The 2002 Gujarat Genocide may not have been as “spontaneous” as some would have us believe. The Hindutva machinery had been hard at work creating discord and spreading hate for weeks, months, even years before the actual Gujarat violence of February 2002. Communalism Combat had been tracking these developments. Here are a few select instances documented by the magazine.

 Communal build-up in Gujarat in 1998

In the October 1998 edition, CC published the findings of a fact-finding mission undertaken by independent journalists and street-theatre activists from Delhi, who toured the region — from Zankhvav to Bardoli to Vadodara to Ahmedabad to Saurashtra — from August 23 to 29, 1998.

They began their journey from Surat where Muslim autorikshaw drivers plying autos at night had been targeted, robbed and physically assaulted. The team also came across posters saying “Vishwa Hindu Parishad welcomes you to Hindu Rashtra’s village” in villages along the way.

In the three preceding months incidents of communal violence sparked by interfaith marriages had been coming in regularly from Bardoli. On June 20, about 300 copies of the New Testament were burnt by a crowd of over 150 persons, inside the I.P. Girls Senior Secondary School — a 103–year–old Christian Missionary institution in Rajkot.

The team also reported another chilling incident that occurred just a few days before their visit, “In Sanjeli, we found that on August 15 – Independence Day– more than 35 shops of Muslims were looted. Their houses were destroyed and stoned. A Father from the town church tried to stop the attack. His intervention earned him the wrath of the culprits. They also destroyed a statue of Mother Mary in the church.” In all the places the team visited, they found an active circulation of literature announcing, “When Hindus Rise, Christians run away”. They gathered several leaflets and hand–outs saying, “Jai Shri Ram. We all are Hindus. Let us unite and stop the bloody tendencies of the Christians”. There is no dearth of such literature against Muslims, too. The entire report as published originally may be read here.

Trishul distribution in Rajasthan in 2001

The November 2001 edition of CC documented the various Trishul Diksha Samarohs (Trident distribution ceremonies) that took place in Rajasthan. But the Trishuls were actually carefully disguised Rampuri knives!

“Of immediate concern is the systematic distribution of a few hundred thousand ‘trishuls’ — cleverly disguised Rampuri knives, six–eight inches long and sharp enough to kill —, delivering the lethal instrument to ‘every Hindu household’ in villages where the Trishul Diksha Samaroh is conducted. As we go to press, over seven districts in Rajasthan have had active ‘trishul’ distribution programmes. Raipur, Kotda, Jaipur and Asind are only some of the places around which the campaign was being carried out. Most others have also been covered in this brazen attempt to militarise society in the garb of a religious programme,” CC had reported at the time. At the time of publishing that piece, over 40 lakh such weapons may have been distributed nationwide.

It further explained, “The trishul, like the kirpan, is exempt from the provisions of Indian law on the ground that it is a religious symbol,” asking, “But when a weapon, specifically because of it’s religious symbolism, is used to arm persons already charged with hatred against other sections of society and is likely to be used as a terror tool, is such an exemption justified? Is this not tantamount to violating tenets of the Indian Constitution and the Indian Arms Act that are based on principles of a non–violent and non–armed civil society?”

The entire original piece may be read here.

Imposition of Hindu deities on Adivasis in Maharashtra

The December 2001 edition of CC carried a special report about how Hindutva groups were strengthening their foothold in Jowhar, Mukhoda and Vikramgarh talukas by attempting to conflate the Adivasi identity with Vanvasi or forest-dwellers, thereby subtly bringing them within the Hindutva fold.

“A Rath yatra was taken through Adivasi villages in Nandurbar district last year (2000), proclaiming that Jagadamba (a Hindu goddess) was Deo Mogra, the Bitta Bhill Adivasi goddess. It has also published and distributed, free of cost, a booklet entitled, ‘Adivasi Hinduch Ahe’ (‘Adivasis are Hindus’) in large numbers,” reported CC.

It is well known that a vast section of Adivasis do not identify as Hindu and have been practicing their own religions. But given how many of these religions have some common elements with Hinduism, for example ancestor worship, animist, nature worship etc., the Hindutva groups have been trying to peddle the narrative that Adivasis are Hindu, with the broader objective of not only erasing their own unique identity, but also do away with the need for reservations for Scheduled Tribes (ST).

The Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram (VKA) was at the forefront of this Hindutva campaign. “The Nasik centre of the VKA has distributed in thousands a portrait in colour of ‘Birsa wearing a sacred thread’ along with a short biography portraying him as a militant defender of Hinduism who fought against the church and missionaries. It has also distributed a fabricated biographical booklet on Birsa among Adivasis with the same intent,” reported CC. The entire piece as published originally in CC may be read here.

Communal build-up before the carnage

In the weeks preceding the carnage, several right-wing leaders had made a series of communally chared statements. Here are a few examples culled from media reports at that time and that were published in the March-April 2002 edition of CC:

February 7: “The speedy construction of the Ram temple is the only befitting reply to Islamic terrorism which has shaken the pillars of even the Indian Parliament,” he said. Togadia said it was high time the government banned the madrassas in the country as they had been converted into factories manufacturing Islamic militants.”
— Pravin Togadia, VHP international general secretary, in The Times of India

February 7: “I told you, we have had an overdose of these pseudos whom you so fondly call secularists. These self-appointed secularists can no longer fool the Hindus who are aware of the elaborate plan to damage our religion and religious beliefs. Take it from me that our level of tolerance can be stretched no more. And those who come in our way will be pulverised.”
— Acharya Giriraj Kishore, VHP senior vice-president, in an interview to rediff.com

February 7: “We wouldn’t want to sacrifice the present BJP-led Centre that is sympathetic to our cause. But if it has to go at some stage in the cause of Ram temple construction, we can’t help it.”
— Ashok Singhal, VHP international president,The Indian Express.

February 7: “It will either have to be Pakistan or the mandir. The mosque constructed by Babur at Ayodhya 450 years ago by destroying the Ram temple and the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre are symbols of Islamic jihad. It is necessary for India, Jews and the Western world to come together and fight Islamic militants.”
— Pravin Togadia, VHP, at a press conference in Mumbai, The Asian Age.

February 7: “If our government is ready to finish Pakistan, we are ready to wait. However, our two demands are, take over Pakistan and allow the temple construction. If one is not happening, the other will. Therefore, we have given time to the government till March 12.”
— Pravin Togadia, VHP, at a press conference in Mumbai, The Times of India.

February 11: “Solution to the Kashmir problem lies through Ayodhya…. The jehadi mindset has to be defeated at all costs.”
— Pravin Togadia, VHP, at a news conference in Bhubaneshwar, PTI.

February 11:“Besides contesting the legal action, VHP can go to the people and say that matters of faith cannot be decided by court. They can cite a precedent. The Muslims did not accept the Supreme Court verdict in Shah Bano case and at that time, Congress had brought in a legislation to change that verdict.”
— Jana Krishnamurthy, BJP president, in an interview in the latest issue of the RSS mouthpiece Panchajanya, quoted in The Times of India.

February 11: “We are ready to face anything and even to face the bullets when it’s a question of faith.”
— Acharya Giriraj Kishore, VHP, at a press conference in Coimbatore, PTI.

February 12: “We are everything. BJP, VHP, RSS. So where is the question of a fight?”
— Ambika Nishad, a BJP member of the nagar panchayat, Ayodhya, in The Times of India.

February 14:“We cannot wait for the judiciary to decide the faith of a particular community.”
— Pravin Togadia, VHP, at a press conference in Vijaywada, Newstime.

February 14: “Today a situation has come when no railway station or bus station is safe from the threat of attack from Islamic terrorists. The only option left before the country is to declare a full-fledged war against Islamic militants and defeat it, roundly and squarely.”
— Pravin Togadia, VHP, at a press conference in Vijaywada, Deccan Herald.

February 17:“The statements of sants and sadhus never hurt me.”
— Atal Behari Vajpayee, on the VHP castigating his government’s stand on Ayodhya, at a poll campaign press conference in Lucknow, in The Times of India.

February 19: “The jehadi mentality that led Babar to destroy the Ram temple at Ayodhya more than 400 years ago was the same mentality that led to partition of the country in 1947, attack on the World Trade Center at New York on September 11 last year and attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001.”
— Pravin Togadia, at a press conference in Bhopal, PTI.

February 19:“No court in the world has the right, moral or legal, to adjudicate on a matter of faith. The birthplace of Lord Ram is a matter of faith just as Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ was of great significance to the Christians. There is no question of shifting the location of the temple, no matter who had ownership rights to the land.”
— Pravin Togadia, at a press conference in Bhopal, The Times of India.

February 21: NEW DELHI: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad today warned of a “Hindu backlash” against those daring to oppose the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya on March 15, even as it made it clear that nothing would now delay the project even for a day. Several VHP leaders spoke simultaneously from different parts of the country — Ashok Singhal and Acharya Giriraj Kishore here, Pravin Togadia from Jaipur and Sadanand Kakade from Kochi – as if to hammer home the point that they are determined to start gathering the crowds of kar sevaks (voluntary workers) at Ayodhya from this weekend to get a 10 lakh strong crowd by March 15 when construction would begin at the pravesh dwar (entrance of the temple), where shilanyas was performed in the late Eighties.
— Ashok Singhal, VHP,inThe Hindu.

February 21:“If a masjid has to be constructed, it should be done outside the 84 acre area and at a distance which would not lead to any confrontation.”
— Ashok Singhal, poohpoohing an RSS suggestion that a mosque be constructed on the Saryu river banks in Ayodhya, in an interview to a private TV channel, quoted in The Times of India.

February 21: “When we say clearly there was a temple and it is the birth place of Ram, the Muslims refuse to discuss the matter.”
— Ashok Singhal, VHP, responding to the suggestion of a negotiated settlement over Ayodhya, The Times of India.

February 22: The sant who has been the spearhead of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement and a major Hindutva protagonist has given a call for arming all Hindus “if India was to be saved from disintegration.” Ramchandra Paramhans, who heads the powerful Digamabar Akhara in Ayodhya, feels it was high time India discarded the ‘Soft State’ tag.

In an exclusive interview to The Pioneer, Paramhans argued that the Ram Janmabhoomi movement was also aimed at elimination of terror and in these disquiet times, all Hindus should be given arms. He asserted, “Even we are ready to suspend the temple movement and engage ourselves in the protection of our borders.”
— Ramchandra Paramhans, chairman, Digamabar Akhara in Ayodhya, The Pioneer.

February 22: “BJP does not need Muslims to form government in UP.”
— Atal Behari Vajpayee, PM, at an election rally in Varanasi, The Asian Age.

February 23: (Bajrang Dal national convenor) SK Jain said 20 lakh Dal activists carrying the “trishul” would march to Ayodhya, adding, “they are ready to face any situation.” The Dal leader said: “If any Muslim organisation makes an attempt to rebuild the Babri masjid at Ayodhya, the Bajrang Dal would chant Hanuman Chalisa at Delhi’s Jama Masjid.”

The Dal had drawn up a list of 3,000 mosques across the country that were built after demolishing temples, Jain said. If Muslims did not respect the sentiments of millions of Hindus, the Dal would not be able to stop a “massive upsurge” against these mosques, he said at the VHP office.
— SK Jain, Bajrang Dal national convenor, The Telegraph.

February 23:VADODARA: An altercation between people and VHP supporters in Tankaria village, Bharuch, over an alleged incident of cow slaughter turned violent when a man died in police firing. Trouble started when some VHP men, led by Vadodara-based advocate Jatin Vyas, went to Tankaria around 12 noon to record on camera what he said was large-scale cow slaughter. ‘‘Last year, too, our men with the help of the police seized some cow-laden trucks near the village. Along with some VHP men, I went to the village to film the slaughter,’’ Vyas said. He sought police intervention to stop the alleged slaughter.
— Jatin Vyas, VHP leader.

February 26:NEW DELHI: A defiant VHP on Tuesday night said it was determined to go ahead with the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya from March 15 “at all costs”… “We will go ahead with the process of construction from March 15 as announced earlier. We are ready to face bullets or go to jail.”
— Acharya Giriraj Kishore, VHP, PTI.

