Appoint priests from all castes, follow Ambedkar

April 13, 2016

Monopolistic and exclusivist reservation of the posts of priests (archakas) and assignments for collateral duties in temples for members of the upper castes is unlawfuland violates all cannons of equity and justice. It is also unconstitutional, being blatantly contrary to Article 14 (equality before law), Article 15 (prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth) and Article 16 (equality of opportunities in matters of public employment).

The status of a caste among Hindus is generally proportionate to the physical contiguity of its members to idols (murti) in temples. Persons religiously entitled and scripturally eligible to conduct devotional and sacramental rites, and theological ceremonies in the sanctum sanctorum (garbhagriha)—for instance, people from the Agnihotri, Tantri, Vajpayee, Namboothiriclans—are at the top of the pecking order of Hindu castes.They are the priests. Those engaged in miscellaneous and auxiliary temple duties like preparing items for worship (pooja) and the deity’s ceremonial food (prasad) occupy the next grade. The security providers stand next in the line. Unfortunately, in temples administered by governments, this illegal, unethical, unjust and anachronistic system that violates two basic foundational ideals of the Constitution—equality and fraternity—are prevalent throughout India

Nearly 2000 temples in Kerala are administered by semi-governmental bodies—Devaswam Boards—constituted under the Travancore Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions Act, 1950. It must be remembered that the administrative bureaucracy of these bodies are appointed by the state government, and therefore have to adhere to the Constitution, especially the principals enshrined in the Preamble, Part-III (Fundamental Rights) and Article 51(a) on Fundamental Duties.

Article 13 of the Constitution has declared that all laws which are inconsistent with the provisions of the Fundamental Rights be declared void;such laws include ordinance, order, bylaw, rule, regulation, notification, as well as any custom and usage in force in India. Recently, information about rules and regulations governing the appointment of chief and junior priests in temples under the administrative control of Travancore Devaswam Board was obtained through the RTI Act, 2005 by the author of this article. The data indicated that the posts of priests are exclusively reserved for Malayalee Brahmins. The post of the chief priest of Sabarimala temple is exclusively reserved for a Brahmin family from Chengannoor. No foolproof, transparent or systematic selection procedure is reportedly followed for the selection of priests in temples. The same for promotions and other professional aspects of the cadre of priests performing poojas.

Similar unjust and illegal procedures and practices are followed throughout India in practically all temples and shrines governed by state and central governments or trusts constituted by them. To name a few:Somnath Shiva, Dakor Krishna, Ambaji Devi, and Shymlaji Krishna temples in Gujarat; Kamakhya temple in Assam; NathDwaratemple in Rajasthan; Vaishnav Devi temple in Jammu and Kashmir; Kali/Durgatemples in West Bengal; Jagannathtemple in Puri, Orissa; Meenaxi Devi temple in Tamil Nadu; TirupatiBalajitemple in Andhra Pradesh, Siddhi Vinayakatemple in Mumbai.

This discriminatory system also goes against specific stipulations in the core scriptures of the Rigveda, the Upanishads, and the Bhagvad Gita.

A few relevant extracts from the holy texts are:

“May you move together, speak together in one voice. Let your minds be of one accord; and like the ancient sages, may you enjoy assigned share of fortune”.

“May our counsel or the public prayers be common, and common be our assembly. May our minds move in accord; May our thinking be in harmony, – common the purpose, and common the desire. May our prayers and worship be alike, and may our devotional offerings be one and the same.

“May your resolves be one; May your hearts feel alike; May your thinking be one; and thus may all of you live happily with thorough union.” (Rigveda, Mandala, 10, Sukta, 191(2 to 4)

“Men of self-knowledge are same-sighted on a Brahmana, imbued with learning and humility, a cow, an elephant, a dog and an outcaste”. (Bhagvad Gita, Adyaya -5, Sloka 18)

“He, who sees Me (universal soul/God) everywhere and sees all in Me, He never becomes lost to me, nor do I become lost to him” (Bhagvad Gita, Adyaya -6, Sloka 30)

The metaphysical definition of a Brahmin does not validate the present system of fixing a person’s caste according to his parent’s caste. The popular definition of Brahmin in scriptures is:

“JanmanaJayate Shudra,
Samskarodwujautbhavae,
          Veda padhethiBhavetvipraha,
                        Brahma gnanamiBrahmanaha”

“At the time of birth, everybody is Shudra (a person kept away from knowledge according to the the Sanskrit etymologistYaskan); by acquiring education/culture, he becomes twice born; by mastering Veda (means any set of knowledge), one becomes vipra(a man of specialized knowledgeVisheshapragna) and by acquiring knowledge of Brahma (brahmagnanam—spiritual awareness), one becomes a Brahmin”

The superiority of an individual solely based on his birth (the basis for jati or caste) is unscientific, illogical and unreasonable. The Sanskrit etymology of the word ‘jati’ is in ‘janmanajati’ that is, caste is based on birth. Since 300 CE (Common Era), the caste system has blocked socioeconomic, educational and cultural mobility in Indian society, thus keeping India backward in most fields.

One way to bring about change as envisaged by Ambedkar would be for the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to introduce suitable legislation for the constitution of a state-wise temple service cadre (for instance, a Gujarat State Temple Service, a Kerala State Temple Service, a Central Temple Service) on the pattern of existing state and all-India services. Those currently serving as priests could suitably be absorbed in the proposed service structure.

Allowing all qualified Hindus to enter the priestly order in temples will be in line with the direction in the Rigveda which recommends sticking to the path of justice. The Vedic Sukta exhorts, “Oh men! Just as the sun and the moon move on the prescribed path with regularity, similarly men also should go on the path of justice”. (Rigveda, Mandala-5, Sukta-51-Sloka-15).The Bhagvad Gita (Adyaya -16, Sloka-24) says, “Let the Shastras (laws) be your authority in deciding what you should do and what you should desist from doing. Having understood what is ordained by the laws, you should act accordingly.”

Ambedkar had spoken against exactly the sort of inequality that is prevalent in the country’s temples in his concluding speech in the Constituent Assembly after the adoption of the Constitution on November 25, 1949. He said, “Political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it, social democracy, that is, a way of life which recognizes liberty, equality and fraternity as principles of life. They form a union or trinity. Without equality, liberty would produce supremacy of the few over the many. Equality without liberty would kill individual initiative. Without fraternity, liberty and equality could not become a natural course of things…

The Sanskrit etymology of the word ‘Jati’ is “JanmanaJati”, that is, caste is based on birth only. This social construction is devoid of any appraisal of physical, psychological, emotional, mental, intellectual and spiritual dimensions of an individual personality.

