Why Deadly, Worsening Flash Floods In Bihar’s Border Villages Don’t Get India’s Attention

October 10, 2017

Pashchim Champaran (Bihar): Charoin aur nadi, beech main Marjadi [rivers on all four sides and Marjadi in the middle]–that is how a local saying describes Marjadi village. Situated in Gaunaha block in north Bihar’s Pashchim Champaran district, the village has Harbora river to its east and Ganguli river to its west; Kathaha cuts right across through it.

Marjadi village in Pashchim Champaran is surrounded by rivers o all four sides. It faced unprecedented flash flood in the intervening night of Aug 12-13.

There are over 350 families living in Marjadi and they are quite used to the rise and fall in the waters of these pahadi [hill] rivers that come from Nepal.

However, the ferocity of the floods that nearly drowned the village in the intervening night of August 12 and August 13 this year left even disaster-prone Marjadi stunned.

At around 6pm on August 12, it started to rain heavily and the downpour continued till the next morning. “By 11 pm, there was chest-high water gushing fast through the village,” said Narendra Ram, a Marjadi resident. “People panicked and ran to the roofs of pucca houses and spent the night there.”

The water level in the village had crossed six feet.

“All our stored grains, cattle, clothes, everything had been washed away,” said Chanda Devi, who had to be rescued by her fellow villagers as the waters rose outside her home.

Chanda Devi of Marjadi was caught in the rising flood water along with her two young children. They were rescued by fellow villagers as water level crossed 6-feet (mark on the wall of the house) in the village.

“I am over 80-years-old and have seen many floods, but the night of August 12 was nothing but pralay [apocalyptic deluge]. Had the downstream Triveni canal not breached, our entire village would have washed away,” said Jagan Ram, an old resident. “Pran ke ilawa gaon main kuch nahi bacha hai [Only human beings are left in the village].”

Last month, Bihar faced massive floods, as all the major rivers of north Bihar – including the Gandak, Burhi Gandak, Bagmati, and Kosi — rose due to heavy rainfall in the Terai region. The floods affected 17.1 million people in 19 districts of north Bihar, killing 514.

More than 73% of Bihar’s 94,163 sq km area is flood-prone. The problem is particularly acute in north Bihar, where almost 76% of the population–about 50 million people–lives under the constant threat of floods. Of these, those who live along the India-Nepal border deal with an additional danger — unpredictable flash floods originating from the rivers that flow down from the Himalayas across the border.

These flash floods that routinely affect the districts of Pashchim and Poorvi Champaran, Madhubani, Sitamarhi, Araria and Kishanganj are ancient affairs. But, local villagers and the state government officials claim that these floods are becoming more frequent because of climate change.

“Bihar is facing the impact of climate change, rainfall patterns here are getting disturbed. Rains come in bouts followed by long dry spells. We not only face more floods, but also have rising incidence of droughts in the state,” said Vyas Ji, vice-chairperson of Bihar State Disaster Management Authority (BSDMA).

Flash floods in Bihar escape national attention because the focus of flood control and management is limited to big rivers such as Kosi, Gandak, Bagmati, and so on. But they need immediate attention because those affected by these flash floods are among India’s poorest.

The per capita income (2011-12) in north Bihar’s six flash-flood affected districts is less than Rs 10,000, as per the ‘Economic Survey 2015-16’ of the government of Bihar. In contrast, the per capita income of Patna district is Rs 63,063.

The infant mortality rate (number of deaths of children under one year age per 1,000 live births) of these six districts ranges between 48 and 60, as per the Annual Health Survey 2012-13; Factsheet Bihar. The under-five mortality rate (probability of children dying between birth and five years age per 1,000 live births) in Sitamarhi is as high as 97 followed by 84 in Kishanganj, 76 in Araia and 72 in Pashchim Champaran. India’s average under five mortality rate is 50 per 1,000 li, ve births.

These frequent disasters trap people in a seemingly endless cycle of floods, poverty, indebtedness, low living standards and more floods, IndiaSpend investigations showed.

Why flash floods need a different plan of action

Flash floods and their aftermath need to be dealt with differently from riverine floods. Their character, behaviour, impact, occurrence and frequency are distinct from the big, riverine floods for which the government has an established protocol for rescue, relief and compensation.

For one, flash floods are not driven only by the monsoon; a heavy and steady downpour can unleash a torrent from the mountain rivers. Five Terai villages in Bihar visited by this reporter endure between 15 to 60 flash floods every year.

The waters tear in at high velocity with little warning, causing widespread destruction, wrecking houses, sweeping away cattle, damaging both standing and stored crops, eroding the soil and destroying farm bunds.

Triveni Canal breached due to the high velocity floodwater of Harbora river, providing respite to Marjadi village which would have otherwise washed away due to the rising waters.

The waters recede fairly quickly–within four to eight hours –unlike riverine deluges, but the destruction is as much.

Since they occur frequently, the damage caused needs to be assessed quickly and compensation packages disbursed fast, so people can resume their lives.

However, IndiaSpend’s extensive conversations with villagers across the Terai showed that this is rarely the case.

Small rivers, big havoc

The only thing separating Bhiknathori, a village on the border of the Valmiki Tiger Reserve, from Nepal is Pandai, a hill river that comes from across the international border. It flows along Bhiknathori to meet the Sikrana river, also known as the Burhi Gandak. The night of August 12 also brought unprecedented floods to Bhiknathori, a village of 165 households.

The Pandai, a hilly river, comes from Nepal and flows along the India-Nepal border to later join the Burhi Gandak River. The Pandai brought massive flash flood to Bhikhnathori village and eroded 31 households.

“Minutes before the flood, we heard gargarahat [loud thunderous noise] of large stones coming along with the flood waters,” said Kalan Khan, 82. “The river water had turned yellowish brown and we could see the Pandai jumping high and coming towards our village. We ran for our lives.”

Pandai’s waters eroded over 50-70 square feet of land, including 31 houses, an ancient temple and two government guest houses. A substantive part of Bhiknathori’s market was also washed away, said Dayanand Sahni, 60, a former mukhiya (head) of Dhamaura panchayat.

Nilesh Deore, the district magistrate of Pashchim Champaran, admitted that the floods caused unexpected devastation this year. “Our district is flood-prone and we had stationed rescue boats along the main Gandak river. But, this year the pahadi rivers, the tributaries of Gandak and Burhi Gandak, brought massive flash floods in areas we had never imagined to be affected.”

The state chief minister, Nitish Kumar, too said the recent disaster was “akin to flash floods”.

No one notices unseasonal floods, allege villagers

Whereas the government believes that the recent flash floods are a one-off event, the villagers living along the India-Nepal border told IndiaSpend that they have been dealing with them for years, and multiple times in a year.

“We face floods some 15-20 times in a year, but these are localised flash floods and never make it to the official records,” said Vinita Kumari, a resident of Poorvi Tola Rupwaliya village in Gaunaha block.

“Flash floods are directly proportional to the rainfall in the upper catchment area,” said Eklavya Prasad, managing trustee of Megh Pyne Abhiyan (MPA), a non-profit working on water and sanitation issues in the north Bihar. “Mostly flash floods go unreported because they do not always occur during the flood season.”