The following morning, i.e on February 27, 2002, the Godhra train burning incident took place and in its aftermath, targeted communal violence broke out across Gujarat, the flames of which were later found to have been fanned by groups closely associated with the ideological parent organisation of the political party in power, the state administration itself often complicit via a possibility deliberate failure to control the situation.

Related:

Welcome to Hindu Rashtra
Rajasthan: Attempting a replication
Adivasis against Hindutva
Build-up

The post Prelude to the Gujarat 2002 Carnage appeared first on SabrangIndia.

“What happened when a Hindu girl, an Indian, and a Muslim boy, a Pakistani,
 fall in love and marry just when the daughter’s father is due to be promoted
Chief of the Naval Staff?” [Communalism Combat – Special Issue – August 1996]

AN AFTERWORD

In 1996, we agreed to tell the story of our personal experiences and the tortuous twists and turns of the saga of Indo Pak relations when we were approached by two young activists – Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand to contribute to their recently started journal which, with great prescience, they called Communalism Combat. It was an edition appropriately titled “A TIME TO TALK PEACE“, brought out to commemorate the 50^th Year of the Partition of India.

It was rare that someone would embark on so risky a journalistic enterprise dedicated to battling the communal virus which was already beginning to rear its ugly head. Not only have they done so with courage and unrelenting focus, but they have stood out as beacons in an increasingly murky world where we stand witness to their worst fears about which they sounded alarm bells so long ago.

And as we re-read this particular edition of CC in hard copy – which miraculously stood the vagaries of travel, storage, attacks by rodents and termites – there are several thoughts and reflections that come to mind looking back over 25 years. Hence this AFTERWORD.

Let us start with the provocative and tantalising title – SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY!

Back in 1996, when we first wrote this “personal is political” piece, it was just 3 years after Ramu retired from the Navy – and six years after Kavita and Zulfiqar had got married in Chicago.

We were struggling to come to grips with many things at that time …..

Retirement Blues: Challenges, learning many lessons

An unplanned post retirement move to a relatively remote rural area after a life time spent in protected, secure and yes – Ivory Tower – existence – primarily in Service, aka ‘Sarkari’ housing in Navy establishments, was an adventure to put it mildly.

The move to a village in Alibag Taluka in the Konkan, in November 1993, was like nothing we had ever experienced. We found ourselves thrown in at the deep end! Coming from the relative luxury of life in a series of Navy Houses  – Kochi, Vizag and Delhi in three of the topmost jobs in the Indian Navy – with office and domestic staff around to serve and pamper, to  strange and unfamiliar wilderness , was enough to make us want to run back to some familiar place. But there was no place to run to!!

And pride and penury [Ramu then had a residual monthly pension of Rs 2600/-!!] made us grit our teeth and buckle down to making this adventure work. We recall feeling like those early pioneers who headed out to the Wild West.

Suddenly there were just the two of us in a totally unfamiliar locale – no staff – no driver – no phone – no friends and no roof over our head. It was like starting life all over again – but at the ages of 60 and 53. We were driving miles to the nearest bank to open an account – standing in lines for everything from a telephone connection, an electricity metre and a bank loan to build the home where we have now lived for nearly 27 years. We begged and borrowed from friends and family, and manage to build a roof over our heads.

It was a struggle to get a continuous supply of electricity or even water. And given a Z category security status post retirement thanks to some operations involving the Navy– we had a police presence camping right outside our gate for many months.

So when our son in law Zulfiqar came on his first visit to us in LARA – RAMU FARM– as we have mentioned in the article – he literally could walk out of the gate and report his presence to the police as a US/Pakistani national as is required by the law!! We even applied and got official permission for him to stay with us at Navy House – Delhi on his only visit to Delhi when Ramu was still Chief of the Naval Staff.

So our strong response to the Captioning of this totally unorthodox love story 25 years ago – was largely conditioned by some of the above factors.

When Peace Mongering was not anti-national!

More importantly, the larger environment in the nineties was one, where despite the continuing tensions there was still an overall atmosphere of civility and cordiality with regard to discourse with Pakistan and Pakistanis, which continued through the decade of the mid 1990s into the early years of the 21^st century.

 We were able to travel to each other’s countries, obtain visas with relative ease, and participate in a variety of Pak India people to people interaction was happening at several levels– joint conventions were held in different cities – student workshops were happening – women’s groups were meeting across South Asia and establishing bonds and networks that have endured all challenges. There was a good deal of optimism and hope that Pak India Peace Initiatives would eventually fructify and lead to some progress in the direction of normalising relations, strengthening the Peace Dividend. And there was even an ambitious initiative to bring together Armed Forces Veterans from both India and Pakistan in a group called [IPSI] India Pakistan Soldiers Initiative for Peace – started up by that incredible Gandhian and Peace Warrior – Nirmala (Didi) Deshpande.

It was during this period that this former Navy man, Ramu, met with Gen Musharraf a few times – and was always given time for an audience /meeting with PM Vajpayee on his return – to discuss and work on some kind of concrete action to follow up the informal tracks. Recognition came for these quiet efforts and in 2004 the Magsaysay Award for Peace was awarded jointly to Ramdas – a former Indian Navy Chief and a Human Rights Activist from Pakistan – I A Rehman.

A time of hope and decades of despair

It was indeed a time of Hope – of Choti si Asha-ein. We did not view Pakistanis as the Enemy – and hence the discomfort with the Caption “SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY” !

Today – looking back – especially at some of the traumatic events that have taken place in the same period and in an overlapping time line – one wonders if the Editors of Communalism Combat were not prophetic after all?

Thought it might be helpful for us to list just a few of the chain of events that have touched us personally and which have certainly made a deep and lasting impact on our politics and the policy perspectives of the country and people. The full impact of what this means for the long term has not yet been seriously assessed or understood – and this is a task for social and political analysts and historians who are not blinded by an allegiance to one or other ism – especially the blind belief in a right wing fascist ideology.

What follows below is by no means an exhaustive list but provides a bird’s eye view of the series of events, many of which were cataclysmic:

1992 – Babri Masjid Demolition – [Ramu was Chief of the Navy still – and there is another narrative to share about that at some future date!]

1993 – Bombay Bomb Blasts and Riots

1994 – Founding of PIPFPD – Pak India Forum for Peace and Democracy

1998 – May 11 Pokhran II – “The Buddha Smiles”?

1998 – May 28 Chagai – Pakistan tests

1998 – Formation of CNDP – Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace

1999 – Kargil War

2001 – Attack on Indian Parliament

2001 – Agra Summit

2002 – Godhra and Gujarat Violence – killing of thousands of Muslims – the communal cauldron and laboratory – Admiral Ramdas letter to the PM and the CM Gujarat

2003 – Indo Pak Ceasefire Agreement & Delhi Lahore Bus Service

2004 – Magsaysay Award for Indian and Pakistani Peace Activists – Ramdas and Rehman

2001 to 2004 – Students and Youth for Peace Initiative between India and Pakistan –  series of residential workshops between Indian and Pakistan students – Singapore, Karachi, Lahore and Paud – Pune.

2007 – Samjhauta Express Bombings

2008 – The Mumbai Terror Attacks

2009 to 2013 – weakening of Congress Party and UPA II – rise of India against Corruption – and creation of AAP – Aam Aadmi Party

2011 – FUKUSHIMA – A NUCLEAR CATASTROPHE

2013 – AAP comes to power in Delhi with support from outside from INC.

2014– BJP / NDA comes to power at the centre.  New Governments – the hope of an inclusive neighbourhood policy – the tone set by the swearing in ceremony in Delhi – and the hope of a thaw in the frozen bilateral relations

2015 – November – the ‘bold’ diplomatic initiative of the surprise visit by Modi to meet Nawaz Sharif in Pakistan

2015 – AAP wins 67 out of 70 seats in Delhi and Kejriwal is the popularly elected CM

2016 – Pathankot Attack –

2016 onward – increased firing and incidents across LOC

2017 – 2018 – Ramping up of attacks on minorities Yogi Aditya Nath CM in UP –

2019 – Pulwama – Balakot – And elections – BJP in with a massive majority

2019 August – Revocation of Art 370 and special status to J&K

2019-2020 – NRC, CAA – And the escalation of domestic situation vis a vis Muslims – Cow slaughter, lynchings, anti-women – Love Jehad

2019 – 2020  Shaheen Bagh – CAA / NRC protests – carnage in NE Delhi

2020 – The Black Farm laws – and the overwhelming mass protests and resistance by Farmers across the country.

COVID 19 PANDEMIC!!

An Education in reality

The move out of the national capital into a rural area and living and experiencing the vagaries of weather, agrarian distress, and other difficulties over nearly thirty decades now and seeing at first hand how pampered urban India has been and how different the reality of the village, has been a wakeup call. Not only have our eyes been opened but our consciousness too. We have experienced and therefore understood that there is not just the one India which is concentrated in Delhi and in the metropolitan areas. We have been both privileged and deeply saddened as we have travelled across and seen the other India – indeed the many ‘Indias’ – the real, the wonderful, the ‘shining’, but also the hungry, the bleeding, the scarred and brutalised India. We have walked and marched and conversed with some amazing people – young and old – who have raised the banner of resistance and responsible dissent against injustice, for democracy and in defence of the Constitution and of the rights of students and academics and other human rights defenders. We have had opportunities to participate and learn from so many – literally from Kashmir to Kanya Kumari and Godhra – Gujarat to Assam– and in a variety of national, regional and international Fora.

These diverse and multi- faceted opportunities and engagements have kept us enriched, energetic stimulated, and re-vitalised in every way.

It has also taught us the all important lesson – that when you retire from any one career– many doors open and it is up to you to decide which ones you choose to walk through.

And it is with hindsight that today we are more convinced than ever before that it is time to stand up and be heard – to tell the many stories that need telling and retelling. If there is one clarity in our minds, it is this, that we must now share our lives and thinking – our many new learnings, unlearning and relearning – and to be fearless and clear that it is our consciences that we need to follow.

Lessons from Germany: Don’t forget Hitler!

Our three years spent in Germany in the early seventies, when Ramu was the Naval Attache in Bonn, taught us a lesson we have never ever forgotten.

Unlike many diplomats who lived in yet another Ivory tower, we chose to move out of the comfort zone and live in a village on the outskirts of the capital. Our interactions therefore were immensely wide and varied – with the ordinary citizens as much as with the corps diplomatique. An oft repeated theme in our conversations, in German, from many friends, would be around what happened in the dark days of Hitler and the Third Reich. Over and over again we were confronted with their angst and agony of being unable to answer the questions and powerful anger of their children who simply could not understand or accept that the elders, the bulk of citizens, did not know what was actually going on around them? Why did you keep quiet – How could you remain silent in the face of the horror, the bestiality, the concentration camps and the extermination of the Jewish Community? Surely you must have known?

And the words of so many of our friends and neighbours and some from the Armed Forces Community with whom we interacted the most – continue to ring in our ears:

“Don’t be afraid to speak Truth to Power. We now realise in hindsight that had we not been so fearful of what Hitler’s foot soldiers might do to us – we could have avoided the horror of a world war and so much else that we Germans, Europeans and indeed the world, has had to suffer.”

Let us never forget that the party in power in India today, together with their ideological masters in Nagpur, have always praised and held up as their ideal, the Nazis, Mein Kampf and Adolf Hitler – especially for implementing their vision of purity of the Aryan race, vicious racism and anti-Semitism. Much of this has simply been transferred from Jewish people to Muslims and by extension to Pakistan.

Between the overwhelming money and muscle power the right wing ultra-nationalists have learned their lesson well on how to keep an entire nation and society in such fear that few are emboldened to speak out against the regime. The mastery over digital communication and social media has been perfected into a smooth and brutally efficient silencing machine.

As a result we are seeing the cold blooded and ruthless manipulation of people and politics into a hate filled, despotic and twisted interpretation of the Constitution and the democratic impulse. Vasudaiva Kuttumbakkam – the world is one family – has been long abandoned. Looking back, we are clearly at a much worse place today than we were in 1996 – the Farmers Samyukta Morcha and their incredible mobilisation for over 126 days notwithstanding!

