All posts by Nivedita Menon

Bad ideas, Culture, Right watch

Peace on Earth and Social Justice – Christmas greetings!

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Protest at Delhi Police Headquarters after the burning of St Sebastian’s Church in Dilshad Gardens/ Image from The Indian Express

We observe Christmas today under the ominous cloud of Hindutvavaadi violence against minorities, which began on the very day of the BJP electoral victory seven months ago, and their determined attempt to obliterate all religious identities other than their own narrow version of Hinduism, a Hinduism that brutally excludes even large numbers of people who would consider themselves Hindu. From burning churches to physically attacking ‘Muslim-looking’ men, to trying to erase Christmas under the banal bureaucratese of Good Governance Day – Hindutvavaad has never had it so safe, never has it been so arrogant, as under the protective gaze of Modi, a Prime Minister who produces reams of flowery prose in his speeches, but through his public silence on these atrocities, satisfies both Hindutvavaad and his neo-liberal supporters – the one recognizing his benign encouragement, the other fooling itself that his silence shows displeasure. Continue reading Peace on Earth and Social Justice – Christmas greetings! →

Debates, Everyday Life, Right watch

Converting Religion, Converting law: Rajshree Chandra

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Guest Post by RAJSHREE CHANDRA

The right to freedom of religion  (Art. 25 of the Indian Constitution) in a country like India has a burden so extensive and a content so capacious that the same right functions both as an instrument of individual liberty As well as a mode through which the state intervenes to discipline and curtail religious freedom. It has a history so diverse and conflicted that the right often become a mode of settling quid pro quo battles between religious publics, and law often becomes hostage to the principle of ‘historical correction’.

There have been various modes of historical corrections. If the demolition of Babri Masjid was one, ghar wapasi – a return home to one’s religion – is another. The recent ghar wapasi episode in Agra, where RSS affiliate Bajrang Dal converted 57 Muslims to Hinduism; the proposed and then withdrawn conversion of Muslims and Christians in Aligarh on 25th December 2014 by the RSS’s Dharm Jagran Samiti; and the scheduled holy dip of an expected 50,000 “reconverts” (of the last five years) in the Godavari during the Kumbh at Nashik next August are instances and signs of the “re-conversion” rhetoric steadily mainstreaming itself. The question is how does the state and law respond to this?

‘Re-conversions’ are not new in Indian history. Katju & Sikand document instances of mass conversions of Muslims into Hinduism from 1947 onwards, and more forcefully and openly from the 1990s onwards, as part of the Shuddhi (purification) movement. The VHP, an adjunct of the Sangh, extols the practice of ghar wapasi and had claimed that over 200,000 Christians had been converted to Hinduism. The re-conversion argument – of shuddhi and ghar wapasi – is invoked by the various factions of the Sangh Parivar as a modus that aims to correct the history of conversions away from Hinduism.  Continue reading Converting Religion, Converting law: Rajshree Chandra →

Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Statement on Peshawar Massacre: People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism, Delhi

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People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism, Delhi, condemns the ghastly attack on school children in Peshawar (Pakistan) by Tehreek-e-Taliban in which over 140  innocent lives were lost. It is a plain case of murders by the people spewing venom in the name of religion and ideology with no regard for human life. PADS demands that such fundamentalist violence be dealt with firmly by the authorities in Pakistan and expresses its solidarity with the parents of the children whose lives were snatched away by the murderous gang which, only to hoodwink the people, claims to be fighting imperialism. By their act they have shown how dangerous they are for the common citizens of Pakistan.

It is also important to note that people in general in Pakistan have to stand up against all kinds of violence. There is no acceptable violence and unacceptable violence. Violence, under the illegitimate legal cover of Blasphemy Laws is being perpetrated, and celebrated in the name of religion in the country. Condoning any kind of violence against the innocent people in the name of religion, provides raison d’etre to the forces like TTP. The ghastly murders in Peshawar is a signal for the Pakistani society  to look inward and work in unison to keep religion away from State to avail the benefits of the democratic rule.

The Indian school children and Parliament have shown solidarity with people of Pakistan by keeping a two minutes silence, on the suggestion of Prime Minister Modi. Such solidarity, however, should be expressed not only at the moment of grave tragedies, but should become a normal state of affairs between the two countries. The political and military leadership of the two countries should avoid aggressive rhetoric and militarisation and peacefully settle all outstanding issues.

PADS notes with the sense of urgency that the Taliban-like Hindutva forces have grown in size, influence, and impact in India orchestrating killings and triggering mass displacement of the people. PADS would like to forewarn the people of India that communalists of any religion have the same traits and ultimately, it is the members of the same community, whose interests such groups claim to espouse, become their targets. This is the time for the peoples of India and Pakistan to unite against the use of religion for committing murders of the innocent.

