This questionable decision was made during a meeting of the Chaudhary community held last Sunday in Gazipur village, Jalore district, chaired by Sujnaram Chaudhary, the president of the 14 pattis (subdivisions). The meeting was chaired by community president Sujanaram Chaudhary, with elders deliberating on mobile phone usage within families. The resolution was formally read out by Panch Himmataram and proposed by Devaram Karnol, community members said. The controversial “ban”, it is reported, will be enforced in villages including Gajipura, Pavli, Kalra, Manojia Vas, Rajikawas, Datlawas, Rajpura, Kodi, Sidrodi, Alri, Ropsi, Khanadeval, Savidhar, Hathmi ki Dhani of Bhinmal, and Khanpur, all of which fall within the Patti region of Jalore district.

It was while speaking to PTI, that Chaudhary said that Panch Himmtaram announced the decision. According to Himmtaram, after discussions among panch members and community members, it was decided that daughters-in-law and young women would exclusively use keypad phones for calling.

Besides this, school-going girls who need mobile phones for their studies may use them only at home. They are not allowed to take mobile phones to weddings, social events, or even to a neighbour’s house, Chaudhary further explained, Chaudhary mentioned further. No restrictions have been reportedly placed on boys going to school, however!

When he was questioned on the opposition regarding the panchayat’s decision, Chaudhary clarified that this measure was taken because children often use the mobile phones of women in their households, which may negatively affect their eyesight. He noted that some women give their phones to children to keep them distracted, allowing them to focus on their daily chores.

The New Indian Express reported how Jalore has witnessed similar controversial community diktats in the past. Last year, 2024, local elders ordered the social boycott of two families after a young couple entered into a love marriage, imposing a fine of ₹12 lakh for their re-entry into the community. The couple later approached the Bhinmal police, following which police intervened and facilitated a compromise with most elders, though a few continued to justify the boycott.

June 2025, Caste panchayat enforces social boycott of 55 families in Jalore

In another similar incident in June, a caste panchayat in Jalore announced a social boycott of 55 families over a long-standing dispute related to temple land between two factions of the same extended family. The diktat barred community members from attending weddings, social functions, and even funerals of the affected families. The panchayat also warned that anyone who raised objections would face excommunication and monetary penalties. A complaint in connection with the matter was subsequently lodged at the Bagra police station.

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The post Rajasthan panchayat in Jalore district bans camera phones for daughters-in-law appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The case, Viswanathan Krishna Murthy & Ors. v. The State of Andhra Pradesh & Anr., involved a complaint by Pokala Sabhana, a 24-year-old trans woman. She alleged that her husband, Viswanathan Krishna Murthy, and his family had subjected her to cruelty and harassment. She filed her complaint under Section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), a law designed to protect wives from abuse by their husbands and in-laws.

This led the court to consider two key questions: first, whether a Trans woman could be considered a ‘woman’ under this law, and second, whether the allegations were sufficient to warrant a criminal trial. The court’s answer to the first was a clear “yes,” but its answer to the second was a firm “no”.

A Trans Woman is a ‘Woman’ Under the Law

The husband and his family argued that Sabhana could not be considered a ‘woman’ under Section 498-A, because she cannot bear children and therefore was not a woman in the “complete sense”.

Dr. Justice Venkata Jyothirmai Pratapa rejected this argument, calling it “deeply flawed and legally impermissible”. The court’s reasoning was built on established legal principles:

• Womanhood is not defined by reproductive ability: The court stated that linking womanhood to the capacity to have children “undermines the very spirit of the Constitution, which upholds dignity, identity, and equality for all individuals”.
• Right to Self-Identify Gender: The judgment relied heavily on the Supreme Court’s 2014 National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) v. Union of India The NALSA case established that every individual has the fundamental right to self-identify their gender, and the state must legally recognize it.
• Right to Marry: The court also cited the Supreme Court’s 2023 marriage equality case, Supriyo @ Supriya Chakraborty v. Union of India. While that case did not legalize same-sex marriage, the Supreme Court was unanimous in holding that “transgender persons in heterosexual relationships have the right to marry under existing law”.
• Constitutional Protections: Since Sabhana and Murthy’s marriage was legally valid, denying her the protections of Section 498-A would violate her fundamental rights to equality (Article 14), non-discrimination (Article 15), and life with dignity (Article 21).

Based on this, the court concluded that a Trans woman in a heterosexual marriage is entitled to protection under Section 498-A of the IPC.

Why the Case Was Dismissed

Despite this landmark finding, the court quashed the criminal proceedings against Murthy and his family. The reason was purely procedural: Sabhana’s complaint lacked the specific details required to sustain a charge of cruelty under Section 498-A.

The court found the allegations to be “bald and omnibus,” meaning that they are too vague and general to be the basis for a criminal case. The specific deficiencies noted were:

• Against the husband: The complaint stated that he left her less than two months after they started living together and that she later received a threatening message from his phone. However, it did not describe any specific acts of physical or mental cruelty that occurred while they were together.
• Against the in-laws: Sabhana stated in her complaint that her in-laws maintained “cordial relations” with her. The only negative claim was that they were trying to send their son abroad, which is not a criminal offense.
• Against another relative: A fourth person was accused with a single sentence claiming he was directing the others, with no supporting details.

The court pointed to a long line of Supreme Court rulings that caution against the misuse of Section 498-A. To prevent the law from being used to settle personal scores, courts require complaints to contain clear and specific allegations against each accused person. Because Sabhana’s complaint did not meet this standard, the court ruled that allowing the case to continue would be an “abuse of process of law”.

The judgment in Viswanathan Krishna Murthy is a significant step forward for the legal recognition of transgender rights in India. It establishes a clear precedent that the protections against domestic cruelty apply to Trans women in heterosexual marriages.

Jurisdictions like the UK and the US are seeing radical Trans exclusionary policies and establishments with figures like JK Rowling and Donald Trump respectively. For example, in a recent case, the UK Supreme Court has ruled that legal definition of woman is based on biological sex.[1] Therefore, judgements like these highlight the nuanced discourse that is emerging India with contributions from a powerful judiciary. However, it is important to note that judicial pronouncements cannot and will not satisfy the need for a comprehensive law that recognises queer marriage. Only a democratic and transparent legislative process will cover that gap.

(The author is part of the legal research team of the organisation)

[1] For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2025] UKSC 16

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Transgender rights in India: stalled progress and a frustrated community

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As they tell you about the life of a woman, the pain, the burden, the labour, you will smile and laugh because they will package your horrifying future in fairytales, song and dance, couture, grand palaces, fitting tributes to motherhood being the greatest experience in the world, so much so that you will hope and pray and eagerly await this time of your life. You will dream of a love that sweeps you off your feet, you will dream of a man who sees you for who you are, you will put aside your ambitions and dreams and “hobbies” and your individuality to fit into his life and be part of his family. You will water yourself down to the barest bits, till you are palatable, till you fade into a corner, till you are unrecognizable from who you once were. This will be the biggest tragedy of your life.

