गरबा में आने वालों पर गौमूत्र का छिड़काव

October 7, 2016

गांधीनगर : बजरंग दल के कार्यकर्ता अब गरबा में भाग लेने वाले गैर हिंदुओं पर गौमूत्र छिड़ककर उन्हें “पवित्र” करने का अभियान शुरू किया है। दरअसल, ये सारी कवायद गैर हिंदुओं को गरबा आयोजनों से दूर रखने की है। गांधीनगर के सेक्टर 11 के गरबा समारोह में बजरंग दल और विश्व हिंदू परिषद के कार्यकर्ताओं ने लोगों पर गौमूत्र छिड़कना शुरू किया, लेकिन लोगों की प्रतिक्रियाओं से लग रहा था कि उन्हें ये हरकत पसंद नहीं आ रही है।

Image: Navbharat Times

कपड़ों पर दाग पड़ने से रोकने के लिए गौमूत्र के साथ गंगाजल का मिश्रण किया गया था, लेकिन लोगों की नाराजगी छिपी नहीं रही। कुछ लोगों ने तो इसका विरोध नहीं किया लेकिन आईटी विशेषज्ञ देवदत्त सिंह रावल जैसे कई लोगों ने न केवल इसका विरोध किया बल्कि पुलिस भी बुला ली।

उनकी पत्नी जानकी बा बताती हैं- “बजरंग दल वालों ने हमें बाहर निकाल फेंकने की धमकी भी दी। हमारे पास पास था तो वे हमें रोकने वाले कौन होते हैं? कई लोग डर के मारे चुप रहे लेकिन मुझे किसी को साबित करने की ज़रूरत नहीं कि मैं हिंदू हूँ।”

उस समारोह में आमंत्रित सामाजिक न्याय मंत्री केशाजी चौहान का भी स्वागत बजरंद दल वालों ने गौमूत्र छिड़ककर ही किया। बजरंग दल की गांधीनगर इकाई के जिलाध्यक्ष अमित उपाध्याय का कहना है- हम तो चार साल से ये काम कर रहे हैं। लव-जिहाद रोकने के लिए ये तरीका हमने अपनाया है। पहले हम लोग तिलक लगाते थे लेकिन बाद में लगा कि गैर हिंदुओं को दूर रखने के लिए गौमूत्र ज्यादा कारगर है। उपाध्याय के साथ करीब 300 युवाओं की टीम है जो होली और नवरात्रि पर भी “संस्कृति रक्षा” का काम करती है।

अमित उपाध्याय कहते हैं- “हमें पुलिस की परमीशन की ज़रूरत नहीं है। हम अपने धर्म की सेवा कर रहे हैं। जो लोग गौमूत्र छिड़कवाने से इन्कार करेंगे, उन्हें हम बाहर निकाल देंगे।”

जबरन गौमूत्र छिड़कने के बारे में गांधीनगर के डीएसपी विजय पटेल का कहना है- “हमें ऐसी किसी घटना की जानकारी नहीं है। अगर कोई शिकायत हमें मिली तो हम उस पर जरूरी कार्रवाई करेंगे।”

थंगानट गरबा के आयोजक रोहित नायानी किसी विवाद में पड़ने से बचना चाहते हैं। वे कहते हैं, “बजरंग दल वाले पिछले तीन साल से यहाँ आ रहे हैं, लेकिन अब तक उनकी कोई शिकायत नहीं मिली है।”

गरबा में आने वाले सभी आगंतुकों पर गौमूत्र तो छिड़का जा रहा है लेकिन भाजपा से जुड़े अल्पसंख्यक नेताओं को इससे अलग रखा गया। सामाजिक न्याय मंत्री केशाजी चौहान और धर्मगुरु भैयूजी महाराज पर गौमूत्र डाला गया लेकिन उनके साथ आए भाजपा नेता और सूफी संत महबूब अली चिश्ती को बिना गौमूत्र छिड़के अंदर आने दिया गया। बजरंग दल वाले इसके लिए भीड़ का बहाना बनाते हैं।

Courtesy: Ahmedabad Mirror

Can there be an ‘English Islam’?

October 7, 2016

'Englishness' is often set at odds with Islam, but in reality both these identities are malleable and porous. We must follow in the footsteps of Muslims throughout history in embracing new cultural formations.

Image: AP/Lefteris Pitarakis

Each year, the pilgrimage to the Islamic holy city of Mecca takes place – millions of people from various nationalities descend, and perform the Hajj, the Islamic pilgrimage. As usual, thousands of Muslim Britons joined their co-religionists, and the UK Foreign Office has a consular office in Mecca that assists them. This year, the UK’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia accompanied them – as a pilgrim himself. Her Majesty’s representative, Simon Collis, happens to be a Muslim – an English one, which seemed to take the media thoroughly by surprise. But is it actually as unusual as it seems?

Britain has British Muslims, and Muslims are integrated into British society. Their loyalty might be contested by parts of the right (and the left), regrettably – but generally, it’s now longer controversial to make the argument that Britishness and Islam can be strongly related. After all, there is an established history in the UK around speaking of Britishness as a modern, civic, and less essentialised nationalism – and, as such, can easily incorporate a variety of identities under the rubric of multiculturalism, which often relates identity to institutions and language. In that regard, Britishness is far similar to an American style of civic nationalism – and it’s relatively easy for Muslim identity to exist in that kind of universe.