18.12.2014

Everyday Life, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Remembering 1992: School of Media and Cultural Studies, TISS Mumbai

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Dislocation

Hardening Divides

Remembering 1992 is a site that seeks to revisit and remember the violence that the city of Bombay/Mumbai experienced in December 1992 and January 1993. This site includes 6 films, video interviews and transcripts, news clippings, reports and other resources. The project started with the films that were made by students (Class of 2013) and faculty and used as a part of the campaign Bombay ki Kahani Mumbai ki Zubaani, held between December 2012 and January 2013.

In a political and social context where the memory of this violence has been rewritten and all but erased, it is crucial to remember, to explore the contours of normalised prejudice and to understand how the survivors have struggled with the denial of justice. It is also necessary to think about how and why the memory of such a watershed event gets erased and who benefits from this erasure.

The website explores different kinds of memory, organised around themes and uses a timeline and map to list the events of the 1992-93 riots,based on the Justice Srikrishna report.

Everyday Life, Feminism, Violence/Conflict

Before the Killing, the End of Honour: Rina Ramdev and Debaditya Bhattacharya

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Guest Post by RINA RAMDEV AND DEBADITYA BHATTACHARYA

For daring to elope and marry outside the dictates of caste-community honour codes, a young Delhi University undergraduate came to a brutal death at the hands of her family. The incident since then has become part of public discourse, thanks to our newspaper-educated sensibilities. But the ‘popular’ set of responses that this event has generated from our newsreaderly selves is worth some reviewing. While there has been a large-scale condemnation of this incident from ‘civilized’ quarters of the media-enlightened, the most commonly employed terms of this debate have veered around an imagination of a ‘civilizational modernity’ versus an ‘aggressive-savage primitivism’. Are we still in the Dark Ages, most have asked. Is not ‘love marriage’ a civilizational mandate of the age of the modern, others have comfortably posed and then gone on to conclude that the fact that we – as a ‘society’, metropolitan-converts in this case – have not yet made our peace with a civil code of morality relegates us to a ‘rustic-primitive mindset’. The muse of Indian judicial processes and imaginations of penal justice – ah! the “collective conscience” – has spoken thus and gone back to catching up on Ramzaadas and terror attacks on national ‘honour’. And just while we were conveniently conceding to the relative insignificance of an undergraduate girl’s ‘honour’ compared to the prime-time rhetorical spectres of ‘national honour’ in Jammu & Kashmir, a leading English daily attempted to bring back a few ‘dark’ images from Bhawna Yadav’s past.  Continue reading Before the Killing, the End of Honour: Rina Ramdev and Debaditya Bhattacharya →

Bad ideas, Everyday Life, Politics

Stop Manual Scavenging in JNU: Forum Against Manual Scavenging

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Authors’ Note:

The Chennai based Forum Against Manual Scavenging, (FAMS) can be contacted at famschennai@gmail.com. We have tried to create some awareness on this issue especially among student community (with the assistance of some of the Professors/Faculty based in Chennai) in which we were guided by Safai Karamchari Andolan, Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan, Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front, Janodayam Social Education Centre,  Republic Trade Union of India,  Red Flag Union of Tamil Nadu and other similar organizations (in and outside Chennai) struggling on this issue which are led primarily by the Dalit Women from the community itself.  

A documentary, ‘Sahar se Pehle’ (Before the Dawn) on sanitation workers in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus in Delhi was made by some students of the university. The JNUSU has been consistently raising the issue of abysmally bad condition of sanitation workers in JNU for quite some years now. Earlier in 2012, JNUSU had also participated in a signature campaign against manual scavenging (signed by the then JNUSU President). The documentary shows the manual scavenging is still prevalent in the premier university even after the ban on manual scavenging by the Delhi government (sanitation is a State subject according to the Constitution of India) and after the enactment of “The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.”

This documentary was also selected for the Canadian Labour International Film Festival, 2014, and was available online on YouTube and other sites from February 2014, but was not widely circulated on mainstream media or social media. We also came to know about it only a fortnight ago because the write-up attached to it does not explicitly mention manual scavenging.

