Dirt on our faces

There was an article in the newspaper that the present BJP-controlled Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) was threatening to withdraw small perks being provided to Dr. Kurien (Verghese Kurien, the milkman of India and the giant of the milk revolution in the country). This, after he stopped accepting any salary ever since he turned 58 and performed honorary services for the GCMMF for the next 28 years, and to the NDDB for the next 24 years till he quit both offices.

In many blogs and responses to newspaper reports on this issue, I saw comments which referred to the dangerous precedent that conferring privileges on a retired person would bring. I guess, the point was not about the privileges, but about how we treat people who have given their lives in building institutions which has continued to serve the country decades after they were formed. In almost all the rural areas I have worked in or visited (from Rajasthan to Gujarat to Maharashtra to Karnataka), I have seen the magic of the milk co-operatives being repeated endlessly, and also thriving. It guaranteed employment for so many rural households much before a Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme was even dreamt about. It made affordable nutrition possible for homes across India, by ensuring that one of the most perishable goods could reach people in an effective and affordable manner, by creating the large network of producers, collectors, processors, distributors, retailers and consumers.

After all these achievements, Dr. Kurien has still not stopped. He is still ‘a man with a mission’. The way Dr. Kurien is treated is just another example of the way we treat our visionaries and luminaries (including freedom fighters). Another snub to the 88-year old man may not mean much to someone who has weathered so much in his life. But disrespecting him is like shovelling dirt on our own faces – on those who do it, and those of us who stand by watching it being done!

A Christmas Wish

I normally write a short reflection during Christmas. My reflection this year is on Christmas in the aftermath of the Orissa violence…

A Christmas Wish

- dedicated to all the people of Kandhamal, Orissa, especially to the 8000+ people still living in relief camps, and to all those who live under the shadow of violence, anywhere in the world.

It was almost 12 at night
I tiptoed to where my children lay
Christmas was here, here at last, it was just a few moments away.
The Christmas star was burning bright
and it showed me the way, as I slowly tiptoed, very slowly tiptoed
to where my children lay.

Last year we had a blast,
Christmas had been a merry day
This year we are on a fast, on this beautiful Christmas day

By then I had reached the spot
the spot where they lay,
my children’s grave was bathed in light, in the silvery whey.
The Christmas star looked so bright
as it did that early Christmas morn,
much like the time in Bethlehem, when the little baby Jesus was born.

As in those days, Herod had said,
no baby boy should be alive, kill them all, show no mercy,
all I want is their head.

So it happened 2000 years later, in our very land,
in the land we call our home, they came,
and desecrated it with a sleight of hand
They burnt our places of worship
and set our fields on fire.
Next they came to our home with lathis and burning tyres.

As they looked at my sleeping children, I pleaded
and fell at their bloodied feet. Spare them, my brothers, and take my life, I cried.
but it fell on stone deaf ears.

2008 has been an eventful year for us.
driven out of home, plundered and murdered, were we
but Christmas this year has become, has become very real!
The baby who was born
on that cold Christmas night, grew up to show
that God’s love is for all, yea for all, irrespective of who we were.

Give it, spread it, never withhold it, He said,
more for those who hate you, than for a friend.
As a witness of this love, you I send.

As I knelt down at my children’s graves
I shed a silent tear. Yes, for my little children,
but also for those who shed their innocent blood.
With hearts cold with hatred, and eyes filled with fury,
no rest, no peace they knew
for as they killed my children, they killed a piece of themselves too.

With these thoughts raging in my head,
I wondered, if peace I would ever know,
Must be the same, I thought, for those, who had struck the fatal blow.

As I closed my eye in prayer, His Spirit did I feel
urging me to love them,
for they too needed to heal.
Filled with His Spirit, I shouted into the night,
Lord I have a Christmas wish. Help me to love as you did,
so much, that for us you even died!

