Cut-throat competition distorts democracy in India

April 10, 2018

So, what is the right measure of passion in politics that is good for the health of democracy? There has to be a right balance.

Commenting on democracy in Great Britain, a north European journalist attributed its ills to “too much competition”. His own country is accustomed to a much gentler version of the democratic order.

If he were to come to New Delhi and read just a day’s newspapers, he would find that in the case of India, his diagnosis is confirmed. Cut-throat competition afflicts democracy in India. Global warming is tracked by instruments but there are no instruments to measure the rise in sectarian hatred recorded by newspaper headlines. One such front-page headline may be sampled here: “As communal heat rises, BJP allies in Bihar rally together”. The same daily carries as many as ten reports related to sectarian animosity and violence.

Growing mental pollution causes this upsurge in violence. The poison of bigotry being injected into society can be felt and talked about but not measured by an electronic sensor. The seamy side of Indian politics has been highlighted for some time but earlier the main instruments were money and muscle power. The marginalisation of a religious minority and consolidation of the Hindu votes through sectarian incitement are recent developments. Some of the latest polls have proved that polarisation pays.

The word “communal” in Indian English is used as a substitute for “sectarian”. What has triggered the current wave of communal violence? In most cases, the spark is provided not by religious fundamentalists but by political activists whose leaders understand the power of religious passion and fault-lines of society. The poison of bigotry being injected into society can be felt and talked about but not measured by an electronic sensor.

They call themselves Hindu nationalists. They have become overactive on seeing that votes can be won by polarisation of communities based on religion and castes. The voters, fired by baser emotions, can be driven to the polling booths easily. In a surcharged atmosphere, a gentleman-politician is overwhelmed by a street-smart man who outshouts him. The former species will be extinct one day.

The formula for winning elections has been standardised. Create resentment and anger against the political rival. Intensify religious hatred, promote inter-caste rivalry and attack the secularists ruthlessly. Tap the voters’ feelings and promise the moon. Administer the right mixture of fear of the other and hope for the future. That populism and fake nationalism damage the nation is not the concern of the victorious candidate.

In such an atmosphere, Indian democracy faces multiple threats, though mercifully none from any rogue General. However, internal subversion by an elected leader is subtle and equally lethal. Democracy can easily be hijacked by an actor-politician, a second-hand car salesman or a seller of snake oil. Anyone with the power to mesmerise the audience.

Democracy is turned into a sound-and-light spectacle featuring a 3-D Hologrammed leader. The leader delivers his line with great effect. He knows all about light and camera angle. He chooses carefully the colour and style of his dress for the day’s role. Democracy led in this fashion retains its name but loses its true spirit. Significantly, newspapers publish elections-related news under such telling banners as The Carnival of Democracy. No newspaper in Britain uses this banner.

Lovers of democracy lament that every election campaign report uses the word “hawa” (wind) to signify the political atmosphere created, not as a result of the deeds or the misdeeds of the outgoing government, but by the rhetoric used and bogus promises made by the leaders. Then there is another set way of describing the election-eve atmosphere. The word used is “wave”. The biggest democracy turns into a mighty ocean and the candidate who generates a mighty wave by the gift of the gab is swept to power.

Offence given, taken and sucked away

In India, a community can feel hurt by a word or an image. Politicians can afford to ignore the basic needs of the electorate but dare not ignore the sensitivities of the dominant communities. Offence is given and taken very easily. The book lovers complaining of the writers not writing about “feelings” should know that feelings have been sucked away by politics!

If feelings rather than a dispassionate analysis influence the voting behaviour, consolidation of votes through inculcating hatred for and fear of ‘the other’ pays political dividends. In a cut-throat competition for winning political power, no holds are barred. More and more street-smart boys and criminals get into politics which starts losing traditional, dignified public-spirited leaders.

Social media makes it easier to create a favourable political atmosphere by rousing baser emotions. The task of poll strategists is merely technical like that of those who generate clouds on a film set and create a dream sequence or a nightmare on screen. The voters get impressed by the performance of the leader descending on the stage or talking to them from remote locations and forget his dismal performance in office. The future of democracy in a virtually real world is another topic. In India, a community can feel hurt by a word or an image. Politicians can afford to ignore the basic needs of the electorate but dare not ignore the sensitivities of the dominant communities.

A tough competitor in the political arena knows that feelings are bankable and that defines the poll strategist’s task. He has to incite the mob frenzy that characterises developing countries. V. S. Naipaul has written about it in his books referring to Africa. India is ripe for a fresh visit by Naipaul as he can witness another version of the million mutinies that he observed the last time. As in Africa, so in India. Naipaul will see celebrations by violent mobs. He will be amused by the elected municipal councillors installing their name plates on public facilities and renaming roads.

Naipaul will witness a nation in a temper. Long before America voted for Trump, British journalist Gavin Esler went there and discovered the United States of Anger (USA) and wrote a book with that title. Today, an illiterate maid in New Delhi, who has not heard of that book, says that there is krodh (anger) all around. She is worried as to how long the people like her or the daily wage-earners will be able to go out to work in safety.

A failure of intent

Anyone writing about “intolerance” and the spurt in sectarian hatred and violence has to face “whataboutry” from the Prime Minister’s devotees. What about the riots of such and such year, is their counter question. Yes, India was never free of sectarian violence but there is a qualitative difference between the past and the present.

