Human face

June 30, 2002

An army regiment stationed in the Valley takes a group of young Kashmiri girls and boys on a Bharat Darshan

This is a story to prove, if such proof is necessary, that our gallant men in uniform facing untold hardships in J&K against a faceless, professional, armed and highly motivated foe have a very human side as well. It happened in Mumbai recently, was generally ignored by our media and so passed unnoticed.

The battalion concerned, now serving in the Uri sector, belongs to the Maratha Light Infantry, one of the oldest regiments of the Indian Army, raised in Bombay Fort in 1768. Its jawans were/are drawn from the erstwhile Bombay Presidency and now from the state of Maharashtra. By a quirk of fate there have always been two battalions of this regiment located in this extremely sensitive sector of the Valley. This writer had the experience of serving in this very sector in 1948 with the then J&K militia (95 per cent Kashmiri Muslims), and again in 1969–72 (he was the commanding general in the Valley during the 1971 War). Post retirement, he has visited the area on four occasions. As a result, most of the villages in and around Uri are etched firmly in his mind.

Understandably, he was pleasantly surprised to learn that a group of 30 Kashmiri Muslim children from Uri, boys and girls, between the ages of 6 and 16, were visiting Mumbai and would this old Kashmir hand make it convenient to meet with them? The visit was being sponsored by the battalion of his very own regiment located in the Uri sector duly supported by the formation he once commanded, the ‘Dagger’ Division.

Arrangements had been made for the group to visit Delhi, the Taj at Agra, Mumbai and Pune. The group was to be accompanied by Mohd Hussain, an elderly teacher from the area and Asai Begum, a very youthful and attractive young lady teacher from Lagamma village en route to Uri, major R Chowdhury whose wife joined him en route, a subedar and three jawans from the sponsoring battalion. Each child was provided with a very attractive tracksuit sporting the unit’s crest of the hunting horn, and baseball caps with the divisional sign of the Dagger.

The regimental network worked throughout providing transport, accommodation, and food. In Mumbai, for instance, there is no unit from the regiment located here, but Lt Col Balwan Singh who belongs to the same battalion happens to be posted in the local HQ in Mumbai. And it was through his initiative that the very excellent arrangements were made for the Mumbai and Pune legs of the10-day tour, exclusive of travel time.

While in Mumbai, the group was able to tour South Mumbai, see a ‘real’ submarine, visit the aircraft carrier INS Viraat, spend a delightful afternoon at Essel World and, the high point of the Mumbai visit, to meet and interact with our Bollywood film star, Hrithik Roshan. For the Pune leg, the group, inter alia, visited the National Defence Academy, the Bombay Engineering Group at Khadki and the Snake Park.

I met the group at the small office of the Leslie Sawhney Programme in Army and Navy Building. In they trooped, looking very smart in their tracksuits. They were all beaming as they gathered in the tightly packed office. They were introduced to Ms Sheila Masani who, fortunately was present in the office, Mr SV Raju of Freedom First and Mr Arvind Deshpande of the programme. The staff of the office and curious onlookers were thrilled to meet this group.

After welcoming them, ‘Chacha General’ recalled his days in Uri and rattled off names of some of the villages that he still remembered — like Lagamma, Chandanwari, Mandir Buniyar, Silicot, Chamkot, Kamalkot among others — much to the joy of these young people who were happy to know that their villages were remembered by this Old General, in downtown Mumbai.

Mohd Hussain, the venerable teacher, recalled that he too knew Rajah Muzaffar, the MLA from Chandanwari. Asai Begum was asked whether ‘akroot giri’ (walnut kernels) were still sold in the small Lagamma wayside bazaar. Yes, was her response. Had the Bailey Bridge launched not too long ago across the Jhelum by our engineers made a difference to their lives? Certainly, they responded, as it cut short a 10–mile walk along the north bank from their villages across the Jhelum to Uri and Baramulla.

Even their produce of the succulent ‘bagooghoshas’ (Bartlett pears) and walnut kernels could now get to Baramulla and beyond in a better condition. And what about the Markhor (Ovis Ammon) and Baloo (Himalayan Brown Bear)? Were they still found on the Chotta Kazinag Range? Yes, was the response.

And how did they like Mumbai? Many of them had never seen the sea before; in fact very few of them had even been beyond Baramulla. They expressed their joy at being able to see a ‘live’ submarine and visit the aircraft carrier INS Viraat. And what about Essel World? Oh, they had such fun there, never having experienced anything like it in the Valley.

And what was their most memorable experience of Mumbai? They were struck at its size, the thousands of people going about their business without a care in the world, the friendly smiles that they received, and the total absence of any tension. They enjoyed their visit to Haji Ali and realised how secular India is. But the high point was their interaction with their favourite actor Hrithik Roshan, as never ever did they think that they would meet India’s heart–throb in person.

I asked some of the older boys whether they would like to join the armed forces of India and the response was a loud affirmative. I advised them to have a careful look when they visited the NDA in Pune.

And would they like to ask me any questions? The spokesperson was a lively young girl, very confident, who said yes she did. "Uncle, why don’t you come and live in Kashmir?" asked this vivacious girl. This is perhaps the most effective rebuttal of the allegations of the armed forces being human rights violators.

I mentioned this incident to Dr Farooq Abdullah during his recent visit to Mumbai and he was immensely pleased to hear about it. There were repeated requests for a group photograph to be taken in which the staff of the office insisted that it be included.

While bidding farewell to Mrs Masani, they expressed a desire to see the famous Hindi movie Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. Unfortunately, there was not enough time in Mumbai to do so. But this did not deter Mrs Masani from calling up a contact in Pune and arranging complimentary passes for the whole party. She insisted that though they had left the building, a message was sent across to Pune that the mission had been accomplished and please would they collect the tickets from the designated individual.

Later reports confirmed that they were able to see the film, a fitting finale to this memorable tour. The feedback from Uri is that they are now looking forward to the promised visit of Chacha General to his old haunts in the Valley. Hopefully, this promise will be executed when the weather improves.

To conclude this tale two points need to be stressed. The first is, would the parents of these 30 children, especially their daughters, have permitted them to undertake such a yatra all the way to Pune and back under the arrangements of this "hated" Indian Army?

And with war clouds looming dark in the Kashmir skies, of parting with their children? Most unlikely.

The local impression that this visit made can best be judged from a telephone call received from a simple peon of the Leslie Sawhney Programme who enquired when could he expect to receive a copy of the group photograph taken with the children. Need more be said?

The moral of this tale is clear. Whereas there is bound to be the odd rotten banana in a bunch, jawans of our armed forces have a very human side to their character. Full marks to those units and formations of our armed forces in J&K for sponsoring such visits of impressionable minds without gaining any brownie points for doing so. May this good work continue.

The commonly held view for which our ‘security forces’ are constantly sniped at is that they are violators of human rights in J&K. It is unfortunate that this generic term willy- nilly includes the regular army deployed in that state since October 1947. These sanctimonious ‘snipers’ seem to forget the frustrations our troops are subjected to in the thankless and frustrating task of dealing with terrorists. In the bargain, many innocent Muslim, Hindu and Sikh lives are lost for which, invariably, the security forces are blamed.

Archived from Communalism Combat, July 2002 Year 8 No. 79, Breaking Barriers

Target: Bangla minorities

June 30, 2002

Hindus and other religious minorities in Bangladesh were the target of widespread violence before during and after the general elections in October last year, in the Bangla Nationalist Party and Jamaat–e–Islami led alliance’s successful bid to grab power. Perceived as supporters of the ‘pro–minority’ Awami League, a large number of Bangla Hindus were killed, women raped and their property looted or destroyed, leading to their distress migration to India. Independent human rights groups, women’s organisations, other civil society actors and much of the press did a commendable job in highlighting atrocities against the country’s minorities. But the chief beneficiary of minority votes, the Awami League, was content to shed crocodile tears only after the orgy of loot, killing and rape was over. (See CC, December 2001, cover story).

