Lifting the Veil
Ram Puniyani
The statement of Nicholas Sarcozy that Burqa is not welcome in France, that it is a symbol of oppression and not of religion has raised serious debate all over. It is France again where five years ago the display of religious markers, head scarf, Sikh turban, and Jewish skull cap in schools was banned. Public servants cannot use the same in place of work.
France as a secular state has adopted a particular version of this policy. France has been setting example for some of the countries in this imposing type of secularism, like Turkey. It has another dimension and that is large number of poor Muslims coming here are from its old colonies who live in very abysmal conditions. One recalls a large section of these immigrant Muslim population lives in suburbs, poor localities in economic deprivation. A couple of years ago right here some Muslim youth began a series of violent acts out of frustration due to unemployment and poverty. The cultural economic differences between these sections are very wide and urban affluent ones’ are very gross.
How is secularism to be implemented? One way is that social situations are transformed and the hold of feudal elements is done away with and state encourages the society to adopt the norms of social and gender equality. And with this, the symbols of gender inequalities start receding in the face of changing social situation. There is no uniform pattern in this. Even after the democratic regimes come to being formally, many an old norms take time to vanish. Surely there are some of these which have to be done away by strong legislation. In India during freedom movement forcible prevention of Sati, burning of wife after husbands’ death, had to be resorted through legislation.
Burqa has not been the mandatory part of Koranic teachings. Here the emphasis is on dressing modestly. In earlier societies and other societies also, different dress codes have imposed on and also adopted by women, some as honor and more of them to impose controls on them. Dr. Zeenat Shaukat Ali, a noted Islamic scholar points out that long before the advent of Islam, veiling and seclusion appear to have existed in Hellinitic-Byzantine era, and also amongst Sassanians of Persia. In ancient Mesopotamia veil of women was regarded as sign of respectability and status.
During feudal times, the patriarchal norms were operated in the society through the institution of religion. With persistence of patriarchy the women were made to wear the identity markers in different cultures and societies. Stronger the patriarchal norms, stronger the social presence of clergy, stronger is the imposition of identity markers. These may be Ghunghat, (India) head scarf in different cultures and burqa amongst Muslims. From the beginning of twentieth century, the status of women started improving slightly and women started coming to social space. By 1980s in many a Muslim majority countries also women came to their own and prevalence of burqa came down, and at places totally done away with. The situation started worsening with the Global War on terror at world level and with communal violence in India intensifying.
With so called ‘war on terror’ the intimidation of Muslim communities’ world over started worsening. With this orthodox and conservative sects in Islam came to fore. Fundamentalist tendencies like Taliban propped up at places and worsened the situation by giving sense-less fatwa’s and dictates. Taliban imposed the norms in most inhuman way. The sense of insecurity in the wake of war, invasion of Afghanistan and then Iraq increased the sense of insecurity and the consequent hold of conservative sections, who generally impose such restrictive norms on women increased. Still in many a countries, where the women enjoyed a safe and secure social condition, the use of burqa came down. If we have a look at global scene we will find great amount of diversity in this matter. Broadly one can say, more the insecurity, more the hold of orthodoxy more the burqa.
In India one can see a great diversity in the use of the same. In Kerala it was not much in use and in Kashmir it was practically absent. In Kerala its use started going up with the rising communal violence of the decade of 1980s and with the rising influence of Wahabi Islam through those taking up jobs in Gulf region. In Kashmir the rise of militancy after 1990, the communalization of the Kashmir issue, led to rise of conservative sections who wanted to impose the veil, but Kashmiri women held there ground and resisted the same.
Also lot of misconceptions have been constructed around Islam, Burqa and local traditions. Recently India’s President, Mrs. Pratibha Patil stated that the Ghunghat in Rajasthan has been introduced due to the fear of Muslim kings, to protect women from their atrocities. One can ask those arguing on these lines, how did Sati come into being? Can hiding the face protect women or make them more vulnerable to atrocities? Sati, Ghunghat etc, have been more a mark of patriarchal values than due to the impact of Muslim Kings. Even today Ghunghat persists not because of the fear of Muslims but the strong hold of patriarchal values. The occasional cases of Sati also fall in that category. Bal Thackeray of Shiv Sena came for a strong praise of Sarcozy for his stand on Burqa. The same Shiv Sena has been intimidating girls on Valentine day off and on and giving the fatwa that girls should not wear Jeans. What a case of crass double standards!
The social and political situation leads to the social psychology and individual psychology of women is shaped around that. Men have held the sway in dictating such norms, and social situation is created where women internalize these norms. The Sufi tradition of Islam was not for the use of burqa. There are two essential points which the rulers have to keep in mind. One is that the very basis of democracy is freedom and liberal space. The countries like Saudi Arabia impose burqa. The countries like France want to do away with the same through a dictat. What is the difference? Secondly the point today is to see that globally and within the nation states the minorities are given the feeling of security, they are provided with situations leading to equity. These will ensure that the identity issues will take the back seat. Today the communities where security is the issue, equity is eluding the community, identity becomes the major rallying point. Just the statement about identity markers, without changing the social situation leading to such phenomenon is a hollow move.
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Friday, July 3, 2009
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Faith: Instilling unity
Faith: Instilling Unity
Ram Puniyani
One has heard that faith can move mountains, but currently one looks forward to see that it restores peace and justice in society. We have been hearing about various Inter Faith Dialogues from quite some time. One such high level dialogue took place in Mumbai in second week of June 2009. This was attended by top clergy from Hindu and Christian religions. It came to the understanding that there should be no violence against minorities, there should be no conversions and that religious organizations will pool together their resources for charity.
The need for interfaith dialogue has been felt very acutely in the light of violence in the name of religion, which has intensified during last couple of decades. Faith has been misused during this time to launch violence by vested interests. The aim of this use, nay abuse, of faith for political goals was a very well calculated move by vested interests to come to power. Surely interfaith dialogue is the best contribution the clergy can make for the peace of society. It is also true that it is not the clergy which is instrumental in misuse of faith.
In last three decades faith has been misused for political goals by US when it resorted to cultivating terror groups and then launched War on Terror, unleashed ‘crusade’ and attacked Afghanistan. Then the Al Qaeda, Taliban types liberally misused the word Jihad, Kafir in an insane manner to launch their ‘revenge’ offensive, apparently for the glory of their faith. In India the adverse effect of Al Qaeda violence added on to the misuse of faith here. At another level with Ram Rath Yatra, as it was riding on the chariot of faith and leaving behind the trail of blood, the misuse of faith for divisive politics tormented the society. Those blinded by lust for power saw the resurgence of faith around the chariot and ignored the spilling of blood in the back. It did achieve the purpose of sectarian forces occupying the seats of power for six long years.
The other misuse of faith was around defense of Hindu faith by organizations in Adivasi areas. A group of swamis descended in these Adivasi areas and dubbed the charity work done by section of missionaries as being a danger to Hindu faith and so burnt a Pastor from Australia working amongst Leprosy patients and backed it up by further misuse of faith in unleashing violence in the Adivasi belt from Dangs to Orissa.
The clergy’s effort in the direction of restoring peace is laudable. Though the problem is not of their making they do realize a large section of society looks up to them for guidance. The organizations of religion have a very different role to play in today’s World. True, in feudal times, clergy was associated with the kings and legitimized the system of economic exploitation, social subjugation of landed labor and women. Today when democracy is struggling to be the norm, clergy has to play a different role. It should not associate with powers that be to perpetuate the unjust social, economic system. They have to act as the soothing balm to the suffering humanity. It is in this direction that the meeting of Archbishops and Shankarachayas is a welcome move. With such dialogues the perpetuators of violence in the name of religion will loose their legitimacy after such pronouncements by the men of religion, and that will be a big step in curbing the violence, emasculating the politics deriving its legitimacy in the name of religion.
One point which strikes in the discourse of these holy people is their emphasis on spirituality. While Cardinal Gracias said ours is a spiritual country, Sri Sarswati went in to call that India should be declared as a spiritual state. There is some problem here. Being spiritual is a personal Endeavour, effort to discover oneself, to connect one self with the divine powers etc., is a personal matter, not the matter for state apparatus to deal with. The state cannot be and should not be declared spiritual. In modern times even religion which has visible aspects in the form of identity markers cannot be a state matter. Spirituality is an abstract concept, persons’ own path to be at peace in the universe. Many a mystics, saints adopted the path of spirituality as a way of life for themselves. Spirituality can be expressed, but not transferred. In democratic society as religion is a personal matter, spirituality is much more so. Individual path of spirituality of people cannot make the state as spiritual. State has to have its own norms of laws, schemes for welfare of material betterment of its citizens.
