When women entered Sabarimala with devotee’s support, why is Sangh hell-bent on causing chaos, asks Kerala CM

January 3, 2019

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan addressed the media on Wednesday after two women entered Sabarimala temple and a hartal was called in the state by Sabarimala Karma Samithi and Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad.

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan addressed the media on Wednesday after two women entered Sabarimala temple and a hartal was called in the state.

The hartal, which began at 6 am, has been called by Sabarimala Karma Samithi and Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad (AHP). The BJP is supporting the shutdown while the Congress-led UDF is observing a “black day” on Thursday.

Blaming the Sangh for causing unrest to gain political points, the CM lashed out at them. “The decision to allow the entry of women into Sabarimala was pronounced by the Supreme Court. Based on that, arranging security for women was the responsibility of the government – it was a constitutional responsibility which the government fulfilled. But while the government took a stand, the Sangh Parivar has been consistently trying to make Sabarimala a spot of conflict. The government is trying to free Sabarimala from these kinds of conflicts,” the CM said.

Speaking about Bindu and Kanakadurga, the two women who entered the Sabarimala temple on Wednesday, the CM said, “We should note that they didn’t land in Sabarimala in a helicopter, but took the normal route that pilgrims do. They didn’t get any special consideration at the temple and had their darshan as other devotees do.”

Furthermore, he stressed that there was no protest from devotees.

“Other devotees provided them facilities, as the women have themselves said. The information about their darshan was made public after some time. But even hours after the information was released, there was no protest at all. It implies that there was no natural protest against them even from devotees,” he said.

He said the Sangh Parivar began creating tension and spreading chaos in a planned manner.

“Hence, what happened in the state was planned chaos. The cabinet also assessed the same (on Wednesday). The government can do nothing but strongly resist it. It won’t allow any kind of violence. It’s the fifth hartal the BJP is holding in the name of Sabarimala. The Sangh Parivar called for seven hartals in five months in related issues,” he added.

Lawyer Bindu and government employee Kanakadurga entered the Sabarimala temple in the early hours of Wednesday and offered their prayers – and were the first women to do so after the September 28 Supreme Court verdict that allowed women between the ages of 10 and 50 to enter the shrine. Following the entry of the two women, the temple was shut and ‘purification’ rituals were held.

Speaking about the Thantri’s decision to close the temple, the CM said, “The women went to the Sabarimala temple based on the SC verdict. We then witnessed something strange… the Thantri closing the temple. The court pronounced the judgement after hearing the Thantri’s version also. He was a party in the case. If he personally had difficulty in following the court judgement, he should have quit the post. It’s up to the Devaswom Board to decide on the temple’s affairs, so the Thantri’s act is a breach of the court’s judgement. The government is not stubborn that women should enter the temple, but was doing its best to arrange security for the women. It’s not a challenge against faith. We were acting as per the constitution.”

Reacting to claims that the government allowed the women to enter in the dark of the night, he said that it was their stand that women will be given police protection if they tried to enter. “The two women had come to visit the temple in the wee hours, hence they were allowed to enter at that time rather than asking them to wait. I didn’t know who these women were, only after the news came I realised that these were the women who climbed,” he said. He refuted allegations that it was a secret operation. “The government has no secret operations, everything is public,” he said.

He further said that the government would give protection to any more women who come desiring darshan. “The government will not step back an inch from providing security to women who may come to offer prayers. I am not a Chief Minister who is leading a movement to destroy faith. The government’s stand is to protect devotees,” he said.

The Supreme Court on Thursday refused an urgent hearing on Sabarimala temple issue. The apex court said it will take up the case on January 22 as scheduled. The petitioner sought initiation of contempt proceedings against the Sabarimala priest for purification of temple premises after two women entered the shrine.

Around 11 women tried to enter the temple before Bindu and Kanakadurga were successful.

Dalit families forced to stay in church after attack on Carol team

January 3, 2019

A group of men belonging to DYFI, allegedly in an inebriated state, had attacked the families while they were carolling for Christmas and molested women in the carol team, according to the victims.

Image Courtesy: https://www.theweek.in/

Kottayam: On 23 December, 25 people from Dalit families, including women, who were part of a carol team of St Paul’s Anglican Church at Pathamuttam, in Kerala’s Kottayam district, were reportedly attacked by the DYFI, the youth wing of ruling CPI(M). Ever since, the families have not left the church fearing for their lives.

According to reports, Chingavanam police arrested seven individuals in connection with the case including six DYFI workers. All those arrested were later granted bail. However, the family members allege that DYFI workers continue to threaten them and that they were forced to stay in the church.

A group of men belonging to DYFI, allegedly in an inebriated state, had attacked the families while they were carolling for Christmas and molested women in the carol team, according to the victims. The same night, church secretary Robin Johnson said, the gang vandalised the church and left several people injured.

He said that after the initial attack on the carol team, the group was camping at the church when the youths regrouped and reached the church at night. “They threw stones at women and children, leaving many of them injured. The gang vandalised the church, destroyed food prepared for the faithful and left only after the carol team raised alarm by chiming the bell,’’ Johnson said in a report by The Indian Express.

According to Johnson, the victims are daily labourers, and since the incident, none has gone for work. “They fear being attacked again. The assailants roam around the church premises and issue threats,” he alleged in the report.