But it will be grand and you will look so pretty and everyone will be so happy so you will silence the tiny voice at the back of your head, wear your Sabyasachi and go meet the love of your life and leave your life and individuality behind with great pomp and show. At first, it will seem beautiful, this new life. You will love the feeling of love; you will enjoy the affection this man will shower on you. You will take his last name, and his dishes off the table, and his dirty underwear and his parent’s expectations and you will run with them. You will submerge yourself in these and allow the validation and placation you feel all around you, not to mention the warm glow of love to slowly fill the void in your soul that came from who you once used to be. You will serve him and his family in the kitchen during the day and you will serve him in his bed at night. You will enjoy it, and you will call it your choice and you will vociferously declare that you are the master of your fate and that love is everything and family is everything and you will be a willing slave to the expectations put upon you by this “family”. Nothing you ever do in this house will be enough. No amount of labour, no amount of effort, no matter how out of your way you go, you will be considered an outsider that is just doing your duty, and not well enough. You will bear his children and if you don’t want to, he will rape them into you. You will push yourself and push yourself and push yourself and that niggling voice will now come back screaming and swinging. You will hold your child that tore you open coming out, you will love it, and you will swallow the pain.

But the child will bear his name, the child will be his legacy, the child will be part of his family, and you will be only the cavity through which it came into the world, and the labourer that will raise it. The voice will by now consume you. You will fight it, fight to close your eyes to the reality fight to tell yourself that this is still your choice and the love that has faded in the background and been replaced with responsibility and expectation and servitude still exists and you are staying because of it, not because you are bound, not because there is no choice anymore and there never was but because you love him.

You love him? And this is your family. Is it? You will start rebelling and fighting and crying. You will fight and rage and cry, but you will still serve him in the kitchen in the morning and in the bedroom at night. You will think you can say no and so you will try to say no one day, and that will be the day you will learn. You will learn that he can do with you as he pleases. You will learn that whether he wants to shove his dick in you or his fist, it is all the same and it is all permissible because he is your husband, because you wore the Sabyasachi in a beautiful palace, and the flowers rained down and you walked down the aisle and sold yourself to his mercy. You will know that your blood, your bones, your voice, the tendons and muscles and your hands and legs, your back and front all belong to him and he can use any of them as he sees fit. The men that were supposed to protect you, the woman that brought you into this world, you will soon recognize them as the butchers that prepared you for slaughter.

Like a lamb you went beautiful and trusting and now on the chopping block with your spine broken. You will cry and bleat but the judges and the juries and the executioners will watch as he brutalizes you for his pleasure or for his power or for a fantasy and they will let him. And when he has gotten off and left you bloody and for dead, when he’s ripped you open this time not to bring life into the world but to take yours out, when that voice has been silenced forever and your vessel has served his purpose to him, you will be discarded. They will see his hands stained red with your blood, and they will look at your broken body and your gaping cunt and they will declare him not guilty.

Those men that protected you did it so one man and one man only could stake his claim on you, so he will be your first, your last, your only and your first breath was drawn to serve him and your last breath also served him, so is it a crime for a man to do as he sees fit with his property?

No. Is it a crime for a man to feel overwhelming passion for his wife? No. You, my love, were made for this. You didn’t know and the handcuffs were red and looked a lot like love and they were made of blood but you didn’t know. You didn’t know that the only good wives are the ones that die in silence on the inside before their death ever comes for them.

You didn’t know that often the wolves that own our bodies and drink our blood say ‘I love you’ and ‘Happy Anniversary’ and those who say they will save and protect and love us sell us to the wolves for a bent spine followed by a pat on the back.

(The author is a student of law in Mumbai and can be contacted at parulekarpriyanka02@gmail.com)

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The Karnataka government had formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) on April 27 to investigate allegations against Prajwal after nearly 3,000 explicit videos allegedly involving him appeared on social media. The SIT has filed a case against five people including Prajwal’s father HD Revanna. HD Revanna remains out on conditional bail. Notably, on May 19, a special court for MPs and MLAs in Bengaluru had issued an arrest warrant against Revanna. The Interpol had also issued a ‘Blue Corner Notice’ to find out where he was after a request from the SIT through the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). At present, a total of three cases of sexual assault have been registered by three women against Prajwal Revanna.

As per a report of Hindustan Times, the members of the SIT probing the sexual assault case had sent an all-women police team to camp out at the airport the entire night and then arrest Revanna. Upon his arrival in India, the SIT team confiscated two of his check-in baggage and took him into custody.

#WATCH | ‘Obscene videos’ case | JD(S) suspended MP Prajwal Revanna brought to the CID office in Bengaluru. pic.twitter.com/ZVnkJoNEnK

— ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2024

Multiple media report has suggested that once the accused is presented before the special magistrate within 24 hours of his arrest, the SIT is planning to subject the politician to a potency test. As per the report of Indian Express, voice samples and other attributes, including DNA, are likely to be collected, according to sources.

It is also essential to note that the SIT has also issued a notice to Prajwal’s mother Bhavani Revanna for questioning on June 1. According to the news agency, Revanna’s mother is not an accused in the case but SIT might probe her role. Her anticipatory bail will also be coming up for hearing today in the special court along with Prajwal Revanna’s anticipatory bail plea.

Brief background of the case:

Electronic devices like pen drives and CDs had emerged in the public domain on April 21, ahead of the April 26 Hassan parliament poll, which had suggested that Prajwal Revanna, the Hassan MP, had allegedly carried out sexual assaults on several women in Hassan and recorded the attacks on his phone camera. It is to be noted that as many as 2,900 files with videos and images of the sexual encounters of the MP were found in the pen drives that were leaked. A helpline had also been set up by the SIT to report incidents of attack by the MP.

The first FIR was registered against Revanna on April 28 after a woman who worked in his household filed a complaint of sexual harassment and criminal intimidation against him. The MP, who is seeking re-election from Hassan, had said in a video message earlier this week that he would present himself before the SIT at 10 am on Friday, May 31.

Related:

Federation of Karnataka State People’s Movements to protest against Prajwal Revanna sexual abuse case on May 30

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JD(S) leader HD Revanna, accused of allegedly kidnapping a survivor of sexual assault by son Prajwal Revanna, granted bail

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The post Absconding Prajwal Revanna arrested from Bengaluru airport in early hours on May 31, SIT to seek potency test appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Tagged the #HassanChalo march, it featured the banner ‘Namma Nadege, Hassana Kadega’ (Our march towards Hassan). The rally witnessed a wide scale participation of citizens, artists, activists, and intellectuals. People from neighbouring districts such as Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangeluru, Ballari, and Chikkamagaluru also participated in the march. The march was joined by various civil society groups working on human rights, minorities, gender, Dalits etc.  Amidst demands for strong actions against the perpetrators, the leaders in the rally also demanded that those who had distributed the pen drives with videos reportedly made by Revanna should be also arrested for “putting to auction women’s honour.”

Hundreds of women from all over the #Karnataka state, along with activists participated in the massive #HassanChalo Protest Rally in Hassan, against rape-accused #Hassan MP #PrajwalRevanna, demanding his arrest and justice for the women whom he allegedly assaulted and filmed. pic.twitter.com/NMmESGdovt

— Surya Reddy (@jsuryareddy) May 30, 2024

#Karnataka: The ‘Hassan Chalo’ march is to begin from Maharaja Park to Old Taluka office.