Last December, MPA carried out a study titled ‘Post Disaster Recovery: Assessment of Needs in Moderate Flood Conditions’ in Pashchim Champaran, Khagaria and Saharsa districts of north Bihar. It found that the small, pahadi rivers report flash floods up to 50-60 times in a year, causing extensive damage to property and crops destruction.

Take the case of Chegraha River that regularly brings floods Harkatwa village in Rupwaliya panchayat of Gaunaha between January and October. The normal width of the river is approximately 60 meters but this increases to 500-700m during monsoon and on days of heavy precipitation.

Harkatwa’s grief: 60 floods a year

Heavily silted paddy fields in Gaunaha block of Pashchim Champaran.

Last year, Harkatwa faced 60 instances of flash floods. In the last 10 years, it has had 450 flash floods. Annually, the villagers lose over 50 acres of standing paddy crop, which amounts to a loss of Rs 720,000 per year. Sugarcane worth Rs 262,500 too is lost to flash floods every year.

Standing sugarcane crop destroyed due to floodwaters in Pashchim Champaran.

Floods annually wash away stored foodgrains in Harkatwa – it has lost paddy worth Rs 540,000, wheat worth Rs 225,000 and pulses worth Rs 56,000 every year in this manner, according to the MPA study.

To deal with recurring crop losses, villagers regularly take private loans. The annual collective indebtedness caused by flash floods in Pashchimi Tola Rupwaliya village in Gaunaha block is estimated at Rs 10,08,000. For Naya Tola Manguraha, Poorvi Tola Rupwaliya and Manguraha villages, this figure is Rs 240,000, Rs 560,000, and Rs 720,000 respectively.

The total annual average financial loss due to recurring flash floods in Pashchimi Tola Rupwaliya village is estimated to be Rs 12,16,000. For Naya Tola Manguraha village, Poorvi Tola Rupwaliya and Manguraha village, the total annual losses are pegged at Rs 4,79,610, Rs 6,16,675 and Rs 13,89,050, respectively.

These losses are neither officially recorded nor compensated, said Prasad.

Source: Based on data in Post Disaster Recovery: Assessment of needs in moderate flood conditions in Pashchim Champaran, Megh Pyne Abhiyan, December 2016.

Source: Based on data in Post Disaster Recovery: Assessment of needs in moderate flood conditions in Pashchim Champaran, Megh Pyne Abhiyan, December 2016.

Source: Based on data in Post Disaster Recovery: Assessment of needs in moderate flood conditions in Pashchim Champaran, Megh Pyne Abhiyan, December 2016.

Source: Based on data in Post Disaster Recovery: Assessment of needs in moderate flood conditions in Pashchim Champaran, Megh Pyne Abhiyan, December 2016.

Source: Based on data in Post Disaster Recovery: Assessment of needs in moderate flood conditions in Pashchim Champaran, Megh Pyne Abhiyan, December 2016.

Source: Based on data in Post Disaster Recovery: Assessment of needs in moderate flood conditions in Pashchim Champaran, Megh Pyne Abhiyan, December 2016.

600 kg of paddy, 1 quintal of wheat — what Sushila Devi lost to the last flood

Villagers along the India-Nepal border alleged that they do not receive any compensation for their recurring losses. “In the 1986 flood, five houses were washed away in our village, and then in 2010, another seven. But, no one has received any compensation,” said Puna Singh, secretary of the village forest rights committee, Bhiknathori.

Ramsheela Devi, ward member of Bhiknathori, claimed she lost her kuccha house in the 2010 flood. “How long can we wait for government assistance? We rebuild and move on,” said Madhu Devi, who too lost her house in the 2010 flood.

Ramsheela Devi of Bhiknathori village, with her husband and Madhu Devi.

Residents of Poorvi Tola Rupwaliya claimed that they have suffered huge losses in the recent floods. “So far this year, we have had 11 flash floods, but haven’t received a paisa of compensation,” said Sushila Devi who lost about 600 kg of paddy, 60-70 kg of rice and 1 quintal of wheat in the recent floods.

Bihar government officials claim the state has an elaborate compensation package that goes beyond the Centre’s assistance. “The Centre does not provide gratuitous relief if flood-affected people are moved to shelter homes. But, we give Rs 9,800 gratuitous relief per family if the house is lost and even if the family is in shelter home,” said Vyas Ji.

Vyas ji, Vice Chairman of Bihar State Disaster Management Authority (BSDMA)

“If a pucca house is fully damaged there is compensation of Rs 95,100 and if 15% of it is damaged we pay Rs 5,200. For a kucha jhonpdi (shack) we pay a compensation of Rs 41,000,” said Deore.

The compensation requires photographic evidence — of how a damaged house looked before the flood or of dead cattle — that villagers said is hard to procure. “How do we photograph washed away, dead cattle?” asked Kishore Paswan of Marjadi.

Residents of Marjadi claim that the flooded rivers brought huge amounts of silt (sand) and have deposited 2-feet sand on their paddy and sugarcane fields.

“We have recently received a compensation of Rs 6,000 per household in our tola for house damage during the recent floods. This is the first time we have received any money from the government,” said Vinita Kumari of Poorvi Tola Rupwaliya. Her tola [hamlet] has faced 394 flash floods in the last 10 years, excluding the 11 this year.

Compensation for crop damage for maximum two hectares ranges between Rs 6,800 per hectare (ha) and Rs 18,000 per ha. “On paper, the government has a nice compensation package, but we never benefit from it. We have lost 200 cattle and over 150 goats in the recent floods,” said Kishore Paswan of Marjadi.

Why Bihar needs to act fast

What can be done? First, it is important to recognise flash floods as a distinct phenomenon requiring different relief and compensation strategy.

Secondly, there is need for effective weather warning. For instance, between August 12 and August 13, Gaunaha block received 367 mm of rain within 24 hours. But villages along the India-Nepal border were not aware of the forecast.
Last, the habitat needs to be made flash-flood resilient given how often the waters swamp the villages. “Such a habitat should have various life-supporting systems for an early recovery from recurring phenomena that include health securities, safe drinking water and hygienic sanitation, flash-flood resilient housing, crop insurance schemes, skill development for flash-flood preparedness, and so on,” said Prasad.

Dealing with terrains like north Bihar requires alternate thinking on issues that connect ecology to lifestyle. A good example of this is the flood-resilient ecological sanitation toilet, phaydemand shauchalayas, built by MPA in the villages of Pashchim Champaran. Excreta and urine are separated in this system for use in fields as fertilisers and the water required is minimal. Unlike the soak-pit toilets with underground septic tanks being promoted by the government, these eco-toilets are built on a raised platform so these can be used even during the floods.

Climate change is leading to erratic rains and floods to Bihar, deputy chief minister of the state, Sushil Modi said recently and the cycle of frequent disasters is likely to worsen in coming years. Several districts, including flood-affected districts, are at present facing rainfall deficit.

The Bihar government cannot afford not to act.

(Jamwal is an independent journalist based in Mumbai.)

Courtesy: India Spend

Paying Trbute to Kanshiram, a Moot Question : Will BSP Nurture Young Ambedkarite Leadership Or Risk Political Irrelevance?