“The frightened women and children hid behind the altar to escape from the rampaging youth. The violence was triggered when the youths who had joined the Carol team were questioned when they started flashing. The gang went berserk, damaging equipment at the church and targeting four nearby houses and two-wheelers and an autorickshaw. They also destroyed food and molested women carollers. A BTech student, Yamiya C. Thankachan, sustained serious injuries in stone pelting. The girl says she could not concentrate on her studies due to fear and that she was attacked by the assailants,” The Week reported.

“On Saturday evening, former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy visited the families and expressed his support. “The government must conduct an impartial enquiry into the issue and arrest all the accused. The family members are afraid to leave their homes,” said Chandy. The UDF district committee will also conduct a long march to Kottayam SP’s office on January 4. Meanwhile, opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala submitted a letter to Kerala DGP Loknath Beher, seeking immediate action against the DYFI workers involved,” TNM reported.

Quantifying the Holocaust: Measuring murder rates during the Nazi genocide

January 3, 2019

Even though the Holocaust is one of the best documented genocides in a historical sense, there is surprisingly little quantitative data available, even on major critical events.

A concentration camp in Poland. AkzuzkA/shutterstock.com

What’s more, this history is often told in figures too large to comprehend on the human scale. Large numbers – like the infamous 6 million people murdered – obscure the significance of key operations that shaped this genocide, leaving instead just a vague characterization of a massively devastating event.

In a digital age, mathematics, data science and visualization can help make sense of these events for new generations. By examining a rare and neglected dataset of human train deportations from the period, my study, published on Jan. 2, begins to uncover the true scale of slaughter.

Operation Reinhard

My work investigates a period in 1942, referred to as Operation Reinhard, when the Nazis efficiently shuttled about 1.7 million victims, often whole Jewish communities, across the European railway network in train carriages to Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor. Almost all of those who arrived at these death camps were murdered, usually within hours, in the gas chambers. Because the Nazis destroyed nearly all records of the massacre, it is important to try to uncover what actually happened at the time.

My study looks at the “kill rate,” or murders per day. This reveals a sudden massive slaughter after Hitler “ordered all action speeded up,” as one SS officer put it, on July 23, 1942. Approximately 1.5 million Jews were murdered in only 100 days, including in shootings outside the death camps, with nearly 500,000 victims killed each month during August, September and October. That’s approximately 15,000 murders every day.

The slaughter then soon terminated, as there were hardly any Jews remaining in the area to kill.

The full scope of this genocidal slaughter appears to be undocumented in history. Available information before this study was mostly reconstructed indirectly, partially conjectured, and usually given on an annual timescale, rather than daily or monthly. That meant completely missing the three-month slaughter.

My analysis was based on carefully compiled train records presented in a 1987 book by Holocaust historian Yitzhak Arad. Arad documents approximately 500 transportations from some 400 different Polish Jewish communities, recording for individual days the location, number of victims of each transportation and final death camp destination.

My analysis required carefully sorting and working with the dataset, as well as including other surviving data. In addition, I generated a spatio-temporal map and film of the data. These visualizations plotted the 400 communities on a map of Poland and indicated the time sequence of all deportations to the death camps over the whole year 1942.

While Operation Reinhard is considered the largest single murder campaign of the Holocaust, the extraordinary speed at which it operated to obliterate the Jewish people has been poorly estimated in the past and almost completely unknown to the general public. This massacre of unparalleled scale took place in just three short months, and was only captured through analysis of Arad’s dataset.

This minimal time indicates the enormous coordination involved by a state machinery responsive to the Fuhrer’s murderous will to eradicate a people. The train records show how zones were emptied of Jewish communities one by one in an organized manner and how intense kill rates were achieved in targeted areas that only slowed as victims ran out. My plots of the data highlight the pace and frenzy of this mass murder.

Measuring genocide

Despite more than 70 years of research into the Holocaust, this appears to be the first attempt to graph aggregated data of the genocide, chronologically and spatially. My data-driven approach captures Operation Reinhard in a different perspective to the volumes of historical reports.

Genocide scholars often compare rates of recent genocides to the rate at which the Nazi Holocaust occurred, treating the latter as a kind of benchmark for genocide severity. As such, currently many social scientists maintain that the Rwandan genocide was the most “intense genocide” of the 20th century, with a sustained period of murders occurring at a rate three to five times more rapid than the Holocaust.

However, my work shows that while the Rwanda massacre killings were 8,000 victims per day for a 100-day period, the Holocaust was nearly double this rate during a similar 100-day period in Operation Reinhard.

That suggests that Holocaust kill rate has been underestimated on an order of six to 10 times. In my view, these sorts of comparisons have limited usefulness, and clearly diminish the Holocaust’s historical standing.

The Holocaust stands out as a demonstration of how the efficient machinery of government was turned on people in an unparalleled way. It transcended in its ruthlessness and systemic efficiency. This is the key lesson of the Holocaust that I believe must not be forgotten.

Lewi Stone, Professor of Biomathematics, RMIT University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Dispatch from Palestine: A year in review

January 3, 2019

Looking back on this year, it is difficult to choose one moment, one tragedy, or one political decision that stands out among the rest. Palestinians witnessed a tumultuous year in 2018, as they saw hundreds killed from the West Bank to Gaza, their rights slowly stripped away inside Israel, and the heart of Palestinian identity, Jerusalem, pushed further out of reach.