The sporadic incidents in the past were not always politically motivated and, in most cases, the state and the district administration distinguished between the victim and the accused. The civil servants failed at times because of incompetence but did not turn a blind eye knowing that the political leadership would discreetly approve of it. Now an impression has gone around that the ruling party is determined to marginalise a community. The failure to control violence and enforce law and order is one thing but the failure of intent is another.

This has encouraged the closet communalists in the bureaucracy, police and even judiciary to be less cautious. The ruling party leaders freely make inflammatory speeches, the like of which would have ended their political career in another democratic country.

Till the demolition of the mosque in Ayodhya, one never heard insensitive sectarian statements in the so-called elite or refined or cultural families. That has changed. This is the difference between the past and the present of a secular India.

All these years, those trying to harness Hinduism for political benefit faced resistance not just from the liberal secular Hindus but also from the staunch believers who remain committed to their faith’s inherent pluralism and inclusiveness, extending even to the atheists within its fold.

Diversity hatred and ‘Hindu Pakistan’

This diversity is hated by a rising political force trying to inject the foreign ideology of Fascism into an indigenous faith. It is determined to monopolise power by establishing the primacy of one single Hindu God – Lord Rama. This chosen God comes into the picture in the reports of many incidents of politically inspired inter-religious violence.

The condemnation by the liberals no longer frightens the sectarian forces. But what they are up against is a faith tradition having millions of theologically approved Gods. Thus, forcing homogeneity and uniformity on Hindus is going to be a difficult project.

This sectarian agenda has no theological basis. It involves no official plan to “reform” Hinduism. If anything, the party activists try to enforce some medieval customs in order to “purify” the faith tempered with modernity over the years. A top item in this agenda that mobilises many believers is reclamation of the temples demolished by the foreign invaders belonging to a different religion.

The current political confrontation has been given a religious dimension but essentially it is a political project designed to assert the supremacy of Hindus in a nation that establishes its new identity in the world. Those who have generated this cut-throat political competition are not religious scholars. In fact, they have little understanding of the Vedic literature or of the classical language associated with their faith. The spirit of argumentation that marks this faith tradition is foreign to them. The long-cherished project of the mentor of the ruling party is eventually to establish a powerful Hindu nation.

The top leadership of the ruling party is not into politics for pelf or for power for the sake of power or for public service. It has a single-point agenda. The long-cherished project of the mentor of the ruling party is eventually to establish a powerful Hindu nation. Fired by messianic zeal, the party leaders are perennially focused on electoral strategies, ignoring governance and the citizens’ problems. For the first time in the history of independent India, this party has gained unrestricted political power and influence and it does not want to let go of this opportunity. It is keen to move faster towards its goal of establishing what its critics call a “Hindu Pakistan”.

The Government has got away with this till now, despite its failure to fulfil Modi’s election-eve promises, because of its power of patronage and the Prime Minister’s charisma. Both are being used by the “cultural” organisation that holds the real power derived from its extensive network of volunteers.
But now voices are being heard against the politicians for being obsessed with the Hindu-Muslim debate and ignoring the issues of public health, education, malnutrition, safety and transport.

The constant public discourse on the Hindu-Muslim issue and embedded media’s focus on it are bringing democracy into disrepute. Politicians are being ridiculed and condemned more and more. “Plague on both your houses” is a slogan that has been heard. The Prime Minister’s devotees attack anyone criticising their beloved leader. One devotee took to social media to seriously suggest that Modi should impose a dictatorship to teach his critics a lesson!

Full-time politicians

While the ruling party’s Hindutva agenda is mainly responsible for queering the pitch, some other factors also intensify competition in Indian politics. Far too many politicians are full-time politicians. They know no other way of leading a life. Many are into politics for making money. Some lack the qualifications to get any job and possess no skills to earn in any other line of business. So, winning an election at any cost becomes essential for them.

Thanks to the declining faith in the police and judiciary and the administration’s failure to provide civic amenities, more and more people are joining politics in order to secure the necessary clout to get the administration to do their work or to secure the safety of their families. They use political power to safeguard the interests of their relations, friends and supporters. They use political power to safeguard the interests of their relations, friends and supporters.

More ambitious corrupt politicians use political power to promote the interests of their rich friends in the corporate world. Some business leaders and media moguls do not spend money on sponsoring other politicians and join politics to directly benefit their business.

The cut-throat political competition for gaining power exacerbates religious animosities and widens social fault lines. However, it may be argued that such intense competition at least proves that democracy is alive and kicking. The people are willing to kill or die during a heated poll campaign for a leader they love!

Here is a dilemma. Suppose the voters turn indifferent and spend the polling day holiday decorating their homes instead of taking the trouble of going to cast their vote. That kind of mass indifference to exercising one’s right will also enfeeble democracy.

So, what is the right measure of passion in politics that is good for the health of democracy? There has to be a right balance. It will depend not on the regulatory authorities or election laws but on the wisdom of the leaders and on the proverbial common man.

L K Sharma has followed no profession other than journalism for more than four decades, covering criminals and prime ministers. Was the European Correspondent of The Times of India based in London for a decade. Reported for five years from Washington as the Foreign Editor of the Deccan Herald. Edited three volumes on innovations in India. He has completed a work of creative nonfiction on V. S. Naipaul.