“We have a society based on the principle of graded inequality, means elevation of some and degradation of others. We are entering into a life of contradictions. We have political equality; but in social and economic life, we will have inequality. In politics, we follow one man, one vote and one vote one value. In society and economics, we deny principle of one man, one value…

“Those who suffer from inequality, will blow up the structure of democracy…Fraternity envisages a common brotherhood of all Indians—being one people—giving unity and solidarity to social life. (Casteism is) anti-national, (castes) bring about separation in life, generate jealousy and antipathy between caste and caste. Without fraternity, equality and liberty will be no deeper than coats of paint…

“Many in India are beasts of burden, but also beasts of prey. The downtrodden classes are tired of being governed. People are tired of government by the people. They are prepared to have government for the people and are indifferent whether it is government of the people and by the people. If we wish to preserve the Constitution in which we have sought to enshrine the principles of government of the people, for the people and by the people, let us resolve not to be tardy in the recognition of evils that lie across our path and which induce people to prefer government for the people, to government by the people, nor to be weak in our initiative to remove them. That is the only way to serve the country, I know of no better.”

It would be more productive to pursue this line of thinking rather than retrogressive and counterproductive programmes like ‘GharVapasi’ ( reconversion of Christians and Muslims) and the controls being exercised on food preferences of citizens by banning the consumption of beef. These are a distraction from the effort to remedy discriminative practices in the social, religious and cultural lives of Hindus.

By absorbing the ideas of Ambedkarin public life, the country’s elite can liberate itself, as envisaged in the Vedic prayer, “Oh Lord! We have fallen in a dark cave. In this severe darkness, many demons are harassing us. We pray to you to destroy this darkness and bless us with donation of brightness, so that we can be liberated from these enemies”. (Rigveda, Mandala-1, Sukta-86, Sloka-10)

(The author, a retired IPS officer, is a former DGP of Gujarat)

Wrong on History and Facts: NDTV’s Battleground Assam

April 13, 2016

Prannoy Roy classifies all Muslims in Assam as migrants and Ahoms as Assamese but the earliest Muslim settlers came before the Ahoms did, says Aman Wasud

http://www.thehoot.org/media-watch/media-practice/ndtvs-battleground-assam-wrong-on-history-and-facts-9289

Very often, the national media offers the excuse of the “tyranny of distance” to explain their negligence and ignorance about Assam. For most Delhi-based journalists, Assam is still an unknown territory. They go by whatever little is written about the contentious issues in Assam. Very few venture out to check the veracity of these reports. Truth and the ground realities are the casualties.

On Apri 8, NDTV aired a special programme on the Assam state election. It was hosted by India’s best known TV anchor Dr. Prannoy Roy who was joined by Dorab Sopariwala and Shekhar Gupta who spent three years reporting from the North East in the early ‘80s. The programme started with promotional trailer which said “TVs most credible faces come together to tell you who will be the big winner”. A short while later, Roy states “Assam has 31.2 million people and the Assamese are a minority in Assam”.

Sounds familiar? Yes, very often chauvinists and right-wingers say similar things, ie that the Assamese will become a minority in Assam. Some have even projected the year; a recent report that made the headlines was an independent survey done by Indrajit Barua who predicted that the indigenous population of Assam will be reduced to a minority by 2047. But according to Roy, this has already happened. He further states that migrants in Assam number 22 million and the original Assamese number only 10 million.

Then he breaks up the figure. He divides the entire population of Assam into two categories: “Migrants” and “Assamese”. In the first category of migrants are eleven million Muslims (the total Muslim population of Assam), six million Bengali Hindus and five million tea garden workers. In the second category of Assamese, according to Roy, are two million Ahoms (original Assamese as he calls them), 1.4 million Bodos, 1.4 million Christians, 0.6 million Mishing, and 1.6 million other tribes.

Fortunately history is different and so are the facts but Roy seems oblivious of both. The migration of Indo-Aryans to this region dates back to the Vedic period. Many Bengali-speaking Muslims who are indigenous to the lower Brahmaputra valley are converts from lower caste Hindus of Indo-Aryan stock.

The Khasi-Jayantias were the first inhabitants of Indo-Austric stock. The Bodo-Kacharis are of Indo-Tibetan origin and migrated to present day Assam much before the Ahoms (Gait, A History of Assam, 1925). The history books tell us that Muslims came to Assam in the year 1206 AD which is even before the Ahoms who migrated from Yunan Province of present-day China, and from Thailand and Burma in 1228 AD (ibid).
Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji was the first Turkish commander to enter Assam while making an effort to invade Tibet in 1206 AD (ibid). This marked the beginning of Muslim settlement in Assam, to be followed by series of invasions first by Afghan rulers and then by the Mughals.
In upper Assam, a large number of people converted to Islam under the influence of legendary Sufi Saint Hazrat Shah Miran, popularly known as Azan Peer who was a disciple of Hazrat Nizamuddin and who settled near Sibsagar after getting married to an Ahom woman (Naqvi, 2013).

The first entry into Cachar by a Muslim was by Jamal Khan, a commander of the Mughal Army which was ruling in Bengal. He entered into the Cachar territory of the Cachar King (Dimacha) but in a midnight ambush, Jamal Khan, along with all his companions, was massacred (Cachar District Record).
In 1799, Mughal adventurer Aga Mohammad Reza entered Cachar through Sylhet and after defeating the Cachar King, Krishna Chandra, occupied the kingdom of Cachar, particularly the areas now represented by the two sub-divisions of Silchar and Hailakandi. Reza, who entered Cachar with more than 5000 followers consisting of Pathan and Mughal renegades from the then-dismembered Mughal army, settled down in Cachar. He and his followers mingled with local Cacharis, adopted local customs, and practised inter-racial marriage. Very soon, many Cacharis converted to Islam (ibid).
Many people from this stock are now citizens of Bangladesh because Sylhet became part of East Pakistan after partition. Sylhet, including Cachar, was always part of Assam and was under Ahom rule too. But according to NDTV, the entire Muslim population is migrants.

Roy then turns to Sopariwala to say, “So Dorab, it’s amazing, 22 million outsiders or migrants in the state and only 10 million indigenous or local population”. Now it’s Sopariwala’s turn to exhibit his expertise on Assam. He very confidently states: “There is another way of looking into it, most of these, except the Bangladeshi Muslims, have been here for a long time, they been here for 100 years, the Marwaris came, the Bengalis came, people from the tea gardens came from Jharkhand, Orissa Madhya Pradesh and Bengal and so the rest of the migration has taken place slowly and so they have almost been absorbed into Assam. It’s the latest migration from across the border that stands out.”

So if the tea garden workers who have been in Assam since the start of tea industry and the many Bengalis who came with the British have been absorbed into Assam and call themselves Assamese, how is it that they do not fall into the category of ‘Assamese’, according to NDTV?

