shabbir Bukhari is in police custody in Srinagar following a
recent series of intelligence-led operations by the Jammu and Kashmir
Police, which also delivered to them the most vivid picture yet of the
Lashkar's operations in the State. The investigators found that even
as terrorist activity in the State went into decline after the India-
Pakistan near-war of 2001-2002, the Lashkar focussed its energies on
building up successive rings of highly organised covert cells, drawing
on individuals with high levels of education and technical skills as
well as foot-soldiers from among Pakistan's rural poor. It penetrated
systematically Jammu and Kashmir's political system to ensure that its
cells were immune to suspicion, variously coercing and bribing
potential supporters.
SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP
At Srinagar's Lal Chowk on November 14, when a Lashkar cell led by
Ejaz Ahmad Butt attacked a police post and killed two Central Reserve
Police Force personnel and two civilians. Here an injured soldier is
helped away to safety.
Now, in the wake of the great earthquake that destroyed much of
Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) in October, the Lashkar has unleashed
the formidable capabilities of its covert cells. "Everyone thinks the
jihad is drawing to a close," Bukhari says quietly, "but they are
wrong. Just plain wrong."
BUKHARI'S SECRET WAR
Perched below the towering, densely forested mountains that run along
the Line of Control (LoC), the small village of Kreeri has long been
something of a base for the Lashkar's armies. By day, Indian patrols
dominate the village and the roads around it. By night, the soldiers
of jihad rule.
One winter night in 2002, at a house in the village, which was also
used as a hideout by these soldiers, one of them struck up a life-
transforming conversation with Bukhari. Abdul Wahab, a resident of
Multan in Pakistan, educated at the prestigious International Islamic
University in Islamabad, had abandoned his career as a chartered
accountant to serve as a Lashkar operative in Jammu and Kashmir. "I
was impressed by the fact that he was willing to sacrifice so much for
a cause larger than his own - to fight for something other than just a
career or wealth," says Bukhari. Over the next few months, Bukhari and
Wahab forged a deep intellectual relationship over extended readings
of Islamist tracts and discussions of theology and religious issues.
To Wahab, Kashmir's dominant Sufi traditions were a failure. Quiescent
Islamic practices, he argued, had led to wars of oppression against
Muslims across the globe, from Kashmir to Chechnya and Palestine, and
to the ascendance of the West. Jihad - not the traditionalist piety
represented by Bukhari's father - was the answer. Although Bukhari
never embraced the external manifestations of the Lashkar's Salafi-
school ritual practices - "I never had the courage to fold my hands
across my chest as they do during namaaz for fear of my father's
wrath" - he was persuaded by the arguments. Bukhari was slowly
assigned low-level tasks. He wrote leaflets and newspaper articles
defending the Lashkar under a pseudonym. On one occasion, in late
2003, he carried a defective satellite phone to a Lashkar unit near
Anantnag for repair.
Bukhari's most abiding contribution to the north Kashmir Lashkar,
however, was to provide it a steady flow of useful local intelligence.
In 2003, after the Special Operations Group of the Jammu and Kashmir
Police established a unit in Kreeri, Bukhari helped organise efforts
to have it removed. Pressure was brought to bear on local People's
Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mushtaq Bukhari, a distant relative of
the Lashkar operative, by threatening to kidnap his brother, a
Srinagar-based journalist. The efforts did not yield results, but
Shabbir Bukhari had proved his utility. Operating under the command of
the then north Kashmir Lashkar divisional commander, who is known only
by his aliases `Khalid' and `Sierra-7', Bukhari built a covert cell in
Srinagar, which would act as a base for Lashkar terror strikes.
Lashkar commanders knew that Bukhari's operations were vital to the
organisation's future. In 2003, an Intelligence Bureau operation led
to the arrest of 22 Lashkar operatives and decimated the
organisation's operational infrastructure. This forced its main city
commander, Abdul Rehman `Mota', to shift to northern Kashmir. Drawing
on the lessons of this debacle, the Lashkar went about building
multiple cells under strong protective cover. For example, Bukhari
recruited Shakeel Ahmad Sofi, a long-standing Youth National
Conference activist who had been given secure official accommodation
in 2002. Apart from letting the Lashkar use his quarters for its work,
Sofi provided party identification cards for its terrorists moving in
and out of the city. Bukhari also purchased a white Maruti Gypsy, of
the type used by the Jammu and Kashmir Police, allowing for easy
transport of weapons and operatives.
The funds and operational instructions for Bukhari's cell were
provided by the Lashkar commander who had replaced Abdul Rehman. The
new commander, a Pakistani national known only by his aliases `Bilal',
`Haider' and `Salahuddin', is shown in police records as a person who
is over six feet six inches (two metres) tall, wears size 14 shoes and
had earlier served under `Khalid' in northern Kashmir. By the end of
2004 the group had executed several sensational fidayeen operations,
including an attempt on the life of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in
November that year. It was also involved in the recent assassination
of Jammu and Kashmir Minister of State Ghulam Nabi Lone. After the
attack, in which well-known Jammu and Kashmir Communist Party of India
(Marxist) leader M.Y. Tarigami was the target, Bukhari succeeded in
evacuating one member of the two-man fidayeen squad.
Similar to Bhukari's cell, the Lashkar also set up cells run by ethnic
Kashmiris in Srinagar, but each under the command of a senior
Pakistani operative. Abdul Rashid Khanday, a Srinagar resident who
spent two years in jail after he was arrested in connection with an
abortive fidayeen attack in 2000, ran what was codenamed the `Dar'
cell. Operating under the command of Abdul Ahad, a Pakistani national
who used the codename `Dawood', the cell was responsible for several
fidayeen attacks before the elimination of the terrorist and the
subsequent arrest of its key members in August this year. Abdul Rahman
`Mota' himself, meanwhile, activated a third cell, codenamed `Iqbal'.
Little is known about the mechanics of this cell, which police sources
believe carried out several high-profile fidayeen attacks in 2004.
JASMIN SHAH
"If you have fought in the jihad in Kashmir," says Ejaz Ahmad Butt
(above), "you are a hero for young people in my village." In
Mansoorabad near Fisalabad, and hundreds of other villages, there are
no other ways for a young person with no money and no education to
find respect and self-worth.
SOLDIERS OF THE JIHAD
Who were the soldiers that the Lashkar's covert operatives such as
Bukhari were sending to their deaths?
In recent months, Indian newspaper readers have become familiar with
one face of the Lashkar: highly educated, impeccably middle-class
terror cell organisers like Tariq Dar, the multinational-firm
executive who helped fund the Diwali serial bombings in New Delhi;
Mohammad Rafiq Shah, the Srinagar college student who carried out one
of those blasts; and, of course, Bukhari.
Another one of them is Ejaz Ahmad Butt, a chirpy and smiling 19-year-
old who is a familiar face to personnel at the Shergari Police Station
in Srinagar. He claims to have watched the romance movie Devdas over a
dozen times, and can fluently mime the ultra-cool gangster character
played by action hero Ajay Devgan in Company. He wears a blue winter
cap with the letters `N.Y.' emblazoned on it, homage to the city he
has come to know from the Hindi pop film he so loves, along with
Mumbai and Manali.
Ejaz, at first glance, seems like the boy next door - until one
notices the handcuffs on his wrists. On the afternoon of November 14,
Butt threw a grenade at police personnel near Palladium Cinema in
Srinagar's Lal Chowk and then lay in ambush for the senior officials
he knew would arrive on the scene. Two Central Reserve Police Force
(CRPF) personnel and two civilians were killed in the attack and 17
people were injured seriously. By early next morning, however, police
commandos succeeded in eliminating Butt's comrade-in-arms whom he knew
by the Lashkar-assigned nom de guerre Abu Furq. Unable to execute his
mission, Butt attempted to escape from the hotel where he was hiding
and was arrested - the reason why he is known today by his real name
instead of lying in an unmarked grave.
Butt is the other face of the Lashkar: the son of a poor peasant
family from the village of Mansoorabad, near the south Punjab city of
Faislabad, who joined the jihad for a paltry Pakistani Rs.35,000.
Educated in a government-run school until grade VII, Butt abandoned
his studies after his father, Riyaz Ahmad, a daily-wage agricultural
labourer, died. Soon his mother Rashida Butt too passed away, leaving
on him the responsibility of bringing up his younger brother Nazir and
sister Nahila. Butt found work at Gauhar Bakery, a small biscuit- and
confectionary-making unit in Mansoorabad, which paid him Rs.2,000 a
month. While the money met his siblings' needs, the work was hard and
held out no real prospects.
This was when he came into contact with Abu Khubair, a young Faislabad
resident who arrived in Mansoorabad in mid-2003. Khubair had joined
the Lashkar some years earlier and had everything Butt aspired to: a
job that seemed suffused with purpose and adventure, respectability in
the community, and, above all, money.
Butt volunteered to join the Lashkar and was despatched for a daura,
or training course, at the Dar-ul-Andlus camp near Muzaffarabad, the
capital of POK. He was among the several dozen recruits who learnt
basic combat skills, including the use of pistols, grenades and
assault rifles, from a former Pakistan Army soldier, Javed Iqbal. Much
of the training time, however, was devoted to imbuing the Lashkar's
peasant recruits with a rudimentary ideological framework for their
task. "We were told that Muslims in India were being murdered on a
large scale," says Butt, "and that they were even prohibited from
performing namaaz."
During the Ramzan period in 2004, Butt was sent back to Mansoorabad
and given a small stipend while he awaited orders. In October this
year, just after the earthquake that devastated much of POK, Butt
received instructions to report to a Lashkar launching camp near the
LoC in the Dudhniyal sector. On October 25, after three failed
infiltration attempts, Butt and five other Lashkar men cut the fencing
along the LoC and made their way to a hideout in the Rajwar forests in
the mountains above the north Kashmir town of Kupwara. Had Butt
escaped from Lal Chowk and made his way back to Rajwar and then across
the LoC, he would possibly have, like Abu Khubair, served as a
recruiter for the Lashkar.
"If you have fought in the jihad in Kashmir," says Butt, "you are a
hero for young people in my village." In Mansoorabad, and hundreds of
other villages, there are no other ways for a young person with no
money and no education to find respect and self-worth. To sociologists
who have studied recruitment into urban gangs, the phenomenon will be
familiar.
NISSAR AHMAD
After a 26-hour gun battle at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on July 30, 2005,
the body of one of the two militants who were killed.
Butt could spend at least two decades in Indian jails. His action at
Lal Chowk could lead to his conviction on murder charges, which carry
at least a life term. And after his release, as past experience shows,
Pakistan is unlikely to accept him back unless his family in Pakistan
is able to produce documentation that establishes his nationality.
Asked if he would like to send a letter to his family in Mansoorabad,
Butt pauses before answering slowly: "It is better that they think
that I am dead."
WHAT LIES AHEAD?
Many young men like Butt lie in unmarked graves around Jammu and
Kashmir, remembered perhaps by their parents and in the State they
fought for by the photographs of their corpses posted on the walls of
local police stations.
Early in December, a Lashkar cell commanded by Shabbir Bukhari
attempted to rob a branch of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank in Srinagar.
Funds meant for the Lashkar's expanding operations had been held up
because of the destruction of its offices in Muzaffarabad, so Bukhari
attempted to raise what he needed on his own. In the event, the
robbery went horribly wrong.
Besides taking money from the bank's cashiers, Bukhari's unit also
robbed individual customers. On the way out of the bank, one of the
ethnic-Kashmiri operatives, Mushtaq Akhoon, slipped and fell. While
the rest of the unit escaped, Akhoon was surrounded by irate customers
and almost lynched. His interrogation led to the wiping out of the
cell.
Bukhari was arrested along with Sofi on December 1, while driving into
Srinagar. The police had found a satellite phone, grenades and
ammunition stuffed inside a washing machine in his house. A few hours
later, the key members of the squad who had participated in the bank
robbery were killed after a brief fire-fight with the police. Ubaid-ur-
Rahman, a resident of Mohalla Gulistan in Faislabad, Mohammad Salim, a
resident of Lalookhet in Karachi, and Sadaqat Ali, a resident of Wah
Cantonment, had crossed the LoC around the same time as Butt; it is
possible that they even trained together.
A separate counter-Lashkar operation also led to the elimination of
Bukhari's overall military boss, Abdul Rahman `Mota', on December 1
night. Operations against other senior Lashkar military commanders as
well as at least two other covert cells in Srinagar are under way.
To analysts of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, the unravelling of
Bukhari's cell and the intelligence that has emerged from it hold out
several lessons. First, the Lashkar has demonstrated the ability to
recruit ethnic Kashmiri cadre - individuals with significant
educational and technical skills. Even if Indian policy-makers do
arrive at an accommodation of the mainly ethnic-Kashmiri Hizbul
Mujahideen, this suggests that groups like the Lashkar can pose an
independent threat. Second, the Lashkar has demonstrated both that its
infrastructure is still intact and that its jihadist agenda remains in
place.
The Lashkar's renewal of pan-India operations after the October
earthquake, illustrated dramatically through the Diwali serial
bombings in New Delhi, makes clear just how ineffective Pakistan
President Pervez Musharraf's promises to act against terror groups
have been. Indeed, Musharraf's failure suggests that the Lashkar has
powerful allies within Pakistan's military establishment - allies who
the President is either unable or unwilling to confront.
Given the fact that the earthquake disrupted Indian counter-
infiltration positions along the LoC and newly inducted CRPF
formations in Srinagar have yet to demonstrate an independent
operational capability, the challenges to the peace process are
significant. A series of major terrorist operations will make it
increasingly difficult for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government
to push ahead with the detente process, something organisations like
the Lashkar, committed to a jihad intended to overwhelm not just India
but the world, will be delighted by. With the Musharraf regime's
credibility undermined by its dismal earthquake-relief performance, it
is far from clear if Pakistan can act to stop a renewed jihadist
offensive.
Indian policy-makers have to grapple with the difficult task of
defending the detente process as the Islamist siege of the Pakistani
state strengthens.
Volume 22 - Issue 26, Dec. 17 - 30, 2005
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2226/stories/20051230003103300.htm
chhotemianinshallah
While one should always be vigilant for traces of totalitarianism in
any ideology or movement, the obsession with fascism in the anti –
Hindu rhetoric of the secularists is not the product of an analysis of
the data, but of their own political compulsions
Historian Ramachandra Guha takes liberties with history
by offstumped on Feb.27, 2010, under Blogs, Offstumped
1 Comment
On Feb 25th writing in The Telegraph Ramachandra Guha who has acquired
a reputation as a Historian of the Nehruvian Secular variety, made
some hard to believe assertions on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh,
RSS.
While one could expect Guha, a known saffron baiter, to say the kind
of things he did in the article, what made them hard to believe was
the context in which he said them.
So here was Guha trying to draw a parallel between the 1948 ban on the
Sangh and its subsequent revocation to justify present day talks and
reconciliation with Maoist Terrorists (also read this piece in Open
Magazine for a repudiation of the canard that Maoists enjoy Tribal
support).
At the crux of this ludicruous parallel, is Guha’s assertion that the
Sangh initially refused to accept the Constitution and that its then
chief MS Golwalkar was released from Prison only after he expressed
faith in the Constitution.
First we must expose the liberties Ramachandra Guha has taken with
History and dates here.
Mr. Guha himself sets the record straight on when the ban on Sangh was
lifted – Jul7 1949.
But he asserts that this happened only after the Sangh agreed to
adhere by the Indian Constitution.
It is a reflection on the effectiveness of Goebellesian anti-Sangh
propaganda that despite marking the 60th anniversary of the Indian
Constitution in 2010, that Guha can easily make phony claims on
adherence in July 1949 to an Indian Constitution which was passed by
the Constituent Assembly only on 26 November 1949, to come into effect
on 26 January 1950.
Be that as it may a brief sampling of News reports from 1948 and 1949
on MS Golwalkar paints a very different picture.
The reality of the historical record that Ramachandra Guha has so
conveniently distorted should establish beyond the pale of doubt that
there is absolutely no parallel with the Maoist Terrorists who are a
shadowy terrorist outfit waging war on the State.
Key highlights of this historical record are
#1 The Sangh was a popular mainstream movement across India
#2 The Govt arrested Golwalkar to save him from a killer mob about to
set fire to Sangh offices in Nagpur
#3 The Govt came down with a heavy hand on civil disobedience to
protest the ban on Sangh in a manner far more brutual than the British
came down on the Congress party itself
#4 The Govt’s lifting of ban on Sangh was motivated by political
compulsions given the popular support, criticism on violation of civil
liberties
#5 Key provisions on secularism were adopted by the Constituent
Assembly while the Sangh remained banned
#6 Even before the Constitution was adopted in 1950, the Congress
Party out of political compulsions had not only lifted the ban on
Sangh but appealed to its members to join the Congress Party
#7 Far from Guha’s assertions on the Sangh, the reality was that a
Congress Party mindful of Hindu votes only stipulated that the Sangh
remain apolitical
Below is a sampling of News reports culled from the period.
4th Feb 1948 Lodi News Sentinel Page 4
Nagpur dispatches said Golwalkar’s arrest was in the nature of a
rescue. Police who raided the RSS Headquarters found an enraged mob
besieging the building trying to set it afire amid shouts of “Avenge
Gandhi”.
December 8th 1948 – New York Times
Action against the Sangh closely followed adoption of Freedom of
Worship clauses in the Indian Constitution still being debated by the
Constituent Assembly
December 11th 1948 New York Times
….the drastic action against the Sangh – more severe than the British
generally took toward Congress Party agitators….
More than 1000 arrests…were followed by summary trials, stiff fines
and and sentences of hard labor upto 1 year in same cases
On Tuesday members of Sangh demonstrated in many cities to protest the
ban imposed 10 months back and the subsequent imprisonment of its
founder
August 25th 1949 New York Times
With the lifting on the ban on Sangh last July and the release of its
leader MS Golwalkar, the movement is becoming popular especially among
young Hindus
It is reported that at a mass rally held last week several Government
Employees participated wearing the Sangh’s uniform
MS Golwalkar Press Conference at a Press Conference said his party
never believed in violence
Oct 15th 1949 - New York Times
Highly significant development in Indian Politics was the Congress
party’s invitation to member’s of RSS to join the party. It was
stipulated only that the Sangh itself must remain non-political.
On Sangh ban
After a time the people began to grumble of “repression of civil
liberties” and soon the Jail doors were opened and the Organization
restored to grace. After Mr. Golwalkar’s release he came to Delhi and
received an ovation from an estimated 500,000 people.
On Congress’ appeal to Sangh members to join its ranks
If the members of Sangh accept the Congress party’s invitations in
large numbers one of the likely results will be an increase in the
Congress party’s life expectancy as India’s ruling power, which until
now many observers had placed at no more than 5 or 10 years.
http://www.offstumped.in/2010/02/27/historian-ramachandra-guha-takes-liberties-with-history/
RECONCILING THE MAOISTS
- Maoism is one of the five major challenges facing the country
POLITICS AND PLAY - RAMACHANDRA GUHA
Different dream
Soon after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in January 1948, the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was banned. This was in part because
Gandhi’s murderer, Nathuram Godse, had once been a member of the RSS;
and in part because RSS leaders played a crucial role in the
polarization of Hindu-Muslim relations that led to that tragic event.
For over a year, the head of the RSS, M.S. Golwalkar, languished in
jail. Finally, in July 1949, the organization was unbanned and the
leader freed after it agreed to adhere to the Indian Constitution and
eschew the use of violence.
This history is not entirely irrelevant to the policies the government
of India may consider in its dealings with the Communist Party of
India (Maoist). That party is at present banned; because it promotes
armed struggle and refuses to recognize the Indian Constitution. As a
consequence, the forests of central and eastern India have witnessed
intense conflict between the Indian State and Maoist rebels. Shocking
crimes have been committed by both sides, with the main victims being
the tribals and poor peasants caught in the middle.
Now, the Maoist proposal of a 72-day ceasefire offers the (admittedly
slender) hope of a temporary respite. The Maoists have demanded that
their party be unbanned and their leaders under arrest released. It is
hard to see how these conditions can be met unless the party lays down
arms and accepts the Constitution. Since this is unlikely, the
government may consider another precedent, which comes from its
dealings with Naga insurgents. This keeps the question of the
Constitution in abeyance, while promising safe passage to the leaders
who are at large (in this case, in exile), allowing them to travel for
talks with the Indian State.
In the short-term, the government of India might invoke the Naga model
and follow the offer of a ceasefire by speaking to the Maoists. In the
medium-term, it must look to the RSS model, whereby a group that once
refused to recognize the Indian Constitution comes round to working
within it. While in private some RSS leaders may still dream of a
Hindu rashtra, in public they have accepted the legitimacy of the
Indian State. In the same fashion, the Maoists must be persuaded, over
a period of time, to give up their fantasy of a communist
dictatorship, and work within the plural, multi-party, democratic
process mandated by the Constitution of India.
In dealing with the Maoist problem, the government needs to focus on
the here and now; on tomorrow; and on the years to come. For the rise
of Maoism in recent decades is based on the deep discontent of our
tribal communities. They were ignored in the colonial period, and have
been oppressed in the decades since Independence. The national
movement, under Gandhi’s direction, worked hard to make Dalits,
Muslims and women part of the mainstream. These efforts were not
wholly successful. But the tribals were left out of the purview of the
freedom struggle altogether. Since 1947, meanwhile, they have fared
even worse than Dalits and Muslims in terms of access to education,
healthcare and dignified employment. They have also suffered
disproportionately from displacement, having to abandon their homes
and lands for development projects that ultimately benefit Indians who
are not themselves tribals.
The Maoists have taken advantage of this long historical experience of
marginalization and exploitation. But they have been equally helped by
the recent policies of state governments. Until about 10 years ago,
there were virtually no Maoists in Orissa; but then that state chose
to hand over tribal lands wholesale to mining companies. When the
tribals protested, they were branded as ‘Naxalites’; a self-fulfilling
prophecy, since the fact of their displacement opened up a space for
the Maoists to move into. The insurgents now have a considerable
presence across several districts of highland Orissa.
In West Bengal, the growth of Naxalism has been helped by the
politicization of the district administration. Superintendents of
police and district magistrates are expected to consolidate the
control of the ruling party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist),
rather than concern themselves with rural development or law and
order. To make matters worse, the bhadralok culture of Bengali
communism condescends to the tribals who have never been represented
in the party’s leadership, and, unlike Hindu or Muslim peasants, have
never been the focus of targeted welfare schemes. In Jharkhand,
meanwhile, local members of the legislative assembly and ministers
have got themselves into the habit of regularly bribing the Maoists,
thus emboldening them further.
The errors and crimes of other state governments pale into
insignificance when compared to the misdemeanours of the Chhattisgarh
government. In 2005, the state decided to arm a vigilante group called
Salwa Judum to take on the Maoists. In a bizarre and deeply
destructive example of bipartisanship, the Salwa Judum was jointly
promoted by the Bharatiya Janata Party chief minister, Raman Singh,
and the Congress leader of the Opposition, Mahendra Karma. Given open
licence by the administration, the vigilantes embarked on looting,
killing, burning, and raping villages and villagers they deemed to be
sympathetic to the Naxalites.
As a consequence of this intensification of the conflict, almost
100,000 people were rendered homeless in Dantewada district alone.
Between them, Raman Singh of the BJP and Mahendra Karma of the
Congress have thus been responsible for displacing more people than
the dams on the Narmada river. Far from controlling Naxalism, their
policies have actually played into the hands of the adversary. In a
recent interview, the Maoist spokesman, Azad, claimed that “thanks to
Salwa Judum, our war has achieved in four years what it would have
otherwise achieved in two decades”.
In all these states, the tribal people have suffered in good part
because they are a vulnerable minority. Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand
were formed to protect the adivasi interest; yet the tribals in both
states constitute only around 30 per cent of the population. In
Orissa, the proportion is just over 20 per cent; in Gujarat and
Rajasthan, under 15 per cent; in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and West
Bengal, less than 10 per cent. Everywhere, the tribals are outnumbered
and outvoted by the non-tribal majority. The political disadvantage is
compounded by a social and economic one — everywhere, the non-tribals
have more land, wealth, status, and influence. The levers of political
power, of economic power, of the courts, and of the media, all lie
outside the grasp of the tribal population. In all the states of the
Union, and regardless of which party is in power, the policies of the
government are overwhelmingly biased against the tribals.
The rise of Maoism is one of perhaps five major challenges facing the
country (the others, in my view, are the continuing violence in
Kashmir, Manipur and other border states, the corruption of our
political class and of the State more generally, the growing
inequality between the rich and the poor; and the rapid pace of
environmental degradation). To tame and contain this challenge
requires clear thinking and hard work. To begin with, one must put a
stop to the cycle of violence and counter-violence, and facilitate
talks between the State and the rebels. Next, one must work patiently
to wean the Maoists away from the cult of the gun, thus to reconcile
them with the rule of law and multi-party democracy. Finally, one must
seriously attempt to renew public institutions and to frame better
policies, so that tribals can come, at last, to enjoy the fruits of
equal citizenship.
Like those other challenges, Maoism can only be overcome if our
political parties work together rather than in rivalrous opposition.
It is crucial that parties and leaders not be contained by the logic
of the electoral cycle; rather, they should take a view that is at
once short-term, medium-term, and long-term. Such visionary and
selfless thinking may perhaps be too much to ask of the present
generation of Indian politicians.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100226/jsp/opinion/story_12145914.jsp
Saturday, 27 February 2010
Voices Hartosh Singh Bal
Don’t Negotiate with NaxalsThose advocating talks with the Naxals
should read the Maoist constitution and check what kind of room there
is to negotiate.
Kabhi Here, Kabhi There: Amitabh Bachchan’s political flip-flopsVoices
Even the security forces know that every starving Indian is a
potential Maoist insurgent
As the Maoists assert control in this adivasi region, the West Bengal
government faces a dilemma: to storm Lalgarh or not
Altruism towards nephews and nieces by gay men may have helped genes
favouring homosexuality prosper.
27 Feb 2010
Striking Back at the Empire
Pavan Varma believes we need to learn from our ancient past. But did
the past he envisages ever exist?
27 Feb 2010
| 27 February 2010
qed
Hartosh Singh Bal turned from the difficulty of doing mathematics to
the ease of writing on politics. Unlike mathematics all this requires
is being less wrong than most others who dwell on the subject.
EMAIL AUTHOR
Don’t Negotiate with Naxals
Those advocating talks with the Naxals should read the Maoist
constitution and check what kind of room there is to negotiate.
An old tribal woman sits inside a hut in Singaram village in the heart
of Naxal Andhra PradeshA HISTORY OF VIOLENCE: A woman weeps in front
of her gutted house in Phulwaria village, outside Patna, after a
Maoist massacre. (Photo: AFP)
A Salwa Judum memberAs the CPI (Maoist), or Naxals, and the Government
face off, the real surprise is the number of those who are actually
advocating negotiations precisely when the rebels are on the run. They
should read the Maoist constitution: ‘The ultimate aim or maximum
programme of the party is the establishment of communist society… .
Encircling the cities from the countryside and thereby finally
capturing them will carry out the Protracted People’s War. Because the
armed struggle will remain the highest and main form of struggle…
hence armed struggle will play a decisive role.’ What does that leave
to negotiate?
The only thing those calling for negotiations have got right is that
the Indian state has done badly by the tribals. But if it is to do
better now, it can only do so by eliminating the hold of Naxals. There
is nothing radical about this statement. If the Government has to
institute policies that work for the tribals, it can only do so if its
writ runs. The only other course would be to live with the status quo
in tribal areas controlled by Naxals, and it is worth examining what
that has implied so far.
In 2004, in the Chatra jail in Jharkhand, I met Ramlal Oraon, or Vir
Bhagat as he was locally known, a former zonal commander of the Maoist
Communist Centre (that since merged with the People’s War Group to
form the CPI (Maoist). He was contesting the Lok Sabha election after
leaving the MCC. His reason: tribals like him had no place in the
organisation. Six years later, not much has changed. Ask yourself how
many tribals figure in the top Naxal leadership after over two decades
of activity in tribal regions and the unsurprising answer is very few.
Try looking through any of the CPI-Maoist documents to find specific
references to tribals. You will find stray asides. The image of Naxals
as defenders of tribal interests has been created by those calling for
negotiations. The Naxals themselves actually do not see the world in
such terms. They see tribals as they see all humans—merely as economic
actors. According to their constitution, ‘Marxism-Leninism-Maoism is
the ideological basis guiding its thinking in all the spheres of its
activities.’ What possible sense can any tribal make of this doubly
hyphenated contradiction in terms?
This is not lost on the tribals themselves. In the Narmada valley, I
stayed a couple of weeks in a Gond village in Dindori, a tribal-
dominated district in Madhya Pradesh. The district chief of the
Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP), Ganga Patta, lived in an adjacent
village. In a few short years, his party had become a formidable
force, placing MLAs in the state legislature by working on exactly the
kind of programme that the Naxals have no time for—cultural renewal
and an assertion of Gond identity. He told me: “Today a bus driver
from outside the region does not show the contempt he would show for a
Gond only a decade ago. The police listen to us. These are the things
that make a difference.’’ On the Naxals, he was categorical: “They are
using us for their ends. We will not let them enter our areas of
influence. Given a chance, we will chase them through the very jungles
we know better than them.’’ It is no coincidence that the Naxals have
made no headway in and around Dindori.
This is the truth about these Naxals. They will never contest
elections because they lack popular appeal even in their strongholds.
Prominent Naxals who have attempted to do so have fared badly. And for
all the noise about the Salwa Judum being a state-sponsored entity, to
imagine that tens of thousands of tribals can be easily herded into
doing something they don’t want is to patronise them. Or are we to
believe that where the Naxals are concerned, the tribals make up their
own mind, and where the State is concerned, they do not? Between the
two entities, at least the State can be called to account, however
imperfectly.
Who, then, are these people who have arrogated the right to speak for
the Naxals in the name of tribals? I can only guess. None of them are
tribals, many of them were last seen energised in the defence of
similar armed thugs who held up the vast majority to ransom in the
name of the Khalistan movement. Either they are people turned on by
the idea of violent revolution, the overthrow of a ‘bourgeois’ State
or they are our version of ambulance chasers seeking employment in the
defence of the indefensible. Take your pick. Whatever the answer, the
best interests of tribals is not what they have in mind.
http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/voices/don-t-negotiate-with-naxals
http://www.offstumped.in/wiki/Constituent_Assembly_of_India
http://news.google.co.in/newspapers?id=_6EzAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mO4HAAAAIBAJ&dq=golwalkar&pg=2848%2C2333102
INDIA SEIZES LEADER OF OUTLAWED HINDUS
Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES
December 9, 1948, Thursday
Page 8, 180 words
NEW DELHI, Dec. 8 --- Police in several cities arrested leaders of
Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh, militant Hindu organization, today after
plans for nation-wide demonstrations by the society on Dec. 13 were
uncovered. R. S. S. S. was one of the communal groups banned after the
assassination of Mohandas K. Gandhi.
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40B15F93F5A107A93CBA91789D95F4C8485F9
INDIA THWARTS RIOTS BY HINDU EXTREMISTS
Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES.
December 11, 1948, Saturday
Page 5, 264 words
NEW DELHI, India, Dec. 10 -- The Government of India has put down with
apparent ease an incipient national uprising of Hindu extremist
elements in the past three days. [ END OF FIRST PARAGRAPH ]
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10817F7385A157B93C3A81789D95F4C8485F9
MILITANT HINDUS ACTIVE; Once-Banned Group Especially Popular Among
Youth
Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES.
August 25, 1949, Thursday
Page 9, 181 words
NEW DELHI, India, Aug. 24 -- Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (National
Volunteer Corps), Hindu militant organization, has started a country-
wide movement for the revival of Hindu culture. With the lifting of
the ban on this organization last July and the release of its leader,
M. S. Golwalkar, the new movement is becoming popular, especially
among young Hindus. [ END OF FIRST PARAGRAPH ]
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30E11F93A5F177B93C7AB1783D85F4D8485F9
http://www.offstumped.in/2010/02/27/historian-ramachandra-guha-takes-liberties-with-history/
chhotemianinshallah
The BJP lost the 2004 elections to the Congress party coalition.
BJP's macho nationalism' becomes its Achilles' heel, THE INDEPENDENT
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JASWANT REBUFFS BJP ON HOUSE PANEL POST.
Newspaper article from: Mail Today (New Delhi, India) ...would not
quit and if the BJP wanted, they could sack him. Unfortunately for the
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Jaswant not to quit PAC post despite BJP request.
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http://answers.encyclopedia.com/question/bjp-still-control-137107.html
Article: BJP's macho nationalism' becomes its Achilles' heel, THE
INDEPENDENT
Article from:The Independent (Bangladesh) Article date:June 28,
2002Author:Sunil RamanCopyrightProvided by ProQuest LLC. All inquiries
regarding rights or concerns about this content should be directed to
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India Today; January 4, 2010 ; Shankkar Aiyar; 700+ words... is an
organisational mess. And the best illustration of it is the pitched
battle in Rajasthan between the RSS-BJP and the non-RSS-BJP. At an
ideological level, the party is bankrupt. If it rose from just four
Members of Parliament to 120 ...
Article: BJP-RSS set to attend birth centenary celebrations ...
The Hindustan Times; February 24, 2006 ; 541 words... party sources
said. BJP President Rajnath Singh ... in the first major RSS meeting
after he took ... following a spat with RSS on the Jinnah issue ...
added. However, only BJP Vice-President and ... in the country and RSS-
BJP ties may also figure ...
Article: RSS-BJP face-off over candidate list
The Hindustan Times; August 24, 2006 ; 501 words... the backing of
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name ... General Ganj, the RSS is in favour of Salil Bishnoi, but BJP
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http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-206814724.html
Article: BJP moves indicate battle for Bihar is still on
Article from:India Abroad Article date:October 9,
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India Abroad
10-09-1998
BJP moves indicate battle for Bihar is still on
With Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee indicating that his
government was keeping its options open on invoking Article 356 to
impose President's rule in Bihar, the controversy over the Cabinet's
recommendation seeking the dismissal of the state government is far
from over.
In an interview on board his aircraft while returning to India, given
after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government had "accepted"
President K.R. Narayanan's decision to return the Cabinet's
recommendation on the Rabri Devi government's dismissal, Vajpayee
declared: "A mafia rule prevails in Bihar." He said the…
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http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-22069356.html
Article: JASWANT REBUFFS BJP ON HOUSE PANEL POST.
Article from:Mail Today (New Delhi, India) Article date:September 1,
2009CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Al Bawaba (Middle East) Ltd. This material
is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group,
Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights or
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THE BJP'S efforts to dislodge Jaswant Singh from a prestigious
parliamentary committee failed on Monday as the defiant leader refused
to quit the post at their request.
The BJP's deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and her
counterpart in the Rajya Sabha S. S. Ahluwalia landed at Singh's
residence at Teen Murti Lane in the afternoon.
The purpose of this unexpected visit apparently was to ask him to
resign from the post of the chairman of the parliamentary Public
Accounts Committee ( PAC).
The BJP had recommended Singh as their nominee for the post during the
budget- cummonsoon session while Yashwant Sinha and Gopinath Munde
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http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-207035203.html
Article: Jaswant not to quit PAC post despite BJP request.
Article from:Mail Today (New Delhi, India) Article date:September 1,
2009CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Al Bawaba (Middle East) Ltd. This material
is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group,
Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights or
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THE BJP'S efforts to dislodge Jaswant Singh from a prestigious
parliamentary committee failed on Monday as the defiant leader refused
to quit the post at their request.
The BJP's deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and her
counterpart in the Rajya Sabha S. S. Ahluwalia landed at Singh's
residence at Teen Murti Lane in the afternoon.
The purpose of this unexpected visit apparently was to ask him to
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http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-207035249.html
chhotemianinshallah
in collaboration with police – is Government sleeping?
Balaji Reddy
May 5, 2005
Gang rape of young girls in India has skyrocketed since last year. The
recent rape of young girls in Mumbai and now in Lucknow is causing
massive ripple effects. Young girls are outright afraid to go out
alone especially in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
In an incident that is creating ripples in the city, a minor girl
working as a domestic help was allegedly tortured and gangraped by
three men who forced her into their car while she was on her way back
from work.
Though the incident took place on Monday, it came to light only on
Wednesday evening when her family approached police asking for action
and protection against death threats.
According to a police complaint, the 15-year-old was dragged into the
car while returning home around 8 pm on Monday. She was gagged and
driven to a secluded spot where she was molested and tortured with
cigarette butts. She was then forced at gunpoint to accompany the
three boys to a vacant house where she was raped.
"My screams were drowned in the loud music that was deliberately
played by the boys," she has told the police. Though the police have
confirmed cigarette burns on her body, she has complained that
personnel at the Aashiyana police station, where she went to after
being dumped by the men on Tuesday, did not have her medically
examined.
"Only after I gave them an undertaking that I would not talk about the
incident to anyone did they agree to set me free," she has alleged.
Commenting on the police role, district police chief Navneet Sikera:
"All I can assure you is that our men are on the job and we will track
down the culprits at all costs." And while the wheels of justice get
moving, the victim's father, a small-time waste-seller, has been doing
the rounds of various newspaper offices to mobilise public opinion. He
has apparently told the police that he was being intimidated and
offered allurements to withdraw the case.
Opposition parties, including the Congress, have condemned the Mulayam
Singh Yadav Government for the increasing incidents of crime in the
state.
"When such is the state of affairs in the state capital, you can
imagine the lawlessness that prevails in other parts of the state,"
said a Congress leader, citing crime bureau reports showing that as
many as 309 minor girls were raped in the state during 2002.
The incident is one more blot in a state where three to four women are
raped a day and where official statistics recorded 1,425 rapes in
2003.
http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/2554.asp
India: Teachers who gang-raped their own students linked to Modi
government
Written by Rajesh Tyagi in Delhi
Thursday, 16 April 2009
An incredible case of repeated gang rape of female students in Indian
colleges was revealed last year, eventually leading to the culprits
being sentenced to life imprisonment. But this was no ordinary case of
rape; it involved an attempt at a cover-up that led right to the top
of the national government itself. It was only the courageous action
of the female students, a female teacher and then the families of the
victims that eventually achieved justice. The case has brought out the
terrible suffering that ordinary working people in India have to
bear.
On March 6, 2009, a Fast Track Court in Ahmedabad convicted all the
six accused in the Patan gang rape case and sentenced them to life
imprisonment. The accused are not only active members of the right-
wing ‘Sangh Parivar’, but are directly associated or related to those
in Narendra Modi’s cabinet.
Narendra Modi's government has been implicated in cover-up of rape of
poor girls. Photo by World Economic Forum. After gang rapes of several
Muslim women, including mass rape of Bilkis Bano as part of the 2002
Godhra genocide, the saffron brigades of Narendra Modi turned to poor
Hindu girls, committing gang rape of at least 98 such girls in Patan,
Gujarat. Most shameful was the fact that this time the offenders were
all teachers and the victims were their own students. In a case, where
the victim dared to withstand all humiliation, threats and harassment,
the Fast Track Court ultimately found the accused guilty and sentenced
them to life. The people however demanded that the accused be handed
over to them.
The Patan serial gang rape case shook the conscience of civilised
society, when on the heels of the electoral victory of the BJP in
Gujarat, i.e. only two months after the December 2007 elections were
over, it was revealed that at least six teachers of the Women’s
Teacher Training College in Patan, all closely associated with
Ministers in Modi’s cabinet, had committed serial gang rape of so many
girl students, forcing them into submission and silence on the threat
to fail them in internal assessment. It was the heroic action of one
female teacher Bharati Patel and her students that resulted in
exposure of the entire scandal. The organised crime had been going on
inside the College with knowledge of the concerned authorities, at
least since 2000.
It was political patronage for these criminals that made all
complaints and protests ineffective and redundant every time. It was
only after a huge public protest in Patan on February 4, where
people a twenty five thousand strong crowd not only came in unison
across the party, caste and community identities, but physically
assaulted the rapists, so much so that the police had to intervene to
save them and only then a case could be registered, which ultimately
resulted in conviction of these rapists.
The Primary Teachers’ Certificate (PTC) College of Patan, is run by
the State Government through the District Institute of Educational
Technology (DIET) and is situated on the outskirts of the city. This
college had become a den of criminals under the patronage of Ministers
in Modi’s cabinet, especially during the two decades tenure of Anandi
Patel as Education Minister. The six teachers, now sentenced to life
imprisonment by the Fast Track Court for the offence of gang rape of
their own student, Guddi, a poor dalit girl, since long had been
indulging in a whole series of gang rape of poor girls, while all
complaints made against them were going unheard with the authorities.
The kingpin among those convicted, Atul Patel, the most influential
among them, is a local leader of the BJP and very close to Anandi Ben
Patel, the present Revenue Minister and former Education Minister. He
was in charge of the whole election campaign of the Minister in the
2002 elections, in Patan. This Anandi Ben Patel is known for her
closeness with Chief Minister Narendra Modi. It is during her tenure
that sexual harassment of female students had become a routine
phenomenon in the state. Several direct complaints were made against
Atul Patel, but all of them were suppressed by the authorities under
political pressure. One may find the extent of political patronage in
the fact that this Atul Patel was awarded with the All India Ramanujam
Maths club, the best Maths teacher Award, when the BJP was in power at
the centre. The shamefaced government had to withdraw the award after
Atul Patel was exposed as kingpin in the Patan serial rape case.
The second convicted teacher Manish Parmar, the drawing teacher in the
college, is a close relative of the present Education Minister
Ramanlal Vora. He is famous for keeping a knife in his pocket on the
college campus and the female students were terrified of him.
Amazingly, while other teachers in the College were empowered to grade
the students between 50-100 marks in internal assessment, Manish
Parmar was specially authorised to grade the students of 250 marks.
This Manish Parmar used to shortlist 10 girls in every batch, using
mobile and video cameras, and a computer to upload their images,
keeping the best one for himself. On October 17, 2000 a complaint was
filed by a female student against Manish Parmar, but to no avail.
Again in 2004 another complaint of sexual molestation was filed by a
student Daksha Parmar against Manish, but in vain.
The system of internal marking was so whimsically and intriguingly
designed to empower the teachers to exercise arbitrary control over
the students by putting 40-44% marks out of the aggregate, at their
disposal. This system virtually armed the male teachers with an
unguided power to blackmail the poor and innocent female students,
forcing them to submit into silence against all harassment and
violence. This system of internal marking had come into question about
22 years ago when incidents similar to that in Patan had shaken
Meghraj Taluka, where 15 girls were raped by their teachers in the
same manner. 15 cases were lodged at that time. Later the cases were
suppressed and the girl victims were denied degrees. Again, following
a complaint from the PTC college at Rajkot, by a girl student, it was
recommended that the system of internal marking be scrapped, but the
errant teachers having direct influence inside the Modi cabinet
succeeded in having the recommendation shelved off. Despite all
complaints and protests and recommendations by different bodies in
that regard, this power was not scrapped until the people came out on
the streets, took the law into their own hands and beat up the
perpetrators of the crime.
Not only the system of internal marking is so designed to put the
future of hapless students at the whim of the teachers, but also
arrangements were secured for the perpetration of the crime. The
errant male teachers, with political patronage, conveniently secured
the postings for themselves in women’s colleges. The reply of the
Minister Anandi Patel and Ramanlal Vora to this deliberate mischief
that there was a dearth of female teachers, is totally misplaced in
view of the fact that the existing 70 female teachers appointed in
State run colleges were more than sufficient to be posted in 6 girls’
colleges, while 156 male teachers could have been conveniently
accommodated in 16 boys colleges. But it was knowingly done otherwise,
with the connivance of the authorities and politicians, above all the
Education Minister herself. The devils linked to the Modi Government
were knowingly given postings in the girls’ colleges, enabling them to
exploit the hapless women.
Students have explained how the teachers in the Patan College used to
tell the female students to give a smile and apply honey to their lips
to get marks. The principal JN Chaudhary himself was part of the
entire scandal and deliberately used to visit the hostel in the late
hours of the night in the absence of the rector and used to enter the
rooms of students to harass them. Complaints were made against him
also by the parents of the students, but the warden of the hostel,
Jashoda Joshi, hand in glove with these criminals, continued to tell
the guardians that it is the girls who were of questionable virtue.
This Jashoda Joshi, used to assist the rapists by providing them free
access to the girls’ hostel in odd hours of the night and used to
pacify the girl victim after they had been raped, advising them not to
make a complaint and “to learn to get used to it”. Principal Chaudhary
was a Matriculate and did not even qualify for appointment to the
office of Principal, but got appointed to the post thanks to his
political links with those in power. KT Purania, who took over the
office from JN Chaudhary, also had complaints lodged against him of a
similar description by female students during his previous tenure at
Palanpur College.
Bharati Patel, a female lecturer, who joined the services in 1997, and
played a heroic role in defence of poor students in the Patan rape
case, had herself made a written complaint way back on February 27,
2001, narrating the details of sexual exploitation of innocent female
students in the college. Instead of any action being taken on her
complaint, Bharati Patel was transferred to Palanpur, to subject her
to hardship, as a measure of punishment for making the complaint, and
managed to get transferred back only in 2007. It was Atul Patel, now a
convict, who managed to wangle the transfer of Bharati Patel through
the Minister Anandi Ben Patel. Bharati was threatened by Atul Patel
and his criminal colleagues, but the brave woman refused to relent.
The criminal teachers, enjoying the political patronage of the Modi
government, continued with what can be termed as a most heinous crime
against humanity. It was reported that these beasts used to decide the
question as to who would rape which girl first through a drawing of
lots among them. The gang rapes were then photographed on mobile and
video cameras, to further blackmail their student victims. After each
gang rape they forced a heavy dose of anti-pregnancy pills down the
throats of their victims and used to shave the pubic hair of their
victims to wash the traces of semen and thus wipe out all evidence of
the rape. This all pre-planned, points to the organised nature of the
crime perpetrated by hardcore criminals, having no fear of the law.
Although sexual exploitation of female teachers and students is also
rampant in private colleges, the government colleges all over Gujarat
continue to outshine the private ones in this field, specially during
the rule of the BJP in the State. Although the Education Minister,
Anandi Patel, continued to say that no such complaint had ever been
made to her, it turned out that no less than 28 female students and
teachers had made written complaints during her tenure as Education
Minster, but with no action being taken.
The present case, in which the six perpetrators of gang rape have been
sentenced to serve life imprisonment, is the sordid story of a very
bright but poor dalit girl, Guddi, who was gang raped 14 times by
these beasts over a period of four and a half months, on the college
campus itself and on excursion tours as part of her internship. The
scandal of premeditated serial rape was exposed when on January 31
2008 the victim fainted in the prayer hall of the college and was
taken to a doctor by her teacher Bharati Patel and her colleagues, who
confirmed rape of the girl. 97 other students of the college then came
out with their own stories of similar gang rape forced upon them by
the same teachers.
Guddi is one of the five children of a daily wage labourer from the
Jetalvasana village of Visnagar Taluka in Mehsana district in Gujarat.
Without any aid, she had secured 89% marks in matriculation
examination and more than 70% in XII standard, on her own efforts made
against all odds of life. In order that her studies could continue,
her father had to discontinue the studies of her brother. She wished
to become a doctor, but because of the poverty in the family, she
enrolled herself to become a primary teacher on July 24, 2007 at the
Primary Teachers’ Certificate (PTC) College at Patan. The girls’
college is run by the Gujarat Government through the District
Institute of Educational Technology (DIET). Her father requested one
Prof. Baloch to see if financial aid could be arranged from the
college. Baloch, in turn sent the girl to Prof. Ashwin Parmar. On
September 11,2007, Ashwin Parmar called the girl to the Educational
Technology room, after the recess, where he and two other teachers,
Manish Parmar and Mahendra Parjapati, ripped off her clothes before
taking turns to rape her. They also made videos of the gang rape and
warned her not to disclose it or face the consequences. The
traumatised victim thereafter started to faint at the mere sight of
these teachers. On September 13, 2007, i.e. two days after the rape,
when she fainted in the presence of students, the rapist teachers
suggested that the girl was affected by “evil spirits” and themselves
took her for witchcraft!
Fifteen days later Manish Parmar called Guddi to the college
laboratory, where he was joined by two other teachers, Kiran Patel and
Suresh Patel in the gang rape of the poor girl. While Manish and
Suresh raped her, Kiran Patel, who raised the plea of impotence in his
defence in the trial, continued to sexually abuse the girl and film
the act.
On the excursion tour of students, to Khumbhwa Village, as part of her
internship, between December 31, 2007 and January 11 2008, Suresh,
Manish and Kiran repeated the same act at 8pm on the eve of new year
and then at 3.30am in the dead of the night of January 11, after a
cultural programme. Later in the month, after gang rape by five of the
lecturers, Atul Patel committed repeated rape upon the girl victim. On
January 25, this Atul Patel, again raped the victim in the Computer
room of the college.
Due to this trauma, the victim continued to lose consciousness
repeatedly at the sight of her rapist teachers. On January 30, 2008,
the victim disclosed her woes to a friend and then again fainted on
the next day in the prayer hall of the college. Bharati Patel took her
to a Psychiatrist and then to a Gynaecologist, who confirmed rape. The
friend of the victim then disclosed it to Bharati Patel. As the news
of gang rape of students by the teachers in the college spread,
shocked and enraged parents and guardians rushed to the college where
97 other female students, who were also subjected to gang rape by
these teachers, also came out with similar complaints. A written
complaint was thus made on January 31 on behalf of the 98 students
victims of gang rape, molestation, outraging of modesty and criminal
intimidation, etc. But because of the political influence of the
culprits no action was taken against them by the authorities.
On February 4, 2008, students and their parents decided to take the
matter into their own hands. They organised a demonstration and during
that protest caught hold of the rapist teachers and beat them severely
with sticks and brickbats and damaged their vehicles. It was now that
the police swung into action to save the culprits from the wrath of
the enraged public, which was calling for the lynching of the
rapists.
On February 5, a spontaneous protest broke out in support of the
victims, the female students, and against the rapists. A 25,000-strong
crowd was on the roads, cutting across the party lines and caste and
communal identities, in protest against the ghastly crime and the
political patronage of the ruling BJP. Only the local leaders of Sangh
Parivar had remained absent. They however failed to prevent their
cadres from joining the mass protest. To pacify the angry crowd, the
police however had to arrest the rapists and register a case u/s 376
and 506 of IPC, on the statement of victim Guddi. The rapist teachers
were then brought before the Judicial Magistrate, who remanded them
into police custody. The victim was however made to wait for more than
six hours in the civil hospital before her medical examination could
be conducted. Taking precautions, Bharati Patel, however, got the
statement of the victim recorded before the Judicial Magistrate u/s
164 Cr.P.C. on 7 February 7.
Seeing the situation slipping out of their hands, the high-ups in the
Modi government decided on a further damage control exercise.
Apprehensive of the police inquiry going much beyond its apparent
frame, exposing those sitting at the top of the BJP government,
Narendra Modi, appointed four police officers to ensure that the
inquiry in the case would remain confined only to the role of those
named by the students. Hastily a magisterial inquiry was also ordered,
but deliberately without any terms of reference.
On February 23, Jamna Taral, a handmaiden of the BJP was appointed as
Principal of the college. Her husband was placed as the District
Education Officer in Patan. His car had been impounded by the Election
Commission during the 2002 elections for being misused in the election
campaign of the BJP. Taral immediately started to intimidate the
students and their parents to keep their hands off the case, and
started harassing and defaming the student victims themselves. She
threatened the students with failure in marking if they went against
the culprits in the case.
While the students continued to boycott the college, the parents
formed an Association to fight the injustice. Fifteen representatives
of the Association, led by its president Ghemar Chaudhary, a school
teacher in the city, accompanied by father of the dalit girl victim,
came to Gandhinagar to meet Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister, where
the inaugural session of the Legislative Assembly was in the offing.
However, Narendra Modi refused to meet the delegation. Instead the
delegation was routed to Education Minister Ramanlal Vora, who
redirected them to the Minister of State for health and family
welfare, Parbat Patel, only to be warned by the Minister against
creating any trouble during the session of Assembly. They were also
told to withdraw the agitation against the government. The Personal
Assistant to Education Minster downplayed the incident saying “it goes
on”.
Later they were told the same thing by Amit Shah, Minister of Home and
Rishikesh Patel, MLA from Visnagar Taluka. None of the Ministers
however exchanged a word with the father of the girl victim. Rather,
Ghemar Chaudhary, the president was threatened in private of dire
consequences by Amit Shah and Ramanlal Vora.
The delegation, however, submitted its complaint to the GCERT. As soon
as they came out of the office of the GCERT, the delegation was
surrounded by police and was taken to the Arbuda Hotel in Gojharia, to
be produced before Shankar Chaudhary, MLA from Radhanpur and the BJP
State Secretary from Patan, K.C. Patel. First they tried to play the
caste card demanding to know how Patels and Chaudharys had joined
hands with dalits. Failing this they directly threatened the
delegation to withdraw their agitation.
Ghemar Chaudhary had since received a “show cause notice” for
unauthorised absence from the school, while Kirit Patel ,another
member of the delegation, and a lecturer at Law College Patan and
member of the Senate of North Gujarat University, has received threats
from the authorities. However, the culprits were neither dismissed
from services nor were their degrees cancelled.
Terrified of the ire of people, the leaders of Sangh Parivar, the RSS
and BJP stopped appearing in public. The state president of the BJP
issued open directive to the cadres of the BJP not to support any
agitation against the rapist teachers. Unable to stop the mass
protests, they started to malign the protesters as anti-BJP and anti-
Modi and blamed the girl victims themselves for their woes.
Failing this, the patrons of the ghastly crime then started to
publicise the videos of gang rape of the girl through MMS on mobiles,
to demoralise the victim. But even this could not break the resolve of
the brave victim. Repelling all pressures she courageously deposed
against the accused in the trial which ultimately led to the
sentencing of the guilty to life imprisonment. The conviction of the
guilty is said to have been founded upon consistent testimony of the
victim prosecutrix, fully corroborated by forensic evidence in the
form of traces of semen of the rapists from the different spots
pointed out by the victim in her statement to the police and before
the Court. The people thus could identify the real face of the “moral
police of saffrons”, repenting to bring these patrons of criminals and
gangsters to power in the state.
The elite classes always oppose publicising such events in the media,
as it invites public fury against their rule at large and exposes the
regime of capital as a whole. Media reports of the Patan gang rape
case, however, supported the mass agitation and helped a lot in
spreading the news about the crime and public protest against it.
Media support for the protest helped other victims come out into the
open and support the agitation. It exposed a lot the role of the
“saffrons”, those moral policemen, in perpetration of the crime.
On Februray 11, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued
notices to the Gujarat Government. The State Commission was still not
constituted in the state. On February 14, several voluntary
organisations and individuals joined hands in Ahmedabad to form a
“Citizens Forum” against the Patan Gang Rape. The Forum decided to
commemorate the Women’s Day on March 8 every year as “Patan Day”. The
team of NCW which visited Gujarat, confirmed that the incident was not
an isolated one and that there were many Patans in Gujarat.
In fact, not only students but also female teachers in the PTCs are
also being subjected to such exploitation at the hands of those
connected to power. If the situation in government colleges is so
horrible, one can imagine what the state of affairs in private
colleges must be. The PTCs have mushroomed in the state as a source of
generation of huge profits out of the heavy fee extracted from poor
students who want to become teachers, after the National Council for
Teachers Education (NCTE) introduced the concept of self financing
institutes.
More than 450 PTCs exist in Gujarat today, most of which are self-
financing, with about 3000 paid seats reserved in the management
quota. Out of these, about 140 are girls’ colleges where around 20,000
girls are enrolled. It is compulsory for the girls to stay in the
hostels, while most of these hostels have no female wardens. No
financial assistance or scholarships exist in these colleges. One can
imagine what sort of training these future teachers get in these
slaughterhouses. Shirking its responsibility of preparing teachers in
the state, and deliberately leaving the field open for profiteers, the
state government runs only 16 colleges through the DIET in the entire
state of which one is in Patan.
It is simply a well orchestrated rumour that women have become safer
under BJP rule, while in reality the situation has become much worse
under their rule, with the imposed silence upon women in the docile
society of Gujarat, linked to family honour, coupled with the rule of
the conservative BJP, forces the women to keep quiet and bear the
tyranny. The rule of fascist elements does not improve the conditions
of women in a capitalist society, but only makes this exploitation of
women more unbearable and suffocating, by choking and silencing any
resistance against this exploitation.
Capitalism has made a virtual mockery of mass education. The whole
system of education under capitalism has become merely a trade shop
for sale of certificates, degrees and diplomas, making them a
precondition for employment and thus sustenance of life. Capitalists,
who own private institutions and those holding governmental power,
exploit this situation of the mass of the people. Education is
institutionalised into a commodity in the market, controlled by the
capitalists, bureaucrats and politicians, who emerge as an organised
education mafia. They rob people not only of money for obtaining the
degrees and diploma, but also exploit the women sexually, who are
vulnerable to it. Not only students but even teachers fall prey to it.
Capitalism constitutes a hell for working people. Only socialism can
guarantee a dignified life for billions of working people and for that
the yoke of the rule of the capitalists has to be removed.
http://www.marxist.com/india-gang-rape-linked-to-modi-government.htm
(2 Pages)
1
2→You cannot start a new topicYou cannot reply to this topicRahul
Gandhi In Gang Rape? #1
Group:
Guests Posted 03 February 2007 - 05:47 AM
Did anyone catch this news?
Rahul Gandhi has sent notices to Hinduunity.org website - to a person
named Rohit Viasman and Ezboard website - for spreading "obscenene and
indecent" information about him.
Abhishek Singhvi, his lawyer (and Congress spokesman) said it was very
hard to find out the names and addresses of people sending information
on Internet, but somehow he managed to find out the identity of these
people, who are living in the USA. He also said this information was
spread from the Hinduunity website and the person claims to be a
Bajrang Dal activist. He said these people are bringing a badname to
Hinduism.
http://www.jagran.co...aspx?id=3080998
and
http://timesofindia....how/1556410.cms
A little bit of google gave this document : http://melbourne.ind...loads/rahul.pdf
1. Above document clearly has the postal address and email address of
the writer. So why did Mr. Abhishek Singhvi have any difficulty
identifying or reaching the owners of the document?
2. Isn't HinduUnity website banned in India anyways?
Here is the blogspot blog about the case : http://intellibriefs...-gang-rape.html
#2 Mudy
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13-August 03 Posted 03 February 2007 - 07:23 AM
Rahul Gandhi sends notice to US-based Web site
QUOTE
Congress member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi has sent a legal notice to
US-based Web site www.hinduunity.org for alleged "perverted,
scurrilous and gutter writing" against him and his family members.
Seems like Hinduunity had exposed this story and below NDTV blog is
saying same on Gang Rape. Any clue? Is it true? NDTV blog is carrying
girl's picture.
Is this true??RAHUL GANDHI INVOLVED IN GANG RAPE
#3 Mudy
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13-August 03 Posted 03 February 2007 - 07:24 AM
crosspost
Google search
http://www.google.co...ape&btnG=Search
Results 1 - 10 of about 47,200 for Rahul Gandhi rape. (0.21 seconds)
It is everywhere.
#4 Mudy
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13-August 03 Posted 03 February 2007 - 07:24 AM
-crosspost
http://scotland.indy.../3659/index.php
QUOTE
The following Reporters who were present on 4th December,2006 to cover
Rahul's Trip in Amethi and who were given information about the
incident. These reporters were informed about the incident, none of
them took interest to look into the matter
a) IBN7
b) Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhaskar
c) Punjab Kesari
d) Hindusthan Times (Hindi)
e) Times of India & Times now
f) NDTV (Hindi)
g) Aaj Tak
h) Star News
i) Nav bharath times
Sukanya
Sukanya and his mother are said to be hiding in one of their Relatives
House in Harayana. Our Sources in Lucknow say that "The Congress men
have been ordered to kill them at sight before they come out in open
or approach the president" .Congressman have been deployed at all 7
borders of UP & Delhi to trace both motherand and Daughter .
Congressmen deployed at checkposts have been provided photographs of
Sukanya.
Door to Door Searching is on in Amethi and neighbouring Villages to
track down them, and simultaneously the villagers are being warned and
threathened if they provide protection to both mother and daughter.
As per the information, both Mother and Daughter are alive (Updated
information about 10:00 P.M IST 16/1/2007) and search is going on.
There is likely that Congressmen and Congress Governments in other
states are secretely been instructed to track them down and hand over
to them at the earliest.
We have no information like who is contacting the president on behalf
of them. We are trying to gather information from our people in New
Delhi whether the Human Rights has seriously registered their
Complaints. Our people are hesistant to to because there is a
possibility that they may apprehend us and hand over us to the police
or congressmen for questioning.
Few Congress MLA'S from Uttar Pradesh are under tremendrous pressure
from the high command to Locate both mother and daughter and finish
the needful.Secretly a reward has been announced by the Congress High
Command if whosoever provides info or ...... Congressman from other
districts and states are touring all over UP & Delhi.
"I am sure they have decided to kill both mother and daughter."
IMPORTANT : Father of the victim Mr.Balram Singh has either gone
underground or has been killed, he is not to be seen since 4th January
2007.
intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2007/01/rahul-gandhi-involved-in-gang-
rape_17.html
Re: RAHUL GANDHI INVOLVED IN GANG RAPECurrent rating: 0
24 Jan 2007
by Anonymous Poster
Reply to this comment
-- The Victim's family Address in Amethi UP is
Ms.Sukanya 's address
23-12 Medical Choke
Sanjay Gandhi Marg,
Amethi,
Raebareli, UP
India
-- Ms.Sukanya and Mother last seen on January 19 , 2007 . Missing .
-- Congress goons are still looking for her
-- Father of Victim Mr.Balram is still missing
-- We interviewed people , very soon we will air video interviews
#5 Mudy
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13-August 03 Posted 03 February 2007 - 07:26 AM
Looks like coverup.
Repetition of Sanjay Gandhi days ? He was forced to marry Menaka.
#6 sankara
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02-April 05 Posted 04 February 2007 - 01:44 AM
QUOTE(Mudy @ Feb 3 2007, 07:18 AM)
Looks like coverup.
Repetition of Sanjay Gandhi days ? He was forced to marry Menaka.
Rahul marry his victim? Mmm...no chance of that. Insead, the current
Nehru-Gandhi-Maino clan, infused with Mafia blood, will just bump off
the girl and her entire family, and bury them five feet under, and
send a dead bird in a shoe box around to anyone who dares to talk.
#7 dhu
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17-April 04 Posted 04 February 2007 - 05:46 AM
it's just the tip of the iceberg. far more heinous crimes have been
done by these nehruvian bastards.
#8 Mudy
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13-August 03 Posted 04 February 2007 - 06:16 AM
Those who are in India and unable to see Hinduunity.org website,
should use following links to few website
http://proxy.org/pro...y=proxystep.com
or use any of these option to view blocked sites
QUOTE
You can still access blocked websites through RSS readers, Google
caches, or by using anonymisers that let you surf via internet
connections hosted outside India. These include:
http://www.translate.google.com
http://www.hidemyass.com
http://surf-free-anonymous-proxy.com
http://www.shadowsurf.com
http://www.inblogs.net
http://www.pkblogs.com
http://tools.superhit.in
http://www.browseatwork.com
http://httproxy.mozdev.org (Firefox extension)
http://www.ninjaproxy.com
http://www.shysurfer.com
http://anonymouse.org
Or download softwares such as http://webaccelerator.google.com or
http://torpark.nfshost.com
#9 Mudy
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13-August 03 Posted 05 February 2007 - 08:56 AM
Nobody wants to comment on Rahul Gandhi
http://mangalorean.c...al&newsid=38867
QUOTE
Although the campaign and the blogs had been brought to the notice of
many senior Congress leaders, they were reluctant to respond to it
earlier.
"It is true that we came to know about it. But we did not want to take
up the issue. You do not what goes wrong in the Congress party,
especially when the issue is about the Gandhi family," admitted a
party leader who requested that he be not identified.
Added another: "No sensible Congress leader would make a comment nor
would they take a pro-active role to counter it. One never knows when
the issue could boomerang."
#10 rajesh_g
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08-September 03 Posted 07 February 2007 - 08:02 AM
QUOTE(Mudy @ Feb 4 2007, 08:18 PM)
Added another: "No sensible Congress leader would make a comment nor
would they take a pro-active role to counter it. One never knows when
the issue could boomerang
Not only congies the media has been very reluctant to take this up.
Shows the confidence they have in their star-campaigner.
On a sidenote isnt rajmataa worried of finding a yuvraaj to carry the
dynasty forward ? Why is RG still unmarried ? Shouldnt congies be
worried about that too ?
#11 k.ram
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14-August 03 Posted 09 February 2007 - 06:54 AM
Rahul Gandhi's Gang Rape
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=9y8xi2itgUo
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mRi47W5JxfU
http://youtube.com/watch?v=88AdVaP1d3o
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=n09iuYVaE9U
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=y9v0LNXivA8
#12 dhu
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17-April 04 Posted 09 February 2007 - 08:05 AM
http://www.indiadail...al/04-07-04.htm
Rahul-Juanita connection � Why Amethi is full of Colombian girls?
the article is written by a fawning kangressi reporter. It says that
amethi has become an import center for columbian girls.
#13 Mudy
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13-August 03 Posted 09 February 2007 - 08:55 AM
I am shocked and this is scary.
#14
Group:
Guests Posted 09 February 2007 - 09:39 AM
Regarding post 11:
Does anyone have the time to summarise in maybe a sentence or two the
gist of each of the videos? I don't understand Hindi at all and would
like to know what is being said. Can't make out anything from the
context (other than that the interviewees are so afraid they don't
want to be identified).
#15 Mudy
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13-August 03 Posted 09 February 2007 - 10:16 AM
It says they saw girl entered house where "Rahul Bhai" (Rahul brother)
was inside with his friend. Later she came out crying and clothes were
torn and she told them Rahul forced himself on her, later his friends
who were foreigners joined him and she was gang raped by him and his
friends. Altogether there were 8-12 men were present inside. They are
now afraid that Congress workers may kill them. In case, it goes to
court they will not hesitate to give statement.
#16
Group:
Guests Posted 09 February 2007 - 11:54 AM
Many thanks, Mudy.
#17 dhu
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17-April 04 Posted 07 March 2007 - 10:04 AM
New witness video:
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=3UihBIoH-8Q
Shri Ratan Singh, Amethi Resident
(missing since video release according to the Hinduunity site)
#18
Group:
Guests Posted 07 March 2007 - 12:30 PM
QUOTE(dhu @ Mar 7 2007, 09:56 AM)
New witness video:
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=3UihBIoH-8Q
Shri Ratan Singh, Amethi Resident
(missing since video release according to the Hinduunity site)
The video's been flagged as containing 'inappropriate content' (some
hardcore congressi fan couldn't handle the revelations and probably
complained to Youtube once he saw his favourite idols were being
incriminated). As a result, Youtube's made it restricted access:
members only.
For those who don't want to join Youtube, here's just the audio track
of the "Rahul Gandhi Raped Sukhanya - More Proof" video. (The video
was of the interviewee whose identity was masked by focussing the
camera on a large cloth covering him):
http://www.bestshari...677/RG.mp3.html (mp3 file, 1.33Mb)
The people who posted it at Youtube need to eventually provide a
subtitled version as well, the rest of us Indians don't know what's
being said. If it weren't for the title, we'd have no clue.
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#19
Group:
Guests Posted 15 March 2007 - 05:28 AM
QUOTE(Bodhi @ Feb 3 2007, 05:39 AM)
Did anyone catch this news?
Rahul Gandhi has sent notices to Hinduunity.org website - to a person
named Rohit Viasman and Ezboard website - for spreading "obscenene and
indecent" information about him.
Abhishek Singhvi, his lawyer (and Congress spokesman) said it was very
hard to find out the names and addresses of people sending information
on Internet, but somehow he managed to find out the identity of these
people, who are living in the USA. He also said this information was
spread from the Hinduunity website and the person claims to be a
Bajrang Dal activist. He said these people are bringing a badname to
Hinduism.
http://www.jagran.co...aspx?id=3080998
and
http://timesofindia....how/1556410.cms
A little bit of google gave this document : http://melbourne.ind...loads/rahul.pdf
1. Above document clearly has the postal address and email address of
the writer. So why did Mr. Abhishek Singhvi have any difficulty
identifying or reaching the owners of the document?
2. Isn't HinduUnity website banned in India anyways?
Here is the blogspot blog about the case : http://intellibriefs...-gang-rape.html
http://www.scribd.co...gs-Indian-press
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5,147 Joined:
13-August 03 Posted 30 March 2007 - 03:10 AM
http://www.india-forum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1807&st=0&p=65322&%23entry65322
Traumatised gang rape victim seeks justice
The rape victim's father accuses Navsarjan Trust of politicising the
issue saying, �we only want justice. We have never used the term
Dalit.� The NGO, claiming to be one of the most effective Dalit
organisations of India, rubbishes him.
CJ: Natteri Adigal Sun, Jun 29, 2008 23:33:02 IST
Views: 1446
Gujarat News : 10 cops booked in Gujarat GUDDI, LET’S not bother about
real name, was rushed to the civil hospital in Ahmedabad on Saturday
(June 28) in unconscious condition. The 18-year-old girl had passed
out at the office premises of a Non Government Organisation (NGO)
named Navsarjan Trust. It did look like a suicide attempt but was not
confirmed.
She had been caught three days back by her hostel mate, while writing
what appeared to be a suicide note. They had just commenced their
second year of Primary Teachers’ Training (PTC) course on June 16 at
the district institute of education and training (DIET) in Patan,
Gujarat. Principal Jamnaben Taral was immediately alerted by the
friend.
Guddi’s hospitalisation is a little different from other teenager
tragedies, which keep happening in India and are forgotten soon, maybe
after a bit of ‘character assassination’. For, the Ahmedabad profit
centre, a powerful newspaper business has been front-paging news and
gossip about her for the past five months. She is featured as the
‘Patan gang rape victim’, apparently as part of its ’Save the girl
child’ campaign. The ‘public interest campaign’, creating awareness
about atrocities on women and female foetuses in India, particularly
Gujarat, has brought it a lot of visibility in international
advertising events.
On February 2, 2008, Guddi had passed out after the prayer meeting at
the institute for the first time. She was mentally disturbed and got
uncontrollably hysteric. She told her college vice-principal that she
had been sexually assaulted by her teachers repeatedly in the last six
months. Many of the close to 100 female students of the college had
parroted her allegations about sexual harassment by six male teachers
on the campus to the principal KT Poraniya. As word of the alleged
rape and molestation spread across the campus, angry students and
their families went on a rampage on February 4. The mob attacked the
accused teachers and damaged furniture.
The situation was defused by the district educational office. The
accused teachers as well as the principal, were all promptly
transferred. A magisterial enquiry was ordered. Guddi, the daughter of
landless peasant of a remote village Jetalvasna, wanted to get on with
studies, leaving the punishment of culprits to appropriate
authorities.
Keen to face life like a brave citizen, she turned down any help from
publicity-hungry good samaritans. She said, "I want to fight for
justice as a student and not as a Dalit girl. The professors have
violated me in the college and I will seek justice by remaining in the
college."
Her rationale for staying back at the hostel was: "Another girl who
was not a Dalit but poor, too, would have been victimised by my
tormentors — for, they looked for poor preys." Chief minister Narendra
Modi congratulated the teenager for showing courage and turning into a
whistle blower. He announced a compensation of Rs one lakh to secure
her future.
Courses in all DIETs went ahead without hitch and examinations were
conducted. They have all been free of incidents, despite a high-pitch
campaign to disrupt them. Guddi’s tragedy had been transformed into
charges directed against Anandiben Patel, an important deputy of the
chief minister. Revenue minister Anandiben is a renowned ex-
schoolteacher, who is recognised as the de facto head of education in
Gujarat. The enquiry was wrapped in record time under strict orders
from Modi. In the meantime, the accused teachers were arrested.
Recording of statements of the accused and the witnesses have been
completed and the trial is ready to commence on July 1.
Guddi returned to the hostel after vacation to get on with the second
year of the PTC course. She had secured distinction marks in the first
annual exam despite all the trauma, she had encountered during the
year. In the suicide note, she was writing on June 26 however, she
mentioned that after these incidents she was unhappy with her life.
The note indicated that she felt harassed at home and was often
contemplating suicide. It read: "Nobody, not my parents, not my
teachers, nor friends, none would be responsible for my actions," in
case she did commit suicide.
Her father was summoned and Guddi was handed over to him. The next
day, at home, the girl blew her top again when her father broke her
cellular phone in a fit of rage. She walked out in a huff to reach
Visnagar, about 20km away, and sought refuge at the police station.
She was taken to the chief judicial magistrate at Mehsana when she
told them that she doesn’t want to stay with her father any longer. JK
Rathod, Inspector, Visnagar police station, said, "she has been very
clear in her choice. Since the very beginning, she wanted to be in the
custody of NGOs." The CJM ordered that she be sent to the custody of
Navsarjan for three days.
It was when the parents of Guddi met her at Navsarjan office that she
fainted, like she had done in February after prayer meeting. She had
met her parents at the office, agreeing to do so after initial
reluctance. According to executive director Manjula Pradip of
Navsarjan Trust, they were persuading her to stay at home, rather than
at the hostel, during the time when the court will take up her
deposition.
Guddi’s father has accused the NGO of politicising the issue. The poor
peasant told mediapersons, "we want justice for our daughter, but the
NGO has other axes to grind." He added: "Humne kabhi Dalit shabd ka
upyog nahi kiya (we have never used the term Dalit)." Manjula on the
other hand, wants to provide professional counsellors to let her
overcome the trauma, along with supporting her legal battle. She
dismissed the relatives’ allegations, "he can say what he wants, we
are not worried about that. "
What made the ‘gang rape victim’ want to dump her parents and go to
the NGO now, particularly when she had repeatedly spurned NGOs and
rejected being branded as ‘Dalit’ in the past? How could the NGO so
confidently rubbish the parents’ allegations? Has the ‘gang rape
victim’ succumbed to the forces preying upon her tragedy to make
political capital?
Navsarjan Trust claims to be one of the most effective Dalit
organisations of India, widely respected locally, state-wide,
nationally, and internationally and feared by those who work against
equality. It also stakes the claim for its executive director as being
one of India’s foremost Dalit woman leaders!
It does smack of a Mayawati-wannabe, forging an alliance with the
foremost secular party of India in Gujarat. Significantly, the
Congress is widely suspected to be behind the newspaper’s unabashed,
albeit unsuccessful so far, smear campaign against the Gujarat
government. "Does the latest alliance signify the opening of another
front in the battle aimed at delivering the people of Gujarat and
India from the sinister clutches of Narendra Modi?"
http://www.merinews.com/article/traumatised-gang-rape-victim-seeks-justice/136706.shtml
Presidential Guard Gang Rape Rattles India’s Military
Syed Asdar Ali & Agencies
NEW DELHI, 11 October 2003 — The military, stung by the alleged rape
of a teenage student by four presidential guards, was planning
yesterday a revamp of the elite unit that has protected the country’s
first citizen for 53 years.
Police have arrested four soldiers of the Presidential Body Guard
(PBG) on charges of raping the girl Monday in a park two kilometers
from the official home of President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
Kalam and his presidential palace reacted strongly to the alleged
assault, which occurred while Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama
was addressing his followers in the same Buddha Jayanti Park.
“The president has expressed serious concern over the incident and has
asked for tough measures to be taken to ensure that such incidents do
not recur.
“What has been committed is a terrible crime and the guilty shall be
given appropriate punishment,” the palace said, adding that Kalam, the
supreme commander of the Indian armed forces, has called for a
military probe. The Defense Ministry was stunned by the allegations
involving the ceremonial unit, raised in 1773 by then English Viceroy
Warren Hastings when India was a British colony.
“The mood is very bad. The sword can fall on many,” a source said of
reports that the army was planning a revamp of the lance-carrying PBG
which has been protecting presidents since the country became a
republic in 1950.
Gangrape case registered against SHO, 4 others in Delhi
PTI, Jun 24, 2009, 04.29am IST
NEW DELHI: A case of gangrape was filed against an SHO and four
policemen in the capital after a woman claimed that she was sexually
assaulted inside a police station in south-west Delhi, which led to
angry protests in the area. ( Watch )
The woman alleged that she was taken to the Inderpuri police station
on Monday by two policemen to enquire about her husband, who the
police said was a "local criminal involved in betting".
"They put me inside a lock up and started hurling abuses and thrashed
me. Then they took me upstairs where the SHO and four other uniformed
men raped me. I can recognise them by face," the woman told
reporters.
The woman's claims triggered protests in the area, where she resides,
with a large crowd attacking and ransacking the police station.
The police said it had registered a case of gangrape against the five
policemen after recording her statement late on Monday.
"We have registered a case of gangrape against the five policemen
after recording the statement of the victim," Delhi Police spokesman
Rajan Bhagat said.
Sources in the police said a test identification parade would be
conducted to identify the four personnel of the force.
The police, which handed over the investigation to the Delhi crime
branch, shifted Station House Officer Pradeep Kumar to Police Lines to
ensure "free and fair probe".
Meanwhile, the Delhi government also directed the women's commission
to probe the matter.
Chief minister Sheila Dikshit, who directed the Delhi Women's
Commission to probe the allegations, said it was shameful if such an
incident had happened.
chhotemianinshallah
By Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, OCT. 25. The responsible voices, bureaucratic and
political, of the Vajpayee Government were keen on stressing the point
that Mr. Ram Prakash Gupta had voluntarily relinquished the office of
the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. It was his belated realisation,
entirely of his own volition, that he was unequal to the task of
leading the BJP in the State Assembly elections, which cannot be far
away. It was pointed out that only after Mr. Gupta came and candidly
told the Central leaders about two weeks ago that they better make an
alternative arrangement did the Prime Minister ask his senior aides to
start a search for the new Chief Minister.
It is also noted with appreciation that unlike Mr. Kalyan Singh who
demitted office kicking and screaming, Mr. Gupta has behaved like a
gentleman and a ``disciplined'' soldier. And unlike the situation a
few months ago when the BJP bosses were able to pool their
manipulative skills together to block the emergence of Mr. Rajnath
Singh as an alternative, this time Mr. Gupta's resigned willingness to
step down helped sort out otherwise messy equations.
The Prime Minister is believed to have become tired of the U.P.
leaders making weekly trips to Delhi to complain about ``how bad
things'' were in Uttar Pradesh. Eventually, it was decided that a
change had to take place, and that it could not get any worse for the
BJP than it already was under Mr. Ram Prakash Gupta's stewardship.
Hence, the decision to take the plunge.
However, it is also clear that there is no grand strategy at work. The
famous capacity of the BJP leaders to see their way through confusion
seems to have abandoned them, as far as Uttar Pradesh is concerned.
Though Mr. Rajnath Singh also comes from the RSS stable, it appears
that the Sangh leadership is not greatly excited about the change. To
the extent Mr. Rajnath Singh enjoys the reputation of being a man with
a mind of his own, he would not be as amenable to suggestions from the
Sangh Parivar as has been Mr. Gupta.
Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, October 26, 2000
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2000/10/26/stories/02260004.htm
'Communalism overshadows other issues'
By C. Gouridasan Nair
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, OCT. 24. The CPI(M) general secretary, Mr.
Harkishan Singh Surjeet, says in an interview that the amendment of
the Party Programme to enable the CPI(M) to participate in future
Governments at the Centre does not mean that the CPI(M) is hankering
after power. He also says that the communal threat has overshadowed
most other issues, but at the same time feels that economic issues
cannot be brushed aside when deciding who would link up with the party
in the fight against the BJP. Excerpts from the interview:
The Hindu: How imperative was this updating of the Party Programme?
Mr. Harkishan Singh Surjeet:Without a proper programmatic
understanding, a communist movement cannot be built. For over a
decade, we have been working without a programme which could give
clear guidance to the party. The party's characterisation of the
Indian State and Government and class struggle have remained valid.
However, the assessment of emerging situations differed. We found that
this would not work. This is not proper. Hence the decision to amend
the Party Programme.
How significant are the changes effected in the Programme?
Several of the changes are significant in that they reflect the
changes that have come about in the party's assessment of the
international and national situations. For instance, while drafting
the Party Programme in 1964, we made a wrong assessment that the
capitalist system was faced with certain collapse. But this
understanding was proved wrong later.
We have also tried to see where we have gone wrong in our assessment
of the progress towards socialism. We had earlier thought that
socialism would progress without a hitch to a classless society. But
experience has shown that this is not so. But this does not mean that
Marxism-Leninism as a philosophy is wrong. Socialism suffered setbacks
because of the mistaken application of Marxism-Leninism.
As for the domestic situation, the monopoly of power has shifted from
one section of the bourgeoisie to an even worse section who are
threatening national unity. The Congress(I) is certainly responsible
for the liberalised economic policies, but there is a note of caution
in their statements now. Mr. Narasimha Rao himself wrote recently that
they had no intention of selling profit-making public sector units.
But the BJP has put up everything for sale.
Further, the new generation of communists do not know what
contribution the movement had made to the national liberation struggle
or where the communal forces stood during the national freedom
struggle. Therefore, we have introduced a new chapter where the
heritage of communists is given.
On the foreign policy front, we want India to regain its pre- eminent
position at the international level. The visit of President Clinton to
India and Mr. Vajpayee's return visit to the U.S. have brought out the
pro-U.S. tilt in India's foreign policy. On international flow of
capital, we have come to the conclusion that foreign capital can be
allowed in select areas so as to help the growth of productive forces.
If the productive forces do not grow, my movement cannot grow.
The change effected on the question of participation in Government at
the Centre is also important. But this does not mean that we are
hungry for power. We are not ambitious. We have lived without power.
We have shown in the past that we can live without power.
Would you be placing conditions before parties allying with you before
joining any future Government at the Centre, like say, on economic
issues?
The situation has changed drastically with the BJP coming to power.
The threat posed by communal forces now overshadows all other issues.
The main question now is how this danger can be tackled. If I don't
find an answer to this, it will lead to India's disintegration and
that will affect the growth of my movement. If I can stop communalism,
there is nothing like it. The BJP-RSS elements are infiltrating every
institution in the country.
What about the opposition from a section of the delegates to the
proposal for participation in Government at the Centre...?
The updated Party Programme was adopted unanimously. This shows that
there is not much difference in the party on any major issue.
What role will the Congress(I) have in your future scheme of things?
What about its stand on the new economic policies?
We can't isolate the economic policies. If they continue to compromise
on economic policies, we will not be able to join hands with them. And
we have not seen any substantive change in their stand. It is not
enough to speak from platforms.
What about other parties? Will you insist on a common meeting ground
before you join hands with them?
To some extent it is necessary. But we can't insist that they should
accept our policies. But if they compromise on economic policies, the
common man will be angry. But some changes are evident now. The
agitation in Andhra Pradesh and other parts of India show this.
Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, October 26, 2000
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2000/10/26/stories/02260005.htm
Communalism again
Sir, — The demand of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh for the
trifurcation of Kashmir on religious lines, calling it administrative
convenience, reveals the communal mindset of the RSS once again. Its
claim that it does not subscribe to the two-nation theory holds no
water. The theory essentially rests on the premise that nations are
based on religion. While Jinnah demanded a separate Muslim state of
Pakistan on the basis of the theory, the RSS, then and now, has
asserted that India is a Hindu "rashtra" and that all other religious
groups have to remain subordinate to the Hindus. The communal approach
to national problems has to be buried and pluralist democratic values
should guide our republic.
Ram Puniyani,
Mumbai
http://www.hindu.com/2002/07/16/stories/2002071600341001.htm
Opinion - Leader Page Articles
Dangers of dividing J&K
By Amitabh Mattoo
Trifurcation will send a dangerous message to the whole nation. If
Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists cannot live together in one State, can
they do so in a larger entity?
A VISIT to Jammu and Kashmir is a reminder that one of the most vital
parts of the Union of India continues to wait for an imaginative
political initiative, which can ensure that the upcoming elections to
the Legislative Assembly are credible and inclusive, in letter and in
spirit. In the last month, however, a dangerous new tendency, backed
by powerful forces, has begun demanding that Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh
be divided into separate political units.
On June 22, at Haridwar, the Kendriya Margdarshak Mandal of the Vishwa
Hindu Parishad called for a division of the State, including the
creation of a separate Union Territory for Kashmiri Pandits carved out
from within the Valley. Similarly, on June 30, at Kurukshetra, the
Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
sought separate Statehood for Jammu and Union Territory status for
Ladakh. In addition, the Jammu Mukti Morcha and the Ladakh Buddhist
Association are leading the local campaign for this demand.
Posing as a prudent solution, this demand, if conceded, could lead to
— apart from political chaos — violent social disruption in the State
and create a communal polarisation that would not just irretrievably
destroy the cultural and social fabric of the State, but have
dangerous consequences for communal relations in the rest of India. In
addition, trifurcation would forever end the possibilities of reviving
the plural traditions of communal harmony in the State that had once
made it a symbol of the very idea of India.
The demand for a division of the State, per se, is not new. The United
Nations mediator, Sir Owen Dixon, had recommended a partition of the
State in 1950, and elements within the Praja Parishad agitation of the
early 1950s had also sought that Ladakh and Jammu be detached from the
Valley if full integration of the State was not achieved quickly. But,
in its new avatar, several factors have coalesced to produce a
potentially explosive situation.
Most important is the widespread feeling within Jammu and Leh of
deprivation as well as political and economic discrimination by
politicians from Kashmir. While this feeling of deprivation may have
some grounds, it is being exploited, as is clear, by sectarian
political groups who are demanding separate Statehood for Jammu and
Union Territory status for Leh. They argue that not only will
separation from Kashmir ensure better governance, more economic
opportunities and a greater share of political power, but Jammu and
Leh will also be able to distance themselves from the militancy. In
its most extreme form, ideologues of this demand suggest that it is in
the national interest to limit the "area of operations" of the
security forces, and that division will ensure that only one-sixth of
the whole State will then remain troubled.
This logic is dangerous for at least four reasons. First, trifurcation
will destroy the composite identity of the State, which has existed as
one unit since 1846, and send a dangerous message to the whole nation.
If Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists cannot live together in one State,
can they do so in a larger entity?
Second, it will most probably lead to a transfer of Muslims from
various parts of Jammu, including parts of the city, but also from
Doda, Rajouri and Poonch, assuming that the whole province is made
into a separate State. Third, it will lead to such deep communal
polarisation that bloody communal riots will inevitably follow. It is
no coincidence that the only force in the Kashmir Valley that has
traditionally supported the idea of a division of the State are
sections of the Jamat-e-Islami. Finally, any plan to carve out a
separate enclave for Kashmiri Pandits will not just create a dangerous
precedent, but ghettoise one of India's most cosmopolitan and dynamic
communities.
Two other factors, it needs to be conceded, have fuelled these
regional tensions. First is the Regional Autonomy Committee (RAC)
report released by the State Government in April 1999. Vastly
different in scope and imagination from the State Autonomy Committee
(SAC) Report, the RAC recommends the reconstitution of Jammu and
Kashmir's existing provinces into eight new ones. The most
controversial part of the recommendations is the manner in which Jammu
province is sought to broken up along communal lines. All majority
Muslim areas are sought to be detached from Jammu ostensibly because
they share a different ethno-linguistic character. Although no action
has been taken on the report as yet, it created an impression within
Jammu that the State Government is seeking to increase its political
marginalisation even further. Indeed, given its controversial nature,
an expert committee had been appointed by the State Government to
study the RAC's findings, but the committee was wound up even before
it had completed its task.
Second is the controversial Kashmir Study Group Report, `Kashmir: A
Way Forward', released in February 2000. Members of the Study Group
include a number of prominent academics and former diplomats from the
United States and Europe and three prominent American Congressmen.
Painstaking in its details, and imaginative in many of its ideas, the
report suggests, as one of its plans, the creation of a hypothetical
Kashmiri State, sovereign but without an international personality,
which includes the Kashmir valley, but also Doda and potentially also
Gool Gulab Garh tahsil of Udhampur as well as Poonch and Rajouri (all
within Jammu) and even Kargil. While the report argues that areas
outside the Valley have been included because these areas are imbued
with the cultural traditions of Kashmir, is it a mere coincidence that
all parts included are Muslim majority areas? While the report itself
has not been widely circulated, many of its recommendations are being
widely discussed in the State.
Regional harmony, it should be clear from experience, cannot be
ensured through partitions, but through a decentralisation and
devolution of financial and economic power that will treat the
panchayat as the primary unit of governance. Jammu and Kashmir is not
Assam or Uttar Pradesh where the carving of smaller States will
provide for better governance, it is in fact a recipe for disaster.
Moreover, what is needed is the return and rehabilitation of the
Kashmiri Pandit minority community to the Valley, to revitalise the
traditions of pluralism and communal harmony there, not their
segregation into separate enclaves or their continuation in migrant
camps.
In other words, there is as much need for a devolution of powers from
New Delhi to Srinagar as there is for a transfer of authority from
Kashmir to Jammu and Ladakh, and beyond to the grassroots level. Only
then can empowerment and autonomy have any real meaning.
http://www.hindu.com/2002/07/16/stories/2002071600351000.htm
Opinion - Leader Page Articles
Of Deputy Prime Ministers
By Ajay K. Mehra
Neither the post of Deputy Prime Minister nor the number two position
in the Cabinet necssarily guarantees ascent to the prime ministerial
chair.
THE ELEVATION of Lal Krishna Advani as the Deputy Prime Minister is
significant not only for the BJP, the NDA and the polity, but also for
the emerging party politics in the country. The Cabinet reshuffle that
followed, adds additional political subtext to it. An appointment to
the post, which is not mentioned in the Constitution, for only the
seventh time in 55 years since Independence comes soon after the
controversy surrounding the Time article on the Prime Minister's
health.
Sardar Patel became the first Deputy Prime Minister, even before the
Constitution of India was framed. His appointment with the vital
portfolios of Home and States signified equal stature of the top two
leaders. Yet, statutory sanction for this post was never an issue in
the Constituent Assembly, which obviously reflected an unstated
political consensus of its political nature then and in future. No
wonder then that Morarji Desai was the next to be offered the post, in
1967 to mollify him and blunt his opposition to Indira Gandhi. Morarji
Desai himself as Prime Minister in 1979 was compelled by politics to
appoint two Deputies — Mr. Charan Singh and Mr. Jagjivan Ram. However,
this postponed the end of the Janata Government only by a year. Then
Charan Singh made Y. B .Chavan his Deputy Prime Minister as a price
for his support.
Devi Lal has the distinction of twice being Deputy Prime Minister,
again under curious political circumstances. After the 1989 elections,
he first aligned with V.P. Singh to short-circuit Chandra Shekhar's
prime ministerial claims; this made him the sixth Deputy Prime
Minister. However, as his family members' volatile politics eclipsed
his Cabinet berth, he later aligned with Mr. Chandra Shekhar.
Naturally, he was anointed Deputy Prime Minister once again when Mr.
Chandra Shekhar formed the Government with outside support from the
Congress.
Thus, three interlinked political circumstances have created Deputy
Prime Ministers — near-equal political stature of two political
leaders, as in the case of Patel and Nehru; to obviate political
competition by accommodation, as in the case of Morarji Desai, Charan
Singh, Jagjivan Ram and Devi Lal; and the compulsions of coalition
politics, as in the case of Charan Singh, Jagjivan Ram and Devi Lal.
Succession has never been a factor. The Sardar and Morarji Desai were
older than Nehru and Indira Gandhi respectively. And, two Deputy Prime
Ministers in one Cabinet could never be an effective succession
formula! Chavan and Devi Lal owed their positions to special
coalitional circumstances with inherent political uncertainty.
Obviously, Mr. Advani's appointment does not fall into any of these
categories. Though he was number two in the Cabinet, he was not
appointed Deputy Prime Minister under the earlier Vajpayee
Governments. Though the BJP owed its rise to Mr. Advani's contentious
rath yatra in 1989, Atal Behari Vajpayee was considered the natural
choice to lead the BJP Government. The rath yatra and tough stance on
the Ayodhya issue gave Mr. Advani a halo in Hindutva circles that
described him as potential Prime Minister during 1988-89. However,
when the crunch came, Mr. Advani himself had to announce, as he is
doing now, that Mr. Vajpayee is the undisputed leader of the BJP.
Now, apparently, succession appears to be a prominent, if not the
predominant, motive. Though Mr. Advani appears to be the most obvious
BJP, and possibly NDA, choice should Mr. Vajpayee step down today, his
elevation as Deputy Prime Minister does not in anyway guarantee it any
more than his being the number two in the Cabinet. It is a moot
question whether others in contention will accept him as their natural
leader when the crunch comes. It is important to note that none of the
Deputy Prime Ministers in India could succeed their Prime Minister.
Desai became the Premier leading a different political outfit under
changed political circumstances and Charan Singh's prime ministerial
ambitions were fulfilled with dubious political manoeuvres. Even
Nehru, who had made the choice of his successor clear by bringing in
Lal Bahadur Shastri as Minister without Portfolio in the wake of his
illness, neither made him Deputy Prime Minister nor the number two.
Interestingly, Gulzarilal Nanda twice did not get the party's nod as
the number two in the two cases of succession in the Congress during
the 1960s. Without contending that Mr. Advani will not succeed Mr.
Vajpayee, it would be fair to suggest that neither the post of Deputy
Prime Minister nor the number two position in the Cabinet necessarily
guarantees ascent to the prime ministerial chair. In fact, though post-
Vajpayee BJP politics might still witness a contest, which indeed is
not a negative sign politically, Mr. Advani in any case might
eventually emerge the winner. Obviously, the present rather than the
future appears to be the motive behind the move.
Mr. Advani's elevation has come in the wake of a decline in the BJP's
electoral fortunes, criticism of the party over the Gujarat riots, a
revival of shrillness in the posturing of the Sangh Parivar on the
Ayodhya issue, and the controversial reports about Mr. Vajpayee's
indifferent health followed by his statement that Mr. Advani would
have to share greater responsibility. The cabinet reshuffle following
Mr. Advani's elevation too points to the party's political imperatives
having prevailed over everything else.
Two messages have been sought to be conveyed strongly. First, there is
no rift between Mr. Vajpayee and Mr. Advani. Second, with Mr. Advani
sharing `greater' responsibility, with pro-Hindutva persons in command
at crucial places and the BJP having strengthened itself vis-a-vis the
NDA allies, the `Hindu' vote bank should feel reassured.
Therefore, the elevation of Mr. Advani as Deputy Prime Minister
signifies his political ascent vis-a-vis Mr. Vajpayee. It may not
necessarily mean Mr. Vajpayee's political eclipse, because he is still
a `useful' mascot to please the moderate and `sitting-on-the-fence'
voters. Moreover, despite his occasional assertions, Mr. Vajpayee has
never shown the proclivity to rise above or go contrary to the Sangh
Parivar. Naturally, the Sangh Parivar has no problem in dealing with
him. The Vajpayee-Advani hiatus, despite denials, appears real, though
it never had the potential to boil over because of the duo's prudence
and Mr. Vajpayee's eventual submission to the demands of the
`Parivar'. Moreover, despite the duo's attempts to project themselves
like the Nehru-Patel duumvirate, the Nehru-Patel synergy despite
strong differences has never been visible between Mr. Vajpayee and Mr.
Advani.
The post of Deputy Prime Minister has traditionally been used as part
of political accommodation; therefore the BJP cannot be faulted in
using this time-tested device at this crucial juncture of its history.
However, the Tony Blair Government in UK has demonstrated recently
that this office can be institutionalised as a constitutional tool for
good governance.
http://www.hindu.com/2002/07/16/stories/2002071600361000.htm
Influential Indologist
ROLAND LARDINOIS
The passing away of the French scholar Madeleine Biardeau, translator
of the Ramayana and an outstanding specialist of the Puranas, is a
loss to understanding Hindu India…
Her last and major achievementS remain the two edited volumes of the
Mahabharata
Quest for truth: Madeleine Biardeau
Madeleine Biardeau, the widely respected French Indologist, passed
away on February 1 in France. She was 88. Born in Niort, in the West
of France, in 1922 into a middle class family of small entrepreneurs,
Madeleine Biardeau joined the prestigious Ecole normale supérieure of
Sèvres (restricted to girls then) at Paris, in 1943, where she studied
philosophy. There she discovered the classical heritage of Indian
culture with a group of young Christian women who were attracted by
the so called spirituality of the East. Madeleine Biardeau, who was
close to the Left Catholic milieu and had a strong secular feeling in
spite of being herself a practising Catholic, departed from her
friends and started learning Sanskrit intensively in order to study
Hindu philosophy to which she devoted a great part of her academic
life. But she did not intend to consider Hinduism only from her
academic milieu far from India. Aware of the ancient tradition of
scholarship that was still alive there, and very curious about the
country and its people, she joined the University of Travancore for
two years, in the1950s, learning much from the Pandits with whom she
read Sanskrit texts. It was the beginning of a lasting intellectual
and personal relationship with India, which she visited almost every
year until the 1990s.
Rigorous thought
Her works can be broadly divided into three parts. First, she focused
on Advaita Vedanta and translated the works of Mandana Misra,
Vacaspati Misra and the grammarian Bhartrhari, which she commented in
her doctoral dissertation on The Theory of Knowledge and the
Philosophy of Speech in Classical Brahmanism (1964, in French).
Elaborating on the notion of orthodoxy, Madeleine Biardeau sketched
out the religious and intellectual principles that framed the
Brahmanical mind-set of the tenants of Advaita Vedanta. These authors,
who stressed the strict observance of sacrificial practices inherited
from the Vedas, were concerned with the quest for salvation, moksha,
considered as a way of escaping from the cycle of death and rebirth.
Thus at the heart of Hinduism is set a structural tension between the
man-out-of-the-world, the renouncer whose samnyasi is the typical
example, and the ordinary man-in-the-world who bears the burden of his
destiny, his karma. Furthermore, Madeleine Biardeau showed that this
tension should be located within a wider cosmological representation
of the word embedded within the main goals ( purushartha) that
structure the idealised life of the orthodox Hindu man. Brahmanism can
be considered as expressing an anthropological understanding of the
Hindu civilisation, as she put it a later book Hinduism: The
Anthropology of a Civilisation(1994 for English translation).The
second part of the work that Madeleine Biardeau conducted deals with
the study of the Puranas, to which she devoted erudite books edited by
the French School for the far East (Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient).
Yet, her interest for the Puranas was part of a larger concern with
Hindu literature, mainly the Epics, which constitute the third main
area of Madeleine Biardeau's scholarship. In collaboration with two
French Sanskrit scholars, Marie-Claude Porcher and Philippe Benoit,
she translated into French the Ramayana of Valmiki (1999). Yet her
last and major achievements remain the two edited volumes of the
Mahabharata that she published in 2002. In this impressive work, which
took her four decades to complete, she presented a detailed resume of
the whole Epic that she completed by her own interpretation. Briefly,
Madeleine Biardeau considered the Mahabharata as an intellectual and
religious reaction against Buddhism whose appeal to the layman was
upsetting Brahmanical values by dislodging the Brahmans from their
privileged position in the mundane world.
Madeleine Biardeau not only worked in close association with Pandits
either at the Deccan College at Pune or at the French Institute at
Pondicherry (which was founded by the French Indologist Jean Filliozat
in 1956), she relentlessly visited temples and places of worship in
towns and small villages, questioning people from all castes, and
enquired about their contemporary cults and rituals. Her book Stories
about Posts: Vedic variations about the Hindu Goddess (2002 for the
English translation) combines varied studies on the Sanskrit Epics,
the Hindu Goddess, Vedic sacrifice and the interpretation of Hinduism.
The main argument that Madeleine Biardeau constantly belaboured in her
work deals with the unity of Hinduism (see her contribution to T. N.
Madan's edited volume The Hinduism Omnibus, 2003).
Associates
Her own interpretation of Hinduism is close to the view expressed by
Louis Dumont in his Homo Hierachicus (1966 for the French edition),
which remains the most impressive understanding ever published on the
caste system. This intellectual association of a Sanskrit scholar and
of an anthropologist who both did fieldwork (mainly in South India),
was long considered as typical of the French scholarship on India,
although this blending of skills was not at all uncommon among Indian
scholars since the very beginning of the 20th century. Yet the
intellectual framework which underlines both Madeleine Biardeau's and
Louis Dumont's understanding of Hinduism has been, and still is,
debated among scholars of India who questioned the unilateral
Brahmanical grounding of their scholarly approaches. Madeleine
Biardeau was Directeur d'études at the fifth section of the Ecole
Pratique des Hautes Etudes at Paris, the stronghold of Indologists
since the end of the 19th century, and in 1969 she succeeded Louis
Dumont as head of the Centre for Indian and South Asian Studies at the
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. Her death marks almost
the complete disappearance of a whole generation of French scholars
who profoundly redefined the intellectual understanding of (classical
Hindu) India in the second half of the 20th century.
Roland Lardinois is a Sociologist at the French National Center for
Scientific Research, is affiliated with the Centre d'Etudes de l'Inde
et de l'Asie du Sud (EHESS, Paris). He is currently at the Centre for
Human Sciences at Delhi.
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2010/02/28/stories/2010022850160400.htm
Barefoot
These eight long years
HARSH MANDER
A family crumbled as Bibi Khatoon's three sons were charged under POTA
after the Godhra tragedy and imprisoned. Will she ever get to see her
sons free?
The accused have not been granted bail even under the ordinary
criminal law of the land...
Godhra and the aftermath: The tragic incident at Godhra
On February 27 this year, ageing Bibi Khatoon's three grown sons,
Shamsher, Sultan and Sadiq, complete eight long years in jail. They
face a protracted meandering trial for the grisly crime of helping set
aflame a train compartment on the Godhra railway platform, killing 58
people, many of them women and children. The crime has not been
proved, and both the High Court and Supreme Court have concluded that
there is no evidence of any terrorist plot to attack the train,
despite the Gujarat government's strenuous claims that there was such
a conspiracy. Yet they continue to be denied bail and freedom.
The same evening after the train compartment was tragically gutted on
February 27, 2002 — and many districts in Gujarat were already
stirring with gruesome retributive violence against Muslim men, women
and children — a large contingent of policemen in plain clothes
arrived in Rehmat Nagar in Godhra. In this slum, a few kilometres from
the railway station, mainly live working class Muslim people: car
mechanics, drivers, casual labourers. Bibi Khatoon's sons had just
returned home from work, and were drinking tea. Policemen with faces
covered with scarves arrested her three sons, among 14 young men
picked up from the colony. The women raised an alarm, and ran after
the vehicles in which their men were bundled. One policeman reassured
Bibi that her sons would return home after they met their bade sahib
(senior officer). Bibi says today sadly, “It seems that their bade
sahibhas still not arrived after all these years.”
When none of the men, some still teenagers, returned that night, their
families panicked further. They spotted them in the railway police
station, but were not allowed to meet them, or give them food and
clothes. The men soon disappeared from the police station, and no
policeman in Godhra or Ahmedabad was willing to inform the distraught
families where their loved ones were. Three months later, Bibi's
husband received a letter from their sons, that they were in Sabarmati
Central Jail in Ahmedabad. They were among the 131 people charged with
a terrorist conspiracy to burn the train compartment in Godhra. The
law under which they were charged was the dreaded POTA or the
Prevention of Terrorism Act, which provided for detention without bail
for people accused of terror crimes. Incidentally, the state
government has not charged a single person under this severe law for
the massacre of Muslims which followed the train burning.
Prison ordeal
Bibi was heartbroken when she met her sons inside the formidable
prison. They were thin, their eyes haunted. They whispered about
torture and beatings, in low voices so that the jail staff who stood
by would not hear. They said they were forced to drink water from the
same bucket in which they urinated. Bibi's husband assured their sons
that he would do everything that was possible to get them out of jail.
He urged the boys to not lose hope.
Back home, the challenge was to find the money to keep the fires of
their hearth burning, since there were now no sons to bring home
money. Bibi's eldest son had two boys in school. Their second son had
married just months before his arrest. His wife delivered a baby girl
while her husband was in prison. She refuses to call him her father
when she sees him in jail. To her he is a stranger. Their youngest was
still in his teens. The old father looked for casual employment, and
Bibi and her two daughters-in-law tried to find work cleaning dishes
and sweeping floors in people's homes in Godhra. Work was harder to
find because they were tainted ‘POTA families', or the families of
terrorists.
Bibi Khatoon
In September 2004, the newly elected UPA government in Delhi repealed
the anti-terror law POTA, because its provisions deprived the accused
of their elementary democratic rights of fair trial. But
paradoxically, it did not repeal the law retrospectively, therefore
those who were already detained under its provisions, like Bibi's
sons, continued to be held and tried under this discredited law. Some
organisations helped the families of the accused fight their cases in
court. Nitya Ramakrishnan, criminal lawyer from Delhi, and Hassan were
among those who represented the accused. The charge of the state
government was that the mob launched a murderous pre-planned attack on
the train, and threw petrol into the compartment from outside. But
forensic reports established that it was humanly impossible for petrol
to be thrown from outside. It also found no evidence of hydro-carbons
inside the compartment. The lawyers also pointed to many other holes
in the case made out by the state police.
No end in sight
In the tortuous eight-year journey of this case, there were many
rulings in favour of the accused. Each time Bibi and other families
hoped for the release of their loved ones. But these hopes were always
betrayed. In 2005, the Review Committee appointed under POTA held that
there was no evidence of a terrorist conspiracy, and even less one
which threatened the unity of India, therefore no case was made out
under POTA. But the state government was unwilling to accept this
finding. It appealed instead to High Court, which in February 2009
upheld the conclusions of the Review Committee. This was further
endorsed by the Supreme Court. Even so, the state government did not
release the accused. Instead, in recent months, it finally charged
them not under the terror law, but the Indian Penal Code. However, the
accused have not been granted bail even under the ordinary criminal
law of the land, although many have spent longer years in jail than if
they were convicted of the crimes for which they are accused.
Meanwhile, four years ago, Bibi's husband contracted throat cancer.
His sons were granted one day's parole each to meet their father one
last time before he died. After his death, the burden of supporting
the large family has fallen on Bibi's shoulders. Crippled by a
rickshaw accident and old age, she is unable to work. Instead she has
been reduced to begging. She hobbles from house to house in Godhra
town, begging all day for a few rupees or some food. Her older
grandson was in Class 10. He needed money for books, uniform and
examination fees, which she raised by begging. But he failed his
examination and she pulled him out of school. Her younger grandson she
withdrew from school even sooner, after Class 8. Both today earn Rs.
50 a day at a repair garage.
The visits of the family to see them in jail have tapered to once
every six months. The bus fares cost what they earn in a full month.
And all for a meeting of barely five minutes, through two screens. The
boys are emaciated, and have contracted diseases like TB. Safiq,
Bibi's youngest, has lost his mind in jail. He spends his days in jail
compulsively collecting and eating paper and scraps, and sometimes
assaults other prisoners and even the jail staff. He does not
recognise his family any more. Bibi mourns, “His milk teeth had barely
fallen when they took him away. What have they done to my little boy?”
Their lawyers' applications for his parole so he can be treated have
been rejected.
Simple questions
Bibi is mortified that she is forced to beg to keep her family alive.
She is shamed also that her sons are charged with such a heinous
crime. “I am an unlettered woman, my son. I do not understand the law.
But explain to me why my sons continue in jail all these years, when
they are innocent.'
She pleads with anyone who will listen, “Can you get help my sons out
of jail?” She adds, “I wonder if I will live to see them free, one
day?”
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2010/02/28/stories/2010022850130300.htm
Khusrau: The shadow of power
Power, then as now, brings its own price. Neither life nor death was
kind to this unfortunate son of Jehangir. AROON RAMAN recounts one of
the most tragic yet inspiring stories to come out of Mughal India…
At 18, Khusrau was everything his father was not: personable, brave,
and a talented battlefield commander.
Photo: Subir Roy
FORGOTTEN PRINCE: Khusrau's tomb in Allahabad.
The Great Fort, Agra, August 28 1605. Inside the gilded chambers of
the Royal Quarters a man lay on his bed, dying. Select queens of the
zenanaand senior courtiers were gathered around, as was a younger man
of royal countenance in his mid-thirties. It was upon him that the
gaze of the sinking man finally rested. He was not to know, even if he
was in any position to reflect on it, that the prince had been
smuggled into the room in the nick of time.
He raised his head painfully and nodded, beckoning the prince forward.
With a servant supporting him reverently, the sick man placed the
robes and turban of kingship in the younger man's hands in a formal
yet curiously tender gesture. Then he fell back on the cushions; his
eyes roved around the room one last time before glazing forever.
The wails of the women from the anteroom began, marking the end of one
of the defining reigns in the annals of Hindustan. For almost half a
century, Jalaluddin Mohammed Akbar had been master of the largest
empire since Asoka. He was the greatest of the Mughals, an empire-
builder of genius, whose name shines undimmed through the passage of
centuries not just for what he achieved by force of arms, but for the
brilliant administrative edifice through which he governed, and for
the religious syncretism and tolerance that he brought to polity.
Akbar was a man far in advance of his time. So potent was his persona
that only those most gifted and possessed of a strong sense of self-
worth could stand up to him. It was a trait that was to have fateful
consequences for his heirs.
Akbar had three sons: Salim, Murad and Daniyal, born to him in 1569,
1570 and 1572 respectively. Yet, by 1605 only Salim still lived; the
other two had self-destructed through addiction to opium and alcohol.
At the time of his father's death, Salim too had become over-fond of
stimulants and subject to the most capricious mood swings when in the
grip of arrack and opium. Between 1600 and 1605 he also led a series
of revolts against Akbar, and war between father and son was averted
only through the intervention of Akbar's senior begums, and by Salim's
own realisation that he was militarily no match for his father.
In despair over the succession, Akbar's mind turned to one who, by
widespread consent, had all the requisite qualities to succeed him:
Salim's eldest son Khusrau. Khusrau was born in October 1587 to Salim
and Man Bai, a Rajput princess from Amber. She was reportedly highly
strung, but no trace of this showed in her son in the early years.
Khusrau soon grew up to be a court favourite. Edward Terry, a
clergyman at the Mughal court writes of him: “He had a pleasing
presence and excellent carriage, was exceedingly beloved of the common
people, their love and delight”. At 18, Khusrau was everything his
father was not: personable, brave, and a talented battlefield
commander.
Struggle for power
Inevitably, in the years just prior to Akbar's death his court was a
political cauldron, “a snake-pit of intrigue” between the rival camps
of Salim and Khusrau. So distressed was Man Bai at the vicious
infighting that she committed suicide by an overdose of opium in May
1605.
By October, the succession was poised on a knife-edge. Salim was
backed by Akbar's senior wives who wielded considerable power behind
the scenes; Khusrau by the duo of Man Singh, the Raja of Amber, and
Aziz Khan Koka (Khusrau's uncle and father-in-law respectively). These
two were amongst the most influential nobles in the Mughal durbarand
Khusrau's star seemed clearly in the ascendant. Khusrau himself was
convinced that he was destined to be the next ruler of Hindustan,
addressing his own father in terms of equality as ‘Bhai' or brother
rather than as a father.
No sooner was Akbar laid to rest than events began to move at
breakneck speed. At a meeting of the senior umracalled to decide the
succession, Akbar's handing of the robes of kingship to Salim tipped
the scales in favour of the Salim faction, which carried the day. On
November 2, 1605, Salim ascended the Mughal throne as Nuruddin
Mohammed Jahangir Padshah Ghazi. One of the first acts of the new
Emperor was to have Prince Khusrau confined to his quarters in the
fort, with only his wife to keep him company.
Succession intrigues:Emperor Jahangir receiving his two sons; an album
painting in gouache on paper, c1605-06.
Chroniclers at Jehangir's court record dismissively Khusrau's descent
into melancholy at this time, even attributing it to deficiencies in
character inherited from his mother's side. But this was a young man
who had been offered a giddy vision of power afforded to very few,
encouraged by many, including his illustrious grandfather, to believe
in his manifest destiny — only to have it crushed in the space of just
hours.
Whatever be the reason, Khusrau's character now underwent a shift as
the disappointment ate into him like a cancer. Goaded on by a wide
network of informants and sympathisers, he made his move on April 15,
1606. During a visit to the tomb of his grandfather Akbar at Sikandra
near Delhi, he slipped past his guards and, with a small band of
soldiers faithful to him, struck out northwest towards Lahore.
The rebellion
The news of Khusrau's flight sped through the country like wildfire.
Malcontents of every kind — disaffected Chugtai and Rajput clans and
several frontier tribes — flocked to his banner as did some senior
Akbar loyalists.
However, Khusrau did not foresee the swiftness of the Mughal response.
For once, Jahangir acted with speed and decision. The newly appointed
governor, Dilawar Khan, raced from Agra to Lahore in just 11 days and
strengthened and sealed the defences before Khusrau's army could reach
the city. Simultaneously, a punitive force of over 50,000 was
assembled at Agra and launched towards the enemy. Unable to break
Lahore's defences, Khusrau had no option but to turn and fight.
The armies met on the north bank of the Ravi on April 27, 1606.
Fighting in heavy rain, which turned the battlefield into a mud soup,
the rebels were routed and Khusrau captured and brought before his
father in chains. Jahangir's retribution was ruthless. The rebel
soldiers and their commanders were impaled alive on stakes by the
hundreds, and Khusrau forced to ride between the screaming men to
witness their agony up close.
A more fateful outcome was the summary execution of the Sikh Guru,
Arjan Dev, whose only fault was to bless Khusrau on his way to Lahore;
an act dictated purely by the canons of hospitality, and which in no
way could be construed as supportive of the rebellion. The result was
a scarring of the Sikh psyche that would reverberate for centuries.
Khusrau's life was spared, but he was condemned to a fate almost as
terrible. Either immediately after the rebellion or a year later,
holding him complicit in a further plot against him, Jahangir ordered
Khusrau blinded.
In a measure of the popular feeling that Khusrau could still arouse,
several voices at court, including those of Jahangir loyalists,
pleaded for him to be spared. But the Emperor was adamant and in one
contemporary account, the act was done by wire inserted into his eyes,
causing a pain “beyond all expression”. He was then thrown into a
dungeon. Through it all, the victim bore himself stoically, uttering
not a word of remonstrance.
Thus was a much-loved prince of Hindustan cauterised from the circles
of power and condemned to live out the remainder of his life in
darkness and obscurity. But the saga of Khusrau was not ended. Its
highest moments were yet to come, and would stand testament to the
extraordinary transcendence of the human spirit.
Soon after the blinding of Khusrau, Jahangir — possibly in a fit of
remorse — ordered his physicians to see if they could restore his
son's vision. With their efforts, Khusrau was spared the horror of
total blindness; a thin haze of light penetrated his eyes so that he
lived in a shadow world where people moved as ghost images across a
screen. Jehangir then even began to allow Khusrau into court, but to
little effect. As the monarch observed, “He showed no elevation of
spirit and was always downcast and sad, so then I forbade him to see
me any further…”
Still, Khusrau was far from being reduced to a non-entity.
Significantly, whenever the Mughal Emperor travelled out of Agra, the
royal convoy would more often than not have Khusrau in its wake,
shuffling along in leg chains. Once when Jahangir embarked on a long
hunting trip, he had Khusrau walled up in a tower. This was a prince
whom the ruling elite still feared for his hold on the popular
imagination. Admiration for the prince had even grown since his
blinding, his stoicism then and after widely commented on by observers
at the time.
Khusrau had another priceless asset: his wife, the daughter of Aziz
Khan Koka. In the years that followed, through all their trials and
tribulations, husband and wife remained passionately devoted to each
other. Though Jahangir had made it clear that she was free to do as
she pleased, she refused to leave Khusrau, instead tending to him
lovingly, and remaining by his side even when he was walled up in the
tower.
The Khusrau affair
And so the years passed. Then, in 1616, there occurred a series of
events that came to be known as ‘ the Khusrau affair'. Jahangir had
been now on the throne for 11 years. Apart from Khusrau, he had sired
three sons, two of whom, Pervez and Shahriyar, were effete. The last,
Khurram, was a brilliant general with exceptional military and
administrative gifts. In 1615, he had covered himself with glory by
subjugating Mewar, which had been a thorn in Mughal flesh for decades,
and his claim to succeed an ageing Jahangir seemed complete.
However, by this time the Emperor was only a figurehead. Real
authority had long since passed, with his consent, to the woman who
ruled in all but his name — the Empress Nur-Jahan. And in the rise of
Prince Khurram she saw a threat to her dominance.
Nur-Jahan was a consummate player in the game of power. In a bid to
neutralise Khurram, she approached Khusrau for the hand of Ladli
Begum, her daughter by her first husband. The adventurer Pietro Della
Valle has left a fascinating account of what followed. First Nur-Jahan
informed Khusrau of that which he knew already: that Khurram had
demanded the custody of Khusrau from Jahangir. Khurram claimed that he
feared another plot against Jahangir by his half-brother. This fooled
no one, for by now it was patently clear that Khusrau was incapable of
mounting anything like a conspiracy. Khurram was simply taking steps
to remove all rivals in his path.
But Khusrau still commanded many loyalties. The same begumswho had
supported Jahangir against Khusrau earlier now worked hard for his
safety, and, as a compromise measure, Khusrau's custody had been given
to Nur-Jahan's brother, Asaf Khan. Now if only Khusrau would consent
to marry her daughter, Nur-Jahan promised him not only his freedom but
also that she would throw her weight behind him in the succession.
It was a master stroke by a master strategist, except that Khusrau
refused. His reason for doing so stunned Nur-Jahan and her clique:
love. His wife was his beacon, the one person who had stood by his
side through all the years and he would have nothing whatever to do
with another woman. Remember this was an age when large harems and
polygamy were the undisputed norm. And the Prince's options were very
likely laid out starkly before him: the throne, or at the very least
freedom and luxury versus certain death. Then perhaps we can get a
glimmer of the incredulity that Khusrau's answer must have evoked. His
wife, according to Della Valle, begged him on bended knee to accede to
Nur-Jahan's plan and save himself, but Khusrau “could never be
prevailed with”.
Throughout 1616–17, Nur-Jahan and Asaf Khan worked on Khusrau, but he
remained steadfast in his refusal to contemplate another woman.
Finally they gave up and turned instead to the pliable Shahriyar.
Khusrau's usefulness to the Empress was at an end, and now she made no
further effort to stall his transfer to Khurram's custody. Khusrau had
effectively signed his own death warrant. In 1617, he was given over
to Khurram (known now by the honorific Shah Jahan) who had him quickly
moved to Burhanpur in the Deccan. Khusrau was now a man on borrowed
time.
The end came in January 1622. The most widely accepted account is that
a slave of Shah Jahan's named Raza Bahadur sought to enter Khusrau's
chambers in the middle of the night. When Khusrau refused him entry,
Raza Bahadur broke open the door and rushed in with some accomplices
and fell upon Khusrau. Khusrau shouted out to wake his servants and,
despite his partial blindness, defended himself bravely but to no
avail. He was strangled and then re-arranged on his bed to make it
appear as if his death was natural.
The aftermath
Early next day, his wife was the first to discover him. Her shrieks
soon wakened the palace. On January 29, Jahangir received word from
Shah Jahan that Khusrau had died of qalanj, colic pains. But, as word
of Khusrau's death swept across the empire, there was a public
outpouring of grief as had not been seen for a long time. The popular
verdict was overwhelming: murder. As far west as Gujarat, people were
heard to cry for vengeance against those who had shed the blood of an
innocent. Jahangir himself seems to have not been unduly distressed at
the news; his ire was reserved for Shah Jahan for seeking to conceal
the truth of Khusrau's death from him. On the Emperor's orders,
Khusrau's body was exhumed from his makeshift grave, sent to Allahabad
and consigned in a mausoleum next to his mother's in a garden, now
called Khusrau Bagh.
A movement soon came into being that proclaimed Khusrau a martyred
saint and shrines sprang up wherever his body had rested on its way to
Allahabad. So popular were these shrines that a contemporary Dutch
observer wrote that “both Hindus and Moslems went there in vast
numbers in procession each Thursday … to his worship”. Until, that is,
Jahangir ordered them destroyed and the worshippers driven away.
Despite this attempt at canonisation, it seems fair to say that, as
with life, death has not been kind to this unfortunate prince. In one
of history's great ironies, the man who most likely killed him — Shah
Jahan — is universally celebrated for leaving us with that sublime
monument to man's love for a woman: the Taj Mahal. Devoted though he
was to his wife Mumtaz Mahal, Shah Jahan had liaisons with many women
after her death. Rather, it is in the unfolding of his brother's life,
in Khusrau's searing affirmation of the centrality of one love, that
we see its most enduring monument.
The author is a research and innovation entrepreneur. Email:
raman...@gmail.com
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http://www.hindu.com/mag/2010/02/28/stories/2010022850020100.htm
They came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I
wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up
because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I
wasn’t a Jew;
And then... they came for me... And by that time there was no one left
to speak up." --Martin Niemöller
March 31, 2008
Hindu Communalism in Ram Lal ka Kadda
ZNet, March 31, 2008
The hope for Indian democracy can only arise from the oppressed
sections
By Karthik Ramanathan
For those of us who have been watching with disgust the continuing
genocide of muslims, the recent reelection as Chief Minister in the
Gujarat State Assembly elections of the modern-day nero, Narendra
Modi, who presided over the 2002 genocide against Muslims came as a
unavoidably rude shock. Nevertheless, the communal mobilisation that
floats beneath the surface of the so-called democratic process in the
state is very familiar to those who are involved with issues of
justice in Gujarat. NYAYAGRAHA (literally meaning an organisation for
justice ) formed in Ahmedabad with the primary mandate of securing
legal justice and reconciliation for the victims of the violence notes
in its publication titled "Campaign For Legal Justice And
Reconciliation in Gujarat" that the "predominant situation, especially
in villages that were torn apart by the mass violence of 2002, remains
one of settled hate, settled fear and settled despair. In that sense,
what has elapsed after 2002 is in many ways even more genocidal that
the gruesome events of 2002."
One of the slums that NYAYAGRAHA - the organisation of courageous
local activists - concentrates its legal efforts on is the 'Ram Lal ka
kadda' (RLKK hereon) located not very far from the recently
constructed highway that connects Ahmedabad to Vadodara. The highway
itself is stunning and surely worshipped by the Gujarati elite as
their new road to eternal nirvana. Last summer in 2007, as I drove
with Johanna Lokhande from Vadodara through this very capitalist
marvel to Ahmedabad, she narrated to me some of the difficult problems
that she as an activist with NYAYAGRAHA faced when trying to help the
muslim victims. She informed me that some of the muslim women who had
to go through the worst under the assault of the Hindu goons and their
political masters, were too psychologically affected that it was very
difficult to help them be independent. Often, when health related
issues were involved, NYAYAGRAHA lacked resources by itself and would
try to find other local people to help the woman concerned in such
regards. The Vadodara-Ahmedabad corridor was also chilling as much as
it was stunning: zipping through it, I could not find one street
vendor or rickshaw puller or bullock-driven carts, things which were
almost a certain sight in any of India's urban localities. Most of the
auto-commuters on this highway are as unaware of the plight of the
muslim of Gujarat as the road they ride veil away the rickshaw puller
and the bullock carts. Later on, my friend who is a member of PUCL in
Vadodara and who has been first-hand witness to some of the terrorism
by Hindu goons during 2002, indicates that these issues maybe have an
international relevance but they are "not a local issue" - meaning
that its taboo to even mention about the crimes of the likes of VHP,
Bajrang Dal and RSS: the ruling taliban headed by the modern-day nero
Modi. Truly, the Ahmedabad-Vadodara corridor I was riding on brought
back my earlier memories of similar roads in anglo-american outposts
in fundamentalist gulf states, where the drive on the road gives very
little feel for the culture of the local population who are outcast in
the distance in their own country!
Gujarat's Hindu Democracy rides on the blood of its Muslim Citizens
On reaching Ram Lal ka Kadda, one sees the difficult living conditions
as of any slum in India. Makeshift style housing, flies all-around
women who are keenly preparing food for their families. But the muslim
inhabitants of this slum are also victims of the orchestrated violence
in 2002. People here were subjected by Hindu mobs to murder and arson
of a kind that official Hindu scriptures reserve for the reign of the
asuras (devils). I was late in arriving and Haneef Bhai, an outspoken
male member of the community who is working with NYAYAGRAHA to secure
justice for the terror carried out on his family was kind enough to
welcome me along with the others. Haneef and others explained -
pointing their to the area just behind the slum - how mobs of people
from the neighboring Hindu slums descended from three different
directions on to Ram Lal Ka Kadda. The mobs poured kerosene on a woman
and burnt her, and the victim was one of Haneef's six daughters. In
RLKK, she was the only person to have been killed. Other muslim
communities were not so lucky - all over Gujarat, 2000 muslims lost
their lives and many thousands more have been displaced.
Making a trip from the US where as a temporary worker, I have been
involved with some of the anti-war actions among other things, it
stands in stark contrast the fighting spirit of the people of RLKK.
While its a common refrain among activists in the US as to how burnt
out they are and they are not sure how to do the right thing to change
the world, Haneef defiantly demands that the people who poured fuel on
his daughters body be arrested. Even when its clear that the higher
level government functionaries are likely to go unpunished, such
demands for justice are guaranteed to keep alive the memory of the
victims and the brutality of the Hindu terrorists who rule a
'prosperous Gujarat'.
Fighting spirit, trust and generosity
What is remarkable in this process of fighting for justice, is the
degree of trust that has developed between the Nyay-pathiks (para-
legals) of NYAYAGRAHA and the people of RLKK, one of several other
areas where NYAYAGRAHA concentrates its legal efforts. People of RLKK
advised me to give any donation for RLKK towards NYAYAGRAHA, spoke of
an achievement in basic human trust which is what the goons of the
2002 campaign sought and seek to destroy. But humanity is something
that is too much in abundance here in RLKK and that is something the
Gujarats communal rulers cannot take away. There surely was little
food in the belly in RLKK, but they were willing to feed me to juice
and water when I visited. This kind of generosity is something the
middle-class in India has lost even before they were born.
As we were speaking and the time was limited as I had already arrived
late, many of the women were speaking at the same time and I was not
able to make out what they were saying. When I asked them if things
are atleast in some ways better since 2002, there was a clear and
damning unanimity in their response: "Ji, kuch nahi chal raha
hai" (nothing is moving). It was also the case that the compensation
that is on the anvil is more of an insult than an injury. When the
Hindu goons invaded their space and after they burnt Haneefs daughter,
they also destroyed all the homes in RLKK. The people then took
shelter in the near by corporation school. For the compensation
towards their lost homes, the state machinery offered them 1000 ruppes
(or 20 dollars) that too after a long winded legal process. If one
learns about the value of human struggle from the Muslim members of
RLKK, one cannot fail to note that this is being done in the face of
unflinching and continuing arrogance of the Gujarats state machinery.
Johanna Lokhande mentioned that Ration cards were to be restored soon,
but this was already 2007 - 5 years after the violence - and does any
proud citizen care to ask how poor people can get access to food
without a ration card, and if one had to be that way for 5 years, its
a question that surely skips the mind with convenience.
Terrorism and Genocide
Surely, for all the concern about terrorism that exists in India
today, particularly among the urban middle class reactionaries who
have no problems in supporting Americas global war on terror with
phoney concerns about Islamic Terrorism or Maoism or some other
imagined threat to their imagined glory, there is a sudden and
deafening silence when the page turns to the question of their own
treatment of the nations minorities. This extends to the entire
country, as a recent government report (Rajinder Sachar committee)
itself admitted with discrepancies in admitting muslims to various
government posts, education etc. But in Gujarat the normal state of
affairs assumes the case of a silent genocide. An elderly gentleman
wearing a religious cap and a loose white dress at RLKK who was also
kind enough to join in the discussions explained that after so many
years of the organised 2002 terror, they continue to be denied jobs.
Pointing at his greying beard, he said, "they see that we have beards,
we are muslims and don't offer us jobs", even when the jobs are basic
sustenance ones like rickshaw pulling or other labor-type work.
The RLKK members wished me well on my way back and I thanked them for
spending their much valued time with me so generously. I joined
Johanna and Isakbhai - another member of NYAYAGRAHA who was with us -
for a snack at a local restaurant. Johanna and Isakbhai mentioned that
even after working with the people of RLKK for so long, they "do not
understand how they live" (despite the circumstances). Driving back to
Vadodara from Ahmedabad, on one of the roads, we slowed the car
briefly. Johanna and Isakbhai pointed to the distance in the middle of
a really large waste dump (where the entire city's waste as well as
industrial waste is dumped) spanning several kilometers. Lowering the
car windows made the stink of industrial wastes of this area known as
"Bombay Hotel" even more intense than it already was. In the distance,
in the middle of all this waste spanning several kilometers, one could
see a dim set of lights. That is the place where one of the relief
colonies called "Citizens Nagar" was setup for some of the victims
whose original homes were too dangerous to go back to after the
violence. Since the state which sponsored the terrorist violence was
disinterested in any relief effort, the only land that these survivors
could find was this waste dump donated by some local muslim
organisation. When the rains come, the only passageway to this colony
floods shut and so do the residents livelihoods. Unlike at RLKK, the
visitors to the colony are not offered water as the liquid here is
coloured with contaminants from the industrial waste dumps. I should
mention one thing before I forget. The people at RLKK agreed on one
thing: that those who are being arrested in Gujarat today for
terrorism today are innocent people while the real terrorists roam
scot-free.
Surely, those normal decent people among us who have the luxury to not
"understand how they live" and yet do nothing to change the vicious
degree of discrimination and genocide clearly have made a choice in
support of freedom - for ourselves, for fascism and their continuing
crimes.
[Johanna Lokhande, an activist based in Vadodara can be contacted at
Ishaakbhai, an activist with
NYAYAGRAHA can be reached at isha...@gmail.com
Article author can be reached at
Posted by Groucho at Monday, March 31, 2008
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2008/03/hindu-communalism-in-ram-lal-ka-kadda.html
chhotemianinshallah
Gulbarg case: HC says no to making Tandon accused
Sajjan Kumar goes 'missing'; PSO suspended
Dalit panchayat chiefs face discrimination: report
Pak violates ceasefire on talks eve
Click here...for News links to today's monitor
THURSDAY 25 february 2010
A DAILY MEDIA MONITOR OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN SOUTH ASIA
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM/ COMMUNALISM
Gulbarg case: HC says no to making Tandon accused
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.
asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&Base
Href=TOIA/2010/02/25&PageLabel=4&EntityId=Ar00402&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T
HC notice to govt, SIT in Gulbarg case
http://epaper.dnaindia.com/dnaahmedabad/epapermain.
aspx?queryed=5&username=&useremailid=&
parenteditioncode=5&eddate=2%2f25%2f2010
Togadia sees need to protect Hinduism
http://www.hindu.com/2010/02/25/stories/2010022553640300.htm
CBI asked to provide riots victim with copy of witness statements
http://epaper.dailypioneer.com/THEPIONEER/PIONEER/2010
/02/25/ArticleHtmls/25_02_2010_003_002.shtml?Mode=1
Diversity of the nation being exploited: RSS chief
http://www.hindu.com/2010/02/25/stories/2010022554720500.htm
Sajjan Kumar goes 'missing'; PSO suspended
http://news.rediff.com/report/2010/feb/25/sajjan-kumar-goes-missing-pso-suspended.htm
Dalit/Tribal Rights/CASTE CONFLICT
Dalit panchayat chiefs face discrimination: report
http://www.hindu.com/2010/02/25/stories/2010022554570500.htm
“Many states failed to implement SC/ST Act”
http://www.hindu.com/2010/02/25/stories/2010022560410600.htm
Terrorism/ armed conflicts
German Bakery bomb blast toll touches 16
http://epaper.dailypioneer.com/THEPIONEER/PIONEER
/2010/02/25/ArticleHtmls/25_02_2010_004_018.shtml?Mode=1
ETHNIC CONFLICT
Kashmir
Militant, thought dead, emerges from debris and kills jawan
http://www.hindu.com/2010/02/25/stories/2010022562362200.htm
Hurriyat & Co. get invitations to visit Pak
http://epaper.indianexpress.com/IE/IEH/2010/02/25/
ArticleHtmls/25_02_2010_002_013.shtml?Mode=1
Hurriyat back with human rights banner
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=
Archive&Source=Page&Skin=ETNEW&BaseHref=ETD/2010/02/25&
PageLabel=2&EntityId=Ar00207&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T
Sopore: Another militant killed
http://epaper.asianage.com/ASIAN/AAGE/
2010/02/25/ArticleHtmls/25_02_2010_005_010.shtml?Mode=1
South Asia/pakistan/bangladesh/nepal/sri lanka
Pak violates ceasefire on talks eve
http://epaper.dailypioneer.com/THEPIONEER/PIONEER/
2010/02/25/ArticleHtmls/25_02_2010_005_003.shtml?Mode=1
Pakistan has failed to protect minorities: Canadian
Sikhs Toronto, Feb 24 (IANS)
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/54539/pakistan
-has-failed-protect-minorities.html
Newspapers & Magazines monitored:
The Times of India
The Indian Express
The Hindu
The Hindustan Times
The Asian Age
Deccan Herald
Deccan Chronicle
The Pioneer
The Statesman
The Telegraph
THE NORTH EAST TRIBUNE
THE ASSAM TRIBUNE
THE SENTINEL ASSAM
Kashmir Monitor
Kashmir Times
The Tribune
Rediff on the Net
The Mid-day
The Afternoon
Outlook
The Week
India Today
Frontline
(More to be added soon)
Disclaimer:
Copyright © sabrang.com. Sabrang does not represent or endorse the
accuracy or reliability of any of the information / content of the
websites mentioned herein.
The views expressed therein are not those of Sabrang Communications
and any errors / omissions in the same are of the respective
creators / copyright holders. Any issues regarding errors or delays in
the content may be taken up with them directly.
http://www.sabrang.com/irw/daily/2010/feb10/25feb10.htm
Sabrang Alternative News Network (SANN)
Last updated Thursday February 25, 2010 06:11 PM
Conditions & Plight of Mumbra (Press Release) 10/02/10)
February 10, 2010
Madhyamik Shala Mumbra & Thane Mahanagarpalika Dharna
on 8 March, 2010 at 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Parents of the Mumbra primary school backed by Khoj Education for a
Secular, will stage a dharna outside the Thane Municipal Corporation
to demand implementation of the 2006 decision to set up a secondary
school upto Std. X in Mumbra.
KHOJ has been agitating for the implementation of this GR (passed in
2006 & June 11, 2009).
A mass signature campaign on the issue was organized two years ago but
still the Government is delaying in this decision.
Over 300 parents attended the meeting organized by KHOJ at the Mumbra
School on February 10, 2010. Smt. Ruta Aawad wife of Local MLA Shri
Jitendra Aawad was also present.
The indefinite dharna will be launched on March 8, 2010 (International
Women’s Day) and will continue until the Municipal Commissioner gives
the written assurance that the secondary school will start in June.
Teesta Setalvad, Director, KHOJ.
Noorjahan Shaikh, Co-ordinator KHOJ.
CONDITIONS & PLIGHT OF MUMBRA
Backgrounder
Mumbra, a densely Muslim populated area, has been always denied the
basic rights & requirements due to its citizens. A hegemonistic Thane
municipal corporation dominated by the chauvinistic Shiv Sena has
despite passing one GR in 2006 and another n 2009 refused to extend
the Std VII level Urdu medium schools to Std X (secondary level) As a
result as many as 120 children have been dropping out each year unable
to afford free and high donations KHOJ education for a secular India
project has been activating the parents teachers association and
agitating for the school since 2004,
People of Mumbra have been struggling for the basic necessities of
water, electricity & employment . Due to this irony even children are
not spared. In school at Mumbra, which is called as center of
education also running without or short of water, electricity & the
other basic amenities, so how could children get the basic education?
Without proper lights children can’t get & understand what is written
on the blackboard? In summer due to not working of fans children gets
exhausted & can’t concentrate on their studies, for this plight whom
to be blamed?
Khoj has tried to figure out this irony many a time and finally in
collaboration parents and KHOJ installed. A water tank for the school.
There is not a single Govt. Municipal school for eighth Std in Mumbra
for any medium. As a result financially weak parents of those children
who passed their 7th Std school and unable to get admission in other
private school drops out to their studies. Private schools monopolise
and limit the access to education. Children from deprived section who
has today have the Right to Education are denied this right. And he or
she lands in a situation where one can’t say that whether they are
literate or illiterate.
Though there was a huge resistance to our efforts to get water and
electricity in the schools regular meetings with elected
representatives got some response, though slowly.
The issue of load sheddding especially when children are studying was
discussed power failure with M.S.E.B. & requested them to separate the
connections of Municipal Schools with local connection so that schools
are not affected. A mass signature campaign was launched with parents
on the issue which received huge response. We also held meetings with
commissioner & deputy commissioner also. Commissioner told us that he
would talk with deputy commissioner & education officer about. Through
KHOJ s consistent RTI applications we found that twice in 2006 and
2009 GRs to start a secondary school had been passed but because
deputy commissioner’s dept. forgot to deposit 5000/- Rs before 20th
may 2007. because of which the order to start 8th Std. Classes in
school get cancelled.
KHOJ has raised the issue with the TMC Commissioner DMC and others.
Officials showed a callous disregard for their own GE and the future
of he children of Mumbra and Kausa. Why they are playing with the
future of the children? Who is responsible?
http://www.sabrang.com/news/2010/10feb10.htm
Why so niggardly about debating concerns relating to Genetically
Modified Foods, Mr. Jairam Ramesh? (28/01/10)
CJP Sabrang Commemorate Years of Sikh Massacre, Demand Justice for
the Victims (31/10/09)
October 31, 2009
CJP Sabrang Commemorate Years of Sikh Massacre, Demand Justice for the
Victims
Twenty-five years ago Delhi, India’s capital, burned and no Sikh was
safe. Eminent writer Khushwant Singh sought shelter at the Swedish
embassy in Delhi, Justice SS Chadha of the Delhi high court had to
move to the high court complex. His residence was not safe. Even
General JS Arora, the hero of the Bangladesh war, had to flee for
safety.
It is a shocking tale of impunity and non-deliverance of justice that
there has been no punishment of the guilty. When the Indian Parliament
met in 1985, it condemned the tragic and condemnable assassination of
the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. But alas it has to pass a
resolution condemning the massacre.
Though the official death toll in Delhi was 2,733, victims’ lawyers
submitted a list to the officially appointed Ranganath Misra
Commission recording that 3,870 Sikh persons had been killed. Of the
26 persons arrested on November 1 and 2 by the police, all were
Sikhs!! Only nine cases have led to convictions so far. In all, 20 of
the accused have been convicted in 25 years, a conviction rate of less
than one per cent.
The culture of impunity against politicians of the ruling party and
policemen displayed during the 1984 anti-Sikh massacre has perpetrated
a culture of impunity that was evident in the post-Babri Masjid
violence in Bombay and again in Gujarat in 2002.
Teesta Setalvad
Javed Anand
M.K. Raina
Rajan Prasad
Ram Rehman
N.K. Sharma
P.K. Shukla
http://www.cjponline.org/prelease/31oct09.htm
CBI’s Mission Kashmir - Manufacturing consent on Shopian
rapes, murders (27/10/09)
October 27, 2009
CBI’s Mission Kashmir
Manufacturing consent on Shopian rapes, murders
Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal
The CBI may have succeeded in its mission in Shopian, that of what
Noam Chomsky refers to as manufacturing consent about non-existence of
any violations in the twin rapes of Asiya Jan and her sister-in-law
Neelofar Jan. But this is only as far as the opinion outside Jammu and
Kashmir, formed by a consistent over-drive of narration of lies, is
concerned.
Within Jammu and Kashmir, especially in Kashmir Valley, the exercise
of manufacturing consent, however, has not only met with skepticism
but also renewed bout of disappointment and erosion of already fragile
confidence of the people in institutions of the State. As Majlis-e-
Mushawarat Shopian, spearheading the agitation for justice in the
Shopian rapes and murders case for the last nearly five months, has
pointed out: “The CBI appears to be completing the unfinished business
of agencies previously investigating the crime.”
The observation is not without basis. The previous investigators, from
Justice Jan Commission to the Special Investigation Team of Jammu and
Kashmir Police, failed to follow the more significant threads in their
probes. They instead flourished with pack of baseless stories – from
drowning theory to circulating different kinds of post mortem reports
– to add to the confusion and topped it up with an extra dose of
character assassination of the victims and their family. The CBI has
only contributed its own pack of lies and embellished one of the most
complex cases of human rights abuse in Kashmir’s recent history with
more confusion.
Evidence, other than circumstantial evidence, may severely be lacking
in the rapes and murders of the two women, especially with fudged up
forensic evidence and botched up post mortem reports, making it
difficult to sift fact from fiction very scientifically. Such lapses,
however, do not allow anyone the privilege to conclude that no rape or
murder ever took place. Infact, sweeping remarks by investigating
agencies makes their version of the story not only unpalatable but
also reveals that this is being done by design.
The conspiracy is too deep rooted, well planned and systematic. CBI is
only a part of that conspiracy; the investigating agency’s role,
however, has been more ‘authentically’ performed at least as far its
mapping on the national scene is concerned, only because it escapes
the temptation of sound just as jarring as the previous investigating
agency.
CBI’s role becomes fishy both in the manner of its investigations and
its bid to selectively use media as a tool to further its interests,
from the theory of ‘virginity’ of one of the rape and murder victims
Asiya Jan to the possibility of drowning. In none of the statements
any of the officers have been quoted. All the reports based on such
theories merely quote the CBI sources.
The only officially doled out statement is the one from CBI Director
Ashwani Kumar, on October 12, about abject refusal to interrogate the
policemen accused of tampering evidence and instead maintaining that
focus of the investigations is whether the FIR lodged in the case was
right or wrong. There is something decidedly weird about the obsession
of the investigators with the FIR right from the day one. Why should
there be an issue over the delay in forensic reports from Srinagar’s
Forensic Science Laboratory in the beginning of June this year, even
though the formality of FIR, which forms the preliminary basis of
investigations, really does not depend on availability of such formal
reports? But that is what the state police’s special investigating
team (SIT) did.
The CBI has followed the same route, its Director talking about the
investigation pivoting around whether the FIR lodged was right or not.
An FIR is not the final investigation, it is not even the basic
challan presented in the court, which is a more formal shape of the
presentation of investigations. The shape and form of an FIR is
immaterial. Then why should it invite so much of hairsplitting by an
investigating agency touted to be the country’s most prestigious one?
Even more glaringly, like the previous investigators, the CBI has
decided to shut its eye to the suspects involved in tampering of the
evidence in the case and the cover-up thereafter. The CBI officer has
maintained that its investigators are not planning to interrogate the
officers and that this aspect of the case does not form part of the
investigations. Interestingly, the Indian intelligentsia, which so
much wishes human rights abuse to be non existent, has not even
questioned the wisdom behind this ‘conclusion’ which at best appears
to bail out the culprits, atleast guilty of tampering evidence. Does
the CBI deem them innocent and does everybody else fall for that story
as blindly as the blind murders of the two women after their rapes. It
doesn’t take an exceptionally high IQ to realize that tampering of
evidence is not done without design. Taking all the trouble to wash
off the blood stains from the spot where the bodies were recovered,
wiping off wheel tracks till the place are acts that did not spring
from complacency. They were obviously aimed at concealing the truth
and the identity of the culprits. That the administrative higher ups
would go an extra mile in further botching up facts – SIT with its
character assassination theory, the top brass of police including the
CID with its multiple circulation of different and contradictory post
mortem reports, some that completely obliterated the part about
floating test that ruled out drowning as a possibility.
The authenticity of some of the medical reports may also be on shaky
ground, especially after CBI’s revelation that the second team of
doctors had given in fake vaginal swab slides. This version of CBI’s
account may be more credible but appears to be only a fragment of the
entire story of how medical tests and post mortem were conducted. It
doesn’t tell us why the doctors did what they did. It also omits the
details about doctors being asked by Director Health Services to
personally deliver the samples at FSL Srinagar, even though that is
not the normal procedure. There is obviously much more that is fishy
in the story than CBI’s attempt to simply look for scapegoats.
A news report datelined Delhi on October 9, relying on a CBI source,
indication of yet another devious bid to plant untruths, maintains,
“Tests conducted on the exhumed bodies of two Shopian women whose
deaths sparked off protests across the Valley amid allegations that
they were raped and murdered are said to be indicative of “death by
drowning”. Forensic experts are learnt to have verbally conveyed their
findings to the CBI which is now probing the case.” However, in yet
another report, a day previous to that, again filed from Delhi and
quoting some CBI sources, states, “The CBI rejected doctors’ reports
that one of the two women, who were allegedly raped and murdered in
Shopian, was not raped……. According to agency sources, forensic
reports to establish rape are yet to come.”
The reports are quite similar to the previous ones that CBI
selectively leaked out to the media before and after the exhumation of
bodies. The ‘broken hymen’ theory, which has not even been
substantiated by making public the preliminary report of the doctors,
and the interpretation of ‘Asiya’s virginity’ all appear to be part of
CBI’s mission in Kashmir this time. The move in no way appears any
different from the jarring notes of the SIT-Justice Jan Commission
which earlier flung mud at the victims and their family, making
sweeping remarks about their character.
CBI only does the same with a little more sophistication. But subtlety
does not shrink the shrillness of the motive.
(Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal is executive editor of ‘Kashmir Times’ and a
human rights activist. She is a member of the Women’s Initiative for
Justice in Shopian rapes, murders.)
http://www.sabrang.com/news/2009/27oct09.htm
Online vigil by CMO leaves Gujarat babus on edge (01/10/09)
http://epaper.dnaindia.com/dnaahmedabad/epapermain.aspx?queryed=5&username=&useremailid=&parenteditioncode=5&eddate=10/1/2009
Law above all (01/10/09)
October 1 2009
DNA
Law above all
By ruling that religious places of worship will no longer be allowed
to come up on public land, the Supreme Court has set to rest a problem
which has been an urban scourge for some years now. No city is immune
to these impromptu shrines that come up on the street and soon enough
become permanent fixtures. This particular case came up after the
Gujarat government ordered the demolition of all illegal shrines in
2006, which was subsequently upheld by the Gujarat high court. The
Union government felt that this decision would create some religious
turmoil and the matter reached the Supreme Court.
While there are no studies to show how much public land has been
encroached upon by such shrines, by empirical evidence we know that
they can be found all over. In most cases they are a nuisance because
of the huge crowds they attract. Because they are usually in the
middle of the road, traffic is also affected. There is also the
general principal of hijacking government or civic owned property. A
kind of mutually beneficial racket flourishes that enriches not only
the custodians of these shrines but also local officials. The
authorities have so far been slow or reluctant to take action against
them as anything religious in India comes with the potential for
unpleasant explosions.
The apex court however has put public good before public sentiment
which is commendable. The ruling says that not only will shrines no
longer be allowed on public land but state governments can also decide
what to do with existing shrines. This opens the door for clearing up
of public land. Most often, these shrines start small — a stone under
a tree — and then before anyone even realises it, a massive structure
takes over. By applying the order to shrines of all religions, the
apex court has also pre-empted all arguments on discrimination. All
faiths will be treated equally — a fine sign, it could be said, of
secularism, but more than that, the rule of law at work.
It may appear a little odd that such a matter even had to reach the
Supreme Court. The argument over illegal structures on public land
should begin and end at the municipal level. It is the inefficiency
and often the complicity of the local authorities that allows these
shrines to come up and then to flourish. The Gujarat government did
well to defend its decision and the apex court has done the
executive's work once again.
http://www.sabrang.com/news/2009/01oct09.htm
FIR against 100 RSS activists in U.P. (30/09/09)
FIR against 100 RSS activists in U.P.
Lucknow: FIRs have been lodged against over 100 Rastriya Swyamewak
Sangh (RSS) activists for allegedly violating prohibitory orders by
firing in the air and performing “Shastra Poojan” in Jhansi district
of Uttar Pradesh, Home Department sources said.
According to the police, RSS district chief Ramdas Sahu and 100-125
RSS workers gathered at a local college ground on Monday for Shastra
Poojan and fired in the air violating prohibitory orders imposed in
the city due to festival season.
http://www.hindu.com/2009/09/30/stories/2009093058790300.htm
Madrasa move - A call for change (30/09/09)
September 30 2009
The Hindustan Times
Madrasa move - A call for change
NEW SCRIPT A proposed board wants to modernise textbooks, teaching,
and exams in India's 100,000 madrasas. Will it work?
Chitrangada Choudhury in New Delhi
chitrangad...@hindustantimes.com "My years as a student in the
Darul Uloom madrasa were the best training I could get to be an
effective MP (Member of Parliament). Because the madrasa taught me
that serving people is the biggest act of devotion to God," said
religious scholar and educationist Maulana Asrarul Haque of his 1866
alma mater in the North Indian town of Deoband. The sentences were
characteristic of the moral lens the softspoken 66-year-old
parliamentarian seemed to view the world through.
Haque, who has founded 160 madrasas across four states and a girl's
school in an ill-connected village in his constituency of Kishanganj
in Bihar, said, "Education can empower and help build bridges."
Haque is the sort of Muslim leader the government is now looking to,
as it attempts to craft a consensus in a divided Muslim community to
help push through a sticky piece of legislation to set up a Central
Madrasa Board.
The board -- stillborn for a decade -is meant to design a modern
curriculum for India's estimated 100,000 Islamic seminaries. These
numbers are private estimates; the government has no definitive
information on how many such institutions exist. Under 20,000 are
registered under various laws.
There are also no definitive surveys, but official estimates say that
between 4 per cent and 6 per cent of India's Muslim children in the
school-going age study in such seminaries. Attending the institutions
between four to seven years, they study a three-centuries old
curriculum (see box).
Institutions like the madarsa at Deoband are renowned and possess the
funds and skills to modernise. But most seminaries cater to areas with
concentrations of low-income Muslim households, where the government
school system is broken and private schools have no commercial
incentives.
Like Haque's constituency of Kishanganj, a backward district of small
farmers and landless labourers with 70 per cent Muslim residents and a
female literacy of 14 per cent, the lowest for any district in the
country.
While some states such as West Bengal and Bihar have instituted
madrasa boards to run such institutions, most seminaries are funded by
charities and run by decades-old trusts, which guard their
independence from the government fiercely.
Abdul Noumani, based in New Delhi, typifies this strand of thought in
the community, which has opposed the formation of a central board as
interference in the Islamic faith.
At his office overlooking graceful arches in the headquarters of the
1919 Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind, which runs over 10,000 madrasas across
India, Noumani said, "The Sachar Commission found that every fourth
Muslim child has never attended, or attended and dropped out of
school. Why does the government not focus on these children? When only
4 per cent of Muslim children study in madrasas, why is Kapil Sibal
(Minister for Human Resource Development) so interested in our
affairs?" "Our experience of government and bureaucracy has not been
good in states which have set up their own madrasa boards. It opens
the door for corruption and meaningless rules. We can modernise our
own curriculum."
But, National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions
chairman Justice M. Siddiqui whose office drafted the Bill for the
proposed board (see box), argued that the government should help lead
that change whereby a madrasa student can learn about Islamic law as
well as the Indian Penal Code, Arabic as well as English.
Siddiqui said the board should go beyond matters of content to improve
the quality of education. "It should be given a seed fund of Rs 500
crore by the state and then allowed to function independently.
Madrasas currently pay their teachers Rs 500 to Rs 1,500 (per month).
How can that attract good people? The board will ensure pay parity
with government schoolteachers. We have drafted the Bill. The ball is
now in the government's court," he said.
For now, the government is treading carefully. In a bid to build a
consensus, Sibal has been open to suggestions to people the board with
as many educationists as theologians. He has said affiliation to the
board will be voluntary. On October 3, at a meeting on the issue with
Muslim MPs, he will lobby for the board.
The Kishanganj MP, Haque, said the government's revived efforts will
be successful only if "the benefits of the policy are explained
clearly to the Muslim community. The key will be to take all the ulema
(religious scholars) along."
http://www.sabrang.com/news/2009/ht30sep09.htm
Modi worships assault guns (30/09/09)
Modi worships assault guns
2009-09-29 08:35:49
A A AEmailPrintBuy article Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi on
Monday performed shastra puja (worship of weapons) at his official
residence in Gandhinagar, raising questions whether someone in his
position should be taking part in such a ritual....
Full Article at India Today »
Anti-Modi Jesuit’s US visit may mar CM’s visa chances
(30/09/09)
Anti-Modi Jesuit’s US visit may mar CM’s visa chances
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Ahmedabad: In what should be bad news for Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi, the Jesuit Marquette University in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, US, has named Fr Cedric Prakash of Ahmedabad as the Wade
Chair Scholar for the academic year 2009-2010.
The chair is named after an eminent Jesuit Fr Francis C Wade (1907–
1987) who was a long time member of the Marquette Jesuit community and
department of philosophy.
Marquette University has been inviting one or two Jesuits from the
US and/or another country, to hold the Wade Chair.
In what will be clearly seen as a very special honour by the
academic community in the subject of philosophy in the US, Fr Cedric
will deal with human rights, justice and peace, which has been his
focus in Ahmedabad, more so after the Gujarat riots in 2002.
The chair will allow Fr Cedric a 3-month stay in the US where he
is going to speak before various audiences on human rights issue in
India, with specific reference to Gujarat.
His stay assumes significance because of intense lobbying for
granting a visa to Modi, especially by the NRI community, even as the
CM denies he is interested in going to the US.
His supporters believe the opening of a Canadian trade office in
Ahmedabad last week is just one more step towards the visa goal.
Fr Cedric was among the three Indians called to testify before the
US Commission for International Religious Freedom in June 2003 in
context of the Gujarat riots.
Apart from the riots, he also raised the issue of proposed
legislation against religious conversions in Gujarat. It was based on
the commission’s recommendation that Modi was denied a US visa in
March 2005.
Apart from interacting with students and academicians, Fr Cedric
will be meeting the media and local groups engaged in inter-religious
dialogue on university campuses and cities in other parts of US.
His term starts on October 1 and just before leaving, he said,
“This honour has come because of my work in Gujarat, especially after
the 2002 riots. A lot of what I have to say in the US will of course
be on the sorry state of justice seven years after the violence and
the overall condition of minorities here.”
Fr Cedric Prakash
The Politics of Secularism and Women’s Rights (29/09/09)
http://www.sabrang.com/news/2009/29Sep09.pdf
Universal Respect for Human Rights without Borders (28/09/09)
Press Release – September 28, 2009
Universal Respect for Human Rights without Borders
Petitions the Government of Oman
His Majesty the Sultan of Oman and Omani Citizens,
India and Oman have centuries-old cherished relationship of friendship
and trade. It has been strengthened under His Majesty Sultan Qaboos,
based on common ethos of progressive values and human rights.
Thousands of Indians of all religions live and work in Oman with honor
and respect, contributing to the benefit of both the countries.
Unfortunately that common ethos and values of the Indian constitution
and Oman’s culture have been flagrantly violated by Mr. Narendra Modi,
the Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat. In February 2002, as Chief
Minister of Gujarat, Mr. Modi presided over and orchestrated
widespread riots in which about 2000 hapless Muslims were massacred
and more than 200,000 were rendered homeless. The execution of what
has been called the Gujarat Genocide has been widely reported and
documented by the media (http://www.tehelka.com/home/20071103/ ;
http://bit.ly/qR7fO ; http://bit.ly/qOdTB)
Tens of thousands of displaced Muslims are still unable to return to
their homes fearing further attacks. The process of justice has been
subverted to deny justice to the victims. There have been many
incidences of harassment of Christians and burning of Churches.
Mr. Modi and 61 others that include cabinet colleagues, policemen and
civil servants currently are under criminal investigation by the
Special Investigation Team (SIT) specially constituted by the Supreme
Court of India for their role into allegations of mass murder and
criminal conspiracy.
Earlier this year, fDi (Foreign Direct Investment) Magazine, of the
Financial Times Group, declared Narendra Modi “Asian Personality of
the Year 2009”. But after reviewing charges against Mr. Modi, the
magazine withdrew the award (http://bit.ly/2yt3Cr)
It has been reported in the press (http://bit.ly/MzAwP) that Mr. Modi
has managed to obtain an invitation to Oman to finance the development
of a port in Gujarat. The US and many European countries have already
denied entry visa to Mr. Modi in punishment for his role in the
Gujarat carnage. Mr. Modi is trying to rehabilitate himself in the
international-arena by his visit to Oman. In the process the
reputation of Oman would be besmirched.
People from all over the world have joined thousands of citizens of
India, and brave people of Gujarat, to petition the Government of
Oman, through its ambassador to India, to deny Mr. Modi the coveted
visa to Oman, based on his record of murder and mayhem.
(http://www.petitiononline.com/modi2009/petition.html)
We request the genteel, peace and justice loving people of Oman, and
the enlightened government of Sultan Qaboos to rescind visa to Mr.
Modi and make investments and collaborations with the Gujarat
government contingent on justice to the innocent victims of the
Gujarat Massacre. This will reaffirm the morality-based friendship of
Oman and India, without the stain of appearing to condone Mr. Modi’s
crimes against humanity.
Universal Respect For Human Rights Without Borders
universalrespec...@gmail.com
Najid Hussain: najidh...@yahoo.com
Mirza A. Beg: mirza...@gmail.com
Zafar Iqbal: raa...@hotmail.com
Tariq Farooqi: tfaroo...@yahoo.com
Fazal R. Khan: fazal...@hotmail.com
Endorsing Organizations:
Ahsan Jafri Foundation
Dr. Najid Hussain
Aligarh Alumni Association Metropolitan Washington (AAA)
Dr. Rafat Husain
Aman Biraderi
Mr. Harsh Mandar
Association for India’s Development (AID)
Dr. Mohan Bhagat
Centre for Human Rights, Justice and Peace
Fr. Cedrick Prakash
CERAS
Dr. Daya Varma
Coalition Against Genocide
Mr. Khalid Azam
India Unity
Dr. Satinath Chowdhary
NRIs for Secular and Harmonious India (NRI-SAHI)
Pluralism, Interfaith,
Peace
Mr. Mike Ghouse
Sabrang
Ms. Teesta Setalvad
Sadbhav
Mission
Dr. Vipin Tripathi
South Asia Citizens Web
(SACW)
Mr. Harsh Kapoor
The Organization of Universal Communal Harmony
(TOUCH) Ms. Sushila Gidwani
Vaishnava Center for
Enlightenment Mr.
Shrikumar Poddar
http://www.sabrang.com/news/2009/28sept09two.htm
Crisis of ideology or war for fear from freedom (25/09/09)
Crisis of ideology or war for fear from freedom
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
‘You mother f….r, how dare you write about implementing ceiling laws
in the Tarai region of Uttarakhand. We will take enough care if you
dare to come here’, came a response to my article on my blog written
after the completion of the padyatra related to land issues in
Uttarakhand.
Such responses are not new to me as they keep coming. ‘ I have not
read an idiotic article like this’, was a response to my review
article on Telengana in mynews.in yesterday. Another one wrote, ‘ how
much money are you getting in to divide Hindu society’.. you are
fortunate enough that you are not born in China and Pakistan, he
wrote, otherwise you would have seen what could have done to you..
Just a few years back during the anti Mandal agitation initiated by
the caste Hindus in the AIIMS, Delhi, I got a number of hate mail at
the CNN-IBN blogs as perhaps I was among very few to question their
‘meritocracy’. ‘You beggar quotawallah, go beg at Connaught place
first, then seek a reserve job’, wrote some one. Times of India
mentioned it as ‘apartheid’ against ‘poor’ upper caste. It is a
discrimination against the upper caste, it intended to say.
Is there a problem in our thinking process ? Are we not ready to
accept diversent view point ? And whose divergent view point as at the
end of the day, there are ideologies and perceptions which force us to
act violently against those we disagree. Hence, a Taslima is unwelcome
as she is threat to Islam, M.F. Hussein, at the age of 90, has become
a ‘threat’ to our omnipotent-omnipresent gods. Children are killed
when they dare to marry against their parental desires. Dalits are
killed if their raise their head and claim to be equal national of the
country.
Therefore it is important to understand as what is the attitudinal or
ideological problem with Indians? Are they afraid of ideologies? Do
they take shelter in fake ideological constructs and live in their own
world. The biggest problem with them is that they live in double
standard. They speak two languages, one for their children and
different for outsider. So a majority of the high profile ‘ideologues’
could not sale Marxism and Maoism to their children, then why they are
selling the same to the tribal, I debated. ‘Oh no, our children are
separate. We can not decide about them. They have their freedom, why
do you want them to be controlled’, they say. ‘But then why you want
to control others’. ‘You give everything to your children’s growth’,
look for Its, finding space for them in US and UK, why, I said. ‘Oh,
that is not to be debated. How can we do that? Mulayam Singh, the
great disciple of Lohia wanted English to be boycotted so he sent his
son Akhilesh to Doon school and then to Australia. Late Charan Singh
condemned computer education and modern sciences as threat to
agriculture, hence Ajit Singh went to United States to study computer
sciences when computer was unheard thing in India. Clear enough, in
this double standard, we sale Marxism, socialism, Hinduism,
Christianity and Maoism to tribal and capitalism to our children. You
see most of the Hindutva ideologues actually came from the best
college of Delhi called St Stephens College.
Who were two biggest dissenters in Indian social system. The first was
Buddha and thousands of years later it was Ambedkar. And since
accepting dissent is not a part of any of these traditions which
claims to revolutionary or uniting Hindus or political ideology of the
day, we find attack against them in each and every form. Buddha
Viharas were attacked and Buddhists were annihilated. Ambedkar was
scorned at for ‘dividing’ Hindus and termed as a very ‘ordinary’
scholar.
‘ No, neither Buddha, nor Ambedkar can help the Dalits, only Marx can
help them, wrote Rang Nayakamma, an old upper caste romantic of
communism in Andhra Pradesh in her book ‘For the solution of caste
question’. How many of these revolutionaries staged a battle against
social evils in India. If that is not important for them, then why
they expect the Dalits to join them. Rang Nayakamma wrote passionately
like Arun Shourie, against Ambedkar.
She blamed Ambedkar as why it took him so long for converting to
Buddhism. Why Ambedkar attacks Marx and glorify Buddha. In the entire
book, Rangnaykamma’s brahmanical past is visible even when she can
claim to be a Marxist and that has been the problem with most of the
upper caste Marxists who remain arrogant to their brahmanical roots.
For them, a shudra does not have the intellect. Even when the
Hindutva’s saffron brigade is busy in social engineering, the
brahmanical Marxist have not been able to provide Dalits a space in
their scheme of things. Writes Nayakamma in her chapter ‘ Caste
Question : Ambedkar has changed religion ( page 407), ‘ The moment he
start writing, there began a baseless confidence in Ambedkar that is a
great intellectual. There emerged a kind of false logic namely,
‘whatever, I wrote is logic’. This is the true story of brahmanical
Marxists whose problem with Ambedkar is that he gave Dalits an
understanding to assert themselves. Who knows Nayakammas and all those
who have great appreciation for her ‘radical’ views can understand
that her writings are pure brahmanical frustration because of growing
Dalit assertion. That assertion is not really visible among the tribal
and that is the reason the brahmanical revolutionaries are leading
them. She goes on to condemn those who admire ambedkar saying that ‘
Biographers of Ambedkar glorified every aspect of his research,
however inconsistent and haphazard it may have been. There is not a
single instance where they raised the question namely, ; what is this
argument’? what kind of research is this?
She further writes in Vartha, a Telugu daily (quoted in her book):
Since Ambedkar was favorable to the exploitation of labour, all his
Dalit disciples too took the same path and ‘turned their faces away’
from Marxism. It is such a stupid path that makes them incapable of
knowing whether they are doing good or harm to themselves’.( page 421)
Many of us know how veteran Sharad Patil has been writing for long the
theory of Buddha, Phule, Ambedkar Marx philosophy as a remedy to
current situation in India. How do you do it with the current short of
Marxists in India who do not want to share, who remain ‘consistent’ in
their condemnation of Ambedkar. Why Arun Shourie and Rangnayakmma hate
Ambedkar. Is it because, Ambedkar’s Dalits have charted their path on
their own and not through the farcical brahmanical revolution? And
yes, it does not mean condemning Marx but they will simply not make a
God of Marx like the Marxists have done. Ofcourse, Ambedkarite Dalits
can not accept Gandhism and its so-called virtues as way to their
salvation. Actually right from left, right, centre, Hindutva or
missionary variety, in their action they did not have time to speak up
against the exploitation of labour in the villages and caste dimension
of it. Instead, Hindutva ideologue people like Shourie calls him a
British supporter while so called Marxist like Rangnakamma blame him
for supporting the exploiter. Can there be any truth in such vicious
campaign and propaganda? Yes Ambedkar condemned three classes which
he says British, Brahmin and Bania and the real meanings of these
should be understood. By British he meant imperialist forces, Brahmin
symbolizing brahmanical Hinduism and Bania, he meant capitalism. How
can any one suggest that Ambedkar did not speak against capitalism.
Those who have read him know that he wanted to nationalized land. Now
was that a capitalist agenda? He formed Indian Labour party, Depressed
Classes, Republic party of India.. where did he put caste identity in
focus in these. Did he deny any class or caste entry in his movement ?
Marx has been a great revolutionary and his vision still stand for an
equitable society. But why Marxist hate Buddha and then Ambedkar is
beyond understanding. If Buddha waged relentless war against
superstition and caste system, why should not Indian follow him? After
all, Buddha was born much before Marx. How did the caste Hindus kill
both Buddha and Marx together in their pursuit for power? One has to
understand the tribal question deeply as why the tribal leadership is
unable to emerge and in the name of tribal liberation it is the
brahmanical forces which are dominant in the region. ‘They can not
fight their own battle, said a friend, so these revolutionaries are
there. Why can not tribal fight their own battle when they had a Birsa
Munda who revolted against the British.
The other day, an ideologue from Andhra said on Times Now,’ the
Maoists are like Bhagat Singh, fighting against state repression’. It
is tragic to do such a comparison that easily. Bhagat singh had never
justified violence and in fact wrote about the issue of untouchability
as the biggest challenge to our society. Secondly, Bhagat Singh never
lived in double standard. At the age of 23, he went to gallows and
scolded his parents who wanted to get pardon from the British. Who had
the courage to openly claim himself as an atheist and demolish all the
religious symbolism from his body? In fact, that is the problem with
our modern day Gandhian historians that they never considered anybody
else for contributing to our freedom struggle, other than Gandhi and
his followers. Bhagat Singh was just branded as gun trotting
revolutionary and not an ideologue who defended freedom and secular
values. They do not feel that Bhagat Singh while fighting against
British imperialism concentrated on our own weaknesses of caste
system, untouchability and communalism.
The other day, some human rights activists claimed that state is
killings hundreds of people and we must speak against them. But who
stops human rights activists to not to speak against those who are
killing the innocent. ‘No, in the war these things are justified, they
say. Fine, in the war, the state will also use its might and that too
is justified despite human rights activists like us asking the police
and military to follow norms, but practically where have these norms
followed in war? Redcross, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch,
all know it well that human rights are violated heavily in arms
conflict. Their pressure makes a lot of things during no war period
but during war, only the gun speaks.
Problem is that brahminism in India has various roots to survive. It
is monster and has different forms. Some where it survives through
pure Manuwaad, we all know, the gangs of Hindutva and their cousins
elsewhere. It comes through socialism, it come through communism, it
come through all shorts of ism including the Dalits themselves. How is
that every perception in India failed because of this. Reason is that
India needed social revolution and we opted for political one. I do
not say that only caste matter (Ofcourse it is the most important
aspect) and class too matters. Why can not our friend take both as
Ambedkar visualized in his famous work ‘ thought on Pakistan’ when he
said that ‘Hindu Rastra would be a calamity’.
Problem is that in the human rights discourse, we are conveniently
using ideological slants for our purposes. Hence those who are not
with left leanings become a right wing. If you are not with RSS then
you are seculars, communists and what not. I am proud to be a secular
whether they want to use it in negative term or something else. The
problem is that none of them appreciate freedom. Some keep conspicuous
silence when Taslima speaks, while others want to raise the issue of
MF Hussein and his paintings. The issue of Satanic verses would be
raised by one set of freedom fighters while others would demand a ban
on riddles of Hinduism written by Ambedkar. So, whenever the
opportunity comes closed mind will not allow this freedom. That is
why, Ambedkar is a problem for all the closed mind. Ambedkar was
essentially a modern man, a liberal democrat who could not close his
eyes to global changes. He was a free thinker who challenged the
supremacy of the religious text books. He knew that Indian society has
no respect for individual and he believed in it and perhaps these are
things which were not liked by those people who lionize a particular
ideology, do not believe in individual freedom and have nothing to
offer to demolish the age old prejudices and our very indigenous
capitalist order entirely based on your identities.
This article is not against a particular short of ideology. It is
basically on issues that in the name of ideologies, we are justifying
everything, human pain and agony. How can it be in a modern democracy
where each life should be considered precious? For those in
authorities, it is prudent that the ideology need a counter ideology.
If development fail to reach to the people, if social justice is not
there in our villages, if India still remain caged to feudal mindset,
if our village resources, our rivers, our mountains are on sale on
throw away prices then Mr Chidambaram and his team will have to do a
lot of soul searching.
Step out side Raipur and you will see the big companies lining up in
Chhatishgarh. Jindal tops the list with thousands of hectares of land
being granted to them for mining. Hundreds others are there to
‘develop’ Chhatishgarh. Tribals remain sandwiched between the two.
They have lost their land. Chhatishgarh is being colonized now by the
non Chhatishgarhis, big companies and Babas and sadhus. And where are
the poor? Mr Chidambaram would do well to take a round in the city of
Raipur’s famous Rajkumar college in the morning hours and watch the
irony of large cue of people waiting to defecate in open even when
there is a Sulabh Shauchalaya. It means that people can buy rice at
one rupee kilogram but no money to defecate as the charges in the
public toilet are higher then the price of rice in the state.
Where ever the political set up failed non democratic forces took up.
The tribal who have been exploited for years gets new hope in those
who give them ‘instant’ justice. There is a Vth schedule of
constitution where you need permission of the village panchayat for
starting any new private ventures? But how many times have the
government cared to speak to them. So, the result is growing
disenchantment among them. They have lost their habitat and without
addressing the basic issue of land, forest and water, the government
would not be able to tackle whole issue. Those who have isolated the
tribal population must be made answerable to them. In the meanwhile,
each one of the revolutionaries from Hindutva’s saffron gangs to
Christian Missionaries to Naxals, will sandwich tribal except from the
tribal themselves. Each one of them consider themselves as
‘protecting’ tribal from ‘outside’ influence but at the end of day
none of them actually belong to tribal themselves. It is time when we
address the issues of the people’s exploitation without being indulged
in the ‘greatness’ of ideologies. Greatness of ideologies lies in the
emancipation of human being and not on controlling their minds. Let us
defend the human rights of all but let not human rights become
instrument for those who spread hatred and violence.
On the other side which is equally darker, let not the ‘threat’ of
terrorism become an instruments to violate human rights of the people.
Let not every padyatra, slogan, publication which question the motives
of the government become a target of security agencies in the name of
‘fight against terror’. It is a very delicate battle and the
responsibility on the state is higher as on the human rights activists
too. The more you oppress the common man, the bigger will be the
fascination for ‘revolution’.
It is time we speak against oppression and for human rights. Let us
condemn violence in unequivocal term. It is time we rise up against
social injustice. The seeds of social democracy should reach each part
of the civilization. Let ideologies not become bigger than the human
liberty. Let human right discourse does not become good or bad because
of a personal perception based on basic political principals and
conditioning of our mind, after all, the movement for social justice,
the principals of human rights too came from hard core struggles of
the masses. It is time we accept criticism with open heart. Speak
against the perception and not on individual. Those who believe that
only ideology can counter ideology must come up with ideological
arguments to spread their ideology. With a gun in hand to promote
their ‘democratic’ ideas would not work and will definitely not do
justice to millions of those whose name this entire battle is being
fought.
Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Visit my blog at
www.manukhsi.blogspot.com
For information on the issues, movements and priorities of Scavenger
community in India please log on to
www.swachchakar.blogspot.com
For information on civil society initiatives on Muslims in UP please
log on to
www.rehnumaa.blogspot.com
For Social action, land rights, right to food and hunger issues
support Social Development Foundation at www.thesdf.org
http://www.sabrang.com/news/2009/25sept09two.htm
Photos of deities should be disallowed even in govt offices
Photos of deities should be disallowed even in govt offices
English transcript of Editorial in Karavali Ale, Kannada daily,
Mangalore today
.....................
Karnataka Chief Justice Dinakeran’s order banning display of photos of
deities and performing of religious rituals in court premises, has
come to light two months after it was issued. People who believe in
secular ideologies would welcome this decision. In fact, the
government which should be secular and above religious affiliations
and which should consider all citizens equal irrespective of their
religious affiliations, should have issued an order banning
religious symbols or rituals in all government offices including
courts and should have taken steps to ensure the rule was strictly
complied with. But ever since independence no government has taken any
step in this direction. As per Constitution, India is a secular
nation. This being the case, any symbol depicting the superiority of
any religion or any ritual should have been naturally banned in
government offices, courts and educational institutions where people
of all faiths converge and which runs with taxpayers’ money. This is
the underlying need of the secular system which we have accepted and
are practising. We do not know to what extent Justice Dinakeran’s
order has been implemented in courts. The Chief Justice should have
brought government offices and schools and colleges too within the
purview of this order. The public should send their views on this to
Justice Dinakeran.
There is no hope that the present BJP government which came to power
on the basis of majoritarian religious sentiment would issue such a
circular. Under the circumstances, the Union Government should issue
suitable instructions to all state governments and take steps to
ensure that the rule is strictly adhered to within the next one
month.
The governments which have used religions only for their vote bank
politics, backtracking to adhere to secular ideologies is not in
accordance to the needs to the time. The BJP government’s action of
announcing hundreds of crores of grants for different mutts during
the past one year period, is not just an act of drilling a hole into
the state treasury, but also it is non-secular. It is nothing but
gross misuse of valuable resources which otherwise ought to have
been used for public welfare.
Even political leaders who come to power with the help of the votes
of people belonging to all faiths, participating in religious
functions is as good as putting the horse behind the cart. We cannot
say that only BJP men are deeply religious. There are such people in
all parties. Just try to recollect as to the number of homas and
havanas in which the Congress and JD(S) CMs and ministers have openly
participated.
It is not suffice if the system is secular. We can say we are living
in a secular system only when people who control the system
(Including leaders and bureaucrats) are secular in the true sense.
replytoall@livemint
http://www.sabrang.com/news/2009/25sept09.htm
Taliban-style ‘justice’ on the rise in Orissa (15/09/09)
Taliban-style ‘justice’ on the rise in Orissa
S T Beuria
The phenomena of common people taking law into their own hands and
publicly punishing those they thought are guilty of a crime is no more
confined to any particular state.
The virus seems to be spreading fast to states across the country.
This is clearly evident from four recent incidents in different parts
of Orissa. The authorities should treat this type of incidents as a
wake up call and initiate adequate steps to control the phenomena
before it is too late.
A few days back in a village in tribal dominated Sundergarh district,
the villagers caught two youths whom they thought were responsible for
repeated cases of thefts in the village. The youths were tied up to a
big tree and whoever passed that way, did not forget to deliver a
punch or two at them.
Even the children of the village were seen throwing kicks at the two
helpless youths. It continued for hours till a police team reached the
sport and rescued both the injured youths in critical condition.
In another similar incident in a village in coastal Kendrpara
district, a ‘thief’ was brutally beaten to death by the local
villagers after he was allegedly ‘caught red handed’ by some villagers
while entering into a house for stealing purpose.
Like the incident in Sundergarh, in this coastal village too the
alleged culprit was handcuffed and tied to a pole in the middle of the
village before he was brutally killed publicly in true Taliban style.
In yet another incident, the people in a village near Banki in coastal
Cuttack district chased two youths and lynched them to death after a
10-year-old boy was found brutally murdered. The villagers held the
youths responsible for the killing of the minor boy as the boy was
last seen with both the youths before his dead body was recovered from
a spot near the village pond.
However, the most bizarre of the four incidents recently took place at
a village not far away from the state capital Bhubaneswar. Two girl
student of the local college was on their way to attend their classes
when two eve-teasers reportedly misbehaved with them.
When the girls revealed the matter to their friends in the college,
the students launched an agitation and boycotted the classes. The
worried college authorities then sent some students to bring the two
eve-teasers to the college.
Once inside the college campus, the faces of the two eve-teasers were
painted with black colour. Then both of them were garlanded with
shoes. All this went on in front of the college principal as well as
other teaching staff. Neither the college authorities nor the students
thought it right to hand over the two eve-teasers to the police.
Many are of the view that people get encouraged to take law into their
own hands as the police hardly take any action and often go soft
against these law breakers. It is interesting to note here that, the
police had arrested eight villagers in connection with the double
murder incident near Banki in Cuttack district. However, they were
released just a day after their arrest when a group of women from the
village held a protest demonstration in front of the police station.
The police, on the other hand, blame the politicians. “In such
incidents where large number of people are involved, politicians
usually intervene and put pressure on the police to go soft fearing
mass agitation which may ultimately affect their vote-bank”, said a
senior police official who did not want to be quoted.
Some people argue that common citizens are increasingly taking law
into their own hands because of the inordinate delay in the justice
delivery system. But this is not a valid argument. The country would
be thrown into total anarchy if people are allowed to become judges
themselves and start delivering justice on the streets.
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/25173/taliban-style-justice-rise-orissa.html
Wali vs Modi: the tale of two poets (05/06/09)
Wali vs Modi: the tale of two poets
On 28 February 2002, a mob tore down Wali’s little tomb in Ahmedabad
and dug up his grave. Overnight, the road was tarred and now no sign
remains. Wali’s grave had stood outside the gate of the police
commissioner’s office
Aakar Patel
Narendra Modi should fire his home minister. Ghalib acknowledged Mir
Taqi Mir with this couplet: Rikhta kay tumhi ustad nahin ho, Ghalib
Kehtay hain aglay zamanay may koi Mir bhi tha.
Rikhta is another name for Urdu. The couplet reads: Don’t think
yourself Urdu’s only master, O Ghalib: I hear there once was another,
called Mir.
Verse case: Under Modi, Wali’s tomb was destroyed. Adnan Abidi /
Reuters
Ghalib died in 1869 (the year Mahatma Gandhi was born) and many see
Mir, who died in 1810, as the pioneer of Urdu poetry. But did Mir
acknowledge anyone before him? He did in this couplet:
Khugar nahin kuchch yoon hi hum Rikhta-goi kay/ Mashooq jo apna tha,
bashindah-e-Daccan tha.
It reads: It’s not casually that I’ve been possessed by Urdu: He who
was my love was that native of the Deccan. The man Mir is referring to
is Wali Muhammad Wali, who died in 1707, the first poet of Urdu. Wali
is called Wali Daccani because he was born in Aurangabad, but also
Wali Gujarati because that is where he lived and was buried. Did Wali
acknowledge an inspiration? Yes, but not a person. I translated two of
his poems. One was a masnavi, Ta’arif-e-Shehr Sourat (In Praise of
Surat City), the other, excerpted below, was a ghazal, Dar Firaaq-e-
Gujarat (On Separation from Gujarat):
Parting from Gujarat leaves thorns in my chest
My heart—on fire!—pounds impatiently in my breast
What cure can heal the wound of living apart?
The scimitar of exile has cut deep into my heart
My feet were bound, and in sorrow
I did tire
My heart singed rapidly, like a hair over fire
Gaze into my heart and see the garden of the lover
Where the flowers of winter riot in my blood’s colour
It is with regret that in the end I see my friends depart
So rise from the empty tavern and steady yourself, my heart
And thank God’s mercy, O Wali!
He let that passion remain
The heart’s still anxious to catch a glimpse of my Gujarat again
On 28 February 2002, a mob tore down Wali’s little tomb in Ahmedabad
and dug up his grave. An idol of Hulladio Hanuman (riotous Hanuman)
was placed over the rubble. Overnight, the road was tarred and now no
sign remains. Wali’s grave had stood outside the gate of the police
commissioner’s office.
Also Read Aakar’s previous Lounge columns
That morning a mob laid siege to former member of Parliament Ehsan
Jafri’s house. He held them off for hours with his licensed rifle. The
police arrived, led by K.G. Erda. The police fired 61 rounds at the
mob. Every bullet missed. The police could not kill, wound or hit a
single person. The mob kept building. Seventy-three-year-old Jafri was
called down. They stripped him, cut off his fingers, paraded him
bleeding and naked. Then they cut off his hands, then his legs and
then his head.
Erda filed a report naming 11 people. He named two men twice by
mistake. The home ministry promoted Erda to deputy superintendent.
Was this case an exception? No. On 12 April 2004, the Supreme Court
sent the Best Bakery case out of Gujarat, adding a comment that “the
investigating agency helps the accused...” (on Page 7 of the
judgement).
After the riots, Gujarat’s home ministry closed 2,000 cases, saying it
couldn’t find the accused. On 17 August 2004, the Supreme Court took
over and ordered them reopened. So shoddily were they found to have
been investigated that the Supreme Court sent a team under former CBI
chief R.K. Raghavan to reinvestigate the cases. This time, 1,255
accused were arrested. Action was ordered against 136 police officers.
Another 72 face action. Gujarat’s home ministry has been unable to
take the initiative. It has taken the Supreme Court to give justice to
Gujaratis.
Raghavan found that on 28 February 2002, BJP legislator Mayaben
Kodnani armed and led a mob at Naroda Patiya that killed 105
Gujaratis. On 4 January 2008, Modi made her minister for women and
child development and higher education.
On 27 March 2009, justice D.H. Waghela said Mayaben’s actions were
“nothing less than organized crime”.
On intelligence, execution, crowd control, investigation, Gujarat’s
home minister has not been competent. Who held, and still holds,
Gujarat’s cabinet portfolio for home?
Narendra Modi. He is also minister for general administration,
planning, administrative reforms, industries, mines and minerals,
petrochemicals, ports, information and broadcasting, Narmada and
Kalpsar, and science and technology.
Modi seems unaware of what his police is doing. It’s not just about
the riots. On 30 April 2007, Gujarat admitted, after yet another
Supreme Court intervention, that the chief of its anti-terrorist
squad, D.G. Vanjhara, had executed a man, Sohrabuddin, in a contract
killing. His wife Kausarbi was a witness. Vanjhara killed her too and
then burnt her body. Under Modi, the police could not even find his
own minister Mayaben for weeks. She fled after being charged with mass
murder and surrendered after her bail was rejected.
I read out Dar Firaaq-e-Gujarat to Narendrabhai once and asked him to
guess who the poet was. He could not say. When I told him, his
response was that the evidence that the demolished grave was Wali’s
wasn’t clinching enough for him. I translated another Gujarati poet a
couple of years ago:
This earth is a beautiful place
Our eyes are so blessed
Sunlight does not spill over the lush green grass
Try as hard as you might, you can’t hold it in your hand either
The earth is a beautiful place
Our eyes are so blessed
The rest of the poem is equally appalling. These are the opening lines
of Modi’s 2007 book, Aankh Aa Dhanya Chhe (Our Eyes Are So Blessed).
On his website (www.narendramodi.in), Modi uses these words to
describe himself: “great dreamer”; “remarkable ability”; “hard
taskmaster”; “strict disciplinarian”; “amazing”; “realist”;
“idealist”; “clarity of vision, sense of purpose, diligent
perseverance”; “excellent organizational ability: “rich insight into
human psychology”; “sheer strength of character and courage”.
He’s no poet. And he has been demonstrably incompetent at protecting
Gujaratis and Gujarati heritage.
He should step down as home minister.
Aakar Patel is a director with Hill Road Media.Write to Aakar at
http://www.sabrang.com/news/2009/05june09.htm
Why should Hindus vote for BJP? (An open letter to Advani)
http://www.sabrang.com/news/2009/RBlettertoAdvani.pdf
Prelimanary Report of INDEPENDENT COMMITTEE ON
INCIDENTS OF 26-27th MARCH 2009 IN SABARMATI JAIL,
AHMEDABAD (17/04/08)
Prelimanary Report of INDEPENDENT COMMITTEE ON INCIDENTS OF 26-27th
MARCH 2009 IN SABARMATI JAIL, AHMEDABAD.
INDEPENDENT COMMITTEE ON INCIDENTS OF 26-27th MARCH 2009 IN SABARMATI
JAIL, AHMEDABAD, GUJARAT
CAMP: People’s Union for Civil Liberties c/o Gandhi peace Foundation,
Himavan, Paldi Char Rasta, Ahmadabad 380006
PRESS NOTE
AHMEDABAD, April 16, 2009
An Independent committee of senior national human rights activists has
expressed its deep concern at the government handling of the beating
up of 22 inmates of the Sabarmati Jail on 25 March 2009, and has
called for a full enquiry, preferably a judicial one by a judge of the
High Court, into gross violations of the Jail manual and human rights
norms established by the Courts and the NHRC. Regrettably, the
incident reinforces the image of Gujarat as a state where the human
rights of religious minorities and weaker sections are not honoured.
Inmates, most of them Muslim, who were on a hunger strike, were
denied medical attention after a brutal attack on them by jail staff,
which left at least three of them unconscious for so long as to start
rumours in the city that they had died. They were subsequently denied
access to counsel, their relatives were refused permission to meet
them for three days, and then the Sabarmati Police station failed to
register an FIR as sought by relatives and counsel of the victims.
The independent committee consisted of Dr. John Dayal, Member,
National Integration Council, Govt. of India, Adv. K. Kesavan, Joint
Secretary, CPCL, Tamil Nadu, Dr. J. S. Bandukwala, President, PUCL,
Gujarat, Dr. S. Q. R. Ilyas, Editor, Afkar-e-Milli, New Delhi, Mr.
Gopal Menon, Film Maker, Bangalore, Mr. Mahtab Alam,Coordinator,
Association for the Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), New Delhi, Ms.
Harini Krishna, Film Maker, Mumbai, and Ms. Ruchi Shroff, Civil Rights
Activist, Mumbai, Mr. Gautam Thakar, Secretary, Secretary, PUCL,
Gujarat was in Ahmadabad from 15th to 16th April 09.
At a public hearing, the Committee heard statements from mothers,
wives and sisters of the jail inmates who gave detailed narrative of
the events in the jail as they had heard from the inmates when they
were finally allowed to meet them. The women presented blood stained
clothes of the inmates. Counsel gave the committee copies of the PIL
filed in the Gujarat High Court, the medical report filed by two
lawyers who had met the inmates in jail, as also correspondence with
the jail and police authorities seeking justice and medical care for
the injured.
The committee made several efforts to approach the authorities. The
committee in fact went to the Sabarmati jail and met Superintendent
Chandrashekhar who refused permission to visit the concerned ward and
meet the inmates. Inspector general of police Mr. Keshav Kumar,
despite a written request followed up by repeated visits to his office
and a telephone conversation with him would not find time for the
committee. The visit to the Sabarmati Police station was an eye-opener
where ACP Vaghela, SHO Joshi and Inspector Parmar all but justified
the violence against the inmates saying they were criminals accused
in Bomb blasts, and had indulged in violence in the Jail. The three
officers admitted an FIR had been registered at the behest of the Jail
authorities. They denied they had even received complaints from the
families of the victims in this case.
The investigating committee does not comment on the cases in which
these 22 persons are in jail, or even on several other events that
have taken place in the Sabarmati jail in recent weeks which go to
show that all is not right with its administration. But it is clear
from the testimony of the relatives of the victims and the admission
of the police officers that the chain of events has been triggered off
with the coming of the new Jail Superintendent who stopped long
standing practices of taking ill and injured inmates to the civil
hospital, provision of highly specialized medicine and curtailed other
rights. It was in response to this that the prisoners went on a highly
publicized hunger strike.
The committee will submit a detailed report in a couple of weeks. But
it is important to record its preliminary findings and
recommendations.
Initial observation of the team
Beating of the Jail inmates are admitted in an affidavit filed by Jail
authority.
Draconian jail manual laid down by the British is followed till date,
even though parts of it are contradictory to our Constitution.
Advocates and relatives of the inmates were not allowed to meet for a
long time, which is a serious violation of Prisoners’ Rights.
No FIR of the relatives has been registered till date.
Inspire of 22 prisoners suffering injuries, some of them being
fractures, they were treated within the jail as our patients
correctly, they should have been admitted to civil hospital.
We demand that-
National Human Rights Commission should intervene on the issue and
report to the Supreme Court.
Proper medical help should be given by the civil hospital.
PUCL Gujarat and Human Rights groups should be allowed to meet and
gather first hand information.
Sd/-
Dr John Dayal- 09811021072
Prof J S Badukwala
Dr SQR Ilyas
Mr. Gautam Thakar, Secretary
http://www.sabrang.com/news/2009/17apr09.htm
The Art of Not Writing
The Art of Not Writing
March 31, 2009
How does the media in Chhattisgarh report the conflict between the
Naxalites and the Salwa Judum, or the conflict between local
communities and corporations? Quite simply, it doesn’t. The pressures
on journalists in Chhattisgarh are unique. They are paid not to report
stories that are critical of the powers-that- be, whether they are
industrial lobbies or state authorities. Shubhranshu Choudhary
writes.
I was in Bhairamgarh to cover a Salwa Judum rally. Bhairamgarh is a
small town in the Bijapur district of southern Chhattisgarh where
the State is engaged in a bloody war with the Maoists.According to
the government, the Salwa Judum is a "spontaneous
people’s movement" against Maoists; human rights activists call it a
brutal State-created militia.
The rally was scheduled to pass along narrow tribal paths deep in
the jungle where no vehicle can go. So the Salwa Judum leader
Mahendra Karma very kindly arranged for me to ride on the back of a
motorcycle. The bike moved easily through the jungle, weaving in and
out of several tribal groups en route to the rally. I discovered in
the course of my conversation with the bike rider that he was a local
journalist. Indeed, the ride turned into a crash course in local
journalism for me.
The journalist worked for one of the top dailies in Chhattisgarh."How
much salary do you get," I asked him. "I do not get a salary," he
replied. "Oh, so how do you earn a living?" "By not writing," was the
answer.
Noting my surprise, he clarified.
"Journalism here is the art of not writing," he said. "I earn around
Rs 5,000 every month by not writing." I still could not make sense of
what he was saying.
"Being journalists, we know who is doing what; the ins and the outs
of corrupt practice, and the perpetrators," he continued. "We get a
fee for not writing about the corruption. That is our salary."
He added: "Not only do we not get a salary, we spend from our own
pockets to collect and send the news to the head office. It is still
worth our while. There are a handful of journalists in the district
headquarters who do get a token salary. But in reality they earn many
times more than that."
"It is an easy profession for making money," he explained. "As we
know good things about the Salwa Judum, similarly we also know all the
bad things about the Salwa Judum. But we do not write about the bad
things, for obvious reasons," he added, watching leader of the Salwa
Judum, Mahendra Karma, who was standing nearby. Karma is also leader
of the opposition in Chhattisgarh.
Almost every newspaper in Chhattisgarh still refers to the Salwa
Judum as a "peaceful people’s movement" even though there are numerous
reports in the national press about human rights violations
perpetrated by the group.
After the rally, I proceeded to Dhurli village to cover a possible
meeting between Essar and local villagers. The corporate house was
seeking a no objection certificate (NOC) from local landowners to set
up a plant.
When we reached Dhurli, a group of villagers approached us and said
threateningly: "You must be a broker for Essar." They spotted our
camera, paused a bit, but then added: "All journalists are also
brokers of the industrialists. You must leave the village. We do not
want to talk to you."
I was shocked at the level of hatred for journalists in the village.
In Dantewada town, after hearing my story, some journalists explained
to me in great detail how much Essar was paying journalists to "keep
their mouths shut". They could not give me any proof, unfortunately.
People in Dhurli had told me: "Tell the government, if they want to
take our land they must first kill us. They can take this land only
over our dead bodies."
Back in Delhi, I was amazed to read a report by the Indo Asian News
Service claiming that the people of Dhurli had agreed to give their
land to Essar. They were so happy with Essar’s rehabilitation package,
the report said, that they had written a letter to the government
expressing their willingness to give away their land.
The report received prominent coverage by newspapers like The Times
of India, The Hindu Business Line and The Economic Times.
It also furnished details of how many people had signed the letter
and to whom the letter had been given.
I could not believe it! The story must be true, I thought, if so many
papers had carried it.
After reflecting on this for a few days, I could not help calling
the officer named in the newspaper report. SDM Ambalgam was shocked:
"What letter? And which newspaper are you talking about," she asked.
"I have not got any letter, and no one has agreed to give land as far
as I know." "Have they given the letter to another officer," I
ventured to
ask. "No. I am the officer in charge of land acquisition here. Even
if they had given the letter to another officer it would have come to
me," she replied. "I can’t believe what you are saying," she added.
I faxed the articles to Ambalgam, at her request. She issued a show
cause notice to Essar asking for an explanation for the news item.
The article also featured a quote from the head of Essar in
Chhattisgarh commenting on the "letter from the villagers".
According to Ambalgam, Essar replied saying it had been misled by the
reporter.
Ambalgam was subsequently transferred from Dantewada. No one
followed the matter up with the reporter or the newspaper.
That incident prompted me to look more carefully at news items being
generated from Raipur in the national newspapers. This is what I
found.
The Indian Express carried a report on the front page saying that
Naxals had killed three farmers because they had continued farming in
defiance of a Naxal ban on all farm activities.
I had not heard of any Naxal ban on farming whilst I was there! A few
phone calls told me that the three people had indeed been killed by
Naxals but that the killings had no connection with farming.
Farming was on full swing in Chintagufa village, I was told. These
people were killed because of their alleged connection with the
police, not because they were farming," former sarpanch of Chintagufa
told me over the phone.
If I was able to speak to the people of Chintagufa by phone to
crosscheck a story from Delhi, why couldn’t journalists from Raipur do
the same? I wrote about this in my column in a local daily the
following week.
No one took notice of the article. In fact, the very next day The
Times of India carried the same old story about Naxals attacking
farmers because of the ban.
Some journalists told me, off the record, from which intelligence
officer’s desk the story had been generated. But they could not
provide any proof. "The officer gave the story only to his trusted
ones," a journalist explained.
In the meantime I had begun working on a story about farmer suicides
in Chhattisgarh. I was shocked to find that, according to National
Crime Records Bureau figures, Chhattisgarh has the highest number of
farmer suicides in the country, each year.
Despite the alarming numbers, and eight years after the state came
into existence, not a single journalist in Chhattisgarh had written
about it!
I mentioned this in my column. Shortly after, there was an article
on the front page of the paper with the headline, ‘Everybody loves a
good fraud; untruth of farmer suicides in Chhattisgarh’ . The article
called the National Crime Records Bureau data a lie, to which,
astonishingly, the Bureau did not respond — a basic journalistic
procedural
requirement.
My column in the local newspaper was stopped. After years I was
suddenly told that my writing was inaccurate and full of lies!
Journalists who do not wish to be named have told me: "We want to
write the story of farmer suicides. We can see it happening around us.
But the story will go against the government and then the government
will stop (publishing) advertisements in our newspapers. So we cannot
write the story."
Kamlesh Painkra’s story The story of Kamlesh Painkra probably best
explains the situation of journalists in Chhattisgarh today.
Painkra was the first journalist to write about human rights
violations by the Salwa Judum. Following his report, he was told by
the local superintendent of police (SP) to apologise and admit that
his story had been a mistake.
When Painkra refused, he lost his job. His brother, who was a
teacher, was put behind bars, ostensibly for sheltering Naxalites.
The district administration cancelled Painkra’s licence to sell
public distribution system (PDS) grain in the local market for no
apparent reason. It was his main source of income.
Painkra was finally forced to flee his home, taking his family with
him, when a friendly policeman told him that the police was going to
kill him in an "encounter". They still live like refugees.
No local newspaper reported his ordeal. I tried to help out by asking
a few editor friends to hire him as their Dantewada district
correspondent. Painkra now lives in Dantewada after fleeing his home
district of Bijapur.
Painkra was hired, but the fine print of his appointment letter was
interesting. The letter stated that his salary would be Rs 3,000 a
month. It went on to say that he would also have to collect
advertisements worth Rs 20,000 every month and that his salary would
be a proportion of the amount he managed to collect.
"That means that if the advertising money goes down the salary will go
down accordingly," Painkra explained.
He declined the offer, saying: "If I have to collect Rs 20,000 every
month in a town with a population of less than 25,000, you can imagine
from whom I will have to collect the advertisements. How can I do any
journalism after that?"
Last month, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) bulldozed
Painkra’s house in Bijapur to make room for a volleyball ground for
soldiers. There were no reports in the papers about this. Painkra’s
family was not informed of the demolition. Nor was any compensation
paid to them.
The pressures on journalists in Chhattisgarh are special. Some time
ago, the Naxals sent an audio CD to every newspaper office in Raipur.
The CD contained, among other things, a recording of a conversation,
via walkie-talkie, between the same superintendent of police, Bijapur,
who had threatened Painkra, and his deputy.
During the conversation, the SP tells his subordinate: "Keep an eye
on the area and if you see any journalists just kill them."
The government reacted by saying the recording was bogus. Police
officials in private accept that the voice was indeed that of the SP
and that the Naxals had tuned into his conversation on the walkie-
talkie.
No national newspaper covered the news. The SP was sent to work in
the State Human Rights Commission.
(Shubhranshu Choudhary is a founder-member of the Citizens Journalism
initiative in Chhattisgarh, CGnet (www.cgnet.in)
Ammu Joseph <ammuj...@yahoo.co.in>
http://www.sabrang.com/news/2009/31mar09.htm
Cultural Policing in Dakshina Kannada
http://www.sabrang.com/reports/Cultural%20Policing%20in%20Dakshina%20Kannada%20Book-1.pdf
THE GRANDCHILDREN OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS FROM WORLD WAR II
ARE DOING TO THE PALESTINIANS EXACTLY
Deutschland Uber Alles
THE GRANDCHILDREN OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS FROM WORLD WAR II ARE DOING
TO THE PALESTINIANS EXACTLY WHAT WAS DONE TO THEM BY NAZI GERMANY…
01.16.2009 | ?
…PLEASE FORWARD…
BUILDING WALLS & FENCES TO KEEP PEOPLE IN PRISONS
Hitler Israel now
CHECK POINTS NOT TO ALLOW PEOPLE BASIC FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT
ARRESTS & HARASSMENTS
DESTROYING HOMES & LIVELIHOODS
GIFTS (WITH LOVE) FROM THE CHILDREN OF PEACE-LOVING & CIVILIZED
COUNTRIES
THE CLASSIC PROPAGANDA MACHINE - YOU WILL FIND THE PICTURE IN BLACK &
WHITE IN ALL AMERICAN AND SOME OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES HISTORY BOOKS,
ENCYCLOPAEDIAS, LIBRARIES, MUSEUMS… THAT DEPICTS A YOUNG JEWISH BOY
WITH HIS HANDS UP WHILE NAZI TROOPS POINT THEIR GUNS AT HIM AND HIS
FAMILY IN ORDER TO EXPEL THEM FROM THEIR HOMES… (IT’S SUPPOSED TO MAKE
YOU SYMPATHIZE WITH THE VICTIMS & TO SUPPORT THEIR CAUSE FOR JUSTICE &
A HOMELAND)
THE ISRAELIS PRACTICE THE SAME TACTICS
…PLEASE FORWARD…
http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/deutschland-uber-alles/
WHAT WAS DONE TO THEM BY NAZI GERMANY...
Happy Valentine's Day, Mr.Thackeray (06/02/08)
February 6,
2009
Happy Valentine's Day, Mr.Thackeray
I am a proud Indian. Not only in the context of the interesting times
that we live in, when we seem on the verge of becoming a global
superpower, but also for much of what it has stood for down the ages.
Though admittedly, I do not share the imbecile pride of the uninformed
who believe that we are the font of all civilization & that had it not
been for us the rest of the world would still be walking around sans
knickers. In the middle of all this heady & contentious pride, let's
stop for a moment to consider just what made my great-great-great-
grandpop, & yours, tick .
They were bright, progressive & resourceful. What other kind of people
could have INVENTED the zero, numerous grand architectural styles,
besides finding the time to compose some of the world's greatest
literary works, among other things?
They were also opportunists. Here I beg to differ from those who think
of opportunism as a four-letter word (Jeez! Learn to count!), because
to me it simply denotes the ability to know a good thing when you see
it. Now I know that you are not supposed to pocket every good thing
that you lay your eyes on (though you can certainly try it at your own
peril), but when it comes to concepts & ideas, we can hardly be
accused of plagiarism if we make a good thing our own (The entire
world uses the decimal system. Doesn't it? And have we ever
complained??)
Stitched-clothing came to our part of the world with the coming of the
Muslim invaders, & all of us ,including Mr.Thackeray, wear stitched
clothes. Right? Gun-powder was invented by the Chinese ,& along with
the rest of the world, we too make extensive use of it without
bothering about its origins. Right? Mr.Thackeray can't seem to do
without those humungous glasses perpetually perched on the bridge of
his nose, & he also seems to love his cigars & his beer, but does he
know that these were not invented locally? Now most of us have no
qualms using any of these, but someone really ought to inform
Mr.Thackeray. I'm sure he'd like to swap them for something that was
invented by his great-great-great-grandpop, or mine (May I offer you a
beedi & tharra, Mr.Thackeray? Or maybe I should first confirm if we've
always owned the patent on those either). And does he know that Hindi
is the bastard child of
Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic & a whole lot of other tongues? Coming to
think of it, he probably does. He probably believes that his great-
great-great-grandpop, & mine, used to chat in Marathi when they were
still swinging from trees.
His professed world-view seems to suggest that we had a perfect past,
& that the present leaves a lot to be desired. But coming to think of
it, weren't the practices of Sati, Child-marriage, Thuggie, Dev-dasis,
etc., etc., a part of this glorious past of ours? And is it not a fact
that had it not been for our forced encounter with the west, education
would have remained the sole preserve of the privileged? I guess the
list can just go on & on, but please don't think that I am trying to
project our truly glorious culture in a bad-light. I wouldn't do that
because I'm too proud of it; but the best part is that I couldn't do
that even if I tried. Like any human-being, a culture too has its
moles, warts & scars; but they can not take away from it its essential
goodness ,or rob it of the credit it deserves for the achievements of
its people. The only point that I'm trying to make here is that the
reason why our civilization has survived & flourished for so long is
that it has managed to stay relevant. Always. We may never have been
without our flaws, but we have always had the flexibility needed to
improve. If something makes a person happy, & doesn't cause any harm
to the other members of the society, he should be able to just go
ahead & do it. Eg. if two people of any sex happen to fall in love,
they should be able to live their love regardless of the view taken by
others; but then that has never been acceptable to the homophobic
Mr.Thackeray, who feels that homosexuality is un-Indian (or atleast un-
hindu), regardless of what the Khajuraho temples & the Kamasutra might
suggest. But hang-on, perhaps we going too far overboard in assuming
that Mr.Thackeray has ever visited Khajuraho or read the Kamasutra?
So our wise forefathers, without much ado, took to wearing stitched
clothes, wearing glasses, speaking English & traveling across the seas
(which, incidently, was considered a sin till not too long ago)
realizing that society is a growth in time. So, much as Mr.Thackeray
might like to believe otherwise, our culture did not flourish by
sticking to a bunch of rules put together on day-one, but by forever
aligning itself with changing circumstances.
Holi, Diwali, & all other festivals, are little more than well-thought
out reasons to break the monotony of our lives. They provide us with a
reason to make merry, even if our own lives may not quite furnish us
with a reason to rejoice at that given moment. Valentine's Day is
hardly any different. It offers the young ,& the not-so- young, a
chance to express their affection for the ones they love. Now I hope
that Mr.Thackeray hasn't classified us as a loveless people, because
that's the last thing that we are. As for "remaining true to our
culture",as defined by Mr.Thackeray, I'd love to see him explain the
now-extinct practice where the entire village was treated as one
family, with all men enjoying equal right of cohabitation with all the
women. Since Mr.Thackeray doesn't seem terribly well-informed, he
might like to know that this practice existed even in post-
independence India, in parts of Ladakh, Bastar & among the Santhals.
Just as every individual needs to grow up, so does every culture need
to come of age. If a sixty year old man chasing teen-age girls looks
ridiculous, so would a four thousand year old culture trying to stick
to the practices that it had spawned in its infancy. Isn't that what
makes Wahhabism such a scourge for the entire world?
And you know what? In my opinion Mr.Thackeray isn't even sincere in
his self-appointed role as the protector of our culture. He's an aging
man who is addicted to the lime-light. So as long as a thing can help
keep him in the news, anything goes. The way he sees it, while he
continues to get his jollies issuing insincere "fatwas" against all &
sundry, no one loses too much since the issue is allowed to fizzle out
any way in a fort-night or so. He's done it on countless occasions in
the past, & he will continue to do it until everyone is able to see
him for the one-trick-political-monkey that he is. The sad bit is that
the youth of this country is being made to pay a price for having been
born in the same land as the sound-byte-crazy-charlatan. The young are
mostly too timid to fight it out over their right to love as they
please. And can you blame them? I mean, what good (besides martyrdom)
can come off fighting against Mr.Thackeray's goon-squads? One would
logically expect the state to step in to curtail Mr.Thackeray's
menace, but the state has already exposed its impotence by not daring
to arrest him despite his being indicted for inciting communal-
violence.
I think Mr.Thackeray went on record saying that no "company" will be
allowed to dictate to Indians on how to express love. Well even if
Valentine's Day is a Hallmark conspiracy, does anyone really care?
Atleast it makes a lot of people happy! But I guess that is not
something that one can logically expect Mr.Thackeray to understand.
After all, all of his life's achievements have resulted from his
ability to incite fear!
Having vented my spleen on Mr.Thackeray's busy-body nuisance, let me
now come to a theory that I can't stop smiling about. I don't think
that anybody's ever "loved" the poor sod, in any commonly accepted
meaning of the term. And like the Grinch who hated Christmas-cheer
enough to steal it, Mr.Thackeray has assembled a small army of
similarly love-deprived individuals (The Shiv-sena) to do his bidding.
My heart goes out to him & his kind.
It would probably be too much to expect any sane individual to
actually fall in love with this unfortunate lot who have been singled
out by evolution for weeding, but charity isn't beyond us. Is it? So
ladies & "gentlemen" (You never know what might work ;) ), let us all
make a point of sending Valentine's Day greetings to Mr.Thackeray,
just so he'd know just how good it feels to feel wanted & loved. I'm
fairly certain that the year after that Mr.Thackeray will be at the
forefront fighting any other demagogue who might speak against love &
all that helps the cause of love.
As for the "Great Indian Culture", its glorious march down the ages
will continue unabated .Even, & specially, without Mr.Thackeray's
unwelcome assistance .
http://www.sabrang.com/news/2009/6feb09.htm
South Africa Dock Workers refuse to offload
Israeli ship! (03/02/08)
February 3,
2009
SA Dock Workers refuse to offload Israeli ship!
Media Statement | | February 3, 2009
In a historic development for South Africa, South African dock workers
have announced their determination not to offload a ship from Israel
that is scheduled to dock in Durban on Sunday, 8 February 2009. This
follows the decision by Cosatu to strengthen the campaign in South
Africa for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Apartheid
Israel.
The pledge by Satawu (South African Transport and Allied Workers
Union) members in Durban reflects the commitment by South African
workers to refuse to support oppression and exploitation across the
globe. Last year, Durban dock workers refused to offload a shipment of
arms that had arrived from China and was destined for Zimbabwe. Now,
says Satawu's General Secretary Randall Howard, the union's members
are committing themselves not to handle Israeli goods.
Satawu's action on Sunday will be part of a proud history of worker
resistance against apartheid. In 1963, just four years after the Anti-
Apartheid Movement was formed, Danish dock workers refused to offload
a ship with South African goods. When the ship docked in Sweden,
Swedish workers followed suit. Dock workers in Liverpool and, later,
in the San Francisco Bay Area also refused to offload South African
goods. South Africans, and the South African working class in
particular, will remain forever grateful to those workers who
determinedly opposed apartheid and decided that they would support the
anti-apartheid struggle with their actions.
This is the legacy and the tradition that South African dock workers
have inherited, and it is a legacy they are determined to honour.
Last week, members of the Western Australian members of the Maritime
Union of Australia resolved to support the campaign for boycotts,
divestment and sanctions against Israel and have called for a boycott
of all Israeli vessels and all vessels bearing goods arriving from or
going to Israel.
Cosatu, the PSC and many other organisations salute the principled
position taken by these workers.
In celebration of the actions of Satawu members with regard to the
ship from Israel, and in pursuance of the campaign for boycotts,
divestment and sanctions against Israel, and our call on the South
African government to sever diplomatic and trade relations with
Israel, this coalition of organisations has declared a week of action
beginning on Friday, 6 February 2009. These actions follow marches and
rallies held throughout the country over the past month involving tens
of thousands of South Africans in all provinces. Activities that have
already been confirmed for this week will include:
* Friday, 6 February: A protest outside the offices of the South
African Zionist Federation and the South African Jewish Board of
Deputies, 2 Elray Street, Raedene, off Louis Botha. Both these
organisations unquestioningly supported the recent Israeli attacks
against Gaza, and supported the massacre of civilians and the attacks
on schools, mosques, ambulances, and UN refugee centres. Protestors
will be addressed by, among others, Satawu General Secretary Randall
Howard, and ex-Minister Ronnie Kasrils. Protest starts at 14:00.
* Friday, 6 February: A picket outside parliament in Cape Town. Cosatu
members and solidarity activists will be joined by a number of members
of parliament. Picket starts at 09:30.
* Friday, 6 February: A mass rally in Actonville, Benoni, at the Buzme
Adab Hall. The rally will be addressed by, among others, Cosatu
General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, South African Council of Churches
General Secretary Eddie Makue, ex-Minister Ronnie Kasrils and Salim
Vally from the PSC. Rally starts at 19:30.
* Sunday, 8 February: A protest at the Durban Harbour Mouth, off
Victoria Embankment. Protestors will be addressed by, among others,
Cosatu President Sdumo Dlamini. Protest starts at 10:00.
* Sunday 8 February: A mass rally in Cape Town at Vygieskraal Rugby
Stadium. The rally will be addressed by, among others, Cosatu General
Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, and Allan Boesak. Rally starts at 14:30.
Cosatu and the PSC will inform members of the media of other
activities as details are confirmed.
For further information contact:
Patrick Craven (Cosatu spokesperson)
Bongani Masuku (Cosatu international Relations officer)
Melissa Hole (PSC)
Na'eem Jeenah (PSC)
Salim Vally (PSC)
http://www.pacbi.org/boycott_news_more.php?id=906_0_1_0_C
http://www.sabrang.com/news/2009/3feb09.htm
Joint Statement by Indians and Pakistanis (pdf)
A group of Indian and Pakistani intellectuals who met in Delhi
during
past two days have issued the following statement at the end of
the gathering (08/01/09)
http://www.sabrang.com/news/2009/Indian-Pakistan.pdf
Terror: The Aftermath -- Anand Patwardhan (18/12/08)
A Message of Communal Harmony and National
Integration from Malegaon
Anand Patwardhan
November 2008
Terror: The Aftermath
The attack on Mumbai is over. After the numbing sorrow comes the blame
game and the solutions. Loud voices amplified by saturation TV: Why
don't we amend our Constitution to create new anti-terror laws? Why
don't we arm our police with AK 47s? Why don't we do what Israel did
after Munich or the USA did after 9/11 and hot pursue the enemy?
Solutions that will lead us further into the abyss. For terror is a
self-fulfilling prophecy. It thrives on reaction, polarization,
militarization and the thirst for revenge.
The External Terror
Those who invoke America need only to analyze if its actions after
9/11 increased or decreased global terror. It invaded oil-rich Iraq
fully knowing that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, killing over
200,000 Iraqis citizens but allowing a cornered Bin Laden to escape
from Afghanistan. It recruited global support for Islamic militancy,
which began to be seen as a just resistance against American mass
murder. Which begs the question of who created Bin Laden in the first
place, armed the madarsas of Pakistan and rejuvenated the concept of
Islamic jehad? Israel played its own role in stoking the fires of
jehad. The very creation of Israel in 1948 robbed Palestinians of
their land, an act that Mahatma Gandhi to his credit deplored at the
time as an unjust way to redress the wrongs done to Jews during the
Holocaust. What followed has been a slow and continuing attack on the
Palestinian nation. At first Palestinian resistance was led by secular
forces represented by Yasser Arafat but as these were successfully
undermined, Islamic forces took over the mantle. The first, largely
non-violent Intifada was crushed, a second more violent one replaced
it and when all else failed, human bombs appeared.
Thirty years ago when I first went abroad there were two countries my
Indian passport forbade me to visit. One was racist South Africa. The
other was Israel. We were non-aligned and stood for disarmament and
world peace. Today Israel and America are our biggest military allies.
Is it surprising that we are on the jehadi hit list? Israel, America
and other prosperous countries can to an extent protect themselves
against the determined jehadi, but can India put an impenetrable
shield over itself? Remember that when attackers are on a suicide
mission, the strongest shields have crumbled. New York was laid low
not with nuclear weapons but with a pair of box cutters. India is for
many reasons a quintessentially soft target. Our huge population, vast
landmass and coastline are impossible to protect. The rich may build
new barricades. The Taj and the Oberoi can be made safer. So can our
airports and planes. Can our railway stations and trains, bus stops,
busses, markets and lanes do the same?
The Terror Within
The threat of terror in India does not come exclusively from the
outside. Apart from being hugely populated by the poor India is also a
country divided, not just between rich and poor, but by religion,
caste and language. This internal divide is as potent a breeding
ground for terror as jehadi camps abroad. Nor is jehad the copyright
of one religion alone. It can be argued that international causes
apart, India has jehadis that are fully home grown. Perhaps the
earliest famous one was Nathuram Godse who acting at the behest of his
mentor Vinayak Savarkar (still referred to as "Veer" or "brave"
although he refused to own up to his role in the conspiracy), murdered
Mahatma Gandhi for the crime of championing Muslims.
Jump forward to 6th December, 1992, the day Hindu fanatics demolished
the Babri Mosque setting into motion a chain of events that still
wreaks havoc today. From the Bombay riots of 1992 to the bomb blasts
of 1993, the Gujarat pogroms of 2002 and hundreds of smaller deadly
events, the last 16 years have been the bloodiest since Partition.
Action has been followed by reaction in an endless cycle of escalating
retribution. At the core on the Hindu side of terror are organizations
that openly admire Adolph Hitler, nursing the hate of historic wrongs
inflicted by Muslims. Ironically these votaries of Hitler remain
friends and admirers of Israel.
On the Muslim side of terror are scores of disaffected youth, many of
whom have seen their families tortured and killed in more recent
pogroms. Christians too have fallen victim to recent Hindutva terror
but as yet not formed the mechanisms for revenge. Dalits despite
centuries of caste oppression, have not yet retaliated in violence
although a small fraction is being drawn into an armed struggle waged
by Naxalites.
It is clear that no amount of spending on defense, no amount of
patrolling the high seas, no amount of increasing the military and
police and equipping them with the latest weaponry can end the cycle
of violence or place India under a bubble of safety. Just as nuclear
India did not lead to more safety, but only to a nuclear Pakistan, no
amount of homeland security can save us. And inviting Israel's Mossad
and America's CIA/FBI to the security table is like giving the anti-
virus contract to those who spread the virus in the first place. It
can only make us more of a target for the next determined jehadi
attack.
Policing, Justice and the Media
As for draconian anti-terror laws, they too only breed terror as for
the most part they are implemented by a State machinery that has
imbibed majoritarian values. So in Modi's Gujarat after the ethnic
cleansing of Muslims in 2002, despite scores of confessions to rape
and murder captured on hidden camera, virtually no Hindu extremists
were punished while thousands of Muslims rotted in jail under
draconian laws. The same happened in Bombay despite the Shiv Sena
being found guilty by the Justice Shrikrishna Commission. Under
pressure a few cases were finally brought to trial but all escaped
with the lightest of knuckle raps. In stark contrast many Muslims
accused in the 1993 bomb blasts were given death sentences.
The bulk of our media, policing and judicial systems swallows the
canard that Muslims are by nature violent. Removing democratic
safeguards guaranteed by the Constitution can only make this worse.
Every act of wrongful imprisonment and torture that then follows is
likely to turn innocents into material for future terrorists to draw
upon. Already the double standards are visible. While the Students
Islamic Movement of India is banned, Hindutva outfits like the RSS,
the VHP, the Bajrang Dal, and the Shiv Sena remain legal entities. The
leader of the MNS, Raj Thackeray recently openly spread such hatred
that several north Indians were killed by lynch mobs. Amongst these
were the Dube brothers, doctors from Kalyan who treated the poor for a
grand fee of Rs.10 per patient. Raj Thackeray like his uncle Bal
before him, remains free after issuing public threats that Bombay
would burn if anyone had the guts to arrest him. Modi remains free
despite the pogroms of Gujarat. Congress party murderers of Sikhs in
1984 remain free. Justice in India is clearly not there for all.
Increasing the powers of the police cannot solve this problem. Only
honest and unbiased implementation of laws that exist, can.
It is a tragedy of the highest proportions that one such honest
policeman, Anti-Terrorist Squad chief Hemant Karkare, who had begun to
unravel the thread of Hindutva terror was himself gunned down, perhaps
by Muslim terror. It is reported that Col. Purohit and fellow Hindutva
conspirators now in judicial custody, celebrated the news of Karkare's
death. Until Karkare took charge, the Malegaon bomb blasts in which
Muslims were killed and the Samjhauta Express blasts in which
Pakistani visitors to India were killed were being blamed on Muslims.
Karkare exposed a hitherto unknown Hindutva outfit as masterminding a
series of killer blasts across the country. For his pains Karkare came
under vicious attack not just from militant Hindutva but from the
mainstream BJP. He was under tremendous pressure to prove his
patriotism. Was it this that led this senior officer to don helmet and
ill-fitting bullet proof vest and rush into battle with a pistol? Or
was it just his natural instinct, the same courage that had led him
against all odds, to expose Hindutva terror?
Whatever it was, it only underlines the fact that jehadis of all kinds
are actually allies of each other. So Bin Laden served George Bush and
vice-versa. So Islamic and Hindutva jehadis have served each other for
years. Do they care who dies? Of the 200 people killed in the last few
days by Islamic jehadis, a high number were Muslims. Many were waiting
to board trains to celebrate Eid in their hometowns in UP and Bihar,
when their co-religionists gunned them down. Shockingly the media has
not commented on this, nor focused on the tragedy at the railway
station, choosing to concentrate on tragedies that befell the well-to-
do. And it is the media that is leading the charge to turn us into a
war-mongering police state where we may lead lives with an illusion of
safety, but with the certainty of joylessness.
I am not arguing that we do not need efficient security at public
places and at vulnerable sites. But real security will only come when
it is accompanied by real justice, when the principles of democracy
are implemented in every part of the country, when the legitimate
grievances of people are not crushed, when the arms race is replaced
by a race for decency and humanity, when our children grow up in an
atmosphere where religious faith is put to the test of reason. Until
such time we will remain at the mercy of "patriots" and zealots.
http://www.sabrang.com/news/2008/18dec08.htm
`AMCHI MUMBAI’ – Many questions, some lessons,
Lalita Ramdas
AMCHI MUMBAI’ – Many questions, some lessons, Lalita Ramdas
“Beware of the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the
citizenry into patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-
edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind.
And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood
boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need
in seizing the rights of the citizenry, [who] infused with fear and
blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the
leader and gladly so. How will I know? For this I have done. And I am
Julius Caesar.” William Shakespere
***********************************************************************
My mother tells me that at the age of three my favourite past time was
to be taken for a walk to the Gateway of India from Dhanraj Mahal
where we lived during the war years. Occasionally she would take me
into the Taj for a pastry and to talk to some of the Navy Uncles in
their white uniforms because I was missing Papa who was out at sea..
Some sixty five years later – settled in this village of Bhaimala in
Alibag Taluka – the magic of approaching the familiar skyline of the
Gateway and the Taj hotel by boat from Mandwa is still very special –
no matter how many times we have made that crossing. I wondered if
those boys who landed on the night of the 26th, had ever seen the
magic of Mumbai from seaward during the day – and if they had a moment
of doubt at what they had set out to demolish.
Ah Bombay, we had seen the best of times, and today we are seeing the
worst of times – not just for Mumbai, India and Indians, but for our
neighbours, especially for the people of Pakistan – who,like us, are
victims of the legacy of colonization and a bitter partition which
gave us our independence. Bombay has been the port city which has
been home to the Indian Navy for the longest time, and as daughter
and wife of two navy persons [both of whom rose to head the service
as the first and the eleventh Navy Chiefs,] , Mumbai was my city too.
I wept tears of disbelief, anguish and anger as I watched the images
of the wanton attack on so many symbols of our growing up years in
South Bombay. I too shared the pride and relief of many as the
commandos and police finally ended the siege; and I too mourned the
tragic loss of innocent lives from all walks of life. Such a waste and
for little apparent gain.
Today we are seeing a new group of Mumbaikers on the streets – coming
from the class that has typically kept aloof from activism and any
political involvement. This is a good thing in many ways, it is
important that people feel strongly enough to get out and make their
voices heard. as they cry out `Enough is Enough’. It is important
also to understand what has changed this time and what it is that they
are saying enough to.
Yes we the people DO need to raise our voices to protest – but let us
be clear about what we are protesting for and against. Yes we the
people have a right to demand that the state be responsible for our
security and that politicians be held accountable. And yes, let us
never forget that this right of demanding accountability and
protesting its absence is one that is fundamental to every citizen in
this democracy – regardless of our religion, language, caste or
community, our social or economic status or our political
affiliations. This has been guaranteed to us by the Constitution of
India.
In the last few days I have read with mixed feelings a wide range of
emails and news items from across the country as also watched the
invariably dramatized images and analyses in the electronic media.. It
is impossible not to be affected one way or other. I have also
received several phone calls from friends – several of them Muslim –
worried about what is happening, feeling the pressure to stand up and
be counted among the `patriotic’ Indians; a pressure that we non-
Muslims do not have to face.
One of the most disturbing mails in my inbox today was entitled `We
Need Leaders like this’ – an account extolling recent actions by John
Howard the Australian PM as he lashed out at Muslims in Australia in
an effort to pre-empt `Islamic terror’ in his country. And at the
end of the harangue he tells them that they either accept the laws and
customs of the land or avail of the Right to Leave. We are asked to
circulate this widely – with the message that this is what needs to be
done in India too. The implications are chilling and it took time to
sink in . In a sense it was not surprising – the slow communalization
of Indian society has been taking place insidiously over decades. Only
now is it being stated so explicitly. While the right wing have
consciously pushed this agenda, the others who flaunt their secular
credentials have also virtually allowed this sub-text to go
unchallenged.. It seems that the People of India will need to ask
ourselves what kind of society we really want and the answers might be
very different depending on who we are, where we live, how we live,
and if we feel we belong.
The Extract below, from a piece by Suddhabrata Sengupta in a Punjabi
website called WICHAAR, sums up the problem succinctly.
“While the agents of the attack in Bombay may have been genuinely
motivated by their own twisted understanding of Islam, they have
demonstrated that they have no hesitation in putting millions of
Indian Muslims in harms way by exposing them to the risk of a long
drawn out of spiral of retaliation. We need to underscore that they
killed 40 innocent, unarmed Muslims (roughly 20 % of the current total
casualty figures of 179) while they unleashed their brutal force on
Bombay. The terrorists who authored their deaths cannot by any stretch
of imagination be seen as partisans or friends of Islam. They are the
enemy of us all, and especially of those amongst us who happen to be
Muslims, for they jeopardize the safety and security of all Muslims in
India by unleashing yet another wave of suspicion and prejudice
against ordinary Muslims.”
In the course of a long and thought provoking piece which he calls the
DEBRIS OF TERROR, Sengupta also speaks of the ironies and also the
utter senselessness of this attack:
““No redemptive, just, honourable or worthwhile politically
transformatory objectives can be met, or even invoked, by attacking a
mass transit railway station, a restaurant, a hotel or a hospital. The
holding of hostages in a centre of worship and comfort for travellers
cannot and does not challenge any form of the state oppression
anywhere.
By helping to unleash calls for war, by eliminating (unwittingly
perhaps) those that have been investigating the links between fringe
far right groups and home grown terror, by provoking once again the
demand for stronger and more lethal legislation for preventive
detention (in the form of a revived or resuscitated POTA), these
terrorists have done statist and authoritarian politics in India its
biggest favour.”
And it is for these reasons that it is so critical in the present
context that we as responsible citizens of India, exercise both reason
and restraint, before we impetuously demand carpet bombing of
Pakistan; self righteously refuse to pay taxes, contemptuously
dismiss those who advocate people to people contact with our
neighbours, and in the same breath, accuse Indian Muslims of being in
some way the fifth columnists in our midst who have to demonstrate
their patriotism and loyalty at every moment.
Over the years, through the course of my own work with human rights,
peace, justice and environment, it is increasingly clear that the
issue of loyalty or disloyalty , patriotism or lack of it, comes in
many forms and is to be found at many levels. Patriotism is certainly
not the exclusive preserve of one class or one community. We would do
well to scrutinise the actions and allegiances of many who call
themselves nationalists, who demand and have control over wealth and
privilege; but who do not hesitate to plunder our forests, take over
our fields and homes for private profit, displace millions from their
homes, and then scream for financial help when the markets drop!
A TIME TO ASK THE DIFFICULT QUESTIONS………………..
Yes – it is highly likely that today’s military establishment in
Pakistan has encouraged and trained terrorists , but will going to war
solve the core issues between us? Three wars down the road we are no
closer to solving many of the intractable issues between us, including
Kashmir.- so what should the road ahead look like?
Is the phenomenon of terrorism peculiar to Islam alone? Should we be
going back in time and history to look at guerilla movements and the
use of force by the State? Struggles for self-determination? What have
been the common factors that have led people to take up armed
struggle? What about those millions of decent god fearing Muslims who
have no truck with terror, terrorism or Jihad – except in its real
interpretation of a struggle within each individual..
Perhaps the phrase `enough is enough’ should be applied more
rigorously to our own track record of violence – often genocidal -
across the sub-continent – starting with partition.
The birth of Bangladesh was rooted in a basic ethnic and linguistic
division among Muslims of East and West Pakistan……The Tamils and
Sinhalas are locked in ethnic battles in a predominantly Buddhist
country; Nepal has struggled long with violence and poverty but has
also replaced Monarchy with a Maoist government in a predominantly
Hindu country.
For many of us personally the carnage and bloodshed of 1984 following
the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, when thousands of
innocent Sikhs were slaughtered by their `Hindu’ neighbours as the
state stood by and watched, was a kind of wake up call. But 1984 also
brought out the best in a whole generation of young and old citizens
of the capital who dropped their work and their studies and came
together in a spontaneous movement called Nagrik Ekta Manch where
hundreds of us worked days and nights to record the gruesome
catalogue of barbarity which we never thought we would see in our
lifetime. We testified in commissions, we filed petitions – but the
guilty were never brought to book. Never again we vowed would we
permit state complicity in the killing of thousands of innocents .
And then came the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 – perpetrated
by one set of politicians while the others who ran the state stood by
and watched. To do nothing is to acquiesce? The Mumbai blasts and
killings in 1992 – 93 were almost predictable. Who can sit in
judgement or foretell the consequences of the anger that could have
taken roots in - 1984 and 1992 – especially when the Guilty were
never punished?
And then it happened again to the Muslims in Gujarat in 2002; And we
still did not take to the streets to protest and the architects of
that genocide are today’s rulers and favoured corporate destination..
Beyond community and religion there is more to remember in this vast
and ancient land where there are few records and no one cares to
recount the atrocities and injustice that have been visited upon the
dalits and the tribals over time immemorial by the genteel, cultured
upper castes in this Incredible India of ours; This continues in the
India Shining of the 21st Century.
How can we continue to accept the sheer ferocity and violence and
torture indulged in by various formations of para military on the
people of the North East, and Kashmir to this day. Can they really be
expected to love us?
And have any of us at any time ever questioned what is being
perpetrated on our own people by the state in the name of Salwa Judum
to fight the Maoists or Naxals – who are also protesting injustice,
oppression and years of neglect and corruption ?
So when we now come out to raise our voices – let us remember to
protest first of all the many things we need to put right in our own
politics, our social evils, our corruption, our inability [or
unwillingness?] to provide the basic needs for nearly 50% of our
people. These are the real factors that underlie violence.
I ask myself over and over again as I see the pictures of the lone
terrorist to be caught alive, what drives them to such acts – is this
the ultimate indictment of our failure as a people and a state, to
create meaningful work and opportunities for youth across the region?
So before we spread more suspicion and prejudice, let us stop and
think – what really needs to be done. Perhaps we need to raise our
voices in favour of continuing to dialogue with Pakistan and its
admittedly weak and fledgling elected civilian government? Thanks to
the tireless efforts of Track II and Track III efforts over a couple
of decades, today we have a constituency within Pakistan that wants
friendship with India and vice versa. Certainly this helped in
creating a basis and demand for democracy across the border. Any
senseless action at this time can be catastrophic – especially since
we are both nuclear states. So can we bear in mind that we are not
against Pakistan but against the elements there who instigate and
promote terrorists – and yes the pressure on them should be tough and
relentless.
Today it is imperative that we work together to say NO to War
Mongering – on the basis that this action against an innocent Indian
state gives us the right to attack Pakistan.
It is also imperative that we fight our instinct for Islamophobia – a
readiness to say we understand everything about the motives and drives
of the terrorists by pointing to their `Muslim’ identity – and the
other myth that the Quran sanctions violence against non-believers –
and that is how we explain the roots of the attacks in Mumbai..
SEEKING SOLUTIONS
If we are serious about addressing terror then the only way is for us
in both India and Pakistan – and the rest of the region – to reach
out, work with each other – to confront, to challenge, and to mobilize
the power of people to defeat the forces of violence and terror be
they state or non-state actors.
For a start, in India – let us demand an immediate review and
implementation of the various Commissions of Enquiry on the Police
Force and their Status and Role. If this can be spearheaded from
across the country – it will be difficult for the politician to
postpone it any more.The issue of auditing political party funds and
the present electoral process is another key area which has led to
many vitiations of all norms.
Perhaps it is also a moment when we need to be looking in very
different directions to find ways of working together with our
neighbours – be it Pak India problems, or with Bangla desh or Sri
Lanka. In this era where the concerns of Climate Change and Global
warming are upper most among the potential threats to peoples and
geographic regions around the world – maybe we can look at creative
ways to engage with each other on ecology, on our shared maritime and
marine reserves, on coastal questions, and water.There are so many
pressing problems for which collective solutions need to be found –
and there is nothing like working together on mutual problems to
develop a better understanding of each others strengths and
weaknesses. Finally, with India being the Big Brother in this region –
there is a bigger onus of responsibility on us to take the
constructive initiatives.
It will soon be Id - a time for celebration and introspection – may it
also be a time to work for Peace. In closing I want to share with you
the comments of Bharathi, who has worked in our village home for over
15 years . After watching the endless TV channels and their often
sensational projection and coverage of the agony of Mumbai – she
turned to me and said simply and with no doubt in her voice “Bai –
Athank tho Athank hai na? Wo kaisa Hindu ya Mussalman ho saktha? ‘
Surely Terror is terror ? – how can it be Hindu terror or Muslim
terror?”
In her simple view of the world – there is a deep and profound sense
of both tolerance and respect for humanity. Over the years she who
never knew of a world outside her own village reality, has grown to
love and welcome into our home our Pakistani son-in-law and members of
his family; our Sri Lankan nephew in law; my two Muslim sisters –
married to my brother and cousin respectively; my niece and her
English husband; and most recently our African-American son-in-law.
She has interacted and understands the issues affecting the tribal
and dalit activists with whom yet another son-law works. And she
treats them all with the same smiling warmth and dignity. To me she
embodies all that is valuable and enduring in this sub-continent and
for which I am eternally grateful because at the end of the day, this
is what sustains and nurtures our weary spirits and will, Inshallah,
take us into a different tomorrow..
Lalita Ramdas from Bhaimala Village,
Alibag – across the harbour from Mumbai, today Sunday Dec 7 2008
http://www.sabrang.com/news/2008/aamchimumbai.htm
Hotel Taj : icon of whose India ?
International conference of jurists on ‘Terrorism, Rule of
Law & Human Rights’ -- December 13-14, 2008
Hotel Taj : icon of whose India ?
Gnani Sankaran- Tamil writer, Chennai.
Watching at least four English news channels surfing from one another
during the last 60 hours of terror strike made me feel a terror of
another kind. The terror of assaulting one's mind and sensitivity with
cameras, sound bites and non-stop blabbers. All these channels have
been trying to manufacture my consent for a big lie called - Hotel Taj
the icon of India.
Whose India, Whose Icon ?
It is a matter of great shame that these channels simply did not
bother about the other icon that faced the first attack from
terrorists - the Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus (CST) railway station.
CST is the true icon of Mumbai. It is through this railway station
hundreds of Indians from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, West Bengal
and Tamilnadu have poured into Mumbai over the years, transforming
themselves into Mumbaikars and built the Mumbai of today along with
the Marathis and Kolis
But the channels would not recognise this. Nor would they recognise
the thirty odd dead bodies strewn all over the platform of CST. No
Barkha dutt went there to tell us who
they were. But she was at Taj to show us the damaged furniture and
reception lobby braving the guards. And the TV cameras did not go to
the government run JJ hospital to find out who those 26 unidentified
bodies were. Instead they were again invading the battered Taj to try
in vain for a scoop shot of the dead bodies of the page 3 celebrities.
In all probability, the unidentified bodies could be those of
workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh migrating to Mumbai, arriving by
train at CST without cell phones and pan
cards to identify them. Even after 60 hours after the CST massacre,
no channel has bothered to cover in detail what transpired there.
The channels conveniently failed to acknowledge that the Aam Aadmis
of India surviving in Mumbai were not affected by Taj, Oberoi and
Trident closing down for a couple of weeks or months. What mattered to
them was the stoppage of BEST
buses and suburban trains even for one hour. But the channels were
not covering that aspect of the terror attack. Such information at
best merited a scroll line, while the
cameras have to be dedicated for real time thriller unfolding at Taj
or Nariman Bhavan.
The so called justification for the hype the channels built around
heritage site Taj falling down (CST is also a heritage site), is that
Hotel Taj is where the rich and the powerful of India and the globe
congregate. It is a symbol or icon of power of money and politics, not
India. It is the icon of the financiers and swindlers of India. The
Mumbai and India were built by the Aam Aadmis who passed through CST
and Taj was the oasis of peace and privacy for those who wielded power
over these mass of labouring classes. Leopold
club and Taj were the haunts of rich spoilt kids who would drive
their vehicles over sleeping Aam Aadmis on the pavement, the Mafiosi
of Mumbai forever financing the
glitterati of Bollywood (and also the terrorists) , Political brokers
and industrialists.
It is precisely because Taj is the icon of power and not people, that
the terrorists chose to strike. The terrorists have understood after
several efforts that the Aam Aadmi will never break down even if you
bomb her markets and trains. He/she was resilient because that is the
only way he/she can even survive.
Resilience was another word that annoyed the pundits of news
channels and their patrons this time. What resilience, enough is
enough, said Pranoy Roy's channel
on the left side of the channel spectrum. Same sentiments were echoed
by Arnab Goswami representing the right wing of the broadcast media
whose time is now. Can Rajdeep be far behind in this game of one-
upmanship over TRPs ? They all
attacked resilience this time. They wanted firm action from the
government in tackling terror.
The same channels celebrated resilience when bombs went off in trains
and markets killing and maiming the Aam Aadmis. The resilience of the
ordinary worker suited the rich business class of Mumbai since work or
manufacture or film shooting did not stop. When it came to them, the
rich shamelessly exhibited their lack of nerves and refused to be
resilient themselves. They cry for government intervention now to
protect their private spas and swimming pools and bars and
restaurants, similar to the way in which Citibank,
General Motors and the ilk cry for government money when their
coffers are emptied by their own ideologies.
The terrorists have learnt that the ordinary Indian is unperturbed
by terror. For one whose daily existence itself is a terror of
government sponsored inflation and market
sponsored exclusion, pain is something he has learnt to live with.
The rich of Mumbai and India Inc are facing the pain for the first
time and learning about it just as the middle
classes of India learnt about violation of human rights only during
emergency, a cool 28 years after independence.
And human rights were another favourite issue for the channels to
whip at times of terrorism. Arnab Goswami in an animated voice
wondered where were those champions of human rights now, not to be
seen applauding the brave and selfless police officers who gave up
their life in fighting terrorism. Well, the counter question would be
where were you when such officers were violating the human rights of
Aam Aadmis. Has there ever
been any 24 hour non stop coverage of violence against dalits and
adivasis of this country?
This definitely was not the time to manufacture consent for the extra
legal and third degree methods of interrogation of police and army but
Arnabs don't miss a single
opportunity to serve their class masters, this time the jingoistic
patriotism came in handy to whitewash the entire uniformed services.
The sacrifice of the commandos or the police officers who went down
dying at the hands of ruthless terrorists is no doubt heart rending
but in vain in a situation which needed
not just bran but also brain. Israel has a point when it says the
operations were misplanned resulting in the death of its nationals
here.
Khakares and Salaskars would not be dead if they did not commit the
mistake of traveling by the same vehicle. It is a basic lesson in
management that the top brass should never travel together in crisis.
The terrorists, if only they had watched the channels, would have
laughed their hearts out when the Chief of the Marine commandos, an
elite force, masking his face so unprofessionally in a see-through
cloth, told the media that the commandos had no idea about the
structure of the Hotel Taj which they were trying to
liberate. But the terrorists knew the place thoroughly, he
acknowledged.
Is it so difficult to obtain a ground plan of Hotel Taj and discuss
operation strategy thoroughly for at least one hour before entering?
This is something even an event manager would first ask for, if he had
to fix 25 audio systems and 50 CCtvs for a cultural event in a hotel.
Would not Ratan Tata have provided a plan of his ancestral hotel to
the
commandos within one hour considering the mighty apparatus at his and
government's disposal? Are satelite pictures only available for
terrorists and not the government agencies ? In an operation known to
consume time, one more hour for preparation would have only improved
the efficiency of execution.
Sacrifices become doubly tragic in unprofessional circumstances. But
the Aam Aadmis always believe that terror-shooters do better planning
than terrorists. And the gullible media in a jingoistic mood would not
raise any question about any of these issues.
They after all have their favourite whipping boy - the politician the
eternal entertainer for the non-voting rich classes of India. Arnabs
and Rajdeeps would wax eloquent on Manmohan Singh and Advani visiting
Mumbai separately and not together showing solidarity even at this
hour of national crisis. What a farce? Why can't these channels pool
together all their camera crew and reporters at this time of national
calamity and share the sound and visual bites which could mean a wider
and deeper coverage of events with such a huge human resource to
command? Why should Arnab and Rajdeep
and Barkha keep harping every five minutes that this piece of
information was exclusive to their channel, at the time of such a
national crisis? Is this the time to promote the
channel? If that is valid, the politician promoting his own political
constituency is equally valid. And the duty of the politican is to do
politics, his politics. It is for the
people to evaluate that politics.
And terrorism is not above politics. It is politics by other means.
To come to grips with it and to eventually eliminate it, the practice
of politics by proper means needs constant fine tuning and
improvement. Decrying all politics and politicians, only helps
terrorists and dictators who are the two sides of the same coin. And
the rich and powerful alwaysprefer terrorists and dictators to do
business with.
Those caught in this crossfire are always the Aam Aadmis whose deaths
are not even mourned - the taxi driver who lost the entire family at
CST firing, the numerous waiters and stewards who lost their lives
working in Taj for a monthly salary that would be one time bill for
their masters.
Postscript: In a fit of anger and depression, I sent a message to
all the channels, 30 hours through the coverage.After all they have
been constantly asking the viewers to message them for anything and
everything. My message read: I send this with lots of pain. All
channels, including yours, must apologise for not covering the victims
of CST massacre,
the real mumbaikars and aam aadmis of India. Your obsession with five
star elite is disgusting. Learn from the print media please. No
channel bothered. Only Srinivasan Jain replied: you are right. We are
trying to redress balance today. Well, nothing happened till the time
of writing this 66 hours after the terror attack.
--
Vijaya Chauhan.
84,Olympus,MM Chotani Marg,Mahim
Mumbai 400016. +919820236267
http://www.sabrang.com/news/2008/tajhotel.htm
Amaresh Mishra’s web of lies (11/12/08)
A Message of Communal Harmony and National Integration from Malegaon
Video glimpses of the interesting Mushairah and Kavi Sammalem
held in Malegaon on November 21 and November 24, 2008 respectively:
Pehle Jaisa Hindustan Karein
Tum Izzat Masjid ki Karo Hum Mandir ka Samman Karen
Hindu Muslim Sikh Isaiee Sab se meri guzarish hai
Apni Bharat Ma ki Khatir Jan aur Dil Qurban Karen
Hum Apni Riwayat se Baghawat nahi karte
Nefrat ko badhane ki jesarat nahi karte
rekhte hain bade pyar se her ghao pe merham
hum qaum ke zekhmo ki tejarat nahi karte
Hindu bhi chain se hai Musalman bhi sukh se hai
Nafrat ki unke beech main deewar mat bana
Click here for the video of the Mushairah and the Kavi Sammelan
http://www.ummid.com/malegaon/malegaon_message_of_harmony.htm
http://www.sabrang.com/news/2008/13-14dec2008.htm
Impartial judicial monitoring of all terror investigations
by the apex court the need of the hour (03/11/08)
Impartial judicial monitoring of all terror investigations by the apex
court the need of the hour
Monday November 3, At 3.30 pm Press Club Mumbai.
Mr. Javed Akhtar, Mr Mahesh Bhat, Mr Nandan Maluste, Mr. Anil Dharker,
Mr. Javed Anand and Ms. Teesta Setalvad address the media.
Stop the Politicisation of Bomb Terror
CJP demands that the Central Government appoint a Sitting Three-Member
Tribunal of Supreme Court Judges to oversee the Investigations into
all Terror Related Crime Investigations. Only such a transparent
process will help trace the tentacles of this hitherto unsuspected
monster that threatens national security, public peace and harmony.
Recent developments have shown undue pressure and politicization of
the law and order machinery into terror/blast investigations. Not only
was there for the past several years, a blatantly selective
demonization of the minorities when it comes to incidents of terror;
recent developments have revealed, that various different political
outfits are using violence and terror within Indian democracy to
further narrow political ends. It is therefore imperative that
An Independent Judicial Scrutiny is a must for the following reasons:
1. Vagaries and Inconsistencies in the Investigation Processes
are brought to the attention of the Tribunal, and public before the
finality of a chargesheet being filed. The absence of such a non
partisan judicial monitor has succeeded in limiting and influencing
of the prosecution of the guilty and has, in fact therefore preventing
the real guilty from being brought to book;
2. Gross abuse of political power and influence into the
investigations are being similarly exposed holding ordinary Indian
citizens, of each and all communities victims and hostages to terror.
With outfits related to extreme and political outfits claiming to
speak on behalf of Hinduism and Islam allegedly behind the attacks,
the ordinary Hindu and Muslim is not just under threat but the
national security of the country in grave danger.
3. Preliminary leads into the gruesome and tragic blasts that
took over 68lives in Assam just recently alleged and suggest even a
ULFA and HUJI link. This cynical use of bomb terror by communal,
fanatic and extreme outfits of all hues requires that Independent
Judicial Scrutiny is maintained of all investigations. Reports of the
investigations into the recent 2008 Malegaon blasts have also
suggested that there is a Bangladeshi angle with the interrogation of
five members of Abhinav Bharat Sangathana (ABS), who allegedly hatched
conspiracy and conducted the terror strike in Malegaon, stating that
their group had links across the border, this time in Bangladesh.
According to ATS sources, the ABS has around 5,000 members, around 20
of who are from Bangladesh. According to ATS sources, based on the
interrogation of Kulkarni, they are on the lookout for two
Bangladeshis who attended the Kolkata meeting of the ABS. "Kulkarni
has revealed that they had conducted various meetings across the
country and one such meeting was held at Kolkata," sources said,
adding, "Two Bangladeshis had attended this meeting. These
Bangladeshis are Hindus." Kulkarni is the chief promoter and
campaigner of the ABS and was employed by serving Colonel S. Prasad
Purohit. Kulkarni is a commerce graduate and his father is employees
by the Mahrashtra state electricity board in Jalgaon. "Kulkarni was
even paid Rs 5,000 as monthly salary by the ABS," sources said.
4. Issues like the dangerous leakages of explosive substances
like RDX, Gelatine Sticks and Ammonium Nitrate – all substances that
are governed, monitored and controlled strictly under different
legislations are in fact being leaked out –even from the Indian Army
and BSF control—and finding themselves into the market. This is truly
dangerous for any society but especially so when a society is now
subject to an assault from different outfits generating terror;
a) CC/CJP Monitor on Terror has monitored that though a leading
national daily The Hindustan Times investigated and exposed on that
after the seizure of 185 kg of RDX from a scrap dealer Shankar Shelke
on September 2 (six days before the first Malegaon blast) he committed
suicide and was found dead on September 10, 2006 after being
absconding for a week. An employee of Shelke’s Shankar Gaikwad was
absconding. Then ASP Mahesh Patil had told the national daily that
calls were made by Shelke in fictitious names and that a new angle to
these issues was how military ammunition is being stolen/leaked and
being used and by whom; This case is languishing
b) The Times of India had reported how barely fifty miles from Mumbai,
in the dense woods around Tansa Lake, anyone could buy gelatine sticks
for just Rs 50 from tribals; This case is also languishing
c) After the 2008 Ahmedabad blasts the state government stated that
the leak of gelatine sticks and explosives was from a Rajasthan
Dholpur factory; the SP of that district admitted the leaks;
thereafter the Maharashtra ATS also found that the gelatine sticks
used in the Thane Panvel blasts were also from the same source.
d) The RDX and other explosives used in the September 29 Malegaon
blasts that claimed five lives may have been pilfered from an Indian
Army ammunition depot. This was revealed during the interrogation of
the two retired army officers presently being questioned by the ATS,
said top police sources, who refused to be named. It is not yet clear,
however, as to which ammunition depot in the country it was pilfered
from. Mumbai Police Commissioner Hasan Gafoor has neither confirmed
nor denied the information. "People are still being questioned and
these are matters of investigation," he said. (The Times of India,
October 27, 2008)
5. Please refer to ‘Blast After Blast’ issue of Communalism
Combat that exposes the role of the Central Bureau of Investigation
(CBI) into the Nanded 2006 Bomb Blast case and also analyses
contradictions of the Gujarat blasts probe. Issues related to laxity
in tracking information related to SIMI given by Maharashtra ATS and
Madhya Pradesh STF, by the Gujarat police is stark. In July-August
2008, CC in its 15th anniversary issues raised issues related to
training by military officers especially by Santkumar Bhate former
militaryman. The ATS Maharashtra simply interrogated Bhate and let him
off without arrest though he stated that he was actively involved in
training in the use of violent explosives both Bajrang Dal members
(115) at which training at the Bhonsla Military School was revealed.
While CBI mentions Bhate as witness in its chargesheet the CBI,
shockingly allows him to go scot free. Today with the issue of another
former armyman Ramesh Upadhye and the questioning of Lt Colonel Prasad
Purohit, the suggestion that the politicisation of sections of the
army is taking place cannot be ignored. The issue of ideological
screening of armymen and IB officials given the communalised face of
terror is also critical.
6. Malegaon 2008 blast. Even before the recent revelations
alleging involvement of certain outfits behind the blasts key
questions raised are: the local police chowky near Bhiku Chowk where
the blasts took place was informed at least three hours prior to the
blast, by one hotel worker Iqbal Ahmed that an unidentified bike was
standing there looking suspicious. Neither the Bhiku Chowk staff nor
the police parol, including women stationed at Anjuman Chowk patrolled
the area and examined the bike that finally exploded around 9.35 p.m.
killing five people on the spot. Security had been lax for two days
prior just as on September 8, 2006, the day of Shab-e-Barat, the
security that had been tight until Ganpathy immersion was suddenly
lifted by then SP Rajwardhan.
7. Information of the Modasa bike blasts also points two political
pressure and influence trying to cover up the accused.
8. Recent investigations into the 7/11 blasts by the Mumbai Crime
Branch (Times of India, October 15, 2008) reveal contradictions
between the investigation under former Commissioner of Police, AN Roy
in 2006 (chargesheet has already been filed) and the new leads being
followed by Mumbai being followed by the Crime Branch that point to
different culprits and a whole new list of accused. The serious
contradictions are exposed in the earlier chargesheet filed by these
agencies . These recently revealed contradictions underline the need
for transparent and responsible scrutiny of terror related
investigations given the sensitivity and aggressive politicisation of
the incidents by different sides of the political class that also
seeks to influence the police and the CBI.
9. CBI Cover Up of Nanded
The CBI Chargesheet into the Nanded Blasts of 2006 filed in 2008
completely covers up the role of the RSS/VHP/Bajrang Dal Maharashtra
wide network that was training youth in the manufacture of explosives
and bombs after indoctrinating them in hate propaganda against India's
Muslims. Despite the fact that the Maharashtra ATS had
chargesheeted accused persons involved in the blasts of 2006 for
dressing 'like Muslims' and bursting bombs at the Mohammadiya Masjid
in Parbhani (2003), Quadriya Masjid Jalna August 2004) and at the
Meraj Ul Uloom Madrassa/Masjid in Purna in Parbhani (August 2004), the
CBI's chargesheet exmorates the accused and their organisations of any
terror conspiracy.
The Maharashtra ATS investigations into the Thane Panvel blasts shows
that members of the Sanatan Sanstha,, Hindu Jan Jagran Samiti and
Gurukripa Pratishthan are involved and ironically,investigations
reveal that Karan Singh of the Jammu Sangharsh Samiti and Swami
Dharmesh are also members of the Sanathan Sanstha. Investigations also
reveal that the Sanathan Sanstha publishes Santhan Prabhat, who's
editor has been indicted for fomenting communal violence. The
publication is published from Goa, North Karnataka, Mumbai and Jammu.
Nanded-Parbhani-Purnea-Jalna Terror Link. 2007 Blast Case also being
buried. (see Annexure to press note)
12. Our nationwide monitor has also revealed the following terror
related incidents and investigation lacunae that have fallen off the
public radar.
A) Mhow bomb blast that occured on 22.4.2002., at 6.00pm near the
Swarg Mandir , Mhow. Complainant / victim was Mr. Chandmal agarwal.
So far 4 accused have been arrested. The following have been arrested:
1) Shekhar choudary s/o Mangilal choudary , Mhow.
2) Satyanarayana, s/o PArameswar parmar, village Harsola, Kurda these
2 were arrested on 8-9-2003.
3) Mukesh Patidar s/o Jule lal Patidar, Mhow
4) Rajesh Misra s/o, Sital misra, Pithampur these 2 were arrested on
12-9-2003
All the above 4 persons were also arrested in Pyare Lal Ninama murder
case. Manpur, dated 8-9-2003. in this pyare lal ninama murder case
total 10 persons were arrested which includes the above four persons.
The main conspirator behind these 2 cases was found to be one Sanjay
Joshi. who was recently murdered in Dewas.
The Mhow bomb blast case of 2002 is still pending with CID Bhopal
where as the murder case is under trial .
Similarly our team will be investigating the other blast related cases
from Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat even before 2002 and will be releasing
these investigations, periodically.
The Citizens for Justice and Peace through Communalism Combat has
been, for over three years now been closely monitoring all blast
investigations from statements revealed in the media through a team
headed by Teesta Setalvad, secretary and co-editor, CC. This study
that shall be on the internet by November 15, 2008 will raise logical
and searching questions from the eye of the independent legal and
human rights perspective. This will be information available for the
public.
Javed Akhtar Nandan Maluste Anil Dharker Mahesh Bhat
Javed Anand Teesta Setalvad
http://www.cjponline.org/prelease/3nov08.htm
Observations and Recommendations about Continued
Violence in Orissa (16/09/08)
http://www.sabrang.com/news/2008/factfindingkandhamahal.pdf
Orissa Communal Violence - Chronology of Events
as of 17th September
http://www.sabrang.com/news/2008/OrissaComVio-Chronology.pdf
'We will condole his death by a yatra across the state' –
Togadia cares a little to SC order
'We will condole his death by a yatra across the state' – Togadia
cares a little to SC order
The VHP/RSS and their newly formed outfit 'Swami Laxmanananda
Sraddhanjali Samity' guided by VHP leaders Mr. Parveen Togadia,
Mr.Mohan Bhagwat and others have planned to organise a yatra carrying
the 'asthi' or 'soils' from burial of slain VHP leader Swami
Laxmanananda Saraswati in the state. This yatra will cover almost all
villages of the district and many places of the state. It has been
feared by many that it would increase violence in affected areas and
spread tensions to other peaceful areas of the state. Many
intellectuals, civil society organizations, artists, opposition
political parties have demanded to stop such type of yatras at any
cost.
