Resisting the Nazis in numerous ways: nonviolence in occupied Europe

July 24, 2017

Non-violent resistance to Nazi occupation is a page of history few of us are familiar with. In this interview, George Paxton tells us about its success stories, its occasional failures and its heroes.

White Rose movement public memorial, Munich. Adam Jones/Wikimedia commons. Public domain.

In his 2016 book Nonviolent Resistance to the Nazis George Paxton, a Trustee of the Gandhi Foundation, sets out what is effectively secret history in a culture that reveres the violent struggle against Nazi Germany – Dunkirk and Churchill being the latest films that focus on the military campaign.

Ian Sinclair (IS): What was the scale of the nonviolent resistance to the Nazis in occupied Europe? What were some of the methods used?
George Paxton (GP): The extent of nonviolent resistance used against the occupiers varied from country to country with the most active probably being Norway, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands. The attitude of the Nazis to Eastern Europe, which they wanted to clear of its population in order to settle Germans, meant that the resistance was different in nature.

The size of the different campaigns of resistance ranged from a single individual to large sections of the population. In the case of the Norwegian teachers opposition to the schools’ Nazification, it was around 10,000 teachers supported by about 100,000 parents. Some strikes elsewhere involved even more than this.

The methods used in the various campaigns were very diverse such as marches, wearing symbols of resistance, private and public letters of protest, refusing to be conscripted for work, resigning from professional bodies taken over by the Nazis, hiding Jews, helping Jews escape, listening to BBC radio broadcasts, producing underground newspapers, collecting funds for resistance, deliberate slow working and many more.

IS: You include a section with a number of case studies of nonviolent resistance to the Nazis. Do you have a favourite?
GP: It is difficult to choose one but for a small scale resistance, involving just dozens of individuals, the White Rose group in Germany is one of the most impressive. Set up mainly by students at the University of Munich and including a brother and sister, Hans and Sophie Scholl, the group produced leaflets attacking the immoral nature of the Nazi regime and also the likelihood of its failure. Leaflets were printed secretly then posted out to individuals and left in public places. Groups were also started in other German towns and leaflets were transported by a resister by train in a suitcase.

But due to a careless act when Hans and Sophie were distributing leaflets at their university, they were arrested, interrogated, quickly tried and executed. This was followed by other arrests, executions and imprisonments. While their resistance was a failure in that the revolt of students they hoped to trigger did not occur, knowledge of their courageous acts spread widely in Germany and indeed abroad.

A contrasting successful resistance was the rescue of Jews, mainly children, by the villagers of Chambon-sur-Lignon on a high plateau south-west of Lyons in France. This village (and others in the region) became a hide-out for those escaping the Nazis and became a centre of safety, particularly for children. The inspiration for this action came from the Protestant pastor and his wife, André and Magda Trocmé. André was an in-comer from the north-east of France and a pacifist and his actions were a product of his Christian belief which influenced also the nature of the resistance. Thus he did not deny that Jews were hidden in the village and surrounding farms but refused to tell the police where they were hidden. André survived the occupation, although imprisoned for a time, and several thousand Jews and others hidden there survived until liberation.

There are detailed studies of these two cases published but many more have not been studied in detail and indeed no doubt some actions have been lost to history.

Although there were only about 8,000 Jews in Denmark almost all of them survived.

IS: What struck me reading your book was how Nazi Germany was not all-powerful in the countries they occupied, but was often forced to compromise and, occasionally, to back down because of nonviolent resistance. Can you talk about some of the successes those carrying out nonviolent resistance had?
GP: One of the most outstanding successes of resistance was the rescue of the Danish Jews. Denmark was treated relatively mildly by the Germans in part because the Danes were willing to supply Germany with agricultural produce. Their own government was allowed considerable independence for a while although the relationship soured eventually and the Germans took over.

The local German administration was then ordered to round up the Jews for deportation to Germany. But at the German embassy was an attaché, Georg Duckwitz, who contacted a leading Danish politician to tell him when the round-up was to take place. He, in turn, informed the Chief Rabbi who passed the word to the Jews, while non-Jewish friends hid Jews and then transported them to the coast where boats were hired to take them to neutral Sweden. Although there were only about 8,000 Jews in Denmark almost all of them survived, even the few hundred who were captured and sent to Germany were not sent to the death camps as had been promised to SS General Werner Best, the German head of government in Denmark.

In the Netherlands, an attempt to conscript former Dutch soldiers who had been disarmed by the Germans was met by the largest strike in the occupied countries. It began in mines and factories and spread until it involved half a million people who took to the streets. In response, more than 100 people were executed but far fewer former soldiers enrolled than the Germans wanted.

In Belgium, students and staff at the University of Brussels protested at the employment of Nazi staff and then organised teaching underground.

In the Netherlands and Norway the Germans failed to bring the doctors’ professional associations under their control due to non-cooperation by the doctors.

Opposition in Germany, particularly by Catholics, forced the stopping of the ‘euthanasia’ programme although many had been murdered before it was abandoned.

A recent study, Hitler’s Compromises by Nathan Stoltzfus, shows that Hitler was very careful to keep the German population ‘on side’. He was wary of dissent and compromised if it looked as if opposition to a policy was growing, e.g. the euthanasia programme and the Catholic opposition to attempted Nazification in the Catholic Church. He did the same with the effective opposition of German wives to the deportation of their Jewish husbands from Berlin.