- Naveen I. Thomas
Dec 24, 2008

Countering terror

The decision by the Vice Chancellor (VC) of Jamia Millia University to offer legal aid to its students accused of indulging in terrorist acts in laudable. Governments are under pressure to show quick results, and any suspect is presumed to be guilty if the case pertains to so-called ‘terror’. In this atmosphere, every care must be taken to ensure that the accused get a chance of proper defence and fair trial. The BJP’s protest against the VC’s action is only to be expected. They have a history of supporting and implementing laws, at the centre and in states ruled by them, which rides roughshod over principles of natural justice. It is for this very reason that laws like POTA and Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, which becomes an instrument in the hands of rulers to terrorise anybody must be opposed.

(A shortened version of this was published in Letters to the Editor, in The Hindu, Sep 26, 2008)

Violence as a religion

Reporting on the Malegaon blasts investigations, the media is full of reports about “Hindu terror groups”. (NDTV, Oct 26, 2008). Once again we are falling into the trap of linking an entire religion with groups who propagate violence and terror. The perpetrators of the violence claim to be indulging in the violent crimes for the sake of a particular religion or group of people. But that doesn’t mean that we label them as “terror groups” linked to a particular religion. Let us take a hypothetical situation. If a group of people go around bombing places in the name of protecting media rights, will we immediately call them “media terrorists”? Wouldn’t that be painting the entire media with the “terror” brush. And this time I have BJP to back what I am saying. Their spokesperson has asked “Should we condemn an entire religion or way of life for the indiscretions or misguided actions of but a few?” (Times of India, 30 Oct, 2008). It is very sad that it took a Malegaon case for them to realise how it feels to paint an entire community with a terror brush.

As I have said in all my earlier posts on this topic (Stop communalising terror, The faith of a fundamentalist, Who is a terrorist) let us desist from using the names of religions or communities to label an act of violence or terrorism. The perpetrators of the crime are only promoting one religion by their acts – the religion of violence.

The Indian Religion

I got this picture as a email forward. Liked the spirit of this message. Posting it here for all to see.

The faith of a fundamentalist

It is not very difficult to stoke the flame of communalism in the country. The ground work has been surely and steadily laid over the years and is bearing fruit now. The job of a fundamentalist or an extremist or a fanatic is very easy these days, be it a Christian, or a Hindu or a Muslim, or a person of any religion or grouping.

My colleague was teaching in a Pre-University college (11th and 12th standards) in Bangalore. The college had many students who hailed from villages around Bangalore. Since they had studied in Kannada up to 10th standard, most of them struggled coping with Science subjects since they were taught in English. My colleague, took extra pains to ensure that each student understood what she taught and went to great lengths to make the subject interesting and accessible. Since she was fluent in Kannada, that also helped her to demystify the subject for the students who were facing difficulty due to the medium of instruction –English. Needless to say she was soon very popular among the students. One boy improved a lot in his studies after she began teaching him. He even brought his parents to the school one day. They came all the way to the college to thank her for helping the boy, who they said was doing very well in his overall performance. All of a sudden, he stopped going to her for help and he often missed her regular class. When she sent word through his friends for him to go and meet her, he refused. One day, she met him and asked him why he was not attending classes, and enquired whether he was alright, etc. After a lot of reluctance he spoke. Making the sign of the cross, he asked her, do you belong to that group. She said, “Yes, I am a Christian”. He said that was why he didn’t want to attend her classes or be associated with her in any way. Puzzled at the reaction, my colleague probed further.  It turned out that he had studied in a school, which was run by a right wing fundamentalist group where he grew up on propaganda which demonised Muslims and Christians. He told her all those things which he had been taught about them. It was so spiteful and dangerous!  She said that she was surprised that he only stayed away from her classes and didn’t do anything more.

My friend who worked in the State Government recounted a similar experience. A colleague of his after years of working with him, asked him whether ‘he was an exception, or whether all Christians were like him’. When asked for the reason of his question, he said that he grew up in his village hearing all kinds of things against Christians, that he was surprised to find that my friend was a “normal human being like him”.