As such the formulation that India is a spiritual nation is not a new one. It began with British coming to India. They propounded that India is essentially a religious country and spiritualism is its core. This myth was started by British rulers who were consolidating their hegemony over India. The sole aim of such a fabrication was to dominate the political, social machinery, the 'material realm' of socie¬ty, while leaving the 'spiritual arena' for the Indians. The idea was to flatter the Indians away from the matters of civil and political society, where they wanted to establish unhindered hegemony.
The fact is, India was the cradle for multiple rich materi¬al pursuits: trade and commerce, which was well developed, Indian traders going far and wide for their business pursuits, crafts¬manship had reached its glorious heights in different professions. Art and architecture had a rich spectrum to offer from the paintings of Kangada Kalam, to temples of Khajuraho, to the majestic palaces of Kings to Taj Mahal. It was a comprehensive develop¬ment of all the faculties of society, spiritual and material. This civilization and culture had rich inputs from different cultures, which came and interacted with the local cultures. Starting from Aryans down to British, all those who came contributed to the culture of this land. Indian cul¬ture is a rich outcome of interaction of multiple cultures and syncretic traditions which not only left their deep mark on the ‘way of life' of the people but also a pleasant imprint on the social and cultural lie of society.
So while welcoming the move to understand each other, to shun from looking at the ‘other’ in a humiliating way, to having a pro-active affinity for each others’ positive values, one also hopes clergy tunes itself to the values of democratic society and democratic ethos rather than stick to formulations which are either borrowed from the practitioners of divisive politics or from the past, which have no relevance today.
--
Ram Puniyani
One has heard that faith can move mountains, but currently one looks forward to see that it restores peace and justice in society. We have been hearing about various Inter Faith Dialogues from quite some time. One such high level dialogue took place in Mumbai in second week of June 2009. This was attended by top clergy from Hindu and Christian religions. It came to the understanding that there should be no violence against minorities, there should be no conversions and that religious organizations will pool together their resources for charity.
The need for interfaith dialogue has been felt very acutely in the light of violence in the name of religion, which has intensified during last couple of decades. Faith has been misused during this time to launch violence by vested interests. The aim of this use, nay abuse, of faith for political goals was a very well calculated move by vested interests to come to power. Surely interfaith dialogue is the best contribution the clergy can make for the peace of society. It is also true that it is not the clergy which is instrumental in misuse of faith.
In last three decades faith has been misused for political goals by US when it resorted to cultivating terror groups and then launched War on Terror, unleashed ‘crusade’ and attacked Afghanistan. Then the Al Qaeda, Taliban types liberally misused the word Jihad, Kafir in an insane manner to launch their ‘revenge’ offensive, apparently for the glory of their faith. In India the adverse effect of Al Qaeda violence added on to the misuse of faith here. At another level with Ram Rath Yatra, as it was riding on the chariot of faith and leaving behind the trail of blood, the misuse of faith for divisive politics tormented the society. Those blinded by lust for power saw the resurgence of faith around the chariot and ignored the spilling of blood in the back. It did achieve the purpose of sectarian forces occupying the seats of power for six long years.
The other misuse of faith was around defense of Hindu faith by organizations in Adivasi areas. A group of swamis descended in these Adivasi areas and dubbed the charity work done by section of missionaries as being a danger to Hindu faith and so burnt a Pastor from Australia working amongst Leprosy patients and backed it up by further misuse of faith in unleashing violence in the Adivasi belt from Dangs to Orissa.
The clergy’s effort in the direction of restoring peace is laudable. Though the problem is not of their making they do realize a large section of society looks up to them for guidance. The organizations of religion have a very different role to play in today’s World. True, in feudal times, clergy was associated with the kings and legitimized the system of economic exploitation, social subjugation of landed labor and women. Today when democracy is struggling to be the norm, clergy has to play a different role. It should not associate with powers that be to perpetuate the unjust social, economic system. They have to act as the soothing balm to the suffering humanity. It is in this direction that the meeting of Archbishops and Shankarachayas is a welcome move. With such dialogues the perpetuators of violence in the name of religion will loose their legitimacy after such pronouncements by the men of religion, and that will be a big step in curbing the violence, emasculating the politics deriving its legitimacy in the name of religion.
One point which strikes in the discourse of these holy people is their emphasis on spirituality. While Cardinal Gracias said ours is a spiritual country, Sri Sarswati went in to call that India should be declared as a spiritual state. There is some problem here. Being spiritual is a personal Endeavour, effort to discover oneself, to connect one self with the divine powers etc., is a personal matter, not the matter for state apparatus to deal with. The state cannot be and should not be declared spiritual. In modern times even religion which has visible aspects in the form of identity markers cannot be a state matter. Spirituality is an abstract concept, persons’ own path to be at peace in the universe. Many a mystics, saints adopted the path of spirituality as a way of life for themselves. Spirituality can be expressed, but not transferred. In democratic society as religion is a personal matter, spirituality is much more so. Individual path of spirituality of people cannot make the state as spiritual. State has to have its own norms of laws, schemes for welfare of material betterment of its citizens.
As such the formulation that India is a spiritual nation is not a new one. It began with British coming to India. They propounded that India is essentially a religious country and spiritualism is its core. This myth was started by British rulers who were consolidating their hegemony over India. The sole aim of such a fabrication was to dominate the political, social machinery, the 'material realm' of socie¬ty, while leaving the 'spiritual arena' for the Indians. The idea was to flatter the Indians away from the matters of civil and political society, where they wanted to establish unhindered hegemony.
The fact is, India was the cradle for multiple rich materi¬al pursuits: trade and commerce, which was well developed, Indian traders going far and wide for their business pursuits, crafts¬manship had reached its glorious heights in different professions. Art and architecture had a rich spectrum to offer from the paintings of Kangada Kalam, to temples of Khajuraho, to the majestic palaces of Kings to Taj Mahal. It was a comprehensive develop¬ment of all the faculties of society, spiritual and material. This civilization and culture had rich inputs from different cultures, which came and interacted with the local cultures. Starting from Aryans down to British, all those who came contributed to the culture of this land. Indian cul¬ture is a rich outcome of interaction of multiple cultures and syncretic traditions which not only left their deep mark on the ‘way of life' of the people but also a pleasant imprint on the social and cultural lie of society.
So while welcoming the move to understand each other, to shun from looking at the ‘other’ in a humiliating way, to having a pro-active affinity for each others’ positive values, one also hopes clergy tunes itself to the values of democratic society and democratic ethos rather than stick to formulations which are either borrowed from the practitioners of divisive politics or from the past, which have no relevance today.
--
Restoring Green in Valley
Restoring Green in the Valley
Ram Puniyani
On 29th May night (2009) in Shopian in Kashmir, two girls Nilofer and Asiya were raped and murdered. The administration tried to prove that it was a case of death due to drowning. The valley erupted into severe protests. The favorite slogan of the protesters from last several years has been, Hamen Kya Chahiye-Azadi (what do we want-Freedom). Every act of trampling on the interests of the people of valley leads to the same. Last time it took place when the Amarnath agitation sparked by the faulty move of Pro BJP governor of Kashmir, to acquire vast stretch of land for the shrine.
The present incident is very disturbing. It shows the role of the army and para-military forces, the attitude of administration in toeing lines which are very much insulting to the people of Kashmir, which cover up the crimes of the forces. Also one should note the tragic plight of the Kashmiri’s and more so the Kashmiri women at the hands of the people with the gun, the militants and the army both. The rising militancy in Kashmir has led to the deployment of more and more forces in Kashmir. Last two decades in particular have seen the life drying out there, and the suffering of people caught in the cross fire between the militant-terrorist outfits and the Indian armed personnel.
The popular perception has been that the Kashmir issue is due to the separatism of Muslims, and that Islam and Jihad is the major culprit. Kashmir has been mired right from the beginning by the ultra nationalism of Hindu right pressuring the Indian government to abolish article 370 and fully merge Kashmir with India. After the tragic partition of India, Kashmir’s Raja Harisingh decided to remain independent. The Hindutva forces in valley said that a Hindu Kingdom Kashmir (since the king was a Hindu) should not merge with secular India. When Pakistan’s army, disguised as tribals, attacked Kashmir, the People of Kashmir as represented by the National Conference with its leader Sheikh Abdullah, did not want to merge with Pakistan.