Nonviolent resistance in Eastern Europe was different due to the more ruthless methods of the invader. In Poland, in spite of the extreme repression, the Nazis failed to destroy Polish culture due to the extensive development of underground organisations. School and university teaching continued in people’s houses with degrees being awarded and research papers published; courts conducted trials; political parties operated with a parliament and government departments; separate military and civilian resistance groups operated; money was obtained from the Polish Government-in-exile in London.

The hiding and rescuing of Jews was on a large scale throughout Europe with possibly as many as one million Jews saved (see Philip Friedman’s Their Brothers’ Keepers); this being done at great risk for the rescuers.

I think solidarity within the resisting group must be of great importance.

IS: Why do you think some campaigns were successful and others not?
GP: I think solidarity within the resisting group must be of great importance. The absolute numbers of resisters may not always be significant. For example, in Belgium insufficient solidarity and firmness by the higher civil servants and judges led to the Germans ultimately achieving their aims. Support from the general population was important elsewhere, e.g. funds to pay teachers on strike or working underground.

There were some quite important incidental factors such as nearness of mountains and forests for hiding and a border with a neutral country for escape.

The use of nonviolence itself is of great importance. A violent opposition will be resisted with maximum violence from the controlling power but nonviolent resistance will send different signals, e.g. we are less of a threat to you. This may give rise to a degree of sympathy among the security forces. The resisters have to be firm but not aggressive. The occupied population has the advantage of superior numbers if they choose to use their power.

IS: You contrast what you call Gandhian resistance with the pragmatic nonviolent action that people like Gene Sharp advocate. What are the main differences between the two?
GP: There isn’t a great deal dividing Sharp and Gandhi. But most of the nonviolent resistance used by resisters during the Nazi occupation was pragmatic in the sense that it was not usually underpinned by nonviolent theory; in fact, it simply did not involve the use of weapons and so other writers prefer to call it civilian resistance.

Sharp developed nonviolent resistance theory which was independent of religious belief, Gandhi’s or others. In reality Gandhi’s beliefs were very inclusive although he tended to use Hindu terms which Sharp wanted to avoid as he did not want to tie nonviolence to any particular culture. Both of their approaches are grounded in ethics. Sharp’s academic work actually grew out of his interest in Gandhi’s career but Sharp put more emphasis on the use of power in considering the possible mechanism of nonviolent resistance; Gandhi hoped for conversion of the opponent.

For most of the occupied populations a nonviolent resistance was simply not in their minds.

IS: How do you respond to the argument that it was ultimately violent action that ended the Third Reich, not nonviolent resistance?
GP: People in general, and governments in particular, think of defence only in terms of military action. This is still true today as it was in the 1930s. Therefore for most of the occupied populations a nonviolent resistance was simply not in their minds, except for a small number of pacifists. However, when their country was occupied and they did not have the means to resist in the conventional way the braver and more imaginative sometimes turned to non-military means.

Most people expected their countries to be liberated by military means from outside but what we need to take into consideration is the cost of violent resistance, which in WWII proved to be enormous in terms of deaths and destruction. And as Gandhi pointed out before WWII began the Allies would need to resort to the Nazis’ foul methods in order to ‘win’. When one remembers the blanket bombing of the German and Japanese cities which were largely occupied by civilians it is difficult to disagree.

The nonviolent resistance used in the occupied countries was too small in scale to defeat the invaders but I believe the potential is there, and with the knowledge we have today future conflicts could be handled by nonviolent resistance.

Courtesy: Open Democracy

America’s Yemen Policy is Creating More Terrorists

July 24, 2017

As Iraq finally pries the death grip of the Islamic State off of its bloodied form, you’d think US policy would reflect the lessons learned from killing innocent civilians and destroying the basic functions of a nation. Instead, more than a decade of using drones to “target” suspected terrorists, the Trump administration has now opened the door wide for the Saudis to ramp up the carnage in Yemen.

Villagers scour rubble for belongings scattered during the bombing of Hajar Aukaish, Yemen, in April 2015. (A. Mojalli/VOA)

Just as the invasion of Iraq eventually produced the Islamic State (ISIS or IS), the killing of innocent Yemenis for no moral reason at all is providing a recruitment tool for terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East and Africa. And just as the Iraq invasion was predicated on a false claim of weapons of mass destruction, the war in Yemen rests on the bogus argument that Iranians are supporting terrorism in that country. In the first two years of the conflict in Yemen, the United States was not able to point to any evidence of Iranian weapons delivery to Yemen. Yet, the United States joined with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States with weapon sales, intelligence, and a U.S.-enforced naval blockade. Trump’s recent sale of arms to the Saudis was worth $125 billion.

The results of all this has been catastrophic. Take a look at the suffering of the Yemeni people in the past few years.

Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the Arab region. It has gone through conflicts for a variety of reasons: religion, ideology, and resources. In 1990, Yemen unified, but conflicts remained. The Zaidis (a branch of Shia Islam) are located in the mountains of northern Yemen where the Houthis are the major tribe/group. The remainder of the population of the country are Sunni. In 2014, the Houthis surged south and took control of the capital, Sanaa, and most of the surrounding area. The president of the country, Abdo Rabbu Mansour Hadi, escaped to Saudi Arabia in 2015. In six months, the Saudis and Hadi formed an army and took back part of the area but not Sanaa.