A number of organisations have gathered in #Hassan that includes women, farmers, students, gender minorities, writers, intellectuals, artists, and retired government officers to protest… pic.twitter.com/TWJ0PsMkjR

— South First (@TheSouthfirst) May 30, 2024

South First reported Subhashini Ali, former MP from CPI (M) and All India Democratic Women’s Association vice-president, demanding for ‘no bail, only jail. Ali also highlighted how victims are being intimidated in the aftermath of the news hitting the light, “The power play here has been created to abuse and scare women and deny justice to them. We and the citizens of the country has to break this alliance of patriarchy, feudalism, sexual abuse and political power.”

The protests blocked the main road after the DC Sathyabhama failed to turn up to collect the memorandum by the protestors. However, after they blocked the main road and launched a protest outside Hassan DC office, Hassan ADC KT Shantala turned up to collect their memorandum.

Some of the issues that the protestors have included are demands for the protection of victims exploited by Revanna, recognition that their privacy, safety and dignity was violated. Secondly, they demanded that steps be taken to find and destroy all related media. Along with that, they demanded the cancellation of Prajwal Revanna’s diplomatic passport and criticised the central government for its inaction and political interference. The protest also called for an impartial investigation to take place that treats the victims with sensitivity.

The Janata Dal (Secular) MP Prajwal Revanna was been found accused of grievous crimes, including rape, sexual harassment, outraging modesty after graphic and even violent videos of him sexually harassing women went viral in the constituency. An SIT was formed for investigation in the case which reportedly has almost 3000 women who are victims. A day before his return to India on May 30, Revanna who fled to Germany just shortly after the accusations flared on April 26, had filed for anticipatory bail on May 29. This was filed shortly after two of the prime accused who had distributed the pen drives were arrested by the police. As of now, Revanna’s father and JD(S) leader and MLA HD Revanna has also been released on bail despite being accused of kidnapping and intimidating a victim. He has also, like his son, been accused of sexual harassment

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Federation of Karnataka State People’s Movements to protest against Prajwal Revanna sexual abuse case on May 30

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The post #HassanChalo: Thousands protest demanding justice for the victims of Prajwal Revanna in Karnataka appeared first on SabrangIndia.

What is the Prajwal Revanna sexual abuse case?

Electronic devices like pen drives and CDs had emerged in the public domain on April 21, ahead of the April 26 Hassan parliament poll, which had suggested that Prajwal Revanna, the Hassan MP, had allegedly carried out sexual assaults on several women in Hassan and recorded the attacks on his phone camera. It is to be noted that as many as 2,900 files with videos and images of the sexual encounters of the MP were found in the pen drives that were leaked. A helpline had also been set up by the SIT to report incidents of attack by the MP. At present, a total of three cases of sexual assault have been registered by three women against Prajwal Revanna.

On May 13, JD(S) leader and Karnataka Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) HD Revanna was granted conditional bail by Bengaluru court. The said bail was granted by the Special court in connection with a kidnapping case linked to sexual abuse allegation against him and his son Prajwal. The said MLA had spent after seven days in jail after four-day police custody.  While granting bail, Judge Santhosh Gajanana Bhat had imposed conditions that required the accused to furnish a bond for Rs 5 lakh, along with two sureties. In addition to this, H D Revanna has been barred from leaving the country, entering KR Nagar in Mysuru district, and interacting with the witnesses. He has also been asked to cooperate with the SIT investigation.

A special court on May 18 had issued an arrest warrant against Prajwal. Notably, till now, three FIRs had been filed against him in cases related to alleged sexual abuse. On May 27, absconding Prajwal Revanna had released a video stating that he will be appearing before the SIT on May 31 and will “fully cooperate in the investigation”. He had also suggested that he went into “depression and isolation” after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders spoke about his sexual abuse videos.

Issues highlighted in the meeting of the Federation:

Protecting the dignity of the victims: In the press release, the issue of protecting the women who have been sexually exploited by Prajwal Revanna was raised. The videos of the sexual abuse, which had been non-consensually recorded by Prajwal Revanna, were circulated among the public through pen drives and social-media which have resulted in the violation of the privacy and dignity of the abused women. The Federation states that attempts were being made to show the said content to the children, families, relatives and acquaintances of the victims and such attempts could continue in the future as well.

Highlighting the same, the Federation had discussed and called for taking of such steps that mitigate the severity of this situation. Additionally, the organisation asked for the government to take measures to find all the videos and photographs related to the Hassan scandal anywhere on the internet and to destroy all the sources of the same.

Cancellation of ‘Diplomatic Passport’ of Prajwal Revanna: The organisations also provided that the union government is yet to cancel the ‘Diplomatic Passport’ issued to Prajwal Revanna, and has not even responded to the letter written by state government seeking help with his arrest. Based on this, the organisations demanded for the government to take quick and concrete steps towards cancellation of the ‘Diplomatic Passport’ granted to Prajwal Revanna.

Politicisation of the issue taking away the severity of the crime: In addition to the union government failing to take appropriate steps to arrest Prajwal Revanna, the press release pointed to the pressure being Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, along with other JDS and BJP leaders in demanding a handover of the case CBI with the clear intension to derail the investigation. Furthermore, the organisations also noted that the Congress party’s involvement in the mudslinging has also hampered the seriousness of the scandal. the organisations also emphasised upon the SIT’s duty to contact the directly and reassure the victims of sexual abuse by providing them appropriate protection.

The complete press release can be read here:

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Prajwal Revanna sexual violence case: Arrest warrant against Revanna issued by court, JD(S) decries political conspiracy

JD(S) leader HD Revanna, accused of allegedly kidnapping a survivor of sexual assault by son Prajwal Revanna, granted bail

NDA candidate Prajwal Revanna accused of sexually exploiting and videotaping thousands of women

National Commission for Women: An instrument of social justice or a mere political mouthpiece?

The post Federation of Karnataka State People’s Movements to protest against Prajwal Revanna sexual abuse case on May 30 appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Here’s a look this International Women’s Day:

The year 2023 was marked by visible and substantial protests against sexual violence that were sustained by an active social media and citizenry, with legacy, traditional media also then offering coverage. The absence of sustained “follow-up” or demands for institutional accountability however regrettably meant that real justice was not served. Women continued to protest, however.

In 1997, the Indian Supreme Court introduced the Vishaka guidelines. This provision did not come without the violence inflicted by women of the most marginalised castes. This pivotal movement traces its roots to the resistance of Bhanwari Devi, a Dalit woman employed by Rajasthan government’s Women’s Development Programme. In 2018, Citizens for Justice and Peace did this pivotal interview with her, Bhanwari Devi the pioneer of the women’s movement against sexual harassment at the workplace.

Women in India today continue to struggle for dignity, safety and an end to sexual violence, as one can see in the case of stories that have come up from Sandeshkhali, West Bengal or the unresolved complaints of India’s women wrestlers! July 2023 was marred by the horrific video of women in Manipur being subject to targeted rape and violence (while the video surfaced on July 19, 2023 compelling the Supreme Court to take suo moto cognisance, the incident from way back in May 2023 had not seen robust with the police authorities failing the investigation. Marginalised women continue to bear the brunt of violence, as they face violence on multiple fronts, on the basis of their identity as women, on the basis of their class, and their other intersecting identity such as caste or religion which may make them more susceptible to violence.