Courtesy: https://www.opendemocracy.net

Mormonism’s newest apostles reflect growing global reach

April 10, 2018

At its annual General Conference held from March 31 to April 1, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly known as the Mormons), announced two new members of its second highest governing body, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: Gerrit Gong, the son of Chinese immigrants to the United States, and Ulisses Soares, a native Brazilian.

People attend the General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on March 31, 2018, in Salt Lake City. AP Photo/Rick Bowmer

These two men are the first non-white apostles in the church’s history. From my perspective as a scholar of American religion and Mormonism, these developments illustrate Mormonism’s transformation into a diverse, global faith.

The Mormon apostles

At its highest levels the Mormon church is run by fifteen leaders: a First Presidency, made up of the president of the church and his two counselors, and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who work immediately under the president. All serve for life.

Apostles have always been chosen by the president of the church, and in turn the president of the church is the longest serving of the apostles.

Mormons had great missionary success in Europe in the 19th century and consequently the church has had a number of non-Americans in these offices before. But there have never been non-European or non-white American men in these posts until now.

President Russell M. Nelson. AP Photo/Rick Bowmer

This is due to a number of reasons. One is that life tenure means that any sort of change in high church leadership happens slowly. Russell Nelson, a white man from Utah, the current president of the church, became an apostle in 1984. His predecessor, who died in January, became an apostle in 1963. The current apostles range in age from 58 to 89.

Another reason for a lack of diversity in church leadership is that Mormonism’s growth outside the white communities of the United States and Europe was for a long time sporadic. Until 1978, the church did not allow black members to hold priesthood or worship in temples, rites required for priestly leadership in the church.

In addition, though the church’s growth in Latin America has been rapid, it has traditionally adhered to American cultural norms, which has meant that historically it has struggled to retain members in Latin America and Africa. For instance, Mormons expect that men will wear dress shirts and ties and women will wear dresses to Sunday services. The official Mormon hymnbook too is filled with 19th-century American hymns. Hymnals produced for non-English speaking countries consist of translations of those songs into local languages. They contain only a small number of local songs.

Presence in China

However, the selection of Gong and Soares is an indication that the church has begun to take seriously the task of growing outside the United States.

Ulisses Soares, left, of Brazil, and Gerrit W. Gong, a Chinese-American. AP Photo/Rick Bowmer

Because of its massive missionary efforts, there are now roughly 16 million Mormons in the world, and a healthy majority of those live outside the United States. One of every 15 Mormons is from Brazil, where Mormon missionaries have found among their greatest success.

Indeed, this demographic tidal wave has been so pronounced that many Mormons have expected a Latin American apostle for the last several vacancies. A number of Mormons greeted the choice of Gong and Soares with excitement, seeing it as an important acknowledgment of diversity in the church.

And while Soares’ selection reflects the Mormon present, Gong’s may point to the future of Mormonism.

Mormonism is not one of the five official religions recognized by the People’s Republic of China, but there are Mormon congregations in the nation, built mostly through expatriates and Chinese citizens converted by Mormon missionaries abroad. Official numbers are not reported, due to restrictions placed by the Chinese government.

The current president of the church, Russell Nelson, studied Mandarin as a younger man and has spent a great deal of time in China over his career. He was among the American heart surgeons who traveled to China to educate Chinese physicians about heart transplants. His personal interest in the country has recently been matched by signs that the church as a whole is interested in cultivating a higher profile there. For instance, the church recently launched a website devoted to its relationship with China. Dallin Oaks, a member of the church’s First Presidency, announced that the church has been cultivating a “relationship of trust with Chinese officials.”

The new apostle Gerrit Gong is a Mandarin speaker as well. With a Ph.D. in international relations and stints at the State Department and Georgetown University on his resume, he could be an invaluable help in such efforts.

Globalizing the church

Mormon leaders decentralized church administration and cut down on the bureaucracy and paperwork surrounding the practices of home teaching. More Good Foundation, CC BY-NC

A notable development at the recent conference was a move by Mormon leaders to decentralize church administration, so as to strengthen local congregations worldwide.

One such announcement consolidated and simplified leadership in each local congregation. Another discontinued much of the bureaucracy and paperwork surrounding the practices of “home teaching” and “visiting teaching” in which congregants go and see each other monthly to ensure everybody in a congregation is doing well. Historically this work has been done according to procedures tightly controlled by church headquarters, which required regular reports. Now the church is allowing for more local autonomy.

Nelson’s final announcement of the Conference made the church’s interest in raising the international presence of the church explicit. He announced the church would be building seven new temples, in places as far-flung as India, Russia and the Philippines.

Mormon temples are distinct from weekly meetinghouses. There are thousands of meetinghouses but only 159 temples worldwide. Ceremonies like sacramental marriage and an initiatory rite called the endowment are performed only in temples – which are rituals essential for Mormons to enter leadership positions in the church. Building a temple in a country is a sign that the church sees potential for strong local leadership.

If there were ever doubts that Mormonism sees a global future for itself, the events of this General Conference eliminated them.

