Visions of Secularism: Triple Talaq Judgment

September 8, 2017

Secularism is once again being debated after the 5 member Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court of India set aside by majority of 3:2 Judgment in Writ Petition (C) No. 118 of 2016 (Shayara Bano vs. Union of India & others), talaq-e-biddat or instant triple talaq in one sitting resorted to by some Muslim men. The Judgment is welcome in so far as it relieves Muslim women from the misery or potential misery of instant triple talaq in one sitting. However, this is only a partial amelioration of their misery. Patriarchal interpretation Qur’an’s message, different Sunni fiqhs (Islamic schools of jurisprudence) – Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki, Shafi, and Shia fiqhs (collectively called as Muslim personal law) will continue to rein even when they are in violation of fundamental rights mentioned in Part III of the Indian Constitution on fundamental rights of citizens.

There were some common grounds in three separate Judgments given in the Shayara Bano case – none of the three Judgments contested the ground that “personal laws”, not being a law passed by the state, cannot be subjected to test of violation of fundamental rights of citizens. The Chief Justice of India and Justice S. Abdul Nazeer in their joint Judgment held that personal laws or laws that govern family relations viz. marriage, divorce, maintenance, custody of children, intestate succession, adoption of children, guardianship, etc., as they are not laws passed by the state, could not be subjected to judicial scrutiny as to whether they violate fundamental rights of the citizens.

It was not within the realm of discretion of judiciary to set aside a matter of faith and religion, held CJI and Nazeer J. They stated in their judgment, “It is not difficult to comprehend, what kind of challenges would be raised by rationalists, assailing practices of different faiths on diverse grounds, based on all kinds of enlightened sensibilities. We have to be guarded, lest we find our conscience traversing into every nook and corner of religious practices, and ‘personal law’.” The Honourable Justices further held, “….while examining issues falling in the realm of religious practices or ‘personal law’, it is not for a court to make a choice of something which it considers as forward looking or non-fundamentalist. It is not for a court to determine whether religious practices were prudent or progressive or regressive. Religion and ‘personal law’ must be perceived, as it is accepted, by the followers of the faith. And not, how another would like it to be (-including self-proclaimed rationalists, of the same faith). Article 25 obliges all Constitutional Courts to protect ‘personal laws’ and not to find fault therewith. Interference in matters of ‘personal law’ is clearly beyond judicial examination. The judiciary must therefore, always exercise absolute restraint, no matter how compelling and attractive the opportunity to do societal good may seem.” (Shayara Bano vs. Union of India, 2017, p. 267, para 196). To follow personal law then, is part of freedom to profess, practice and propagate religion, unless it falls foul of reasonable restrictions mentioned in Article 25 of the Constitution, viz. public order, morality and health.

Rohinton F. Nariman and Uday U. Lalit JJ in their joint Judgment did not contest the premise viz., that personal laws are beyond the pale of judicial scrutiny. They held that the practice of talaq-e-biddat was recognized and enforced by Section 2 of ‘The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937’, a Colonial legislation. Talaq-e-biddat was therefore ‘law in force’ within the meaning of Article 13 (1) of the Constitution and liable to be struck down if talaq-e-biddat fell foul of the Part III of the Constitution of India on fundamental rights. The Constitutional Courts therefore had power to set it aside on the ground that it was arbitrary. Justice Kurian Joseph in his Judgment agreed with the premise propounded by the CJI and Justice S. Abdul Nazeer, viz. that talaq-e-biddat could not be termed as ‘law in force’ being a customary law and traditional practice. Impugned practice of instant talaq therefore was part of personal law and was amenable to judicial scrutiny for violation of fundamental rights. However, Kurian J. disagreed with the CJI and Nazeer J. on the issue that talaq-e-biddat was against the tenets of Holy Quran and that being so, it was ultra vires the S. 2 of the Shariat Act, 1937 and did not enjoy Constitutional protection. Talaq-e-biddat was therefore liable to be set aside.

Unrestrained freedom of personal laws
It could therefore be said that the learned Judges of the Constitutional Bench gave a 3:0, if not 5:0, verdict that personal laws of all communities would reign unrestrained and enjoyed the protection of Article 25[1] of the Constitution which guarantees right to freedom of religion. Personal laws, as mentioned above, are rules of decision which pertain to marriage, divorce, etc. Unless codified (and to the extent codified) by the legislature, they are based on religious scriptures, customs, traditions and usages of communities. Custodians of religious scriptures and customs of all communities have been patriarchal and feudal elite. They often enforce them using fear of God and at times use coercive force which may include threat of exclusion from community controlled institutions, social boycott and even physical force. Personal laws often privilege a section (feudal and patriarchal elite) and disadvantage the rest in various degrees. Women and children have always been disadvantaged by the prevalent understanding of religious scriptures mediated through patriarchal culture. The custodians of personal laws – we can call them cultural entrepreneurs or gate keepers of culture, customs and traditions – are necessarily conservative, may be with a few exceptions. Much necessary changes in customs and traditions come about when individuals within communities challenge the practices and traditions in face of ostracization and coercive harassment.

Freedom to profess, practice and propagate religion accrues to all persons. All persons are equally entitled to that freedom. However, if personal laws are accorded unbridled Constitutional protection by Art. 25, the cultural gate keepers will enjoy higher degree of freedom as they can impose their understanding of religion and personal law on others. The elite cultural gatekeepers often draw lines to construct separate communal walls. These custodians of community would judge right behaviour from wrong for their entire community. Can we then say all persons equally enjoy freedom of religion? The elite would enjoy more rights to profess and practice religion than other members of a community. There would be hierarchy within each community based on gender and other birth based social status. The cultural gatekeepers defend these hierarchies as God made. India would then look more like confederation of communities rather than nation of equal citizens.

Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar wanted make our political democracy a social democracy as well. Social democracy is a way of life which recognizes liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles of life. He warned us, “On the 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. In politics we will be recognizing the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life? If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which is Assembly has to laboriously built up.” (Dr. Ambedkar, 1949)

Despite setting aside the practice of instant triple talaq in one sitting by 3:2 verdict, there is a cause of worry. Personal laws have been placed on a pedestal of freedom of religion. There is not even a whisper of gender equality in the entire judgment. R. F. Nariman and U. U. Lalit JJ. invoke Art. 14 in support, however, on the issue of arbitrary nature of talaq-e-biddat.

AIMPLB reaction
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) in its initial reaction reminded us that the Court had upheld their submissions viz. personal laws are part of freedom of religion and cannot be interfered with. AIMPLB felt that their position had been vindicated. The Ulemas of various schools of jurisprudence would still be sitting over the lives of Muslim women enforcing their writ. Though talaq-e-biddat has been set aside, Muslim women could still be divorced by talaq-e-ahsan (two pronunciations with a gap of three months) and talaq-e-hasan (pronouncing talaq once every month three times when his wife in not menstruating). The instant talaq would be replaced by a procedure to be followed over a period of three months. While no marriage can be forced upon either partner, and it is not prudent to continue a marriage when there is an irretrievable breakdown, divorced women should not be left in a situation of destitution to fend for herself. To AIMPLB, the practice of talaq-e-biddat (something they agreed was bad in theology, though good in law) has been sacrificed but the Muslim personal law has been saved.

Secularism
The Shayara Bano Judgment has drawn redlines for the judiciary. Personal law having been declared integral part of freedom of religion, they would not be amenable to judicial scrutiny for violation of fundamental rights. Ironically, under Article 25, right to freedom of religion is not absolute. It has been subjected to 6 reasonable restrictions. 1) public order; 2) morality, 3) health, 4) other provisions of Part III of the Constitution (fundamental rights), 5) regulation or restriction on economic, financial, political or secular activity associated with religious practice and 6) providing for welfare and reforms. The last two restrictions would require legislative intervention. In our humble understanding, when the judiciary is mandated to protect the freedom of religion, the language of Art. 25 is clear – it is subject to the other provisions of Part III, including Articles 14, 15 and 16 right to equality, recognized for all persons including gender equality.