For instance, in Dalit women in India face the triple burden of caste, class and gender. The ghastly case of Hathras in western UP from July 2020, where a young Dalit woman suffered brutal gang-rape and was assaulted to death in field by men from privileged castes. The victim was denied a dignified burial as the police performed the last rites even, as per reports, she was cremated forcibly by the police without any consent of her family. The final blow was dealt when on March 2, 2023, the Sessions Court on March 2, 2023, only partially held one accused guilty, delivering a cruel blow to the quest for substantive justice. Statistics suggest that at a daily level 10 Dalit women are raped everyday in India. Caste rules Indian society and its democratic institutions and hence, justice remains elusive. While all women face discrimination and marginalisation in general, as illustrated in the Sandeshkhali incident below, Dalit women and women of other minorities more so. They have to go to great lengths to even get a registration of an FIR by the police for a crime committed against them.

A recent case which saw widespread protests across villages in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali by local women against violence and sexual harassment that had continued against them for decades. The women of Sandeshkhali rose against decades of oppression and horrifying torture by the local leader of West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress, and Sheikh Shahjahan and his associates.

While, as this incisive article in The Hindu shows, Mallick ran his fiefdom over North 24 Parganas district, he ‘sublet’ the two blocks of Sandeshkhali to his deputy Sheikh, who, in turn, ‘sublet’ Sandeshkhali Block-II to Shibu Hazra. Hazra ‘sublet’ Sandeshkhali Gram Panchayat to Uttam Sardar. A clear chain of profit and power was drawn, which constitutes the lifeblood of the TMC.

Local women rallied for the arrest of the TMC leader, they even set ablaze a hut adjacent to a fish farm purportedly owned by the leader’s brother and also confronted and physically confronted another member of the ruling party – knowing there was no other way that their demands would be heard. Several reports suggest that Shahjahan’s harassment knew no bounds. Even as the protests were breaking on, he and his henchmen continued to instil fear in the minds of the women. Predictably, the ruling TMC, with a poor track record in several cases of sexual harassment, attempted to distance itself from Sheikh, Hazra and Sardar. While equally cynically and predictably, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that was notably silent in the case of the ghastly gang rapes in Manipur, the abdication of justice in Hathras or the brazen sexual harassment in Benaras Hindu University (BHU) remains on an overdrive to paint the episode as “exploitation of Hindu women by Muslim goons. Even the relatively independent non-legacy or non-corporate media have let Hazra and Sardar’s name slip through the cracks even though they are likely to be collaborators in brute sexual crimes. Shahjahan Shaikh was arrested after absconding for 55 days d as the protests raged on, however.

2023 was besmirched by the worst kind of gendered crimes. The gang rapes in Manipur from May 2023 that surfaced only in July 19. After the video surfaced causing countrywide outrage and protests, a massive sit-in protest unfolded in Manipur, India, as thousands of tribal Christian women voiced their demands for the arrest of members of the mob that was seen in the video showing disturbing mob attacks on two Kuki-Zo women. The women’s wing of the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) organised the protest that drew an estimated 15,000 people in Manipur’s Churachandpur.

The ethnic conflict in Manipur has been going on since May 2, 2023. It has resulted in 200 dead and over 60, 000 people displaced. Manipur, amidst the violence and upheaval, saw scores of women protesting against sexual violence as instances of sexual crimes against women in the state continued at the conflict refused to stop.

Amidst the continuing conflict, October 2023 witnessed another brave act of resistance by women as they led a sit-in protest in Manipur and condemned the “unprovoked firing” directed at Kuki women. The two women had reportedly been on night duty when two miscreants came by and fired at the women. Chanting powerful slogans such as ‘No more bullets’ and ‘We are your mothers, show respect’, the protesting women led a peaceful protest demanding action against culprits as well as the redressal to the demands of the Kuki-Zo community. Leaders of women’s organisations spearheading the demonstration called for the removal of Biren Singh, the state’s chief minister.

Similarly, women in Manipur took to protest on January 18, 2024 and organised a torch rally and marched towards the residence of Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh after violence gripped the region again in Moreh, a border town situated on the India–Myanmar border in Tengnoupal district, where two security personnel from the Kuki-Zo community lost their lives at the bullets of armed militants. The protests were led by a group named Meira Paibi, who are recognised as ‘women torchbearers’, raised slogans as they advanced towards the Chief Minister’s Secretariat where they were soon stopped by the police. On February 20, again women protestors protested against the government. They were met with police brutality and sheer repression. Security forces had even fired tear gas shells at them. A day after the protests and the brutal violence meted out, Manipur lawyers took out a protest against the violence.

Women continue to rise up amidst times of great unrest and resist structures of power that are harmful to not just them but all of society.

Similarly, we see the case of a brutal rape in Banaras where university students rallied against the administration and demanded security and action against the accused in November 2023. The incident took place when a young student from IIT-BHU casually taking a walk with a friend was gang raped brutally at gunpoint after which a video of the brutal and horrifying incident went viral online.

This led to widespread protests which drew nationwide shock and attention at the incident. As per widespread reports, the culprits spread from the area soon after the incident and reached Madhya Pradesh, because students started protesting immediately.

The alleged perpetrators of the gang rape were reported to be members of the BJP IT Cell, although the BJP has denied links with the people and opposition parties continued to assert that the BJP was shielding the accused even as old social media posts featuring the accused alongside PM Modi, Minister Smriti Irani, and BJP president JP Nadda got widespread attention. One of them, Saksham Pandey, is also, as per reports, the son of a BJP Councillor. The culprits were arrested 60 days after the protests erupted. Maya John, a faculty in gender studies, has talked about the ‘institutional apathy’ against victims, which also helps cultures that are sexist grow, that is consequently challenged by collective mass mobilisation. She asserts that, “you have to fight, because if you don’t fight, you don’t get anything. If you stand up, you keep the collective mobilisation going, you’d be able to challenge the apathy and change the general ambience that people in the administration work with, i.e., the yeh toh chalta hai approach. So, as long as you fight back and you keep that going, and you connect and build the next phase of the movement in a strategic way, you do push for accountability. Whoever’s in powerful offices feels the pressure.”

A ’yeh toh chalta hai’ attitude seems to be a defining feature of the attitude of many people towards harassment against women. As seen in the case below, while a woman’s marginalised locations may make her even more and especially vulnerable to violence, a women’s accolades and even the prestigious task of having brought repute to the country does not prevent her from being denied redressal as we see in the wrestlers’ protests from last year.

It was in January 18 2023, when the wrestlers first, including Olympians Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik, held a sit-in protest as they baldly alleged that the president of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) Brij Bhushan had been committing sexual harassment against the female wrestlers for years. The protest was called off after the government promised to investigate the allegations. However the wrestlers had sat down later at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar again on April 23 2023 to reassert their demands against Bhushan, a BJP MP and is reported to have the party’s backing privately. As the wrestlers started their protests again and cited the continued lack of action from authorities in April 2023 after the investigation committee reportedly gave a clean chit to the accused. The committee, which was headed by Mary Kom, seemed to disregard the allegations by the wrestlers, one of whom was a minor as well, and painted him as a ‘father figure’, who conducted his actions in ‘innocence’ and were ‘misconstrued’ by the wrestlers. The committee also seemed to put the burden of proof on the victims and demanded they furnish video and audio proof of the incidents, according to a report by Sabrang India.

