Over the past two years, through regular visits that I have made to Kashmir, the abandonment of the ordinary Kashmiri, caught in the crossfire between militants and security forces, has come starkly to me. Each visit has made me guilty, when I see the absence of any involvement by Indian civil society in the plight of the ordinary Kashmiri.

The present conflict has gone on for almost 13 years now. The consequences of violence in Kashmir are enormous in terms of human and social costs. Look at the staggering figures — 50,000 dead, several hundred missing, around 30-40,000 young widows and about the same number of orphans. No one really has any authentic figures since proper, independent surveys of all the districts in the Valley as well as Jammu region have not been made.

Having been involved in the relief and rehabilitation process following the Mumbai riots and the serial bomb-blasts in December ’92–January ’93 and March 1993, I was keen to find out how rehabilitation work, if any, had been handled in J&K.

About 16 months ago, a visit to five villages in Baramulla district proved shattering. Of the 35 widows whom we actually met, only two had received the compensation of Rs. 1 lakh, an amount the family of a victim is entitled to. In response to our inquiries we were told that many of them had made several visits to the concerned authorities, spending a lot of time and money. In the end they were informed that there were 8,000 applications pending in the file and there was no money to pay them.

However, at another level, the chief secretary denied that the families of victims were not paid compensation or that there was no fund for this purpose. Some time ago, the state’s Rehabilitation Council was set up to address all these issues. However, the Council, strapped as it is for funds, has not made any significant interventions.

Following my repeated queries, the chief secretary arranged a meeting with the district commissioner of Baramulla. It was at this meeting that I understood the root cause of the frequent complaints. Under the government scheme, families of militants killed are not entitled to receive any compensation. This excludes a large number of widows right away. As for the others, the procedure is so complicated and cumbersome that a lot of people simply give up pursuing it.

The Divisional Commissioner of Baramulla explained the procedure involved in giving compensation to victims of militancy-related violence as described below –

• Families of those killed in crossfire are entitled to full compensation of rupees one lakh.
• Owners of houses destroyed during the action are entitled to receive 50% value of the house. This should not exceed the amount of rupees one lakh.
• For those injured during encounters, the compensation is: Rs. 75,000 for those with permanent disability, Rs 10,000 for those with grave injury, Rs 1,000 for those with light injury.
• A widow intending to remarry can receive Rs 10,000. This is apart from whatever other compensation she may receive. This provision has been made with a view to socially rehabilitate the widows.
• The families of the militants are not entitled to receive any compensation.
• Ø Those who harbour militants are not entitled to receive any compensation.

Twice a month, in each district, the District Level Coordinating committee (DLCC) holds a meeting. The district commissioner is the chairman of this committee. Other members include a brigadier or colonel from the army, a brigadier or a colonel from the Rashtriya Rifles, a DIG or local commandant of the BSF and the SSP of the J&K police.

The committee reviews, discusses and takes decisions regarding different issues –

1. The number of dead or injured during militancy-related violence and private or public property damaged during the month. The local units of the specific security agency operating in that area, as well as the police who have to register every incident, each give separate reports to the DLCC. Only after these agencies give no objection and the DLCC approves, do the district authorities give compensation money through a bank draft to the victims or their families.

2. Location issues – If government buildings such as schools or colleges are occupied, they are gradually to be handed back.

3. If security forces are occupying vacant houses of migrants, this is discussed at DLCC meetings and rent is fixed.

4. Civic Action – Organising medical camps, setting up of community centres, addressing drinking water and irrigation problems.

The rupees one-lakh compensation to the victim’s family does not automatically go to the widow. This is distributed according to Mohammedan law. It means one eighth going to the father of the victim, another eighth to the mother while the rest is divided between the widow and her children. If the victim has a dependant brother or sister they too get their share.