The Bodos have their distinct culture and separate language, don’t even consider themselves as Assamese, and are fighting for a separate Bodo state. Yet NDTV categorizes them as Assamese. Large numbers of Christians in Assam are Bodos and tea garden workers but NDTV confuses and separates Bodos from Christians and it calls tea garden workers migrants but calls Christians Assamese.

After independence, Muslim immigration has been negligible (Guha, 2011). Those Muslims of Bengal origin who are branded as Bangladeshis (and who Sopariwala was most likely referring to) were either natives of undivided Goalpara (which was always a Muslim-dominated district) or migrated from undivided Bengal and later East Bengal. Many Muslims in undivided Goalpara are also converts from the Koch Rajbonghsi community, from the Mech tribe, the Hajong community and the Rabhas tribe, and now call themselves Deshi Muslims (Barpujari, 2014).

The migration of Muslim peasants of Bengal origin started in the later part of the 19th century under the patronage of colonial administrators according to a well thought out colonial policy. The British promoted such migration as they wanted the hard working Bengali Muslim peasants to cultivate the barren and fertile land of the Brahmaputra valley.

The migration of these peasants was at its peak in the first three decades of the 20th century. Sanjib Baruah, in his celebrated 2011 book “India against Itself” quotes C.S. Mullan, the superintendent of the 1931 census: “In another thirty years it is not improbable that Sibsagar district will be the only part of Assam in which Assamese will find itself at home.”

Mullan’s prediction, even after nine decades, is yet to come true, but the opposite happened. Those Muslim peasants of Bengal origin who migrated from undivided Bengal and East Bengal gave up their mother tongue, accepted the Assamese language, got assimilated with the local culture, studied in Assamese medium schools, and call themselves Assamese. In fact, in the entire Muslim-dominated area of lower Assam, there is not even a single Bengali medium school. **

Some mainstream Assamese intellectuals call these Muslims of Bengal origin ‘neo-Assamese’. However, chauvinists and right wingers are averse to calling Muslims of Bengal origin Assamese, despite their unprecedented sacrifice of giving up their mother tongue. Sopariwala seems to have fallen into the latter group, intentionally or unintentionally.

Denying the post-1971 migration of Muslims from Bangladesh will be wrong. The formation of human civilization is a result of migration. Every country has illegal immigrants. But branding all Muslims of Bengali origin as Bangladeshi Muslims is grossly unfair, preposterous, and prejudicial and has far-reaching consequences for the lives and properties of people and the history of Assam.

Muslims of Bengal origin have been facing persecution over their identity since independence and, since the Nellie massacre of 1983, mass violence has been cyclic. Every time Muslims of Bengal origin become victims of mass killings, right-wing politicians and jingoists describe them as Bangladeshi Muslims or illegal immigrants and shift the focus from gross violations of human rights to ‘illegal immigration’, thereby giving impunity to the murderers to carry on with further mass murders of Muslims.

No wonder that, from the Nellie massacre to the 2014 Khagrabari massacre, not even a single perpetrator has been punished.

At the beginning of the show, Roy said that, “This is a very complex election and the national media hasn’t really focused much on it and I have learned a lot by coming and traversing the state”. Well, if this is a complex election, so is the history of Assam and he and his team need to learn much more to understand the complexity.

(The author is a Guwahati-based human rights lawyer. He tweets @AmanWadud)

References:
1. Prantik , Parag Das , 5th issue, 1-15 February, 1987
2. Chorot Sahitya Sadana, Editorial , Notun Deen, 6th February, 2005
3. Bihu Aru Char Chapori Bakhi, Hafiz Ahmed, Dainik Batori, 13th April, 2005, Page 7.

Other References:
Barpujari, H. K. (2014). The Comprehensive History of Assam (4th ed.). Guwahati: Publication Board of Assam.
Baruah, S. (2011).India Against Itself: Oxford University Press.
Gait, E. (1925) A History of Assam (2nd ed.). Guwahati: Eastern Book House.
Guha, A. (2011). Jagaran (Souvenir of Char Chapori Sahitya Parishad, Assam).
Naqvi, S. (2013, Feb 28) Northeast Review. Retrieved April 11, 2016, from Rhythm of the Brahmaputra: Hajo, Assam: https://northeastreview.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/saba/

Dignity for Those Who Clean Our Filth

April 12, 2016

Stop Killing Us, the Bhim Yatra of India’s Manual Scavengers tells the Indian Government

Image: Sudhakar Olwe

India and Indians do not like to ask this rather harsh question. As we debate caste, and whether it exists or not in the context of an upwardly mobile and fast moving urban India, there is one question which we duck. Who cleans our sewers? Our streets? And why do the children of manual scavengers children have to enter manholes and keep them unclogged?

This countrywide journey is a unique 125 day protest launched by the Safai Karmachari Andolan. It culminates in Delhi today, April 12 and there is a public hearing at Jantar Mantar tomorrow, April 13.The 125 days' Bhim Yatra has reached Delhi after covering more than 35,000 Kms across the country from Dibrugarh – Kanyakumari – Ahmedabad – Srinagar – Delhi. The protestor travelled through 500 districts in 30 Indian states. One Hundred and Twenty Five People will give their testimonies on the 125^th Birth Anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar testifying to the indignities still suffered by them.

The protest focuses on the failure by Governments to implement the law. On March 27, 2014, the Supreme Court passed a judgement — twelve years after a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed by the Safai Karmachari Andolan— and issued specific directions to prevent and control this illegal practice as also to prosecute the offenders. The Judgement can be read here.

Each Day the Yatris and their committed team have been sending updates about their journey.

On the 107th Day, March 25, the Protestors had covered Ambala and Shahbad and in the Kurukshetra District. This is what they shared:

“After the night halt in the community hall in Ambala, we started our day at 9 am in the morning. Again Saroj and Bala the liberated manual scavengers prepared and served us breakfast. After a good breakfast, we went to office of the District Collector (DC) of Ambala and met the Deputy Commissioner and submitted the memorandum along with a list of manual scavengers identified by SKA team. We told him about the Bhim Yatra and handed over the Bhim Yatra material. He assured us that he will cooperate in releasing the compensation money to the families of the persons who had died in sewer-related work. He said that he will also meet with other stake holders and speed up the process. We then boarded the bus and went on our way to the next destination.

We reached Shahbaad in Kurushetra district and held a community meeting in Ambedkar Bhawan. More than 200 safaikarmacharis were already gathered there to welcome and receive us. Most of them were women. They had a welcome ribbon stretched out. We were made to cut it and enter the Bhavan. They garlanded us and gave us sweets.