Palestinian protesters react to tear gas during clashes with Israeli forces during the Great March of Return in the southern Gaza Strip on May 15, 2018. (Photo: Ashraf Amra/APA Images)

We have seen the Israeli occupation expand its reach through its growing settlement enterprise, increasing home demolitions, and extrajudicial killings of unarmed protesters, all with the full backing of the United States and relatively no accountability from the international community.

2018 marked 25 years since the Oslo Accords were signed, but a fair and just peace agreement for the Palestinians remains far out of reach — the dream of an independent Palestinian state even further.

The Palestinian Authority (PA), which was supposed to be a temporary government according to the accords, has developed into a despotic regime, focused more on quashing dissent and policing free speech than achieving liberation and statehood.

2018 also marked 70 years since the Nakba, the tragedy that has shaped the Palestinian issue for generations.

But as evidenced by the ongoing fight for the rights of refugees in Gaza’s Great March of Return, the fight against expulsion in places Silwan and Khan al-Ahmar, and the fight for equal rights as citizens in Israel, the Nakba, or “catastrophe”, of the Palestinian people did not end in 1948.

The impact of Trump

President Donald Trump talks with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jared Kushner in Jerusalem, May 22, 2017. (Photo: Kobi Gideon/GPO)

It goes without saying that perhaps that most defining moment of the year actually took place in late 2017, when President Donald Trump announced that the US would be recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The decision sparked widespread protests that lead to the arrest of hundreds of Palestinians and the injury of many more. Even after the initial protests died down, Trump’s Jerusalem decision has continued to be a feature of nearly every demonstration, big and small, across Palestine.

Over the course of the year, the Trump administration has relentlessly unleashed a series of political decisions aimed at harming the Palestinian people and forcing their leadership to the negotiating table.

From defunding UNRWA and USAID in the West Bank and Gaza, to moving the Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Trump’s decisions will have a lasting political impact on the region. The human impacts have already begun to be felt.

More than 60 Palestinians were gunned down by Israeli forces on the Gaza border on May 14th when they were protesting Trump’s decision to move the embassy.

Last week, a three-year old Palestinian refugee boy died waiting for treatment in a Lebanon hospital. Many have attributed his death to the UNRWA financial crisis, saying that the family could not afford to pay and that the hospital delayed the treatment because they were waiting for the insurance payment from UNRWA.

As time goes on, more than 5 million Palestinian refugees will feel the effects of UNRWA’s financial crisis in the form of job cuts, reduced healthcare coverage, and the shut down of primary schools across the region.

The existence of UNRWA is truly essential to the lives of Palestine’s most vulnerable communities. Living in the Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem, I have witnessed my neighbors skip doctor visits and unable to purchase necessary medications due to the fact that the current health care they receive UNRWA doesn’t cover all of their needs.

If the already lacking coverage is taken away from them, it is not out of the question that many more will suffer the fate of that young boy in Lebanon.

The UN has reported that despite a rise in humanitarian needs across the occupied Palestinian territory, funding levels for humanitarian interventions declined significantly: only US$221 million had been received, compared to the $540 million requested in the 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan.

Gaza & The Great March of Return

Much of this year’s coverage of news in Palestine has focused on the besieged Gaza Strip, which entered its 11th year under siege in 2018.

With every passing day, the situation in Gaza grows more and more dire. People see only a few hours of electricity a day, unemployment rates are at an all time high, and hospitals are closing their doors due to lack of medications.

In 2018, the UN reported that around 1.3 million people in Gaza, or 68 per cent of the population, were food insecure.

We have reported on a series of stories from the Gaza Strip this year, each one more distressing than the last.

We have seen children with cancer forced to travel alone to the West Bank for treatment without their parents, UNRWA employees set themselves on fire after losing their jobs, and the ever rising death toll from the Great March of Return.

On Saturday, one Palestinian was killed and six more were injured along the Israeli border fence.

UN documentation reported on December 28th that the death toll from Gaza’s Great March of Return stood at 180, and that over 23,000 people had been injured in the protests. Among the dead are journalists, medics, women, and children.

This year marked the highest death toll in a single year since the Israeli offensive on Gaza in 2014, and according to UNOCHA, the highest number of injuries recorded since the group began documenting casualties in the occupied Palestinian territory in 2005.

The Great March of Return has galvanized Palestinians from across the Gaza Strip to demand an end to the crippling Israeli siege.

The Great March of Return in Gaza, August 10, 2018 (Photo: Mohammed Asad)

Despite nine months of death and injuries, and no tangible wins for the protesters, the continued participation of Gazans in the march is evidence of the growing desperation in the coastal enclave.

With nowhere to go, no future for Gaza’s young people, and no medicine for the sick, the only remaining choice for many is to try as hard as they can to tear down the walls and fences surrounding them, knowing full well that death awaits them at the borders.

Growing discontent with PA

In the PA-controlled West Bank, there is a growing sense of discontentment with the government and its leaders, who continue to prioritize their consolidation of power and resources over the rights of the people.

The state of hopelessness and frustration among Palestinian citizens is on a steady rise, with polls showing that Palestinians ranked corruption as the second largest problem they face after the economic crisis – higher than the Israeli occupation, which ranked third.