A fresh round of violence in recent months indicates that the minorities of Bangladesh are being targeted with a vengeance yet again. In early April, a report in the Far Eastern Economic Review described the country under the new political dispensation as a "cocoon of terror." As was only to be expected, the Review report was accused of being ‘biased’ and ‘prejudiced.’ But within days of the ban on the April 4, 2002 issue of the magazine, a Buddhist monk and a Hindu priest were killed in their monastery at Hingala (Raozan PS, Chittagong district) and a temple at Manikchhari (Khagrachari district) respectively. Yet another Buddhist monk, also in the Raozan area survived only because locals came to his rescue.

Following a field investigation and interviews with victims, Rabindra Ghosh, an advocate and the Dhaka-based country co–ordinator of the global organisation Human Rights Congress of Bangladesh Minorities (HRCBM) reported gang rape of Hindu women and torture of men in Palagram village in Chittagong district in separate incidents on May 8 and May 14. In the assault on the night of May 14 by an armed group whom the victims described as "Islamic terrorists". "After they raped the women of the household (Hore family), miscreants threatened to slaughter the head of the household if all the belongings are not given. About 40,000 Taka worth jewellery and cash were stored in a steel Almery which was pushed upon Mr. Hore (72) until he agreed to hand over the belongings to the miscreants," says Ghosh’s report (www.hrcbm.org).

In an earlier incident on May 8 in the same village, an armed group of about 25–30 miscreants mercilessly thrashed Shri Pradiwpananda Brahmachari, principal of the local ashram, some of the miscreants gang–raped two young girls (aged 12 and 16) of the local Dey family and severely beat up their mother. "I asked them why they did not report this to local police, they flatly told me if they have done so justice will not be attained, miscreants will never be arrested instead, they will be subject to more torture and perhaps brutal slaughtering," Ghosh reported. The report also said that in what appears to be a new trend, several orphanages being run by and for members from the minority communities are being targeted.

Following a second field investigation and video–taped interviews with victims and police officials in Satkhira district on June 21 and 22, Ghosh has documented serious incidents of persecution of Hindu families. In one of these incidents, a local MP from the ruling BNP party, Md. Habibur Islam Habib is charged with terrorising a Chatterjee family in a brazen attempt to force her to leave the country and grab the substantial land they own. In the second incident at village Fatepur, about 14 kms from Satkhira town, Muslem Ali Gazi, a local Jamaat–e–Islami leader is accused of torturing a local Sadar family. "The mother and son of the Sadar family were unclothed and dragged out of their house tied up with rope and beaten up on the way to the torture cell of the accused Jamaat–e–Islami leader".

And on July 1, the HRCBM website sent out an action alert, stating that Ghosh, an advocate at the apex court, was abused and attacked by some pro–BNP advocates "with the help of some terrorists" inside the Supreme Court’s Bar Association Hall at Dhaka while a meeting was in progress. The video–tapes and other documentary evidence collected by him during the Satkhira investigation were also snatched away from him.

Meanwhile, newspapers have reported that fanatics from the border township of Haluaghat have been inciting Muslims over the public address system to kill local Christians to avenge the massacre of Palestinians in Israel.At a meeting of the Aid Bangladesh Consortium in March, the donor countries had warned that they would be forced to suspend aid to the country unless the rapidly deteriorating law and order situation is brought under control. But the continuing targeting of Hindus, Christians and Buddhists in different parts of the country since then leave little room for optimism.

Archived from Communalism Combat, July 2002 Year 8 No. 79, Neighbours 1

To Abba, with love…

June 30, 2002

On May 10, Kaifi Azmi, poet, activist, lyricist, communist, breathed his last. For a fitting tribute to this ‘last pillar’ of Urdu poetry, ‘the last among the revolutionary poets’, we could think of none better than his daughter who has never needed to look further than Abba’s soul–stirring nazms, ‘Makaan’, ‘Aurat’ and ‘Bahroopni’ to inspire her struggles for the urban poor, gender justice and communal amity

He was always different, a fact that didn’t sit too easily on my young shoulders. He didn’t go to ‘office’ or wear the normal trousers and shirt like other ‘respectable’ fathers but chose to wear a white cotton kurta–pyjama 24 hours of the day. He did not speak English and worse still, I didn’t call him ‘Daddy’ like other children, but some strange sounding ‘Abba’! I learned very quickly to avoid referring to him in front of my school friends and lied that he did some vague ‘business’! Imagine letting my school friends know that he was a poet. What on earth did that mean — a euphemism for someone who did no work?

Being my parent’s child was for me, unconventional in every way. My school required that both parents speak English. Since neither Abba nor mummy did, I faked my entry into school. Sultana Jafri, Ali Sardar Jafri’s wife, pretended to be my mother and Munish Narayan Saxena, a friend of Abba’s, pretended to be my father.

Once in the 10th Std, my vice principal called me and said that she’d heard my father at a recent mushaira and he looked quite different from the gentleman who had come in the morning for Parents’ Day! Understandably I went completely blue in the face and said: "Oh, he’s been suffering from typhoid and has lost a lot of weight, you know… and made up some sort of story to save my skin!

It was no longer possible to keep Abba in the closet. He had started writing lyrics for films and one day a friend of mine said that her father had read my father’s name in the newspaper. That did it! I owned him up at once! Of all the 40 children in my class, only my father’s name had appeared in the newspaper! I perceived his being "different" as a virtue for the first time. I need no longer feel apologetic about his wearing a kurta–pyjama!

In fact, I even brought out the black doll he had bought me. I didn’t want it when he first gave it to me. I wanted a blonde doll with blue eyes, like all the others had in my class. But he explained, in that quiet gentle way of his, that black was beautiful, too, and I must learn to be proud of my doll. It didn’t make sense to my 7–year–old mind but I had accepted him as ‘weird’ in any case and so I quietly hid the doll.

Three years later, I pulled it out as proof that I was a ‘different’ daughter of a ‘different’ father! In fact, I now displayed it with such new found confidence that instead of being sniggered at by my classmates, I became an object of envy! That was the first lesson he taught me, of turning what is perceived as a disadvantage into a scoring point.

The atmosphere at home was completely bohemian. Till I was 9–years–old we lived at Red Flat Hall of the communist party. Each comrade’s family had just one room; the bathroom and lavatory were common. Being party members had re–defined the husband–wife relationship of the whole group. Most wives were working and it became the responsibility of whichever parent was at home, to look after the child. My mother was touring quite a lot with Prithvi Theatres and in her absence Abba would feed, bath and look after both my brother Baba and me, as a matter of course.

In the beginning mummy had to take up a job because all the money Abba earned was handed over to the communist party. He was allowed to keep only Rs. 40 per month which was hardly enough for a family of four. But later when we were monetarily better off and had moved to Janki Kutir, mummy continued to work, in the theatre because she loved being an actress.

Once, she was to participate in the Maharashtra State Competition in the title role of ‘Puglee’. She was completely consumed by the part and would suddenly, without warning, launch into her lines in front of the dhobhi, cook etc. I was convinced she’d gone mad and started weeping with fright. Abba dropped his work and took me for a long walk on the beach. He explained that mummy had very little time to rehearse her part and that as family it was our duty to make it possible for her to rehearse her lines as many times as she needed to or else she wouldn’t win the competition — all this to a 9 year old child. It made me feel very adult and very included. To this day, whenever my mother is acting in a new play or new film, my father sits up with her and rehearses her cues.

She participates in his life equally; at a price of course! She fell in love with him because he was a poet. However, she learned soon enough that a poet is essentially a man of the people and she would have to share him with his countless admirers (a large number of them female!) and friends. When I was about 9–years–old, I remember an evening at a big industrialist’s home. His wife, a typical socialite, announced in a rather flirtatious manner, "Kaifi Saheb my usual farmaish — the Do Nigahon Ka something, something – you know folks, Kaifi Saheb has written this ‘nazm’ in praise of me"… And Abba, without batting an eyelid, started reciting this poem which was in fact written for my mother.

I got completely hysterical and started screaming that the poem was written for my mother and not for this stupid woman. A deathly silence prevailed and my mother said, "Hush child, hush." She took me into a corner and said that I wasn’t to take such things to heart – after all ‘Abba’ was a poet and such were his ways; he didn’t seriously mean that the poem was written for this lady etc. I would hear nothing of it. Needless to say, that was a poem Kaifi Azmi could never use again and that woman still hates me!