But, there’s another kind of relationship to explore, which was raised inadvertently by our ambassador’s pilgrimage, as well as two recent conferences held by ‘British Futures’ (‘A Very English Islam’) and in Cambridge, by Cambridge Muslim College. That is the relationship between Englishness and Islam – which, according to people such as the former chair of the Conservative Party, Sayeeda Warsi, and Cambridge University theologian, Dr Timothy Winter, is a very strong relationship indeed. Claiming a positive relationship between Englishness and Islam, rather than simply Britishness and Islam, is a far bolder statement – because traditionally speaking, Englishness hasn’t been conceived as a kind of civic citizen-based nationalism at all. It’s been interpreted far more as an essentialized identity – one that relates to race, and also religion. And in England post-Brexit referendum, particularly with the noticeable rise in anti-Muslim sentiment via right-wing nativist populists, suggesting that Muslims of England could not only be considered British, but English, could be ever more intriguing.

As far as the likes of Winter and Warsi are concerned, there is no intrinsic or philosophical quandary to speaking of an English-Muslim expression of culture. Historically, there were many English Muslims, who were either converts or descendants of them, similar to Christians and socially, they were deeply embedded in English culture. It is an interesting perspective – and one that becomes more pertinent in the UK post-Brexit, and the rise of even deeper identity politics among the English, and also the increasing of anti-Muslim sentiment in the UK and beyond.

The question then arises – can Islam be accepted in the UK only as part of and via that multiculturalist discussion and civic nationalism of Britishness? Or can Islam be more embedded and indigenous – can it become intrinsically connected to Englishness, for example, in the same way that English Jews and English Catholics are English? It is not simply a question pertaining to whether or not Islam has that capacity of openness – but whether England does as well.

There is a cultural question to be considered here. The majority of British Muslims today were born in the UK – but they descend from either expatriates or are the grandchildren of expatriates. Those original migrants were not, by and large, expecting to stay in the UK – but that has already changed for that generation, let alone their children and grandchildren. Their children and grandchildren have no such doubt. They’re not ‘staying’ anywhere – this is their home. This is why so much cultural creativity is taking place already in Muslim communities around the UK, even if more can be done.

Nonetheless, those migrants came from a different ethnicity from the majority of Britons – and pluralism has not exactly had an easy time in Europe until the latter half of the 20th century. The upsurge of populist politics, and the mainstreaming of racist tropes, which we have seen across the continent, as well as across the Atlantic Ocean, is not something to be taken lightly.

That issue of pluralism remains pertinent – not simply in terms of rejecting racism in the context of our laws and policies in the UK. But also on a deeply internal, cultural level – are we, as English men and women, willing to conceive of Englishness as a more open construct that could not only incorporate Muslims as British citizens, but as English, and Islam as an English religion? It’s not a foregone conclusion – but it does have serious ramifications for how we consider identity in England, the UK and Europe today.

As for Muslims, there is also the question of not only ethnicity, but religion. Is Islam a barrier to this kind of ‘indigenous’ exercise? Or are there resources within the Islamic tradition to allow for the indigenization of religious expression in ‘new’ countries?

Where Islam’s adherents are a majority, cultural embeddedness is plainly not an issue – otherwise, for example, Nigerian Islam would look, culturally, like Moroccan Islam. It patently does not – even though, on a religious level, they are the same in terms of their approach to Sunni doctrine, law and spirituality. But what about in a minority context? Is it the same? Or is Islam impervious to becoming connected to the land, except where Muslims run the show?

Winter argues in his own writings that Islamic tradition isn’t a barrier to a minority cultural expression of Islam – indeed, he considers Islamic tradition to enforce an imperative behind forming an English Islamic cultural expression. There are certainly historical precedents for that – in China, for example, where Muslims have lived for more than a millennium, without political supremacy, and a profoundly Chinese expression of Islam is incredibly evident. The same can be said for South Africa, where Muslims, including the most deeply traditional and orthodox, are intrinsically South African. Other illustrations abound. If history is anything to go by, Muslims have proven culturally extremely malleable historically, while maintaining Islamic creedal and canonical traditions.

Far beyond England – in Wales, across the European continent – the issues of Islam and being indigenous is a poignant one. The resources and ingredient for organic, localized and culturally embedded forms of Muslim religious expressions in England are all there. The real question is whether we’ll prefer to see that kind of future in Europe – or one where we are far more separated from each other, or, as both the populist right and religious extremists would prefer, worse. The choice is really ours.

(This article was first published on Opendemocracy.net)

What has Hindu law ever done for women?

October 7, 2016

India’s long overdue Uniform Civil Code, a set of common personal laws for all citizens, guaranteed by its constitution, is under renewed debate. It should not be based on Hindu law.