Matthew Bowman, Associate Professor of History, Henderson State University

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

Addressing apologists for rape culture

April 10, 2018

There are many Asif Mahtabs in our midst

Not all rapists wield knives / BIGSTOCK

“You can’t clap with just one hand,” explains a Haryana curmudgeon, in a video about the Indian state’s rather pervasive rape culture. But, hear the bugger out: Does he not have a point?

Hear the messenger out: Consider, first, biology. If we go far back enough in time, when physical strength was crucial to determining the dynamics of relationships, thousands of years of evolution had made it so that sex was a method by which a man could spread his “seed.”

In this regard, for a man to be successful, what he would require, more so than anything, would be to have sex with as many women as possible so that his genes found homes in the wombs of a diverse array of women, providing them better chances for continued generational survival.

And since women were not always willing to provide said home for their spermatozoa, sometimes, rape was merely another survival tool, and perhaps to a great extent, necessary.

And since women, as we all know, are biologically to some extent hardwired to attract the male (and subtly and coquettishly do a few things to heighten that attraction), it is only a biological imperative for men to give in.

And, to further complicate matters, we all know that women are not always clear about what they want, as various instances of attraction to dominant male figures have shown throughout history.

What we subsequently have done is provide societal context for these rather primitive acts for posterity. In fact, some of these societal inventions serve to protect women as opposed to harm them.

Cover up, so that you are not raped. Get married, so that you and your children are provided for. Stay indoors, so that other men may not harass and assault you.

Without the benevolence of those in power, the oppressed could never find a voice. And in the case of men and women, the situation is no different.

It is thanks to men, and the power they wield, the generosity with which they have decided to treat women, placing them up on a pedestal as opposed to a gutter, that women have been allowed the grace and dignity biology felt they did not deserve.

Is that what we want? A generation of silent rapists lurking in the alley?

Where the fault lies
The Asif Mahtabs of this world have you believe that this is the root cause of rape — and there are a lot of Asif Mahtabs in the world, and in our country.

For those who do not know Asif Mahtab, his 15 minutes of fame came about as a result of a Facebook post highlighting the various “scientific” reasons behind sexual harassment and assault.

Some gems include men’s attraction to “symmetry” and how lips and nails turn red during orgasm because of excessive bloodflow. I encourage independently reading his entire post for a more detailed understanding of his mind-set.

These aren’t the root causes of rape, but represent some of the root excuses for the perpetuation of rape culture. While rape culture I personally find has expanded to include perhaps too many mere happenstances within the penumbra of societal relations, I would like to focus on the absolute basics: Why people think rape has two criminals (the rapist and the raped) and, sometimes, only one (the raped).

While I do not think that the monsterization of rapists is helpful in the fight against the continued sexual assault carried out on women, the biological defense which some utilize does nothing to humanize their belief systems.

The very reason human beings are special (I do not mean better) amongst all animals is because we have the self-awareness and the capability to fight our basest urges, and through social evolution have, to a great extent, eradicated them altogether.

For any individual to hold up biology as an excusable defense against the continuation of rape is hypocritical, for one presumes he is not a pure anarchist who walks around naked in the streets and eats raw meat which he has hunted and gathered from the woods next to his cave.

Whether or not this analogy holds up, of this you be the judge: Consider how we must fight terrorism. It is not enough that we carry out raid after raid, but that we engage with communities which show young people that violence is not the answer.

For this, our approach must be the same. Not only must we incorporate role models into our schooling who teach us to respect gender and sex and their complicated multifaceted narratives, but also engage in public debate which first acknowledges the arguments of various adults in our society first.

Merely painting them as outcasts ensures their continued existence in the shadows.

The next such individual, having seen the way we have ostracized, will be less likely to air his bigoted views, thereby ensuring the perpetuity of his mind-set as a rape apologist.

Is that what we want? A generation of silent rapists lurking in the alley? Because, if you look around, you’ll find we’re already there.

SN Rasul is an Editorial Assistant in the Dhaka Tribune. Follow him @snrasul.

Courtesy: Dhaka Tribune

The Peopling of South Asia and the New Genomic Evidence

April 10, 2018

Slowly, but surely, the story of the peopling of South Asia is being unravelled, using genetic data and their analysis.

(Illustration from the Original Reich-Narasimbhan paper)

Slowly, but surely, the story of the peopling of South Asia is being unravelled, using genetic data and their analysis. The latest in this series, is a preprint of a paper by David Reich, Vagheesh Narasimbhan and others in biological archives, The Genomic Formation of South and Central Asia in www.biorxiv.org . Biologists, following mathematicians and physicists, are now uploading their papers before they are refereed and published in journals, making important results available much earlier.

The major findings in Reich-Narasimbhan paper is that it confirms the Eurasian Steppes ancestry as a component in the Indian population, dating it to about 2,000-1,200 BCE (Before Current Epoch). This is very much in line with the other evidence – both archaeological and linguistic, which posited similar dates. What is striking and new in this paper, is the importance of Iranian farmer genetic component in South Asia, which predates the steppes ancestry considerably. This should not have been logically unexpected. We know that the first evidence of agriculture in South Asia has been found in Mehrgarh 9,000 years back – a clear indication of its coming across the Bolan Pass from Iran. Obviously, agriculturalists and agriculture moved together, as they did in different parts of the world.