However, so far as personal laws are concerned, The Shayara Bano Judgment seems to have passed to buck on to the executive and legislature to make it compliant with the fundamental rights. Given the political agenda of uniform civil code of the present regime, minorities fear that the legislature may impose a family law that is entirely alien to their way of life and with the intention to “integrate them into a Hinduized nation”. The learned former Attorney General – Mukul Rohatgi submitted before the Court that if they set aside the practice, the Central Government was ready to bring in legislation. This fear of imposition of an alien code keeps the flock of minority together. They fear any change, howsoever desirable and good for the community.

The Shayara Bano Judgment seems to imply that the Judiciary is obliged to uphold religious freedom of religio-cultural gatekeepers in their enforcement of personal laws. The Judiciary would refrain from protecting fundamental rights of members of the community vis-a-vis the religio-cultural gatekeepers. The Judiciary would encourage church within Islam even though the religion does not permit one. There is no agent between God and believer. Believer can seek help to understand the guidance of Quran but she is solely responsible and responsible only to God, not the religio-cultural gatekeepers. Shayara Bano Judgment leaves gullible followers to the mercy of the self-appointed church – institutions propounding and enforcing various fiqhs and the AIMPLB. Islam does not oblige believer to follow any school of jurisprudence, just be guided onto the straight path (sirat ul mustaqim) by her own understanding and be responsible only to Allah. There is enough space in Islam for enlightened understanding evolution of law in accordance with changing times and the process is called ijtihad. The Ulemas of various fiqhs closed the gates of ijtihad and merely follow their respective fiqhs. They extol the virtue of taqlid, i.e. merely submitting and following without application of mind to their fiqhs.

While the Shayara Bano Judgment is welcome in so far as it sets aside the practice of talaq-e-biddat, the protection accorded to Muslim Personal Law on the grounds of freedom of religion is worrisome. The Judgment has left minority citizens to either the mercy of cultural gatekeepers propagating taqlid or to a Parliament wherein the Hindu supremacists are in majority – between the devil and the deep sea.

Three Ld. Judges of the Constitutional Bench accord protection to personal laws on the basis of Article 13 (1), which provides that only laws in force before the commencement of the Constitution can be declared void in so far as they are inconsistent with the Constitution. The CJI, Nazeer and Kurian JJ. held that Muslim personal law is not a ‘law’ within the meaning of the term, and therefore cannot be tested on the ground of inconsistency with the Constitution, including the fundamental rights.

Nariman and Lalit JJ. opined that personal laws operate under the Shariat Act, 1937 and therefore is a law as defined in Article 13 (3). Article 13 (3) (a) includes within the meaning of law even customs and usages having force of law within the territory of India. Muslim personal law is not only customs and usages having force of law within the territory of India, the customs and usages are also mandated under the Shariat Act, 1937. On both counts under Article 13 Muslim personal law is “law” as defined under Art. 13 and therefore to the extend it is inconsistent with the fundamental rights under Part III of the Constitution, it is liable to be declared void and inoperative.

Operation of Muslim Personal law impacts 172 million Indians in important area of marriage, divorce, maintenance, custody of children, testate and intestate succession, guardianship, adoption of children, etc. Can we leave this vast and important area of life to the whims of cultural gatekeepers and exclude it from important rights as equality, justice, right to life and liberty?

Religion may not be subjected the challenges raised by rationalists or enlightened sensibilities; religion and ‘personal law’ my be perceived, as it is accepted, by the followers of the faith and not, how another would like it to be as opined by the CJI and Nazeer J. However, should the cultural gatekeepers be allowed unrestrained freedom in the name of personal law and force a section of citizens, particularly women of the community, to live as slaves or second class citizens and the judiciary feel helpless to come to their rescue?

We are not against Muslim Personal Law or any other personal law for that matter. They all have their strengths and are good for their followers. We firmly stand for diversity. However, so far as any provision of a personal law is inconsistent with the fundamental rights of the citizens, it should be held to be void. In Shayara Bano Judgment we have achieved only partial victory. We have to carry on the struggle till these religio-cultural gatekeepers are completely marginalized or they too are in consonance with Constitutional objectives.

[1] Article 25: Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion
(1) Subject to public order, morality and health and to the other provisions of this Part, all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion
(2) Nothing in this article shall affect the operation of any existing law or prevent the State from making any law –
(a) regulating or restricting any economic, financial, political or other secular activity which may be associated with religious practice;
(b) providing for social welfare and reform or the throwing open of Hindu religious institutions of a public character to all classes and sections of Hindus.
Explanation I.- The wearing and carrying of kirpans shall be deemed to be included in the profession of the Sikh religion.
Explanation II.- In sub clause (b) of clause reference to Hindus shall be construed as including a reference to persons professing the Sikh, Jaina or Buddhist religion, and the reference to Hindu religious institutions shall be construed accordingly

Author is Director, Centre for Study of Society and Secularism

Another Unwanted Dam Could Spell Ecological Disaster: Pancheshwar, Uttarakhand

September 8, 2017

The people to be affected by the proposed Pancheshwar multipurpose dam project are saying we need development not dam in ecologically sensitive Himalayan region. The untimely Environment Public Hearing (EPH) for 123 to-be-affected villages in Uttarakhand State rushed through on August 9, 11 and 17 August 2017 with numerous violations, as reported earlier.

During one week long trip to the affected districts of Champawat, Pithoragarh and Almora, I along with Sumit Mahar of Himdhara visited the proposed dam site and few of the villages that may face submergence in the unlikely possibility of the project coming up, to understand the local social and environmental issues.

The Pancheshwar dam site is about 90 km away (by road) from Pithoragarh district headquarters in south direction. The distance comes down to one fourth if straight jungle route is taken. The gigantic dam is proposed 2 km downstream from ancient Pancheshwar temple built at the confluence of mighty Saryu river and Kali river in Lohaghat block of Champawat district. The geographical location of dam site is 29°25’36.55” N and 80°14’41.91” S. The river is called Sharda in India and Mahakali in Nepal after the confluence.

The confluence of Saryu and Kali Rivers

On the day of the visit, deafening sound of a generator welcomed us at the dam site. The road leading to the dam ends there. The generator was on to facilitate boring of testing tunnels. In all 14 such tunnels have to be bored, we were told, ranging from 30 to 60 meter deep vertically inside mountain.

The contract of this work was awarded to a Shamli-based company. Labours were mainly from Nepal side. About half a dozen tunnels have been bored. The dust clouds were seen flying around as the muck was being dumped from 500 meter above the riverbed of Sharda/ Mahakali river. People from Nepal side were crossing the river through a rope way trolley located hardly 200 meters away from the tunnelling site. There are several risks involved in digging up of tunnels during monsoon season. Given the recurring cloud burst events in the region, it was an invitation to disaster.

Pancheshwar temple is sacred shrine dedicated to Lord Shiva. Local people in large number visit the temple during festivals. At the temple site, Kali river from east and Saryu from west, merge together to form Sharada river which is known as Mahakali in Nepal side. There is a ropeway bridge built on Saryu river to reach the temple. Many local people have settled around the bridge on both side of the river. Fishing activity, particularly catching Mahaseer fish or angling is banned in 500 m river stretch around the temple. The entire temple will be submerged if the project is built. Local people are totally against the dam.

The dam site

When we reached the temple, a local person from Sail village, located on the hill standing behind the temple was sitting with the temple priest named Ram Teerath. He looked very sad and told us that his entire village was against the project. “Our children have stopped eating, elderly are having sleepless nights ever since they heard that they will have to leave their village and forest for the dam” said the person.