In the face of aggression Maharaja Harising appealed to Indian government to send its army to protect Kashmir from the attack by Pakistan army. On the insistence of Sheikh Abdullah in particular, the army was sent after the treaty of accession was signed. With Indian army intervention, Kashmir’s 2/3 became part of India with all the clauses of autonomy, article 370. With general elections Sheikh Abdullah swept the polls and became the Prime Minister of Kashmir. Sheikh Abdullah must be credited as being one of the most progressive leaders of the time as he was determined to undertake land reforms, which he did once he came to power.
Immediately after the treaty was signed Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, the leader of Hindu Mahasabha, started campaigning for abolishing the clauses of autonomy and to forcibly merge it with India. This pressure had its effect and the attitude of Indian Government, over a period of time, hardened towards the autonomy clauses. With such attitude developing, Sheikh felt regret for his decision for accession, started loud rethinking and started talking to other countries, including the US and China. With this the Indian Govt. declared him as anti National and he was imprisoned for long years. This in turn led to the alienation of Kashmir people. As such on one hand Kashmir has been the victim of global imperialist policy on one hand and the attempts to go back from the promise of autonomy, on the other. US was clear that in the geographically crucial area, Kashmir, which has its border with many countries, cannot be left alone and so its stooge Pakistan did all possible to help the disgruntled elements in Kashmir. The later events showed the attitude of India and Pakistan as powers trying to take hold of the real Estate called Kashmir. Kashmir was seen not as constituted by people with their own aspirations but as a piece of property.
In all fairness it must be said till Nehru was alive he cautioned restraint and believed in winning over the hearts and minds of the people of Kashmir. Even at his time the pressure of Ultra Nationalists inside and outside the Government kept going up and gradually army was projected as the answer to the ‘problem of Kashmir.’ Ironically Pakistan which so far has been in the chains of the rule of Army, Mullahs and America, named the part of Kashmir, under its control as Azad Kashmir (Independent Kashmir)! And freedom for Kashmir has been the favorite theme of most of the dictators ruling the roost, of course with due support from Uncle Sam. What an irony; Dictators talking of Freedom! The trajectory of events is long, how after Sheikh Abdullah’s concern of autonomy changed over to Independence in the decades of 1970s, and in 1980-1990 to armed struggle for Azad Kashmir.
Interestingly after the defeat of Al Qaeda elements in Afghanistan, many of them turned their attention to Kashmir and partly communalized the issue. Mostly the theme of the Kashmir struggle has been Kashmiriyat, a concept which incorporates the values of Vedanta, Buddha and Sufis.
India kept sending more and more armed personnel to ‘solve’ the problem. There has been one Indian soldier for every 6-7 Kashmiris. What can be the life under such circumstances? Army is meant to fight the enemies, and not for any prolonged stay in any area. The army stay, domination in an area creates different type of vested interests. Army is no holy cow! From times immemorial army has been plundering and raping apart form other things. While it will be wrong to tar all the armed personnel with single brush, it is also true that section of army’s attitude to women has not been any thing good to write about. Be it the case of Manorama in the North East or the present case of Nilofer and Asiya, the tale is tragic.
The good news from Kashmir has been that last tow lections have been conducted fairly democratically, and even the separatists like Sajjad Lone are now opting for the democratic system with changed equation in Pakistan, with democracy struggling to come in there, the portents are healthy. It is time that army is withdrawn at a rapid pace, democratic process is deepened, guilty of violence against women and their protectors are punished and army rests in barracks rather than dictating terms in Kashmir. Hope Mr. Chidambaram promise in this direction does not remain merely on paper.
Ram Puniyani
On 29th May night (2009) in Shopian in Kashmir, two girls Nilofer and Asiya were raped and murdered. The administration tried to prove that it was a case of death due to drowning. The valley erupted into severe protests. The favorite slogan of the protesters from last several years has been, Hamen Kya Chahiye-Azadi (what do we want-Freedom). Every act of trampling on the interests of the people of valley leads to the same. Last time it took place when the Amarnath agitation sparked by the faulty move of Pro BJP governor of Kashmir, to acquire vast stretch of land for the shrine.
The present incident is very disturbing. It shows the role of the army and para-military forces, the attitude of administration in toeing lines which are very much insulting to the people of Kashmir, which cover up the crimes of the forces. Also one should note the tragic plight of the Kashmiri’s and more so the Kashmiri women at the hands of the people with the gun, the militants and the army both. The rising militancy in Kashmir has led to the deployment of more and more forces in Kashmir. Last two decades in particular have seen the life drying out there, and the suffering of people caught in the cross fire between the militant-terrorist outfits and the Indian armed personnel.
The popular perception has been that the Kashmir issue is due to the separatism of Muslims, and that Islam and Jihad is the major culprit. Kashmir has been mired right from the beginning by the ultra nationalism of Hindu right pressuring the Indian government to abolish article 370 and fully merge Kashmir with India. After the tragic partition of India, Kashmir’s Raja Harisingh decided to remain independent. The Hindutva forces in valley said that a Hindu Kingdom Kashmir (since the king was a Hindu) should not merge with secular India. When Pakistan’s army, disguised as tribals, attacked Kashmir, the People of Kashmir as represented by the National Conference with its leader Sheikh Abdullah, did not want to merge with Pakistan.
In the face of aggression Maharaja Harising appealed to Indian government to send its army to protect Kashmir from the attack by Pakistan army. On the insistence of Sheikh Abdullah in particular, the army was sent after the treaty of accession was signed. With Indian army intervention, Kashmir’s 2/3 became part of India with all the clauses of autonomy, article 370. With general elections Sheikh Abdullah swept the polls and became the Prime Minister of Kashmir. Sheikh Abdullah must be credited as being one of the most progressive leaders of the time as he was determined to undertake land reforms, which he did once he came to power.
Immediately after the treaty was signed Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, the leader of Hindu Mahasabha, started campaigning for abolishing the clauses of autonomy and to forcibly merge it with India. This pressure had its effect and the attitude of Indian Government, over a period of time, hardened towards the autonomy clauses. With such attitude developing, Sheikh felt regret for his decision for accession, started loud rethinking and started talking to other countries, including the US and China. With this the Indian Govt. declared him as anti National and he was imprisoned for long years. This in turn led to the alienation of Kashmir people. As such on one hand Kashmir has been the victim of global imperialist policy on one hand and the attempts to go back from the promise of autonomy, on the other. US was clear that in the geographically crucial area, Kashmir, which has its border with many countries, cannot be left alone and so its stooge Pakistan did all possible to help the disgruntled elements in Kashmir. The later events showed the attitude of India and Pakistan as powers trying to take hold of the real Estate called Kashmir. Kashmir was seen not as constituted by people with their own aspirations but as a piece of property.
In all fairness it must be said till Nehru was alive he cautioned restraint and believed in winning over the hearts and minds of the people of Kashmir. Even at his time the pressure of Ultra Nationalists inside and outside the Government kept going up and gradually army was projected as the answer to the ‘problem of Kashmir.’ Ironically Pakistan which so far has been in the chains of the rule of Army, Mullahs and America, named the part of Kashmir, under its control as Azad Kashmir (Independent Kashmir)! And freedom for Kashmir has been the favorite theme of most of the dictators ruling the roost, of course with due support from Uncle Sam. What an irony; Dictators talking of Freedom! The trajectory of events is long, how after Sheikh Abdullah’s concern of autonomy changed over to Independence in the decades of 1970s, and in 1980-1990 to armed struggle for Azad Kashmir.
Interestingly after the defeat of Al Qaeda elements in Afghanistan, many of them turned their attention to Kashmir and partly communalized the issue. Mostly the theme of the Kashmir struggle has been Kashmiriyat, a concept which incorporates the values of Vedanta, Buddha and Sufis.
India kept sending more and more armed personnel to ‘solve’ the problem. There has been one Indian soldier for every 6-7 Kashmiris. What can be the life under such circumstances? Army is meant to fight the enemies, and not for any prolonged stay in any area. The army stay, domination in an area creates different type of vested interests. Army is no holy cow! From times immemorial army has been plundering and raping apart form other things. While it will be wrong to tar all the armed personnel with single brush, it is also true that section of army’s attitude to women has not been any thing good to write about. Be it the case of Manorama in the North East or the present case of Nilofer and Asiya, the tale is tragic.
The good news from Kashmir has been that last tow lections have been conducted fairly democratically, and even the separatists like Sajjad Lone are now opting for the democratic system with changed equation in Pakistan, with democracy struggling to come in there, the portents are healthy. It is time that army is withdrawn at a rapid pace, democratic process is deepened, guilty of violence against women and their protectors are punished and army rests in barracks rather than dictating terms in Kashmir. Hope Mr. Chidambaram promise in this direction does not remain merely on paper.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Election Verdict 2009: Whither Communalism?