The teachings and practices of fundamentalist Christians and Muslims and others are equally dangerous and harmful as the fundamentalist Hindus. All these fundamentalist and fanatic and extremist groups of different religions work in their own ways (knowingly or unknowingly) to create a lose-lose situation, where the teaching of their religion are dishonoured as are the followers of the different faiths. The actual religion of these extremist is not Christianity or Islam or Hinduism, but fundamentalism and the result of their faith is hatred and violence and destruction!!!

Who is a terrorist?

During recent discussions with a friend, I found him implying the oft-repeated notion that all those who were caught in recent times for “terrorist” activities were Muslims. I had dealt with a similar issue in an earlier posting (Stop communalising terror!)

While the police promptly come up with some Muslim group’s name for involvement in the terrorist activities, it remains a mystery as to how many of these actually end in convictions? Tehelka in an investigative piece on SIMI, which is accused in every other case, “reveals a shocking web of dubious cases being pursued against so-called operatives of SIMI — cases which lack evidence, cases which flagrantly ignore standard procedures of criminal investigation and trial, cases that callously destroy the lives of young men and their families.” (Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 32, Dated Aug 16, 2008)

It is interesting that those who say that “Muslims are behind every terrorist attack” conveniently ignore some incidences of violence. Today thousands of Christian families in Orissa are hiding in their jungles fearing for their lives. Their houses, churches and property have been destroyed and many of them killed. Does this not count as a case of terrorism? Oh sorry, the perpetrators of this violence were not Muslims, so this can’t be terrorism! In Gujarat, when the genocide took place and Muslims were killed in droves, we didn’t call it “terrorism”. We called it a “spontaneous outpouring of emotions”! In Orissa too, the violence followed the murder of a Swamiji. So, the violence was justified as “an emotional outburst of the Swamiji’s supporters”, and not an act of terrorism. The Government claimed that the Swamiji was killed by the Naxalities. So, again it was not terrorism as no Muslims were involved. The right wing extremist groups said, ‘yes, they were Naxalites, but they were Christian Naxalites, so the violence is only a retribution for the Swamiji’s killing’.

I am reminded of an incident which happened last year. One Sunday morning, a temple priest was found hanging from a tree near his temple. Violence followed for two days. Vehicles were stoned and normal life was disrupted. The supporters of the temple priest said that he had been murdered and it could not be a case of suicide. The Government moved in fast to bring the situation under control. They established talks with the violent groups and got them to hold their peace atleast until the post-mortem report was out. There was wide-spread fear of communal clashes if it turned out that the death was due to murder. Eventually it turned out that it had been a case of suicide and there ended the matter. Now, this situation too could have gone out of hand. Accusations could have been hurled at anybody or any community. Those who had an axe to grind could have easily vitiated the atmosphere. The minority communities in that area actually lived in great fear for 2-3 days, because they knew that they would be the first target. But the swift decisive action taken by the Government saved the day.

We seem to have perfected the art of calling violence by different names based on who is accused (please note, not proven guilty, but accused). We call it terrorism, we call it naxalism, we call it retribution. In essence it is the same thing – one human being killing another.

Marginalisation and the label

Now ‘Marginalisation of Muslims’ in NCERT textbook, screamed the headline (Indian Express web edition, May 28, 2008). The news item was about how the topic ‘Marginalisation of Muslims’ was included in NCERT textbook. If one failed to consider the single quotes, the sentence could be easily misconstrued. Anyway, the article spoke about how the NCERT had introduced a chapter ‘Muslims and Marginalisation’ in the Class-VIII Social Sciences textbook to make students aware about how the Muslims had not got proper benefits of the social and economic development in the country. The chapter also cited the findings of the study on Muslims’ status prepared by Justice Rajinder Sachar in 2006.