“Bhagwan Bholenath (Lord Shiva) will never allow the construction of the dam” the priest interjected strongly. Explaining the religious significance of shrine, the priest in temple service for two decades, condemned the way Environment Public Hearing (EPH) were conducted in Champawat on August 9, 2017.

Since it was monsoon time, the surrounding hills were lush green. Thick fog was enveloping the hills. It seemed like the clouds were floating too low. Both the rivers were in floods and could be seen flowing fast. With silt load, their water colour had turned muddy.

“This government keeps talking of Mandir and here are hundreds of ancient temples facing submergence due to Pancheshwar dam. We have Daropadi Kund, Bhim Kund, Jata Kund, Rameshwar, Taleshwar which are imbibed deep in our culture. How can this government sink them? Why don’t they develop religious pilgrimage on the line of Char Dham shrine. It will generate much more employment without destroying our cultural heritage”, suggested Laxman Singh Bisht, living on left Saryu bank one km from Pancheshwar temple. Laxman Singh, the 60 years old local contractor, has petitioned PMO (Prime Minister Office) and raised these concerns even during Mann Ki Baat, the monthly radio program of the PM.

Pancheshwar Dam Testing Tunnel

There were more habitats across the river on right bank. “Where would we go, we don’t want to leave the place, whether offered compensation in gold. This is no less the heaven to us. Our very existence is attached to this place and temple. We can never survive without them” exploded Janaki Devi a local woman, when asked for views on the project. In an outraged manner she kept expressing her emotions non-stop for minutes.

Her husband Ganesh Pant was equally apprehensive. “We were told nothing about the public hearing. We were given no information about the project. Having deprived for decades of development works, now we have got road and some livelihood means. How can they displace us? We don’t want the dam, we need the development” outburst the middle aged Ganesh. There were many local employed in Mahaseer angling. They all were fearing loss of their jobs drowned in the proposed mammoth dam project.

On our way back we saw the Central Water Commission (CWC) monitoring office undergoing expensive renovation work with air conditioner, steel fences and glasses being installed inside the office complex. We also saw mini and mega landslide sites apart from massive soil erosion across nearby hills on account of mechanized road construction.

Ara village is under Salparh gram sabha in Bhanoli Tehsil of Almora district. In total, 14 villages are part of Ara-Salparh gram sabha. Seven villages including Dhankana, Seri, Rajuyda, Bahisudi, Tiluvapari, Chimkholi and Ara are listed in submergence area of the proposed Pancheshwar dam project. All these agriculturally prosperous villages are located along the right bank of Saryu River bordering Pithoragarh district. The proposed dam project lies about 40 km downstream at India-Nepal border.

Landslide close to the dam area

Officially, the project will submerge 21 villages in Almora district. As per Detailed Project Report (DPR) only 3 villages, namely Uncha Bauragunth, Kaula, Dhura Laga Taak, are to be fully affected and the rest 18 are mentioned as partially affected.

The EPH for these affected villages was scheduled two days later on August 17, 2017. With the help of Ramesh Bhat, a helpful village youth settled in Danya, we managed to reach the area. He also facilitated a meeting with villagers facing submergence. The affected villages in Ara-Salparh area are located at base of hill adjoining to Saryu river bank. It can be reached by a 30 km long zig-zag road journey from Danya on hill top. About one and half hour long downhill drive to Ara revealed the living natural wealth of the area. The site of several landslides along the way also exposed the fragility of young hills.

The villagers could know of the Pancheshwar EPH only because of great uproar created by locals during Pithoragarh EPH held on August 9, 2017.Will the government listen to us, was the first question asked by anxious villagers gathered in the meeting held at Maneshwar, a local temple. The question seemed simple but the increasing unease in villagers, lent it added weight as it was repeatedly asked on the very noon, when rest of the country was celebrating 70th Independence Day.

More than a hundred villagers attended the meeting in two sessions. Most of the villagers reported of having no formal information of the EPH. They even told us that no document regarding EPH has been provided in their area. “How can we tell what is at stake unless we get the documents” said Kishen Singh of Bhainsudi. As per local sources, overall 500 hectares highly productive farm land will be gone to the project. There is as much yet to be registered (excluding forest Van Panchayat forest area) land currently under cultivation in these villages.

Villagers also reported that many big villages have disintegrated in smaller settlements which are not mentioned in DPR. The land ownership is also complex web to resolve as there are several instances where exchange and transfer of land has taken place many a time.

The ancient Pancheshwar temple

Ganesh Joshi, a local reporter, stated that post 1960 the government has not registered lands so no one knew the actual land against which compensation will be given. “Mine is irrigated land. I have grown orchard. The road has come to village and now it’s time we reap the benefit of the slow and steady progress made over decades. We are happy here and do not want to be drowned and displaced”, said Dinesh of Dhankana working as a tailor at Dhyadi the local market on hill top.

Gopal Ram the Birkola village Pradhan told us on phone that till that day he neither had information of EPH nor he had been provided any document regarding the project. “We know nothing about the project and do not know what to say in EPH” said Gopal Ram. As per Ramesh Bhat, many villages in the area like Salparh and Setti were on the edge of reservoir rim but not mentioned in DPR. “Once the reservoir is filled, landslide will bring our village down, but we are listed neither as fully nor as partially affected”, said Ramesh.

Due to lack of reliable official information, there were misleading rumours like Rs 80 thousand crore released as relief package for affected villages, plots allotment started in Haldwani for displaced doing rounds among affected villagers.

Ara-Salparh area is bestowed with rich natural resources. It has fertile farms, irrigation facility, electricity, road connectivity, healthy livestock and water mills. Villagers demand improvement in basic health and education facility and regular bus service to the village. The area is self-reliant and on the path of sustainability. They feel Pancheswar dam will take away all this.

Temple priest Ramteerath

Other Observations
During the trip, the conversation held with numerous people with different background, also revealed that some people are supporting the project. It appears that they already have settled in urban centres hence do not have much to do with village life and lands. They see the project an opportunity to gain monetary compensation to make their urban life more comfortable.

Deprived of basic facilities even after 70 years of independence, some villagers are compelled to see destructive dam project as solace and escape route to better living. If their their basic development needs are met, they do not wish to move away from their native places.
However, some corrupt politicians, hand in glove with the dam lobby, will never stop vouching for such projects even when they know or do not know the social and ecological costs of the project and know that such a project is not even needed either for the local people, for India or for Nepal.

The Pancheshwar dam is proposed in an area where forest patches are still intact, where rivers are still pristine and flowing, where communities are thriving, where agriculture is rewarding and where community needs can be met locally with alternative and sustainable development programs. Unfortunately an unwanted dam project imposed from outside, threatens to undermine all this and could be scripting a disaster as the area is ecologically sensitive, earthquake prone where cloudburst and landslides are recurring with increasing frequency and intensity. The proposed dam could worsen all these and more vulnerabilities.

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Courtesy: *bhim.sandrp@gmail.com. Source: https://sandrp.wordpress.com/

Religious literacy: An educational project to counter the politics of ‘othering’

September 8, 2017

Catching them young: RSS shakha. Photo credit: India Today

“Turfatar yeh hai, ki apna bhi
Na jaana, aur yun hee
Apna, apna kehke humko
Sabse beygaana kiya”
-Saeed Naqvi

When Jawaharlal Nehru unquestioningly adopted the Euro-centric version of secularism for India he introduced the entire populace to public platforms of participation where religious identities were dismissed and disregarded. Nehru ignored the Indian reality which is deeply subsumed in religious experiences and refused to bring this discussion within the felt contours of public debates. He failed to create a healthy tradition of democratic engagement through public platforms wherein people from diverse socio-cultural and religious backgrounds could immerse in meaningful conversations.