The paper deals with both Central and South Asia, and there is indeed a continuum that we need to look at to get the complete picture of Eurasian migrations. However, we are restricting the discussion here to its implications for South Asia.

The paper postulates that the Indus Valley Civilisation would have consisted of a mixture of ancient hunter gatherer South Asian population and the neolithic farmers coming from Iran. It is this population that acted as a bridge in creating the Ancient North Indian and the South Indian populations, with the North Indian population having a greater steppe component than the South Asian population, but both with significant Iranian farmer ancestral genetic component.

This large international group of scholars spanning the continents, looked at both ancient DNA and DNA from current populations. The ancient DNA has been extracted from a number of burial sites from three broad regions: Iran and the southern part of Central Asia (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, which authors call Turan), from the western-central steppes and northern forest zone encompassing present day Kazakhstan and Russia, and from Swat Valley in northern Pakistan (“South Asia”). Unfortunately, the ancient DNA from Rakhigiri, which has been dated to be around 4,600 years old, has yet to be published; therefore we do not have ancient DNA of the Indus Valley people in these samples. The Swat Valley samples are after the entry of the steppe population, therefore carry their signature as well.

The evidence of the ancient DNA has been co-analysed with genome-wide data from present-day individuals from 246 ethnographically distinct groups in South Asia. This analysis consists of both statistical analysis and creating models of population mixing – admixture models – using older DNA, possible mutation rates, etc. The researchers then choose the models of mixing that approximate most closely to the population distribution that we see today.

What the Reich-Narasimhan paper shows is that the earlier Reich paper (we are calling this the earlier Reich paper as he was the lead author of this paper) postulate of Ancestral North Indian (ANI) and Ancestral South Indian (ASI) populations need to be modified. What we have instead, is a South Asian hunter gatherer population – called by Reich-Narasimhan as Ancient Ancestral South Asian (AASI) population, and then the two pulsed migrations. One pulse that originates around 5,000 years ago from Iran – the Iranian farming population. This creates what Reich-Narasimhan call the Indus Periphery population in North West South Asia. These probably – though not explicitly stated – are the Indus Valley civilisation people. At any rate, the authors seem to use this population group as a proxy for the Indus Valley people. This Indus Periphery population then mixes with the AASI population over the next 1,000-1,500 years to create the Ancestral South Indian (ASI) population.

The second pulse is the entry of the Eurasian Steppes people from Central Asia into India, carrying central Asian genetic markers. This mixes with the existing Ancestral South Indian population, creating the Ancestral North Indian (ANI) population. Its markers are found in higher proportion in the North Indian Brahmin and Bhumihar populations than in other communities. The existing South Asian population is the result of mixing in various degrees between the ANI and ASI populations.

Of course, different research groups could come up with different models of how the people carrying these genetic markers – of the ancient hunter gatherers, the Iranian farmers, and the steppe people – have migrated within India and have mixed together. What is unlikely to be disproven is that the current Indian population carries these distinct genetic components of the Iranian farmers or Eurasian Steppes people. Or to prove the hypothesis that the there was a large dispersion from India to Central and West Asia, and then to Europe – Out of India hypothesis – as the Hindutva ideologues would have us believe. The picture of Anatolian and Iranian farmers spreading slowly across Eurasia, followed by the Eurasian Steppes people spreading West – towards Europe, and South – towards West Asia and South Asia, is far too complete to be overturned.

The story of the spread of the steppes people from Kurgan/Yamna culture s – the area between Caspian and Black Sea – has drawn far more attention than that of the farmers from the West Asia. Part of this is clearly the fascination of both Europeans and North Indians with the origin of their languages. It is the Yamna people, who were the original proto Indo-European language speakers and carried it West, towards Europe, and South, towards Central, West and South Asia.

The story of the spread of agriculturalists however, is equally compelling. It shows that the postulate of demic expansion – agriculturists marching across the globe along with agriculture – while mixing with the original hunter gatherer populations was not wrong. This is the march of wheat and barley from Anatolia and Iran, across Europe, Central Asia and South Asia. They just got this expansion, which happened much earlier than the expansion of the steppes people, wrong in terms of language. The demic expansion did not carry the Indo European language with them. This was done by the steppes people.

This, of course, leaves out the other demic expansion that is linked to rice. In India, it has impacted eastern India. Reich-Narasimhan paper has relatively less to say about this, a gap which needs to be filled to have a more complete picture of the peopling of South Asia.

An important conclusion that can be drawn from this paper, is that the study of history has to contend with pulsed events – events accompanying rapid change – as well as slower changes. That history is not just simply a story of gradual changes; changes occur slowly, interspersed with rapid changes.

The other conclusion is that language of the conquest, and the language of civilisation can be different. The Indo European speakers spread their language, through conquest, a conquest made possible by their domestication of the horse, and their mobility. It is their mobility that allowed them to dominate over such large areas. The influx of pastoral people – with new weapons and mobility – have overturned many settled agricultural communities in history. We saw this with the rise of Turkic tribes – the Ottoman Empire, and the Mongols ruling over most of the Eurasian land mass as well. Both of them took over much bigger populations, with far more advanced civilisations. We should not therefore be surprised by similar events happening in more ancient times.

For the historians, there should be a sigh of relief. The painstaking work that they have done with archaeological and textual evidence is very close to the new genomic evidence. And it may yet help us provide pointers in deciphering the Indus Valley script, as we now know the possible relatives that we should look at.