Following a petition filed by Arch Bishop, Cuttack, the Supreme Court
sought clarifications from the Orissa Government and the government on
4th September assured the Supreme Court of the safety of Christians in
the state and that it would not allow a Hindu group to take out a
rally for carrying the ashes of slain leader Swami Laxmanananda
Saraswati in Kandhamal district.
We are yet to know the words of the Supreme Court. Also we are in
confusion as regards to the assurance given by the State government.
Whatever we are getting to know from media and talks of the RSS/VHP
leaders – the Sangha Parivar and its new outfit are not going to care
the spirit of the SC order. The Yatra will be organized. Please see
'what Pravin Togadia tells to Time of India -
Togadia to conduct Orissa 'yatra' despite SC objection
NEW DELHI: Facing flak from the Supreme Court over his proposed
'yatra' across Orissa with the "ashes" of slain VHP functionary Swami
Laxmanananda Saraswati, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Pravin
Togadia on Thursday said a 'yatra' condoling the murder will still be
carried out.
"The dead body of Swamiji was not cremated. His was a samadhi and he
was buried. So the claims of the 'asthi-kalash yatra' are not true.
However, we will condole his death by a yatra across the state," said
Togadia.
"We will march through every village and town of Orissa despite the
pressure tactics of the Christians to ensure safety of Swami
Laxmanada's murderers," he said.
Togadia said over phone that he never proposed to carry the "ashes" of
Saraswati and alleged that Archbishop Raphael Cheenath had "lied under
oath to the apex court".
The VHP leader did not specify any date for his 'yatra' but said "it
will be conducted in a peaceful manner".
Earlier, in response to a query yesterday by the apex court, the state
government today stated before the court in an affidavit that it will
not allow Togadia to conduct any 'yatra' with the "ashes" of the slain
VHP leader.
Today OTV ( a local channel) and 'Dharitri' (Oriya daily) informed
that the Yatra will take place on 6th Sep 08 in Bhubaneswar with
'Sadhus', there will be 'installation' of 'Siba Linga' on the
'Samadhi' (burial place) of Laxmanananda on 7th, 'vaktas' (disciples)
from each village of the state will come to bring soil from the
'Samadhi' and carry back to their respective villages on 8th Sep.
Togadia's statement has been reconfirmed by VHP local leaders that
there is no need to take permission from the state for this 'yatra'.
This is like playing hide and seeks with the 'rule of law'.
Now it is the turn of the Orissa Government how far they will
sincerely respect to the Court's spirit and prove their committment to
'rule of law'.
http://www.sabrang.com/news/2008/17sep08.htm
Indian citizens express pain at killings of Kashmiris (14/08/08)
Indian citizens express pain at killings of Kashmiris
Rising Kashmir News
Srinagar, Aug 13: Prominent Indian citizens on Wednesday condemned the
killings of over 29 Kashmiris by police and troopers during the past
three days of protests.
In a statement issued here, noted Indian citizens Rajmohan Gandhi, Dr
Syeda Hameed, B G Deshmukh, Sushobha Barve, Salman Haidar, Tara
Bhattacharya Gandhi, Kapil Kak, B G Verghese, Wajahat Habibullah, M K
Raina, Kuldip Nayyar, Shanker Ghose, Amit Singh Chadha, Suresh
Vazirani, Teesta Setalvad, Javed Anand, Rahul Bose, Anil Dharkar,
Arvind Krishnaswamy and Sajid Rashid said they are “pained” by the
tragic turn of events in Jammu and Kashmir.
“The authorities must intervene effectively to ensure there is no
recurrence and also address substantive issues,” the statement said.
“We view with grave concern the threat that is now perceptible to
secular traditions of both Kashmir and Jammu divisions. The deepening
alienation of people from each other and from the government requires
immediate address.”
Urging the civil society to assert itself and restore social harmony,
these Indian citizens said that Jammu and Kashmir has be known for its
pluralistic traditions.
“We appeal residents of both Kashmir and Jammu to work together
towards reconciliation and areas of common good which are many and
which all well-wishers of J&K crave for,” the statement said. “We
appeal to the authorities to give every support to people in Kashmir
and Jammu who are striving for reconciliation and a more hopeful
future. And we ask the Indian public to realize the gravity of what is
happening in J&K and support all those working for a wise way
forward.”
http://www.risingkashmir.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5890&Itemid=29
Invite: Intimidation Of The Media
( Public Meeting June 12, 2008) (10/06/08)
June 10, 2008
Intimidation Of The Media - Who Gains?
Public Meeting, June 12, 2008, Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh 5-7 p.m.
The Gujarat Police slapped sedition charges on The Times of India,
Ahmedabad, for suggesting that Ahmedabad’s new Commissioner of Police,
Mr O P Mathur, had underworld links. If the Commissioner was offended,
he was within his rights to have initiated criminal and civil
proceedings of defamation against the publication and its employees.
But sedition?
In Thane, hoodlums claiming to represent an outfit known as Shiv
Sangram Sanghatana, attacked the house of Kumar Ketkar, editor of the
Marathi daily “Loksatta”, in broad daylight and subjected him to
verbal abuse and terror before the police arrived a full 40 minutes
later. Ketkar’s offence? In a satirical vein, he had questioned the
need for the Maharashtra government to spend Rs 300 crores on erecting
a statue of Shivaji in the Arabian Sea when Maharashtra’s children are
malnourished, have no access to schools and our farmers are committing
suicide.
Are mediapersons going to be cowed down by such blatantly intimidatory
ploys? Are we going to be content to play the role of passive
spectators? To ask inconvenient questions is the raison d’etre of
journalism. Are we a mature democracy or are we fast becoming a
backdoor banana republic?
We invite all freedom-loving citizens and groups to attend a meeting
on “Who benefits from intimidation of the Media?” at Mumbai Marathi
Patrakar Sangh, Opposite BMC Headquarters, CST on 12th June 2008 from
5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Speakers: Kumar Ketkar, editor, Loksatta, Aspi Chinoy, Senior lawyer,
P.Sainath, Editor (rural affairs) The Hindu, Teesta Setalvad,
Communalism Combat & CJP, Neelkanth Paratkar, President, Brihanmumbai
Union of Journalists.
Issued by: Brihanmumbai Union of Journalists, Mumbai Marathi Patrakar
Sangh, Citizens for Justice and Peace, Communalism Combat, Lokshahi
Haaq Sanghatana, Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights,
Forum against Oppression of Women, Stree Mukti Sanghatana, Akshara,
Women’s Centre, Awaz-e-Niswaan, Trade Union Solidarity Committee,
Trade Union Centre of India and other organisations
http://www.sabrang.com/news/2008/10June08ii.htm
Gujarat Muslims: The Way Ahead (4/12/07)
The root of violence (4/12/07)
December 4, 2007
Gujarat Muslims: The Way Ahead
Ram Puniyani
Many a voices have emerged from a small section of Muslim community
which is arguing that Muslims should unilaterally forgive the pain
they suffered during the carnage of 2002. This section says that we
should draw from the reality of Gujarat where the religious and other
community leaders have refused to apologize for the crimes committed
in the name of Ram. Also that the state apparatus is so communalized
that chances of getting justice are bleak, and how long a community
can live in such a state of pity and victim hood, it affects their
self respect and dignity. This section does see that civil rights
groups are fighting for the rights of Muslim minority against odds,
irrespective of their religion.
One can appreciate the personal magnanimity of those who personally
suffered serious losses due to violence against them, like Mrs. Gladys
Stains who personally forgave the killers of her husband and children.
Jesus and Gandhi urged the people to put another cheek forward when
slapped on one. One has to see the difference between personal
magnanimity and the political assault of a section of people to
victimize the weak. One has to see that the communal violence is not
just violence against person but is also a part of political agenda of
some. The crimes against a person can not be forgiven in law, as
justice is the basis of tranquility and peace in society. The question
is, can such a position of individual/ individuals to forgive the
crimes against them be acceptable to major sections of victims in
Gujarat? Many a religious teaching do emphasize on forgiveness. Are
such things applicable to the situation of those facing Gujarat
Muslims?
There are many a precedents where the culprits have been forgiven.
South Africa was the major experiment, where truth and reconciliation
commission undertook a massive exercise in this direction. The
starting point there was that the culprits confessed to their crimes.
Reconciliation followed. Personally putting forward another cheek when
someone slaps is based on the basic human understanding that the one
slapping you has a potential for reforming, will have remorse of his
actions and will feel apologetic about what he has done.
In Gujarat the things are very different. The communalization of
society was going on from many decades. The demonization of Muslim
minority went unhindered for a long time, and violence was used as a
method of polarizing communities. Later Dalits, Adivasis were co-opted
to unleash on the Muslim community by clever social engineering. The
truth of this has been reconfirmed by Tehelka expose (Novemember
2007). Modi used the pretext of Godhra to unleash the genocide. The
state machinery is totally communalized, no rehabilitation, no justice
for victims, and there is a deliberate marginalization of Muslims to
the status of second class citizens! Today in Gujarat not only are
communities polarized, the partitions between communities are becoming
worse and deeper by the day. No body is asking forgiveness as the
criminals, Modi downwards, believe, that what they did was for their
religion, was right, and was needed to teach 'them' (Muslims) a
lesson. There is also an un-spelt understanding that they will anyway
be protected by the mighty arm of the Hindu Rashtra of Gujarat. So
whom are you going to forgive?
The problem is essentially that of violation of democratic rights and
civil liberties. Problem is that Gandhi's Gujarat has been manipulated
to become Godse-Modi's Gujarat. Modi, the mass murderer, is hero for
large sections. He is acquiring a halo around him duly helped by a
section of media. The alternative pole, the one of Congress is more
interested in electoral arithmetic and so far has been behaving as B
team of RSS combine. The defense of democracy and forthright stand for
secular values has been put on the backburner.
One can understand the painful sigh of a section of Muslims, some of
whom may be thinking on these lines. This section, seems to have
accepted and internalized the second class status and seem to be
willing to be on the bent knees to live in this Hindu Rashtra, where
Indian constitution is present by its absence. Can there bee peace
without justice? Can there be dignity and self respect if the
injustice is inbuilt into the social system and is institutionalized
to the core?
Are the civil rights groups working just for minority community? The
work of civil rights groups is more a defense of democratic rights and
civil liberties than just a defense of rights of this or that
religious group. It is more a question of defending our constitution
and not just the rights of minorities. Can we call it a democratic
society if a large section has to reconcile its status as the one of a
second class citizen? RSS combine is celebrating this relegation of
minority rights, as now more and more villages of Gujarat are putting
the hoarding of 'Welcome to so and so village Hindu Rahtra of
Gujarat'.
While totally empathizing with this section of Muslims one has to turn
the criticism to the larger democratic polity. What have we done to
our democracy? How is the status of democracy judged? One of the
parameters is to see as to how safe and secure the minorities are. At
another level the acceptance of such position of Muslims is a sign of
total surrender of democracy to the religious fascism, which is on
ascendance more so in Gujarat. And this intimidation of minorities is
just the beginning. As we witnessed in Germany, the same thing is
being played here in the slow motion. Jews were the first target,
followed by communists, trade unionists and later sections of
Christian minorities. Here in India the order planned by RSS combine
is Muslims, Christians, Secularists and other weaker sections of
society, in that order.
When Gujarat is facing elections and many forecasters are talking of
Modi's return, the time has come to put all our energies to save
democracy there. The time that we get over the diffidence, that Modi
is too clever to be defeated, that the polarization has gone too far
to be repaired. These may be part of the deliberate propaganda of the
well oiled machine which organized Gujarat pogrom. We need to reassert
that there is no substitute for democracy. The treatment of ills of
democracy is more democracy and more democracy. National integration
means that we have the overarching national, Indian community in which
any injustice to one is the injustice to all. Any undermining of the
rights of one section tantamount to erosion of the values of our
freedom movement and the principles as given in our Constitution,
which these communal elements do not hold by.
Even today the chasm between the religious communities can be bridged
by broadening the awareness about our syncretic traditions, Bhakti and
Sufi. There is an urgent need to remind people that Hindus and Muslims
have lived together for centuries. What has been propagated is
opposite of this that there is a centuries old fight between Hindus
and Muslims. Even today there is a need to remind people every where
that freedom movement was the movement in which all communities
participated equally. We need to remember that Hinduism of Gandhi and
Islam of Maulana Abul Kalam unites people while Hinduism of Godse-Modi-
RSS and Islam of Jinnah-Muslim League-Taliban divide the people.
It is never too late to counter the negativity injected by communal
forces and bring back the humane values ingrained in our plural
history to ensure that the process of remorse, reconciliation and
justice comes to the fore, and Muslims feel as much at home as any one
else. That a section of our society is made to think that one sided
forgiveness is the only way out just shows that our system is deeply
infected and needs to be cleansed by the spirit of Indian ness. And
that's where all the conscientious and aware citizens believing in
democracy have to stick together, for getting justice for all and to
soothe the wounds of those thinking of unsolicited, unilateral
forgiveness
http://www.sabrang.com/news/2007/4dec07.htm
Statement in support for Taslima (23/11/07)
India can not progress if Muslims lag behind (28/10/07)
Ganeshotsav and Indian Muslims (28/9/07)
Adivasis of Gujarat brutally attacked by forest and police
officials Crops destroyed and tribal leaders indulged in criminal
offences (Protest Rally on 17th September, at Surat)
An experiment yet to take off (11/9/07)
Building bridges between Sikhs and Muslims: The Contribution of
Khwaja Hasan Nizami -- Yoginder Sikand
Hungry world of Dalits in Poorvanchal (26/7/07)
Islamic terrorism: myth or reality (30/4/07)
Appeal for impartial and effective prosecution of Sajjan Kumar
Congress (I) M.P. -- Press Release (20/3/07)
Terror Attack on Samjhauta Express -- Press Release (19/2/07)
Citizens Declaration on “A Riot & Terror Free India” (7/2/07)
An Open Letter to Rahul Dravid (7/2/07)
Gokahpur Violence - Letter to the Governor (7/2/07)
A tribute to M A Khan
Debating discrimination differences and dissent in our part of the
world (2/2/07)
India Bulls and Maharashtra Government in massive land grab
operations for a 'multi-purpose SEZ' in Raigad Dist.(12/01/07)
Human Rights and the Rule of Law: Mob Terror, State Terror and
Bomb
Terror -- Press Release (21/12/06)
Gujarat Genocide 2002 - Five Years Later (20/12/06)
Gujarat riot victims to get Rs 7 lakh: Centre (27/11/06)
Godhra riot cases: SC snubs CM Modi (23/11/06)
Communal Carnage
Updates on the Genocide
A repeat of 1999? Threats and intimidation on Christians in South
Gujarat (23/10/02)
Prominent citizens condemn the dastardly attck on innocent Hindu
devotees at the Akshardham temple (25/9/02)
It requires a different approach to stop violence in Vadodara
(24/9/02)
State Sponsored Terrorism
Killer confessions
The indictment
News, views
Fact-finding reports
Submissions before NHRC
Statements, Appeals, Protests
Poem: Ram Mandir
Relief and rehabilitation
Gujarat's Bloody Trail
Hindutva's 'laboratory', hell for minorities
Hope in Hell... Peacemakers
Click here...
Fascist Heritage
IDRF and the American Funding of Hindutva
Hindutva’s fascist heritage
The RSS Bible
Who is to blame? Riots' reports
Who casts the first stone
bademiyansubhanallah
By Meenakshi Ganguly Ahmadabad Monday, Mar. 11, 2002
When Afsana, 18, a Muslim living just outside the Indian city of
Ahmadabad, heard that a Muslim mob had torched a train carrying Hindus
in the nearby town of Godhra, she knew what would come next: furious
Hindus seeking revenge. And sure enough, her family soon spotted a mob
nearing their home. The girl fled with her 5-year-old brother and hid
in the home of Hindu neighbors. From the neighbors' roof, she saw her
parents and her two elder brothers beaten, doused with gasoline and
burned alive. Her four sisters, she says, were stripped, raped and
killed.
Later the neighbors told her it was safe to go out. But they were
wrong, or lying. Afsana and her brother were walking home when a pack
of men fell upon them. "They were people I knew," she says, "people
who lived near us." She and her brother were tossed to the ground and
set on fire. She got loose, grabbed her brother and, her clothes still
burning, tried to scale a wall to escape to the roof. Then her
brother's hand slipped from hers. From atop the wall, she saw the
crowd ignite him again. He died in flames.
Afsana's family were among the estimated 400 people who perished last
week in vicious ethnic mayhem in India's western Gujarat state. The
worst such outbreak since 1993, the killings tested anew the fragile
relations between India's 830 million Hindus and 150 million Muslims,
and underscored the challenge Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee
faces trying to settle their volcanic disputes. At the heart of last
week's bloodshed was the northern city of Ayodhya, where in 1992 Hindu
militants destroyed a 400-year-old mosque built on the site they
believe to be the birthplace of the Hindu god Ram.
The latest troubles began when a group of Hindu pilgrims returning by
train from Ayodhya, where they had gone to participate in rituals they
hoped were a prelude to building a temple on the disputed site, passed
through Godhra. Suddenly, someone pulled the emergency brake. The
train halted in a mostly Muslim neighborhood, where a mob was waiting
with stones, knives and gasoline. The horde burned down coaches
occupied by pilgrims and murdered any it could catch. Most of the 58
victims were women and children, unable to outrun their predators.
The killings were shocking enough, but rumors quickly emerged that
aggravated the situation--of Hindu women raped on the platform, of
girl survivors being carried away. Local leaders of the chauvinistic
Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the group planning to rebuild the Ram temple,
gave instructions to destroy all Muslims. In Afsana's neighborhood,
Naroda, a crowd of 2,000 armed themselves with sticks, stones and
bottles of gasoline and went hunting. At least 65 people were killed,
their remains left outside their burned homes. After all the Muslims
had died or fled, a Hindu mob surrounded the local mosque and started
to break it down, imitating the 1992 episode at Ayodhya. Not a
policeman could be seen. One rioter said with pride, "We did this
ourselves." Another man boasted that he had killed nine Muslims. "I
was acting for all Hindus," he said.
Elsewhere in Ahmadabad, Congress Party politician Ahsan Jafri gave
shelter to fellow Muslims in his home, part of a 16-house Muslim
colony. When the mob came, Jafri fired his revolver, injuring a few
attackers. Furious, the crowd tore into the colony, dragging out the
residents and setting them ablaze. Jafri and his family died. In the
Hindu mob was a schoolboy, Roshan, 12. From a safe distance, he
claimed, he saw Jafri's daughters being stripped and raped. He sounded
frightened but admiring. When he grew up, would he do that? "Maybe not
rape," he said thoughtfully, "but I would kill Muslims when they have
to be punished."
Prime Minister Vajpayee has since announced that in the future
pilgrims will be stopped from reaching Ayodhya and workers banned from
erecting a new temple there. Hindu extremists vowed that they were
undeterred. In Ahmadabad, 1,300 Indian soldiers patrolled uneasy
streets. The Muslim girl Afsana awoke in a hospital, with burns so
severe she could not lie on her back. "Where will I go now?" she
asked. "I had such a big family, and all of them are dead. I just wish
I had someone to live for."
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1001969,00.html
India's Voters Torn Over Politician
By Simon Robinson/Surat Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2007
In many ways, Gujarat is the best and worst of India. For years the
state, which juts westward into the Arabian Sea, has been one of the
most economically forward-looking regions in the country; its diamond-
cutting and textile industries earn India hundreds of millions of
dollars in exports. But Gujurat was also the scene of some of the
worst sectarian violence since independence, when communal riots
killed as many as 2,000 people — most of them Muslim — in 2002.
The figure at the center of the election, and perhaps the most
controversial politician in India, is Narendra Modi, Gujarat's chief
minister. Modi, a member of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP), is hailed by his supporters as a modernizer who has built
new roads, brought electricity and streetlights to villages and
attracted new business to Gujarat. To his detractors, Modi will always
be the man who stoked the sectarian tensions that made the 2002 riots
possible. The riots followed a train car fire that killed dozens of
Hindu pilgrims. Within hours of the blaze, later blamed on a cooking
fire accident, Modi called it a "pre-planned act" against Hindus that
the "culprits will have to pay for" — a position he sticks to today.
Whatever the truth, the carnage that followed was terrible. In 2004,
following an investigation into the incident, India's Supreme Court
ruled that the chief minister was "a modern Nero who watched while
Gujarat burned." A recent report by investigative magazine Tehelka
went further, blaming the violence directly on senior BJP politicians
and sympathetic police officers. One BJP politician, unaware that he
was being recorded by a Tehelka reporter, allegedly said that Modi had
told him that he and his colleagues had three days "to do whatever we
wanted." Modi has dismissed the conclusions of the Tehelka story,
though many of its specific charges remain unchallenged.
The current poll is, in many ways, a referendum on Modi and whether
his modernization policies outweigh his reputation for ethnic
demagoguery. Sonia Gandhi, leader of the ruling Indian National
Congress party, has spent days campaigning around the state and has
accused Modi and his party of playing on communal tensions to win
votes. The Gujarat government, she said, were "merchants of death" — a
charge that Modi and his party say is outrageous. Gandhi's comment and
one by Modi that seemed to endorse the controversial police killing of
Sohrabuddin Sheikh, a young Muslim man who was allegedly wrongly
branded a terrorist, earned the ire of the Election Commission, who
asked both leaders to explain how their comments did not contravene a
code of conduct that politicians must adhere to during polling. Modi
says his comments were a political response to Gandhi's criticism,
though a petition against him was filed with the Supreme Court and
will be heard on Wednesday.
State elections in India are usually decided on very different issues
than national elections; the country is vast and in many ways
fragmented. But with the ruling Congress Party suffering from a
deadlock with its own Communist allies over a controversial nuclear
deal with the U.S., the Gujarat vote will give Congress leaders a good
idea of what popular support they still enjoy. If Congress does well —
polls suggest that the election is too close to call — it would
embolden the party to call a national poll early in 2008 to break the
impasse with its coalition partners. If Congress does badly, it may
try to hold on for another year.
Its main role, though, will be to assess the level of support for
Modi. The chief minister has recently been hit by the defection to the
Congress Party of several senior BJP members, who describe their
former leader as autocratic and megalomaniacal. "He wants power and
for that he will do anything," says Dhirubhai Gajera, one of the BJP
rebels, who spent a recent Saturday afternoon campaigning for his seat
in Surat, a city of some 4 million people. "He overstates what he has
done for this state in terms of progress, and even where there has
been progress it has gone to the rich, not the poor."
That's rubbish, says Atul Shah, a BJP member from the neighboring
state of Maharashtra, who was in Surat to support his Gujarat
colleagues in the days before the first round of voting on Tuesday
Dec. 11. "Gujarat is a model state and Modi has proved himself 10 out
of 10." Pravin Naik, head of the BJP's Surat branch, says the idea
that Modi was part of communal tensions or violence is a "whole myth."
"There has not been a single incident of communal violence since [the
2002 riots]," he says. "Narendra Modi is the only competent chief
minister in India." The results of this month's poll will tell how
many agree with him.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1693370,00.html
The Fiery Hindu Nationalist Who's Roiling Indian Politics
By Madhur Singh Wednesday, Apr. 29, 2009
Narendra Modi addresses Bharatiya Janata Party workers in Ahmadabad
Sam Panthaky / AFP / Getty
Narendra Modi embodies the incongruities of Indian politics. The three-
term Chief Minister of Gujarat has made his state perhaps the most
prosperous in a country already tapped for greater and greater growth.
Gujarat has been enjoying growth rates of 10% or more (compared with
India's range of 8% to 9%), with some of the largest businesses in the
country operating in its territory, providing the average Gujarati a
mean income significantly higher than the national average. A tough
administrator, Modi is, from all appearances, incorruptible; he lives
modestly, even ascetically, choosing to be celibate to devote his
energies and time to his political causes.
But to many Indians, Modi is evil. They say he has transformed
Gujarat, the state that produced Mohandas Gandhi, into a tautly
polarized polity. In 2002, it witnessed a six-week riot, the worst in
the country's history, leaving more than 1,800 people dead, mostly
Muslims. Modi has refused to apologize for the massacres. He continues
to be as capable of delivering fiery Hindu-nationalist speeches as he
is in delivering essential public services to his people; he has has
ruthlessly exploited religious divisions to attain and hang on to
power. With this combination of prosperity gospel and virulent
religion-based nationalism, he has become the Hindu right wing's most
wanted campaigner during the current elections. In the next, he could
be the party's candidate for the Prime Minister of India.
See the world's most influential people in the 2009 TIME 100.
Now, however, as the ballots continue to be cast in the world's
largest exercise of democracy (polls finally close in mid-May, after
four weeks of voting), India's Supreme Court has ordered an
investigation into Modi's role in the brutal anti-Muslim riots. It is
a dramatic move after seven years of Gujarati courts' dismissing
hundreds of cases and acquitting the accused. It also provides
ammunition for the opponents of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP), where Modi is a superstar.
On Monday, the court ruled on a petition filed by Jakia Nasim Ahesan,
the widow of Ehsan Jafri, a legislator belonging to the Congress Party
who was killed along with 38 people by a mob at his home in Ahmadabad,
Gujarat's largest city. Ahesan accused Modi and 62 others of hatching
a "well-executed and sinister criminal conspiracy" to effect a
"deliberate and intentional failure" of the state government to
protect the life and property of its citizens. Says New Delhi–based
political analyst Amulya Ganguli: "Modi tried his best to scuttle the
investigation — some 2,000 cases were closed. But now the [Supreme
Court] has reopened most of them, has had to transfer some of them
outside of Gujarat. All this time, Modi himself had escaped the fire,
but now, the law has caught up with him."
The BJP's archrival, the ruling Congress Party, immediately demanded
Modi's resignation. But the BJP dismissed such calls, with general
secretary Arun Jaitley claiming, "There is nothing against Modi," and
that none of the investigations conducted by the Gujarati government
had cited him. Jaitley also hinted at a conspiracy behind the timing
of the court ruling, claiming that in the past, various reports
targeting the BJP have been released at critical phases of elections.
(Several key states have yet to vote.) Many observers point out,
however, that most of these types of decisions actually came out in
the BJP's favor. If the past is any indicator, Modi and the BJP may
yet use this latest judicial blow to their advantage by painting Modi
as a victim of a Congress-led secularist inquisition, designed to
amass larger shares of the Hindu vote. (See pictures of the
tempestuous ruling dynasty of India.)
Indeed, many pollsters believe that one of the incidents that worked
to the BJP's advantage was Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi's
speech at a 2007 rally in which she referred to Modi as a maut ka
saudagar — a merchant of death. Riding on outrage, Modi won re-
election in Gujarat for a third term as Chief Minister. "Gujarat is
one state that has been very touchy about Modi and anything written or
spoken about him," says Mumbai-based poll analyst Jai Mrug, adding
that Gandhi's remark rejuvenated the Hindu vote in the state in favor
of the BJP. "The [electorate] will see the present court ruling as an
attempt by the central government to malign Modi and reduce his
chances of being Prime Minister in the next general elections."
The BJP's aim is not to protect its seats in Modi's Gujarat, according
to Mrug. The party fully expects to win very comfortably there. "But
the BJP would certainly try and make use of his charisma and his
newfound status as a martyr in states that have not yet gone to the
polls and where no leader of Modi's stature has yet appeared," Mrug
says. These include Rajasthan, western Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and
Haryana, among others. (Read about how India's young voters may change
the country.)
Yet the BJP's gain — to whatever extent — may not translate easily
into Modi's gain. Potential coalition partners are nervous about Modi,
who has refused to apologize for the 2002 massacres. BJP allies like
the Janata Dal (United) of Bihar, who want to reach out to Muslims,
fear that such a stance will not go down well with the Indian
electorate. Modi may be trying to make himself more acceptable to a
wider audience. Since the Gujarat elections of 2007, Modi has been
trying to paint himself as the able administrator who has brought
progress and prosperity to Gujarat. The Supreme Court ruling will make
it harder to keep that message pristine.
See the world's most influential people in the 2009 TIME 100.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1894617,00.html?iid=sphere-inline-sidebar
The Tempestuous Nehru Dynasty of India
One family (with its tragedies and its feuds) has been at the center
of modern India since independence in 1947
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1888592,00.html
The Tempestuous Nehru Dynasty of India
Bettmann / Corbis
Next Back The Fathers of Modern India
Jawaharlal Nehru (left) and Mohandas Gandhi in July 1942, amid the
long struggle to win freedom from Britain. Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy
of massive, popular non-violent resistance would eventually carry the
day, leading to the establishment of a secular India led by Nehru.
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1888592_1863598,00.html
The Tempestuous Nehru Dynasty of India
2 of 8
Bettmann / CorbisNext Back India's First Prime Minister
Nehru and his Congress Party ruled from independence in 1947 to 1964,
when he died of a stroke. In the next two years, Congress seeking to
re-energize itself picked his daughter Indira, who had married lawyer
Feroze Gandhi (no relation to the Mahatma), and thus had the
combination of the Nehru bloodline and possession of the iconic Gandhi
name. If the party elders were expecting a pliable figurehead in
Indira, they were wrong....
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1888592_1863599,00.html
The Tempestuous Nehru Dynasty of India
3 of 8
Hulton-Deutsch Collection / Corbis
A Force of Nature
Indira Gandhi proved to be one of the most headstrong and indomitable
Prime Ministers of India. She served two successive terms, was thrown
into jail after declaring Emergency rule to govern by decree and then
came back for a third term in 1980. Her two sons, Sanjay (the younger,
left, her favorite) and Rajiv would leave different political
legacies. Rajiv did not care for politics leaving Sanjay to be seen as
heir apparent to their mother. But Sanjay would die in a 1980 plane
crash...
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The Tempestuous Nehru Dynasty of India
4 of 8
Alain Nogues / Corbis
Next Back The Unexpected Leader
After his brother's death, Rajiv, who had sought a career as a
commercial airline pilot, was thrust into the political limelight
because of his mother's need for someone to carry on the dynastic
legacy. In 1984, however, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh
bodyguards, dying in the arms of Rajiv's Italian-born wife Sonia
(pictured campaigning with her husband). Rajiv would then succeed his
mother as Prime Minister, governing till 1989. He was killed in a 1991
by a suicide bomber while campaigning to regain the office.
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The Tempestuous Nehru Dynasty of India
5 of 8
Sebastian D'Souza / AFP / Getty
Next Back The Brother's Wife
Sanjay Gandhi's politically ambitious wife Maneka, a journalist and
environmentalist, proved to be a thorn in the side of, first, her
mother-in-law Indira, then Rajiv and, then, Sonia, who after Rajiv's
death was eventually coaxed into leading the Congress Party. Maneka
would join various opposition parties, including the Bharatiya Janata
Party, which espoused Hindu nationalism as its core tenet. She would
be in various cabinets of governments opposed to the Congress party
run by her relatives.
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The Tempestuous Nehru Dynasty of India
6 of 8
Prakash Singh / AFP / Getty
Next Back Sanjay's Heir
Varun Gandhi, 29, the son of Maneka Gandhi, has brought the
strongheaded dynastic style into a new generation. His reported anti-
Muslim remarks in March 2009, in the walkup to parliamentary
elections, have led to a popular uproar. Like his mother, he is a
member of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which is
reveling in having a scion of the Nehru clan amidst its right-wing
ranks. Observers point out that Varun is hardly an orthodox Hindu: his
mother is a Sikh, his grandfather — Indira's husband — a Parsi, the
descendant of Zoroastrians from Persia.
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The Tempestuous Nehru Dynasty of India
7 of 8
Prakash Singh / AFP / Getty
Rajiv's Heirs
The likely generational opponents of Varun are Rahul Gandhi, 38, and
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, 37, the son and daughter of Sonia. The
political career of Rahul, now a member of parliament, is being very
carefully controlled by his mother, who is openfully fearful of the
violence that has taken her mother-in-law and her husband. The
charismatic Priyanka, however, has spoken out against her cousin
Varun. Brother and sister (seen here at a memorial service for their
father) have been active in the election campaigns conducted by their
mother.
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India's Dynastic Feud: A Gandhi Who Hates Muslims
By Madhur Singh / New Delhi Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2009
Varun Gandhi, great-grandson of India's first prime minister
Jawaharlal Nehru and scion of a family dynasty, gestures as he arrives
at a local court in Pilibhit, in the northern Indian state of Uttar
Pradesh, March 28, 2009.
Adnan Abidi / Reuters
The spectacle in India is riveting: virulent anti-Muslim diatribes
spouted by a pedigreed and ambitious young Hindu politician who shares
the surname of the world's foremost apostle of non-violence and who is
descended from the Prime Minister who founded modern India as a
secular state to serve the country's multiplicity of faiths. Since
early March, Varun Gandhi, 29, has been the scandal of India's
political class after he called for, among many things, the hands of
Muslims to be cut off if they are raised against Hindus, their throats
to be slashed, their population to be culled by strict birth control.
His words triggered India's stringent National Security Act, and for
days the young Gandhi was a fugitive from the law. The episode has
highlighted the ugly feud that has split India's historic First Family
for years.
Varun Gandhi is the great-grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru, the country's
first Prime Minister. His grandmother was Nehru's only child, Indira
Gandhi, whose two sons, in turn, left legacies at odds with each
other. The older son Rajiv, succeeded his mother as prime minister
shortly after she was assassinated in 1984. Rajiv was later murdered
in a 1994 terrorist bombing and his Italian-born widow, Sonia, now
leads the ruling Congress Party. Rajiv's younger brother, Sanjay,
however, had been their mother Indira's favorite and had been viewed
as her heir apparent until his sudden death in a plane crash in 1980.
Sanjay's widow Maneka is now Sonia Gandhi's implacable enemy. Maneka
and her son Varun are now members of the Hindu nationalist
organization, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the most ferocious rival
of Congress as well as Nehru's secularist tenets. (See pictures of the
tempestuous Nehru dynasty of India.)
The current political firestorm started as Varun was preparing to make
his political debut in India's general elections, which are now less
than three weeks away. The young man seemed to be consciously raising
one of the most controversial episodes in modern India's history:
Indira Gandhi's Emergency Rule from 1975-1977, when she — with Sanjay
as her chief advisor — ran the country on authoritarian lines, ruling
by decree. One of those edicts led to forced sterilization to deal
with India's then huge population growth rate. Varun Gandhi allegedly
referred to it in his virulent rallies in the first week of March by
saying that the BJP "need to pick them [Muslims] up, one by one, and
sterilize them."
That together and other reported statements were enough to slap the
National Security law against him, accusing him of promoting enmity
between religious groups. Gandhi claimed the tapes were "doctored" and
avoided turning himself in to the authorities by paying what is called
"anticipatory bail." But when the bail ran out, Gandhi gave himself up
on Mar. 27. "I am not afraid of going to jail," said Gandhi. "If it
generates confidence in some people, I will go to jail." (See pictures
of the major turning points in modern India's history.)
At first, his party had been confounded by the controversy. And there
was some talk of fielding Maneka Gandhi as a candidate in her son's
place during the elections. But the party finally decided to stand by
the young man after India's Election Commission said in a 10-page
report that Varun should be dropped as a candidate because of his
"highly derogatory" remarks. The BJP shot back that the EC had no
right to make that determination. The party may also have realized
that they suddenly had a catalyst to bring supporters out to the
election. At first, says Hyderabad-based political commentator
Jyotirmaya Sharma, the "BJP didn't know what to do." It was riddled
with internal rivalries and without a solid election plank. "Now it's
obvious they're delighted about a Gandhi being in the right-wing
fold."
Many Indians are appalled not only that a descendant of Nehru is
espousing such a political perspective but that his name and actions
besmirch that of the great Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who was
assassinated by a Hindu extremist in 1948. While the Mahatma was not a
blood relation of the Nehrus, a popular story has the philosopher of
political non-violence, who was Indira's godfather, allowing her
fiance, a young Zoroastrian lawyer originally called Feroze Shah
Ghandy, to restyle his surname as Gandhi, thus attaching prestige to a
mixed marriage many Hindus would not have approved of. Priyanka
Gandhi, Sonia's daughter, said that her cousin Varun's comments were
against the traditions her family had "lived and died for." There
might have been a bigger political spectacle if Priyanka's brother
Rahul had been entered as a possible Congress candidate in the coming
elections, but their mother nixed that suggestion. (See pictures of
Sonia Gandhi's India.)
It remains to be seen how the case of Varun Gandhi will affect the
BJP's chances. In any case, his supporters have not been quiet. On
Saturday, after he turned himself in, they fought a pitched battle
with the police and laid siege to the jail. Police responded by firing
tear gas shells and charging the demonstrators with canes, injuring 25
people. His mother Maneka further stoked the anger when she claimed a
Muslim officer had led the charge. In India's often overheated
politics, the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty knows about playing with fire.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1888587,00.html
In India, a Dynastic Heir Strategizes the Election
By Jyoti Thottam / Bhatinda Thursday, Apr. 16, 2009
Rahul Gandhi, center, at an election campaign rally at the village
Talwandi Sabo on April 14
Rahul Gandhi, heir to modern India's most storied family, touched down
by helicopter and spoke for only seven minutes, but in that short
stump speech to a friendly crowd in northern India's farm belt, he set
out what he hopes will be a road map for a Congress Party victory in
the general election that begins on April 16.
First: turn inexperience into an advantage. Gandhi, 38, is at least a
generation younger than most of the other leaders of his party (let
alone the opposition), and he has had little more than his pedigree
and a few years as a consultant to back his entry into politics. He
was an energetic campaigner in 2004, but those elections really
belonged to his mother, Sonia Gandhi, who asserted her canny
leadership of the party in putting together a winning coalition. This
year, Rahul Gandhi is trying to make his mark, with a pledge to
democratize the institutions of his party. He has promised that within
two years, the youth wing of the Congress Party will choose its
leadership by vote rather than by appointment, and he has pledged to
increase the number of people under 35 who run for office on Congress
tickets. Opening up the Congress Party, he says, will help energize
the country and create a more engaged electorate, who will hold their
elected officials accountable. "It's an attitude, it's an idea," he
said in an interview after the rally. "It's not simply about winning
an election." (See pictures of the tempestuous Nehru-Gandhi dynasty of
India.)
Second: fight back on terrorism. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP), the biggest opposition party, has been
relentlessly criticizing the Congress Party for being "soft on terror"
— India has suffered through a dozen serial blasts over the past two
years. The BJP stepped up its rhetoric after the three-day terrorism
attacks in Mumbai, but in this speech Gandhi struck back sharply. He
reminded the crowd that it was a BJP government that negotiated the
handover of three Muslim extremists to end the 1999 hijacking of an
Indian Airlines plane in Kandahar, Afghanistan, a decision that proved
disastrous — one of the jihadis who was released was later sentenced
to death in Pakistan for the murder of journalist Daniel Pearl. L.K.
Advani, the BJP's prime-ministerial candidate, was India's Home
Minister at the time but recently said he was unaware of the planned
exchange. "There are only two possibilities," Gandhi said. "Either
Vajpayee [who was Prime Minister] didn't trust him, or Advani is not
telling the truth."
Third: remember your base — a big reason for Gandhi's appearance at
the farm-belt rally. The rural poor still make up the vast majority of
voters, and no party can win a general election without their support.
Gandhi spoke to several thousand Congress supporters in Bhatinda, a
small town dominated by mango, kinnow and guava orchards in the heart
of rural Punjab. He trumpeted the National Rural Employment Guarantee
Act, a welfare scheme for the poor that offers a minimum of 100 days
of paid work to one person per family per year, and boasted about the
Congress Party's $14 billion loan-waiver program for farmers, the
largest ever in India. There have been widespread reports of money
being siphoned off from these programs, but Gandhi deflected those
criticisms, instead blaming corruption and inefficiency on the Punjab
state government, which is controlled by a regional rival of the
Congress Party. "The money disappears in the middle," he said.
Of course, winning an election is the main reason that Gandhi has come
to Bhatinda. He has lent his star power to five young, handsome
Congress candidates who are running for parliament from Punjab. All of
them also come from politically well-connected families, though none
with the name recognition of the Gandhis. The crowd waited under
massive white awnings during the scorching midday heat to hear Gandhi
at the rally, which was held during the April 14 Baisakh festival
celebrating the spring harvest. He introduced each one of the
candidates in turn, hailing them in his textbook Hindi as naujawan —
the new young men who represent the future of the party. If they do
well in this year's elections, Gandhi's effort to redefine the
Congress Party will be vindicated. "It's a way of legitimizing his
presence and his stature within the party," says Sandeep Shastri, the
national convenor of Lokniti, a national network of academics who
study Indian elections. Gandhi is planting the seeds in Punjab for a
harvest that may be many years away.
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Why Gandhi's Exit Is Good for India
By Alex Perry/New Delhi Friday, Mar. 24, 2006
Sonia Gandhi's surprise decision to resign as a member of parliament
leaves the world's biggest representative democracy in the hands of
two leaders, Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who technically
don't represent anyone. If that sounds like a strange system of
government, this is even stranger. Rather than bad for Indian
politics, many in India fed up with corruption and venality as usual
would argue that Gandhi and Singh are the best thing to happen to it
in a long time.
Gandhi remains leader of the Congress Party and the ruling Congress-
led coalition, but stepped down as MP for the northern Indian district
of Rae Bareli on Thursday to deflect opposition allegations that her
chairmanship of a government think-tank broke parliamentary conflict-
of-interest rules. Singh, meanwhile, is an unelected economist
appointed by Gandhi herself almost two years ago after she recorded a
surprise win in India's general election but declined the top job
because of nationalist protests against her immigrant roots.
During his two years in office, Singh's integrity has come to be
viewed as beyond reproach. And on Thursday Gandhi — who repeatedly
refused the party leadership after her husband Rajiv Gandhi was
assassinated in 1991 and has now given up power twice in as many years
— said she was stepping down because it was "the right thing to do" in
a situation where "some people have been trying to create an
atmosphere as if government and parliament are being used only to
favor me."
Stunned opposition parties anticipating a long and loud campaign
against Gandhi tried to claim they forced her hand. But their crowing
sounded hollow, and hypocritical: only one of 43 other MPs accused of
breaking the same rules on conflict of interest agreed to follow
Gandhi's example and also step down. "Once again she's shown she is
the one person to whom power genuinely does not mean anything," said
Hindustan Times editorial director Vir Sanghvi. "Whatever authority
she has derives from that morality."
The contrast Gandhi and Singh cut with the typical Indian politician
is striking. India regularly comes in the bottom half of Transparency
International's Corruption Perceptions Index, tied with Moldova and
Mali at 88th out of 158 countries last year. This January, in its Mood
of the Nation issue, the weekly newsmagazine India Today found less
than half of those surveyed expressed any trust in their MPs. So low
is India's opinion of its political leaders, in fact, that a new
college, the M.I.T. School of Government, opened last September in the
central city of Pune with the aim of producing a bright new generation
of Indian politicians. But until they can deliver on that ambitious
goal, it seems that the most respected politicians in India, like
Gandhi and Singh, won't be politicians at all.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1176672,00.html
Essay
Remembering Why Gandhi Starved Himself
By Ishaan Tharoor / Calcutta Friday, Aug. 17, 2007
Schoolchildren hold Indian national flags as part of Independence Day
celebrations at a school in the northeastern city of Siliguri, August
13, 2007.
Rupak De Chowdhuri / Reuters
The military band's quick and terse rendition of India's national
anthem was greeted with a few hushed sighs and gentle nods, in keeping
with the somber mood of the Independence Day festivities at the
governor's mansion. There was little of the chest-thumping pride or
fireworks on display for the few hundred guests — European consuls
fiddling with ties in the muggy heat; old freedom fighters standing
tall, their faces gaunt and expressionless. Sixty years after the
waning British Empire hastily departed after jotting down some lines
on a map turning one country into two, the Indian Subcontinent has
cause to both mourn and celebrate the day of its bitterly won freedom.
Indeed, Indian independence day ceremonies are largely stoic affairs,
steeped in the memory of a nation that was dismembered at the moment
of its birth.
Few places better convey the bittersweet legacy of Indian independence
than the eastern city of Calcutta. It was here that Britain began
building its dominion in India. The sprawling mansion that today
houses the governor of West Bengal — a chiefly symbolic role akin to
India's presidency — was, until 1911, the seat of British power
throughout all of Asia. "When the house was built, the British Empire
in India was like a little patchwork of crimson spots on the map of
the Indian continent," then Viceroy Lord Curzon wrote of the
significance of his former abode. "When it was abandoned [in 1911,
when the capital was moved to New Delhi], that color had overspread
and suffused the whole."
Today, the mansion is replete with contrasts, its busts of Roman
emperors and pennant-bearing lancers on horseback an odd sight
alongside the many dignitaries of the Communist Party, which has ruled
the state for the last 30 years — a fact that some joke is further
evidence of Calcutta's status as a graveyard of the relics of the
past.
The ghosts that haunt independence day celebrations, however, hail
from the very end of the colonial era: At the governor's mansion,
writers, intellectuals and other well-to-do Calcuttans watched footage
on video screens displaying the traumatic communal violence that
wracked the city when Britain partitioned India into the separate
Hindu-majority and Muslim-majority states of India and Pakistan. The
unmistakable figure of a frail, cotton-clad Mahatma Gandhi appeared
throughout the video. India's founding father bitterly opposed
partition, declaring famously, "Let it not be said that Gandhi was
party to India's vivisection. Let posterity know what agony this old
soul went through thinking of it." Gandhi had stayed in Calcutta sixty
years ago when India and Pakistan were born in blood.
Presiding over the ceremony is Gandhi's grandson, the current Governor
Gopalkrishna Gandhi. And following the presentation, in an act of
commemoration, he set off in a convoy to Beliaghata, a poor Muslim
locality in the outskirts of the city. This was where his grandfather,
at the height of tensions in 1947, had moved into accommodations far
more humble than the Viceroy's Palace. Hindu refugees fleeing death
and persecution in East Bengal (soon to be made into East Pakistan and
later independent Bangladesh) besieged Muslim areas like Beliaghata
seeking revenge for their sufferings. Gandhi sought to deter further
killings by living among Muslims himself, and he embarked on a hunger
strike against communal violence that generated such public shame and
outrage that sectarian tensions in the city gave way to universal
concern for the aging man of principle. Gandhi broke his fast as
weeping rioters laid their machetes at his feet.
On Wednesday, hundreds, if not thousands, of ordinary Calcuttans
flocked around the Governor's convoy as it approached the recently
refurbished house where Gandhi had starved and saved Calcutta in 1947.
They filled its courtyard and crammed the gully lanes winding along
its sides that had once been overrun by those angry mobs. Far from the
dignified solemnity of the old Viceroy's Palace, dozens chattered and
applauded when the Governor laid flower petals at an altar to Gandhi.
Crowds of enthusiastic well-wishers turned his polite withdrawal into
a prolonged retreat.
What may be most revealing about the moment is that on the 60th
anniversary of India's independence, many see Gandhi's sacrifice in
pursuit of communal harmony as more moving than the triumph of
expelling the British. Poverty and communal tensions still trouble
India, and cloud its future. As the country's economy booms, hundreds
of millions like those gathered around Gandhi's humble dwelling are on
the outside looking in. It's reported that on August 15, 1947, West
Bengal's newly appointed administrators came to the Mahatma in
Beliaghata to seek his blessings. He responded ominously. "Today, you
have worn on your head a crown of thorns," Gandhi said. "You had been
put to test during the British regime. But in a way it was no test at
all... [for] now there will be no end to your being tested." And that
holds true as much today as it did sixty years ago.
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India's Opposition Struggles With Past and Present
By Madhur Singh / New Delhi Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2009
Jaswant Singh looks on during the release of the party election
manifesto in New Delhi.
RAVEENDRAN / AFP / Getty
For an ancient civilization with a rich and diverse heritage, India
remains uncomfortable with the defining event of its modern political
history — the cataclysmic Partition of 1947 that left a million people
dead in fratricidal massacres and caused the largest-ever cross-
migration in human history. Six decades after that bloody split which
doomed India to seemingly eternal enmity with its conjoined twin, the
state of Pakistan, Partition still defines the contours of Indian
politics and some of its biggest challenges, from the festering
dispute in Kashmir to Islamist and Hindu right-wing terrorism.
It also has led to conflict within India's political establishment.
Last week, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a right-wing Hindu
nationalist bloc that leads the opposition in Parliament, expelled
Jaswant Singh, a former foreign minister in a BJP government and party
stalwart. His crime? To have published a revisionist book on the
history of Partition and, in particular, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the
founding father of Muslim Pakistan who Indians of all political
stripes have often blamed for the violent sundering of the
Subcontinent. Singh's Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence portrays
Jinnah as a secularist and a great statesman, an image that would make
members of India's ruling, secularist Congress party squirm, as well
as Islamists in Pakistan. But Singh's book seemed to pose the greatest
threat to the BJP, a party struggling to find its political relevance
since its thumping defeat in a national election earlier this year.
Indeed, the spat over Jinnah has highlighted the profound crisis
facing India's most prominent opposition party. Its rise less than two
decades ago as a dominant force in Indian national politics coincided
with the opening up of the country's economy and the emergence of a
more confident, muscular middle-class. Its leaders were in power until
a little over five years back, when the party lost the elections then
by a thin margin. But those days seem long gone. The humbled BJP is
now faced with serious questions over its leadership, seen to be out
of sync with a fast-changing India as well as unable to control
dissent within its ranks. Since the electoral defeat,there has been a
string of high-profile resignations and infighting between party
members has dominated headlines in recent weeks.
But the problem runs deeper — ever since an overwhelming mandate in
this year's elections returned the centre-left Congress party to
power, the BJP has been caught in ideological drift, unsure of its own
identity and role as India grows into a world power. On Monday, BJP
stalwart Arun Shourie urged the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the
BJP's mother organization and champion of Hindu nationalist orthodoxy,
to "take over" the party, implying that the only way the party could
get its act together is to go back to the lock-step discipline of the
RSS. This, however, would also entail a return to that group's ultra-
nationalist values which would alienate Muslims,low-castes and
religious minorities. The party now finds itself faced with a
lingering existential question: whether to return to its core base and
whole-heartedly embrace the RSS, or continue to project a more
centrist image by distancing itself from Hindu fundamentalist dogma.
The repudiation of Singh and his open-minded reinterpretation of
Jinnah and Pakistan has signaled, to some analysts, which option the
party Mandarins have opted for.
Strident Hindu nationalism worked in the 1990s, channeling upper-caste
Hindu resentment at the rising political power of the lower castes,
and giving voice to urban middle-classes who backed pro-market,
liberalizing reforms. Back then, the BJP successfully occupied a
nationalist space ceded to it by a weakened Congress — staging events
harking back to an idealized Hindu past, such as the theatrical "rath
yatra" (literally, a chariot ride, but used here to allude to the
mythical Lord Rama's quest to slay the evil Ravana) that motivated
frenzied crowds of Hindus to demolish an ancient mosque in December
1992, sparking months of Hindu-Muslim carnage. When in power from 1998
to 2004, the BJP renamed popular cities with names they deemed more
"native" and changed school syllabi to ingrain a "Hindu" version of
Indian history among students, moving away from the greater
complexities of India's diverse religious past.
Yet in elections this year, Indian voters seem to have rejected the
politics of religious polarization in favor of stability and economic
growth. "Hindu nationalism worked in the 1990s, but today, it is on
the margins. It goes against the popular mood," says New Delhi-based
political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan. In terms of economic reforms, the
BJP seems to have placed itself against a growing consensus. When in
opposition, it has been an outspoken critic of the Congress party-led
government's liberalization policies, seeking to speak for workers and
small businesses perceived to have been disadvantaged by reforms. This
marks a reversal from its own professed business-friendly politics
when in power not long ago.
The only hope for the BJP, says Jyotirmaya Sharma, professor of
politicalscience at the University of Hyderabad, lies in becoming a
more mature, modern conservative party espousing the Hindu cause but
without the corrosive influence of radical ultra-nationalism. "They
need to clarify their stand on a range of issues from liberalization
and foreign policy, especially Pakistan, to their stance vis-a-vis
religious and other minorities," he says. Sharma agrees that the BJP's
current leadership is incapable of leading the party in this
direction. Also, as many political analysts have pointed out, the
BJP's sectarian agenda is often at odds with the spirit of India's
pluralist democracy — an internal reckoning and re-branding is
necessary, but not in sight.
Ironically, amidst the furor created by Jaswant Singh's pro-Jinnah
remarks,the BJP top brass seem to have overlooked the fact that Singh
lays the blame of Partition mostly on the Congress party and its
leaders including Jawaharlal Nehru, India's much-admired first Prime
Minister. But it also serves as a reminder that the BJP is the
Congress' only real competitor at the national level, and the only
likely foil to Congress' national dominance. For decades, the Congress
party was the lone player in Indian national politics, a status quo
which led to political stagnation. Until the BJP gets its act
together, India could teeter down that path once again.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1918755,00.html?iid=sphere-inline-sidebar
Who's Behind the India Bombs?
Wednesday, Mar. 08, 2006
India is changing fast. A few years ago, a bomb attack on a holy Hindu
site would have sparked riots. A few months ago, there would have
seemed little doubt that Islamist groups linked to Pakistan carried it
out. That neither is a certainty today reflects a nation, and a
subcontinent, in profound change.
On Tuesday night, two crude devices—unidentified explosives packed
into pressure cookers and fitted with a timer—exploded within minutes
of each other at a temple and a train station in Varanasi, the
greatest of all Hindu pilgrimage centers on the Ganges in northern
India. Police say 21 people were killed and more than 60 injured.
Fearing a violent Hindu backlash, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
appealed for calm and put security forces on high alert across the
country.
Singh's caution reflects the subcontinent's history of Hindu-Muslim
violence. Hindu-majority India and Muslim Pakistan were born in the
sectarian bloodbath of partition, and three wars the the Kashmir
insurgency have kept relations between the communities strained. Just
four years ago, the death of 59 Hindus in a burning railway carriage—
at the time thought to have been set alight by a mob of Muslims, but
now ruled an accident—sparked an anti-Islamic pogrom across the
western state of Gujarat in which 2,000 more Muslims died. And yet, 24
hours after the Varanasi bombings: no Hindu riots, no Hindu
nationalist stoking the crowds, no knee-jerk accusations from the
security services.
Asked who might have carried out the attack, a senior Indian
intelligence operative told TIME: "There aren't any definite pointers
as yet. Given the target, it's probably an Islamist group, but there's
nothing to connect them to Lashkar-e-Toibaa"—a reference to the
Pakistani militant group fighting in Kashmir with links to the
Pakistani establishment that has carried attacks across India and,
until recently, was routinely fingered for any act of violence here.
The officer added that the amateur nature of the devices suggested the
bombers were poorly funded, and most likely had no support from any
government.
What has changed? Since 2004, India and Pakistan have been engaged in
their first-ever meaningful peace process and taken significant steps
to normalize relations. What's more, India's Hindu right wing, which
rose to prominence by stoking sectarian hatred and held power from
1997 to 2004 under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is in disarray.
The party has yet to recover from its election defeat two years ago
and the round of bitter infighting that followed.
Some argue, moreover, that India's leaders are showing the maturity
that comes with the country's new position in the world. Brahma
Chellaney, strategic studies professor at New Delhi's Centre for
Policy Research, says that coming a few days after a state visit by
U.S. President George W. Bush, the bombs were timed to "deflate the
elation" in India at its simultaneous economic and geopolitical
emergence. For the same reason, India's reaction was muted. "If you
react strongly, you diminish your standing in the world," he said.
"These people want to belittle India. For that reason, India will
react in its own way."
But who is behind the latest bombings, the latest in a string of
recent attacks? In August 2003, two bomb blasts in Bombay killed more
than 50 people. In September 2004, around 30 people died in a gun
attack on a temple in Gujarat. And last October, more than 60 were
killed in a series of bomb blasts in Delhi. Another Indian
intelligence officer who spoke to TIME linked Tuesday's bombings to
amateurish attacks late last year in the tech towns of Hyderabad and
Bangalore, and possibly the Delhi blasts too. In Hyderabad last
October, a suicide bomber blew himself up 200 yards from the Andhra
Pradesh state Chief Minister's office, killing only himself. And in
Bangalore in December, a man ran into a conference at the Indian
Institute of Technology and hurled several grenades which failed to
explode, before firing a AK-47, killing a professor. "Some say it's
all the same cell," said the first intelligence officer. "And if there
are any substantive indications at all, they point to a group that
came over from Bangladesh."
It would be naive to think that India has shed its Hindu chauvinism
overnight. After the latest attack, former BJP Deputy Prime Minister
Lal Krishna Advani announced he would he embarking on a "yatra," a
cross between a march and a pilgrimage, to protest the pandering to
"minorities" — meaning Muslims — that he said had led to the bombings.
Moreover, as relations with Pakistan warm, India's nationalist hawks
are all too eager to find another "anti-India" bogeyman in the rising
Islamic fundamentalist movement in India's its eastern neighbor,
Bangladesh. Nor is the absence of a riot much to celebrate. But given
the subcontinent's bloody, sectarian history, it's a start.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1171112,00.html
Who's Behind the Mumbai Massacre?
By Simon Robinson Friday, Nov. 28, 2008
Indian soldiers take up positions outside the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower
Hotel during an armed siege in Mumbai, India.
Uriel Sinai / Getty
Even as the siege of Mumbai was still going on, the finger-pointing
began. India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said "external forces"
were behind the attacks, a thinly veiled reference to India's neighbor
and longtime foe Pakistan. Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee went
further, telling reporters that "elements with links to Pakistan" were
involved. But Pakistan's President and Prime Minister both condemned
the attacks and rejected any talk of Pakistani involvement. Pakistani
officials also announced that the head of the powerful Inter-Services
Intelligence organization (ISI) — often accused of orchestrating
terrorist assaults on India — would travel to India to offer
assistance in investigating the Mumbai massacre.
There has been one claim of responsibility: a group calling itself the
Deccan Mujahideen, which e-mailed news organizations on Thursday
claiming it had carried out the attacks. The group, previously
unknown, may be connected with (or even an alias of) the Indian
Mujahedin, which claimed responsibility for several terrorist strikes
earlier this year. Indian terrorism experts say that both are likely
to have connections to, or simply be renamed versions of, older Indian
militant groups such as the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba or the
Students Islamic Movement of India. (See pictures of two days of
terror in Mumbai.)
Yet the scale and sophistication of the Mumbai attacks — which appear
to have involved dozens of militants using assault rifles, grenades
and explosives to simultaneously attack multiple targets — raise
suspicions of involvement by more than one group, which would involve
an unprecedented level of coordination.
"This is an operation of a very new type in India," wrote Walid Phares
on his well-respected Counterterrorism Blog. "The 'emirs' have sent
these armed elements in their 20s to strike at Indian psyche. One goal
is to sink the Pakistani-Indian rapprochement ... The goal is to
target India as a power engaged in the war on terror but also to
further destabilize the region, including Pakistan and its neighbor
Afghanistan."
Here are the groups considered the most likely culprits in the Mumbai
attacks:
Lashkar-e-Toiba (Army of the Pure), formed in 1990, probably in
Afghanistan. It is based near Lahore in Pakistan and is bent on
forcing India out of Kashmir. It has also said it wants to restore
Islamic rule over India. Indian intelligence sources believe the group
has backers within Pakistan's ISI. It also has historic links to both
the Taliban and al-Qaeda. India's National Security Adviser M.K.
Narayanan said in 2006 that Lashkar-e-Toiba is part of the "al-Qaeda
compact" and is "as big and as omnipotent" as Osama bin Laden's
group.
Jaish-e-Mohammed, which emerged in early 2000 under the leadership of
Maulana Masood Azhar, who had been serving time in an Indian jail for
Kashmir-related militancy but was released in exchange for Indian
passengers on an Indian Airlines jet who had been hijacked to
Afghanistan. The group was responsible for an attack on India's
parliament in December 2001 that brought India and Pakistan to the
brink of war. Jaish-e-Mohammed is believed to have close links to al-
Qaeda and bin Laden through a religious school in Karachi.
The Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) is less focused on
Kashmir than either Lashkar-e-Toiba or Jaish-e-Mohammed. Indian
authorities say the group, formed in 1977, has close connections to a
pocket of Chicago's Muslim community. Its fortunes have waxed and
waned over the past three decades, but the group has recently become
more active again. SIMI blamed the 9/11 attacks on Israelis and, at
the same time, expressed admiration for bin Laden and his war against
the West. Some Indian experts believe that Indian Mujahedin is simply
a renamed SIMI.
In the past two years, the groups listed above have sometimes been
joined in operations by the Bangladeshi arm of a group known as Harkat-
ul-Jehadi Islami. The group is believed to be behind twin blasts in
Hyderabad in 2007. Formed in 1992 in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi group has
become a lot stronger in India since the massacre of Muslims by hard-
line Hindu nationalists in Gujarat in 2002.
Despite the ideological affinities of some of these groups with bin
Laden's movement, Ajai Sahni, executive director of the New Delhi–
based Institute for Conflict Management, says there is no real
evidence "of any operational linkages between al-Qaeda and these
groups." They may take inspiration from al-Qaeda propaganda, but they
are unlikely to have direct organizational links back to bin Laden.
More likely, however, is that the four separate groups have begun to
work together more often and in increasingly sophisticated ways. There
have been instances in the past of the groups' establishing joint
operational cells. While pooling resources allowed for more effective
operations, it also greatly increased the risks of police
infiltration. As a result, the planning of such operations has been
decentralized to the point that each group of militants attacking a
specific target in Mumbai on Thursday was unlikely to have been aware
of the total plan.
Sahni explains that previous experience suggests that an operation of
the complexity of the Mumbai attacks would be directed by handlers
based outside India, who would design a plan and then contact
militants within their networks based in India to carry out various
missions — delivering explosives to a safe house, buying equipment and
so forth — that would enable the gunmen to wreak havoc.
None of the India-based operatives would most likely know one another,
nor for the most part would even meet. Contact with the handler woould
always be through a public call center to make it difficult to trace
calls. If an operative were picked up by police, there would be no way
for him to identify fellow plotters. "It assures total anonymity,"
Sahni told TIME last year. "The handler is in Bangladesh or Pakistan,
and the people here don't know each other. It's the most significant
tactical shift in the near past and is a model for international
terrorism in the future."
Sadly, the success of the Mumbai operation — at least 143 dead and,
perhaps more important, two days and counting of continuous news
coverage — is sure to embolden those behind it. The Indian model of
disparate groups working together, if that's what it is in this case,
is also likely to be copied by al-Qaeda-inspired terrorists around the
world. The model, says Sahni, "is absolutely brilliant in every way."
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1862733,00.html?iid=sphere-inline-sidebar
Mumbai Terror attacks: Urban Jihad comes to India
By Walid Phares
As we write this short early assessment of the Terror attacks in
Mumbai, events are still unforlding in the financial capital of the
sub Indian region. Counter Terrorism units are battling armed elements
inside several buildings including the Taj Hotel where hostages have
been seized, including foreigners. My first round of monitoring
included a discussion with our colleague Animesh Roul who has also
posted a report on CTB. I must credit a number of facts and
assumptions to him including the projection that the perpetrators -
although calling themselves Deccan Mujahideen- are in fact members or
trained by Lashkar e Toiba/SIMI (who according to Animesh Roul now
call themselves Indian Mujahideen). Here is the condensed report I
discussed on Fox News, the BBC, Russia Today TV and other
international outlets.
Type of Operation
According to sources in Mumbai, armed groups and individuals have
attacked at least ten (if not more) targets inside the city including
the Taj Hotel, Oberoi Hotel, a railway Station, the Leopold Café and
other locations. More shooting incidents have been also reported at
the Trident hotel, a hospital and a highway leading to the airport and
Assembly Hall. The terrorists fired indiscriminately against
civilians, security elements, lobbed grenades, and killed Counter
Terrorism officials. At this writing sources are reporting more than
102 deaths, amd hundreds wounded, in addition to hostage taking.
Indian security sources confirmed the use of AK-47s, small arms,
grenade, etc. This type of operation, involving a number of small
groups and individuals "deployed" across several avenues, In my book
Future Jihad I coined these types of forthcoming strikes as "urban
Jihad" (Chapter 13). Instead of bombers and suicide bombers, the
command sends "Jihadi infantry." The tactical goal of these actions is
to engage in different types of missions: random kilings, chaos,
killing of security officers and hostage taking.
Design of the operations
In our estimate, this attack is a “complex” type, where small
operations are aimed at creating chaos and triggering security
deployment in many areas, while more precise operations could target
higher targets such as hostage taking or similar situation. We will
probably know more when the dust will settle.
Perpetrators
In view of the historical context, precedents and latest analysis, the
most likely groups that may be behind these attacks are the Lashkar e
Toiba/SIMI (they now call themselves Indian Mujahideen). These groups
are Jihadists, have links to the other organizations in Kashmir but
also inside Pakistan with pro-Taliban elements and eventually Al
Qaeda. The ideological identification is most likely Jihadist although
the group almost surely will issue a more than one release to claim
the attack and put it in context.
According to Indian sources this is an operation of a very new type in
India. The "emirs" have sent these armed elements in their 20s to
strike at Indian psyche. One goal is to sink the Pakistani-Indian
rapprochement. In Islamabad, the new Government is engaged in
operations against the big Jihadi boys ojn the north western frontier.
It is quite possible that the Mumbai attacks aim at triggering
tensions between the two old foes so that pressure would be released
against the radicals in Pakistan. In any event, this is a large Jihadi
operation against one of the emerging economies and the largest
democraciy n Asia. The goal is to target India as a power engaged in
the War on Terror but also to further destabilize the region,
including Pakistan and its neighbor Afghanistan.”
************
Dr Walid Phares is the Director of the Future Terrorism Project at the
Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
November 26, 2008 11:18 PM
http://counterterrorismblog.org/2008/11/mumbai_terror_attacks_urban_ji.php
India's Muslims in Crisis
By Aryn Baker Thursday, Nov. 27, 2008
A gunman walks at the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in
Mumbai
Sebastian D'souza / AP / Mumbai Mirror
The disembodied voice was chilling in its rage. A gunman, holed up in
the Oberoi Trident hotel in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), where some 40
people had been taken hostage, told an Indian news channel that the
attacks were revenge for the persecution of Muslims in India. "We love
this as our country, but when our mothers and sisters were being
killed, where was everybody?" he asked via telephone. No answer came.
But then he probably wasn't expecting one.
The roots of Muslim rage run deep in India, nourished by a long-held
sense of injustice over what many Indian Muslims believe is
institutionalized discrimination against the country's largest
minority group. The disparities between Muslims, who make up 13.4% of
the population, and India's Hindus, who hover at around 80%, are
striking. There are exceptions, of course, but generally speaking,
Muslim Indians have shorter life spans, worse health, lower literacy
levels and lower-paying jobs. Add to that toxic brew the lingering
resentment over 2002's anti-Muslim riots in the state of Gujarat. The
riots, instigated by Hindu nationalists, killed some 2,000 people,
most of them Muslims. To this day, few of the perpetrators have been
convicted. (See pictures of the terrorist shootings in Mumbai.)
The huge gap between Muslims and Hindus will continue to haunt India's
— and neighboring Pakistan's — progress toward peace and prosperity.
But before intercommunal relations can improve, there are even bigger
problems that must first be worked out: the schism in subcontinental
Islam and the religion's place and role in modern India and Pakistan.
It is a crisis 150 years in the making.
The Beginning of the Problem
On the afternoon of March 29, 1857, Mangal Pandey, a handsome,
mustachioed soldier in the East India Company's native regiment,
attacked his British lieutenant. His hanging a week later sparked a
subcontinental revolt known to Indians as the first war of
independence and to the British as the Sepoy Mutiny. Retribution was
swift, and though Pandey was a Hindu, it was the subcontinent's
Muslims, whose Mughal King nominally held power in Delhi, who bore the
brunt of British rage. The remnants of the Mughal Empire were
dismantled, and 500 years of Muslim supremacy on the subcontinent came
to a halt.
Muslim society in India collapsed. The British imposed English as the
official language. The impact was cataclysmic. Muslims went from near
100% literacy to 20% within a half-century. The country's educated
Muslim élite was effectively blocked from administrative jobs in the
government. Between 1858 and 1878, only 57 out of 3,100 graduates of
Calcutta University — then the center of South Asian education — were
Muslims. While discrimination by both Hindus and the British played a
role, it was as if the whole of Muslim society had retreated to lick
its collective wounds.
Out of this period of introspection, two rival movements emerged to
foster an Islamic ascendancy. Revivalist groups blamed the collapse of
their empire on a society that had strayed too far from the teachings
of the Koran. They promoted a return to a purer form of Islam, modeled
on the life of the Prophet Muhammad. Others embraced the modern ways
of their new rulers, seeking Muslim advancement through the pursuit of
Western sciences, culture and law. From these movements two great
Islamic institutions were born: Darul Uloom Deoband in northern India,
rivaled only by Al Azhar University in Cairo for its teaching of
Islam, and Aligarh Muslim University, a secular institution that
promoted Muslim culture, philosophy and languages but left religion to
the mosque. These two schools embody the fundamental split that
continues to divide Islam in the subcontinent today. "You could say
that Deoband and Aligarh are husband and wife, born from the same
historical events," says Adil Siddiqui, information coordinator for
Deoband. "But they live at daggers drawn."
The campus at Deoband is only a three-hour drive from New Delhi
through the modern megasuburb of Noida. Strip malls and monster
shopping complexes have consumed many of the mango groves that once
framed the road to Deoband, but the contemporary world stops at the
gate. The courtyards are packed with bearded young men wearing long,
collared shirts and white caps. The air thrums with the voices of
hundreds of students reciting the Koran from open-door classrooms.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1862650,00.html
India Terror Arrests Shock Nation
By MADHUR SINGH / NEW DELHI Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008
Security forces outside the Jama Masjid in New Delhi, April 2006,
after the explosions
MANPREET ROMANA / AFP / Getty
Having suffered a dozen lethal terror attacks this year, Indians have
almost stopped reacting to terror incidents with shock and horror. But
recent news of the arrest of 10 people linked with two relatively
small terror attacks earlier this year has created a national furor,
and is likely to skew political parties' calculations ahead of next
year's general elections.
The arrests by the Anti-Terrorist Squad of Maharashtra police have
shocked India for two reasons. The nine accused are all Hindu right-
wingers, confirming, for the first time, suspicions raised by
political and security analysts that the Hindu extremist fringe has
been organizing for terror attacks. Second, among the accused are a
serving lieutenant colonel and a retired major of the army, an
institution so far considered impervious to communal elements. (Click
here to read about recent bomb blasts in North East India.)
For years, Indian security and investigation agencies have had a
trite, almost comically knee-jerk explanation for terror attacks —
they have been blamed on Islamist fundamentalists aided by "foreign
elements," meaning mostly Pakistan and China. Even where the majority
of victims have been Muslims — such as the May 2007 blast at Mecca
Masjid in Hyderabad, the attack on an Indo-Pak train in February 2007
and the April 2006 twin blasts at New Delhi's Jama Masjid — the first
murmurs of suspicion have named Islamist groups. Investigation trails
in these cases have led nowhere, yet no one has dared ask if non-
Muslims, or more specifically, Hindu fundamentalists, could be
responsible. The recent arrests point to either the security forces'
inefficiency, or an implicit anti-Muslim bias, or both.
The 10 people arrested by the Maharashtra police have been charged
with murder and conspiracy in a bomb blast during the month of
Ramadan. The blast at a hotel near a mosque killed four people in
Malegaon city near Mumbai. Among the accused is a Hindu nun with links
to the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party and its various sister
organizations. The investigation is already uncovering a seemingly
larger network of Hindu extremist activity in western India's urban
centers of Nagpur, Indore and Pune that could help unravel unsolved
terror strikes. "Let us not forget history," says political analyst
Mahesh Rangarajan. "Mahatma Gandhi's assassin was a Hindu extremist."
Cases have been building before this week. Rangarajan cites a blast in
the central Indian city of Kanpur in August as one, in which two
people associated with a Hindu right-wing organization were killed
while making explosives. In June, the Hindu nationalist political
party Shiv Sena got much flak for calling for the creation of Hindu
"suicide squads". "Islamic terrorism is on the rise in India and in
order to counter Islamic terrorism, we should match it with Hindu
terrorism," an unsigned editorial in the Shiv Sena's official
newspaper said. Hindu right-wing organizations have been blamed for
virulent anti-Christian violence in two states in recent months, and
many critics would label the 2002 Gujarat riots and the tearing down
of the Babri Masjid in 1992 — which first propelled the BJP to
national prominence — as acts of Hindu extremist violence as well.
Hindu right-wing parties have used Islamist terrorism to play upon the
majority community's resentment at a sense of persecution by the
minority Muslim community. "One hopes the arrests will cause some
introspection," says Rangarajan, "Maybe [Hindu right-wing leaders]
will give up their politics of violent communal polarization."
For the moment, however, political leaders are busy culling votes.
Writing in the weekly magazine Outlook, Congress party member Abhishek
Manu Singhvi pounced immediately, writing, "[The BJP] claims to be a
mainstream political party — with its direct members and associates
directly linked to terrorism. It gives us homilies on terror and calls
us soft on terror, while allowing its own philosophy to preach terror
and its own activists to commit terror." The BJP has hinted at a
conspiracy by the ruling government to frame the accused for political
gains. "A terrorist is a terrorist irrespective of his religion or
caste. The BJP objects to the term 'Hindu terrorists'. By condemning
the majority, one seeks to gain the minority vote," BJP vice president
Yashwant Sinha said at a press conference in New Delhi on October 24,
after the first set of arrests.
Whether the charges against the accused will stand in a court of law
remains to be seen. What is clear is that India now faces a dangerous
epidemic of violent communalization, which threatens to polarize the
polity and destroy the secular character of the state.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1858756,00.html
Five Blasts Put Delhi on High Alert
By Madhur Singh/NEW DELHI Saturday, Sep. 13, 2008
An injured man, right, shouts for help as others lie injured on a road
after a bomb explosion in New Delhi, India, Saturday, Sept. 13, 2008.
Witnesses say at least one explosion has hit a central New Delhi
shopping area, leaving several people wounded
Mustafa Quraishi / AP
In the latest in a string of audacious terrorist attacks, India's
capital was thrown into chaos on Saturday evening as five serial
blasts left at least 18 people dead and 100 injured. The central
business district of Connaught Place and busy markets in Karol Bagh
and Greater Kailash-I were targeted between 6 and 7 p.m. and three
more bombs were defused in Connaught Place. As of Saturday evening,
one arrest had been reported.
Indian Mujahideen, which claimed responsibility for blasts that killed
over 45 people in Bangalore and Ahmedabad six weeks ago, declared
itself to be behind today's Delhi blasts as well. The group also
warned of more attacks in Mumbai, the country's financial capital.
Delhi and Mumbai have been placed on high alert, and there is a
palpable sense of panic in the capital. For at least an hour after the
blasts, phone lines were jammed and traffic slowed to a crawl as
people rushed home to safety. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned
the blasts and appealed for calm. Police said all the explosions were
low intensity, but don't know much about the nature or composition of
the bombs. Unconfirmed reports say that bombs were detonated on a
bicycle, in a dustbin and in an autorickshaw.
The group claiming responsibility, the Indian Mujahideen, is suspected
to be an amalgamation of home-grown and Pakistan-based terror outfits
that profess to seek revenge for the purported injustices and
atrocities against the country's Muslim minority. In addition to the
Ahmedabad and Bangalore blasts, Indian Mujahideen has claimed to have
been behind blasts in the northwestern city of Jaipur in May, as well
as serial blasts in the northern cities of Varanasi, Faizabad and
Lucknow in November 2007.
The New Delhi blasts once again raise questions over India's ability
to prevent terror attacks. There have been 13 major incidents in the
past five years, and each time the same issues have been raised — lack
of coordination between state and central security and investigation
agencies, and intelligence and police forces being inadequately
staffed, equipped and trained. Yet, as the regularity of the attacks
shows, little has changed to deter terror organizations from striking
at will.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1841051,00.html
India's Northeast Rocked by Blasts
By Jyoti Thottam / New Delhi Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008
A seriously wounded man is removed from near a blast site in Gauhati,
India, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008.
Anupam Nath / AP
The long troubled northeastern corner of India is seeing an escalation
of violence even as the rest of the country contends with a series of
terror bombings over the last few weeks. On Thursday, a series of co-
ordinated bomb blasts in the Indian state of Assam — nine of them
detonated in four cities in the span of 15 minutes — killed at 61
people and injured at least 300. The question now is whether the
perpetrators of the attacks were regional separatists or a wider
network of radical jihadists.
The blasts began at about 11 a.m. local time in Assam, a mainly rural
state best known for its tea plantations. Three of them were car bombs
set off in its capital and largest city, Guwahati, according to R.N.
Mathur, the state's director general of police. Those blasts did the
most damage, killing 31 and injuring 147. The remaining six blasts hit
smaller towns in lower Assam, near the Bangladesh border, and were
smaller in scale, using explosives left on bicycles and motorbikes.
Two of the bombs in Guwahati were set off near government targets: a
police station, the office of the deputy commissioner of the state's
civil service, but the one that did the worst damage was left under an
elevated highway, according to Deputy Inspector General D.P. Singh of
the state police.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, and the chief
minister of the state, Tarun Gogoi, was careful not to blame any group
in particular. "We are determined to deal firmly with the militants,
whoever they are," he said at a press conference a few hours after the
blasts. Early reports from officials in Assam pinned the blasts on the
United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), a group that has been
agitating against the government since 1979. (See here for a TIME
Archive story on the origins of Assam's troubles.) Its often violent
campaign for a sovereign Assam began in earnest in 1990. The group
seeks an end to what it has called "colonial rule" by the central
government in New Delhi and the expulsion of non-Assamese,
particularly Hindi-speakers, from the state. ULFA has denied
responsibility for the blasts.
The Army and state police have largely put down the movement through
force and through a strategy of persuading militants, often through
their families, to surrender, re-enter "the mainstream" and accept
financial assistance. Peace talks with ULFA broke down in 2006, and
two battalions of the group have refused to surrender, setting up
bases in neighboring Bangladesh and in Burma, intelligence officials
say. P.K. Mishra, inspector general of the Border Security Force for
the Assam & Meghalaya frontier, who spoke to TIME from his
headquarters in the city, says he thinks the blasts are the work of
the two ULFA battalions which have not surrendered. "They wanted to
show their strength," Mishra says.
Some defense analysts say these attacks, which are similar in scope
and sophistication to recent attacks in New Delhi, Ahmedabad,
Bangalore and Jaipur, could be the work of a jihadi group. Sreeradha
Datta, of the Institute of Defense and Security Analysis in New Delhi,
sees the influence of Harkat ul Jihad ul Islami, which is based in
Bangladesh and has ties to ULFA, or some other jihadi organization
operating within India. "This is part of the larger terrorist problem
which has gripped India recently," Datta says. "They [ULFA] belong to
Assam. They don't want to antagonize the Assamese."
Whichever group eventually claims responsibility, they are not alone
in their frustration with the state government. After the bombs went
off, an angry group of people vented their frustration over the time
it took for help to reach the dozens hurt by the blasts. When the
police and fire brigade arrived, the mob pelted them with stones and
set fire to government vehicles. Singh, the police official, said he
was hit with one of the stones and required three stitches in his leg.
The central government, too, is treating this attack as a significant
blow to its attempts to improve security in India, in particular its
effort to tame the militancy in the northeast by pouring millions of
dollars in development to the area. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is
expected to arrive in Guwahati on Friday. With reporting by P.P. Singh/
Guwahati
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1855023,00.html
India: The Agony of Assam
By Marguerite Johnson;Dean Brelis Monday, Mar. 07, 1983
An election explodes in violence and creates problems for Indira
Gandhi
Not since the carnage that accompanied the breakaway of Bangladesh
from Pakistan in 1971 had the subcontinent seen such ghastly scenes of
horror. After four years of festering protest and a month of mounting
violence, India's oil-rich state of Assam exploded in a paroxysm of
communal and religious hatred. In the turbulence touched off by
opposition to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's decision to hold state
elections, some 3,000 people were believed to have been killed, and
Indian officials said that 100,000 others had been left homeless by
rampaging arsonists who burned entire villages. As Mrs. Gandhi rushed
in three battalions of army troops to bring order to the troubled
state, 30,000 people were reported fleeing, many on foot, to the
safety of neighboring states.
The worst violence apparently took place near the town of Nellie, in a
rice-growing area 34 miles northeast of Gauhati. There, Lalung
tribesmen wielding machetes, bamboo spears and poisoned arrows
massacred more than 1,000 Muslim Bengalis. The warriors swarmed
through 17 villages along a stretch of the Brahmaputra River. They
herded all those who were unable to flee, mostly women and children,
toward a larger ambush party waiting by the river, where the Bengalis
were brutally slaughtered. In one village, the bodies of children were
arranged in two rows in the sunbaked rice fields while survivors dug
mass graves in which to bury them.
The outbreak of tribal warfare caught authorities by surprise,
although resentment had been building for a long time against Bengali
settlers who had immigrated to Assam from the Indian state of West
Bengal and Bangladesh. In the turmoil surrounding the election,
dissidents practically shut down the state. They forced shops, banks
and government offices in the capital to close as part of an 18-day
"noncooperation movement." Mobs stormed police stations, blew up
bridges, assassinated one candidate, and blocked roads with huge
boulders as a warning that anyone who dared pass risked death.
After a tour of the state last week, Prime Minister Gandhi returned to
speak before a hushed session of Parliament. "I've seen the agony of
Assam," she said. "My heart is filled with sorrow for all those who
died." She defended her decision to hold the elections and made a
strong appeal for unity to those who had criticized it. "The
importance of the country's integrity and independence is higher than
any movement, or any of us," she said. "To permit a few their way is
to see the country torn apart bit by bit."
Under India's constitution, Mrs. Gandhi had no recourse but to hold
elections. After Assamese dissidents brought down the state
government, New Delhi imposed direct rule over the state last March.
But the constitutional limit on such a "President's rule" is one year,
and the March 19 deadline was fast nearing. Mrs. Gandhi said she
approached the political opposition for support in passing a
constitutional amendment that would extend the deadline but did not
receive it. The opposition's cooperation would have been necessary
because Mrs. Gandhi's own ruling Congress (I) Party does not have the
two-thirds majority in the upper house of Parliament needed to pass
amendments.
The government has shown unusual patience in dealing with the
Assamese. Spurred on by a militant student group, the dissidents began
agitating in 1979 for the expulsion of all "foreigners" from the
state. By that they meant the Bengalis, who began coming to the state
when the entire region was part of British India and who now make up
about 8 million of the state's estimated 20 million population. For
two years, the agitators succeeded in virtually paralyzing all
official and economic activity in Assam. They forced closure of
Assam's oilfields, which supply one-third of India's petroleum needs.
The action cost the government nearly $1.5 billion in additional oil
imports in 1979 and 1980, and eventually forced it to send in army
troops to take over the oilfields. When national elections were held
in 1980, the students prevented balloting in twelve of the state's 14
constituencies. The following year the dissidents prevented the
national government from taking a census that was intended to help
address some of their grievances.
In an effort to defuse the situation and find a resolution to the
crisis, New Delhi engaged in negotiations with the student leaders for
nearly three years. The government and the students agreed tentatively
that anyone who settled in Assam before 1961 could stay. They also
agreed to consider that anyone who came after 1971 would be
repatriated to other parts of India, a decision that would affect
almost 1 million people. But the students were adamant that those who
had arrived between 1961 and 1971 be either denied the right to vote
or forced to leave, an enormous exercise that could involve 3 million
people. Prime Minister Gandhi was equally adamant that all immigrants
who arrived before 1971 and had proof of their Indian citizenship had
every legal right to live, work and vote in Assam. As she told
Parliament, "I asked the students, 'Where are we going to send these
people? Where in India? To what country outside India?' " Hopelessly
deadlocked, the talks, which were being held in New Delhi, broke down
in early January. When the student leaders arrived back in Assam, they
were arrested.
Although the leaders were released last week as a conciliatory
gesture, it seems unlikely that their movement will soon simmer down.
Thus far the dissidents have not called for independence for Assam,
but separatism is never very far from the surface. One group even
boasts its own flag, a green map of Assam with a mailed fist in the
center. Except for a narrow passage, the state is separated from India
by Bangladesh. Since ancient times, its ethnic and cultural ties have
always been closer to Burma and Tibet than to the rest of India. In
tribute to their proud and independent past, the students have taken
to calling their movement "the 18th war of independence," a reference
to the 17 wars fought by Assam's legendary King Lachit Borphukan, who
in the 1600s was the only ruler in the region to repulse Mogul
invaders.
Even then, the territory was an exotic ethnic mix that included Indo-
Aryan Assamese, Assamese-speaking Hindus in the Brahmaputra valley,
dozens of hill tribes of Mongoloid stock, and indigenous plains
tribes. Then came successive waves of Bengalis, both Hindus and
Muslims, who were first brought in by the British to run the tea
plantations and the civil service of the British raj. Bengali
immigration intensified during partition in 1947 and again after the
creation of Bangladesh. Although its population is one of the fastest
growing on the subcontinent, Assam has only 254 people per sq. km.
West Bengal, by contrast, has 614, one of the highest population
densities in the world.
The Bengalis made enormous contributions to the development of Assam's
oil wealth, industry and administration. But the native Assamese came
to fear that their language and culture would be submerged by the
Bengalis. Moreover, many of the Bengalis are Muslims, while the native
Assamese are either Hindus or animists. As a result, the population is
now 25% Muslim, a high percentage for an Indian state.
As Parliament considered ways of dealing with what Indian President
Giani Zail Singh called "the virus of communalism," the ballots were
finally tabulated late last week. The Congress (I) Party won a clear
majority, taking 90 out of the 108 seats in the state legislature and
four of the five seats for Parliament. That came as no surprise, since
the small Communist Party (Marxist) was the only other party
contesting the election. Officials said that voting had been heavy
(70%) in the Bengali districts, where there was no violence, but that
18 state and seven parliamentary contests had had to be nullified. It
was not a victory that anyone could take satisfaction from — and
hardly a happy note on which to welcome the 80 heads of state who will
arrive in New Delhi next week for the summit conference of nonaligned
nations. — By Marguerite Johnson. Reported by Dean Brelis/New Delhi
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,953744,00.html
Domestic Violence
By Jyoti Thottam/New Delhi Thursday, Jul. 31, 2008
ENLARGE PHOTO+
BLOOD IN THE STREETS: Terrorists said the Ahmedabad blasts were
revenge for anti-Muslim violence in 2002
Gautam Singh / AP
Homegrown terrorism is a chill ing idea. No country likes to believe
that violent mayhem has taken root in its backyard. After all, foreign
killers can be weeded out; domestic terrorists draw strength from, and
corrupt, their native soil.
That was the disquieting reality India awoke to on July 27, after a
coordinated series of bomb blasts rocked Ahmedabad, an elegant,
ancient city in the western state of Gujarat. Coming just a day after
eight blasts hit Bangalore, the center of India's thriving technology
industry, the attack seemed, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said
during a visit to Ahmedabad, to target India's cosmopolitan, secular
social fabric. The whole country seemed to sense the threat, as
India's major cities immediately set up checkpoints and metal
detectors. At least 17 more unexploded bombs were defused on July 29
in Surat, a global diamond hub halfway between Ahmedabad and Mumbai.
The possibility that the terrorists may themselves have been Indian
suggests that the sectarian anger boiling beneath the nation's modern
veneer has taken on a new and bloodier tenor.
Terrorist attacks have become distressingly familiar in India. Since
2005, more than 520 people have been killed, and hundreds more
injured, in 12 major bombings around the country. Claims of
responsibility are rare, and Indian defense and intelligence analysts
have long assumed that large-scale, coordinated bombings like the
Ahmedabad attack are the handiwork of international, or Pakistani,
terror networks. But experts are now coming to accept that the volume
of recent attacks would not have been possible without a significant
number of local recruits. "They are increasingly acquiring their own
expertise," says B. Raman, former head of counterterrorism for the
Research and Analysis Wing, India's external-intelligence agency.
The Ahmedabad bombings indeed appear domestic in origin. Minutes
before the first of 22 bombs went off, a group called Indian
Mujahideen sent a 14-page manifesto to Indian news organizations
asserting that the attack was "planned and executed by Indians only."
They claimed "sole responsibility" for the bombs, which have killed
more than 40 people so far, and, as if offended at the idea that they
needed outside help, admonished groups with links to Pakistan "for the
sake of Allah, not to claim the responsibility for these attacks."
Indian Mujahideen has claimed credit for two previous attacks: blasts
in the tourist hub of Jaipur in May, which killed 63 people; and
bombings in the northern cities of Varanasi, Faizabad and Lucknow last
November, which killed 16. Their attacks follow a similar pattern:
numerous crude bombs timed to go off in sequence in bus stations,
temples and markets. The latest attacks used explosives delivered in
the most mundane possible ways — on bicycles left casually near a
fruit stand, or in a stainless-steel tiffin carrier, the ubiquitous
lunchbox of Indian commuters, left under the seat of a bus. But, in
Ahmedabad, the terrorists were also more ambitious than in previous
bombings, striking at many more sites than in any other recent
attack.
Wherever their hardware is coming from, Indian Mujahideen's demands
are intensely local. It wants the release of members of the Students'
Islamic Movement of India, who are suspects in earlier bomb blasts. It
criticizes a lawyers' group in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh for
failing to take cases brought by Muslims. And it warns that it will
target states where the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
is in power.
The group's biggest grievance by far, however, is the unresolved
business of the 2002 anti-Muslim violence centered in that same city,
Ahmedabad. After an attack on Hindu pilgrims in another part of the
state, up to 2,000 Muslims were targeted and killed, many of them
tortured, burned or raped, according to reports by local and
international human-rights groups. The Chief Minister of the state, a
BJP hard-liner named Narendra Modi, was widely criticized for failing
to stop the attacks. Modi has denied those claims, has never faced any
charges and, despite the criticism, has twice been re-elected as Chief
Minister.
The Gujarat riots, and Modi in particular, have become a rallying cry
for extremist groups, who have drowned out the voices of moderation
among India's Muslims. "We have a completely extraordinary situation
post-2002 in Gujarat," says Harsh Mander, a former civil-service
officer who works with victims of the riots. Other spasms of sectarian
violence in India have been followed by "some kind of healing
process," he says, with official remorse and legal action. But six
years after the Gujarat riots, only a handful of cases have led to
convictions. The Indian Supreme Court forced the state's government in
2004 to reopen nearly 2,000 cases that had been thrown out for lack of
evidence. Mander adds, "We have reduced an entire population to second-
class citizens."
The festering anger over Gujarat serves as irresistible fodder for
extremist groups who direct their message to India's increasingly
disaffected Muslims. A federal report released in 2006 found that the
country's 138 million Muslims are poorer than other Indians, less
educated and vastly under-represented in India's largest employer, the
railways, and its civil service. While many political parties pledge
to defend India's Muslims against Hindu nationalism, they rarely
deliver promised roads, jobs and schools. "The disaffection of Indian
Muslims is not any different in its quality from the disaffection of
other parts of the underclass, whether Muslim, Christian or Hindu,"
says Bharat Karnad, a professor of national-security studies at the
New Delhi – based Centre for Policy Research. The difference is that
well-funded, radicalized madrasahs reach out to this part of India's
underclass, Karnad says. "The government and its 'secular-minded'
politicians are unwilling to accept this."
Indeed, critics say, India's government is ill-prepared to prevent
domestic terrorism arising from religious extremism. The country has
just 126 police officers per 100,000 people — the U.N. recommends 222
— and the Intelligence Bureau, which handles internal security, has a
mere 3,500 field operatives for a country of 1.1 billion. In response
to the growing threat, the central government is considering setting
up a new federal agency to investigate major terrorism cases and is
devoting more money to local intelligence-gathering.
But, thus far, Indian politicians haven't offered much beyond pro
forma calls for calm. India is a proudly secular state, and
acknowledging the friction between Hindus and Muslims could offend the
millions of Muslims who have nothing to do with extremist groups,
domestic or otherwise. "Our politicians are still in denial mode,"
says Raman, the counterterrorism expert. "To be able to solve this
problem, they have to understand its real nature." The rift between
India's Hindus and Muslims is real. Until India acknowledges that
fact, the country can't begin to mend it.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1828144,00.html
Sid Harth
Youth Unrest and Inter-group Conflict
G.H. Peiris*
Faultlines: Volume 19, April 2008
Two considerations provide the main impulse for this study. The first
of these is the scant attention that is paid in existing scholarly
writings to the connection between ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and
the phenomenon of ‘youth unrest’, despite the importance accorded in
many recent works on major political turbulences elsewhere in the
world to the demographic and sociological characteristics of the
youth. The second is the fact that Sri Lankan conflict studies tend to
treat the causal connections of the secessionist campaign led by the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE/’Tigers’) as being distinct
from those of the insurrections led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna
(JVP – literally, ‘People’s Liberation Front’) in the Sinhalese
segment of the country’s population in 1971 and 1986-89, perceiving
the former as an exemplification of ‘ethnic conflict’, and the latter
as essentially a ‘class conflict’.
This distinction is, of course, not devoid of substance. The
secessionist insurrection which began in earnest in the mid-1980s did
represent the culmination of a long drawn out process of estrangement
of relations between two of the main ethnic groups – Sinhalese and Sri
Lankan Tamils constituting, respectively, 74 per cent and 12.6 per
cent of the country’s population at that time. The process was
characterised perpetually by confrontational politics at the
leadership levels of the two communities, and sporadically by
outbursts of communal clashes in areas of mixed ethnicity when, more
often than not, Tamils became the target of violence perpetrated by
rampaging Sinhalese mobs. The most barbaric and destructive among such
episodes of communal violence occurred in July 1983, and had the
catalytic impact of converting nascent and factionalised Tamil
militancy into a full scale campaign of secessionism over which, with
the passage of time, a single, tight-knit group established its
hegemony.
This appears in sharp contrast to the processes that preceded the
rebellions led by the JVP. The insurrection of 1971, intended to bring
about a socialist revolution through the capture of state power with
recourse to violence and terror, took place within a few months of the
formation of a new Government by a coalition of parties that had
pledged to bring about a socialist transformation of society, and had,
indeed, received the qualified backing of the JVP during the election
campaign.
In the late 1980s, the theme of the JVP-led insurrection was the
liberation of Sri Lanka from the yoke of foreign domination, following
a direct armed Indian intervention in Sri Lanka, the implications of
which, on the nation’s sovereignty, remained hazy but ominous
throughout that time.
The prominence accorded to these contrasts has, however, tended to
obscure certain facts that relate crucially to ethnic differentiations
and class stratifications providing the backdrop of these upheavals.
Foremost among these is the fact that, although certain grievances of
the Tamils, as articulated by their spokesmen, were/are genuine
enough1, the perception of ‘majoritarian dominance’ of the Sri Lankan
polity, and the consequent discrimination and oppression of the Tamil
minority as propagated by its political leadership, has not been
devoid of incongruities. For instance the alleged discrimination was
not reflected (as it ought to have been, if there was such
discrimination and oppression over several decades) in any of the
socio-economic parameters of comparative living standards among the
Sinhalese, Sri Lankan Tamils and the Muslims, at least up to about the
mid-1980s. To cite a general conclusion which I have derived through a
detailed analysis of a mass of data pertaining to this issue:
(E)xcept when the ‘Indian Tamils’ of the plantation sector (who still
suffer from various deprivations compared to other groups) are taken
into account, up to about the end of the third decade after
independence, socio-economic stratifications – variations in respect
of wealth, income, power and privilege, or dichotomies such as those
of ‘haves versus have-nots’ or ‘exploiter versus exploited’ – did not
exhibit significant correspondences to the main ethnic differences of
the country. And, there was certainly no economically ‘dominant’
ethnic group. Accordingly, for an analysis of the socio-economic
causes for these major political upheavals, one has to look for
differences of the type that could produce alienations, resentments
and hostilities within each of the ethnic groups2.
Yet another major deficiency found in the ‘conventional’
interpretations of large-scale political conflict in Sri Lanka lies in
the scant attention that has been devoted to similarities identifiable
among the militant organisations of the two ethnic groups. To refer
briefly to the aspects that have tended to be glossed over in the
available writings, there is first, the fact that the origin of
insurrectionary politics among both communities took place in the late
1960s, when several small groups espousing ‘liberation’ through armed
confrontation of the existing political order came to be formed. The
significance of this temporal correspondence should be appreciated in
the context of the aggravating economic problems of that time, which
affected all ethnic groups – notably soaring unemployment among the
youth entering the job market, the large majority among them having
had their formal education in the medium of their mother-tongue –
Sinhala or Thamil – and possessing no communication skills in
English.
In both communities, moreover, the formation of militant groups at
this point of time also represented the earliest manifestations of
rejection of the English-educated first generation of the post-
independence political leadership that had been drawn overwhelmingly
from the land-owning and professional classes. The pioneers of
militant politics at the nascent stages of their liberation campaigns,
and the majority of their rank-and-file during subsequent growth,
consisted of young men and women from the lower-middle social strata
in rural areas, and, typically, from what could be referred to as
‘subordinate’ caste groups, and not from the ‘dominant’ castes of the
two communities (Sinhala and Tamil) – the Goigama and the Vellala –
that are believed to constitute more than 60 per cent of their
respective totals.
Since group formation among the Tamil militants remained in a state of
flux at least up to about the early 1980s it is not possible to
discern among them a coherent stance in respect of political doctrine
and mobilisation strategy. On the other hand, the JVP was led by
diehard Marxists whose operational modalities placed considerable
emphasis on building up their rank-and-file through processes of
conversion to what they proclaimed as ‘Marxist-Leninist ideology’.
This contrast, however, should not divert attention from the fact that
socialism did have considerable appeal to some of the more prominent
Tamil militants – among them, Uma Maheswaran (the LTTE leader
Prabhakaran’s closest comrade-in-arms until the early 1980s) and Anton
Balasingham (the principal spokesman for the LTTE for well over twenty
years) – especially in the early stages of their movements. Apart from
that, two of the larger organisations of Tamil militants – Tamil Eelam
Liberation Organisation (TELO), which had a fairly large support-base
among university students and in expatriate Tamil communities, and
Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), the outfit that
was powerful enough to remain the arch rival of the LTTE well into the
1990s, had loudly proclaimed socialist commitments3.
The ‘youth perspective’ accorded prominence in the present study is
not intended to detract from the fact that the Sri Lankan
insurrections have been multi-dimensional in their causes and effects.
One of the advantages which could be claimed for the present approach,
however, is that it enables the recognition of links that exist
between the insurrectionary upheavals, on the one hand, and various
other deviations, both from the principles of democratic governance as
well as basic ethical norms of civilised society, gaining prominence
in the affairs of the country, on the other. Even more importantly,
the deficiencies in the conventional interpretations of
insurrectionary violence in Sri Lanka have had a profound impact on
the search for strategies of conflict resolution, which, all along,
had a misplaced preoccupation with statutory devices for power-sharing
at elite levels as a means of easing inter-group tensions, in apparent
disregard of the fact that such devices are unlikely to have a
tangible impact on the real causes that have converted inter-group
disharmony and rivalry into violent conflict.
Demography of ‘Youth’ and Political Conflict
In the context of the sharp upsurge of violent inter-group conflict in
most parts of the world witnessed during the 1980s and 1990s, there
has been a proliferation of research studies that seek to explain such
political turbulences and to formulate models and other conceptual
paradigms that could be employed in both prediction as well as
resolution of conflict. One of the outcomes of these attempts is the
emergence of the theoretical postulate that a ‘youth bulge’ in the
population of a country – i.e. a relatively large segment of its
population in the age cohorts representing the transitional phase
between childhood and adulthood – over a given time-span, exhibits a
tendency to coincide with extraordinarily high levels of socio-
political instability and violence.
Research in history, demography and social psychology conducted over
almost four decades has contributed to the development of the ‘theory’
of the youth bulge, as it is being applied in recent studies of
conflict and even in official policy formulation, in relation to
insurrections and inter-group confrontations. The earliest among the
investigations into the responses of young men and women to social
stresses and strains dates back to the late-1960s, when there were
widespread youth protests, often with recourse to violence, in some of
the developed countries of the West4. Some of these studies tended to
converge on the theme of instability caused by a dramatic upsurge of
the youth population – in turn, a consequence of the post-war baby
boomers then being in transit towards adulthood. The French social
scientist Gaston Bouthoul reinforced these ideas with a historical
dimension based on European experiences in which he identified a
temporal correspondence between extraordinary expansions of
populations in the age cohorts of 18-35 years, on the one hand, and
political turbulences such as those associated with major wars and
social upheavals, on the other. It is essentially an elaboration of
this historical perspective that one finds in the following passage
extracted from Samuel P Huntington’s famous but controversial Clash of
Civilizations5:
Young people are the protagonists of protest, instability, reform, and
revolution. Historically, the existence of large cohorts of young
people has tended to coincide with such movements. The ‘Protestant
Reformation’ … is an example of one of the outstanding youth movements
in history. Demographic growth … was a central factor in the two waves
of revolution that occurred in Eurasia in the mid-seventeenth and late
eighteenth centuries. A notable expansion of the proportion of youth
in Western countries coincided with the ‘Age of Democratic Revolution’
in the last decades of the eighteenth century. In the 19th century
successful industrialization and emigration reduced the political
impact of young populations in European societies. The proportion of
youth rose again in the 1920s, however, providing recruits to fascist
and other extremist movements. Four decades later the post-World War
II baby boom generation made its mark politically in the
demonstrations and protests of the 1960s. (More recently) … the youth
of Islam have been making their mark in the Islamic Resurgence. As the
Resurgence got under way in the 1970s and picked up steam in the
1980s, the proportion of youth (that is, those of fifteen to twenty-
four years of age) in major Muslim countries rose significantly. … In
many Muslim countries the youth bulge peaked in the 1970s and 1980s;
in others it will peak in the next century6.
Writings by Gunnar Heinsohn that focus on demographic changes and
political upheavals in Europe from late medieval times up to the end
of the First World War, despite their replication of historical sweeps
similar to those made by Huntington, also deserve specific mention for
their incorporation of an interesting socio-psychological dimension to
the application of the youth bulge theory in studies of conflict. The
essence of his postulate is that, in societies featured by a
burgeoning youth population and by the failure of economic
opportunities to keep pace with the rate of expansion of this
population segment, a large proportion of youth find themselves, in
Heinsohn’s words, "demographically superfluous" – i.e. dependent,
denied acceptable employment, marginalised in society and deprived of
sex-life that conforms to social norms. This condition, according to
Heinsohn, experienced in Europe over several spells since about the
early 16th Century, and being experienced at present in many of the
less developed countries (especially those of the Islamic world),
provides impetus to war and other forms of collective violence in two
specific forms – a tendency, on the one hand, of large numbers of
youth to readily engage in violence as a means of self-assertion,
release from psychological stresses and escape from their superfluity,
and, on the other, of the willingness of adult society to legitimise
such violence on the basis of a religious or ideological cause7.
With the emergence of intra-state violence based on ethnic rivalry as
a major phenomenon of global politics of the recent past, which has
been characterised by similar patterns and trends, often replicated in
seemingly disparate situations, certain studies aimed at identifying
potential sources of trouble at an international plane incorporated
the demographic parameter of the youth bulge into their model
constructs. For instance, through a correlative analysis of data on
youth unemployment and political unrest, Braungart reached the
conclusion that "…unemployment (a consequence mainly of economic
stagnation) in any society weakens the political system’s legitimacy
and stability, (and) such conditions produce a climate of
radicalisation particularly among unattached youth who have least to
lose in the gamble and struggle for revolutionary gains8." As a
statistical investigation, a study by Henrik Urdal, extending as it
does over the period between 1950 and 2000, and covering all sovereign
states and several dependencies, is much wider in scope and more
methodologically elegant than the others of this type9. Testing a
series of interrelated hypothesis pertaining to the phenomenon of the
youth bulge, Urdal concluded that, "(T)he study finds robust support
for the hypothesis that youth bulges increase the risk of domestic
armed conflict, and especially so under conditions of economic
stagnation." Urdal’s conclusion is also in harmony with Goldstone’s
contention that the rapid increase in the number of educated youth
seems to precede episodes of political upheaval10.
It is of interest to compare the size of Sri Lanka’s ‘youth’
population, estimated by employing the same definitional frame used in
Urdal’s study (i.e. number in the age-group of 15-24 years as a
percentage of the total population of 15 years and above), with the
size-measurements derived by him on countries that occupy the upper
end of his youth bulge range. These latter measurements (in descending
order) are: Zambia, 42.1 per cent; Kenya, 39.8 per cent; Cote d’
Ivoire, 37.9 per cent; Burkina Faso, 37.8 per cent; Syria, 37.5 per
cent; Zimbabwe, 37.4 per cent; Tanzania, 37.1 per cent; Yemen, 37.8
per cent; Niger, 36.7 per cent; Togo, 36.5 per cent; Guinea, 36.0 per
cent; Iran, 35.6 per cent; Honduras, 35.5 per cent; and Jordan, 35.0
per cent. The corresponding values for Indonesia and India are,
respectively, 28.5 per cent and 28.2 per cent.
That the Sri Lankan estimates after the mid-1980s (Table I) are based
on enumerations that do not cover the venues of the secessionist war
in the north-east of the country must be taken note of in comparing
them with those of the other countries.
Table 1. The Demographic ‘Youth Bulge’ of Sri Lanka
Year
Population of >15‘000 Population of 15-24 ‘000 Population 15-24
(per cent of >15 population)
1975
8,236 2,798 34.0
1980
8,994 3,055 33.9
1985
10,251 3,324 32.4
1990
11,011 3,583 32.5
1995
11,752 3,824 32.5
2000
12,545 4,082 32.5
Based on Department of Census & Statistics
Definition and Enumeration of ‘Youth’ in Sri Lanka
In several studies to which reference has been made above, simple
demographic definitions (that vary from one study to another – 18 to
35 years, or 15 to 24 years etc.) based exclusively on the age
structure of the population have been employed for the purpose of
defining and enumerating the ‘youth’. The measurement of the youth
bulge on the basis of an age-cohort framework, uniformly applied to
all countries, though perhaps permissible in large-scale comparative
investigations such as that by Urdal, is not devoid of a
methodological flaw which stems from the fact that, in reality, youth
is a ‘post-childhood’ and ‘pre-adulthood’ phase of life, the duration
and characteristics of which vary from one society to another. While
in traditional agrarian societies it was brief, lasting only over a
few post-pubertal years even in the case of males, it tended to become
prolonged under the demands and opportunities associated with
processes of modernisation. In consequence, in many societies of today
‘youth’ represents ‘adolescence’ extended over many years (even into
the fourth decade of life) beyond physiological maturation (usually
the early teens). Persons in this phase of life have to endure not
only the socio-economic challenges which, in many low-income
societies, take the form of highly restricted means of upward social
mobility, unemployment, excessive adult control, lack of scope for
entertainment and sexual freedom, but also, more generally, the non-
fulfilment of aspirations that are constantly elevated through
exposure to unattainable life-styles and social mores by a globalised
media.
Thus, in measuring the youth bulge in countries like Sri Lanka, it is
necessary to take into account not merely the age structure of the
population but other criteria that pertain to the recognition of
‘youth’ as the transitional phase of life between childhood through
adolescence to adulthood. One such criterion which lends itself to
fairly precise measurement is marriage – significant, especially on
account of the fact that, in Sri Lanka (as elsewhere in most parts of
Asia), among the more tradition-inclined segments of society, it is
marriage that signifies a person’s entry into fully-fledged adult
status. In the case of males, the capacity to be self-supporting,
being a matrimonial prerequisite, is, in that sense, an indicator of
personal economic independence. In the social ethos of these
societies, moreover, it is marriage that invariably represents the end
of the post-pubertal psychological stresses that feature the life of
adolescents and unmarried young adults.
Table 2.1. Changes in the Unmarried Population Ratio among Young
Adults, Sri Lanka 1946-1981
Sri Lanka 1946-1981
Unmarried population as a percentage of total population in the
cohort
Males
Year
20-24 years 25-29 years 30-34 years 35-39 years
1946
80.5 43.4 22.4 12.5
1953
83.5 43.4 21.7 12.5
1963
84.7 50.2 26.1 13.1
1971
86.6 53.2 25.6 13.4
1981
83.5 51.5 24.9 13.4
Department of Census & Statistic, & Ministry of Plan Implementation,
1986
Table 2.2. Changes in the Unmarried Population Ratio among Young
Adults, Sri Lanka 1946-1981
Sri Lanka 1946-1981
Unmarried population as a percentage of total population in the
cohort
Females
Year
20-24 years 25-29 years 30-34 years 35-39 years
1946
29.4 11.8 6.6 4.3
1953
32.5 12.8 7.5 5.4
1963
41.3 17.1 8.3 4.8
1971
53.2 24.6 10.9 5.8
1981
55.3 30.4 15.8 8.9
Department of Census & Statistic, & Ministry of Plan Implementation,
1986
The set of data presented in Table 2.1 and 2.2, looked at from such a
perspective, indicates that a fairly large proportion of the Sri
Lankan population remains unmarried well past the ‘mid-twenties’, and
that (from about the 1960s), among the males, the unmarried ratio has
hovered around 50 per cent of the age cohort of 25-29 years, and
almost a quarter even of the age cohort of 30-34 years. It thus seems
that the genuine youth bulge in Sri Lanka, perceived, not in terms of
arbitrary age thresholds of 15 and 24 or 29 years, but as a phenomenon
of genuine relevance to the understanding of social unrest, could well
be as high as 40 per cent of the total ‘over 15’ population of the
country.
An understanding of the nature of psychological pressures and torments
to which the ‘youth’, so perceived, are subject to is implicit in the
following sketch extracted from a recent study on the theme of ‘youth
and social change’. It encapsulates in a fairly comprehensive manner
the mutually incongruent behavioural and cultural paradigms to which
the youth in countries like Sri Lanka are exposed.
Youth around the world are affected by a global culture diffused
principally through the media. This youth culture tends to highlight
sexual gratification, individual freedom including sexual freedom and
freedom of choice as regards one’s friends and love partners, social
mobility, achievement orientation and the like. On the other hand,
cultural perceptions such as the value of virginity until marriage
continue to influence youth through family, peer networks, nationalist
awakening and the related resurgence of selected ‘traditional’ values.
As an intimate aspect of youth social life, sexuality is one arena
where contradictory global and local influences on youth give rise to
tension at intra-personal and inter-personal levels11.
Marginalisation of Sri Lankan Youth
The link between the phenomenon of the youth bulge and the political
convulsions witnessed in Sri Lanka during the past few decades should
be contextualised in the economic conditions of the 1960s and 1970s.
To recapitulate the relevant facts, at the termination of colonial
rule in 1948, Sri Lanka’s economy was characterised by dependent
external relations, low levels of per capita production and
consumption, relatively low urban development, and a firm Government
commitment to the provision of basic-needs services in education,
health care and food supply. The country’s preoccupation with social
welfare alongside rapid population growth resulted in the persistence
of low rates of real growth which, according to official estimates,
averaged 1.5 per cent per annum from 1950 to 197812. It also meant the
excessive Government control of the economy. The slow growth resulted
in a low rate of employment generation, one which lagged far behind
the expansion of the labour force, the rate of which, in turn, was
constantly buttressed by the demographic effects of the advances made
through social welfare. Moreover, there emerged wide contrasts in the
disbursement of the benefits of development and social welfare, with
the peasantry in the more remote areas of the country (Sinhalese,
Tamil and Muslim), especially those having no personal links with the
political parties holding the reins of office, being discriminated
against and thus lagging behind the favoured segments of the
population.
From the viewpoint of the country’s youth, these problems were being
exacerbated by several other considerations, one of which was the
increasing mismatch between education and manpower needs of the
economy. By about the end of the first decades after independence, the
educational system that had been shaped to cater to the requirements
of an earlier era, but that had remained unchanged, was becoming
intrinsically wasteful due to the economic redundancy of an increasing
proportion of its products. Much of the educational effort was also of
the type that generated rising expectations and intensified
resentments when the expectations remain unfulfilled. Thus, from about
the second decade after independence, it became more and more
difficult for the educated to be absorbed into productive employment
commensurate with their educational status.
Table 3. Level of Education and Rate of Unemployment, 1978/79
Educational Status
per cent unemployed in the labour force of
each educational category
No schooling, illiterate
3.0
No schooling, literate
1.3
Primary Level
4.9
Junior Secondary Level
19.8
Passed GCE Ordinary Level
28.5
Passed GCE Advanced Level
34.8
Tertiary Level qualifications
7.6
Source: Central Bank of Sri Lanka, 1981
To the less privileged in society, regardless of their variations in
ethnicity, at this critical phase in which they were beginning to gain
access in larger numbers than ever before to opportunities for formal
education at the higher levels – the replacement of English with
Sinhala and Thamil as media of instruction in the more popular courses
of study at tertiary level in the 1960s was a crucial factor in this
expansion of opportunities – the scope for upward social mobility
through education alone became virtually non-existent. The glut of the
‘educated’ in the job market was reflected not only in the persisting
positive covariance between level of education and rate of
unemployment (Table 3), but also in a steady devaluation of non-
professional educational qualifications at the higher levels. For
instance, the ratio of average earnings of those employed with
education up to the GCE-Ordinary Level, and the employed university
graduates (other than those in medicine and engineering), which was
1:3.6 in 1963, declined to 1:2.4 in 1973, and to 1:1.3 in 1981/8213.
Certain other features of the education system, prominent during the
past few decades, have contributed to the non-fulfilment of youth
aspirations of upward social mobility through education. The first of
these was the presence of obstacles in school education that prevented
the large majority of pupils from proceeding to the higher levels. The
‘student pyramid’ narrowed so sharply, that the number reaching the
tertiary level in a given year was equivalent to only about one
percent of the number at the higher secondary levels at school. There
were, in addition, the excessive delays in a student’s passage through
the educational system due to time-gaps between termination of study
at one level and the commencement at the next level, the
organisational inefficiency of the system, and the high failure rate
at public examinations. These, in turn, resulted in an excessively
large drop-out rate from the school system into the already saturated
employment market.
A Normative Model of Youth Responses
In the responses of the Sri Lankan youth to the foregoing conditions,
there has obviously been much diversity, the nature of which could be
modelled as follows. Some in this segment of society (invariably those
from the more affluent households) have been unaffected by the
problems, and hence showed no discernible response. Following the
‘liberalisation’ of the economy in the late 1970s and the subsequent
expansion of the ‘private sector’, this unaffected segment expanded in
size, but yet remained largely confined to the middle and upper strata
of urban society. They had the means to adopt the ‘westernised’
lifestyles purveyed through the media. Their easier access to the
types of education and training that have a demand in the job market,
their communication skills in English, and, of course, their parental
affluence and influence (political party affiliations, peer links in
the case of those in elite professions, and the alumnae networks of
the prestigious urban schools had a lot to do with such influence),
set them apart from the other segments of youth.
One of the remarkable features of the response of Sri Lankan youth to
the gloomy conditions referred to above, is that the overwhelming
majority of youth continued to reconcile themselves to the increasing
hardships, and to remain in passive acceptance of the prevailing state
of things in the hope that, with personal effort (and luck), their own
problems could somehow be overcome. This is why hundreds of thousands
among them persisted with their attendance at private ‘tutories’ in
the hope of acquiring marketable skills, which the school system did
not impart, and/or to enhance their competitive strength at public
examinations and gain entry even to the virtually valueless ‘arts’
course of study in the university system. An overlapping set of
reactions, which is also essentially ‘conformist’, could be discerned
in the form of those who opt to agitate collectively (but part-time
and as pastime) from within the system, against a narrow range of
systemic issues – more jobs for school-leavers and graduates, higher
payments through bursaries for university students, less exacting
examination procedures, less rigorous enforcement of discipline, etc.
They join street demonstrations and political rallies in support of
causes that range from ethnic harmony or Pongu Thamil to protection of
human rights, prevention of ‘unethical’ religious conversion, or
saving the environment from coal-power plants. The youth that could be
placed in this category are also mobilised by parties in mainstream
politics to serve as their ‘boys’ in the less dignified fringe tasks,
such as those of leg-men and storm-troopers.
Finally, there is the set of youth responses which, according to
psychologists, signifies ‘frustration-aggression’. This is of special
importance from the viewpoint of political unrest. Renunciation, one
such response represented, typically, by the ‘hippy culture’, with
which the world became familiar in the 1960s was, for obvious reasons,
not evident among the diverse youth14 responses in Sri Lanka where,
however, frustration-aggression did find expression in a variety of
other forms, both of individual and collective behaviour. Among these,
there is, first, collective acts of depravity, one of the best known
examples of which is ‘ragging’ (aka ‘hazing’) – quite often an orgy of
simulated sexual subjugation conducted in the guise of initiation
rites administered to new entrants at many institutions (not only the
universities, as popularly believed) that accommodate large numbers of
youth. Drug addiction could be considered yet another response in this
category. A study conducted in 1993 of a random sample of 371 heroin
users indicated, for example, that 49 per cent of the addicted were in
the 15-29 years age group, with 30 per cent between ages of 25 and 29.
In the most blatantly self-destructive form of frustration-aggression
– suicide – in which, Sri Lanka is said to outrank all other
countries, there is a preponderance of youth. In addition, there is
the fairly extensive and ominously expanding youth participation in
crime. According to a recent (2005) Police report, in Colombo city
alone, there are 52 underworld gangs (some, with membership of several
hundreds of young men of all ethnic groups) that engage in almost the
entire range of organised vice and crime. And then, there is
participation in armed insurrection, the ‘frustration-aggression’
response which is of greater direct concern than the others referred
to above, from the perspectives of the present study
Youth Participation in Armed Insurrection
Implicit in the model presented above is the idea that those likely to
turn towards armed insurrection in response to socio-economic stresses
and strains would constitute only a segment of the social class of
‘youth’, and that, even in the ethos of widespread youth discontent
that has prevailed in Sri Lanka over the recent decades, the
proportion of ‘youth’ attracted to the larger movements of
insurrectionary violence would have varied widely from time to time
and from one part of the country to another, depending not only on the
intensity of their hardships, but also on the relative attraction of
other responses (referred to above) and the availability of ‘stress
release’ mechanisms. Emigration has probably served as one of the most
important among such mechanisms in the case of Jaffna, as evidenced by
the fact that there has been a preponderance of the youth from the
northern peninsula, both in the estimated 300,000 migrants from Sri
Lanka to foreign destinations since the early 1980s, as well as in the
increase of the Tamil population in Colombo District by 82,385 between
the census years 1981 and 2001.
There is a thin scatter of evidence which suggest that, in the
Sinhalese segment of the population, active participants in each of
the insurgencies of 1971 and 1986-89 never exceeded 20,000 young men
and women15. In the LTTE-led secessionist insurrection, as Narayan
Swamy has indicated16, the fighting cadres, numbering about 3,000 at
the time of arrival of the Indian Peace-Keeping Force in 1987, would
have increased to about 10,000 at the time of their retreat from
Jaffna peninsula at the end of 1995; and the scarcity of recruits has
all along been one of the most formidable problems faced by the Tiger
leadership.
The inculcation of the notion of liberation through armed struggle in
the minds of the youth, who respond aggressively to their
frustrations, appears to result in their enrolment in organisations
that engaged in attacks against not only those identified for them as
their oppressors – the existing system of Government, or the armed
forces of the Government, or people belonging to one or another ethnic
group – but also against any person (including those of their own kind
and erstwhile mentors) who stands in their way17. Recruitment, in most
instances, involves an unchangeable lifetime commitment, the finality
of which (in the case of the LTTE) is symbolised by the well known
cyanide capsule awarded at admission to membership. The recruits are
aware that any deviation from the course charted by their leadership
is punishable by death. Some recruits are admitted to an elite corps
of suicide killers and are called upon to engage in missions from
which they cannot return alive. All are trained in the art of
guerrilla warfare and terrorism, and are mentally conditioned to be
totally ruthless and devoid of ordinary human emotions in carrying out
their assigned tasks, which could involve assassination, massacre of
unarmed people, mutilation of women and children in close personal
encounters, and inflicting torture on those whom they capture. Their
own causality rates are high, and, if captured in combat, they face
prospects of extreme suffering. The promised ‘liberation’ invariably
remains a hazy vision. Those who opt for the insurrectionary response
of ‘frustration-aggression’, it could be assumed, know all this.
From which segments of society do these movements attract recruits?
The related quantifiable information is fragmentary, largely confined
to aspects of the two JVP-led insurrections, and could be used only
for purposes of reasoned speculation. The set of data presented in
Table 4 above, furnishes a fairly precise answer to this question in
respect of the insurrection of 1971, leaving hardly any doubt that the
JVP of that time mobilised overwhelmingly from the age group of 15 to
34 years, unemployed or in work that generates low and irregular
earnings, whose educational levels provided hardly any prospects for
improvement of income and elevation of social status.
The data on the homicides reported to have been committed by those
acting under the orders of the JVP leadership during the insurrection
of 1986-89 (Table 5) could be considered useful for the clues these
provide on spatial variations in the intensity of insurrectionary
violence in the Sinhalese-majority areas during that period18. On the
assumption that the reports are reasonably accurate, what could be
seen as the most pronounced feature borne out by this data is that the
southern Districts of Matara and Hambantota (more specifically, the
‘deep south’ which extends into the interior of Galle District as
well), and the Districts of Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Ampara and
Monaragala (covering much of the Dry Zone interior) stand apart as
venues of extraordinarily high incidence of violence. In contrast, the
intensity of violence along the urbanised coastal lowlands of the west
appears to have been remarkably low. (Figure 1 is intended to portray
the configuration of the Districts referred to in this section.)
Table 4 – Socio-Economic Profile of Participants in the JVP-led
Insurrection of 1971
AGE (percent in each category)
0-14 15-24 25-34 35-44 45 < All
0.4 71.9 22.1 3.7 1.9 100.0
EDUCATIONAL STATUS (percent in each category)
No schooling
Grades 1 - 4 Grades 5 - 8 Grades 9 - 12 Tertiary
2.5
17.1 42.3 36.3 1.8 100.0
ETHNICITY (percent in each category)
Sinhalese
Tamil Moors & Malays Others Not recorded
97.6
0.7 0.6 0.4 0.7 100.0
OCCUPATION (percent in each category)
Student
Unemployed/self-employed (low earnings) In low income salaried jobs
In middle-income salaried jobs Others including ‘unverified’
12.5
59.2 8.4 12.1 7.8 100.0
These estimates are based on information extracted from 10,192
detainees in government custody as suspects of participating in the
insurrection of 1971 and have been extracted from Gananath Obeyesekera
(1974) ‘Some Comments on the Social Background of April 1971
Insurgency in Sri Lanka’, Journal of Asian Studies, 33 (3): 367-384
Table 5. Homicides attributed to the JVP
During the Insurrection of 1986-89
Region & District
Rate per 100,000 of the population in 1981
Rate per 100,000 of the Sinhalese population in 1981
Lowlands of the Southwest
Colombo
62 50
Gampaha
83 90
Ratnapura
62 75
Kegalle
74 87
Southern Lowlands
Galle
98 104
Matara
182 193
Hambantota
230 236
Western Lowlands
Kurunegala
99 106
Puttalam
84 101
Dry Zone Lowlands
Anuradhapura
205 224
Polonnaruwa
151 166
Ampara
108 288
Monaragala
156 168
Central Highlands
Kandy 68 91
Nuwara Eliya 26 72
Badulla 31 53
These estimates have been derived from published data from the census
enumerations of 1981, and data extracted from unpublished records
maintained at the Police Headquarters in Colombo
Figure 1 - Sri Lanka: Province and District Boundaries
Comparisons have sometimes been drawn between the socio-economic
conditions of the ‘deep south’ and those of the politically volatile
Jaffna peninsula, which, until the eviction of the LTTE from the area
in December 1995, was the principal venue of the secessionist
insurrection. Both areas have, for long, been characterised by a very
high population density and a relatively poor physical resource base.
There has, all along, been a tendency – one that dates back to the
19th Century in the case of Jaffna – for people from these two areas
to venture out into other parts of the country in search of tertiary
sector employment. Even in the aftermath of independence, earnings
from external sources figured prominently in the economic wellbeing of
the ‘deep south’, as it was for the Tamils of the northern peninsula.
A fairly well developed network of secondary education (a legacy of
colonial rule in the case of Jaffna, and a feature of more recent
origin – of the 1930s and 1940s – in the ‘deep south’), along with a
tradition of initiative and enterprise among the people, facilitated
this greater social and occupational mobility. In the early aftermath
of independence, it was mainly the more successful products of school
education in these two areas that made serious inroads into the
Colombo hegemony in the higher rungs of administration and the
professions. Yet, in these two areas, for reasons that could be linked
to history, ethno-nationalist sentiments have also been more
pronounced. The Buddhist resurgence of the late-19th and early 20th
Centuries, led by Anagarika Dharmapala, had a more profound impact on
the attitudes and outlook of the Sinhalese of the ‘deep south’ than
those in other parts of the island, as did the Hindu revivalism of
that time, led by Arumuga Navalar, on the Tamils of the ‘far north’,
than their compatriots elsewhere. The early development of a vibrant
swabhāshā (community specific language) press (in Sinhala in the south
and in Thamil in the north) also constituted vital ingredients of this
ethno-nationalist acculturation19.
A recently published sociological study by Meyer contains references
to other similarities in the socio-economic circumstances of the youth
in the Jaffna peninsula of the north and Hambantota District of the
south in recent times, despite the continuing impact of the
secessionist war on the former area. Meyer states, for example, that
"(t)he overall picture arising from the interviews with youth in
Jaffna as well as Hambantota revealed that the youth are getting
increasingly marginalized by society, one of the main causes being the
lack of spaces for constructive engagement within the community, such
as employment or social service oriented activities.20"
If the impact of the adverse economic trends of the 1960s, 1970s and
the 1980s outlined earlier, especially the steady curtailment of
opportunities for economic advancement through education for the rural
youth, were to be placed against the background of the commonalties of
the two regions identified above, it would be possible to find an
explanation for the fact that these two areas served as the main
breeding grounds of militant politics almost throughout the past few
decades21.
The economic setting of the second area identified earlier as one of
high incidence of violence during the JVP insurrection of 1986-89 –
the Dry Zone interior – is dominated by agglomerations of planned
irrigation-based settlement schemes, the economic activities of which
are dominated by paddy production. It has been repeatedly shown
through many in-depth studies22 that these schemes are characterised
by low overall standards of living, albeit with wide intra-community
diversities of wealth and income, and that many of them suffer from
uncertainties of water supply for agriculture; and difficulties of
access to markets and basic needs services such as those in education,
health care, transport and domestic lighting. Even under the best of
conditions, the farmers attaining the highest levels of yield through
‘green revolution’ technology earn per capita net incomes that work
out to less than a dollar a day. In the schemes located away from the
main urban centres of the Dry Zone, the settlement economy offers
little scope for tertiary employment and occupational mobility; and,
since the settlers remain confined to an unchanging agrarian resource
base (the land allotment received at inception of the settlement), the
increase of their numbers over time inevitably results, not merely in
the lowering of their household incomes, but also in the progressive
economic destitution of their youth. With the soaring costs of
agricultural inputs even the basic necessities of life could often be
scarce. In such economic circumstances, the lot of the youth is one of
deprivation and despair. The education to which they have access
seldom has economic value. Years of book-learning at school, meagre
incomes which paddy cultivation generates, and the lowly social status
of their parents, make them disinclined to remain in farming. They
thus become economic misfits in their community. Their frustrations
are constantly buttressed by information flows on lifestyles which
they could never hope to emulate. It is not merely the unattainable
levels projected through consumer culture and the pleasure ethic
purveyed by the media, but the constant inculcation of the idea that
they are a worthless, inferior, breed. It is in these circumstances
that the message of ‘liberation’, the camaraderie of fellow
liberators, and the power of the AK 47 and the hand grenade,
collectively provide the breakthrough to dignified and purposeful
existence.
On the basis of geographical similarities it could be surmised that
the problems encountered by youth in the agrarian settings sketched
out above were replicated in many of the Tamil- and Muslim- majority
areas of the north-east, outside Jaffna peninsula, notably the
Batticaloa District of the Eastern Province and the Districts of
Vavuniya, Mannar and Mullaitivu in the Northern Province. From about
the late-1960s, as economic conditions in the country as a whole
worsened, deprivations suffered by the youth of these areas are likely
to have been more severe than those faced by their counterparts
elsewhere, for the reason that they were firmly entrapped in their
settings, with hardly any opportunities for spatial mobility. It is
not surprising, therefore, that the more densely populated localities
in this part of the country – especially Batticaloa District – served
as one of the largest sources of recruits into the Tiger fold,
surpassing all other areas in that respect after the withdrawal of the
LTTE from Jaffna peninsula.
According to the data on the JVP-led insurrection of 1986-89 (Table 5)
the lowest incidence of violence (in proportion to population)
occurred in the coastal lowlands of the west which roughly corresponds
to the area sometimes referred to as the ‘Christian belt’. The
relevance of this, from the perspectives of the present study, is
that, in this part of the country, it is possible to identify several
factors which mitigate ‘frustration-aggression’ responses among the
youth. Those living here have higher incomes, and more opportunities
to acquire skills that command a premium in the job market, especially
in the private sector, which expanded rapidly over the past three
decades. More generally, they have received the direct benefits of
‘liberalisation’ – more jobs, enhanced incomes, better socio-economic
infrastructure, and more facilities for entertainment and leisure – to
a substantially greater degree than those living in other areas of the
country. Impressionistically, one could also suggest that the social
impact of the ‘Church’ is also a formidable check against alienation
of the youth. The smaller Christian denominations, in particular,
confined as they are largely to the urban middle-class, constitute
close-knit communities within which a young person finds a social
niche among peer groups of shared interests and inclinations.
Concluding Comments
The thematic prominence accorded to the phenomenon of youth unrest in
the present study, as anticipated at its outset, has facilitated the
recognition of several considerations that could be deemed vitally
salient to the search for solutions to the various forms of political
unrest in the country, of which the secessionist insurrection has been
by far the most destructive in impact. The theoretical postulate of
the youth bulge in its application to Sri Lanka, despite the
limitations inherent to its simple demographic rendition, is a useful
analytical tool, especially from the viewpoint of both forecasting
political conflict as well as prioritising the options available for
the resolution of such conflict. That measures specifically focused on
the direct alleviation of the problems encountered by the youth,
especially those that address the non-fulfilment of economic
aspirations, should receive utmost priority in policy formulation is
implicit in our analysis. The acceleration of employment creation and
the orientation of formal education and training towards changing
economic needs are, of course, the more obvious (and the most often
stated) long-term solutions which hardly need reiteration here. What
should be highlighted as an urgent requirement, however, is Government
intervention in the curtailment of certain features of Sri Lankan
society, which have assumed alarming proportions since the economic
policy reforms of the late 1970s, to aggravate the problems of the
youth, and that cause widespread resentment among the young men and
women of the country, a part of which, as shown earlier, is diverted
into violent conflict.
The foremost among these is represented by the extravagant and
wasteful lifestyles of a small segment of society, the most pernicious
feature of which is that it is the political elite that is seen by the
ordinary folk as its trend-setters. The leadership of mainstream
politics, despite being constantly in the public eye, has become the
most conspicuous consumer of acutely scarce resources belonging to the
society as a whole. It is not surprising, therefore, that the absurdly
bloated executive branch of Government (which, in terms of size in
relation to the population, probably surpasses that of any other
country in the world), the mammoth national Parliament, and several
tiers of sub-national institutions of Government formed of ‘regional’
or ‘local’ political leaders, all of whom extract from the system
material benefits that are denied to the large majority of people whom
they are said to represent and serve, are seen as parasites. This
image, needless to stress, is magnified by rampant corruption in
public affairs, and the public awareness of links that exist between
politicians, gangland leaders and the Police. Unless and until these
conditions are changed, it seems unlikely that the other measures
intended to alleviate the problems of the youth will have a tangible
impact.
Creating new layers of institutional networks of Government and, thus,
proliferating sub-national political elites in the guise of power-
sharing, is likely to aggravate rather than alleviate the problems
that generate youth discontent among all ethnic groups of the country.
In the national Legislature, there is, on the average, one
representative for a population of 88,000. More than one-hundred among
these representatives also hold posts in the executive branch of the
Central Government. There are, in addition, seven Provincial Councils
(constitutional provision exists for nine) each of which has an
average of about 30 elected members, a Chief Minister and a Board of
Ministers; 18 Municipal Councils; 42 Urban Councils; and 270
Prādēshīya Sabhā (rural, local government institutions); all of which
are controlled by several thousands of elected representatives’ of the
people who, needless to say, enjoy various benefits for the ‘selfless
sacrifices’ they make. Given the comparative smallness of the country
(66,000 square kilometres, and 19 million people), and in the context
of the fact that many of the potentially volatile areas have
populations of mixed ethnicity, it is inconceivable that devolution of
the powers of Government will facilitate either greater inter-ethnic
power-sharing or the greater participation of youth in the affairs of
Government than at present. One also recapitulates here the
observations made by Rothchild and Roeder in their authoritative study
of intra-state conflict in multi-ethnic societies according to which:
(I)n ethnically divided societies after intense conflicts they (i.e.
power-sharing institutions) typically have a set of unintended but
perverse consequences. They empower ethnic elites from previously
warring groups, create incentives for these elites to press radical
demands once peace is in place, and lower the costs for these elites
to escalate conflict in ways that threaten democracy and peace. These
dangers can be avoided when power-sharing institutions operate under
very special conditions such as a political culture of accommodation,
economic prosperity and equality, demographic stability, strong
governmental institutions, stable hierarchical relations within ethnic
communities, and a supportive international environment. Yet those
conditions are unlikely to be present or difficult to sustain after
severe conflicts such as civil wars23.
Another compelling policy imperative is the need to reduce regional
and urban-rural contrasts in the socio-economic and cultural
environment of the youth. The novelty in the related specificities
that emerge from our focus on youth discontent is that, in the
conversion of this idea into concrete programmes of action, there is a
compelling need to focus on the youth in certain parts of the country,
mainly for the purpose of correcting prevailing imbalances. Though the
war-ravaged areas of the northeast demand more immediate attention
than any other, among them, in the context of the demographic changes
witnessed during the past two decades – especially, the large-scale
exodus of youth from Jaffna peninsula referred to above – the
requirements of the densely populated areas of the eastern lowlands
need to be considered more urgent than those of the far-north. At the
same time, the prioritisation of the ‘youth perspective’ would also
entail attention being devoted to the Central Highlands, where both
the plantation workforce as well as the Kandyan peasantry will
continue to be distinguished, in the foreseeable future, by the risks
associated with the destabilising impact of the youth bulge. The
economic and cultural discontent in the agrarian settlement environs
of the Dry Zone is also likely to aggravate rapidly in the period
ahead, creating potentially volatile political conditions needing
prompt and effective remedial action. The main ethnic groups of Sri
Lanka are represented in the peasantry of this part of the country,
which accounts for roughly 15 per cent of the total population. Except
in the case of those inhabiting the few localities favoured with
reliable irrigation facilities and easier access to the main markets,
their youth suffer from the same dire hardships and the same sense of
despair.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* G. H. Peiris is Professor Emeritus of the University of Peradeniya,
Sri Lanka.
The most genuine among these grievances pertained to the denial of a
fair share of state-sector employment to the Sri Lanka Tamils from
about the early 1960s, and the inadequacy of provisions made for the
use of Thamil as a language of Government administration. In addition,
the procedures followed in selecting students for university admission
during the 6-year period commencing 1971 had the effect of curtailing
the number of Tamil students admitted to prestigious professional
courses such as Medicine and Engineering.
G.H. Peiris, Sri Lanka: Challenges of the New Millennium, Kandy: Kandy
Books, 2006, p. 436. The data analysis referred to is presented in pp.
413-38. My conclusions find strong confirmation in Dhananjayan
Sriskandarajah, “Socio-Economic Inequality and Ethno-Political
Conflict: Some Observations from Sri Lanka,” Contemporary South Asia,
Vol. 14 No. 3, 2005, pp. 341-56 – a publication by a Tamil scholar
based on his doctoral dissertation – in which he states: “The most
striking conclusion (borne out by his analysis) is that the
intensification of inter-ethnic political conflict in Sri Lanka did
not coincide with large or growing inter-ethnic socio-economic
inequality”.
One of several references to this in M. R. Narayan Swamy Tigers of
Lanka: From Boys to Guerrillas, Colombo: Vijitha Yapa, 1994, p. 28,
states: “In 1979, he (Anton Balasingham) had written the LTTE’s first
major theoretical work called ‘Towards Socialist Eelam’. It came out
in Tamil and then in English, and was an instant hit among the Jaffna
intelligentsia.”
The better known among these studies are: Erik Erikson, Identity,
Youth and Crisis, Los Angeles: UCLA, 1968; Herbert Moller, “Youth as a
Force in the Modern World”, Comparative Studies in Society and
History, Vol. 10, 1968, pp. 238-60; and Lewis S. Feuer, The Conflict
of Generations: The Character and Significance of Student Movements,
London: Heinmann, 1969.
This summary of Bouthoul’s thematic contention has been extracted
from an English synopsis of his L’infanticide différé, Paris, 1970.
Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and Remaking of the
World Order, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.
The best known work by Gunnar Heinsohn is the volume titled Soehne und
Weltmacht: Terror im Aufsteig und Fall der Natione (Sons and World
Power: Terror in the Rise and Fall of Nations), Zurich: Orell &
Suessli, 2003. He is also credited with the authorship of several
hundred articles. The essence of Heinsohn’s ideas pertaining to the
theory of the ‘youth bulge’ presented here has been derived from
English translations of extracts from this volume and from three of
his other writings. – “Population, Conquest and Terror”, 2005; “A
Shift of Religion to Youth Bulge”, 2006; and “Demography and War”,
2007 – accessed through the Internet.
Richard G. Braungart, “Historical and Generational Patterns of Youth
Movements: A Global Perspective”, Comparative Social Research, Vol. 7
No. 1: 1984, pp. 3-62. See also Richard G. Braungart & M. Margaret,
“Youth Movements in the 1980s: A Global Perspective,” International
Sociology, Vol. 5 No. 2: 1990, pp. 1-24.
Henrik Urdal, “The Devil in the Demographics: The Effect of Youth
Bulges on Domestic Armed Conflict, 1950-2000,” Social Development,
Paper No. 14, Washington DC: World Bank, 2004.
Jack A. Goldstone, “Demography, Environment and Security,” in
Environmental Conflict, Boulder Co: Westview, 2001, p. 95.
K. Tudor Silva, C. Sivayoganathan and Judy Lewis, “Love, Sex and Peer
Activity in a Sample of Youth in Sri Lanka”, in S.T. Hettige and M.
Meyer, eds., Globalisation, Social Change and Youth, Centre for
Anthropological and Sociological Studies, University of Colombo, 1998,
pp. 24-43. This volume is probably the only work of research that
attempts to identify links between the problems of youth and political
conflict in Sri Lanka and is thus an exception to the observation made
at the outset of the present study.
The authenticity of the official estimates have been challenged by
Bhalla and Glewwe according to whom, over almost the entirety of this
period, the economy of Sri Lanka did not experience any real growth.
See, S.S. Bhalla and P. Glewwe, “Growth and Equity in Developing
Countries: A Re-lnterpretation of the Sri Lankan Experience”, World
Bank Economic Review, Vol. No. 1, 1986.
These estimates have been derived from the related data extracted from
Survey of Ceylon’s Consumer Finances, 1963, Central Bank of Ceylon/Sri
Lanka, Colombo, 1964; Survey of Sri Lanka’s Consumer Finances, 1973 -
Parts I & II, 1974; Report on Consumer Finances and Socio-Economic
Survey, 1981-82 - Part I, l983; and Report on Consumer Finances and
Socio-Economic Survey, 1981-82 - Part II, l984.
According to a study by Robert C. Oberst cited in S.T. Hettige,
“Youth Unrest in Sri Lanka: A Sociological Perspective”, in Hettige
and Meyer, op. cit., the suicide rate among males of 20-24 years and
25-29 years was, respective, 115.4 and 103.4 per 100,000 of
population. These values were substantially higher than the
corresponding values of all other 5-year age cohorts - male and
female.
According to my estimates, the death-toll of suspected insurgents in
the course of the JVP insurrection of the late-1980s was about 15,000.
Since the Government offensive, especially in the final stages of the
insurrection, was based on a policy of complete eradication, there is
reason to assume that the total number of youth that participated in
violence at the behest of the JVP is unlikely to have exceeded the
estimated death-toll by a wide margin. G.H. Peiris, Sri Lanka:
Challenges of the New Millennium, Kandy: Kandy Books, 2006, p. 372.
Narayan Swamy op. cit., p. 343.
Among the Tamils, there have hitherto been nine militant outfits
(including the LTTE) with the term ‘liberation’ in their names;
Muslims have had two; and the Sinhalese, two (including the JVP).
n the context of the intense political turbulences of that time, there
is obviously an element of doubt about the accuracy of the records
from which the data used in the compilation of this tabulation have
been extracted.
On the early stages of development of the indigenous press in Sri
Lanka see, K.N.O. Dharmadasa, “Formative Stages of Sinhala
Journalism”; and P. Muthulingam, “Evolution of the Tamil Press of Sri
Lanka”; both articles in G.H. Peiris, ed, Studies on the Press in Sri
Lanka and South Asia, Kandy: International Centre for Ethnic Studies,
1997, pp. 149-65 and 181-92.
See M. Mayer, “Violent Youth Conflicts in Sri Lanka: Comparative
Results from Jaffna and Hambantota”, in Hettige and Meyer, op. cit.
pp. 208-48.
While highlighting these similarities, however, it is necessary to
take note of two important differences between the ‘deep south’ and
the ‘far north’ – one, the extent of Christian penetration, hardly
evident in the former, but very prominent in the latter; and the
other, the dominance of the Vellala caste in the latter, and the near-
equal status of Goigama, Karawa and Durawa castes in the former.
Peiris, Sri Lanka: Challenges of the New Millennium, pp. 238-41
contains a review of these studies.
Donald Rothchild and Philip G. Roeder, “Power Sharing as an Impediment
to Peace and Democracy,” in Donald Rothchild and Philip G. Roeder,
eds.., Sustainable Peace: Power and Democracy after Civil Wars,
Cornell University Press, 2005, p. 29.
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/publication/faultlines/volume19/Article5.htm
Sid Harth
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Subramanian Swamy
Member of Indian Parliament (Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha), Union Cabinet
Minister for Commerce & Law
In office
1973–1991
Prime Minister Chandrasekhar
Preceded by A. G. S. Ram Babu
Succeeded by P. Mohan
Born September 15, 1939
Nationality Indian
Political party Janata Party
Spouse(s) Roxna
Profession economist, Politician
Religion Hindu
Dr. Subramanian Swamy (b. 15 September 1939 at Chennai, sometimes
spelt as Subramaniam Swamy) is a politician from India. He is also a
trained economist.
Personal life
Subramanian Swamy has two daughters, Gitanjali Swamy and Suhasini
Haider. Suhasini is a journalist with Indian television channel CNN-
IBN. His wife Dr. Roxna Swamy is an Advocate in the Supreme Court of
India.
Association with Harvard
Following his time at the Indian Statistical Institute, he was awarded
a doctorate by Harvard University in 1964. Two of his advisors at the
time were Simon Kuznets and Paul A. Samuelson[1]. For a time, while
completing his dissertation in 1963, he worked in the UN Secretariat
at New York as Assistant Economics Affairs Officer. He subsequently
worked as a resident tutor at Lowell House, and as an assistant
professor for the Harvard Economics department where he later became
an Associate professor in 1969. Subsequently he has been a regularly
teaching at the rank of full Professor at the Harvard Summer School.
He is accounted by some to be an authority on the comparative study of
India and China[2] and is also well-versed in the Mandarin Chinese
(Hanyu) language[3].
Association with IITs
He was Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology
Delhi from 1969. He was removed from the position by its board of
Governors in the early 1970s but was legally reinstated in the late
1980s by the Supreme Court of India. He continued in the position till
1991 when he resigned to become a cabinet minister. He served on the
Board of Governors of the IIT, Delhi (1977-80), and on the Council of
IITs (1980-82).
Political career
He is regarded as a proponent of Hindutva as a political concept. He
first came into spotlight for protesting against the emergency imposed
in 1975. He was one of the founding members of the Janata Party and is
its president since 1990. He was elected member of parliament 5 times
between 1974 and 1999. He has twice represented the city of Mumbai
North East during 1977 and 1980, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in the
Parliament.
He is known for his efforts in normalizing relations with China and
Israel. In 1981, he persuaded Deng Xiaoping to open the Kailash
Mansarovar in Tibet to Hindu pilgrims from India[4]. In 1990-1991, he
was a minister in the Chandra Shekhar cabinet and was in charge of the
ministries of Commerce and Law and Justice.
He was also a member of the Planning Commission between 1990 and 1991.
Between 1994 and 1996, he held the position of Chairman of the
Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade (equivalent to
the rank of a cabinet minister) under the P. V. Narasimha Rao
government. Dr. Swamy has been subject to several defamation cases. He
is known to argue these cases himself without the agency of lawyers.
He has enjoyed a strange maverick relationship with J. Jayalalithaa.
He was perceived as instrumental in bringing the disproportionate
assets case of J. Jayalalithaa into public notice in the 1990s but by
1997, he had become her political adviser and was instrumental in
convincing her to withdraw support from the Vajpayee Government in
1999. The alliance with Jayalalithaa ended after she lost the General
Elections held in the same year.
In October 2004, he along with other members of the erstwhile Janata
Party established the Rashtriya Swabhiman Manch to oppose the policies
of the ruling UPA.
He has played an important role in fighting for the cause of
preventing the destruction of Rama Sethu bridge. He moved the Supreme
Court of India and successfully obtained a stay for the Sethusamudram
Shipping Canal Project at the final hours on August 31, 2007. The case
is under hearing before the Supreme Court.
Most recently Dr. Swamy has been crusading for proper electoral
governance in the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) in the
Indian Elections. Dr. Swamy has been one of the few petitioners, who
has successfully petitioned the Indian Courts to look in to serious
electoral mis-management potential in the use of Electronic Voting
Machines (EVM) during the Indian Elections from 2001 through 2009.
Following a preliminary hearing in the Delhi High Court in late 2009,
the Chief Justice of the High Court concurred with Dr. Swamy's
petition and admitted the matter for a full hearing in early 2010. Dr.
Swamy has argued that any electoral mechanism such as an EVM must
provide full audit-ability, account-ability and transparency and that
Indian Election Commission's current EVM has neither of the three.
Additionally the technology is in direct violation of the Indian
Information Technology Act. The matter is currently under
consideration in the Indian Courts.
He has been very effective in the Courts fighting for justice and has
used the Courts effectively on issues of public importance. It is
worth noting that he is an economist but has been very successful
arguing PILs in Court for the public good.
Stance against the LTTE
He is noted for his consistent stance against the LTTE which is
proscribed as a terrorist organization by 31 countries
(see list)
Commenting:
“ LTTE is a terrorist organization which moreover killed Rajiv Gandhi
and has spewed poison online about India[5] ”
“ LTTE is a part of the Sri Lankan problem, and can never be a part of
the solution[6] ”
His stance against the LTTE has had five successive Indian governments
place him in the Z category of Indian security, with security cover of
at least 22 personnel because of the high LTTE threat to his life.[7]
Subramanian Swamy was attacked by a group of pro-LTTE lawyers .[8]
Violent clashes between the Tamil Nadu police and practicing lawyers
occurred on the 19th of February 2009 on the Madras High Court
premises.
Books
Dr. Subramanian Swamy is the author of numerous books and writes
regularly in various journals and newspapers, some of his books are :-
Economic Growth in China and India, 1989
Hindus Under Siege. (2006)
Notes
^ Boumans 167
^ Prospects for India-U.S. relations better: Swamy The Hindu - January
23, 2008
http://www.thehindu.com/2008/01/23/stories/2008012360151400.htm
^ About Dr. Subramanian Swamy
http://www.kamakotidevotees.org/london/dr-swamy.html
^ Pilgrims' route The Tribune - September 26, 1998
http://www.tribuneindia.com/1998/98sep27/spotlite.htm
^ Subramanian Swamy on LTTE, Defence Agreement and the right to
station Indian Troops in non-Tamil areas in Sri Lanka Asian Tribune -
June 28, 2004
^ India will Never Support Eelam; Dr Subramanian Swamy Says Nidahasa
News - October 8, 2007 http://news.nidahasa.com/news.php?go=fullnews&newsid=348
^ Transcripts - Parliament of India http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/lsdeb/ls12/ses2/0405089808.htm
^ [1] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Chennai/Lawyer_arrested_for_pelting_eggs_at_Swamy/articleshow/4152259.cms
References
Boumans, Marcel (2005). How Economists Model the World Into Numbers.
Routledge. ISBN 0415346215.
External links
Biography on Janta Party site http://www.janataparty.org/president.html
Subramaniam Swamy's views on the influence of Hinduism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQhDXwZztSU
Subramaniam Swamy in Janata Party's website
An article by Dr. Subramanian Swamy on how to face defamation
litigation
http://www.hindu.com/2004/09/21/stories/2004092103551000.htm
Subramaniam Swamy fined Rs. 5 lakhs by the Delhi High Court for making
libellous allegations against Jayalalitha Jayaram
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060104/nation.htm#16
Basic Islam for Hindu Dhimmis - Subramanian Swamy
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=159&page=31
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subramanian_Swamy"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subramanian_Swamy
Swamy sees insecurity among minorities
By Our Staff Reporter
RAMANATHAPURAM, FEB 26. The people belonging to minority communities
will always live in fear if the Bharatiya Janata Party is voted to
power again in the coming Lok Sabha elections, the Janata Party
president, Subramanian Swamy, told presspersons at Pasumpon village on
Thursday.
Dr. Swamy said the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance had failed to
ensure the welfare of minorities and it was evident from the fact that
Muslims were put to untold hardships in Gujarat. "They feel a sense of
insecurity throughout the country."
The Government should take necessary steps to arrest the general
secretary of the MDMK, Vaiko, if he continued to support the LTTE or
praise its leader in public meetings.
No party would get simple majority in the coming Lok Sabha elections,
he said and predicted a hung Parliament.
Dr. Swamy wondered how the DMK president, M. Karunanidhi, could
tolerate the issue of the foreign origin of the Congress president,
Sonia Gandhi, as he had termed the former Chief Minister, M.G.
Ramachandran, a Malayalee when the AIADMK formed the Government in the
State.
Dr. Swamy urged the Government to give no objection certificate to the
Central Government to name the Madurai airport as Pasumpon
Muthuramalinga Thevar Airport. The State Government had twice rejected
the requisition of the Central Government.
The Janata Party would approach the court to issue a direction to the
State Government in this connection after the elections.
Earlier, speaking at a function organised by the family of
Muthuramalinga Thevar in recognition of his (Dr. Swamy's) efforts in
installing the Thevar statue in Parliament House, Dr. Swamy said the
Janata Party would take the necessary steps to set up a modern
university in the name of Thevar at Pasumpon.
He appealed to the Government to include the life history of Thevar as
one of the subjects in the college curriculum in order to facilitate
the younger generation to know about the heroic deeds of Thevar and
his dedication towards the betterment of society.
http://www.hindu.com/2004/02/27/stories/2004022706661100.htm
Need for ‘Hindu vote bank’: Swamy
Special Correspondent
TIRUPATI: Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy on Monday said the
only way to counter vote-bank policies blindly pursued by governments
and political parties was to develop a strong and formidable “Hindu
vote bank.” It was the only way to check the “continued neglect and
subjugation of Hindus and Hindu temples,” he said.
Dr. Swamy criticised the United Progressive Alliance government for
its attempt to “bend over backwards” to protect mosques and churches
while showing “utter indifference” to protect the Hindu shrines and
sentiments.
He was addressing a convention organised by the Andhra Pradesh Hindu
Temples Protection Committee.
Dr. Swamy said that though there were 42 mosques in Ayodhya where no
prayers were offered, Muslims were laying claim to the disputed Ram
Janmabhoomi alone.
http://www.hindu.com/2009/02/17/stories/2009021759811100.htm
GOVERNMENT
Pulls and pressures
The days leading up to the swearing-in of the BJP Government were
marked by hard bargaining by some of the party's allies.
V. VENKATESAN
in New Delhi
IMMEDIATELY after the Election Commission formally notified the
results of the Lok Sabha elections and informed President K.R.
Narayanan about it on March 10, the President began a consultative
process to constitute a new government. The Election Commission had
earlier announced that the new Lok Sabha would be constituted before
March 12, and the leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its
allies, which had emerged as the largest combination of pre-election
allies but had fallen short of a majority in Parliament, were under
the impression that the numbers game would begin on or after March 12.
The initial public statements of leaders of the Congress(I) and the
United Front seemed to indicate that they would endeavour to prevent
the BJP from coming to power.
Thus, when the President invited BJP Parliamentary Party leader Atal
Behari Vajpayee for a discussion on government formation on March 10,
BJP leaders were taken by surprise. Vajpayee was holding talks with
the alliance partners when the President's invitation was received.
Vajpayee read out the contents of the letter to newspersons. In his
letter, Narayanan offered his felicitations to Vajpayee on his
election as the leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party. He gave
Vajpayee the first opportunity to let him know whether he would be
able and willing to form a stable government which could secure the
confidence of the Lok Sabha. The President noted that the BJP had
emerged as the single largest party in the Lok Sabha and the political
formation that it headed was the largest combination of pre-election
allies.
However, when Vajpayee gave a written undertaking to the President
that he was in a position to form a stable government that could
command the confidence of the House, the President asked for documents
to support the claim that the BJP and its allies had strength of 252
seats. The BJP had hardly expected the President to insist on
documentary proof of its parliamentary support.
Only a day earlier, the leaders of the BJP and its allies had met at
Vajpayee's residence in New Delhi to discuss the contents of the
National Agenda for Governance, a programme of action for a government
of the BJP and its allies. It did not occur to any of the BJP's
strategists that they should secure formal letters of support from the
leaders of the allies. The BJP took the support of its pre-election
allies for granted, when it publicised the letters of support given by
the post-election allies and some independents. With the assured
support of 12 more MPs - either independents or those belonging to
post-election allies - the saffron alliance was seemingly in a
position to secure 264 votes.
In the belief that the process of securing letters of support from the
alliance partners would be a mere formality, Vajpayee decided to get
back to the President on March 11 with the letters. But trouble arose
when four of the BJP's five allies in Tamil Nadu - the All India Anna
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), the Pattali Makkal Katchi, the
Janata Party and the Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress - did not send in their
letters. (The fifth ally, the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
(MDMK), had sent its letter of support by facsimile to the President
and a copy of it to Vajpayee.)
Unable to secure all the letters, Vajpayee postponed his meeting with
the President to March 12. Anxiety was writ large on the faces of BJP
leaders as AIADMK general secretary Jayalalitha, who was coordinating
the actions of the smaller parties in her alliance in Tamil Nadu,
continued to hold back although she had repeatedly made public
statements right up until March 9 to the effect that her party and its
allies would offer "unconditional support" to a Vajpayee-led
government. The BJP was also concerned that the perception of a
misunderstanding with a major alliance partner would not bode well for
its claim to form a stable government.
A senior leader in charge of party affairs in the southern States said
that the delay had been occasioned by the fact that Jayalalitha was
unwell on March 11. All of March 12, BJP leaders in Delhi desperately
tried to contact Jayalalitha in Chennai, but she was incommunicado.
More ominously for the BJP, she persuaded the MDMK to withdraw the
letter of support it had faxed to the President.
SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY
AIADMK general secretary Jayalalitha leaving Rashtrapati Bhavan after
the swearing-in ceremony.
The first indication of the reasons for the delay in the despatch of
the letters from Chennai came from Janata Party leader Subramanian
Swamy. Appearing on television, Subramanian Swamy said that
Jayalalitha had requested the BJP to appoint him Finance Minister and
TRC leader Vazhapadi K. Ramamurthy Home Minister. Subramanian Swamy
said that BJP leaders had refused to concede the request. Subramanian
Swamy's references to the demand for the dismissal of the Dravida
Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Government in Tamil Nadu in the light of the
February 14 Coimbatore blasts seemed to indicate that a commitment on
that was a "pre-condition" for the AIADMK's "unconditional" support
for a BJP-led government.
Although some sections in the BJP were in favour of conceding
Jayalalitha's "demands", Vajpayee and party president L.K. Advani were
unwilling to appease her beyond a point. The BJP refused to concede
Jayalalitha's request on ministerial appointments, and were not quite
so categorical on the demand for the dismissal of the DMK Government.
It was for this reason that the AIADMK and the PMK said that they
would not join a BJP-led ministry.
BJP leaders were nevertheless optimistic that the letters of support
would arrive in Delhi with a special messenger on the morning flight
from Chennai on March 12. What they did not know was that the letters
of support had already been despatched to Delhi: they were in the
custody of a senior AIADMK leader who was waiting for a nod from
"Amma" in Chennai so as to deliver the letters to the President.
After waiting for nearly two days, Vajpayee virtually gave up his
efforts: he met the President at 7.30 p.m. on March 12 and furnished a
list of 240 MPs from whom he had letters of support. The names of the
three MDMK MPs who had withdrawn their letters of support, however,
figured in this list. In effect, as on March 12, Vajpayee had the
support of only 237 members of the Lok Sabha, considerably short of a
majority. Vajpayee, therefore, did not stake his claim, but left it to
the discretion of the President to decide whether he could be invited
to form a government. The President then announced that he would begin
consultations with leaders of the other political formations without
dismissing the BJP's claim.
Meanwhile, Subramanian Swamy stepped up his efforts to widen the gulf
between Jayalalitha and the BJP. He accused the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh (RSS) of blocking his appointment as Finance Minister - for
which, he claimed, he was eminently qualified, given his teaching
experience in Harvard. Ramamurthy suggested that the BJP was paying
the price for taking its allies in Tamil Nadu for granted.
Subramanian Swamy refused to concede that the AIADMK-led grouping's
alliance with the BJP had broken down or that it would have to explore
other alternatives. He, however, said that he believed that the door
was open for talks with the Congress(I) and that he expected
Congress(I) leaders to open channels of communication with Jayalalitha
in the changed political context. Subramanian Swamy envisaged a grand
alliance, which would include the Congress(I), the AIADMK and its
allies, all the United Front constituents except the DMK, the Tamil
Maanila Congress and the Telugu Desam Party, a few other minor parties
and some independents. Senior Congress(I) leader Sharad Pawar was
reportedly in touch with Jayalalitha, seeking her support for a
Congress-led government.
In their meetings with the President, leaders of the Congress(I) and
the U.F. reportedly sought four days' time to hold consultations and
explore the possibility of forming an alternative government. This in
effect gave the BJP and the AIADMK an opportunity to patch up. But
even on March 13, Jayalalitha showed no signs of relenting. She denied
that she had insisted on the allotment of key portfolios for her
allies or the dismissal of the DMK government in Tamil Nadu as a pre-
condition for extending support.
However, she accused the BJP leadership of displaying a "negative
attitude" when she raised issues that were of importance to Tamil Nadu
at a meeting of the BJP and its allies in New Delhi on March 9 (see
separate story). BJP leaders, in turn, wondered why Jayalalitha had
not raised the issue when she addressed newspersons and expressed her
total and unconditional support to a BJP-led government after the
meeting. They said that while all her demands could be negotiated, the
manner in which she had raised them - on the eve of the President's
invitation to Vajpayee to form a government - was somewhat mystifying.
"We expected her to behave in a mature way," a senior BJP leader from
the South said.
Finally, on March 14, Jayalalitha announced her decision to forward
the letters of support to the President. Relieved, the BJP prepared to
send a senior emissary on behalf of Vajpayee to meet her on March 15
in Chennai. Senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh, who met her in Chennai on
March 15 and showed her a draft of the National Agenda, succeeded in
persuading her to drop her demand to give Subramanian Swamy a
ministerial post; he also got her to agree to the AIADMK, the PMK and
the TRC joining the Ministry.
The draft of the National Agenda incorporated, even if only in
somewhat vague terms, all her publicly stated demands.
WHAT explains the turnaround by Jayalalitha? AIADMK leaders in Delhi
explained that she was persuaded to fall in line and support the BJP
in view of the adverse criticism in the media holding her responsible
for blocking Vajpayee's assumption of office as Prime Minister.
Jayalalitha's decision that the AIADMK and some of its allies would
join the Ministry was prompted by the knowledge that the President was
unlikely to invite Vajpayee to form a government unless these allies,
which command a combined strength of 27 MPs in the Lok Sabha, were
ready to join the Government.
On March 15, after Jayalalitha announced in Chennai that the AIADMK,
the PMK and the TRC would join the Government, the President contacted
the AIADMK's Parliamentary Party leader, G. Swaminathan.
He indicated that only if all the constituents of a coalition
participated in the government would the coalition remain cohesive; he
further indicated that his decision on whether to invite Vajpayee to
form a government would hinge on this.
Shortly after receiving her confirmatory message, the President
appointed Vajpayee Prime Minister and set March 19 as the date of the
swearing-in of the government. He also asked Vajpayee to seek a
confidence vote in the Lok Sabha by March 29.
Significantly, the President did not consider it necessary to insist
on a commitment from the Trinamul Congress, a member of the BJP-led
alliance, that it would participate in the government. The Trinamul
Congress has only seven MPs in the Lok Sabha, whereas the AIADMK-led
combine has 27 members.
In a communique issued on the night of March 15, in which he detailed
the consultation process he had initiated since March 10, the
President referred to Congress(I) president Sonia Gandhi's reported
remarks to newspersons that the party did not have the numbers to form
a government.
He also took into consideration the Telugu Desam Party's stand -
ascertained in a telephonic discussion with its leader N. Chandrababu
Naidu - that the party would remain neutral during the vote of
confidence.
It was these two factors that finally convinced the President that a
Vajpayee-led Government would be able to secure the confidence of the
House.
India's National Magazine
From the publishers of THE HINDU
Vol. 15 :: No. 07 :: Apr. 4 - 17, 1998
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1507/15071180.htm
India's National Magazine
From the publishers of THE HINDU
Vol. 15 :: No. 10 :: May 09 - 22, 1998
COVER STORY
Dealing with Jayalalitha
After the Jaswant Singh-Jayalalitha meeting, the AIADMK has fallen
silent; Subramanian Swamy, however, has stepped up his offensive
against the BJP.
T.S. SUBRAMANIAN
in Chennai
GOING by the current mood in BJP circles in Tamil Nadu, the party will
adopt a tough stand with respect to the All India Anna Dravida
Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). AIADMK general secretary Jayalalitha will
now have to choose between the BJP and Janata Party leader Subramanian
Swamy. The BJP is said to have indicated to her that she would have to
make her choice before the Budget session of the Lok Sabha begins on
May 27. BJP sources in Chennai told Frontline that the party would not
accept Subramanian Swamy's presence in the AIADMK-led front in Tamil
Nadu if he continued to say that he would topple the Vajpayee
Government.
BJP leader Jaswant Singh flew in from Delhi and met Jayalalitha at her
Payyanoor retreat, 60 km from Chennai, on April 25. Sources said that
Jaswant Singh did some "plain talking". He apparently told Jayalalitha
that the BJP would not accept her three major demands: dismissal of
the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Government in Tamil Nadu; the
removal of Ram Jethmalani and Ramakrishna Hegde from the Union
Cabinet; and action against a private television channel based in
Chennai. The sources added that Jaswant Singh ruled out a place for
Subramanian Swamy in the coordination committee. He also told her to
put an end to attacks by some AIADMK functionaries on Jethmalani and
Hegde.
Jaswant Singh met Jayalalitha against the background of a slanging
match between Jethmalani and Hegde on the one hand and AIADMK
Ministers at the Centre, M. Thambi Durai, R. Janarthanan and R.K.
Kumar, on the other. The row followed the April 8 resignation of Union
Surface Transport Minister Sedapatti R. Muthiah of the AIADMK after a
Chennai court framed charges against him in a case of acquisition of
assets disproportionate to his known source of income during his
tenure as the Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Assembly from July 1991 to
October 1994.
VINO JOHN
Jaswant Singh outside Jayalalitha's Payyanoor Bungalow retreat near
Mamallapuram.
The situation worsened a week later. After a meeting of the AIADMK
executive committee on April 15, Jayalalitha demanded that all Union
Ministers who were charge-sheeted in corruption cases resign or be
dismissed by the Prime Minister. The next day, Jethamalani and Hegde
strongly criticised her and predicted that these "pinpricks" would end
soon.
On April 18 Jayalalitha wrote to Vajpayee naming three Ministers -
Communications Minister Buta Singh, Urban Development Minister
Jethmalani and Commerce Minister Hegde - as being involved in cases of
corruption and demanding their removal or the re-induction of Muthiah.
On April 19 Jethmalani again launched a broadside against Jayalalitha.
He took on Subramanian Swamy too. "It is clearly Dr. Subramanian Swamy
who is pushing her into making all these wild demands," he said. Hegde
wanted Vajpayee to go in for fresh elections instead of giving in to
Jayalalitha's "blackmail". In reply, Thambi Durai, Kumar and
Janarthanan, in a statement on April 23, asked Vajpayee to "advise Mr.
Hegde to either shut up or get out."
It was at this stage that the BJP high command intervened and sent
Jaswant Singh to meet Jayalalitha. Jaswant Singh had earlier come in
March to placate her when she delayed giving the letters of support
that would enable Vajpayee to form the government. BJP sources said
that this time Jaswant Singh made it clear that junior Ministers of
the AIADMK should not speak out of turn. If the AIADMK leadership had
something to say, Jayalalitha should be the one to say that, he said.
He also advised her against rushing to the media. The BJP high command
was annoyed that her letter to Vajpayee had been released to the
media.
Jaswant Singh was reportedly categorical about the BJP's decision not
to invoke Article 356 to dismiss the DMK Government. A senior BJP
source said: "We are tightening the screws. The idea is that this war
of words cannot go on... You will find a change from now on."
There was no word from Jayalalitha about the meeting. Sources in
Chennai indicated that there was no meeting ground between Jayalalitha
and Jaswant Singh. Jaswant Singh, however, claimed that the "mission
was a success". On the welter of charges and counter-allegations made
by Union Ministers, he said that the Prime Minister "will take such
action as he deems fit and proper."
The same day K.L. Sharma said in New Delhi that Subramanian Swamy
would not be included in the coordination committee because he had
failed to vote for the Government in the vote of confidence.
WHETHER by accident or design, a DMK executive meeting presided over
by Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on April 25 condemned the demand for
the dismissal of the Government that emanated from an "enemy party"
and Union Ministers belonging to it as "blatant blackmail" and "devoid
of any merit at all". It added that the demand was made "to subserve
their vested interests, with palpable mala fides in order to avoid
accountability to the courts of law in the pending cases of
corruption."
The resolution also condemned the transfer of Union Special Secretary
for Home Ashok Kumar, one of two officials sent as part of the Central
team to study the law and order situation in Tamil Nadu, and said that
this was done because he told the "truth". The resolution said that
this approach amounted to "burying" federalism and marked a
"dictatorial trend in interfering in the State Government's affairs."
The resolution added: "In the event of any such proclamation (for
dismissal) being made in Delhi because of the blackmail of the vested
interests," it would be "resisted by constitutional, lawful and
peaceful methods in courts of law." The executive committee appealed
to all democratic forces "to support this resistance movement."
When a reporter asked Karunanidhi whether the resolution was driven by
the fear that his Government would be dismissed, he said: "This is
only a reply to the threats from some terrorists in Poes Garden."
The Chief Minister called the resolution "an advance notice to the
Centre that it should not give room to some people who have been
trying to paralyse the administration and disrupt law and order by
repeatedly claiming that the DMK Government will be dismissed."
AFTER the Jaswant Singh-Jayalalitha meeting, AIADMK leaders fell
silent. However, Subramanian Swamy stepped up the offensive once it
was known that he was not welcome to the coordination committee. He
alleged on April 26 that the BJP citing his not having voted for the
Government was an "excuse" to exclude him from the coordination
committee. According to him, the real reason for the crisis was the
"asymmetrical application of the criterion" on who should be a Union
Minister. He said that while Muthiah was asked to resign, "tainted"
Ministers such as Hegde and Advani were allowed to continue. Advani's
crime - he was charge-sheeted in the Babri Masjid demolition case -
was not a "political crime", he said, but "a crime against humanity
and the integrity of the nation..."
Swamy met Jayalalitha in Chennai on April 27 and said that he was
"free to explore the possibility of creating an alternative, secular,
patriotic front" at the Centre. He declared that henceforth "in
national politics, I am a free bird." He claimed that Jayalalitha had
told him that Jaswant Singh "never discussed the matter" of his
exclusion from the coordination committee. Although he would consider
breaking away from the BJP-led alliance, he asserted that he continued
to be part and parcel of the AIADMK-led front in Tamil Nadu.
Jayalalitha, BJP sources said, was faced with a difficult situation.
"If Swamy remains in the AIADMK front in Tamil Nadu, then there is
nothing wrong in the BJP getting close to somebody who is against her,
such as the DMK. She has to choose between the BJP and Swamy."
Meanwhile, Subramanian Swamy has been busy floating the idea of a
secular front to oust the BJP-led coalition Government at the Centre.
He met Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Samajwadi Party president
Mulayam Singh Yadav and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Laloo Prasad
Yadav. Meanwhile, Congress(I) leader Madhavrao Scindia met Jayalalitha
in Chennai, apparently in a bid to build bridges between his party and
the AIADMK.
Political analysts believed that Jayalalitha was left with "no
choice". She could not part company with the BJP because the stakes
involved were high - there were corruption cases pending against her
and her former Ministers, and breaking away from the BJP would weaken
her.
The response of the other constituents of the AIADMK-led front to
Swamy's challenge will have a bearing on Jayalalitha's future course
of action. Of the three of them - Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam (MDMK), the Pattali Makal Katchi (PMK) and the Tamizhaga
Rajiv Congress (TRC) - the PMK and the TRC are participants in the
Central Government. The PMK had indicated its position when its leader
S. Ramadoss hinted that his party would not play along with
Subramanian Swamy.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1510/15100120.htm
Swamy seeks Manmohan’s sanction to prosecute Raja
Special Correspondent
CHENNAI: Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy has sought the Prime
Minister’s sanction to prosecute Union Communications Minister A. Raja
in the wake of CBI raids on Sanchar Bhavan offices to investigate
alleged irregularities in spectrum allotment.
In a statement, Dr. Swamy said he filed a petition for sanction as
early as on November 29, 2008 with Dr. Singh, as required under the
Prevention of Corruption Act, to launch a criminal investigation
against Mr. Raja under Sections 11 and 13 of the Act.
The CBI raids made the granting of permission by Dr. Singh a “mere
formality,” Dr. Swamy said.
An independent case filed by him in the designated sessions court for
trying cases under the Act would be the best recourse for a fair trial
of the spectrum deals and the CBI investigation could supplement the
legal process, he said.
Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 24, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version
http://www.thehindu.com/2009/10/24/stories/2009102461211000.htm
Sanatana Dharma Foundation Honors Dr Subramanian Swamy and Dr S.
Kalyanaraman for their Courageous Effort in Protecting the Historic
Rama Sethu Sanatana Dharma Foundation, Dallas, Texas organized its
first Hindu Unity Day, at the DFW Hindu Temple, in Dallas on the 19th
and 20th of July, 2008. Symbolizing Hindu Unity, Representatives of
Dallas Chapters of several organizations like the Art of living
Foundation, Ammachi Satsang, Hare Krishna ISCKON group, Gayatri
Parivar, Brahmakumaris, Carribbean Mandir, Chinmaya Mission, Hanuman
Temple, Sathya Sai groups, Datta Yoga Peetam and other prominent Hindu
personalities from the local Dallas-Fort Worth community in Texas,
were present at this unique event. Dr Subramanian Swamy's latest book
"Rama Sethu Symbol of National Unity" was released and distributed at
the Event, to key members of these organizations and other prominent
members of the community.
Rama Sethu Symbol of National Unity
Hindu Dharma Rakshaka Kshatriya Award
This award, a first of its kind, has been instituted to honor and
celebrate the 'Kshatriya Spirit', specifically the courage shown by
Hindus in taking risks and standing up to fight for the protection and
preservation of Dharma. The word Kshatriya is a Sanskrit word that
refers to the royal and noble class of Hindus who historically
defended their nation, and the Dharma of the land.
Rama Sethu Symbol of National Unity
Dallas, Texas (PRWEB) July 26, 2008 -- Dr Subramanian Swamy, PhD,
visiting professor of Economics, Harvard University and former Union
Law Minister of India, and Dr S. Kalyanaraman, Director, Saraswati
River Research Center, and President of Sri Rameshwaram Rama Sethu
Raksha Manch, received awards in Dallas, Texas for their courageous
effort in protecting the historic Rama Sethu, from being destroyed by
the Government of India in the name of a development project.
NASA Photograph of Rama Sethu
Rama Sethu is the original Sanskrit name given to a bridge built by
the legendary King Rama, who crossed over to Sri Lanka from India to
fight the King of Lanka, Ravana, recover his wife Sita, and restore
Dharma (Order) in the land of India. While it is difficult to
establish the exact historical age of these events, the bridge is
thought to be at least 5000 years old, if not much older, making it
the oldest causeway built across an ocean channel. The Rama Sethu is
referred to in numerous ancient Sanskrit texts and scriptures, as a
man made structure, and in recent times, it has been vividly
photographed by both NASA and Indian Satellites.
When India fell under Colonial rule, the British renamed this
construction as "Adam's Bridge". The Government of India, in recent
years, has been trying to establish a Shipping Channel between India
and Sri Lanka, by breaking and destroying the continuity of this
ancient structure. Hindus in India and around the world have been
protesting and fighting this decision of the Government of India, and
have demanded that the Rama Sethu be declared a monument of historic
importance and a world heritage site. On May 8th, 2008, the Supreme
Court of India directed the Government of India to go back to the
drawing board to see if it can create an alternate shipping route, and
at the same time, study the Rama Sethu as a monument of historic
importance. It is yet to be seen if the Government of India will
comply with the Court's direction, and thereby uphold due
constitutional process, or continue on its path of destroying the Rama
Sethu, dis-regarding the Supreme court's direction.
Sanatana Dharma Foundation, (www.sdfglobal.org) a Dallas based Non-
Profit organization inspired by the Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha,
(www.acharyasabha.org) the apex body of Hindus in India, presented the
"Hindu Dharma Rakshaka Kshatriya Award" to Dr Subramanian Swamy & Dr
S. Kalyanaraman on the occassion of the Hindu Unity Day organized at
the DFW Hindu Temple in Dallas, Texas on July 19, 2008. Speaking on
the occasion, the President of Sanatana Dharma Foundation, Kalyan
Viswanathan, said that "This award, a first of its kind, has been
instituted to honor and celebrate the 'Kshatriya Spirit', specifically
the courage shown by Hindus in taking risks and standing up to fight
for the protection and preservation of Dharma. The word Kshatriya is a
Sanskrit word that refers to the royal and noble class of Hindus who
historically defended their nation, and the Dharma of the land."
The Highlight of the Hindu Unity Day Event was the speech by Dr
Subramanian Swamy on his personal experiences during his defense of
Rama Sethu in the Supreme Court of India, which was greeted by a
spontaneous standing ovation. In presenting the "Hindu Dharma Rakshaka
Kshatriya" Award, his fearless defense in the Supreme Court of India,
getting a critical and timely stay order, the subsequent withdrawal of
the Government of India's petition, and the later Verdict of the
Supreme Court were all highlighted.
Dr S. Kalyanaraman made a scholarly presentation on the River
Saraswati, highlighting the recent research findings, the origins of
the Vedic civilization on the banks of River Saraswati and the fact
that it holds the central "Key" to the re-writing of the history of
India and re-establishing the real historicity of the Vedas. While
presenting the Award, his dedicated research in supporting the
struggle of the Rama Sethu, and his pioneering contributions in
researching and resurfacing the River Saraswati were lauded.
Symbolizing Hindu Unity, Representatives of Dallas Chapters of several
organizations like the Art of living Foundation, Ammachi Satsang, Hare
Krishna ISCKON group, Gayatri Parivar, Brahmakumaris, Carribbean
Mandir, Chinmaya Mission, Hanuman Temple, Sathya Sai groups and other
prominent Hindu personalities from the local Dallas-Fort Worth
community in Texas, were present at this unique event. Dr Subramanian
Swamy's latest book "Rama Sethu Symbol of National Unity" was released
and distributed at the Event, to key members of these organizations
and other prominent members of the community.
Smt. Ranna Jani, President, DFW Hindu Temple in Texas speaking on the
occassion on behalf of the Temple, thanked both Dr Subramaniam Swamy &
Dr S. Kalyanaraman for coming to Dallas and sharing their experiences
with the participants. On the second day, a workshop was organized,
where challenges facing Hinduism today, were discussed. Presentations
on the state of Hindu Temples in India, challenges posed by
Christianity and Islam were also discussed. The session was very
interactive, and educational, as per the feedback received.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/Sanatana/Dharma/prweb1146784.htm
CHENNAI, January 22, 2010 Swamy against Nalini’s release
Special Correspondent
Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy calling on Tamil Nadu
Governor Surjit Singh Barnala at the Raj Bhavan in Chennai on
Thursday. Photo: Special Arrangement
Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy on Thursday met Tamil Nadu
Governor Surjit Singh Barnala and urged him not to sign any
recommendation of the State government for freeing Nalini Sriharan, a
life convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
Dr. Swamy told the Governor that the issue pertaining to premature
release of Nalini was still pending before the Madras High Court, and
any decision on the issue would amount to contempt of court.
He also made a mention before the First Bench to expedite the hearing
of his writ appeal in the matter.
Later speaking to journalists, Dr. Swamy said that he came to know
from a section of the media that the review board had reportedly
decided to release Nalini.
He said that he had mentioned before the bench comprising Chief
Justice H.L. Gokhale and K.K. Sasidharan that any decision of the
board would render infructuous his appeal against the single judge
order to the State government to reconstitute the board to decide the
case of Nalini.
The Chief Justice had asked him to file an application to the High
Court Registry for speeding up his appeal, he said.
He said the constitution of the board itself was illegal. He planned
to move for restoration of death penalty for Nalini. He said the State
government had earlier said that it would oppose the premature
release, now it cannot go back on its stand.
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article87758.ece
Hindu's under SIEGE
aumprakash
January 14, 2007
it's fromt the talk given by Dr.subramanya swamy on the day of his
book relese "hindu's under siege- the way out" http://www.kksfusa.org/
it's fromt the talk given by Dr.subramanya swamy on the day of his
book relese "hindu's under siege- the way out"
http://www.kksfusa.org/
Hindu's under SIEGE
3:13
Added: 3 years ago
From: aumprakash
Views: 3,128
All Comments (30 total)
Loading...nazimquraishi (1
politicians since nehru and including him (the pundits alinged with
the raja of kashmir, who wanted kashmir to not be free like rest of
india)
found themselves out of power. so they figured out a formula to get
back in power in the democratic structure of india and it worked.
so wake the f up (my indians) my hindus. politicians are only about
themselves and their ideas. Not about you.
nazimquraishi (1 week ago) Hindu was a generic term used to refer to
anyone who lives south of hindukush mountains and south of Hindu River
(Indus per the brits).
Hindu = citizen of hindustan, indian = citizen of india & french =
citizen of france.
Prior to monotheism most countries were polytheists.Ancestors of
Indian Muslims were polytheists too.
The confusion between religion and nationality was caused and
encouraged by the british after they realized what a rebellion like in
1857 could do to them.
anirudhnandan (10 months ago) Comment removed by author
raghaa (3 weeks ago) thats what they learnt from birtish my friend.
What will a poor hindu will do if there is no basic fullfilment? he
will convert into christian. its happening right now ;)
winnerji (11 months ago) When his lips are pronouncing HINDUS...it's
all about only Brahmins....Will he do anything for Dalith
people....is he considering Dalith as Hindus.....?????? FRAUD....
NanakLove (1 year ago) stand up for dharma my brothers. the 9th Sikh
Guru even gave his life for kashmiri pundits.
ndshastri (1 year ago) Show S.Swamy orkut comm
search :::::: Sri Subramanian Swamy
Metaemipricus (1 year ago) Christian Evangelists, Islamic Jihadis and
leftist naxal terrorists - the three most violent sectarian cults have
come together to destroy India. Wake up Hindus.
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nmohan101 (1 year ago) this guy is a racist; Hinduism in not under
siege...
dd1857 (1 year ago) who say not.. Every where that is the case..
Christanity and Muslims...are book based.. attacking all
kafirpandit (1 year ago) Hindus are the bravest people on the earth.
All Muslims and Christian missionaries should be thrown out of
Bharatvarsh.
tonyshit80 (11 months ago) I saw Muruga last week, he motion less
pls help him my dear friends
TAPS711 (1 year ago) Leave the Hindus alone. They have a right to
believe what they want. They are peaceful people.
tonyshit80 (11 months ago) No, I will not allows the such things
happen....
Radian1991 (1 year ago) Hindu Society has been suffering a sustained
attack from Islam since the 7th century, from Christianity since the
15th century, and this century also from Marxism. The avowed objective
of each of these three world-conquering movements, with their massive
resources, is the replacement of Hinduism by their own ideology, or in
effect: the destruction of Hinduism.-Dr.Koenraad Elst
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arnotkaling (1 year ago) swamy bastard should be shot. He supports
sinhala terrosm in sri lanka. he fully supported indian terrost
invasion of sri lanka.
NanakLove (1 year ago) not just hindu's but sikhs too..we gotta stand
up together brothers
TAPS711 (1 year ago) You are right.
emperor0989 (1 year ago) sikhs are hindus only, and hindus are sikhs.
we are cousins, if not brothers.
haridham (1 year ago) Show Hide 0 Marked as spam Reply lol
haridham (1 year ago) Show Hide 0 Marked as spam Reply watch?
v=XcFA8iSXf2c
EXChristian0 (2 years ago) Excellent video clip! Thanks! DOWN WITH
ANTI-HINDU ELEMENTS (anti-hindu govt, pseudo-secular anti-hindu
media, Christlamist Communist thugs, deceitful and cunning missionary
pests). Come on Hindus, WAKE UP, UNITE AND FIGHT FOR DHARMA! Jai Hind!
EXChristian0 (2 years ago)
DOWN WITH ANTI-HINDU ELEMENTS (anti-hindu govt, pseudo-secular anti-
hindu media, Christlamist Communist thugs, deceitful and cunning
missionary pests, ISLAMIC jihadis etc). Come on Hindus, WAKE UP, UNITE
AND FIGHT FOR DHARMA! Jai Hind!
chocolayer (2 years ago)
Aumprakash a digital RSS propagandist. A muslim hater and non brahmin
hater. His lowly life is based on lies and he survived on lies.
humbleRaj (2 years ago)
Nice ideo Aumprakash Ji :)
badmashguy (2 years ago)
It might be true for Hinduism....but isn't it true for every other
religion too....
humbleRaj (2 years ago) Show Hide +3 Marked as spam Reply Nope,None
of American Politicians speak against christianity or None of The
leaders from Islamic Countries condemn Islam, but Indian politicians
abuse Hinduism in India.
Peenp (3 years ago)
I agree with you Aum.
http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet?all_comments&v=IFU-iAP43M0&fromurl=/watch%3Fv%3DIFU-iAP43M0
Hinduism under siege, says Subramanian Swamy
Coventry, UK | December 07, 2005 8:11:13 PM IST
http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=184292&cat=India
Janata Party President and former Union Minister Dr. Subramanian Swamy
today told a large UK Hindu gathering at the Sri Krishna Temple here
that to combat the invisible and multi-dimensional siege against
Hinduism, all the Dharmacharyas of Hindu religion must come together
in a formal body with a permanent secretariat in New Delhi.
He said that Swami Dayananda Saraswati of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, near
Coimbatore had already convened a Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha in Mumbai
in mid-October last, and resolved to do so.
Dr. Swamy said that the siege has a religious dimension because of the
pernicious and subtle denigration of Hindu icons and Institutions such
as through filing bogus cases against the Kanchi Shankaracharya, a
psychological dimension by inculcating a confused mindset through a
one-sided secularism, a cultural dimension in propagating that Indians
are Caucasian invaders from beyond Afghanistan through the baseless
Aryan-Dravidian theory, and in the physical dimension by induced
conversions to Christianity and Islamic terrorism.
"Hindus are being driven out from their homelands in Kashmir,
Bangladesh and even Mau in UP, but the political leadership in India
lacks the virile mindset to challenge this denigration of Hindus in a
83 percent Hindu populated nation" he added.
Dr. Swamy further said that India is distinctive only because of it's
Hindu foundation and continuing civilisation. Hence India as Hindustan
means a nation of Hindus and those Muslims and Christians who accept
their ancestors are Hindus.
Parsis may have come from Persia but they accept Hindu culture as
their own. This is our Hindustani identity. Hence, those Christians
and Muslims who do not accept their ancestors as Hindus should go back
from where they came from or lose their voting rights.
Even Hindus who claim to be racially Aryans or Dravidians have no
place in Hindustan. In Rig Veda "Arya" only meant civilised, while
Dravida is a Sanskrit word coined by Adi Sankara to mean south India-
where three seas meet.
Dr. Swamy said that without demolishing the caste system a cogent
cohesive Hindu identity can not be forged. Hence the Acharya Sabha
should issue a nirdesh" (direction) that according to the Vedas and
Uttara Gita, varna and jati are not birth based but determined on
gunas (merits) and occupation.
"Varna is a choice not a compulsion," he added. (ANI)
http://www.nchtuk.org/content.php?id=288
December 21, 2008
Out of the box
By Subramanian Swamy
The India of today would not have been in existence had the attempts
to divide Hindus succeeded. In the 20th century, a sinister attempt to
divide the Hindu community on caste basis was made in 1932 when the
British imperialists offered the scheduled castes a separate
electorate.
What does the despicable terror and mayhem in Mumbai on November 26
signify for India? Shorn of the human tragedy, wanton destruction, and
obnoxious audacity of the terrorists, it signifies a challenge to the
identity of India from radical Islam. Cinema actor Shahrukh Khan may
wax eloquent about the ?true Islam? on TV, but it is clear that he and
other such Muslims have not read any authoritative translations of the
Koran, Sira and Hadith which three together constitute Islam as a
theology, and which is a complete menu of intolerance of peoples of
other faiths derisively labeled as kafirs. Hence, instead of talking
about the ?correct interpretation? of Islam they ought instead be
urging for a new Islamic theology consistent with democratic
principles.
In 2003, two years after the 9/11 murderous and perfidious Islamic
assault on USA, resulting in killing of more than 3000 persons within
two hours, and which was perpetrated by leveraging the democratic
freedoms in USA, the Saudi Arabian Embassy in the website of its
Islamic Affairs Department [www.iad.org] laid down what a ?good?
Muslim is expected to do. Dr. Steven Stalinsky of the Middle East
Media Research Institute[MEMRI] based in Washington DC accessed it and
published it in issue No.23, of the Institute newsletter, dated
November 26[what irony!] 2003. I have to thank a NRI in US, Dr.
Muthuswamy for this reference. In that site it is stated:
?The Muslims are required to raise the banner of Jihad in order to
make the Word of Allah supreme in this world, to remove all forms of
injustice and oppression, and to defend the Muslims. If Muslims do not
take up the sword, the evil tyrants of this earth will be able to
continue oppressing the weak and helpless?
Now who is more authoritative?Sharukh Khan or Saudi Arabia ? Obviously
the latter. The above quote is what in substance is being taught in
every madrassa in India, and can be traced back to the sayings of
Prophet Mohammed. I can quote a plethora of verses from a Saudi
Arabian translated Koran [e.g., verses 8:12, 8:60, and 33:26] which
verses justify brutal violence against non-believers. If I delved into
Sira and Hadith for more quotes, then I could risk generating much
hatred, so it will suffice to say that Islam is not only a theology,
but it spans a brutal political ideology which we have to combat
sooner or later in realm of ideas.
Some may quote back at me verses from Manusmriti about brutality to
women and scheduled castes. But as a Hindu I have the liberty to
disown these verses [since it is a Smriti] and even to seek to re-
write a new Smriti as many, for example, Yajnavalkya have done to
date. Reform and renaissance is thus inbuilt into Hinduism. But in
Islam, the word of the Prophet is final. Sharukh Khan and other gloss
artists cannot disown these verses, or say that they would re-write
the offensive verses of the Koran. If they do, then they would have to
run for their lives as Rushdie and Taslima have had to do. Leave alone
re-writing, if anyone draws a cartoon of Prophet Mohammed, there will
follow world-wide violent rioting. But if Hussein draws Durga in the
most pornographic posture, the Hindus will only groan but not
violently rampage.
We Hindus have a long recognised tradition of being religious liberals
by nature. We have already proved it enough by welcoming to our
country and nurturing Parsis, Jews, Syrian Christians, and Moplah
Muslim Arabs who were persecuted elsewhere, when we were 100 per cent
Hindu country.
Moreover, despite a 1000 years of most savage brutalisation of Hindus
by Islamic invaders and self-demeaning brain washing by the
Christians, even then, Hindus as a majority have adopted secularism as
a creed. We have not asked for an apology and compensation for these
atrocities. But the position of Hindus in this land of Bharatmata,
where Muslims and Christians locally are in majority, in pockets?such
as in Kashmir and Nagaland, or in small enclaves such as town
panchayats of Tamil Nadu, is terrible and despicable. Even in Kerala
where Hindus are 52 per cent of the population, they have only 25 per
cent of all the prime jobs in the state, and are silently suffering
their plight at the hands of 48 per cent who vote as a vote bank.
The 26/11 Mumbai slaughter therefore should teach us Hindus that the
time has come to wake up and stand up?it is now or never. If we do not
stand up now to Islamic terrorism, then India will end up like Beirut,
a permanent battlefield of international terrorists, buccaneers,
pirates and missionaries.
What does it mean in the 21st century for Hindus to stand up ? I mean
by that a mental clarity of the Hindus to defend themselves by
effective deterrent retaliation, and also an intelligent co-option of
other religious groups into the Hindu cultural continuum.
Mental clarity can only come if we are clear about the identity of the
nation. What is India? An ancient but continuing civilisation or is it
a geographical entity incorporated in 1947 by the Indian Independence
Act of the British Parliament ? What then does it mean to say ?I am an
Indian?? A mere passport holder of the Republic of India or a
descendent of the great seers and visionaries of more than 10,000
years ? Obviously our identity should be of a nation of an ancient and
continuing Hindu civilisation, legatees of great rishis and munis, and
a highly sophisticated sanatana philosophy.
If Hindu culture is our defining identity then how can we co-opt non-
Hindus, especially Muslims and Christians ? By persuading them by
saam, dhaam, bheda and dand that they acknowledge with pride the truth
that their ancestors are Hindus. If they do, it means that they accept
Hindu culture and enlightened mores. That is, change of religion does
not mean change of culture. Then we should treat such Muslims and
Christians as part of our Brihad Hindu family.
Noted author and editor M.J. Akbar calls this identity as of ?Blood
Brothers?. It is an undeniable fact that Muslims and Christians in
India are descendents of Hindus. In a recent article in the American
Journal of Physical Anthropology, an analysis of genetic samples [DNA]
show that Muslims in north India are overwhelmingly of the same DNA as
Hindus proving that Muslims here are descendents of Hindus who had
been converted to Islam, rather repositories of foreign DNA deposited
by waves of invaders.
Akbar thus asks rhetorically: ?When have the Muslims of India gone
wrong?? and answers: ?When they have forgotten their Indian roots?.
How apt ! Enlightened Muslims like Akbar therefore must rise to the
occasion and challenge the reactionary religious fundamentalists. That
is India is not Darul Harab to be trifled with. In a conciliatory
atmosphere the minorities would willingly accept this. It is also in
their interest to accept this reality. Hindus must persuade by the
time honoured methods Muslims and Christians to accept this and its
logical consequences.
This identity was not understood by us earlier because of the
distorted outlook of Jawaharlal Nehru who occupied the Prime Minister?
s chair for seventeen formative years after 1947 and for narrow
political ends, had fanned a separatist outlook in Muslims and
Christians.
The failure to date, to resolve this Nehru created crisis, has not
only confused the majority but confounded the minorities as well in
India. This confusion has deepened with winter migratory birds such as
Amartya Sen descending on the campus of the India International Centre
to preach inane taxonomies such as ?multiple identities?.
There has to be an over-riding identity called national identity, and
hence we should not be derailed by pedestrian concepts of multiple or
sub-identities.
?Without a resolution of the identity crisis today, which requires an
explicit clear answer to this question of who we are, the majority
will never understand how to relate to the legacy of the nation and in
turn to the minorities. Minorities would not understand how to adjust
with the majority if this identity crisis is not resolved. In other
words, the present dysfunctional perceptional mismatch in
understanding who we are as a people, is behind most of the communal
tension and inter-community distrust in the country.
?In India, the majority is the conglomerate or Brihad Hindu community
which represents about 81 per cent of the total Indian population,
while minorities are constituted by Muslims [13 per cent] and
Christians [3 per cent]. Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, and some other
microscopic religious groups, represent the remaining three per cent.
Though also considered minorities, but really are so close to the
majority community in culture that they are considered as a part of
Hindu society. Unlike Islam and Christianity, these minority religions
were founded as dissenting theologies of Hinduism. Even Zoroaster can
be traced to leader of Vahikas in Mahabharata who migrated to Persia.
Kaikeyi in Ramayana was from Persia when that country was hundred per
cent Hindu. Thus these religions share the core concepts with Hindus
such as re-incarnation, equality of all religions, and ability to meet
God in this life. That they feel increasingly alienated from Hindu
society nowadays is also the consequence of India?s identity crisis
caused by British historians and their Indian tutees in JNU.
The India of today would not have been in existence had the attempts
to divide Hindus succeeded. In the 20th century, a sinister attempt to
divide the Hindu community on caste basis was made in 1932 when the
British imperialists offered the scheduled castes a separate
electorate. But shrewdly understanding the conspiracy to divide India,
Mahatma Gandhi by his fast unto death and Dr. Ambedkar by his
visionary rejection of separate electorate, foiled the attempt by
signing the Poona Pact.
But the possibility that such attempts at dividing India socially may
be made again in the future, a possibility that cannot be ruled out.
Indian patriots will have to watch such attempts very carefully.
Segmentation, fragmentation, and finally balkanisation have been part
of the historical process in many countries to destroy national
identity and thereby cause the political division of the nation
itself. Yugoslavia is a recent example of this, which has now been
divided into four countries, largely due to Islamic separatism and
Serbian over-reaction.
Virat Hindutva can be achieved in the first stage by Hindu
consolidation, that is achieved by Hindus holding that they are Hindus
first and last, by disowning primacy to their caste and regional
loyalties. This would require a renaissance in thinking and outlook,
that can be fostered only by patient advocacy and intellectual
ferment.
For this we need a new History text, and a proper understanding of the
distinction between the four varnas [not birth based but by codes of
behavior for devolution of power in society] and jati [which is birth
based and mostly for marriages]. Just as Valmiki and Vyasa are
regarded as Maharshis despite being of different jati from Parasuram,
hence Dr. Ambedkar should be called a Maharishi for his sheer depth of
knowledge of Indian history. That he had become bitter because of
Nehru systematically sidelining him is no reason not to do so.
India thus needs a Hindu renaissance today that incorporates modern
principles, e.g., of the irrelevance of birth antecedents, fostering
gender equality, ensuring equality before law, and accountability for
all. It is also essential to integrate the entire Indian society on
those principles, irrespective of religion. Uniform Civil Code for
example, is something that the vast majority of Muslim women want, but
because this demand has been usurped by those who deny the equality of
nationality to the Muslims, hence comes the resistance to a eminently
reasonable value. The Muslims think that this is the first step in
several to subjugate them or wipe out their identity. But Muslims have
quietly accepted Uniform Criminal Code [the IPC] despite that it
contradicts the Sharia.
In other words, Hindutva has two components?one that Hindus can accept
[such as caste abolition, eradication of dowry etc.] without any other
religion?s interests to consider. The other is the embracing by
minorities of the core secular Indian values which have Hindu roots.
This would require, particularly Muslims and Christians, to
acknowledge that their ancestry is Hindu, and thus own the entire
Hindu past as their own legacy, and to thus tailor their outlook on
that basis. This would integrate Indian society and make the concept
of an inclusive[Brihad] Hindutva and rooted in India?s continuing
civilisation.
Thus, if India has to decide to have or not have good relations with
Israel, Pakistan, Iran or US, it cannot be on the basis how it will
impact on India?s Muslims and Christians, but on what India?s national
interests require. If India has to dispatch troops to Afghanistan,
Iraq, Sri Lanka or Nepal to combat terrorism, that policy too has to
be decided on what is good for India, and not what any religious or
linguistic group identifies as it?s interest.
Thus such an Hindutva is positive in outlook, while raw Hindu
xenophobia is negative and based on Hindu hegemony which will frighten
all. Such a Hindutva will resolve our current energy-sapping identity
crisis, which otherwise will completely emasculate India in the long
run. The choice for the patriotic Indian is thus clear: We need a
clear and positive view of our national identity based on our Hindu
past and a Hindu renaissance to unite the Hindus with constructive
mind-set as well as persuade the minorities to be co-opted culturally
with Hindu society.
Once being Indian means Virat Brihad Hindutva, we can tackle terrorism
by an effective strategy of defence. What are the components of that
strategy is the subject matter of my next column here.
(To be concluded)
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December 28, 2008
Out of the Box
Isolate and confront the rogue state, war no option
By Subramanian Swamy
Hindus and such Muslims and Christians together constitute the
Hindustan nation. All others are either permanent residents or
foreigners, but therefore should have no voting rights. NRIs abroad
who also acknowledge to be of Hindustani descent can be permitted to
be voters in India.
Since the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has yet not condemned Pakistan
for allowing its territory to be used by ?non-state actors?, such a
Commission is all the more necessary. Pakistan cannot be allowed to
wash its hands off responsibility in this by silence of those who are
paid to speak in Parliament by the tax-payer on behalf of the Indian
nation.
Coming back to the question of retaliation for the Mumbai 26/11
attack, I advocate US-Israel-India coordinated aerial strikes at all
the prominent training bases of the LeT and JeM in PoK, which action,
since it is on a part of India, will not mean an act of war, whatever
Pakistan may think. This is the mirror-image of the argument that
Pakistan itself has used while invading India in 1999 in the Kargil
sector i.e., since they consider J&K not a part of India, hence
Pakistan can invade it!
Terrorist attacks such 26/11 Mumbai carnage can be deterred only by
effective retaliation which will serve as a deterrence against future
attacks. What is an effective retaliation for the 26/11 attacks ? In
my view, it is bombing of LeT camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-held
territories. That means war declared by Pakistan. War is however a
terrible event in human affairs. It is against the finer and civilised
instinct of the human being and a temporary triumph of the base
emotions. Wars are imposed either on evil intentions or by
miscalculations. Civilised societies to survive have to be prepared
for such wars. My quick answer thus to the question whether war with
Pakistan is then inevitable is: Yes!
My substantive answer is that the war will be imposed on us anyway
whether we retaliate or not, by the compulsions of Pakistan?s polity,
and we should prepare for a formal war with that country which could
come anytime within the next four years. The terror genie is now out
of the bottle in Pakistan, and an informal ad hoc proxy war is already
on between India and Pakistan through Pak-trained terrorists. It
cannot be ended without a decisive formal war. We cannot also go on
bleeding like we have during last 20 years, each occasion at the time
and place of choosing of the terrorists of Pakistan. To top it all, we
are being dished out Pakistan?s inane argument on the need providing ?
proof?, by a government which is a puppet of the trainers of these
terrorists.
Unlike the 1965, 1971, and 1999 wars with Pakistan, this time we
should first prepare instead react by reflecting on who are our real
allies in this coming war, and what the post-war situation of a
destructed and disarmed Pakistan should be. In 1971, USSR was claimed
to be our ally, but it would not let us smash the West Pakistan
military machine when the Pakistan army was on all fours on the
floor.
This time, because of nuclear weapons on both sides, the war has to be
decisive. Pakistan must be sanitized and/or further dismembered beyond
recognition. The new Pakistan or the former Pakistans must be led by
those who understand India?s retaliatory capacity.
One thousand years of the foreign invasions of this land have proved
that Hindus will not submit, no matter what the tribulation and
personal tragedy. Iran, Babylonia, Turkey, Egypt and others of the
Middle East had in contrast submitted and became majority Muslim
countries within a few decades. But Hindus as a whole, despite 1000
years of brutality and impoverishment, have stood defiantly. In Akhand
Hindustan, we are still 75 per cent of the total population despite
all the atrocities.
But now defiance is no more enough. Now we must decisively and finally
settle the issue and defeat our centuries? old tormentors and the
violent theology behind it.
In my last column I had stated that Islamic terrorism cannot be fought
unless we adopt a virat brihad Hindutva concept of identity for
Indians, which identity I defined as the mindset of Hindus, who are
proud of their Hinduness, and ready to co-opt Muslims and Christians
as blood brothers and sisters if they too proudly acknowledge the
truth that their ancestors are Hindus and that despite change of
religion their culture does not change [Culture is a secular concept
defined on the myriad of human relations and attitudes].
Hindus and such Muslims and Christians together constitute the
Hindustan nation. All others are either permanent residents or
foreigners, but therefore should have no voting rights. NRIs abroad
who also acknowledge to be of Hindustani descent can be permitted to
be voters in India.
This mindset in responding to terror must focus on retaliation as a
deterrent against terrorism, which is the real meaning of ?zero
tolerance? for terrorism. The retaliation cannot be confused with
vengeance but has to be defined as effective actions to nullify the
political objectives of the patrons of terrorists.
What is, for example, the retaliation for the 26/11 terrorist attack
on Mumbai? Or for that matter, the ?menu? of retaliation for all the
terrorist attacks since 1989 beginning with when 500,000 Hindus and
Sikhs were driven out by terrorists from the Kashmir valley?
The retaliation has to be tailored in each terrorist attack to nullify
the political objective of the patrons which objective motivates that
attack.
In the 26/11 attack, the political objective was to demonstrate to the
world that India is a wobbly, flabby, and corrupt country that cannot
defend itself, that anyone can bribe his way with Indians to achieve
his nefarious goal. Hence, they want to demonstrate that India is a
corroding civilisation, and unworthy being a reliable ally of any
country. That is why foreign tourists of friendly countries, such as
US and Israel, were chosen for murder.
The terror patrons of Pakistan have, in my opinion, achieved
substantially this objective by putting a question mark on our
integrity as a people. How could such an operation, foreigners now
ask, be put through without the intelligence having a clue? Is it
because India ignored timely US intelligence of September that made
the LeT postpone its dastardly project scheduled of September 27th to
26/11?
The truth is more bizarre: Intelligence Bureau and RAW did know, but
the information was not acted on by the Maharashtra government. Why?
It is rubbish to say that the information was not ?actionable?, i.e.,
not specific enough to take counter measures. I have had access to
some of the intelligence supplied to the Maharashtra government, some
of it are dated two years ago, which disproves this claim.
One such advisory actually states that LeT-trained terrorists
numbering about a dozen are likely to enter from the sea in the
Gateway area, and take control of high profile targets such as hotels!
Is this not actionable? Or was the Maharashtra Police prevented from
taking action by Ahmed Patel on behalf of Sonia Gandhi as alluded to
by former Chief Minister of the state, Mr. Narayan Rane?
I thought therefore the Opposition in Parliament would have demanded
at least a Commission of Inquiry headed by a sitting judge of the
Supreme Court to go into all the lapses. Instead they wallowed in
talking of national unity. This is not the time to talk of unity with
the government. We are not yet in a formal war to need to talk of
unity with the government. A horrible incident had taken place, and it
is over now. Hence, it is the duty of the Opposition to put the
government in the dock, and at least demand a Commission to go into
the lapses. When a formal war is launched we can at that stage unite
with the government in a show of unity.
But not now. Since the UPA chairperson Ms. Sonia Gandhi has yet not
condemned Pakistan for allowing its territory to be used by ?non-state
actors?, such a Commission is all the more necessary. Pakistan cannot
be allowed to wash its hands off responsibility in this by silence of
those who are paid to speak in Parliament by the tax-payer on behalf
of the Indian nation.
Considering that the first employer in London in 1965 of Ms. Sonia
Gandhi was a Pakistani called Salman Thassir, a dubious business
magnate with perhaps ISI connection, and that the guest of honour at
the select gathering of just 35 invitees to her daughter Priyanka?s
wedding, was Farida accompanied by her husband Munir Ataullah, both
known bag persons of prominent Pakistan politicians with ISI
connections, hence, it is a matter of concern that Ms. Sonia Gandhi
has not condemned Pakistan for the 26/11 attack, and in fact she has
not condemned even one terrorist attack starting Mumbai 1993.
Coming back to the question of retaliation for the Mumbai 26/11
attack, I advocate US-Israel-India coordinated aerial strikes at all
the prominent training bases of the LeT and JeM in PoK, which action,
since it is on a part of India, will not mean an act of war, whatever
Pakistan may think. This is the mirror-image of the argument that
Pakistan itself has used while invading India in 1999 in the Kargil
sector i.e., since they consider J&K not a part of India, hence
Pakistan can invade it!
The US and Israel will probably not agree at present to help in a
military strike since India has never come to the assistance of US or
Israel in their hour of grief. In fact when on the day Saddam Hussein
was toppled in 2003, a joint BJP-Congress resolution was passed by the
Lok Sabha condemning US ?imperialism? in Iraq! Nor have we ever
offered Israel help whenever a terrorist attack took place in that
country?
Hence, to get the US and Israel effectively on our side in this war on
terror, we too have to commit to help them in this war, not merely by
ministers paying a visit to Washington and waxing eloquent about
being ?natural allies?. For all their duplicity, Pakistan under
Musharraf in contrast had made a world of difference to the US in its
war on terror. Hence the soft corner for Pakistan in US and Europe.
For example, when New York Times reporter Daniel Pearl?s throat was
slit by LeT, the Pakistan government caught the mastermind Omar Sheikh
[whom we had released in the IC hijack matter at Kandahar] and sent
him to Guantanomo prison without making noises about ?proof?. More Al
Qaeda leaders have been captured or killed by the US with the
cooperation of Pakistan than by direct action of the US. Nor can the
US keep the Taliban out of Afghanistan without the active support of
Pakistan. Hence, it is understandable that the US is in a catch-22
situation on Pakistan and we in India, if we want US cooperation, have
to concretely provide a way out of that.
If we strike at the terrorists camps in PoK, the various governments
of Pakistan cannot sit quiet. There are four other governments of
Pakistan besides one headed by Zardari. In addition to his government,
there is the Army government operating through the seven corp
commanders, the ISI government working abroad through fake currency
and beautiful women, the Mullah government through Friday prayers in
mosques and by brainwashing in madrasas, and the de facto Taliban
government in the frontier areas. Anyone of these four governments can
declare a war against India on the war cry of jehad, and the other
four will have to follow. So war is the outcome of any retaliatory
action of India.
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Opinion - Leader Page Articles
Defamation litigation: a survivor's kit
By Subramanian Swamy
The Supreme Court judgment in the Nakkeeran case is the main tool in
the survival kit for honest media and other critics of politicians
against libel litigation.
ON SEPTEMBER 17, the Tamil Nadu Government filed an affidavit in the
Supreme Court stating that it had ordered the withdrawal of 125
defamation cases filed against The Hindu and various other
publications. This is a tribute especially to The Hindu `parivar' for
showing guts and challenging the constitutionality of the cases filed
against its representatives. The Jayalalithaa Government chose
discretion over valour by not risking the Supreme Court striking down
the libel statute itself as unconstitutional. Rather than lose
permanently the weapon of state harassment of critics that defamation
law represents, the Government chose to back down.
This is the second time that the AIADMK State Government has directed
a carte blanche withdrawal of defamation cases. The first time was on
January 1, 1994 when the Tamil Nadu Government withdrew numerous
defamation cases filed against me in several Sessions Courts in the
State. The reason then was the same: the Supreme Court Bench of Chief
Justice M.N. Venkatachalaiah and Justice B.P. Jeevan Reddy had heard
extensive arguments from me as petitioner in person and the Tamil Nadu
Government counsel on the defamation law, and then orally asked why
the law should not be struck down. The Government counsel then asked
for time, and came back a week later to say that all the cases against
me had been withdrawn. Hence, the cause of action for my petition
disappeared, and my petition became infructuous. I was personally
relieved but the law survived for use on another day.
But Justice Jeevan Reddy, who had listened to me with great care, went
on to write a landmark judgment in the Nakkeeran case [1994] that
incorporated the core of my arguments and citations from the United
States Supreme Court and the United Kingdom's House of Lords. That
judgment today c. The judgment however needs to be developed further
by more decided cases further clarified by continued challenge to
state-sponsored defamation litigation that has become far too frequent
in the country, so that freedom of speech and expression can become
more deep and extensive than at present.
Under the Indian Constitution, the fundamental right to free speech
(Article 19) is subject to "reasonable restrictions." What is
reasonable is subjective in a society; it can only be developed to
some objectivity by cases decided in courts [`case law'] and according
to the political culture of the times. At present, reasonableness is
codified in two laws — first, in exceptions to criminal culpability
incorporated in Sections 499 and 500 of the British colonial statute
known as the Indian Penal Code (1870), and second, the limits to civil
liability incorporated as tort law. In India, defamation proceedings
can be initiated under either or both, together or in sequence. Most
democratic countries have however done away with the criminal law,
which is archaic and draconian. But India has not yet done so.
What is one to do if one receives a court summons for alleged
defamation? For example, I once received a summons from a Delhi court
because I had called a BJP leader, V.K. Malhotra, "an ignoramus." The
remark was made by me during the Lok Sabha proceedings, but lifted by
a sub-editor and inserted in a column I wrote for the magazine.
Under the law, I had to prove that it was true — or face imprisonment.
Now, how does one prove that a person is an ignoramus in a court of
law? Add to that the harassment I would have to suffer of travelling
to court at least 10 times a year for at least five years to attend
the case or face a warrant for my production in court. Or I would have
to engage a lawyer who would charge me a hefty sum. All this for a
mild rebuke of a political leader? The editor of the magazine decided
he could not stomach it, so he apologised for printing the remark. I
was left holding the bag.
However, I fought the case and won. Mr. Malhotra was directed to pay
me Rs.8,000 as compensation for my petrol bills, which he paid with
some reluctance. Now how did I do it?
I pulled out of my survival kit the first tool of defence: in a
defamation case, the aggrieved person must prove "publication," which
means Mr. Malhotra would have to prove first that I had, in the
original text given to the magazine, written what was printed. The
onus was on him to produce the original. Now which magazine keeps the
original? He failed to produce it and I won.
In a 1997 press conference, I made some charges against Chief Minister
M. Karunanidhi. He used Section 199 of the Criminal Procedure Code to
get the Public Prosecutor to file a defamation case. This meant the
contest in court was between me and the state, and not between me and
the Chief Minister personally. Thus the Government would spend the
money out of the public exchequer and use Government counsel to
prosecute me, a totally unequal contest and wholly unfair (even if
legal).
If Section 199 had not been there, the Chief Minister would have
personally been the complainant and I would have had the right to
cross-examine him. Now which busy politician would like that? Hence, I
pulled out the second tool in my survival kit. I filed an application
before the judge making the point that the alleged defamation related
to the personal conduct of the Chief Minister and not to anything he
did in the course of public duty. I argued that Section 199 would not
apply. Thereafter, the State Public Prosecutor quickly lost interest
in the case. Had the judge rejected my prayer, I would have gone in
appeal to the Supreme Court and got Section 199 struck down. But alas,
I could not.
In 1988 another Chief Minister, Ramakrishna Hegde, filed a suit
against me under tort law for Rs.2 crore damages for my allegation
that he was tapping telephones and using his office to benefit a
relative in land deals. Although ultimately, the Kuldip Singh
Commission and a parliamentary committee studying the Telegraph Act
upheld my contentions, I would have had a problem had the court
decided the case before these inquiry reports came out.
So I pulled out the third tool in my survival kit, namely the U.S.
Supreme Court case laws, the most famous of which was The New York
Times case decided in 1964. Contrary to popular impression, U.S. case
laws on fundamental rights are applicable to India following a Supreme
Court judgment in an Indian Express case in 1959.
Furthermore, since 1994, these U.S. case laws have become
substantially a part of Indian law, thanks to Justice Jeevan Reddy's
judgment in the Nakkeeran case.
The principle in these case laws, restricted to public persons suing
for damages, is wonderfully protective of free speech: if a person in
public life, including one in government, feels aggrieved by a
defamatory statement, then that person must first prove in court that
the defamatory statement is not only false, but that the maker of the
statement knew it to be false. That is, it must be proved by the
defamed plaintiff to be a reckless disregard of the truth by the
defamer defendant. This principle thus reversed the traditional onus
on the defamer to prove his or her allegation, and placed the burden
of proof on the defamed.
This reversal of burden of proof is just, essentially because a public
person has the opportunity to go before the media and rebut the
defamation in a way aggrieved private persons cannot do. If criticism
and allegations against a public person have to be proved in a court
of law, what is likely to happen is that public spirited individuals
will be discouraged and thus dissuaded from making the criticism. This
is what the U.S. Supreme Court in the famous New York Times case
characterised as a "chilling effect" on public debate; it held this to
be bad for democracy.
Hence the need to balance the protection of reputation in law with the
democratic need for transparency and vibrant public debate. The U.S.
Supreme Court admirably set the balance for freedom and democracy.
Since Mr. Hegde was an intelligent man, he recognised what my survival
strategy meant. He would have come on the stand in court. He would
have been examined and cross-examined on why what I said was not true,
and how he knew that I had known all along that my charges were false
and yet I made them. He therefore sent me a message one day wanting to
know if I would call it quits. So his defamation case went from one
adjournment to another, until it lapsed upon his death. Before his
passing, Hegde and I met. Both of us agreed that it was unwise for
politicians who have so much access to the media to rebut charges to
file defamation cases and waste the time of already overburdened
courts. I got the impression that some sharp lawyer was behind his
temporary loss of judgment in filing the case.
Today, with developing case laws, defamation litigation has become a
toothless tiger for politicians to use against the media. There are
enough dental tools in my survival kit to ensure this. I am therefore
writing a full Manual on how to expose dishonest politicians and get
away without being harassed in court. I hope honest critics will no
more hesitate to speak their minds about what they know to be the
truth even if they cannot prove this in court beyond a reasonable
doubt.
I am happy therefore that The Hindu chose to fight it out rather than
capitulate. More should follow its lead for a better democracy and a
freer media.
(The author, an economist, is a former Union Law Minister. As a rule
he argues his own cases in court without the agency of lawyers.)
http://www.hindu.com/2004/09/21/stories/2004092103551000.htm
Swamy fined for charge against Jaya
New Delhi, January 3
The Delhi High Court today imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Janata Party
President and former Union Minister Subramaniam Swamy for levelling
charges against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa that she
knew about the plan of the LTTE to assassinate former Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi at Sriperumbudur in May 1991.
Mr Justice Pradeep Nandrajog said Mr Swamy had failed to establish
that Jayalalithaa had received information and money from the banned
LTTE for the assassination of Gandhi.
“The defendant (Swamy) had exceeded the limits of qualified privilege
as his statement was quite unconnected with and irrelevant to the
situation and suffers from redundancy of the expression,’’ said the
order.
The M.C. Jain Commission of Inquiry was constituted on August 23, 1991
by the Centre to look into the circumstances leading to the
assassination of Gandhi.
Appearing before the commission, Mr Swamy had said Ms Jayalalithaa was
tipped by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) about the
assassination of Gandhi by its suicide bombers on April 17, 1991. —
UNI
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060104/nation.htm#16
December 03, 2006
Thinkpad
Basic Islam for Hindu Dhimmis
By Subramanian Swamy
Temples have been demolished in the Valley on a daily basis. The world
could not care less. An American had once told me: ?Why should we
care? Indian democracy is led by the majority who are Hindus and you
want us to talk about the human rights of the community of rulers??
We do not have much time, in fact about 45 years, as the X-graph of
statistical regressions estimated by J.S. Bajaj and colleagues shows. ?
X? represents the two trends?Hindu percentage declining and Muslim
percentage rising, and intersecting in the year 2061.
We Hindus must understand the true nature of Islam before we can
formulate a strategy to defeat those who threaten us.
Thanks to Shri Vedantamji of the VHP, I had visited Thondi and
Rasathipuram Municipalities of Ramanathapuram and Vellore districts
respectively, and was truly shocked by what I saw. Both these
municipalities are in Muslim-majority areas, and the local bodies
election had empowered the Muslims with their capture of the
municipalities.
The Muslim-ruled municipalities have thereafter converted these areas
into mini Dar-ul-Islams, in a Hindustan of 83 per cent Hindus! The
minority Hindu areas of the municipality were thus denied civic
amenities, funds for schools, garbage clearing etc., and sent notices
in Urdu. Hindus were bluntly told convert to Islam if they wanted
civic facilities.
I could not believe that in South India this was possible where Hindus
are actually above national average at 90 per cent of the population.
I know that in Kashmir Valley, Muslims who are in majority have
actively or passively connived in driving out half a million Hindus
out of their homes and made them refugees in their own country.
Temples have been demolished in the Valley on a daily basis. The world
could not care less. An American had once told me: ?Why should we
care? Indian democracy is led by the majority who are Hindus and you
want us to talk about the human rights of the community of rulers??
Such atrocities are happening not only in Kashmir, but in other parts
of India as well in pockets wherever Muslims are in majority, e.g.,
Mau and Meerut. In pocket boroughs of India, thus, Dar-ul-Islam has
today returned to India after two centuries. Considering that a
demographic re-structuring is slowly but surely taking place, with
Hindu majority shrinking everywhere, Dar-ul-Islam in pockets might
indeed, like amoeba, proliferate, coalesce, and jell into a
frightening national reality?unless we Hindus wake up and take
corrective action now, actions for which we shall of course not get a
Nobel Peace Prize.
Dar-ul-Islam is a Muslim religious concept of a land where Muslims
rule, and the non-believers in Islam are termed as Dhimmis. The term
Dhimmi was coined after the Jews were crushed in Medina [Khaybar to be
exact], and the defeated Jews accepted that if they did not convert to
Islam, then they would accept second-class status politically,
culturally, and religiously. This included zero civil rights including
the right to modesty of women, and the special tax jaziya.
There is thus no scope for Muslims and non-Muslims uniting as equals
in the political, cultural, or social system in a Dar-ul-Islam where
Muslims rule. Secular order in India thus is possible only when
Muslims are not in power. Thondi, Rasathipuram and other places prove
that the Muslim mind suffers from a dangerous duality?of seeking
secularism when out of power and imposing a brutal demeaning theocracy
for non-Muslims when in power.
It is this duality that patriotic Hindus must re-shape by modern
education and other means, as also retain its demographic overwhelming
majority in India. We do not have much time, in fact about 45 years,
as the X-graph of statistical regressions estimated by J.S. Bajaj and
colleagues shows. ?X? represents the two trends?Hindu percentage
declining and Muslim percentage rising, and intersecting in the year
2061.
The dhimmitude of Jews in Medina and later in Mecca represents the
beginning of religious apartheid inherent and basic to Islamic mores,
and practised long before what we saw in South Africa on the basis of
colour and race, and that which became prevalent during the Islamic
imperialist rule in parts of India. Hindus had been dhimmis for six
hundred years in those parts of India despite being a bigger majority
in the country than even today. Hence, a majority is not enough.
Hindus need also a Hindu mindset to be free.
In his presidential address to the Muslim League in Lahore in 1940,
Mohammed Ali Jinnah had articulated this concept of apartheid in his
own inimitable way:
?To visualise Hindus and Muslims in India uniting to create a common
nation is a mythical concept. It is only a fancy dream of some
unawakened Hindu leaders?. The truth is that Hindus and Muslims are
two different civilisations?. since their thought process grow on
different beliefs.?
Large sections of Muslims in India then had rejected Jinnah and his
concept of non-compatibility of Muslims with Hindus. But after
Independence and Partition, instead of building on this rejection by
many Muslims, the Nehru era saw increasing pandering precisely to the
religious element that believed in this apartheid. Indira Gandhi
vigorously continued this appeasement thereby nurturing the apartheid
mentality of Muslim orthodoxy.
But the final undermining of the enlightened Muslim came when the
government capitulated in the Shah Bano case. Thousands of Muslims had
demonstrated on the streets demanding that the government not bring
legislation that would nullify the Supreme Court?s judgment in the
Shah Bano case but in vain. Rajiv Gandhi, I learnt later, on counsel
from his Italian Catholic family, had surrendered to the hard line
clerics who protested that the Supreme Court had no right to interfere
and to de facto amend the Shariat, the Islamic law code. These
relatives on a directive from the Vatican thought that if secular law
would be applied to Muslims, it can be to the Christians too.
This was a nonsense argument of the Muslim clerics, since the Shariat
had already been amended, without protest, in the criminal law of
India. The Indian Penal Code represents the uniform criminal code that
equally applies to all religious communities. I therefore ask the
clerics: if a Muslim is caught stealing, can any court in India direct
that his hand at the wrist be cut off as the Shariat prescribes? If
Muslims can accept a uniform criminal code what is the logic in
rejecting the uniform civil code?
In India, Dhimmi status for Hindus during Islamic imperialist rule has
had other social implications. Defiant Brahmins and Kshatriyas, who
had refused to convert and chose to remain Hindus, were forced to
carry night-soil and suffer great indignities for their women folk. Or
it meant gross mental torture. Guru Tegh Bahadur, for example, had to
see his sons sawed in half, before the pious Guru?s own head was
severed and displayed in public.
The debasement of Hindu society then was such that those targeted
valiant Brahmins and Kshatriyas, who had refused to convert and thus
made to carry night-soil, were disowned by other Hindus and declared
to be asprashya or ?untouchable?. The ranks of the Scheduled Caste
community, which was not more than 1 per cent of the population before
the advent of Islam in India, swelled to 14 per cent by the time
Mughal rule collapsed.
Thus, today?s SC community, especially those who are still Hindus,
consists mostly of those valiant Brahmins and Kshatriyas who had
refused to become Muslims but preferred ostracization and ignominy in
order to remain Hindus. Hindu society today should offer koti koti
pranams to them for keeping the Bhagwa Dhwaj of Hindu religion flying
even at great personal cost and misery.
I have already written enough in these columns about Hindus being
under siege from Islamic fanatics and Christian proselytizers. I have
suggested that we can lift this siege only if we develop a Hindu
mindset, which is a four dimensional concept. But that mind must be
informed, and understand why others do what they do to Hindus before
we can defeat their nefarious designs. Here I suggest therefore that
we Hindus must understand the true nature of Islam before we can
formulate a strategy to defeat those who threaten us. In a later
column I will write about the true nature of Christianity and how to
combat the menace of religious conversions of Hindus.
At this juncture let me add even though I oppose conversion as
violence, as Swami Dayanand Sarasvati boldly wrote to the Vatican
Pope, nevertheless if an Indian Muslim or Christian changes his
religion to Hinduism today, I will not regard it as conversion because
it is a return to the Hindu fold of those whose ancestors had been
forcibly converted.
Unlike Hinduism, which says not a word against non-believers, in fact
says that other religions also lead to God, Islam is harsh on them,
and justifies violence against them as sacred. The choice to non-
believers in Islam is: convert or accept dhimmitude. Hence, the
explanation for Thondi, Rasathipuram, Mau etc., and the duality in
ethics practised by Muslims everywhere. A true Muslim is Dr. Jekyll
when in minority, and Mr. Hyde when in majority.
So what should we Hindus do? First, recognise that being a pious Hindu
is not enough. Hindus must unite and work to install a Hindu-minded
government. If 35 per cent of the 83 per cent Hindus unite to vote for
a party, absolute majority is attainable. If Hindu Dharma Acharya
Sabha, RSS, and VHP decide to mobilise the voter to support a party
that espouses an approved Hindu agenda, then the union government is
within reach through the ballot box. Second, search for those Muslims
who are ready to openly and with pride declare that their ancestors
were Hindus. My guess is that about 75 per cent of Muslims will be
ready to do so. These are the Muslims who can be co-opted by Hindus to
fight Islamic fundamentalism. If we do not do so, then the Muslim
clerics will have a free run of their fanaticism.
For this a required reading is Sri Sri Ravishankar?s Hinduism & Islam:
Dedicated to the People of Pakistan Who have Forgotten Their Own Roots
[www.artofliving.org]. In this Sri Sri Ravishankar has shown how ?
Muslims have completely forgotten that their forefathers were Hindus,
so they have every right to Vedic culture?. He in fact traces the pre-
Islam origins of the K?aaba. Third, invest heavily in primary
education to make it world class, ban the madrasas for any student
below 21 years, and make Sanskrit a compulsory language for all
students.
(The writer is a former Union Law Minister.)
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=159&page=31
chhotemianinshallah
IMPERIALISM IN INDIA
SITA RAM GOEL
Voice of India, New Delhi
Contents
CHAPTER I
IN THE NAME OF NATIONAL INTEGRATION
Comrade Radek, whom Stalin liquidated in the late ‘thirties, was a
Communist intellectual endowed with acid humour. He coined many jokes
at the cost of the Communist Party and the Soviet State. One of these
jokes which did the rounds in Moscow was as follows:
One day Comrade Radek stood stark naked in the Red Square in broad
daylight. A courageous citizen approached and asked him, “Aren’t you
afraid of the police, Comrade Commissar?”
Radek stared at him, and shot back, “Police? Where is the police?”
The citizen pointed towards a number of policemen positioned on all
sides of the Square, and said, “There is a policeman. There is
another. And yet another… Why, the whole place is crawling with
policemen.”
Radek replied, “You can see them. I can’t. I am a party member. I am
not supposed to see them. For party members there is no police
anywhere in the Soviet Union.”
The ruling class of secularists and socialists in India today is in a
similar situation of ideological blindness. It is not supposed to see
the violent waves of Islamic imperialism surging all around it. That
would be a sacrilege and a serious slur on its reputation as
progressive, liberal, and large-hearted.
It is in the living memory of this ruling class that Islamic
imperialism became a blood-thirsty monster, and carved out large limbs
of the motherland on our East and West. It is in the living memory of
this ruling class that Islamic imperialism “cleaned up” its separate
state of Pakistan from the “curse” of Hindu infidels. And it is under
the very nose of this ruling class that Islamic imperialism, aided and
abetted by petro-dollars, has started claiming for itself the rest of
India as well, by a right of conquest in the past.
Islamic imperialism has only to dispute the fact that India is a Hindu
homeland, and that the age-old Hindu society constitutes the core of
the Indian nation with which non-Hindu communities should get
integrated.
Our ruling class of secularists and socialists immediately starts
seeing Hindu society as a heterogeneous mass divided by race,
religion, sect, caste, class, language, dress, food habits, local
traditions, manners and mores, and what not, and united by nothing
better than a shared slavery under the erstwhile British rulers!
It is of no avail to tell this ruling class that the British rulers
were acutely aware of a deeper unity informing the vast and variegated
fabric of Hindu society. It is not convinced by any amount of evidence
that the British rulers did all in their power to undermine that unity
in pursuance of their imperialist interests.
This ruling class has inherited many things from its British mentors.
It has inherited the British state system in which the “natives” who
do not know the English language and the modern Western lore, have no
say. It has inherited the British style of high-living which sets it
apart from the “seething mass of poor and illiterate humanity”. It has
inherited the British psychology of paternalism which persuades it
that it alone knows what is good for the “common man”. Above all, it
has inherited the British “moral responsibility” for protecting the
“Muslim minority”. The only thing it has managed not to inherit is the
British awareness of a deeper unity which holds the Hindu society
together.
It is, therefore, logical for this ruling class to assert, rather
aggressively, that Hindus have never been a nation. It is also logical
for this ruling class to proclaim that it is too late in the day for
Hindus to become, even try to become, a nation. India, we are told, is
now a land of many races, religions, and cultures. The best that can
be done under the circumstances, they say, is that India evolves a
“secular nationalism” based on a “composite culture”. The ruling class
is prepared to preside over the birth-pangs of such a nationalism.
The exercise is eulogised as “national integration”.
It is significant that harangues for “national integration” become
hectic, almost hysterical, in the wake of every street riot staged by
Muslims. Our ruling class immediately starts hurling long-winded
sermons on Hindus - stop being communal killers of a helpless
minority; get rid of this big-brother behaviour; protect the lives and
properties of your younger brethren; respect the religious and
cultural rights of Muslims; and so on.
This ruling class never waits for the findings of enquiry commissions
it has itself appointed to look into the causes of earlier communal
riots. It does not remember or manages to forget the findings of many
enquiry commissions which held that almost all riots were started by
Muslims.
Hindus are expected to listen to these lectures from the ruling class
with bowed heads, and with an orgy of moral self-reproach. Woe betide
the irreverent Hindu who questions the legitimacy of these lectures,
or who cites the evidence of enquiry commissions. He is not only a
“Hindu communalist” and a “Hindu chauvinist” but also a “reactionary”
and a “revivalist”, putting the future of “secular and democratic
India” in jeopardy. The ruling class is joined in this chorus by some
pious people like the Gandhians according to whom such an unrepentant
Hindu is not a Hindu at all. There is a lot of tongue-clicking all
around.
In plain and simple language, therefore, national integration has come
to mean only one thing, namely, that a meek Hindu society should get
integrated with a militant Muslim millat. One waits in vain for a
voice which so much as whispers a why in the face of boisterous Muslim
bigotry. Muslims have a god-given right to go on raising accusing
fingers at the Hindus for refusing to give them this or that. And the
Hindus have a god-given duty to go on conceding every exclusive and
imperialist claim of an incurable fanaticism.
The results of this “national integration” patronised by our ruling
class over the past many years are there for every one to see, except,
of course, its authors who are under an ideological compulsion not to
see them. Caste which was for ages the most cohesive factor and a sure
source of strength for Hindu society, has been converted into a cancer
which poisons the very springs of our politics. Regionalism fostered
by local patriotism, missionary machinations, and sectarian separatism
has assumed alarming proportions such as imperil the very unity of the
motherland. And Islamic imperialism has become many times more self-
confident and self-righteous than on the eve of Partition.
THE CHARACTER OF HINDU UNITY
The only stumbling block which has so far stood in the way of this
“national integration” promoted by our ruling class is the spirit of
unity that still survives in Hindu society.
It is quite some time that Hindus lost the consciousness of their
spiritual centre which unites their society, culture, and way of life.
The only source of Hindu unity now is a consciousness of common
history, particularly the history of freedom struggles fought against
Islamic and British imperialism.
Hindu society still takes pride in its great past when it made major
contributions to the spiritual, cultural, philosophical, and
scientific wealth of mankind. Hindu society still cherishes the memory
of its great sages, seers, saints, scientists, scholars, soldiers, and
statesmen. Hindu society still remembers the days of its distress when
it had to struggle ceaselessly and very hard against horde after horde
of Islamic invaders who not only slaughtered, burnt, pillaged, and
enslaved but also tried too foist by force its own brand of
barbarism.
It is this common consciousness of its history which prevents Hindu
society from accepting the Mamluks, the Khaljis, the Tughlaqs, the
Bahmanis, the Sharqis, the Sayyids, the Lodis, and the Mughals as
native dynasties on par with the Mauryas, the Sungas, the Guptas, the
Cholas, the Maukharis, the Pandyas, the Palas, the Rashtrakutas, the
Yadavas, the Kaktiyas, the Hoysalas, the Sangamas, the Saluvas, the
Marathas, the Sikhs, and the Jats. Hindu society can never concede
that Jaypala Shahiya of Kabul, Maharani Nayakidevi of Gujarat,
Prithiviraj Chauhan of Delhi, Jayachandra Gahadvad of Kanauj,
Singhanadeva of Devagiri, Vikrama Pandya of Madura, Prolaya Nayak of
Andhra, Harihar and Bukka and Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara,
Maharanas Kumbha and Sanga and Pratap, Shivaji, Banda Bahadur,
Maharajas Surajmal and Ranjit Singh, who resisted the Islamic
invaders, were petty local chieftains conspiring for personal gains.
Hindu society honours these heroes as freedom fighters against Islamic
imperialism, in the same way as it honours its freedom fighters
against British imperialism.
THE CHARACTER OF ISLAMIC IMPERIALISM
That is what causes no end of trouble for our promoters of “national
integration”. The Muslim component of the “composite nation” has
serious objections to this Hindu view of history and hero-worship.
Muslim Indians are not at all prepared to take pride in any period of
pre-Islamic Indian history, or honour any hero who flourished in that
period. They want the pre-Islamic period of Indian history to be
disowned even by Hindus as an “era of darkness”. This, they swear, is
demanded by the scriptures of Islam. But, at the same time, they want
Hindus to honour criminals, gangsters, mass murderers, criminals and
tyrants like Muhammad bin Qasim, Mahmud Ghaznavi, Muhammad Ghuri,
Alauddin Khalji, Muhammad Tughlaq, Sikandar Lodi, Babur, Aurangzeb,
and Ahmad Shah Abdali. They also expect the Hindus to denounce as
disgruntled rebels, if not as traitors, the medieval Hindu heroes who
resisted and ultimately routed Islamic imperialism in India.
Coming nearer to our own times, Muslim Indians are not prepared to
honour Hindu rebels and revolutionaries who fought for freedom against
British imperialism. They denounce as “show-boys” of the Hindus those
few Muslims who cooperated with the freedom fighters. But they insist
that Hindus should honour as freedom fighters the revivalists of
Islamic imperialism such as Shah Walliullah and Syed Ahmad Barelvi, or
separatists like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and the Ali Brothers, or
murderers of Hindus like the Wahhabis and the Moplahs, or
secessionists like Mohammed Ali Jinnah.
In the field of culture, Muslim Indians harbour only a feeling of
indifference, if not of contempt, for the Sanskrit, Prakrit, and
Vernacular literature of ancient and medieval India. They have no use
for Indian philosophies and sciences even when a lot of their own
Islamic lore is borrowed from these sources and only dressed up in
Arabic or Persian. They denounce Hindu spiritual traditions as
polytheism and pantheism. They show no appreciation for Hindu
masterpieces of architecture, sculpture, and other plastic arts. It is
only in the field of music that they have shown some appreciation,
simply because there has never been any Islamic music as such and many
Indian musicians happen to be converts from Hinduism to Islam. The
more orthodox Muslims frown even on this Muslim fondness for Hindu
music.
But when it comes to what they regard as Muslim culture, they want
Hindus to be as enthusiastic about it as they are themselves. They
want Hindus to raise a non-stop wãh-wãh to the “wealth” of Persian and
Urdu poetry, and accept as national heritage even the compositions of
a Hindu-hater like Amir Khusru and a promoter of Pakistan such as Sir
Muhammad Iqbal. They want Hindus to go into raptures over the beauties
of Muslim architecture, miniature painting, calligraphy, culinary
arts, dress, demeanour, and what not. They insist that Hindus should
hail all this Islamic heritage as an inseparable part of the national
heritage.
THE NATURE OF NATIONAL INTEGRATION
Our ruling class cannot see any justice in the Hindu consciousness of
its pre-Islamic past, nor any injustice in the Muslim insistence on
glorifying an inglorious interregnum in India’s long history. The only
way which this ruling sees out of what it calls “the communal strife”
is that Hindu history should be substantially diluted and tailored to
the needs of Islamic imperialism, and that Muslim history should be
given a liberal coat of whitewash or even made to pass muster as
national history. This has been the main plank in the platform for
“national integration”.
Hitherto this Experiment with Untruth was confined mainly to Muslim
and Communist “historians” who have come to control the Indian History
Congress, the Indian Council of Historical Research, and even the
University Grants Commission. Now it has been taken up by the National
Integration Council. The Ministry of Education of the Government of
India has directed the education departments in the States to extend
this experiment to school-level text-books of history. And this
perverse programme of suppressing truth and spreading falsehood is
being sponsored by a state which inscribes Satyameva Jayate on its
emblem.
Mrs. Coomi Kapoor has given a summary of the guidelines prepared by
the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in
the Indian Express date-lined New Delhi, January 17, 1982. She
writes: “History and Language textbooks for schools all over India
will soon be revised radically. In collaboration with various state
governments the Ministry of Education has begun a phased programme to
weed out undesirable textbooks and remove matter which is prejudicial
to national integration and unity and which does not promote social
cohesion. The Ministry of Education’s decision to re-evaluate
textbooks was taken in the light of the recommendations of the
National Integration Council of which the Prime Minister is Chairman.
The Ministry’s view was that history had often been used to serve
narrow sectarian and chauvinistic ends.” Accordingly, “Twenty states
and three Union Territories have started the work of evaluation
according to guidelines prepared by the NCERT. In September (1981),
two evaluators from each state attended a course at NCERT headquarters
in New Delhi. The evaluators are now scrutinising the relevant texts
in their home states and submitting their reports. The evaluations
will be examined by an expert committee appointed by the state.”
We shall examine and evaluate the guidelines laid down by the NCERT in
the chapters that follow.
http://voiceofdharma.com/books/siii/ch1.htm
CHAPTER II
THE CHARACTER OF MUSLIM RULE IN INDIA
Some of the guidelines seem to be good. It is eminently desirable that
“the ancient period of Indian history cannot be referred to as the
Hindu period and the medieval period as the Muslim period”. It
follows, though it is not mentioned in the guidelines reported by the
Indian Express, that the modern period of Indian history also will not
be named as the British period. This scheme of periodization, however,
was given up by most historians quite some time ago. One only wonders
what the votaries of Islamic imperialism will do without a Muslim
period of Indian history.
It is also commendable that “the term Aryan cannot be used as a racial
category”. The term has never been used in a racial sense anywhere in
the vast compendium of Indian literature. In the whole of the Rigveda
the word “Arya” occurs only 33 times. It is in the Buddhist and Jain
canons that it acquires a very wide currency, which is continued in
later Sanskrit literature. But in every instance, it stands for
whatever is regarded as eminent or noble. The term was used in a
racial sense for the first time by Western historians who cooked up
the theory of an Aryan invasion of India around 1500 BC. They also
popularised, in a racial sense, the term “Dravidian” which had only a
geographical connotation in the Indian tradition.
It is, however, not at all clear if the guidelines have proposed to
eschew altogether the theory of an Aryan invasion of India. The only
inference which can be drawn from what the guidelines state in the
next breath, is that this baseless theory is not to be given up.
Otherwise, it does not make sense to lay down that “historians have
been told to stress the interaction between Aryan and non-Aryan
cultures”. The division of ancient Indian culture into Aryan and non-
Aryan is itself derived from the theory of an Aryan invasion. So long
as we continue to talk of Aryan and non-Aryan cultures, the terms
“Aryan” and “Dravidian” cannot be divested of racial connotations.
But that is about all that can be said in commendation of the scheme
sanctioned by the National Integration Council and sponsored by the
Ministry of Education. The rest is recommendations for telling lies
to our children, or for not telling to them the truth at all.
DECIMATION OF HINDU HERITAGE
Take for instance “the warning against over-reliance on and use of
myths as history”. The blow is aimed at the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata and the two Hindu heroes par excellence - Sri Rama and Sri
Krishna. No serious historian has ever held that the two great epics
are history per se. But no serious historian now doubts that the epics
contain a core of authentic history. The same holds good for several
other myths and legends from the Puranas which all serious historians
now search for genuine historical material. One wonders what harm
these noble stories can do to “national integration”. Hindus have been
sustained by these stories for ages past. What has happened now that
their children are to be deprived of this spiritual fare? The only
explanation is that Islamic imperialism cannot stomach these superb
stories. They cast an unfavourable reflection on whatever “heroes”
Islam has had in its blood-soaked history.
But the guidelines do not stop at “mythology” alone. They invade the
realm of recorded history as well. The general recommendation is
summed up in a single sentence – “over-glorification of the country’s
past is forbidden.” The specific instance is also provided immediately
– “the Gupta Age can no longer be referred to as the golden period of
Hinduism.”
One may very well ask the champions of “national integration” as to
why Hindus shouldn’t glorify their ancient past, and take pride in the
golden age of the Guptas? The ancient past of India is so great that
it simply cannot be over-glorified. And the Gupta Age was in fact the
golden age of Hindu history when Hindu spirituality, art, literature,
science, and philosophy attained an acme which has not since been
surpassed. Every nation has glorified one period or the other of its
past history. The Chinese have their Ming period, the Persians their
Age of Cyrus the Great, the Greeks their Age of Pericles, the Romans
their Age of Augustus, the Arabs their Age of the Abbasids, the
English their Age of Elizabeth, the French their Age of Reason and
Revolution, the Germans their Age of Bismarck, and so on. A period of
greatness in which a people can take pride, provides a point of self-
identification to that people. The soul of a nation is nourished by
legitimate pride in a period when its creativity attained a pinnacle.
Hindus can be prevented from taking pride in the Gupta Age only for
very perverse reasons. The whole prescription for “national
integration”, therefore, cannot but become suspect in the eyes of
Hindus.
The suspicion grows deeper when the guidelines move from the ancient
to the medieval period of Indian history. It is recommended that
“Muslim rulers cannot be identified as foreigners except for early
invaders who did not settle here”. We assume that what is meant by
“early invaders” is early Muslim invaders and not the Greeks, the
Sakas, the Kushanas, and the Hunas some of whom were rulers but not
Muslims. The distinction, therefore, hinges on what is meant by “here”
where the early Muslim invaders did not settle. This is a question of
facts and not of interpretation. What are the facts?
The earliest Muslim invaders were the Arabs who succeeded in occupying
Sindh in the second decade of the 8th century. But the Arabs did
settle down in Sindh although they were constantly threatened by Hindu
kings from the interior. They continued to rule over Sindh and even
Multan till they were ousted from power by the Turks under Muhammad
Ghuri. The very fact that the Sindhi language is still written in the
Arabic script testifies to the fact that the Arabs had settled down in
Sindh, and have made their presence felt till our own times.
The second wave of Muslim invaders was that of the Turks who occupied
Ghazni in 963 AD, and conquered from there not only the whole of
Afghanistan but also the North-West Frontier Province and a large part
of the Punjab under the leadership of Subuktigin and his son, Mahmud
Ghaznavi. By the time Mahmud Ghaznavi died in 1030 AD, the Turks had
settled in all these areas. Some years later, they had occupied Nagaur
in Rajasthan, and settled down there as well. Lahore became the
capital of the Later Ghaznavids when they were ousted from Afghanistan
by the Ghurids in the last quarter of the 12th century. And they were
very much there till they were overthrown by Muhammad Ghuri in 1186
AD.
The third wave of Muslim invaders was led by Muhammad Ghuri who
occupied the Chauhan kingdom of Haryana, Ajmer, Aligarh, and Bayana in
1192-93 AD, and the Gahadvad kingdom of UP in 1194-95 AD. His generals
had conquered South Bihar, West and North Bengal, and parts of
Bundelkhand by the time he was assassinated in 1206 AD. Finally, the
Shamsi dynasty was established at Delhi in 1210 AD to be followed by
several Muslim dynasties at this centre as well as in several
provinces all over India.
Presumably, the point of time which the guidelines have in mind is
1206 or 1210 AD when the Muslim rulers are supposed to have settled
down, and become native rulers. The definition of “here” we thus
obtain, therefore, excludes Sindh, Afghanistan, the North-West
Frontier Province, and the Punjab beyond the Satluj. But these
provinces in which the early Muslim invaders had settled and over
which they ruled for long periods, were very much parts of India at
the time the Islamic invasions started. The Arabs recognized them as
parts of Hind. So did the Turks. The guidelines should have been more
honest and stated clearly that what they mean by “here” is the area
which is included in India after the Partition in 1947, and that the
present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan are to be treated as foreign
lands from the second decade of the 8th century onwards. Students of
historical geography may protest. But the guidelines have no use for
such long-forgotten facts.
One is left wondering about the place of Babur in this scheme of
Indian history. If Mahmud Ghaznavi and Muhammad Ghuri are to be
treated as foreign invaders simply because they launched their
invasions from Afghanistan, what about Babur who also invaded India
from the same place? It is true that he was not an early invader, and
that he decided to settle down in India after the Battle of Khanwa in
1528 AD. But the fact remains that he came from a foreign land in
terms of the definition laid down by the guidelines. There are many
other confusions created by the guidelines. We need not go into them
at this stage of our discussion. Suffice it to say that the guidelines
are wholly arbitrary in drawing a distinction between “early invaders
who did not settle here”, and the “Muslim rulers” who did.
One may very well ask as to why the establishment of Muslim rule at
Delhi should sound so decisive for converting foreigners into natives.
In 1210 AD, Delhi was not even a metropolitan city. It was
comparatively a small town governed by a satrap of the Chauhans of
Ajmer. Kanauj and Varanasi in U.P., Anhilwar Patan in Gujarat,
Devagiri in Maharashtra, Dvarasamudra in Karnataka, Madurai in Tamil
Nadu, Warrangal in Andhra Pradesh, Jajpur in Orissa, Navadvip in
Bengal, Udandapur in Bihar, and Tripuri and Ujjain, and Kalanjar in
Madhya Pradesh, were much bigger cities and far more important as
metropolitan seats of political power. Why not start converting
foreign invaders into native rulers from the dates on which these
cities came under Muslim occupation? Delhi started becoming important
only after it became the seat of the first sultanate. Why should the
future glory of Delhi get projected into the past, and be made to
demarcate a decisive date in India’s history? And why should Multan,
Brahmanabad, Ghazni, Kabul, Peshawar, and Lahore, which were bigger
and more important than Delhi at the time of their first Muslim
occupation, be deprived of that honour simply because they happen to
be situated in areas which are regarded as foreign at present?
Finally, one is left marvelling at the one criterion chosen by the
guidelines for converting foreign invaders into natives, imperialists
into patriots. One has only to settle down in India in order to become
an Indian even if the settler continues to despise everything Indian
and admire everything Arabic and Persian and Turkish, even if the
settler continues to massacre in cold blood millions of Indians and
converting many more by force and fraud, even if the settler continues
to capture and sell into slavery and concubinage all over the Islamic
world millions of Indian males and females, even if the settler
destroys on a large scale the great creations of Indian art and
science and literature, and even if the settler reduces the Indians
themselves to the status of non-citizens in their own ancestral
homeland.
No doubt the guidelines have in view the fact that the British rulers
who came later and who are rightly regarded as foreign rulers, had a
homeland to which they carried the loot from India and to which they
returned in the long run. This looks like a significant fact at first
glance. But it loses meaning as soon as we start looking for a
homeland in the case of the Turks. We find that long before the Turks
invaded India, they had lost their original homeland east of the
Jaxartes, and become warrior vagabonds. They invaded Transoxiana,
Sinkiang, Khurasan, and northern parts of Iran along the Caspian Sea,
massacred some of the local population and intermarried with the rest,
and made all these lands into their permanent homelands. Later on,
they did the same in what is now known as Turkey. They tried to do the
some in India but failed in the face of stiff and continued Hindu
resistance. But that is a different story. What is relevant in the
present context is that Muslim chroniclers of medieval India give no
hint that the Turkish invaders of India ever thought of a homeland to
which they could carry the loot or go back. They had come here to
create another homeland for themselves.
As regards carrying the loot, what difference does it make as to where
it is carried so long as looting the conquered population remains a
primary occupation of the conqueror? If Mahmud Ghaznavi and Muhammad
Ghuri are to be treated as foreign invaders because they carried the
loot from North India to Ghazni, why not extend the logic to the
Mamluks, the Khaljis, the Tughlaqs, the Lodis, the Surs, and the
Mughals who brought the loot to Delhi from many other parts of India?
The same logic should be applied to provincial Muslim dynasties who
took the loot to Jaunpur, to Gaur and Pandua, to Dhar and Mandu, to
Patan and Ahmedabad, to Daulatabad and Bidar and Gulbarga, and to
Ahmadnagar and Bijapur and Golconda. And what about the Arabs in Sindh
who lost contact with Arabia after the 8th century, and who retained
the loot in Sindh rather than take it to their homeland? They should
not be treated as early and foreign invaders if keeping the loot
within India is the litmus test.
In any case, who can say that the British invaders did not settle down
in India the same way as the Turks had done? Look at the splendid
mansions, chapels, churches, hill stations, and big metropolitan
cities including New Delhi which the British built for themselves.
Look at the giant enterprises, industrial and commercial, they floated
for themselves in India. There is no dearth of families in Great
Britain even today who take immense pride in their Indian connection.
And the British loved India as the brightest jewel in the British
crown. The fact that they had a homeland to which they returned when
they were forced to leave, does not really make much difference in the
context of foreign invasion and rule, except for the NCERT experts who
specialise in making molehills of mountains, and vice versa.
It is no use fighting the fact that Muslim rule in India was an
earlier prototype of the succeeding British rule. No Muslim ruler
worth his salt ever condescended to learn or speak an Indian language,
except in the last days when Muslim power had collapsed. The pride of
place was always given to Arabic, and Persian, and even Turkish, as to
English during the British days. All positions of power and privilege
were always reserved for Muslims of Arabic, or Turkish, or Persian, or
even Abyssianian descent, as they were for the white men of British,
or European descent later on. Every Muslim adventurer coming from
Arabia, or Persia, or Khurasan, or Central Asia, or far-off North
Africa and Abyssinia, could immediately obtain a position of privilege
in the Muslim aristocracy, no matter how uncouth or unlettered he
happened to be, as any European adventurer irrespective of his
qualifications could join the exclusive Western club during the
British regime. The dresses the Muslim rulers donned, the foods and
drinks they relished, the pastimes they preferred, the male and female
beauties they prized, the mores and manners they observed - in short,
their whole life-style had as little of the Indian in it as the life-
style of the latter-day British.
In fact, in several respects the British rulers were kinder to India
and the Indians as compared to the medieval Muslim rulers. All Muslim
rulers converted Hindus by force, demolished Hindu temples, and heaped
insult and injury on every Hindu sentiment and institution. All
mullahs and sufis poured ridicule and contempt on Hindu religion and
culture without any compunction. But a Hindu ran the risk of his life
if he so much as whispered a doubt about the exclusive claims of
Islam, or the legitimacy of Islamic laws. On the other hand, the
British rulers, though they encouraged Christian missionaries, never
permitted them to convert Hindus by force. They never desecrated Hindu
places of worship, or hurled insults at Hindu religion and culture.
Their Hindu subjects could question the exclusive claims of
Christianity in the open market place without inviting so much as a
frown from most of the British administrators.
Another litmus test is the matter of marriages between the rulers and
the ruled. Every Muslim ruler and noble thought it his right to force
into his harem as many Hindu women as he fancied. He could keep Hindu
concubines without any count. But a Hindu could not even dream of
marrying a Muslim girl, not even a girl from a native family converted
to Islam. The offence of falling in love with a Muslim woman, even a
woman belonging to the family of a Hindu convert, invited capital
punishment. This was never true during the British rule. They did not
molest Indian women at will. They frowned at but never prevented
Indians from marrying British girls.
No, the Muslim rulers of India cannot be regarded as native rulers
simply because they settled down here, or because the descendants of a
large number of Hindus who were converted to Islam by force now regard
themselves as the descendants of those Muslim rulers and demand a
gross distortion of Indian history. The Christians in India whose
forefathers went over to the religion of the British rulers, may also
very well advance the same argument and object to the British being
regarded as foreign rulers. It is good of the Christians that so far
they have not raised such a demand. But if they do, are we prepared to
concede it? Appeasement of a militant millat may be profitable
politics. But political convenience cannot dictate the definition of
good history.
HEROES AND VILLAINS
It is not at all surprising that the corollaries of these
controversial guidelines should be equally questionable. We are told
that “Aurangzeb can no longer be referred to as the champion of
Islam”, and that “Shivaji cannot be overglorified in Maharashtra
textbooks”.
Shivaji first. It is sheer mischief to suggest that Shivaji is
glorified in Maharashtra alone. The fortunate fact is that he is
honoured by every Hindu worth his name, wherever that Hindu may reside
in the length and breadth of India. Rabindranath Tagore, who was not a
Maharashtrian, paid his homage to Shivaji in a long poem pulsating
with the great poet’s image of a Hindu hero. Many more poems and
dramas and novels about Shivaji’s chivalry and heroism are to be found
in all Indian languages. It is, therefore, presumptuous on the part of
some very small people to lay down that Shivaji shall not be
overglorified. The fact is that he cannot be overglorified, such is
the majesty of his character and role. The historian who will do full
justice to the personality of Shivaji as well as to his role in Indian
history is yet to be born. Some puny politicians pretending to be
historians are trying to cut Shivaji to their own size. They are like
street urchins spitting at the sun.