Amongst his female friends Begum Akhtar was my favourite. She would sometimes stay with us as a houseguest. In fact Josh Malihabadi, Firaq Gorakhpuri and Faiz Ahmed Faiz would stay with us, too, despite there being no separate guest room, not even an attached bathroom. Luxury was never the central concern of these artists; they preferred the warmth of our tiny home to the 5–star comforts available to them.

I was fascinated by these mehfils at home. I would sit up in rapt attention, not even half understanding what they recited, but excited nevertheless. Their beautiful words fell like music on my young ears. I found the atmosphere fascinating — the steady flow of conversation, the tinkering of glasses, the smoke-filled room. I was never rushed off to bed; in fact I was encouraged to hang around, provided I took the responsibility for getting up in time for school the next day. It made me feel very grown up and included.

Soon I started attending mushairas — Sahir Ludhianvi was popular, Ali Sardar Jafri greatly respected, but Kaifi Azmi had a different magic. He was always amongst the last to recite — his deeply resonant voice pulsating with vigour, drama and power. Baba and I used to be fast asleep on the stage, behind the gao–takiyas and would invariably wake up to the thunderous applause that resonated each time his name was announced.

I never saw him either surprised or flattered by the applause. In fact, to my mother’s despair, he would never come home and tell her how the mushaira went. A non–committal ‘theek tha’ was all she could extract from him. Years later when I was about eighteen, I remember prodding him to tell me which ‘nazm’ he had recited and what the audience response was like. My mother said briefly, "Don’t even try, he’s not going to tell you. Over the years I have trained myself to bury my curiosity in a newspaper when Kaifi comes back from a mushaira."

I would have none of that — I sat across Abba’s chest and tickled him pink till he said, "Only small people indulge in self-praise; the day I do badly, rest assured I’ll come and tell you."

He has never treated his work as special. Even when he came back from a song recording, he never brought the cassette back home. A far cry from young lyricists today, who subject all their guests to their latest song, goading them to say, ‘wah-wah’! He never actually puts pen to paper till the night of the deadline. Then there is a furious cleaning of drawers, numerous letters that get replied to, a number of inconsequential things that get attended to. I’m sure the creative process is occurring simultaneous to the radio blaring, children laughing, children’s friends over, ‘taash’ going on in the house.

The family is never expected to hush up because he is writing — in fact the door of his study is always open so he can keep in touch with the outside world as well. I once changed the position of his desk away from the door because I felt he needed greater privacy. Mummy protested he would hate it. Came evening time and predictably Abba had made her change it back to the original position.

He writes only with a Mont Blanc pen and has a huge collection of them. Every now and again, he takes them all out, looks at them lovingly and then puts them back under lock and key. When a friend of mine presented me one, Abba pinched it although he possessed three identical ones and wrote my friend a ‘cute’ letter giving reasons why the pen was safer with him than with me!

He is very fond of good food and cannot eat a meal without ‘gosht’. He’s hugely ‘superior’ about being a UPite and will not condescend to eat Hyderabadi food, even though mummy has tried to cajole him over the 52 years they’ve been married! Each time we eat khatti dal, a separate arhar ki dal is cooked for him. And woe betide the person who unmindfully picks up the khatti dal ka spoon to serve him his arhar ki dal!

There is much that he and Javed have in common — both have a strong sense of propriety, are extremely takkaluf-pasand and cannot brook mediocrity. Both are hugely political animals. I used to deliberately stay away from politics and pride myself on not reading the newspaper as a reaction against all the politics that were discussed constantly in the house. But when I got involved with Javed and heard him and Abba have their discussions, (I used to listen from a distance) I gradually started taking a deeper interest. In discovering Javed I was rediscovering Abba, getting in touch once again with Urdu poetry and passionate politics, realizing how deep into my father’s ways, my roots were.

When I opened my eyes to the world, the first colour I saw was red. My parents were living at the Red Flag Hall and a huge red flag used to greet visitors at the entrance. It was only later that I realized that red was the colour of the worker, of revolution. My childhood was spent travelling with my mother’s Prithvi Theatre on one hand, and mazdoor–kisan meetings in Madanpura with my father. There used to be red banners everywhere, a lot of naare-bazi and a lot of protest poetry. As a child I was only interested in these rallies because the mazdoors pampered me.

Imperceptibly however, my roots were catching soil. Today when I’m at a demonstration, participating in a padyatra or in a hunger strike, it is merely an extension of what I saw happening as a child. On the fourth day of my hunger strike years ago in Mumbai for the housing rights of slum dwellers, my blood pressure started falling and my mother was beside herself with fear. But Abba, who was in Patna, sent me a telegram saying, ‘Best of luck, comrade!’

Again, on the eve of leaving for a padyatra for communal harmony from Delhi to Meerut years ago, I went to say good–bye to the family. I was nervous and uncertain. I had been amply warned that it was very dangerous for an actress to be roaming the streets of UP — my clothes would be ripped off, stones would be thrown, etc. The whole family was reflecting the tension.

Mummy, Baba, his wife Tanvi and Javed were all hovering around me but not saying a word. I walked into Abba’s room and hugged him from behind. He pulled me up in front of him and said, "Arre, is my brave daughter getting scared? Go, nothing will happen to you." His eyes were completely fearless. It was as though a fresh burst of oxygen had been pumped into my blood–stream. Needless to add, the padyatra was a big success. It was yet another instance of my having relied on his judgement and passing the test with flying colours.

As a father, I have always taken Abba for granted, but as a poet I continue to be overwhelmed by his work. I cannot claim to know or even understand all his work but I find his poetry striking for its strong imagery, its sheer power and its broadness of vision. His most personal problem transcends itself in a much larger vision so that his struggle no longer remains his own, but becomes the struggle of all human beings. Whether its my work with slum dwellers or women or against communalism, there’s always a nazm of Abba’s to guide me, to inspire me to carry on the struggle. Thus ‘Makaan’, ‘Aurat’ and ‘Bahroopni’ have become the pillars on which rests my work.

He is one of the few who has practiced what he preaches. There is no dichotomy between word and action. I have grown up believing that merely good intentions are not enough — you have to translate them into action.

It is impossible to arrive at any understanding of Kaifi Azmi, unless you include his work for Mijwan, the tiny village in Azamgarh where he was born and has now decided to spend the rest of his life. Abba, who had left Mijwan in his teens, returned briefly to it when he married mummy and had his first child (a son who died at the age of one). Soon after partition his family migrated to Pakistan one by one and he felt his roots in Mijwan had been severed forever.

However, in 1973, upon partially recovering from his brain haemorrhage, his left side still severely damaged, he started chanting the name ‘Mijwan’ with such persistence that my mother was forced to take him there. It turned out to be an amazing trip for him. He realized that Mijwan was and would always remain the place where he belonged. The house he was born in was occupied by various distant cousins and it would have been unfair to throw them out (the communist theory of the tiller owning the land).

(The people of Mijwan will for long remember Kaifi Azmi for the total transformation that he brought into their life in a short span of 15-20 years. While there was nothing before, the village today has a pucca approach road, electricity and telephone connections, a school and a computer centre for girls and a junior college).

…and grief

(June 10, 2002 )

I look out of the window from Abba’s room. The sky is blue, the grass green, flowers in bloom. I turn back to look inside the room. Books lined neatly on the shelves. His spectacles, writing pad, Mont Blanc pen lie in wait for pen to be put to paper and new verse to flow… Everything is the way it was… but Abba is not there…

Anees Jung, in a letter of condolence to me writes, "I know what the loss of a parent means Shabana. I also know one never loses a parent. In a strange, mystical way they become closer in death, for their spirit no longer trapped in frail frame becomes all pervasive and surrounds us like the air we breathe." Comforting words no doubt but all I feel is insurmountable grief.

Abba was not only my father; he was my friend, my mentor, my guru. In the last few months of his illness, as he lay in the ICU with tubes down his stomach, throat and neck, he could not speak and yet we managed to communicate. He would raise his eyebrow, squeeze my hand, indicate with his eyes and I would understand. In the same way that I understand what our granddaughter Shakya wants, although she is not yet able to speak. Abba in any case was given to long silences. He spoke both through his words and through his silences…

He fell silent much before the tubes were physically put to him. The Gujarat carnage shattered him. I would watch him as he looked at television coverage, face frozen in pain. With tears streaming down my eyes I asked, "Don’t you feel frustrated and defeated as you see the mindless killings, the hateful revenge, man killing man in the name of religion?’’