The protests continued and finally the Delhi Police registered a case against him under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act on April 29, 2023 and other related statutes, accusing him of sexual harassment against numerous female wrestlers, including minors. The FIR did not come easy, it was only after the protesting wrestler’s lawyers approached the Supreme Court that they were finally able to file an FIR in April 2023. However, after the case was filed against him, brazenly Brij Bhushan alleged that the POCSO Act was misused against him. He further stated that he was going to pressurise the government into revising the Act.

On May 3, 2023, the wrestlers, continuing their peaceful protest, were violently disrupted by the police at midnight as they sought to march in protest to the parliament. They were manhandled, dragged, and pushed by the police officers; tents the protestors had set up were removed as well. The Delhi police even registered an FIR against the protestors under sections 147, 149, 186, 188, 323, 353 of the PDP Act. Several of the protestors received head injuries at this point. There were also reports of drunk police officials manhandling the wrestlers. Later, the protestors, including Vinita Phogat, Bajrang Punia, were also booked for rioting and obstruction.

Through this protest, the wrestlers also approached the government (please be specific-courts, government, police are all authorities!) to address their complaints. They even had a meeting with the Home Minister, Amit Shah, at his residence on June 7, 2023 but nothing reportedly transpired. Following which, they held a meeting with another union minister, Anurag Thakur, but that too brought no hope to the horizon. One of the wrestlers, Sakshi Malik, stated during these negotiations, that they will not agree to anything that the government offers and asserted that their objective for the protests was that quick action was taken against Brij Bhushan, and until then their protests would continue.

Following the second round of discussions between the government and the protesting wrestlers, it was reported that the government was open to accept the majority of their demands. However, one demand continued to be a bone of contention that the government did not seem keen to accept: it was the arrest and punitive measures against Brij Bhushan. This appears clearly an attempt to protect men in power within institutions of power. In fact, multiple media reports clearly suggest that the government was aware of serious allegations of sexual harassment against Bhushan for over two years, since 2021. The wrestlers stated that they had reportedly met and informed PM Modi of the case in 2021 and he had reportedly assured them that their serious concerns would be addressed.

In an anti-climax, December 2023 saw Sanjay Singh was elected as the Wrestling Federation of India’s next president on Thursday. Singh was known as a trusted associate of Brij Bhushan won the votes in the postponed elections which many said meant that Bhushan would have undue and indirect influence on the WFI.

As a symbol of protest at the news, Sakshi Malik declared her retirement from wrestling, Bajrang Punia went on to return his Padma Shri and Vinesh Phogat, the third prominent wrestler involved in protests now announced her decision to give back both the Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award. Although Singh’s presidency and the governing body was suspended by the centre after his election, Brij Bhushan continues to be out on bail after he was granted bail by a Delhi Court even as the case against him continues. The severity of his crimes continues to be reportedly high.

In September, 2023 the Delhi police in the court also stated that he ‘harassed the wrestlers’ at ‘every opportunity’ that he got. However, the wrestlers had filed a petition in the High Court urging the court to declare the elections held for the WFI governing body as null and illegal. Despite the accusations of being ‘anti-national’, the brutal and recurrent clampdowns by the police of the protest, intimidation tactics of the powerful who seem to be shielding the perpetrators, the wrestlers continue to stand strong and fight by legal means.

Long road to freedom

Today, the movement which was wrought by Bhanwari Devi’s struggle for justice brought forth an institute that is implemented nationwide to adopt measures preventing and addressing sexual harassment at workplaces. In 1992, after trying to put off a child marriage of a nine-month-old in Rajasthan, she faced a brutal attack by the higher caste panchayat members. Bhanwari Devi’s fight for justice sparked a nationwide women’s movement, eventually leading to the formulation of guidelines. Today, her story stands as a symbol of resilience against gender-based violence and also exposes the bitter and horrifying role caste hierarchy plays in subjugating lower caste women in the country.

Related: 

From deathly silence to violence: The journey of wrestlers struggling for justice

Attempt to Drown out Wrestlers’ Protest with Song and Dance About ‘Temple of Democracy’

Battling the Indian sports industry: the cries for justice by women

Farmers announce nationwide agitation in support of #WomenChampionWrestlers

WFI leadership accused of sexual harassment by Indian women wrestlers, absence of redressal mechanisms the focus

National women’s organisation sends joint letter to the NCW condemning their inaction over sexual violence complaint 

The post Women’s protests against sexual violence continue as institutions bend to power appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image Courtesy: Twitter

In April 2019, they launched a campaign urging voters to vote against the “sanghi” BJP government. Announcing the campaign on their Twitter handle, Pinjra Tod said, “Over the next few weeks, we will be campaigning with songs and pamphlets in colleges and universities, buses and trains, streets and factories, urging people to vote against the BJP.”

The collective highlighted the failures of the Modi government, beginning with their attacks against the minorities. “This sanghi government has been responsible for intensifying violence against women, dalits, muslims and adivasis propagating an atmosphere of hatred and fear.” They added that “[the Modi government] has produced unprecedented rates of unemployment, has only colluded with Adanis and Ambanis to further exploit the working poor of this country.” The central government’s systematic dismantling of the “public education and state welfare provisions” was also called out by the collective.

The BJP-led government “has concertedly worked towards dismantling democratic institutions, has violated the fundamental ethos of our constitution and sought to silence every voice speaking out against this draconian regime,” says Pinjra Tod.

Urging their allies to join them, they chanted, “Sanghiyo ki yeh sarkar, nahi chalegi abki baar! Hindu rashtra ko todenge, itihas ki dhara modenge!”

Kanika Katyal of the Indian Cultural Forum spoke to a member of Pinjra Tod about this campaign.

Kanika Katyal: What is the relevance of this campaign? Why does the campaigning target the Modi government in particular and not the state machinery in general?
Pinjra Tod: Pinjra Tod has always questioned the state machinery. Since the beginning of our collective, we have been protesting against a patriarchal surveillance model that is offered as the solution to any and all concerns of women’s safety. All our campaigns have been advocated from that position. In the same spirit, this campaign too questions the logic of state violence and its orchestration against specific communities.

However, in Modi’s tenure, we have witnessed the government’s overt Hindutva project and a politics of hate. We strongly feel that it is important to single out this government which has given teeth to polarising sentiments in this country. There is no doubt, that hate mongering has been done before and polarising sentiments have existed amongst the masses too, but through this campaign we aim to warn the future governments that weaponising these sentiments for political mileage, instead of finding ways to put them down, is not going to win them electoral victory.

KK: The Pinjra Tod has been resisting regressive institutional rules and practices for a long time. Are there still norms that though misogynistic are still not considered “violence”? What is the way ahead for the movement? 
PT: Certain practices are so entrenched into the system and every day routine that they are not even recognised as violence. Keeping them under wraps works in favour of the administration since it ensures that the oppressive sections of the system remain immune from accountability, or any kind of questioning.

Students are increasingly becoming aware of these invisible forms of violence and seeing them as a gross violation of their basic rights. So, a democratic students’ movement which consolidates all registers of resistances overhauling these systems of violence is the only way ahead, since clearly, the mere existence of legal protection hasn’t done much. 