As we in India enter the debate on the enactment of a Uniform Civil Code (UCC), seventy years after it was guaranteed by the constitution, there is a view that the codified Hindu law should form its base. Despite the compromises and loopholes in Hindu law which militate against gender equality, the misconception that Hindus have forsaken their personal laws and have embraced a secular, egalitarian, and gender-just code, which must now be extended to minority communities to liberate ‘their’ women persists. There is also a parallel view that the best elements from all personal laws must be incorporated into this ideal code. Tested against this formulation, how will the Hindu Law, which is applicable to the mainstream majority, fare? There is a long history of the way in which Hindu law, occasionally reinforced by colonial law, has been applied by the Indian court system against the best interests of women. We also need to take the social context into account in which other vital indicators of gender justice interact with Hindu law.

As per the recently released census data, India has 12 million married children under the age of ten, more than the population of Rwanda. The most unexpected part of the report is that 84 per cent of these were Hindus, while 11 per cent were Muslims. Whilst these figures are roughly in proportion to the size of each community, with Hindus at nearly 80 per cent and Muslims at 14 per cent of the population, the figures are surprising because the minimum age of marriage for a Hindu girl is 18 as per the Child Marriage Prohibition Act, 2006, as well as the Hindu Marriage Act, while the principle applicable under Muslim law is ‘age of reason’ which is deemed to be achieved upon puberty. Yet the figures for child marriage do not reflect a social transformation taking place due to the codification of Hindu law. Though child marriage is prohibited it is not void.

Newly wed Mamta Bai, 12, and her husband Bablu, 14, at a temple in Rajgarh. Image: PA Images / Prakash Hatvalne

Some groups have been campaigning for a total ban on child marriage and for declaring all child marriages void. From the point of view of social justice, what will be the impact on young Hindu girls who are married upon reaching puberty and are deserted even before they become majors? When a destitute girl with a child in arms approaches our courts, would it be in the interest of justice to declare, since the marriage is void, that she is not entitled to her basic and fundamental right of maintenance? While this is a legal concern, there is also a social aspect to it. The belief that a girl should be married before reaching puberty is still dominant among various rural Hindu communities. The concept of a virgin bride prevails and the fear of sexual assault which will taint the girl and render her impure and unfit for marriage still persists and the parents are afraid to take the risk of keeping an unmarried girl at home. The fear of the girl eloping with a boy of her choice and bringing dishonour to the family also haunts parents due to which parents prefer to marry off their daughters young. This exposes the young vulnerable girl to sexual and domestic abuse in her marital home. It also results in early pregnancy which is one of the main causes of maternal mortality in our country. Yet the fear of sexual purity and sexual defilement overrides concerns for the girl’s health and security while marrying off an underage daughter.

The reformed Hindu law has not been able to bring about a change in this deeply ingrained notion. It is not a question of criminalising child marriage and declaring it void; adequate facilities for education, both formal and informal, skills training, a secure environment for a young girl to grow up until she reaches the age of 18, along with a change in the parental mind-set regarding the notion of the virgin bride are some of the measures which are needed. A Hindu father still believes that marrying his daughter is a pious obligation which he must perform to attain salvation. Apart from encouraging child marriage, this concept also gives a boost to the dowry system, despite our laws criminalising dowry and dowry-related violence. The pressure to marry off their daughter, at any cost, drives parents to meet the dowry demands of the groom’s family rather than bear the stigma of having an unmarried daughter. Despite the legislative reforms to curb dowry deaths and suicides, the figures are constantly rising.

In an informal study of dowry deaths which reached the Supreme Court and the Bombay High Court, conducted by Majlis, Mumbai, over 95 per cent of these cases of dowry death were among Hindus. While the system of dowry has spread to lower castes and minority communities, its roots in Hindu cultural tradition cannot be overlooked. Ironically, Muslim law started with the more progressive notion of mehr, an amount which must be stipulated in the marriage contract as a future security to the bride. Unfortunately, the community has accepted the anti-women Hindu custom of dowry, while mehr amounts have been reduced to a mere token.

The age-old dictum still prevails that a girl who enters a bridal home in a wedding procession must leave the home only in a funeral procession. So despite acute domestic violence girls are sent back to their marital homes even at the risk of them being killed or driven to suicide. Despite amendments to the Hindu laws which rendered the Hindu marriage contractual, the sacramental aspect still dominates the social psyche and parents prefer to send the daughter back to her matrimonial home rather than risk having a divorcee on their hands. In contrast, a Muslim marriage is always regarded as a civil contract. While the Christian marriage started on the premise of a permanent and indissoluble sacrament, gradually due to education and exposure, perceptions about sacramental marriage have changed. While among the urban, middle and upper classes Hindus, divorce is gradually gaining acceptance and there is greater likelihood of women opting for divorce when faced with domestic violence, in rural areas where conservative views of sacramental marriage still dominate women are less likely to opt for divorce even when faced with cruelty, desertion or their husband’s adultery.

The concept of permanency of marriage and husband as the Lord and Master, still dominates not only our public life, but also litigation in family courts where women are constantly advised to return to save their marriage even at great risk to themselves, as the judges themselves endorse this view. Women believe that even if their husbands are abusive, violent or alcoholic they prefer to remain married, since the marriage symbols which are worn by married women, like the black beads round the neck and sindoor (red powder) on their forehead, are perceived as marks of respect, status and protection against advances from other men. Despite the enactment of PWDVA (The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005) , the only advice given to most women either by the police or social workers situated in police stations, is to reconcile in order to save her marriage and return to her matrimonial home. This appears to be the most viable solution as the state has not attempted to evolve alternate support structures to help women to make the transition from a housewife to an independent and self-supporting person.