The division of compensation money is carried out by the administration according to how many members in a family are claimants. This money is put into a fixed deposit. However, this is not a fixed term deposit as is the case elsewhere in the country. In the case of the families of victims during Mumbai riots, they were not allowed to touch the fixed deposits for ten years.

In Bombay or elsewhere in the country, the compensation money was not divided amongst the family members. In Kashmir, this division has been unfair to the widows since as the amount they finally receive is very small. The widow also loses out on the interest that could have been earned, had the entire amount been put into a fixed deposit in her name.

Members of civil society from within and outside Kashmir could help the families of survivors to access rehabilitation and compensation. Today, widows and other members of survivor families are victims of terror and trauma, which prevents them from responding adequately to the humanitarian crisis they face.

In 1993, the National Foundation for Communal Harmony was set up by the then Union home minister, SB Chavan. It gives scholarships for the education of children who are orphaned during communal riots. Unfortunately, orphans of the Kashmir conflict are not included under this scheme. If we want to decontaminate the future from the poison of hate, anger and revenge, do we not need to invest in these orphans? Would our neglect and indifference not lead them to become future militants?

Archived from Communalism Combat, January-February 2002 Year 8  No. 75-76, Special Report 1

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Over the past two years, major national dailies have frequently reported, with photographs, brazen at  tempts by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal (BD) to form private Hindu armies. Arms training camps have been organised by them  in different parts of the country, where young men and women are trained in the use of guns as well as trishuls, sword and other martial arts. 

Under the Indian Constitution, private militias arming themselves represent a threat to law and order and the peace and tranquility that the State is bound to preserve. 

The Arms Act, 1959 expressly prohibits the possession of arms by private parties without license. The only exception made is for security agencies. The possession of a license before a firearm is owned is a legal requirement. Such licenses are given or granted only if there is reasonable apprehension of aggression. 

The Bombay Police Act is similarly stringent on the question of possession of arms by citizens. The police are empowered to demand production of a license (section 19 of the Arms Act), arrest persons conveying arms etc under suspicious circumstances (section 20), confiscation of arms etc on possession of unlicensed arms (section 20).

In the section on fundamental rights, the Indian Constitution guarantees the freedom of expression, faith, belief and worship (Article 25) and equality before the law (Article 14). Taken together, these articles of the Indian Constitution guarantee the Indian State’s secular and democratic nature.

By their numerous statements and actions, the VHP, Bajrang Dal, RSS and the Shiv Sena are guilty of violating the Indian Constitution, the Arms Act and the Indian Penal Code. Are these criminal antecedents not ground enough to impel the Indian state into putting an immediate stop to these blatantly illegal and provocative camps, seizing the illegally held arms, and if necessary, arresting the chief agent provocateurs — the leaders of the Bajrang Dal, VHP and the Shiv Sena? 

By their statements and actions, the criminal antecedents of the VHP, Bajrang Dal, RSS and the Shiv Sena indict them for being violators of both the Indian Constitution, the Arms Act and the Indian Penal Code. Are these criminal antecedents and their defiance of the Arms Act not ground enough to impel the Indian state to put an immediate stop to these blatantly illegal and provocative camps, seize the arms that they have stored and if necessary, arrest the chief agent provocateurs, the leaders of the SS, BD and VHP? 

So far, only the CPI(M) and the Congress have demanded a curb on these activities. Last year, through an ordinance enacted on January 21, 2000, the Left Front government in Kerala had imposed strict restrictions on the kind of martial training imparted to shakha goers at RSS shakhas all over the country. The ordinance had made compulsory any organisation that wants to give martial arts training, the acquisition of a license. It also empowers police to inspect such training centres. (CC February 2000).  

Archived from Communalism Combat, July 2001 Year 8  No. 70, Campaign 1

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While the Thackeray arrest drama unfolded in Mumbai in the latter half of July, I was in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It was very interesting to watch the episode from a distance, to see how others looked at the event and our city. The entire affair was widely covered in the Bangladeshi newspapers. Their interest in Thackeray is because of his role in the Mumbai riots, the response of the Indian State and the judiciary to it, and also because of his campaign for the deportation of poor Bangladeshis in Mumbai. Many Bangladeshis maintained that the poor Muslims being hounded by Thackeray are not from Bangladesh but from West Bengal.