October 9, 2017

Today we remember a great social scientist of India who changed the nature of politics and political movements in India. Whatever the brahmanical elite may say about him, the late Kanshiram influenced the Indian polity more than anyone else in the mid 1980s and this impact is still felt. Right in the midst of a vibrant political career, he fell seriously ill and could not really complete the mission that he wanted. Ofcourse, one of his most significant achievements was to make Ms Mayawati, a political novice that time, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. An action otherwise impossible to achieve. It was this political understanding and acumen that drew political parties towards the BSP in alliance.

There was a time when BSP was never considered a serious entity politically. His was a social movement which he built solidly on the foundation of loyalty to the mission by dedicated workers who toiled hard with him, travelled across various Indian states, cycling to various places, slept on the floor and going hungry for days.

This biggest irony of the political movements is that they are built on the dedication and commitment of such visionary missionaries of the first generation. Power politics soon plays havoc with their dreams and sentiments. The politics of today revolves around a ‘messianic’ individual and most of the time they become larger than the entire movement and therefore stagnate before attaining any maturity.

South Asia suffers from these larger than life individuals whether in politics, art, sports,or literature who become too powerful and too big. This individual centrism is often the reason behind the movements’ collapse.

The importance of being Kanshiram ji was in providing spaces to diverse sections of people from Dalit Bahujan communities, many of them had never before ever tasted power even at the Panchayat level. It is this sense of commitment to representative democracy, to bring those minorities among the Dalits and MBCs to the mainstream of the Bahujan movement and make them owners of it, within the political entity he created that was and remains his single most significant contribution. Apart from the fact that he never went to any political party to seek legitimacy. He was least bothered about the media and ‘mainstream’.

The only other person who never became fond of this mainstream till today is Mr V T Rajshekar, the editor of Dalit Voice, who was always critical of the Indian media and never tried to get legitimacy from them.

The importance of BSP was in its unique character, a cadre dedicated to the Bahujan movement and of course the vision of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. Ofcourse, many people would differ with their definition and understanding of the Ambedkar mission but if we put that debate aside for the moment, none can ignore the factor that BSP became the most potent form of Ambedkarite political aspirations.

Kanshiram ji’s untimely death was the biggest blow for to this political goal. He remained confined to bed for several years and the movement started drifting. Ms Mayawati remained at the helm of the affairs of BSP and steered the party to power in Uttar Pradesh on several occasion. Today, however, the party is definitely passing through a very critical phase. All over the country, there is a huge unrest building up particularly among the youths, Dalits, OBC, Adivasi students and young dynamic Ambedkarites are challenging the status quo and seeking justice. Unfortunately, BSP has not been able to capture the imagination of those youngsters. The party’s response to these issues has not been powerful enough to give the confidence to the people. There is no doubt that Ms Mayawati still commands the biggest following and trust of the community yet she has not been able to develop a new leadership within the party.

Nobody can deny the importance of Sarv Jan but this building of a coalition cannot happen at the cost of the young budding Ambedkarite aspirants. The Sarv Jan movement cannot bring in domineering or arrogant caste forces but must have persons from all castes dedicated to an anti-caste movement. This is what Babasaheb envisioned. In the heydey of his political movement Babasaheb Ambedkar had Brahmin friends but they were thoroughly dedicated to the anti caste movement. In fact, the radical act of burning the Manusmirti was done by Shahashra Buddhe, whpwas a Brahmin himself. So, the Sarv Jan movement should essentially have to have those people from diverse communities who believe in Baba Saheb’s mission of Prabuddha Bharata and stand fundamentally against brahmanical patriarchy. I don’t know how many Sawarnas in BSP today are dedicated to that vision.

Manyawar Kanshiram would have definitely used the power of youth to build up the party if he were alive today. BSP needs a wake up call. The party formed by Kanshiram and nurtured by Mayawati has cadres and people all over the country expect a lot from it. The important factor is that a man dedicated to Dr Ambedkar’s ideas build up a party without any political patronage or privileges, create dynamic leaders not just Ms Mayawati but many others and that too from the ground.

The power of Kanshiram was people and the connect he had with them. He was never a great orator but his warmth with people was unmatched. He would remember the names of the ordinary karykartas and meet them, visit their homes to give them confidence to fight. Now these are the things of the past as what is lacking today is, the connect, with the Karyakartas as well as with the people. BSP was an oasis for the Ambedkarite because the leadership that Kanshiram built came from the movement and not from privileged political families.

We know well that in politics there is a lot of give and take, adjustments and so many things. None expect BSP to not respect that politics of inclusion or Sarv Jan but it is equally important that the non-Dalit political leadership that comes into the party adhere to Dr Ambedkar’s anti caste principles and annihilation of castes become the political agenda. BSP has the capacity to do so.

There is no other equally powerful socio-cultural force which can become a guiding figure for the political parties and leaders of Dalit Bahujan Adivasis. The Sangh Parivar has been doing it for so many years and they understand the power of socio cultural movements because political power may come and go but the impact of cultural movements goes beyond power of politics.

Dr Ambedkar’s biggest impact on us actually come through the cultural changes that he brought by embracing the path of Buddha on October 14, 1956. BSP needs to engage with diverse Dalit Bahujan communities for this cultural transformation, in Buddhism and, in that too in a political way to make a larger and powerful and everlasting political impact.

Will Ms Mayawati nurture a new young Ambedkarite talent to lead BSP into the future like Mr Kanshiram did it or will the party move towards becoming a new political family unit?

Kanshiram left family, home and hearth to achieve just such a Bahujan representation, vision and transformation. Not to honour this vision and take it forward to a logical conclusion will be a betrayal of the dream, the vision, the sacrifice.

That was Manyawar Kanshiram.

Why civil rights activist K Balagopal’s analysis of ‘fascism in India’ remains relevant today

October 9, 2017

It is eight years since he died, yet his writings are prescient for what they tell us about our social and political realities.

K Balagopal’s

October 8 marks the death anniversary of the civil rights activist K Balagopal. It is eight years since he died yet his writings are prescient for what they tell us about our social and political realities. Indeed, today it appears important to reference his classic essays on fascism in India – Rise of Gangsterism in Politics, written in February 1989, and Why Did December 6, 1992 happen?, written in April 1993.

Rather than take us through the ideas of European fascism, Balagopal calls attention to historical detail, to what makes fascism a political option in India.

He reminds us, in his 1989 article, that fascism is both reactive and proactive: it is a response to a ruling class that cannot get its act together and has to settle its contradictions through violence on the street. In the 1980s, at the dawn of the neoliberal era, when bureaucratic capital had to battle an indignant class of capitalists and heed the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the ruling class “resolved” the crisis in its ranks through political gangsterism. Thus, hoodlums turned legislators, acting as hatchet men for their ruling class bosses.

What was the state’s response? Unable to stretch its welfarism because it could not yield even minimal benefits given continual uneven economic growth, and faced with a restive population, the state affirmed its sovereignty through negative means. Balagopal reminds us that in the 1980s, these laws were proclaimed:

three amendments to the National Security Act;
extension of the Suppression of Disturbances Act and the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act to Punjab;
the Terrorist Affected Areas (Special Courts) Act;
the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act;
the Trade Unions and Industrial Disputes (Amendment) Bill;
the Hospitals and Other Institutions (Redressal of Grievances) Bill;
the Defamation Bill; the Postal Bill.