He wiped my tears and said quietly, "When one is working for change, one should bring into that expectation the possibility that the change may not occur in one’s lifetime and yet one must carry on working towards it."

It was his faith, his belief in the innate goodness of man that kept him going through the darkest of times.

‘Pyar ka jashn nai tarah manana hoga/ Gam kisi dil mein sahi gam ko bhulana hoga’ (‘New ways must be found to celebrate love/Grief in whosever’s heart must be overcome).

In wiping the tears of the victims of the Gujarat carnage and thousands of others who have fallen prey to communal riots, in wiping the tears of slum dwellers constantly displaced by mindless government policies, in wiping the tears of all marginalised sections of society, particularly women, would I have also paid tribute to my father, a giant amongst men?

‘Koi to sood chukaye, koi to zimma le/Us inquilab ka jo aaj tak udhaar sa hai’ (‘If only some one would repay the loan, assume responsibility/for the revolution that until now appears like a debt’).

You envelope me like the air I breathe Abba. I promise to turn my personal loss into an armour like you have always done, and carry on with the work you left behind.

You are watching over us, aren’t you?

Archived from Communalism Combat, July 2002 Year 8 No. 79, Tribute

Gang-rape in Pakistan

June 30, 2002

Why the Meerwala Jatoi panchayat thought they would get away with it

Why did the members of the Meerwala Jatoi Panchayat (Council) pass their abominable decree that a young woman be raped in revenge for a crime allegedly committed by her younger brother — and what made them think they would get away with it? For this is what would have happened, had the news not made it to a local newspaper, from where it was picked up nationwide, and then worldwide, causing widespread outrage.

Firstly, the council of tribal elders which passed this ‘decree’ obviously felt secure in the knowledge that the government would take no action against it. Jirgas or panchayats (assembly of tribal elders) are allowed to operate not only in the tribal areas where they have some sort of legal sanction (and where the ‘sentences’ passed have included execution, flogging, burning down of houses, and fines), but also in settled areas where they obviously function outside the law. Even these jirgas have begun to pass sentences like public flogging, besides settling property disputes and other matters. Last July, a jirga in village Johke Sharif, district Thatta, pronounced that the sister of a minor boy who had accidentally shot dead his friend, should be given to the dead boy’s father. The fact that the girl was also a minor drew no attention from the government.

It is no coincidence that the rise of religious extremism over the last couple of decades (encouraged by successive governments for the sake of political expediency) has received the greatest support from the tribal areas. In many cases, the punishments awarded by tribal jirgas are assumed to also have religious sanction, even if they have nothing to do with Islam and are rooted in tribal traditions and customs.

Secondly, the Panchayat’s decree that the ‘punishment’ be carried out by four men resonates of the aberrations in the Pakistani law that were introduced by General Ziaul Haq in his attempts to ‘Islamise’ the country. The Zina laws (Hudood Ordinance) introduced in 1979 require the presence of four witnesses to the act of rape or adultery before the crime can be established. The confusion in people’s minds about what is allowed in Islam and what is not; has only been exacerbated by politicizing religion and the severity of these so–called Islamic laws.

The Zina laws obliterate the distinction between adultery and rape and criminalize a private offence, adultery (sexual relations between two consenting adults not married to each other), while making rape a matter for private complaint, in which the onus of proof lies on the victim.

Even the Federal Shariat Court has questioned the religious nature of the so–called Islamic punishments imposed on the penal system during Zia’s time. In 1981, the punishment of stoning to death was challenged as being un–Islamic, and was in fact removed. The decision was later reversed under political pressure. The demand to review these laws continues to be made, not just by civil society and rights groups.

The government-constituted, high powered Commission of Inquiry for Women in its report of 1997 "is convinced that all the Hudood laws were conceived and drafted in haste. They are not in conformity with Islam." These laws have "only resulted in gross miscarriages of justice and operate against the underprivileged sections of society. Their detrimental effect outweighs any advantage they may have. They contribute towards the exploitation of women not only by imprisoning them but also by exposing them to the brutality of the police and unscrupulous elements of society."

Prominent writer Zahida Hina reinforces this argument in a recent column noting that these amendments have given dacoits, landlords, tribal chiefs and their protégés, and unscrupulous elements in the police force, the freedom to dishonour women without fear of punishment. (‘Jan ki Aman’, Jang, Karachi, July 10, 2002).

Girls as young as thirteen complaining of rape are instead found guilty of adultery (zina), as the medical reports find evidence of sexual intercourse, and declare them as being ‘used to such activity’ – as in the case of the young Kohli girl who was raped in Hyderabad recently by an elected
councillor.

As illegal as jirga sentences are the fatwas (diktats) that incite violence. Yet, how many clerics have been booked under the law for such incitements? None – except Hafiz Abdul Latif, Pesh Imam of the Jaranwala mosque who on July 5, 2002, issued a ‘fatwa’ against Faraz Javed, who had objected to the Pesh Imam making a political sermon while leading the Friday prayers. Javed was saved from being lynched by his American citizenship. The police moved swiftly to arrest those who had besieged his house, proving that where the state wills it, it can be effective.

Less lucky was Zahid Shah, a mentally challenged young man in Chak Jhumra village, who was accused of blasphemy by a cleric and stoned to death by an enraged mob.

Clerics issuing such fatwas have been emboldened by the amendments to the ‘blasphemy laws’ of the Pakistan Penal Code, particularly since the life imprisonment option in Section 295–C of the PPC lapsed in 1991, leaving a mandatory punishment of death for those convicted under it. Before 1980, when the PPC began being amended by General Zia to include sterner punishments for religious offences, only four or five cases were registered for such offences. Since then, the severity of the new laws has "provided a handle to the unscrupulous to settle their own scores," notes the HRCP.

Thirdly, women in this society are largely considered as lesser beings, at the same time family property and repositories of the family honour; rape for revenge is a common phenomenon, particularly in the southern Punjab and upper Sindh region.

Over the years, violence against women has increased in number of incidents —-in the form of ‘honour killings’ and other forms of brutalities and also worsened in its form. In the first week of July 02 alone, several cases were reported: the burning with acid of a young woman, resulting in the loss of one of her eyes as well as injuries to her suckling infant, at a remote village near Layyah in the Punjab; the rape of the young peasant girl in Hyderabad mentioned above; the stripping naked and parading of two women in a Khairpur village…

Last year, more cases of mutilation, acid burning and other heinous crimes, including incidents of ‘stove burnings’, domestic violence and rape, were reported than before, while every second woman in the country suffered some form of violence, in the form of verbal, physical or sexual abuse, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (State of Human Rights in Pakistan, 2001). HRCP estimates that in the year 2001, one woman was raped every sixth hour in the Punjab, and a woman gang–raped every fourth day.

Where is the outrage for all this violence against women, which so many in this society condone in one way or another? Certainly the self-appointed custodians of our morality are noticeably silent on the matter, which only encourages this mindset illustrated so clearly by the Meerwala case.

Lastly, the complacency of the Meerwala Jatoi panchayat stemmed also from the social system: the family of the raped woman is poor and ‘low caste’ (Tattlas). The rape of Mukhtaran Bibi appears to be part of an attempt to cover up yet another heinous crime, the sexual assault on Abdul Shakoor, her young brother who is between eleven and fourteen years old, by three members of the Mastoi clan on June 22. After the culprits realised that he was not going to hide the incident, they took him to their kinsman, Abdul Khaliq, to seek his help. Khaliq was already trying to pressurize his neighbour, Ghulam Farid (Shakoor and Mukhtaran’s father) to give up his two acres of land. "He confined the boy to a room of his house and also pushed his 25 year old sister, Naseem, inside…After locking the door, he ran to inform the tribesmen than he had found the boy engaged in a sexual act with the woman". (Sadiq Jafri, ‘The land of shame’, The News on Sunday, Encore, July 7, 2002).