Rabindranath Tagore had warned against uncritically enforcing a distinct separation between the state and religion; he emphasized that public life in India was invested with religious experiences and creating a political milieu where expression of religious affiliations is considered as “undemocratic” and “non-progressive” would engender negative feelings towards the ‘other’ who was unknown and inaccessible.

In this social realm where religious identities were formally dismissed and believers were mocked at, interactions between different communities could never materialize through safe channels of communication. As the “other” was always a distant entity within the larger social structure — never influencing the life outcomes of the ‘self’– it was fairly easy for radical ideologues to use this ‘fear’ as a site for fostering feelings of antagonism. As a consequence of this, we have been witnessing an increase in waves of communal clashes and violence as communities are compelled to share the same territory, resources and environment without ever trying to understand each other.

RSS has many ‘shakhas’ in the country to indoctrinate young minds with violent ways to combat the imagined enemy, the “religious other”. Similarly, many ‘madarasas’ encourage young students to criticize lifestyle practices which are different from theirs as necessarily un-Islamic and thus abominable.

This can be averted if the state recognizes that each human being is dealing with fear, longing and hope — the need to come to terms with the limitations of desire, and requires a material site through which this can be expressed. The nation needs poetry and religion so that un-assumed identities arbitrarily imposed on individuals do not convert them into religious monoliths with no other social identities to draw from.

Catching them young: Madrasa students. Photo credit: Wilson

The lacunae created in public life because of the absence of a discussion on religion was filled by far right religious organizations who believe in consolidating their communities by annihilating others. Often times, these organizations fight for positions within the political structures of the society and use religion as a means to increase their presence in the public sphere and consequently the public mind. Threatened by violent narratives from various partisan groups the religious self rushes to his/her community for safety and a sense of belonging.

As individuals limit their life experiences to what happens within their respective communities, religious organizations premised on a discriminatory ideology find it easier to radicalize young individuals through the use of a single narrative embedded in ideas of aggression, purity and superiority. This project of socializing individuals into enacting discrimination through the use of violence requires a host of collective capillaries of public life to permeate the lived realities of individuals. In the case of Indian politics, educational institutions and media have been identified as the two most important capillaries of collective life.

Educational institutions, for instance, have been recognized as fertile grounds to train young children in practices of discrimination. RSS has many ‘shakhas’ in the country to indoctrinate young minds with violent ways to combat the imagined enemy, the “religious other”. Similarly, many ‘madarasas’ encourage young students to criticize lifestyle practices which are different from theirs as necessarily un-Islamic and thus abominable.

On the other hand, the state is making repetitive attempts to re-write history in order to reinforce a singular narrative and worldview against the very many which define the character of a pluralistic country such as India. Such efforts denigrate the search for true facts and use educational institutions as foot soldiers to implement the massive project of insinuating students with a social obligation to reify the normative categories and habitual modes of thoughts and actions.
Media is not free from the blame either. It is an inseparable part of the system and often operates from within the folds of institutional obligations. It acts as a material channel through which the dominant ideology permeates the lived experiences of young children and translates into practices of micro-aggression. The entire gamut of biased media narratives use politics of exclusion to articulate “what it means to be an Indian nationalist” to produce a definition which supports the rhetoric of majoritarianism.

For instance, respecting religious sentiments of one community by curbing lifestyle choices of others through a series of legal sanctions illustrate how the practice of tolerance is selectively imposed on members of particular communities while others unethically continue to work as vigilantes of the great Indian culture! Though media organizations try to report objectively, they cannot withdraw from the dynamics of a market driven economy where the government advertisements are the most lucrative source of revenue.

The influence on media, however, is not absolute and uninterrupted. Audience engages in negotiated reading with the text and often supplant their interpretation with borrowing from their family belief systems, lived experiences and community networks. Media is one of the many important social institutions which shape people’s reality and influence the way they think and act. It is a powerful channel through which a selected slice of reality is validated and presented as ‘the ultimate truth’ of the society.

It is, therefore, important to encourage young individuals to critically analyze media narratives and actively participate in the meaning-making process. They must be equipped with the necessary critical skills that allow them to divest their world view of the normative categories of classification and the normalized patterns of discriminatory behaviour.

What we need, today, are open platforms for public debate where individuals can voice their concerns about the use/abuse of religion for personal and political gains. The need of the hour is to go back to the Tagorian philosophy of bringing every issue within the purview of a disinterested rational inquiry so that it is rendered accessible to diverse voices.

We need to initiate a project of promoting religious literacy i.e. engagement practices which create an experience of ‘critical distance’ between the text and the reader, believer and the religious experience, and individual and the immediate socio-political world. We need to focus on expanding the expressive and communicative repertoires of individuals and allow them to explore alternate realities.

The communal voices can be challenged only with a rational mind which is critical of the ‘self’ just as much as it is critical of the ‘other’. Religious literacy is a political endeavour of creating a dialectical field where opposing forces can interact and engage with one another. It begins with acknowledging that differences are inevitable to human existence and that one must learn to negotiate with them instead of dismissing them as something ‘blasphemous’.

As Gandhi explained, “For humans to coexist with all their complexities and differences, channels of communication must always be open. A refusal to deliberate with others only because they have a different worldview marks the end of a democratic society.”

The current political landscape in India makes it unimaginable for educators to appeal to government sanctioned educational institutions to promote these ideas in classrooms and playgrounds. Our only hope remains with not-for-profit organizations and individual members of the society to infuse young minds with critical learning skills and enabling them to question social hierarchies. This project, thus, is a call for people who self identify as ‘civically engaged’ to honour their moral obligation towards upholding principles of social justice and equality in whatever little way possible.

The writer is a PhD Scholar, Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad

If Gauri Lankesh Hadn’t Written Against the RSS, She Would Be Alive: BJP MLA, Jeevraj (Sringeri)

September 8, 2017

Jeevaraj made the provocative statements while claiming that the BJP protected people’s security better than the Congress. Watch the video of Jeevaraj’s speech and CM Siddaramaiah’s response here:

Accessed by Public TV, Jeevaraj is heard saying, “When BJP workers were murdered, if this same Gauri Lankesh had condemned Siddaramaiah, would her murder have happened?” “She may have written some things against us in her paper. That is democracy, that is a different matter. But who will pay the cost of her life?” he asked. Going further, Jeevaraj also hit out at the language that Gauri had used in her writing, titling her article ‘Chaddigala Maaranahoma’ (Death of the RSS). “If she had not written ‘chaddis’ maaranahoma’ in her paper that day, would she still be alive today?” he asked.

India Today TV:

Further provoking and inciitng followers, the Sringeri BJP MLA DN Jeevaraj has made provocative statements about senior journalist Gauri Lankesh’s murder, suggesting that she was killed for her statements against the right wing, reported TV9 Kannada. Speaking at a bike rally in Koppa taluk in Chikmagalur on Wednesday, Jeevaraj – a former BJP whip in the Karnataka Assembly – made the statements while trying to argue that the BJP provided better safety and security than the Congress. In the video accessed by Public TV, Jeevaraj is heard saying, “When BJP workers were murdered, if this same Gauri Lankesh had condemned Siddaramaiah, would her murder have happened?” “She may have written some things against us in her paper. That is democracy, that is a different matter. But who will pay the cost of her life?” he asked. Going further, Jeevaraj also hit out at the language that Gauri had used in her writing, titling her article ‘Chaddigala Maaranahoma’ (Death of the RSS). “If she had not written ‘chaddis’ maaranahoma’ in her paper that day, would she still be alive today?” he asked.

“(Under the BJP government) was Kalburgi killed? Was Gauri Lankesh killed? Then, BJP had protected everyone,” the MLA added.