This “afterword” – at the suggestion of the Editors of Communalism Combat, attempts to integrate our personal and political journeys and will hopefully provide readers with much food for thought and much needed discussion.  

As we write, end March 2021, there is news of a welcome ceasefire announced by senior army commanders of both India and Pakistan. There is also a news report that gives some optimistic news of resumption of trade on a few select items. But such is the level of cynicism – that there is not telling what form the assault on Democracy will take, for eg. the Bill on taking away most powers from the elected CM of Delhi and vesting them in the person of the LG has now become Law!

So yes – the lessons are staring us in the face – this is not the time to be silent – this is the time for each of us to exercise our right to free speech and expression as Citizens under the Constitution if we want our Democracy to survive.

 The words of Pastor Niemoller in Hitler’s Germany are only too relevant to us in India, in South Asia and other parts of the world too.  In his Germany people kept quiet when ‘they’ came for the Jews, the Communists, the Catholics, the trade unionists, the journalists and others ……and eventually “when they came for me – no one was left to speak out for me”.

In our beloved land the parallels are too close for comfort.  So today, 25 years down the line, in a year when we celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of the creation of Bangla Desh, and when we revisit the essay captioned   SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY, here our thoughts. We want many more of you to read this story – a true story, a love story – and in today’s new lingo – possibly one of the early examples of “Love Jehad”?! We can well ask the question today as to who indeed is the Enemy and who are the several sleeping partners?  And in this “Love Jehad” – no one converted anyone – families on both sides of the borders defined by one Radcliffe have had the closest of bonds across generations, faiths, ethnicities, culture and language. But today, we cannot fly to Karachi nor can we walk across the Wagah Border!

 We only know this that in the final analysis we are also part of “We the people” who gave ourselves this Constitution on that memorable day January 26 in 1950 when India became a Republic. It is our sacred responsibility to that Republic and to that Holy Book – the Constitution of India – to defend it with our lives.

As someone famously said:

“If not us then who?

If not now, then when?”

(The authors wrote this afterword in April from Bhaimala Gaon, Alibag, April 2021)

Editor’s Note: We regret the delay in publication. Next week we shall carry as a sequel the original story, Sleeping with the Enemy that appeared in 1996.

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The starkest lesson of the Kashmir problem hold for those intrested in preserving India’s unity is the pressing need to ensure apeople oriented devlopment.

First Published on: May 1, 1998

In the three months, Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed two of the worst–ever massacres in the state. The tragic incidents not only cast serious doubt on the ‘return–to–normalcy’ propaganda of the central and state governments, but also give an inkling of the intractable nature of the dispute and its potential to spawn a long-run insurgency.There are several factors contributing to the complex nature of the Kashmir problem that is becoming increasingly intractable. A way out of the stalemate lies in the holding of some kind of talks between all or at least two of the parties to the dispute. But neither India, nor Pakistan, nor the Kashmiris have shown much flexibility in deciding upon the modalities of the dialogue.

One factor that seems to have escaped much of the analysis of the Kashmir issue is that a straight-forward question of class conflict has being given, through militancy, an exclusively anti–Centre and anti–India turn. Kashmiri society is perhaps the most elitist of all in India, with only a miniscule and privileged section keeping a stranglehold on the resources of the state.

It would not be an exaggeration to state that many in the Valley cannot afford to entertain even the wildest hopes of upward mobility. For example, in many a village of the Tangmarg, people drink irrigation water, while the education and medicare systems are in a shambles. But it is not uncommon to find middle–rung government engineers owning palatial houses. The government spent Rs 11 crore on the Winter Games ‘fiasco’ in Gulmarg, which adjoins water–starved Tangmarg.

The consequence over the years of such exploitation has been that a large section has little stake in the stability of Kashmiri society. If, as alleged, ISI agents offer a poor villager a lakh of rupees and a gun to direct his resentment against the Indian State, many with few hopes otherwise of emancipation from poverty are willing to take up the offer.

The starkest lesson the Kashmir problem holds for those interested in preserving India’s unity is the pressing need to ensure a people–oriented development. For too many years the Centre has turned a blind eye to how the Kashmiri elite ran its affairs. Central funds, in fact, became a means to buy the political loyalties of the elite.

The Farooq Abdullah regime cites militancy to secure funds from the Centre but blocks questions or inquiries on how these are disbursed. The National Conference claim of being the ‘only Indians in Kashmir’ is opportunistic and aimed at remaining entrenched in power. It is convenient, periodically, to raise a cry about the dangers of secessionism. The Kashmiri elite is in fact flourishing in a sanitised environment in Srinagar while catastrophic battles take place in the villages. It is they who are victims of violence by the security forces or militants.

Sections of the security forces, too, have developed vested interests in the prevailing anarchy. For many, peace would entail a return to guarding India’s borders in more inhospitable climes. Sections of the army, down to the junior–most rung, are quite drunk with the absolute power they enjoy, a level that not even senior army officers in Delhi would command.The brunt of the people’s resentment welling up from this whole scenario is directed against the security forces who wield their authority with harshness and are the direct oppressors. The resentment against security forces has struck roots far too deep in the psyche, blinding people to all other realities contributing to the starkness of their lives.

For example, the National Conference leaders often talk of ‘the army killing our people’ while obliterating their own record of how they and their ilk have literally sucked the blood of their own people. It must be admitted that the security forces have not helped their cause through sophisticated and targeted action, adopting instead a high–handed attitude of indiscriminately savaging the civil population. A three–day encounter in a south Kashmir village recently destroyed 70 houses and led to 11 deaths. Meanwhile, Srinagar itself continues to be inundated with new–model Maruti 800s. The army’s strength ensures a subdued level of anarchy and this suits the elite fine. The National Conference government’s lack of enthusiasm for any kind of talks stems from the fear that any settlement with the militants may lead to its downfall, given the mass alienation of the people from its style of governance.

Militarily, the Indian army has admitted that it has reached its threshold limit trying to contain militancy. The costs of fighting are heavy. A conservative estimate puts Indian security–related expenditure in Kashmir at Rs. 13,000 crore annually. One common complaint among army officers is that the allied government agencies are not manning services with efficiency, leaving the forces with even such tasks as building bridges, conducting medical camps and repairing roads. A solution to the problem now rests on political, administrative and economic measures, but these have been given little impetus.

Money is coming into the Valley not only from Pakistan but other countries supporting the separatist and the ‘Islamist’ cause. Even as the number of local Kashmiri militants declines, Pakistan finds little trouble in pushing in the foreign insurgents, who come from Afghanistan, Pakistan and even the odd Sudanese. Unlike Punjab, the borders of the Valley are virtually impossible to seal. And, as long as a Pakistan — driven by the vengeance accumulating from Partition, the wars of 1947, 1965 and 1971 that included the loss of East Pakistan — chooses to send in armed groups, violence remains a grim reality.

The latest apprehensions stem from the prospects of reduced levels of conflict in Afghanistan following the ongoing peace talks. Military–trained Afghans freed from the battle there, Indian intelligence sources feel, could be sent into Kashmir, with Taliban elements, partial to the “Pakistan cause” at the forefront. The Kashmiri people have little say in the matter now. It is ironic that a movement that started off for freedom has led to a situation where to day the people have the lowest level of rights and freedom.

(The writer is based in Srinagar)
 

The post Whose Kashmir is it anyway? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

First published on: May 1, 1998

The killing of innocent Hindus by Pakistan-trained mercenaries in J and K is one more bid to convert the Kashmiriyat issue into a Hindu-Muslim problem

Islamabad has finally cast its hat in the ring. On April 17 this year, the Federal information minister in Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s cabinet, Mushahid Hussain, paid an official visit to the camp of the Lashkar–e–Taiba (“Army of the pure”, the armed wing of the Markaz-e-Da’watul Irshad) at Muridke, 30 kilometres from Lahore. He was accompanied by Punjab’s governor, Shahid Hamid, and other officials. This was the first ever public visit by a Pakistani government functionary to the camps of the Lashkar that was set up in 1987 with an avowed aim to mount insurgency operations in both Afghanistan and Kashmir.I.A. Rehman, director of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), also a core group member of the Pak–India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD), was among those shocked by the visit. “I am amazed by the visit of the minister”, he told Communalism Combat in a telephonic interview. “What did he want to say? What was the political intent behind the call? If the intention of the visit was to say that Pakistan supports the religious element, the communal element impinging on the Kashmir conflict, it must be unequivocally condemned because it will boomerang most strongly on the Kashmiri people.”

Rehman adds that any attempt to deepen the communalisation of the struggle in Kashmir which was a 75–year–old struggle of all Kashmiris — Hindus and Muslims, and others — for political rights against a despotic Maharaja must be condemned. He recognises that it was the same communal elements who had forced the Kashmiri Pandits to get out of the valley in 1989–90. “If Kashmiri fighters begin to brandish the sword of this religion or that it is very wrong.”

Until this widely publicised visit of the Pakistan minister to the militant camp — which has been interpreted by a wide section of observers within Pakistan as in India and elsewhere, as open ideological support to the highly questionable activities of the Lashkar — Pakistan had limited itself to stating, in international fora that it is providing “political, moral and diplomatic support to the movement for freedom of the Kashmiri people.” Indian intelligence and other independent reports since 1989 have been pointing at the involvement of a section of the ISI in the insurgency in the Valley. The Pakistan government had stopped short, to date, of openly admitting monetary or arms support to the mercenaries acting in the name of Islam.

During his visit, Mushahid Hussain, it is reported by the Pakistani press, not only hailed the activities of the Markaz (centre for preaching) which trains and maintains the Lashkar–e–Taiba, but also said that the true concept of Islamic jehad (CC March 1998) was being promoted by the Markaz. This was reported by the Urdu daily, Khabren.

It was in the presence of Mushahid Hussain at the camp that the chief of the Markaz, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed spoke openly “about the liberation of Kashmir.” Very significantly, it was on the same night, April 17–18, that 29 persons were brutally massacred in Prankote village in Udhampur district in the upper reaches of the Jammu region —the focus of recent militant activity sponsored from across the border. Unlike in the case of the earlier massacre of Kashmiri Pandits at Wadhwana in the Valley on January 25—the killers have not yet been traced, nor the killings been “claimed” by any outfit — the Lashkar–e–Taiba has claimed “credit” for the butchery in Prankote.

The recent killings, coupled with six other selective attacks on Kashmiri Pandits and other Hindus residing in parts of the region since late 1996, are grim pointers to the most recent manipulation of the inherently nationalist Kashmiri struggle for self–determination to convert it into a crude Hindu–Muslim battle.“What the Pakistan government is doing is utterly wrong and must be condemned,” said Rochi Ram, senior advocate from Sind, Pakistan and a prominent member of the HRCP told CC. “The movement in Kashmir is nationalist, not religious, not Islamist but for Kashmiriyat. Kya aap samajhti hain ki yeh hamari siyasat smajh sakti hai? (Do you think that the Pakistani establishment can understand that?). We may not have mainline parties that are openly Islamic or fundamentalist. But what about the propaganda allowed by the state from the mosques five times a day? ”

More critically, the recent manoeuvres of the Pakistani state come close to sabre–rattling when seen in the context of a heightened militarist discourse on both sides of the border in recent months. The Prithvi vs. Ghauri Ghaznavi (the Pakistani President Tarar would like the next missile in the Pakistani stable to be named after Babar) missile–talk between New Delhi and Islamabad has swiftly replaced the hopes raised by the ‘Gujral doctrine’ last year. This bodes ill for peace in south Asia. And, given the fact that with Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad and Vajpayee in New Delhi, both countries are headed by hard–line parties and leaders who have used the communal card to gain or retain power, the signs are even more ominous.