When there is a resumption of violence, the women are in a state of acute depression. A recent international study which covered 187 nations revealed another disturbing fact that suicide is the leading cause of death among married women, aged from 15-49 in India, replacing death due to maternal disorders. An overwhelming number of these are likely to be urban Hindu housewives. While all religions are patriarchal and believe in maintaining a strict control over a woman’s sexuality, the hold of Brahminical patriarchy reaches a high pitch when we examine the phenomenon referred to as honour killings where a girl is brutally killed by her own parents or at their instance, for transgressing the caste boundaries, and marrying a man/boy from the lower castes. Earlier this phenomenon was believed to be prevalent only in North India, but now several Southern states have also started reporting these occurrences at regular frequency. The young couple is also killed for contracting sagotra (same lineage ie inbreeding) and sapinda (cousin) marriages within certain North Indian communities.

Against this overarching evidence of anti-women social practices, can we assume, unproblematically, that the codified Hindu law has been instrumental in bringing social transformation and changed gender relationships and provided the necessary foundation upon which a strong edifice of a uniform and gender just family code for India can be built? This is the challenging question that confronts us today.

This article is adapted from the 2016 Durgabai Deshmukh Memorial Lecture delivered by Flavia Agnes. Durgabai Deshmukh was an Indian freedom fighter, lawyer, social worker, politician and activist for women’s emancipation.

This article was first published on Opendemocracy.net

Academics VS Nationalist Militia

October 7, 2016

The story of Indian universities is generally written (and read) as a long lament. But we could also write it as a heroic ballad – or, to be more accurate, a narrative of individual courage and collective failure.

Universities are supposed to be places where we learn to put everything to the test. So the first thing we are taught is to have courage in the face of authority of all kinds. How are our universities doing on this front?

Image: Sh Rakesh Meena

It could be said that the university leadership is failing the university and betraying its cause while a handful of teachers and students struggle to keep it alive. The most recent case is that of the Central University of Haryana. Here, the teachers of the Department of English are facing nationalist wrath manufactured though a series of deceptive acts by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student arm of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

What is encouraging, however, is that despite feeling unsure and being isolated, these teachers have refused to be browbeaten by threats that sedition charges will be filed against them. On the other hand, the university authorities have decided to distance themselves from their teachers.

Staging a classic

Two teachers of the English department – Snehsata and Manoj Kumar – have been accused of insulting soldiers of the Indian Army by depicting them in poor light in a play staged at the university last month. This play was based on Draupadi, the iconic short story by the eminent Bengali writer and activist Mahasweta Devi, which has been widely translated and commented upon by critics across the world.

The protagonist of Draupadi, an Adivasi woman, is attacked and raped by the security forces. After regaining consciousness, she refuses to cover herself with the piece of cloth offered by the armed forces personnel who raped her. She rises, putting the shame of rape behind her, and confronts the State with her stark nakedness.

Snehsata, who teaches in the department of English, was one of the coordinators of the programme. The event was planned to pay homage to Mahasweta Devi, who died in Kolkata in July. The university authorities had approved the programme, which, after a few inexplicable postponements, was finally scheduled for September 21.

Snehsata wrote the epilogue of the play. It included a list of acts of violence against Adivasis, communities in Kashmir, and states in the North East. It gave the instances of the infamous cases of rape at Kunan Poshpura in Kashmir and that of Thangjam Manorama in Manipur. The epilogue asked its audience to decide the role it would like to play in the light of these facts.

The play was supervised by the head of the university’s English Department. The audience applauded the play. There was not a murmur when it was staged. That is obvious from a video of the performance available on YouTube. University officials who were present in the hall patted the backs of the teachers for their creative act.

Manufactured protest

However, after the event, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad staged a protest against the play before the registrar’s office. It was said that the play was an attempt to malign the image of the Army. The next day, a crowd assembled at the university gate and demanded that action be taken against those responsible for the play.

The protest was taken to the town Mahendragarh, which is more than 10 km from the university, and adjacent villages. Former Army personnel were persuaded that some teachers had deliberately insulted the Army.

The protestors burnt effigies of the Vice Chancellor and university authorities and demanded that action be taken against them as well for having allowed this so-called anti-national play to be staged. It worked. The university immediately formed a six-member committee to investigate and fix responsibility.

Till today, university authorities have not thought it necessary to talk to the teachers and students involved in the play, and assure them of their support. The rest of the faculty has started shunning Snehsata and Manoj Kumar. A campaign to malign Kumar is on. Because he taught for some time in Chhattisgarh, where Naxals are active, it is being suggested that he is a Maoist.

Snehsata sticks to her position. She has owned and defended the staging of the play and the epilogue. This act of courage stands out in the face of collective silence.

