What will it take to end child sexual abuse in India?

September 27, 2017

In 2012 new legislation was passed to protect children against sexual abuse. But the gap between the law and ground realities remains large.

Chattisgarh child rights training, warm-up exercise. Photo: Prita Jha.

It is only in the last decade or so that the Indian state has acknowledged that child sexual abuse is an issue which requires government intervention. In 2007, a landmark survey (the first and last of its kind) revealed rampant physical and sexual abuse across 13 states. It interviewed 12,447 children; 53% had suffered some kind of sexual violence and around one in five said they had suffered serious sexual assault.

The most worrying statistic was that 70% of children had not disclosed the abuse to anyone, confused about what to say, afraid of their abuser, or afraid that they would not be supported but blamed. Most children said they knew their abuser who was often a neighbour, relative or friend. When they did disclose abuse, many were told to keep quiet, or were blamed for the abuse. Too many caregivers took no action, even denying the disclosure of abuse.

Active engagement with children, parents, teachers and schools is needed to counter such deafening silence, and create an environment that enables children to speak out. I lead an organisation called Peace and Equality Cell (PEC) which has worked with more than 150 survivors of child sexual abuse in the last four years. We have observed that poverty adds an additional layer of vulnerability when parents are too poor to afford suitable childcare and the child is assaulted whilst both parents are out working.

‘poverty adds an additional layer of vulnerability when parents are too poor to afford suitable childcare’

The story of one mother and five-year old daughter, who live in an urban slum in Ahmedabad, reflects some of the challenges of these cases. Savitri routinely left Joshila with other children in an area where a loose arrangement of neighbours and parents were supposed to note if something went amiss. One day, Joshila’s 16-year-old cousin Mohan took her to his home, which was familiar to her. He experimented on her, carrying out anal and vaginal rape.

The assault led to a raging battle between Savitri (who wanted Mohan prosecuted for “spoiling her daughter’s life”) and Joshila’s paternal grandmother, who was also Mohan’s maternal grandmother, Ammaji (who wanted the whole thing hushed up to save the family’s honour and, of course, to save her grandson from criminal proceedings).

Where family and community ties are very strong, sexual assault may or may not be reported to the police depending on a number of factors, the most important of these being the relative power of the perpetrator’s family and community versus that of the survivor.

The 2012 Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) sought to take into account some of these ground realities to ensure that perpetrators were brought to justice. Among other things it requires ‘child-friendly’ procedures and infrastructure to ensure that children are not re-victimised and re-traumatised whilst navigating the criminal justice system.

But there is a huge gap between the law and its implementation.

‘there is a huge gap between the law and its implementation’

POCSO provides for a trained child welfare officer to act in the child’s ‘best interest’. It says children should not have to travel to police stations but that their statements should be taken by police officers at their home or at another location where the child feels comfortable, in the presence of trusted adults.

Police must ensure there is no face-to-face confrontation between the child and the alleged perpetrator and that the child’s identity is kept confidential at all times unless directed otherwise by the court. Police are supposed to provide the survivor with information about counselling, legal aid and compensation. They must ensure that medical examinations happen as soon as possible, and within 24 hours of being informed of abuse.

Although police have gradually become aware of POCSO and the number of individuals charged with offences has increased, particularly in Gujarat, the transformation of police stations to into child-friendly places has a long way to go. I have yet to see a station furnished, for example, with toys or magazines.

There is also a scarcity of private space in police stations. One 16-year-old survivor told me she was traumatised when she had to give her statement to a male police officer in a room where three other male police officers were present even though they were busy with other duties. Her parents were not allowed to sit with her to give her the moral support she needed.

The author Prita Jha meeting with parents about trial process in a child sexual abuse case. Photo: Nazir Khan Pathan.

Recently, I was present at a police station where PEC was assisting two survivors in a POSCO case. The two 12 and 15 year old girls were at the station for more than six hours, exhausted, hungry and thirsty. The were not offered a meal until around midnight. The recording of the older girl’s statement was interrupted several times and she was even moved from one room to another as her statement was being taken.

Shockingly, police officers allowed a face-to-face confrontation between the survivors and the alleged perpetrator, saying this was necessary to assess whether the girls were telling the truth. The whole concept of preventing secondary trauma and re-victimisation of children has not really sunk into police psyche.

‘the whole concept of preventing secondary trauma and re-victimisation of children has not really sunk into police psyche’

In Gujarat, most courts have common waiting areas and toilets which enhance the risk of confrontation between the accused, the survivor, and their families. This contravenes the 2012 law which says the child should not be exposed to the accused whilst testifying.

It also enables the accused’s supporters to attempt an illegal settlement of the case, a common practice known as samadhan or ‘compromise’. In these cases, witnesses may turn hostile, denying original testimonies of abuse. As their evidence is usually essential to prosecutions, the perpetrator goes scot-free.

Two years ago, in one village, the sexual assault of a girl with a learning disability was hushed up as the boy came from a powerful family. It was only after a PEC volunteer spoke to the village sarpanch (head) – and reminded him that the new law makes reporting of sexual offences mandatory, and non-reporting an imprisonable offence – that he reported it.

At this point, the girl’s mother Leelaben was offered money by the accused’ family to settle the case. PEC worked hard to convince her not to accept it (she was concerned about her daughter’s marriage prospects, and felt that the money would help her arrange a marriage). In this case, timely disbursement of compensation via the courts played a key role in preventing an illegal settlement.