“What kind of peace are we talking about?” asked India’s former foreign secretary, J.N. Dixit, while speaking to CC. “Peace which is a compromise to the acquisitive, territorial interests of Pakistan? That’s not peace, that’s appeasement. Or peace with honour?”
For half a century, both Islamabad and New Delhi have unashamedly used Jammu and Kashmir and its people for their narrow political gains. The state of Jammu and Kashmir has been treated by both the Indian and Pakistani states as the “unfinished task” of Partition.
Despite the terms of the accession agreement, the Hindu Maharaja of a Muslim–dominated princely state agreed to cast its lot with secular India. Maharaja Hari Singh himself was against this accession, had to give in to the feelings of his people who were vary of a Pakistan that was uncomfortable with a distinct Kashmiri identity.

Mohamad Ali Jinnah, uncomfortable with the individualist and distinct ethno–cultural nationalist Quit Kashmir movement from the valley had dubbed it “a movement of goondas”. Leave apart full autonomy and plebiscite, assured to the J and K under the instrument of accession, New Delhi has never even trusted and granted to the state and its local leadership with even basic democratic rights. Since 1989, this basic lack of trust has several times been compounded with state-sponsored brutality of the civilian population reaching condemnible proportions (see accompanying story).

“The recent visit of the Pakistan minister to the militant camp is only a confirmation of what they have been advocating more covertly,” Dixit added. In my mind, this also signifies a stepping up of manifest support to the separatist movement. This will lead to even further resistance by the Kashmiri people, in particular, and India, in general, to the designs of Pakistan.”

The Pakistani state’s interest in Kashmir dates back to independence and Partition. The decision of the people of Jammu and Kashmir to accede to secular India defied the foundations of the Pakistan state based on a two–nation theory. Therefore, Pakistan has gone about its business in the region, sponsoring insurgency and violence. But what is far, far more questionable, is the attempt to impose a regimental Wahabi version of Islam on a Valley renowned for its Rishism (Sufism). Schools and madrasas run by the local Jamaat-e-Islami were rigorously used to attempt to transform the unique struggle for Kashmiriyat to visions of life under a Nizam-e-Mustafa (The Order of the Prophet).

The success of ‘Allah’s army’ has been severely limited by the culture and ethos of the region that has defied regimentation into the conventional “Muslim” and “Hindu” bracket. Even today, reactions of ordinary Kashmiris, Hindus and Muslims alike, defies this labelling. Reports of grieving Kashmiri Muslims over the massacres is the most potent proof of this.

Normal life in the Valley was paralysed when a general strike called by the All–Party Hurriyat Conference to protest the killings at Wandhama (KPs) in January proved to be a resounding success. A few days later, Ramzan Eid day, the ghastly massacre was condemned in mosques all over the Valley. Significant gestures by Kashmiri nationalist leaders like Yasin Mallick and Shabbir Ahmed Shah — visiting the sites of the massacres, attending the last rites — have been appreciated by the Jammu-based Kashmiri Pandit community.“Across the board, all persons have condemned the Wandhama and Prankote massacres,” said Yasin Mallick while speaking to CC. Formerly a general of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front( JKLF), he is today is one of the members of the All–Party Hurriyat Conference. “We have demanded that an international agency like Amnesty International be allowed to examine who was responsible for the killings. In our mind, it suits the Indian state as well to communalise the issue. Why was Amnesty refused permission? Why is the Indian government afraid of the truth getting out?”

 Schools and madrasas run by the local Jamaat-e-Islami were rigorously used to attempt to transform the unique struggle for Kashmiriyat to visions of life under a Nizam-e-Mustafa

Rajya Sabha MP and a staunch defendant of the people’s rights, Kuldip Nayar, who has been associated over the years with the region has just returned to New Delhi after visiting Reasi and Wandhama.

“At the local level there is shock, anger and despair in the Muslim survivors. They were the ones who performed the last rites of the victims of Wandhama,” he told CC. “My impression is that militancy has been more or less defeated. Therefore, the ISI–sponsored part of the movement knows it cannot succeed unless it divides the movement communally.”

The gutting of the 600-year-old shrine of Charar-e-Sharief on the road to Yusmarg in the Valley in May 1995 was mourned deeply by the people of the valley. Who was responsible? Pan–Islamic militants callous to the culture of the Valley or the Indian state, equally indifferent to the Valley’s proud and distinctive Kashmiriyat ? Folklore in the Valley even after the loss of Charar–e–Sharif revolves around the stories and songs about the close relationship between Sheikh Noor Adam and a Shaivite woman, Rishi Laleshwari. Is it insignificant that another 14th century shrine, Khanqah at Tral, a small town 39 km south of Srinagar and one more living symbol of the composite, Sufi tradition of the Valley was destroyed by another mysterious fire on December 18, 1997?

Authorities allege that a short–circuit caused the fire. But the Hurriyat leaders blame the authorities saying that the shrine was “set to flames as part of a well–planned conspiracy to demolish the centuries’ old Kashmiri culture and spiritual values of the Valley.” This 700–year–old historic shrine was that of Hazrat Amir–e–Kabir Mir Syed Ali Hamdani in Tral. It housed a mace of the Shahi Ramdan who is considered the founder of Islam in Kashmir.In the midst of state callousness and connivance and militant bestiality, the real ray of hope, for Nayar, is that despite sustained provocation and brutalisation, the people have not allowed themselves to get divided. “No force has yet been able to distort the basic culture of Sufi Islam. I have still the soundest hope that the basic culture of Kashmir will assert itself.”

Admiral Ramdas, former chief of the Indian navy who is today vice president of the India chapter of the PIPFPD, agrees that the movement has got communalised but blames the Indian state for failing to address the political dimensions of the issue. “Communalisation, whether overt or covert is reprehensible and needs to be condemned. The reasons for the brutalisation of the state of Kashmir is not due to the presence of the troops, as much as due to the callous neglect by the Centre which has succeeded in creating a situation warranting deployment of troops,” admiral Ramdas told CC. “This situation has been fully exploited by the Pakistani government and its extended arm, the ISI.”

Nayar, who has recently donated the entire Rs. 1 crore available to his as a MP to widows and orphans of violence in Srinagar, strongly argues for a quick political end to the issue through a three–party negotiated settlement. He also points out that the Indian government, by its intransigent and problematic stances now and in the past, has also contributed to the communalisation of the movement.

An example is the pre–election rhetoric of the NC and the Centre of “return of Pandits to the valley connected to ‘normalcy’ returning”. “Why should we connect the two?” he asks. The Kashmiri wants his rights, not ‘normalcy’ but he also wants his sisters and brothers, the Kashmir Pandits, back. By linking the two, we are asking for too much: for the Kashmiri to give up his legitimate struggle for genuine autonomy!”

Nayar strongly feels that the government of India must honour its commitment under section 370 of the Constitution and go back to the state assembly with all the legislation extended by the Centre to the state, with all the laws implemented after 1952–’53 and leave it to them to decide which they want to keep or abrogate. “Personally, the issue of plebiscite I feel is a far gone one now, 50 years too old and one apt to be converted to a religious pin–pong between two sides. No one can really afford it.”
 

The post How Green is my Valley? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Photographs Courtesy: Communalism Combat

In sustained and well planned attacks, Christians and Christian institutions and religious places were attacked by members and office bearers of various wings of Hindu supremacist and racist organisations (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-RSS/Vishwa Hindu Parishad-VHP, Bajrang Dal-BD) and Bharaitiya Janata Party -BJP) on the eve of Christmas 2007, forcing poor Dalit and Tribal Christians to flee to forests. In February of the next year, extremist left organisations wrote communications that the state intelligence bureau accessed declaring their intent via-a-vis the Hindu rightwing organisations. From August 24,2008 onwards after Swami Lakshmananda was killed in an attack on his ashram, a bloody and vengeful funereal procession covering 220 kilometres was organised and allowed by the state administration, taking his body in a motor cavalcade, in which Praveen Togadia, international general secretary of the VHP and BJP ministers from the state cabinet participated.

“Before the mob came we heard the sound of people approaching. The sound of hatred. Our lives, our faith, our existence is under attack and neither the neighbours, the police nor the state care.” – Dalit Christian woman in Kandhamal

The  hate-filled speeches inspired bloody mobs to attack and kill 59 persons (list of victims can be accessed at www.cjponline.org) and attack dozens of hamlets and villages on the way. Brutal rapes were also part of the sub-text.; 50,000 were rendered refugees in their own land, 15,000 are still internally displaced.

Like clockwork around the same time, in the southern state of Karnataka where the saffron flag had flown on the state’s assembly for the first time in the previously held elections, 57 Churches were attacked systematically in Mangalore, Udipi and other parts of the state. The attacks, thoroughly documented by Justice Saldanha in his report, on an Inquiry requested by Transparency International and PUCL, Karnataka, presents a dangerous tale of how the highest echelons of those in power, assisted by some communally minded policemen, not only allowed mobs to attack Christians at prayer and desecrated their places of worship, but worse also systematically destroy any evidence of the attack as soon as they had taken place. Independent media were also made targets and other sections, wooed through monetary considerations by the state government, were complicit or silent. Action against the perpetrators has not taken place with the state government in a malafide action simply withdrawing all criminal cases against the RSS, VHP, BD and BJP. The officially appointed Justice BK Somasekhara Commission that released its report in January 2011, has been an eye-wash.

Evidence gathered by this writer (Teesta Setalvad) shows how from October 1988 (Phulbani Orissa), 1989 (Kalahandi, Keonjhar and Phulbani) 1991 (Ganjam and Cuttack districts), 1983 (Balasore) the Church leadership had been appealing to the state administration and union government authorities on the issues of mob attacks on Christians and their religious places. Worse venomous hate speech by the leaders of these mobs though monitored by the State and Central Authorities had not been prosecuted under Indian Criminal Law. Even closer to the date, from October 2003 we (Communalism Combat) have been warning about the build up by the sangh parivar in Orissa.

Similarly before widespread attacks on Christian Churches in 2008, the atmosphere in the southern state for all minorities, Christians and Muslims was being corroded with the then state minister for home GS Acharya proudly acclaiming that “Narendra Modi was is his ideal.” . Modi has been named the “sole architect of the state sponsored genocide in Gujarat by the Concerned Citizens Tribunal headed by Justices VR Krishna Iyer and PB Sawant, former retired Judges of the Supreme Court of India, Crimes Against Humanity—Gujarat 2002.

“During the months of September to December 2008, and to a large extent in the months that followed, the BJP government in Karnataka had given the Bajrang Dal a free hand to run wild, particularly in the Karavali area….. Groups of young activists would be driving two-wheelers, jeeps and cars prominently flying saffron flags as an intimidatory gesture to all other communities….. What distresses me particularly is the fact that this infection had spread both to the Bar and to the subordinate judiciary in the whole of the area. A good percentage of the lawyers openly proclaimed allegiance to the BJP. “(Report of the People’s Tribunal Inquiry, Justice Michael F. Saldanha, retired judge of the High Court)

We have repeatedly documented and highlighted the divisive, disturbing and violent trends in Orissa and Karnataka from 1999 onwards but specifically after 2006. In December 2007, Christians in the Kandhamals were brutally attacked and several dozen churches were attacked.  Relief groups and civil society were barred from the area despite repeated pleas by organisations of the stature of CARITAS, EFICOR and the like, as well as personal appeals by Archbishop Raphael Cheenath of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar. John Dayal and Angana Chatterji, who was reported for Communalism Combat on Orissa since 2003 and was also a part of the Indian People’s Tribunal on Environment and Human Rights, also visited Orissa and reported.

“We need to tell civil society in India and abroad that the attack on Christians in Orissa is at par with the repeated mauling of Muslims in Gujarat and other states, and an integral part of the sangh parivar’s ideology.” Dayal. We had brought these reports to our readers in the hope that our readers, all flag-bearers of sanity, put their heads together to make our struggle against this divisive politics more coherent and more effective.