Science is very cruel to myths and illusions. For those, who confuse civilisation with “Aryans” have to live with the historical truth that the “Aryan” Vedic speakers were pastoral people and did not build the Indus Valley civilisation. Nor are they the original inhabitants of South Asia. They were just one among many of the late movers from the North West, who came to India using either the Bolan or the Khyber Pass. Genomics should now finally settle the question of who are the Indo Aryan language speakers, just one branch of the Eurasian Steppe population.

Ph.D. scholar and manual scavenger Sunil Yadav fights for study leave, BMC pays no heed

April 10, 2018

The story of Sunil Yadav, a PhD scholar who has to work as a manual scavenger with Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is well-known. The journey of Yadav, who is pursuing his degree from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, continues to remain filled with hiccups. What is especially surprising is that it is the BMC which seems hell-bent on being a major roadblock in Yadav’s journey to success.

Yadav has alleged that BMC is not sanctioning an unpaid study leave and issuing a No Objection Certificate (NOC), which is necessary for him in order to present a paper at the University of Massachusetts, USA.

In a Facebook post about the same, Yadav wrote, “I am selected for paper presentation at University of Massachusetts, USA for conference on 4- 6th May 2018. But BMC did not sanction my unpaid leave and now I am facing VISA problem. Also BARTI did not give me fellowship because of unpaid leave from BMC. I have no money to attend conference and survive.”

He further said, “So I appeal and request you to support me and my Safai Karmachari community for dignity. Please help me to get unpaid leave from BMC commissioner. Call to him, send letters etc. as soon as possible for relief.”

Yadav shared his problem with TwoCircles.net, “I received a fellowship from Babasaheb Ambedkar Research Institute (BARTI), Pune in November last year. Soon after the results were declared, I wrote to BMC for unpaid leave and NOC to appear for the fellowship. But they did not reply.”

Sunil Yadav had to file an application under Right to Information Act (RTI) to get the attention from the authorities. “They informed me through the RTI that other papers are needed to process my application. I filed all the relevant papers in March this year, but I am still waiting for their reply,” said Sunil.

As mentioned above, Yadav has also been selected for presenting his research work at the University of Massachusetts for a conference themed “The Unfinished Legacy of Ambedkar”, but he can appear neither at BARTI nor at the University of Massachusetts in case the BMC does not issue him a NOC.

On Yadav’s request, the BARTI officials wrote to Assistant Commissioner at BMC, but BMC officials did not bother to reply to them as well.

Yadav said, “NOC is the key to everything I have to do. Without it, I cannot get my fellowship from BARTI, and neither can I go to Massachusetts for the same.”

“First time in history, A Safai Karmachari (Scavenger) could be going to the US to present a paper, I appeal my community to believe in education,” he urged in his Facebook post.

However, events in the past suggest that BMC does not have a good relationship with Yadav. Last year, BMC fired Sunil Yadav when he filed a transfer request, but he was reinstated after higher bodies interfered.

This time too, Sunil Yadav has reached out to state administration. On Saturday April 7, Yadav met with Maharashtra’s Chief Minister regarding the same, after which the state’s education minister assured him of early help.

But for Yadav, time is something which is not in his hands. “I may lose both of these opportunities if they do not process my leave and NOC request in time,” said Yadav.

When TwoCircles.net tried to reach BMC Commissioner Ajoy Mehta, he was busy to respond. However, the story will be updated once we receive a response from the BMC.

Courtesy: Two Circles

Repression on Bhangar movement increases, serious Sections slapped on student activists and conveners

April 9, 2018

Ratul, age 31, an ex-student of Kolkata Medical College and an activist in the health movement and trade union movement got arrested from his home, Belghadia, Kolkata on the night of April 8. In the FIR that has been registered against him, he has been slapped with cases pertaining to unlawful assembly, rioting, causing grievous hurt, attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy and other such serious sections.

On April 6, the Kashipur police arrested Shankar Das, Biswajit Hazra and Amitava Bhattacharya, three activists of the Bhangar struggle. Shankar Das is one of the conveners of the Bhangar Solidarity Committee and rest two members of “Committee for the Protection of Land, Livelihood and Environment” of the Bhangar struggle. In 2017 too, Shankar Das was arrested similarly on false charges.

In the recent incident, on April 6, the three of them went to file nominations for the upcoming Panchayat elections. The Committee for Protection of Land, Livelihood and Environment had earlier decided to participate in elections in 14 villages of both South 21 Paragana and North 21 Paragana in order to get representation in local bodies so that they could strengthen the struggle of anti-land grab movement going on in Bhangar.

However, the goons of the ruling TMC party allegedly beat up the villagers within the BDO office itself as police stood by like mere spectators, later arresting the activists and villagers and not the goons. The arrested villagers have been reportedly slapped with multiple false cases.

Further, as per the activists of the Bhangar movement, the TMC goons attacked villagers on April 8, burnt down the office of the ‘Committee’ and have bombed and fired randomly to create an atmosphere of terror. “These repressive tactics are being used to crush the anti-land grab movement of Bhangar, so that corporates’ plans of establishing Power Grids can be facilitated without any opposition. The goons wanted to ensure that no nominations are filed by the villagers” said Priyasmita, a student activist closely associated with the Bhangar struggle.