Talking to social activists, lawyers and others, it was evident the Bangladeshis were showing such keen interest in the entire Thackeray drama as they are also engaged in similar battles in their own country.

The Mumbai riots of 1992–1993 that claimed almost a 1000 lives, is a matter of concern not just for Indians but to all those in South Asia who stand for amity and peaceful co–existence between Hindus and Muslims. If in India all thinking citizens are deeply concerned about the religious intolerance towards minorities and contempt for the rule of law by the religious right wing and extremist Hindu groups, in Bangladesh, too, they are concerned about similar intolerance of the Muslim right wing and extremist groups. In both the countries such groups are trying to occupy the democratic space by taking a religious and moral high ground. Religion is being used for political purposes. This is creating unease in the common and educated people.

During my weeklong stay I was to learn how what happens in India has a strong ripple effect throughout South Asia. People asked me many questions about the Mumbai riots and what happened to a city known for its cosmopolitan nature? I could tell them about my own experience of the Mumbai riots as I was on the streets and in slum colonies that were the scene of much bloodletting.

As I shared my experience they, too, spoke of what happened in Bangladesh after the Babri masjid demolition. I was keen to know the reality of Bangladesh as Taslima Nasreen’s novel Lajja had caused such sensation in both the countries. Those I met were at pains to help me to understand both the issues — the persecution of Hindus and Lajja — from their viewpoint.

A large number of Bangladeshi women activists and human rights activists feel quite differently about Taslima Nasreen than how we look at her in India. Sukumar Biswas, who works with Bangla Academy, wanted me to let Indians know that "Lajja is a fiction although based on facts. But it is also an old story happening since 1947. It is provocative and has ill–served the cause of the Hindu minority in Bangladesh. It is shameful for a long cultural tradition of India to uphold Taslima Nasreen".

Without exception, those I talked to told me about the anti–Hindu riots in Bangladesh after the demolition of the Babri masjid. Yes, it was true that hundreds of temples and homes and business establishments of Hindus were destroyed and rape of women reported. Many told how ashamed they were of what happened and were concerned by this new religious intolerance which has been on the increase. Although it was true that there were Hindu–Muslim riots before partition in Calcutta and Noakhali, in the subsequent decades there was marked absence of these in East Pakistan and later Bangladesh.

My Bangladeshi friends saw a direct co–relation between usurping of democratic institutions by the ruling class and increasing human rights violations and persecution of minorities by the religious extremists. The religious extremists in both the countries are using the ‘Religion in danger’ slogan as a bogie and an excuse for spreading intolerance and thrusting their own brand of narrow religious belief.

One person told me that Bangladesh could be called an industry of fatwas, as all kinds of fatwas are being issued all the time. Most women and human rights activists have stopped taking these fatwas seriously. They just ignore them and get on with their work.

I visited Sylhet. My local host, Supriyo Chakraborty, gave me a brief history of Sylhet. During British rule, Sylhet produced the largest number of educated people. They occupied high posts in government as well as in educational institutions. The British took many of them to Assam. At one time it was part of Assam.

Sylhet was the only district in Bengal and Assam to have a referendum for people to decide if they wished to join Pakistan or India. The scheduled castes voted for Pakistan under the lure of ministerships and government posts. But the Assamese also did not want this Bengali majority district to merge with Assam for fear that Bengalis would become dominant in Assam.

The referendum resulted in Sylhet becoming part of East Pakistan. A large number of Hindus left after 1947, turning Sylhet from a Hindu majority to a minority Hindu province. Across the border from Sylhet is the Karimganj district of Assam.