The JNU student community has started a campaign called Stop Manual Scavenging in JNU, with the message “Use hashtag #StopMSinJNU to SPEAK OUT against the inhuman practices of manual scavenging and hazardous cleaning in #JNU.”  Continue reading Stop Manual Scavenging in JNU: Forum Against Manual Scavenging →

Bad ideas, Capitalism, Government, Violence/Conflict

Demolition Drive in Vadodara, 2014: Kathyayini Dash, Rushabh Vishawakarma, Hussain Sabu, Bhagwati Prasad Suryavanshi

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Guest post by KATHYAYINI DASH, RUSHABH VISHAWAKARMA, HUSSAIN SABU & BHAGWATI PRASAD SURYAVANSHI

Untitled

In Tarsali, 10 kilometers from Vadodara

Note from authors:

We are a group of friends and students from MS University, Baroda. One of us, Rushabh, lives in Kalyannagar which has partly been demolished and this house too is slated for demolition. We have written this to bring to the surface what demolition and displacement means, from the perspective of those who live in places like Kalyannagar, which cannot even be called a ‘slum’. We could see first hand what happened during the demolition because our friend lived there.  We all have spent happy times at Kalyannagar, Rushabh’s home. We felt we owe it to these memories to at least record these events. You can visit us at BarodaBeat.

Development they say…

They say by 2015, not one jhopdi will be seen…Vadodara’s landscape would be studded with flyovers, high rise buildings, malls, clean pothole-free roads. There will be no stench of garbage, leave alone the sight of it.

The recent floods in Vadodara set off an alarm, urging the quick setting up of “river-front projects” which included the demolition and re-location of slum dwellings near the river which were so awfully affected during the floods.

They say, “this is not fair. They sure need help; first priority in fact. They have to be the first to be taken into consideration before going on to people who have it all: a raised plinth level, a well cemented house, resources to recover the losses incurred in the floods. The jhopdiwaale, well, they have nothing at all, don’t they? Already low on the economic scale, they have no resources to recover the losses incurred during the floods, they don’t even have pakka houses to resist the floods. And on top of it all, they have houses built along the river itself. Poor things, where else would they build their houses. But then, these houses shouldn’t be there in the first place isn’t it? Because this is government land, and they don’t have the right to live there. What good is it anyway?” they say. “It is near the river, there is always a dangerous risk of the river flooding and them and their houses drowning,” they say. Continue reading Demolition Drive in Vadodara, 2014: Kathyayini Dash, Rushabh Vishawakarma, Hussain Sabu, Bhagwati Prasad Suryavanshi →

Bad ideas

3 lakh bogus voters found in Modi’s Varanasi seat?

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It appears that the Election Commission has so far traced 3,11,057 fake voters who cast their votes in Varanasi in the Lok Sabha election earlier this year. The district administration is expecting the number of fake voters to reach around 6,47,085 by the end of the examination process.

Remember – Narendra Modi ‘won’ this seat by 3 lakh 71 thousand 784 votes.

This news was first reported in Navbharat Times on November 25, 2014:

जिस वाराणासी संसदीय सीट से नरेंद्र मोदी ने 371784 वोटों से जीत हासिल की है, वहां 311057 फर्जी वोटर मिले हैं। अभी गिनती जारी है और जिला प्रशासन का अनुमान है कि फर्जी वोटरों की संख्या 647085 जा सकती है। इतनी बड़ी संख्या में फर्जी वोटर पहली बार वाराणसी में सामने आए हैं। लाखों की तादाद में मिले फर्जी वोटरों का खुलासा तब हुआ जब भारत निर्वाचन आयोग के निर्देश पर जिला प्रशासन ने मतदाता सूची का पुनरीक्षण अभियान शुरू किया। जिले के सभी पोलिंग सेंटर पर तैनात बूथ लेवल ऑफिसर से घर-घर जाकर मतदाताओं का सत्यापन करवाने के बाद इन बोगस वोटरों का खुलासा हुआ है।

Aaj Tak reported it on November 26, 2014:

प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी और उनकी पार्टी बीजेपी के लिए मुश्किलें बढ़ाने वाली खबर है. खबरों के मुताबिक, नरेंद्र मोदी के संसदीय क्षेत्र वाराणसी में 3 लाख 11 हजार 57 फर्जी वोटर मिले हैं. याद रहे कि यहां मोदी ने 3,71,784 वोटों से आम आदमी पार्टी के अरविंद केजरीवाल को हराया था.

बताया जा रहा है कि फर्जी वोटरों की गिनती अभी जारी है और जिला प्रशासन का अनुमान है कि फर्जी वोटरों की संख्या 6 लाख 47 हजार से ज्यादा जा सकती है. इतनी बड़ी संख्या में फर्जी वोटर वाराणसी में पहली बार सामने आए हैं. ये वे लोग हैं जिन्होंने दो या उससे ज्यादा विधानसभा क्षेत्र की मतदाता सूची में अपना नाम लिखवा रखा है. इसी के साथ सोशल मीडिया पर AAP समर्थक नरेंद्र मोदी पर फर्जी मतों से जीत हासिल करने का आरोप लगाने लगे हैं. गौरतलब है कि आम आदमी पार्टी पहले भी बीजेपी पर फर्जी वोट डलवाने का आरोप लगाती रही है.