We introduced ourselves and spoke about the Bhim Yatra, its purpose and culmination event on April 13, at Delhi. We also explained the Act, the Supreme Court Judgment and the rehabilitation schemes. We gave them pamphlets of Bhim yatra and asked them to distribute in other areas and share the purpose of the Bhim Yatra with other people. During the meeting we appealed to the people to come in large number for the culmination meeting in Delhi.

After talking about the purpose and Supreme Court judgment, we had a sharing of our experiences. The safai karamcharis discussed in detail about the various government schemes and accessibility of the same. They made many queries including why government officials don’t visit the basti to survey. Safai karamcharis also shared about the discrimination they face by the government officials.

We were surprised and pleased to see many women in the meeting. It was a beautiful with their colorful clothes and dupattas. They came with their children and talked at length about the Bhim Yatra.

One of the yatris shared that “it was beautiful to see women actively participating throughout the Public meeting though with their head and face covered with beautiful colored Dhupptas. We never expected that women will outnumber the men in all the meetings especially in Haryana”. After that the people gave us lunch and after eating and drinking tea we went to the DC office of Kurushetra. We met the Deputy Commissioner with the memorandum along with a list of manual scavengers and death cases with documents. The DC also met the families of the persons who had died in sewer work and assured that he will look into the case. Then we left for the next place.

We reached Fatehabaad via Kaithal and Jind around 8 pm. We held a community meeting in the Valmiki Dharamshala along with the support of other organizations namely Kisan Andolan, Ambedkar Sabha. The meeting was supposed to start at 6 pm but due to the delay in reaching the place, some of the people had gone back to their homes.

We started the meeting by introducing ourselves. We spoke about the Bhim Yatra, the purpose and the culmination of the Bhim Yatra on April 13 meeting at Delhi. After the meeting we visited some homes of manual scavengers who had left this occupation. Then we had dinner with the community and went to sleep. The Premrathi arranged our night stay and gave us bedding.”

This is how this dogged band of safai karmacharis have traversed the length and breadth of the country drawing attention to their work, the plight, the absence of a basic sense of dignity in their lives.

Sabrangindia had reported on the justice process in early December 2015:
Does a Supreme Court judgement ensure that the fundamental rights of Indians who die while cleaning for a living will be protected? No say India’s Manual Scavengers who die in filth, cleaning our dirt, despite a judgement passed to ensure that a law enacted in 1991 (and revised and re-enacted in 2013) is actually implemented. Over 1327 persons lost their lives in the year since the Supreme Court judgement and less than three per cent received any compensation.

Despite the judgement of the Supreme Court that directs that such deaths in sewer holes and septic tanks should be stopped immediately,19 months after the judgement, deaths have continued to occur, with impunity, in sewer holes across the country. The Safai Karamchari Andolan has reported 1327 sewer and septic tank deaths in the period since the judgement was passed in March 2014. Less than three percent have received compensation.

Over 200 Activists across India condemn Pachauri’s civil suit against Vrinda Grover

April 12, 2016

About 200 activists and academicians across the country have condemned the R.K. Pachauri's suit against , Advocate Vrinda Grover seeking injunction and Rs1 crore in damages, alleging she was trying to prejudice the ongoing sexual harassment case against him.

Full Text of the Statement

We, the undersigned activists and organisations of the Indian women’s movement express our outrage at the fact that R.K. Pachauri has filed a civil suit for injunction and demanded damages of Rs. 1 crore against Advocate Vrinda Grover.
The attempt is to hold Ms. Grover liable in a civil suit for her efforts towards bringing official cognisance of two complaints of sexual harassment at the workplace brought against Mr. R.K. Pachauri by two of his former colleagues.

Both these women have complained that they were sexually harassed at TERI by Mr. Pachauri much prior to the complainant of FIR dated 18th February 2015, in which Mr. R.K. Pachauri has now been charge-sheeted in February 2016.
Alarmingly, despite the fact that Ms. Grover has sent repeated written communications to senior officers of the Delhi police informing them that her two clients would like their statements to be recorded, the police have till date not taken any steps in this regard.

The very public attack on Ms. Grover is a matter of concern for all those who, like the signatories to this letter, are struggling to deliver substantive justice under the laws on sexual harassment in the workplace in India today.

Firstly: All codes of professional ethics have been breached in this act of suing Ms. Grover for damages. Mr. Pachauri’s legal representative, Ashish Dixit, in The New Indian Express article titled “European Woman Accused Pachauri of Harassment”, dated 31st March 2016, has charged Ms. Grover of leading a “conspiracy to defame” Mr. R.K. Pachauri.

This imputation of motives of a criminal nature to Ms. Grover, the opposing counsel, is a serious violation of the statutorily binding professional code of conduct and etiquette expected from advocates.

This breach is made even more egregious by the fact that Ms. Grover is the woman lawyer representing two women in their complaints of sexual harassment by the petitioner, leading as it does to the inescapable conclusion that the civil suit is just a continuation of the intimidation and vilification of women (be they complainants or their lawyers) who have the temerity to pursue complaints of sexual harassment against powerful men.

Second: Given that laws and provisions legitimising the grievance of workplace sexual harassment are relatively recent, investigation into such charges needs to record the complete history of every case that may be relevant to ongoing investigations.

By refusing to record the statements of Ms. Grover’s clients against Mr. R.K. Pachauri for close to a year after Ms. Grover approached them on their behalf, the police have already demonstrated its lack of commitment to a full and vigorous investigation of these women’s grievances.

Now, by suing Ms. Grover for acting on her clients’ instructions to make their statements public, Mr. Pachauri seeks to restrain her from executing her responsibilities to her clients. Clearly his intent is also to deny to these two women, and by implication all complainants, the right to share their experiences of sexual harassment in public when their every effort to access justice has been thwarted.

The fact of the matter is that this civil suit against Ms. Grover is yet another instance of the impunity which Mr. Pachauri has been able to maintain with respect to his abuse of three women’s human rights. His objective in trying to gag Ms. Grover, is to consolidate the immunity given to him by his organisation TERI, by ‘cooperative’ police officials strangely reluctant to record the two statements that will strengthen the case against him, and amenable sections of the media which have buttressed his claims of being framed in the charges against him.

Over the past month or so, Mr. Pachauri has courted the international media. In interviews given to The Guardian and The Observer, he presents himself as a man beleaguered and hounded by climate-change sceptics and women activists, conflating women activists taking up charges of sexual harassment with climate change sceptics.

The three women complainants it should be pointed out were working for the cause of climate change to the point of enduring sexual harassment from Pachauri, which makes such a charge of belittling the cause of climate change absolutely ridiculous.