Palestinian economic and social decline has led to higher rates of poverty and unemployment, with college graduates witnessing the highest rates of joblessness.

The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), once the most important official instruments of control and accountability for the government, has been dysfunctional for the past 11 years.

The PA’s executive authority and security apparatuses have continued to impose restrictions on media and journalists through the Cyber Crimes Law, blocking websites that publish dissenting voices, and detaining journalists and activists critical of Mahmoud Abbas and his regime.

Over the summer, PA forces violently suppressed youth-led protests that criticized the government’s policies in Gaza and its security coordination with Israel, which has been denounced as a “revolving door” policy funneling Palestinian activists from PA jails to Israeli prisons.

In the wake of a spate of attacks earlier this month allegedly orchestrated by Hamas, demonstrations erupted in support of the PA’s rival faction, and in condemnation of Israel’s punitive ongoing home demolitions, road closures, and massive arrest campaigns.

Video footage of the protests showed PA security forces using batons to beat demonstrators, many of them women.

Despite widespread public outcry and ongoing protests, the PA is moving forward with a controversial social security law which will see citizens that work in the private sector paying seven percent of their monthly salaries taxes to the Palestinian Social Security Corporation (PSCC), with no clauses exempting workers who receive minimum wage.

While the law claims workers will be able to apply for a retirement pension at age 60, it stipulates that widows, orphans, and the families of Palestinians killed by Israel will not be eligible to receive benefits.

Palestinians have voiced their opposition to the law, citing concerns that if subjected to monthly deductions, workers receiving already low wages will not be able to provide for their families or pay off hefty bank loans, which many Palestinians use to purchase homes, cars, etc.
The primary opposition to the law lies in the fact that many Palestinians do not trust the government to uphold its end of the deal, and that under the Israeli occupation and an increasingly unstable PA, there’s no guarantee they would ever see the benefits of their contributions.

Business as usual for the Israeli occupation

According to UN documentation, a total of 295 Palestinians were killed and over 29,000 were injured in 2018 by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza.

Over 459 Palestinian structures in the West Bank and East Jerusalem were demolished by Israeli forces, marking a slight increase from 2017. The demolitions resulted in the displacement of 472 Palestinians, including 216 children and 127 women.

In the wake of this month’s spate of attacks on Israeli settlers and soldiers, Israel has stepped up its efforts to demolish the homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out attacks on Israelis, a policy that has been widely criticized for years as collective punishment.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has doubled down on so-called “deterrence” efforts, instructing security officials to fast track punitive home demolitions, despite previous recommendations from an Israeli military committee that the practice did not deter attacks.

Last week, the Israeli Knesset passed the first reading of a bill to forcibly transfer families of Palestinians involved in attacks against Israelis, despite heavy opposition from intelligence and army officials.

If passed into law, it would see that within a week of an attack or attempted attack, the Israeli army would be permitted to expel the relatives of the Palestinian assailants from their hometowns to other areas of the West Bank.

Forcible transfer is considered a war crime under international law.

Since the election of Trump, the West Bank has witnessed a steep increase in the expansion of Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law.

In the 22 months before Trump was elected, 4,476 settlement housing units were approved, according to settlement watchdog Peace Now. But since his election, that figure has more than tripled to 13,987 housing units.

Earlier this week, Israel advanced plans for nearly 2,200 living units in 47 settlements.

Palestinians in the West Bank have also witnessed a frightening increase in settler attacks on them and their property, with settlers more emboldened than ever before.

In 2018, UNOCHA recorded 265 incidents where Israeli settlers killed or injured Palestinians or damaged their property, marking a 69 per cent increase from 2017.

One Palestinian woman, 48-year-old Aisha al-Rabi, a mother of eight, was killed in October when settlers attacked her family’s car with rocks as they were driving home in the Nablus district of the northern West Bank.
Some 7,900 trees and 540 vehicles were damaged or completely destroyed in settler attacks, the UN reported.

The Palestinians that shook 2018

Amid all the devastation of 2018, several Palestinian faces have emerged from the darkness to offer a sense of hope, inspiration, and resilience for their people.

The following men, women, and children have been iconicized through social media for their roles in combating the Israeli occupation and bringing the plight of the Palestinian people to the international stage.

Ahed Tamimi

16-year-old Ahed Tamimi in Israeli military court (Photo: Tali Shapiro/Twitter)

Ahed Tamimi was propelled on to the international stage when she was arrested by Israeli forces in December 2017 after she slapped an Israeli soldier during a raid on her hometown of Nabi Saleh.

As she severed out an 8-month sentence in Israeli prison, she shed a new light on the issue of Palestinian child prisoners and the struggles of Palestinian youth under occupation.

By the time she was released, she had reached star status in Palestine and beyond, and has remained outspoken in her criticism of the Israeli occupation, travelling the world raising awareness about the Palestinian cause.

Yasser Murtaja & Razan al-Najjar

Razan al-Najjar, photo shared by the al-Najjar family.

Yasser Murtaja, portrait from his Facebook page.

During the Great March of Return, Israeli forces shot and killed Palestinian journalist Yasser Murtaja and medic Razan al-Najjar, drawing outrage from the Palestinian and international community.

Their deaths highlighted Israel’s widely criticized open-fire policy along the Gaza border, and the ongoing killing of unarmed civilians.