According to Shubhanshu Sharma:
If we go by district administration’s claims, they are expecting to find around 1,12,160 bogus voters in Pindra, 1,01,456 in Ajgara, 87,140 in Shivpur, 84,757 in Rohania, 65,989 in Cantt, and 90,942 in Sewapuri regions. 
Kohram News had claimed soon after results were declared in May 2014 that the calculation of votes in the Varanasi seat was anomalous:
Kohram News had also publicized the news of the EVM found in the home of Ankit Gaurav Srivastava, an engineer in Varanasi, the night before the elections.  This news had circulated widely, including on Kafila.
If this is true, what next? As I understand it, according to Article 329 of the Constituion of India, for an election to be set aside, an election petition must be presented “to such authority and in such manner as may be provided for by or under any law made by the appropriate Legislature.”

The Election Commission later recommended that trial of election petitions should be entrusted to the High Courts instead of election tribunals. Parliament thus enacted Section 80-A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 providing that the High Court shall be the authority for presentment of election petitions under Article 329 (b) of the Constitution. This was incorporated by an amendment in the year 1966 (Act 47 of 1966).

The last time the election of a sitting Prime Minister was set aside for corrupt electoral practices, on June 12, 1975, Indira Gandhi (for it was she), declared a state of emergency.

We can expect no less from a Prime Minister who watches benignly over the continuous and growing humiliation of minorities and murderous attacks  on them; and who carefully supervises the wholesale handing over of the country to the biggest and most corrupt corporate bidders.

There is a lot at stake for Modi and his corporate bosses. And now they have the full backing of state power.

Nevertheless, if the news of bogus voters in Varanasi is true, Modi’s election should be set aside through due process.

Bad ideas, Education, Everyday Life, Feminism, Right watch

‘Law of the land’ on Kissing in Public: Sanjay Palshikar

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SANJAY PALSHIKAR, Professor, Political Science department, University of Hyderabad, clarifies the ‘law of the land’ on kissing in public, to the Committee set up by the Vice-Chancellor to ‘look into the matter of the incident of November 2, 2014.’

Respected Members,

At the centre of the incidents of November 2, 2014, is the alleged act by some students to display demonstratively mutual affection in the form of kissing. Without going into the factual correctness of the charge, let me share with you what I have learnt from legal scholars and activists. I do so in the hope that this will help the Committee “ascertain” “the position of the law of the land” regarding kissing in public.

  1. Indian judiciary at the higher levels has not universally treated kissing in public as illegal. In appropriate context, spelt out variously by the relevant judgments, it has been seen as an expression of love, expression of love and compassion, and its artistic representation as defensible. Absent in all theses cases is the tendency to presume that every kiss is an act of sexual expression and that indulging in this act in public is always obscene. (A & B vs State Thr. N.C.T. of Delhi 2009; Friday vs K.J. Sebastian 2001).
  1. The Supreme Court has observed that the Indian Penal Code “does not define the word obscene and this delicate task has to be performed by courts….” If the Apex Court considers it a delicate task, how much more challenging it would be for university teachers and police officers to say if an act is obscene! (Udeshi vs State of Maharashtra 1965).

Continue reading ‘Law of the land’ on Kissing in Public: Sanjay Palshikar →

Education, Feminism, Sex, Violence/Conflict

Statement by Forum for Democratic Rights in EFLU on the present state of affairs

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We, concerned citizens and members of women’s organizations, civil rights, students and minority rights forums, have come together to form the “Forum for Democratic Rights in EFL University” to  demand an immediate and thorough enquiry into the incident of gang rape and the suppression of democratic rights in EFL University. We wish to bring the following matter to your notice.

A recent horrific incident of the gang rape of a girl student took place in the EFLU men’s (Basheer) hostel on the night of 31st October 2014. The victim contacted the University authorities and was directed to the police who then arrested two accused on 2nd November 2014.  While this case of sexual assault on the university campus has deeply shocked the campus community, students, faculty and staff, even more shocking and worrying has been the attitude adopted by the university administration in its aftermath. Instead of seeking to undertake measures to make the campus free of violence and assault and promoting gender-sensitivity, the administration has resorted to several measures that are nothing short of severe repression of all democratic rights of the campus community as a whole.