When he went to the police to get his son freed, Ghulam Farid’s poverty and low social status again came into play. Instead of filing a case against the kidnappers/sodomisers, the police took young Shakoor into custody and demanded money for his release.

What followed next also started out routinely. A panchayat was gathered by Khaliq. It would have been normal, if illegal, for such a council to decree that a woman from Ghulam Farid’s family approach them to seek mercy for the accused boy. Or even that Farid give a daughter in marriage to the Mastoi family. Instead, the jirga pronounced the sentence of ‘rape for honour’ on the eldest daughter of Ghulam Farid – who was falsely assured by some members of the panchayat that the ‘sentence’ would not be carried out.

These issues must be addressed in order to go beyond the outrage and breast-beating that has followed this horrific incident. Stoning, flogging or hanging the culprits to death in public in order to ‘set an example’ as many, including the victims, have suggested, will only amount to amputating a diseased limb while allowing the illness to continue festering within the body. Such punishments were administered during Ziaul Haq’s time, when the screams of the convict were amplified for the watching crowd. The result was only to further brutalise society and contribute to a culture of violence. The culprits must be punished, but in accordance with law – and the affected family must be tended to with sensitivity and care, not made to sit on the ground outside the court waiting for hours for their case to be heard, as is currently happening.

As for Mukhtaran Bibi, the compensatory cheque of five lakh rupees may go a long way towards easing her family’s financial hardships, but compared to what they have undergone, it is an insult. The barrage of high profile visitors who have ensured media coverage for their visits has not been able to prevent the family facing the brunt of the pressure even now. They feel so threatened that they have left their own house and gone to live elsewhere.

The government must take action against illegal rulings, whether these are made by tribal chiefs or religious leaders. It must ensure that no one takes the law into their own hands, pass or execute ‘sentences’. And, finally, it needs to ensure that its functionaries will no longer participate in such activities.

Archived from Communalism Combat, July 2002 Year 8 No. 79, Neighbours 2

Manavta nu kaam

June 30, 2002

Piyush Desai

I am the CMD of the Gujarat Tea Processors and Packers Limited. We manufacture the Wagh Bakri and Good Morning brands of tea. My family’s association with tea goes back 110 years. My grandfather started out in South Africa where we had tea plantations since 1885. I am also chairman of Federation of All India Tea Traders’ Association (FAITTA).

After the recent carnage, in Gujarat, I am seriously thinking of resigning from the company and devoting all of my time for ‘manavta nu kaam’ (working for humanity). My company may need me, but society needs be more. Our group has been committed to charitable work and through the VN Desai Charitable Trust we devote 5–10 per cent of our income every year, since 1985, to social causes.

In the initial days there was an unbearable level of hatred and suspicion. By early May, we tried to bring the trading community together across community lines, despite the fact that political elements threatened our attempts. I was disturbed then and remain concerned now about talks of economic non-cooperation among some Hindu traders who are not ready to supply to Muslim traders; their refusal to extend credit, cash etc. There are groups here — and I make bold to say this — who are even now pressurising traders not to sell goods and enforcing an economic boycott. People like us need to resist such efforts. We are trying to form a body on a cooperative basis to collect materials from both sides and ensure free flow without any disturbance.

Secondly, I felt for the first time that we should get directly involved in rehabilitation to send out a message that we care. Hence, through my personal trust, the Asha Kiran Trust, we re–built the homes in the Vejalpur–Juhapura area.

Work like this should not be spoken about. I only went public about this because I felt in my travels to Pune, Bangalore and other parts that people carried this disturbing impression that all Gujaratis supported the VHP’s brand of Hinduism.

Just like at the time of the earthquake, when the violence raged, I first sent a circular to all my agents in Gujarat — there are about 210 agents — saying that tea must be sent to the camps on credit. This way I have supplied 4 thousand kilograms of tea (worth Rs 4 lakhs) to the camps. We also supplied paper cups which are hygienic. So there were and are traders who are taking risks and driven by their conscience, helping. In Gujarat, unfortunately, no one says that they are helping openly, restrained by an all–pervasive fear.

We are also trying to ensure that those traders and businessmen who have lost their property, their hotels, their restaurants, and their shops, are provided with loans without waiting for government assistance. We also feel strongly that when they do get the assistance from the government, we should stand surety for them by getting deposits from colleagues in business and industry.

I am also personally keen that over 80 restaurants and hotels within Ahmedabad and at least 300 on the Ahmedabad–Mehsana, Ahmedabad–Baroda highway (Kheda, Surat, Palanpur, Modasa, Mehsana) should be given special assistance to re–start quickly. I am also chairman of All India Tea Federation and therefore have close connections with the Union commerce ministry through the Tea Board of India.

This time the promotion budget of the Tea Board is Rs 15 crore. I have formally proposed that, at least one–third of the amount should be spent on giving loans to these restaurants and hotels along with an identity to the restaurants that are rehabilitated — some emblem which will identify that this is recognized by the Tea Board of India or Tea Federation, like Resham Bhavan in Bombay.

I think of myself as an instrument and only wish to bring light and some purity. We will make every effort and God is great.

In the last 8–10 years, through various platforms, this poison of communal conflict and hatred by one community towards the other is being spreading. There are groups – I do not wish to take any names — who make me ashamed to call myself a Hindu. When we go to the market in the morning we hear stories of small incidents that depict this corrosion of the mind and heart.

Young minds are being poisoned through education. It is a dangerous venom that is affecting the quality of everyday life. Four days back, on July 12, I felt ashamed when the Lord Jagannath Yatra was taken out. Our Muslim brothers were asked to observe self–imposed curfew, shoot–at–sight orders were issued on the route of the procession. Do we even remember that the Muharram tazia procession that means something to them and is a tenet of their faith did not take place this year? What message are we sending out by suppressing only one section?

We need to ensure that those, who are not noble of heart and mind, those who have no respect for the feelings of other communities, such leaders should not cross the corporator level let alone become MLAs. They should not go to Parliament either where national policy is framed.

"Aren’t you Hindu? Why do you want to help them? Are the Wagh–Bakri owners Muslims’? I am ashamed when these questions are put to me every other day in Ahmedabad. Our Wagh–Bakri brand was started with the help of a Muslim who gave us a loan of Rs 10,000 over 150 years ago. We are indebted to him. How can we ever pay off this debt?

(As told to Teesta Setalvad)

Archived from Communalism Combat, July 2002 Year 8 No. 79, Peacemakers

NCERT Syllabus: Joshi’s Shastras

January 31, 2002

The new NCERT syllabus is a brazen reflection of the sectarian agenda of the BJP-led NDA regime and has been announced despite widespread protests against the moves to doctor education in social studies and history

Undeterred by the countrywide criticism on the New Curricuilum Framework for Value Education, a criticism that has pointed out over a whole year of heated debate – that education ministers of states were not consulted before the syllabus was framed (CC, Jan01), that CABE concurrence was not obtained, that Parliament was bypassed – the NCERT went ahead and published it’s new syllabus in late January 02.

Two months earlier, in November 01, textbooks authored by eminent historians, Romila Thapar, R.S. Sharma and Satish Chandra had been subject to the saffron sledgehammer and politically inconvenient paragraphs were summarily deleted.

SAHMAT, one of the organisations that has been at the forefront of the mobilisation against these developments challenged the new syllabus through written analyses proferred by eminent historian Irfan Habib.

The yearlong and countrywide protests have drawn in a wide section of Indian academia and social activists. Within Parliament, a handful of thinking Parliamentarians had launched the cross-party Parliamentary Forum of Education and Culture (see CC, May 01). Khoj –education for a Plural India and Communalism Combat had intitiated a debate on the New Curricular Framework as early as January 01, through a letter addressed by independent Member of Parliament, Shabana Azmi. Azmi’s letter to the chief ministers and education ministers of all states accompanied by a detailed note that explained the implications of the new thrust in education policy, urged them to call for an Education Minister’s Conference.

The movement against these developments received a fillip when SAHMAT organised a national convention against the communalisation of education, drawing in nine education ministers to oppose these developments in the beginning of August 01.