The repression on the Bhangar movement, which started in 2016 to oppose the alleged forcible land acquisition by the Power Grid Corporation of India, a central PSU, to set up power grid, has been growing. In 2017, the activists of the movement faced severe repression where several of them were lathi-charged during a demonstration by the Mamta Banerjee led TMC government. Later, activists were booked under the draconian UAPA which was very shocking. In total, as many as 110 people were booked under false cases, a student activist with the movement, Priyasmita, a student activist associated with the movement alleges. Of these, UAPA was slapped against as many as 16 activists. Activists believe that whenever pressure is built by the movement to oppose the said grid construction, the state repression increases, as has happened in the recent case too.

Activists have demanded immediate release of Bhangar Committee activists.

Prison: where race, capitalism and state violence collide

April 9, 2018

Authoritarian capitalism and the prison industrial complex is a two-tiered tyrannical system designed to enslave through mass incarceration.

Parchman Penal Farm. Female prisoners sewing, circa 1930. Flickr/Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Some rights reserved.

More than 60% of women in state prisons in the US have a child under the age of 18. On any given day, over 2.7 million, or 1 in 28 children have a parent in prison. Children with incarcerated parents are more likely to experience depression, anxiety, poor academic performance, school absenteeism/drop out, poverty, homelessness, difficulty transitioning to basic adult roles, and physical health problems including migraines, asthma, and high cholesterol.

Children with incarcerated parents are 6-9 times more likely to become incarcerated themselves. Black children are seven-and-a-half times more likely than White children to have a parent in prison, and Latino children are two-and-a-half times more likely to experience this family dynamic.

In 2000, in Masked Racism: Reflections on the Prison Industrial Complex, Angela Yvonne Davis examined the infamy of the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC), a term first coined, maybe by Angela Davis herself, in the late 1990’s. What is the PIC? It is a term used to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social and political problems. Davis stated:

“Prison privatization is the most obvious instance of capital’s current movement toward the prison industry. While government-run prisons are often in gross violation of international human rights standards, private prisons are even less accountable. In March 1998, the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest US private prison company, claimed 54,944 beds in 68 facilities under contract or development in the US, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Following the global trend of subjecting more women to public punishment, CCA opened a women’s prison outside Melbourne.

Private prison companies are only the most visible component of the increasing corporatization of punishment. Many corporations whose products we consume on a daily basis have learned that prison labor can be as profitable as third world labor power exploited by US-based global corporations. Both relegate formerly unionized workers to joblessness and many even wind up in prison. Some of the companies that use prison labor are IBM, Motorola, Compaq, Texas Instruments, Honeywell, Microsoft, and Boeing. But it is not only the hi-tech industries that reap the profits of prison labor.

The California Prison Industry Authority (CALPIA) uses inmate labor to build, grow, and manufacture products for state agencies, institutions and schools. Products such as furniture, food products & agriculture, clothing, bedding, shoes & boots, and more. The 2016 revenue earned by PIA was approximately 225M, while inmates work pay ranges from .32-$1 per hour.

PIA Mission Statement: CALPIA is a self-supporting, customer-focused business that reduces recidivism, increases prison safety, and enhances public safety by providing offenders productive work and training opportunities.
Vision Statement: Changing offenders’ lives through innovative job training for a safer California.

While these messages may be the mission and vision of CalPIA, the training provided seldom if ever leads to work post-release. Unemployment and underemployment are the biggest barriers to successful reentry.”

Davis continued:
“Nordstrom department stores sell jeans that are marketed as “Prison Blues”, as well as t-shirts and jackets made in Oregon prisons. The advertising slogan for these clothes is “made on the inside to be worn on the outside”. Maryland prisoners inspect glass bottles and jars used by Revlon and Pierre Cardin, and schools throughout the world buy graduation caps and gowns made by South Carolina prisoners. “For private business”, write Eve Goldberg and Linda Evans (a political prisoner inside the Federal Correctional Institution at Dublin, California) “prison labor is like a pot of gold. No strikes. No union organizing. No health benefits, unemployment insurance, or workers’ compensation to pay. No language barriers, as in foreign countries. Prisoners do data entry for Chevron, make telephone reservations for airlines, raise hogs, shovel manure, make circuit boards, limousines, waterbeds, and lingerie for Victoria’s Secret all at a fraction of the cost of `free labor'”.

As a youth, I was arrested and convicted of a crime and sentenced to life in prison. I served 23 years at the California Institution for women in Corona, CA. When I was first incarcerated in 1988, the women’s prison in Corona was the largest women’s prison in the world. Since the 1980s prison expansion in California CIW has become second to the California Central Women’s Facility in Chowchilla which opened in 1991. We often saw tours given to visitors from other countries who were looking to CIW as a model to emulate. Many countries now look away from the American carceral system as a model, seeing prison expansion and mass incarceration of its citizens as disgraceful and a human rights violation.