The funerals of both Murtaja and al-Najjar drew thousands of mourners, and their status as heroes of the Great March of Return has been memorialized on Palestinian social media.

The Bedouins of Khan al-Ahmar

Ibrahim Khamees, a member of the Khan al-Ahmar village council, watches as armed Israeli forces guard a bulldozer that razed lands on Wednesday to create a pathway for Israeli forces to use in the imminent demolition of the village (Photo: Akram al-Wara)

As the battle to save their village came to a head this year, the bedouins of Khan al-Ahmar remained steadfast in their nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation’s efforts to expel them from their lands.

Through grassroots efforts, the people of Khan al-Ahmar galvanized international support for their struggle, resulting in the indefinite postponement of the village’s demolition.

Rashida Tlaib

On their way to Congress: Palestinian-American Rashida Tlaib (left) of Michigan, and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. Omar is the first Somali-American legislator elected to office in the United States. (Photo: Twitter/Rashida Tlaib)

Democrat Rashida Tlaib of Michigan’s 13th Congressional District made headlines across the US and the world as one of the first Muslim-American women to be elected to Congress, and the first ever Palestinian-American woman to do so.

In Palestine, Tlaib’s win was a form of poetic justice: the descendant of Palestinians from a small occupied West Bank village would now be serving in one of the highest levels of US government.

Since her election, Tlaib has been outspoken in her defense of the BDS movement, and has even announced that she will be leading a delegation of her colleagues to Palestine, as an alternative to AIPAC’s annual Israel trip for new members of congress.

Looking forward

As we enter the New Year, there is little reason for optimism in Palestine.

The Israeli occupation continues to tighten its grip with the help of the US, and the prospect of any reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas and free democratic elections in Palestine are virtually nonexistent.

Palestinians in the West Bank continue to see their family members cycled through the Israeli prison system, with 5,554 Palestinians in prison as of November.

The current security situation in the West Bank has created a climate in which Palestinians are scared to drive their cars between cities, fearful that a settler attack or wrong move at a checkpoint could spell their death.

In East Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees are bracing for the worst as Israel moves forward with its plans to shut down UNRWA’s operations in the city.

In Gaza, the Great March of Return pushes on into its 10th month, and an end to the Israeli and Egyptian siege is nowhere in sight.

The Trump administration continues to tout its “deal of the century,” which many Palestinians anticipate will attempt to erase any Palestinian claims to Jerusalem, and force them to once again compromise their rights for the sake of Israel and the settlers.

The political future of Palestine is as uncertain as ever, and 2019 will likely see a further deterioration of the humanitarian situation here.

This year, we have interviewed hundreds of Palestinians from the borderlines in Gaza to refugee camps of Bethlehem. Countless people have have opened up their homes to Mondoweiss, to tell us, and show us, the reality of their existence under occupation.

Time and time again, we have asked people what their message is to the world, and to the Israeli government. And time and time again, there is one common theme to every person’s answer: sumud, or steadfastness.

Courtesy: https://mondoweiss.net/

Opinion: Does the wall of resistance smash Brahmanical patriarchy or encourage it?

January 3, 2019

Why should people go and enter temples which deny them entry when we know that these temples are a den of casteism, corruption and ignorance. It is suggesting that women can’t live without religion. When centuries back Periyar, Ambedkar, Phule and even Bhagat Singh suggested that the Brahmanical value system in India is nothing but absolute denial of human rights for Dalits, shudras as well as women, where was the need to justify the temple entry?

A Six Hundred Twenty Kilometer long human chain was formed on January 1 in Kerala against the attempt to communalise the environment in the state, particularly related to the issues of Sabarimala which the Hindu organisations have been violently protesting, especially after the Supreme Court order allowing women to enter the temple. That even after 70 years of our independence, women, Dalits and others have to struggle and fight to enter temples is a shame to say the least. What is more atrocious is the defence of those who justify it in the name of traditions. Women from diverse sections stood up hand in hand and created history, as claimed by many, against the divisive politics of the Sangh Parivar.

“The sanctum sanctorum of the Sabarimala temple was closed on Wednesday just hours after two women below the age of 50 entered the shrine. It was shut to carry out ‘purification’ rituals. According to reports, the sanctum sanctorum was closed around 10.30 am as opposed to 1 pm, when it is usually shut. Following an hour-long ‘purification’ ritual, the sanctum sanctorum was reopened just before 11.30 am”, The News Minute reported.

This is despicable and yet the priests have no shame. More shameful for those who call themselves ‘political’, talk of gender justice and yet don’t want women to enter. It also proves a valid point that one should expect too much ‘revolution’ from political parties. Social movements have to continue to put pressure for social changes as Periyar influenced Tamil socio-political life by deeply analyzing and exposing the wrongs of the Brahmanical system and at the same time, giving a decent humanist alternative to the people.

Now, Kerala government is saying that the priests of Sabarimala temple have committed contempt of the court while the Congress Party, as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party, have called for a state-wide protest against the entry of two women. The state is now clearly divided between two political groups, with Congress and BJP defending the tradition while the left front taking the lead for ‘progressive’ people. Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday told an interviewer that the Sabarimala issue is that of traditions. He went on to suggest that there are many temples where men are not allowed and we must respect that. Definitely, he forgot to mention that a huge number of temples do not allow Dalits to enter them but then there were movements against them.