The Saudi-led war against the Houthis brings together troops from Saudi Arabia, President Hadi’s supporters in the Yemeni military, Emirati countries, Islamist militants and some smaller tribes. Saudi allies are intervening to support the Hadi’s Saudi-installed puppet regime, with the United States, Britain, France, Turkey, and Belgium joining in the effort. Regional countries – Kuwait, Bahrain, United Arab Republic (UAE), Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Sudan – are also providing support to the Saudis.

The Saudis are not just waging war against Houthi soldiers. They are bombing hospitals, schools, medical clinics and other civic places. The Houthis, outgunned, have resorted to fighting the war with child soldiers and, more recently, using smuggled weapons from Iran.
Yemen, a country of 25 million people, has lost 10,000 lives so far in this conflict. It has also experienced widespread human rights violations and disease, and nearly half the population is in a food crisis. “There is no food, no pure water, no electricity, nothing,” a a Yemini woman says. “One day, a businessperson came to us and give us dishes and spoons but I told him sarcastically, ‘what should we do with these? Eat the soil?’”

The dire situation in Yemen has become even more severe since the recent outbreak of cholera. The lack of sanitation, clean water, and medical care are fertile ground for the spread of the disease. This current outbreak reportedly infected 269,608 people and has caused the deaths of over 1,600. This number of fatalities in Yemen due to cholera is larger than all the cholera deaths in the world in 2015, as reported by the World Health Organization.

The current civilian slaughter, chaos, and daily indignities in Yemen create the perfect recruitment tool for the expansion of terrorist organizations. Al-Qaeda has been operating in Yemen for a long time. Known as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), they are augmenting their presence with technological savvy and are now considered one of the most dangerous al-Qaeda groups. In addition, IS has begun to make their presence felt in Yemen.

The Islamic State is on the verge of defeat. But U.S. analysts, most recently Ashton Carter in a Washington Post op-ed, continue to overlook how U.S. policies created the blowback of terrorism and entities like IS. In Yemen, the United States is repeating the same errors it made in Iraq. And the results, in terms of breeding terrorist backlash, will be the same. Until the United States learns to be more humane and severs ties with corrupt and ruthless dictators for the sake of oil or other commodity interests, this cycle will never end.

Adil E. Shamoo is an associate fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies, a senior analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus, and the author of Equal Worth — When Humanity Will Have Peace – Download a free copy at: (www.forwarorpeace.com). His email is ashamoo@som.umaryland.edu. Bonnie Bricker is a contributor to FPIF.

Courtesy: http://fpif.org

Bleached girls: India and its love for light skin

July 24, 2017

“Let’s scrub out that tan” is a common refrain in beauty parlours in India, where girls grow up with constant reminders that only fair skin is beautiful.

In India, a light complexion is associated with power, status and beauty, fueling an innovative and growing market of skin-bleaching products. Adam Jones/Flickr, CC BY-SA

From Sunday classified ads touting the marriageability of an “MBA graduate. 5-½ ft. English medium. Fair complexion” to elderly aunties advising young women to apply saffron paste to “maintain your skin whiter and smoother”, the signs are everywhere.
Even sentiments like, “She got lucky he married her despite her [dark] complexion” are still whispered around India in 2017.

Younger generations are now starting to push back. On July 7, 18-year-old Aranya Johar published her Brown Girl’s Guide to Beauty on Youtube. The video, a spoken-word poem containing lines like “Forget snow-white/say hello to chocolate brown/I’ll write my own fairy-tale” went viral, reaching 1.5 million viewers around the world in its first day alone.

Aranya Johar’s anti-bleaching poetry went viral.

Johar’s candid slam came just before Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui used Twitter to indict the Indian film industry’s racist culture.

His post recalled the vehement pushback of actress Tannishtha Chatterjee, who was was bullied for her skin tone on live TV in 2016.

Though many Indians still feign ignorance about social discrimination based on skin colour, the country’s obsession with whiteness can also be violent. In recent years, fear of black and brown skin has also spurred harassment and attacks on African students living in India.

Why do Indians so hate their own colour?

The bleaching syndrome

Indian history offers some answers.

Throughout medieval and modern history, the Indian subcontinent has been on the radar of various European settlers and traders, including, from the 15th to 17th centuries, the Portuguese, Dutch and French. The subcontinent was invaded and partly ruled by the Mughals in the 16th century, and colonised by the British from the 17th century onwards until independence in 1947. All these foreign “visitors” were of relatively fair complexion, and many claimed to be superior.

Being subject to a succession of white(ish) overlords has long associated light skin with power, status and desirability among Indians. Today, the contempt for brown skin is embraced by both the ruling class and lower castes, and reinforced daily by beauty magazine covers that feature almost exclusively Caucasian, often foreign, models.

It’s been the dark man’s burden in this majority-non-white nation to desire a westernised concept of beauty, and post-colonial activism has not been able to change this.

