Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum

The post Memories of Colonial Brutality: Irfan Habib on the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The post Activists slam Govt-Dalmiya deal about Red Fort Maintenance appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Safdar Hashmi | Image Courtesy: SAHMAT

On 1 January 1989, Jana Natya Manch (JANAM), while performing a street play in Jhandapur, was attacked by a crowd of armed Congress goons. In the ensuing violence, two people lost their lives — Ram Bahadur, a worker, and Safdar Hashmi, JANAM’s founder and an eminent theatre activist. As details of the attack emerged, it became clear that it was a well-orchestrated attack aimed at murdering Hashmi. JANAM went back to the same spot three days later, on 4 January, in defiance of the ruling government’s browbeating tactics, and completed their performance. The event marked a watershed moment in modern Indian political history. The incident led to widespread public outcry. Various individuals and organisations extended their support to JANAM.

JANAM performing in Jhandapur on 4 January 1989 | Image Courtesy: Scroll

SAHMAT, formed barely a month after the horrific event, was created with the vision of being a safe platform for academics, intellectuals, artists, and writers. It commemorates 1 January every year as Safdar Hashmi Memorial Day. In a parallel event, JANAM, along with Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU), also marks the occasion by organising a memorial event for Ram Bahadur and Safdar Hashmi in Jhandapur, involving street plays, songs, dances, books, and speeches.

Keeping up with their tradition, SAHMAT organised a day-long Jashn-e-Daura this year too. They also used the occasion to mark 25 years of the Babri Masjid’s demolition and its effect on the secular fabric of the country, especially in the wake of the divisive politics of the current ruling government.

As visitors walked into the Constitution Club Annexe, they were greeted with three exquisitely mounted exhibitions. “Beyond Dispute: Landscape of Dissent”, which involved photographs, paintings, and other works across various mediums, was a reinterpretation of the demolition, as one of its curators, Aban Raza, explained later. This was accompanied by an earlier exhibition by SAHMAT, ”Hum Sab Ayodhya”, which carried photographs, paintings, and texts from various sources, all documenting the long history of pluralism in Ayodhya.

The wall at the far end of the hall was covered with photographs, primarily portraits; it was part of a photo series covering the massive gathering of farmers, the three day “Mahapadav”, that took place in the capital recently.

This space was also where the opening performance of the day took place with the street play, “I Have a Problem”, by the volunteer based theatre group Bigul. The play, a satire, dealt with the rising communalism, intolerance, and the rise of right-wing Hindutva forces in the country. This was followed by JATAN Natya Kendra’s piece, a theatre group from Rohtak, Haryana, who performed four poems as plays. The poems covered a range of topics such as patriarchy and how it obstructs women’s advancement (“Pitaon Ka Chorus”), the rising violence and rousing of communal tensions for political purposes (“Tumhe Zeher Pilayein”), and the execution of those who dare to speak up against injustices (“Maare Jaayenge”).

The plays set the tone for the performances that were to follow.

JANAM (Kurukshetra) sang songs of communal harmony and solidarity. Virendra Saini’s film on Ayodhya was screened next. The filmmaker was also present, having flown to Delhi especially for the event. Ram Rahman, a photographer and one of the founding members of SAHMAT, while introducing the movie, also talked about SAHMAT’s sustained efforts at countering the communal propaganda of the right-wing groups since the demolition.

Almost immediately after the demolition, SAHMAT had called on artists from across the country to come together in solidarity, putting together a 17-hour long musical event, meant to celebrate the secular spirit of the country. They took this event, “Anhad Garje”, to different cities like Ahmedabad, Bombay, and Lucknow. It was during this time, in 1993, that they mounted the exhibition “Hum Sab Ayodhya”, which was exhibited in at least 17 cities. It was Madhukar Upadhyay, a senior journalist—incidentally, he was also one of the first to get the news about the demolition of the Babri Masjid out—who suggested that they take the show to Ayodhya. SAHMAT took the show to Ayodhya, deliberately choosing to have it on 15 August because of its significance in the Independence Movement because it is a movement that the RSS, for all their insistence on “nationalism”, cannot lay claim to. The event, “Mukt Naad”, took place on the banks of the Saryu River in Ayodhya, with over a thousand artists and intellectuals, among others, coming together in a sort of sit-in, to protest against the demolition. Among those who performed were Rajan and Sajan Mishra, Kartik Baul, Kalucharan Mahapatra, Sitara Devi, and Girija Devi. Virendra Saini, who is a noted cinematographer, filmed the entire event, later using it in his film on the history of Ayodhya and its syncretic culture.

The Pune group performing “Mei Safdar” | Image Courtesy: Newsclick

A group of former students from the Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce (BMCC) in Pune also did a reading of their play, “Mei Safdar.” The group made an interesting use of beatboxing to create sound effects to support the dialogues. Interesting, a little earlier in the day, the group had also performed “Mei Safdar” at the Jhandapur memorial event.
Two journalists also took the mic to recount their experience of reporting about the demolition from Ayodhya.

Ruchira Gupta | Image Courtesy: Newsclick

Ruchira Gupta, who was a journalist with Business Line at the time, spoke first. She reiterated that the demolition was pre-planned and intentional; it was not the result of mob violence, as is popularly believed. It became clear to her, from a conversation that she was privy to between L K Advani and Pramod Mahajan, that a team had been especially called to raze the domes of the mosque to the ground. She also spoke about the violence against journalists that the kar sevaks were indulging in at the time. For instance, Mark Tully, who worked with BBC at the time, was locked in a room by the kar sevaks. She asked Advani, who was aware of the developments, to make announcements saying that the kar sevaks restrain themselves from indulging in violence. But he did not do so.

Mahmood Mamdani speaking while releasing the calendar | Image Courtesy: Newsclick

Towards late afternoon, the SAHMAT calendar for 2018 was released by Mira Nair and Mahmood Mamdani. SAHMAT also launched three books at the event. The first was a new edition of The Republic of Reason: Words They Could Not Kill, Selected Writings of Dabholkar, Pansare, Kalburgi, and Lankesh. The previous edition did not have Gauri Lankesh’s writings. However, after Lankesh’s assassination, SAHMAT decided to include her writings as well. Ghulam Mohammad Sheikh released the book with the words, “This is what we need today. This is the need of the hour!” The other two books, introduced by Rajendra Sharma and released by the Hindi poet, Manmohan, were Doh Sarfarosh Shayar: Bismilla aur Ashfaqulla and 1947–2017: Azaadi ke Sattar Saal.

Arman Ali Reza Dehlvi at the event | Image Courtesy: Newsclick

As the day approached evening, Arman Ali Reza Dehlvi took the stage, captivating the audience with his classical singing. The event ended with a concert with Deepak Castelino (guitar), Pandit Pritam Ghosal (sarod), and Madan Gopal Singh (harmonium). The trio was later joined by Amjad Khan, playing the table, and Jasbir Jassi.

From L to R: Deepak Castelino, Madan Gopal Singh, and Pandit Pritam Ghosal | Image Courtesy: Newsclick

What made this cultural event unlike the rest in the city were its political underpinnings. All the plays, songs, performances upheld the values of tolerance, love, secularism; while also denouncing the proliferation of hate and violence among communities on the basis of religion, caste, gender. In light of the ruling government’s legacy of using divisive politics and violent communalism to win elections, and because of the national elections slated for next year, the palpable sense of urgency, felt by almost all those who were present, was not misplaced.

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum
 

The post SAHMAT’s Jashn-e-Daura: Remembering Safdar and the Babri Masjid appeared first on SabrangIndia.

SAHMAT organised an evening of performances entitled "Article 14: Stand Up for Equal Rights" at the Mavlankar Hall in Delhi on 15th September, 2016. The performers included Ginni Mahi, a 19-year old singer whose Punjabi pop songs on B.R. Ambedkar have recently stirred up the music scene; Sheetal Sathe of the Kabir Kala Manch; Sanjay Rajoura. a stand-up comedian who collaborates on an alternative comedy act called Aisi Taisi Democracy; and Sujat Ambedkar, a drummer who is also a student at Asian College of Journalism. We asked these performers about their styles and influences. Hear them sing. Hear them speak of their art forms, and their links with their involvement in larger social issues.

The post Standing up for Equal Rights appeared first on SabrangIndia.

MK Raina is a well-known theatre director, actor and filmmaker, and a founder member of SAHMAT. In this account, recounted to Teesta Setalvad in 2005,  he describes his rediscovery and re-engagement with his home in the Kashmir Valley and his determination to forego the fear and the anger so as to reclaim and preserve a precious multi-cultural heritage.

I have just returned to my home in Noida after watching a play at the National School of Drama’s national festival. It was a Kashmiri entry; a production of Waiting for Godot directed by one of my students and judged one of the six best plays at the festival. The play’s director, Arshad Mushtaq is from the Valley and the entire caste is from rural Kashmir. They come from a place called Gandarbal outside Srinagar, and most of them are Kashmir peasants.
 

This account is a glimpse of the whole story – Of what is happening there, bit by bit. It is also the story of my re-engagement with my birthplace, my home. My parents lived there right up to the tumultuous 1990s when events overtook the people and the place. I left Kashmir as a student to study in Delhi, at the NSD. I stayed on as a theatre person and director, making documentary films and working in theatre. My parents and some of my extended family still lived in Srinagar at the time.
 