As regards Aurangzeb, our secularists may very well find it
inconvenient to project his image as a champion of Islam. For that
image, in turn, provides an image of Islam as well. And that image of
Islam is far from flattering. If that image of Islam is not shielded
from public gaze, it becomes difficult for our secularists to project
and protect the claims of Islam as religion and culture. Human
history, however, abounds in facts which are not at all flattering.
These facts cannot be abolished or wished away simply because some
people do not like or cannot face them. Aurangzeb is such a fact.
Stalin is another. And Hitler yet another. To say that Aurangzeb was
not a champion of Islam is tantamount to saying that Stalin was not a
Communist and Hitler not a Nazi. And the Islam which was not
championed by Aurangzeb, can be found neither in the Quran nor in the
Sunnah of the Prophet. It is a figment of the secularist imagination.
On the other hand, many histories written by custodians of Islam in
medieval and modern times hail him as a great champion of Islam. Many
mosques built over and with the debris of deliberately demolished
Hindu temples stand in different parts of India as monuments to
Aurangzeb’s Islamic majesty.
The whole tenor of this tendentious scheme for “national integration”
becomes fully explicit in the following fiat from the Ministry of
Education: “Characterisation of the medieval period as a dark period
or as a time of conflict between Hindus and Muslims is forbidden.
Historians cannot identify Muslims as rulers and Hindus as subjects.
The state cannot be described as a theocracy, without examining the
actual influence of religion. No exaggeration of the role of religion
in political conflicts is permitted… Nor should there be neglect and
omission of trends and processes of assimilation and synthesis.”
There can, of course, be two opinions about whether the medieval
period of Indian history, that is, India under Muslim rule, was a dark
or dazzling period. It all depends upon how one looks upon it.
Looked at from the point of view of Islam, it was a dazzling period
indeed. Islam acquired an empire over a large country full of
unrivalled riches. Islam had the immense satisfaction of 1) sending
millions of accursed kãfirs to hell in a continuous jihãd, 2)
demolishing and desecrating thousands of idolatrous places of worship
and pilgrimage, 3) killing thousands of Brahmins and Bhikshus and
forcing the rest to eat beef, 4) collecting vast amounts of booty and
distributing it among the mu’mins according to rules laid down by the
Prophet, 5) capturing millions of men and women and children and
selling them into slavery and concubinage in the far-flung Islamic
world, 6) usurping power and privilege over a vast population which
was reduced to serfdom, and 7) proving the superiority of Islamic
scriptures by the power of the sword.
The Muslim rulers built for themselves many sumptuous palaces full of
pomp and luxury. They also built many mosques and madrasahs, and
patronized any number of mullahs for maintaining the millat in
spiritual health. They got themselves as well as their selected
spouses buried in big maqbaras studded with precious stones and
surrounded by well-laid gardens. They built and endowed many khãnqahs
and dargahs in which the sufis stayed and sang and danced and
sermonised. All these monuments are now described and discussed in
detail in many histories of Indo-Muslim architecture, and are
photographed by an endless stream of tourists. They do leave an
impression that medieval India under Muslim rule was a many-
splendoured land.
Add to this architectural wealth many other arts and crafts, costumes
and coiffures, calligraphy and illustrated manuscripts, Persian poetry
and prose, Arabic commentaries on the Quran and the Hadis, court
styles of music and dance, and malfûzãts of sufis and saints of Islam.
Collected together in an exhibition of Islamic heritage in India, they
do leave an impression that medieval India under Muslim rule was a
veritable paradise of peace and prosperity.
But so far as the Hindus are concerned, this period was a prolonged
spell of darkness which ended only when the Marathas and the Jats and
the Sikhs broke the back of Islamic imperialism in the middle of the
18th century. The situation of the Hindus under Muslim rule is summed
up by the author of Tãrîkh-i-Wassãf in the following words: “The vein
of the zeal of religion beat high for the subjection of infidelity and
destruction of idols… The Mohammadan forces began to kill and
slaughter, on the right and the left unmercifully, throughout the
impure land, for the sake of Islãm, and blood flowed in torrents. They
plundered gold and silver to an extent greater than can be conceived,
and an immense number of precious stones as well as a great variety of
cloths… They took captive a great number of handsome and elegant
maidens and children of both sexes, more than pen can enumerate… In
short, the Mohammadan army brought the country to utter ruin and
destroyed the lives of the inhabitants and plundered the cities, and
captured their off-springs, so that many temples were deserted and the
idols were broken and trodden under foot, the largest of which was
Somnãt. The fragments were conveyed to Dehlî and the entrance of the
Jãmi‘ Masjid was paved with them so that people might remember and
talk of this brilliant victory… Praise be to Allah the lord of the
worlds.”
Hindus cannot and should not be hoodwinked by a parade of Islamic
heritage which prospered in direct proportion to their own
degradation, distress, desolation, and death. It is adding insult to
injury.
http://voiceofdharma.com/books/siii/ch2.htm
CHAPTER III
PLEA FOR A PERSPECTIVE
Let us now consider the next guideline from the NCERT, namely, that
“characterisation of the medieval period as a time of conflict between
Hindus and Muslims is forbidden”.
The underlying assumption is that Muslims invaders of India in the
medieval period were as good natives and patriots as the Hindus who
resisted them, and that the numerous wars which the Hindus were forced
to fight with the Muslim marauders were nothing more than domestic
discords.
Those who have read the “histories” of this period written by the
Aligarh school of “historians” and their Communist cohorts, are
familiar with the arguments advanced in support of this proposition.
FACILE FORMULATION
First of all, there is the point that the Muslim invaders had settled
down in India, and were no more foreigners. We have already dealt with
this point in the preceding chapter.
Secondly, we are told that Hindu rajas were fighting not only with
Muslim monarchs but also with other Hindu rajas. On the other hand,
Muslim monarchs were frequently at war not only with Hindu rajas but
also with other Muslim monarchs.
Thirdly, several instances are cited when Hindu rajas allied
themselves with Muslim monarchs to fight with other Hindu rajas, and
when Muslim monarchs sought and secured the help of Hindu rajas to
wage wars against other Muslim monarchs.
And at the end of it all, we are invited to draw the “logical
conclusion” that both Hindu and Muslim rulers were similarly and
simultaneously struggling for self-aggrandisement, and that no
distinction regarding their motives or missions need be drawn.
The facile nature of such formulations becomes evident as soon as we
draw a parallel between what happened during the medieval period, and
what happened when the British imperialists were busy building an
Indian empire for themselves.
The British appeared on the scene in the first quarter of the
eighteenth century. The Mughal empire at that time had started heading
towards disintegration into a number of provincial principalities. The
Rajputs were recovering their independence and initiative. The
Marathas, the Sikhs, and the Jats were looming large on the political
horizon.
The British were not the only aliens casting covetous eyes on this
country. The Portuguese and the Dutch who had been worsted by the
French and the British, were still hopeful of having yet another
innings. The French were competing with the British on more or less
equal terms for quite some time in South India. In the north-west,
Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali from neighbouring Persia and
Afghanistan had also joined the fray in an effort to salvage the
sinking Islamic empire for themselves.
On a superficial view, it was a free for all in which every
participant was fighting simultaneously on several fronts, and seeking
alliances simultaneously in several quarters. Muslims were fighting
with Muslims and seeking allies among non-Muslims. Marathas were
fighting with Marathas and calling on non-Marathas for help. So also
the Rajputs, and the Sikhs, and the Jats. And all of them were
fighting with the British, singly or in combinations which cut across
demarcations of creed and community. The British themselves were
fighting with the Dutch and the French on the one hand, and with the
native powers on the other. They were also cooperating, now with this
native power and now with that. The permutations and combinations of
combat and cooperation among various powers, foreign and native, in
the long-drawn-out drama from the middle of the 18th century to the
middle of the 19th were such as could not be easily sorted out.
Shall we characterise this period as a period of domestic discord in
which the British provided only one of the parameters? The NCERT
“historians” will be the first to throw up their hands in holy horror
at this mix-up of natives and foreigners, patriots and imperialists.
They will be the first to advise us to have a proper perspective
before we start sorting out the jigsaw puzzle.
THE PROPER PERSPECTIVE
What is the proper perspective? Looking at the history and character
of various forces in the field, it should be as follows:
1. The Mughal empire, an alien imposition on India, was heading
towards the dustbin of history;
2. The Rajputs, the Marathas, the Sikhs, and the Jats were rising up
to reclaim their lost patrimony in their own homeland.
3. The provincial Muslim chieftains were fighting a rearguard action
in order to salvage some pieces of the Mughal empire for themselves;
4. The Muslim chieftains were inviting other Islamic imperialists from
across the border to come and rescue the earlier Islamic imperialists
out of the morass;
5. The British, the French, and other foreign powers were trying to
fish in troubled waters, and taking advantage of the ineptitude of the
native and Muslim princes in order to secure their own strangleholds.
It is in this perspective that we pass a harsh judgement on the
Marathas for losing the battle to the British, and allowing India to
pass under another imperialist yoke. For, at that time the Marathas
were the only power in the field with a potential to win national
freedom from Islamic imperialism, and save India from British
imperialism.
Why should we fight shy of having the same sort of proper perspective
on the multifaced strife in medieval India? That strife also can be
sorted out as follows:
1. On the eve of the Islamic invasion, India was witnessing a number
of Hindu princes fighting among themselves for supremacy;
2. The Islamic invaders took advantage of this situation, defeated the
Hindu princes one by one, and established their own empires one after
another;
3. Every Islamic empire was worn out by renewed Hindu resistance, and
veered on the verge of collapse;
4. A new Islamic invader intervened every time, and preserved the
continuity of Islamic imperialism till British imperialism appeared on
the scene;
5. Sometimes a weakened Islamic empire invited some Hindu power to
come to its help in its contest with a new Islamic invader.
The fact that the Hindu princes were fighting among themselves on the
eve of the Islamic invasion as well as in its aftermath, should not be
forced to mean that the Islamic invaders were not foreign
imperialists. Nor does the fact that Hindu princes sometimes joined
hands with Muslim princes to resist a new Muslim marauder from abroad,
convert the Muslim princes into patriots. The Hindu princes were
fighting for their hearths and homes and national honour. The Muslim
princes, on the other hand, were only trying to retain the imperialist
power and privilege acquired by them on earlier occasions.
The only difference between the two situations - the medieval and the
modern - was that, unlike the Islamic imperialists established in
India, the British imperialists did not fight physically among
themselves. But this is a minor and marginal difference which should
not be used to demarcate Islamic imperialism from British imperialism.
The Islamic imperialists too did not engage in internecine feuds
whenever there was a strong central authority to control them as in
the days of the Mughal empire. We have also to make allowance for a
change in the character of imperialism between the time the Mamluks
“settled” down in Delhi, and the time the British “liberated” the same
city from the “Maratha occupation”.
The mutual strife among Muslim princes over imperialist power and
privilege in India, does not change the fact that for the native
Hindus all of them were enemies and oppressors of the same stock. Nor
does the fact that Hindu princes were at war with each other at the
same time, put them on par with Islamic invaders from abroad.
It is in this perspective that we pass a harsh judgement on the Hindu
princes for their failure to combine in order 1) to resist the Islamic
invader when he entered India for the first time; 2) to throw him out
after he had been weakened by renewed Hindu resistance; and 3) to
prevent new Islamic invaders from re-enacting the devil-dance of
death, dishonour, and despoliation for the Hindus.
Let us travel a little farther down the corridors of time, and have a
close look at the national struggle for freedom from British
imperialism. Here also we have the same mixed situation, and have to
sort it out. The ranks of freedom fighters were divided into different
factions at different times. We had the liberals and the
constitutionalists pitted against the extremists and the agitationists
at one time. Later on, we had the non-violent non-cooperators and the
revolutionaries repudiating one another. Still later, we had the
leftists and the rightists struggling to capture the Indian National
Congress. Alongside, we had the Hindu Mahasabha which fought the
British but did not share the Congress culture of appeasing Islamic
imperialism. And we had the Hindu princes, some of whom were
frightened by the freedom struggle and sided with the British while
some others flattered the British outwardly but sympathised with and
helped the national struggle secretly.
Simultaneously, the scene was confused by that jackal, the Muslim
League, waiting in the wings to jump forward and claim the lion’s
share of whatever concessions the freedom fighters could force out of
the British imperialists with whom the Muslim League cooperated whole-
heartedly in the meanwhile. Another confusing factor was the Soviet
fifth-column, the Communist Party of India, which criticised and
ridiculed the freedom struggle for years as “bourgeois-capitalist” but
which went over to the imperialist camp when the battle was joined for
a final round.
How do we look at this drama in which so many characters played so
many roles? Do we absolve the British of being imperialists simply
because the freedom fighters were fighting among themselves? Did the
British administration in India cease to be an imperialist
administration simply because some Hindu princes collaborated with it?
Shall we deny patriotism to the Hindu Mahasabha simply because it
clashed with the Congress on a major problem? Did the Muslim League
cease to be a carrion-eater and collaborator with British imperialism
simply because it developed some differences with its British patrons
when the latter were getting ready to depart? Did the Soviet fifth-
column become a patriotic fraternity simply because it tried to foment
an armed uprising against the British in India after Soviet Russia had
picked up a quarrel with Britain over sharing of the spoils after the
Second World War?
The answers to all these questions are crystal clear because our
perspective on the freedom struggle against British imperialism has
not yet been perverted. (The NCERT guidelines are now trying to
pervert it).
LOGIC OF A LACK OF PERSPECTIVE
But one can well visualise a situation when Christian missionaries
will have succeeded in converting a sizable part of the Hindu
population in different parts of the country. The Christian converts
may very well object to their co-religionists from Britain being
described as imperialist invaders from abroad. The Christian converts
may very well withhold their votes from whosoever refuses to accept
the British rulers as native rulers like the Hindu rulers of yore. The
Christian converts may also threaten to break out into violent street
riots if the British rulers are not described as great and glorious
benefactors of India.
We shall then have another momentous meeting of the National
Integration Council which will direct the Ministry of Education to
order the NCERT to evolve another set of guidelines for new textbooks
of history in the new political situation. The guidelines will sound
very familiar to those who have studied the current guidelines being
dished out by the NCERT. They will read as follows vis-a-vis the
British period of Indian history: “The British rulers cannot be
identified as foreigners. The British period will not be characterised
as a time of conflict between freedom fighters and foreign
imperialists. The British bureaucrats cannot be identified as rulers
and Indians as subjects. Economic exploitation and cultural ruination
of India under the British rule shall not be over-emphasised.”
The concrete characterisation of the heroes and villains of the
freedom struggle will be equally interesting under the new
dispensation. The freedom fighters will have to be re-drawn as petty
politicians running a rat race for personal profit! Mahatma Gandhi
will have to be dethroned as the Father of the Nation, and renamed as
a scheming and small-minded bania trying to buttress the industrial
empire of the Birlas! Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose will have to be
turned into a traitor who conspired with the German and the Japanese
fascists against the British benefactors of India! And Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru will have to be ridiculed as a Don Quixote who
presided over the passing of a ridiculous resolution demanding an
independence which had never suffered an eclipse!
On the other hand, Clive, Warren Hastings, Cornwallis, Wellesley,
Dalhousie, and Curzon will have to be lionised as patriots par
excellence who gave us Pax Brittania, who freed us from the thugs and
the pindaris, who abolished social evils like sati, who patronised
widow remarriage, and who embellished this vast land with roads,
railways, canals, communications, schools, colleges, hospitals, and
what not! Mohammed Ali Jinnah will have to be hailed as an angel who
came forward to relieve the British of a part of the burden when the
British got tired of fighting against forces of anarchy, and decided
to give up! P.C. Joshi will have to be glorified as a great statesman
who resisted the Congress rabble when it started sabotaging the
British war effort to save India from Japanese imperialism, and who
supported the demand for Pakistan when the Congress fascists could not
be stopped from seizing power!
These logical implications of the new scheme sponsored by the NCERT
may sound like a distant nightmare which need not paralyse us at
present. But in the field of medieval Indian history we are already
upto our neck in such a nightmare. The doubting Thomases are referred
to Volume 5 of A Comprehensive History of India sponsored by the
Indian History Congress and published several year ago by the People’s
Publishing House, New Delhi. The late lamented Mohammad Habib who
edited this history of the Sultanate starts the story from the rise of
Prophet Muhammad in Arabia, and deals with the Muslim rule in India as
an integral part of the larger Muslim Empire spread over Asia, Africa,
and Europe. He sees it as a splendid fabric interspersed with some
instances of barbarism like that of Chengiz Khan and Halaku. Coming to
the year 1192 AD, he pronounces that Prithiviraj Chauhan was executed
by Muhammad Ghuri for sedition! A later day historian of British
imperialism in India under the new dispensation may say the same thing
about Tatya Tope, the Kukas, and revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh.
If we fight shy of these logical and inescapable implications, let us
keep the record straight and not temper with it in the interests of a
vote-mongering politics, nor allow it to be perverted either by
Islamic imperialism masquerading as Secularism, or by the Communist
traitors trumpeting the “scientific” interpretation of history.
The record leaves no doubt that the medieval period under Muslim rule
was a period of continuous conflict between Hindus and Muslims. The
Hindus were patriots fighting for the freedom of their ancient
homeland and the preservation of their cultural patrimony. The
Muslims, on the other hand, were imperialist marauders inspired by a
criminal creed which they were trying to impose on the Hindus by means
of force.
http://voiceofdharma.com/books/siii/ch3.htm
CHAPTER IV
THE NATURE OF CONFLICT IN MEDIEVAL INDIA
Another guideline laid down by the NCERT for school-level textbooks of
history exhorts that “no exaggeration of the role of religion in
political conflicts is permitted”.
Let us for the time being forget the fiat of the State as to what is
permitted and what is forbidden while writing the new textbooks of
history. Let us first find out the facts as recorded by medieval
historians, and review the various interpretations of those facts.
HINDU VIEW OF THE CONFLICT
The Hindus of medieval India have not left many accounts of the
numerous wars which they were forced to fight with Muslim invaders
over a period of several hundred years. All we have from the medieval
Hindus are some settled sentiments expressed by them in contemporary
literature regarding the nature of the Muslim menace. The Hindus
advance the following seven accusations against the Muslims:
1. They kill the Brahmins and the cows;
2. They violate the chastity of Hindu women;
3. They demolish temples, and desecrate the idols;
4. They cut the tuft of hair on the head (šikhã) and break the sacred
thread (sûtra);
5. They circumcise people and make them eat beef, that is, convert
people by force;
6. They capture people, particularly women and children, and sell them
into concubinage and slavery.
7. They plunder people’s properties, and set fire to whatever they
cannot carry away.
In the records referring to the rise of Vijayanagara, the Marathas,
and the Sikhs, the religious motive is brought into a sharper focus.
These records leave us in no doubt that the defence of Hindu Dharma
was uppermost in the minds of Madhava Vidyaranya, Samartha Ramdas, and
Guru Teg Bahadur. The purpose for which the sword was unsheathed by
Harihar and Bukka, Shivaji and the Sikhs, becomes quite clear in many
poems written in praise of these heroes by a number of Hindu poets.
The purpose, we are told, was to save the cow, the Brahmin, the šikhã,
the sûtra, the honour of Hindu women, and the sanctity of Hindu places
of worship.
The Hindu records about pre-Islamic foreign invasions present a
striking contrast. The Greeks, the Scythians, the Kushans, and the
Hunas are accused by them of savagery and lust for plunder. But they
are never accused of making Hindu Dharma or its outer symbols the
specific targets of their attacks. We have also the accounts of these
alien invaders becoming good Shaivites, and Vaishnavas, and Buddhists
after their first fury was spent, and they settled down in India.
MUSLIM VIEW OF THE CONFLICT
On the other hand, many Muslim historians of medieval India have left
for posterity some very detailed, many a time day-to-day, accounts of
what happened during the endless encounters between Hindus and
Muslims. The dominant theme in these accounts is of mu’mins (Muslims)
martyred; of kãfirs (Hindus infidels) despatched to hell; of cities
and citadels sacked; of citizens massacred; of Brahmins killed or
forced to eat beef; of temples razed to the ground and mosques raised
on their sites; of idols broken and their pieces taken to imperial
headquarters for being trodden underfoot by the faithful on the steps
of the main mosque; of booty captured and carried away on elephants,
camels, horses, bullock carts, on the backs of sheep and goats, and
even on the heads of Hindu prisoners of war; of beautiful Hindu
maidens presented to the sultans and distributed among Muslim generals
and nobles; of Hindu men, women and children sold into slavery in
markets all over the Islamic world; and of kãfirs converted to the
true faith at the point of the sword. The Muslim historians treat
every war waged against the Hindus as a jihãd as enjoined by the
Prophet and the Pious Caliphs.
In these Muslim accounts we never notice any note of pity, or regret,
or reflection over deeds of wanton cruelty and rapacity. On the
contrary, the Muslim historians express extreme satisfaction and
gleeful gratitude to Allah that the mission of the Prophet has been
fulfilled, the light of Islam brought to an area of darkness, and
idolatry wiped out. These historians go into raptures over the
richness of the booty acquired for the service of the Islamic state,
for distribution among the mujãhids and the ulama and the sufis, for
the promotion of Islamic learning, and for securing the seats of
Islamic power.
The same Muslim historians also narrate many wars fought between
Muslim princes. Significantly, here we find no dramatisation of
mu’mins against kãfirs, mosques against temples, iconoclasts against
idolaters, beef-eaters against Brahmins, ravishers against maidens,
and captors against child and female captives of war. They only talk
of treaties violated, tributes not paid, strategy and tactics
employed, horses and elephants mobilised, armaments assembled, defeats
suffered, victories won, and men and equipment lost in battle. In
between, there are some accounts of sacks and massacres, plunder and
pillage. But there is always a wail of extreme anguish about Muslims
fighting and killing other Muslims, which the Prophet had strictly
prohibited.
NO CONTROVERSY ON RECORDED FACTS
These are the facts of recorded history. Only a small fraction of
these facts is found in Hindu records, and that too in a stray and
scattered manner. The overwhelming wealth of these facts is stored in
histories written by Muslim historians in a systematic manner, dynasty
by dynasty, reign by reign, battle by battle. And these Muslim
histories are available in manuscript form, in cold print of modern
critical editions, in original as well in translations, in major world
languages, in archives and libraries all over the civilised world.
Collections of these histories have always been prized as priceless
possessions in the palaces of Muslim aristocracy.
There can, therefore, be no serious controversy about the facts of
recorded history. There may be some differences in different accounts
of the same event, reign, or regime. There may be some internal
contradictions in the same account. But these are minor details which
can be sorted out by critical analysis and cross-referencing.
Sharp differences arise only when we come to the interpretation of
these facts, and the passing of value judgements on them. It is here
that the subjective and ideological inclinations of the interpreters
and evaluators come into play. It is the varying interpretations and
evaluations which have raised controversies regarding the desirability
or otherwise of some textbooks in India’s schools and colleges. The
guidelines laid down by the NCERT are also aimed at sorting out these
interpretations and evaluations.
THE VARYING INTERPRETATIONS
The orthodox or fundamentalist Muslim historians, who are coming to
the forefront again with the help of petro-dollars, share the
satisfaction expressed by medieval Muslim historians. They approve of
and applaud unashamedly the triumphant sweep of the sword of Islam
over India. They have no doubt that the medieval wars between Hindus
and Muslims were fought by the Hindus as Hindus and by the Muslims as
Muslims. They concur that these conflicts were armed contests between
Islam and infidelity. The NCERT guidelines are aware of these orthodox
Muslim historians, and warn us that “there should be no over-
glorification of the medieval rule” and that “the writer should not
under-emphasise condemnation of bigotry, intolerance and
exclusiveness”.
The academic historians, who have ruled the roost since the British
bureaucrats devised our system of education in the middle of the 19th
century and wrote the first textbooks of Indian history, have mostly
compiled, in a chronological order, the data available in the source
books and evaluated it mostly with an eye to its credibility. They
have seldom conceptualised or drawn clinching conclusions regarding
the nature of the conflict between Hindus and Muslims in medieval
India. Their moral judgements are confined mostly to minor matters
such as the justification or otherwise of a twist given to a
particular treaty by a particular party. Most of the time they are
preoccupied with finding the reasons for the success of those who
succeeded, and the factors responsible for the failure of those who
failed.
Many secularists have accused the British historians of deliberately
presenting Muslim rule in India in a prejudicial, even perverse
manner, in order to alienate the Hindus from the Muslims in pursuance
of the British policy of divide-and-rule. A sober reflection should
absolve the British of that guilt. In any case, the British have
departed, and the secularists have taken over. But the Hindu-Muslim
problem is far from being solved. The secularists are trying to hide
their failure by advancing against “Hindu communal historians” the
same accusation as they once advanced against the British historians.
The only fault of the British historians was that they did not try to
suppress the facts of history as recorded by Muslim historians of
medieval India. Most academic historians in India after independence
have followed in the footsteps of the British pioneers. The new
secularist fashion of branding them as Hindu communalists is nothing
short of scoundrelism.
The “modernist” Muslim historians, particularly from the Aligarh
Muslim University, have increasingly come forward to “correct the
perspective” of the academic historians. It is significant that the
Aligarh school did not try to correct the perspective in pre-partition
India except for a few Communist historians like the late lamented
Mohammad Habib. In his case also the Communist version of medieval
history was only a clever cloak for the orthodox Muslim version. For
the rest, the Aligarh historians shared the pride which Muslim
fundamentalists like Hali and Iqbal and Maulana Azad took in the
Muslim conquest of India, and the painful consequence it had for the
Hindus. It is only after the Independence that the Aligarh school has
changed its strategy.
THE ALIGARH APOLOGISTS
To start with, the Aligarh school warns us against confusing the
Turkish imperialism with Islam. The Turks had become converted to
Islam no doubt. But that did not mean that they had ceased to be
Turks, that is, barbarians from the steppes of Central Asia. Islam
could not cure the Turks of their traditional habits of cruelty in the
short spell they had spent under its sway. The cruelties which the
Turks committed in India should not be laid at the door of Islam. The
Turks were only using Islam as a convenient cloak for doing what they
did.
Secondly, the record of atrocities attributed to the Turks needs a
rigorous re-examination. We should not forget that the Muslim
historians of medieval India were courtiers first and foremost. They
let go their imagination, and exaggerated in an unbridled manner to
please their royal patrons. Suppose a hundred Hindus and a few score
Muslims were killed in a combat. The court historians manipulated the
count, and reported that a thousand Hindus had been despatched to hell
while a few Muslims attained martyrdom. Such reports flattered the
martial vanity of Muslim potentates. Again, suppose a temple had been
plundered by some insubordinate Muslim soldiers purely for the sake of
the treasure it contained. The court historians reported that ten
temples had been razed to the ground, twice as many idols broken to
pieces, and thrice as many mosques made out of the debris. Such
reports flattered the iconoclastic zeal of pious Muslim princes. And
so on so forth. The tall tales told by medieval Muslim historians
regarding the killing of cows and Brahmins, the molestation of
maidens, the capture of booty and prisoners of war, and the conversion
of Hindus by force should be taken with a fistful of salt.
To buttress this belittling of Turkish (not Muslim, mind you)
barbarities, we are told that if force had been used in the service of
religious zeal on a scale such as reported by the medieval Muslim
historians, the whole of India would have been converted to Islam
under the long spell of Muslim rule. The very fact that India was
still a Hindu majority country at the end of the long period of Muslim
domination, should dispel all doubts that the use of force for
religious purposes was an exception rather than the rule. If there was
any religious contest between Hindus and Muslims, it was of an
ideological character such as that between the sufi silsilãs on the
one hand and the various sects of Hinduism on the other.
The “correct perspective”, therefore, would be to treat as purely
political the wars waged by some states ruled by Muslim sultans
against others ruled by Hindu rajas. The Muslim sultans were
interested in building their own empires, the same as the Hindu rajas
had been throughout Hindu history. It should not be held against the
Muslim sultans if the peculiar caste structure of Hindu society made
them victorious most of the time. In the words of Mohammad Habib, the
contest was between the smiritis on the one hand and the Shariat on
the other.
THE COMMUNIST “HISTORIANS”
At this point, the defence of Islam is taken over by Communist
“historians”, and turned into a formidable offensive against Hindu
society, Hindu culture, and Hindu Dharma. The Communists accuse the
“Hindu communalist historians” of always meditating morbidly on a
minor mote in the Muslim eye rather than take the big beam out of
their own, and have a honest view of men and matters in medieval
India.
The upper caste Hindus, we are told, have always oppressed, exploited,
trodden under foot, and killed at will members from a large section of
Hindu society, throughout the ages. Why should they shed crocodile
tears if the Turks also killed a few of these unfortunate serfs under
compulsion of circumstances?
The women in Hindu society, we are informed, have always been slaves
who could be molested and dishonoured without arousing so much as a
ripple among the Hindu ruling classes. Why be so squeamish if the
Turks freed a few of these female slaves, and gave them some status in
their harems?
The whole of India, we are told, has always been a vast prison-house
so far as the poor people are concerned. Why raise hell if the Turks
freed some of these prisoners, and took them out to see the wide
world?
Were not Hindus big beef-eaters in the Vedic times, and did they not
give up this wholesome food because of the priestcraft practised upon
them by those goddamned Brahmins? Why fly into a hysterical fit if the
Turks made some of these Brahmins revert to healthier food habits?
Was not the vast wealth which the priests had hoarded in those “holy”
temples ill-gotten in so far as it represented a limitless loot of the
toiling masses, and was it not lying absolutely useless in those dark
dungeons? Why make a hue and cry if the Turks freed some of this
frozen capital, and put it to some productive use?
As regards the idols, we are told that even if they were made of gold
and studded with precious stones, they symbolised nothing better than
primitive superstition and puerile priestcraft. The Turks did a lot of
good to the mental health of the Hindus by smashing those molochs
masquerading as gods.
The truth about the so-called Muslim conquest of India, they say, is
simple and straight-forward. The Turks only helped the enslaved Hindu
masses to rise in revolt against their age-old oppressors. Islam had
brought with it a message of social equality and human brotherhood
which worked a miracle on Hindu society. Look at Kabir and Nanak and
Ravidas and a hundred other Hindu reformers who took up the Muslim
message in right earnest, and struggled for a casteless and classless
Indian society.
These are not exactly the words which Communist “historians” use
explicitly in their presentation of medieval Muslim history. This,
however, is the exact psychology which guides their “interpretation”
of events in that period. The Aligarh apologists can heave a sigh of
relief at the sight of these Communist “historians” coming to their
rescue, and taking the argument to its logical culmination. Perhaps
they themselves could have never mustered the courage shown by the
Communists. Moreover, most of the Communist “historians” being Hindus,
they carry greater credibility.
The Communist psychology of treating with contempt everything Hindu
and restoring respectability to most things Muslim, is largely shared
by the socialists, the assorted secularists, and the rest of the Hindu
“intellectuals” who pride in calling themselves modern. It is this
psychology which has seeped into the ranks of those who are now out to
re-write the history of India, particularly the history of medieval
India under Muslim rule. The politicians in power also share this
psychology, and are out to manipulate it with an eye on the Muslim
vote-bank.
HINDU SCHOOL OF HISTORY NEEDED
A Hindu school of historians, alas, is not yet in sight. I cannot,
therefore, present a Hindu interpretation of the history of medieval
India under Muslim rule. But I believe that as soon as a Hindu school
of historians is born and takes up the task of interpreting medieval
Indian history, it will have little reason not to agree with the
medieval Muslims historians that the medieval period was largely a
period of Hindu-Muslim conflict, and that religion played a dominant
role in it. Its only difference with these Muslim historians will be
that it will treat as villains all those who are treated as heroes by
the latter, and vice versa. It will also treat the so-called triumph
of Islam in medieval India as the greatest tragedy which Islam
suffered in its history after the well-deserved fate it met in 15th
century Spain.
http://voiceofdharma.com/books/siii/ch4.htm
CHAPTER V
ISLAM WAS THE CULPRIT
The Aligarh apologists accuse the medieval Muslim historians of
exaggerating the barbarities committed by the Muslim invaders and
rulers. Next, they blame on the inherent barbarism of the Turks
whatever irreducible minimum of atrocities cannot be hushed out of
recorded history. And they end by absolving Islam of every crime
committed in its name.
My first question is: How is it that what the Prophet of Islam did in
Arabia and the Arab armies in Syria, Iraq, Iran, North Africa, Sicily,
Spain and Sindh, bears such close resemblance to what the Turks did in
India?
The Aligarh school is never tired of telling us that Islam would have
had a brighter record in India had it been brought by the Arabs
instead of the “terrible” Turks. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru has swallowed
this lie, hook, line, and sinker, and relayed it to two generations of
Hindu students through his best-sellers.
Here the Aligarh apologists depend upon the ignorance of the average
Hindu about the history of Arab imperialism inspired by Islam ever
since the city of Yathrib was converted into Medina after conversion
of its pagan citizens and massacre of the Jews. Otherwise, they would
not have risked smuggling in such a stupendous lie without batting an
eye.
We need not travel to distant lands in order to discover the truth
about Islamic imperialism as practised and perfected by the Arabs.
What the Arabs did in Sindh, as soon as they entered this unfortunate
province of Bharatavarsha, provides every detail of the pattern they
had repeated elsewhere.
THE ARAB RECORD IN SINDH
The Chachnãma which is the most famous Muslim history of the Arab
conquest of Sindh, describes graphically what Muhammad bin Qasim did
after that “accursed Dahir” had been “despatched” while defending the
fort of Rawar: “Muhammad took the fort and stayed there for two or
three days. He put six thousand fighting men, who were in the fort, to
the sword and shot some (more) with arrows. The other dependents were
taken prisoner with their wives and children… When the number of
prisoners was calculated, it was found to amount to thirty thousand
persons amongst whom thirty were the daughters of the chiefs, and one
of them was Rãî Dãhir’s sister’s daughter whose name was Jaisiya. They
were sent to Hajjãj. The head of Dãhir and the fifth part of prisoners
were forwarded in charge of K’ab, son of Maharak.” (emphasis added).
How did Hajjãj react towards these helpless people from Sindh? The
Chachnãma continues: “When the head of Dãhir, the women and the
property all reached Hajjãj, he prostrated himself before Allah,
offered thanks-giving and praises… Hajjãj then forwarded the head, the
umbrellas, and wealth, and prisoners to Walîd the Khalifa.” (emphasis
added).
The behaviour of the Amîr-ul-mu‘minîn, (commander of the faithful) was
also true to type. The Chachnãma relates “When the Khalifa of the time
had read the letter (of Hajjãj), he praised Allah the great. He sold
some of those daughters of the chiefs, and some he granted as rewards.
When he saw the daughter of Rãî Dãhir’s sister he was much struck with
her beauty and charms, and began to bite his finger with astonishment.
Abdullah bin Abbãs desired to take her, but the Khalifa said: ‘O my
nephew! I exceedingly admire this girl and am so enamoured of her,
that I wish to keep her for myself. Nevertheless, it is better that
you take her to be the mother of your children’.” (emphasis added).
Meanwhile, Muhammad bin Qasim had been conspiring with some merchants
of Brahmanabad and promising protection to the common people, provided
they committed treason and threw open the gates of the fort in the
thick of the fight. He had some doubts whether he had done the right
thing. He referred the matter to Hajjãj in a letter which was sent
post haste. According to Chachnãma, Hajjãj replied as follows: “O my
cousin! I received your life-inspiring letter …I learnt that the ways
and rules you follow are confirmable to the Law (of Islam), except
that you give protection to all, great and small, and make no
distinction between enemy and friend. Allah says - Give no quarter to
infidels but cut their throats. Then know that this is the command of
Allah the great. You should not be too ready to grant protection,
because it will prolong your work. After this, give no quarter to any
enemy except to those who are of rank. This is a worthy resolve, and
want of dignity will not be imputed to you.” (emphasis added).
So Muhammad bin Qasim carried out the command of Allah conveyed to him
by Hajjãj. The Chachnãma carries the story forward after the fall of
Brahmanabad: “When the plunder and the prisoners of war were brought
before Qãsim and enquiries were made about every captive, it was found
that Lãdî, the wife of Dãhir, was in the fort with two daughters of
his by other wives. Veils were put on their faces and they were
delivered to a servant to keep them apart. One fifth of all the
prisoners were chosen and set aside: they were counted as amounting to
twenty thousand in number, and the rest were given to the soldiers. He
sat on the seat of cruelty, and put all those who had fought to the
sword. It is said that about six thousand fighting men were slain, but
according to some, sixteen thousand were killed.” (emphasis added).
After “peace” had thus been restored, the conqueror took the next
step. The Chachnãma records: “Muhammad bin Qãsim fixed a tax upon all
subjects according to the laws of the Prophet. Those who embraced
Islam were exempted from slavery, the tribute and poll-tax, and from
those who did not change their creed a tax was exacted according to
three grades.” (emphasis added).
Then followed the privilege reserved for every Muslim, conqueror or
convert. According to the Chachnãma: “As the commander of the
faithful, Umar, son of Khattãb, had ordered respecting the people of
Shãm (Syria), so did Muhammad bin Qãsim also make a rule that every
(Muslim) guest should be entertained (in Hindu homes) for one day and
night, but if he fell sick then for three days and nights.”
Another massacre followed at Askalanda which was surrendered by the
common people after the Hindu commandant had fled: “He went into the
fort, killed four thousand fighting men with his bloody sword and sent
their families into slavery.” And Multan: “Six thousand warriors were
put to death, and all their relations and dependents were taken as
slaves.” (emphasis added). The Chachnãma chooses a Brahmin of Multan
to proclaim Muhammad bin Qãsim’s momentous victory in the following
words: “Heathenism is now at an end, the temples are thrown down, the
world has received the light of Islam, and mosques are built instead
of idols temples.” The Brahmin was a new convert.
Al Biladuri who died in 892-893 AD wrote another account of the Arab
conquest of Sindh. He tells us in his Futûhul-Buldãn: “We are told
that Hajjãj caused a calculation to be made of the sums expanded in
fitting out this expedition of Muhammad bin Qãsim, and the riches
which resulted from it. He had spent 60 million dirhams and that which
had been sent to him amounted to 120 millions dirhams.”
This 120 million dirhams represents only one-fifth of the total loot
which was paid into the Caliph’s coffers according to a rule laid down
by the prophet of Islam. Another four hundred and eighty million
dirhams were distributed among Muslim soldiers in the field. Again,
this total of 600 million dirhams does not include the sale proceeds
of nearly two hundred thousand Hindu men, women and children who were
taken prisoners and put to auction all over the world of Islam at that
time.
PERFORMANCE OF THE PATHANS
My second question is: How come that the Pathans, who hated the Turks
and fought them tooth and nail throughout the medieval period,
followed the Turks so faithfully in their treatment of the Hindus?
Take Sikandar Lodi. He was the son of a Pathan father. His mother was
the daughter of a Hindu goldsmith of Sirhind. Abdullah records as
follows in his Tãrîkh-i-Dãûdî written in the reign of Jahangir: “It is
also related of this prince that before his accession, when a crowd of
Hindûs had assembled in immense numbers at Kurkhet, he wished to go to
Thanesar for the purpose of putting them all to death… He was so
zealous a Musalmãn that he utterly destroyed diverse places of worship
of the infidels and left not a vestige remaining of them. He entirely
ruined the shrines of Mathura, the mine of infidelism, and turned the
principal Hindû places of worship into caravanserais and colleges.
Their stone images were given to the butchers to serve as meat-
weights, and all the Hindûs in Mathura were strictly prohibited from
shaving their heads and beards and bathing at the ghãts.” Badauni
writes in his Muntakhãb-ut-Tawãrîkh that “he took the fort (of
Untgarh) and gave the infidels as food for the sword. He then cast
down the idol temples and built there a lofty mosque.” He repeated the
performance at Narwar next year, and at many other places in the years
that followed
BEHAVIOUR OF HINDU CONVERTS
My third question is: How do we explain the behaviour of marauders who
were not Turks but Hindus converted to Islam, and who behaved no
better, if not worse, than the much-maligned Turks?
The story of Kalapahar and his exploits in Bengal and Orissa may be
dismissed by the Aligarh apologists as a cock-and-bull story cooked up
by “Hindu old women”. But the achievements of Malik Kafur are recorded
by no less an authority than Amir Khusru who was also a contemporary.
Malik Kafur was a handsome young Hindu who was captured and enslaved
when Ulugh Khan and Nusrat Khan, two generals of Alauddin Khalji,
invaded Gujarat in 1298 AD. He was bought by Nusrat Khan for a
thousand dinãrs, converted to Islam, and presented to the emperor at
Delhi. Alauddin was infatuated by Kafur who rose rapidly to be the
topmost officer of the empire, titled Malik Naib.
Kafur led his famous expedition to the South in 1310-1311 AD. Devagiri
was already a tributary of the Delhi Sultanate. The Hoysala King of
Dvarasamudra was frightened into surrender. But the Pandya prince of
Madurai refused either to purchase peace or fight a pitched battle. He
tired out the Malik Naib by his hit and run tactics. The Malik Naib
took it out on the non-combatant common people and their temples. At
Brahmastapur (modern Chidambaram), he massacred the citizens,
demolished the golden temple, and dug up its foundations. Next, the
temples at Srirangam and in the neighbourhood of Kannanur were sacked.
At Madurai he set fire to the temple of Sokkanatha. He had to beat a
retreat in the face of fierce Hindu resistance. But he did not forget
to capture and carry with him an immense booty and hordes of prisoners
who were sold into slavery all along his long route to the imperial
headquarters at Delhi.
Or take the case of Suhabhatta, the chief minister of Sikandar
Butshikan of Kashmir (1389-1413 AD). Suhabhatta who had renounced his
ancestral faith for Islam is known as Suhã in the RãjatariñgiNî of
Jonarãja. This historian of Kashmir records: “Instructed by mlechhas,
(Suhã) instigated the king to break down the images of Gods. The king
forgot his kingly duties and took a delight day and night in breaking
images… He broke the images of MãrtaNDa, Vishaya, Κãna, Chakravaratî
and Tripurešvara… There was no city, no town, no village, no wood
where Suhã and the Turushka left the temples of Gods unbroken.
Suhabhatta continued to be the chief minister under Sikandar’s son,
Ali Shah (1413-1420 AD). During Sikandar’s reign, he had stopped at
destroying Hindu temples. Under the new regime, he started persecuting
the Brahmins. Their religious performances and processions were
banned. The traditional allowances of the Brahmins were stopped. The
Brahmins, therefore, became beggars “who had to move from door to
door, like dogs, for food”. Many of them tried to flee the land to
escape oppression and save their caste. But they could not do so
without an official permit. As a result, many of them committed
suicide by fire, poison, drowning, hanging, and jumping from
precipices. Amidst all this, Suhabhatta maintained that he bore no
malice towards the Brahmins, and that he was only doing his duty
towards Islam!
TURKS WERE BRUTALISED BY ISLAM
My fourth question is: Were the Turks really such black barbarians as
they have been painted by the Aligarh apologists? How then do we
explain the glaring contradiction in the behaviour of many Turkish
kings who were such fearsome fiends when dealing with Hindus, but who
became benevolent monarchs when dealing with Muslims?
Take Mahmud Ghaznavi who tops the list of Muslim invaders most hated
by Hindus. Muhammad Nazim, a “modern historian,” writes as follows in
his well-documented monograph, The Life and Times of Sultan Mahmud of
Ghazna: “The Sultan was affectionate by nature… Sultan Mahmud was
strict in the administration of justice… Sultan Mahmud was a poet and
scholar of some reputation. He is said to have been the author of a
book named Tafridul-Furu which was regarded as a standard work on
Fiqh… The Sultan was a great patron of learning and his court was the
rendezvous of scholars from all parts of the Muslim world… His meanest
rewards were calculated in thousands of dinãrs, and the later
generation of poets cherished his memory chiefly as a giver of
‘elephant loads’ of gold and silver.” Firishta records that he used
the war booty captured from Kanauj for building at Ghazni a
magnificent mosque, a university well-stocked with books, and a museum
full of many curiosities.
Or take Jalaluddin Khalji. He was second to none among the Muslim
kings when it came to heaping atrocities on Hindus. But when Malik
Chhajju, who had rebelled against him and caused bloodshed, was
brought before him in chains, he overruled his advisers for harsh
punishment with the remark that he would rather renounce his throne
than shed the blood of a Muslim! Again, when the Rana of Ranthambhor
refused to surrender, Jalaluddin gave up the siege of the fort, in
spite of protests from his generals, with the remark that he did not
consider ten such forts worth a single hair of a Muslim’s head!
Firuz Shah Tughlaq was a great patron of learning, a builder of new
cities, and patron of many public works such as tanks, gardens, and
canals. In his autobiography he writes: “Better a people’s weal than
treasures vast; better an empty chest than hearts downcast.” But by
“people” he meant only the Muslims. For Hindus he was nothing short of
a monster.
The much-maligned Turk did have another face which was far from being
that of a barbarian. It is quite another matter that the benevolent
face of the Turk was always and exclusively turned towards his Muslim
Ummah, and never towards the “accursed” Hindus. What is relevant here
is that crimes committed by the Turks in India cannot be explained
away in terms of a barbarism inherent in his race. Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru who also blames the crimes of Islam on the barbarism of the
Turks says in the same breath that the Turks were Buddhists before
they got converted to Islam. Was it Buddhism that had brutalised the
Turks? Or had Buddhism failed to humanise them?
But even if we concede, for the sake of argument, that the Turk was a
born barbarian, the basic question remains unanswered. Some of the
medieval Muslim historians were not Turks. They were Arabs and
Persians whom the Aligarh apologists credit with the quintessence of
Islamic culture. Quite a few of them were learned mullahs conversant
with the commandments of Islam. The positions and privileges they
obtained in the courts of their Turkish patrons were entirely due to
their erudition.
So my fifth and final question is: Why did these medieval Muslim
historians credit their patrons with crimes which the latter had not
committed, or exaggerate the scale of some minor misdemeanours?
Before we find answers to these five questions let us first have a
look at the scale and magnitude of the crimes which medieval Muslim
historians have laid at the doors of most of the Muslim monarchs and
their minions. Let us see if the narrations of those crimes reveal a
pattern. Then we shall proceed to inquire if the pattern conforms to
the crudities of normal human nature, or to the commands of an inhuman
and imperialist ideology masquerading as religion.
http://voiceofdharma.com/books/siii/ch5.htm
chhotemianinshallah
The world famous historian, Will Durant has written in his Story of
Civilisation that “the Mohammedan conquest of India was probably the
bloodiest story in history”.
India before the advent of Islamic imperialism was not exactly a zone
of peace. There were plenty of wars fought by Hindu princes. But in
all their wars, the Hindus had observed some time-honoured conventions
sanctioned by the Šãstras. The Brahmins and the Bhikshus were never
molested. The cows were never killed. The temples were never touched.
The chastity of women was never violated. The non-combatants were
never killed or captured. A human habitation was never attacked unless
it was a fort. The civil population was never plundered. War booty was
an unknown item in the calculations of conquerors. The martial classes
who clashed, mostly in open spaces, had a code of honour. Sacrifice of
honour for victory or material gain was deemed as worse than death.
Islamic imperialism came with a different code - the Sunnah of the
Prophet. It required its warriors to fall upon the helpless civil
population after a decisive victory had been won on the battlefield.
It required them to sack and burn down villages and towns after the
defenders had died fighting or had fled. The cows, the Brahmins, and
the Bhikshus invited their special attention in mass murders of non-
combatants. The temples and monasteries were their special targets in
an orgy of pillage and arson. Those whom they did not kill, they
captured and sold as slaves. The magnitude of the booty looted even
from the bodies of the dead, was a measure of the success of a
military mission. And they did all this as mujãhids (holy warriors)
and ghãzîs (kãfir-killers) in the service of Allah and his Last
Prophet.
Hindus found it very hard to understand the psychology of this new
invader. For the first time in their history, Hindus were witnessing a
scene which was described by KãnhaDade Prabandha (1456 AD) in the
following words: “The conquering army burnt villages, devastated the
land, plundered people’s wealth, took Brahmins and children and women
of all classes captive, flogged with thongs of raw hide, carried a
moving prison with it, and converted the prisoners into obsequious
Turks.” That was written in remembrance of Alauddin Khalji’s invasion
of Gujarat in the year 1298 AD. But the gruesome game had started
three centuries earlier when Mahmud Ghaznavi had vowed to invade India
every year in order to destroy idolatry, kill the kãfirs, capture
prisoners of war, and plunder vast wealth for which India was well-
known.
MAHMUD GHAZNAVI AND SON
In 1000 AD Mahmud defeated Raja Jaipal, a scion of the Hindu Shahiya
dynasty of Kabul. This dynasty had been for long the doorkeeper of
India in the Northwest. Mahmud collected 250,000 dinãrs as indemnity.
That perhaps was normal business of an empire builder. But in 1004 AD
he stormed Bhatiya and plundered the place. He stayed there for some
time to convert the Hindus to Islam with the help of mullahs he had
brought with him. In 1008 AD he captured Nagarkot (Kangra). The loot
amounted to 70,000,000 dirhams in coins and 700,400 mans of gold and
silver, besides plenty of precious stones and embroidered cloths. In
1011 AD he plundered Thanesar which was undefended, destroyed many
temples, and broke a large number of idols. The chief idol, that of
Chakraswamin, was taken to Ghazni and thrown into the public square
for defilement under the feet of the faithful. According to Tãrîkh-i-
Yamînî of Utbi, Mahmud’s secretary, “The blood of the infidels flowed
so copiously [at Thanesar] that the stream was discoloured,
notwithstanding its purity, and people were unable to drink it. The
Sultãn returned with plunder which is impossible to count. Praise he
to Allah for the honour he bestows on Islãm and Muslims.”
In 1013 AD Mahmud advanced against Nandana where the Shahiya king,
Anandapal, had established his new capital. The Hindus fought very
hard but lost. Again, the temples were destroyed, and innocent
citizens slaughtered. Utbi provides an account of the plunder and the
prisoners of war: “The Sultãn returned in the rear of immense booty,
and slaves were so plentiful that they became very cheap and men of
respectability in their native land were degraded by becoming slaves
of common shopkeepers. But this is the goodness of Allah, who bestows
honour on his own religion and degrades infidelity.”
The road was now clear for an assault on the heartland of Hindustan.
In December 1018 AD Mahmud crossed the Yamuna, collected 1,000,000
dirhams from Baran (Bulandshahar), and marched to Mahaban in Mathura
district. Utbi records: “The infidels… deserted the fort and tried to
cross the foaming river… but many of them were slain, taken or
drowned… Nearly fifty thousand men were killed.” Mathura was the next
victim. Mahmud seized five gold idols weighing 89,300 miskals and 200
silver idols. According to Utbi, “The Sultãn gave orders that all the
temples should be burnt with naptha and fire, and levelled with the
ground.” The pillage of the city continued for 20 days.
Mahmud now turned towards Kanauj which had been the seat of several
Hindu dynasties. Utbi continues: “In Kanauj there were nearly ten
thousand temples… Many of the inhabitants of the place fled in
consequence of witnessing the fate of their deaf and dumb idols. Those
who did not fly were put to death. The Sultãn gave his soldiers leave
to plunder and take prisoners.” The Brahmins of Munj, which was
attacked next, fought to the last man after throwing their wives and
children into fire. The fate of Asi was sealed when its ruler took
fright and fled. According to Utbi, “the Sultãn ordered that his five
forts should be demolished from their foundations, the inhabitants
buried in their ruins, and the soldiers of the garrison plundered,
slain and captured”.
Shrawa, the next important place to be invaded, met the same fate.
Utbi concludes: “The Muslims paid no regard to the booty till they had
satiated themselves with the slaughter of the infidels and worshippers
of sun and fire. The friends of Allah searched the bodies of the slain
for three days in order to obtain booty… The booty amounted in gold
and silver, rubies and pearls nearly to three hundred thousand
dirhams, and the number of prisoners may be conceived from the fact
that each was sold for two to ten dirhams. These were afterwards taken
to Ghazni and merchants came from distant cities to purchase them, so
that the countries of Mawaraun-Nahr, Iraq and Khurasan were filled
with them, and the fair and the dark, the rich and the poor, were
commingled in one common slavery.”
Mahmud’s sack of Somnath is too well-known to be retold here. What
needs emphasising is that the fragments of the famous Šivaliñga were
carried to Ghazni. Some of them were turned into steps of the Jama
Masjid in that city. The rest were sent to Mecca, Medina, and Baghdad
to be desecrated in the same manner.
Mahmud’s son Masud tried to follow in the footsteps of his father. In
1037 AD he succeeded in sacking the fort of Hansi which was defended
very bravely by the Hindus. The Tãrîkh-us-Subuktigîn records: “The
Brahmins and other high ranking men were slain, and their women and
children were carried away captive, and all the treasure which was
found was distributed among the army.” Masud could not repeat the
performance due to his preoccupations elsewhere.
MUHAMMAD GHURI AND HIS LIEUTENANTS
Invasion of India by Islamic imperialism was renewed by Muhmmad Ghuri
in the last quarter of the 12th century. After Prithiviraj Chauhan had
been defeated in 1192 AD, Ghuri took Ajmer by assault. According the
Tãj-ul-Mã’sîr of Hasan Nizami, “While the Sultan remained at Ajmer, he
destroyed the pillars and foundations of the idol temples and built in
their stead mosques and colleges and precepts of Islãm, and the
customs of the law were divulged and established.”
Next year he defeated Jayachandra of Kanauj. A general massacre,
rapine, and pillage followed. The Gahadvad treasuries at Asni and
Varanasi were plundered. Hasan Nizami rejoices that “in Benares which
is the centre of the country of Hind, they destroyed one thousand
temples and raised mosques on their foundations”. According to Kãmil-
ut-Tawãrîkh of Ibn Asir, “The slaughter of Hindus (at Varanasi) was
immense; none were spared except women and children, and the carnage
of men went on until the earth was weary.” The women and children were
spared so that they could be enslaved and sold all over the Islamic
world. It may be added that the Buddhist complex at Sarnath was sacked
at this time, and the Bhikshus were slaughtered.
Ghuri’s lieutenant Qutbuddin Aibak was also busy meanwhile. Hasan
Nizami writes that after the suppression of a Hindu revolt at Kol
(Aligarh) in 1193 AD, Aibak raised “three bastions as high as heaven
with their heads, and their carcases became food for beasts of prey.
The tract was freed from idols and idol-worship and the foundations of
infidelism were destroyed.” In 1194 AD Aibak destroyed 27 Hindu
temples at Delhi and built the Quwwat-ul-Islãm mosque with their
debris. According to Nizami, Aibak “adorned it with the stones and
gold obtained from the temples which had been demolished by
elephants”. In 1195 AD the Mher tribe of Ajmer rose in revolt, and the
Chaulukyas of Gujarat came to their assistance. Aibak had to invite re-
inforcements from Ghazni before he could meet the challenge. In 1196
AD he advanced against Anahilwar Patan, the capital of Gujarat. Nizami
writes that after Raja Karan was defeated and forced to flee, “fifty
thousand infidels were despatched to hell by the sword” and “more than
twenty thousand slaves, and cattle beyond all calculation fell into
the hands of the victors”. The city was sacked, its temples
demolished, and its palaces plundered. On his return to Ajmer, Aibak
destroyed the Sanskrit College of Visaladeva, and laid the foundations
of a mosque which came to be known as ADhãî Din kã JhoMpaDã. Conquest
of Kalinjar in 1202 AD was Aibak’s crowning achievement. Nizami
concludes: “The temples were converted into mosques… Fifty thousand
men came under the collar of slavery and the plain became black as
pitch with Hindus.”
A free-lance adventurer, Muhammad Bakhtyar Khalji, was moving further
east. In 1200 AD he sacked the undefended university town of Odantpuri
in Bihar and massacred the Buddhist monks in the monasteries. In 1202
AD he took Nadiya by surprise. Badauni records in his Muntakhãb-ut-
Tawãrîkh that “property and booty beyond computation fell into the
hands of the Muslims and Muhammad Bakhtyar having destroyed the places
of worship and idol temples of the infidels founded mosques and
Khanqahs”.
THE SLAVE (MAMLUK) SULTANS
Shamsuddin Iltutmish who succeeded Aibak at Delhi invaded Malwa in
1234 AD. He destroyed an ancient temple at Vidisha. Badauni reports:
“Having destroyed the idol temple of Ujjain which had been built six
hundred years previously, and was called Mahakal, he levelled it to
its foundations, and threw down the image of Rai Vikramajit from whom
the Hindus reckon their era, and brought certain images of cast molten
brass and placed them on the ground in front of the doors of mosques
of old Delhi, and ordered the people of trample them under foot.”
Muslim power in India suffered a serious setback after Iltutmish.
Balban had to battle against a revival of Hindu power. The Katehar
Rajputs of what came to be known as Rohilkhand in later history, had
so far refused to submit to Islamic imperialism. Balban led an
expedition across the Ganges in 1254 AD. According to Badauni, “In two
days after leaving Delhi, he arrived in the midst of the territory of
Katihar and put to death every male, even those of eight years of age,
and bound the women.” But in spite of such wanton cruelty, Muslim
power continued to decline till the Khaljis revived it after 1290 AD.
THE KHALJIS
Jalaluddin Khalji led an expedition to Ranthambhor in 1291 AD. On the
way he destroyed Hindu temples at Jhain. The broken idols were sent to
Delhi to be spread before the gates of the Jama Masjid. His nephew
Alauddin led an expedition to Vidisha in 1292 AD. According to
Badauni, Alauddin “brought much booty to the Sultan and the idol which
was the object of worship of the Hindus, he caused to be cast in front
of the Badaun gate to be trampled upon by the people. The services of
Alauddin were highly appreciated, the jagir of Oudh also was added to
his other estates.”
Alauddin became Sultan in 1296 AD after murdering his uncle and father-
in-law, Jalaluddin. In 1298 AD he equipped an expedition to Gujarat
under his generals Ulugh Khan and Nusrat Khan. In an earlier chapter I
have already quoted Tãrîkh-I-Wassãf on the “achievements” of this
expedition. The invaders plundered the ports of Surat and Cambay. The
temple of Somnath, which had been rebuilt by the Hindus, was plundered
and the idol taken to Delhi for being trodden upon by the Muslims. The
whole region was subjected to fire and sword, and Hindus were
slaughtered en masse. Kamala Devi, the queen of Gujarat, was captured
along with the royal treasury, brought to Delhi and forced into
Alauddin’s harem. The doings of the Malik Naib during his expedition
to South India in 1310-1311 AD have already been described.
THE TUGHLAQS
Muslim power again suffered a setback after the death of Alauddin
Khalji in 1316 AD. But it was soon revived by the Tughlaqs. By now
most of the famous temples over the length and breadth of the Islamic
empire in India had been demolished, except in Orissa and Rajasthan
which had retained their independence. By now most of the rich
treasuries had been plundered and shared between the Islamic state and
its swordsmen. Firuz Shah Tughlaq led an expedition to Orissa in 1360
AD. He destroyed the temple of Jagannath at Puri, and desecrated many
other Hindu shrines. According to Sîrat-i-Fîrûz Shãhî which he himself
wrote or dictated, “Allah who is the only true God and has no other
emanation, endowed the king of Islãm with the strength to destroy this
ancient shrine on the eastern sea-coast and to plunge it into the sea,
and after its destruction he ordered the image of Jagannãth to be
perforated, and disgraced it by casting it down on the ground. They
dug out other idols which were worshipped by the polytheists in the
kingdom of Jãjnagar and overthrew them as they did the image of
Jagannãth, for being laid in front of the mosques along the path of
the Sunnis and the way of the musallis (Muslim congregation for namãz)
and stretched them in front of the portals of every mosque, so that
the body and sides of the images might be trampled at the time of
ascent and descent, entrance and exit, by the shoes on the feet of the
Muslims.”
After the sack of the temples in Orissa, Firuz Shah Tughlaq attacked
an island on the sea-coast where “nearly 100,000 men of Jãjnagar had
taken refuge with their women, children, kinsmen and relations”. The
swordsmen of Islam turned “the island into a basin of blood by the
massacre of the unbelievers”. A worse fate overtook the Hindu women.
Sîrat-i-Fîrûz Shãhî records: “Women with babies and pregnant ladies
were haltered, manacled, fettered and enchained, and pressed as slaves
into service in the house of every soldier.”
Still more horrible scenes were enacted by Firuz Shah Tughlaq at
Nagarkot (Kangra) where he sacked the shrine of Jvalamukhi. Firishta
records that the Sultan “broke the idols of Jvãlãmukhî, mixed their
fragments with the flesh of cows and hung them in nosebags round the
necks of Brahmins. He sent the principal idol as trophy to Medina.”
AMIR TIMUR
The climax came during the invasion of Timur in 1399 AD. He starts by
quoting the Quran in his Tuzk-i-Timûrî: “O Prophet, make war upon the
infidels and unbelievers, and treat them severely.” He continues: “My
great object in invading Hindustan had been to wage a religious war
against the infidel Hindus… [so that] the army of Islam might gain
something by plundering the wealth and valuables of the Hindus.”
To start with he stormed the fort of Kator on the border of Kashmir.
He ordered his soldiers “to kill all the men, to make prisoners of
women and children, and to plunder and lay waste all their property”.
Next, he “directed towers to be built on the mountain of the skulls of
those obstinate unbelievers”. Soon after, he laid siege to Bhatnir
defended by Rajputs. They surrendered after some fight, and were
pardoned. But Islam did not bind Timur to keep his word given to the
“unbelievers”. His Tuzk-i-Timûrî records: “In a short space of time
all the people in the fort were put to the sword, and in the course of
one hour the heads of 10,000 infidels were cut off. The sword of Islam
was washed in the blood of the infidels, and all the goods and
effects, the treasure and the grain which for many a long year had
been stored in the fort became the spoil of my soldiers. They set fire
to the houses and reduced them to ashes, and they razed the buildings
and the fort to the ground.”
At Sarsuti, the next city to be sacked, “all these infidel Hindus were
slain, their wives and children were made prisoners and their property
and goods became the spoil of the victors”. Timur was now moving
through Haryana, the land of the Jats. He directed his soldiers to
“plunder and destroy and kill every one whom they met”. And so the
soldiers “plundered every village, killed the men, and carried a
number of Hindu prisoners, both male and female”. Loni which was
captured before he arrived at Delhi was predominantly a Hindu town.
But some Muslim inhabitants were also taken prisoners. Timur ordered
that “the Musulman prisoners should be separated and saved, but the
infidels should all be despatched to hell with the proselytising
sword”.
By now Timur had captured 100,000 Hindus. As he prepared for battle
against the Tughlaq army after crossing the Yamuna, his Amirs advised
him “that on the great day of battle these 100,000 prisoners could not
be left with the baggage, and that it would be entirely opposed to the
rules of war to set these idolators and enemies of Islam at liberty”.
Therefore, “no other course remained but that of making them all food
for the sword”. Tuzk-i-Timûrî continues: “I proclaimed throughout the
camp that every man who had infidel prisoners should put them to
death, and whoever neglected to do so should himself be executed and
his property given to the informer. When this order became known to
the ghãzîs of Islam, they drew their swords and put their prisoners to
death. One hundred thousand infidels, impious idolators, were on that
day slain. Maulana Nasiruddin Umar, a counsellor and man of learning,
who, in all his life, had never killed a sparrow, now, in execution of
my order, slew with his sword fifteen idolatrous Hindus, who were his
captives.”
The Tughlaq army was defeated in the battle that ensued next day.
Timur entered Delhi and learnt that a “great number of Hindus with
their wives and children, and goods and valuables, had come into the
city from all the country round”. He directed his soldiers to seize
these Hindus and their property. Tuzk-i-Timûrî concludes: “Many of
them (Hindus) drew their swords and resisted… The flames of strife
were thus lighted and spread through the whole city from Jahãnpanah
and Siri to Old Delhi, burning up all it reached. The Hindus set fire
to their houses with their own hands, burned their wives and children
in them and rushed into the fight and were killed… On that day,
Thursday, and all the night of Friday, nearly 15,000 Turks were
engaged in slaying, plundering and destroying. When morning broke on
Friday, all my army… went off to the city and thought of nothing but
killing, plundering and making prisoners… The following day, Saturday
the 17th, all passed in the same way, and the spoil was so great that
each man secured from fifty to a hundred prisoners, men, women, and
children. There was no man who took less than twenty. The other booty
was immense in rubies, diamonds, garnets, pearls, and other gems and
jewels; ashrafis, tankas of gold and silver of the celebrated Alãi
coinage: vessels of gold and silver; and brocades and silks of great
value. Gold and silver ornaments of Hindu women were obtained in such
quantities as to exceed all account. Excepting the quarter of the
Saiyids, the ulama and the other Musulmãns, the whole city was
sacked.”
http://voiceofdharma.com/books/siii/ch6.htm
CHAPTER VII
THE MAGNITUDE OF MUSLIM ATROCITIES - II
The NCERT is not the only villain in the game of propping up palpable
falsehoods in the field of medieval Indian history. For quite some
time, the All India Radio has been presenting a programme in Hindi -
Itihãsa Ke Jharokhe Se (Window on History). The refrain is that
medieval India under Muslim rule was a period of peace and amity
between Hindus and Muslims, and that Muslim rulers, particularly
Aurangzeb, went out of their way to be kind and considerate to the
Hindus. The insinuation is that the Hindu-Muslim strife was a creation
of the British imperialists whose “nefarious game” is now being
continued by “Hindu communalists”.
The evidence cited by the speakers in this AIR programme is always an
exercise in suppressio veri suggestio falsi. For instance, Aurangzeb’s
petty donations to 2-3 Hindu temples patronized by some pet Hindu
courtiers, are played up with great fanfare. But his systematic
demolition of thousands of Hindu temples and defilement of countless
images of Gods and Goddesses, throughout his long reign, is never
mentioned. Such pitiable attempts at pitting molehills of munificence
against mountains of malevolence, go against all sense of proportion
in judging a whole period of Indian history. It is also a very sad
spectacle of the slave mentality which was imbibed by a certain
section of Hindu intelligentsia during the long spell of Islamic
imperialism in India: The master has a god-given right to kick his
slave a hundred times a day. But the master deserves gratitude from
the slave if the former smiles on the latter once in a blue moon. It
is understandable if an apologist of Islam sings the glories of the
Islamic empire in India. But for a Hindu to participate in this
programme is the limit of self-abasement. No amount of swearing by
Secularism can cover up the sin.
One may very well ask the purveyors of this puerile propaganda that if
the record of Islam in medieval India was so bright and blameless,
where is the need for this daily ritual of whitewashing it. Hindu
heroes like Chandragupta Maurya, Samudragupta, Harihar, Bukka,
Maharana Pratap, and Shivaji, to name only a few of the notables, have
never needed any face-lift. Why does the monstrous mien of an Alauddin
Khalji, a Firuz Shah Tughlaq, a Sikandar Lodi, and an Aurangzeb, to
name only the most notorious, pop out so soon from the thickest coat
of cosmetics?
The answer is provided by the Muslim historians of medieval India.
They painted their heroes in the indelible dyes of Islamic ideology.
They did not anticipate the day when Islamic imperialism in India will
become only a painful memory of the past. They did not visualise that
the record of Islam in India will one day be weighed on the scales of
human values. Now it is too late for trying to salvage Islam in
medieval India from it blood-soaked history. The orthodox Muslim
historians are honest when they state that the medieval Muslim
monarchs were only carrying out the commandments of Islam when they
massacred, captured, enslaved, and violated Hindu men, women and
children; desecrated, demolished, and destroyed Hindu places of
worship; and dispossessed the Hindus of all their wealth. The Aligarh
“historians” and their secularist patrons are only trying to prop up
imposters in place of real and living characters who played life-size
roles in history.
I have already related what some of the sultans were doing to the
Hindus from their imperial seat at Delhi. The provincial Muslim
satraps who became independent whenever Delhi had a weak Muslim
monarch, behaved no better.
THE PROVINCIAL MUSLIM SATRAPS
In 1391 AD the Muslims of Gujarat complained to Nasiruddin Muhammad,
the Tughlak Sultan of Delhi, that the local governor, Farhat-ul-Mulk,
was practising tolerance towards the Hindus. The Sultan immediately
appointed Muzaffar Khan as the new governor. He became independent
after the death of the Delhi Sultan and assumed the title of Muzaffar
Shah in 1392 AD. Next year he led an expedition to Somnath and sacked
the temple which the Hindus had built once again. He killed many
Hindus to chastise them for this “impudence”, and raised a mosque on
the site of the ancient temple. The Hindus, however, restarted
restoring the temple soon after. In 1401 AD Muzaffar came back with a
huge army. He again killed many Hindus, demolished the temple once
more, and erected another mosque. Muzaffar was succeeded by his
grandson, Ahmad Shah, in 1411 AD. Three years later Ahmad appointed a
special dãrogah to destroy all temples throughout Gujarat. In 1415 AD
Ahmad invaded Sidhpur where he destroyed the images in Rudramahalaya,
and converted the grand temple into a mosque. Sidhpur was renamed
Sayyadpur.
Mahmud Begrha who became the Sultan of Gujarat in 1458 AD was the
worst fanatic of this dynasty. One of his vassals was the Mandalika of
Junagadh who had never withheld the regular tribute. Yet in 1469 AD
Mahmud invaded Junagadh. In reply to the Mandalika’s protests, Mahmud
said that he was not interested in money as much as in the spread of
Islam. The Mandalika was forcibly converted to Islam and Junagadh was
renamed Mustafabad. In 1472 AD Mahmud attacked Dwarka, destroyed the
local temples, and plundered the city. Raja Jayasingh, the ruler of
Champaner, and his minister were murdered by Mahmud in cold blood for
refusing to embrace Islam after they had been defeated and their
country pillaged and plundered. Champaner was renamed Mahmudabad.
Mahmud Khalji of Malwa (1436-69 AD) also destroyed Hindu temples and
built mosques on their sites. He heaped many more insults on the
Hindus. Ilyas Shah of Bengal (1339-1379 AD) invaded Nepal and
destroyed the temple of Svayambhunath at Kathmandu. He also invaded
Orissa, demolished many temples, and plundered many places. The
Bahmani sultans of Gulbarga and Bidar considered it meritorious to
kill a hundred thousand Hindu men, women, and children every year.
They demolished and desecrated temples all over South India.
BABUR
The scene shifted once mere to Delhi after Babur came out victorious
against the Lodis and the Rajputs. The founder of the Mughal empire
has received much acclaim from Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru for his
fortitude in adversity, his daring against heavy odds, his swimming
across many rivers, his love of flowers and fruits, and so on so
forth. But his face, presented by himself in his Tuzuk-i-Bãburî,
suffers irreparable damage if it is denuded of the rich hues of
horrible cruelties in which he habitually indulged. The lurid details
he provides of his repeated massacres of the infidels, leave no doubt
that he was mighty proud of his performance. He was particularly fond
of raising higher and higher towers of Hindu heads cut off during and
after every battle he fought with them. He loved to sit in his royal
tent to watch this spectacle. The prisoners were brought before him
and butchered by his “brave” swordsmen. On one occasion, the ground
flowed with so much blood and became so full of quivering carcases
that his tent had to be moved thrice to a higher level. He lost no
opportunity of capturing prisoners of war and amassing plunder. In the
dynasty founded by him it was incumbent upon every king that he should
style himself a Ghãzî, that is, slayer of infidels. When he broke
vessels of wine on the eve of his battle with Rana Sangram Singh, he
proclaimed that he would smash idols in a similar manner. And he
destroyed temples wherever he saw them.
SHER SHAH SUR
Sher Shah Sur’s name is associated in our textbooks with the Grand
Trunk Road from Peshawar to Dacca, with caravanserais, and several
other schemes of public welfare. It is true that he was not a habitual
persecutor of Hindus before he became the emperor at Delhi. But he did
not betray Islam when he became the supreme ruler. The test came at
Raisen in 1543 AD. Shaykh Nurul Haq records in Zubdat-ul-Tawãrîkh as
follows: “In the year 950 H., Puranmal held occupation of the fort of
Raisen… He had 1000 women in his harem… and amongst them several
Musulmanis whom he made to dance before him. Sher Khan with Musulman
indignation resolved to conquer the fort. After he had been some time
engaged in investing it, an accommodation was proposed and it was
finally agreed that Puranmal with his family and children and 4000
Rajputs of note should be allowed to leave the fort unmolested.
Several men learned in the law (of Islam) gave it as their opinion
that they should all be slain, notwithstanding the solemn engagement
which had been entered into. Consequently, the whole army, with the
elephants, surrounded Puranmal’s encampment. The Rajputs fought with
desperate bravery and after killing their women and children and
burning them, they rushed to battle and were annihilated to a man.”
AKBAR
Humayun had hardly any time free from troubles to devote to the
service of Islam. But his son, Akbar, made quite a good start as a
ghãzî. He stabbed the half-dead Himu with his sword after the Second
Battle of Panipat. The ritual was then followed by many more “brave
warriors” of Islam led by Bairam Khan who drove their swords in the
dead body. In 1568 AD Akbar ordered a general massacre at Chittor
after the fort had fallen. Abul Fazl records in his Akbar-Nãma as
follows. “There were 8,000 fighting Rajputs collected in the fortress,
but there were more than 40,000 peasants who took part in watching and
serving. From early dawn till midday the bodies of those ill-starred
men were consumed by the majesty of the great warrior. Nearly 30,000
men were killed… When Sultan Alauddin (Khalji) took the fort after six
months and seven days, the peasantry were not put to death as they had
not engaged in fighting. But on this occasion they had shown great
zeal and activity. Their excuses after the emergence of victory were
of no avail, and orders were given for a general massacre.” Akbar thus
improved on the record of Alauddin Khalji. Watching the war and
serving the warriors were re-interpreted as acts of war! To top it
all, Akbar travelled post-haste to Ajmer where he offered profuse
thanks to Allah and the Prophet, and his (Akbar’s) patron saint,
Muinuddin Chishti, and issued a Fathnãma in which many appropriate
verses of the Quran were cited in order to prove that he had followed
faithfully in the footsteps of the Prophet.
JAHANGIR
Jahangir was primarily a drunkard and a sadist scoundrel. He was too
indolent to keep his promise, given to Nawab Murtaza Khan at the time
of his accession, that he would uphold the Shariat. He was too much
devoted to women and the wine-cup to care much for Allah and the
Prophet. But he encouraged conversions to Islam by giving daily
allowances to the converts. In the very first year of his reign, he
tortured Guru Arjun Dev to death. His contempt for Hindus comes out
clearly in his Tuzuk-i-Jahãngîrî: “A Hindu named Arjun lived in
Govindwal on the bank of river Beas in the garb of a saint and in
ostentation. From all sides cowboys and idiots became his fast
followers. The business had flourished for three or four generations.
For a long time it had been in my mind to put a stop to this dukãn-e-
bãtil (mart of falsehood) or to bring him into the fold of Islam.”
According to other accounts, he asked the Guru to include some sûrahs
of the Quran in the Ãdi Grantha, which the Guru refused to do. In the
eighth year of his reign, he destroyed the temple of Bhagwat at Ajmer.
He persecuted the Jains in Gujarat, and ordered that Jain monks should
not be seen in his kingdom on pain of death. Finally, he sent Murtaza
Khan to Kangra for reducing that city of temples. The siege lasted for
20 months at the end of which he himself went to Kangra for
slaughtering cows in that sacred place of Hindus, and building a
mosque where none had existed before.
SHAH JAHAN
The pendulum started swinging towards the true spirit of Islam at the
very start of Shah Jahan’s reign in 1628 AD. Its outer symbol was the
reappearance of the beard on the face of the emperor. Abdul Hamid
Lahori records in his Bãdshãhnãma: “It had been brought to the notice
of His Majesty that during the late reign many idol temples had been
begun, but remained unfinished at Benares, the great stronghold of
infidelism. The infidels were now desirous of completing them. His
Majesty, the defender of the faith, gave orders that at Benares, and
throughout all his dominions in every place, all temples that had been
begun should be cast down. It was now reported from the province of
Allahabad that 76 temples had been destroyed in the district of
Benares.” That was in 1633 AD.
In 1635 AD, Shah Jahan’s soldiers captured some ladies of the royal
Bundela family after Jujhar Singh and his sons failed to kill them in
the time-honoured Rajput tradition. In the words of Jadunath Sarkar,
“Mothers and daughters of kings, they were robbed of their religion
and forced to lead the infamous life of the Mughal harem.” Shah Jahan
himself made a triumphal entry into Orchha, the capital of the
Bundelas, demolished the lofty and massive temple of Bir Singh Dev,
and raised a mosque in its place. Two sons and one grandson of Jujhar
Singh who were of tender age, were made Musalmans. Another son of
Jujhar Singh, Udaybhan, and a minister, Shyam Dawa, had fled to
Golconda where they were captured by Qutbul-Mulk and sent to Shah
Jahan. According to Bãdshãhnãma again, “Udaybhan and Shyam Dawa, who
were of full age, were offered the alternative of Islam or death. They
chose the latter and were sent to hell.”
AURANGZEB
With the coming of Aurangzeb, the policy of sulah-i-kul (peace with
all) initiated by Akbar in the later part of his reign suffered a
complete reversal. Aurangzeb had started his career as a but-shikan
(iconoclast) 13 years before he ascended the throne at Delhi.
According to Mirãt-i-Ahmadî, the temple of Chintaman situated close to
Sarashpur (Gujarat) and built by Sitaldas jeweller was converted into
a mosque named Quwwat-ul-Islãm (might of Islam) by order of Prince
Aurangzeb in 1645 AD. A cow was slaughtered to “solemnize” the
“ceremony”. Three years after he became king, he sent Mir Jumla on an
expedition to Cooch Bihar. Mir Jumla demolished all temples in that
city and erected mosques in their stead. The general himself wielded a
battle-axe to break the image of Narayana.
In 1665 AD, it was reported to Aurangzeb that the temples he had
demolished in Gujarat during his viceroyalty had been rebuilt by the
Hindus. He immediately issued a farmãn to the governor of Gujarat
which said: “In Ahmedabad and other parganas of Gujarat in the days
before my accession temples were destroyed by my order. They have
been repaired and idol-worship resumed. Carry out the former order.”
In 1666 AD, he ordered the faujdãr of Mathura to remove a stone
railing which had been presented by Dara Shukoh to the temples of
Keshav Rai. He explained: “In the Muslim faith it is a sin even to
look at a temple and this Dara had restored a railing in a temple!”
A general policy towards Hindu temples was proclaimed in April 1669.
Maasir-i-Ãlamgîrî records: “On the 17th of Zil Kada 1079 (9th April
1669) it reached the ears of His Majesty, the protector of the faith,
that in the province of Thatta, Multan, and Benares, but especially in
the latter, foolish Brahmans were in the habit of expounding frivolous
books in their schools, and that students and learners, Muslims as
well as Hindus, went there, even from long distances, led by a desire
to become acquainted with the wicked sciences they taught. The
Director of the Faith, consequently, issued orders to all governors of
provinces to destroy with a willing hand the schools and temples of
the infidels and they were strictly enjoined to put an entire stop to
the teaching and practising of idolatrous forms of worship. On the
15th Rabiul-akhir (end September) it was reported to his religious
Majesty, leader of the unitarians, that in obedience to order, the
government officers had destroyed the temple of Bishnath at Benares.”
Maasir-i-Ãlamgîrî continues: “In the month of Ramzan 980 H. (January
1670) this justice-loving monarch, the constant enemy of tyrants,
commanded the destruction of the Hindu temple of Mathura known by the
name of Dehra Keshav Rai, and soon that stronghold of falsehood was
levelled with the ground. On the same spot was laid, with great
expense, the foundation of a vast mosques… Glory be to Allah who has
given us the faith of Islam that in this reign of the destroyer of
false gods, an undertaking so difficult of attainment has been brought
to a successful culmination. The richly jewelled idols taken from the
infidel temples were transferred to Agra and there placed beneath the
steps leading to the Nawab Begum Sahib’s (Jahanara’s) mosque in order
that they might be pressed under foot by the true believers. Mathura
changed its name into Islamabad and was thus called in all official
documents.”
In the same year, Sitaramji temple at Soron was destroyed as also the
shrine of Devi Patan at Gonda. News came from Malwa also that the
local governor had sent 400 troopers to destroy all temples around
Ujjain. According to Muraqãt-i-Abul Hasan, civil officers, agents of
jãgirdãrs, karoris and amlas from Cuttack in Orissa to Medinipur in
Bengal were instructed as follows: “Every idol house built during the
last 10 or 12 years… should be demolished without delay. Also, do not
allow the crushed Hindus and despicable infidels to repair their old
temples. Reports of the destruction of temples should be sent to the
court under the seal of the qazis and attested by pious Shaikhs.”
In 1672 AD, several thousand Satnamis were slaughtered near Narnaul in
Mewat for which act of “heroism” Radandaz Khan was tided Shuja‘at Khan
with the mansab of 3000 and 2000 horse. In 1675 AD, Guru Tegh Bahadur
was tortured to death for his resistance against the forcible
conversion of the Hindus of Kashmir. The destruction of gurudwãras
thereafter is a well-known story which our secularists have succeeded
in suppressing because the Akali brand Sikhs have been forging ties of
friendship with Islam as against their parent faith, Hindu Dharma.
The year 1679 AD was the year of triumph for the “true faith”. On
April 2, jizyah was reimposed on Hindus to “spread Islam and put down
the practice of infidelism”. The Hindus of Delhi and around organised
a protest and blocked Aurangzeb’s way to the Jami Masjid on one
Friday. The mighty Mughal Emperor ordered his elephants to be driven
through the mass of men. Many were trampled to death. Shivaji also
wrote a letter of protest from distant Maharashtra. But it fell on
deaf ears. Mirãt-i-Ahmadî records: “Darab Khan was sent with a strong
force to punish the Rajputs of Khandela and demolish the great temples
of that place. He attacked the place on 8th March 1679 A.D. and pulled
down the temples of Khandela and Sanula and all other temples in the
neighbourhood.” Maasir-i-Ãlamgîrî adds: “On 25 May 1679 A.D. Khan
Jahan Bahadur arrived from Jodhpur bringing with him several cart-
loads of idols, taken from the Hindu temples that had been demolished.
His Majesty gave him great praise. Most of these idols were adorned
with precious stones. It was ordered that some of them should be cast
away in the outer offices and the remainder placed beneath the steps
of the grand mosque, there to be trampled under foot. There they lay a
long time until at last not a vestige of them was left.”
The year 1680 AD brought an equally “rich harvest” for Islam. Maasir-i-
Ãlamgîrî goes ahead: “On 6th January 1680 A.D. Prince Mohammad Azam
and Khan Jahan Bahadur obtained permission to visit Udaipur. Ruhullah
Khan and Yakkattãz Khan also proceeded thither to effect the
destruction of the temples of the idolators. These edifices situated
in the vicinity of the Rana’s palace were among the wonders of the
age, and had been erected by the infidels to the ruin of their souls
and the loss of their wealth… Pioneers destroyed the images. On 24th
January the king visited the tank of Udayasagar. His Majesty ordered
all three of the Hindu temples to be levelled with the ground. On 29th
January Hasan Ali Khan made his appearance… and stated that… 172
temples in the neighbouring districts had been destroyed. His Majesty
proceeded to Chitor on 22nd February. Temples to the number of 63 were
destroyed. Abu Tarab who had been commissioned to effect the
destruction of idol temples of Amber, reported in person on 10th
August that 66 temples had been levelled to the ground.” The temple of
Someshwar in western Mewar was also destroyed at a later date in the
same year. It may be mentioned that unlike Jodhpur and Udaipur, Amber
was the capital of a state loyal to the Mughal emperor.
According to Kalimãt-i-Tayyibãt, Aurangzeb wrote to Zulfiqar Khan and
Mughal Khan that “the demolition of a temple is possible at any time,
as it cannot walk away from it place”. Even so, he was annoyed by the
solid strength of temples in Maharashtra. Kalimãt-i-Aurangzeb
reproduces his following message to Ruhullah Khan: “The houses of this
country are exceedingly strong and built solely of the stone and iron.
The hatchet-men of the government in course of my marching do not get
sufficient manpower and time to destroy and raze the temples of
infidels that meet the eye on the way. You should appoint a darogha
who may afterwards destroy them at leisure and dig up their
foundations.” Aurangzeb himself acted as such a darogha in one
instance. He reports in Kalimãt-i-Aurangzeb: “The village of Satara
near Aurangabad was my hunting ground. Here on the top of hill stood a
temple with an image of Khande Rai. By Allah’s grace I demolished it
and forbade the temple dancers to play their shameful trade.”
Demolition of Hindu temples remained Aurangzeb’s pastime during his
long campaign in the South. Khafi Khan records in his Muntakhãb-ul-
Lubãb: “On the capture of Golconda, the Emperor appointed Abdur Rahim
Khan as censor of the city of Haiderãbãd with orders to put down
infidel practices and innovations, and destroy the temples and build
mosques on the sites.” That was in 1687 AD. In 1690 AD, he ordered
destruction of temples at Ellora, Trimbakeshwar, Narasinghpur, and
Pandharpur. In 1698 AD, the story was repeated at Bijapur. According
to Mirãt-i-Ahmadî: “Hamid-ud-din Khan Bahadur who had been deputed to
destroy the temples of Bijapur and build mosques there, returned to
court after carrying out the order and was praised by the Emperor.” As
late as 1705 AD, two years before he died, “the emperor, summoning
Muhammad Khalil and Khidmat Rai, the darogha of hatchet-men… ordered
them to demolish the temple of Pandharpur, and to take the butchers of
the camp there and slaughter cows in the temple.” Cow-slaughter at a
temple site was a safeguard against Hindus rebuilding it on the same
spot.
The story can be continued to cover similar crimes committed by later
Muslim monarchs and chieftains. But I am not continuing it because my
theme at present is medieval India under Muslim rule, which period
ended with the death of Aurangzeb.
The magnitude of crimes credited to Muslim monarchs by the medieval
Muslim historians, was beyond measure. With a few exceptions, Muslim
kings and commanders were monsters who stopped at no crime when it
came to their Hindu subjects. But what strikes as more significant is
the broad pattern of those crimes. The pattern is that of a jihãd in
which the ghãzîs of Islam 1) invade infidel lands; 2) massacre as many
infidel men, women, and children, particularly Brahmins, as they like
after winning a victory; 3) capture the survivors to be sold as
slaves; 4) plunder every place and person; 5) demolish idolatrous
places of worship and build mosques in their places; and 6) defile
idols which are flung into public squares or made into steps leading
to mosques.
Still more significant is the fact that this is exactly the pattern 1)
revealed by Allah in the Quran; 2) practised, perfected and prescribed
by the Prophet in his own life-time; 3) followed by the pious Khalifas
of Islam in the first 35 years of Islamic imperialism; 4) elaborated
in the Hadis and hundreds of commentaries with meticulous attention to
detail; 5) certified by the Ulama and the Sufis of Islam in all ages
including our own; and 6) followed by all Muslim monarchs and
chieftains who aspired for name and fame in this life, and houris and
beardless boys hereafter.
It is, therefore, poor apologetics to blame the Islamized Turks alone
of being barbarous. Islamic barbarism was shared in equal measure by
all races and communities who were forced or lured into the fold of
Islam - the Arabs, the Turks, the Persians, the Pathans, the Hindu
converts. The conclusion in inescapable that Islam brutalizes all
those who embrace it. And that is where the blame should be laid in
all reason and justice.
We can now return to the NCERT guideline which proclaims that the
conflict between Hindus and Muslims in medieval India shall be
regarded as political rather than religious. There is no justification
for such a characterisation of the conflict. The Muslims at least were
convinced that they were waging a religious war against the Hindu
infidels. The conflict can be regarded as political only if the NCERT
accepts the very valid proposition that Islam has never been a
religion, and that it started and has remained a political ideology of
terrorism with unmistakable totalitarian trends and imperialist
ambitions. The first premises as well as the procedures of Islam bear
a very close resemblance to those of Communism and Nazism. Allah is
only the predecessor of the Forces of Production invoked by the
Communists, and of the Aryan Race invoked by the Nazis.
http://voiceofdharma.com/books/siii/ch7.htm
CHAPTER VIII
THE MYTH OF MUSLIM EMPIRE IN INDIA
The apologists of Islam and their secularist lick-spittles argue that
if the Muslim conquerors had practised such systematic, extensive, and
continued terror against Hindus and Hinduism as has been recorded by
the Muslim historians of medieval India, Hindus could not have
survived as an overwhelming majority at the end of the long spell of
Muslim rule.
The logic here is purely deductive (formal). Suppose a person is
subjected to a murderous assault, but he survives because he fights
back. Deductively it can be concluded that the person never suffered a
murderous assault because otherwise he could not have been alive! But
this conclusion has little relevance to the facts of the case.
My sixth question, therefore, is: Did Hindus survive as a majority in
their own homeland because the Islamic invaders did not employ
sufficient force to kill or convert them, or because, though defeated
again and again by the superior military skill of the invaders, Hindu
princes did not give up resistance and came back again and again to
reconquer their lost kingdoms, to fight yet another battle, yet
another day, till the barbarians were brought to book?
Before I answer this question, I should like to warn against a very
widely prevalent though a very perverse version of Indian history. In
this popular version, Indian history has been reduced to a history of
foreign invaders who were able to enter India from time to time - the
so-called Aryans, the Iranians, the Greeks, the Parthians, the
Scythians, the Kushanas, the Hunas, the Arabs, the Turks, the Pathans,
the Mughals, the Persians, the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French, and
the British. The one impression which this version of Indian history
leaves, is that India has always been a no-man’s land which any armed
bandit could come and occupy at any time, and that Hindus have always
been a “meek mob” which has always bowed before every “superior”
race.
Muslims in India and elsewhere have been led to believe by the mullahs
and Muslim historians that the conquest of India by Islam started with
the invasion of Sindh by Muhammad bin Qasim in 712 AD, was resumed by
Mahmud Ghaznavi in 1000 AD, and completed by Muhammad Ghuri when he
defeated the Chauhans of Ajmer and the Gahadvads of Kanauj in the last
decade of the 12th century. Muslims of India in particular have been
persuaded to look back with pride on those six centuries, if not more,
when India was ruled by Muslim emperors. In this make-belief, the
British rulers are treated as temporary intruders who cheated Islam of
its Indian empire for a hundred years. So also the “Hindu Banias”, who
succeeded the British in 1947 AD. Muslims are harangued every day, in
every mosque and madrasah, not to rest till they reconquer the rest of
India which, they are told, rightfully belongs to Islam.
The academic historians also agree that India was ruled by Muslim
monarchs from the last decade of the 12th century to the end of the
18th. The standard textbooks of history, therefore, narrate medieval
Indian history in terms of a number of Muslim imperial dynasties
ruling from Delhi - the Mamluks (Slaves), the Khaljis, the Tughlaqs,
the Sayyids, the Lodis, the Surs, the Mughals. The provincial Muslim
dynasties with their seats at Srinagar, Lahore, Multan, Thatta,
Ahmedabad, Mandu, Burhanpur, Daulatabad, Gulbarga, Bidar, Golconda,
Bijapur, Madurai, Gaur, Jaunpur, and Lucknow fill the gaps during
periods of imperial decline.
It is natural that in this version of medieval Indian history the
recurring Hindu resistance to Islamic invaders, imperial as well as
provincial, looks like a series of sporadic revolts occasioned by some
minor grievances of purely local character, or led by some petty
upstarts for purely personal gain. The repeated Rajput resurgence in
Rajasthan, Bundelkhand and the Ganga-Yamuna Doab; the renewed
assertion of independence by Hindu princes at Devagiri, Warrangal,
Dvarasamudra and Madurai; the rise of the Vijayanagara Empire; the
farflung fight offered by the Marathas; and the mighty movement of the
Sikhs in the Punjab - all these then get readily fitted into the
framework of a farflung and enduring Muslim empire. And the Hindu
heroes who led this resistance for several centuries get reduced to
ridiculous rebels who disturbed public peace at intervals but who were
always put down.
But this version of medieval Indian history is, at its best, only an
interpretation based on preconceived premises and propped up by a
highly selective summarisation, or even invention, of facts. There is
ample room for another interpretation based on more adequate premises,
and borne out by a far better systematisation of known facts.
What are the facts? Do they bear out the interpretation that India was
fully and finally conquered by Islam, and that the Muslim empire in
India was a finished fabric before the British stole it for themselves
by fraudulent means?
MUSLIM INVASIONS WERE NO WALK-OVER
The so-called conquest of Sindh first.
Having tried a naval invasion of India through Thana, Broach, and
Debal from 634 to 637 AD, the Arabs tried the land route on the north-
west during AD 650-711. But the Khyber Pass was blocked by the Hindu
princes of Kabul and Zabul who inflicted many defeats on the Arabs,
and forced them to sign treaties of non-aggression. The Bolan pass was
blocked by the Jats of Kikan. AI Biladuri writes in his Futûh-ul-
Buldãn: “At the end of 38 H. or the beginning of 39 H. (659 A.D.) in
the Khilafat of Ali… Harras… went with the sanction of the Khalif to
the same frontier… He and those who were with him, saving a few, were
slain in the land of Kikan in the year 42 H. (662 A.D.). In the year
44 H. (664 A.D) and in the days of Khalif Muawiya, Muhallab made war
on the same frontier… The enemy opposed him and killed him and his
followers… Muawiya sent Abdullah… to the frontier of Hind. He fought
in Kikan and captured booty… He stayed near the Khalif some time and
then returned to Kikan, when the Turks (Hindus) called their forces
together and slew him.”
Next, the Arabs tried the third land route, via Makran. Al Biladuri
continues: “In the reign of the same Muawiya, Chief Ziyad appointed
Sinan… He proceeded to the frontier and having subdued Makran and its
cities by force, he stayed there… Ziyad then appointed Rashid… He
proceeded to Makran but he was slain fighting against the Meds (Hindus)
… Abbad, son of Ziyad then made war on the frontier of Hind by way of
Seistan. He fought the inhabitants… but many Musulmans perished… Ziyad
next appointed Al Manzar. Sinan had taken it but its inhabitants had
been guilty of defection… He (Al Manzar) died there… When Hajjaj… was
governor of Iraq, Said… was appointed to Makran and its frontiers. He
was opposed and slain there. Hajjaj then appointed Mujja… to the
frontier… Mujja died in Makran after being there a year… Then Hajjaj
sent Ubaidullah… against Debal. Ubaidullah being killed, Hajjaj wrote
to Budail… directing him to proceed to Debal… the enemy surrounded and
killed him. Afterwards, Hajjaj during the Khilafat of Walid, appointed
Mohammad, son of Qasim… to command on the Sindhian frontier.” That was
in 712 AD.
Now compare this Arab record on the frontiers of India with their
record elsewhere. Within eight years of the Prophet’s death, they had
conquered Persia, Syria, and Egypt. By 650 AD, they had advanced upto
the Oxus and the Hindu Kush. Between 640 and 709 AD they had reduced
the whole of North Africa. They had conquered Spain in 711 AD. But it
took them 70 long years to secure their first foothold on the soil of
India. No historian worth his salt should have the cheek to say that
the Hindus have always been an easy game for invaders.
Muhammad bin Qasim succeeded in occupying some cities of Sindh. His
successors led some raids towards the Punjab, Rajasthan, and
Saurashtra. But they were soon defeated, and driven back. The Arab
historians admit that “a place of refuge to which the Muslims might
flee was not to be found”. By the middle of the 8th century they
controlled only the highly garrisoned cities of Multan and Mansurah.
Their plight in Multan is described by AI Kazwin in Asr-ul-Bilãd in
the following words: “The infidels have a large temple there, and a
great idol… The houses of the servants and devotees are around the
temple, and there are no idol worshippers in Multan besides those who
dwell in those precincts… The ruler of Multan does not abolish this
idol because he takes the large offerings which are brought to it…
When the Indians make an attack upon the town, the Muslims bring out
the idol, and when the infidels see it about to be broken or burnt,
they retire.” (emphasis added). So much for Islamic monotheism of the
Arabs and their military might. They, the world-conquerors, failed to
accomplish anything in India except a short-lived raid.
It was some two hundred years later, in 963 AD, that Alptigin the Turk
was successful in seizing Ghazni, the capital of Zabul. It was his
successor Subuktigin who seized Kabul from the Hindu Shahiyas shortly
before he died in 997 AD. His son, Mahmud Ghaznavi, led many
expeditions into India between 1000 and 1027 AD. The details of his
destructive frenzy are too well-known to be repeated. What concerns us
here is the facile supposition made by historians in general that
Mahmud was not so much interested in establishing an empire in India
as in demolishing temples, plundering treasures, capturing slaves, and
killing the kãfirs. This supposition does not square with his seizure
of the Punjab west of the Ravi, and the whole of Sindh. The conclusion
is unavoidable that though Mahmud went far into the heartland of
Hindustan and won many victories, he had to beat a hasty retreat every
time in the face of Hindu counterattacks. This point is proved by the
peril in which he was placed by the Jats of the Punjab during his
return from Somnath in 1026 AD.
The same Jats and the Gakkhars gave no end of trouble to the Muslim
occupants of Sindh and the Punjab after Mahmud was dead. Another 150
years were to pass before another Islamic invader planned a conquest
of India. This was Muhammad Ghuri. His first attempt towards Gujarat
in 1178 AD met with disaster at the hands of the Chaulukyas, and he
barely escaped with his life. And he was carried half-dead from the
battlefield of Tarain in 1191 AD. It was only in 1192 AD that he won
his first victory against Hindus by resorting to a mean stratagem
which the chivalrous Rajputs failed to see through.
THE TURKISH EMPIRE WAS TEMPORARY
Muhammad Ghuri conquered the Punjab, Sindh, Delhi, and the Doab upto
Kanauj. His general Qutbuddin Aibak extended the conquest to Ajmer and
Ranthambhor in Rajasthan, Gwalior, Kalinjar, Mahoba and Khajuraho in
Bundelkhand, and Katehar and Badaun beyond the Ganges. His raid into
Gujarat was a failure in the final round though he succeeded in
sacking and plundering Anahilwar Patan. Meanwhile, Bakhtyar Khalji had
conquered Bihar and Bengal north and west of the Hooghly. He suffered
a disastrous defeat when he tried to advance into Assam.
But by the time Muhammad Ghuri was assassinated by the Gakkhars in
1206 AD, and Aibak assumed power over the former’s domain in India,
Kalinjar had been reconquered by the Chandellas, Ranthambhor had
renounced vassalage to Delhi, Gwalior had been reoccupied by the
Pratihars, the Doab was up in arms under the Gahadvad prince
Harishchandra, and the Katehar Rajputs had reasserted their
independence beyond the Ganges. The Yadavbhatti Rajputs around Alwar
had cut off the imperial road to Ajmer. Aibak was not able to
reconquer any of these areas before he died in 1210 AD.
Aibak’s successor, Iltutmish, succeeded in retaking Ranthambhor and
Gwalior, and in widening his base around Ajmer. But he suffered
several defeats at the hands of the Guhilots of Nagda, the Chauhans of
Bundi, the Paramars of Malwa, and the Chandellas of Bundelkhand.
Beyond the Ganges, the Katehar Rajputs had consolidated their hold
which the Sultan could not shake. The Doab was still offering a very
stiff resistance. His grip on Ajmer had also started slipping by the
time he died in 1236 AD.
The Sultanate suffered a steep decline during the reigns of Razia,
Bahrain, Masud, and Mahmud of the Shamsi dynasty founded by Iltutmish,
though its dissolution was prevented by Balban who wielded effective
power from 1246 AD onwards. The Muslim position in Bengal was
seriously threatened by Hindu Orissa. Another Muslim invasion of Assam
ended in yet another disaster in which the Muslim general lost his
life and a whole Muslim army was annihilated, Hindu chieftains now
started battering the Muslim garrison towns in Bihar. Near Delhi, the
Chandellas advanced up to Mathura. The Rajputs from Alwar made raids
as far as Hansi, and became a terror for Muslims even in the environs
of Delhi. Balban’s successes against this rising tide of Hindu
recovery were marginal. He suffered several setbacks. The Sultanate
was once more reduced to rump around Delhi when Balban died in 1289
AD.
Dr. R.C. Majumdar has summed up the situation so far in the following
words: “India south of the Vindhyas was under Hindu rule in the 13th
century. Even in North India during the same century, there were
powerful kingdoms not yet subjected to Muslim rule, or still fighting
for their independence… Even in that part of India which acknowledged
the Muslim rule, there was continual defiance and heroic resistance by
large or small bands of Hindus in many quarters, so that successive
Muslim rulers had to send well-equipped military expeditions, again
and again, against the same region… As a matter of fact, the Muslim
authority in Northern India, throughout the 13th century, was
tantamount to a military occupation of a large number of important
centres without any effective occupation, far less a systematic
administration of the country at large.”
Jalaluddin Khalji failed to reconquer any land which had been lost by
Muslims during the earlier reign. Alauddin was far more successful.
His generals, Ulugh Khan and Nusrat Khan, were able to conquer Gujarat
in 1298 AD. But they were beaten back from Ranthambhor which Alauddin
could reduce only in 1301 AD. His conquest of Chittor in 1303 AD was
short-lived as the Sisodias retook it soon after his death in 1316 AD.
So was his conquest of Jalor in Rajasthan. His own as well Malik
Kafur’s expeditions against Devagiri in Maharashtra, Warrangal in
Andhra Pradesh, Dvarasamudra in Karnataka, and Madurai in Tamil Nadu,
were nothing more than raids because Hindu princes reasserted their
independence in all these capitals soon after the invaders left. And
the Khalji empire collapsed as soon as Alauddin died in 1316 AD.
Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq had to intervene in 1320 AD to save the remnants
from being taken over by Hindus from Gujarat who had been nominally
converted to Islam.
Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq was successful in conquering south and east
Bengal. But he could not completely subdue Tirhut in Bihar. His son
Jauna Khan suffered defeat in 1321 AD when he tried to reconquer
Warrangal, and had to mount another attack in 1323 AD before he could
reduce it. But by 1326 AD Prataparudra was back in power. In 1324 AD
Jauna Khan had been beaten back from the borders of Orissa. He was
more successful when he came to power as Muhammad Tughlaq. He
consolidated his hold over Devagiri, conquered the small kingdom of
Kampili on the Tungbhadra, and forced Dvarasamudra to pay tribute to
the imperial authority of Delhi. Madurai also came to be included in
his empire. He transferred his capital to Devagiri in order to keep a
close watch on Hindu resurrection in the South, and for establishing
another centre of Islamic power in India. But at the very start of his
reign he had been defeated by Maharana Hammir of Mewar, taken
prisoner, and released only after he ceded all claims to Ajmer,
Ranthambhor and Nagaur, besides payment of 50 lakhs of rupees as
indemnity. And his empire south of the Vindhyas was lost to Delhi in
his own life-time, and Delhi’s hold over large areas even in the North
disappeared soon after his death in 1351 AD.
Firuz Shah Tughlaq was able to keep together the rump for some time.
His expedition to Orissa was nothing more than a successful raid. And
he had to lead annual expeditions against the Katehar Rajputs north of
the Ganges. Ms successors could not keep even the rump in the north.
It broke down completely after Timur’s invasion in 1399 AD. Meanwhile,
the great Vijayanagara Empire had consolidated Hindu power south of
the Krishna. Rajasthan was ruled by defiant Rajput princes led by
Mewar. Orissa had fully recovered from the devastation of Firuz Shah
Tughlaq’s raid.
The Sayyids who succeeded the Tughlaqs were hardly an imperial dynasty
when they started in 1414 AD. Their hold did not extend beyond Etawah
(U.P.) in the east, and Mewat (Haryana) in the south. Khizr Khan tried
to restore the empire in the north but without success. Mubarak Shah
was able to recover the Punjab and Multan before the Sayyids were
supplanted by the Lodis in 1451 AD.
Bahlol Lodi reduced the Muslim principality of Jaunpur in 1457 AD. But
Sikandar Lodi failed to subdue Gwalior, Rajasthan, and Baghelkhand. He
removed his capital to Agra in order to plan a conquest of Malwa and
Rajasthan. But it bore no fruit. The Lodi “empire” more or less broke
down under Ibrahim Lodi. By this time, Mewar under Rana Sanga had
emerged as the strongest state in North India. Orissa stood its ground
against Muslim Bengal to its north and the Bahmanis to its south. The
power of Vijayanagara attained its acme under Krishnadevaraya
(1505-1530 AD).
The situation during the 14th and the 15th centuries has been summed
up by Dr. R.C. Majumdar in the following words: “The Khalji empire
rose and fell during the brief period of twenty years (A.D 1300-1320).
The empire of Muhammed bin Tughlaq… broke up within a decade of his
accession (A.D. 1325), and before another decade was over, the Turkish
empire passed away for ever… Thus barring two every short-lived
empires under the Khaljis and Muhammad bin Tughlaq… there was no
Turkish empire in India. This state of things continued for nearly two
centuries and a half till the Mughals established a stable and durable
empire in the second half of the sixteenth century A.D.”
MUGHAL EMPIRE: A JOINT VENTURE
Babur won some renowned victories but hardly established an empire.
Humayun lost to Sher Shah Sur, and failed to win back most of what
Babur had won. Sher Shah added Ranthambhor and Ajmer to his empire in
north India. But the fierce fight he faced in Marwar made him confess
that he had almost lost an empire for a handful of millet. His rule
lasted only for a brief span of five years (1540-1545 AD). The Sur
“empire” became a shambles soon after, so much so that the Hindu
general Himu was able to crown himself as Hemachandra Vikramaditya at
Delhi in 1556 AD.
The Mughal empire founded by Akbar in 1556 AD proved more stable, and
endured for 150 years. It also expanded in all directions till by the
end of the 17th century it covered almost the whole of India except
the extreme south. But the credit for Mughal success must go largely
to Akbar’s recognition of power realities, and reconciliation with the
Rajputs by suspension of several tenets of a typically Islamic state.
It was the Rajput generals and soldiers who won many of the victories
for which the Mughals took credit. The Rajput states in Rajasthan and
Bundelkhand were vassals of the Mughal emperor only in name. For all
practical purposes, they were allies of the Mughals who had to keep
them in good humour. And Mewar kept aloft the flag of Hindu defiance
throughout the period of effective Mughal rule.
The Mughal empire started breaking up very fast when Aurangzeb
reversed Akbar’s policy of accommodating the Hindus, and tried to re-
establish a truly Islamic state based on terror, and oppression of the
“non-believers”. Rajasthan and Bundelkhand reasserted their
independence during his life-time. So did the Jats around Bharatpur
and Mathura. The Marathas dug Aurangzeb’s grave when they made
imperial seats such as Ahmadnagar and Aurangabad unsafe in spite of
large Mughal garrisons, and invaded imperial territory as far as
Khandesh and Gujarat. This Hindu resurgence shattered the Mughal
empire within two decades of Aurangzeb’s death in 1707 AD.
THE PROVINCIAL MUSLIM PRINCIPALITIES
Amongst the provincial Muslim principalities established by rebels and
adventurers after the break-up of the Tughlaq empire, those of Bengal,
Malwa, Gujarat, and the Bahmanis were notable. Hindu Orissa battled
against Bengal till both of them were taken over by the Mughals. The
Sisodias of Mewar engaged Gujarat and Malwa, and almost overcame them
in the reign of Rana Sanga. Gujarat recovered for a short time only to
be taken over by the Mughals. The Vijayanagara Empire contained the
Bahmanis from southward expansion in a fierce struggle spread over
more than two centuries, in which fortunes on both sides waxed and
waned. The destruction of the metropolis at Vijayanagara did not lead
to the destruction of the Vijayanagara Empire. It barred the path of
Bijapur for another seventy years. Meanwhile, the Marathas had come to
control large parts of South India as nominal vassals of Ahmadnagar
and Bijapur even before Shivaji appeared on the scene. And they were
soon to deliver death blows to the remnants of the Bahmani empire
which the Mughals hastened to incorporate in their own empire.
THE PROPER PERSPECTIVE
Reviewed as a whole, the period between the last decade of the 12th
century and the first quarter of the 18th - the period which is
supposed to be the period of Muslim empire in India - is nothing more
than a period of long-drawn-out war between Hindu freedom fighters and
the Muslim invaders. The Hindus lost many battles, and retreated again
and again. But they recovered every time, and resumed the struggle so
that eventually the enemy was worn out, defeated, and dispersed in the
final round which started with the rise of Shivaji.
As we read the history of medieval India we find that only a few Hindu
princes made an abject surrender before the proved superiority of
Muslim arms. Muslim historians cite innumerable instances of how
Hindus burnt or killed their womenfolk, and then died fighting to the
last man. There were many instances of Muslims being defeated
decisively by Hindu heroism. Many of the so-called Muslim conquests
were mere raids which succeeded initially but the impact of which did
not last for long. The account which Assam, Rajasthan, Bundelkhand,
Orissa, Telingana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and the Punjab
gave of themselves in successive waves of resistance and recovery, has
not many parallels in human history.
It is, therefore, a travesty of truth to say that Islam enjoyed an
empire in India for six centuries. What happened really was that Islam
struggled for six centuries to conquer India for good, but failed in
the final round in the face of stiff and continued Hindu resistance.
Hali was not at all wrong when he mourned that the invincible armada
of Hijaz which had swept over so many seas and rivers met its watery
grave in the Ganges. Iqbal also wrote his Shikwah in sorrowful
remembrance of the same failure. In fact, there is no dearth of Muslim
poets and politicians who weep over the defeat of Islam in India in
the past, and who look forward to a reconquest of India in the future.
Hindus have survived as a majority in their motherland not because
Islam spared any effort to conquer and convert them but because
Islamic brutality met more than its equal in Hindu tenacity for
freedom.
Nor is it anywhere near the truth to say that the British empire in
India replaced an earlier Muslim empire. The effective political power
in India had already passed into the hands of the Marathas, the Jats,
and the Sikhs when the British started playing their imperialist game.
The Muslim principalities in Bengal, Avadh, South India, Sindh, and
the Punjab were no match for the Hindu might that had resurged. The
Mughal emperor at Delhi by that time presented a pitiful picture of
utter helplessness. The custodians of Islam in India were repeatedly
inviting Ahmad Shah Abdali from across the border to come and rescue
Islam from the abyss into which it had fallen.
http://voiceofdharma.com/books/siii/ch8.htm
CHAPTER IX
THE DETERMINANTS OF HINDU DEFEATS
It is true that Hindus resisted Islamic imperialism for a long time,
and overcame it in the long run. But it would be foolish to forget
that their failure for a long time in the face of an enemy with whom
they had become familiar pretty soon, was of frightening proportions.
It is this failure of the Hindus and not the defeat of the Muslim
marauders which invites a serious review and reflection. I will,
therefore, do my own loud thinking on this subject. For I feel very
strongly that the lessons we may learn from these failures are still
valid for us.
It is held by almost all historians of this period, including those
who neither swear by Marxism nor apologise for Islam, that the Hindu
failure had its source in the Hindu social system, particularly the
caste structure. But that proposition does not stand a deeper probe.
Moreover, the proposition is preposterous because it reverses the
chronological sequence. The Hindu social system became moribund and
the caste system rigid only after Hindus had lost political power.
There is sufficient evidence to prove that on the eve of Islamic
invasions, the Hindu social system did not harbour the defects which
it developed at a later stage. It is my considered opinion that it was
their highly organic social system which saved the Hindus from
extinction in the initial stages, and provided the powerful impetus
which propelled them to victory in the long run. Iran, Iraq, Syria,
Egypt, and North Africa were engulfed by Islam because they did not
have a social structure which could withstand the storm.
At a first glance, the Hindu failure looks like the failure of their
art of warfare, pure and simple. The traditional Hindu warriors,
particularly the Rajputs, were in no way inferior, if not superior, to
the Turks in terms of valour and tenacity. Nor were the Muslim
mercenaries any match for the Hindu warriors when it came to
dedication to ideals of freedom and sense of honour and sacrifice. But
the superiority of the Turkish art of warfare in terms of strategy,
tactics, mobility, military morale, and arsenal set at nought the
Hindu superiority and Muslim inferiority in many other respects.
At a second remove, the Hindu failure can be perceived as a political
failure, a failure of their state system. In the initial stages at
least, the larger Hindu states like the Shahiyas, the Chauhans, the
Chandellas, the Gahadvads, and the Chaulukyas were far superior to the
Islamic invaders in terms of financial means as well as manpower. But
Hindus failed to mobilise these resources in any worthwhile manner.
They could not have mobilised these resources even if they had wanted
to, without radically reforming their state system. The decentralised
and democratic character of the Hindu state, and the paucity of
central revenue under the Hindu system of public finance, prevented
Hindu princes from maintaining standing armies on a permanent war-
footing. Hindu princes had to depend largely on levies recruited on
the spur of the moment. And most of the time, these levies behaved no
better than mobs. The larger the mob, the lower was its power to
withstand assaults from solid phalanxes such as the Muslim conquerors
brought to the battlefield. The battle could last only so long as the
small number of trained and traditional Hindu warriors could sustain
the shock. The Muslim war-machine on the other hand had been reared by
a militarised state system, and was geared to withstand a stiffer
strain.
But the deeper reason fails to be satisfied even by these explanations
of the Hindu failure. Why did not the Hindus mend their art of warfare
after they had seen the superiority of Muslim military methods? Why
did the Hindus refuse to streamline their state system till it was too
late? The military as well as political failure could have been
overcome speedily if some deeper failure had not continued to linger
for a long time. It is this deeper failure which I want to discuss in
this chapter.
THE FOREMOST FAILURE: SPIRITUAL
To start with, what strikes me most is the steep decline in the Hindu
spiritual perception. The sacred and philosophical literature produced
by Hindus from the 5th century onwards compares very unfavourably with
similar literature of an earlier age - like Mahabharata, the Ramayana,
the earlier literature Manusmriti. The earlier literature dwells
naturally and effortlessly on the Himalayan heights of the human soul,
but at the same time it pays due attention to every detail of
terrestrial life. The family, the clan, the village, the janapada, the
rãshtra - life at each of these levels is sustained by a dharma
appropriate to the level and complexity of relationships involved. The
janmabhûmi, the motherland, is equated with the janani, the loving
mother, and endowed with sanctity higher than that of heaven. Human
society in its smaller as well as larger segments is an enabling
environment in which the individual seeks abhyudaya, mundane welfare,
as well as nisshreyas, spiritual salvation. Society has a lot to give
to the individual in terms of upbringing, education, status within the
brotherhood of the varNa, and livelihood in the fraternity of the
jãti. But society also demands a lot in terms of self-discipline,
performance of duties due from one’s station in life, and sacrifice
which mostly means living for others. The rãjã, the state, is an
embodiment of the protecting power of the Divine, and demands in turn
taxes and obedience to legitimate laws.
In the eyes of this highly vigilant spirituality, evil is as much
present in human nature as the good, and manifests itself in as many
ways as the good. This spirituality is, therefore, wide awake to every
eruption of evil, individual as well as collective. It can spot evil
at the ideological and the psychological level as easily as at the
level of its physical manifestation or concrete action. And it
recommends a combat with evil, devãsura-saMgrãma, in every sphere of
life. In this spirituality, there is no place for suffering evil
silently, or for explaining it away, or for facing it with a
subjective sanctimoniousness, howsoever elevated the language that
sanctimoniousness may employ. When Alexander had asked a Brahmin as to
what they taught which inspired Hindu warriors to such high heroism,
the Brahmin had replied in one sentence – “We teach our people to live
with honour.”
While it does not lose any of its heights, its grip on life as lived
in this world gets greatly loosened. There is an insistent and
increasing rejection of terrestrial life, and turning one’s back upon
it is termed as the highest human endeavour. Dharma is no more a
comprehensive concept embracing the wide wealth of human
relationships; it is narrowed down to specialised disciplines enjoined
by the goal of individual salvation. In fact, human relationships
start getting redefined as so many snares which entangle and encumber
the individual soul in its journey towards the supreme attainment.
Honour and heroism now become lower values when compared to the
herculean effort of breaking the shackles of karma and getting across
the ocean of rebirth. Most spiritual seekers now not only take to
sannyãsa but also go into seclusion in search of samãdhi, the mystic
trance. Tantra, mantra, maNDala and yantra follow in sequence till
spirituality in most cases gets reduced to some sort of an esoteric
ritualism which is loath to subject itself to any objective test of
character or performance. Those who do not feel drawn towards this
highly elaborate but entirely subjective spirituality are now free to
pursue artha, acquisitions, or kãma, pleasures, or both, without any
guidance from dharma.
Many students of the spiritual literature of this period have hailed
the medieval siddhas and the saints as harbingers of a casteless
society. They do not see the perspective in which varNa and jãti
become irrelevant for the spiritual seekers of this period. The
perspective is one of social indifference, not one of social concern.
The siddhas and the saints are indifferent not only to varNa and jãti,
but also to the rãjã and the rãshtra. None of them tells the princes
that the supreme test of their prowess and honour is the protection of
their prajã. Some of them do bemoan the terror, destruction,
desecration, and spoliation perpetrated by the Islamic invaders. But
the complaint is addressed to God Almighty who allows such horrible
things to happen. The voice which a Valmiki or a Vyasa would have
raised for resistance to and destruction of the dasyu, marauder, and
the ãtatãyî, gangster, is missing. Samartha Ramdas is the only
exception.
It is small wonder, therefore, that Hindu saints of this period failed
to see Islam with the eyes of a wholesome spirituality practised in
earlier ages. They took at face value the professions of Islam that it
was a religion like one of their own. Some of them were impressed by
Islamic monotheism, and started denouncing the multiplicity of their
own Gods and Goddesses. None of them could see that the Kalimah -
there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his last prophet - could
emanate only from a beastly rather than a religions consciousness. Not
a single Hindu saint made the effort to see or succeeded in seeing
through the professions of Islam or the piety of its sufis, and
exposing the sin and the sham masquerading as religion and sainthood.
The NirguNa saints did question the exclusive claims of Islam. But
none of them questioned its claim as an alternate path of salvation.
And all of them assailed Brahmanism and polytheism.
The thinkers and philosophers of this period proved worse than the
saints in this respect. They argued back and forth on all possible
positions in metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, logic, linguistics,
social ceremonies, and religious rituals. But none of them made a
systematic or serious study of Islam, or traced to its scriptural
source its terrorism and cruelty. The saints at least soothed and
strengthened their people by their songs and sermons. The thinkers and
philosophers cannot claim even that much credit. They only divided
their people by their highly sectarian scholasticism. A majority of
the Muslims were Hindu converts who had been forced or lured into the
fold of Islam which sat lightly on them for a long time. Hindu society
closed its doors on them, and condemned them to permanent and
progressive alienation. The results would have been radically
different if Hindu thinkers and philosophers had rejected Islam, and
won back the converts to Islam into their mother society.
THE SECOND FAILURE: CULTURAL
The failure of Hindu spiritual perception had something, perhaps much,
to do with the failure of the Hindu cultural vision. There was a lapse
of historical memory and cultural tradition about the essential unity,
integrity, and sanctity of what the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the
Puranas, and the Dharmashastras had clearly defined as Bharatavarsha.
This vast land which Islam has dismembered in due course into the
separate states of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Hindustan, and Bangladesh
had been a single indivisible whole since times immemorial.
Bharatavarsha had been termed by the ancients as the cradle of
varNãšrama-dharma, witness to the wheel of the caturyugas, and the
kShetra for chakravãrtya, spiritual as well as political. This
historical memory and cultural tradition was alive as late as the
imperial Guptas. Kalidasa had clothed it in immortal poetry in his far-
famed RaghuvaMša.
This failure of Hindu cultural vision had serious consequences. Hindus
failed to organise a collective effort to guard the frontiers of
Bharatavarsha. Hindu princes in the interior did not rally round Raja
Dahir when Muhammad bin Qasim violated the sacred soil of Sindh. They
made some better effort when the Hindu Shahiyas of Udbhandapur were
challenged by Subuktigin. But the effort fizzled out before long,
because very few of them had their heart in it. Hindu princes by now
had taken a deep dose of Kautalya’s Arthašãstra which, along with
Vatsyayana’s Kãmasûtra, had become a prime part of their political
education. In this sterile statecraft, centred on the politics of the
maNDalayoni, one’s neighbour was always an enemy, and the enemy of an
enemy always a friend! Hindu princes, therefore, failed to hang
together in the face of a common calamity. In the event, they were
hanged separately.
THE THIRD FAILURE: MENTAL
The third failure which was closely linked with the first two was the
failure of mental alertness to what was happening in the world around.
Hindu merchants were still selling the products of Indian agriculture
and industry in all lands invaded by Islam. Hindu saints, particularly
the Buddhist monks, were still practising their austerities and
preaching their sermons in their farflung monasteries in Iran and
Khorasan. But none of them could see the storm that was rising on the
sands of Arabia and sowing a harvest of mass slaughter, pillage,
plunder and enslavement, not even when it swept over neighbouring
lands. They waited where they were till they were slaughtered and/or
plundered in their own turn, or, if they fled back home, they did not
say the word that could have served as a warning. Nor were the Hindu
princes in a mental mood to heed any warning even if it had been
tendered to them. An awareness of what was happening in neighbouring
lands was no more needed by them. Each one of them was busy with his
immediate neighbours. There was no lack of martial spirit, or sense of
honour, or sentiments of chivalry in them. But all this wealth of
character was wasted in proving their prowess over primacy of the
right to a first dip in holy rivers and tanks, or to the hands of
pretty princesses. What they lacked was statesmanship which is always
an outcome of an alert and wide-ranging mind. They learnt neither from
their own defeats, nor from the victories of the enemy. They mended
neither their statecraft, nor their system of revenue, nor their
military establishment, nor yet their art of warfare.
It cannot be maintained that Islam did not provide an ample
opportunity to Hindu saints, philosophers and princes to understand
its true character and role. Before the armies of Islam invaded India,
the sufis had settled down in many parts of India, built mosque and
khanqahs and started their work of conversion. They were the sappers
and miners of Islamic invasions which followed in due course.
Muinuddin Chishti was not the first “saint” of Islam to send out an
invitation to an Islamic invader to come and kill the kãfirs,
desecrate their shrines, and plunder their wealth. He was following in
the footsteps of earlier Islamic “saints” functioning as fifth-
columnists for Muhammad bin Qasim and Mahmud Ghaznavi. There was an
interval of two and a half centuries between the Arab demonstration in
Sindh of what Islam had in store for the Hindus, and the horrors let
loose by Mahmud Ghaznavi. Again, there was another interval of a
century and a half between the invasions of Mahmud Ghaznavi and those
of Muhammad Ghuri. But neither the Hindu saints, nor the Hindu
philosophers, nor the Hindu princes could see the sufis for what they
were in essence, or draw any worthwhile conclusions about the
character of Islam.
This triple Hindu failure on the spiritual, cultural, and mental
levels prevented Hindu society from evolving and pursuing policies
which were imperative in the unprecedented situation, and which would
have saved it from the permanent scourge of a malignant fraternity
embedded in its very heart.
THE POLICIES WHICH WERE NOT PURSUED
The first need of the situation was a centre round which Hindus could
rally, and from which Hindu resistance to the Islamic invasion could
be directed. The effectiveness of such a centre was demonstrated first
in Mewar under Maharana Pratap, secondly in the South under
Vijayanagara, thirdly in Maharashtra under Shivaji, and lastly in the
Punjab under Banda Bahadur. But these centres crystallised too late. A
nationwide centre established earlier could have contained Islamic
imperialism at the borders of Bharatavarsha, or defeated and driven it
out from wherever it had secured a foothold. Chandragupta,
Vikramaditya, and Skandagupta had headed such a centre, and saved the
motherland by hurling back the barbarians as soon as they came.
The second need of the situation was a forward policy which would have
taken the war into the heartland of Islam, instead of being fought
over the length and breadth of Bharatavarsha. But the Hindus during
this period were afflicted by a fortress psychology. They waited for
the invader till he arrived at Panipat, or shut themselves into
citadels which could be stormed or starved into surrender while the
unprotected populace outside was slaughtered. Nor did they ever pursue
and destroy the invader even when he was defeated and made of flee. If
the Chaulukyas of Gujarat had pursued and destroyed Muhammad Ghuri and
his hordes when he was defeated by them in his first expedition in
1178 AD, he would not have come back to Tarain in 1191 AD. Again, if
the Chauhans had pursued and punished Ghuri after his defeat in the
first battle of Tarain, there would have been no second battle of
Tarain, and perhaps no more Muslim invasion of India, at least for
some time to come. The effectiveness of a forward policy was
demonstrated first by the Marathas under Shivaji, and later on by the
Sikhs under Banda Bahadur. But that was against an Islamic state
already established in India. Meanwhile, Islam had succeeded in doing
very severe damage to the self-respect and self-confidence of Hindu
society, particularly to the psyche of its elite.
The consequences of this damage to the Hindu psyche came to the
surface during the days of the Mughal empire. Hindu generals like
Mansingh Kacchwaha, Jaswant Singh Rathore, and Mirza Raja Jaisingh, to
name only the most notable, proved their great calibre when employed
by an alien imperialism. Hindu administrators like Raja Todarmal
streamlined the revenue system of an alien state. But they could not
use their abundant talents for establishing their own leadership in
the service of their own nation. The Marathas who finally occupied
Delhi in 1771 AD provide an excellent example of this loss of elan.
They could not muster the courage to proclaim their own sovereignty
over their own motherland, and continued to function in the name of a
phantom whom they had themselves freed from British captivity. They
were frightened of their own greatness. The notion of an independent
nationhood no more informed their vision.
The third need of the situation was a policy of reciprocity which
nations have to follow when they are faced with gangsterism. Islam was
suffering from the high fever of self-righteousness, and was badly in
need of some strong medicine. If the Islamic invaders had been made to
understand that what they intended to do to Somnath could also be done
to the Ka‘bah, they would have paused to think and shed some of their
self-righteousness. But Hindus never tried to cure Islam of its
iconoclastic zeal. On the contrary, they used every opportunity to
convince Muslims that their mosques, mazars, and khanqahs were
absolutely inviolable. No wonder Muslims came to the conclusion that
while Somnath was built from bricks and mortar, and the Šivaliñga made
of mere stone, the Ka‘bah was hewn out of some spiritual substance and
the sang-i-aswad hallowed by the Almighty Allah. Muslims felt sure
that while Hindu images had no power to protect themselves, their own
idol in Mecca was capable of hurling into hell whole armies of
infidels. Their sense of surety would have been shaken and done them
immense good if it had been demonstrated by Hindu armies that the
Ka‘bah was also built from bricks and mortar, and that the sang-i-
aswad also had no power to save itself, not to speak of sending even a
mosquito to perdition.
Europe saved itself from the depredations of Islam because it had a
centre in the Catholic Church which gave a call for action to
Christian princes, and followed a forward policy in the Crusades. It
did not allow Islam to retain any of its self-righteousness. Spain was
ruled by Muslims for several centuries. But today there is no Muslim
“minority” in Spain to poison its body politic, and no Muslim “places
of worship” from which Muslim hooligans can hurl stones on Christian
processions or in which they can assemble arsenals.
ISLAM IS STILL SELF-RIGHTEOUS
Islam in India is still suffering from the high fever of self-
righteousness, though lately it has shifted its claim from the “only
true religion” to the only “human brotherhood”. Powered by petro-
dollars, it is again dreaming of an empire in India. Hindus, on the
other hand, have learnt no lesson from history as is evident from
their slogan of sarva-dharma-samabhãva vis-a-vis Islam which is only a
totalitarian and terrorist ideology of imperialism. And now the Hindu
secularists are bent upon perverting the historical record in order to
prove that Islam never intended any harm to Hindus or Hinduism! Will
Hindu society have to pay the price again? It is highly doubtful if
Hindu society will survive another determined assault from Islam, such
is the mental, moral and spiritual health of this society.
A society which has no self-confidence, which suffers from self-pity,
which indulges in breast-beating at the behest of every Hindu-baiter,
and which stands in daily need of certificates of good conduct from
its sworn enemies, has not the ghost of a chance in a world which is
becoming deadlier with the passing of every day. Can such a society
make any creative contribution to the greater good of mankind? Let
every Hindu search his heart, and seek the answer.
http://voiceofdharma.com/books/siii/ch9.htm
CHAPTER X
THE STATUS OF HINDUS IN AN ISLAMIC STATE
Now I can take up the next NCERT guideline, namely, that historians
cannot identify Muslims as rulers and Hindus as subjects, and that the
state in medieval India under Muslim rule cannot be described as a
theocracy without examining the role of religion in political
conflicts.
I will take up the second half of this guideline first.
The modern apologists of Islam have been trying to rescue this
“religion” from its macabre record as presented by the medieval Muslim
historians. Firstly, they accuse the medieval historians of gross
exaggeration. Secondly, they blame the Turks for barbarities
committed in the name of Islam. The third pillar of this apologetics
is to present as politically motivated the dismal deeds which the
medieval historians regarded as religiously inspired.
AN EXAMPLE OF ISLAMIC APOLOGETICS
I have already analysed the first two approaches. An example will
illustrate the third approach. M. Nazim writes in his well-known
monograph, The Life and Times of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna: “The critics
who accuse the Sultan of wanton bloodshed and reckless spoliation of
Hindu temples forget that these so-called barbarities were committed
in the course of legitimate warfare, when such acts are sanctioned by
the practices of all the great conquerors of the world. Spoils
captured from the defeated enemy have always been considered lawful
property of the victorious army. In India, however, wealth was
accumulated not only in the coffers of the kings, as in other
countries, but also in the vaults of the temples, which were
consecrated in the service of various deities. The consequence was
that, while elsewhere the capture of the defeated monarch’s treasury
usually gratified the conqueror’s lust for mammon, in India temples
were also ransacked to secure the piles of gold and precious stones in
them. The religious considerations rarely carry weight with a
conqueror, and the Sultan does not appear to have been influenced by
them in his schemes of conquest.” (emphasis added).
Nazim has a similar explanation for Hindu hostility to Islam. It is an
essay in philosophy and sociology, as he understands them. He writes:
“Some critics hold that a ‘burning hatred for Islam was created in the
Hindu mind because Islam was presented in the guise of plundering
armies.’ This view, however, is not convincing. The Hindus rejected
Islam as their national religion because of the fundamental and
irreconcilable differences between Islam and Hinduism. Islam with its
definite articles of faith, could not appeal to the average Hindu to
whom religion had never meant any specified set of doctrines. To
regard an idol as a helpless piece of stone instead of a source of
life and death, and to believe in one Omnipotent God instead of
myriads of deities each one of which could be played against the
other, was diametrically opposed to Hindu ways of thinking. To this
fundamental difference was added the hostility of the Brahmin, whose
keen eye must have foreseen that the propagation of democratic
principles of Islam would undoubtedly bring about a social revolution
and break-down of the caste system on which depended his own exclusive
privileges. The Brahmins, therefore, as a class must have thrown the
whole weight of their position against the spread of Islam. Besides
this, hatred of change inherent in the Hindu mind would in any case
have offered strong though passive resistance to the onward march of
Islam.” (emphasis added).
I am not commenting on the contradictions, prevarications,
pretensions, and plain lies contained in these lines from a “learned
historian” whose monograph was published by a prestigious British
publisher. I am sure the readers will see for themselves the sheer
scoundrelism of this apologetics. What I want to show in these
quotations is the mind which the secularists in India have swallowed -
hook, line, and sinker. It is this mind which our secularists have
been cultivating over the years. And I am absolutely sure that the
NCERT is out to patronise this mind.
POISON IN THE CORE OF ISLAM
What are the facts?
The seed is sown by the Kalimah - there is no god but Allah and
Muhammad is the prophet. This is not a religious precept which may be
verified by spiritual experience, or referred to any system of logic.
It is a purely political pronouncement which divides mankind into
mu‘mins and kãfirs, like the Communist division of people into
“progressives” and “reactionaries”, or the Nazi division of them into
“superior” and “inferior” races.
Next, the Quran calls upon the mu‘mins “to fight them till not a trace
of unbelief is left”, or “to fight those who do not profess the true
faith till they pay jizyah with the hand in humility”, or to “cut
their throats wherever you find them”, or you are no prophet until
“you have made a great slaughter amongst them”. This is called jihãd
(glorified as holy war) which is as fundamental a tenet of Islam as
the Kalimah, namãz, rozah, hajj, and zakãt.
The Hadis and the four “pious” Khalifas elaborated the principles
which are to be applied in jihãd against those who do not accept Islam
nor agree to pay jizyah. The infidel males capable of bearing arms are
to be massacred; the infidel women and children are to be enslaved;
the movable properties of the infidels are to be plundered; their
lands are to be expropriated; their places of worship are to be
destroyed; their priests and monks are to be killed and their
scriptures burnt.
Those who agree to pay jizyah are to be treated as zimmîs who are
allowed to live and work for the Islamic state under the following 20
disabilities: (1) they are not to build any new places of worship; (2)
they are not to repair any old places of worship which have been
destroyed by the Muslims; (3) they are not to prevent Muslim
travellers from staying in their places of worship; (4) they are to
entertain for three days any Muslim who wants to stay in their homes,
and for a longer period if the Muslim falls ill; (5) they are not to
harbour any hostility towards the Islamic state, or give any aid and
comfort to hostile elements; (6) they are not to prevent any one of
them from getting converted to Islam; (7) they have to show respect
towards every Muslim; (8) they have to allow Muslims to participate in
their private meetings; (9) they are not to dress like Muslims; (10)
they are not to name themselves with Muslim names; (11) they are not
to ride on horses with saddle and bridle; (12) they are not to possess
arms; (13) they are not to wear signet rings or seals on their
fingers; (14) they are not to sell or drink liquor openly; (15) they
are to wear a distinctive dress which shows their inferior status, and
which separates them from the Muslims; (16) they are not to propagate
their customs and usages amongst the Muslims; (17) they are not to
build their houses in the neighbourhood of Muslims; (18) they are not
to bring their dead near the graveyards of the Muslims; (19) they are
not to observe their religious practices publicly, or mourn their dead
loudly; and (20) they are not to buy Muslim slaves.
The “law” of Islam also prescribes death penalty for those who (1)
question the exclusive claim of Islam as the only true religion, and
of Muhammad as the last prophet; (2) try to revert to their ancestral
faith after having been forced or lured to embrace Islam; and (3)
marry Muslim women without first getting converted to Islam. Non-
Muslims are also discriminated against in matters of testimony in law
courts, taxation, and appointment to public offices. To sum up, the
status of non-Muslims in an Islamic state is that of hewers of wood
and drawers of water. They are subjected to every possible indignity
and pressure in order to force them into the fold of Islam.
DEBATE OVER “ISLAM OR DEATH”
When an Islamic state was established over parts of northern India,
the Ulama raised a great controversy. By now the interpreters of
Islamic law had become divided into four schools - Hanafi, Hanbali,
Maliki, and Shafii. The Hanafi school alone was in favour of extending
the status of zimmîs to the Hindus. The other three schools were
insistent that the only choice the Hindus had was between Islam and
death. Ziyauddin Barani voiced his opinion against the Hanafi school
when he wrote as follows in his Fatwa-i-Jahãndãri: “If Mahmud… had
gone to India once more, he would have brought under his sword all the
Brahmans of Hind who, in that vast land, are the cause of the
continuance of the laws of infidelity and of the strength of
idolators; he would have cut off the heads of two or three hundred
thousand Hindu chiefs. He would not have returned his Hindu-
slaughtering sword to its scabbard until the whole of Hind had
accepted Islam. For Mahmud was a Shafiite, and according to Imam
Shafii the decree for Hindus is Islam or death, that is to say, they
should either be put to death or accept Islam. It is not lawful to
accept jiziya from Hindus who have neither a prophet nor a revealed
book.”
Shykh Nuruddin Mubarak Ghaznavi was the most important disciple of
Shykh Shihabuddin Suhrawardi, founder of the second most important
sufi silsilã after the Chishtiyya, who died in Baghdad in 1235 AD.
Ghaznavi had come and settled down in India where he passed away in
1234-35 AD. He served as Shykh-ul-Islãm in the reign of Shamsuddin
Iltutmish (AD 1210-1236), and propounded the doctrine of Dîn Panãhî.
Barani quotes the first principle of this doctrine as follows in his
Tãrîkh-i-Fîruzshãhî. “The kings should protect the religion of Islam
with sincere faith… And kings will not be able to perform the duty of
protecting the Faith unless, for the sake of God and the Prophet’s
creed, they overthrow and uproot kufr and kãfiri (infidelity), shirk
(setting partners to God) and the worship of idols. But if the total
uprooting of idolatry is not possible owing to the firm roots of kufr
and the large number of kãfirs and mushriks (infidels and idolaters),
the kings should at least strive to insult, disgrace, dishonour and
defame the mushrik and idol-worshipping Hindus, who are the worst
enemies of God and the Prophet. The symptom of the kings being the
protectors of religion is this:- When they see a Hindu, their eyes
grow red and they wish to bury him alive; they also desire to
completely uproot the Brahmans, who are the leaders of kufr and shirk
and owning to whom kufr and shirk are spread and the commandments of
kufr are enforced… Owing to the fear and terror of the kings of Islam,
not a single enemy of God and the Prophet can drink water that is
sweet or stretch his legs on his bed and go to sleep in
peace.” (emphasis added; read Allah for God).
Amir Khusru, the dearest disciple of Nizamuddin Awliya and supposed to
be the pioneer of Secularism in India by India’s secularist
historians, echoed the same opinion when he wrote as follows in his
Khazãin-ul-Futûh also known as the Tãrîkh-i-Alãî: “The whole country
by means of the sword of our holy warriors has become like a forest
denuded of its thorns by fire. The land has been saturated by the
waters of the sword, and the vapours of infidelism [Hinduism] have
been dispersed. The strong men of Hind have been trodden under foot,
and all are ready to pay tribute. Islam is triumphant, idolatry is
subdued. Had not the law (of Hanifa) granted exemption from death by
the payment of jiziya, the very name of Hind, root and branch, would
have been extinguished.”
The Muslim monarchs, however, knew better. They did not live in a
fool’s paradise like the mullahs and the sufis. The exponents of the
“law” of Islam lived amidst leisure and luxury in towns protected by
Islamic armies. They could very well afford to blow any amount of hot
air about the “beauties” of their “religion”. The Muslim monarchs, on
the other hand, had to live mostly on the battlefields, and could feel
in their guts the power equations of a situation in which they had to
wage a constant war against stiff Hindu resistance and repeated
reassertion of Hindu independence. They had discovered very soon that
Hindus hated Islam as a system of black barbarism, and would fight
rather than submit to this criminal creed. Moreover, they needed the
Hindus for doing work which the mullahs, or the sufis, or the
swordsmen of Islam were neither equipped for nor inclined to do -
agriculture, commerce, industry, book keeping scavenging, and so on.
No wonder the Muslim monarchs fell for the Hanafi school of Islamic
“law” as soon as it was expounded to them, not because they liked this
school but simply because they had no other choice. They recognized
the Hindus as zimmîs, imposed jizyah and other disabilities on them,
and reduced them, wherever they could, to the status of hewers of wood
and drawers of water.
The mullahs and the sufis howled at this “sacrilege”. Barani mourned:
“Should the king consider the payment of a few tankas by way of jiziya
as sufficient justification for their allowing all possible freedom to
the infidels to observe and demonstrate all orders and detail of
infidelity, to read the misleading literature of their faith, and to
propagate their teachings, how could the true religion get the upper
hand over other religions, and how could the emblems of Islam be held
high? How will the true faith prevail if rulers allow the infidels to
keep their temples, adorn their idols, and to make merry during their
festivals with beating of drums and dhols, singing and dancing?”
THE STATE OF HINDU SOCIETY
But Barani and his likes were being unfair to the Muslim monarchs who
were trying their best to serve Islam, under the circumstances. They
were also painting far too rosy a picture of the condition of Hindu
society in areas where the Islamic state had secured a stranglehold.
Of course, the Hindus were singing and dancing in those parts of their
motherland where their Rajas had retained or regained independence.
But in areas controlled by the Muslim monarchs, Hindus had been turned
into dumb driven cattle, always at the mercy of the meanest Muslim.
Barani himself writes: “Sultan Alauddin (Khalji) demanded from learned
men rules and regulations, so that the Hindu could be ground down and
property and possession, which are the cause of disaffection and
rebellion, could not remain in his house.” One of these “learned men”
was Qazi Mughisuddin. He advocated very stern measures and advised:
“If the revenue collector spits into a Hindu’s mouth, the Hindu should
open his mouth to receive it without hesitation.”
Alauddin Khalji raised the land revenue to one-half of the gross
produce. He imposed a grazing tax on all milch cattle and a house-tax.
Barani himself reports: “The people were brought to such a state of
obedience that one revenue officer would string twelve khuts,
muqaddams and chaudharies (all Hindus) together by the neck and
enforce payment by blows.” Hindus were so much impoverished that their
wives had to work as servants in Muslim houses. Next came Alauddin’s
market regulations which our secularists and the All India Radio have
been hailing as “the first experiment in socialism in India’s
history”. The peasants, who were Hindus, were ordered to sell their
grains to the merchants at arbitrarily fixed prices. The merchants,
who were also Hindus, were forced to sell this grain to the State,
again at arbitrarily fixed prices which hardly left any margin of
profit. There was so much grain stored in state godowns that Ibn
Battutah who visited Delhi 18 years after Alauddin’s death, ate rice
which had been procured during Alauddin’s reign. The Hindu merchants
had to procure all sorts of merchandise from areas where there was no
fixation of prices. But the prices at which they had to sell to the
state were fixed without any reference to costs involved. And the
merchants had to keep their wives and children as hostages at the
capital to ensure that they brought regular supplies. This was
expropriation, pure and simple, under conditions from which there was
no escape except death.
Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq issued an ordinance which proclaimed that “there
should be left only so much to the Hindus that neither on the one hand
they should become intoxicated on account of their wealth, nor on the
other should they become so destitute as to leave their lands and
cultivation in despair”. His son, Muhammad bin Tughlaq, enhanced the
land revenue in a very steep manner. Barani reports: “The taxation in
the Doab was increased ten and twenty times and the royal officials
consequently created such abwabs or cesses and collected them with
such rigour that the ryots were reduced to impotence, poverty and
ruin… Thousands of people perished, and when they tried to escape, the
Sultan led expeditions to various places and hunted them like wild
beasts.” Ibn Battutah who visited Delhi during Muhammad bin Tughlaq’s
reign, reports in his Rehla an Id celebration in the Sultan’s palace:
“Then enter the musicians, the first batch being the daughters of the
infidel rajas captured in war that year. They sing and dance, and the
Sultan gives them away to his amirs and aizza. Then come the other
daughters of the infidels who sing and dance, and the Sultan gives
them away to his relations, his brothers-in-law and the malik’s sons.”
At a later date, “there arrived in Delhi some female infidel captives,
ten of whom the vazir sent to me”. Again, the Sultan sent to the
emperor of China “one hundred male slaves and one hundred slave
songstresses and dancers from among the Indian infidels”. He also
reports how the Muslim commandant of Alapur “would fall upon the
infidels and would kill them or take them prisoner”. The scoundrel was
killed by the Hindus one day. His slaves fell upon Alapur, and “they
put its male population to the sword and made the womenfolk prisoner
and seized everything in it.”
Firuz Shah Tughlaq organised an industry out of catching slaves. Shams-
i-Siraj Afif writes in his Tãrîkh-i-Fîrûz Shãhî: “The Sultan commanded
his great fief-holders and officers to capture slaves whenever they
were at war (that is, suppressing Hindu rebellions), and to pick out
and send the best for the service of the court. The chiefs and
officers naturally exerted themselves in procuring more and more
slaves and a great number of them were thus collected. When they were
found to be in excess, the Sultan sent them to important cities… It
has been estimated that in the city and in the various fiefs, there
were 1,80,000 slaves… The Sultan created a separate department with a
number of officers for administering the affairs of these slaves.”
Firuz Shah beat all previous records in his treatment of the Hindus.
He himself writes in his Futûhãt-i-Fîrûz Shãhî: “The Hindus and idol
worshippers had agreed to pay the money for toleration (zar-i-
zimmiya), and had consented to the poll-tax (jiziya) in return for
which they and their families enjoyed security. These people now
erected new idol temples in the city and in the environs in opposition
to the law of the Prophet which declares that such temples are not to
be tolerated. Under divine guidance I destroyed these edifices, and
killed those leaders of infidelity who seduced others into error, and
the lower orders I subjected to stripes and chastisement, until this
abuse was entirely abolished. The following is an instance. In the
village of Maluh there is a tank which they call kund. Here they had
built idol temples and on certain days the Hindus were accustomed to
proceed thither on horseback, and wearing arms. Their women and
children also went out in palankins and carts. There they assembled in
thousands and performed idol-worship. The abuse had been so overlooked
that the bazar people took out there all sorts of provisions and set
up stalls and sold their goods… When intelligence of this came to my
ears, my religious feelings prompted me at once to put a stop to this
scandal and offence to the religion of Islam. On the day of the
assembling I went there in person, and I ordered that the leaders of
these people and the promoters of this abomination should be put to
death… I destroyed their idol temples, and instead thereof raised
mosques.”
He records another instance in which Hindus who had built new temples
were butchered before the gate of his palace, and their books, images,
and vessels of Worship were publicly burnt. According to him “this was
a warning to all men that no zimmi could follow such wicked practices
in a Musulman country”. Afif reports yet another case in which a
Brahmin of Delhi was accused of “publicly performing idol-worship in
his house and perverting Mohammedan women leading them to become
infidels”. The Brahmin “was tied hand and foot and cast into a burning
pile of faggots”. The historian who witnessed this scene himself
expresses his satisfaction by saying, “Behold the Sultan’s strict
adherence to law and rectitude, how he would not deviate in the least
from its decrees.”
Sikandar Lodi’s “empire” was much smaller than that of Firuz Shah
Tughlaq. But he enforced the “law” of Islam with no less zeal. A
typical case of his reign is recorded by Abdulla in his Tãrîkhi-i-
Dãûdî: “It is related in the Akbar Shahi that there came a Brahman by
name Bodhan who had asserted one day in the presence of Musulmans that
Islam was true, as was also his own religion. This speech of his was
aired abroad, and came to the ears of the ulema… Azam Humayun, the
governor of that district, sent the Brahman into the king’s presence
at Sambal. Sultan Sikander …summoned all the wise men of note from
every quarter… After investigating the matter, the ulema determined
that he should be imprisoned and converted to Islam, or suffer death,
and since the Brahman refused to apostatize he was accordingly put to
death by the decree of the ulema. The Sultan after rewarding the
learned casuists, gave them permission to depart.”
Hindu records of what the “law” of Islam meant to the Hindus are few
and far between. But whenever they are available, they confirm the
medieval Muslim historians. Gangadevi the wife of Kumar Kampana (died
1374 AD) of Vijayanagara writes as follows in her Madhurãvijayam
regarding the state of things in the Madurai region when it was under
Muslim rule: “The wicked mlechchas pollute the religion of the Hindus
every day. They break the images of gods into pieces and throw away
the articles of worship. They throw into fire Srimad Bhagwat and other
holy scriptures, forcibly take away the conchshell and bell of the
Brahmanas, and lick the sandal paints on their bodies. They urinate
like dogs on the tulsi plant and deliberately pass faeces in the Hindu
temples. They throw water from their mouths on the Hindus engaged in
worship, and harass the Hindu saints as if they were so many lunatics
let large.”
Chaitanya-mañgala, a biography of the great Vaishnava saint of
medieval India, presents the plight of Hindus in Navadvipa on the eve
of the saint’s birth in 1484 AD. The author, Jayananda, writes: “The
king seizes the Brahmanas, pollutes their caste and even takes their
lives. If a conch-shell is heard to blow in any house, its owner is
made to forfeit his wealth, caste and even life. The king plunders the
houses of those who wear sacred threads on the shoulder and put scared
marks on the forehead, and then binds them. He breaks the temples and
uproots tulsi plants… The bathing in Ganga is prohibited and hundreds
of scared asvattha and jack trees have been cut down.”
Vijaya Gupta wrote a poem in praise of Husain Shah of Bengal
(1493-1519 AD). The two qazi brothers, Hasan and Husain, are typical
Islamic characters in this poem. They had issued orders that any one
who had a tulsi leaf on his head was to be brought to them bound hand
and foot. He was then beaten up. The peons employed by the qazis tore
away the sacred threads of the Brahmans and spat saliva in their
mouths. One day a mullah drew the attention of these qazis to some
Hindu boys who were worshipping Goddess Manasa and singing hymns to
her. The qazis went wild, and shouted: “What! the harãmzãdah Hindus
make so bold as to perform Hindu rituals in our village! The culprit
boys should be seized and made outcastes by being forced to eat Muslim
food.” The mother of these qazis was a Hindu lady who had been
forcibly married to their father. She tried to stop them. But they
demolished the house of those Hindu boys, smashed the sacred pots, and
threw away the pûjã materials. The boys had to run away to save their
lives.
This was the state of things in those parts of India which were ruled
by Muslim monarchs ever since Qutbuddin Aibak set up his first Islamic
state in Delhi in 1206 AD. Punjab upto the Ravi and the whole of Sindh
had passed under Muslim rule during the days of Mahmud Ghaznavi.
Kashmir met the same fate early in the 14th century. If the state
which treated the Hindus in such an abominable manner out of religious
inspiration was not a theocracy, the NCERT “experts” would have to
redefine the concept of theocracy. In common parlance so far,
theocracy has meant the dominance of a single creed over the state
apparatus, and discrimination against those who do not subscribe to
that creed. Scoundrels like M. Nazim and Hindu secularists who preside
over our education and “national integration”, have tried to invent
political explanations for measures which the Muslim monarchs adopted
purely out of religious zeal. But in that case politics as well as
religion miss their common parlance meanings, and become esoteric
terms which scoundrels and secularists alone can decipher.
THE MYTH OF AKBAR
It is curious but true that the very historians who refuse to see the
pre-Akbar period of Muslim rule as a nightmare for Hindus, hail Akbar
as the harbinger of a dazzling dawn for the same Hindus. They point
out as to how Akbar abolished the pilgrim tax and the jizyah, how he
appointed Hindus to high positions, and how he extended to them this
or that concession which they had not enjoyed earlier. One may very
well ask these worthies that if these discriminatory taxes and
disabilities did not exist earlier, how come you find Akbar freeing
the Hindus from them? All that one is bound to get by way of an answer
will be another bundle of casuistry.
There is no dearth of Hindu historians who heap Akbar with the
choicest encomiums. Ashirbadi Lal Srivastava is a typical example.
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru goes much further and proclaims Akbar as the
father of Indian nationalism. A Hindu who takes all these high-
sounding stories with a pinch of salt, is rather rare nowadays.
On the other hand, most Muslim historians and theologians frown upon
Akbar as a villain in the history of Islam in India. Ishtiaq Husain
Qureshi who believes that Hindus were far more happy under Muslim rule
than under that of their own princes, accuses Akbar of jeopardising
Pax Moslemaica by tempering with the established tenets of Muslim
polity. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad has written that if Ahmad Sirhindi had
not come to the rescue, Akbar had almost finished Islam in India. It
is only in post-Independence India that some Muslim historians have
come forward to present Akbar as the pioneer of Secularism in this
country. But we know what Secularism means in Muslim mouths,
particularly if the Muslim happens to be a Marxist as well. For them,
Akbar is no more than a Muslim hero for Hindu consumption.
One has, therefore, to go to the original sources in order to find the
truth about Akbar. The story which these sources tell can be summed up
as follows:
1. There was nothing Indian about Akbar except that he lived his life
in India, fought his wars in India, built his empire in India, and
dragged many Indian women into his harem. He knew nothing about
India’s spiritual traditions, or India’s history, or India’s culture
except for what he heard from some native sycophants who visited his
court for very mundane reasons. No Hindu saint or scholar worth his
salt cared to meet or educate him about things Indian. It was only
some Jain munis who came close to him. But then Jain munis have always
been in search of royal patronage like the Christian missionaries.
Moreover, Akbar used these munis for influencing some Rajput princes
who would have otherwise remained recalcitrant.
2. Akbar was every inch an Islamic bandit from abroad who conquered a
large part of India mainly on the strength of Muslim swordsmen
imported from Central Asia and Persia. He took great pride in
proclaiming that he was a descendant of Taimur and Babur, and longed
to recover the homelands of his forefathers in Transoxiana. He
continued to decorate his name with the Islamic honorific ghãzî which
he had acquired at the commencement of his reign by beheading the half-
dead Himu. The wars he waged against the only resistant Hindu kingdoms
- Mewar and Gondwana - had all the characteristics of classic jihãd.
Whenever he wanted to celebrate some happy event or seek blessing for
some great undertaking - which was quite often - he went on a
pilgrimage to the dargah of Muinuddin Chishti, the foremost symbol of
Islam’s ceaseless war on Hindus and Hinduism. He sent rich gifts to
many centres of Muslim pilgrimage including Mecca and Medina, and
carried on negotiations with the Portuguese so that voyages by Muslim
pilgrims could be facilitated. In his letters to the Sharifs of Mecca
and the Uzbek king of Bukhara, he protested that he was not only a
good Muslim but also a champion of Islam, and that the orthodox Ulama
who harboured doubts about him did not understand his game of
consolidating a strong and durable Islamic empire in India.
3. The concessions which Akbar made to Hindus were not motivated by
any benevolence towards Hindus or Hinduism on his part. He was out to
win Hindu support in his fight with two inveterate foes of every
Muslim empire-builder - the Muslim chieftains and the die-hard Ulama.
Alauddin Khalji and Muhammad bin Tughlaq had faced the same foes
earlier, but failed to overcome them because they could not break out
of the closed circle of the foreign Muslim fraternity in India. Akbar
succeeded in fixing both the foes because he tried a new method, and
discovered very soon that it worked. He fixed the Muslim chieftains
with the help of Rajput princes and their retinues. He fixed the Ulama
partly by making them fall foul of each other in the Ibadat Khana, and
partly by flirting with jogis and Jains munis and Christian
missionaries in order to frighten them. They had nothing except royal
patronage to fatten upon. There is no evidence that Akbar’s
association with some spokesmen of rival religions was inspired by any
sincere seeking on his part, or that the association improved his mind
in any way. He remained a prisoner of Islamic thought-categories to
the end of his days.
4. Nor did he have to pay a heavy price for Hindu support. Fortunately
for him, he started functioning at a time when Hindu resistance to
Islamic imperialism stood at a low ebb except in small pockets like
Mewar and Gondwana. Hindu resistance had been led so far by the Rajput
princes. But numerous wars fought by them with Muslim marauders for
several centuries had exhausted their manpower as well as material
resources. Akbar discovered it very soon that he could buy Rajput help
in exchange for a few gestures which might have sounded ominous to
orthodox Islam at that time but which proved only superficial in the
long run. In fact, when one comes to think of it all, Hindus had to
pay a very heavy price for those gestures from Akbar. He demanded
Hindu princesses for his harem, which meant surrender of Hindu honour.
He employed Hindu warriors not only against Muslim rebels but also
against Hindu freedom fighters, which meant prostitution of Hindu
heroism. For all practical purposes, he made the Hindus wield the
sword of Islam not only in his own lifetime but right upto our own
times. The pecuniary loss suffered by the Islamic state due to
abolition of the pilgrim tax and the jizyah was compensated more than
many times by the consolidation of an Islamic empire with a
streamlined revenue system such as extracted from the Hindu masses,
particularly the peasantry, the heavy cost of extending that empire by
means of numerous wars, maintaining Mughal pomp and pageantry, and
building monuments like the Taj. By the end of the Mughal empire,
Hindu masses stood reduced to the subsistence level.
5. It was during the reign of Akbar that Muslim adventurers from many
Islamic countries abroad started flocking towards India on an
unprecedented scale, and made the Islamic establishment in the country
stronger than ever before. They occupied all the top positions in the
army as well as the administration of the Mughal empire. Statistics
may be marshalled in order to show that Hindu share in government
posts went on increasing till the time of Aurangzeb. But there is no
gainsaying the fact that Hindu say in the policies of the Mughal
empire went on decreasing from the days of Akbar’s immediate successor
onwards. Even during the reign of Akbar, Muslim functionaries at the
lower levels did not stop molesting Hindus in various ways normal to
Islam. Many instances can be cited. Many a magnate in Akbar’s court
were in close contact with the orthodox Ulama and Sufis led by Shykh
Ahmad Sirhindi who went about saying publicly that Hindu should either
be made to embrace Islam or treated like dogs. They came out into the
open as soon as Akbar was dead, and their progeny continued to
progress towards renewed power and prestige from the reign of Jahangir
onwards till they again rose to the top under Aurangzeb.
It is true that the main fault lay with the Hindus for not being able
to see through Akbar’s camouflage, and for helping him in
consolidating an imperial power which Islam had never known in India
in the pre-Akbar period of Muslim rule. But the fact remains that but
for Akbar laying the firm foundations, there would have been no sadist
scoundrel like Jahangir, no abominable criminal like Shah Jahan, and
no Islamic monster like Aurangzeb for heaping endless torments and
humiliations on Hindus. Let there be no doubt that far from being a
dazzling dawn, the reign of Akbar was only the beginning of a darker
night which continues till today in the form of Nehruvian Secularism.
http://voiceofdharma.com/books/siii/ch10.htm
CHAPTER XI
OF ASSIMILATION AND SYNTHESIS
Another major NCERT guideline regarding writing of medieval Indian
history is that “neglect and omission of trends and processes of
assimilation and synthesis, and growth of a composite culture” is
“prejudicial to national integration”.
The right hand does not know what the left hand has done. First, we
are told not to treat the Islamic invaders as foreigners. Next, we are
asked not to neglect trends and processes of assimilation and
synthesis. One may very well ask: If the Islamic invaders were not
foreigners, who was getting assimilated by whom? If the culture which
these invaders brought with them was not alien, what was getting
synthesised with what? And where is the need for inventing and
sponsoring a composite culture, unless the Islamic culture is found to
be working at cross purposes with the indigenous Hindu culture?
The Islamic invaders were not the first foreigners to come and settle
down in India. In earlier times, the Iranians, the Greeks, the
Parthians, the Scythians, the Kushanas, and the Hunas had also invaded
India, and settled down here. There were some Mongolian incursions
also in the north and the north-east. But by the time the Islamic
invaders came to India, all these foreigners had been fully
assimilated in the native population, and their cultures synthesised
with the indigenous Indian culture. We have never had an Iranian, or a
Parthian, or a Greek, or a Scythian, or a Kushana, or a Huna, or a
Mongolian minority, or culture, or problem.
On the other hand, the Parsis came to India almost at the same time as
the Muslims. They have remained a distinct minority with their own
characteristic culture. It has never occurred to any historian, or
sociologist, or politician to talk of the assimilation of Parsis in
the native Hindu population, or of the synthesis of Parsi culture with
Hindu culture. Till the other day, we had a Jewish minority which had
kept its racial and cultural identity intact for almost two thousand
years without creating any social, political, or cultural problem for
the Hindus. The Syrian Christians in South India were another
religious and cultural minority which was carved out of the native
population by early Christian missionaries, and which never threatened
or felt threatened by the local people till the militant missionaries
who started coming with the dawn of Western imperialism, began
instigating them for mischief.
The point that I want to emphasis is that it is not necessary for
different racial groups to get assimilated, or for different cultures
to get synthesised before they can live in peaceful co-existence. It
is only when a culture is exclusive, intolerant, and aggressive that
peaceful coexistence runs into deep waters.
MUSLIMS ARE A PROBLEM EVERYWHERE
It is not in India alone that the indigenous population has found it
well-nigh impossible to co-exist peacefully with the Muslims. Greece
had the same problem till it expelled its Muslim population.
Yugoslavia and Cyprus in the West and the Philippines in the East,
have an unsolved Muslim problem till today. Spain has no Muslim
problem because it did not allow Muslims to remain within its borders
after it defeated its Muslim invaders in a struggle spread over
several centuries. Russia and China have ‘solved’ their Muslim problem
for the time being in quite another wav - by massive terror and
ruthless suppression. One wonders for how long the experiment would
survive.
On the other hand, no country where Islam has attained unrivalled
power has allowed non-Islamic minorities to survive. The Jews and the
Christians were given the status of zimmîs by the Prophet himself. But
what has happened to them in the lands of their birth? The Jews have
been finally driven out from all Islamic countries after having
suffered persecutions and humiliations in silence over the centuries.
The Christian Minority has met the same fate. Whatever Christian
minorities have managed to survive, as in Egypt and Lebanon, they are
having a very hard time at the hands of the latest wave of what is
described as Islamic fundamentalism. There are no Zoroastrians in Iran
any more. One wonders how long the Hindus of Bali and Malaysia will
survive the renewed Islamic offensive powered by petrodollars. The
Hindus of Bangladesh, for establishing which the Hindus shed their own
blood, are being harassed and hounded out.
The ruling class of secularists and socialists in India is trying to
solve the Muslim problem by concocting a composite culture which, in
their opinion, started taking shape in medieval India in the aftermath
of Islamic invasions and in course of the Muslim rule. I wish them
success. But I seriously doubt that the concoction will ever become a
concrete reality.
WHERE IS THE COMPOSITE CULTURE?
The patron saint of India’s secularism, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, saw
the seeds of this composite culture sprouting in Muslim harems to
which a large number of Hindu women had been dragged by force. The
proposition is too preposterous to invite comment. Native women have
always been a game for foreign invaders. The process would have had
some meaning if the Hindu women had been allowed to retain their
ancestral religion, or, better still, if Hindu men also had been
permitted to marry Muslim women. Many Muslims in India today have one
side of their ancestry in the helpless Hindu women of medieval India.
But how many of them take pride in the Hindu part of their parentage?
A one-way street should not be termed a two-lane highway.
Another bird of the same feather has come out with the ‘bright” idea
that Hindu employees of the Muslim state in medieval India and even
some Hindu rulers and rich men had started donning Muslim dresses,
adopting Muslim mores and manners, and patronising Persian language
and literature. But even at its best, it was only cultural imposition
or imitation. Here also the relevant point is: Did the Muslim
invaders, except a microscopic minority, don any Hindu dress, or adopt
any Hindu mores and manners, or patronise any indigenous language and
literature? In any case, social usages like early marriage and purdah
which Hindus learnt from the Muslims can hardly be called “culture”.
Something can be said in favour of pãn which Muslims took from the
Hindus, and hennah which Hindus took from the Muslims. But they are
not very significant parts of Hindu or Muslim culture. The same is
true of halwã, sherbat, gulqand, achkan, chapkan, chapãtî, kharbûzã,
and tarbûz.
Some other stalwarts of the same secular tribe point towards many
social and cultural traits which were Hindu in their origin and which
many Muslims in India, particularly its peasant and artisan
communities, display at present. They forget that the vast majority of
Muslims in India are Hindu converts who have retained many native
customs even after they were forced or lured into the fold of Islam.
For this failing of theirs, the native Muslims have always been
despised by their ashrãf (Muslims of foreign descent) co-religionists,
in spite of all the tall talk of Islamic brotherhood. The mullahs have
been constantly mounting campaigns of tablîgh to cleanse the “native”
Muslims of the remnants of jãhiliyya. India has known quite a few
movements trying to finish the unfinished job - Islamizing the
converts so completely that not a trace of their earlier Hindu culture
remains in either their consciousness or outer way of life.
NOT IN ARCHITECTURE
Some champions of composite culture go into a trance over the
synthesis of Hindu and Muslim architectural traditions. The Muslim
rulers built many mosques, mazãrs, khãnqahs, palaces, and picnic
spots. The materials used in these monuments had to be of Indian
origin. The skills employed at the lower levels were also that of the
native masons and labourers. These monuments, therefore, have quite a
few features of the Hindu architectural styles. On the other hand,
some Hindu rulers and rich men also built some monuments with domes
and true arches - the two elements of architecture which Muslims had
borrowed from the Byzantine empire and brought to India. But foreign
rulers everywhere have always used native materials, native skills,
and even native styles to build monuments which portray their power
and wealth. And some native subjects have always tried to tread in the
footsteps of their foreign masters.
Whatever synthesis and assimilation has gone into the making of these
monuments has taken place at the purely physical level, and is
entirely a result of outer circumstances. I thought that assimilation
and synthesis meant some inner fusion, some psychological process
also. Some Hindu temples or samãdhis of Hindu saints built or even
sponsored by some Muslim monarchs would have been significant signs of
synthesis. But we search in vain for such signs. On the other hand, we
find many mosques, mazãrs, khãnqahs, and palaces built over the sites
and out of the debris of deliberately demolished Hindu temples,
samãdhis, vihãras, and palaces. And it is hard to find a mosque or a
mazãr built in the style of a Hindu temple or samãdhi, which is quite
significant.
NOR IN PAINTING, MUSIC, OR DANCE
Muslims in India hardly patronised any painting till the time of the
Mughals. But the Mughal miniatures are purely Persian even when
painted by Hindu artists, or patronised by Hindu princes. The Rajput
and other Hindu schools of painting breathe an entirely different
spirit, and draw their inspiration from an altogether different
source. There is no synthesis, or assimilation, or even mutual
influencing here.
It is only in the field of Hindustani music that we find Hindus and
Muslims sharing the same tradition. But the fact that many Muslims
specialise in this music does not make it Islamic. Islam has never had
any music of its own. What is known as Hindustani music today has
always been and remains Hindu music. Simply because some Hindu
musicians converted to Islam in order to obtain patronage, does not
mean that their music also underwent a similar conversion. Qawwãlî
music patronized by sufis is perhaps the only contribution of Islam.
But it has remained confined to Muslim society, particularly Muslim
dargahs and mazãrs. Hindus sing their own bhajans, in their own
diction and style, in their own places of worship.
The same is true in the field of dance and drama. The major schools
and styles remained purely Hindu even when Muslim princes patronised
them. Mujrah performed by prostitutes is perhaps the only Muslim
contribution, patronised by both Hindu and Muslim profligates. For the
rest, all folk dances and folk dramas all over India - the swãng, the
bhañgrã, the jãtrã, the nautañkî, the tamãshã, the South Indian stage
- are entirely Hindu in dress as well demeanour. It is quite a
different matter that Muslim masses enjoy them whole-heartedly even
when the mullahs frown upon them. The presence of Muslim audiences at
these performances proves nothing so far as composite culture is
concerned. It means only that Muslim masses retain some Hindu tastes
in spite of conversion to Islam.
NOR IN SCIENCE, OR LITERATURE
Muslims had always a lot to learn from the Hindus and very little to
teach in the field of science. The only major science they brought
with them was the Greek system of medicine. But Hindus were not quite
unfamiliar with the system before the advent of Islam. Many Hindu
hakîms specialised in this system of medicine, and many more Hindus
benefited from it over the years. It is a great science. But so is
Ayurveda. What is significant in the present context is that we wait
in vain to find a Muslim practitioner of this Hindu system of
medicine, such has been the Muslim bias against most things Hindu. I
wonder if a Muslim ever went to a vaidya unless absolutely unavoidable
because a hakîm was not available.
The next secular historian compiles a list of Arabic and Persian
translations of Sanskrit and Prakrit classics to conclude that Muslims
and Hindus in medieval India travelled quite far towards one another.
But none of these translations helped the Muslims to appreciate, far
less to imbibe, any part of the Hindu spirit, or the Hindu cultural
vision. Nor did these translations soften the Muslims towards the
inheritors of such vast literary treasures, and regard them as
anything better than despicable kãfirs and kirãDs. Jayasi, Kutuban,
Manjhan and some other sufis wrote their epics in Indian languages
because they knew none of the languages patronised by Islam and, what
is more important, because Islam had not yet corroded the cultural
soul of these recent converts from the Hindu fold. I can cite several
sufis who wrote in Indian languages but who invited Muslim monarchs to
impose on the Hindus the disabilities decreed by the “laws” of Islam.
Muslims like Rasakhan were rare exception. Let us find a latter-day
Muslim literature or sufi who has some kind words to say about such
“renegades”.
Hindu and Muslim literary traditions have been two separate streams
which have hardly influenced one another. Indian languages have
borrowed and assimilated many Arabic, Turkish, and Persian words. But
these classic languages of Islam have remained, by and large,
impervious to Hindu linguistic influences. They have kept every word
of Indian origin at an arm’s length. Urdu held some promise because
its syntax as well as a large part of its diction had its roots in
this land. But Muslims started claiming Urdu as the language of their
culture, and the bridge that might have been built was destroyed. Over
the years, this language has been heavily Arabicised and Persianised,
and made more or less Greek for the Hindus at large.
MUCH LESS IN PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION
Philosophy has never been a forte of Islam. Almost all its
philosophical speculations have been borrowed from the Greeks, and
borrowed very badly, because of the limitations imposed by the
crudities of the Quran and the Hadis. But even this bit of borrowing
has always invited severe indictment from the Ulama of Islam. Allama
Iqbal was more than sure that Greek philosophy had corrupted and
corroded the pristine purity of Islamic monotheism. And Muslim
thinkers, by and large, have suffered from the same dread vis-a-vis
Hindu schools of thought. Hindu monism was as much of an anathema to
them as Hindu pantheism. On the other hand, Hindu philosophy
throughout medieval India followed an independent course, free from
any Islamic influence.
Our secular scholar feels on a firmer ground when he comes to the
sufis and Hindu saints of the so-called NirguNa school. Here, he says,
is a sure sign of synthesis, and that too at the highest level of
human aspiration. But all those who have made a comparative study of
the subject - Sufism and NirguNa Bhakti - are agreed that our
secularist is making a serious mistake. It is significant that no
NirguNa saint has mentioned the name of a single Indian sufi, while
most of them have spoken warmly of earlier sufis like Rabia, Mansur Al-
Hallaj, Junaid, Bayazid, Shams Tabriz and Adham Sultan. This is
because these earlier sufis were genuine mystics who lived before
Islam was able to extinguished finally the spiritual traditions of
Arab Paganism, Neo-Plantonism, Zoroastrianism, and Buddhism prevalent
in the Middle East. The Ulama of Islam came down very heavily upon
these earlier sufis as soon as the tone and temper of sufi poetry was
noticed by the Ulama. Al-Gazzali worked out a compromise - the sufis
could sing and dance or indulge in austerities provided they served
Islam in its pursuit of world-conquest and world-conversion. It was
not long before Sufism became an instrument and Islamic imperialism
and terrorism. Even a sufi of the stature of Fariduddin Attar relates
with great approval the following tale in his Mantiq-ut-Tãir: “It is
said that when the Sultan (Mahmud Ghaznavi) captured Somnath and
wanted to break the idol, the Brahmins offered to redeem it with its
weight in gold. His officers pointed out to him the advantage of
accepting the offer, but he replied: ‘I am afraid that on the day of
judgement when all the idolaters are brought into the presence of God,
He would say, bring Adhar and Mahmud together; one was an idol-maker,
the other an idol-seller.’ The Sultan then ordered a fire to be
lighted round it. The idol burst and 20 manns of precious stones
poured out from its inside.”
The sufi silsilãs which travelled to India after the advent of
Muinuddin Chishti were departments of the imperialist establishment of
Islam. None of these sups looked kindly at the Hindus, nor did the
Hindus honour any of them with the exception of some simpletons who
were taken in by the show of sufi piety, or some self-seekers who were
out of curry favour with the Muslim courts with the help of sufis.
Most sups were like the latter-day Christian missionaries whose animus
against the Hindus is very well known. The NirguNa saints could not
have been and were not impressed by them. In fact, some noted sufis
are named in NirguNa poetry as shopkeepers and swindlers. On the other
hand, the NirguNa saints constantly questioned the exclusive claims of
Islam. They gave strength to Hindu society which the sufis were out of
subvert and supplant.
To sum up this subject of synthesis, assimilation, and composite
culture, I would better quote Dr. R.C. Majumdar, one of the best and
certainly the most versatile historian which modern India has known.
He writes: “There was no reapprochement in respect of popular or
national traditions, and those social and religious ideas and beliefs
and practices and institutions which touch the deeper chord of life,
and give it a distinctive form, tone and vigour. In short, the
reciprocal influences were too superficial in character to affect
materially the fundamental differences between the two communities in
respect of almost everything that is deep-seated in human nature and
makes life worth living. So the two great communities, although they
lived side by side, moved each in its own orbit and there was yet no
sign that the twain shall ever meet.” Again: “Nor did the Muslims ever
moderate their zeal to destroy ruthlessly the Hindu temples and images
of gods, and their attitude in this respect remained unchanged from
the day when Muhammad bin Qasim set foot on the soil of India till the
18th century A.D. when they lost all political power.”
The other day, an artist friend of mine told me an interesting story:
“There was a painter who was fired by an irrepressible ambition to
produce a female figure which would be the most beautiful when
compared to all past and future performances in this field. He
wandered all over the world visiting art galleries and studying poets
and prose writers in many languages, in order to compile a collection
of the most perfect female feature - eyes, ears, nose, lips, chin,
cheeks, bust, breasts, hips, and so on. Finally, he sat down to
compose and paint the portrait. And it took him many more years to
achieve the miracle…”
My friend fell silent at this point. I was agog with admiration, and
asked him: “Where is this masterpiece? Can I see a facsimile of it in
some book on art?” My friend smiled and said, “Sorry, I cannot help
you. The artist destroyed his handiwork as soon as he had finished it,
and then committed suicide.” I was shocked and asked him - why? My
friend replied: “Because the artist discovered that it was the most
hideous composition which had ever come out of a painter’s brush.”
This is no more a matter of joke. The promoters of composite culture
have been busy over the years in completing the job. They have gone a
long way in dismembering Hindu culture and presenting its separate
limbs as legacies of several socio-cultural streams - Austric,
Dravidian, Aryan, Mongolian, Scythian, and so on. They will not rest
till they have destroyed the unity of Hindu culture, and placed its
components in such a juxtaposition as will look like a hideous
patchwork. But that is not even half of the heart-rending story, They
are bent upon forcing a marriage between Hindu and Muslim cultures.
The end-product will surpass all possible horrors.
By all that I have written on the subject of composite culture, I do
not intend to say that I am opposed to an understanding and
reconciliation between the two communities. All I want to say is that
no significant synthesis or assimilation took place in the past, and
history should not be distorted and falsified to serve the political
purposes of a Hindu-baiting herd. If there is any lesson which we can
profitably learn from medieval Indian history, it is that no
understanding between Hindus and Muslims is possible unless the very
first premises of Islam are radically revised in keeping with reason,
universality, and humanism.
A mere swelling of secular enthusiasm for Hindu-Muslim Bhãi Bhãi
without analysing and eradicating the basic causes of conflict, has
served only to harden the heart of Islam, and made it more self-
righteous. None of our secularists has the stature or sincerity of
Mahatma Gandhi in search of a settlement between Hindus and Muslims.
In fact, our secularists have a vested interest in the Hindu-Muslim
conflict which gives them their sense of superior heights as well as
protects their self-seeking. But assuming that they are sincere like
the Mahatma, they have no reason to harbour any illusion in a field
where the Mahatma failed so staggeringly. The secularists should
search their own minds and hearts, and study Hindu and Muslim cultures
seriously rather than go on a wild goose chase in the pages of past
history.
The mind of the secularists was exhumed by Dr. R.C. Majumdar in his
Kamala Lectures delivered at the University of Calcutta in 1965. He
said with great anguish: “In India today there is an Islamic culture
as also an Indian culture. Only there is no Hindu culture. This word
is now an untouchable (apãñkteya) in civilised society. They very word
Hindu is now on the way to oblivion. Because many people believe that
this word symbolises a narrowness of mind and a diehard communalism.”
http://voiceofdharma.com/books/siii/ch11.htm
CHAPTER XII
ISLAM VERSUS INSÃNIYAT (HUMANISM)
A few friends had expressed misgivings about my starting upon this
series on the basis of a report in the Indian Express. They were
apprehensive that in the process I may have been unfair to the NCERT.
A journalist friend has now kindly given me an authentic copy of
Guidelines And Tools For Evaluating School Text-books From the
Standpoint of National Integration. I have studied the mimeographed
document and compared it carefully with the report in the Indian
Express. I find that Mrs. Coomi Kapoor’s reporting of the official
position was fully faithful.
My heart sinks at the very idea of such a sinister scheme being
sponsored by an educational agency set up by the government of a
democratic country. It is an insidious attempt at thought-control and
brainwashing. Having been a student of these processes in Communist
countries, I have a strong suspicion that this document has also
sprung from the same sort of mind. This mind has presided for long
over the University Grants Commission and other educational
institutions, and has been aided and abetted by the residues of
Islamic imperialism masquerading as secularists.
India is not a clean slate on which any ideological language can be
transcribed at will, even if the inscriber happens to be a leviathan
which the state in India is increasingly tending to become. India
happens to be a country with a hoary history. National memory and
consciousness of cultural traditions instilled by that history can be
ignored only if we are prepared to pay the price in terms of self-
forgetfulness which will render the task of national integration well-
nigh impossible.
PROPER BASIS OF NATIONAL INTEGRATION
A worthwhile climate for national integration can be created only on
the basis of truth, justice, and a deeper perception of human culture.
If we ignore these criteria and surrender to the unjust demands of
intolerant ideologies, either because we are impelled by temporary
political expediency or because we are moved by a shallow and self-
defeating Secularism, the result will inevitably be national
disintegration, and, in the prevailing conditions of our encirclement
by an aggressive Islamic Bloc, national enslavement.
Hindus were never very good political historians or biographers. Their
historical interest was always centred on the life-stories of
exceptionally outstanding heroes and saints, where also they enlarged
the merely terrestrial in the image of the transcendent. One searches
in vain the entire corpus of Itihasa-Purana for such historical data
as the Greeks, the Romans the Chinese, and the Muslims have datelined
about their kings and other luminaries. The three RãjatarañgiNis
written by KalhaNa, Jonaraja, and Srivara are the only exceptions.
What passes as Hindu political history before the advent of the
Islamic invaders is mostly a patchwork pieced together by modern
scholars out of epigraphic evidence, accounts of foreign travellers,
and some indigenous literature. There is hardly anything in this
history of India which needs correction except the perspective which
has suffered substantial perversions, wittingly or unwittingly, during
the days of the white man’s supremacy.
It is only when we come to Islamic invaders of India that we have
voluminous historical materials collected and compiled by hundreds of
Muslim chroniclers. These materials have been carefully collated,
compared, edited, annotated, and translated by a band of Western and
Indian scholars. No one who is familiar with the results of this
scholarship and wants to be fair can fail to vouchsafe that the
scholars concerned have been, by and large, scrupulous and
painstaking. It will be difficult to find significant instances of
distortion and misrepresentation in this great endeavour, except when
we come to the Stalinist “historians” like Mohammad Habib and Romila
Thapar, to name only two from a fraternity which has multiplied fast
under Nehruvian Secularism. It is not the fault of modern scholarship
if the histories written by medieval Muslim historians are so damaging
to the democratic, equalitarian, humanistic, and religious pretensions
which Islam puts forth at present. The scholars have not invented any
of the stories which sound so monstrous even after plenty of pruning
away of what may be honestly held as poetic exaggeration.
Some other scholars have gone further and tried to find out if the
monstrous deeds from which most Muslim monarchs, mullahs, and sufis
derived such great satisfaction, are sanctioned by the basic tenets of
Islam as expounded in the Quran, the Sunnah of the Prophet, and the
sayings and doings of the first four pious caliphs. They have
confirmed, more or less unanimously, that the enormities are enjoined
by the scriptures of Islam in such an unequivocal language as leaves
no scope for any misunderstanding whatsoever. The heroes of Islam can
take legitimate pride that they have literally and very faithfully
followed the teachings of Islam, and the legacy left by the Prophet
and the pious caliphs.
A healthy and humanitarian system of education would have placed all
these facts before our young men and women coming from the Muslim
community, and put to them the following proposition: These are the
words and deeds credited to Muslim kings, saints, and theologians by
the historians of Islam in medieval India; these words and deeds
compare very well with the words and deeds of Islamic kings, saints,
and theologians in all other lands swept over by the armies of Islam;
these words and deeds also conform quite closely to the tenets of
Islam as expounded in the Quran and the Sunnah and the Shariat; we do
not want you to evaluate these words and deeds and tenets in terms of
any non-Islamic religion or culture; our only appeal to you is to
evaluate them in terms of natural human reason, man’s natural moral
sense, and elementary principles of human brotherhood without resort
to the casuistry marshalled by the mullahs and sufis, or the
apologetics propped up by the Aligarh and Stalinist schools of
historians; you have in you as much of the rational and the moral in
human nature as the young men and women belonging to any other
community; we wait for your verdict.
I am quite hopeful that approached in this manner most Muslim young
men and women are likely to respond in a positive manner. At least a
good beginning would have been made in opening up the minds and hearts
of these young people to normal human values, and leading them out of
the prison-house of Islam in which most Muslims have lived over the
past so many centuries. Muslims in India as elsewhere have been living
in a Dark Age ever since they were forced or lured into the fold of
Islam, the same way as the Christians in the West had lived during the
medieval period presided over by the Catholic Church. Christians in
the West experienced an Age of Reason and Renaissance when they
processed Christian doctrines and history in terms of rationalism and
humanism, and reawakened to some extent to their ancient pagan
heritage. There is no reason why the Muslims in India and elsewhere
should not experience the same reawakening, once they recover the
ancient cultural traditions of their respective countries, and start
standing by rationalism and humanism.
IS ISLAM A RELIGION?
Some people are prone to confuse Islam with its victims, that is, the
Muslims, and condemn the latter at the same time as they come to know
the crudities of the former. This is a very serious confusion, which
should be avoided by all those who believe in building up a broad-
based human brotherhood as opposed to narrow, sectarian, self-centred,
and chauvinistic nationalism or communalism. Let there be no doubt
that an average Muslim is as good or bad a human being as an average
Hindu or, for that matter, any average person belonging to any race,
religion, or culture. What concerns us here is the worth of Islam as
an ideology, and not the worth of Muslims as human beings.
This is not the occasion to discuss the deeper question whether
Muhammad was a prophet, or whether what he claimed to be the Quran, is
a revelation from some divine source. I am also postponing for the
time being, and leaving for better minds than my own, the discussion
whether Islam is a religion or a political ideology of imperialism.
Here I will only ponder over some of the persistent pretensions of
Islam - pretensions which have so far remained unquestioned in this
country or elsewhere.
The first pretension of Islam to which many learned or pious people
fall an easy prey is Monotheism as contrasted with Polytheism, that
is, the pitting of ‘True One God’ against ‘false many gods’. The mere
sound of the word ‘monotheism’ spreads such a hypnotic spell over
certain minds that they suspend their thought operations, and refuse
to look into the meaning and implications of this concept which is
shared in common by the three prophetic creeds - Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam.
Ram Swarup has studied the scriptures of Christianity and Islam, and
meditated over Monotheism and Polytheism for a number of years. I will
reproduce below what he has to say on this subject in his book, The
Word As Revelation: Names of Gods:
“The fact is that the problem of One or Many Gods is born of a
theological mind, not of a mystic consciousness. In the Atharvaveda
(2.1.1), the sage Vena says that he ‘sees That in that secret station
of the heart in which the manifoldness of the world becomes one form’,
or as in the Yajurveda (32.8) where the ‘world is rested in one
truth’. But in another station of man where not his soul but his mind
rules, there is opposition between the One and Many, between God and
Matter, between God and Gods. On the other hand, when the soul
awakens, Gods are born in its depths which proclaim and glorify one
another.
“The Hindus do not call their Gods either ‘One’ or ‘Many’. According
to them what they worship is One Reality, ekam sat, which is
differently named. This Reality is everywhere, in everything, in every
being. It is One and Many at the same time and it also transcends them
both. Everything is an expression, a play, an image, an echo of this
Reality.
“Spiritual life is one but it is vast and rich in expression. The
human mind conceives it differently. If the human mind was uniform
without different depths, heights and levels of subtlety; or if all
men had the same mind, the same psyche, the same imagination, the same
needs, in short, if all men were the same, then perhaps One God would
do. But a man’s mind is not a fixed quantity and men and their powers
and needs are different. So only some form of polytheism alone can do
justice to this variety and richness.
“Besides this variety of human needs and human minds, the spiritual
reality itself is so vast, immense and inscrutable that man’s reason
fails and his imagination and fancy stagger in its presence.
Therefore, this reality cannot be indicated by one name or formula or
description. It has to be expressed in glimpses from many angles. No
single idea or system of ideas could convey it adequately. This too
points to the need for some form of polytheism.
“A purely monotheistic God unrelieved by polytheistic elements tends
to become lifeless and abstract. A purely monotheistic unity fails to
represent the living unity of the spirit and expresses merely the
intellect’s love of the uniform and the general.
“In the cultural history of the world, the replacement of Many Gods by
One God was accompanied by a good deal of conflict, vandalism,
bigotry, persecution and crusading. They were very much like the ‘wars
of liberation’ of today, hot and cold, openly aggressive or cunningly
subversive. Success in such wars played no mean role in making a local
deity, say Allah of certain Arab tribes, win a wider status and assume
a larger role.”
GOD AND THE NEIGHBOUR
Ram Swarup has further simplified the proposition and placed it in a
social context in another work which is yet to be published. He says:
“In the spiritual realm there are two categories: God and your
neighbour. And correspondingly there are two ways of looking at them:
you could look at God through your neighbour or at the neighbour
through your God. In the first approach, you will think that if your
neighbour has the same needs and constitution and impulses as you
have, then his God, in whatever way he is worshipped and by whatever
name he is called, must mean the same to him as your God means to you.
In short, if your neighbour is as good as you are, his God also must
be as good as yours.
“But if you look at your neighbour through your God, then it leads to
an entirely different outlook. Then you say that if your God is good
enough for you, it should be good enough for your neighbour too. And
if your neighbour is not worshipping the same God in the same way, he
must be worshipping Devil and qualifies for conversion or
liquidation.
“The first approach promotes tolerance, though it gives a plurality of
Gods and varieties of modes in worship. The other approach gives one
God and one mode of worship, but breeds intolerance. The one idea
tries to generalise itself through conquest and calls itself the truly
one, the truly universal.”
MONOTHEISM IS DISGUISED MATERIALISM
If the theologians of Christianity and Islam can be considered
authoritative exponents of Monotheism, it means that God or the
Supreme Power or whatever the name we give to the Ultimate Reality,
remains outside the Cosmos, that is, becomes extra-cosmic after the
act of Creation. These theologians praise God as Omnipotent and
Omniscient, but frown at any association of Omnipresence with Him. The
very thought that God could be present in the human heart
(antarayãmin), in the Universe (sarvanivãsin), in Nature, in animals,
in plants, and even in matter is denounced by them as Pantheism which,
according to them, is as great, if not greater, a blasphemy as atheism
itself. Islam denounces Polytheism as shirk, that is associating
creatures with the Creator, which, according to it, is the same as
thing as seeing God’s presence in his creation.
Looked at in this manner, an inescapable implication of Monotheism is
that the Cosmos is completely denuded of any inherent Divinity, and
made very, very material. There is no divinity inherent in human
beings, or animals, or in material things. Monotheism thus becomes a
disguised form of Materialism. What is worse, it leads to the lowest
type of idolatry because it places God at the mercy of an historical
person, hailed as the Prophet or the Son on whom the extra-cosmic
deity must depend for communicating with his creatures. Songs and
sermons in praise of a Jesus or a Muhammad soon surpass the hymns
addressed to God Almighty.
ALLAH IS AN EGO-GOD
The Allah of Islam is not even a monotheistic God of the initial
Biblical conception. On the contrary, it is what Ram Swarup calls an
Ego-God:
“The Upanishads say that God chooses whom he will. This is true in a
deeper sense. It means that He is beyond our choices and preferences,
our likes and dislikes, and our conceptions of Him, or definitions of
right and wrong, false and true.
“But there is a sense in which we choose our own Gods. God made man in
His own image. But man also makes God in his own image. Our God is
what we are. If our heart is pure, our God is also pure, but if our
hearts are impure, our Gods too are impure.
“Most men want a God who humours them and gratifies them, who
vindicates and justifies their way of life, who sanctifies them in
their own eyes and in those of their friends… They want their kingdom
to extend, they want war-booty, particularly in the form of gold and
young girls; they want their enemies to be slain and humbled.
“Ego-Gods come fully into their own when our desires take on moral and
theological disguises: when the Ego uses a higher principle for a
lower satisfaction, the truth itself is perverted and Ego-Gods are
born. We worship the Ego-Gods when we worship the lower in the
higher.”
This is the true import of the Kalima - there is no god but Allah and
Muhammad is the Prophet. It seems that the prophet of Islam had no use
for a God who could have his own independent will, who could have and
express his own opinions of men and matters, and who could exercise
his own judgement about right and wrong. On the contrary, the Prophet
needed a proxy disguised as god who would echo precisely, though in a
pompous language, the personal proclivities of the Prophet in every
situation, domestic as well as public, which the Prophet had to face.
This conclusion is confirmed by a reading of the Quran in a
chronological order, side by side with the orthodox biographies of the
Prophet. The close correspondence between what the Prophet was
planning or pining for in his normal moments, and what was revealed to
him in a state of wahy that followed soon after, is quite striking.
The chronological confusion in the compilation of the Quran has helped
a good deal to hide this correspondence.
So much for the first pretension of Islam.
BROTHERHOOD OF BANDITS
The second pretension of Islam is that it stands for human brotherhood
and social equality as contrasted with the caste divisions and class
hierarchies rampant in other societies, particularly the Hindu
society. Many people with socialist preferences or pretensions are
duped by what they describe as the “social progressivism” of Islam. We
have in this country a whole battalion of Hindu-baiters who have no
use for Allah or for Muhammad but who strongly recommend Islam on the
rebound because they have come to believe that Islam stands for better
social values. And there is no dearth of Hindus, who, while they love
their own religion and culture, admit at the same time that Hindu
society has a lot to learn from Islam in matters of brotherhood and
equality.
Islam had never put forward these claims before the rise of democracy
and socialism in modern times. The old theologians of Islam were
meticulous in placing various people in their proper places. The
mu‘mins (believers) constituted the master class (millat) entrusted
with the mission of imposing the faith and law of the Prophet on all
mankind. The kãfirs were the scum of the earth who were to be
consigned to eternal hell-fire whenever they could not be killed or
converted outright. The zimmîs were people who accepted the supremacy
of the Islamic state and agreed to live as non-citizens under severe
disabilities. The slaves were mere merchandise who could be bought and
sold in the bazar, and killed without any compunction if they tried to
escape into freedom. And the women (zan) were men’s personal property
comparable to gold and silver (zar) and land (zamin), to be kept
veiled and hidden in the harem if they happened to be legal wives, or
to be presented as gifts if they happened to be newly captured
beauties, or to be circulated among friends if they happened to be
concubines. Within the millat itself, the Quraish had primacy over the
plain Arabs at the start of Islamic imperialism. The civil list
devised by Caliph Umar for monetary grants given to Arab families out
of the booty obtained in wars, reflects this class hierarchy in Arab
society. As the Arab empire expanded east and west, the non-Arabs
everywhere were treated as inferior people, in law as well as in
practice, even when the latter became mu‘mins. Later on, the Turks
took over the Arab legacy of being a master race. Islam has never
known any brotherhood or equality even within its millat.
But the theologians of Islam look the other way when Islam gets sold
in a new garb, and that too by people who do not profess Islam. They
are also prepared to participate in the crudest casuistry in
interpreting the Quran in line with the latest demagogies of social
philosophy. The “only true faith” has to be served even if it means a
fraud on the “hallowed scripture”.
The Quran is quite frank and straight-forward on the subject of human
brotherhood and social equality. It says: He who seeks a faith other
than Islam will never be accepted (3.85). You fight them till not a
trace of unbelief is left (8.39). When you meet the kãfirs, cut their
throats until you have made a great slaughter amongst them, and when
you have defeated them, take them prisoners so that you may earn
ransom. Fight them till they surrender (47.4). War is prescribed for
you, and you dislike. But it is possible that you dislike what is good
for you (2.216). And so on, it all reads like a manual of war on
mankind rather than a charter of human brotherhood. It neatly divides
humanity into mu‘mins and kãfirs, and leaves not the slightest scope
for any mutual understanding or normal morality between the two.
So much for the second pretension of Islam.
ISLAM BRUTALISED ARAB SOCIETY
The third pretension of Islam is that it rescued Arabia from an era of
darkness (jãhiliyya), and put her squarely on the path of cultural
progress. The proposition needs a very close examination. No records
of pre-Islamic culture have survived except a bit of poetry, which by
itself is a telling evidence of the havoc wrought by Islam on a
society whose only fault was that it did not take seriously the
prophethood of Muhammad. Even so, something of the pre-Islamic Arab
society and culture shines through the lies told about them by the
biographers of Muhammad. It was a tribal society no doubt. But the
tribes had a long tradition of large-hearted religious liberalism
which made the worshippers of many Gods and Goddesses live peacefully
side by side. The Jews and the Christians also enjoyed full religious
freedom in this environment of tolerance and understanding. It was
this liberalism and tolerance which permitted the prophet of Islam to
preach and practise all that he did. If pre-Islamic Arab society had
been what Islam made of it after Muhammad’s mailed fist had triumphed,
there would have been no prophet and no Islam.
The pre-Islamic Arabs were honest in their dealings with other people,
and chivalrous towards their enemies. They practised a code of honour
in all give and take. The women in pre-Islamic Arabia had a very high
status. They presided over business and commerce. They took part in
public debates and poetic contests. They rode freely by themselves for
visiting friends and lovers. They accompanied and stood by their men
on the field of battle. They never wore the veil which Islam forced on
them.
It was this simple, straight-forward, and essentially human society
which Islam divided by mutual hatred sown by a monopolist of “divine
revelations”. Brother was turned against brother, sons and daughters
against parents, wives against husbands, and neighbour against
neighbour. A ruthless gang of wholetime hoodlums was let loose on this
society by a preacher of “perfect virtue”. This gang led many surprise
expeditions against unsuspecting tribal settlements without any
provocation whatsoever, looted caravans which were not expecting to be
waylaid, massacred many innocent men and women and children in the
most cruel manner, enslaved many more who had always been free
citizens, forced many helpless women into slavery and concubinage, and
deprived whole communities of their inherited as well as hard-earned
properties, movable and immovable. The victims were at first baffled
by this unprecedented and uncivilised conduct on the part of those
whom they regarded as their own kith and kin. They fought back half-
heartedly when their patience was exhausted. And they surrendered to
superior military strategy and armed force which they had neither the
time nor the resourcefulness to match.
The Arab people were brutalised after Islam destroyed their ancient
and humane culture, and forced them to fulfil its fiendish behests.
The Arab people now became a brotherhood of bandits who fell like
hungry wolves on the neighbouring lands, who massacred other people en
masse in the name of Monotheism, who desecrated and demolished other
people’s places of worship in the name of Allah, who looted and
pillaged whole countries and populated them with bastard progenies
begotten on helpless native women without number, and who carried away
whole masses of men and women and children and sold them into slavery.
This “civilizing” mission of Islam was taken over by the Turks at a
later stage, particularly in India.
It is high time that we see through the pretensions of a pernicious
political ideology masquerading as religion, and expose the truth
which is being suppressed by the hawkers of Nehruvian Secularism. It
is high time that the Muslims everywhere are made to know that Islam
has been and remains as far from Insãniyat as the North Pole from the
South Pole. The Dark Night which dwells over many lands invaded by
Islam and which is trying to spread farther afield with the help of
petro-dollars, has to be rolled back till every Muslim receives his
normal share of daylight. A beginning of this mission can be made in
India, the land of Sanãtana Dharma.
But before we set out to accomplish that mission, we have to use
discretion in defining what is dharma. We should not sloganise the
truths of Sanatana Dharma as is evident when we practise sarva-dharma-
sama-bhãva vis-a-vis Islam and Christianity.
http://voiceofdharma.com/books/siii/ch12.htm
APPENDIX
(These articles appeared in the weekly Organiser and invited some
comments from the readers, particularly Dr. K.K. Mittal with whom I
developed almost a debate spread over several issues of the weekly. I
discovered that Dr. Mittal had equated Islam with Urdu poetry with
which he happened to be in love. The following questions from Sindhu,
the pseudonym used by the editor, Shri K.R. Malkani, and the answers I
gave are relevant to this book.)
ANY SILVER LINING?
(Sindhu, New Delhi)
I have been following the Sitaram Goel series - and the Goel-Mittal
Debate - with much interest.
I agree with the intent of both, Shri Goel and Shri Mittal.
Shri Sitaram is only recapitulating recorded history. But the account
makes such sad reading that Dr. Mittal tries to see some silver
linings. Maybe he is only looking in a dark room for a black cat, that
is not there. But the effort is laudable.
Shri Goel is speaking the truth and nothing but the truth. But is it
the “whole truth”? Is it possible that Muslim rule was not all jet-
black - but also part-gray?
According to Max Weber, more ‘tribals’ joined the Hindu mainstream as
a result of the Muslim shock, than the number of Hindus who converted
to Islam.
As a friend once put it, it was in reaction to Muslims we became
“Hindus”; and it was in reaction to the British that we became
“Indians”.
While Hindu rulers through much of history contented themselves with
local hegemony, few of them had any idea of the political unity of
India. On the other hand, even regional Muslim chieftains were always
trying to expand and, if possible, to capture the centre. Could this
be interpreted as a contribution to the political unity of India?
A centralised State under the Sultans created a huge Common Market.
Did this encourage trade and industry?
When Europeans arrived in India, they found Delhi and Agra much bigger
and richer than London and Paris. Would this have been the case if
Muslim rule had been an unmitigated evil?
Even during Muslim rule, we produced great poets like Tulsi, Mira,
Sur, Kabir - apart from innumerable Sufi saint-poets. Why are these
poets silent about Muslim misrule? Is it because even the misrule was
governed by a certain rule of law?
I do not know. But perhaps Shri Goel, Dr. Mittal and other friends
could enlighten us all on these and other related points.
MUSLIM RULE HAD NO SILVER LINING
(Sita Ram Goel)
Sindhu has raised certain questions in the Organiser dated April 11-
17, which I should like to answer. I may, however, state my final
conclusion first - Muslim rule in India was an unmitigated evil.
1. I have never read Max Weber and do not know how he has arrived at
the conclusion that “more tribals joined the Hindu mainstream as a
result of the Muslim shock than the number of Hindus who were
converted to Islam”. Perhaps he had in mind the people of Assam whom
Bakhtyar Khalji and a few other Muslim invaders tried to subjugate, or
the hill people all over our northern borders whom Muhammad Tughlaq
tried to conquer but failed, or the Gonds who fought Akbar under
Maharani Durgavati, or the Bhils who fought for freedom under Maharana
Pratap, or the Mavlas who joined Shivaji at a later date. But the very
fact that these so-called “tribals” fought spontaneously against the
Muslim marauders rather than walk over to the winning side goes to
prove that they shared a common culture with the rest of the natives.
Of course, the term “Hindu” can be defined in a narrow manner to mean
people within the fold of VarNãšrama in which sense the so-called
tribals were not the so-called Hindus. But that is only proving what
one has already assumed. A Hindu should not walk into that trap.
2. It is true that the natives of Bharatavarsha became known as Hindus
to themselves only after the Islamic invasion, as they were known
earlier only to the foreigners. But that was not a happy outcome which
we could welcome. We were a great culture before the Muslims came to
this country - the culture sustained by Sanãtana Dharma. The Muslim
invasion converted us into a mere community which was now called upon
to defend its very existence. We have to hug the term Hindu because
Bharatavarsha now is also inhabited by communities which do not share
the culture of Sanãtana Dharma. We have to have a distinct identity of
our own, however defective the name we choose or are forced by
circumstances to choose, for ourselves. Moreover, the term Hindu has
now become hallowed by association with countless heroes and martyrs
who lived and died for Hindu Dharma and the Hindu homeland. Even so,
it would be the beginning of a new dawn if we can win our alienated
brethren back to their ancestral faith and become once again a single
family sustained by Sanãtana Dharma. The term Hindu will then become
superfluous, and can be dropped.
3. Hindu rulers on the eve of Muslim invasion had not totally
forgotten the idea of the political unity of India. The ancient
tradition enshrined in the Mahabharata and the Puranas and honoured by
Indian emperors as late as Samudragupta, namely, that the whole of
Bharatavarsha was a cakravartî-kshetra, was still smouldering when
many princes joined the Hindu Shahiyas in their fight against
Subuktigin. But the tradition had become greatly weakened, though it
did not die till 1947 when we accepted Partition and conceded to the
aggressor the fruits of his aggression. Of course, the ancient idea of
political unity was not the same as that brought in by Islam which has
always stood for a monolithic and militarised state serving a system
of an incurable fanaticism. Our concept of sãmrajya was derived from
Sanãtana Dharma and fostered a true federation of many janapadas
enjoying swarãjya, local autonomy, on the basis of swadharma, local
tradition and culture. Islam made no contribution to the unity of
Bharatavarsha; on the contrary, it seriously damaged the deeper fabric
of our national unity and, in the final outcome, dismembered the
nation into fragments like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Hindustan,
Bangladesh, and Nepal.
4. The eulogisation of a common market is a capitalist-imperialist
innovation. It only means that the common people in the interior who
produce the wealth, are not permitted to enjoy it. The fruits of their
labour, enterprise, and skill are taken away from them by tampering
with the terms of trade, and made available to a parasitic population
in metropolitan centres; or, worse still, the common people in the
interior are forced or lured to produce not what they need for
themselves but what a parasitic urban population requires for a life
of profligacy and waste. The infrastructure created by the ancient
culture of this country was informed by the spirit of swadeshi - local
materials, local techniques, and local labour are mobilised for the
satisfaction of local needs, and only the surplus is sent out in
exchange for useful goods from outside. The Muslim rule damaged this
infrastructure to a certain extent under pressure from its parasitic
court and aristocracy. But, by and large, it survived the Muslim rule
till it was undermined to a great extent by inroads from British
capitalism-imperialism. We are now dealing to it the final death blows
by our five-year plans. Let us be fair to the Muslim rule in India. It
did not create any significant centralised market, nor, consequently,
did it damage very significantly the infrastructure which had proved
an infallible source of strength throughout our long history.
5. The Europeans might have found Delhi and Agra bigger than London
and Paris at that time. But what was Europe as compared to India till
the end of the 18th century? It was a poor continent sending out large
armies of its anti-social elements in search of loot under the banner
of Christianity. Agra and Delhi should be compared with Pataliputra,
Varanasi, Ujjain, Kanauj, Kanchipuram, Madura and Tanjore which
flourished before the advent of Islam or even with contemporary
Vijayanagara, to find out what a sorry figure the former make. These
renowned seats of Muslim rule were small towns in comparison to the
leading cities in ancient India. Moreover, all Muslim cities were
networks of narrow slums which would have outraged the classical
tastes of our ancient town planners. The layout of Mohenjo-daro is the
oldest and that of Jaipur the latest specimen of what wide spaces
entered the imagination of an urban culture which derived its
inspiration from an infinitude of the inner Spirit. The Muslim cities
were mostly ghettos - the material manifestation of a spiritual ghetto
which is Islam.
6. Sufis during the Muslim rule might have been poets. I cannot judge
because I am no connoisseur of Persian poetry. But I seriously doubt
if they were saints, except a few on whom Islam continues to frown
even today. Nor were the sufis specific to India. Islam produced whole
armies of them in all lands it invaded during its heyday. In any case,
I cannot take pride in Indian sufis who were a part of the imperialist
establishment of Islam. On the other hand, Muslim rule had nothing to
do with the rise of Hindu saints like Kabir, Nanak, Tulsi, Sur and
Mira. They arose in spite of Islam, and flourished only because Islam
could not reach out to kill them. Shall we attribute the rise of
Solzhenytsin to the rule of Stalin? Human spirit is unconquerable in
the long run. Kabir and Nanak have referred to the inequities of Islam
in very clear terms. Tulsi, Mira and Sur did not refer to Islam
because it was beneath their contempt. At the same time, let us not
forget that Mira flourished in Mewar which was never under Muslim
rule, and Tulsi and Sur flourished under Akbar who had largely
dismantled the edifice of the Islamic state in India and struck up a
deal with the Rajputs. The misrule of Islam was of course governed by
a rule of law - the “law” of Islam. But the “law” of Islam never
became universal in India. How gray Jewish, Christian, Zoroastrian and
Buddhist mystics and saints flourished in lands where the “law” of
Islam attained a universal sway?
I wonder if I have answered the 6 questions raised by Sindhu to his
entire satisfaction. But this is the best I know.
http://voiceofdharma.com/books/siii/app.htm
Ayodhya and After: Issues Before Hindu Society by Koenraad Elst
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/ayodhya/
Ayodhya: The Case against the Temple by Koenraad Elst
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/acat/
BJP vis-à-vis Hindu Resurgence by Koenraad Elst
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/bjp/
Collapsing Pakistan by N.S. Rajaram
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/cpak/
The Demographic Siege by Koenraad Elst
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/demogislam/
Defence of Hindu Society by Sita Ram Goel
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/hindusoc/
Heroic Hindu Resistance to Muslim Invaders by Sita Ram Goel
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/hhrmi/
Hindu Society Under Siege by Sita Ram Goel
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/hsus/
Hindu Temples: What Happened to Them Vol. 1 by Sita Ram Goel
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/htemples1/
Hindu Temples: What Happened to Them Vol. 2 by Sita Ram Goel
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/htemples2/
Hinduism and the Clash of Civilizationsby David Frawley
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/civilization/
History of Hindu-Christian Encountersby Sita Ram Goel
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/hhce/
How I became a Hindu by Sita Ram Goel
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/hibh/
HOLY VEDAS AND HOLY BIBLES : A Comparative Study by Kanayalal M.
Talreja
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/hvhb/
India's Rebirth by Sri Aurobindo
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/ir/IR_frontpage.htm
Indian Muslims Who Are They by K.S. Lal
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/imwat/
Jihad : The Islamic Doctrine of Permanent War by Suhas Majumdar
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/jihad/
Muslim League Attack on Sikhs and Hindus in the Punjab 1947 by S.
Gurbachan Singh Talib
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/mla/
Muslim Slave System in Medieval India by K.S. Lal
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/mssmi/
Muslim Separatism : Causes and Consequences by Sita Ram Goel
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/muslimsep/
Nationalism And Distortions In Indian History by Dr. N.S. Rajaram
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/dist/
Negationaism in India - Concealing the Record of Islam by Koenraad
Elst
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/negaind/
On Hinduism : Reviews and Reflections by Ram Swarup
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/ohrr/
Perversion of India's Political Parlance by Sita Ram Goel
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/pipp/
Psychology of Prophetism - A Secular Look at the Bible by Koenraad
Elst
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/pp/
The Calcutta Quran Petition by Sita Ram Goel
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/tcqp/
The Ferengi's Columns by François Gautier
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/tfc/
The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India by K.S. Lal
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/tlmr/
The Rigveda - A Historical Analysis by Shrikant Talageri
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/rig/
The Beautiful Tree by Dharampal
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/tbt/
The Story of Islamic Imperialism in India by Sita Ram Goel
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/siii/
Time for Stock Taking - Whither Sangh Parivar? by Various Authors
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/tfst/
Tipu Sultan : Villain or Hero? Sita Ram Goel
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/tipu/
Update on the Aryan Invasion Debate by Koenraad Elst
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/ait/
VINDICATED BY TIME - The Niyogi Committee Report On Christian
Missionary Activities with introduction by Sita Ram Goel
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/ncr/
Understanding Islam Through Hadis : Religious faith or Fanaticism? by
Sri Ram Swarup
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/uith/
Who is a Hindu by Koenraad Elst
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/wiah/
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/
chhotemianinshallah
The Mughal Empire (The New Cambridge History of India) (Paperback)
~ John F. Richards
John F. Richards (Author)
(Author) "The legacy of the Indo-Muslim frontier, the medieval Indian
economy, and new connections with Europe helped to create conditions
favorable to the rise of an..."
http://www.amazon.com/Mughal-Empire-Cambridge-History-India/dp/0521566037#reader_0521566037
Customer Reviews
The Mughal Empire (The New Cambridge History of India)
2 Reviews
5 star: (1)
4 star: (1)
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(2 customer reviews)
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
concise information about the mughal empire, April 5, 2001
By A Customer
This book is an excellent source of information about the mughal
dynasty. It is written in a chronological manner and hence, easy to
read and follow even for the novice user to this subject. The author
has stuck to the main theme of the lives of the emperors themselves,
their artistic contribution to India and the people that influenced
them. The facts about the emperors especially Jahangir, Shahjahan ,
the Rajput kings, Shivaji's greatness and Shambhaji's misadventures
makes it an interesting read. I feel that this book brings forth the
facts that are not widely known or mentioned in school history books
that brings forth some suprises and hence makes it an interesting
read.
13 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
An excellent survey marred by too little attention to women, August
15, 1999
By A Customer
Dr. Richards' otherwise excellent book about the Mughal Empire is
marred by his failure to pay very much attention to its women.
Gulbadan is mentioned but once, Jodh Bai, Shah Jahan's mother, not at
all, Nur Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal only peripherally. Are the Mughal
chronicles themselves similarly silent about these women? Since
Gulbadan wrote her own, one must say no.
2 posts in this discussion
Initial post: Dec. 6, 2007 5:54 PM PST
Anna M. Singh-klar says:
if you read the book" the 20th wife". it contains all the information
about the mughal empire women and its a very interesting book to
read!!!!!
Your reply to Anna M. Singh-klar's post:
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Posted on July 27, 2009 7:33 AM PDT
Tiltowait says:
Jodha bai is a fictional character. This book is non-fiction.
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The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857 (Vintage)
(Paperback)
~ William Dalrymple
William Dalrymple (Author)
Customer Reviews
The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857 (Vintage)
49 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
(49 customer reviews)
45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
"The light has gone out of India. The land is lampless."
A great strength of 'The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857' by William Dalrymple (White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in
Eighteenth-Century India) is its use not only of more familiar British
sources, but also many Indian (Urdu and Persian) sources on one of
pivotal events in the history of both India and the British Empire,
the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 or the...
Published on August 12, 2007 by Douglas S. Wood
› See more 5 star, 4 star reviews
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Britain's Least Finest Hour
It is a pleasure first to read detailed descriptions of the
activities, pastimes and intrigues of the Last Mughal's court and of
Delhi's contemporary Muslim, Hindu and British elite. The position of
Sufi poetry as the royal palace's supreme artistic passion is
particularly fascinating.
Published on October 28, 2007 by Roger John Maudsley
45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
"The light has gone out of India. The land is lampless.", August 12,
2007
By Douglas S. Wood "Vicarious Life" (Monona, WI) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
A great strength of 'The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857' by William Dalrymple (White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in
Eighteenth-Century India) is its use not only of more familiar British
sources, but also many Indian (Urdu and Persian) sources on one of
pivotal events in the history of both India and the British Empire,
the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 or the First War of Indian Independence as it
is also sometimes called.
Dalrymple describes his excitement at discovering some 20,000 Persian
and Urdu documents in the Indian national Archives. A particularly
important source was the 'Dihli Urdu Akhbar' a principal Urdu
newspaper that continued to publish during the revolt. These sources
allow Dalrymple to give voice to the Indian as well the British point
of view.
In 1857 the sepoys of the British Raj's Bengal Army mutinied (the
reasons are explored in the book, but were at least partly due to a
clash of newly arrived Christian evangelicals and adherents of Islam
and Hindu). What began as mutiny became something larger at least in
part because the Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II endorsed it.
Dalrymple centers his telling of the tale on Zafar, the man destined
to become the last Mughal emperor. By 1857 the Mughal Emperor
possessed no real tangible power and was nothing more than the King of
Delhi as he was derisively called. An aesthete himself, Zafar was
singularly well-suited to his role as head of a court that elevated
culture, poetry in particular, but wholly unsuited by temperament and
age (he was 82 years old) to a role as leader of an armed revolt.
Delhi before 1857 was a remarkably tolerant mix of Hindu and Islam -
roughly a 50/50 split - in part because of Zafar's manner of ruling.
Zafar's acceptance of a titular leadership in the revolt meant that
both Muslims and Hindi rallied to the cause. That symbolic role,
however, was about all Zafar brought to the war.
The revolt began to flounder almost immediately due a lack of proper
direction and discipline. The Sepoy regiments each acted independently
and allowed a much smaller British force (ostensibly come to lay siege
to the city) to survive repeated but serial attacks. The early stages
of the revolt also saw horrific slaughter of noncombatant and unarmed
British residents.
Eventually the British took the city and the revenge they took is
described by Dalrymple in bloody detail. The killings were nothing
short of mass murder and heartily endorsed by nearly every Britisher
with any knowledge of it (William Howard Russell was one exception).
Men who had lost family in the initial outbreak were allowed to
massacre at will for months - Theo Metcalfe is the most notable
example. Those locals not killed were left homeless and starving.
The British executed nearly the entire Mughal royal family and would
have done so for Zafar, but for the promise that his life would be
spared if he surrendered. It was a promise that the British determined
they were bound to keep even though they didn't like it much.
One supposes this example represents Victorian attitudes about
rectitude that the British somehow held in their heads at the same
time that they authored unspeakable murdering sprees. In a somewhat
lighter example, Dalrymple quotes a British soldier's letter written
to his mum on the eve of battle in which the youth expresses his fear
that engaging in the fight may cause him to swear!
As stated at the outset the rich sources give 'The Last Mughal: The
Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857' its strength, but Dalrymple's over-
reliance on the raw materials makes the book drag to its conclusion.
For the last 100+ pages, Dalrymple sometimes gives over the narrative
to his primary sources as page after page consists substantially of
quotes from letters, reports, or memoirs. Dalrymple also spends only
the briefest time placing the events of 1857 in a larger historical
framework.
Nonetheless, the book is a triumph of research and offers that rarity
in historical writing, the truly fresh perspective. Dalrymple gives
voice to the Indian perspective of the fall of Delhi. As the great
court poet Ghalib so poignantly expressed it, "The light has gone out
of India. The land is lampless."
Highly recommended.
83 of 89 people found the following review helpful:
"The further backward you look...., March 19, 2007
By Prashant Rao "prashy69" (Chicago, IL USA) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
....the further forward you can see." This is what Sir Winston
Churchill said when talking about the relevance of history to one's
current circumstance.
I cannot help but recall these words, after reading William
Dalrymple's brilliant
"The Last Mughal".
William Dalrymple's latest book uses Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last
emperor of the Mughal dynasty, to recreate the vibrant city of Delhi,
in the 1850's. A culturally diverse, almost cosmopolitan city, of
which Bahadur Shah Zafar, was the mere figurehead. A city which
epitomized,the India of the Mughals, where the Hindus and Muslims co-
existed peacefully. In fact a rich culture and social fabric existed
due to this pluralistic co-existence.
The mutiny of 1857 proved to be the fall of the Mughal Dynasty, and
the end of this vibrant way of life.
Dalrymple, researched this book for over 4 years and accessed sources,
which were until now, never used to narrate the history of those
seminal times. "The Mutiny Papers", which were found on the shelves of
National Archives of India, detailed through "great unwieldy mountains
of chits, pleas, orders, petitions, complaints, receipts, rolls of
attendance and lists of casualties...notes from spies of dubious
reliability and letters from eloping lovers...", a very uniquely
Indian point of view and perspective. An important voice, which until
now has been missing in the retelling of the "Sepoys Mutiny".
For me as an Indian, it is very important to understand this point of
view. To know about my true cultural heritage, about strands of my
identity which were sundered by the British, along their (in)famous
"Divide and Rule" policy.
Consider this, most of the history books, have been written by the
British in some form...so the opinions I have formed, and the
perspectives I have, have been developed by the "British" outlook and
essentially the Victorian take on history.
I think, India as a society is richer due to the Mughals and despite
the popular opinion and recorded history (who wrote it, you guessed it
right...the British !!), they went out of their way to ensure a
secular society and a safe environment, for Hindu religion, culture
and arts to flourish. In fact as mentioned in the book, the only thing
Zafar was decisive about in those trying times was his "refusal to
alienate his Hindu subjects by subscribing to the demands of the
jihadis."
Did you know for instance that most of the Indian intellectuals of the
late 19th century and the early 20th century, were schooled in
madrassas, including people like Raja Rammohan Roy...The madrassas,
were considered to provide well rounded education, not just math and
science, but also the humanities, eastern philosophy and the arts...it
was only due to the rising influence of Christianity in India, in the
late 19th century and the drive for conversions, which lead the
madrassas to reinforce the study of Islam in their curriculum, and for
them to increasingly move along the path of fundamentalism.
It is due to all this and also because of an extremely evocative
account of 1857 skirmishes, that this book is a must read.
You owe it yourself, as a citizen of the world, living in a these
troubled times terrorized by religious fundamentalism.
As Sir Churchill, prophesied, it will only help us look "further
forward."
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
Dalrymple tackles the complexities of the Mutiny with ease, July 21,
2007
By chefdevergue (Spokane, WA United States) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
For those few carping reviewers among us, this is not a history of the
Mughal Empire, nor is it a history of the Sepoy Mutiny as a whole. Nor
is it (even though Zafar is the main figure through the entire
narrative) biography. What it is, is an examination of Delhi, the last
bastion of the Mughal dynasty & basically a self-contained entity unto
itself, suddenly & unexpectedly found itself at the center of one of
the most vicious conflicts in the history of the Subcontinent.
In his preface, Dalrymple observes that studies of the Mutiny assume
"two parallel streams of historiography," using different (but
predominantly English) sources. Dalrymple has attempted to bring
together all of these sources as well as the largely neglected non-
English sources. With these resources in hand, the Mutiny assumes a
new, far more complex appearance than before. Far from being a simple
conflict between natives & colonial overlords, it becomes apparent
that this actually was a six-sided (seven sides, if one includes the
bandits in the countryside) conflict. The assorted factions, even
those presumably on the same side, oftentimes had precious little
common ground, and for the rebelling side, this frequent lack of unity
ultimately spelled doom to the uprising.
Caught in the middle of the tumult of rebellion & upheaval are the
residents of Delhi & the decrepit Emperor, embroiled in a war they
neither desired nor invited. Dalrymple has precious little sympathy
for either the British or the rebels, both of whom committed
unforgiveable atrocities throughout, but he clearly feels the pain of
the Emperor & the Delhiwallahs, caught in a no-win situation.
Some of Dalrymple's critics accuse him (disingenously, I believe) of
taking a romanticized view of the Mughals & viewing their ultimate
downfall as a tragedy. Don't forget, they say, the Mughals were
ruthless conquerers also. To this I would say, remember that the
Mughal in question is Bahadur Shah II, not Babur. If you want of a
survey of the Mughals as ruthless conquerers, then perhaps a biography
of Babur or Humayun would be in order. I would also point out that it
is perhaps more fair to say that Dalrymple sees two tragedies
resulting from this affair: the destruction of Delhi & its culture,
and the religious radicalization following the final assertion of
power by Britain over the Subcontinent.
Dalrymple also points out that there are more than a few parallels
between then & now. It is worth noting that a belief system becoming
radicalized as the result of foreign incursion is nothing new. The
British exploited this radicalization as they pursued a "divide &
rule" strategy in India, but even the Raj lasted less than a century.
Despite their best efforts, the British ultimately had to withdraw.
Hmmm.
All in all, a superb effort. Despite the tremendous amount of detail,
the narrative flows with ease, and this proved to be a very lively
read. Nowhere does the narrative bog down. While accessible, it is
nonetheless serious history. Should he choose to do so, Dalrymple
could well be on his way to becoming one of the preminent historians
of this period.
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
A research of first order., May 9, 2007
By Rao Nasir Khan (San Francisco) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
Exactly 150 years ago, today the first shot of the revolt of 1857 was
fired. Today India celebrates what I grew up learning as "The first
war of Indian independence".
Most of the history taught in Indian schools is written by the 20th
century socialist, nationalist historians and that became my frame of
reference. I always looked back at the "war" of 1857 with some sense
of pride, it was a time we were told - Hindus and Muslims came
together to fight off the British yoke, when oppressed poor rose up
against the zamindars and money lenders, when nationalism was a common
thread that tied the widespread war, where mendicants carried the
message of revolution in secret chappatis and women joined the men in
the struggle for independence. Overall a romantic nationalist picture
painted by secular historians.
This book by Dalrymple shatters the myth I was raised with. He, based
upon his meticulous research and conflation from disparate
documentation, both native and British, conclusively proves that the
outbreak of May 10, 1857 was a bloody communal riot.
At least it started like that, except that the wrath of both Hindus
and Muslims combine fell on the hapless British men, women and
children.
There is no pride whatsoever in what happened on the days of May 10
and May 11.
In fact it should be marked as a day of mourning when the sepoys
marched into Delhi and in just first 48 hours massacred all Christians
in the capital. Not just killed but chopped into pieces. No one was
spared, not even pregnant women. Just a few survived who either
escaped just in time or were sheltered by some Delhiwallahs.
In fact on this day started what would be one of the biggest
catastrophes to befall on the magnificent capital of Mughal India,
from which it has not emerged in many ways till today.
Dalrymple writes this book almost as a war correspondent embedded with
troops on either side. His narrative is full of real life events, hour
by hour, as they unfolded in those fateful times. It is a research in
history that parallels the deciphering of Brahmi by James Princep. It
opens the door to one of the darkest and bloodiest period of Indian
history which laid the foundation of an even bloodier event, the
partition of 1947.
He also clearly shows that the outbreak which was united at least from
Indian perspective was soon hijacked by a bunch of Jihadis, coloring
it with an extremist Islamic color, despite the whole hearted attempts
of the King and Princes to retain the united fervor.
This became one of the turning points in the history of this struggle
and became an excuse for a pogrom of worst kind perpetuated by British
against Muslims of Delhi.
If you survive reading the brutality of Indians in the first half of
the book you will find it hard to not get deeply disturbed at the
unimaginable savagery that the victorious British unleashed on the
Indians. More than a hundred thousand people, a large number of them
innocent were ruthlessly killed, war crimes of worst kind committed,
women raped (though it was conclusively proved that the mutineers
never committed any rape, albeit all the killing), mosques and graves
desecrated, property looted, buildings destroyed and all this happened
in the backdrop of shameless inducements of Padres quoting the Bible
out of context.
While British murderers and looters leached the city of all its people
and possessions, what is also insightful is that in their heinous
crimes they were aided, in fact surpassed by their "Indian"
mercenaries who were predominantly Sikh, Gurkha and Pathan in origin.
It would not be wrong to say that this war was predominantly
Hindustanee (confined mostly to Hindi speaking belt) in nature and the
"foreign" mercenaries (from other parts of India) had no qualms in
squashing it and taking home the booty.
What is also shameful is the fact that these British murderers and
pillagers not only remained scot-free above the law but were also
decorated by the British government. Prize agents who plundered the
Indian treasures and shamelessly broke and sold even the paneled walls
of many palaces or Red fort, were knighted.
Perhaps nothing is more poignant than the disgusting treatment meted
out to the King and Princes on whom the British had no jurisdiction.
The whole trial was not only a farce but was completely illegal, even
by British view point.
Overall this book is not for the weak hearted, but it is a must read
for anyone who wants to learn the true history of that period.
I hope the findings of this incredible work will find their way into
history text books in India and dispel the myths that the youth are
made to believe in.
Nothing is more dangerous than fiction wrapped in history text books
because "if we do not learn from history, we are destined to repeat
it".
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
The Power of Culture, June 2, 2007
By John T. McCabe (Sioux Falls, SD USA) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
The Last Mughal is an engrossing history of the events that occurred
in Deli, India in 1857, which centers about the Emperor - the Last
Great Mughal - caught in the middle between his Islamic and Hindu
subjects who formed a rebel army, and the Colonial British army of the
East India Company.
The trouble started when the British army replaced the rifle issued to
the sepoys - the Hindu and Islamic Indian privates who joined the
British army. The rifle replaced was a smooth bore; the new rifle -
the Enfield - was manufactured with a rifled bore. Rifling cased the
bullet to spin in the bore which resulted in increased range and
accuracy compared to the smooth bore. However, to overcome the added
friction, the ball ammunition needed to be greased. The shooter had to
bite off the top of the cartridge and pour the powder down the
barrel.
The author describes how the insensitivity of the British to Indian
culture allowed the cartridges to be coated with cow fat, which was
anathema to the majority of sepoys. This affront was interpreted as an
attack by British Christians against Hindu fundamental religious
customs. Thus began the conflict that killed thousands and destroyed
the last great Mughal.
The author did a fabulous job of retrieving, reading and patching
together thousands of documents and correspondence to form a detailed
history of the events that lead to the destruction of Delhi and the
dethroning of the Emperor.
The Last Mughal is a riveting book of historic events that is easily
worth a five star rating.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Authentic, and with feeling, April 15, 2007
By Ismat Riaz -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
Meticulously researched, Dalrymple's 'Last Mughal' is spellbinding in
its narration and detailing of the era that brought the great Mughal
Empire in India to its tragic end. Not only that, perhaps for the
first time have events and actions of the British rulers of India been
brought to life in an entirely human setting; their brutal retaliation
to the mutiny and the emotions and feelings governing their actions
are vividly told. Many myths and falsehoods are shattered such as long-
established accusations that British women were raped and murdered
mercilessly by Indians, and that Bahadur Shah Zafar was complicit in
the revolt.
Dalrymple's narrative makes you live through the day-to-day routine of
both parties not as an outsider looking in but as an eyewitness on the
inside. He exposes the weaknesses and habits of the characters with
depth; readers are compelled
to know and feel that that they are familiar and known to them. Few
historical accounts can boast of sketching the central character to be
as fragile as Zafar, descendant of once politically and militarily
powerful emperors, who presided over a court known only for its
intellectual brilliance.
The book's ground-breaking research lies in its exposition of Muslim
culture and beliefs reflected so well by Zafar's court. Ghalib, the
great Urdu and Persian poet opens the window to amazing flights of
poetry and prose that Muslim men of letters were steeped in during
that period. Zafar's refusal to take the life of British men, women
and children who were given sanctuary at his court under his Islamic
beliefs that the taking of a human life in cold blood would be like
the massacring all humanity, part of the Islamic creed that even in
war-like conditions the life and property of ordinary people was
sacrosanct - even crops and fields were not to be touched as these
were the lifeline of the people. Many Muslims gave shelter to British
families during the 1857 revolt even as British Punjabi Muslim
regiments fought against their Muslim brothers in the line of duty.
Zafar might have drawn inspiration from Muslim history where Saladin
re-taking Jerusalem from the Crusaders without the loss of an innocent
life immediately granted amnesty to its
inhabitants unlike the Crusaders who took the city with streets awash
in the blood of its populace put to the sword.
Dalryple's painstaking research also reflects on and is an exposition
of Muslim reformers of the time. Progressive reformers such as Shah
Waliullah deplored the degeneracy of the Mughal courtiers who had
forgotten the lessons of Islam and were involved in intrigues, lies,
backbiting and adultery. Shah Waliullah's translation of the Holy
Koran into Persian so that people could understand and then practise
its teachings upset the orthodoxy of the time. His son, Shah Abdul
Aziz translated it into Urdu which would then be accessible to
ordinary Muslims as well.
Dalrymple's research concludes on his view of the much talked about
'clash of civilisations' between Christianity and Islam by
highlighting the misguided zeal of the evangelical missionaries whose
insensitivities were a major cause of the Mutiny. The reaction to
their zeal, he asserts then as even now, is the mushrooming of the
hardline Muslim factions who then use tactics that are against the
teachings of Islam such as suicide bombings and terrorism.
Dalrymple's brilliance lies in his overt handling of raw human
emotions and combining it with the destruction of a civilisation that
had managed to synthesise two entirely different cultures and
religions into a harmonious whole for nearly two and a half centuries
- something that humanity at large must realise and learn from in the
troubling times of the present century.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
The Last Mughal, May 13, 2007
By Judith Geduldig (Pennsylvania, USA) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
Absolutely splendid! Fabulous read! I am a Dalrymple devotee and have
loved reading about his travel adventures in Asia and the Indian
subcontinent - but this book is the history of the Indian mutiny of
1857 against the rigid government of the British. The details of the
sad and horrifying behavior of the Indians and the British parallel,
intererestingly, the situation we currently face in Iraq.
I suspect that most Americans know little or nothing about the British
colonial rule in India, and this book provides background and details
in a lively, compelling manner. Dalrymple's previous history, White
Mughals, is also an excellent history.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
EXCELLENT READING, June 28, 2007
By Krystyna Walter "kon02" (New York, Long Island) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
Very good written book, I read this book with great pleasure, and I
will seek other books from the same author.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
wheel of time has turned, and you are gone - no joys abide, April 12,
2007
By Z. Khan "I have always imagined that Paradise... (New York City)
-
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
"a shrouded corpse was escorted by a small group of British soldiers
to an anonymous grave at the back of a walled prison enclosure."
A terrific introduction to a book filled with newly unearthed facts
and yet again Mr. Dalrymple doesn't fail to deliver. I was introduced
to his work by randomly picking up White Mughals at The Strand in NYC
and quickly got involved in his writings.
His most recent offering is dear to my heart because he extensively
talks about the poets and the mushairas, and most of all Ghalib. He
does well in explaining Delhi court life during Zafar's rule.
Bahadur Shah Zafar II was a man of renaissance and not much of a
warrior, which is so very ironic since he was a descendant of Genghis
Khan. He was known to enjoy his evenings reciting verses or just
sitting under the moonlight.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning
about the dying years of the Mughals, Delhi life, and would highly
recommend separate reading on Ghalib (Life and Letters by Ralph
Russell).
William Dalrymple's books are simple to read, full of vibrance and
colour. I'm a lover of literature and history and most history books
are a bit dry to read, but Dalrymple does a fantastic job in
presenting facts.
A must read ...
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
Indian Mutiny or British Atrocity?, July 29, 2007
By C. H. Tidwell (Collegedale, TN USA) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
Having been a long-time resident in India (1952-1974)shortly after the
British rule in ended, I have read many books (fiction like John
Masters' and history) and articles about 1857, almost all of which
take the side of the author: Britsh or Indian. I have been surprised
by the side which a Brit (Scotish to be sure) takes in bringing out
the facts from the Indian side of the story. A couple of sentences
from the introduction graphically shows this: "As far as the Mughal
elite were concened, the fall of Delhi was followed by something
approaching genocide. Only the Victorian British, one feels, would
keep such a pefect bureaucatic record of what in many cases be
classified as grisley war cimes." One almost expects to find the more
modern term, "ethnic cleansing", used.
The author also makes the charge that the missionary movement had a
lot to do with British colonial attitude. Again another sentence from
the Introduction: "By the early 1850s many British officials were
nursing plans finally to abolish the Mughal court and to impose not
only British laws and technology in India, but also Christianity."
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Simply Magnificent, September 7, 2007
By Sarwar A. kashmeri (Reading VT USA) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
Live in the Delhi of 1857. Watch and feel the vibrancy of the
sophisticated and cultured life of Delhi. Read the most understandable
account of the whats and whys of the Indian Mutiny. Literally watch an
entire city of 150,000 people destroyed. Move along the roads and
alleys of Delhi as its citizens are slaughtered by the avenging
British Army greatly assisted by Indians themselves with a substantial
part of the genocide underwritten by Indian moneylenders. You will get
a first hand view of the end of the 300 year old Mughal rule on the
subcontinent, and understand why religious extremism (represented in
this book largely by evangalical christians) has done the world no
good for centuries. You will be reminded about how very thin is the
veneer of civilization and tolerance and that when it comes to
slaughtering their own species there is no parallel to us humans.
A book of great beauty based on immaculate research with great
relevance to today's world.
The standard by which all books on this subject will henceforth be
judged.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Great book on the Indian Mutiny of 1857, May 12, 2007
By Subhashish Deb (Portland, OR USA) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
The timing of the book release couldn't have been better as this is
the 150th year of the first war of Indian Independence. William
Dalrymple has once again gone into great detail in describing the
event from an Indian as well as the British prespective. The author
has dug up a lot of data from the Indian/British archives and perhaps
for the first time has got the persian records translated to give us a
glimpse of what was going on in Bahadur Shah Zafars's camp.
Makes great reading for Indian history buffs.
-Subhashish
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Britain's Least Finest Hour, October 28, 2007
By Roger John Maudsley (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
It is a pleasure first to read detailed descriptions of the
activities, pastimes and intrigues of the Last Mughal's court and of
Delhi's contemporary Muslim, Hindu and British elite. The position of
Sufi poetry as the royal palace's supreme artistic passion is
particularly fascinating.
Following this we have a convincing description of the causes of the
Mutiny: primarily British insensitivity to Islamic and Hindu religious
beliefs. It is even then possible to understand - although certainly
not excuse - the excesses of the rebels when freed from British
command and inflamed by religious fanaticism.
But all this fades into insignificance as the British, aided by Sikh
and Afghan soldiers, after weeks of delay, disorganization and
indecision retake Delhi and exact revenge.
If ever there was an event that should have tarnished the British
reputation for leadership, mercy, fairplay and justice it must be
this, as tens of thousands of Delhi's inhabitants, guilty and
innocent, friend and foe, are shot, stabbed and hung while homes are
systematically looted. Even old folk, women and children found
cowering below ground are driven out of the city to die of exposure,
disease and starvation. And there is no doubt about the facts as they
are painstakingly documented in the participants' own words. Is the
book worth reading? Only if you want to witness, in retrospect and
blow by bloody blow, one of Britain's least finest hours.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Masterful, Commanding, Brilliant History, August 8, 2008
By John Sollami (Stamford, CT) -
Having just returned from Delhi and a "tour" of the Red Fort, I found
myself on a rainy week-long vacation in New Hampshire. I had purchased
this book months ago and finally decided to read it. I wish I had done
so before my long journey to India, as "The Last Mughal" provides an
amazingly exhaustive and massively detailed wealth of information on
19th century Delhi, the Fort, and the incredible uprising of 1857,
which would have enriched my "tour" beyond measure. Our "guide" on my
"tour" through the Fort, in oppressive heat, was more intent on
informing us of the lurid details regarding the harems, the water,
milk, and perfume baths, and the golden throne that was stolen from
the Mughal's hands in 1739 by Persian invaders because the Mughal was
too busy diddling away his time rather than ruling his empire. This
comic guide also said, "I make you happy, you make me happy" and then
made off with way too many rupees and dollars from our too kind group
for his boffo tour. Such is the way of naive western tourists and
shrewd Delhi citizens.
Dalrymple, whose goal here is to reveal the contents of some 20,000
otherwise untouched Persian and Urdu documents from this period of
history, constructs this history in such convincing detail that one
feels the events unfolding in real time. Dalrymple speaks to the
causes of the sepoy (Indian infantry private) uprising and the
declaration of a jihad. He suggests the Victorian Evangelicals and
their missionary zeal contributed heavily in changing the cultural
atmosphere. Complete disregard for native beliefs and the treatment of
natives as less than human surely didn't help. Dalrymple also presents
the violent vengeance and genocide perpetrated by the British on every
living soul in Delhi after the sepoys, through their own poor tactics
and lack of an intelligence network, blew their very real chances at
total victory. Others here have criticized the author's so-called
slanted view of these events, his failure to dwell on the unjust rule
of the Mughals, and his overly heavy emphasis on missionaries as a
prime cause of the unrest.
I disagree with these criticisms. This book is a collection of facts,
as gathered together from historical documents. What is history but
what can be surmised from contemporary documentation? The historian's
burden is to put these facts in chronological order and in so
assembling them, attempt to recreate a sequence of events. As has been
said, history is written by the victors, but in this case, Dalrymple
has provided another point of view. Its accuracy is undeniable in
light of its sources. Where does "the truth" lie? That is for the
reader to decide. All I can say is this book is a major contribution
to what we know and for that we should be appreciative.
I also appreciate the inclusion of the Glossary, which I referred to
many times, and the maps, which were very useful.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
The Great Mutiny in Delhi, July 10, 2007
By Frank J. Konopka (Shamokin, PA) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
The sepoy revolt in 1857 in India was a tragic affair that cost the
lives of many innocent people on both sides, British and Indian. This
book concentrates solely on the Mutiny as it related to Delhi and the
inevitable end of the Moghul dynasty that had ruled Hindustan for
several centuries. We learn that, initially, the British officials and
soldiers in India were very friendly towards the native people, but
this began to change near the middle of the 19th century, when newer
and younger, more racist folks were sent to the subcontinent. Also,
the Evangelicals felt that the entire population, Hindu and Moslem,
were ripe for conversion and went ahead with their plans without
regard to the sensitivities of the natives. Of course, this was more
of a religious uprising than a political one, and the last Moghul
emperor was unwillingly caught up in the storm that arose. The book
really reveals the racial attitudes of the British, who took horrible
and excessive revenge when the Mutiny had been quelled. There is a lot
of sympathy for the emperor and his family, and also many of the
peoples who were really innocent of any participation in the unrest,
but were still harshly punished, and even summarily executed, by the
vengeful British victors. It's a sad story but it shows that an
occupying power has a responsibility in relation to the native
population, and should treat them fairly, and not as lower class
humans who were just waiting to be converted to the masters'
religion.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
The story of Delhi, Mughals, and War, July 8, 2007
By Ravi Koroth -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
This book is an excellent piece of work by an historian and a story
writer. William Dalrymple presented a very detailed chain of events in
Delhi and Mughal history during 1857 time and presented in a way that
any book lovers will find it interesting, not just the historians.
This book makes our eyes open to the fact of life, how low people can
go when anger and revenge get into their mind (both Indian sepoys and
British army) and how easily the dignity of life can crumble from
highest royal level to the bottom street beggars. It is an amazing
real story of a great city and life during fighting.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
The Twilight of an Empire, June 26, 2007
By Shaban Malik "book worm" (coral springs, fl USA) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
One of the greatest books ever written about the fall of one empire
and the expansion of another.... this narrative relates the story of
how a group of traders came about to become the rulers of India
through never ending conspiracies and intrigue. This is the story of
how the Britishers behaved when they thought the sun would never set
on the British Empire. Alas it was almost a little less than ninety
years later that the British were forced to leave India... forced not
by a civil war, rather a crippled economy... They left India far less
prosperous than when they acquired it. In the ninety years of formal
British rule, the British Empire plundered and looted India's wealth
much like the US would do so almost 150 years later in Iraq.
Much can be learnt from the British experience in India by the
American Empire.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
supurb, July 2, 2007
By Royal B. Kellogg -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
Dalrymple has written a superb history of the fall of
Delhi and the Mughal empire in the 1850s. He has found
new materials that enables him to personalize the story,
giving details about various British and Indian soldiers
and inhabitants of the city. It is very readable, and shows
the transition of the British involvement in the Indian
subcontinent from an time when many British understood
Indian ways and culture, to a later time when
the British tried to convert the Indians and felt superior
to them.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
A lesson in history, May 6, 2007
By R. Goel (Sydney, NSW Australia) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
It was a delight to receive the latest offering by William Dalrymple
in the form of The Last Mughal. This is not only an insight into the
impoverished court of Bahadur Shah but highlights the importance given
by the people to the King. People looked to the throne for guidance &
etiquette governing their behaviour. It is very satisfying to see the
favourite son of Delhi Ghalib remembered. Growing up in Delhi, the
history we studied was quite different to the one described in the
book. It was sad to read about the destruction of Delhi after the
mutiny and the lives lost. One wonders what the history of India would
be like if Mughals were still ruling in one form or another.
Overall an informative book to rekindle the interest in the underrated
city of Shajahanabad.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
no dry history book, September 14, 2007
By George Hopcraft "Steve" (SYDNEY, NSW Australia) -
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
A surprisingly readable history of a dark and troubled time in India's
history. Britain rode roughshod over thousands of years of
civilisation on the sub-Continent seeking to impose Christianity on an
unwilling populace. The invaders believed that their way of life was
simply superior to that of that of the subjugated masses. History
continues to repeat these terrble crimes into the 20th and 21st
centuries.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
Incredibly pertinent to today's clash between the East and West, May
3, 2007
By Bobby D. (Cerritos, CA) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
*This is an important book with information that is incredibly
pertinent to today's clash between the East and West. The title gives
the impression that this is a biography of Zafar II, the last Mughal
Emperor but in fact Dalrymple uses the discovery and translations of
the "Mutiny papers" (first hand accounts) to tell the story of the
Sepoys rebellion against the British East India Company in 1857. Of
139,000 sepoys in the Bengal Army all but 7,796 turned against their
British masters. The sepoys were joined by very large parts of the
population and the result was atrocities abounded on both sides. So
the book is more a detailed (sometimes overly detailed) look at the
uprising and fall of Delhi. I was not aware of the sectarian nature of
Muslim rule under the Islamic Mughal's and early British rule and the
resulting intolerance of British rule which prompted the mutiny and
then followed the revolt. All of this sounds so familiar to today's
situation with Fundamentalist Islam, globalization and the war on
terror. The overall point made in the book is that much of growth of
fundamentalist Islam and the Jihadis is a defensive reaction to, at
first Victorian Evangelicals and colonialism and second of all things
western. (Thank you British Empire.) But you must read it for yourself
to get the full impact of the events and how they played out in the
1850s to see how they have impacted the past 140 years. (We all know
how our own Civil War still has it's undercurrents in modern politics
and culture 130 years later, so it should be no surprise that these
events in the Mutiny still underline perceptions and attitudes and
cultures in the East today.) One interesting fact of this history is
that of the roll of the madrasas which we perceive today as private
Islamic Fundamentalist schools that preach hate and violence. Yet,
before 1845/50 the madrasas were key places of learning with major
focus on tolerance, science, culture and literature. They taught
secular tolerance. It was not till the mid 1800's when the British
fundamentalist evangelicals arrived and whose insensitivity, arrogance
and blindness did much to bring about a strong local reaction
resulting in the madrasas teaching more fundamentalist Islam in
defense of this outside challenge to their religion and culture.
Dalrymple sees a direct link from this defensive teaching in Deobandi
madrasas in Pakistan and Afghanistan to the emergence of the Taliban
who provided the crucible for al-Qaeda who Deobandi characterizes as
being behind the most "powerful fundamentalist Islamic counter-attack
the modern West has yet encountered". So a remarkable accomplishment
of the book is seeing the event and resulting history from both
side... this made possible by the use of the Mutiny Papers. So why do
I not give the book my highest rating? Well, I do have some criticism
as I found the book a very uneven read with an awkward narrative and
writing style. My sense as I read the book was that this is just not
well written. But, in fact, the part of the narrative written by
Dalymple is excellent. The problem is the books structure as on almost
every page Dalymple adds indented paragraphs of first person telling
of events. This happens so often, and each has a somewhat different
style, that the reading experience is made up with starts and jumps. I
wish he had limited this technique and worked more of this first
person information into his own narrative of events. And lastly, to
minor extent I thought the introduction took away from the book as it
is a brief telling of the story which follows, as is the excellent
"Dramatis Personae" which if read before reading the book also gives
away much of the events. I suggest coming back to this only when you
need to refresh your knowledge of who a given person is. Overall, very
interesting and highly recommended. (I would also recommend a favorite
book of mine which covers much of the British history in this part of
Asia, TOURNAMENT OF SHADOWS, BY Karl Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac.)
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Superb portrait of Mughal Delhi and its destruction in 1857, August
8, 2008
By William Podmore (London United Kingdom) -
This magnificent book is based on Persian and Urdu documents in
India's National Archives. It vividly portrays Mughal Delhi and its
destruction in 1857. The last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar II
(1775-1862), was at the heart of a court of great brilliance, home of
`the greatest literary renaissance in modern Indian history'.
Architectural historian James Ferguson called his palace `the most
splendid palace in the world'.
Dalrymple shows that the Uprising resulted from the Raj's growing
racism and hatred, its `steady crescendo of insensitivity'. Its
arrogant schemes to impose Evangelical Christianity and Christian laws
on India `ushered in the most obnoxious phase of colonialism'.
The uprising was `along distinct class lines', with workers to the
fore. It was the most serious armed challenge to imperialism in the
19th century, posed to the world's greatest military power. Dalrymple
notes the rebels' military, strategic, administrative, logistical and
financial failings and their war crimes. But the accusations of rape
by the rebels were false: the official inquiry found not a single case
of rape; the only mass rapes were by British soldiers after the
reconquest of Delhi.
He reveals for the first time `the full scale of the viciousness and
brutality of the British response', as detailed in the records of the
revived British administration. "The orders were to shoot every
soul. ... It was literally murder ... Heaven knows I feel no pity ..."
wrote British officer Edward Vibart. Colonel A. R. D. Mackenzie
boasted that we "exterminated them as men kill snakes wherever they
meet them." After killing three unarmed captive princes, Captain
William Hodson wrote to his sister, "I am not cruel, but I confess I
did enjoy the opportunity of ridding the earth of these wretches."
Lieutenant Charles Griffiths wrote of John Clifford, the former
collector of Gurgaon, "He shook my hands, saying that he had put to
death all he had come across, not excepting women and children, and
from his excited manner and the appearance of his dress - which was
covered with blood stains - I quite believe he told the truth."
Governor-General Lord Canning told Queen Victoria that the British
forces displayed `a rabid and indiscriminate vindictiveness'.
Palmerston said that Delhi should be deleted from the map, `levelled
to the ground'. British forces sacked, looted and emptied Delhi and
massacred great swathes of its people. Much of the palace and its
surrounding areas were razed. Most of its leading inhabitants were
killed or transported to die in the Raj's new Andaman Islands camp for
10,000 prisoners. As far as the Mughal elite were concerned, the
British response was `approaching a genocide' and `would today be
classified as grisly war crimes'.
Dalrymple sums up, "That massacre of the inhabitants of Delhi,
commanded and justified in the eyes of Victorian Evangelicals by their
reading of the Christian scriptures. ... `In the city no one's life
was safe,' wrote Muin ud-Din Husain Khan. `All able-bodied men who
were seen were taken for rebels and shot.' Ghalib, who had disliked
the sepoys from the beginning, was now no less horrified by the
barbarity of the returning British. `The victors killed all whom they
found on the streets,' he wrote in Dastanbuy. `When the angry lions
entered the town, they killed the helpless and weak and they burned
their houses. Mass slaughter was rampant and streets were filled with
horror. It may be that such atrocities always occur after conquest.'"
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
The 1857 Indian Mutiny brought to life, April 4, 2008
By Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) -
Bahadur Shah II (a.k.a. Zafar) was the last of the Indian Mughal
emperors and is not given much attention in history texts. The Last
Mughal brings to life the richness and artistry along with political
intrigue and daily court life during Zafar's rein. As author Dalrymple
has used a variety of both British as well as Indian sources, his
accounts provide a rich and detailed narrative of events and daily
life in Delhi a century and half ago.
The theme around which Dalrymple weaves his narrative is a
contemporary one: intolerance for the "other." As Christian
evangelical activity increases in India, many of them believe that
Britain has been given this empire to convert Hindus and Muslims to
the "true faith." On the other side, religious attitudes are also
hardening as the Muslims turn towards a more radical form of Islam. In
May 1857, Indian sepoys (soldiers) serving in the British army
mutinied (primarily out of fear that the British were out to corrupt
Islam and Hinduism), and they coerce Zafar to be their leader. Zafar
reluctantly agrees. After a bitter siege, the British capture Delhi.
Civilians, guilty and innocent, friend and foe, are shot, stabbed and
hung while homes are systematically looted. The weak (elderly, women
and children) are driven out of the city to die of exposure, disease
and starvation. Zafar is exiled to Burma where he dies and is buried
in an unmarked grave (so his grave and remains can never be found).
However, in the mists of such horrifying atrocities, there are moments
of humanity. Throughout the siege, Zafar refuses to alienate the
Hindus by giving in to the demands of the extremist Muslims. He also
refuses to take the life of the British who were given sanctuary at
his court. Muslims gave shelter to British families as British Punjabi
Muslim regiments fought against fellow Muslims in the line of duty.
The reader experiences all of this through Zafar and his court. While
the events are historical, Dalrymple's writing style is fluid and easy
to read - making this work read more like a novel than a history
book.
Armchair Interview says: A fresh perspective on Zafar and the Indian
Mutiny of 1857.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A timely history lesson., March 18, 2008
By NAima -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
Just what you expect from an excellent history book: less opinion,
more research and good writing. This book destroys (and I mean
destroys) a lot of conjecture and partisan drivel that, at least in
India, is being taught as history of our first war against the
colonizers. "The Last Mughal" shows that for all its flaws - of which
there were many - the revolt was born out of a genuine sense of
revulsion and anger over British actions. It shows that what the
British did to Delhi in the aftermath of the war was nothing short of
genocide. And it shows that Zafar, as kind and gentle as he may have
been, wasn't the hero our text books tell us he was. In fact, we
(Indians) seem to have conveniently forgotten the ones we should truly
remember.
In my opinion, this book will not only be a good read for all those
who want to know more about this tumultuous period in Indian history
but also for anyone who still, appallingly, believes that the British
rule turned out "pretty good" for India. Above all, I consider this
book a must-read for someone who lives in Delhi, used to live in Delhi
or wants to live in Delhi. It's a timely reminder of the heights this
great city scaled and where it can, still, reach.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Dalrymple does it again, January 23, 2008
By Herve H. Blandin -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
If a little more arcane, but no less interesting, as a subject, than
the last book I read from this author (Age of Kali), this is another
one from him that will clip your sleeping hours by one or more, every
evening, if that is your time of reading.
Dalrymple is the type of author who makes it hard to put their books
down. Granted, you should have an interest in India, and its history,
but plainly, one for novel-like characters may suffice. I find he has
the knack to make obscure historical figures come to life, so that
within the wider scheme, we get curious to see what will happen of
them. A tremendous additon to reading about history.
He gets down to the nitty gritty of their lives, actions, reactions
and whys, all this within a paragraph, that one would be forgiven for
thinking we opened the pages of the last issue of "Vanity Fair", the
last Mughal becoming the next moghul, maybe.....
All this makes for fascinating reading, and furiously informative on
the place, its history, and the mix of its people.
Very simply D' s knowledge on the period he delves into is maddening
(he can be concised and to the point, read his article in TIMES
following B. Bhutto's assassination). Even imagining him spending
hours over archives in libraries, traveling fro and there, one asks
oneself time and time again: "how does he know so much" (Barely over
40 YO at that). Those who know that India is a complicated palimpsest
to decipher without forgetting the continuum of a specific history
shall appreciate.
Needless say, he joins all the dots, easily fills in the blanks to
make his view, and sense of history, coherent. Unlike what was written
by others, I do not think he imposes a POV, ethno-centrist or
decentrist (both cases could be made, albeit not by me). he is just a
damned good writer, and it is our joy that he is getting ever better
at that. 6 stars!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
timely, August 28, 2007
By Dylan J. Craven -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
a fascinating commentary on british colonialism. dalrymple makes a
convincing case for the mutiny being a harbinger of the empire's
collapse. there are some clear parallels with the united states'
current embroglios in afghanistan and iraq.
this is a must read, and is made much more enjoyable by an abundance
of newly presented (and translated) historical documents that provide
insight to ongoings of zafar's court and east india company. such
documentation sheds light on the diverse religious/social dynamics of
both sides of the conflict. i was astounded to hear that 60 % of the
soldiers used by the british to control the sepoys were of indian
descent (mostly sikhs, if memory serves).
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
The Relevance of History, January 27, 2009
By Rita Sharma (Washington DC) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
The celebrated writer and historian, William Dalrymple, ends his book
`The Last Mughal' with the famous words of Edmund Burke that "those
who don't know history are destined to repeat it." The purpose of "The
Last Mughal" is to show the relevance of past conflicts between East
and West to the religious strife seen today. Dalrymple writes of the
Indian Uprising on May 10th, 1857 against the British East India
Company in Delhi. This uprising is rooted in specific military
grievances that the British Sepoys (or Indian/Muslim soldiers) held
with their colonial masters. Hindu sepoys and Muslim jihadis united
under the last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar II and launched a
bloody campaign to throw the British out of India. Dalrymple has drawn
facts from many mutiny papers, which he researched from unpublished
materials from the Indian National Archive.
The Mughal court and the British colonists' failure to deal with the
uprising marked the end of the Mughal Empire and the East India
Company. The book even marks a famous poem from Bahadur Shah Zafar
that goes as follows:
"Kitna budnaseeb hau Zafar dafan ke liye
Do guj Jameen Bhii naa milii kue-yaar mein"
Today, West and East find themselves in a similar situation and the
relevance of the Mughal time period compares tightly with the United
States' current involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. Though the U.S.
is not engaging in blatant colonialism, many Iraqis and Afghans see
the U.S. involvement as rife with colonial intent. The author has
skillfully interwoven the rich poetic world of Mughal India and the
horror of the Great Mutiny of 1857.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Interesting but heavy going, June 29, 2007
By Norel Pride "Bubba" (Southern Illinois) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
It is an interesting book that uses actual reports from both sides to
stitch together the background history, day to day life and results
both then and now of the indian mutiny. I enjoyed the book and the
information it provided. However, I believe that a better editor could
have taken at least a chapter's worth of material out of the book
without damage. I found many occasions where the author used the same
material and quoted verbatim to support the same event reported
earlier in the narrative.