ABVP bounty hunters

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad has started to resemble the student militia of the early days of the Islamic revolution of Iran. It spies on teachers and starts vilification campaigns against them. In the case of the Central University of Haryana, villagers are being instigated against teachers, which makes it very dangerous for them to venture out of the campus.

The most disturbing part of the episode is the abdication of its role by the University. It is the duty of authorities protect the integrity of the varsity. They must resist interference from outside forces in its internal matters. Snehsata should not have been left alone to explain herself and defend herself.

Speaking recently at a workshop in Ahmedabad University, Pratap Bhanu Mehta said that universities should ideally be communities of judgement. But this authority has been badly eroded in the last few years. One of the reasons is that the leadership of universities is now in the hands of people who are too willing to let untrained outsiders judge their colleagues. All sorts of people, from Army men to religious gurus, have started telling us about what and how to teach.

Some would say that this play was not an academic activity. At best, it can be called an extra-curricular event. Academic activities are only what is laid out in the syllabi. But we know that many a times it is out-of-syllabus acts like these that shape our critical faculty. Syllabi take time to be formed and are generally static. What instils dynamism, and life in them, are acts like staging of Draupadi or a discussion with striking workers of the Honda company.

One of the jobs of education is to make available resources to students to enable them to examine the times in which they live. The epilogue of the play did exactly that by situating a story written decades ago in contemporary times.

Let us not despair then. So long we have teachers like Snehsata among us, universities will not die despite the cowardice of their leadership. Let us speak out for these soldiers of knowledge who refuse to abandon their posts.

This article was first published on Kafila

दलित मंदिर में दान देना बंद कर दें तो संघ की आधी शाखा बंद हो जाएंगी- प्रकाश अंबेडकर

October 7, 2016

राजकोट। डॉ बी आर अंबेडकर के पौत्र प्रकाश अंबेडकर ने बुधवार को राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ पर आरोप लगाया कि विजयदशमी के दिन जो शस्त्र संघ द्वारा प्रदर्शित किए जाते हैं। उनका इस्तेमाल दलित और मुसलमानों के खिलाफ किया जाता है। प्रकाश ने दलितों से हिंदू दक्षिणपंथी संगठन को खत्म करने का आह्वान किया।

उन्होंने कहा, ” मैं संघ से सवाल पूछना चाहता हूं जो आज सरकार में है। आपके दुश्मन कौन हैं? विजयदशमी पर वो हथियारों की नुमाइश लगाकर उनकी पूजा करते हैं। ऐसी पूजा राजाओं के द्वारा करने का मतलब समझ में आता था। उन्हें अपने राज्य की रक्षा करनी होती थी। पर आज हम स्वतंत्र हैं। तो इस तरह की मनोवृत्ति की क्या जरूरत है। हमें शांति, विकास और भाईचारा चाहिए।” प्रकाश अंबेडकर ने गुजरात के राजकोट शहर में राष्ट्रीय दलित अधिकारों के लिए बुलाई एक सभा में ये बाते कहीं।

इसके बाद प्रकाश ने कहा कि भगवा संगठन समाज में मनुवाद को प्रोजेक्ट कर रहा है। जिसमें दलित ऊँची जाति के लोगों के दास रहेंगे। उन्होंने कहा ,” हम संघ से पूछना चाहते हैं आप इन हथियारों का इस्तेमाल किनके खिलाफ करना चाहते हैं। पाकिस्तान से लोग यहां आकर बम फोड़ कर वापस चले जाते हैं लेकिन क्या कभी किसी ने सुना कि संघ या विश्व हिंदू परिषद या बजरंग दल का कोई सैनिक पाकिस्तान गया हो और उसने वहां बम फोड़ा हो। अगर कोई वहां जाता और वहां बम फोड़कर वापस आता तब मैं समझ सकता था कि हाथियारों की पूजा पाकिस्तान के लिए है लेकिन सच्चाई ये है कि वो पाकिस्तान से डरते हैं।”

प्रकाश अंबेडकर ने कहा कि दलितों को मंदिर जाना बंद कर देना चाहिए क्योंकि मंदिर के पैसों का इस्तेमाल संघ के कार्यक्रम में होता है। उन्होंने कहा, “देश के छोटे मंदिर भी 40,000 करोड़ रुपए सालाना इकट्ठा करते हैं और इस पैसे का इस्तेमाल संघ को चलाने और हथियार इक्ट्ठे करने में होता है। अगर दलित मंदिर जाना और धार्मिक संगठनों को दान देना बंद कर दे तो संघ की आधी शाखा बंद हो जाएंगी।

इनपुट- किशोर कुमार पन्थ, आगरा

Courtesy: National Dastak

In Dadri, a man accused of murder, martyred by a fever, is revered like a soldier

October 7, 2016

Ravi Sisodia, one of the men accused of killing Mohammed Akhlaq after they claimed he had eaten beef, is being turned into a new Hindutva icon.

Ravi Sisodia Dadri Accused

All attention may be on India’s border with Pakistan, surgical strikes and possibly military escalation. But within India’s boundaries, the Sangh Parivar is engaged in constant battle with those who stand in the way of Hindutva.