Reacting to the statements, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, “What is the meaning of that? What is the inference we should draw if a statement like that is given? Doesn’t it seem like these people are behind it?”

Jeevaraj’s openly provocative speech has come at a time when the police are being cautious in speculating on the motives behind Gauri’s murder. The journalist was shot to death at her residence on Tuesday evening by unidentified men.Speaking to the media on Thursday, Gauri’s sister Kavitha Lankesh said that she believed her sister had been killed over ideological differences. Asked to elaborate, Gauri’s brother Indrajit replied on Kavitha’s behalf to say, “She was a hardcore critic of right wing extremists. She was leftist in her viewpoint. She was criticizing them through her tabloid. So, police are investigating if that’s the intention behind her killing. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had asked her to be the head of a committee which dealt with bringing the Naxalites into the mainstream. And as Gauri was helping to rehabilitate them. So that is another angle.”

In response to these shocking remarks, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday asked if the statements point fingers at those behind the killing. “What do you make out of his statement? Does it indicate who is behind this murder?” Mr. Siddaramaiah wondered while responding to queries by presspersons in Bengaluru.The slain journalist’s sister and film-maker Kavitha Lankesh, who said she had not heard the MLA speak, condemned any such remarks from any quarter. “Anyone making such statements is a coward,” she said, in response to a query by presspersons.

When contacted by The Hindu on Thursday, Mr. Jeevaraj said his statements were being “misinterpreted” by the media. “I said if Gauri Lankesh had criticised the killings and if Siddaramaiah had put all those involved in the crime behind bars, nobody would have dared to kill her today. I just wanted to express that the failure of the government with regard to previous murders. Besides that, I have expressed condolences for her murder,” he said.

In Kashmir, even ordinary citizens now speaking language of militants and separatists

September 8, 2017

Fact-finding report of the Concerned Citizens Group on its third visit to the Valley

Photo courtesy: Youthkiawaaz

The Concerned Citizens Group (CCG) members who visited Kashmir this time – August 17-19 — comprised Yashwant Sinha, Air Vice Marshal (Retd.) Kapil Kak, Sushobha Barve (Executive Director, Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation) and Bharat Bhushan (Editor, Catch News). CCG members met some prominent political parties, office bearers of the Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association, civil society representatives from Srinagar, Anantnag, Shopian, Pulwama and College students and civil society representatives in Kupwara, North Kashmir.

The most disquieting conclusion of the interactions that the CCG had with Kashmiri students, civil society and political leaders this time around was that as compared to the previous visits, the sense of dismay and despondency in the people had grown. The proximate reasons for this not only seemed to be the lack of dialogue with the Kashmiris but also because tourism had plummeted, hotel business was in dire straits, there was flight of capital and an overall economic downturn leading to greater unemployment and economic distress. The situation was much worse than the previous two years.

At the same time, the distance between rest of India and the Kashmiri youth but also others seems to have increased. This was evident in the fact that even the people who used to talk reasonably earlier were using the language of the militants and separatists this time. People complained of not only the military approach to the problem of Kashmir but also of a judicial/Constitutional aggression against the people of Kashmir in attempts to undo Article 35A of the Indian Constitution which ensured special rights for the permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir.

However, the only saving grace was that in personal discussions prominent members of civil society continued to use cautious and measured language which suggested that there was still a constituency for peace and that societal leaders were willing to make an effort to end violence and ensure a peaceful atmosphere so that a dialogue could begin to address their issues in a considered and in a less emotionally charged manner.

This was very encouraging as was the positive response of the people to the Prime Minister’s message on Independence Day — that Kashmiris need a hug and not abuse or bullets. People said that they were waiting for the operationalization of the PM’s message and hoped that this would happen soon.

The Disquiet on Article 35A

There was all round opposition to attempts to revoke Article 35A of the Constitution of India. The judicial raking of the Article 35A issue seems to have pushed the demand for ‘Azadi’ to the background (it has, however, neither disappeared nor become secondary, only less urgent) as people see the attempts to change rules for special rights of people of J&K as an existential threat of changing the Valley’s demographic profile.

People believe that revoking Article 35A can potentially lead to a demographic change in the state as outsiders are facilitated to buy land and property in the state. This was completely unacceptable to them.

The simmering anger also stemmed from the belief that the Central government was a “passive collaborator” in the petitions filed before the Supreme Court of India.This belief was strengthened not because of the statements from the ruling party at the Centre and its frontal organisations but the Central government’s attitude itself. So Kashmiris openly alleged that the judicial attack on J&K’s special status was being “stage managed” by the Central government.

Kashmiris recall that Article 35A had been challenged in the Supreme Court earlier also but each time the Central government filed a counter-affidavit. Now, not only had the Central government not filed a counter-affidavit, the Attorney General in fact argued for a wider debate on the Constitutional provision.

The Kashmiri people are asking why the state government had been left alone to defend Article 35A and whether it was not the responsibility of the Central government to defend the Constitution. A lack of clear answers to these two questions has led people to doubt the Central government’s intentions.

They suggested that the government had erred in the Supreme Court and that instead of keeping quiet, it could have easily told the apex court that this was a political issue which needed to be discussed in Parliament. Alternatively, if the government felt that there were some issues with Article 35A relating to the fundamental rights of J&K women getting married to men outside the state, then the government should have argued that the matter be referred to a 9-judge Constitutional bench.

There is a general belief, however, that if Article 35A is removed through a judicial decision, there would be widespread trouble in the state. Some even claimed that if Article 35A and Article 370 are tempered with “you will see and uprising like no other” witnessed up to now. It is also expected that the alliance between the Peoples’Democratic Party (PDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will, in all likelihood, breakdown if Article 35A is struck down by the Supreme Court.

Raids by National Investigating Agency (NIA)

There were two sets of reactions to the NIA raids on separatist leaders and their associates for receiving money illegally from Pakistan. Some sought to point out that the Indian government and its agencies had also been funding Kashmir leaders of all hues and justified using foreign money by the separatists. They said raiding the separatist leaders and thereby trying to delegitimize them was part of a whole host of hostile acts by the Central government aimed at the Kashmiris. The attempt, they claimed, was to somehow show that the unrest in Kashmir was entirely due to funds from Pakistan which was not the case at all. This view came largely – but not limited only to them — from people sympathetic to the separatist leaders, especially youngsters and those from the legal profession.

Others, however,pointed out that the very fact that the ordinary Kashmiris had not reacted by protesting against the raids on the separatist leaders by the NIA, showed that they were not unduly bothered by these developments. This, they said, was because they believed that those who had been charged with violation of Foreign Exchange management Act ought to come clean and provide transparent accounts. The NIA raids, however, seemed to have instilled some fear among separatist sympathizers, that if they speak up publicly they too could be picked up for questioning.

Counter-insurgency Operations and Militancy

The security forces have clearly had some remarkable success in eliminating militant leadership in the last few months. However, on the one had this has sent a strong signal to all concerned that there would be no soft-pedaling on militants, on the other, it could also lead to new recruits and more spectacular attacks on the security forces.

As far as new recruits to militancy are concerned, many felt that, they required a greater outreach to be brought into the mainstream. They have hardly any weapons, no training but are very high on motivation. Most of the local militants are to be found in South Kashmir, while those who support Islamic fundamentalism of the Al Qaeda or Islamic State variety are limited to areas like Pulwama and Tral. Their life expectancy, when the security forces are working with targets of eliminating all active militants by the year-end — is likely to be very short.

There are those in Kashmir who were upset with the security forces setting themselves targets for killing militants – it is said that of the approximately 225 local militants, 139 had already been killed and the rest were likely to be eliminated by December this year. They claimed that setting such deadlines and targets by the security forces was disturbing even as new recruitment to the militant ranks continued to take place. “Our security forces are instruments of our Constitution. We should not allow them to become a part of our failure (in Kashmir),” one of them remarked.