Indian women, like all women, come in various shapes, sizes and, yes, colours. Neha Mishra

According to a study we conducted from 2013 to 2016, 70% of the 300 women and men we interviewed reported wanting a date or partner with someone who had light skin. This colourism is what pushes so many Indians to lighten their skin, creating a phenomenon termed “bleaching syndrome”.

Bleaching syndrome is not a superficial fashion, it’s a strategy of assimilating a superior identity that reflects a deep-set belief that fair skin is better, more powerful, prettier. And it’s not limited to India; skin bleaching is also common in the rest of Asia and in Africa.

A thriving bleaching market

An inventive and growing market of creams and salves has cropped up to fill this demand, which now pulls in over US$400 million dollars annually.

Some of the most widely-sold products include Fem, Lotus, Fair and Lovely and its gendered-equivalent Fair and Handsome. Most of these appealingly named creams are in fact a dangerous cocktail of steroids, hydroquinone, and tretinoin, the long-term use of which can lead to health concerns like permanent pigmentation, skin cancer, liver damage and mercury poisoning among other things.

Various skin-lightening products are found across India and online, no prescription or restrictions required. Neha Mishra

Nonetheless, a 2014 marketing study found that almost 90% of Indian girls cite skin lightening as a “high need”. These young women are willing to overlook the after-effects of bleaching, and the advent of online sales allows them to use these products in the privacy of their own homes.

Initially focused on feminine beauty, the fairness creams market now also caters to Indian men. Products marketed to men promise to fight sweat, give them fairer underarms and attract women.

Megastar Shahrukh Khan explains that the secret to win a woman’s heart is light skin.

And Bollywood stars with huge followings, including Shahrukh Khan and John Abraham, regularly endorse and promote skin bleaches.

Bleaching backlash

The brand Clean and Dry took bleaching to new levels in 2012, when it began heavily advertising for a new wash to lighten the vagina.

Clean and Dry intimate wash ad compares Indian vaginas and coffee.

This time, women had had enough. In 2013, the activist group Women of Worth launched their Dark is Beautiful campaign, which was endorsed by the Indian theatre actress Nandita Sen.

With other feminist groups, the women compelled the Advertising Standards Council of India to issue guidelines in 2014 stating that “ads should not reinforce negative social stereotyping on the basis of skin colour” or “portray people with darker skin [as]…inferior, or unsuccessful in any aspect of life particularly in relation to being attractive to the opposite sex”.

This guidance is in keeping with the Indian Constitution, which provides for equality for all (article 14) and prohibits discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth (article 15).

Unfortunately, the law can do little to stop the subtler forms of racism and bigotry present in Indian society. And, to date, that vagina bleaching product is still on the market.

The “bleaching syndrome” goes far beyond skin colour, with Indian women also questioning their hair texture and colour, speech, marital choices and dress style, raising real concerns about female self-esteem.

As Aranya Johar rhymed on Youtube, “With the hope of being able someday to love another/let’s begin by being our own first lovers”.

Neha Mishra, Assistant Professor of Law, Reva University of Bangalore and Ronald Hall, Professor of Social Work, Michigan State University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Actress Suchitra slammed for saying pre-dawn azaan over “ear-shattering” loudspeakers “not civilized”

July 24, 2017

The actor posted an angry tweet on July 23 after reaching home early morning and being disturbed from sleep soon thereafter

Actor Suchitra Krishnamoorthi reached home at 4.45 am on the morning of July 23. Soon thereafter she was disturbed by “ear-shattering” azaans (calls for namaz) from two neighbouring mosques. The angry actor shot off a Tweet message protesting against what she described as “extreme imposed religiosity”.

A section of the Twitterati shot back, some mocking her, some alleging her complaint was nothing but cheap attention grabbing. Samajwadi leader Juhi Singh mocked Suchitra for thinking sleep is more important than prayers.

“Such irresponsible comments have been made in the past also. I am unable to understand what kind of people they are. I would like to know how does azaan, which otherwise purifies you on hearing, bother her. May be her sleep is more important,” SP leader Juhi Singh told ANI, on Monday.

Responding to the criticisms against her, Suchitra shot back to say that one, she had no objection to azaan during “decent hours” and two, she herself prayed but did not need someone to wake her up for that through blaring loudspeakers.

In April this year, singer Sonu Nigam had triggered a similar conroversy, describing the use of loudspeakers for azaan and sermons as “hooliganism”.

He had tweeted a message saying: “God bless everyone. I am not a Muslim and I have to be woken up by the azaan in the morning. When will this forced religiousness end in India?”

“Gundagardi hai bus (it is hooliganism),” he had added. Apologising later, Nigam had said he was trying to raise a social issue and not raking up a religious controversy.

However, when the imam of Kolkotta’s Jama Masjid declared an award of Rs. 10 lakh to anyone who shaved off Nigam’s head, the singer got himself a cleanshave before TV cameras and demanded that the award be paid to him.

Have Indian Muslims become the new ‘Make in India’ Punching Bag?

July 24, 2017

[ A month ago from yesterday, a teenager called Junaid was lynched and murdered on a train in Haryana. Sabiha Farhat writes in the wake of visiting his house and meeting his family. The news cycles may have moved on to other stories, but we need to keep remembering Junaid, and why he was killed. – Kafila]

Once upon a time there was a 15 year old boy called Hamid, who went shopping on the day of Eid with his Eidi . A few days ago there was Junaid who went shopping on the eve of Eid. Premchand’s Hamid was an orphan and lived with his grandmother in extreme poverty.