Elections 2009 Verdict:
Whither Communalism?
Ram Puniyani
The results of 2009 general elections have thrown up a verdict where by BJP has lost lots of ground on electoral arena, its voting percentage has declined and number of seats have come down. Its calculations of coming to power as the head of NDA withered away. In 2004 elections despite the predictions by pollsters, its power declined and it gave way to Congress led UPA alliance. While BJP is ruling in many states and in couple of them it seems to have entrenched itself firmly for the time being, an overall atmosphere that BJP is on the decline is very much there.
BJP built its political fortunes on the foundations laid by RSS work of decades and the contextual economic and social changes which culminated during the beginning of 1980s. These related to changes in global political chessboard due to decline of Soviet states, leading to US becoming the sole superpower in the world. This in turn changed the dynamics of globalization, making it more adverse to the large sections of population. The changes which occurred due to lop sided industrialization in the country led to the rise of affluent middle classes. In this backdrop, the interest of affluent sections seemed to be to support the politics of status quo, with the political agenda to wean away the deprived sections from the path of struggle, by promoting the identity based politics. This might not have been a conscious planning, but this is what happened in the course of political changes. And Ram temple issue came to grab the nation and it threw the struggle for social issues to the margins. The rights based movements did face uphill task to keep afloat in this atmosphere, atmosphere seeped in divisive religious, social identities and enhanced religiosity all around.
BJP at this stage, mid 1980s, shifted from its ploy of Gandhian Socialism to Hindutva, Hindu nationalism. With Mandal coming to the fore, opponents of Mandal crystallized around BJP in a big way. The ascendance of BJP was assisted by the work of Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, wooing a section of Adivasis around BJP and Samajik Samrasta Manch co-opted section of Dalits around Hindutva politics. This ascendance was further assisted by opportunist forces, the ilk of George Fernendes, that earlier would not touch it even with a barge pole. With the assistance of these forces BJP controlled the levers of power for close to six years. It is during this period that the infiltration and impact of RSS ideology of Hindu nation, Hate minorities seeped much further. It is during this period that severe cultural and educational manipulations further intensified in the arena of education and social work.
BJPs’ ability to come to power thrice was due to a section of population opposed to the process of social transformation of caste and gender, added on by winning over a section of middle class, around aggressive nationalism, nuclear explosion, and threatening postures against Pakistan and at times bravado against the issue of terrorism. This section does not comprise the large masses. Affluent sections, those who benefit from ‘Shining India’ and some others did remain loyal to BJP, but remaining sections soon realized that the empty rhetoric of identity politics is not going to fill their empty stomachs and they voted against this Hindu Nationalist party during 2004 and later in 2009. Interestingly other political formations operating around other identities also faced a set back during 2009 elections.
Meanwhile BJP has tried to change its stripes and at times been talking Bijli Sadak Pani, and development agenda a la Modi. But can it hide the fact that it is the party whose break away factions beat up women; it is the party which inherently believes in what Varun Gandhi says. Its so called development talk is a mere electoral ploy. As they say you can’t fool all the people all the time, so BJP stands in its moment of truth, electoral vote share going down from the 22 odd percentages last time to nearly 18% now. At one level now the liberal space can be made stronger and those engaged in social movements can further strengthen their work.
So what happens to BJP in times to come? It is definite that it has brought in the polarization of sections of society through the ‘Hate other’ ideology. Its major faces symbolizing this divisive ideology have been Advani, Modi and Varun Gandhi in that sequence. This politics did lead to violence of mammoth proportions. It is not easy to write off BJP as it has already made its foundations around the ideology of Hindu Nation etc. And BJP is not a stand alone party. It is merely and electoral wing of RSS, the organization with hundreds of branches and offshoots, which will continue to work notwithstanding the defeat of BJP. Apart from these multiple organizations, RSS ideology and politics has also got entrenched in the educational, media and social channels of cooption. Social engineering and increased religiosity is another phenomenon strengthening communalism.
Communalism does not just mean the power of BJP in political arena. Divisiveness begins from propagation of the exclusivist ideologies of nationalism. The next layer is demonizing minorities through various layers of propaganda etc. This has been leading to sectarian violence and polarization of communities. Surely these processes are very much intact and thriving in the society. The ‘social common sense’, perceptions about minorities has been doctored to frightening proportions. The subtle, and word of mouth propaganda against father of the nation, against the values of Indian Constitution and a blind reverence to elite tradition has been pushed through broad and deep.
So as of now, the divisive politics is very much thriving, in the form of ideas, in the form of different organizations, which may be presented as ‘cultural’, ‘religious’, ‘social’ or what have you. Surely it is unlikely that Ram temple or any other emotive issues can now come to the fore powerfully. It is unlikely that they can repeat Gujarat or Kandhamal so easily, though one does not rule these cataclysms, as the land mines of such a politics have already been laid far and wide.
This type of politics knows that it can thrive through identity issues, through divisiveness, so those efforts may be intensified. RSS, BJPs’ political father, has already started telling BJP to go back to Hindutva, i.e. take up issues like temple, Ram Setu etc. There are studies which show that in the areas where communal violence takes place, rather is orchestrated, BJP becomes stronger. Same is the observation in current elections. Dominique Immanuel, a Human Rights worker and Communal harmony award winner, points out that despite an overall decline in BJP seats and voting percentage it has retained its hold where violence took place or divisive agenda was put forward. Mangalore, Udipi, Malegaon, Kandhamal, G. Udaigiri, Gujarat and Pilibhit are the areas in which saw the sectarian violence or propaganda or act of terror. In Kandhmal in the Loksabha segments where violence took place BJP candidate did very well. In many other places in the country, the constituencies where violence was orchestrated, BJP has romped home. What does this indicate?
RSS has already stated that BJP needs to come back to Hindutva agenda. A lot will depend on how RSS combine is able to whip up hysteria around that. A lot will also depend on how much secular forces can ensure the preservation of peace and amity all around. This is possible by restating the core idea of India, pluralism, values of freedom movement and values of syncretism. A lot will depend on how effectively the propaganda done by RSS combine can be effectively countered. Despite RSS instructions to BJP to ‘return to Hindutva’, Nation has to guard against such deviations and stick to the ethos of the country which thrive in diversity and inclusiveness.
Whither Communalism?
Ram Puniyani
The results of 2009 general elections have thrown up a verdict where by BJP has lost lots of ground on electoral arena, its voting percentage has declined and number of seats have come down. Its calculations of coming to power as the head of NDA withered away. In 2004 elections despite the predictions by pollsters, its power declined and it gave way to Congress led UPA alliance. While BJP is ruling in many states and in couple of them it seems to have entrenched itself firmly for the time being, an overall atmosphere that BJP is on the decline is very much there.
BJP built its political fortunes on the foundations laid by RSS work of decades and the contextual economic and social changes which culminated during the beginning of 1980s. These related to changes in global political chessboard due to decline of Soviet states, leading to US becoming the sole superpower in the world. This in turn changed the dynamics of globalization, making it more adverse to the large sections of population. The changes which occurred due to lop sided industrialization in the country led to the rise of affluent middle classes. In this backdrop, the interest of affluent sections seemed to be to support the politics of status quo, with the political agenda to wean away the deprived sections from the path of struggle, by promoting the identity based politics. This might not have been a conscious planning, but this is what happened in the course of political changes. And Ram temple issue came to grab the nation and it threw the struggle for social issues to the margins. The rights based movements did face uphill task to keep afloat in this atmosphere, atmosphere seeped in divisive religious, social identities and enhanced religiosity all around.
BJP at this stage, mid 1980s, shifted from its ploy of Gandhian Socialism to Hindutva, Hindu nationalism. With Mandal coming to the fore, opponents of Mandal crystallized around BJP in a big way. The ascendance of BJP was assisted by the work of Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, wooing a section of Adivasis around BJP and Samajik Samrasta Manch co-opted section of Dalits around Hindutva politics. This ascendance was further assisted by opportunist forces, the ilk of George Fernendes, that earlier would not touch it even with a barge pole. With the assistance of these forces BJP controlled the levers of power for close to six years. It is during this period that the infiltration and impact of RSS ideology of Hindu nation, Hate minorities seeped much further. It is during this period that severe cultural and educational manipulations further intensified in the arena of education and social work.