This period also witnessed the murder of dissenters such as the playwright Safdar Hashmi and the journalist Umesh Dhobal.

If we extend Balagopal’s reasoning it becomes evident that in today’s context political gangsterism is expressed not only through acts of crude violence – as, for instance, in the 1980s Andhra Pradesh – but also via unprincipled and cynical political dissembling – as in contemporary Tamil Nadu – and achieves much the same ends as political violence: subversion of democracy in a state, frozen into an economic and democratic impasse if not crisis. At the national level, we find something different at work: in addition to vigilante killings, there has been an upscaling of gangsterism, in that today’s gangsters are technically advanced, educated lumpens, internet trolls who pour hate into our inboxes as they attempt to counter dissent and critique of the ruling classes and their political leaders and ideologues.

‘Legal subversion of democracy’

As for the state, it continues to enact legislation that secures legal defence for the indefensible such as the laws against cow slaughter. But law and policy are also being put to use through other means. For one, those who follow the ruling party’s dictates rework procedural rules to secure their authority, such as we see happening in academic institutions and the financial sector. Of particular concern in this context are decisions to do with the economy, which are justified in the name of the national good, efficiency and as attempts to get a “moral” grip on a corrupt economy. It is clear that such decisions are unlikely to benefit anyone except those who can use the rule of law to get away with what can only be described as savage primitive accumulation (such as we see in Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand), dispossession of worker rights (across the country), and the garnering of surplus through speculation, particularly in real estate (also a nation-wide phenomenon).

Such “legal” means of subverting democracy, Balagopal observed, serve an important purpose, especially where the masses have consistently fought for legal rights. He writes:

“The rights have got formal recognition in the law only because they have real recognition in the hearts of the masses, and therefore to rule the masses without recognising the rights would be impossible. And equally, when it becomes necessary to violate the rights, it is preferable to enact the violation as formal laws, so that the legitimacy that attaches to law as such will give whatever justification that is possible for the violation.”

In today’s context, the state does not appear to be worried about how people view the legality of its enactments, rather it uses the fact of legality to enable non-legal acts, such as we witnessed in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, and Una, Gujarat. The point is, Balagopal notes in his 1993 essay, that the impunity that fascism revels in has to be understood not only in political terms, but in social terms as well. The idea that fascism is but a tethering of popular and legitimate anger and frustration to ignoble ends may explain what happened in Germany and Italy, but not what Hindutva does. Hitler and Mussolini did invoke socialism, for whatever dubious purpose, but “Hindutva abhors anything carrying the slightest taint of democracy and socialism so much that it will not even be populist.” Balagopal writes:

“A populist fascism, for instance, would today have made a big show of opposing the new economic policy. The BJP will not only not do that, it offers the most brazen arguments in defence of liberalisation of the economy. It must be remembered that the only time Hindutva so much as toyed with the idea of social equality was when the BJP adopted the ambiguous notion of Gandhian socialism for a short while, but that too was dropped very fast, for even the play-acting could not be stomached.”

‘Politics of resentment’

Such support for capitalist-driven “growth and development”, as we witness today, utilises long-standing homegrown rhetoric to underscore its appeal. As Balagopal reminds us, the core of Hindutva has to do with its commitment to the Dharmic life, where each is to stay satisfied with their caste position in the social hierarchy and transfer whatever passion they have for upliftment to the service of the nation. So, what we have in the Indian context “is not a fascist distortion of positive aspirations, but a fascist concentration of negative traits, of resentment and frustration born in reaction to the space conquered by the oppressed and the underprivileged in India’s political universe.”

This politics of resentment is, of course, best expressed in the Sangh Parivar’s diatribe against ostensible state “pampering” of the minorities, but it draws its powers of persuasion from a society that thrives on “graded inequality”. As Balagopal argues:

“It is not often enough recognised in Marxist analysis of counterrevolution that privileges exist at all levels of society and not just at the top – though not all of them may have an equally determining influence on the social structure – and therefore there is a little enemy of equality within each one of us, however lowly we may be in relation to the totality. The smallest farmer thinks he is superior to the wage labourer – especially, though not only, if the latter is untouchable – and the lowliest man thinks he is lord of his wife.”

In fact, in this scheme of things, “the very recognition of rights that go against (especially but not exclusively) traditional hierarchies and forms of privilege is regarded as proof of ‘pampering’ by the privileged, a grouse that finds articulate expression the moment a climate of legitimacy is created, as for instance when the country is caught in a deep economic crisis.”

In today’s context, the expression of resentment has become formalised; acts of violence against those who are resented are allowed with the ruling dispensation’s silent approval. Attempts to redress this huge moral deficit through heart-to-heart talks with the nation – where banal beliefs about growth and progress are routinely mouthed – represent another sort of formalism, at once cynical and deadening. But then what can we expect from a framework “that cannot express any liberating ideal, but can sanctify every suppressive injunction, everything that is negative and inhuman”.

The only option left then is to continuously build a politics of hope, and the onus is on democratic forces. Such forces, Balagopal somberly observes, “have the task of devising a strategy that will defeat the seemingly natural process by which one underprivileged group sees another slightly more or less underprivileged as its enemy. They can neither be dismissive of the need to fight for equality and justice at all levels, nor of the need to create a real unity of the oppressed”.

Courtesy: Scroll.in

Appointments of Chairperson & Members to NHRC Should be About Integrity, Independence & Commitment to Human Rights Protection

October 9, 2017

And it is unlikely that the new amendments to the PHRA (Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993) will include such an amendment that will also take into consideration the opinions of the political opposition.The Modi Government has been curiously selective in allowing the largest party in the lower house (Lok Sabha) to have a say in key appointments to such bodies.

Since its formation following a statute in 1993, in response to international commitments, the NHRC has functioned as an institution falling short of the immense expectations from a population getting more and more aware of their rights and violations by state and non-state actors.

From being called a toothless tiger to one that requires a far less centralised mode of operation, a serious limitation in the NHRC’s functioning has been the over arching domination of the political class in choosing those that represent this institution. The chairperson and members need to be of such a calibre who actually become the pallbearers of human rights protection in the country. Except for a few halcyon moments for the 24 year old institution (for example the Punjab Cremations Case and Gujarat 2002 Suo Moto Investigation), this august body –in popular perception –has failed to become the vibrant watchdog it was set out to be.

A prominently placed news report in the Hindu today informs readers that the Home Ministry has moved the Cabinet (GOI) to amend the recruitment process of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). According to the newspaper, a key change being contemplated is that a retired Supreme Court judge could also be considered for the Chairperson’s position, currently reserved for former Chief Justices of the Supreme Court.Similarly an amendment for appointment of members is also being considered. The members could be picked from a pool of retired Chief Justices of High Courts. Currently, a serving or retired SC judge is considered. The NHRC was constituted under the Protection of Human Rights Act in 1993. The Act was last amended in 2006.

“The amendments are being done on the request of the NHRC itself. Complying with international norms, some changes are being made in the Act that will open the floor for recruitment from a wider pool,” said a senior government official.The Commission consists of a chairperson, one member who is or has been a Judge of the Supreme Court, one member who is or has been the Chief Justice of a High Court and two members to be appointed from among persons having knowledge of, or practical experience in, matters relating to human rights.