Economic downturn

The Kashmir Valley used to get about 15 lakh tourists in the summer season in a good year. Up to August 17 this year, the total number of tourist had come down to 6.73 lakh as compared to 11.43 lakh last year for the same period.

About 5 lakh people are connected to the tourism industry directly in Kashmir. Today, a situation has come where they are staring at being unemployed in the near future. The tourist season went badly last year because of curfew and violence but this year even when there is no curfew and violence has gone down, tourism is worse than last year.

Big hotel chains like the Taj Group, ITC and others who had partnered with local hoteliers to open new hotels and upgrade existing ones are no longer sure whether they would be able to keep up their operations after the next two months. A large number of upper end hotels have shut down up to 75 per cent of their rooms because of low occupancy.

The local tourism industry representatives claim that Kashmir is not being sold as a destination in the rest of India. They are under the impression that this is part of a larger conspiracy to finish off Kashmir’s economy, and some private national TV channels are playing a damaging role by projecting all Kashmiris as terrorists and making out as if Kashmir were a war-zone. These TV channels had single handedly managed to project Kashmiris as a hated community in the rest of India.

One of them even alleged that big travel companies were being told not to sell Kashmir to tourists. On Social Media also there has been a campaign against Kashmir, some alleged. As evidence they pointed to a BJP legislator from Telangana urging people to go for Amarnath Yatra but not buy anything from local Kashmiris.

In addition, industry sources point out that outside contractors – especially from Andhra, Telangana and Maharashtra – no longer want to work on projects in J&K. Even a reputed contractor working on the Ratle hydroelectric project on the Chenab had ‘run away’.

Up to now, there was migration of workers from UP and Bihar for low-skilled work in Kashmir. For jobs requiring higher skills, workers used to come from the rest of India. With the economy in decline, the avenues for them in the Valley were shrinking. As for the educated Kashmiri youngsters many of them leave homes for education in the rest of India and abroad and find work there. At this rate, many Kashmiris fear that they will be left with only a generation of youngsters who either throw stones or prefer to pick up the gun.

Governance and Accountability

The governance and administration in J&K remain by and large unstable and those manning them have little time to deal with internal issue in a sustained manner because of the prevailing situation. Before they begin addressing one issue, another more pressing one emerges.

The situation in the state itself is to a large extent impacted by developments beyond the control of the state government – e.g. the legal challenge to Article 35A, the repeated statements about abolition of Article 370 by those close to the ruling party at the Centre, the exaggeration of the ground situation in the Kashmir Valley by the national media, especially TV channels, etc.

Some Kashmiris go to the extent of saying that all institutions in J&K are discredited and what is worse is that there are no political leaders with unquestioned credentials. So people have no faith either in the system or the mainstream political leaders. There is frustration in the people because of lack of governance and the absence of law and order. One of the reasons they support the nebulous idea of “Azadi” is because they feel that the present system does not deliver and perhaps something else would solve their problems.

There are thinking Kashmiris who believe that India is unable to win the hearts and minds of the people because in order to do that credible institutions and political leaders are needed. Some even suggested that if there was focus on nothing else but on providing law and order like the rest of India then things would improve. Instead the government’s focus seemed to be only the symptom – militancy – and not on the disease.

Accountability at all levels was also emphasized. People feel that there is no accountability within the system or even outside it. As it is people feel that the state government machinery functions in an arbitrary and illegal manner. Increasingly they think so of the security forces too.

To usher in accountability, it was suggested that the Central government might set an example by considering setting up a grievance redress mechanism within the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, even if it cannot be removed – perhaps a tribunal headed by an army general and a judge could be a solution.

The general feeling was that unless credibility of institutions is restored, nothing can move forward in the state. The constant focus on militancy alone means that administration is ignored and one tends to ignore the fact that 50 per cent of the atrocities are by the police and the army under the control of the government. It is non-governance which resulted in militancy, many felt.

Prime Minister’s I-Day Gesture

While there were some Kashmiris who rejected the PM’s change of tone on Kashmir at this year’s Independence Day celebrations at the Red Fort as nothing more than demagoguery, a majority seemed to welcome it.

Those skeptical of the PM signaling a change in government policy said that this was not yet evident on the ground and therefore what he said remained at the level of posturing. They felt that since the Prime Minister now seemed focused on his re-election, it was not possible for him to start any long term process that could led to resolution of the Kashmir tangle. Some strongly believed that conflation of non-initiation of political outreach, strong military-centric approach, and vigour in legal pursuit of old cases against separatists and their associates, and the PM’s offer of embracing Kashmiris appear to conform to a plan. However, its contours were unfathomable at this stage.

With the majority of people with whom this group interacted, the PM’s statement seemed to have gone down well. They were happy that he had said what he did and wished that he had done so earlier. They believed that like former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi could also change the atmosphere in J&K and make the people in the state feel secure. However, they also pointed out that this could not be done by putting a brake on the state’s economy, unnecessary harassment of civilians and killing of youngsters.

However, most of them also said that the PM needed to operationalize the sentiments he had expressed and that his sentiments must be reflected in the situation on the ground. As of now, many of them felt that the government had boxed both the separatists and itself into a corner and there was no one to engage with to resolve the conflict. They said that Kashmiris would be ready for an embrace but they would want something more than words.

Disgusted with the Coverage of Gauri Lankesh’s Murder on the Republic, Journo Resigns

September 8, 2017

Different things hit different people. Not known for sober or responsible journalism, when Arnav Goswami launched the Republic channel, backed by funds from the BJP politician, many journalists joined his venture. One of them has, yesterday, resigned. Disgusted with his coverage of senior journalist and activist, Gauri Lankesh’s brute murder, Sumana Nandy has not merely resigned but has made her decision public on Facebook, also saying quite clearly that she will not put her tenure with the Repubic on her CV! That is saying something for a journalist, especially today.

While some on social media have criticised her for joining the Republic in the first place, we salute her decision.

Here is what she says on her FB post. Sumana Nandy of the Republic, who resigned says:

” I have always been proud of the organisations I have worked with in my extremely small career in journalism. But today I am ashamed! An ‘independent’ news organisation is now batting for a rogue government. And openly so.
A journalist is murdered in cold blood days after receiving death threats from the BJP-RSS cadres. And instead of questioning these murderers, you question the opposition? Where is the integrity? Where are we heading? Some ‘journalists’ are even celebrating the massacre (that she brought it on herself.) Well, yes! This is what happens in Saudi Arabia and North Korea. We are just a few more deaths away from catching up with these countries.
If the fourth pillar sells its soul, where will the society go?
We have failed you, ma’am. All I know, you are probably in a much much better place.
P.S.: For whatever it is worth and whatever significance it has, I have decided to not put Republic TV as one of my employers on my CV and on social media. I regret my association with this rogue organisation.
#GauriLankesh

“Hindu terror units killed Gauri Lankesh”: Lawyer BT Venkatesh

September 7, 2017

Her lawyer B T Venkatesh is clear that the killing was a sinister and pre-planned act by ‘Hindu terror units’, and not linked to the defamation cases against her.

Her lawyer B T Venkatesh is clear that the killing was a sinister and pre-planned act by ‘Hindu terror units’, and not linked to the defamation cases against her.Exactly two years and five days after the fatal shooting of writer M M Kalburgi, the dastardly killing of journalist and editor Gauri Lankesh yesterday is being seen as a clear indication that Hindutva forces are still at work, chillingly picking out the targets on their list of intellectuals and writers inimical to them.

While a number of theories have sprung up on the motives for the killing, including her conviction in a defamation case filed by Dharwad’s BJP MP, Prahlaad Joshi and a BJP leader Umesh Dushi in November 2016, her lawyer B T Venkatesh is clear that the killing was a sinister and pre-planned act by ‘Hindu terror units’.