Junaid lived surrounded with love of his brothers, a sister, a doting mother, father and friends. Instead of the old, decrepit house of Hamid, Junaid’s house has two rooms, it is not falling apart but it’s size and unplastered walls, do speak about the economic condition of his family.

As we approached Khandawli, Junaid’s village in Ballabhgarh a fear gripped me. I did not have the courage to walk upto the house. Junaid was brutally murdered on 22nd and here I was on 25th. It was too soon, my mind said. I should have let Eid pass. But how could I have prepared Sewai in my house when a mother like myself had lost a young, healthy, happy child to hindutva fanatics? I am a mother, I was angry and ashamed at home. And here, standing outside Junaid’s door, I was weak and helpless. Useless too.

Junaid’s grandfather met us outside the house, his daughter-in-law was unwell and Junaid’s father had gone to Police station. We sat down on the charpais and tried to tell him that we were not from a political party nor were we Journalists. But he had not even asked us who we were! He wasn’t waiting for us or anyone in particular. All he said was, “We want ‘aman’, why did we fight against the British? So that we could live in our country with peace. Pardhan Mantri is the ‘maa and baap’ for all citizens, if he wants he can get us justice,”. This man had faith in Modi!!! He was hoping Modi would be able to get him Justice!!! I guess he just had old time innocence.

He let us go to the terrace to meet Junaid’s mother, Saira. There she was, stony eyed, not a tear, only a wail coming out of her. Her daughter was combing her hair while two ladies from the neighbourhood were sitting beside her, silently listening to Saira’s chilling wail, as if it had frozen them. I froze too. I sat in front of her but kept away. Gunit, my friend, had the courage to sit next to her and hold her hand. Gunit started talking and after what seemed like a very long time later, Saira, responded with tears and ‘mera beta’, ‘mera beta’, ‘moh ko ek hath se Utah leta tha’ , ‘abhi hafiz bana tha’, ‘amma naya suit pehan ke aiyo mere madarse mein’ ‘amma sabko dawat denge’ ‘jo jo usne kaha bibi maine sab kiya’, “jab hafiz baniyo tab main gayi to maulana ka kapda, unki biwi ka kapda, saare Bachchon ka khana le ke gayi, yahan se Jane se pehle Maine inko apne paas se paise nikaal ke diye our 10-10 ke naye note mangwaye, wahan dawat ke baad har bachche ko 10-10 rupaiye diye. Itta khush, itta khush ho gaya mera beta, bola amma tu toh kamaal kar di, har bachcha tujhe hi yaad karey hai madarase mein, ke jo junaid hafiz bana toh hamey 10 ka naya note mila, tu too mashoor ho gayi amma!!! aur khoob hanse tha!!! Abhi sehri mein moh se kunda le ke chal diyo ke amma tu baith aaj mein tujhe khilaonga…….” Saira kept describing Junaid’s innocent boyhood and we all cried with her. Saira’s question – ‘lekin kyon, mere beta toh rozey se tha, bhooka-pyasa, woh kaisey kuch kha sakta tha’ is still resounding in my ears. Saira knew Junaid was called a cow-eater before being killed. Ramzan is over and now Eid has passed too. Unlike Premchand’s Hamid who lived in Hindustan, Junaid lived in a Hindu Rashtra. So did Najeeb and Rohit Vemula. I can still see Rohit’s mother marching with the protestors, Najeeb’s mother being forcefully carried away by police and Pehlu Khan’s 80 year old mother wiping her tears! Why is it that in a hyper masculine fascist agenda – woman is the biggest looser?

The disappearances, suicides, public floggings and lynchings are not spontaneous acts of hurt-sentiments-venting-out by ‘Hindus’ as our BJP-RSS leaders have been claiming. Rohith Vemula was reduced to ‘his immediate identity, a vote, a number’ in his own words, he was marginalised and ignored to the extent of suffocation. Junaid must have felt the same suffocation.

Rohit was driven to suicide, Junaid was murdered, and no one was responsible! This indifference and numbness towards the lives of minorities is typical of Brahminical gaze. Can such people create a non-casteist Hindu Rashtra, as claimed by BJP-RSS? Will a Hindu Rashtra make our problems disappear? What will happen if all muslims were eliminated from India? Will you have better roads, clean water, clean ganga, no pollution, no land mafia, no rapes, no murders, no beggars, no poor, no unemployed, no homeless, no farmer suicides? Why then do Indian Hindus go crazy over this idea of Hindu Rashtra? The movement is already violent and till now it has only delivered political power to the likes of Modi and Amit Shah. To keep us engaged like irritant kids, they have dumped upon us the idea of Hindu nationalism. Nationalism requires symbols that arouse emotions. And since RSS or Hindutva-wadis didn’t play a role in the actual nationalist movement of India during the freedom struggle they are creating these symbols now. They have to re-write history and re-wire people’s understanding of history. The truth is their ideologue, ‘Veer’ Savarkar, originator of the concept of hindutva petitioned the British government several times when he was in Jail, betraying the national movement:

“…if the government in their manifold beneficence and mercy releases me, I for one cannot but be the staunchest advocate of constitutional progress and loyalty to the English government…I’m ready to serve the government in any capacity they like….”