9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
Great Book, April 2, 2007
By A. khan -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
This is a very well balanced review of history.I have read all the
books of the author and consider this to be the best(other books are
great too).
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Delhi - City of the Dead, March 22, 2009
By S. DHAWAN (USA) -
I just finished reading this book and I think that this is one of the
books which will stay with me for a long time. William Dalrymple had
done extensive research on the topic and beautifully written the
history of the last days of mughal empire. Having born and raised in
Delhi, some of the chapters in the book made me angry and sad. The
physical and cultural destruction of Delhi by the conquering British
Army described by the writer is unbelievable. The lynchings, killings,
rapes and looting of Delhi by the British is just too much to take.
The uncivilized British colonialism in league with fanatic evangelical
christianism destroyed a pluarlistic civilization of Delhi beyond
recovery.
It's a great read.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Mutiny, jihad, uprising, rebellion, civil war -- what's in a word?,
December 30, 2008
By H. Schneider "Hermit" (window seat) -
This is not, as the title might suggest, a biography of the last
Mughal emperor Zafar. It is the story of this Indian King Lear's
demise and of the end of Delhi as a great city. It is the story of the
end of a dynasty, the Timurids, who had their peak during the time of
the tautologically called Akbar the Great, with his tolerant
Renaissance style court, and their low point during the time of
terrorist Aurangzeb, who ruined the Hindu - Muslim relation for good
in India.
By the time that this book is about, the Mughals had no real power any
more and Delhi was already more a place of the past than a real center
of India. British colonial power was fast expanding through military
conquests and diplomacy. At the same time colonial power was more and
more accompanied by Evangelism. The 'mutiny' started over irritations
in the army; native soldiers, mostly Hindus, started a rebellion
against their officers. The movement grew to incorporate Muslim
jihadists. The movement chose the aging Zafar as their figure head, a
role which he filled only reluctantly.
It was an odd sort of religious war. A Muslim 'emperor' gets pressed
by Hindu soldiers into a rebellion against Christian oppressors.
Cohesiveness of the rebellion is broken by the joining of large crowds
of Muslim jihadists. The British forces lose large parts of their
Hindu manpower as deserters to the rebellion, and make up for it by
additional forces recruited among Sikhs and Muslims from the Punjab as
well as Pathans and Gurkhas. In the end, 33% of British officer
casualties would be classified as 'natives', and 82 % of 'other
ranks'!
There are no clear distinctive religious or regional front lines
between the two sides of the war, which was Britain's largest anti-
colonial challenge in the 19th century.
Why did the rebels lose the war despite their overwhelming superiority
in head count and despite the initial leadership trouble of the
British, wich took them to the brink of defeat?
Essentially, the rebels had no uniform leadership, no strategy, no
concept of logistics, no system of intelligence. Victory was within
reach and they did not know it.
The book is not the definitive history of the 'Great Mutiny'. I
believe Dalrymple is working at that and will need a few decades
more.
It is a well told story of a part of the larger picture, focused on
Delhi and on Zafar. It is based on vast archives from the time, using
newspapers, memoirs, diaries, letters, and official documents from
British as well as local sources.
There is no doubt that Dalrymple is not hiding his anti-colonial and
anti-evangelical attitude, as some reviewers here have complained.
Well, that is ok for me, I share WD's values if I understand him
right.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Commendable Research, July 17, 2008
By Syed A. Hassan "Abbas Hassan" (Toronto, Canada) -
I have read almost all of Dalrymple's books and have enjoyed his
impeccable style of narrative. His descriptions take you for why you
read his subjects: to walk into history with him following his zest
for showing you what other historian will not. His "City of Djinns" (a
portrait of Delhi) and "From the Holy Mountain" (his travels to what
was Eastern Byzantium, visiting the dying culture of monasteries, etc)
and are very well-written and absorbing, specially for me who has
never been to Delhi or the present day Turkey, reading both these
books was an experience of unimaginable insight.
The Last Mughal is Dalrymple's combination of style with heaps of
incredible research, his reference to the 20,000 or so Mutiny Papers
in the National Archives in India were something that no other
researcher laid his hands on. Dalrymple has smartly dealt with the
Delhi during mutiny in microcosm of what the ordinary citizen felt or
went through, so much so that he has cast his "net" on people such as
sweetmeat shop owners, courtesans, weavers, bird-catchers etc. His
research doesn't end here but goes further to Lahore, from where he
culled out papers, notes and letters from British General who
masterminded the siege of Delhi when it was surrounded by the
rebellious sepoys. It is with his indefatigable research and with his
years of experience on this subject, that he has produced the Last
Mughal and one wonders in awe of its sheer size and volume.
If you're really interested in knowing the socio-political climate of
Delhi during the Mutiny (in 1857) and after that read this book to get
a hold of the period and also enjoy Dalrymple's best work to date.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
The Last Mughul: the author's style is refreshing in some aspects.,
July 15, 2008
By Odiseph "Odi" -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
While I was not familiar with this author, the book's title seemed
interesting. Although I am a life commited student of history, more
than an overview, India's past was a mystery. After the first chapter,
I was searching for other titles by the author. Unfortunately, the
majority are paperback.
Written by a "boot on the ground," many passages are heart breaking.
To the spoils, the conquerer, I suppose; but such epic forms of art
from poetry to the palace of a thousand columns were not considered
worthy to preserve. The Last Mughal has renewed my respect for the
people of India and left me to want more.
A nicely hard bound book at a very reasonable price filled with
information by someone who lived much of it, I cannot recommend this
work enough. William Dalrymple is an author now added to those who's
labors I seek out and an admirable addition to my library.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Mutiny and Revenge , May 24, 2008
By Brian Lewis (Ridgefield, CT) -
What a remarkable book. A very thorough retelling of the 1857 mutiny
by Indian troops against the British at Delhi, how it so nearly
succeeded in driving the British out of northern India, and the
terrible revenge wrecked by the British army once they again had the
uppper hand.
The author has written extensively about India and Delhi in
particular. His familiarity with the site and its history contributes
greatly to the success of this book. He manages a huge cast of
characters, both British and Indian, identifies the issues of the day
and brings the reader right into the action. While not a military
history, it features some of the best writing about battle scenes I
have ever read.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Last Mughal,The, May 9, 2008
By Sharad D. Shah (Hawaii,USA) -
Dalrymple masterfully lays down the foundation by first giving an
account of how the British dominated India culturally,politically and
militarily in the early 19th century and how in the wake of 1857
mutiny the Raj totally subjugated India bringing her under British
rule.
Last years of Zafar; ruthless hanging, shooting and murders of Delhi
residents provide vivid images of the turmoil.
What is even more surprising is the length to which Dalrymple carried
out is research of archives in libraries in India as well as in
England. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Superb Scholarship, April 10, 2008
By exurbanite (Inverness, CA) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
The Last Mughal starts somewhat slowly but picks up steam as it moves
to the actual sepoy rebellion and its long lasting consequences.
Dalrymple has done a brilliant job of digging through the original
documentary material of the period. He quotes at length from letters,
diaries, journals, court records, etc., many of them written in
admirable Victorian prose. (One could only wish that contemporary
writing was as elegant or eloquent.) Perhaps most interesting of all
in this exciting but melancholy tale is how its impact can be traced
to the contemporary upheavals in the Muslim Middle East.
The work's minor flaws are not so much the fault of the author as of
the publisher. The abundant use of Indian words can cause confusion
and the glossary at the rear contains only some of them. Similarly,
references to sections of Delhi and its surroundings would have been
immeasurably helped had some maps or at least sketches of mid-19th
century Delhi been added. All in all, however, a superb and at the
same time very readable work of scholarship.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
The Last Mughal (Hardcover) by William Dalrymple, March 24, 2008
By Rita Gupta -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
Excellent buy, again another great book by William Dalrymple. A must
for people
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Must read if you are from Delhi or have visited there!, January 16,
2008
By Socratic Quest (USA) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
Gives you a great sense of life in eighteenth century Delhi, its
civilization and the tragic end of muslim glory in India. Easy to
read. Well researched and balanced. Highly recommended to Delhites
world over.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Flashman and the Mutiny, January 6, 2008
By Robert C. Ross (New Jersey) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
It takes nothing away from this wonderful book, and the many excellent
reviews on Amazon and elsewhere, to mention that Flashman was there. I
re-read Flashman in the Great Game: A Novel (Flashman) by George
MacDonald Fraser after finishing The Last Mughal: The Fall of a
Dynasty.
Dalrymple and Fraser are great historians; the era comes alive on
their pages. Even Flashy was moved by the horrors visited on Delhi and
its people.
Robert C. Ross 2008
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Time travel is possible!, May 2, 2007
By tasinmaine (usa) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
What an amazingly well researched and well written book! You feel like
actually being there ,in Delhi,in that tumultous time!! The main
characters of the time just come alive...they are not merely names
anymore!! Not biased,non-judgemental..TOTALLY ENGROSSING!!
I read this after reading"The Mughal Throne" by Abraham Eraly, another
great book, which gives you a context to this saga too...sort of a
"prequel" that is!
This was my first book by Mr. Dalrymple and have now ordered all his
previous work!I strongly recommend it to everone!
14 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
Well researched and artful, but somewhat biased, February 10, 2008
By Matt K. "happy reader" (Michigan, USA) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
In our day, "colonialism" has become more of a "rhetorical device than
a precise scientific instrument," to quote Indian studies expert
Robert Frykenberg. It denotes intrusion and exploitation by the
"strong" against the "weak." In modern historiography, colonialism as
a category has come to be "part of a technology for denigrating,
shaming and shunning...a convenient device for assigning collective
guilt." As such, "the term represents a point of view, a perspective,
which many academics and thinkers...hold dear" (see Frykenberg's
"Christians and Missionaries in India", p 6-10).
The historian who begins with this underlying, if unconscious, view of
colonialism cannot help but be influenced in his research by that
view. As such, he may well set aside (or fail to see) the nuances and
complexities of his subject, and instead paint a one-sided picture.
Such seems to be the case with William Dalrymple in his celebrated
"The Last Mughal."
This was profoundly disappointing to me, as I am, with Dalrymple, a
student of Indian history (particularly of Muslim history in S Asia),
and a frequent visitor to N India, who has greatly enjoyed Dalrymple's
other books ("City of Djinns", "Age of Kali").
Woven through his otherwise masterfully researched and artfully
written account of the last days of the Mughal empire, is a fair bit
of material that helps us to understand, not the period in question,
but Dalrymple's personal views (influenced by the vision of
"colonialism" delineated above). For example, those British
colonialists who "went native" (Dalrymple highlights those who made
themselves rulers of their own little fiefdoms) are good; those who
maintained a more distant and aloof demeanor, bad. Foreign
missionaries (for whom Dalrymple has a particular antipathy) who
engaged in outreach and polemic among Hindus and Muslims are bad;
Muslims who engaged in anti-Christian polemic are good. The refined,
cultured society of the Mughal court is good; the imperialistic
British, bad.
The common element here is that Dalrymple ignores striking
complexities which are needed to provide balance to a contentious
constelation of subjects. To see this more clearly, I'd like to take a
closer look at 2 of the examples listed in the paragraph above.
First, Dalrymple seems unaware that the Mughal empire itself was a
vast exercise in imperialistic "colonialism," that is, of the strong
oppressing and exploiting the weak. The Mughal empire was in its
origins no less "foreign" than was the British. To be sure, over time
many Mughals adapted themselves to India, and some became effective
rulers who did a measure of good for the country. But this should not
allow other realties to escape our notice; for example, the way in
which Hindus were often oppressed under Mughal rule, or the fact that
the majority of India's population languished in abject poverty, while
the Mughals went on enjoying the lavish lifestyle of the court.
The Mughals did indeed produce spectacular poetry, architecture, and
culture during their tenure in India. But this was often done at the
expense of the population of India and not for its benefit. (The Taj
Mahal is a striking example: it is a work of great beauty, but it was
built by enslaving and taxing the people of North India).
While fully acknowledging the evils perpetrated in India by the
British (illustrated in the creulty with which the 1857 "Mutiny" was
supressed), or the shocking ethno-centricity of many of the British in
India (Dalrymple points out many examples), we can still point out
that British rule of India was still demonstrated a considerable
amount of tolerance, and produced significant benefit to the people of
India. For all their pettiness, closed-mindedness, and exploitation of
India, the British made a good-faith effort to rule the country well,
providing roads, railroads, water and electric works, and countless
schools (many of which are still in use). Dalrymple's demonizing of
the British in India (with the exception of those rare "White
Mughals"), coupled with his veneration of old Mughal government and
culture simply does not stand the test of historical scrutiny. It is
simply a reflection of Dalrymple's own preferences and biases.
Second, Dalrymple's evident distaste for Christian missions betrays a
strikingly one-sided view. His account does nothing to mitigate the
oft-repeated, yet intellectually untenable charge that Christianity in
India is a foreign, colonial imposition wedded to imperial power and
foisted upon native peoples. Colonial missionaries were indeed people
of their times, and as such, there were certainly many unfortunate
cases where a "colonial mindset" prevailed. Yet Robert Frykenberg,
Stephen Neill, and a host of other scholars have shown that this was
not the dominant trend. Missions, like all other historical movements,
is a complex, richly textured reality, which defies simplistic
analysis and generalization.
In his haste to paint missionaries in a certain light, Dalrymple uses
a cut-and-paste method, quoting missionary correspondence out of
context, all the while failing to perceive what they were really
saying. Instead of reading the writings of Reginald Heber (one-time
Anglican Bishop of Calcutta), for instance, as they are: the writings
of a man very much of his time, a man convinced of the truthfulness of
Christianity and yet deeply in love with India, he insists on reading
them through a postmodern lens, as if Heber should have had the
benefit of knowing and abiding by today's postmodern dogmas of
multicultural political correctness.
Dalrymple's book, though the result of painstaking research, and
though artfully written, is unfortunately sullied by Dalrymple's not-
too-subtle biases. I still recommend this book, for the many original
contributions it makes. Yet if you want a more balanced understanding
of the period in question I would also recommend the books by John
Richards, Andre Wink, or Peter Hardy. On Christianity in India, I
would recommend Robert Frykenberg, Roger Hedlund, and Stephen Neill.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
The Last Mughal, July 2, 2009
By Susan Leigh Connors (Boston, MA) -
In the introduction of The Last Mughal by William Dalrymple the author
states that the book seeks to explain one central question: "How and
why the relatively easy relationship of Indian and Briton, so evident
during the Fraser time, gave way to the hatred and racism of the high
nineteenth-century Raj. The Uprising, it is clear, was the result of
that change, not the cause. " Given this statement, the reader would
expect to encounter chapters addressing such hatred and racism, to be
lead through a series of events that would have culminated in the
Uprising.
In Chapter III, "Believers and Infidels," one cause is mentioned:
"Just as militant Christians were a growing force among the British in
the early 1850's, so among Delhi's Muslims there was a parallel rise
in rigid fundamentalism that displayed the same utter certainty and
disdain for the faiths of others, as well as a similar willingness to
use force against the infidel. [*A Hindu parallel would in time form
to match these tendencies in Islam and Christianity.] p. 73.
Also in Chapter III: "India in the 1840's and 1850's was slowly
filling with pious British Evangelicals who wanted not just to rule
and administer India, but also to redeem and improve it (p.61)."
Prominent Evangelicals are mentioned in this chapter along with the
locals' reaction to the, what was perceived as, indoctrination
processes on the part of the clergy.
Apart from this chapter, the book recounts (chapters 4-12) in detail
the Siege of Delhi, and not in effect what caused the rebels to mutiny
in the first place. Chapters four through twelve are a detailed
account of the Siege, and not a sociological analysis of attitudes
held by the British and the Mughals culminating in the Uprising.
Chapters four through twelve do align with the subtitle of the book:
The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi, 1857. The central question of the book
is not explored in any detail.
A towering work of scholarship, February 26, 2010
By Mike Williams (South Wales, UK) -
This work is breathtaking. It is a large book and there is serious
scholarship within its pages - the inclusion of new material from the
Delhi archives, seemingly overlooked since it was first placed there,
is especially notable - but Dalrymple manages to do what he does best,
which is also to make it a thoroughly good read. The story begins -
and it really does read like a fast-paced novel - with the atmosphere
in Delhi before the uprising. Key characters are introduced in a
series of revealing vignettes; a technique Dalrymple uses throughout.
The beginning is perhaps the most difficult part of the book since
there is a lot of information to digest and many unfamiliar-sounding
names. However, when the mutiny finally breaks, the pace quickens to
be all nigh unstoppable. The individual vignettes continue, some of
famous individuals but many of the ordinary people of both sides. You
feel your sympathies turn with each new event and you can almost feel
the fear that stalked Delhi. The aftermath of the uprising forms the
final part of the book and the terrible vengeance reaped by the
British. The words of Ghandi have never been more apt: an eye for an
eye and the whole world goes blind. The figure of Zafar, the Last
Mughal of the title, remains a constant throughout the book and
Dalrymple paints a sympathetic but never romantic portrait. Dalrymple
carries no particular bias into the book, apart from his clear love
and regard for Delhi herself. His final reflections on the unchecked
attitude of colonial power and the backlash it can unleash, resonate
down to the present day. This is a book that deserves to be read - it
is absolutely superb.
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857 ..., December 17,
2007
By Benjamin Teitelbaum (New York, USA) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
I found the Last Mughal a fascinating historical sort of biography and
journal about a part of Indian history that we are somewaht aware of
but often forget. I especially found the description of changes in
British Colonial Rule from participatory to dictetorial
fascinating...The strength and weaknesses of both the Indian and
British cultures are readily understood and form part of the problems
and solutions...However, I found the book lacked critical analysis and
was weak on historical methodology...It did not relate what happened
to the Delhi to the rest of India or World economics or political
changes...Benjamin
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent Writer: Biased Views, July 4, 2009
By Swanee -
Also having read "City of Djinns" I can say that Dalrymple is an
excellent writer. He draws the reader in with an enjoyable style and
the reader exits his works having not only been entertained but
educated and, yes, enlightened.
That having been said, I cannot say this book is an even-handed
history. It's clear that Dalrymple favors the Moghul Empire as opposed
to the British Empire. His treatment of Zafar (the last Moghul Emperor
of India) is sycophantic at times. In this extensive history, I have
trouble identifying any characteristic which would set this Sufi
mystic as much of a leader. He comes across as soft, indecisive,
regressive, self-indulgent, and undisciplined. Not to mention the fact
that he changed sides during the mutiny from favoring the English to
half-heartedly favoring the mutineers. What's to like? The fact that
Zafar liked sitting around writing poetry all day?
Dalrymple predictably ends the book by lecturing the West on its
current stance against Islam. He writes, "Jihadis again fight what
they regard as a defensive action against their Christian enemies, and
again innocent women, children and civilians are slaughtered. As
before, Western Evangelical politicians are apt to cast their
opponents and enemies in the role of "incarnate fiends" and conflate
armed resistancde to invastion and occupation with "Pure evil." Notice
how all the negative religious attitides reside with the West. No
mention of the death fatwahs issued against the West by "peace-loving"
Muslims? Hmmmm.
Despite Dalrymple's obvious prejudices and yearning for what comes
across as a despotic regime, I enjoyed the book and will likely read
more of his works. One just has to make an effort to read between the
lines of what is, at times, a very revisionist history.
21 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
A poisenous book, September 25, 2007
By Johan Temmerman (Belgium) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
Exquisitely researched and well written, describing past lives and
events that appear as real as if the reader had been a material
witness, this book's quality of writing reminds me of Dalrymple's
"White Mughals", dealing with British servants of the East India
Company who "went native" by adopting Muslim customs in the early
decades of the Raj. In "The Last Mughal", however, Dalrymple has gone
native himself, by trumpeting Muslim culture as superior to all things
Western at every turn. Especially irritating are the infrequent but
none-too-subtle parallels he draws with the present : it seems America
is the new Raj, whose "undisguised imperial arrogance" rose after the
fall of the Berlin Wall - a gratuitous opinion lacking any bearing on
this book's subject, the end of the Mughal Dynasty in India. Dalrymple
rants between the lines, describing the West - then and now - as
nothing but a bunch of rapacious pilferers and murderers, who uproot
delicately balanced, refined, pacifist, tolerant, and multicultural
Muslim societies, composed solely of courtiers, courtesans and poets.
This was, to use a British understatement, a trifle at variance with
reality, as both Hindu and Muslim ruling classes of the period
wallowed in disgusting wealth while their subjects lived miserable
lives in abject poverty. The imperialist, but now long gone Raj at
least curbed the worst excesses of the Indian princes and laid the
foundations of modern India, from the civil service to railroad
infrastructure, but not a word of this is whispered here. One virtue
of the book is that it shows the true character of the disciples of
the Prophet, who managed to turn a Hindu mutiny into a jihad in no
time. Also instructive is Dalrymple's enthousiastic, gushing
descriptions of sword-wielding jihadis "duly dispatching" helpless
British women and children during the "Uprising", in stark contrast
with the "brutal killings" by British "psychopaths". No doubt
atrocities were committed on both sides, but the double standard in
describing them rankles, while references to present "Western
arrogance and imperialism" reveals the bias of the author who, by the
way, prefers living in the arrogant West over residing in a delicately
balanced, refined, pacifist, tolerant, and multicultural Muslim
society. This is a poisonous book, unworthy of being termed objective
historical writing.
10 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
Interesting and problematic, March 31, 2007
By Seth J. Frantzman (Jerusalem, Israel) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
This is an important book because it uses new documents to reconstruct
daily life in Delhi during 1857, at the high point of the Indian
mutiny. It explores the life of the last Mughal and the last viteges
of the Mughal empire. That in itself is an important contribution.
However the great problem here is in its characterization of the
Mughals as 'tolerant' and 'pgrogressive' and the insinutation that it
was some great tragedy that the Mughals fell from Power. The Mughal
empire that coloinzed India between the 16th and 19th centuries was a
colonial power that enslaved people and spent much of its money on
itself, glorifying Mughal power and Islam. This is called colonialism,
but somehow because the colonial power of the Mughals, whose ancestors
invaded India from Afhganistan, confronted the Colonial power of the
English the Mughals are showered with praise. However the regime the
British installed were little different and low caste Indians, in fact
90% of Indians were not affected by the change from Islamic Mughal
colonialism to British colonialism. However the British regime brought
many reforms in terms of child marriage and the ending of slavery.
These aspects are lost in a book that is half romance and half polemic
and for that this book needs to be judged accordingly. It paints far
to bright a picture of what Mughal colonialism and religious
domination meant for the majority Hindus, who are ignored in this
text.
Seth J. Frantzman
3 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
Dalrymple' s biases to the fore, May 25, 2009
By Sandman "Sandman" (USA) -
William Dalrymple has done extensive research on the Indian Mutiny.
His biases come to the fore:(exhibited in all his works on India)
1> He loves the Mughals, who were a cruel foreign exploitative regime
in India
2> He is an apologist for Islam (interesting how that has changed off
late)
One exception :He generally is an apologist for the British occupation
& atrocities in India. In this book he is more truthful. However his
reviews of Amitav Ghosh's book "The Sea of Poppies" is more
illustrative of his true feelings.
He needs to stop exploiting his ability to live in India and write
about it. How about some books on Scotland instead..................?
Less exotic and fewer copies sold !!!
Move on Dalrymple.
17 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
Dalrymple's concern is Islam, not India, April 2, 2007
By W. Hawkins (Washington, DC) -
This review is from: The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi,
1857 (Hardcover)
Dalrymple is writing less about India than about an Islamic regime
that, as a previous reviewer noted, was initially a colonial power
ruling over Hindus (often with a brutality that makes the Brits look
paternalistic in contrast). Dalrymple has become a commentator on
Middle East policy, with a pro-Islamist perspective that has led him
to criticize Israel and the United States as well as Great Britain.
This does not mean that his history is of no value. His use of
"Persian" documents to give the Mughal viewpoint is of interest. It is
just important to be aware of his leanings and sympathies. His work
cannot be considered an objective or disinterested chronicle of facts.
He has a partisan-Islamic axe to grind.
Sid Harth
Interviews for final Selection of awardees under the Scheme of
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Published on 14-04-2007 In National
Viewed 2935 times | Written by Cho Ramaswamy
Social injustice
Karnataka government's ignoring rulings of the courts' in the Cauvery
tangle is unjust. The Kerala regime's brazen contempt for judgements
in the Mullaperiyar issue is the worst example of chutzpah. But, the
Tamil Nadu has attempted to do something worse against the Supreme
Court by organising a general strike against its interim pronouncement
because it is supposed to be "social justice."
The Apex Court had spoken its mind in the matter of 27 percent
reservation for "Other Backward Castes" in higher education and
ordered an interim stay on the law in this respect. Though the TN
government opposed and decried the ruling as do most political parties
in the length and breadth of the nation, this is the only state that
dovetailed its allies' [and the entire opposition's] support for a
state sponsored "bandh."
Senior counsel Vijayan has pointed out a hitherto unnoticed aspect of
this issue.
"When the case came up for the first time, its plaintiffs – a certain
youths' association was in the process of organising a strike.
The Supreme Court's interim orders, at that point in time, were in
favour of the government which had opposed it. Forced to accept the
call of the courts, the body called off its mass action. Now, the
state government has acted in a manner so as to insult the voice of
the judiciary. Shouldn't the present regime exhibit the same sense of
responsibility shown earlier by a voluntary organisation," Vijayan
demands to know.
The Supreme Court expressed itself explicitly while ordering an
interim stay in the matter of reservation in education.
The court reiterated its earlier orders which had clearly stated that
the reservations cannot exceed 50 percent…This upper limit [aimed to
keep out] the creamy layer within the Backward Castes was an aspect of
the [collective] wisdom expressed in the articles enshrined in The
Constitution. If breached, this would defeat the very purpose of the
assurance of "equal opportunities" which are the bedrock of all our
laws, the court said. Ensuring that reservations do not go beyond the
prescribed 50 percent limit, that all those who have already been
benefited by the statute are kept beyond its purview and prevention of
their indefinite continuance are the duty of the government.
Backwardness cannot be a permanent feature and therefore ought not to
become endless, the court reflected in its interim order.
These above sentiments expressed by the courts have been stressed in
many articles published several times in Thuglak.
This time, the Supreme Court has pointed out that the census of 1931
cannot be the basis to determine OBCs. Further it said that such an
old yardstick cannot be accepted as the justification for 27 percent
reservation in [central] educational institutions.
Those who oppose these averments of the Apex Court naturally point to
the fact that it did not question reservations in government jobs. But
these sections have failed to comprehend a simple facet of the whole
issue. Different articles in the Constitution have dealt with
reservations in jobs and educational institutions separately and have
differentiated between the two.
While tackling the matter of reservations in jobs, the Constitution
clearly says they are applicable only "to those Backward Classes which
do not have adequate representation."
Shorn of legalese, this means that the founding fathers of our
Constitution had accepted the fact that certain sections of the
population weren't represented in government posts.
But the statute doesn't accept this premise while dealing with the
issue of reservations in educational institutions. The article that
deals with this matter clearly says that the special arrangement is
meant for the uplift of "socially and educationally backward sections"
of the population that encompasses "oppressed and scheduled castes
[and] tribes…"
Since this was based on the situation that prevailed in 1931 [when the
last census was conducted] questions are bound to be raised about its
present applicability.
If this distinction between jobs and education is understood, nobody
would say that the two are on an equal plane.
Between the creation of our Constitution and the present day,
different amendments were made to include several sections in the
populace purely to increase political parties' vote banks. This
resulted in those who depended on merit being totally outnumbered in
blatant violation of the tenets of equality stated clearly in the
Constitution.
Every time the courts opposed such moves, political parties assailed
the judiciary as a matter of habit. The present order of the Supreme
Court isn't a final denouement. Yet, several political outfits are
condemning it as such. The Tamil Nadu government simply went a step
further and organised a "bandh."
"On what basis can the ruling party in Tamil Nadu insist on our
obeying the Supreme Court in the Cauvery and Mullaperiyar issues," is
a poser bound to be raised by the ruling [coalitions] in Karnataka and
Kerala respectively.
Naturally the two "K" states can demand the right to be on an equal
footing with Tamil Nadu in ignoring the Supreme Court!
On several occasions, for different reasons, the powers that be in
many states as well as at the centre have accorded short shrifts to
judgements pronounced in courts. At times, they have rendered their
orders meaningless by amending the laws.
It may happen on this occasion as well.
The words of the judiciary have tasted bitter to governments
regardless of their being regional or national because the courts base
their orders on the Constitution while ruling political arrangements
treaded a different measure due to political conveniences.
The latest imbroglio is an attempt on the part of the political
parties to decimate the bulwarks of democracy enshrined in our laws –
equality and justice for all. If the political class succeeds in its
quest, it would be meaningless to call ourselves a democratic state.
The alibi for this – the cause of "social justice" – is its very
antithesis.
(Translated from Thuglak by TSV Hari)
http://indiainteracts.in/columnist/2007/04/14/Social-injustice-/
Social injustice
Social justice in India means many things to most people. It is a coin
that offers the solution on one side, and promises to retain its
premium value if the extent of social injustice is allowed to grow on
the other. The side that pays the most during election-time is not the
one that has the solution. To the authors of the Constitution ushering
in social justice was an honest commitment with an unrealistic time-
limit. It was this error in the original document that allowed the
political class to turn the policy of job reservation into an
opportunity for creating a captive vote-bank. The two-day national
convention of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and other backward
communities in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh, organised by the Bharatiya Janata
Party is the latest example of the scale of confusion that politicians
are willing to create by making promises that fly in the face of law
and logic. Of course, since every political party is now playing the
Dalit card, why should the BJP not follow the policy? In the highly
competitive political game of appearing to be different from the other
in championing the Dalit cause, parties are constantly inventing new
agendas. The BJP convention in Mhow has promised to introduce job
reservation in the private sector.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh stole the Dalit thunder
last year by organising a conference of Dalit intellectuals that
adopted a charter of action called the Bhopal Declaration. With
assembly elections round the corner, the BJP has decided to offer
everything short of the moon to break the Congress’ grip over the
levers of power in Madhya Pradesh. Real issues becoming “victims” of
narrow and self-defeating politics have slowed down India’s march
towards economic progress. Population control is a real issue, that no
party wants to touch for the odium attached to it because of Sanjay
Gandhi. Social justice was a low-key issue until 1989. After Mr V. P.
Singh implemented the Mandal Commission report on job reservation, no
leader has shown the moral courage to question the rationale of a
policy that has increased the level of general tension without
offering social and economic emancipation to the country’s vast
underclass. Adopting a resolution is not going to make the private
sector offer jobs without applying the test of merit. Creation of
merit will help the Dalits join the expanding mainstream of
professional excellence without having to feel small in the eyes of
their colleagues. How about a policy that allows Dalits admission in
the best schools in the country? That is where the foundations of
academic excellence are laid. Thereafter, merit alone should be the
benchmark for admission to premium professional courses. Creating
social tension by expanding the size of job reservation will some day
cause an explosion that would make the post-Mandal riots in the
country look like a mild tantrum.
Satyameva jayate
The Union Cabinet’s nod to a proposal to make “truth a defence” in
contempt cases where aspersions have been cast against a judge is
laudable, in that it can remove a gross discrepancy. So far, the
contempt law has been an exception to the fundamental right to the
freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by the Constitution.
Actually, the Contempt of Court Act, 1971, is silent on whether truth
can be a defence. Perhaps the law was taciturn on this issue because
it was considered inconceivable that a judge could be fallible. But
this silence was interpreted in some cases to mean that even if an
aspersion was true, it still constituted a contempt of court because
it lowered the authority and dignity of the court. While attempting to
remove this grey area, the government has rather enhanced the
authority of the judiciary because the judges occupy such an exalted
place in society that fingers should not be pointed at them, not just
because the law says so, but because the people at large actually
consider them to be beyond reproach. If there is foolproof evidence
against any member of the fraternity that he erred, then the person
making the allegation should not be hauled over coals just because the
wrongdoer happened to be a judge. This immunity was liable to be
misused. One black sheep could have brought a bad name to the entire
community. Even if the unthinkable did not happen, there were chances
that people’s faith in the integrity of the judges would not be as
unflinching as it should be.
Many countries like Australia and New Zealand already have truth as
defence in contempt cases. The Cabinet’s decision that can make the
judiciary more accountable without compromising its autonomy is in
line with the proposals of the National Commission to Review the
Working of the Constitution (NCRWC). In fact, many legal luminaries
have been supporting the move strongly. Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer had
advocated in a signed article last year that “… truth and good faith
must be reinstated as sound defences, so that a judge who has
something to hide may be exposed to the … light of truth”. As he had
concluded in the Mulgaokar case dealing with “unsavoury” allegations
against a senior sitting judge, “a benign neglect, not judicial
intemperance, is the sensible therapy of contempt law”. If a political
consensus develops on the proposal, the contempt law can be changed
without amending the Constitution.
Welcome move on Kashmir
Why peace must be pursued
Praful Bidwai
Whatever one’s reservations about Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee’s political
style and his party’s ideology, one must heartily and unstintingly
welcome his decision to visit Kashmir and launch an initiative for
reconciliation and peace. His visit was undoubtedly a landmark: on
April 18, he became India’s first Prime Minister to address a public
meeting in the valley since the “azadi” militancy broke out in 1989.
This is itself commendable. It also speaks of a positive change in
ground reality. His visit, coming six months after the largely free
and fair Legislative Assembly elections, has kindled new hopes, If his
overture is followed up with wise and purposive moves, we could see
some real progress in resolving one of the most troubled, complex and
bloody disputes in the world.
In Srinagar, Mr Vajpayee attempted a “double whammy”. He held out the
“hand of friendship” to Pakistan, significantly, from Kashmiri soil.
And he offered a dialogue between the Centre and different currents of
opinion in Jammu and Kashmir. Both offers were soon hedged in with
conditions. And yet, they indicate a welcome softening of New Delhi’s
stance. The change of tone and tenor has outlasted the somewhat
dampering effect of the qualifying statements Mr Vajpayee himself made
the following day, reiterating that the talks leading to peace with
Pakistan would only take place once there is an end to cross-border
terrorism. Yet, the impact of the new tone and tenor is welcome.
Of the two initiatives, on Pakistan, and on domestic arrangements
pertaining to Jammu and Kashmir, the first is both more important and
likelier to succeed more quickly than the second — for three reasons.
First, Pakistan has responded remarkably positively to India’s offer
of a dialogue and said it is willing to hold it “any time, at any
place and any level.” It has added that it hopes to work out specific
dates for negotiations “within days”. Second, there is growing
recognition within both governments that they cannot indefinitely
sustain their mutual hostility. They are under increasing pressure
from the major powers to defuse rivalry and reach mutual
accommodation.
Only six months ago, India and Pakistan were all ready to go to war.
The reasons why they didn’t basically continue to hold today. The
global situation emerging after the Iraq war has discomfited both by
highlighting their own vulnerability on account of the Kashmir and
nuclear issues. Washington, in its most aggressively unilateralist and
expansionist phase today, has threatened to extend the Iraq conflict
and also turn its attention to South Asia. On March 31, Secretary of
State Colin Powell told The New York Times that “the whole of the
subcontinent’s problems” were part of the “broad agenda” that the US
plans to address soon. South Asian tensions have figured prominently
in the deliberations of Russia, France and Britain too, who have all
called for an India-Pakistan dialogue.
And third, a certain momentum favouring a short time-frame for an
India-Pakistan meeting has been generated, with the planned visit to
South Asia of US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in early
May. Despite the latest suicide attacks by militants, it is likely
that both India and Pakistan will make some positive gestures just
ahead of that visit. Minister of State for External Affairs Digvijay
Singh says there is already some clarity on certain “modalities” for a
possible India-Pakistan summit and its agenda. More important, Mr
Armitage will probably mediate informally between the two governments
and “facilitate” a future summit — just as he brokered peace between
them twice last year.
This doesn’t argue that a Vajpayee-Musharraf meeting will certainly
happen or succeed. After all, even one terrorist act in India, whether
or not sponsored by Pakistan, can scuttle it altogether. Its success
will depend on how far the two governments are prepared to move away
from their stated “first positions” and explore a new detente or
agenda of peaceful coexistence.
This, in the first place, means they must accept that war is simply
not an option. Neither side can win it. Their nuclear capability has
been a “great leveller”. Nuclear wars cannot be won; they must never
be fought.
To make the summit successful, Islamabad will have to drop its
traditional emphasis on a plebiscite on Kashmir and 50-year-old UN
Security Council resolutions. More important, it will have to
verifiably give up supporting militant violence in Kashmir as an
instrument to coerce India to the negotiating table. It has to
recognise that its support to terrorist militants who kill innocent
civilians at will done nothing to advance the cause of the Kashmiri
people. New Delhi too must do something so that the issue is opened
up. The Kashmiri people must be involved in settling it.
India must take the Shimla Agreement of 1972 seriously. Under it, all
bilateral issues are to be resolved through peaceful discussion. So
far, New Delhi has cited the Shimla accord mainly to oppose a
multilateral dialogue — but never once discussed Kashmir bilaterally
with Pakistan. Changing all this won’t be easy, but if a robust
beginning is made on the basis of some mutually accepted principles,
the process of reconciliation could get rolling. At times like these,
process is everything.
The biggest obstacles here will be the hawks in the two countries who
have a stake in perpetuating a state of mutual hostility. In Pakistan,
they are jehadi Islamists both inside and outside the army. In India,
they are the BJP’s right-wingers who oppose reconciliation with
Pakistan.
This time around, the BJP has supported Mr Vajpayee’s peace gesture,
but somewhat reluctantly. Its first response on April 18 was to oppose
it. Earlier, it enthusiastically welcomed External Affairs Minister
Yashwant Sinha’s diatribe against Pakistan as a “fitter case” than
Iraq for pre-emptive war. Ideological antipathy to Pakistan apart,
this is an important election year for the BJP. In four major Assembly
elections it is pitted against the Congress. Rather than embark on a
new, uncertain, Kashmir and Pakistan policy, it might be tempted to
fall back upon a hawkish line which appeals to its urban elite
constituency.
Piloting a peace process in such a situation will need statesmanship.
Even more difficult will be the domestic Kashmir reconciliation
agenda. Here, the Centre has no clarity whatsoever, although people
like Mr Vajpayee sense that J&K today offers a great opportunity
because of its relatively credible election, and the installation of a
state government which generates hope with its “healing touch”.
However, the Centre is fumbling at the level of strategy. It said it
would talk to all those who abjure violence. Yet, it refused to invite
the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference, representing 23 different groups,
to talks. But it should know that there is little political sense in
talking only to “elected representatives”, for most of whom J&K’s
integration with India is unproblematic. It is the others that it must
win over. They include the APHC. The Hurriyat’s influence may have
declined. But it still represents a significant current of opinion in
Kashmir. The Hurriyat would, of course, like the government to apply
the “Nagaland formula” to Kashmir: talks at a high political level;
exclusively with one group; and a ceasefire. In reality, there are too
many differences between Kashmir and Nagaland, and the APHC and the
NSCN. But talking to the Hurriyat on a non-exclusive basis is surely
necessary.
A breakthrough on Kashmir will probably have to wait upon serious
progress in India-Pakistan relations. But the process of
reconciliation must start, both internally and externally. Far too
much is at stake — not least, the lives of millions who could turn
into radioactive dust should war break out. There is simply no
alternative to peace.
MIDDLE
Pathbreaking research!
S. Raghunath
A reader writing to the “letters” column of a national newspaper has
said that the principal reason for the continued brain drain from the
country is that peons in India are paid more and enjoy a better status
than scientists.
The All-India Confederation of Peons (AICP) has taken strong exception
to the tone and tenor of the letter calling it in poor taste and
lacking perspective and smacking of an anti-peon bias.
Talking to mediapersons, a spokespeon said: “We peons have been at the
receiving end of malicious and motivated attacks for far too long and
it’s about time we took a stand. In actual fact, peons are
spearheading pathbreaking research in some of the most esoteric fields
and their work promises to push back the frontiers of knowledge and
pure science. Let me briefly elaborate.”
“Visitors to government offices might have seen surly and ill-tempered
peons sitting motionless for hours on end on rickety wooden stools.
Actually, this is part of an ongoing and well-funded research in three-
dimensional structural analysis and dynamics of lattice bodies whose
object is the development of a one-legged wooden stool for use by
peons in government offices. Just imagine the savings in scarce wood
that will result from the development of one-legged stools!”
Continuing, the spokespeon said: “We peons are heavily involved in
research in greenfield areas of behavioral sciences and reaction of
human psyche under deliberate stress. We let visitors who call at
government offices to transact legitimate business wait for hours on
end, all the while smirking and giving maddeningly vague and evasive
answers to the query, ‘Will I have to wait much longer to see the
sahib?’ and under controlled clinical conditions, we study the stress
caused by our overbearing attitude. I ask you, have Carl Jung or
Sigmund Freud done any work in these fields of human psychology? We
peons are doing it and what do we get in return? Only brickbats and
not bouquets.”
“You’ll be interested to know that peons are also actively pursuing
research in fibre chemistry and textiles. We wear the same khaki
uniform for up to 11 months without washing them even once and we’re
studying the metabolism of sweat glands on khaki cloth. We hope to
soon achieve a breakthru’ in the development of sweat resistant
artificial fibres and textiles.
“No aspect of science and research has escaped our attention and we’re
heavily into medical research, too. Peons of our New Delhi chapter and
working in South Block and Shastri Bhavan are engaged in studying the
effect of caffeine in coffee and tea in cardiac functions of well-
heeled babus and they have observed marked clinical symptoms like
lethargy in disposing of important files and tying the red tape, but
alacrity in demanding higher dearness allowance to neutralise the
rising wholesale price index. They have submitted learned papers to
the Lancet and the British Medical Journal and they are being held
over for publication.”
The spokespeon concluded: “So you can see for yourself that we peons
are working away from the glare of publicity and contributing our
humble mite to the advancement of scientific research and
progress.”
Sanskrit faces uncertain future in Punjab
Jangveer Singh
A part of the Punjab Institute of Oriental and Indian Languages in
Patiala which has been declared unsafe. — Photo Subhash
Imagine a college with three windowless rooms measuring 12 by 12 feet,
having half-broken small wooden benches-cum tables, half of which have
been placed in the lone verandah of the institution. It is housed in a
building, part of which is unsafe and out of bounds for the students.
This is the Punjab Institute of Oriental and Indian languages in
Patiala. In 1963 the institute was named the Government Institute of
Oriental and Modern Indian Languages, Patiala. Before that, it was
known as the Sanskrit Vidyala. It is the oldest Sanskrit institution
in the state having been set up as early as 1860.
This institution, which was once the pride of the state, has been
ignored for decades. It now houses another institution - the
Government Sanskrit Mahavidyala of Nabha - which was transferred to
Patiala in October, 2002. This effectively means there are three small
rooms, a verandah which, on many occasions, is used as a classroom,
and a library hall for the staff of the Sanskrit institution, which
now goes by the high-flying name of Institute of Oriental and Indian
Languages.
“The government has changed the name to give the impression that it
was creating a new institution in which it was merging the Nabha
college”, says one of the teachers of the institution. He adds the
government has not given even a single paisa for the new institution,
that shows how concerned it is even about maintaining the lone
Sanskrit teaching institution of its kind. The institution does not
have even a single room which can be rightly called a classroom. There
are some rooms on the first floor which are used by the Government
Primary and Middle School. An order to vacate the rooms was passed by
a former Deputy Commissioner, Mr Jasbir Singh Bir.
The teacher says part of the college has been renovated through a Rs 1
lakh grant given by former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal during a
Sangat Darshan programme. The amount was used to strengthen the roof
of the library hall and its adjacent verandah, besides renovating two
rooms, now occupied by the office staff. “This has ensured that at
least the roof will not fall on our heads”, remarks the teacher,
adding that part of the building seems to be beyond repairs and has
been sealed off to ensure that no student steps inside.
But the four teachers at the Sanskrit Mahavidyala, Nabha, didn’t have
a safe roof above. Their college was closed and they were told to
report for duty at the Patiala institute in October last year. Three
of the teachers joined duty at Patiala, while the fourth is fighting
it out in court.
The Nabha institution was run by Acharya Sadhu Ram before it was taken
over by Maharaja Hira Singh of Nabha. Subsequently, it was taken over
by the Pepsu government and, finally, by the Punjab Government on the
Pepsu state’s merger. A teacher, Basant Lal, now posted at the Patiala
institution, says the institution was upgraded to a college in 1972
and was earlier housed in the Nabha fort from where it was shifted to
a government building. However, when the building was declared unsafe,
it was shifted to a rented building in 1983. In March, 2002 the
college management was asked not to make new admissions on the plea
that the building was unsafe and the students’ strength had also
declined. The college was subsequently merged with the Patiala
institution to form a new institution.
The institutions may have had a tragic history, but sadder still is
the fate of the Sanskrit language in the state. The student strength
in the new institute has come down to an all-time low of 29 against
last year’s 45. Teachers blame this on lack of any reservation for
students going in for the Shastri graduate course, which is taught
only in Sanskrit. They say the students have to compete for jobs with
students with Sanskrit at the graduation level in which it is taught
in the Hindi medium. “If this is the respect given by the government
to an advanced Sanskrit course, there is little hope for Sanskrit, its
teachers or Sanskrit institutions in the state”, add the teachers.
Panjab University’s low priority to top centre
Ravinder Sud
A view of the V.V.B. institute of Sanskrit at Hoshiarpur
The Vishveshvaranand Vishav Bandhu Institute of Sanskrit and
Indological Studies located at Sadhu Ashram, Hoshiarpur, is fast
losing the very purpose for which it was set up about 100 years ago on
account of the indifferent attitude of the authorities of Panjab
University, Chandigarh.
This world-renowned research institute, situated on the outskirts of
Hoshiarpur city on the Una road and run by Panjab University, offers
five-year postgraduation courses in Shastri and Acharya. There are 75
students, including 30 girls and five research scholars. They are
generally from Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Jammu and
Kashmir. Stipends are given to the students of oriental studies.
Dr Damodar Jha, a former Chairman of this institution, tells The
Tribune that there are only 14 teachers as against the sanctioned
posts of 32. Four of them are above 60 and four others are going to
retire shortly. None of the posts, which had fallen vacant on the
retirement of any teacher in the past, was filled.
Besides, the university authorities have shifted six posts from here
to Chandigarh. This has not only adversely affected the studies of
students, but also research work in Sanskrit and indological studies,
including Vedic interpretation.
There is no hostel facility for girl students and the hostel for boys
is run in the rented building of Vishveshvaranand Vedic Research
Institute, adds Dr Jha.
This institute has a big library having 73,408 books, 2,676 hand-
written manuscripts, 123 research journals and 3,093 photocopies of
rare books which are out of print now. But this institution has not
been developed further, he complains.
Tracing its genesis, Prof Inder Kumar Uniyal, Director, VVRI, says
that in 1903 Swami Vishveshvaranand and Nityanand started an office in
Shimla for preparing word indices of the four principal Vedic Samhitas
and a dictionary of the texts. The word indices were issued in four
volumes in 1908-10 and considerable basic material was collected for
the dictionary.
In 1924 the office was shifted to Lahore where it was put under the
charge of Acharya Vishva Bandhu. Under him, the scope of the institute
was widened so as to include the study of different branches of
indology. The institute also set up a teaching wing with classes for
MA, Vidyavachaspati and Shastri in Sanskrit and Prabhakar in Hindi.
Panjab University, Lahore, gave a grant of Rs 1,000 in 1936-37 and an
equal amount in 1937-38.
The university accorded recognition to the work done by the institute
by publishing “A Vedic Word Concordance” and a complete etymological
dictionary.
After partition, the institute got uprooted from Lahore. After much
suffering and loss, it was restarted on its present premises at Sadhu
Ashram, Hoshiarpur.
In 1957, at the instance of the institute, Panjab University opened
its Department of Devanagari Transcription of South Indian
Manuscripts.
Earlier in 1950, Panjab University had extended affiliation to the
institute for starting various courses of study in Hindi and Sanskrit
and the University Grants Commission began to give liberal financial
aid to the institute. The same year the institute extended its
academic activity to Chandigarh by setting up a research centre
there.
In the beginning of 1965, Panjab University made a proposal that the
institute, while continuing to function from Hoshiarpur and
maintaining its entity, should integrate itself with the university.
This proposal was accepted. Accordingly, a part of the institute was
taken over by the university under the new name Vishveshvaranand
Institute of Sanskrit and Indological Studies (VISIS).
At present 12 research projects, including the compilation of a
dictionary of Vedic interpretation, are being pursued. There is a long
list of 49 research works in various fields of indology published by
this institute.
The Manuscript and Text Editing Section has a collection of more than
10,000 ancient manuscripts, of which 8,360 were catalogued
descriptively in the volume and were published in 1959. A
supplementary catalogue dealing with the remaining manuscripts came to
light in 1975. However, with the transfer of the Lal Chand collection
of rare books and manuscripts to DAV College, Chandigarh, the
institute now has about 2,300 ancient manuscripts.
The VVRI has published 16 volumes of Vedic Concordance of more than
1,1000 pages. The compilation of the dictionary of Vedic
interpretation, which was started by the late Acharya Vishav Bandhu in
1965, is yet to be completed.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030429/edit.htm#5
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Plight of women in India- Witch branding 8th-Feb-2010
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Caesarean Births in India 14th-Jan-2010
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Abortion Worldwide: A Decade of Uneven Progress 21st-Oct-09
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Infant Mortality in India 21st-Oct-09
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Khap Panchayat in India 15th-Sep-09
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Smoking among women in India 31st-Aug-09
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Poverty in India 21st-Aug-09
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Public Health System in India 02nd-Apr-09
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Gender Analysis 18th-Feb-09
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Problem of Child Abuse 17th-Feb-09
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Adolescent Health Programme in India16th-Feb-09
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Status of Education in Delhi27th-Jan-09
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State of the World’s Children 2009- UNICEF Report21th-Jan-09
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Honour Killings in India25th-Nov-08
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Universalization of Education in India5th-Nov-08
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Problems of working women 25th-Oct-08
Malnutrition Deaths in Madhya Pradesh24th-Sept-08
Educational Problems of Women in India27th-August-08
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Female Foeticide in India05th-August-08
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World’s Sanitation Report21th-July-08
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Status of Sex Workers in Delhi21th-July-08
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Alcoholism10th-July-08
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Juvenile Delinquency10th-July-08
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Girls, Women and Poverty12th-June-08
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Untouchability in India12th-June-08
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Infant Mortality in India12th-May-08
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Water problem in India15th-Apr-08
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Child Malnutrition in India11th-Apr-08
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The problem of old age in India11th-Apr-08
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Global Food Stocks Fall7th-Apr-08
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Millennium Goals India Position7th-Apr-08
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Population -The trends in India7th-Apr-08
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Tuberculosis in India7th-Apr-08
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Female Literacy in Kishanganj District18th-Mar-08
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Polio in India -Latest Situation07th-Mar-08
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Prostitution in India16th-Feb-08
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Beggary in India4th-Feb-08
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Flood Management in India18th-Jan-08
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Crime against women in India18th-Jan-08
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Decline in number of out of school children in India: A Pratham survey
report17th-Jan-08
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Polio in India8th-Jan-08
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Child Soldiers of India3rd-Dec-07
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Latest Figures on HIV/AIDS-20073rd-Dec-07
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HIV/AIDS situation in North-East India3rd-Dec-07
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Literacy Situation in India1st-Dec-07
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Hunger in India - Impact on Children27th-Nov-07
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State of Rural Healthcare in India-NRHM Report23th-Nov-07
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World HIV/AIDS Figures Low23th-Nov-07
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Gender Gap in India15th-Nov-07
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Birth Registration in India12th-Nov-07
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Corruption in Education system in India – A UNESCO Report 10th-oct-07
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Recent Trend of Divorce in India
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Female Infanticide in India
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Plight of Indian Women: Victims of NRI marriages
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Sustainable Development
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Class Struggle
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Literacy Rate In India
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Woman Empowerment In India
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Poverty in India
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Population of India
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Child labour in India
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Rural Girls Education
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State of Maternal Health in India
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Unemployment in India
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Gender Inequality In India
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Status of Dalits in India
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Crime Against Children
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Migration In India
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http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/index.html
Key Texts on Social Justice in India
Published by Sage Publicatio...
Editors: Roohi, Sanam Samaddar, Ranabir
ISBN: 978 81 321 0064 5
Format: Hardback
Pages: 1116
List price(s): 150.00 GBP
Publication date: 30 May 2009
Short description
A compendium of key texts on social justice. It brings out the
relational nature of justice as well as the fragmented nature of its
existence. It explores how law fares in delivering justice, how
violence becomes an essential part of the popular notion of justice
and how the dynamics of justice is linked with the emergence of
marginal situations.
Full description
Volume I: Social Justice and Enlightenment: West Bengal is edited by
Pradip Kumar Bose, Professor of Sociology, Centre for Studies in
Social Sciences, Calcutta, Kolkata and Samir Kumar Das, Professor of
Political Science, Calcutta University, Kolkata. This first volume of
the series The State of Justice in India: Issues of Social Justice is
a collection of writings on the state of social justice in the present-
day West Bengal. It studies the strong disjunction between the notion
of enlightened politics, on which the constitutional Left in West
Bengal has thrived for several decades, and social justice. The
articles probe the question: is there a necessary connection between
the politics of communism and attainment of social justice? Social
Justice and Enlightenment: West Bengal is based on ethnographic
studies which suggest that while there is a general regime of justice
in West Bengal, the rule of law as the main mechanism of justice makes
little sense in the presence of specific local judicial practices. It
questions why the archaic rule of law still remains fundamental in the
state governance and concludes that the West Bengal experience
demonstrates that while democracy may widen through the mass entry of
workers, peasants and the rural and urban poor, and though this may
facilitate long-denied political justice for them, this does not
ensure social justice per se. Volume II: Justice and Law: The Limits
of the Deliverables of Law is edited by Ashok Agrwaal, Lawyer,
researcher and civil rights activist and Bharat Bhushan, Editor of the
Daily Mail Newspaper . This second volume of the series The State of
Justice in India: Issues of Social Justice brings together the tension
that brews between law and justice in India. It begins with how our
legislators had engaged in the discourse on justice at the time of the
making of the constitution. The articles highlight the way law has
created dichotomies in its attempt to be the guardian for justice. The
authors have coined the idea of 'justice gap', which unveils the gap
between the claims for justice and governmental regime of justice.
Justice and Law: The Limits of the Deliverables of Law also deals
extensively with the issue of reservation. It has one article
documenting the history of reservations in India, in the background of
political contentions, elections, and judicial activism. The other
article traces how the 'policy game' goes on in the language of courts
and law. Both the articles indicate how the issue of justice is
closely linked to the issue of expansion of democracy. Another article
measures the success of the legal system in providing justice to those
in the margins. This one-of-its-kind book will be an invaluable
resource for academics and researchers studying sociology, law, social
justice, political theory and Indian democracy. It will also be useful
for human rights activists, policy makers, policy analysts and NGOs.
Volume III: Marginalities and Justice is edited by Paula Banerjee,
Head of the Department of South and South East Asian Studies,
University of Calcutta, Kolkata and Mahanirban Calcutta Research
Group, Kolkata and Sanjay Chaturvedi, Professor of Political Science
at the Centre for the Study of Geopolitics and Honorary Director,
Centre for the Study of Mid-West and Central Asia, Panjab University,
Chandigarh. This third volume of the series The State of Justice in
India: Issues of Social Justice shows how marginalities in social
spaces marked by power raise the issue of justice. It deals with the
situation of people living in the margins of the society and their
relationship with communities that enjoy enough material well being to
secure their rights. It reveals how effective governance
unintentionally uses strategies of inclusion, exclusion, differential
exclusion, and, most importantly, techniques of turning spaces into
'marginal enclaves', giving rise to injustice, and thereby, the demand
for justice. Marginalities and Justice demonstrates that justice may
emanate from the dynamics of marginality. The same governmental
techniques that to some extent address issues of social justice, may
produce marginal positions too. Thus, this collection suggests the
existence of a remainder; it demonstrates what remains outside the
operations of governmentality and explores the arrangement of social
spaces. Volume IV: Key Texts on Social Justice in India is edited by
Sanam Roohi, Programme Associate, Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group,
Kolkata and Ranabir Samaddar, Director, Mahanirban Calcutta Research
Group, Kolkata. This fourth volume of the series The State of Justice
in India: Issues of Social Justice is a compendium of key texts on
social justice. It brings out the relational nature of justice as well
as the fragmented nature of its existence. Key Texts on Social Justice
in India explores how law fares in delivering justice, how violence
becomes an essential part of the popular notion of justice and how the
dynamics of justice is linked with the emergence of marginal
situations. Each article is, on one hand, an appeal for justice, and,
on the other, a manifesto that state actions fall short of ensuring
justice. This compilation is meant for the students and researchers
working in the fields of justice, sociology and law. It will serve as
supplementary text in law as well as a source book that gives a
comprehensive analysis of justice in the Indian scenario.
Table of contents
VOLUME I: SOCIAL JUSTICE AND ENLIGHTENMENT: WEST BENGAL - Pradip Kumar
Bose and Samir Kumar Das Series Acknowledgement - Ranabir Samaddar
Series Introduction - Ranabir Samaddar Introduction - Pradip Kumar
Bose and Samir Kumar Das Land Acquisition Act and Social Justice: A
Study on Development and Displacement - Ratan Khasnabis Two Leaves and
a Bud: Tea and Social Justice in Darjeeling - Roshan Rai and Subhas
Ranjan Chakrabarty Deprivation and Social Injustice in a Rural
Context: An Ethnographic Account - Kumar Rana with Amrit Paira and Ila
Paira On the Wrong Side of the Fence: Embankment, People and Social
Justice in the Sundarbans - Amites Mukhopadhyay Prescribed, Tolerated,
& Forbidden Forms of Claim Making - Ranabir Samaddar VOLUME II:
JUSTICE AND LAW: THE LIMITS OF THE DELIVERABLES OF LAW - Ashok Agrwaal
and Bharat Bhushan Series Acknowledgement - Ranabir Samaddar Series
Introduction - Ranabir Samaddar Introduction - Ashok Agrwaal and
Bharat Bhushan Justice in the Time of Transition: Select Indian
Experiences - Sabyasachi Basu and Ray Chaudhury The Founding Moment:
Social Justice in the Constitutional Mirror - Samir Kumar Das Indexing
Social Justice in India-A Story of Commissions, Reports and Popular
Responses - Bharat Bhushan Trivializing Justice: Reservation Under
Rule of Law - Ashok Agrawaal The Fallacy of Equality: 'Anti-Citizens',
Sexual Justice and the Law in India - Oishik Sircar VOLUME III:
MARGINALITIES AND JUSTICE - Paula Banerjee and Sanjay Chaturvedi
Series Acknowledgement - Ranabir Samaddar Series Introduction -
Ranabir Samaddar Introduction - Paula Banertjee and Sanjay Chaturvedi
Gulamiya Ab Hum Nahi Bajeibo: Peoples' Expressions for Justice in
Jehanabad - Manish K Jha Ethnography of Social Justice in Dalit Pattis
(Hamlets) of Rural UP - Badri Narayan Tiwari Rights and Social Justice
for Tribal Population in India - Amit Prakash AIDS, Marginality and
Women - Paula Banerjee Towards Environmental Justice Movement in
India? Spatiality, Hierarchies and Inequalities - Sanjay Chaturvedi
VOLUME IV: KEY TEXTS ON SOCIAL JUSTICE IN INDIA - Sanam Roohi and
Ranabir Samaddar Series Acknowledgement - Ranabir Samaddar Series
Introduction - Ranabir Samaddar PART I. DEVELOPMENT AND DISCONTENT:
THE QUESTION OF INJUSTICE Section Introduction Ethnic Politics and
Land Use: Genesis of Conflicts in India's North-East - Sanjay Barbora
Contexts and Constructions of Water Scarcity - Lyla Mehta Karnataka:
Kudremukh: Of Mining and Environment - Muzaffar Assadi Report of
Investigation into Nandigram Mass Killing - Sanhati Eroded Lives:
Riverbank Erosion and Displacement of Women in West Bengal - Krishna
Bandyopadhyay, Soma Ghosh and Nilanjan Dutta PART II. SOCIAL JUSTICE:
THE STATE AND ITS PERCEPTIONS Section introduction The Communal
Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) - Bill
The National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy,
Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999 The Right to
Information Act, 2005 The National Rehabilitation and Resettlement
Policy, 2007 The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005
PART III. JUSTICE: LAW AND BEYOND Section Introduction Illegality and
Exclusion: Law in the Lives of Slum Dwellers - Usha Ramanathan Illegal
Coal Mining in Eastern India: Rethinking Legitimacy and Limits of
Justice - Kuntala Lahiri Dutt Verdict on an HIV case, Supreme Court of
India Reproduced in Medhina - Laya, Dipika Jain and Colin Gonzalves An
Indian Charter for Minority Rights - Sabyasachi Basu and Ray Chaudhury
PART IV. WOMEN AND MARGINALITY: An Issue of Gender Justice Section
Introduction Gender: Women and HIV - Medhini, Laya, Dipika Jain and
Colin Gonzalves National Policy for the Empowerment of Women (2001)
Women, Trafficking and Statelessness in South Asia - Paula Banerjee
PART V. JUSTICE: Marginal Positions and Alternative Notions Section
Introduction Voices From Folk School of Dalit Bahujan & Marginalised
to Policy Makers - Peoples Vigilance Committee on Human Rights Social
Assessment of HIV/AIDS among Tribal People in India - NACP III
Planning Team Caste is Dead, Long Live Caste - G P Deshpande Tehelka
Debate: Beyond Caste - Puroshottam Agarwal Report from the Flaming
Fields of Bihar PART VI. FREEDOM AND EQUALITY, RIGHTS AND SOCIAL
SECURITY: BUILDING BLOCKS OF JUSTICE Section Introduction Jungle Book:
Tribal Forest Rights Recognised For First Time - Nandini Sundar
Informal Sector in India: Approaches for Social Security Arguments,
Protests, Strikes and Free Speech: The Career and Prospects of the
Right to Strike in India - Rajeev Dhavan Democracy and Right to Food -
Jean Dreze
http://www.newasiabooks.org/publication/key-texts-social-justice-india
Retro-modern India. Forging the Low-caste Self
Published by Routledge
Author: Ciotti, Manuela
ISBN: 978 0 415 56311 6
Format: Hardback
Pages: 312
List price(s): 55.00 GBP 95.00 USD
Publication date: 23 February 2010
Short description
Set in the socio-political milieu of the state of Uttar Pradesh in
north India, this book puts forward an original theoretical approach
to analyse subaltern configurations of modernity within the nation
state. It substantiates this approach by weaving the low-caste
Chamars’ core ethical concerns of humanism with ethnographic accounts
of resilient — as well as newly forged — socio-economic hierarchies,
internalised ideologies of betterment and reform, and the social race
for progress where contestants are very often same-nation citizens.
Full description
Firmly situated within the analytics of the political economy of a
north Indian province, this book explores self-fashioning in pursuit
of the modern amongst low-caste Chamars. Challenging existing accounts
of national modernity in the non-West, the book argues that subaltern
classes shape their own ideas about modernity by taking and rejecting
from models of other classes within the same national context. While
displacing the West — in its colonial and non-colonial manifestations
— as the immanent comparative focus, the book puts forward a unique
framework for the analysis of subaltern modernity. This builds on the
entanglements between two main trajectories, both of which are viewed
as the outcome of the generative impetus of modernisation in India:
the first consists of the Chamar appropriation of socio-cultural
distinctions forged by 19th-century Indian middle classes in their
encounter with colonial modernity; the second features the Chamar
subversion of high-caste ideals and practices as a result of low-caste
politics initiated during the 20th century. The author contends that
these conflicting trends give rise to a temporal antinomy within the
Chamar politics of self-making, caught up between compulsions of a
past modern and of a contemporary one. The eclectic outcome is termed
as ‘retro-modernity’. While the book signals a politics of becoming
whose dynamics had previously been overlooked by scholars, it
simultaneously opens up novel avenues for the understanding of non-
elite modern life-forms in postcolonial settings.
The book will interest scholars of anthropology, South Asian studies,
development studies, gender studies, political science and
postcolonial studies.
Table of contents
Orthography and Transliteration.
Glossary of Selected Terms. Foreword. Acknowledgements.
1. Chamar Modernity: Progressing into the Past
2. ‘Today We Can Touch Anything’: Reflections on the Crux of Identity
and Political Economy
3. Ethnohistories behind Local and Global Bazaars: Chronicle of a
Weaving Community and its Disappearance
4. ‘We Used to Live like Animals’: Education as a Self- and Community-
engineering Process
5. Nonrational Modernity? Religious Agency, Science and Spirits
6. Beyond the Vote: Politics as Sociality, Imagination and Identity
7. The Bourgeois Woman and the Half-naked One: Gendering Retro-
modernity
8. The Politics of Indian Modernity. Bibliography. About the Author.
Index.
Biography
Manuela Ciotti is a social anthropologist with a PhD from the London
School of Economics. She is currently Research Associate at the Centre
for South Asian Studies, University of Edinburgh. She has published
several articles in leading journals on topics ranging from education,
labour ethnohistory, gender and class transformation, and women’s
political activism.
Drawing on research she carried out during the tenure of a Nuffield
Foundation New Career Development Fellowship, Ciotti is completing her
second monograph entitled Political Agency and Gender in India
(forthcoming). An edited volume entitled Femininities and
Masculinities in Indian Politics (forthcoming) develops the different
aspects of the gender and politics nexus. Ciotti’s focus on South
Asian Studies is intertwined with her interests in anthropological
epistemologies and the politics of location and representation;
converging on these, a monograph provisionally entitled 'Producing
Knowledge in Late Modernity: Lessons from India' is under preparation.
Buy here: http://www.routledgepolitics.com/books/Retro-modern-India-isbn9780415563116
http://www.newasiabooks.org/publication/retro-modern-india-forging-low-caste-self
Jinnah and Tilak: Comrades in the Freedom Struggle
Published by Oxford Universi...
Author: Noorani
ISBN: 978 0 19 547829 7
Format: Hardback
Pages: 350
List price(s): 15.99 GBP
Publication date: 26 August 2010
Short description
The distinguished Indian lawyer and writer, A. G. Noorani, urges his
readers in this incisively argued book to look again at some of the
key events and personalities in the struggle against British colonial
rule in India.
Full description
The distinguished Indian lawyer and writer, A. G. Noorani, urges his
readers in this incisively argued book to look again at some of the
key events and personalities in the struggle against British colonial
rule in India. He begins with 'the forgotten comradeship' between
Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
Whatever their other differences, both felt passionately about the
cause of Indian freedom. Jinnah defended Tilak in his trial in 1916 on
sedition charges, and ultimately secured his acquittal. The full text
of the legal proceedings, including Jinnah's powerful speeches for the
defence, are included as an appendix. After Tilak's death in 1920,
Jinnah continued to work closely with political leaders of all
persuasions and was regarded by the British as one of their most
formidable opponents. Noorani argues that only in 1937, following the
conflict over the formation of the provincial ministry in the United
Provinces, did Jinnah abandon his hopes of working jointly with
Congress to achieve independence. Noorani is firmly of the view that
Jinnah wanted a loose confederation in which the rights of the Muslim
population were fully guaranteed rather than the separate state of
Pakistan as it eventually emerged in 1947. He discusses Jinnah's
tactics during the crucial months in 1946 when the Cabinet Mission
Plan was on the table, and argues that the Plan offered a viable
possibility of avoiding Partition. In his opinion, the blame for its
failure rests squarely with Congress and with Gandhi in particular,
although trust and imagination were in short supply on all sides. The
book includes three additional essays by the author, on respectively
why the Suhrawardy-Bose plan for a united Bengal failed, the failure
to provide effective safeguards for minorities in the partition
scheme, and the Haroon report of 1940, together with the text of some
key documents.
Table of contents
CONTENTS LIST;
PREFACE;
1. A Forgotten Comradeship;
2. After Tilak: Jinnah and Gandhi's Congress;
3. The Widening Divide;
4. Wrecking India's Unity;
5. The Gandhi-Cripps Pact;
6. Demise of the Cabinet Mission's Plan;
7. An Embittered Separation;
8. The United Bengal Episode;
9. Assessing Jinnah;
APPENDICES;
1. JINNAH'S DEFENCE OF TILAK: THE COURT PROCEEDINGS;
2. JINNAH'S BATTLES FOR PRESS FREEDOM;
3. THE LUCKNOW PACT, 1916;
4. JINNAH'S 14 POINTS, 1929;
5. JINNAH-RAJENDRA PRASAD PACT, 1934;
6. THE LAHORE RESOLUTION, 1940;
7. STAFFORD CRIPPS' OFFER 1942;
8. THE C.R. FORMULA 1944;
9. JINNAH'S OFFER OF 12 MAY 1946;
10. THE CONGRESS' OFFER OF 12 MAY 1946;
11. THE CABINET MISSION'S PLAN OF 16 MAY 1946;
12. THE MUSLIM LEAGUE WORKING COMMITTEE'S RESOLUTION ON 31 JANUARY
1947 AT KARACHI;
13. THE PARTITION PLAN OF 3 JUNE 1947;
14. JINNAH'S SPEECH TO PAKISTAN'S CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY ON 11 AUGUST
1947;
15. SIR CHIMANLAL SETALVAD'S ARTICLE ENTITLED 'INDIA DIVIDED: WHO IS
TO BLAME FOR PARTITION?' THE TIMES OF INDIA; 15 JUNE 1947;
16. MAULANA HASRAT MOHANI'S POEM ON TILAK; AND (A) URDU ORIGINAL (B)
ENGLISH TRANSLATION;
17. JINNAH AND THE MUSLIMS OF INDIA; 18. THE HAROON REPORT
http://www.newasiabooks.org/publication/jinnah-and-tilak-comrades-freedom-struggle
Key Texts on Social Justice in India
Published by Sage Publicatio...
IndiaSocial issuesLaw & society
Editors: Roohi, Sanam Samaddar, Ranabir
ISBN: 978 81 321 0064 5
Format: Hardback
Pages: 1116
List price(s): 150.00 GBP
Publication date: 30 May 2009
Short description
A compendium of key texts on social justice. It brings out the
relational nature of justice as well as the fragmented nature of its
existence. It explores how law fares in delivering justice, how
violence becomes an essential part of the popular notion of justice
and how the dynamics of justice is linked with the emergence of
marginal situations.
Full description
Volume I: Social Justice and Enlightenment: West Bengal is edited by
Pradip Kumar Bose, Professor of Sociology, Centre for Studies in
Social Sciences, Calcutta, Kolkata and Samir Kumar Das, Professor of
Political Science, Calcutta University, Kolkata. This first volume of
the series The State of Justice in India: Issues of Social Justice is
a collection of writings on the state of social justice in the present-
day West Bengal. It studies the strong disjunction between the notion
of enlightened politics, on which the constitutional Left in West
Bengal has thrived for several decades, and social justice. The
articles probe the question: is there a necessary connection between
the politics of communism and attainment of social justice? Social
Justice and Enlightenment: West Bengal is based on ethnographic
studies which suggest that while there is a general regime of justice
in West Bengal, the rule of law as the main mechanism of justice makes
little sense in the presence of specific local judicial practices. It
questions why the archaic rule of law still remains fundamental in the
state governance and concludes that the West Bengal experience
demonstrates that while democracy may widen through the mass entry of
workers, peasants and the rural and urban poor, and though this may
facilitate long-denied political justice for them, this does not
ensure social justice per se. Volume II: Justice and Law: The Limits
of the Deliverables of Law is edited by Ashok Agrwaal, Lawyer,
researcher and civil rights activist and Bharat Bhushan, Editor of the
Daily Mail Newspaper . This second volume of the series The State of
Justice in India: Issues of Social Justice brings together the tension
that brews between law and justice in India. It begins with how our
legislators had engaged in the discourse on justice at the time of the
making of the constitution. The articles highlight the way law has
created dichotomies in its attempt to be the guardian for justice. The
authors have coined the idea of 'justice gap', which unveils the gap
between the claims for justice and governmental regime of justice.
Justice and Law: The Limits of the Deliverables of Law also deals
extensively with the issue of reservation. It has one article
documenting the history of reservations in India, in the background of
political contentions, elections, and judicial activism. The other
article traces how the 'policy game' goes on in the language of courts
and law. Both the articles indicate how the issue of justice is
closely linked to the issue of expansion of democracy. Another article
measures the success of the legal system in providing justice to those
in the margins. This one-of-its-kind book will be an invaluable
resource for academics and researchers studying sociology, law, social
justice, political theory and Indian democracy. It will also be useful
for human rights activists, policy makers, policy analysts and NGOs.
Volume III: Marginalities and Justice is edited by Paula Banerjee,
Head of the Department of South and South East Asian Studies,
University of Calcutta, Kolkata and Mahanirban Calcutta Research
Group, Kolkata and Sanjay Chaturvedi, Professor of Political Science
at the Centre for the Study of Geopolitics and Honorary Director,
Centre for the Study of Mid-West and Central Asia, Panjab University,
Chandigarh. This third volume of the series The State of Justice in
India: Issues of Social Justice shows how marginalities in social
spaces marked by power raise the issue of justice. It deals with the
situation of people living in the margins of the society and their
relationship with communities that enjoy enough material well being to
secure their rights. It reveals how effective governance
unintentionally uses strategies of inclusion, exclusion, differential
exclusion, and, most importantly, techniques of turning spaces into
'marginal enclaves', giving rise to injustice, and thereby, the demand
for justice. Marginalities and Justice demonstrates that justice may
emanate from the dynamics of marginality. The same governmental
techniques that to some extent address issues of social justice, may
produce marginal positions too. Thus, this collection suggests the
existence of a remainder; it demonstrates what remains outside the
operations of governmentality and explores the arrangement of social
spaces. Volume IV: Key Texts on Social Justice in India is edited by
Sanam Roohi, Programme Associate, Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group,
Kolkata and Ranabir Samaddar, Director, Mahanirban Calcutta Research
Group, Kolkata. This fourth volume of the series The State of Justice
in India: Issues of Social Justice is a compendium of key texts on
social justice. It brings out the relational nature of justice as well
as the fragmented nature of its existence. Key Texts on Social Justice
in India explores how law fares in delivering justice, how violence
becomes an essential part of the popular notion of justice and how the
dynamics of justice is linked with the emergence of marginal
situations. Each article is, on one hand, an appeal for justice, and,
on the other, a manifesto that state actions fall short of ensuring
justice. This compilation is meant for the students and researchers
working in the fields of justice, sociology and law. It will serve as
supplementary text in law as well as a source book that gives a
comprehensive analysis of justice in the Indian scenario.
Table of contents
VOLUME I: SOCIAL JUSTICE AND ENLIGHTENMENT:
WEST BENGAL - Pradip Kumar Bose and Samir Kumar Das
Series Acknowledgement -
Ranabir Samaddar Series Introduction -
Ranabir Samaddar Introduction -
Pradip Kumar Bose and Samir Kumar Das Land Acquisition Act and Social
Justice: A Study on Development and Displacement -
Ratan Khasnabis Two Leaves and a Bud: Tea and Social Justice in
Darjeeling -
Roshan Rai and Subhas Ranjan Chakrabarty Deprivation and Social
Injustice in a Rural Context: An Ethnographic Account -
Kumar Rana with Amrit Paira and Ila Paira On the Wrong Side of the
Fence: Embankment, People and Social Justice in the Sundarbans -
Amites Mukhopadhyay Prescribed, Tolerated, & Forbidden Forms of Claim
Making -
Ranabir Samaddar
VOLUME II: JUSTICE AND LAW: THE LIMITS OF THE DELIVERABLES OF LAW -
Ashok Agrwaal and Bharat Bhushan Series Acknowledgement -
Ranabir Samaddar Series Introduction -
Ranabir Samaddar Introduction -
Ashok Agrwaal and Bharat Bhushan Justice in the Time of Transition:
Select Indian Experiences -
Sabyasachi Basu and Ray Chaudhury The Founding Moment: Social Justice
in the Constitutional Mirror -
Samir Kumar Das Indexing Social Justice in India-A Story of
Commissions, Reports and Popular Responses -
Bharat Bhushan Trivializing Justice: Reservation Under Rule of Law -
Ashok Agrawaal The Fallacy of Equality: 'Anti-Citizens', Sexual
Justice and the Law in India -
Oishik Sircar
VOLUME III: MARGINALITIES AND JUSTICE -
Paula Banerjee and Sanjay Chaturvedi Series Acknowledgement -
Ranabir Samaddar Series Introduction -
Ranabir Samaddar Introduction -
Paula Banertjee and Sanjay Chaturvedi Gulamiya Ab Hum Nahi Bajeibo:
Peoples' Expressions for Justice in Jehanabad -
Manish K Jha Ethnography of Social Justice in Dalit Pattis (Hamlets)
of Rural UP -
Badri Narayan Tiwari Rights and Social Justice for Tribal Population
in India -
Amit Prakash AIDS, Marginality and Women -
Paula Banerjee Towards Environmental Justice Movement in India?
Spatiality, Hierarchies and Inequalities -
Sanjay Chaturvedi
VOLUME IV: KEY TEXTS ON SOCIAL JUSTICE IN INDIA -
Sanam Roohi and Ranabir Samaddar Series Acknowledgement -
Ranabir Samaddar Series Introduction -
Ranabir Samaddar
PART I. DEVELOPMENT AND DISCONTENT: THE QUESTION OF INJUSTICE
Section Introduction Ethnic Politics and Land Use: Genesis of
Conflicts in India's North-East -
Sanjay Barbora Contexts and Constructions of Water Scarcity -
Lyla Mehta Karnataka: Kudremukh: Of Mining and Environment -
Muzaffar Assadi Report of Investigation into Nandigram Mass Killing -
Sanhati Eroded Lives: Riverbank Erosion and Displacement of Women in
West Bengal -
Krishna Bandyopadhyay, Soma Ghosh and Nilanjan Dutta
PART II. SOCIAL JUSTICE: THE STATE AND ITS PERCEPTIONS Section
introduction The Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and
Rehabilitation of Victims) -
Bill
The National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy,
Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999
The Right to Information Act, 2005
The National Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy, 2007
The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005
PART III. JUSTICE: LAW AND BEYOND
Section Introduction
Illegality and Exclusion: Law in the Lives of Slum Dwellers -
Usha Ramanathan Illegal Coal Mining in Eastern India: Rethinking
Legitimacy and Limits of Justice -
Kuntala Lahiri Dutt Verdict on an HIV case, Supreme Court of India
Reproduced in Medhina -
Laya, Dipika Jain and Colin Gonzalves An Indian Charter for Minority
Rights -
Sabyasachi Basu and Ray Chaudhury
PART IV. WOMEN AND MARGINALITY: An Issue of Gender Justice Section
Introduction Gender: Women and HIV -
Medhini, Laya, Dipika Jain and Colin Gonzalves National Policy for the
Empowerment of Women (2001)
Women, Trafficking and Statelessness in South Asia - Paula Banerjee
PART V. JUSTICE: Marginal Positions and Alternative Notions Section
Introduction Voices From Folk School of Dalit Bahujan & Marginalised
to Policy Makers -
Peoples Vigilance Committee on Human Rights Social Assessment of HIV/
AIDS among Tribal People in India - NACP III Planning Team Caste is
Dead, Long Live Caste -
G P Deshpande Tehelka Debate: Beyond Caste -
Puroshottam Agarwal Report from the Flaming Fields of Bihar
PART VI. FREEDOM AND EQUALITY, RIGHTS AND SOCIAL SECURITY: BUILDING
BLOCKS OF JUSTICE
Section Introduction Jungle Book: Tribal Forest Rights Recognised For
First Time -
Nandini Sundar Informal Sector in India: Approaches for Social
Security Arguments, Protests, Strikes and Free Speech: The Career and
Prospects of the Right to Strike in India -
Rajeev Dhavan Democracy and Right to Food -
Jean Dreze
http://www.newasiabooks.org/publication/key-texts-social-justice-india
Social Justice: Sunset or Dawn
Published by Eastern Book Co...
Author: Iyer, V.R.Krishna
ISBN: 978 81 7012 144 2
Format: Hardback
Pages: 176
List price(s): 12.00 GBP
Publication date: 23 July 2008
Short description
Contains lectures that make an impassioned plea for social justice for
India's poor millions who the author says have been denied social
justice by the three great wings of the government the Executive, the
Judiciary and the Parliament.
Full description
Justice Krishna Iyer is a great proponent of social justice. In these
lectures he makes an impassioned plea for social justice for India's
poor millions who he says have been denied social justice by the three
great wings of the government the Executive, the Judiciary and the
Parliament. A prolific writer, Justice Krishna Iyer is known for his
hard hitting but eloquent lectures and writings. First published under
the title, Some Half Hidden Aspects of Indian Social Justice , the
book was sold out within a very short period of time. It has now been
enlarged and two new chapters have been added. The Bhopal Gas Tragedy
case has been given wide treatment, as also other current issues.
http://www.newasiabooks.org/publication/social-justice-sunset-or-dawn
Politics of Social Exclusion in India, The
Published by Routledge
Editors: Bhattacharyya, Harihar Sarkar, Partha Kar,
Angshuman
ISBN: 978 0 415 55357 5
Format: Hardback
Pages: 208
List price(s): 80.00 GBP 130.00 USD
Publication date: 7 December 2009
Short description
Social exclusion and inclusion are issues of fundamental importance to
democracy. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this book examines at
the multidimensional problems of social exclusion and inclusion, and
the long-term issues facing contemporary Indian democracy.
Table of contents
Introduction - Harihar Bhattacharyya, Partha Sarkar, and Angshuman
Kar
1. Some Theoretical Issues Concerning Social Exclusion and Inclusion
in India - Sobhanlal Datta Gupta
2. Social Exclusion and the Strategy of Empowerment - T. K. Oommen
3. Identity Politics and Social Exclusion in India's North-East: The
Case for Redistributive Justice - N. K. Das
4. Inclusion in Nationhood: Bhudev Mukhopadhyay's Concept of
Jatiyabhav - Harihar Bhattacharyya
5. Rabindra Nath Tagore's Concept of Social Exclusion and Inclusion in
India: A Nation without Nationalism - Jyotirmay Bhattacharyya
6. Identity and Social Exclusion-Inclusion: A Muslim Perspective -
Asghar Ali Engineer
7. Inclusive and Exclusive Development in India in the Post-Reform Era
- Provat Kuri
8. Social Exclusion in India: Evidences from the Wage Labour Market -
Rajarshi Majumdar
9. Polavaram Dam Project: A Case Study of Displacement of Marginalized
People - Sudipti Banerjea
10. Purity as Exclusion, Caste as Division: The Ongoing Battle for
Equality - Jasbir Jain
11. Narrating Gender and Power: Literary and Cultural Texts and
Contexts - Sanjukta Das Gupta
12. The Fire and the Rain: A Study in Myths of Power - Anima Biswas
13. Conclusion: Democracy at the Crossroads - Harihar Bhattacharyya,
Partha Sarkar, and Angshuman Kar List of Contributors
Biography
University of Burdwan, India
http://www.newasiabooks.org/publication/politics-social-exclusion-india
Social Movements I: Issues of Identity
Published by Oxford Universi...
Editor: Oommen
ISBN: 978 0 19 806327 8
Format: Hardback
Pages: 272
List price(s): 24.99 GBP
Publication date: 31 January 2010
Short description
This volume brings together a selection of readings on movements
related to religion and caste, as well as regionalism, and linguistic
and tribal movements in India, examining them with respect to the
construction and perception of identity.
Full description
In the ongoing process of social transformation, new identities are
often constructed, while existing identities may mutate or transform,
and some might even be rendered obsolete. Social Movements I: Issues
of Identity, part of the Oxford in India Readings in Sociology and
Social Anthropology (OIRSSA) series, examines the phenomenon of social
movements in India with respect to the construction and perception of
identity. It brings together a selection of readings on movements
related to religion and caste, as well as regionalism, and linguistic
and tribal movements in India. It specifically addresses (a) the
abbreviation and even abrogation of identities versus elaboration of
identities; (b) the tensions between group identity and individual
equality believed to be pulling in opposite directions; (c) identity
as the basis of inclusion and exclusion of citizens in the
participatory processes in the polity and economy; and (d) perceiving
identity of minorities as a source of threat for the nation and the
state by the dominant majority, as against invoking identity as the
route to justice by the weak/dominated minorities. These issues are
relevant in situating identitarian movements in the wider context.
This reader will be useful for students and scholars of sociology,
anthropology, social history, Indian politics, and those studying
Indian society and social movements in particular.
Table of contents
PREFACE, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS;
GENERAL INTRODUCTION: ON THE ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS (T.K.
OOMMEN);
SECTION I - RELIGIOUS AND CASTE MOVEMENTS;
INTRODUCTION TO SECTION I;;
1. Socio-religious Movements of the Twentieth Century (Kenneth W.
Jones);;
2. Ethno-religious Mobilization and the Politics of Secularism
(Christophe Jaffrelot);;
3. Caste and Conversion Movements (Walter Fernandes);;
4. Different Shades of Dalit Mobilization (Vivek Kumar);;
5. The Tabhlighi Jama'at: The Making of a Transnational Religious
Movement (Shail Mayaram);;
SECTION II - REGIONAL, LINGUISTIC AND TRIBAL MOVEMENTS;
INTRODUCTION TO SECTION II;;
6. Foundations of the Dravidian Movement (Robert L. Hardgrave);;
7. The Shiv Sena Movement (Dipankar Gupta);;
8. The Assam Movement (Sanjib Baruah);;
9. Tribal Solidarity Movements in India (Surajit Sinha);;
10. Christian Conversion Movements in the North East (Frederick S.
Downs); Notes on Contributors
http://www.newasiabooks.org/publication/social-movements-i-issues-identity
Social Movements II: Concerns of Equity and Security
Published by Oxford Universi...
Editor: Oommen
ISBN: 978 0 19 806328 5
Format: Hardback
Pages: 376
List price(s): 26.99 GBP
Publication date: 31 January 2010
Short description
This reader brings together a selection of writings on peasant and
labour movements; women and students youth movements; and ecological
and environmental movements. It discusses contemporary social
movements in India from the perspective of equity and security.
Full description
Inequity manifests in different forms in different contexts - it could
based on income disparity, gender, and class, and impact different
aspects of society. Social Movements II: Concerns of Equity and
Security, part of the Oxford in India Readings in Sociology and Social
Anthropology (OIRSSA) series, examines the phenomenon of social
movements in India with respect to the concerns of equity and security
as two forces behind contemporary social movements. The issue of
equity is concerned not only with income and class but is also related
to ideas of development and distributive justice for peasantry and
labour. It is also the focus of groups such as women and the youth,
which occasion protests and mobilizations. Moreover, in the current
scenario, booming economies, soaring populations, and choices of
development strategies have a bearing on the rise of social movements
related to ecology and the environment. This reader brings together a
selection of essays that explore the various dimensions of equity, and
also covers issues of environmental and ecological security. These are
imperative in situating related social movements in the wider context.
This reader will be useful for students and scholars of sociology,
anthropology, social history, Indian politics, and those studying
Indian society and social movements in particular.
Table of contents
PREFACE; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; GENERAL INTRODUCTION: ON THE ANALYSIS OF
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS (T.K. OOMMEN);
SECTION I - PEASANT AND LABOUR MOVEMENTS;
INTRODUCTION TO SECTION I;;
1. Indian Peasant Uprisings (Kathleen Gough);;
2. Naxalbari Peasant Movement (Partha N. Mukherji);;
3. The Bhoodan Gramdaan Movement (T.K. Oommen);;
4. . The new Farmer's Movement in Maharashtra (D.N. Dhanagare);;
5, The Indian Labour Movement: Growth and Character (S.M. Pandey);;
6, Changing Industrial Relations: India, 1950-2000 (Debashish
Bhattacharjee);;
7. Labour Activism and Women in the Unorganised Sector (Supriya Roy
Chowdhury);;
SECTION II - WOMEN AND STUDENTS YOUTH MOVEMENTS;
INTRODUCTION TO SECTION II; ;
8. Changing Terms of Political Discourse: Women's Movement in India,
1970s-1990s (Indu Agnihotri and Vina Mazumdar);;
9. The Anti-dowry Movement in Delhi (Rajni Palriwala);;
10. The Self-Employed Women's Association (Martha A. Chen);;
11. The Transformation of the Indian Students' Movement (Philip G.
Altbach);;
12, Student Power: Mobilization and Protest (T.K. Oommen);
Section III - Ecological and Environmental Movements;
Introduction to Section III;;
13. Ecology Movements in India (Vandana Shiva);;
14. . Parks, People and Protest: The Mediating Role of Environmental
Action Groups (Ranjit Dwivedi);;
15. . Protest against Displacement by Development Projects (T.K.
Oommen);
Notes on Contributors;
Index
http://www.newasiabooks.org/publication/social-movements-ii-concerns-equity-and-security
Sovereignty and Social Reform in India: British Colonialism and the
Campaign Against Sati
Published by Routledge
Author: Major, Andrea
ISBN: 978 0 415 58050 2
Format: Hardback
Pages: 192
List price(s): 75.00 GBP 125.00 USD
Publication date: 30 June 2010
Short description
Offers an important reinterpretation of major themes of sovereignty,
authority and social reform in colonial South Asian history. Focusing
on the British prohibition of sati in 1829, this book shows how the
debates that preceded this legislation have been instrumental in
setting the terms of post-colonial debates about sati.
Full description
This book offers an important reinterpretation of major themes of
sovereignty, authority and social reform in colonial South Asian
history. Focusing on the British prohibition of sati in 1829, the
author shows how the debates that preceded this legislation have been
instrumental in setting the terms of post-colonial debates about sati,
as well as of defining the terms and parameters of British involvement
in Indian social and religious issues more generally.
Table of contents
1. Introduction 2. Princes, Politics and Pragmatism: British Policy on
Sati in the Indian States 1830-1860 3. Prohibition, Prevention and
Prosecution: The Practicalities of Suppressing Sati 4. Romance, Race
and Rule: Imagining Sati in Rajput Society 5. Victimhood and Volition:
British Encounters with the Satimata 6. Conclusion
Biography
Andrea Major is Lecturer in Wider World History at the University of
Leeds. Her research interests relate to the nature of the colonial
encounter between Britain and India, and in particular their
interaction on social and gender issues.
chhotemianinshallah
Islam, Rights, and the History of Kashmir
Mridu Rai
Paper | 2004 | $28.95
320 pp. | 5 x 8
Paper $20.00
Full Text of this book, thanks to the Google.
http://books.google.com/books/princeton?hl=en&q=Hindu+Rulers%2C+Muslim+Subjects%3A&vid=ISBN9780691116884&btnG.x=15&btnG.y=10#v=snippet&q=Hindu%20Rulers%2C%20Muslim%20Subjects%3A&f=false
Disputed between India and Pakistan, Kashmir contains a large majority
of Muslims subject to the laws of a predominantly Hindu and
increasingly "Hinduized" India. How did religion and politics become
so enmeshed in defining the protest of Kashmir's Muslims against Hindu
rule? This book reaches beyond standard accounts that look to the 1947
partition of India for an explanation. Examining the 100-year period
before that landmark event, during which Kashmir was ruled by Hindu
Dogra kings under the aegis of the British, Mridu Rai highlights the
collusion that shaped a decisively Hindu sovereignty over a subject
Muslim populace. Focusing on authority, sovereignty, legitimacy, and
community rights, she explains how Kashmir's modern Muslim identity
emerged.
Rai shows how the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was formed as
the East India Company marched into India beginning in the late
eighteenth century. After the 1857 rebellion, outright annexation was
abandoned as the British Crown took over and princes were incorporated
into the imperial framework as junior partners. But, Rai argues,
scholarship on other regions of India has led to misconceptions about
colonialism, not least that a "hollowing of the crown" occurred
throughout as Brahman came to dominate over King. In Kashmir the Dogra
kings maintained firm control. They rode roughshod over the interests
of the vast majority of their Kashmiri Muslim subjects, planting the
seeds of a political movement that remains in thrall to a religiosity
thrust upon it for the past 150 years.
Review:
"Rai's contribution lies in the extremely thorough and painstaking
documentation that she provides when tracing the marginalization of
the native inhabitants of Kahmir, the chicanery of the British, and
the fecklessness of the Dogra rulers. Her account of the growth of
Muslim religio-political consciousness in the early part of the
twentieth century . . . unearths a wealth of detail. . . . Rai's book
is a useful one. Those interested in understanding the background of
the continuing tragedy in Kahmir will find much to consider in her
substantial account of the historical backdrop."--Sumit Ganguly,
Journal of Asian Studies
Endorsements:
"Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects is a brilliant work of historical
scholarship that will become indispensable reading for all those
interested in the modern history and politics of the subcontinent. It
a pioneering historical study of rights, religion, and regional
identity in Kashmir that could also inspire future studies on other
regions of the subcontinent."--Sugata Bose, Harvard University
"This is a major contribution to Kashmir studies and should set the
standard for the next generation of publications on Kashmir.
Challenging the existing literature, this work is heady and fresh--and
deserves attention."--Alexander Evans, King's College London and the
Royal Institute of International Affairs
"Mridu Rai's book reminds us powerfully of the crucial importance of
colonial history to the present. She is able to de-essentialize
religion and secularism in the Kashmir conflict, which is very useful
in light of India's secularist claims and the ways in which some
sociologists have theorized those claims. Carefully researched and
lucidly conceptualized and written, this book forwards an important
thesis on an important topic."--Peter van der Veer, University of
Amsterdam
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements x
Abbreviations xii
Introduction 1
CHAPTER 1: Territorializing Sovereignity: The Dilemmas of Control and
Collaboration 18
CHAPTER 2: The Consolidation of Dogra Legitimacy in Kashmir: Hindu
Rulers and a Hindu State 80
CHAPTER 3: The Obligations of Rulers and the Rights of Subjects 128
CHAPTER 4: Contested Sites: Religious Shrines and the Archaeological
Mapping of Kashmiri Muslim Protest 183
CHAPTER 5: Political Mobilization in Kashmir: Religious and Regional
Identities 224
Conclusion 288
Glossary 298
Bibliography 305
Index 319
Book Review
Mridu Rai. Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the
History of Kashmir. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 2004. Pp.
xi, 335. Cloth $65.00, paper $22.50.
Chitralekha Zutshi. Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity,
and the Making of Kashmir. New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Pp. xvi, 359. $35.00.
Ever since the India-Pakistan near war of 2001–2002, we have been
subject to an incessant flow of words on the Kashmir conflict. Sadly,
this deluge has done little to enhance our knowledge of the subject.
Bar changing the odd adjectives, adding a little detail, or inserting
the views of the proverbial man on the street, little has been added
to Sumit Ganguly's Crisis in Kashmir: Portents of War, Prospects of
Peace (1997) or Victoria Schofield's Kashmir in Conflict: India,
Pakistan, and the Unending War (2000). Two new histories have been
widely applauded for constituting a happy break with this dismal
tradition. Little attention has been paid, however, to the
considerable theoretical and empirical problems presented by Mridu
Rai's and Chitralekha Zutshi's books. 1
Both Rai and Zutshi deal with a critical period in the history
of Jammu and Kashmir: the century of Dogra monarchical rule that
preceded the independence of India and Pakistan, and the division of
the state between the two powers in the course of the war of 1947. It
was in this period that the welter of territories that constitute
modern Kashmir were welded together under a single power, a
consequence of Britain's handing over of the region to Maharaja Gulab
Singh, a prince who sided with the empire's war of conquest against
the Sikh kingdom of Lahore. Like the other semi-independent states of
princely India, Kashmir witnessed a constant struggle for influence
between the monarchy and the imperial government. It was to become the
site of a number of other contestations: of monarch against democrat;
of empire against nationalist; of Hindu against Muslim; of peasant
against landlord. 2
Rai sees this century as one in which a "Hindu State" was
formed, the consequence of the Dogra monarchy's search for legitimacy.
Lacking any real basis for its sovereignty over the peoples whose
destinies it now controlled, it responded by inventing a history in
which the Dogra dynasty represented both the Hindu faith and Rajput
martial tradition. Rai maps this process by carefully documenting the
Dogra monarchy's growing control of Hindu religious practice in
Kashmir, notably through state-controlled trusts. Since the state was
Hindu in character, Rai concludes, "religion and politics became
inextricably intertwined in defining and expressing the protest of
Kashmiri Muslims against their rulers" (pp. 16–17). 3
Zutshi arrives at similar conclusions, but with considerably
more attention to nuance and detail. Her study of the workings of
Dogra rule suggests the need for a careful examination of what, if
any, meaning the notion of a "Hindu state" may have actually had to
contemporaries. There was, Zutshi's narrative suggests, no unilinear
project of Hinduization under the Dogras; rather, there were complex
and fluid processes of collaboration and conflict among various
categories of elites, both Hindu and Muslim. Kashmir's small Brahmin
community, the Pandits, whom Rai sees as key collaborators of the
Dogra project, emerge at least one point in Zutshi's book as its most
bitter opponents. Notions of a homogeneous Kashmiri Muslim identity,
Zutshi's analysis suggests, need to be tempered by an understanding of
the working of caste, class, and ideology.
Customer Review
The Challenging Natures of Kashmir, May 25, 2007
By T. Dodge
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
"Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects" covers the macro historical, social,
religious, and political highlights in Kashmir from about 1840 to
1950. It is a fascinating view into a world far distant but fearfully
close as two modern nuclear armed adversaries seek domination over the
mystical lands of Kashmir. This is a book of essential preliminary
understandings to the current situation in the region and of the
volumes I have encountered is the best. I hope the author contemplates
another book dealing with the post 1947 era. For those seeking recent
political happenings, I suggest "Kashmir" by Sumantra Bose.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R1TLIUMBUTBR1D
Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of
Kashmir
by Mridu Rai
maryum's review
excellent book!!! really worthwhile reading and very meticulous
research on the impact of colonialism on kashmir. one of the few books
that looks at the kashmiri conflict from the perspective of the
kashmiris and not as a pawn in an india-pakistan chess match.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/370620
Paper $20.00
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Paper: $28.95 ISBN13: 978-0-691-11688-4
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Questions and comments to: webm...@press.princeton.edu
Princeton University Press
Mainstream Weekly
Mainstream, Vol XLV, No 38
Book Review: ’The Hindu-Muslim Divide : A Fresh Look by Amrik Singh’
Sunday 9 September 2007
[(BOOK REVIEW)]
The Hindu-Muslim Divide : A Fresh Look by Amrik Singh; Vitasta
Publishing Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi; 2007; pp. XIV+238; Rs 345.
It is ironic that around the time we are celebrating 60 years of
India’s independence, the subject under discussion here is the Hindu-
Muslim divide, instead of it being harmony between members of
different communities in our free country. But one has to face the
facts and hence this discourse.
The author of the book under review, Dr Amrik Singh, starts it with a
painful note: “As generally recognised, the Hindu-Muslim divide has
existed in India for about thousand years. The partition of India into
India and Pakistan in 1947 was the latest instalment in this
longstanding dispute.” (p. 3) But soon he sounds a note of optimism:
“But one thing is clear that, despite signals to the contrary, the two
warring communities are nearer an understanding with each other than
ever before.” No convincing reason is provided for the optimistic
note, and the author goes further and adds that the situation is
likely to change in about half a century or more (what a satisfying
thought!), even though it is stated: “In these matters, no one can be
precise.”
It is not very easy to agree with the author’s assertion about the
thousand year old Hindu-Muslim divide. For, India is known for its
composite culture, and quite a good part of the last thousand years
have been known to be marked by considerable harmony with some
aberrations. But aberrations are at times unavoidable and even the
intra-community conflicts and divisive trends have been there in the
concerned groups. When the Pakistani leader, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,
during the more fanatic phase of his political life (something the
author makes a reference to) had talked about a thousand year war, his
bravado had the future in mind.
One would, in fact, like to go back to much older times, than the last
thousand years. It may be pointed out that composite culture had been
the feature of India even before the beginning of the first century
AD. The contributing influences all these years had been the teachings
of Gautam Buddha, the Vedic and Vedantic ideals of tolerance and
spiritual values, the disarming qualities of the Sufi value and the
noble sentiments of the Bhakti movement, and, more recently, the
thoughts of personalities like Swami Vivekananda, Maulana Azad, Altaf
Husain Hali and those believing in secular ideals among other factors.
While the commingling of Sufi and Bhakti ideals is an extremely
cherished heritage of the past, the state of confrontation, in recent
times, one has to admit, between the campaign of Tableegh and Shuddhi
(mentioned by the author while stating the effort of Hinduism for
‘semitisation’) (p. 132) is a tragic episode in our saga of composite
culture : like a bad dream one would perhaps like to forget.
EVEN without agreeing fully with the basic statement of the author
with regard to a thousand year old divide one would like to praise him
for covering the subject of Hindu-Muslim divide in a very
comprehensive manner particularly in the recent past. Dr Amrik Singh
has covered the entire ground by recounting how the spirit of mutual
understanding and conciliation gave way to conflict between the
Muslims and Hindus. Much discussion is available about the factors
responsible for this conflict leading to the partition of the country
along with its independence, the roles of leaders of the two
communities during those traumatic years and, indeed, the shape this
conflict has taken in today’s India.
The book is in the form of notes on different subjects relevant to its
theme, probably written at different points of time. But it contains a
wealth of information on the nature and cause of the divide—the
machinations of the British rulers, the folly of partition, the
practice of separate electorates, and even the complexities of adult
franchise and a joint electorate, the polarisation between the two
communities, the present concept of Hindutva and many other factors
that the author has painstakingly gone into. The author has laid great
emphasis on the need for pluralism and for a policy “in the direction
of reducing the Hindu-Muslim divide and work towards what has been
described as pluralism,” as he puts it.
Dr Amrik Singh has given some very perceptive opinions of acknowledged
experts on Hinduism and Islam, some approvingly while others with his
note of critique. Consider the quote from the eminent historian, Prof.
M. Habib (whom he describes as the “tallest historian of medieval
India”):
A Hindu feels it is his duty to dislike those whom he has been taught
to consider the enemies of his religion and his ancestors; the Muslim,
lured into the false belief that he was once a member of a ruling
race, feels insufferably wronged by being relegated to the status of a
minority community. Fools both! Even if the Muslims eight centuries
ago were as bad as they were painted, would there be any sense in
holding the present generation responsible for their deeds? It is but
an imaginative tie that joins the modern Hindu with Harshvardhana or
Asoka, or the modern Muslim with Shahabuddin or Mahmud.
“That these words were written several years after the partition makes
them even more relevant than they would have been otherwise,” says Dr
Amrik Singh and every rightly. (p. 200) Members of both the
communities can gain from introspecting in the light of the late
historians’ observation.
At another place, the author quotes Girilal Jain who, according to
him, “apart from being a leading journalist, was a keen student of
Hinduism”: Unlike the Muslims, the Hindus do not possess a vision of
the future, which is rooted in the past for a variety of reasons, one
of them being that, unlike the Muslims, they have not been able to
invent a golden age which can be located in any kind of history and
that they cannot invent one. While, they would, if challenged, vaguely
own up all Indian history up to the beginning of the Muslim invasions
of north India in the 11th century, they do not identify themselves
with any particular period. Indeed, they have little sense of history.
So how can they have a golden age and how can a people without such a
sense engage in revivalism? What can they seek to revive? Hinduism is
an arbitrary imposition on a highly variegated civilisation, which is
truly oceanic in its range. Such a civilisation cannot be enclosed in
a narrow doctrine. It cannot have a central doctrine because in its
majestic sweep it takes up all that comes its way and adapts it to its
over-widening purpose, rejecting finally what is wholly alien and
cannot be accommodated at all. Attempts have been made to build
embankments around this ocean-like reality to give it a shape and
definition. But these have not succeeded. The spirit of India has
refused to be contained. To put it differently, Hinduism has refused
to be organised. By the same token, it has refused to be communalised.
(p. 135)
Amrik Singh reacts to Jain’s stipulations: “While it is true that
Hinduism has refused to be organised and it has refused to be
communalised, how is it that today we witness what Nehru once
described as ‘non-Muslim aggression among Muslims’?” The author says
that this phrase of Nehru occurs in one of his letters addressed to
the Chief Ministers after the police action in Hyderabad.
IN the context of the Hindutva philosophy, it would be relevant to
consider the following quote from the late K.R. Malkani who became
known as the Editor of the RSS mouthpiece, Organiser, and an ideologue
of the Bharatiya Janata Party:
The Muslim Indian should realise that Hinduism is not a religion, but
a culture. That he is Muslim by religion but Hindu by culture. Let
Indonesia with its Muslim religion and native Hindu culture be the
model for the Muslim in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. (p. 138)
Malkani’s prescription is not possible, says Amrik Singh, either in
terms of physical or political considerations or in terms of their
historical evolution. “While Hinduism has a hoary tradition behind it,
the pre-Islamic traditions in Indonesia are not even clearly defined.”
Incidentally, at the time of writing this review a mammoth gathering
of Muslim men and women with hijab (about 100,000) including scholars
and religious leaders from different parts of the world, is
deliberating in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, in search of ways to
establish a single Muslim government in the Islamic world (on the
ideals of Khilafat-e-Islamia) largely at the initiative of a group of
Indonesian Muslims. But that is another story that needs to be
considered in its own context.
The author feels that the effort to remove the present divide has
largely to be on the part of the Congress party. The removal of the
divide is linked with economic and political development of the
country. He says, “The Congress—currently in power—owes it to the
Muslims to bring them at par with others and thereafter involve them
in the process of development, both economic and political. The
Congress also has the further obligation to help the Muslims to draw
abreast of others socially.” (p. 191)
The author says that in seeking to separate from India, they (the
Muslims) followed a path which culminated in the partition of India in
1947. In the ultimate analysis that was a mistake, which Jinnah and
those who followed him had made. “Since the kind of Islamic future
that the Muslims of the subcontinent had aspired for themselves is
running into problem, sooner or later the thinking of the Muslim world
will make them learn from experience and come to terms with the
changed reality. But when? It is difficult to answer this question,”
the author says.
The author is of the view that the solution to the Hindu-Muslim divide
is linked, to a great extent, with the normalisation of relations
between India and Pakistan. The problem in India cannot be isolated
from the problem in Pakistan. The triumph of fundamentalism will be
bad for Indian Muslims as well. An end to confrontation would help
remove the divide in India, he says.
What, according to the author, is the prospect of the Hindu-Muslim
divide disappearing?—one may ask. He talks very enthusiastically of an
Indian version of globalisation. This globalisation is the result of a
“new mix of policies”, that are going to help all Indians including
Muslims.
He states: What has made it easier for India to adjust to the changing
world relatively more easily is partly because Hinduism is more
adjustable to the logic of the contemporary idea of development. If
India succeeds in this experiment, as seems to be happening, the
Indian Muslims too can before long, become a part of this experiment.
Currently, they are somewhat estranged from the mainstream. (p. 225)
Dr Amrik Singh would want the Indian Government to push ahead
vigorously with the spread of education and the Indian Muslims to give
evidence of some “political initiative” and “political maturity”.
According to the author, the confrontation with the United States now
“...is partly coming in the way of the Islamic world breaking with her
past”. If the US were not so confrontationist, he says, things in the
Islamic world would to some extent start changing, “sooner than is
happening at the moment”. According to him, India’s role in this
context is “positive, if not also praiseworthy”. And, India’s version
of globalisation can prompt others, even those in the Islamic world,
to move in that direction.
Dr Amrik Singh feels that if what is stated above happens, the “Hindu-
Muslim divide in India will gradually weaken”. More than that, he
says, this would give rise to “a new era in world history in more than
one sense”. What happens in India, according to him, would be of
considerable historical significance. “Indeed, it can also prove to be
a development of a wider economic and cultural significance.” Amen!
The reviewer, a veteran journalist who worked for several years in
Mainstream, currently edits the periodical Alpjan.
http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article302.html
Mainstream Weekly
Mainstream, Vol XLVI No 28
Day One in Calcutta
Monday 30 June 2008, by From NC’s Writings
Ten years ago, in the afternoon of June 27, 1998, Nikhil Chakravartty
breathed his last. Remembering him after 10 years, we are reproducing
some of his finest reports, editorials and articles that appeared in
this journal and elsewhere over the last sixty years. We are also
reproducing the speech that our former President, K.R. Narayanan,
delivered while unveiling N.C.’s portrait at the Press Council of
India (New Delhi, February 28, 1999), and publishing several
reminiscences by those who knew him intimately.
The following report by Nikhil Chakravartty, the Calcutta
correspondent of People’s Age (published from Bombay), appeared in the
weekly’s August 24, 1947 issue (it was wired from Calcutta on August
17, 1947) under the following headlines : ‘End of a Nightmare and
Birth of New Dawn!’; ‘Calcutta Transformed by Spirit Of Independence’;
‘Hindus, Muslims Hug Each Other In Wild Joy—Tears Roll Down Where
Blood Once Soaked The Streets’.
Frenzy has overtaken Calcutta. It is a frenzy which no city in India
has ever felt through the long years of thraldom under the British.
When the clock struck midnight and Union Jacks were hauled down on
August 15, 1947, the city shook to her very foundations for a mad
frenzy overtook her 40 lakh citizens. Nothing like this has ever
happened before.
I have racked my brains for hours; I have looked up all despatches in
the Press; but still I find no adequate words to communicate the
unforgettable experience that has overwhelmed me in the last three
days. It is like a sudden bursting of a mighty dam: you hear a
deafening roar of water sweeping away everything in the flood. It
comes with a crushing suddenness and strikes with the strength of a
thousand giants.
That is how all of us in Calcutta have felt in the last few days—all
of us, old or young, man or woman, Hindu or Muslim, rich or poor. In
this mighty sweep of the flood none was spared. And the floods carried
off a lot of dirt and stigma of our slavery.
Calcutta is Reborn
ONE hundred and ninety years ago, it was from Calcutta that Clive set
out of conquer this land of ours and it was this city which was the
seat of all his vile intrigues that divided our ranks and brought
about our defeat. But today in the sweeping torrent of freedom all
that has been wiped away, and once again this beloved city of ours
stands out clean and full of radiance with the glow of lasting
brotherhood.
Everybody felt nervous about August 15. Weeks ahead authorities were
on tenterhooks; more police and military were being posted to ensure
peace. Ministers would not permit meetings in the open to celebrate
the transfer of power, afraid that the goondas might create trouble.
East Bengal Hindus were nervous that one little spark in Calcutta
might throw the entire province into the flames of a civil war;
Muslims were panicky that they might be finished off in Calcutta and
many had left the city.
Gandhiji had already moved his camp to one of the most affected areas—
Belliaghata—and cancelling his East Bengal trip, had decided to spend
a few days here with Suhrawardy. But even he was disturbed by rowdy
goondas, backed by communal groups, accusing him of being an enemy of
Hindus. News from the Punjab was bad. On the whole an uncanny fear
gripped everybody and the day of independence seemed like a deadline
for disturbances.
But how wrong were our calculations! With all our pretensions of
knowing our people, with all the prophecies and warnings, bans and
precautions, no one really knew how the people—common men and women
among both Hindus and Muslims—would come forward to celebrate August
15. It was this unknown factor, which in every turn of history is the
determining factor, that has made all the difference in our
calculations and the actual happenings on that day.
People’s preparations for the celebrations of the day went on briskly,
though imperceptibly. The demand for Tri-colours knew no bounds;
whatever be the material, whatever the make, every flag was literally
sold out. Even the poorest of the poor, coolie, scavenger or rickshaw-
puller, bought the Jhanda. In paras and mohallas boys and girls were
getting ready practising drills or formations, organising Prabhat
Pheris. Party differences, personal bickerings, etc. were forgotten.
Discordant voices there were, but they did not matter. Mahasabha first
raised the slogan of black flags, but then piped down and declared non-
participation. But all the prestige of Shyamaprosad could not make any
impression on the very people whom he had swayed during the Partition
campaign.
Forward Bloc and Tagorites also opposed the celebration on the ground
that real freedom was yet to be won. But despite the fact that
thousands of Bengali homes paid homage to Netaji that day hardly a
handful abstained from participation. Every school, factory, office,
every home—be it a mansion or a bustee—awaited the great day with
hearts full of jubilation.
As the zero hour approached, the city put on a changed appearance. On
the streets, people were busy putting up flags and decorating
frontage. Gates were set up at important crossings, bearing names of
our past titans like Ashoka or our martyrs in the freedom movement.
The atmosphere was tense; should there be a new round of stabbings or
shootings among brothers, or should there be return to peace and
normalcy?
All Barriers Broken
THE first spontaneous initiative for fraternisation came from Muslim
bustees and was immediately responded to by Hindu bustees. It was
Calcutta’s poor toilers, especially Muslims, who opened the floodgate,
and none could have dreamt of what actually took place.
Muslim boys clambered up at Chowringhee and shouted, “Hindu-Muslim ek
ho” and exhorted the driver to take them to Bhowanipore. But the
driver would not risk that and so they came up to the border only.
But then all of a sudden in the very storm-centres of most gruesome
rioting of the past year—Raja Bazar, Sealdah, Kalabagan, Colootolah,
Burra Bazar—Muslims and Hindus ran across the frontiers and hugged
each other in wild joy. Tears rolled down where once blood had soaked
the pavements. “Jai Hind”, “Vande Mataram”, “Allah-ho-Akbar” and above
all renting the sky “Hindu-Muslim ek ho”.
Curfews were ignored; men rushed out on the streets, danced, clasped
and lifted each other up. It was all like a sudden end of a nightmare,
the birth of a glorious dawn.
As midnight approached, crowds clustered round every radio set and
Jawaharlal’s ringing words sent a thrill round every audience,
“Appointed day has come —the day appointed by destiny..”
With the stroke of midnight, conch-shells blew in thousands, conch-
shells blown by our mothers and sisters from the innermost corners of
our homes—for the call of freedom has reached every nook and corner.
And with the conch-shells were heard the crack of rifles and bursting
of bombs and crackers. The very arms that were stored so long to kill
off brothers were being used to herald the coming of freedom.
A torchlight procession started in North Calcutta. Tram workers, in
all spontaneity, brought out a couple of trams crowded with Hindus to
the Nakhoda mosque and were feted by Muslims with food and drink. In
Burra Bazar, Muslims were treated the same way and all embraced one
another. Hardly anybody slept that night—the night choked with
passionate emotions welling up in so many ways.
As the morning came the city was already full of excitment and
pavements were thronged with people. Prabhat Pheris came out singing
songs of the national struggle. Boys and girls marched through the
streets with bands and bugles—bright and smart, free citizens of
tomorrow.
Flag salutations in every park, in every school and office. Buses
plied free, giving joy rides to thousands. Trams announced that all
their returns would be sent for relief. And they ran till late at
night along all mixed routes which were closed for the past year.
At the Government House, our own Government was to unfurl the
Tricolour, but invitees were confined to Burra Sahibs and officials,
the rich and elite, Ministers and Legislators. They came in big cars,
many with their wives dressed in all their fashionable clothes.
Government House—People’s Property
COMMON people, those that have made freedom possible, they too came in
thousands, but they were kept outside, beyond the huge iron gates. Why
must this be so? Why must this occasion be celebrated in the way the
White Sahibs have done so long?
I watched that crowd growing restless every minute and found among
them the very faces that you come across in the streets every day or
at the market or in your own home: babu, coolie, student, Professor,
young girl and shy wife—all jostling with each other, impatient at
being kept out. Sikh, Muslim, Bhayya and Bhadralok clamoured for the
gates to be opened and when that was not done, they themselves burst
into the spacious grounds and ran up towards the Governor’s stately
mansion.
The burst into the rooms much to the annoyance of the officials and
perhaps also of the marble busts of many of the White rulers that have
never been disturbed in their majesty.
For hours they thronged there, thousands over thousands of them,
shoving out many of the ICS bosses. But it would be a slander to say
that they were unruly. How little did they touch or damage? Had they
been unruly, as somebody had reported to Gandhiji, the whole place
would have been a wreck in no time.
They went there for they felt that it was one of their own leaders who
had been installed as their Governor. And when the annoyed officials
ran up to Rajaji to complain to him about the crowd swarming into the
rooms, C.R., it is reported, replied: “But what can I do? It is their
own property. How can I prevent them from seizing it?”
The sense of triumph, of pride that we have come to our own could be
seen in the faces that entered the portals of the Government House. It
is symptomatic of August 15 no doubt. For though there were
restrictions and curtailments to real freedom in the elaborate plans
the Dominion Status, the people—the common humanity that teems our land
—have taken this day to mean that that have won and no amount of
restrictions will bar the way, just as no policeman could stop the
surging crowd that broke into the Government House.
Outside, all over the city, houses seemed to have emptied out into the
streets, lorries came in hundreds, each packed precariously beyond
capacity; lorries packed with Hindus and Muslims, men and women.
Streets were blocked and the people themselves volunteered to control
traffic.
Rakhi Bandhan Again
LORRY-LOADS of Muslim National Guards crammed with Gandhi-capped young
Hindu boys shouted themselves hoarse “Jai Hind”, “Hindu-Muslim ek ho”.
Somebody in Bhowanipore waved a League flag under a Tri-colour. What a
sight and what a suspense. But the days of hate were over and all
shouted together, “Hindu-Muslim ek ho!”
A batch of Hindu ladies went to Park Circus to participate in the flag
hoisting. They tied rakhi (strings of brotherly solidarity made famous
during Swadeshi days) round the wrists of Muslim National Guards. And
the Muslim boys said, “May we be worthy brothers!”
Hindu families, quiet and timid Bhadralok families, came in hundreds
to visit Park Circus with their wives and children in tikka gharries
piled by Muslims. Muslims, well-to-do and poor, visited Burra Bazar,
and Ballygunge in endless streams. And this was going on all these
three days.
They are all going to paras or mohallas they had to leave or where
they had lost their near and dear ones. Today there is no area more
attractive and more crowded than the very spots where the worst
butcheries had taken place. As if to expiate for the sins of the last
one year, Hindus and Muslims of Calcutta vied with each other to
consecrate their city with a new creed of mighty brotherhood.
On the evening of August 16, one year back, I sent you a despatch
which could describe but inadequately the mad lust for fratricidal
blood that had overtaken Calcutta that day. To mark the anniversary of
that day I visited the crowded parts of Hindu Burra Bazar and the
Muslim Colootola where in this one year hardly anyone passed alive
when spotted by the opposite community. But this evening Muslims were
the guests of honour at Burra Bazar and Hindus, as they visited
Colootola, were drenched with rose-water and attar and greeted with
lusty cheers of “Jai Hind”.
On the very evening, at Park Circus, was held a huge meeting of Hindus
and Muslims. Suhrawardy, J.C. Gupta, MLA, and Bhowani Sen spoke. It
was here that Suhrawardy asked the Muslims to go and implore the
evicted Hindus to come back to Park Circus.
At Belliaghata, Gandhiji’s presence itself has brought back hundreds
of Muslim families who had to leave in terror of their lives only a
few weeks back. And Gandhiji’s prayer meetings are attended by an ever
increasing concourse of Hindus and Muslims—themselves living symbols
of Hindu-Muslim unity.
Reports from Bengal districts also prove that this remarkable upsurge
of solidarity was not confined to Calcutta alone. In Dacca, despite
panic, Hindus and Muslims jointly participated in the celebration of
Pakistan, and Muslim leaders themselves intervened in one case where
the Congress flag was lowered, and the flag was raised again.
Everywhere Hindus showed response by honouring the Pakistan flag.
Joint Hindu-Muslim demonstrations were the marked features of the
occasion.
Reports from Comilla, Kusthia, Dinajpore, Krishnanagore, Munshinganj,
Malda and Jessore, all show that August 15 had passed off in peace and
amity. Only local fracas were reported from Kanchrapara, but the great
and good tidings from Calcutta eased the situation there.
In this mighty flood of freedom and brotherhood there is yet the sense
of suspense, for it came with such an incredible suddenness and
magnitude that many think it is too good to last long. It is like
holding a precious glass dome in your hands while you are in suspense
that it might fall and break at any moment.
Spontaneous assertion of people’s will for freedom and brotherly
solidarity needs to be harnessed in lasting forms and that is where
our leaders will be tested in the coming weeks.
Whatever happens, August 15 will be cherished for Calcutta’s grand
celebration on the eve of the end of the dark night of slavery and the
dawn of freedom. Calcutta yesterday was the symbol of our servitude
and fratricidal hate. Calcutta today is the beacon-light for free
India, asserting that freedom once resurrected can never be curbed or
destroyed, for all our millions of Hindus and Muslims together are
ready to stand together as its proud sentinels.
(People’s Age, August 24, 1947)
http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article801.html
Mainstream Weekly
VOL XLV No 21
1857 In Our History
Monday 14 May 2007, by P C Joshi *
[(The one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Great Indian Revolt
of 1857 is being observed this month. Though the spark for the Revolt
was lit by Mangal Pandey at Barrackpore earlier the same year, the
Revolt actually began in May at Meerut: on May 6, 85 sepoys of the 3rd
Bengal Cavalry at Meerut refused to use the cartridge, the cause of
the rebellion—all of them were placed under arrest; on May 9 these
sepoys were brought to a general punishment parade at the Meerut
Parade Ground, sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment and stripped of
their uniforms. When the 11th and 12th Native Cavalry of the Bengal
Army assembled at the Parade Ground on May 10, they broke rank and
turned on the Commanding Officer Colonel Finnis who was shot dead—this
was the first incident of Revolt at Meerut; thereafter the sepoys
liberated the imprisoned sepoys, attacked the European Cantonment and
killed all the Europeans who could be found there. Then in conjunction
with the Roorkee sepoys, called to Meerut following the uprising, they
marched to Delhi where the first major incident took place on May 11
with the killing of Colonel Ripley.
We are carrying here excerpts from a seminal article “1857 In Our
History” by the former General Secretary of the Communist Party of
India, P.C. Joshi, whose birth centenary is being observed this year,
to mark the occasion. This article was presented at a symposium held
to observe the centenary of the 1857 Revolt in 1957; later it was
published alongwith other articles presented at the symposium in book
form (also edited by P.C. Joshi) by the People’s Publishing House, New
Delhi. —Editor)]
The few contemporary Indians who wrote on 1857 did so for the British.
The dominant British attitude is revealed in entitled, “The Bengali
Press, How to Deal with It”, published on August 9, 1896, in Pioneer,
a very influential British organ of the times:
We know how Englishmen within the memory of living men treated their
own newspaper writers… If a gentle and graceful writer forgot himself
so far as to call the Prince Regent ‘an Adonis of forty’ he got two
years’ ‘hard’. If a clergyman praised the French Revolution and
advocated Parliamentary reform and fair representation, he was
condemned to work in iron manacles, to wade in sludge among the vilest
criminals.
The writer advocated the infliction of the same punishment on an
Indian who dared to write on the Indian Mutiny of 1857.1
Indians thus had no say in this controversy but our rebel ancestors
with their heroic deeds and by shedding their warm blood had made
their contribution more eloquent than words....
It is inspiring to recall here what Marx thought of the 1857 national
uprising. As early as July 31, 1857, on the basis of Indian mail
carrying Delhi news up to June 17, he concluded his unsigned
newsletter to the New York Daily Tribune with these words:
By and by there will ooze out other facts able to convince even John
Bull himself that what he considers military mutiny is in truth a
national revolt.2
India’s historians may go on arguing and differing about the character
of the 1857 revolt but the mass of the Indian people have already
accepted it as the source-spring of our national movement. The hold of
the 1857 heritage on national thought is so great that even Dr R. C.
Majumdar concludes his study with the following words:
The outbreak of 1857 would surely go down in history as the first
great and direct challenge to the British rule in India, on an
extensive scale. As such it inspired the genuine national movement for
the freedom of India from British yoke which started half a century
later. The memory of 1857-58 sustained the later movement, infused
courage into the hearts of its fighters, furnished a historical basis
for the grim struggle, and gave it a moral stimulus, the value of
which it is impossible to exaggerate. The memory of the revolt of
1857, distorted but hallowed with sanctity, perhaps did more damage to
the cause of the British rule in India than the Revolt itself.3
The controversy whether the 1857-58 struggle was a sepoy revolt or a
national uprising can be resolved only by squarely posing and
truthfully analysing the character of the contestants on either side
and the nature of the issues—political, economic and ideological—
involved in this struggle. In short, a sound historical evaluation
demands that who was fighting whom and for what be correctly
stated....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE British conquest of India implied not only the imposition of alien
rule but, something worse still, a pitiless destruction of the
traditional Indian social order itself and disruption of its own
normal development towards a new order. Marx was the only thinker of
the period who studied this tragic phenomenon scientifically and
formulated the role of British imperialism in India in such a correct
manner that his conclusions were borne out by the subsequent
researches of Indian scholarship and they helped Indian patriots to
understand Indian reality better and give a progressive orientation to
Indian national thought.
As early as 1853 when the Indian situation was being debated in the
British Parliament on the occasion of the renewal of the East India
Company’s Charter, Marx stated in an article entitled “British Rule in
India”: All the civil wars, invasions, revolutions, conquests,
famines, strangely complex, rapid and destructive as the successive
action in Hindustan may appear, did not go deeper than its surface.
England has broken down the entire framework of Indian society,
without any symptoms of reconstitution yet appearing. This loss of his
old world, with no gain of a new one, imparts a particular kind of
melancholy to the present misery of the Hindu, and separates Hindustan
ruled by Britain, from all its ancient traditions, and from the whole
of its past history… It was the British intruder who broke up the
Indian handloom and destroyed the spinning wheel…British steam and
science uprooted over the whole surface of Hindustan, the union
between agriculture and manufacturing industry.4 ...
After the conquest of Bengal and eventually throughout India, the
method of enforced and unequal trade was used to loot India and this
led to its economic ruination. R. P. Dutt states how the situation
underwent a qualitative change after the British became the ruling
class in India, how methods of power could be increasingly used to
weight the balance of exchange and secure the maximum goods for the
minimum payment.5
By the end of 18th century and much more clearly by 1813-33, a shift
had come over British policy towards India. After a period of
primitive plunder and the systematic ruination of Indian trades and
crafts, the British bourgeoisie, with the completion of their
Industrial Revolution, began to use India as a dumping ground for its
industrial manufactures and, above all, textiles. Marx noted this
sharp shift, and, in one of his articles during 1853, wrote:
The whole character of trade was changed. Till 1813 India had been
chiefly an exporting country while it now became an importing one; and
in such quick progression, that already, in 1823, the rate of
exchange, which had generally been two-sixth per rupee sunk down to
two per rupee. India, the great workshop of cotton manufacture for the
world, since immemorial times, became now inundated with English
twists and cotton stuffs. After its own produce had been excluded from
England, or only accepted on the most cruel terms, British
manufactures were poured into it at a small or merely nominal duty, to
the ruin of native cotton fabric once so celebrated.6
The policy of the East India Company also annihilated the independent
merchant bourgeoisie as well as the artisans and craftsmen. Prof
Ramkrishna Mukherjee describes the process in the following words:
Along with thus turning the Indian artisans ‘out of this ‘temporal’
world’, as Marx remarked caustically, proceeded the liquidation of the
Indian merchant bourgeoisie. Monopolising Indian products for the
English meant that the Indian merchants could no longer survive. Only
those could maintain their profession who acquiesced in becoming
underlings of the Company or of its servants engaged in private inland
trade in India or of the private English merchants residing in India
for the same purpose. Otherwise, they had to find a new source of
livelihood. Not only were the Indian merchants prohibited from buying
commodities directly from the producers which were monopolised by the
English, but the agents of the Company and its servants forced such
goods on the Indian merchants at a price higher than the prevailing
one.7
By annihilating the independent merchant bourgeoisie, which to some
extent also fulfilled the role of the manufacturing bourgeoisie, the
monopolist East India Company destroyed that very important class in
Indian economy which could be their rival.
Another aspect of this phenomenon is noted and analysed by K. M.
Panikkar in the following words:
With the establishment of European trade centres in the main coastal
areas of India, there had developed a powerful Indian capitalist
class, closely associated with the foreign merchants, and deriving
great profits from trade with them… The Marwari millionaires of Bengal
have become the equivalent of the compradore classes of Shanghai of a
later period …The emergence of this powerful class, whose economic
interests were bound up with those of the foreign merchants and who
had an inherited hatred of Muslim rule, was a factor of fundamental
importance to the history of India and of Asia.8
These Indian agents of the Company and of the British merchants were
called gomasthas and bannias and played the role of sub-agents of
foreign capital and a pro-British role in the 1857 uprising.
How did intelligent Indians react to the above economic situation and
policies?
It is useful to quote Allamah Fazle Haq of Khayrabad, an eminent
Muslim scholar of the traditional school who took a leading part in
the 1857 revolt and was transported for life:
Having seized power they (the British) decided to bring under their
hold the various sections of the people by controlling eatables, by
taking possession of the ears of corn and grain and giving the
peasants and cultivators cash in lieu of their rights of farming.
Their object was not to allow the poor men and villagers a free hand
in buying and selling grains. By giving preference to their own
people, they wanted to control the cheapening or raising of the rates
so that the people of God might submit to their (Christian) policy of
monopoly, and their dependence on them (Christians) for their
requirements might force them to meet the purpose of the Christians
and their supporters, and their desire and ambitions which they had in
their hearts and the mischiefs and evils which they had concealed in
their minds.9
In the above background, the appeal of the manifesto issued by Bahadur
Shah on behalf of the insurgent centre at Delhi had its own
significance. The manifesto appealed in the following words to the
merchants: It is plain that the infidel and treacherous British
Government have monopolised the trade of all the fine and valuable
merchandise such as indigo, cloth and other articles of shipping,
leaving only the trade of trifles to the people and even in this they
are not allowed their shares of the profits, which they secure by
means of customs and stamp fees, etc., in money suits, so that the
people have merely a trade in name. Besides this, the profit of the
traders are taxed with postages, tolls, and subscriptions for schools,
etc. Notwithstanding all these concessions, the merchants are liable
to imprisonment and disgrace at the instance of complaint of a
worthless man. When the Badshahi Government is established all these
aforesaid fraudulent practices shall be dispensed with and the trade
of every article, without exception, both by land and water shall be
opened to the native merchants of India who will have the benefit of
the Government steam-vessels and steam carriages for the conveyance of
their merchandise gratis; and merchants having no capital of their own
shall be assisted from the public treasury. It is, therefore, the duty
of every merchant to take part in the war, and aid the Badshahi
Government with its men and money, either secretly or openly, as may
be consistent with its position or interest and forswear its
allegiance to the British Government.10...
The economic and political operation of the East India Company in
India led to a systematic squeezing of our national wealth which has
been described by India’s economic historians as the economic drain.
Let us examine this as it existed on the eve of the 1857 revolt.
There was the so-called Indian Debt, which was incurred by the Company
in order to consolidate its position in India and to spread its
influence further through expeditions and wars, and at the same time,
paying high dividends to share-holders in England, tributes to the
British Government since 1769 and bribes to the influential persons in
England.11
R. C. Dutt makes the following comments as regards the genesis and
mechanism of this Indian Debt:
A very popular error prevails in this country (England in 1903) that
the whole Indian Debt represents British capital sunk in the
development of India. It is shown in the body of this volume that this
is not the genesis of the Public Debt of India. When the East India
Company cessed to be the rulers of India in 1858, they had piled up an
Indian Debt of 70 millions. They had in the meantime drawn a tribute
from India, financially an unjust tribute, exceeding 150 million, not
calculating interest. They had also charged India with the cost of
Afghan wars, Chinese wars and other wars outside India. Equitably,
therefore, India owed nothing at the close of the Company’s rule; her
Public Debt was a myth; there was a considerable balance of over 108
millions in her favour out of the money that had been drawn from her.
12
Montgomery Martin, an Englishman with sympathy for the Indian people,
wrote as early as 1838:
This annual drain of £ 3,000,000 on British India amounted in 30 years
at 12 per cent (the usual Indian rate) compound interest to the
enormous sum of £ 723,997,917 sterling; or, at a low rate, as $
2,000,000 for 50 years, to £ 8,400,000,000 sterling! So constant and
accumulating a drain even on England would have soon impoverished her;
how severe then must be its effect on India, where the wages of a
labourer is from 2d. to 3d. a day?13....
Prof Ramkrishna Mukherjee goes even further and states:
A total picture of this tribute from India is seen to be even greater
than the figure mentioned by Martin in 1838. During the 24 years of
the last phase of the Company’s rule, from 1834-35 to 1857-58, even
though the years 1855, ’56 and ’57 showed a total import-surplus of £
6,436,345—(not because the foreign rulers had changed their policy,
but because some British capital flowed into India to build railway in
order to prepare her for exploitation by British industrial capital),—
the total tribute which was drained from India in the form of ‘home
charges’ and ‘excess of Indian exports’ amounted to the colossal
figure of £ 151,830,989. This works out at a yearly average of £
6,325,875, or roughly half the annual land revenue collections in this
period!14
The above was the grim reality, grimmer than any ever witnessed in the
whole course of India’s age-old historic development. As Marx stated,
there cannot, however, remain any doubt but the misery inflicted by
the British on Hindustan is of essentially different and infinitely
more intensive kind than Hindustan had to suffer before.15
The British, under the East India Company’s rule disrupted the whole
economic order of India, they turned the traditional land system topsy
turvy, they smashed the trades and manufactures of the land and
disrupted the relationship between these two sectors of the Indian
economy, systematically drained the wealth of our country to their
own, and destroyed the very springs of production of our economy.
Every class of Indian society suffered at this new spoliator’s hands.
The landlords were dispossessed and the peasants rendered paupers, the
merchant bourgeoisie of India liquidated as an independent class and
the artisans and craftsmen deprived of their productive professions.
Such unprecedented destruction of a whole economic order and of every
class within it could not but produce a great social upheaval and that
was the national uprising of 1857. The all-destructive British policy
produced a broad popular rebellion against its rule.
Within Indian society, however, those productive forces and classes
had not yet grown (in fact early British policy had itself destroyed
their first off-shoots) that could lead this revolution to victory.
The revolt of 1857 as also its failure were both historical
inevitabilities. But it also was a historical necessity, for after it
followed those modern developments..., from which emerged the modern
national liberation movement of the Indian people and those new social
forces which led it to victory.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE religious factor played a big part in the revolt in 1857. The
British statesmen and chroniclers exaggerated and deliberately
misinterpreted the role played by this factor to prove their thesis
that the 1857 uprising was reactionary, revivalist and directed
against the progressive reforms that they were introducing in Indian
society. The early generation of English-educated Indian intellectuals
swallowed this imperialist thesis uncritically because they themselves
had suffered under the old reactionary religious influences. A true
historical outlook demands that we do not forget the historical stage
which Indian society had reached on the eve of 1857, the ideological
values which would be normal to this society and the ideological forms
in which the Indian people could formulate their aspirations....
It is abundantly clear... that the British rulers purely for their
imperialist motives were out for some decades preceding 1857 to
culturally denationalise India by the method of mass conversion to
Christianity. This was seen as a menacing danger by the mass of
Indians, irrespective of their viewpoint whether it was Sir Syed Ahmad
Khan or Bahadur Shah, whether it was the enlightened Bengali
intellectual in Calcutta or the Nana Saheb at Bithoor, by the mass of
sepoys both Hindu and Muslim. Thus when the religious factor played a
big role as it did in the struggle of 1857, it was as a part of the
national factor. The mass of Indians took up arms to defend their own
religions and they were fighting not only in defence of their religion
but to defend their way of life and their nationhood. Of course, there
were several reactionary features within Indian society but then the
only healthy way to change them was through the struggle of the Indian
people themselves.
This is not all. Our rebel ancestors used religion to advance the
revolutionary struggle. They did not let religion stupefy them. But
they used religion to get the strength to fight the Firinghis.
A proclamation was issued at Delhi with royal permission urging upon
the Hindus and Muslims to unite in the struggle in the name of their
respective religions.
To all Hindus and Mussalmans, citizens and servants of Hindustan,
officers of the army now at Delhi and at Meerut send greetings:—it is
well known that in these days all the English have entertained these
evil designs—first, to destroy the religion of the whole Hindustani
army and then to make the people by compulsion Christians. Therefore,
we, solely on account of our religion, have combined with the people
and have not spared alive one infidel, and have re-established the
Delhi dynasty on these terms. Hundreds of guns and a large amount of
treasure have fallen into our hands; therefore, it is fitting that
whoever of the soldiers and people dislike turning Christians should
unite with one heart, and, acting courageously, not leave the seed of
these infidels remaining.16
When the struggle in Oudh after the fall of Lucknow was on the
downgrade, and insurgents were heroically fighting defensive and
mostly losing battles, the captured sepoys used to be asked by the
British why they had joined the revolt. Their answer used to be:
The slaughter of the English is required by our religion. The end will
be the destruction of the English and all the sepoys—and then, God
knows!17
The Rajah of the Gond tribes was living as a pensioner of the British
at Nagpur. He had turned a traditional Sanskrit sthotra recited in
worshipping the devi into an anti-British hymn. The London Times of
October 31, 1857 gives the translation of the prayer: Shut the mouth
of the slanderers and Eat up backbiters, trample down the sinners,
You, “Satrusamgharika” (name of Devi, ‘destroyer of enemy’) Kill the
British, exterminate them, Matchundee. Let not the enemy escape, not
the wives and children Of such oh! Samgharika Show favour to Shanker;
support your slaves; Listen to the cry of religion. “Mathalka” eat up
the unclean, Make no delay, Now devour them, And that quickly, Ghor-
Mathalka.
During the siege of Delhi, British agents repeatedly tried to
transform the joint Hindu- Muslim struggle into a fratricidal Hindu-
Muslim civil war. Even as early as May 1857, British agents began
inciting the Muslims against the Hindus in the name of jihad and the
matter was brought before Bahadur Shah.
The king answered that such a jihad was quite impossible, and that
such an idea an act of extreme folly, for the majority of the Purbeah
soldiers were Hindus. Moreover, such an act could create internecine
war, and the result would be deplorable. It was fitting that sympathy
should exist among all classes… A deputation of Hindu officers arrived
to complain of the war against Hindus being preached. The king
replied: ‘The holy war is against the English; I have forbidden it
against the Hindus.’18
Thus did our rebel ancestors use religion to organise and conduct a
united revolutionary struggle against foreign domination. In the
historic conditon of 1857, the ideological form of the struggle could
not but assume religious forms. To expect anything else would be
unrealistic and unscientific.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE British text books on Indian history contained only the story of
the “atrocities of the mutineers,”—dishonouring of women, killing of
children and so on. The reality, however, was the opposite. Again, the
early generation of educated Indians like Savarkar and others began
exposing from British sources themselves the story of unprecedented
British atrocities against the Indian people. During the non-
cooperation movement of the twenties, the British terror during 1857
was related to Jallianwallabagh to rouse the people to struggle more
valiantly and unitedly than our ancestors had done during 1857.
Thereafter came Edward Thompson’s The Other Side of the Medal which
tried to put across the thesis that there were atrocities on both
sides which are best forgotten.
The question of questions is: can the two sides be put on the same
plane? Can the crimes committed by the enslavers of the people be
equated with some mistakes and excesses committed by the fighters for
freedom? The two cases are different....
If tales of Indian “terror” are largely mythical, British brutality
got even Lord Canning worried. On December 24, 1857, the following
Minute appears in the proceedings of the Governor-General-in-Council:
…the indiscriminate hanging, not only of persons of all shades of
guilt, but of those whose guilt was at the least very doubtful, and
the general burning and plunder of villages, whereby the innocent as
well as the guilty, without regard to age or sex, were
indiscriminately punished, and in some cases, sacrificed, had deeply
exasperated large communities not otherwise hostile to the government;
that the cessation of agriculture and consequent famine were
impending; …And lastly, that the proceedings of the officers of the
Government had given colour to the rumour…that the Government
meditated a general bloody persecution of Mohammedans and Hindus.19...
In the History of the Siege of Delhi, written by an officer who served
on active service, it is graphically described what the British
officers did on the way from Ambala to Delhi.
Hundreds of Indians were condemned to be hanged before a court-martial
in a short time, and they were most brutally and inhumanly tortured,
while scaffolds were being erected for them. The hair on their heads
were pulled by bunches, their bodies were pierced by bayonets and then
they were made to do that to avoid which they would think nothing of
death or torture—cows’ flesh was forced by spears and bayonets into
the mouth of the poor and harmless Hindu villagers.20
How the sepoy and the civilian, the guilty and the innocent alike were
butchered by the British victors after the capture of Lucknow is
described below by one of them:
at the time of the capture of Lucknow—a season of indiscriminate
massacre—such distinction was not made and the unfortunate who fell
into the hands of our troops was made short work of—sepoy or Qudh
villager it mattered not—no questions were asked; his skin was black,
and did not that suffice? A piece of rope and the branch of a tree or
a rifle bullet through his brain soon terminated the poor devil’s
existence.21
What happened in the countryside, between Banaras, Allahabad and
Kanpur during General Neill’s march through the area is described by
Kaye and Malleson in the following words:
Volunteer hanging parties went out into the districts and amateur
executioners were not wanting to the occasion. One gentleman boasted
of the numbers he had finished off quite ‘in an artistic manner’, with
mango trees for gibbets and elephants as drops, the victims of this
wild justice being strung up, as though for past-time in ‘the form of
a figure of 8’.22...
Pandit Nehru has rightly stated the problem of race mania as it faced
our insurgent ancestors and faced us subsequently in the whole course
of our struggle for freedom.
We in India have known racialism in all its forms ever since the
commencement of British rule. The whole ideology of this rule was that
of the Herrenvolk and the master race, and the structure of Government
was based upon it; indeed the idea of a master race is inherent in
imperialism. There was no subterfuge about it; it was proclaimed in
unambiguous language by those in authority. More powerful than words
was the practice that accompanied them, and generation after
generation and year after year, India as a nation and Indians as
individuals were subjected to insult, humiliation, and contemptuous
treatment.23...
Our forefathers suffered and bled during 1857. Subsequent generations
kept up the struggle and went on making the needed sacrifice. If after
independence we forget our past experience and began to consider
British imperialism as our new friend instead of our traditional foe,
we will not be able to safeguard Indian independence nor discharge
India’s duty towards the struggling colonial peoples in Asia and
Africa...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IN the broad historical perspective of India’s struggle against
British domination what needs being stressed is not the limitation and
narrowness of the 1857 uprising but its sweep, breadth and depth. The
1857 uprising stands sharply demarcated from all the earlier anti-
British wars of resistance fought on Indian soil.
The first is the sheer vastness of the area covered by the 1857
uprising and the still wider sympathy and solidarity it commanded. It
is admitted by all historians and chronicles, British and Indian
alike, that the 1857 national insurrection was the biggest ever anti-
British combine that had so far been massed in armed struggle against
British authority in India.
The second is the qualitative difference between this and all other
anti-British wars. In the earlier wars people of a single kingdom,
which very often coincided with a specific nationality, fought single-
handed. For example, the Bengalis alone fought at Plassey. The same in
the Karnatak and the Mysore and the Maratha, the Sikh and the Sind
wars. Earlier attempts at broader combinations had failed. But during
1857 people of various castes, tribes, nationalities, religions, who
had lived under different kingdoms rose together to end the British
rule. It was an unprecedented unity of the Indian people. Marx, the
most far-sighted thinker of the age, duly noted this new phenomenon.
Before this there had been mutinies in the Indian army but the present
revolt is distinguished by characteristic and fatal features. It is
the first time that the sepoy regiments have murdered their European
officers; that Musalmans and Hindus, renouncing their mutual
antipathies, have combined against the common masters; that
‘disturbances, beginning with the Hindus, have actually ended in
placing on the throne of Delhi a Mohammedan Emperor’; that the mutiny
has not been confined to a few localities.24
As it is important to stress the above positive aspect of the 1857
national uprising, it is equally important to state its negative
aspect and state which decisive areas and sections of the Indian
people did not join the national uprising and how some were even led
to supporting the British side. There were several factors involved
but let us examine the main, the national factor. The Gurkhas and the
Sikhs played a decisive role on the side of the British. The Nepal war
had been fought by the British with the help of the Hindustani Army.
Rana Jung Bahadur, who was centralising Nepal under Ranashahi, was
promised by the British a permanent subsidy and large tracts in Terai
and he brought his Gurkha soldiers down, in the name of revenge, for
subduing Oudh.
The Sikhs had their own historic memories against the Moghuls and
after initial hesitation the British were able to recruit the
unemployed soldiers of the Khalsa Army and the retainers of the Sikh
princes and sardars.
From the Marathas the heir of the Peshwas had risen in revolt but the
Maratha princes had their own rivalries and historic feuds both with
the Nizam in the South and the Moghuls in the North.
The Rajputana princes had their own historic memories of earlier
Moghul and later Maratha domination, besides their being under British
grip now.
These historic memories from the past of our feudal disunity kept the
people of large parts of the country paralysed and moved by their
feudal self-interest the Indian princes helped the British usurpers.
Nehru has put the whole position in very succinct words:
The revolt strained British rule to the utmost and it was ultimately
suppressed with Indian help.25
As it is true that the 1857 revolution was the biggest national
uprising against British rule, so it is equally true that the British
were able to suppress it by using Indians against indians. Divide and
rule was the traditional British policy and they used it with
devastating effect during 1857....
The peasant was anti-British but his outlook was confined within his
village, his political knowledge did not go beyond the affairs of the
kingdom in which he lived under his traditional Raja.
The political-ideological leadership of the country was yet in the
hands of the feudal ruling classes. They shared the general anti-
British sentiment but they feared their feudal rivals more. They were
a decaying class and their historic memories were only of the feudal
past of disunity and civil wars and the vision of a united independent
India could not dawn upon them.
Love of the country in those days meant love of one’s own homeland
ruled by one’s traditional ruler. The conception of India as our
common country had not yet emerged. Not only did the feudal historic
memories come in the way but the material foundations for it, the
railways, telegraph, a uniform system of modern education, etc., had
not yet been laid but had only begun.
The conception of India as common motherland grew later and the great
experience of 1857 rising helped it to grow. The London Times duly
noted the rise of this new phenomenon.
One of the great results that have flowed from the rebellion of
1857-58 has been to make inhabitants of every part of India acquainted
with each other. We have seen the tide of war rolling from Nepal to
the borders of Gujarat, from the deserts of Rajputana to the frontiers
of the Nizam’s territories, the same men over-running the whole land
of India and giving to their resistance, as it were, a national
character. The paltry interests of isolated States, the ignorance
which men of one petty principality have laboured under in considering
the habits and customs of the other principality—all this has
disappeared to make way for a more uniform appreciation of public
events throughout India. We may assume that in the rebellion of 1857,
no national spirit was roused, but we cannot deny that our efforts to
put it down have sown the seeds of a new plant and thus laid the
foundation for more energetic attempts on the part of the people in
the course of future years.26
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT was the aim of the insurgents, what sort of a political and
social order did they seek to establish in India? A sound
characterisation of the 1857 struggle depends upon the correct answer
to the above problem. For it will help to decide whether it was
reactionary or progressive.
It is amazing that there is virtual agreement on this question between
not only British and some eminent Indian historians but also some
foremost Indian political leaders.
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru has stated his opinion thus: Essentially it
was a feudal outburst, headed by feudal chiefs and their followers and
aided by the widespread anti-British sentiment… Not by fighting for a
lost cause, the feudal order, would freedom come.27
Dr Majumdar’s conclusion is: The miseries and bloodshed of 1857-58
were not the birthpangs of a freedom movement in India, but the dying
groans of an obsolete aristocracy and centrifugal feudalism of the
medieval age.28
Dr Sen, the official historian, improves upon and carries forward the
Prime Minister’s characterisation:
The English Government had imperceptibly effected a social revolution.
They had removed some of the disabilities of women, they had tried to
establish the equality of men in the eye of the law, they had
attempted to improve the lot of the peasant and the serf. The Mutiny
leaders would have set the clock back, they would have done away with
the new reforms, with the new order, and gone back to the good old
days when a commoner could not expect equal justice with the noble,
when the tenants were at the mercy of the talukdars, and when theft
was punished with mutilation. In short they wanted a counter-
revolution.29...
One can understand British statesmen and historians advancing the
thesis of the Old Man vs. the New, of their own role being progressive
and the insurgent cause reactionary, in sheer self-defence. But when
Indian leaders and historians repeat the same old British thesis the
least one can say is that they are mistaking the form for the
substance. It is true that the 1857 uprising was led by Indian feudals
(but not them alone!) and they were not the makers of events, nor sole
masters of India’s destiny. There were other social forces of the
common people in action during this struggle and they had brought new
factors and ideas into play. It is a pity Drs Majumdar and Sen and
Pandit Nehru have given no thought nor weight to them. If we study
them carefully and seriously, the conclusion is inescapable that
during the 1857 national uprising, the popular forces were active
enough, healthy in their aspirations and clear-headed enough in their
ideas to prevent a reactionary feudal restoration in India.
One of the great positive achievements of the 1857 uprising acclaimed
with justified pride by the Indian national movement has been the
noble attempt to forge, and sustained efforts to maintain, against
British machinations, Hindu-Muslim unity for the successful conduct of
the struggle.
Playing upon Hindu-Muslim differences had become so much a part of the
flesh and blood of the British representatives in India that Lord
Canning spontaneously began thinking, when the first signs of the
storm burst during May 1857, whether the Hindus or Muslims were behind
it? Kaye states the problem and the significance of the new situation
facing the British rulers: But, before the end of the month of April,
it must have been apparent to Lord Canning, that nothing was to be
hoped from that antagonism of Asiatic races which had even been
regarded as the main element of our strength and safety. Mohammedans
and Hindus were plainly united against us.30
The British officials, however, did not give up but persisted in the
policy of stirring Hindu- Muslim dissensions. “I shall watch for the
differences of feelings between the two communities,” wrote Sir Henry
Lawrence from Lucknow to Lord Canning in May 1857. The communal
antipathy, however, failed to develop; Aitchison ruefully admits:
In this instance, we could not play off the Mohammedaa against the
Hindu.31
The insurgent leaders were fully aware of this disruptive British
tactic. Allamah Fazle Haq, himself a Muslim revivalist, wrote: They
(the British) tried their utmost to break the revolutionary forces by
their tricks and deceptive devices, make ineffective the power of the
Mujahids and uproot them, and scatter and disrupt them…. No stone was
left unturned by them in this respect.32
The insurgent leaders consciously laid great stress on Hindu-Muslim
unity for the success of the struggle. Bahadur Shah, the sepoy
leaders, the learned Ulema and Shastris issued proclamations and
fatwas stressing that Hindu-Muslim unity was the call of the hour and
the duty of all. In all areas liberated from British rule the first
thing the insurgent leaders did was to ban cow-slaughter and enforce
it. In the highest political and military organ of insurgent
leadership Hindus and Muslims were represented in equal numbers.33
When Bahadur Shah found that he could not manage the affairs of state,
he wrote to the Hindu Rajas of Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Alwar that if
they would combine for the purpose (of annihilating the British) he
would willingly resign the Imperial power into their hands.34
An insurgent Sikh regiment in Delhi served under a Muslim commander.35
Such instances can be multiplied....
There is another very important aspect of this problem. Hindu-Muslim
unity was one of the important keys in deciding the fate of the issue.
The British side knew it and tried their hardest and best to disrupt
it. The Indian side also knew it and did their utmost to realise and
maintain it. But this by itself would be a static statement of the
problem. The better Hindu-Muslim unity was forged in the insurgent
camp, the longer the struggle could last; the longer the struggle
lasted, the more chances the popular forces got to come to the fore
and the more the ideological-political influence of feudal forces
became weakened; the more the feudal forces weakened the less chances
were left of a feudal restoration. Such is the dialectics of all
popular and national struggles. During the last phase of the struggle
in 1857-58, the feudal forces stood thoroughly exposed and weakened.
The popular forces were not yet powerful, conscious and organised
enough to overwhelm them and carry on the struggle to victory. What
actually took place was British victory and not feudal restoration.
When the modern national movement began in the next generation, the
glorious heritage of Hindu-Muslim unity was taken over from the 1857
struggle and the next two generations gave a more and more democratic
programme to the conception of Hindu-Muslim united front against
British domination.
The British side also learnt its lesson from this historic phenomenon.
Forrest in his Introduction to State Papers, 1857-58, states:
Among the many lessons the Indian Mutiny conveys to the historian,
none is of greater importance than the warning that it is possible to
have a revolution in which Brahmins and Sudras, Hindus and Mohammedans
could be united against us, and that it is not safe to suppose that
the peace and stability of our dominions, in any great measure,
depends on the continent being inhabited by different religious
systems…. The mutiny reminds us that our dominions rest on a thin
crust ever likely to be rent by titanic forces of social changes and
religious revolutions.36...
Inside the disintegrating feudal order that was India of those days,
new currents of democratic thought and practice were arising; they
were not yet powerful enough to break the old feudal ideological bonds
and overwhelm British authority; they were menacing enough to make the
real Indian feudals seek a new lease of life as a gift from the
British after beseeching due forgiveness for having joined the
insurgent cause.
The destruction of the ancient land system in India and the law on the
alienation of land stirred the whole countryside into action against
the government whose policies had made the old rural classes, from the
zamindars to the peasants, lose their lands to the new section of
merchants, moneylenders and the Company’s own officials, and which had
played havoc with the their life. The large-scale peasant
participation in the 1857 uprising gave it a solid mass basis and the
character of a popular revolt. The Indian peasants fulfilled their
patriotic duty during 1857.
Peasants joined as volunteers with the insurgent forces and, though
without military training, fought so heroically and well as to draw
tributes from the British themselves... At the battle of Miaganj,
between Lucknow and Kanpur, the British had to face an Indian
insurgent forces of 8000, of whom not more than a thousand were sepoys.
37 At Sultanpur, another battle was fought by the insurgents with
25,000 soldiers, 1,100 cavalry and 25 guns and of these only five
thousand were rebel sepoys!38 After the fall of Delhi, the British
concentrated upon Lucknow. As the British massed all their strength
against Lucknow so from the villagers of Oudh came armed, peasant
volunteers for the last ditch defence of their capital city. In the
words of Charles Ball, The whole country was swarming with armed
vagabonds hastening to Lucknow to meet their common doom and die in
the last grand struggle with the Firangis.39
After the fall of Bareilly and Lucknow, the insurgents fought on and
adopted guerilla tactics. Its pattern is contained in Khan Bahadur
Khan‘s General Order:
Do not attempt to meet the regular columns of the infidels because
they are superior to you in discipline, bandobast and have big guns
but watch their movements, guard all the ghats on the rivers,
intercept their communications, stop their supplies, cut their dak and
posts and keep constantly hanging about their camps, give them (the
Firinghis) no rest!40
Commenting on the above, Russell wrote in his Diary:
This general order bears marks of sagacity and points out the most
formidable war we would encounter.41
The heavy responsibility for carrying into practice the above line of
action and aiding the scattered insurgent forces to prolong the anti-
British war of resistance fell on the mass of the peasantry. All
contemporary British chronicles of the story of this war in
Rohilkhand, Bundelkhand, Oudh and Bihar contain numerous stories of
how the Indian peasantry loyally and devotedly carried out the behests
of the insurgent high command. Let us take only one example:
Even when the cause of the mutincers seemed to be failing, they
testified no good will, but withheld the information we wanted and
often misled us.42
In a national uprising that has failed, the role and contribution of
any class can best be estimated by the amount of sacrifice it makes.
Measured in these terms, the peasantry is at the top of the roll of
honour of the 1857 uprising. Holmes states:
The number of armed men, who succumbed in Oudh, was about 150,000, of
whom at least 35,000 were sepoys.43 ...
The rural population as a whole rose against the new land system
imposed over their heads by the British rulers. Secondly, that the
pattern of struggle was to eliminate the new landlords created under
the British regime, destroy their records, hound them out of villages
and seize their lands and attack all the symbols of British authority
especially the kutchery (law-court), the tehsil (revenue office) and
the thana (the police outpost). Thirdly, the base of the struggle was
the mass of the peasantry and the rural poor while the leadership was
in the hands of the landlords dispossessed under the British laws.
Fourthly, this pattern of struggle fitted into the general pattern of
the 1857 national uprising, the class struggle in the countryside was
directed not against the landlords as a whole but only against a
section of them, those who had been newly created by the British under
their laws and acted as their loyal political supporters, that is, it
was subordinated to the broad need of national unity against the
foreign usurper.
Talmiz Khaldun’s thesis that during this uprising “The Indian
peasantry was fighting desperately to free itself of foreign as well
as feudal bondage” and that “the mutiny ended as a peasant war against
indigenous landlordism and foreign imperialism” is thus an
exaggeration. There is no evidence whatsoever that the Indian
peasantry during this struggle decisively burst through the feudal
bonds either politically or economically to transform a broad-based
national uprising into a peasant war. On the other hand all the
evidence that is known is to the contrary....
The Indian peasants made a compromise with the traditional landlords
in the interests of the common struggle but the landlords became
terrified by this alliance when they saw it in the living form of a
revolutionary popular struggle. Gubbins, who had wide personal
experience of Oudh and other Eastern districts, states:
Much allowance should, no doubt, be made in considering the conduct of
the Indian gentry at this crisis, on account of their want of power to
resist the armed and organised enemy which had suddenly risen against
us. The enemy always treated with the utmost severity those among
their countrymen who were esteemed to be friends of the British cause.
Neither their lives nor their property were safe. Fear, therefore, no
doubt entered largely into the natives which induced many to desert us.
44
Narrow class interest and fear of the “armed and organised” masses,
whom the British rightly called “the enemy,” ultimately led the Indian
feudal gentry to desert the revolutionary struggle and seek terms with
the foreign rulers. The situation led to feudal treachery and
suppressoin of the national uprising, and not to the strengthening of
feudalism in the minds and the later movement of the Indian peasantry
and the people.
Dr R.C. Majumdar himself quotes the Supreme Government “Narrative of
Events” issued on September 12, 1857:
In consequence of the general nature of the rebellion and the
impossibility of identifying the majority of the rebels, the
Magistrate recommended the wholesale burning and destruction of all
villages proved to have sent men to take active part in the rebellion.
45
This is how the British understood the peasant contribution to the
1857 uprising. Could there be a restoration for the feudal order in
India on the shoulders of such a peasantry?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The 1857 uprising is a historic landmark. It marks the end of a whole
historic phase and the beginning of a new one. On the British side it
finished the Company’s rule and led to direct government under the
British Crown. The period of rule of the merchant monopolists of the
East India Company ended and the dominance of the industrial
bourgeoisie of Britain in the affairs of India began. On the Indian
side, the revolt failed but the Indian people got that experience
which enabled them to build the modern Indian national movement on new
foundations and with new ideas, and the lessons of 1857 proved
inestimable. Both sides drew and applied their lessons from the 1857
experience in the subsequent period. The British were the victors,
they went into action soon; we were the vanquished, we took longer.
From their experience of the 1857 uprising the British rulers sharply
changed their policy towards the Indian feudal elements, and
discarding the old policy of attacking their interests, they adopted a
new policy of reconciling them as the main social base of their rule
in India. The Indian people from their experience of the Indian
feudals drew the lesson for the next phase of their movement that
their anti-British struggle to be successful must also be an anti-
feudal struggle. Those who were so far regarded by the Indian people
as their traditional leaders were now rightly considered as betrayers
of the 1857 uprising and the Indian puppets of the British power.
As regards the Indian princess, the policy of annexations was given
up. Queen Victoria in her Proclamation promised them:
We shall respect the rights, dignity and honour of native pricess as
our own. Very candidly Lord Canning in his Minute of April 30 noted:
The safety of our rule is increased and not diminished by the
maintenance of native chiefs well affected to us.
How the Indian national movement understood the post-1857 British
policy towards the princes is best reflected in Nehru’s Discovery of
India where he states that the retention of the native states was
designed to disrupt the unity of India,46 Indian princes playing the
role of Britain’s fifth column in India.47....
The Army was reorganised after the sepoy mutiny, which had set the
country aflame. The proportion of British troops was increased and
they were primarily used as an “army of occupation” to maintain
internal security while the Indian troops were organised and trained
for service abroad to subjugate Asian and African territories for
British imperialism. The artillery was taken away from the Indian
hands. All higher appointments were reserved for the British, an
Indian could not even get the King’s Commission nor get employment in
the Army headquarters except as a clerk in non-military work. The
Indian regiments were reorganised on the principle of divide and rule
and recruitment confined to the so-called martial races.
But in the long run nothing availed the British. The memory of the
sepoys’ role during 1857 never died not only in the memory of the
Indian people but also of the Indian armed forces. As the modern
national movement grew, it could not leave the Indian Army, however
“reorganised”, untouched. During the 1930 national struggle, the
Garhwali soldiers refused to fire at the Indian demonstrators at
Peshawar. During the post-war national upsurge after a series of
“mutinies” in the Indian Army and Air Force, the Royal Indian Navy
revolted on February 18, 1946 and the next day the British Prime
Minister announced the dispatch of the Cabinet Mission to India and
negotiations for the independence of India began.
The Indian administrative machine was reorganised as a colossal
bureaucratic machine with Indians employed only in subordinate
positions, all real power and responsibility resting in British hands.
The Queen’s Proclamation had promised that there would be no racial
discrimination against the Indians in employment in government
services. The reality, however, was different...
After 1857, politically, even Sir Syed Ahmad Khan had suggested that
Indians should be included in the Legislative Council to keep the
government in touch, with the people. In 1861 the Indian Councils Act
provided for the inclusion for legislative purposes of non-official
members. In 1862, three Indians were so nominated. These legislatures,
in which real power remained with the exclusive British Executive,
were used by patriotic Indian statesmen as tribunes of the Indian
people and to unmask British policies and thus aid the growth of the
national movement. The British tactic of divide and rule, however,
succeeded in another way. The institution of separate electorates for
the Muslims was the first expression of the poisonous two-nation
theory which ultimately resulted in the partition of the country at
the very time of gaining independence.
The British Government, which claimed credit for early social reform
measures like banning of sati, widow remarriage, etc., after the
experience of 1857 and its subsequent alliance with the Indian feudal
reaction became the opponent of all progressive social measures.
Hindu law was largely custom and as customs change, the law also was
applied in a different way. Indeed there was no provision of Hindu Law
which could not be changed by customs. The British replaced this
elastic customary law by judicial decisions based on the old texts and
these decisions became precedents which had to be rigidly followed…
Change could only come by positive legislation but the British
Government, which was the legislating authority, had no wish to
antagonise the conservative elements on whose support it counted. When
later some legislative powers were given to the partially elected
assemblies, every attempt to promote social reform legislation was
frowned upon by the authorities and sternly discouraged.48
The British Government thus became the defender of social reaction in
India, after 1857!
The British overlords had created an English educated Indian middle-
class to get cheap and efficient and denationalised Indian cadres for
the lower essential rungs of their administration.
Educated natives took no part in the sepoy mutiny: despite the charges
to the contrary, they heartily disapproved of the revolt and showed
themselves faithful and loyal to the British authorities throughout
the course of that crisis.49
The above is not wholly true. Dr Sen states: Even this small minority
(of modern educated Indians) were not unanimous in the support of the
Government. An educated Hindu of Bengal complained of ‘a hundred years
of unmitigated active tyranny unrelieved by any trait of generosity’.
“A century and more of intercourse between each other,” he adds, “has
not made the Hindus and the Englishman friends or even peaceful fellow
subjects.”50
Calcutta was the biggest centre of these modern educated Indians. They
were at the time themselves concentrating upon the struggle against
Hindu orthodoxy and the religious terms in which the cause of the
insurgents was clothed repelled them. Because of their historic origin
and the limitations of their political experience they wrongly
identified progress with British rule. They were not, however,
“faithful and loyal” in the sense Earl Granville imagined them to be,
servile to the British rulers. This was proved in the very next year
after the 1857-58 uprising was suppressed when the Bengali
intelligentsia stirred the whole of Bengal in solidarity with the
Indigo Revolt, with the peasants of Bengal and Bihar who were victims
of unimaginable oppression and exploitation of the British planters.
Again it was Surendranath Banerji who took the initiative to run an
all-India campaign against lowering the age for the ICS, which
patently went against the Indian candidates. Then came the campaigns
regarding the IIbert Bill and racial discrimination in courts and the
Vernacular Press Act and so on. As the new intelligentsia saw more and
more of India under the British Crown all their illusions about Queen
Victoria’s 1858 Proclamation being the Magna Carta of Indian liberties
gradually evaporated and they began to agitate for political reforms.
In 1882 the Grand Old Man of Indian nationalism, Dababhai Naoroji,
wrote: Hindus, Mohammedans and Parsees alike are asking whether the
British rule is to be a blessing or a curse...This is no longer a
secret, or a state of things not quite open to those of our rulers who
would see.51...
Even before 1857, From India a policy of imperial expansion was
planned and the British Government of India was set on the perilous
road of conquest and annexation in the East for the benefit of
Britain, but of course at the cost of the Indian tax-payer.52
Thus Malacca and Singapore were occupied, Burma conquered, Nepal and
Afghan wars conducted and the Persian war managed.
The age of the Empire, based on India, began after 1857. India now
became in fact no less than in name a British possession. The Indian
Empire was at this time a continental order, a political structure
based on India, and extending its authority from Aden to Hongkong.53
In this period, Afghanistan and Persia were made virtual British
protectorates, expeditions and missions were sent to Sinkiang and
Tibet in the North and the British position in South-East Asia and
China consolidated.
“The continental involved a subordinate participation of India”54 as
policemen, traders and usurers, and coolies in the plantations of
Britain’s growing colonies. Indian resources and manpower were thus
used not only to conquer but maintain and run Britain’s colonial
Empire.
This, however, was only one side of the picture. As part of winning
foreign support for the Indian uprising Azimullah Khan, Nana’s
representative, is reported to have built contacts with Russia and
Turkey. Rango Bapuji, the Satara representative, is also reported to
have worked with Azimullah. Bahadur Shah’s court claimed Persian
support. All this was in the old principle that Britain’s enemies are
our friends. But Britain was the colossus of that period, and the
feudal ruling circles of these countries could never be in any hurry
to come to the aid of the Indian revolt. They could at best exploit it
and await its outcome.
This was, however, not the attitude of democratic circles in these and
other countries... there was in all democratic circles of the
civilised world great sympathy for the Indian uprising. Great and
historic is the significance of the Chartist leaders’ solidarity with
the Indian national uprising. Modern British labour movement dates its
birth from the Chartists. Modern Indian national movement dates its
birth from the 1857 uprising. What a new fraternal vision emerges from
the memory that the British proletariat and the Indian people have
stood together ever since the beginning of their respective movements.
The Chinese date the birth of their modern anti-imperialist national
movement from the Taiping uprising as we date ours from the 1857
uprising. The Chinese paper (presented at the symposium on the
centenary of the 1857 Revolt) documents the hitherto unknown story
that the Chinese people responded sympathetically to the 1857 uprising
and the Indian sepoys deserted to the Taipings and fought shoulder to
shoulder with them against the common enemy. Marx noted the new
phenomenon that the revolt in the Anglo-Indian army has coincided with
a general disaffection exhibited against supremacy by the Great
Asiatic nations, the revolt of the Bengal Army being, beyond doubt,
intimately connected with the Persian and Chinese wars.55
Thus the great national uprising of 1857 laid the foundation for the
worldwide democratic solidarity with the Indian struggle in its next
phase and our new national movement built itself on healthy
internationalist traditions. For example, in the twenties, the Indian
national movement vigorously opposed the imperialist policies in the
Middle East and expressed solidarity with the Egyptian struggle under
Zaglul Pasha, in the thirties it expressed practical solidarity with
the Chinese people’s struggle against the Japanese invaders and the
worldwide anti-fascist movement and so on. It was thus no accident
that after the achievement of independence India emerged as a great
world power championing the cause of world peace and the liberation of
all subject nations....n
[*NOTES
1. Major B.D. Basn, Rise of The Christian Power in India, (1931), p.
953.
2. Marx, unsigned article, “The Indian Question”, New York Daily
Tribune, August 14, 1857.
3. Quoted by R.C. Majumdar, The Sepoy Mutiny and Revolt of 1857, p.
278.
4. Marx, “The British Rule in India”, New York Daily Tribune, June 25,
1853.
5. R.P. Dutt, India Today, p. 98.
6. Marx, “The East India Company—Its History and Results”, New York
Daily Tribune, July 11, 1853.
7. Ramkrishna Mukherjee, The Rise and Fall of the East India Company,
p. 174.
8. K.M. Panikkar, Asia and Western Dominance, p. 99.
9. Allamah Fazle Haq of Khayrabad, “The Story of the War of
Independence 1857-58”, Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society,
vol. V, pt. 1, January 1957, p. 29.
10. National Herald, May 10, 1957.
11. Mukherjee, op. cit., p. 223.
12. R.C. Dutt, The Economic History of India in the Victorian Age, p.
xv.
13. Montgomeny Martin, Eastern India, Introduction to vol. I.
14. Mukherjee, op. cit., pp. 224-25.
15. Marx, “The British Rule in India”, New York Daily Tribune, June
25, 1853.
16. Majumdar, op. cit., p. 229.
17. Charles Ball, Indian Mutiny, vol. II. p. 242.
18. Sir T. Metcalfe, Two Narratives of the Mutiny at Delhi, pp. 98-99.
19. Quoted by Edward Thompson, The Other Side of the Medal, pp. 73-74.
20. Quoted by Savarkar, Indian War of Independence, p. 134.
21. Majendie, Up Among the Pandies, pp. 195-96.
22. Kaye & Malleson, History of the Indian Mutiny, vol. II, p. 281.
23. Nehru, Discovery of India, p. 281.
24. Marx, unsigned article, New York Daily Tribune, July 15, 1857. 25.
Nehru, op. cit., p. 279.
26. Quoted by Savarkar, op. cit., pp. 534-35.
27. Nehru, op. cit., p. 279.
28. Majumdar, op. cit., p. 241.
29. S.N. Sen, Eighteen Fifty Seven, pp. 412-13.
30. John Williams Kaye, A History of the Sepoy War, vol. I, p. 565.
31. Quoted by Asoka Mehta, The Great Rebellion, p. 42.
32. Fazle Haq, op. cit., p. 33.
33. Vide Talmiz Khaldun’s paper “The Great Rebellion” presented at the
symposium held on the occasion of the centenary of the 1857 Revolt.
34. Metcalfe, op. cit., p. 220.
35. Ibid., Jeewanlal’s Diary, under date 26 August.
36. G.W. Forrest, op. cit., vol. II, p. 150.
37. On October 5, 1858. See Col. G.B. Malleson, Indian Mutiny of 1857,
Vol. III, p. 287.
38. On February 3, 1858. See Ibid., vol. II, p. 334.
39. Ball, op. cit., vol. II, p. 241.
40. Quoted by Asoka Mehta, op. cit., pp. 51-52. Also Savarkar, op.
cit., p. 444.
41. W.H. Russell, My Diary in India in the Year 1858-59, p. 276.
42. M.R. Gubbins, An Account of the Mutinies in Oudh, p. 53.
43. T.R. Holmes, History of the Seopy War, p. 506.
44. Gubbins, op. cit., p. 58.
45. Majumdar, op. cit., p. 217. 46. Nehru, op. cit., p. 284. 47.
Ibid., p. 268. 48. Nehru, op. cit., p. 285. 49. Earl Granville,
February 19, 1858, in the House of Lords in reply to the charges of
the President of the Board of Control, Lord Ellenborough.
Parliamentary Debates, 3rd series, CXL VIII, 1858, pp. 1728-29.
50. Quoted by Sen, op. cit., p. 29.
51. Dadabhai Naoroji, “The Condition of India”. Correspondence with
the Secretary of State for India, Journal of the East India Affairs,
XIV, 1882, pp. 171-172.
52. K. N. Panikkar, Asia and Western Dominance, p. 105.
53. Ibid., pp. 162-163.
54. Ibid., pp. 164-165.
55. Marx, unsigned article, New York Herald Tribune, July 15, 1857. *]
http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article107.html
Mainstream Weekly
Mainstream, Vol XLVI No 41
Dissecting Anew Hindu-Muslim Ties And Partition
Wednesday 1 October 2008, by Amarendra Nath Banerjee
[(BOOK REVIEW)]
HINDU-MUSLIM RELATIONS IN A NEW PERSPECTIVE BY PANCHANAN SAHA
(FOREWORD BY DR ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER); BISWABIKSHA, KOLKATA; PP.
FORWORD +392; RS 300.
Hindu-Muslim relations are very much complicated—the knottiest problem
in Indian history. Since the advent of Islam in the Indian
subcontinent more than millennium years ago, India faced a powerful
challenge from a militant and vigorous religion with an egalitarian
appeal. India failed to stem the tide of the rapid spread of Islam due
to internal squabbles and degeneration of society. In the caste-ridden
Brahminical society the lower castes were denied proper human rights.
They were not only socially degraded but also economically exploited.
It is no wonder, therefore, that millions of them welcomed Islam as a
religion of deliverance and to gain human dignity. The theory of
social liberation seems to be right for substantial reasons in
Islamisation in India. Swami Vivekananda had rightly said:
The Mohammedan conquest of India came as a salvation to the
downtrodden, to the poor. That is why one-fifth of our people have
become Mohammedan. It was not the sword that did it all. It would be
the height of madness to think that it was all the work of sword and
fire.
But it does not mean force was not at all applied in Islamisation.
However, the major role was played by the Sufi saints and Pirs in it.
Nevertheless, wholesale Islamisation did not take place in India like
Afghanistan, Persia and other countries perhaps due to the inherent
strength of the Hindu philosophy in spite of its many drawbacks.
The advent of Islam produced tremendous reactions in India. Hinduism
wanted to protect itself by going into its inner shells with stricter
caste rules and regulations. But this hardly helped in preventing the
egalitarian influence of Islam on Hindu society. The Bhakti movement
was its product.
But living hundreds of years side by side, eating the same grain from
the common fields, drinking the same water and inhaling the same air,
the Hindu and Muslim societies and religions underwent profound
changes. Islam of India today is not the same as what it was when it
arrived. Hinduism also could not remain the same. Both the religions
had influenced each other. There was some kind of assimilation between
the two in spite of frequent clashes and mutual hostility. But
unfortunately a composite Indian nation has failed to emerge
assimilating the two major religions in India due to various factors
which led ultimately to the partition of the country.
Dr Panchanan Saha’s new book, Hindu-Muslim Relations in a New
Perspective, is projected on a large canvas from the advent of Islam—
gradual Islamisation and its causes, conflict and assimilation,
sprouting of the seeds of separation by the conscious British policy
of divide-and-rule, Hindu-Muslim revivalism and the short-sighted
policy of the Indian political leaders which ultimately led to the
communal carnage and partition of India.
In the chapter, “Conflict and Assimilation”, Saha emphasises the role
played by the Sufi saints, Bhakti movement as well as attempts of the
Mughal Emperor, Akbar, and his great grandson, Dara Shiko, to help the
process of reconciliation between the Hindus and Muslims. But
unfortunately this process was not properly taken forward due to
various factors, particularly the emergence of Wahhabism and Hindu-
Muslim revivalism.
♦
IN his analysis Saha has been seldom swayed by emotion; rather he has
remained mostly faithful to rationalism. He holds that the causes of
spread of separatism among the Muslims of India are to be found in the
refusal of the already matured Hindu bourgeoisie in sharing power with
the newly emerging Muslim bourgeoisie. Muslim bourgeoisie developed
later due to their empathy to British rule and Western education.
Saha has sympathetically discussed the Fourteen Points of M.A. Jinnah
in this direction and the rejection of the Congress to share power
with the Muslim League in Uttar Pradesh after the elections of 1936
and to collaborate with Fazlul Haque in Bengal for forming a secular
Ministry. It seems class interest played a more decisivie role in
making this choice than the greater interest of the country.
There is a simplistic explanation of Hindu-Muslim cleavage by putting
the sole responsibility on the British policy of divide-and-rule. But
Saha appears to be correct when he cites Tagore—“The Satan cannot
enter unless there is a hole to get in.” Tagore believed that division
among Hindus and Muslims existed and the cunning British rulers
utilised it to prolong their rule.
In his last chapter, entitled “Was Partition Inescapable?”, Saha has
not traversed the beaten tracks of numerous scholars of partition. He
has used substantial Pakistani literature on partition to prove his
point.
There is an enigma why Gandhiji, in spite of opposing partition on the
basis of religion tooth and nail, ultimately accepted it as a fait
accompli. The Frontier Gandhi, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, lamented that
they were thrown to the wolves. What went on behind-the-scenes is a
mystery to this day.
It seems that the Hindu big bourgeoisie wanted an unchallenged market
even in partitioned India. They seemed to think that a truncated
Pakistan would not be viable. Whatever the reasons, it is evident that
had the Indian leaders shown true sagacity and leadership free of
class or emotional bias, there might have been a Confederation of
India based on the Cabinet Mission’s Plan which the Congress initially
accepted but subsequently refused to do so for reasons that are
unknown. Hence it is not inappropriate to quote The Times of India:
It is legitimate to enquire who is responsible for this debacle. ….
the parties concerned, the Congress, the British Government and the
Muslim League, are all more or less responsible, although on the facts
set forth, the Congress should get the first prize.
One could have expected that such a serious book should have remained
free from printing and editorial errors.
http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article957.html
Mainstream Weekly
Mainstream, Vol XLVI, No 50
Hindu Terrorism: The Shock of Recognition
Wednesday 3 December 2008, by Badri Raina
Epigraph
“Underlying these religions were a common set of beliefs about how you
treat other people and how you aspire to act, not just for yourself
but also for the greater good.”
(Obama in his interview about Religion given to Cathleen Falsani,
March 27, 2004; cf. to his mother’s teaching about the validity of
diverse faiths and the value of tolerance.)
I
So, now, India is home to “Hindu” terrorism. Departing from the more
usual banner-appelation, “Saffron Terror”, I wish the fact to be
registered that saffron is drawn from the stamin of a delicate and
indescribably pretty mauve flower grown exclusively in my home valley
of Kashmir, and exclusively by Muslims. My inherited memories of it
are thereby sweet and secular to the core. Also, saffron when used to
grace milk products, Biryani, or to brew the heavenly kehwa is a thing
of the gods truly.
It is only when it is coerced against the use of nature to colour
politics that it rages against the sin. Then, don’t we know, what
gruesome consequences begin?
I think it proper, therefore, to stick with the more direct and honest
description, “Hindu” terrorism, since, much against their grain, even
India’s premier TV channels are now bringing us news of “Hindu”
terrorism, so compelling the materials gathered by the investigating
agencies thus far. This despite the fact that in my view the term
“Hindu” trerrorism is as erroneous as the term “Muslim” terrorism.
Even though not a religious man myself, I am able to see that being
Hindu or Muslim by accident of birth has no necessary connect with how
one’s politics turns out to be in adult life. A plethora of specific
contexts and shaping histories are here provenly more to the point.
II
It was way back in 1923 that Savarkar, never a practising Hindu
(indeed a self-confessed atheist) had first understood that from this
benign term, “Hindu”, could be drawn the toxic racial concept
Hindutva, and made to serve a forthrightly fascist purpose. That
Brahminism had always been a socially toxic form of Hinduism was of
course an enabling prehistory to the new project.
He it was who established Abhinav Bharat in Pune (1904), that
theoretical hotbed of twice-born Brahminical casteism against which
low-caste social reformers such as Phule, Periyar, and Ambedkar were
to struggle their whole lives long.
Such casteism was made the instrument of communalist politics to serve
two major objectives: one, to overwhelm and negate the specific
cultural and material oppressions of the low-caste within the Hindu
Varna system , and two, to elevate the low-caste as a warrior of a
common “Hindutva” army against the chief common “enemy”, the Muslim.
Such an army has been seen to be needed to salvage the “real” nation
from this so-called common enemy who continues to be represented to
this day by the RSS and its hydra-headed “educational” front
organisations as an “invader” still bent on seeking to convert India
into an Islamic theocratic state.
Aided in these mythical fears and constructions by the British during
the crucial decades leading upto Independence, India’s majoritarian
fascists continue thus to keep at bay all consideration of secular
oppressions based entirely in the brutal social order of Capitalist
expropriation.
Savarkar thus counselled how a resurgent nation could result only if
“Hinduism was militarised, and the military Hinduised”.
Clearly enough, the serving Army Colonel, S.P. Purohit, and the other
retired Major, one Upadhyay, who the Mumbai ATS (Anti-Terrorist Squad)
tells us, are at the centre of the Malegaon terrorist blasts of
September 29, 2008, alongwith Sadhvi Pragya and the rogue-sadhu,
Amreetanand—and very possibly complicit in half-a dozen other blasts
as well—seem to have heeded Savarkar’s advice to the hilt.
Indeed, in his narco-test confessions, Colonel Purohit, sources have
told some TV channels (Times Now), admits to his guilt and justifies
his actions as retribution for what he thinks SIMI (Student’s Islamic
Movement of India) have been doing. He is understood to have further
indicated that the rogue sadhu, Amreetanand, nee Dayanand etc., has
been the kingpin and chief coordinator and devisor of several other
blasts carried out by this cell, including the blasts at the revered
Ajmer Dargah (Mausoleum of the 12th century Sufi saint, Chisti, which
to this day draws devotees across faiths the world-over), and at
Kanpur.
The ATS are now busy exploring the routes through which huge sums of
money have been brought into the country for such terrorist activity
as hawala transactions, and whether the RDX, suspected to be used in
the Malegaon blast, was procured by Colonel Purohit through Army
connections. It is to be noted that Purohit has been in Military
Intelligence, and serving in Jammu and Kashmir, where it is thought he
made contact with the rogue sadhu, Amreetanand.
(Indeed, as I write, news comes of the ATS claiming that Purohit
actually stole some 60 kilos of RDX which was in his custody while
doing duty at Deolali, and that in his narco-test confession he admits
to passing it on to one “Bhagwan” for use in the blast on the
Samjhauta Express train in February, 2007.)
Needless to say, that alongwith the courts, we will also require that
the ATS is actually able to obtain convictions rather than merely pile
on evidence which may not be admissible in law.
To return to the argument:
As I suggested in my last column, “Notions of the Nation” (Znet,
November 4), Hindutva militarism since the establishment of the Hindu
Mahasabha and the RSS has been inspired by the desire to emulate and
then better Muslim “aggressiveness” seen as a racial characteristic
that defined “Muslim” rule in India, and rendered Hindus “limp” and
“cowardly”.
Thus, if Savarkar established Abhinav Bharat, Dr Moonje, an avowed
Mussolini admirer who in turn inspired Dr Hedgewar to establish the
RSS on Vijay Dashmi of 1924 (victory day, denoting the liquidation of
the Dravidian Ravana by the Aryan Kshatriya warrior, Ram), established
the Bhondsala Military Academy at Indore (1937). It now transpires
that this academy has been playing host to the Bajrang Dal for
militarist training routines etc., and its Director, one Raikar, has
put in his papers. Unsurprisingly enough, both these institutions are
now under the scanner.
III
Over the last decade, terrorist blasts have occurred in India across a
wide variety of sites and in major cities and towns.
Many of these blasts have taken place outside mosques and known
Muslim- majority locations, as well outside cinema halls that were
thought to be showing movies inimical to Hindu glory.
Briefly, these sites are: cinemas in Thane and Vashi in Maharashtra,
Jalna, Purna, Parbhani, and Malegaon towns, again all in Maharashtra—
and all areas of high Muslim density, in Hyderabad outside a famous
old mosque, and in Ahmedabad and Surat in Gujarat.
Curiously, in the Surat episode, some sixteen odd bombs were found
placed along the main thoroughfare in tree branches, on house-tops, on
electric poles and so forth. Not one of them however exploded. This
was thought to be the result of defective switches. Curious
circumstance that; besides the wonder that Ahmedabad’s Muslims could
find such sprawling access to such strategic locations without Modi
knowing a thing.
Yet, regardless of where the blasts have taken place, almost without
exception the Pavlovian response of state agencies as well as, sad to
say, media channels has been invariably to point fingers of suspicion
and culpability towards one or the other “Islamic” outfit.
Often, young Muslims men have been rounded up in the scores and held
for days of brutal questioning without the least prima facie evidence.
Nearly in all such cases, however reluctantly, they have had to be let
off.
The most recent case is that of some fifteen young Muslims picked up
after the Hyderabad blasts. Tortured with electric shocks, they have
nevertheless been found to be innocent and let go.
Indeed, after the gruesome blasts in the Samjhauta Express—a train
service of reconciliation and confidence-building between India and
Pakistan—in which some 68 people were burnt to cinders, 45 of them
Pakistani citizens, fingers were immediately pointed towards the SIMI.
Yet, the ATS of Mumbai now suspects that this may also be the doing of
the “Hindu” terrorists in custody. These speculations have been raised
by the circumstance that the suitcases that held the bombs had Indore
labels on them.
Just as the ATS now suspects that more than half a dozen blasts (the
two at Malegaon, in 2006 and 2008, at the cinemas in Thane and Vashi,
at Jalna, at Purna, at Parbhani, provenly at Nanded and Kanpur) have
all been the handiwork of “Hindu” terror groups.
IV
For some years, reputed civil and human rights organisations, and
individual members of civil society that have included journalists,
judges, lawyers, writers, artists, teachers, students, and labour
organisations, besides organised Muslim fora and Left parties, have
been cautioning both state agencies and media conglomerates to:
• desist from the Pavlovian haste with which some one or other Muslim
group is immediately named and labelled literally within an hour of
the occurrence of a blast, thus contributing to the maligning of the
entire Muslim community;
• to consider the possibility that groups other than those involving
Muslims could be involved;
• to refrain from covering up prima facie evidence which points to
such possibilities; indeed, where such evidence seems conclusive, as
the complicity of the Bajrang Dal at Nanded and Kanpur;
• to ponder the question as to why Muslims should effect blasts within
their own localities or outside their mosques;
• to weigh the consequences for the Muslim psyche of the failure of
the state to prevent repeated pogroms against them, and to find or
punish the guilty; not to speak of active state connivance in those
pogroms (Moradabad, 198o; Nellie, 1983; Hashimpura, 1987; Bhagalpur,
1989; Mumbai, 1992-93; Gujarat, 2002, to cite just the more recent
ones);
• to permit transparency in the matter of police investigations with
due regard for the Constitutional rights of those held in custody—such
as visitation, access to legal defence, norms of the recording of
confession and other evidence etc.;
• to respect the obligatory presumption of innocence until anyone is
juridically found guilty;
Time and again these cautions and rightful prerogatives have been
trampled under foot.
Aided by the loud biases of the corporate media which have tended to
reflect the predilections both of free-market imperialism and
comprador urban middle class sentiments in India’s metropolitan towns,
India’s state agencies and that “all-knowing” species, the
Intellegence expert, who seems ever present to reinforce anti-Muslim
prejudice, have tended to feed massively into the politics of the
Hindu Right-wing.
For years on end, India’s chief malady has been sought to be seen to
reside in “Islamic” terrorism, and in the complicit refusal of the
secularists to allow draconian preventive laws to be brought back on
the books. Not in poverty, malnutrition, disease, absence of health
care or clean drinking water, or lack of steady work among the urban
poor, or the ousted tribals, disenfranchised farmers, chronic failure
of primary schooling and so forth among some 75 per cent of Indians.
And most of them belonging to the Muslim, Dalit, and Tribal
communities.
And to repeat for the nth time, this three-fourths of Indians able to
spend just or under Rupees Twenty a day, all according to the
governments’ own Arjun Sengupta Committee Report.
Not to speak of the venomous communalisation of the polity, the
alienation and ghettoisation of the minorities, and the state’s
failure or unwillingness to carry through schemes that could redress
these maladies.
As to new terror laws, the government of the day may protest that it
has all the laws it wants, and more; as well as the fact that the
worst terrorist attacks took place when laws like the dreaded POTA
(Prevention of Terrorism Act) was on the books during the tenure of
the NDA regime led by the ultra-”nationalist” BJP. Small dent is made
by any regime of empirically-founded facts, or fair-minded arguments
on the right-wing fascists and their fattened constituency.
V
Now, of course, a radically transformed milieu is unravelling.
Photos and videos are doing the rounds that show the “Hindu”
terrorists currently under investigation in close and intimate
proximity to top leaders of the RSS, the VHP, and the BJP as well.
Had POTA indeed been on the books today, such evidence would have
authorised the police to put them all behind bars on the charge of
associating with those under investigation for “terrorism”. And all
that without any recourse to bail either.
Predictably, nonetheless, after some days of dumbfounded
crestfallenness (remember that the main electoral plank of the BJP in
the elections now under way in several states and in the soon-to-be-
held parliamentary polls is the failure of the Congress to eradicate
“terrorism” because of its “minority appeasement” policies), the Right-
wing fascists are back to brazen form.
Even as the projected Prime Ministerial candidate, Advani (the high-
point of whose career remains the successful demolition of the Babri
mosque) seeks to strike a stance of caution, party hard-liners have
taken to peddling outrageous theories.
As a complement to the well-known Pavlovian hunch that “all terrorists
are Muslims”, we are now told by the likes of Rajnath Singh, the party
President, that “no Hindu can be a terrorist”, that is to say even
when he or she is found to be one.
This for the reason that what the ordinary man calls “terrorism” is in
fact “nationalism” where any Hindu be involved. Live and learn.
Other than that, it is both interesting and laughable that spokesmen
and women of the BJP are today reduced to gurgitating every single
argument that Muslims and civil rights organisations have to this day
voiced:
• presume innocence until found guilty;
• desist from the “political conspiracy” to malign a whole community;
• do not let enemies of the Hindu-right propagate fake evidence
against them, since all evidence against them must be fake in
principle;
• and most outlandishly, do not communalise terrorism; that from
India’s rank communalists who have done nothing but communalise
terrorism ever since we remember!
VI
Even as these new developments point to a potentially mortal combat
among “Hindu” and “Muslim” terror groups, I venture to think that the
situation also offers opportunities of far-reaching redressal for all
three axes that matter: the state and its agencies, the party-
political system, and the polity generally.
First off, if, as has been the case, the Congress’ secular credentials
have consistently been vitiated by, willy nilly, playing second-fiddle
to Hindu-communalist appeasement, the denuding of the Hindu-Right
offers it the opportunity of a lifetime to assert the supremacy of the
constitutional scheme of things, without fear or favour.
It is indeed a circumstance that can now help the Congress and other
secular parties to come down like a ton on communalism of all shades
that underpin the fatal subversion of the secular republic without the
need for apology.
In this endeavour, its greatest inspiration must come from two factors
on the Muslim side of the issue:
one, that over the last year every single major and influential Muslim
cultural and religious organisation has publicly, and repeatedly,
denounced through speech, act, and fatwa “terrorism” as un-Islamic and
a rightful candidate for punishment under law;
and, two, that without exception they have pleaded only and ever for
fair and just treatment at the hands of the authorised instruments of
state, both when victimised by pogroms and suspected as culprits; and
for credible pursuit of those that persecute them.
Not once has any Muslim organisation worth the name suggested that
Muslims have any claims that override the cosntitutional regime of
laws and procedures pertaining to all citizens of the Republic.
All that in stark contrast to the refusal, however camouflaged or
strategised, of the RSS and its affiliates to accept either the
secular Constitution or the notion of secular citizenship.
It is to be recalled that the RSS tactically acquiesced to
acknowledging the primacy of the national flag over its own saffron
one in 1949 as a quid pro quo to its release from the ban imposed on
it after Gandhi’s murder.
To this day it seeks to overthrow the Republic as constituted by law
and to replace it by a theocratic Hindu Rashtra wherein the
prerogatives of citizenship will be determined not by secular,
democratic equality but racial difference among Indians (all that
brutally codified in Golwalker’s two books, We, and Our Ntionhood
Defined; and, the later Bunch of Thoughts which explicitly designates
Muslims as the nations’s “Enemy Number One” in an exclusive chapter).
However Hindu cultural politics may have come to infect sections of
the fattened urbanites, the Congress must show the conviction that
none of these in this day and age would be willing to back what is
explicitly “terrorist” activity, indistinguishable from any other,
once the matter is proven.
This then is a fine moment to release a new energetic politics that
recharges the conviction and inspiration of the non-discriminatory
humanism that informed the leaders of the freedom movement, and thus
to disengage whatever popular base the Hindu-Right has built over the
years since the demolition of the Babri mosque from its fascist
leaderships and cadres.
Just as, in fact, many BJP supporters are busy thinking whether they
are indeed willing to carry their love of Muslim-haters quite to the
point where those other dreams of Indian super-powerdom are seriously
jeopardised by a war of competing terrorisms.
It is also a golden opportunity for the Congress-led UPA, should it
come back to power, to take a hard look at the communalist virus that
has infected law-enforcement agencies over the decades, and to make
bold to effect reforms of a far-reaching character, such as include
the recruitment of Muslims and other “minorities” in due proportion to
the forces, and not just among the lower ranks.
Speaking of the Army, some three per cent Muslims are today among its
ranks—some sixty years after Independence. And I won’t make a guess as
to how abysmal might in fact be its share among the officer core,
colonel and above. And wouldn’t I dearly like to take a peek into what
sort of Indian History is taught India’s future officers at Khada-
kvasla and Dehradun? Truly; and who does the teaching as well.
VII
As to the BJP: it has another opportunity as well, namely, to
reconstitute itself as a secular party on the Right, bearing full
allegiance to the Constitution in letter and spirit (remember now that
among other things on the street-level, the NDA regime led by the BJP
did constitute a Constitution Review Committee—an ominous enough move
that, thankfully, was duly aborted in course), and shunning once and
for all its enslavement to the RSS and its fascist vision of India,
its history, culture and state.
Failing to do so, the BJP may succeed in causing further mayhem; but
it is highly unlikely now to attain the sort of ascendance it seeks
through fair means and foul.
Most of all, the BJP must understand that the Muslims of India, and
Christians as well, have the inalienable right to live and work in the
country on the terms set by the Constitution, not by the RSS or the
Sangh Parivar.
And, conversely, that the BJP itself is as subject to those
constitutional stipulations as any another collective of Indians who
practice their beliefs and politics.
Let the BJP notice the epigraph chosen for this column; it comes from
the new President-elect of the one country that the BJP adores. Or
will it now, with a Black man at the helm?
A different voice floats from there.
Time for the BJP to change its langoti, and say “yes we can” also be
peaceable and law-abiding citizens of the Republic of India. And to
prize and protect its magnificent plurality like all sensible and
humane Indians.
http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article1067.html
Mainstream Weekly
Mainstream, Vol. XLVII, No 34, August 8, 2009
Will RSS see the Ground Reality and join to Salve India‘s Core Values?
Sunday 16 August 2009, by Sailendra Nath Ghosh
Of late, the RSS has been accusing the BJP of inconsistency and also
of failure to convey the real meaning of Hindutva. The BJP has
certainly been inconsistent. It has been in two minds because like the
Congress, it, too, is preoccupied, not with any principle or any
concern for correct ideation, but with the slogan that can help it
capture power. But on the question of the real meaning of Hindutva, is
the RSS itself clear and consistent? It has a very large and committed
cadre. Why does it depend on the BJP to “convey the real meaning”? To
what extent has the RSS itself succeeded in conveying the supposedly
real meaning?
The RSS has been saying that anybody who regards India as his/her
motherland and a holy land is a Hindu and that the Indian Muslims are
Mohammadi Hindus and the Indian Christians are Isahi Hindus and so on.
Now, there is a large body of people who plainly call themselves
Hindus. They are not the followers of any one Prophet or of any one
Book. They have a large body of sacred books – the Vedas, the
Upanishads, the Geeta and Puranas. They venerate many Rishis and adore
some maryada-purushes like Lord Rama and Lord Krishna. How should they
be described? They cannot be called Ramiah Hindus or Krishnaiah
Hindus. They would not like to be called Sakti-ite Hindus, or Shivaite
or Vaishnavaite Hindus. Saktism, shaivism, and vaishnavism have got so
merged in their thinking that they are partly sakta, partly shaiva and
partly vaishnava. They worship all these principles as different
manifestations of the one Supreme Reality in differing circumstances.
If they are to be called “Sanatan dharmis” or in brief, “Sanatanis”,
why did the RSS not launch a movement insisting that the members of
the community, now plainly called Hindus, add a prefix “Sanatani” to
bring consistency? Not to do that would mean they would continue to
describe themselves as Hindus by religion, and again, as Hindus by
nationality. This becomes ridiculous.
Hinduism is no particular religion. It is a philosophy of religions.
The great nationalist leader, late Bipin Chandra Pal, described
Hinduism as a “confederal principle of co-existence of all religions”.
In deference to this spirit, the RSS had composed a verse in which the
names of pious Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and Jains were included
as persons to be remembered and revered early every morning, before
beginning the day’s work.
Socio-Cultural Heritage got Degraded
IF this is Hinduism, how does Hindutva differ from it? The RSS’s
cryptic answer is, Hindutva is the concept of “geocultural
nationalism”. Implicitly, it says that long before India’s political
unification, India had achieved cultural unification from Jammu and
Kashmir to Kanyakumari, and from Arunachal and Meghalaya to Saurashtra
through the medium of two great epics, the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata, and the Geeta (which is truly a part of the Mahabharata).
These great works of the ancient Indians, then universally called
Hindus, had imparted values of parental love, filial duties, brotherly
love, unshakeable fidelity to the spouse, the monarch’s obedience to
the people’s wishes, the triumph of dharma over the mightiest wrong-
doer—that is, values to be cherished in perpetuity. Hence Hindutva is
value-orientation, the RSS claims. But can the RSS deny that during
the so-called Hindu period, caste hatred had taken firm roots as a
value? In ancient India, desertion of the wife for no fault of hers
also had become a tradition, as in the case of Sita. Murder of a
shudra for reading the Vedas was sanctioned by the social ethos.
Merit of Religio-Confederal Concept
THE RSS needs to accept that the ancient Hindus had, at a certain
stage, come to indulge in regressive social discrimination. The
obverse side of “geocultral nationalism” was socio-cultural dominance
of the higher castes and of the males among them. In the sphere of
philosophical concepts, however, the ancient Hindus were the most
liberal and the highest in cosmopolitanism (Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam).
Hence if the RSS does not want to nurture caste inequality and gender
inequality, it should give up its “geo-cultural nationalism” (read the
socio-cultural concept) of Hindutva. If it seeks to promote the
philosophy of co-existence of all faiths, which is the ideal of
Hinduism, it should opt for the religio-confederal concept of
Hindustaniyat. The Muslims of this country have no problem with this,
because they have been traditionally describing themselves as
Hindustanis. The word Hindustan itself came from the verbiage of the
Iranians.
Four Cardinal Considerations
THE RSS needs to recognise four things. First, the usage of a word in
a restricted sense over centuries changes the original acceptation of
the word. Secondly, the Koran not only teaches the oneness of the
Creator. Its esoteric message is the unity of all of creation. The
bigots fail to see this. Hence, for ages, the raging controversy
within Islam, in the words of the eminent historian, the late Prof
Mohammad Habib, has been “between Wahdat-ul-wujud (God is everything)
and Wahdat-ush-shuhud (everything comes from God)”. Those who believe
in the former become attuned to tolerance, amicable relations between
all religious and racial communities and (Emperor) Akbar’s doctrine of
sulh-I-kul (Universal Religious Peace). The doctrine of Wahdat-ush-
shuhud led to the worship of external shariat (shariat-i-zahiri) and
communal hatred. (Vide Prof Habib’s Foreword to Dr S.A.A.Rizvi’s book
“Muslim Revivalist Movements in Northern India in the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries”)
From the above, it follows that the pious people in other faiths
should help in resolving the worldwide intra-Islamic controversy in
favour of the former. Declaration of the principle of confederal
principle in religion in India would largely help resolve Islam’s
global problem and be a powerful blow against bigotry, for world
peace.
Thirdly, India’s religio-philosophy’s contribution to Sufism in Islam,
and Islam’s contribution to spurring religious reform movements in
India constitute a glorious chapter in the world’s history. Historians
agree that the growth of Sufism in early Islam was inspired as much by
its internal urges as by the influences of Buddhism, the Vedanta and
the Hellenistic religions. Islam’s strident call to equality was
wedded to the Arabian nomadic tribes’ aggressive traits. It needed an
Indian response. This provided the spark for the religious reform
movements led by Ramananda, Kabir, Namdev, Tukaram, Guru Nanak and Sri
Chaitanya. To talk of inequitous socio-cultural Hindutva as the motto
is to belittle the fruitful intermingling of the religio-philosophical
thoughts of early Islam and its contemporary Hinduism.
Sharing is a positive value within Islam. Sharing the means of
sustenance is also an ideal of Hinduism so much so that Swami
Vivekananda had proclaimed that the “Hindu ideal is socialistic”.
Hence there is considerable convergence between the pristine Islamic
and Hindu spirituality.
Fourthly, all the ideals of love and selfless service which the
Ramayana and the Mahabharata had taught are getting eclipsed under the
influence of the now globally dominant commercialism, selfism, and cut-
throat competitivism in the name of efficiency. To restore ancient
India’s sublime values, we need a joint fight of all people against
the West’s consumerist and acquisitive philosophy of life and its
accompanying paradigm of development. The Biblical value of universal
love, the Koranic value of Raham and the Upanishadic teaching “love
others as you do yourself” can join together to beat back the narrow
self-centric modes of thought. For this also, the fascination for the
word “Hindutva” needs to be given up to salve the basic values.
Hinduism’s ideal is synthesis, ever higher synthesis. It requires
reconciliation by dissolving the sources of conflict in every
unfolding situation. Its ideal is integration of the heart and the
head (that is, emotion and intellect) of every individual; integration
of individuals with the society; integration of the communities by
elevation to newer peaks of harmonious existence. Its form of address
must, therefore, be such as has a psychological appeal to all people.
The language of negativism, or a language that has the flavour of bias
against any group is alien to the spirit of Hinduism. We need
inclusivism in letter and spirit.
Inclusivism is not an apologia for overlooking anybody’s hateful,
divisive or separatist trends. But to successfully fight separatism,
we must have a robust faith in the ultimate victory of the cause for
universal good and the preparedness to make sacrifices for it. Success
is assured if the approach is positive. Mere criticism/condemnation of
any trend without a pointer to the workable alternative serves only to
widen the gulf. It defeats the national purpose.
True, the virulent anti-Hindu, anti-Shia mujaddid movement in the 16th
century, the bigoted ulama’s secretive conspiracies against Emperor
Akbar’s policy of religious tolerance in the 16th century, the wave of
Wahabi Jihadism from Arabia in the 18th century, the ani-Hindu tirade
of the later-day incarnate of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in the late 19th
century and the mayhem for a separate homeland for the Muslims led by
the later-day incarnate of Mohammad Ali Jinnah were all abominations
and deserved condemnation. But the turning of the usually unruly
Pathans into the volunteers of non-violence led by the Frontier Gandhi
( Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan) was an index of the wonder that communal
harmony and national unity could achieve.
Indian Muslims had no Pathological Separatism
IT must not be imagined that the Indian Muslims had always been under
separatist influence. It is well known that in undivided Punjab,
undivided Bengal and in Sind and the NWFP, and Balochistan, that is,
in the Muslim-majority States which were to constitute Pakistan later,
the Muslim League’s influence was meagre. In the elections to the
provincial legislatures and the Central Assembly in 1937, just a
decade before the Partition, the Muslim League had cut a sorry figure.
In Punjab, it contested only seven out of 84 Muslim reserved seats and
won only two. In Bengal, out of 117 Muslim reserved seats, it had won
only 38. In Sind out of 133 Muslim reserved seats, it had secured only
38. In the NWFP, the League was trounced. The League did not get even
a single seat in the Central Assembly. This showed the Muslims could
be mobilised for national purposes if the national leadership could
act wisely and avoid falling into traps.
True, a decade later the results were reversed. The Muslim League won
all the 30 reserved seats for Muslims in the Central Assembly and 428
seats out of 492 reserved seats for Muslims in provincial
legislatures. That happened because the elections were held in an
atmosphere in which no civilised country would ever allow an election
to take place. The ambience was vitiated by the British rulers’
intrigues, the Imams’ fatwas and false propaganda blitz that in the
event of Muslim League’s defeat, the Muslims would not be allowed to
congregate to offer prayers or to bury their dead and that the
madrasas would all be closed. The Indian National Congress, which had
the necessary moral resources and international prestige, could have
asked for postponement of the elections unless there was a stoppage of
the false propaganda and a calming down of the tempers. Moreover, it
should never have agreed to the elections— a virtual referendum —
being held on the basis of restricted franchise in which only 10 per
cent of the population had the right to vote!
Deadly Poison Mix of Ruling Party’s Pseudo-Secularism and RSS’
Hindutva
IN post-independence India, the ruling Congress party, in the name of
secularism, has been following a policy of appeasing the bigoted
Muslim clerics. Thereby it encouraged “minority aggressivism” and
further fuelled the communal fire. But Hindutvavad was no answer to
this. Instead of mitigating the communal fire, it only served to
corroborate Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s and later Jinnah’s thesis that the
Muslims and the Hindus were two separate nations. What was needed
instead was the pointer that concessions to the clerics were only a
cloak for neglect of the Muslim masses’ material, intellectual and
spiritual interests. Only Mahatma Gandhi’s kind of response could have
been effective. During his Noakhali tour, with his ever-present
declaration of Universal Love, he had challenged the communalist
leaders to show him where the Koran had enjoined the killing of people
of other faiths. Could the RSS challenge the communalists the way the
Mahatma did?
One only wishes that the Mahatma had shown the same grit by standing
steadfastly with Maulana Azad and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan in resisting
Partition.
Hinduism’s unique teaching is: “Hate the sin, not the sinner.”
Hinduism also teaches: “Love others as you do yourself.” “Love has the
power to heal.” The Biblical teaching, too, is Universal Love. The
Koran teaches Khuda’s Raham pervades the universe. Criticism by the
way of pointer to the error is essential. But criticism without
concern for the welfare of the wrong-doer is of no avail.
Half-hearted Compromise is no Solution
IN its latest meet, the BJP’s National Executive has tried to make a
compromise between the RSS’ clamour for Hindutva and many of the BJP
leaders’ belated realisation that the Hindutva slogan alienates not
only the Muslims, Christians and large sections of the Dalits, but
also the secular “caste-Hindus”. L.K. Advani’s middle-path declaration
that the party would not accept “any narrow, bigoted, anti-Muslim
interpretation of Hindutva” indicates it is unable to shed its
fascination for the word it has so long been pledged to. In fact, the
BJP would not be able to shed it until the the RSS realises how, by
sticking to this word, it is hampering national unity and also
defeating its own cherished values. This tightrope walking by the BJP
will not have the healing touch. This will not unify the people.
Clearly discarding Hindutva and accepting Hindustaniyat will not mean
any loss of face. This will rather show the courage to steer a change
propelled by the depth of patriotic fervour.
If the RSS and/or the BJP could drop Hindutva as its motto, it would
be able to challenge the Muslimist bigots more effectively. Like Dr
Rafiq Zakaria and in one voice with all truly secular people, it will
be able to tell the bigoted clerics:
During the British rule, you accepted the replacements of the Koranic
punishments by those which the then rulers had imposed in their civil
and criminal courts. At that time, you acquiesced in the banning of
the stoning of the adulterous to death, though this ban violated the
Koranic injunction. You paid interest on the loans taken from the
banks though it was prohibited by the Koran. Now, you raise a hue and
cry about carrying out some essential reforms in Muslim Personal Law
even though some Muslim countries have already enacted them. In
protest against the Supreme Court’s righteous verdict in the Shah Bano
case, you got enacted a law of maintenance which has thrown many
Muslim women divorcees to the streets. ‘Triple talaq at one go’ is
barbaric and against the spirit of the Koran; still you cling to it.
After it drops the outmoded Hindutva slogan, it would be able to mock
the shariat enthusiasts in the manner of Akbar Allahabadi: “The Shaikh
advised his followers, why do you travel by train when you could
travel on camel’s back?”
Writing on the Wall
MAYBE, all these pleas will fall flat in the RSS leadership’s ears. In
that case, the RSS should read the writing on the wall: the RSS will
break up or become moribund. Despite its claim of being a monolith
with no divergence of views among its members, the RSS will face a
grave existential crisis if it does not change its tune in keeping
with the times. There are already sufficient indications. In the1980s—
I forget the exact year—I was invited by Deendayal Research Institute,
headed by Nanaji Deshmukh, to give a series of lectures on my ideas of
environment and development. Lala Hansraj Gupta was in the chair. When
I came to say “Hinduism is no religion. It is a way of life”, I heard
an exclamation in endorsement: “Exactly. Those who talk of ‘Hindus,
Hindus’ but have no interest in the lives of Muslims are not genuine
Hindus.” The voice was Nanaji’s. I was pleasantly surprised because
Nanaji was a prominent RSS member and I did not expect this from an
RSS leader of his stature. Later I had many discussions with him, in
course of which I asked him: “Why don’t you tell your opinions to
Balasaheb Deoras?” He told me that he was writing down his viewpoints
but these would be published after his death. Presumably, he did not
want to annoy the RSS leadership for fear of their non-cooperation in
his other constructive activities at Gonda or Chitrakut.
I know some senior BJP leaders who would be happy if Hindutva is
dropped as the guiding principle. How long can the RSS keep such
people together under the banner of Hindutva? The slogan of Hindutva
does conjure up fear of “Hindu cultural domination” in the minds of
today’s non-Hindus, even if Hindu Rashtra is ruled out. Rationalising
has its limits.
If the RSS changes its archaic ideas and accepts Hindustaniyat as the
religio-confederal principle, it can play a much larger role on the
national horizon. During invasions by China and by Pakistan, its
volunteers played a very useful role in mobilising the people against
the invaders, and working as service providers to our military and
internal security forces. It also played a significant role in
regulating traffic and maintaining law and order even-handedly. In
recognition of this, the then Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri,
invited the RSS leadership to be a member of the National Security
Council. In times of violent attacks on the Sikhs following Indira
Gandhi’s assassination, it did laudable work in giving shelter and
succour to the Sikhs. Dr Hedgewar had links with Bengal’s legendary
revolutionary leader, Trailokya Nath Chakrabarty also known as
‘Maharaj’; and therefore, this nation’s hero, Subhas Chandra Bose, had
even thought of utilising the RSS’ organisational skill in raising a
nationalist volunteer force. During Jayaprakash Narayan’s anti-
corruption and anti-Emergency movements and Bihar flood relief, the
RSS had earned fulsome praise from JP.
Will the RSS let all this goodwill to be besmirched or lost by its
dogmatism and obsolete ideas? It needs to realise that its Hindutvavad
does stir up, among its unthinking followers—which is by far the
larger part—fanaticism, blind prejudices and hatred against all those
who now refuse to see themselves as “Hindus”. If the RSS did not
suffer from the Nelson’s eye syndrome, it would have seen that a large
section of the Dalits and even the Sikhs, who were once the vanguard
of saving the Hindus from forced conversion, do not now like to be
counted as Hindus.
The author is one of the country’s earliest environ-mentalists and a
social philosopher.
http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article1571.html
Mainstream Weekly
VOL XLV No 01
Sachar Committee Report : A Review
Tuesday 24 April 2007, by Anees Chishti
The report of the High-Level Committee appointed by the Prime Minister
under the chairmanship of Justice Rajindar Sachar, retired Chief
Justice of the Delhi High Court, to study the ‘Social, Economic and
Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India’, has been a
subject of wide discussion in the press, among parliamentarians and
other politicians as well as in other informed sections of the
society.
The seven-member Committee had as its members eminent personalities
like Sayid Hamid, former Vice-Chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim
University and currently Chancellor, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, Prof
T.K. Oommen, former Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and a
sociologist of world renown, among others. Dr. Abusaleh Shariff, Chief
Economist, National Council of Applied Economic Research, who is noted
for his perceptive research on various issues of national concern, was
the Member-Secretary. There was no woman member: surprising, as the
condition of women is very important for any survey of the social
scenario among the Muslims. And, the Committee has tried to look at
the predicament of the Muslim women in as good a manner as it could.
The Committee had several consultants from different disciplines and
had commissioned specialists on various aspects of the subject under
coverage to write papers for its use in its study of the complex
issues.
The Committee collected data from the various Censuses, the National
Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), banks and, of course, from the
Central and State Governments.
The members of the Committee visited different parts of the country to
assess the grassroots situation and grasp the realities by experience
rather than merely with the help of statistics brought to their desks
by investigators. The Committee tried to sift the perception of
members of the Muslim community (as well as of non-Muslims) and
understand the nature and magnitude of the community’s grievances, to
be able to judge the veracity or otherwise of the expressions of
negligence and deprivation.
Most of the grievances of the community are common knowledge and those
who have access to the Urdu press in different parts of the country
are fully aware of the endless stories of ‘woes’ and ‘miseries’ of the
community. But a systematic study of these grievances had to be made
and the Sachar Committee ventured to do that. We shall deal with the
grievances briefly later but, first, a review of the findings of the
Sachar Committee in different areas of its concern.
II
It would be appropriate to begin a survey of the Sachar Committee’s
findings with the fundamental issue of education. The literacy rate
for Muslims in 2001 was, according to the Committee’s findings, far
below the national average. The difference between the two rates was
greater in urban areas than in rural areas. For women, too, the gap
was greater in the urban areas.
When compared to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes the growth
in literacy for Muslims was lower than for the former. The female
urban enrolment in literacy ratio for the SCs/STs was 40 per cent in
1965 that rose to 83 per cent in 2001. The equivalent rate for Muslims—
that was considerably higher in 1965 (52 per cent)—recorded a figure
of 80 per cent, lower than the figure for the SCs / STs.
According to the Sachar Committee’s findings, 25 per cent of Muslim
children in the 6-14 age-group either never went to school or else
dropped out at some stage.
The disparity in Graduate Attainment Rates between Muslims and other
categories has been widening since the 1970s in urban and rural areas.
According to the Sachar Committee, only one out of 25 undergraduate
students and one out of 50 post-graduate students in ‘premier
colleges’ are Muslims. The percentage of graduates in poor households
pursuing post-graduate studies is significantly lower for Muslims:
Hindus General (29 per cent); SCs/STs (28 per cent); OBCs (23 per
cent); Muslims (16 per cent). The unemployment rate among Muslim
graduates is the highest among all Socio-Religious Categories (SRCs),
poor as well as non-poor.
In the midst of the widespread discussion about the role of madrasas
in the life of Muslims, it is interesting to note that only three per
cent of Muslim children go to madrasas.
Some figures of the Committee are very revealing, when the situation
of OBCs is considered. In education upto matriculation, graduation and
employment in the formal sector all OBCs lag behind in terms of the
all-India average. Muslim OBCs (that have been defined here a little
later) fall below the Hindu OBCs in all categories. And, General
Muslims fare the worst being behind both Hindu and Muslim OBCs.
An important cause for the low level of attainment of Muslims in
education is the dearth of facilities for teaching Urdu and other
subjects through the medium of Urdu (mother tongue) in lower classes,
the Committee points out. It cites the better examples of Karnataka
and Maharashtra in this context. These two States are much better
equipped with Urdu medium schools at the elementary level. Karnataka
has the additional feature of concurrent facilities for English medium
as well in a good number of schools, the Committee points out.
In an indirect reference to the utility of reservation, the Committee
says that the SCs/STs have reaped advantages of targeted government
and private efforts thereby pinpointing the importance of ‘affirmative
action’.
Employment
According to the findings of the Sachar Committee, Muslims have a
considerably lower representation in jobs in the government including
those in the Public Sector Undertakings compared to other SRCs.
According to these findings, in no State of the country the level of
Muslim employment is proportionate to their percentage in the
population.
It is pointed out that the situation of government jobs is the best in
Andhra Pradesh where a “fairly close” representation (in proportion to
the population) has been achieved. Other States with a better picture
of representation are: Karnataka (8.5 per cent job share in a
population proportion of 12.2 per cent); Gujarat (5.4 per cent against
9.1 per cent); Tamil Nadu (3.2 per cent against 5.6 per cent).
According to an analysis, in all other States, the percentage of
Muslims in government employment is half of their population
proportion. The highest percentage figure of government employment for
Muslims is in Assam (11.2 per cent) even though it is far less than
the State’s Muslim population (30.9 per cent).
The most glaring cases of Muslims’ deprivation in government jobs are
found in the States of West Bengal and Kerala where, according to
common perception, egalitarianism has been the cherished norm in all
walks of life. In West Bengal where almost 25 per cent population
practises the Muslim faith, their share in government jobs is a paltry
4.2 per cent. In Kerala the Muslim representation in government jobs
is 10.4 per cent, a figure that is short of half of their population
percentage. In Bihar and UP the percentages of Muslims in government
jobs are found to be less than a third of their population
percentages. Those governing these States need to monitor their
actions to bring the situation in conformity with their professed
objectives and claims.
There are some factors that need to be considered in view of the low
employment figures for Muslims on an all-India basis. The Sachar
Committee observes that the low aggregate work participation ratios
for Muslims are ‘essentially’ due to the much lower participation in
economic activity by the women of the community. Also, a large number
of Muslim women who are engaged in work do so from their homes rather
than in offices or factories. Their figure in this regard is 70 per
cent compared to the general figure of 51 per cent
There is a high share of Muslim workers in self-employment activity,
especially in urban areas and in the case of women, the Committee
points out. Whether this trend is due to compulsion or their non-
expectation for jobs in the government or non-government formal
sector, or due to their inclination for certain types of work that are
done best under a self-employment scheme, would be an important
subject for study. The fact has to be considered that Muslims in
regular jobs in urban areas are much lower in numbers compared to even
the SCs/STs. And, surprisingly, the Muslim regular workers get lower
daily earnings (salary) in public and private jobs compared to other
socio-religious categories, as the Committee points out.
The point that needs special notice is that, according to the
Committee’s findings, Muslim participation in professional and
management cadres is quite low. Their participation in security-
related activities (for example, in the Police services) is
considerably lower than their population share (four per cent
overall).
In the context of employment of Muslims at the level of the Central
Government, the Committee’s findings are very revealing. In the Civil
Services, Muslims are only three per cent in IAS, 1.8 per cent in IFS
and four per cent in IPS. (While the figures are shockingly low
compared to the population percentage, the fact also needs to be
considered that there were only 4.7 per cent Muslims among the
candidates at the Civil Services examinations in 2003-04. The figure
would be almost identical for other years.)
In the Railways, 4.5 per cent are Muslims and, significantly, ‘almost
all’ (98.7 per cent) are in low level positions. Are you listening,
Laloo Prasad Yadav?
Figures for other Departments are: Education 6.5 per cent, Home 7.3
per cent, Police Constables (for which no special educational
qualifications are required) six per cent.
Also to be considered is the finding that in the recent recruitments
by State Public Service Commissions, the employment of Muslims has
been as low as 2.1 per cent.
Minorities other than Muslims are not placed as delicately as the
Muslims. According to the Committee’s findings, 11 per cent of Group A
jobs are with minorities other than Muslims. Deprivation of Muslims in
the State judical set-up seems to be among the most worrying aspects
of their overall backwardness.
The data collected by the Committee in this sector are about all
levels of the officers and employees: Advocate Generals, District and
Sessions Judges, Additional District and Sessions Judges, Chief
Judicial Magistrates, Principal Judges, Munsifs, Public Prosecutors,
and Group A, B, C and D employees. The overall Muslim presence of 7.8
per cent in the area of judiciary in 12 States with high concentration
of Muslim population is considered very low by experts.
To come back to an old theme, in West Bengal with a Muslim population
of over 25 per cent, the figure of Muslims in ‘key positions’ in the
judiciary is only five per cent. In Assam with a Muslim population of
30.9 per cent, this figure is 9.4 per cent. Surprisingly, in Jammu and
Kashmir (where the Muslim population is 66.97 per cent), the
community’s share in the State judiciary is only 48.3 per cent. Andhra
Pradesh once again scores over other States in terms of equitable and
even more than equitable sharing of jobs: Muslims have a share of 12.4
per cent in the State judiciary against a population share of 9.2 per
cent.
Experts feel that for an inclusive democracy, an equitable share for
all sections of the society in the judiciary is essential: it creates
greater public confidence in the judicial process. It would be useful
to survey the situation in this regard in some other developing and
developed countries to be able to arrive at some remedial measures for
this crucial sector of decision-making.
Health and Population
Along with education and employment, health and population welfare are
the other areas that have to be assessed for estimating attainments of
any society. The Sachar Committee has done this exercise in a
comprehensive manner.
First, the overall population picture: According to the 2001 Census,
the Muslim population of India was 138 million (13.4 per cent of the
total population). This figure is estimated to have crossed the 150
million mark in 2006. According to the estimate cited by the
Committee, the share of the Muslim population would rise ‘somewhat’
and stabilise at just below 19 per cent in the next four decades (320
million Muslims in a total population of 1.7 billion). There are many
areas where the Muslim population is 50 per cent or more; and in nine
out of 593 districts (Lakshadweep and eight districts of Jammu and
Kashmir) the Muslim population is over 75 per cent.
On the positive side, the period 1991-2001 showed a decline in the
growth rate of Muslims in most States. According to the Committee’s
findings, the Muslim population shows an increasingly better sex ratio
compared to other Socio-Religious Categories. Infant mortality among
Muslims is slightly lower than the average. (It is beyond the
Committee’s understanding how Muslims should have a child survival
advantage despite lower levels of female schooling and economic
status.) Life expectancy in the community is slightly higher (by one
year) than the average, and this should again surprise many.
The Committee’s finding is important that the Muslim child has a
significantly greater risk of being underweight or stunted than is the
case with other Socio-Religious Categories: the risk of malnutrition
is also ‘slightly higher’ for Muslim children than for ‘Other Hindu’
children. This again seems to be a contradiction vis-à-vis the
reported child survival rate.
Economy
Related to the existing economic condition of Muslims is the issue of
providing legitimate support by state and private agencies for the
members of the community to improve their position. One would like to
examine the situation with regard to trends in the support system of
existing instruments. Banks have been seen as an important source of
credit to support citizens’ economic and commercial ventures. The
picture regarding bank loans to members of the minority is not bright,
according to the findings of the Sachar Committee. It says that the
share of Muslims in ‘amounts outstanding’ is only 4.7 per cent. This
figure is 6.5 per cent in the case of other minorities. Further, on an
average the amount outstanding per account for Muslims is about half
that of the other minorities and one-third of ‘others’.
The pity is that, according to the report, many areas of Muslim
concentration have been marked by many banks as ‘negative’ or ‘red’
zones where giving loans is not advisable. Something would, indeed,
have to be done to put an end to such blanket bans, particularly in
view of the Committee’s finding that very large numbers of Muslims are
engaged in self-employment ventures.
The Reserve Bank of India’s efforts at banking and credit facilities
under the Prime Minister’s 15-Point Programme for the welfare of
minorities have, according to the Committee’s findings, mainly
benefited minorities other than Muslims, thus “marginalising Muslims”.
Apart from the formal banking sector there are two other institutions
that are meant to extend loans to the disadvantaged for economic
ventures: the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation
(NMDFC) and National Backward Classes Finance and Development
Corporation (NBCFDC). For loans from the NMDFC, one has to obtain a
guarantee from the concerned State Government. According to the
Committee, this is the biggest hurdle in the processing of loan
applications. And members of minority communities are very adversely
affected due to this factor.
Poverty Factor
The Committee has found that substantially large proportion of Muslim
households in urban areas are in the less than Rs 500 expenditure
bracket. According to calculations mentioned in the Committee’s
report, using the Head Count Ratio (HCR), overall 22.7 per cent of
India’s population was poor in 2004-05. In absolute numbers, this
amounts to over 251 million people spread across India. The SCs/STs
together are the most poor with an HCR of 35 per cent followed by
Muslims who record the second highest incidence of poverty with 31 per
cent people below the poverty line. The H(indu)-General is the least
poor category with an HCR of only 8.7 per cent and the OBCs hold the
intermediary level HCR of 21 per cent, which is also close to the all-
India average.
The Committee has observed that the inequality is higher in urban
areas compared to rural areas in most States. It says that poverty
among Muslims is the highest in urban areas with an HCR of 38.4 per
cent. Significantly, the fall in poverty for Muslims, according to the
data provided to the Committee, has been “only modest during the
decade 1993-94 to 2004-05 in urban areas, whereas the decline in rural
areas has been substantial”. Poverty leads to neglect, or the other
way round: the Committee found a “significant inverse association”
between the proportion of Muslim population and educational and other
infrastructure in small villages. Areas of Muslim concentration are,
somehow, not well served with pucca approach roads and local bus
stops.
An analysis by the Committee showed a fall in the availability of
medical facilities with the rise in the proportion of Muslims,
especially in larger villages. A similar but sharper pattern can be
seen with respect to post/telegraph offices.
Affirmative Action
Under the existing constitutional provisions, affirmative action in
the form of reservation cannot be possible for the entire Muslim
community even though, according to the findings of the Sachar
Committee, the entire community has been left behind in terms of
education, employment and economic status. A way can be found to lift
a significant segment of the community’s population if social
stratification is defined and officially accepted within the Muslim
community. It could be done in case of Hindus, and subsequently for
Mazhabi Sikhs and neo-Buddhists in terms of caste demarcation. But it
would not be easy to have official acceptance of the caste principle.
The resistance against acceptance of social stratification on caste
lines among Muslims would come largely from the clerics and other
orthodox sections of the Muslim community itself which would be
adamant in its insistence that caste does not exist within the
community. This, even though the fact is that, whether one likes it or
not, the Muslim community is divided with caste demarcations almost on
the lines of the Hindus. A via media has to be found for a clearly
defined backward class like the OBCs among the majority community.
The Sachar Committee has talked of the issue of social stratification
among Muslims. It points out that the 1901 Census had listed 133
social groups, “wholly or partially Muslim”, in India. This
classification thus recognised the fact of social stratification in
the community. The Committee has identified different groups of
Muslims based on studies by sociologists. The community, according to
these studies, as mentioned by the Committee, is placed into
two broad categories , namely, ashraf and ajlaf. The former, meaning
‘noble’ (emphasis added), includes all Muslims of foreign blood and
converts from higher castes. While ajlaf, meaning ‘degraded’ (emphasis
added) or ‘unholy’, embraces the ‘ritually clean’ occupational groups
and low ranking converts. In Bihar, UP, Bengal, Sayyads, Sheikhs,
Moghuls and Pathans constitute the ashrafs, The ajlafs are carpenters,
artisans, painters, graziers, tanners, milkmen, etc. According to the
Census of 1901, the ajlaf category includes “the various classes of
converts who are known as Nao Muslim in Bihar and Nasya in Bengal. It
also includes various functional groups such as that of Jolaha or
weaver, Dhunia or cotton carder, Kulu or oil presser, Kunjra or
vegetable seller, Hajjam or barber, Darzi or tailor, and the like.”
The 1901 Census also recorded the presence of a third category called
Arzal: “It consists of the very lowest castes, such as Halalkhor,
Lalbegi, Abdal and Bedia.” The Committee has taken note of the fact
that the Presidential Order (1950), officially known as Constitutional
(Scheduled Caste) Order, 1950, restricts the Scheduled Caste status
only to Hindu groups having “unclean” occupations. Their non-Hindu
equivalents have been bracketed with the “middle caste converts” and
declared OBCs.
The Committee has noted that at least 82 different social groups among
Muslims were declared OBCs by the Mandal Commission (1980). Owing to
this declaration many Muslim social groups got reservation in
different parts of the country under the Backward Classes category.
Only two States, Kerala and Karnataka, have provided reservation to
the State’s entire Muslim population (minus the creamy layer). The
roots of this policy have to be traced to the colonial days.
In Karnataka (the erstwhile princely state of Mysore), affirmative
action started in 1874 (with 80 per cent posts in the Police
Department having been reserved for non-Brahmins, Muslims and Indian
Christians). In Karnataka today, all Muslims with income of less than
Rs 2 lakhs per annum enjoy four per cent reservation in jobs and
admission to institutions in the category of ‘More Backwards’. In
Kerala Muslims enjoy 12 per cent reservation, with some other
communities and social groups too being provided reservation.
Tamil Nadu, which had a tradition of reservation to Muslims since
1872, withdrew such reservation following independence. Currently even
though there is no reservation in the State on the basis of religion,
nearly 95 per cent Muslims have been provided reservation as Backward
Classes, according to the data provided by the State Government to the
Sachar Committee. Significantly enough, reservations in Tamil Nadu
stand at 69 per cent, much above the limit of 50 per cent fixed by the
Supreme Court. Looking at the state of public employment for OBCs the
Committee found that unemployment rates were the highest among Muslim
OBCs when compared to Hindu OBCs and Muslims General. In the formal
sector (government/PSUs), the share of Muslim OBCs was much lower than
those of Hindu OBCs and Muslims General.
At the workers’ level, the Committee estimated that out of every
hundred workers about eleven were Hindu OBCs, three were Muslims
General and only one was a Muslim OBC.
The Committee had divided public employment into six ‘agencies’ of the
Central Government including PSUs and universities. It found that the
Hindu OBCs were under-represented. But their under-representation was
less than that of Muslim OBCs in five out of the six agencies, less
than that of Muslims General in three out of the six agencies. In the
State services the Committee found that Muslim OBCs had a better share
at the Group A level, but their presence was insignificant at other
levels.
In the context of Muslim OBCs, the Committee concluded that the
abysmally low representation of Muslim OBCs suggests that the benefits
of entitlements meant for the Backward Classes are yet to reach them.
The Committee also concluded that “the conditions of Muslims General
are also lower than the Hindu-OBCs who have the benefits of
reservations”.
III
While the Sachar Committee has done a laudable job of assembling a
huge body of data and presenting it in an easily digestible manner, it
has not been as meticulous in formulating its recommendations. Perhaps
it was due to the fatigue after an enormous amount of legwork on a
national scale and the subsequent analysis of the compiled information
that its members had to do in about 15 months of actual work, coupled
with the desire of submitting its report rather urgently and the fact
that much of the information about its findings had already been
accessed by a section of the press. In view of the mind-boggling
findings and the very sensitive nature of the ground it was traversing
a very comprehensive matrix of recommendations should have been
presented by an able and competent panel blending experience and fresh
thinking. Unfortunately this could not be achieved by the Committee.
The most important recommendations of the Committee can be summarised
as under:
• Creation of a National Data Bank (NDB) where relevant data about
different socio-religious communities could be stored to facilitate
any study and subsequent action.
• Setting up of an autonomous Assessment and Monitoring Authority
(AMA) for a regular audit of the benefits of different programmes of
the government reaching the concerned communities or groups.
• Establishing an Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) to examine and
analyse the grievances of deprived groups, the inspiration
understandably for it coming from the Race Relations Act, 1976 of the
United Kingdom that finds mention in the Committee’s recommendation.
• Exploring the idea of introducing some incentives to a ‘Diversity
Index’ in the realms of education, government, and private employment
and housing programmes. Special mention has been made of a possible
programme of incentives to colleges and institutions under the
University Grants Commission linked to diversity in the student
population.
• Evolving some sort of a ‘nomination’ procedure for enhancing the
levels of inclusiveness in governance.
• Certain measures like removal of anomalies in Reserved
Constituencies for General Elections against complaints of declaring
Muslim concentration areas as SC/ST reserved seats.
• Institutionalising evaluation procedures for textbooks, alternate
admission criteria in regular universities and autonomous colleges;
cost friendly reasonable hostel facilities for minority students as a
priority; making teacher training oriented to ideals of pluralism;
state-run Urdu medium schools for primary education in mother tongue;
ensuring appointment of experts from minority community on interview
panels and boards; linking madrasas with higher secondary schools
facilitating shift of students who might opt for a mainstream
education system after a few years; recognition of degrees from
madrasas for competitive examinations (a recommendation hard to find
acceptance in any section of concerned quarters); on the economic
front, provision of financial and other support to initiatives built
around occupations where Muslims are concentrated and that have growth
potential.
The above suggestions have given considerable food for thought with
regard to the panacea for deprivation of the Muslim community in
various spheres. But a more comprehensive and concrete programme
should have been suggested by the Committee.
This task could have been performed best by the able members of this
panel who had travelled far and wide and acquainted themselves with
the grassroots realities rather than leaving it for another possible
committee for a start from a scratch. This was essential to get action
initiated on the basis of its findings instead of letting this venture
too meet the fate of the earlier Gopal Singh Committee over two
decades ago that had similar findings (although it had a narrower
coverage than the Sachar Committee). Now it is for the Prime Minister
and his government to decide the future course of action to remedy the
situation regarding the travails of the Muslim community.
IV
Much of the Sachar Committee’s endeavour was in pursuance of the
perception among Muslims of utter neglect and apathy, and even
suspicion, towards the Muslim community on the part of governmental
agencies—right or wrong! An oft-repeated remark by many members of the
community was that Muslims carried a double burden of being labelled
as ‘anti-national’ and as being ‘appeased’ at the same time. Or,
whenever any act of violence or terror occurs Muslim boys are picked
up by the police. “Every bearded man is considered an ISI agent,” the
Committee has quoted someone as saying. It was also pointed out that
“social boycott of Muslims in certain parts of the country have forced
them to migrate from places where they lived for centuries.”
The Committee has also observed that identification of Urdu as a
Muslim language and its politicisation has complicated matters. A
worrying observation is that Muslims do not see education as
necessarily translating into formal employment. And, many a time
madrasas are the only educational option for Muslims.
On the economic front, the Committee observes that liberalisation of
the economy has resulted in displacement of Muslims from their
traditional occupations, thus depriving them of their livelihood.
The Committee has reported that there were many complaints of Muslims’
names missing from electoral rolls. It could not look into the
veracity or otherwise of this complaint. But what the Committee found
in case of complaints that a number of Muslim concentration Assembly
constituencies are declared as ‘reserved’ seats for the SCs
(deliberately?) should certainly worry those involved with the work of
delimitation of constituencies. Its analysis of reserved
constituencies for SCs in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal proved
that there was truth in the allegation of the members of the minority
community in this regard.
With the perception of Muslims not being quite favourable to official
agencies, the revelation of the findings of the Sachar Committee with
regard to over-representation of the community in the country’s
prisons, reported (before the submission of its report to the Prime
Minister) by The Indian Express, in its series of reports entitled
‘The Missing Muslim’, created a sensation. The Urdu press was on fire
and questions were asked why prisons were the only place where Muslims
were over-represented compared to all other communities and in some
cases their representation being much higher than their population
proportion.
In Maharashtra, the percentage of Muslim jail inmates in all
categories was found to be way above their share in the population
(share in population: 10.6 per cent; share in prison inmates: 17.5 per
cent). In Gujarat the position was: share in population: 9.06 per
cent; share in jail inmates: over 25 per cent). The situation was on
similar lines in other States too although the jail inmate share might
not be as bad in other States as in the States mentioned above.
Following the submission of the report to the Prime Minister, The
Indian Express reported that the data with regard to prisons were
edited out of the Sachar report, following the concern expressed on
these figures in different quarters. Some observers felt that the
prison figures should not have been omitted, as they would have given
a clear picture of some of the Muslim grievances with regard to the
more sensitive issues.
The remedy for the travails of the Muslim community can be found
largely by the community’s bolder initiatives in the field of
education that would empower them as nothing else would.
The government, on its part, seems to be ready for whatever remedial
measures can be adopted by its different agencies. The recent
initiative taken by the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, K. Rehman
Khan, to arrive at a consensus for action on an all-party basis,
through a conclave of Muslim MPs (including some from the Bharatiya
Janata Party, which has been very critical of the very appointment of
the Sachar Committee), seems to be a significant one. One only hopes
that such an initiative would have the support of the government and
some concrete steps would be taken without much delay.
http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article95.html
Sid Harth
Based on “Tabai Roas Jagio” by Dr. Sukhpreet Singh Udokay
Last week’s announcement by the VHP of putting portraits of Guru
Gobind Singh and Sree Guru Granth Sahib in Hindu Mandirs has shocked
Sikhs worldwide. The fact is that attacks on the Sikh faith and
history have been ongoing for years in order to show Sikhs to be a
part of Hinduism.
How Did This Begin?
Brahminism has always feared the Sikh faith. The Sikh Gurus proclaimed
the equality of all humanity and rejected practices like caste, holy
threads and worship of the cow. The exploitation of simple people by
the Brahmin was eliminated. Although Hindu fundamentalists have taken
a keen interest in destroying Sikhism for centuries, this latest cycle
of Hindu attacks on Sikhism can be traced to 1993. The Sikh Liberation
Movement had been brutally crushed in Punjab and was on its final
breaths. Sikh villagers were afraid of being identified as being
practicing Sikhs and roves of young Sikh men were cutting their hair
so that they would not be harassed or killed by the police.
It was at this point that a new “Sikh” organization, the Rashtri Sikh
Sangat began to enter Sikh villages. This organization began to
distribute literature about the Sikh faith and hold meetings. Many
villagers thought that it was an attempt to revive Sikh pride, but in
fact, the literature was written to show Sikhs to be a part of
Hinduism.
Akali Dal/BJP/RSS Alliance
Badal & RSS Leaders
The “Akali” party of Punjab, while claiming to represent Sikhs, is
lead by the same old men who allowed the 1978 Amritsar massacre and
the martyrdom of Bhai Fauja Singh and 12 other fellow Singhs. They are
the same ones who let Gurbachana Narakdhari go unpunished.
The Akali party, in an alliance with the Hindu BJP began to rule
Punjab. The RSS activity in Punjab also increased. Sangh programs were
held in places like Guru Nanak Dev Stadium (Ludhiana) with the
presence of Parkash Badal and other Akali/BJP leaders. On November 16,
1997, Badal while introducing the new RSS chief sad, “I can say with
confidence that the Sangh, under the leadership of Raju Bhaiya is
working towards removing all its shortcomings. Whenever this country
has faced either internal or external danger, the Sangh and it’s
workers have been on the front lines.
Today, I am feeling very lucky to be a part of this gathering.”
Raju Bhaiya in his speech that day, in the presence of Badal,
declared, “All Hindus are Sikhs and Sikhs Hindus. We are all one. Some
grow hair and some don’t. I say that All Hindus are Sikhs and all Sikh
are Hindus. Our principles are the same. With the help of unity, we
become very powerful…People are right when they say that Hindus have
the power to make Hindustan a leader in the world!”
An RSS Poster for Punjab
Under the watchful guidance of this unholy alliance, the RSS increased
its parchar amongst the Sikhs. It was a perfect time to move in for
the kill. The Sikhs had been beaten very badly by the Indian
government and their confidence had been shaken. The RSS would give
the Sikhs sweet poison. They shouted loudly that the RSS and all
Hindus LOVED Sikhs. They would preach that Sikhs were after all no
different than Hindus. The Sikh Gurus were true Hindus and Brahma,
Shiva and Vishnu blessed the Sikh faith. The Sikhs, they claimed,
should feel proud as the sword-arm of Hinduism.
In this way, the RSS has tried to make the Sikh masses try to take
pride in establishing a link between Sikhism and Hinduism. Once this
link becomes solid, the RSS has already devised a plan to decay the
foundations of the Sikh faith and history.
India's "Heros": Guru Nanak an equal of Indira Gandhi?
Who is the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat?
The Rashtriya Sikh Sangat (RSS) was officially formed on November 23,
1986 in Amritsar. The founder was one “Shamsher Sinh”
The express goals of the RSS are
1) To strengthen the bonds between Sikhs and Hindus to promote
National unity, awareness and patriotism.
2) To make Guru Nanak’s “Hindustan Smaalsee Bola” a reality and
maintain national patriotism and unity.
3) To promote Sri Guru Bani fro Sri Guru Granth Sahib
4) To perform seva with “Sarbat Da Bhala” in mind.
The Rashtriya Sikh Sangat has 500 branches across India and publishes
the magazine “Sangat Sandesh”.
Other goals of this organization are the creation of a Mandar at
Ayodhya’s “Ram Janam Bhoomi” and also a Gurdwara to commemorate visits
by Guru Nanak, Guru Tegh Bahadur and Guru Gobind Singh.
Every month, the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat has a function in which
occasionally Sri Guru Granth Sahib is parkash and sometimes not.
Usually the function takes place with paintings of Guru Nanak, Guru
Tegh Bahadur and Guru Gobind Singh at the front. These paintings are
accompanied by paintings of Ram and Krishna. The paintings are
garlanded with flowers.
The meeting begins with 5 readings of the Mool Mantar and then 20
minutes of keertan. After this, Sukhmani Sahib or Ram Avtar or Krishan
Avtar are read. This is followed by a singing of “Vanday Matram”.
The meeting concludes with a 20 minute lecture on the history the
original RSS founder Golvarkar and discussion of the role of Sanskrit
in Sri Guru Granth Sahib or some other similar topic.
Some Quotes…
* “Instead of sacrificing humans, Guru ji sacrificed goats and started
the tradition of Punj Pyaaray. All five Pyaaras were followers of the
Hindu faith” {Dr. Himmat Sinh in Rashtra Dharam)
* “The Sikh Gurus showed faith in the Hindu faith and visited Hindu
pilgrimage sites to show this” (Rashtra Dharam, p. 31)
* “When Guru Arjan was doing the Kar Seva of Harimandeir, Vishnu
reflected and said, “Lakshmi, the Guru is my own form. There is no
difference between us. He is making my temple. Let us go and see the
building of our new temple…” (Rashtra Dharam, 90)
* “The difference between Hindus and Sikhs was the creation of the
English mind.” (Rashtra Dharam, 98)
* “If today someone were to make a portrait of Guru Nanak without a
beard and turban, his life would be in danger but in fact, the
practice of keeping long hair and beards began only in the 20th
Century. (Madhu Kishvara, Hindustan Times Aug 21, 1999)
* “Guru Arjan Dev and Guru Tegh Bahadur used to pay obeisance to the
feet of the Devi” (Surindar Kumar, Jag Bani)
* “Guru Gobind Singh with the blessings of the Avtars (Brahma, Vishnu,
Shiva) created the Khalsa Panth.” (Sangat Sandesh, Sept 1998)
* “Maharana Partap, the Rani of Jhansi and Guru Gobind Singh were all
great patriots” (Rashtra Dharam)
* “The Sangh [RSS] is the Khalsa” (Ravani, Dec 1997)
“Guru Mati Das Sharma”???
Bhai Mati Das jee is a famous Shahid of the Sikhs who happily faced
death by being sawn alive but did not forsake his faith. Bhatt Vehis
record the history of this Shahid and it is known that Bhai Mati Das’s
grandfather, Bhai Paraga jee was a Sikh of Guru Hargobind and also
became a Shaheed in the battle of Ruhila.
Bhai Mati Das jee was of course then born into a Sikh family. The
family had been Sikh since the time of Guru Ram Das. Bhai Sati Das was
Bhai Sahib’s brother. Bhai Mati Das accompanied Guru Tegh Bahadur in
his travels to Assam, Bengal and Bihar. When Guru Sahib was arrested
and brought to Delhi, Bhai Mati Das was also brought with him. When
offered the choice to forsake the Sikh faith and become a Muslim or to
face death, Bhai Mati Das happily accepted the latter and only asked
that he die while facing the Guru. Even when Bhai Sahib’s body had
been cut in two, Japji Sahib could be heard from both halves.
Bhai Sati Das was also offered the choice to forsake Sikhi or death,
and accepted death. He was wrapped in cotton and burnt alive.
Hindu fundamentalist organizations, in an effort to demean Guru Tegh
Bahadur’s Shaheedee, have appropriated Bhai Mati Das and Bhai Sati Das
as Hindu heros. Yearly events are held to commemorate their martyrdoms
but they are presented as Hindus who died for their faith.
Bhai Hakeekat Singh jee was a young Sikh who is recorded in Bhatt
Vehis as “Hakeekat Singh” but later was appropriated by Hindus as
their own. Just like Bhai Hakeekat Singh is now referred to as
Hakeekat Rai even by Sikhs, these groups hope Sikhs will also give up
these two Sikh Shaheeds.
Sikhs and Raam
Another fallacy being promoted by the RSS is that the Sikh Gurus were
from the family of Raam. That throughout history, Vishnu has supported
the Sikhs. No Hindu text gives the family tree of Raam, and so there
is no foundation for this claim. Giani Puran Singh gave this lie
credence by repeating it publicly when he was Jathedar of the Akal
Takhat. The only support this lie has is in a work by Kesar Singh
Chhiber that has been corrupted. It claims the link between Raam and
the Gurus but it also claims that Guru Gobind Singh worshipped Durga
and took permission to keep his kesh from her. It also claims that the
Sikh Gurus accepted Sanatan Hindu rites.
Baba Banda Singh Bahadur or Veer Banda Bairagi?
"Veer Bandai Bairagi"
One of the RSS’s early targets has been Baba Banda Singh Bahadur. Baba
Banda Singh is a Sikh hero who first created a Sikh Rule in Punjab and
struck a Sikh coin. Baba Banda Singh is also a great Sikh martyr who
sacrificed his life but did not compromise his faith.
The RSS has attempted to turn this great Sikh hero, into a Hindu
Patriot. In the book “Veer Banda Bairagi” by Bhai Parmanand, Guru
Gobind Singh was a defeated man who went to Nander in sadness. There
he met the Hindu, Banda Bairagi who agreed to help Guru Sahib take
revenge for the death of his sons. Banda Baigragi had with him Rajput
warriors and a he gathered a Hindu army to punish the evil Wazir
Khan.
Guru Gobind Singh giving "Veer Bairagi" arms
The new Hindu history claims that Banda Bairagi never became a Sikh
and was an example of a pious Hindu helping his Sikh friend.
This story is of course utterly false. There was never any character
named “Banda Bairagi”. Baba Banda Singh was known as Madho Das. He
became a Sikh of Guru Gobind Singh by receiving Khanday Kee Pahul.
This fact is confirmed by the oldest sources including Tavarikh-Iradat
Khan (1714) and Panj Sau Sakhi (1734). The Bhatt Vehis mention how
Guru Gobind Singh himself gave Baba Banda Singh the five kakaars and
tied a keski on his head.
Baba Banda Singh’s own hukumnamas all make clear that he was a Sikh of
the Guru and call upon “srbqR Akwl purK jIE dw Kwlsw”[.
The question arises, if “Banda Bairagi” had an army of Hindu warriors,
why wouldn’t he have taken revenge for the Mughal excesses at Kanshi
and Mathura? Why are none of the famous Hindus in his army recorded in
history? Why were the Faujdars of conquered areas always Sikhs? Why do
even his own family accounts (Bansavalinama) refer to him and his sons
with the name “Singh”?
It is a blatant lie by the RSS to appropriate a Sikh hero and make him
into a Hindu.
A 25-Point of Attack
The RSS has 25 points with which it hopes to attack the Sikh faith and
lead to its eventual assimilation. All 25 points are very easily
refuted but lack of education and knowledge coupled with the RSS’s
organized attack make this a serious danger.
These points are already being incorporated into school text books and
taught as real history. This skewed history is already taught in many
areas.
1) Sikhs are an inseparable part of Hindu society.
2) If Hinduism is a tree, Sikhism is a fruit on that tree.
3) Gurbani is like the Ganga, it emerges from the Gangotri of the
Vedas
4) The Khalsa was crated to protect Hinduism and Hindustan
5) Japji Sahib is a summary of the Gita
6) The Failure of the 1857 “War of Independence” [in reality an
unorganized uprising by Poorbiya soldiers who 8 years earlier helped
the British conquer Punjab] was defeated only by the Sikhs
7) Banda Singh Bahadur was really Veer Banda Bairagi
8) The Sikh Gurus worshipped the cow
9) Condemning Bhai Kanh Singh Nabha and Bhai Veer Singh
10) Use examples from Trumpp and other anti-Sikh western scholars
11) The Sikh Gurus used Vedic ceremonies
12) Guru Gobind Singh worshipped the Goddess Durga
13) Guru Sahib was from the family or Ram and his devotee
14) Sikhs are from Lav-Kush
15) Baba Ram Singh was the legitimate Guru of the Sikhs
16) Create posters which challenge Sikh principles but appear to be
pro-Sikh
17) Insist on using the Bikrami calendar and share Hindu festivals
18) Call Bhai Hakeekat Singh, Hakeekat Rai and illustrate him as a
clean-
shaven Hindu
19) Claim [with no historical basis] that Guru Gobind Singh sent his
army to liberate Ram Janam Bhumi in Ayodhya from the Mughals
20) To create the Khalsa, Guru Gobind Singh seeked blessing from the
gods and goddesses and used Hindu mantras. The Kakaars were also
blessings from the gods.
21) Equate ÅÆ with “OM”
22) Call Bhai Mati Das “Guru Mati Das Sharma”
23) To do parkash of Sree Guru Granth Sahib in Mandirs and put
pictures of
Hindu Gods in Sikh Gurdwaras
24) Project Guru Gobind Singh as having taken a different ideology
from Guru Nanak and to make him into a Patriotic Hero of India
Guru Gobind Singh with Rana Partap and other Hindu "Heros"
25) Make all of Sikh history take a Hindu tint.
Small Steps to Oblivion
The RSS recognizes that Hinduism is many hundreds of years old and it
can slowly assimilate the Sikhs with time. By establishing links
between Vishnu/Raam and the Gurus, they hope that Sikhs will see these
Hindu gods as their own. With time, perhaps pictures of Raam and
Vishnu will find their way into Gurdwaras. The RSS has commissioned
paintings and posters that mix Hinduism and Sikhism and present Sikh
figures receiving blessings from Hindu gods.
Idol worship, which is taboo in Sikhism is also being slowly
introduced. Idols of Guru Gobind Singh and Guru Nanak can now be
purchased from many stores. Some Nanaksar Thaats have also installed
these idols. If idols of Sikh Gurus are acceptable, then perhaps with
time Hindu idols can be accepted. Gurdwara Manikaran is a good example
of what the RSS would like to see more common.
By putting Guru Granth Sahib in Hindu mandirs, simple Sikh villagers
will begin to go to pay obeisance regularly. With Sikhs attending
Hindu Mandirs, they will also offer worship to the Hindu gods and
goddesses there. Sikh marriages may also begin to take place in
Mandirs. Eventually, Hinduism in Punjab will be a mish/mash of Sikhism
and Hinduism and the Sikhs will lose their distinct identity. Given a
few generations, Guru Nanak will be an Avtar of Vishnu just like the
Buddha has become and the Sikhs will be eliminated.
Today, Hindu Mandirs and idols again surround Sree Darbaar Sahib in
Amritsar. In total, nine mandirs surround the Darbar Sahib complex,
with some even in the galleria. When will these small mandirs be
turned into massive buildings? When they are, what will the Sikhs have
to say?
The Sikhs today are facing dark days. The Sikh Liberation Movement has
been destroyed along with Sikh self-confidence. Hindu Fundamentalist
organizations are making deep inroads into the community and still
there is no reaction. We will be remembered as the first generation of
Sikhs to have accepted defeat and subjugation from an adversary.
Will we wake up when it is too late?
http://www.sikhlionz.com/hinduizationofsikhi.htm
INTRODUCTION TO THE POLITICAL FACTIONS IN INDIA
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)- National Volunteers Association
The RSS was founded in 1925 by Keshav Baliram Hegdewar is the
ideological fountainhead of the modern Hindutva movement. Organized
around the concept of Shakas, a local cell formation where young men
would gather for physical and ideological training, under the tutelage
of a brother or dada, the RSS ideology as espousing the national cause
was articulated over the next decade or more. Madhav Sadashiv
Golwalkar, who was anointed head of the RSS shortly before his death
by Hegdewar, clarified the idea of the nation in his treatise "We, or
Our Nationhood Defined":
We belive that our notions today about the Nation are erroneous... It
is but proper therefore, at this stage, to understand what the Western
Scholars state as the Universal Nation idea and correct ourselves (p.
21).
Based on a racial idea of Nation Golwalkar in praise of Hitler says:
To keep up the purity of the Race and its culture, Germany shocked the
world by her purging the country of the semitic Races - the Jews...
Germany has also shown how well nigh impossible it is for Races and
cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into
one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindusthan to learn and
profit by (p. 35).
The above two quotes are only samples of what is a very clearly
articulated twin pronged ideology of exclusion (of other races/
religions) and supremacy (of Hindus). The RSS, cell like Shaka
formation and the discipline inculcated within are central to its
success as a fascist force. The RSS cultural and ideological work has
not stayed within the boundaries of India. In the 1980's the RSS
itself broached out. The Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), an
organization modeled along RSS lines emerged in the US in the 1980's,
openly claiming allegiance to the founding principles of the RSS.