Regardless of the depths of these protests, the NCERT, under hard-liner, union HRD minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, has carried on with the proposal to limit and doctor the vision that drives Indian education especially in the area of social studies. New NCERT textbooks written by persons whose names the NCERT refuses to divulge are also expected out in March this year.

A detailed note prepared by eminent historians was released by SAHMAT in New Delhi on January 31, 02. Stung by the opposition, NCERT’s director J.S. Rajput resorted to mudslinging, questioning the ‘willful misrepresentation’ by SAHMAT, to which the organisation has promptly replied. Meanwhile, in a seemingly unrelated development, SAHMAT was evicted from its small premises at VP Bhavan, a space that it has occupied for over a dozen years.

According to the analysis collated by SAHMAT, there are some Specific Errors, Omissions, Comments on the Content Outline in History-Related ‘Themes’ . These include:

Class VI: People and Society in the Ancient period

Vedic culture has been made a part of the Bronze Age along with Harappan and Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Chinese civilisations.
Iron Age’s relevance only to the Megalithic culture of Deccan and South India
No reference to the early South Indian Kingdoms (Cheras, Cholas,Pandyas) and, more importantly, even to the Satavahanas and Indo-Greeks, Sakas, Kushans, Parthians, etc and their contribution to developments during the period 200 BC–AD 300 supposedly covered by the words ‘Central Asians’.
‘Contributions of India to world civilization’ until before 6th Century BC.
Projects activities–Konarak, Lingaraja temple, Nataraja at Chidambaram-nothing to do with the period covered in this course.

Class VII : People and Society in the Medieval Period

Cholas and Delhi Sultanate along with some others as small kingdoms-Pallavas whose power ended in the 9th century are here as well as in class VI-Turkish rule and Delhi Sultanate as different entities.-The idea of ‘resistance’ introduced here; No art, culture, etc. for this period ( up to about early 16th century)
Mughal empire and rise of small states and assertion of independence clubbed together– ‘Assertion of independence’ by Sikhs, Marathas and Rajputs

Class VIII: People and Society in the Modern period

World scenario in the Modern period ends with European conquest of Asia and Africa while Indian developments conclude with independence.
American and French Revolutions and German and Italian unification placed after Indian independence.
Because the world scenario ends with the 19th century, Russian Revolution, the two world wars, etc. are not a part of ‘People and society in the Modern Period’.
The Moderates and Extremists referred as Petitioners and Radicals, ‘division of Bengal’ but no reference to anti-partition movement; 1942 movement-the only mass movement referred to.

Class IX : India in the Twentieth century world

The 20th Century world presented here covering the period from colonialism to Peace Treaties ( after World War I),
‘Towards to New World’ comprising, among others, ‘Development of fascism and nazism and ‘World After 1945’ in which ‘use of Atom Bomb’ comes after UN Charter and Cold War.
‘India in the Twentieth Century world’ begins, besides some other topics, with the uprising of 1857.

ClassX : The only history-related topic is ‘ Heritage: Natural and Cultural’.

Classes XI: XII : ( History as an ElectiveSubject)

Semester I : Ancient India

Unit 1: The relevance of sub-topics relating to tradition and traditional history here will depend on how they are treated in the textbooks. The notion of ‘Eternal India’ introduced here may be unhistorical obfuscation.
Unit 3: On the Harappan civilization refers to its ‘Vedic Connection’ which may be unhistorical.
Unit 4: is entitled Vedic Culture. The period which this unit is supposed to cover is not clearly stated though the period third to first Millenium BC is mentioned with reference to ‘Mathematics and Science’. Does the Vedic period begin in the third millenium BC The way some sub-topics are worded e.g. ‘Spiritual and religious traditions of the Vedic India’, ‘India as described in Vedic literature’, ‘The antiquity of Vedas and Vedic people’ and various others is meant to project a mythical view. Is the germination high philosophy (unit 6) post-Vedic and does the spiritual and philosophical thought of ancient India consist of Upanishads, Brahmanas and Sutras only and India’s only contribution to the philosophical thought of the world?
Unit 9: refers to Chanakya’s efforts for geographical and political unity as well as to Maurya attempts at political unity of India. In unit 12, Guptas attempts to unite India. No such attempt is attributed to the Sultans and even to the Mughals in the syllabus outline for medieval India.
No political unit of the Deccan and South, except the Rashtrakutas .is mentioned—not even the Satavahanas, the Pallavas, the Chalukyas, not to speak of the early Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas.
There is no reference to the Varna system in the period before 300 BC. The only reference to caste occurs in unit 11 which deals with ‘Social life as reflected in contemporary literature from 200 BC to 300 AD.
Numerous units refer to India’s influence on world civilisation in general and some specific regions but none whatsoever of other cultures’ influences India.

Semester II: Medieval India
The content outline of this period of Indian history reflects the total incompetence and appalling historical ignorance of those who have drafted it and is a reflection on the credentials of the academic body which has published it. The denigration of the Sultanate of Delhi and the Mughal empire is clearly meant to ensure that students do not develop any understanding of the place of this period in the country’s history in the growth of India’s composite culture.

The syllabus for the period is organised in the form of three units. Unit II which is entitled ‘ The Rise of Ghaznavis’ begins with the first Turkish (Ghaznavid) invasions and covers the history of the Sultanate which had nothing to do with the Ghaznavis (sic) (who had been supplanted much before the end of the 12th century) and some of its successor states. The period covered, though nowhere stated, may be, for some parts of India, up to the 15th century.
This unit is followed by the third and the last unit in medieval Indian history which is, oddly given the title ‘ The political Conditions’. Though again the specific period this unit is supposed to cover is not stated, a number of dynasties that it refers to such as the Cholas, had arisen in the 10th century and most of them had ceased to exist before the disintegration of the Delhi Sultanate.
It also perfunctorily refers to the Mughal Empire but, of course, not to the political unification brought about by them. The unit also introduces the concept of ‘ resistance’ in the context of Mughal Empire. There is not even a reference to the Bhakti and Sufi movements or to the birth of Sikhism.
There was a reference in the media some months ago to the suspicion that the NCERT is going to more or less do away with the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal empire. The present syllabus tends to confirm that suspicion.

Archived from Communalism Combat, January-February 2002 Year 8 No. 75-76, Debate

‘We belong to Bharat, not Hindustan’

January 31, 2002

Adivasis from south Gujarat assert their their distinct religio-cultural identity and press for their rights

On November 4, 2001 about 400 trucks, mini–trucks, jeeps, cars, and carts made a bee–line for Dev Mogra, off the Dediapada–Sagbara state highway, the holiest of the Adivasi shrines dedicated to Ya Mogi and located in Narmada District, Gujarat. A pandal was erected in the vicinity of the shrine to accommodate about 30,000 people.

The meeting or rally was scheduled for 11.00 a.m. Every inch of the pandal was occupied and there were people standing in the blazing sun too. About 35,000 tribals converged at this holy place from all over the eastern highlands of Gujarat, from southern Rajasthan and northern Maharashtra.

Half a kilometre from the pandal ,about a thousand youth volunteers, both boys and girls, lined up on both sides of the road. Girls were dressed in their traditional dress but the boys wore pants and white T–shirts. The T–shirts had a printed picture of Ya Mogi and the Jai Adivasi (Hail Adivasi) greeting. The volunteers wore a blue head–band that read, Jai Adivasi.

These volunteers directed the incoming vehicles to the parking area, and led people to their seats. The pandal itself was decorated with buntings, flowers and Jai Adivasi slogans. A large picture of Ya Mogi graced the colourful rostrum. On one side of the rostrum chairs were arranged for the press and government, taluka and district level tribal officials. On the other side of the pandal, there was a makeshift kitchen cooking dal bhaat for all those present. Until the official programme began, a group of singers entertained the crowd with songs of tribal asmita (nationalism).

At 11.30 a.m., the function began with tribal MLAs and other key tribal dignitaries taking the stage. They were introduced and garlanded one by one. Then, the key organiser of the rally, Amarsinh Vasava, the MLA of the Dediapada constituency, uncovered a large picture of Ya Mogi and then presented an enlarged photo of Ya Mogi to each of those on the dais. Key persons on the dais included PD Vasava, Raman Chaudhry, Dalpat Vasava, Barjul Patel, Raman Rathod, Nagarbhai Vasava and Amarsinh Vasava, all tribal MLAs. Then there were Professor Valu, Shrimati Jermaben (Narmada district president), the tribal king of Sagbara who is also the trusty of Dev Mogra shrine and so on. Also present was Uttam Parmar, a Dalit leader from neighbouring Surat district.