(Savarkar’s letter asking for forgiveness dated November 14, 1913 is reprinted in a book, Penal Settlement In Andamans, published by the Gazetteers Unit of Union ministry of education.)

When a political party inspired by Savarkar, who was ready to be a loyal servant of the British, wants to take charge of Independent India, they know they have no roots. But ‘others’ do! Muslims have deep roots in India and were also at the forefront of the freedom struggle. RSS can’t digest that. They are trying hard to claim Ambedkar’s legacy but not of Ashfaqullah Khan or Barakatullah of Ghadar party or Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan who spent 45 years in Jail! They uproot the ‘other’. A road in Aurangzeb’s name is not acceptable but to hang the portrait of Savarkar with Mahatma Gandhi, inside the Parliament?!!!

History is distorted, manipulated and created to suit a rootless Hindu nationalism. Since minorities can’t be sent to gas chambers, they have to be either invisible or assimilated. Their identities have to be wiped out for the hindu nationalist to feel rooted in Hindu rashtra. Any visible identity markers like skull caps and beards must lead to mob lynchings, while the hindu fanatics wear their religion on their sleeves! A gathering of muslims terrify hindus, a lot of them tell me they are scared of venturing into the ‘muslim areas’. Earlier the refrain was ‘all terrorists are muslims’, can I now say ‘all lynchers are hindus’? No. I have to qualify them as ‘fanatics’! Hindu nationalists did this to Sikhs too. In the anti-sikh riots of 1984 a lot of Sikhs had to cut their hair and beards for fear of being identified. Dalits live in mortal fear of being looted, murdered or raped at the slightest resentment. Shabbirpur village in Saharanpur is a recent witness of domination by force. And the propaganda is that Hindus are the most peaceful race!

All these years of demonising muslims has created a consensus among the general Janta too about the ‘place’ of muslims in India. It is either ‘muslims should behave themselves’ or ‘get out’ of India. What behaviour? “To live like second grade citizens, to not have the right to vote, to live at the mercy of Hindus, to be plundered and raped in our graves”, as claimed by Yogi’s outfit. Yogi is not fringe, he is not an extremist, he is a mainstream politician elected by Hindus. Why do hinds elect such people again and again? Is this what they want? This “putting muslims in their place” is not a new phenomenon, I remember the other black Eid in 1987 when VHP painted the walls in Meerut with the slogan, “If you want to live in India, live like Hindus”. In 1991, it became, “Hindustan main rehna hai to Jai Shri Ram kehna hoga”. Why? Hindu Rashtra belongs to manuwadi, brahminical Hindus, majority of whom have turned against Indian muslims. Indian Muslims are treated like a punching bag on which nationalist hindus take out their anger, frustration, irritation. By hitting the muslims, hindus de-stress themselves, it works like a feel good factor. They use the free Hindu licence (issued by Modi sarkar) to vent out on muslims or dalits. Moreover they also have the guarantee of ‘No Witnesses’ so they can hound us publicly, as a pack, tamasha is in full swing. Else there wouldn’t be 200 people on the railway platform, all of whom saw NOTHING when Junaid and his two brothers were stabbed in broad daylight. Sure there are those who stand in protest with Indian Muslims. Be thankful to them but know that it is not enough.

Lynchings are psychological too. They happen in offices, parties, parks, neighbourhoods. My identity has been reduced to my name hundreds of times! Anyone at any time can point a finger at us and call us – Pakistani, anti national, Babar ki aulad, Aurangzeb ki aulad, mullah, katuey, kat-mullah, beef eater, ….They don’t care if these ‘names’ hurt us! They may do so as a joke, “c’mon yaar don’t be so serious”, “madam, aap zyada hypersensitive ho”, using both ‘hyper’ & ‘zyada’ when I feel bad but when the hindu feels bad, it becomes a matter of ‘insult to the nation’ or ‘insult to hinduism’. This ‘anti-national muslim’ construct, has been created by no less than our Prime Ministers. In 1983 Assam elections, Vajpayee and Advani, backed with RSS, successfully turned the local Assam agitation into an anti-muslim ferment. They fanned hatred by calling Assamese muslims ‘outsiders’ in their own homeland. Vajpayee had said, “Foreigners have come here; and the government does nothing. What if they had come into Punjab instead, people would have chopped them into pieces and thrown them away”. And sure enough 4000 muslims were hacked to death in the Nellie massacre, within a few months of his speech.

Moradabad. Nellie. Hashimpura. Ayodhya. Bombay. Gujarat. Muzzafar nagar…….
Vajpayee. Advani. Modi. Amit Shah. Yogi….
Muslim monster. Riots. Elections…

This is what we are up against: Ruthless politicians armed with politics of hate. The fact that it yields rich political dividends is a no brainer but the fact that majority of Hindus vote for them is telling of the community. Advani himself had said, “Had I not played the Ram factor effectively, I would have definitely lost from the New Delhi constituency,” (18.06.1991). Vajpayee didn’t lag behind either, during the same election campaign, he claimed that the construction of ‘Ram temple at Ayodhya was necessary to save the honour of the Hindu community’ (TOI, 13.05.1991). Sushma Swaraj called the construction of temple in place of mosque, “a matter of national honour”. Ashok Singhal said no excavation was necessary as “temple is a matter of faith and identity of crores of Hindus”. Therefore, No litigation. No court. Justice delivered by the mob. Babri masjid was demolished to establish Ram mandir – a symbol of Hindu nationalism.