While 90% of the readers comments to the article, abused Muslims and asked them to show their loyalty, a few voices discussing the issue of ‘proportional representation’ and other forms of marginalisation was also seen. While I am not reproducing those comments here, I am sharing what I wrote, and some of my response to the comments.

First comment

Marginalisation in any form needs to be condemned. If marginalisation of Muslims is given to highlight the social inequalities with respect to religion, then it should be appreciated. More so in this vitiated atmosphere, where a whole community is often treated with suspicion and contempt. I feel that the marginalisation of Muslims is not just in the arena of economic development, but it spreads to even routine matters such as sharing a neighbourhood, giving a house on rent, and so on. Some of the comments in this space also reflects the deep hatred that people harbour towards an entire community.

One comment was by a person (Sushil Bhardwaj) who said that honest development for every marginalized groups without the label of what group would be the real solution, and not proportional representation. He further added that creating jobs, lifelong learning opportunity, building self esteem, etc. was needed and not divisive projects.
My reponse to him was as follows:

Sub: Marginalisation intrinsically linked to the label

You make a very important point about “proportional representation”. Yes, if one starts going about proportional representation, then there is no end to it. Your points about providing an initial impetus (education) and then letting people take off on their own steam is also well taken. But this would work ideally only in an situation where merit equals opportunity. The assumption in your statement is that if good education is provided, then all are at a level playing field, which enables them to go on and create opportunities for themselves. But this rarely happens, because the impact of marginalisation is not just lack of opportunities; it permeates through the very social fabric of life. Let me give you one example. It is very difficult for a well-educated middle class muslim family to get accommodation in common housing societies in urban cities of India.

The Sachar report highlights many other such glaring facts. So, it is not just the lack of opportunities which is creating these tensions it goes much beyond, especially for castes and religions in India which have been traditionally or systematically marginalised. This is not to say that marginsalisation does not exist abroad. The situation of blacks in the US, or Indians in many other countries is also similar. So, basically marginalisation is often linked to the label of caste or religion or ethnicity, and delinking them would be over-looking that reality. But I totally agree with you that overall ‘honest development (as you call it) for every marginalized groups, creating jobs, lifelong learning opportunity, building self esteem, etc’ would bring down marginalisation to a great extent, and may even do away with the need for label based solutions. But until then…. Probably dialogues like these would help in coming up with newer and more creative solutions.

Truth about the Gujarat genocide unravelled

Tehelka has called it the truth about Gujarat 2002 in the words of the men who did it. And what is ‘it’? It refers to how:
- a pregnant woman’s womb was indeed pierced with a sword and the foetus wrenched out.
- Muslims hiding in a gutter in the hope that they would survive were killed.
- the former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was hacked limb by limb and burned, in the Gulbarg Society massacre – a first-hand account
- dozens of Muslims hiding in a pit and clinging together in fear in Naroda Patiya were doused with kerosene and burnt alive.
and much, much more….

The press release of the investigation by Tehelka (which has all been recorded on camera) has claimed that “the investigation brings confirmation that the Gujarat murder of Muslims was not a spontaneous swell of anger, but a planned genocide strategised and executed by top functionaries of the RSS, the VHP, the Bajrang Dal and the state authorities, with the knowledge and sanction of Chief Minister Narendra Modi”. To read the whole press release, click here

Well, if Tehelka has unearthed this clinching evidence, they need to be congratulated. They have trodden where nobody in this large ‘democratic’ country has dared to tread. Governments have changed… people threw out the then incumbent government at the centre, hoping that the new one would look into the matter. But all we got was stoic silence from the new rulers. No action, no reaction and the perpetrators of the mass murders continued to rule. Tehelka has bucked the trend and followed up on an old and forgotten ’story’.

Well, what does it say about Indian democracy? It says that there are still a few (handful) of people who are willing to stake their lives in pursuit of the truth, while the rest of us get on with our lives, forgetting all about the terrible genocide which happened in front of our eyes.