BJPs’ ability to come to power thrice was due to a section of population opposed to the process of social transformation of caste and gender, added on by winning over a section of middle class, around aggressive nationalism, nuclear explosion, and threatening postures against Pakistan and at times bravado against the issue of terrorism. This section does not comprise the large masses. Affluent sections, those who benefit from ‘Shining India’ and some others did remain loyal to BJP, but remaining sections soon realized that the empty rhetoric of identity politics is not going to fill their empty stomachs and they voted against this Hindu Nationalist party during 2004 and later in 2009. Interestingly other political formations operating around other identities also faced a set back during 2009 elections.
Meanwhile BJP has tried to change its stripes and at times been talking Bijli Sadak Pani, and development agenda a la Modi. But can it hide the fact that it is the party whose break away factions beat up women; it is the party which inherently believes in what Varun Gandhi says. Its so called development talk is a mere electoral ploy. As they say you can’t fool all the people all the time, so BJP stands in its moment of truth, electoral vote share going down from the 22 odd percentages last time to nearly 18% now. At one level now the liberal space can be made stronger and those engaged in social movements can further strengthen their work.
So what happens to BJP in times to come? It is definite that it has brought in the polarization of sections of society through the ‘Hate other’ ideology. Its major faces symbolizing this divisive ideology have been Advani, Modi and Varun Gandhi in that sequence. This politics did lead to violence of mammoth proportions. It is not easy to write off BJP as it has already made its foundations around the ideology of Hindu Nation etc. And BJP is not a stand alone party. It is merely and electoral wing of RSS, the organization with hundreds of branches and offshoots, which will continue to work notwithstanding the defeat of BJP. Apart from these multiple organizations, RSS ideology and politics has also got entrenched in the educational, media and social channels of cooption. Social engineering and increased religiosity is another phenomenon strengthening communalism.
Communalism does not just mean the power of BJP in political arena. Divisiveness begins from propagation of the exclusivist ideologies of nationalism. The next layer is demonizing minorities through various layers of propaganda etc. This has been leading to sectarian violence and polarization of communities. Surely these processes are very much intact and thriving in the society. The ‘social common sense’, perceptions about minorities has been doctored to frightening proportions. The subtle, and word of mouth propaganda against father of the nation, against the values of Indian Constitution and a blind reverence to elite tradition has been pushed through broad and deep.
So as of now, the divisive politics is very much thriving, in the form of ideas, in the form of different organizations, which may be presented as ‘cultural’, ‘religious’, ‘social’ or what have you. Surely it is unlikely that Ram temple or any other emotive issues can now come to the fore powerfully. It is unlikely that they can repeat Gujarat or Kandhamal so easily, though one does not rule these cataclysms, as the land mines of such a politics have already been laid far and wide.
This type of politics knows that it can thrive through identity issues, through divisiveness, so those efforts may be intensified. RSS, BJPs’ political father, has already started telling BJP to go back to Hindutva, i.e. take up issues like temple, Ram Setu etc. There are studies which show that in the areas where communal violence takes place, rather is orchestrated, BJP becomes stronger. Same is the observation in current elections. Dominique Immanuel, a Human Rights worker and Communal harmony award winner, points out that despite an overall decline in BJP seats and voting percentage it has retained its hold where violence took place or divisive agenda was put forward. Mangalore, Udipi, Malegaon, Kandhamal, G. Udaigiri, Gujarat and Pilibhit are the areas in which saw the sectarian violence or propaganda or act of terror. In Kandhmal in the Loksabha segments where violence took place BJP candidate did very well. In many other places in the country, the constituencies where violence was orchestrated, BJP has romped home. What does this indicate?
RSS has already stated that BJP needs to come back to Hindutva agenda. A lot will depend on how RSS combine is able to whip up hysteria around that. A lot will also depend on how much secular forces can ensure the preservation of peace and amity all around. This is possible by restating the core idea of India, pluralism, values of freedom movement and values of syncretism. A lot will depend on how effectively the propaganda done by RSS combine can be effectively countered. Despite RSS instructions to BJP to ‘return to Hindutva’, Nation has to guard against such deviations and stick to the ethos of the country which thrive in diversity and inclusiveness.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Post 2009 Election Results- looking Forward to Peace and Justice
Looking Forward for Peace and Progress
Ram Puniyani
The defeat of divisive forces in the recent elections (May 2009) is a matter of great relief. The rule of BJP led NDA (1999-2004) had created a situation whereby the norms of Constitution were given a go by and two set of norms, one for majority community and other for minorities started becoming visible. The worst of this is seen today in Gujarat where the minorities have been reduced to the status of second class citizens, bereft of the citizen’s rights which are their due. During the same regime the communalization of text books and infiltration of practitioners of religion based nationalism in different walks of life took place in a big way. The result has been the plethora of organizations which are part of RSS, called Sangh Parivar became very assertive and aggressive.
The manifestations of this are visible not only in the justice deliverance system but also in the sporadic attacks on minorities scattered here and there. The manifestation of their rising assertion becomes painfully obvious in the attacks on Women, (Mangalore), Minorities, (Kandhamal) and total insensitivity to the victims of Gujarat violence. The base of many of this negative phenomenon in society does lie in the social common sense which has been propagated against the minorities and weaker sections of society, in a consistent and dangerous manner.
It is in this background that the Indian electorate rose up to give a mandate for positive goal for an inclusive nation. This verdict also shows that communal politics may succeed once a while, but in a plural country like ours, inclusive agenda based on the values of freedom movement should hold on for long time. It is heartening to note that the National vote share of BJP has declined by around 2%, and even in Gujarat, where the leaders of carnage of 2002 are ruling; their vote share has gone down. Again in the background of 2004 verdict there is overwhelming verdict for a coalition which should stand for democratic-secular values. One hopes this mandate will give them an encouragement to uphold these values in a more sincere and honest way.
The problems of people prevail in all arena of life; farmer’s suicides suggest agricultural situation needs more than just the farmer’s loan waivers. The levels of poverty and unemployment do tell us that time has come to take the next logical step of employment guarantee scheme to look at the pattern of growth and development where we can do away with the rampant poverty and illiteracy at a deeper level. A lot needs to be done to ensure the upholding of human rights of weaker sections of society, against atrocities against dalits and women.
The state of health of a democracy has to be judged by the equity and security of minorities. What is the condition of minorities today? It is facing the problems of equity and security, the problems of identity are becoming more dominant in such situations. One compliments the UPA Govt for instituting Sachar Committee. The point is that now it requires topmost priority in its implementation. It be the education amongst poor, poor Muslims, we need to go miles to ensure that education and employment of minorities is looked from the angle of affirmative action, the pseudo criticism of appeasement notwithstanding. The question of security is deeply related to the question of justice. The recent shoe throwing episode demonstrated that the scars of injustice remain; they don’t heal unless justice is done. So many state Governments have failed in their duty as far as punishing the guilty of violence is concerned. In Mumbai, Shrikrishna Commission report has remained on the shelf despite the repeated promise to implement it. In Gujarat one hopes the work of Special Investigation Teams (SIT) brings out the truth and the Central Government musters all the courage at its command, to punish the guilty of the Gujarat carnage, whatever be their threatening and aggressive postures.
In Kandhmal also the guilty are roaming with bloated chests while the victims have been feeling scared to return to their villages. An immediate effort to rehabilitate them, by bringing in the rule of law is of paramount importance. In Gujarat also the Modi Government has not bothered to distribute the relief to the riot victims. These riots victims are living painful life bereft of facilities and are ignored by state administration. The central govt has to remind the state government of its constitutional obligations failing which strict action must be taken. Overall a lot needs to be done to ensure that SIT (Special Investigation Team) work goes on smoothly and unlike in previous cases where BJP workers got Zahira Sheikhs testimony changed by giving her money, the witnesses should be given total protection and concrete assurance that Modi Government will not be able to harm them in any way.
One also recalls that during the previous UPA rule the National Integration Council met just couple of times. This body needs to be activated as the regular watch dog on the state of affairs related to the National Integration. The nation is looking forward with hope and anticipation that dark period of communal ascendance, the temple mosque issues are put in the pages of history, the place where they belong and as Nehru put it, new temples of learning and job creation are brought to the forefront.
The popular perceptions are the base of sectarian violence, which are the base of divisive forces. Lot of misconceptions about minorities, terrorism, conversions has had a field day. The RSS shakhas have been spreading it, their schools are adding on to the problem, and rumor mills are adding to the problem. It is time that a multilayered approach is undertaken to promote the values of amity and harmony which were the core of Indian society as seen in medieval times-Bhakti Sufi traditions- and as seen during the freedom movement when all the communities rubbed shoulders to get freedom from British rule. The new Government has to evolve this basic program to sow the seeds of long term harmony in the society.