It was in the summer of 1990 that my return to Kashmir began, painfully. My brother-in-law suddenly called to say that my mother had suffered a serious haemorrhage. I flew to Srinagar immediately and went straight to the hospital. Though I had been following the developments in Kashmir, it was during my drive to the hospital that the reality of what the Valley had become hit me. Things were bad, there was shooting and counter-shooting on the roads, even just outside the hospital.
 

For days the three of us siblings were stuck in the government hospital where my mother’s condition remained serious, she had sunk into a coma. No proper medical attention was possible as doctors were deserting the hospital due to the atmosphere of violence and intimidation. We were desperate to take her to Delhi but the one local doctor attending to her said that she was in too precarious a condition, she could not be moved for at least three weeks.
 

The next few days were an endless string of anxious hours of waiting. My brother, my sister and I took turns in attending to our mother, watching for the relaxation of curfews to rush home and return. We had no time for more than a few hurried words to ensure that the basics were being looked after, that my father at home was all right. There were no beds for us at the hospital. We stayed by her side, lying on the cement slab by her bed just to stretch our backs. Two weeks passed that way.
 

My father, poor man, was at home all through this period. And then, as sudden as the haemorrhage itself, my mother passed away in the hospital just as we, my brother, sister and I were making plans to take her to Delhi. I returned to hospital one evening, aur dar bhi lagta tha, it was frightening once the sun was down, expecting to sit with her when my brother said to me, "It’s all over. She has gone."
 

The next few hours were traumatic. There was no ambulance available. The few people around in the hospital and fellow patients were very good to us, very sympathetic. But the skeletal staff at the hospital was worried; the army had taken over. And we were told that we just could not take our mother home. I only remember this outburst of feeling, "Arre hamare shahar mein gaadi kaise nikalne nahin denge?!" (How can we not be allowed to take out a vehicle in our own city?)
 

That night was desperate. It was Friday, January 25, 1990. The army had taken over. All roads had been sealed. Shoot-at-sight orders were issued the next day. Then the Peerbhoys got some cars and helped us; we could never repay that debt. We didn’t even know which route the driver took, but he managed to get us home. We had to sit in the pitch-dark in our house that night with our mother’s body.
 

Come morning, we had to deal with the last rites. I do not know what had gripped me that day but I was determined to get a dignified cremation for my mother. This meant walking down deserted streets, lined with CRPF forces, eerie in their silence. I simply had to approach the authorities to request a cremation for my mother. As I walked down alone, scraps of memories from my activist past struck me, helped me. A friend and comrade, Bobby had once described how she’d survived in Poland… one of her graphic descriptions which probably saved my life that day. She told me that often when she’d needed to go out during curfew she always held her hands up above her head as she walked. I remembered what she had said and did just that. Just kept on walking with my hands up to appeal to someone to let us take my mother’s body for cremation.
 

My father was worried, he said, "It doesn’t matter. Let’s wait. We can have the funeral rites the day after…" But I was determined and very emotional about the cremation. The second person from the security forces I encountered hurled filthy abuse at me. I just kept on moving, with my hands up. All I felt was, "My mother needs and deserves a funeral and I will do anything to get that for her."
 

I remember one Jat, a Haryanvi officer who demanded to know whether I had any orders to move, to come out. I appealed to him, "Ma ki nidhi ke liye nikla hoon, agni lagaani hai Ma ko…" (We have to complete the last rites of our mother)… It made no difference. By this time I had reached a police station and a BSF commandant came out and asked me what the matter was.
 

I made the same appeal to him. As I was speaking to him I realised that we did not even know where to get the kafan (shroud) from. The commandant and another BSF officer helped us with the arrangements and got us to the Ganesh temple between the first and second bridge in Srinagar city. The temple doors were open, so we could go in and bathe my mother. My brother and I, along with two cousins and one Muslim friend who had insisted on coming with us. It was after this ritual was over that I actually looked around and saw the city. It was a chilling sight. Srinagar had been completely sealed off. It was a city I had never seen. "Yeh mera shahar nahin tha, jis galiyon mein hamne masti bawal kiya tha" (It was not the city of my birth where we had frolicked and made mischief).
 

It was through this eerie Srinagar that our procession wound its way after leaving the temple, trying to reach the cremation ground. In a city sealed off there are no ordinary people about, only uniformed army men at every step and around every corner. Every 40 feet or so, we had to lift the shroud and show our mother’s face to those who patrolled the streets. As we passed, there were loud sounds, a bomb was thrown and we heard an explosion at a spot somewhere behind us. What was happening to Kashmir?
 

Finally we made our way to the ground where my mother was then cremated. It was a Muslim who cremated her, that is the beauty of Kashmir… By the time we had arrived there I had no emotions left, I was numb.
 

Then, we did not know how to get back home. Normally, one never takes the arthi (ashes) home but that day we had to. The earthen pot containing our mother’s ashes was our passport to return home safely. I spotted the police headquarters at Batmalu. I stopped the truck we were driving and said, "Help us get home." After that it was one wireless message after another, stopping at checkpoint after checkpoint before we got home. There, my 70 odd-year-old father, my sister and two nephews were waiting anxiously. We were stuck at home for days after that. Even my mama and mausi (maternal uncle, aunt) learnt of my mother’s death only seven-eight days later.

I could never accept the fact that there was nothing for me in Kashmir. Even today I don’t have a home there. So what? Srinagar city was home! I was a Srinagar city bum, why couldn’t I go back to my city?
 

After this tragedy, we were faced with another dilemma. My father did not want to leave in such tragic circumstances, but he could not stay alone either. He talked to his neighbours at length, persons from the mohalla (neighbourhood), because we had been living there from my great grandfather’s time. There was a lot of pain in those conversations. Our dearest friends, our closest ones were helpless in the face of what was happening. Safety or comfort could not be assured. That is when my father left for Jammu. He never could go back.
 

From Jammu he came to our home in Noida. He was a fiercely independent man, as fit as a fiddle, he walked six kilometres every day. He used to be a National Conference party worker. He had his home, his dentist’s practice, his friends around the neighbourhood. My parents were very self-sufficient.
 

But once my father left Kashmir, he started suffering from hypertension. One day he told me, "I am too old." When he passed away some years later, my son Anto (Anant) remarked, "Baba did not go now. Baba had already gone." That is when I realised my son had grown up. He knew my father had never been the same after he left the Valley. Ever since 1990 our clan has been scattered. Some are in Jammu, some in East UP, others in Rajasthan, some in Pune. Our property is all gone. We had to sell it for a pittance a couple of years ago. Our children our grown now.
 

For me this period in 1990 worked as a catalyst. I could never accept the fact that there was nothing for me in Kashmir. Even today I don’t have a home there. So what? Srinagar city was home! I was a Srinagar city bum, why couldn’t I go back to my city? Soon I had the opportunity. In 1992, when I was working with Siddharth Kak on the North India section of the cultural television serial, Surabhi, we needed to shoot in Kashmir. I was the obvious choice for the unit since I knew every street in Srinagar. When our unit landed at the airport we were received by state security forces, there for our protection. The minute we arrived and security personnel joined us, I realised that we had made a mistake. I knew then that this was not the way I should have returned to my city. I went back to Delhi the very next day.
 

Then, about six years ago, I began the real journey back. Chances opened up through a PTI television series on Kashmir planned from a cultural perspective and without any propaganda. We depicted Kashmiris any and everywhere, inside and out of Kashmir.
 

When I first went back, I didn’t know where I would stay. There was Arshad (whose play is just being staged at NSD) whom I had met earlier. I had asked him to pick me up at the airport, not knowing whether he would come. He did. I still remember his smile when he greeted me! For 15 minutes, I couldn’t move… For 15 minutes my bag went round and round the conveyor belt. In those 15 minutes I made up my mind. I told myself, no security this time. I also remembered a little hotel with a kebab joint, Ruby Hotel on Lambert Lane. As I came out and Arshad greeted me I said we would stay at Ruby Hotel. "That’s it!" he said.
 

I also went to the Dastagir Sab shrine near downtown Srinagar. In days past, my mother used to give me Rs. 11 whenever I passed that shrine and she would say, "Ya Peer Dastagir, Allah theek karenge" (All will be well by the grace of Saint Dastagir and the Almighty Allah). I went there, offered Rs. 11, received sheere, you know, the round hard bits of sugar? I got five-six of those and then told Arshad that now we should start meeting people. We met writers, poets, hoteliers, businessmen and many others. I was lucky we were moving around fearlessly.
 

Then some years later I began a project filming heritage sights in Kashmir. The day my father died I had a nightmare that frightened me… All the beautiful shrines of the Valley, all my childhood images would one day just disappear. I didn’t want the Shah Hanadan shrine, its beautiful architecture, to just disappear. My mausi lived opposite Shah Hanadan. Whenever we visited her we would bow our heads low in respect to the shrine. As children we were told a story. That Shah Hanadan and our other beautiful structures were all made from one forest of wood each. Imagine if they all disappeared! I had this fear that they might go. Charar-e-Sharief had been gutted in 1995. In 1996, on one visit, I remember calling my wife Anju and telling her that I wanted to record these heritage sites so at least our children, the younger ones who had never seen Kashmir, could soak in this heritage. She was very supportive. As I began shooting, temples, mosques, dargahs, my own fear dissolved. The only condition my family insisted on was that I should phone them every evening.
 