Temple entry movements in India have been a source for mobilisation and building political movements. Despite all these temple entry movements, the country has not moved much in terms of respect for women and those discriminated on the caste identity basis. Swami Agnivesh fought for Dalits entry in Rajasthan’s famous Nathdwara temple in 1988 and got international acclaim for the same, yet even today Dalits entry into those temples is resisted. We had seen many other temples where the entry of Dalits is absolutely prohibited. Many stories have already emerged on Indian TV but nothing like Kerala.

Last year women activists fought for the women’s right to worship in Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai and were successful, but this is a fact that most such Dargahs don’t allow women inside their sanctum-sanctorum. Immediately after the Tsunami, I had travelled to Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and at one of the most revered Sufi shrines in Nagaur near Nagapattinam in Tamilnadu, I found that women were not allowed inside the sanctum sanctorum and when the Muttawali or priest allowed me inside the Dargah during the prayers, he proudly informed me how ‘secular’ the Dargah was as it has symbols of all the religious inside it. Suddenly, when he was giving the ‘prasadam,’ I asked why are women not allowed then he responded that they are ‘dirty’ because of the menses. This was a shocking answer for me but then this is a common thread among all the major religions of the world where women have been denied equality.

Temple entry movement never helped the Dalits. They can never challenge the Brahmanical patriarchy because these women actually ultimately want to be the part of Brahmanical patriarchy. If the women have to fight against patriarchy or Brahmanical patriarchy in particular, then, the only option for them is to revolt against all forms of Brahmanical traditions. It won’t be possible as religion or caste are much bigger identity markers than gender. Most of the women feel much comfortable sitting and chatting with their caste fellows than the woman from another community. Of course, they may fight some issues but at the end of the day, religion and caste are bigger identities and uniting factors for all in our part of the world.

The real challenge to Brahmanism came from two big movements for temple entry and both gave big lessons to two biggest revolutionaries of India. The first one was the Satyagraha launched by Baba Saheb Ambedkar and Dada Saheb Gaikwad for the entry of Dalits in the famous Kalaram temple of Nasik on March 2nd, 1930. The movement was resisted by the Savarnas and stones were thrones at the Satyagrahis. Baba Saheb Ambedkar was not the one who would have loved to enter temple to make people more religious but he was more interested to organize the vast untouchable communities under one umbrella, who he called Protestant Hindus but the way the Brahmans and other Hindus opposed their entry into the temple, Baba Saheb was forced to say that though I was born a Hindu, I would not die a Hindu. This was a big call and decision of his life which changed everything and defined the Dalit movement in India.

We all know the historical wrong of the Travancore State against the Dalit Bahujan people. The Dalit women were never allowed to cover their breasts. There were many roads where the Dalits were not allowed to walk. Temples were closed for them. Congress launched a movement against it but it never succeeded though it made Gandhi and Gandhian heroes ultimately neither caste disappeared nor the entry of Dalits became possible. Periyar saw the hypocrisy of the Congress party leaders and resigned from the party. This actually resulted in his launching massive movement against Brahmanism and later forming his own Justice Party.

Both Baba Saheb Ambedkar and Thanthai Periyar fought against Brahmanical patriarchy and punctured their arguments by exposing them. They provided an alternative to people too. Why should people go and enter temples which deny them entry when we know that these temples are a den of casteism, corruption and ignorance. Baba Saheb might have said these words about our villages and the prevailing caste system there but it can also be said about our temples.

Today is the 128th birth anniversary of legendary Savitri Bai Phule, a Bahujan woman who dedicated her life for the betterment of women from all communities. She gave them education, opened schools for the widows and talked about their rights. The big heritage of Bahujan movement right from Jyoti Ba Phule, Savitri Bai Phule to Baba Saheb Ambedkar and Thanthai Periyar, was about leaving the Brahmanical slavery and embracing a new way of life which was more humane. They all spoke against superstitions, priesthood and caste supremacy of the Brahmins. When I see the huge wall of women which is being claimed as a ‘revolutionary’ step, I wonder how many of these women would join hands when a Chitralekha is boycotted, a Kausalya is helpless when her husband, who happened to be a Dalit, is killed in the broad-daylight in Coimbatore and does not find friends to support her, or Sanjali who was burnt by the goons while returning from her school.

We appreciate women rejecting the Sangh Parivar’s attempt to control and dictate terms and conditions over the Sabarimala issue and they have the right to fight and reform their religion. But the fact is, religions are man-made and unchangeable. The second danger is the attempt to portray ‘unity’ despite the fact the socially we are an absolutely divided society whether it is Kerala, Tamil Nadu or Uttar Pradesh, Bihar where caste plays important role in our identification or association with groups and movements.

Feminists are overjoyed but Sabarimala is not a defeat of Brahmanism but establishing it further. It is suggesting that women can’t live without religion. When centuries back Periyar, Ambedkar, Phule and even Bhagat Singh suggested that the Brahmanical value system in India is nothing but absolute denial of human rights for Dalits, shudras as well as women, where was the need to justify the temple entry? We have seen how temple entry become an event and after some time things went back to ‘normal’. As I said, I defend Hindu women’s right to enter the sanctum-sanctorum of the temple but definitely, it is not as revolutionary as being projected.