Last week, they were defending the honour of soldiers in uniform against the recently deceased playwright Mahashweta Devi. This week, they created a new type of martyr – a man accused of murder, who died in judicial custody. They draped the national flag over over his casket just like a soldier's, and used his death to rally Hindus against Muslims.

Ravi Sisodia, aged 22, was one of 18 people accused of brutally murdering Mohammed Akhlaq in Bishara village of Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, last year, claiming that he had eaten beef in his home. He died on October 4, while in judicial custody, of complications relating to an improperly diagnosed fever.

Sisodia’s death is an indictment of prison conditions and care of prisoners. His family is justified in demanding a formal explanation and compensation.

Draping his casket in the tricolour, however, is a violation of the Flag Code, which prohibits the use of the national flag at private funerals and classifies this as disrespect to the flag.

In Dadri, they couldn’t care less. There he is being hailed a martyr, an icon of Hindutva pride and his death a rallying cry for Hindutva warriors.

His body in a transparent casket with the national flag draped over it is, according to The Hindu’s reporter, placed close to the spot where Akhlaq was murdered. In a video shot by The Hindu’s photographer, the gathered village folk were exhorted to avenge Sisodia's death:

“We want revenge and we will have our revenge…Hindu brothers have not worn bangles …we will uproot these mullahs and cast them out. These mullahs don’t even have the capacity to face one of our boys. Unite, Rajput, Gujjar, Thakur, Bhatti, don’t be divided by caste, come together as Hindu. My brother’s martyrdom… the spark that my brother has lit, we must make it a raging fire.”

To stoke the fire there was saffron-clad support, including the poison-tongued Sadhvi Prachi, who added to the family’s declaration that there would be no funeral without compensation, by saying that there would be no funeral until Mohammed Akhlaq’s brother Jan Mohammed is arrested.

False narrative

Ravi Sisodia’s death has given the Sangh Parivar an opportunity to push the narrative it created after Akhalq’s murder last year – of “gaurakshaks” as defenders of Hindu values, unjustly punished for the death of a cow killer. Union Ministers and state BJP politicians set that narrative in place.

Mahesh Sharma, the Union minister for culture, justified Akhlaq’s murder as having been provoked by cow slaughter Sangeet Som, the BJP MLA, repeated this canard, equating the murder of Akhlaq with the killing of a cow.

With Akhlaq’s own family now living in safe housing provided by the Indian Air Force, the Sangh Parivar has nominated Jan Mohammed, who still lives in the village, as the person who “slaughtered a cow” on the night of Akhlaq’s death.
The speeches in Dadri are an uncomplicated case of incitement to violence and communal hatred and the flag draped casket is a clear violation of the Flag Code. But at this writing no complaints had been filed about either. The police, in its customary manner, has stood by and watched.

Perhaps there is unintended wisdom in ignoring the provocations. For there is the possibility of an escalation by primed Hindutva warriors, if a surgical strike is conducted against the law-breakers in Dadri. And letting the bizarre spectacle of a man accused of murder, martyred by a fever and feted like a soldier fallen in war play out may have its own consequences. It may just get people asking why, ever since the Narendra Modi government came to power on such promise, the country has been overrun by violence.

This article was first published on Scroll.in

Life After Acquittal: Narratives at a People’s Tribunal

October 7, 2016

In April this year, nine Muslim men who were arrested for the 2006 Malegaon blasts were acquitted by a Sessions Court, as there was no evidence against them. In May, Union minister for law and justice DV Sadananda Gowda had expressed concern over false terror charges slapped on Muslim youths that are followed by acquittals due to lack of evidence across the country. There is surmounting evidence, that extraordinary legal provisions to deal with “terrorism” (presently the UAPA, earlier TADA and POTA) promulgated at various junctures have vilified and targeted specific communities. The investigative bias complements the prejudiced image of a Muslim as someone prone to violence driven by anger and irrationality and that of a tribal as Maoist up in arms against the government. Therefore, the security discourse emphasises the need for extraordinary laws and absolute impunity to keep ‘marked communities’ within the framework of criminality. The hegemony of the national security discourse has privileged the strengthening of national security laws and a slow erosion of civil liberties. While laws have been harmonised according to the global consensus on the “war on terror”, India has consciously failed to ratify International human rights conventions.

Image: Jayshankar Menon

In a bid to fix quick responsibility following any acts of “terror”, the law enforcing agencies abduct persons deemed suspicious (the testimonies specifically point out to kidnapping or abduction by the police and not arrest), what follows is a media trial wherein the fourth estate act as faithful stenographers of the state. Thus public memory remains prejudiced and fixed onto that moment of televised castigation of people even before the trial has been concluded.

The media, investigating agency or the judiciary have no fear of any consequences and therefore they are able to implicate the innocent through the systematic abrogation of the criminal justice system. In institutionalising impunity, those who keep guard to defend the state from its ostensible predefined enemy continue to remain outside the purview of law even after a series of acquittals. Thus, the arbitrariness and lawlessness of those responsible for enforcing law gets exposed to show the inherent bias and throws light on routinisation of “wrongful prosecution” as a means to portray that the rule of law is being adhered to, even in extraordinary cases of terrorism. As opposed to the spectacle of arrest of an alleged terrorist, their discharge following a number of years, sometimes decades, is not considered a matter of importance. Their struggle largely remains invisibilised.