While I was shooting, the evenings would depress me because then the shroud fell on Srinagar. Everything stopped moving. Curfew was on. The Residency on Lambert Lane used to be the hub of activity. There was a coffee-house there. It served a lousy cup of coffee but it was the cultural hub of Srinagar, the spot where all the great intellectuals of Kashmir, from the world of literature, song, theatre and poetry, met. Now not a soul could be seen as evening fell. One evening, some time in 1997-1998, I found myself in tears for there were no faces at the coffee-house to remember.
 

In Delhi, NSD and theatre was my life. Around this time, someone suggested that I do a play on Chhattisgarh. Why Chhattisgarh, I remember demanding. I said I wanted to do a play on Kashmir. This began another journey back to the Valley.
 

During my earlier stays in the Valley, shooting for films and documentaries, I had re-established contact with many old colleagues. One of them, Shafi saab had through INTACH already conceived of CHECK (Centre for Kashmiri heritage and environment). We decided on an official collaboration through an NSD workshop in Srinagar. We, Shafi Pandit and I met senior bureaucrats to solicit space for 30 people to live and have a residential theatre workshop. Finally, we were given space at the agricultural university, Sher-e-Kashmir. The registrar was wonderful; he had seen me on television and showed me a beautiful bungalow, with a forest as backdrop. An empty hostel would provide the rooms. It was just the place I wanted.
 

I advertised for participants in the local papers. I received no responses on the first day. One evening, two days later, a student from Baramullah came. Within seven days, I had students from Sopore, and Gandarbal as well. This was what they needed. Young people needed this space for expression. A residential workshop of this kind gave them a welcome release from the lives they led, or had been forced to lead.
 

The workshop was completely self-sufficient and Gandhian in principle. It was cook, clean and work. It was a very tiny place but set in lovely surroundings. A garden in an apple orchard scattered with chinar trees. The workshop lasted four full weeks. We performed theatre, saw several films on video and invited Kashmiri intellectuals for discussions at specific workshops.
 

That experience remains the foundation of what I am still trying to do in Kashmir. It was a small beginning. You know, to climb on to a horse and ride you first need the four-legged structure to get onto the horse in the first place? For that you have to build that structure. We are trying to do that so that we can begin climbing on to the horse.
 

I was 18 when I left Kashmir. When I returned in 1990 when my mother died, I was married with two children. There was much to learn about the years in between. I can only say that now, with this first workshop, the bottle has been uncorked.
 

I am not a hero. We do not need heroes. We need ordinary people who act as catalysts to re-start the normal everyday processes of living, healing and forgiving. My deepest regret about Kashmir and the state of affairs there is the utter failure of Indian civil society when there was a crisis at hand. I am active in the anti-communal movement and often felt frustrated and alienated when there was little or no attempt by radical activists to relate to the ongoing crisis in Kashmir.
 

A cultural awakening is a must for a genuine resurgence of health and vigour in Kashmir. You know the education of the Kashmiris has been ruined? They have forgone their rich heritage by dumping the Kashmiri language and have adopted a very inferior kind of Urdu. It was and is my endeavour to bring the Kashmiri component of culture to these children of the Valley. Along with the cream of Kashmiri intellectuals, we spoke of the richness of Kashmiri culture to the young. Rehman Rahi, the renowned Kashmiri poet, spoke to them on what Kashmir was before Islam; he spoke of the Buddhist influence on Kashmir, the influence of Shaivite Hinduism on the Valley. The Kashmiri Pandit scholar, Ganjoo saab, who knows the old Kashmiri script, spoke of the evolution of the language. We had Abhinav Gupta, a scholar of Sanskrit, giving his commentary on Natya Shastra. The whole impetus was to communicate to the young what you are, what have Kashmiris made of this land? They were told Kashmiri short stories, wonderful stories. If I can ever raise the resources I will make a film on one of these stories… they beat even Kafka in their craft and depth.

I am not a hero. We do not need heroes. We need ordinary people who act as catalysts to re-start the normal everyday processes of living, healing and forgiving
 

We developed performances and also put up an exhibition of our paperwork. At the end, we performed to an audience. Five years ago, after God alone knows how many years, there was a public performance at the Tagore Theatre. This whole cultural experiment with residential theatre workshops set the pace and with every workshop we found more people. Soon we were running short of space at the first location.
 

In the second year, we performed a play with new people. By the third workshop the university had run out of space, so we moved our workshop to an indoor stadium near the Passport Office (which incidentally was attacked in early 2005) and held our rehearsals there. This time, instead of directing the plays myself, I told Arshad and Hakim Javed to do so. We had a two-day festival at the end of the workshop. Today they are making their directorial debut at the NSD in Delhi!
 

There is much insularity within Jammu and Kashmir, be it in Ladakh, Jammu or the Valley. I believe this insularity needs to be addressed. One way to do this is through cultural resurgence. The work is like aachar lagaana (making pickles). You have to work at it for a long time before the end product results. Slowly you can earn trust. I know they are my own people. I have to win them back.
 

My daughter Aditi accompanied me on one of my trips back. She was studying the impact of violence on children. She insisted on moving around on her own, visiting schools, orphanages and interacting with local activists. On a visit to the Chashmeshahi Lake she witnessed the humiliation that Arshad and Javed had to suffer when they were stopped and searched by security forces. I used to insist that things were normal in my Kashmir. She turned and said to me, "How can you say things are normal? There is fear and terror." My own child opened my eyes to another dimension of the tragedy. Children.
 

The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation gave me a small grant to work with children whose lives had become a living hell. There was no education worth the name, either. As a result, we had a residential camp in Jammu in February last year. Srinagar kids were brought to Jammu camps. There were 40 kids from Srinagar and 15 from Jammu. Both groups had seen violence. They were like tense little birds; these were children who had seen trauma. They wanted to avoid contact. Many mothers volunteered at the residential camp. We spent 12 days at the camp together.
 

I had each child’s case history with me. There was anxiety and concern about the experiment. What would 12 days out of their homes mean? There would be Hindus and Muslims staying together? Would this cause more pain than healing?
 

We proved the sceptics wrong. Nothing untoward happened. If any child was upset, he or she went to one of the ‘aunties’ who were organisers as well. These aunties were also mothers. The children stayed awake late into the night, sharing experiences, whispering fears. Kids moved into one another’s rooms. They held hands, slowly. The division crumbled… As the camp came to an end they all howled for an hour because they had to leave.
 

Suddenly they had all become part of a larger family. Last year the same children attended the camp again and some new children also joined. These included migrant children. Camp mothers of migrant Pandit children came to Srinagar. We had to keep a daroga, a watchman, since we were near the lake, but it was a tremendous experience.
 

There are just so many stories. One woman, Usha took us to her home or what had once been her home. Initially, she didn’t want to go to her home near Pahalgam, she couldn’t handle it. When we visited the temple complex at Pahalgam, however, she began to get restless. As we approached her home, "Mera ghar peeche rah jayega," that’s my home, she said. Then, when she finally did go, she found her home intact, her mohalla intact. She met persons from the neighbourhood. Though she was torn when we left, I saw a different face now. Usha’s face held less fear. More confidence.
 

The year before last, I took Sanjay, a Pandit from a village, back with me. He works in film and television as a freelancer in Delhi. When we reached Srinagar, he was frightened, paranoid. Red in the face, he sensed a policewoman staring at him. She turned out to be an old classmate who came up to him, "Tu Sanjay hai na?" (You are Sanjay, right?) They were meeting after 12 or 14 years. She insisted that Sanjay go to her house and meet her husband and children.
 

He was very tense on the streets of Srinagar. Arshad and I, and the others took Sanjay to Lal Chowk and other familiar haunts. We felt that we all had something precious that we needed to fight to reclaim and preserve. As we took him around Srinagar, we reached the Cheel Bhawani temple, 20 km away, which we were also filming. As we neared the temple, he became more and more tense. The symbol of his faith in his homeland was bringing back all kinds of memories. I told Arshad to take special care of him. Inside the temple premises it was as if a chain inside him had snapped. He started sobbing like a baby. Arshad hugged him and took him to the bench. They sat there talking and talking and talking… I just thought, "Yeh Bharat milan ho raha hai" (This is meeting, Indian-style).
 

And then do you know what we did? We asked him if he wanted to do a puja and he said yes. We then went outside to the man selling earthen lamps. In Kashmir, he too is a Muslim. Despite years of violence, this Muslim was there and he had kept the tradition alive. His name was Ghulam Mohammed, a poor peasant. We asked him how many diyas he had; he had 80 or 81. We bought every single one of them, lit them all. Then we performed the aarti for Sanjay as bhajans were sung in the Cheel Bhawani temple, Sanjay, Arshad, Javed and I. Then we ate the prashad (offering), tears flowing down our cheeks. This was Sanjay’s therapy. Sanjay continues to go back to Kashmir today. He is now going back to shoot a story of an ex terrorist who used to be his classmate…
 

Who can understand this reality? Ek Kashmiri Pandit ki puja hi nahin ho sakti jab tak mitti ke bartan – joh Mussalman banata hai —woh na ho. (A Kashmiri Pandit’s prayer ceremony is impossible if the earthen vessels – made by a Muslim – aren’t there.) My father used to say Janm se marne tak Mussalman ka saath hai, from birth to death, Muslims are with us. We have to re-build a future on this rich tradition of multi-culturalism.
 