As individuals and organisations committed to the implementation of the country’s laws on sexual harassment in the workplace, we condemn in the strongest terms Mr. Pachauri’s shamelessly transparent bid to influence the sub judice case about to enter its trial phase in a month’s time.

The fact that Mr. Pachauri’s suit is also directed simultaneously at prominent Indian media houses, such as Bennett Coleman, NDTV, and India Today, reveals an intent aimed at throttling all public reference to the complaints of sexual harassment against him.

Furthermore, we would like to emphasise that Mr. Pachauri’s suit against opposing counsel has implications that will have a chilling effect on complaints of sexual harassment, as it has all the characteristics of an instance of a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP).

Such legal actions are intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defence until they abandon their criticism or opposition. In addition, since Mr. Pachauri’s suit also targets prominent media houses, the aim is perpetuation of a social space in which only Mr. Pachauri’s defence and allegations against complainant(s) holds sway, thereby creating an atmosphere that is in general disbelieving and often downright hostile to complainant(s) and their efforts to access justice.

Accordingly, we demand that official cognizance be taken of the attempt to intimidate Ms. Grover and her clients. Mr Pachauri’s actions suggest that he has learnt nothing from the failure of his earlier attempts to silence the complainants. Mr. Pachauri it appears is finding it difficult to understand that he can no longer evade the law and he will have to face legal consequences.

We expect those who bear the responsibility of bringing him to justice, to convey this message to Mr. Pachauri in clear and unambiguous terms. We also urge the National Commission for Women to maintain oversight of the pre-trial process and ensure that it is not influenced or subverted by those who seek to protect Mr. Pachauri from the consequences of his actions.

We call upon all like-minded individuals and organisations to join us in supporting the right of Advocate Vrinda Grover to pursue this case and bring justice where it is due.

Ayesha Kidwai, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Ania Loomba, JNIAS/ University of Pennsylvania
Kalyani Menon-Sen, Feminist Learning Partnerships, Gurgaon
Mary E John, Centre for Women’s Development Studies
Kavita Krishnan, AIPWA
Janaki Abraham, Delhi University
AIDWA, Delhi
Nandini Rao, New Delhi
Geetha Nambisan, Jagori
Annie Raja, NFIW
Syeda Hameed
A. Mani, University of Calcutta
Aarthi Pai, Lawyer
Aatreyee Sen, Forum for Human Rights and Justice
Ahmad Faraz, Coordinator MenEngage Delhi
Ammu Joseph, Independent journalist and author
Anita Ghai, Ambedkar University
Anja Kovacs, Internet Democracy Project
Anjuman Ara Begum, Women in Governance, India
Ankita, NIRD
Anuradha Kapoor, Swayam
Aprajita Sarcar, Queen’s University, Canada
Archana, PRADAN
Aruna Gnanadason, Independent Consultant
Arundhati Dhuru, NAPM
Ashish Kothari, Pune
Ashok Yadav, Social Worker
Bhim Subba, Delhi University
Binayak. Sen, PUCL /MFC
Burnad Fathima Natesan, Tamil Nadu Women’s Forum.
Chayanika Shah, LABIA – A Queer Feminist LBT Collective
Chirashree Das Gupta, Jawaharlal Nehru University
D Subrahmanyam, PUDR
Deepa V, Delhi
Deepak Xavier, New Delhi
Devadeep Chowdhury, Journalist
Dr Nandita Shah, Akshara
Dr Sandeep Pandey, Socialist Party
Dr V Rukmini Rao, Gramya Resource Centre for Women
Dr. Anand Philip,
Dr. Anant Phadke, Health activist
Durgesh, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
Dyuti, Researcher
G Arunima, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Gabriele Dietrich, Movement for Women’s Rights, Madurai
Gargi Mishra, Lawyers Collective Women’s Rights Initiative
Gayatri Sharma, Women Power Connect
Geeta Seshu, Independent Journalist, Mumbai
Gina Dias, New Delhi
Ginny Shrivastava, Women’s Movement
Githa Hariharan, Writer
Gouranga Ch. Mohapatra, Janaswasthys Abhiyan, Odisha
Imrana Qadeer, Council for Social Development
Indranil, Public Health Foundation of India
Ira Bhaskar, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Ishita Chaudhry, Founder, The YP Foundation
Janaki Nair, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Jashodhara Dasgupta, SAHAYOG
Jasmeen Patheja, Blank Noise
Javed Malick, Retired Academic
Jaya Menon, Professor, Shiv Nadar University
Jayati Ghosh, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Johanna Lokhande, Independent
Julia George, Lawyer
Jyoti Sabharwal, University of Delhi
Jyotsna Sivaramayya, Independent Researcher
K.Ajitha, Anweshi Women’s Counselling Centre, Kozhikode, Kerala
Kalpana Mehta, M.P. Maahila Manch
Kamayani Bali Mahabal, Feminist and Human Rights Activist
Kartika Bhatia, The World Bank
Kasturi Chatterjee, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Kaushik Roy Chowdhury, Accenture
Kavitha Kuruganti, ASHA
Khushboo, University of Delhi
Kriti Budhiraja, University of Minnesota
Lata Singh, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Laxmi Murthy, Journalist, Bangalore
Lina Krishnan, Bangalore
Madhu Bhushan, Independent activist. (re)searcher, writer
Madhu Sahni, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Madhurima Nundy, Institute of Chinese Studies
Malika Virdi, Maati
Mamatha Karollil, Ambedkar University Delhi
Manak Matiyani, The YP Foundation
Meena Menon, Journalist
Mihira Sood, Advocate, Supreme Court
Mita Deshpande, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Mohan Rao, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Moushumi Basu, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Mridu Kamal, Women’s Rights Activist
Mukul Mangalik, Delhi University
Nalini Nayak, Kerala Stree Vedi
Nandita,
Navaneetha M, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Neeraj Malik, Delhi University
Neha G, Communications Professional
Nisha Biswas, WSS, WB
Nivedita Menon, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Nupur Basu, Journalist
Nupur Chowdhury, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Om Prakash, Delhi University
Padma Deosthali, CEHAT
Padma Velaskar, Tata Institute of Social Sciences,Mumbai
Padmaja Shaw, (retd) Osmania University
Padmini Swaminathan, Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Pamela Philipose, Senior Journalist
Panchali Ray, Jadavpur university
Papiya Mazumdar, Institute of Public Health Kalyani, West Begal
Paromita Vohra, Filmmaker and Writer
Poorvi Bhargava, Student
Poulomi Pal, Fulbright scholar
Prabha, TARSHI
Pramada Menon, Independent Consultant
Pratiksha Baxi, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Preeti Chauhan, Individual
Primla Loomba, National Federation of Indian Women
Prof Pritam Singh, Oxford Brookes University
Prof. Anjali Monteiro, Tata Institute of Social Sciences
R.Gopinath, Jamia Millia Islamia
Radha Holla, Independent researcher
Radhika, Advocate
Rajni Palriwala, Department of Sociology, University of Delhi
Ramnarayan, Uttarakhand
Ranjan De, Documentary film-maker
Reva Prakash, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Ridhima, Delhi
Rigya Singh, NGO
Ritambhara, Nazariya and ASER Centre – Pratham
Rohini Hensman, Union Research Group
S.Ashalatha, Mahila Kisan Adhikaar Manch
Sadhna, Saheli, Delhi
Sadhna Saxena, Delhi University
Sagari Ramdas, Food Sovereignty Alliance, India
Saheli Women’s Resource Centre, Delhi, Saheli Women’s Resource Centre
Samir Kumar Dass, Jharkhand Science Forum & JSA
Sandhya Srinivasan, Journalist
Sangeeta Dasgupta, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Sangeeta Rege, Personal
Sanjay Kak, Film maker, New Delhi
Sarita Falcao, Individual
Sarojini N, Health Researcher
Savita Prabhune, Advocate
Shambhavi Prakash, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Sharmila Sreekumar, Academic
Shehla Rashid, Vice-President JNUSU, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Shewli, Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Shilpa Phadke, TISS
Shoba Ghosh, University of Mumbai
Shobha, WSS
Shobhana Warrier, Delhi University
Shraddha, concerned citizen
Shraddha, phD candidate UoH
Shraddha Chigateri, ISST
Shubhangi, Association for Adovcacy and Legal Initiatives (AALI)
Siddharth Narrain, Lawyer, Delhi
Simona Sawhney, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
Soma Kishore Parthasarathy, CAWL Rights
Somya, Student
Sona Mitra, CBGA
Sonal Narain,
Subhash Gatade,
Sucharita Sen, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Sujata Patel, University of Hyderabad
Sukumar Muralidharan, Independent Journalist
Sunalini Kumar, Delhi University
Suneeta Dhar, Activist
Sunil Kaul, The Ant
Sunita Bandewar, Vidhayak Trust, Pune
Supriya Varma, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Surabhi Sharma, Independent filmmaker
Svati P Shah, University of Massachusetts
Swatija Manorama, Forum against oppression of women, Mumbai
Tanvi Mishra, Feminist Approach to Technology
Tenzing Choesang, lawyers collective
Tultul Biswas, Madhya Pradesh Mahila Manch
Ujwala Kadrekar, Socio-legal Consultant
Uma Chakravarti, Feminist historian, Delhi
Urmimala Sarkar Munsi, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Urvashi Butalia, Zubaan Publishers Pvt Ltd
Usman Jawed,
V.Sujatha, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Vanita Leah Falcao, Independent policy researcher
Vasanth Kannabiran, Asmita Resource Centre for Women
Veronica George, Independent Consultant
Vibhuti Patel, WRAG, Mumbai
Vinay Kulkarni, Prayas Health Group Pune
Vineeta Bal, Scientist, New Delhi
Virginia Saldanha, Indian Christian Women’s Movement