It is amazing to see the discussions in leading newspapers about the revelations. It is more about ‘who will gain in the elections by these revelations’, rather than how can the perpetrators of the mass murders and their cheer-leaders contest in the election and continue to ‘rule’. This is a total dumbing down of our democracy…

Stop communalising terror!

In this age of 24 hour television news channels, it is quite common to hear reporters quote unconfirmed reports and half-truths, especially when the situation is just developing. In the mad scramble to be the first one reporting the “story”, the causality figures are exaggerated, the cause of the incident speculated upon and the incident is thoroughly sensationalised. In most cases, this does not result in major problems, because soon the actual figures are out, and some responsible agency makes a statement, and life moves on. Nobody holds the channel to task for hiking the figures initially or for giving their ‘opinions’ as the news. It is at best seen as an irritant that one has to live with, because one also sympathises with the young reporters who are in the field, who are supposed to have all knowledge about the incident (sometimes even before it completely unfolds), and answer confidently when the news anchor sitting in the studio shoots off questions. (One hopes that the Indian news channels will work on this aspect, and minimise such incidents. It is a potentially dangerous trend). But the irritation turns into disgust when senior journalists write their dangerously biased opinions, and it is carried prominently in the middle pages of a Sunday newspaper.

A senior journalist has recently (What’s ailing RAW?, Times of India (ToI), Sep 9, 2007) tried to link the incidents of recent “terror attacks” in India to “states where the governments are hyper-sensitive about their avowed secular bias”. He asks if the terror groups have “taken advantage of the political constraints on effective policing?” As a contrast he points to Gujarat and asks “is their inability to strike, in Gujarat linked to the state’s no-nonsense policing?

Well, if non-nonsense policing means, refusing to file FIRs, multiple encounter killings, lapses in providing security cover to witnesses, taking no action when symbols and places of worship, and practitioners and leaders of different religions are targeted, then there are many reports to show for that kind of efficiency. Also, the attack on the Akshardham temple, killing 31 people and wounding more than 80, which happened in the “no-nonsense policing” state of Gujarat less than five years ago is still fresh in public memory.
In the article, the author blames “liberalism gone astray”. And what does that mean? He says that “it is all very well to drive home the truism that all Muslims are not terrorists”, and that the “slogan ‘terrorists have no religion’ is an adroit homily…”, which he says will cause complications when “transmitted down the line to mean that no Muslim is a terrorist”. These kind of statements not just communalise terror, they also, strengthen the already prejudiced views about Muslims. Kuldip Nayar, in a recent article in Afternoon, Mumbai says that “non-compliance of Krishna report spread the impression that when it comes to taking action against Muslims, the government is firm but lax in the case of Hindus”. He further states that, this reading is strengthened when one notices that action is still awaited on reports on riots at Jabalpur (1961), Ranchi (1967), Bhiwandi (1970), Jamshedpur (1979), Meerut (1982) and Bhagalpur (1989) where “Hindu extremists were found to be the instigators”, along with “politicians and police officials” . In some cases, “Muslim fundamentalists, too were involved”. Now, what message does this transmit down the line?
Communalising terror also means that only certain kind of terror and terror groups are considered, and one is blind to all the others. Does an incident need a bomb to be blasted to be counted as act of terror? Isn’t genocide an act of terror? Isn’t planned targeting of communities, with the connivance of the “no-nonsense police” an act of terror? Isn’t the fact that 3,660 families are still living in 69 temporary colonies (as admitted by the Gujarat government before the National Commission of Minorities) even five years after they were displaced as a result of the worst-ever communal riots in 2002, an act of great terror.
The author in the ToI article says that “the dimensions of jihadi terror are transnational”, and says that we need “quality intelligence from the neighbourhood to confront terrorism”. But, I would say, what we urgently need is to stop this practise of viewing violence and extremism with coloured lens and communalising issues. Let us remember that the roots of violence – be it terrorism, or domestic violence or communal violence is the same. By communalising these issues, we are falling into the same trap!