Modi openly laughed in his rallies across Gujarat, addressing Muslims as the community that lived by the philosophy of “hum paanch, hamare pachees”. In his Gujarat Gaurav Yatra, he repeated, “We have to teach a lesson to those who are increasing population at an alarming rate”. In another address he referred to Gujarat riot victim’s camps as “breeding grounds and child producing centres” – reducing the community to an ‘unwanted burden’ in the Hindu Rashtra. And yet Indian Hindus voted for him to become the Prime Minister. Why? In recent UP elections too he created a ‘kabristaan vs shamshaan’ and the ‘electricity on Eid vs Holi’ divide – presenting the muslims as the ones taking away from the hindu plate. His election rallies end with ‘Bharat mata ki jai or Vande matram’ but does he really care for mata, matram or mothers? Maybe Rohit’s mother or Najeeb’s mother, will be able to tell.

Cow is the new symbol of honour of the Hindu community. Cow is said to be the mother of brahmin Hindus. I wonder, for this mother to have her “rightful place” in the history of Hindu Rashtra, how many muslim mothers will loose their sons and husbands to lynching mobs? Sadhus and Sadhvis equated the lynchers with Bhagat Singh!!! It is a Public Honour. The ignorance and arrogance of it all is stupefying. And once again: No litigation. No court. Justice is delivered by the mob. A nationalist mob, the Gau Rakshaks are honourable citizens with complete immunity from the state.

BJP and its Hindutva brigade has blood on it hands. It is blood thirsty still. It is desperate for 2019…And Hindus* may vote for them yet again!

Indian muslims are the first game in the slaughter chain, while being accused of appeasement! It’s a double whammy! It is cleverly coded communal politics. The idea is to keep us in a continuous state of riots, relief camps, repression. The idea is also to make the biggest minority irrelevant in India.

Are the Indian Muslims ready to take on this fight against a communal state, a complicit state machinery and at best an indifferent majority? No. Because we are the most socio-economically backward community, worse off than Dalits. Indian governments will not provide ‘muslim areas’ with development infrastructure like schools, drainage, roads, water,…but will spread the propaganda that muslims do not want to study, that we are unhygienic, that we want to live in ghettos. We have to be a “self-made” community. We have to build everything on our own – schools, colleges, dispensaries, hospitals, parks, drains, whatever and then go out and compete in the mainstream. There will be social biases. We have to defy it all.

Indian muslims have been at the margins for far too long, this has led to the belief that, ‘that’ is our place. No. Let no Amit Shah tell us that we are here to repair cycle punctures.
* (All hindus may not vote for BJP-RSS but all those who vote for Modi are Hindus)

Today, the truth is that majority of Indian Hindus sway to the tune of Modi whether it is the foot soldiers or virtual soldiers of hindutva, rural or urban, illiterate or educated. They are prisoners of Modi.

The truth is also that there are other minorities at the receiving end of hindutva fanaticism. Dalits. Sikhs. Christians.Tribals. The examples speak for themselves. The Dalit and Akali movements are strong enough to force BJP-RSS to appease them, even if through politics of tokenism. Muslims must learn and learn fast from these movements. A grass root movement of our own that reaches out to build solidarities with other vulnerable groups like Dalits, SCs, STs, LGBT,…is required. The only way to break the hindutva narrative is through alliance, progressive ideology and education. We must recognise and acknowledge our allies, respect their integrity and camaraderie.

Remember we have been the punching bag, we have been hit too hard for too long. It’s our turn to come back like the punching bag and hit the brazen fanatics in the face. It is possible to knock them down!

Courtesy: Kafila.online

India ‘s Model of ‘Development’ : 132nd among 152 countries because of “woefully low” health, education spending

July 24, 2017

A new report, The Commitment to Reduce Inequality Index. has revealed these shocking figures.

A top international report has said that India fares “very badly, ranking 132 out of 152 countries in its commitment to reducing inequality – a very worrying situation given that the country is home to 1.2 billion people, many of whom live in extreme poverty.”
Compared to India, among the neighbours, Nepal ranks 81, Sri Lanka 138, Pakistan 139, and Bangladesh 141. Sweden ranks No 1, followed by Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Finland, Austria and France. United Kingdom ranks 17, South Africa 21, United States 23, Russia 85, and China 87.

Insisting that “unless they take concerted action now”, India and other countries ranking equally badly “will fail to end poverty and fail to make sustainable economic progress that benefits everyone in society”, the report, prepared by well-known UK-based NGO Oxfam in collaboration with the US-based Development Finance International, says that if India were to reduce inequality by a third, more than 170 million people would no longer be poor.

Called Commitment to Reducing Inequality (CRI) report, it says, the Government of India spending on “health, education and social protection is woefully low”, adding, “The tax structure looks reasonably progressive on paper, but in practice much of the progressive tax is not collected.”

It further says, “On labour rights and respect for women in the workplace, India also fares poorly, reflecting that the majority of the labour force is employed in the agricultural and informal sectors, which lack union organization.”