CIW was built in 1952 to hold approximately 500 women. When I arrived, there were 2800 female bodied prisoners packed into converted dayrooms, custodial boiler rooms, doubled bunked cells, and the auditorium. From the vast number of women locked up, it was clear that CDC was only interested in human capital as a means of profiteering. The majority of women behind bars were convicted of drug-related and property crimes. Black women made up 47% of the population in 1988 and continued to grow through the late 1990s.
By the time I was released in 2011 Black women made up approximately 37% of the population behind bars a decrease of 10% but still a disproportionate number in relationship to the general population. Thanks to prison abolitionists, criminal justice reformists and policy changes, black women are less impacted today. However, the damage has been done and the cycle of generational poverty and incarceration is still high for black Americans.

To further illustrate these remarks Davis points out:
“To deliver up bodies destined for profitable punishment, the political economy of prisons relies on racialized assumptions of criminality – such as images of black welfare mothers reproducing criminal children – and on racist practices in arrest, conviction, and sentencing patterns. Colored bodies constitute the main human raw material in this vast experiment to disappear the major social problems of our time. Homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, mental illness, and illiteracy are only a few of the problems that disappear from public view when the human beings contending with them are relegated to cages. Prisons thus perform a feat of magic.

“But prisons do not disappear problems, they disappear human beings. And the practice of disappearing vast numbers of people from poor, immigrant, and racially marginalized communities has literally become a big business. Once the aura of magic is stripped away from the imprisonment solution, what is revealed is racism, class bias, and the parasitic seduction of capitalist profit. The prison industrial system materially and morally impoverishes its inhabitants and devours the social wealth needed to address the very problems that have led to spiraling numbers of prisoners.”

The prison industrial complex is a business!

The impact and intersection of race, mass incarceration, state violence and authoritarian capitalism can be seen and felt in places like Ferguson, Missouri. After the murder of Michael Brown, Jr, an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri by Darren Wilson, a white police office, the world witnessed the use of military force and weaponry on US soil against peaceful protesters and on American citizens like never before.

I was living in North County St. Louis when all this happened. I protested, attended rallies, and volunteered with the Ferguson Commission, a body of 16 local leaders. The charge was to address the underlying root cause that led to the unrest in the wake of Michael Brown’s death and to publish a report with transformative policy recommendations for making the region stronger and a better place for everyone to live and to guide the community in charting a new path toward healing and positive change for all residents of the St. Louis region.

We know the 2015 report concluded what most reports have concluded after investigating the cause of unrest in Black communities over the past century (i.e., East St. Louis (1917), Watts (1965), Detroit (1967), and Los Angeles (1992)). Strategies for healing racial wounds, dismantling structural racism, and promoting racial and ethnic equity are needed but never produced.

The continuous mistreatment, torture, terrorism, and murder of Blacks in America as sanctioned by State violence and white supremacy have been normalized by authoritarian capitalism.

Not much has changed in St. Louis since August 9, 2014. On September 15, 2017 another White police officer (ex-police officer) Jason Stockley was acquitted for killing Anthony Lamar Smith (24 yrs. old) after being caught on tape stating: “I’m going to kill the nigger,” despite the investigation concluding that he had planted a firearm in Smith’s car.

Authoritarian capitalism and the prison industrial complex is a two-tiered tyrannical system designed to enslave through mass incarceration. The white imagination that sees black people as less than human, sees poor people as slaves, and profit as justice.

California Institution for Women, Aerial View,2004. Wikicommons/ California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Some rights reserved.

About the author
Spending 23 years in a California women’s prison, Romarilyn Ralston saw firsthand the factors that bring women to prison and what needs to be changed. She worked alongside peers, wardens and state officials to improve living conditions and to develop gender-responsive practices for women in prison. After release from prison, she earned a B.A. from Pitzer College in Gender & Feminist Studies, and a Master’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis. She was awarded a Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs.

Courtesy: https://www.opendemocracy.net

Dalit protests sweep Kerala, Leader taken into custody, claims success

April 9, 2018

Various Dalit outfits in Kerala called for a dawn to dusk hartal condemning the violence against the community during the nationwide Bharat Bandh strike on April 2. The protest being held today is also against the “dilution” of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 after a March 20 Supreme Court order alleging “misuse” of the Act.

Image Courtesy: Indian Express

As per reports, various outfits namely ChermarSambavar Development Society (CSDS), Akhila Kerala Cheramar Hindu Mahasabha, National Dalit Liberation Front, Sangham, Dalit Human Rights Movement, Kerala CheramarSangham, Social Liberation Front, BahujanSamaj Party and the DravidaVargaAikyaMunnani have extended their support to the bandh.

Adivasi GothraMaha Sabha leader Geethananda was taken into custody for “blocking roads”. However, terming the Bandh a success, he said, “The report that we have got from across the state is that by and large, the protest appears to have become a success … There is no reason for taking us into custody.”
Now, the Dalit activists have marched to the Secretariat and staged a ‘dharna’.

Exams were postponed at Mahatma Gandhi University and second year B Pharm exams are rescheduled to April 16, while all other exams will now be held on April 23.

Earlier, protesters stopped the plying of buses etc. while essential services like hospitals, milk, newspapers etc. were exempted from the strike.

The protesting groups have also demanded a judicial probe into the killings that took place on the protest day of April 2.

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Prison: where race, capitalism and state violence collide

Authoritarian capitalism and the prison industrial complex is a two-tiered tyrannical system designed to enslave through mass incarceration.

The prison industrial complex is a business!

Dalit protests sweep Kerala, Leader taken into custody, claims success

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