Ram Puniyani
The defeat of divisive forces in the recent elections (May 2009) is a matter of great relief. The rule of BJP led NDA (1999-2004) had created a situation whereby the norms of Constitution were given a go by and two set of norms, one for majority community and other for minorities started becoming visible. The worst of this is seen today in Gujarat where the minorities have been reduced to the status of second class citizens, bereft of the citizen’s rights which are their due. During the same regime the communalization of text books and infiltration of practitioners of religion based nationalism in different walks of life took place in a big way. The result has been the plethora of organizations which are part of RSS, called Sangh Parivar became very assertive and aggressive.
The manifestations of this are visible not only in the justice deliverance system but also in the sporadic attacks on minorities scattered here and there. The manifestation of their rising assertion becomes painfully obvious in the attacks on Women, (Mangalore), Minorities, (Kandhamal) and total insensitivity to the victims of Gujarat violence. The base of many of this negative phenomenon in society does lie in the social common sense which has been propagated against the minorities and weaker sections of society, in a consistent and dangerous manner.
It is in this background that the Indian electorate rose up to give a mandate for positive goal for an inclusive nation. This verdict also shows that communal politics may succeed once a while, but in a plural country like ours, inclusive agenda based on the values of freedom movement should hold on for long time. It is heartening to note that the National vote share of BJP has declined by around 2%, and even in Gujarat, where the leaders of carnage of 2002 are ruling; their vote share has gone down. Again in the background of 2004 verdict there is overwhelming verdict for a coalition which should stand for democratic-secular values. One hopes this mandate will give them an encouragement to uphold these values in a more sincere and honest way.
The problems of people prevail in all arena of life; farmer’s suicides suggest agricultural situation needs more than just the farmer’s loan waivers. The levels of poverty and unemployment do tell us that time has come to take the next logical step of employment guarantee scheme to look at the pattern of growth and development where we can do away with the rampant poverty and illiteracy at a deeper level. A lot needs to be done to ensure the upholding of human rights of weaker sections of society, against atrocities against dalits and women.
The state of health of a democracy has to be judged by the equity and security of minorities. What is the condition of minorities today? It is facing the problems of equity and security, the problems of identity are becoming more dominant in such situations. One compliments the UPA Govt for instituting Sachar Committee. The point is that now it requires topmost priority in its implementation. It be the education amongst poor, poor Muslims, we need to go miles to ensure that education and employment of minorities is looked from the angle of affirmative action, the pseudo criticism of appeasement notwithstanding. The question of security is deeply related to the question of justice. The recent shoe throwing episode demonstrated that the scars of injustice remain; they don’t heal unless justice is done. So many state Governments have failed in their duty as far as punishing the guilty of violence is concerned. In Mumbai, Shrikrishna Commission report has remained on the shelf despite the repeated promise to implement it. In Gujarat one hopes the work of Special Investigation Teams (SIT) brings out the truth and the Central Government musters all the courage at its command, to punish the guilty of the Gujarat carnage, whatever be their threatening and aggressive postures.
In Kandhmal also the guilty are roaming with bloated chests while the victims have been feeling scared to return to their villages. An immediate effort to rehabilitate them, by bringing in the rule of law is of paramount importance. In Gujarat also the Modi Government has not bothered to distribute the relief to the riot victims. These riots victims are living painful life bereft of facilities and are ignored by state administration. The central govt has to remind the state government of its constitutional obligations failing which strict action must be taken. Overall a lot needs to be done to ensure that SIT (Special Investigation Team) work goes on smoothly and unlike in previous cases where BJP workers got Zahira Sheikhs testimony changed by giving her money, the witnesses should be given total protection and concrete assurance that Modi Government will not be able to harm them in any way.
One also recalls that during the previous UPA rule the National Integration Council met just couple of times. This body needs to be activated as the regular watch dog on the state of affairs related to the National Integration. The nation is looking forward with hope and anticipation that dark period of communal ascendance, the temple mosque issues are put in the pages of history, the place where they belong and as Nehru put it, new temples of learning and job creation are brought to the forefront.
The popular perceptions are the base of sectarian violence, which are the base of divisive forces. Lot of misconceptions about minorities, terrorism, conversions has had a field day. The RSS shakhas have been spreading it, their schools are adding on to the problem, and rumor mills are adding to the problem. It is time that a multilayered approach is undertaken to promote the values of amity and harmony which were the core of Indian society as seen in medieval times-Bhakti Sufi traditions- and as seen during the freedom movement when all the communities rubbed shoulders to get freedom from British rule. The new Government has to evolve this basic program to sow the seeds of long term harmony in the society.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Choosing Coalition Leader; is it a Devil and Deep Sea Choice?
Choosing the Coalition Leader-Is it Devil and the Deep Sea Choice?
Ram Puniyani
The country is waiting the results of 15th Loksabha elections with bated breath, (13th May 2009). It is becoming clear that no single party is going to get the simple majority, neither UPA nor NDA. The third front idea mooted by Left front, with motley regional parties with diverse ideologies is way behind in the race as is apparent from the electoral arithmetic. In this melee the strong efforts have been launched by BJP and Congress both to ensure that they are able to cobble up a majority. In this direction they are trying to take every possible party on board, irrespective of local dynamics of friendship or hostility. With the possibility of third front not taking off, how should local parties decide whom to choose as the leader of coalition, BJP or Congress?
There are many to argue that there is not much difference between these two parties on most of the issues, globalization, nuclear deal, economic policies and communalism, so how does one choose on ideological basis?
It is partly true of course. As far as globalization is concerned, when initially Dr. Manmohan Singh as finance minister of Narsimha Rao Government initiated the process, BJP retaliated by saying that Congress is high jacking their agenda. As far as nuclear deal is concerned, BJP did express its opposition to the deal but that was purely on some superficial technical matters. As such BJP is more than willing to play subservient role to the US. This was evident when US had planned to invade Afghanistan, on the pretext of 9/11, and BJP led coalition went out of the way to offer the base for refueling of US planes on Indian soil. In these matters while Congress has also deviated from the path of non alignment, BJP has been the champion of pro US policies most of the time.
On economic issues, the one’s related to policies affecting the poor in more direct way, BJP has generally no place for those, and its major focus is on identity issues. It is a political front of RSS, which wants to usher in Hindu nation, do away with the values of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity and bring in a new constitution based on Holy Hindu books, in other words a Constitution based on the values of caste and gender hierarchy of Manu Smriti in particular. Advani’s letter to the thousand religious leaders not only talks of bringing religion in social and political affairs of the country, it also talks of modifications in Indian constitution. One recalls changing Constitution was one major thing NDA undertook, but it had to drop that due to massive opposition from the broad layers of democratic elements in the country, including dalit groups.
BJP built itself up as the major party around Ram Temple issue and later harped on Uniform Civil Code, Ram Setu and Amaranth shrine type of issues. It is during BJP led NDA regime that the school text books were communalized; blind faith was promoted in the form of introducing Astrology and Karmakand (Holy Rituals), Paurohitya (Clerical learning) in the Universities, in addition to giving space to all RSS progeny in social and political arena.
Congress, despite its million flaws and weaknesses, took up the issue of Right to information to initiate the process of transparency in public life, something which is a prerequisite for abolishing corruption and deepening the democracy. It did reach the poor of the poor by implementing Minimum Employment Guarantee scheme, which has the potential of reducing rank poverty and elevating the level of poor. It is not to say that both these have totally been successfully implemented, but the path is correct and the direction is right. While Modi, the poster boy of BJP,’s model of ‘development is creating a state with affluence for Tatas, Ambanis and well to do middle classes, the states’ poor are slipping lower on the scale of economic status, hunger index, sex ratio decline and atrocities on dalit/Adivasis going up.
While Sachar Committee report remains in the freezer till now, Congress did initiate it and is committed to implement it in the direction of affirmative action. It is likely that if enough pressure is put it may be implemented. BJP stands totally opposed to any affirmative action for poor and minorities.
As far as communalism is concerned, Congress rule has seen many a communal riots. It has many a times played the role of onlooker when the violence has been going on. But barring some cases where it has initiated few of them, major being the anti Sikh one’s of 1984, by and large it has played the role of inefficient controller of the violence. It has collaborated at times. Despite this fact the major initiator of violence has been the Sangh Parivar, of which BJP is a part. It has communalized the mind set through its Shakhas, media and schools opened in remote areas.