The revolutionary thing would have been to ask women that there is no God and even if he is inside the temples, he remains powerless, it is people who play power politics with these Gods. Gods and their chamchas have harmed the world, the most. It is time to call their bluff. Investing a huge amount of money to ‘protect’ these temples or other religious places is a waste. These dramas are a waste of energy. It is a well-laid trap by the dominant elite to keep the people subjugated and deny them any space to think about this.

A big human chain for temple entry is no revolution. I would love to see Kerala and Tamil Nadu, two enlightened states to make a big human chain against caste discrimination and untouchability. Let the people speak up against all forms of discrimination and pledge to dismantle hierarchical caste structures and that is only possible once we challenge the concept of God who is created by different religious elites to subjugate people. If Periyar could throw an open challenge in the 20th century and when Ambedkar burnt Manusmriti or said that he won’t die as a Hindu, when Galileo could do it in the Christian world or some others in the Islamic world, why is it so that the people who are not religious are pushing their entry to these temples. It is time for us to keep the religion inside the personal domain of the people. If religion and its value system take our precious time in discussion and orientation, I am sure, we would not have anything else to do except to engage daily on the idiocies created by them.

Religions world over never gave any freedom to women. In fact, most of them punished women and made them second-grade citizens and I am saying it for all religions. Religions segregated people and here the time has now come in the 21st century to make these religions redundant and embrace enlightenment. Religious values will chain you in mental slavery and breaking away from it will give you the freedom to enjoy the modern values of life. If you feel that women are ‘dirty’ because they menstruate then religious values are for you. If you believe that all human beings are equal and have minds of their own and can make their own decisions, then religion is not for you. It is up to you to decide whether you want to choose slavery or enlightenment. The choice is yours.

The Triumph of Streevaashi! Women break the wall of caste at Sabarimala

January 3, 2019

Out of the dark, seemingly never-ending night, a streak of light! Two women of menstruating ages, Bindu and Kanakdurga, finally entered Sabarimala, breaking the concerted walls built against them by brahmanical-Hindutva male authorities on the right and left.

The past months have been times of terrible despair for all , with women who attempted the pilgrimage being turned back again and again, hounded and harassed by both the police and the brahmanical hindu patriarchs of the left and the right alike. Rehana Fatima was arrested for hurting ‘religious sentiments’ for the flimsiest reasons, thrown in jail, denied bail, defamed mercilessly online by both the CPM cyber warriors and the BJY thugs, her home attacked, her relatives humiliated, and subjected to discrimination at her workplace. Bindu Thankam Kalyani, Libi, Manju, and others underwent similar horrors; women of the organization Manithi now face an NIA investigation apparently. Trupthi Desai could not even come out of the Kochi airport.

These two brave women were perhaps more adamant that their sisters. They refused to be cowed down by the mob frenzy; they refused the counsel of the police to return and refused rumours of being ill and hospitalized. Meanwhile, they were also under massive pressure from the right and also from parts of the left, to not disturb the “peace” at Sabarimala.

Clearly, they planned well. The build-up to the CPM-sponsored ‘women’s wall’ was the perfect cover, since the completely irresponsible mass media and the right wing were busy trying to either celebrate it or find holes in it. The women trekked at the dead of night, accompanied by police in mufti, and entered the temple to worship.

For feminists with a sense of history, this moment is hard to describe. For me, it is akin to the success of the resistance of the Channar women to Nair supremacy in south Travancore in the 19th century. Despite horrendous violence by the Nairs against the lower-caste Channar women wearing the upper-cloth, a symbol of caste eminence, women doggedly wore it again and again when they went out. They were attacked repeatedly, brutalized, their homes violated, relatives injured — but they persisted, for almost four long decades. They refused to be satisfied by the demands of respectability which would have been fulfilled by merely wearing a blouse — they were determined to win for themselves the symbol of caste eminence.

The despair was such that even their friends, the missionaries, found them too stubborn. “Stree-vaashi“, said Rev. Mead, and he called it the root of “unnecessary provocation”. Stree-vaashi is a concept we need to acknowledge in Indian feminism, the contribution of subaltern women’s challenge to the brahmanical caste order. It could be translated as ‘she-intent’ in English — the kind of inner empowerment that leads women to perform critical acts, rather than just be part of critical mass, and to perform them doggedly, ignoring all sorts of patriarchal violence and advice, until the power gives way.

I proudly claim it to be the legacy of Kerala’s social awakening that predates the consolidation of modern patriarchy since the late 19th century under the leadership of the newly-educated elite that formed the core of the emergent modern caste-communities. It is stree-vaashi that these patriarchs sought to contain, re-channel, and remould in the so-called ‘Renaissance’, with only unintended consequences denting the patriarchal fortress.

Indeed, such determined resistance was always controlled by male authorities, and we saw that happen all over again in the planning of and run-up to the ‘Women’s Wall’ organized by the CPM. Indeed, one despaired — the way the women who attempted the pilgrimage were punished precisely by a government that has used women’s empowerment (in however watered-down a way) to project itself as ‘left’ was appalling. It seemed that the brahmanical-Nair elements in CPM were determined this time, not to remould streevaashi but to actually stamp it out of existence even as tame compliance to spectacle-building plans laid out by CPM and community-patriarchs was being heavily rewarded. Those of us who were ardently on the Kerala Chief Minister’s side were shocked and saddened but perhaps not surprised, given that the will to control stree-vaashi is a historical inheritance of all kinds of patriarchy in Kerala.