I now have 150 friends in Kashmir from the world of theatre. Twenty are in Delhi performing right now. For me, I know that my Kashmir is there.
 

Initially, when I started going back I was, for them, a strange nut. But after my experience in 1990, I was sure of two things. Fear feeds more fear and anger fuels more anger. But if you hold out your hand then the fear and anger dissolve and the healing begins. By God’s grace that has happened with me.
 

(As narrated to Teesta Setalvad).

Archived from Communalism Combat, January  2005 Year 11    No.104, Cover Story 2

The post My hometown appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Waiting for justice

“Aaj bhi ham hamare mukkam par nahi ja ke rah sakte (Even today we cannot go back to where we belong).”

– Aiyubmiya, eye-witness to the massacre where 33 persons from Sardarpura village, Mehsana were killed in 2002. The village his family had lived in for decades is no more their home.

“Jab ham bach ke nikle, aath ghante ke baad, aur laash aur laash hamare ghar ke chabootre par giri hui thi; jakar kaanpte kaanpte ham police van me baithe, toh policewale ne kaha, ‘kya itne log bach gaye hai, kya? Hamne socha sab khatm hue!’ (When we escaped with our lives after eight hours of brutal targeting, there was a row of corpses outside our house. Trembling, we got into the waiting police van when a policeman in uniform said, ‘What! So many saved! We thought all would be finished!’).”

– Zakiabehn Jaffri, wife of former parliamentarian Ahsan Jaffri.

“Mere bees saal ke bacche ko police ne nanga kar ke bithaya, peeth mod kar, goliyan mar mar kar police ne khatm kiya… Maine socha tha ki badle mein bandook uthaoon magar phir socha ke nirdosh ko maar kar kya phayda? Aaj bhi hamara case waise hee pada hai, sessions court mein. (My 20-year-old boy was made to strip. The police bent him over and then pumped bullets into him… I thought of picking up the gun in revenge but then I thought what good would killing innocents bring? My case still drags on in the sessions court).”

– Zahid Kadri, a father.

(Survivors’ Speak, meeting organised by Communalism Combat, Citizens for Justice and Peace and SAHMAT, New Delhi, April 16, 2005).

The criminal trial in six major massacres were stayed by the Supreme Court on November 21, 2003 after about 60 victims who are also eye-witnesses filed affidavits in the apex court of India detailing how the investigation into this massacre was being consciously subverted by the Gujarat police and witnesses continually threatened. Though 18 months have passed since the stay and several dates of hearing come and gone, the plea for reinvestigation and transfer is still pending before the apex court.

On May 2, 2002, Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) filed a petition through citizens of Gujarat in the Supreme Court of India requesting that the CBI, not the Gujarat police, investigate the major massacres. This was also a key recommendation made by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in its reports, March-July 2002, on the genocide. Three years later, this petition too is pending disposal before the apex court. With due respect, the three major acquittals – including the Best Bakery (in Vadodara), the Kidiad (where 61 persons were burnt alive in two tempos at Limbadiya Chowki in Sabarkantha district), and Pandharwada (where over 45 persons were massacred in two separate incidents in a village in Panchmahal district) massacre cases – may not have resulted if key recommendations made by the NHRC, which included investigation by the CBI into major carnage cases and trials by special courts, had been followed in these cases.

A detailed report, ‘Gujarat –Three Years Later’ is currently being compiled by Communalism Combat. Our preliminary investigations reveal that on a rough estimate about 61,000 persons continue to be internally displaced within the state.

Included among them are key witnesses of the major massacres, who even today cannot go back to their villages or localities simply because they have chosen to fight for justice. Many are both victims of the massacre and key eye-witnesses.

The large majority of the internally displaced were small minority groups scattered across many of Gujarat’s 18,000 villages. They have had to surrender their homes and petty landholdings in return for a life of penury-struck refugees. This is the stark and shameful reality of Gujarat, where even the political Opposition has stopped addressing issues arising out of a State-sponsored pogrom and where the perpetrators continue in seats of power and influence.

The large majority of the internally displaced have had to surrender their homes and petty landholdings in return for a life of penury-struck refugees. This is the stark and shameful reality of Gujarat, where even the political Opposition has stopped addressing issues arising out of a State-sponsored pogrom and where the perpetrators continue in seats of power and influence

Eye-witnesses who are also victims include survivors of the Gulberg massacre (February 28, 2002) where 68 persons were slaughtered including former MP Ahsan Jaffri and 10-15 girls and women subjected to brutal sexual violence; Naroda Gaon and Patiya (February 28, 2002) where over 120 persons were similarly ravaged while a complicit police and elected representatives watched and led mobs respectively; Sardarpura (March 1-3, 2002) where 33 persons were brutally killed in one incident while 14 were burnt alive in the second); and the Ode killings in Anand district (March 1-3, 2002) in which a total of 27 persons were killed. All of them continue to suffer and sacrifice for their decision to struggle for justice. Many eye-witnesses, like a key witness from Naroda Gaon and his family members, have been penalised three or four times with false criminal cases being slapped against them. The attempt is clearly to intimidate all those who stand for the struggle for justice. Recent reports highlighting attempts to target citizens and human rights defenders who support the struggle only underline the state of affairs in Gujarat today.

If there is one thing that the onerous struggle for justice has shown, it is this: For justice to be finally ensured at least in case of the major incidents of carnage let alone the hundreds of crimes that took place in Gujarat in 2002, the struggle for justice needs strong support from State agencies. But in reality, three years after the horrors in which they lost their near and dear ones, key witnesses of the major incidents of violence cannot even step into their villages or localities simply because they have chosen the path of justice.

Further, the conduct of the state of Gujarat through the ongoing Best Bakery re-trial being conducted in Mumbai (see accompanying story) is far removed from that of a prosecutor state committed to ensuring justice. Apart from the questionable role of the Gujarat state in the Best Bakery case, the sheer brazenness of its conduct can be gauged from its decision to reappoint the controversial public prosecutor in the Best Bakery case, Raghuvir Pandya, allegedly a VHP sympathiser, as Vadodara’s district government pleader. Pandya, who was indicted by the Supreme Court for acting “more as a defence counsel than a public prosecutor” in its historic verdict transferring the Best Bakery case to Maharashtra on April 12, 2003 (see Communalism Combat, April 2005), is now back as state counsel and will again plead the government’s case if any of the communal riot cases are reopened!

Clearly undeterred by the spotlight of the apex court, the Gujarat government has appointed another allegedly active BJP member, MD Pandya, as special public prosecutor in a case related to Radhanpur town of Patan district where many BJP heavyweights like Radhanpur BJP MLA Shankar Chaudhary, former president of Radhanpur municipal council Pravin Thakkar, president of Radhanpur municipal borough Prakash Kumar Thakkar and member of the district BJP medical cell Dr. Jyotindra Raval were all implicated as accused in the case.

The attitude of the Gujarat state headed by chief minister Narendra Modi who was re-elected by 51 per cent of the Gujarati electorate in December 2002, nine months after masterminding the pogrom, has been understood and absorbed nationwide. What escapes public attention is the realisation that even three years later there is absolutely no remorse or regret for what had been orchestrated in February/March-May 2002. If Modi is relatively silent today, it is only because of the legal battles in which his state is embroiled despite his best efforts.

At the ground level his brigands carry on unashamed. At Desar village of Vadodara district on April 10, 2005, as hundreds of villagers watched in the presence of BJP MP Jayaben Thakkar, local MLA Upendrasinh Gohil and VHP leaders, two Swaminarayan sadhus unveiled the bust of Vakhatsinh Ramansinh Parmar. The inscription on the marble plaque under the bust read: “This memorial is to honour Ram Sevak Vakhatsinh Ramansinh Parmar who laid down his life in the attacks in retaliation to the killing of 58 karsevaks on the Sabarmati Express in Godhra on February 27, 2002. Parmar was killed in police firing on March 1, 2002, third Friday, Vikram Samvat, 2058”. Parmar was, according to police records, part of a mob that torched Muslim properties and attacked the police when the police was trying to save properties from being torched. He was named as an accused in the case. This is the first time that a riot accused has been publicly felicitated in Gujarat albeit posthumously. The function was organised by the VHP. The local MLA and MP did not find anything wrong in erecting a memorial for a mob leader in a village where Muslims form 30 per cent of the population. “This is a fitting tribute to the youth for his sacrifices for the cause of Hindutva,” Thakkar told The Deccan Herald. Asked about the incident, minister of state for Home Amit Shah said: “One is always innocent till he is convicted.”

An apt illustration of the perversion of values within the political class in Gujarat.