Most of the inquiry commission reports have shown that it is some organization affiliated to RSS which has played the major role in communal violence. Gujarat came as the peak of Anti Muslim violence and Kandhamal was the culmination of sustained anti Christian violence. Congress led anti Sikh massacre was a single go, inexcusable onslaught, and remains so. Aijaz Ahmad succinctly points out that Congress is pragmatically communal and BJP is programmatically communal.
Minorities are facing the problem of insecurity due to repeated violence against them, to talk of Sachar or providing security to minoties becomes appeasement of minorities for BJP.
Surely country deserves a better party, which is a synthesis of values and actions of the likes of Bhagat Singh, Ambedkar and Gandhi. In the current circumstances we are riddled with a rank communal-anti poor party BJP, and pragmatic communal Congress, which can occasionally also think about poor and weaker sections of society. The point is there can be a space to strengthen the polit in this direction. Hope the regional parties keep this in mind while making their choice.
--
Ram Puniyani
The country is waiting the results of 15th Loksabha elections with bated breath, (13th May 2009). It is becoming clear that no single party is going to get the simple majority, neither UPA nor NDA. The third front idea mooted by Left front, with motley regional parties with diverse ideologies is way behind in the race as is apparent from the electoral arithmetic. In this melee the strong efforts have been launched by BJP and Congress both to ensure that they are able to cobble up a majority. In this direction they are trying to take every possible party on board, irrespective of local dynamics of friendship or hostility. With the possibility of third front not taking off, how should local parties decide whom to choose as the leader of coalition, BJP or Congress?
There are many to argue that there is not much difference between these two parties on most of the issues, globalization, nuclear deal, economic policies and communalism, so how does one choose on ideological basis?
It is partly true of course. As far as globalization is concerned, when initially Dr. Manmohan Singh as finance minister of Narsimha Rao Government initiated the process, BJP retaliated by saying that Congress is high jacking their agenda. As far as nuclear deal is concerned, BJP did express its opposition to the deal but that was purely on some superficial technical matters. As such BJP is more than willing to play subservient role to the US. This was evident when US had planned to invade Afghanistan, on the pretext of 9/11, and BJP led coalition went out of the way to offer the base for refueling of US planes on Indian soil. In these matters while Congress has also deviated from the path of non alignment, BJP has been the champion of pro US policies most of the time.
On economic issues, the one’s related to policies affecting the poor in more direct way, BJP has generally no place for those, and its major focus is on identity issues. It is a political front of RSS, which wants to usher in Hindu nation, do away with the values of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity and bring in a new constitution based on Holy Hindu books, in other words a Constitution based on the values of caste and gender hierarchy of Manu Smriti in particular. Advani’s letter to the thousand religious leaders not only talks of bringing religion in social and political affairs of the country, it also talks of modifications in Indian constitution. One recalls changing Constitution was one major thing NDA undertook, but it had to drop that due to massive opposition from the broad layers of democratic elements in the country, including dalit groups.
BJP built itself up as the major party around Ram Temple issue and later harped on Uniform Civil Code, Ram Setu and Amaranth shrine type of issues. It is during BJP led NDA regime that the school text books were communalized; blind faith was promoted in the form of introducing Astrology and Karmakand (Holy Rituals), Paurohitya (Clerical learning) in the Universities, in addition to giving space to all RSS progeny in social and political arena.
Congress, despite its million flaws and weaknesses, took up the issue of Right to information to initiate the process of transparency in public life, something which is a prerequisite for abolishing corruption and deepening the democracy. It did reach the poor of the poor by implementing Minimum Employment Guarantee scheme, which has the potential of reducing rank poverty and elevating the level of poor. It is not to say that both these have totally been successfully implemented, but the path is correct and the direction is right. While Modi, the poster boy of BJP,’s model of ‘development is creating a state with affluence for Tatas, Ambanis and well to do middle classes, the states’ poor are slipping lower on the scale of economic status, hunger index, sex ratio decline and atrocities on dalit/Adivasis going up.
While Sachar Committee report remains in the freezer till now, Congress did initiate it and is committed to implement it in the direction of affirmative action. It is likely that if enough pressure is put it may be implemented. BJP stands totally opposed to any affirmative action for poor and minorities.
As far as communalism is concerned, Congress rule has seen many a communal riots. It has many a times played the role of onlooker when the violence has been going on. But barring some cases where it has initiated few of them, major being the anti Sikh one’s of 1984, by and large it has played the role of inefficient controller of the violence. It has collaborated at times. Despite this fact the major initiator of violence has been the Sangh Parivar, of which BJP is a part. It has communalized the mind set through its Shakhas, media and schools opened in remote areas.
Most of the inquiry commission reports have shown that it is some organization affiliated to RSS which has played the major role in communal violence. Gujarat came as the peak of Anti Muslim violence and Kandhamal was the culmination of sustained anti Christian violence. Congress led anti Sikh massacre was a single go, inexcusable onslaught, and remains so. Aijaz Ahmad succinctly points out that Congress is pragmatically communal and BJP is programmatically communal.
Minorities are facing the problem of insecurity due to repeated violence against them, to talk of Sachar or providing security to minoties becomes appeasement of minorities for BJP.
Surely country deserves a better party, which is a synthesis of values and actions of the likes of Bhagat Singh, Ambedkar and Gandhi. In the current circumstances we are riddled with a rank communal-anti poor party BJP, and pragmatic communal Congress, which can occasionally also think about poor and weaker sections of society. The point is there can be a space to strengthen the polit in this direction. Hope the regional parties keep this in mind while making their choice.
--
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Taliban's Terror: Jazia on Sikhs
Taliban’s Terror-Jizya on Sikhs
Ram Puniyani
Pakistan is going through dangerous turmoil. The Taliban’s capturing of Swat valley (April 2009) and other parts of Pakistan are accompanied by the news of their atrocities in the region, which not only include the brutal killings of innocent citizens, mostly Muslims, on the ground of their belonging to different sub-sect of Islam, but also there has been imposition of Jizya, on non Muslims, Sikhs. While many Muslims have been killed and abducted many on various flimsy grounds, many a Sikhs have fled from the area. The failure to pay the full Jizya has caused Sikhs dear, while some of them have been kidnapped and others’ households-properties have been confiscated. Taliban’s logic is that they are imposing this as per the tenets of Islam.
What is the place of Jizya in Islam and is it relevant today? There is a mention of Jizya in Koran, the tax levied on non Muslims, in the conquered territories. Interestingly there was no such tax in Medina where Prophet lived for long years. The logic of Jizya on non Muslims in the conquered areas was that the non Muslims are to be exempted from military services, they are under the protection of the rule of Muslims, so this tax. It was a negotiable tax to be paid at the end of the year; it was levied only on the earning population in exchange for state protection. There was the parallel tax, Zakat on Muslims, which in many cases was more than the Jizya. There are instances when the Jizya levied by Muslim conquerors on non Muslim population turned out to be lower than the earlier taxation. It was more than clear that Jizya is not amongst eternal norms of Islam, it is something which has to be decided on social and political circumstances of the place and time.
We see that in later times with emergence of different political systems, Jizya was not much heard of. In India some Mughal rulers imposed this on Non Muslims with the similar intention. The aim of this was neither to punish the subjects nor to convert them. Mischievously the communal historiography in India tries to project that Aurangzeb and some other Muslim rulers imposed this as a means to convert the people. This argument does not hold any water. If Jizya was dished out as a threat to make people to convert to Islam than with conversion one will have to pay Zakat, which is no less. But any way the communal forces have made a good use of this to project the Muslim rulers in bad light and to demonize Muslims in current times.
Taliban is one of the most retrograde tendencies of Islam, bordering on insanity. Its action of atrocities on Women, on other Muslims is most reprehensible. Jizya on Sikhs is the latest in the series of such barbaric acts. If we go slightly back in time we see that Taliban was also responsible for destruction Buddha statues in Bamiyan. Who are Taliban and do they represent Islam?
Taliban has to be seen as a part of the politics in the name of religion, based on extremist Islamic streams, emerging in the oil rich zone, in countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait e.g., where the rulers have been making merry by playing hand maiden to the US designs of control on the oil wealth of the region. They have used Wahabi-Salafi, and other retrograde versions of Islam to keep their population subjugated and to ward off the democratic transformation of society. Their export of these fanatic versions to other countries got support in the areas at a time when United States was scheming to fight the occupation of Soviet troops by Russian armies.