Taking cognizance of the above, India’s first People’s Tribunal on Acquitted Innocents was organized on October 2 at the Constitution Club of India to call attention to unrepresented and unheard voices of those wronged by the system. The Tribunal consisted of a jury headed by a retired judge, AP Shah along with other distinguished members from the legal fraternity as well as the larger civil society. This event was facilitated by Innocence Network India, which is an all India network of individuals and organisations facilitated and supported by JTSA, Quill Foundation, Peoples’ Campaign against Politics of Terror, Association for Protection of Civil Rights, Aman Biradari, Karvaan and others.

All testimonies revealed a sordid ordeal of brutal torture, the duress under which a confession is obtained, plantation and fabrication of evidence, long-drawn legal proceedings, hostility of jail inmates, constant humiliation and helplessness. The stigma of belonging to the family of a “terrorist” affected their families in ways which iis difficult to reverse. Their little kids were rebuked in school, their elderly parents had to arrange for their legal assistance despite their ailing health. The long wait to see their loved ones walk free took a toll on them.

Md. Nisaruddin was falsely implicated in 1994 and spent 23 years in jail before he was acquitted. His brother, Zahiruddin, who was accused in the same case, spent 14 years in jail. In their absence, their father, “passed away in distress, mother went into depression and the society shunned them.” This is not a one-off case of wrongful prosecution; there are others like them who have spent years languishing in jails, only to be acquitted later for the want of evidence. Senior journalist Iftikhar Geelani, Dr. Faarog Makhdoomi from Malegaon, Shoeb Jagirdar from Jalna, Md. Aamir Khan from Delhi, Dr. Md. Yunus, Haji Md. Salees, Syed Wasuf Haider from Kanpur, Sanauddin from Karnataka, Abdul Wahid and Zubair Ahmed from Maharashtra, who participated in the Peoples’ Tribunal, had similar heart-wrenching stories of abduction, torture, castigation and acquittal to tell.

In the Aurangabad Arms Haul Case, the main accused Adbul Wahid was a driver by profession. He was called to the police station for questioning and was later produced before the media as the man who drove the terrorists around in the city. It still surprised Abdul Azim that the policemen asked him to “rise up to the occasion and do something for his country”. When he resisted, his women relatives were brought to the police station and were threatened of sexual assault in his presence to obtain his signature on his “confession”. In most of the cases, the confession formed bulk of evidence against the accused which was obtained through custodial torture. Victims were subjected to numerous third degree methods of physical harm like electric shocks on private parts, water boarding, gassing, beatings, stretching of legs for a prolonged period of time.

Image: Jayshankar Menon

The narration of every case, brought out persisting struggle of everyday life which is spent amidst social isolation and continuous surveillance. The livid experiences of spending a number of years in incarceration takes a toll on victims and their families. Loss of livelihood opportunities accompanied by shrunken avenues of employment, loss of prime of their youth, multi-layered psychological effects of staying away from their families make it difficult for them to blend easily with the mainstream. The trials run into years and some of the accused have languished in jail for as long as 23 years; before they were acquitted. Their acquittal doesn’t mean a return to normalcy. Since there is no acknowledgement and recognition of the wrong done, their lives are caught in the interminable cobweb of suspicion and enduring struggles to build their lives and support their families.

Everyone present in the hall was moved during the tribunal by these personal accounts. In their preliminary observations, the jury emphasised on the need to fix criminal culpability on investigative officers for wrongful prosecution and that this provision must be made to supersede Section 197 of the CrPC that requires sanction from government departments before a case can be registered. Further, they also pointed out to the systematic ways in which, the entire prosecution process is oriented towards implicating persons from a minority community. They stressed upon the urgency for creating a legislative framework in consonance with India's commitment to ICCPR's article 14 (6) which states that:

When a person has by a final decision been convicted of a criminal offence and when subsequently his conviction has been reversed or he has been pardoned on the ground that a new or newly discovered fact shows conclusively that there has been a miscarriage of justice, the person who has suffered punishment as a result of such conviction shall be compensated according to law, unless it is proved that the non-disclosure of the unknown fact in time is wholly or partly attributable to him.

Impunity is not only political and legal, but also moral. The public at large remains detached from the outcome of these cases which contributes to the continuing ostracisation of the victims. Knowledge and public recognition of what happened is important for individual closure. The Tribunal was an effort to publically acknowledge the innocence of these men who were at the receiving end of systematic and institutional prejudice. Through recognising the harm done, the Tribunal sought to make not only the state accountable, but also put onus on the society to orient themselves towards shaping their lives in a holistic manner. It brought out that by dusting off their responsibility of rehabilitation, reparation and fixing culpability for wrongful prosecution, the state and its agencies are wanting to keep a community in the shade of criminalisation.

(Surya Ghildiyal completed her MA in Conflict and Peace Studies from Jamia Millia Islamia in 2014 and currently works in the development sector.

Preetika Nanda completed her MA in Conflict and Peace Studies from Jamia Millia Islamia in 2014. She is currently researching and documenting mass enforced disappearances during the decade-long conflict in Punjab.)