Political campaign

If justice is to prevail, a necessary condition for this must be created through the dismissal of the Modi government under Article 356 of the Constitution, say constitutional experts like Shanti Bhushan.

There is legitimate apprehension among many about the use of Article 356, lest it set a precedent for the Centre to get rid of governments in Opposition-ruled states. But the Gujarat case is an exceptional one in so much as the state government has been seriously implicated by the NHRC and even the Supreme Court, in what are perhaps the most inhuman, horrendous and unconstitutional acts in the history of post-Independence India. In the past few months, courageous statements by serving police officers have echoed the outrage earlier expressed by these apex institutions and hundreds of groups and individuals. Statements by serving policemen that have been made public clearly show that orders were issued by none less than the present chief minister Narendra Modi that minorities who resist or protest be exterminated. Put together, the imposition of Article 356 in Gujarat is warranted not only on grounds of humanity and constitutional propriety, but also for the maintenance of the country’s unity, integrity and secular fabric.

Archived from Communalism Combat, June 2005 Year 11    No.108, Cover Story 1

The post Gujarat Genocide Victims appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
I am writing this historic letter to you. I am making you aware of what is happening in the country after analysing history and assessing historic truth as well as the current situation, and warning you…. I have come to make you sleepless…. The life subscription for the Parishad is Rs. 2,000. The life subscription for Vishwa Hindu Samachar is Rs. 600. Donate Rs. 15,000 (rupees fifteen thousand) for each family of those arrested. Give the traitorous Muslims a taste of patriotism by boycotting them socially and economically……Peace cannot be attained by begging: Crores of united and powerful Hindus will be able to establish peace and security in the country.

Such a stringent economic boycott will suffocate those elements and break their backs. Then it will be difficult for them to live in any corner of the country. Friends, start this boycott from today so that no Muslim will have the guts to lift his head before us and live. Have you read this newsletter? Then make 10 copies and distribute it amongst our brethren….
— A true Hindu patriot

“Yeh kaum saamne hove nahin; yeh kaum kabhi aage badhe nain; yeh poore setting ke saath hua hai kaam!”
(That this community should not be seen or heard, should never move up in life; plans were swiftly put into operation to realise this objective)

These words, spoken by Usmanbhai Malek from Por village in Gandhinagar district barely 45 minutes drive away from the epicentre of hatred in Gujarat –Ahmedabad — on March 25, 2003, seem to sum up the situation.  The cycle shop that he had run for decades, catering to Hindus and Muslims alike, was destroyed, as were the 80 homes belonging to 400 Muslims in the post-Godhra genocide on the night of February 27-28 2002. In the traumatic months that he and other refugees from this area spent at the Mandali camp, a Hindu cycle shop was swiftly installed in its place. Today the Patel dominated village has no more use for Malek’s services and he and all other Muslims who are not solely dependent on land, face crippling economic and social boycott.

This coupled with clear attempts to pressurise victim survivors into not fighting for justice, makes everyday life in Gujarat an appalling and frightening experience.

Muslim women from over 40 households who used to work as agricultural labourers are not entertained, and youth who drove transport vehicles have had their businesses taken over. Hunger and deprivation continues to hit the 400 Muslim residents of Por, with over 70 young persons out of jobs. The total strength of this Patel dominated village is 5,000, of which Muslims number 1,100. Women were also involved in milching cattle, an occupation that is today unavailable to them as they do not have access to buffaloes that were either stolen or driven away. The mosque in Por, which was systematically pulled down using a bulldozer belonging to the municipal corpration, has however been re-built. While some of the village elders such as Nathubhai Nagar are trying to break the social boycott, others  insist that for Muslims,  the quid pro quo for leading a normal life will be their withdrawal of the pending criminal case where 35 villagers have been accused of rioting and arson. With the survivors adamant on getting justice, (senior advocate Allah Rakha is appearing for the victims), the deadlock, stealthily, continues.

In Por, Kasimbhai has been unemployed for over a year, after he lost his tabela and five milch cattle in the pre-planned destruction. He incurred a loss of Rs 1.5 lakhs and is one of the rare victims who received the full Rs 50,000 promised as house compensation. Recently he has bought, on loan, two buffaloes from a relative and is attempting to eke out a living.

A similar situation prevails in many of the other villages of Gandhinagar rural district. In Adalaj, 25 homes were rebuilt and people have returned, without work however. Kunadasa and Koba have just one Muslim home each. Jametpura has 10-15 Muslim homes, and  residents of Khoraj  with 250 homes also face stringent boycott. In Khoraj, actually, the post-Godhra tension and violence was cleverly used to capture the kabrastan by force, that too, by the panchayat leader, Ganpatbhai Patel. He summoned terrified Muslims on the night of February 27-28, 2002 itself and told them directly that if they wished to live there in peace, they would have to hand over the graveyard land to the Patels because the land lies near their homes and “aakhon mein ata tha” (it offends our sight). If they did not agree it would be burnt down. Terrified, Muslims agreed and because they were given grazing land outside the village as a substitute, no case was filed.

One year after the gruesome genocide that shocked the nation, 10 of Gujarat’s 24 districts have achieved the VHP-BJP-BD aim, penned succinctly by Chinnubhai Patel in the pamphlet quoted above, which was distributed in hundreds of thousands. In most areas of Ahmedabad and Vadodara and villages of Gandhinagar, Vadodara rural, Anand, Panchmahal, Mehsana, Kheda and Dahod, insidious economic and social boycott  continues to cripple the Muslim minority that is still reeling from the effects of  last year’s brutal violence. It is only the villages and areas that have a sizeable Muslim population that has built up a steely resistance to the politics of hatred and division through the security of numbers — ghettoisation is the stark solution in post-carnage Gujarat.

Parts of hard core Ahmedabad are no better. While overt aggression and violence has subsided, and in many areas of business and enterprise a sharp cleavage may not be visible,  as Yakubbhai Shaikh of Karnavati Travels, a prosperous monopoly transport business puts it, “Dil khule nahin” (Hearts have not opened up). Despite the police having recorded a huge loss of Rs. 25 lakhs on his Hotel, there has been no compensation forthcoming except the minimal Rs 50,000. A long-time owner of the Karnavati Hotel at Vatwa GIDC, which was burnt down and has now been re-built, he painfully recalls how non-Muslims simply do not enter the premises anymore.

“My transport business is a monopoly business and I have a 16 year old relationship with factory owners so that side is okay. I still feel however, that if they had options, I would have been dumped as so many other have been.” He is hopeful however that the passage of time will heal the schism.

Divisive and corrosive sentiments in Ahmedabad run high and deep, Courts, hospitals, bastis —none seem immune. A week ago, a well-placed advocate in the Gujarat High Court (name witheld) was shocked when he could get no doctors to examine and attend to one of the 6 accused, allegedly held for a plot to kill chief minister Narendra Modi. There is scant proof of the charges levelled against the hapless accused but when one of them fell ill, doctors he contacted simply refused to see him because one, he was Muslim and two he was an accused! So much for fair trial and justice.

In another bizarre incident some months ago, a senior advocate of the Gujarat bar quietly told his junior, a Muslim, to stop attending his chambers. While no pointed reasons were given, the generally held belief among senior members of the bar is that it was the identity of the lawyer that had guided the decision.

Naroda Gaon and Patiya will be remembered for the planned and bloody decimation of over 110 innnocents, in cold blood, led by elected representatives. The changes to these mass crimes have not yet been framed. Instead of honest and fair investigations, trumped-up charges on an FIR (No. 101/2002) filed by ASI Satuji Shivaji, which did not then name the accused, has, on August 5, 2002, falsely named and led to the arrest of one Bismillah Khan Pathan and 11 others. These 12 are believed to be eye-witnesses to MLA Dr. Maya Kotdani and Gujarat VHP general secretary, Dr. Jaideep Patel’s direct participation in the violence. It is only recently that six of them  obtained bail. What is more shocking is that none of the persons who were listed in these complaints, especially the leaders of the organisations, have been arrested, no identification parade held and no action whatsoever been taken against the police officers, despite repeated allegations and complaints of police complicity.

 Several testimonies and sworn affidavits before the Shah-Nanavati Commission reveal that witnesses have identified, by name, Guddu Chhara, Suresh Chhara, Jai Bhavani Singh as accused in heinous crimes of sexual violence and rape. Yet these men roam scot-free, as do the instigators who are men and women with clout and power. Today their freedom is a daily taunt to the survivors at Naroda Gaon and Patiya, and it makes a mockery of the process of justice in this country.
 This and most of the other   Ahmedabad cases are yet to begin, and no charges have been framed by the Sessions Court so far.