PEC volunteers talking about children’s rights and good touching and bad touching. Photo: Ketan Baria.

POCSO has had the unintended consequence of criminalising consensual, adolescent sexual activity. Any sexual activity of children under 18 years is caught within the remit of this law, and approximately one third of POCSO cases are in this consensual category involving adolescent sexuality rather than child sexual abuse.

One proposal to address this is to lower the age of consent from 18 to 16. But as girls between 15-18 are most at risk of abuse, this could make things worse; already, proving consent in a trial is a vexed issue.

There have also been cases of parents of adolescent girls who disapprove of their romantic relationships using POSCO against their boyfriends. They can register a kidnapping case and make a claim of penetrative sexual assault which carries a mandatory minimum seven-year sentence. The girl may then be forced into marriage with a man considered suitable by the family.

Despite laws against child marriage, about 50% of Indian women between 20-24 years old were married before they turned 18. Marital rape is not criminal in India if the bride is 15 or older. This is presently being challenged by a NGO called Independent Thought, in the Supreme Court as being unconstitutional and against the state’s child policy.

What explains the gap between POSCO on paper and in practice? An entrenched culture of silence and victim blaming leads to low levels of disclosure. When disclosure happens, families struggle with shame and dishonour. Too often, public institutions fail to provide safe, supportive and enabling environments that survivors need to take on an arduous battle for justice.

Radical social transformation combined with a deep understanding of the child-friendly ethos of POCSO (as opposed to the adversarial norms of the Indian criminal justice system) has to be embedded within the psyche of the police, lawyers and judges. Courts should also be given discretion, and guidelines, at the sentencing stage to take into account factors such as age differences, inequalities between the victim and the perpetrator, the seriousness of the offence and its impact on the survivor.

Prita Jha is a legal activist, researcher and trainer working with issues of justice for survivors of communal, gender and sexual violence. She is the co-editor of a book, On Their Watch: Mass Violence and State Apathy in India, Examining the Record, with Surabhi Chopra. She has also taught courses on Gender and Criminal justice Administration at Nirma University, Gujarat.

Courtesy: Open Democracy

Will outlawing ‘instant divorce’ advance justice for Muslim women in India?

September 27, 2017

The Supreme Court of India recently struck down a specific divorce practice among its minority Muslims. The age-old practice known as “triple talaq” allowed a Muslim man to dissolve his marriage by uttering the term divorce three times, all at once.

Triple Talaq
Activists protesting against the recently banned triple divorce. AP Photo/Altaf Qadri

As a scholar who has conducted research among Muslim communities in India, I have seen firsthand how the abuse of this practice resulted in devastating consequences for Muslim women in India. In recent years, some men, for example, were divorcing their wives over Skype or a phone app. Many women found themselves abandoned, without any access to financial resources and in some cases custody of their children.

India came to this decision late after predominantly Muslim countries such as Pakistan, Iran, Indonesia and several Arab nations had outlawed the practice in the 20th century. And controversially so. Even now, perhaps most fundamentally, the question remains – what difference will it actually make?

Divorce in Islam

Divorce in Islam is regulated by a number of considerations and responsibilities. According to the principles of sharia, or Islamic law, the recommended practices are to have two witnesses to the decision to end the marriage, hear both sides, allow time to reflect and reconcile, and carefully handle matters of property.

The process is not cut and dried, but is instead based on mediation, facilitated by an Islamic judge. These judges try to abide by principles of Islamic law and take into account the unique circumstances and life situations of all parties. For example, in some divorces women retain the “mehr,” which is the money the husband agrees to gift the bride at the time of marriage. In others, she is expected to return the gift upon divorce.

Still, the procedures differ significantly between men and women. Men have the right to declare “talaq” and thus end the marriage, although they are required to take three months before finalizing their decision.

When a Muslim woman wants to initiate a divorce based on Islamic law, she generally must turn to an Islamic judge or imam (leader) to assist her if the husband refuses his consent.

There are many possible justifications under Islamic law: A woman might claim her husband prevents her from being pious or that he has abandoned or neglected her. It could also be that the husband is impotent, has other health issues or is in prison. I have also seen divorce granted on the grounds of cruelty. Islamic judges can even annul the marriage on certain grounds.

In sum, women have ways to seek divorce under Islamic law. But unlike men, they cannot unilaterally make a binding decision to end the marriage.

In the debates that led up to the Indian Supreme Court ruling many Muslim activists and intellectuals argued that the practice of instant divorce by the husband did not exist in the Quran and is therefore not a practice that should fall under religious freedom. The majority opinion on the court accepted this argument that triple talaq, in which the word “talaq” is said all at once, is not a truly Islamic practice.

A lawyer speaks with the media following the divorce verdict in New Delhi. Reuters/Adnan Abidi

Status of religious minorities

So why did it take so long to rule against this practice in India?

While India is a secular country, the rights of minority communities such as Muslims and Christians to practice their religious laws in matters of marriage, divorce, inheritance, custody and adoption are constitutionally protected.

In view of this protection, any attempt by the government to interfere in religious law and community matters is viewed as a violation of minority rights and a threat to freedom. For example, in 1985, when a Muslim woman, Shah Bano, filed a petition in court demanding the right to alimony from her divorced husband, the case became highly political and controversial. Muslim leaders demanded that the government not interfere in “personal” and religious matters.