When Cricket Determines Our Nationalism

April 12, 2016

The defeat of India by West Indies in the T-20 World Cup triggered a controversy at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Srinagar between Kashmiri and non-Kashmiri students. Some Kashmiri students have been accused of raising anti-India slogans and burst firecrackers upon India's defeat. The Kashmiri students, in turn, allege that the violence was started by non-Kashmiri students the next day when a group waving tricolour and chanting 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' attacked a group of Kashmiri students returning from Friday prayers. Police used lathi charge to control students in which some non-Kashmiri students were hurt and subsequently the Central Reserve Police Force, actually a paramilitary force, has replaced the Jammu & Kashmir police on campus. NIT has been shut down and students asked to vacate the hostels.

Since the RSS-backed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has come to power in New Delhi, the academic atmosphere of one more campus has been disturbed. It really is a pity that people associate their nationalistic ideals with cricket teams and are ready to clash over victory or loss in their matches.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) itself claims to be a private body inspite of its rather pompous name. How can a team constituted by it be at all considered a national team?

The Supreme Court has recently reprimanded the BCCI for its arbitrary functioning and refusing to implement the Lodha committee recommendations. That refusal by the BCCI to have a representative of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on its governing council reveals an obdurate and obstinate unaccountability, where the body simply does not want to be held accountable to the people at large, who are contributors to its funds. There are states like Gujarat and Goa which have received preferential treatment by the BCCI in the form of disproportionate funds when, on the other hand, states like Bihar don't receive any funds at all.

Is it any surprise, then, that Bihar doesn't have a single player in the BCCI constituted Indian team? How could or can, then, BCCI claim to represent the country? Imagine if more such private bodies came into existence and each fielded their separate teams. Which team would then be considered to represent India?

Students from both sides whether they raised pro or anti-India slogans have demonstrated an immaturity in asserting their nationalistic preference(s) based on the outcome of a game of cricket. It is also astonishing that pro or anti-Pakistan slogans were raised at the NIT, Srinagar when Pakistan was not even one of the sides playing during the match in question!

This sloganeering shows how people can easily get carried away when jingoistic slogans are raised. There are much more serious anti-national activities going on within the country, for example, corruption, about which we need to be worried. Similarly, there is lot of good work going on within the country, about which we can feel proud.

It is a real pity, then, that – rather than concerning ourselves with real issues on ground – we let our emotions get fired up entirely based on the results of game of cricket and get carried away in sloganeering to the point where the situation can turn violent.

The intention of this government seems to be precisely this: divert people's attention from real issues, like price rise and an absence of any quality governance, to emotional issues like nationalism.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) has, to some extent, done the job of dissociating feelings of nationalism from being associated with cricket teams by making players from different nationalities play as part of a single team. The IPL has also highlighted that these are professional players who can be bought and sold, which implies that they play for money.

Within the IPL, players can switch teams, depending on who pays them more. Similarly, even when they play in ‘national’ teams the prime motivating factor for the players is money. It is unthinkable that any player would play for his national team merely out of a feeling of patriotism without any payment in exchange. In fact, if players had any nationalistic feelings they would not indulge in match fixing, sometimes deliberately causing their teams to lose a match.

With the game of cricket and its management becoming so highly commercialised does it make any sense to associate nationalistic feelings with these teams? In fact, it is these very commercial interests that exploit our nationalistic feelings. If we agree that sports must be played with a sportsman or sportswoman-like spirit then we should appreciate that, whoever plays the better game, wins, irrespective of their nationality.

When Arundhati Roy was once asked to convey her best wishes to the Indian team before an international event she said her favourite team was the one from Sri Lanka. Why should every Indian be expected to endorse the Indian team in a sporting event and worse why should this determine out commitment to nationalism?