The speeches over, the volunteers organised the crowd in the mandap into orderly lines and served daal bhaat. The meeting was over by 4.30 p.m. The posse of police had no place there, nor any work. The organisation of the rally was disciplined and impeccable.

The contents of the speeches made on the occasion could be summarised as follows:

1. We are all moolnivasis (original inhabitants) of this land and that is why we are called Adivasis. Indian civilisation is the oldest in the world but ours is older still. We belong to Bharat, not Hindustan. We should call ourselves moolnivasis, Adivasis, Bharatvasis.

2. We have been ousted from fertile plains to the hills and today we are even chased out of these hills. Our land, forests, water and quarries are exploited and on our poverty the non–tribals stand tall. Our land is taken away for industry, dams are built mostly in tribal areas leading to submergence of hundreds of villages, thereby forcing us to migrate to hostile plains. Our forests are classified as reserved and protected and we can’t touch even a branch for fuel without permission. We have no place to live peacefully.

3. Fifty years have passed since Independence but we have not yet tasted the fruits of that Independence. We still do not have educational facilities. We have not had a revolution of intellect and thought. Not many of our Adivasis have become doctors, lawyers, bureaucrats, businessmen. It is only because of missionaries that we have got some education. It is they who found diamonds in the dirt.

4. We are fragmented today by the different religious sects that seek our membership. We have our own religion. We are fragmented by different political parties. We need to become one. Religion is a private matter. We need to come together as Adivasis and not as Hindu or Christian, or Muslim tribals. We should do away with the division between Mota Chaudhry, and Nana Chaudhry, Dhanka Tadvi and Teteria Tadvi, Dungaria and Kathalia Vasava and re– establish our original identity as Bhils and remove the high and low differences that have crept among us of late. It is only through unity that we can break our shackles. If we stand united, those who exploit us will come begging to us. Otherwise we have to go to them as beggars as is now the case.

5. We are still gulam (slaves). We are reduced to the status of casual labourers who have to migrate and look for work in far away plains or cities. We are still made to walk like goats, looking down all the time and have never been able to look up and stand tall. We have in us inner resources to stand up like lions and catch the snakes by their heads. We only need to get organised.

6. The BJP government in Gujarat has minimised our reservations and lifted the eight–kilometre regulation for purchase of land. This has facilitated the alienation of tribal land in Gujarat.

7. The Hindutva forces have misled us. They have not just thrived on our poverty but also sought their own development on the destruction of our resources like land, water and forests. The biggest conspiracy of Hindutva is to hide our real identity by calling us Vanvasis. Those who live in the jungle are Vanvasis, they say. They have made us carry bricks for Ramshilapujan, taken contributions from us, asked us to put tilak, play the garbha, celebrate Diwali and Ganesh festival which are not ours. But, most importantly, they do not pay attention to our real problems of education, unemployment, human rights, culture, transfer of resources, our very existence. Ayodhya is not our problem nor is Ram. The BJP has trapped us like fish in the net by misleading us on Ayodhya. We must greet each other not with ‘Ram, Ram’ or ‘Good Morning’ but with ‘Jai Adivasi’.

8. We have lived here for centuries before non–tribals came here. If non–tribals want to interact with us they should attend to our most important problems and not just sell us their religion. We have our own religion. We worship nature, fields, grain, elders and ancestors and have our own deities. Ram is not ours, Sita is not ours. But our shrines are taken away and Hinduised. Ambaji and Shamlaji in the north were our shrines years ago but they are gone. Today we have only one shrine of Ya Mogi which too was in the process of being taken over by Hindutvavaadis.

9. We have symbolically gathered here at the feet of Ya Mogi, our mother, to begin our revolution: to assert our identity and our rights. This is not a political rally. This is a Jai Adivasi rally. All, whatever be their political or religious affiliation, must come together as Adivasis. We have 75 lakh Adivasis in nine districts making a total of 15 percent of the 50 million population of Gujarat. We have 30 tribal MLAs. Whenever our interests are in danger we must fight as Adivasis.

10. Referring to a tribe called dubla, which means weak/poor the speaker said, "We are not dubla but takatwala (strong)." The outsiders cannot keep us as bonded or casual labourers forever. We are not goats but lions. We can become doctors, lawyers, officers. We have among us people of courage who can stand up to anyone. It is time to stand up and unite. Anyone who attempts to fragment and divide the Adivasis should be defeated. We should identify our enemies and friends.

11. We Adivasis have inner resources. But like rain water, we have let it flow down the drain allowing non–tribals to dominate us. We need to build check–dams and conserve our resources.

After 50 years of Independence a small creamy layer has surfaced among tribals that dabble in politics, corners reservations and developmental schemes. The leaders from this creamy layer have been co–opted by non–tribals; they have ignored their own people. Adivasi self–assertion is not new in Gujarat. There have been leaders from among the masses who have risen from time to time during the last 15 years (See Lobo 1994: 82–83). This kind of leadership was feared by non–tribals and hated by leaders from their own creamy layer. A series of such leaders were murdered by vested interests. Chhotubhai Vasava was one such leader who continued the line of indigenous assertion for tribal identity and nationalism. He was anti-Congress and opposed outside exploiters. He was MLA of the Janata Party for a long time. However, even a leader of Chhotubhai Vasava’s stature was co–opted by the BJP a few years ago. After withstanding all manner of harassment and atrocities on him by the state, he finally succumbed to the vile of the BJP and thereby lost his credibility.

After a lull of two years, Amarsingh Vasava has picked up from where Chhotubhai left off. Amarsingh, with his Jai Adivasi Samiti, has yet again resurrected hope for an indigenous leadership and a movement that may be called their own. Today, the Jai Adivasi slogan is visible in many places and people utter it with pride when they meet each other, in many districts.

This assertion has put the Hindutva clan on the back foot. As the BJP received a big setback in the district panchayat elections in July 2001, the state government postponed the village panchayat elections.

Three years ago, there were just seven Hindu shrines in the Dangs, a tribal predominant district. But in the last three years the Hindutvavaadis have built 35 new Hindu shrines, most of them dedicated to Hanuman. During the same period, the Dangs have been subjected to traumatic experience. Churches and Christian prayer halls have been burnt, Christians harassed, Christian tribals have been discriminated against by the state in developmental projects, the state machinery such as the police, district development officers and collectors have been hostile to Christians, presumably at the behest of the BJP government.

In tribal areas, Hindutvavaadis are still demonising Christian missionaries and harassing Tribal Christians. They have now started surveillance of Christians and missionaries in each of the tribal villages. Four educated but unemployed youth from each village have been recruited and each paid an honorarium of Rs 250 per month to tail the missionaries, to take note of their words and deeds and their projects. They are also supposed to identify Christian tribals and local leaders and report this to the group head of 20 villages. These units gather intelligence that is then used to harass missionaries and Christians and haul them to law courts to answer fabricated cases.

Before Christmas every December, they create problems, commit atrocities and create law and order problems. Earlier, the Congress had a strong hold among the tribals. But Rajput politicians who exploited the tribals dominated the leadership. With the people’s sheer disgust for these Congress leaders and the sustained wily propaganda of Hindutva, the BJP managed to wrest a few parliamentary seats in tribal areas in the last elections. But today the BJP stands exposed and the anti-incumbency factor favours the Congress. The mood in the Congress is upbeat. So much so that Amarsinh Chaudhry, who is the Congress president and leader of the opposition in the Assembly, did not turn up for the Jai Adivasi rally despite confirming his participation.

The indigenous assertion of tribals has a history, with Chhotubhai Vasava as its most illustrious star. But then he too has fallen by the wayside. His mantle is now likely to be appropriated by Amarsinh Vasava, a forceful speaker who wants to keep a safe distance from party politics and concentrate on Adivasis and their problems. (But despite the rhetoric one could notice a pro–Congress stance in the speeches made from the rostrum on November 4, 2001. This is partly because the Congress is seen to be on the winning side in the next election).