Appointments Should be About Autonomy & Commitment to Human Rights Protection First
While on the face of it the move is welcome –since rights groups itself have been recommending that the restrictive categories from where the chairperson and members can currently be chosen is limited, the track record and actual choice of persons will be as material as simply ‘creating a wider pool.’

Currently, the appointments of the chairperson and other members are appointed by the President obtaining recommendations from a Committee consisting of the prime minister, speaker of the house, home minister, leader of both the houses of parliament and deputy chairperson of the Rajya Sabha.

But what happens when we have a government in power that simply does not recognise political opposition and debate and in fact has not even granted the single largest party the position of leader of the opposition?
The Modi Government has been curiously selective in allowing the largest party in the lower house (Lok Sabha) to have a say in key appointments to such bodies. Today while Gulam Nabi Azad enjoys the position of leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, while Mallikarjun Kharge is considered to be ‘de facto’ leader has not been formally given the position.

This anomaly or gap has been rather cleverly, if crudely twisted by the ruling dispensations when it comes to appointments. For example when it came to the appointment to the Director of the CBI, to suit its ends, the ruling party pushed through an amendment to the ‘Delhi Police Establishments Act’. Now instead of consulting with ‘Leader of the Opposiiton in Lok Sabha’ the appointment process is felicitated by consulting with ‘Leader of the Largest Party in the Lok Sabha.’ Significantly however such an amendment to allow consultation with the political opposition has not been felicitated in for instance, the appointment of the Lok Pal (through an amendment to the act). And it is unlikely that the new amendments to the PHRA (Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993) will include such an amendment that will also take into consideration the opinions of the political opposition.

In any case, the present Modi-led NDA II government had come in for some flak from the Supreme Court earlier this year when the court had asked the body to appoint the NHRC DG within a week.

Last November, the same central government that is today speaking of ‘widening the pool of appointments to the NHRC’ had come in for sharp criticism when it had tried to push through a political appointment.

Then again, earlier this year the current chief of NHRC, Justice HL Dattu, was quoted as saying “There should be amendment in the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 so that the commission can take action against officials who ignore its recommendations.”

Modi Govt Pushes Political Appointments into NHRC

Sabrangindia had reported (November 10, 2016) that while opposing the appointment of a senior office bearer of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a member of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), several judges and human rights activists have roundly condemned the decision – first of its kind – to appoint a career politician to the national human rights body.

We had pointed out that the decision, last November, to clear a politician to be on its panel is one more step of the ruling dispensation’s sinister intents to erode the autonomy of institutions. The Modi government, had tried once before to bring in a judge of the Supreme Court — Justice Sathasivam who had already accepted an executive post of Governor of Kerala. That controversial appointment had also been challenged by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL). We had also informed readers that this was not the first Time, NDA I too had encroached on NHRC’s Autonomy: before that NDA I, under Advani had brought in a CBI director seen favourable to the regime, in 2004. Then, LK Advani, India’s deputy prime minister and home minister in 2004, overruled the objections of Chief Justice AS Anand and insisted on the appointment, to the NHRC of a just retired Director of CBI.

Also Read
Political Appointment to NHRC Wrong in Principle: Justice Rajinder Sachar

A committee that appoints members to NHRC is chaired by prime minister and includes the home minister, leader of opposition from both the houses, speaker of Lok Sabha and deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha as its members. The committee headed by PM Modi had earlier anonymously cleared appointment of BJP VP Avinash Rai Khanna as a NHRC member despite his insufficient qualification and his participation in active politics. Khanna has had only a short stint (13 months) with Punjab State Human Rights Commission, which he quit on being elected to Rajya Sabha. The Congress had first claimed ignorance of the move.

Justice Rajinder Sachar, former chief justice of Delhi High Court and former member of United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human rights, criticising both the ruling BJP and the Congress had then told SabrangIndia, “How is that even possible? He himself is a leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha and Khanna is a former member of Rajya Sabha. How can he not be aware of Khanna’s affiliation with BJP? The Government is taking such a step and surprisingly even Congress is not opposing it? Their duplicity must be exposed.”

Further, Sachar called decision to appoint Khanna wrong “in principle” and also said that the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) will be taking steps to cancel Khanna’s appointment.

Justice Hosbet Suresh also condemned the committee’ decision, calling it, “fundamentally wrong”. “I am unable to understand how the committee cleared appointment of a politician anonymously. This needs to be challenged in the court,” he said.

Interestingly, when in opposition, BJP had opposed appointment of former Supreme Court judge Cyriac Joseph to NHRC citing his alleged closeness to “certain political and religious organisations”. However, the objection by the then Leader of Opposition Arun Jailtley was rejected by the panel and the appointment was cleared.

State surveillance and protest: “They try to make people think twice before taking to the streets”

October 9, 2017

State surveillance of digital communication in Egypt – and around the world – profoundly affects people’s ability to organise demonstrations and assemblies by creating a culture of fear.

Digital security expert Ramy Raoof. Image: CELS. Some rights reserved.

Ramy Raoof is a digital security expert bent on helping activists, journalists and others to protect their privacy, and he has won international awards for his efforts. He serves as senior research technologist at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), a member of the International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations (INCLO), which prioritises work on informational rights as well as police brutality and social protest.

Ramy has extensive experience in the Middle East and North Africa, and in recent months he has been sharing his knowledge with organisations in Latin America. He has seen firsthand how Egyptian officials use the information they collect through surveillance to harass and smear people working at NGOs. This crackdown on activists, which has intensified since 2013, seeks to silence dissent and diverse viewpoints. But Ramy says Egypt is far from alone in its murky use of state surveillance: the problem is global.

CELS: How does the use of surveillance technologies serve to chill the right to protest?

Ramy Raoof (RR): The way (states) are using surveillance is to limit people’s ability to organise. And people organise through different means: it could be through mobile apps or websites, with different tools ranging from Facebook and WhatsApp to Signal and Telegram and other ways. And then the adversary deploys surveillance to monitor people – not to ban them, but to know what they are going to do and then disrupt this action in some way.

They create this sense of fear that your emails and communications and everything are under surveillance

They think through surveillance they will disrupt people’s ability to organise and speak freely. So when there is a group of people trying to organise a protest or a demonstration or a sit-in or a march, or any form of assembly in a public space, the main way to make it ineffective is by monitoring people’s lives and then making an example of one of them.

How do they do this?

RR: When they make arrests, they will say: we have seen them planning this over email, or we have seen some Facebook activity about this. They create this sense of fear that your emails and communications and everything are under surveillance, even if it’s not true, but they just keep saying it so people will believe it.

When the adversary starts to attack the leaders of the community, or certain specific prominent figures, it’s basically to send a negative message to the others: we know what you are doing, we can see what you are doing, and we will punish you.

The whole idea is that they are trying to make people think twice before taking to the streets. And that’s why in some countries they not only deploy surveillance, they also make public assemblies illegal. So doing a protest, a march, a demonstration, a call for protest in itself is an illegal act and it’s complemented by surveillance.

In Egypt, how does the government justify its surveillance?