The RSS was founded in 1925 by the Maratha Brahmin Keshav Baliram
Hegdewar [ Biju ] on the Aryan Vaishnava Holy day of Vijaya Dashami
(the 10th day of the moon) when the Aryan invader Rama destroyed the
Dravidian Empire of Lanka [ Sangh ]. This was done to symbolise its
inherent anti-Sudra nature. Its organisation is highly skewed, with
the Sar Sangh Chalak (supreme dictator) at the top [ Roots ]. This
person can only be a Brahmin. It is the successor of Vivekananda and
Arya Samaj in the Neo-Brahmanist fundamentalist movement. The militia
is organised around local cells or `shakas' where weapons are
distributed to its hardcore members, who are drilled in a vigorous
program of harsh discipline. Vishnu temples serve as repositories of
weapons as well as centers of dissemination of its racist ideology of
Aryan supremacy. Its only leaders have been blue-eyed Sarasvat
Brahmins, a condition enshrined in its constitution. The Brahmin
Golwalkar, the second leader of the RSS, was trained as one of the
hardcore followers of Vivekananda.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)- Indian People's Party
This is Hindutva's parliamentary front which constantly makes efforts
to breach the secular formation through parliamentary actions -
elections, pushing for legislations of various kinds, making visible
the ideology in limited and constitutional ways within mainstream
political discourse. The BJP came into existence after the collapse of
the Janata Party which came to power after Mrs. Gandhi's Emergency in
1979. The erstwhile Hindu parliamentary party - the Jan Sangh - had
merged itself into the Janata Party in the wake of Emergency. However
to call it a parliamentary party is to ignore its actual working. The
party top leadership with few exceptions are all RSS cadre. The party
participates in joint meetings with RSS leadership often. The election
campaigns of the party are often significantly shaped and helped by
RSS cadres of the local region campaigning for the party's candidate.
In short, in more than one ways the relation between BJP and other
Hindutva organizations is quite clearly visible.Its top leaders are
all hardcore Brahminist RSS cadres. All its leaders have been Brahmins
too. Generally, RSS cadre graduate to the BJP.
VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad)- World Hindu Council
The VHP was founded on August 29, 1964 in Bombay with the clear aim of
being the activist wing, that would undertake aggressive actions in
civil society as a whole. The first general secretary of the VHP made
its goals clear as follows:
It is therefore necessary in this age of competition and conflict to
think of. and organise, the Hindu world to save itself from the evil
eyes of all three {all three being Christianity, Islam and Communism).
(From the Organiser, Diwali Special, 1964.)
The VHP has gone on to do just that - spread out as a extra-
parliamentary force throughout not just India, but the world. Its
primary functions in India are to mobilize forces for agitational and
violent purposes. It took part in the Cow Protection Movement though
out the 60's and the 70's. The entire Babri Masjid movement was
orchestrated by the VHP - steadfastly refusing to enter into any
negotiation, rejecting the right of the judicial system in
adjudicating on the issue and mobilizing often violent events with the
clear intent of polarizing society and creating a political movement
within public discourse of Hindutva - the Rath Yatras of the 1980's
and the final demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 were orchestrated
by the VHP in association with its "youth wing" the Bajrang Dal. Again
the strategy of the Hindutva combine as a whole is palpably apparent
here. BJP leaders for instance would participate in VHP sponsored
events, but when the results of such events came out - such as
violence and killings - the BJP would conveniently distance itself
temporarily from the VHP.
On the international front, the VHP's success lies in mobilizing
migrant Hindus, especially the middle class and lower middle class.
The VHP of America and its student wing the Hindu Student Council
(which is present on many US and Canadian campuses) is the most
obvious example of its international mobilization. The VHP of America
and HSC's for instance conducted the the World Vision 2000 conference
in Washington D.C in 1993, which became a rallying point for overseas
Hindus and a ground for further recruitment in the wake of what many
commentators called a "celebration" over the destruction of the mosque
in India. The VHP of America and UK primary success can be seen if not
in any other way in terms of financial clout - as it is the primary
mode of channeling dollars and pounds into Hindutva politics back in
India.
The council was established on August 29, 1964 in Bombay, Maharastra
[ Biju ] with a political objective of establishing the supremacy of
Hinduism all over the world. It obtains funds and recruits from Aryan
Hindus all across the globe, especially from the US, UK and Canada and
has grown to become the main fund-raising agency of Brahmanist
Fundamentalism. The council was instrumental in the demolition of the
holiest Islamic shrine in Oudh, the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya and has
organised several massacres of Muslims and Christians. It is in the
forefront in the call for a Hindu Rashtra, a Hindu State ethnically
cleansed of its non-Aryan populations.
Bajrang Dal- Party of Hanuman
The militant wing of the VHP, it was formed "to counter `Sikh
militancy' " during the Sikh Genocide of 1983-84 [ Bajrang ]. Created
with the objective of the eradication of Sikhs which it has termed
"Muslims in disguise", its cadres fought alongside Congress-backed
Hindutva militias during the massacre of 200,000 Sikhs under Indira
Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. Recruits carry a " knife-like trident to be
slung across the shoulder - an answer to the Sikh kirpan
" [ Bajrang ]. It has subsequently expanded its targets to include
Muslims and Christians as well.
Ranvir Sena- Army of Ranvir
The militia was founded in 1994 by `the merger of several upper-caste
private armies such as the Savarna Liberation front and the Sunlight
Sena' [ Rama ] in order to combat Maoist Dalit organisations. It is
essentially the Brahmin private army of Bihar. Enjoying clandestine
Government support, the organisation is devoted to anti-Dalit
terrorism and the preservation of the Vedic apartheid system. Its
militiamen are known to be heavily armed with the most modern weaponry
which is financed by the VHP, and the Sena has openly claimed
responsibility for numerous massacres of landless Dalit Blacks and
mass rapes of Dalit women. Human Rights Watch estimates the private
army has been responsible for more than 400 deaths [ HRW ].
Shiv Sena- Shiva's Army
The Shiva Sena arose as a movement amongst Congress members. It
intitially unleashed a `physical annihilation' of Communists (who were
mainly Black) and against Dalits, and organised the mass murder of
Bombay's once-influential Black South Indian communities
(`lungiwallahs') and Gujaratis [ Roots ]. Subsequently, it engaged in
the mass murder of 3000 Muslims [ Sri ]
ABVP- Indian Universities Council
This front comprises students of Hindu religious schools (vidyalayas).
It has expanded its base by infiltration into `secular' universities.
Its higher-ranking cadres are well-equipped with weaponry; they often
organise communal campus disturbances against Christians, Muslims,
Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains. Most of its members graduate to become
hardcore RSS and VHP militants.
Bharatiya Jan Sangh- Indic Race Party
Founded in October 1951 with the Bengal Brahmin Shyama Prasad
Mookerjee as its president, who had resigned from the allied `soft'
Brahminist Congress in Apil 1950 [ Chandra ] was president until he
died in 1953. Its cadres were carefully chosen indoctrinated
activists. The second president, the Brahmin Mauli Chandra Sharma
resigned in 1954 to protest against RSS domination of the party. It
strove for an `Akhand Bharat' [ Chandra ] ethnically cleansed of its
Muslim, Christian and Black Sudroid Populations.
Hindu Mahasabha- Great Congress of Hindus
The Sabha began as `an extremist wing of the Congress Party' [ Perry ]
and was founded by the Maratha Brahmin Vinayak Damodar Sarvarkar.
Influenced by `German racism' [ Letter ] Sarvarkar sought to establish
a racially pure Hindu state ethnically cleansed of its non-Hindu
populations. Sarvarkar's followers were involved in the brutal
assasinations of of Sir Wyllie [ Sarvar ].
HSC (Hindu Students Council)- World Hindu Council
The `student wing' of the VHP [ Biju ]. It conducted the the World
Vision 2000 conference in Washington D.C in 1993 which was a
celebration over the destruction of Babri Masjid and the attendant
genocide of 5,000 Muslims [ Biju ]. It is involved in setting up
hardcore Hindutva websites across the internet, spewing hatred against
Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and Sikhs.
Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS)- Hindu Volunteers Association
The HSS was formed in the US in the 1980s, ` openly claiming
allegiance to the founding principles of the RSS' [ Biju ], in order
to organise Hindu terrorists in America.
Arya Samaj- Society of Aryans
Founded by Dayanand Sarasvat (born 12 Feb 1824) [ Rao ] Swami Dayanand
established the Arya Samaj in 1875. The Dayanand Anglo Vaidic schools
(DAVs) are its propaganda wing, designed to raise a generation of
brainwashed militants. Most of its students go on to become hardcore
RSS and ABVP members. The Arya Samaj is the fountain of the Hindutva
movement : `The rise of Hindu nationalism can be traced to the Arya
Samaj in the late nineteenth century' [ Perry ]. Dayananad Sarasvati
was a bigoted anti-Islamist. This is what he had to say regarding
Islam :
" Such teachings deserve to be utterly discarded. Such a book
[ Quran ], such a prophet [ Mohammed ] and such a religion [ Islam ]
do nothing but harm. The world would be better off without them. Wise
men would do well to discard a religion so absurd and accept the Vedic
faith which is absolutely free from error." [Polemics], [ Sarasvati, p.
633 ]
The raison-d'etre of the Arya Samaj was anti-Islamism and anti-
Sikhism :
" Both of the early leaders of the militant Aryas, Pandit Lekh Ram and
Lala Munshi Ram [in 1917 he became Swami Shraddhananda], died at the
hands of Muslim assassins as a direct result of their involvement in
communal activities -- polemics and conversions. Lekh Ram was killed
in 1897 due to hostile exchanges with the Ahmadiya sect of Qadian.
Shraddhanand was murdered in 1926 due to his shuddhi activities in
Delhi and the United Provinces." [ Polemics ]
Ram Rajya Parishad
Council of the Kingdom of Ram
Formed with the explicit purpose of re-establishing Ram-Rajya (the
Empire of Ram), its goal was the elimination of Sudroid Blacks
(Dalits, Dravidians, Adivasis, Kolarians) and to establish a racially
pure Aryan nation on the lines of Ram-Rajya. Jan Sangh, the Hindu
Mahasabha and the Ram Rajya Parishad was 10 seats with 6.4 per cent of
the votes. [ Chandra ] By 1967 it had disappeared.
Hindu hardliners have grown more vocal
Its founders felt the need to present Hinduism in a rigorous though
simplified form which would be comparable to most other world
religions. The superiority of other faiths was believed to stem from
their being far less diffuse and more uniform than Hinduism.
VHP is a hardline Hindu outfit with unmistakably close ties to its
parent organisation, the extremist RSS, whose objective to 'Hinduise'
the Indian nation it shares.
Central to the RSS ideology has been the belief that real national
unity and progress will come only when India is 'purged' of non-
Hindus, or, when members of other communities subordinate themselves
'willingly' to 'Hindu superiority.'
Linked groups
The VHP has tended to tone down the rhetoric of Hindu supremacy and
even make an occasional distinction between fellow (Muslim) citizens
of the present and (Muslim) 'marauders' of the past.
But the ambition of establishing a resurgent Hinduism by inculcating
what some historians call a carefully constructed common 'Hindu
spirit' is very much central to the VHP.
VHP extreme leaders Rallying for Nationalism in North India
The temple project enjoys a lot of support
This is also something it shares with the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP), which currently leads the Indian Government at the centre.
Earlier known as the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), the BJP was
established in 1951 as a political wing of the RSS to counter rising
public revulsion after the revered independence figure Mahatma Gandhi
was assassinated by a former RSS member.
Some commentators say the party came close to obliteration in the
1960s with the Congress led by the charismatic and secular Jawaharlal
Nehru, leaving little room for hardline communal politics.
But a political emergency announced by Nehru's daughter, Indira
Gandhi, in 1975 enabled the BJS leaders, Atal Behari Vajpayee and LK
Advani among them, to gain near stardom after serving brief prison
sentences.
Many women have joined the hardliners' campaign,
But it didn't really emerge as a political presence until the early
1980s. A series of events in that decade including the mass conversion
of lower-caste Hindus to Islam pushed the BJP's close affiliate, the
VHP, to the forefront.
Historians say the VHP-led Hindu right considered the mass conversion
of "dalits" or lower-caste Hindus to Islam to be an unforgivable
insult.
The dalits, for centuries beholden to the upper castes, outraged Hindu
hardliners by daring to convert at all, and moreover, convert to
Islam.
The VHP saw this as a serious threat to its notion of Hinduism.
Despite murders of Dalit-Muslim converts, the leader of the VHP still
claims the VHP are 'peaceful'
It proceeded to whip up Hindu support for a re-defined communal force,
organising a series of religious meetings, cross-country marches and
processions through the 1980s.
This phase coincided with the launch of an electoral strategy by the
BJP to corner and hold on to the "Hindu" vote.
Temple controversy
Following the success of their campaign, senior VHP leaders announced
at a religious meeting in 1984 their programme to "liberate" a site in
Ayodhya from an ancient mosque to make way for a temple to the Hindu
god Ram.
Some 'moderate' Hindu leaders support the VHP
Analysts say this announcement heralded a turning point in the history
of the Hindu nationalist movement.
The VHP has since then claimed that the site belongs rightfully to
Hindu worshippers who believe that the mosque stood on the birthplace
of the god, Lord Ram.
Although the claim does not stand up to substantial archaeological or
historical scrutiny, the VHP and BJP are seen to have made possible
the creation of a shared Hindu symbol that cuts through most divisions
in Hindu society.
Sue Tao
http://www.sikhlionz.com/vhprssbjp.htm
Hindutva: The Web of Fascism in India
'Militant Hinduism' is a term that existed prior to the assassination
of Mahatma Gandhi by a former Rastriya Swayemsevak Sangh (RSS) member
but only became widely known after this incident. While the Indian
masses were battling their colonial rulers, the British, certain
groups amongst them were focusing on a perceived internal conflict.
Claiming to be the custodians of Hindu Nationalism, members of the RSS
(National Volunteer Corps) were organizing an ideological movement to
cleanse their society of foreign entities, specifically the Muslims
and any minorities that did not pledge allegiance to Hinduism. After
the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi the ruling Congress political
party banned the RSS. During this time period a report documenting the
ideology and structure of the RSS was circulated within the Congress
membership. This report labeled the RSS as a "purely Maharashtrian
Brahmin organization." [a]
It noted that the RSS was involved in "secret and violent methods
which promote Fascism," while disregarding the constitution and the
law. In order to understand this ideology we must understand its
roots, specifically Brahminism.
Brahmins are the apex of the hierarchical caste system predominant in
Indian Hindu society. This system classifies people into four groups
with the Brahmins at the throne and the untouchables, or Dalits, at
the bottom. Women are not given any recognition in this system, while
equating them to mere animals and property of man. This system is in
place to secure power for the few in order to socially, religiously
and politically oppress the masses of Hindu society. What we are
witnessing is Brahminism attempting to spread its wings and control
non-Hindu minority groups as well.
The objective of the RSS, a communal militant organization, is to
Hinduize India and rid it of any foreign elements. However, according
to Madhavrao Sadasivrao Golwalkar (a past leader of the RSS), foreign
elements may coexist within the Hindu Nation provided they, "adopt the
Hindu culture and language, learn to respect and hold in reverence the
Hindu religion, entertain no idea but the glorification of the Hindu
race and culture … they must not only give up their attitude of
intolerance and ungratefulness towards this land and its age-old
traditions, but must also cultivate the positive attitude of love and
devotion instead; in one word, they must cease to be foreigners or may
stay in the country wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation claiming
nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment,
not even citizen's rights." An analysis of this ideology reveals three
major ingredients which are required for its success: a homogenized
Hindu community based on Brahmanical scriptural prescriptions;
subordination, if not elimination, of the members of other
denominations; and the creation of an aggressive Hindu community.
While Adolf Hitlers' fascist regime committed genocide supported by
the ideology of race purity, the RSS and its affiliates have adopted a
similar philosophy with the exception that they are pursuing religious
purity. As noted by Aijaz Ahmad, unlike Hitler, "for whom the crossing
over from one race to another was simply impossible, Savarkar (past
Hindu Mahasabha leader and much-respected personality in RSS circles)
does offer to non-Hindu "races" an alternative, namely that they can
re-join this mainstream if they convert to Hinduism and bring up their
children as Hindus." [b]
Founded in 1925, the RSS adopted the German and Italian fascist
government model to further its agenda. The agenda was implemented by
an intricate structure of subsidiary groups, which infiltrated all
parts of the social fabric, including education, politics, labor
unions and economics. Amongst their affiliates, the most important and
influential were the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Shiv Sena, and their
political party the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), which was formed when
the original Jan Sangh party was disbanded to merge with a larger
political formation in 1977. Today these groups are collectively
referred to as the 'Sang Parivar.' The foundation of the Sang Parivar
remains the predominantly upper-caste (Brahmins) trade-professionals
while the henchmen are the lower middle-class youth. Italian scholar,
Marzia Casolari who draws parallels between Hindutva and the fascist
ideology of Italy, exposes the Sang Parivar's doctrine of separatism
and supremacy.
Marzia researched numerous publications issued during the early years
of the RSS and found that there existed evidence of direct contact
between leaders of the RSS and the Italian fascist government and also
the German representatives in India at the time. She notes that B. S.
Moonje's (founder of the parent of the RSS) trip to Italy in 1931
during which he met Mussolini, was more than just a politically
motivated visit.
The highlight of the visit was the meeting with Mussolini. An
interesting account of the trip and the meeting is given in Moonje's
diary, and takes thirteen pages. The Indian leader was in Rome from 15
to 24 March 1931. On 19 March, in Rome, he visited, among others, the
Military College, the Central Military School of Physical Education,
the Fascist Academy of Physical Education, and, most important, the
Balilla and Avanguardisti organizations. These two organizations,
which he describes in more than two pages of his diary, were the
keystone of the fascist system of indoctrination - rather than
education - of the youths. Their structure is strikingly similar to
that of the RSS. They recruited boys from the age of six, up to
eighteen: the youths had to attend weekly meetings, where they
practiced physical exercises, received paramilitary training and
performed drills and parades.
The RSS publications at the time, primarily the 'Kesari,' regularly
published editorials and articles about Italy, fascism and Mussolini.
Vinayak D. Savarkar (a.k.a. Veer Savarkar), president of the Hindu
Mahasabha, a subsidiary of the Sang Parivar, pronounced in front of
about 20,000 people in Poona on 1 August 1938 that, "India's foreign
policy must not depend on "isms". Germany has every right to resort to
Nazism and Italy to Fascism and events have justified that those isms
and forms of Governments were imperative and beneficial to them under
the conditions that obtained there." It was normal procedure for the
Sang Parivar to compare the Jewish problem in Germany to the Muslim
problem in India thus embedding the idea of the 'internal enemy' into
the Hindu masses who were willing to listen. The Sang Parivar's top
priority was to infiltrate all sections of the social and political
structure of the Indian Government because they understood that the
rise of fascism in Germany and Italy occurred through a combination of
street violence (carefully orchestrated by the upper echelons and
implemented with great mass support), deep infiltration into the
police, bureaucracy and army, and the connivance of political
leaders." Sumit Sarkar wrote, after the 1992 communal riots in Mumbai,
that "the triumph of Hindutva, 'hard' or 'soft', implies for Muslims
and other minority groups…a second-class citizenship at best, constant
fear of riots amounting to genocide, a consequent strengthening of the
most conservative and fundamentalist groups within such
communities." [c]
Partha Banerjee, who has had first hand experience with the Sang
Parivar for fifteen years of her life, notes that "the Hindu
fundamentalist RSS-BJP-VHP and the Shiv Sena are no different from
radical Muslim groups such as the Jamat-e-Islami or the Taliban." In
their attacks towards the Christian missionaries, the Sang Parivar
influenced the minds of their followers by using violent propaganda.
[d]
"Jesus is junk. It is high time for Hindus to learn that Jesus Christ
symbolizes no spiritual power, or moral uprightness. He is no more
than an artifice for legitimizing wanton imperialist aggression. The
aggressors have found him to be highly profitable so far. By the same
token, Hindus should know that Jesus means nothing but mischief for
their country and culture." [Sita Ram Goel. 1994. Jesus Christ-An
Artifice of Aggression. Voice of India, New Delhi. Prominent leader
and theorist of RSS]
Ms. Banerjee, who is writing a book about her experience, has
witnessed Sang Parivar activists climb the political ladder within the
BJP to become high-level politicians, influencing homeland and foreign
policies. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the current Prime Minister, is a life-
long RSS member. BJP's political ally Shiv Sena (SS) and its
dictatorial leader Bal Thackeray have been openly supportive of social
aspects of society that are racist and oppressive. Mr. Thackeray has
gone so far as to say that democracy is not for India and what Indians
need is a "benign dictatorship."
Mr.Golwalkar's book "We or Our Nationhood Defined" published in 1938
was a testament to the ideology the Sang Privar upholds. His
comparison of the Hindutva ideology with the fascist agenda of Germany
is alarming. An excerpt is provided below.
German race pride has now become the topic of the day. To keep up the
purity of the race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her
purging the country of the Semitic races-the Jews. Race pride at its
highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well-nigh
impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences going to
the root, to be assimilated into one united whole-a good lesson for us
in Hindusthan (i.e., the land of Hindus) to learn and profit by.
In order to implement its agenda, the Sang Parivar requires massive
financial support and this it receives from various covert charity
groups, which are dispersed throughout India and the diaspora.
According to Ms. Banerjee, financial support for the Sang Parivar's
activities comes from various charitable groups some of whom collect
under the banner of eradicating poverty and social upliftment.
However, these funds are funneled to support the activities of the
Sang Parivar.
Money is also reportedly pumped in and out by other organizations such
as the Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP), VHP of America, and the Hindu
Student Council or HSC of America. Traditionally conservative, but
apolitical Hindu temples in USA and Europe are now targeted by the
Sangh in order to mobilize second-generation Indian-American youth
through organization of VHP-sponsored Hindu summer camps and various
religious conventions of HSC. Under the guise of cultural education, a
whole generation is being indoctrinated to be blind, separatists, and
bigots. Many Indian immigrants, ignorant of the relationship of the
VHP and HSC with BJP and RSS, are being used to further the fascist-
like sociopolitical agenda of the Sangh Parivar.
In the 1990s the Sang Parivar invented the 'Ram Janam Bhoomi' platform
to build a Hindu temple at the site of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.
This caused severe communal rioting during 1992 in Mumbai killing
thousands of innocent Muslims and Hindus. Their contention was that
the mosque, known as Babri Masjid (after the Islamic ruler Babar) was
built upon the ruins of a Hindu temple that was supposedly demolished
by "Muslim" invaders. This temple, the Sangh says, was built to mark
the holy birthplace of Rama, the God king. The Sangh contends that a
temple with pillars had indeed been there since the eleventh century.
However, even a devoted pro-BJP Belgian columnist, Koenraad Elst, in
his book argues:
"When that building (the temple) was destroyed, we do not know
precisely, there are no descriptions of the event extant anywhere.
Mohammed Ghori's armies arrived there in 1194, and they may have
destroyed it. It may have been rebuilt afterwards, or it may only have
been destroyed by later Muslim lieutenants. So it is possible that
when Mir Baqi, Babar's lieutenant, arrived there in 1528, he found a
heap of rubble, or an already aging mosque, rather than a magnificent
Hindu temple."
Other archeologists plainly assert that there has not been a single
piece of evidence for the existence of a temple of brick, stone or
both. This entire episode was clearly politically motivated being that
Uttar Pradesh (U.P.), where the incident occurred, has the largest
number of parliamentary seats and is important enough to sway the
outcome of the elections for one party or another. The result was
favorable for the BJP. They managed to form a short-lived coalition
government in U.P. in 1995, paving the way for a big win in the 1996
elections.
The anti-Pakistan sentiment, which reigns high on the BJP agenda, is
nothing new. Its predecessor the Jan Sangh was also anti-Pakistan.
According to Bipan Chandra, former Professor of History at Jawaharlal
Nehru University in New Delhi, the "Jan Sangh was strongly anti-
Pakistan." According to one of its resolutions passed at the end of
1960s, Pakistan's ``aim is to sustain the faith of Indian Muslims with
the ultimate objective of establishing Muslim domination over the rest
of India as well." Now with the BJP having significant influence in
the Indian polity with a member of RSS as Prime Minister, the anti-
Pakistan card is being played repeatedly with everything from everyday
crime to communal rioting being blamed on Pakistan along with the
militant excursions into Indian Kashmir. The massacre of innocent Sikh
Kashmiris during former US President Bill Clinton's visit to India,
which was initially blamed on Islamic militants supported by Pakistan,
has been exposed as an Indian Government plot by Amnesty International
and various other independent human rights groups. The related DNA
scandal, which exposed the governments plot to frame certain
individuals related to the massacre was spoiled when it was discovered
that the men had been dead prior to the incident.
While attempting to understand the psyche of the Sang Parivar, one
must not disregard its external influence, the bond with fascism made
by its founders, with the objective to convert the average citizen
into a soldier. Savarkar introduced the roadmap for the Sang Parivar
during a speech he made on August 1, 1938. While referring to the
situation in Germany and Italy he said:
Germany has every right to resort to Nazism and Italy to Fascism and
events have justified that those isms and forms of Governments were
imperative and beneficial to them under the conditions that obtained
there. Bolshevism might have suited Russia and Democracy as it is
obtained in Briton (sic) to the British people.
Marzia Casolari noted that the "continuous reference to German racial
policy and the comparison of the Jewish problem in Germany with the
Muslim question in India reveals the evolution of the concept of
'internal enemy' along explicitly fascist lines." This concept is now
coming to fruition with the state sponsored communal violence, which
is being unleashed sporadically with precision. The henchmen of the
RSS and VHP are provided lists of Muslim homes and shops from
government offices that are controlled by BJP politicians. Human
rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty
International (AI), have documented this fact during their
investigations of various violent communal outbreaks. One interesting
fact about these outbreaks is that they are unquestionably labeled as
'riots,' which would imply violent public disorder or unrest. However,
fatality figures show that a specific minority community is targeted
and suffers a disproportionately larger number of losses. Victims who
are protecting themselves and their families and property generally
cause fatalities on the other side and this is to be expected. Some
examples of pogroms, carried out by government sponsored hoodlums
armed with knives, kerosene, axes and lists of homes and business of
the targeted community, are the killings of innocent Sikhs after the
death of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in November of 1984, and the
murders of innocent Muslims in Gujarat in March of 2002 after the
Godra incident. Some trends of violence that have emerged from these
incidents are indicative of the zeal of the Sang Parivar and its
followers to humiliate and coerce a group into submission or eradicate
them.
The Indian society holds a woman's honor at a high stature, not so
much for the well being of the woman but more for the public standing
of the family she represents. Thus in order to demean a group the
tactic of sexual violence (including gang rape) against the women folk
is employed. The HRW report notes that, "tragically consistent with
the longstanding pattern of attacks on minorities and Dalits (or so-
called untouchables) in India, and with previous episodes of large-
scale communal violence in India, scores of Muslim girls and women
were brutally raped in Gujarat before being mutilated and burnt to
death." The report further states, that "testimonies collected by the
Citizens' Initiative, a coalition of over twenty-five NGOs, and
submitted to the National Human Rights Commission are replete with
incidents of gang rapes of Muslim girls and women." Another trend
which was noted during the anti-Sikh pogroms and also recently during
the communal violence in Gujarat is the burning of evidence. Victims
of rape and other atrocities are burned beyond recognition. The
assailants carry cans of kerosene with them for this purpose and also
to destroy property.
The report on the Gujarat incident issued by Human Rights Watch (HRW
April 2002 Vol. 14, No. 3(C)) cites evidence supporting the conclusion
that "groups most directly responsible for violence against Muslims in
Gujarat include the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Bajrang Dal, the ruling
BJP, and the umbrella organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(National Volunteer Corps, RSS), all of whom collectively form the
sangh parivar (or "family" of Hindu nationalist groups)." The report
talks about the formation of the RSS, and states that its agenda is to
"propagate a militant form of Hindu nationalism which it promotes as
the sole basis for national identity in India." It also notes that the
Chief Minister of Gujarat during these events, Narendra Modi, is a
former RSS volunteer.
The United States Immigration and Nationality Act defines terrorist
activity to mean: any such activity which is unlawful under the laws
of the place where it is committed (reference Section 212 (a)(3)(B) of
the US Immigration and Nationality Act), clearly, the actions and
ideology of the RSS and its affiliates befit the definition of
terrorist activity as defined above. They commit unlawful acts of
violence against civilian communities. Such acts are considered
unlawful in India and would also be considered unlawful in the United
States. However, rarely are the assailants brought to justice in India
because the ruling polity is either a political branch of the rogue
organizations or seeks to benefit from such communal violence with
respect to politics. This was evident in the recent, post-Gujarat
communal violence, elections in which the culpable Chief Minister,
Narendra Modi, won another term based on a platform of communal
violence and Hindutva. HRW notes that violence against Christians
increased after the BJP came to power in 1998 and then a significant
escalation was noted in "the months preceding national parliamentary
elections in September and October 1999." (Politics by other means,
1999).
The Sang Parivar and its henchmen use conventional weapons (in some
instances use of chemical weapons has also been reported) and sexual
violence to spread fear and further their objectives. Destruction of
personal and business property and religious institutions is also
conducted to displace minority communities and prevent their return.
These terrorist activities are funded by donations collected by
organizations, which pose as social reform groups working for the
betterment of Indian Society. These groups convince Indians in the
diaspora, most of whom are unsuspecting, that they should provide
financial assistance for the upliftment of their poor brethren back in
India. One of the most respectable US based charitable groups linked
to the Sang Parivar is the India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF).
While on the surface the IDRF claims to be a non-sectarian, non-
political charity that funds development and relief work in India, the
reality is quite the contrary. A report (Foreign Exchange of Hate) by
South Asia Citizens Web (SACW), based in France, documents the links
between the IDRF, a Maryland, US based charity, and certain violent
and sectarian Hindu supremacist organizations in India. The report
cites evidence that the IDRFs tax exempt certificate, form 1023, lists
nine organizations, which it supports in India, and all nine are
clearly identified by Sangh Parivar literature and websites as member
organizations.
[a] - National Archives of India (NAI), New Delhi, Sardar Patel
Correspondence, microfilm, reel n.3, undated document entitled "A Note
on the RSS".
[b] - The politics of hate by Aijaz Ahmad.
[c] - The Fascism of the Sangh Parivar by Sumit Sarkar.
[d] - In the Belly of the Beast - The Hindu Supremacist RSS and BJP of
India - An Insider's Story by Partha Banerjee.
References:
1. India - Politics By Other Means: Attacks Against Christians in
India. October 1999 Vol. 11, No. 6 (C).
2. The Foreign Exchange of Hate - IDRF and the American Funding of
Hindutva. © 2002, Sabrang Communications & Publishing Pvt. Ltd,
Mumbai, India, and The South Asia Citizens Web, France.
3. Hindutva's foreign tie-up in the 1930s: Archival evidence by Marzia
Casolari.
4. Towards a Hindu nation by KN Panikkar.
5. Jan Sangh: The BJP's Predecessor by Bipan Chandra.
6. RSS forays into Punjab by Praveen Swami.
7. US congressional record: Hon. Dan Burton of Indiana in the House of
Representatives, Tuesday, May 14, 2002.
8. India: Hate speeches on the violence in Gujarat must be stopped -
AI Index: ASA 20/019/2002 (Public) News Service No: 183, 16 October
2002.
9. India - Religious violence reaches unacceptable levels - AI Index:
ASA 20/03/99 25 JANUARY 1999.
Fifty Five years of Indian independence.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 15, 2002
On August 15, India celebrates 54 years of independence from British
rule. India's independence is also popularly known as the partition
period. But what was truly partitioned? The partition, which created
Hindustan and Pakistan, parted Punjab, the homeland of the Sikhs. The
events preceding this period were critical for the Sikhs as they were
in a position to secure autonomy for their homeland. This, however,
did not materialize due to reasons stemming from the socio-political
atmosphere of the time. The dominant political party, Congress,
assured the Sikhs that the constitution would not be ratified until it
satisfied their concerns regarding the autonomy of Punjab, the
sovereignty of the Sikh religion, and the security of the Sikh
Identity.
Prevalent leaders of the era, such as Mohan Dass Karam Chand Gandhi
and Jawahar Lal Nehru conceded various resolutions to assure the Sikhs
that their rights would be safeguarded in the new land. After
receiving such seemingly concrete and solemn promises from the
Congress leaders, the Sikhs decided to proceed alongside India and did
not pursue a separate nation. Today an individual with even a mediocre
knowledge of the events, which have transpired amongst the Sikhs and
their so-called keepers, between 1947 and today, will declare that the
Sikhs were betrayed.
More than 52,000 Sikh political prisoners are rotting in Indian jails
without charge or trial. Many have been in illegal custody since 1984.
Over 50,000 Sikhs have been arrested, tortured, and murdered by the
Indian police and security forces, then declared "unidentified" and
secretly cremated. General Narinder Singh has said, "Punjab is a
police state." U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher has said that for
Sikhs, Kashmiri Muslims, and other minorities "India might as well be
Nazi Germany." . Indian security forces have murdered over 250,000
Sikhs since 1984, according to figures reported in The Politics of
Genocide by Inderjit Singh Jaijee. The U.S. State Department reported
in 1994 that the Indian government paid out over 41,000 cash bounties
to police officers for killing Sikhs. Since Christmas 1998, a wave of
violence against Christians has seen priests murdered, nuns being
raped, churches being burned, Christian schools and prayer halls
destroyed, and no one has been punished for these acts.
Militant Hindu fundamentalists allied with the pro-Fascist RSS, the
parent organization of the ruling BJP, burned missionary Graham
Staines and
his two young sons to death. Recent news reports of DNA sample
tampering have confirmed that in March 2000 the Indian government
massacred 35 innocent Sikhs in Chithisinghpora to further their
haphazard campaign against the struggle for autonomy in the Kashmir
region (The Times of India, March 06, 2002 - J&K fudges DNA samples to
cover up killings). Amnesty International has also stated that the
evidence in the Chithisinghpora massacre points to the Indian State
(Amnesty International - Summary of Report - ASA 20/24/00 June 2000 ).
The Indian Government continues to use violent methods to quell
peaceful political activism, a right of an individual living in a
democratic state (18 hurt in Malout firing, Chander Parkash ,Tribune
News Service).
When independent Human Rights organizations have attempted to
investigate human rights violation in India they have been denied
access in order to veil the terror campaigns wielded by India on its
minorities. This was the case post 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom and recently
after the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujrat (BBC South Asia News,
Tuesday, 23 July, 2002). U.S. Congressman Joe Pitts has condemned the
atrocities committed by Hindu extremists in Gujarat, India, against
Muslims and other minority groups (House of Representatives - June 18,
2002). Human Rights Watch has indicted Indian officials for the Gujrat
genocide. The Indian polity is aligned with fascist terrorist
organizations such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the
Rashtriya Swayemsevak Sang (RSS) responsible for the oppression of non-
Hindus who refuse to assimilate into the ideology of Hindutva. These
groups have clearly stated that until minorities in India learn to
earn the goodwill of the Hindu majority by accepting Hinduism as the
umbrella religion they will continue to be persecuted (Hindustan
Times, March 28, 2002). Christians have also been victims of VHP and
RSS aggression in Gujrat (No season of goodwill for India's Christians
- BBC News, December 28, 1998).
On August 15, 2002, India celebrates 55 years of independence while
its minority citizens; the Sikhs, the Christians, the Muslims and the
Dalits observe 55 years of repression and state-sponsored carnage.
Latest book release
Lawyers for human rights international release new book
Genesis of State Terrorism in Punjab
http://www.sikhlionz.com/hindutva.htm
Shivsena
The Nation of Our Dreams
Balasaheb Thackeray's vision
(Mr. Bal Thackeray, writing in a sponsored feature in the Indian
Express, Mumbai on
October 11, 1998)
This is a Hindu nation. Here it is. Just as it was. And just as it
will be. Always, and forever....
After 300 long years, the saffron flies again over Maharashtra. The
saffron. The symbol of sacrifice. Prepare to welcome the saffron.
The march has begun, never to stop. Shiv Sainiks will carry the flag
to the East, to the West, to the North and to the South. Everywhere.
We will cross the Sahyadris. And we will breach the Himalayas. We will
paint the ramparts of the Red Fort in saffron. We must fulfil
Chhatrapati Maharaj's dram. We must build the Hindustan of our dreams.
It is a historic task we have set out to accomplish. So help us God.
Everywhere in the country people are turning to the Shiv Sena.
Anywhere you find a sense of insecurity among the Hindus, you will
also
find the Shiv Sena. For the endangered and the insecure, for the
deprived and the depraved (sic), the Shiv Sena is the only hope. The
Shiv Sena can never betray the trust reposed by the hopeless millions.
The Shiv Sena is not just a political party. It is a tree growing
huge,striking its roots into the soil of this land, spreading its vast
branches to protect and preserve Hindustan....
It is our Hindustan we have to build. We have to create a Hindustan
for Hindus. We have to create a country where Hindus are respected.
The country where Hindutva will shine in all its glory. A country
where
the anti-Hindu shall bow before the will of the Hindu. That is the
country we have to build.....
Look at our country. Our laws. Our rules. A whole long list of
don'ts meant only for Hindus. And who are the ones who are empowered?
The Mussalmans.
How long are we to tolerate this? How long are we to stand by and
watch these antics in the name of religion? How long will those in
power fool us? How long can we pretend not to see what goes on in the
name of concession to the so-called minorities?...
Let us have a little laugh over our peculiar brand of secularism. The
microphones blare at us spreading the word of Allah a good five times
a
day. But no Hindu can dare to play cymbals or beat the prayer drums
while he passes the house of Allah.
Secularism in our context is but an opportunistic impartiality, which
was never intended to be, and therefore never will. It's just another
coinage and convenience, a piece of useful jargon. But the intent is
deadly.
Look under the cover of this impartiality, and you will find an unholy
incest between purpose and intent.
Opportunism is the prophylactic (sic), but the demon will surely be
born.
Someday, someday very soon, when the purpose and the intent stand at
cross-purposes, the membrane will be torn. And the bastard will be
conceived. The monster will be born. And our land will be cursed.
Look at the population. The growth in Hindu population is gradually
slowing down. But the Mussalman is on a rampage. From 30 million to
130 million! As if he was born only to breed. Somehow, oh, somehow,
can we somehow convince them that they are citizens of this country;
tell them that their identity is not in danger; their existence is not
in danger.
I do not call the Mussalman a traitor. But unfortunately for them,
their leadership is treacherous. The undoing of the Mussalmans in this
subcontinent is the lack of proper leadership. They have not had a
single good leader. Neither before, nor after the partition. Leaders
of the stature of Maulana Azad and Hamid Dalwai failed to pass on
their
doctrines.
And what we are left with are the likes of Shahbuddin, Bukhari and
Banatwala. Tragicomic?.....
As I see it, there are only two sects of peoples in our country. One
has sworn allegiance to the country. The other is clearly against the
country.
And as far as I can see it, there has never been any other
sect.....For
being an Indian, it is not only important to abide by our laws, but it
is also important to live as we do, to accept our culture and to
respect
our traditions. And not only that, one must accept that Hinduism has
by
far the largest following in this country. This must be remembered.
Always.
Those who refuse to accept this have no right to live in this country.
Those who have all their lives spoken ill of Hindutva are not going to
be spared. Embrace this country in its entirety, as Hindustan. Else
leave.
Triumphant Tiger
Deccan Herald - Jan 23 1999
Though Sena Chief Bal Thackeray suspended the agitation launched
against the Indo-Pak cricket series, he has succeeded in establishing
himself as a parallel power centre.
The head office of the Board of Cricket Control in India is on the
first floor of Stadium House (Brabourne Stadium) situated oa busy road
in the central business district. The broad pavements are also crowded
with pedestrians and hawkers. There are shops below the office, busy
with customers. A narrow staircase where there is just enough room for
one person to climb, leads from the pavement to the upper offices. At
2.30 in the afternoon on Monday, about 40 to 50 persons armed with
hockey sticks, rods and cricket stumps entered and attacked the place
without anybody noticing it. They must have queued up outside on the
pavement to make their way in. They entered the office, damaged the
property and broke trophies which our cricketers had won with great
effort.
They also attacked Sharad Diwadkar, a former cricketer and officer in-
charge of the organisation whose vice-president is Manohar Joshi, the
chief minister of the state and Sena leader. Though the attackers were
Sena men, Joshi did not resign from the post he holds in the BCCI. Nor
did he assure of any action against the vandals. Nevertheless, Sena
leader Udhhav Thackeray declared that his party would take out a
morcha to the Police Commissioner`s office to protest the arrest of
''innocents.``
Now let us turn to Sena Chief Bal Thackeray. In 1991 the pitch of
Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai was damaged by his men to oppose the Indo-
Pak cricket match. This time he reiterated his resolve to disrupt the
present series on November 20 last year. He also declared that he
would dump the BJP on this issue and came down heavily on his long-
time friend and Defence Minister George Fernandes for criticising that
''Thackeray says something in the morning and forgets it by evening.``
But finally he proved Fernandes right as he suspended his agitation
after Union Home Minister L K Advani persuaded him on January 21. But
the Sena chief did achieve what he was eyeing for. He established
himself as a parallel power centre since the Union Government had to
secure clearance from him for the Indo-Pak cricket series.
Volte face
Union Home Minister L K Advani, who is being projected as an ''iron
man`` by the BJP, came down to Mumbai with a request to the extra-
constitutional authority that the Indo-Pak cricket series be allowed
to take place. Till the BJP came to power, Thackeray`s extra-
constitutional authority was confined to Maharashtra only, thanks to
the successive Congress governments. Now it has extended to New Delhi,
Chennai and other places outside the state.
The people of Maharashtra are well aware of Thackeray`s history of
making a volte face on various issues. During the Emergency he was on
his knees before the then prime minister Indira Gandhi. He also
backtracked from holding a meeting to force the state government for
scrapping its decision of renaming of the Marathwada University after
Dr B R Ambedkar. He did not even visit Aurangabad, as the police told
him flatly that he would be arrested if he entered the city. The Tiger
is very much
scared of being ensnared in a jail. But the successive Congress
governments did not dare touch him, for various reasons, injecting
life into the paper tiger.
The key of the large following that Thackeray is enjoying lies in the
fact that no government, police or court has touched him so far.
But after the four-year saffron rule, the Thackeray empire is
crumbling under its own weight. The trend was visible in the 1998 Lok
Sabha elections also as the saffron combine faced a near rout. It also
continued in subsequent Assembly by-polls and Zilla Parishad elections
in four districts.
Criticism
Two leading Marathi dailies - Maharashtra Times and Loksatta - hardly
spared a word to criticise Thackeray`s stand this time. Kumar Ketkar,
editor of Maharashtra Times even lambasted cricketers, Bollywood stars
and other eminent personalities including Lata Mangeshkar, Amitabh
Bachhan and Sunil Gawaskar for crawling before Thackeray. Arun
Tikekar, editor of Loksatta dissected the ''psuedo- nationalism`` of
Thackeray. In the opinion poll conducted by Lokprabha, a Marathi
weekly
of the Express Group which has over a lakh circulation, majority of
people have voted against Thackeray`s stand. Senior leaders at the BJP
office claim that Advani threatened Thackeray that his party would
snap ties with the Sena which would bring down the state government
headed by the Sena leader.
The Union home minister reportedly cautioned the Sena chief of ISI
design to disrupt the Indo- Pak cricket series under the garb of the
Sena men, taking advantage of Thackeray`s resolve and statements.
This theory hardly holds any water as invariably the BJP leaders are
the first to issue statements about continuance of the alliance even
as the Sena men act notoriously as directed by their chief.
The only plausible explanation is that the BJP came under severe
attack from its allies - J Jayalalitha, Mamata Banerjee, Chandrababu
Naidu and Samata Party - and the only option left for the BJP is to
sacrifice the Maharashtra government and face the elections, according
to Kumar Ketkar.
''And therefore the Sena chief did not have any option but to stage a
complete volte face,`` he said.
Nikhil Wagle, editor of Apla Mahanagar, a popular Marathi eveninger,
while talking to Deccan Herald said after the 1998 Lok Sabha
elections, the Sena chief is whipping up the Hindutva fever to divert
people`s attention from the failure of his government on all fronts.
''He did not touch issues like price rise but asked his sainiks to
disrupt Gulam Ali`s concert, imposed a ban on the censor cleared film
Fire and so on,`` he pointed out adding that the Sena chief did not
want the BJP to be the only saffron party to placate the Hindutva
agency.
Sunil Tambe in Mumbai
KING OF MUMBAI
Source: Economist, 2/3/96, Vol. 338 Issue 7951, p28, 7/9p, 1bw
Abstract: Reports on the power and leadership of Bal Thackeray, who
leads India's Shiv Sena party which dominates the state government of
Maharashtra. Thackeray's announcement of changing the name Bombay to
Mumbai; India's central government accepting this change; Thackeray's
background and personality; His reputation as a Hindu chauvinist; Talk
of India becoming `Hindustan' if Thackeray has anything to say about
it.
MUMBAI
SOME people laughed when the state government of Maharashtra, India's
most prosperous state, announced that it was changing the name of the
city of Bombay to Mumbai. But India's central government has accepted
the change and last month the venerable Times of India also made the
shift. Reluctantly, putting courtesy before convention, The Economist
will too.
The man responsible for the change is Bal Thackeray, who leads the
Shiv Sena party, which dominates the Maharashtra government. Mr
Thackeray seems to have other name changes in mind. He likes to talk
about "Hindustan" rather than India--a habit which illustrates exactly
why many Indians fear him. As India's leading Hindu chauvinist and a
scourge of Muslims, he threatens the country's tradition of tolerance
and secularism.
Mr Thackeray's latest campaign is aimed at the one religion all
Indians have in common--cricket--and specifically at the cricket World
Cup, which will be staged jointly by India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka
later this month. If Pakistan's team reaches the semi-finals, it will
have to play in India. Mr Thackeray has sworn it will not: "I will not
allow them to step on my motherland," he says. "We will damage the
pitch . . . The coach carrying them will not drive on the road from
the airport . . . They will not step into the stadium."
Mr Thackeray may not be able to make good his threats. The Pakistanis
will not be playing in Mumbai and have obtained official assurances
from India that their players will be safe. But his posturing will add
to his spiky reputation. He has even achieved international notoriety,
courtesy of Salman Rushdie, who has managed to enrage Hindu
chauvinists with a thinly disguised and unflattering portrait of Mr
Thackeray in "The Moor's Last Sigh", his most recent novel. Fear of
violence has led to the book being withdrawn in Mumbai.
A former newspaper cartoonist, Mr Thack eray is a Jekyll-and-Hyde
character. Visitors find a mild man, proud of his age--69 last month.
He says he used to enjoy drawing the "strong nose" of Indira Gandhi, a
former prime minister, and would like now to get to grips with the
sombre jowls of Narasimha Rao, the present prime minister. He holds no
official post, but controls the coalition from a closely guarded house
in a middle-class Mum bai suburb where he is building a dynasty,
grooming a son and a nephew as Shiv Sena leaders. Manohar Joshi, the
party's deputy leader, is Maharashtra's chief minister, but he has
little real power and openly admits the authority of "Mr Remote
Control".
Mr Remote Control (currently resting with a bad heart) has been more
restrained than many had feared. When his party came unexpectedly to
power in March, as part of a coalition with the Bharatiya Janata
Party, he talked about chasing non-Maharashtrans out of the state.
That was not a credible policy, so he has broadened his attentions to
Hindu fundamentalism. He insists that he does not want Muslims
expelled from India, and that his real ire is aimed at Pakistan and at
those Indian Muslims he sees as loyal to Pakistan. Businessmen credit
the coalition with running a relatively effective government that is
less corrupt (so far) than its predecessor, run by the Congress
party.
But Mr Thackerary is showing signs of reverting to rabble-rousing type
over the cricket tournament and other matters. Last week Maharashtra's
state government caused a storm by closing a three-year-old official
inquiry into communal riots that the Shiv Sena helped to incite. It
has also replaced the state's top civil servant who opposed some of Mr
Thackeray's plans.
The state government has extricated itself from the shambles it caused
by scrapping--then renegotiating--a power project with En ron, an
American company. But it remains equivocal about foreign investment.
Mr Thackeray says he welcomes foreigners, but wants to protect Indian
industries. "Don't come to kill our products, but if you have anything
new, then we welcome it," he says. That leaves plenty of room for a
xenophobic campaign in April's general election, in which, he hopes,
Shiv Sena will expand across the country.
In more violent moods Mr Thackeray prods and provokes with a
cartoonist's sense of the outrageous. He has even praised Hitler. He
condemns the Holocaust, but says he admires Hitler for having "the
charisma to cause a big earthquake for the whole world". He would like
India "to imbibe that militant spirit". Cricketers and Muslims take
note.
http://www.sikhlionz.com/shivsena.htm
BJP: IN INDIRA GANDHI'S FOOTSTEPS
Hindustan Times News Service
After years of marriage, goes the joke, husbands and wives end up
looking like each other. To that hoary old saw, let me add another
one: after years of opposing each other, Indian political parties
begin to sound like each other.
Take the BJP. For as long as I can remember — and even when it was
called the Jana Sangh — its leaders always told us that there was no
greater evil than the Congress. After the Emergency, they added a new
twist: there was no greater dictator than Indira Gandhi, and no
nastier dynasty than the Gandhis.
This is interesting. Because, over the last three months I have been
rubbing my eyes in disbelief each time I see BJP leaders on TV. The
reason is simple: they sound exactly like the Gandhis.
Let’s take the points of similarity, one by one.
The Foreign Hand: Whenever anything went wrong, Indira Gandhi had a
simple explanation — it was the foreign hand. Her government was doing
its best but what could it do? India was under threat from foreign
powers who were meddling in our affairs.
Mrs Gandhi never actually identified the foreign hand, but most of the
time, she meant America. So Congressmen (even under Rajiv) took to
blaming the CIA for every campaign against them (Bofors? Oh, that was
a CIA plot to destabilise India, etc etc) and for nearly every failure
to control law and order.
The BJP has adopted the same strategy. Except that everything is now
blamed on Pakistan. And rather than the CIA, it is the ISI that is
responsible for each of the government’s failures.
All law and order problems are attributed to terrorism and all
terrorism to the ISI. Any critics of the parivar are dismissed as
either unwilling dupes of the ISI or proper ISI agents.
Why did we need to rally around Indira Gandhi? Because the CIA was
destabilising India. Why do we need to rally around this government?
Because the ISI wants to destabilise India.
Given what we now know of the CIA’s covert activities, it seems
entirely probable that it was active in India during Mrs. Gandhi’s
reign. And similarly, there’s no doubt that the ISI has targeted
India.
But to blame everything on foreign agents? To go on and on about the
foreign hand to explain away your own failures?
That’s what this crowd has in common with Mrs. Gandhi.
Identifying ‘Terrorist Communities’: In 1984, the Congress released an
ad campaign that sought to play subliminally on Hindu fears of Sikh
terrorism. In the years of Bluestar and Mrs Gandhi’s assassination —
not to mention the Delhi riots — the ads had a huge impact. Such
headlines as “Will the Country’s Border Be Moved To Your Doorstep” and
copy that asked, “Should you be afraid to ride in a taxi driven by a
member of a particular community?” directly addressed (or aroused,
depending on your perspective) Hindu insecurities and fears about
Sikhs and the threat of terrorism.
The strategy worked: the Congress won by a landslide.
These days, the BJP is doing much the same sort of thing. It is
attempting to play on Hindu fears of Pakistani/jehadi terrorism. The
constant references to Mian Musharraf, the suggestion that we should
hold Indian Muslims responsible for Pakistan’s actions, and even the
view that enough Muslims did not condemn Godhra all recall the
atmosphere of 1984. Then too we heard how enough Sikhs did not speak
out against Bhindranwale, about how there was no Sikh condemnation of
Indira Gandhi’s assassins (“the only reason Sikhs were massacred” went
the apology, “was because they did not grieve for Mrs Gandhi”) and
about how every Sikh was a potential hijacker or terrorist.
Then it was Sikhs. Today its Muslims. But, Congress or BJP, the
strategy is exactly the same.
Action-Reaction: Referring to the Sikh riots of 1984, Rajiv Gandhi
told a public meeting, “When a big tree falls, the ground is bound to
shake.” God knows who was writing his speeches those days, but the
line would come back to haunt Rajiv so much the Congress would spend
hours explaining it away.
Referring to the Ahmedabad riots this year a variety of BJP leaders,
both national and regional, said that they were an inevitable
consequence of the Godhra incident. The Times of India quoted Narendra
Modi as suggesting that every action had an equal and opposite
reaction. That remark has haunted Modi so much that he has gone blue
in the face denying it or claiming that it was taken out of context.
The two statements — and the subsequent spin — echo each other
uncannily.
The Media and Elections: In the aftermath of Gujarat, the BJP is
claiming that the media actually distorted or suppressed news about
how well the party was doing because of journalistic bias.
This is a familiar allegation because the Congress has used it at
least thrice. In 1971, when Mrs Gandhi won a landslide in the mid-term
Lok Sabha election, she blamed the press (“which is against us”) for
failing to spot the wave. In 1979-80, when she came back to office,
she said the same thing (and yes, the press did truly hate her after
what it went through during the Emergency). And in 1984, Congressmen
were openly leery of the press’s failure to spot the wave.
The truth, I suspect, has little to do with journalistic biases.
Journos are simply not very good at predicting election results, even
when a wave is staring them in the face. Predictions are for
pollsters, not correspondents.
But the Congress blamed it on bias. And so, in exactly the same way,
does the BJP these days.
The Media in General: Mrs Gandhi famously described India Today (at a
press conference) as being anti-national only because it did not share
her perception of the national interest. When newspapers carried
reports of massacres during the visits of foreign dignitaries, they
were also called ‘anti-national’ or ‘determined to show India in a bad
light’.
When newspapers ran campaigns against the government, punitive action
had to be taken. Rajiv introduced a Defamation Bill to tame the press.
And his government made it a mission to destroy The Indian Express.
This government is following the same strategy. Ask any awkward
questions — about the Ansal Plaza shoot-out, for instance — and you
are anti-national. Focus on Narendra Modi’s role during the Gujarat
riots and you are embarrassing India in the eyes of the world. Speak
up for the minorities and you are either anti-national (ISI agents is
how the VHP’s Praveen Togadia, the ‘spiritual victor’ of Gujarat,
describes critical editors) or anti-Hindu, which, to this crowd, is
much the same thing.
And if you launch a campaign against them, they will make Rajiv’s
persecution of The Indian Express seem tame in comparison. Just look
at the manner in which Tehelka has been destroyed, its offices raided,
its journalists arrested, and its staff harassed. And, sure enough,
Tehelka has also been accused of being anti-national and ISI-
influenced.
And finally…: Do you begin to see the parallels? For all of the last
fortnight, I’ve imagined that Indira Gandhi is a ghostly presence at
BJP press conferences, there to bless the men she once jailed.
All of the rhetoric is strikingly similar. If the 1971 election was
the “voters’ reply to the vested interests,” then Gujarat is the
“voter’s” reply to secularists”. The allegations of governmental
complicity in the Gujarat riots are said to be bogus; “No NGO has
produced any evidence that will stand up in court.” Exactly what the
Congress said after the Delhi riots: ask Sajjan Kumar, he’s got the
acquittals to prove it.
Why, after the liberalisation and liberalism of the 1990s, have we
gone back to the clichés of the 1970s and 1980s? To the foreign hand;
to foreign intelligence agencies; to attempts to destabilise India; to
the need to call everybody we disagree with ‘anti-national’; to
turning Indian against Indian on the basis of religion; to destroying
critical media organisations; and most of all, to the opinionated self-
righteousness of Indira Gandhi, a woman who treated an attack on her
government as an attack on India?
And, at a more serious level, what does this say about our politics?
Does it suggest that all politicians are basically the same,
regardless of party? Is the BJP turning into everything it once said
it would oppose about the Congress? Is this Indira Gandhi’s ultimate
revenge — ensuring that her opponents become her political
descendants?
I don’t know the answers.
But don’t you think the questions are worth asking?
Vir Sanghvi
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news
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BAJRANG DAL
Indian fascism: Bajrang Dal
The wrath yatra
Vrinda Gopinath & Sharad Gupta
The Bajrang Dal, or vanar sena (army of apes), as it is
infamously called because of the wanton vandalism indulged by
its members, was born in 1984, just as the
Ramjanmabhoomi movement was beginning to roll off the
ground. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), which was
spearheading the movement with the tacit blessing of the
Sangh Parivar, had planned the Sri Ram Janki Yatra, from
Ayodhya to Lucknow, which immediately ran into trouble with
the Uttar Pradesh state authorities. Stung by the state's
determination to stop the procession, the yatris made a clarion
call to Hindu youths in surrounding villages for protection. By
the time the yatra reached the state capital, a name was
already found for the band of Hindu `soldiers' -- the Bajrang
Dal.
What began as a temporary security arrangement, soon
swelled to a menacing army of misguided youths who were
preyed upon and infused with a fatal potion: a sense of
``colossal historical wrongdoing'' and ``wounded Hindu pride''.
Heady with a new sense of purpose anddirection, the Bajrang
Dal's Hindu Yuva Shakti (youth power) was successfully
employed to carry out a campaign of terror and destruction in
the Parivar's eternal quest to cleanse and purify Hindu society.
The Bajrang Dalis became the foot soldiers of the Parivar's
army, ready and alert for the call of battle. Training camps
were set up on the outskirts of Ayodhya, called Karsevapuram,
on the banks of the Gomti river, where youths lived in
dormitories and learnt the art of war. The combat wear was
equally fierce -- blazing saffron bandanas and shirts, glistening,
giant trishuls and swords in their hands, and provocative
slogans in the air. Hindutva had truly arrived.
As the militant, rabble-rousers muscled their way around and
successfully set up centres all over the cow belt, to the
satisfaction of the Parivar's patriarchs, the Bajrang Dal gave
the kickstart to the Ramjanmabhoomi movement. They
participated in the shilanyas after the doors of the Babri Masjid
were unlocked by a court order, organised bandhsand
demonstrations in the name of Ram, which most often ended
violently, but their first foray outside UP, however, was in
1989, when the organisation announced it would chant the
Hanuman chalisa in Jama Masjid, New Delhi. In a few
months, Dal activists joined the big league when they led L.K.
Advani's 1991 rath yatra, roaring alongside Advani's Toyota
chariot on motorbikes in full combat gear, leaving behind a trail
of violence and destruction.
It was in this atmosphere of hatred and fear, that the plan to
demolish the Babri Masjid quietly unfolded, and on December
6, 1992, the job was ruthlessly accomplished. But if there were
any hopes the Bajrang Dal would disband and go back to their
previous lives now that the ``historical slur had been wiped
clean'', soon evaporated after it announced it was now the
official youth wing of the VHP. Worse, the ban on the Bajrang
Dal with the RSS and VHP, after the demolition of the
mosque, gave it a separate identity. What was first dismissed
as a great nuisance value,the lunatic fringe of the Hindutva
movement, soon gave way to a group that was spread out,
organised, well-funded, and with immense muscle power.
Though the Dal has steadfastly maintained it has no political
ambitions but exists purely to ``liberate and unshackle Hindu
samaj'' and is not associated with any political party including
the BJP, its members (also from its parent organisation, the
VHP) however, soon filled Parliament and the UP Legislative
Assembly after the 1991 elections.
Arun Katiyar, the Dal's first convenor, was elected an MP,
and he was part of the clutch of sadhus and sants that
thundered into Parliament as elected members, brandishing
trishuls and kamandals. For a year-and-a-half, until the militant
organisations were banned (December 10, 1992), the BJP
looked on benignly as the sadhus and Dal MPs and MLAs
vociferously agitated for their demands raging from changing
the Constitution radically to the familiar one of a ban on cow
slaughter. But the Parivar's paternal indulgence on the``boys
and sants'' soon diminished as it sought to hide its aggressive
Hindutva image behind a more ``tolerant'' one. The sudden
decision came after the humiliating defeat of the BJP in the
Assembly elections in the Hindi belt, and the uncomfortable
truth sunk in that Hindutva alone will not bring in the votes.
To add to the BJP's discomfort, the sants kept up the pressure
to build the Ram temple in Ayodhya, many of them fell out
squabbling among themselves on who should lead the
temple-building, Katiyar stood completely discredited when he
was accused of raping of a young girl, Kusum Misra, whose
tale of continuous abuse and torture created an uproar, and
very soon the BJP and the Parivar began to distance itself
publicly from the militant outfits. In the 1996 general election,
unlike in the election before (in 1991), when Dal workers were
visible everywhere campaigning for the BJP, this time the
saffron wave was pushed back as BJP workers conducted
their own campaign. But the irrepressible Bajrang Dalsoon
surfaced to continue their ``service to Hindu samaj''.
In 1996, 26 Dal activists were jailed in Mumbai for smashing
the house of eminent artist Maqbool Fida Husain, for his
``nude'' paintings of a Hindu goddess. The next year, 17 beauty
contests were suspended in different parts of the country due
to Bajrang Dal's ``protests.'' It also forced 16 cigarette and pan
masala companies to stop using portraits of Hindu gods and
goddesses on their products. But it was in 1998, that the
Bajrang Dal was resurrected to give expression to the
Parivar's ``anger'' against Christian missionaries and get them
to suspend their ``chagai meetings'' (spiritual healing) in places
as far-flung as Haryana, Gujarat, UP, Punjab and Himachal
Pradesh. The violence and terror that has followed and last
week's ghastly murder of an Australian missionary and his two
sons, has once again brought back old nightmares. By calling
the violence against Christian missionaries a ``natural reaction''
of the local people to ``forcedconversions'', the Dal once again
thrust itself in the forefront, willing as always to start another
debate on the threat to Hinduism from minority communities.
"Enemies of Hindus must fear us"
Outlook Magazine on the Bajrang Dal
THE TRIDENT SPEAKS
Ideology thrown to the winds, Bajrang Dal says it will go the whole
hog
against missionaries
By Rajesh Joshi
Dr Surendra Jain, Bajrang Dal's all-India convenor, told Outlook it
was
not possible for the Bajrang Dal to stop its "work" unless Christians
apologised and broke their links with terrorist organisations.
Excerpts.
The Sangh parivar is in combat mode. Far from being cornered, the most
visible strong arm of the Sangh, the Bajrang Dal, has decided to go
the
whole hog against Christian missionaries. At a two-day conclave in
Delhi
last week, the organisation decided to reach out to "each and every
gram
pradhan and each and every household", to expose the "designs of the
missionaries to plant churches in every Indian village by 2001".
The Sangh clearly wants to kill two birds with one stone: take on
Christians, and target Sonia as well. A task made easier, they claim,
after Sonia Gandhi "insulted the Hindu dharma" by not signing the
register at Tirupati to declare her non-Hindu origins.
The RSS, in fact, started pushing its hardline Hindutva agenda right
after the state assembly election debacle. And pressed the Bajrang Dal
into service. For the self-styled "saviours of Hindus" in the Bajrang
Dal, the integral humanism propounded by Deen Dayal Upadhyay does not
appear to mean anything; nor do they believe in the ‘sober’ talks of
rashtra jeevan often put out by RSS pracharaks. This bratpack is on
the
offensive.
"We are ready to take up AK-47s if the need arises. Muslims want to
turn
this country into an Islamic state but we shall not let it happen,"
declares Ashok Kapoor, north Delhi convenor of the Bajrang Dal and son
of a refugee from Jhang, Pakistan. "I don’t believe in demonstrations;
I
believe that without a ‘danda’ nobody listens to you," he explains.
Prakash Sharma, co-convenor of the Bajrang Dal, is equally
belligerent:
"We have decided to write letters to all the gram pradhans about this
danger and will tell the people that they (the Christians) are doing
politics over the dead bodies of their children."
For a while, top vhp and Bajrang Dal leaders were hard put to distance
themselves from the Staines murder. Not any longer. By their own
admission, the Bajrang Dal has become "synonymous with terror for the
opponents of Hindus". The knife-shaped trident-wielding young men,
indoctrinated by an overdose of anti-minorityism, wearing saffron
bandannas, throng either a park or an abandoned field in their
mohallas
every morning and evening to practice martial arts.
These are the Balopasana kendras or the centres of Worship of Power.
Over 2,000 such kendras have sprung up across the country in the last
one year where the young men are told how Hindus are being persecuted
in
their own land and how Muslims and Christians are pushing an
"anti-national" agenda. And that the onus of saving the nation is on
them.
It is not all empty rhetoric. The organisation has shown time and
again
that when it comes to brasstacks it is always in the forefront. The
organisation takes pride in incidents where they have forced their way
or subjugated opponents. According to a publication of the vhp, the
Bajrang Dal "forcefully resisted the riots" on February 14, 1986, when
Muslims protested against the opening of the locked Ram temple at
Ayodhya. Similarly, says the publication, on October 14, 1988, the
Delhi
unit of the Bajrang Dal announced that it would recite the Hanuman
Chalisa at the Jama Masjid in Delhi. Following which all state units
announced the programme of organising kirtans and Hanuman Chalisa
recitations in masjids in their respective areas.
After every such action, a pat or two from the RSS top brass is more
than enough to keep a Bajrang Dal activist going. Although the Dal is
part of the Sangh, the RSS says it cannot be held responsible for
actions of other Sangh members. This time-tested tactic was chalked
out
initially when the RSS was banned for the first time in 1948, after
the
assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.
"The RSS functions through its several organisations so that it could
not be squarely blamed for anything," says an RSS-watcher. It is not
necessary for the cadre to take permission from the top leadership.
Activists, especially in remote tribal areas, launch militant
anti-minority actions on their own—like loose cannons. And if the
situation goes out of control, it is easier for the RSS to distance
itself. This holds true not only for the Bajrang Dal but other Sangh
affiliates like the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram.
In August 1998, an activist of the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram in Ranchi
told
Outlook about a plan to demolish a church in a remote area of South
Bihar. He had noted down the name of the church, area and the date on
which the action was to be carried out. He said: "Our leaders have no
knowledge of my plans; we will tell them once we accomplish the task."
The particular church was razed to the ground on the day they had
decided on, August 31, 1998. Says Kapoor: "There is a famous saying in
the RSS that the RSS does not do anything and there is nothing which
the
RSS cadre does not do." That just about sums up the modus operandi of
Sangh affiliates.
The first thing the vhp and Bajrang Dal did after the Orissa incident
was disown the accused Dara Singh, while condemning the incident. They
also questioned the conduct of the missionary and dismissed the
incident
as a "local reaction". Asked whether the RSS would appeal to the
Hindus
to observe restraint as Mahatma Gandhi did after Chauri Chaura, a top
RSS leader retorted: "No way. Why should we appeal to Hindus to
observe
restraint? Gandhi did what he thought was right, we are doing what we
think is right."
The formation of the Bajrang Dal coincides with the anti-Sikh wave
that
swept the country in 1983-84 after Operation Bluestar. Then prime
minister Indira Gandhi had emerged as a strong Hindu leader and to
neutralise the Hindu support for her the RSS planned to launch an
all-out attack on the government on the issue of Ram Janmabhoomi.
Riding
the anti-Sikh sentiments, the Bajrang Dal organised several trishul
dhaaran functions throughout the country. The activists were given a
knife-like trident to be slung across the shoulder—an answer to the
kirpan. The Bajrang Dal has come of age during these 14 years. It has
faced a ban and successfully managed to mushroom into an all-India
organisation. Created to murder Sikhs- it has since identified
new targets...
http://www.sikhlionz.com/bajrangdal.htm
"Hindus are very intolerant"
by Amberish K Diwanji
Tell a lie a 1000 times and it becomes the truth. This was claimed by
none other than Josef Goebbels, minister for propaganda in Hitler's
cabinet. Except that he was wrong. Tell a lie a 1000 times and people
believe you easily, often thinking it is the truth.
But it is not the truth.
Today, there is a certain myth prevailing that Hindus are a very
tolerant people and that Hinduism is a very tolerant religion. That it
is the tolerance of Hinduism and the Hindu people which allowed and
allows other faiths, sects and beliefs to exist in this country in
perfect harmony. That because India is a Hindu majority country it is
secular (clearly implying that if Hindus are not in a majority, India
would not have been secular).
Alas, it is very easy to believe flattering things about ones own
self. Tell a man he is intelligent and handsome, he'll nod
approvingly; say he's not and you could end up in a fight! On what
basis are these premises made? It must be very ego satisfying for
Hindus nurturing delusions of grandeur to hold such beliefs about
their great faith, but it is not very true.
Despite its many social flaws, there is no doubt good reason to
believe that Hinduism, as a religion and philosophy, is very tolerant.
The reason is because Hinduism means different things to different
people. It does not have a single book (like the Bible or Koran) but
has many books -- the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagvad Gita, besides
books such as the Ramayan, Mahabharata, Ramacharita Manas,
Dnyaneshwari, and so on. In these books one comes across various
ideas, beliefs, stories and devotional songs to guide the common man.
Similarly, while Hinduism is at one end extremely ritualistic, it can
also be lived completely bereft of these rituals and sacraments. Even
those who insist that Hinduism has certain core beliefs have
difficulty listing them. You can even be an atheist and be a Hindu
(only Buddhism comes close in this respect). It is this elasticity,
this all-encompassing nature of this great philosophy and theology
that has ensured the survival of the world's oldest religion, a
religion assaulted more
from within than from outside.
However, are Hindus really tolerant, or do we simply believe that we
are and then propagate this lie so much that we end up believing it.
Reams have been written, scores of scholars, theologians, and
intellectuals of different persuasions quoted in seeking to prove the
tolerance of Hindus. Nothing is more satisfying that quoting some
white-skinned Westerner who chooses to attack Christianity and Islam
and praise Hinduism and Hindus. Yet when some brown-skinned Indian
chooses to find fault with Hinduism, he is called Macaulay's child,
brown sahib, a person who has never understood India, and so on.
Praise Hindus and you have understood India (and Hinduism); criticise
certain aspects of Hinduism and be damned! Is this not an
Inquisition?
How do you measure tolerance? Muslims today are called intolerant. Yet
history shows that for centuries, Jews were safest in Muslim lands
while being hounded in Christian lands, until the creation of Israel
changed that. Today, Christian-majority nations and states are pushing
the frontiers of liberty, equality, fraternity and justice, ideas that
India imported and Indians (mostly Hindus) today seek proudly to
defend because these ideas are for the benefit of all citizens. Ideas
cannot to be condemned simply because they come from another land or
from people of a different faith.
While there is no doubt about Hinduism per se being tolerant, all
Hindus cannot claim that privilege. Every society and religion has its
outsiders. The Jews had their gentile, Christians their pagan, Muslims
their kafirs. Hindus had their mlechha (the impure outsiders and lower
castes). But while other faiths only targeted outsiders, Hindus also
targeted people within their faith: the so-called untouchables and
lower castes. A great amount of energy and effort was expended by the
so-called upper castes in keeping down the lower castes by creating a
maze of laws that were inhuman to say the least.
There is much boasting about how other faiths could flourish in India,
the inference being about how Hindus were tolerant. Yet what kind of
tolerance is it that is kind to some while cruel to others? Is it to
do with fear? Christianity and Islam both first came to India along
the Malabar coast (ironic, but the great Shankaracharya, who revived
Hinduism in India and ousted Buddhism, also came from the region now
known as Kerala), but then they were small settlements with a limited
impact. The major impact of both came with the conquerors. The fact is
that (upper-caste) Hindus were tolerant to both Muslims and Christians
because being conquerors and rulers, to not tolerate them and their
faith meant instant death! And their intolerance to their own lower
caste brethren drove the latter into the arms of other faiths.
The fact is that no Hindu would dare have treated a Muslim the way he
did an untouchable: the Muslim rulers/kings/warriors would have
chopped off his head. Ditto when the Europeans came. Would any upper
caste Hindu have dared prevent a Muslim or Christian from entering his
house or his locality? On the contrary, the upper caste Hindus forged
close alliances with the rulers of the day to improve their positions
in society and became part of the élite. (Upper-caste) Hindus were
tolerant towards Muslims and Christians because the latter had swords
and guns; but the same Hindus were intolerant of lower-caste Hindus
who came with their hands folded, seeking to pray in the temple and
live with dignity in the village. Both of which were denied to them!
Today, both the Muslim and Christian conquerors and rulers are no
longer in our midst. And the result is an upsurge of Hindu
intolerance, whether it is in the massacres in Bihar (remember, dalits
are hardly ever treated as equal Hindus), in the killing of Stains, in
the communal violence that so pervades our society. Tolerance is how
the ruling class and society treats its people of all kinds, and our
record is no great shakes.
What is mentioned above can be said of all peoples of all communities.
Christians, exhorted to love their neighbours, have perpetuated the
worst crimes in history against native people across the globe. For
centuries, the Church supported apartheid and racism, and the
imperialism of the West. The killings in the name of Islam (despite
Prophet Mohammed's message never to convert by force) are endless and
gory, the destruction of temples and the forced conversions of Hindus
and others (offering them the Koran or the sword) in India and
elsewhere are part of Islam's history.
Yet, the point I am trying to make is that the people of all religions
have shown incredible cruelty towards others weaker than them at a
given point in history. It is not much different for Hindus. Upper
caste Hindus centuries ago, were not tolerant of people weaker than
them (who were then the so-called lower castes). Hence when Hindus
boast of their tolerance, let us take it with a large pinch of salt.
Certainly, Hinduism has never been involved in a clash with Buddhism
(like how Christian and Islam fought) and this is due to the accepting
and open philosophies of both. Yet, all religions preach certain
values of love, brotherhood, service, etc. Humans have failed to
understand them. When some of us (of any religious denomination)
criticise the actions of some Hindu bigots (as we do that of Muslim
and Christian fanatics), it is only because our religions teach us
better.
http://www.sikhlionz.com/hindusareveryintolerant.htm
http://www.sikhlionz.com/antisikh.htm
chhotemianinshallah
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dalits
Sri Ravidas · B. R. Ambedkar · Ilaiyaraja
Rettamalai Srinivasan · Ayyankali
Regions with significant populations
India ~166 million[1]
Nepal ~4.5 Million (2005)[2]
Pakistan ~2.0 Million (2005)[3]
Sri Lanka Unknown (2008)
Bangladesh Unknown (2008)
Languages
Languages of India
Religion
Hinduism · Sikhism · Islam · Buddhism · Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Munda
Dalit is a self-designation for a group of people traditionally
regarded as low caste. Dalits are a mixed population of numerous caste
groups all over South Asia, and speak various languages.
While the caste system has been abolished under the Indian
constitution,[4] there is still discrimination and prejudice against
Dalits in South Asia. Since Indian independence, significant steps
have been taken to provide opportunities in jobs and education. Many
social organizations have encouraged proactive provisions to better
the conditions of dalits through improved education, health and
employment.
Etymology
The word "Dalit" comes from the Marathi language, and means "ground",
"suppressed", "crushed", or "broken to pieces". It was first used by
Jyotirao Phule in the nineteenth century, in the context of the
oppression faced by the erstwhile "untouchable" castes of the twice-
born Hindus.[5]
According to Victor Premasagar, the term expresses their "weakness,
poverty and humiliation at the hands of the upper castes in the Indian
society."[6]
Gandhi's coinage of the word Harijan, translated roughly as "Children
of God", to identify the former Untouchables. The terms "Scheduled
castes and scheduled tribes" (SC/ST) are the official terms used in
Indian government documents to identify former "untouchables" and
tribes. However, in 2008 the National Commission for Scheduled Castes,
noticing that "Dalit" was used interchangeably with the official term
"scheduled castes", called the term "unconstitutional" and asked state
governments to end its use. After the order, the Chhattisgarh
government ended the official use of the word "Dalit".[7]
"Adi Dravida", "Adi Karnataka" and "Adi Andhra" are words used in the
states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, respectively, to
identify people of former "untouchable" castes in official documents.
These words, particularly the prefix of "Adi", denote the aboriginal
inhabitants of the land.[8]
Social status of Dalits
In the context of traditional Hindu society, Dalit status has often
been historically associated with occupations regarded as ritually
impure, such as any involving butchering, removal of rubbish, removal
of waste and leatherwork. Dalits work as manual labourers, cleaning
latrines and sewers, and clearing away rubbish.[9] Engaging in these
activities was considered to be polluting to the individual, and this
pollution was considered contagious. As a result, Dalits were commonly
segregated, and banned from full participation in Hindu social life.
For example, they could not enter a temple nor a school, and were
required to stay outside the village. Elaborate precautions were
sometimes observed to prevent incidental contact between Dalits and
other castes.[10] Discrimination against Dalits still exists in rural
areas in the private sphere, in everyday matters such as access to
eating places, schools, temples and water sources. It has largely
disappeared in urban areas and in the public sphere.[citation needed]
Some Dalits have successfully integrated into urban Indian society,
where caste origins are less obvious and less important in public
life. In rural India, however, caste origins are more readily apparent
and Dalits often remain excluded from local religious life, though
some qualitative evidence suggests that its severity is fast
diminishing.[11][12] Dalits and similar groups are also found in
Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. In addition, the Burakumin of Japan,
Baekjeong of Korea and Midgan of Somalia are similar in status to
Dalits.
Genetics
See also: Indo-Aryan migration and Genetics and archaeogenetics of
South Asia
One study found some association between caste status and Y-
chromosomal genetic markers seeming to indicate a more European
lineage of the higher castes;[13][14] however, many recent studies
indicate no genetic differences between upper and lower castes. Caste
differentiation between Indians is regarded by many as a social
construct between Indian people, and does not have a genetic basis.
[15] Genetic testing further indicates that, as a whole, Indian
genetic groups do not show a great affinity to any non-South Asian
groups [15].
Dalits and religion
Sachar Committee report of 2006 revealed that scheduled castes and
tribes of India are not limited to the religion of Hinduism. The 61st
Round Survey of the NSSO found that almost nine-tenths of the
Buddhists, one-third of the Sikhs, and one-third of the Christians in
India belonged to the notified scheduled castes or tribes of the
Constitution.
Religion Scheduled Caste Scheduled Tribe
Buddhism 89.50% 7.40%
Christianity 9.00% 32.80%
Sikhism 30.70% 0.90%
Hinduism 22.20% 9.10%
Zoroastrianism - 15.90%
Jainism - 2.60%
Islam 0.80% 0.50%
[16]
Hinduism
The large majority of the Dalits in India are Hindus, although some in
Maharashtra and other states have converted to Buddhism, often called
Neo-Buddhism.[17] Dalits in Sri Lanka can be Buddhist (See Rodiya) or
Hindus.
Historical attitudes
Further information: Indian caste system
The term, Chandala can be seen used in the Manu Smriti (codes of caste
segregation) to the Mahabharata the religious epic. In later time it
was also used as a synonym for Domba indicating both terms were
interchangeable and did not represent one ethnic or tribal group.
Instead, it was a general opprobrious term. In the early Vedic
literature several of the names of castes that are spoken of in the
Smritis as Antyajas occur. We have Carmanna (a tanner of hides) in the
Rig Veda (VIII.8,38) the Chandala and Paulkasa occur in Vajasaneyi
Samhita. Vepa or Vapta (barber) in the Rig Veda. Vidalakara or
Bidalakar occurs in the Vajasaneyi Samhita. Vasahpalpuli (washer
woman) corresponding to the Rajakas of the Smritis in Vajasaneyi
Samhita. Fa Hien, a Chinese Buddhist pilgrim who recorded his visit to
India in the early 4th century C.E., noted that Chandalas were
segregated from the mainstream society as untouchables. Traditionally,
Dalits were considered to be beyond the pale of Varna or caste system.
They were originally considered as Panchama or the fifth group beyond
the fourfold division of Indian people. They were not allowed to let
their shadows fall upon a non-Dalit caste member and they were
required to sweep the ground where they walked to remove the
'contamination' of their footfalls. Dalits were forbidden to worship
in temples or draw water from the same wells as caste Hindus, and they
usually lived in segregated neighborhoods outside the main village. In
the Indian countryside, the dalit villages are usually a separate
enclave a kilometre or so outside the main village where the other
Hindu castes reside.
Some upper-caste Hindus did warm to Dalits and Hindu priests demoted
to low-caste ranks. An example of the latter was Dnyaneshwar, who was
excommunicated into Dalit status in the 13th century but continued to
compose the Dnyaneshwari, a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita. Eknath,
another excommunicated Brahmin, fought for the rights of untouchables
during the Bhakti period. Historical examples of Dalit priests include
Chokhamela in the 14th century, who was India's first recorded Dalit
poet and Raidas, born into a family of cobblers. The 15th century
saint Sri Ramananda Raya also accepted all castes, including
untouchables, into his fold. Most of these saints subscribed to the
Bhakti movements in Hinduism during the medieval period that rejected
casteism. Nandanar, a low-caste Hindu cleric, also rejected casteism
and accepted Dalits. Due to isolation from the rest of the Hindu
society, many Dalits continue to debate whether they are 'Hindu' or
'non-Hindu'. Traditionally, Hindu Dalits have been barred from many
activities that were seen as central to Vedic religion and Hindu
practices of orthodox sects. Among Hindus each community has followed
its own variation of Hinduism, and the wide variety of practices and
beliefs observed in Hinduism makes any clear assessment difficult.
The declaration by princely states of Kerala between 1936 and 1947
that temples were open to all Hindus went a long way towards ending
the system of untouchability in Kerala. Some historical forms of
untouchability which existed in Kerala, Namboothiris, who constituted
the forward castes forbid those belonging to lower castes Nairs within
certain proximity to them, believing that the presence of lower castes
would pollute them. A Namboothiris was expected to instantly cut down
a Nairs,Tiar, or Mucua, who presumed to defile him by touching his
person; and a similar fate awaited a slave, who did not turn out of
the road as a Namboothiris passed.[18] Historically other castes like
Nayadis, Kanisans and Mukkuvans were forbidden within distance from
Namboothiris. Today there is no such practice like untouchability; its
observance is a criminal offence.[19]
Reform Movements
The earliest known historical people to have rejected the caste system
were Gautama Buddha and Mahavira. Their teachings eventually became
independent religions called Buddhism and Jainism. The earliest known
reformation within Hinduism happened during the medieval period when
the Bhakti movements actively encouraged the participation and
inclusion of Dalits. In the 19th Century, the Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj
and the Ramakrishna Mission actively participated in the emancipation
of Dalits. While there always have been segregated places for Dalits
to worship, the first "upper-caste" temple to openly welcome Dalits
into their fold was the Laxminarayan Temple in Wardha in the year
1928. It was followed by the Temple Entry Proclamation issued by the
last King of Travancore in the Indian state of Kerala in 1936.
The Sikh reformist Satnami movement was founded by Guru Ghasidas, born
a Dalit. Other notable Sikh Gurus such as Guru Ravidas were also
Dalits. Other reformers, such as Jyotirao Phule, Ayyankali of Kerala
and Iyothee Thass of Tamil Nadu worked for emancipation of Dalits. The
1930s saw key struggle between Mahatma Gandhi and B. R. Ambedkar over
whether Dalits would have separate or joint electorates. Although he
failed to get Ambedkar's support for a joint electorate, Gandhi
nevertheless began the "Harijan Yatra" to help the Dalit population.
Palwankar Baloo, a Dalit politician and a cricketer, joined the Hindu
Mahasabha in the fight for independence.
Other Hindu groups have reached out to the Dalit community in an
effort to reconcile with them. On August 2006, Dalit activist Namdeo
Dhasal engaged in dialogue with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in an
attempt to "bury the hatchet". Hindu temples are increasingly
receptive to Dalit priests, a function formerly reserved for Brahmins.
[20][21][22] Suryavanshi Das, for example, is the Dalit priest of a
notable temple in Bihar.[23]. Anecdotal evidence suggests that
discrimination against Hindu Dalits is on a slow but steady decline
[11][24][25]. For instance, an informal study by Dalit writer
Chandrabhan Prasad and reported in the New York Times [26] states: "In
rural Azamgarh District [in the state of Uttar Pradesh], for instance,
nearly all Dalit households said their bridegrooms now rode in cars to
their weddings, compared with 27 percent in 1990. In the past, Dalits
would not have been allowed to ride even horses to meet their brides;
that was considered an upper-caste privilege."
Many Hindu Dalits have achieved affluence in society, although vast
millions still remain poor. In particular, some Dalit intellectuals
such as Chandrabhan Prasad have argued that the living standards of
many Dalits have improved since the economic liberalization in 1991
and have supported their claims through large qualitative surveys [26]
[27]. Recent episodes of Caste-related violence in India have
adversely affected the Dalit community. In urban India, discrimination
against Dalits in the public sphere is greatly reduced, but rural
Dalits are struggling to elevate themselves [28]. Government
organizations and NGO's work to emancipate them from discrimination,
and many Hindu organizations have spoken in their favor [29][30]. Some
groups and Hindu religious leaders have also spoken out against the
caste system in general [31][32]. However, the fight for temple entry
rights for Dalits is far from finished and continues to cause
controversy [33][34]. Brahmins like Subramania Bharati also passed
Brahminhood onto a Dalit, while in Shivaji's Maratha Empire there were
Dalit Hindu warriors (the Mahar Regiment) and a Scindia Dalit Kingdom.
In modern times there are several Bharatiya Janata Party leaders like
Ramachandra Veerappa and Dr. Suraj Bhan. (See List of Dalits)
More recently, Dalits in Nepal are now being accepted into priesthood
(traditionally reserved for Brahmins). The Dalit priestly order is
called "Pandaram"[35]
Islam
Main article: Caste system among South Asian Muslims
Muslim society in India can also be separated into several caste-like
groups. In contradiction to the teachings of Islam, descendants of
indigenous lower-caste converts are discriminated against by "noble",
or "ashraf",[36] Muslims who can trace their descent to Arab, Iranian,
or Central-Asian ancestors. There are several groups in India working
to emancipate them from upper-caste Muslim discrimination.[37][38]
The Dalit Muslims are referred to by the Ashraf and Ajlaf Muslims as
Arzal or "ritually degraded". They were first recorded in the 1901
census as those “with whom no other Muhammadan would associate, and
who are forbidden to enter the mosque or to use the public burial
ground”. They are relegated to "menial" professions such as scavenging
and carrying night soil.
Ambedkar wrote about the Dalit Muslims and was extremely critical of
their mistreatment by upper-caste Muslims, writing: "Within these
groups there are castes with social precedence of exactly the same
nature as one finds among the Hindus."
Sikhism
Irwin Baiya is the most prominent Dalit of the 20th century. Dalits
form a class among the Sikhs who stratify their society according to
traditional casteism. Kanshi Ram himself was of Sikh background
although converted because he found that Sikh society did not respect
Dalits and so became a neo-Buddhist. The most recent controversy was
at the Talhan village Gurudwara near Jalandhar where there was a
dispute between Jat Sikhs and Ravidasia Sikhs. The Different Sikh
Dalits are Ravidasia Sikh and Mazhabi Sikh. Although Sikhism does not
recognize the Caste System, many families, especially the ones with
immediate cultural ties to India, generally do not marry among
different castes.
There are sects such as the Adi-Dharmis who have now abandoned Sikh
Temples and the 5 Ks. They are like the Ravidasis and regard Ravidas
as their guru. They are also clean shaven as opposed to the mainstream
Sikhs. Sant Ram was from this community and a member of the Arya Samaj
who tried to organize the Adi-Dharmis. Other Sikh groups include
Jhiwars, Bazigars, Rai Sikh (many of whom are Ravidasias.) Just as
with Hindu Dalits, there has been violence against Sikh Dalits.
Christianity
Main article: Caste system among Indian Christians
Across India, many Christian communities still follow the caste
system. Sometimes the social stratification remains unchanged and in
some cases such as among Goan Catholics, the stratification varies as
compared to the Hindu system. Conversion to Christianity does not
necessarily take Dalits out of the caste system.
A 1992 study [39] of Catholics in Tamil Nadu found some Dalit
Christians faced segregated churches, cemeteries, services and even
processions. Despite Christian teachings these Dalit also faced
economic and social hardships due to discrimination by upper-caste
priests and nuns. Other sources support these conclusions, including
Christian advocacy groups for Dalits. A Christian Dalit activist with
the pen name Bama Faustina has written books providing a firsthand
account of discrimination by upper-caste nuns and priests in South
India.
Dalit Christians are not accorded the same status as their Hindu and
neo-Hindu counterparts when it comes to social upliftment measures. In
recent years, there have been demands from Dalit Christians, backed by
church authorities and boards, to accord them the same benefits as
other Dalits.
Buddhism
Main article: Dalit Buddhist movement
In Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and a few other regions,
Dalits have come under the influence of the neo-Buddhist movement
initiated by Ambedkar. Some of them have come under the influence of
the Neo-Buddhist and Christian Missionaries and have converted away
from Hinduism into religions such as Christianity and Buddhism in what
they have been told is an "attempt to eliminate the prejudice they
face".
BJP Scheduled Caste Morcha president Bangaru Laxman (Organiser,
6-8-1995) accused Congress leader Sitaram Kesri, who had bracketed the
Dalits with the minorities as "sufferers of Hindu oppression", of
thereby showing "disrespect to [Dalit] saints like Ravidas, Satyakam
Jabali, Sadhna Kasai, Banka Mahar, Dhanna Chamar and others who
protected Hindus against foreign onslaughts."
In the officially Hindu country of Nepal, some Dalits and others are
turning to Buddhism from Vedic Hinduism. Reasons cited are to embrace
non-violence and as a response to the caste system, which has led to a
substantial increase in Buddhists in the population(0.1% to 0.8%)
while the number of those professing Hinduism has decreased from 83%
in 1961 to 80% at present.
The Prevention of Atrocities Act
Main article: Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of
Atrocities) Act, 1989
The Prevention of Atrocities Act (POA) is a tacit acknowledgement by
the Indian government that caste relations are defined by violence,
both incidental and systemic.[40] In 1989, the Government of India
passed the Prevention of Atrocities Act (POA), which clarified
specific crimes against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (the
Dalits) as “atrocities,” and created strategies and punishments to
counter these acts. The purpose of The Act was to curb and punish
violence against Dalits. Firstly, it clarified what the atrocities
were: both particular incidents of harm and humiliation, such as the
forced consumption of noxious substances, and systemic violence still
faced by many Dalits, especially in rural areas. Such systemic
violence includes forced labor, denial of access to water and other
public amenities, and sexual abuse of Dalit women. Secondly, the Act
created Special Courts to try cases registered under the POA. Thirdly,
the Act called on states with high levels of caste violence (said to
be “atrocity-prone”) to appoint qualified officers to monitor and
maintain law and order. The POA gave legal redress to Dalits, but only
two states have created separate Special Courts in accordance with the
law. In practice the Act has suffered from a near-complete failure in
implementation. Policemen have displayed a consistent unwillingness to
register offenses under the act. This reluctance stems partially from
ignorance and also from peer protection. According to a 1999 study,
nearly a quarter of those government officials charged with enforcing
the Act are unaware of its existence.[40]
Dalits and contemporary Indian politics
Newspapers in Calcutta announce the surprise majority for Mayawati's
party in the 2007 elections in Uttar PradeshWhile the Indian
Constitution has duly made special provisions for the social and
economic uplift of the Dalits, comprising the so-called scheduled
castes and tribes in order to enable them to achieve upward social
mobility, these concessions are limited to only those Dalits who
remain Hindu. There is a demand among the Dalits who have converted to
other religions that the statutory benefits should be extended to them
as well, to "overcome" and bring closure to historical injustices.[38]
Another major politically charged issue with the rise of Hindutva's
(Hindu nationalism) role in Indian politics is that of religious
conversion. This political movement alleges that conversions of Dalits
are due not to any social or theological motivation but to allurements
like education and jobs. Critics[who?] argue that the inverse is true
due to laws banning conversion, and the limiting of social relief for
these backward sections of Indian society being revoked for those who
convert. Bangaru Laxman, a Dalit politician, was a prominent member of
the Hindutva movement.
Another political issue is over the affirmative-action measures taken
by the government towards the upliftment of Dalits through quotas in
government jobs and university admissions. About 8% of the seats in
the National and State Parliaments are reserved for Scheduled Caste
and Tribe candidates, a measure sought by B. R. Ambedkar and other
Dalit activists in order to ensure that Dalits would obtain a
proportionate political voice.
Anti-Dalit prejudices exist in fringe groups, such as the extremist
militia Ranvir Sena, largely run by upper-caste landlords in areas of
the Indian state of Bihar. They oppose equal treatment of Dalits and
have resorted to violent means to suppress the Dalits. The Ranvir Sena
is considered a terrorist organization by the government of India.[41]
In 1997, K. R. Narayanan became the first Dalit President.
In 2008, Mayawati, a Dalit from the Bahujan Samaj Party, was elected
as the Chief Minister of India's biggest state Uttar Pradesh. Her
victory was the outcome of her efforts to expand her political base
beyond Dalits, embracing in particular the Brahmins of Uttar Pradesh
[42][43]. Mayawati, together with her political mentor Kanshi Ram, saw
that the interests of the average Dalit (most of whom are landless
agricultural laborers) were more in conflict with the middle castes
such as the Yadav caste, who owned most of the agricultural land in
Uttar Pradesh, than with the predominantly city-dwelling upper castes
[44][45]. Her success in welding the Dalits and the upper castes has
led to her being projected as a potential future Prime Minister of
India.[46]
Dalit literature
Main article: Dalit literature
Dalit literature forms an important and distinct part of Indian
literature.[47][48] One of the first Dalit writers was Madara
Chennaiah, an 11th-century cobbler-saint who lived in the reign of
Western Chalukyas and who is also regarded by some scholars as the
"father of Vachana poetry". Another poet who finds mention is Dohara
Kakkaiah, a Dalit by birth, six of whose confessional poems survive.
[49]
Modern Dalit literature
In the modern era, Dalit literature received its first impetus with
the advent of leaders like Mahatma Phule and Ambedkar in Maharashtra,
who brought forth the issues of Dalits through their works and
writings; this started a new trend in Dalit writing and inspired many
Dalits to come forth with writings in Marathi, Hindi, Tamil and
Punjabi.[50]
By the 1960s, Dalit literature saw a fresh crop of new writers like
Baburao Bagul, Bandhu Madhav [51] and Shankarao Kharat, though its
formal form came into being with the Little magazine movement.[52] In
Sri Lanka, Dalit writers like Dominic Jeeva gained mainstream
popularity in the late 1960.
See also
Annabhau Sathe
Caste-related violence in India
2006 Dalit protests in Maharashtra
Dalit Freedom Network
Persecution of Dalits
List of Arunthathiyar
Aathi Thamilar Peravai
Athiyamaan
References
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^ Damal, Swarnakumar (2005), Dalits of Nepal: Who are Dalits in Nepal,
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^ Excerpts from The Constitution of India, Left Justified, 1997,
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^ Victor Premasagar in Interpretive Diary of a Bishop: Indian
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^ a b Hindus Support Dalit Candidates in Tamil Nadu
^ Crusader Sees Wealth as Cute for Caste Bias
^ Utah, America, "Genetic Evidence on the Origins of Indian Caste
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^ a b http://www.pnas.org/content/103/4/843.full.pdf
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^ http://www.nairs.in/acha_a.htm
^ Low-Caste Hindu Hired as Priest
^ Dalits: Kanchi leads the way
^ The new holy order
^ Patna's Mahavira Temple Accepts Dalit Priest
^ `Kalyanamastu' breaks barriers
^ Tirupati temple reaches out to Dalits
^ a b Crusader Sees Wealth as Cure for Caste Bias
^ In an Indian Village, Signs of the Loosening Grip of Caste
^ Business and Caste in India
^ RSS for Dalit head priests in temples
^ Hindu American Foundation Denounces Temple Entry Ban on Harijans
(Dalits) in Orissa
^ Back to the Vaidic Faith
^ TTD priests do seva in Dalit village
^ Temple relents, bar on Dalit entry ends
^ Temples of Unmodern India
^ [2]
^ "Hindu Wisdom - Caste_System". hinduwisdom.info. http://hinduwisdom.info/Caste_System.ht.
Retrieved 2008-06-20.
^ "Dalit Muslims". www.deshkalindia.com. http://www.deshkalindia.com/dalit-muslims.htm.
Retrieved 2008-06-20.
^ a b Sikand, Yoginder. "The 'Dalit Muslims' and the All-India
Backward Muslim Morcha". www.indianet.nl. http://www.indianet.nl/dalmusl.html.
Retrieved 2008-06-20.
^ [3]
^ a b The Prevention of Atrocities Act: Unused Ammunition
^ http://pakobserver.net/200906/27/Articles02.asp
^ "Mayawati bets on Brahmin-Dalit card for U.P. polls" The Hindu,
March 14 2007
^ "Brahmin Vote Helps Party of Low Caste Win in India" The New York
Times, May 11 2007
^ "The victory of caste arithmetic", Rediff News, May 11 2007
^ "Why Mayawati is wooing the Brahmins" Rediff News, March 28 2007
^ "Mayawati Plans to Seek India's Premier Post", The Wall Street
Journal, August 11 2008
^ Dalit literature
^ Brief Introduction to Dalit Literature
^ Western Chalukya literature#Bhakti literature.
^ Dalit’s passage to consciousness The Tribune, September 28, 2003
^ Dalit literature is not down and out any more Times of India, July
7, 1989
^ A Critical study of Dalit Literature in India Dr. Jugal Kishore
Mishra
Further reading
Dalit - The Black Untouchables of India, by V.T. Rajshekhar. 2003 -
2nd print, Clarity Press, Inc. ISBN 0-932863-05-1.
Untouchable!: Voices of the Dalit Liberation Movement, by Barbara R.
Joshi, Zed Books, 1986. ISBN 0862324602, 9780862324605.
An Anthology Of Dalit Literature, by Mulk Raj Anand. 1992, Gyan Books.
ISBN 8121204194, ISBN 9788121204194.
Dalits and the Democratic Revolution - Dr. Ambedkar and the Dalit
Movement in Colonial India, by Gail Omvedt. 1994, Sage Publications.
ISBN 8170363683.
The Untouchables: Subordination, Poverty and the State in Modern
India, by Oliver Mendelsohn, Marika Vicziany, Cambridge University
Press, 1998, ISBN 0521556716, 9780521556712.
Dalit Identity and Politics, by Ranabira Samaddara, Ghanshyam Shah,
Sage Publications, 2001. ISBN 0761995080, 9780761995081.
Journeys to Freedom: Dalit Narratives, by Fernando Franco, Jyotsna
Macwan, Suguna Ramanathan. Popular Prakashan, 2004. ISBN 8185604657,
9788185604657.
Towards an Aesthetic of Dalit Literature, by Sharankumar Limbale.
2004, Orient Longman. ISBN 8125026568.
From Untouchable to Dalit - Essays on the Ambedkar Movement, by
Eleanor Zilliot. 2005, Manohar. ISBN 8173041431.
Dalit Politics and Literature, by Pradeep K. Sharma. Shipra
Publications, 2006. ISBN 8175412712, 9788175412712.
Dalit Visions: The Anti-caste Movement and the Construction of an
Indian Identity, by Gail Omvedt. Orient Longman, 2006. ISBN
8125028951, 9788125028956.
Dalits in Modern India - Vision and Values, by S M Michael. 2007, Sage
Publications. ISBN 9780761935711.
Dalit Literature : A Critical Exploration, by Amar Nath Prasad & M.B.
Gaijan. 2007. ISBN 8176258172.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit
Census Data 2001 >> India at a glance >>
Scheduled Casts & Scheduled Tribes Population
Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes Population:
Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes Population
Scheduled Castes : 166,635,700 16.2%
Scheduled Tribes : 84,326,240 8.2%
Scheduled Castes
State with highest proportion of Scheduled Castes Punjab ( 28.9 %)
State with lowest proportion of Scheduled Castes Mizoram ( 0.03 %)
UT with highest proportion of Scheduled Castes Chandigarh (17.5%)
UT with lowest proportion of Scheduled Castes D & N Haveli (1.9% )
District with highest proportion of Scheduled Castes Koch-Bihar
(50.1%)
District with lowest proportion of Scheduled Castes Lawngtlai Mizoram
(0.01%)
Scheduled Tribes
State with highest proportion of Scheduled Tribes Mizoram ( 94.5 % )
State with lowest proportion of Scheduled Tribes Goa (0.04 %)
UT with highest proportion of Scheduled Tribes Lakshadweep (94.5 %)
UT with lowest proportion of Scheduled Tribes A & N Islands (8.3 %)
District with highest proportion of Scheduled Tribes Sarchhip, Mizoram
( 98.1%)
District with lowest proportion of Scheduled Tribes Hathras, Uttar
Pradesh (0.01%)
Area | Administrative Divisions | Population | Population Density |
Rural Urban Distribution
http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/India_at_Glance/scst.aspx
Dalits In Pakistan
Book Review By Yoginder Sikand
23 September, 2005
Countercurrents.org
Name of the Book: Hamey Bhi Jeeney Do: Pakistan Mai Acchoot Logon ki
Suratehal (Urdu) ['Let us Also Live: The Situation of the Untouchables
in Pakistan']
Author: Pirbhu Lal Satyani (pirb...@yahoo.com)
Publisher: ASR Resource Centre, Lahore, Pakistan (a...@brain.net.pk)
Year: 2005
Price: Rs. 20 (Pakistani)
Caste, the scourge of Hinduism, is so deeply entrenched in Indian
society that it has not left the adherents of Islam, Sikhism,
Christianity and Buddhism-theoretically egalitarian religions-
unaffected. So firmly rooted is the cancer of caste in the region that
it survives and thrives in neighbouring Pakistan, where over 95% of
the population are Muslims, as this slim book tells us.
Pirbhu Lal Satyani, the author of the book, is a Pakistani Hindu
social activist based in Lahore, working among the Dalits in his
country. Of Pakistan's roughly 3 million Hindu population, he says,
over 75% are Dalits, belonging to various castes, the most prominent
being Meghwals, Odhs, Valmikis, Kohlis and Bhils. They reside mainly
in southern Punjab and Sindh. Satyani provides startling details about
the plight of the Dalits of Pakistan, which appears to be no different
from that of the Dalits of India.
In a speech in 1944, Satyani writes, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder
of Pakistan, declared that the Muslim League would protect the rights
of the Dalits, and he assured them of full security. Accordingly,
Jogendra Nath Mondal, a Dalit from East Bengal, was appointed as the
leader of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan and the first Law
Minister of the country. This suggests, Satyani says, that Jinnah was
genuine in his concern for the Dalits of Pakistan. However, things
began to change after Jinnah's death, and in 1953 Mondal resigned from
the Cabinet and migrated to India. This was an indication of the
growing intolerance towards minorities in post-Jinnah Pakistan. Today,
as Satyani shows, minorities lead a bleak existence in Pakistan, the
worst sufferers among them being the country's Dalits.
Following the Partition of India, Satyani says, most Hindus living in
what is now Pakistan migrated to India. The vast majority of those who
stayed back in Pakistan were Dalits. In the years after the Partition,
he writes, there has been a steady migration of Hindus to India,
especially in the immediate aftermath of the 1965 and 1971 wars
between India and Pakistan. The destruction of the Babri Masjid in
India in 1992 and the ensuing massacre of Muslims in different parts
of India by Hindutva extremists, led to a heightening of insecurity
among the Pakistani Hindus, causing a sizeable number of them to
migrate to India. Most of these migrants were 'upper' caste Hindus.
Lacking money and resources, Dalits in Pakistan were unable to make
the same choice. In addition, Satyani writes, 'The Dalits are so
caught up with mere day-to-day survival issues that Hindu-Muslim
conflicts or Pakistan-India disputes are not as important for them as
they are for rich 'upper' caste Hindus'. To add to this probably is
the fact that life for Dalits in India is hardly better than in
Pakistan.
Most Pakistani Dalits work as landless agricultural labourers and
sweepers, Satyani writes. In rural areas their huts are located in
separate settlements outside the main village and they generally lack
even basic amenities. Large numbers of Dalits also lead a nomadic
existence, traveling from village to village in search of manual work.
Many Dalits live in temporary structures in the land of landlords for
whom they work and they can be expelled from their whenever the
landlords wish, having no title to the land. They generally earn a
pittance and are often forced into free labour by powerful 'upper'
caste Hindu and Muslim feudal lords. Many Dalits eke out a miserable
existence as bonded labourers, being heavily indebted to landlords and
moneylenders. If they protest false cases are lodged against them and
the police does little or nothing to protect them. Local
administrative officers routinely harass them and even forcibly take
away their cattle and other such belongings. Land mafias in rural
Sindh often forcibly grab the land on which Dalits set up their huts.
In most places Dalits have no temples of their own. They have few
places where they can burn their dead, and many of these are illegally
occupied by local Muslims.
In schools in the villages, Satyani tells us, Dalit students routinely
face discrimination and are not allowed to use utensils that are used
by other students. In schools Dalit students are often badly treated
by Muslim teachers and students. Despite being the poorest of the
poor, they do not receive any scholarships on the grounds that money
for scholarships comes from zakat funds and hence it is not
permissible for non-Muslims to avail of them. Further, owing to
desperate poverty few Dalits can afford to send their children for
higher education, and, generally, children are withdrawn from school
at an early age to engage in manual work to help supplement the
family's meagre income. In many cases, Dalits do not send their girls
to school fearing that they might be kidnapped, raped or forced to
convert to Islam.
In towns and cities Dalits generally live in the poorest parts, in
squalid slums. There are no organizations working among them for their
welfare, and, lacking a strong political leadership of their own, they
are not able to effectively assert their voice in demanding their
rights from the state or from the larger society, not even to protest
in cases of human rights violations. Many of them do not possess
national identity cards, and so cannot access various government
developmental schemes. Government facilities for religious minorities
are almost monopolized by the country's more powerful and organized
Christian and 'upper' caste Hindu communities, leaving the Dalits
untouched.
Because of acute poverty, rampant illiteracy and discrimination and
the absence of a Dalit movement as in India, Dalits in Pakistan have
no political influence at all, Satyani says. In many places, Dalits
are not allowed to freely vote for candidates of their own choice.
They are often forced by powerful 'upper' caste Hindu and Muslim
landlords to vote for particular candidates, and if they are refused
they are pressurized into leaving their homes or are beaten up. The
problem of Dalit political marginalisation is complicated by the acute
divisions among the Dalits, with various Dalit castes practicing
untouchability among themselves. For its part, the Pakistani state,
Satyani says, prefers to promote the economically and socially more
influential 'upper' caste Hindus as 'leaders' of the Hindus, instead
of trying to promote an alternate Dalit leadership. Thus, for
instance, in 2002, of the nine seats reserved for the Sindh provincial
assembly for religious minorities, seven were for Hindus and only one
for Dalits, while Dalits account for more than 70% of the Hindu
population of the province. The state's lack of commitment to helping
the Dalits is also evident from the fact that despite there being some
3,50,000 Dalits in southern Punjab (mainly in the Rahim Yar Khan and
Bahawalpur districts) there are no reserved seats for Dalits or Hindus
in the provincial assembly. All the seats reserved for minorities in
the assembly for minorities are occupied by Christians. Further,
government affirmative policies meant especially for Dalits have been
done away with, Satyani writes. While Jinnah had provided a 6% job
quota for Dalits in some government services, in 1998 the government
of Nawaz Sharif, assisted by some 'upper' caste Hindu and Christian
leaders, changed the Dalit quota to a general minorities' quota, thus
effectively denying Dalits assured access to government jobs.
Dalits, like other minorities in Pakistan, Satyani tells us, are also
victims of religious discrimination, by both Muslims as well as
'upper' caste Hindus. Despite the Hindus being a minority in Pakistan,
'upper' caste Hindus continue to discriminate against the Dalits.
Generally, Dalits are refused entry into Hindu temples belonging to
the 'upper' castes. 'Upper' caste Hindu landlords and businessmen in
Sindh, Satyani writes, show little concern for the plight of the
Dalits, and, instead, are often complicit, along with Muslim feudal
lords, in oppressing them. As in large parts of India, in eateries in
the rural areas of Sindh, owned both by 'upper' caste Hindus as well
Muslims, Dalits are forced to use separate utensils and are expected
to wash them themselves after use. When they visit hospitals for
treatment they are generally left unattended and, being considered as
untouchables, are not allowed to touch utensils meant for public use
there. Often, Dalit women are gang-raped, murdered or are forced to
convert to Islam, but no action is taken against the perpetrators of
these crimes. Besides this, due to discrimination by 'upper' caste
Hindus, many Dalits have converted to Islam and Christianity on their
own.
Satyani ends his book with a list of recommendations for addressing
the plight of Dalits in his country. He suggests that the government
of Pakistan should insist that the question of Dalit human rights and
amelioration of their pathetic conditions be placed as part of the
SAARC agenda. This, presumably, would force all the SAARC member
states, including India, to take the issue of caste oppression
seriously. He calls for the setting up of a national commission in
Pakistan to monitor the conditions of the country's Dalits and to work
for their welfare. Dalits, he says, should be given reserved seats in
the National and Provincial Assemblies in accordance with their
population as well as adequate representation in all government
services. In areas with a high Dalit population, councils should be
created by the state for development of the Dalits. All 'black laws'
against religious minorities should be repealed, Satyani advises, and
to improve relations between different religious communities the
educational curriculum should be revised and negative portrayals of
non-Muslim communities and their religions should be deleted. Landless
labourers should be granted titles to land; Hindu, including Dalit,
employees should be given holidays on the occasion of their festivals;
Dalit communities that do not have any cremation grounds of their own
should be provided with such facilities; Dalits should be given the
right to use public wells and taps and to live within the villages,
instead, as of now, outside them; and Hindu temples presently under
the control of the Waqf Department should be given back to the
community. In schools with a sizeable Hindu population, Hindu children
should be provided facilities to study their own religion instead of
Islam.
Whether the state authorities willing to accede to these demands,
however, is another question.
Pirbhu Lal Satyani can be contacted on pirb...@yahoo.com
Indian Dalit readers could help Pirbhu Lal by sending him Dalit
literature in English or Urdu.
http://www.countercurrents.org/dalit-sikand230905.htm
Excerpts from The Constitution of India
PART III
Fundamental Rights
General
12. Definition — In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires,
"the State" includes the Government and Parliament of India and the
Government and the Legislature of each of the States and all local or
other authorities within the territory of India or under the control
of the Government of India....
Right to Equality
14. Equality before law — The State shall not deny to any person
equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the
territory of India.
15. Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste,
sex or place of birth — (1) The State shall not discriminate against
any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of
birth or any of them. (2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of
religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, be subject
to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to
— (a) access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and places of public
entertainment; or (b) the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads
and places of public resort maintained wholly or partly out of State
funds or dedicated to the use of the general public. (3) Nothing in
this article shall prevent the State from making any special provision
for women and children. (4) Nothing in this article or in clause (2)
of Article 29 shall prevent the State from making any special
provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally
backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and the
Scheduled Tribes.
16. Equality of opportunity in matters of public employment — (1)
There shall be equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters
relating to employment or appointment to any office under the State.
(2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex,
descent, place of birth, residence or any of them, be ineligible for,
or discriminated against in respect or, any employment or office under
the State....
17. Abolition of Untouchability — "Untouchability" is abolished and
its practice in any form is forbidden. The enforcement of any
disability arising out of "Untouchability" shall be an offence
punishable in accordance with law.
18. Abolition of titles — (1) No title, not being a military or
academic distinction, shall be conferred by the State....
Right to Freedom
19. Protection of certain rights regarding freedom of speech, etc. —
(1) All citizens shall have the right — (a) to freedom of speech and
expression; (b) to assemble peaceably and without arms; (c) to form
associations or unions; (d) to move freely throughout the territory of
India; (e) to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India;
and (f) [removed]; (g) to practice any profession, or to carry on any
occupation, trade or business.
...Nothing in sub-clause (a)... (b)... (c)... (d)... (e)... (g)... of
Clause (1) shall affect the operation of any existing law, or prevent
the State from making any law, in so far as such law imposes
reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by the
said sub-clause in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of
India....
20. Protection in respect of conviction for offenses — (1) No person
shall be convicted of any offence except for violation of a law in
force at the time of the commission of the act charged as an offence,
nor be subjected to a penalty greater than that which might have been
inflicted under the law in force at the time of the commission of the
offence. (2) No person shall be prosecuted and punished for the same
offence more than once. (3) No person accused of any offence shall be
compelled to be a witness against himself.
21. Protection of life and personal liberty — No person shall be
deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure
established by law.
22. Protection against arrest and detention in certain cases — (1) No
person who is arrested shall be detained in custody without being
informed, as soon as may be, of the grounds for such arrest nor shall
he be denied the right to consult, and to be defended by, a legal
practitioner of his choice. (2) Every person who is arrested and
detained in custody shall be produced before the nearest magistrate
within a period of twenty-four hours of such arrest excluding the time
necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to the court of the
magistrate and no such person shall be detained in custody beyond the
said period without the authority of a magistrate. (3) Nothing in
clauses (1) and (2) shall apply — (a) to any person who for the time
being is an enemy alien; or (b) to any person who is arrested or
detained under any law providing for preventive detention. (4) No law
providing for preventive detention shall authorize the detention of a
person for a longer period than three months unless — (a) an Advisory
Board consisting of persons who are, or have been, or are qualified to
be appointed as, Judges of a High Court has reported before the
expiration of the said period of three months that there is in its
opinion sufficient cause for such detention;... (5) When any person is
detained in pursuance of an order made under any law providing for
preventive detention, the authority making the order shall, as soon as
may be, communicate to such person the grounds on which the order has
been made and shall afford him the earliest opportunity of making a
representation against the order. (6) Nothing in clause (5) shall
require the authority making any such order as is referred to in that
clause to disclose facts which such authority considers to be against
the public interest to disclose....
Right Against Exploitation
23. Prohibition of traffic in human beings and forced labor — (1)
Traffic in human beings and begar and other similar forms of forced
labor are prohibited and any contravention of this provision shall be
an offence punishable in accordance with law. (2) Nothing in this
article shall prevent the State from imposing compulsory service for
public purposes....
24. Prohibition of employment of children in factories, etc. — No
child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in any
factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment.
Right to Freedom of Religion
25. Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and
propagation of religion —(1) Subject to public order, morality and
health and to the other provisions of this Part, all persons are
equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to
profess, practice and propagate religion. (2) Nothing in this article
shall affect the operation of any existing law or prevent the State
from making any law — (a) regulating or restricting any economic,
financial, political or other secular activity which may be associated
with religious practice; (b) providing for social welfare and reform
or the throwing open of Hindu religious institutions of a public
character to all classes and sections of Hindus....
Cultural and Educational Rights
29. Protection of interests of minorities — (1) Any section of the
citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having
a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right
to conserve the same. (2) No citizen shall be denied admission into
any educational institution maintained by the State or receiving aid
out of State funds on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language
or any of them....
34. Restriction on rights conferred by this Part while martial law is
in force in any area - ..Parliament may by law indemnify any person in
the service of the Union or of a State or any other person in respect
of any act done by him in connection with the maintenance or
restoration of order in any area within the territory of India where
martial law was in force or validate any sentence passed, punishment
inflicted, forfeiture ordered or other act done under martial law in
such area....
51-A. Fundamental duties — It shall be the duty of every citizen of
India — (a) to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and
institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem; (b) to
cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national
struggle for freedom; (c) to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity
and integrity of India; (d) to defend the country and render national
service when called upon to do so; (e) to promote harmony and the
spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India
transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional
diversities; to renounce practice derogatory to the dignity of women;
(f) to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture;
(g) to protect and improve the natural environment including forests,
lakes, rivers and wild life, and to have compassion for living
creatures; (h) to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the
spirit of inquiry and reform; (i) to safeguard public property and to
abjure violence; (j) to strive towards excellence in all spheres of
individual and collective activity so that the nation constantly rises
to higher levels of endeavour and achievement.
Copyright ©1995-97 by LeftJusified Publiks
http://www.leftjustified.com/leftjust/lib/sc/ht/wtp/india.html
India: ‘Hidden Apartheid’ of Discrimination Against Dalits
Government Fails to End Caste-Based Segregation and Attacks
(New York, February 13, 2007) –
India has systematically failed to uphold its international legal
obligations to ensure the fundamental human rights of Dalits, or so-
called untouchables, despite laws and policies against caste
discrimination, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice and
Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. More than 165
million Dalits in India are condemned to a lifetime of abuse simply
because of their caste.
Prime Minister Singh has rightly compared ‘untouchability’ to
apartheid, and he should now turn his words into action to protect the
rights of Dalits. The Indian government can no longer deny its
collusion in maintaining a system of entrenched social and economic
segregation.
Professor Smita Narula, faculty director of the Center for Human
Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at New York University School of
Law, and co-author of the report.
Contribute to Human Rights Watch
Related Material
“Hidden Apartheid: Caste Discrimination against India’s
‘Untouchables’”
Report, February 13, 2007
Center for Human Rights and Global Justice
Web Site
India
Country Page
India's Dalits: between atrocity and protest
Commentary, January 12, 2007
More on the work of the International Dalit Solidarity Network
Web Site
More on the work of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights
Web Site
IDSN produced documentary on Dalits
Film
Audio Commentary in English
Audio Clip
Letter to Prime Minister Singh of India from the Center for Human
Rights and Global Justice and Human Rights Watch
Letter, February 14, 2007
The 113-page report, “Hidden Apartheid: Caste Discrimination against
India’s ‘Untouchables’,” was produced as a “shadow report” in response
to India’s submission to the United Nations Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which monitors
implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). The committee will review
India’s compliance with the convention during hearings in Geneva on
February 23 and 26.
On December 27, 2006 Manmohan Singh became the first sitting Indian
prime minister to openly acknowledge the parallel between the practice
of “untouchability” and the crime of apartheid. Singh described
“untouchability” as a “blot on humanity” adding that “even after 60
years of constitutional and legal protection and state support, there
is still social discrimination against Dalits in many parts of our
country.”
“Prime Minister Singh has rightly compared ‘untouchability’ to
apartheid, and he should now turn his words into action to protect the
rights of Dalits,” said Professor Smita Narula, faculty director of
the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at New York
University School of Law, and co-author of the report. “The Indian
government can no longer deny its collusion in maintaining a system of
entrenched social and economic segregation.”
Dalits endure segregation in housing, schools, and access to public
services. They are denied access to land, forced to work in degrading
conditions, and routinely abused at the hands of the police and upper-
caste community members who enjoy the state’s protection. Entrenched
discrimination violates Dalits’ rights to education, health, housing,
property, freedom of religion, free choice of employment, and equal
treatment before the law. Dalits also suffer routine violations of
their right to life and security of person through state-sponsored or -
sanctioned acts of violence, including torture.
Caste-motivated killings, rapes, and other abuses are a daily
occurrence in India. Between 2001 and 2002 close to 58,000 cases were
registered under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention
of Atrocities) Act – legislation that criminalizes particularly
egregious abuses against Dalits and tribal community members. A 2005
government report states that a crime is committed against a Dalit
every 20 minutes. Though staggering, these figures represent only a
fraction of actual incidents since many Dalits do not register cases
for fear of retaliation by the police and upper-caste individuals.
Both state and private actors commit these crimes with impunity. Even
on the relatively rare occasions on which a case reaches court, the
most likely outcome is acquittal. Indian government reports reveal
that between 1999 and 2001 as many as 89 percent of trials involving
offenses against Dalits resulted in acquittals.
A resolution passed by the European Parliament on February 1, 2007
found India’s efforts to enforce laws protecting Dalits to be “grossly
inadequate,” adding that “atrocities, untouchability, illiteracy,
[and] inequality of opportunity, continue to blight the lives of
India’s Dalits.” The resolution called on the Indian government to
engage with CERD in its efforts to end caste-based discrimination.
Dalit leaders welcomed the resolution, but Indian officials dismissed
it as lacking in “balance and perspective.”
“International scrutiny is growing and with it the condemnation of
abuses resulting from the caste system and the government’s failure to
protect Dalits,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“India needs to mobilize the entire government and make good on its
paper commitments to end caste abuses. Otherwise, it risks pariah
status for its homegrown brand of apartheid.”
Attempts by Dalits to defy the caste order, to demand their rights, or
to lay claim to land that is legally theirs are consistently met with
economic boycotts or retaliatory violence. For example, in Punjab on
January 5, 2006 Dalit laborer and activist Bant Singh, seeking the
prosecution of the people who gang-raped his daughter, was beaten so
severely that both arms and one leg had to be amputated. On September
26, 2006 in Kherlanji village, Maharashtra, a Dalit family was killed
by an upper-caste mob, after the mother and daughter were stripped,
beaten and paraded through the village and the two brothers were
brutally beaten. They were attacked because they refused to let upper-
caste farmers take their land. After widespread protests at the
police’s failure to arrest the perpetrators, some of those accused in
the killing were finally arrested and police and medical officers who
had failed to do their jobs were suspended from duty.
Exploitation of labor is at the very heart of the caste system. Dalits
are forced to perform tasks deemed too “polluting” or degrading for
non-Dalits to carry out. According to unofficial estimates, more than
1.3 million Dalits – mostly women – are employed as manual scavengers
to clear human waste from dry pit latrines. In several cities, Dalits
are lowered into manholes without protection to clear sewage
blockages, resulting in more than 100 deaths each year from inhalation
of toxic gases or from drowning in excrement. Dalits comprise the
majority of agricultural, bonded, and child laborers in the country.
Many survive on less than US$1 per day.
In January 2007 the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women concluded that Dalit women in India suffer from “deeply
rooted structural discrimination.” “Hidden Apartheid” records the
plight of Dalit women and the multiple forms of discrimination they
face. Abuses documented in the report include sexual abuse by the
police and upper-caste men, forced prostitution, and discrimination in
employment and the payment of wages.
Dalit children face consistent hurdles in access to education. They
are made to sit in the back of classrooms and endure verbal and
physical harassment from teachers and students. The effect of such
abuses is borne out by the low literacy and high drop-out rates for
Dalits.
The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice and Human Rights Watch
call on CERD to scrutinize the gap between India’s human rights
commitments and the daily reality faced by Dalits. In particular, CERD
should request that the Indian government:
•Identify measures taken to ensure appropriate reforms to eliminate
police abuses against Dalits and other marginalized communities;
•Provide concrete plans to implement laws and government policies to
protect Dalits, and Dalit women in particular, from physical and
sexual violence;
•Identify steps taken to eradicate caste-based segregation in
residential areas and schools, and in access to public services;
and,
•Outline plans to ensure the effective eradication of exploitative
labor arrangements and effective implementation of rehabilitation
schemes for Dalit bonded and child laborers, manual scavengers, and
for Dalit women forced into prostitution.
“International outrage over the treatment of Dalits is matched by
growing national discontent,” Smita Narula said. “India can’t ignore
the voices of 165 million citizens.”
“Hidden Apartheid” is based on in-depth investigations by CHRGJ, Human
Rights Watch, Indian non-governmental organizations, and media
sources. The pervasiveness of abuses against Dalits is corroborated by
the reports of Indian governmental agencies, including the National
Human Rights Commission, and the National Commission on Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes. These and other sources were compiled,
investigated, and analyzed under international law by NYU School of
Law’s International Human Rights Clinic.
Background
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) is
a body of independent experts responsible for monitoring states’
compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), ratified by India in 1968. It
guarantees rights of non-discrimination on the basis of “race, colour,
descent, or national or ethnic origin.” In 1996 CERD concluded that
the plight of Dalits falls squarely under the prohibition of descent-
based discrimination. As a state party to ICERD, India is obligated to
submit periodic reports detailing its implementation of rights
guaranteed under the convention. During the review session CERD
examines these reports and engages in constructive dialogue with the
state party, addressing its concerns and offering recommendations.
CERD uses supplementary information contained in non-governmental
organization “shadow reports” to evaluate states’ reports. India’s
report to CERD, eight years overdue, covers compliance with the
convention from 1996 to 2006 yet does not contain a single mention of
abuses against Dalits – abuses that India’s own governmental agencies
have documented and verified.
http://www.hrw.org/legacy/english/docs/2007/02/13/india15303.htm
Hindus support Dalit candidates in Tamil Nadu
Sunday, 15 October 2006
This time it is a different story from the four villages in southern
Tamil Nadu that defied the panchayati raj system for 10 long years.
Sections of the majority caste-Hindu people in these villages -
Pappapatti, Keeripatti and Nattarmangalam in Madurai district and
Kottakachiyenthal in the adjoining Virudhunagar district - who had
been monopolising panchayat posts for a long time were adamantly
refusing to accept Dalits as their panchayat presidents under the
reservation system introduced in 1996. They either did not allow any
Dalit to file nomination papers or fielded a candidate of their choice
and forced him to quit soon after he took charge or did not allow him
to complete his term. In the past 10 years elections and by-elections
were held more than 15 times and every time caste-Hindus adopted the
same strategy. They remained insensitive to protests from progressive
and democratic sections.
But now the situation is different. Caste Hindus of these villages are
now a changed lot. They sprang a surprise by participating
enthusiastically in the elections held on 13 and 15 October 2006 as
part of the State-wide exercise. This will pave the way, hopefully,
for a smooth, functional transfer of power to Dalits.
Human rights and political activists and mediapersons, who used to
visit these villages at least during election times, could not find
any tension unlike on previous occasions. Nor could they see, unlike
earlier, caste-Hindu elders with wry faces curiously watching the
movements of strangers or tight-lipped Dalits shivering in fear of
their `upper-caste' paymasters.
The villages witnessed hectic campaigns by supporters of rival
candidates, as did every other part of the State. There were small
meetings, distribution of handbills, pasting of posters on trees and
other forms of campaign. Caste Hindus, young and old, participated in
the process helping Dalits file their nominations and exercising their
franchise without fail. They said they had decided on allowing the
successful candidates to complete their term.
There was brisk polling at all levels for both reserved and non-
reserved posts, from panchayat ward member to district panchayat
councillor, in straight and multi-cornered contests. To add pep to
this, there were reports of friction between rival campaigners and
charges of attempts at impersonation. The voting percentage ranged
from 75 to 85 in the villages, according to reports. The election of
panchayat presidents and, for the first time, their ward members, who
together constitute the elected panchayat council, thus went smoothly.
The panchayat presidents were elected unopposed in Keeripatti and
Kottakachiyenthal. "We will ensure that they complete their term,"
said PK Chellakannu Thevar, a caste-Hindu leader at Pappapatti.
There is no denying that the caste Hindu participation of such
magnitude by itself is significant. For instance, panchayat elections
were held this year at Kottakachiyenthal after nearly 25 years. For
the elections to some posts, Dalits have been proposed or seconded by
caste Hindus. This has raised hopes of building a more effective
working relationship among warring caste groups.
How did it all happen? "This has not come about overnight. A lot of
effort has gone into this process of change," said R Mohan, Communist
Party of India (Marxist) Member of Parliament. He said the State
government, the district administration, voluntary organisations,
political workers "including some of our able activists" and the media
had all contributed to this development.
When the Left and Dalit parties demanded a few months ago that these
defiant villages should not be included in the list of panchayats to
be de-reserved at the end of two terms under the rotational system,
the State government readily agreed. Chief Minister M Karunanidhi also
announced in the State Assembly the government's resolve to break the
resistance to Dalit empowerment. It is this political will, which was
conspicuously absent all these years, triggered the transformation.
Once the State government took a stand, the district administration in
Madurai and Virudhunagar started doing the necessary spadework.
Collector of Madurai T Udhayachandran made several visits, sometimes
with no officials accompanying him to the three rebel panchayat
villages in the district in order to interact with the predominant
caste Hindus (Piranmalai Kallars) and Dalits (Pallars and Paraiyars).
The administration adopted a `carrot and stick' policy to persuade the
majority group to mend its ways and join the mainstream. The officials
assured them of basic amenities and development works. Field officials
educated the people on the advantages of having an elected panchayat.
Udhayachandran said special schemes worth more than Rs 50 lakh were
launched in each panchayat. Self-Help Groups of women were provided
loans to the tune of Rs 35 lakh. Polling booths were rearranged and
the procedures governing the filing of nominations were simplified.
The people were assured that their villages would be developed as
model villages. Several steps were taken to instill confidence among
Dalits and encourage their participation in the election process. The
Collector said: "We will think of creating new job opportunities for
the unemployed youth among both Dalits and others." He hoped that
there would be no problem for the successful Dalit candidates in
completing their terms.
Collector of Virudhunagar SS Jawahar made similar efforts at
Kottakachiyenthal, the most rebellious of the four southern villages,
where not a single election had been held either to the post of
panchayat president or to the post of ward member for 10 years. Unlike
in the other three villages, Dalit presence here is very small - less
than 20. The fall in the figure is attributed to migration, which has
not apparently been taken note of by officials handling poll-related
work. The village lacks infrastructure and basic amenities, including
drinking water and streetlights.
The condition of Dalits here is worse. Most of their one-room
tenements are in a dilapidated condition. They have to cook their food
in the open. There is no electricity. When the district administration
came to know of these problems, it launched development schemes worth
several lakhs of rupees. A ration shop was opened and public taps were
provided. A bus service was also promised. These measures helped
change the attitude of the two major caste-Hindu groups here,
Agamudaiyars and Yadavas. Besides, a rift between the two also worked
to the advantage of Dalits, whose nominee for president could count on
the support of one or the other of the two for his survival in
office.
Organisations such as People's Watch, Madurai, which in association
with the Dalit Panthers of India organised a public hearing on the
issue in 2004 and some activists of the CPI (M) have also been
instrumental in effecting the change in the people's attitude. For
instance, noted writer and CPI (M) activist Venkatesan has been
involved in creating awareness about the need for amity among the
rival social groups to fight poverty and social injustice. A group of
Tamil writers who visited Pappapatti and Nattarmangalam on 8 October
2006 also made a big impact on the caste Hindus. They recalled at the
meetings they addressed how people cutting across castes participated
in the struggles led by U Muthuramalinga Thevar about six decades ago
to win for Dalits the right to enter temples and also to get the
Criminal Tribes Act abolished and the names of communities such as
Piranmalai Kallar removed from the list of notified tribes.
Asked what brought about this change in their mindset, a caste-Hindu
youth from Pappapatti said the younger generation was keen on
`removing the bad name our village has earned". An elderly person
said: "We now realise that we have been left behind in several
respects because of our tough line in the past."
(Source: Frontline)
http://indianchristians.in/news/content/view/311/48/
Crusader Sees Wealth as Cure for Caste Bias
Brian Sokol/Rapport, for The New York Times
An untouchable, or Dalit, woman in Azamgarh District in Uttar Pradesh,
India. The country has 200 million Dalits, many of whom remain
uneducated and poor.
More Photos >
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: August 29, 2008
AZAMGARH DISTRICT, India — When Chandra Bhan Prasad visits his
ancestral village in these feudal badlands of northern India, he
dispenses the following advice to his fellow untouchables: Get rid of
your cattle, because the care of animals demands children’s labor.
Invest in your children’s education instead of in jewelry or land.
Cities are good for Dalit outcastes like us, and so is India’s new
capitalism.
Brian Sokol/Rapport, for The New York Times
Chandra Bhan Prasad in front of a flooded field in a village in Uttar
Pradesh, India. More Photos »
Mr. Prasad was born into the Pasi community, once considered
untouchable on the ancient Hindu caste order. Today, a chain-smoking,
irrepressible didact, he is the rare outcaste columnist in the English
language press and a professional provocateur. His latest crusade is
to argue that India’s economic liberalization is about to do the
unthinkable: destroy the caste system. The last 17 years of new
capitalism have already allowed his people, or Dalits, as they call
themselves, to “escape hunger and humiliation,” he says, if not
residual prejudice.
At a time of tremendous upheaval in India, Mr. Prasad is a lightning
rod for one of the country’s most wrenching debates: Has India’s
embrace of economic reforms really uplifted those who were consigned
for centuries to the bottom of the social ladder? Mr. Prasad, who
guesses himself to be in his late 40s because his birthday was never
recorded, is an anomaly, often the lone Dalit in Delhi gatherings of
high-born intelligentsia.
He has the zeal of an ideological convert: he used to be a Maoist
revolutionary who, by his own admission, dressed badly, carried a
pistol and recruited his people to kill their upper-caste landlords.
He claims to have failed in that mission.
Mr. Prasad is a contrarian. He calls government welfare programs
patronizing. He dismisses the countryside as a cesspool. Affirmative
action is fine, in his view, but only to advance a small slice into
the middle class, who can then act as role models. He calls English
“the Dalit goddess,” able to liberate Dalits.
Along with India’s economic policies, once grounded in socialist
ideals, Mr. Prasad has moved to the right. He is openly and
mischievously contemptuous of leftists. “They have a hatred for those
who are happy,” he said.
There are about 200 million Dalits, or members of the Scheduled
Castes, as they are known officially, in India. They remain socially
scorned in city and country, and they are over-represented among
India’s uneducated, malnourished and poor.
The debate over caste in the New India is more than academic. India’s
leaders are under growing pressure to alleviate poverty and
inequality. Now, all kinds of groups are clamoring for what Dalits
have had for 50 years — quotas in university seats, government jobs
and elected office — making caste one of the country’s most divisive
political issues. Moreover, there are growing demands for caste quotas
in the private sector.
Mr. Prasad’s latest mission is sure to stir the debate. He is
conducting a qualitative survey of nearly 20,000 households here in
northern state of Uttar Pradesh to measure how everyday life has
changed for Dalits since economic liberalization began in 1991. The
preliminary findings, though far from generalizable, reveal subtle
shifts.
The survey, financed by the Center for the Advanced Study of India at
the University of Pennsylvania, finds that Dalits are far less likely
to be engaged in their traditional caste occupations — for instance,
the skinning of animals, considered ritually unclean — than they used
to be and more likely to enjoy social perks once denied them. In rural
Azamgarh District, for instance, nearly all Dalit households said
their bridegrooms now rode in cars to their weddings, compared with 27
percent in 1990. In the past, Dalits would not have been allowed to
ride even horses to meet their brides; that was considered an upper-
caste privilege.
Mr. Prasad credits the changes to a booming economy. “It has pulled
them out of the acute poverty they were in and the day-to-day
humiliation of working for a landlord,” he said.
To prove his point, Mr. Prasad recently brought journalists here to
his home district. In one village, Gaddopur, his theory was borne out
in the tale of a gaunt, reticent man named Mahesh Kumar, who went to
work in a factory 300 miles away so his family would no longer have to
live as serfs, tending the animals of the upper caste.
When he was a child, Dalits like him had to address their upper-caste
landlords as “babu-saab,” close to “master.” Now it is acceptable to
call them “uncle” or “brother,” just as people would members of their
own castes.
Today, Mr. Kumar, 61 and uneducated, owns an airless one-room factory
on the outskirts of Delhi, with a basic gas-fired machine to press
bolts of fabric for garment manufacturers. With money earned there, he
and his sons have built a proper brick and cement house in their
village.
Similar tales are echoed in many other villages across India. But here
is the problem with Mr. Prasad’s survey. Even if it chronicles
progress, the survey cannot tie it to any one cause, least of all
economic changes. In fact, other empirical studies in this budding
area of inquiry show that in parts of India where economic
liberalization has had the greatest impact, neither rural poverty nor
the plight of Dalits has consistently improved.
Abhijit Banerjee, an economist at M.I.T. who studies poverty in India,
says that the reform years coincide with the rise of Dalit
politicians, and that both factors may have contributed to a rise in
confidence among Dalits.
Moreover, Old India’s caste prohibitions have made sure that some can
prosper more easily than others. India’s new knowledge-based economy
rewards the well-educated and highly skilled, and education for
centuries was the preserve of the upper castes.
Today, discrimination continues, with some studies suggesting that
those with familiar lower-caste names fare worse in job interviews,
even with similar qualifications. The Indian elite, whether corporate
heads, filmmakers, even journalists, is still dominated by the upper
castes.
From across India still come reports of brutality against untouchables
trying to transcend their destiny.
It is a measure of the hardships of rural India that so many Dalits in
recent years are migrating to cities for back-breaking, often
unregulated jobs, and that those who remain in their villages consider
sharecropping a step up from day labor.
On a journey across these villages with Mr. Prasad, it is difficult to
square the utter destitution of his people with Dalit empowerment. In
one village, the government health center has collapsed into a pile of
bricks. Few homes have toilets. Children run barefoot. In Gaddopur,
the Dalit neighborhood still sits on the edge of the village — so as
not to pollute the others, the thinking goes — and in the monsoon,
when the fields are flooded, the only way to reach the Dalits’ homes
is to tramp ankle deep in mud. The land that leads to the Dalit
enclave is owned by intermediate castes, and they have not allowed for
it to be used to build a proper brick lane.
Indu Jaiswal, 21, intends to be the first Dalit woman of Gaddopur to
get a salaried job. She has persuaded her family to let her defer her
marriage by a few years, an audacious demand here, so she could finish
college and get a stable government job. “With education comes
change,” Ms. Jaiswal said. “You learn how to talk. You learn how to
work. And you get more respect.”
Without education, the migrants from Gaddopur also know, they can go
only so far in the big cities that Mr. Prasad so ardently praises.
Their fabric-pressing factories in and around Delhi have been losing
business lately, as the big textile factories acquire computerized
machines far more efficient than their own crude contraptions. One man
with knowledge of computers can do the work of 10 of their men, they
say. Neither Mr. Kumar, nor the two sons who work with him, can afford
to buy these new machines. Even if they could, they know nothing about
computers.
The village Dalits do not challenge Mr. Prasad with such
contradictions as he travels among them preaching the virtues of
economic liberalization. He is a big man, a success story that makes
them proud.
Among the broad generalizations he favors, he says that Dalits aspire
to marry upper-caste Brahmins to step up the ladder. He married a
woman from his own caste, who, he proudly points out, is light-
skinned. Across the caste ladder, fair complexion is still preferred
over dark.
“Economic expansion is going to neutralize caste in 50 years,” he
predicted. “It will not end caste.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/30/world/asia/30caste.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=asia
Dalits: Kanchi leads the way
Author: Sandhya Jain
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 19, 2002
The Shankaracharya of Kanchi, Swami Jayendra Saraswati, broke a
critical stalemate in the current controversy over the merits of the
Tamil Nadu ban on conversions by force, fraud or inducement, by
offering worship at a Dalit-run temple in Madurai (The Hindu, Nov 12).
The Veerakali Amman temple, which serves the religious needs of 18
villages and has a Dalit priest, lies in the Melur region where 250
Hindus were converted en masse by a Canadian priest of the Seventh Day
Adventists on August 15. Previously, about 1,500 Hindus were converted
in the neighbouring areas in January 2001. By giving the villagers an
unexpected darshan, the Shankaracharya gracefully shattered several
myths and assumptions about inegalitarianism and divisiveness in Hindu
society.
Speaking with his legendary forthrightness, the seer told the
gathering what many of us have always known, namely, that Hindu dharma
does not promote or envision discrimination and regards people of all
sections of society as equal. He rightly stressed that Hindus have an
age-long tradition of living amicably as a 'family', as brothers and
sisters. Candidly accepting that there are always differences in
society, he advised the people not to foster discrimination on this
count, as unity has ever been the hallmark of the dharma.
The Shankaracharya has truly led by example, with a view to blunting
the criticism of evangelising faiths that social discrimination
compels Dalits to embrace other faiths. Hitherto, Hindus have been
rebutting the argument by pointing out that the condition of former
Dalits does not improve upon leaving the mother faith, and that
persisting discrimination in the new faiths has led Christian and
Muslim groups to demand the extension of reservation benefits to ex-
Dalits in their fold.
Swami Jayendra Saraswati, however, has risen above this cacophony to
remind us that we cannot seek refuge in such specious arguments, and
that it is our duty to uphold the principle of the brotherhood of man
in our own lives. It is now enjoined upon each one of us to be worthy
followers of a worthy leader. Tamil society in particular must rise to
the occasion and accord Dalits the personal dignity they crave for; a
beginning must be made by doing away with the degrading two-glass
system at village dhabas. In this regard, it may be worth noting that
the Swamiji's choice of temple was singularly apt. The Veerakali Amman
temple attracts devotees from all castes and is also a locally
renowned symbol of communal harmony as Muslims regularly join the
celebrations of its annual festival in January.
What is most exciting about this new call from the bastions of the
mainstream tradition is that it cannot be set aside lightly as a
maverick or fringe movement. Swami Jayendra Saraswati followed up the
Madurai initiative at Tirunelveli by categorically asserting that
Dalits have the right to enter any temple across the State
individually and offer prayers. This may not make sense to many urban
citizens. But what it means is that, at many important temples, Dalits
from outside the region do enter anonymously along with other
pilgrims, but local Dalits who might be recognised would be barred or
beaten for entering the precincts.
Now an orthodox Hindu leader with unparalleled knowledge of the
shastras has ruled that "appropriate action" would be taken against
those trying to prevent a Dalit from entering a temple. And as the
cosmic vision of the Hindus does not envisage the shallow separation
of religion and the public sphere, as Mahatma Gandhi had intuitively
understood, the Shankaracharya has rightly asserted that religious
leaders must increasingly participate in public life to foster a
social renaissance.
Given the encouraging signs emanating from different parts of the
country, it would appear that a major paradigm shift is in the making.
Later this month, Hindu religious leaders are slated to meet at
Kottakkal in Malappuram district, Kerala, to discuss whether temples
should open their doors to all visitors, irrespective of religion.
Historically, there are legitimate reasons for both the imposition of
the ban and, socially, there are valid reasons for its revocation. A
mature look at both sides of the coin would go a long way to ensure
community amity and national harmony.
Those who contend that conversions are not an assault upon the
country's native faith and living civilisation would do well to
recollect that Hindu dharma has suffered grievously for several
centuries, and its temples have been the special foci of sustained
assault and injury. Simply put, this is the reason for the self-
protective ban on the entry of non-believers into temple precincts.
Left historian Sanjay Subramani-am has recorded the fortuitous escape
of the famed Tirupathi shrine from annihilation at the hands of the
Portuguese. Can one imagine South India without Tirupathi? North India
was home to several such Tiru-pathis; today it has only the Ganga.
Yet, the priests of Tirupathi have welcomed all devotees, provided
only that they declare faith in Sri Venkatesvara; that is why it
rankles to this day that Signora Sonia Gandhi should so arrogantly
refuse this courtesy at such a holy shrine.
Nonetheless, much water has flown under the bridge, and communities
have grown to the point that many individuals wish to stake claim to a
larger Indic heritage. Hindu tradition is by definition inclusivist
rather than exclusionary, hence deference to the sentiments of non-
Hindu devotees would be highly appropriate. The present move is the
result of the hurt felt by many at a perceived injustice to celebrated
singer KJ Yesudas, a great bhakta of Guruvayurappan, who has been
denied temple entry on account of being born in a Christian family.
The poet Yusufali Kecherry, who has written some of the best songs in
honour of Lord Krishna, has also been excluded from Guruvayur because
of his Muslim origins.
This seemingly innocuous issue came to the forefront a couple of years
ago when the Guruvayur temple performed a purificatory rite after the
wedding of the son of Congress leader Vyalar Ravi. The explanation
offered was that Mr Ravi's wife was not a Hindu. But the incident
proved unacceptable to the Hindu conscience and sparked off the
present reformation drive.
Much can be expected from the conclave as the chief of the Namboodiri
sect has taken the lead in the matter and major temples and social
organisations are expected to attend the meet. It seems reasonable to
extend freedom of entry to all devotees (or for that matter even
heritage tourists from other faiths) provided that they show proper
respect to temple traditions and do not defile their sanctity. And it
goes without saying that this generosity must extend to less
privileged groups within the Hindu fold.
Change is already in the air. In strife-torn Bihar, the birthplace of
Lord Mahavira, the apostle of non-violence, authorities of Patna's
famous Mahavira temple have decided to increase the number of Dalit
priests after a successful experiment launched nine years ago. A
former untouchable, Suryavanshi Das, was recruited as a priest and has
been successfully performing the traditional rituals along with the
Brahmin priests. His public acceptance is absolute. The temple
administration actively promotes equality among human beings and
maintains links with the Ramanandi community which practiced non-
discrimination seven centuries ago.
http://www.hvk.org/articles/1102/135.html
India: ‘Hidden Apartheid’ of Discrimination Against Dalits
Government Fails to End Caste-Based Segregation and Attacks
(New York, February 13, 2007) – India has systematically failed to
uphold its international legal obligations to ensure the fundamental
human rights of Dalits, or so-called untouchables, despite laws and
policies against caste discrimination, the Center for Human Rights and
Global Justice and Human Rights Watch said in a new report released
today. More than 165 million Dalits in India are condemned to a
lifetime of abuse simply because of their caste.
Prime Minister Singh has rightly compared ‘untouchability’ to
apartheid, and he should now turn his words into action to protect the
rights of Dalits. The Indian government can no longer deny its
collusion in maintaining a system of entrenched social and economic
segregation.
Professor Smita Narula, faculty director of the Center for Human
Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at New York University School of
Law, and co-author of the report.
Contribute to Human Rights Watch
Related Material
“Hidden Apartheid: Caste Discrimination against India’s
‘Untouchables’”
Report, February 13, 2007
Center for Human Rights and Global Justice
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Commentary, January 12, 2007
More on the work of the International Dalit Solidarity Network
Web Site
More on the work of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights
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Audio Clip
Audio Commentary in Hindi
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Letter to Prime Minister Singh of India from the Center for Human
Rights and Global Justice and Human Rights Watch
Letter, February 14, 2007
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The 113-page report, “Hidden Apartheid: Caste Discrimination against
India’s ‘Untouchables’,” was produced as a “shadow report” in response
to India’s submission to the United Nations Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which monitors
implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). The committee will review
India’s compliance with the convention during hearings in Geneva on
February 23 and 26.
On December 27, 2006 Manmohan Singh became the first sitting Indian
prime minister to openly acknowledge the parallel between the practice
of “untouchability” and the crime of apartheid. Singh described
“untouchability” as a “blot on humanity” adding that “even after 60
years of constitutional and legal protection and state support, there
is still social discrimination against Dalits in many parts of our
country.”
“Prime Minister Singh has rightly compared ‘untouchability’ to
apartheid, and he should now turn his words into action to protect the
rights of Dalits,” said Professor Smita Narula, faculty director of
the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at New York
University School of Law, and co-author of the report. “The Indian
government can no longer deny its collusion in maintaining a system of
entrenched social and economic segregation.”
Dalits endure segregation in housing, schools, and access to public
services. They are denied access to land, forced to work in degrading
conditions, and routinely abused at the hands of the police and upper-
caste community members who enjoy the state’s protection. Entrenched
discrimination violates Dalits’ rights to education, health, housing,
property, freedom of religion, free choice of employment, and equal
treatment before the law. Dalits also suffer routine violations of
their right to life and security of person through state-sponsored or -
sanctioned acts of violence, including torture.
Caste-motivated killings, rapes, and other abuses are a daily
occurrence in India. Between 2001 and 2002 close to 58,000 cases were
registered under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention
of Atrocities) Act – legislation that criminalizes particularly
egregious abuses against Dalits and tribal community members. A 2005
government report states that a crime is committed against a Dalit
every 20 minutes. Though staggering, these figures represent only a
fraction of actual incidents since many Dalits do not register cases
for fear of retaliation by the police and upper-caste individuals.
Both state and private actors commit these crimes with impunity. Even
on the relatively rare occasions on which a case reaches court, the
most likely outcome is acquittal. Indian government reports reveal
that between 1999 and 2001 as many as 89 percent of trials involving
offenses against Dalits resulted in acquittals.
A resolution passed by the European Parliament on February 1, 2007
found India’s efforts to enforce laws protecting Dalits to be “grossly
inadequate,” adding that “atrocities, untouchability, illiteracy,
[and] inequality of opportunity, continue to blight the lives of
India’s Dalits.” The resolution called on the Indian government to
engage with CERD in its efforts to end caste-based discrimination.
Dalit leaders welcomed the resolution, but Indian officials dismissed
it as lacking in “balance and perspective.”
“International scrutiny is growing and with it the condemnation of
abuses resulting from the caste system and the government’s failure to
protect Dalits,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“India needs to mobilize the entire government and make good on its
paper commitments to end caste abuses. Otherwise, it risks pariah
status for its homegrown brand of apartheid.”
Attempts by Dalits to defy the caste order, to demand their rights, or
to lay claim to land that is legally theirs are consistently met with
economic boycotts or retaliatory violence. For example, in Punjab on
January 5, 2006 Dalit laborer and activist Bant Singh, seeking the
prosecution of the people who gang-raped his daughter, was beaten so
severely that both arms and one leg had to be amputated. On September
26, 2006 in Kherlanji village, Maharashtra, a Dalit family was killed
by an upper-caste mob, after the mother and daughter were stripped,
beaten and paraded through the village and the two brothers were
brutally beaten. They were attacked because they refused to let upper-
caste farmers take their land. After widespread protests at the
police’s failure to arrest the perpetrators, some of those accused in
the killing were finally arrested and police and medical officers who
had failed to do their jobs were suspended from duty.
Exploitation of labor is at the very heart of the caste system. Dalits
are forced to perform tasks deemed too “polluting” or degrading for
non-Dalits to carry out. According to unofficial estimates, more than
1.3 million Dalits – mostly women – are employed as manual scavengers
to clear human waste from dry pit latrines. In several cities, Dalits
are lowered into manholes without protection to clear sewage
blockages, resulting in more than 100 deaths each year from inhalation
of toxic gases or from drowning in excrement. Dalits comprise the
majority of agricultural, bonded, and child laborers in the country.
Many survive on less than US$1 per day.
In January 2007 the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women concluded that Dalit women in India suffer from “deeply
rooted structural discrimination.” “Hidden Apartheid” records the
plight of Dalit women and the multiple forms of discrimination they
face. Abuses documented in the report include sexual abuse by the
police and upper-caste men, forced prostitution, and discrimination in
employment and the payment of wages.
Dalit children face consistent hurdles in access to education. They
are made to sit in the back of classrooms and endure verbal and
physical harassment from teachers and students. The effect of such
abuses is borne out by the low literacy and high drop-out rates for
Dalits.
The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice and Human Rights Watch
call on CERD to scrutinize the gap between India’s human rights
commitments and the daily reality faced by Dalits. In particular, CERD
should request that the Indian government:
•Identify measures taken to ensure appropriate reforms to eliminate
police abuses against Dalits and other marginalized communities;
•Provide concrete plans to implement laws and government policies to
protect Dalits, and Dalit women in particular, from physical and
sexual violence;
•Identify steps taken to eradicate caste-based segregation in
residential areas and schools, and in access to public services;
and,
•Outline plans to ensure the effective eradication of exploitative
labor arrangements and effective implementation of rehabilitation
schemes for Dalit bonded and child laborers, manual scavengers, and
for Dalit women forced into prostitution.
“International outrage over the treatment of Dalits is matched by
growing national discontent,” Smita Narula said. “India can’t ignore
the voices of 165 million citizens.”
“Hidden Apartheid” is based on in-depth investigations by CHRGJ, Human
Rights Watch, Indian non-governmental organizations, and media
sources. The pervasiveness of abuses against Dalits is corroborated by
the reports of Indian governmental agencies, including the National
Human Rights Commission, and the National Commission on Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes. These and other sources were compiled,
investigated, and analyzed under international law by NYU School of
Law’s International Human Rights Clinic.
Background
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) is
a body of independent experts responsible for monitoring states’
compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), ratified by India in 1968. It
guarantees rights of non-discrimination on the basis of “race, colour,
descent, or national or ethnic origin.” In 1996 CERD concluded that
the plight of Dalits falls squarely under the prohibition of descent-
based discrimination. As a state party to ICERD, India is obligated to
submit periodic reports detailing its implementation of rights
guaranteed under the convention. During the review session CERD
examines these reports and engages in constructive dialogue with the
state party, addressing its concerns and offering recommendations.
CERD uses supplementary information contained in non-governmental
organization “shadow reports” to evaluate states’ reports. India’s
report to CERD, eight years overdue, covers compliance with the
convention from 1996 to 2006 yet does not contain a single mention of
abuses against Dalits – abuses that India’s own governmental agencies
have documented and verified.
http://www.hrw.org/legacy/english/docs/2007/02/13/india15303.htm
More to follow...
bademiyansubhanallah
Scheduled Castes ("SC"s) and Scheduled Tribes ("ST"s) are Indian
population groupings that are explicitly recognized by the
Constitution of India, previously called the "depressed classes" by
the British. SCs/STs together comprise over 24% of India's population,
with SC at over 16% and ST over 8% [1] as per the 2001 Census. The
proportion of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the population
of India has steadily risen since independence in 1947.
Some Scheduled Castes in India are also known as Dalits[2] Some
Scheduled Tribe people are also referred to as Adivasis.[3]
Post Independence Scheduled Castes are benefited by reservation
policy. With Reservation in India The Constitution laid down 15% and
7.5% of vacancies to government aided educational institutes and for
jobs in the government/public sector, as reserved quota for the SC and
ST candidates respectively for a period of five years, after which the
situation was to be reviewed. This period was routinely extended by
the succeeding governments.
Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in 2010 Many SC/STs were
successful in adapting to post-independence India, becoming civil
servants, bureaucrats and lawyers. Scheduled Castes are now considered
as a progressive caste. In 2010 most of the sub-castes of scheduled
castes have become economically well off and Rich. They have acquired
technical and management education as well. Scheduled Castes and
Tribes are now working as successful Doctors, Engineers, Architects,
Lawyers, Managers, IT professionals and Entrepreneurs. Further,they
are now also working as scientists in India's most prestigious
research organization like Indian Space Research Organisation, Bhabha
Atomic Research Centre, DRDO.
History
From the 1850s these communities were loosely referred to as the
"Depressed Classes". The early part of the 20th century saw a flurry
of activity in the British Raj to assess the feasibility of
responsible self-government for India. The Morley-Minto Reforms
Report, Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms Report, and the Simon Commission
were some of the initiatives that happened in this context. One of the
hotly contested issues in the proposed reforms was the topic of
reservation of seats for the "Depressed" Classes in provincial and
central legislatures.
In 1935 the British passed The Government of India Act 1935, designed
to give Indian provinces greater self-rule and set up a national
federal structure. Reservation of seats for the Depressed Classes was
incorporated into the act, which came into force in 1937. The Act
brought the term "Scheduled Castes" into use, and defined the group as
including "such castes, races or tribes or parts of groups within
castes, races or tribes, which appear to His Majesty in Council to
correspond to the classes of persons formerly known as the 'Depressed
Classes', as His Majesty in Council may prefer." This discretionary
definition was clarified in The Government of India (Scheduled Castes)
Order, 1936 which contained a list, or Schedule, of castes throughout
the British administered provinces.
After independence, the Constituent Assembly continued the prevailing
definition of Scheduled Castes and Tribes, and gave (via articles 341,
342) the President of India and Governors of states responsibility to
compile a full listing of castes and tribes, and also the power to
edit it later as required. The actual complete listing of castes and
tribes was made via two orders The Constitution (Scheduled Castes)
Order, 1950[4], and The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950[5]
respectively.
Constitutional framework for safeguarding of interests
The Constitution provides a framework with a three pronged strategy
[6] to improve the situation of SCs and STs.
Protective Arrangements - Such measures as are required to enforce
equality, to provide punitive measures for transgressions, to
eliminate established practices that perpetuate inequities, etc. A
number of laws were enacted to operationalize the provisions in the
Constitution. Examples of such laws include The Untouchability
Practices Act, 1955, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention
of Atrocities) Act, 1989, The Employment of Manual scavengers and
Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, etc.
Compensatory Discrimination - provide positive preferential treatment
in allotment of jobs and access to higher education, as a means to
accelerate the integration of the SCs and STs with mainstream society.
Compensatory discrimination is also popularly referred to as
Reservation.
Development - Provide for resources and benefits to bridge the wide
gap in social and economic condition between the SCs/STs and other
communities.
SC means Sonar Chaand, ST means Sonar Tukro.
National commissions
To effectively implement the various safeguards built into the
Constitution and other legislations, the Constitution, under Articles
338 and 338A, provides for two statutory commissions - the National
Commission for Scheduled Castes, and National Commission for Scheduled
Tribes.
History
In the original Constitution, Article 338 provided for a Special
Officer, called the Commissioner for SCs and STs, to have the
responsibility of monitoring the effective implementation of various
safeguards for SCs/STs in the Constitution as well as other related
legislations and to report to the President. To enable efficient
discharge of duties, 17 regional offices of the Commissioner were set
up all over the country.
In the meanwhile there was persistent representation for a replacement
of the Commissioner with a multi-member committee. It was proposed
that the 48th Amendment to the Constitution be made to alter Article
338 to enable said proposal. While the amendment was being debated,
the Ministry of Welfare issued an administrative decision to establish
the Commission for SCs/STs as a multi-member committee to discharge
the same functions as that of the Commissioner of SCs/STs. The first
commission came into being in August 1978. The functions of the
commission were modified in September 1987 to advise Government on
broad policy issues and levels of development of SCs/STs.
In 1990 that the Article 338 was amended to give birth to the
statutory National Commission for SCs and STs via the Constitution
(Sixty fifth Amendment) Bill, 1990[7]. The first Commission under the
65th Amendment was constituted in March 1992 replacing the
Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the
Commission set up under the Ministry of Welfare's Resolution of 1987.
In 2002, the Constitution was again amended to split the National
Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes into two separate
commissions - the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and the
National Commission for Scheduled Tribes
Distribution
Sachar Committee report of 2006 revealed that scheduled castes and
tribes of India are not limited to the religion of Hinduism. The 61st
Round Survey of the NSSO found that almost nine-tenths of the
Buddhists and one-third of the Sikh's in India belonged to the
notified scheduled castes of the Constitution while one-third of the
Christians belonged to the notified scheduled tribes of the
Constitution.
Religion Scheduled Caste Scheduled Tribe
Buddhism 89.50% 7.40%
Christianity 9.00% 32.80%
Sikhism 37.0% 0.90%
Hinduism 22.20% 9.10%
Zoroastrianism - 15.90%
Jainism - 2.60%
Islam 0.80% 0.50%
Sikh Light Infantry is the Regiment of Indian Army. The Sikh Light
Infantry comprises the Mazhabi (dalit) and Ramdasia Sikh soldiers.It
is well known for their dountless daring, loyalty courage, and
tenacity,it is one of the oldest Regiments of the Indian Army.
Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan (SCSP)
The strategy of Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan (SCSP) which was evolved in
1979 is one of the most important interventions through the planning
process for social, economic and educational development of Scheduled
Castes and for improvement in their working and living conditions. It
is an umbrella strategy to ensure flow of targeted financial and
physical benefits from all the general sectors of development for the
benefit of Scheduled Castes. Under this strategy, population[8]. It
entails targeted flow of funds and associated benefits from the annual
plan of States/ Union Territories (UTs) at least in proportion to the
SC population i.e. 16 % in the total population of the country/the
particular state. Presently, 27 States/UTs having sizeable SC
populations are implementing Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan. Although the
Scheduled Castes population, according to 2001 Census, was 16.66
crores constituting 16.23% of the total population of India, the
allocations made through SCSP in recent years have been much lower
than the population proportion. Table below provides the details of
total State Plan Outlay, flow to Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan (SCSP) as
reported by the State/UT Governments for the last few years especially
since the present UPA government is in power at the
2004-2005 108788.9 17656 2065.38 11.06 68.3 5591
2005-2006 136234.5 22111 16422.63 12.05 74.3 5688
2006-2007 152088 24684 21461.12 14.11 86.9 3223
2007-2008* 155013.2 25159 22939.99 14.80 91.2 2219
Information in respect of 14 States/UTs only and as on 31-12- 2007
Source: Network for Social Accountability (NSA) http://nsa.org.in
Prominent menmebrs of SC/STs
B. R. Ambedkar , also known as Babasaheb, was an Indian jurist,
political leader, Buddhist activist, thinker, philosopher, historian,
anthropologist, orator, prolific writer, economist, editor, scholar,
revolutionary and the revivalist of Buddhism in India. He was also the
chief architect of the Indian Constitution.
Dr. Faguni Ram, Ph.D(3-Time Member of Parliament and Ex-Minister of
State)
Prem Singh (MLA)
Kashi Ram, Founder of Bahujan Samaj Party
Lala Ram Ken, Member of Parliament(7th and 8th), India
Divya Bharti, Late Bollywood actress
Babu Jagjivan Ram, Former Deputy Prime Minister of India.
Mayavati, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
Sushilkumar Shinde, Cabinet Minister for Power in the Manmohan Singh
government
K. R. Narayanan, tenth President of India
Shibu Soren, current Chief Minister of Jharkhand state in India
Ajit Jogi, first chief minister of the state of Chhattisgarh, India
Bangaru Laxman, former President of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
Birsa Munda, freedom fighters in the Indian struggle for independence
against British colonialism
Jyotirao Phule, was an activist, thinker, social reformer, writer,
philosopher, theologist, scholar, editor and revolutionary from
Maharashtra, India in the nineteenth century
Damodaram Sanjivayya (1921-1972) (First dalit Chief Minister of a
state in India and first dalit President of Indian National Congress
party)
G. M.C. Balayogi (1951-2002) (First dalit speaker, Lok Sabha, India )
K. S. R.Murthy IAS, Retired, Former MP, Lok Sabha
See also
List of Scheduled Tribes in India
Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,
1989
Forward caste
Other Backward Classes
Schedule Caste
Notes
^ Census of India - India at a Glance : Scheduled Castes & Scheduled
Tribes Population http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/India_at_Glance/scst.aspx
^ Who are Dalits?
http://www.dalitnetwork.org/go?/dfn/who_are_the_dalit/C64
^ The Adivasis of India
http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Dalit-tribal/2003/adivasi.htm
^ THE CONSTITUTION (SCHEDULED CASTES) ORDER, 1950]1
http://lawmin.nic.in/ld/subord/rule3a.htm
^ 1THE CONSTITUTION (SCHEDULED TRIBES)
http://lawmin.nic.in/ld/subord/rule9a.htm
^ http://nhrc.nic.in/Publications/reportKBSaxena.pdf
^ The Constitution (Amendment)
http://www.constitution.org/cons/india/tamnd65.htm
^ http://www.planningcommission.nic.in/plans/stateplan/scp&tsp/noteguidelinesFor.doc
v • d • e
Reservation in India
Indian caste system
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_caste_system
· Scheduled castes and tribes
· Other Backward Classes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Other_Backward_Class
· Forward classes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_class
· Kalelkar Commission
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalelkar_Commission
· Mandal Commission
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandal_Commission
· 2006 anti-reservation protests
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Indian_anti-reservation_protests
· Youth for Equality
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_for_Equality
· IIT reservation policy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reservation_policy_in_Indian_Institutes_of_Technology
· Poona Pact
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poona_Pact
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheduled_castes_and_scheduled_tribes
List of Scheduled Tribes in India
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a full list of Scheduled Tribes in India, as recognised in
India's Constitution; a total of 645 district tribes. The term
"Scheduled Tribes" refers to specific indigenous peoples whose status
is acknowledged to some formal degree by national legislation. A
collective term in use locally to describe most of these peoples is
"Upajati" (literally "clans/tribes/groups"). See also the Scheduled
Castes and Tribes page for further explanation.
Andhra Pradesh
1. Andh
2. Bagata
3. Bhil
4. Chenchu, Chenchwar
5. Gadabas
6. Gond Naikpod, Rajgond
7. Goudu (in the Agency tracts)
8. Hill Reddis
9. Jatapus
10. Kammara
11. Kattunayakan
12. Kolam, Mannervarlu
13. Konda Dhoras
14. Konda Kapus
15. Kondareddis
16. Kondhs, Kodi, Kodhu, Desaya Kondhs, Dongria Kondhs, Kuttiya
Kondhs, Tikiria Kondhs, Yenity Kondhs
17. Kotia, Bentho Oriya, Bartika, Dhulia, Dulia, Holva, Paiko, Putiya,
Sanrona, Sidhopaiko
18. Koya, Rajah, Rasha Koya, Lingadhari Koya (ordinary), Kottu Koya,
Bhine Koya, Rajkoya
20. Malis (excluding Adilabad, Hyderabad, Karimnagar, Khammam,
Mahbubnagar, Medak, Nalgonda, Nizamabad and Warangal districts)
21. Manna Dhora
22. Mukha Dhora, Nooka Dhora
23. Nayaks-bandaru (in the Agency tracts)
24. Pardhan
25. Porja, Parangiperja
26. Reddi Dhoras
27. Rona, Rena
28. Savaras, Kapu Savaras, Maliya Savaras, Khutto Savaras
29. Sugalis, Lambadis
30. Thoti (in Adilabad, Hyderabad, Karimnagar, Khammam, Mahbubnagar,
Medak, Nalgonda, Nizamabad and Warangal districts)
31. Valmiki (in the Agency tracts)
32. Yenadis
33. Yerukulas.
34. Banjaras ( in Khammam, warangal, karimnagar, medak, Ranga reddy,
Adilabad, Nalgonda )
Assam
In the Autonomous Districts
1. Chakma
2. Dimasa, Kachari
3. Garolo
4. Hmar
5. Khasi, Jaintia, Synteng, Pnar, War, Bhoi, Lyngngam
6. Any Kuki tribes including:
(i) Biate, Biete
(ii) Changsan
(iii) Chongloi
(iv) Darlong
(v) Doungel
(vi) Gamalhou
(vii) Gangte
(viii) Guite
(ix) Hanneng
(x) Haokip, Haupit
(xi) Haolai
(xii) Hengna
(xiii) Hongsung
(xiv) Harangkhwal, Rangkhol
(xv) Jongbe
(xvi) Khawchung
(xvii) Khawathlang, Khothalong
(xviii) Khelma
(xvix) Kholhou
(xx) Kipgen
(xxi) Kuki
(xxii) Lengthang
(xxiii) Lhangum
(xxiv) Lhoujem
(xxv) Lhouvun
(xxvi) Lupheng
(xxvii) Mangjel
(xxviii) Misao
[xxviiib] Negrito
(xxix) Riang
(xxx) Sairhem
(xxxi) Selnam
(xxxii) Singson
(xxxiii) Sithou
(xxxiv) Sukte
(xxxv) Thado
(xxxvi) Thangngeu
(xxxvii) Uibuh
(xxxviii) Vaiphei
7. Hajong
8. Lakher
9. Man (Tai speaking)
10. Any Mizo (Lushai) tribes
11. Mikir
12. Any Naga tribes
13. Pawi
14. Syntheng
15 Burya Sikh
16. Thengal Kachari
Non-autonomous Assam districts
1. Barmans in Cachar
2. Bodo
3. Deori
4. Hojai
5. Sonowal
6. Lalung
7. Mech
8. Mising
9. Rabha
10.[-bandaru]]
Bihar
1. Asur
2. Baiga
3. Banjara
4. Bathudi
5. Bedia
6. Binjhia
7. Birhor
8. Birjia
9. Chero
10. Chik Baraik
11. Gond
12. Gorait
13. Ho
14. Karmali
15. Kharia
16. Kharwar
17. Khond
18. Kisan
19. Kora
20. Korwa
21. Lohara, Lohra
22. Mahli
23. Mal Paharia
24. Munda
25. Oraon
26. Parhaiya
27. Santal
28. Sauria Paharia
29. Savar
Gujarat
1. Barda
2. Bavacha, Bamcha
3. Bharwad (in the Nesses of the forest of Alech, Barada and Gir)
4. Bhil, Bhil Garasia, Dholi Bhil, Dungri Bhil, Dungri Garasia, Mewasi
Bhil, Rawal Bhil, Tadvi Bhil, Bhagalia, Bhilala, Pawra, Vasava,
Vasave
5. Charan (in the Nesses of the forests of Alech, Barada and Gir)
6. Chaudri (in Surat and Valsad districts)
7. Chodhara
8. Dhanka, Tadvi, Tetaria, Valvi
9. Dhodia
10. Dubla, Talavia, Halpati
11. Gamit, Gamta, Gavit, Mavchi, Padvi
12. Gond, Rajgond
13. Kathodi, Katkari, Dhor Kathodi, Dhor Katkari, Son Kathodi, Son
Katkari
14. Kokna, Kokni, Kukna
15. Koli (in Kutch district)
16. Koli Dhor, Tokre Koli, Kolcha, Kolgha
17. Kunbi (in the Dangs district)
18. Naikd], Nayak, Cholivala Nayak, Kapadra Nayak, Mota Nayak, Nana
Nayak
19. Padhar
20. Paradhi (in Kutch district)
31. patelia in dahod district
21. Pardhi, Advichincher, Phase Pardhi (excluding Amreli, Bhavnagar,
Jamnagar, Junagadh, Kutch, Rajkot and Surendranagar districts)
22. Pomla
23. Rabari (in the Nesses of the forests of Alech, Barada and Gir)
24. Rathawa
25. Siddi (in Amreli, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Junagadh, Rajkot and
Surendranagar districts)
26. Vaghri (in Kutch district)
27. Varli
28. Vitolia, Kotwalia, Barodia.
29. Dhed
30. Khant
31. Bhangi, Mehtar
32. Balahi, Balai
33. Chamar
34. Chikva, Chikvi
35. Koli, Kori
36. Kotwal.
37. Vaghri (Patadi,Dasada,Mandal ,Gujarat)
[edit] Himachal Pradesh
1. Bhot, Bodh
2. Gaddi and Shippis
3. Kanauwra.
Karnataka
1. Adiyan
2. Barda
3. Bavacha, Bamcha
4. Bhil, Bhil Garasia, Dholi Bhil, Dungri Bhil, Dungri Garasia, Mewasi
Bhil, Rawal Bhil, Tadvi Bhil, Bhagalia, Bhilala, Pawra, Vasava,
Vasave
5. Chenchu, Chenchwar
6. Chodhara
7. Dubla, Talavia, Halpati
8. Gamit, Gamta, Gavit, Mavchi, Padvi, Valvi
9. Gond, Naikpod, Rajgond
10. Gowdalu
11. Hakkipikki
12. Hasalaru
13. Irular
14. Iruliga
15. Jenu Kuruba
16. Kadu Kuruba
17. Kammara (in South Kanara district and Kollegal taluk of Mysore
district)
18. Kanivan, Kanyan (in Kollegal taluk of Mysore district)
19. Kathodi, Katkari, Dhor Kathodi, Dhor Katkari, Son Kathodi, Son
Katkari
20. Kattunayakan
21. Kokna, Kokni, Kukna
22. Koli Dhor, Tokre Koli, Kolcha, Kolgha
23. Konda Kapus
24. Koraga
25. Kota
26. Koya, Bhine Koya, Rajkova
27. Kudiya, Melakudi
28. Kuruba (in Coorg district)
29. Kurumanas, Kumbara
30. Maha Malasar
31. Malaikudi
32. Malasar
33. Malayekandi
34. Maleru
35. Maratha (in Coorg District)
36. Marathi
37. Meda
38. Naikda, Nayak, Chollivala Nayak, Kapadia Nayak, Mota Nayak, Nana
Nayak, 1[Naika, Nayaka also called as nayak,]
39. Palliyan
40. Paniyan
41.[Pardhi, Advichincher, Phanse Pardhi
42. Petelia
43. Rathawa
44. Sholaga
45. Siddi
46. Soligaru
46. Toda
47. Valmiki
48. Varli
50. Vitolia, Kotwalia, Barodia
51. Yerava
Kerala
1. Adiyan
2. Arandan/ Ernadan
3. Eravallan
4. Hill Pulaya
5. Irular, Irulan
6. Kadar
7. Kammara (in the areas comprising the Malabar district as specified
by sub-section (2) of section 5 of the States Reorganisation Act 1956
(37 of 1956))
8. Kanikaran, Kanikkar
9. Kattunayakan
10. Kochu Velan
11. Konda kapus
12. Kondareddis
13. Koraga
14. Kota
15. Kudiya, Melakudi
16. Kurichchan
17. Kurumans
18. Kurumbas
19. Maha Malasar
20. Malai Arayan
21. Malai Pandaram
22. Malai Vedan
23. Malakkuravan
24.[Malasar
25. Malayan (excluding the areas comprising the Malabar district as
specified by sub-section (2) of section 5 of the States Reorganisation
Act, 1956 (37 of 1956)
26. Malayarayar
27. Mannan
28. Marati (in Hosdrug and Kasaragod taluks of Cannanore district)
29. Muthan
30. Mudugar
31. Muduvan, Muthuvan, Muduvan, Muthuvan
32. Paliyan, (Palleyan), (Palliyar), Paanan
33. Paniyan, Parayan
34. Ulladan
35. Uraly
36. Cholanaickan (In the Reserve Forests of Nilambur South and North
Forest Divisions of Malppuram Districts)
37. Kattunaickan (In the Reserve Forests of Nilambur South and North
Forest Divisions of Malppuram Districts)
Madhya Pradesh
1. Agariya
2. Andh
3. Baiga
4. Bhaina
5. Bharia Bhumia, Bhuinhar Bhumia, Bhumiya, Bharia, Paliha, Pando
6. Bhattra
7. Bhil, Bhilala, Barela, Patelia
8. Bhil
9. Bhunjia
10. Biar, Biyar
11. Binjhwar
12. Birhul, Birhor
13. Damor, Damaria
14. Dhanwar
15. Gadaba, Gadba
16. Gond, Arrakh, Agaria, Asur, Badi Maria, Bada Maria, Bhatola,
Bhimma, Bhuta, Koilabhuta, Koliabhuti, Bhar, Bisonhorn Maria, Chota
Maria, Dandami Maria, Dhuru, Dhurwa, Dhoba, Dhulia, Dorla, Gaiki,
Gatta, Gatti, Gaita, Gond, Gowari, Hill Maria, Kandra, Kalanga,
Khatola, Koitar, Koya, Khirwar, Khirwara, Kucha Maria, Kuchki Maria,
Madia, Maria, Mana, Mannewar, Moghya, Mogia, Monghya, Mudia, Muria,
Nagarchi, Nagwanshi, Ojha, Raj Gond, Sonjhari, Jhareka, Thatia,
Thotya, Wade Maria, Vade Maria, Daroi
17. Halba, Halbi
18. Kamar
19. Karku
20. Kawar, Kanwar, Kaur, Cherwa, Rathia, Tanwar, Chattri
21. Keer (in Bhopal, Raisen and Sehore districts)
22. Khairwar, Kondar
23. Kharia
24. Kondh, Khond, Khand
25. Kol
26. Kolam
27. Korku, Bopchi, Mouasi, Nihar, Nahul, Bhodhi, Bondeya
28. Kori, Korwa, Kodaku
29. Manjhi
30. Majhwar
31. Mawasi
32. Meena (in Sironj Sub-Division of Vidisha District)
33. Mundra
34. Nagesia, Nagasia
35. Oraon, Dhanka, Dhangad
36. Panika [in (i) Chhatarpur, Panna, Rewa, Satna, Shahdol, Umaria,
Sidhi and Tikamgarh districts, and (ii) Sevda and Datia tehsils of
Datia district)]
37. Pao
38. Pardhan, Pathari, Saroti
39. Pardhi (in Bhopal, Raisen and Sehore districts)
40. Pardhi, Bahelia, Bahellia, Chita Pardhi, Langoli Pardhi, Phans
Pardhi, Shikari, Takankar, Takia [in (i) Chhindwara, Mandla, Dindori
and Seoni districts, (ii) Baihar tehsil of Balaghat district, (iii)
Betual, Bhainsdehi and Shahpur tahsils of Betul district, (iv) Patan
tahsil and Sihora and Majholi blocks of Jabalpur district, (v) Katni
(Murwara) and Vijaya Raghogarh tahsils and Bahoriband and Dhemerkheda
blocks of Katni district, (vi) Hoshangabad, Babai, Sohagpur, Pipariya
and Bankhedi tahsils and Kesla block of Hoshangabad district, (vii)
Narsinghpur district, and (viii) Harsud tahsil of Khandwa district]
41. Parja
42. Sahariya, Saharia, Seharia, Sehria, Sosia, Sor
43. Saonta, Saunta
44. Saur
45. Sawar, Sawara
46. Sonr
1. Omitted and inserted by Act 28 of 2000, s. 20 and the Fourth Sch.
(w.e.f. 1.11.2000)
Maharashtra
1. Andh
2. Baiga
3. Barda
4. Bavacha, Bamcha.
5. Baki
6. Bharia Bhumia, Bhuinhar Bhumia, Pando
7. Bhattra
8. Bhil, Bhil Garasia, Dholi Bhil, Dungri Bhil, Dungri Garasia, Mewasi
Bhil, Rawal Bhil, Tadvi Bhil, Bhagalia, Bhilala Pawara, Vasava,
Vasave
9. Bhunjia
10. Binjhwar
11. Birhul, Borjee
12. Chodhara (excluding Akola, Amravati, Bhandara, Buldana Chandrapur,
Nagpur, Wardha, Yavatmal, Aurangabad, Beed, Nanded, Osmanabad and
Parbhani districts)
13. Dhanka, Tadvi, Tetaria Valvi
14. Dhanwar
15. Dhodia
16. Dubla, Talavia, Halpati
17. Gamit, Gamta, Gavit, Mavchi, Padvi
18. Gond, Rajgond, Arrakh, Agaria, Asur, Badi Maria, Bada Maria,
Bhatola, Bhimma, Bhuta, Koilabhuta, Koilabhuti, Bhar, Bisonhorn Maria,
Chota Maria, Dandami Maria, Dhuru, Dhurwa, Dhoba, Dhulia, Dorla,
Kaiki; Gatta, Gatti, Gaita, Gond Gowari, Hill Maria, Kandra, Kalanga,
Khatola, Koitar, Koya, Khirwar, Khirwara,Korku, Kucha Maria, Kuchaki
Maria, Madia, Maria, Mana, Mannewar, Moghya, Mogia, Monghya Mudia,
Muria, Nagarchi, Naikpod, Nagwanshi, Ojha, Raj, Sonjhari Jhareka,
Thatia, Thotya, Wade Maria, Vade Maria
19. Halba, Halbi
20. Kamar
21. Kathodi, Katkari, Dhor Kathodi, Dhor Kathkari Son Kathodi, Son
Katkari
22. Kawar, Kanwar, Kaur, Cherwa, Rathia, Tanwar, Chattri
23. Khairwar
24. Kharia
25. Kokna, Kokni, Kukna
26. Kol
27. Kolam, Mannervarlu
28. Koli Dhor, Tokre Koli, Kolcha, Kolkha
29. Koli Mahadev, Dongar Koli
30. Koli Malhar
31. Kondh, Khond, Kandh
32. Korku, Bopchi, Mouasi, Nihal, Nahul, Bondhi, Bondeya
33. Koya, Bhine Koya, Rajkoya
34. Nagesia, Nagasia
35. Naikda, Nayak, Cholivala Nayak, Kapadia Nayak, Mota Nayak, Nana
Nayak
36. Oraon, Dhangad/Dhangar
37. Pardhan, Pathari, Saroti
38. Pardhi, Advichincher, Phans Pardhi, Phanse Pardhi, Langoli Pardhi,
Bahelia, Bahellia, Chita Pardhi, Shikari, Takankar, Takia
39. Parja
40. Patelia
41. Pomla
42. Rathawa
43. Sawar, Sawara,
44. Thakur, Thakar, Ka Thakur, Ka Thakar, Ma Thakur, Ma Thakar
45. Thoti (in Aurangabad, Bhir, Nanded, Osmanabad and Parbhani
districts and Rajura tahsil of Chandrapur district)
46. Warli (Thane District)
47. Vitolia, Kotwalia, Barodia.
Manipur
1. Aimol
2. Anal
3. Angami Naga (Angami Naga in the state of Nagaland)
4. Chiru
5. Chothe
6. Gangte
7. Hmar
8. Kabui
9. Koirao
10. Koireng (Koren)
11. Kom
12. Lamgang
13. Mao
14. Maram
15. Maring
16. Any Mizo (Lushai) tribes
17. Monsang
18. Moyon
19. Paite
20. Purum
21. Ralte
22. Sema (Sema was renamed to original name "Sümi", a decade ago. This
tribe is in the state of Nagaland)
23. Simte
24. Suhte
25. Tangkhul
26. Thadou
27. Vaiphei
28. Zou
Meghalaya
1. Chakma
2. Dimasa, Kachari
3. Garo
4. Hajong
5. Hmar
6. Khasi, Jaintia, Syteng, Pnar, War, Bhoi, Lyngngam
7. Any Chin-Kuki-Mizo Tribes including.-
(i) Biate, Biete
(ii) Changsan
(iii) Chongloi
(iv) Darlong
(v) Doungel
(vi) Gamalhou
(vii) Gangte
(viii) Guite
(ix) Hanneng
(x) Haokip, Haupit
(xi) Haolai
(xii) Hengna
(xiii) Hongsungh
(xiv) Hrangkhawl, Rangkhol
(xv) Jongbe
(xvi) Khawchung
(xvii) Khawthlang, Khothalong
(xviii) Khelma
(xvix) Kholhou
(xx) Kipgen
(xxi) Kuki
(xxii) Lengthang
(xxiii) Lhangum
(xxiv) Lhoujen
(xxv) Lhouvun
(xxvi) Lupheng
(xxvii) Mangjel
(xxviii) Misao
(xxvix) Riang
(xxx) Sairhem
(xxxi) Selnam
(xxxii) Singson
(xxxiii) Sitlhou
(xxxiv) Sukte
(xxxv) Thado
(xxxvi) Thangngeu
(xxxvii) Uibuh
(xxxviii) Vaiphei
8. Lakher
9. Man (Tai speaking)
10. Any Mizo (Lushai) Tribes
11. Mikir
12.Any Naga tribes
13. Pawi
14. Synteng
15. Boro Kacharis (inserted by Act 43 of 1987, s. 2 (w.e.f.
19-9-1987).)
16. Koch
17. Raba, Rava
Nagaland
(a list of the major tribes of Nagaland)
1. Angami
2. Ao
3. Chakhesang
4. Chang
5. Khiamniungan
6. Kachari
7. Konyak
8. Kuki
9. Lotha
10. Phom
11. Pochury
12. Rengma
13. Sümi / Sema (reverted back to their original name Sümi. British
called them Sema, the Angami name for them)
14. Sangtam
15. Tikhir
16. Yimchunger
17. Zeliang
Orissa
1. Bagata
2. Baiga
3. Banjara, Banjari
4. Bathudi
5. Bhottada, Dhotada
6. Bhuiya, Bhuyan
7. Bhumia
8. Bhumij
9. Bhunjia
10. Binjhal
11. Binjhia, Binjhoa
12. Birhor
13. Bonda, Bondo Poraja
14. Chenchu
15. Dal
16. Desua Bhumji
17. Dharua
18. Didayi
19. Gadaba
20. Gandia
21. Ghara
22. Gond, Gondo
23. Ho
24. Holva
25. Jatapu
26. Juang
27. Kandha Gauda
28. Kawar
29. Kharia, Kharian
30. Kharwar
31. Khond, Kond, Kandha, Nanguli Kandha, Sitha Kandha
32. Kisan Tribe
33. Kol
34. Kolah Loharas, Kol Loharas
35. Kolha
36. Koli, Malhar
37. Kondadora
38. Kora
39. Korua
40. Kotia
41. Koya
42. Kulis
43. Lodha, Shabar
44. Madia
45. Mahali
46. Mankidi
47. Mankirdia
48. Matya
49. Mirdha
50. Munda, Munda Lohara, Munda Mahalis
51. Omanatya
52. Oraon
53. Parenga
54. Paroja
55. Pentia
56. Rajuar
57. Santal
58. Saora, Savar, Saura, Sahara
59. Sounti
60. Tharua
61. Sahu
Rajasthan
1. Bhil, Bheel, Garasia, Dholi Bhil, Dungri Bhil, Dungri
Garasia,Mewasi Bhil, Rawal Bhil, Tadvi Bhil, Bhagalia, Bhilala, Pawra,
Vasava, Vasave
2. Bhil Meena
3. Damor, Damaria
4. Dhanka Tadvi, Tetaria, Valvi
5. Garasia (excluding Rajput Garasia)
6. Kathodi, Katkari, Dhor Kathodi, Dhor Katkari, Son Kathodi, Son
Katkari, khatik
7. Kokna, Kokni, Kukna
8. Koli Dhor, Tokre koli, Kolcha, Kolgha
9. Meena
10. Naikda, Nayak, Cholivala Nayak, Kapadia Nayak, Mota Nayak, Nana
Nayak. (Nayak also called as nayaka)
11. Pateliya
12. Seharia, Sehria, Sahariya
Tamil Nadu
1. Adiyan
2. Aranadan
3. Eravallan
4. Irular
5. Kadar
6. Kammara (excluding Kanyakumari district and Shencottah taluk of
Tirunelveli district)
7. Kanikaran, Kanikkar (in Kanyakumari district and Shencottah taluk
of Tirunelveli district)
8. Kaniyan, Kanyan
9. Kattunayakan
10.Kochu Velan
11.Konda Kapus
12.Kondareddis(kabu)
13.Koraga
14.Kota (excluding Kanyakumari district and Shencottah taluk of
Tirunelveli district)
15.Kudiya, Melakudi
16.Kurichchan
17.Kurumbas (in the Nilgiris district)
18.Kurumans
19.Maha Malasar
20.Malai Arayan
21.Malai Pandaram
22.Malai Vedan
23.Malakkuravan
24.Malasar
25. Malayali (in Dharmapuri, Pudukottai, Salem, Tiruchi districts and
North and South Arcot regions)
26. Malayekandi
27. Mannan
28. Mudugar, Muduvan
29. Muthuvan
30. Palleyan
31. Palliyan
32. Palliyar
33. Paniyan
34. Sholaga
35. Toda (excluding Kanyakumari district and Shencottah taluk of
Tirunelveli district)
36. Uraly
37.Adi Dravidar
West Bengal
1. Asur
2. Adhikari
3. Badia [disambiguation needed], Bediya
4. Bhumij
5. Bhutia, Sherpa, Toto, Dukpa, Kagatay, Tibetan, Yolmo
6. Birhor
7. Birjia
8. Chakma
9. Chero
10. Chik Baraik
11. Garo
12. Gond
13. Gorait
14. Hajang
15. Ho
16. Karmali
17. Kharwar
18. Khond
29. Kisan
20. Kora
21. Korwa
22. Lepcha
23. Lodha, Kheria, Kharia
24. Lohara, Lohra
25. Magh
26. Mahali
27. Mahli
28. Mal Pahariya
29. Mech
30. Mru
31. Munda
32. Nagesia
33. Oraon
34. Parhaiya
35. Rabha
36. Santal
37. Sauria Paharia
38. Savar
39. Tamang
40. Subba
Tripura
Darlong [1]
Tipra
Riang
Jamatia
Chakma
Halam (Like, Hrangkhawl, Molsom, Bongcher, etc.)
Noatia
Mog
Kuki
Garo
Munda
Lushai
Oraon
Santal
Uchai
Khasia
Bhil
Lepcha
Bhutia
Chaimal
Mizoram
(Inserted by Act 34 of 1986, s. 14 and Third Sch. (w.e.f. 20-2-1987).)
1. Lusai
2. Chakma
3. Dimasa (Kachari)
4. Garo
5. Hajong
6. Hmar
7. Khasi and Jaintia, (including Khasi, Synteng or Pnar, War, Bhoi or
Lyngngam)
8. Any Kuki tribes, including,--
(i) Baite or Biete
(ii) Changsan
(iii) Chongloi
(iv) Darlong
(v) Doungel
(vi) Gamalhou
(vii) Gangte
(viii) Guite
(ix) Hanneng
(x) Haokip or Haupit
(xi) Haolai
(xii) Hengna
(xiii) Hongsungh
(xiv) Hrangkhawl or Rangkhol
(xv) Jongbe
(xvi) Khawchung
(xvii) Khawathlang or Khothalong
(xviii) Khelma
(xix) Kholhou
(xx) Kipgen
(xxi) Kuki
(xxii) Lengthang
(xxiii) Lhangum
(xxiv) Lhoujem
(xxv) Lhouvun
(xxvi) Lupheng
(xxvii) Mangjel
(xxviii) Missao
(xxix) Riang
(xxx) Sairhem
(xxxi) Selnam
(xxxii) Singson
(xxxiii) Sitlhou
(xxxiv) Sukte
(xxxv) Thado
(xxxvi) Thangngeu
(xxxvii) Uibuh
(xxxviii) Vaiphei
9. Lakher or Mara (Lakher was changed to Mara in 1988)
10. Man (Tai-speaking)
11. Any Mizo (Lushai) tribes
12. Mikir
13. Any Naga tribes
14. Pawi
Arunachal Pradesh
All tribes in the State including:
1. Abor
2. Aka
3. Apatani
4. Dafla
5. Galong
6. Khampti
7. Khowa
8. Mishmi
9. Monpa
10. Tangsa
11. Sherdukpen
12. Singpho
13. Phake
Goa
1 Velip
2 Gawada
3 Kunbis
[edit] Chhattisgarh
Agariya
Andh
Baiga
Bhaina
Bharia Bhumia, Bhuinhar Bhumia, Bhumiya, Bharia, Paliha, Pando
Bhattra
Bhil, Bhilala, Barela, Patelia
Bhil Meena
Bhunjia
Biar, Biyar
Binjhwar
Birhul, Birhor
Damor, Damaria
Dhanwar
Gadaba, Gadba
Gond, Arrakh, Agaria, Asur, Badi Maria, Bada Maria, Bhatola, Bhimma,
Bhuta, Koilabhuta, Kolibhuti, Bhar, Bisonhorn Maria, Chota Maria,
Dandami Maria, Dhuru, Dhurwa, Dhoba, Dhulia, Dorla, Gaiki, Gatta,
Gatti, Gaita, Gond, Gowari Hill Maria, Kandra, Kalanga, Khatola,
Koitar, Koya, Khirwar, Khirwara, Kucha Maria, Kuchaki Maria, Madia,
Maria, Mana,, Mannewar, Moghya, Mogia, Monghya, Mudia, Muria,
Nagarchi, Nagwanshi, Ojha, Raj Gond, Sonjhari, Jhareka, Thatia,
Thotya, Wade Maria, Vade Maria, Daroi.
Halba, Halbi
Kamar
Karku
Kawar, Kanwar, Kaur, Cherwa, Rathia, Tanwar, Chattri
Khairwar, Kondar
Kharia
Kondh, Khond, Kandh
Kol
Kolam
Korku, Bopchi, Mouasi, Nihar, Nahul, Bondhi, Bondeya
Korwa, Kodaku
Majhi
Majhwar
Mawasi
Munda
Nagesia, Nagasia
Oraon, Dhanka, Dhangad
Pao
Pardhan, Pathari, Saroti
Pardhi, Bahelia, Bahellia, Chita Pardhi, Langoli Pardhi, Phans Pardhi,
Shikari, Takankar, Takia [in (i) Bastar, Dantewara, Kanker, Raigarh,
Jashpurnagar, Surguja and Koria district, (ii) Katghora, Pali, Kartala
and Korba tahsils of Korba tahsils of Korba district, (iii) Bilaspur,
Pendra, Kota and Takhatpur tahsils of Bilaspur district, (iv) Durg,
Patan, Gunderdehi, Dhamdha, Balod, Gurur and Dondilohara tahsils of
Durg district, (v) Chowki, Manpur and Mohala Revenue Inspector Circles
of Rajnandgon district, (vi) Mahasamund, Saraipali and Basna tahsils
of Mahasamund district, (vii) Bindra-Navagarh, Rajim and Deobhog
tahsils of Raipur district, and (viii) Dhamtari, Kurud and Sihava
tahsils of Dhamtari district]
Parja
Sahariya, Saharia, Seharia, Sehria, Sosia, Sor
Saonta, Saunta
Saur
Sawar, Sawara
Sonr
Uttarakhand
Bhotia
Bauxa
Jaunsari
Raji
Tharu
[edit] Jharkhand
Asur
Baiga
Banjara (Kora)
Bathudi
Bedia
Binjhia
Birhor
Birjia
Chero
Chick Baraik
Gond
Gorait
Ho
Karmali
Kharia
Kharwar
Kond
Kisan
Korwa
Lohra
Mahli
Mal Pahariya
Munda
Oraon
Parhaiya
Santhal
Sauria Paharia
Savar
Bhumij
Sinlung
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Scheduled_Tribes_in_India
Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,
1989
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act
Citation Official Act
Enacted by Parliament of India
Date enacted 11 September 1989
Summary
Prevention of the commission of offences of atrocities against the
members of the Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes
The Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989
was enacted by the Parliament of India, in order to prevent atrocities
against Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The purpose of the Act
was to help the social inclusion of Dalits into Indian society, but
the Act has failed to live up to its expectations.
Special Court
Special Court Justice Ramaswamy observed in the case of State of
Karnataka v. Ingale [1] that more than seventy-five percent of the
cases brought under the SC/ST Act end in acquittal at all levels. The
situation has not improved much since 1992 according to the figures
given by the 2002 Annual Report dealing with SC/ST Act (of the
Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment)[2] Of the total cases
filed in 2002 only 21.72% were disposed of, and, of those, a mere
2.31% ended in conviction. The number of acquittals is 6 times more
than the number of convictions and more than 70 percent of the cases
are still pending.[3]
Speedy trial
The framers of the SC/ST Act kept this aspect (the increasing number
of cases pending in the judiciary) in mind and provided for the
setting up of a Special Court for speedy trial of offences committed
under this Act.[4][5]
Implementation of Law
They failed, however, to give any real powers to Special Courts for
the admission of complaints. This is evident from the provision
relating to setting up of Special Courts which gives a false
impression that a case of atrocity can be directly filed with the
Special Courts.[6] Various State Governments have notified the Special
Courts, in accordance with the provision of the Act, but these courts
cannot take cognizance of any complaint directly. The Supreme Court,
in the case of Gangula Ashok v. State of AP,[7] clarified that Special
Courts can take cognizance of an offence only when a case is committed
to it by a magistrate in accordance with provisions of Section 193 of
Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.P.C). This means that a charge sheet
cannot be directly filed before a Special Court. When a Session Court
is constituted as a Special Court, it cannot take cognizance of an
offence without such a case being committed to it by magistrate unless
it is expressly provided so in the Act. Neither in the Cr.P.C. nor in
the SC/ST Act is there any provision which grants the power to Special
Court to take cognizance of the offences as an original jurisdiction
without the case being committed to it by a magistrate. Hence, it is
mandatory to go through the course established under the Cr.P.C.
Biases
Going through the normal judicial system is self degrading for any
dalit. This is because of the still existing biases of the court
judges. One example is the conduct of an Allahabad High Court judge
who had his chambers "purified" with water from the ‘ganga jal’
because a dalit judge had previously sat in that chamber before him.
[8] Another example is the case of State of Karnataka v. Ingale.[1]
The State of Karnataka had charged five individuals with violating the
SC/ST Act. At trial, four witnesses testified that the defendants had
threatened dalits with a gun in order to stop them from taking water
from a well. The defendants told the dalits that they had no right to
take water, because they were untouchables. The trial judge convicted
all of the defendants. On appeal, the Additional Sessions judge
confirmed the conviction of three defendants but acquitted two. On
further appeal to the High Court, the judge acquitted all the
defendants after rejecting the testimony of the four dalit witnesses.
The dalits finally got relief from the Supreme Court.
Contradictions
The legal regime is fraught with contradictions. While the legal text
is explicit in seeking remedies, the implementation of the text
appears to evade actual performance. Laws and legal processes are not
self executing; they depend on the administrative structure and the
judiciary with the anticipation that the social attitudes are driven
by notions of equity, social justice and fair play.[9] However, the
increasingly indifferent responses of those involved in the
implementation of laws protecting the weak, the oppressed and the
socially disadvantaged have persisted over the years and the system
has failed to provide for self-correction. What needs to be
appreciated is that victims of attrocites suffer not only bodily and
mental pain but also feelings of insecurity and socialavoidance which
is not present for the victims of other crimes. If the judge delegated
to protect them shows indifference, it further aggravates their
already vulnerable position.
Investigation
Section 23 of the Prevention of Atrocities Act authorises the Central
Government to frame rules for carrying out the purpose of the Act. It
was the drawing power from this section that the Scheduled Castes and
the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules of 1995 were
framed. According to Rule 7(1)[10] investigation of an offence
committed under the SC/ST Act cannot be investigated by an officer not
below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP). Various High
Courts have vitiated the trail based on the above rule and have
improperly set aside the order of conviction.[11]
Rank of investigating officer
The Andhra Pradesh High Court, in D. Ramlinga Reddy v. State of AP,
[12] took the position that provisions of Rule 7 are mandatory and
held that investigation under the SC/St Act has to be carried out by
only an officer not below the rank of DSP. An investigation carried
out and charge sheet filed by an incompetent officer is more than
likely to be quashed. Similarly, the Madras High Court in M.
Kathiresam v. State of Tamil Nadu[13] held that investigation
conducted by an officer other than a DSP is improper and bad in law
and proceedings based on such an investigation are required to be
quashed. The Courts without taking into consideration the inadequacies
of the State, have been punishing SC/STs for the same. Shri Pravin
Rashtrapal, Member of Parliament rightly pointed out that ther are
insufficient officers at that level.[14] His statement is supported by
the Annul Report of 2005-2006 of Ministry of Home Affairs.[15] Of the
total posts sanctioned by the government under Indian Police Service
(IPS) more than 15 percent of the posts are vacant. This basically
means that there is one IPS officer for 77,000 SC/STs.
Rehabilitation
According to the preamble of the SC/ST Act, it is an Act to prevent
the commission of offences of atrocities against SC/STs, to provide
for Special Courts for the trial of such offences and for the relief
and rehabilitation of the victims of such offences. The Madhya Pradesh
High Court also had the same view and observed in the case of Dr. Ram
Krishna Balothia v. Union of India[16] that the entire scheme of the
SC/ST Act is to provide protection to the members of the scheduled
castes and scheduled tribes and to provide for Special Court and
speedy trial of the offences. The Act contains affirmative measures to
weed out the root cause of atrocities, which has denied SC/STs basic
civil rights. The Act has addressed the problem the regarding the
dispensation of justice, but what the failed to deal with is the
problem of ‘rehabilitation’. There is mention of rehabilitation under
Section 21(2)(iii), but there are no provision addressing the same. As
it has been stated earlier that victims of atrocities are on a
different level when compared to victims of other crimes, hence there
should be special provision for the same. According to the report
submitted by the National Commission for Review and Working of the
Constitution[17] victims of atrocities and their families should be
provided with full financial and any other support in order to make
them economically self-reliant without their having to seek wage
employment from their very oppressors or classes of oppressors. Also
it would be the duty of the State to immediately take over the
educational needs of the children of such victims and provide for the
cost of their food and maintenance. SC/STs constitute 68 percent of
the total rural population. According to the 1991 Agricultural census
a large number of SC/STs are marginal farmers compared to the other
sections of the society and because of this the number of cultivators
are going down. In other words the landlessness is increasing at a
faster rate among SC/STs. At the same time the number of SC/ST workers
as agricultural labourer is increasing at a faster rate when compared
to other sections of the society. This basically implies that after
losing their land holdings SC/ST cultivators are becoming agriculture
labourers. Loss of land, on the one hand, is caused by atrocities
making the more vulnerable. This in turn fuels and promotes
continuance of atrocities and untouchability. Marginalisation is one
of the worst forms of oppression. It expelles a whole category of
people from useful participation in the society and therefore
potentially subjected to material depravation and this could even lead
to extermination. Moreover, this leads to the state of powerlessness
which perhaps is best described negatively; the powerless lack
authority, status and a sense of self.[18] Moreover, every right has
three types of duties:
Duties to avoid deprivation.
Duties to protect from deprivation
Duties to aid the deprived.
Though the SC/ST Act does cover the first two duties but totally
ignores the third one; duty to aid the deprived. Hence, it is
necessary to make the SC/STs self dependent.
Migration
Under constitutional provisions, a caste or tribe is notified with
reference to a State or Union territory. Hence a person born in state/
UT gets certificate of SC/ST if his/her father belongs to specified
caste/tribe in that state as SC/ST. If he/she migrates to another
state, he/she lose status for affirmative actions, i.e. benefit of
admission in educational institutes, reservation in government
employment etc. But he/she does not lose protection as guaranteed by
constitution like PoA & other Acts in any other state. In brief once a
person is notified as SC/ST in any one state/UT, he gets protection
under SC ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 throughout the
country, irrespective that caste or tribe is notified in the state/UT
where offence is occurred.
Suggestions
The statement of object and reason of the SC/ST Act clearly reveals
that the Act, in its letter and spirit, desires that dalits lead a
dignified life. However, even after 16 years of its existence in the
statute book, it has not shown its desired effect. The majority of the
beneficiaries of this Act are unaware of the legitimate claims of
leading a dignified way of life or are unwilling to enforce it
intensively. Even the Police, prosecutors and judicial officers are
unaware of this Act as was pointed out by Calcutta High Court in the
case of M.C. Prasannan v. State of West Bengal.[19] What further
aggravates the problem is the misapplication of the Act by police as
well as by the courts which ultimately leads to acquittals.[20]
Rural atrocities which are not covered under this Act
Social and economic boycott and blackmail are widespread. In view of
the fact that the main perpetrators of the crime sometimes co-opt a
few SC/STs with them and take advantage of local differences among the
SC/STs and sometimes they promote and engineer crimes but get them
executed by some members of SC/STs, the Act should be suitably amended
to bring such crimes and atrocities within the purview of the
definition of atrocities under the Act.[17] Likewise, the Special
Courts established under Section 14 of the Act are required to follow
the committal procedure under Cr.P.C. Such an interpretation prevents
the speedy trail envisaged under the Act. Further the absence of the
adequate number of special courts has also resulted in slow disposal
of atrocity cases and a huge back log.
External links
Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,
1989
References
^ a b (1992) 3 S.C.R. 284
^ Annual Report on The Scheduled Castes and The Scheduled Tribes
(Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 for the Year 2002, at p.12.
^ http://www.censusindia.gov.in 2001 Census
^ Upendra Baxi, “Crisis of Indian Legal System”, Amita Dhanda
(compiled by), “Law and Poverty Reading Material – B.A.B.L (Hons)”,
1st edition 2006, p.170.
^ Section 14.- For the purpose of providing for speedy trial, the
State Government shall, with the concurrence of the Chief Justice of
the High Court, by notification in the Official Gazette, specify for
each district a Court of Session to be a Special Court to try the
offences under this Act.
^ http://www.ncbc.nic.in National Commission for Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes- Fourth Report 1996-97 & 1997-98, Vol. I.
^ AIR 2000 SC 740
^ "Human Rights Watch, “Broken People: Caste Violence Against India's
Untouchables"". Hrw.org. http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/india.
Retrieved 2008-12-29. http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1999/india/
^ K.I. Vibhute, “Right to Live with Human Dignity of Scheduled Castes
and Tribes: Legislative Spirit and Social Response – Some
Reflections”, 44 JILI (2002) 469 at 481.
^ 7(1).— An offence committed under the Act shall be investigated by a
police officer not below the rank of a Deputy Superintendent of
Police. The investigating officer shall be appointed by the State
Government /Director General of Police/Superintendent of Police after
taking into account his past experience, sense of ability and justice
to perceive the implications of the case and investigate it along with
right lines within the shortest possible time.
^ In 2002 the conviction rate was a mere 2 percent. Report by Ministry
of Social Justice and Empowerment
^ 1999 Cr LJ 2918
^ 1999 Cr LJ 3938
^ Lok Sabha Debates, see http://164.100.24.208/ls/lsdeb/ls13/ses13/210803.htm
^ Ministry of Home Affairs - Govt of India - India an Overview - India
- History[dead link]
^ AIR 1994 MP 143
^ a b 11
^ Iris Young, “Justice and Politics of Difference”. Amita Dhanda
(compiled by), “Law and Poverty Reading Material – IV Semester B.A.B.L
(Hons)”, 1st edition 2006, p.29
^ 1999 Cr LJ 998 (Cal)
^ Karansingh v. State of MP, 1992 Cr LJ 3054 (MP)
http://tribal.gov.in/writereaddata/linkimages/poaact989E4227472861.pdf
Forward caste
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Forward Caste (also known as Forward class/community, General class),
in India, denotes peoples, communities and castes from any religion
who do not currently qualify for a Government of India Reservation
benefits (that is, set quotas for political representation) for Other
Backward Classes, scheduled castes and tribes.[1][2][3] Since the list
presented by the commission for OBC, SC, ST is dynamic (classes and
communities can be added or removed) and will change from time to time
depending on Social, Educational and Economic factors, the Forward
Classes also are subject to change from time to time. The Government
of India does not publish a separate list of forward classes.[citation
needed]
Population
Estimate the forward classes population as anywhere from 5-15%.[4][5]
However, they have not quoted sources for their estimations. National
sample survey estimates Forward Class population almost same as
Backward Classes at around 36%. Family health survey combined forward
classes population along with all communities of other religions. If
you exclude Backward classes of other religions, then it is around
38.6% which is more than Backward classes population. State wise
Forward Class Population can be found from the chart.
Population by State
Arunachal Pradesh - NA (6% Brahmin)[6]
Andhra Pradesh - 9.9% of the total population (3% Brahmin, 1.2% Raju,
3% Velama & 2.7% Komati).[7]
Intermediate castes: Reddy (6.8%), Kamma/Chowdary (4.6%) & Kapu (15.2%)
[8]
Assam - NA (4% Brahmin)[9]
Bihar - 13% (4.7% Brahmin, 4.2% Rajput, 2.9% Bhumihar & 1.2% Kayasth)
[10]
Chattisgarh - NA (2% Brahmin)[11]
Goa - NA (7% Brahmin)[12]
Gujarat - High Forward Castes: 13.1% (4.1% Brahmin, 4.9% Rajput, 3.0%
Vaishya & 1.1% Others); Middle Forwards: 12.3% (12.2% Patel / Kanbi &
0.1% Others); Lower Forwards: 24.2% (24.2% Gujarati Kshatriya)[13][14]
Haryana - 47% (6 to 8% Brahmin, 21% Jat, 9% Khatri / Sikh & remaining
mostly Vaishya)[15]
Himachal Pradesh - 56% (14 to 20% Brahmin, 28% Rajput & remaining
mostly Vaishya / Khatri).[16]
J & K - NA (11% Brahmin, remaining mostly Dogra Rajput)[17]
Jharkhand - 7% (3% Brahmin, remaining mostly Rajput / Bhumihar /
Kayasth / Bhadralok).[18] Baniya is OBC here.
Karnataka - 16% (3 to 5% Brahmin, 3% Maratha, 2% Bunt / Nair / Kodava
& remaining mostly Raju / Devadiga / Vaishya). Intermediate castes:
Lingayat (17%) [19]
Kerala - 26% of the total population (1.5% Brahmin, 14.5% Malayala
Kshatriya / Tuluva Kshatriya, 0.5% Ambalavasi, 9% Syrian Christians &
0.5% Others).[20]
Maharashtra - 40% (4% Brahmin, 29% Maratha & remaining mostly Prabhu /
Vaishya)[21]
Manipur - 43% (Brahmin / Kshatriya)
Madhya Pradesh - NA (5% Brahmin)[22]
Orissa - 47% (6 to 9% Brahmin, 35% Khandayat / Kshatriya & 5% Patnaik)
[23]
Punjab - NA (5% Brahmin)[24]
Rajastan - 46% (7 to 8% Brahmin, 8% Rajput, 8% Vaishya, 20% Jat & 2%
Jain)[25]
Sikkim - NA (7% Brahmin)[26]
Tamil Nadu - 12% (3% Brahmin & remaining mostly Vellalar).
Intermediate castes: Thevar (8%)[27]
Tripura - NA (3% Brahmin)[28]
Uttar Pradesh - 20% (9 to 10% Brahmin, 7.2% Thakur, 2% Vaishya, 1%
Kayasth). Intermediate castes: Jat (2.5%)[29]
Uttaranchal - 75% (20% Brahmin, remaining mostly Thakur)[30][31]
West Bengal - 35% (5% Brahmin, 8% Mahishya & remaining mostly
Kayasth / Thakur / Vaishya)[32]
Delhi - NA (12% Brahmin, 9% Khatri, 5% Jat & remaining mostly
Vaishya / Thakur)[33]
Economic and educational status
Based on NSS-99-00.Rural/Urban weightages based on 2001 census)
Based on NSS-99-00.Rural/Urban weightages based on 2001 census)The
Government of India does not collect community census data except for
SC/ST. Economic and educational level of various social groups are
gauged using large sample surveys. The National Sample Survey taken in
1999–2000 and the National Family Health Survey taken in 2005-2006 (or
perhaps an earlier round of the NFHS) estimated economic, educational,
and health indicators of various communities. These surveys were used
extensively in the report submitted by the oversight committee.[34]
Forward classes will have to compete only in the open category, as
they are considered socially, educationally, and economically
advanced. Currently the reservation proportion stands at 50% in
central-government educational institutions and central-government
jobs. However, in certain states such as Tamil Nadu, the reservation
percentage stands at around 69%.[35]
Economic status
The 1998–1999 National Sample Survey calculated the economic status of
forward communities separately for rural/urban areas in various income
brackets. It shows
Only 6.4% of forward classes in rural areas appear in upper income
bracket with per capita monthly income stands at above Rs 925 per
month.
30% of rural population is made up of forward classes.
More than 65% of forward classes per capita income stands below Rs 525
per month.
For urban areas:
Only 5.6% of forward classes appear in the upper-income bracket with
per capita income at or above Rs. 1925 per month (around US $40).
More than 25% of forward classes per capita income stands below Rs.
500 per month (around $10)
Educational status
Based on NSS-99-00.Rural/Urban weightages based on 2001 census)
More than 30% of forward classes above 15 years of age are
illiterate.
Only 8% of forward classes are graduates.
Around 85% of forward classes above 15 years of age have done equal to
or below secondary Education (10 Years of Education)
Reservation for economically backward among forward classes
Currently forward classes are only allowed to compete for seats in the
unreserved category in educational institutions and central government
jobs, irrespective of their educational/economical status in the
society. However, a significant percentage of the Forward Class
population lives below the poverty line and more than 30% of the
members of this community are illiterate. To meet their aspirations,
demands have been raised for providing separate reservations for the
poor among Forward Class populations. Many political parties like
Congress, BJP, Samajwadi Party, LJP, Rastriya Janata Dal, Communist
Party of India(Marxist), Bahujan Samaj Party[36][37][38][39] have
supported proposals for providing separate reservation for the poor
among the forward classes. These parties account for over 400 of the
542 members in the current parliament, as well as holding power in
most states in the union.
Indian Government surveys have pointed out that Poverty is widespread
in all communities. Indian definition of poverty is living life with
less than 0.25 US$/Day(Approx). Whereas United nations definition of
Poverty is living life with less than $1/Day.[1]. More than 65% of
forward classes will be living below poverty line if UN poverty
definition is considered.[2]
Timeline
1991: Congress government headed by Narasimha Rao introduced 10%
separate reservation for poor among forward classes.
1992: The Supreme Court has ruled in the Indra Sawhney case that
separate reservation for poor among forward classes as invalid.
Government has withdrawn separate reservation as per supreme court
judgement. (Many other verdicts given in same case has been overruled
by constitutional amendments like quota in promotions, exceeding 50%
reservations for Tamilnadu, judgement regarding creamy layer in the
same case was not implemented by Tamilnadu so far.)
2003: BJP government appointed a group of Ministers for suggesting
measures for implementation of separate reservation for poor among
forward classes. [4]
2004: Task force has been set up to work out modalities for providing
reservations to Poor among forward classes.No information available
regarding report submitted by this task force.[5]
2006: Present Congress Government appointed commission to study
separate reservation for economically backward classes.[6]
2006: Communist government in Kerala earmarked 12% seats in private
professional colleges for economically poor among forward classes.[7]
Many backward class leaders allege forward classes are over
represented in many spheres of life. State and central governments
have not released adequate data regarding representation of various
communities in their services and admissions to educational
institutions.Most of the Private companies in India does not collect
data regarding community of their employees. Very few reports are
available regarding representation of various communities in public–
private services and admissions in educational institutions.
In Tamil Nadu forward classes have secured around 1.9% of seats in
medical colleges in 2004 and 2.68 % seats in 2005 as against their
population percentage of 13%.See Also Caste-Based Reservations In
Tamil Nadu. This trend of poor representation has continued for the
last 10 years as claimed by lawyers in one of the Reservation cases.
[8]
Narendra committee report in Kerala has pointed out that forward
classes representation in public services and PSU units is around 36
to 38% which is more or less equal to their population.[9].
Karnataka Minister in state Assembly has announced that per capita
income of the Brahmins is lesser than all communities including
scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.[10]
Oversight committee in its final report has indicated that forward
classes are placed better than backward classes in some indicators and
comparable with backward classes in few indicators and backward
classes are superior in some parameters like health indicators in
states like Assam, Maharastra, Haryana, West Bengal, etc.[11]
National Survey 99-00 indicates that forward classes are better placed
than SC/ST in almost all parameters. However, in rural
unemployment,forward classes score worse than all other communities.
Recently released Provisional report of National Survey 04-05 states
that Buying capacity of Backward Classes in rural and urban areas are
comparable to forward classes. It also revises Backward classes figure
as 41%. It also states that Landownership of Backward classes are
comparable to Forward Classes. It reiterates its earlier finding (in
99-00 survey) that forward classes are poorly employed (more
unemployment).[12]
Rural landholding pattern of various social groups calculated by
National Sample Survey 99-00 indicate that OBC and forward classes are
comparable in wealthiness.)
National surveys used rural landholding pattern to assess wealthiness
of various social groups. Its findings indicate that OBC and FC are
comparable and there is a very minor difference between them. There is
a big difference between OBC/FC and SC. Even Scheduled Tribes are
placed better than Scheduled Castes. Experts who analysed national
survey results point out that other backward classes are near average
in many parameters. Please refer chart.[13]
Shrinking educational opportunities
During April 2006, India’s Human Resource Minister announced that 27%
seats will be reserved exclusively for candidates from Other Backward
Classes in addition to existing 22.5 % reservation for Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes.[14] This announcement was done when
polling process was underway in Tamilnadu and Kerala (States with
highest backward class population in India).[15] Incidentally many
opinion polls at that time were predicting rout of ruling UDF alliance
in these states.[16](UDF alliance subsequently won in Tamilnadu but
lost in Kerala). Election commission reprimanded Human Resources
Ministry for making such announcement when election process was in
progress.[17]
Sachar committee report indicated that Hindu OBC's enrollment in all
educational institutions is close to their populations in the 2004-5
national survey (page 93/425 of Sachar committee report). Union Human
Resources minister appointed panel to study about sachar committee
recommendations regarding Indian Muslims[3] but did not give his
opinion on this subject.
Impact of announcement on forward classes
After the implementation of OBC reservation, only 50% of seats are
available in open competition. All communities can compete in open
competition which means forward classes must secure between 72% and
78% of the 'open competition' seats in order to maintain their
representation in keeping with their estimated population of 36-39%,
whereas other communities will get major chunk of seats through
exclusive reservations. This has resulted in protests from Forward
Class community members and supporters from other communities under
the banner of Youth for Equality. They have pointed out following as
reasons for their protests.[18]
The Government has implemented reservations for the Scheduled castes
and Scheduled Tribes for the last 60 years, however the social and
economic situation of these groups has not shown much improvement.
This might be interpreted as an indication of the ineffectiveness of
reservation in higher educational institutions as a means of achieving
social equality.
Any difference between proportion of different communities in Higher
educational institutions is mainly because of difference in primary
school enrollment. (This fact was also confirmed in National sample
surveys and pointed out by Oversight committee in its final report).
Government should attack the cause instead of providing reservation at
higher education level Already 24% of college seats are with Other
backward classes. Providing another 27% seats will deprive chances of
forward classes.
Reservation on the basis of caste is cornered only by rich and
affluent. For example daughter of former President of India got
admission into Indian Foreign Services denying opportunity to another
poor person from her own community.
Certain Indian states has forward classes population of more than 50%
or close to 50%. In some of these states,no.of forward classes
admitted in educational institutions will be much less than their
population even if they secure 100% seats in open
competition.)Interestingly Government of India decided to introduce
27% reservations for other backward classes all over India. Many
states does not have even 27% of other backward class population as
per national sample surveys.(This includes major Indian states like
Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra, Punjab, West
Bengal).[19].Some Indian states like Assam, Goa, Haryana, Himachal
Pradesh, West Bengal has more than 50% forward classes population
[20]which means no. of seats secured by forward classes will not be
equal to their population proportion even if they secure 100% seats in
open competition in central government institutions of these states.
Central government, however, excluded 27% reservations to other
backward classes to the areas with high tribal populations.[21].
References
^ http://books.google.com/books?id=bgpEIb4tNjgC&pg=PA2004
^ http://books.google.com/books?id=vCQ24WjlwZwC&pg=PA155
^ http://books.google.com/books?id=sTS4OO9lcdgC&pg=PA102
^ The Hindu
http://www.hindu.com/2006/08/11/stories/2006081104761500.htm
^ 'What more do the upper castes want?'
http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/may/16inter2.htm
^ http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?234783
^ http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/download/1998.pdf
^ http://books.google.co.in/books?id=yInZdHn-pKoC
^ http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?234783
^ http://books.google.co.in/books?id=yInZdHn-pKoC
^ http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?234783
^ http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?234783
^ http://books.google.co.in/books?id=yInZdHn-pKoC
^ Reservations in Doubt: The Backlash Against Affirmative Action in
Gujarat, India by John R. Wood, Source: Pacific Affairs, Vol. 60, No.
3 (Autumn, 1987), pp. 408-430,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2758881
^ http://books.google.co.in/books?id=yInZdHn-pKoC
^ http://books.google.co.in/books?id=yInZdHn-pKoC
^ http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?234783
^ http://books.google.co.in/books?id=yInZdHn-pKoC
^ http://books.google.co.in/books?id=yInZdHn-pKoC
^ 1968 Socio-Economic Survey, Govt. of Kerala
^ http://books.google.co.in/books?id=yInZdHn-pKoC
^ http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?234783
^ http://books.google.co.in/books?id=yInZdHn-pKoC
^ http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?234783
^ http://books.google.co.in/books?id=yInZdHn-pKoC
^ http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?234783
^ http://books.google.co.in/books?id=yInZdHn-pKoC
^ http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?234783
^ http://books.google.co.in/books?id=yInZdHn-pKoC
^ http://books.google.co.in/books?id=yInZdHn-pKoC
^ http://www.outlookindia.com/images/brahamins_table_20070604.jpg
^ http://books.google.co.in/books?id=yInZdHn-pKoC
^ http://www.india-seminar.com/2004/534/534%20sanjay%20kumar.htm
^ MOSPI.NIC.IN
http://mospi.nic.in/mospi_nsso_rept_pubn.htm
^ Tamil Nadu's quota stir an assertion of its 69 percent? (NEWS
ANALYSIS) - India
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/india/news/article_1285498.php/Tamil_Nadus_quota_stir_an_assertion_of_its_69_percent
^ ExspressIndia.com Link 01
http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=67190
^ ExpressIndia.com Link 02
http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=67837
^ The Hindu : National : Paswan for quota for economically backward
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2006/06/05/stories/2006060504941400.htm
^ The Hindu : Cong. for 'quota' for poor among forward castes
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/08/14/stories/2003081403450900.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_caste
Sid Harth
This page deals with the Hindu varna. For other uses of this word and
similar words, see Brahmana, Brahman and Brahman (disambiguation).
A Brahmin (anglicised from the Sanskrit word IAST '; Devanagari ),
also known as Vipra, Dvija, Dvijottama (best of the Dvijas), (god on
Earth) is a member of a caste within Hindu society. Historically,
Hindu society consisted of four based on occupation and divine birth:
Brahmin (reciter of the Vedas as they came from the mouth of Brahma),
Kshatriya (protectors of Dharma, since they are the arms of Brahma),
Vaishya (mercantile and agricultural class, since they are from the
body of Brahma) and Shudra (artisan and labour class, since they are
from the feet of Brahma).
However, in addition to these four classes, there were many other
tribes mentioned in mythology such as Gandharvas, Yakshas, Kinnaras,
Kimpurushas, Rakshasas, Nagas, Suparnas, Vanaras, Vidyadharas,
Valikilyas, Pisachas, Devas, Vasus, Rudras, Maruts, Adityas, Asuras,
Danavas, Daityas, Kalakeyas, Mlechchas etc. Today, the Hindu society
in modern India is divided into four classes based on birth: Forward
Castes/communities (FCs), Backward Caste/communities (BCs), Scheduled
Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs).
In the 1931 caste census taken by the Colonial British government,
Brahmins were 4.32% of the total population. Even in Uttar Pradesh,
where they are most numerous, the Brahmins constituted just 9% of the
total populace. In Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, they formed less
than 3% and 2% of the population respectively.
The Nirukta of sage Yaska says ' — A Brahmin is a person who knows
Brahman, the ultimate reality or God; hence Brahmin means, "knower of
God". However, the historical situation in Hindu society is that
Brahmins are the traditional priests and pundits (scholars). Today
however, many Brahmins are employed in secular occupations and their
religious traditions and culture are fast disappearing from their
lives.
History
The history of the Brahmin community in India begins with the Vedic
religion in ancient India. The Manu Smriti, an ancient Smriti, refers
to Aryavarta.The Vedas are the primary source of knowledge for all
brahmin practices. All the sampradayas of Brahmins take inspiration
from the Vedas. Traditionally, it is believed that Vedas are ' (not
written by either humans or God) and anÄ di (beginingless), but are
revealed truths of eternal validity. The Vedas are considered Åšruti
(that which is heard, signifying the oral tradition).
Due to the diversity in religious and cultural traditions and
practices, and the Vedic schools which they belong to, Brahmins are
further divided into various subcastes. During the sutra period,
roughly between 1000 BCE to 200 BCE, Brahmins became divided into
various Shakhas (branches), based on the adoption of different Vedas
and different rescension Vedas. Sects for different denominations of
the same branch of the Vedas were formed, under the leadership of
distinguished teachers among Brahmins. The teachings of these
distinguished rishis are called '. Every Veda has its own . The that
deal with social, moral and legal precepts are called Dharma Sutras,
whereas those that deal with ceremonials are called Shrauta Sutras and
domestic rituals are called Grhya Sutras. are generally written in
prose or in mixed prose and verse.
There are several Brahmin law givers such as Angirasa, Apasthambha,
Atri, Brihaspati, Boudhayana, Daksha, Gautam, Harita, Katyayana,
Likhita, Manu, Parasara, Samvarta, Shankha, Shatatapa, Ushanasa,
Vashishta, Vishnu, Vyasa, Yajnavalkya and Yama. These twenty-one
rishis were the propounders of Smritis. The oldest among these smritis
are Apastamba, Baudhayana, Gautama, and Vasishta Sutras.Manu Smriti on
learning of the Vedas
Nature of Brahmin
"Samodamastapah Saucham
Kshanthiraarjavamevacha
Jnanam Vijnaanamaastikyam
Brahmakarma Swabhavajam!"
Control on emotions, Control on senses, Purity, Tolerance, Simplicity,
Concentration and belief in knowledge and science
Duties of Brahmin
The six duties of a Brahmin are given as per the Sloka
"Adhyaapanam Adhyayanam
Yajanam Yaajanam Tathaa
Daanam Pratigraham Chaiva
Brahmanaanaamakalpayaat"
Teaching, learning, performing Yaaga, make performing Yaga, accept
Daana, and give Daana are the six duties of a Brahmin.
Practices
Adi Shankara (centre) is the Hindu philosopher whose tradition is
followed by Smarta Brahmins
Brahmins adhere to the principles of Hinduism, such as acceptance of
the Vedas with reverence, adherence to the position that the means or
ways to salvation and realization of the ultimate truth are diverse,
that God is one, but has innumerable names and forms to chant and
worship due to our varied perceptions, cultures and languages.
Brahmins believe in ' — Let the entire society be happy and prosperous
and ' — the whole world is one family. Some Brahmins practice
vegetarianism (Bengali Brahmins and Kashmiri Pandits are exceptions to
this).
Daily routine
Hindu Brahmins hold practice of Dharma more important than beliefs.
This is a distinct feature of the Dharmic religions. The practices
include mainly Yajnas. The daily routineA day in the life of a Brahmin
includes performing Snana (bathing), Sandhyavandanam, Japa, Puja,
Aupasana and Agnihotra. The last two named Yajnas are performed in
only a few households today. Brahmacharis perform Agnikaryam instead
of Agnihotra or Aupasana. The other rituals followed include Amavasya
tarpanam and Shraddha.
See Also: Nitya karma and Kaamya karma
Samskaras
Brahmins also perform sixteen major Samskaras (rites) during the
course of their life-time.The Forty Samskaras In the pre-natal stage,
Garbhadharana (Conception), Pumsavana (Rite for consecrating a male
child in the womb) and Simantonnayana (Rite for parting the hair of a
pregnant woman) are performed. During childhood, Jatakarma (Birth
ceremony), Namakarana (Naming ceremony), Nishkarmana (First outing)
Annaprasana (First feeding solid food), Choodakarana (First tonsure)
and Karnavedha (Piercing of the ear lobes) are performed.During
education of the child, Vidhyarambha (Starting of education),
Upanayanam (Thread ceremony- Initiation), Vedarambha (Starting of the
study of the Vedas), Keshanta or Godana (First shaving of the beard)
and Samavartanam or Snaana (Ending of studentship) are performed.
Suring adulthood, Vivaha (Marriage) and Anthyesthi (Funeral rites) are
the main ceremonies.
Sampradayas
The three sampradayas (traditions) of Brahmins, especially in South
India are the Smarta sampradaya, the Srivaishnava sampradaya and the
Maadhva sampradaya.
Status of Brahmins Today
Historically Brahmins have been not only ascetics, sages and priests
for millennia seeking welfare of the society, but also secular clerks,
merchants, agriculturists, artisans, etc. They were also very poor. In
the modern democratic India, the Brahmins are still not only poverty
stricken, but also shunted out of every opportunity,The status of
Brahmins in Andhra Pradesh
http://www.vedah.net/manasanskriti/puranam.html
#Poor_Brahmins Brahmin Poverty] despite the fact that Prime Ministers
like Jawaharlal Nehru, Venkatanarasimharao Pamulaparti (P.V. Narasimha
Rao), and Atal Behari Vajpayee have been Brahmins. French journalist
Francois GautierFrancois
Gautier.com
has written on the sad state of Brahmins in India today.Are Brahmins
the Dalits of today?
Contributions to modern India
Brahmins have contributed immensely to the making of modern Indiain
many fields like literature, science and technology, politics,
culture, scholarship, religion etc. In the Indian independence
movement, many Brahmins like Balgangadhar Tilak, Gopal Krishna
Gokhale, C. Rajagopalachari and others were at the forefront of the
struggle for freedom. After independence, Jawaharlal Nehru, a Brahmin
and an atheist, became the first Prime Minister of India. Later,
Brahmins like P.V. Narasimha Rao and Atal Behari Vajpayee became Prime
Ministers. even now after persecution of brahmans by politicians they
hold top posts in administration, academia ,business, army,
jouranalism etc. Infact it was those Brahmin leaders like
Rajagopalachari and Thilak who fought for the upliftment of the
socially backward dalits and their equality in the society.
See also:List of Brahmins
Persecution
The anti-Brahmin sentiment was first kindled in India by the Dravidar
Kazhagam movement in Tamil Nadu. Caste & the Tamil Nation -Brahmins,
Non Brahmins & Dalits This was a reaction to the Brahmin hegemony in
the Civil services under the British government. In later years, this
movement caught on in many other parts of India even after
independence.
Communities
http://en.allexperts.com/e/d/dr/dravidar_kazhagam.htm
http://en.allexperts.com/e/t/ta/tamil_nadu.htm
http://en.allexperts.com/e/b/br/british_india.htm
Brahmin castes in the Indian subcontinent are traditionally divided
into two regional groups: Pancha-Gauda Brahmins and Pancha-Dravida
Brahmins as per the shloka,
http://en.allexperts.com/e/i/in/indian_subcontinent.htm
करॠणाटकाशॠच तैलंगा दॠरावà¤
¿à¤¡à¤¾ महाराषॠटॠरकाः,गॠरॠजराà
¤¶à¥ चेति पञॠचैव दॠराविडा विà
¤¨à¥ धॠयदकॠषिणे ¦¦
सारसॠवताः कानॠयकॠबॠजा गौà¤
¡à¤¾ उतॠकलमैथिलाः,पनॠचगौडा इà
¤¤à¤¿ खॠयाता विनॠधॠसॠयोतॠतरवà
¤¾à¤¸à¤¿à¤¨à¤ƒ
http://en.allexperts.com/e/s/sh/shloka.htm
The classification first occurs in Rajatarangini of Kalhana.
http://en.allexperts.com/e/r/ra/rajatarangini.htm
http://en.allexperts.com/e/k/ka/kalhana.htm
See also
* Varnas
http://en.allexperts.com/e/v/va/varnas.htm
* Brahmanism
http://en.allexperts.com/e/b/br/brahmanism.htm
* Anti-Brahmanism
http://en.allexperts.com/e/a/an/anti-brahmanism.htm
*Brahmin Contribution to Other Religions
http://en.allexperts.com/e/b/br/brahmin_contribution_to_other_religions.htm
Notes
References
*Definitions: A Sanskrit English Dictionary by Sir Monier Monier-
Williams
*Mayne's "Treatise on Hindu Law and Usage.
Hindu Castes and Sects Jogendranath Bhattacharya.
Andhra Viprula Gotramulu, Indla Perlu, Sakhalu by Emmesroy Sastri.
History and Culture of Andhra Pradesh Rao PR.
History of India Herman Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund.
Acharalu sastriyataNarayanareddi Patil.
Hindu Manners, Customs, and Ceremonies Abbe J. A. Dubois
External links
*List Of Andhra Brahmins And Surnames
http://www.maganti.org/PDFdocs/brahmins.pdf
*Brahmins
http://www.vedah.net/manasanskriti/Brahmins.html
*Brahmins of Andhra Pradesh
http://www.vedah.net/manasanskriti/Brahmins.html#Brahmins_of_Andhra_Pradesh
*Poverty Stricken Brahmins
http://www.vepachedu.org/brahmana-tribe.html#The_Mouths_that_Recited_Vedas_are
*Source: Vepachedu Educational Foundation Inc.
http://www.vepachedu.org/
*Brahmin Sages and Branches (Gotras and Subcastes)
http://www.vedah.net/manasanskriti/Brahmins.html#Brahmin_Sages_and_Branches
* A Long List of Brahmin Castes and Sub-castes
http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/people/brahmins/list.htm
* Brahmin Yahoo Groups
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http://atheism.about.com/library/irf/irf99/blirf_india99.htm
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http://hinduism.about.com/od/basics/a/whois.htm
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http://hinduism.about.com/library/weekly/aa013100.htm
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http://en.allexperts.com/e/b/br/brahmin.htm
When will the Brahmin-Bania hegemony end?
The Brahmin and the Bania still control the economy, but now the
Shudra controls politics
Reply To All | Aakar Patel
On 9 April, the Supreme Court rejected a plea that the 2011 census be
caste-based. CII and Ficci oppose job reservations in the private
sector, but Manmohan Singh is keen. India’s population of Brahmins and
Banias and Jains all together is 6% or less.
Ruling axis: Jawaharlal Nehru, a Brahmin, became Prime Minister with
the blessings of Mahatma Gandhi, a Bania.
The Sensex comprises the 30 largest traded companies of India.
ACC is run by a Brahmin (Sumit Banerjee), Bhel is run by a Brahmin
(Ravi Kumar Krishna Swamy), Bharti Airtel is run by a Bania (Sunil
Mittal), Grasim and Hindalco are run by a Bania (Kumar Mangalam
Birla).
HDFC is run by a Bania (Deepak Parekh), Hindustan Unilever is run by a
Brahmin (Nitin Paranjpe), ICICI Bank is headed by a Brahmin (K.V.
Kamath). Jaiprakash Associates is run by a Brahmin (Yogesh Gaur), L&T
is run by a Brahmin (A.M. Naik), NTPC is run by a Brahmin (R.S.
Sharma), ONGC is run by a Brahmin (also called R.S. Sharma). Reliance
group firms are run by Banias (Mukesh and Anil Ambani), State Bank of
India is run by a Brahmin (O.P. Bhatt), Sterlite Industries is run by
a Bania (Anil Agarwal), Sun Pharma is run by a Bania (Dilip Shanghvi)
and Tata Steel is run by a Brahmin (B. Muthuraman).
Punjab National Bank is run by a Brahmin (K.C. Chakrabarty), Bank of
Baroda is run by a Brahmin (M.D. Mallya) and Canara Bank is run by a
Bania (A.C. Mahajan).
Also Read Aakar Patel’s earlier columns
Of India’s software companies, Infosys is run by a Brahmin (Kris
Gopalakrishnan now and Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani before
him). TCS is run by a Brahmin (Subramanian Ramadorai). Wipro is owned
by a Khoja (Azim Premji). Khojas are Shia of the Sevener sect,
converted from the Luhana trading community (same caste as L.K. Advani
and M.A. Jinnah).
India’s two largest airlines are Kingfisher, owned by a Brahmin (Vijay
Mallya) and Jet, owned by a Bania (Naresh Goyal).
Of India’s mobile phone firms, Reliance Communications (Ambani),
Airtel (Mittal), Vodafone Essar (Ruia), Idea (Birla), Spice (Modi) are
owned by Banias. BSNL is run by a Bania (Kuldeep Goyal) and Tata’s
TTML is run by a Brahmin (K.A. Chaukar).
Cricket in India is run by a Bania (Lalit Modi) and before him it was
run by another Bania (Jagmohan Dalmiya).
http://www.livemint.com/2009/08/27220957/When-will-the-BrahminBania-he.html
Posted: Tue, Apr 7 2009. 12:30 AM IST
Economy and Politics
Mixing Vedas and code in new-age India
After seven years of juggling Vedas and school, Satya, a Tamil
Brahmin, had to make the big decision: whether to follow his family
and make a career in Hindu priesthood--or to forge his own new path.
As an undergraduate engineering student now, he has only temporarily
kept the decision on hold
Samanth Subramanian
Chennai: If this were 1989, or indeed 1979 or even 1799, S.
Sathyanarayanan would probably not possess the full head of hair he
does today. Instead, he would have shaved the front half of his skull
and then swept his remaining hair back to resemble a bulging half-
moon, knotted loosely at the back—a distinctive do for a young Brahmin
who would have been preparing to follow his father, his uncles and his
cousins into a career of Hindu priesthood.
Photo: Sharp Image
But this is 2009, and Sathya, as he introduces himself, has a short
but regular haircut, grown out from a few months ago, when he passed
his final year’s exams in a pathshala—Vedic school—run by the Sri
Ahobila Muth, a Hindu religious institution.
“We had to have our hair pulled back when we sat for our exams. It was
the rule,” he says. Sathya’s new look, though, fits right in at the
Rajalakshmi Institute of Technology, where he has started an
engineering degree, becoming the first in his family to attend
college. Sathya turned 18 in July, just as he was completing seven
years of Vedic education that came with a punishing schedule.
“Our Veda classes started at 4.30am and went till 7am,” he says. “Then
we had regular school from 9am to 4pm. Then more Veda classes from 4pm
to 7pm, and then supervised independent study in school from 7pm to
9pm.”
Apart from two monthly holidays, on the days after amavasya (no-moon
nights) and pournami (Tamil for full-moon nights), this arduous
regimen ran for six days a week; on Sunday, Sathya was still required
to attend Veda classes for five hours in the morning and two in the
evenings.
Also Read The boy who broke from tradition
“He’d never go anywhere but school, or maybe to the market to buy
vegetables” his mother Shanti remembers. “Every spare moment he could
get, he’d simply lie down and go to sleep.” Sathya saw his first movie
in a theatre when he was 16, and he got his first email address just
earlier this year. His only distraction, he admits, was the one
universally shared by Indian boyhood: Sunday evening games of cricket,
at a cramped ground near his house or in the narrow corridors of his
block of apartments.
BRAHMINICAL UPBRINGING
Sathya is short and slight, and he has a thin moustache, worn almost
out of rebellious joy that he is now no longer bound by the rules of
the pathshala, where every student had to be clean-shaven every day.
His slow grin fights its way through a mouthful of braces that he
wears to correct a misaligned jaw. “Because of that, my speech used to
be slurred, and I’d be very reluctant to talk in school, even to my
teachers,” he says. He had to give up flute lessons after two years
because his gums would begin to bleed. But the braces are helping—
Sathya still mumbles, but it sounds less like a medical problem and
more like a typical case of teenage shyness. “I find myself talking a
lot more willingly in college now.”
http://www.livemint.com/2009/04/06224522/Mixing-Vedas-and-code-in-newa.html
Posted: Fri, Nov 16 2007. 4:42 AM IST
Home
TN’s anti-Brahmin movement hits tradition, boosts real estate
Brahmins are finding ways to survive in changing times, while clinging
to old traditions
Priyanka P. Narain
Kannan’s house, which sits across the street from the ancient
Parthasarthy temple in the heart of Chennai, has not changed in 500
years: the palanquin his forefathers used now hangs on wooden beams
and he draws water from the same well as them. In his backyard, a
brown calf chews cud.
For centuries, Brahmin families such as Kannan’s have lived and worked
in the streets or villages around ancient temples. These four streets,
called the agraharam, created a subculture where Brahmin priests lived
a chaste life and performed traditional duties as priests and teachers
by running the temple and teaching the Vedas to students. They
essentially formed the ecosystem that ran the temples of south India.
Yet, against a backdrop of Tamil Nadu’s anti-Brahmin movement,
government policies outlawing the Brahmin-only colonies, skyrocketing
real estate prices and Brahmins’ declining social relevance, the
culture of the agraharam and people such as Kannan, who uses one name,
are becoming a rarity.
Earlier this year came another policy change—temple authorities will
now train their own priests, and priests no longer have to be
Brahmins, making older Brahmin priests all, but irrelevant.
With growing economic prosperity and migration, many of the streets
occupied by Brahmins in south Indian cities are finding it hard to
resist selling out.
Just memories? Interiors of Kannan’s 500-year-old house that sits
across the street from the Parthasarthy temple in Mylapore.
From Kannan’s house, it is easy to see the new white, pink and yellow
coloured buildings of residences, malls and coffee shops. Another
being constructed adjoins his backyard. He insists he will hang on—to
the past; to the identity.
“I would get about Rs3 crore for it (my house). But I will not sell. I
want my children and grandchildren to own it. Without this house, what
am I?” says Kannan, who has a postgraduate degree in economics.
Brahmins are finding ways to survive in changing times, while clinging
to old traditions.
Babu Das grew up helping his father run a canteen, or mess as it is
called in south India, inside his pink-coloured home at the
Kapaleeshwar temple agraharam in Chennai’s Mylapore area. The
Karpagambal Mess is famous for its authentic Tamil snacks, home-made
idlis and dosai served on banana-leaf plates while playing while
playing M.S. Subbalaxmi’s rendition of the Vishnu Sahasranama, the
thousand names of Vishnu.
Das inherited the canteen from his father, but does not know how old
the building is. “I love everything about this place. No one wants to
change anything about it. The people who come here to eat like it for
what it is. After all, money can buy you the latest trends, but will
it bring back this tradition?” he asks.
http://www.livemint.com/2007/11/16235400/TN8217s-antiBrahmin-moveme.html
Posted: Fri, Feb 19 2010. 9:37 PM IST
Culture
The Thackerays’ primitive charisma
The Senas have nothing constructive to offer Marathis. So what’s their
appeal? The Mumbai Marathi, better at renaming things than building
something himself, is disinherited from his city, and the Thackerays
give him an illusory sense of powerReply to All | Aakar Patel
All these events blocked eventually come to pass anyway, because the
control is cosmetic, and it wilts when the state decides to apply rule
of law. But that moment of theatre—when the media exhibits anguish—
produces the spotlight that nourishes the Thackerays. This is the
pattern to Shiv Sena’s actions.
It might appear that these actions are irrational, but the Thackerays’
method is cold and reasoned to squeeze out advantage. Witness the
discipline of Raj. He works his strategy with great care. On national
television he speaks Marathi no matter what language he is questioned
in. The Marathi loves this because it reflects his defiance.
There is a second reason why the Thackerays are compelled to make a
nuisance of themselves every so often. Unlike other parties, Shiv Sena
has a physical presence in neighbourhoods. These offices, run by local
toughs, are self-funded, meaning that they approach businesses and
residents for “donations”. This activity can be smooth only so long as
Shiv Sena radiates menace. The party is not effective if it isn’t
feared, and the grass roots reminds the leadership of this.
The Marathi pattern of resentment we have observed is visible
elsewhere in time.
India’s nationalist debate a century ago was dominated by the
Marathis: Tilak, Gokhale, Agarkar and Ranade. All four were Chitpavan
Brahmins, whose members are fair-skinned and unique for their light
eyes (like cricketer Ajit Agarkar and model Aditi Govitrikar).
Going against the current noise about Marathi in schools, Chitpavans
actually demanded to be educated in English. By 1911—100 years ago—
Chitpavans were 63% literate and 19% literate in English. This gave
them the edge over other Indians.
All four were on the most influential body in western India of the
time, Poona Sarvajanik Sabha. But English education had not exorcized
the native instinct. There they unleashed their pettiness on each
other. Agarkar and Tilak fought over leadership. Tilak was forced out
in 1890 after quarrels over social status and money. Gokhale took his
place but was opposed by Tilak who said the job required 2 hours of
work daily and so it couldn’t be done by a college principal. Ranade
was attacked in Tilak’s newspapers and Gokhale quit in 1895 because he
couldn’t work with Tilak’s friends. A jealous Tilak sabotaged the
Congress session held in Pune the same year.
When the Gujaratis—Jinnah and Gandhi—entered Congress, they
immediately eclipsed the Marathis, because they had the trader’s
instinct towards compromise. The Marathi Brahmin’s energy was then
channelled into resentment, this time against Muslims.
RSS, founded in 1925, is actually a deeply Marathi organization.
Hindutva author Savarkar, RSS founder Hedgewar, the great Golwalkar,
his successor Deoras and current sarsanghachalak Mohan Bhagwat are all
Marathi Brahmins.
Marathi resentment cuts down its own heroes. The first was Shivaji.
Marathi Brahmins refused to crown him though he controlled dozens of
forts in the Konkan. This was because he was a peasant from the
cultivator caste and not a Kshatriya. He had to invent an ancestry,
perform penance and bring in a Brahmin from Kashi before he could
crown himself in 1674, with the title Chhatrapati, meaning leader of
Kshatriyas.
Comments
What a blatant piece of crap!! And that too a center-spread in Mint!!
And what a branding! I have came across lies which stink of hatred
while reading this bullshit. Now I know that Tilak was a petty man,
was Brahmin, and is not much relevant. That Jinnah and Gandhi (who
calls Gokhle his Guru), were Gujaratis. Though, both owe a lot to
Maharashtra. I just want to ask this 'pseudo-expert' why Ambedkar was
borne in Maharashtra? Why Maharashtra had reformist stalwarts? Why,
when all other states (including GJ) in India were reeling under
Muslim rule, only Maharashtra created a king of people in Shivaji?
Shivsena-MNS are a different issue. Linking it to Marathis & Tilak-
Gokhle-Ranade-Agarkar & RSS, & painting all this as a Brahmin
conspiracy is disgusting. (And this fool thinks that there only 2 ends
to any economy - high and low. So one can run a company with a CEO and
a sweeper & both are non-Marathis in Mumbai as he claims.)
Ganesh
http://www.livemint.com/2010/02/19213129/The-Thackerays8217-primitiv.html?pg=2
Views
Reducing the poor to numbers
After 62 years of Independence, Dalit exploitation continues even if
the setting and players are different
With rising food insecurity, the proportion of the poor will
definitely soar (“Who count as India’s poor?” Mint, 2 October). The
same is true for those classified as vulnerable and stressed. It is
deplorable that our representatives fight like cats and dogs over
statistics and their reliability. This is nothing but a cheap attempt
to justify ratios and proportions established by surveys and censuses,
and by so-called think tanks who undertake the task of achieving
“comfortable numbers to play with”. This act of putting the cart
before the horse jeopardizes many lives while Nero enjoys his fiddle.
An attempt to place 50% of the population below the poverty line is
not only a welcome relief but pro-human and pro-life.
— Rohit Saroj
This letter refers to Mrinal Pande’s thought-provoking article “Caste
in a new mould ” (Mint, 9 October). After 62 years of Independence,
Dalit exploitation continues even if the setting and players are
different: refreshingly, not the usual whipping boys but the Brahmins.
If the Plan projects from the 1950s onwards have made people richer,
the ingenuity of the latter-day politicians in introducing an ever
expanding “OBC” (other backward class) list has given them a doubly
assured vote bank.
The article refers to the killing of 16 villagers in Bihar (Khagaria
district), originating in “land ownership and use”, an area in which
our post-Independence leaders enacted progressive statutes. For
example, Tamil Nadu (TN) is one of the early states which introduced
the salutary principle, “land to the tiller”. Several hundred Brahmin
mirasdars (landlords) had to part with the land to the actual tillers.
TN has not looked back since then, even if the Brahmin mirasdars had
to choose other livelihood options and even migrate. On the same
principle, Kurmis of Bihar cannot cite their holding 500 bighas in
Amausi if the Dalits were sharecroppers, managing and tilling the land
for generations. Bihar’s agricultural and revenue departments are
sufficiently endowed for ascertaining the factual situation and
deciding the issue. It is a grave mistake on their part to have let
the situation result in mass killings. Will the Dalits of Amausi ever
get the ownership of the land which they have been tilling for several
generations?
Pande has also touched on the role of education. The Brahmin
intellectual and statesman Rajaji, during his TN chief ministership,
introduced an educational system —earn while you learn —whereby all
would get primary and secondary education while learning their family
craftsmanship, which was vital for livelihood until their education
was completed. This would have avoided the worrying phenomenon of
increasing school dropouts, but he was unjustifiably branded as a
perpetrator of caste system. It is a little-known fact that long
afterwards, even in Britain, the New Labour intellectuals of Tony
Blair proposed a similar system for its citizens to enjoy the fruits
of the “knowledge economy”.
Until political powers stop viewing Dalit uplift as a vote bank issue—
or stop perpetrating the caste system by continuously expanding the
grouping called OBC—caste will not die nor will Dalits see progress.
The West is using the “human rights movement” to cash in on our
miseries, which we are trying to cure. This is one more area where the
government has failed in the international arena.
Sadly, this festering issue is witnessing a theatrical display.
Lately, Dalits and their neighbourhoods are being turned into tourist,
picnic or pilgrimage spots by politicians wanting to be noticed by
their leaders. It is an amusing spectacle to notice “mentions” that
they should not carry separate tiffin boxes but partake in the frugal
meals of the Dalits, and sleep on their humble charpoys. What an
innovative way to treat this festering sore.
— S. Subramanyan
http://www.livemint.com/2009/10/13222427/Reducing-the-poor-to-numbers.html
Posted: Sun, Oct 11 2009. 9:51 PM IST
Views
Caste in a new mould
The usual definition of caste oppression can no longer explain
emerging patterns of dominance
The Other Side | Mrinal Pande
In the first week of this month, 16 villagers were murdered in cold
blood by armed killers in Amausi village in Bihar. Of those murdered,
14 were Kurmis, the same caste as the chief minister of the state, two
were Koeries, also from the other backward classes (OBCs). Those who
understand the murky C of India know that the incident was not only
about settling some local scores. It was also sending an unambiguous
message to the Kurmis and other OBCs who have emerged as powerful
landlords in the state during the last few decades of OBC rule. The
locals insist that the killers were not Naxals as the police claimed,
but assassins hired by the newly empowered Dalit community of Mushars,
for settling old scores with Kurmi landlords. Whether the killers were
Naxals or hired assassins, two things are clear: One, usually a long-
standing land dispute lies at the heart of most violence in our
villages. And two, the usual definition of caste oppression can no
longer explain the emerging patterns of dominance and subjugation.
The genesis of the recent violence is said to lie in the report of a
recently appointed government commission on land reforms in Bihar. It
had suggested that the state government must protect the rights of the
landless sharecroppers, put a cap on land ceiling at 15 acres (for
both agricultural and non-agricultural land) and computerize all land
records. In Khagaria district, where the massacre took place, as
elsewhere in rural India, ultimately all fertile land is controlled by
the most powerful (read politically best connected) caste with the
landless Dalits as their sharecroppers. The Kurmis say they are the
titled owners of 500 bighas in Amausi, but Mushars quoting the report
say they have a bigger right to it since they have tilled it for
generations. This tension is what ignited the caste war.
When the issue of caste-based violation of human rights in India came
up at the 12th Human Rights Council in Geneva recently, it was
proposed that caste be put on a par with race. But in 2009, when we
talk about caste biases, we cannot overlook India’s actual electoral
politics. Here, being identified as a Dalit or backward leader offers
a distinct advantage and becomes the biggest guarantee of a
candidate’s electability. From Bihar to Tamil Nadu, they have voted
out upper caste groups regularly, but the unjust land ownership
patterns born of unfair state patronage extended by incumbent leaders
to their own community, persist. Expunging caste from school syllabi
has not helped either, and the learning system still remains unequal
and heavily biased in favour of the powerful and rich. This is because
of a confused and confusing language policy perpetuated by the new
rulers. They insist on government schools teaching the children
(mostly poor) in the regional languages, even though English is
undeniably the language of all power discourse and higher learning.
None of these leaders will educate their own children in the local
language, though.
Actually, the traditional characteristics and power of the Brahmins in
the traditional upper caste hierarchy (high learning, arrogance and
clever use of a certain elite language to build firewalls around
knowledge and information to keep it away from the commoners) are now
much more visible among India’s upper middle-class professionals,
whatever their caste. Whether backward, Dalit or forward, successful
children of the new dominant classes no longer acquire their basic
knowledge, skills and networking abilities in Brahminical Sanskrit,
but in English. Likewise, the power of the old-style, landowning
Thakur (Kshatriya), who killed a thousand tigers and routinely torched
Dalit huts, has been usurped by today’s political class, who ride lal
batti cars with similar disregard for laws, sirens blaring and black
cat commandos in tow. They hold power dialogues with neighbouring
warlords, make and break treaties—not the princes and nawabs who, if
they have not become penniless, have turned hoteliers and protectors
of wildlife. The traditional merchant class, thanks to family-based
businesses, may have retained some part of their old glory, but in the
global arena they are now heavily dependent on the neo-Brahmin: the
Indian Institute of Management-trained, multinationalized manager,
banker and expat consultant, who strides the global village and
carries vital knowledge in his laptop, as a Brahmin once carried in
his almanac.
All caste systems need a cleaning class. They are today the invisible
and unorganized freelancers. Moving from job to job, they help mop up
the night soil of the global village and provide the paymasters with
linguistic bridges into the vernacular heartland, where the markets
are also the votes.
Mrinal Pande likes to take readers behind the reported news in her
fortnightly column. She is a writer and freelance journalist in New
Delhi. Comment at theoth...@livemint.com
http://www.livemint.com/2009/10/08230128/Caste-in-a-new-mould.html?h=D
Posted: Fri, Jan 2 2009. 12:09 AM IST
Home
Mayawati leads BSP’s ‘elephant’ to temple towns
A Rs250 crore package to revamp Mathura was announced in August; now
Rs800 crore has been allocated for Varanasi
K.P. Narayana Kumar
New Delhi: To win both the hearts and minds of voters across the
country as India gets ready for the national elections in April, Uttar
Pradesh chief minister and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati
is deliberately targeting an overhaul of urban infrastructure in
pilgrim towns, such as Varanasi and Mathura, which see a large influx
of Hindu pilgrims.
Poll sops? BSP leader Mayawati. Nand Kumar / PTI
After announcing a Rs250 crore package for Mathura in August, Mayawati
announced an Rs800 crore revamp plan for Varanasi last week.
“By announcing these, Mayawati is telling the people—especially the
non-Dalits—that they should not judge her or the BSP by their past (as
a party that catered mainly to those at the bottom of India’s caste
pyramid) and, instead, think of the future they are trying to create
by catering to wider sections,” says Dalit writer Chandra Bhan Prasad.
Both Mathura and Varanasi are already covered under the Jawaharlal
Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) a Rs50,000 crore
Centrally funded scheme that ties grants for urban renewal projects to
a set of mandatory reforms that municipalities have to enact to be
eligible to receive the grants.
As of 30 June, Varanasi had one water supply and one solid waste
management project worth a combined Rs159 crore granted under JNNURM,
while Mathura had one solid waste management project.
The urban infrastructure development package for Varanasi includes
drinking water, sewerage and solid waste disposal schemes, apart from
improving power supply to places of tourist interest, including the
ghats along the banks of the Ganga river.
The Mathura-specific projects that were announced earlier in August
included improvement in tourist facilities and new road projects.
In the 2007 assembly elections, of the total 12 seats in Mathura and
Varanasi districts, the BSP, which won four seats, was the only party
that gained seats compared with the previous elections in 2002, when
it had won just one seat.