Today, Muslims have even more cause to worry about interference in their communities. Since the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014, the Hindu nationalist movement has become emboldened. Hindu nationalism promotes the political domination of “ancient” Hindu culture over all other cultures in India. For example, in the name of protecting the sacredness of cows and Hindu tradition, there have been many cow vigilante groups, who have attacked minority Muslims for eating beef.

For this reason, even progressive legal changes like banning instant divorce were viewed by some Muslim leaders as one small step in a larger attack on religious minorities.

Where are Muslim women’s voices?

The other issue is who speaks on behalf of the Muslim community. Muslims constitute 14 percent of India’s population and are enormously diverse. However, it is the self-appointed Muslim leaders who have been the most vocal on the issue, saying that the government should not intervene in Muslim family laws.

India does not demand official representatives of the Muslim community, as do some other countries, such as France and Italy.

Consequently, Muslim women’s groups have been struggling to be heard in these debates.

Condition of Muslim women in India

For many reasons, it is not clear how much the court ruling will improve women’s overall lives.

Divorce appears to be lower among Muslim women than among women of other religious communities. The divorce rate (based on the number of divorces per 1000 married women) is just over 5 percent for Muslim women, lower than the rate for Christian and Buddhist women.

Moreover, as women’s rights lawyer Flavia Agnes argued, there have already been a number of legal cases that effectively declared instant divorce invalid.

Muslim women in India are dealing with a large number of challenges. AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal

It is also important to note that Muslim women are dealing with a large number of challenges. These include widespread poverty, lack of access to education and an illiteracy rate of almost 40 percent in urban areas and over 50 percent in rural areas. (These percentages can vary widely across India.) Muslim women have the lowest rate of primary school completion compared to other groups, at 71 percent in urban areas and 48 percent in rural areas.

Arbitrary divorce is therefore only one of the injustices Indian Muslim women face.

Furthermore, while many Muslim women may want and need internal reforms in their communities, they are uncomfortable in courts and also have reasons to distrust the state. There are cases of police abuses against Muslims, with rates of incarceration being higher compared to other communities.

In my own research among low-income Muslim communities in the Indian city of Hyderabad, people did not think government intervention would really improve their lives. They also feared it would undermine their religious autonomy.

Often, women look for local solutions before approaching civil courts. In one low-income neighborhood I studied, a group of activists worked with Islamic judges to help women in situations of marital crisis or domestic violence secure a divorce or claim their financial rights in the aftermath of divorce. Activists told me that developing supportive relationships with these judges resulted in faster, easier and less costly resolution of family conflicts than going through civil courts.

While legal advancement is important and ensuring fairness in divorce is something to celebrate, it is but one small step toward a greater vision of gender justice.

Z. Fareen Parvez, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts Amherst

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

Saudi Arabia to lift ban on women driving from June 2018

September 27, 2017

Saudi Arabia will never be the same again, says a Saudi woman campaigner for the right to drive

Photo credit: BBC

Saudi women will at last be able to drive from June 24 next year. A decree to this effect has been issued by Saudi Arabia’s King Salman.
Today this Gulf Kingdom is the only country in the world where women are prohibited from driving a vehicle. Women who defied the ban were arrested and fined.

The royal decree has been greeted with applause from across the globe. American President Donald Trump has welcomed the move as “a positive step” towards the promotion of women’s rights.

Sahar Nassif, a Saudi woman who has for long campaigned for the right to drive told BBC she was “very, very excited, jumping up and down and laughing”. “I’m going to buy my dream car, a convertible Mustang, and it’s going to be black and yellow!” she added.

The country’s US ambassador, Prince Khaled bin Salman, confirmed that women would not have to get male permission to take driving lessons, and would be able to drive anywhere they liked.

He said it was “an historic and big day” and “the right decision at the right time”.

Rights groups in Saudi Arabia have been campaigning for years demanding an end to the ban on women driving.
Manal al-Sharif, an organiser of the Women2Drive campaign who has also been imprisoned for driving, said on Twitter that Saudi Arabia would “never be the same again”.

The hashtags “I am my own guardian” and “Saudi Women Can Drive” quickly gained traction on social media.

Egypt: Somewhere over the rainbow there are police ready to pounce

September 27, 2017

Seven people who waved rainbow flags during a music festival in Egypt have been arrested for “promoting sexual deviancy”.

Fans waved rainbow flags at the Cairo concert

The flags appeared during a performance by the popular Lebanese band, Mashrou’ Leila, at the Music Park Festival in Cairo last Friday. Mashrou’ Leila is controversial because its songs question “traditional” ideas about Arab politics and society. It attracts a gay following partly because one of its songs, “Shim El Yasmine”, is about same-sex love but mainly because its lead singer, Hamed Sinno, is openly gay.

Sinno caused a stir at Lebanon’s Byblos International Festival in 2010 when he grabbed a rainbow flag from a member of the audience and attached it to his microphone. “Right in front of me, there was a crowd of about 100 LGBT kids and there was this kid, 18 at most, and he was waving the rainbow flag and his friends were doing the same thing with signs on gay rights,” he said later.

Since then, Sinno has emerged as the Arab world’s most famous openly-gay celebrity (and is still virtually the only one).

Following last week’s incident in Cairo, the government-linked Syndicate of Musical Professions – a body tasked with suppressing “abnormal” kinds of music – said future performances in Egypt by Mashrou’ Leila will be banned.

Draped in a rainbow flag: one of the Egyptian fans

Mashrou’ Leila has performed several times before in Cairo, as well as in Dubai and Tunis but has twice been prevented from performing in Jordan, where it has a large fan base – last year and earlier this year.