The goal of US policy was to fight the Russian army by using the Asian Muslim youth. They achieved this by picking up meanings of Kafir and Jihad from these retrograde versions of Islam, where by the original meanings and the context is sacrificed, and Kafir comes to stand for every non Muslim and Jihad stands for killing the Kafirs. The systematic syllabus to train and indoctrinate the Muslim youth was developed in the strategy rooms of Washington and implemented in the specially opened Madrassas in Pakistan. It is the students of these Madrassas who were the soldies for Al Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden. Osama was richly funded by US, through CIA and lot of this money was raised by encouraging the opium trade. While a decade ago this might have been a revelation today all this has come out through various scholarly researches. Even Asif Ali Zardari confessed so much in his New York Times article a couple of months ago, the article which was reproduced by many major papers in India.
Osama not only received the monetary aid he also received the armaments in huge quantities, with the help of which he defeated the Russian armies. With the power vacuum coming up in Afghanistan, the less known Taliban, duly supported by US came up to be the major force in Afghanistan, later to be undermined after the Post 9/11 US invasion of Afghanistan. They resurfaced again with time. This cancer sowed by the US to fulfill its oil thirst survived the invasion and is currently tormenting the region, more particularly the Pakistan society. Hillary Clinton conceded as much when she said lot of the problems in the area are outcome of US policy in the region.
One should not jump to demonize Islam by the actions of Taliban or Al Qaeda. Many a rulers have used the identity of religion for expansion of their empires, to launch brutal wars, Crusades, Jihads, and Dharmyudhas. The beneficiary of this version of ‘religion at the service of rulers’, is Kings and the clergy, while average people suffer. The common theme of use of religion in politics is that such a use, nay abuse, of religion revolves around the identity related things of that religion and not to the morality of the religion. And Taliban or Al Qaeda are not alone in this category, there are others from other religions who commit similar atrocities on people of other religions, in the name of their religion. Religion is not an abstract phenomenon as such. On one hand it reflects the social and political reality and on the other shapes the same forces. There are different streams in every religion, depending on which social reality it reflects.
One fully stands with the Sikh community in condemning the brutality of Taliban’s, one also stands with the leaders of Indian Muslim community who have whole heartedly condemned this act of Taliban. The social and religious leaders of Indian Muslim community in their joint statement have not only condemned this act of Taliban they also point out that Jizya has no place in modern World. As the region in the neighborhood of India has been infested with the poisonous seeds of Al Qaeda and Taliban, one must recall the dangerous role played by the US Empire and local collaborators the Pakistan army in planintng this problem in the region.Is it not its moral obligation that US compensates the region for the mess it has created here? Is it not time that United Nations ensures the preservation of Human rights of those living in this area? The Indian Muslim leaders have already condemned the Taliban-Al Qaeda atrocities. The fanatics wearing the garb of Islam must be dealt with firmly and human rights of all must be upheld to the fullest extent.
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Ram Puniyani
Pakistan is going through dangerous turmoil. The Taliban’s capturing of Swat valley (April 2009) and other parts of Pakistan are accompanied by the news of their atrocities in the region, which not only include the brutal killings of innocent citizens, mostly Muslims, on the ground of their belonging to different sub-sect of Islam, but also there has been imposition of Jizya, on non Muslims, Sikhs. While many Muslims have been killed and abducted many on various flimsy grounds, many a Sikhs have fled from the area. The failure to pay the full Jizya has caused Sikhs dear, while some of them have been kidnapped and others’ households-properties have been confiscated. Taliban’s logic is that they are imposing this as per the tenets of Islam.
What is the place of Jizya in Islam and is it relevant today? There is a mention of Jizya in Koran, the tax levied on non Muslims, in the conquered territories. Interestingly there was no such tax in Medina where Prophet lived for long years. The logic of Jizya on non Muslims in the conquered areas was that the non Muslims are to be exempted from military services, they are under the protection of the rule of Muslims, so this tax. It was a negotiable tax to be paid at the end of the year; it was levied only on the earning population in exchange for state protection. There was the parallel tax, Zakat on Muslims, which in many cases was more than the Jizya. There are instances when the Jizya levied by Muslim conquerors on non Muslim population turned out to be lower than the earlier taxation. It was more than clear that Jizya is not amongst eternal norms of Islam, it is something which has to be decided on social and political circumstances of the place and time.
We see that in later times with emergence of different political systems, Jizya was not much heard of. In India some Mughal rulers imposed this on Non Muslims with the similar intention. The aim of this was neither to punish the subjects nor to convert them. Mischievously the communal historiography in India tries to project that Aurangzeb and some other Muslim rulers imposed this as a means to convert the people. This argument does not hold any water. If Jizya was dished out as a threat to make people to convert to Islam than with conversion one will have to pay Zakat, which is no less. But any way the communal forces have made a good use of this to project the Muslim rulers in bad light and to demonize Muslims in current times.
Taliban is one of the most retrograde tendencies of Islam, bordering on insanity. Its action of atrocities on Women, on other Muslims is most reprehensible. Jizya on Sikhs is the latest in the series of such barbaric acts. If we go slightly back in time we see that Taliban was also responsible for destruction Buddha statues in Bamiyan. Who are Taliban and do they represent Islam?
Taliban has to be seen as a part of the politics in the name of religion, based on extremist Islamic streams, emerging in the oil rich zone, in countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait e.g., where the rulers have been making merry by playing hand maiden to the US designs of control on the oil wealth of the region. They have used Wahabi-Salafi, and other retrograde versions of Islam to keep their population subjugated and to ward off the democratic transformation of society. Their export of these fanatic versions to other countries got support in the areas at a time when United States was scheming to fight the occupation of Soviet troops by Russian armies.
The goal of US policy was to fight the Russian army by using the Asian Muslim youth. They achieved this by picking up meanings of Kafir and Jihad from these retrograde versions of Islam, where by the original meanings and the context is sacrificed, and Kafir comes to stand for every non Muslim and Jihad stands for killing the Kafirs. The systematic syllabus to train and indoctrinate the Muslim youth was developed in the strategy rooms of Washington and implemented in the specially opened Madrassas in Pakistan. It is the students of these Madrassas who were the soldies for Al Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden. Osama was richly funded by US, through CIA and lot of this money was raised by encouraging the opium trade. While a decade ago this might have been a revelation today all this has come out through various scholarly researches. Even Asif Ali Zardari confessed so much in his New York Times article a couple of months ago, the article which was reproduced by many major papers in India.
Osama not only received the monetary aid he also received the armaments in huge quantities, with the help of which he defeated the Russian armies. With the power vacuum coming up in Afghanistan, the less known Taliban, duly supported by US came up to be the major force in Afghanistan, later to be undermined after the Post 9/11 US invasion of Afghanistan. They resurfaced again with time. This cancer sowed by the US to fulfill its oil thirst survived the invasion and is currently tormenting the region, more particularly the Pakistan society. Hillary Clinton conceded as much when she said lot of the problems in the area are outcome of US policy in the region.
One should not jump to demonize Islam by the actions of Taliban or Al Qaeda. Many a rulers have used the identity of religion for expansion of their empires, to launch brutal wars, Crusades, Jihads, and Dharmyudhas. The beneficiary of this version of ‘religion at the service of rulers’, is Kings and the clergy, while average people suffer. The common theme of use of religion in politics is that such a use, nay abuse, of religion revolves around the identity related things of that religion and not to the morality of the religion. And Taliban or Al Qaeda are not alone in this category, there are others from other religions who commit similar atrocities on people of other religions, in the name of their religion. Religion is not an abstract phenomenon as such. On one hand it reflects the social and political reality and on the other shapes the same forces. There are different streams in every religion, depending on which social reality it reflects.
One fully stands with the Sikh community in condemning the brutality of Taliban’s, one also stands with the leaders of Indian Muslim community who have whole heartedly condemned this act of Taliban. The social and religious leaders of Indian Muslim community in their joint statement have not only condemned this act of Taliban they also point out that Jizya has no place in modern World. As the region in the neighborhood of India has been infested with the poisonous seeds of Al Qaeda and Taliban, one must recall the dangerous role played by the US Empire and local collaborators the Pakistan army in planintng this problem in the region.Is it not its moral obligation that US compensates the region for the mess it has created here? Is it not time that United Nations ensures the preservation of Human rights of those living in this area? The Indian Muslim leaders have already condemned the Taliban-Al Qaeda atrocities. The fanatics wearing the garb of Islam must be dealt with firmly and human rights of all must be upheld to the fullest extent.
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