Though over 110 persons were quartered and killed at Naroda Gaon and Patiya, few bodies were recovered. Before the violence, there were 825 houses at Naroda Patiya. Only 400 homes have been repaired, and in which families have returned to live. Forty-five families from here now have homes in Vatwa, while 16 homes for widows and another 25 homes were built by the Citizens Relief Services (management of Shah-e-Alam camp) around Narol-Bombay Hotel. This makes a total of 486 families. Another  140 families who  could afford it resettled elsewhere. This makes a total of 626 families within Ahmedabad. A total of 199 families from Patiya have fled. The homes are in the same state as they were after the violence erupted. Forty-five widows here receive monthly aid. But the rest of the families, who used to work as rickshaw drivers and pullers and daily wage earners are without work, on the verge of starvation. The children cannot go to school. In all, before the violence there were 445 families at Naroda Patiya, working in nearby factories. For four-six  months they lived in camps. They were replaced at work, both men and women. Today they are all unemployed because their jobs have been filled. If they get work at all, they are paid half the daily rate. This may not be called a direct boycott but it is nevertheless a fall out of the violence. Men used to be paid Rs. 100-150 a day, working in small-scale units making plastic items, while women were paid Rs. 50. Today, if and when they get work, it is at half the amount.

But it is the raw humiliation of knowing that those guilty of unspeakable humiliations and violence roam free and taunt them that makes daily life unbearable. Fatimabi, a victim survivor who lost eight family members in the massacre, has three girls of marriageable age. She used to run a flour mill. “Earlier I used to earn Rs. 400 per day, and after paying the electricity  bill used to have Rs. 350 left over. Today, there are no Muslims to give me custom and the Hindus who used to come earlier have stopped coming to my chakki. How do I survive?”

“Ham majboori mein reh rahe hai, we have to because we have homes here. Where else can we stay? We are terrified. Every 15 days or two months when there is tension, we flee our homes. Is this living?” she asks. The last time they fled was about a fortnight ago, after Haren Pandya was killed. “Yeh koi zindagi nahin hui..this is no life..my young girls, they are taunted at by the same —s who performed those acts on so many girls and women..they roam scot- free. Guddu Chhara, Suresh Chhara, Bhavani Chhara..They taunt us that ‘we will rape you.’ We want justice,” she says, “even if we remain hungry…Roti mil jati hai; lootne ke baad aadha pet se bhi aadmi ji sakyta hai.” Hame sirf insaaf chahiye.” (Food we can get; someone who has been looted of all their worldly belongings can live with hunger. But we want justice.)
 

Legal Status
Ahmedabad

• Out of 961 registeread cases, 447 cases are being consigned away as “A” or “B” final summary.
• In sector–I, out of 15 police stations, there are 496 cases registered. Out of these, 200 cases are being consigned away as “A” or “B” summary (registered complaints are wrong or accused are not available). In 293 cases, inquiry has been completed and in 3 cases inquiry is still going on.
• In the same way, in sector–II, out of 15 police stations, there are 465 cases registered. Out of these, 214 are being consigned  away as “A” or “B” summary (in 80% cases “A” summary and in rest “B” summary), in 215 cases inquiry has been completed and in 36 cases inquiry is still going on.

Gauri Beevi Mohammed Qureshi has stated in her complaint that on February 28, 2002, the police were present but did not do anything to stop the mobs. On the contrary, the police fired at the victims, and, in this firing, the husband of Ayesha Beevi one Abidbhai Pathan and Shabnam Beevi Sheikh were killed. A number of shops were looted, houses were burnt with kerosene, petrol and gas cylinders. The police were present during this entire episode and when victims approached them, the police asked them to run away elsewhere.

KK Mysorewalla PSI has been quoted in testimonies (see Gujarat genocoide 2002) as telling victims who appealed for help that, “Today your time has come. We have been told not to help. There are orders from the top.”  In an affidavit sworn before the Shah-Nanavti Commission of Inquiry, Mohammed Iqbal, a labourer residing at Naroda Patiya,  affirms that he was eye-witness to MLA Maya Kotdani, along with others whom he identified, indulging in attacks and arson. “My family and I attempted to escape to save our lives and at that time I saw Mayaben Kotdani, Bipin Singh and some members of the VHP and Bajrang Dal. They attacked and looted my house and injured my family.”

A similar refusal by the state of Gujarat to push the justice process marks the proceedings of the trial in the Gulberg society case. The ghastly massacre of former MP, Ehsan Jafri and at least 70 others at the Gulberg society, Chamanpura on February 28, 2002, shook the conscience of the nation. Two FIRs were filed by the Inspector Erda of the Meghaninagar police station. Even now, more than a year later, the trial of the above case has not  begun. The ‘charge’ is yet to be framed.  Moreover, 18 eye-witnesses to the crime, have petitioned the trial court hearing the case in a special application, and accompanied by affidavits sworn on oath, detailing the blatant attempts to subvert the investigations. Investigations were undertaken without the preliminary and necessary legal practice of recording statements of eye–witnesses.

The charge-sheets were filed by the Gujarat police in November 2002, but the charge-sheets have excluded the names of key accused named in the FIR – Ramesh Pandey, Choti, Rajesh Dayaram Jinger, Bharat, Kali, Dilip, Gabbar, Kapil Munnabhai, Bharat Kali Mansingh, Prabhudas Jain.  Witnesses petitioned the Commissioner of Police, Ahmedabad, Kaushik on November 25, 2002, pointing out this discrepancy, to no avail. This amounts to the investigating agency protecting the accused..

Eye-witnesses to the quartering, slaughter and burning alive of Mr. Jaffri have testified on oath to the fact that Police Commissioner PC Pandey visited the colony at 10.30 a.m. when the Gulberg society had been under seige by a carefully orchestrated mob of thousands since 7.30 a.m. on the fateful day of February 28, 2002. The NHRC, in its confidential report on Gujarat, has stated,“Representatives of many NGOs and some prominent citizens narrated a number of cases where they contacted the police and requested them to rescue the members of the minority community under attack from the marauding mobs but their pleas evoked no response. Shri Amar Sinh Chaudhry, former Chief Minister, Gujarat narrated to the team his futile efforts in seeking police help for Shri Ahsan Jaffery, former MP. He claimed to have personally contacted the Police Commissioner, P.C.Pandey, at 10.30 A.M. on 28 February and apprised him of the imminent danger to the life of Shri Jaffrey. The Police Commissioner assured him that police assist-ance will be dispatched rapidly. He reminded him again after receiving another frantic call from Ahsan Jaffery that no police reinforcement had reached his place and that the few policemen present were ineffective and unwilling to control the violent mob. Shri Chaudhry said that he also spoke to the CM Narendra Modi in the afternoon and found him well informed about the presence of a violent crowd outside Shri Jaffrey’s house. He also spoke to the Chief Secretary and Home Secretary between 12.30 and 2.00 P.M. Shri Jaffery was burnt alive along with his family and 39 others (total killed–50).”

Trade uionist and advocate Amrish Patel, secretary of the Gujarat Mazdoor Sabha, has recently taken up 16 cases of Muslims from Ahmedabad summarily dismissed from their workplace after 10-20 years of service on grounds of identity. He will be challenging their dismissal under section 25(1) of the Industrial Disputes Act and also on grounds of social boycott. Of the 16 victimised employees, some were small dealers, three worked as watchmen and three as clerks in small businesses. This is probably for the first time that labour laws will be used to challenge the social and economic boycott of a community.

Similarly in Vadodara, over 17 persons were dismissed from the Gujarat Electricity Board following anonymous complaints on their character being received by the authorities. All of them are Muslim.

In the Savli taluka of Vadodara rural, that has 252 villages,, Muslims live in Manjusar, Tundav*, Paladhi, Lasundhra, Gothdra*, Savli*Karchia*, Vakaner*, Ranier, Devnagar, Mokshi, Bhadarva, Desar, Pandu*Dhantej*, Vaccheshwar* (*Muslims majority). Traditionally Savli was a Congress bastion; this election brought the BJP to power. The shift has also meant a distinct shift in the atmosphere with Muslims suffering discrimination and boycott. The local police is also extremely partisan. In Bhadarva, the local Masjid pulled down with a bulldozer, was not repaired, In Sokhda, the  BJP man won seats after garnering Muslim votes in a ‘compromise’ offer for their safety therafter. Dilip (Dilavar) Dadhi, a Gharasia who had run a camp for 600 refugees until May 2002 was the chief negotiator for the Muslims.The dargah at Samliah, in Savli taluka, Vadodara remains destroyed and damaged with no repairs, one year later.

At Manjusar, 3 km from Tundva (18 km from Vadodara), also in Savli taluka, Shailesh Patel, who is the VHP president of Savli taluka unit, has his wife, Mrs. Meenabehn as the taluka panchayat member of the BJP. Shailesh’s friend, Raju Sanabhai Patel (Maya Traders), has a hooch and petrol business, and the violence was led by him. Both Shailesh and Raju had gone to Ayodhya by bus; the bus returned on March 1. Three police officials here, circle police Inspector  Katara, deputy sup. of police DN Patel (allegedly responsible for most of the atrocities against Muslims), and Tundav head constable (jamadar) Pardhi, have and continue to display a strong anti-Muslim bias. Victims stated that they sit at Maya Traders and make programmes of how “Mussalmanon ko kaisa “fit” karte hain.” (How we can fix the Muslims). The atmosphere as one drives through the villages of Vadodara rural, many of which cultivate the best quality tobacco in the country is infected by terror and suspicion.