It is important not to play down the bravery of these women; the Hindutva thugs are already enraged beyond belief and the lives of these women are probably in danger. The fact that the police did accompany them does not reduce their heroism; that they persisted despite all odds is what matters. They could have well-waited for the effects of the Woman’s Wall as show of strength to have sunk in, but they chose to use the moment well. The police did help them and the government has not yet abandoned them (the great relief is that the arch-Hindu bigots in the CPM, Kadakampally Surendran and Padma Kumar probably did not get to know) — but the support of the government is NOT a favour, it is a right, and it should have been delivered long back. And it is quite undeniable that this could have been done earlier.

I do not take seriously any account that delivers all the credit for this to the police and the Kerala government. No way — the situation at Sabarimala was hugely exaggerated mainly to placate the savarna elements in the CPM and the traditionalists among the avarna caste-community leadership. The Kerala police could well have dealt strongly with the trouble-makers at the temple premises, and their leaders — who, thanks to the laxity of the police and the silent sanction of savarna CPM patriarchs, appeared there again and again to lead the thugs. The police could have well done exactly what they did to the women who were suspected to be planning a pilgrimage — they could have called in local RSS elements and especially the parents of the young men and teenagers despatched there by the Sangh and educated them on the gravity of the crime and its legal consequences. Instead, they chose to terrorize and defame the women. The government could have admitted its difficulties in less misogynist ways, but instead chose to admit it indirectly, and through assembling on the roads the simulated critical mass of women under the command and supervision of the patriarchs. In sum, the police , the CPM, and the government, could have acted in less misogynistic ways.

What is truly interesting is that once again, it seems that critical mass-making has anti-patriarchal effects that are unintended! The CPM’s Woman Wall drew away the attention of the terribly irresponsible mass media and the right wing, providing a small window of time for the two women to attempt entry. Indeed, the social, cultural, and political mainstream in Kerala is so used to the idea that only critical mass matters, that they do not even anticipate critical acts!

We have of course to brace for the reaction. Right now, the ‘purity rituals’ undertaken by the brahmin priest at Sabarimala only confirm the observation of the Supreme Court, that the denial of entry to women of menstruating ages to the temple is a form of pollution — that is, a manifestation of untouchability — and so it must be removed.

We will deal with that later. For now, we dance in joy.

Courtesy: Kafila.online

Another man attacked by a mob in Alwar on suspicion of cow smuggling

January 3, 2019

Sagir Khan, 23 years old, was attacked by a mob when he was taking 6 cattle in a van through Alwar village to Haryana on December 30 2018. The villagers suspected cow smuggling and beat up Sagir Khan before the police intervened and took his to Kishangarhbaas hospital for treatment.

And Khan did not have papers on him to prove that he had purchased the cattle and was legally taking them across to Haryana and therefore was arrested. The other two persons accompanying Sagir managed to escape.

The Police have sent the cows to a cow shelter and took his pick-up van in their custody. They have registered a case against the 5 villagers who had attacked Sagir Khan. Investigation is said to be under way.

Alwar is the same place where 5 months ago Abkar Khan was lynched on the suspicion of cow smuggling.

Courtesy: Two Circles

View from Dhaka: Women in the political process

January 3, 2019

The electoral field may now be getting more gender balanced, and that is a good sign for the future

Photo: BIGSTOCK

It is good to see a total of 22 women poised to take their oaths as lawmakers in the 11th parliament — the highest number of female lawmakers ever.

Women in the workforce are currently contributing to about 34% of our total GDP growth, which is no small matter considering that women make up about 29% of the total labour force.

There is no reason for parliamentary participation of women to lag behind, and this year we have seen better numbers than past years, although the number of women in parliament is still small relative to the number of men.

Historically, our political culture has always been tipped in favour of men, and money and political muscle have usually taken precedence over competence; as a result, women have not gotten a fair chance.

The electoral field may now be getting more gender balanced, and that is a good sign for the future.

This year, prominent faces include Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, JaPa leader Rowshan Ershad, and Deputy Leader of the House Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury.

Less prominent politicians and newcomers face a tougher battle, and although there are quotas in place for women in politics, most parties tend to bypass any such rules by putting women in minor posts.

As Bangladesh moves forward, the country needs gender equality in all sectors, and with women making major contributions in every field conceivable, there is no reason their numbers should lag behind in the political process.

Courtesy: Dhaka Tribune

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When women entered Sabarimala with devotee’s support, why is Sangh hell-bent on causing chaos, asks Kerala CM

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan addressed the media on Wednesday after two women entered Sabarimala temple and a hartal was called in the state by Sabarimala Karma Samithi and Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad.

Dalit families forced to stay in church after attack on Carol team

A group of men belonging to DYFI, allegedly in an inebriated state, had attacked the families while they were carolling for Christmas and molested women in the carol team, according to the victims.

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The Triumph of Streevaashi! Women break the wall of caste at Sabarimala

Another man attacked by a mob in Alwar on suspicion of cow smuggling

View from Dhaka: Women in the political process

The electoral field may now be getting more gender balanced, and that is a good sign for the future

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