Rainbow flags were first adopted by gay rights activists in California in the 1970s and have since spread to many other countries. In some parts of the world, though, many people are still unaware of the LGBT connection – and are often shocked to find out.

Rainbow-coloured copies of the Qur’an are marketed as “an ideal gift for Muslims” and in Saudi Arabia rainbow umbrellas are sometimes used as sunshades.

The rainbow Qur’an – “an ideal gift for Muslims”

It wasn’t until 2015 that the Saudi religious police discovered this multi-coloured peril lurking in their midst – and cracked down on it. Their first victim was a privately-run school in Riyadh which had rainbow stripes painted on a parapet. The school was fined 100,000 riyals ($26,650) for displaying “the emblem of the homosexuals” and forced to repaint its parapet in plain blue.

This Saudi school was fined for displaying “the emblem of the homosexuals”

The first public appearance of a rainbow flag in an Arab country is thought to have occurred in March 2003, when 10 supporters of the nascent LGBT rights group, Helem, paraded it during an anti-war demonstration in Beirut. The flag, stitched together by a member of the group, hung in the window of Helem’s office for several years afterwards.

Update: doubts about arrests

In a post on Facebook, Scott Long, who has written extensively about LGBT issues in Egypt, casts doubt on the reported arrests. He writes:

a) The Egyptian tabloid press started reporting on Monday morning that police had arrested 7 people for hoisting a rainbow flag at the Mashrou’ Leila concert last week. So far, lawyers have apparently not been able to locate these arrestees. The news outlet that first reported the arrests has good connections to the police. But it is still possible that the police or the newspaper were lying, to give the impression that the highly moral Sisi regime is doing something about the “outrage.”
b) I think I can say with personal confidence that if people have been arrested so far, they were not the ones who were holding up the rainbow flag at the concert.
c) People are rightly terrified, including people who were actually at the concert. They need to make rational, informed decisions about their safety. But rumors — or premature, frightening statements from NGOs — won’t help them to do that.
d) This is a new intensification of the same old moral panic about sex and gender that the Sisi regime uses to shore up its support. It’s going to claim victims, if it hasn’t already. I hope external LGBT NGOs who have been (in my view) disgracefully silent about the crackdown in Egypt will be ready to act when it’s clear what is happening. I hope they won’t leap prematurely to create the false appearance of effective action, when in fact they’re planning just the tired, useless same-old same-old. LGBT activists who haven’t yet called for a complete end to European and American military aid to the Egyptian dictatorship: you should have done so four years ago. So: do it now. This horrible story doesn’t give you any new reasons to do so. All the horrors are on record. The facts in this case will come. Today, now, without equivocating, say what you should have said — and didn’t have the courage to — starting in 2013.

Courtesy: http://al-bab.com

No corner of BHU campus is safe for us: female students

September 27, 2017

For the female students of BHU, public molestation has become an everyday norm. And they have had enough of it.

“Male students fearlessly touch us, pass lewd remarks and go scot-free.”

Newsclick Image by Nitesh Kumar

“It has become so common on the campus that nobody pays heed to it.”

“The warden mockingly tells us, ‘Arre kaunsa pahar toot padha hai …sirf private parts hi to chuye hain…ladke hain to chedkhani karenge hi (Why to make a mountain out of the molehill? They have only touched your private parts … They are boys, its okay if they do a bit of eve-teasing).”

For the female students of Banaras Hindu University (BHU), this has become the new normal. And it gets worse from here. From grabbing women by their body parts to putting hands in their clothes, from masturbating outside the windows of the girl’s hostel to passing lewd comments on campus, the female students aren’t spared any kind of physical and mental harassment from the male students. Neither the teachers nor the police is interested in the student’s complaints. And this is exactly what happened in case of the sexual harassment of a Triveni Girls Hostel resident, which turned into a movement on Friday and Saturday.

At around 6 pm on Thursday, while the student was on her way to her hostel, a couple of motorcycle-borne men came and allegedly tried to put their hands inside her clothes. When she raised the alarm, the guards ignored her complaints. Determined, she approached the Proctor’s office which was barely 20 metres away from the place of the incident. But instead of looking for her assailants, the proctor questioned the victim on why she was out so late.

“Though the issue molestation of a girl returning to the hostel at 7 p.m. became a big issue this time, this is not the first incident,” said a girl student of Naveen Hostel.

“Few perverts masturbate outside the windows of my hostel without any fear. When we complain to the proctor, he asks us to catch the boys. We are advised to keep the window closed. We have given written complaints on several occasions but all in vain.” She further said that “No corner of the campus is safe for girls studying here. Molestation has become so common that nobody pays heed to that”.

Fed up with this constant harassment and callous approach of the BHU administration, the girls of the university took to the street and started an agitation seeking a safe campus. They demanded that the Vice Chancellor Girish Chandra Tripathi should meet them with an assurance to make the campus safe and secure. They also demanded that street lights and CCTV cameras should be installed in the campus so that some action can be taken against the culprits.

But Tripathi, instead of meeting the students, called the police to deal with them. The “peaceful” protest turned violent when the police resorted to lathi-charge, tear gas shells and rubber bullets to disperse the agitated girls on Saturday night. Around a dozen of girls reportedly suffered injuries. The administration also registered a FIR against 1,000 BHU students in Lanka police station for arson on Monday. The entire university campus has been turned into police cantonment with local police and jawans of Provincial Armed Constabulary stationed in and outside the campus in large numbers. The girl residents of the university have been asked to vacate their hostels, failing which they would be “forcibly removed”.