The MLAs were taken to the Ya Mogi shrine for a darshan to pledge their commitment to the tribal cause. About ten years ago this shrine was in the process of getting Hinduised. A Hindu pujari had taken charge, pictures of Hindu deities had been installed and the location for the blood sacrifice was shifted to just outside the shrine.

But this process was reversed and a pucca shrine has been built by tribals in the last three years. Today, this shrine has become symbolic of tribal identity and nationalism. It is to be hoped that this shrine and the ‘Jai Adivasi’ venture retains its momentum and the never–ending hope of a subjugated people is realised to form the kind of society that they envision for themselves.

Archived from Communalism Combat, January-February 2002 Year 8 No. 75-76, Forum

Cry for Justice

January 31, 2002

A grievous case of prolonged sexual violence and exploitation of a minor Dalit girl from the Hanuman Garh district of Rajasthan over eighteen months, her valiant attempts to escape and the failure of the police to further the investigation due to some officials hobnobbing with the accused from influential castes involved in the crime have resulted in a detailed fact-finding investigative report prepared by the Centre for Dalit Human Rights, Jaipur.

Though kumari Bhagwanti Neetu 16 years of age today, was abducted about 20 months ago from Hanuman Garh town by one Rohitash and Krishan Godara resident of Nai Abadi, Hanuman Garh, FIR number 493/2001 under section 363, 376, 342, 323 of 120B of IPC was lodged in the Hanuman Garh police station on October 18, 01, when, after three unsuccessful attempts she managed to escape back to her family.

The victim was subjected to brutal sexual violence under forcible abduction over the past two years. The victim-survivor has testified to the names of 70 accused before the Magistrate under sections 161 and 164 of the CRPC. The police have identified 22 persons as the main accused in this case, including one woman, Smt. Vimla who allegedly ‘sold’ the victim to the influential person for sexual exploitation. To date, the police have managed to arrest only 15 accused persons who are still under judicial custody. Among the accused who have been named are powerful and moneyed persons belonging to the Jat, Bishnoi, Kamad and Brahmin castes.

A fact-finding team consisting of P. L. Mimroth, convenor, Centre for Dalit Human Rights, Jaipur, Than Singh, former MP, Laxmi Narain, Convenor, and. Kamlesh Yadav, visited the areas of incident and met the residents of villages Behlolpur, Makkar, Pucca Sahonara, local social activists and all the concerned officials including the Collector, SP and SHO, Hanumangarh town on December 21 and 22, 2001 to ascertain the status of the investigation. Since then, the team has met highly placed officials in the district administration and even petitioned persons among the political class, including the chief minister of the state, Ashok Gahlot.

The fact-finding team was informed that a case has been registered under relevant sections of the IPC. and section 3 of the S/C and S/T (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989. Pahar Singh SHO also informed the team that the chargesheet in this case has not yet been filed due to a delay in the office of Gurcharan Rai,AdditionalSP, Shriganganagar who is currently investigating this case. Five more main accused, powerful and absconding men, are yet to be arrested.

Despite strenuous efforts, the fact-finding team was not able to establish contact with the victim and her parents. Residents of Behlolpur and many other social activists told the team that the victim and her parents are still in the custody of all those powerful elements who are directly or indirectly involved in this crime.

The Police deny this, saying that since she was a minor she has been handed over to her parents in the presence of upsarpanch (a landlord) of village Behlolpur. However local residents deny having seen her or her parents in the village. Their whereabouts are simply not known. The team members brought this fact to the notice of the Collector as well as the SP police who promised to take steps for rehabilitation of the victim and her parents in the village of Behlolpur itself.

As per the provisions of the Rules of S/C & S/T (Prevention of Atrocity) Act 1995, a victim of sexual exploitation as in this case, is legally entitled to get a sum of Rs. 25,000 as interim relief from the district administration soon after a medical examination is conducted by the medical board. This was conducted on October 19, 01. Independent investigations by the CDHR have revealed however that the compensation amount has not been paid to the victim by the district administration.

The story of the pain and struggle put up by this minor Dalit girl is heroic. After eighteen months of brutal sexual violence, she escaped from the site of the brick kiln and came to Hanuman Garh by bus. With the help of a renowned social worker of the area, Jasvinder Singh, she succeeded in lodging an FIR number 493/2001 on October 18, 01 at the Hanuman Garh police station under sections 363, 376, 342, 323, 120 B of the IPC and section 3 of the S/C & S/T (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989.

Initially, timely intervention by the Collector and the SP led to prompt registration of the complaint by the local police under the relevant sections. The victim-survivor was medically examined by the Medical Board and her statement on video was recorded under Sec. 161 of the Cr PC. The Police also immediately nabbed many of the main accused on October 19 and 25 itself.

Subsequent developments and follow–up actions reveal that the initial promptness displayed by the police were diffused as they came under pressure, allegedly from accused persons belonging to dominant and powerful castes. According to investigations made by the CDHR, the attempt appeared to be to destroy all traces of evidence against the accused.

The residents of Behlolpur and many social activists who are fully conversant with the facts of the case clearly narrated to the CDHR, the sectarian role played by Investigating Officer, Jagdish Chander Bishnoi ,who very cleverly allowed a supporter of one of the accused to abduct the victim and her parents. They remain in custody of the accused and hence, today, the outcome of the whole case is in jeopardy.

The role of the police also appears to be dubious in their failure to produce the girl before the High Court at Jodhpur on December 10, 01 in response to the habeas corpus petition filed on behalf of the brother of the girl. There were many eyewitnesses present the day the habeas corpus petition was heard. They testified before the fact-finding team and said that the victim survivor was seen in the clutches of the main accused in this case. After the court proceedings, the girl and her parents were taken away under tight security by the same set of accused persons. Yet neither the police nor the Courts intervened.

The fact-finding team has unearthed other controversial facts. On November 10, 01,Gulab Singh Shaktawat, the state home minister had ordered the DIG, Bikaner to transfer the inquiry of the case to the additional SP, Ganganagar. Despite these orders of the home minister, the Director General of Police re-requisitioned the case file and directed the deputy SP, Hanuman Garh police station, the location of the complaint, to conduct the inquiry. The apprehension is that this will enable local dominant caste influences to tamper with the evidence.

Moreover, an all out attempt to malign the local social activists and workers who are pursuing the case is also afoot. The local police have been bandying around statements allegedly obtained from Bhagwanti Devi and her parents making some false and baseless charges against social activists who are pursuing this case against all odds. The fact that the victim survivor and her hapless family, all from poor and marginalised sections have been forcibly kept by powerful persons, also accused in the case, is simply being overlooked.

The police is also avoiding the arrest of several remaining main accused including Shakti Punia, presumably because they are well-connected. Finally, the most critical issue today is that the chargesheet in this case is required to be filed in a court of law within the limitation period of 90 days and the deadline is due shortly. The failure of the police to file the same may result in the bailing out of all the accused who are in judicial custody.

Among the demands being made by the CDHR and to which solidarity from all human rights groups is sought are:

An inquiry into the allegedly partisan and illegal role of Jagdish Chander Bishnoi, the inquiry officer must be undertaken forthwith, before this suspect behaviour affects the outcome of the case
The arrest of the remaining accused persons from dominant castes and their prompt, day to day trial in a Court of law in accordance with provisions of IPC and SC ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 must be undertaken.
The statutory compensation of Rs.50,000/- to the victim (Norms of the relief amount as per Rule 12(4) S/C & S/T Rule 1995) and provision of legal aid and assistance for the conduct of the case in court must be undertaken
Adequate security must be provided to the victim and her family after rehabilitating her in her village and support provided for the conclusion of the case
The family and child welfare and social welfare department of the government should the directed to see that the victim and her parents/relatives are not harassed by accused persons or any other persons including elected representatives.

We urge all human rights groups and right thinking individuals to join the campaign to get this Dalit Minor Girl Justice.

P.L.Mimroth, Than Singh, Laxminarain, Kamlesh Yadav, Centre for Dalit Human Rights

sharad@jp1.dot.net.in

Archived from Communalism Combat, January-February 2002 Year 8 No. 75-76, Campaign 1

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