Just recently, the Mumbai High Court has also reprimanded several Cricket associations for using huge volumes of water to maintain their pitches while the state of Maharashtra is suffering from an acute drought. People and cattle are dying because of water shortage. In the context of recent debate on nationalism it may be interesting to ask what is more nationalistic – to play cricket or to save people and cattle?

The senior BJP leader and BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur has said that Maharashtra will lose Rs. 100 crores if IPL were to be moved out of Maharashtra. He suggested that this money could be used for tackling the drought situation and for relief for affected people. It has also been emphasised by the Cricket associations and the government that potable water is not used for maintenance of pitches, which is estimated to require 60 lakh litres of water this season.

What people like Thakur don't realise is money cannot be a substitute for water or food. If you have money but there is no potable water left, how would you quench your thirst? The situation is gradually becoming more and more serious and we cannot adopt a complacent attitude. We need to save even non-potable water which can be used for other, far more necessary activities like irrigation, sanitation (toilets), washing of clothes, etc.

(Sandeep Pandey, a Magsaysay awardee for emergent leadership has trained in Mechanical Engineering but has been working on social justice issues; he is co-founder of Aasha)

Role Model: Muslim Female Architect Who Broke Glass Ceilings Hard As Concrete

April 12, 2016

Zaha Hadid
As a luminary in the world of architecture, Zaha Hadid, who died on March 31, was a celebrity whose name, face and buildings are known by millions. But the grief felt by women architects is on a different, intimate scale. With Hadid’s passing, we have lost a role model in a field that has few others.

That is not to say that there are not a great many accomplished and inspiring women in architecture. But none have achieved Hadid’s prominence – as, indeed, have few male architects. Against all odds, and a great deal of prejudice, she broke one glass ceiling after another, no mean feat when that glass was as hard and thick as concrete.

Her buildings redefined our ideas of what was possible, from the bursting energy of the Vitra Fire Station in Weil am Rhein, Germany to the undulating angles of the Guangzhou Opera House in China.

Hadid, in 2014, became the first woman to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Two years later, she became the first woman awarded the Royal Institute of British Architects Royal Gold Medal in her own right.

As I explore in my new book Where Are the Women Architects?, role models are deeply important. Having a personal relationship with a role model is not necessary; an effective role model may be a prominent figure in the profession or even a historical one. Role models boost self-esteem by countering negative stereotypes that cast doubt on a person’s abilities to perform well in the profession. They increase motivation for career advancement and success. And they foster a sense of identification with a field, combating alienation.

For these reasons, the scarcity of female role models in architecture can be profoundly damaging. A recent Equity by Design report examined the reasons that women drop out of architecture. Almost one-third of female respondents who had left the profession gave the lack of role models as the deciding factor.

Zaha Hadid’s Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, Azerbaijan. Stoyan Nenov/Reuters

Given that architecture has a tremendous attrition problem – despite comprising nearly half of all architecture students, women represent less than 20 percent of licensed practitioners – we could ill afford to lose our most prominent female role model.

Our response, however, should not be “Who will be the next Zaha?”

There was one Zaha, and there will always only be one Zaha.

Instead, the architecture profession needs to focus on removing the formidable barriers that continue to keep women from rising to the top. And the media, too, has a vitally important role to play in paying attention to the outstanding work being done by women architects around the world. Journalists might also reflect on how they treated Hadid herself, who for every positive line written about her seemed to attract another two that cast doubt on her work or integrity.

For mixed in with the grief at Hadid’s loss is also anger among women architects who, no matter how they felt about her work, could empathize with the hostile reactions that, too often, seemed to come her way.

After Hadid won the Pritzker Architecture Prize, architectural journalists who might have been expected to laud her achievement instead commented negatively on her looks, clothes, ability to speak English and her talent and worthiness as a laureate. No other Pritzker Prize winner had been subjected to such a belligerent press response.

The New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp referred to her as “a big, raucous peasant woman” whose “earthier appetites” leaned toward eating lamb testicles over reading books. Guardian reporter Stuart Jeffries suggested that the price of her global travels and successes was to be single and miserable. Edwin Heathcote of the Financial Times rudely asked her if she deserved the prize.

That Hadid rose above it, fought back, and even walked out of interviews may have been perceived by some as diva-like. But to many women in architecture, her toughness was about a refusal to be dismissed. And that meant a lot.

We are currently in the midst of a grassroots movement in architecture, led by many young women and men, demanding that the profession become more diverse and egalitarian.

Hadid had, in recent years, become outspoken on the professional difficulties she faced as a woman, and she had an authority and platform to speak about discrimination that won’t be easily replaced.

She leaves, as part of her great legacy to female architects around the world, a duty to carry that light forward for the next generation of women who, like Hadid, will fight for – and, I hope, find – their place in architecture.

(Zaha Mohammad Hadid, was an Iraqi-born British architect. She was the first woman and the first Muslim to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize, winning it in 2004. She received the tirling Prize in 2010 and 2011. She breathed her last in USA on March 31, 2016).

This article was first published on The Conversation.

Fate of ISIS Captive Indian Priest Fr. Tom Uncertain

April 12, 2016

“Ms Sushma Swaraj [the Minister for External Affairs] has categorically assured the delegation that Fr Tom Uzhunnalil is safe and that the government is adopting all possible means for the quick and safe release of Fr Tom,” the Catholic Bishops Conference of India said in a statement earlier this month [April 2016] after a meeting with her.

The CBCI delegation, led by its deputy secretary general, Monseigneur Chinnayyan, had little more to add on the fate of the Salesian priest who was kidnapped on March 4 from a home for the aged and disabled run by the Missionaries of Charity in Aden, Yemen. Sabrangindia has been following this story over the past three weeks, since Good Friday this year.

Four Missionaries of Charity and 12 others were murdered in the attack by militants reportedly connected to ISIS, as was widely reported in the media. Reports later went viral when someone wrongly quoted Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna saying in an Easter Vigil homily that the ISIS had crucified Fr Uzhunnalil on Good Friday. Till the moment of the writing of this piece, there is no further information, either from the CBCI or from the Indian government.

Hopes for Fr. Tom have waxed and waned with divergent “news” going viral on social media, and even usually reticent web portals. In a communiqué on Easter night, Bishop Paul Hinder, in charge of the Catholic Church in the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Yemen, indicated that the priest of the Salesians of Don Bosco order was alive though “no information can be given about the efforts to get Fr. Tom free.’

The bishop asks “not to decrease the prayers” for Fr. Tom. Bishop Hinder said he had “reason to believe that the man in robes was alive and in the hands of the kidnappers.” Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, who had earlier reportedly confirmed the execution of the priest, later told the Kathpress news: "There is still hope."