2007 Christmas in Orissa

Photo Courtesy: Communalism Combat

Before the mob came we heard the sound of people approaching. The sound of hatred. Our lives, our faith, our existence is under attack and neither the neighbours, the police nor the state care.” – Dalit Christian woman in Kandhamal

The crowd carried rods, trishuls (tridents), swords, kerosene. They used guns, a first in Orissa, weapons available in the market and makeshift local fabrications. Predominantly middle class caste Hindus participated in looting, destroying and torching property. They threw bombs to start the fire. The breakage was systematic, thorough. Women and men hid for days in forests in winter temperatures, later seeking shelter in the Balliguda town relief camp, returning to decimated Barakhama on January 2. Engulfed in soot and sorrow, people attempted to function amid charred remnants. A woman said: “Everything burns down and we are left with nothing. How little our lives are made (of). How alone we are, so far away from everything.“
(January 2008, Year 14, Number 127, Communalism Combat www.sabrang.com)

Report on the Justice Struggle in Orisa (Kandhamals-2010)
Case status of fast Track Court (03.03.09—to–01.12.10)
Complaints lodged—————————————————————–3232
Case registered——————————————————————–828
Total Number of cases (Vi+No.Vi) committed to the court no-2——–          277
Total Number of violence cases committed to the court-2————- —        281
Total Number of No-Violence case committed to the court-2————-        47
Number of case Acquitted (Violence case) ——————– ————       128
Number of case Convicted (Violence case) ———————————-     59
Number of case on pending trial (Violence case) ———————– —–   44
                                                        
ACQUITTAL & CONVICTION RATE.
Total Number of accused faced the trial————————————1556
Number of accused convicted ————————————————269
Number of accused acquitted ———————————————–1287
(Courtesy: Father Advocate Dibakar Parichha, Justice Peace Development and Communications in 2010)
 
     

The survivors were under threat not to return to their villages unless they agree to change their religion, withdraw cases against their attackers, stop eating beef and dalits stay within limitations imposed by the upper castes. About 15000 people are still living as refugees outside their villages.
 
Out of 3300 complaints filed by victims in the local police stations only 831 have been registered (as First Information Reports – FIRs). Many cases have not been investigated and the accused not prosecuted. In other cases, shoddy police investigations have already created a crisis in the dispensation of justice.
 
The accused have coerced, threatened, and cajoled the victims and the witnesses. There have been attempts to bribe them, both outside and inside the Fast Track Courts. The real perpetrators, like Mr. Manoj Pradhan (BJP-MLA Member of Legislative Assembly), are moving around scot-free and threatening the witnesses time and again, whereas hardly any steps are taken to protect witnesses or ensure their safety. The victims have expressed their deep distrust of the current justice delivery system.
 
There was no action against Orissa Administration officials who could not protect the lives of hundreds of Christians and who allowed Hindu extremist mobs to move around the district with an organised and armed crowd and to do arson, burning, killings uninterruptedly in the presence of police or those who allowed RSS leaders like Pravin Togadia to enter the area and deliver hate speeches.
 
There were re major lacunae in the administration of relief to and rehabilitation of the victims of the mass violence. Improper identification and assessment of the houses as fully or partially damaged has been done, damaged houses have been left out of the lists, while lost or damaged household articles are not mentioned at all. Even the 837 families, who lost their houses during December 2007 violence, are yet to get any housing. The government has promised only Rs 50000 as compensation for fully damaged houses; still the actual disbursement till now has only been Rs 10000. Out of 6500 families which lost their houses 60 percent are yet to have a roof to shelter under. Not a single one of the destroyed NGO schools, hospitals, and offices has been compensated.
 
The administration has not made any visible effort to support a revival of dignified livelihood of the victims, to prevent large-scale migration and pauperisation of victim families, or to bring back dropped out children to school. The long-standing problem of landlessness and land alienation of the dalits and adivasis has been completely ignored. There have been almost no efforts to provide land rights to landless survivors, who are facing difficulties to get a shelter after they lost their houses during violence.

Who were the Guilty?

 The State in Orissa was responsible for the violation of Article 14 and 21 and 25 of the Indian Constitution and the situation in Orissa is reflective of an absolute breakdown of the rule of law and Constitutional Governance.

 Prayer houses of the minority community have been burnt, a ‘nun’ was molested and raped while police personnel watched and the entire law and order situation has completely collapsed.
The story of young Rajani Majhi of Padampur, Kanya Ashram, Bargarh, is gory. She was thrown to the fire alive and was burnt to death. The nun was raped in public on August 25, 2008 at ‘K. Nuagaon’ village under Baliguda police station.

It was not possible for these crimes to have been committed without the open and tacit support of the district administration and the state government; the criminals are reported to be activists of the Bajrang Dal which is a youth wing of sangh parivar and the  organization that enjoys the patronage and a symbiotic relationship with the political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which was, until yesterday, a coalition partner in the present government. The entire exercise of burning the churches and killing of innocent people, of minority community savagely, has been masterminded by the sangh parivar with the sanction of the BJP. However the state government as a whole supported these acts.

 SIB Inputs Ignored

 After the first bout of violence in December 2007, the Naxalites had reportedly written a letter threatening Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati with his life. This is in the possession and knowledge of the state administration. Yet, the State of Orissa, its chief minister, home minister, collector and SP of Kandhamal did nothing to control the anticipated fallout of the violence following the killing of the Swami.  Officers of the State Intelligence Bureau, Orissa shared the letter with this author in May 2008. Excerpts:

“This communal violence is being fomented by BJP keeping an eye on the coming election and since BJP is the coalition partner in the ruling govt. in Orissa, the Naveen Patnaik led govt. in the State as well as the police administration are extending all help to BJP in carrying out its nefarious designs. This is amply proved from the fact that Laxmananda Saraswati who was the mastermind behind the communal violence was accorded VIP treatment in the hospital although he was not injured during the attack on his vehicle. People must know that number of tribal girls are being regularly sexually harassed by Swami Laxmanananda in his Kanyashram at Tumudibandh….. It is obvious that being influenced by our struggle the dalits, adivasis irrespective of their caste, religion and education took part in the same counter attack on the rioters in Brahmanigaon area. However, the allegation that CPI (Maoist) was directly involved in the attack was not true. If at all our cadres would have joined in the attack then the attack would not have concentrate at Oriya Sahi (Brahmanigaon) which is inhabited by common Hindus, rather we would have targeted the top leaders of Hindu fundamental forces like Laxmananda Saraswati or other leaders of Sangh Parivar/BJP. The communal violence was carried out by the Sangh Parivar activists in order to suppress the emerging new leaders/contractors/businessmen among the dalit and adivasi community so that the exploitation being carried out by upper caste landlords and contractors would remain in force. The VHP as well as its patronisters i.e the upper caste landlords/businessmen fomented the communal violence in Kandhamal district only to safeguard their economic interest. The attack and loss incurred by each member of Hindu or Christian community in this communal violence is really painful, heart touching and needs to be condemned. We would request both the religious groups to refrain from their fundamentalist ideology and should strive to form a secular society.”
(marked “SECRET”, Appeal by CPI (Maoist), Orissa State Organising Committee)
 
 That when this threat was in their knowledge and the Maoist/Naxalite outfits claimed open and public credit for the massacre of the Swami, the State of Orissa by remaining silent and allowing its coalition partner the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) and ministers, their sister organizations like the Bajrang Dal (BD) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) to spin their own tale on who was responsible for the violence, amounted to nothing short of barefaced and open collusion in the violence against tribal Christians and Dalit Christians in the Kandhamals. The culpability of the entire administration is shameful and there for any reasonable person to see.
 
Since December 2007, despite pressure from the BJP, Bajrang Dal and the VHP six platoons of the CRPF had been stationed at Kandhamal and these paramilitary central forces could have been immediately used for the protection of life and property from August 24, 2008 until now but their failure to act was because, in law the Collector (District Magistrate) is empowered to issue the command to enlist their support. The command was not issued by the Collector as a deliberate act of collusion by the Collector to allow violence and atrocities.
 
The role of the Chief Minister, Shri Naveen Patnaik, the elected head of a Government has betrayed his duties as laid down under Article 163-165 of the Indian Constitution where he is responsible to the Governor for the protection of the fundamental rights of all citizen regardless of caste community, tribe of gender. Besides the Chief Minister as head of an elected Government has failed as the highest in-charge of command and in-charge of Home Ministry and law and order and to provide firm and non-partisan leadership to the state and to give unequivocal instructions to prevent inflammatory processions carrying of Swami Laxmanananda body more than 222 kilometers to inflame passions, allow a  ‘bandh’ from organization whose  records in maintaining law and order is bloodthirsty as best.
 

There was a collective failure to

 
(a) Failing to contain the BJP Ministers in his Cabinet from Participating in the Inciteful Funereal Procession that allowed mobs to commit multiple offences of murder (120B, 114r/w 302 IPC;
 
(b). Allowing DGP and through them the SP and DM to carry the dead body of Swami Lakshamananada and inflame communal passions (153a, 153b, 505 IPC, defiling places of worship 295 IPC, malicious acts to outrage religious sentiments, obstruction public servant in discharge of duties (160 IPC) .
 
 

Agent Provocateurs Allowed to Spew and Incite Hatred

 
A procession was allowed on August 24, 2008 that accompanied the dead body of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati to every nook and corner of Kandhamal, stopping outside churches, shouting incendiary slogans, which sowed the seeds of communal tension against the minority Christians. The rioters went on rampage by destroying the house of the minority community. Similarly the corpses of the unfortunate victims of the Godhra mass arson that took place in S-6 of the Sabarmati Coach were paraded in different parts of Ahmedabad to inflame cadres of the VHP and BD to commit brute violence thereafter.
 
 

Bandh in Orissa Called by Sangh Parivar

 On August 25, 2008 a call was given by the Sangh Parivar for Orissa Bandh. The chief minister who is head of Home department, did not take any effective steps to protect the life and property of the people by deploying military force in sensitive places, Instead  allowing the things to go on its way. As a result, a well thought out plan was executed for ethnic cleansing. In the process, the innocent lives were savagely smothered like moth without any respect for human values.
 

The Case of Rajani

 An innocent girl, Rajani was pushed to the burning Sevashram alive, which proved their fit of insanity and madness to hoist a saffron flag on the cross atop the church, which is a smirch in our Constitutional goal of inserting secular in preamble and antithesis to the solemn wish in article 25 i.e. freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion.
 
In the medical report submitted by Dr. Sangita Mishra and Smita Marandi in the nun rape case was suppressed for 39 days from the public, The S.P. Kandhamal was forced to admit before the public in a press conference that the medical report reveals that she was raped. Till then neither the accused persons had been nabbed nor any enquiry to that effect has been conducted by the government in power through their investigating agencies and remained as sphinx to the inhumanly bestiality shown by the activists of the Bajrang Dal in killing people and hiding the dead bodies in the dense forest and at the same time successfully manipulating the press report to project before the public at large that every thing is under control and no barbarity was being committed by the rioters.
 
Deleterious Role of the Media
 
The mainstream newspapers in the Oriya language particularly the Dharitri and the Samaj, who have the largest circulation within the state and outside are the privy in hiding the real fact and fanning the communal tension and hatred against the Christian minority and other disadvantaged people, even though a calculated massacre was going on with impunity with a sole motive of ethnic cleansing of Christian minority in the plea of retaliation of the killing of ‘Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati’. (For those interested do contact us at sabrang@vsnl.com/teestateesta@gmail.com for a detailed note on Media Review in and around December August 25, 2007 and August 22, 2008)
The State administration has remained a mute spectator to this macabre incident.
 
The result of the state’s callouness killed 59 persons and rendered over 50,000 people homeless and out of this 26,000 people are in different relief camps managed by the State.  A few hundred if not thousands of the victims fled to other states and some have remained in the houses of relatives in the different part of the state.  FIRs have not been registered thoroughly nor investigations carried out thoroughly.
 