Meanwhile, Station Officer (SO) of Lanka police station Rajiv Singh, Circle Officer (CO) Belapur Nivesh Katiyar and three Additional City Magistrate Manoj Kumar Singh, Sushil Kumar, Gaund and Jagdamma Prasad Singh have been removed prima facie for executing the charge.

Outraged with the police crackdown on the night of September 23, at least four girls – while talking to NewsClick – described the horror they have to face in and outside the campus.

“When we approach the chief proctor with complaints of sexual harassment in the campus, we are asked if we jot down the number of the bike-borne men who tried to molest us,” said one of them.

“Once few men surrounded a girl when she had gone out of the hostel for a piece of work. She somehow managed to escape and reached the hostel guard and she was asked to go to the hostel. But the guard did not tell anything to the goons. They smashed the guard’s chair. Outsiders enter girls’ hostel premises without any hindrance. We do not feel safe here at all,” she recounted.

A second-year student of Fine Arts department alleged that “The guards here never miss the opportunity to object when we are accompanied by our relatives or male friends”.

Talking about the incident when an undergraduate student of Mahila Maha Vidyalaya, affiliated to the BHU, was allegedly asked to leave a girls’ hostel as she showed “tendencies of homosexuality and indiscipline”, a female resident of the Triveni Hostel said the allegation against the ousted girl was “baseless”. “Even it was true, having different sexual orientation was indiscipline for the university administration but harassment of girl students here are normal for them. It is sheer hypocrisy,” she added.

Recalling the ordeal she suffered one day, the girl student alleged, “One day I was going somewhere. When I was sitting on a rickshaw, two bike-borne male students told me, ‘Paanch hazar logi (Will you have sex with us for Rs 5,000)’. I felt helpless and cried throughout the night.”

Courtesy: Newsclick.in

Why are we silent on the grave threat to Kancha Ilaiah?

September 26, 2017

The professor must be provided all the security that he needs and those threatening to kill him must be prosecuted.

Professor Kancha Ilaiah

While it is nobody’s suggestion that India was a tolerant land some three years back and suddenly has developed intolerance, none can deny the fact that the goons threatening intellectuals and activists have certainly become more arrogant and encouraged by the absolute ‘disinterest’ shown by those in power. In the past few years we have lost number of persons in the cause of human rights and secularism and probes have reached nowhere even though links with organisations associated with Hindutva groups have been reported in the media.

Activists are being threatened; intimidated and street goons have taken it upon themselves to provide ‘justice’. Where the person is a bit powerful, cases are filed against him in the court while goons are let loose to physically intimidate him.

Kancha Ilaiah is a well-known Bahujan philosopher who has been actively critiquing the Brahminical social order and its injustices meted out to the Dalits-OBCs and adivasis. Should he not be allowed to do this under the garb of ‘hurt’ community sentiments? It is not the question of any outsider writing a critique but a person from the community historically denied right. The only difference this time was that his new book that has come out is about the Vaishya (also spelt Vysya) community which is basically a trading community.

Normally Brahmins are the target but this time the Vaishyas (Banias) have taken it upon themselves to protest against Ilaiah for writing against them. The main contention of the community is that they have been called ‘social smugglers’ by Kancha Ilaiah in his book. One Member of Parliament from Telugu Desam Party, TG Venktesh, has reportedly threatened to kill him and asked for his hanging. Yesterday, his vehicle was attacked and a prompt action by his driver saved his life.

So shocked was Prof Ilaiah that he felt deeply isolated and decided to confine himself to his home for the next one week. It is said that an intellectual at this stage is facing so much threat of physical violence and no assurances from the authorities for his safety. Now the issue is being deliberately being politicized to create a Hindutva frenzy in the state so that corrupt politicians can reap the benefit of the emotional blackmailing of people.

This is the ‘New India’ where the Brahminical Hinduism will come through violent means. No criticism would be allowed or countered through a fair critique. It is not that Ilaiah wrote for the first time. His thought provoking books are there in open and should be welcomed. One can disagree with him and for that we have all avenues to not merely protest peacefully but also to write counter arguments to denounce him but that is not happening.

With so much of the media and the publishing world in hand, these power elite are still fearful of a few who critique them. We are informed that Gandhi was a Bania. None deny that. We are not here asking anyone to be unhappy where they are born. None come here with a fixed birth record except in the Brahminical system where your caste and occupation are fixed with your birth. That is what we call caste based varnashram dharma and it must be rejected.

We cannot hide the fact that caste system and caste discrimination are the biggest obstacle in the development of this country. In fact the caste system remains our biggest hurdle in national unity and integration. The caste system creates prejudices in the minds of people and limits your mobility beyond your own castes. Once you confine yourself within your caste, everything outside it looks as suspect and dangerous. Can we have a united India with so many thousands of caste and each considering it superior to other?

Critiquing India’s notorious caste system is nothing wrong but will ultimately help India get stronger and united. Even then if Ilaiah has said anything academically or factually wrong then there are options before the people to go to the court or even write rejoinder, engage in a democratic debate. Huge number of upper caste members dominate our media, academia, intelligentsia and they can write a counter critique of Ilaiah. But the street protests that we are witnessing in Andhra and Telangana are merely for political purpose and need to be unconditionally condemned.