KK: What is the kind of government you want to see in 2019?
PT: We want a government that furthers the cause of substantive democracy in both social and economic spheres.

Since its inception, Pinjra Tod has exhibited an exemplary model of the strength of the collective that has brought down even the stalwarts of authority. Extending their activism to issues of electoral politics in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections speaks volumes about not just the commitment of the collective to informed citizenship but also the importance of student politics in a democracy.
 

The post Pinjra Tod’s Campaign against the Modi govt: Informed Citizenship and Student Politics appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
Jaipur: In the first meeting of the year, gender rights activists in Rajasthan have planned to address several issues plaguing the women of the state. They addressed several problems that needed the government’s immediate attention.
 
In a meeting held on January 3 with all organisations working towards gender justice, they decided to speak to state stakeholders and the CM and discuss women’s safety, Saroj honour killing, planning the OBR program, building working women’s hostels, couple’s shelter home, old age home, helplines, crisis centre, shelter home for destitute women and more.
 
The groups decided to meet CM Ashok Gehlot, Women and Children Development minister Mamta Bhupesh, Director General of Police, Kapil Garg and discuss their issues and provide solutions. They promised that if no police action was taken in the Saroj honour killing matter, a protest would be organised by the civil rights groups on January 9, 2019.
 
They also discussed the draft prepared by Azad Foundation for the organisation of One Billion Rising program.
 
Dr. Pawan Surana, Dr. Asha Kaushish, Dr. Malti Gupta, Dr. Lad Kumari Jain, Dr. Renuka Pamecha, Kavita Shrivastav, Komal Srivastava, Nisha Siddhu, Kusum Saiwal, Bharat, Shubhangi, Mukesh, Madhav, Naveen Narayan, Hemant and more were present for this meeting.
 
They have decided to write letters to the relevant department heads about the issues they are facing and will finalise the statement of purpose by January 7.
 
They decided in the meeting that a list of all organisations working in 40 police district centres will be made. Groups that conduct themselves according to the constitution and without religious bias will be selected and encouraged. Groups like Matru Seva Shakti Sansthan that are RSS agencies should be ousted.
 
Besides increasing the salaries for counsellors, they discussed that one-stop crisis centres and medical aid need to be strengthened. Besides creating stronger helpline networks and they also suggested that a shelter home for destitute women should be built. Besides an old age home in every district, they decided that a shelter home or short stay home for couples should be instituted immediately along with a family counselling centre.
 
They also said that there were no working women hostels in the state and there was an urgent need for the same.
 
They reinstated their demand for local and district level sexual harassment cells and execution of LCC and ICC at all levels in government and private organisations.
 
They have promised a protest on January 9 if no action is taken by the police in the Saroj honour killing matter.
 
A discussion will be held for the One Billion Rising program being organised under the aegis of Azad foundation on February 11 and 12. Girl students from schools and colleges will be called to discuss topics like Women and Transportation and Save Constitution, Save the Country. 

The post Rajasthan’s civil activists formulate plans to address gender justice appeared first on SabrangIndia.

General Debate, Item 3, Promotion and Protection of All Human Rights, Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Including the Right to Development

Delivered by Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor New Age Islam,
On behalf of Asian-Eurasian Human Rights Forum
 
Mr. President,
A War on Terror has been raging for 17 years now but we are no closer to defeating Islamist terror. Jihadism continues to attract Muslim youth. This is because the world has not paid enough attention to the ideology of Islamism and Jihadism.

Mainstream Muslims have considered Islam a spiritual path to salvation, one of the many. Islam aims at reforming society for a peaceful, harmonious, pluralist existence. However, due to certain historical factors, the theology and jurisprudence of Islam that evolved in the 8th and 9th centuries (CE), present Islam as a political, totalitarian ideology of supremacism, xenophobia, intolerance and gender discrimination. It is this theology of violence, exclusivism and world-domination that is taught in madrasas and sustains Islamism. But despite the Islamist violence against peaceful Muslims and non-Muslims alike, the community is still not focussed on the need for evolving a counternarrative of Islam.

 It is imperative that Muslim countries that have signed the UN Charter look into the issue urgently and work towards developing a new theology of peace, pluralism and gender justice. While several countries like Morocco and now Saudi Arabia appear to be moving in this direction, the one country that has made a solid contribution is Turkey. In a decade-long exercise 100 Turkish scholars have managed to limit the number of authentic ahadith to just 1600, out of over 10,000, and provide each hadith with context and suitable interpretation. This book of authentic Hadith has been provided to all mosques in Turkey but I hope it is made available to the global Muslim community in their own languages as soon as possible.

The present theology is simply not compatible with the requirements of living in complex, plural societies of the 21st century. Allama Iqbal, a poet-philosopher of the South Asian sub-continent had called for the reconstruction of religious thought in Islam almost a hundred years ago. Let us at least start working on it now.

But first, it’s important for us to understand what has led to the present state of affairs. Why have the Muslims ulema (religious scholars) become so tolerant, if not actually supportive, of the militant Jihadis in our midst, despite the horrendous toll, in which tens of thousands of Muslims have themselves been killed, not to speak of events like 9/11, and repeated terrorist violence in a number of cities in Europe and North America.

The so-called Islamic state which is known for broadcasting its brutalities in chilling detail has been ousted from its control of territories in Iraq and Syria, but its ideology appears to be gaining ground in Africa and South Asia. Al-Qaeda may be down but is not out; it continues to exert ideological influence on sections of Muslim youth. The Taliban which harboured al-Qaeda in Afghanistan are resurgent and the world community appears to be gradually coming round to the view that they should be allowed to share power in the Kabul administration from which they were ousted soon after 9/11 in 2001.

Islamist terrorist organisations like Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammad in Pakistan, Boko Haram and Al-Shabab in Africa and Jemaah Islamiyah in Indonesia, indeed all across the world, are continuing to gain strength.

Mr. President,
While the world community may have gotten involved in issues related to Islamist extremism since 9/11, this is essentially a war of ideas within Islam which has been going on for centuries. Both God and His Prophet wanted Muslims to be a moderate, justly balanced community. An ummat-e-wasta, Holy Quran 2:143, said. Numerous verses in the Quran and narrations of Hadith, exhorted Muslims never to take to extremes, not even in matters of fulfilling religious obligations like prayers and fasting. The Prophet actually expressed his anger specifically against a group of people who wanted to pray all day and night, fast continuously for weeks, abstain from marriage, give up eating meat in order to control their lust and to renounce sleeping in beds, etc.

And yet, not long after the demise of the Prophet in 632 (CE), extremists started emerging and taking it upon themselves to decide who is a Muslim and who a Murtad (apostate), Mushrik (polytheist) or kafir (infidel) and also taking it upon themselves to punish and kill people for perceived apostasy or blasphemy. The first group to do so were called the Khwarij (the excluded). They killed thousands of Muslims including Hazrat Ali (RA), the fourth rightly guided caliph. Today our religious books, belonging to all sects in Islam, give scores of grounds on which a Muslim can be declared an apostate (Murtad), Mushrik (polytheist), or infidel (Kafir) and punished with death.