Togadia Procession Allowed

 When the district of Kandhamal was burning in the aftermath of killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati on August 23, 2008, the state did not feel any pangs of conscience in allowing the V.H.P. leader   Pravin Togadia and state level leaders to enter into the Kandhamal to pay homage to late  Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati on August 25, 2008 and making provocative statements that ignited violence and hatred and encouraged a spirit of retaliation against the minority.
This was the incitement required to propel the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal members to launch an attack on the minority. (Media records of such inflammatory speeches)
 
This further surcharged the atmosphere and the sangh parivar activists being inspired by the speeches of the Togadia burnt the houses, killed the innocent people of the minority community and burned the churches. When there were reports that a Central Minister, Sri Jaiswal was advised to return to Delhi on the plea of security, how come Togadia was allowed to enter in to the Kandhamal, wherein already communal tensions had been  smouldering. The speeches of Togadia acted like a spark and as a consequence, the Hindu fanatics targeted and killed several people and torched the villages and churches on the same day in the different parts of the Orissa and particularly Kandhamal.
(Reference: news report in The New Indian express dt. August 27, 2008)
 

Cost of Targeted Violence

 Even though official reports of the Orissa government state reveals that that 10,000 people have already returned back to their homes from the relief camps to settle in their villages, to date, in 2011, as many as 15,000 persons are homeless still either living in inhuman camps which the state does not admit to or still in other states. In the immediate aftermath of the violence, those who dared leave the relief camps to go home in the forests have been butchered and some young girls even raped. Reports of missing persons have come to the light from the G. Udayagiri relief camp. The claims of the state government that the rehabilitation has been either successfully completed or is being carried out on a war footing are totally misleading. The fact remains that the houses of the people have already been burnt and they have been threatened of dire consequences if they dare to return to their houses. Further more the threat of forceful conversion by shearing their head and drinking cowdung water, is still looming large over their head.

 About 62 FIRs have been filed in between 2006-2008 relating to forceful conversion from Christianity to Hinduism in the Kandhamal in violation to the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, 1967 and Rules. (Photos of death and destruction)

 Should not those in responsible positions in power and the administration and police and inciters of hatred and violence like Togadia been effectively prosecuted?
 The IIC Baliguda was further responsible for suppressing the rape case of the nun for 33 days and also remained a mute spectator to the massacre and burning the villages and Churches. This is empirical proof on the ideological designs and pressures on the district police and administration by the sangh parivar and moreover threatens the basic tenets of transparency and the rule of law that decree that when a crime is committed, the guilty must be punished.
 Thus along with the IIC of Baliguda, G Udaygiri, Tikabali, Raikia and Pasara, the S.P. of Kandhamal and D.G. of Police are also liable for penal action for these intentional and calculated lapses that violate a citizens fundamental rights to equal protection before the law under the Indian Constitution; that violate their statutory duties under the Cr PC and the Administrative Service Rules governing IPS and IAS officers.
 
Hence, they should have been suspended and criminal prosecutions for criminal negligence for the loss of lives of members of the minority community be launched against them. That normal departmental proceeding may be initiated against them but these should not be a camouflage for a full fledged criminal prosecution in full public view that is required to restore the confidence of the people in the state.
 
The compensation for the relative of the death victims case which has been announced but has not been given in several cases because of the non availability of the post mortem report to the legal heir of the deceased. Since they have lost their earning member of the family, they need should have been paid immediate compensation which can be given without post mortem report with a condition that the relative of the victim will submit an indemnity bond and incident of death could be ensured by the evidence of the eye witnesses.
 
That apart the compensation of the package declared by the state is paltry sum in commensurate to the trauma, the victims of riot have suffered due to the death of their bread earning member of the family. Commensurate packages should be paid to what has been paid elsewhere. In the case of the Gujarat genocide of 2002, also, the Gujarat government’s pathetic package was buffeted by a central government package that gave s 5 lakhs for every life lost and Rs 1.25 lakhs to every injured person. Hence the State Government may be directed to review its package of compensation and re-assess it in view of the severe psychological and socio-economic jolt to the family members of the death victims.
 

 Demands for an Independent Commission were never met.
 

To restore faith among the victim community. The following specific suggestions are made to create an independent body in the district level and also in each block to facilitate the peace process
 

• Immediate creation of ‘Help Line’ and also ‘Citizen’s Committees’ headed by a local (ST/SC/Religious Minority) community leader essentially human rights activists in each block and at district level to collect first hand information

Proper documentation of Victim and Deprived Families

• Appointment of Sensitive Officers from the SC/ST/Minority Communities in all affected areas

  Review and appointment of Officers ST/SC concern sensitive to the issues and make changes as per the advice of he said committees as per ST/SC Atrocity Act 1989 and
 

 Was there a Chain of Command Responsibility in the Violence Against Christians in Orissa?
 

• The Political Leadership in Orissa represented by the cabinet of ministers  especially cabinet ministers from the BJP who sanctioned participated in the violent procession following Swami Laxhmanananda’s murder under its Constitutional Obligation and Oath to protect the lives and properties of all, irrespective of caste creed or community (Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, Article 163-165 of the Indian Constitution)
• The State of Orissa under its Constitutional Obligation to Protect lives of all irrespective of caste, gender, community and class (Article 21 of the Indian Constitution)
• The Union of India, represented through its Secretary of Home New Delhi under its Constitutional Obligations specifically under Article 355 of the Indian Constitution (Duty of the Union to Protect States Against External Aggression and Internal Disturbance: It shall be the duty of the Union to protect every State against external aggression and internal disturbance and to ensure that the government of every State is carried on in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution).

Excerpts from Asma Jahangir’s Report. She was the Special Rapporteur for Religious Freedom, United Nations, 2009 after her visit to India:

“…11. A number of Indian states have adopted specific laws which seek to govern religious conversion and renunciation. Five states have passed and implemented the so-called Freedom of Religion Acts (Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh). Similar laws have been passed but not yet implemented in two other states (Arunachal Pradesh and Rajasthan). All of these laws stipulate that “no person shall convert or attempt to convert, either directly or otherwise, any person from one religious faith to another by the use of force or by inducement or by any fraudulent means nor shall any person abet any such conversion”. The term “force” is defined to “include a show of force or a threat for injury of any kind including threat of divine displeasure or social excommunication”. These laws carry penalties of imprisonment and fines with harsher penalties in case children, women or persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes are forcibly converted. Furthermore, in some states anyone converting another person from one religion to another is required to obtain prior permission from state authorities thirty days before the date of such intended conversion  or submit a related intimation . In other states with such laws, anyone intending to change his or her religion needs to give prior notice  or intimation after the conversion ceremony.

18. Widespread violence in the Kandhamal district of Orissa in December 2007 primarily targeted Christians in Dalit and tribal communities. The Special Rapporteur received   credible reports that members of the Christian community alerted the authorities and politicians in advance of the planned attacks of December 24-27, 2007. The police, too, had warned Christian leaders about anticipated violence. In its report on the events of December 2007, the National Commission for Minorities confirmed that “destruction on such a large scale in places which are difficult to access could not have taken place without advance preparation and planning”.
19. The situation in Orissa has reportedly deteriorated again after August 23, 2008, when Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, a local leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), and four other VHP members were killed. Although a Maoist leader had claimed responsibility and the Christian leadership had condemned the killings, organized mobs subsequently attacked Christians in Dalit and tribal communities. By the end of September 2008, more than 40 people had allegedly been killed in Orissa, over 4,000 Christian homes destroyed and around 50 churches demolished. Around 20,000 people were living in relief camps and more than 40,000 people hiding in forests and others places. The Special Rapporteur was profoundly alarmed by the humanitarian situation in relief camps where access to food, safe drinking water, medical care, proper sanitary arrangements and adequate clothing were reportedly lacking.
 

But were the Guilty Punished?

The sangh parivar seeks to build a cadre comprised of Hindus, men and women, and targets Christians, Muslims, Adivasis and Dalits and other disenfranchised and progressive and secular groups in Orissa….

The sangh has amassed between 35 and 40 major organisations with numerous branches (including paramilitary hate camps) in 25 districts in Orissa, with a massive base of a few million operating at every level of society, ranging from, and connecting, villages to cities, and Orissa to the ‘Hindu nation’…… The sangh has inaugurated various trusts and branches of national and international institutions in Orissa to aid fund-raising, including the Friends of Tribal Society, Samarpan Charitable Trust, Sookruti, Yasodha Sadan and Odisha International Centre.
The RSS operates 6,000 shakhas in Orissa with a 1,50,000+ cadre. RSS graduates take an oath affirming allegiance to the RSS as national duty: ‘I will devote my body, mind and money (tana, mana, bhana) to the motherland.’ The sangh also hires paid operatives to undertake mob activity. Led by the RSS, Vidya Bharati (known as Shiksha Vikas Samiti in Orissa) directs 391 Saraswati Shishu Mandir schools in Orissa, including in Balangir, Kalahandi, Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Kandhamal and Rayagada districts, with 1,11,000 students preparing for future leadership.

Training camps in Bhadrak and Behrampur aim at Adivasi youth. Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram runs 1,534 projects and schools in 21 Adivasi concentrated districts. The sangh has initiated 1,200 Ekal Vidyalayas in 10 districts in Orissa to target Adivasis. In March 2000, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Biju Janata Dal (BJD) coalition came to power. In October 2002, a Shiv Sena unit in Balasore district formed the first Hindu ‘suicide squad’. The Hindu Suraksha Samiti organises against Muslims. Revolting slogans, ‘Mussalman ka ek hi sthan, Pakistan ya Kabristan (For Muslims there is one place, Pakistan or the grave)’, perforate neighbourhoods. Ignoring Signals at Our Own Peril.
  
“The violence against Christian minority communities in Orissa in August-October 2008 was not unexpected. In Orissa, since the mid-1990s, a formidable mobilisation has been established by Hindu nationalist groups, including in Kandhamal district. These groups have acted with egregious impunity with adverse impact on society, economy, culture, religion, polity and security in the state. The sangh parivar ‘family’ of Hindutva, Hindu supremacist, organisations has a visible presence in 25 of 30 districts in Orissa. The sangh parivar has amassed between 35 and 40 major organisations with numerous branches (including paramilitary hate camps) in 25 districts in Orissa, with a massive base of a few million operating at every level of society ranging from, and connecting, villages to cities in their campaign to ‘convert’ Orissa for the ‘Hindu nation’… “

“During the 2008 violence in Orissa various militant Hindu nationalist organisations acted with impunity. The violence was led by the following groups – the Bajrang Dal, VHP and RSS. Following the riots and extended violence against Christian communities in Kandhamal district of Orissa in August-October 2008, the Government of Orissa and police, military and paramilitary forces deployed in the state failed to respond effectively, efficiently or appropriately. This posed a serious threat to democratic governance in the state and the ability of government to ensure the security and sanctity of peoples and groups made vulnerable through majoritarian communalism as perpetrated by Hindu nationalist organisations in the state. The central government in New Delhi as well failed to respond in a timely and effective manner and with due concern.”
Professor Angana Chatterjee to United states Congressional Task Force on religious Freedom in December 2008 published in February 2009 issue of Communalism Combat
 

Both Orissa, Karnataka and Gujarat have a history of targeted violence against the religious minorities clearly suggesting a deliberate complicity of the State in non-punishment of the perpetrators.

Why do we wait until it is too late?

Between the late eighties and 2002, the build up in Gujarat at the societal and state level violated Constitutional provisions and Indian Criminal law. Yet we waited until the genocidal carnage that took 2,500 lives spread over 19 districts of the state before we acted/reacted. Selected censuses of Muslims and Christians (1996-1998), driving out Muslims after violent attacks in Randhikpur and Sanjeli (October 1998—Welcome to Hindu Rashtra, Communalism Combat). Between 1998-1999 Christians and Christian Institutions were targeted across the state of Gujarat. Remember the attacks on churches in the Dangs that led to a terror filled Christmas in the Dangs in December 1998 when 16 Churches were attacked and Christians were made to live in terror?

Swami Aseemanand was the leading perpetrator his ashram a nest for hate spewing cadres and Dangs in south Gujarat is a district where Christians and their institutions have since lived in terror.
The Shabhri Kumbh here is held every year – a pretext for the sangh parivar’s continuing terror tactics through “re-conversion” and the land of tribals is being sold by a visceral state government to media corporate Since 1996, media reports have drawn repeated attention to such hate campaigns. But all the vitriol has suspiciously escaped police action under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Gujarat, and now Uttar Pradesh, are living examples of life for Indians under ‘Hindu Rashtra’.
Senior officials in the police, like the DGP of Gujarat, CP Singh, have stated on record that “organisations like the VHP and Bajrang Dal are clearly behind the violence” (see CC, October 1998). Concrete evidence in specific cases points clearly to the moral and ideological backing that the sangh parivar renders to the assailants. But our watchdogs and institutions fail to make the connection or see the pattern.