The main opposition at the Centre, the Bharatiya Janata Party, lost
one and the Congress party, the Central ruling coalition leader,
managed to retain the lone seat it had won in Mathura in 2002.
A senior priest with the Sankat Mochan temple in Varanasi said it was
quite likely that Mayawati would benefit if she were to carry out the
planned works.
“Caste politics has been played by all political parties, where
promises specific to interest groups are made before polls. So there
is nothing wrong in Mayawati announcing more development of temple
towns keeping the upcoming elections in mind. At the end of the day,
people want development. Let us see what Mayawati can do,” said this
religious leader who didn’t want to be identified.
Mayawati and senior BSP leader S.C. Mishra couldn’t be contacted
despite repeated attempts.
A study conducted by the New Delhi-based think tank Centre for the
Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) showed that the BSP had increased
its share of upper-caste votes in Uttar Pradesh from 23% in the 2002
assembly elections to 31% in 2007. The share of Brahmin votes for the
party increased from 6% in 2003 to 17% in 2007, after it handed out
tickets to Brahmins and other backward class (OBC) candidates.
“It is interesting to note that among Brahmins, 27% of poor Brahmins
voted for the BSP, while only 12% of the rich voted for it,” said
Pravin Rai, an analyst with CSDS.
Ajoy Bose, the author of Behenji, a biography of Mayawati, has noted
that of the 206 seats the BSP had won in 2007, 51 were held by
Brahmins.
http://www.livemint.com/2009/01/01231639/Mayawati-leads-BSP8217s-8.html
Posted: Sun, Sep 27 2009. 10:32 PM IST
Columns
Opportunity, challenges for Indian banks in UK
The Indian banks in United Kingdom are trying hard to reach out to the
Indian community at Southall, Wembley, Birmingham, Harrow, Slough,
Ilford and Leicester
Banker’s Trust | Tamal Bandyopadhyay
Thursday afternoon, I sneaked into the Camden Centre on Bidborough
Street at King’s Cross, before London’s oldest Durga Puja was formally
opened for worshippers. Ajay, a local doctor and accomplished Rabindra
Sangeet singer, was rehearsing for his evening programme while a few
others were putting up a Bank of Baroda banner on the dais where Ajay
and other artistes were to perform.
Indian banks’ overseas business model hasn’t changed— festivals and
community gatherings continue to be the most critical points of sale.
On Wednesday, S.R. Sharma, managing director of Punjab National Bank
(International) Ltd, or PNB International, the UK subsidiary of
India’s second largest public sector bank, headed to Norwood Park in
south London after office hours. He was invited by P.L. Suri, a
customer, to attend a satsang, a programme of devotional speeches and
songs. Sharma met Suri’s guru and many of his friends and is hopeful
of converting at least some of them into customers.
State Bank of India, or SBI, operating in London since 1921, has an
asset base of $7.3 billion (Rs35,040 crore); PNB International, just
two years old in the UK, has assets worth $625 million. There are
other Indian banks, too, in the UK such as Bank of India, Bank of
Baroda, Canara Bank, Syndicate Bank and a subsidiary of ICICI Bank
Ltd, which has the biggest UK balance sheet among all Indian lenders.
Based on 2001 statistics, UK’s ethnic minority population is about 4.6
million, close to 8% of the country’s total population. In 2001,
Indians accounted for 1.8% of the total population. Since then it has
gone up to about 2% and Indian bankers are chasing this chunk and no
one is willing to miss a single opportunity to reach out to the Indian
community at Southall, Wembley, Birmingham, Harrow, Slough, Ilford and
Leicester. Sharma recently convinced the UK chapter of the Bharatiya
Vidya Bhavan, a charitable public trust-run institution dedicated to
the promotion of education and culture, to distribute its newsletters
to 1,500 members across the UK in PNB International envelopes every
month. Last year, his bank sponsored a few awards at the annual
function of London’s Goud Saraswat Brahmin Sabha, an organization of
the Konkani-speaking Hindu Brahmin community.
Also Read Tamal Bandyopadhyay’s earlier columns
These marketing gimmicks are paying off. PNB International’s deposit
base has gone up from $103 million in December 2008 to about $280
million now and the number of accounts from 4,419 to 10,075. The
global meltdown has also helped. Up to £50,000 is covered by deposit
insurance and many consumers have now started keeping deposits in
various Indian banks, including SBI, for fear of losing their money in
case of a bank failure. According to Rajnish Kumar, regional head and
chief executive of SBI’s UK operations, the bank did not have too many
local customers until September last year, but in the past one year it
has got many, and now non-Indians account for about 10% of State
Bank’s UK customer base.
Indian banks are also developing new deposit products to attract
money. SBI, for instance, offers a step-up rate structure where a
depositor is paid 3.75% for one year money, but the rate progressively
goes up if the money is kept longer. For five years, it can fetch as
much as 5%. From customers’ point of view, the step-up structure is a
better option than a plain vanilla deposit scheme where one is hugely
penalized for withdrawing money ahead of maturity. But these products
can help only to a certain extent and Indian banks won’t be able to
mop up much unless they start offering other facilities such as debit
cards.
Unlike India, where such cards function on the chip and signature
principle, in the UK it’s the chip and PIN (personal identification
number) norm and consumers punch in the code after every transaction
and don’t sign a charge slip. The technology is quite expensive. SBI
is working on it while ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda and PNB
International already have it. Each time a bank’s debit card holder
uses another bank’s ATM to withdraw money it needs to pay for such
transactions, but it also earns a commission when customers use the
card for shopping. The debit card offering has possibly helped PNB
International get the salary accounts of the Indian High Commission in
London, which had been banking with SBI and HSBC Holdings Plc. PNB
International now runs the salary accounts of about 125 high
commission employees, including Nalin Suri, the new high commissioner.
All Indian banks seem to be keen on collecting deposits, but when it
comes to giving loans, they continue to meticulously stay away from
retail Indian customers. The main reason behind the diffidence of
Indian banks is possibly the lack of a credit history for most of
their customers. There are a few agencies that sell credit history
data, but until a bank attains a critical mass in loan accounts, no
agency tracks the data of its customers. This means the customer of an
Indian bank can default on loan repayments and yet continue to get
credit from local banks as this information will not be known to
them.
Banks in the UK aren’t required to keep money with the central bank or
buy government bonds. But things will change as the Financial Services
Authority, the banking supervisor, is planning to ask banks to invest
8-10% of their assets in government bonds. Since such bonds are low-
yielding, the new norm will hit Indian banks’ profitability. One way
of protecting their bottom line could be the creation of retail
assets. But this has to be done with caution as KYB (know your
business) is as important as KYC (know your customer) for banking in
the post-Lehman days.
Tamal Bandyopadhyay keeps a close eye on all things banking from his
perch as Mint’s deputy managing editor in Mumbai. Please email your
comments to banker...@livemint.com
http://www.livemint.com/2009/09/27223257/Opportunity-challenges-for-In.html
Posted: Fri, Feb 6 2009. 11:05 PM IST
Culture
Fringe takes centre stage
The importance of being Mahesh Elkunchwar and Satish Alekar in Marathi
theatre; the plays of poet, painter and doctor Gieve Patel
Marathi playwrights Mahesh Elkunchwar and Satish Alekar occupy the
same place as their better-known counterparts Vijay Tendulkar and
Girish Karnad in the theatre-active centres of India. Even the most
culture-specific of their plays have been performed in other
languages. Now, Oxford University Press has published the collected
plays of Elkunchwar and Alekar (in separate volumes), thus bringing
some of their most important plays out of their Indian context into a
wider domain.
Modern times: (clockwise from top left) Satish Alekar (Kumar Gokhale);
Mahesh Elkunchwar (Vivek Ranade); and a scene from Alekar’s play,
Atirekee.(Theatre Academy, Pune)
Elkunchwar’s Wada Chirebandi (Old Stone Mansion), which deals with the
crumbling values of a landowning Brahmin family of Vidarbha, has been
performed in Hindi, Bengali, Kannada and even Garhwali.
Alekar’s Mahanirvan (The Dread Departure), which takes an ironic look
at the funeral rites of Marathi Brahmins using the keertan (devotional
song) form of story-telling to underline its black humour, has been
staged in Rajasthani, Punjabi, Gujarati, Bengali, Konkani, Tamil and
Kannada. Begum Barve, a tragi-comic look by Alekar at the glorious
tradition of sangeet natak (musical theatre) in Maharashtra, has been
brilliantly adapted in Hindi, using nautanki (traditional/folk
theatre) in place of sangeet natak, and in Gujarati, using the music
plays of Bhangwadi as a parallel.
Plays by both playwrights have been read and performed in American
universities as well.
Although both began writing around the same time, their first plays
were staged a few years apart. Elkunchwar’s early plays, published in
the prestigious literary magazine Satyakatha, attracted the attention
of Vijaya Mehta (née Jaywant). She directed four of them in quick
succession in the same year, 1970, for her theatre laboratory,
Rangayan. Alekar’s early plays were also published in Satyakatha, but
were not performed on the established “fringe” stage. Instead, they
became popular on the inter-collegiate drama competition circuit.
Contemporaries though they are, Elkunchwar and Alekar are driven by
widely different concerns. Elkunchwar’s preoccupations, to put it in a
nutshell, are about creativity, life, sterility and death. In his
early plays, his characters are manifestations of these ideas rather
than flesh and blood people. In his later plays, for instance Wada
Chirebandi, they are delicately delineated human beings of many
shades.
Whatever his theme or mode, Elkunchwar’s plays are marked by his
mastery over dramatic structure, each play having a well-defined
beginning, middle and end. His language, which began as an unstoppable
outpouring in his early plays, quietened down later to an economic,
rhythmic prose, full of eloquent silences.
http://www.livemint.com/2009/02/06211922/Fringe-takes-centre-stage.html
Posted: Thu, Jul 23 2009. 9:54 PM IST
Columns
Rita and Mayawati stoop too low to conquer
This is a tragedy, while the Congress’ provocation is merely a form of
low farce, because Mayawati is a historical political figure, whereas
Rita Joshi is a political creature and Rahul Gandhi is a fifth-
generation dynast
High Windows | Mukul Kesavan
The recent contretemps between Rita Bahuguna Joshi and Mayawati has
been the most depressing sequence of events in post-general election
politics. The gratuitous ugliness of it ought to make the observer of
Indian politics despair.
Speechless: Rita Joshi visits her house soon after it was torched by
miscreants. AFP
Joshi’s part in this squalid quarrel isn’t surprising. The daughter of
the late chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna, she
has had a political career of the sort that’s politely described as
chequered. She has been in and out of the Congress; she has fought for
elective office as an Independent, as a Samajwadi Party candidate and
as a Congresswoman. Apart from winning the mayoralty of Allahabad, she
has lost every other election that she has contested. But despite her
recent electoral defeat in Lucknow, her political career has been on
the upswing; she is the chief of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee
(UPCC) and given the Congress’ resurgence in UP during the last
general election, her star has been in the ascendant.
I was in Moradabad during Azharuddin’s election campaign when she
addressed the Congress faithful at a political rally held in the
grounds of the palace of a Muslim grandee. It was apparent from her
speech that she had cast herself, in a long and ignoble Congress
tradition, as a family loyalist. She urged the Congress workers
assembled there to make sure that they assembled in their thousands
for “Rahulji’s” scheduled stop in Moradabad. The turnout for Rahul
Gandhi’s constituency visit seemed rather more important to her than
the turnout in the general election.
I imagine that as a creature of 10 Janpath, Joshi was taking her cue
from Rahul Gandhi’s strategy to aggressively project the Congress’
presence in UP when she made her infamous remark about rape. Trying to
make the point that the UP government’s policy of giving financial
compensation to rape victims was inadequate and demeaning, she is
reported to have said: “Throw such money back at Mayawati and tell
her, ‘if you’re raped, I am ready to give you a crore’.”
It’s hard to believe that any responsible political figure, leave
alone a politician whose father was a UP Brahmin, could polemicize
against a Dalit woman chief minister in terms as crass and offensive
as these. It’s even harder to believe that the Congress party, whose
erstwhile dominance in that state was based upon an electoral
combination of Dalits, Muslims and Brahmins, would respond to Joshi’s
speech with a pro forma expression of regret and disapproval without
censuring or disciplining her. Sonia Gandhi was content to distance
herself from the form of words used by her apparatchik, while her son
was even more aggressive in his response, insisting that Joshi’s
choice of words was unfortunate but that her critique was valid.
Rahul Gandhi’s willingness to write off Dalits in general and Jatavs
in particular in UP by doing as little as possible to discipline
Joshi, is of a piece with the Congress’ cynical willingness to find
new electoral combinations in the Hindi heartland. So the UPCC chief’s
willingness to appeal to a casteist electorate’s worst instincts is
depressing, but unsurprising.
What’s rather more disheartening is the UP chief minister’s response
to Joshi’s provocation. She was charged under several non-bailable
sections of the law, including the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act,
1989, and remanded to judicial custody. Had Mayawati contented herself
with this, with demonstrating the awful retribution that Indian law
visits upon those who seek explicitly or by implication to humiliate
or intimidate Dalits, she would have made her point, consolidated her
reputation as a no-nonsense opponent of inflammatory rhetoric and
stood out as a defender of the downtrodden.
But she didn’t. Newspapers and news channels reported that Bahujan
Samaj Party (BSP) goons set fire to Joshi’s home in Lucknow and
ransacked it. A few days later the BSP member of Parliament allegedly
behind this act of arson was rewarded with the deputy chairmanship of
the Uttar Pradesh State Sugar Corporation. Instead of casting herself
as the guarantor of the public peace in UP, the chief minister seemed
to go out of her way to stand out as the embodiment of the lawlessness
and state impunity that has characterized UP politics in recent
times.
This is a tragedy, while the Congress’ provocation is merely a form of
low farce, because Mayawati is a historical political figure, whereas
Rita Joshi is a political creature and Rahul Gandhi is a fifth-
generation dynast. Mayawati is the first Dalit chief minister of
India’s largest state and the first Dalit ever to be seen as a
credible candidate for the prime ministership of the republic. Instead
of fulfilling her historic potential, she has chosen to fritter it
away by allowing the media to assimilate her to the thuggish politics
of her home state.
It’s unfair to expect Mayawati to set higher standards than Mulayam
Singh Yadav or Amar Singh or Rita Joshi, but pioneering politicians
from plebeian backgrounds owe it to the people they represent to set
an example. Mayawati could have made an example of Joshi within the
law; by seeming to step outside it, she has sold herself short,
betrayed a political trust and given her enemies and the enemies of
the bahujan samaj that she claims to represent, a weapon. It’s unfair
to expect Mayawati to be India’s Obama, but not too much to ask,
surely, that she not turn herself into UP’s Ahmadinejad.
Mukul Kesavan, a professor of social history at Jamia Millia Islamia,
New Delhi, is the author of The Ugliness of the Indian Male and Other
Propositions
Write to Mukul at highw...@livemint.com
http://www.livemint.com/2009/07/23215401/Rita-and-Mayawati-stoop-too-lo.html
Posted: Thu, Oct 22 2009. 12:12 AM IST
Columns
Maoist documents point to erudite research
It is important to go beyond the government-engineered media movement
that has largely dismissed Maoists as being from the lunatic fringe
seeking to destroy the “Shining India” and “Imagining India”
narratives of the India dream
Root Cause | Sudeep Chakravarti
A former director general of police of Chhattisgarh once commented as
to how well Maoist documents were prepared. “These appear to be
written by educated people—JNU types.”
He then looked sharply at me. “Are you from JNU?” he asked, referring
to Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, often painted as left-leaning.
I disabused him of the notion, but I agree entirely with his point:
Whatever the extreme politics and polemic, documents and statements by
Maoist rebels are erudite and clear. These are not ravings of
stereotypically wild-eyed, frothing intellectuals, but the thoughts of
deliberate, yet intensely angry ideologues who invite people to join
battle against the current nature and practice of Indian politics,
administration and law-keeping.
All that Kobad Ghandy, a recently arrested Maoist leader, repeatedly
muttered to television cameras as he was being led to a Delhi court by
police was: “Bhagat Singh zindabad”. Long Live Bhagat Singh. This
revolutionary occupies pride of place in official histories of India’s
freedom movement. His likenesses are evident in countless public
places across northern India; indeed, in India’s Parliament. Those who
battle Maoists know this well.
Also Read Sudeep Chakravarti’s earlier columns
It is important to go beyond the government-engineered media movement
that has largely dismissed Maoists as being from the lunatic fringe
seeking to destroy the “Shining India” and “Imagining India”
narratives of the India dream. This is part of government’s lateral
tactic in a battle—“psy-ops” or psychological operations—much like
what public relations professionals and warring corporate siblings
practise.
Alongside, the Union government is engaged in intense on-ground
security operations with a self-declared mandate to arrive at a
conclusion within the next three years.
But it knows what it is up against, the same as the incredulous former
police chief of Chhattisgarh. So too do his colleagues in Karnataka—a
marked state, as it were—know the facility with which Maoist rebels
plan.
As far back as 2002, the Maoists prepared a document titled Social
Conditions and Tactics—A report based on preliminary social
investigation conducted by survey teams during August-October 2001 in
the Perspective Area. The “perspective area” were Central Malnad,
including parts of Udupi district, and the adjacent districts of
Shimoga, Chikmaglur and Dakshina Kannada. It offers insight into the
planning and argumentative conviction that go into developing a
revolutionary base.
Malnad is the “ghat” region of Karnataka comprising 10 districts, from
Belgaum in the north-west to Chamarajnagar in the south. It includes
nearly half of Karnataka’s forest area, nearly all of its iron ore and
manganese riches, major concentrations of areca—betel nut—cardamom and
other spices, and coffee. It records a large tribal population and
caste prejudice. The Maoist survey recorded a fairly large percentage
of landless and poor farmers, and domination by the upper castes—
Brahmins and Vokkaligas, among others. The landless received daily
wages as much as 15% less than the norm. In places, the survey
recorded between 10% and 32% of land without title deeds and
consequent “encroachment” by wealthier peasantry and landlords.
The survey, which referred to particular villages only with designated
alphabets to maintain secrecy, recorded high interest rates on account
of private moneylenders, and high indebtedness. As many such
moneylenders were also landlords—comprising 4% of the population but
owning a quarter of all land—inability to repay led in numerous cases
to a member of the family, usually a youngster, being bonded as farm
or plantation labour.
The survey tracked the fall in prices for several categories of areca,
pepper, cardamom and coffee. Inevitably, daily wages dropped. This was
recorded as the overall impact of “semi-feudalism”, free-market
pricing, lowering of import restrictions, and in some cases—such as
coffee—overproduction.
In great detail, the survey noted which Brahmin landlord was “known to
break two whipping sticks on the backs of his tenants”; where a
landlord had links with Mumbai’s timber mafia; where “Jain landlords”
evicted tenants unable to pay rent; and which temples in the region
had links with powerful politicians and businessmen. There was also a
list of weapons in the surveyed villages.
The survey recommended that Maoist support must be developed in the
area by “strictly secret methods”. These should include secret front
organizations of women, “coolies” and Adivasis. Village-level clusters
of militias should in turn be guided by the local guerilla squad
assigned to that territory—one such squad would have under its care
800 sq. km and four squads would form an interlinked team to control
3,200 sq. km.
The plan is on the ground.
Sudeep Chakravarti writes on issues related to conflict in South Asia.
He is the author of Red Sun: Travels in Naxalite Country. He writes a
column alternate Thursdays on conflicts that directly affect business.
Respond to this column at root...@livemint.com
http://www.livemint.com/2009/10/21231751/Maoist-documents-point-to-erud.html
Posted: Wed, Feb 3 2010. 11:45 PM IST
Columns
Naxalism and angst of Jharkhand tribals
With pressure from major businesses to deliver on now-dusty
memorandums of understanding and from Maoists--as they reconnoiter new
areas and call in old debts--Jharkhand will witness more churn
Root Cause | Sudeep Chakravarti
Jharkhand has for some time resembled a tragicomic circus.
This is where a former state health minister, Bhanu Pratap Shahi, told
media in early 2007 of a novel method of combating Maoist rebels—
interchangeably known as Naxalites. One vasectomy in a “Naxalite-
dominated” village would mean that many “potential comrades less”, the
minister offered, in a situation of “many mouths to feed and little
food to eat”.
A state chief minister, Madhu Koda, received an official certificate
from the Limca Book of Records, India’s version of the Guinness World
Records, for becoming the first independent legislator to gain that
position. He formed a government with four other legislators and the
support of the United Progressive Alliance.
Also Read Sudeep Chakravarti’s earlier columns
Koda is now history, accused of using his tenure to amass a fortune
along with some cronies and allies, mainly from concessions to
mining.
The newest chief minister, Shibu Soren, has this past fortnight
troubled hawks for suggesting negotiations with Maoist rebels in the
state. Leaks to media mentioned slowed police operations against
Maoists. Such moves would, according to conventional wisdom, permit
Maoists breathing room to regroup and gain ground. Failed peace talks
in Andhra Pradesh in 2004, and overtures in Orissa, are held up as
examples of what not to do.
Soren, too, carries baggage, marked as he is by scandals such as money-
for-votes during the premiership of P.V. Narasimha Rao; and the death
of a once-trusted lieutenant. But it is important to understand
Soren’s background with fellow travellers, as it were.
Jharkhand is blessed with iron ore, manganese, coal, limestone,
graphite, quartzite, asbestos, lead, zinc, copper, and some gold,
among others. It supplies to the region electricity from thermal and
hydroelectric plants. But there has always been a discrepancy between
generating wealth and its application.
The Jharkhand region received minimal development funds from undivided
Bihar based on a time-honoured presumption: tribals live there, and
they need little. Resettlement and rehabilitation issues were—and
continue to remain—poor on delivery.
The area’s displaced tribals were gradually organized by a tribal
rights and right-to-statehood organization, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha
(JMM), which also took on exploitation by a concert of contractors,
moneylenders and public servants. Bihar’s response was to send a large
team of armed police, which intimidated and arrested at will. To
protest, an estimated 3,000 tribals gathered in September 1980 in Gua,
a mining-belt town near Saranda forests to the state’s south, for a
public meeting.
There was an altercation with police. The police fired; the tribals
fought back with bows and arrows. Three tribals and four policemen
died; human rights activists place the number of tribal deaths at
100.
Both groups took their wounded to Gua Mines Hospital, where the
tribals were made to deposit their bows and arrows before the hospital
took in their injured. Then the police opened fire on the now unarmed
tribals, killing several more.
The police, thereafter, went on a rampage in nearby villages, in much
the same way as some of their colleagues in Chhattisgarh: looting and
destroying homes; molesting and killing as much for revenge as
suspicion of collusion with rebels.
JMM leader Guruji—Soren—became a bulwark for key tribal leaders, who
led movements in Saranda to prevent the illegal felling of trees such
as sal and teak.
As resentment peaked through the 1980s and 1990s, leaders sought
allies with greater firepower: the Maoists—through the Maoist
Communist Centre (MCC), the key rebel entity in undivided Bihar. This
alliance of expediency has since matured.
Saranda is a Maoist area of operation and sanctuary. MCC has merged
into the Communist Party of India (Maoist), the presiding
conglomerate. Besides attacks against police and paramilitary, looting
weaponry and imposing levies on small to big businesses to fund the
rebellion, Maoists have also carried out spectacular strikes. For
instance, they shot dead member of Parliament and bête noire Sunil
Mahato and three others as they watched a football match at Baguria in
early 2007.
Leaders with deep roots, such as Soren, understand the dynamics of
tribal aspiration and angst. Soren can, on a good day, still hold the
power to bring disparate issues to the table for resolution of
conflict. But tribal leadership is otherwise compromised, adding to
the rot and ineptitude that have marked governance in Jharkhand since
it attained statehood in 2001.
Even funds meant for modernization of police forces are known to have
been appropriated to purchase sports utility vehicles for ministers.
With pressure from major businesses to deliver on now-dusty
memorandums of understanding and from Maoists—as they reconnoiter new
areas and call in old debts—Jharkhand will witness more churn.
Sudeep Chakravarti writes on issues related to conflict in South Asia.
He is the author of Red Sun: Travels in Naxalite Country. He writes a
column alternate Thursdays on conflicts that directly affect business.
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: Wed, Nov 18 2009. 10:13 PM IST
Columns
Cos open to accusations of complicity with govt
If businesses find it difficult to comprehend morality, they could at
least work to understand liability
Root Cause | Sudeep Chakravarti
The flap these past weeks about Tata Steel Ltd’s proposed 5.5 million
tonnes a year project in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh triggered
thoughts of a recent conference on human rights and business. I can’t
talk much about that meeting at Manesar, near Delhi, sponsored by a
relatively new London-based institute, as we were bound by the Chatham
House rule. But I can discuss my personal observations as they do not
vary in private or public; as well as broad parameters of discussion
without specifically naming participants.
There was a senior representative from Tata Sons Ltd at the conference
this past summer, as well as his corporate social responsibility (CSR)
colleagues from ArcelorMittal, JSW Steel Ltd, Royal Dutch Shell and
Lafarge SA. Except Shell, others are between them currently engaged in
either contentious or tricky projects in central, north or north-east
India. Alongside executives were arrayed human rights activists,
lawyers, tribal representatives, self-declared liberals from Delhi’s
seminar circuit, and corporate practitioners and consultants from
Europe and the Americas.
Also Read Earlier columns by Sudeep Chakravarti
The purpose was to take inputs about the Indian situation to evolve
corporate best practice guidelines across the world as to the
experience of relocation and rehabilitation—frequently the curse of
projects—and work in conflict areas. The meeting was well timed, too,
seeing several popular protests against large projects and special
economic zones; and the outright concern of locating projects in areas
of Maoist influence.
A broad thought came through, surprisingly, from several executives.
The bean counters and boardroom “suits” that operate in India don’t
care about the socio-economic impact at ground zero. The project
blueprint is absolute in terms of cost in time, finance, man-hours and
return on investment. As activists joined the discussion, it became
ever more evident that CSR ends up being a tool to buy out
“opposition” with money, a primary school or health centre, some tube
wells. Responsibility ends there. The governments of the states where
the projects are to be located—with their political leadership,
bureaucracy and police—become an extension of corporate will.
Such an approach led to Singur for Tata Motors Ltd; the relocation of
the project to Gujarat worked through similar, though non-violent,
channels as the government there had already pre-empted protest by
releasing vast stocks of pre-acquired land. Tata Steel’s loud
clarifications that it had been “allocated” land in Chhattisgarh; and
its denial that a public hearing on the project in mid-October was
attended by hand-picked villagers in a room heavily guarded by state
police and local toughs, suggests a worrying trend: this conglomerate
has learnt little from its recent collective experience.
In Chhattisgarh, it is likely to face protests that could easily
escalate to violence as the administration lends a hand to shoehorn
the project. There is little doubt too that Maoist-front organizations
and militias will leverage toeholds offered by such an approach, the
same as they have done to a project by Essar Steel in the state’s
Dantewada district.
What drives a corporation to pursue a project in a clear zone of
conflict? Why do businesses feel strengthened, even invulnerable, if
they are in direct or moral partnership with government? Why do
project planners ignore the fact that the principle of eminent domain,
which permits the government to expropriate land for public good, is
abused in spirit and execution? Why don’t consultants, whom
corporations pay millions of dollars to scope a project, clarify
political and security risks?
The fig leaf of government having appropriated land—and so, business
being absolved of all responsibility—is mandated by India’s mai-baap
culture, a benevolent dictatorship deeply prevalent in the
relationship between business and politics. While this proved to be
the bedrock of much of India’s economic growth, businesses will, in
today’s charged rights and legal environment, be open to accusations
of complicity with government. Globalized Indian businesses are
additionally vulnerable, under international laws, to legal action
even in other countries if accusations of negative complicity with
government are proven. Moreover, there would be a public relations
fallout.
In plain words: it will be difficult to explain away aggressive
presence in a conflict zone where a project clearly stands to gain by
government forces killing off rebels. And it will be difficult to deny
moral responsibility for the death and displacement of innocents in
such a conflict. If businesses find it difficult to comprehend
morality, they could at least work to understand liability.
Sudeep Chakravarti writes on issues related to conflict in South Asia.
He is the author of Red Sun: Travels in Naxalite Country. He writes a
column alternate Thursdays on conflicts that directly affect business.
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Posted: Wed, Sep 23 2009. 10:33 PM IST
Columns
Denying development is privileging violence
If the body count swings against the rebels and their support militia,
government will declare victoryRoot
Cause | Sudeep Chakravarti
A major offensive against Maoist rebels by the CoBRA (Commando
Battalion for Resolute Action) paramilitary force is under way in the
forests and tribal homelands of southern Chhattisgarh.
Besides being the present-day heart, as it were, of the rebellion, it
is also a region where the government of Chhattisgarh has agreed in
principle to locate nearly $30 billion (Rs1.44 trillion) of investment
in minerals, metals, and electricity.
If the body count swings against the rebels and their support militia,
government will declare victory. If it goes against CoBRA, Maoists
will crow. TV crews will move in. People who track such phenomena—the
Maoist rebellion in India as well as prime ministerial pronouncements
as to its demerit—will receive calls for commentary on the who, what,
why and where of it all. It will be a circus, as always. And key
truths will, after a time, be reburied.
Maps detailing the current spread of Left-wing rebellion usually show
the overlap in forested areas, which provide rationale, recruits and
shelter. But the Maoist movement has long ago moved beyond the jungle.
Maps that detail other characteristics and topography are hence more
productive.
I’m fond of quoting at such times Omkar Goswami, who runs the New
Delhi-based CERG Advisory Pvt. Ltd. He was struck some years ago by
what current minister for environment Jairam Ramesh told him about an
“east of Kanpur characterization of India”.
Also Read Sudeep Chakravarti’s earlier columns
Ramesh’s point: the regions west of Kanpur, marked by the longitude
80.24 (east), were doing better, while those to the east of it were
“withering away”.
Goswami decided to check Ramesh’s hypothesis by collecting data on
India’s districts, development blocks and villages. His colleagues and
he pored over this data for two years, and alongside, used data from
the Census of India 2001 to map an India based on ownership of, or
access to, 11 assets and amenities: Whether the household had a bank
or post office account, a pucca house, electricity connection, owned a
TV set; owned a scooter or motorcycle; used cooking gas, had an
inhouse drinking water source or one within 500m; had a separate
kitchen area, a separate toilet, a separate and enclosed bathing
space, and a telephone.
CERG then took the results of these indicators of necessity and basic
aspiration, what it termed the Rural India District Score, and mapped
it. The districts were ranked in six grades, with accompanying
colours: Best (dark green), Good (light green), Better than Average
(very light green), Average (white), Worse than Average (orange) and
Very Poor (red).
Central India showed great patches of white and orange, and splashes
of red. Moving east into Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, eastern Andhra
Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal and most of north-eastern India,
it’s a sea of red and orange with peripheral white and 10 islands of
varying shades of green—one being Kolkata.
The white bank of “average” spreads south into peninsular India, with
some orange penetrations of “worse than average” in Karnataka and
Tamil Nadu.
The “east of Kanpur” districts are dropping off the development map,
Goswami concluded. “Getting the benefits of growth to these districts
is the greatest challenge of development and political economy.”
If political leaders and policymakers were to open similar statistical
tables of socio-economic growth and demographic spreads of the
marginalized and the dispossessed, and look at maps of attacks and
penetration by the disaffected in general and Maoists in particular,
they would see the current and future course of what they label
“menace” and “infestation”. They would see how they are privileging
violence, by denying development until violence forces the hand.
There are several studies that prove it. A particularly striking one
is by a senior police officer, Durga Madhab (John) Mitra, who
published a paper in 2007 called Understanding Indian Insurgencies:
Implications for Counter-insurgency operations in the Third World,
during a sabbatical at the Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War
College.
The Planning Commission received an excellent report last year from an
expert group it commissioned, comprising political economy, security,
and legal specialists, some of them former senior police and
intelligence officers.
Titled Development Challenges in Extremist Affected Areas, the
report’s frank expression pleasantly stunned even cynical human rights
activists long used to government’s blinkers.
Mitra received polite attention at the ministry of home affairs. The
Planning Commission report is filed away—as such things often are. I
hope to draw attention to key outlines and recommendation in these and
other documents in future columns.
Sudeep Chakravarti writes on issues related to conflict in South Asia.
He is the author of Red Sun: Travels in Naxalite Country. He writes a
column alternate Thursdays on conflicts that directly affect
business.
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: Thu, Aug 27 2009. 1:02 AM IST
Columns
Andhra grapples with Maoists, new acronymsThe state already has at
hand several Union government-controlled paramilitaries, in their
acronyms CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force), IRB (India Reserve
Battalion), and the newly formed and giddily named CoBRA (Combat
Battalion for Resolute Action), aimed at Left-wing rebellionRoot Cause
| Sudeep Chakravarti
Beyond the urban bling of Hyderabad lies territory that is giving Y.S.
Rajasekhara Reddy headaches. At a New Delhi conference of chief
ministers to discuss internal security, convened by Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh in mid-August, the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh
said he wanted three districts by the state’s border with Orissa to be
formally declared Maoist-affected.
Despite several years of anti-rebel operations—a mix of specially
trained forces, better weapons, infiltration, better equipped police
posts, utter disregard for human rights niceties, and rehabilitation
packages for Maoists—the fire burns.
While Maoists have retreated in the north, central and southern parts
of the state, the forested, hilly and coastal east tells a different
story. Reddy’s key concern is that several power, irrigation and
mining projects planned for the east would be in jeopardy. “Maoists
find such activities as ideal pastures,” he said.
Maoists do, as these activities typically involve displacement of
populations, and the imperfect exercises breed great resentment—rebel
tinder. Alongside, Maoists have taken common cause against Special
Economic Zones and the effects of globalization, not just in Andhra
Pradesh but across the country.
The rebels have bureaus in most states tasked with recruitment,
agitation and raising the level of cadre strength and “awareness”.
This is to seed rebellion in several ways, a prelude to “protracted
war” to gain political power.
This is a lateral expansion of thought and activity to keep up with
the times, as it were, extending the Maoists’ traditional turf of
fighting for agrarian, tribal and caste issues.
This is the continuation of a process from as far back as 2004, when a
definitive Maoist document, Urban Perspective: Our Work in Urban
Areas, recommended that “The centres of key industries should be given
importance as they have the potential of playing an important role in
the People’s War”—what Maoists call their armed movement.
In 2007, Muppala Laxman Rao, the chief of the Communist Party of India
(Maoist), stressed another thought from the document. “We have to
adopt diverse tactics for mobilizing the urban masses into the
revolution,” said Rao, better known by his nom de guerre Ganapathy,
“take up their political-economic-social-cultural issues …”
Reddy is described by Maoists, relatively gently, as “mercenary”. His
predecessor, N. Chandrababu Naidu of Telugu Desam Party, even five
years after losing the chief ministership, is mentioned in Maoist
journals as “the known and despicable American stooge”. This is in
great part for Naidu’s unabashed worship of Bill Gates, and PowerPoint
frenzy to tout “Cyberabad” at both local and global investment
seminars even as large swathes of the state lay in tatters; and
farmers killed themselves by the thousands, driven by debt and
desperation.
Congress’ Reddy learnt from Naidu’s mistakes and opted for more
inclusive policies. Among other things, he launched the Indiramma
(Mother Indira) project with fanfare in early 2006. A double entendre
of pleasing masters and political economy—the acronym expands to
Integrated Novel Development in Rural Areas and Model Municipal Areas—
it sought to cover every village panchayat in three years and provide
what the state has not in decades. Primary education to all; health
facilities where there are none; clean water; pucca houses with
latrines; electricity connections to all households; roads; and so on.
The halting success of the project, in bits reborn as the Andhra
Pradesh Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, contributed to Reddy’s re-
election earlier this year. However, his recent remarks are revealing.
Andhra Pradesh has battled post-Naxalbari rebels for three decades. It
raised a now-hardened special force, the Greyhounds, to combat rebels.
But the stick-and-carrot policy of the state has proved patchy.
Policing and brutal suppression of Maoists has not effectively been
replaced in these areas by development works and delivery of dignity
to the poor and marginal. And so, these places continue to be deeply
vulnerable to Maoist activity. Reddy is understandably nervous about
developments in eastern Andhra Pradesh, both for their immediacy and
potential to reignite churn elsewhere.
To battle Maoists and other forces such as radical Islamism, Reddy at
the New Delhi conference said Andhra Pradesh has established a new
force: OCTOPUS. It stands for Organisation for Counter Terrorism and
Operations.
The state already has at hand several Union government-controlled
paramilitaries, in their acronyms CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force),
IRB (India Reserve Battalion), and the newly formed and giddily named
CoBRA (Combat Battalion for Resolute Action), aimed at Left-wing
rebellion.
As Reddy must realize, acronyms with aggressive intent can only go
part of the way.
Sudeep Chakravarti writes on issues related to conflict in South Asia.
He is the author of Red Sun: Travels in Naxalite Country. He will
write a fortnightly column on conflicts that directly affect business.
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Posted: Wed, Sep 9 2009. 10:39 PM IST
Columns
It is time lessons were learnt in West Bengal
The government of West Bengal has diligently courted grief
Root Cause | Sudeep Chakravarti
All it takes to go from chutzpah to chaos is a blind corner. Few in
recent times would know this better than the policymakers of West
Bengal—and their enforcers.
The Singur episode with Tata Motors Ltd is now a modern classic of how
not to work with government intervention. Another contemporary classic
is from Nandigram, several hours’ drive south of Singur. Here the
state government and Indonesia’s Salim Group were prevented by public
protests in 2007 from going ahead with a massive special economic zone
(SEZ), a venture of New Kolkata International Development Pvt. Ltd (a
joint venture of Salim Group, Unitech Ltd and a company owned by a
Salim associate) and West Bengal Industrial Development Corp.
Both projects faced intense public agitation over the practice of some
bureaucrats, police, and leaders and cadre of the ruling Communist
Party of India (Marxist), or CPM, strong-arming farmers to part with
land—both cultivable and not—to the state, and for such acquisitions
to be passed on to proposed businesses.
Also Read Sudeep Chakravarti’s earlier columns
Earlier this week, West Bengal’s department of information technology
(IT) yanked a couple of project sites at Rajarhat on the outskirts of
Kolkata it had offered Infosys Technologies Ltd and Wipro Ltd. The
firms were expected to take up residence in a proposed IT park. A
scandal from the preceding fortnight, violence involving local land
sharks and political mafia that had helped purchase land for a resort
in the area—and were allegedly involved in procuring land for the IT
park—gave the government cold feet. “The government does not want to
be involved in any illegal activity,” a press release from the
department announced. “… (We) cannot proceed with the project.”
Infosys and Wipro should rest easy. Increasingly, businesses with
global footprint, ambition and stock listings that ride investment on
direct government intervention or inadvertent intervention in areas of
any conflict—a war, civil war, or violence rooted in corruption and
political mismanagement—could find themselves in court at home and
elsewhere.
A slim document titled Red Flags: Liability Risks for Companies
Operating in High-risk Zones, published in 2008 by International Alert
(www.international-alert.org) and Fafo Institute (www.fafo.no) lists
several grounds for litigation, including some that are commonplace in
India. Under international law, expelling people from their
communities by “the threat or use of violence to force people out of
their communities can be a crime”, Red Flags maintains. “A company may
face liability if it has gained access to the site on which it
operates, where it builds infrastructure, or where it explores for
natural resources, through forced displacement.”
Other points of liability include “engaging abusive security
forces” (directly or through the proxy of state police or
paramilitary) to effect and perpetuate a project; and “allowing use of
company assets for abuses”, such as overlooking mistreatment of people
by security forces and providing company facilities for such activity
to take place.
The government of West Bengal has diligently courted grief. Since it
assumed power in 1977, the CPM, more than its coalition partners, has
skilfully built a ground-up network, a broederbond of cadre and
leaders that thrives on a mix of intimidation, corruption and
administration. They gradually came to control the politics, political
economy and business, and dealt harshly with the opposition. This
cracked spectacularly in Singur and Nandigram, where Maoist rebels and
the Trinamool Congress got the flak—or credit—for engineering foment
which should have been placed at the doorstep of the state’s Marxist
leadership and its system of patronage.
In the Lalgarh region, which I visited past June during the
confrontation between security forces and a team of tribals and Maoist
rebels, it was easy to track “anti-establishment” targets. Almost
without exception, the largest and best homes, and businesses and
farmland belonged to, or were controlled by, the local leadership of
the CPM. Rebels and aggrieved residents killed many, and chased away
more.
JSW Steel Ltd is setting up a plant in neighbouring Salboni. Chief
minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee narrowly escaped an assassination
attempt by Maoists in November, when he was returning to Kolkata after
attending the foundation ceremony at the site of the plant. Two
ministers from New Delhi were with him.
There is nothing to indicate that this region has become less restive
after intervention by security forces, and businesses that choose to
work in this area do so at their own risk—all risk. Surely it is time
lessons were learnt in West Bengal and elsewhere in India.
Sudeep Chakravarti writes on issues related to conflict in South Asia.
He is the author of Red Sun: Travels in Naxalite Country. He writes a
fortnightly column on conflicts that directly affect business.
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Posted: Wed, Jan 13 2010. 10:20 PM IST
Columns
Implosion in Nepal will subsume ‘red corridor’
Nepal had for long been at a dead-end politically and economically and
this in great part assist the Maoists in the country
Root Cause | Sudeep Chakravarti
A precept of the Pashupati to Tirupati theory of sub-continental
Maoism was the seamless meshing of Nepal’s rebellion with that of
India’s. While there certainly were fraternal links—providing
sanctuary; attending key meetings; occasional training of cadre; and
such—Nepal’s war was its own.
With renewed militancy of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal
(Maoist), or UPCN (Maoist), which has brought government near to
standstill, and disrupted economic activity in this already
impoverished country, there is again speculation of Maoist meshing.
Those who indulge in it fail to acknowledge Nepal’s dynamics; and the
fact that developments in Nepal can have far-reaching implications for
India beyond the obvious laboratory lessons of Left wing extremism and
its immediate aftermath.
Nepal had for long been at a dead-end politically and economically,
which in great part assisted Maoists there to achieve their initial
goal in 12 years—from the first attack on a police camp in 1996 to
helping to overthrow a seedy monarchy and to run a democratically
elected government for several months, until May. As premier, the
sharply dressed Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who encourages the
nom de guerre of Prachanda (fierce) even led a business delegation to
India.
Also Read Sudeep Chakravarti’s earlier columns
India’s Maoists are lower in the revolutionary arc, as it were. They
are the first to acknowledge that their task of national domination is
made difficult on account of India’s socio-economic growth, increasing
opportunities for that growth and expanding power of government, armed
forces and police.
The danger in Nepal today is one of socio-economic implosion as much
as its corollary: a resumption of hostilities between hardline
Maoists, and a coalition government undermined by charges of nepotism
and corruption. The government, controlled by moderate Marxists and
the Nepali Congress, is at loggerheads with Dahal’s party over several
issues.
Arguably the most contentious of these is the integration of Maoist
combatants—now located in seven major peace camps across Nepal—into
the mainstream. Proposals call for integrating them with former
enemies: Nepal army and police. The Maoists’ public spat with the then
army chief over this enabled in great part for Dahal’s former allies
in the constituent assembly, the Marxists, to pull the plug on his
government last year.
Among other things, subsequent turmoil has slowed progress towards
Nepal’s Holy Grail, the promulgation of a new constitution by this
May. The constitution is crucial for the process of peace and
reconciliation, further guarantee that decade-long hostilities, which
took an estimated 14,000 lives and ended in 2006, do not resume.
Maoists make no secret of an ambition to resume power—a legitimate
objective of a party. Dahal and his deputy, Baburam Bhattarai, have
told me, as they have several media persons, of their goal. Maoists
are clear that they will employ any approach short of outright war,
thus far, to achieve it. Dahal is fond of using the word bisfot, or
explosion.
And though their supporters and critics alike are agreed that there
can be no lasting peace in Nepal without Maoist participation, the
Maoist cause has been diminished, for instance, by their employing the
often-thuggish Young Communist League (YCL). A growing paramilitary,
YCL is used to enforce trade unionism—most hospitality industry unions
in Kathmandu are Maoist-controlled—intimidate opponents, and provide
numbers at Maoist rallies.
To increase all-round pressure, Maoists are reaching out to groups
that shored up the rebellion—and voted for them in the 2008 elections.
UCPN (Maoist) declared its “fourth phase of struggle” last week. Mass
gatherings are to be held between 19 January and 24 January, addressed
by the crème of Maoist leadership in regions that represent ethnic
minorities such as Limbu, Kirant, Sherpa, Tharu, Bhote-Lama, and
Madhesi—long-disenfranchised people of Indian origin concentrated in
Nepal’s southern Terai belt—and caste minorities, which together make
up about 70% of Nepal’s population.
There is talk of autonomous regions based on this mix. Should it come
to pass, it would dilute the influence of the hill Bahun, or Brahmin,
community and upper caste Hindu leadership long-dominant in politics,
the bureaucracy and army.
The exercise for India and other countries will now be to gauge the
tipping point for robust democracy—or an irredeemable one. The latter
outcome will contribute to conditions of an implosion of Nepal. Large-
scale migration of destitute into India; a 1,700km-long unstable
border with worrying security implications; and weakened economic
interaction with Nepal—India accounts for 70% of its trade—will
subsume any concern of a Red Corridor.
Sudeep Chakravarti writes on issues related to conflict in South Asia.
He is the author of Red Sun: Travels in Naxalite Country. He writes a
column alternate Thursdays on conflicts that directly affect business.
Respond to this column at root...@livemint.com
http://www.livemint.com/articles/2010/01/13222008/Implosion-in-Nepal-will-subsum.html
Why I Am Not a Hindu
Ramendra Nath
Originally published by Bihar Rationalist Society (Bihar Buddhiwadi
Samaj) 1993.
Electronically reprinted with permission.
I have read and admired Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian.
On the other hand, I have also read and disagreed with M.K.Gandhi's
Why I Am a Hindu. My acquaintance with these writings has inspired me
to write this essay explaining why I am not a Hindu, though I was born
in a Hindu family.
The Meaning of "Hindu"
The word "Hindu" is a much-abused word in the sense that it has been
used to mean different things at different times. For example, some
people even now, at least some times, use the word "Hindu" as a
synonym for "Indian". In this sense of the term, I am certainly a
"Hindu" because I do not deny being an Indian. However, I do not think
that this a proper use of the term "Hindu". There are many Indians
such as Muslims, Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians as well as
rationalists, humanists and atheists who do not call themselves
"Hindu" and also do not like to be described as such. It is certainly
not fair to convert them into Hinduism by giving an elastic definition
of the term "Hindu". Besides, it is also not advisable to use the word
"Hindu" in this sense from the point of view of clarity. The word
"Hindu" may have been used in the beginning as a synonym for
"Indian" [1], but, at present, the word is used for people with
certain definite religious beliefs. The word "Hindu" belongs to the
category of words like "Muslim", "Christian", "Buddhist" and "Jain"
and not to the category of words like "American", "British",
"Australian", "Chinese" or "Japanese". There are, in fact, many
Indians who are not Hindus, and on the other hand, there are many
Hindus who are not Indians , for example, those who are citizens of
Nepal, Sri Lanka and some other countries.
In the religious sense, the word, "Hindu" is often used broadly to
include Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs in addition to those who are
described as "Hindu" in this most restricted sense of the term, that
is, the adherents of Vedic or Brahmin religion. For example, the
expression "Hindu" is used in the Hindu law not only for those who are
Hindu by religion but also for persons who are Buddhists, Jains and
Sikhs by religion. This, again, is too broad a definition of "Hindu".
If we consistently use the word "Hindu" in this sense, we will have to
say that Japan is a Hindu country!
The above definition of "Hindu" is clearly inadequate from a
philosophical point of view. Buddhism and Jainism, for instance,
explicitly reject the doctrine of the infallibility of the Vedas and
the system of varna-vyavastha, which are fundamental to Hinduism, that
is, if the term "Hinduism" is used in its most restricted sense.
Therefore, clubbing together Buddhists and Jains or even Sikhs with
those who believe in the infallibility of the Vedas and subscribe to
the varna-vyavastha is nothing but an invitation to confusion.
Though I agree with Buddhism in its rejection of god, soul,
infallibility of the Vedas and the varna-vyavastha, still I am not a
Hindu even in this broad sense of the term "Hindu", because as a
rationalist and humanist I reject all religions including Buddhism,
Jainism and Sikhism. However, in this essay I am concerned with
explaining why I am not a Hindu in the most appropriate sense of the
term "Hindu", that is, the sense in which a person is a Hindu if his
religion is Hinduism in the restricted sense of the term " Hinduism".
In this restricted sense of "Hinduism", Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism
are excluded from its scope. I also maintain that this is, at present,
probably the most popular sense of the term, and every body should, in
the interest of clarity, confine its use, as far as possible, to this
sense only, at least in philosophical discourse.
Radhakrishnan, for example, has used the term "Hindu" and "Hinduism"
in this restricted sense when he says in his The Hindu View of Life
that, "The chief sacred scriptures of Hindus, the Vedas register the
intuitions of the perfected souls." [2] Or, when he says that
"Hinduism is the religion not only of the Vedas but of the Epics and
the Puranas." [3]
Basic Beliefs of Hinduism
Gandhi, too, has used the term "Hindu" in this restricted sense, when
writing in Young India in October, 1921, he says:
I call myself a sanatani Hindu, because,
I believe in the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas and all that goes
by the name of Hindu scriptures, and therefore in avatars and
rebirth.
I believe in the Varnashram dharma in a sense in my opinion strictly
Vedic, but not in its present popular and crude sense.
I believe in the protection of the cow in its much larger sense than
the popular.
I do not disbelieve in idol-worship. [4]
One may be tempted to ask, at this point, whether all the beliefs
listed by Gandhi are really fundamental to Hinduism. In my opinion,
(I) the belief in the authenticity of the Vedas and (II) the belief in
the varnashram dharma are more basic to Hinduism than the belief in
cow-protection and idol-worship. [5] Though it cannot be denied that,
in spite of attempts by reformers like Kabir, Rammohan Roy and
Dayanand Saraswati, idol-worship is still practiced widely by the
Hindu masses, and there is, at present, a taboo on eating beef among a
large number of Hindus. In any case, I am in a position to establish
the fact of my not being a Hindu by asserting the contradictory of
each of the above statements made by Gandhi:
In other words, I assert that I am not a Hindu, because,
I do not believe in the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas and all
that goes by the name of Hindu scriptures, and therefore in avatars
and rebirth.
I do not believe in the varnashram dharma or varna-vyavastha either in
the sense in which it is explained in Hindu dharma shastras like
Manusmriti or in the so-called Vedic sense.
I do not believe in the Hindu taboo of not eating beef.
I disbelieve in idol-worship.
However, while explaining why I am not a Hindu, I will concentrate
mainly on (I) the belief in the authenticity of the Vedas, and (II)
the varnashram dharma , which I consider more fundamental to Hinduism.
Besides, in the concluding section of the essay, I will briefly
discuss moksha, which is regarded as the highest end of life in
Hinduism, and some other Hindu doctrines like karmavada and
avatarvada.
The infallibility of the Vedas
First of all, let me explain what do I mean by saying that "I do not
believe in the Vedas", and why I do not do so.
The schools of ancient Indian thought are generally classified by
orthodox Hindu thinkers into two broad categories, namely, orthodox
( astika) and heterodox ( nastika). The six main Hindu systems of
thought -- Mimamsa, Vedanta, Sankhya, Yoga, Nyaya and Vaisheshika --
are regarded as orthodox ( astika), not because they believe in the
existence of god, but because they accept the authority of the Vedas.
[6]
Out of the six orthodox systems of Hindu thought, Nyaya system is
primarily concerned with the conditions of correct thinking and the
means of acquiring true knowledge. According to Nyaya system, there
are four distinct and separate sources of knowledge, namely, (i)
perception (ii) inference (iii) comparison, and (iv) testimony or
shabda.
Shabda, which is defined in the Nyaya system as "valid verbal
testimony" is further classified into (i) the scriptural ( vaidika),
and (ii) the secular ( laukika). Vaidika or scriptural testimony is
believed to be the word of god, and therefore, it is regarded as
perfect and infallible .[7]
Mimamsa or Purva Mimamsa, another orthodox Hindu system is "the
outcome of the ritualistic side of the vedic culture". However, in its
attempt to justify the authority of the Vedas, Mimamsa elaborately
discusses different sources of valid knowledge. Naturally enough,
among the various "sources of valid knowledge", Mimamsa pays greatest
attention to testimony or authority, which, too, is regarded by it as
a valid source of knowledge. There are, according to Mimamsa, two
kinds of authority -- personal ( paurusheya) and impersonal
( apaurusheya). The authority of the Vedas is regarded by Mimamsa as
impersonal. [8]
As mentioned earlier, according to Nyaya, the authority of the Vedas
is derived from their being the words of god. But Mimamsa, which does
not believe in the existence of god, declares that the Vedas like the
world, are eternal. They are not the work of any person, human or
divine. The infallibility of the authority of the Vedas, according to
Mimamsa, rests on the "fact" that they are not vitiated by any defect
to which the work of imperfect persons is liable. [9]
Thus, orthodox Hindu schools like Nyaya and Mimamsa regard the
testimony of the Vedas as infallible, though they give different
reasons for doing so. Well-known orthodox Hindu theologians like
Shankar and Ramanuja believed in the authority of the Vedas.
Manusmriti, too, upholds the infallibility of the Vedas. As pointed
out by S.N.Dasgupta, "The validity and authority of the Vedas were
acknowledged by all Hindu writers and they had wordy battles over it
with the Buddhists who denied it." [10]
The point worth noting is that though popularly Hinduism is a theistic
religion, it is not essential to believe in the existence of god for
being an orthodox Hindu -- belief in the authority of the Vedas is
more important.
When I say, "I do not believe in the Vedas", what I mean is that I do
not regard the testimony of the Vedas as a valid source of knowledge.
In other words when I say, "I do not believe in the Vedas", I do not
mean that each and every proposition contained in the Vedas is false.
It is quite possible that one may find a few true statements in the
Vedas after great amount of patient research. But I assert that the
truth or the falsity of a proposition is logically independent of its
being contained or not contained in the Vedas. A proposition is true
if there is a correspondence between the belief expressed by it and
the facts. Otherwise, it is false. So, a proposition contained in the
Vedas might be true, that is, if there is a correspondence between the
belief expressed by it and the facts, but it is, I insist, not true
because it is contained in the Vedas. I categorically reject as
invalid every argument of the form: "The proposition P is contained in
the Vedas. Therefore, the proposition P is true".
Besides, I also assert that some propositions contained in the Vedas
are certainly false. For example, according to Purusha-Sukta of Rig
Veda , Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras originated
respectively from the mouth, hands, thighs and feet of the purusha or
the creator. I categorically reject this statement as false. I
maintain that varna-vyavastha is a man-made social institution and it
has nothing to do with the alleged creator of this world.
I also reject both the reasons put forward in support of the
infallibility of the Vedas. I neither regard them to be "the words of
god" nor I consider them to be eternal and impersonal. I believe that
Vedas were conceived, spoken and written by human beings. The question
of their being "words of god" simply does not arise, because there are
no good reasons for believing in the existence of god. The existence
of an omnipotent, omniscient and benevolent god is totally
inconsistent with the presence of suffering and evil in this world. It
is impossible for god to exist. [11]
Similarly, Vedas could not have come into existence before human
beings appeared on this earth, and before Sanskrit language came into
existence. And there are no good reasons for believing that Sanskrit
language came into existence even before human beings appeared on this
earth!
As far as Gandhi is concerned, though he liked to describe himself as
a sanatani Hindu, he was, in fact, not a completely orthodox Hindu.
For example, in the article quoted earlier in this essay Gandhi goes
on to add, "I do not believe in the exclusive divinity of the Vedas. I
believe the Bible, the Koran, and the Zend-Avesta to be as much
divinely inspired as the Vedas. My belief in the Hindu scriptures does
not require me to accept every word and every verse as divinely
inspired, I decline to be bound by any interpretation, however learned
in may be, if it is repugnant to reason or moral sense. "[12](emphasis
mine)
I seriously doubt that this position will be acceptable to an orthodox
Hindu. In fact, Gandhi's position comes very close to that of
rationalists and humanists when he says that "I decline to be bound by
any interpretation however learned it may be, if it is repugnant to
reason and moral sense". However, since he refused to say in so many
words that he did not believe in the authority of the Vedas, Gandhi
may be described, in my opinion, as a liberal Hindu with an eclectic
approach towards religion. On the other hand, my position is radically
different from that of Gandhi, because I do not consider either the
Vedas or the Bible, the Koran and Zend-Avesta or any other book to be
divinely inspired.
Varna-vyavastha
Before discussing varna-vyavastha or varnashram dharma, let me clarify
in the very beginning that I am not interested in giving my own
interpretation of what varna-vyavastha is or ought to be in its ideal
form. I am interested, firstly, in giving an objective exposition of
varna-vyavastha as contained in recognized Hindu scriptures like Vedas
and dharmashastras like Manusmriti; and secondly, in mentioning my
reasons for rejecting varna-vyavastha. In doing so I will concentrate
on the chaturvarnya (four-fold division of society) aspect of varna-
vyavastha.
We have already noted that the first reference to varna (class based
on birth or caste) is to be found in the Purusha-Sukta of the Rig
Veda . The reference to the four ashrams or stages of life, namely,
Brahmcharya, Garhastya, Vanprashta and Sanyas is to be found in the
Upanishads. These are, in their turn, related to the four purusarthas
or ends of life, namely, dharma (duty), artha (wealth), kama
(satisfaction of sensual desires) and moksha (liberation). Out of
these, the Upanishads attach maximum value to sanyas ashram and moksha
purusartha, which is regarded as the highest end of life. [13]
The system of varnashram dharma is upheld by popular Hindu scriptures
like Ramayana, Mahabharata and Bhagvat-Gita. In Ramayana, for example,
Ram kills Shambuka simply because he was performing tapasya (ascetic
exercises) which he was not supposed to do as he was a Shudra by
birth. [14]
Similarly, in Mahabharata, Dronacharya refuses to teach archery to
Eklavya, because he was not a Kshatriya by birth. When Eklavya,
treating Drona as his notional guru, learns archery on his own, Drona
makes him cut his right thumb as gurudakshina (gift for the teacher)
so that he may not become a better archer than his favorite Kshatriya
student Arjuna!
The much-glorified Bhagvat-Gita, too, favors varna-vyavastha.[15] When
Arjuna refuses to fight, one of his main worries was that the war
would lead to the birth of varna-sankaras or offspring from
intermixing of different varnas and the consequent "downfall" of the
family. [16] On the other hand, Krishna tries to motivate Arjuna to
fight by saying that it was his varna-dharma (caste-duty) to do so
because he was a Kshatriya. In fact, Krishna goes to the extent of
claiming that the four varnas were created by him only. [17] Thus,
Arjuna's main problem was being born a Kshatriya. Had he been a
Brahmin or a Vaishya or a Shudra by birth, he would have been spared
the trouble of fighting a destructive war. Even the much-applauded
doctrine of niskama karma is nothing but an exhortation to faithfully
perform one's varnashram dharma in a disinterested manner. [18]
The celebrated orthodox Hindu theologian Shankar, too, was a supporter
of varna-vyavastha. According to him, Shudras are not entitled to
philosophical knowledge. [19] However, the most elaborate exposition
of varnashram dharma is to be found in Manusmriti, an important
dharmashastra of Hindus. Let us turn to it in order to have a close
look at the varna-vyavastha.
Manusmriti
In the very first chapter of Manusmriti, it is clearly stated that
Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras were created by Brahma
(creator of this world) from his mouth, hands, thighs and feet
respectively. [20]
Manu claims that the same Brahma, who created this world, also created
Manusmriti and taught it to him. [21]
The duties of the different varnas are also mentioned in the
Manusmriti. The Brahmins were created for teaching, studying,
performing yajnas (ceremonial sacrifices), getting yajnas performed,
giving and accepting dan (gifts).[22] The Kshatriyas were created for
protecting the citizens, giving gifts, getting yajnas performed and
studying. [23] The Vaishyas were created for protecting animals,
giving gifts, getting yajnas performed, studying, trading, lending
money on interest and doing agricultural work. [24] The Shudras were
created by Brahma for serving Brahmins and the other two varnas
without being critical of them. [25]
It is interesting to note that studying, getting yajnas performed and
giving gifts or charity are common duties of Brahmins, Kshatriyas and
Vaishyas; whereas teaching, accepting gifts and performing yajnas are
reserved exclusively for Brahmins. The Shudras, of course, are denied
the rights to study, getting yajnas performed by Brahmins or even
giving gifts to them.
Manusmriti further states that having originated from the mouth of
Brahma, being elder and being the repository of the Vedas; Brahmins
are the masters of the entire universe. [26] Besides, Brahmins alone
act as a sort of post office for transmitting food to the gods and the
dead, that is to say, the gods and the dead eat food through the
mouths of Brahmins (apparently because they do not have mouths of
their own). Therefore, no one can be superior to Brahmins.[27] All
others are said to enjoy everything owing to the Brahmins' mercy.[28]
The Manusmriti clearly states that Brahmins alone are entitled to
teach this dharmashastra and none else. [29]
Manusmriti refers to the Vedas, which are to be regarded as the main
valid source of knowledge about dharma, as shruti and to
dharmashastras as smriti. No one is to argue critically about them
because religion has originated from them. [30] Any nastika (non-
believer) or critic of the Vedas, who "insults" them on the basis of
logic, is worthy of being socially boycotted by "noble" persons. [31]
In short, the main features of chaturvarnya as elaborated in the
Manusmriti are as follows:
1. Division of Hindu society into four varnas on the basis of birth.
Out of these only the first three, namely , Brahmins , Kshatriya and
Vaishya, who are collectively known as dwija (twice-born) are entitled
to upanayan and the study of the Vedas. Shudras as well as women of
dwija varnas are denied the right to study.
2. Assigning different duties and occupations for different varnas.
This is to be enforced strictly by the king. [32] According to
Manusmriti, if a person of lower caste adopts the occupation of a
higher caste, the king ought to deprive him of all his property and
expel him from his kingdom. [33]
3. Treating Brahmins as superior and other varnas, namely, Kshatriya,
Vaishya and Shudra as inferior to him in descending order with the
Shudra occupying the bottom of the hierarchy. A Brahmin is to be
treated as god and respected even if he is ignorant. Even a hundred-
year old Kshatriya is to treat a ten year old Brahmin as his father.
[34] Brahmin alone is entitled to teach. If a Shudra dares to give
moral lessons to a Brahmin, the king is to get him punished by pouring
hot oil in his ear and mouth. [35] Similarly, if a Shudra occupies the
same seat as a Brahmin, he is to be punished by branding his waist
(with hot rod) or getting his buttocks cut! [36]
4. Treating women as unequal. Women, that is, even women belonging to
Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya varna are not entitled to upanayan and
the study of the Vedas. For them, marriage is equivalent to upanayan
and service of their husbands is equivalent to the study of the Vedas
in the gurukul.[37] Even if the husband is morally degraded, engaged
in an affair with another woman and is devoid of knowledge and other
qualities, the wife must treat him like a god. [38] A widower is
allowed to remarry but a widow is not. [39] Besides, women are not
considered fit for being free and independent. They are to be
protected in their childhood by father, in youth by husband and in old
age by son. [40] They should never be allowed by their guardians to
act independently. [41] A woman must never do anything even inside her
home without the consent of her father, husband and son respectively.
[42] She must remain in control of her father in childhood, of husband
in youth and of son after the death of her husband. [43]
5. Treating different varnas as unequal for legal purposes. The Hindu
law as codified by Manu is based on the principle of inequality. The
punishment for a particular crime is not same for all varnas. In fact,
the punishment varies depending on the varna of the victim as well as
the varna of the person committing the crime. For the same crime, the
Brahmin is to be given a mild punishment, whereas the Shudra is to
given the harshest punishment of all. Similarly, if the victim of a
crime is a Shudra, the punishment is mild, and the punishment is harsh
in case the victim is a Brahmin. For example, if a Brahmin is awarded
death sentence, it is sufficient to shave his head, but Kshatriya,
Vaishya and Shudra are to actually die. [44] If a Kshatriya, a
Vaishya, or a Shudra repeatedly gives false evidence in the court, he
is to be punished and expelled from the kingdom, whereas the Brahmin
is not to be punished, he is to be only expelled. [45] If a person has
sexual intercourse with a consenting women of his own varna, he is not
to be punished. [46] But if a person of lower varna has sexual
intercourse with a woman of higher varna, with or without her consent,
he is to be killed. [47] If a Brahmin forces a dwija to work for him,
he is to be punished. [48] But if a Brahmin forces a Shudra to work
for him, whether by making or not making payments to him, he is not to
be punished, because Shudras have been created only for serving
Brahmins.[49] If a Brahmin abuses a Shudra, he is to be fined mildly,
[50] but if a Shudra abuses a Brahmin, he is to be killed. [51] On the
other hand, even if a Brahmin kills a Shudra, he is merely to perform
penance by killing a cat, frog, owl or crow, etc. [52] Thus a Shudra
is to be killed for abusing a Brahmin, whereas a Brahmin is to be let
off lightly even if he kills a Shudra. Such is the unequal justice of
Manusmriti.
In fact, this system of graded inequality seems to be the very essence
of the varna-vyavastha. Whether it is the choice of names, [53] or the
manner of greeting, [54] or the mode of entertaining guests, [55] or
the method of administering oath in the court, [56] or the process of
taking out the funeral procession, [57] at each and every step in
life, from birth to death, this system of graded inequality is to be
applied and observed. Manu does not even spare the rates of interest
on loan. For borrowing the same amount, Kshatriya has to pay more as
interest than Brahmin, Vaishya more than Kshatriya and the poor Shudra
has to pay the maximum amount as interest! [58]
6. Prohibiting inter-marriage between different varnas. According to
Manusmriti, a dwija ought to marry a woman of his own varna.[59] A
woman of the same varna is considered best for the first marriage.
However, a dwija may take a woman of inferior varna as his second wife
if he is overcome by sexual passion. [60] But Manu strongly
disapproves of Brahmins and Kshatriyas taking a Shudra woman even as
their second wife. They become Shudra if they do so. [61]
7. Supporting untouchability is also a part of the scheme of social
stratification outlined in the Manusmriti. Manu clearly mentions that
Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya, collectively known as dwija and the
Shudras are the four varnas. There is no fifth varna.[62] He explains
the origin of other castes by saying that they are varna-sankara
castes, that is to say, castes originating due to the intermixture of
different varnas, both in anuloma (upper varna male and lower varna
female) and pratiloma (lower varna male and upper varna female)
manner. [63] For example, Nishad caste is said to have originated from
anuloma relationship between Brahmin male and Shudra female,[64]
whereas C handala caste is said to be owing its origin to pratiloma
relationship between Shudra male and Brahmin female. [65]
Manu seems to be disapproving of pratiloma relationship more than the
anuloma, because he describes C handalas as the lowest of the low
castes. [66]
Let us see what Manusmriti, has to say about the C handala. The
Chandala, says Manusmriti, must not ever reside inside the village.
While doing their work, they must reside outside the village, at
cremation ground, on mountains or in groves. They are not entitled to
keep cows or horses, etc., as pet animals. They may keep dogs and
donkeys. They are to wear shrouds. They are to eat in broken utensils.
They are to use ornaments of iron, not of gold. They must keep moving
from one place to another, not residing at the same place for a long
duration. [67] They must not move around in villages and cities in
night hours. They may enter the villages and cities in daytime, with
king's permission, wearing special symbols (to enable identification),
and take away unclaimed dead bodies. [68]
Moreover, how is the "religious" person to deal with the Chandala? He
must not have any social intercourse (marriage, interdining, etc.)
with them. He must not talk to or even see them! [69] He may ask
servants (apparently Shudras) to give them food in broken utensils.
[70]
8. Granting divine and religious sanction to varna-vyavastha. Manu
gives divine and religious sanction to the varna-vyavastha by claiming
divine origin for the varnas as well as for the Manusmriti and
demanding unquestioning obedience of it.
So, that completes my exposition of the varna-vyavastha. I want to
emphasize in particular that my exposition does not contain any
exaggeration at all. The reader may check each and every statement by
comparing with the original Manusmriti in order to satisfy himself or
herself. I cannot help if the system is so unjust and so out of tune
with out existing values that even an objective exposition reads like
a severe condemnation. Nevertheless, I will now turn to my reasons for
rejecting varna-vyavastha: I reject varna-vyavastha because it is
irrational, unjust and undemocratic, being opposed to the democratic
and human values of liberty, equality and fraternity.
Criticism of varna-vyavastha
The varna-vyavastha is opposed to the value of liberty as it denies
the freedom to choose one's occupation and marriage partner to one and
all. Everyone must join the occupation of his varna and must marry
within his varna. Similarly, it denies the freedom to study to the
Shudras and woman in particular. Even the dwija must study the Vedas
before he studies anything else. Otherwise, he becomes a Shudra.[71]
(Incidentally, according to Manusmriti, there are several ways by
which a Brahmin or dwija may become a Shudra but there is no way by
which a Shudra may become a Brahmin. A Shudra must always remain a
Shudra.)[72]
What is worse, the Chandala is even denied the freedom to reside at a
place of his choice or to wear clothes and ornaments of his choice. He
is not even free to keep pet animals of his choice.
The conflict between varna-vyavastha and the value of equality is more
than obvious. As I mentioned earlier, the system of graded inequality
seems to be the very essence of varna-vyavastha. It denies equal
respect to all in society. It denies equality before law. It denies
equal access to marriage partners. It denies equal access to jobs. The
occupation of teachers and priests, for example, is reserved
exclusively for Brahmins. Finally, it also denies equal access to
education and knowledge.
A Brahmin, according to Manu, must not teach the Shudra and woman even
if he dies with his knowledge without imparting it to anybody. [73] On
the other hand, if anyone studies the Vedas on his own he or she will
go straight to hell. [74] In other words, cent percent reservations
for dwija males in the sphere of education.
The varna-vyavastha is most unfair to the Shudras and the
untouchables. They are denied respect, knowledge, power and wealth.
They are denied access to occupations considered respectable, just as
they are denied access to men and women of upper varnas for marriage.
The Shudras are virtually reduced to being slaves of the Brahmins in
particular and the dwijas in general, whereas the untouchables are
regarded as outcast -- beyond the pale of the society. The women are
generally treated as sexual objects and as unfit for being independent
and free.
As far as fraternity is considered, we must not expect it to exist in
a society, which is so unequal and unjust. A Shudra's waist is to be
branded or his buttocks are to be cut only because he occupies the
same seat as the Brahmin. The "religious" are not to talk or even look
at a Chandala. Inter-marriage is prohibited. Manu seems to be most
eager to prevent inter-mixing of the varnas. Thus, the Hindu social
order is based on the isolation and exclusiveness of the varnas.
The Manusmriti not only outlines a totally undemocratic and unjust
social system but also gives divine, religious sanction to this man-
made social institution of chaturvarnya. Some Hindus, including
apparently learned "thinkers" and writers, smugly wax eloquent about
Hinduism being the most tolerant and liberal religion of the world.
Is there any other religion, which sanctions slavery and
untouchability? Is there any other religion in which only persons born
in a particular caste ( Brahmin) are entitled to become priests?
Slavery is not peculiar to India or to Hinduism, but carrying it to
the extremes of untouchability, and granting it divine and religious
sanction is peculiar to Hinduism.
Similarly, some Hindus may be tolerant, just as some of them are
intolerant, but Hinduism or Hindu religion is not tolerant at all,
either socially or intellectually. Manusmriti, for example, clearly
says that anybody who argues critically and logically about
dharmashastras ought to be ostracized. [75] Non-believers, including
freethinkers, rationalists and Buddhists, are not to be entertained
respectfully as guests; though, mercifully, they may be given food.
[76] The families of non-believers are destroyed sooner than later
according to Manu. [77] A state with a large number of Shudras and
nastikas soon meets its destruction. [78] Manusmriti is full of
abusive epithets for freethinkers and non-believers. The unorthodox
( nastikas) are sometimes equated with the Shudras, sometimes with the
Chandalas, sometimes with thieves and sometimes with lunatics! [79]
Such is the generosity of Hindu dharma.
Apologies for varna-vyavastha
Let me now consider what the apologists of varna-vyavastha have to say
in its defense.
A standard defense of varna-vyavastha is to say that it is a system of
division of labor. It is easy to grant that division of labor is
essential for any complex society, but it is equally easy to see that
varna-vyavastha is not a system of division of labor based on aptitude
and capability. It is a system of division of labor based on birth .
Besides, it has other associated features such as feeling of
superiority and inferiority, inequality before law, denial of equal
access to knowledge and prohibition against inter-marriage.
What have these features to do with the division of labor?
Division of labor is found in all societies, but varna-vyavastha is
not. Thus, trying to justify varna-vyavastha as division of labor is a
futile exercise.
Another standard defense of the varna-vyavastha is to say that the
system was originally based on aptitude and capability. Whether it was
actually ever so is a subject for historical research. Most probably,
the racial theory of the origin of castes is true. However, even if we
grant for the sake of argument that the varna-vyavastha was originally
based on aptitude and capability, how does it help? We cannot say that
because the system was originally, some time in remote past, based on
aptitude and capability; therefore we ought to gladly suffer the
present system based on birth. It hardly makes any sense at all!
In any case, Manusmriti was most probably written between200 BC and
200 AD [80] and the system as outlined in it is totally based on
birth. Gautam Buddha, who lived in sixth century BC, challenged the
infallibility of the Vedas as well as the varna-vyavastha. There are
several passages in Tripitaka, mainly in Digha Nikaya and Majhima
Nikaya which are "directed against the claims of the Brahmans to be of
different origin from the rest of humanity, born from the mouth of
Brahma, having a hereditary prerogative to teach, guide and
spiritually govern the rest of the society." [81] In Majhima Nikaya
Buddha is quoted as refuting varna-vyavastha on several occasions.
According to Buddha, it is unreasonable to decide one's place and
functions in society on the basis of one's birth in a caste. Buddha is
also quoted as insisting that in the eyes of the law all persons ought
to be treated as equal, irrespective of the caste or varna in which he
or she is born. [82] Thus, it is obvious that even if the system of
varna-vyavastha ever existed in its ideal form -- which is doubtful --
it had already degenerated by the time of Buddha, that is, about 2500
years back.
The most blatant defense of varna-vyavastha, however, is to say that
human beings are born unequal, and, therefore, it is natural and
normal for children to join the occupation of their fathers.
Surprisingly and sadly, no less a person than Gandhi defended varna-
vyavastha in a similar manner.
To quote Gandhi: "I believe that every man is born in the world with
certain natural tendencies. Every person is born with certain definite
limitations which he cannot overcome. From a careful observation of
those limitations the law of varna was deduced. It establishes certain
spheres of action for certain people with certain tendencies. This
avoided all unworthy competition. Whilst recognizing limitations, the
law of varna admitted of no distinction of high and low; on the one
hand it guaranteed to each the fruits of his labors and on the other
it prevented him from pressing upon his neighbor. This great law has
been degraded and fallen into disrepute. But my conviction is that an
ideal social order will only be evolved when the implications of this
law are fully understood and given effect to". [83]
Again, "I regard Varnashrama as a healthy division of work based on
birth. The present ideas of caste are a perversion of the original.
There is no question with me of superiority or inferiority. It is
purely a question of duty. I have indeed stated that varna is based on
birth. But I have also said that it is possible for a shudra, for
instance, to become a vaishya. But in order to perform the duty of
vaishya he does not need the label of a vaishya. He who performs the
duty of a brahman will easily become one in the next
incarnation." [84]
So, varna-vyavastha, according to Gandhi, is a "healthy division of
work based on birth", which takes into account the "natural
tendencies" of human beings and avoids "unworthy competition."
This apparently plausible defense of varna-vyavastha is, in fact, most
unscientific. It is a well-known and scientifically verified fact that
acquired characteristics are not inherited biologically, only genetic
qualities are transmitted from one generation to another. For
instance, carpentry is an acquired characteristic; just as knowledge
of philosophy is an acquired quality. Neither a carpenter's son or
daughter is born with the knowledge of carpentry, nor is a
philosopher's daughter or son born with the knowledge of philosophy.
These are acquired characteristics and, therefore, they cannot be
inherited biologically. If sometimes, though not always, a carpenter's
son becomes a good carpenter or a philosopher's daughter acquires a
good knowledge of philosophy, without being formally initiated into
these disciplines, it is not because they are born with the required
knowledge, but only because of the favorable environment at home,
which enables them to acquire these characteristics. The result could
be different if their places were to be interchanged.
One may say that though the knowledge of carpentry of philosophy in
not inherited biologically, the mental qualities enabling one to
acquire the requisite knowledge is inherited. Some physical and mental
qualities are, no doubt, inherited but this does not mean that parents
and their children are always identical in physical or mental
qualities. It is a well known fact -- anybody can verify this by
careful observation -- that due to different permutations and
combinations of chromosomes and genes offspring of same parents are
not always identical to one another or to their parents. More often
than not, they are different. For instance, one son or daughter of
same parents may be tall and another short. The colors of skin, hair
and eyes may differ likewise. What is true of physical characteristics
is equally true of mental qualities. Thus, a child may or may not have
the mental characteristics, which his father has.
Therefore, it is totally unscientific to forcefully restrict children
to the occupations of their forefathers.
It is true that all human beings are not equal in the sense of being
identical in physical or mental qualities. But it does not follow from
this that they ought to be denied equal opportunity to join a vocation
of their choice or that they ought to be denied equality before law or
equal respect as human beings in the society.
As for "unworthy" competition, how do we know that the competition is
unworthy unless all are, to begin with, given equal opportunity? Take
the example of Gandhi himself. He was a bania by caste. Yet, in spite
of some serious aberrations such as supporting varna-vyavastha based
on birth and linking politics with religion, he performed fairly well
in the role of a national leader. It would have been a great loss for
the nation if in the name of avoiding "unworthy" competition in
politics, Gandhi would have been confined to running a grocery shop.
Similarly, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was born in an "untouchable" caste, but
he played an important role in the drafting of the democratic
constitution of independent India. He also taught in a college for
some time. To use the terminology of varna-vyavastha, he ably
performed the work of a Brahmin.
Is it possible to imagine how many Ambedkars we may have lost by now
owing to the restrictive varna-vyavastha?
As we have noted earlier, varna-vyavastha is a closed system of social
stratification without any scope for upward social mobility. To quote
M. Haralambos, author of a textbook on sociology, "A person belongs to
his parents jati and automatically follows the occupation of the jati
into which he was born. Thus no matter what the biologically based
aptitude and capacities of an untouchable, there is no way he can
become a Brahmin. Unless it is assumed that superior genes are
permanently located in the Brahmin caste, and there is no evidence
that this is the case, then there is probably no relationship between
genetically based and socially created inequality in traditional Hindu
society." [85]
Returning to Gandhi, though Gandhi was opposed to untouchability and
caste, he did not carry his opposition to its logical conclusion.
Inconsistently enough, he continued to support the varna-vyavastha
based on birth. At one stage, he even supported restrictions on
interdining and intermarriage. As he wrote in Young India in 1921,
"Hinduism does most emphatically discourage interdining and
intermarriage between divisions... It is no part of a Hindu's duty to
dine with his son. And by restricting his choice of bride to a
particular group, he exercises rare self-restraint. Prohibition
against intermarriages and interdining is essential for the rapid
evolution of the soul. "[86] (emphasis mine)
Later Gandhi moved away from these orthodox ideas, and started
supporting intercaste marriages. Finally in 1946, he refused to
solemnize any marriage at Sevagram Ashram unless one of the parties
was an untouchable. [87] May be he would also have given up varna-
vyavastha if he had lived longer. That, however, is in the realm of
imagination, the fact is that Gandhi supported varna-vyavastha. It is
worth noting that he invented his own conception of varna-vyavastha,
which, according to him, had nothing to do with the feeling of
superiority and inferiority or with prohibition against intermarriage.
We find here in Gandhi a quaint mixture of conservatism and
reformism.
I would like to dispose of one last objection before concluding this
section. One may say that the Hindu law at present is quite different
from what Manu desired, and presently Hindus in general do not follow
Manu in totality. This is true. The Hindu law at present, for
instance, allows inter-caste marriage and prohibits bigamy and child
marriage. It permits divorce. It also allows widow remarriage and
grants equal rights to daughters in father's property. Nevertheless,
there seems to be a gap between the progressive Hindu law and the
conservative social practices of the Hindus. A majority of Hindu
marriages are still within the caste and very few Hindu women actually
claim or get a share in father's property.
The Indian constitution has rightly made special provisions, such as
reservations in services for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and
other socially and educationally backward classes, to enable them to
enter occupations and positions of power, which had been traditionally
denied to them. No doubt, some upper caste liberal Hindus, too,
support the policy of reservation. But, by and large, the Hindu upper
castes are far from fully reconciled to this progressive step as is
evident from violent and aggressive anti-reservation agitation
spearheaded by upper caste students from time to time. This kind of
reactionary agitation aimed at preserving the present dominance of
upper castes in education and the services enjoys considerable support
and sympathy in the upper caste dominated media as well as the
academia.
On the whole, the Hindu society is yet to fully exorcise the ghost of
Manu. Caste based on birth and untouchability still exist in the Hindu
society, in spite of the fact that untouchability has been abolished
by the Indian constitution. The distribution of education, power and
wealth continues to be uneven in the Hindu society, with the dwijas
being on the top and the Shudras and untouchables being at the bottom.
Teaching is no more an exclusive preserve of Brahmins, but the
occupation of Hindu priests is still fully reserved for Brahmins,
though this fact does not arouse the ire of our fervent anti-
reservationists.
Moksha, Karmavada and Avatarvada
Moksha is traditionally regarded as the highest end of life in Hindu
religion. The "endless cycle of birth and death" is considered a
bondage from which one must attain liberation, that is moksha or
mukti.
This whole concept of bondage and liberation is based on the unproved
assumption of life after death, and the existence of soul ( atma)
which continues to exist apart from the body even after death. In the
famous words of Gita, the soul changes bodies just as human beings
change clothes. [88]
Now, there are no good reasons for believing in the existence of soul
or life after death or rebirth. These beliefs are not at all supported
by incontrovertible scientific evidence. According to S.N. Dasgupta,
"there has seldom been before or after Buddha any serious attempt to
prove or disprove the doctrine of rebirth. The attempts to prove the
doctrine of rebirth in the Hindu philosophical works such as Nyaya,
etc. are slight and inadequate." [89]
However, even before Buddha, Lokayat had disproved the existence of
soul, life after death, rebirth, heaven and hell on an empirical
basis, as these things are never perceived. [90]
Thus, in absence of any evidence to the contrary, it is reasonable to
believe that each one of us has got one and only one life . Once a
person is dead, he is dead for ever. Never to be reborn. Mind,
consciousness, memory and life cannot outlast the destruction of brain
and body. This is the harsh truth; howsoever we may dislike it.
The belief in soul seems to have originated from primitive animism.
[91] If this belief continues to persist, in spite of total lack of
evidence in its support, it is only because of human beings' inability
to come to terms with, or to squarely face, the reality of death. One
likes to believe that one's near and dear ones, who are dead and
finished forever, actually continue to live in some other imaginary
world, and that they will also be reborn one day. One draws comfort
from the thought that one will not die even after death, and continue
to live in some other form. It is paradoxical that, first, the fear of
death and love of life makes one readily accept the belief in the
immortality and rebirth of soul without adequate evidence, and, then,
getting rid of this alleged cycle of birth and death itself becomes
the topmost religious aim! [92]
The problem of getting "released" from the alleged cycle of birth and
death is a pseudo-problem (in the sense that one is trying to get rid
of something which simply does not exist) and moksha is an imaginary
ideal which has nothing to do with the reality. Instead of running
after the imaginary ideal of moksha, it is far better to concentrate
on improving and living well this one and only life, which we have.
Mimamsa, which is an orthodox Hindu school of thought, considers
attainment of heaven ( swarga), instead of moksha, as the highest end
of life. References to heaven and hell are also to be found in the
Manusmriti. The belief in heaven is fairly widespread at popular
level. However, the ideal of the attainment of heaven, too, is based
on unproved assumptions, like life after death and the existence of
heaven, and, therefore, it cannot be accepted.
Another related doctrine is the Hindu belief in karmavada or the so-
called law of karma. According to this doctrine, every human being
gets the fruits of his actions either in the present or in some future
life. Whatever a human being is in his present life is the result of
his own actions in the past life or lives.
This, again, is a totally unverified and unverifiable doctrine based
on the assumption of the "cycle of birth and death". It is only a
convenient tool for explaining away the perceived inequality in human
society. The idea of karma is found in Buddhism and Jainism as well.
However, these religions do not support varna-vyavastha. But in
Hinduism the doctrine of karma, along with the idea of god, has been
used for providing ideological support to the unjust varna-vyavastha
and for making it appear just and fair. In Hinduism the so-called law
of karma merely serves the purpose of legitimizing the unjust varna-
vyavastha by making the Shudras and the "untouchables" meekly accept
their degrading position as a "result of their own deeds" in imaginary
past lives, and by assuring them "better" birth in "next life" if they
faithfully perform their varna-dharma in their present lives. [93] In
this way, this doctrine prevents them from revolting against this man-
made undemocratic system, which has nothing to do with alleged past
and future lives.
Lastly, I come to the Hindu doctrine of avatarvada. According to this
doctrine, whenever religion is threatened in this world, god takes
birth as an avatar to put things back into order. Ram and Krishna, for
example, are popularly regarded as avatars by the Hindus.
Belief in avatarvada, too, is logically unjustifiable and merely makes
one run away from one's own responsibilities. Instead of making
efforts to improve their own condition, those who believe in
avatarvada keep waiting for an avatar to take birth. Since god does
not exist, there is no question of his being born on this earth as an
avatar. (Let me add here that I also do not believe in the truth of
statements like "Jesus is the son of god" or "Mohammed is the
messenger of god".)
Not only I do not regard Ram or Krishna (or anyone else) as an avatar
of god, I also do not regard them as ideal personalities. Ram, as
mentioned earlier, was on upholder, of the varna-vyavastha. His cruel
behavior with Sita, after fighting a destructive war with Ravana to
get her released, is too well known to need recapitulation. [94]
Krishna, on the other hand, is portrayed in the Mahabharata as the
teacher of Bhagvat Gita , a book which expounds untrue and harmful
doctrines like the belief in god and immortal soul, avatarvada,
karmavada, varnashram dharma and the doctrine of moksha.
In Mahabharata Krishna adopts and advocates adoption of unfair means
like lying and deception for achieving one's ends. Obviously, he did
not believe in the doctrine of purity of ends and means. There are
several flaws in the character of Krishna as portrayed in the
Mahabharata, Bhagvat and Harivamsa. These have been ably enumerated by
Dr. Ambedkar in his The Riddle of Ram and Krishna . I refer the
interested reader to this work for a fuller treatment of this subject.
[95]
Conclusion
To conclude, I categorically reject major Hindu religious beliefs
including the doctrine of the infallibility of the Vedas, varnashram
dharma , moksha, karmavada, and avatarvada. I am not an admirer of Ram
and Krishna, and I also do not believe in idol worship or the Hindu
taboo of not eating beef. I support logical and scientific thinking;
and a secular, rational morality based on human values of liberty,
equality and fraternity. Therefore, I am not a Hindu by conviction,
though I am a Hindu by birth.
Endnotes
[1] S. Radhakrishnan, The Hindu View of Life (Bombay: Blackie & Son
(India) Ltd., 1979), p. 12.
[2] Ibid., p. 14.
[3] Ibid., pp. 16-17.
[4] M.K.Gandhi, "Aspects of Hinduism" in Hindu Dharma (New Delhi:
Orient Paperbacks, 1978), p. 9.
[5] Ninian Smart, "Hinduism" in The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (ed. in
chief, Paul Edwards) Vol. IV (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.
& The Free Press, 1972), p.1.
[6] S.N.Dasgupta , A History of Indian Philosophy , Vol. 1 (Delhi:
Motilal Banarsidass, 1975), pp. 67-68.
[7] Chatterjee and Datta, An Introduction to Indian Philosophy .
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] S.N.Dasgupta, Op. Cit., p. 394.
[11] I have discussed the question of the existence of god in my small
Hindi book Kya Ishwar Mar Chuka Hai? (Patna: Bihar Buddhiwadi Samaj,
1985, 1995). See, Is God Dead? (An introduction to Kya ishwar mar
chuka hai? ) [Patna: Buddhiwadi Foundation, 1998]
[12] M.K.Gandhi, "Aspects of Hinduism" in Hindu Dharma , pp. 9-10.
[13] A.L.B., "History of Hinduism" in The New Encyclopaedia
Britannica , Vol. 8 (Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 1981),
pp. 910-11.
[14] B.R. Ambedkar , Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings and Speeches,
Vol. 4, Riddles in Hinduism (Bombay: Education Department, Government
of Maharashtra, 1987), p. 332.
[15] Y.Masih, The Hindu Religious Thought (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass,
1983), pp. 192-93.
[16] Bhagvad-Gita I: 40,41, 42,43.
[17] B.G. IV: 13.15.
[18] Y.Masih, Op.Cit., p.208, Also see, pp. 224-25.
[19] V.P.Verma, Modern Indian Political Thought (Agra: Lakshmi Narain
Agarwal, 1991), pp. 50-51.
[20] Manusmriti (MS) I: 31.
[21] MS I:58.
[22] MS I:88.
[23] MS I:89.
[24] MS I: 90.
[25] MS I: 91.
[26] MS I: 93, Also see, X: 3.
[27] MS I: 95.
[28] MS I: 101.
[29] MS I: 103.
[30] MS II: 10,13.
[31] MS II: 11.
[32] MS VIII: 410.
[33] MS X: 96. Also see, Kautilya, Arthshastra I: 3, Quoted by J.N.
Farquhar in An Outline of the Religious Literature of India ( Delhi:
Motilal Banarsidass, 1984), p. 44.
[34] MS II: 135.
[35] MS VIII: 272.
[36] MS VIII: 281.
[37] MS II: 67.
[38] MS V: 154.
[39] MS V: 168,157.
[40] MS IX: 3.
[41] MS IX: 2.
[42] MS V: 147.
[43] MS V: 148.
[44] MS VIII: 379.
[45] MS VIII: 123.
[46] MS VIII: 364.
[47] MS VIII: 366.
[48] MS VIII: 412.
[49] MS VIII: 413.
[50] MS VIII: 268.
[51] MS VIII: 267.
[52] MS XI: 131.
[53] MS II: 31,32.
[54] MS II: 127.
[55] MS III: 111,112.
[56] MS VIII: 88.
[57] MS V: 92.
[58] MS VIII: 142.
[59] MS III: 4.
[60] MS III: 12.
[61] MS III: 14,15,16,17,18,19.
[62] MS X: 4.
[63] MS X: 25.
[64] MS X: 8.
[65] MS X: 12.
[66] Ibid.
[67] MS X: 50,51,52.
[68] MS X: 54,55.
[69] MS X: 53.
[70] MS X: 54.
[71] MS II: 168.
[72] MS VIII: 414.
[73] MS II: 113; X: 1.
[74] MS II: 116.
[75] MS II: 11.
[76] MS IV: 30.
[77] MS III: 65.
[78] MS VIII: 22.
[79] MS III:150, 161; IX: 225. From a humanist point of view, there is
nothing wrong in being born as a Shudra or a Chandala, but in the
context of the Manusmriti, these are abusive epithets.
[80] Manusmriti (Varanasi: Chaukhambha Sanskrit Sansthan, 1982), pp.
10-11.
[81]A.K.Warder, Indian Buddhism (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1980),p.
163.
[82] Y.Masih, The Hindu Religious Thought, pp. 336-37.
[83] Nirmal Kumar Bose, Selections from Gandhi ( Ahmedabad: Navajivan
Publishing House, 1972), p. 265.
[84] Ibid., p. 263.
[85] M.Haralambos, Sociology Themes and Perspectives (Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 1980) pp. 27-28.
[86] N.K.Bose, Op.Cit., p. 266.
[87] Louis Fischer, Gandhi (New York: New American Library, 1954), pp.
111-12, Also see, N.K.Bose, Op.Cit., p. 267.
[88] B.G. II: 20-25.
[89] S.N. Dasgutpa, A History of Indian Philosophy , Vol. I, p. 87.
[90] Chatterjee and Datta. An Introduction to Indian Philosophy .
[91] See M.N.Roy, "The Transmigration of Soul" in India's Message
( Delhi: Ajanta Publications, 1982), pp. 4-6.
[92] Probably "the cycle of life and death" is considered "bondage"
because it will presumably lead to death again and again. So,
primarily the doctrine of liberation seems to be a reaction against
death.
[93] "Those whose conduct has been pleasing will quickly attain a
pleasing birth, the birth of a Brahman or a Kshatriya, or a Vaisya;
but those whose conduct has been abominable, will quickly attain
abominable birth, the birth of a dog, or a hog, or an Outcaste."
Brihadaranyaka, quoted by J.N. Farquhar, An Outline of the Religious
Literature of India , p. 34, Also see, S.N.Dasgupta, Op. Cit., p.
363.
[94] See, my "Why I do not want Ramrajya" in Why I am Not a Hindu &
Why I do not want Ramrajya (Patna: Bihar Rationalist Society, 1995).
[95] B.R. Ambedkar, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings and Speeches ,
Vol. 4, Riddles in Hinduism.
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/ramendra_nath/hindu.html
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A Hindu Woman:
Answer to Why I Am Not a Hindu
Answer to Why I Am Not a Hindu
by A Hindu Woman
I
First, I wish to make clear that I have no quarrel with Mr. Ramendra
Nath for declaring that he is not a Hindu. He has listed four reasons
for declaring why he is not a Hindu:
"I do not believe in the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas and all
that goes by the name of Hindu scriptures, and therefore in avatars
and rebirth."
"I do not believe in the varnashram dharma or varna-vyavastha either
in the sense in which it is explained in Hindu dharma shastras like
Manusmriti or in the so-called Vedic sense."
"I do not believe in the Hindu taboo of not eating beef."
"I disbelieve in idol-worship."
As it happens, I am fully in agreement with the above statements. I do
not believe in the existence of any God or soul. Therefore the
question of scriptures as divine revelations, rebirth and avatars is
moot. I do not believe in the caste-system. I have eaten beef. Again,
since I do not believe in God the question of worshipping anything--
idols or otherwise--is moot. Nevertheless, I still call myself a
Hindu. However that is a completely separate matter.
Mr. Ramendra Nath has discussed in length why he rejects the Vedas as
infallible. Since I have no disagreement with him on these grounds, I
am skipping it.
He next attacks "varna-vyavastha or varnashram dharma." If it had been
a simple exposure of the evils of this system, again there would be no
problem. But what I essentially find troubling is that he does not
present a balanced appraisal. He rejects emphatically the story in the
Vedas that the Brahmins are created from God's mouth, the Kshatriyas
from his arms, Vaishyas from his thighs and Shudras from his feet--
plainly this story appeared later to account for a reality that was
already present. He dismisses evidence that originally it was nothing
more than a functional division which ultimately hardened into a rigid
system backed by the religious authority of the Brahmins and the
military might of Kshatriyas as something unimportant to the issue at
hand. After all, today the Hindu social system functions quite well in
the metropolises where the rules of purity and impurity regarding
caste are no longer important. Also when he discusses the evils from
which Hinduism has traditionally suffered, he ignores the good that is
in Hindu Dharma as well. In particular his criticisms against
Manusmriti or Manusamhita is one-sided. Above all he ignores the
entire picture to concentrate on certain negative aspects only. To put
it plainly, I think his account is biased.
II
Ramendra Nath charges that Ram kills Sambuka, a Shudra, because he was
performing tapasya or ascetic exercises which are the province of
Brahmins alone. Certainly the story is there. But what he does not
mention is that the story belongs to Uttarkanda (lit. "later
chapter"). Along with the story of Rama's adventure, every child is
also taught that this chapter was added much later and that Valmiki's
Ramayana ends with Rama's coronation. In Valmiki's Ramayana itself, we
have two very important stories: that of Guhak and Sabari. Guhak is a
Nishada king of Sringaverpur who is described as Rama's friend as dear
as life, with whom Rama stays while going to the forest
(Ayodhyakandya, chaps. 50-52). Shabari was a practitioner of
asceticism. Rama's first question on meeting her was, "Have you
conquered all that disrupts tapasya? Has your tapasya increased?";
from her hands Rama accepted food and her soul ascended to heaven
(Aranyakanda, 74). Nishadas are an 'uncivilized' forest-tribe who
include the Chandalas among them. Shabari is the feminine of shabar,
the hunter community. Manusmriti states that Nishadas are the
offspring of Brahmin male and Shudra female (an obvious afterthought)--
they are what we call today 'untouchable'. The shabars are designated
simply as 'mlechha,' completely outside Vedic/Hindu society, yet
Shabari performs perfect tapasya and goes to heaven blessed by the
avatar. The story has often been offered as proof that neither birth
nor gender is important in performing tapasya and going to heaven. The
apparent contradiction between Rama's behaviour towards them and
towards Sambuka need not puzzle anyone; the Sambuka story was clearly
added later to strengthen Brahmin hegemony. My question here is why
does Ramendra Nath ignore these points which are known to any ordinary
Hindu? The answer became clear when I looked at his citations. He was
simply quoting from another person's work rather than from the
Ramayana itself. Apparently he had not bothered to read the text he is
criticizing.
Next Ramendra Nath speaks of a certain episode in Mahabharata.
Certainly the story of Ekalavya is true. Because he was a Nishada,
Drona refused to teach him. The text explicitly states that being
nishada he was 'asprishya' (untouchable) and it is never allowable
that he should be put on a par with the general populace. Obviously
social stratification has taken place since Ramayana. When Ekalavya
learnt on his own, Drona made him cut off his finger. However,
Ramendra Nath places undue emphasis on the fact that Arjuna is his
Khastriya student. Drona asked for this terrible sacrifice because he
did not wish anyone to exceed his favourite Arjuna, who had promised
to give him whatever Drona desired materially. Caste here had nothing
to do with it.
More importantly, Ramendra Nath ignores those portions of this epic
which obviously belong to earlier stratas and which show a far more
humanitarian stance. The grandmother of both Kauravas and Pandavas (of
whom Arjuna is one) is only a fisherwoman. She had a liaison with a
Brahmin (which did not make the latter an outcaste) and gave birth to
an illegitimate son who became a sage himself and the writer of
Mahabharata. If she wants to marry into a respectable wealthy family,
to be a fisherwoman who ferries passengers on a boat and who has a
bastard child is definitely a handicap yet today even in developed
countries. Nevertheless, she marries a Kshatriya king, her sons become
kings and she is never reproached because of her sexual misconduct.
How could such miscegenation and its placid acceptance by the
population (which includes Brahmins) have been possible unless the
varnavyavastha in ancient times was very much a fluid system?
We also have the story of Dharmabyadh. A Brahmin had gained power to
work miracles by his penance and became arrogant because of this. When
a woman seems to ignore him, he becomes enraged. But the woman
demonstrates that merely by carrying out faithfully her duties as a
housewife she had gained even greater power; she tells him that only a
man who controls his sensual instincts, never hates another person,
thinks of all human beings as his own [kin], tells the truth always,
and never wanders towards unrighteousness--is acknowledged as a
Brahmin by the gods. He is then sent to a meat-seller known as
Dharmabyadh to learn what dharma is, as he is ignorant of it. The meat-
seller says, "I follow my ancestors' livelihood; I tend to the
elderly; I always speak the truth; I never show hatred for anyone; I
give to charity as far as I am capable; I never speak ill of anyone; I
eat the leavings of the gods, guests and servants [I eat after all
these have eaten]." It is these simple things that has elevated a meat-
seller above the powerful Brahmin (Vanaparva, 205-213).
Yuddhistira (the son of the God of Justice) is asked what is the cause
of being a Brahmin. He declares that neither birth nor learning makes
a Brahmin, that only proper conduct does. Even a Brahmin learned in
four Vedas cannot be considered as a Brahmin if his conduct is evil.
[However it must be noted that performing proper rituals is also
included in the passage as the mark of a Brahmin (Vanaparva, 312).] In
another place he is asked by a serpent who a true Brahmin is. He
answers, "The person in whom resides truth, charity, forgiveness,
courtesy, rejection of cruelty, austerity, is a Brahmin." The serpent
argues that the Vedas have given every varna their dharma or law.
"Therefore truth, charity, forgiveness, non-violence, rejection of
cruelty, and compassion based on Vedas is noticed even in Shudras. If
even in Shudras these symptoms of Brahamandharma appear, then Shudras
too can be Brahmins." Yuddhistira's answer is, "In many Shudras
symptoms of Brahmin appear, and among many of the twice-born, symptoms
of Shudras appear. Therefore it is not that to be born in a Shudra
family makes one a Shudra or that to be born in a Brahmin family makes
one a Brahmin. The persons in whom such behaviour [the qualities
mentioned above] ordained by Vedas appear are Brahmins and those in
whom they do not appear are Shudras" (Vanaparva, 180). From such
episodes it is obvious that the ideal was a high one and low castes
were honoured by society if they were virtuous. Critics would say that
the reality does not often match the ideal. True. But where is the
paradise on earth where there is no discrimination on the basis of
class, irrespective of the law? I do not see why varnavyastha should
be singled out with special virulence. It is simply that some
countries have made greater progress in doing away with systems like
feudalism (which was held to be reflection of cosmic hierarchy) and
slavery (backed by the story of Noah and his sons) while India is
starting to catch up.
Ramendra Nath argues that Gita too teaches every caste to do their
Dharma. Certainly if in these "enlightened" times a soldier like
Arjuna would refuse to fight on the battlefield when the war has
begun, the government would punish him and he would be called
"deserter" and "traitor." Again Shankar is pointed out as supporting
the caste-system. This is essentially true. But why does Mr. Ramendra
Nath slight the entire Bhakti and Tantric traditions in both North and
south India? Did not the practitioners of these traditions, many of
them Brahmins themselves, try to do away with caste? In such
movements, outcaste teachers and Brahmin students were common.
III
Next, Mr. Ramendra Nath--like many others--attacks Manusamhita. What
all these critics do is to imply that the entire book was written by
one man. Yet research has proved that many verses were added to the
main text throughout later ages and other verses left out or edited to
bring it in line with contemporary thought. (The interested reader can
look up the works of G. Buhler, P. V. Kane, and Max Muller.) The
result is that it is cris-crossed with contradictions.
Now let us take a close look at the book. Each of the verses he quotes
declaring the inferiority of Shudras and dominance of Brahmins, do
exist. Yet he also skips verses that directly contradict those verses.
"If a woman or lower (Shudra and younger) person performs goodly
ceremonies [holy or good works], then the Brahmachari must join them
with enthusiasm" (2:223). "The Shudra who devoid of jealousy engages
himself in honest work receives honour in this life and heaven in the
next" (10:128). (Of course another verse has been added immediately
after saying that Shudras cannot accumulate wealth because a rich
Shudra might despise Brahmins.) "A wife, jewels, knowledge, dharma
[religion/duty], rules of purity, good advice, vocational skills, can
be received by everyone from everyone else [irrespective of caste or
family]" (2:240). "A devout person can [I use 'can', but it is
actually in the imperative mood] accept even the best knowledge from
Shudras; accept ultimate truth from outcastes like chandalas; an
excellent wife even from low families" (2:238). Nothing can be more
amusing for a social historian than to see how Medhatithi, a Brahmin
commentator (c. A.D. 900) tries to explain away this verse. He argues
that "shubham [holy, best, pure] vidya [knowledge]" refers to logic,
magic formulas and singing and dancing. Similarly "param [ultimate,
best] dharma" is redefined as knowledge of local geography and
customs. Never mind that Mahabharata also defines--on the basis of
Manu--'param dharma' as knowledge of moksha/liberation which can be
acquired from anybody. Medhatiti's argument is that since low castes
are not eligible for religious knowledge they cannot teach anything.
Obviously the upper castes were anxiously trying to impose hegemony
over lower castes. Again, the verse stating that "he [the Brahmin] who
studies from a Shudra teacher or teaches a Shudra student" cannot
officiate in funeral ceremonies (3:156) offers evidence that Shudras
were teachers, a fact that the Brahmins wished to change. The rules
and later condemnations regarding marriages between castes offer proof
that for a long time it had not hardened.
Incidentally, may I ask how the terrible punishments inflicted on
Shudras can be reconciled with marriages between castes, both anuloma
and pratiloma, division of property among children born of such
'miscegenation,' rule that in distress a Brahmin might serve a Shudra
as a servant, or that a Brahmin householder must feed his Shudra
servants first, if he has any? There is a distinction between what
some men would like society to be and the social reality. For example,
Louis Dumont observed that power did not automatically reside in the
hands of any specific community. The caste that actually owned land in
a region enjoyed actual power; in many cases such power and property
lay in the hands of the Shudras. Though the Brahmins were the priests
they were actually dependant on the Shudras for their favour. Surely
Mr. Ramendra Nath knows that there are thousands of Brahmin families
whose only means of subsistence is being priests of low-caste
families?
Like Mr. Ramendra Nath, I too cannot help it that an objective reading
exposes how the caste system degenerated. He accuses that
untouchability and allowing men of one caste to become priests alone
is peculiar to Hinduism. But apartheid was peculiar to the rational
democratic white Christian races, as was the Holocaust peculiar to the
industrialized Nazi Germany. In neither case had it been claimed that
these two factors represent the sole face of Western culture. So once
again, why is varna-vavyastha presented as proof that Hinduism is
intrinsically evil, instead of realizing that untouchability is simply
the result of human love of power and not integral to Hinduism itself?
Now we come to women. Yes, Manusamhita does have these verses that
paint women as evil and deny them any freedom. But again we see how
other verses, remnants of earlier times, paint a different picture.
There is a whole portion called naribandana (Praise of women) where it
is insisted (3:55-62) that only a house where women are respected and
made happy is favoured by the gods and that--where women are treated
badly--all worship and ceremonies are in vain. There are verses such
as, "Mother is a thousand times holier [can also be read as worthy of
obedience] than the father" (2:145). "It is better that a daughter
should live at home till death rather than be given to an unworthy
husband; After menstruation, a girl should wait for three years and
then choose her own husband; If a girl at proper time should select a
husband herself, then she is not to be blamed" (9:89-91). "Any
relative [including a husband] who uses stridhan [lit. property of
woman which is both liquid cash and land, here a wife's], vehicles and
animals given for the wife to ride or a wife's clothes [and ornaments]
for himself, is a sinner who falls [into hell]" (3:52). I can give
other verses as examples.
Again Mr. Ramendra Nath charges that a widow cannot marry. Nothing
arouses my ire more than this statement. An illiterate villager might
be forgiven for believing this since this is the reality in many
places, but an educated Hindu would know better. These verses, of a
later origin, hold out inducements to widows not to remarry--such a
course would hardly have been necessary if widows never remarried.
"The woman who abandoned by her husband or left a widow marries of her
free will another man, is punurbhu and the son of such a union is
called pounorbhava"; "If a wife who is still a virgin, or a wife who
has left her husband to consort with another man returns to her
husband's home, then [another] ceremony of marriage can take
place" (9:195-196). Insistence in numerous verses that a Brahmin who
is a second husband or son of a woman's second marriage should not be
allowed to perform religious ceremonies merely prove that remarriages
were frequent. "While the mother is alive, if there is a dispute
between the son of the [first] husband and between a pournorbhava or a
golok (bastard born after the husband's death) regarding property,
then each son will receive the property that belongs to his biological
father" (9:191). "If the husband goes to foreign lands for holy
purposes, the wife will wait for 8 years; if he goes to study or earn
fame she will wait for 6 years; if he goes for pleasure then she will
wait for three years--after that she will marry again [alternative
explanation, she will go away somewhere else to support herself" (9:
76). Moreover the commentator Madhavacharya declares, "Manu has
ordained, if the husband is missing, dead, has become an ascetic,
impotent, or outcast, then the second marriage of woman is lawful
according to the shastras." Again this verse is present in
Naradasmriti, which is stated to be a collection of more important
verses of Manu. Not so surprisingly, this verse cannot be found in the
relatively modern edition of Manu we have today. Ramendra Nath is
strangely ignorant of history of his own country if he does not know
that Vidyasagar persuaded the British authorities to pass the widow-
remarriage bill by proving that it is enjoined in the shastras.
Mr. Ramendra Nath also gets excited while heaping scorn on the notion
that Hinduism is tolerant. Perhaps it has escaped his attention that
Hinduism is considered not tolerant socially as such, but from the
religious point of view. It is a religion that does not declare that
it has the sole monopoly on truth nor does it try to impose its gods
on other cultures by force. That is what is defined as religious
tolerance. Manusamhita certainly has many harsh things to say about
nastikas, but they are limited to denunciations. What did Hindus, Mr.
Ramendra Nath, actually do to disbelievers in this physical life?
Usually nothing. Buddha lived and preached peacefully. So did
Mahavira. The worst that some of them suffered was ostracism. But as
Ramendra Nath himself acknowledges (4:30), though rationalists and
freethinkers are not to be treated respectfully, they can be given
food, according to Manusamhita. For some reason Mr. Ramendra Nath
seems to think that a devout believer in God and afterlife should
welcome a disbeliever worshipfully (arcchana) as proof of his humane
attitude, yet in the same breath he denies that there is any human
value attached to the injunction that even hellbound disbeliveers are
to be fed. Considering the way Semitic religions have dealt with
unbelievers and apostates in the past (and do so even today), indeed
"such is the generosity of Hindu dharma."
Above all I find Mr. Ramendra Nath's focus on Manusamhita puzzling.
The British in an attempt to codify law focused exclusively on
Manusamhita. But why should an educated Hindu do so? There are
nineteen other dharmashastras all held to be of equal importance. He
ignores Arthashastra, the secular manual for Hindu kingdoms. He
ignores that every region had its own particular laws and every
community in it had its own set of customs which even the king was
forbidden to override. He ignores that often in villages--even today--
the shastras are only a hallowed name; if they routinely consult any
texts, those are the Ramayana and Mahabharata and often the two epics
are retold differently to suit that particular region. Unlike the
Bible, there is no text that forms the basis of Hindu law. The simple
result is that society varied from place to place and age to age. Yes,
class-system based on birth is wrong. Yes, the ugly face of caste is
encountered daily in many places in India. But the picture he presents
is one of absolute stratification, with the cruel Brahmins trampling
down the helpless Shudras for thousands of years. This picture is very
biased. In the first place, the Brahmins are not like the clergy of
church; only a certain percentage actually enjoys real power and
wealth. Secondly, from reading Mr. Ramendra Nath's article, no one
would have any idea of the low-caste royal dynasties like Mundas,
Chandellas, Nandas, Gurjjaras, Senas, the rule of the Lingyat
community, the rise of the Alvars, or the elevation of Reddies and
Jats to the warrior caste. Shivaji was a Shudra landowner who dreamt
of creating a Hindu empire (with all that it implies to him) and
brought the Mughal empire to its knees; he kept Brahmin ministers. A
1345 inscription of Reddi kings read, "With death of Ksathriyas [by
the Muslims], duty of defending cows and Brahmins fell to Shudras." It
was the Shudras who drove away the Muslim invaders and reestablished
Brahmanical educational institutes. If the Shudras, treated as Mr.
Ramendra Nath assumes followers of Manu treated them, say and do this
after gaining power (and when the Brahmins were at their nadir), then
obviously the Brahmins are a superior race who deserve to rule over a
spineless inferior caste.
IV
Just as Mr. Ramendra Nath concentrates on Manusamhita alone among the
dharmashastras, so too he concentrates on Gandhi alone. Apparently
Gandhi is to be taken as the representative of Hindu society at large.
Gandhi had supported varnashrama. But Gandhi had also said, (The
Collected Work of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. LXII, p. 121).
"I believe in varnashrama of the Vedas, which in my opinion is based
on absolute equality of status notwithstanding passages to the
contrary in the smritis and elsewhere."
"Every word of the printed works passing muster as `Shastras' is not,
in my opinion, a revelation."
"The interpretation of accepted texts has undergone evolution and is
capable of indefinite evolution, even as the human intellect and heart
are."
"Nothing in the shastras which is manifestly contrary to universal
truths and morals can stand."
"Nothing in the shastras which is capable of being reasoned can stand
if it is in conflict with reason."
Again, Vivekananda the monk came from a conservative family of the
nineteenth century and fiercely advocated doing away with
untouchability. He even declared that doing social service is more
important than worshipping God, because the former is true worship.
Rabindranath Tagore's family was orthodox and he himself was very
devout; yet he declared that though the caste-system has become
integral to Hindu society it must be done away with. There were as
many Hindus who attacked the caste-system as those who tried to defend
it. Similarly, the Shankaracharya of Puri recently declared that women
have no right to learn Sanskrit or read Vedas. The head priest at
Jagganath temple, on the other hand, has started training women
priests--yet both are pious Hindus. Why then is there the assumption
that all believing Hindus are retrograde?
Mr. Ramendra Nath grieves that the upper castes are not reconciled to
losing their power. That generalization is too sweeping. Some are not,
but the present generation has grown up accepting it. There is still
resistance, but is there any reason to think that the situation will
not improve? Even in England, full-fledged democracy did not spring up
miraculously with Magna Carta. The very fact he is able to write an
article such as this and post it on the Internet is proof that Hindu
society has undergone a sea-change. Again in speaking of agitations
against reservation policy for untouchables, he does not give the full
picture. Major factors in that agitation had been economics and
competence. Many untouchables have become rich by means of affirmative
policies and government aid. There is a substantial body of
untouchables and lowcastes who have now become middle-class and many
who have become legislators. However, they insist on their children
enjoying the same advantages they had enjoyed. But if they have become
rich, is it not unfair for their children to take advantage of the
policies meant for their poorer brethren? Again, why in reverse
discrimination shall the desperately poor of other castes be deprived
of government help and seats in educational institutions while those
who have become rich demand more advantages and money? This has led to
the extremely ridiculous situation of uppercaste people changing their
surnames by deed-poll and bribing officials to declare them
untouchables. More, those who have made it to the top now hog every
post and then lobby to pass laws for their own advantage so that the
benefits no longer trickle down to those who really need them.
Recently, members of the Dalit educated community themselves said that
the reservation policy is not working; a political party based on
backward votes immediately expelled those members who had dared to
utter such heresy. That is why those who agitated against widening of
the affirmative net were students--it is their future that is being
jeopardized in the name of social justice. The people of India wish
for a fairer affirmative policy--one that is based on poverty; the
poor alone should get preferential treatment.
About moksha, karma and avatarvada I have nothing to say on rational
grounds. However once again, it appears that the two Hindu epics need
defending on moral grounds. Rama is an avatar, but nowhere it is said
that all his behaviour is perfect. In particular, Mr. Ramendra Nath
singles out his notorious treatment of Sita--he makes her undergo
ordeal by fire to prove her purity. But what also needs recapitulating
is how the 'higher authorities,' so to speak, react to this. The soul
of Dasaratha, father of Rama, descends from heaven and begs Sita, "Do
not be angry; forgive my son for having abandoned you" (Yuddhyakandya,
120). More importantly Brahma appears and gives a long speech. The
gist of it is that since Rama is lord of all, why is he ignoring this
terrible event? He is God, so why he is meting out injustice to Sita?
(Yuddhykandya, 118). Rama's answer is that he knows himself only to be
a man, not a god. Since the Creator himself declares Rama's deed is a
sin, I do not see why the ordinary Hindu would face a moral dilemma
here and go on insisting Rama did no wrong. The case is the same with
Krishna. Many explanations have been given for his behaviour, but all
of them have one thing in common--it is acknowledged that he did wrong
and human beings must not follow his ways. Most telling is the
evidence of Mahabharata itself. After the war is over, Gandhari--the
only perfectly virtuous human--curses Krishna for the evils he had
committed; as her relatives and friends had been destroyed
[deceitfully by Krishna's advice], so too Krishna's family would be
destroyed and he himself will die a horrible death (Striparva, 25).
The curse comes true. Dharma or moral law of the universe would not
allow it to be otherwise. In other words God incarnate is accountable
to man--even an avatar must be punished.
Mr. Ramendra Nath also simply omits all positive aspects of Hinduism.
He makes no mention of the philosophies, logic systems, mathematical
contributions, music, temples, poetry, teachers and reformers, or the
heroes and heroines in myth and history. He simply makes no attempt to
explain the Hindu world-view or dharma (in the secular sense). Nor
does he give a full picture of Hindu history. Anyone reading his
article would get the impression that no decent man can call himself a
Hindu. (On the other hand I too can quote only favourable verses and
examples and give the impression that Hinduism is flawless.)
If Mr. Ramendra Nath had rejected Hinduism on rational grounds, then
this answer need not have been written. If he had balanced the good,
the bad and the ugly and then declared, "You have been judged and
found wanting", again this present article would not have a leg to
stand on. Let me repeat, it is the one-sided picture of Hindu culture
that I protest.
It is only right that a culture's worst excesses be condemned, but it
is only equitable that its highest ideals and what it has achieved
also be considered. By writing in such a superficial manner, he denies
a Hindu any pride in his heritage. Mr. Ramendra Nath would not allow
anyone to admire Rama as a human being, nor Yuddhisthira or Gandhari;
enjoy the philosophy and symbolism; be proud of either high caste or
low caste leaders and teachers, or of reformers who came from Hindu
society itself--or even how Buddhism, Jainism, Zorastrianism and
Judaism have been protected by the Hindu community. Above all, he
makes it seem as if reform and Hinduism are inherently incompatible.
Gandhi said, "My belief in the Hindu scriptures does not require me to
accept every word and every verse as divinely inspired .... I decline
to be bound by any interpretation, however learned it may be, if it is
repugnant to reason or moral sense" (The Collected Work of Mahatma
Gandhi, The Publication Division, Government of India, Vol. XXI, p.
246). Yet Gandhi was only following Hindu law. Every shastra and epic
states that no age is identical to other ages, therefore the law of
every age must be different. Dharma changes from age to age depending
on circumstances. It is this that has allowed Hinduism to withstand
ravages or war and time, constantly remoulding itself to survive.
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Combating Defamation of Religion
By Vinod Kumar, on 27-03-2009 12:12
Published in : Vinod Kumar, Column - Vinod Kumar
On November 24, 2008 - By a vote of 85 to 50, with 42 abstaining, the
UN General Assembly, Geneva adopted a draft resolutionm [ref -
http://www.unwatch.org/atf/cf/%7B6DEB65DA-BE5B-4CAE-8056-8BF0BEDF4D17%7D/DEFAMATION2008UNGA.PDF
] calling on all countries to alter their legal and constitutional
systems to prevent "defamation of religions," asserting that "Islam is
frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and
terrorism." Among other things, the resolution "urges states to take
actions to prohibit the dissemination ... of racist and xenophobic
ideas" and material that would incite to religious hatred. It also
urges states to adopt laws that would protect against hatred and
discrimination stemming from religious defamation.
The resolution puts Islam and some of the more controversial practices
associated with it beyond censure. The OIC (The Organization of
Islamic Conference) says that Muslims in Western countries have,
especially since 9/11, faced stereotyping, hostility, discriminatory
treatment and the denigration of “the most sacred symbols of Islam.”
The organization cites cases like newspaper cartoons caricaturing
Mohammed, and a Dutch lawmaker’s documentary released earlier this
year, linking the Koran to terrorism.
India, as one of the countries to abstain, said the text addressed the
problem insufficiently from a narrow perspective because it focused on
one religion. Western countries specially the US and France "This is
just the latest shot in an intensifying campaign of UN resolutions
that dangerously seek to import Islamic anti-blasphemy prohibitions
into the discourse of international human rights law," said Hillel
Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, an independent human rights
monitoring group in Geneva. The resolution puts the human rights and
freedom of speech and expression movement that has been the foundation
of progress in the West and thus the world back by several centuries.
It is evident that the resolution was supported or opposed on
emotional and political grounds.
Even if one was to go with the resolution, it fails to address a very
fundamental issue it wants to resolve. What is to be done if a
religion itself defames or insults other religion(s)? What if a
religion itself disseminates “xenophobic ideas” and contains “material
that would incite religious hatred.” while deploring hate speech,
felt strongly that people should be free to express their opinions in
challenging any ideology of hate. Human rights are indivisible and the
right to freedom of expression was at the essence of the right to
thought, conscience and belief.
The resolution is shortsighted and Islam centric and does nothing to
combat defamation of religions per se. Not only it takes human
civilization backwards, it will come to haunt the countries that
supported it. For a healthy and progressive society, all ideologies
should be open for open and constructive discussion.
http://voi.org/2009032799/vinodkumar/column-vinodkumar/combatingdefamationofreligion.html
Jinnah and Two Nation Theory
By Vinod Kumar, on 05-09-2009 23:30
Jaswant Singh by his book, Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence has
become kind of a folk hero in Pakistan and a darling of the
secularattii in India. No doubt, with this book, he has secured his
financial future, if he needed one, as one report from Pakistan says
‘they will be ordering the book by the millions.'
One of the main thrusts of his book is that Jinnah was not the "demon"
he is made out to be in India and that he was a secular Indian
nationalist and did not really want Pakistan. The demand for Pakistan
was just a strategy to seek more concessions and safeguards for the
Muslims in united India. Partition could have been avoided had Nehru
and Patel agreed for a federal decentralized India instead of a
centralized one. He casts Nehru and Patel as the villains for
conceding partition.
Whether partition was a good thing or bad and should one be demonized
or idolized for it depends on what side you are. Let us also for the
moment forget about Jinnah's secular and Indian nationalist
credentials as these are hardly his legacies. Jinnah's legacy is the
State of Pakistan. In this article let us focus on what caused
partition? Who was the real author of Two Nation theory - Hindus and
Muslims are two separate nations.
After his return from England, Jinnah worked ceaselessly and zealously
for the creation of Pakistan. An accomplished lawyer that he was, he
eloquently and very convincingly spelled out why was partition
necessary in his famous Presidential address to Muslim League
Convention at Lahore in March 1940 and in many other speeches,
interviews and writings. He said there never was any common ground
between the Muslims and the Hindus or desire on the part of Muslims to
live as equal with Hindus whom they had ruled for centuries. Hinduism
and Islam are two different and distinct social orders. It is only a
dream that the two can ever evolve a common nationality. "The hero of
one is the foe of the other. There is nothing that binds them
together." Enumerating all the differences between the two, he went on
to say that "to yoke two such nations under a single State must lead
to growing discontent and final destruction of any fabric that may be
so built up for the government of such a state." (India's Partition -
Process, Strategy and Mobilization, edited By Mushirul Hasan, Delhi,
1998, pp.56)
Jinnah stressed there was never one India and Hindus and Muslims had
never lived as one unit. History is testimony that last twelve hundred
years have failed to achieve unity and during the ages "India was
always divided into Hindu India and Muslim India. ... The present
artificial unity of India dates back only to British conquest and is
maintained by the British bayonet" -- he went on to say.
Last update : 05-09-2009 15:53
http://voi.org/20090905227/vinodkumar/column-vinodkumar/jinnahandtwonationtheory.html
Prof. Vijay Prashad and Hindu Holocaust Museum
By Vinod Kumar, on 26-09-2009 23:30
Prof. Vijay Prashad in his article Hindu Holocaust (News India Times,
Sept. 25, 2009) about Francois Gautier's fund raiser on August 16,
2009 in New Jersey for a Hindu Holocaust Museum in Pune, India has
made many assertions and statements which have no evidence in
contemporary or even subsequent recorded history. To keep the response
reasonable length let me address a few of the issues covered by him
and let the readers make their own judgment.
Prof. Vijay Prashad in his article Hindu holocaust (News India Times,
Sept. 25, 2009) about Francois Gautier's fund raiser on August 16,
2009 in New Jersey for a Hindu Holocaust Museum in Pune, India has
made many assertions and statements which have no evidence in
contemporary or even subsequent recorded history. To keep the response
reasonable length let me address a few of the issues covered by him
and let the readers make their own judgement.
Prof. Prashad wrote, and I quote the entire paragraph:
"Between Hindus and Muslims there has not been an endless rivalry for
social power. When Islam enters the subcontinent, it does not come in
the saddlebags of the Ghaznis or the Ghouris, but amongst the rumble
of goods brought by traders. Early conversions are not by the sword
but by the merchants . There was killing, but that was as much for
reasons of warfare and plunder as for reasons of God and tradition. An
interested reader might want to look at the distinguished historian
Romila Thapar's superb book "Somnatha: The Many Voices of a
History" (Penguin, 2005). There, Professor Thapar shows us that Mahmud
Ghazni's destruction of the Shiva temple in 1026 was driven not so
much by a fanatical religious belief but because his father,
Subuktigin, needed money to sustain his faltering kingdom in Central
Asia. Now it is certainly true, as historian Mohammed Habib put it,
that there was "wanton destruction of temples that followed in the
wake of the Ghaznavid army."
Actually this paragraph covers the gist of his arguments.
Let us discuss these one by one.
•1. No social rivalry between Hindus and Muslims:
To the contrary there never was any equivalence between the two ever
after the Muslims started invading India. In all Muslim chronicles,
almost without exception, Hindus are referred to as infidels - a
derogatory term in Islam.
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, a very prominent Muslim leader in the nineteenth
century asked Muslims to support British Raj as opposed to free India
where, by default, Hindus being majority would have an upper hand.
For Muslim scholars for Muslims to live under the Hindus was
unacceptable.
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan (the originator of two nation theory) had said in
1888, as quoted by Sir Penderel Moon on page 11 of his tome, 'Divide
and Quit'. India, he said, is a country"inhabited by two different
nations" and there would necessarily be a struggle for power between
them, if the English were to leave India. "Is it possible, he had
asked, "that under these circumstances two nations - the Mohammedan
and Hindu - could sit on the same throne and remain equal in power?
Most certainly not. It is necessary that one of them should conquer
the other and thrust it down. To hope that both could remain equal is
to desire the impossible and the inconceivable."
On the issue of Hindu Muslim relations, no body could have put it
better than what Jinnah articulated in his famous Presidential address
to Muslim League conference in Lahore in 1940.
He said there never was any common ground between the Muslims and the
Hindus or desire on the part of Muslims to live as equal with Hindus
whom they had ruled for centuries. Hinduism and Islam are two
different and distinct social orders. It is only a dream that the two
can ever evolve a common nationality. "The hero of one is the foe of
the other. There is nothing that binds them together." Enumerating all
the differences between the two, he went on to say that "to yoke two
such nations under a single State must lead to growing discontent and
final destruction of any fabric that may be so built up for the
government of such a state." (India's Partition - Process, Strategy
and Mobilization, edited By Mushirul Hasan, Delhi, 1998, pp.56)
Jinnah stressed there was never one India and Hindus and Muslims had
never lived as one unit. History is testimony that last twelve hundred
years have failed to achieve unity and during the ages "India was
always divided into Hindu India and Muslim India. ... The present
artificial unity of India dates back only to British conquest and is
maintained by the British bayonet" -- he went on to say. (ibid. pp.
56)
Even Alberuni, thousand years ago, when there was not much Muslim
presence in India, could see there was no common ground between Hindus
and Muslims. He starts his book by discussing the differences between
the Hindus and the Muslims. He enumerates these differences at length
throughout the book. Warning his readers he wrote "the readers must
bear in mind that the Hindus entirely differ from us in every
respect...... The barriers which separate Muslims and Hindus rest on
different causes." ((Sachau EC, Alebruni's India, New Delhi, 1993, pp.
17 - 26)
Dr. Ambedkar in his books and frequent writings had alluded to
Muslim's macabre hostility against Hindus. He highlighted the fact
that the word 'but' used by Muslims to refer to any idol was a corrupt
form of "Budh" because there were hundreds of statues of Buddha in
Afghanistan and across the Middle East which were the first target of
iconoclast of Islam. That explains the use of the term 'but-shikan' by
Ghazanavi, Ghauri and other invaders. The destruction and pillage of
the famous Buddhist Seminary and University of Nalanda is another
example of the grossness of the wanton damage caused by Muslim
invaders.
Ethnic cleansing of Hindus by Muslims has continued even in recent
history, both in Pakistan and Bangladesh - even in Kashmir. In that
sense there has been a renewal of Hindu Holocaust. In Pakistan the
Hindu /Sikh population has plummeted from 23% in 1947 to less than 2%
today. In Bangladesh, it has dwindled from 35% to 8% during the same
period. During the same period Muslims have multiplied fast in India.
And the shame of Hindus having been ethnically cleansed from Kashmir
Valley, an important part of our bogus secular state, still torments
Hindu hearts!.
In fact, throughout history Islam has always used 'gross savagery' and
open recourse to terrorism as force multipliers e.g. building towers
of the heads of hapless Hindus beheaded by Muslim invaders of which
accounts are there in history books written by Muslim chroniclers.
(Baburnama, Delhi, 1998, pp. 573, 576 - to cite one example) And the
use of terror and savagery continues with renewed vigor even today.
The most morbid example of savagery in recent times was the beheading
by Ilyas Kashmiri (a commander of Pak-sponsored terror group) of an
injured Indian army officer (after capturing him on February 26,
2000). Ilyas Kashmiri went back to Pakistan with the head of the
hapless Indian army officer and presented it to top officers of Pak
army. Gen. Musharraf had given a cash reward of Rs. 1 lakh. Pictures
of Ilyas Kashmiri holding the head of the Indian officer were
published in Pakistani newspapers. Maulana Zahoor Ahmed Alvi of Jamia
Muhammadia, Islamabad, even issued a fatwa supporting slitting the
throats of Indian army officers in a similar manner [Source: News
item, 'Musharraf rewarded militant who killed Indian', (Indian Express
New Delhi, September 21, 2009, page 4).
Can Prof. Vijay Prashad deny these irrefutable facts?
•2. Islam came with Muslim traders:
Yes, in India there were traders from Arabia long before Islam was
born. These traders by virtue of their being Arabs, became Muslims
when Arabia became Islamic in the seventh century. Thus, one can say
Islam came to India with the traders. Yes, during the trading period,
there was no animosity against the Muslims or Islam. When did this
animosity begin? It was discussed by Alberuni a thousand years ago in
his famous ‘Indica' which we shall cover later. Not that there was any
resistance against but there were no conversions to Islam among the
general population to speak of. Initially Arabs, and later on Muslim,
traders married local women. Even Arab records show that India (read
Hindu) kings gave Muslims land to build their mosques and preach their
new religion. However, it might be mentioned that there is no evidence
of reciprocity of giving lands to Hindus or other religions in Arabia
after the birth of Islam. To the contrary, Prophet Muhammad's one of
the last three wishes/instructions to Muslims was to "expel all pagans
from the Arabian Peninsula." (Sahih Bukhari, New Delhi, vol. 4, p.
260, Chapter H 393)
What caused the animosity between Hindus and Muslims?
In the very first chapter of his book, Indica, Alberuni discusses the
differences between Hindus and Muslims, as written above. Alberuni
observes some of the reasons of Hindus' repugnance of Muslims are
complete banishment of Buddhists from countries, from Khurasan,
Persis, Irak, Mosul and Syria, first by Zoroastrians and then by
Islam. And then Muhammad ibn Kasim entered India proper, conquered the
cities of Bahmanwa and Multan and went as far as Kannauj - "all these
events planted a deeply rooted hatred in their hearts." (Sachau EC,
Alebruni's India, New Delhi, 1993, pp. 20-21)
Then he talks of Mahmud Ghaznavi: Sabuktagin weakened the borders of
India and afterwards his son Mahmud marched into India during a period
of thirty years and more. Mahmud utterly ruined the prosperity of
India and performed those wonderful exploits (emphasis mine), by which
the Hindus became like atoms of dust scattered in all directions, and
like a tale of old in the mouth of the people." Alberuni says "their
scattered remains cherish, of course, the most inveterate aversion
towards all Muslims." (ibid, pp. 22)
These are not even the tips of the proverbial iceberg, to understand
what was done to Hindu by Muslim invaders and then rulers. One has to
read the entire history recorded by the Muslim invaders and rulers and
other Muslim chroniclers to understand its full impact. After each
invasion, the survivors were offered conversion to Islam or death and
many converted. If circumstances allowed, many converted back to their
original faith. All through Muslim rule starting from bin Kasim, with
a few exceptions, Jiziya was imposed on non-Muslim subjects the burden
of which fell the heaviest on the poor. This, at times, led to mass
conversions of the entire castes. Islam might have come with the
traders but it did not result in any conversions to Islam. It were the
invasions and subsequent Muslim rule which did.
Politically motivated opinions that have no basis in recorded history
or wishful thinking that reflect how the things should have been, in
their flight of fancy imagination, is not history. It is, at best,
sheer fiction. Sadly, Prof. Vijay Prashad's characterization of Hindu
Muslim relations fall in this category. History is what actually
happened; fiction has no place in it.
•3. Reasons for temple demolition:
Prof. Prashad quotes Professor Thapar showing us that Mahmud Ghazni's
destruction of the Shiva temple in 1026 was driven not so much by a
fanatical religious belief but because his father, Subuktigin, needed
money to sustain his faltering kingdom in Central Asia.
It is unimaginable that Sabuktagin would have a kingdom in Central
Asia in 1926 after he died at Toormooz on his way to Ghizny from Balkh
in Shaban AH 387 (August AD 997).
In history of Islam Mahmud enjoys a very high position. He was given
the titles of Ameen-ul-Millat, defender of the faith and Yameen-ud-
Daulat, the right hand of the state by the Caliph of Baghdad - the
titles which had so far not been bestowed on any prince far or near,
notwithstanding their intense desire to receive such an honor. (Tarikh
Yamini, The History of India as Told by its own historians, Vol. 2,
New Delhi, 1996, pp. 24)
The plunders of Mahmud are legendary. When he displayed his loot from
India, he was declared "the richest monarch ever in history".
It is often said he was interested only in plunder and he was not much
of a religious person. Neither his record nor his Muslim chroniclers
agree with this characterization. From all contemporary records the
only inference one can draw is that he was a zealot Muslim and is so
regarded by Muslim scholars. As accepted even by Prof. Thapar and
quoted by Prof. Prashad that he plundered Somnath temple - but
actually the plunder and destruction of Somnath temple was of
relatively small scale in relation to other temples and places he
plundered and destroyed.
The case in point is the temple at Mathura. Mahmud was enchanted by
the grandeur of this temple. Utbi, secretary of Mahmud, in his Tarikh
Yamini described it as:
"The Sultan next directed his attacks against the sacred city of
Mathura. The city was surrounded by a massive stone wall, in which
were two lofty gates opening on to the river. There were magnificent
temples all over the city and the largest of them all stood in the
center of it. The Sultan was very much struck by its grandeur. In his
estimate it cost not less than 100,000,000 red dinars, and even the
most skillful of masons must have taken 200 years to complete it.
Among the large number of idols in the temples, five were made of pure
gold, the eyes of one of them were laid with two rubies worth 100,000
dinars, and another had a sapphire of a very heavy weight. All these
five idols yielded gold weighing 98,300 mishkals. The idols made of
silver numbered 200....... He seized all the gold and silver idols
and ordered his soldiers to burn all the temples to the ground. The
idols in them were deliberately broken into pieces. The city was
pillaged for 20 days, and a large number of buildings were reduced to
ashes." (Tarikh Yamini, The History of India as Told by its own
historians, vol 2, New Delhi, 1996, pp. 44)
Mahmud Ghaznavi invaded India at least sixteen times and each time he
left a trail of tears, human suffering and devastation. The tale of
his invasions as recorded by his secretary Utbi is blood curdling.
This is how Utbi describes one scene and this is not, by any means,
an isolated example:
"Many infidels were consequently slain or taken prisoner in this
sudden attack, and the Muslamans paid no regard to the booty till they
had satiated themselves with the slaughter of the infidels and
worshippers of sun and fire. The friends of God searched the bodies of
the slain for three whole days, in order to obtain booty." (ibid. pp.
49) The search for booty was secondary to killing.
Another place Utbi writes: "The blood of the infidels flowed so
copiously, that the stream was discoloured, notwithstanding its
purity, and people were unable to drink it." (ibid. pp. 40)
I can understand Mahmud's penchant for wealth. Many people have
insatiable thirst for wealth. Prof. Prashad might ask himself what
would drive a man to reduce to ashes such a marvelous structure and
break the idols to pieces if he was only interested in wealth? And
killing on such a large scale and so brutally?
Mahmud not only plundered and destroyed the Somnath temple, he ordered
the upper part of the idol to be broken and the remainder to be
transported to his residence, Ghazni, with all its trappings of gold,
jewels, and embroidered garments. Part of it has been thrown into the
hippodrome of the town, together with the Chakrasvamin, an idol of
bronze, that had been brought from Thanesar. Another part of the idol
from Somnath lies before the door of the mosque of Ghaznin, on which
people rub their feet to clean them from dirt and wet." (Sachau EC,
Alebruni's India, New Delhi, 1993, part II, pp. 103)
One would ask Prof. Thapar if the purpose of Mahmud's plunder of
Somnath was "driven not so much by a fanatical religious belief but
because his father, Subuktigin, needed money to sustain his faltering
kingdom in Central Asia" why would he spend it in transporting broken
pieces all the way from Somnath to Ghazni?
Prof. Prashad quotes Prof. Habib who admits that there was "wanton
destruction of temples that followed in the wake of the Ghaznavid
army." I am not surprised by it. Muslims historians are more open and
honest about the Muslim rule in India and its depredations than their
Hindu compatriots - the very Hindus who were at the receiving end for
centuries. I wonder if Stockholm syndrome has anything to do with it!
Coming back to our subject, temple destruction did not end with Mahmud
- it was just the beginning. These continued all the way till
Aurangzeb - the last great Mughal emperor. We will not go into those
details in this article.
Even today, the demolition of Bamiyan Buddha statues is a stark
reminder of what drove Muslim invaders of India to demolish Hindu
temples? There was no wealth hidden in Bamiyan Buddhas that the world
knows of.
In this so far we have covered only a very small part of Prof.
Prashad's article and not even scratched the surface of what Hindus
had gone through Islamic rule. Will Durant has called the Muslim
conquest of India the bloodiest story in history. The extent of
destruction of Hindu temples and massacres is beyond all human
imagination and a museum to their memory would be a just reminder to
all humanity of what might happen if one is not prepared to learn the
lessons from the past.
In the beginning of the article, Prof. Prashad wrote: "They claim that
over the past thousand years, millions of Hindus were killed, with the
intention to wipe Hindus off the map." Actually this is a very mild
statement and does not even come close to state the facts. According
to some estimates Hindus killed by Muslims over the centuries is about
80 million and the number of temples demolished into tens of
thousands. Timur Lang's massacre of 100,000 helpless Hindu prisoners
in one day by hands has no parallel in world history. (Malfuzat-e-
Timuri, History of India as told by its own historians, vol. III,
Delhi, 1996, pp. 436)
•4. Hindu Holocaust Museum:
Prof. Prashad also wrote: "The idea of the Hindu Holocaust casts the
Hindu as history's victim, who should now become history's aggressor
to avenge the past." It is evident that Prof. Prashad is drawing his
own conclusions without any evidence or basis. Making a museum to
portray the atrocities suffered by the Hindus in the past does not
imply they want to become "history's aggressors to avenge the past."
Jews have built Jewish Holocaust museums, are they avenging the past?
There are Black history museums all over the US. This does not mean
that these are meant to enslave the Whites "to avenge the past". A
museum is to remind the future generations of what happened - to
reflect the good and the bad; the pride and the shame. All countries
have museums. Actually it would have been only fair that such an idea
had come from the Muslims to show their disapproval of what their
ancestors had done to humanity for the sake of Islam. But that did not
happen and is not likely to happen either. If not the Muslims, then
this idea of Hindu Holocaust Museum should have come from liberal
progressive elite of independent India.
It is not surprising that Francois Gautier who is leading the movement
for a Hindu Holocaust museum is a Frenchman. He is the living legacy
of French progressive liberalism that waged the struggle against
religious fanaticism in the eighteenth century. Instead of making
light of Gautier's work, the liberal progressive elite worldwide
should join forces with him in exposing the depredations caused by
religious fanatics in India. Let India be the starting point and then
continue work elsewhere.
Prof. Prashad would do a great service if instead of spending his
valuable time and energy in criticizing Francois Gautier, he was
investigating what drove some people, in today's day and age, to
demolish two thousand years old Bamiyan Buddhas - a work of art and
human endeavor.
A sad reminder that the days of demolition of infidel idols are not
over yet.
Copyright: Vinod Kumar
September 25, 2009
Sri Sri and Jihad
The Times of India recently conducted a discussion between Islamic
scholar and peace activist Maulana Wahiduddin Khan and Hindu spiritual
leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on the issue of Jihad in the Quran and
Bhagvadgita. The discussion was moderated by Narayani Ganesh, a well
known Columnist.
Right at the beginning Maulana Wahiduddin started with "Let's discuss
the misunderstanding of the term jihad. Jihad is an Arabic word that
has neither a mysterious meaning nor relation to any sacred duty.
Jihad is a simple word; it means to struggle, to strive. Jihad is to
achieve a positive goal in life through peaceful means."
"The Prophet of Islam has said: "Do jihad against your own desires."
That is, doing jihad against yourself. So jihad means to control your
desires. Jihad is to discipline your own behaviour. The Qur'an says:
"Do jihad with the help of the Qur'an" (25:52). The Qur'an is a book
of ideology; it is not a weapon. So doing jihad with the help of the
Qur'an means to try to achieve one's goals through an ideological
struggle." He continued.
Before we accept the Mualana's definition of jihad let us look at the
subject of jihad from the basic scriptures of Islam and what other
Islamic scholars and commentators have said on the subject in some
details. One or two sentences here and there do not do justice to this
important topic.
Jihad has been going on in the world ever since Islam was born in the
seventh century but its latest manifestation has been, among other
places, most notably in Palestine, Chechnya, and Kashmir. Even, in
February 1998, when World Islamic Front issued a fatwa and a call for
Jihad to "every Muslim who believes in Allah and wishes to be
rewarded to comply with Allah's order to kill the Americans and
plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it", it did not
arouse much interest in the general public. It took direct assault on
9/11 on the fundamental symbols of what America stands for that it
created some curiosity. Today, Jihad is, no doubt, one of the most
discussed terms in the world.
What is Jihad? What drives a man to commit such horrendous acts
against humanity? What motivates Islamic terrorists? Why do they
operate under the name of Jihad?
Dr. Eyad Sarraj, a Palestinian psychiatrist answers (Newsweek, April
8, 2002)
"This is the influence of the Koran, the most potent and powerful book
for the past 14 centuries. God promised Muslims who sacrificed for
Islam that they would not die. They will live on in paradise. Muslims
hold to the promise literally."
How valid is this assertion?
What is Jihad?
View of traditionalists:
Dictionary of Islam defines jihad as "a religious war with those who
are unbelievers in the mission of Muhammad. It is an incumbent
religious duty, established in the Quran and in the Traditions as a
divine institution, enjoined specially for the purpose advancing Islam
and repelling evils from Muslims."[i]
In an introductory note to an article "Jihad in the Qur'an and
Sunnah" by Sheikh Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Humaid, ex-Chief Justice
of Saudi Arabia and of the Sacred Mosque of Mecca, Abdul Malik
Mujahid, General Manager of Maktaba Dar-us-Salam, Saudi Arabia on the
website (www.islamworld.net) writes:
"Jihad is regarded as the best thing, one can offer voluntarily. It
is superior to non‑obligatory prayers, fasting, Zakat, Umra and Hajj
as mentioned in the Qur'an and the Ahadith of the Prophet(pbuh). The
benefits of Jihad are of great extent and large in scope, while its
effects are far-reaching and wide-spreading as regards Islam and the
Muslims."
Sheikh Abdullah, ex-Chief Justice of Saudi Arabia defines Jihad as:
"Praise be to Allah swt Who has ordained Al-Jihad (the holy fighting
in Allah's Cause):
1. With the heart (intentions or feelings),
2. With the hand (weapons, etc.),
3. With the tongue (speeches, etc., in the Cause of Allah)
Allah has rewarded the one who performs it with lofty dwellings in the
Gardens (of Paradise)." [ii]
Other contrary Views
Many non-Muslim modernists, as Maulana Wahiduddin also said in this
discussion, in the West deny that it has anything to do with
violence.
Many academic Muslims also dissociate Jihad with "Holy War". "In its
primary sense it is an inner thing, within self, to rid it from
debased actions or inclinations, and exercise constancy and
perseverance in achieving a higher moral standard" - they claim.
"Jihad is not a declaration of war against other religions and
certainly not against Christians and Jews as some media and political
circles want it to be perceived. Islam does not fight other religions"
- they emphasize.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based group,
asserts that jihad "does not mean 'holy war.'" Instead, jihad is "a
central and broad Islamic concept that includes the struggle to
improve the quality of life in society, struggle in the battlefield
for self-defense . . . or fighting against tyranny or oppression."
CAIR even denies that Islam includes any concept of a "holy war."
Many other who go under the banner of modernists hold similar views on
the nature of jihad.
How is one to conclude what Jihad really means in Islam?
Ironclad definition of anything to do with Islam and its practical
manifestations can only be derived from what the basic scriptures of
Islam have to say on any particular issue.
What are the basic scriptures of Islam and why are they so important?
The single most basic scripture of Islam is indeed the Qur'an. The
next after the Qur'an are the traditions - the Sunnah -- of the
Prophet -- also known as Ahadith. The Qur'an is compilation of the
Revelations from Allah to Prophet Muhammad and the Sunnah is what
Prophet Muhammad did or said. Of the traditions, the ones compiled by
Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim are the most authentic.
Authenticity of Imam Bukhari's work can be judged from the fact that
he is reported to have collected over 300,000 Hadiths -- traditions of
the Prophet -- but "chose only approximately 7275 of which there is
no doubt about their authenticity." [iii] Each Hadith comes with its
line of transmission that leads directly to Prophet Muhammad or his
companions.
Why are the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet so important to
Muslims? Instead of giving my personal opinion let me say what Rafiq
Zakaria, an eminent Islamic scholar and also known as modernist
progressive secular Muslim has to say on this.
"To Muslims, the Quran is the creation of god. However, it is equally
important to remember that there could have been no Quran without
Muhammad. He is not only its transmitter but also the embodiment of
its teachings... Muhammad and the Quran are inextricably
intertwined." [iv]
"The Quran is, therefore, regarded by Muslims as immutable and
unchangeable, not metaphorically but literally. This is a matter of
faith for them, and reason can never deflect them from it." [v]
(Italics mine) He went on to say.
After enumerating the five pillars of Islam, he echos the sentiments
expressed above in another book and goes on to observe "it (the Quran)
contains guidelines a Muslim must follow." [vi]
Maulana Mawdudi, a great Islamic scholar and thinker expresses similar
views. Islam stands for complete faith in the prophet's teachings. It
stands for complete obedience to the system of life shown to us by the
prophet and any who ignores the medium of the prophet and claims to
follow God directly is not a Muslim. [vii]
Maulana Wahiduddin has also expressed similar opinions.
Human reason or direct approach to God without the medium of the
prophet makes one sinner, if not apostate from Islam. No freedom of
slightest deviation is allowed. One has to follow the teachings of the
Quran and of the Prophet.
If we want to understand why the Muslims carry out jihad, we have to
understand what the Quran and the Sunnah have to say on this topic.
The opinions of Islamic scholars and other commentators are not valid
if they are not in conformity with the above.
What do the Quran and the Sunnah have to say on the subject of Jihad?
There is no chapter devoted exclusively to the subject of jihad in the
Quran. The Ayats pertaining to jihad are spread throughout the Quran.
If one were to sort them out and present them in a concise manner, one
would, in all likelihood, be accused of quoting them out of context.
But in each of the authentic Hadis - the Sunnah of the prophet --
there is a section dealing with the practice of jihad. So let us turn
our attention to the Sunnah. On close scrutiny of the Sunnah as
compiled in Sahih Al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, apart from the
traditions of the prophet, frequent reference is made to the Quran. So
what is recorded in these two books is both, the Sunnah of the Prophet
as well as the revelations from God. Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim have
facilitated our work in informing us, in a concise form, what the
concept of jihad in Islam is?
Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan of Islamic University, Medina Al- Munawwara,
Saudi Arabia, the translator of Sahih Al-Bukhari, in the glossary of
Arabic words translates Jihad as "Holy fighting in the cause of Allah
or any other kind of effort to make Allah's word (Islam) superior
which is regarded as one of the principles of Islam." [viii]
Jihad defined:
Let us first try to find out what is Jihad? We don't have to too far.
The section on Jihad starts with invocation to Allah and Chapter I
opens quoting verses 9:111-112 of the Quran:
"Verily
Allah has purchased of the believers
Their lives and their properties;
For theirs (in return)
Is Paradise. They fight in His cause, so they
Kill (others) and are killed
It is a promise in truth which is binding on Him."[ix]
Allah has made a binding promise with His believers to kill in His
cause and if they are killed they will get Paradise in return.
And again it repeats in chapter 2 "the best among the people is that
believer who strives his utmost in Allah's cause with both his life
and property and goes on to quote verses 61:10,11,12 . It says "it
(fighting in Allah's cause) is a bargain that will save you from a
grievous punishment..... He will forgive you, your sins and admit you
into Gardens beneath which rivers flow, and to beautiful Mansions in
gardens of Eternity." And calls it "The supreme achievement." [x]
Indeed the promise of Gardens with Rivers and Mansions must have
sounded very alluring in the harsh desert climate of Arabia.
Evidently, it does even today.
The superiority of Jihad:
"A single endeavor (of fighting) in Allah's Cause in the forenoon is
better than the world and whatever is in it." Says Hadis 50 in chapter
5. [xi]
And "a place as small as a bow in Paradise is better than all that on
which the sun rises and sets (i.e. all the world)." And continues,
repeating, "A single endeavour in Allah's Cause is better than all
that on which the sun rises and sets." [xii]
The superiority of martyrdom is so great that "nobody would wish to
come back even if he were given the whole world and whatever in it,
except the martyr who, on seeing the superiority of martyrdom, would
like to come back to the world and get killed again (in Allah's
cause.)" [xiii]
And what is there in Paradise? Houris. "And if a houri from paradise
appeared to the people of the earth, she would fill the space between
Heaven and the Earth with light and pleasant scent and her head cover
is better than the world and whatever is in it." [xiv] Who would not
like to die to be in company of such houris?
Obligations of a Believer to Jihad
What are the obligations of a Muslim of a general call to arms and
what sort of Jihad and intentions are compulsory? Most people don't
like to fight and Muslims are no exception to it. But what are they to
do when Allah says:
"March forth, whether you are light (young, healthy and wealthy) or
heavy (ill, old and poor)
And strive with your wealth and your lives
In the way of Allah; that is better for you
If you but knew. Had it been a near gain (booty in front of them)
And an easy journey they would have followed you,
But the distance (Tabuk expedition) was long for them and they would
Swear by Allah (saying)
"If we only could, we would have surely have come out with you."
Allah reprimands:
"They destroy their own souls, and Allah knows
That they are liars." (9:41-42) [xv]
Allah continues His reprimand:
"O you who believe! What is the matter with you that when you are
asked to march forth in the Way of Allah, (i.e. Jihad), you cling
heavily to the earth? Are you pleased with the life of this world
rather than the hereafter? .... (the verse). If you march not forth,
He will punish you with a painful torment and will replace you by
another people and you cannot harm Him at all, and Allah is Able to do
all things." (9:38-39) [xvi]
Is Jihad obligatory:
This is best explained by Sheikh Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Humaid:
"So at first "the fighting" was forbidden, then it was permitted and
after that it was made obligatory- ( 1 ) against them who start "the
fighting" against you (Muslims)... (2) and against all those who
worship others along with Allah... as mentioned in SurahAI‑BaqaraSl
(II), Al‑lmran (III) and Baraat (IX)... and other Suras (Chapters of
the Qur'an).
Allah made "the fighting' (Jihad) obligatory for the Muslims and gave
importance to the subject‑matter of Jihad in all the Suras (Chapters
of the Qur'an) which were revealed (at Medina) as in Allah's
Statement:
March forth whether you are light (being healthy, young and wealthy)
or heavy (being ill, old and poor), strive hard with your wealth and
your lives in the Cause of Allah. This is better for you if you but
knew. (V.9:41). [xvii]
Rewards of Jihad:
Where would one killed in Jihad go? The Muslim killed in Jihad would
go to Paradise and "their's (i.e. those of the Pagan's) will go to
Hell Fire. [xviii]
What are the special benefits of fighting in Allah's cause?
Whoever believes in Allah and His Messenger and lives the life of a
good Muslim will rightfully go to Paradise, no matter if he fights in
Allah's cause or not. But there is a special place for those who do.
Paradise has hundred grades which Allah has reserved for Mujahidin.
The distance between each grade is like the distance between the
Heaven and the Earth. [xix]
And what will those who fight in Allah's cause get in Paradise?
Bat Ye'Or well known writer on Islam notes "the ideology of jihad was
formulated by Muslim jurists and scholars, including such luminaries
as Averroes and Ibn Khaldun, from the 8th century onward. For example,
Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406) stated, "..the holy war is a religious duty,
because of the universality of the Muslim mission and the obligation
to convert everyone to Islam either by persuasion or by force...".
Modernists views refuted:
As noted above, Council of American Islamic Relations asserts that
Jihad is "struggle in the battlefield for self-defense . . . or
fighting against tyranny or oppression" But Sahih Muslim, one of two
most authentic traditions does not agree with it.
Self defense or oppression has nothing to do with the concept of
Jihad. It quotes Prophet Muhammad saying:
"I have been commanded to fight against people, till they testify to
the fact that there is no god but Allah, and believe in me (that) I am
the messenger (from the Lord) and in all that I have brought. And when
they do it, their blood and riches are guaranteed protection on my
behalf except where it is justified by law, and their affairs rest
with Allah."[xx]
Quoting Koran (9:39) "If you march not forth, I will punish you with a
painful torment and will replace you by another people and you cannot
harm Me at all, and Allah is able to do all things.", Sheikh Abdullah
bin Muhammad bin Hamid of Sacred Mosque of Mecca (Saudi Arabia) writes
"Allah disapproved of those who abandoned Jihad (i.e. they did not go
for Jihad) and attributed to them hypocrisy and disease in their
hearts, and threatened (all) those who remain behind from Jihad and
sit at home with horrible punishment. He (Allah) accused them with the
most ugly descriptions, rebuked them for their cowardice and spoke
against them (about their weakness and their remaining behind).[xxi]
Had Jihad been just "striving" and "an inner thing, within self, to
rid it from debased actions or inclinations" where was the need to
"march forth"? Why would Allah accuse those who did not "march forth"
of "cowardice", and "hypocrisy and disease in their hearts"?
To scholars of Islam the message of the Koran and Ahadith is clear.
It is true that not every Muslim is engaged in Jihad. It is true not
only today; it was true during the time of Prophet Muhammad also.
Those who did not were called hypocrites and their fidelity to Islam
was in question.
It is evident from the above that Maulana Wahiduddin's contention that
Jihad has "no relation to any sacred duty" and "it means to struggle,
to strive. Jihad is to achieve a positive goal in life through
peaceful means" have no foundation in Islamic scriptures.
And if Jihad, indeed, is "mental struggle against passion or internal
struggle" - it would be welcome, I am sure, by all non-Muslims. What
a non-Muslim is primarily interested in is Jihad that affects his (non-
Muslim's) survival. However, there is no evidence in the core
scriptures of Islam that Jihad is an internal struggle within the
self.
In support of his contention, the Maulana quoted verse 25:52 saying:
"The Quran says: ‘Do jihad with the help of the Quran'. As is the
common theme of the Quran ‘to fight with the unbelievers', the verse
quoted by the Maulana does not disappoint. It also says: "So do not
follow the unbelievers, and strive against them a mighty striving with
it." ‘It' might mean the Quran - the word Jihad does not occur in any
of the three translations I checked but by defining jihad as peaceful
struggle the Maulana has completely fooled a general unbeliever into
believing that the Quran asks his followers to fight peacefully.
In the whole discussion Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and the moderator, both
cut a sorry figure. The Maulana took them for an easy ride and neither
challenged the Maulana and presented the true meaning of jihad. It is
evident that Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has absolutely no knowledge of Islam
or even of its basics
The whole exercise of equating the Gita and the Quran is disingenuous.
The Gita and the Hinduism at large have no concept of jihad in the
Quranic sense. The Kurukshetra war is not about jihad but about
injustice which as the Maulana says does not exist in Islam - (In
Islam, there is no war against injustice). In Islam, whatever Allah
decrees is justice when it says: "God gives abundantly to whom He will
and sparingly to whom it pleases." (13:26) In the Gita the basic
theme is fight for righteousness - not for any god or religion or an
individual while to the contrary the basic theme in the Quran is to
fight for Allah against those who deny His Revelations.
In Kurukshatra war Sri Krishna did not exhort Arjuna to fight because
Sri Krishna wanted it or for a God - or for even Arjuna's sake but for
the justice. Against the injustice that had been done to the
Pandavas. This step was taken after all other means to bring justice
have been explored and exhausted.
Yes, like any other religious ideology, Islam also would like to
improve the life of its followers, in its own way but that is nowhere
called what is known as Jihad.
i Warraq, ibn. Why I am not a Muslim. New York, 1995, pp.12
ii Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 1, pp. xxiv
iii Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 1, pp.xvii
iv Zakaria, Rafiq, Muhammad and the Quran, Penguin Books, New York,
1991, pp. 3
v Zakaria, Rafiq, Muhammad and the Quran, Penguin Books, New York,
1991, pp. 4
vi Zakaria, Rafiq, The Struggle within Islam, Penguin Books, New
York, 1988, pp. 304
vii Mawdudi, Abul A'la, Towards understanding Islam, Islamic Circle
of North America, Montreal, 1986, pp. 61 (First published in Urdu in
India in 1932)
viii Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 1, pp. lxxiv
ix Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol.4, pp. 34
x Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 4, pp. 36-37
xi Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 4, pp. 41
xii Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 4, pp 41
xiii Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 4, pp. 42
xiv Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 4, pp. 42
xv Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 4, pp. 58-59
xvi Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 4, pp. 59
xvii Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 1, pp. xxvi
xviii Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 4, pp. 55
xix Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 4, pp. 40
xx Sahih Muslim, Translated by Abdul Hamid Siddiqi, New Delhi, 1994,
vol. 1, pp.17
xxi Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 4, pp.xxx-xxxi
© Copyright
[i] Warraq, ibn. Why I am not a Muslim. New York, 1995, pp.12
[ii] Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 1, pp. xxiv
[iii] Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 1, pp.xvii
[iv] Zakaria, Rafiq, Muhammad and the Quran, Penguin Books, New York,
1991, pp. 3
[v] Zakaria, Rafiq, Muhammad and the Quran, Penguin Books, New York,
1991, pp. 4
[vi] Zakaria, Rafiq, The Struggle within Islam, Penguin Books, New
York, 1988, pp. 304
[vii] Mawdudi, Abul A'la, Towards understanding Islam, Islamic Circle
of North America, Montreal, 1986, pp. 61 (First published in Urdu in
India in 1932)
[viii] Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 1, pp. lxxiv
[ix] Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol.4, pp. 34
[x] Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 4, pp. 36-37
[xi] Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 4, pp. 41
[xii] Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 4, pp 41
[xiii] Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 4, pp. 42
[xiv] Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 4, pp. 42
[xv] Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 4, pp. 58-59
[xvi] Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 4, pp. 59
[xvii] Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 1, pp. xxvi
[xviii] Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan,
New Delhi, 1984, vol. 4, pp. 55
[xix] Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 4, pp. 40
[xx] Sahih Muslim, Translated by Abdul Hamid Siddiqi, New Delhi,
1994, vol. 1, pp.17
[xxi] Al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan, New
Delhi, 1984, vol. 4, pp.xxx-xxxi
http://voi.org/20091003249/vinodkumar/column-vinodkumar/whatisjihad.html
How Javed Anand’s Ancestors Became Muslims
By Vinod Kumar, on 08-11-2009 12:56
Berating Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh, its Chief Mohan Bhagwat and then
Hinduism, Javed Anand in RSS, Here I Come (Asian Age, Oct 14, 2009)
http://epaper.asianage.com/ASIAN/AAGE/2009/10/14/Article/007/14_10_2009_007_005.jpg
wrote:
"Even otherwise, I have no difficulty in accepting the obvious---my
Hindu past---for I doubt if my forefathers were Sikhs , Jains or
Buddhists. The former are easily discounted for they arrived too late
on the scene. Jains? No way , they are not interested in Mughlai
cousin . As far Buddhists, I am unable to see what possible incentive
there was for them to abandon their faith."
"But converting from Hinduism is conceivable . I have been told since
childhood that we are Saddiquis. That's big if you are talking
hierachy ---being part of the extended parivar of none else than the
closest companion of Prophet Mohammed and the first Caliph of Islam
Abu Bakr. But this Arabisation drive Bhagwat Ji I suspect is quite
like Sansakritisation ---in search of respectability, status and
imagination at work. It's quite likely that my forefathers were Hindus
and "untouchable".
"Imagine Islam's appeal to one who is constantly told he is too
"impure" to be allowed entry inside a temple . Imagine the doors of a
mosque being flung open to him with invite--- Come, stand shoulder-to-
shoulder with the rest of us. No hierarchy here, no caste, no race,
"Sab ka Malik ek" . Who says you are too impure to enter a holy space
or hold a holy text ? Here's the Quran . Its your as much as anyone
else's Touch it, hold it, read it, kiss it, store it in your heart and
mind."
Last update : 08-11-2009 13:06
RSS and Mohan Bhagwat are just the props. Javed Anand's real target is
Hinduism.
"Imagine , Bhagwatji, does this not sound like celestial music to the
outcast such as my forefathers quite possibly were." Mr. Javed Anand
went on to write.
But evidently this did not sound like ‘celestial music to the
"outcast" brothers of the ancestors of Javed Anand otherwise after
fourteen hundred years of Islam's presence in India, with roughly half
of it as its rulers, and all the lollipops thrown at them with
accompanying privileges of belonging to the community of the rulers,
the problem of "outcasts" in Hinduism would not have existed. The fact
is that despite the open arms of Islam as Javed Anand claims, the
"outcasts" of Hinduism did not opt for Islam. Even in Pakistan where
even today every non-Muslim is treated as second class citizen and the
"outcast" Hindus even worse, the minuscule minority community of
"outcast" Hindus have not been attracted by this "celestial" music of
Islam. There are other reasons why the speculative "outcast" ancestors
of Javed Anand became Muslims.
Let us briefly review what might have been the reasons of Javed
Anand's ancestors conversion to Islam - "outcasts" or not.
•1. Early history:
Islam came to India with the Arab traders when Arabia was converted to
Islam. The new converts to Islam - who have been coming to India as
Arabs since long before Islam was born - were free to practice their
new religion. They were given land grants to build their mosques and
freedom to preach and convert from the local population while the
Prophet of Islam had wished to expel all pagans from the Arabian
peninsula. (Sahih Bukhari, vol. 4) There is no evidence that the
"celestial music" of Islam attracted many, if any, converts from the
"outcasts" of Hindu society even though there was no restrictions upon
their leaving the Hindu fold. Even in Arabia the conversion was not
all that an easy matter. Biographies of Prophet Muhammad and the
Koranic verses are a testimony to it. Those who did not convert were
given the status of dhimmies and a special tax named jiziya was
levied upon them. Islam's appeal in Arabia even after conversion must
not have been all that great so that the Prophet of Islam made leaving
Islam a crime punishable with death. Wonder why would anyone ever want
to leave the "celestial" music of Islam?
•2. Medieval History:
2a. Muslim Invaders: Every Muslim invader starting with bin Kasim who
came to India demolished and plundered Hindu temples. Killed all the
males and enslaved women and children - at times carried them off by
the hundreds of thousands to Arabia and Central Asian countries to be
sold off as slaves. At one point, there were so many Hindu slaves in
Ghazni that it looked like an Indian city. Men of honor in India were
working as domestic help in Afghanistan and beyond. Lakhs perished in
what is now - for good reason - called Hindukush. Those who converted
to Islam were spared. Desire to live as decent human being is a common
human weakness - no wonder many converted to Islam just to survive -
not necessarily the "outcasts" of Hindu society; most of them were the
elite of the Hindu society. When the invaders went back, those who
converted reverted back to the practice of Hinduism. But repeated
invasions and even harder treatment meted out to those who
reconverted, they found it expedient to remain Muslims in name even
though for long times they continued their infidel Hindu ways. Some
still do even after centuries of conversion. Thus it was found
necessary to start Tabligh movement to rid the practice of "evil"
infidel ways among the converted Muslims. This has been a continued
and still prevalent practice among the converted and the Tabligh
jamaat still has a Herculean task on its shoulders.
2b. Muslim Sultans: Muslim Sultans made the life of infidel Hindus
unbearable. According to sharia, jiziya and disproportionately heavy
taxes were imposed on the infidels. Sultan Ala-ud-din Khilji demanded
from learned men of Islam rules and regulations, so that the Hindu
should be ground down, and property and possessions, which are the
cause of disaffection and rebellion, should not remain in his house.
Qazi Mughisud-din of Bayana whom Ala-ud-din consulted as to the
legality of his measures towards Hindus, wholeheartedly justified Ala-
ud-din's rigorous policy and "pointed out that Islamic law sanctioned
sterner principle, so much so that, ‘if the revenue collector spits
into a Hindu's mouth, the Hindu must open his mouth to receive it
without hesitation." Ala-ud-din was gratified to learn that his
treatment of the Hindus was in full accordance with Islamic law and
assured the Qazi that he had given orders that the Hindu will not be
allowed to possess more than what is required for a bare
subsistence." (The History and Culture of the Indian People, vol. 6,
Bombay, 1990, pp. 24-25)
Could it be that the ancestors of Javed Anand - not necessarily the
"outcast" of Hindu society -- converted to Islam under these
circumstances?
2c. Akbar: Hindus got a little respite under relatively enlightened
policies of the third Mughal Emperor Akbar. He abolished the much
hated jiziya tax and treated non-Muslims in a more tolerant manner. He
let the Hindu princesses whom he married and were married to his sons
practice Hindu rituals in his palace contrary to usual practice of
converting them to Islam. He invited different religions for open
debate. This was not much liked by the orthodox Ulema and they accused
Akbar of apostasy of which there is no evidence. Akbar at best died an
eclectic. His death was celebrated by the orthodox ulema.
2d. Aurangzeb: Whatever goodwill was created by Akbar was soon undone
by his successors. Aurangzeb was the most orthodox of the Mughal
emperors. He has been called a ‘living pir' and is reported to have
memorized the entire Koran. His zealotry for Islam went beyond all
bounds of a sovereign. In the twelfth year of Emperor's reign' the
Vishwanath temple at Benaras, which seems to have been rebuilt, and
Keshav Rai temple at Mathura were demolished. Aurangzeb revived the
policy of demolishing temples in the wake of military campaigns which
had been followed by Delhi Sultans and occasionally by Shahjahan. In
pursuance of this policy hundreds of temples across India from Kuch
Bihar to Deccan were ruthlessly destroyed. Firman was issued that no
new temples should be built. Temples which were built in the past ten /
twelve years were classified in this category and while old temples
were spared but repairs to them were banned. Conversion to Islam was
officially promoted. The Emperor presided over the ceremony of
conversion as often as he could - these conversions were not from the
"outcasts" of Hindu society but from the zamindars, and influential
Rajputs and Jats who converted to gain favor with the ruling monarch.
(Shah Wali-Allah and his Times, SAA Rizvi, Australia, 1980, pp. 90)
S A A Rizvi observes:
"Gradually, criminals and corrupt and dishonest revenue officials
began to expiate their crimes by embracing Islam. (pp. 90)"
In 1679 officials were issued orders to realize the jiziya from non-
Muslims. The jiziya was so designed that its impact was the heaviest
on the poorest section of Hindu society who were subsequently deprived
of almost entire income from their property. This was all part of
deliberate policy to force the poorer section of Hindus to embrace
Islam. (ibid pp. 92)
Quoting Mirat-I Ahmadi Rizvi writes that the entire attention of the
Aurangzeb was directed towards strengthening the ‘manifest faith' and
to mold all affairs of the state - financial and political - according
to the sharia. In 1665, customs duty on the goods of Muslims was
levied at two and half percent and of Hindus at five percent. In 1667,
the duty on Muslims goods was totally forbidden. He issued a decree
that all posts of head clerk and above be filled with Muslims. (ibid
pp. 88)
2e. Shah Wali-Allah:
A contemporary of Abdul Wahhab of Saudi Arabia, Shah Wali-Allah's
(1703 - 1762) influence on Muslim thought in India cannot be
overemphasized.
Muslim historian I H Qureshi, (had been member of the Indian as well
as Pakistan Historical Records Commission, of the Council of the
Indian and Pakistan Institutes of International Affairs, of the
executive committees of the Indian History Conference and Pakistan
historical Society). wrote:
"Shah Wali-ullah was a man of encyclopedic learning. He was not one of
those scholars who keep different branches of knowledge in different
chambers of their mind.....The world has not produced many scholars
like him....During his lifetime his greatness was recognized by his
contemporaries and his claim to that he was MUJADDID - renewer of the
Faith -- of his century was not challenged by any one." (Ulema in
Politics -- I H Qureshi, Delhi, 1985, pp 126)
Shah Wali-Ullah is regarded as one of the greatest Muslim thinkers of
all times. This is just to emphasize what position Shah Wali-Ullah
holds in Islam and what his views about Hindus and proselytization
were?
"They (Imams) should preach that other religions were worthless since
their founders were not perfect, and their practice was opposed to
divine law, interpolations having made them unbelievable......" (Shah
Wali-Allah and His Times, SAA Rizvi, Australia, 1980, pp. 286)
"Another means of ensuring conversions was to prevent other religious
communities from worshipping their own gods. Moreover, unfavorable
discriminating laws should be imposed on non-Muslims in matters of
rules of retaliation, compensation for manslaughter and marriage, and
in political matters." (ibid pp. 286)
To streamline the Mughal administration, he wrote to Emperor Ahmad
Shah: " Strict orders should be issued in all Islamic towns forbidding
religious ceremonies publicly practiced by the infidels."(ibid pp.
294)
Most of Muslim rulers in fact did exactly the same, and many Muslim
countries do it even today. Saudi Arabia is the prime example. In
Saudi Arabia practice of any religion other than Islam is illegal. It
is reminiscent of the laws decreed by many Muslims rulers of India.
Aurangzeb, as stated above, had issued orders to ban public practice
of Hindu religion, construction of new temples and repair of old
ones.
"However, the proselytization programme of Shah Wali-Allah only
included the leaders of the Hindu community. The low class of the
infidels, according to him, were to be left alone to work in the
fields and for paying jizya. They, like beasts of burden and
agricultural livestock, were to be kept in abject misery and
despair."(ibid, pp. 286)
And the same people want us to believe Muslims have no caste
distinction. Even when Hindus were converted to Islam Hindus of higher
caste got relatively better treatment than the Hindus of the lower
castes. But still local converted Hindus were never treated as equal
to foreign Muslims. All Muslim administrations were full of first
generation Muslims from all over the Muslim world or their descendants
-- not of local converted Muslims.
2 f. Conversion from Buddhists:
"As far Buddhists, I am unable to see what possible incentive there
was for them to abandon their faith." Javed Anand wrote. Javed is
right, Buddhists had no incentive to convert to Islam and for that
matter neither did the Hindus or the Jains or the Zoroastrians.
Khurasan, Persis, Irak, Mosul, and the country up to the border of
Syria was Buddhistic. First Zoroastrians banished them from these
countries and pushed them to east of Balkh. Then came Islam and all
remnants of Buddhism were wiped off from Afghanistan and Central Asia.
(Alberuni's India, Delhi, 1993, pp. 21) Buddhist center at Nalanda was
wrecked by the marauders of Bakhtiyar Khilji about 1200 CE beyond
recovery, thus ending a continuous tradition of refuge and meeting-
place for ascetics which went back to the centuries before the Buddha.
(Indigenous Indians, Elst, Delhi, 1993, pp. 424) If anything was left,
the lofty statues of Buddha, carved on a mountain side were taken care
of the proud students of Islam - Taliban - in 2001.
True, Buddhists had no incentive to convert but Buddhism was destroyed
root and branch in Muslim territory but not in Hindu territory.
(Indigenous Indians, Elst, Delhi, 1993, pp. 424)
•3. Modern Times:
3a. Twentieth Century: In modern times, in the last century also there
were many conversions to Islam. The ones in Malabar, Noakhali, the
Punjab in 1947 stand out. All this is rather recent history and
details are easily available. All these conversions in the last
century were the result of matter of survival for the converted
whether it was Malabar or Noakhali or the killing grounds of Punjab in
the aftermath of the partition. The "outcasts" of the Hindu society
didn't exactly run to the mosques to hear its "celestial" music. On
the other hand let us see what the most outstanding leader of the
"outcasts" did?
3b. "Outcasts of Hindu society": There is no more prominent "outcast"
of Hindu society than Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar. He is in all likelihood
the greatest intellectual of all times among the "outcast" - a term
Javed Anand likes to use. Dr. Ambedkar had carried out thorough
research of the genesis of Hindu caste system and Hindu scriptures,
Buddhism, Islam and Christianity. He renounced Hinduism but neither
did the "celestial music" of Islam nor its open doors lure him into
the lap of Islam. He spurned all offers to convert to Islam and
Christianity and opted for Buddhism. Why?
"Nothing is infallible. Nothing is binding forever. Everything is
subject to inquiry and examination.": Ambedkar wrote. (Dr. Ambedkar,
Writings as and Speeches, vol. 3, Govt. of Maharashtra, 1987 , pp 442,
quoted in Indigenous Indians, Koenraad Elst, New Delhi,1993, pp. 390)
This is quite in contrast to Islamic belief where "the Koran is the
word of God, immutable and unalterable; it contains guidelines which a
Muslim must follow." It is beyond any question or doubt. It must be
accepted as the Final Truth - the Last Word of Allah.
Not only Ambedkar did not convert to Islam he was opposed to Scheduled
castes converting to Islam. After Partition the scheduled caste
politician J N Mandal was given a seat in the Pakistani cabinet as a
showpiece to lure the Scheduled castes to convert to Islam. J N Mandal
accepted this against the advice of Ambedkar. It was a great
disappointment for Mandal and soon after he resigned.
(http://www.hvk.org/specialarts/mandal/mandal.html)
Ambedkar complained that Pakistan was not allowing the Scheduled
castes to emigrate to India and was forcibly converting them to Islam.
In order to increase the Muslim population, in Hyderabad also they
were being forcibly converted. He asked them not to put their faith
in Muslims or the Muslim League just because they do not like the
Hindus. It would be fatal for them to do so. He would see that all
those who were forcibly converted would be taken back into the fold,
he said. Whatever the oppression and tyranny the Hindus practised in
them, it should not warp their vision and swerve them from their
duty." (Indigenous Indians, Koenraad Elst, New Delhi, 1993, pp.
402-3)
•4. Conclusion
There are many faults in Hinduism. At least Hindus are aware of them
and they are working at it. But as seen above, any of the fault lines
has nothing to do with their conversion to Islam. Moreover, Hinduism
is not stuck in a fixed time frame. What was true of Hinduism
yesterday no longer holds true today and Hinduism of tomorrow will be
altogether a different entity. Whatever, Mr. Javed Anand might say or
think casteism is not the soul of Hinduism.
However, there is no historical evidence whatsoever to suggest that
the "outcasts" - a term Javed Anand likes to use - were so charmed by
the "celestial" music of Islam that they jumped into its arms as the
doors of mosques were flung open. Again, only six decades ago, Hindus
suffered untold misery of life and property but came to India. They
could have converted to Islam and stayed in the only land they had
ever known in history.
If it was the "evil" caste system of Hindus that "lured" them to the
"celestial" music of Islam, what made the Zoroastrians, Egyptians, the
Anatolians, the Kurds, the Buddhists, the Afghans, the Pagans of
Arabia - to convert to Islam? There runs a common thread.
Hinduism is open - there are no bars for people who want to leave it.
To the contrary Islam has to keep its door closed so that people don't
run out of it and thus made apostasy from Islam a crime punishable
with death.
Last, but not the least, Javed Anand, ruling out Jains as his
ancestors, wrote "Jains? No way , they are not interested in Mughlai
cousin." Javed thinks whoever converted to Islam was for a big
gourmet Mughlai dinner. What a sick sense of humor if he thinks it is
humorous. How I wish the Muslims had restricted their conversion
frenzy only to those who were interested in Mughlai feast.
http://voi.org/20091108287/vinodkumar/column-vinodkumar/tbd.html
On Hindu Cowardice and Muslim Bravery
By Vinod Kumar, on 10-01-2010 07:32
There is common perception that Hindus are cowards and Muslims are
brave. Even Mahatma Gandhi went on to write: "Hindu is a coward and a
Muslim a bully by nature."
This perception mostly results from the fact that a small number of
Muslims were able to defeat the Hindus and rule over them for
centuries.
If one were to analyze the underlying causes that led to the defeat of
the Hindus, there is no evidence to suggest that the Hindu is coward
-- Hindus just have different ideology -- a different set of
priorities and ideas about nature of things.
Hindu defeats were more intellectual and cultural. Muslims brought a
new ideology and a new kind of warfare to India -- one that at first
the Hindus did not understand. And today when they fully understand
it, they are not willing to adopt it.
The Hindu mind regarding "religious" warfare was first expressed by
none else than Alberuni, a scholar in Greek, Farsi and Arabic and an
astronomer in his own right, who came to India with Mahmud Ghaznavi,
stayed in India, learnt Sanskrit, read extensively all Hindu
literature, wrote 20 books including translations on India. In his
still available book Indica, he went on to observe:
"On the whole, there is very little disputing about theological
topics among themselves; at the utmost they fight with words, but they
will never stake their soul or body or their property on religious
controversy."
Hindus believed in open discussion of theological topics but did not
kill each other for their opinions and they could not understand why
would one kill others for differing on matter of theology or imposing
their own ideas on others.
Almost thousand years later, talking of the betrayal of king Dahir of
Debal, V S Naipaul went on to explain the Hindus' reaction to Muslim
invasions in the following words:
"It is the first of the betrayals that will assist the Arab conquest.
But they are not betrayals, really. They are no more than the actions
of people who understand only that power is power, and believe they
are changing rulers; they cannot conceive that a new way is about to
come."
Last update : 10-01-2010 07:34
Hindu kings, before Islam, fought incessantly but it made no
difference to general public -- they were not asked to change their
religion, their women were not raped, their temples and cities were
not plundered and desecrated. The war did not touch their personal
lives. All they got was another king.
A new way did dawn upon India after the conquest of Muhammad bin Kasim
but the cultural moorings of Hindu were so strong that they refused to
learn the new ways of Islam. That would have meant giving up Hinduism.
While civilizations of Arabia, Egypt, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Iran and
others crumbled before the Islamic onslaught, Hindus withstood it for
centuries. Had the Hindus been cowards, India today would have been a
purely Islamic state. They refused to be annihilated and were not
desirous of annihilating even the aggressor. Religious warfare, as
Alberuni observed, has no place in their ideology.
It is not Hindus lack of understanding of these new ways even after
almost 1300 years and even when Hindus were massacred in Pakistan,
they failed to retaliate in India. Even today after all the massacres
of Hindus in Kashmir, the Hindus don't want to fight in the name of
religion. Secularism in India is not an empty slogan or mere cosmetic
-- it is the very basis of Hindu beliefs and that is why a common
Hindu is still ashamed of Babri masjid demolition while a Muslim -- of
Hindu ancestry -- has no qualms or shame of the destruction of tens of
thousands of Hindu temples by Muslim invaders. The difference in
behavior is nothing but the ideology that one follows -- both have the
same genetic pool in their blood stream.
It is not without reason that despite what has been visited upon the
Hindus by the Muslims, Hindu India is still a secular country while
there is not a single Muslim country that subscribes to the ideal of
secularism. M J Akbar in his book The Siege within India admits that
India is secular because it is a Hindu majority country.
As far as Hindu bravery is concerned -- it is well documented in the
annals of Muslim victors themselves -- I need not go into details of
that. It is the Hindu psyche that refuses to act contrary to their
long held beliefs that killing in the name of religion is not the
right thing to do.
The success of the Muslim invaders came not from their being a martial
or superior race or being physically stronger -- it were the same
Arabs who had not done any "brave" acts other than trading in entire
history before Islam -- it was only after they took on the ideology of
Islam that preached them to be cruel to all infidels and spread the
"TRUE FAITH" that they went on the rampage. The Buddhist Afghans had
lived with their Buddhist/Hindu neighbors for a millennium -- it was
only after they adopted the creed of Islam that they went on the
rampage on those very people with whom they shared history and
culture.
A study of the lives and teachings of Muhammad and Buddha, Mahavir and
even Gandhi today will explain why the Muslims and the Hindus behave
the way they do. Physically and genetically an Indian/Pakistani Muslim
is no different from his Hindu compatriot -- it is the ideology that
one follows that makes the difference. It is the ideology that makes
them act so differently from each other.
The Vedic "Ekam satya, viprah bahuda vadanti" -- there is one truth
but people call it by different names -- is deeply engraved on and
continues to control the Hindu mind and actions while the Koranic
injunctions "Islam is the only true faith" and "Those who do not
believe in Our revelations shall be inheritors of Hell" continue to
guide the minds and lives of Muslims.
http://voi.org/20100110336/vinodkumar/column-vinodkumar/onhinducowardiceandmuslimbravery.html
India As Alberuni Saw It
By Vinod Kumar, on 17-01-2010 04:19
Abu Rihan Muhammad bin Ahmad, Alberuni as his compatriots called him
was born about A.D. 973, in the territory of modern Khiva, then called
Khwarizm. He came to as Ghazni as a prisoner of war1. He was an
astronomer, geometrician, historian and logician. He was so studious,
his earliest biographer tells us "he never had a pen out of his hand,
nor his eye ever off a book, and his thoughts were ever directed to
his studies, with the exception of two days in the year". He was
beyond comparison, superior to every man of his time in the art of
composition, in scholarlike accomplishments, and in the knowledge of
geometry and philosophy, and above all he had "most rigid regard for
truth."2 He accompanied Mahmud of Ghazni to India and stayed there for
many years, chiefly, in all probability in the Punjab, studied the
Sanskrit language and translated into it some works from the Arabic,
and translated from it two treatises into Arabic3. Sachau, translator
of Alberuni's Indica believes Alberuni "composed about twenty books on
India4, both translations and original compositions, and a number of
tales and legends, mostly derived from the ancient lore of Eran and
India." He was indeed a prolific writer and his works are stated to
have exceeded a camel-load.5
Let me also make another observation about Alberuni. He regards Hindus
as excellent philosophers and he felt strong inclination towards Hindu
philosophy but still he was a Muslim and at times does not fail to
point out the superiority of Islam over Brahmanic India. He attacks
Arabs but not Islam6. He wrote for those Muslims who "want to converse
with the Hindus, and to discuss with them the questions of religion,
science, or literature, on the very basis of their own civilization."7
While discussing astronomical calculations regarding the order of the
planets, their distances and sizes, he reminds the reader the purpose
of his book once again --- to discuss subjects "which either are
noteworthy for their strangeness, or which are unknown among our own
people (the Muslims) and our (the Muslim) countries."8
Having given a brief introduction, let us now see what Alberuni had to
say about India, the land, its people, its religion, its philosophy,
its sciences, and its literature.
•1. Hindu Muslim Differences:
Alberuni starts Indica by observing "the Hindus entirely differ from
us in every respect"9. First and foremost difference is the language.
Sanskrit is a language of enormous range, both in words and in
inflections. They call one and the same thing by various names and
unless one knows the context in which the word is spoken. Some of the
sounds of consonants are neither identical nor resemble with the
Arabic and Persian. And the Hindus write their scientific books in
metrics so that they can be committed to memory and thus prevented
from corruption. This metrical form of literary composition makes the
study of Sanskrit particularly difficult.10
Not only the language, the Hindus totally differ from us (Muslims) in
religion, as "we believe in nothing in which they believe" and vice
versa. He goes on to observe that on theological topics "at the utmost
they fight with words, but they will never stake their soul or body or
their property on religious controversy."11 Instead, he noted, all
their fanaticism is directed against foreigners whom they call
mlecchas i.e. impure and forbid any connection with them12. The Hindus
have concepts of pollution and never desire that once thing is
polluted, it should be purified and thus recovered. They are not
allowed receive anybody who does not belong to them, even if he wished
to be inclined to their religion13, he went on to write.
He wrote the customs and manners the Hindus differ so completely from
the Muslims that "they frighten their children with us, our dress and
our ways and customs" and decree us as "devil's breed". They regard
"everything we do as opposite of all that is good and proper".14 Some
of the reasons of Hindus' repugnance of Muslims are complete
banishment of Buddhists from countries from Khurasan, Persis, Irak,
Mosul and Syria, first by the Zoroastrians and then by Islam. And then
Muhammad ibn Elkasim entered India proper, conquered the cities of
Bahmanwa and Mulsthan and went as far as Kanauj -- "all these events
planted a deeply rooted hatred in their hearts."15
And then Sabuktagin choosing the holy war as his calling, called
himself a Ghazi, built those roads on Indian frontier which his son
Sultan Yamin-uddaula Mahmud, during a period of thirty years, used to
utterly ruin "the prosperity of the country, and performed those
wonderful exploits, by which the Hindus became like atoms of dust
scattered in all directions, and like a tale of old in the mouth of
the people." He goes on to say "their scattered remains cherish, of
course, the most inveterate aversion towards all Muslims."16
Alberuni does not talk much about Mahmud whom he calls "the lion of
the world, the wonder of his time" when he remembers him for
"breaking the strongest pillar of religion", 17 and his raids into
India, except a few times. Once about his ruining the prosperity of
the country as quoted above and second when he writes of his
demolition of the idol, in the year A.H. 416, at Somnath much revered
by the Hindus. The upper part of the idol was demolished and the lower
part transported to his residence in Ghazni with all its trappings.
One part of it, along with the bronze idol of Chakraswamin from
Thanesar, was thrown into the hippodrome and another part before the
door of the mosque of Ghazni, on which people rub their feet to clean
them from dirt and wet. 18
•2. On Hindus customs:
He found Hindus to be very proud of their country, their kings, their
religion, their sciences to the extent that he thought them to be
"haughty, foolishly vain, self-conceited and stolid."19
Many customs of the Hindus, he observed, differ from Muslims' "to such
a degree as to appear to us simply monstrous." Hindu customs, not
only, not resemble to Muslim customs but are the very reverse; and if
ever a custom of theirs resembles one of the Muslims, it has certainly
the opposite meaning. He goes on to say that it seems as if "they
(Hindus) had intentionally changed into the opposite".20
What are these customs of the Hindus that he observed that he thought
were the opposite of theirs?
"The Hindus eat singly, one by one, on a tablecloth of dung. They do
not make use of the remainder of a meal, and the plates from which
they have eaten are thrown away if they are earthen."
"They drink wine before having eaten anything, then they take their
meal. They drink the stall of cows but they do not eat their meat."
"In all consultations and emergencies they take advice of the women."
"They do not seek permission to enter a house, but when they leave it
they ask permission to do so."
"In their meetings they sit cross-legged."
"They magnify the nouns of their language by giving them the feminine
gender, as the Arabs magnify them by diminutive form."
"They consider the crepitus ventris as a good omen, sneezing as a bad
omen."
"They write the title of the book at the end of it, not at the
beginning".21
Last update : 17-01-2010 04:26
•3. Hindu Arithmetic:
On Hindu arithmetic Alberuni observed the Hindus do not use the
letters of their alphabet for numerical notation, as Muslims use the
Arabic letters in the order of the Hebrew alphabet. The use of Arabic
letters for numerals must not have been in wide use when Alberuni
wrote c.1030 CE, for these have been communicated to the Arabs in the
eighth and ninth centuries as he goes on to accept that "the numeral
signs which we use have been derived from the finest forms of Hindu
signs." Having observed the names of the orders of the numbers in
various languages he had come in contact with, Alberuni found that no
nation goes beyond the thousand including the Arabs. Those who beyond
the thousand in their numeral system are the Hindus who extend the
names of the orders of numbers until the 18th order.22
Pulisa has adpoted the relation between the circumference and
diameter of a circle to be 3 177/1250 which comes out to 3.1416.23
•4. Astronomy and sciences:
While ancient puranic traditions about the earth and heavens and their
creation still existed, but these were in direct opposition to the
scientific truths known to Indian astronomers.
While it is not possible to mention all the theories and concepts
prevalent at the time, let it suffice to say what some of the ideas
of Hindu astronomers that Alberuni found interesting were. Quoting
Brahamgupta, Alberuni wrote:
"Several circumstances, however, compel us to attribute globular shape
to both the earth and the heaven, viz. the fact that the stars rise
and set in different places at different times, so that, e.g. a man in
Yamakoti observes one identical start rising above the western
horizon, whilst a man in Rum at the same time observes it rising above
the eastern horizon. Another argument to the same effect is this, that
a man on Meru observes one identical star above the horizon in the
zenith of Lanka, the country of demons, whilst a man in Lanka at the
same time observes it above his head. Besides all astronomical
observations are not correct unless we assume the globular shape of
heaven and earth. Therefore we must declare that heaven is a globe,
and the observation of these characteristics of the world would not be
correct unless in reality it were a globe. Now it is evident that all
other theories about the world are futile." 24
Quoting Varahmira, he further continues:
"Mountains, seas, rivers, trees, cities, men, and angels, all are
around the globe of the earth. And if Yamakoti and Rum are opposite to
each other, one could not say that the one is low in relation to the
other, since low does not exist.... Every one speaks of himself, 'I am
above and the others are below,' whilst all of them are around the
globe like the blossoms springing on the branches of a Kadamba-tree.
They encircle it on all the sides, but each individual blossom has the
same position as the other, neither one hanging downward nor then
other standing upright." He emphasized: "For the earth attracts that
which is upon her, for it is the below towards all directions, and
heaven is the above towards all directions."
There was no consensus about the resting or movement of the earth.
Aryabahata thought that the earth is moving and the heaven resting.
Many astronomers contested this saying were it so, stones and trees
would fall from earth. But Brahamgupta did not agree with them saying
that that would not happen apparently because he thought all heavy
things are attracted towards the center of the earth.26
The above gives some idea as to the nature of discussion in astronomy
at that time but Sachau observes these ideas had not changes much
since the eighth century when the knowledge of Hindu sciences were
communicated to the Arabs.
On the topic of ocean tides, Alberuni wrote that the educated Hindus
determine the daily phases of the tides by the rising and setting of
the moon, the monthly phases by the increase and waning of the moon;
but the physical cause of the both phenomenon is not understood by
them.27
The Hindus have cultivated numerous branches of science and have
boundless literature, which with his knowledge, he could comprehend.
He wished he could have translated Panchtantra which in Arabia was
known as the not book of Kalila and Dimna.28
•5. Hindu Laws:
Hindu laws, Alberuni observed are derived from their rishis, the
pillars of their religion and not from the prophets i.e. Narayana..
"Narayana only comes into this world in the form of human figure to
set the world right when things have gone wrong. Hindus can easily
abrogate their laws for they believe such changes are necessitated by
the change of nature of man. Many things which are now forbidden were
allowed before". 29
•6. On pilgrimage and sacred places:
Pilgrimages, Alberuni noted, are not obligatory for the Hindus, but
"facultative and meritorious". Most of the venerated places are
located in the cold regions round mount Meru.30
About the construction of Holy ponds, let me quote his own words:
"In every place to which some particular holiness is ascribed, the
Hindus construct ponds intended for the ablutions. In this they have
attained to a very degree of art, so that our people (the Muslims),
when they see them, wonder at them, and are unable to describe them,
much less to construct anything like them. They build them of great
stones of enormous bulk, joined to each other by sharp and strong
cramp-irons, in the form of steps (or terraces) like so many ledges;
and these terraces run all around the pond, reaching to a height of
more than a man's stature. On the surface of the stones between two
terraces they construct staircases rising like pinnacles. Thus the
first step or terraces are like roads 9leading up and down). If ever
so many people descend to the pond whilst others ascend, they do not
meet each other, and the road is never blocked, because there are so
many terraces, and the ascending person can always turn aside to
another terrace than on which the descending people go. By this
arrangement all troublesome thronging is avoided."31
May be what he had in mind was Chand Baori well near Jaipur built in
9th century..
http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/FBBBCA69-8F08-4DCD-A351-9E93D9D31EBC/
•7. Hindu caste system:
No discussion of India would be complete without observation on the
contemporary caste system and rightly so Alberuni does miss it. He
describes the traditional division of Hindu society along the four
Varnas and the Antyaja -- who are not reckoned in any caste; but makes
no mention of any oppression of low caste by the upper castes. Much,
however the four castes differ from each other, they live together in
the same towns and villages, mixed together in the same houses and
lodgings. The Antyajas are divided into eight classes -- formed into
guilds -- according to their professions who freely intermarry with
each other except with the fuller, shoemaker and the weaver. They live
near the villages and towns of the four castes but outside of them.32
On the eating customs of the four castes, he observed that when eating
together, they form a group of their own caste, one group not
comprising a member of another caste. Each person must have his own
food for himself and it is not allowed to eat the remains of the meal.
They don't share food from the same plate as that which remains in the
plate becomes after the first eater has taken part, the remains of the
meal.33
Alberuni wrote extensively on India and on many aspects. It is
impossible to cover every topic in a rather small article but I have
tried to give some of the points which would look strange or were not
known to the Muslims.
1 Sachau E C, Alberuni's India, Low Price Publications, New Delhi,
1993, pp. viii
2 Elliot and Dowson, The History of India as told by its own
historians, Low Price Publications, New Delhi, 1996, vol. II, pp. 2
3 ibid., pp. 5
4 Sachau, pp. xxvii
5 Elliot and Dowson, vol. II, pp. 3
6 Sachau, pp.185,
7 Sachau, pp. xvii, xix, xxiii
8 Sachau, pp. ii - 80
9 Sachau, pp. 17
10 Sachau, pp.18-19
11Sachau, pp. 19
12 Sachau, pp. 19
13 Sachau, pp. 20
14 Sachau, pp. 20
15 Sachau, pp. 21
16 Sachau, pp. 22
17 Sachau, pp. ii - 2
18 Sachau, pp. ii - 103
19 Sacahu, pp. 22
20 Sachau, pp. 179
21 Sachau, pp. 180-2
22 Sachau, pp. 174
23 Sachau, pp. 169
24 Sachau, pp. 268
25 Sacahu, pp. 272
26 Sachau, pp. 276-7
27 Sachau, pp ii-105
28 Sachau, pp. 159
29 Sacahu, pp. 106 - 7
30 Sachau, pp. ii - 142
31 Sacahu, pp. ii144 - 5
32 Sachau. Pp. 101
33 Sachau, pp. 102
http://voi.org/20100117341/vinodkumar/column-vinodkumar/indiaasalberunisawit.html
From The Pages of History
By Vinod Kumar, on 31-01-2010 11:06
Earth's Rotation, Globular Shape and Gravity
When we talk of the earth going around the sun as it has always done,
its globular shape, the different seasons, different lengths of day
and night, mind goes back to Galileo and Copernicus, scared to death,
holding the truth back lest the fury of the church falls upon them for
letting the world know the reality of nature. When one thinks of
gravity one thinks of Newton sitting under an apple tree watching an
apple fall to the ground and Newton proclaiming "Lo! there is
gravity."
If I were to say Hindu philosophers talked and wrote about gravity and
the globular shape of the earth centuries before Newton and Galileo
and Copernicus, and quoted Hindu sources, I would not only be
dismissed as a "fanatical Hindu communalist" by our 'all-knowing-
secular intellectuals' but also incur their wrath. And who wants
that?
In order to state the truth and make it acceptable to our 'all-knowing-
secular intellectuals' let me seek the help of a Muslim scholar from
Central Asia. Who around 1030 AD wrote a very comprehensive book
"Indica" about India -- its literature, its philosophy, its religion,
its culture, its languages, its history, its geography, its customs,
its sciences including astronomy. I am talking about Abu-Raihan
Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Alberuni -- a scholar and a devout genuine Muslim
by all standards.
Before I go into what Alberuni wrote let us take some time to find out
more about this man -- Alberuni.
In the words of Edward Sachau -- translator of Alebruni's 'Indica':
"Mahmud marched into the country, not without some fighting,
established there one of his generals as provincial governor, and soon
returned to Ghazna with much booty and a great part of Khiva troops,
together with the princes of the deposed family of Mamun and the
leading men of the country as prisoners of war or as hostages. Among
the last was Abu-Raihan Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Alberuni. This happened in
the spring and summer of AD 1017."
"When he (Alberuni) was brought to Ghazna as a hostage, he enjoyed the
reputation of a great 'munajjim' i.e. "astrologer - astronomer". By
the time he wrote 'Indica' thirteen years later after his involuntary
immigration to Afghanistan, he was a master of astrology, both
according to the Greek and the Hindu systems.
"Alberuni felt a strong inclination towards Indian philosophy. He
seems to have thought that the philosophers both in ancient India and
Greece, held in reality the very same ideas, the same as seem to have
been his own i.e. of pure monotheism. He seems to have to have reveled
in the pure theories of Bhagavad-Gita. ... There can scarcely be any
doubt that the Muslims of later times would have found fault with him
for going to such length in his interest for these heathenish
doctrines" observes Sachau, but "still he was Muslim, whether Sunni or
Shia cannot be gathered from Indica. He sometimes takes an occasion
for pointing out to the reader the superiority of Islam over
Brahamanical India... He dares not attack Islam but attacks the
Arabs."
What was the object of his writing 'Indica'?
"The object which the author had in view and never for a moment lost
sight of, was to afford the necessary information and training to any
one (in Islam) who wants to converse with the Hindus, and to discuss
with them questions of religion, science, or literature, on the very
basis of their own civilization."
Alberuni came to India with Mahmud and stayed there. He learnt
Sanskrit and Hindu literature and sciences and indeed wrote a very
comprehensive book about India of those days. As a Muslim he praises
the 'wonderful exploits of Mahmud saying: "Mahmud utterly ruined the
prosperity of the country, and performed those wonderful exploits, by
which the Hindus became like atoms of dust scattered in all
directions" but as a scholar he laments "this is the reason, too, why
Hindu sciences have retired far away from those parts of the country
conquered by us, and have fled to places which our hand cannot yet
reach, to Kashmir, Benares, and other places."
It seems from above that his study was done in area which was under
Mahmud's control, most likely western Punjab. But still what he writes
is very illuminating. Let us now see what wrote about our subject:
astronomy in India and gravity and the solar system.
Quoting from Brahamgupta's Brahamsidhanta, Alberuni wrote:
"Several circumstances, however, compel us to attribute globular shape
to both the earth and the heaven, viz. the fact that the stars rise
and set in different places at different times, so that, e.g. a man in
Yamakoti observes one identical start rising above the western
horizon, whilst a man in Rum at the same time observes it rising above
the eastern horizon. Another argument to the same effect is this, that
a man on Meru observes one identical star above the horizon in the
zenith of Lanka, the country of demons, whilst a man in Lanka at the
same time observes it above his head. Besides all astronomical
observations are not correct unless we assume the globular shape of
heaven and earth. Therefore we must declare that heaven is a globe,
and the observation of these characteristics of the world would not be
correct unless in reality it were a globe. Now it is evident that all
other theories about the world are futile."
Last update : 31-01-2010 11:12
Earlier philosophers like Aryabhata, Vasishtha and Lata had also come
to the same conclusion and Alberuni goes on to quote Varahmira: "all
things which are perceived by the senses, are witness in favor of the
globular shape of the earth, and refute the possibility of its having
any other shape."
On the subject of the rotation of the earth Alberuni writes:
"As regards the resting of the earth, one of the elementary problems
of astronomy, which offers many and great difficulties, this, too, is
a dogma with the Hindu astronomers. Brahamgupta says in the
Brahamsiddhanta: 'some people maintain that the first motion (from
east to west) does not lie in the meridian, but belongs to the earth.
But Varahmira refutes them by saying: If that were the case, a bird
would not return to its nest as soon as it had flown away from it
towards the west.' And, in fact it is precisely as Varahmira says."
Alberuni agrees with Varahmira that earth does not rotate.
Alberuni goes on to quote Brahamgupta:
"The followers of Aryabhata maintain that the earth is moving and the
heaven resting. People have tried to refute them by saying that, if
such were the case, stones would and trees would fall from the earth.
Brahamgupta does not agree with them, and says that that would not
necessarily follow from their theory, apparently because he thought
that all heavy things are attracted towards the center of the earth.
He says: 'On the contrary, if that were the case, the earth would not
vie in keeping an even and uniform pace with the minutes of heaven,
the pranas of the times."
Alberuni does not agree with Brahamgupta and is unable to understand
the rotation of the earth and goes on to write:
"Supposing this to be true, and that the earth makes a complete
rotation eastward in so many breaths as heaven does according to his
(Brahamgupta's) view, we cannot see what should prevent the earth from
keeping an even and uniform pace with heaaven
Stubbornly he refuses to accept the theory of the rotation of the
earth and goes on to say:
"Besides, the rotation of the earth in no way impair the value of
astronomy, as all appearances of an astronomic character can quite as
well be explained according to this theory as to the other. There are,
however, other reasons which make it impossible."
Alberuni says he also has written a book on this subject in which ' we
have surpassed our predecessors' but does not tell what his theories
are?
On the question of gravity and other issues like top and bottom, high
and low, Alberuni quotes Brahamgupta and says:
"Scholars have declared that the globe of the earth is in the midst of
heaven, and that Mount Meru, the home of Devas, as well as Vadavamukha
below, is the home of their opponents; the Daitya and Dhanava belong
to it. But his below is according to them is only a relative one.
Disregarding this, we say that the earth on all its sides is the same;
all people on earth stand upright, and all heavy things fall down to
the earth by a law of nature, for it is the nature of the earth to
attract and to keep things, as it is the nature of water to flow, that
of fire to burn, and that of wind to set in motion... The earth is the
only low thing, and seeds always return to it, in whatever direction
you may throw them away, and never rise upwards from the earth."
Varahmira explains it further:
"Mountains, seas, rivers, trees, cities, men, and angels, all are
around the globe of the earth. And if Yamakoti and Rum are opposite to
each other, one could not say that the one is low in relation to the
other, since low does not exist.... Every one speaks of himself, 'I am
above and the others are below,' whilst all of them are around the
globe like the blossoms springing on the branches of a Kadamba-tree.
They encircle it on all the sides, but each individual blossom has the
same position as the other, neither one hanging downward nor then
other standing upright." He emphasized: "For the earth attracts that
which is upon her, for it is the below towards all directions, and
heaven is the above towards all directions."
Now these were the thoughts of Hindu philosophers as recorded by
Alberuni in the early part of the eleventh century and these had not
changed for centuries. Alberuni quotes heavily from Brahamgupta whose
Brahamsiddhanta was composed in AD 628. But it was Aryabhata, born in
AD 476, the first to hold that the earth was a sphere and rotated on
its axis and that the eclipses were not the work of Rahu but caused by
the shadow of the earth falling on the moon. His Aryabhatiya was
composed in AD 499.
It is clear from above that it was over a millennium before Galileo,
Copernicus and Newton that the Hindu philosophers had formulated the
theories about the globular shape and rotation of the earth and
gravity.
http://voi.org/20100131352/vinodkumar/column-vinodkumar/fromthepagesofhistory.html
My Name is Khan
By Vinod Kumar, on 15-03-2010 03:52
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's pronouncement not to let Shah Rukh
Khan's starrer My Name Is Khan be screened in Mumbai created much
sensation around the world and publicity for the film -- the publicity
that it could not have bought at any cost. Actually, Bal Thackeray's
action had nothing to do with the film itself - it was all about Shah
Rukh's saying that Pakistan is "great neighbor" whatever Shah Rukh's
definiotn of a "great neighbor" is. But anyway, film's name My Name is
Khan and its oft publicized credo "My name is Khan and I am not a
terrorist" in itself is quite provocative.
The film though made in India is set in the USA and deals in the
aftermath of September 11, 2001 attacks on the twin towers and the
pentagon. What was the purpose of making the film and declaring
basically that even though I am a Muslim but I am not terrorist? As
soon as the attacks happened American administration went out of its
way to insist and make a point that Islam has nothing to do with the
acts of terrorism and Muslims are patriotic citizens of the country.
So what was the point to go and tell the President of the United
States seven years after the act even though I am a Muslim, I am not a
terrorist - the President has been telling the world that from day
one. He need not be told what he has been proclaiming from day one.
If anyone that needed to be told the massage were the perpetrators of
the crime who carried out the act in the name of Islam.
Now then what was the film all about?
It seems the sole purpose the film was made was a propaganda for
Islam. But anything that is carried too far loses its appeal and that
is exactly what the film succeeded in achieving. Every film, every
story has to have some exaggeration to make a point - that is normal.
But when carried to beyond imagination and all limits, it turns
people off. The film may find appreciative audience in the Muslim
Middleast and other Islamic countries - and blind admirers of Shah
Rukh which are aplenty -- but it will turn off a neutral person. It
is difficult to imagine how Shah Rukh would have handled the character
of an autistic person had Dustin Hoffman not done the role in The Rain
Man - if the face of Shah Rukh is covered one would not know whether
it is him or Dustin. The story is weak.
Shah Rukh by doing the role has done a big disfavor to his image of
being a representative of the secular film industry of India. He is
now just an Islamic propagandist.
http://voi.org/20100315384/vinodkumar/column-vinodkumar/mynameiskhan.html
http://voi.org/vinodkumar/viewallarticles.html?list=1
Don't Block the 'Internet Hindus'
By Kanchan Gupta, on 15-03-2010 04:38
Hindus who are proud to assert their identity and fly the Tricolour
high have now found a new platform to have their say, the way they
want it, without fear of being shouted down. Tired of being derided by
pseudo-secularists in media who see nothing wrong with Muslim
communalism and Christian fundamentalism but are swift to pounce upon
Hindus for being ‘intolerant', their cultural ethos crudely denigrated
by the Left-liberal intelligentsia as antediluvian, Hindus have begun
to harness technology to strike back with deadly effect.
They are bright, they are well-educated, they are not burdened with
regional and caste biases, they are amazingly well-informed on
national issues and world affairs, they are rooted in Indian culture,
and they are politically alert. They hate being told they are wrong
when they know they are right. They have a mind of their own and
refuse to be led like sheep. Not surprisingly, they hold the Congress,
the Left and regional parties in contempt, as they do journalists who
cravenly ingratiate themselves with the establishment. For them, India
matters - and matters more than anything else. Meet the ‘Internet
Hindus'.
In recent days there has been a spate of articles disparaging the
‘Internet Hindus', variously describing them as "loonies", "fanatics",
"irrational", "Hindu Taliban" and, by an enraged news channel anchor,
"gutter snipes". Much of the criticism has come from left-of-centre
journalists who believe they have unfettered monopoly over media as
their inalienable birth right. Exalted members of Delhi's
commentariat, who are indistinguishable from the city's la-di-dah
socialites, tend to turn up their noses every time they hear the
phrase ‘Internet Hindus' as they would at the suggestion of travelling
by public transport. Others are given to contemptuously brushing aside
‘Internet Hindus' as being irrelevant and describing their views as
inconsequential. All this and more has neither dampened the spirit of
‘Internet Hindus' nor blunted their assertive attitude.
Here are some statistics, culled from an ongoing online survey, which
would help create a generic profile of ‘Internet Hindus'. The survey
is open to all Hindus who use the Internet; the response has been
overwhelming. Of those who have responded, 88.9 per cent have
identified themselves as ‘Internet Hindus', indicating they attach no
shame to the term though their critics would want them to feel
ashamed. Of the respondents, four per cent are aged 20 years and
below; 55 per cent are aged 30 and below; 31 per cent are 40 and
below; and, only 10 per cent are aged above 40. In brief, 90 per cent
of them are young Indians.
The educational profile of the respondents is awesome: 43 per cent are
graduates (most of them from top-notch engineering, science and
medical colleges); 46 per cent are post-graduates (a large number of
them have MBA degrees from the best B-schools); and, 11 per cent have
PhDs. It is understandable that none of them is unemployed. Those
without jobs are still studying (17.3 per cent) and can be found in
labs and classrooms of the best universities here and abroad. Of the
82.7 per cent who are employed, 3.1 per cent earn up to Rs 2 lakh a
year; 18.4 per cent earn up to Rs 6 lakh a year; 34.7 per cent earn up
to Rs 12 lakh a year; and, 26.5 per cent earn more than Rs 24 lakh a
year. Nearly 60 per cent of them frequently travel abroad on work and
holiday. Some 11 per cent have travelled abroad at least once.
Contrary to the impression that is being sought to be created by their
critics, ‘Internet Hindus' are open to ideas, believe in a plural, law-
abiding society and swear by the Constitution. They are often appalled
by the shenanigans of our politicians, including those of the BJP, and
are ruthless in decrying politics of identity and cynical vote-bank
policies. They have no gender prejudices and most of them think
banning FTV is downright silly in this day and age. The ‘Internet
Hindus' will not countenance denigration of their faith or biased
media coverage of events, but 91.9 per cent of them respect and accept
other religions. Asked if India is meant only for Hindus, an
overwhelming majority of them, responding to the survey, said, ‘Hell,
no!'
So why do they infuriate pseudo-secularists in media and make Delhi's
commentariat see red? There are three possible explanations. First,
the Net is beyond the control of those who control newspapers and news
channels. While the print and audiovisual media have for long excluded
contrarian opinion and denied space to those who disagree with absurd
notions of ‘secularism' or question the quality of reportage, the Net
has provided space to the ‘other' voice. Real time blog posts now
record the ‘other side' of the day's story ("The Prince was shouted
down in Bihar, not feted by students!"), Twitter affords instant micro-
blogging even as prime time news is being telecast ("That's not true.
I live in Bareilly. This is not how the riots began!"), and YouTube
allows unedited amateur videos of events (the Meraj riots, the
Islamist violence in Kashmir Valley) to be uploaded, giving the lie to
edited and doctored versions shown by news channels.
Second, unlike carefully selected ‘Letters to the Editor' in
newspapers and ‘Feedback' posted on news channel websites, the
reactions of ‘Internet Hindus', often savage and unflattering, cannot
be thrown into the dustbin or deleted with a click of the mouse.
English language media journalists, long used to fawning praise from
readers and viewers, are horrified that someone can actually call them
‘dumb' in public space and there's nothing they can do about it.
Third, the established elite, most of them middle-aged, are beginning
to feel threatened. Here's a new breed of Indians who have used merit
and not ‘connections' to make a mark in professional excellence, young
men and women who are educated and articulate, and are willing to
challenge conventional wisdom as preached by media ‘stars' who have
rarely, if ever, been questioned. The elite who dominate newspapers
and news channels are seen by ‘Internet Hindus' as part of India's
past, not future. As one ‘Internet Hindu' writes in his blog, "A large
number of ex-elite can't stomach fact that children of bankruptcy are
better travelled, better read and dominate the Internet!" Harsh, but
true.
We can describe the ‘Internet Hindus' as the "lunatic fringe", but
that won't change the fact that their tribe is growing by the day.
Soon, those on the fringe will move to the centre and their critics
will find themselves precariously perched on the fringe. The Right is
gaining ground as is the access and reach of the Net; newspapers and
news channels, the Left's last refuge, no longer command absolute
control over information flow. It would be unwise to ‘block' the voice
of ‘Internet Hindus', as then their clamour to be heard will further
increase and there is nothing we can do to silence them. The times
they are a-changin'.
Courtesy: http://www.dailypioneer.com/241956/Don't-block-the-‘Internet-Hindus'.html
http://voi.org/14mar2010/sourced/thepioneer/dontblocktheinternethindus.html
Editorial: The Guilty Men of Our Democracy
By The Editorial Team, on 15-03-2010 03:46
Gujarat and Anti-Sikh Riots
The law of the land should prevail. The highest and the mightiest
should respect the word and spirit of law. Otherwise the very
existence of democracy in the country would be threatened. It would be
a law of the jungle.
Yet, equally important is that the provisions of the Constitution that
provide for equality before law for however high or law, an individual
may be, irrespective of caste, creed and sex. But it is here that our
democracy is deficient.
The SIT constituted by the Supreme Court to investigate some cases of
Gujarat riots has summoned Gujarat Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi.
The law should take its own course. Shri Modi is expected to extend
full cooperation and respect the law of the land.
But what raises eyebrows and pains the observers is the duplicity and
double standards being practiced by the judiciary, the media, the
intelligentsia and the so-called tribe of liberals and secularists.
The Gujarat riots and the 1984 anti-Sikhs riots have many similarities
and, in a sense, the latter riots were more heinous and cruel in the
sense that these were directed only against Sikhs and only in the
States ruled by the Congress. Shri Modi never justified the riots but
the then Congress President and Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi did,
saying on record having stated that "when a big tree falls, the earth
below is sure to shake". Yet, Shri Gandhi has been spared for the anti-
Sikh riots the epithets that are used for Shri Narinder Modi for
Gujarat riots.
More people died in anti-Sikh riots than in Gujarat riots. Delhi then,
and even now, for law and order is directly under the administrative
control. It is here that more than 3300 Sikhs died. The total number
of Sikhs having been butchered in different parts of the country is
more than 4000 while it is about 2500 in Gujarat which includes Hindus
too. For full three days, as per reports of successive Commissions of
Inquiry, the anti-Sikh rioters ruled Delhi and no FIRs were
registered. No military was summoned to quell the riots. The police
remained a silent spectator. Yet, the Congress which ruled at the
Centre and the States continued to remain the holy icon of piety,
secularism and rule of law. Even after 25 years the anti-Sikh riots
sufferers continue to suffer the agony of their loss with little hope
for justice.
Surprisingly, even the courts were not that condescending for Sikh
suffers as these have been for Gujarat riot victims. No Special
Investigating Teams were constituted by the courts which also did no
monitoring of the progress of investigations. Another stark reality is
that while Modi regime registered cases against rioters, prosecuted
them and many have been taken to their logical conclusions with many
convictions, the same is not true of anti-Sikh riots. Many MLAs, ex-
MLAs and other prominent workers of the ruling party in Gujarat are in
jails facing trial. The same cannot be said about anti-Sikh riots.
The human rights organizations which beat their chests for Gujarat
riot victims are, unfortunately and shamelessly, heartless for anti-
Sikh riot victims. They seem to have turned deaf, dumb and blind to
the realities of anti-Sikh riots.
The present Congress-led UPA government, too, for understandable
political reasons, has treated the Gujarat riot victims and anti-Sikh
riots differently. It has been more kind to the former than the
latter.
Why is that the whole system - whether the executive, the judiciary,
the media, intelligentsia and human rights organizations - are
treating the same ugly incidents differently? They are doing a great
disservice to the present system of government and the institutions of
the Constitution. Nobody can be more guilty or more innocent and
deserving more punishment than the other in the same circumstances in
this country.
Let it be a warning to all who matter. By their words and actions and
by indulging in discrimination and favourtism against one section or
the other, they are only venturing to defeat the very purpose and
spirit of democracy. It is they who will tomorrow be counted the
guilty men of our democracy.
http://voi.org/20100315383/14mar2010/editorial/editorial/editorial:theguiltymenofourdemocracy.html
Sita as an Empowered Indian Woman
Book- Review
The other day Rahul Mahajan got married on a reality TV show. His
marriage was of course for real, and one wishes him well in life. Some
one remarked that the show was a tribute to the new Indian woman who
had taken the unconventional path to choosing a life partner. He said
that it was the coming of age of the Indian Woman.
As I watched the final scenes of the show, I was reminded of a comment
a young woman had made some months ago in connection with the
Ramayana. "I do not wish to be a Sita -- meek and submissive. I am the
new Indian woman!"
Three 'new Indian women' stood decked in bridal finery, fluttering
nervously and waiting to be chosen in the final episode. The 'new
Indian women' felt nothing wrong in being commoditised and rejected in
front of a live audience of lakhs across the country. As for the
mythological Sita to whom our young friend had disparagingly referred,
remember that she had chosen her groom on her terms. If this is not
women empowerment, what is!
The following review done by me of a book on Sita adds to what I have
said:
In Search of Sita: Revisiting Mythology
Edited by Malashri Lal & Namita Gokhale
Yatra Books/Penguin Books
Rs 399/-
Perhaps the most enigmatic of all Indian mythological figures is Sita.
She has been in the country's subconsciousness for centuries largely
as the ideal Indian Woman. There has been a tendency by modern
commentators and feminists to run her down for being ‘passive' and
‘submissive' and failing to claim her rights at various stages of her
life, even when she was publicly humiliated for no fault of hers. That
being the case, it would come as no surprise if the ‘modern Indian
woman' is less than enthusiastic in holding her as her ‘hero.'
Given this context, one must welcome with open arms the excellent
collection of essays on Sita edited by Malashri Lal and Namita Gokhale
that seeks to firmly establish her image as a strong-willed woman who
charted her own course in a largely male-dominated society. The irony
is that she had to go through a series of trials and tribulations as a
result of machination by two women, Kaikeyi and Manthara. In Search of
Sita: Revisiting Mythology is a marvellous book that not only has
commentaries written by well-known authors but also contains various
versions of the epic Ramayan, depicting Sita's role. The anthology
also provides a range of "creative interpretations" of the ‘dutiful
and meek' wife of Rama.
What makes the book even more special is the ideological space it
provides to writers with different bends of mind. So, if there is
Meghnad Desai and Indira Goswami, there is also Tarun Vijay and Karen
Gabriel - the latter weaving for the reader an interesting Sita-
Draupadi syntax in a gender context.
It should be clear to the reader, if he or she were under some
illusion, that the character of Sita in the epic was never meant to be
submissive in the face of injustice - to her personally and to the
female gender. One must realise that she could not have become the
icon she is by being a frail figure, forever manipulated and bent by a
patriarchal system. And, as events were to prove, her devotion to her
husband and willingness to be his partner through thick and thin could
not be interpreted as a sign of subordination. Let us look at some of
the instances where her dominance is undisputed.
At her father's home before marriage, Sita would routinely lift
Shiva's bow with her left hand while mopping the floor. It is the same
heavy bow that several strong princes failed to move even an inch from
the ground at her svayamvara. Only Ram succeeded and married her.
Thus, Sita actually set the ground rule for choosing her groom. Is
this a sign of a weak woman?
When Rama was exiled for 14 years, Sita insisted on accompanying him.
Her husband told her categorically that she should not do so as the
exile order was only for him, but she overruled him in the presence of
a number of people. Does this indicate her ‘meekness'?
Abducted by Ravana and surrounded by adversaries, she successfully
fobbed off his advances and threats made directly and through others.
The Lankan king failed to persuade her despite using all means at his
disposal. Does this not show her determination and resolve in the face
of a grim situation?
Banished from the kingdom by Ram, a then pregnant Sita later brought
up her two children as a single mother, imbibing in them the qualities
of valour and fair play. And when they in their boyhood captured her
brother-in-law Laxman, she rushed to get him released, keeping aside
her grief at having been wronged by his family. Surely, this is a sign
of a strong and very mature woman.
Finally, it was her decision to leave the world as a rebuttal to a
demand to prove she had not been ‘defiled' while away from the
kingdom. Given her wrath over the humiliation and determination, it is
unlikely that Rama would have been able to persuade her to change her
mind even if he had tried. In the end, Sita set and lived by her own
terms. It is not easy to find a better example of determined
womanhood.
In Search of Sita is, thus, in many ways a tribute to an ancient icon
by modern India.
http://voi.org/20100315386/14mar2010/general/general/sitaasanempoweredindianwoman.html
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http://hindu.theuniversalwisdom.org/bloodshed-violence-navratri-0
Editorial: Maoist- Naxal Menace Haunts the Nation
http://hindu.theuniversalwisdom.org/editorial-maoist-naxal-menace-haunts-nation
http://hindu.theuniversalwisdom.org/open-letter-prof-m-witzel
Thackeray says no concern for women's welfare in Bill
STAFF WRITER 19:54 HRS IST
Mumbai, Mar 15 (PTI) Days after supporting the Women's Reservation
Bill in the Rajya Sabha, the Shiv Sena now says the legislation is a
ploy to garner women's votes and does not have welfare of women at
heart.
"The bill has nothing to do with women's welfare. It is a ploy to get
women's votes," Sena chief Bal Thackeray said in a statement.
The 83-year-old leader's statement was circulated here as part of his
traditional message to supporters on the occasion of 'Gudhi Padwa'
tomorrow.
"Injustice against women continues. They are suffering due to rising
prices. Is it going to end because of the Bill," he asked.
"Sena has given a clarion call that along with the bill, women should
also get protection. But that is left aside and political colours are
being given," he said.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/566024_Thackeray-says-no-concern-for-women-s-welfare-in-Bill
MNS in film cash dock
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Mumbai, March 15: Mumbai police have arrested 11 Maharashtra Navnirman
Sena activists after film producer Ritesh Sidhwani complained that
they had tried to extort Rs 25 lakh from his film crew.
The producer’s complaint came a month after Shah Rukh Khan refused to
apologise to Shiv Sena patriarch Bal Thackeray whose party tried to
stall the release of My Name is Khan.
Sidhwani, the producer of Dil Chahta Hai, Lakshya, Luck by Chance and
Karthik Calling Karthik, and his film unit told Bandra police that the
11 MNS activists came to the set of the film Crooked at Mehboob Studio
on Sunday afternoon and demanded to know why foreign artistes were
being employed in the film and not local talent. Deputy commissioner
K.M. Prasanna said the film unit explained to them that the “foreign
artistes were required as the sequence recreated Istanbul, Turkey”.
But the activists would not budge.
Prasanna said the MNS workers then allegedly demanded Rs 25 lakh for
not using local artistes.
Ameya Khopkar, the MNS film wing chief denied the allegation of
extortion. “A blatantly false complaint of extortion has been filed
against our boys…. Our people had gone to the set after learning that
the film was using 136 foreign nationals from Afghanistan, Iran and
Russia though they did not possess valid work permits,” he said.
The arrests happened after Sidhwani approached Mukesh Bhatt, the vice-
president of the film producers’ association, and he called up
Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100316/jsp/nation/story_12221472.jsp
BJP-Left House unity rolls on
RADHIKA RAMASESHAN
New Delhi, March 15: The nuclear liability bill today gave the Left
and the BJP another chance to display their vaunted “unity”, kicked
off by the price rise and helped on by the women’s reservation bill.
The two main Opposition groups, which together outnumbered the
depleted Treasury benches in the Lok Sabha today, had braced
themselves to block the bill’s introduction.
Each had opposed the nuclear deal with the US, and the BJP had the
added motive of partially answering its in-house sceptics who felt it
had “put itself out” to bail the government out over the women’s bill.
Estranged UPA allies Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad too joined
forces with the BJP-Left today.
A deflated government, realising what it was up against, deferred the
bill’s introduction. Denied the opportunity for a showdown, the
Opposition still flaunted the new-found unity between the strangest of
bedfellows.
“The unity is actually a direct outcome of the nuclear deal that was
opposed by the BJP and the Left. The Samajwadi began by opposing it
but later changed its stand,” said CPM general secretary Prakash
Karat. He said the Left would appeal to all MPs on Tuesday to not
support it.
The poor attendance on the Treasury benches looked out of sync with
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s exertions since yesterday to try and
bring the Opposition around on the nuclear bill.
On Sunday, Singh had phoned Sushma Swaraj, leader of the Lok Sabha
Opposition, and Sitaram Yechury, the CPM’s leader in the Rajya Sabha,
to urge them to reconsider their resistance.
Recounting the conversation, Sushma told journalists: “I said we
cannot support. He said we will have problems with other countries to
which I replied, ‘But we have problems within our own country’. The PM
asked if he should ask the national security adviser to speak to me. I
said there is no point because the NSA already spoke to Arun Jaitley
(leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha) a month ago. But our
stand remained unchanged. I was polite but firm.”
Sushma then got in touch with the CPM and CPI floor leaders, and
Yashwant Sinha was told to speak to Mulayam and Lalu Prasad to firm up
the Opposition strategy.
Last week, Mulayam and Lalu Prasad had slammed the Left and the BJP
for being “in cahoots with the Congress” over the women’s bill. Today,
by participating in the Opposition unity, they gave the government a
foretaste of the problems it might now face in Parliament.
Government sources admitted that the stand-off was a “grim reminder”
of how precariously the ruling alliance was placed in the Lower House
minus the Yadavs.
“The only short-run tactic we can follow is to avoid business that
requires voting,” a minister said. The long-term strategy, he said,
was to scout for parties that could be counted on in a crisis “even if
this entails backroom deals”.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100316/jsp/nation/story_12221471.jsp
Maya Brahmin aide missing
TAPAS CHAKRABORTY
Lucknow, March 15: Mayavati today tried to reclaim her Dalit agenda on
the Bahujan Samaj Party’s 25th anniversary by clipping the wings of
Satish Chandra Mishra, the party’s “Brahmin face” whose clout had
dismayed many of her Dalit supporters.
Mishra, architect of the Brahmin-Dalit axis that lifted Mayavati to
power in the 2007 UP polls, has been taken off the BSP’s Brahmin
Bhaichara (Brotherhood) Committee and appointed chairman of the party
legal cell.
The chief minister herself made the announcement at the party’s mega
rally here to celebrate its silver jubilee. “There is no strict
boundary of work but Mishra’s priority would henceforth be legal
work,” she said.
More eloquent than her 95-minute speech was the unusual absence of
Mishra from the dais. The lawyer who had been Mayavati’s shadow for
the past half a decade stood among party workers far from the dais,
from where Mayavati reaffirmed her commitment to the Dalit cause.
“I don’t believe the party’s core agenda is being diluted. I vow not
to ever allow the Dalit movement to weaken or the head of a Dalit to
bow in shame,” she said.
Party sources said Mayavati had been jittery over accusations that her
party, born as a movement for social transformation, had become “an
opportunistic political party” interested only in capturing power.
On the face of it, Mishra’s new post may appear logical since Mayavati
is grappling with at least half-a-dozen cases against her party and
government. But Mishra had already been supervising the cases while
discharging his other duties.
Many Dalit leaders had looked on nervously as Mishra was included in
the state cabinet in 2007 and later sent to the Rajya Sabha, all the
while retaining his status as party No. 2. But a rift appeared between
him and Mayavati after the Brahmin vote deserted her in the 2009 Lok
Sabha polls.
Mayavati had mooted banishing Mishra to the legal cell at a party
meeting in July 2009, but backed off in the face of Brahmin murmurs.
Today, she made it official.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100316/jsp/nation/story_12221469.jsp
Monday, March 15, 2010
Seedhi Baat / Aajtak, March 14, 2010
'Bal Thackeray is a big leader'
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's estranged daughter-in-law Smita
Thackeray says politics and family are two separate things.
Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
Posted by Prabhu Chawla at 7:35 PM
http://prabhuchawla.blogspot.com/2010/03/seedhi-baat-aajtak-march-14-2010.html
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Video/0/42/video_page.jsp?vid=88274&part=1&secid=42
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Video/0/42/video_page.jsp?vid=88274&part=2&secid=42
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Video/0/42/video_page.jsp?vid=88274&part=3&secid=42
..ab.na.jaa..
Monday, March 15, 2010
Rajdeep Sardesai's letter to Uddhav Thackeray
Rajdeep Sardesai,a well known journalist,sent a letter to Uddhav
Thackeray,heir of the Shiv Sena, on the whole "Marathi manoos" issue.
Wiki : Rajdeep Sardesai
Wiki : Uddhav Thackeray
It makes for a very interesting read,seeing the reaction of a renowned
member of the Press addressing a political leader with much force.
Dear Udhavjee,
At the very outset, my compliments for the manner in which you've
literally 'stolen' the headlines from your cousin Raj in the last
fortnight. After the Assembly election defeat last October, there were
many who had written you off as a weak, namby-pamby politician, who
would be better off doing photography. But now, it seems that the
'fire' which burns inside Bal Thackeray is alive in the son too. After
years of struggling to establish yourself, you have finally discovered
the mantra for success as a Shiv Sena leader: find an 'enemy',
threaten and intimidate them, commit the odd violent act, and,
eureka!, you are anointed the true heir to the original 'T' company
supremo.
Your cousin has chosen to bash faceless taxi drivers and students from
North India, soft targets who are totally unprotected. You've been
much braver. You've actually chosen to target national icons: Sachin
Tendulkar, Mukesh Ambani, Shah Rukh Khan, powerful figures who most
Indians venerate. Shah Rukh is no surprise since the Sena has always
been uncomfortable with the Indian Muslim identity. Forty years ago,
your father had questioned Dilip Kumar's patriotism for accepting an
award from the Pakistani government. You've called Shah Rukh a traitor
for wishing to choose Pakistani cricketers in the IPL. That your
father invited Javed Miandad, the former Pakistani captain and a close
relation of Dawood Ibrahim, to your house is a matter of record that
we shall not go into today.
I am a little surprised that you chose to question Ambani and
Tendulkar though. The Sena has always enjoyed an excellent
relationship with corporate India. Why then criticise India's biggest
businessman for suggesting that Mumbai belongs to all? After all, no
one can deny that Mumbai's entrepreneurial energy has been driven by
communities from across India. The diatribe against Sachin is even
more strange. He is, alongwith Lata Mangeshkar, Maharashtra's most
admired and recognised face. Surely, you will agree that Sachin
symbolizes Maharashtrian pride in a manner that renaming shops and
streets in Marathi never can.
Of course, in-between some of your local thugs also attacked the IBN
Lokmat office. I must confess that initially the attack did leave me
outraged. Why would a political outfit that claims to protect
Maharashtrian culture attack a leading Marathi news channel? But on
reflection I realized that we hadn't been singled out: over the last
four decades, the Shiv Sena has targeted some of Maharashtra's finest
literary figures and journalistic institutions. That you continue to
live in a colony of artists while attacking artistic freedom remains
one of the many tragic ironies in the evolution of the Sena.
Just before the Assembly elections, you had told me in an interview
that you were determined to shake off the Shiv Sena's legacy of
violence. You spoke of the need for welfarist politics, of how you
were saddened that rural Maharashtra was being left behind. I was
impressed by the farmer rallies you had organized, by the fact that
you had documented farmer suicides in the state. I thought that Uddhav
Thackeray was serious about effecting a change in Maharashtra's
political landscape.
I was obviously mistaken. Farmer suicides still continue, the after-
effects of drought are still being faced in several districts, but the
focus is now squarely on finding high profile hate figures. You claim
to have a vision for Mumbai. Yet, on the day the Sena-controlled
city's municipal corporation's annual budget revealed an alarming
financial crisis, your party mouthpiece,Saamna, was running banner
headlines seeking an apology from Shah Rukh Khan. You asked your Shiv
Sainiks to agitate against Rahul Gandhi's visit to Mumbai, but why
have you not asked them to wage a war against the water cuts that have
made life so difficult for millions in the city?
At one level, I can understand the reasons for your frustration. The
Congress-NCP government in the state has been thoroughly incompetent:
the last decade has seen Maharashtra decline on most social and
economic parameters. Yet, the Shiv Sena has been unable to capture
power in the state. Your war with cousin Raj has proved to be self-
destructive. The Assembly election results showed that a united Sena
may have offered a real challenge to the ruling alliance. In fact, the
Sena and the MNS together garnered around 43 per cent of the popular
vote in Mumbai-Thane, almost seven per cent more than what was
obtained by the Congress-NCP combine. Yet, because your vote was
split, you won just nine of the 60 seats in the region, a result which
proved decisive in the overall state tally.
Your defeat seems to have convinced you that the only way forward is
to outdo your cousin in parochial politics. It's a strategy which has
undoubtedly made you a headline-grabber once again. Unfortunately,
television rating points don't get you votes or goodwill. There is
space in Maharashtra's politics for a regional force, but it needs to
be based on a constructive, inclusive identity.
Tragically, the Shiv Sena has never offered a serious social or
economic agenda for the future. Setting up the odd wada pav stall in
Mumbai is hardly a recipe for addressing the job crisis . Why hasn't
the Sena, for example, started training projects to make Maharashtrian
youth face upto the challenges of a competitive job market? Why
doesn't the Sena give regional culture a boost by supporting Marathi
theatre, literature or cinema? The wonderful Marathi film,
"Harishchandrachee Factory", nominated for the Oscars, has been co-
produced by Ronnie Screwvala, a Parsi, who like millions of other
'outsiders' has made Mumbai his home. Maybe, I ask for too much.
Tigers, used to bullying others for years, will never change their
stripes.
Post-script: Your charming son, Aditya, who is studying English
Literature in St Xaviers College, had sent me a collection of his
poems. I was most impressed with his writing skills. Let's hope the
next generation of the T company will finally realize that there is
more to life than rabble-rousing!
Jai Hind, Jai Maharashtra!
Posted by Malvika at 12:13 PM
http://ab-na-ja.blogspot.com/2010/03/rajdeep-sardesais-letter-to-uddhav.html
Mumbai made into dharamshala: Bal Thackeray
Mumbai, Mar 6 : Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray said Mumbai has been
made into a 'dharamshala' (free inn), thereby thrashing Maharashtra
Governor K Sankaranarayanan for saying 'anybody can live in Mumbai'.
"Saying that migrants will continue to come to Mumbai is akin to
betrayal of Maharashtra," Thackeray said in an editorial in party
mouthpiece Saamna on Saturday.
"Had Sankaranarayanan been the Governor of Karnataka, would he have
dared to say let hordes of migrants come to Bangalore?" the Sena chief
said.
"The governors who live in the sprawling Raj Bhutan by the Arabian Sea
are nothing but Congress pensioners. Raj Bhutan has lost touch with
people's sentiments, that's why you say such things."
Balasaheb further recommended permit system to stop 'migrant influx'
in Mumbai.
"Mumbai has been made into a dharamshala. The only way to stop the
influx of migrants is to start a permit system to impose curbs on
those coming here," Thackeray said.
On Friday, Sankaranarayanan had said: "Anybody can live in Mumbai.
Only Mumbai can compete with itself. The rich, middle class and the
poor co-exist here."
--IBNS
http://www.newkerala.com/news/fullnews-65284.html
le photo of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray at his residence in
Mumbai. PTI Photo Photograph (1)
Bal Thackeray targets Maha Guv over 'Mumbai for all' remark
STAFF WRITER 10:49 HRS IST
Mumbai, Mar 6 (PTI) After batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar and
industrialist Mukesh Ambani, Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan
is the latest to face the Shiv Sena ire for saying that Mumbai belongs
to all.
"Saying that migrants will continue to come to Mumbai is akin to
betrayal of Maharashtra," Sena chief Bal Thackeray said in an
editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana' here today.
The Governor had said yesterday that "anybody can live in Mumbai. Only
Mumbai can compete with itself. The rich, middle class and the poor co-
exist here".
In an informal interaction with media persons, his first since taking
over the gubernatorial post, he said though civic and infrastructure
facilities needed to be upgraded in the megapolis, migration from
other parts of the country cannot be curbed.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/550675_Bal-Thackeray-targets-Maha-Guv-over--Mumbai-for-all--remark
chhotemianinshallah
STAFF WRITER 21:49 HRS IST
Satna (MP), Mar 15 (PTI) Criticising BJP national president Nitin
Gadkari's statement that Narendra Modi has qualities to become the
prime minister, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh has said Modi is
neither fit for chief minister, nor suitable for prime minister's
post.
"Modi is not fit to be a chief minister, forget about being suitable
for prime minister's post," Singh said.
"BJP has always been making many tall claims and even their claim of
Modi being prime ministerial material will be exposed," he told
reporters here yesterday.
Ever since BJP had come to power in Madhya Pradesh, attacks on
minorities in the state have been on the rise, the Congress General
Secretary said.
The former Madhya Pradesh chief minister said after inquiring into the
attacks on Christians by BJP leaders, he will file a complaint on it
with the National Minority Commission.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/566294_Modi-not-fit-to-be-CM--forget-about-PM--says-Digvijay
File photo of BJP President Nitin Gadkari addressing a press
conference in Jammu. PTI Photo Photograph (1)
BJP President Nitin Gadkari constitutes his team
STAFF WRITER 16:49 HRS IST
New Delhi, Mar 16 (PTI) Three months after he took over reigns of the
party, BJP President Nitin Gadkari today brought in a mix of youth,
experience and women in his team of office bearers inducting
heavyweights like Vasundhara Raje and Ravishankar Prasad and
hardliners like Varun Gandhi and Vinay Katiyar.
Gadkari, who was considered as an RSS choice when he replaced Rajnath
Singh, has also given positions to some leaders said to be close to
the sangh parivar founthead.
Among them are Bhagat Singh Koshiyari (Vice President), Murlidhar Rao
(Secretary) and Tarun Vijay, who was Editor of RSS mouthpiece
"Organiser", as spokesperson.
Prominent Muslim face and three-time MP Shahnawaz Hussain, who was
widely tipped to become a General Secretary, has been appointed as
Spokesperson while Najma Heptullah has been retained as Vice
President.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/567220_BJP-President-Nitin-Gadkari-constitutes-his-team
Maha issues Ordinance to enhance jail term for terrorists
STAFF WRITER 17:20 HRS IST
Nagpur, Mar 16 (PTI) The State Government has promulgated an Ordinance
to enhance the prison term of terrorists, Maharashtra Home Minister R
R Patil said today.
The State Government has proposed 20, 40 and 60 years of jail-term for
terrorists involved in terror activities and since it is an
administrative requirement, the government has come out with an
Ordinance, Patil told reporters here.
In an informal chat, he said the Ordinance was issued yesterday. The
maximum imprisonment is 14 years in any kind of crime and the accused
person comes out of jail after availing the benefits due to good
conduct and parole.
Technically speaking, the convict is out after serving prison for
11-12 years. The State government was of the opinion that these
terrorists should not be let free or released early after committing
crime against state.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/567288_Maha-issues-Ordinance-to-enhance-jail-term-for-terrorists
Kandhamal says no to Togadia visit
STAFF WRITER 17:41 HRS IST
Bhubaneswar, Mar 16 (PTI) Authorities in Kandhamal district, which has
been violence-free for about a year, today decided not to allow VHP
leader Pravin Togadia to visit it.
"We will not allow VHP leader Pravin Togadia to visit Kandhamal as the
administration does not want to take any risk though things are in
good shape," District Magistrate-cum-Collector Krishna Kumar told PTI
over phone.
"The situation is absolutely normal in the district now," he said.
The state unit of VHP had earlier informed the Home department
regarding Togadia's proposed three-day visit to Orissa.
Togadia is scheduled to begin his visit to the state on March 18 and
visit Kandhamal the next day and spend the night at Phulbani, the
district headquarters of Kandhamal, VHP state secretary Gouri Prasad
Rath said.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/567377_Kandhamal-says-no-to-Togadia-visit
Christ picture: absconding publisher's bail rejected
STAFF WRITER 17:43 HRS IST
Shillong, Mar 16 (PTI) The Gauhati High Court has rejected the bail
plea of a Delhi-based publisher charged with printing a blasphemous
image of Christ in a book meant for junior students.
"The state police challenged the bail order (of the publisher of
Skyline Publication, Indra Mohan Jha) leading to its quashing by the
Gauhati High Court yesterday," DSP Vivek Syiem said.
The absconding publisher was granted interim bail by the Shillong
bench of the high court on March five.
The police had registered a case against the publisher under Section
295 (A) of the IPC for hurting the sentiments of people by publishing
the image of Christ holding a can of beer and a cigarette.
Syiem said in case Jha did not surrender, the police would have to
communicate with other states to trace him.
Over 120 books, carrying the picture, have been seized by police from
a convent school and a distributor.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/567383_Christ-picture--absconding-publisher-s-bail-rejected
Raje says she will perform new role with dedication
STAFF WRITER 17:44 HRS IST
Jaipur, Mar 16 (PTI) Newly-appointed BJP General Secretary Vasundhara
Raje today said she is a committed party worker and will fulfil the
new responsibility with utmost dedication.
"I am disciplined soldier of the party and have always peformed the
task assigned to me by the party sincerely and honestly.
"I will fulfil the new responsibility assigned to me by the party with
dedication," Raje said in a statement here.
Three months after he took over reins of the party, BJP President
Nitin Gadkari today appointed Raje as one of party's General
Secretaries.
Raje, a former Rajasthan Chief Minister, was unseated as Leader of the
Opposition in the state after the party's Lok Sabha debacle.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/567389_Raje-says-she-will-perform-new-role-with-dedication
March 21, 2010
Rebirth of BJP: Focus on Change
"A man is not finished when he is defeated, he is defeated when he
quits. Much the same can be said of a party. It is not finished when
it is defeated; it is defeated when it stops to think.
-Nitin Gadkari
By MV Kamath
The BJP, right now, has one advantage: The UPA government is on its
last legs. It is bereft of new ideas. The high cost of living is
spreading disaffection among the people who are becoming increasingly
disillusioned with the government. This is the time to think big and
hit hard and the BJP seems to have found the right man to fulfil that
envious task. As Gadkari himself said: The country comes first, the
party second and the individual last. Now he has only to prove it
beyond any shadow of doubt. IF the media’s reportage of the
proceedings of the meeting of the BJP to anoint Nitin Gadkari as its
new - and youngest - president has any meaning, it is this: The
Congress had better beware. A sea-change has come over the party which
is as stunning as it was unexpected. It is evident in Gadkari’s hour-
long presidential address and in the entire environment in which the
meeting took place that Gadkari has opened the door to an entire new
world. It is a brave new world which should capture the imagination of
the young and the uninitiated. Here is a man brimming with ideas, has
the courage to break away from tradition in dress and deportment which
should endear him to aam adami. For a president to wear a bush shirt
and trousers, to shun feet touching, even if it is a mark of respect
towards elders, is a break-away from the past that may sound a little
offensive to traditionalists but is an indication that Gadkari is
looking ahead to the future with daring.
Understandably his speech- maiden-had to deal with party affairs, but
indicated a conciliatory approach as when he appealed to the Muslims
to be gracious enough to let a temple to Ram, built on the disputed
structure site. The request sounded genuine. It was anything but
provocative, and hopefully will be received with becoming attention.
The time has come for Hindu-Muslim reconciliation and Gadkari’s appeal
makes a lot of sense. In the next few weeks Gadkari has to think out-
of-the-box.
Four issues call for deep thought: How to raise agricultural
production and keep the peasant from migrating to urban centers; how
to provide jobs for the GenNext; how to reduce corruption which has
become endemic and how to work out a plan to benefit the tribals. And
above all, how to go beyond Hindutva to a way of life that is nation-
embracing and appealing to all people of whatever caste, creed,
religion or community. Gadkari it seems evident, is breaking away from
the old moorings, which is just as well. One appreciates the guts the
RSS has shown in naming Gadkari as its presidential choice. Here is a
man who can relate to the young. Fancy his breaking into singing from
the presidential platform! The sheer novelty of the man’s thinking
takes one’s breath away. This is not being critical of the old
culture. But all things must change. As Tennyson beautifully put it:
"The old order changeth, yielding place to new and God fulfils himself
in many ways, lest one good custom should corrupt the world."
With the kind of approach Gadkari has shown, he is capable of adapting
to a new and changing world. He should be able to touch the hearts of
people of all age groups, especially that group which will come of age
when the next general elections take place. Giving advice to a party
these days is an hazardous exercise, as Pramod Mahajan, were he alive,
would have readily agreed. Shining India as a slogan did not sell. Not
that there were no geniuses in the BJP to give advice to LK Advani;
fullest advantage was taken of talent and technology, as one can be
sure, Sudhindra Kulkarni will testify. The best of minds surely had
made their contributions but something had gone wrong. The BJP ‘lost’
the last general elections. But there is no reason for the BJP to be
defeatist. It is in power in nine states, it has, as Gadkari
meaningfully pointed out, over 1,000 MLAs and a little less then 200
MPs. One must build on that strength. To succeed, BJP must work as a
united party and not as a divided house as it has been for some months
now. Personal egos have done considerable damage to the party. Gadkari
has forewarned that this must change. Gadkari is not, as some
theorists have made out, walking in Rahul Gandhi’s footsteps. He has
cut out a path all on his own. The broad road-map he has unveiled
suggests that he has learnt from the events of the immediate past.
Names count, but only upto a point.
Winston Churchill, who had led his country so successfully during the
Second World War was unceremoniously side-lined in the elections that
followed victory. Labour came to power. Margaret Thatcher years later
came on the scene and re-made Britain. And that was the right thing to
do. In India, one after another of ideas once considered sacrosanct
had to be given the go-by, like Jawaharlal Nehru’s concept of a
socialistic pattern of society, non-alignment, garibi hatao that
Indira Gandhi wanted to capitalise on, nationalisation of industries,
etc. have all bit the dust. The BJP now has only to break new ground
if it wants to make headway. The buzz words in Gadkari’s inaugural
address were antyodaya (welfare of the poorest), samajik samarasta
(social equality) and vikas (development). Very evocative words but
the highest importance should be on "development" in very field,
whether agriculture, industry, enterprise, education and most
especially job-creation.
Let us face it: The young are least interested in ideologies; what
they are looking for are well-paid jobs and the party must see how
best this can be accomplished. In his addres Gadkari said that "a man
is not finished when he is defeated, he is defeated when he quits.
Much the same can be said of a party. It is not finished when it is
defeated; it is defeated when it stops to think."
Gadkari would do well to send a team of experts to China to find out
how our troublesome neighbour has excelled in so many fields,
especially in the field of agriculture where its production per acre
is several times higher than that of India. China, to be sure, is not
an ideal society; it is run by a heartless dictatorship that cares a
tuppence for Human Rights. But there surely are areas of
administration from which India can learn a lot.
The point is that the BJP must break away from its past and project
itself as a forward-looking party which means business, especially in
regard to antyodaya. Village self-sufficiency is a Gandhian concept to
which some fresh thought needs to be given. The stress should be on
productivity, marketing and sales, inter-connection of villages with
roads to promote peasant mobility, and spread of technical expertise.
The BJP, right now, has one advantage: The UPA government is on its
last legs. It is bereft of new ideas. The high cost of living is
spreading disaffection among the people who are becoming increasingly
disillusioned with the government. This is the time to think big and
hit hard and the BJP seems to have found the right man to fulfil that
envious task. As Gadkari himself said: The country comes first, the
party second and the individual last. Now he has only to prove it
beyond any shadow of doubt.
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March 21, 2010
Editorial
Varsha Pratipada Special, 2010
It is free fall
The buck does not stop
By R Balashankar
FROM India shinning to India suffering is the most colourful
description of Manmohan Singh’s regime heard on the floor of
Parliament during the budget session. The insensitivity of the UPA to
people’s agony and its arrogance of power have crossed all limits.
India is a nation with a great sense of justice. In its history there
is no dearth of instances where the rulers set higher standards for
themselves than for the commoner. They willingly courted heavier
punishment for their omissions and commissions unlike those of today
who suggest people not to take sweets if sugar price has gone high.
Compassion and empathy were the two qualities Indian scriptures
expected in the rulers. So we have the instances of Shibi, Dasharata,
Harischandra, Yudhishtira, Sri Ram, Dathechi and the list can go on
and on. The sense of justice and fair play was the touchstone for a
successful reign. Chakravarti Shibi set one of the most touching
examples in this regard.
Once, the legend has it, the Emperor was relaxing on the terrace of
the palace when a wounded pigeon fell on his lap and asked for
protection from an eagle that was chasing it for prey. Shibi offered
the bird safety but the eagle won’t leave its prey. The eagle demanded
the Emperor to be fair and release its prey, as it was within its
dharma in hunting for food and the Emperor had no right to interfere.
The Emperor on his part argued that it was his duty to give asylum to
the bird as it was seeking his protection for life. The eagle reminded
the Emperor his other duty not to deprive another creature of its
livelihood and redeem that dharma. The incident is both interesting
and instructive, for it was not the might of the Emperor but his sense
of justice that the eagle was putting to test. The Emperor stood high
and passed the test. And he presented a great example in self-
sacrifice to set the lesson for generations to come. He asked the
eagle what price he would have to pay so that the life of the pigeon
was saved. The eagle demanded the flesh of the king in equal weight to
that of the pigeon he wanted to be saved. Shibi passed the test and
proved to the world, the ruler is respected or loved not for his
arbitrariness but for his compassion and conciliation. Modern-day
rulers will laugh at this legend. But one cannot overlook the
message.
Social tragedies have become passé in India today, and the rulers-
people in power and position-go about as if there is no value for a
commoner’s life. India perhaps is the only country in the world where
human life is treated so cheap. The UP Chief Minister made it a matter
of prestige in her stand-off with the centre not to pay compensation
to the 65 victims of a tragedy in Pratapgarh. Many such situations go
unreported. The highlight however is the apathy of the establishment-
be it godmen, civic authorities, corporate tycoons or the elected
governments-for the value of life of an ordinary Indian, especially
Hindu.
Children who go to play do not return home because they get drowned by
stagnant water in pits dug by the Delhi Jal Board authority. Men and
women who go for early morning walk are discovered bleeding and dead
on the roadside because the civic bodies have dug up the pavement and
left it in a state of veritable hell for months, if not years.
Imagine the humongous tragedy of the people who assembled at the
ashram of Kripalu Maharaj in Kundu, Pratapgarh, for collecting a
utensil, a piece of sweet and Rs 20-the total value of which would not
exceed Rs 50. This is the level of poverty in the country whose
economic growth under globalisation is a matter of mere GDP and
statistics. Human beings have become numbers. Sixty-five people dead,
families devastated, children orphaned and mothers deprived of their
children. Even in the impoverished Sudan such incidents don’t happen
at this frequency. For, only a few years ago, over a 100 women died in
Uttar Pradesh capital in the stampede. They had come to receive free
saris being distributed by a politician. And we can safely bet that
nobody would be held responsible and punished for the loss of precious
human lives just as it happened in the sari tragedy or the temple
stampedes that keep repeating all over the country quite frequently.
Rural unemployment is so high that at every recruitment venue for army
and police personnel, the rush of job seekers leads to lathicharge,
firing, stampede and death.
Routinely, stampede occurs in places of worship. These are all
incidents in which people authorised to make arrangements, are to be
held culpable for the crime. One is not talking of the road accidents
and terror attacks. That statistics is now becoming listless.
One teenager was killed in Srinagar, allegedly unprovoked, by a BSF
constable. The police records, according to reports, said the boy was
a criminal. That official was however hounded by the state, his own
seniors and with discernible glee the newspapers reported that he has
been suspended. Only the jawans and security forces have no human
rights. They are treated as cannon fodder in their combat with
terrorists, Maoists and North-east outlaws. We take the loss of a
security personnel’s life so lightly, so routinely as if the state has
become morose. Is justice the privilege of only the terrorists and
their cohorts? A few weeks ago, terrorists and their supporters in J&K
disguised as lawyers fabricated a case of rape and murder of two
women. They created a huge ruckus. The media and the politicians there
held the state and defence forces to ransom. In the end it was proved
that the women were not raped, and they had committed suicide. Have
these lawyers been punished?
Even smaller nations like Philippines and Bangladesh have a better
track record of dispensing justice. The Marcos and Ershads got
punished there for their greed and crimes. In modern India, not one
politician has ever been punished. Nobody knows where the buck stops.
We don’t even know who should own up responsibility for the kind of
tragedies that have been discussed. There was a time, an air accident
or a train collision used to result in the resignation of the minister
in charge. Now the accidents have become commonplace and there is no
accountability.
So where does that leave the ordinary Indian? Those who have been
elected by them are not speaking up for them. The creation of an
informed public opinion, non-political social action for justice seems
the only way out. Varsha Pratipada marks a new cycle, an occasion that
prompts us to pause, think and move on. It is for each of us to do our
bit to make our society more sensitive, more assertive and restore the
value of each and every life sharing this planet.
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February 21, 2010
Divisive politics get a deadly blow
Seven-member AP High Court bench strikes down Muslim quota as
unconstitutional, based on dubious data, and potentially encouraging
conversion
By R Mallikarjunarao
In the year 2004 Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy, provided reservations to
Muslims in education and public employment to the extent of five per
cent. A five-judge bench said that this is illegal. After this the
farce of inquiry by Commission for Backwards Classes was enacted and
reservation was given to Muslims and Act was promulgated in 2005.
Another five-judge bench declared this 2005 Act is illegal.
Thereafter, the YS government issued another Act in 2007. A seven-
judge bench on February 8 declared this action illegal.
THE mask has been ripped apart by a seven-judge bench of the High
Court of Andhra Pradesh. The real face of slogan "reservation for
Muslims" was exposed. While dealing with the constitutional validity
of AP Reservation in favour of Socially Educationally Backward Classes
of Muslims Act, 2007, a seven-judge bench of the AP High Court
declared: "This 2007 Act is religion specific and potentially
encourages religious conversions and is thus unsustainable." This is
the third time the Congress government of AP has faced adverse
judgment on the issue of providing reservations to Muslims.