The videos of protest using innocent children to urinate in public on the photograph of Ilaiah is nothing but the sick mindset of people who are using children to reap the rich harvest of hatred during the election. It is deeply despicable and condemnable. Why should children be used in a debate which is academic debate? And even if they are used, is this the best way to use their ‘creativity’. Is this not an imposition of male supremacy as we find no girls or women in the protest?

Kancha Ilaiah has not killed anyone, nor is he spreading hatred against particular communities or people. He has not threatened anyone but only spoken through his writings against what he and many like him consider historic wrongs. Isn’t it his right to question and speak up against the social injustice that prevailed for centuries in our society?

Isn’t it for Indians to ponder as why one community is in business or knoweldge while other is purely for cleaning human excreta? Is this not a reservation which has existed in this filthy society where a few protested but those who enjoyed kept quiet? When this hegemony is challenged then the question of merit is raised as if all those in the Dalal Street in Mumbai are the most meritorious people. Caste system is nothing but hidden apartheid and you cannot hide from the fact that it needs to go and should be abolished as Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar as well as many others like him, had wanted.

What is more disturbing is the failure of the two state governments of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to provide him protection and take action against those threatening him. The way political protests have been launched against him is clear indication of the local politicians who are being encouraged by their respective parties to intimidate a scholar through street goondaism. The two chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are the same persons who refused to speak up against institutional murder of Rohith Vemula.

Even when the entire country stood up for Rohith’s cause, the two upper caste governments actually were determined to treat him as a ‘non-Dalit’, a deliberate ploy to divide people on caste lines and deviate from the real issue of the prevailing caste prejudices in their system. A Member of Parliament of TDP has openly threatened to Ilaiah him but there is no action from the party head and chief minister Chandrababu Naidu. The goons are openly attacking him and monitoring his physical movement but the two chief ministers remain shamelessly silent on the issue.

Another appalling thing is the conspicuous silence of intellectuals and political parties as Kancha has himself said. This is a very disturbing fact. We know he has been a critique of Brahminical system in our political parties and intelligentsia including the Left. This is not for the first time that any intellectual has spoken about the Left and other political organisations. It was a critique of Dr Ambedakr, Phule, Periyar and many others who have followed their path over the years. There are of course upper caste people who acknowledge their faults and happily engage in a fruitful discussion on the issue which is a welcome sign.

This is the period of a great crisis. Those who are targeting Ilaiah know it well that there are wide differences among the non-Hindutva groups. This is not merely the problems of the Left forces but also of the Ambedkarites and Bahujan forces. It is not the time to get into digging history and then taking a stand. In my opinion every Ambedkarite or a true intellectual of any variety, Left or socialist or freethinker will always defend an individual’s right to freedom of expression and engage in democratic debates.

Moreover, it is not a street brawl that Ilaiah has engaged in but a purely academic work which can and should only be countered through academic exercise or democratic protests. The pain is that we have not heard intellectuals, academics taking any stand on it particularly outside Andhra and Telangana except for some individual responses on social media. It is good that the Congress Party has issued a very strong statement in the media as their spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewallah demanded action against the threatening MP and protection to Ilaiah. This is certainly a positive sign and we appreciate it.

India is fast becoming a mob republic where the power elite has developed various ways to not only intimidate you but also to put you in deep distress, go to the extent of physical hurt or even elimination. The mobs are being encouraged to take law in their hands and they have the fullest backing through the PR agents who can easily convert a wrong into right and the vice versa but then these should be the finest hours for all of us who are fighting against the subjugation and discrimination as it is the right time to see the truth, decide our stand and our attitude.

We need to develop a culture of debate and discussion as that is the only way to save us as a society and as a nation. Once people start taking law in their hand and deciding to judge everyone in the street we will have none to blame but ourselves. It is better to learn from the experiences of others. People in Sudan, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and elsewhere know well the importance of democracy where in the name of identities and national interests people have killed each other. India survived as a democracy and fared well because despite all our weaknesses, we promoted ideas through constructive debates. We agreed to disagree.

If you don’t like Ilaiah or any one like him, don’t read him, switch off your TV or counter him ideologically through various mediums. Each one of have various options including social media and it should be used to strengthen debate. But don’t fall prey to the political goons who are only using sentiments to spread hatred and promote their political interest. Professor Ilaiah must be provided all the security that he needs and those threatening to kill him must be prosecuted.

Saints in politics: Aung San Suu Kyi and the dilemmas of political desire

September 26, 2017

We delude ourselves by projecting qualities onto politicians who have no intention of embodying them.

Aung San Suu Kyi gives a speech in Yangon, Myanmar, 17 January 2012. Credit: By Htoo Tay Zar (Own work), CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

The recent escalation of violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar and their subsequent mass flight from the country has triggered a wave of opinion pieces demanding that the head of government, Aung San Suu Kyi, speak out to denounce the actions of the army and militant citizens against this Muslim population. Her failure to do so has resulted in escalating calls to revoke the Nobel Peace Prize that was awarded to her in 1991. In countless articles, radio features and online posts, an international public is shaking its figurative head over the seeming ethical decay of a figure previously imbued with “unquestionable moral authority.”

But there are several reasons for Aung San Suu Kyi not to speak out in the ways we expect her to. None fall into the ‘moral order’ paradigm of how politicians should act if we lived in an ideal world; all of them are in line with the practicalities of real-life politics.

In the case of Myanmar, we are in danger of reducing a complicated reality to an imaginary that we try to bring into being through sheer desire. We attribute the qualities required to make change possible to a person who is then expected to be both saintly and powerful. That person is thus saddled with the impossible task of doing what is morally just, while at the same time acting strategically in order to maintain the power required for any sort of political action.