In early 2000, the then newly appointed RSS Sarsanghchalak, KS Sudarshan, declared that an ‘epic war’ was in progress in India between Hindus and ‘anti–Hindu forces’; in Mumbai, Bal Thackeray’s Saamna has been spitting venom since his newspaper came into existence. And yet these persons escape the long arm of the law.

What is responsible for this selective amnesia? How is it possible for us to react to rights’ violations in individual cases but turn a blind eye to the bloody and devious design that underlies them?

On June 22, 2000 a Bajrang Dal leader, Dharmendra Sharma, sah-sahayojak for the Braj region, makes front page news declaring that Christians are now “bigger enemies” than Muslims. (The Times of India, June 23, 2000).

Clarification, if any were needed, that Muslims remain the Bajrang Dal’s and the VHP’s enemies! “Maar peet to kya, hum sab kuch karne ke liye taiyar hain” (“We are prepared to use violence. There is no limit”), said Sharma, leaving no room for any confusion. 

The remark prompted an expression of outrage from India’s then attorney general, Soli Sorabjee. He opined that such elements should be put behind bars. The National Human Rights Commission demanded details of attacks on Christians from the central and state governments. But only weeks earlier, the remark of the all–India Bajrang Dal convenor, Dr. Surendra Jain, calling for “a second Quit India movement” to drive away Christian missionaries had passed unnoticed and unchallenged. (The Afternoon Dispatch and Courier, May 27, 2000).

Life in Gujarat for a Muslim or a Christian has been a suffocating reminder that he or she no longer enjoys the precious privilege of being regarded as an equal Indian. This is the reality since the late 1980s. Muslims residing in ‘cosmopolitan’ localities in Gujarat are forcibly evicted; Muslim children have to compulsory attend school and even give examinations on Id day. Christmas can often not be celebrated in public and Christian Institutions are persecuted by the authorities. Discrimination and bias has insidiously crept into the marketplace of ideas, avenues of livelihood, educational institutions, the administration, the police, the judiciary. All in all, the quality that we used to proudly describe as Indian values has fast eroded. 

(The text and images of this article are excerpted from a 2011 powerpoint presentation researched by the author)

The post A Flashback to Kandhamal Targeted Violence against Christians, 9 Years Later appeared first on SabrangIndia.

September, 2016: Teesta Setalvad, civil rights activist and journalist, urged young people to contribute towards building an inclusive and equal society.

As one of the speakers at Vista 2016, the annual business fest organized by the FII Club at IIM Bangalore, she remarked that India and the south Asian region had gained a lot in importance in the present world. “India has so much to offer in terms of multiplicity and plurality — that is the essence of Indian-ness. This idea of India was sought to be enshrined in our Constitution. The basis of the Preamble of the Constitution is the vision that every citizen of India — regardless of case, creed, community, etc. – has the right to equality before the law, and a non-discriminatory framework,” she said.

“We need to look within and see, are we able to expand our notion of equality to encompass all around us? Are we consciously or unconsciously ‘othering’ people?” she asked.

In this context, she also mentioned that media often did a disservice to causes as they “engaged in shouting matches rather than in fruitful and constructive exchange of opinions with diverse kinds of people”.

She went on to observe, “History has shown us that community memories dominate, tend to have a trickle-down effect on modern day politics as we resonate with our old prejudices, old pains. ‘Othering’ can be extremely dangerous for the country,” she said.

“Communalism, caste, untouchability, gender inequality… this is the dark underbelly of Indian society, and we need to confront this,” she said, adding that if one believed in democracy, then one had to pay heed to even the last dissenting voice.

(First Published: http://www.iimb.ernet.in/node/15354
We must expand our notion of equality to encompass all around us: Teesta Setalvad, IIMB Website)

The post We must expand our notion of equality to encompass all around us: Teesta Setalvad appeared first on SabrangIndia.

आज तीन प्रतिष्टित यूनिवर्सिटी , Delhi university , JNU aur Punjab University के नतीजे एक साथ आये .
JNU में abvp का सफाया होना एक बहुत बड़े परिवर्तन का संकेत है.

9 फरबरी के बाद जिस तरह का हमला abvp, rss, मोदी सरकार और उसकी भोंपू मीडिया ने किया था उसका जबरदस्त जवाब jnu ने वाम को रिकॉर्ड जीत देकर दे दिया है .जेएनयु की जीत नागपुरी गुंडागर्दी, कार्पोरेट व मीडिया की संयुक्त ताकत के खिलाफ़ जीत है.

वाम छात्र संगठनों की जेएनयू में जीत कोई अनोखी बात नहीं है, लेकिन इस बार उन्होंने सिर्फ विरोधियों को नहीं हराया । युद्धोन्मादी, सांप्रदायिक और फ़ासिस्ट मीडिया को भी हराया है । मीडिया ने जेएनयू को ‘देशद्रोही’ बताने के छदम राष्ट्रवाद की आड़ में अभियान चलाया, पूरे देश में जेएनयू के प्रति घृणा पैदा करने की कोशिश की, लेकिन जेएनयू के छात्रों जबरदस्त लड़ाई से साबित किया की "असली देशभक्ति ” क्या होती है , और असली देश भक्त कौन है ? देश विरोधी नारेबाजी की किसने की थी? किसको गिरफ्तार किया गया था? 

बात उस समय ही साफ़ नज़र आ जाती है कि आखिर माज़रा क्या है. किस तरह रोहित वेमुला के केस में कटघरे में आ चुकी मोदी सरकार के लिए मुद्दे को डायवर्ट करना ज़रूरी था.और फिर जेएनयु तो हमेशा से संघियों की पीड़ा का सबब था. लेकिन इस संघी बिग्रेड के बाक़ी तमाम झूठ की तरह ही ये झूठ भी जनता के सामने आ ही गया.
Jnu ने बहुत कायदे से नकली देशभक्तों को जवाब दे दिया है. 25 साल पहले JNU में राजनीती शुरू करने वाली abvp की ऐतिहासिक हार हुई है। इस जीत के मायने को इस सन्दर्भ में भी समझना चाहिए की पिछला दौर काफी जटिल संघर्ष का दौर रहा है . पूरे देश में संघी ब्रिगेड ने दलितों, अल्पसंख्यको और वंचित तबको को निशाना बनाया है और जिसके खिलाफ पूरे देश में जबरदस्त प्रतिरोध भी हुआ है , इस प्रतिरोध में युवायों ने अति महतवपूर्ण भूमिका अदा की है और उसमे भी Jawahar Lal Nehru University ने हिरावल दस्ते के भूमिका निभाई है .

Occupy UGC, II Madras , रोहित बेमुला की संस्थागत हत्या , दादरी, दनकौर का सवाल रहा हो या कलबुर्गी , पंसारे की हत्या के प्रतिरोध का Jawahar Lal Nehru University के छात्रों ने तीखा प्रतिरोध किया है. पूरे देश के पैमाने पर जो उन्मादी माहोल बनाया गया था और मुख्य निशाना JNU था जिसकी गंभीरता समझते हुए वामछात्र संगठनो ने मिल कर एक जुझारू लड़ाई लड़ी और JNU से इस प्रतिगामी ABVP के सफाए के लिए साथ मिलकर चुनाव लड़ने का अति महतवपूर्ण फैसला लिया , जिसके पीछे चुनाव जीतने की तात्कालिक सोच न होकर प्रतिरोध और सवालिया संस्कृति की रक्षा की सोच प्रमुख थी . इस सोच के आधार पर SFI और AISA ने साँझा पैनल बनाकर JNU में चुनाव लड़ा और JNU के अन्दर abvp की ऐतिहासिक हार की इबादत लिखी .

JNU ने साबित किया की वोह असल देशभक्त हैं जो कश्मीर से लेकर कन्याकुमारी तक की तक़लीफ़ों से विचलित होकर लुटियन दिल्ली में तूफ़ान मचाने की ताकत रखते हैं और जिनके आगे सरकार , पुलिस, कार्पोरेट मीडिया बोनी साबित हुई। देश की वास्तविक एकता का रास्ता येही है की हम सबके सवाल और तकलीफ को अपना समझे और उसके खिलाफ प्रतिरोध दर्ज करे. पिछले दिनों JNU ने इस काम को बखूबी अंजाम दिया है .यह वैचारिक टकराव असल में दो सपनों के बीच का संघर्ष था और आखिरकार JNU ने तय कर दिया है कि उसे भगत सिंह और आंबेडकर के सपनों के साथ जीना है नाकि हेडगेवार और गोलवरकर के सपनों के साथ. Akhil Bhartiya Vidya Parishad का सफाया  JNU की तरह पंजाब यूनिवर्सिटी में भी हुआ है . Delhi University में ABVP ने ३ पद जीते हैं पर ४४ में से मात्र ११ कॉलेज ही उसके कब्ज़े में आये हैं , ३३ में उसको हार का सामना करना पड़ा है.

 
Pradeep Sharma शिया कॉलेज, Lucknow में समाज शास्त्र पढ़ाते हैं। सामाजिक और राजनैतिक कार्यकर्ता हैं और अपने छात्र जीवन में sfi के नेता रहे हैं

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Singing songs of ordinary people, especially Dalits, Shital Sathe has been singing of the marginalised, Dalits and others all over Maharashtra, She is one of the vibrant singer-poet of the Kabir Kala Manch. Attacked for her trenchant critique of the caste order, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) – currently behind the attacks of students at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and earlier at the Hyderabad Central University (HCU) – has tried to disrupt her performances in rural Maharashtra. See https://sabrangindia.in/article/my-songs-are-my-protest-sheetal-sathe
 
On February 7, 2016 she gave a rendering of unique compositions and songs of protests at the Press Club, Delhi. Sudhanva Deshpande interviewed her for this joint production of Communalism Combat and Newsclick.
 
“These are moments of acute loneliness and struggle. My son, Abhang, is without his father. (Sachin Mali has been in jail, denied bail, for 32 months). Sachin is without his son and wife. Sachin’s parents are without Sachin. I am without Sachin. We can’t be a family, many precious moments of life have been lost,” Shital Sathe 
 
“I sing a song for Abhang anticipating the questions he may put to us. You were born in a storm, and the swing we have for you is tied to the sky,” Shital Sathe

Inssan ke liye gaana chahie, Isaan ke andar ke jaanwar ko maar dene ke liye gaana chahiye
— Shital Sathe on Wamanrav Kardav her inspiration
 
‘We are paying the pricing of not bending, not giving in, holding up our self-respect; the cost of self-respect and resistance is the ‘Anda’ (isolation cell) at Arthur Road jail, a room of 5 X 15 feet,” Shital Sathe
 
“It was the collective and invisible violence of the caste system that killed Rohith Vemula. He was a victim of caste abuse. The Brahmanism in the education sector is shameful,” Shital Sathe. Her song about the killing of Rohith is powerful: Rohith gela, Dalit mela, Meli Lokshaahi (Rohith left us, a Dalit died, It is the Death of Democracy)
 
“Kabir Kala Manch sings the songs of the lives of ordinary people, the marginalised, Dalits”, Shital Sathe
 
“It is our fundamental belief in equality, dignity and opposition to the indignities of caste and the supremacist of Hindutvawaadis that is the real reason for the opposition of the ABVP. There is nothing remotely Maowaadi or Naxalwaadi in us”, Shital Sathe
 
“Hindu Rashtra can never be acceptable in our country with people of different faiths, different thoughts, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists etc. Hindu Rashtra is against Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution”, Shital Sathe
 
“Mukta Salve, who studied in Savitribai Phule-Jotiba Phule’s school in Pune had asked, how can a religion that does not even consider us as human ever be ours,” Shital Sathe
 
“Babasaheb (Ambedkar) had said that though I was born a Hindu, I don’t want to die a Hindu,” Shital Sathe
 
“My songs talk of the newer manifestations of caste under the neo-liberal regime, our notions of patriotism is the struggle for the equality and dignity for all,” Shital Sathe
 
“Sachin Mali, my husband and comrade is the poet who’s songs we sing; I write some songs too. We are the children of the Maharashtrian Shaayri tradition. The saints of Maharashtra who questioned the caste structure, Tukaram Namdeo; this tradition carried forward to the shaayri (poets) tradition under Shivaji. During the nationalist movement and communist movement Annabhau Sathe and Amar Sheikh are our mentors. Then the Ambedkarite movement gave birth to Wamanrao Kardav and Bhimrao Kardav. We are children of that tradition,” Shital Sathe

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‘AMU is not a Minority Institution,’ says the Modi government to the SC

 
Showing its true colours on issues related to minority rights, the Central government dominated by the supremacist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS) has opposed the minority status of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). In a complete turnaround from the earlier Central government, under UPA I and II, that had challenged a judgement of the Allahabad high court reversing AMU's minority status, the Modi government has withdrawn its name as one of the petitioners challenging the 2005 Allahabad high court verdict.[1] The Supreme Court had stayed implementation of the high court judgement in 2006.