Godhra epitomises the deep divide that prevails in the Panchmahal district of Gujarat. Villagers who returned to Pandharwada village where over 70 innocents were brutally killed, continue to eke out a minimum existence, living in terror.
The manner in which the criminal trial into the Godhra mass arson is being handled raises serious questions.  Fifty-eight Kar Savaks were burnt alive in the S 6 coach of the Sabarmati Express. That the Godhara tragedy reflected abysmal failure of State intelligence, both before and after the incident is a fact that has been stated before. The unprofessional manner in which the trial has been conducted can be judged from the proceedings. The state has arreste 71 persons who have been detained allegedly violating due process of law since they have not appeared in court since last June 2002, after their arrests.

POTA has been invoked post-facto in the Godhra case, indicating malafide intent and violating the provisions of the act itself. The Ahmedabad based government Forensic Science Laboratory report has interesting findings about the mystery of the fire, that should  warrant neutral investigations but these findings are not being taken into consideration at all.

Serum has been injected into 5 accused before questions were put to them last May 2002, in gross violations of human rights laws and international regulations.

The affidavits of six relatives, including the wife of Maulana Umerji, filed before the Supreme Court in late March 03 (in the petition filed by eminent citizens and supported by the Citizens for Justice and Peace, Mumbai urging transfer of investigations to the CBI) reveal how the due process of law has been subverted in the Godhra trial. They have appealed that in the course of the investigations fair and due process of law is not being followed, that their relatives have been wrongfully confined and illegally detained, to no avail, and therefore, the apex Court should intervene. There is a real possibility that,  in the Godhra trial, innocents will be punished and those guilty of this heinous crime will escape unpunished.
The affidavits filed by the relative of six, allegedly illegal detainees reveal:

1) The wife of Inayat Abdus Sattar Jujhara, a government servant, who was arrested for alleged involvement in the Godhra arson states that his office records show that between 11 –1 a.m on February 27, 2002 he was working at  Panan Jara Sarai Yojana, a ward of the education department of the Gujarat government. Yet, the police have stated in their statement that they have arrested him at 9 a.m.on that day when government records show to the contrary. He was wrongfully arrested and therefore his arrest was malafide.

His past record in government service has been good and he has no criminal record. Given the injustice of his arrest, she approached the Honorable trial court in an application for fair trial, yet there was no redressal.

2)The father of Ishaq Mohammad Mamdoo has also testified on oath that his son Ishaq Mohammad Mamdoo who is totally (100 per cent) blind has been wrongfully confined and named as accused in the Godhra arson. He is 24 years old and had even applied for government aid in 1997 claiming 100 per cent blindness. How could he have had any part in the crime? Due to the anguish caused to the family by the shameful detention of their visually handicapped son, his mother died out of sorrow two months ago. Their whole family has been ripped apart by the unfairness of the trial that has left them little faith in justice.

 3) The mother of Abdul Razzak, states that her son, a prominent businessman of Godhra was illegally detained for a whole year, suffering loss in personal reputation and business for alleged involvement in the arson.  She made an application to the trial court for proper investigation. Yet the court did not act. The family was kept in anguish for a whole year, her son was kept in a place they did not know, taken 156 km away to high security prisons. Shockingly, her son was also injected with serum for questioning that dulled his mind.
 

Justice Denied

Best Bakery Incident, Vadodara City
On March 1,2003 at 8.30 p.m. a mob of 200-300 people looted the Best Bakery,  set fire tao the room. A family of 5 people was burnt alive, 3 workers were hacked to death, 16 people were attacked and 4 workers injured. The incident took place after the staff from the local police Panigate police station drove by. Zahira, a victim and an eye-witness, was made to give her statement 3 times, and sign it, but the statement was not read out to her nor was she allowed to read it. Police did not come for over an hour even after being repeatedly called. The NHRC has recommended that this case requires to be investigated by CBI. The chargesheet has been filed but the trial is yet to begin.

Abasana Trial
The trial is on and victims have approached the Supreme Court for cancellation of bail after the Gujarat High Court granted bail to 29 of the 33 accused.
The criminal  trials at Ghodasar, Kheda, Kalol and Sardarpur Mehsana are underway.            

 4)  The wife and brother of of Abdur Rehman Yusuf Dhantiya have also stated that he has been illegally detained in connection with the Godhra arson when he was not even in Godhra at the time. He was in Bhudaaya, 7 kilometres away at a flour mill at the GIDC there. The person falsely accused was, it is their contention, helping to put out the fire.  Yet a man who was helping the police with water to douse the fire has been illegally detained and this shows malafide intent of the authorities. Due to this, they even approached the trial court urging for proper investigation.

5)  The allegedly illegal detention of Maulana Umerji is also a case in point. The accused, a religious preacher with a strong social conscience, has been illegally detained since February 6, 2003 and denied basic rights as a prisoner. His health, which is very frail, is faulty, he has been refused even a walking stick.

His record, during the past communal disturbances of Godhra,  in 1965, 1969, 1980 and 1989, when he helped the authorities to maintain peace by being active part of a peace committee are well known. Local DMs, DSPs and government officials have appreciated his role at times of conflict.

Mehsana is another district still reeling under the politics of the sangh parivar. While Muslims of Dasaj town have managed to carve out a secure corner for themselves —Dasaj proved a challenge to the BJP-VHP onslaught from over 45 villages last year when they held out against the onslaught led by MLA Naran Laloo Patel and others and moreover also gave shelter to refugees from nearby villages.

Says, advocate Yunusbhai Khan Faridkhan Pathan “ Position theek hai” The position is alright as far as survival goes. People living in Dasaj, about  1000-1200 of the total population of 5,500 have been left alone because we had put up a resistance…But the economic boycott is strong. They don’t let us buy from their shops; kheto mein kaam nahin karne dete. (They don’t let us work in their farms) Kaam aur roji roti cheen liya hai.(They have snatched away our daily earning)  As many as 50-60 labourers are jobless.Whatever we have is land, which is badly affected by drought this year.”

Residents in and around Dasaj  cannot even step into Patel areas of Dasaj town, nor work in their fields. The worst impact is the denial of access to shops with basic commodities —electric/cement/milk/vegetables/medical. The shops are all located on ‘their’ (Patel) side and they simply do not let the Muslim residents use them.

Says Pathan, “Even for medicines we have to go 16 km away to a town like like Sidhpur where the local situation is better. In Dasaj the boycott is very strong. The medical shop belongs to a Prajapati  and we are not allowed to go there. Dr. Narottambhai Patel, refuses to even treat us whereas one other Patel, Dr. Laksmanbhai Patel does come to our areas to give us treatment; Narottambhai follows the pratibandh (boycott).” As a result of this sustained and successful denial of access to basic amenities, Muslims have now set up their own rented vegetable outlet and shop for groceries.  They have also made arrangements for a Muslim khalifa (barber) since the Hindu one does not or cannot meet their requirements and a Muslim dhobi too, has been brought to Dasaj for its residents.

In the land of Gandhi, his bitter detractors have managed to sow deep distrust and division.

Schooling remains a critical problem for the residents of Dasaj because, again, the school for Stds IV-X, to which about 70 Muslim children need to go, is located in a Patel mohalla. The school for the little ones is regarded as relatively safe as it is at Char Rasta, Indira Nagar, a mixed mohalla, which is not such a frightening prospect.

Elderly residents from Dasaj including chacha Hatikhan Hayat Khan Pathan ex-sarpanch of the town, who had testified before a national audience in April last year and even met the then President, KR Narayanan, is bitter and sad. “Bahishkar chaloo hai… Dil toot gaye; Allah ke madat se Dasaj bach gaya. (The boycott is on. Hearts have been broken. Due to the will of god, Dasaj was saved.)The main aim was to destroy the Muslims of Dasaj who, living in 150 homes, faced an attack of huge mobs from 45 villages. “They did not succeed but we still suffer.”

Of the other towns in Mehsana district, Siddhpur and Mehsana itself are  manageable. Businesses on the highway, too, continue.

But Unjha, a huge agricultural market, has been purged of Muslims.There was unmentionable violence and marginalisation; so no one returned. The land on which the Mosque and Madrassa stood—that were destroyed by a bulldozer—is today still in the possession of the collector. Earlier, 100 persons from Dasaj would go to earn their living at Unjha, in different businesses. “This is out of the question now…who knows whether we will come back?”

Kadih is another economic centre where some business and earnings for the minority have been possible.  The former MLA and minister Niteen Patel who led the violence lost in the elections and has been replaced by a candidate from the Thakore community who has helped to restore a semblance of normalcy.

In Umta gaon, in Mehsana, where KPS Gill himself had started a rehabilitation programme, though 225 homes were built, a bitter boycott against the minorities continues. “Intermingling has stopped,” says one resident afraid of revealing his identity. “Earlier businesses ran on the barter principle; sharing of resources. Now none of that is possible. Even our barbers are separate. Bahut gandha hua.”(It is a terrible development).

No Muslims reside in Maktoopur anymore;  25 homes were destroyed and former residents are now settled in Sidhpur and Mehsana. Here, too, the Mosque was destroyed and the private land on which they stood is today being held by the collector.

Similarly, there are no Muslims left in Pilodra village though the Mosque still stands here. In  Kuwasna, Muslim residents have been unable to return because the local sarpanch is trying to bullying them into assuring the other villagers that they will return but not worship audibly. “Azaan nahin dena” (Do not give the call to prayer.)