In fact Aung San Suu Kyi’s saintly status has become a burden to her for at least three reasons. First, her image as a saintly figure consistently intensified during her fifteen years of intermittent house arrest. During this period, all she could do was become the icon against which her political actions are now measured. After the generals released her, she worked her way out of the position of non-engagement and detachment that she had cultivated in isolation, in order to re-enter the realm of power as a successor to her father’s heritage, Bogyoke Aung San, a nationalist general who wrested independence for Burma from the British Empire.

While she had become a symbol of democracy and human rights in the West during the years of her house arrest, her position within the country was different: much of her initial success and her continued reverence derives from her role as the ‘General’s daughter.’ It had been Bogyoke Aung San’s goal to establish a federal state in which ethnic diversity would be recognized. His legacy became her self-imposed burden. She was to bring people back together in harmony, or at least this was what people wanted to believe when they elected her.

Her party, the National League for Democracy or NLD, polled well in many constituencies where ethnic minorities are registered. Among my Muslim, Christian, and Hindu informants, there was no-one who spoke negatively or even critically of “Eme Suu” (‘Mother Suu’), as she is called across ethnic and religious lines. But though mirrored in Western portrayals of her, these characterizations are taken out of context. They belong to an era during which it was easy for her to demand morality and justice in the abstract because she was removed from everyday political action.

Second, her case is further complicated because of the particular relationship she has with the country’s 2008 constitution, which has hindered Aung San Suu Kyi from personally running for President. It is widely assumed that Article 59(f) of the constitution was put in place by the generals to keep her out of power, since it stipulates that those married to foreigners or with children with a different nationality are ineligible for this office—both of which are the case for her. Changing the constitution is thus one of her main objectives.

After her election victory, she began to challenge this regulation by declaring herself to be “above the President.” In April 2016, she was given the title of “State Counsellor” by the Parliament—a new office especially formed for her, with extensive powers that allow her to coordinate the activities of the executive branch as well as Parliament itself. In addition, she is also the acting Foreign Minister and Minister of the President’s Office, a strategic manoeuvre designed to entrench herself at the centre of power that is at odds with both the depiction of her as a mother-figure or an icon of democracy.

Third, Aung San Suu Kyi suffers the fate of female politicians in a more general way. We also find the attribution of saintly or motherly characteristics to Angela Merkel, for example, the pastor’s daughter who is referred to as “Mutti” in German, often mockingly; and to Pakistan’s late Benazir Bhutto, who wrote an autobiography entitled “Daughter of the East.” The putative caring aspect of female politicians lends itself to criticism when it is conflated with ‘sitting things out’ rather than facing up to conflict. This problem of agency (or the apparent lack of it) goes along with a more general patriarchal view of women as passive; in this case, the suggestion that Aung San Suu Kyi has become the generals’ ‘poodle’ who has ‘personally disappointed’ her supporters.

While harsh criticism of her seems entirely justified in the current situation, the way this criticism has been phrased is typical for how women in power are treated. She herself has made it clear that she does “not hold to non-violence for moral reasons, but for political and practical reasons,” yet we continue to measure her actions against an idealized portrayal of women as removed from power and patronage. Rather than being silent, she is, in fact, speaking politically as an active member of an oppressive state apparatus that is entangled with the military. It would be more precise to analyse her current stance of non-intervention—which has always been her main political tool—as a deliberate tactic in line with the pragmatic order of political action.

While she was under house arrest, she espoused her side’s non-violence and ‘detachment.’ Now, in power and under pressure, she is holding forth about the ‘terrorism’ and ‘fake news’ spread by others, or at the very least attributing fault to ‘both sides’—all of which echoes contemporary Western political catchphrases that are not meant to help people understand or argue, but rather serve as a definition of a situation where “rhetoric is the medium, not logic; emotions are the target, not the intellect,” as the political anthropologist F. G. Bailey put it.

This juxtaposition brings out how her positionality shapes her leadership and her appeals to emotion: she is always working with the idea of a polar opposite to her own side. ‘Her side’ used to be the oppressed ‘democratic’ opposition; today, it is the (not very plausibly) oppressed Burmese Buddhist demographic majority that serves as her main powerbase. There is, however, no one to whom she can outsource the saintly qualities that are still expected of her. With the most outspoken branch of the order of the monks increasingly aligning themselves with the government and the military, she remains trapped in her own image of being a saint or a mother figure while being bound to adhere to a constitution she despises.

Aung San Suu Kyi needs to be criticised because she has become complicit in atrocities. But to single her out for blame means to delude ourselves by projecting qualities onto her that she has no intention of embodying. Tellingly, her biographer attributes the final reason why she gave in and accepted the 2008 constitution to another woman who ironically is consistently told to keep quiet: Hillary Clinton in her role as President Obama’s Secretary of State. There is, thus, an unspoken tendency to portray female politicians’ agency or apparent lack thereof in light of their status of being a woman whom we can well imagine as saints, it seems, but have much more difficulty imagining as power players.

When Aung San Suu Kyi won the parliamentary elections in Myanmar in November 2015, the response was overwhelmingly positive among all segments of the population, including members of the Muslim, Hindu and Christian minorities. But at a recent conference, a young participant from Mon state broke out in tears when she admitted that she had had so much hope for change after the NLD entered power, and how Aung San Suu Kyi had let them all down since then.