The reports of the crucifixion of Fr Tom first flashed when Cardinal Christoph Schönborn was quoted reportedly mentioning it during the Easter Vigil at Stephansdom. The Dominican prelate was quoted saying the 56-year-old Salesian was crucified by ISIS on Good Friday. Polonia Christiana carried the news, based on Austrian media reports. Catholic News World carried the report on Easter, March 27. Church sources now say the Vienna cardinal might have based his statement on a WhatsApp message.

Last year, Fr Alexis Prem Kumar, a Jesuit from Tamil Nadu working in Afghanistan looking after schools in remote areas, was abducted by one faction of the local Taliban and released many months later. He remains silent on the months of his captivity when every moment was an uncertain pause between life and death as he was handed over by one group to another, taken long distances blindfolded, and kept in caves and huts.

In Iraq, it (India) really has no more has any political and diplomatic clout, or even a dialogue route, to the local powers…. India has to depend on the Saudi route, and, of course, Washington.”

His release was the result of much diplomacy of course, and complex negotiations between the Jesuits, the Vatican, the Saudis, Pakistanis, Afghan government and private armies, and the Pakistani army, surely. The Americans, who have much clout with the Saudis who in turn have a running financial, theological and political relationship with all Islamist groups worldwide, according to the international diplomatic and security establishments, also played a role. And so did money. No one is talking, and therefore no one will know.

This is the way it has always happened. If Fr Tom is alive, and I hope and pray he is, this is the way he will be released. This has happened even with the ISIS where a lucky few have found their way to freedom. A very few, one may add. The gory pictures of beheadings, incineration, hangings and firing squads serve a wider psychological purpose for the terrorists.

Bishops in India’s north eastern states know a thing or two about negotiating with armed political ethnic and religious groups in that region, who routinely abduct civilians, run a parallel taxation structure, and make some cash through abductions. In the past, such groups have also abducted, or kidnapped as they say, the occasional priest, diocesan or religious.

Rarely have the clergy been killed, though this too happens, in the North East as much as in Orissa. But when the priest is set free, one can be quite sure it is not because of a change in heart of the militant group.

The church is helpless on the face of terrorism. Within India, we have seen it in Kashmir, Punjab, the Naxalite and Maoist movements, and of course the myriad shapes militancy takes shape in Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Nagaland.

We also see it in the context of the Hindutva terror and violence, where the state machinery is either complicit or guilty of impunity. Religious and diocesan men and women are even more helpless. And the individual Christian man or woman who ventures into these dangerous zones can trust only in God, for he or she does not even have the financial resources that are so much a part of escaping the brunt if militancy.

India as a country is particularly vulnerable when its citizens are abducted. Unlike in the past, or at the beginning of the US misadventure in Iraq, it really has no more any political and diplomatic clout, or even a dialogue route, to the local powers. It cannot have a connect with the Islamic State, or with its allies in Pakistan-sponsored groups that target either Afghanistan or India itself. At the end of the day, India has to depend on the Saudi route, and, of course, Washington. The Vatican too can really operate only through the Saudi rulers or Washington. It has failed to make any impress on the current crisis in Syria. The Vatican and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation have been reportedly working with Mid East groups for Fr Tom Uzhunnalil’s rescue.

Will Secular India Survive?

April 12, 2016

Will Secular India Survive? This was the title chosen for an anthology edited by historian Mushirul Hasan, published in 2004. Twelve years later the question seems to be relevant to a greater degree and needs to be answered with a sense of urgency. Searching for a convincing answer, we have to assess how far had India been made a secular state when after independence it had adopted a constitution, and how far was secularism so embraced practised by the custodians of state authority till the beginning of the present dispensation at the centre.

The constitution ‘enacted, adopted and given to ourselves’ in November 1949 did not declare that India would be a secular state. Constituent assembly leaders like Nehru and Ambedkar were sure that by not proclaiming any ‘state religion’ and by enshrining in the constitution principles of citizen’s equality and non-discrimination on the ground of religion they had put India on a secular footing.

To make things clearer, they had added a few more provisions in the constitution – religious freedom allowed to individuals and communities subject to specified conditions, no compulsion to pay tax for promoting any particular religion, no religious instruction at all in educational institutions wholly maintained out of state funds, and no compulsory religious instruction or worship in other recognized and aided institutions.

Democracy being a game of numbers, to protect religious minorities from a highly probable hegemony of the predominant majority in respect of educational development they included in the constitution a fundamental right – notably, unlike other such rights, unqualified – to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.

The constitution-makers did not enshrine in the charter of governance produced by them any ‘non-establishment’ clause or a ‘wall of separation’ between religion and state, as under the US constitution. On the contrary they included in it a number of provisions essentially creating religion-state links — theological restrictions on entry into Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Sikh religious institutions to be removed by law, cow and its progeny to be meticulously protected [due to the majority community’s reverence for the bovine as later acknowledged by the apex court], and the religious practice of wearing and carrying kirpans to be respected as a fundamental right of the Sikhs.

The party now ruling at the centre is translating into practice its own well known ideology. Communal vituperation by its partners in governance and atrocities by its followers in the society are being met with a calculated silence.

Within six years the constitution was amended to obligate the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu to provide specified annuities for the maintenance of local dewasom temples. In the eyes of the constitution-makers these selective religious and community-specific provisions had no adverse effect on the secular character of the state. In 1976, fully retaining all of these, the constitution was amended to add the word ‘secular’ to the description of India in the preamble. From a sovereign democratic republic the nation was upgraded to the status of a ‘sovereign socialist secular democratic republic.’.

It was thus restrictive secularism, not absolute or unqualified, that the founding fathers of the constitution had opted for. From the very beginning the Congress party pursued this hybrid concept without caring for its inherent limitations. As a matter of its policies the community-specific religious provisions of the constitution gained an upper hand at the cost of diluting its mandatory principles of equality of, and equal protection of laws, for all citizens irrespective of religious persuasion.

The frequency of communal riots was not controlled with an iron hand. Educational rights of religious minorities were given the treatment of ‘constitution proposes government disposes.’ In mid-1960s the Congress government deprived the Aligarh Muslim University of its statutory autonomy and, on its action being challenged in the apex court, convinced the court that the institution had not been established by the Muslims. The process of social reform was restricted by it to some chosen communities, on the pretext that others were yet not ready for change.

There are no foolproof safeguards against these in the constitution; and there are precedents in the policies and practices of the Congress party which ruled the country for long years since independence, claiming exclusive credit for winning freedom from British raj. Its criticism of the present government is an instance of pot calling the kettle black.

(The author is Professor of Law & Former Chair, National Minorities Commission)

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Will Secular India Survive?

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