These theological views empower even individual Muslims to start delivering justice to Muslims who, they think, have committed acts of apostasy or blasphemy. The divine justice that was to be delivered by God on the Day of Judgement is dispensed here by individuals who have been brainwashed with extreme ideas of the scope and authority of divine commands like Amr bil Maroof wa Nahi ‘anil Munkar (Enjoining good and forbidding wrong).

Quran, Hadith, and classical Fiqh (jurisprudence) all agree that while there is no concept of an Islamic state in Islam, only the rulers of a legitimate Muslim state can take decisions for perpetrating any kind of violence, either in a war against another state or against individuals in order to impart justice. In classical fiqh (jurisprudence) no individual or group is empowered to take any violent action on its own. But today, violence in various forms is tolerated by the community in the name of Islam. A terrorist has only to quote something from scriptures in justification, without even a reference to context, and his vile acts are forgiven. After all, Osama bin Laden never faced a fatwa of apostasy or blasphemy, while religious reformers like the famous educationist Sir Syed Ahmad (1817—1898) of India were issued scores of fatwas of apostasy by Indian Deobandi ulema as well as the Mutawalli of Khana Ka’aba in Makkah. Indeed, dissenters and reformers in various parts of the Muslim world continue to be killed by individuals and groups. So-called Islamic State chief Khalifa Baghdadi’s statement that “Islam was never a religion of peace, not even for a day,” was greeted with complete and resounding silence from Muslim ulema around the world.

Mr. President,
This apathy to growing Islamist extremism is so great that even some highly educated Muslims ask: “What if 30,000 Muslims from 86 countries joined the Islamic State in just one year? What is their percentage in a community of 1.7 billion people? How can you cite this miniscule percentage as evidence of growing extremism?”  One doesn’t know how to respond to such “intellectuals.” The fact is that even if one Muslim thinks that going to a mosque in the form of a human bomb and blowing oneself up to kill fellow Muslims during prayers will bring one divine reward, the community should have been wondering what is it in our religion that lends itself to such dastardly crimes in the hope for reaching Heaven. Radicalisation has grown exponentially, but even after thousands of terrorist crimes having been perpetrated, one or two being reported practically everyday from some part of the world, we remain unconcerned.

Indeed, the man who killed Governor Salman Taseer of Pakistani state of Punjab for showing kindness to a Christian lady accused of blasphemy, is glorified as a saint. After his judicial execution, the Sufism-oriented Barailvis of Pakistan have built a shrine in his name and hundreds of thousands visit it, seeking this vile murderer’s intercession with God for ending their woes in this life and beyond.

What is the source of this glorification of crimes committed in the name of religion? What lies behind this indifference, this unthinking, unquestioning acceptance of any crime that is perpetrated in the name of Islam? It seems Muslims actually stopped thinking and questioning with the defeat of Mutazillah, the rationalists, in the middle of ninth century (CE), i.e., a little over two centuries after the demise of Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him). They were told by the ulema to close the doors of Ijtihad, the Islamic principle of creative rethinking and they did. Ijtihad had been used from the time of Hazrat Umar (RA) the second rightly guided caliph who assumed office merely two years after the death of the Prophet (peace be upon him).

Mr. President,
Even after the closure of doors, ijtihad has continued to be used by individuals but without sanction from the larger community. It’s only when ulema themselves accept some innovation that it becomes acceptable to the community. Take for instance, the use of photos for a passport to go to Hajj, loud speakers or radio to recite Quran or that of internet for purposes of Dawah (inviting others to the religion of Islam). These have become acceptable to our religious divines after long debates. So, it would appear some measure of rationality does dawn upon our ulema after long, excruciating debates. It seems the time it takes for their minds to get illuminated is also getting shorter. It took ulema of Khilafat-e-Osmania (Ottoman Caliphate) almost four centuries to give religious sanction to the import of printing presses from Europe, but only a few decades to accept passport-size photographs, loud speakers, radio, television and internet.

It is not difficult to see why the world of Islam is mired in deep darkness of ignorance while the world is making progress by leaps and bounds. Syrian poet Ali Ahmad Said Adonis (b. 1930) called it “a phase of extinction, in the sense that we have no creative presence in the world.” Tunisian thinker Abdelwahab Meddeb (1946 –2014) prophesied “Arab (civilisation), constrained by the framework of Islamic faith, will join the great dead civilisations.” What constraints of Islamic faith is Meddeb talking about? Can you imagine Khilafat-e-Osmania (1517–1924), the rulers of one-third of humanity for centuries, not importing a printing press, not even to propagate holy scriptures, because religious scholars thought all new inventions were works of the Shaitan (Satan). Probably, our religious scholars thought that God had lost His creativity after revealing the religion of Islam and now only Devil could invent new things. In fact, in the view of our ulema even Quran is not created by God but is uncreated and co-eternal with Him, lying in the divine vaults for aeons; He merely revealed a pre-existing Quran to humanity through Prophet Mohammad in the seventh century (C. E).

It was largely on the question of createdness or uncreatedness of Quran (khalq al-Quran) that a major conflict took place among the ulema of 8th and 9th centuries (CE), leading to the defeat of rationalist theologians. The rationalists (Motazallah) said that Quran was created by God in a particular time in history; it was a compilation of verses that came from time to time to guide the Prophet and Muslims in the evolving situation in early seventh century Arabia following the appointment of the Prophet as a messenger of God. So, many verses are contextual in nature and cannot be applied to other contexts. But the orthodox literalist ulema would not accept this. They said that Quran was unique like God and co-eternal with Him; God merely revealed the Quran and did not create its verses as the unfolding events demanded, the implication being that all verses are of eternal applicability.

Even Imam Abul Hasan al-Ash’ari, a Motazallah rationalist till the age of 40, joined the orthodox camp, though continued to use Motazallah methodology of logical arguments to support his case. But logic and reasoning were not allowed in the literalist Hanbali creed even to support their own cause. So bitter opponents of Motazallah, the Hanbalis and Ash’aris also went their own separate ways.

The uncreatedness of Quran meant that all the events that led to revelations in the Quran guiding the Prophet and his companions through the struggle and strife of the early seventh century Arabia were pre-ordained and choreographed to create opportunities for Quran’s verses to be revealed. It also meant that all those who supported the Prophet were simply meant to do so and all those who opposed the Prophet tooth and nail, including making attempts at his life, were just doing God’s bidding. How else could a pre-existing Quran be revealed?

This understanding of Islam also means that everything happening in the world, good or bad, is pre-ordained. Where is the question of reward and punishment then, the rationalist (Motazallah) ulema asked? How can God be considered Just, Kind and Merciful, if He punishes people for doing things he Himself chose for them to do? All those opposed to the use of reasoning in matters of religion, the Hanbalies, Ash’aris, Maturidis, Zahiries, Mujassimites and Muhaddithin, said God is all-powerful; He simply does things that he wills to do. In their view, imposing canons of justice and morality on God would amount to limiting his power and this cannot be done. God is not rational or just; He is the embodiment of power and will, he does what He pleases. God is the First Cause in a universe which does not have any secondary causes. No cause and effect for the orthodox ulema, only God’s will and power to do as He pleases.

In the raging theological debates in the 8th and 9th centuries (CE), both groups cited verses of Quran. The group opposed to reason also quoted numerous ahadith (believed to be sayings of the Prophet, even though collected up to three centuries after his demise). [Some verses of Quran used in this debate can be seen below in an annex attached to this oral statement.]