Making the submission in the Supreme Court, attorney general, Mukul Rohatgi said, “It is the stand of the Union of India that AMU is not a minority university. As the executive Government at the Centre, we can’t be seen as setting up a minority institution in a secular state.” He was referring to the Aligarh Muslim University Act, 1920 that was subsequently amended by Parliament twice in 1951 and 1981. The stand came as a surprise to the three member bench consisting of Justices JS Khehar, MY Eqbal and C Nagappan who pointed out that this stand of the Centre was contrary to what was filed previously by the Centre before this court and the Allahabad HC. Justice Eqbal asked, “With the change in Government, can you change your stand?” The Bench has asked Rohatgi to file an affidavit in this regard and posted the case for hearing next on April 4, 2016.

Communalism Combat has been analysing and tracking the issue of the minority status of the AMU for the past decade. We bring you some of our archival issues that trace the background of establishment of this institution as also the erosions in certain principles that require rectification.

Advocate Mihir Desai author of a book on the subject [2] analysed for us the grave fallacies in the verdict of the Allahabad high court. Faizan Musatafa, then registrar of the AMU too argued how the judgement was bad in law. CC brought to its readers a critical dimension to the issue when we investigated and found that communal reservations at Aligarh Muslim University have struck at the very character and repute of the institution. Noted scholar Asghar Ali Engineer argued that while the Aligarh Muslim University is, without doubt, a minority institution, it must allow reservations for Backward Caste Muslims.

We bring to our readers the various dimensions of the issue that has a crucial bearing on minority rights within a democracy.

Links to 2005 Communalism Combat issues archived here

1.  The Case of the Aligarh Muslim University, 2005 : Alas, Your Lordships!
2.  Minority Institutions: Rights or Privilege?
3. Wong in Law 
4. No to Communal Reservations
5. Flawed Judgement

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The November 14 Paris attacks that killed 130 persons, fast on the heels of the Baghdad and Beirut bombings that also cost many lives, have, once again raised questions within the fold of Islam. Earlier this year, Dr Tawfik Hamid an Egyptian scholar famously wrote “From the heart of an honest Muslim” which he began with, "I am a Muslim by faith, a Christian by spirit, a Jew by heart, and above all I am a human being."

Islamic leaders and scholars are risking lives and seeking strongly, a reformation within Islam, some even saying that the political content needs to go and the compassionate and just part, emphasised. Closer home, Mumbai to Kerala, Delhi to Lucknow clerics and leaders have been sending a strong and similar message.

(Preachers denounce ISIS in Friday sermons,
http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31804&articlexml=Preachers-to-denounce-ISIS-in-Friday-sermons-27112015011025 and In war against IS, clerics to add 1k Instagram accounts, FB pages
 http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/in-war-against-is-clerics-to-add-1k-instagram-accounts-fb-pages/
 
In January this year, the rector of the main mosque in Paris, Dalil Boubakeur, speaking to the CNN had reverted from the French to English to make his point. He said that Islam has to reform. There is a need to take out the political content of Islam and the compassionate part emphasised.
 
In the early days of Communalism Combat when it was published in a tabloid format, we had met Dalil Boubakeur in Paris who had spoken to us of the difficult role he has had to play, teaching tolerance and respect for the belief of others to his people and struggling for the rights of a migrant Muslim population, victim of both racial and religious prejudice, on the other. This account was published in November 1997 and we reproduce it here for the benefit of our readers to help contextualise a difficult and painful issue.
 
(sub head) Fighting phobia, teaching tolerance
 
(Intro) As head of the Muslim clergy in France, a country where phobia against Islam and its followers is on the rise, the rector of the Muslim Institute and the Mosque of Paris, Dalil Boubakeur, has a difficult double role to play: teaching tolerance and respect for the belief of others to his people and struggling for the rights of a migrant Muslim population in France which is a victim of both racial and religious prejudice. Excerpts:
 
The role of religion, religious heads and religious institutions in a secular state are indeed complex. France is a democratic country where secularism and human rights are of prime concern to the state. All religions in turn respect the state. We are not to interfere in the political business of the state just as the state and its administration does not interfere in matters of faith.
 
In 1905, France passed a law making a formal separation between religion and state. For Islam, a new religion in France, also a religion of the migrant community, to realise and maintain this equation is not easy. Christianity and Judaism have reached an equilibrium after co-existing with the state for hundreds of years when Islam was not here in France. They have their churches, their synagogues. They have consolidated their institutions, the Church has for long had a sophisticated organization.
 
Islam came here much later and was, therefore, always considered an “outside” religion of the migrant worker whose focus of worship and religion was, in turn, “outside” the nation. The mosque of the Muslim worker was in Africa, their religious feast was in Africa, their women were in north Africa.
 
Only men from the community first came here to work. Families arrived much later after the French government enacted a law, the Familie Rapprochement Act through which families were allowed entry. After the families came, population grew and there has been a demographic explosion since the 1970s.
 
This caused a revolution in the suburbs of the cities of France and the authorities coped by building buildings, kilometers of them, “quick” buildings, to accommodate the growing numbers.  These were buildings without any social, human or cultural dimensions. Outside Paris and Lyon, these buildings look like barracks. This was not good. As the young grew up or came to France, they found little or nothing to welcome them.
 
Also, Islam had to make specific adjustments to integrate because the French constitution relates to the individual, with no concessions to communities of people or religious communities. All of us must integrate into the general population. This is very important and I think, very natural. If a country relates to different nationalities within its geographical area, say Italian, Indian, Spanish, whatever, what you will get is a splintered image of the mirror and no unified image will be visible.
 
There is no priority given here to anyone. No distinction in the application of laws is made, as long as you are a French citizen. Polygamy, female circumcision and other such practices are downright illegal here.
 
Now, is the French state genuinely secular towards all, especially migrants? Or does it have a bias? While the theory of secularism and the secular state exists, in reality there are many human problems. Muslims here, are poor, disadvantaged, the migrant working population is ignorant of the systems of law and the principles of secularism that operate here. Hence, they find it extremely difficult to adapt.
 
They assume, for instance, that expenses of their mosques, the salary for the imams, land for cemeteries will come from the state, little realizing that it requires legislation. A law needs to be enacted to give salaries to any section of the clergy, a law is needed to grant a piece of land for a mosque.

The question of Muslims and Islam in France is linked critically to the immigrant problem. The March 1996 amendment in French immigration law has titled the balance against immigrants, and is even being used to victimise people. As rector of the Paris Mosque, our role as mediators between our community and the state is very sensitive in this political situation.

 
There are economic difficulties faced by a disadvantaged migrant community, for whom there are little facilities. Then, there are many imams (preachers) who, coming from Africa, from a different background, who don’t always have a message of tolerance or the message for the good and wise voyage of the Muslim in this life. This is largely because there is a very low level of secular education for many of our imams: traditionally, they are just taught the Holy Scriptures.
 
In all these contexts, our role is crucial. The Mosque, of Paris has made all efforts to train 130 “good” imams, to give a religious, non-political, spiritual message to followers: to realise their ideals through education, good conduct and behaviour: to be a good Muslim, respecting all religions, other people’s beliefs, men of other religions, and above all respecting the state they are living in. This is critical for co-existence between different religions.
 
The financial upkeep of the imam, mosque and other religious institutions remains an ongoing difficulty. The imam is a religious man with a family, with childen, he too needs social security, where does it come from? The social service cell of the Paris Mosque is thus very active. We organise health camps, special camps for some Muslim migrants in prison. There are about 40-50 persons, including women, who are involved in the social service leagues that collaborate with the 20 mosques in Paris.
 
The only problem that we face are financial. We are trying to make adjustments through money generating activities like running a cafe, hamaam (public bath); there is also donation from visitors, income from the conferences that we hold.
 
The question of Muslims and Islam in France is linked critically to the immigrant problem. The March 1996 amendment in French immigration law has titled the balance against immigrants, and is even being used to victimise people. As rector of the Paris Mosque, our role as mediators between our community and the state is very sensitive in this political situation.
 
Things are very difficult now because the recent amendments, have not only stopped immigration but also placed severe restrictions on access to means of livelihood. In this scenario, it is our hope that Muslim people will behave with responsibility for only then will the negative attitude against them reduce. For example, if they don’t terrorise people in the suburbs, the negative image people have against the migrant population will slowly disappear. As rector of the Paris Mosque in this situation, I inspire the community against bad examples of terrorism and preach non-violence. The Friday sermon is a message of peace, non-violence, a lesson to Muslims on how to behave as good citizens.
 
We know that the number of Muslims here is high and an upswing in racist or xenophobic attitudes can only be tackled if our community listens to us and makes conscious efforts to respect the law, to enjoy rights just as all other French people do. We hope that there never is a “Muslim problem” in France.
 
The French national commission for women has been looking into the question of representation of Muslim women, as all others, in the different professions. The Mosque of Paris, also hopes in future to be the voice of Muslim women and seeks to represent their cause in France to the government.
 
Other related questions arise. In France, Muslim women and men who are French citizens have to live under French law, not the Shariah. This does not affect their religious laws and practices, however. As long as basic principles of law are maintained, there should be no problem in following other laws laid down by the nation state.
 
As the rector of the Mosque of Paris, in a country that sets store by its secular foundations equality of all religions – I agree that the primary French law should apply to all communities. Our religious practices are never interfered with, anyway. When it comes to marriage, for example, we first have to register then perform the nikaah ceremony. In case of any dispute, they go before the French Tribunal.
 
Women have a separate space to pray within the Paris Mosque. They move around freely, no one controls of directs their movements. Freedom is the first principle of Islam for women. Some come with only a scarf, that is their right. We prefer that the heads of the faithful be covered as a sign of respect within the mosque. But outside, all Muslims are free to dress as they choose. No one inside will try and dictate or control their behaviour outside. They are free to do wear what they want, work wherever they like.
 
We recognise that women have much more capacities and capability than only that of the homemaker, though of course this is also important. In France we find Muslim women generally showing great aptitude for academics and have a particular talent in the field of diplomacy.
 
Crucial for any community is the nature and quality of the institutions it generates. The mosque is meant to be the veritable hub, the centre of the community just like the first mosque of Islam at Madina was. The first statutes of Islam, the relationship between Jews and Christians, issues or war and peace, etc., were all deliberated upon inside the Madina mosque soon after it was constructed.
 
The mosque of Paris, built in 1922, has a curious history. It was established first in recognition of the sacrifices of Muslims in the service of the French nation during the First World War. In the late 19^th century (1870), many Muslim groups were active in France. Again, 1914, when France mobilised soldiers from Algeria, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia it was the second major participation of Muslims in the French national struggle.
 
This painting that has its pride of place behind the rector’s chair in the mosque here depicts Muslims fighters from north Africa meeting French diplomats.
 
The design of the Paris mosque was also thoughtfully and approximately chosen. It is an amalgamation of the best of all the existing architectural traditions. It is both an Islamic institute open to everybody and a mosque.
 
(As told to Teesta Setalvad, co-editor of Communalism Combat and published in the Ethos section of the issue, November 1997)

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