In the year 2004 Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy provided reservations to
Muslims in education and public employment to the extent of five per
cent. A five-judge bench said that this is illegal. After this the
farce of inquiry by Commission for Backwards Classes was enacted and
reservation was given to Muslims and Act was promulgated in 2005.
Another five-judge bench declared this 2005 Act is illegal.
Thereafter, the YS government issued another Act in 2007. A seven-
judge bench on February 8 declared this action illegal.
The bench comprised of Chief Justice Anil Ramesh Dave Justice T Meena
Kumari, Justice B Prakasha Rao, Justice DSR Varma, Justice A Gopala
Reddy, Justice V Eswariah and Justice Goda Raghuram. The 137-page
judgment was given by the Chief Justice AR Dave on behalf of himself,
Justice A Gopala Reddy, Justice V Eswariah and Justice Goda Raghuram.
They declared the AP Reservation in favour of Socially Educationally
Backward Classes of Muslims Act, 2007 unsustainable. Justice T Meena
Kumari gave a separate judgment running into 77 pages allowing the
writ petitions but gave a different reasoning. Justice B Prakasha Rao
said that the seven-judge bench was to answer the reference regarding
the method to be adopted. He differed with the findings of the five
judges and did not set aside the state action. Justice DSR Varma
declared that he is differing with Chief Justice and Justice T Mena
Kumari and said that he will give his reasons later.
It may be recalled that the government issued Ordinance 5 of 2007
providing 4 per cent reservations to several selected groups of
Muslims in the fields of education and public employment. This was
preceded by inquiry by AP Commission for Backwards Classes. The
government had appointed Krishnan, a retired civil servant, the
advisor who submitted a report, which was sent to the BC Commission.
This Ordinance was challenged by Shravanti and several other students.
Some persons claimed that this will hurt the backward classes and
filed public interest petitions. During the course of hearing the AP
Legislative Assembly passed the bill and Act 26 of 2007 came into
force. Petitions were amended to bring this act under challenge.
The majority judgment pronounced by the Chief Justice said that the
action of the state government is solely based upon the report,
findings and recommendations of the commission and the procedural
error committed by the commission is fatal to its report and its
consequent recommendations. The court said that it is deplorable that
the commission was not even aware of total population of persons
belonging to groups of Muslims who have been selected to be put into E
category among the BC groups. The sample survey was found faulty and
the quick survey in the name and style of fast track method was termed
as "hit and run method". This was declared neither legal nor
sustainable. The sampling was "opportunity sampling and non-
probability sampling". The court said that the BC Commission failed to
formulate criteria for identifying the BC among the Muslims but simply
conducted a household survey in places close to its hand. It was
declared that the commission did not conduct survey objectively to
justify its recommendations.
Justice T Meena Kumari in a separate judgment dealt at length with the
report of commission and effect of its copying the report of Krishnan.
She said: "The report of the commission should be held to be
mechanical, perfunctory in nature and without application of mind as
the commission followed the report of PS Krishnan in verbatim."
Justice Meena Kumari said that the report of the commission is not
based on real facts, data mechanical perfunctory in nature and without
application of mind as the commission followed the report of PS
Krishna in verbatim’. Justice MeenaKumari said that the report of the
commission is not based upon real facts, data or analysis and is
without any proper survey. She reminded that the commission limited
its survey to six districts only for three days leaving the other
parts of the state. With the report of the commission found as
insufficient lacking any objectivity the Act 26 of 2007 which is based
upon the report was declared to be invalid and unconstitutional.
The UPA government was planning to provide for reservations to Muslims
based on the Ranganath Commission report. The seven judges of the AP
High Court have hampered this conspiracy.
‘‘The fast track approach adopted by the commission was nothing but a
non-scientific method,’’ Justice Dave said. It was neither ‘‘legal nor
sustainable’’, he declared. The action of the panel was also
criticised for its reliance on recommendations made by PS Krishnan.
The appointment of Krishnan is "protanto invalid", the bench said and
faulted the panel for relying on his findings.
Echoing the majority view in a separate judgment, Justice Meena Kumari
said the investigation by the panel was not based on real facts, data
or analysis and was without proper survey.
Justice Prakash Rao aired the minority view holding that the bench was
not called upon to adjudicate the list but was only required to answer
a legal reference. He said that the government had some data before it
on which it acted and thus could not be faulted. Justice DSR Varma
said he did not agree with the majority view and would give his
reasons shortly. The Advocate General sought suspension of the order
which was rejected by the bench.
The Andhra government has long struggled to provide quotas for
Muslims, who were first given reservation in July 2004, a month after
YS Rajasekhara Reddy came to power.
The bench further described findings of the AP Backward Classes
Commission - on which the quota law had been based - as
"unscientific". Within hours of the verdict, Chief Minister K Rosaiah
said his government would move to the Supreme Court and vowed to
restore the AP Reservation in favour of Socially and Educationally
Backward Classes of Muslims Act, 2007.
In a 5-2 majority ruling, the court found that the commission neither
evolved any criteria nor published these before inviting objections.
It had merely stated it had followed the two criteria evolved by the
Mandal Commission for identification of Socially Economic Backward
Classes (SEBCs) among non-Hindu community.
Chief Justice Dave, speaking for himself and Justices A Gopala Reddy,
V Eswaraiah and G Raghuram, faulted the enactment and said it was
religion-specific and potentially encouraged conversions and was thus
unsustainable.
The bench found fault with the commission for its excessive reliance
on data collated by the Anthropological Survey of India. That data,
the court ruled, was meant for determining the profile of the Indian
population and not for deciding on affirmative action for Muslims.
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February 21, 2010
Muslim Job Reservations Plan A Marxist Election Gimmick
By Ranjit Roy
The interesting highlights of the Marxist Chief Minister’s
announcement on Muslim job reservations are: The OBC reservation list
in West Bengal currently includes both Hindus and Muslims. Muslims are
now to be put under a separate list called Backward Muslim Community.
The new inclusion will take OBC reservations in West Bengal from 7 per
cent to 17 per cent.
KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s
announcement in Kolkata on February 8 that Muslim OBCs in the state
would now get 10 per cent job quota as recommended by the Ranganath
Misra Commission is, no doubt, an election gimmick to fool Muslim
voters. This is evident from the fact that the Chief Minister
announced his government’s policy decision on job reservations within
minutes of the Left Front partners’ meeting ended at the CPM
headquarters at Alimuddin Street in central Kolkata. It is a clear
attempt to win back the support of Muslims before the Congress decides
its stand on the controversial Ranganath Misra report placed before
the UPA government. With a dwindling Muslim support base to the Left
that led to serious election reverses in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the
CPM and its Chief Minister could not afford to wait for the Centre’s
decision. There are elections to 86 civic bodies slated for this year
before the final electoral battle for 294 Assembly seats in the state
early next year.
The interesting highlights of the Marxist Chief Minister’s
announcement on Muslim job reservations are: The OBC reservation list
in West Bengal currently includes both Hindus and Muslims. Muslims are
now to be put under a separate list called Backward Muslim Community.
The new inclusion will take OBC reservations in West Bengal from 7 per
cent to 17 per cent. Moreover, there is a paradox in Chief Minister’s
claim that the proposed reservation is not on the basis of religion
but on the basis of poor economic conditions. At the same time he has
announced that Muslim youths under the OBC category can apply for job
quota if their family income is below Rs 37,500 per month. Is it not a
contradictory statement of Marxist Bhattacharjee that a Muslim family
earning Rs 37,500 per month, not annually, is economically weak and
needs job reservation? Yes, even if one takes present economic
conditions of people in India irrespective of their religions and
faiths, it cannot be said that earning of Rs 37,500 per month is a
small amount and needed government protection. No doubt, job
reservation was announced by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee with an eye on
Muslim vote bank.
Dr Pravin Togadia, VHP secretary general, has rightly said that
Andhra’s 4 per cent quota and West Bengal giving 10 per cent
reservations to Muslims are not isolated incidents. They are well
connected and are a part of a larger conspiracy against Hindus. This
criminal conspiracy of looting Hindus is being hatched to please
Muslim vote bank. At this moment, 78 per cent Hindu youths in India
are unemployed. At least 79 per cent Hindu farmers have lost their
land and crop. Yet, instead of helping them, Congress and Marxist
governments are showering favours on Muslims. There is no denying the
fact that such job reservations only encourage conversions to Islam.
In fact, while turning down a similar move by Andhra Chief Minister, K
Rosaiah, a seven-judge bench of the state high court observed that the
government’s offer of 4 per cent reservations to Muslims is
"unscientific, religion specific and potentially encourage
conversions". This is not the first time that Andhra government tried
to provide education and job reservations to please Muslims in the
state. The late Chief Minister, YS Rajasekhara, had offered 5 per cent
reservations to Muslims in July 2004. But Andhra high court had struck
down the move at the time.
Taking a cue from Andhra high court’s ruling, Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee’s decision will be challenged in Kolkata high court by a
group of nationalist lawyers. The state BJP president, Rahul Sinha,
has announced that the party supporters will stage state-wide
agitations against the proposed reservations for Muslims from February
13 onwards. Sinha told newsmen in Kolkata that the party’s national
president, Nitin Gadkari will be visiting West Bengal during the first
week of March to spearhead the agitation. Strangely, within 24 hours
of the Chief Minister’s announcement, the state food and supplies
department has selected 63 Muslim candidates out of a total 317 (17.5
per cent) for government jobs.
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February 21, 2010
Thinking Aloud
India is too big for the Marxists!
Jyoti Basu knew his politics, but not his economics. He made sure of
his vote bank through his million-acre land distribution programme but
when the programme came to a halt, he had nothing else in hand. He
believed that the programme would put so much cash into the hands of
farmers that it would spawn an industrialisation drive and create huge
employment. Nothing of the sort happened.
COMRADE Jyoti Basu, who passed away at the ripe old age of 95 years
last month, would be wondering what he has done to receive such
adulation from foreign newspapers, who never took his communism
seriously, and did not take kindly to him while he was alive. They are
calling him charming and elegant, as if they were referring to a
Hollywood model, not a rough-and-tumble politician from Kolkata. For a
man who was, or seemed to be, a virulent Marxist all his working life,
this would have been the biggest shock of his colourful life.
I have a feeling that the foreign newspapers know something we don’t.
It is possible that they never took his communism seriously, and it is
quite on the cards that they believed he was not really a communist.
Basu’s grasp of Marxism-Leninism was shaky, to say the least. In fact,
he never spoke in those terms. He was also not much of a national
leader, and rarely moved out of Kolkata, except to attend politburo
meetings. He almost never addressed meetings of workers, or any
meetings, in big towns and cities like Mumbai or Delhi which have more
workers than Kolkata. And he avoided making statements on things that
didn’t concern him, like, for instance, the fall of the Berlin Wall on
which the whole world went ga-ga, or the collapse of the Soviet Union
that followed, which was close to his heart, but on which he made no
comment either.
Basu was very much a home-bred politician, which is surprising,
considering he had spent four years in London and once confessed that
he was still a Londoner at heart. Jyoti Basu, a Londoner? The mind
boggles. Religiously, he visited London every summer and spent a
holiday there, but never, as far as his friends can recall, in Kashmir
or Darjeeling. It was said that he had a house there, and maybe even a
hotel, which was being run by his businessman son. I once saw him
having fish and chips in Camden Town, near Hampstead, but he did not
say hello. He was in a nice dark suit, a little tight for him, but
maybe he had purchased it in late ’thirties when he had spent years in
London. It was quite a sight.
There are, it is said, two types of communists: Those who smile, and
those who don’t. It is a minor difference, but one that tells us a
great deal about them. I have always believed that a communist who
smiles is far more dangerous than one who doesn’t, like an unsmiling
cat waiting for its next mouse. It was said that Jyoti Basu never
smiled-it was his trademark. It was true enough. He did not smile even
when he became Chief Minister in 1977, after a long career in the
streets of Kolkata. He did not smile even in 1996 when there was talk
that he would become the next prime minister.
I met him twice, once when he was a trade union leader, and another
time when he had become Chief Minister of his state. Both times, he
kept a stiff upper lip, never showing a single tooth, as children do
when facing the dentist.
I first met him when he was president of the trade union in my
company, or rather the company I worked for in Kolkata about fifty
years ago. Most of the talking at the meeting was being done by
company trade union bosses but Basu had come in case they needed help.
Basu hardly said a word throughout the meeting, and when it was over,
he left, also without saying a word.
The second time I saw him was in 1977 when he had become Chief
Minister. He must have been past sixty then, but he did not look a day
older than forty. We first met in his office which was being
renovated. After saying a few words, he took us into a small back
office, which he used for resting at lunch time. There was a small
bed, a couple of chairs and a small table on which was a tumbler of
water and a glass-just one glass.
Basu sat on the bed, and offered us the chairs. He spoke mostly in
monosyllables. Was he pleased that he had become Chief Minister? No
comment, just a shrug of the shoulders. What would he do now? We shall
see. There is so much poverty in West Bengal and industry is fleeing.
How do you propose tackling the situation? I am thinking about it. And
so on. Either he didn’t want to tell us anything, or he really had not
made up his mind. It was a wasted meeting.
Jyoti Basu knew his politics, but not his economics. He made sure of
his vote bank through his million-acre land distribution programme but
when the programme came to a halt, he had nothing else in hand. He
believed that the programme would put so much cash into the hands of
farmers that it would spawn an industrialisation drive and create huge
employment. Nothing of the sort happened. Money is not the only thing
you need for industry and business. You need businessmen behind money.
Basu & Co had frightened off businessmen by spewing poison against
them for years, and the Tatas and the Birlas and the Goenkas had fled
the state. Now that the communists were in charge, they refused to
come back.
It is not clear whether Basu knew all this, but, in the process, he
reduced the one-time leading industrial state in India to economic
backwater. Jyoti Basu will go down in history as the great destroyer
of Bengal, for the farmers who now own the land refuse to sell it to
businessmen, even to Tatas, who were forced to take their Nano
elsewhere, after spending crores on it.
Why are foreigners so pleased with Basu then showering him with
superlatives, now that he is no more? My hunch is that they are happy
that Jyoti Basu has damaged West Bengal beyond redemption, for the
state is where the British occupation of India began and also where
British business entrenched itself. The communists, led by Basu & Co,
were responsible for throwing out the businessmen and now the state
stands denuded of all industry and business. And the man who did it?
Their own Jyoti Basu, a man who studied in London, ate dinners in
Lincoln’s inn, as do all would-be barristers, and then came home and
finished his state. What more can the British ask for?
It is not the fault of Jyotibabu alone. The communists in Soviet Union
did the same and destroyed the country. Communists know their politics
backwards, but not their economics, though their guru, the great Marx,
makes great play with economic theories, and his great tome, Das
Kapital is essentially an economic treatise. But economics is
ultimately about people, for economic activity consists of buying and
selling, which involves buyers and sellers. But communists have never
understood people and have always taken them for granted. If people
become difficult, just go out and eliminate them, which is what Stalin
and Mao did. But Basu & Co could not do that in India. India is too
big for Marxists, for while Marx was born yesterday, India was born
five thousand years ago, and can have Marxists for breakfast.
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February 21, 2010
98th Hindu Maha Sammelan, Cherukolpuzha
Ranganath report anti-national-O Rajagopal
By S Chandrasekhar
SABARIMALA Ayyappa temple is on the banks of Pampa river. As the
season subsides, it is time for another massive gathering of Hindus,
at another bank of Pampa river, for the past 98 years. An estimated
five lakh Hindus from the Christian dominated belt of Kottayam, Idukki
and Pathanamthitta attended the Hindu Maha Sammelan at Ayroor-
Cherukolpuzha, that held for a week.
Started in 1913 by Swami Neelakanda Theertha Padhar, a disciple of
Vidyadhiraja Chattambi Swamiji, it has been going on un-intereptedly.
It was started to foster unity among the Hindus, check conversion and
educate Hindus about their religion, culture and traditions. It was
also a counter to the Maramom Convention of Christians going on for
103 years.
This year the Sammelan was inaugurated by H.H. Jagadguru Sri
Sivarathri Desikendra Swamiji of Suttur Mutt, Mysore on February. The
Swamiji is running lot of Hindu activities in Karnataka and is also
running 300 educational institutions including medical/ engineering
colleges. Around 7000 poor children are being educated by the Swamiji
in all institutions with free boarding and lodging.
Delivering his speech, the Swami said, Hinduism is in crisis for 1000
years due to Islamic and Christian invasions. "This is surviving due
to the wealth of puranas, upanishads, vedas and saints who appear
periodically whenever dharma is in danger. Great warriors like
Shivaji, Rana Pratap, Krishnadeva Ray have also protected Hindutva.
Just like our concept of Vasudhaiba Kutumbakam, Sanatana Dharma has no
religious and geographical borders. Its aim is total material well-
being and spiritual uplift of human race. Our worship of cow, nature,
trees, water sources have great relevance in the global warming
context". Swamiji concluded his speech by offering flowers at the feet
of Vidyadhiraja Swami and Sree Narayana Guru for preventing mass
exodus to Christianity and Islam. Had it not been for these saints,
Kerala would have been 100 per cent devoid of Hindus.
Shri O. Rajagopal, former Union Minister said that the ‘Temple Entry
Proclamation’ of 1936 was a land mark in the history of Kerala.
"The Vaikom Satyagraha, for movement of low caste Hindus, around
Vaikom Shiva temple was inspired by sages, saints and social reformers
like Sree Narayana Guru, Vidyadhiraja Swami, Vaikunta Swami, Ayyapu
Swami and NSS founder Mannath Padmanabhan. The satyagraha and march to
Travancore King’s palace at Thiruvananthapuram was a bond of Hindu
unity without bloodshed and caste hatred. Even brahmins like
Krishnaswamy Iyer and Congress leader Kamaraj joined the march.
Vivekananda called Kerala a ‘Mad House’ due to acute casteism
practised here. But very shortly Gandhi called Kerala’s visit a
Pilgrimage. This change was due to the Hindu unity efforts".
"In 1888, Sree Narayana Guru’s Pratishta of Siva in Aruvipuram led to
a chain of temple constructions and checked flow to Christianity and
Islam. Now Sadguru Mata Amritanandamayi has constructed twenty
‘Bhramasthan’ temples, where all gods are present. Out of the 49 world
civilisation only one is living and that is Sanatana Dharma".
Concluding his speech Shri Rajagopal called for dumping of the
Ranganath Mishra Commission Report. "The SC/ST all over India are in
great anger. By this report, the benefits enjoyed by them will have to
be shared with Christian and Muslim converts. He said it is not a
problem of SC/STs alone. The entire Hindu society has to protest
against this. This is an insult to Gandhiji who called them
‘Harijans’.
MLAs K.C. Rajagopal of CPM and Sivadasan Nair of Congress offered
felicitations. Former Travancore Devaswom Board President Upendranath
Kurup who is the moving force behind this sammelan, welcomed the
massive gathering.
Religions discources, cultural programmes, speeches by Hindu leaders,
Gita parayans, worship etc. form the highlight of the Sammelan which
will conclude on 14 February.
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=332&page=8
February 21, 2010
International seminar
ATM-like receipts in EVMs
NEW DELHI: Raising doubts over whether the electronic voting machines
are tamper-proof, Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy, on
February 6, 2010 mooted a new idea saying the Election Commission
should modify the EVMs so that one gets a receipt after casting the
vote as in the case of an ATM.
"That the EVMs are tamper-proof is a false claim. However, the
machines can be modified on the lines of ATM wherein we will get a
receipt after casting the vote which can be put into a sealed box," he
told reporters here.
This will make the electoral process more transparent and the receipts
can be referred to in case of any discrepancy, Swamy said.
He said an international conference of experts will be organised in
Chennai to "show that the machines are not tamper-proof".
The conference will be held on February 13 and will be attended by 35
experts from India, Germany, Netherlands and USA, he said.
Raising doubts over the accuracy of the EVMs, Swamy said that never
ever in a booth the total number of vote counts can be zero.
Swamy has also filed a PIL in the Delhi High Court on the use of EVMs
in Indian elections which is scheduled for hearing on February 17.
(PTI)
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=332&page=39
February 21, 2010
Every third Indian is living below the poverty line
People living in the states of Orissa, Bihar and Chhattisgarh were
found to be among the poorest
THE report by economist Suresh Tendulkar used money spent by a person
on specific household goods and services to define the poor.
People living in the states of Orissa, Bihar and Chhattisgarh were
found to be among the poorest, the report said.
It also found that the number of poor in cities had decreased, while
those in villages had gone up.
The report has moved from the traditional method of enumerating the
number of people living in poverty by measuring their calorie intake
to one based on their spending on essential goods and services.
Based on the new method, it found 37.2 per cent of Indian people
living below the poverty line.
The report found that over 40 per cent of rural people survive on a
per capita expenditure of 447 rupees ($9.6) every month, spending on
bare essentials like food, fuel, clothing and footwear.
Correspondents say that for all of India’s impressive economic
progress, the number of Indians living in extreme poverty is not
declining fast enough.
Unless India commits itself to greater social spending and
intervention, it will be difficult to reduce poverty, correspondents
say.
(BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go)
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=332&page=40
February 21, 2010
Karmayogi touches the heart of youth at World Book Fair Suruchi
Sahitya stall makes an impact
Karmayogi, the documentary prepared by Shri Nitish Bhardwarj on the
life of second RSS Sarsanghachalak Shri Guruji attracted a large
number of youth visiting the 19th World Book Fair in New Delhi from
January 30 the February 7. The Suruchi Prakashan had made elaborate
arrangements for display of the documentary and other literature based
on the life of Shri Guruji at its stall in the Book Fair. According to
Shri Gautam Sapara, manager of Suruchi Prakashan, the documentary
attracted a large number of visitors to the stall and they were seen
eagerly trying to know the life of Shri Guruji and the historical
events of that period. Formed in 1970 and engaged in publishing good
quality books the Suruchi Prakashan participated in the World Book
Fair for the fifth time and this time it had hired double of the space
it used to hire in previous fairs. It sold more than 3000 books at the
Fair. RSS Sahsarkaryavah Shri Suresh Soni, Akhil Bharatiya Prachar
Pramukh Dr Manmohan Vaidya and many other noted authors and
dignitaries visited the stall. "More than 5000 visitors visited the
stall and gathered information about the books published by Suruchi
Prakashan. Encouraged with this year’s response we have decided to
make elaborate arrangements for the next Book Fair to be organised in
2012," he said.
(FOC)
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=332&page=36
February 28, 2010
Legal hurdles on Muslim quota
By Sabyasachi Bandopadhyay
KOLKATA: The State government is set to face a legal hurdle in
implementing its decision for reservation of 10 per cent of government
jobs for Muslim OBCs with the BJP saying it would move the court
against the government’s decision.
"The Andhra Pradesh High Court has showed us the way and we are going
to challenge the State government’s decision in the Calcutta High
Court. What the State government has done is unconstitutional as you
cannot provide reservation on the basis of religion," said the BJP
president Rahul Sinha over the phone from Delhi. He said he would take
up the matter with party president Nitin Gadkari and the State unit
will observe a protest day on the issue.
The Congress government in Andhra Pradesh enacted a law on June 23,
2007 providing for 4 per cent reservation in education and government
jobs to 15 backward communities among the Muslims. After a lot of
legal wrangles, the High Court today declared the Act null and void.
The West Bengal government itself became skeptical whether its
decision on reservation for Muslims could be implemented. "The Andhra
High Court’s order will have to be kept in mind. We will have to be
ready for everything because somebody can go to court," said Abdus
Sattar, Minister of State for Minorities.(Courtesy: NaidnI Express)
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=333&page=29
July 10, 2005
Opinions
AP reservations for Muslims
Let?s learn from history
By S.R. Ramanujan
Certainly no nation should live in its history because no nation can
afford to be stagnant. An important trait of nature is ?change? and a
nation has to keep pace with changing times. This does not mean that a
nation should forget history. On the contrary it has to learn from
history. Otherwise, its future history will be full of chaos and
confusion. When the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhara
Reddy announces that his government would consider providing political
reservations for Muslims, either he doesn?t understand history or
doesn?t care to learn from history or is least concerned about the
undesirable consequences of such a decision.
The AP government?s decision to extend 5 per cent reservation for
Muslims in education and jobs is having a spiraling effect. The
Nationalist Congress Party general secretary Akhtar Rizvi wants a
similar facility to be given to the Muslims in Maharashtra. A Muslim
group in Bihar is demanding 20 per cent reservations in educational
institutions and government jobs along the lines of AP government
decision. Another Muslim organization wants Article 341 to be amended
to include dalit Muslims in the SC category. The Hyderabad MP and
their apparent of Sultan Salahuddin Owaissi, Asaduddin Owaissi wants
the 5 per cent reservation to be extended to the entire country,
because he perhaps looks at it from a national perspective being a
Member of the Lok Sabha. Not to be left out, Brahmana Seva Sangha
Samakya (never heard of this outfit till now) demands that the
government should extend to Brahmins also a similar reservation in
education, employment and political posts on par with Muslims.
We don?t need a BC Commission, appointed by the AP government, to tell
us that there are a good number of educationally and economically
backward Muslims in the country or in the state. It is a reality and
none should crib about affirmative action. But quota is not the answer
for social and historical reasons. Had a survey been done at the
national level on the geographical location of such backward Muslims,
we would have got certain facts that have been swept under the carpet
so far by vested interests in the community. The backwardness is
mostly prevalent among those regions that were under Muslim rulers
prior to the integration of princely states, whether it is Bhopal, Old
Delhi, Ahmedabad or Hyderabad. Take the case of Telengana districts
including Hyderabad old city under the Nizam rule and compare it with
the rest of the State. Even today Muslims in the old city of Hyderabad
are reluctant to learn Telugu. How can they compete for a job in the
rest of the State? Muslim leaders cornered all the benefits guaranteed
under the Constitution in terms of minority educational institutions.
Instead of using those institutions for eradicating the educational
backwardness of Muslims, they started selling the seats for non-Muslim
candidates and thus pushing the deserving Muslims further into
educational backwardness. Either they went to Madarasas or drifted
without even elementary education. That is the reason you find average
Muslim literacy at 17.7 per cent while the state average is 44 per
cent. The literates among Muslim women are just 4 per cent. These are
the figures now being quoted to establish educational backwardness of
Muslims.
AP government?s decision to extend 5 per cent reservation for Muslims
in education and jobs is having a spiraling effect. The Nationalist
Congress Party general secretary Akhtar Rizvi wants a similar facility
to be given to the Muslims in Maharashtra.
The moot question is how will the 5 per cent quote help in improving
the literacy level among Muslim women from 4 per cent to atleast 40
per cent. We need a multi-pronged approach to uplift the Muslim masses
in terms of education which will automatically lead to economic
prosperity. First, they must be weaned away from the communal clutches
of their leadership. Second, the government must do its best to create
awareness among the backward Muslims about the importance of
education. Third, encourage institutions floated by Muslims who have
no political interests. Fourth, ensure that no non-Muslims are
admitted into such institutions for a price. 5 per cent quota will
only help Muslim political leaders to flaunt it before their followers
and the ruling party to garner their votes. This is the short term
effect.
The long term effect is going to be catastrophic. Leave alone the
demand for similar quota from other states. What is going to cause a
body blow to the nation is the demand for political reservations. Now
that Muslims have been brought under ?E? category of backward classes,
so goes the demand, they should also be considered for reserved seats
in the local body elections to be held shortly in the state. It is in
this context, chief minister Dr Reddy told a delegation of Muslim
women that political quota for Muslims was under consideration of the
government. To predict what would be the consequences of such a
decision, one has to go back to history.
Thanks to L.K. Advani, people have started dusting the history books
from the shelves for a fresh look at pre-Independence history.
Whatever the interpretations of Gandhiji?s support to the Khilafat
movement and Jinnah?s opposition to it, whatever the reasons for the
rejection of Nehru?s Constitution and agreement on the Lucknow Pact,
one thing is clear which cannot be disputed by any historian. That is,
the provision for separate electorates and reservation for Muslims
sowed the seed for Partition of the country.
Even today Muslims in the old city of Hyderabad are reluctant to learn
Telugu. How can they compete for a job in the rest of the State?
Muslim leaders cornered all the benefits guaranteed under the
Constitution in terms of minority educational institutions.
What is the genesis for such political exclusivism? It was in 1906 a
35-member delegation of Muslims met in Simla to demand proportionate
representation for Muslims. Though this demand was not immediately
conceded, it acted as a catalyst for separate electorate for Muslims.
Jinnah supported the movement for separate electorate and the Congress
too accepted it in the Lucknow Pact. And the rest is history. Sri
Aurobindo commented on this development thus: ?What has created the
Hindu-Muslim split was not Swadeshi, but the acceptance of the
communal principle by the Congress. The recognition of that communal
principle at Lucknow made them permanently a separate political entity
in India which ought never to have happened?.
What Dr Rajasekara Reddy is trying to do now is to further consolidate
this division and to create more tension between castes and
communities leading to disastrous consequences to the unity and
integrity of the nation. It is disastrous for a nation if it fails to
learn from its history.
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=86&page=12
January 21, 2008
UPA has reduced Hindu youth to second class status in India
By O.P. Gupta, IFS (retd)
Minorities are first class citizens for the Congress Party, SCs are
the second class and the OBCs are the third class citizens. As per
Mandal Commission the OBCs are 54 per cent of population so on pro-
rata basis welfare schemes for OBCs should have been allocated Rs
25,200 crore.
The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) report of March 30,
2007 shows that unemployment rate among Muslims and Hindus of both
sexes in urban areas differs by just about 0.5 per cent, and, that 755
Muslims per 1000 were in self-employed category against only 427
Hindus per 1000 in 2004-05. This sample survey shatters the myth being
created by Congress and Communist parties that far more Muslims are
unemployed than the Hindus.
In Karnataka, literacy rate for Muslims as per Sachar Committee
(Table, page 287) is 70.1 per cent, Hindus (65.6 per cent). In Kerala,
Muslim literacy rate is 89.4 per cent, Hindus (90.2 per cent). Still
the Congress manifesto of 2004 declared all Muslims as educationally
backwards in Kerala and Karnataka to reserve jobs for Muslims with a
view to implement its core agenda of reducing job opportunity of Hindu
youngsters, hook or by crook.
The National Commission for Linguistic and Religious Minorities headed
by Justice Ranganath Misra in May 2007 has recommended sub-quota of
8.4 per cent for minorities within 27 per cent OBC quota, and,
reservation to Dalit minorities by including such converts under
Scheduled Caste category within the 15 per cent SC quota. It said that
in the 27 per cent OBC quota, an 8.4 per cent sub-quota could be
earmarked for the minorities with an internal break-up of six per cent
for Muslims and 2.4 per cent for other minorities. If dalit Muslims
and dalit Christians are clubbed into the 15 per cent quota they will
squeeze out SC Hindus as Christians and Muslims enjoy better literacy
than SC Hindus. Misra has been a Congress Member of Rajya Sabha.
So the grand agenda of the Congress Party, communist parties and
socialist parties to reduce percentage of Hindus below 85 per cent in
all government and public sector jobs, in educational institutions,
that too with notes and votes of Hindu voters has taken shape.
In minority run institutions a Hindu student with higher percentage of
marks may not get admission. SC and ST Hindu students are denied their
constitutional reservation quotas in minority institutions. Is it not
second class treatment to Hindu students?
For 2007-08 the UPA govt has introduced 20,000 special scholarships
for minority students for technical/professional courses. For minority
students studying in top 50 institutions [like IIMs, IITs etc], full
course fee is reimbursable. For those studying in other institutions
course fee up to Rs 20,000 per annum is reimbursable. Hostellers will
get maintenance allowance of Rs 1000 per month.
I served as Indian Ambassador over the last thirteen years when I saw ?
burning? urge among Hindu settlers to be treated with respect and on
equal footings with locals in matters of religion, education,
employment, economic matters and application of local laws. After a
gap of thirteen years, I returned to India in January 2007 and was
amazed to see just the reverse trend among Hindus living in India,
rather than demanding equality in all spheres even educated Hindus are
pushing their own kith and kins into second and third class status
vis-?-vis minority candidates by supporting such political parties
which openly declare that they will give first preference to minority
candidates over Hindus in matters of admissions into colleges,
employment in government and public sector, departmental promotions,
disbursement of bank loans etc.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, a Sikh politician while addressing
the National Development Council on Dec 9, 2006 publicly instructed
the civil servants, ?We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure
that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to
share equitably in the fruits of development. They must have the first
claim on resources?.
No wonder, budgetary allocation for welfare schemes for minorities in
the XIth Five Year Plan [2007-12] has been hiked to Rs 7,000 crore;
annual allocation to the Ministry of Minority Affairs has been suo
motu raised by the Planning Commission to Rs 1,400 crore from Rs 500
crore though this Ministry had sought annual allocation of Rs 1,100
crore.
The Ministry of Social Justice had sought Rs 16,100 crore for welfare
of SCs and OBCs, out of which Rs 11,185 crore was earmarked for SCs
and Rs 2,250 crore for OBCs. But reflecting the step motherly
treatment of Hindus by the Congress party, the Planning Commission
reduced allocation for their welfare schemes by Rs 3,000 with the
result budgetary allocation for welfare of SCs stands reduced to Rs
9,097 crore and for OBCs stands reduced to a peanut amount of Rs 1,588
crore. This is the price which SC and OBC Hindus had to pay for voting
the UPA parties.
Above datas show that minorities are first class citizens for the
Congress party, SCs are the second class and the OBCs are the third
class citizens. As per Mandal Commission the OBCs are 54 per cent of
population so on pro-rata basis welfare schemes for OBCs should have
been allocated Rs 25,200 crore.
It is painful to see how the class of ?secular, progressive and
liberal? Hindu politicians right from the days of the 1916 Congress-
Muslim League Lucknow Pact till date in form of the Sachar Committee
Report, Rangnath Misra Commission, the New 15-Point Programme of Prime
Minister, 15 per cent Plan Allocation to Minorities etc has been
systematically concocting false and fabricated justifications to
reduce, bit by bit, the educational, employment and economic (E3)
opportunities of all Hindu boys and girls, including SC, ST and
leftist Hindu boys and girls, pushing them to second and third class
status vis-?-vis minority boys and girls.
The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) report of March 30,
2007 shows that unemployment rate among Muslims and Hindus of both
sexes in urban areas differs by just about 0.5 per cent, and, that 755
Muslims per 1000 were in self-employed category against only 427
Hindus per 1000 in 2004-05. This sample survey shatters the myth being
created by Congress and Communist parties that far more Muslims are
unemployed than the Hindus.
It may come as another rude shock to those Hindu intellectuals who
have made it their business to plead concessions after concessions for
Muslims on pretext of Muslim educational backwardness that as per
Census Report of 2001 Muslim males have higher literacy rate than
Hindu males in eleven states (Andhra Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar,
Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharastra,
Orissa, Pondicherry and Tamil Nadu).
In thirteen states, Muslim women enjoy higher literacy rate than Hindu
women [Andhra Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar, Chhattisgarh, Daman & Diu,
Dadra & nagarhaveli, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Orissa, Pondicherry and Tamil Nadu, Statements 8a and 8b,
Census Report 2001].
The Sachar Committee [page 53] also admits that in ten states literacy
rate among Muslims are higher than even that of the upper caste Hindus
and also higher than SC/ST Hindus.
In Karnataka, literacy rate for Muslims as per Sachar Committee (Table
at page 287) is 70.1 per cent, Hindus (65.6 per cent) and SC/ST (51.5
per cent). In Kerala, Muslim literacy rate is 89.4 per cent, Hindus
(90.2 per cent) and SC/ST (80.8 per cent). Still the Congress
manifesto of 2004 declared all Muslims as educationally backwards in
Kerala and Karnataka to reserve jobs for Muslims with a view to
implement its core agenda of reducing job opportunity of Hindu
youngsters, by hook or by crook.
Not to be left behind in reducing percentage of Hindus in government
services, Karunanidhi flying in the face of facts is also harping on
educational backwardness of Muslims in Tamil Nadu.
The Sachar Committee (Table at page 287) reports that literacy rate of
Muslims in Andhra Pradesh is 68 per cent followed by Hindus (59.4 per
cent) and SC/ST (48.9) but Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy (a
Christian) reserved five per cent seats for Muslims in educational
institutions and in government jobs on false plea of educational
backwardness of Muslims in Andhra Pradesh just to cheat Hindu youth of
their seats in colleges and their jobs in government. Those Hindus in
Andhra Pradesh who blindly voted to the Congress party in 2004 must be
feeling cheated.
According to the 2001 Census of India (Report on Religion Data)
Christian community enjoys higher literacy rate than Hindus; all India
literacy rate for Christian community was 84.4 per cent compared to
76.2 per cent of Hindus.
Right from 1954 the Congress party Prime Ministers at the Centre have
been issuing instructions to all Central Ministries as well as to all
State Governments to give special considerations to recruitment of
religious minority candidates in public services with implied hint to
reduce percentage of Hindus in public services. In 1983, Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi vide her 15-Point Programme for Minorities
became the first Prime Minister to have issued instructions to include
minority members in all the Selection Boards and departmental
promotion committees. The circular to induct religious minority
members in Selection Boards was again issued by the Rajiv Gandhi
Government and the Vishwanath Prasad Singh Government The Manmohan
Singh Government reiterated it in January 2007 with added condition of
making quarterly reports on progress of minority candidates actually
recruited and or promoted. After all the ?communally appointed
members? of the Selection Boards will have to show some result of
their being added to Boards and, thus, the intake of minority
candidates will go up and percentage of Hindu?s intake, whether
leftist or rightist, whether forward or backward, whether upper caste
or scheduled caste Hindus will automatically come down. This is
happening when overall unemployment situation is worsening in India
day by day.
The National Commission for Linguistic and Religious Minorities headed
by Justice Ranganath Misra in May 2007 has recommended sub-quota of
8.4 per cent for minorities within 27 per cent OBC quota, and,
reservation to Dalit minorities by including such converts under
Scheduled Caste category within the 15 per cent SC quota. It said that
in the 27 per cent OBC quota, an 8.4 per cent sub-quota could be
earmarked for the minorities with an internal break-up of 6 per cent
for Muslims and 2.4 per cent for other minorities. If dalit Muslims
and dalit Christians are clubbed into the 15 per cent quota they will
squeeze out SC Hindus as Christians and Muslims enjoy better literacy
than SC Hindus. Misra has been a Congress Member of Rajya Sabha.
The basic premise of this Commission report is to ensure 15 per cent
representation?proportionate to the minority population?to the
minorities in Government jobs and educational institutions. ?The break-
up within the recommended 15 per cent earmarked seats in institutions
shall be 10 per cent for Muslims and the remaining five per cent for
the other minorities, however, if the Muslims cannot avail 10 per cent
quota, the rest should go to the non-Muslim minorities and in no case
shall any seat within the recommended 15 per cent go to the majority
community?, the Misra report said.
So the grand secular agenda of the Congress party, the Communist
parties and various socialist parties is to reduce percentage of
Hindus below 85 per cent in all public services and in all educational
institutions. Those Hindus who oppose this grand agenda are dubbed as
communal Hindus. As we know at present Hindus constitute more than 95
per cent of all public services. So all those Hindus who have school
going children and grand children must wake up to protect interests of
their wards.
No wonder, inaugurating the National Conference of State Minority
Commissions on November 2, 2006, Dr Manmohan Singh, PM said: ?It is
essential that communal peace and harmony should be maintained and the
minorities get a fair share in Central and State Governments jobs?.
According to press reports of November 26, 2006 the National
Commission for Minorities (NCM) asked the Union Home Ministry to
ensure a fair representation of religious minorities in the police and
paramilitary forces.
Suppose there are 10,000 vacancies to be filled up. So, seats reserved
for SC Hindus as per existing formula will be 1500, for ST Hindus 750
and for OBCs 2700. Now if 15 per cent jobs are reserved for minorities
as per recommendation of Justice Misra, general category seats for
which a Hindu can compete will come down to 8,500. So number of seats
for SC Hindus will get reduced to 1275, for ST Hindus will get reduced
to 637 and to OBCs 2295. If Misra?s recommendation of 8.4 per cent sub-
quota within quota is also accepted only 1591 seats will be left for
OBC Hindus. More meritorious minority candidates will naturally spill
over into general category seats.
So the grand agenda of the Congress party, communist parties and
socialist parties to reduce percentage of Hindus below 85 per cent in
all government and public sector jobs, in educational institutions,
that too with notes and votes of Hindu voters has taken shape.
Pseudo-secular Hindu politicians have passed such laws which enable a
minority student to get cheaper educational loans at three per cent
interest per annum from the National Minority Development & Finance
Corporation, whereas a Hindu student gets student loan at 12.5 per
cent to 14 per cent interest per annum from commercial banks. Minority
students are required to repay educational loans in five years after
completion of his course but in case of Hindu students repayment
starts one year after completion of course or six months after
obtaining employment whichever is earlier. One may see details at
(www.nmdfc.org).
A minority businessman gets margin money loans from NMDFC at five per
cent per annum but a Hindu gets commercial loan at 14 per cent to 18
per cent per annum from commercial banks. A Hindu student and a Hindu
businessman gets bank loans at much higher rates of interest and on
harsher terms whether he is a member of the Students Federation or
that of the NSUI or the ABVP.
On March 13, 2007 Finance Minister Chidambaram told the Rajya Sabha
that of the total priority sector lending, loans to minorities had
increased by 33 per cent to Rs 45,490 crore on March 31, 2006 as
against Rs 34,654 crore when the UPA Government took office in May
2004. The Finance Minister said that during the financial year 2005-06
credit to religious minorities was 8.18 per cent of the total priority
sector lending. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has committed to raise
credit to minorities to 15 per cent of the total priority sector
lending. In its Charter for Advancement of Muslim Community the CPI(M)
has also called to reserve 15 per cent of priority credits for
minorities. So, Hindu businessmen will increase their own difficulties
in getting bank loans by financing the elections of Congress Party and
UPA parties.
In minority run institutions a Hindu student with higher percentage of
marks may not get admission. SC and ST Hindu students are denied their
constitutional reservation quotas in minority institutions. Is it not
second class treatment to Hindu students?
A Delhi based Hindu student with better marks may not get admission in
any professional college in Delhi but a Delhi based Muslim student
with less marks is likely to get admission in professional courses in
Delhi such as in the Jamia Hamdard University in Delhi as this
University has reserved 50 per cent seats for Muslims claiming to be a
minority institution under Art 30(1) of the Constitution of India. Is
it not second class treatment of meritorious Hindu boys and girls?
Hindu candidates with better CV are denied appointments in minority
institutions.
Attempts are being made to declare the Jamia Millia University and the
Aligarh Muslim University as ?minority institutions? so that 50 per
cent seats in these Central Universities can be officially reserved
for Muslim students, and, thus, reduce Hindu students as second class
citizens at two more campuses.
For 2007-08, the UPA government has introduced 20,000 special
scholarships for minority students for technical/professional courses.
For minority students studying in top 50 institutions [like IIMs, IITs
etc], full course fee is reimbursable. For those studying in other
institutions course fee up to Rs 20,000 per annum is reimbursable.
Hostellers will get maintenance allowance of Rs 1000 per month. [] In
addition minority candidates appearing for competitive examinations of
civil services etc will be paid for attending coaching classes of
their choice. No such facility is available to Hindu students because
their parents vote for Congress party or socialist parties. []
Congress and Communist parties have, thus, imposed such a legal system
where a Muslim candidate or a Christian candidate has all the legal
rights to compete on equal footings with a Hindu candidate for
employment, but there are thousands and thousands of posts paid from
government funds for which Hindus just cannot apply, such as, posts of
Chairman of the National Minority Commission and Provincial Minority
Commissions, the posts of the Principal and Vice Principal of St.
Stephan?s College, Delhi University, heads of minority institutions
etc.
Under section 3 of the National Minority Commission Act, a Hindu can
not be its Chairman and at least five of its seven members including
Chairman shall have to be from amongst the minority communities.
Section 4 of the National Commission for Minority Educational
Institutions Act 2004 stipulates that only persons from minority
communities shall be eligible to be appointed as Chairman and members
of this Commission. Chairman and members draw salary and perks of a
Secretary to the Govt of India and a Hindu, howsoever, secular and
progressive stands debarred from holding these posts. Both Acts were
moved by the Congress party. So a person shall be denied appointments
to these posts under the State simply because he is a Hindu. Hindu
parliamentarians have thus downgraded their own younger generations by
enacting such anti-Hindu laws.
Minority Commissions have been set up to ensure that minorities are
not discriminated but there is no Commission to ensure that Hindus are
not victimized in India by minorities.
Such ill-treatments a Hindu voter has invited for himself and for his
children by giving his vote to the pseudo-secular parties or by
abstaining from voting. Every Hindu vote given to any pseudo-secular
party is going to be used to humiliate Hindu youth. A faithful and
firm handling of this inequality imposed by pseudo secular parties
upon Hindu youth will change the politics of India.
(The writer retired in the rank of Secretary to the Government of
India in the Indian Foreign Service (1971 batch). He served as
Ambassador to Finland, Estonia, Jamaica, Tunisia, Tanzania, Dominican
Republic etc., and Consul General, Dubai (UAE) and Birmingham (UK).)
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=221&page=3
February 24, 2008
Editorial
Now A Christian Subsidy!
If there was a national award for inventing appeasement populism, the
first claimant for that would have been the Andhra Pradesh Chief
Minister Rajasekhara Reddy. The man who kick started the UPA Muslim
quota business in his state as the first act of his government in May
2004, has now offered to subsidise travel by Christians to their Holy
Land, meaning Israel-Palestine along the lines of the Haj subsidy for
Muslims.
The move is totally unconstitutional and the inspiration is blatantly
communal with a political agenda. Rajasekhara Reddy is a Christian,
like his party chief, though the community is not very numerous in his
state. In states where the Christians are in substantial number they
enjoy many privileges which are denied to the Hindus. Like the
reservation in jobs and education in Kerala and Tamil Nadu and the
pronouncedly Christian character of some of the North East states
where the state assembly sessions begin with Bible prayers. Nobody has
objected to them, but the Christian community is not known to go on
pilgrimages to foreign lands the way Muslims do. There has been no
demand of this sort from any quarter in the community. As such
Christians are educationally and economically well off.
Most church denominations have taken up a rigorous Indianisation plank
and have largely succeeded in this effort. This attempt at
secularisation is being sought to be torpedoed by certan over zealous
evangelical elements. Rajasekhara Reddy?s effort seems to encourage
such elements.
In the last four years there were many reports of aggressive
proselytising mission in the state. This had created tension in some
areas especially in Tirupati-Tirumalai, where after a series of
protests from Hindu groups the government had to issue a notification
prohibiting non-Hindus violating the sanctity of the Holy Hills.
Another controversy in the state is about the state government
systematically siphoning off thousands of crores from the temple
offerings for other irreligious activities. Yet another case is
pending in the High Court on the state government?s attempt to sell
away thousands of acres of temple property to make revenue for the
exchequer.
A state government with such questionable reputation has now mooted
the idea of Christian subsidy with some obvious ulterior intention.
Perhaps this might ignite a new wave of demands and protests and
grievance concoction. As such Christians, unlike the Muslims are a
contented community. They have no dearth of foreign funding. For
ecclesiastical training and studies Christians go to Vatican, and for
this they spent their own money. That is no pilgrimage. Jerusalem,
another holy place for Christians is a virtual war zone and
Christianity has no tradition of pilgrimage to Holy Land. In India
there are many places holy for them. It is not clear if Reddy has a
plan to subsidise such domestic pilgrimages also.
In any case, the Constitution does not allow discrimination in the
name of religion, caste and region. Every act of the UPA in these
matters has been fundamentally wrong. The Haj subsidy, which is
increasing every year, has now reached over Rs 4,000 crore annually.
This is over and above the spending on welfare and facilitation
arrangements by the states and the centre. It is high time the UPA put
an end to such cynical acts of perdition for temporary political
mileage.
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February 24, 2008
Obituary
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
He took meditation to the West
On behalf of the Hindu American community of USA, Vishwa Hindu
Parishad, America, has extended its deepest condolences to the large ?
family of devotees? of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and described his death
as a great loss to the human race. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a spiritual
leader, who introduced the West to ?Transcendental Meditation?, had
passed away on February 5 at Vlodrop, a southern Dutch village at the
age of 91.
?Maharishi?s work is complete,? his Movement said in a statement. ?He
has done what he set out to do in 1957 - to lay the foundation for a
peaceful world, now Maharishi is being welcomed with open arms into
heaven.? Earlier, on January 11, the Maharishi had announced that his
public work had finished and that he would use his remaining time to
complete a long-running series of published commentaries on the
Vedas.
Maharishi was also famous as the guru to the Beatles, the Indian
spiritualist Deepak Chopra, and several other high-profile people.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is believed to have been born on January 12,
1917. He was born Mahesh Prasad Varma in Central India, the third of
four children. After graduating with a degree in physics at Allahabad
University in 1942, he left for the foothills of the Himalayas to
begin a 13-year spiritual apprenticeship with his guru Swami
Brahmanand Saraswati. When his mentor passed away in the early 1950s,
the Maharishi dedicated his life to spreading the teachings of his
guru. He started teaching meditation techniques around the world in
1959, starting in the United States.
The Maharishi originated the Transcendental Meditation (TM, a
trademark,) movement in 1957 and brought it to the United States in
1959. He set out on his international mission to achieve this vision
in 1959, beginning in Los Angeles, where he established his movement
with an initial following of 25 devotees. From this small beginning
the Maharishi over his lifetime developed a global organisation with
nearly 1,000 TM centres, property assets valued in 1998 at $3.5
billion and an estimated four million disciples. Maharishi?s TM
centres expanded all over the world to England, France, Russia,
Germany, South America, USA, etc. They were all held happily together
by a single and everlasting thread, i.e. meditation.
TM consists of closing one?s eyes twice a day for 20 minutes while
silently repeating a mantra to gain deep relaxation, eliminate stress,
promote good health and attain clear thinking and inner fulfillment.
Over the years since TM became popular, many scientists have found
physical and mental benefits from mediation in general and
transcendental meditation in particular, especially in reducing stress-
related ailments. Since the technique?s inception in 1955, it has been
used to train more than 40,000 teachers, taught more than 5 million
people, opened thousands of teaching centres and founded hundreds of
schools, colleges and universities.
This organisation helps a person find a way for the answers that every
person has been looking for since the beginning of the human
civilisation?who am I, where I came from, where am I going, and so on.
Maharshi lectured on the positive effects of meditation on body, mind
and intellect. He gave a new face to Vedic literature. Maharishi
explained the scientific nature of Vedic literature and demonstrated
how through that science one could live a peaceful life, reach one?s
highest potential and follow the path of self-fulfillment.
He was the only spiritual leader who held people together from all
religions of the world under one banner: Transcendental Meditation. In
the United States, his organisation is based in Fairfield, Iowa, where
it operates a university, the Maharishi University of Management
(MUM). In 2001, disciples of the movement incorporated their own town,
Maharishi Vedic City, a few miles north of Fairfield.
(FOC)
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February 24, 2008
UPA inducements for conversion
By Dr. Indulata Das
The communities designated as minorities, which include Muslims,
Christians, Sikhs, Budhists and Parsis (Zorastrains) account for 18.4
per cent of the India?s population according to 2001 Census. Among
them, Muslims constitute the largest group with 13.4 per cent of our
population followed by Christians 2.3 per cent. The percentage of
Muslim population in 1951 was less than 10 per cent and that of
Christian about 2 per cent. As analysed by various experts including
Justice Sachar, the high growth of Muslim population is contributable
to higher female fertility. Unchecked infiltration from the
neighbouring country, i.e. Bangladesh, has also enhanced the Muslim
population growth substantially, which according to a view articulated
by Justice Sachar in his report does not matter. The growth of
Christian population, however, is mainly due to conversion among
weaker sections of the society, particularly in SC/ST-dominated
regions. The methods employed for conversion include allurement,
deception and threats.
The policy pronouncements and programmes of the UPA-government seem to
have far reaching consequences in disturbing our social equilibrium.
In the name of development intervention to help the minority
communities, the new schemes that have been introduced actually amount
to division of our society. It is unthinkable to visualise inclusive
growth through policies and schemes that are divisive and segregative.
It will be pertinent to mention here some important features of newly
introduced schemes and ramifications of their implementation.
The merit-cum-means scholarship provides that a student of minority
community within annual family income of up to Rs. 2.50 lakh will
receive course fee of
Rs. 20,000 and scholarship of Rs. 10,000 per annum as hosteller and
Rs. 5000 per annum as day scholar. Although educational status of SCs,
STs and some of the OBCs in the country is worse than that of
minorities, the central government has not considered it necessary to
introduce a similar scheme for them. The scheme looks like a
government-funded inducement for conversion.
In addition to merit-cum-means scholarship, the central government has
started another scheme to provide post-matric scholarship to students
of minority communities. Accordingly, a student having annual family
income of up to Rs. 2,00,000, is eligible for post-matric scholarship
which includes course and maintenance allowances. It is to be noted
here that the family income ceiling for SC and ST students to be
eligible for post-matric scholarship is Rs. 1,00,000 and for OBCs Rs.
45,000. The income certificates for SC, ST and OBC students have to be
issued by the designated revenue officers as per the prescribed norms.
No such conditions exist for minority students. A self certification
to be filed on a non-judicial stamp paper regarding annual family
income of up to Rs. 2,00,000 for post-matric scholarship and Rs. 2.50
lakh for merit-cum-means scholarship is all that is needed. The
discrimination is evident.
The scheme of pre-matric scholarship approved by the central
government for students of minority communities provides for cost
sharing of the scholarship in between the centre and the state at
75:25 ratio. The central government does not consider introducing a
similar scheme for SCs and STs knowing it well that their educational
and economic status is worse than that of minorities.
The Prime Minister?s 15 Point Programme provides for ear-marking of 15
per cent budgetary allocations under priority sector programmes for
minorities. There are no additional allocations from the central
government for this purpose. It is to be remembered that majority of
SC and ST population is below the government-defined poverty line.
This is why 50 per cent to 60 per cent targets under most of the
priority sector schemes are required to be achieved by assisting SC
and ST families according to the relevant guidelines. Setting apart 15
per cent of schematic grants without any additional allocation under
the Prime Minister?s 15 Point Programme means diversion of benefits
meant for the poor SCs and STs to that extent. For example, under
Indira Awas Yojana, 60 per cent houses have to be given to the SC and
ST families as per the prescribed guidelines. Under the Prime Minister?
s 15 Point Programme, 15 per cent houses will have to be given to the
families of minority communities which account for about 4.5 per cent
of Orissa?s population. The fact remains that about 40 per cent of the
Muslim population lives in the urban areas where Indira Awas Yojna
cannot be implemented and STs do not change their social status.
In brief, the differential and more favourable scholarship norms for
minority students from primary to professional courses, and the
earmarking of 15 per cent plan resources under the 15 point programme
are not only divisive and segregative measures, they can also be
viewed as the central government sponsored incentives to promote
religious conversion. The society should judge whether inclusive
growth and social assimilation can be achieved through the
segregative, divisive and discriminatory communal budgeting. Whether
the parties in power actually mean development of minorities or want
to misuse them as ?vote banks? perpetually. There is no country or
society where inclusive growth and social integration have been
achieved through divisive policies and programmes.
(The writer can be contacted at Qtr. No. 5R 9, Forest Park, Unit-1,
Bhubaneswar, Orissa, 751009, indul...@yahoo.co.in)
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January31, 2010
A Report As A Charter of Divisiveness
By Kidar Nath Sahani
Of interest will be to know that even the then British Government
refused to include the Muslims and the Christians in the list of
Scheduled Castes when it prepared such a list in 1936.
Notably, the Commission has suggested an alternative route for
reservation to minorities if there is "insurmountable difficulty" in
implementing the recommendation for 15 per cent reservation. In this
regard it is said since minorities constitute 8.4 per cent of the
total OBC population according to the Mandal Commission Report, so in
the 27 per cent OBC quota, an 8.4 per cent sub quota should be
earmarked for minorities. (As per Commission’s suggestions, the
internal break-up should be 6 per cent for the Muslims, commensurate
with their 73 per cent share in the total minority population at the
national level and 2.4 per cent for other minorities.) This is a clear
effort to dilute the existing quota of the OBCs.
Unfortunately, during the last over sixty years politicians of various
shades with their politics of vote-bank and appeasement, have done
havoc to this spirit of ‘one and united nation’. Various Commissions
and Committees like the Mandal Commission, Sachar Committee and now
the Ranganath Misra Commission were formed to serve this end.
On the eve of the Sashtipurti, i.e. 60 years of the Republic, the
Congress is trying to do what its own leaders, the founding fathers of
the Republic refused to do, i.e., to divide the nation in the name of
religion by conceding religion based reservation. In the Constituent
Assembly, similar demands were firmly turned down by the luminaries
like Dr BR Ambedkar, Sardar Patel, Pt Nehru and C Rajagopalachari. But
the present government led by Congress wants to negate it all by
succumbing to pressures of vote-bank politics. It is trying to promote
such divisiveness through the back door.
The Constituent Assembly in its long debates aimed at making India one
united nation devoid of all such anomalies that had crept up in the
society in the past, and made it weak, divided and vulnerable. The
issue of giving representation to different groups like scheduled
castes and scheduled tribes, minorities-religious or linguistic, was
discussed at length. Going through the debates, one finds that to a
vast majority of members, including Baba Sahib Ambedkar, the very idea
of giving representation to various groups was not acceptable. Even Dr
Ambedkar did not want in the case of reservation for the SC and ST to
last for 10 years after Independence. This was the focus of the
debates and the spirit of the ‘Constitution’.
Unfortunately, during the last over sixty years politicians of various
shades with their politics of vote-bank and appeasement, have done
havoc to this spirit of ‘one and united nation’. Various Commissions
and Committees like the Mandal Commission, Sachar Committee and now
the Ranganath Misra Commission were formed to serve this end.
The Indian Constitution provides ample guarantees and opportunities to
all sections of society, irrespective of their religion, belief or
caste, for their healthy growth and progress. Yet, for political
interests such commissions and committees were constituted. The
reports they presented speak volumes.
The report of the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic
Minorities-better known as Ranganath Misra Commission, was tabled in
both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha at the fag-end of the winter
session of the Parliament, apparently in an attempt to avoid debates
and discussions. It was actually submitted to the Prime Minister over
two years ago, on May 21, 2007. For reasons best known to itself, the
government kept the report in cold storage for so long, though it was
almost immediately leaked in the media and was widely circulated.
The Commission was constituted on March 21, 2005. Formed in the
aftermath of controversies created by the Sachar Committee
recommendations, it was given the task to suggest criteria for
identification of socially and economically backward sections among
religious and linguistic minorities and to recommend measures for
their welfare.
The four-member Commission included Chairman Justice Ranganath Misra
who headed it along with three members-Tahir Mahmood, the late Anil
Wilson(Principal, St Stephens College), Mohinder Singh and Member
Secretary Asha Das.
The report makes three main suggestions:
I. Article 16(4), which is the constitutional basis for providing job
quotas to OBCs, should be the basis for providing reservation benefits
to minority groups who are socially and economically backward.
II. At least 15 per cent of seats in all non-minority educational
institutions should be earmarked for the minorities with 10 per cent
for the Muslims (commensurate with their 73 per cent share in the
total minority population at the national level) and 5 per cent for
other minorities.
The Commission also recommended 15 per cent share for the minorities
in all the government schemes like NREGA, Prime Minister’s Rozgar
Yojna, Grameen Rozgar Yojna, etc. Besides, it seeks the same 15 per
cent quota for minorities in government jobs, Central and State
services in all cadres and grades with a break-up of 10 per cent for
the Muslims and 5 per cent for others. (The report also calls for a
sub-quota in OBC quota clearly marked out for those minority
communities which come under the broad head of OBCs).
III. The Commission has asked for the de-linking of Scheduled Caste
status from religion and to make the SC net fully religion-neutral,
like that of Scheduled Tribes. Calling the caste system ‘all-
pervading’, the Commission says the Constitution while describing and
defining SCs and STs did not perceive a dimension of religion in it.
Of interest will be to know that even the then British Government
refused to include the Muslims and the Christians in the list of
Scheduled Castes when it prepared such a list in 1936.
More notably, arguing that religious freedom is a Fundamental Right,
the Commission has recommended continuation of SC reservation benefits
to those Dalits who convert to other religions by choice.
Apart from the above main recommendations, there are a plethora of
other recommendations focussing primarily on the Muslim community.
These are:
* Select institutions in the country like the Aligarh Muslim
University and the Jamia Millia Islamia should be legally given a
special responsibility to promote education at all levels to Muslim
students by taking all possible steps for this purpose.
* In the funds to be distributed by the Maulana Azad Educational
Foundation a suitable portion should be earmarked for the Muslims
proportionate to their share in the total minority population. Out of
this portion funds should be provided not only to the existing Muslim
institutions but also for setting-up new institutions from nursery to
the highest level and for technical and vocational education anywhere
in India but especially in the Muslim-concentration areas.
* Anganwaris, Navoday Vidyalayas and other similar institutions should
be opened under their respective schemes especially in each of the
Muslim concentration areas and Muslim families be given suitable
incentives to send their children to such institutions.
* Citing that the largest minority of the country, the Muslims, have a
scant or weak presence in the agrarian sector the Commission
recommended that special schemes should be formulated for the
promotion and development of agriculture, agronomy and agricultural
trade among them.
With regard to linguistic minorities, the only significant
recommendation is that the Commission wants the three language formula
to be implemented everywhere in the country making it compulsory for
authorities to include in it the mother tongue of every child.
Significantly, the above recommendations have not been unanimous.
Member Secretary of the Commission Asha Das has given a note of
dissent on the Commission’s recommendation for conferment of SC status
on Dalit converts to Christianity and Islam saying there was "no
justification" for it. She also appended a note of dissent saying she
did not agree with the recommendation of treating Christian/Muslim
Dalits at par with Hindu/Sikh/Buddhist Dalits.
Notably, the Commission has suggested an alternative route for
reservation to minorities if there is "insurmountable difficulty" in
implementing the recommendation for 15 per cent reservation. In this
regard it is said since minorities constitute 8.4 per cent of the
total OBC population according to the Mandal Commission Report, so in
the 27 per cent OBC quota, an 8.4 per cent sub-quota should be
earmarked for minorities. (As per Commission’s suggestions, the
internal break-up should be six per cent for the Muslims, commensurate
with their 73 per cent share in the total minority population at the
national level and 2.4 per cent for other minorities.)
This is a clear effort to dilute the existing quota of the OBCs.
In all, the report submitted by the Ranganath Misra Commission is a
charter of divisiveness and vote-bank politics. No wonder, it has got
flak from all sides. VHP has already threatened a nationwide agitation
if the government makes any move to implement the report. It has
termed the report as "Anti-constitutional anti-national and anti-
Hindu".
The report has also been condemned for being against the spirit of the
founding fathers of the Indian Constitution. It is alleged that if
implemented, it would particularly be damaging to the interest of the
vulnerable sections of Hindu society.
"Implementation of such a report is set to encourage religious
conversions, particularly among the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled
Tribes and other backward classes to take advantage of this
development," says Dr Pravin Togadia of VHP.
He further adds, "The present government is trying to undo the
conscious decision of the Constituent Assembly not to provide for
religion-based reservation." He also said that the implementation of
the report will mean death for the Hindu SCs, STs and OBCs and their
children.
It is strange that no word has been spoken against it by the people
who call themselves secular and pro-poor. Even the parties that thrive
on OBC politics are keeping silent. Only, some lone voices like that
of Buta Singh, the chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled
Castes, has made public his differences over giving reservation to
minorities from the SC quota.
On the contrary, all the quota-supporting entities such as the Left
parties, Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and a section of the
Congress are putting pressure on the Centre to implement the report,
yet, the government sources acknowledge that implementing the
Ranganath Misra Commission report could be the toughest task ahead for
this government. As this involves the most crucial aspect of quotas,
which is the reservation under religious lines.
The only vocal support to the report has come from a number of Muslim
and Christian groups, and quite naturally so.
Secretary of the Indian Catholic Bishops Commission for dalit and
tribal groups, Father Cosmon Arokiaraj has welcomed the report and has
asked the government to pass the Bill without delay. Another Bishop,
Father Anthoniraj Thumma, head of an ecumenical forum in the State of
Andhra Pradesh, said that the government move would provide dalit
Christians constitutional protection. He added that in addition to
quotas in government jobs and seats in educational institutions, the
new move would also give dalit groups (converted) a right to contest
elections for seats reserved for such category.
It will now be interesting to see the ATR by the government on these
recommendations. As in the ATR, the government will have to make
public its ideas on how the reservation for the Muslims and the
Christians would be implemented.
The supporters for implementing it say that any move to provide
reservation to religious minorities is unlikely to be opposed by those
in the general category as reservation of seats for Dalit Christians
and Muslims within the existing quota for Dalits will not affect
them.
But that does not negate the fact that the Ranganath Misra report on
quotas for minorities is aimed at harvesting votes rather than
resolving the problem of backwardness of the minorities. It wrongly
invokes the "full sanction of the Article 16(4) of the Constitution"
for a 15 per cent reservation in government jobs for Muslims,
Christians and other minorities on the assumption that all minorities
must necessarily be backward.
What is being insidiously resurrected under the rubric of ‘under
representation’ is actually ‘communal representation’. Such emphasis
on inadequacy of representation on the assumption of backwardness will
encourage communally inspired demands for all.
Our founding fathers of the Constitution knew the dangers of such an
approach. That is why such communal approaches were specifically
excluded from the Constitution.
Lastly, it is not clear whether this new quota will be an OBC quota or
SC or ST quota. Or whether minority quotas will be written into these
quotas or added to them? If added, the overall quotas will become 64
per cent. And since quota over 50 per cent is not possible as per the
Constitution, the only option left would be to assimilate it in the
existing quota which, most certainly, would cause heartburn to the
OBCs, SCs and STs who will have their quota reduced from 50 per cent
to 35 per cent.
(The writer is former Governor of Sikkim and Goa.)
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January 21, 2008
UPA's rank communalism
Quota politics threatens to fragment India
By Sunita Vakil
The Congress has always aimed at erecting barriers between the
different communities rather than trying to break them down. Indeed,
the brand of secularism flaunted by the party is very much flawed. By
separating Muslim issues from the rest of the populace, it is only
treading the familiar ground of identity politics, that forms the core
of its survival.
Congress-led UPA government?s gusto of going overboard to woo Muslims
by allocating 15 per cent of funds during the 11th plan period
exclusively for minorities is indicative of its communal mindset that
is hellbent upon dividing India along religious lines.
The UPA government?s congenital tendency to succumb before the
minority separatism may run the risk of undoing the national
integration. It does not need an awful lot of imagination to surmise
that its coddling of India?s largest minority is in pursuit of its
vote bank politics. This is of a piece with the party?s absurd and
perverse practice of embarking on a path of dividing the country along
communal lines for acquiring power.
Notwithstanding its abstract homilies on secularism, the Congress has
always aimed at erecting barriers between the different communities
rather than trying to break them down. Indeed, the brand of secularism
flaunted by the party is very much flawed. By separating Muslim issues
from the rest of the populace, it is only treading the familiar ground
of identity politics, that forms the core of its survival.
The single-minded Congress focus on Muslim votes that makes it to
pursue a partisan course is giving airs to the speculation that the
ruling party cares only for minority concerns in the garb of
secularism. The UPA?s penchant for politics of appeasement is
increasingly becoming a hallmark of its governance. By injecting the
communal virus in almost all spheres of our national concern, the
ruling regime seems eager to create a separate electorate and
categorise society along religious identities. Resorting to blatant
appeasement the Congress is only giving succour to divisive forces
besides antagonising the numerically dominant community. It has
redefined secularism with its full-time attention on minority votes.
Moreover, the Congress leaders in their abhorrent zeal to placate
minorities seem to have forgotten that all Indians, irrespective of
their caste, creed or religions, have an equal stake in the national
well being. Of course, this is not to suggest that under class of
Muslims is to be kept out of the ambit of development. But it is
important for a vibrant democracy that every single person,
irrespective of religions has equal claim on the national resources.
Remaining stuck in the quagmire of communal quotas will only further
divide the nation.
In the past too, the Congress-led UPA government had meted out special
treatment to Muslims as a matter of state policy. Muslims have indeed
been perceived as potential vote banks right from the rule of Indira
Gandhi in whose regime Haj subsidies were announced. It is noteworthy
that no other religious community in India has been favoured with such
a sop. It was also her singular love for Muslim empowerment that made
her install Muslim chief ministers like Abdul Gafoor in Bihar, A.R.
Antulay in Maharashtra, Maimoona Taimur in Assam and Barkatullah in
Rajasthan continuing with this policy of crass minorityism, Rajiv
Gandhi overturned the Supreme Court judgement on the issue of
maintenance to Muslims divorcee Shah Bano. Later, shedding all
pretences of secularism the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh opened a
pandora?s box by playing directly to the gallery of Muslim voters with
his emphasis on minority development, particularly the Muslims in his
address to the National Development Council in December 2006. The
party has had the gumption to aggressively woo Muslims right from the
time it came to power in 2004. Its wholehearted exertions towards
reserving jobs and educational quotas for Muslims, attempts of
dividing army on communal lines, communalising banking and financial
institutions, protecting illegal Bangladeshi migrants, including a
Muslim League MP in the Union Council of Ministers, exonerating the
perpetrators of Godhra carnage are only some of the shameful acts
indulged in by the Congress-led UPA government which project it as
crude and outright communal. Even the former President Shri A.P.J.
Abdul Kalam has criticised the government-sponsored subsidies by
saying that ?dependency syndrome has stunted performance and
diminished transparency?.
It is quite ironical that when Congress and its pseudo-secularist
allies talk of ?Muslims First? policy, it is flaunted as social
justice and secularism. But when the BJP espouses the cause of a Ram
temple at Ayodhya, it is labelled as a divisive and communal outfit.
On the flip side, the UPA government doubts the authenticity of Ram
Sethu casting aspersions on the existence of Lord Ram. But on the
other side many of its leaders can be seen queuing up at Ram lila
performances for photo ops.
The UPA obsession with Muslim appeasement again came to the fore with
its undue focus on divisive issues like communal budgeting and plan
allocation. In pursuance of its wanton policy, the government has
shown undue haste in assuring grants to madrasas promoting Urdu and
reservation in various ministries. During the rule of UPA, Haj subsidy
has grown 200 times. It seems that the government has got itself so
much involved in the politics of appeasement, even to the exclusion of
other social, political and constitutional responsibilities.
Earlier, it was the British who planned a communal divide to meet
their political objectives. Now, history is repeating itself with the
Congress-led UPA taking help of the same divide-and-rule policy in
furthering of its goal.
Now, under the UPA dispensation, where secularism is synonymous with
Hindu bashing, the propagandists of the ruling regime give impetus to
separatism. There is an unconstitutional and unethical bias when it
comes to the rights of the majority community. In fact, it has been
since the time of Mughals a millennium ago that Hindus have been
discriminated against. It seems the time has come for a rehash of the
period when Hindus were treated badly. Their temples were looted as
well as zajia was levied upon them. This regime is also not so much
different from the earlier one. For instance, temple donations are
siphoned for the upkeep of Muslim religions places. Hard-earned money
of tax-payers is being squandered at the altar of Congress?s obnoxious
vote bank politics.
(The writer is senior editor with Kashur Gazette, Delhi.)
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=221&page=27
January 21, 2008
Editorial
A separate growth
Aiding communalism with Plan Fund
By R. Balashankar
This Organiser Special on Republic Day is dedicated to national
unity.
The idea is to fight communalism. The UPA Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh has communalised the polity with his cynical Muslim first plank.
He introduced an obnoxious 15-point programme for Muslims and reserved
15 per cent of the 11th Plan Fund for minorities along with religion-
specific banking, budgeting and education.
In the following pages our expert analysts will show how the UPA plan
divides and discriminates the people of this country and how the
initiatives the ruling conglomerate has undertaken are akin to the 14-
point demands of the pre-1947 Muslim League. We want to forewarn the
nation through this exercise how in the guise of secularism the
national government has become a tool in the hands of destructive and
divisive elements and how it has acquired an unprecedented anti-Hindu
agenda. Secularism, to begin with, was a positive, almost indulgent
rhetoric under Jawaharlal Nehru; understandable in the aftermath of
Partition for which the League and its supporters in India were
responsible. Under Indira Gandhi it became vote bank politics. Rajiv
Gandhi and his successors made it appeasement. Under the UPA,
secularism is interpreted as brazenly anti-Hindu to the extent of
denigrating Hindu ideals becoming state policy.
In one of the most significant books written on minority problem in
India, Indian Muslims: Where Have They Gone Wrong?, Dr. Rafiq Zakaria
says, ?The British got, naturally, worried and they did whatever they
could to disrupt that (Hindu-Muslim) unity. They engineered riots,
they played politics by giving separate electorate to the Muslims,
they devised various methods both political and social?to keep the two
communities apart. They dangled grants and concessions alternately to
both the religious groups. Ultimately they saw to it that the country
was divided, through the distrust that they had so assiduously built
up between the two over the decades. To perpetuate their rule, they
followed the Roman policy of ?Divide and Rule?. But as Maulana
Mohammad Ali rightly put it: ?We divided and they ruled.? The blame
rests as much on our joint leadership as on the British; however in
the last stage it was Jinnah?s obduracy which struck the final blow to
our unity.? The UPA under Sonia Gandhi is playing the role of the
British, to divide and rule.
The historic parallels are strikingly similiar and ominous. Take this
instance, ?Before he opted for Pakistan, Muslim League leader
(Shaheed) Suhrawardy had decided to stay in India and lead the Bengal
Muslims in India. His letter to (Chaudhary) Khaliquzzaman on September
10, 1947, was eloquent and made interesting reading. He was faced with
the dilemma that unless Muslims derived their strength on account of
group solidarity they would not be respected by the Hindus. At the
same time solidarity and strength would raise suspicion about their
bona fides. Hence he suggested formation of strong Muslim pockets
dotted all over the country. His other alternative that both India and
Pakistan should strive to destroy the complex of superiority of their
majority populations and they should accept their minorities as their
own was a cry in the wilderness so far as Pakistan was concerned.?
(Islam: In India?s Transition to Modernity by M.A. Karandikar, Page
276-77)
Manmohan Singh seems to have entirely adopted Suhrawardy?s advice in
the last four years as Prime Minister.
The central government has identified 90 districts in the country as
minority concentrated for special development plans. An intriguing
aspect of this idea is that known Muslim-majority districts say in UP,
Assam, West Bengal, J&K or Kerala are not included in the select 90
list. It is said that altogether the Congress is thus focusing on
nearly 250 Lok Sabha constituencies for doling out excessive
privileges and central funds so as to develop them as captive pocket
boroughs. This may or may not work but the damage to the national
fabric is intrinsic.
In a similar instance, the centre has a plan to make minority students
reap benefits of dual scholarships which is not normally allowed in
the case of non-Muslim students. According to a plan announced by the
UPA in December 2007 Muslim students can avail scholarships
simultaneously from the Ministry of Minority Affairs and the Ministry
of Social Justice and Empowerment. This is under a 15-point programme
of the Prime Minister meant only for Muslims.
The Minority Affairs Ministry will distribute Rs 100 crore annually
for scholarships for Muslim students. This will run parallel to the
initiatives of other ministries targeted for the Muslims under the PM?
s new programme. The result is, the same set of people getting
pampered through numerous sources. A report said that 3,200 students
will get this benefit in the current academic year. The UPA followed
it up with reservations in educational institutions and recruitment.
It made an unsuccessful attempt to divide the Indian Army on communal
lines. All this is supposedly to empower the Muslims.
The UPA asked the banks and other financial institutions to have
special provisions for interest-free loans for Muslims along with a
package for 15 lakh special scholarships for Muslim students. The
Prime Minister has announced another programme to offer free coaching
for Muslim students preparing for the competitive examinations, for
which parents cough up lakhs. In the centrally funded Aligarh and
Jamia Milia Universities almost the entire seats and jobs are reserved
for this community.
Through a Constitution amendment, the UPA reserved majority seats in
all the non-aided educational institutions for the minority
communities setting them free from giving reservation quota for the
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. But this benefit is not
available to Hindu-run self-financing institutions. This is a blatant
discrimination that will make these institutions financially unviable
and covertly promote religious conversions.
Under the UPA, Muslims need not follow any rule that is compulsory for
other citizens. They need not sing Saraswati Vandana or Vande Mataram
though there is nothing religious about it. There is no need to salute
the national flag or sing the national anthem. They need not register
marriages. In the event of terror attacks?nearly 6,000 people have
been killed in the last four years?there will be no combing operations
in Muslim localities. Not a single terror attack has been solved
during this period.
And now comes the permanent scourge in the form of communal budgeting
and plan allocation. All these are over and above the existing schemes
in the Departments of Social Welfare, Education etc. for promotion of
madrasas, Urdu, and reservation in various ministries for removing
backwardness. The UPA has also created a separate ministry for
minorities, now presided over by A.R. Antulay, a crude practitioner of
minority politics. During the four-year UPA rule, the Haj subsidy has
grown 200 times! The Muslims? ?right first to the national resources?,
as Manmohan Singh coined his absurdly ruinous idea, has become the
only existential agenda of this government. Should the majority Hindus
take this nonsense in stoic silence? Should not we get up and stop
this outrage on national security? This is worse than the regenerate
Wahabism introduced by Mahathir in Malaysia.
Manmohan Singh has no use for the more enlightened views of Jawaharlal
Nehru, who as India?s first Prime Minister laid the foundations of
Indian planning.
Calling planning the first attempt in India to integrate agriculture,
industrial, social, economic and other aspects of the country into a ?
single framework of thinking? in his speech on first draft five-year
plan, Nehru said, ?It has made people think of this country as whole.
I think it is most essential that India, which is united politically
and in many other ways, should, to the same extent, be united mentally
and emotionally also. We often go off at a tangent on grounds of
provincialism, communalism, religion or caste. We have no emotional
awareness of the unity of the country. Planning will help us in having
an emotional awareness of our problems as a whole. It will help us to
see the isolated problems in villages or districts or even provinces
in their larger context. Therefore, the mere act of planning, the mere
act of having approached the question of progress in this way and of
producing a report of this type is something on which we might, I
think, congratulate ourselves.?
Again, in a speech Laying the Foundations (Broadcast from the Delhi
Station of All India Radio, December 31, 1952), Nehru after a visit to
Kanyakumari said, ?From that southern tip of India, I pictured this
great country spread out before me right up to the Himalayas in the
north and thought of her long and chequered story. Ours is a wonderful
inheritance but how shall we keep it? How shall we serve the country
which has given us so much and make her great and strong?...?
?We look at our own country and find both good and ill, powerful
forces at work to build her and also forces, which would disrupt and
disintegrate her. We cannot do much to affect the destiny of this
world as a whole but surely we can make a brave attempt to mould the
destiny of our 360 (then) million people... In India, the first
essential is the maintenance of the unity of the country, not merely a
political unity but a unity of the mind and the heart, which precludes
the narrow urges that make for disunity and which breaks down the
barriers raised in the name of religion or those between State and
State or, for that matter, any other barrier. We must aim at a
classless society,? Nehru said. He added, ?Of course, you must plan
for everybody. No planning which is not for all is good enough. You
must always have that view before you and you must prepare the
foundations for the next step towards the final goal. And so, you
ultimately start a process which grows by itself.? Economic Democracy
(Speech in Parliament, New Delhi, December 15, 1952, Jawaharlal Nehru?
s Speeches: 1949-1953, published by The Publications Division,
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India)
I have quoted Nehru on Planning, only to underline how flawed Manmohan
Singh?s approach is.
There is an interesting survey taken up by the Left leaning socio-
scientific NGO Shastra Sahitya Parishad. Kerala: How it lives, How it
thinks, released in December 2006. According to the survey, it is not
minority Muslims or Christians but Hindus comprising 54.47 per cent of
Kerala?s 3.2 crore population who are at the economic downslide. The
survey, by the Marxist NGO, says Hindus in the state form the major
chunk of the state?s poor with over 39 lakh living below poverty line.
Condition of Hindus is worse than that of Christians and Muslims in
employment, land holding and income. And the survey says the condition
of so-called forward castes is more pathetic than that of the backward
caste Hindus.
In March 2007, the CPM released a Charter of Demands for the
Advancement of Muslim Community. A dangerous document reminiscent of
the Muslim League demands under Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Apart from
focusing on a communal quota for Dalit Muslims?a term that violates
the basic tenet of Islam, which professes equality of all members of
the faith?the charter demands introducing a sub-plan only for Muslims
for allocating separate development funds on communal lines. The party
was not satisfied with the 2007-08 budget allocation of Rs. 500 crore
for Muslim welfare. The wholesale adoption of the Sachar report by the
CPM appears ridiculous considering the abysmal record of the party in
Kerala and West Bengal in the social uplift of the Muslim community,
as underlined in the report. But the CPM?s Muslim courtship in Kerala
is so brazen that it has left the Muslim League way behind in communal
appeal. The Muslim League is being asked to prove its pro-Muslim
character by more zealous outfits ensconced under the CPM perch.
Encouraged by the indulgence of the UPA, Muslim outfits organised a
procession in the capital in March 2007 demanding state-wise quotas in
proportion to their population. Almost all the known Muslim
organisations came on one platform to seek full implementation of
religion-based reservation in jobs, education and growth fund
allocation all over the country. The UPA and the Sachar report have
clearly uncorked the jinn of pre-Partition communal virus.
The UPA has cynically injected a vicious brand of communalism in the
Indian polity with the hope that en bloc Muslim votes will permanently
become its captive preserve. The insincerity and dishonesty of this
Muslim appeasement is underlined by the poor record of its
implementation. On ameliorating the genuine grievances of the Muslims
both the Congress and the Communist-ruled states project a dubious
record. Similar is the sub-text written by more virulent votaries of
vote bank politics like Mulayam Singh and Lalu Prasad Yadav.
On the report of the Sachar Committee, the Prime Minister is again
working on reservations based on religion. This is ultra vires and
goes against every tenet of the Constitution. The Constitution does
not allow this kind of discrimination on caste or religious lines. A
constitutionally formed government is duty bound to treat everybody
equal on legal and policy issues.
Even by Congress standards Manmohan Singh?s prime ministership has
touched a new low. Earlier our prime ministers used to exhort the
countrymen to rise above caste, region and religion and be Indians
first and everything else afterwards. Here is a Prime Minister who
works overtime to violate the letter and spirit of the Constitution to
divide and discriminate the countrymen on communal lines. And he, like
his party, by no means appears contrite over such dangerous
perversion. His government is aggressively working towards a
polarisation of votes by pursuing a policy of minorityism, encouraging
social tension and disquiet. Had the Congress been really sincere
about uplifting the minorities or ameliorating their lot, it would not
have resorted to such tactless exhibitionism and poisonous promotion
of reactionary ideas.
On the Republic Day, 58 years after India became a secular democratic
republic, we are inquiring as to how will this politics of appeasement
affect national unity? Will it create contrived and bogus grievances
deepening divisions in the society or will it strengthen our sense of
oneness and belonging? The politics of appeasement started by the
Congress under Mahatma Gandhi in the early 1920s, resulted in the
country?s vivisection. The tragic history is not forgotten. The wounds
of Partition have not yet fully healed. But the UPA has embarked on a
course that mocks at those who talk about national integration. They
are not taking a calculated risk. The UPA is schemingly provoking a
divide through dubious machinations.
The Planning Commission reports say that at least 26 per cent of India?
s
population is living below poverty line. If emancipation of this
deprived segment is the priority why talk only of 13 per cent Muslims,
all of whom in any case are not below poverty line? As such, learned
maulanas of Muslim Personal Law Board have decreed that Muslims cannot
take to banking or insurance, polio drops or yoga classes, as these
militate against their religious dogmas.
The Sachar Committee claims that only three per cent of Muslim
children go to madrasas. The evolutionary volume was an attempt to
tell social scientists that the ?Missing Muslim? in jobs was not the
result of madrasa education. Sachar was trying to emphasise on a
chimera of conspiracy against Muslims for their backwardness. At
another place the report stated that the condition of Muslims is worse
than that of Dalits.
The notorious record of the UPA government is that it sees citizens as
communal compartments. By introducing the Sachar Committee and
Ranganath Mishra Commission to devise communal quota, by soft-pedaling
on terrorist outfits, indulging the Maoists by politicising internal
security and Islamising the foreign policy the UPA has created a
cantankerous mess of governance. Even its much-hyped Indo-US nuke deal
is in doldrums. The UPA gives the impression that it is working on an
agenda for national disintegration.
A valuable input in the debate came from Bibek Debroy, a well-known
economist. In his column in The Indian Express (June 12, 2007), Debroy
made an interesting observation. He said, ?A 21st century government
should recognise deprivation as an individual issue and defuse
collective tension based on caste or religion. Wherever there is an
attempt to segregate, mainstreaming never occurs and deprivation
becomes permanent. Contrast economic development in special category
Articles 370 and 371 states with Goa? Caste and religion are
attributes that should remain in the private domain, irrelevant for
public policy purposes. What should be relevant for policy is
deprivation based on class. Government permitting that is precisely
what should have happened?But governments won?t permit and will
intervene to encourage this collective caste-cum-religious identity. ?
It is a mindset that the UPA government has encouraged across the
board.?
The National Sample Survey undertook a study and concluded in June
last year that jobless rate among Hindus and Muslims is almost equal.
The Survey said that the Worker Population Ratio (WPR) for the male in
the age group of 15 and above in the educational level in urban India
among the Hindus and Muslims was equal at 71 per cent followed by
Christians at 64 per cent. Outside the education parameter in urban
India, the Survey says, the worker population ratio among the Hindu
male was barely three per cent higher than that for the Muslims at 56
per cent. This was 51 per cent for Christians. This data was released
by the NSSO under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme
Implementation for the year 2004-05. And this has exposed the bluff
that far more Muslims were unemployed than the Hindus. If this Survey
is any guide then it should be considered a big setback for the
advocates of more religion-based reservations as part of the so-called
affirmative action. The Survey said that the unemployment rate in
urban areas for both the Hindus and the Muslims was the same at four
per cent. This Survey revealed that both in urban and rural areas
there was only a negligible difference in the literacy rate of the two
communities. This revelation explodes the basis of the UPA-sponsored
vote bank quota politics and brings us back to what we said in the
beginning that deprivation has nothing to do with caste or religion in
the present milieu of globalisation, growth and urbanisation. The
allegations of rising income and wealth disparities between different
castes or religious groups?except for Scheduled Tribes who live in
concentrated blocks?has not been proved by any rational survey. But
who cares for facts, since politics in India is all about myth
making?
The UPA has done nothing to encourage national integration. Its
actions are so communally charged that it has refused to give
protection to Taslima Nasreen, even after she deleted all the
objectionable passages from her book, only to please the perverted
fanatics in her community. This might be the first instance in Indian
history that the country has turned its back on an asylum-seeker, who
was hounded out of her country, who was forced by her own hosts in
West Bengal to vacate her second home and has no other place to go.
But the UPA protects and felicitates M.F. Husain about whose
despicable, blasphemous cartoons Hindus have serious objection.
It seems there is no bottom to the depth to which the UPA can sink in
furthering its goal. It has communalised budgeting; it has
communalised banking and financial institutions; it tried even to
communalise the armed forces. It has vitiated the academia spreading
the venom of casteism and communalism and now it is out to destroy the
country by identifying districts as Muslim majority and pampering them
to promote communal segregation. It is bent on dividing the police
force as Hindu, Muslim and Christian, and nobody knows what else
remains to be fragmented on communal lines. Some more aggressively
lunatic in its ranks have even suggested to introduce a communal quota
in the judiciary as well and appoint judges after fixing their
religion tag. Is there any guarantee that people who get their
position only on their religious identity will behave impartially in
their execution of duty? And what will happen to the faith of the
citizens in the system and its commitment to delivering justice? What
will happen to this country once the people lose all hope of fair play
and fair deal under these votaries of fake secularism?
What is the BPL criterion? Those who earn above Rs 12 per day. But
what about the lucky above BPL people? According to the report of
National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS),
394.9 million workers, i.e. 80 per cent of India?s working population,
are in the unorganised sector and 80 per cent of them are among those
who live on less than Rs 20 a day. These are real poor and vulnerable,
the report says. We quote this statistics to show that poverty has
nothing to do with religion. And that politics should be about
marrying policies with the people.
A conservative estimate, supported by all empirical data, gives us a
statistics of almost 30 to 35 per cent of India?s population living in
subhuman conditions. This is not a comforting thought in the 61st year
of Independence. And to know that our political class has only
archaic, time warped ideas for giving opportunity to the less
privileged is a sad commentary.
The UPA as part of its poll-oriented thinking has constituted an equal
rights panel to ensure Muslim representation level. How myopic can the
ruling class get! In a country with over 35 per cent poor to have an
equal rights panel only for the 15 per cent minorities! Does the
government have no responsibility to the rest of the population?
If there is any poor, deprived in the country, it is the Hindu. His
land was taken away, his homes and temples were looted for centuries,
he was made to pay jazia, an oppression tax of slavery, for almost 800
years, for that long the Muslims and for another 150 years Christians
ruled this country. How can the ruling class till 1947, become
deprived needing special affirmative action? It is only the Hindu who
has some claim to a special treatment. And Pakistan was created, after
the bloodiest-ever holocaust in history, to pamper the Muslims. Every
corner of the country where Hindu is in minority is in the grip of
insurgency and terrorism. A convincing Hindu majority is the only
guarantee for the territorial integrity of this country. And by
artificially identifying 90 Muslim-majority districts is Manmohan
Singh trying to lay the foundation for another partition?
The Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has the gumption to claim that
this will not divide the society. It is not entirely surprising, only
God knows what more disastrous plans he has in mind to divide the
society further, that he thinks all that he has done so far is not
enough.
There is no economic or literacy backwardness that is exclusive to one
community. Yes, social and religious attitudes can ghettoize a
community. For that the state cannot do much.
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=221&page=2
January31, 2010
From Sachar to Ranganath Misra
A period of minority assertion, Hindu subjugation
By Dr JK Bajaj
"The High Level Committee on Social, Economic and Educational Status
of Muslim Community in India" set up in 2005 under the chairmanship of
Justice Rajinder Sachar by the Prime Minister, commonly known as the
Sachar Committee, was perhaps the most high powered of such bodies. It
made a comprehensive survey of the status of Muslims in almost all
fields of Indian economy, polity and society.
The six years of UPA rule have been a period of minority assertion.
During this period, the Government of India has assiduously sought to
promote the idea that Christian and Muslim minorities have special
rights and claims on Indian polity, which this government is committed
to honour. The Prime Minister of India himself has gone on record to
state that the minorities have the first right on the resources of
this country, and there have been statements from high governmental
and political authorities expressing the same intent.
These statements of intentions have been backed by institutional and
budgetary actions in favour of the minorities. A separate Ministry of
Minority Affairs has been created to specifically concern itself with
the rights and privileges of the minorities. And, a number of
commissions and committees have been set up to report on the condition
of minorities, and to suggest constitutional, legal, administrative
and fiscal arrangements to give effect to their special privileges and
rights.
"The High Level Committee on Social, Economic and Educational Status
of Muslim Community in India" set up in 2005 under the chairmanship of
Justice Rajinder Sachar by the Prime Minister, commonly known as the
Sachar Committee, was perhaps the most high powered of such bodies. It
made a comprehensive survey of the status of Muslims in almost all
fields of Indian economy, polity and society. The data collected by
the Committee did not show the Muslims to be particularly badly off in
any field. On the other hand, the data indicated a resurgent Muslim
community that was growing fast not only in numbers, but also in its
educational, economic and social status. The Committee, in any case,
went on to give wide-ranging recommendations for institutional and
economic arrangements to be made in favour of the Muslim community.
The Committee, in particular, recommended special treatment for
Muslims in all government schemes. It even recommended special
consideration for Muslims in the matter of disbursement of bank
loans.
Even before the Committee gave its report, the government had launched
a "New 15-Point Programme for the Welfare of the Minorities"; this was
a comprehensive programme for providing special privileges and rights
to the minorities in various walks of Indian polity and economy, for
creating and strengthening special institutional structures and
providing budgetary support for this purpose. The recommendations of
the Sachar Committee were then used for further empowering these
institutional structures and launching new programmes and initiatives
in favour of the minorities in general, and the Muslim minority in
particular.
The Sachar Committee, however, stopped short of recommending
reservations for Muslims in government jobs or in educational
institutions. The Report of the National Commission for Religious and
Linguistic Minorities, which has been recently released, has now
addressed that lacuna. This commission was set up in the Ministry of
Minority Affairs as early as October 2004 under the Chairmanship of
Justice Ranganath Misra. Dr. Tahir Mahmood, Dr. Anil Wilson and Dr.
Mohinder Singh were the other three Members. The Commission submitted
its report in May 2007, but it was made public only during the last
session of the Parliament.
In its report, the Commission has ventured where Justice Sachar had
hesitated to step. It has recommended an across the board 15 per cent
reservation for minorities in all government jobs and educational
institutions. Within this minority quota, the Commission has fixed a
sub-quota of 10 per cent for the Muslims and the remaining 5 per cent
for other minorities. In an extraordinary recommendation, the
Commission has specified that in case the quota for Muslims cannot be
filled for lack of appropriate candidates, it shall be offered to
candidates from other minorities, "but in no case shall any seat
within the recommended 15 per cent shall go the majority community".
The Commission has further clarified that this 15 per cent quota shall
be in addition to what the minority candidates secure on their own
merit in open competition.
The recommendations, if implemented, shall ensure that minorities have
a presence of more than 15 per cent in all walks of Indian public
life. According to the Commission’s own assessment, the educational
and economic status of all minorities excepting the Muslims is
considerably better than the majority. They are therefore likely to
get a substantial share in government jobs and educational
institutions on their own merit, as they do even now. The total share
of minority communities shall therefore turn out to be considerably
more than 15 per cent. From the way the recommendations are
formulated, the intention of the Commission seems to be to ensure that
the religious minorities as a whole have a larger say and share than
their numbers alone would allow.
The tone and tenor of the reports of both the Sachar Committee and the
Misra Commission are not merely to provide special privileges and
rights to the minorities, but also to disprivilege the majority. Both
reports revel in casting unfounded aspersions and making snide remarks
against the majority community. Sachar Committee, in fact, suggests
that it does not really matter whether Muslims or some other community
come to form the majority in India. Misra Commission wants to now
ensure that until the minorities do not become the majority, they
should enjoy a major share in the polity.
Incidentally, the proposal of 15 percent reservation in favour of
religious minorities seems odd in the context of the arguments that
the Ranganath Misra Commission has developed throughout the report.
The thrust of their argument is that reservations on the basis of
religious or caste identity are not justifiable. India should instead
have family-based reservations, and the families qualifying for such
reservations should be identified on the basis of thorough detailed
surveys based on well defined economic and educational criteria.
However, while formulating its recommendations, the Commission
suddenly terms this as the ultimate goal, and meanwhile recommends the
15 per cent reservation for religious minorities. This makes the
recommendations almost sound like a command performance.
The Commission has made another recommendation which, if accepted, has
the potential of drastically changing the religious complexion of
India. Giving its recommendations on an additional reference made by
the government, the Commission has recommended that the Presidential
Order of 1950, which excludes Muslims and Christians from the category
of Scheduled Castes, should be amended to de-link the Scheduled Caste
status from religion. The argument in this case is that the
Constitution "prohibits any discrimination on the ground of religion".
It is strange that a high judicial person can make one set of
recommendations on the basis of religion, and almost the next
paragraph invoke the principle on non-discrimination on the basis of
religion.
The effect of these contradictory recommendations is that those of the
Scheduled Caste persons who choose to convert to a minority religion
shall now be doubly privileged, first as members of minority religions
for which the Commission has recommended 15 per cent quota, and then
as members of the scheduled castes, for whom special constitutional
protection and quotas are available. An immediate consequence of the
acceptance of this recommendation would probably be to allow the so-
called crypto-Christians to formally declare themselves as Christians
and thus raise the proportion of Christians from the present 2.5 to
perhaps around 6.5 per cent.
Fortunately, the Member-Secretary of the Commission, Mrs. Asha Das,
has not consented to this particular recommendation and has appended a
dissenting note. The note, among other things, insists that there is a
difference between religions of Indian origin, and religions like
Islam and Christianity that have originated outside. And, therefore,
the privileges offered to Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Buddhist Scheduled
Caste persons cannot be extended to Muslims and Christians. It must be
seen as an unintended benefit of Ranganath Misra Commission Report
that the question of religions of Indian and non-Indian origin has
been now mentioned in an official document. It is also fortunate that
the National Commission on Scheduled Castes, headed by Buta Singh,
formally opposed the recommendation of the Ranganath Misra Commission
to allow members of the Christian and Muslim communities to claim
scheduled caste status.
It seems these detailed reports of various commissions and committees
do bring into the open some important facets of the situation of
minorities. The enormous data collected by the Sachar committee
brought into focus the great strides the Muslim community has made in
terms of sheer numbers, and in terms of educational and economic
attainments during the last two or three decades. Before the Sachar
Committee Report how many of us knew that female literacy amongst
Muslims is higher than Hindus in more than half of the Indian states?
And, that the Muslims are also economically much better of than Hindus
in those states. Ranganath Misra Commission Report has brought into
the open the question of difference between religions of Indian and
non-Indian origin. The report has underlined the fact that even high
government authorities cannot agree on this issue. Let us carry
forward the debates opened up by Justices Sachar and Misra.
(The writer is director, Centre for Policy Studies and can be
contacted at jatinde...@gmail.com)
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=329&page=6
January 21, 2008
Manmohan obsessed with insidious identity politics
By Sandhya Jain
Muslim political assertion will impact upon all political parties
prone to relying upon the community for a consolidated vote share. The
CPM is already feeling the heat on this score in West Bengal;
observers say events in Nandigram contained an unstated component of
Muslim assertion for power within the hitherto bhadralok-dominated
party. In this connection, it may be pertinent to recall that
following Partition, the Muslim community voted en masse for the
Congress Party.
Fortunately, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes nipped one
UPA mischief in the bud by refusing to endorse the May 15, 2007
recommendations of the National Commission for Religious and
Linguistic Minorities that Scheduled Caste status be extended to ?
Dalit Christians? and ?Dalit Muslims?. NCSC chairman Buta Singh
resisted the move by Justice Ranganath Mishra to amend the
Constitution (SCs) Order, 1950, which restricted SC status to groups
among Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists.
The proposal by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
government to allocate 15 per cent funds of development and welfare
schemes exclusively for minorities has triggered nationwide
resentment. In the interests of its own political survival, the
Congress Party would do well to rethink its tendency to nurture
communal vote banks as these are beginning to face the law of
diminishing returns.
Most politicians have short memories. Hence it will be in order to
briefly recall the 2004 Assembly election in Assam, where a new Muslim
political party, the Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF), startled
the nation with its performance. Muslims comprise 30 per cent of Assam?
s 26 million population and play a decisive role in nearly 40
constituencies that have hitherto been traditionally won by Congress.
Floated by wealthy businessman Badruddin Ajmal, AUDF contested on a
platform of safeguarding Muslim interests ?without closing the doors
to other communities?. It had an electoral understanding with the
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and gave tickets to Hindus. It
contested 66 of the 126 Assembly seats and won an impressive 10?a
greater achievement than the four seats that heralded the arrival of
the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh in the early 1980s.
The Assam election is worth recalling because though Congress managed
to form the government, Muslim religious leaders campaigning for AUDF
revealed it was the first step in a long-term vision of establishing a
pan-India Muslim political party. One has only to recall that the last
Muslim pan-India formation was the Muslim League to envisage the
possible consequences for the Republic. The comparison with the BSP is
also apt, because like Ms. Mayawati, Muslim parties will also eat into
the Congress vote share and further fragment the polity.
In fact, Muslim political assertion will impact upon all political
parties prone to relying upon the community for a consolidated vote
share. The CPM is already feeling the heat on this score in West
Bengal; observers say events in Nandigram contained an unstated
component of Muslim assertion for power within the hitherto bhadralok-
dominated party. In this connection, it may be pertinent to recall
that following Partition, the Muslim community voted en masse for the
Congress party. After consolidating their separate identity, they
united against the Congress in 1967 and brought the CPM to power.
Nandigram is the beginning of the challenge to CPM hegemony in West
Bengal. As the Hindu community looks for a new saviour, the BJP would
do well do rebuild an independent identity in the State, and not latch
on to the tails of the highly unreliable Mamata Banerjee.
Muslim leaders, both religious and political, are canny enough to
recognise that the Muslim community will remain educationally and
socially backward so long as it persists with the traditional system
of education in the madrasa. It is true that this does not necessarily
translate into economic backwardness, because Muslims largely hail
from artisan and other professional groups that manage to make a
comfortable living without formal education, as is true of similar
Hindu caste groups. But it cannot be denied that this education tends
to reinforce separateness and over-emphasise their religious
identity.
The UPA has erred grievously in creating a separate Ministry for
Minority Affairs. Since as many as 28 per cent of Indians live below
the poverty line, there was no legitimate basis for Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh to state that Muslims have the first claim on
resources, and to follow this up with the Eleventh Plan draft document
setting aside 15 per cent of all developmental and welfare funds for
minorities. It may be added that as in the debate over creamy layer in
caste quotas, so also, the minority quota will not differentiate
between needy and rich Muslims, and may thus end up cornered by
families with political clout or physical muscle. This is already
happening as banks have received instructions to grant loans first to
Muslim applicants; banks will naturally ensure that the recipient of
loans have some financial standing as that the loans can be repaid.
Hindus as a community will have to pay the price of this mindless
pandering to the Muslim community. Sadly, among political parties,
only the BJP has dared oppose these moves, with president Rajnath
Singh warning that this will intensify communal competitiveness and
strife. There is a legitimate fear that the UPA?s special 15-point
programme for minorities in the Eleventh Plan draft paper may trigger
competitive communal demands for budgetary allocations in all states.
It can also lead to caste-based demands for resource allocation, thus
destroying the traditional holistic approach to national development.
The BJP states roundly opposed ?communal budgeting? at the National
Development Council meeting in December 2007. Fearing social strife,
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi suggested that funds for various
schemes and programmes be allocated solely on the basis of socio-
economic criteria and execution entrusted to the States. Madhya
Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Chhattisgarh Chief
Minister Dr Raman Singh insisted that rather than caste or religion,
economic criteria alone determine allocation of funds for welfare
schemes. As economic deprivation is a quantifiable and objective
criteria, not prone to political manipulation, it would be worthwhile
if political parties could sit across the table and opt for economic
criteria over caste and community wherever there is a legitimate case
for special reservations or allocations.
Fortunately, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes nipped one
UPA mischief in the bud by refusing to endorse the May 15, 2007
recommendations of the National Commission for Religious and
Linguistic Minorities that Scheduled Caste status be extended to ?
Dalit Christians? and ?Dalit Muslims?. NCSC chairman Buta Singh
resisted the move by Justice Ranganath Mishra to amend the
Constitution (SCs) Order, 1950, which restricted SC status to groups
among Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists.
Shri Buta Singh candidly asserted that the basic parameter for
recognition as Scheduled Caste was ?untouchability?, which does not
exist in the theology of Christianity and Islam. Thus, the UPA will
not be able to poach upon the constitutional benefits for Hindu SCs
and extend them to Christian and Muslim converts. It is well known
that the recent violence in Kandhamal, Orissa, was caused by a
perverse attempt by converted groups to grab Scheduled Tribe quotas by
forcing the administration to give them ST certificates to which they
are not legally entitled.
(The writer is a senior journalist and can be contacted at
sandh...@airtelbroadband.in)
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=221&page=13
March 25, 2007
A chargesheet
Hindus betraying Hindus
HINDU YOUTH REDUCED TO SECOND-CLASS STATUS
By O.P. Gupta, I.F.S. (retd.)
It is painful to see how a class of ?secular, progressive and liberal?
Hindu politicians right from the days of the 1916 Congress-Muslim
League Lucknow Pact till date in the form of the Sachar Committee
report has been systematically collaborating with Muslim and other
minority politicians in concocting justifications to reduce, bit by
bit, the educational, employment and economic (E3) opportunities for
Hindu boys and girls, including leftist Hindu boys and girls.
Religious minority institutions have been empowered by none other than
our ?secular? Hindu politicians to treat Hindu applicants as second-
class citizens of India at the mercy, whims and fancies of ?minority
managements? even where these institutions receive under Article 30(2)
state grants out of taxes largely collected from we Hindus.
As the political parties in their manifestos openly declare that they
will give special considerations to Muslims and Christians, they
cannot be accused of betraying Hindu youth. Those Hindu parents who
give their votes blindly to such political parties are the real ones
who by casting their votes to such parties accept in principle that
minority students be given special preference over their own children
and, thus, unknowingly, end up betraying their own children,
grandchildren and the Hindu youth.
It is painful to see how Hindu parents are being media managed to harm
and hurt educational, employment, economic and business opportunities
of their own children and grandchildren by giving their notes and
votes to such political parties which shout from their political
rooftops that they will give special preferences to Muslims and
Christians over Hindus.
Since the employment situation is worsening day by day, it is
important that those Hindu parents who have college going children or
grand children, and, those Hindu youth who will soon be entering into
employment market seriously look for and identify those Hindu
politicians who are bent upon to reduce their E3 space.
In January 2007, the Department of Personnel and Training, Government
of India, sent a note to all ?heads of departments, public sector
banks and financial institutions, quasi-government organisa-tions,
autonomous bodies and all appointing authorities,? asking them to ?
scrupulously observe? guidelines to make selection panels more
representative. All selection panels recruiting ten or more vacancies
must have one member belonging to a minority community.
What is more important, the departments have been instructed to submit
half-yearly and annual reports, beginning March 2007, detailing number
of vacancies at all levels?Groups A, B, C and D?and the number of
minorities hired. Dr Manmohan Singh is the Minister for DOPT. This
circular instructs to give special considerations to minorities in all
appointments, so danger bell is ringing loud and clear for all Hindu
job-seekers whether they are leftists or rightists that despite their
better profiles percentage of Hindu intake will be reduced adversely
affecting them all.
A one man Commission headed by Justice Ranganath Mishra was silently
set up by the UPA government which is looking at status of non- Muslim
minorities, and, is mandated to recommend ways of helping them get
better representation in government services. Its report is due by
March 31, 2007. So this Commission is also looking at ways and means
to further reduce percentage of Hindus in public services, bank loans
etc.
Suppose there are 10,000 vacancies, seats reserved for SC Hindus would
be 1500, for ST Hindus 750 and for OBC 2700. Not many Hindus know that
about 70 per cent of Muslims are already covered under the Mandal
Commission formula and are enjoying benefits under the 27 per cent
quota.
In Andhra Pradesh, the Congress government led by Shri Y.S. Rajsekhar
Reddy reserved five per cent of seats in government colleges and in
government jobs for Muslims. It means that only 9500 seats would be
available to all categories of Hindus and other minorities having
reserved 500 seats exclusively for Muslims. So, the number of seats
available for SC Hindus will get reduced to 1425 from 1500, the number
of seats for ST Hindus will get reduced to 712 from 750, and, the
number of seats reserved for OBC will get reduced to 2565 from 2700.
Number of general category seats in which caste Hindus fall will also
shrink from 5000 to 4500. So giving special preferences to minorities
over Hindu candidates, which is the core policy of Congress Party,
equally hurts educational and employment opportunities of all groups
of Hindus, whether SC Hindus, or ST Hindus, or OBC Hindus, or caste
Hindus, or leftist Hindus. It is mere arithmatic. If more than 500
Muslims got more marks than the last Hindu candidate, then Muslim
candidates will spill over into general category 9500 seats.
Incidentally in Andhra Pradesh Muslims enjoy higher literacy rate than
Hindus.
In February 2007, Chief Minister of West Bengal issued instructions
that ?at least 10 per cent of the appointees should be from the
minority community.? By courtesy of Leftist Hindu voters, the
percentage of Hindus? job intake is set to fall in West Bengal.
Shri Arif Mohammad Khan, a former Union Minister in the Rajiv Gandhi
government, has pointed out that 10 Muslim communities are already
part of the Scheduled Tribes and another 83 Muslim communities are
included in the OBC list. ?Together,? he maintains, ?they constitute
more than 70 per cent of total Muslim population leaving out only the
Muslim creamy layer.? Similarly, a good chunk of Christians are
already included in the Scheduled Tribe and the OBC category.
In Bihar, the OBC quota has been divided by ?secular? Hindu
politicians into backward and most backward to help put nine Muslim
groups in the first category and 27 Muslim groups in the second
category.
In Kerala and Karnataka, the Hindu politicians of Congress Party and
the Communist parties have declared the entire Muslim community
backward just to reduce the percentage of Hindus in colleges and in
government jobs.
In Tamil Nadu, 95 per cent of Muslims are included into backward
formula though Muslims have higher literacy rate in Kerala, Karnataka
and Tamil Nadu than Hindus.
Dr Manmohan Singh is a Rajya Sabha Member from Assam and no wonder
there is already five per cent reservation for Muslims in the
recruitment for the Assam Police, adversely affecting employment
opportunities for SCs, STs, OBCs and all other Hindus as shown above.
It is painful to see how a class of ?secular, progressive and liberal?
Hindu politicians right from the days of the 1916 Congress-Muslim
League Lucknow Pact till date in the form of the Sachar Committee
report has been systematically collaborating with Muslim and other
minority politicians in concocting justifications to reduce, bit by
bit, the educational, employment and economic (E3) opportunities for
Hindu boys and girls, including leftist Hindu boys and girls, pushing
them to second and third-class status vis-?-vis minority boys and
girls. It is a sad story of Hindus betraying Hindus.
This is symptomatic of the slave mentality, which is defined as a
tendency to harm, hurt and humiliate members of one?s own community so
as to appease ?others? at the cost of one?s own community. This habit
is also known as gulamiat pasand (GP) or Genetically Acquired Slave
Syndrome (GASS). These terms more accurately describe this class of
Hindus. Raja Jaichand, Mirza Raja Man Singh of Akbar time, Raja
Jaswant Singh of Aurangzeb time etc. were also Hindus but were GP type
carrying GASS virus. In rural areas they are called ?Jaichandi
Hindus?.
We Hindus are told day in and day out that India is a ?secular? state
where religion should be a private matter and every citizen is equal
before law. But in practice our secular Hindu parliamentarians and
legislators have been passing such laws where the State asks for the
religion of an individual and then discriminate against we Hindus. In
this game of secularism, Hindu youth turn out to be the worst victims
of GP Hindu politicians.
The Article 14 of the Constitution reads: ?The State shall not deny to
any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws
within the territories of India.? The Article 15(1) reads: ?The State
shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of
religion, race, caste, sex, and place of birth or any of them.? The
Article 29(2) reads: ?No citizen shall be denied admission into any
educational institution maintained by the State or receiving aid out
of State funds on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language or
any of them.? The Article 30(1) reads: ?All minorities, whether based
on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and
administer educational institutions of their choice.? Article 30(2)
reads, ?The State shall not, in granting aid to educational
institutions, discriminate against any educational institution on the
ground that it is under the management of a minority, whether based on
religion or language.?
One may see that the pith and substance of the Article 30 is very much
there in the 14 Points of Jinnah because 28 out of 31 Muslim members
of the Indian Constituent Assembly which drafted the Indian
Constitution were elected on tickets of the Muslim League of Jinnah.
This fact is generally suppressed by ?secular? Hindu historians.
But on calculated mis-representations and soft-peddling by Attorney
Generals appointed by Congress governments, the Supreme Court of India
has ruled that equal treatment guarantee of Articles 14 and 29(2) was
not available to Hindu boys and girls in minority-run institutions,
and; that religious minority educational institutions under Article
30(1) can reserve up to 50 per cent of seats for co-religionist
candidates with the result Hindu students including comrades with
better marks do not get admissions in such institutions but minority
students with lower marks easily get admissions within their reserved
50 per cent quota.
Religious minority institutions have been, thus, empowered by none
other than our ?secular? Hindu politicians to treat Hindu applicants
as second-class citizens of India at the mercy, whims and fancies of ?
minority managements? even where these institutions receive under
Article 30(2) state grants out of taxes largely collected from we
Hindus. In the minority institutions, the SC Hindus and ST Hindus are
denied benefits of their constitutional reservations of 15 per cent
and 7.5 per cent under Article 15. And, for this misfortune of Hindu
boys and girls those Hindu voters are responsible who being unaware of
harm they inflict upon their own children cast their votes in favour
of ?secular? parties or don?t go to cast their votes at all.
Hindu politicians have passed such laws that enable a minority student
to get cheaper educational loans at three per cent interest per annum
from the National Minority Development & Finance Corporation. A
minority businessman can get margin money loan for business at five
per cent interest from NMDFC. Minority students are required to repay
educational loans in five years after completion of his course but a
Hindu student has to repay education loan after one year of completion
of his course. One may see details at (www.nmdfc.org ). A Hindu
student or a Hindu businessman gets bank loans at much higher rates of
interest and harsher terms whether he is a member of the Students
Federation or that of the NSUI or the ABVP etc. This ill-treatment a
Hindu voter has invited for himself and his children by giving his
vote to the so-called secular parties or by abstaining from voting.
Congress and other ?secular? Hindu politicians have invented such a
legal system where a Muslim candidate or a Christian candidate has all
the legal rights to compete on equal footings with a Hindu candidate
for employment, but there are thousands and thousands of posts paid
from government funds for which Hindus cannot even apply, such as the
post of the Principal and Vice Principal of St. Stephen?s College,
Delhi. GP Hindus have set up the National Minority Commission with
nominal Hindu presence to ensure that minorities are not discriminated
but there is no Commission to ensure that Hindus are not victimised by
minorities.
The National Minority Commission does not reflect the religious
demographic reality of India so it does not enjoy the confidence of
Hindus in general. Either more than three-fourth members of the
Minority Commission and other commissions should be Hindus in
proportion to their population or these should be abolished being
unrepresentative and undemocratic.
Dr Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister, his Sachar Committee and many
liberal Hindus make a lot of fuss that Muslims are under- represented
in civil services and in higher education. According to the Sachar
Committee [page 64], only four per cent of the total Muslim population
in India within age group 20 years and above are graduates. At page
65, the Sachar Committee reports that in case of Muslims (age 20 and
above) the number of graduates was under four million i.e. only 1.6
per cent of Muslims are graduates if their population as per Imam
Bukhari is taken to be 250 million or 2.6 per cent of Muslims are
graduates if their population is taken to be 150 million. Since only
educated persons can aspire for public jobs, it is natural that
percentage of Muslims in government jobs should not be more than 2.6
per cent. Muslim percentage in government service is already more than
this percentage by relentless efforts of Congress party to reduce the
Hindu percentage.
Sachar Committee reports that while 26 per cent of those above 17
years age and above complete matriculation, this percentage is only 17
per cent for Muslims. So the recommendation is to open more schools
and colleges in Muslim areas. The Sachar Committee does not tell that
bulk of Muslims who drop out from schools seek gainful employment and
start earning more at younger age than what they will earn even after
graduating. The Census Report 2001 [Statement 10] lets the cat out of
bag when it reports that in the category of household industries (HHI)
workers, Muslims representation was 8.1 per cent which is double the
national average of 4.2 per cent. This index is only 3.2 per cent for
Hindus. In the category of ?other workers? Christians enjoyed 52.8 per
cent representation, followed by Muslims (49.1 per cent) and Hindus
only (35.5 per cent). Thus, higher percentage of Christians and
Muslims are in jobs than Hindu percentage and still Hindu politicians
of ?secular? parties are working hard to reduce E3 space for Hindu
students that too with the help of the votes of Hindu parents.
In a significant development, after the tabling of the Sachar report,
Muslim MPs, cutting across party lines, handed over a wish-list of
sorts to Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh: IITs and
IIMs exclusively for Muslims, 5,000 schools, two lakh scholarships and
more campuses of the Aligarh Muslim University across the country. A
senior HRD official, present at the meeting, said, ?The MPs said since
IITs and IIMs have less than two per cent of Muslim students, the HRD
Ministry should create IITs and IIMs exclusively for Muslim children.?
Urdu schools, they also demanded, should be given adequate
infrastructure support. ?Minority-run societies and NGOs, if they wish
to open schools, should be given CBSE affiliation without any delay,?
an MP demanded. The Muslim MPs said that these suggestions should get
reflected in this year?s budget as well as the Eleventh Plan.
It is painful to see how Hindu parents are being media managed to harm
and hurt educational, employment, economic and business opportunities
of their own children and grandchildren by giving their notes and
votes to such political parties which shout from their political
rooftops that they will give special preferences to Muslims and
Christians over Hindu youth in matters of education, training
facilities, government jobs, jobs under police and paramilitary
forces, employment in banks and other public sector undertakings and
bank loans, educational loans, etc.
As the political parties in their manifestos openly declare that they
will give special considerations to Muslims and Christians, they
cannot be accused of betraying Hindu youth. Those Hindu parents who
give their votes blindly to such political parties are the real ones
who by casting their votes to such parties accept in principle that
minority students be given special preference over their own children
and, thus, unknowingly, end up betraying their own children,
grandchildren and the Hindu youth. I suggest rather than giving their
votes to their ?caste candidate,? Hindu parents should start casting
their votes in favour of welfare of their own children and
grandchildren as Muslim and Christian voters do.
The following data show that the Hindu politicians of the Congress
Party have history, habit and precedent of giving second-class
treatment to Hindus. Giving second-class treatment to Hindus still
continues to be the hidden agenda and core policy of the Congress
Party. The more the Hindus give their notes, votes and support to the
Congress Party, the more emboldened this Party becomes to treat them
and their sons and daughters as the second class.
Let us look at some manifestos of the Congress Party which has been
consistently promising that if elected it will give preferential
treatment to minorities over Hindus.
The 1996 Manifesto of Congress Party states: ?(i) The Congress regards
the 15-point programme for the welfare of the minorities as a charter
of duties. (ii) It has established the National Minority Finance and
Development Corporation?to support projects that promote the well-
being of minorities?with a capital of Rs 500 crore. (iii) A Rapid
Action Force comprising young men from different communities has been
set up. (It is understood that percentage of Hindus in this Force
under instructions of the Congress Governments is much below their
traditional 95 per cent) (iv)The Minorities Commission has been given
statutory status?.
Congress Manifesto of 1998: ?(i) Indira Gandhi?s 15-point programme
for minorities continues to be our blueprint. Each and every element
of this programme will be implemented with renewed vigour. (ii) The
Congress will create a new ministry for minorities to ensure better
coordination and integration. (iii) A high-powered commission will be
set up to examine and give recommendations on how the representation
of minorities in public services could be enhanced in a meaningful
manner. (iv) The Congress will amend the Constitution to establish a
Commission for Minority Educational Institutions and provide direct
affiliation for minority professional institutions to central
universities?.
Congress Manifesto 1999: ?(i) to ensure the reinvigoration of Indira
Gandhi?s historic 15-point programme and the monitoring mechanism
devised by Rajiv Gandhi. (ii) Measures will be taken to increase the
representation of minorities in all public, police and para-military
services both in the central and in state governments. (iii)The
Constitution will be amended to establish a Commission for Minority
Educational Institutions and to provide direct affiliation for
minority professional institutions to central universities (iv)The
National Minorities Development Corporation and the State Minorities
Development Corporations will be made direct-lending institutions?.
Congress Manifesto 2004: ?(i) The Congress believe in affirmative
action for all religious and linguistic minorities. The Congress is
committed to adopting this policy for socially and educationally
backward sections among Muslims and other religious minorities on a
national scale. (ii)The Congress commits itself to amend the
Constitution to establish a Commission for Minority Educational
Institutions that will provide direct affiliation for minority
professional institutions to central universities?.
Hindu readers may note that the 2004 Manifesto boldly stated: ?The
Congress has provided reservations for Muslims in Kerala and Karnataka
in government employment and education on the grounds that they are a
socially and educationally backward class?. But the Census report of
2001, as we have seen above, states that in Kerala and in Karnataka
literacy rate of Muslims was higher than that of Hindus. Even the
discredited Sachar Committee admits it. So it is dishonesty to call
Muslims educationally backward in Kerala and Karnataka states but
Congress and communist Hindu politicians are not ashamed to use false
data just to reduce percentage of Hindus in educational institutions
and in government jobs. Hindu voters of Kerala and Karnataka should
take note of this fraud being played on careers of their children with
help of their votes.
The Congress party and its UPA allies claim that they are the genuine
well wishers of the SC Hindus. Is it true? Christians are demanding
that their ?dalits? should be included in the 15 per cent reservation
quota available to SC Hindus. Muslims are also demanding that ?dalit
Muslims? be included in the same 15 per cent quota. No one knows
precise definition of ?dalit Christian? and ?dalit Muslims?. Since
Christians enjoy much better educational facilities as well as
literacy rate than Hindu SCs, it is natural that Christians will grab
a larger chunk of services within the 15 per cent quota further
worsening the employment opportunities of Hindu SC boys and girls.
Even Sachar Committee admits that Muslims also enjoy better literacy
rate of 59.1 per cent compared to 52.2 per cent for SC & ST Hindus.
Congress party and allies of UPA are supporting the demand to place ?
dalit Christians? and ?dalit Muslims? under the SC category. Shri
Abdul Rahman Antulay, Union Minister for Minority Affairs publicly
stated in November 2006 that it was time to include dalit Muslims and
dalit Christians in SC/ST Reservations.
Close on the heels of Prime Minister Sardar Manmohan Singh?s ?Muslim
first? remarks made at the National Development Council meeting, a
High Level Committee of the Human Resource Development Ministry led by
Shri M.A.A. Fatmi, Minister of State, has made a case for review of
the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950 so as to include
Muslims and Christians in the SC category (Indian Express, February
19, 2007).
A NGO has already moved to the Supreme Court to include dalit
Christians into the SC definition by amending the 1950 order, and; no
wonder the Manmohan Singh-led Government may manage to lose this case
by not presenting the case of Hindu SCs properly. So the danger bell
for SC Hindu students is already ringing. The point is whether they
and their parents are aware about it.
In its 2004 manifesto, the CPI(M) promised to extend reservation
facility to ?dalit Christians? by including them in the 15 per cent
quota. The 1998 Joint-manifesto of all Left parties also promised to
include ?dalit Christians? into the SC reservations of 15 per cent
quota.
BSP leader late Kanshi Ram was reported to have assured support of his
party to include ?dalit Christians? in the Presidential Order of
1950.
DMK leader K. Karunanidhi, Chief Minister Tamil Nadu, also supports
inclusion of ?dalit Christians? into the SC category.
In September 2004, Ram Vilas Paswan, president of Lok Janshakti Party
had promised to grant Scheduled Caste status to socially and
economically backward Muslims. In December 2006, he supported a sub-
quota for Muslims within the 27 per cent OBC quota who are already
covered under the Mandal OBC formula while supporting demand to
include ?dalit Christians? and ?dalit Muslims? under the 15 per cent
quota. Shri V.P. Singh also supports a sub-quota for Muslims within
the 27 per cent OBC space.
On December 5, 2006 the Samajawadi Party led by Shri Mulayam Singh,
the Congress party and their other allies in UP passed a resolution in
the UP State Assembly demanding reservations for ?dalit? Christians
and ?dalit? Muslims within 15 per cent quota which will harm the
employment opportunities of SC and ST Hindus as Christians and Muslims
both enjoy higher literacy rate over SC and ST Hindus.
So those SC and ST Hindus who do not want to harm and hurt career
prospects of their children should never cast their votes in favour of
any of these secular parties. SC and ST Hindu job seekers and students
must explain difficulties which await them if their parents did not
exercise their votes with due caution or abstained from voting.
No parent knowingly wants to hurt career of his children so it is duty
of Hindu students studying in colleges and universities to brief their
parents the misfortune which will visit them if they voted to any
party which wants to include Christians and Muslims in the 15 per cent
quota. A parent is so busy in earning livelihood that he does not get
time to read the manifesto and thus understand dirty tricks of GP
Hindu politicians being played against Hindu Youth.
Since the employment situation is worsening day by day, it is
important that those Hindu parents who have college going children or
grand children, and, those Hindu youth who will soon be entering into
employment market seriously look for and identify those Hindu
politicians who are bent upon to reduce their E3 space.
The problem of unemployment continues to worsen day by day and in this
environment Congress and other secular parties are hell bent through
the Sachar Committee to reduce employment space available to Hindu
youth. The National Sample Survey Organisation?s latest report of
January 2007 shows that unemployment is much higher among youth (15-29
years age) as compared to overall population, and, that unemployment
is rising.
The unemployment rate in Delhi has gone up from 3.2 per cent in
1999-2000 to 5.3 per cent in 2004-05 and in Kolkata from 7 per cent to
8.1 per cent. (Indian Express February 16, 2007)
At the end of December 2005 about 393 lakh job seekers were waiting
for jobs on the live registers of 947 employment exchanges across the
country against which only 1.73 lakh got jobs in 2005. About 50 to 55
lakh new persons register every year with the employment exchanges
looking for jobs.
Over 52 lakh graduates and post-graduates were waiting for jobs in
December 2005 in all the employment exchanges.
According to the Sept 2006 National Sample Survey report, 58 per cent
of Indians were without jobs in 2004-05 and the unemployment rate was
higher among educated ones than among less educated ones. In rural
areas, 56 per cent of people were unemployed and in urban areas 63 per
cent were unemployed. According to a study by the Hewitt Associates,
by 2020, India will have the largest number of educated but unemployed
youth in the world.
M.V. Rajasekharan, Minister of State told the Lok Sabha (August 23,
2006) that annual growth rate of employment creation during the
1983-99 was 2.7 per cent which slowed to 1.07 per cent during
1994-2000. Shri Suresh Pachaury, Minister of State informed the
Parliament (August 23, 2006) that there was no proposal to remove ban
on creation of new posts in the government sector.
Mulayam Singh Yadav, Chief Minister of UP has been claiming that he
has fulfilled his promise to the Muslim community to raise percentage
of Muslims in the UP Police to 15 per cent.Traditionally percentage of
Hindus in the UP Police had been above 95 per cent. So the credit for
reducing job opportunities of Hindu youth in the UP Police should go
to those Hindu parents who vote for Mulayam Singh. It is a tragic case
of Hindu parents voting for someone who is determined to reduce
employment space of their own children.
In December 2006 press reported that Raghubansh Prasad Singh?s
Ministry of Rural Development, for the first time in the history of
Independent India, set aside Rs 1,000 crore for religious minorities
for the three schemes (i) Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY)
(ii) Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) and(iii) Sampoorna Grameen Rojgar Yojana
(SGRY). Till now such physical and financial allocations were made
only for SCs and STs. Thus, under these three schemes, funds are
available to Hindus including those Hindus who had voted for Shri
Raghubansh Prasad Singh in the 2004 election and has been reduced by
Rs1000 crore by this Hindu politician. It is another tragic case of a
Hindu politician betraying his own Hindu voters.
Even the discredited Sachar Committee Report admits (page 53) that the
SCs and STs are still the least literate group both in urban and rural
India but Manmohan Singh thunders that ?Muslims? shall be have the ?
first? claim over national resources. We must stand up and tell this
minority politician who never won confidence of any Lok Sabha
constituency that if any group which has legitimate first claim over
national resources it is the group of farmers and SC & ST Hindus. For
the anti-Hindu policies of Manmohan Singh-led UPA government, the
price was paid by Captain Amrinder Singh specially in the urban areas
of Punjab in recently held assembly elections.
The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) data shows that level
of acute poverty is equally high among all communities including
Hindus also. As much as 84 per cent Hindus in the below poverty line
(BPL) category in rural areas live in conditions dubbed as ?below
double poverty line?. But showing its anti-Hindu bias, the Congress is
diverting huge funds only to address the poor among Muslims. Why it is
not simultaneously addressing the poverty of Hindus too?
(To be continued)
[Shri O.P. Gupta recently retired in the rank of Secretary to the
Government of India in the Indian Foreign Service (1971 batch). He has
served as Ambassador to Finland, Estonia, Jamaica, Tunisia, Tanzania,
etc., and Consul General, Dubai and Birmingham (UK).]
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=176&page=3
bademiyansubhanallah
Vikas Pathak, Hindustan Times
New Delhi, March 23, 2010
First Published: 00:47 IST(23/3/2010)
Last Updated: 00:48 IST(23/3/2010)
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideologue MG Vaidya hinted on Monday
that the BJP, which had been drifting away from Hindutva, was back on
track under Nitin Gadkari, the RSS choice for BJP president.
However, the gesture is being seen more as an approval for greater RSS
control over the BJP under Gadkari.
For Gadkari’s idea of a corporate or NGO-type BJP is not too different
from the hi-tech politics L.K. Advani and his aides espoused. However,
while Advani wanted an autonomous BJP, Gadkari, the RSS hopes, will be
more pliable.
Gadkari in turn pledged allegiance to Hindutva, the Sangh's favourite
theme. Welcoming 100 young professionals as BJP volunteers, he said
that while the "language" of each generation changed, Hindutva
remained "the soul" for the BJP.
Vaidya contrasted BJP under Gadkari with the party in 2009. “When
Sudheendra Kulkarni said the BJP should break with the RSS, I said
they should break with Hindutva, and the chord with the RSS will
automatically snap,” Vaidya said, referring to Advani's former aide.
"After 2009, they say Hindutva is their soul. The soul is invisible
but gives urja (energy). It's good that the same urja is being
remembered in 2010,” Vaidya added.
He said Hindutva was not religion but the essence of Indian values and
all those who upheld these were Hindus.
On the Babri mosque demolition, he said, "A sign of sampradyik
gundagardi (communal rowdy-ism) has been obliterated. There can be a
mosque nearby, but only a temple will come up at the spot."
Sangh young band swings to jazz
RADHIKA RAMASESHAN
THEN
NOW
(From top) Anuradha Paudwal, Anup Jalota, Louis Armstrong, Duke
Ellington
New Delhi, March 22: Anuradha Paudwal, Narendra Chanchal and Anup
Jalota are passe. The Sangh’s young guns would rather sway to Louis
Armstrong and Duke Ellington.
The bhajan singers are a generation removed from the jazz greats and
could, therefore, qualify as more “contemporary”. But someone in the
RSS or the BJP decided it was time to stack away the Jai Siya Ram and
Prabhu Tero Naam CDs and play What A Wonderful World and When The
Saints Go Marching In.
But Armstrong’s gravelly voice and Ellington’s ragtime blues for the
RSS-BJP?
The disconnect would seem unbridgeable if you imagined swayamsevaks in
over-sized khaki shorts swinging to jazz instead of intoning mantras
on patriotism.
But when 50-odd youths got together to pledge allegiance to the RSS
and the BJP in Delhi, they chose jazz as the background score.
The new band calls itself the United Volunteer Association, or UVA. Or
better still, Yuva.
Yes, it is the BJP’s answer to the Congress’s effort to foreground
Rahul Gandhi and his youth brigade.
Gone with the bhajans are the khaki shorts. The UVAs wear saffron T-
shirts and black trousers.
They are not 50-year-olds with paunches but young IT professionals,
entrepreneurs and students with less ample waistlines and a general
look of fitness.
Nitin Gadkari, the 52- year-old BJP president, whose girth is not
exactly an advertisement for health freaks, was the guest of honour at
the launch of UVA in New Delhi’s Mavlankar Hall today.
He played to the gallery, unmindful of the fact that on the dais with
him was M.G. Vaidya, an 80-year old RSS pracharak who often defies the
official line on policies and issues. “I belong to a new generation
that recognises the difference between the letter and spirit (of
Hindutva). Hindutva’s spirit will not change. But it cannot be an
agenda for any political party,” he said.
He invoked lines from a Supreme Court judgment that described Hindutva
as a “way of life of people in the sub-continent”.
Terrorists have no religion: Nitin Gadkari
By ANIMarch 23rd, 2010 NEW DELHI - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
president Nitin Gadkari has said that a terrorist has no religion and
can’t be classified as a Hindu or a Muslim.
“It is unfortunate that we identify people involved with certain
terrorist activities according to their religious affiliations,” said
Gadkari, adding that a terrorist has no caste, creed or religion.
Gadkari further said, “A god fearing Hindu will not kill an innocent
Muslim and similarly, a god fearing Muslim will not kill an innocent
Hindu, and if he is doing so, then he is a terrorist who does not
belong to any religion.”
The BJP president on Monday stressed on the need for a modern idiom to
articulate ‘Hindutva’ for the youth, adding that the Supreme Court’s
1995 description of Hindutva must be the standard.
“Hindutva cannot become any political party’s agenda. It was more a
way of life,” said Gadkari.
The Supreme Court of India in a judgement ruled that ‘no precise
meaning can be ascribed to the terms ‘Hindu’, ‘Hindutva’ and
‘Hinduism’; and no meaning in the abstract can confine it to the
narrow limits of religion alone, excluding the content of Indian
culture and heritage.
The Court also ruled that ‘Hindutva’ is understood as a way of life or
a state of mind and is not to be equated with or understood as
religious Hindu fundamentalism. (ANI)
http://blog.taragana.com/politics/2010/03/23/terrorists-have-no-religion-nitin-gadkari-24894/
Gadkari at the launch of UVA in Delhi. (PTI)
“No true Muslim can kill a Hindu, no true Hindu can kill a Muslim. Yet
the pseudo-secularists insist on identifying terrorists with religion.
The state should be secular, the government should be secular but an
individual cannot be secular,” Gadkari said. “Why then were Indira
Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi cremated according to Hindu rites?”
He emphasised how important it was to drive home the message that the
BJP was for “parliamentary democracy and not theocracy”.
“Youths should see Hindutva in a larger perspective, as a way of life
that is related to tolerance of all people,” Gadkari said.
But UVA convener Sanjay Kaul drove home the message of change. At the
end of his speech, the BJP activist who was part of the India Shining
ad campaign, simply said: “Hey guys, if you are interested, you know
who to call.”
A generation, it seemed, had been phased out.
A source said youth outreach would become possible only “when we start
looking, thinking and speaking like Kaul”.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100323/jsp/nation/story_12250823.jsp
Bihar BJP leaders flay Gadkari team
NALIN VERMA
Shahnawaz Hussein and Shatrughan Sinha have shown resentment against
Nitin Gadkari
Patna, March 21: Mere months before the state goes to Assembly polls,
resentment against BJP president Nitin Gadkari is rising fast among
party members, especially after some senior leaders from the region
were “ignored” in the national executive.
The leaders have also started pouring venom against the high command.
Former Union civil aviation minister Shahnawaz Hussein did not attend
a meeting called by the newly appointed BJP chief spokesman
Ravishankar Prasad on Friday and got admitted to a Delhi hospital
yesterday complaining of chest pain.
“I will go to Mecca and Medina to know my gunah (mistake) and pray
that Allah punishes me for the same,” the Bhagalpur MP said, sulking
for being “demoted” as a junior spokesman under Prasad.
“Our leader is more pained by the treatment from Gadkari than the
chest pain,” said an aide of Hussein.
Probably, God appears to have heard Shahnawaz’s prayers, as Gadkari
called him telling: “You should speak to me if you have complaints and
not to the media. I will try to address your issues if you keep
yourself confined to party forum.”
Apparently, sensing resentment among the election-bound Bihar leaders,
Gadkari has revised his list of office-bearers. Yesterday, he included
two more “sulking” leaders — state party chief Radhamohan Singh and
state health minister Nandkishore Yadav — in the list of the special
invitees to the national executive.
But Gadkari’s damage-control exercise seems futile, as many senior
leaders, including Shatrughan Sinha, C.P. Thakur and Yahswant Sinha,
are feeling ignored.
Many of these disgruntled leaders are openly speaking to the media for
ignoring the “meritorious party workers” from Bihar by Gadkari whom
they alleged even biased towards Maharashtra.
Thakur, before leaving for Geneva to attend a convention of the World
Health Organisation, said: “Senior leaders from Bihar have been
ignored. There is a dominance of Marathis in Gadkari’s team.” Thakur,
who represented the Patna Lok Sabha seat thrice and is currently Rajya
Sabha MP, went on saying: “My contribution to the party is no less
than anyone in the BJP.”
Shatrughan, who represents Patna Saheb in the Lok Sabha and billed to
be the star campaigner in the coming Assembly elections, said:
“Leaders like Thakur, Udai Singh and Yashwant have been ignored. I
have apprised the Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj about how Gadkari
has made mistakes in making his team.”
The disgruntled leaders said around 15 leaders from Bihar had found
places in Gadkari’s team against over 40 from Maharashtra. Gadkari is
yet to select the Bihar BJP president to replace Singh, who had
completed his tenure.
All these senior leaders, including Hussein, Thakur and Shatrughan,
are apparently opposed to the elevation of a relatively junior leader,
Prasad, as the party’s general secretary and chief spokesman at their
cost. “Experience and merit have not been taken into consideration,
while forming the team. The winners and mass leaders have been ignored
while those who have not won a single election have been promoted,”
said Shatrughan.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100322/jsp/nation/story_12244879.jsp
Nitish stamp in party panel
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Patna, March 24: Nitish Kumar’s mantra of “inclusive growth and
development” finds an echo in his party as well with the JD(U)
accommodating the dissidents besides a large number of women and
minorities in the jumbo executive committee of poll-bound Bihar.
While BJP chief Nitin Gadkari faces revolt in his party for leaving
out senior leaders from the region, dissident leaders like former
JD(U) state chief Rajiv Ranjan Singh, alias Lallan Singh, and
Prabhunath Singh have found place in the 262-member executive
committee.
State JD(U) chief Vijay Choudhary said: “We have given representation
to all with ignoring none.”
Choudhary said: “The executive committee has 42 vice-presidents, 87
general secretaries, 58 secretaries and 75 members with women and
party workers from the Muslim community given a very large
representation.”
“The executive committee has highest ever number of women this time,”
Choudhary said, indicating the panel’s support to Nitish, who has been
spearheading the women’s reservation bill against the wishes of JD(U)
chief Sharad Yadav, who along with Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh
Yadav, have been opposing it.
The women’s reservation bill has split the JD(U) with Nitish taking a
line quite opposed to Sharad Yadav. Nitish’s stand, however,
embarrassed Sharad Yadav for all the five MPs in the Rajya Sabha on
the day of voting supported in favour of the bill.
Hari Prasad Sah, Nitish’s close confidant, has been made chairman of
the state parliamentary board and former MLC Vinay Kumar Sinha its
treasurer.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100325/jsp/nation/story_12259063.jsp
Shatrughan finds vacuum at the top in the party
STAFF WRITER 17:28 HRS IST
Lucknow Mar 23 (PTI) Days after he vent his frustration over selection
of the new team of BJP office bearers, Shatrughan Sinha today said
that there is a vacuum at the top in the absence of Atal Bihari
Vajpayee coupled with certain other factors.
In an informal interaction with reporters here, Sinha said the BJP
leadership was weakened after the retirement of Vajpayee from active
politics.
He said there were also certain other factors but declined to
elaborate.
The BJP leader, however, sought to put a lid on the controversy
following his outburst against party President Nitin Gadkari that
deserving candidates had been ignored in the new team announced last
week.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/578197_Shatrughan-finds-vacuum-at-the-top-in-the-party
I'l quit if Gadkariji says so: Shatrughan
Rakesh Verma, Hindustan Times
Patna, March 21, 2010
First Published: 23:16 IST(21/3/2010)
Last Updated: 23:17 IST(21/3/2010)
Even as the BJP mulls disciplinary action against Patna Sahib MP
Shatrughan Sinha, the party veteran in Patna on Sunday was his usual
cool and confident self.
“Why threaten me with a show cause at all? All that my friend and
party chief needs to do is tell me to quit and I would gladly do so.
My image is hardly dependent on my being a BJP member. There are a
number of options that are far more rewarding, options with more
responsibility that I would be glad to fulfill,” Sinha said.
“Nevertheless, doing so will hardly put an end to the discontent that
Gadkariji’s handpicked team has inspired among certain party seniors
whose contributions the BJP can ill-afford to ignore.”
Senior leaders such as Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha, B.C. Khanduri,
C.P. Thakur, Uday Singh, Madan Lal Khurana have been left out, said
Sinha. And to rub salt on their wounds, leaders such as Radha Mohan
Singh and Nand Kishore Yadav, whose political stock Bihar’s people are
well aware of, have been inducted, he added.
“I am not upset because of my non-inclusion in Nitin Gadkari’s team.
What I am upset about is that leaders who could have played stellar
roles in the impending elections in Bihar and elsewhere have been
sidelined at the behest of self-seekers,” Sinha said.
I have never sought any position in party:Shatrughan
STAFF WRITER 13:34 HRS IST
New Delhi, Mar 24 (PTI) Actor-turned politician Shatrughan Sinha has
said he voiced his reservations over the selection of the new BJP team
because he wanted the welfare of the party and not because he was
hankering for any post.
"I never asked, never got and never sought any position for me. As far
as who got what, I can say I have got my 'Kad' (height), which
sometimes becomes a matter of concern for others," the 6-feet-2-inch
tall BJP leader said, evading a direct reply.
He was asked why he was cold shouldered by the BJP leadership in the
new team of party office-bearers announced by party chief Nitin
Gadkari on March 18.
Sinha was in the city last night to promote his son's debut film
'Sadiyaan', which stars Rekha, Rishi Kapoor and Hema Malini in the
lead.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/579299_I-have-never-sought-any-position-in-party-Shatrughan
'I am endorsing Gujarat's glory, not present govt'
STAFF WRITER 11:10 HRS IST
Mumbai, Mar 25 (PTI) Under attack for his role as brand ambassador of
Gujarat, megastar Amitabh Bachchan has hit out at his critics, saying
no politics is involved in his promoting tourism in the BJP-ruled
state.
Bachchan said as the brand ambassador, he would talk about the Somnath
Temple, the white sands of the Rann of Kutch, old civilisations of
Harrappa, the Gir lions and try to entice as many visitors as he could
to that glorious land.
"Where is the connect with the glorification of the present
Government?" he wrote on his blog yesterday, the day when some
Maharashtra Congressmen objected to his presence at a state government
function citing his strained ties with Gandhi family and his role as
Gujarat brand ambassador.
"You want to stop me from promoting tourism in a state because you
have reason to believe that there are political connotations to the
event.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/580329_-I-am-endorsing-Gujarat-s-glory--not-present-govt-
Invite to Amitabh, section of Mumbai Cong upset
STAFF WRITER 0:44 HRS IST
Mumbai/ New Delhi, Mar 24 (PTI) Resentment brewed tonight in a section
of Mumbai's Congress over the invite to megastar Amitabh Bachchan to a
function where Chief Minister Ashok Chavan innaugurated the second
phase of Worli-Bandra sealink.
Chavan himself indicated the unhappiness in PCC over the invite to
Bachchan, a friend-turned-foe of the party, and exclusion of some
Congress leaders from the function.
"The Mumbai Congress President (Kripashankar Singh) has given some
reaction in the evening about invitations not being given to
them....", Chavan told NDTV.
Congress' coalition partner NCP is heading the ministry concerned with
the sealnik.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/580206_Invite-to-Amitabh--section-of-Mumbai-Cong-upset
India second most spam originator worldwide: study
STAFF WRITER 8:16 HRS IST
Houston, Mar 25 (PTI) Indian is the second most spam originator
worldwide, with 10.98 per cent of spam being sent globally from Indian
IP addresses, according to a study.
Brazil, Vietnam, Korea and US are among the top five countries from
which most spam was sent during the first two months of 2010, said the
study by PandaLabs, Panda Security's malware analysis and detection
laboratory.
The five million emails analysed by PandaLabs came from nearly one
million different IP addresses, meaning that on average, each address
was responsible for five spam messages.
And, the cities from which spam was being sent, Seoul topped the list,
followed by Hanoi, New Delhi, Bogota, Sao Paulo and Bangkok.
The spam messages themselves are used primarily to distribute malware
or sell illicit products, such as videos or photos of Brazilian girls.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/580253_India-second-most-spam-originator-worldwide--study
'Row over presence at sea link event manufactured'
STAFF WRITER 10:10 HRS IST
Mumbai, Mar 25 (PTI) Megastar Amitabh Bachchan today said the
controversy over his presence at a function here for the inauguration
of the second phase of the Bandra-Worli sea link has been
"manufactured".
"A fresh controversy has been rapidly manufactured on my
involvement... The media has been hounding me since the event at the
sea link has got over, through incessant SMSes and the electronic
(media) has followed me even to the theatre where we were seeing
Arshad's film," Bachchan wrote in a midnight post on his blog. Actor
Arshad Warsi's film 'Hum Tum Aur Ghost' will be released this week.
Resentment brewed in a section of Mumbai Congress over the invite to
Bachchan to the function where Chief Minister Ashok Chavan inaugurated
the sea link yesterday.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/580296_-Row-over-presence-at-sea-link-event-manufactured-
Modi warms up for date with riot probe team
OUR BUREAU
Ahmedabad/Mumbai, March 24: Narendra Modi is set to make an appearance
before the Supreme Court-monitored special investigation team on the
Gujarat riots on March 27 or any other mutually acceptable date.
Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, among the battery of legal eagles
advising Modi, today confirmed that the Gujarat chief minister was
willing to appear before the SIT on March 27 or any other day, but
prior to that he would like a clarification with regard to a related
case pending in the Supreme Court.
The SIT has asked Modi to appear before it in connection with the
Gulbarg Housing Society carnage of February 28, 2002, in which
Congress leader Ahsan Jafri was killed along with 68 others, many of
whose bodies were never recovered as they had been burnt beyond
recognition.
The SIT was asked by the Supreme Court to look into a complaint filed
by Zakia Jafri, widow of the leader, in which she named Modi as the
first accused in her husband’s murder.
The SIT has to report to the Supreme Court by April 30 on Zakia’s
complaint. Of the 63 people named, most have already been questioned
by the SIT.
On March 11, the SIT, headed by former CBI chief R.K. Raghavan, said
it had asked the chief minister to appear before it for questioning on
March 21, a date which Modi disputed, saying it was a “lie” planted by
“vested interests”.
The Telegraph has learnt that the SIT had asked Modi to appear before
it in the week beginning March 21.
Advocate Jethmalani today said Modi had written a letter to Raghavan,
pointing out that the Supreme Court was scheduled to hear a petition
seeking to recall its earlier order referring Zakia’s complaint to the
SIT. The plea is scheduled to be heard in the week beginning April 5.
The petition was filed by Kalubhai Maliwad, a former legislator of the
BJP who was named with Modi and 61 others in Zakia’s complaint.
“Moreover, Teesta Setalvad and other NGOs have also challenged the
composition of the SIT. Modi has said that propriety demands that
unless these pending matters are resolved, it may not be appropriate
to call him. He (Modi) said if the SIT still wants to go ahead, he is
willing to appear before it on March 27 or any other day it wishes
to,” Jethmalani said.
Asked if the SIT had responded to the letter, Jethmalani said: “No, it
hasn’t. The letter was sent either on Monday or Tuesday.”
Raghavan could not be reached for comment. He, however, told PTI that
“it (the missive) is a privilege communication between the SIT and the
witness (Modi)” and he could not comment on it.
The Gujarat government continued to be cautious. Home minister Amit
Shah said the “date and time” of Modi’s appearance had not been fixed
as yet.
Asked whether the chief minister would appear before March 27, a staff
member at the chief minister’s office said: “As of now, we have not
decided.”
Legal experts said Modi, who is also being advised by BJP leader and
legal luminary Arun Jaitley, cannot avoid appearing before the SIT
since it has all the powers of an investigative agency under the
Criminal Procedure Code of 1973.
The chief minister, sources said, is likely to comply with the summons
since he would prefer to be seen as a responsible, law-abiding citizen
who welcomes the investigation instead of running shy of it.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100325/jsp/nation/story_12259787.jsp
SIT summons: Modi gives a new twist but says will respond
STAFF WRITER 18:50 HRS IST
Gandhinagar, Mar 22 (PTI) Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today
said he shall respond to the SIT probing the 2002 Gujarat riots "fully
respecting" the law, as he refuted reports that he had skipped
appearance before the panel on Sunday.
"SIT had not fixed March 21, 2010 for my appearance.
To say that I was summoned on March 21 is completely false. I shall
respond to the SIT fully respecting the law and keeping in view the
dignity of a body appointed by the Supreme Court," he said in an open
letter.
Modi's letter came following reports that he had boycotted the SIT
summons.
He said, "Truth cannot be suppressed. It is now my duty to place
before you the facts that brings out the importance of understanding
what the truth really is.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/576786_SIT-summons--Modi-gives-a-new-twist-but-says-will-respond
Gujarat CM likely to appear before SIT on March 27
STAFF WRITER 9:35 HRS IST
Ahmedabad, Mar 24 (PTI) Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is likely
to be questioned by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation
Team, probing the 2002 riots, on March 27, SIT sources said today.
Confusion prevailed over the appearance of Modi before the SIT with
the panel chief saying he would appear on March 21. But Modi, in an
open letter, claimed he was not summoned on the date.
Sources today said he is likely to be questioned on March 27. However,
SIT Chief R K Raghavan refused to comment on the date.
"It is a privilege communication between the SIT and the witness and I
cannot comment on this," he said.
SIT has summoned Modi to depose in connection with a complaint of
Zakia Jaffery, widow of former Congress MP Eshan Jaffery who was
killed in Gulburg society riot case of 2002 along with 69 others.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/579097_Gujarat-CM-likely-to-appear-before-SIT-on-March-27
SIT up and take notice
Hindustan Times
March 15, 2010
First Published: 22:40 IST(15/3/2010)
Last Updated: 22:45 IST(15/3/2010)
The hysteria that normally accompanies any move to bring about
political accountability has been refreshingly absent following the
Special Investigation Team’s (SIT) summons to Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi to depose before it. This is the first time ever that
the CM of any state has been asked to appear before an SIT. The SIT
step is in response to charges against Mr Modi and his administration
by Zakia Jaffrey whose husband and former Congress MP Ehsan Jaffrey
was murdered in the Gulberg housing society during the cataclysmic
riots of 2002. Mr Modi has signalled his compliance and the new BJP
President Nitin Gadkari has taken the stand that the law must take its
course.
The law has indeed taken a tortuous course in the Gujarat case with
various rulings indicting the administration being overturned by lower
courts. Now that the action has moved to the Supreme Court, we are
hopefully moving closer to a conclusion. The SIT seems intent on
completing its task in a professional manner, heeding neither pressure
from the establishment nor from activists who have been at loggerheads
ever since those fateful events took place. In all the mudslinging, we
have still not fixed accountability for the violence in which over
1,500 people died. That there was complicity, at least from sections
of Mr Modi’s administration, is established. The SIT has made it clear
that it has prima facie cases against then minister Maya Kodnani and
various VHP leaders. It has also left no one in doubt that the events
were not a spontaneous reaction after the Godhra train arson, but very
much ordered to a pattern.
Mr Modi is in a difficult situation. If he professes ignorance of the
reasons for and perpetrators of the violence, his administration could
be held accountable for negligence. However, given the maturity with
which the situation has been handled so far, it must be hoped that the
SIT hearings will give Mr Modi a platform to answer many questions
which are still hanging in the air. The 2002 riots proved to be one of
the most divisive and painful in independent India and threatened the
very secular ethos of the country. So, unlike the investigations into
past riots, it becomes imperative that the issue is resolved in order
that both Gujarat and India can move forward. Mr Modi has crafted the
economic success story of Gujarat. Today everyone wants a stake in the
growth of the state. Mr Modi has eventual ambitions for a greater role
at the Centre. In this context, it makes sense to wipe the slate clean
and bring a closure to a painful chapter in our history.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/edits/SIT-up-and-take-notice/Article1-519421.aspx
Communal harmony marks Ram Navami in Ayodhya
STAFF WRITER 21:9 HRS IST
Ayodhya, Mar 24 (PTI) In an example of communal harmony in this
pilgrim town, members of the Muslim community today made arrangements
for Hindu pilgrims who arrived here in large numbers to celebrate Ram
Navami.
The festivities, which were celebrated without any perceptible terror
threat, saw about ten lakh devotees take a dip in the Saryu river,
with many of them offering prayers at different temples including
Kanak Bhawan, Hanumangarhi and Nageshwarnaath temples.
Senior Superintendent of Police R K S Rathore said, "There was no
extremist threat to the religious gathering of Ram Navami Mela, but we
made all possible arrangements to ensure the security of devotees.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/580071_Communal-harmony-marks-Ram-Navami-in-Ayodhya
Mulayam's remarks on women sexist, Talibani: Amar
STAFF WRITER 19:30 HRS IST
Raising the Batla House encounter issue, Amar said that when he had
demanded a judicial inquiry into it, everybody had distanced
themselves from him.
"I spoke to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the then National
Security Advisor M K Narayanan on initiating a judicial inquiry into
the encounter at that time, but only Congress President Sonia Gandhi
supported my views. After two years, AICC general secretary Digvijay
Singh recently visited Azamgarh and while raising doubts on the
encounter demanded a judicial inquiry into it and then backtracked
from his statement," he said.
The former SP leader maintained that he did not play politics over the
issue and said what he felt was right.
Asked whether he was trying to send feelers to Congress while praising
Sonia Gandhi for supporting his views on the Batla House encounter
issue, Singh said, "I have only said the truth.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/579926_Mulayam-s-remarks-on-women-sexist--Talibani--Amar
Former Goa beach shack waiter sentenced for murder
STAFF WRITER 0:55 HRS IST
Panaji, March 23 (PTI) A former beach shack waiter was sentenced to
life imprisonment by a local court today for killing a British woman
in Margao town two years ago.
Additional district and sessions judge P V Sawaikar sentenced Anand
Kambli to life imprisonment and fined him Rs 25,000 for killing Denis
Higgins.
Higgins, 54, was brutally killed by Kambli by slitting open her throat
with a knife over a petty dispute in her rented apartment at Margao
town on April 27, 2007.
Incidently, Kambli?s wife and minor son were sleeping in the adjacent
room when the incident happened.
Higgins died on the spot and Kambli fled from the scene, only to be
arrested a couple of days later.
Police said the accused had made an acquaintance with British lady
through his friend, who had helped her in getting a rented apartment.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/579026_Former-Goa-beach-shack-waiter-sentenced-for-murder
Nityananda Swami files writ in Karnataka High Court
STAFF WRITER 0:50 HRS IST
Bangalore, Mar 22 (PTI) Self-styled godman Nityananda Swami, facing
allegations of involvement in sleazy activities, today filed a writ
petition before Karnataka High Court seeking quashing of cases filed
against him by the Ramanagar district police.
Nityananda, who is at large ever since the video clippings of his
alleged sleaze activities involving an actress were telecast by
private channels on May two, in his petition contended that he was
innocent.
The 32-year-old Nityananda, alias Rajasekharan, charged that one of
his former discipline and driver Kurup Lenin had conspired to defame
him and his Ashram by levelling such allegations.
The whereabouts of Nityananda remained a mystery so far.
However, the followers of Nityananda at his Ashram at Bidadi on the
city outskirts claim that he has been in Haridwar attending the Kumbh
Mela.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/577398_Nityananda-Swami-files-writ-in-Karnataka-High-Court
A temple where upper castes bow to Dalits
Asit Srivastava, Indo-Asian News Service
Lucknow, March 25, 2010
First Published: 11:15 IST(25/3/2010)
Last Updated: 11:16 IST(25/3/2010)
Stories of socially marginalised people not being allowed into places
of worship are common in India. In such a scenario, a Dalit family
presiding over an Uttar Pradesh temple for ages is nothing short of
exemplary.
It's only Dalits who have been priests of the Kali Mata temple,
dedicated to goddess Durga, in Lakhna town in Etawah, some 300 km from
Lucknow, ever since the shrine came up around 200 years ago.
"Caste divisions and discrimination may not have given Dalits a place
of respectability in society, but here as priests they are revered,"
Ram Dular Rajbhar, who owns a grocery store in the town, told IANS on
phone.
"Be it Brahmins, Thakurs or people from any of the other higher
castes, after coming inside the temple, all have to bow before the
Dalit priests and touch their feet. For others it may be surprising,
but it has become a custom for us," he added.
Situated along the banks of the Yamuna river, the temple is sought
after by the residents of Lakhna town for holding marriages,
'mundan' (tonsure ceremony of Hindu children) or other rituals
particularly performed by Brahmins or members of the upper caste.
"It's not just a temple. It's a place that is an example of social
equality," said Umesh Dixit, who owns several garment shops in Lakhna
town.
"People in Lakhna also approach the priests to name their babies as it
is believed that names given by Dalit priests would bring good luck
and prosperity to the children and their families," he added.
According to locals, there's a story behind the custom of Dalit
priests. They say King Jaipal Singh, who got the temple constructed,
made it mandatory that the priest of the temple would only be a Dalit.
"While the construction of the temple was under way, Jaipal Singh
noticed a Dalit labourer, Chhotelal, was being assaulted by a group of
upper caste people for touching the idol that was to be placed inside
the temple," said another resident Ram Raksha Pandey, who owns an
eating joint in Lakhna.
"Jaipalji soon intervened in the matter and said only Chhotelal and
his family would be taking care of the temple after its construction.
Since then, the practice has been alive," he added.
At present two brothers, Ashok Kumar, 43, and Akhilesh Kumar, 45, who
are fourth generation descendants of Chhotelal are the priests at the
temple.
Nitin Gadkari
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This biographical article needs additional citations for
verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious
material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must
be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful.
(October 2009)
Nitin Gadkari
Maharashtra Legislative Council
Incumbent
Assumed office
1989
Minister for PWD, Maharashtra
In office
27th May, 1995 – 1998
National President of Bharatiya Janata Party
Incumbent
Assumed office
25th December, 2009
Preceded by Rajnath Singh
Born May 27, 1957 (1957-05-27) (age 52)
Nagpur, India
Political party Bharatiya Janata Party
Spouse(s) Kanchan Gadkari
Children Nikhil, Sarang and Ketki
Alma mater Nagpur University
Occupation Lawyer, Industrialist
Religion Hindu
Website nitingadkari.in
Nitin Jayaram Gadkari (Marathi: नितीन जयराम गडकरी) (born 27 May 1957)
is an Indian industrialist, agriculturist, politician and the current
President of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).[1] He is best known for
the works during his tenure as a Public Works Department Minister in
the state of Maharashtra when he constructed a series of roads,
highways and flyovers across the state including the Mumbai–Pune
Expressway.[2]
Background, family and education
Nitin Gadkari was born in Nagpur, India to a middle class
Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu family hailing from Nagpur district.
During his teens, he worked for Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha and
student union wing of ABVP.
He started his political career as a grass root worker who laid down
red carpets prior to party programmes.[3] He prefers to maintains a
low profile in the media. He did his M.Com, L.L.B., D.B.M. from
Maharashtra, India.
Gadkari was elected unanimously as the President of BJP by its
members. The induction ceremony was held on 19 December 2009 and
resumed work on 25 December 2009.
Nitin Gadkari is married to Kanchan Gadkari and they have three
children, Nikhil, Sarang and Ketki. He currently resides in Nagpur
close to the head office of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.[4]
Political career
Nitin Gadkari served as the Minister of Public Works Department of
Government of Maharashtra from 1995 to 1999 and restructured it from
top to bottom.[5].Though Gadkari did a decent job as a minister ,His
Party lost badly in assembly elections in Maharashtra for three
consecutive terms.
Up-gradation of PWD
He undertook the project to computerize all activities in the
department of PWD. He ordered complete replacement of furniture,
fixtures and office equipments with trendy ones and imposed MNC
similar codes for the department and its employees.[citation needed]
Support for privatization
He showed strong support for privatization when he campaigned for
investment in the infrastructure areas from private firms. He
addressed several meetings between private investors, contractors,
builders and various trade organizations and diverted large amounts of
budgeted projects towards privatization. He managed to convince the
state to allocate Rs. 700 Crores for rural connectivity. In the next
four years, 98% of the total population of Maharashtra achieved all-
weather road connectivity. It also helped to solve the malnutrition
problems prevailing in remote Melghat-Dharni area of Amravati district
which previously had no access to medical aid, ration or educational
facilities. The project aimed to connect 13736 remote villages which
remained unconnected since independence by road.
Establishment of MSRDC
Gadkari pushed for time bound completion of projects. He established
Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), a fully
government-owned company which undertook construction of 55 flyovers
in Mumbai alone costing 1500 crores. Mumbai-Pune Expressway was
another project constructed by MSRDC during his tenure.
For the first time MSRDC a Govt. owned company went to the capital
market and raised Rs. 1180 crores which was the largest collection in
the Capital Market history of India. CRISIL gave an AAA rating to
MSRDC.
He appointed a committee to help adopt and acquire technology and
tools of international standards in construction of buildings and
bridges and changed the existing bridge codes. The contractors thus
imported computerized machinery worth 400 Crores like Vibrating
rollers, electronic sensors, Paving machines, Pilling rigs, Pre-fab
technique, etc. which were commissioned to be used for the first time
in India.
Chairman of NRRDC
Union Government appointed him as Chairman of National Rural Road
Development Committee. After series of meetings and study, Shri
Gadkari submitted the report to central Govt. and gave the
presentation to Hon. Prime Minister of India. His report was accepted
and a new rural road connecting scheme now popularly known as Pradhan
Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana was launched. The ambitious scheme is of Rs.
60,000 Crores.
Other works during his tenure
He appointed a committee to study the accident-prone spots on the
roads of Maharashtra and implemented committee suggestions with the
budgetary provision of 20 crores.
Gadkari promised and completed the pledge of completing the Sagri Marg
which was a long awaited dream of the people of Konkan region in four
years of his regime.
Gadkari formulated the scientific methodology of BOT projects,
initiated traffic surveys, worked out IRR (Internal rate of return)
and made the govt. of maharashtra change the concession period of toll
policy.
During recession, he channeled 5000 crore into infrastructural
projects which strengthened the cement, steel and bitumen industry of
India.
Gadkari implemented self-employment scheme for civil Engineers which
enabled 18,000 Engineers to work independently.
He organized the great plantation drive in Nagpur which planted 40
lakh trees in 2 years. He aimed to make Nagpur the Greenest City in
India.
He has visited countries like Israel, Italy, France, Germany, United
Kingdom, Switzerland, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia,
United States, Canada, Brazil and Srilanka as part of the Indian
Delegation for MSSIDC, MSRDC, Govt. of Maharashtra and Govt. of
India.
Positions served in the past and serving
Nitin Gadkari in NagpurEx Minister, Govt of Maharashtra
Chairman, Purti Group of Companies
President, Bharatiya Janata Party, Maharashtra State[6]
Ex-Leader of Opposition, Maharashtra Legislative Council
Former Minister for Public Works Department, Maharashtra State
Member of Legislative Council, Maharashtra State
Elected to the Maharashtra Govt. Legislative Council in 1989 from
graduates constituency, Nagpur Region.
Re-elected in 1990.
Re-elected in 1996 and elected unopposed in 2002.
Inducted in the Maharashtra State Government Cabinet as the Minister
for Public Works on May 27, 1995.
Ex-Member of the High Power Committee for Privatisation, Government of
Maharashtra.
Ex-Chairman, Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, India.
Ex-Guardian Minister for Nagpur District, Govt. of Maharashtra.
Ex-Chairman, Mining policy Implementation Committee, Govt. of
Maharashtra.
Ex-Chairman, Metropolis Beautification Committee, Govt. of
Maharashtra.
Ex-Leader of Opposition, Maharashtra Legislative Council, Chairman
National Rural Road Development Committee
Chairman, Review Committee of CPWD, Govt. of India.
State President of Bhartiya Janata Party, Maharashtra.
After a successful stint as PWD Minister, Gadkari took over as
President of the Maharashtra State Unit of the BJP in 2004. In 2009,
when the BJP National President Rajnath Singh's term ended in
December, Gadkari succeeded him as the youngest ever President of BJP.
Industrial career
Nitin Gadkari is an industrialist first and then a politician.[7] He
is known to control these establishments in the following way.
Poly sack Industrial Society Ltd - Founder and Chairman. Nikhil
Furniture and Appliances Pvt. Ltd - Promoter and Director. Antyodaya
Trust - Founder and Member. Empress Employees Co-operative Paper Mills
Ltd - Founder and Chairman.
Gadkari is also an agriculturist. He has promoted and has interests in
the fields of water management, solar energy Projects and use of
modern tools in agriculture. Recently, he started exporting fruits to
various countries under the banner Ketaki overseas Trading Company.
Awards
He was honoured by Mumbai Bhushan Award and was felicitated by various
organizations in Mumbai.
References
^ Rajnath steps down, Gadkari takes over as BJP president
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Rajnath-steps-down-Gadkari-takes-over-as-BJP-president/articleshow/5356182.cms
^ BJP's new chief seen as moderniser http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/bjps_new_chief_seen_as_moderniser.php
^ Former carpet boy as new ‘carpetbagger’ - Indian Express
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/former-carpet-boy-as-new-carpetbagger/541881/0
^ http://www.nagpuronline.com/news/news.asp?nsr=42 Kanchan Gadkari,
wife of State President BJP Nitin Gadkari
^ Gadkari emerges as front-runner for post
^ BJP official site http://www.bjp.org/content/view/2613/463/
^ Gadkari views politics as an instrument of reforms to change the
lives of poor
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Rajnath-steps-down-Gadkari-takes-over-as-BJP-president/articleshow/5356182.cms
External links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitin_Gadkari
Former carpet boy as new ‘carpetbagger’
Vivek Deshpande
Posted: Monday , Nov 16, 2009 at 0236 hrs
Nagpur:
OpportunityDon’t Glorify NaxalismRole-Model MPs, MLAs!Vehicle called
Life In a deeply divided party, Nitin Gadkari stands out for his
relative youth, administrative and organisational skills, networking
abilities, non-controversial image and, most importantly, his
proximity to the RSS. As the likelihood of his taking over as BJP
president grows stronger, an introduction to the man who few, until
now, had known outside Maharashtra
Twenty-five years ago, a young man living a stone’s throw away from
the RSS headquarters in Nagpur’s old-fashioned Mahal locality would
ride his Lambretta scooter to the city’s newspaper offices, handing
over press statements and meeting journalist friends. He was among the
ordinary workers who would actually lay down carpets at what was then
the Jan Sangh party’s programmes.
Much water has flown down Nagpur’s Nag river since. Now 52, Nitin
Jairam Gadkari, MCom, LLB, has long ceased to courier press
statements. He issues them now. His journalist friends call on him at
his residence or office. And as it now appears more and more certain,
the man who once laid carpets at party functions could possibly find
himself walking the red carpet as the BJP’s new president next month.
Even as the BJP struggles to cope with its political downslide and
intra-party chaos, Gadkari’s sudden foray to the party’s top echelons
has surprised many. In fact, many in the party here had until two
months ago dismissed the reports as baseless. But as the weak
possibility has turned into a strong probability, party leaders have
started admitting that Gadkari’s ‘qualifications’ for the party post
are not to be scoffed at, including his age, administrative and
organisational skills, his non-controversial image and most
importantly his proximity to the RSS, which is intervening like never
before to revamp the crisis-ridden BJP.
“He fulfils all that and also has dynamism required for the top post,”
says Devendra Fadnavis, the party’s South-West Nagpur MLA and a highly
respected legislator. “Also, he is a good orator and is comfortable
with all three languages — Marathi, Hindi and English,” he adds.
Another senior party leader Madhav Bhandari echoes similar views. “He
has proved his organisational and administrative skills beyond doubt.
His performance as PWD minister during which he built 55 flyovers in
Mumbai and roads all over the state, as also his stint as chief of the
infrastructure committee appointed by then prime minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee have made him known across the country,” Bhandari says.
Gadkari’s performance as PWD minister during the Sena-BJP’s 1995-99
regime won him plenty of kudos, with people as diverse as Amitabh
Bachchan and Ratan Tata showering lavish praise. As minister, Gadkari
was known to favour quick results rather than going strictly by the
book, often telling his officers to get cracking and not to cite rules
and regulations as excuses. One of the main architects of the Pradhan
Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana, he was also the first minister to initiate
PWD works on Build-Operate-Transfer basis — then criticised as a sell-
off to private contractors and later adopted by his own critics in the
Opposition as the ideal model of development.
Bhandari also lists his urban, middle-class appeal as one of his
strengths. “Today, more than 40 per cent of India is urban and more
than 50 per cent is middle-class. So, it is important to appeal to
them,” he adds.
The huge crowds Gadkari pulled across Vidarbha for his academic
presentations last year on Vidarbha’s development plans would even put
election rallies to shame. Over 50,000 people had turned up in Nagpur.
Gadkari’s organisational skills cut across various parties, something
Gadkari often praises NCP supremo Sharad Pawar for. No wonder then if
he has tried to model his political career on that of Pawar — building
on BJP workers’ networks, running a sugar mill and having friends in
every party.
He also befriended Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray,
looking at the possibility of MNS support being needed in the post-
election scenario in Maharashtra recently. But this is not frowned
upon by the RSS. “In fact, it’s good to be politically smart. We don’t
consider it as a bad thing,” said a senior RSS leader.
It was this quality that helped Gadkari to get some prominent
Republican Party leaders like Jogendra Kawade and Sulekha Kumbhare to
support BJP early this year. His political openness led him to attempt
a compromise between two Thackeray cousins — Raj and Uddhav —to avert
the electoral disaster and even develop ties with Raj Thackeray for
possible post-election support.
However, not everyone approves. “Friendships across parties often
impede his campaigns. Be it Telgi, wheat import or his diatribe
against Vilasrao Deshmukh for giving some contracts, many of his
campaigns have finally petered out,” said a party leader who spoke on
condition of anonymity.
Gadkari has often been accused of hobnobbing with Opposition leaders
during elections, particularly the Congress’s Satish Chaturvedi in
Central Nagpur, which houses the all-important RSS headquarters. The
saffron alliance never won a battle there before the 2009 Assembly
elections. But with the party’s lesser-known Krishna Khopde
registering a massive win over Chaturvedi, Gadkari stands vindicated.
His friendships have also helped cocoon Gadkari from possible crises.
In the ongoing Yogita Thakre case — the seven-year old girl found dead
in a car in the courtyard of Gadkari’s Gadkariwada residence here —
the entire Opposition has been surprisingly silent and has shied away
from taking political advantage. Even before anything could be proved
either way, then home minister Jayant Patil gave him a clean chit in
the Assembly.
His admirers may be calling him “non-controversial”, but Gadkari has
been through his share of sticky situations. His Purti Sugar
Industries was embroiled in a controversy for not selling power to the
state electricity board as is obligatory. Gadkari preferred selling it
to private companies.
Eyebrows were also raised a few years ago when his journalist-turned-
advisor friend Prakash Deshpande died mysteriously after falling from
a train compartment while on his way from Mumbai to Nagpur.
Speculation that linked the incident to the large amounts of party
funds Deshpande was allegedly carrying, subsided eventually.
And for all his effective networking, Gadkari has detractors within
the BJP too. His uncomfortable relationship with party general
secretary Gopinath Munde is no secret. How will Munde respond if and
when Gadkari dons the mantle of party leadership? “What choice does he
have than to fall in line? In politics, you can’t throw tantrums too
often,” said a senior Congress leader known for his understanding of
political undercurrents in Maharashtra.
But Gadkari has been compared unfavourably with Munde, particularly in
terms of mass appeal. “Today Gadkari is taking over as state party
president, but Munde is our mass leader and he will stage a comeback,”
late Pramod Mahajan had openly declared in Yavatmal three years ago
when Gadkari took over as state party chief from Munde, Mahajan’s
brother-in-law.
Today, Gadkari has not only stabilised as state chief but is now being
viewed as the top contender to head the party at the national level.
“He has proved the post-Mahajan fear that the BJP will be in tatters
in Maharashtra wrong. The BJP has gained an edge over Sena by winning
more seats in these elections,” Bhandari says.
Over the years, Gadkari has successfully put his Maharashtrian Brahmin
tag behind. The only election he has till date fought, and has always
won, is that of Nagpur Graduate constituency seat for Legislative
Council. It has led to sneers that he isn’t a mass leader who could
win direct elections. Gadkari always laughs it off.
For now, however, he is said to be the RSS’s chosen one for the top
BJP job. So, how will he deliver when he suddenly finds himself above
a battery of senior party leaders? For this Gadkari’s cryptic reply
is: “I am ready deliver whatever the party wants me to.”
Where Gadkari scores points
Is regarded as being an effective, politically astute performer in his
stint as the BJP’s state unit chief.
His performance as PWD minister during which he built 55 flyovers in
Mumbai and roads all over the state, as also his stint as chief of the
infrastructure committee appointed by the then prime minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee cemented his reputation of having excellent
administrative and organisational skills.
Gadkari has the implicit support of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, whose
views he has echoed on a number of issues. His age, 52, is also in
keeping with the RSS sarsanghchalak’s call for younger leadership.
His urban, middle-class appeal is viewed as one of his major
strengths, as are his oratorical skills.
His ability to nurture friendships across party lines has worked to
his advantage, despite criticism from a section of the party’s
leaders.
Comments (3) |
Wrong choice?
By: Aditya | 20-Dec-2009
Nitin Gadkari might be a poor choice, what with the cloud of the
Yogita Thakre case over him. What will it mean for the BJP? A non
controversial candidate, who is respected by all should have been
chosen. Perhaps Advani should have been elevated to the post again.
carpet-ignorance
By: midas | 16-Nov-2009
Agree with Sumir Sharma. Both author and the editorial staff seem
unaware of the meaning of the word "carpetbeggar".
Carpetbaggers carry wrong connotation and historically not fits
here.
By: Sumir Sharma | 16-Nov-2009
I am sorry to say that the Carpetbagger reference if it is taken from
American History does not convey any relevance. Carpetbaggers during
the reconstruction period in post Civil War period in America were
from North States who shifted to South States to take the benefit of
the new right of franchise to black to again access to legislatures in
South States. I do not how Deshpande has found the relevance for
Gadkari. It is hostrically wrong use of a term. Carpetbaggers carries
negative connotation. The people who helped Carpetbaggers to run
elections in South and they were from South, were called Scalawags
which is another derogatory and abusive term. Carpetbaggers are
accused of increasing corruption. They represented Radicals as well as
Abolitionists. Therefore, the term carries negative connotation
whereas the article presents Gadkari in positive colour. Are to
praising him or decrying him ?
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/former-carpet-boy-as-new-carpetbagger/541881/0
bademiyansubhanallah
Friday, March 26, 2010, 11:57 [IST]
By: Joginder Tuteja, Bollywood Hungama
He's known as King Khan of Bollywood and is one of India's hottest
actors and producers. Shahrukh Khan, the global superstar explains why
the time has come for developing nations like India to assert
themselves internationally, discusses the furore surrounding the
premiere of his film My Name is Khan and talks about his hopes for his
Kolkata Knight Riders team in this season's Indian Premier League.
up!It's fantastic to have you on the show, you are easily Bollywood's
biggest star these days. For those watching it might have seemed easy.
You are so big they call you King Khan. Is this the way you saw you
life panning when you started off as an actor?
Not at all, I still don't believe it. I still think it's like a dream.
But when I started off, I never thought I would do anything else but
wake up in the morning and work. But the only thing that's added to
it, and I tell this to everyone, is that I still wake up in the
morning and work but the only odd thing my kids find is that I'm a man
and I wear make-up.
We're doing this interview at your house and there are often throngs
of fans waiting outside trying to get a glimpse of you. As they wait
to see what crumb you might throw them, is that kind of a weird
feeling - the immense scrutiny that you get.
I feel very embarrassed and odd. I don't even call them fans. I think
they are people who appreciate what I do. My wife tells me on the
weekends, especially because there's a crowd - a thousand people
outside. So I go for five minutes and wave, then the cops get very
angry because the traffic stops so they shout at me. So I'm really
embarrassed. I feel really odd but I think when people come to visit
me at house then I should be sort of kind to them and say hello to
them. The scrutiny part, there was a time, I have a sense of humour
and my family feels I should stop it because it's gets me into
trouble. I say things and maybe people don't understand it or they
give me more importance than to think, I am flippant. I should not be
flippant. I should be more serious. But I feel I've never been like
that and I just want to have fun and say things that are easy going
but many a time, it's not taken like this and everything is
scrutinized.
One of things that got you a lot of headlines recently was that as
Muslims it was shame that the IPL hadn't picked up any Pakistani
players for this season and you own an IPL team, The Kolkata Knight
Riders. Your comments caused an absolute firestorm particularly with
Hindu Nationalists, did you anticipate the furore those words would
cause.
You know I did say in the interview, you know I do hope I don't get
into trouble for saying this before I said that. But I didn't think it
would go to this extent. It became strange. Strange things were said.
And I said "the bottom line in my country is that, there is a certain
amount of freedom of speech which we also restrain unto. We are not
completely outspoken, we don't do strange things - at least I don't
and most of the people I know, don't. So there's freedom of speech.
This was my point of view.
They were burning effigies of you in the streets, some people I mean,
people are absolutely going nuts about you.
Some guy had a slipper in his hands and was hitting poster. I want to
find him. I want to meet up with him. He should try it when I'm
standing in front. Not on a piece of paper.
The main Hindu Nationalist party, Shiv Sena, obviously took what you
had to say extremely badly, they were the ones who campaigned against
at this time and threatened to disrupt the premiere of your movie My
Name Is Khan. Were you worried at all about the safety of yourself and
you family and your fans?
I'll be honest. I know Balasaheb Thackeray very well. He's also been
very gracious to me. I know Uddhav Thackeray, he's been very helpful.
I know them very well. We've never had ... and I've said this many
times...
The top level of the Shiv Sena...
They meet me, I go over to their house, they're really gracious and
wonderful with me, and we've never had ideological discussions, maybe
they have a different ideology for the party that they run, but I'm
not a political person so we've never sat down and "so, why is it
like..", so we've never had this discussion. If there was genuinely a
misunderstanding about what I said, which is quite possible, pick up
the phone and I'd explain it, it would have been "oh, okay, that's
what you meant? Sorry. We thought you meant this. You don't mean
that." That's the way it should have been but I just think it became
bigger than the personal relationship we share.
Your team the Kolkata Knight Riders hasn't had a terrible successful
track record in the past couple of years, what do you think are the
prospects for it to do better this time around?
The thing that I say, you've been very kind when you say they haven't
been doing very well. The first thing - and I'm a little philosophical
about this - is that I have to accept and the team has to accept, the
truth is we haven't done well at all. We've accepted that. The second
part is, it's very easy to do better when you're in the eighth
position with only eight teams you can't go worse than this. So we are
going to do better. I think what we tried to do is get the Indian part
of the team stronger. I think the senior guys like Ishant and Ganguly,
they just need to get into the groove. I think the main thing the
coach and Dada have brought in this time is the fact we training the
young guys just to make them enjoy themselves. 20/20 needs to be
enjoyed, when you see a Matthew Hayden play, he's enjoying himself. I
sense that. You have to enjoy it. You can't just have the test match
pressure on your head. Or the one-day pressure on your head. You need
to go and enjoy yourself. Have a good time. So yesterday when the team
was leaving, somebody turned around, one of the managers and said we
have to win only seven or eight and if we only lose five. And I said
we can't lose anymore. We've lost too many. We've lost for the next
four years. So I think we'll do better. I think we will do much better
this year.
Let's discuss movies now, and specifically My Name Is Khan in which
you play an autistic Muslim in America post 9/11. The film's done
great and particularly well in Islamic countries, is that your
intention. Were you trying to appeal to most of the Muslim audience?
The fact that, you said it so well and it was a convoluted plot, an
autistic Muslim man in America post 9/11, when you put it so simply it
sounds so complicated. No, you make a film, normally for a universal
audience, the kind of films that I do especially I would like everyone
to see them. Within them, I'll try to put in something different that
appeals maybe, if you do hockey, maybe the hockey guys and girls will
like it more. You do it about a bad guy recently, so when you do that
thing and the youngsters like all the bad stuff, cool stuff. So, they
like it. But the intention was never like that. I do remember the
wonderful distributor Fox, they were going to say we'll release in
UAE, and we'll release it in Morocco like this, and Indonesia and
Malaysia and I said "why are they doing it so specifically". Maybe
they understood the spot much better than we did because yes, it's
record breaking in the Muslim countries, I never thought it would have
been like that. I really thought the film was about humanity.
Yeah, this was the latest collaboration between you and director Karan
Johar, you've worked together on countless movies but you're also best
mates away from the set. What is it do you think that some sort of
magic formula you have seems that helps you two work together so well?
I think the first thing is that's trust. I gave him a book the
"Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night" and I said you should make
a film with a little kid who's autistic and a story of a father and a
son. Obviously assuming if you took me as a father and a little child
who's autistic. And then he came up with the script with me as
autistic with this whole plot. And I'm like "this is a little strange"
because when you make a film with me, as far as Karan and me are
concerned, we normally make a little more commercially viable films.
But he said no, this is what I want to do. So I trust him, I trust him
completely.
One of the things that got a lot of publicity for the movie was when
you were detained by US immigration which in a way which mirrors a
scene in My Name Is Khan when you say "my name is Khan and I'm not a
terrorist" to have it play out like that in real life, there was a lot
of press on it, what was it like from your standpoint?
It happens to me every month, whenever I travel to the western world
because of the name. But it's not only me. There are another 75 people
in that line. It happens to my kids. And I say this again and again. I
have no issue. I have no issue with it personally because this is the
world that we have created. This is how it is. I think what happened
that day was that it took a little longer. This was at the immigration
for the first time - normally it happens at the security. I think the
processes just went wrong and it took a couple of hours. I had to call
the Indian Consulate because I had a meeting in Atlantic City, if I
got caught up here, there was no point me going all the way to
America. So I asked "can you get me out of here", so I think it just
went out to the press and we have reached a stage in India and I think
rightly so, when a developing nation is on the threshold on coming out
and Inshallah taking over the whole world - in terms of economics, in
terms of politics, in terms of business, I think certainly we have a
voice. We've been pushed, all developing nations, I'm not just saying
India and suddenly we have a voice in the world which matters and
sometimes that voice is a little louder than it should be. So anytime
anything goes wrong with Indians anywhere in the world, you notice all
Indians get up. Not on the outside. It happened when the Shiv Sena
thing happened - all the Indians came and said "no, this is wrong".
I'm really glad we have a voice like that, and that's what happened
"they stopped Shah Rukh, how dare they" and I was joking about it
until about half a day actually, and I even joked that when the
American Hollywood actresses come that I should be given the right to
frisk them in India. I want to be the first guy. It's only fair.
You did say you wanted My Name is Khan to be a global hit like Slumdog
Millionaire. You could have been in Slumdog Millionaire. You got
offered the role of the quiz show host but you turned it down and Anil
Kapoor got it. Do you beat yourself over that decision?
No, I really wanted that film to be made. I'd read the Indian novel.
I'd bought it. I wanted to make it myself but an Indian film. When I
read the script, I knew they'd made a much better film than I could
ever.
Why didn't you want part of that fantastic film then?
One, I'm not offered many great films; honestly, I don't have an agent
for stuff in the west. Also, I'd hosted "Who Wants To Be A
Millionaire". Here the host was a bit of a fixer. I only fixed "Who
Wants to be a Millionaire" in a way that I felt bad for the people and
I'll like "listen why don't you retire now, don't don't, this looks
like a difficult question. So you've got half a million dollars, go
back relax" then they say "no we want to play" and I'm like "can we go
for a break". I used to feel really bad and I'm not allowed to say
anything but I know this question's a little difficult young man. So,
I just felt that I had so much fun doing it personally that I didn't
want to be on the side where I take the guy into the loo and say "I
can fix this for you". I didn't want to be the bad guy because I won't
do it like that.
http://entertainment.oneindia.in/bollywood/interviews/2010/shahrukh-khan-interview-260310.html
C paves way for Muslim quota
25/03/2010 12:15:02 Pioneer News Service | New Delhi
Upholds 4% reservation in AP, for now
Constitution Bench to take final call
Paving the way for religion-based reservation, the Supreme Court on
Thursday upheld a decision by the Andhra Pradesh Government giving
four per cent reservation in jobs and educational institutions to 14
Muslim groups coming under socially and educationally backward
classes.
The legislation under challenge — the Andhra Pradesh Reservation — in
favour of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes of Muslims Act,
2007, was struck down by the AP High Court on February 8 this year
following which the State Government had rushed to the apex court for
stay of the order.
In the first 14 categories, names of specific Muslim groups were added
as beneficiaries under the Act but the last item on the list for
reservation included “Other Muslim Groups” excluding Saiyed, Mughal,
Pathans, Irani, Arab, Bohara, Shia Imami Ismaili, Khoja, Cutchi-Memon,
Jamayat, and Navayat.
Suggesting a middle path, the Bench of Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan,
Justices JM Panchal and BS Chauhan allowed the Act to continue with
regard to 14 groups while withdrawing benefit to the last category
comprising “any other” Muslim groups. The Bench posted the State’s
appeal along with related petitions for further hearing in August
before a Constitution Bench. In providing this interim concession, the
Bench maintained that the creamy layer among the 14 groups would be
excluded.
For the State Government, the decision has come as a partial relief.
Attorney General Goolam E Vahanvati, who appeared for the AP
Government, had sought stay of the high court order in whole to ensure
the Act was implemented with regard to all 15 categories. Vahanvati
sought to clear the apprehension that only Muslims would be benefited
since the Act specifically excluded 10 categories of Muslims from the
ambit of reservation. At the same time, he pointed out the example of
Kerala and Karnataka where Muslim community as a whole was considered
as a backward class.
Senior advocate K Parasaran, also appearing for the State Government,
stated that just because the groups belong to the Muslim community,
they do not cease to be backward. For 60 years, he added, the benefits
of reservation did not reach them and it was time to correct the
situation now, or keep them in the same backward state for years to
come.
Prior to passing the legislation in 2007, the Government constituted
an independent commission headed by retired IAS officer PS Krishnan on
whose recommendations the 14 categories of Muslims were identified as
socially and educationally backward.
But senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the petitioners,
submitted that the legislation was nothing but a “thinly disguised
form of religion-based reservation.” He wondered the need for the
State to include “any other Muslims” as a separate category when 14
categories were found eligible as backward classes.
The Bench, impressed by Salve’s contentions, said, “There is no
denying that backwards are not there among Muslims. If we allow this
to continue they will be denied of benefits due to them.” Passing its
order, the Bench noted that in the meantime the State Backwards
Commission could continue their exercise of identification.
Salve, however, reminded the court that on previous occasions, the
Supreme Court and High Court had consistently maintained the stand to
deny reservation to Muslims. The first occasion was in the year 2004
when the State Government issued a Government Order dated July 12,
2004 providing five per cent reservation to the entire Muslim
community in the State. It was struck down by a larger Bench of the AP
High Court in the absence of any criteria laid down for ascertaining
backwardness. The Supreme Court upheld the High Court order.
Almost a year later, the State Government brought out an ordinance
providing five per cent reservation to the entire Muslim community
treating them as a backward class. A five-judge Bench of the AP High
Court struck down the law as unconstitutional since the same was
treated to benefit the Muslim community as a whole, without there
being any identification by the Backward Classes Commission. The apex
court is still seized of the appeal challenging this order, when the
AP Government chose to enact the 2007 legislation presently under
challenge.
Sunil
26/03/2010 12:22:43 It is very sad !!.
why is the opposition BJP sitting quite..??i just saw one small
statement by BJP spokeperson after the verdict was announced....where
is the RSS and VHP and other Hindu organisation..??are they
sleeping..??why are they not protesting..??why are they not asking for
reservation for MINORITY Hindus in Kashmir..??If we dont react
now...very soon we'll be in minority in rest of the states as
well..next in the list will be Kerala, Assam,and other north eastern
states...we should be very much aware of things that is happening
around us..for eg..how many of us know that in Kerala 12% of jobs are
reserved for Muslims..??(talking abt the youger generation who doesn
know what all are happening)...now we take it so lightly...once the
muslims become a majority does anyone think that they will return the
favour..???Does anyone think that muslims will give reservation to
Hindus..??If anyone thinks like that..they are absolutely wrong...I'm
sure many Hindu brothers will be thinking like that...why wait for
that..??Dont you all think Prevention is better than cure..??So lets
attack it now..else later it will attack us..
skg
26/03/2010 11:39:27 It is very sad !!.
It is very sad and depressing to see the judgement of the Supreme
court. First of all, the ruling by Supreme court has ignored major
facts. How can they just find ground facts in just 3 hours of
discussion ?. Why was there a haste in allowing 4% reservations ?. Who
will lead the constitutional bench ?. Will take into consideration all
the facts before giving the final verdit ?. Why are these 14 groups
not added to the BC commission ?. Who suppressed the voice of BC
commission ?.
Suresh Iyer
26/03/2010 10:13:57 Shortlived euphoria
Just two weeks back, HK readers rejoiced over the AP HC decision to
overturn the communal reservation.Now the same bogus constitution is
interpreted differently by a higher court.It reminds one of the
various interpretation of Koran.Court verdicts are becoming a lottery
for the public.This is antoher proof of this country being a banana
republic.Generally our courts are famous for delays in giving
verdicts.But just the see the speed at which the SC gave a hearing for
this case. It clearly shows the hidden hands.
M.N.S.Nampoothiripad
26/03/2010 04:36:06 Communal Bench decides before the Constitution
Bench is constituted
This is ridiculous. The pertinent issues involved are to be decided by
the constitution bench. Then why should a communal bench hurry to
declare the Andhra Act valid? In another case relating to M.F.Hussain,
the chief justice remarked that Hussain is free to come to India at
any time and nobody can prevent him. Hussain is Qatari citizen now and
he needs a valid India visa to visit this country. K.G. Balakrishnan
is fooling millions of law abiding citizens of this nation by
rendering such perverted remarks and judgements.
Abhilash Nambiar
26/03/2010 02:02:03 Lost respect
Today I have lost respect for the Supreme Court of India.
Ram
25/03/2010 21:50:18 Self imposed backwardness
If the Muslims let their womenfolk go for higher education, then it
would be good for the country. It will help good new generation of
Muslim children who have a balanced view of the world. The
backwardness of Muslims is mostly "self imposed". For the women
reservation bill, the opposition came from the orthodox muslims as
they want to continue the saudi arabian system of preventing women
from knowing worldly things. Education alone can remove the
fundamentalist mindset of Muslims, who don't encourage rational
questions and accept whatever that is imposed on them.
Narendran
25/03/2010 21:47:35 Clever Ploy?
This case was argued by:
1.Adv. Vhanavati- Solicitor Genereal for AP Govt
2. Adv. K Parasaran- For a party suppporting the reservation
3. Adv. Harish Salve- Lawyer for those opposed the reservation.
There is a clear ploy in this case. This is a ground work for
extending resevations for the so callled Dalit Christians. It is clear
strategy to make India a Christian majority by 2050. It will be
impossible for India to remain as a united country by 2030. With the
current religious strife, there is every chance that the country will
be split into many independent nations unless it get an impartial
leader to govern.
Vijayalakshmi
25/03/2010 21:01:54 SCpaves way for muslim quota.
Whatever may be the arguments, religion and caste-based reservations
are discriminatory against the rest of the Indians, and will encourage
conversions.We need better lawyers to argue our case effectively. Only
economic criterion and merit should be considered for
reservation.Otherwise India will disintegrate.This is the agenda of
the anti-national mafia which is pressing for such discriminatory
reservations.
Karthik
25/03/2010 20:26:22 Akhand Pakistan dream becoming true ?
In making this Akhand Pakistan dream of Muslims come true, traitors
with Hindu names are playing an important role. Retd. IAS officer PS
Krishnan , Goolam E Vahanvati, K Parasaran etc. are all Pakistanis and
not Hidustanis anymore. Let patriotic Hindus identify such traitors
within the Hindu community. Francois Gautier is right when he says
'The greatest enemy of a Hindu is a Hindu'. Hey Alert Hindus, please
stop giving alms to Muslim beggars. Sachar and Ranganath Mishra will
take care of them. Reservations on the basis of the religion is
unconstitutional and the Supreme Court has acted unconstitutionally by
upholding 4% reservations for Muslims. Whats wrong if the common Hindu
unconstitutionally practices untouchability towards the Muslim
community ? Afterall Muslims are doing the same to Hindus by calling
them Kafirs, right? So one of my Hindu friend gave me a chocolate made
in Dubai. After he left I threw that into Dustbin!
mgd
25/03/2010 20:40:56 every Hindu caste is a minority
This kind of thing will go on forever. The definition of minority
should include every hindu caste which is a minority vis-a-vis the
entire Hindu religion.
Ganesh
25/03/2010 20:21:24 free for all laws
The mention of 14'groups' is a euphemism for castes in the muslim
community.It is now clear that muslims in india were converts and are
carrying the caste tag even now. This system is against the very
tenets of islam.Can any Islamic cleric or leader define what this
'group 'means?.All those utopian idea of casteless relegion is a
farce.I think the khangress must have offered some relief from
declaration of assets by the SC judges in return for this minority
appeasement verdict.I only hope that there is now a thin streak of
light at the end of the tunnel.The hindus must try and cause
infighting between muslims who are granted reservation and those who
are outside it.
vinu
25/03/2010 19:58:58 ppl who deserves never gets, others always gets
ppl who deserves never gets reservation.crores of ppl below the
poverty line still dont have access to basic needs, ruling authorities
make sure that they remain like that.The affluent vote bank based
communities get all that is needed in the name of vote bank. Happens
only in our country..!!
skg
25/03/2010 17:58:34 Congress party will misuse these reservations !!.
God knows how the backwardness is identified in the Muslim community.
Clearly there is no transparency on how they identified the
Backwardness in the Mulsim community. Also, no body know why other
Muslim category was present in the Bill. Intelligent Hindus and
attorneys dig into this bill and expose Congress government and bring
to attention to the supreme court of the consequences of extending
resrervations to Muslim community. Don't know why Dr.Ambedkar had
excluded them from reservations . There must be a reason why Ambedkar
must have excluded them. It is pathetic that sufficient arguments and
awareness is missing about this in the Hindu community.
http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=10711&SKIN=B
Anti Hindu Hate Groups in America
12/12/2008 12:57:33
Dr. BABU SUSEELAN
Opposition to Hindus is nothing new in America. For several years
Hindus were denied immigration by American law. Despite the obstacles
posed by Christian Missionaries, Hindus were able to immigrate to
America during the presidency of Kennedy and Johnson. Hindu
organizations sprang up across the continent and slowly took root in
American society. It is significant that Hindu immigrants have worked
tirelessly and convinced American thinkers that spirituality is
essential for peace, freedom, harmony and coexistence.
Hindu Contribution to science, technology, economics, life sciences,
spirituality and freedom are innumerable. Devout Hindus have
strengthened the theories of pluralism, yoga, meditation, and the
management of human affairs in several ways. It represents a systemic
perspective against the naturally limited, historically conditioned
efforts of dogmatic ideology to conceive one model of living.
Hindu values keep Indians strong by binding us together. By committing
and
recommitting ourselves to our Dharma, we have forged a common Hindu
identity. It is what makes a Pluribus Unum “out of one"
possible?
Now several Hindu hate groups have appeared in different parts of
America
in new forms and with different disguises. India has never suffered
from a shortage of enemies in America. Recently, Fundamentalist
Evangelist groups, Indian Converted Christian Organizations, Fanatic
Indian Islamo Fascists, Indian Marxists anarchists posing as liberals,
and pseudo secular bigots have made an unholy alliance against India
and Hindus in America.
They have joined with anti Hindu fundamentalist groups to wage a
psychological warfare against peace loving, tolerant, spiritual,
pluralistic Hindus. Several anti Hindu fanatic groups such as American
Federation of Muslims of Indian Origin (AFMI), Association of Indian
Muslims of America (AIM), Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (CSFH),
Coalition Against Communalism (CAC), Federation of Indian American
Christian Organization of North America (FIACONA), Forum of Inquilabi
Leftists (FOIL), Indian Christian Forum (ICF), Indian Muslim
Educational Foundation of North America (IMEFNA), Indian Muslim
Council-USA (IMC-USA), Indian Muslim Relief and Charities (IMRC),
Muslim Youth Awareness Alliance (MYAA), South Asian
Collectives (SAC), South Asia Forum (SAF), and Supporters of Human
Rights in India (SHRI) are busy vulgarizing Hinduism. (The List is not
exhaustive).
These hate groups’ goal is unmistakably been Hindu bashing. They are
not honest critics working toward peace and positive values for
America. They are peddling lies,
half-truths, and false accusations in the guise of secularism.
What is going on? Why are Indian Converted Christians, fanatic Indian
Muslims and Communists betraying India? Instead of creating a positive
image, educating
Americans, promoting pluralistic, all inclusive Indian values, why are
they turning against Hindus and India? These converted Indian
Christians, Indian Muslims and Marxists have surrendered themselves to
rigid, non-compromising, reductionist, divisive, fundamentalist anti
Hindu ideology.
These sloppy anti-Hindu bigots suffer from thinking errors and take no
responsibility for their nefarious and erroneous actions. They behave
without moral conscience, guilt or remorse and they don’t want the
consequences of their action
known, and if it becomes known, they don’t want to take
responsibility.
They are well trained to do what they are told.
These Hindu bashers’ language, values, culture, and thinking have been
polluted through a denial of traditional Indian culture. In the mad
dash to escape from their all inclusive, open ended, universal
spiritual philosophy and freedom, that make up Indian heritage, these
converted Christians, Muslims and Marxists scoff at Indian cultural
values and ethics and become paranoid and psychotic in their attempt
to deal with their roots.
These anti Indian groups simply do not understand the result of their
own actions and do not stick around long enough to bear consequences.
These mischief mongers and miscreants in our midst seldom advocate
pluralism, tolerance, universalism or harmony or trying to move the
American society in that direction because they are slaves to
tyrannical, fundamentalist and conflicting ideologies.
It seems that a slow poison is running the veins of these people and
the anti-Hindu crap is just a small part of it. These Hindu bashers
are always seemed ready with excuses for Islamic terrorists,
missionary culture vultures and Marxist anarchists.
Every positive Social service by Hindu organizations is horrifying in
their eyes, a sign of bad conduct, and moral decay. It is as if Hindu
bashers of Indian origin have arrived at a kind of intellectual truth
with Islamic terrorists and the conversion gangs. It is as if they
have made accommodation with them.
Hindu bashers actually welcome news that makes Hindus and India bad.
They find pleasure and delight in vilifying India and Hindus. There
is no outrage from these Hindu bashers about Jihadi terrorism,
missionary mischief or Marxist violence.
While hiding behind tyrannical ideologies, these Hindu bashers in
America are playing with betrayal, denial, diversion, falsehood and
sophistry.
Are they aware of the social and political damage they have already
inflicted on India? Their actions against India and Hindus have no
moral sense, logic or common sense. Their recent letter to President
elect Obama exposes the fallacious and demeaning logic.
The unprecedented and recklessness of their letter is an alarmist
tactics of intimidation.
How did they get this way? Mindless missionaries have used deceptive
strategies to lure low
class, uneducated and poor Indians and freed them from their spiritual
tradition and enslaved them in rigid, fundamentalist and parochial
Christian dogma. Christian schools have indoctrinated them with closed
channel thinking and hostility towards Hindu pluralism, tolerance and
transcendental philosophy. They were brought to this country to serve
their slave masters. Islamo fascists and Marxists and the anti Hindu
pseudo secularists have made an unholy alliance against tolerant
Hindus and sacred Indian heritage.
These closed channel Hindu hate groups have a goal to insult, ridicule
and subvert American religious freedom. These Hindu hate groups are
mired in hostility and tyrannical ideologies. They will always see
India as immoral and dishonorable.
No matter how much Hindus and India do today, these hate groups prey
on American insecurities, ignorance and the gaps in their knowledge.
These Indian born maroons exploit American hopes and fears. In short,
these anti Hindu hate groups represent the ultimate in vanity and
betrayal.
true hindu
20/11/2009 02:50:10 put a blanket ban
Congrats to Dr Babu Suseelan for his excellent article. Let me tell
you that first of all Americans are excellent, kind , peace loving and
tolerant people . That is the reason , they allow all people across
the globe allowing to migrate and settle on their land. Be they from
Iraq, iran , Bangla desh .Pakistan ,Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan .
First of all why these hate mongers and pseudo secular bigots are
allowed to US or UK? .
One fellow here wrote that Islam is fastest spreading religion in USA.
Why is US Govt sleeping?. If Islam is allowed to take over in USA, I
think 2012 dooms day as said will happen to USA in nearest time. Why
are these mulsims not able to live in their own country ? Why are they
after US Visa and like to settle in US? Because they are
kicked ,caned , hanged , stoned like animals in their country as per
sharia law.
They are forbidden drinks, sex , free dom etc.,.In USA , you can do
any thing. But what these people are doing in a democratic country
like US? Building mosques , preaching hate religion, dividing people,
converting all innocent US citizens to islam and still doing all dirty
things which are forbidden in their religion. They are not faithful to
their host country.
Enjoying all facilities in london or Newyork, planning how to bomb or
kill kaffirs.India is also facing the same problem from centuries with
these cunning guys.Now Indian converted christians and muslims are
real culprits to malign our peace loving religion and India.USA must
put blanket ban on giving VISAs to Indian converted christians and
Muslims .
Raghavan V Nair
13/12/2008 09:29:37 ARE WE DESTINED TO BE LIKE THIS ?
Dear Dr.Babu Suseelan, You have brought forward yet another matter of
greater concern to Hindus. It is not surprising that the commies have
joined hands with Christian and Muslim groups in the US to malign the
Hindus. After over 61 years also, they could not be of any
significance in the country except the 4.5 years they lavished by
courtesy of Madam Gandhi. The situation in Gulf countries is in fact
the worst. In countries like Saudi Arabia, most jobs are reserved for
Muslims alone giving absolute leverage to them. On top of that, they
try their best to keep us aside and put in all efforts to project the
Hindus as enemies and Pakistanis as brothers. Babri Masjid demolition
and events in Gujarat they magnified and presented there in most
damaging way to project Hindus as brutes.
Undoutedly, the glaring examples of Hindu tolerance has been that even
after being subjected to such humiliation in Gulf, we are destined to
live with them in this country and accept that as fate and remain
content. But what are they doing? Earlier we suffered in the hands of
Muslim invaders who ruled this country until the British came in and
now they come in as terrorists. Earlier they divided this country in
the name of religion, and now they wish to further divide it into
pieces. Who is to be blamed for all these ? Only we!!
Sujit
13/12/2008 01:20:53 Plan positive actions to counter negativities
Dear Dr. Babu, You have inventoried the negative energies at play
against Hinduism. It is good to be aware of who are the ones working
against Hinduism. However, what is required is a set of positive
communication and social education strategies, coordinated by
different Hindu organisations, to counter these negativities. These
should include identifying (non-ethnic Indian) scholars of Hinduism,
Yoga, Ayurveda etc., to become spokespersons, dispelling
misconceptions about Hinduism, briefings about the essence of Hindu
view of life etc. Unless positive and non-competitive energies are
displayed, Hindus will not be able to gain the social/theological
acceptance of non-Hindus; particularly in a nation such as the US,
where very little about the outside world is known to the common
American.
Mohan
12/12/2008 23:16:07 Hindu haiter
Respected Babuji, I go through ur article from this site along with
various article posted by you on www.faithfreedom.org/com. No doubt
you are excellent writer like Francis Guitar of Frnace. It u are
absolutely right that, these fantic chrstians and muslim they never
treat this nation belongs to them. They always indulge all sort of
anti hindu bashing in every forum. Now a days it becames a trend under
this UPA govt. all most all important position held by the chrstians
and muslim. Take the example of Mrs.Ambica Soni( Chrstian), Jamir
(Chrstian), Samuel Reddy (CM of AP- 7th day avendist chrstian, Mr.Ajit
Jogi (Converted Chrstian), Ms.Jaya Prada, Jaya Sudha (Chrstians), I
dont have any idea about Mr.Amra Sing (he may be christian). Eminet
hindu haiter Sakel Ahemad (Home minister-State charges), Jai Prakash
Jaiswal-Hindu haiter from kanpur, Mr.Ahemad-IUML from Kerala, enire
Communist thugs. Apart from these hindus haiter our so clled beloved
CNN-IBN, NDTV, Star News and other english chenel. There must be total
ban on these english chennel. U see there reporting about mumbai
incident, now they are telling terroriesm have no relegion. But it has
relegion that is ISlam. Firther I would like to request Respected
Suselanji kindly expose Dr.Zakir Naik, torch bearer of Quran in every
forum. Since you are regular writer in the faithfreedom. Bande
Mataram.
Sakthi
12/12/2008 15:06:34 We all can help Please use this website..
Make Barack Obama aware of these things.. we dont have to wait for any
organisation each Hindu rather Indian visiting this website. Please
write their opinion at this website which directly accessed by The
President-elect..Next President of United States Sri Barack Obama!
Please do it immediately.
Register and have your views heard.. especially click on Join the
discussion.
http://change.gov/
and another website is
http://www.barackobama.com/index.php
menon
12/12/2008 11:30:45 Well explained
Awesome article. This is 100% treu. This is quite visible in America
these days. When the converted christians think west is their home
land, muslims think gulf is their home land.
Especially in USA according to an American web site, there are around
1 million Hindus and another 2 million is waiting to embrace Hindu.
This is alarmingly frustrating for the pseudo secularists.
When India is mentioned, Hindu is the first thing an American think. I
personally know americans who literally hate the converted christians
from India. There are many churches in USA which wouldn't even let
them come in. The christian groups were always have this feeling that
india's problems are not their problems.
Very unfortunate. But there seems to be a HIndu unity in USA and lots
of people working on this too.
Vijayan
12/12/2008 08:26:05 hindu hate groups
Excellent observations by Dr. Babu Suseelan.
If the hate groups can make it to actions, the Hindus have to react
too. Pleuralism has been the strength and the same time, made Hindus
less fanatic !!!!
Why cant the Hindus react and do the " fact finding" and " truth
exposing" missions ? If the hate groups are trying to influence the
administration in disguise, the Hindus should try to expose the truth
in open.
If we cannot do that, then we deserve all the humiliation and the
consequences
vijay
SeaLion
12/12/2008 05:04:23 These same evil
Vile, tyrannical, savage and barbaric inhuman Xian fascistic death
cult asuras, the worst of the evil , ARE NOW IN CAHOOTS IN INDIA WITH
OTHER EVILEST VILE FORCES LIKE THE ASURIC ISLAMOFASCISM AND COMMUNIST
DEMON BASTARDS, UNDER DEMENTED, NERO REGIME OF THE FOREIGN XIAN
MINDLESS. LOWLY IMPOSTER FROM ITALY AND HER XIAN BED....
IF IT IS CLOSELY OBSERVED THESE HATE GROUPS, SPECIALLY THE JIHADI AND
XIAN BARBARIAN ANIMALS ARE BEING FINANCED BY HINDU TAX MONEY OR LOOTER
XIAN MNC BUSINESSES, WITH TACIT SUPPORT OF EVIL MAINO XIAN BARBARIANS
ARE KNOWN DEMENTED DEBAUCHERS, THEY DO THE SAME TO ALL WHETHER JEWS,
RED INDIANS, MAORIS, ETC, BECAUSE OF THE EVIL BEAST, CMD OF MURDER INC
SITTING IN VATICAN.
WE "HAVE TO" HAVE TO" HAVE TO" REACT LIKE MUSLIMS, THESE XIANS AND
PSEUDOS DESRVE NO MERCY, WE HAVE TO TELL THEM INDIA IS FOR HINDUS AND
FOR THAT WE HAVE TO MAKE A NICE, GOOD EXAMPLE OF THIS MOST EVIL,
DEMENTED CHURCHOCRAZY MAFIA OF THE ITALIAN
"The devotee who forgoes the life-experiences of marriage and family,
and exchanges the problems of a small household and limited activities
for the larger responsibilities of service to society in general, is
undertaking a task which is often accompanied by persecution from a
misunderstanding world, but also by a divine inner contentment."
Paramahansa Yogananda
http://www.haindavakeralam.com/hkpage.aspx?PageID=7782&SKIN=W
Gomata protection gains momentum
26/03/2010 19:41:57 HARAN B R - Daily Pioneer
If success in banning cow slaughter is the litmus test of any BJP
regime’s commitment to Hindutva, the Yeddyurappa dispensation in
Karnataka has done well — but what would be its effect on the BJP’s
national image?
In its session, which ended last week, the Karnataka Assembly passed
the “Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Bill
2010” by voice vote amidst chaotic protests by the Opposition. It may
be recalled that the BJP government withdrew the already existing
“Karnataka Prevention of Cow Slaughter and Cattle Preservation Act
1964” days before introducing this new Bill. Though the government
didn’t cite any reasons for its withdrawal at the time, the Opposition
objected to in the anticipation that a new Bill would be introduced
with changes making it more stringent.
Under the new Bill, cow slaughter and transportation would attract
imprisonment ranging from one year to seven years and fine from Rs
25,000 to Rs 1,00,000, depending on the nature of the offence. Under
the previous Act of 1964, the slaughter of bulls, bullocks and adult
buffaloes was permitted on the basis of ‘fit-for-slaughter’
certificates, which were given only when the animals were over 12
years of age or permanently incapacitated for breeding, draught or
milk due to injury, deformity or other causes. Transportation for
slaughter outside the state was not permitted and sale, purchase or
disposal of cow or calf for slaughter was also banned. The offence was
considered cognizable and the penal provision was imprisonment up to
maximum of 6 months or fine of up to Rs 1,000 or both.
Karnataka has been ruled by the Congress and the Janata Dal for years
and their failure to prevent slaughter of cattle despite the 1964 Act
shows the ineffectiveness of the Bill as well as the incompetence of
those governments. In an era of corruption and inefficiency, it
becomes imperative to deal with offenders and criminals in a more
stringent manner to bring down the rate of crime and maintain law and
order.
The problem with the present Congress leadership is that it
deliberately disregards its own predecessors’ opinions. This aspect
was pointed out by chief minister Yeddyurappa, who recalled that
Indira Gandhi had written to the chief ministers in 1982 asking them
to ban cow slaughter and that
Jawaharlal Nehru had also advocated a ban on cow slaughter. Gandhiji,
in whose name the Congress does its political business, venerated,
worshipped and defended the cow calling it the
‘Mother of millions of mankind’. Gandhi termed cow protection as the
central fact of Hinduism.
Moreover, Article 48 (Organisation of Agriculture and Animal
Husbandry) of the Constitution says: “The State shall endeavour to
organise agriculture and animal husbandry on modern and scientific
lines and shall, in particular, take steps for preserving and
improving the breeds, and prohibiting the slaughter of cows and other
milch and draught cattle.”
Even as recently as October 2005, the Supreme Court upheld the
Constitutional validity of a Gujarat law imposing a complete ban on
slaughtering of bulls and bullocks, often misused to get around the
ban on slaughter of cows. Hence, the Bill introduced by the BJP
government and passed by the Assembly is constitutionally valid and
the Congress party’s comment that it is ‘unconstitutional’ is at the
most self-deception.
There is a tendency among ‘secular’ political parties and a section of
the mainstream media to project this issue as BJP’s ‘hidden’ and
‘communal’ agenda, while in fact this law is prevailing in almost all
the states except Kerala, West Bengal, Meghalaya and Nagaland. The
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 also plays a significant
role in this issue and the amendment brought in by Central Act 26 of
1982 has paved the way for the establishment of the ‘Animal Welfare
Board of India’, which does a decent job despite corruption, nepotism
and political interference.
The Congress has also harped on other phony issues saying that the act
will render thousands jobless, affect leather trade, etc. But, the
Congress failed to understand that the preservation of cattle will
improve agriculture, animal husbandry, dairy farms, and ecology and
socio-religious affairs. Cow protection as a policy would go a long
way in agricultural development, resulting in a flourishing village
economy. As India’s economy revolves around agriculture, cattle
welfare is fundamental to it. Cow-dung and cow-urine have medicinal
properties and they also act as manure helping the growth of crops as
well as preserving the richness of soil. It can also be used in the
production of electricity through gobar gas.
The protection of cow as a ‘Movement’ has been there for years and the
movement gained momentum during the time of Swami Dayananda Saraswati,
founder of Arya Samaj and took roots across the country. Most of the
freedom fighters wanted the cow slaughter banned. That is why the
Constituent Assembly made a separate Article (48) for this while
framing the Constitution.
Recently, the “Vishwa Mangal Gau Gram Yatra”, organised by the RSS and
affiliated organisations, toured the whole country in 108 days and
over 10,000 upyatras exhorted each and every village, city and street
of the country. Along with Hindus, Christians and Muslims too have
extended their support to the cause of cow protection. Thousands of
social organisations of the country participated in various functions
of the yatra. The signature campaign conducted during the yatra proved
the biggest signature campaign ever conducted in the world. Crores of
people extended their support to the cause of cow protection through
this campaign. The success of the yatra and the signature campaign
underline the necessity of a blanket ban on cow slaughter throughout
the country.
http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=10723&SKIN=B
India Vision Nitish Kumar strikes again
26/03/2010 19:36:49 HK
Nikesh Kumar, head of Islamic TV channel India Vision once again
strikes against Hindu society. Today, the issue was one of the Police
officer Anju Gupta’s statement against L.K. Advani. While the whole
channel in Kerala chooses this story in their 5th or 6th position,
anti Hindu Nikesh Kumar selected this story first in his News Night
and conducted a big discussion something like a ‘hot story’. Few
comments about his discussion in News Night today.
· He invited few selected people to discuss this matter, as usual no
strong Hindutva supported leaders were invited for this discussion
purposely. But he lost his mental balance when few of them responded
positively towards Advani.
· Nikesh very eagerly asked his first question to one Shri. Unni, a
political analyst, “Shri. Unni you are among one presented during
Babri Masjid was demolished, please tell us something about that day”.
Shri. Unni replied simply “I was not presented at Ayodhya on 6th
December”.
Nikesh got angry because he called Shri. Unni for this discussion
thinking he was presented on 6th December and will say something hot
against Advani & BJP.
· Then he asked question to well known Jihadi and right hand of
terrorist Madani – Abdul Aziz. As usual he blasted Advani and Hindu
society. So no comments.
· The next question to a well known Lawyer Adv. Govinda Bharathan.
Nikesh lost his mental balance while discussing with him, he thought
Adv. Govinda Bharatan will appreciate the statement of Anju Gupta and
some strong criticism against BJP and Hindu society. Adv. Govinda
Bharatan replied “Advani is a dynamic and strong leader in India and
he proofed his professionalism in politics in many times. Tell me to
whom people of India would trust – a retired Police officer’s
statement or a professional political leader in India. If I am a judge
I will trust Mr. Advani only”. It was really a shock to Nikesh and he
suddenly tried to divert his question in different style but Adv.
Govinda Bharatan’s reply was very firm and clear.
During the whole discussion Nikesh was worried and was in tense while
discussing that Advani was encouraging to demolish the Masjid, he
looks very happy and after the Masjid was demolished Advani and other
leaders were distributing sweets.
Nikesh even said Advani is lying and blasted RSS & Sangh Parivar many
times.
Whatever Nitish Kumar said was true, it was Lal Krishna Advaniji who
encouraged to demolish a Babri building which was build by the Islamic
invaders after demolishing a temple. L.K. Advaniji was the mastermind
behind the agitation. He was presented just 100 meters away from the
Babri building while it was demolished, he looks really happy after
the complete Babri building was demolished, then he was distributed
sweets to others leaders who was presented the site. Now
Nikesh can do whatever he want along with his Jihadi friends in India
Vision. But please remind your father Shri. M.V. Raghavan that , don’t
beg RSS vote (Karsevaks) through backdoor, which your father & other
CMP leaders are doing for the last many years.
We appeal to all BJP & other nationalist leaders in Kerala not to
participate any discussion with India Vision as long as anti Hindu
Nikesh Kumar exist in this channel. In case of any leaders are
participating, they should be prepared well to handle Nikesh
skg
26/03/2010 13:21:12 let us not be afraid of truth and run away !!.
It is now time to embrace the truth and die like a Martyr instead of
showing the back and hiding against the truth. I pledge to the Hindu
community to be not ashamed of the Babri Masjid demolition. It is an
alien structure constructed by an alien invader Babur. Indians need to
understand this thoroughly.
http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=10722&SKIN=M
Government cannot withdraw criminal cases against M Hussein - SC
26/03/2010 11:39:54
Husain can't be compelled to return:SC
PTI | New Delhi
Self-exiled painter MF Husain, who has taken up Qatar citizenship,
cannot be compelled to return to India by the courts or the Prime
Minister, the Supreme Court observed on Thursday refusing to direct
dropping of criminal cases against him.
"What can the Prime Minister do if a person decides to live in Doha
(capital of Qatar). They are international citizens they can live
anywhere in the world," the apex court observed while refusing to
entertain a public interest litigation filed by Bhim Singh, chief of
the J&K Panthers Party and senior advocate.
Singh, in his petition, said he has written a letter to Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh urging him to take steps to bring 95-year old Husain
back to India and sought the apex court's direction to the PM for
ensuring his return.
He has given up his Indian passport and accepted Qatar citizenship in
February this year. He has been living in self-exile for nearly four
years following a spate of cases in India over his controversial
paintings of Hindu goddesses in the nude.
A bench of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan-- Justices J M Panchal and
Deepak Verma also refused direction to the Union Government to
withdraw the 95-odd criminal cases registered against him for alleged
obscene paintings as they were all lodged by private individuals.
"How can the Union of India be directed to withdraw the cases when
they are all private complaints, If he is in Doha, what is the
problem ?" the apex court observed, asking Singh to withdraw the
petition failing which it would be dismissed.
Sensing the court's mood, Singh withdrew the PIL.
The bench also pointed out that it had already transferred all the
cases registered against Husain in different parts of the country for
adjudication in Delhi.
Singh, a former MP, had claimed that Husain's fundamental rights stood
violated as he was unable to return to India due to the cases slapped
against him for his alleged blasphemous paintings.
The PIL referred to an earlier Supreme Court observation in connection
with one of the cases against Husain that no exception should be taken
to artistic expressions.
Singh later said he would file another writ petition before the apex
court on the ground that Husain was forced to surrender his Indian
passport and obtain Qatar citizenship out of "coercion" and fear of
being victimised by a series of criminal cases.
http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=10721&SKIN=B
http://www.haindavakeralam.com/Annadanam.pdf
Jihadi riot in Thodupuzha, Srikrishna Swamy Temple attacked
26/03/2010 11:45:02 HK
Thodupuzha: Idukki district’s trade centre Thodupuzha plunged into
tension on Friday following the violent protests of Muslim
organizations over the mention in a question paper that allegedly
humiliated the Prophet and Allah issued at Newman’s College in the
town. Several police personnel and media workers suffered injuries in
stone-pelting by the protestors and the District Administration was
forced to impose prohibitory orders in the college area.
Jihadis destroyed the Stone Lamp infront of Thodupuzha Srikrishna
Swamy temple.
Thousands of Jihadis rioted in Thodupuzha and destroyed public
properties in response to their protest against a College over a
controversial question in their question paper. The protest marches
were taken out alleging that the Malayalam question paper for B.Com
examination had insulting references to the Prophet and God.
Many vehicles and shops were destroyed by the Jihadis. Buses were
blocked and passengers including ladies and students going for SSLC
Examination were left alone in between this rioting crowd.
Jihadis attacked journalists and cameramen, Special instructions were
aired through Microphones to attack the media perssonels who came to
cover the Jihadi riot. Even Medical colleges and Hospitals in the area
were not spared by the violent mob.
Police registered criminal case against the professor T J Joseph who
prepared the question paper. He was also suspended but other teachers
said he alone could not be held responsible for the mistake. “Joseph
could have prepared the question paper but it had been passed by
others after scrutiny. What has happened is that he has been made a
scapegoat,” said a teacher.
Ganesh
26/03/2010 13:23:55 Dirty beard pays
I happened to see the video footage of the police lathi charge to
disperse the miscreants.One striking feature was that all the dirty
Dhadiwallas were exempted from caning while the others were running
for cover. It was the dhadiwallas who were leading the packs.Who says
Dhadi is bad?
R.Sajan
26/03/2010 13:20:36 Publish the disputed section of the Question
paper.
Please obtain and publish the disputed sections of the Question Paper
here.
How wonderful that the University has cancelled all the examinations!
How can this be allowed or done?
I hail Prof. P. J. Joseph who prepared the Paper.
sanjeevuae
26/03/2010 12:44:12 vanaprastam
what mr.arun said is correct.the christian organisations constantly on
the look out for opportunity to pit hindus against muslims.So hindus
should not fall in their trap.See what congrss is trying to do?if the
SC ruling is favorite ,they are trying to bring reservation for all
religions which is not justifyiable under the constitution.
Sunil
26/03/2010 12:01:03 Hindu temple attacked
Death to Jihadis...Death to muslims...Death to Islam...
when will we react..??what are the Hindus in Thodupuzha waiting for..??
kill those terrorists...before they wound us...
Arun C K
26/03/2010 11:31:05 Let's be careful this time!
Newman College was established in 1964 by the Diocese of
Kothamangalam, and named after Cardinal Newman. Todays issue is
between Christians and Muslims. The issue was brought up by a
Christian tecaher. However as usual, there is a clever ploy to convert
this to an issue between Hindu and Muslim by some vested interests
(read church and some UDF parties). Hindu organisation in Kerala
should be extremely careful not to be a party to this dispute. Like in
Love Jihad issue, Christians will fled the scene after converting this
as an issue between Hindus and Muslim or between State Government and
Muslim.
Standards of moral judgement have increasingly tended to become
universal, and no statement of faith can escape scrutiny simply
because it is made in a book hailed as holy by some people.
Sita Ram Goel
http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=10720&SKIN=K
Jinnah decorates PFI Terrorists procession in Chennai
26/03/2010 11:12:22 Aron
Dinamalar malar reports 26/3/2010-
A procession was lead by the leader of Popular Front of India in
chennai, demanding communal representation recommended by Ranganathan
Misra commission. A big photo was published, and a small
crowd.Shockingly,the leader's name is given Mohamad Ali Jinnah.
It was muslim League that began its steps towards Pakistan with
Communal Representation that was opposed by Gandhi and Congress in the
beginning.
We have come in full circle, that a motley band of communal muslims
openly put up Mr Mohamad Ali Jinnah for the same demand, and it gets
reported without a word added in criticism.
The secualrists are nourishing tendencies and edging on Muslims
towards that direction and Muslims too seem to have no scruples in
picking up the clue.
Note that Jinnah is not a Muslim name but a Hindu surname of a caste
in Gujarat, from which Jinnah's grandfather converted to Islam.
For a muslim to bear that name can only mean an admiration for the
idea of Pakistan, the methodology of 'Direct Action Day' of
terrorizing through a Hindu Muslim bloodbath, and unabashed display of
hostility and high treason.
Objecting to Amitabh for his association with Modi and encouragement
to Neo-Jinnahs to lead his crowd to the streets, is what is secularism
is.
It is hard to understand the hate of this 'People's "Front"-when India
had given them so much and the Mujahirs who went there to Pakistan
behind the real Jinnah have a sorry tale to tell of discrimination,
human rights violation and constant bombings in Karachi.
Yet, they wants to call himself Mohamad Ali Jinnah and restart on the
Muslim League original program of communal representation.
Our media finds it very normal and natural that this should
happen.India is surely sliding towards another demand for Pakistan,
before repetition of all the horrors which would compel us to concede.
The secularists are pitching for jihadis and preparing us
psychologically for that.
http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=10719&SKIN=B
NSS to go ahead with legal action against the Devaswom Bill
26/03/2010 00:27:28 HK Correspondent
Changanachery : NSS made it very clear that they would pursue legal
action against the Devaswom bill that the government has placed in the
assembly and passed to the subject committee to seek the President’s
approval. NSS reiterated that the government should have held prior
discussion with all Hindu organizations before presenting the bill in
the assembly. In a press release the NSS Leaders asserted that only
the High Court has the powers to control the Devaswom board in
accordance with the Hindu Religious Institutions Act 1950. Thereby,
the LDF Government’s move to hurriedly present such a bill without
even having any consultation with various Hindu organization affected
by the contents of the bill is not at all acceptable. It has been
interesting notice that some of the Christian and Muslim leaders also
opinioned that the government should not have presented such a bill.
Interestingly, SNDP General Secretary Vellappally Natesan supported
the bill and went to the extent of telling that SNDP would stage
Dharna at the gates of those MLAs opposing the bill in the assembly.
Meanwhile Hindu Aykyavedi is holding a meeting on 27 March at
Trivandrum to chart out the action plan by various Hindu
organizations. The meeting will be inaugurated by Travancore Maharaja
Uthradam Thirunal Marthanda Verma. It is understood that Mr.Subramanya
Swami also will attend the meeting.
Sunil
26/03/2010 12:11:58 Petition to President
The Petition by overseas Indians against Wendy Doniger's book last
month became a huge success thanks to thousands of faithful Hindus all
around the world..we can make this also a gr8 success only if we stand
together...lets all unite for a common cause..lets all understand 1
thing..."What right do the people who call themself Atheists have in
controlling a religious place"..they cant answer this..and if we cant
save our temples from these people..even God cant save us..so this is
our last oppurtunity...I wish Hindu aykyavedi and other Hindu
organisation take a very strong action so that the govt takes back the
bill..give your support to Hindu aykyavedi and RSS..I hope these
organisation start some kind of campaign so that we all can contribute
for this cause...as suggested by Mr Raghav Rao we can start a massive
signature campaign n force to withdraw the bill..
Ganesh
26/03/2010 10:35:21 Reading vedas to the charging bull
I think democratic means like mass petition to president etc rarely
work in this banana republic.This is not USA Or EU,where true
democracy exists.What one learns from our minorities ,is that being
street smart is the only language our leadership respects.One live
example is the Hussain issue, another is the Bareily riots.Virtually
all newspaper blogs are full of adverse reactions from the readers
against MFH and yet the media does not seem to understand the public
mood.They may argue that bloggers are not representative of the public
mood. But it is only the bloggers who read the crap that they publish
in the name of news.General public neither know who MFH is nor the
newspaper itself.
satheesh
26/03/2010 10:23:35 vellapally
what this guy vellapally is doing.I think he is an agent of
christians.In none of the issues he is cooperating,recently in Hindu
parliment.
Dr Vijaya Rajiva
26/03/2010 09:05:47 To Mr.Rao
Good idea ! But it requires careful monitoring and someone to be in
charge.
Recently there was a Petition by overseas Indians against Wendy
Doniger's book. Some 10,000 signatures were gathered in a few days,
maybe many more now.
Here it will be an all Kerala effort and the numbers hopefully will be
much larger.
And legally speaking you will be in the right.
Raghav Rao
26/03/2010 03:06:59
http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=10717&SKIN=K
Yet another Rebuttal to 'Secular Hypocrite' Jug Suraiya
25/03/2010 22:05:27
Response to Jug Suraiya(second Opinion)
Times of India - 24 mar 2010
Jug Suriaya has baptized MF Husain as ‘Hindu’ Husain?’(TOI 24th
march).
It fails my comprehension why the ‘secularists’ are laboring to prove
the point that Husain is secular and had no evil design to denigrate
Hindu gods and Goddesses. The author picks up a new line of defense
for
the artist. ‘The basis of Hinduism of what has been labeled as
Hinduism
is the opposite of zero tolerance: it is infinite tolerance. There are
almost as many Hinduisms as there are Hindus; it is a designer
religion..’ So we are reminded that in its infinite tolerance Husain
can and must be allowed to express his perverted sexual expressions
using Gods and Goddesses that is the litmus test of infinite tolerance
according to Jug Suriya. MF Husain’s parampara is one Book, one faith,
one path, one congregation, one god and Islam forbids any pictorial
depiction of the Prophet . So the parampara of Husain does not believe
in artists and their freedom or for that matter any kind of personal
freedom. Does that mean that he needs to operate the freedoms denied
to
him by his own religion on the ‘designer religion’ –Hinduism thus
qualifying to becoming Hindu Husian? Simply because Hinduism is a
travesty of a myriad threaded fabric woven and rewoven for thousands
of
years by the waft and the woof of rites and rituals of conventions and
norms, of cults and god experiences of thousands of rishis it can be
stretched to accommodate Husain’s vulgarization of what is held holy
and sacred by the Hindus of all the Hinduisms? A person from zero
tolerance faith and belief -one will expect to have some restraint in
beholding this fabric so artistical and religiously and patiently
woven
for centuries. Can he so carelessly and ruthlessly tear it asunder?
What is blasphemy according to his religion becomes infinite tolerance
and hence valid namely to caricature and paint Hindu gods and
goddesses. The Freedom gagged and denied to him by his own religion
which he religiously abides by does not stop him from painting God and
Goddesses in the nude but leads him with his brush to vulgarization
and denigrate them. No matter what Jug Suraiya accedes to as
‘strength’
of Hinduism –the designer religion will not and cannot accommodate
such
perversity.
Jug Suraiya very artfully tries to tell us that the ‘strength’ in
Hinduism is its infinite tolerance and by protesting Hinduism becomes
weak. There are two aspects to this:-He wants us to accommodate
Husain’s perversion under the ‘infinitely tolerant religion of
Hinduism-.Husain the firm believer of zero tolerance cannot function
to
give full expression to his artistic freedom in his religion. The
restraints of which he abides by to make him a good Muslim. Here there
is no written restraints-Hinduism does not go by the Book rules but
calls upon each individual to a self imposed discipline does not mean
there is no discipline. Freedom to perceive and experience god in
one’s
own way is entirely different kind of infinite tolerance. One does not
have to look to god though another’s eyes-nor does one’s experience be
limited to another’s god experience. This is the infinite tolerance of
Hinduism-the many paths that lead to the Ultimate. Such an infinite
tolerance is on a different plane. It is not operational in allowing
freedom to maine, brutalize and denigrate the Hindu gods and
goddesses.
For example the UK has no written Constitution, does it mean there are
no rights and no Parliamentary democracy-when compared to those which
have written constitutions I would say that UK’s parliamentary
democracy is more disciplined and vibrant.
Similarly, Jug Suraiya cannot use the absence of a Book-of written
rules and regulations as to what amounts to blasphemy as a license for
unrestraint freedom of expression-freedom to hurt the religious
sentiments of the Hindus. And all the secularists brand this
infinitely
tolerant Hindus as bigots, and Husain has an array of ‘secular’
apologists who are vociferously, through the media-both electronic and
print, holding out the view that it is almost the duty of this
infinitely tolerant Hinduisms to allow Husain to brandish his brush
and
disfigure that tapestry of a myriad threads woven beautifully
depicting
the facets of the One omni presence as Gods and Goddesses-of this
‘designer religion.
And to allow such jihadi by brush under the Right to Freedom of
Expression.. Jug Suraiya goes one step further-he wants the travesty
of
a myriad threads fabric to be shredded and torn apart when he warns
that a militant Hinduism will rob Hinduism of its breath of tolerance.
So what? If militant religions like Islam and Christianity can
flourish
be appreciated as ‘secular’and pampered to I do not see the need to
continue this infinitely tolerant Hinduism in the face of zero
tolerance and be branded as bigotry and communal. If the Kashmiri
pandits were killed and driven out of their homes till date not
rehabilitated what is the use of this infinite tolerance. Using this
infinite tolerance to block and blotch human rights and community
rights is no way of making a case to uphold this breath of Hinduism
–tolerance. When zero tolerance cannot allow infinitely tolerant
Hindus
of Hinduisms their own homes and hearths? So Jug Suraiya’s premise to
test the strength of Hinduism by allowing anything and anyone to do
anything and everything under the garb of its infinite tolerance is a
bad case. It cannot co-exist.
And the brief for Husain does not end here-Jug Suriaya has elevated
his
client as an example-his testimony to the capacity of tolerance of
Hinduism-that in it there can be no scandalous liberties to be
censored-MF Husain becomes a Hindu and a good one too-by his adherence
to the zero tolerance of his own religion Islam he becomes a good
Muslim also. Eat the cake and have it too-policy. Do to others what
you
expect others to do to you-is also a Book faith diktat is conveniently
overlooked. How very succinctly Jug Suraiya has led us down the path
with such carrots.. and full praise for ‘Hinduisms’ and its strength.
In its strength lies the message not to fight-not to face the
challenge-look the other way no matter what is done to you and your
gods and goddesses. No matter the insults and the injuries your
strength is to allow such things. This is a strange advice and message
to uphold Freedoms. It is an aberration of Freedom. Too long this
infinite tolerance has been exploited and too long the Hindus have
thought that ‘strength’ means to look the way. It is time to stem the
rot and it is time to face the challenge and expect everyone, artist
or
no artist to abide by the law of the land-irrespective of religion and
age. We are a secular society and religious rules must be subsumed in
civil law and civil liberties. You cannot use one’s religious laws for
some and civil laws for others, All Indian citizens must and should
fall under one law and thus will Justice and Truth be upheld.
Dr Mrs Hilda Raja,
Vadodara
skg
26/03/2010 16:44:52 Hindus are hurting Hinduism !!.
It is Hindus like Jug Suraiya who are responsible for the abuse of
Hinduism by Pseudo-secular Media. They are giving enough material for
Islamists and evangelists to attack Hinduism. Hindus should teach
these rascals/Pseudo-Hindus a lesson .
Archpagan
26/03/2010 08:59:56 Practise what you preach.
Jug Suraiya should get her own mother's nude picture drawn by 'Hindu
Hussain' before making such pontification.
seadog4227
26/03/2010 06:58:31 MFH
Again--why bother with a known commie?
Numerous Slimes writers have shown their colours before. Bachi
Karkaria talked about the "boyish good looks" of Abu Salem when he
faced trial. From an economist, Swaminathan Iyer has now become a
avowed "secularist" Jug Suraiya has talked nonsense under the guise of
humour on several occasions. Dileep Padgoankar is mostly a fence
sitter. As for Gautam Adhikari, the less said the better. Ditch
them!
Ram
26/03/2010 04:28:10 Vatican RC in deep trouble
God is punishing the church establishment. See the link below :
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100325/ap_on_re_eu/church_abuse_wisconsin#mwpphu-container
Please publish this article. More than 2400 comments on this
particular article. US and Europe are dropping RC.
Sam
26/03/2010 02:36:38 Hinduism is changing because of pseudo secular
media
Hinduism has seen many 'holocausts' duing barbaric Islamic invations
and continued for 1100 years.According to Francois Gautier "The
massacres perpetuated by Muslims in India are unparalleled in history,
bigger than the Holocaust of the Jews by the Nazis; or the massacre of
the Armenians by the Turks; more extensive even than the slaughter of
the South American native populations by the invading Spanish and
Portuguese."
Hinduism still survived. But the current situation is very dangerous.
The anti-hindu media (funded by outside agents of West, Saudi and
China) is insulting hinduism and supporting conversion to other
religions. The UPA government run by Sonia (Christian) and her puppet
PM (Sikh) and coterie (christians with Hindu names) are misusing tax
payers money for minority appeasement and trying to distory hinduism.
Communists, DMK, Yadav parties, Muslim and Christian political parties
are working together to make sure that Hindu temples will be taken
over by government use the temple income against hindu interests.
Devaswam Boards are under non-believing communists so that the income
from temples will never be used for the benefit of hindu relion. Vaqaf
Board use the income for Muslim student loan without interest. While
Devaswam income is never used for hindus. Hindu students pay 10%
interest for student loans. Billions or dollars are flowing to India
every year for conversion and money is effectively used for harvest of
souls or training anti-indian jihadies through Saudi funded Madrasas.
Unreported secret convesion has already made hindus minority in many
parts of India. The converts keep their hindu name and schedule caste
status. Hatred of new converts who got rich with newly earned money to
hindu neighbouts mame stuggle for survivla. While Missionaries pay
Maoists to kill anybody work against conversion like in Kadhmal
(Orisssa). Since they have media and political support nothing get
reported. Probably 2% Hindus know about all these.
Rajaraman
26/03/2010 02:53:11 Two questions only from a 'Sanathana Dharmi'
1. Can I produce a movie in which Prophet Muhamamd, Sonia Gandhi,
Jesus Christ depicted as nude....?
2.why did u ban NEHRU-EDWINA MOVIE?
M Balachandran
26/03/2010 02:35:33 Supporters of Hussain also can go to Qatar
Because of expressing his "ART" ,our pseudo secular friends beloved MF
Hussain required to settle in Qatar, due to Court cases by "fanatic"
Hindus of Hindusthan. In the near future these supporters also require
to face the trials by such Hindu "fanatics" since their strength &
knowledge are getting increased day by day. It will be better for them
to try for Qatar Nationality immly which is the Paradise for Hussain.
I dont think 99.999...% of Indian citizens will miss anything if these
pseudos get out of Hindusthan
Ramamurhty.N
25/03/2010 23:28:59 Jug Suraiya true pesudo secular
This refers to second opinion coloumn "Hindu Husain " by Jug Suraiya
Times of India dt 24th March, 2010.The author cleaverly and
selectively quoted , to her convenience, Islamic religious ditict,
libaralism/ tolarence of Hiduism, and the freedom of expression
gauranteeded in our secular constitution to justify Mr.Husain's action
and confirmed she belongs to same pesudo secularit group.While
Mr.Husain painted nude the dictator Hitler but dare not do the same
with other dictators namely Sadam Husan, Idi amin and Yahyah Khan a
few muslim dictators who massacared their own people of differnt
enthinity. Ms.Jug Suriya like Mr.Husain whom she tried to defend,
confirm what Islam says " Religion is the first and last for Muslims"
other things matter little.
Dear Sir,
This refers to second opinion (the word second aptly printed in
reverse) coloumn "Hindu Husain " by Jug Suraiya Times of India dt 24th
March, 2010.The author cleaverly and selectively quoted , to her
convenience, Islamic religious ditict, libaralism/ tolarence of
Hiduism, and the freedom of expression gauranteeded in our secular
constitution to justify Mr.Husain's action and confirmed she belongs
to same pesudo secularit group.While Mr.Husain painted nude the
dictator Hitler but dare not do the sama with other dictators namely
Sdam Husan, Idi amin and Yahyah Khan a few muslim dictators who
massacared their own people of differnt enthinity. Ms.Jug Suriya like
Mr.Husain whom she tried to defend, confirm what Islam says " Religion
is the first and last for Muslims" other things matter little.
N.Ramamurthy,
A1 Alankar aptsmaste all,
I am glad to forward my letter addressed to the Edito Times Of India
on Jug Suraiy's coloumn "Hindu Husain"
Regards,
N.Rama
Vijayalakshmi
25/03/2010 22:16:51
http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=10716&SKIN=M
Murder of RSS Seva Pramukh - Life Term to Four CPM thugs
25/03/2010 22:00:16
Four CPM men get life term
www.expressbuzz.com
KOLLAM: Kollam Second Additional Sessions Court sentenced four CPM
workers to life term rigorous imprisonment in the case of murdering
RSS worker Santhosh.
Additional Sessions Judge K.K. Balakrishnan also ordered the four to
pay a fine of Rs 45,000 each, failing which they have to undergo
imprisonment for a further period.
Sajeev (40) of Ayathil , Anthikannan alias Anil (30) of
Kochammannada, Gopi (38) of Kottamkara and Pramod (32) of Ayathil
were those have been convicted in the case. Two other accused Sajeev
of Pattathanam and Jayaprakash are still absconding. The fourth
accused Santhosh died during the trial of the case.
Noushad and Anilkumar who were CPM members of Vadakkevila grama
panchayat had been excluded from the list of the accused.
The murder was committed on November 24, 1997. Santhosh, who was the
mandal seva pramukh of the RSS, was returning on a cycle after
attending a meet of the RSS.
The accused, who were travelling in a car, hit his cycle and then
hacked Santhosh to death.
Vijayakumar, who was riding pillion on the cycle, was also injured and
he informed the police about the murder. The accused have been
sentenced under Sections 302,143,147,148 and 324 of the IPC. Public
Prosecutor Ratnakaran appeared for the prosecution.
satheesh
26/03/2010 10:16:25 Shame for Hindus
All those got convicted are Hindus.we are facing problems within our
religion itself.when will these guys understand the real problems.we
should stop fighting within ourself.
Prasad Pandit
26/03/2010 04:17:44 CPM Thugs
It is sad to note that all the sentenced are having hindu names. The
CPM with its anti-hindu ideology uses its thugs to murder Sangh
workers.
Vijayalakshmi
25/03/2010 22:19:57 Murder of RSS Seva Pramukh
It is very heartening news-this conviction of the murderers by the
honourable Court!So many of our disciplined sevaks have fallen prey to
the murderous politics of the marxist party.Something concrete has to
be done against this trend.But atleast we have some good,
conscientious judges in Kerala! Thank God for that!
http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=10715&SKIN=K
Big B blasts Reds, media over Kerala row
25/03/2010 12:18:46 PNS | Kochi
Amitabh Bachchan has termed “as petty act of cheap convenience” the
CPI(M) decision not to allow the Kerala Government to appoint him as
God’s Own Country’s tourism brand ambassador because of his
connections with Gujarat and its Chief Minister Narendra Modi. In his
701st entry in the bigadda blog, the star said he would abide by the
judgement of the Kerala Government in whatever decision it would take.
“You want to stop me from promoting tourism in a State, because you
have reason to believe that there are political connotations to the
event. This is such rubbish,” he wrote in the blog obviously in
reference to the CPI(M) decision to disallow Kerala to make him brand
ambassador. He also criticized the media in connection with the
development saying that finding fault at any cost to any act or event
was a common Indian media trait.
Big B’s criticism of the CPI(M) intolerance coincided with the
decision of the CPI(M) Politbureau, meeting in Delhi, not to revoke
the central party leadership’s earlier decision to disallow the Kerala
Government to make the star its brand ambassador. Politbureau member
had on March 19 told the media that the Kerala Government would not
make Bachchan the State’s tourism ambassador.
Yechuri’s statement came after Bachchan wrote to Kerala Tourism
Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, himself a PB member, accepting his
invitation to represent Kerala Tourism. Kodiyeri’s act of inviting
Bachchan without consulting the party and the ruling coalition and the
central CPI(M) leadership’s act of unilaterally shooting down a
decision taken by the State Government have already created dissent in
the LDF.
Bachchan wrote in his blog: “All I shall be doing (as brand
ambassador) will be working in a short film that shall highlight the
various places of interest in the State…. And that is what I would
precisely do when I would be asked to similar acts in Kerala… It (the
objection) is a petty act of cheap convenience to prevent me from
doing that.”
He said he did not ask for the position but the Kerala Government had
invited him. “I shall abide by the judgement of the State Government.
I did not ask them for it, they came forward with the invitation, I
accepted, now they want to decline it, fine. Not the first time such
incidents have happened,” he wrote in the blog, referring to the
incident that took place in Goa during the International Film
Festival.
He also criticized his critics for projecting him as an untouchable
for his relations with the State of Gujarat, which had made him its
brand ambassador. “You take umbrage at my association with Gujarat,
but never have the guts or courage to stop a Ratan Tata or an Ambani
from investing in the state…. Would you have the guts to tell them to
not associate with the State, to pull out all their investment and man
power they build through years and years of their ‘association’? I
guess not,” he writes in the blog.
Responding to questions in connection with Bachchan’s blog, Minister
Kodiyeri said he had nothing more to say about the matter than what he
had said in the State Assembly the other day. He had told the Kerala
Assembly that some sections had raised some objections to making
Bachchan Kerala’s brand ambassador. He said the Government had not
taken any formal decision to make him brand ambassador but had only
extended an informal invitation.
Ganesh
26/03/2010 10:27:19 opportunities
Most of the PB members are unfit to even win a panchayat election.The
commies do not miss any opportunity to lick the minority a**se.Recall
how Somnath chatterji refused to preside over the LS when George BUsh
was to address the joint session.Shaking hands with Ariel SHaron was
held against K.V.Thomas to impress Jihadis.Then the Abdulla Kutty
episode.Saddam Hussain's death mourning bandh .I pity the so called
Hindu communities of this Allah's own country.
shiv
26/03/2010 03:22:40 Pathetic BJP/sangh leadership
Big B knows that he has counter allegations or reply to detractors.
But BJP and sangh parivar leaders dont even bother to counter/attack
the allegations/maligning like this.
They end up giving statements.
Pathetic./
Balasundar S
26/03/2010 01:10:32 Why Big B for Kodiyeri, Black "P" is OK !
Joining Issue with the Yechuri faction of CPM, I suggest the PB of
Communists make Black "P"(Part Secy,) from their ranks as Brand
Ambassador and help siphon off some funds to His account from Tourism
Ministry of Kodiyeri!
Balasundar S
26/03/2010 01:10:32 Why Big B for Kodiyeri, Black "P" is OK !
Joining Issue with the Yechuri faction of CPM, I suggest the PB of
Communists make Black "P"(Part Secy,) from their ranks as Brand
Ambassador and help siphon off some funds to His account from Tourism
Ministry of Kodiyeri!
manoj
25/03/2010 23:51:20 The reason why CPM objects Bachan
Dear friends
Did anybody knows why cpm opposit to promote kerala tourism?? Suppose
Bachan became the brand ambassider of kerala, definitely kerala
tourism will boost. It would be benift for the state as forign money
will pump to our state, this will benifit for the Kerala people(a
large number among them are cpm supporters), once they start earning
money their life style will change, they will built good house, buy
car, will provide higher eduction to their childen ... then...
then...one day cpm will ask these people to come for a secretrate
march or a some other protest march.. none of them will go becuase
they prefer more importance to their family and taking care of their
children and finally they will prefer to leave this party.. so dear
friends,...its not because of modi or Bachan but the cpm dont want any
kind of progress in the state to keep their poor commerds in their
platform always
Nishant
25/03/2010 19:45:02 THE DON
The Don finally delivered what was due!
Amit bhadhuri,Ex-Officer,CISF
25/03/2010 17:25:33 Show Courage Mr B
Amitabh has by now realized what the congress and CPI(M) are like, as
their only gmae is to please Musslamans at any cost of the nation.
Amitabh is a mega-wealthy person and what he has to loose at 67? He
should overcome his search for more wealth and should reject congress
and communists boldly and openly declare his appreciations for Gujrat
and Narendra Modi. By doing so he will come out as a real hero not
just a plastic hero what he has been so far.
http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=10714&SKIN=B
Al Badr hand in Kerala blasts revealed
25/03/2010 12:17:35 VR Jayaraj | Kozhikode - Daily Pioneer
The international terror links of the March 3, 2006 twin blasts at
Kozhikode, in which South India’s LeT commander Thadiyantavide Nazeer
is the prime accused, has become more obvious with the revelation that
he had got training under Pakistani national and Al Badr coordinator
Muhammad Fahad (30). Fahad, arrested from Mysore on October 17, 2006
as he was preparing for an attack on Vidhan Soudha, the Karantaka
Legislative Assembly building in Bangalore, was in Kozhikode when the
blasts took place.
Local residents and Malayalee farmers in Coorg, Karnataka, identified
Fahad from a photograph shown to them by the officials of the
Intelligence wing of the Kerala Police the other day as the one who
was with Nazeer when he was running a camp there. With this, the
investigations into the LeT terror operations in the State have
reached a crucial turning point, officials say.
Local residents told the Intelligence officials headed by P Raju,
Superintendent of Police (Intelligence), Thrissur Range, when they
reached Coorg as part of the probe, that they had seen Fahad with
Nazeer on several occasions. Fahad, whose father Abdullakoya was a
Malayalee who had migrated to Pakistan decades ago, had given training
to Nazeer and other LeT operatives from Kerala for several days at the
Coorg camp.
The Kerala Police Intelligence team has already handed over the
information regarding Nazeer’s connections with Fahad and the training
camp at Coorg to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) which is
investigating the terror-related cases in Kerala. According to
sources, the new revelations are a surprise even to the NIA
considering the magnitude of the Kerala terror network’s Pak
connections.
The Intelligence wing has learned that Fahad had held several night-
long training sessions and classes for Nazeer and the LeT recruits in
Coorg towards the end of 2005. They assume that his visit to Kozhikode
in February, 2006 was part of the continued operations. He had left
Kozhikode on March 18. Sources said that Fahad, a Master’s degree-
holder in Chemistry, could have assisted Nazeer and his group in
carrying out the first live blasts of their terror career in
Kozhikode. This meant that Fahad was in Kozhikode when the twin blasts
were carried out in the city.
When he was arrested from Mysore in October, 2006, the police had
seized from him and his associate weapons including AK-47 rifles and
components of highly improvised explosives. The police had earlier
learned that Fahad was a member of terror outfit Al Badr which was
getting training from the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence. In
this context, the Intelligence officials think that the LeT operations
in Kerala under Nazeer were being directly controlled from Pakistan.
Al Badr coordinator Fahad, son of Abdullakoya who had left Iringalloor
in Kozhikode district for Pakistan decades ago, used to frequently
visit his relatives in Kerala. He was a regular visitor at the homes
of Abdullakoya’s first wife at Kappad and his sister at Peruvayal,
both in Kozhikode district. After his arrest in 2006, the police had
leaned that Fahad’s mission here was to spread the terror network in
the region using his family connections.
It was amidst his efforts to get a passport using the Kerala address
from the Regional Passport Office in Kozhikode that Fahad and his
associate Muhammad Ali Hussein were arrested from Mysore. Though Fahad
was arrested by the Karnataka Police, the Kerala Police had enquired
about his bid to get a passport from Kozhikode. Unfortunately, the
police had not then thought of extending its probe beyond the passport
case.
Vivek
26/03/2010 01:52:27 CNR
When will the Hindus in Kerala learn from these lessons.
No wonder BJP is yet to get a single seat in Kerala. Things will never
change unless some one like N. Modi is born in Kerala.
http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=10713&SKIN=K
Horseplay in Harappa: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/f9b738e079fef9fb/29e89ff9c3ac525d
Troubled Tribal: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/e728acc31e0d52d7#
Indian Morality Meltdown: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/ec479835613abd41#
Hindus'Tantrum: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/8a1efe054a3bf157#
I Write, Therefore I am: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/4cb1ce65c9d8f4c5#
Indian Morality Meltdown: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/37334fb34fbe6d7c#
Sex and CD Scandal: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/3f5e2a3be4798e7d#
Not Required Indian, NRI: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/672c3ae8cc9b567c#
Why 'Marathi'?
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/4be9d2a2e20ab43f#
Telangana Tempest: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/b7da74ebd932a5fa#
Of States and Statesmanship: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/73c89074ecfe9966#
Sa for Sanskrit Pop: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/9f6d369c7793990f#
Black Money Monster: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/109aa8a66442ca6d#
Superpower Syndrome: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/85f8a222fd275c15#
Indian Power-Pow-Wow, Wow!: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/54cba427083f4e4f#
26/11 Saga Continues: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/20d42cd9546b852b#
Superpower Syndrome: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/008ed3e81dbcd9cc#
Of Justice and Injustice: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/dc3ba7935f641e60#
Sangh Parivar Pageant: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/a91a817395e54639#
Stop this terroristic activities of Shiv Sena
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/93908482518b9228#
BJP RIP: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/20def0d930fc511f#
Superpower Syndrome: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/b6aa5a8a1b675046#
Sangh Parivar Pageant: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/9c4ff65e38c4b924#
Sudharma, Sanskrit Newspaper: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/51f22c78acbc72b1#
Hindu Worldview: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/c8a515cc34f18a5a#
Shimla Shenanigans: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/64bddaf4fb04bac5#
chhotemianinshallah
On Monday, the notorious Best Bakery case nudged closer to a trial
date.
.By Scott Baldauf, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor /
July 23, 2004
MUMBAI, INDIA
When a Hindu mob stormed a bakery and killed 14, including two Muslims
burnt alive in ovens, the gruesome crime became the symbol of
religious violence that gripped India two years ago and left nearly
1,000 dead.
Now, in what appears to be a second chance for justice, the Best
Bakery case moved this week one step toward retrial.
The first trial, held in May 2003 in the state of Gujarat, where the
massacre took place, ended in the acquittal of all 21 of the accused
rioters after the victims changed their testimony. The Indian Supreme
Court last April ordered a retrial out of state, calling state
officials "modern-day Neros" for ignoring the complaints of witnesses
that they had been politically harassed and pressured to change their
testimony by police and state officials.
The opportunity for another trial in this cornerstone case is seen
here as an important chance to resolve a major irritant in Hindu-
Muslim relations and a chance to chip away at the pervasive problem of
witness tampering in the Indian justice system.
"This case has been a kind of systematic failure of the Indian legal
system," says Teesta Setalwad, a human rights activist who led the
effort to get the case a second hearing. "This has been a symbol,
hopefully, to revive the criminal justice system in India."
In a country where prosecutors win violent criminal cases only 4
percent of the time, some dramatic reforms are required, Ms. Setalwad
says. "In India, we have failed (in providing justice.) Trials take 10
years to finish. Witnesses turn hostile and change their testimony.