RR: One of the few times they had to speak publicly, when we were doing campaigns and research and publications against this, they went from not commenting, to denying, to admitting it’s happening, and then using the same international arguments used by different countries to justify this, most famously fighting terrorism: “It’s only used against the bad guys, you have nothing to hide.”

They have also said “we are following the lead of the UK and US, we want to be like democratic countries so we are doing this.” And at that time David Cameron was calling to block social media, so the guys in Egypt were super happy because (they thought) “OK, it’s coming from the UK, we’re also going to do the same, we will follow his steps.”

We cannot have an informed discussion and share knowledge and critique ourselves if we feel we are always being watched

Who is actually being monitored by states?

RR: When we look at the people who are under surveillance, they are not the most criminal or dangerous people. They are just normal people: they could be activists, artists, lawyers, university teachers, people who teach kids, they could be restaurants, coffee shops, it could be anyone.

So the assumption that (states) would only monitor specific profiles or specific kinds of people – that was true many, many years ago, but now we are seeing the scope of the mass surveillance going on, and they are just after everyone’s personal life.

We cannot have an informed discussion and share knowledge and critique ourselves if we feel we are always being watched. This means we don’t really have privacy to freely think and speak and discuss different topics without any interference or predetermined answers.

What can activists do to protect themselves?

RR: Since they are using surveillance to disrupt people’s ability to organise, people can fight back by adopting and advocating for free and open encryption because it will disrupt their surveillance ecosystem.

Across all countries and all intelligence agencies, they really hate encryption because it doesn’t allow them to see what they would like to see, and they would like to see everything, anytime, without restrictions, without permissions, without due process, without justification, without oversight. And encryption disrupts that.

That’s why encryption is very crucial to a healthier society in an open and free manner, because it’s our enabling mechanism towards private communication.

CELS is an Argentine human rights organisation with a broad agenda that includes defending the right to protest.

Courtesy: Open Democracy

My name is Mohammad Ali. I am a Rohingya and I don’t want to be deported from India

October 9, 2017

What does a Rohingya feel when he is told that he is an ‘illegal immigrant’, a ‘security threat’ and ‘unwanted’ in India? What was their life like before they had to run away to save themselves? What does it feel to be reduced to just a statistic? What do the Rohingyas feel when they hear the news that they will be deported back to the land where their lives are in danger? In a five-part series, Raqib Hameed Naik speaks to five refugees who had to give up all they owned to attempt a start a new life. Their stories, in the first person, are an attempt to go beyond majoritarian narratives and give them a platform to express their views and opinions. In the second part, we listen to Mohammad Ali.

Mohammad Ali, 31 (Raqib Hameed/TCN)

Mohammad Ali, 31, comes from Buthidaung town of Rakhine State. He along with his wife and four girl children live in a hut made up of polythene sheets, wood, and tin in Shram Vihar locality of South Delhi. He fled his town in 2012. This is his story.
“My name is Mohammad Ali and I was 26 when I left my country Myanmar on July 26, 2012. I remember the exact date because I had noted it in a diary. I have studied till class 10. I used to live with my parents, two brothers and two sisters in a two-room house in Buthidaung town.

I used to teach English subject to around 13-17 students up to class 6, earning enough to finance my needs. Parents used to come and request me to not leave their kids until their homework given in school is done.

But things were never good for us. After violence erupted in 2012, the government used to impose curfew in our town from six in the morning till six in the evening. We used to stay inside. Anyone who dared venture outside was shot dead. The guns were especially used against Muslims. The army used to come inside our villages and kill us.

Mostly, they used to target young boys as killing young Rohingya men would ensure that their next generation is wiped out.The army used to raid our houses and take us outside and kill us on the streets. The authorities used to issue notices to the families which had young teenagers as family members to report at the police stations or army camps.

It was their routine that every night, some 6-7 army personnel used to search our houses for young men and most of the time I used to give them a slip and take refuge in the neighbouring houses so as to save my life. Many youths were killed by the army and many of my friends and relatives fell to their bullets.

I remember Salauddin. He was my close friend in the town. He worked as a labourer in the town. He was called by the army to their base and since then I don’t know where he is. But this thing I know for sure he was shot dead because this is how they used to kill the youths: call them to their camps and kill them.

In another town, Maungdaw, seven of my friends were shot dead by the military. They were inside their houses when the army came and burned the structures down to ashes.

I was the only young man in my family. On 26 July, I received a similar notice from the army asking me to present myself at their camp. That was the moment my family asked me to run for my life because they knew if I go, I would meet the same fate as others.

The same night I left home and bid farewell to my family. Everyone was in tears when I left. I stayed in Shawprudaung village. Early morning I left at 5 am, marching through the mountains to reach Bangladesh-Myanmar border. On the way, I met hundreds of youths like me who were running for their lives. We shared food and water on the way.

In Bangladesh, I stayed in a border town. One of my relatives had already arrived in Delhi. I got in touch with him and he asked me to come to Delhi as he felt it was quite peaceful here. After resting for few days, I again set up on my journey to reach India and crossed the West Bengal border.

When I arrived in India, I didn’t know Hindi or any other language. It was very hard for me to communicate with the people here. In Bengal, I didn’t have any money with me to pay for the train ticket to Delhi and fortunately, a man came to know that I was from Myanmar and he bought me a ticket.

After reaching Delhi, I went to Haryana where I learned mason work because I didn’t know the local language here and I wasn’t that much qualified like other Indians to teach. So I left my profession and passion of teaching and started working as a labourer.
In 2013, I met Asmida Khatoon from Shawprudaung whose husband was killed by the army and in fear she fled Myanmar. She has deeply broken and I was also alone without a family so I married her.

I am earning at least 300 rupees a day subject to availability of work. The work doesn’t land up every day. I barely get 15 days work a month, fetching me just enough to make ends meet but at the end of the day, I thank God for keeping me and my family alive and safe in this safe country.

Sometimes, my fellow co-workers are from Indian states and they are really good. They appreciate my work and we eat together during lunch breaks and many times we share our food.

A few weeks ago I came to know that government is planning to deport us. If we are deported from India, then obviously we will go back to Myanmar and everyone knows how we are being slaughtered there.

I want to make it very clear to everyone out there that I am not a terrorist as the government is alleging us. I am just a common man like others, who yearn for peace and try hard to earn two square meals for his family so that they don’t have to sleep empty stomach.

I will go on my own when a solution is arrived at when the government stops killing us. Who doesn’t want to go back to his country?”

Courtesy: Two Circles

The caste politics curse that India just can’t shake off

October 9, 2017

India is still not able to do away with its caste politics as demonstrated by recent attacks on members of lower caste in south-western state of Gujarat during a festival.

Caste Politics
Maratha Kranti Morcha, a rallye for Marathi castes demanding respect of their rights in Mumbai last year. Mhidanesh/Wikimedia, CC BY-NC-SA

Yet Narendra Modi’s ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is making a dramatic effort to woo such lower castes. Three of these are especially important: reviewing social justice schemes, revisiting job reservations, and the sub-categorisation of lower castes.
These measures will eventually deepen India’s caste politics and strengthen the caste system – the world’s oldest surviving social hierarchy.

In India, society is divided among higher castes, lower castes (known as Other Backward Castes or OBCs, among the socially and “educationally backward” sections of Indian society), Scheduled Castes (known as Dalits, formerly “Untouchables”), and Scheduled Tribes (known as Adivasis).