“Let us say it loud and clear. Hindu terror units killed Gauri Lankesh. She opposed the RSS, the BJP and these hindutva forces and this killing is the silencing of that voice against hate politics. It had nothing to do with all the defamation cases filed against her”, said Adv Venkatesh.

Talking to The Hoot a day after the killing, he said Lankesh had umpteen number of cases across the state. “I have been defending her in a number of these cases. This case was a small one in Hubbali and we appealed within 30 days and the sentence was suspended”, he said.

This was a very systematically organized and planned assassination that was carried out in an identical manner to the killing of Prof Kalburgi, he said, adding that hindutva terror units had recruited people and organized sleeper cells to carry out their killings. “Even Prof Kalburgi had something like 20 defamation cases against him before he was killed”

“They knew her routine – that she would put the paper to bed on Tuesday and on Wednesday, she would go to her farm. Yes, she did get threats but she has been getting threats since 2004, when she took up the Idgah Maidan case and opposed the withdrawal of Uma Bharti from the case (relating to violence in Hubli over the hoisting of the national flag in Idgah Maidan in 1994).
Adv Venkatesh added that conviction was also pretty common in a great many defamation cases and felt that it was inconsequential. “Anyone who tries to focus on the defamation cases as a possible motive for her killing must be joking. As a journalist, you should know that defamation cases are so common,” he said.

In fact, even Prof Kalburgi had something like 20 defamation cases against him and before he was killed, he had a conversation with Adv Venkatesh about how difficult it was to travel across the state to defend himself.

“Hindutva forces use every ploy, including the courts. They know that fighting multiple cases can be exhausting, with time taken away from other work to handle these cases. They have lawyers everywhere, at least five lawyers in every taluka who work for free. Whereas we don’t even have lawyers to fight our cases. They (right-wing forces) follow simple rules and have a one-point programme of hatred. But we are anarchic and have multiple discussions, we don’t have a common discourse and disagree on how to fight these forces,” he said.

Gauri Lankesh, who travelled across the length and breadth of Karnataka for her cases, turned the resultant harassment of court proceedings into an opportunity. “Every hearing used to be a chance for her to hold a meeting outside the court. She used it to the hilt, stating her views loud and clear. She wrote strongly and she spoke forcefully in English, in Kannada. Wherever there was communal violence against Muslims, against dalits or hatred being spread, she would go there.

Concurring with Venkatesh’s opinion, her friend and colleague Shiv Sundar told The Hoot that Gauri had at least 15 defamation cases going on. This killing was part of the targeted violence that right-wing forces had unleashed all over Karnataka, especially in coastal Karnataka, he felt.

“Every hearing used to be a chance for her to hold a meeting outside the court. She used it to the hilt, stating her views loud and clear”

While Gauri Lankesh had been facing threats for her outspoken views for several years now, the immediate trigger for the killing was definitely the racheting up of an already communally vitiated atmosphere after the visit of BJP President Amit Shah in Karnataka last month, he felt. On Sept 5, the BJP persisted with holding a Mangaluru Chalo rally despite the state government’s refusal of permission to it.

Gauri Lankesh had been a strident critic of the bike rally, fearing an escalation in violence in the coastal areas of the state. As it is, the BJP is preparing for elections in Karnataka and the instances of communal violence had seen a marked increased over the last two years. Her newspaper had documented the killings.

Another possible trigger was that she spoke and wrote extensively on the Basavanna tradition of anti-casteism, rationality and secularism. She was critical when prominent members of the community had shifted allegiance to the BJP. She faced threats but she was impetuous and would not be cowed down, Shivsundar said, adding that close friends had asked her to be cautious and mute her views but that was simply not in her nature.

Asked if her work on the surrender and rehabilitation of Maoists and whether there was a ‘naxalite’ angle to the killing, as alleged by a prominent English language television channel, Adv Venkatesh felt that such conjectures only served to destabilize the investigation. We need to state this loud and clear: it is the work of hindutva terror units. Gauri knew this. She never spoke any other language,” he reiterated.

Hindutva terror in Karnataka
In 2015, after the killing of Prof Kalburgi, Gauri Lankesh spoke to this writer about the ‘hit list’ of those rationalists who were seen as a threat by hindutva forces. She said:
“We’ve made a list based on how many times the Hindutva groups spew venom on us and how strongly”, she says. First on the list is writer and rationalist K.S. Bhagwan, then writer Yogesh Master who has been attacked for his fictional work, and then another writer, Banjagere Jayaprakash.

Gauri Lankesh had then said that she was fourth on the list.

While Hndutva terror groups operate in every part of the country, they have managed to grow strong roots in Karnataka, especially coastal Karnataka. Gauri Lankesh travelled extensively in Mangalore, infamous as Hindutva’s laboratory. The anti-communal front she had formed along with others, the Karnataka Komu Souharda Vedikehad grown into a major force, Venkatesh said, adding that Gauri Lankesh was an institution by herself. “Otherwise, they would not have targeted her.” She went on the offensive, was very vocal and could reach people. She spoke and wrote in Kannada and English and she had the legacy of her father, one of the finest journalists of Karnataka, he said.

She received a lot of hate mail and had been threatened a number of times, said Adv Venkatesh, adding that the statement of Bengaluru’s police commissioner T Suneel Kumar was not entirely correct. She did not seek police protection, that was not her nature, Adv Venkatesh said. She firmly believed that she lived in a free country and that she had a Constitutional right to speak freely and a Constitutional guarantee that her life was precious and would be protected.

It is this confidence she had in a Constitutional pledge for all citizens of India that the State is today called upon to uphold.

Geeta Seshu is a independent journalist based in Mumbai and contributing editor of The Hoot.

Courtesy: The Hoot

Gauri Lankesh, My Ex, My Best Friend:Chidanand Rajghatta

September 7, 2017

This is a Facebook post by late journalist Gauri Lankesh’s ex-husband, Chidanand Rajghatta. Ms Lankesh was shot dead outside her home on Tuesday.

I just deplaned after a 15 hour flight to see hundreds of messages of love and support for the work Gauri did and her shining ideals. She lived a beautiful life of purpose and fought the good fight. It will not be in vain. On the flight, I reflected on our growing up years and updated some of the recollections below because it is important to understand the wonderful milieu we grew up in. Thank you friends for the touching messages. Love and peace.

Gauri Lankesh: Amazing Grace

If Gauri Lankesh read all the tributes and accolades for her, particularly those that refer to soul and afterlife and heaven, she’d have cracked a good laugh. Maybe not a laugh, but at least a chuckle. We had decided in our teens that heaven and hell and afterlife were a lot of b.s. There was enough heaven and hell on earth, and we should just leave god alone – he has enough on his hands – instead of begging him for favors.

But part of our compact was we would not be hurtful to others – including family — even if we disagreed with their beliefs and practices. We didn’t always succeed – ah, the impetuosity of youth! — but it was a good principle that served us well later. Which is how even when we divorced 27 years ago, after five years of courtship and five years of marriage, we remained great friends. Part of the compact. Don’t be hurtful. Even to each other.

We met at a school that was the birthplace of the Rationalist Movement of India – National College. Our principal, Dr H.Narasimaiah, and the Sri Lankan rationalist, Dr Abraham Kovoor, were pioneers of the movement, and right from our teens we took to the thrill of questioning and debunking a variety of godmen/godwomen, charlatans, frauds, superstitions etc.

More on this another time, but I’m putting this out here early to provide some context to Gauri’s murder. Rationalists and agnostics are in the cross hairs of uber-religious bigots.