Emotional displays like this need to be taken seriously, but beyond empathy, we need to understand how they come about and persist in the midst of political power games. They are mirrored in Western news coverage, the press releases of international organisations, and discussions on social media. They tell us that apparently, even democracy cannot do without a strong personal identification of the populace with a leader-figure. In the case of Myanmar, however, we are expecting Aung San Suu Kyi to both embody the state and continue to ‘do the right thing.’

What we see here is not the undermining of democracy as such, but rather the increase of a variant that is democratic in form while authoritarian in content and personified in outlook. The dilemma consists of our wish to look into the eyes of great leaders and feel safe in their hands. Not only is the ‘Myanmar Empress’ not wearing any clothes—she is also holding up a mirror. It behooves us to face up to these political realities. We might start by acknowledging that up to now, we have neither come to terms with powerful female politicians nor with our apparent need to project our political desires onto charismatic individuals.

Judith Beyer is Junior Professor of Anthropology at the University of Konstanz in Germany. She specializes in legal and political anthropology and carries out fieldwork in Central Asia and Myanmar. Find out more at judithbeyer.com and follow her on twitter @JudithBeyer.

Courtesy: Open Democracy

The struggle at BHU is a battle against feudal misogyny, Brahminical hegemony

September 26, 2017

The incident at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) must not be seen in isolation as they are ‘mainstream’ in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. As reported at many places the Lanka market eve teasing is famously known as ‘Lanketing’. BHU is not an oasis like JNU which is an island widely different from the culture of Delhi and Varanasi as a city is not Delhi where ‘no culture’ exists. Actually some time this no culture is much better than the ‘culture’. We all claim Varanasi is the óldest’ çivilisation and hence what we witness in Varanasi is the culture of the region where eve teasing is normal and girls are not supposed to speak and respond.

BHU is a highly casteist institution. Ofcourse the brahmanical intellectual elite that emerged from this institution would not accept or will speak lightly about it as they will speak about every other things from Lohia to Jai Prakash and their role except the rampant caste prejudices that exists inside this campus which can put shame to any civilised institution as the teachers rarely speak and behave in the absolutely feudal brahmanical way. The norm is the glorification of the Brahmanical Social Order and hence the attempt was to shun the protest. Good girls dont protest but since the majority of girls hail from the same social order, it became a problem.

I can bet as why BHU was not called anti national as JNU because it is the den of the brahmanical hegemonists and if this too is gone to the mad sad bad people who challenge it then it would be difficult to control. BHU impact the politics in eastern Uttar Pradesh like Allahabad University or Gorakhpur University. Politics in Uttar Pradesh have been influenced by the student leadership in the past too. You can see that in none of these universities, you will find girls contesting, not even the Upper caste girls. As far as the leadership is concern, in many places the dominant OBCs are now challenging but in BHU that too is difficult. Basically, these are den of Brahmin,Thakur-Bhumihar power elite. So, all of a sudden the media which kept quiet on these issues over the years is now crying and projecting as if it is too bothered about the issue.

The issue is not merely BHU. Issue is how feudalism is way of life in Uttar Pradesh particularly in Poorvanchal where a Manoj Tiwari singing the filthy Bhojpuri song will make people dance and political party can make him the president of a state which has nothing to do with his political work but purely on his appeal to the immigrant ‘men’ widely ignoring the sentiments of women. It is because women’s choice does not matter in these feudal structure where men enjoy women’s dirty dancing in the mohalla but then same time the same ‘çivilised’ people won’t allow their girls to go to cinema or to the market on their own or even watch that dance along with them. This is a contradiction. Watch Bhojpuri cinema or channels and you can understand what ails our society. Women are just meant to fulfill the sexual desire of men or dance at their tones or do the household core, wait for husbands to come home. In each of these places from Gorakhpur, Deoria, Mau, Azamgarh, Ghazipur, Varanasi and Allahabad girls-women face daily harassment from eve teasers as well as commoners who pass lucid comments.

BHU just reflect that education for us means to get a job or become éxpert’ in our subject but at the same point of time develop ‘ intellectuals’ who just glorify the ‘traditional’ values quoting copiously to those ‘greats’ as our ‘role model’ who never wanted women to be in education and regretted having done so.

The Vice Chancellor hails from Sangh Parivar school of thought and has been appointed because of his links. He would just do things which focus on ‘parampara’ and ‘sanskriti’ according to the wisdom of Deenanath Batra. He is not alone as there are hundreds of such íntellectuals’ who are ready to take a lead. Some of the big names of the ‘Hindi’ literature who once hailed as ‘leftists’ have not spoken a word since the incident. This is what you call typical brahmanical methodology which means the only ‘ideology’ that we have is the self serving ‘interests’.

The girls are demanding justice but definitely the crisis which we face today is not merely installation of a closed circuit TV or plain clothes policemen at every nook and corner or suspension of a few but it is time we look beyond it. Right now it is merely the issue of women which is cleverly painted as without any caste or religious identities by many of the ‘progressive’ and that is why we find many of them in the protests but the fact the administration and those in power in these institutions are using their caste prejudices and creating hurdles for making India a casteless society. Investigate impartially any of these institutions and the behaviour towards the Dalit and other backward community students and we will get a fact check. The war to change mindset has to begin now and it is not possible as long as we harp on those values which justify discrimination and degrade people on the basis of their identity.

Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a social and human rights activist. He blogs at www.manukhsi.blogspot.com twitter @freetohumanity Email: vbrawat@gmail.com

Courtesy: countercurrents.org

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