Today Sylhet has become the centre of Islamic religious extremism. In recent years most controversial fatwas have been issued from this town, including the one against the writer, Taslima Nasreen. In the post-Babri demolition riots Sylhet town and district saw much vandalism against Hindu property and religious places. I met several victims of that riot. These Hindus still carry deep psychological scars and feel insecure. It is worth our noting what they feel and live through, as in India we have a moral responsibility to ensure that our actions do not put to risk the life and property of the Hindu minorities in countries across our borders and cause forced migrations.

As I listened to the accounts of Hindus from Sylhet, I felt as if I was listening to the account of the Mumbai riots. In many places Hindu properties were attacked and damaged in the presence of the police who did nothing. In some cases police were contacted and help sought but the police arrived too late — after the damage was done. In many localities, Muslim neighbours stayed indoors out of fear when the attackers came. If the government won’t protect the life and property of the innocent people and the minorities who else would?

Were there no examples of Hindu lives, homes, businesses or temples being protected and saved from attackers? Yes, in Sylhet and in Dhaka, I came across several examples of these. Muslim neighbours sheltered Hindu families in their homes for days. In other cases, neighbourhoods prevented outside attackers from entering their localities.

There were also instances of police officers taking prompt action and individual politicians protecting Hindus and organising relief for the riot victims. Scores of intellectuals condemned the attacks on the Hindu minority. My hostess in Dhaka herself had one Hindu family staying with her for a week. She received threats at the time but simply ignored them.

Every Hindu I met told me how they had a choice — in 1947 and in 1971 — to stay or to leave. They chose to stay with the deep conviction that they belonged there and had fought along with their Muslim brethren during the Bangladesh liberation war. Why were they being persecuted and discriminated now? Where can they go? What will be the future of their children?

I thought of many Muslims in Mumbai who had uttered similar words of despair after the Mumbai riots. I remembered Shabana Azmi telling me only recently how deeply hurt she had been at the time when she was called pro–Pakistani, a Pakistani agent, during the Mumbai riots. I remember her pain when she told me, "My father had a choice to go to Pakistan in 1947, but he chose to stay in India as they had fought for the freedom of India. Now I, the daughter of Kaifi Azmi, has to prove my loyalty to India."

These words of anguish of a proud Indian who never thought of herself as a Muslim but was made to feel that way for the first time, feels marked for life. Just as the Hindus of Bangladesh who shared a bond as Bengalis with their Muslim brethren but are today made to feel different and aliens in the land of their ancestors. This feeling of being under constant threat has caused a steady migration of Hindus from Bangladesh in recent years.

I was deeply moved by the fact that the justification for the most recent attack on the Hindus in Bangladesh was provided by events in India. I told many Bangladeshis how sorry I was that these tragedies in India had provoked persecution of the Hindu minority in their country. We have a responsibility as a Hindu majority in India to also ensure that our words and actions do not put lives of others at risk.

When I expressed these sentiments to my hostess Sultana Kamal in Sylhet, she responded with these words: "In any society the onus is on the majority to protect their minorities and make them feel secure. We cannot use happenings in India as an excuse to shirk from our own responsibility."

Sultana Kamal is very well known in Bangladesh for her work in the field of women’s rights and human rights and is a recipient of the prestigious Humphrey Award. She and her husband Supriyo have taken a consistent stand against injustice. Their house has been bombed twice and they constantly receive threats. But their spirit is undaunted.

Swami Chandranathnanda who is head of the Ramkrishna Mission in Sylhet told me, "Confrontation, hatred and enmity is very harmful to human beings. Politicians are constantly preaching it. Our mission preaches humanity. The crying need today is to have greater interaction between communities and to learn to live peacefully."

Will this new millennium change the trends in South Asia and make every minority feel safe and secure whichever country or region they happen to be in? We owe this to the future generations.

Archived from Communalism Combat, October 2000 Year 8  No. 63, Neighbours

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