One of the first books we read together — before getting into the weeds (I mean metaphorically) of religion, politics, and life itself — was Will Durant’s Story of Philosophy. Neither of us was proficient in our mother tongue Kannada (at that time), so we regretfully forsook our own bounteous literature for everything from Wodehouse to Graham Greene, devouring anything that Premier Book Shop’s Mr Shanbhag could produce for us – at a matchless 20 per cent discount (others got 15 per cent). She returned to Kannada years later, but more on that soon.

Meanwhile, we “skinned our hearts and skinned our knees, learned of love the ABCs.” Terry Jack’s sappy, saccharine “Seasons in the Sun” had been released a few years earlier, and we hummed it between Dylan and Beatles. I’d return to Indian music years later; she was tone deaf. We read and laughed at Eric Segal’s Love Story, saw the movies Abba, Saturday Night Fever, and Gandhi on our first dates, and went to the boonies on moonless nights to see billions and billions of stars and galaxies after reading and watching Carl Sagan.

Feisty wouldn’t even begin to describe her. She hated the fact that I smoked in college. Years later, when I had given it up for a long time, she had begun to smoke. One time, she visited me in U.S (crazy innit? ex-wife visiting me? But we were better friends!) I insisted that she not smoke in the apartment because it was carpeted and the stink wouldn’t go away. It was winter.

“What do you want me to do?”
“If you have to smoke at all, go to the rooftop and smoke.”
“But it’s cold and snowing!”
“Shrug”
“You tightass!…I started to smoke because of you!”
“Awww…sorry old girl. I’m asking you to stop now.”
“Yeah, right. You’ve become too *&^%$#@ American!”
“American has nothing to do with it. Being healthy.”
“Bollocks. I’ll outlive you!”

Liar.

Many friends were bemused by our unbroken friendship. Separations and divorces are often messy, bitter, and spiteful in India, or anywhere for that matter. We had our volcanic moments, but we transcended that quickly, bound by higher ideals. On our day in court, as we stood next to each other, our hands reached out. Fingers interlaced. If you want to go your own ways, better disengage, the lawyer hissed.

After it was done and dusted (“by mutual consent”), we went out for lunch at the Taj down MG Road. The restaurant was called Southern Comfort. We laughed at the irony and said goodbye as I moved first to Delhi, them Mumbai, then Washington DC. She visited me in each place to argue about Life, the Universe, and Everything (we read Douglas Adams in school).

My parents loved her despite her rebellious nature, and remarkably for traditional, orthodox Indian parents, kept in touch with her – and she with them — even after we split. One time, when I told her about a budding dalliance, she drew herself to her full height (all of five feet and HALF INCH – she never failed to emphasize the half inch) and said: “Ha! You can never take away the honor of being the first daughter-in-law of the family.” When my mother passed away this past February, Gauri Lankesh was there, literally “live casting” for me the final rites as I flew home.

My ties with her family were as unusual. Through our separation and splitsville, I continued to meet her dad P.Lankesh, a writer, playwright, film-maker and an inspiration for a generation of rebel writers and journalists, and her sister Kavitha – “baby” to us-now a fine film-maker in her own right. Early in our college dalliance, after Lankesh’s due diligence determined that I passed the literary litmus test, I became part of the family – including the extended family of writers, poets, artists, teachers, and what I’d kid as the “buddhijeevi” (intellectual) crowd.

Starting early 80s, we met every Sunday evening for a game of cards, where the stakes were modest but the conversation was rich. Poetry, proverbs, epigrams, aphorisms, bon mots in English and Kannada flowed ebulliently at the table. If someone slowed down the game, someone else would intone “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow…” Another person: “….creeps at this petty pace from day to day.” Third one: “…to the last syllable of recorded time!” It became bad form to speak in anything other than through literary allusions – in any language. A daring pick always invited “Vinashakaale Vipareetha Buddhi.”

They were brilliant, effervescent men, and Gauri (who joined us occasionally and was the only woman at the table) and I marinated in their learning. Appa, as I called Lankesh, taught Eng.lit in Bangalore University, but had decamped to Kannada when we met, having just directed his first movie (I think it was either Anuroopa or Pallavi, and it won the national award). Like many great Kannada writers (Bendre, Kuvempu etc) he started out wanting to write in English before finding his métier in his roots. His play “Sankranti’ was prescribed reading for undergrads, but we discussed everyone from Kalidasa to Ibsen, Chekhov, and Brecht.

All this continued through courtship, marriage, separation, and divorce, and even after I moved to U.S. Every time I went home, over a drink or two, pop-in-law and I, refereed by his daughter, would argue about politics, religion, literature, movies, U.S-India ties, farming distress, health, the world. Father and daughter would tease me about abandoning the good fight, while I’d insist that it was temporary, and a little time and distance is good for perspective. Lankesh had a low threshold for idiocy (there was a high turnover at the cards table in the initial years with those unable to handle his temperament scramming quickly) but his continued affection for me earned brownie points from Gauri. When he passed away in 2000, she truly became her father’s daughter, taking over the newspaper he founded and continuing the good fight.

To this day, I unfailingly drop into to the Sunday cards table (long after Lankesh passed away, Doc Gowda, the writer-physician, is the current torchbearer). At every other visit or so, as the years took their toll of the older generation, I’d see someone missing at the table. “Yelli Sharma? (Where’s Sharma?)” I’d ask, as they made place for me at the cards table, referring to the wonderful poet Ramachandra Sharma. “Oh! He’s gone up to join Lankesh at another table,” someone would respond, without batting an eyelid or breaking the game. “And Mysoremath is on his way to join them. He’s in hospital.”

I’m relating all this to give a sense of the intellectual atmosphere Gauri grew up in – practical, rational, and largely agnostic. Death was just incidental. Respect, affection, and admiration for the good people did and what they stood for was important. Her – our – favorite word and topic of conversation in recent years was “horaata” – a Kannada word roughly meaning a movement/agitation/revolution. “Haegide horaata?” I’d ask during our occasional phone calls. She’d launch into a litany of struggles she was in at the moment.

Gauri’s presence at the cards table became rare as she threw herself into the fight against right-wing bigots, zealots, and extremists. We argued about that too at the cards table because some friends thought she had gone the other extreme. There was no doubt she was left of center, even extreme left of center. But heart was in the right place, and there was no place in her world for violence. Only cowards took to violence.

Some eight years back, after I had built a new home in Bangalore in the fond hope that I’d return to India some day, she determined that I needed a housekeeper to manage the place. “I am sending someone over,” she declared over the phone. “She’s a widow with two young daughters. Make sure you take care of them and put them through school.” It was an order. I complied.

Ramakka, her gift to us, is still with us; her daughters Asha and Usha both finished from school, earned degrees, and now work – Asha in Syndicate Bank and Usha at an NGO. There are hundreds of Ashas and Ushas because of Gauri Lankesh.

Just a few weeks ago, when Mary, the kids and I were in India, Gauri called to announce she was coming over. She always came to see the kids, bearing gifts, none more precious than the love and warmth she brought with her. Days passed, and she did not turn up. Busy, busy, busy, she said…you know how hard it is handling the paper and fighting the chaddis (she called the right wing nutters “chaddis”).

One day, she called to announce that she’s coming with her son. “Who have you adopted now?” I asked. “Kanhaiya Kumar,” she chuckled. “You mean the JNU bloke?” “Yes, you’ll love meeting him.” Little later she called to say his flight was late and she can’t make it. That was the last time I heard her voice. Bubbly and bursting with energy and passion for causes big and small.

As my plane now wings towards India to a place without Gauri, my mind is a cauldron of fragmented memories. One phrase keeps repeating and resonating in my mind: Amazing Grace. Forget all other labels: leftist, radical, anti-Hindutva, secular etc. For me, there is just this: She is the epitome of Amazing Grace.

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