Visnagar in Mehsana saw two major carnages were over 20 people were slaughtered brutally. None have returned to live in the Dipla Darwaza area, which is in the mdst of the Patel locality, and where severe betrayal was experienced as residents had been assured of their safety by their neighbours before they were attacked. In Pathan mohalla 13/14 families have gone back to live.

Similarly, in Sardarpur, where there was another brutal carnage,  about one and a half months back some Muslims have returned. They have no desire to stay there however. “It is a matter of months or a year. We are simply waiting for a decent price for our land and we will sell. There can be no question of living there, with those memories any more.”

Says Shahabuddin Nizamuddin Kazi, an employee of the State Transport corporation, who took three months leave to run a camp for 1,000 destitute refugees, speaks of the terrible situation at Chansama in Mehsana where there used to be 110 Muslim homes. “There is not a trace of them now. They have fled to Patan, 17 kilometres away. The land lies without owners, it is a matter of time. The homes, devastated, stand as painful relics. The entire topography of many of our villages has changed, been wiped out in front of our eyes.”

Amen.           

Archived from Communalism Combat, April 2003 Year 9  No. 86, Cover Story 1

The post Gujarat – One year later appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The new NCERT syllabus is a brazen reflection of the sectarian agenda of the BJP-led NDA regime and has been announced despite widespread protests against the moves to doctor education in social studies and history

Undeterred by the countrywide criticism on the New Curricuilum Framework for Value Education, a criticism that has pointed out over a whole year of heated debate – that education ministers of states were not consulted before the syllabus was framed (CC, Jan01), that CABE concurrence was not obtained, that Parliament was bypassed – the NCERT went ahead and published it’s new syllabus in late January 02.

Two months earlier, in November 01, textbooks authored by eminent historians, Romila Thapar, R.S. Sharma and Satish Chandra had been subject to the saffron sledgehammer and politically inconvenient paragraphs were summarily deleted.

SAHMAT, one of the organisations that has been at the forefront of the mobilisation against these developments challenged the new syllabus through written analyses proferred by eminent historian Irfan Habib.

The yearlong and countrywide protests have drawn in a wide section of Indian academia and social activists. Within Parliament, a handful of thinking Parliamentarians had launched the cross-party Parliamentary Forum of Education and Culture (see CC, May 01). Khoj –education for a Plural India and Communalism Combat had intitiated a debate on the New Curricular Framework as early as January 01, through a letter addressed by independent Member of Parliament, Shabana Azmi. Azmi’s letter to the chief ministers and education ministers of all states accompanied by a detailed note that explained the implications of the new thrust in education policy, urged them to call for an Education Minister’s Conference.

The movement against these developments received a fillip when SAHMAT organised a national convention against the communalisation of education, drawing in nine education ministers to oppose these developments in the beginning of August 01.

Regardless of the depths of these protests, the NCERT, under hard-liner, union HRD minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, has carried on with the proposal to limit and doctor the vision that drives Indian education especially in the area of social studies. New NCERT textbooks written by persons whose names the NCERT refuses to divulge are also expected out in March this year.

A detailed note prepared by eminent historians was released by SAHMAT in New Delhi on January 31, 02. Stung by the opposition, NCERT’s director J.S. Rajput resorted to mudslinging, questioning the ‘willful misrepresentation’ by SAHMAT, to which the organisation has promptly replied. Meanwhile, in a seemingly unrelated development, SAHMAT was evicted from its small premises at VP Bhavan, a space that it has occupied for over a dozen years.

According to the analysis collated by SAHMAT, there are some Specific Errors, Omissions, Comments on the Content Outline in History-Related ‘Themes’ . These include:

Class VI: People and Society in the Ancient period

• Vedic culture has been made a part of the Bronze Age along with Harappan and Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Chinese civilisations.
• Iron Age’s relevance only to the Megalithic culture of Deccan and South India
• No reference to the early South Indian Kingdoms (Cheras, Cholas,Pandyas) and, more importantly, even to the Satavahanas and Indo-Greeks, Sakas, Kushans, Parthians, etc and their contribution to developments during the period 200 BC–AD 300 supposedly covered by the words ‘Central Asians’.
• ‘Contributions of India to world civilization’ until before 6th Century BC.
• Projects activities–Konarak, Lingaraja temple, Nataraja at Chidambaram-nothing to do with the period covered in this course.

Class VII : People and Society in the Medieval Period

• Cholas and Delhi Sultanate along with some others as small kingdoms-Pallavas whose power ended in the 9th century are here as well as in class VI-Turkish rule and Delhi Sultanate as different entities.-The idea of ‘resistance’ introduced here; No art, culture, etc. for this period ( up to about early 16th century)
• Mughal empire and rise of small states and assertion of independence clubbed together– ‘Assertion of independence’ by Sikhs, Marathas and Rajputs

Class VIII: People and Society in the Modern period

• World scenario in the Modern period ends with European conquest of Asia and Africa while Indian developments conclude with independence.
• American and French Revolutions and German and Italian unification placed after Indian independence.
• Because the world scenario ends with the 19th century, Russian Revolution, the two world wars, etc. are not a part of ‘People and society in the Modern Period’.
• The Moderates and Extremists referred as Petitioners and Radicals, ‘division of Bengal’ but no reference to anti-partition movement; 1942 movement-the only mass movement referred to.

Class IX : India in the Twentieth century world

• The 20th Century world presented here covering the period from colonialism to Peace Treaties ( after World War I),
• ‘Towards to New World’ comprising, among others, ‘Development of fascism and nazism and ‘World After 1945’ in which ‘use of Atom Bomb’ comes after UN Charter and Cold War.
• ‘India in the Twentieth Century world’ begins, besides some other topics, with the uprising of 1857.

ClassX : The only history-related topic is ‘ Heritage: Natural and Cultural’.

Classes XI: XII : ( History as an ElectiveSubject)

Semester I : Ancient India

• Unit 1: The relevance of sub-topics relating to tradition and traditional history here will depend on how they are treated in the textbooks. The notion of ‘Eternal India’ introduced here may be unhistorical obfuscation.
• Unit 3: On the Harappan civilization refers to its ‘Vedic Connection’ which may be unhistorical.
• Unit 4: is entitled Vedic Culture. The period which this unit is supposed to cover is not clearly stated though the period third to first Millenium BC is mentioned with reference to ‘Mathematics and Science’. Does the Vedic period begin in the third millenium BC The way some sub-topics are worded e.g. ‘Spiritual and religious traditions of the Vedic India’, ‘India as described in Vedic literature’, ‘The antiquity of Vedas and Vedic people’ and various others is meant to project a mythical view. Is the germination high philosophy (unit 6) post-Vedic and does the spiritual and philosophical thought of ancient India consist of Upanishads, Brahmanas and Sutras only and India’s only contribution to the philosophical thought of the world?
• Unit 9: refers to Chanakya’s efforts for geographical and political unity as well as to Maurya attempts at political unity of India. In unit 12, Guptas attempts to unite India. No such attempt is attributed to the Sultans and even to the Mughals in the syllabus outline for medieval India.
• No political unit of the Deccan and South, except the Rashtrakutas .is mentioned—not even the Satavahanas, the Pallavas, the Chalukyas, not to speak of the early Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas.
• There is no reference to the Varna system in the period before 300 BC. The only reference to caste occurs in unit 11 which deals with ‘Social life as reflected in contemporary literature from 200 BC to 300 AD.
• Numerous units refer to India’s influence on world civilisation in general and some specific regions but none whatsoever of other cultures’ influences India.

Semester II: Medieval India
The content outline of this period of Indian history reflects the total incompetence and appalling historical ignorance of those who have drafted it and is a reflection on the credentials of the academic body which has published it. The denigration of the Sultanate of Delhi and the Mughal empire is clearly meant to ensure that students do not develop any understanding of the place of this period in the country’s history in the growth of India’s composite culture.

• The syllabus for the period is organised in the form of three units. Unit II which is entitled ‘ The Rise of Ghaznavis’ begins with the first Turkish (Ghaznavid) invasions and covers the history of the Sultanate which had nothing to do with the Ghaznavis (sic) (who had been supplanted much before the end of the 12th century) and some of its successor states. The period covered, though nowhere stated, may be, for some parts of India, up to the 15th century.
• This unit is followed by the third and the last unit in medieval Indian history which is, oddly given the title ‘ The political Conditions’. Though again the specific period this unit is supposed to cover is not stated, a number of dynasties that it refers to such as the Cholas, had arisen in the 10th century and most of them had ceased to exist before the disintegration of the Delhi Sultanate.
• It also perfunctorily refers to the Mughal Empire but, of course, not to the political unification brought about by them. The unit also introduces the concept of ‘ resistance’ in the context of Mughal Empire. There is not even a reference to the Bhakti and Sufi movements or to the birth of Sikhism.
• There was a reference in the media some months ago to the suspicion that the NCERT is going to more or less do away with the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal empire. The present syllabus tends to confirm that suspicion. 

Archived from Communalism Combat, January-February 2002 Year 8  No. 75-76, Debate

The post NCERT Syllabus: Joshi’s Shastras appeared first on SabrangIndia.