A century and a half after the rationalist group had been defeated and their books burnt, Imam Ghazali (1058 –1111) summed up the Islamic theology of consensus (Hanbali, Ashari, Maturidi, etc. minus Motazallah) in this way. He put the following words in the mouth of God:
 
“These to Bliss, and I care not; And these to the Fire, and I care not.”
 
It’s this supposed indifference and arbitrariness of God that Ibn-e-Rushd (1126 –1198), known as Averroes in Europe, countered in his famous book “Incoherence of the Incoherence.” This was a point-by-point refutation of Imam Ghazali’s book “Incoherence of the Philosophers.” But all of Ibn-e-Rushd’s books were burnt down in supposedly liberal Muslim Spain (1195) and he had to go into exile. Some of his books survived only because they had already been translated in European languages and gained a lot of supporters, even though his ideas were condemned by the Catholic Church in 1270 and 1277. What gained him most following in Christian Europe, despite opposition from Church, was his ‘unity of the intellect’ thesis, claiming that all humans share the same intellect. As a result, Europe got its renaissance and Muslim world pushed itself into a darkness from which it is still to emerge.
 
Mr. President,
Under this literalist theology, violence, xenophobia, intolerance and gender injustice become acceptable due to an interpretation of Quran and Hadith which deliberately avoided using reason and logic. Early 20th century radical ideologues like Hassan al-Banna, Syed Qutb, Syed Abul Ala Maududi and numerous later ideologues of Al-Qaeda, ISIS, etc have gone further than the classical jurists and come up with interpretations that even justify horrors of terrorism in the name of Muslims’ religious duty to make Islam victorious in the world. In many mosques even in the non-Muslim majority West today prayer-leaders curse non-Muslims and pray for their defeat and victory for Islam in their Friday sermons. The seventh-century war-time Arabian mindset persists.

 In classical jurisprudence Jihad or Qital ordered by the state was considered farz-e-kefaya, a communal duty which some people in the community would perform voluntarily absolving others of this duty. To defend one’s country in the event of an external attack was considered farz-e-ain, every capable individual Muslim’s religious duty. But even this was subject to the guidance and instructions and requirements of the State.  But modern ideologues have made even offensive Jihad (in other words terrorism) a farz-e-ain for all individual Muslims, and even done away with the need for a legitimate Muslim state to order such fighting.

Islamic scriptures and books of fiqh (jurisprudence) and aqaid (beliefs), can always be made to yield some sort of support for almost any position, even positions that are diametrically opposed to each other, as we have seen above in the debate between Motazallah and the Hanbalis and Ash’aris. And these become acceptable to a populace that has been told for a millennium that merely thinking a thought is unbelief or infidelity (al-fikr kufr).

We have seen in the above quotations from Quran cited by the Motazallah that God asks Muslims again and again to think, observe, learn and so on. Occasionally, He gets angry and asks Muslims, why won’t you think? See, for instance, the following verse from Quran: “Truly, the worst of all creatures in the sight of Allah are the deaf, the dumb, those who do not use their reason/think.” Qur’an 8:22

And here we are, a community that has accepted for a millennium that merely thinking a thought amounts to denying God’s divinity. We are where we are today largely because we have accepted our dominant theology of al-fikr kufr, leading to violence and exclusivism. Blind, unthinking adherence to the dogma (taqlid) has been our practice since the 9th century. Even the Salafi/Wahhabi who call themselves ghair muqallid (those who do not follow any school of thought) actually follow equally blindly the Hanbali jurisprudence and Ibn-e-Taimiya and Mohammad Abdul Wahhab’s theology.

Mr. President, I hope Muslims states that are signatories to the UN Charter take the issue of terrorism seriously, understand its link with our current taqlidi theology of consensus, make serious efforts to evolve a new ijtihadi theology of peace, pluralism and gender justice, and revise our madrasa text books accordingly. The new theology should be more rational, coherent and internally consistent, over which a consensus of the global Muslim community can be gradually evolved.
Thank you, Mr. President.

—-
Annex 1
Motazallah view of God’s rationality and justice and encouragement to reasoning emanate from the following and similar verses in the Holy Quran:
 
Surely the worst of beasts in God’s sight are those that are deaf and dumb and do not reason. (8:22)
Qur’an explains its verses to a “tribe, nation or community (qawm) who thinks” and chastises “those who do not use their reason” (see for instance, al-Baqara 2:164; al-Ma’idah 5:58; al-Ra’d 13:4; al-Nahl 16:12; Maryam 19: 93-95.
And He lays abomination upon those who do not reason. (10:100)
(2:164) (To guide) those who use their reason (to this Truth) there are many Signs in the structure of the heavens and the earth, in the constant alternation of night and day, in the vessels which speed across the sea carrying goods that are of profit to people, in the water which Allah sends down from the sky and thereby quickens the earth after it was dead, and disperse over it all manner of animals, and in the changing courses of the winds and the clouds pressed into service between heaven and earth.162
 “A book We have sent down to thee, blessed, that men possessed of mind may ponder its signs and so remember.” (38:29)
“That thou mayest bring forth your people from the darkness into the light … “(14:5)
 
Justice:
 
“And We sent down with them the Book and the Balance so that men might uphold justice … “(57:25)
“We have not sent thee, save as a mercy unto all beings. “(21:107)
“A Book We have sent down to thee that thou mayest bring forth mankind from the darkness into the light... “(14:1)
It is incumbent upon Allah to show you the right way. (16:9)
 —
 
Annex 2
 
Hanbali-Ashari-Maturidi view of God as omnipotent, whimsical, arbitrary, wilful, despotic, not limited by canons of justice and rationality emanate from the following and similar verses of the Holy Quran (as well as many Ahadith, specially mutawatir ahadith, considered totally authentic and akin to revelation by most Muslims). I am not quoting Hadith here but apart from Quran, it was a large number of Hadith narrations that solidified their view:
 
“Allah does what he wills.” (14:27)
(Allah is) the Doer of what He wills.7 (85:16)
“He forgiveth whom He pleaseth, He punishes whom He pleaseth.” (2: 284)
“He forgives whom He wills, and He punishes whom He wills. And to Allah belongs the dominions of the heavens and the earth and whatever is in between them and to Him is the final destination,” (5: 18)
“He punishes whom He wills and forgives whom He wills, and Allah is over all things competent.” (5: 40)
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 “In their hearts is a sickness, and God has increased that sickness …” (2:10)
“God has set a seal on their hearts and on their hearing, and on their eyes is a covering … “(2:7)
“We lay veils upon their hearts lest they understand it …”. (6:25)
“So, does God seal the hearts of the unbelievers.” (7:101)
“God is the Protector of the believers; He brings them forth from the darkness into the light. And the unbelievers –their protectors are taghut (satanic forces), that bring them forth from the light into the darkness …” (2:257)
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 “So, whosoever Allah wants to Guide, He expands his breast to Islam and whoever He wants to misguide, He makes his breast tight and constricted as though he were climbing into the sky.” (Quran 6: 125).
 Also, “If Allah so willed, he could make you all one people. But he leaves straying whom He pleases, and He guides whom He pleases and you shall certainly be called to account for all your actions.” Quran (16: 93). 

Courtesy: New Age Islam
 

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