Thus, among 152 countries, India ranks 149 in spending on health, education and social protection; 91 in progressive structure and incidence of tax; and 86 in labour market policies to address inequality 86, with the overall CRI ranking averaging at 132.

Pointing out that India is one of the countries whose actual ‘incidence’ of tax – who actually pays tax – is very different from what it appears on paper, the report says, “India collects just 16.7% of GDP, Indonesia collects 11.9%, whereas South Africa manages to collect over 27%.”

Pointing towards the type of inequalities that exist in India, where it has been compulsory since 2013 for firms to publish their the chief executive officers (CEOs) pay ratios, the report says, the country’s “CEO of the top IT firm brings in 416 times the salary of his company’s typical employee.”

Coming to the gender gap, the report says, “Women make up the majority of the world’s low-paid workers and are disproportionately concentrated in the most insecure roles in the informal sector”, the situation extremely bad in Asia.
“In Asia 75% of working women are working informally, lacking access to basic benefits such as sick pay, maternity leave or pensions”, the report says, adding, “Women are often paid less than men for doing the same job, despite working longer hours; for instance, in India, the wage gap is 32.6%.”

The report comments, “The inequality crisis is not inevitable and that governments are not powerless in the face of it. A number of governments, in recent as well as more distant history, including Sweden, Chile, Uruguay and Namibia, have shown they can buck the trend of growing inequality by taking clear steps to reduce it.”

It adds, “Unfortunately, many other governments, including Nigeria and India, are failing to make use of the tools available to them to tackle this global scourge. Unless they take concerted action now, they will fail to end poverty and fail to make sustainable economic progress that benefits everyone in society.”

Courtesy: Counterview

India Spends only 3 % of GDP on Education, Kothari Commission had Recommended 6 %

July 24, 2017

India is well known for an absence of institutional memory, a manifestation of which is not implementing recommendations of Commissions and expert bodies. In 1964, the Kothari Commission had recommended a 6 % allocation of 6 % of GDP, a policy recommendation endorsed by the National Policy of Education, two decades later in 1986.

A recent Right to Education (RTE) Forum consultation in Delhi discussed this wide gap and anomaly.

A paper presented at the seminar, jointly prepared by the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) and CRY for the RTE Forum, says, “After the implementation of RTE in 2010, the school education expenditure has increased just by 0.2% (from 2.5% percent of GDP in 2009-10 to 2.7% of GDP in 2015-16).”

It notes, however, “In this total education spending, state contributes 2.9 percent of GDP and rest one-fourth of the expenditure is financed by Union Government. The overall allocation for education could be lesser for 2017-18 as the share of Union Government has decreased from 0.8 percent in 2013-14 to 0.47 percent of GDP in 2017-18.”

The paper, authored by Prof Protiva Kundu, says that per student spending is on education is Rs 13,974 per year, with wide variations across states. Thus, the highest spending is of Goa with Rs 67,041, and the lowest is of Uttar Pradesh Rs 7,613, said Prof Kundu, adding, the Kendriya Vidyalayas, which are considered as ‘model’ schools financed by the Union Government, spent around Rs. 32,263 per child, and should be considered as benchmark.

The paper further says that the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), which is supposed to be the main vehicle for implementing RTE after the Act came into force in 2010, was not being supported by adequate resources.

“It was expected that there will be a big-push of resources for SSA to meet the target of universalization of elementary education. Conversely, SSA is severely under-funded”, Prof Kundu regrets in the paper.

Prof Krishna Kumar

She adds, “In the financial year, 2016-17, against an approval of Rs. 46,702 crore, the Ministry of Finance had allocated only Rs. 22,500 crore to the Ministry of Human Resource Development as central share for SSA.”

Taking part at the consultation, well-known educationist and former NCERT director Prof Krishna Kumar said that the Government of India shouldn’t overlook “demands and intentions” of earlier policies while formulating the New Education Policy, warning, “A country like India, which so diverse, a centralized education policy will not serve the larger purposes. Policies should be framed by taking local and regional needs in account.”

Former foreign secretary Muchkund Dubey told the consultation that those who frame policies and allocate funds in the field of education “should bear the responsibility of proper implementation of policies and utilisation of funds”, giving the example of how this is done in Brazil, Argentina, and Indonesia, adding, “India is the only country which is paying less attention on right to education despite it being a fundamental right.”

Prof Kundu told the consultation – in which Prof Poonam Batra and Prof Anita Rampal of Delhi University, and Prof Vinay Kanth of Patna University among others participated – that “a recent CAG audit report shows that the SSA budget for 2014-15 had been reduced by Rs 5256 crore, against the budgeted provision of Rs 27,575 crore, due to lower collection of education cess.”

She added, “With the implementation of goods and services tax (GST), how the education cess will be used is not very clear yet. Till now as per the GST council, the government will continue to levy education cess on imported goods and the closing balance of education cess will not be carried forward in GST, as it is not covered by definition of ‘eligible duties and taxes’ under CGST Act.”

Courtesy: Counterview

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India ‘s Model of ‘Development’ : 132nd among 152 countries because of “woefully low” health, education spending

A new report, The Commitment to Reduce Inequality Index. has revealed these shocking figures.

India Spends only 3 % of GDP on Education, Kothari Commission had Recommended 6 %

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