Today, the BJP is strategically working to win the heart and the vote of millions of lower castes, who make up 41% of the Indian population. However, the BJP’s outreach initiatives are not born out of a concern for social justice; they are part of an electoral agenda.

Changing the BJP’s image

The BJP’s defeat in the 2009 general election proved a turning point for its engagement with lower castes. While still playing the Hindu nationalism card with dominant upper castes, the BJP is now deploying multiple strategies to win over lower castes too.
For example, Amit Shah, now the party’s president, first highlighted Modi’s own lower-caste background in the 2014 election in Uttar Pradesh. Later on, as prime minister, Modi was projected as the champion of lower caste groups. The party’s support for a Dalit presidential candidate was internationally hyped. Similarly, a recent cabinet reshuffle brought in more lower-caste leaders to appropriate the “numerical demographic” of OBCs for political gain.

The BJP is also making lower caste-friendly gestures in assembly elections campaigns in Gujarat and Karnataka. It highlights its commitment to provide constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC), a statutory body that works for the welfare of lower castes.

Interestingly, the BJP is also pushing the idea of revisiting the existing system of reservation, which allocates 27% of governmental jobs and seats in educational institutions to lower castes. This the party proposes to do by setting up a committee to sub-categorise these groups into “backward”, “extremely backward” and “most backward” classes.

Lower caste identity through history

These are big developments. For decades, most political parties – including the Jana Sangh, which morphed into the BJP in 1980 – played their politics in the usual framework, excluding the lower-caste categories from the power structure of the state.
The notion of “affirmative action through reservation” only appeared in the mid-1970s when socialist parties led by politicians Ram Manohar Lohia and Chaudhary Charan Singh started using it to mobilise and consolidate the lower castes as a separate political identity.

The identity of lower castes only began to coalesce in 1955, when the first Backward Classes Commission under Kaka Kalelkar recommended various reservation quotas in technical, professional and government institutions.

Lower castes in India have been associated with menial work and high rates of poverty. Sharada Prasad CS/Flickr, CC BY-SA

Then in 1990, lower-caste mobilisation was galvanised when the Second Backward Classes Commission – popularly known as the Mandal Commission – recommended that 27% of positions in educational institutions and public employment be reserved for OBCs.

This was violently opposed by non-political bodies, including conservative student organisations. Many of these were close to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an ultra-nationalist ideological group that supports the BJP. In 2006, these student wings fiercely opposed the Congress-led government’s decision to implement 27% lower caste job reservations in premier higher educational institutions.

Towards a universal Hindu identity

But now, India’s right-wing organisations have made peace with lower-caste aspirations. This has proved electorally rewarding, with the BJP successfully winning a greater share of the OBC vote. A third of the OBCs shifted to the BJP in the 2014 election, and in subsequent state elections.

Strategically, the BJP has focused on dismantling the caste-based parties’ monopoly over lower-caste votes. The tactic of painting other parties as corrupt bastions of single-caste politics worked wonders, as did an effort to compress the existing 2,479 lower castes into a smaller unit of individualised caste identity to diminish their collective heft.

The BJP also supported the aspirations of lower castes’ leaders through either finance or political alliance, accommodating OBC leaders in the party or ministerial portfolios at local, state and national level.

At the same time, the party is building a network of lower castes cadres in both rural and urban areas, as well as among young people and women. To penetrate the lower castes’ social base, the BJP formed an OBC Morcha or “special wing” in July 2015.

Religious ceremonies are organised to include lower castes back into the folds of Hinduism. Asim Chaudury/Flickr, CC BY-SA

On the one hand, right-wing Hindu organisations are engaged in the radical Hinduisation of lower castes and Dalits through programmes such as “Ghar Wapsi” or “Home Coming”, rituals of conversion to Hinduism, and running religious, spiritual and service programmes in lower caste areas.

On the other hand, the BJP’s core clientele of higher castes are satisfied thanks to the works of its right-wing support organisations. They continue spreading messages they want to hear, such as tactically portraying Muslims as a common enemy.

With many of its much-acclaimed policies failing to deliver, the BJP knows it has to sustain the charisma of Narendra Modi long enough to fight the 2019 legislative elections.

The party’s central challenge is to retain its support base while simultaneously supplementing it enough to ensure electoral victories. To do this, it must mobilise the emerging middle-class OBC vote – and it’s clearly prepared to do almost whatever it takes.

Afroz Alam, Associate Professor and Head, Department of Political Science, Maulana Azad National Urdu University

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

What is Actually Behind the BJP-RSS Combine’s Holy War Declared on Kerala

October 9, 2017

The Left, instead of falling into the Hindutva game-plan of tit for tat must concentrate on organising all sections of Kerala population against the anti-national plan of the “Sanatan Hindu rashtra” where Casteism, racism, inequality and Manu Code will thrive.

Image: PTI

The RSS-dominated BJP rulers of India have finally woken up against violence! You are grossly mistaken if you believe that they are seeking forgiveness for large scale killing/raping/maiming/robbing people of the minorities specially Muslims and Christians in 1992-3 (nation-wide carnage of Muslims before and after demolition of a mosque at Ayodhya), 1998 (wide-spread violence against Christians in Gujarat), 2002 (carnage of Muslims in Gujarat) and Kandhmal, Orissa violence of 2007-8 (cleansing of Christians in the area). The RSS/BJP rulers have not expressed any intention of discarding or checking the present spate of violence against minorities in the name of cow, love-jihad, ghar wapsi (forcible conversion of Muslims and Christians to Hinduism) and allegiance to Hindutva.

There has been no respite in violence against Dalits too. In fact, in last three years incident of violence against Dalits has escalated by around 300%. Casteist, criminal and patriarchal elements are having free run in inflicting violence against women. The same is the fate of peasantry, working class, students and intellectuals. Never in the history of India’s independence,these classes were subjected to such brutal denigration and repression in the name of Bharat Mata.

But it is only Kerala only where violence is running amok perpetrated by the CPM government of the State against RSS/BJP cadres which has been labelled as ‘red terror’.

The rulers marching under the banner of Hindutva have declared war against Kerala government by launching a strident Jan Raksha Yatra. It is not that only the left, CPM-run government of the state that is under attack. The whole of the Kerala society, its ethos and culture is under attack. The national leadership of RSS/BJP has descended on Kerala to fight the Left, to be specific, the CPM for ‘perpetrating violence’. The UP chief minister Mahant Yogi Adityanathwho has many criminal cases pending against him in UP courts is at the forefront, the commander of this Hindutva juggernaut. According to Adityanath the Left has turned the state into a factory of “jihadi terrorism” which should be matter of serious concern for India as a whole. To quote him, “In the guise of secularism, CPM has turned Kerala into hub of jihadi terror. It must be rejected for which we have come here to create public consciousness”.

No proofs are of course offered in support of these serious allegations against Kerala and its people. Even the home ministry of India which is under the charge of Adityanath’s Hindutva co-traveller, Rajnath Singh and other national intelligence agencies like NIA, CBI and IB under him have not prepared any such dossier. If this was so CPM government would have been dismissed long ago by the Modi government. But this denigration of the state and government of Kerala publicly continues. In any other country the person/s making such wild allegations would have been hauled up by courts and deposited within the safe custody of jails.