Don’t Debase Malayali Food: Open Letter to Education Minister, Kerala

October 6, 2016

Education Minister, Raveendranath in the recently elected Left Front Government in Kerala has drawn criticism from several quarters for his comments on food choice. Local media has reported his comments bracketing meat, fish and eggs to ‘illicit drugs’ and alcohol

The author is a member of the expert Group on Biodiversity and Development of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and also part of the Plachimada High Power Committee of the state government has authored this open letter.

Text of the letter:

Sri Ravaindranath
Hon Minister for Education
Government of Kerala

Honourable Minister,

I was surprised to see the news report yesterday (pasted below) on one of your speeches where you have bracketed universal human food meat, fish and egg with illegal drugs (and alcohol and asserted that you don’t consume any of these) (Madhyamam October 5, 2016). At a time when the fascist forces are playing havoc on the country in the name of meat eating, it is an insult to the Kerala society and its culture where hardly a meal is taken without fish/meat/egg to debase our own food.

It is perhaps not entirely surprising that you belong to a Communist party or that you have been involved in the KSSP, for there is no dearth of reactionary elements there too.

Human species had the best evolutionary phase when our ancestors were hunter gatherers, meat eating even contributed to the advancement of the brain. The deficiency of meat in human diet- especially the animal fat- can impair the normal state of the human brain even after some thirty thousand years of the hunting-fishing mode of the human species. Hitler is one glaring example. The other Hitler, Leopold II of Belgium, who massacred even more number of humans too was, by most accounts, a vegetarian.

Today, the gross violence taking place across the country- killings, rapes, torture- in the name of cow protection are caused by brains that are deficient in meat-supplied nutrients. It is a reflection of this chronic deficiency that leads a human being to call for the rape of dead women too. Meat eaters too can commit crimes against humanity, but that is due to other psychological illnesses. Since you are a part of the Communist Party, I would suggest you start some extensive reading on this issue with F Angel’s important work The Dialectics of Nature, especially the chapter ‘The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man’.

Engels says ‘A meat diet contains in an almost ready state the most essential ingredients required by the organism for its metabolism. It shortened the time required, not only for digestion, but also for the other vegetative bodily processes corresponding to those of plant life, and thus gained further time, material, and energy for the active manifestation of animal life in the proper sense of the word… The most essential effect, however, of a flesh diet was on the brain, which now received a far richer flow of the materials necessary for its nourishment and development, and which therefore could become more rapidly and perfectly developed from generation to generation.’ (If you cannot readily find this book I can lend you my copy bought more than 35 years ago).

Perhaps you have more proclivity towards the Vedic texts than Marxist literature and therefore I would call upon you to read some of them so as to know what they speak of meat eating (Pl read translations of the originals, don’t go for interpretations which spoil the charm of these verses). Not only meat eating but meat curing is also at least as old as the story of Rama and Sita. Read Ramayana for the episode that Sita narrates to Hanuman who had just discovered her in Lanka in her confinement, after giving him a piece of her jewellery, as evidence to convince Rama that he (Hanuman) had indeed found Sita.

Also read Ayodhyakandam 2-20-29, Sundarakandam 5-36-41, Aranyakandam 3-44-27, all clearly showing that meat was a normal part of the diet of the people of that time including that of its chief characters.

If instead, you believe only in a hard core Brahminical text you may get a copy of Manusmriti. Its chapter 5 has two sections on food: on food that cannot be eaten (Abhakshyangal), and on the ways of eating meat (Mamsavidhi). As reflected in the Manusmriti meat eating was a natural thing, like humanity elsewhere.

I respect your personal choice as a vegetarian; I myself am presently flirting with naturopathy, sans its fanaticism, for the past few years (naturopathy includes moderate amounts of meat processed in natural ways). I have had meat as part of my regular diet, and during the college days often with my classmate G Suresh, who as Suresh Gopi today, the Sangh Parivar activist and MP has, like you, denounced meat eating.

At a time when the progressive forces of the country, including the CPI-M, are fighting it hard to protect the food choice of Indians, you as a minister, debasing the food of a wide section of humanity is a serious matter, an error of judgement. I earnestly hope you will apologise to the people of Kerala for the same.

With the best regards

S. Faizi
(To the repeated attempts made to contact the the Education Minister Prof Raveendranath by Sabrangindia, there was no response.)

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गरबा में आने वालों पर गौमूत्र का छिड़काव

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दलित मंदिर में दान देना बंद कर दें तो संघ की आधी शाखा बंद हो जाएंगी- प्रकाश अंबेडकर

In Dadri, a man accused of murder, martyred by a fever, is revered like a soldier

Ravi Sisodia, one of the men accused of killing Mohammed Akhlaq after they claimed he had eaten beef, is being turned into a new Hindutva icon.

False narrative

Life After Acquittal: Narratives at a People’s Tribunal

Don’t Debase Malayali Food: Open Letter to Education Minister, Kerala

Education Minister, Raveendranath in the recently elected Left Front Government in Kerala has drawn criticism from several quarters for his comments on food choice. Local media has reported his comments bracketing meat, fish and eggs to ‘illicit drugs’ and alcohol

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