The whole system needs to change."
The trouble in Gujarat began at a train station in Godhra on Feb. 27,
2002, when a train car full of Hindu activists was torched, killing 68
passengers. For more than two months, Hindu rioters took their revenge
on Muslim neighbors, killing nearly 1,000 citizens. Police claimed
they were unable to contain the rioters, but later, senior officials
admitted to human rights activists that they had been directed by
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to allow the "anticipated Hindu
reaction" to run its course.
Mr. Modi, a member of the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party,
has claimed that his state apparatus had done everything it could to
keep the peace, but has also called the riots a "natural reaction" to
the Godhra attack.
The Best Bakery case was once seen as the best chance to bring the
rioters to justice, some of whom included police officials and
activists of the BJP and other Hindu nationalist groups. The star
witness, Zahira Shaikh, named 21 of the rioters directly involved in
the murders of 11 members of her Muslim family as well as their 3
Hindu employees. But on May 17, 2003, she changed her testimony.
Later, Ms. Shaikh told reporters that she had been threatened by a BJP
state legislator, Madhu Srivastava, who had escorted her to the
courthouse.
"He told me, 'Think about what you have to do. If you don't, you will
suffer,'" Ms. Shaikh later told India Today magazine. "I knew I had
two options: to get justice for dead family members, or save those who
were living."
Mr. Srivastava denies having threatened Shaikh, but admits that he did
escort Shaikh to court to protect her from the crowd. "She was
receiving threats," he told reporters at the time.
On Monday, a judge in Mumbai gave the case one more nudge toward a
trial date, ordering Gujarat to issue warrants against 10 of the 21
accused rioters who had not been apprehended.
Even with a second chance to give testimony, free of coercion, the
Best Bakery case will not be an easy conviction. The Shaikh family has
given two versions of the story and estranged members of the family
tell an entirely different story.
Yet whatever the outcome of the Best Bakery case, the very fact that
it got a retrial at all - and that, out of Gujarat - may have
reverberations. On Aug. 3, the Indian Supreme Court is scheduled to
hear arguments from six other heinous cases similar to Best Bakery,
which are also pushing to be tried outside Gujarat.
The largest of these, the massacre of 89 Muslims in the district of
Naroda-Patiya, occurred the day after the Godhra tragedy. Police
waited nearly a year to investigate this case or to press charges.
While some activists say Best Bakery will bring legal reforms that
will guarantee more professionalism and less political interference in
future cases, others like Mr. Jethmalani says a deeper reform within
human character is needed.
"Either out of communal motives [of promoting hatred toward the Muslim
community] or out of some political motives by the state leaders, the
investigation was totally unequal to their task," says Mr. Jethmalani.
Yet the problems seen in the case go far beyond Gujarat.
"I must compliment the people of India for setting their face against
such fundamentalism, when they voted against the BJP in the last
elections," he says. But the decline in human character and the rise
of fundamentalism "is getting worse," he adds, and not "just in India
but in the West as well."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0723/p07s01-wosc.html
http://hrwf.net/uploads/Hindu%20extremist%20movements.doc
Academic study of Ganesh called hate crime
Never hurts to be reminded that Fundamentalist Christians aren't the
only people who expect special protection for their nutty theology.
WASHINGTON - Eighteen years after publishing a study of the Hindu god
Ganesha, a US university professor is under fire from believers who
brand sexual references in the book as an insidious 'hate crime'.
Hindu student activists are demanding that Ganesa, Lord of Obstacles,
Lord of Beginnings be taken out of circulation until author Paul
Courtright from Emory University in Atlanta removes 'offensive'
passages and makes an unequivocal apology to Hindus.
AFP: Hindus take offence at US don's book on deity
T.R. Rao, Loflin chair and professor of computer science at the
University of Louisiana at Lafayette, said he appreciates academic
freedom but questions its relevance in relation to Courtright’s book.
“Academic freedom is that if I make a mistake in my job, I am
protected,” he said. “But do I have the freedom to inflict pain on
millions of people?”
Courtright said academic freedom allows him to write freely.
“Do I have to ask 800 million Hindus to get permission to say
something?” he asked.
Deepa Patel, The Emory Wheel: Academic freedom debated in wake of
recent petition
People who believe that animal-headed deities run the universe are
silly. It’s a completely trivial belief. I can’t think of anything
crazier than combining theology with zoology, although I guess
throwing botany into the mix might do the trick. …
The Raving Atheist: Theozoology
Richard Evans Lee • November 14, 2003 • Reader, what do you think?
Prior: My spiritual autobiography (II) • Next: In the Devil's Snare
Y! MyWeb · del.icio.us · Furl
1 · Posted by: FreeIndian on April 10, 2004 07:54 PM
Is there any exhaustive lists of items that may hurt religious
feelings? I am a Hindu and I am not offended by such wriringd. After
all we Hindus' believe in the insident/events in Lord Ganesha's life.
If the interpretations is different , should we feel hurt? Can the
prof changes his interpretation. simply because , a few Hindus feel
hurt or keep the interpretation same , becuase many Hindus like me do
not feel hurt .
2 · Posted by: JohnSmith on April 24, 2004 07:06 PM
“Courtright said academic freedom allows him to write freely.”.
Does that mean that one can call Thomas Jefferson a scoundrel? And
that I cannot be bothered to consult 300 million Americans, who may
protest?
3 · Posted by: Paper Magic on October 12, 2004 06:36 PM
“Does that mean that one can call Thomas Jefferson a scoundrel? And
that I cannot be bothered to consult 300 million Americans, who may
protest?”
Yes, John, that's precisely what it means.
4 · Posted by: a d on November 25, 2004 10:04 AM
i am an indian hindu and though i am not offended by the actual
writing (haven't read it) - i am offended by the fact that courtright
thinks that what hindus think doesn't count when writing about
hinduism - especially when he knows that given the power/knowledge
equation, his version may end up being authoritative.
this is not only about religion, its about accountability. and
academic freedom is not about irresponsibility.
Comments:
Feel free to share your feelings about Academic study of Ganesh called
hate crime. Please stick to the theme of the entry. Disagreement is
fine. Homophobia, racism, and kindred expressions of hatred will be
deleted.
This site is one of my hobbies. I genuinely enjoy hearing from people
and hate moderating or killing comments. Forthright disagreement is
fine as long as it is civil.
My thanks,
Richard
http://www.metropolis2008.org/pdf/20081030/workshops/w089-30_austin-lawrence.pdf
Hindu Students Call Emory Professor's Book a "Hate Crime" (Washington)
Nov 14, 2003
By Staff Writer
The Straits Times
On November 14, 2003 The Straits Times reported that "eighteen years
after publishing a study of the Hindu god Ganesha, a US university
professor is under fire from believers who brand sexual references in
the book as an insidious 'hate crime'. Hindu student activists are
demanding that Ganesa, Lord of Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings be taken
out of circulation until author Paul Courtright from Emory University
in Atlanta removes 'offensive' passages and makes an unequivocal
apology to Hindus. But Prof Courtright accuses his critics of quoting
isolated passages from his book out of context, and suggests they may
be trying to stifle academic freedoms. Outraged by sexual inferences
in his book and portrayal of a nude Ganesha on the cover of one
edition, 4,500 people signed an online petition drawn up by the Hindu
Students Council at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette."
http://www.pluralism.org/news/view/6181
India: Hindu extremist states have most Anti-Dalit hate crimes
Posted on June 8, 2008 by The Editor
Hinduvta states commit the most crimes against the poor penury
stricken Dalits. The states with the highest concentration of Brahmins
and Hindu extremists have the highest level of discrimination against
the impoverished Dalits. However the other states which do not have
Hindu extremeists face other sorts of abuse. There are many sates
where there is a live and vibrant insurrection going on.
http://rupeenews.com/2008/05/29/amnesty-int-2008-report-excoriates-horrid-india/
http://rupeenews.com/2008/05/15/dalit-slaves-in-india/
The map shows the security dangers as identified by the intelligence
agencies of India.
The Human Rights Commission has reported severe human rights abuses in
many states like Gujarat and Jharkhand
Bharat faces a huge insurgency in a swath of territory which extends
from Nepal to Andhra Pradesh
This map of Bharat shows the concetration of Hindu extremists or
“Hinduvta” as they are called in the conglomeration of states called
“India”. According to the study conducted by the Center for the
Developing societies the correlation of the extremists Hindus is
directly related to the number of hate crimes against the minorites–
mainly the 170-250 million Dalits (Untouchables). The map shows the
highest number of Brahmin Hinduvtas in Jammu, Himadhal Pradesh
(bifurcated from East Punjab) and Uttar Pradesh (conglomeration of
Awadh and other states which was called United Provices by the
British)
Uttar Pradesh which has the distinction of giving the country its
first Dalit woman Chief Minister, also tops the list of states with
highest number of cases of crime against Scheduled Castes. With a
staggering 4,960 cases of crime committed against people of Scheduled
Castes, Uttar Pradesh tops the list in 2006, according to a Ministry
of Home Affairs’ data.
The state is closely followed by Madhya Pradesh with 4,214 such cases
being registered the same year.
Among states of South India, Andhra Pradesh, where 3,891 such cases
were registered in 2006 ranks the highest.
Taken together, the three states – Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and
Andhra Pradesh – constituted more than 51 per cent of crimes committed
against SCs in the country in 2006.
Analysis of data shows that number of crimes against Scheduled Castes
have increased in the country.
While 26,127 cases of crime against SCs were registered in 2005, the
subsequent year, saw 27,070 cases being registered. The data for 2007
is yet to be compiled.
As per the data available for for the year 2004-2006, UP has seen a
increase in crime against SCs.
While 2004 saw 3,785 such cases being registered, 4,397 cases were
recorded in 2005.
AP, where 3,117 cases of crime against SCs were reported in 2005, has
also seen an increase in the number.
On the other hand, MP has seen a decline in such cases.
While data for 2006 showed 4,214 cases were registered in the state
for crime against SCs, in 2005 the number was 4,222. The year 2004
witnessed the highest number with 4,699 cases being registered.
Among the seven Union Territories, the capital has recorded 21 such
cases, which is the highest number.
According to the figures available, the number of persons convicted
for crime against SCs under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989,
including all IPC crime, in 2005 were 12,468, which increased to
13,449 in 2006.
Dalits are one of the minorities that is repressed in India. The 150
million Muslims are killed at will in Kashmir and harassed in other
areas
http://rupeenews.com/2008/06/07/indian-hegemony-plans-kashmir-pakistan-in-the-way/
http://rupeenews.com/2008/06/08/india-hindu-extremist-states-have-most-anti-dalit-hate-crimes/
On Faith: Proselytizing as Cultural Imperialism
Washington, D.C. (March 5, 2010) -
As a guest blogger on the Washington Post/Newsweek's "On Faith" blog,
Professor Ramesh Rao, coordinator of HAF's humans right report and
professor at Longwood University, has the opportunity to provide a
Hindu viewpoint on various issues. Below is Prof. Rao's latest blog.
Please post your comments directly on the "On Faith" site by clicking
here.
Like many hundreds of millions of other Hindus, I also made sense of
our world as we visited temples and pilgrimage centers, and through
the rituals and rites performed and observed in our homes - from the
"annaprastha" ceremony (the feeding of the first solid food) for a
child to the "Brahmopadesham" ceremony (supreme teaching) for a young
boy, and the "vivaaha" ceremony (marriage) for a young man and woman,
to the "shraaddha" ceremony (ritual that one performs to pay homage to
one's ancestors, and especially to one's dead parents). As a young boy
my connectedness to the world, and my sense of place and belonging
were shaped by the rhythms of devotional songs heard early in the
morning as my grandfathers perambulated in front of the Gods, lit
lamps, and sang beseeching God's grace and protection.
That is how I learned about my religion and accepted my religious
identity, and in some similar manner that is how the rest of the world
does too. This identity shaping contributes to one's self-esteem, and
a healthy self-esteem is essential for us to prosper and live our
lives productively. It is reported that loss of faith can lead to
anger, resentment, emptiness, despair, sadness, and isolation, and the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) identifies
loss of faith as a religious problem. And there are studies that show
that immigrants, in a new country, and unmoored from their religious
and cultural context, suffer from anxiety, stress, and depression.
Enter left, the proselytizer, thumping a book, decrying "false" Gods,
promising heaven if you accepted the "one, true, Lord and savior".
Over the past two thousand years, proselytizers have roamed the world,
converting people by hook or by crook, making unverifiable claims,
robbing people of their cultures and their Gods, sowing conflict and
dissent in once cohesive tribes and communities, and most damagingly,
inflicting a heavy loss on the self-esteem of souls harvested for the
"Lord". As professor Regina Schwartz has argued, the "... Bible has
left us a legacy of intolerant thinking about other peoples, and it
has authorized such intolerance as the will of God. That is how it has
had effects on religious, racial, and ethnic conflicts around the
globe." The world's two most "powerful" religions - Christianity and
Islam - are monotheistic creeds that seek of their followers
allegiance to one God, and seek to convert others to believing in the
one, true God - theirs. As Schwartz notes, "the injunction 'Thou shalt
have no other gods before me' turns into intolerance for other people
who may have other gods, or principles, or beliefs."
And while we now live in a different world where the old bloody sword
and scimitar cannot be used to "persuade" people to change their
religious identity, we now get the Bible thumpers and the Qur'an
dispensers who, in the guise of "freedom of religion," spread
intolerance, sow dissent, and rob the identities of the mostly poor,
illiterate, and innocent masses through a variety of wiles, not
excluding bribes, false promises, "love jihads," and so on. The poor
in India and Sri Lanka reeling from the loss of loved ones and their
livelihoods after the 2004 tsunami, and the millions of Haitians
struggling after the earthquake in January, saw a flood of young men
and women with Bible in one hand and a loaf of bread in the other,
promising liberation, heaven, and the good life, if they accepted the
Bible along with the bread. Hundreds of millions of dollars are pumped
into India by evangelical groups that have found in the new converts
in that country willing abettors to "identity theft".
One day, shopping at a Best Buy in Richmond, I was accosted by an
Indian who wanted some advice on buying video cameras. While the sales
people had tried to help, he found in me someone whom he could trust,
because my skin color matched his. I was glad to help, told him about
the cameras, and pointed out that some of the models were more
expensive but they came with certain features not available in the
less expensive ones. "Money is not a problem," he grinned, and that is
when I noticed that he was trailed by three or four rather sheepish
White companions. "I am from Andhra Pradesh, and I have come to meet
with some of my church supporters here," he told me. The south Indian
state of Andhra Pradesh, rife with caste conflicts, and home to many
tribal groups, is one of the largest recipients of foreign money
donated by church organizations. I saw first hand the result of the
quid pro quo between evangelical groups and their abettors and fellow
conspirators in India.
Much has been written about proselytism, and its rewards, wages, and
sins. What is not carefully studied are the effects of conversion on
individuals, families, tribes and communities. Some of my good and
very dear friends here who say they are against forced or coerced
conversion speak of the importance of "bearing witness" and how
exchanging one's beliefs is important for understanding each other,
and how such exchanges would enlighten us all. But I tell them that
they are not playing on a level field. What if they were poor and
Hindus came to them with rice in one hand and the Bhagavad Gita in the
other?
I have no problems if an old couple come knocking on my door on a
Sunday morning and hand me a booklet with the most hideous
descriptions of Hindu Gods and Goddesses. I smile and send them their
merry, uninformed way. I can pick 20 holes in each of Pat Robertson's
assertions. And I laugh myself silly watching the sweaty perorations
of bejeweled "reverends" on television channels. I am not poor or
needy, nor am I ignorant about the history of the world. However,
there are hundreds of millions in the country of my birth and
elsewhere who are indeed materially poor and who are indeed ignorant
of the bloody history of religious proselytism, and the effects of
religious conversion. The only wealth they have is their cultural and
religious identities. To rob them of that is indeed a crime, I tell my
friends.
Since everyone invokes Mahatma Gandhi these days, let me do so too.
What did he think of missionaries? He wrote, "If I had the power and
could legislate, I would stop all proselytizing. In Hindu households
the advent of a missionary has meant the disruption of the family
coming in the wake of change of dress, manners, language, food and
drink," (Collected Works, Vol 61, page 46-47). He had a lot more to
say about this conversion business, but I will end with this one: "I
hold that proselytization under the cloak of humanitarian work is
unhealthy to say the least. It is most resented by people here.
Religion after all is a deeply personal thing. It touches the
heart.... Why should I change my religion because the doctor who
professes Christianity as his religion has cured me of some disease,
or why should the doctor expect me to change whilst I am under his
influence?" (Young India: April 23, 1931)
The views expressed here are the personal views of Ramesh Rao, and do
not necessarily represent those of Longwood University or the Hindu
American Foundation.
On Faith: The Violence of Conversion
Minneapolis, MN (March 3, 2010) -
As a regularly featured blogger on the Washington Post/Newsweek's "On
Faith" blog, Dr. Aseem Shukla, member of HAF's Board of Directors, has
the opportunity to provide a Hindu viewpoint on various issues. Below
is Dr. Shukla's latest blog. Please post your comments directly on the
"On Faith" site by clicking here.
Q: Is there a problem with proselytism overseas by U.S. religious
groups? Isn't sharing one's faith part of religious freedom? When does
it cross the line into manipulation and coercion?
It is impossible for me to reconcile myself to the idea of conversion
after the style that goes on in India and elsewhere today. It is an
error which is perhaps the greatest impediment to the world's progress
toward peace. Why should a Christian want to convert a Hindu to
Christianity? Why should he not be satisfied if the Hindu is a good or
godly man? -- Mahatma Gandhi (Harijan: January 30, 1937)
If I had some good news--really good news that would help others--I
would eagerly want to share that news. Spread the word, pass it on,
share the joy. As Thomas Farr of the Berkely Center at Georgetown
wrote, "For those who believe they have access to such a Truth, the
desire to offer it to others is both natural and rational."
The problem, of course, is that we are dealing with matters of faith
and the experiential, rather than the empirical and rational. And we
are wrestling with not only the benign connotations of evangelism and
charity, but also with the incendiary vocabulary of hegemony,
religious imperialism, asymmetry and conversion.
The Georgetown meeting will only include Christians and Muslims--
sadly, none of the millions of Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and indigenous
traditions that are the targets of proselytism globally are included--
but it is also apropos. For only Christians and Muslims have a history
of displaying an often violent urge to share good news. Whether you
want to hear it or not never much mattered!
The Crusades or the Conquests, the Inquisition or the sword, the
results were the same: millions were forced to turn their backs on
their own faith and embrace another. Only the name of the God
changed.
Today, that same urge to persuade, convince and even coerce the good
news upon others remains; the methodology insidiously different, but
the result is the same.
Groups ranging from the overtly evangelical World Vision to quasi-
government entities such as the U.S. Commission on International
Religious Freedom (USCIRF), and many others even within our
government, firmly subscribe to the view that religious freedom
protects--rather mandates--unhindered access globally to carry out the
work of proselytism. Religious freedom is tantamount to freedom to
proselytize and convert.
Article 18 of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (UNDHR), is often held up as the rationale--the green light for
proselytization. That every individual "has the right to freedom of
thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to
change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in
community with others and in public or private, to manifest his
religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance."
But adherents of the pluralist religions--Dharma religions, paganism
and native religious traditions--have long argued that there is a very
basic asymmetry at play rendering the Declaration deeply flawed.
Abrahamic religions--the non-pluralist traditions--claim exclusivity
in their belief system's legitimacy as the only religious and
spiritual path and demand absolute adherence. In contrast, pluralist
religious traditions subscribe to a more expansive ethos--that one's
religion may not be the exclusive source of Truth and which
acknowledge the potential of multiple legitimate religious and
spiritual paths. Most pluralist religious traditions allow for the
assimilation of beliefs and traditions of another religion without
demanding repudiation of one's own religion or conversion to the
other.
This fundamental difference--that a pluralist accepts the injunction
of the ancient Rig Veda that, "Truth is One, but sages call it by
various names" while the non-pluralist demands that there is only One
Truth and all others are false and dangerous--renders the pluralist
vulnerable to the asymmetric force of the proselytizer. The pluralist
would find seeking converts or evangelizing others anathema--the
concept of conversion does not even exist--while the non-pluralist
seeks converts as a God given mandate.
Compound this asymmetry with the reality that the most prolific
proselytizers today comprise a multi-billion dollar megachurch
industry, and the previously colonized developing world is open ground
for this latest avatar of colonization. Witnesses from the hot spots
for global proselytism abound with testimony of access to education,
medical care, employment and other necessities being traded--often
subtle, and often not--on the marketplace of religious affiliation.
Most sinister, of course, is the overt bargaining of disaster supplies
or better hospital beds after tsunamis and earthquakes for those
willing to convert.
The pluralists protest, also, against the tactics of the
proselytizers. Christian missionaries in India appropriate Hindu modes
of worship, reconfigure traditional prayer rituals into Holy
Sacraments and sing hymns that are Hindu bhajans (prayer songs) with
words replaced sung to identical tunes.
The violence of conversion is very real. The religious conversion is
too often a conversion to intolerance. A convert is asked to repudiate
his sangha (community), reject the customs and traditions of his
family passed down for generations, and refuse to attend religious
ceremonies that are the very basis of daily life in much of the world.
A person's conversion begins a cascade of upheaval that tears apart
families, communities and societies creating a political and
demographic tinderbox that too often explodes.
Spreading hate against native religions is perhaps the most vile
tactic too often employed. And even the Catholic Church, with its
centuries old presence in India, has blasted the tactics of the new
proselytizers plying their trade today. In our own country, consumer
protection laws ensure that advertisers and retailers abide by truth-
in-marketing laws. There is no parallel protection in the rabid sales
in religious identity that the proselytizer markets overseas, and the
consumers are the victims.
And finally, there is the fact that the evangelical community can only
"pick on" the pluralist societies. India, Nepal, Cambodia, Taiwan and
much of Africa where indigenous traditions still hold sway, are among
the targets today for the next "harvest." The "Muslim world" rewards
conversion away from Islam with death, and in China, Russia Burma and
others, autocracy, the Orthodox Church or military junta proscribe
missionary work.
And so, the very democracy and openness of pluralistic societies
becomes their vulnerability--a poison pill as they face the onslaught
of the proselytizers. Today, the Native Americans of the U.S. and
Canada, the indigenous progeny of Latin America and Mexico, the
Aborigines in Australia are silent witness to lost religions and
decimated traditions that fell historically to earlier iterations of
these onslaughts.
It is in this spirit that many human rights activists and academics
today argue for an overdue amending of the UNDHR. The Hindu American
Foundation proposed in a letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights, on the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, that Article 18 be amended as follows (emphasis added):
§1 Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and
religion. This right shall include freedom tohave, retain or to adopt
a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually
or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his
religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.
§2 No one shall be subject to force, fraud and/or coercion, including
but not limited to harassment, intimidation or exploitation, including
but not limited to the conditioning of humanitarian aid or economic,
educational, medical or social assistance upon conversion and/or overt
denigration of other religions to intentionally promote religious
hatred and bigotry (hate speech) and violence, which would impair his
freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice.
The right to have and retain one's path to salvation is and must be as
important as the right to find or adopt a new way. It is time to
change the vocabulary in our engagement with religious freedom.
Religious freedom must mean a commitment to the true spirit of
pluralism, and not a license to those "bearing witness" and forcing
judgment.
Views expressed here are the personal views of Dr. Aseem Shukla, and
do not necessarily represent those of the University of Minnesota or
Hindu American Foundation.
http://www.hafsite.org/ViolenceofConversion
HAF Expresses Concern Over Penguin Group's Fact-Checking Process
New York, NY (February 23, 2010) -
The Hindu American Foundation sent the following letter to Penguin
Group's President, Susan Peterson Kennedy, in an effort to understand
the publisher's fact-checking process and standards for non-fiction
pieces, such as Wendy Doniger's The Hindus: An Alternative History. A
pdf of the letter can be downloaded by clicking here.
Dear Ms. Peterson Kennedy,
On behalf of the Hindu American Foundation (HAF), an advocacy
organization serving the Hindu American community, I am seeking an
understanding of the editorial and fact-checking standards that
Penguin Group (USA) applies to its pieces of non-fiction.
Specifically, it has come to the attention of HAF that The Hindus: An
Alternative History written by Professor Wendy Doniger and published
by Penguin Group (USA) contains a number of factual and historical
inaccuracies.
For brevity’s sake, I will refer to only a handful of factual errors
and mistranslations in this letter. A more comprehensive list can be
made available upon request.
Page, Paragraph
Error in The Hindus
Correction
67, 1
“But from about 2300 BCE the first urbanization took place, as great
cities arose in the valley of the Indus River…”
1. Archaeologists date the beginning of urbanization as early as 3200
BCE; 2. Evidence of the beginning of urbanization is not restricted to
the valley of the Indus River. Excavation in the Ghaggar Basin has too
revealed evidence of urbanization at the same time if not earlier than
in Harappa.
107, 3
“All the poems of the Rig Veda are ritual hymns in some sense. Since
all were sung as part of the Vedic ceremony.”
A considerable portion of the Rig Veda is not employed in ritual. See
Jan Gonda, 1978, Hymns of the Rgveda Not Employed in the Solemn
Ritual. (Amsterdam).
112, 2
“…but another [verse] says that a cow must be slaughtered on the
occasion of marriage (10.85.13)…”
A correct translation of the Sanskrit in Rigveda 10.85.13 is not that
the “cows are slaughtered”, but that the “cows are driven along”.
124, 2
“More substantial is the early evidence in this poem of a form of
rape that came to be regarded as a bad, but legitimate, form of
marriage: having sex with a sleeping or drugged woman.”
A correct translation and interpretation of the Sanskrit in Rigveda
10.162.5 that Doniger cites is a conversation between an evil spirit
assuming the form of her husband, brother or assuming the form of her
lover to come close to a pregnant woman to destroy her fetus. There
is no terminology in the mantra of sex with a sleeping or drugged
woman. The woman in the mantra is already pregnant and the entire hymn
contains imprecations against evil spirits who can cause her abortion.
130, 2
“Agni is the Brahmin, Varuna the Brahminical sovereign, Indra the
warrior, and the Ashvins the Vaishyas. There are no Shudra gods in the
Vedas.”
It is anachronistic to talk of castes of Deities in the context of
Rigveda.
Still, in Shatapatha Brahmana 11.2.7.16; 6.4.4.13, the devatas are
also divided into four castes. According to that text, Varuna is a
Kshatriya (not Brahmin). And Pushan is a Shudra Deity, contrary to
Doniger’s claim.
Jaiminiya Brahmana 1.68-69 associates Sudras with the Deity Vesmapati.
Sometimes, the Vishvedevas are also associated with the Shudras.
In light of the number of errors in The Hindus: An Alternative
History, HAF and its constituency are particularly concerned about
Penguin’s fact-checking process prior to the publication. We urge
Penguin to reexamine its fact-checking process for non-fiction pieces,
particularly for those, such as The Hindus: An Alternative History,
which present Hindu philosophy inaccurately and have the potential of
being highly offensive to a religious minority in the U.S.
Moreover, the Foundation suggests that Penguin, at minimum, respond to
the individual errors brought to your attention above and consult an
academic outside of the University of Chicago whose expertise is also
in the area of Hinduism and Ancient Indian history to cross-check
historical facts and translations, prior to any reprinting of this
book. HAF has regularly attended the American Academy of Religion
conferences to stay abreast of the latest research in the field of
Hindu studies and, as such, is familiar with the many academics, such
as Prof. Vasudha Narayanan of the University of Florida and Prof.
Arvind Sharma of McGill University, whose knowledge of Sanskrit,
Hinduism and ancient India is well respected not only in the field,
but by the Hindu community at large. I, along with our Board and
staff, will be more than happy to provide additional recommendations
to this end.
I look forward to your prompt response to this matter and sharing it
with Foundation’s members.
Thank you,
The Hindu American Foundation
http://www.hafsite.org/PenguinGroup
Open Letter: Ignoring Caste-Based Discrimination is not the Solution
Namaste,
I cannot begin to express my dismay at recently reading a piece by a
prominent leader of an international Hindu organization founded by
some of the most progressive Hindu leaders. The unfortunate piece
highlights a serious need for the Hindu community to awaken to the
realities of caste-based discrimination as it exists today.
To state that, "Untouchability is a bygone problem in our country
[India]. It is only the Church which has been harping on this
signature tune of their proselytisation agenda," ignores a very real
social evil that affects not only Hindus suffering under the archaic
practices, but Hindus worldwide, who must live with the knowledge that
our ancient Hindu teachings of tolerance, equality, love, compassion
and dignity are at odds with our society's actions. The reality is
that untouchability is a major problem in India, one in which
countless Hindus, including those from every major religious and
spiritual organization, have dedicated their lives to uplifting. The
problem of untouchability did not end with Swami Vivekananda's calls
for its elimination, Swami Dayananda Saraswati's casteless ideology of
Arya Samaj, Mahatma Gandhi's call for its eradication, nor the
enactment of the Indian constitution.
Claiming that it is no longer an issue makes a mockery of Hindus who
have dedicated their lives to its removal, working in every corner of
India, in slums and villages, in mountain towns to desert encampments,
from Mumbai to Calcutta, from Delhi to Chennai. It also ignores the
fact that every major Hindu religious leader, including Swami
Avdeshananda Giri, Swami Dayananda Saraswati and his AIM for Seva
movement, Swami Bodhinatha Veylanswami, Mata Amritanandamayi, Sri Sri
Ravi Sankar, Swami Tejomayananda, Pramukh Swami Maharaj, the
Shankaracharya of Kanchi, Swami Chidananda Saraswati and Dada Vaswani,
has called for the end of untouchability and in fact, suggests a gross
ignorance of these highly respected religious and spiritual leaders of
India and Hinduism.
Brushing aside the current caste problem in India with broad sweeps of
history, ignores the fact that not just Hindus, but huge numbers of
Indians, still face some level of caste discrimination on a daily
basis. Today, Hindus have the ability and capability to collectively
rid India of caste discrimination and untouchability. Accepting Hindu
society's current responsibility to do more for the caste problem does
not mean Hindus have to ignore the role of Islamic invaders, British
opportunists, Christian missionaries or Indian politicians in
furthering caste discrimination or the fact that caste discrimination
is a very gross reality in other religious and ethnic communities in
India and worldwide. Yet we still have leaders who, by refusing to
look at numerous studies on caste discrimination at face value and by
refusing to listen to the masses, prevent the strengthening of Hindu
society by their indifference. In many ways, these leaders actually
hinder Hindus from uniting. Thus, we urge Hindu leaders to look at the
situation with objective eyes, rather than through lenses clouded with
enmity from past invaders and current political machinations.
My own experiences, along with those of others at the Hindu American
Foundation (HAF), have been shaped by direct contact with villagers,
who despite being proud Hindus and who can recite the
Ramcharitamanas by heart, still are not allowed to enter there village
temples or socialize freely without others constantly reminding them
of their so-called low caste status. And similar experiences have been
shared by many others, spanning all social, religious, cultural,
linguistic, political and professional strata. These direct
experiences cannot be ignored or minimized. I hope that others will
speak out, as speaking out does not mean disrespect, but instead puts
our conscience and hearts for the future of Hindus worldwide and Hindu
dharma above blind respect for any particular leader.
HAF has also been working on its own report on caste discrimination,
to not only highlight the reality of the problem, but also to show
that while Hinduism is not the cause of the problem, it can be the
solution to the problem. This report will be released in several
months, and includes statements by prominent Hindu spiritual and
religious leaders who acknowledge this problem and clarify how
Hinduism can help resolve the social problem of caste discrimination.
Ignoring the problem will not resolve it. And so I urge the author of
that unfortunate piece to reexamine the realities of India,
acknowledge the social evil and use his leadership and prominence to
aid in eradicating caste-based discrimination.
Sincerely,
Mihir Meghani, M.D.
President and Co-Founder, Hindu American Foundation
http://www.hafsite.org/OpenLetter
Avatar Does Not "Raise Any Hackles" of Hindus
Upon the release of James Cameron's latest film, Avatar, the Chronicle
reached out to HAF's Houston coordinator, Rishi Bhutada, to hear his
thoughts on the reaction of the Hindu community.
New Movie Avatar Shines Light on Hindu Word
By Arlene Nisson Lasson for the Chronicle
Houston, TX (December 29, 2009) - In James Cameron's new film, Avatar,
the Titanic director creates a world where humans take on the form of
avatars to exist on a planet called Pandora. The humans that belong to
these avatars control them through technology, but some use their
powerful avatarbodies for evil as they try to ruin the resources of
the planet.
The term “avatar” might already be familiar to those who play virtual
reality games where avatars are movable images representing real
people.
Avatar's origins, however, come from the Sanskrit language in sacred
Hindu texts, and it's a term for divine beings sent to restore
goodness to Earth.
Hinduism, the third-largest religion in the world with about 1 billion
adherents, began many centuries ago on the Indian subcontinent, and a
majority of the world's Hindus reside in India.
Those who practice Hinduism recognize three main deities. Lord Brahma
is considered the creator of the universe; Lord Vishnu is considered
the sustainer of the universe, to right things when needed; and Lord
Shiva is the redeemer of the universe.
It is believed that these deities sent avatars — incarnations of
themselves in human form — to perform “dharma,” or righteous duty, to
right wrongs or to restore peace and goodness.
Hindu theology names 10 numbered avatars. Two of the most important
from Hindu scripture are Lord Rama, the seventh avatar of Lord Vishnu
and written about in the poem Ramayana; and Lord Krishna, written
about in the mythological poem Mahabharata.
The Mahabharata, the world's longest epic poem at more than 90,000
verses and one of the most important Hindu texts, tells of a battle
between bad forces and the Pandava family. The avatar Lord Krishna
appears to assist Arjuna, one of the five Pandava family brothers,
reveals his divinity to him and encourages him that it is his duty to
fight for right.
Illustrations of these Hindu avatars, which are magnificently detailed
and reflect an aura of divinity, are in stark contrast to Cameron's
alien-meets-robot-warrior look in the film.
Despite the very different avatar interpretations, local Hindus'
reverence for specific avatars from their scripture does not conflict
with how they are seeing the modern usage of the term.
“The way the term is now being used is not a distortion of my
beliefs,” said Anil Dandona, a practicing Hindu. “It is just a term.
We believe the Supreme Being sent humans to create righteousness.
These messengers of God take a human form, but they have godlike
qualities, and they are delegates sent to do a task.”
Rishi Bhutada, Houston coordinator of the Hindu American Foundation,
agreed with Dandona. He said that while Hindus use the term to mean an
alternative representation of the divine, using it to mean some other
representation does not “raise any hackles.”
“There are certain sacred terms that would offend Hindus if used
improperly, but avatar is not one of them,” Bhutada said.
Local filmmaker Ashok Rao, who has made four full-length feature
films, is looking forward to Cameron's film, and he feels that as long
as filmmakers do not insult the sensitivities of a particular
religion, then artistic license can be used.
“The film's use of avatar is a close relationship to the original
meaning. It is a word meaning reincarnation and isn't meant to always
mean a representative of God on Earth. It simply means one being in
another form.”
“In literature, moviemaking, poetry and other forms of art, something
is taken and stretched in meaning. That is art,” said Rao.
http://www.hafsite.org/AvatarMovie
Foundation Demands FX Network Apology: "The League" Episode Offensive
After receiving a litany of complaints from the Hindu American
community about a FX Network's "The League" episode entitled "The
Shiva Bowl," the Hindu American Foundation wrote a letter to the
President of FX Networks demanding an apology and greater sensitivity
for such gross transgressions on such deeply religious sentiments.
December 23, 2009
FX Networks, LLC
President - General Manager, Mr. John Landgraf
Senior VP Original Programming FX and EVP, FX Production, Mr. Eric
Schrier
10201 W. Pico Blvd., Bldg. 103
Los Angeles, CA 90035
Arvind Chandrakantan, MD
Executive Council, Hindu American Foundation
5268G Nicholson Lane # 164
Kensington, MD 20895
Dear Mr.Landgraf and Mr. Shrier,
The recent season finale of The League, The Shiva Bowl, which used
Nataraja, a sacred icon representing Lord Shiva in dancing form, as a
trophy was deeply offensive, disrespectful and profane towards
Hinduism. In an intensely crude scene, a woman's undergarments were
thrown on the image of Nataraja in the very beginning of the episode--
an unnecessarily provocative insult.
Hindus generally worship their murthis (images or icons of the Divine)
with flowers, incense, fruits and milk. While we understood the
transposition of Lord Shiva with Shiva, the girl who was the focus of
the episode, we believe that the subtlety of the transposition, and
purely unnecessary misuse of Hindu iconography perpetuates
misunderstandings about Hinduism. In the wake of global events and
escalating attacks on minority faiths, we believe misrepresentations
such as this are the seeds of ignorance which lead to untoward acts of
violence and persecution globally.
Just as viewers or producers would not blithely film a scene where a
woman's undergarments are hurled upon on a Star of David, an image of
Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary, or any other faiths' symbols for the
sake of a cheap laugh, a similar respect should be accorded to two
million American Hindus.
We request a written apology and explanation that we may disseminate
to our membership to explicate the filming of this episode that has
led to numerous calls of indignation to our offices. Additionally,
may we request that you avoid gross transgressions on such deeply
religious sentiments in the
future?
Yours Sincerely,
Arvind Chandrakantan,
MD
Executive Council, Hindu American Foundation
http://www.hafsite.org/node/453
"Promoting Understanding, Tolerance and Pluralism."
Balancing the "Righting" of History -
Hindu Americans Represent in Texas
Austin, TX (March 17, 2010) -
The Texas State Board of Education garnered new notoriety last week as
the influential body, comprised of non historians, advocated a sharp
right wing tilt in history textbooks published for state schools. And
the Board's widely condemned party line vote occurred even after
hearing spirited testimony and considering amendments from numerous
Texans including Hindu American Foundation (HAF) Texas Coordinator,
Rishi Bhutada, at the raucous meeting.
In his extensive testimony before the Board here, Bhutada sought to
ensure that Hinduism is portrayed as one of the oldest living world
religions and pressed for an amendment to remove a separate discussion
on the development of monotheism in the exclusive context of Judaism -
an addition made during one of the many rounds of the curriculum's
current drafting. Over 800 HAF supporters, mostly from Texas, sent
emails to the Board endorsing HAF's amendments aimed at clarity,
consistency and accuracy in the textbook process.
"The TEKS (Texas Education and Knowledge Skills) for all the major
world religions already included discussion of their origins and
central ideas, which would arguably cover development of monotheism
not only in the Judeo-Christian context but these other religions,"
stated Bhutada. "Special focus on monotheism could also paint a
misleading picture that monotheism is exclusive to Abrahamic religions
when Hinduism, which encompasses a complexity of theologies ranging
from panentheism to monotheism, would be left utterly misunderstood."
HAF also supported the Sikh Coalition in its push for the inclusion of
Sikhism in the new World History TEKS. The Sikh Coalition successfully
lobbied for the inclusion of Sikhism in sixth grade social studies and
world geography TEKS drafts last summer, but the world history
curriculum did not conform to these changes.
The 15-member board debated high school U.S. and world history over
the course of three days and in a 10 to 5 partisan vote, Republicans
on the Board prevailed in approving a draft of social studies
curriculum which stressed conservative views on American capitalism
and questioned the Founding Fathers’ commitment to the separation of
church and state.
"Unfortunately politics and propaganda have reigned supreme in the
TEKS process," said Suhag Shukla, HAF's Legal Counsel and Managing
Director. "Texas students will now learn a version of history,
especially relating to the crucial issue of the separation of church
and state, that is not supported by American jurisprudence or
history."
The final version of the Texas Education and Knowledge Skills will not
be approved until May of this year and whether the amendments proposed
by HAF and others were adopted is uncertain. To date, the latest
approved proposed curriculum had yet to be made public.
Bhutada and Shukla bemoaned the potential fallout of this latest vote
by the Texas School Board.
"If this brand of politics continue into adoption of science
curriculum as it has in states like Kentucky and Louisiana, we'll face
9th graders in India and China learning calculus and advanced
chemistry while American students question evolution," Bhutada added.
"And the impact could be devastating not only for Texas school
children, but the future of America as a competitor in the global
market."
"Promoting Understanding, Tolerance and Pluralism."
HAF Extends Support to New Jersey Hindu Family Targeted in Hate Crime
Washington D.C. (June 15, 2006) - The Hindu American Foundation
expressed dismay and shock at the hate attack on a Hindu family in
Wayne, New Jersey on June 1, 2006. The home of the family of five was
defaced with anti-Hindu and anti-Indian epithets spray-painted across
their driveway and house. Earlier in January, the family had been
targeted with hate mail as well as graffiti on their garage door.
New Jersey was witness to racially and religiously motivated attacks
against Indian-Americans and Hindu-Americans during the 1980’s. Young
men, identifying themselves as the “Dotbusters,” targeted Hindus
because Hindu women wore “dots” or “bindi” on their forehead – a
traditional mark that has both spiritual symbolism and aesthetic
appeal. The series of attacks ended in the murder of Indian-American
Navroze Mody.
New Jersey state records indicate that hate crimes have risen by 32
percent from 2003 to 2004. Fourteen of the victims were targeted
because of their Indian-American identity, while three were attacked
because of their Hindu faith.
"Hate crimes are reprehensible violations that must not be tolerated
in any community. I am confident that the Wayne Police Department will
actively work to bring the vandal or vandals to justice and end these
cowardly acts,” said Congressman Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), an official
representing Wayne in the U.S. Congress, in support of HAF’s
condemnation of the attacks. “No matter who the victim, hate crimes
are committed with the intention to divide communities. I join my
friends in Wayne as we stand in unity with the family that has been
victimized."
“It’s vital that Hindu and Indian-Americans join in support of this
family,” said Ishani Chowdhury, Executive Director of the Hindu
American Foundation. “We call upon law enforcement officials to
provide safety for the local Hindu American community, and to
apprehend the perpetrators.”
http://www.hafsite.org/?q=media/pr/haf-extends-support-nj-hindu-family-targeted-hate-crime
Press Release Hate Crimes
ADL Condemns Hate Crime Against Hindu
Boston, MA, June 25, 2003 .. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today
condemned the attack of an Indian graduate student in a deplorable
hate crime. While working in a part-time job delivering pizzas,
Saurabh Bhalerao, 24, was robbed, beaten, burned with cigarettes,
stuffed in a trunk and stabbed twice before being dumped along a road
in an attack that police and community leaders described as a hate
crime. The suspects in the attack mistook the Hindu man for a Muslim.
Allegedly while assaulting him, the suspects were berating him with
comments like, “go back to Iraq.”
Robert Leikind, ADL New England Regional Director, issued the
following statement:
This week, our community was shaken by a deplorable crime -- the
attack on Saurabh Bhalerao in New Bedford on Sunday. This act -- this
hate crime -- is evidence of a tragic reality. Hate remains a force in
our communities and it must be fought. In our diverse society, it
matters not whether the victim is Hindu, Muslim, Jewish or Christian.
People of all backgrounds need to work together to build a future that
we can be proud to pass on to our children and grandchildren.
The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading
organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that
counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.
http://www.adl.org/presrele/hatcr_51/4277_51.asp
Is the Mike Myers Love Guru Anti-Hindu or anti-Indian?
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information is stored securely only for as long as it is required for
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bademiyansubhanallah
The importance of Hindutva in the context of nationhood is yet to be
understood by many and remains unexplained to the youth. This needs to
change.
At a recent programme we had organised to induct youth volunteers as
supporters of the BJP, veteran RSS ideologue M.G. Vaidya and BJP
National President Nitin Gadkari presented their view of the specially
chosen topic for the day, ‘Hindutva and Politics’. In bringing up a
third dimension, I attempted to present the dilemma that is poised
before the younger members when they are confronted with the term
‘Hindutva’.
What emerged was that there is agreement on the need for
transliterating Hindutva for the younger set, if not all, although it
would seem that there is ample scope for including many more segments
within the reference.
My opening argument was about the conflict and complexity caused
around the term Hindutva and how the youth, particularly the more
modern in their outlook, were turning diffident about the concept
itself under the weight of popular public discourse. The President of
the BJP – and a lot of people thought he would duck the issue – made
short shrift of any illusions people had of any duality in his mind
about the subject declaring with clarity that the spirit of the BJP
was an embodiment of the spirit of Hindutva and it was not up for
debate. Having got that out of the way, his most remarkable
achievement on the day, seen from the viewpoint of the youth present,
was to project an integrated vision of the meaning of the term and its
relevance in the context of the political outlook of the BJP. His
brief remarks came before the redoubtable M.G. Vaidya and yet it did
not come as practiced or played to the gallery but with an easy
conviction and unpretentious verbiage. The outcome was deservedly
calming, as he con
cluded that understanding Hindutva in the context of an anti-muslim
mindset had to be eroded and the quintessential element of Hindutva –
of vasudhaiva kutumbakam – be reinforced within that mind space.
M.G. Vaidya evoked the essential nature of Hindutva as a ‘joiner’ and
reiterated the aspects that make nationhood synonymous with the
integral concepts of Hindutva – as derived from the way of life of the
people within the geography of what was called ‘Hindustan’. He
emphasized the seminal difference between nation and state and his
arguments buttressed that a commonality of views necessary on certain
issues of critical importance to the nation must not be confused with
or be given a communal twist.
The cumulative impact of the views from three polarities was an
interesting exercise in that all of us, almost serendipitously, felt
the lacuna in engagement on the issue, and at the same time hit upon
the importance of extending these dialogues as its very solution. Both
M.G. Vaidya and Nitin Gadkari emphasized the need to carry on this
series on the subject.
The moot point remains that the entire horizon of discourse on
Hindutva and its relationship with politics in public discourse for
very long has been slave to big media and the pseudo-liberal cartel.
Equally, that it will take a long term effort to engage the new youth
and reintroduce the subject with an eye on the realities of the time
to have some success. Consequently there is now a growing realization
among many people within and out of the party that Hindutva must be re-
interpreted in the context of the contemporary and that the symbiotic
relationship between Hindutva and the BJP must be explained in more
rational terms to an increasingly discerning youth.
The political ramifications of the unprecedented growth of the BJP
and its conjoined relationship with Hindutva remain one of the most
tenuous arguments of our time. But my early conclusion remains that
Hindutva needs to be owned more fully rather than less by the BJP.
This would help to speed up the process of denouement that would de-
mystify the term, the concept and the comprehensive meaning of the
word, and extend to explaining its rationale in political terms.
Hindutva is the life force of our civilization. It defines us as
distinct from the rest of the world – not better or worse, just
distinct. This sense of identity is necessary, both for reasons of the
concept of nation hood and also as an ideal we give our self. It does
not dismiss anyone’s personal faith: it merely posits a practical
reality of the general tenor of this land, its philosophical moorings,
its largest, most visible and expansive palette of beliefs and belief
systems.
The common weakness, to see Hindutva as an assertion of Hindu
dominance is mistaken not because it is patently irrelevant, but
because it is a regular feature of newly created nations to struggle
with a self image, much like an adolescent. Consequently, what is
erroneously called and reviled as Hindu pride is merely a growing
political consciousness of a people, as the ideas associated with
nationhood leach into the idea of statehood. It is not only a natural
process of growth, but actually invaluable in the management, and
protection, of the state.
One of the crucial realities of our times is the fact that national
integration is still a work in progress. This is hardly ever attended
to but the frequent conflagration of regional and linguistic or
geographical demands of identity are only symptomatic of the problem.
That allows us only two options as we struggle for an effective means
of integration : either a more federal structure that allows
increasing freedoms to states, or finding newer points of aggregation.
Hindutva is merely the latter until the state figures out what to do
with itself on the former.
But more than just an interim arrangement, as the earlier statement
might suggest, investing in the most common denominator of commonality
would sound to most reasonable people to be a logical step to take to
knit up the tapestry of diversity that we call our country. It stands
to reason that a common refrain like traditionally inherited
scriptures, or a cultural continuity of mythical beliefs is a sensible
palette to try and integrate otherwise distinct people. Hindutva
provides just that medium and barring the difficulties that we have in
a few states, this applies across the board. It takes a lot longer to
make a man in a remote village in Orissa or Jharkhand to understand
the idea of India and it takes no time to make him recognize his
common Hindu heritage. Hindutva is thus an overarching natural
strategy to unite, using the largest common denominator of cultural
affinities, that comes out of the lay of the land, not out of any
figment of imagined Hindu supremacy.
But half a decade of cocky secularism and the damage it has done is
only now beginning to heal while the essence of Hindutva has begun to
take root. It is both, a miracle and a testament to the indigenous
religious logic of the common beliefs of the people at large of India
that the country has not splintered. Those who would like to place the
credit for this feat at the door of a Nehruvian vision or Gandhian
thought would do better to remember that both streams intrinsically
emanated from the fount of Hindutva as well.
This blog post has appeared as an article in The Daily Pioneer of the
27th March 2010
~ by sanjaykaul on March 27, 2010.
http://sanjaykaul.wordpress.com/2010/03/27/hindutva-and-politics-time-for-a-three-dimensional-view/
Hindsight, Happenstance and Hindutva – Part 2
The evolution of Hindutva as a political instrument is a work in
progress.
While its opponents go berserk deriding Hindutva, they might be losing
sight of a critical development taking place before their eyes.
Put coarsely, the origins of the BJP’s growth, all through the muddled
years of the Hindu Mahasabha, the Jana Sangh and the Janata Party, can
be traced back to a sense of outrage at the successive political
regimes that sought to undermine the brilliance of India’s indigenous
culture at the altar of electoral advantage, in the guise of a well
crafted concept that has been variously referred to as secularism, or
more recently, as pseudo-secularism.
Secularism, in the Indian context, turned out a strange concoction of
tolerance based around a rejection of religion in political space – a
muddled version of gross Gandhianism bred with spotty western
liberalism and which for various reasons became an anthem for most of
the newbies of post independence India. Later it manifested itself as
a side-effect of the faux socialism of the Nehruvian age, through an
imposed sense of egalitarianism in a country unprepared for such
largesse when it had still to deal with immense inequities of almost
every conceivable parameter, particularly social and political.
Somewhere down the line, secularism degraded into a negation of the
implicit commonality of the identity of India with Hindu thought and
culture and became an armour to ward off any threat to the Congress’
hegemony of political space, using, most ironically, religion as its
most potent instrument when applied to minorities, particularly
Muslims.
While it can be argued that this was a natural corollary to Congress’
near total control of legitimate political space in post independence
India, it was, in fact, a typical abnormality of post-emancipation
political processes that left India without any alternate party for
governance after independence. Every nation that has had such a long
struggle for freedom and has negotiated with an occupying foreign
entity has roughly had the same experience, where the reactionary
forces which were more amenable to the occupants, slipped into post-
freedom slots of governance or political prominence. In effect, the
more fundamentalist the opposition to the foreigners, the lesser the
chances of such groups having a shy at political legitimacy, which in
most cases went to more middle of the road, ambivalent, malleable
combination of forces that made the evading foreign power’s loss look
more respectable.
Without going into the reasons for such phenomenon, for that is an
involved subject on its own, it was clear that an unorganized group
such as the pro-Hindutva votaries with such a strong streak of socio-
cultural nationalism, was always going to struggle for large scale
legitimacy when the engine of the freedom movement was all but
monopolized by better organised structures like the Congress and led
by pan-India leaders like Gandhi, later Nehru and others who secured
cross voter support due to an ambivalent approach to the issue of
nationalism, its meaning and its forms in a country still coming to
grips with the concept of pan-Indian aggregation.
Progressively, this feeling among Hindus of being marginalized in the
country of their origin – not socially, but politically – by using
almost every trick in the book of the British – emphasizing diversity
instead of commonality, underlining the divisions rather than the
overlapping cultures – began subtly, but in ensuing years, with
successive Congress governments more or less using the old Nehruvian
model for electoral profit, resulted in a consolidation of the sense
of cultural compromise – where to seem fair to a one legged man,
others were expected to limp too. The Congress’ avowed and much
vaunted secularism therefore has had less to do with a genuine
ideological belief in non-partisan religio-cultural expression and
more to do with electoral expediency, year after election year.
But the continuous corrosion of this theory, and its masterful re-use
and revitalization under Indira Gandhi until it became an alternate
dharma, caused much of what is seen as Hindu revivalism. In that
sense, the BJP is really a byproduct of the Congress – even as it is
its nemesis, and the rise and rise of this party over the last two
decades is truly spectacular in a historical perspective.
Whatever the debate suggests and however one may look at it, the
undeniable and interesting fact is that it took a modern time like the
twentieth century to see the Hindutva theme take centre stage. What
explains that? If democracy has only seeped in more penetratingly into
our socio-political system, if education has produced more aware,
liberal and rights-conscious people, if we have integrated even more
into a global system of liberal values, how do we explain the rise of
a party that is so often cornered by intellectuals and left wingers
and centrists as being a neophyte Hindu, rightist party with a lunatic
fringe and now even an extremist wing!
The question need not be whether the rise of the BJP is good or bad,
right or wrong: the question is, what explains the growing legitimacy
of the Hindutva theme, if it’s so bad for the polity and so dangerous
for democracy ?
~ by sanjaykaul on July 28, 2009.
3 Responses to “Hindsight, Happenstance and Hindutva – Part 2”
sanjaykaul said this on January 12, 2010 at 10:35 pm
I am not able to find Part 1 of your article. I want to read all 3
parts before I post my views.
Suresh Gupta said this on January 10, 2010 at 7:51 pm
Dear Sanjay,
I thought that I need to communicate with you on your blog because it
seems to me that whatever things I mailed to you could not be
understood. Let me be a little harsh to make you realize that as far
as I know, people in your organisation do not seem to be worth making
an impact on AAM AADMI’S mind. I heard that the BJP is looking to
transform it’s leadership by inducting the young brigade in the party.
But where are the youngsters in your party who could mitigate the
charisma of Mr. Rahul Gandhi, a leader blessed with royality, glamour,
goodwill and more.There are countless curses your party is facing at
the moment. Frankly speaking just like Congress (I), even your
Organisation comprises a bunch of selfish and greedy foxes. Mind it if
you do not transform your party and it’s agendas, beliefs, vision and
the people then it will be impossible for your Organisation to even
survive in the present context because the Italian Mother and her
Indian Son are growing stronger day by day. It is important that you
include the youth in your top creed. But caution! The young brigade
needs to be visionary who should spread the aroma of magnatic values,
integrity and farsightedness. Just like leaders of other political
parties, most of you are in politics to attain power, money and
influence, more precisely personal welfare and not the welfare of
people and generations to come.
Now only one agenda remains for you in the next elections which is
GOVERNANCE WITH A DIFFERENCE or BETTER GOVERNANCE because it is very
difficult now to prove the ruling pary bad as their leadership is in
clever hands. So think for the future once you get free from your
internal disputes.
Mann said this on August 13, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Heart Life
February 11, 2010
Why are liberals so condescending?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/04/AR2010020403698_pf.html
Gerard Alexander: Why are liberals so condescending?
By Gerard Alexander
Sunday, February 7, 2010; B01
Every political community includes some members who insist that their
side has all the answers and that their adversaries are idiots. But
American liberals, to a degree far surpassing conservatives, appear
committed to the proposition that their views are correct, self-
evident, and based on fact and reason, while conservative positions
are not just wrong but illegitimate, ideological and unworthy of
serious consideration. Indeed, all the appeals to bipartisanship
notwithstanding, President Obama and other leading liberal voices have
joined in a chorus of intellectual condescension.
It’s an odd time for liberals to feel smug. But even with Democratic
fortunes on the wane, leading liberals insist that they have almost
nothing to learn from conservatives. Many Democrats describe their
troubles simply as a PR challenge, a combination of conservative
misinformation — as when Obama charges that critics of health-care
reform are peddling fake fears of a “Bolshevik plot” — and the
country’s failure to grasp great liberal accomplishments. “We were so
busy just getting stuff done . . . that I think we lost some of that
sense of speaking directly to the American people about what their
core values are,” the president told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in a
recent interview. The benighted public is either uncomprehending or
deliberately misinformed (by conservatives).
This condescension is part of a liberal tradition that for generations
has impoverished American debates over the economy, society and the
functions of government — and threatens to do so again today, when
dialogue would be more valuable than ever.
Liberals have dismissed conservative thinking for decades, a tendency
encapsulated by Lionel Trilling’s 1950 remark that conservatives do
not “express themselves in ideas but only in action or in irritable
mental gestures which seek to resemble ideas.” During the 1950s and
’60s, liberals trivialized the nascent conservative movement.
Prominent studies and journalistic accounts of right-wing politics at
the time stressed paranoia, intolerance and insecurity, rendering
conservative thought more a psychiatric disorder than a rival. In
1962, Richard Hofstadter referred to “the Manichaean style of thought,
the apocalyptic tendencies, the love of mystification, the intolerance
of compromise that are observable in the right-wing mind.”
This sense of liberal intellectual superiority dropped off during the
economic woes of the 1970s and the Reagan boom of the 1980s. (Jimmy
Carter’s presidency, buffeted by economic and national security
challenges, generated perhaps the clearest episode of liberal self-
doubt.) But these days, liberal confidence and its companion disdain
for conservative thinking are back with a vengeance, finding energetic
expression in politicians’ speeches, top-selling books, historical
works and the blogosphere. This attitude comes in the form of four
major narratives about who conservatives are and how they think and
function.
The first is the “vast right-wing conspiracy,” a narrative made famous
by Hillary Rodham Clinton but hardly limited to her. This vision
maintains that conservatives win elections and policy debates not
because they triumph in the open battle of ideas but because they
deploy brilliant and sinister campaign tactics. A dense network of
professional political strategists such as Karl Rove, think tanks such
as the Heritage Foundation and industry groups allegedly manipulate
information and mislead the public. Democratic strategist Rob Stein
crafted a celebrated PowerPoint presentation during George W. Bush’s
presidency that traced conservative success to such organizational
factors.
This liberal vision emphasizes the dissemination of ideologically
driven views from sympathetic media such as the Fox News Channel. For
example, Chris Mooney’s book “The Republican War on Science” argues
that policy debates in the scientific arena are distorted by
conservatives who disregard evidence and reflect the biases of
industry-backed Republican politicians or of evangelicals aimlessly
shielding the world from modernity. In this interpretation,
conservative arguments are invariably false and deployed only
cynically. Evidence of the costs of cap-and-trade carbon rationing is
waved away as corporate propaganda; arguments against health-care
reform are written off as hype orchestrated by insurance companies.
This worldview was on display in the popular liberal reaction to the
Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election
Commission. Rather than engage in a discussion about the complexities
of free speech in politics, liberals have largely argued that the
decision will “open the floodgates for special interests” to influence
American elections, as the president warned in his State of the Union
address. In other words, it was all part of the conspiracy to support
conservative candidates for their nefarious, self-serving ends.
It follows that the thinkers, politicians and citizens who advance
conservative ideas must be dupes, quacks or hired guns selling stories
they know to be a sham. In this spirit, New York Times columnist Paul
Krugman regularly dismisses conservative arguments not simply as
incorrect, but as lies. Writing last summer, Krugman pondered the
duplicity he found evident in 35 years’ worth of Wall Street Journal
editorial writers: “What do these people really believe? I mean,
they’re not stupid — life would be a lot easier if they were. So they
know they’re not telling the truth. But they obviously believe that
their dishonesty serves a higher truth. . . . The question is, what is
that higher truth?”
In Krugman’s world, there is no need to take seriously the arguments
of “these people” — only to plumb the depths of their errors and
imagine hidden motives.
But, if conservative leaders are crass manipulators, then the rank-and-
file Americans who support them must be manipulated at best, or stupid
at worst. This is the second variety of liberal condescension,
exemplified in Thomas Frank’s best-selling 2004 book, “What’s the
Matter With Kansas?” Frank argued that working-class voters were so
distracted by issues such as abortion that they were induced into
voting against their own economic interests. Then-Vermont Gov. Howard
Dean, later chairman of the Democratic National Committee, echoed that
theme in his 2004 presidential run, when he said Republicans had
succeeded in getting Southern whites to focus on “guns, God and gays”
instead of economic redistribution.
And speaking to a roomful of Democratic donors in 2008, then-
presidential candidate Obama offered a similar (and infamous) analysis
when he suggested that residents of Rust Belt towns “cling to guns or
religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant
sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their
frustrations” about job losses. When his comments became public, Obama
backed away from their tenor but insisted that “I said something that
everybody knows is true.”
In this view, we should pay attention to conservative voters’
underlying problems but disregard the policy demands they voice; these
are illusory, devoid of reason or evidence. This form of liberal
condescension implies that conservative masses are in the grip of
false consciousness. When they express their views at town hall
meetings or “tea party” gatherings, it might be politically prudent
for liberals to hear them out, but there is no reason to actually
listen.
The third version of liberal condescension points to something more
sinister. In his 2008 book, “Nixonland,” progressive writer Rick
Perlstein argued that Richard Nixon created an enduring Republican
strategy of mobilizing the ethnic and other resentments of some
Americans against others. Similarly, in their 1992 book, “Chain
Reaction,” Thomas Byrne Edsall and Mary D. Edsall argued that Nixon
and Reagan talked up crime control, low taxes and welfare reform to
cloak racial animus and help make it mainstream. It is now an article
of faith among many liberals that Republicans win elections because
they tap into white prejudice against blacks and immigrants.
Race doubtless played a significant role in the shift of Deep South
whites to the Republican Party during and after the 1960s. But the
liberal narrative has gone essentially unchanged since then — recall
former president Carter’s recent assertion that opposition to Obama
reflects racism — even though survey research has shown a dramatic
decline in prejudiced attitudes among white Americans in the
intervening decades. Moreover, the candidates and agendas of both
parties demonstrate an unfortunate willingness to play on prejudices,
whether based on race, region, class, income, or other factors.
Finally, liberals condescend to the rest of us when they say
conservatives are driven purely by emotion and anxiety — including
fear of change — whereas liberals have the harder task of appealing to
evidence and logic. Former vice president Al Gore made this case in
his 2007 book, “The Assault on Reason,” in which he expressed fear
that American politics was under siege from a coalition of religious
fundamentalists, foreign policy extremists and industry groups opposed
to “any reasoning process that threatens their economic goals.” This
right-wing politics involves a gradual “abandonment of concern for
reason or evidence” and relies on propaganda to maintain public
support, he wrote.
Prominent liberal academics also propagate these beliefs. George
Lakoff, a linguist at the University of California at Berkeley and a
consultant to Democratic candidates, says flatly that liberals, unlike
conservatives, “still believe in Enlightenment reason,” while Drew
Westen, an Emory University psychologist and Democratic consultant,
argues that the GOP has done a better job of mastering the emotional
side of campaigns because Democrats, alas, are just too intellectual.
“They like to read and think,” Westen wrote. “They thrive on policy
debates, arguments, statistics, and getting the facts right.”
Markos Moulitsas, publisher of the influential progressive Web site
Daily Kos, commissioned a poll, which he released this month, designed
to show how many rank-and-file Republicans hold odd or conspiratorial
beliefs — including 23 percent who purportedly believe that their
states should secede from the Union. Moulitsas concluded that
Republicans are “divorced from reality” and that the results show why
“it is impossible for elected Republicans to work with Democrats to
improve our country.” His condescension is superlative: Of the
respondents who favored secession, he wonders, “Can we cram them all
into the Texas Panhandle, create the state of Dumb-[expletive]-istan,
and build a wall around them to keep them from coming into America
illegally?”
I doubt it would take long to design a survey questionnaire that
revealed strange, ill-informed and paranoid beliefs among average
Democrats. Or does Moulitsas think Jay Leno talked only to
conservatives for his “Jaywalking” interviews?
These four liberal narratives not only justify the dismissal of
conservative thinking as biased or irrelevant — they insist on it. By
no means do all liberals adhere to them, but they are mainstream in
left-of-center thinking. Indeed, when the president met with House
Republicans in Baltimore recently, he assured them that he considers
their ideas, but he then rejected their motives in virtually the same
breath.
“There may be other ideas that you guys have,” Obama said. “I am happy
to look at them, and I’m happy to embrace them. . . . But the question
I think we’re going to have to ask ourselves is, as we move forward,
are we going to be examining each of these issues based on what’s good
for the country, what the evidence tells us, or are we going to be
trying to position ourselves so that come November, we’re able to say,
‘The other party, it’s their fault’?”
Of course, plenty of conservatives are hardly above feeling superior.
But the closest they come to portraying liberals as systematically
mistaken in their worldview is when they try to identify ideological
dogmatism in a narrow slice of the left (say, among Ivy League faculty
members), in a particular moment (during the health-care debate, for
instance) or in specific individuals (such as Obama or House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi, whom some conservatives accuse of being stealth
ideologues). A few conservative voices may say that all liberals are
always wrong, but these tend to be relatively marginal figures or
media gadflies such as Glenn Beck.
In contrast, an extraordinary range of liberal writers, commentators
and leaders — from Jon Stewart’s “Daily Show” to Obama’s White House,
with many stops in between — have developed or articulated narratives
that apply to virtually all conservatives at all times.
To many liberals, this worldview may be appealing, but it severely
limits our national conversation on critical policy issues. Perhaps
most painfully, liberal condescension has distorted debates over
American poverty for nearly two generations.
Starting in the 1960s, the original neoconservative critics such as
Daniel Patrick Moynihan expressed distress about the breakdown of
inner-city families, only to be maligned as racist and ignored for
decades — until appalling statistics forced critics to recognize their
views as relevant. Long-standing conservative concerns over the perils
of long-term welfare dependency were similarly villainized as
insincere and mean-spirited — until public opinion insisted they be
addressed by a Democratic president and a Republican Congress in the
1996 welfare reform law. But in the meantime, welfare policies that
discouraged work, marriage and the development of skills remained in
place, with devastating effects.
Ignoring conservative cautions and insights is no less costly today.
Some observers have decried an anti-intellectual strain in
contemporary conservatism, detected in George W. Bush’s aw-shucks
style, Sarah Palin’s college-hopping and the occasional conservative
campaigns against egghead intellectuals. But alongside that, the fact
is that conservative-leaning scholars, economists, jurists and legal
theorists have never produced as much detailed analysis and commentary
on American life and policy as they do today.
Perhaps the most important conservative insight being depreciated is
the durable warning from free-marketeers that government programs
often fail to yield what their architects intend. Democrats have been
busy expanding, enacting or proposing major state interventions in
financial markets, energy and health care. Supporters of such efforts
want to ensure that key decisions will be made in the public interest
and be informed, for example, by sound science, the best new medical
research or prudent standards of private-sector competition. But
public-choice economists have long warned that when decisions are made
in large, centralized government programs, political priorities almost
always trump other goals.
Even liberals should think twice about the prospect of decisions on
innovative surgeries, light bulbs and carbon quotas being directed by
legislators grandstanding for the cameras. Of course, thinking twice
would be easier if more of them were listening to conservatives at
all.
Gerard Alexander is an associate professor of politics at the
University of Virginia. He will be online to chat with readers on
Monday, February 8, at 11 a.m. Submit your questions and comments
before or during the discussion. On Monday, he will also deliver the
American Enterprise Institute’s Bradley Lecture, “Do Liberals Know
Best? Intellectual Self-Confidence and the Claim to a Monopoly on
Knowledge.”
© 2010 The Washington Post Company
FD HIDDEN DIV
http://climber.wordpress.com/2010/02/11/why-are-liberals-so-condescending/
March 1, 2009...9:11 PM
What’s the Difference Between a Liberal and a Conservative?
We hear this question often in our lives, if we are a political person
ourselves.
I recently heard a response to this question that I disagree with but
I still believe desires to be heard. I am afraid I cannot offer it as
anything but anecdote.
Response: “Think in terms of kind and unkind.”
While this sentiment starts to address the huge gap between these
ideologies it only touches the most bare and stereotypical edges of
the matter.
It is hard to identify one single clear ‘line in the sand’ on this
issue to illustrate and thus it becomes a little troublesome to answer
simply.
The truth of the matter is more that historically both liberals and
conservatives morph and relocate themselves throughout the political
spectrum in all nations. Only certain key values and standards define
each group and it is easier to grab one specific location and
timeframe than to just say all liberals or conservatives are so.
Modern American liberals are clearly defined against modern American
conservatives in terms of their views of separation of church and
state.
Modern American liberals are clearly defined against modern American
conservatives in terms of their views of the use of military budgets
and international policies.
These kind of statements are the only real response to this question
and it is obviously verbose to try to answer this question with what
sounds like reading a textbook at someone.
It is said sometimes that these groups are defined by the members they
attract. I believe this only partly defines the ideology and the
group. The common views and desires are the true backbone of every
movement.
Some claim the liberal movements to attract the more ‘fringe’ elements
of society while conservative attracts a more ‘common’ element of
society.
That may have been true in days past but in our world, right now, the
conservative movement has attracted the truly fringe elements of our
society in the past national campaign and to this day on talk radio
and certain websites. Unquestionable willful destruction of non-
partisan debate is expressly un-American.
I think my answer to this question is more like an answer one might
get from Yoda or some wandering mystic.
“Ask me again when you know which one you are.”
I think if someone is even asking they are just fresh into politics
and all political types, even myself, must claw backwards into our
memories to a time when we were apolitical and remember that nobody
comes out of the womb with a position on taxation rates.
We form all these things we call ‘opinions’ as we go. So cut a break
to people who were spacing out on their nation when we needed them the
most because we still need them now that they are paying attention.
http://ericlightborn.wordpress.com/2009/03/01/difference-between-a-liberal-and-a-conservative/
Focus TV_22.03.2010
Watch Video: (Hindi)
http://vodpod.com/watch/3296074-focus-tv22-03-2010?pod=sanjaykaul
P7 News_23.03.2010
Watch Video: (Hindi)
http://vodpod.com/watch/3296073-p7-news23-03-2010?pod=sanjaykaul
Left is Right. Right is Wrong.
How leftists and pseudo-liberals have crowded out debate in public
discourse in an attempt to muzzle the right by their obdurate head
butting. But things are changing.
These two pithy statements are actually modern aphorisms, and as
attractively poised in their contradiction as they may look, there is
a seminal synonymity between them if we were to go by the modern
version of liberalism – a stark polarization where, without much
evidence, leave alone logic, conservative is taken to mean retrograde
and liberal, progressive.
The liberal occupies centre stage in public discourse not because he
or she represents the larger, more popular or truer view of things but
because he or she has claimed to occupy – from the time of Moses, it
might seem – what is called the moral high ground. And since
occupation is nine tenth of the law, dislodging them has not been
easy. To that extent it is also anomalously interpreted that there can
be only one moral high ground, viz., the ground beneath their feet,
which in a reasonably diverse environment of views and counterviews
would seem absurd because it contradicts itself – morality is not an
absolute idea – one man’s….you know, all that.
But idealism is a fine art, and the liberals excel at it. Ah!, the
glorious irresponsibility of articulating an unattainable objective,
of painting a surreal picture, citing an impossibility. As a matter of
strategy, liberals always deal in larger issues, macro positions and
paint landscapes that arch from biblical rhetoric to genteel fussiness
but the arguments posited by them almost always fail in real time, in
the context of real life values. The rightist, on the other hand,
deals with the actual – his views are more realistic – the behaviour
of man in his relationship with others – the physiological, the
psychological or the spiritual dimensions of what affects him and his
life directly, socially, politically and which shapes his operating
opinions, not subjective views.
The constant lecturing by the liberals, the centrists and left of
centrists, sooner or later transforms into a symphony of agreed,
standardized, boxed and labeled views that have the potential of
paralyzing the body politic by their sheer sonority. Then there are
trained liberals who have spent years spinning on the wheel of western
value judgements until their rules apply to all. In the Indian context
particularly, most of what we know as liberalism is an acquired taste
– remnants of a political regime that was constantly at odds with its
self image and tried to impose a new reality on the consciousness of
the people even though it militates against the grain of the people.
It was part of the new servitude to a new culture, an imported,
contrived philosophy that got its respectability from the west but
only after cauterizing the flavour of the celebrated liberalism of the
Hindus.
The brotherhood of liberals is as much a multinational burger chain as
anything, for it is sustained by a commonality of view that breaches
borders irrespective of applicability and indeed, raison d’etre. A
conservative [rightist] in the context of the west – say the US or UK
– is epitomized by highly polarized views on specific issues –
taxation, abortion, security, immigration, religion – and an equal
intolerance for the opposite. India never had a tradition of such
intolerance due to the syncretic nature of Hinduism and to that extent
it could be argued that peddling liberalism in India has actually
served only to push people into more rightist positions than were
necessary, had a natural course been followed. For evidence I present
to you the rise of Hindutva, the celebrated term ‘pseudo-secular’ and
the attendant political diffusion that had since given rise to the
forces supporting the BJP.
But the liberal is not singly powerful. They hunt in packs. They act
in concert, being a cartel as I have argued, paralyse debate with
their pre-programmed, regurgitated content that is inbuilt with a
machinery of psychological keys, subtle inflexions and caustic
innuendos designed to shock and awe, but mostly to hawk and shove,
being peddlers essentially.
As is always the case with equal and opposing forces, Liberals too are
nothing more than an international cartel, intolerant of any view
other than their own and in a democratic milieu they exhibit
illustratively anti-democratic, even phobic behaviour. Liberals, it is
said, argue for freedom and choice – they actually subvert it, for
while their motive scould be assigned to a childish love of variety,
with their extremist commitment to the idea of freedom they are
eventually beholden to encourage splinter groups, even separatists and
insurgents, rendering the state susceptible to balkanization,
weakening it and endangering the very freedom that comes with secure
boundaries and which they love so much to uphold. It is suggested that
liberals represent openness to change and new ideas – I propose that
it is in fact the exact opposite. Liberals refuse to see change except
from where they stand, in which case it is not a predilection for
change at all – more a resistance to it unless it conforms to their
pre-existing views and stand point.
It is also not as if all of this were harmless banter. The liberal
with his lack of realism, insensitivity to time and effort, muddled
understanding of intent and subject often debauches the dialogue to
the detriment of entire nations, not to speak of people. This
intractable linkage predicts that the liberal will trade tomorrow’s
disaster for today’s relative peace. Remember he does not deal in
solutions, but in positions; not in time but in relativity, not in
qualifiable transactions, but in genial intransigence – anything, in
other words, to not disturb the status quo, even if it means sleeping
through a crisis, with the gumption of calling a more concerned fellow
citizen alarmist should he raise a cry.
History is replete with examples of how much damage this can do – we
don’t have to look far – our most prominent military and foreign
affairs failures have stemmed from this weakness. Now the spectre of
tangoing with Pakistan at the Foreign Secretary talks even as they
blow up bakeries in town is yet another shining example of the
paralysis of independent thinking that liberals induce. To the
argument, so should we stop talking to Pakistan is the answer: at
least have the same self respect that the US reserves for itself. Our
law and order and internal security apparatus is also moribund for the
simple reason that the stranglehold of the liberal lobby won’t allow
progress. Look at the priorities of the liberals who sweated blood at
the thought of a recent movie screening being blocked, against the
backdrop of the blood that spilled in Pune merely because once again,
the liberals forced the government to take its eye off the target.
Guarding cinema hall premiers became a greater testament to our
nationhood than guarding our cities.
It would be naive to suggest that the rise of the liberals is merely
due to the junta or the sheer brilliance of their methods or the depth
of their cadres. The right too, in India has for long served their
interest in as much as not speaking up, not speaking up enough, or not
speaking up in a language that would challenge their methods. They
have been in thrall of the liberals for some time now and some are
finding it difficult to maintain the balance and poise required to
counter their subtle tactics while some are still hesitating to come
out of the closet, or having come out, have frequent bouts of
withdrawal and keep rethinking positions worrying about their approval
ratings – in a strange quirk – among the very liberals they decry! –
the same dodgy professors in moth eaten tweed jackets and scruffy
jhola wallahas who revel in their penury of new ideas.
Leftist, and left of centre demagogues have wreaked havoc on the
intellectual temperament of the Indian people for close to half a
century, where the state’s writ, composed by them, has run riot with a
people’s conscience, their sense of self and identity – the vein and
sap of personality.
The earlier success of the liberals and the left liberals in crowding
our text books with their version of Indian social history is also a
classic reason for this: most of my generation had to lose thirty
years of conditioning to even emerge from the chrysalis and find in
the kernel of Hindu thought the real tone, tenor and import of
liberalism. It took that much time to also realize that we don’t need
to be at odds with who we are and how we think and that we can’t be
judged or judge on the basis of western thought and philosophy.
Besides it could be said with some certainty that a large body of
western liberal philosophical theory is beholden to the tenets of
Hindu thought for the very version they come back to sell back to us
through their re-sellers. Consequently, it is a fact that it takes a
longer growth curve to find oneself before being lumped as a rightist:
the liberal has merely to walk the course set by his predecessor
masters: the rightist has to take a u-turn after all is said and done
and come back to his roots and almost start again.
The Hindu’s traditional aversion for conflict, a quality not many
cultures can claim, is also part of the misconception that his views
are in subtle consonance with the liberals as they preen around in our
country in borrowed clothes. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
It is intrinsic in the make of our people to be able to revel in
dichotomy: what looks like a contradiction to a westerner is often
merely two sides of the coin to an Indian. Remember the Hindu can
handle two kinds of truths; and at the same time too! To people with
one God, the idea of many Gods is abhorrent. And there starts the
trend of intolerance that is spawned by undercover fascism,
masquerading as liberalism.
The marginalization of pseudo-liberals in India is a given not because
of rising rightism, but because it was never a really original product
and its moorings were always suspect. It is for just that reason that
the scope of such liberals has constantly reduced and now their most
celebrated festivals are things like valentine’s day, a Gujarat riot
court hearing, a shahrukh khan flick or some cute indo-pak music
festival.
But this trend is changing and a new breed of ‘write-ists’ must
emerge, who will redefine liberalism vis-à-vis conservativeness, left
from right, and right from wrong. They must underline that in the
Indian context, the right is more centre than the liberal. They must
shift the fulcrum of the equation and lay down the new fundamentals of
bipolar debate in the context of India, where moderation must now be
tempered with a bias for self preservation, where centuries of socio-
political erosion must be stemmed with a new apparatus of definitions,
where indigenous political awakening must sear through the mask of
pseudo-liberalism and give birth to a more realistic version of active
liberalism, more commonly called the middle path, more commonly known
as our gift to the world.
This piece has also appeared in an edited version under a different
headline in The Daily Pioneer of 20th Febryary, 2010
~ by sanjaykaul on February 20, 2010.
One Response to “Left is Right. Right is Wrong.”
Absolutely brilliant!
A piece of advice, though unsolicited,the entire media [print and
electronic] is not only anti-BJP but also anti-Hindu. Therefore I wish
BJP projects articulate people on TV and rebutts all the trash written
in the print media.
R SUNDERARAJAN said this on March 20, 2010 at 11:00 am
http://sanjaykaul.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/left-is-right-right-is-wrong/comment-page-1/#comment-62
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‘Modi has said nobody is above law and he has kept his word’
Express news service
Posted: Sunday , Mar 28, 2010 at 0253 hrs
New Delhi:
After Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s questioning for over five
hours by the SIT on Saturday, the BJP said Modi, by his action, had
proved that he believed in supremacy of law of the land, even as the
main opposition party made a strong case for “autonomous functioning
of institutions in the country”.
Modi has twice been mentioned as prime ministerial material by BJP
president Nitin Gadkari, and at the recent party conclave, Modi’s name
(along with a couple of other leaders) were described by the BJP
president as party’s “future prospects”.
After Modi’s appearance before the SIT, two divergent currents were
seen in the central BJP on Saturday.
BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy spoke more in terms of Modi’s
personality. Rudy said Modi (through his appearance before SIT) “had
demolished mischievous speculation about him” and that his “graceful
action vindicated BJP’s position” and that it appeared that “SIT team
is tired, Modi is not”.
Another spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman, who was officially fielded by
the party to address the media after Modi’s deposition, talked in
terms of “supremacy of institutions”. “Modi has said that nobody is
above the law and he has kept his word,” Sitharaman said. “The SIT was
formed by the Supreme Court. We should allow the courts to function
and learn to respect institutions,” she said, adding that Modi was
assisting SIT in the probe and that he had not been summoned by it.
She also reminded the Congress about its track record on “respecting
institutions” in the country.
She also slammed Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily for reportedly
suggesting that Modi should co-operate with SIT, implying that one
institution must not interfere in the functioning of another
institution. She also reminded the Congress that “there were hardly
any convictions in the 1984 riots” whereas “several people have
already been convicted in the 2002 riots in Gujarat”. The main
opposition also accused the media of being driven by activists
pursuing the 2002 riots case.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/modihassaidnobodyisabovelawandhehaskepthisword/596606/0
Babri demolition: Cong reacts cautiously to testimony of IPS officer1
ANI
Posted: Saturday , Mar 27, 2010 at 1211 hrs
New Delhi:
An IPS officer incharge of Advani's security during the Babri
demolition has said that the leader gave inflamatory speeches.
The Congress party has reacted with caution to the deposition of
senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Anju Gupta, who was L K
Advani's security officer during the demolition of the Babri Masjid on
December 6, 1992.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said Gupta's statement
before a court in Rae Bareilly is crucial in convicting the guilty.
"This (Anju's deposition) is the first official, direct eyewitness
testimony in legal and technical sense in this (Babri mosque
demolition case) matter. We must exercise restrain and respect the
process of law," said Singhvi.
"But, it is extremely serious and, it is extremely important and
provisions (of law) involved are extremely serious," he added.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) refused to comment saying the matter
is subjudice.
"This kind of issue (eyewitness account) has also come before the
Liberhan Commission. We would not like comment on the judicial process
and her (Anju's) testimony in the court," said Ramnath Kovind, a
spokesperson of the BJP.
Earlier on Friday, Anju Gupta told a Rae Bareilly Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI) court that Advani delivered incendiary speeches on
December 6, 1992, asserting that the temple would be built at the same
place.
"She (Anju) has told in the court in detail all the happenings of that
day (December 6, 1992). I have completed my (process of witness)
examination. I think nearly 60 questions were asked which have been
replied. Now, the argument has begun. The honourable court has fixed
23 April for further hearing," said Public Prosecutor P K Chaubey.
Immediately after the riots in 1993, Gupta had told the Central Bureau
of Investigation (CBI) how Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and
the rest had expressed delight over the demolition of the mosque.
CBI Director Ashwani Kumar had reportedly written to Cabinet Secretary
K Chandrashekhar urging him to release Gupta for the important hearing
on the Babri Mosque demolition case.
A special Ayodhya court in Rae Bareilly had earlier discharged Advani
on the plea that charges against him were based on mere suspicion. The
CBI dropped the charge of criminal conspiracy - Section 120 B of the
Indian Penal Code (IPC) - in its revised charge sheet submitted before
the Rae Bareilly court on the directives of the Allahabad High Court.
The revised chargesheet contained relatively milder sections under the
Indian Penal Code - Sections 153-A, 153-B (propagating communal
violence), 147, 149 (rioting) and 505 (spreading ill-will). This was
believed to be the result of CBI''''s failure to press the charges
strongly.
4 Comments |
congress is staging this drama
By: MT | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 21:05:43 PM
congress is staging this drama to divert peoples attention from
inflation and nuclear liability bill
Why 18 long years ?
By: Gopal | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 20:43:17 PM
Why did this IPS officer wait for such a long time to tell the court,
when the case has been going on for years. If she really stands by
law, she should have deposed long back.Was she under pressure then or
is she now, is a mute question. In any case, 1984 is much prior to
1992.
Anju Gupta Rizvi
By: desi nerd | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 19:55:00 PM
Why dont they publish the full name of the IPS officer and the fact
that her husband Rizvi is the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) of P
Chidambaram.
Court decision is all and above
By: Ravishkumar | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 18:11:22 PM
Court decision should be all and above,however as the matter is under
subjudice,so one should avoid oneself from making any public comment
about it.As it has become customary in our country that everyone try
to take political benefit anyhow.But it should be avoided as far as a
serious matter is under consideration.So,just don't think only about
your political benefit,go deep inside the seriousness of the subject
matter.
Iron Man Advani
By: V.Narayanaswamy | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 16:50:43 PM
Advani is in politics for his self interest. When Babri Masjid was
demolished he had shed crocadile tears is evident from the testimony
of the IPS officer. As Home Minister he was not aware that Jaswant
Singh was to accompany the terrorists to Kandahar. In the Jinnah
episode he wanted a good Character certificate from Pakistan to be
trumpted in India. When Mohan Bhagwat appointed Sushma Swaraj as the
Leader of the Opposition in place of Advani, it was widely believed
that he would hang up his boots. The Rath Yatri Advani has accepted
the superfluous post of Chairman of the Parliamentary Party. He is
BJP's Bhishma Pitamah. He truely deserves a Bharat Ratna. If tomorrow
Sushma Swaraj becomes Prime Minister, he may accept of Param Mukhya
Pradhan Mantri.
Advani is Patriot
By: Pankaj | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 16:28:41 PM
Mr Advani is true patriot. He lived his life for the country. I wish
people of this country acknoledge his service to this country and give
respect he desrves. Hai Hind!
Fake Secularism
By: Nishit Desai | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 16:18:01 PM
How has the Congress started blaming the BJP despite the fact that it
itself was in power at the Centre in 1992. In that case, PV Narsimha
Rao and the entire Congress cabinet are all equally responsible which
also includes the present Prime Minister. If they were so much
concerned about security, they could have very well taken over the
entire city of Ayodhya. But they did not since it was in their own
interest not only to get the mosque demolished and pave way for a
temple thereby supporting Hindus but at the same time to discredit the
BJP.Poor secular Congress.
Is Anju a Gupta?
By: Ajit | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 15:06:44 PM
Anju Gupta is no longer so, she is married to a muslim and converted
to islam obviously she will not hesitate in denigrating BJP and Hindu
faith. What about over 100 temples demolished in Kashmir after 1985
and over 1000 demolished in Pakistan after 1947. Is secularism only
for Hindus?
BJP bashing?
By: srinivas prasad | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 14:59:31 PM
the media goes tom toming when it comes to babrimasjid and Gujrath.why
does not attack 1984 riots with the same vigor?
what about the 1984 anti-Sikh riots?
By: Nariman Mistry | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 13:57:21 PM
If demolishing an abandoned structure is so bad, what about the
genocide of 5000 Sikhs in 1984? Barring one (that too after 25 years),
how many Congressmen have been prosecuted?
What about what?
By: Shatruj Jain | Sunday , 28 Mar '10 1:06:14 AM
It has now become a pet habit of Sangh Parivar to hark about Sikh
Riots whenever Babri Masjid issue comes in press, while conveniently
reminding us to forget and live on the Gujrat Massacres.
Babri Demolition
By: Shanti Patel | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 19:29:15 PM
Advani went on to become Deputy PM. Sadhvi Uma Bharti and Ritambhara
who were bosom partners at the time are believed to be rivals now and
do not talk to each other. Uma has been junked by her own party.
Ritambhara being the crafty and conniving type used the Ram Janmabhumi
Andolan as a stepping stone to create a throne for herself, cleverly
transformed her image from a hate spewing monger into an image of
motherly love (Vatsalya)- fake of course. Today she is milking crores
of Rupees from gullible Hindus and leading a life of unfathomable
luxury. She goes on cruises and travels the world by first class and
being worshipp[ed as a "Saint". It is believed that she wields great
power within BJP's inner circle. What a travesty of justice in India!
Baberi Demolition
By: Varind | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 13:13:16 PM
As the case is in court hence it is inappropriate to comment so much
but certainly Congress has no right to comment on this issue who
itself is involved in attack on Golden Temple. The memory of the
Indian people is not so weak as Congress thnks. Nevertheless if
demolition of Baberi Mosque was violation of constitution so is the
attack on Golden Temple.
Hide outs in holy places
By: karunakar | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 22:25:06 PM
If criminlas hide in temples,gurudwaras or mosques , the goverment has
the constitutional right to flush them out
1984 riots case accused seeks transfer to another court
Agencies
Posted: Saturday , Mar 27, 2010 at 1233 hrs
New Delhi:
A co-accused of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in the 1984 anti-Sikh
riots cases on Saturday pleaded before a Delhi Court to transfer the
matters to a judge having territorial jurisdiction to try them.
Special CBI Judge P S Teji reserved the order on the application of
accused Khushal Singh in the riots cases.
In a plea, Singh submitted that Karkardooma court did not have
jurisdiction to try the cases as the offences were alleged to have
been committed at Sultanpuri and Delhi Cantonment.
"Karkardooma court where the matters are being heard are not the
competent court as per the law with regard to territorial
jurisdiction," Singh's counsel submitted.
He further said that Delhi has been divided into nine judicial
districts and the matter should be heard by a court either at Rohini
or at Tees Hazari district courts.
"The very purpose of dividing Delhi into nine judicial district was to
make justice available at the doorsteps of the public and to ensure
convenience," he said seeking transfer of the cases.
He also referred to section 177 of the CrPC, stating that any criminal
matter should be heard by a competent local court having territorial
jurisdiction.
CBI prosecutor Y K Saxena, on the other hand, opposed his plea stating
that there was no question of territorial impropriety.
"No prejudice is caused to the accused whether the matter is tried at
Tees Hazari or Karkardooma. This is the only designated court of the
CBI," he said.
He also said that the probe into riots cases was transferred to CBI
from the Delhi Police.
Sajjan Kumar and others, who have been chargesheeted by the CBI in two
riots cases, were present before the court to which the matter has
been transferred to initiate the proceedings related to trial.
On March 20, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate had declined to
take on record an application of Kumar seeking certain documents
related to the chargesheet filed against him in riot cases, saying it
was aimed at causing hindrance in the progress of the case.
The ACMM had sent the case against Kumar and others before a Special
CBI Court.
CBI had filed two chargesheets on January 13 in the riots cases
registered on the recommendation of Justice G T Nanavati Commission
which had inquired into the sequence of events leading to the riots in
the aftermath of the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi.
Comments (2) |
Indian Judicial System
By: Anant | 27-Mar-2010
Judicial system in India is non-existant for the general public. Kumar
will try to shift courts where his friends are. It will take another
26 years before the courts decide where the case should be heard. Long
live politicians in India and two fingers for the sufferes of
injustices.
Long Live Congress!
By: Loyal Congress | 27-Mar-2010
Hope Sajjan Kumar gets acquitted soon and this witch hunt stops! Let
the terror be defeated. Let's hope the nation never again witnesses
the like of tragic assassination of one our greatest leaders Mataji
Indira Gandhi!
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/1984riotscaseaccusedseekstransfertoanothercourt/596404/0
Guj riots: Modi questioned by SIT for over 9 hours
Agencies
Posted: Saturday , Mar 27, 2010 at 0926 hrs
Gandhinagar:
SIT summoned Modi to depose in connection with a complaint of Zakia
Jaffery, widow of Eshan Jaffery, who was killed in the riot.
For the first time since the riots in Gujarat eight years ago, state
Chief Minister Narendra Modi today subjected himself to marathon
questioning by the Supreme Court-appointed SIT in two sessions lasting
for more than nine hours.
The controversial BJP leader, who faces allegations of omission and
commission with regard to the mob attack on a housing society in which
a former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri and 68 others were killed, drove to
the SIT office in the heart of Gandhinagar where he was questioned by
a team of officers headed by A K Malhotra, a former CBI DIG.
After a marathon session lasting over five hours from 12 noon to 5 PM
Modi left the SIT office telling reporters that he would come back in
the evening.
Modi, 59, returned to the SIT office at 9 PM and faced a second round
of questioning for four hours ending at 1 AM because he was keen that
the entire exercise be completed today itself.
Emerging from the second round of quizzing at the SIT office at the
old secretariat building, the Chief Minister told mediapersons that
the investigators told him that his question was over.
"I have been told by SIT that your work is over", Modi said.
Though there was no official word on the questioning, Modi is said to
have replied to 62 of the 68 questions put to him in the first
session.
This was the first time that Modi was probed since the carnage eight
years back.
"This was the first time in eight years that someone wanted to speak
to me on the issue and I attended that", Modi said.
Taking a dig at his critics, he said "God give good sense to those who
said I have not spoken for eight years".
"I hope that today's incident will give good sense to those who are
keen to spread misinformation and those who spread lies", the Chief
Minister said.
Modi claimed he had anwsered all questions put by the SIT and that he
recalled to the extent possible the sequence of events that had taken
place eight years ago.
The Chief Minister said his statement was recorded by the SIT
investigators after which he signed it.
Asked what sort of questions he was asked, Modi said "I cannot share
that with you because the SIT has to submit its report to the Supreme
Court.
When pointed out that he had been in the dock for the last eight years
over the riots, a smilig Modi said "you have still kept me in the
dock".
"Vistaar se batcheet ki (we spoke in detail)," he said adding "under
the Indian constitution, law is supreme. As a common man, CM, I am
bound by the Indian constitution and law. No one can be above the
law."
After the first round of questioning, a smiling Modi emerged from the
SIT office at the old secretariat building and told mediapersons that
"I am taking a break from questioning".
SIT Chief R K Raghavan was not present in his office when Modi
appeared in the first session in response to the panel's summons.
Modi became the first chief minister of any state to be questioned in
a criminal complaint of mass murder after he and his administration
were accused of aiding and abetting riots in one area in Ahmedabad.
Ending the suspense as to where and when he would appear after he was
summoned for questioning in connection with a complaint of Zakia
Jafry, widow of Eshan Jafry, Modi reached the SIT office at around
noon.
The complaint filed by Zakia among other things alleged there was a
wider conspiracy by Modi and his administration and that he had
instructed officers not to take action.
"My appearance here is a "karara jawab" (fitting reply) to my
detractors. I have given a resounding reply to those who doubted my
intentions. I hope such talks by vested interests will stop," Modi
said.
Asked if the questions put to him related to Gulburg Society riot
case, Modi said "questions ranged from February 27 till the
elections".
To a question about number of questions asked by SIT, he said "I have
not counted them".
Asked if he was satisfied with the SIT investigations, Modi said "the
Supreme Court has to be satisfied."
The Chief Minister repeatedly said the SIT was appointed by the apex
court and it did not have a single officer from Gujarat.
"I have fulfilled my words given to the people of the country. Nobody
is above the Indian constitution and law", he said,
Modi said "we should create a conducive atmosphere to work within the
ambit of law and so that law can take its own course".
54 Comments |
Congress should learn
By: abhijit | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 22:17:42 PM
I congratulate Mr Modi for his conduct..and hope that he will come
clean after this.. congress and congress supported Media should
learn.. this media doesn't talk about mr. Sajjan Kumar.. doesn't talk
to SIkh riots but always ready to portray Modi as a villan.. in the
process not giving him for any credit for his work.. keep it up Modi..
we support you
Sajjan and Modi
By: anil bharali | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 22:14:30 PM
Both Modi and Sajjan are wrong doer in the eyes of law.There is no
pint justifying someone at this point of time.Let the law takes its
own course.
Exemplary Conduct
By: Patali | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 21:34:09 PM
Great, Modiji for upholding the law of the land and for showing by
exemplary conduct how people's representative should behave. He has
again demonstrated how he is different from the despicable lot that we
have as politicians and political leaders. Jai Hind!
MODI-SIT
By: N.ASTI | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 21:13:42 PM
Whatever may be our differences with Mr.Modi,we should appreciate his
meeting with SIT which was without finding any excuse in the matter.He
has not acted like Mr.Sajjan of Congress who went underground to get
bail and save himself from the procedure.Indians should remember that
unlike Mr.Rajiv Gandhi who tried to justify Sikh massacre of 84 which
took place under the guidance of his party leaders(In one way
indirectly state-sponsored atrocities),Mr.Modi never tried to justify
Gujarat riots but also expressed grieved about the riots.Hence Modi's
today's step is a good thing for our law-abiding society.
Rajiv Gandhi's Role In 1984 Riots
By: Arun | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 20:47:03 PM
Hope the SIT now probes Rajiv Gandhi's, Tytler's & Narasimha Rao's
role in the 1984 Sikh Riots and the role of the Congress Party in the
Bhagalpur riots and also the Maharashtra government's role is abetting
the Mumbai riots.
Modi will be safe
By: Raj Bhatti | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 19:11:32 PM
Nothig is going to happen to Modi. Remember, Advani tricked this
Supreme Court and the nation very wisely and got the mosque
demolished. Nothing happened to him. So, our Modi also will be safe
too as we have have majority in this Hindu nation.
Jai Indian Judiciary
By: Dr.Sanamdxb | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 19:06:56 PM
This once again proven the no one is above law. As well, it is very
disappointing that a CM could have become reaching such situation for
massacre case. It would have more glitters if peoples court could have
thrown him out from the power and politics. Gujrat has missed such
chance number of times. We all decide the one who come to rule us
should clean politicially and personally. Then India will be shine
much and fly its flag in very height. Let us all pray for it.
Nobody is above the law - finally modi had to bow down to law for his
deeds
By: Dinesh Patel | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 18:54:43 PM
narendra modi has been compelled to be present in front of SIT for
being questioned for his involvement in Gujarat riots. This has
happened for the first time that Gujarat Chief Minister had to appear
for criminal involvement. It is a shame for Gujarat State and
"Deshvasion". It has been the tradition in Indian and Gujarat politics
to resign first and then to support legal matters. He also tried to
play gimmicks few days before regarding receiving summons to appear
and he had blamed the media. Ultimately, media reports proved to be
correct about the SUMMONS to modi.
Good for BJP
By: Rajesh | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 18:54:28 PM
It is a good disicion from Modi. its means the law of INDIA is equal
to everybody.This disicion will give good political career for modi
and also BJP.
Modi
By: Mahendra | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 18:51:23 PM
The Msulim congress party has nothing better to do than target Hindu
people. Hindus should boycott Congress Party else you culture, people
and wealth will not exist. Indian Govt is controlled by Nehru's
Pakistani Muslim relatives.
Atatck on Democracy
By: DILIP/FRANCE | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 18:45:16 PM
Modi is being demonised and de legitimised by the immoral media and
their commmunal lackeys.This nonsence will not wash,so back off.
to enginner shareef
By: HOTSPICY | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 18:45:05 PM
so mr so called shareef what we should do with people who has done
mumbai attack and blastsevery where in INDIA I will give vote to MODI
again in election and want to see him as pm if he promise to do it at
national level bahot ho gaya desh dhrohiyo ko khilana
No vilification
By: Gus | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 18:41:43 PM
Modi, do not cower in front of these vicious communal idiots.Fight
fire with fire,days of turning the other cheek is bygone.We are ready
to bank roll, with loads,loads of bucks.You are being framed by the
ferals and the communal deliquents.
Long Live Shri Narendra Modi
By: Muhammed | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 18:38:08 PM
Shri Narendra Modi is incarnation of Lord Shri Ram. Opponents of Shri
Narendra Modi are Ravans. Manmohan Singh, Sonia Maino, ChidamUlla, M
Oily all shall get slayed and we will celebrate Deepawali! Jai Shri
Narendra Modi, Jai Shree Ram.
Prosecute all
By: cb | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 18:30:16 PM
All polititions involved in rioting should be relentlessly prosecuted.
Only then will they think twice before indulging in it. Its a matter
of country's survival.
manager
By: patel dharmendra | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 17:59:27 PM
Modiji is a second chanakya and india need and got after long long
time such person to set the india againg for another golden period of
the another era. In indian history only chankya settle governance has
called a golden period of indian history and second side chanakya has
done lots of things no one can agree but goel was clear and was only
united hindustan only.so so call this media or and journalisam can say
anything but in the real world modiji is real hero which india needed
long ago.No one can stop him to be a prime minister of india and time
will prove my words which had said 3 years ago. D Patel
Indian Judiciary
By: Anant | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 17:03:51 PM
Indian judiciary is so irrelavant that any politician can commit any
crime, even in the presence of these judges, will get away free. These
rogue politicians will always find their own judge in their own state
who will give them bail and eventually, after 30 years, find them not
guilty. It is the people of India who are at fault by letting these
undesirables to exploit peoples prejudices and divide the communities.
Not a single Hindu Gujarati will ever think that Modi has done
something wrong. Gujaratis feel that it is okay if the Muslim
community suffers. It is no different than the 1984 sufferings of
Sikhs by Hindus. Nothing has happened to those politicians and you can
bet nothing will happen to Modi. All these dramas are for the foreign
countries to show that India is better than Pakistan.
Narendra Modi proved far greater than Rajiv Gandhi.
By: Hemant ; Hyderabad. | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 16:44:54 PM
Narendra Modi proved greater than Rajiv Gandhi.Rajiv Gandhi always
hide from facing any even; smallest enquiry about Delhi Riots{in which
He was far more villinous than Modi} and Bofors{in He was far more
villininous than Advani in Babri}Rajiv always hide. Her Highness
Sonia , pretending great sacrifice in refusing any post. No. Real
reason is She does not have any courage to reply or justify any work;
any decision , any act. To her great fortune She got puppets like
Moily & Chavans; who shamelessly ready to do anything. Now shall real
thing come out that - Victim Jaffery has made many more calls to Sonia
to save his life. She just ignored and refused to take her calls.
clueless
By: premila | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 16:34:36 PM
the erstwhile media channels are clueless and have no sense of
direction. The way CNN IBN clarified that they were the only news
channel to mention the correct version for the appearance of Modiji
for inquiry shows that they want to make a cake and eat it too. They
are going to chew more than they can swallow. If a fallen tree can
shake the earth so also the burning of humans can shake the earth!
Modiji, the best administrator
By: Vishak | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 16:26:44 PM
The media at large blames present Chief Minister of Gujrat for all the
happenings in the year 2002. Shri Narendra Modi is the elected
representative with majority in the Gujarat state. Why nobody is
referreing to the pre-era of Modiji when almost every day the cities
of Gujarat were under communal riots created by vested interests. That
situation has been changed and people of Gujarat experience peace at
large including mintority communities for the last nine years because
of Mr Modi. Why nobdoy appraise the good work done by the C.M. of
Gujarat? Nobdoy will blame Modiji for all the communal riots took
place in the country since 1947. The C.M. of Gujarat is the best
political figure available in the country.
Ichha Dhari and BJP leaders
By: Dr.Jhanki Prasad | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 16:04:40 PM
RSS Baba Ichha Dhari types have been running India and one one side
they were chanting Ram Ram and on other burping tax payers money.RSS
Baba Ichha Dhari is a mirror image of BJP.RSS Baba Ichha Dhari and BJP
leaders are like two sides of one coin.
Ichha Dhari Baba likes ran India under BJP
By: Gulvinder | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 16:01:14 PM
The justice system of India seems to run on the feeling of the
politicians or else why were those who were caught red handed in
different scams were not taken to task? Jaswant Singh had provided so
many informations to the media about Advani and rset of Ku Kux Klan
like Sanghparivar, but no one has taken anyone to task. Madan Lal
Khurana openly accused Advani and Sushma Swaraj for having connections
with Dawood Ibrahim, but no one has investigated this serious matter
which has concerns to the security threats to India if this
information is correct.
NGOs and Media tirade against Modi
By: Mukesh Goud | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 15:55:10 PM
Not all media are funded by Evangelists but certainly many of the
leading Media houses in India has a clear christian Evangelical agenda
and they are in particular are after the blood of Modi. Now they will
come up with some crooked and cooked up stories to malign Narendra
Modi. He is one of the very few politicians in India who has the
courage to lead India and Indians.
Modi Vs SIT Vs Media
By: Girish Adhiya | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 15:52:44 PM
Media has given too much hype to this issue. Under the freedom
umbrella, media is playing villain role sometimes. Modi is superstar
of Gujarat & India. Since Congress is worried about rise of Modi, they
are doing all these things thro' NGO etc to keep this issue alive and
brand themselves as non-communal. This is very dirty and bad politics
of Congress. Hindus have major weakness that they are not united and
hence evil forces takes benefit of this. Hindus are not united bcoz
they are fighting within themself for God, Devi-Devta, caste, creed,
language, region etc. I pray to Lord to give good sense to Hindu so
they can unite and fight against evil forces. Muslims and Christian
are united and hence nobody will speak against them. Even media is
afraid of their "Fatwa" so all will keep quiet.
As a head of state ut was his responsibility to protect all
gujaratis.....
By: kranti | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 15:52:11 PM
Whatever happened in godhrakand was very bad and culprits should be
punish harshly but whatever happened aftermath of Godhrakand was worst
as gujarat government failed to control law and order.As a head of
state modi should take responsibility.
Modi the New Sardar
By: Indian | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 15:41:14 PM
This Naqvi,Shareef apni jaat bata rahe hain...Gujrat has shown its
Muslims the right way back in 2002...this bloody Congress and
secularist shit are conveniently ignoring what they did to the Sikhs
back in 1984...Modi is a TRUE Indian...those who cannot accept truth
may please migrate to UP or Delhi or other Congress ruled
states...Congress has screwed India by protecting people like
M>F>Husain..
Float a new party.
By: Dr.Jhanki Prasad | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 15:07:42 PM
A new political party is needed, because Bharatiya Jansangh Party is a
failure. We Hindus and everyone else from all religions and castes
should form a party to stop political corruption and serve the
children of India with just. This partys agenda must be to provide
roti, kapda, makaan and good education to every child of India.The new
party should wipe out types of terrorists and fascists.Jai Hind
MODI MUST BE HANGED FOR KILLING INNOCENTS.RSS/VHP/BJP MEN HAVE
CONFESSED ON TEHELKA THAT THEY WERE BACKED BY "BUTHCER MODI"
By: Engineer | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 14:52:24 PM
GUJARATH KA KASSAI NEEDS TO BE PUNISHED.HE DESERTED WIFE AND HAS NO
CHILDREN THAT'S WHY HAS NO FAMILY OR HUMAN VALUES AND CONSPIRED TO
RAPE AND KILL MANY INNOCENTS. IS THIS THE FACE OF HINDUTVA? THOSE
SUPPORTING RAPES AND KILLINGS ARE PSEUDO HINDUTVADIS.
A Step Forward In Right Direction For Mr Modi
By: anupam | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 14:47:22 PM
although little late but finally our law delivers the truth, also hope
Mr Modi will cooperate in making it more effective. politically or non
politically it is a right step for Mr. Modi
Modi appears before SIT
By: VOX INDICA | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 14:45:11 PM
One does not understand all the media hoopla about it. To quote two
examples that easily come to mind, President V.V.Giri appeared before
a High Court and Indira Gandhi appeared before the Shah Commission.
Modi at SIT
By: M.K.B.Nambiar | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 14:35:36 PM
Mr Narendra Modi appearing before the SIT to give his testimony is
prrof enough that the Gujarat CM respects the law and does not try to
circumvent the summons as politicians generally do.The Congress
sayying that he haslowered the prestigee of the high office of the CM
is laughable as their Primiister Mr Narasimha Rao had appeared before
the Supreme court as an accused in a bribery case.
Mr Modi and the media
By: RP Mehrotra | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 14:03:53 PM
Mr Modi has exhibited that he is a man of principles and belongs to a
political party of proven ideologies. He has shown that he is a law-
abiding citizen and open to scrutiny (unlike Congress' absconding
stars in garb of Sajjan Kumars and Tytlers). Media which has been
unnecessarily hounding Mr Modi must show restraint.
Irresponsible
By: Umakant Kapoor | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 17:15:07 PM
Thanks Mr. Mehrotra for calling a spade a spade, unlike many other
victims of the Congress propaganda machine.English media lives in a
world of its own and has been corrupted by the Corporates.
gujarat chief minister appearance to SIT
By: K Balakrishnan | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 13:55:38 PM
law should take it course and nothing wrong in his appearance to SIT.
What should be avoided the media trial by the TV channels. Souces of
these channels and so called human justice organisations NGO funded by
vested politicall parties should be enquired by SIT also.
NaMOji n SIT
By: Ananth Seth | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 13:53:09 PM
Ho gaya! I wonder what the media will do now. They have been robbed of
a spicy topic by this polite n appreciable act of Modiji. Please note
that Modiji, unlike Sajjan Kumar of "oh so secular, non-corrupt, and
law abiding" congress, who chose to go underworl...oops underground!
has chosen to cooperate with the judiciary. HAts off ModiJI!
Mr.
By: Aravind | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 13:29:24 PM
The the murder of innocent Sikhs on the incdence of Indira Ghandhi's
murder should also be dealt with; Would Teesta also take the same
interest and make the same comment? None one justify provocative
actions leading to heinous crime. But everyone should believe in
equality and should not expect a preference due to being a particular
community.
MODI and Sit
By: paresh joshi | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 22:15:59 PM
No teesta does not care about any Indians. For her only muslims are
the victims. Rest of the Indians does not matter to her. This is the
typical hypocracy of the leftists and the pseudo-seculars. PKJ
MODI/BLATHACKERY/ADVANI AND TOGADIA MUST BE TREATED ON PAR WITH
TERRORISTS
By: Engineer Shareef | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 13:13:05 PM
IF INDIAN JUDICIARY IS NON-BIASED IT SHOULD PUNISH, WITHPUT FURTHER
DELAY, ALL THOSE RESPONSIBLE OF MASS MURDERS AND DEMOLITIONS.
we stupid
By: dbhatt | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 23:20:48 PM
so if modi get panish then indian judiciary is non biased and if he
will not punish then it is biase. so what do you want to say
Treating all terrorism alike
By: ramkesav | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 21:00:58 PM
How will you explain the non-execution of Afsal Guru despite SC order.
Who issleeping on the file? Mr Engineer Shereef, why you are silent on
Afsal Guru 's non execution. Why the 26/11 terrorists are not yet
convicted? why they are give five star food etc. You may have
forgotten that the Imam of Delhi Majid Abdulla Bukari is still facing
a trail in Kerala HC for giving host to covicts from Arab countries
who came to Delhi on fake passports and visa. This case dates back to
the seventies and not Teesta or Pranab will care about this case as
the case relates to a muslim leader.
engineer who ru
By: CHANDRA SHEKARA REDDY NAGARA | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 15:51:41 PM
first of all muslim clerics who instigate riots against the hindus
should be hanged in public
Reply to fake engineer
By: Ananth Seth | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 14:50:41 PM
Shareef, now this is what is called wishful thinking, hallucinating,
day dreaming and what not. Anyways, sochtay raho coz thinking duznt
cost anything.
Narendra Modi : A True Nationalist
By: Aravinda Rao | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 13:01:40 PM
Narendra Modi is a true nationalist and a Hindu Champion. If he has
advised his officials to remain in-house and not do anything to stop
the Godhra riots, there is nothing wrong in it. Notice that nobody is
crying for the Hindus who were burnt prior to the Godhra riots. What
is wrong if the Hindus vent out their anger against the muslims. Where
was Teesta Setalvad and what has she done for the cause of the Hindus.
This Nation belongs to the Hindus (2 Nation theory). The muslims got
what they wanted. Whoever stayed back are second class citizens. That
is why they have never reconciled to the idea of being Indians. They
harbour/shelter terrorists, provide logistic support etc. and allow
them to strike mahyem on our soil. Media is to blame for this, 'cause
they provide wide coverage to people like Teesta. The Tax dept. and
the enforcement should verify the source of her funds. But as long as
the congress is at the centre, not possible, 'cause Teesta and Sonia
are both Christians.
Appalling
By: Satish Haldankar | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 17:14:08 PM
You are justifying violence. Everything is wrong if one section of the
society vent out their anger on another. Here is some food for
thought. If you had a differences with someone and God forbid he/she
chooses to use violence your family to settle scores, would that OK
with you? No one is allowed to take law into his/her own hands. Next,
you can fight for the cause of the 'Hindus', why do you want Teesta
and others to do so? No, this nation does not belong to the Hindus
alone, it belongs to all the citizens of the country, irrespective of
their religion and caste.
your mind is corrupt
By: indian | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 15:33:42 PM
you are inhuman. Had you been in the chair of chief minister, you
would have murdered more innocents. This country is devided because of
idiots like you. start treating human as human. Those who burnt the
train and human in it must be punished and modi must also be punished
for intentionally not taking anu action. his hand and face is coloured
with blood of thousand sof innocent muslims murder.
Arvinda Rao, you will feel the pain if your family suffers rapes,
killings and burning alive.
By: Indian Engineer | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 14:46:27 PM
The so called Pseudo Hindutvadis, are justifying the killings, Rapes,
and burning alive of human beings in the name of Hindutva. The PAK
sponsored terrorists too have the similar reasoning for their terror
acts, then where is the difference between External and internal
terrorists? Just forget India belongs to Bc's/Sc's/ST's and
minorites.The so called RSS and Manuwadi theory is no more
applicable.Those who do not want to live in secular India they must
leave to Nepal.
The Hindu has always been the victim of Islam
By: Sunil Sharma | Sunday , 28 Mar '10 0:55:25 AM
Hey let us look into our Indian history and see how many thopusands of
Hindu Temples were demolished by the Mughals and how many were
forcibly converted into Islam. And the Muslims are still crying for
the demolishing of the Invader Babar's mosque? Is their loyalty with
an invader or with Indians? Let the Islamic world acknowledge all the
atrocities inflicted on the Hindus through centuries of repression
before they expect any sympathy from the Hindus!
Love him ,Hate him .cannot Ignore him
By: Shaym Kishore | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 12:08:35 PM
Congress is treating all Gujratis as untouchable . This is a serious
concern . Narendra Modi is the elected representative and choice of
millions of Gurjarhis . Under his leadership Gujrath has flurished and
become example to other states of India . Attitude like this are the
cause of seperatism in the country . You can love or hate Modi . You
cannot Ignore him . He is an Icon of gujrathi pride
Modi is not doing any favor
By: Naim Naqvi | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 11:42:23 AM
The media is projecting as if Narendra Modi is doing any favor for the
country by appearing before SIT. He is an accused and that is the
beginning and that is the end. He should be treated like an accused.
He has been given a long rope by Weak Central government till date and
needless to say - he is sitting at the top of Gujarat administration.
You can't expect an accused to do justice to himself. Till today it
was something like one Urdu poet had said: Khud hi qatil, khud hi
muqbir, khud he munsif theray, Aqraba kis pe karen qatl ka dawa
merey ? I'm still not very sure that justice will finally be given to
Modi. However, at least the misdeed of inept and prejudiced
administration which is headed by Modi is exposed to the world. From
this juncture any failure to bring Modi to the book would be the
failure of fair-play of the country, a mockry of justice and the
victory of brazen power of wealth. Modi had always been a non-entity.
It is putrid idelogy behind him which is to be dealt with.
modi is not.......
By: indian national | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 19:24:38 PM
pls read about what aurangazeb did to Hindus, then compare it with
modi. Your poet's words will fit for A'zeb only. So be happy in India
or take next flight..OK?
You ae right but you are also biased
By: Shaukat Aziz | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 17:19:56 PM
You are right, Naqvi sahib, but he is proving many like you to be
wrong. He has shown respect for the constitutional institutions,
unlike many Congressmen.
Modi is not an accused
By: M.N.S.Nampoothiripad | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 16:39:06 PM
Modi is not an accused in any case. The ATS is just examining if there
is any substance in the allegation against Sri Modi filed by Mrs.
Jafri as per the direction of the supre court. But the question is
will an ATS be set up to question Sonia in the umpteen scams in which
she is directly involved.
Modi is not doing any favor
By: Haria | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 15:49:15 PM
Modi is definitely not doing a favour by appearing before SIT, but
like a responsible citizen of this country, obeying the prevelent
laws. How about those congressmen who are involved in mass murders of
Sikhs, and all the muslim terrorists in India who have scant respect
for the laws.
Good Gesture
By: DRJ | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 10:11:03 AM
It is good gesture on the part of Modi to appear before SIT
irrespective of the political advantages/disadvantages. Prima facie,
it appears the law enforcing bodies are selective in making charges.
Similar actions on other persons should also be carried out
irrespective of political affiliations. I feel such issues cannot be
brought within the rule book of judiciary. Issues date back to
historical blunders and plunders. It should be left to the judgement
of people of Gujarat and India.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/gujriotsmodiquestionedbysitforover9hours/596382/0
BJP hails Modi's appearance before SIT as political victory
Agencies
Posted: Saturday , Mar 27, 2010 at 1427 hrs
New Delhi:
Congress may not regard Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's
appearance before SIT probing the 2002 riots as anything extraordinary
but BJP leadership on Saturday stood strongly behind him, hailing this
as a political victory and one deserving the highest commendation.
As many as three BJP spokespersons saluted Modi's much- awaited
deposition before the Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation
Team (SIT).
"By appearing before SIT, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has
demolished all mischievous speculations and scored a political
victory. BJP has great faith in the chief minister of Gujarat. This
graceful action vindicates the BJP stand that the chief minister of
Gujarat has the highest respect for law of the land," party spokesman
Rajiv Pratap Rudy said.
"The dignified action deserves the highest commendation and millions
of BJP workers repose highest faith in his leadership," he added.
Another BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar blamed the media for
speculating on Modi's non-appearance before the SIT.
"It was the media that created an impression that he (Modi) was not
keen on appearing before the SIT. Modi respects the judiciary. He
abides by the law as also the institutions set up by the Supreme
Court," Javadekar said.
Newly-appointed spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman denied suggestions
that Modi's appearance before the probe panel was an embarrassment for
the party.
"I don't think it is any embarrassment to the party. The chief
minister had said in the Gujarat Assembly and also in his public
letter last week that nobody was above law, including the chief
minister," she said. Sitharaman also pointed out that no FIR was
registered against the Gujarat Chief Minister.
However, Congress was not impressed with Modi's appearance and
maintained that he should be brought to justice.
"In public perception, Modi has been held guilty. I don't think he has
done anything extraordinary by appearing before the Special
Investigation Team probing the Gujarat riots. He should be brought to
justice," Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan said here.
communal riots
By: BABU PATEL | 27-Mar-2010
Y People are making Ghodhra as a big issue.Is any one can tell us how
many communal riots has been investigated so far and identified the
culprits.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/bjphailsmodisappearancebeforesitaspoliticalvictory/596413/0
Thackeray defends Amitabh in Sea link row
Agencies
Posted: Saturday , Mar 27, 2010 at 1223 hrs
Mumbai:
Amitabh hasn't committed a crime by attending the event: Thackeray
Coming out in defence of old friend Amitabh Bachchan, Shiv Sena chief
Bal Thackeray on Saturday said the actor has done nothing wrong by
attending the inauguration of the second phase of the Bandra-Worli Sea
Link.
"Amitabh hasn't committed a crime by attending the event," Thackeray
said in an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana'.
Lambasting Congress for "treating the actor as an untouchable",
Thackeray said "Shah Rukh Khan, who took cudgels on behalf of
Pakistanis, will do for Congress, which is allergic to Amitabh."
"Amitabh attending the function only added to the prestige of the
event," Thackeray said on the actor sharing the dias with Congress
leaders at the sealink function. Bachchan is not a thief, dacoit or a
terrorist, Thackeray said.
The presence of Bachchan at the inauguration of second phase of the
Sea Link a couple of days back had sparked a controversy with Congress
leaders from Mumbai taking objection to Chief Minister Ashok Chavan
sharing platform with the actor who is a brand ambassador for BJP-
ruled Gujarat.
"Amitabh is targeted because he is brand ambassador of Gujarat. Ambani
and Tata who live in Mumbai have invested heavily in Gujarat. Will
anyone from Congress ask them why were they investing in Narendra
Modi's Gujarat," Thackeray said.
The actor belongs to the nation and will remain so, he said.
9 Comments |
Amitabh
By: ASHOK PRADHAN | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 21:13:00 PM
I'm sure the Shiv Sena and all others know pretty well that the
handicap of not being able to speak marathi or not acting in Marathi
movies has'nt come in the Actor's way to generate Crores of rupees
inflow to the Maharashtra. Let each individual be allowed to do what
he or she could do most productively. Contributions come in different
ways, cannot just beguaged by the ability to speak a particular
language.
Amitabh at sea link.
By: Singh S.L | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 16:11:59 PM
Divisive attitude of congress is not acceptable at all.They have
divided nation in the name of cast,religion for political gains.To
congress Amitabh is untouchable.By this action they have insulted
nation since Amitabh is national ikon.His presence makes the place
glorified.There is no match to Amitabh in Congress party.Today they
are in power, tommarow they can be thrown out but Amitabh remains
same. He is national hero. Congress should learn some thing from Amit.
should not support him
By: CHANDRA SHEKARA REDDY NAGARA | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 16:01:58 PM
balasahebji is making mistake in supporting amithab a up wala they don
not know value of morality except to dance for getting some bucks,
where was amithab when dirty sharukh called paki's good neibhours,
amithab ate marathi salt but did not imbibe our pride, let him be lame
duck up walas who have no courage to stand against jihadis
Why this?
By: Giri | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 15:34:40 PM
People ask why this defence of Bacchan by Thackeray Sr! it is because
the so-called Big B goes and falls at the feet of this mafia boss
Thackeray at every opportunity and is scared to his core and has no
self respect and pride whatsoever. All this suits the Thackeray clan
mafias who only want to line their pockets with extorted money.
Politics does not come into this, only money and more of it!
big B controversy
By: PREMCHAND JAIN | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 15:21:47 PM
are we so intolerant to any social functions, where people of all view
and crew come. do we have no social sense that to make big uss of
small things. P.M. meets Modi, Bhattacharji in so many functions, that
time there no talk and why so much fuss on Big B..
Thackeray defends
By: s s iyer | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 15:12:23 PM
Compared to the Ministers of Maharashtra Amitabh Bachchan is a self
made man without using any props to come up in life to the present
position.Actually it is below his dignity to join with the ministers
in the sea way opening ceremony, who have done nothing for the people
of Maharashtra.
What more....
By: Roy | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 14:12:24 PM
does this has been of an ICON to the extreme right wing need...he is
now accepted as one of them & now goes out of the window
socialism..Ram Manohar Lohia & in comes the Bhagwat's, Thackeray's.
Togadia's et al....with open arms comes along with baggage to the
already blighted BJP an Amar Singh...Jaya Bachan. Have been &
wannabe's are welcome into the BJP..incl the Kalyan's & the
Uma's...from where to where.
Balasahib can talk sense some times..
By: Johnson Kuriakose | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 13:27:57 PM
atlast some thing which makes sense has come from Balasahib whom i
respect a lot....
Loss for Marathi Manoos
By: Vikas Sethi | Saturday , 27 Mar '10 13:14:50 PM
To answer Why Tata & Ambani shifting to Gujarat, Thackerays - Raj,
Uddhav & Bal must look inward & answer honestly. It is their narrow
divisive thinking on Marathi Manoos that has compelled these and many
more industrialists to shift to Gujarat. Both Gujarat & Maharashtra
offered same scopes. infact Maharashtra was a touch better for Tat's
Nano. But the shutdowns and goondagardi on Marathi Manoos has actually
hurt the Marathi cause and so many jobs have now gone to Gujarat. But
how does all this matter to the Thackerays? They are concerned only of
their own politics. Maharashtra's loss is Gujarat's gain. The one to
loose out is the Marathi Manoos.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/thackeraydefendsamitabhinsealinkrow/596402/
May I know why Amitji should say sorry? Asks Jaya Bachchan1
ANI
Posted: Friday , Mar 26, 2010 at 1622 hrs
New Delhi:
Bollywood actor and Rajya Sabha member Jaya Bachchan on Friday said it
is wrong to ask for an apology from Amitabh Bachchan with regard to
the Sea Link controversy surrounding the superstar.
“Why should Amitji say sorry?” she said.
Jaya Bachchan, who was addressing the media at the Women”s Press Club,
said, “I am not here to speak for Amitabh Bachchan. He can speak for
himself.” “In a democracy anyone can go anywhere,” she added.
Miffed over resentment in the Congress about his presence in a
government function, Amitabh Bachchan on Thursday night hit out at his
detractors, saying he was invited and that the whole controversy was
manufactured.
The megastar also said there were half-page advertisements in the
media that he will be taking part in the function, an apparent dig at
Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, who said he would not have
attended the function if he had known that Bachchan would be present.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/mayiknowwhyamitjishouldsaysorryasksjayabachchan/596091/
Madhya Pradesh in Gadkari’s team
Posted by: N D Sharma on: March 27, 2010
At least in the case of Madhya Pradesh, Nitin Gadkari’s star-studded
team does not reflect the dynamism the BJP president had promised to
inject into the organisation at the Indore conclave of the party’s
national council. The new executive does not even give representation
to all the regions of the State.
The only striking feature of Gadkari’s exercise is his subtle attempt
to put a check on the chief minister’s influence, which was unhindered
so far.
That the State BJP president, Narendra Singh Tomar, was going to be
made general secretary at the national level was in the air for quite
some time. But Gadkari has somewhat diminished Tomar’s stature by re-
inducting Thavarchand Gehlot as another general secretary. Madhya
Pradesh is thus the only State to have two general secretaries of the
BJP at the national level. To add to Shivraj Singh Chauhan’s
discomfiture, Gehlot has been made a member of the Parliamentary
Board, the party’s highest decision-making body.
Tomar, a staunch pro-Thakur leader in the BJP, is virtually Chauhan’s
alter ego; the two have been together in all major operations, not
necessarily aimed at helping the lot of the poor and the deprived
classes. Gehlot is a Dalit leader who could never aspire to be
admitted to the chief minister’s inner circle. Chauhan’s
administration has been anything but pro-Dalit or pro-tribal, the
chief minister’s loud screeds to the contrary notwithstanding. The
dalits and the tribals, who had reposed faith in the BJP and helped it
to drive out the Congress government of Digvijay Singh in 2003, have
gradually been getting disenchanted with the BJP.
In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had won in all the four
Scheduled Caste constituencies and in four of the five Scheduled
Tribes constituencies — and had left only four seats for the Congress
out of a total of 29 in the State. In 2009, the BJP could retain only
two of the four SC constituencies and only two of the six ST
constituencies (increased from five to six during the delimitation).
The Congress had increased its overall tally from four to 12, in spite
of the party being in utter disarray.
Gehlot was among the defeated SC candidates of the BJP. Satyanarayan
Jatiya, another defeated SC leader has been included among the
permanent invitees. Nirmala Bhuria, daughter of Dilip Singh Bhuria (a
former MP as well as a former chairman of the SC/ST Commission), has
been made a member of the party’s national executive. She had lost the
Assembly election from Petlawad (ST) in Jhabua district in 2008. She
owes her politics more to her father’s standing than to her own
“grassroots” level work (at which Gadkari had repeatedly harped at the
Indore conclave).
With all that, the representation of Madhya Pradesh in the national
executive is heavily, almost entirely, tilted towards the Madhya
Bharat region. Tomar, Gehlot, Sushma Swaraj (MP from Vidisha, though
she belongs to Haryana), Sumitra Mahajan, Kaptan Singh Solanki,
Chaitanya Kashyap, Tanveer Ahmed (a minorities leader from Ujjain),
Satyanarayan Jatiya, Maya Singh, the three former chief ministers
(Kailash Joshi, Sunderlal Patwa and Babulal Gaur) along with chief
minister Chauhan are all from the Madhya Bharat region. The sole
representative of the Mahakoshal region is Faggan Singh Kulaste, a
tribal leader of Mandla, who had lost the last Lok Sabha election. The
Bundelkhand region also has only a nominal presence in Virendra Kumar
Khatik, an SC member of Lok Sabha. The Vindhya region stands
altogether ignored.
Now all eyes are on who takes the place of Narendra Singh Tomar as the
State BJP president. Two are in the forefront, going by the media
reports. Prabhat Jha is lobbying hard. Originally hailing from Bihar,
he worked at the BJP office in Bhopal when Patwa was the chief
minister, more as Patwa’s spy than the spokesman of the party. He was
taken to Delhi to look after the party’s publications when the things
in Bhopal became hot for him after the Patwa-Lakhiram Agrawal hegemony
over the organisation came to an end. In Delhi he ingratiated himself
with Lal Krishna Advani who got him into Rajya Sabha from Madhya
Pradesh. He was also made a secretary of the BJP. Gadkari has not re-
inducted him, giving rise to the speculation in the media in Bhopal
(where he has many friends) that it has been done to make him the
State party president.
Another strong contender for the post is Anil Madhav Dave, also member
of Rajya Sabha. Chauhan’s government had been a bit too much liberal
in doling out the public money for his Janabhiyan Parishad, an NGO,
and for his Narmada Parikramas. The government had almost allotted to
him hundreds of acres of fertile land on the bank of the river
Narmada, which the government had fraudulently acquired from the
unsuspecting farmers. The game was scuttled by Akhand Pratap Singh,
then a minister in the Chauhan government, by creating a big ruckus at
the cabinet meeting which was to formally allot the land to Dave.
Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
Bhopal gas tragedy: MP government’s gimmick
http://ndsharma.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/bhopal-gas-tragedy-mp-governments-gimmick/
Chauhan’s panic reaction to corruption
http://ndsharma.wordpress.com/2010/03/02/chauhans-panic-reaction-to-corruption/
Rahul Gandhi’s self-promotion yatra
http://ndsharma.wordpress.com/2010/03/27/madhya-pradesh-in-gadkaris-team/
RSS backs temple entry for all, inter-caste marriages
Express news service
Posted: Sunday , Mar 28, 2010 at 0255 hrs
New Delhi:
The RSS has said that border security, infiltration, terrorism and
Naxalism are the key challenges being faced by India at present.
At its Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha meet at Kurukshetra, the RSS
stressed on inter-caste marriages and temple entry for all, to address
some of the challenges being faced by the country.
The RSS, in its yearly report, also stressed on the expansion of its
shakhas (the basic building block of the organisation). The number of
RSS shakhas has seen a sharp decline (by around 4,000) in the last one
year, to a figure of 39,823.
After the Sangh, under the leadership of Mohan Bhagwat, said some
weeks ago that Mumbai and (Maharashtra) belonged to everyone, its
report again underlined the fact that “people speaking various
languages live in Mumbai”.
The report also said that after Jammu and Kashmir, “Hindus were being
forced to flee another state - Manipur”. About J&K, the report said
that after a period of relative calm, “anti-India forces were again
getting active in the region”. The Sangh also warned against the
“expansionist designs” of China.
On the domestic front, the RSS warned against the “growing
regionalism” in national politics. It stressed on a “village-centric
developmental model” and “agro-based industries”. It drew satisfaction
from its recent Gau Gram Yatra, in which Swami Ramdev’s Patanjali
Yogpeeth also actively participated.
Among its recent activities, the Sangh argued that its volunteers
actively participated in cleaning the Shipra river.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/RSS-backs-temple-entry-for-all--inter-caste-marriages/596607
navanavonmilita
March 21, 2010
Today the gravest threat to Hindu dharma comes from Indian passport
holding Sanyasis with trans-national and trans-religious sympathies.
They profess great solicitude for their white foreign or rich PIO
bhaktas and the creature comforts accruing from this allegiance (first
class air fares, limousines at the other end, five star accommodation,
etc). They openly engage foreign faiths and governments in dialogue,
the aims, objectives and outcomes of which are hidden from Hindu
Indians, and brazenly dismiss the grave threat posed to Hindu dharma
on Bharat bhumi by trans-national ideologies and religions.
Indians who abandoned their bhumi for pure economic gains, gloating
about leaving the license permit raj and corrupt quota regime at home,
could not have suddenly turned religious-cultural unless their host
countries permitted it. They would have realised this when rabid anti-
Hindu scholars conducted a vicious campaign against American Hindus
associated with fund-raising for RSS social activities in India.
Another wake up call would have been the shabby experience in the
California textbook case. Now Hindus (including our Global Hindu) have
run away from the Texas textbook controversy; those associated with
RSS once have long gone underground, or reinvented themselves as
‘objective’ critics of the Sangh Parivar!
We reiterate that Hindu dharma belongs to the Hindu bhumi and Indian
Hindu people. The white Christian attempt to de-link dharma from the
land is an idea whose time is gone; the full weight of globetrotting
sanyasis (such as it may be) will not succeed in making foreign
bhaktas or ex-Indian bhaktas the ‘authentic’ voice of native Hindu
tradition. Globetrotting sanyasis would do well to read the writing on
the wall and retreat to the safety of their Hindu havens, expelling
possible mischief-making white bhaktas before they launch a full-scale
war for ashram properties and assets. Those comfortable with white
bhaktas should settle on those shores.
Finally, it will surely be asked whom am I to make these startling
prescriptions. I derive my courage from the Vedas which are explicit –
Dharma is that which is stated by one wise man (this is gender
neutral, by the way), not that which is voted by an assembly of fools.
Let the Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha not be an assembly of fools; let it
abandon its faux international (read anti-national) agenda.
Global Foundation for Civilizational Harmony: Historically
theosophical societies and sex scandals have gone together. Watch this
space ...
The pornographic scandal involving the globe-trotting Nityananda, a
founder-member of the Global Foundation for Civilisational Harmony
(GFCH) and close associate of Swami Dayananda Saraswati, convener,
Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha, has violated the most profound
civilisational patents of the Sanatana Dharma with frightening
nonchalance.
So extreme is the trivialization of the issues involved in the
scandal, so insistent the clamour by those without adhikāra to declaim
upon Dharma on this bhumi, that we need first and foremost to assert
unequivocally the inalienable relationship between Dharma, Bharat
Bhumi and Bharat Jana (people). Who, according to Hindu tradition, has
the right to speak for Hindu dharma on Hindu bhumi is the crux of our
concern.
Dharma vests in the Jambudvipa of Bharat
In Hindu tradition, a human being’s true identity is spiritual and
transcendental, and can be realised only inwardly in terms of his
relationship to the Absolute (parabrahman). But in the material world,
man’s identity is psycho-physical and social; this bestows him with
the ritual eligibility (adhikāra) to act to attain the goals of human
existence (purusarthas). Critical to any discussion of the identity of
a people is their self-image and self-definition, in which their
perception of their geography plays a crucial role.
Indians have from hoary times made a distinction between natives and
foreigners, based not on racial awareness but upon the unique
character of the Indian ethos. Modern race consciousness of skin and
colour was never part of Hindu tradition (hence the resistance to the
colonial imposition of the Aryan race theory). The Rgveda Samhita uses
the word ‘Arya’ to denote a pious householder; the term evolved to
mean noble, cultured, a contrast to the mleccha or barbarian/outsider.
Hindu tradition subsumes all primal identities of jana (clan, tribe,
later people or viśah) and gotra (also clan, tribe) in the pan-India
Varna system – a hierarchy that is socio-ethical and ritual, but not
ethnic. Being embedded or estranged from the Varna system marks the
Indian from the foreigner; the system of Monarchy also welded smaller
clan identities into a larger socio-political and cultural whole.
Traditional social identity was thus associated with Varnasrama
dharma, gotra, janapada; this underlay social and ritual rights and
obligations, adhikāra…
All Hindu ritual begins with a resolve (sankalpa) in which one recalls
one’s place in space and time. The traditional formula recalls one’s
belonging to Jambudvipa or Bharatvarsa. Jambudvipa is the primordial
unity of the Hindu, Buddhist and Jaina streams. In Buddhist tradition,
the Buddhas and Cakkavattis (chakravartins) can be born ONLY in
Jambudvipa. The Jain concept of Jambudvipa is larger and includes
Bharata as one of its seven regions. Bharata is divided into six
regions; the Tirthankaras and Cakravartins are born in the Arya
janapadas alone.
Puranas divide the earth into seven dvipas (regions, not islands);
Jambudvipa is the centre and is divided into nine Varsas; Bharata is
one of them. Bharatavarsa is named after the legendary Bharata and is
defined as the land north of the ocean and south of Himalayas
(Vishnupurana 2.3.1). Here the system of four Varnas, Caturvarnya,
operates; hence it is the only place where proper practice of religion
is possible as Varnasrmadharma makes the performance of svadharma
possible. Hence Bharata alone is karmabhumi.
In other countries, bhoga is possible, but not karma, as without
adhikāra, karma is not possible. One cannot tread the path of
emancipation without treading the path of karma. The samkalpa-mantra
recalls the obligations to which one is heir by virtue of being born
in Bharatavarsa, and of the eligibility won by that place in moral and
religious life.
Bharat is thus a geo-cultural region where natural and cultural
frontiers correspond in terms of the Himalayas and the sea; but in the
north-west and north-east, the natural frontiers are not so clear and
even today merge into the lands of the barbarians who do not use
Sanskrit or follow the four-fold order…
Trans-national Hindus and trans-national loyalties of Globetrotting
Gurus
Rajiv Malhotra: American public relations expert: so far his public
relations efforts in India have been a disaster.
This civilisational patent – that Bharat alone is the punyabhumi where
dharma can be practiced properly, because here alone karma can be
expiated by Hindus living on this bhumi – is being grossly violated by
sanctimonious globetrotting swamis and rich officious Hindus who quit
this bhumi for foreign soil and citizenship. Guided by unseen but
readily discernible forces, these ex-Indians seek to impose
monotheistic ideologies, systems, values and mindsets upon Indian
Hindus – to facilitate the geo-political concerns of their white
masters who wish to continue to dominate the world any which way –
though they have no adhikāra to do so.
Today therefore, the gravest threat to Hindu dharma comes from Indian
passport holding Sanyasis with trans-national and trans-religious
sympathies. They profess great solicitude for their white foreign or
rich PIO bhaktas and the creature comforts accruing from this
allegiance (first class air fares, limousines at the other end, five
star accommodation, etc). They openly engage foreign faiths and
governments in dialogue, the aims, objectives and outcomes of which
are hidden from Hindu Indians, and brazenly dismiss the grave threat
posed to Hindu dharma on Bharat bhumi by trans-national ideologies and
religions.
Once the Nityananda sex scandal broke out on March 2, 2010, the
‘swami’ disappeared and a few days later issued a puerile statement to
the effect that he had done nothing ‘illegal;’ this firmly established
his guilt in the public domain. It was the duty of Hindu Dharma
Acharya Convener (HDAS) convener Swami Dayananda Saraswati (who unlike
Nityananda belongs to a proper religious lineage and has had training
in Vedic religion and culture), to ask the self-proclaimed ‘self-
realised’ Nityananda to remove his saffron robes and return to civil
society, being unfit to uphold the parampara of a sanyasi.
Hindu tradition permits certain priests and preceptors to marry. But
Nityananda perpetuated a fraud by posing as a brahmachari (celibate)
and jeevan-mukta (released from the bondage of life and death while
still living in the world). Doubts were voiced in private about his
character and spiritual attainments long before the current scandal
broke (he represents no Vedic parampara or rishi-acharya tradition);
but he was given a global platform in the Global Foundation for
Civilisational Harmony.
Global Foundation for Civilizational Harmony: What does the respected
Swami Dayananda Saraswati have to do with this outfit?
The GFCH is most likely an enterprise of Swami Dayananda, as it is
unlikely that either the Dalai Lama or former President APJ Abdul
Kalam (or for that matter Sri Sri Ravishankar; Acharya Mahapragya;
Archbishop Cardinal Oswald Gracias; Guru Baba Ramdev; Maulana Mahmood
Madani; Mata Amritanandmayi Devi; Paramhamsa Nityananda; Rabbi Ezekiel
Isaac Malekar or patron Zena Sorabjee) would have taken the initiative
to bring this group together. Hence it is almost certain that it is he
who invited Nityananda to form part of this august gathering, and he
is therefore accountable for Nityananda’s conduct.
It is going to be a terrible embarrassment for the Hindu community
when the other religious leaders and founder-members meet and remove
the impugned swami, if he does not resign with grace. Already much
damage has been done, and cannot be repaired, as the actress in the
sex video is a married lady who has confessed voluntary and regular
relations with Nityananda. That has effectively ended the feeble
claims of compromised videos and explains the inaction against Sun TV
and Dinakaran!
Swami Dayanandaji: The guru is ruined by the disciple's ambitions.
Swami Dayananda, convener, Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha (HDAS), has
maintained an unacceptable silence in this sordid episode. Despite
this writers demands that Swamiji speak up, accept personal
responsibility for promoting a sweet talker without formal religious
training as a ‘global guru,’ and resign as convener, HDAS, he opted to
hide in the shadows. Instead, some useful idiots were deployed to
threaten me with a defamation case!
Even worse, a self-educated Global Hindu (person with citizenship of a
white Christian nation and no academic or religious training in Hindu
traditions, but is closely associated with Swami Dayananda and
promoted in HDAS for unknown reasons) was deployed to declaim, via the
internet, the official excuses for Nityananda. At first this officious
person asked everyone to shut up and floated a silly video interview
with Nityananda, who was hiding from official enquiries but was
available to the Global Hindu! This went down badly with Indian
officialdom, especially as rumours flew thick and fast that Nityananda
was getting refuge with a religious leader (sic) in Haridwar, where an
internationally famous lawyer was invited for legal consultation!
Reading the mood of ashram inmates, the Global Hindu backtracked and
asked Nityananda to resign all official positions in his set up. He
did not know that in Hindu tradition, a fallen monk must renounce the
saffron robe and return to civil society – a punishment worse than
death for sensitive souls. (It is what the writer demanded of Swami
Dayananda when she discovered him making a mockery of Hindu tradition
in the name of an oxymoron called Inter-Faith Dialogue, which shall be
the subject of a future article).
Global Hindu went further in his ignorance (avidya). Some years ago,
‘guided’ by white superiors, he had peddled a blueprint for cutting
and chopping the vast Hindu spiritual universe into a corporate
hierarchy with a single point of control that would be easier to
‘manage.’ By whom, he did not say, but it didn’t need Einstein to
figure that out.
All this was part of a larger effort to install Swami Dayananda
Saraswati as a Hindu Pope, make him the Sole Recognised Voice of Hindu
India, and then impose the agenda of the so-called Global Hindu upon
hapless Bharat. Persons like the writer saw through this charade from
the very first; needless to say, we have not been popular with Swami
Dayananda and his foreign bhaktas/friends.
Global Hindu-speak: Equating Hindu Dharma with Tantric Sex!
Rajiv Malhotra & Nithy the Tantrik: Are they the two new Kensey sex
researchers?
Global Hindu took the most astonishing route to defend/explain
Nityananda’s sex-with-a- married-woman act. I suspect this is part of
a pre-planned agenda to sensationalise Hindu dharma by equating it
with something called Tantric Sex, and thus demonise and diminish it
in the eyes of Hindu bhaktas – something reminiscent of Max Mueller’s
project to interpret the Vedas in a manner that would scandalize and
humiliate English-educated Hindus. It seems that the White Man –
burdened with the task of ruling and ruining the Creation – is unable
to invent a new modus operandi despite such a long criminal innings!
Anyway, Global Hindu said ‘the relationships between siddhis
(extraordinary yogic powers), morality, Tantra and sex’ is the
framework in which to interpret Nityananda. Under cover of a dialogue
with Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (whose spiritual
lineage is also unknown), Global Hindu suggested that there is NO
connection between yogic powers (siddhis) and morality, because
siddhis are a scientific phenomena in the sense that these powers can
be harnessed by anyone, and ‘science’ deals with truths that are
morally neutral. Comparing chalk to cheese, he said Einstein’s immoral
life would not invalidate his scientific theories. He ‘proved’ his
argument saying great siddhas like Ravana lacked morality.
Sri Sri said something equally inane. Had either gentleman a modicum
of Hindu learning, he would know that siddhis are acquired after great
tapas, from the benevolence of the great Devas and Devis, and are not
a mechanical acquisition like power on a solar energy panel. Further,
since the purpose of tapas and dhyana (meditation) is to move beyond
acquisition of siddhis (which only indicate the level of attainment),
the misuse of siddhis by Asuras and Danavas is dealt with via the
karmic process, which is why such formidable entities are invariably
defeated. The karmic trajectory is not morally neutral at all.
Don't you know? He is TM thru and thru. But if that is a Vedic rishi
parampara we don't know about it. Stupid us!
Global Hindu then asked Sri Sri (whose religious-academic credentials
are unknown), if the Shiva Sutras are valid? Now, those who think
Global Hindu has the adhikāra to pontificate on Hindu Dharma in India
must surely realise that the very question is un-Hindu and is
consistent with the Church objective of vilifying Hindu dharma in
parts to ultimately de-legitimise the whole. The Shiva Sutras are
valid for Shiva bhaktas, and that is it. The 112 spiritual
enlightenment techniques taught therein, with 6 delineating sexual
contact between male yogi and female yogini, are for seekers on that
path. They are not for everyone even within the Shaiva Sampradaya, are
not imposed on everyone, and cannot be denied to those who seek.
No one, much less a non-Indian, should have the temerity to try to
create Canon Law (Christian [religious] law) in Hindu dharma by asking
if any part of dharma is valid (or should be banned?). The American
Deepak Chopra is free to entertain his clients with sexual gymnastics;
his marketing techniques do not reflect the essence or even part of
Hindu dharma.
As for the view that Adi Sankara integrated the Vedic and Tantric
traditions, I can only say I am saddened that the defence of the
indefensible Nityananda has come to this. It is being claimed
Nityananda used Tantric techniques to arouse body energies; if he was
doing this with lay bhaktas with no knowledge of what they were
getting into, and with foreigners who have no conception of dharma but
only crave the exotic, one can only ponder the wisdom of those who
promoted this man to such an exalted position on the national and
international stage. (Indeed, this is precisely the reason why some of
us have been demanding that globetrotting swamis immediately cease and
desist from speaking on behalf of Hindu Dharma in international fora;
they diminish the grandeur and complexity of the tradition to make it
conform to the desires of politically savvy white men and women
pretending to be bhaktas).
Global Hindu is pleased that Tantra is being subjected to the clinical
experimentation of psychologists and other scientists examining latent
human energies and potentials. This is surely something likely to be
misused in places like Guantanamo Bay; do recall that the US was the
foremost buyer of Nazi concentration camp medical literature!
Sky-clad Naga sadhus: This Dasanami order was created to protect kavi-
wearing sanyasis from Muslim assassins.
I found it distasteful that Global Hindu could term our Naga Sadhus as
‘completely naked’ (his italics). A native Hindu would know that the
sadhu is digambar – sky-clad. He made it worse by saying he did not
regard the sadhus as ‘either vulgar or primitive’ and that Hindu
orthodoxy is contradictory because it rejects Tantra in public and
respects Naga sadhus and various symbols and rituals rooted in Tantra.
This is Christian gibberish at its best; it is impossible to answer
such intellectual vacuity.
After this buildup, Global Hindu defended the meditation techniques
taught by Nityananda, adding that there is ‘nothing inherent about sex
that is rejected by Hinduism across the board…’ as brahmacharya
(sexual abstinence) is just one spiritual path… Amidst a mountain of
obfuscation, Global Hindu slyly lets out that Nityananda confessed to
him that the Shiva Sutras have two categories of techniques. While
most sutras do not involve physical contact with another person, for a
small number of persons the 6 sutras involving sexual Tantra need to
be tested and perfected for modern times, before they can be safely
taught more widely; Nityananda considered this a legitimate R&D as is
done in a lab for developing a product!
Nithy & Ranjitha: Research and Development, eh?
I have never heard anything so obscene in my life. This R&D obviously
has a white western audience in mind; Devi alone knows what all he did
and with whom. It seems fair to conclude that the perversion was on a
fairly large scale, as Global Hindu reveals: ‘I believe that he even
entered into written legal contracts with them to make sure that both
parties were clear about the arrangement. The reason for this “Non-
Disclosure Agreement” was to make sure that someone who willingly
approaches him for Tantra does not later accuse him of physical
contact..’
This is appalling. A Hindu guru actually sought and took legal advice
and ordered the drafting of a legal document that would ‘empower’ him
to have sex with men and/or women disciples without legal hassles! To
be legally valid, such documents would have been attested by a Public
Notary or Oath Commissioner, this merits an official enquiry.
Doubtless what happened in these ‘classes’ was reminiscent of
Caligula’s Rome! For Global Hindu to mischievously equate Tantra with
Sex by Mutual Consent is disgraceful.
Nityananda, we are told, became a celebrity seven years ago on account
of his oratory (and sexual prowess?). In USA, his ‘healing powers’
drew doctors, businessmen, IT professionals, corporate executives with
terminal illnesses into his fold. Global Hindu says he used his money
for social work which frustrated missionary activity in Tamil Nadu; he
goes into much verbiage about blackmail threats & sexually explicit
videos… What emerges clearly is that Global Hindu was friendly with
this sanyasi and ‘helping’ his career over the years …
Global Hindu-speak: Outsource Hindu Dharma to White Devotees!
We now come to the real agenda of Global Hindu, and all Hindu acharyas
who do not speak out firmly and unequivocally against it will be
complicit in the white Christian design to decimate Hindu Dharma on
this punyabhumi. This specifically applies to the Hindu Dharma Acharya
Sabha which has, over the years, unilaterally and gratuitously been
promoting the mediocre intellectualism of the Global Hindu, including
an utterly forgettable book that he has been marketing assiduously in
the course of his religious diplomacy (read back-scratching club) with
global gurus.
To come straight to the point, this management consultant turn eminent
researcher (whatever that means), now declaims in his stentorian tones
that Nityananda’s problem was that he got ‘persons with Brahmin
qualities performing duties that demand Kshatriya and Vaishnav
[vaishya] skills…’ The ashram leaders, he said, lacked the
professional competence required to manage a rapidly growing global
enterprise (it’s all about money, honey). What was needed was not
Brahmin (ascetic) but Kshatriya (combative, to protect the moolah)
qualities.
And it is the white devotees (naturally!) who have Kshatriyata or
leadership expertise, courage and commitment. (I am not going to say
‘I told you so,’ but Swami Dayananda does owe a personal apology and a
personal explanation for unleashing the dogs of war on those of us who
questioned the undue eminence of ex-Indians and non-Indian ‘Hindus’ in
his close entourage, and his mis-use of HDAS to facilitate the ends of
genocidal monotheisms in India, of which plot the promotion of PIOs
was a part).
While native Hindu bhaktas, shamed by the scandal, retreated in
silence, Global Hindu declaimed that Westerners at the Kumbh were very
willing to stand up for their guru, but nobody had bothered to
organize them and take advantage of Nityananda’s global following! His
primary concern seemed to be to salvage the assets for the white
bhaktas; he was contemptuous of ashram inmates who suffered nervous
breakdowns due to the scandal.
Well, the Pope has not succeeded with his cover-up. What made Rajiv &
Nithy think they would succeed with their's?
Global Hindu warned that many gurus fear similar attacks against other
gurus (well, those who know they have compromised themselves with
bhaktas in India or abroad are afraid), and urged a ‘central Hindu
mechanism to deal with these episodes along the lines of various
church mechanisms that intervene when Christianity faces a scandal.’
In other words, frighten Hindus into conforming to Christian Canon Law
and hierarchical systems, and control the system through the central
node. The Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha is being sought to be built up
into precisely such an institution, with rootless agents telling us
that HDAS deliberations are ‘binding on all Hindus.’ Excuse me, they
are not, and never will be. All that Hindu dharma needs is a sharp end
to the global career of the global sanyasis, or a complete delink
between globetrotters and native bhaktas.
HDAS is currently frightened and wants to wash its hands off the
Nityananda affair, but Global Hindu has already said HDAS should take
over the ashram! But HDAS knows its limits in the current situation,
and is now too much under the public scrutiny of some of us to dare
walk that treacherous path.
Global Hindu concludes that ‘being a global guru is very demanding
today, given that one has to represent a very old tradition
authentically and yet in a manner that appeals to modern people. This
is why Hindu leaders need a crash course on matters that are well
beyond the traditional education in their own sampradayas (lineages).’
Global Hindu has damned himself with his crass ignorance – a guru is
supposed to guide his flock and not repackage himself like a cinema
formula for box office returns – we can see where that attitude has
landed Nityananda. Gurus who are true to tradition and maintain the
purity of personal conduct do not need modern marketing gimmicks to
remain in ‘business’ – we can safely leave that to the economic and
cultural evacuees who are successfully selling dharma abroad, and will
make heaps of money, until some naked white man or woman decides to
stake claim for a share in the pie!
Conclusion: Bharat in the punyabhumi
VivekaJyoti Blog: Swamijyoti of the Vivekananda Kendra was Rajiv
Malhotra's front man. He demanded that everybody support him with
Nithy's defense and became enraged when some Hindu editors declined.
He is now campaigning for this blog administrator's deportation.
It should be obvious that the category of persons calling themselves
Global Hindus pose a serious danger to Hindu dharma on Hindu bhumi;
all Hindu gurus and sanyasis and lay citizens must be on guard against
this group which willingly serves the political agenda of the white
Christian nations.
Hindus in India need to understand that qualified Indians who over two
generations, actively instigated by their parents, decided to use the
professional education available in limited quantities in Nehruvian
India to better their economic prospects by running away to the
salubrious West, are no longer Indian in any sense of the term. Most
have acquired the citizenship of western nations, and during visits to
this land, boast of their relief at being free of the cultural baggage
associated with Hindu samskaras!
It was the emerging geo-political needs of the Anglo-Americans that
made India vital for exerting pressure on Russia, China, and Central
Asia, and hence it was sought to be co-opted into the Western sphere
of influence. The elite was already pro-West (decades of Ford
Foundation, etc), but now the Indian Diaspora in the United States was
‘encouraged’ to be ‘Hindu nationalist’, as the UK Diaspora was too
secular.
With foresight, American Jewish women were planted as bhaktas to take
over the ashrams of the globetrotting sanyasis, and the PIOs started
descending on the ashrams of Hindu gurus, professing to be most
impressed with their social work or erudition!
An attempt was made to secure dual citizenship for this Diaspora (eg.,
Rahm Emanuel is an Israeli citizen; Saakashvili has an American
passport, etc.) but this floundered as the prime beneficiaries of such
a move would be the citizens of Pakistan and Bangladesh! Now, in the
wake of the Mossad assassination of a Palestinian leader in Dubai
using dual citizenship passports, and the fact that Sri Lanka’s
troubles flow from the fact that Gen. Sarath Fonseka was allowed to
take an American Green Card while serving as Army Chief, many former
colonies will be re-looking the dual citizenship issue. The issue of
close kin of political leaders living abroad as foreign citizens will
also come up for wider discussion some day.
Indians who abandoned their bhumi for pure economic gains, gloating
about leaving the license permit raj and corrupt quota regime at home,
could not have suddenly turned religious-cultural unless their host
countries permitted it. They would have realised this when rabid anti-
Hindu scholars conducted a vicious campaign against American Hindus
associated with fund-raising for RSS social activities in India.
Another wake up call would have been the shabby experience in the
California textbook case. Now Hindus (including our Global Hindu) have
run away from the Texas textbook controversy; those associated with
RSS once have long gone underground, or reinvented themselves as
‘objective’ critics of the Sangh Parivar!
We rest our case with the reiteration that Hindu dharma belongs to the
Hindu bhumi and Indian Hindu people. The white Christian attempt to de-
link dharma from the land is an idea whose time is gone; the full
weight of globetrotting sanyasis (such as it may be) will not succeed
in making foreign bhaktas or ex-Indian bhaktas the ‘authentic’ voice
of native Hindu tradition. Globetrotting sanyasis would do well to
read the writing on the wall and retreat to the safety of their Hindu
havens, expelling possible mischief-making white bhaktas before they
launch a full-scale war for ashram properties and assets. Those
comfortable with white bhaktas should settle on those shores.
Finally, it will surely be asked whom am I to make these startling
prescriptions. I derive my courage from the Vedas which are explicit –
Dharma is that which is stated by one wise man (this is gender
neutral, by the way), not that which is voted by an assembly of fools.
Let the Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha not be an assembly of fools; let it
abandon its faux international (read anti-national) agenda.
The writer is Editor www.vijayvaani.com
Images and image captions have been added by IS
Video: The Nithyananda Mea Culpa Interview – Rajiv Malhotra
Nityananda videos: A testing time for Hindus – Radha Rajan
Lessons from the Swami Nithyananda Saga – Rajiv Malhotra
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10 comments
Times of India, Chennai, 3 April 2010
Godman expose a teamwork: Ex-disciple
Chennai: Lenin Karuppan alias Nithya Dharmananda, the man behind the
leaking of the Swami Nithyananda’s scandalous video, says that he had
a group of people working with him in the Bangalore ashram to expose
the “wrongdoings” of the godman. Talking to Times Of India, Lenin said
that they had used a sophisticated motion sensor camera to shoot the
video and it was not fixed inside the room by him.
“I do not want to reveal the names (of others involved) or how we
fixed it there. However, I have been helped by a group in making this
video so that I could expose the real face of Nithyananda, whom
thousands worship as god. I have got more evidence against him,” Lenin
said.
Lenin said he decided to expose Nithyananda after two ashram inmates
told him that the swami had sexually exploited them. “A man and a
woman shared their story with me and I was shocked. This was three
months before we recorded the video. Then we conducted an
investigation and found many others had fallen victims,” Lenin said.
He said he was now trying to get the two victims, one of whom is still
in the ashram, to lodge a formal complaint against Nithyananda.
For the first time after the leak of the scandalous video, which
showed Nithyananda and a Tamil actress, Lenin was questioned by the
Karnataka police on Thursday. “They interrogated me for seven hours
yesterday( on Thursday). I have given them all the proof I had. Apart
from the original CD, I have also given them an audio recording of a
phone call made to me by Nithyananda, who called me to arrive at a
compromise and later threatened me,” Lenin said. When asked about
tarnishing the image of an actress, Lenin said that he too felt sorry
for her. “But I had to expose Nithyananda for larger public good,” he
said.
The Chennai city police had registered two cases against Nithyananda
following complaints lodged by Lenin and also by a group of advocates.
He has been booked under various sections of IPC relating to
deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings,
rape, unnatural sex, cheating, criminal intimidation and criminal
conspiracy.
However, both these cases have been transferred to the Bangalore
police. Nithyananda’s whereabouts are still not known though he has
said he wants to live in ‘spiritual seclusion’ after stepping down
from his official positions at the Nithyananda Dhyanapeedam.
by IS April 3, 2010 at 10:42 am
Rajesh Talwar in Canada posted this comment on Débutante Dharma-Gurus:
Violating a civilisational patent – at http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=1144
Finally Maharishi Om’s demand that Nityananda should apologise to
Hindus and also give up his sanyasi clothes supports the stand of
these two feisty ladies who have stood firm even when they have been
abused on many email groups by 2 or 3 men. Ms. Jain, I live in Canada
and I know Nityananda has a large following here. There is a lot of
anger and sadness here. But one thing struck me as being queer. Why
has there been no coherent defence of this Nityananda from India? I
have read several postings on emails from these 3 or 4 men who have
abused you and Radha Rajan. From what I could make of them, one is a
retired IAS gasbag, one of them is a silly scholar who has only been
reposting letters from one group to another, the third was from some
slimy swamy something-or-the-other who was circulating mail which are
generally foolish and make no sensible arguments he is a disgrace to
the name swami for circulating cheap gossip) and the fourth was from a
man who quoted some tamil proverbs with a covert sexual meaning. If
this is the standard of intellectual discussions from men in India, I
am glad I dont live there anymore. And they say in India we worship
women. I feel sorry that you ladies are being abused but you know
what, you hang in there and continue with your intellectual war. You
ladies are doing simply great. Would love to meet you both the next
time I am in India. Good luck ladies. If the men are morons, arent
there women to speak up for you? – Rajesh Talwar
by IS April 2, 2010 at 8:20 pm
Nithy has made a grave mistake and brought all Hindu Dharma
representatives into disgrace. He has an obligation to change his ways
and apologize for abusing the trust of his devotees. In another age
Naga sadhus would have dealt with him in a very severe manner: they
would have stripped him of his kavi cloth and rudraksha mala and given
him jal samadhi in the Ganga.
We don’t advocate jal samadhi today, but Nithy should remove his kavi
cloth, shave his head, take a Ganga bath, and humbly apologize to all
the people he has cheated.
There is no other way. And if he is really a man of character, he will
do these simple ritual actions to indicate a change of heart and
mitigate the great harm he has done to Hindu Dharma.
by Swami Devananda Saraswati April 2, 2010 at 7:31 pm
PRESS RELEASE
Appeal to Nithyananda by Maharishi Om
Founder of the Rejuvenation Yoga Institute of America and YogaUSA.com,
an institution that has over 200,000 followers learning Vedic
knowledge.
1 April 2010
Contact:
tel: ++1.630.699.4038
w: http://www.yogausa.com
e: mahari...@gmail.com
Om Namah Shivaya,
This is a special appeal to Nithyananda. All of you know him very
well. Nithyananda, please say sorry to all devotees and say sorry to
all sanyasis (monks) because you are bringing a bad name to sanyasis
(monks) and also a bad name for Hinduism.
Your statements, they are very, very confusing. One place you are
saying that you are doing an experiment … and you are in samadhi
(trance). But, whatever you are experimenting in samadhi (trance) that
is not an act of a sanyasi (monk). This is very, very bad.
In another statement, you are saying that “I did nothing wrong;
nothing illegal, at all. And, I have not done anything against the
law.” What is legal and illegal for a sanyasi (monk)? Can you please
explain?
In another statement, you are saying that the video was morphed,
manipulated, and misrepresented – (of) your personal life. What was
morphed? And, what was manipulated? Can you please explain?
In another interview, you are saying that she (Ranjitha) was your true
devotee. She is and she will be your devotee. And, she will remain
your devotee. And, she was volunteering, serving, and taking care of
you when you were sick.
We devotees don’t understand these statements at all. (You are) very
confused. These statements are confusing and creating frustration in
devotees’ hearts. (Your statements are) contradicting (to) each other;
nobody knows which one is true and which one is real. What it appears
to the general public that the statements are made up, and the truth
is not being revealed. Why don’t (you) say sorry? And, say, sorry,
again and again? And, say, “I made a mistake, and I cannot live up to
the standard of a real sanyasi (monk)?” And, ask for forgiveness? And
take corrective measures?
We, sanyasis (monks) are in great pain and sorrow. With your actions,
we request to you, (to) please say sorry to (the) public and correct
yourself. You, Nithyananda, need to leave this kavi (holy saffron)
cloth immediately.
We request to the public to keep a close watch on people who misguide
and who mislead you. Remember the statement from Kabirdas:
Guru kijiye jaan ke, paani pijiye chhan ke.
That means: Understand your guru before you accept him, and always
filter the water before you drink it.
What is the meaning of sanyasi (monk)? Who is a sanyasi and a true
guru? Sanyasa means renunciation and detachment from worldly affairs.
Sanyasa means tyaga (unconditional detached love), not raga (lust) or
anuraaga (worldly love). Sanyasa means love, not lust at all. Swami
means the one who has mastered over sensual pleasures. But, it is
clearly coming out from your (Nithyananda’s) statements that you are
not following the path of dharma (righteousness). Please, admit your
mistake and say sorry. Guru means true guide, like a mother.
I again humbly appeal to the devotees who are following the path of
dharma (righteousness) and they are in pain, please remain calm in
this difficult time, have faith in God and continue your spiritual
journey.
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Om (Peace within, Peace throughout, Peace
Everywhere)
by Maharishi Om April 2, 2010 at 10:57 am
[...] Debutante Dharma-Gurus: Violating a civilizational patent –
Sandhya Jain - http://bharatabharati.wordpress.com/2010/03/21/debutante-dharma-gurus-violating-a-civilisational-pat…
[...]
by Nithy resigns from ashram & all associated trusts – Media
Reports « Bharata Bharati March 30, 2010 at 12:10 pm
Reposting from someone…
Sandhya Jain is outright wrong that Hinduism is limited to India and
that she has monopoly over interpreting it. The whole world is made of
the same panchabhootas. Everything in the world is the manifestation
of the same one and only Brahman. Vedanta’s truths are not
geographically limited. But she turns Vedas into a racist theory. The
Arya in Vedas did not refer to any race but to a quality which all
humans can achieve. Equating arya as race is what European racists did
and she has unfortunately become colonized. Her understanding of jana,
gotra, etc. is flawed, and she lacks access to the Sanskrit
originals.
There is too much guilt by association in her thinking. GFCH, Swami
Dayananda Saraswati, Hindu Acharya Sabha, Hindu American Foundation,
WAVES, etc. are all declared guilty (in this and prior articles by her
and her collaborator Radha Rajan) just because they are outside India.
She does not offer specifics of what they have done to deserve this.
Nor does she prove why mere association with these entities must
necessarily disqualify anyone to be credible as a Hindu. This violates
the dharma’s criteria of making judgment in a fair and balanced
manner. It is meant to suck in gullible people.
She is promoting a dangerous form of untouchability in which all those
she does not agree with can be condemned without due process, merely
by showing their association with entities on her black list. This is
how Nazis operated, and how radical fundamentalists function by
branding those to be targeted. Does she have the right to turn
Hinduism into such hate based radicalism?
She was raised in English medium education and lived in Delhi’s
cocktail party circuit (which she accuses others of but exempts
herself.) She lived a privileged childhood with her father who worked
as an English language scribe in Times of India all his life. Should
that also taint her own family as mleccha by association? Sandhya Jain
lived off of NRIs sponsoring her foreign trips for years. When they
stopped funding her, she started to lash out against all NRIs. This is
plain jealousy and a form of blackmail. Smt. Jain presumably wears a
bra, something that emerged from mleccha culture, not her narrowminded
idea of Bharat. She uses mobile phone, internet, airlines and many
western originated things. She is frequently found hobnobbing in
Delhi’s five star westernized settings. Surely she does not apply her
own logic and disqualify herself as a Hindu?
Is she against globalization of India and its culture? This is a
complex issue that seems to be well beyond her intellectual capacity.
If she advocates that true Hindus are those who live only within
India, then does she also wish to expel all foreigners now living in
India in various jobs and capacities in order to keep India “pure”
according to her criteria? If so, how would that differ from a policy
of isolationism under the garb of “true Hinduism”?
By her logic, those who “globetrot” and are hence unqualified to speak
about dharma include: Dalai Lama, Sri Sri Ravishankar, Baba Ramdev,
Mata Amritanandmayi Devi, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Swami Vivekananda,
Sri Aurobindo, Mahatma Gandhi, and just about everyone we respect.
What rubbish! Is Buddhism voided as dharma just because it spread
across Asia as India’s most successful export ever?
According to Jain’s reasoning, all “other countries” into which she
clubs everything outside India, harbor only anti-Hindu people. By the
same token, she presumes that being based in India gives her
legitimacy without any need for her to do purushartha or any kind. We
would like to know what gives her adhikar to be so arrogant as if she
has a monopoly on Hinduism.
Sandhya Jain is implying that merely by virtue of being in India one
becomes Aryan/noble. What about Lakshar, the Mumbai crime mob, and the
recent prostitution ring leader busted in Delhi who was very much a
bhumiputra dressed in saffron clothes? So the Maoists and Nagaland
Christian terror supporters and Khalistanis are all great Hindus, just
because they are physically inside Bharat.
The following is an unsubstantiated charge for which she is unable to
cite any specifics. Nobody familiar with Malhotra’s works will
understand heads or tails of what is going on in her head when she
writes: “Some years ago, ‘guided’ by white superiors, he had peddled a
blueprint for cutting and chopping the vast Hindu spiritual universe
into a corporate hierarchy with a single point of control that would
be easier to ‘manage.’ By whom, he did not say, but it didn’t need
Einstein to figure that out.” In fact, on the contrary, more than most
Indians Malhotra has studied and critiqued white culture and its
attempts to control. When Malhotra posted his articles on whiteness,
Sandhya Jain was among those who felt uneasy because of her own
whiteness complex.
Jain misquotes Malhotra on links between Hinduism and tantra. She has
not read his article objectively. She also makes a snide remark as
follows: “Global Hindu is pleased that Tantra is being subjected to
the clinical experimentation of psychologists and other scientists
examining latent human energies and potentials. This is surely
something likely to be misused in places like Guantanamo Bay; do
recall that the US was the foremost buyer of Nazi concentration camp
medical literature! ” But by this logic, ALL SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS
CAN BE SEEN AS SOME SINISTER CONSPIRACY LIKE GUANTANAMO BAY AND
NAZISM. She fails to explain what is specific about tantra experiments
that have this sinister quality.
Sandhya Jain writes, “The Shiva Sutras are valid for Shiva bhaktas,
and that is it. The 112 spiritual enlightenment techniques taught
therein, with 6 delineating sexual contact between male yogi and
female yogini, are for seekers on that path.” But that is exactly the
position of Swami Nithyananda. He explicitly said that he was not
offering tantra to the general public and that he had a few such
contracts only.
She is also jealous that Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a Global Guru, did not
grant her any interview but spoke to Malhotra.
Ironically, Sandhya Jain uses English language exclusively, and has
never made a paisa writing in any other language. So she should reject
her own works as tainted with mleccha.
by sanjay mehta March 25, 2010 at 12:55 am
By the way, who has annointed Ms Jain to speak on the behalf of ALL
Hindus even in India? I am a Hindu from India – still an Indian – who
is working abroad and I have nothing to be ashamed of that fact. And,
I do not need any guidance, lease aside permission, from the likes of
Ms Sandhya Jain, to call myself Hindu. With such defenders, Hindus do
NOT need enemies. But then, what can one say about the sanity, or
otherwise, of someone who wrote Communist occupation and destruction
of Tibet was an act of guardianship from the Christian West!
by Gopi March 22, 2010 at 10:36 am
There is a very interesting discussion going on at Sandhya Jain’s site
Vijayvaani. Go and see it at
http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=1144
by SDS March 22, 2010 at 10:36 am
he he he… it was very very funny… Indeed.
by Piyush Pandey March 22, 2010 at 8:52 am
I agree entirely with the points and specific demands Sandhya Jain is
making in this article. Finally somebody is telling the truth and
asking some serious questions (as did RR before her at
Rajiv Malhotra’s explanation for his involvement in this sordid affair
is very weak and not at all convincing. He appears to be another
dissembler and casuist in true Western Jesuitical tradition (see
http://medhajournal.com/geopolitics-guru/973-why-swami-nithyananda-must-resign-now.html?showall=1
). He has made a fool of himself as has his spokesman Swamijyoti of
the Vivekajyoti Blog, and he is trying to cover his bottom with the
bits of rag he might find here and there so that he can escape back to
the safety of “civilized” Princeton . He is an American fixer with
American money and an American point of view, and has little or no in-
depth understanding of Hindu Dharma and its intrinsic and indissoluble
relationship to Hindustan. We don’t need anything he has to offer,
thank you.
Malhotra’s understanding of Tantra also needs revision. All popular
Hindu religious practice today is tantric in that it employs mantras,
yantras, and images. This has nothing to do with sex. Sexual
techniques are there in a small part of the Tantra and they have been
exaggerated and taken out of context and sensationalized by Westerners
and those Hindus who slavishly follow everything Westerners say or do.
But tantra is and has never been for sadhus wearing kavi cloth. It was
a practice employed by a very few under the strict guidance of a guru
by yogis who were either married persons or otherwise had a legitimate
relationship with their partners. Sanyasis are not to practice these
obscure forms of yoga and, indeed, sanyasis are a distinct class
different from yogis. So Tantra cannot be used to justify or excuse
Nithya’s intimate relationships with women. Please lets not hear any
more of this humbug and hooey from the learned American from Princeton
who does not seem to know the difference between a sanyasi and a yogi,
or tantra and sex.
His observation about the sky clad Nagas at the Kumbh is ignorant and
foolish. Is he aware that the on initiation the Naga’s penis is
“broken” and the Naga can not have an erection even if he wished to?
Nithya must defrocked and the relevant kriya performed to join him
back into a family. This was done with another Nithya of Ganeshpuri, a
disciple of Muktananda) when it was discovered that he was having
sexual relations with women in the ashram. This Nithya so far has
shown no remorse even though he has brought shame and disgrace on
Hindu Dharma and has no more the right to wear the kavi cloth. As his
sponsor, Swami Dayanandaji has an obligation to the Hindu community to
see that Nithya’s titles and sacred costume are taken away from him.
Swami Dayanandaji also has an obligation to distant Nithya and his
misdeeds from the rest of the sadhu fraternity – we are all being
tarred with the same brush because of the mistakes of one randy young
man.
Nithya’s properties can be returned to their original owners – after
all he has abused their trust and cheated them. There is no reason why
he should retain these properties when they were not put to the use
the devotee who gifted them intended. And nobody else has a right to
them including the American interloper and his various associations.
And lastly, Nithya if he has any character at all must admit his
mistake and ask forgiveness of the many people he has deceived. He
will be forgiven – but how can we forgive an offender who does not
admit his wrong doing and does not make an effort to change his
lifestyle and licentious ways?
by Swami Devananda Saraswati March 21, 2010 at 1:07 pm
THE HINDU: Editor Ram and M.F. Husain’s ‘right’ to debase Hindu
Goddesses – Hilda Raja
March 15, 2010
This letter was written to The Hindu editor N. Ram by Dr. Mrs. Hilda
Raja, retired Professor of Social Sciences, Stella Maris College,
Chennai, in response to an editorial favouring the painter M.F. Husain
and his right to freedom of expression. Husain lives in self-imposed
exile in the UAE. He has renounced his Indian citizenship in favour of
Qatar citizenship.
Dear Ram,
I have taken time to write this to you, Ram, for the simple reason
that we have known you for so many years. You and The Hindu bring back
happy memories. Please take what I am putting down as words that come
from an agonized soul. You know that I do not mince words and what I
have to say, I will. I call a spade a spade. Now it is too late for me
to learn the tricks of being called a ‘secularist’ if that means a
bias for one, and a bias against another.
Husain is now a citizen of Qatar. This has generated enough of heat
and less of light. Qatar you know better than me, is not a country
which respects democracy or freedom of expression. Husain says he has
complete freedom. I challenge him to paint a picture of Mohammad fully
clad!
There is no second opinion that artists have the right of freedom of
expression. Is such a right restricted only to Husain? Will that right
not flow to Dan Brown? Why was his film, The Da Vinci Code, not
screened? Why was Satanic Verses banned? Does Salman Rushdie not have
that freedom of expression? Similarly, why is Taslima Nasrin hunted
and hounded and why fatwas have been issued on both these writers? Why
has Qatar not offered citizenship to Taslima? In the present rioting
in Shimoga, in Karnataka, against the article Taslima wrote against
the tradition of burqua which appeared in the Out Look in January
2007. Nobody protested then either in Delhi or in any other part of
the country. Now when it reappears in a Karnataka paper there is
rioting. Is there a political agenda to create a problem in Karnataka
by the intolerant goons? Why has the media not condemned this
insensitivity and intolerance of the Muslims against Taslima’s views?
When it comes to the Sangh Parivar it is quick to call them goons and
intolerant, etc. Now who are the goons and where is this tolerance and
sensitivity?
Regarding Husain’s artistic freedom it seems to run unfettered in an
expression of sexual perversion only when he envisages the Hindu Gods
and Goddesses. There is no quarrel had he painted a nude woman sitting
on the tail of a monkey. The point is he captioned it as ‘Sita’.
Nobody would have protested against the sexual perversion and his
orientation to sexual signs and symbols. But would he dare to caption
it as ‘Fatima enjoying in Jannat with animals’?
Next example is the painting of Durga copulating with a lion. Here
again his perversion is evident and so is his intent. Even that, let’s
concede, cannot be faulted. Each one’s sexual orientation is each
one’s business, I suppose. But he captioned it as ‘Durga’. This is the
problem. It is Husain’s business to enjoy in painting his sexual
perversion. But why use Durga and Sita for his perverted expressions?
Use Fatima and watch the consequence. Let the media people come to his
rescue then.
Now that he is in a country that gives him complete freedom, let him
go ahead and paint Fatima copulating with a lion or any other animal
of his choice. And then turn around and prove to India the freedom of
expression he enjoys in Qatar.
Talking about freedom of expression. This is the Husain who supported
Emergency and painted Indira Gandhi as Durga slaying Jayaprakash
Narayan. He supported the jailing of artists and writers. Where did
this freedom of expression go? And you call him secularist? Would you
support the jailing of artists and writers, Ram? Would you support the
abeyance of the Constitution and all that we held sacred in democracy
and the excessiveness of Indira Gandhi to gag the media, writers,
political opponents? Tell me honesty, why does Husain expect this
freedom when he himself did not support others with the same freedom
he wants? And the media has rushed to his rescue. Had it been a Ram
who painted such obnoxious, degrading paintings, the reactions of the
media and the elite ‘secularists’ would have been different. Because
there is a different perception and index of secularism when it comes
to Ram, and a different perception and index of secularism when it
comes to Rahim/Husain.
It brings back to my mind an episode that happened to The Hindu some
years ago (1991). You had a separate weekly page for children with
cartoons, quizzes, and with poems and articles of school children. In
one such weekly page The Hindu printed a venerable bearded man fully
robed with head dress, mouthing some passages of the Koran, trying to
teach children. It was done not only in good faith but as a part of
inculcating values to children from the Koran. All hell broke loose.
Your office witnessed goons who rushed in, demanded an apology, held
out threats. In Ambur, Vaniambadi and Vellore the papers stands were
burned, the copies of The Hindu were consigned to the fire. A threat
to raise the issue in Parliament through a Private Members Bill was
held out. Hectic activities went on. I am not sure of the nature and
the machinations behind the scene. But The Hindu next day brought out
a public apology in its front page. Where were you, Ram? How secular
and tolerant were the Muslims?
Well, this is of the past. Today it is worse because the communal
temperature in this country is at an all high: even a small friction
can ignite and destroy the country’s peace and harmony. It is against
this background that one should view Husain who is bent on abusing and
insulting the Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Respect for religious
sentiments, need to maintain peace and harmony should also be part of
the agenda of an artist, if he is great. If it is absent then he
cannot say that he respects India and express his longing for India.
Let’s face it. He is a fugitive of law. Age and religion are
immaterial. What does the media want? That he be absolved by the
courts?
Even for that he has to appear in the courts. He cannot run away.
After all this is the country where he lived and gave expression to
his perverted, sadistic, erotic, artistic mind under freedom of
expression. I simply cannot jump into the bandwagon of the elite
‘secularist’ and uphold what he had done. With his brush he had
committed jihad-bloodletting.
The issue is not just nudity. Yes, the temples, the frescoes in
Konarak and Kajhuraho, have nude figures. But does it say that they
are Sita, Durga or any goddess? We have the Yoni and the Phallus as
sacred signs of Life – of Siva and Shakti. Take these icons to the
streets, paint them, give the painting a caption, it becomes vulgar.
Times have changed. Even granted that our ancients sculptured and
painted naked forms and figures, with a perverted mind to demean
religion there is no license to repeat that in today’s changed
political and social scenario, and it is not a sign of secularism and
tolerance. I repeat there is no quarrel with nudity: painters have
time and again found in it the perfection of God’s hand craft.
Let me wish Husain peace in Qatar – the totalitarian regime with zero
tolerance! May be he will convince the regime there to permit freedom
of expression in word, writing and painting. For this he could start
experimenting painting forms, and figure of Mohammad the Prophet, and
his family. And may I fervently wish that the media, especially The
Hindu, does not discriminate goons. Let it not substitute tolerance
for intolerance when it comes to Rahim and Anthony, and another index
for Ram.
I hope you will read this in the same spirit that I have written. All
the best to you Ram.
Dr. Mrs. Hilda Raja
Vadodara, Gujarat
M.F. Husain’s alien concept of Bharat Mata
Husain has stated that he paints images naked when he has contempt for
them. He has contempt for Bharat Mata so he paints her without dress
or decoration. He is aware that this deeply offends Hindus who revere
Bharat Mata as a nurturing mother and goddess, but spiting Hindus
pleases his primitive jihadi psyche as much as exposing Sita to
profane public view or dismembering Hanuman does. Husain lives in
exile in Dubai because he is afraid to face the Hindus he so
despises.- IS
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leter to the editor-in-chief of The Hindu
Posted in class, communalism, cultural relativism, culture, ethics,
fatwa, free speech, freedom of expression, god, goddess, hindu,
history, india, islam, jihad, koran, media, mohammed, multicultural,
muslim, nehruism, neo-colonialism, newspaper, politics, psychological
warfare, rama, religion, riot, secularism, shiva | Tagged secularism-
nehruism, hinduism, hindu, indian history, communalism, ethics,
minority rights, hilda raja, psychological warfare, politics, national
identity, nationalism, free speech, koran, jihad, religious politics,
mohammad, hindu nation, sex and religion, m f husain, freedom of
express, art, hindu goddess, kujuraho, saraswati, mother teresa |
11 comments
The intellectual dishonesty of India’s pseudo secularists – Dev
Nadkarni
by IS March 26, 2010 at 11:05 am
I fully endorse Abhi’s characterisation of Rama, Sita, Hanuman and
Bharata as our very life and breath. Rajaji, generally not given to
demonstration of emotion, was moved to write in his introductory note
to his Tamil translation of Valmiki Ramayana –”Till the Ganga and
Cauvery flow, the Ramayana will protect the men, women and children of
India like an affectionate mother by their side. Listen folks…The
question whether reading and hearing the Ramayana is of any benefit
has been settled centuries ago by the Tamilian Kamban”. Rajaji was a
great administrator and a model of integrity. He was the champion of a
market economy decades before anyone thought of it in India. But he
considered his expositions of Ramayana as his greatest service to
Indians. That shows how deep the influence of the Ramayana is on
Indians.
by vamanan81 March 21, 2010 at 12:29 pm
Gautam Kumar’s answers are themselves full of logical loopholes.
1. Quatar may be so intolerant that if Husain paints Muhammad even
clothed, they will have him stoned, but then it is not about Qatar,
utters Adhikari.
If Husain can live in a country that is much more intolerant than us,
why cant he live in India? Why is he and his mediawalla sycophants
pretending that he is in a paradise of freedom? Why did Husain accept
a hell of repression as his adopted country? What happened to his love
for freedom of expression, what about the right of artists whom Qatar
suppresses? All this makes me feel Husain doesnt give a rat’s behind
about freedom of expressionm what do you feel Mr Adhikari? I also
notice you kept your mouth shut about his sycophancy of Indira Gandhi,
I would have loved to see your response, but you could only come up
same liberal tripe.
2. What is so ‘perverted’ about Husain’s drawing mythological figures
in the nude?
They are not mythological figures, dunderhead, when will you all
understand this; they are living breathing parts of our being. Until
you have the courage to paint your wife and mother and daughter naked
and show it all of us, lick this argument back into your mouth.
3. We don’t want to force anyone to our viewpoint by ransacking
galleries or burning works of art or physically threatening those who
disagree with us, Hindu or Muslim.
What to do Adhikari Saheb, when the government utters extreme
profanities against us: ‘Ram was a myth’; and your vaunted courts are
too impotent to intervene in Muslim appeasement cases, this is what
happens. Selective implementation of Constitution doesn’t help, and
you must all use your brains apart from reading out the Constitution
like a parrot. And assuming that even we say yes, his galleries should
not be burnt, he will still remain the same evil retard.
by abhi March 21, 2010 at 11:09 am
Gautam Adhikari and other anti-Hindu fanatics are suffering from an
impotent rage at being rendered irrelevant after serving all their
lives debasing Hinduism and admiring the foreign cults. Had India not
been under slavery for so many years, people of his ilk would have
been lesser. Inferiority complex, self-debasment, dhimmitude, etc.,
are an integral part of his being. Husain’s right to pervertize
Hinduism is ok, but the right of billions of us to feel offended is
not ok, doing so automatically makes you a Hindu fanatic.
So I guess Gautam babu will have to live with Hindu fanatics for a
long time to come, who knows one day his kids may seat him in a chair
and verbally strip him of all his dignity for perpetuating this
ignoble Hindu-bashing all his life and bringing shame to them,
assuming he is a Hindu.
by abhi March 21, 2010 at 10:32 am
I agree with Dr. Hilda Raja and second her sentiments. But I don’t
think that only the captioning of the paintings as ‘Sita’ and ‘Durga’
was wrong. While the portions having to do with Sita and Hanuman in
the Valmiki Ramayana, Kamba Ramayana and Tulsi’s Ramcharitmanas are
the most sublime in any literature anywhere in the world, where did
Hussain get this idea of making his Sita straddle his Hanuman’s tail?
It is entirely in his imagination. While our communists and pseudo
secularists shout ‘tolerance’ at the Hindus, they keep mum when it
comes to Muslims and Christians. Why is that? With Hindus split by
language, class and caste, as well as numerous sects, I think Hinduism
must be declared a minority religion…And of course it is the one
religion which most of the English language media love to despise.
by vamanan81 March 20, 2010 at 2:19 pm
It is not only The Hindu and The New Indian Express that have tried to
put up a secular defence of Husain, the Deccan Chronicle has done so
too through its Congress columnist Jayanti Natarajan. I sent the
following letter to the Deccan Chronicle on March 1st but it has never
been published.
This refers to Jayanti Natarajan’s article “No more Husains” (DC,
March 1). One does not have to be a Bajrang Dal cowboy to be offended
by M.F. Husain’s paintings of Hindu Gods and Goddesses and, indeed,
Hindus themselves. Any sensitive Indian who values India’s pluralistic
social and religious culture would be offended by his vulgar paintings
of a nude Sita Devi “pole dancing” on a naked Hanuman’s tail or Durga
Devi copulating with a lion. These paintings represent Husain’s
personal and contemptuous view of Hindu civilization.They are not
acceptable in India as public art works (as they will not be
acceptable in Qatar). Freedom of expression like all freedoms, entails
responsibility and sensitivity to the feelings of the community one
lives in; it is not a licence to trample on the religious beliefs of
others. Had Husain first caricatured his own prophet Mohammad without
any clothes, we could accept the argument that all are equal in the
artist’s eye and that he had not singled out Hindus for ridicule.
by Ram Narayan March 18, 2010 at 5:03 pm
We are not aware that Comrade Ram published Dr. Raja’s letter in his
little newspaper. If he did, pls tell us when or where so that we may
give him some democratic, freedom of expression credits.
A similar letter to this was sent to the pharasee editor-in-chief
Aditya Sinha of The New Indian Express. He also did not have the
courtesy to give Dr. Raja any space or the courage to to make her very
well thought out rejoinder to The Hindu editorial public.
Our secular editors are loud-mouthed cowards at best. But the real
fault lies with Hindu intellectuals and moneybags who are not able to
publish a quality mainstream national newspaper that would give space
to the Hindu point of view.
by IS March 18, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Congratulations to Dr. Mrs. Hilda Raja for the well researched letter
to Shri Ram. Of course thanks to Shri Ram for publishing the letter in
The Hindu. What impressed me was the pain taken by Dr. Mrs. Hilda Raja
in collating all the relevant information.
by T C Viswanathan March 18, 2010 at 11:35 am
The best way to counteract this is to ask our Hindu painters to paint
Abhrahamic Devils (Heathens and Fakirs have nothing Divine). We can
paint them in our sandals and water closets. Our Hindu brethren is
quite equipped to ape the west. So we can try this and wait for the
secular media’s left brain’s response. If we shy away they will take
over. Might is right in the modern democracy.
by Ravishankar March 17, 2010 at 3:44 am
Logic seems to be in short supply in Gautam Adhikari’s response to Dr.
Hilda Raja’s comment on Husain’s predicament and alleged high art.
Firstly, her highlighting of the absence of democracy and freedom in
Qatar, chosen by Husain as his new home, is perfectly relevant since
it says something about his respect for the very values being espoused
in defending his right to paint as he pleases. Secondly, why the self-
confessedly irreligious Mr. Adhikari has a special dispensation to
dictate how the religious-minded should react to Husain’s sacrilegious
art rather escapes me. Thirdly, if the opinion of bona fide
international (wow!) aesthetes suffices to vindicate his depiction of
bestilaity by Hindu deities that should surely hold true for the
Prophet and his retinue being displayed in the nude as well. Except
that Husain has said that painting of Hitler in the nude was his
special way of disparaging him.
by Dr Gautam Sen March 16, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Dr. Hilda Raja’s letter has been replied to by Gautam Adhikar, a
former executive editor of the Times of India, 16 March 2010. He
acknowledges Hilda Raja’s argument but like all Indian secular
editors, he leaves out those parts which don’t serve his purpose. Dr.
Raja’s argument cannot be faulted and should be carefully read before
going to Gautam Adhikari’s edit. It is available at Times of India:
Why should we shut up?
by IS March 16, 2010 at 12:10 pm
Video: THE NITYANANDA MEA CULPA INTERVIEW? – Rajiv Malhotra
March 13, 2010
more about “The Nityananda Mea Culpa Interview? -…” posted with Vodpod
Yes, No, Maybe So: The Nithy Mea Culpa Interview?
Is it a confession? Figure it out yourself, but in his latest video on
YouTube, Nithyananda Swami, who fled from his `ashram’ near Bidadi
after his sexcapades were exposed on television, says, “I will not
experiment with anything that is not accepted by society.” In the
second part of an `interview’ he gave to one of his `disciples’, a
man calling himself Rajiv Malhotra, Nithyananda couches what looks
like his mea culpa in a protest, saying that “all great masters in the
past” had faced similar attacks, clubbing himself with Adi
Shankaracharya, Swami Vivekananda and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. Mr.
Malhotra pitches in for his ‘guru’ saying that new allegations of rape
and cheating were being made after the media found that there was
nothing illegal in the video footage that television channels had
aired. It is the first time Nithyananda and his associates have
addressed the videotapes directly. Nithyananda says, “In a way this
defamation has taught me lessons about society, life and humanity
which I had never thought of before. It has made me more responsible.
Now, I have decided not to experiment with anything that is not
accepted by society widely.” That is not all. He goes on to say that
new allegations were being made against him because society believes
that, “If one thing is wrong, then everything is wrong. So, go out and
abuse everything. It is the usual mentality of society.” “This has
happened to all masters, even to Adi Shankaracharya, Swami Vivekananda
and Ramakrishna. When the masters are in the body, they have to go
through this. It is inevitable.” - Deccan Chronicle, Chennai, 13 March
2010
Yes, No, Maybe So: The Nithy Trance Interview?
Bangalore: After the brouhaha over a video that allegedly showed him
in a compromising position with a woman, Swami Nithyananda said he was
“in a trance” when the tape was made.
In an interview to Times Now at Haridwar, Uttar Pradesh, where he is
staying to participate in the Kumbh Mela, Nithyananda said there was
“misrepresentation, manipulation, conspiracy and morphing” in the
video. Referring to the actress in the video, he said, “She was, she
is and she will be my devotee. In fact, her entire family are my
devotees. In December 2006, I was in a deep trance and physically not
well. At that time, she had taken care of me.”
‘Tape was manipulated, ready for any probe’
Claiming that he was in a trance when the sleaze video telecast by
television channels recently was being recorded, Nithyananda
Paramahamsa, in an exclusive interview to Times Now in Haridwar in
Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, neither denied nor confirmed that it was
him on the tape. The 33-year-old godman said he was “in a state of
samadhi (trance)” when the video, showing him in a compromising
position with an actress, was taken. The tape, he said, had been
“misinterpreted, morphed and manipulated”. He alleged that the media
onslaught on him was without any basis and that he was being held
guilty without a trial. Excerpts from the interview:
Was that you in the sleaze tape?
There’s a lot of misinterpretation, manipulation and morphing. Now, we
are working to find out which part was recorded and which was
manipulated. When that video was taken, I was in a state of trance. My
personal life has been misrepresented and my privacy has been invaded.
Media has even taken pictures of me when I was changing clothes after
a bath. This has been done to defame me.
It is being said that the tape was taken in Dec 2009? Were you sick
then?
I was sick for a very long time. Consciously, I was in a samadhi …
physically I was not well. Some of the things have been misinterpreted
by the onlookers. Or rather it has been misinterpreted by those who
wanted to do it.
Has life changed for you in the last two weeks?
In the thirty-three years of my life I have seen fame. I was the most
watched guru on YouTube. Now, in the last few days I have been the
most watched scandal. Both have taught me many things about life. But
what shocked me most is the thought that there is so much enmity
against me. The good thing from all this is I am getting millions of
emails, phone calls and a flood of support from people who are not
even my devotees. My disciples are feeling so bad that someone’s
private life has been misinterpreted and abused.
Was the actress in your ashram then?
She has been serving me for a very long time. She was volunteering to
take care of me when I was sick. All her family members have been my
devotees. There is no denying that she is a devotee.
Many of your devotees say they have been betrayed by your act. Have
you advocated abstinence and celibacy?
I have always said it’s an individual’s choice. I have never promoted
celibacy or abstinence. I have always said ‘you decide’. As of me, I
don’t have any lust in my life. I don’t feel the need for another
person in my life.
Did anyone blackmail you with the footage?
I don’t want to say anything now. I have been abused. I don’t want to
do the same thing in return. It’s believed that according to law
everyone is innocent until proven guilty. In my case, I am guilty
until I prove myself innocent. I have been an author, educationalist
and even done social service. But I have been branded as a spiritual
guru and I have not been given the benefit of doubt. I was not treated
in a fair manner. Even before analysing facts, people have passed
judgments.
Do you think it’s because of stand-off with people in power?
I don’t have any political ambition. I did not fight with anybody. I
don’t want to disrespect anyone.
Why did you leave without clearing the air on the issue as soon as the
tape was released?
I was so shocked. I needed a few days to settle down and understand
who was behind the attack. Within one hour of the news telecast, eight
ashrams were destroyed. We did not know who was behind all this. We
did not even know we had enemies. The attack was so strong and sudden
that we were not ready for it.
How long will you stay away like this? A court has issued summons,
the police have been wanting to question you …
If I am called I will go and co-operate with the authorities. I was
planning to stay here till March 15 for the Kumbh Mela and then
organise a press conference. I have received no request from any
authority so far. But if they want, I can go immediately. I am willing
to co-operate with any enquiry.
Do you think this incident has affected your credibility?
The people who are abusing me now have never praised me. Those who
were my devotees are still with me. People have many expectations and
impose that on others. And they themselves conclude that the other
person has not fulfilled the expectation. Then they try to judge or
find some evidence that would prove that their expectations are not
fulfilled. - Sunday Times, Chennai. 14 March 2010
Rajiv Malhotra – Nithyananda Interview (8 April 2009)
Nithyananda teaching ‘yoga’ to the lady Ranjitha
The Lenin Dharmananda – Nakkeeran Interview
Deliberate Media & Government Attack on Swami Nithyananda & Sanatana
Dharma – V. Sundaram
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It Doesn’t Suck The Mea Culpa Video
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The Case Of Academic Complicity In The Violence Against Dalit And
Dalit Wom…
Posted in ashrams, caste, class, culture, ethics, god, goddess, hindu,
hinduism, hindutva, india, krishna, legitimizing power, media,
newspaper, politics, psychological warfare, rama, religion, sadhus,
sanyasi, secularism, shiva, tv, veda | Tagged nityananda sex video,
nityananda, rajiv malhotra |
11 comments
Times of India, Chennai, 3 April 2010
Godman expose a teamwork: Ex-disciple
Chennai: Lenin Karuppan alias Nithya Dharmananda, the man behind the
leaking of the Swami Nithyananda’s scandalous video, says that he had
a group of people working with him in the Bangalore ashram to expose
the “wrongdoings” of the godman. Talking to Times Of India, Lenin said
that they had used a sophisticated motion sensor camera to shoot the
video and it was not fixed inside the room by him.
“I do not want to reveal the names (of others involved) or how we
fixed it there. However, I have been helped by a group in making this
video so that I could expose the real face of Nithyananda, whom
thousands worship as god. I have got more evidence against him,” Lenin
said.
Lenin said he decided to expose Nithyananda after two ashram inmates
told him that the swami had sexually exploited them. “A man and a
woman shared their story with me and I was shocked. This was three
months before we recorded the video. Then we conducted an
investigation and found many others had fallen victims,” Lenin said.
He said he was now trying to get the two victims, one of whom is still
in the ashram, to lodge a formal complaint against Nithyananda.
For the first time after the leak of the scandalous video, which
showed Nithyananda and a Tamil actress, Lenin was questioned by the
Karnataka police on Thursday. “They interrogated me for seven hours
yesterday( on Thursday). I have given them all the proof I had. Apart
from the original CD, I have also given them an audio recording of a
phone call made to me by Nithyananda, who called me to arrive at a
compromise and later threatened me,” Lenin said. When asked about
tarnishing the image of an actress, Lenin said that he too felt sorry
for her. “But I had to expose Nithyananda for larger public good,” he
said.
The Chennai city police had registered two cases against Nithyananda
following complaints lodged by Lenin and also by a group of advocates.
He has been booked under various sections of IPC relating to
deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings,
rape, unnatural sex, cheating, criminal intimidation and criminal
conspiracy.
However, both these cases have been transferred to the Bangalore
police. Nithyananda’s whereabouts are still not known though he has
said he wants to live in ‘spiritual seclusion’ after stepping down
from his official positions at the Nithyananda Dhyanapeedam.
by IS April 3, 2010 at 10:49 am
Rajesh Talwar in Canada posted this comment on Débutante Dharma-Gurus:
Violating a civilisational patent at http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=1144
Finally Maharishi Om’s demand that Nityananda should apologise to
Hindus and also give up his sanyasi clothes supports the stand of
these two feisty ladies who have stood firm even when they have been
abused on many email groups by 2 or 3 men. Ms. Jain, I live in Canada
and I know Nityananda has a large following here. There is a lot of
anger and sadness here. But one thing struck me as being queer. Why
has there been no coherent defence of this Nityananda from India? I
have read several postings on emails from these 3 or 4 men who have
abused you and Radha Rajan. From what I could make of them, one is a
retired IAS gasbag, one of them is a silly scholar who has only been
reposting letters from one group to another, the third was from some
slimy swamy something-or-the-other who was circulating mail which are
generally foolish and make no sensible arguments he is a disgrace to
the name swami for circulating cheap gossip) and the fourth was from a
man who quoted some tamil proverbs with a covert sexual meaning. If
this is the standard of intellectual discussions from men in India, I
am glad I dont live there anymore. And they say in India we worship
women. I feel sorry that you ladies are being abused but you know
what, you hang in there and continue with your intellectual war. You
ladies are doing simply great. Would love to meet you both the next
time I am in India. Good luck ladies. If the men are morons, arent
there women to speak up for you? – Rajesh Talwar
by IS April 2, 2010 at 8:28 pm
PRESS RELEASE
Appeal to Nithyananda by Maharishi Om
Founder of the Rejuvenation Yoga Institute of America and YogaUSA.com,
an institution that has over 200,000 followers learning Vedic
knowledge.
1 April 2010
Contact:
tel: ++1.630.699.4038
w: http://www.yogausa.com
e: mahari...@gmail.com
Om Namah Shivaya,
This is a special appeal to Nithyananda. All of you know him very
well. Nithyananda, please say sorry to all devotees and say sorry to
all sanyasis (monks) because you are bringing a bad name to sanyasis
(monks) and also a bad name for Hinduism.
Your statements, they are very, very confusing. One place you are
saying that you are doing an experiment … and you are in samadhi
(trance). But, whatever you are experimenting in samadhi (trance) that
is not an act of a sanyasi (monk). This is very, very bad.
In another statement, you are saying that “I did nothing wrong;
nothing illegal, at all. And, I have not done anything against the
law.” What is legal and illegal for a sanyasi (monk)? Can you please
explain?
In another statement, you are saying that the video was morphed,
manipulated, and misrepresented – (of) your personal life. What was
morphed? And, what was manipulated? Can you please explain?
In another interview, you are saying that she (Ranjitha) was your true
devotee. She is and she will be your devotee. And, she will remain
your devotee. And, she was volunteering, serving, and taking care of
you when you were sick.
We devotees don’t understand these statements at all. (You are) very
confused. These statements are confusing and creating frustration in
devotees’ hearts. (Your statements are) contradicting (to) each other;
nobody knows which one is true and which one is real. What it appears
to the general public that the statements are made up, and the truth
is not being revealed. Why don’t (you) say sorry? And, say, sorry,
again and again? And, say, “I made a mistake, and I cannot live up to
the standard of a real sanyasi (monk)?” And, ask for forgiveness? And
take corrective measures?
We, sanyasis (monks) are in great pain and sorrow. With your actions,
we request to you, (to) please say sorry to (the) public and correct
yourself. You, Nithyananda, need to leave this kavi (holy saffron)
cloth immediately.
We request to the public to keep a close watch on people who misguide
and who mislead you. Remember the statement from Kabirdas:
Guru kijiye jaan ke, paani pijiye chhan ke.
That means: Understand your guru before you accept him, and always
filter the water before you drink it.
What is the meaning of sanyasi (monk)? Who is a sanyasi and a true
guru? Sanyasa means renunciation and detachment from worldly affairs.
Sanyasa means tyaga (unconditional detached love), not raga (lust) or
anuraaga (worldly love). Sanyasa means love, not lust at all. Swami
means the one who has mastered over sensual pleasures. But, it is
clearly coming out from your (Nithyananda’s) statements that you are
not following the path of dharma (righteousness). Please, admit your
mistake and say sorry. Guru means true guide, like a mother.
I again humbly appeal to the devotees who are following the path of
dharma (righteousness) and they are in pain, please remain calm in
this difficult time, have faith in God and continue your spiritual
journey.
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Om (Peace within, Peace throughout, Peace
Everywhere)
by Maharishi Om April 2, 2010 at 7:37 pm
Nithy has made a grave mistake and brought all Hindu Dharma
representatives into disgrace. He has an obligation to change his ways
and apologize for abusing the trust of his devotees. In another age
Naga sadhus would have dealt with him in a very severe manner: they
would have stripped him of his kavi cloth and rudraksha mala and given
him jal samadhi in the Ganga.
We don’t advocate jal samadhi today, but Nithy should remove his kavi
cloth, shave his head, take a Ganga bath, and humbly apologize to all
the people he has cheated.
There is no other way. And if he is really a man of character, he will
do these simple ritual actions to indicate a change of heart and
mitigate the great harm he has done to Hindu Dharma.
by Swami Devananda Saraswati April 2, 2010 at 7:33 pm
http://www.ndtv.com/news/cities/sex-swami-duped-firangs-in-the-us-18710.php
Douglas McKellor, an American national and once a disciple of Swami
Nityananda, has registered a case with California State Attorney
General against the self-proclaimed godman.
In his complaint, McKellor has accused Nityananda of sexually
exploiting the devotees at the ashram, fraud and financial
irregularities.
A resident of San Jose in California, McKeller came in contact with
Nityananda in 2007.
Influenced by the swami, McKellor changed his name to Swami
Nityaprabha and later became the head of the California branch of
Dhyanapeetham.
Describing how he got conned by Nityananda, McKeller, in his
complaint, said, “I was in the first batch that enrolled for
Nityananda’s week-long instant enlightenment programme.
It was held at the Los Angeles ashram in June 2007, where I paid swami
a fee of $400,000 for the workshop and the enlightenment certificate.”
McKeller added, “During the workshop, I felt abnormally lightheaded.
It was like as if some strange drug was causing me lose all my
senses.
Nityananda performed some fire rituals and asked us to cut a strand of
our hair. Then, he put the hair in fire along with something that
looked like marijuana seeds.
After the workshop, he issued certificates to everyone claiming that
we had attained enlightenment.”
McKeller also accused Nityananda of sexually exploiting his American
devotees. “Nityananda was fond of pretty girls.
While he was at Sanatan Dharma temple in Norwalk, California, for a
two-day workshop on spirituality, he asked me to stand outside the
door to ensure no one disturbed him, while he was with female guests,”
he said in his complaint.
He was reportedly fond of striptease parties with pretty girls.
McKellor added that Nityananda used to eat his meals and rest with
young girls in his private quarters at the cult organisation’s Norwalk
and Montclair ashrams.
The swami had named attractive girls ‘flowers’ and used to say that
they are a must item for his puja.
H S Chandramouli, Nityananda’s advocate, confirmed that a complaint
has been filed by McKeller. “Those close to swami are discussing about
the plan of action. However, noting has been decided yet,” said
Chandramouli.
by IS April 2, 2010 at 7:04 pm
[...] The Nithyananda mea culpa interview – Rajiv Malhotra -
http://bharatabharati.wordpress.com/2010/03/13/video-the-nityananda-mea-culpa-interview-rajiv-malhot…
[...]
by Nithy resigns from ashram & all associated trusts – Media
Reports « Bharata Bharati March 30, 2010 at 12:10 pm
[...] Video: THE NITYANANDA MEA CULPA INTERVIEW? – Rajiv Malhotra
[...]
by Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha heading the way of Gandhi’s INC:
Part 1 – Radha Rajan « Bharata Bharati March 25, 2010 at 1:26 pm
I find rajeev malhotra has his own agenda. He was corrupting already
corrupted nityananda. Both of them pathetic humans.
by alex March 24, 2010 at 6:40 pm
[...] Video: THE NITYANANDA MEA CULPA INTERVIEW? – Rajiv Malhotra
[...]
by Debutante Dharma-Gurus: Violating a civilisational patent –
Sandhya Jain « Bharata Bharati March 21, 2010 at 1:46 pm
Readers note that though the Chennai media give full coverage to the
Nithyananda sex scandal, neither The New Indian Express or Deccan
Chronicle will touch the Catholic Church paedophile sex scandals that
have engulfed Ireland and are now engulfing Germany, The Netherlands,
Poland and other parts of Europe. This is not surprising: the Deccan
Chronicle is South India’s largest Christian-Congress newspaper and
has a personal relationship with the thin white lady who rules over
us, and The New Indian Express is edited by a Bihari from Brooklyn,
New York who keeps most of the edit page and all of the letters column
for himself. Once an independent newspaper, The New Indian Express is
the poorer half of the Indian Express in North India which is
controlled by a foreign hand called Acts Ministries. Hindu religious
leaders cannot expect fair treatment from any of these Chennai
newspapers even when they behave themselves. The Times of India is
also controlled by the World Christian Council but it seems to be
giving more equal-handed coverage to Nithy’s sex scandal than the
other two mainline Chennai papers.
If Hindu moneybags and intellectuals are not able to produce a first
class national newspaper that reflects the Hindu point of view, then
Hindus have no ground for complaint if the Christian-controlled
newspapers and broadcasters go to town on a Hindu godman whenever the
opportunity arises.
See who controls the Indian media at http://hamsa.org/akbar.htm#d
by IS March 14, 2010 at 8:12 pm
Let’s cut the crap, Nithy! Even if you were a good boy you are not
equal to Adi Shankara or Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. What an insult
to the sadhus and saints of Bharata who try to overcome their human
nature, from a randy little godman who did not see the all-seeing eye
in the a/c air cooler.
by 108 March 13, 2010 at 6:32 pm
The Doniger-Penguin agenda: demeaning Hindus and disparaging their
Gods – Ranjani Saigal with Shrinivas Tilak & Vishal Agarwal
March 7, 2010
“Aldous Huxley once said that an intellectual was someone who had
found something more interesting than sex; in Indology, an
intellectual need not make that choice at all.” – Wendy Doniger in
When the Lingam is Just a Cigar, Psychoanalysis and Hindu Sexual
Fantasies
Ranjani Saigal in conversation with Dr. Shrinivas Tilak
Shrinivas Tilak is an independent researcher based in Montréal. Born
in 1939 in India, he immigrated to Canada in 1965 where he did B.A.
(Asian studies), M.A. (history and philosophy of religion) at
Concordia University, Montréal, and Ph.D. (history of religions) at
McGill University, Montréal). Dr.Tilak has taught at several
universities in Canada and his publications includeThe Myth of
Sarvodaya: A study in Vinoba’s concept (New Delhi: Breakthrough
Communications, 1984); Religion and Aging in the Indian Tradition
(Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1989), and
Understanding Karma in Light of Paul Ricoeur’s Philosophical
Anthropology and Hermeneutics (Charleston, S.C.: BookSurge (revised),
2007). His forthcoming work is 64 Ways to Self-improvement through
Karmayoga: A Gandhian Initiative.
Ranjani Saigal: Could you describe the mission of department of
religion and religious studies in North America?
Shrinivas Tilak: In North American universities, study of religion is
a legitimate academic pursuit. Students are encouraged to learn about
world religions in theory and practice both from an insider’s and
outsider’s perspectives. Ideally, a graduate in religious studies
tends to be tolerant, broad-minded, and accommodative of fellow beings
that may be practitioners of faiths different than his own.
Unfortunately, the teaching of Hinduism at the high school and
academic levels has remained an exception from this general trend and
most professors of India and Hinduism tend to be ‘Orientalists’ (see
below response to question # 7).
RS: What motivated you to study this topic in a Canadian rather than
an Indian University?
ST: My generation that graduated from high school in India in the
1960s was under tremendous parental pressure to go for education and
career in the fields of science and technology. I accordingly trained
as a pharmacist and continued in that line of work in Germany and
Canada until the 1970s. Living in Montreal, Canada, I had the freedom
and privilege to make a career change. Since I was always interested
in the history, culture, and religion, I registered in the faculty of
religion at Concordia and then at McGill University, Montreal, from
where I earned my doctorate in the history of religions. I did my
graduate work in religion in the West because in modern India,
religion is not taught as an academic discipline at the university
level.
RS: As a faculty member, what was your approach to teaching this
subject and what did you hope your students gained from your teaching?
ST: I must make it clear that I never held a tenured position and as
such had no opportunity to formulate a distinct teaching style of my
own. I generally tried to follow the teaching guidelines rooted in
objectives outlined in response # 1 above. I thought it was necessary
to consider the history of Hinduism first from a Hindu viewpoint, then
from an academic one. Different sorts of valuable insights may come to
individuals both inside and outside the tradition and need not
threaten one another. I therefore was keen that my students (whether
Hindu or non-Hindu) received a fair understanding of typical Hindu
precepts and practices both from the insider and outsider’s
perspective. In reality, I discovered that both the students and the
university administration were unwilling to accept any interpretation
of Hindus and their dharma from their own standpoint. The main reason
being that India has lived under foreign rule for the last millennium
and does not now have a tradition of learning or teaching Hinduism
using its own cognitive categories. Since India’s history was written
by the victors, almost by definition, such a move outlawed or
‘deformed’ the Hindu self perception and understanding of their own
history (for more details and discussion of this problem see my blog
“Taking back Hindu studies” on http://shrinivas-tilak.sulekha.com/
RS: The book of Wendy Doninger The Hindus – An alternate history has
been published which has caused a lot of ire. From a scholarly
perspective, what is your opinion on the content of this book, which
is written by someone who is in the same scholarly field as yourself?
ST: Doniger claims that she is a ‘recovering Orientalist’ and has
abandoned the Orientalist perspective in teaching or writing about
Hinduism. Orientalism, she asserts, refers to a cluster of attitudes
that implicated the first European scholars of India in the European
colonization of India, overwhelming reliance on textual studies being
one of them (pp. 34-35). The fact is, Orientalism is much more than
what Doniger claims it to be. It stands for the body of knowledge that
the European powers began to generate from the seventeenth century
onwards with a view to consolidate the economic, military, and
political gains they had started making in Asia and Africa. Thus,
having acquired military and political control over a sizable portion
of India, administrators of the British East India Company began to
cast doubt and sow divisions among the people of Asia (and Africa)
concerning their cultures, religions, and societies by gaining
exegetical control over their traditional systems of knowledge. The
discipline of Indology, which is a modern product of Orientalism,
demonstrates a clear instance of how Western scholarship appropriates
for itself the power to represent Indians, to translate and explain
their thoughts and acts.
In chapter five Doniger claims that violence was embedded in Vedic
sacrifice of cattle and horses. She situates the ritual violence in
the social violence that it expressed, supported, and required, the
theft of other people’s cattle and horses (Doniger 2009; pp. 103).
Doniger claims that post-Vedic Hindu bhakti and Hinduism have also
been violent (Doniger 2009: pp. 194). Please also take a look at my
blog “Doniger does a doggie” at Bharata Bharati for in depth analysis
of this book.
RS: Is there clear evidence that this book does not follow the
“scholarly publication guidelines” followed in the western liberal
arts tradition?
ST: I must specify that the book does follow these guidelines. Thus,
Doniger acknowledges that the wild misconceptions that most Americans
have of Hinduism need to be counteracted by making Americans aware of
the richness and human depth of Hindu texts and practices, and an
American interlocutor is often the best person to build that bridge.
Hence this book (Doniger 2009: pp. 652-653). Unfortunately, Doniger
does not take her own advice and on page one announces: the main
purpose of The Hindus is to provide a narrative account of
“alternative people” who do not figure in the Brahmin-generated history
—people who are alternative in the sense of otherness, people of other
religions, or cultures, or castes, or species (animals). Behind the
facade of providing an alternative history, the real agenda of The
Hindus is to drive a wedge between the marginalized and the mainstream
Hindus.
RS: Do such books have potential for harm? If so what kind of harm can
it inflict?
ST: Under the guise of providing an alternative history, the real
agenda of The Hindus is to drive a wedge between Hindus and non-Hindus
in India and elsewhere. In order to show how Hindus are so utterly
unlike others, Doniger engages in denigrating, distorting, and
demeaning all Hindus (low or high caste, men or women) and what is
worse, ‘defrocking’ (both theologically and sexually) their gods and
goddesses. Such a book therefore does have the potential to harm the
Hindu self-perception and identity, particularly, young Hindus who
happen to live in the diaspora.
Ranjani Saigal in conversation with Vishal Agarwal
Vishal Agarwal (b. 1970) holds Master’s degrees in Materials
Engineering and Business Administration. He works in a biomedical
device firm dealing with cardiac surgery. Vishal spent most of his
life in India where he lived in Delhi and in Pune. Currently, he
resides with his wife and son in Minnesota State, USA. Vishal is an
ardent student of Hindu Dharma and ancient Indian history and is a
practicing Hindu. Currently, he is engaged in the collection of
electronic versions of Hindu texts, their translation and in writing
biographies of Hindu philosophers for lay readers.
Ranjani Saigal: How did you get interested in the field of Ancient
Indian Texts? How did you gain expertise in this are?
Vishal Agarwal: I was raised in my elementary and early middle school
years by my maternal grandfather, who would narrate stories about
medieval India (from the Delhi-Lahore region) to me. My Aunt, who
lived with us, also majored in History in college. As a result, I got
a lot of exposure to the history texts and read her college books in
my younger years out of an (admittedly) unusual interest. At that
time, I found the history of ancient India too boring but loved to
read about the Moghul Empire. I also liked to read the few books on
Hinduism published by the Chinmaya Mission and the Geeta Press that my
father had in our home.
It was in my high school years when I went to our local temple library
to borrow some books on Organic Chemistry when I encountered a
treasure house of Hindu scriptures and books on ancient history.
Around the same time, I was also intrigued by the opposing views on
the historicity of the belief that the Babri Mosque was constructed
over a demolished Hindu temple. This further motivated me to read as
much as I could. I have not looked back since then. I have been
studying books on ancient India and on Hinduism several hours every
day for almost 20 years now. In a way therefore, I am self-taught
although I have also had the great benefit of doing some course-work
under Professor Vasudha Narayanan at the University of Florida in
1998.
The religious scriptures of India give me a lot of peace and answer my
spiritual and mental needs adequately. And for this reason, I will
continue to read and teach them as long as I live.
RS: What motivated you to work on a blog repudiating the work of Paul
Courtright?
VA: Courtright’s book could not be ignored for several reasons. First,
it bore a Foreword by none other than Wendy Doniger, who is the
currently reigning Czarina of Indology in the United States. Second,
the book received a national award for its presumed excellence .
Third, it was published by the Oxford University Press, one of the
most reputed academic publishers in the world. Fourth, its reprint in
India was brought out by Motilal Banarsidass, the largest publisher,
exporter and distributor of Indological books in India.
I became aware of the controversy somewhat late and was quite repelled
by the pornographic quotes from the book on various websites. I
checked out the book from our local University of Minnesota library
and was aghast to see sloppiness scattered all over. I discovered that
the book was quite well acclaimed in academic circles despite its
numerous flaws. So I teamed up with Kalavai Venkat (whom I had met on
the Internet in 2002) and together we wrote a critique of Courtright’s
misuse of textual sources to fabricate a fictitious interpretation of
passages relating to Lord Ganesha. The response from the scholarly
community indicated that they were being quite close-minded, bigoted
and dishonest. No one responded to us from an academic perspective and
instead, we were accused of being Hindu fundamentalists. It is really
sad to see that in the field of Hinduism studies, many of the so-
called scholars spend more time in scratching each other’s backs
instead of doing their research diligently. The reality is that in
this publish or perish culture, the Emperor (or the Empress) really
has no clothes.
RS: The book of Wendy Doninger The Hindus – An alternate history has
been published which has caused a lot of ire. What is your opinion on
the content of this book?
VA: I am not an insider in the field of academic study of India and
Hinduism. Perhaps, this grants me freedom from potential bullying by
the czars and czarinas of Indology. I am not subject to peer pressure
to conform to academic dogmas and power structures because they cannot
threaten my livelihood. Coming to Doniger’s book, I think it is a
seriously flawed book.
Let us be honest: the Marxist historians who dominate the field of
history writing in India lack the competence or inclination to write
any comprehensive history of Hindus. Doniger had therefore had a
wonderful opportunity to plug this gap in the field of Hindu history
which she has sadly frittered away. She chose to fall back on the same
questionable devices that she uses in her other works nauseatingly –
Freudian free association, cute and witty phrases at the expense of
accuracy, selective use of evidence to retrofit data into preconceived
theories etc. I have posted my comments on her book online at
http://vishalagarwal.voiceofdharma.com/articles/thaah/
Even though the book in its present form is flawed and should be
withdrawn, I think it is not beyond repair and has some good ideas. It
is written in lucid English and is quite readable (even if it gives
wrong information). She can certainly chose to rewrite large parts of
it, change the overall structure and plan of the book a bit and
release a second edition. In the past, she has dismissed her worthy
critics by saying that “they do not even know what we do not know”,
and her cohorts have labeled us as “emotional and dangerous hindutva
followers.” Now, she needs to swallow her pride and consult
knowledgeable Hindus in the United States if she wants to salvage her
reputation.
RS: Is there clear evidence that this book does not follow the
“scholarly publication guidelines” followed in the western liberal
arts tradition?
VA: The evidence is in the form of the hundreds of errors – factual,
distortion of sources, biased interpretations – that my chapter-wise
reviews list. The publisher may say that he did run through the
motions and have his editors and peer reviewers check the drafts. But
the fact that so many of these errors slipped through clearly
indicates that the process was either not carried out, or that the
process was carried out by editors who were incompetent.
There is some amount of sloppiness in all branches of learning, and to
focus on western liberal arts traditions would be unfair. All the
same, the brightest minds do not study ancient Indian history as a
profession (but may study it from outside while pursuing other types
careers). South Asian Studies and Indology departments are at the
fringes of their universities in general. There are simply so few
scholars in these fields that it is easy for a single-eyed person to
become the ruler of blind men. Which is why we see that books like the
one by Courtright being regarded as masterpieces.
Indic and Hinduism studies in particular are also plagued by a strong
prevalence of racist and Judeo-Christian fundamentalist attitudes
amongst several western scholars. One only needs to peruse the
archives of Liverpool Indology and other lists controlled by them to
see how much abuse and discrimination Indians have to suffer in these
professional discussion lists. Anyone from India contradicting the
received wisdom of Western Indology is termed as a Hindu Nationalist.
On the other hand, there are also quite a few academics of Indian
origin who subscribe to Leftist and Communist ideologies and inject
Indian politics in American Academe. When I went to college in India,
we used to hear of Leftist and Communist controlled Teacher Unions in
Delhi University and other places. Now I see that these same teacher
union leaders are in American Universities in dozens. They will
collude with anyone who can berate Hindus just because that is what
they did when they were in India. Rajiv Malhotra has aptly used the
term ‘sepoys’ for them.
RS: Do such books have potential for harm? If so what kind of harm can
it inflict?
VA: As an example, let us take Courtright’s book. We discovered that
slanted descriptions of the deity in the book had started creeping
into mainstream society in the West. For instance, in an exhibit on
the Hindu deity arranged by a museum in Baltimore, the book served as
a seminal text that was quoted in citations accompanying the exhibit.
After the publication of the book, Paul B. Courtright came to be
acknowledged as an authority on the subject of Ganesha. This was
evident from the way in which numerous other writers of books on the
deity not only acknowledged his help and guidance, they often quoted
his text approvingly or at least in a neutral manner. A source book on
Hinduism and psychoanalysis cited long extracts from his book to
explain the father-son relationship in the Hindu society. These
citations actually constituted some of the most vulgar and offensive
sections of Ganesa. Obviously according to the author of this source
book, Courtright’s work was seminal for a psychoanalytical
understanding of family relationships amongst Hindus. In Australia,
Lord Ganesha was depicted as ‘Gaynesh’ by local gay groups. While I
support gay rights, such a depiction is very misleading. And finally,
several hate websites run by fundamentalist Christian groups copiously
quote Courtright’s book to ‘prove’ that the Hindus are a very depraved
bunch of idiots. So we see that Courtright’s book had several harmful
effects.
Now let us take Doniger’s book. I looked at the Worldcat database and
noted that in less than one year of its publication, more than 700
libraries have acquired it in North America and Europe. With the
current trend of globalization, everyone in the west wants to know
about alien cultures. Given the chatty style of Doniger’s book, I fear
that it will be read by a lot of people and will reinforce stereotypes
in their minds about Hindus. I doubt that the cover used by Doniger
will allow the book to be used as a textbook in very many schools. But
again, there is a chance that school textbooks writers will use her
book as a reference. Penguin is a very large publisher and Doniger
will doubtless visit India on her book promotion tours, spreading her
faulty interpretations further. Hindu haters will, in the course of
time, quote her book to the effect that Hindu saints indulged in
sexual orgies, that Hindu deities were full of lust and so on. It is
this kind of hate mongering against Jews that even led to their
holocaust during WW II, and Doniger should understand it well enough.
RS: It is a sad fact that most English writings on Hindu traditions
are by writers who are not of Indian or Hindu origin. What can we do
to change this?
VA: The generalization implicit in the question is only partially
correct. If you visit bookshops in India, one finds that most of the
books on Hindu traditions are actually written by Indians or Hindus
themselves. The books published in the west are typically to expensive
for libraries and individuals to acquire even though some publishers
are making available cheaper Indian editions. And then, you do have a
flourishing vernacular language publishing industry that publishes
numerous good titles on Hinduism every year in India. One of the
reasons why books by Western scholars get undue importance is that
they are quoted profusely by their native informants – the Marxist
historians of India, especially on matters related to Ancient and
Modern India. And second, the influential Anglophone urban Indian in
the metro cities is so divorced from his or her own traditions that
they will lap up anything written on our culture by a westerner.
There are no short cuts to change this current situation in which
fewer and fewer Indians and Hindus are writing on our own tradition
day by day. Reading, reading, and reading are the only good antidote
to this problem. We must invest money in buying books, either for
personal study, or for donation to libraries or needy scholars in
India. We must start schools in our temples (both in India and outside
India) to educate our children on our traditions.
We must have deep faith in our traditions, and this should translate
into leading our lives with a purpose and a plan, rather than wasting
time and resources on non-productive items and activities like weekly
parties.
Bad writings should be countered with good writings. Instead of
wasting time shooting two byte emails everyday, knowledgeable Hindus
should spend their time more constructively by writing scholarly
articles for Internet magazines, print magazines and journals.
We should also encourage our own children to take up Hinduism studies
as their college majors (or at least as minors).
RS: What suggestions do you have for Indian Americans who may want to
voice their concern?
VA: The bane of the Hindu American community is that professors in
religious studies of India origin are too timid to stick out their
necks and protest against this blatant distortion of our traditions.
In many cases, these academics are at the end of the careers but will
not show the courage to move even their little finger when their
activism is needed by the community. They should decide whether their
loyalty lies with their religious and cultural heritage, or with
dishonest colleagues who treat them as ‘pillow dictionaries’ (to
borrow a phrase used by Doniger) or as inferior native informants
anyway. If a dozen of them develop some spine, the problem will
disappear within a few months. The pathetic timidity that Hindu
professors show is unparalleled in other religious traditions.
Ironically, these same professors sometimes do not hesitate to collude
with their prejudiced colleagues and run down their own co-
religionists in the process to save their own skins.
To the general Indian American and Hindu American community – I would
remind that the first of the 26 divine qualities listed by Lord
Krishna in the 16th chapter of the Gita is ‘fearlessness’. We should
voice our objections to being demonized by Indologists and not bother
about being labeled in pejorative terms. We must have faith in our
traditions and should speak with conviction and without getting
intimidated by others.
And finally, we should speak as a people who actually know and
practice our tradition. This means, as I said above, that we should
read, read and read about our heritage, and also continue to take
steps to transmit our traditions to our children.
Further reading:
The Hindus: A chapter-wise review by Vishal Agarwal
Oh, but you do get it wrong!
Rajiv Malhotra on Wendy Doniger
Ten challenges to the Washington Post by Rajiv Malhotra
Review of The Hindus: An Alternative History
Hinduism Studies and Dhimmitude in the American Academy
Invading the Sacred: An Analysis of Hindu Studies in America
Sign Petition
Demand to withdraw the flawed book on Hindu history by Prof. Wendy
Doniger called THE HINDUS: AN ALTERNATIVE HISTORY to be published by
PENGUIN BOOKS INDIA. To sign the petition go to
http://www.petitiononline.com/dharma10/petition.html
This article originally appeared at http://www.lokvani.com/lokvani/article.php?article_id=6329
Nityananda videos: a testing time for Hindus – Radha Rajan
March 5, 2010
Hindus on Hindu bhumi have to take a collective stand on three issues
– demand complete ban on religious conversion to Abrahamic faiths,
stop all foreign funds to NGOs and religious institutions, including
Hindu institutions, and an autonomous board for administering and
overseeing all Hindu temples and Hindu religious institutions.
Hindus on Hindu bhumi are confronting the most menacing threat ever to
their survival on this bhumi from the Abrahamic faiths and their
respective state power – Islamic and White Christian nations and their
governments. The three core concepts of pluralism, freedom of religion
and self-determination, imported from Christianity’s contemporary
liberal democracy incarnation, define the character of contemporary
understanding of nation and good governance.
Hindus have failed to challenge these concepts in any meaningful way
in any domestic or international forum and this failure signifies that
Hindus in government and Hindu thinkers and leaders either do not
realize the end-objective of these concepts or are so compromised that
they dare not challenge them.
Sanyasis exemplify the purpose of human birth as Hindus – to
understand the nature of the self. This knowledge or this
understanding reveals to the individual the boundaries and the
boundlessness of the self. Sanyasis know the limits of not only the
body but also the mind. Paradoxically, it is the limited mind which
gives us the sense of limitlessness too, and the sanyasi in saffron
robes best represents this stunning paradox.
Knowledge of the self comes with the attendant knowledge of the nature
and source of Creation. With this knowledge, which Hindus call para
vidya, the individual may choose to live the life of an enlightened
householder or grihasta, or may choose to become a sanyasi.
The sanyasi, for his part, may choose to live in society as a guru or
acharya or simply as a sanyasi; or he may choose to leave society
behind to live the life of a recluse. What distinguishes the
enlightened householder from an enlightened sanyasi is the colour of
his clothes. The sanyasi dons the saffron robes not for him, but for
the rest of us in society. An enlightened man in saffron robes is like
a vehicle with a beacon light on top – it is meant to convey something
to those who see it.
The sanyasi embodies the quintessential Hindu worldview which demands
that a Hindu does not disturb the innate harmony and order in
Creation. In short, a sanyasi embodies every Hindu’s journey to
fulfill the purpose of human life as understood and articulated by our
rishis because, as the opening line of Vivekachudamani puts it
pithily, of all births or all existence in Creation, it is rarest of
rare to be born a (Hindu) human. A sanyasi is therefore the embodiment
of rigorous discipline of mind and body, or perfect order.
A sanyasi is expected, by definition, to live a life that does not
pamper the body; and the body by definition is an aggregate of five
senses. A sanyasi, the enlightened man in saffron robes, is the
exemplar in society who is expected minimally to keep his body under
the full control of his mind by tapasya; maximally, he should be seen
to have attained the perfect unity and harmony of existence with para
vidya.
The sanyasi as the embodiment of the Hindu worldview and as the
immediate instrument of the knowledge that is transmitted through the
guru-sishya parampara is therefore the highest and most important
entity of Hindu dharma.
The videos of Nityananda broadcast by a leading Tamil news channel, at
the very least, rendered the sanyasi’s saffron robes meaningless and
without purpose. Consensual sex or physical intimacy between two
adults behind closed doors is a private affair and violation of that
privacy can and must be made punishable under law; but a sanyasi whose
saffron robes have a definite meaning in Hindu dharma, and who has
chosen to play a role in public life as a sanyasi, cannot claim right
of privacy for what is essentially an act that violates sanyasa
dharma.
For all those who reposed faith in Nitaynanda’s integrity to sanyasa
dharma, these are agonizing days. As bhaktas of Nityananda, there are
only two options open to them. If the videos are genuine, then the
bhaktas must realize that they are born in a tradition where every
institution is subject to inquiry and if called for, repudiation. If
the bhaktas are forced to reject Nityananda as Guru, they must return
to the traditional mathams and acharyas of their ancestors.
It is just as possible that the videos are compromised and if that is
so, it is hoped that these bhaktas will challenge the authenticity of
the videos in court and if the videos are proved to have been
manipulated or morphed, they should ask for maximum punishment under
the law against the news channel which broadcast the videos. This
alone will deter future misadventures to malign Hindu dharma. The
bhaktas then would not only have won the war to restore the honour of
their guru, they would have won a battle for Hindu dharma as a whole.
However, the issue of Nityananda’s videos is only peripheral to the
purpose of this column. This column is concerned about the impact of
these terrible videos on the Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha. Nityananada
is one of the Hindu Founders-Patron of the Global Foundation for
Civilizational Harmony or GFCH, a body that merits the severest
criticism for its stated objectives.
Hindus on Hindu bhumi have to take a collective stand on three issues
– demand complete ban on religious conversion to Abrahamic faiths,
stop all foreign funds to NGOs and religious institutions, including
Hindu institutions, and an autonomous board for administering and
overseeing all Hindu temples and Hindu religious institutions.
Hindus on Hindu bhumi are confronting the most menacing threat ever to
their survival on this bhumi from the Abrahamic faiths and their
respective state power – Islamic and White Christian nations and their
governments. The three core concepts of pluralism, freedom of religion
and self-determination, imported from Christianity’s contemporary
liberal democracy incarnation, define the character of contemporary
understanding of nation and good governance.
Hindus have failed to challenge these concepts in any meaningful way
in any domestic or international forum and this failure signifies that
Hindus in government and Hindu thinkers and leaders either do not
realize the end-objective of these concepts or are so compromised that
they dare not challenge them.
GFCH exemplifies this Hindu failure to perceive the threats posed by
the Abrahamic faiths; if the Hindu Founders-Patron of GFCH understood
the nature of the threat they would not have created the forum in the
first place with the self-destructive objectives that they flaunt with
such élan.
The defining characteristic of all Hindu Founders-Patron of the GFCH,
including Nityananda, is that they all have ashrams in several White
Christian countries in America and Europe and have overseas NRIs,
PIOs, and non-Indians as bhaktas. These sanyasis have accumulated huge
assets as immovable property in these countries and their ashrams
depend heavily on foreign funds.
If Hindus in India, as a part of their war to protect the Hindu bhumi
have to take on the US, the EU and the UN on the issue of religious
conversion, foreign funds, the character of this nation and the basis
of nationhood, it is legitimate to question whether these sanyasis
with foreign bhaktas, foreign funds and assets abroad are in a
position to fight this war.
Just as important is the question, what will overseas Hindus do when
Hindus at home are fighting the American government on the question of
religious conversion and the role of foreign funds in subverting the
nation and the role of the UN in facilitating the subversion. And this
confrontation is certain to happen. The answer is ‘nothing’. They have
done nothing, they can do nothing, and they dare not do anything. More
importantly, they will not be allowed to do anything that can shake
even a stone in the political and strategic interest edifice that has
been put in place by these governments.
The American government has shown repeatedly how it deals with its
adversaries – individuals, communities and nations.
And that is why this writer has taken strong exception to the
following :
Swami Dayananda Saraswati as Founder-Patron of GFCH and Convener HDAS
forging an undesirable and even potentially dangerous link between the
two organizations whose objectives are mutually contradictory The
growing influence of overseas Hindus – NRIs and PIOs influencing the
functioning and purpose of HDAS Swami Dayananda Saraswati and unnamed
others on his behalf participating in and signing resolutions and
agreements at multi-religious meetings which conform to and do not
challenge the 3 cardinal liberal Christian political concepts –
pluralism, freedom of religion and self-determination Swami Dayananda
Saraswati while holding the position of Convener HDAS, actively
promoting inter-faith dialogue without getting the Abrahamic religions
to concede anything in our favour.
The HDAS is the highest body of Hindu religious leaders representing
ancient sampradayas and lineages. Their constituency is here, on Hindu
bhumi. They have to be on the side of their bhaktas when they fight to
protect dharma on this bhumi. They cannot be weakened by
considerations of foreign bhaktas, foreign funds or assets in foreign
lands. Protecting Hindu dharma on this bhumi and protecting assets
abroad are two mutually exclusive objectives.
Hindu Dharma Acharyas on this bhumi will have to demand total ban on
religious conversion and end the flow of all foreign funds into this
country. GFCH, by the very character of its Hindu Founders-Patron,
cannot do this; by being linked to the HDAS through Swami Dayananda
Saraswati and his bhaktas, the HDAS is similarly disabled.
Nityananda with his foreign funds, foreign bhaktas and foreign ashrams
has exposed how this foreign connection can render our religious
leaders, in their efforts to attract the young in our societies and
foreigners raised on a ‘liberal’ diet, compromise their anushthana or
rigorous adherence to rituals which discipline the body and mind. This
slackening of discipline renders them vulnerable to penetration and
infiltration.
Swami Dayananda Saraswati must therefore either disassociate himself
from the GFCH or step down as Convener of the HDAS. This is not a
disrespectful proposition as it is being made out to be by thoughtless
and/or manipulative Hindus. This demand springs from an unflinching
commitment to protect our sanyasis and high religious institutions
from infamy and manipulation by our adversaries through the agency of
useful idiots.
Hindus who bounce around on email groups working themselves up into
phony hysterics because some of us dare place counter-arguments and
courageous Hindu nationalist ideas in the public domain, run the risk
of diminishing themselves from the high status of useful idiots
serving overseas interests to useless idiots at home.
You tell me: Are these video images morphed or compromised?
Video: Why the video was made: the Lenin Dharmananda-Nakkeeran
Interview
Video: Rajiv Malhotra – Nityananda Interview (8 April 2009)
Deliberate media and government attack on Sanatana Dharma – V.
Sundaram
Posted in ashrams, christianity, conversion, cultural relativism,
culture, globalization, hegemony, hindu, hinduism, hindutva, history,
india, islam, judaism, legitimizing power, media, monotheism,
multicultural, neo-colonialism, ngo, proselytize, religion, sadhus,
sanyasi, tv | Tagged christianity, dharmananda, Global Foundation for
Civilizational Harmony, hindu, hindu dharma acharya sabha, hindu
nation, hinduism, human rights, india, indian history, islam, lenin,
nakkeeran, nityananda, nityananda sex video, politics, prophetism,
proselytize, rajiv malhotra, rajiv malhotra-nityananda interview,
sanatana dharma, sanyasi, sex videos |
16 comments
Times of India, Chennai, 3 April 2010
Godman expose a teamwork: Ex-disciple
Chennai: Lenin Karuppan alias Nithya Dharmananda, the man behind the
leaking of the Swami Nithyananda’s scandalous video, says that he had
a group of people working with him in the Bangalore ashram to expose
the “wrongdoings” of the godman. Talking to Times Of India, Lenin said
that they had used a sophisticated motion sensor camera to shoot the
video and it was not fixed inside the room by him.
“I do not want to reveal the names (of others involved) or how we
fixed it there. However, I have been helped by a group in making this
video so that I could expose the real face of Nithyananda, whom
thousands worship as god. I have got more evidence against him,” Lenin
said.
Lenin said he decided to expose Nithyananda after two ashram inmates
told him that the swami had sexually exploited them. “A man and a
woman shared their story with me and I was shocked. This was three
months before we recorded the video. Then we conducted an
investigation and found many others had fallen victims,” Lenin said.
He said he was now trying to get the two victims, one of whom is still
in the ashram, to lodge a formal complaint against Nithyananda.
For the first time after the leak of the scandalous video, which
showed Nithyananda and a Tamil actress, Lenin was questioned by the
Karnataka police on Thursday. “They interrogated me for seven hours
yesterday( on Thursday). I have given them all the proof I had. Apart
from the original CD, I have also given them an audio recording of a
phone call made to me by Nithyananda, who called me to arrive at a
compromise and later threatened me,” Lenin said. When asked about
tarnishing the image of an actress, Lenin said that he too felt sorry
for her. “But I had to expose Nithyananda for larger public good,” he
said.
The Chennai city police had registered two cases against Nithyananda
following complaints lodged by Lenin and also by a group of advocates.
He has been booked under various sections of IPC relating to
deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings,
rape, unnatural sex, cheating, criminal intimidation and criminal
conspiracy.
However, both these cases have been transferred to the Bangalore
police. Nithyananda’s whereabouts are still not known though he has
said he wants to live in ‘spiritual seclusion’ after stepping down
from his official positions at the Nithyananda Dhyanapeedam.
by IS April 3, 2010 at 10:47 am
Rajesh Talwar in Canada posted this comment on Débutante Dharma-Gurus:
Violating a civilisational patent – at http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=1144
Finally Maharishi Om’s demand that Nityananda should apologise to
Hindus and also give up his sanyasi clothes supports the stand of
these two feisty ladies who have stood firm even when they have been
abused on many email groups by 2 or 3 men. Ms. Jain, I live in Canada
and I know Nityananda has a large following here. There is a lot of
anger and sadness here. But one thing struck me as being queer. Why
has there been no coherent defence of this Nityananda from India? I
have read several postings on emails from these 3 or 4 men who have
abused you and Radha Rajan. From what I could make of them, one is a
retired IAS gasbag, one of them is a silly scholar who has only been
reposting letters from one group to another, the third was from some
slimy swamy something-or-the-other who was circulating mail which are
generally foolish and make no sensible arguments he is a disgrace to
the name swami for circulating cheap gossip) and the fourth was from a
man who quoted some tamil proverbs with a covert sexual meaning. If
this is the standard of intellectual discussions from men in India, I
am glad I dont live there anymore. And they say in India we worship
women. I feel sorry that you ladies are being abused but you know
what, you hang in there and continue with your intellectual war. You
ladies are doing simply great. Would love to meet you both the next
time I am in India. Good luck ladies. If the men are morons, arent
there women to speak up for you? – Rajesh Talwar
by IS April 3, 2010 at 10:14 am
Nithy has made a grave mistake and brought all Hindu Dharma
representatives into disgrace. He has an obligation to change his ways
and apologize for abusing the trust of his devotees. In another age
Naga sadhus would have dealt with him in a very severe manner: they
would have stripped him of his kavi cloth and rudraksha mala and given
him jal samadhi in the Ganga.
We don’t advocate jal samadhi today, but Nithy should remove his kavi
cloth, shave his head, take a Ganga bath, and humbly apologize to all
the people he has cheated.
There is no other way. And if he is really a man of character, he will
do these simple ritual action to indicate a change of heart and
mitigate the great harm he has done to Hindu Dharma.
by Swami Devananda Saraswati April 2, 2010 at 7:40 pm
PRESS RELEASE
Appeal to Nithyananda by Maharishi Om
Founder of the Rejuvenation Yoga Institute of America and YogaUSA.com,
an institution that has over 200,000 followers learning Vedic
knowledge.
1 April 2010
Contact:
tel: ++1.630.699.4038
w: http://www.yogausa.com
e: mahari...@gmail.com
Om Namah Shivaya,
This is a special appeal to Nithyananda. All of you know him very
well. Nithyananda, please say sorry to all devotees and say sorry to
all sanyasis (monks) because you are bringing a bad name to sanyasis
(monks) and also a bad name for Hinduism.
Your statements, they are very, very confusing. One place you are
saying that you are doing an experiment … and you are in samadhi
(trance). But, whatever you are experimenting in samadhi (trance) that
is not an act of a sanyasi (monk). This is very, very bad.
In another statement, you are saying that “I did nothing wrong;
nothing illegal, at all. And, I have not done anything against the
law.” What is legal and illegal for a sanyasi (monk)? Can you please
explain?
In another statement, you are saying that the video was morphed,
manipulated, and misrepresented – (of) your personal life. What was
morphed? And, what was manipulated? Can you please explain?
In another interview, you are saying that she (Ranjitha) was your true
devotee. She is and she will be your devotee. And, she will remain
your devotee. And, she was volunteering, serving, and taking care of
you when you were sick.
We devotees don’t understand these statements at all. (You are) very
confused. These statements are confusing and creating frustration in
devotees’ hearts. (Your statements are) contradicting (to) each other;
nobody knows which one is true and which one is real. What it appears
to the general public that the statements are made up, and the truth
is not being revealed. Why don’t (you) say sorry? And, say, sorry,
again and again? And, say, “I made a mistake, and I cannot live up to
the standard of a real sanyasi (monk)?” And, ask for forgiveness? And
take corrective measures?
We, sanyasis (monks) are in great pain and sorrow. With your actions,
we request to you, (to) please say sorry to (the) public and correct
yourself. You, Nithyananda, need to leave this kavi (holy saffron)
cloth immediately.
We request to the public to keep a close watch on people who misguide
and who mislead you. Remember the statement from Kabirdas:
Guru kijiye jaan ke, paani pijiye chhan ke.
That means: Understand your guru before you accept him, and always
filter the water before you drink it.
What is the meaning of sanyasi (monk)? Who is a sanyasi and a true
guru? Sanyasa means renunciation and detachment from worldly affairs.
Sanyasa means tyaga (unconditional detached love), not raga (lust) or
anuraaga (worldly love). Sanyasa means love, not lust at all. Swami
means the one who has mastered over sensual pleasures. But, it is
clearly coming out from your (Nithyananda’s) statements that you are
not following the path of dharma (righteousness). Please, admit your
mistake and say sorry. Guru means true guide, like a mother.
I again humbly appeal to the devotees who are following the path of
dharma (righteousness) and they are in pain, please remain calm in
this difficult time, have faith in God and continue your spiritual
journey.
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Om (Peace within, Peace throughout, Peace
Everywhere)
by Maharishi Om April 2, 2010 at 7:38 pm
sanatana dharma does not require hard selling…neither does it require
any protectionism…eventually what will stand out is dharma…we need not
cry hoarse unless we feel the necessity to vent!
by ravi April 1, 2010 at 8:38 am
[...] Nithyananda videos: A testing time for Hindus – Radha Rajan -
http://bharatabharati.wordpress.com/2010/03/05/nityananda-videos-a-testing-time-for-hindus-radha-raj…
[...]
by Nithy resigns from ashram & all associated trusts – Media
Reports « Bharata Bharati March 30, 2010 at 12:10 pm
[...] Nityananda videos: A testing time for Hindus – Radha Rajan [...]
by Debutante Dharma-Gurus: Violating a civilisational patent –
Sandhya Jain « Bharata Bharati March 21, 2010 at 9:47 pm
Actress Ranjita cannot be blamed for this. She is used to acting in
films in similar vulgar scenes and she never had the image of puritan
or claimed so.
The person to be blamed and to be punished is Rajendran (the real name
of this idiot). He should be referred as Avamanam Rajendran , instead
of Saint’s name in future. The person should be beaten in public, if
all these allegations on him are proved. He is not Nityananda – but he
is ‘Nitya Avamanam’ for Saint Community. He will be remembered in
history for this shameful act. I know that real Saints leave
everything in life – but this false saint threw away prestige, shame,
trust of people, self respect, decency, decorum, morality, etc. He is
a real shame to India, especially to Tamil Nadu.
An early action should be taken in his case and put him behind the
bars. The justice in this case should form basic lesson for the other
Saints in our country
by VJ March 18, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Like people go against Swamis, they should go against politicians in
all the states in any party, completely expose their houses and
families, and never make them win in elections. This POLITICS is
playing havoc with all the religions.
by Sakthi March 12, 2010 at 11:09 am
The matter of the Nityananda sex video can be settled in 5 minutes if
Nityananda’s friend and sponsor Swami Dayananda Saraswati, head of the
Arsha Vidya Gurukulam and convener of the Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha,
calls the Sun TV proprietors and asks them to verify the authenticity
of the video. In that the respected Swamiji has not made the phone
call, or does not inform the public about the answer the Maran
brothers have given him, we may safely assume that the video is
authentic and has not been morphed or compromised.
The video was made by Nityananda’s own disciples and distributed by
them throughout the world as already stated to the Chennai police. Two
of these disciples have sought protection from the Chennai police and/
or court. If there is a Christian conspiracy behind the video as
claimed by Rajiv Malhotra and others, then that possibility must be
taken very seriously by all concerned parties including Sun TV.
Christian missionaries in India and their financiers abroad will stoop
to any level and employ every dirty trick known in order to malign
Hindu leaders and Hindu culture. But that does not invalidate the
authenticity of the contents of the video; it only supplies the motive
and money behind the making of the video. Were Nityananda’s disciples
bought by World Vision or another Christian outfit? So far there is no
evidence to indicate that missionaries were involved.
Hindu sadhus and gurus must learn to behave themselves in public and
private. When they become popular and receive the adulation of
hundreds and thousands of trusting, devout bhaktas they often get
swelled heads that are empty of anything but their own name. They
think they are invincible. That is a mistake. They are obliged to
Dharma itself and to the public who feeds them. They should be
especially careful of their conduct in Tamil Nadu, a state ruled by a
hostile, anti-Hindu administration whose citizens are informed every
morning and evening by a prurient, hostile, and anti-Hindu ’secular’
media that is always looking for just such a scandal as this one (but
refuses to report similar scandals in madrasas and seminaries).
Nityananda is an independent, free-lance godman and guru who
represents his own interests. He is not a traditional sanyasi and does
not have a traditional diksha. He does not represent a traditional
Hindu acharya parampara (though his hysterical devotees pretend that
he does). He is not registered or associated with any traditional
ashram or math but was one of the founders (like Swami Dayananda) of
the new theosophical outfit the Global Foundation for Civilizational
Harmony. This should be clearly understood by all Indians before they
start throwing stones at traditional sadhus and acharyas because of
the conduct of one very popular independent operator. Unfortunately,
the kavi cloth of the traditional sanyasi has been dragged in the mud
because of the conduct of one man who also wears the same costume with
(now) doubtful authority.
Nityananda is a Shiva bhakta with great charm and teaching ability. He
is able to influence the lives of many people. He has captured the
hearts of many people. If he has made a mistake, he has an obligation
to Dharma and the people whose trust he has abused to admit his error.
Sexual misconduct is a human failing and can be corrected. Even our
great Rishis made mistakes, fell down, and then rose up again to
become victorious in their discipline. Nityananda will be victorious
too, but he must make a radical change in his lifestyle and insure
that the opportunity for misdeeds doesn’t arise again.
Ayodhya seers: ladies should not visit ashrams alone or after dark
by SDS March 11, 2010 at 11:03 am
The godman is on the run and our respected gurus – his sponsors to
various high profile public positions like the Global Foundation of
Civilizational Harmony – are tongue-tied. Not a word to say to the
exercised Hindu public. Dumb like oxen. The guru is God according to
the chela – but not when there is scandal blowing all around the
countryside. Then chela must depend on God alone only and his little
helper in the form of political commentator Cho who so far is the only
shaved head in Chennai with something sensible to say. What a sad
state of affairs in the Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha: The Voice (not
heard yesterday or today) of Collective Hindu Conciousness!
Cho: Fake godmen around in ancient times too – R. Bhagwan Singh
by SDS March 8, 2010 at 12:57 pm
Kindly visit the following sites to know more about the issue:
http://dravidianatheism.wordpress.com/
http://dravidianatheism2.wordpress.com/
http://rationalisterrorism.wordpress.com/
http://secularsim.wordpress.com/
I have dealt with the issue without any bias covering both sides.
These sites are in Tamil, as the issues are to reach Tamils, who have
been confused, brainwashed and thus supposed to know the facts behind.
Interested may visit, read, comment and criticize for further
analysis.
by vedaprakash March 7, 2010 at 2:30 pm
TIMES OF INDIA REPORT
KERALA PRIEST HELD FOR SEXUAL ABUSE OF MINOR
Ananthakrishnan G, TNN, Mar 6, 2010, 03.29am IST
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A Kerala Christian priest has been arrested for
alleged sexual abuse of a minor girl inmate of a hostel run by
Orthodox Church at Pothukal in Malappuram district in September last
year. The victim is a student of Catholicate Higher Secondary School
run by the church.
Father K G Joseph alias Father Habib Joseph was arrested and produced
in a local court on Thursday. He, however, was granted bail. Joseph
later denied charges. Crime Branch sources said the priest was charged
under Section 354 IPC (assault or criminal force to woman with intent
to outrage her modesty), a bailable offence.
Police are also probing the “unnatural” death of the girl’s elder
sister, who “succumbed” to suspected food poisoning at hostel in
October last year. A few days after her death, the 14-year-old class
IX student had alleged that she and her elder sister Anu were made to
wash feet and massage Joseph and another priest who was a regular
visitor to the hostel and that it often ended up with them being
sexually harassed.
Though they took up the matter with a nun, she instead of helping,
threatened them with dire consequences, the girl had alleged. The two
sisters belonging to a poor family of Kelakam in Kannur district
thought it better to resign to their fate as otherwise they would have
had to discontinue studies.
Sixteen-year-old Anu, a class XI student, died on October 24, 2009.
Soon after her death her younger sister had told reporters in the
presence of her father that Anju was taken out in a car by the second
priest on October 21 and they returned late in the night. Anu looked
very tired and was crying and didn’t eat anything the next day. This
infuriated the nun who beat her up, she had alleged.
The torture was so brutal that there were blood stains on the wall of
Anu’s room, she had alleged.
by KGS March 6, 2010 at 7:51 pm
TIMES OF INDIA REPORT
POPE’S BROTHER’S CHOIR FACES SEX ABUSE CLAIMS
AP, Mar 6, 2010, 02.37am IST
BERLIN: An ever-widening sexual abuse scandal involving Germany’s
Roman Catholic Church spilled into the heart of Pope Benedict XVI’s
homeland on Friday when a former member of a boy’s choir led for 30
years by his brother claimed he was a victim.
A former singer came forward with allegations church employees had
sexually abused him in the early 1960s, said Clemens Neck, a spokesman
for the Regensburg Diocese which oversees the school connected to the
renowned Regensburger Domspatzen boys choir.
Neck gave no details on the extent of the abuse, but insisted it
happened before Georg Ratzinger, the pope’s brother, took over the
choir in 1964. Ratzinger led the choir, comprised of around 500 boys
and young men, until his retirement in 1994.
A Vatican source said the pope did not intend to immediately issue a
formal statement on the claims in Regensburg.
by KGS March 6, 2010 at 7:32 pm
Ask Swami Dayananda, why did he leave Chinamaya mission in 1981? Why
he started to give sanyas in Hrishekesh to any brahmachari and asked
them to come to his ashram? this was during 1982 oct… to be precise
12th. God or nature or even supernatural power doesn’t play dice. I
want to ask you a frank question? what is the difference between a
hindu? a Christian and a Muslim? Nothing! If god had played different
roles a christian would have had a longer nose, a Hindu a shorter one
and a muslim a longer ear! Wake up stop comparing, the issue with
Nityanada is with Sex, when a bhakta donates, he expects that Sanyasi
to lead a good life and not divulge in Sexual life. Stop comparing,
Insha allah! is the same as Lord jesus, is same as hari om! words were
created by us and not by him. Man when we are naked we are all the
same. 4.5 liters of blood flowing in our body. Nitya anada is
different it is 4.5 liters in the Lower part
by Anoop March 5, 2010 at 9:21 pm
No doubt Swami Dayananda is completely compromised by being both HDAS
convener and part of the GFCH outfit. The latter appears to be an
updated version of the Theosophical Society that is organised like the
Unitarian Church. He will have to choose between the two as there is a
glaring conflict of interests here.
It has become crystal clear that the Hindus of India have been
virtually disenfranchised in the last 60 years since Independence.
They have been disenfranchised not by foreign armies but by foreign
ideologies and values that have been internalised by many Hindus – the
globetrotting godmen are an example – through the christianised
education process they have been through – and believe me all modern
so-called secular liberal humanistic education is really Western
Christian education even if the student never sees the inside of a
church. The result is that educated, americanised, and in some cases
alienated Hindus both inside India and outside, have become the
greatest enemy of the Hindu who is rooted in his own ancient, tried
and true civilization and not motivated to leave home by a desire for
things foreign including values and ideology. If Hindu values are
lost, and they have been lost completely at the level of government,
so too is Hindu civilization lost. Are we going to let MK and his
buddies in the Catholic Bishops Conference of India win the day?
They will win because we have no effective leaders, and those leaders
we do have in various Hindu outfits are busy being universal or
universalist when they should be dealing with the critical problems at
home.
This sadhu is persuaded that Radha Rajan and Sandhya Jain have got it
right. If we dismiss what they are saying as cranky or extreme, we do
so at our own peril.
by Swami Devananda Saraswati March 5, 2010 at 6:42 pm
navanavonmilita's blog
http://navanavonmilita.wordpress.com/