Despite this smoke-screen created by the rhetoric, the Hindutva leadership has been unable to hide its real design. None less than Adityanath, the newly surcharged Hindutva icon has spilled the beans. He declared that in Kerala “the red will turn saffron soon”. This would be done by converting Kerala into a “Sanatan Hindu Rashtra”. The Left would be cleansed as Adi Shankaracharya did in the 8^th century by cleansing opponents. According to Adityanath “When the country’s religion and culture was threatened by foreign invaders, Shankaracharya launched the movement for the protection of the Hindu religion. Today, time has come to replicate the Shankaracharya movement and Hindu culture must be protected and preserved in Kerala”.

By foreign invaders Adityanath must have meant Buddhism and Jainism (as that period there were no Muslim or Christian ‘invader’) and what Shankaracharya army did to these religions has been chronicled by the two prominent saints of Hinduism.

According to Dayanand Sarswati, founder of Arya Samaj “For ten years he (Adi Shankaracharya) toured all over the country, refuted Jainism and advocated the Vedic religion. All the broken images that are now-a- days dug out of the earth were broken in the time of Shankar, whilst those that are found whole here and there under the ground had been buried by the Jainis for fear of their being broken (by those who had renounced Jainism).”[i]

Swami Vivekananda while describing cleansing of Buddhism from India wrote: “The temple of Jaganath is an old Buddhistic temple. We took this and others over and re-Hinduised them. We shall have to do many things like that yet.”.[ii]

It is surprising that Hindutva bandwagon does not organise anti-beef yatra in Kerala where beef is part and parcel of a secular diet. It does not launch any movement for banning cow-slaughter in the State. It only exposes its own hypocrisy. The issue of Islamic jehad and Left having a foreign ideology are being used as the RSS feels that after Gujarat it is Kerala which could be the laboratory of Hindutva because has substantial presence of minorities.

It should not surprise anybody that RSS basically represents hegemonic Brahamanism of North India that historically looked down upon, if not hated the Keralite Hindu and treated them as if belonging to inferior race.

MS Golwalkar, the RSS Supremo was invited to address the students of the School of Social Science of Gujarat University on December 17, 1960. In this address, while underlying his firm belief in the Race Theory, he touched upon the issue of cross-breeding of human beings in the Indian Hindu society in history. He said:

“Today experiments in cross-breeding are made only on animals. But the courage to make such experiments on human beings is not shown even by the so-called modern scientist of today. If some human cross-breeding is seen today it is the result not of scientific experiments but of carnal lust. Now let us see the experiments our ancestors made in this sphere. In an effort to better the human species through cross-breeding the Namboodri Brahamanas of the North were settled in Kerala and a rule was laid down that the eldest son of a Namboodri family could marry only the daughter of Vaishya, Kashtriya or Shudra communities of Kerala. Another still more courageous rule was that the first off-spring of a married woman of any class must be fathered by a Namboodri Brahman and then she could beget children by her husband. Today this experiment will be called adultery but it was not so, as it was limited to the first child.”[iii]

This statement of Golwalkar is worrying at several levels. Firstly, it proves that Golwalkar believed that India had a superior Race or breed and also an inferior Race which needed to be improved through cross-breeding. An equally worrying aspect was his belief that Brahmans of the North (India) and specially Namboodri Brahamans, belonged to a superior Race. Due to this quality, Namboodri Brahamanas were sent from the North to Kerala to improve the breed of inferior Hindus there. Interestingly, this was being argued by a person who claimed to uphold the unity of Hindus world over. Thirdly, Golwalkar as a male chauvinist believed that a Namboodri Brahman male belonging to a superior Race from the North only could improve the inferior human Race from South. For him the wombs of Kerala’s Hindu women enjoyed no sanctity and were simply breeding organs, destined for ‘improving the breed through intercourse with Namboodri Brahamanas who in no way were related to them.’ Golwalkar was thus conferring legitimation on a regressive and medieval practice, prevalent amongst the male dominated high Caste Hindu society in the past, that forced gendered violence on newly-wedded women of other Castes by compelling them to spend the first night of their marriage with ‘superior’ caste males.

It is surprising that despite holding and propagating such ideas that denigrate Hindu women of Kerala and hold them in contempt, the RSS has been able to create pockets of influence within Kerala society. And present itself as saviour of the Hindus of Kerala.

There is no doubt that some parts of Kerala are in the grip of bitter and condemnable political violence. This is sad for a State which is known for its high literacy, deep sense of culture, finest gender ratio and all-inclusiveness. Hindutva leaders present the violence as one-sided; saying only their cadres are being targeted. This is not true. According to police records accessed by journalist Sneha Mary Koshy of NDTV, “172 political murders have occurred since 2000. Of these, the RSS and the BJP have together lost 65 party workers, while 85 of the CPI (M)’s workers have been killed. 11 activists each of the Congress and the IUML have also been killed in this period.”[iv] The data on killings clearly shows that insince the year 2000 that BJP/RSS sole victimhood is not supported by facts. But one unfortunate aspect of these killings is that almost all victims hailed from poor families.

In fact, it was not long ago that Golwalkar, the most prominent ideologue of the RSS who has been described as ‘guru of hate’ in an essay titled ‘Internal Threats’ identified three sections of the Indians as ‘Internal Threats’ who needed to be neutralized. Muslims, Christians and Communists were declared to be ‘Internal Threats’ number one, two and three respectively.[v] Muslims and Christians have been perennial targets of Hindutva storm troopers for being ‘outsiders’ and it is the turn of the Communists now. This guru wrote: “Socialism is not a product of this soil. It is not in our blood and tradition. It has absolutely nothing to do with the traditions and ideal of thousands of years of our national life.”[vi]

This semi-literate (a status worst then being illiterate) guru thus denigrated hundreds of great martyrs of India namely Bhagat Singh, Chandershekhar Azad, Sukhdev, Rajguru and Ashfaqullah Khan who sacrificed their lives raising the slogan ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ and dream of building a Socialist India. Golwalkar while describing Socialism as alien ideology insults even swami Vivekananda who declared “I am a socialist not because I think it is a perfect system, but half a loaf is better than no bread” and described Socialism “as the vanguard of the social revolution that is to follow”.’

The political violence in parts of Kerala is not an aberration but part of Hindutva strategy of hegemony over those parts of India where the ‘other’ kind of Hindu resides. The Left, instead of falling into the Hindutva game-plan of tit for tat must concentrate on organising all sections of Kerala population against the anti-national plan of the “Sanatan Hindu rashtra” where Casteism, racism, inequality and Manu Code will thrive.

[i]Swami Dayanand Sarswati, Satyarth Prakash, p. 347.

[ii] Swami Vivekananda, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, vol 3, Advaita Ashram, Calcutta, p. 264.

[iii] M. S. Golwalkar cited in Organizer, January 2, 1961.

[iv]http://www.thenewsminute.com/article/how-many-political-murders-have-taken-place-kerala-last-17-years-what-numbers-say-66354

[v]MS Golwalkar, Bunch of Thoughts, Sahitya Sindhu, Bangalore, 1996, p. 176-201.

[vi]Ibid., p. 200.

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