Immediately after the incident, there were some reports with speculations about the victim’s presence in the men’s hostel. Aided by selective leaks by the University and the police, these reports amounted to character assassination and victim blaming, and divulged crucial information regarding the complainant’s identity. This pernicious reasoning amounts to nothing but a justification of the crime. From the well-known case of Rameeza Bee to the recent Nirbhaya Act, it has been repeatedly asserted that the act of sexual assault or gang rape cannot be justified citing the previous history of the victim.  We strongly condemn the propaganda to malign the victim and underplay the gravity of the rape. The complainant must be provided with adequate and competent legal counsel, her psychological and emotional well-being must be taken care of, and her safety must be ensured.   Continue reading Statement by Forum for Democratic Rights in EFLU on the present state of affairs →

Culture, Sports

The end of an era – Mohammedan Sporting, Ambedkar Stadium and Football in Delhi: Jamal Kidwai

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Guest Post by JAMAL KIDWAI

Caught up in the launch of the Indian Soccer League (ISL) and its promotion by television and big Bollywood stars, very few noticed that the Kolkata based 123-yr-old Mohameddan Sporting, has effectively decided to close down due to a financial crisis. According to its management, they will stop playing for a year outside Kolkata and have disbanded the senior team.

The historic Mohammedan Sporting won the Calcutta league 11 times, the IFA Shield five times,  the Rovers Cup six times, the DCM tournament four times and the Federation Cup and the Durand Cup twice each.

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Mohammedan Sporting team that won the Calcutta League in 1940

Mohameddan Sporting, along with Mohun Bagan (established 1889) and East Bengal (established 1924) were the most popular clubs of India for over a century. Mohun Bagan drew its fan-following from the elite and the aristocracy of Bengal and its aim was to inspire young people to lead a principled life: for example, those who failed in school and college were not allowed to play and smoking and drinking in the club premises were prohibited. East Bengal, on the other hand, represented the working class and the lower-middle classes who came to stay in Kolkata from east Bengal, which later became Bangladesh.

Given the pan-Indian religious character of Mohd Sporting, it had easily the largest fan following across India. All the big tournaments patronized Mohd Sporting as it drew the largest crowds. The other major clubs like Dempo and Salgaocar came from Goa with a very limited support base outside Goa and Mumbai.  Continue reading The end of an era – Mohammedan Sporting, Ambedkar Stadium and Football in Delhi: Jamal Kidwai →

Capitalism, Everyday Life

The voices we didn’t hear: K.S. Narendran

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Guest Post by K.S. NARENDRAN

As I write this, we are entering the ninth month after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. I would not want it to be forgotten soon. My wife Chandrika Sharma was on that flight.

Over the past few months, as public attention has shifted to other issues, the long-drawn search for MH370 has seen many developments, ranging from the disturbing to the outrageous. The ineptitude of the Malaysian authorities was on public display, particularly in the early weeks of March 2014, and so merits no further comment. What is intriguing, even worrisome, though is that relevant institutions have been inaccessible or indifferent, be it in terms of pushing for the truth and seeking accountability, or in responding to the affected families’ needs. What follows is my own experience, my take.

The Indian Government: Mute and invisible

In the first week following the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines’ Flight 370, I had asked whether our government had any view on the incident, and any role in responding to it. After all, Indian citizens were involved. This evoked an interesting, if not distressing, set of responses. Indian Minister of State for External Affairs, E Ahmed, deemed the election campaign a higher priority, and opined that the Indian Embassy (at Kuala Lumpur) ought to have stepped in. In informal conversation, many were sympathetic with this view. The Ministry of Civil Aviation and the DGCA seemed similarly indifferent, or saw no role for themselves in responding to the incident or in assisting the affected families. Even the state governments, otherwise quick to take offence at any perceived slight or injury to sons and daughters of their ‘soil’, remained untouched, conspicuous by their silence. The only face of the government that I saw were the CB-CID Special Branch of the Police, the Indian arm of the Interpol and the Intelligence Bureau.  Each asked the same set of questions, suggesting that they work in silos,  that they don’t trust each other. Continue reading The voices we didn’t hear: K.S. Narendran →

Bad ideas, Education, Everyday Life, Feminism, Right watch

A kiss for your thoughts, University of Hyderabad: Anu K Antony, Mohan K Pillai, Sinjini Bhattacharya and Vaikhari Aryat

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Guest Post by ANU K ANTONY, MOHAN K PILLAI, SINJINI BHATTACHARYA, VAIKHARI ARYAT 

HYD

The protest meeting organised by the students of the University of Hyderabad on the university campus

‘That is knowledge which liberates’, proudly proclaims the crest of University of Hyderabad, a prominent central university in our country. A University space has been traditionally seen as the vanguard of socio-cultural critique and change. Universities pride themselves in upholding the values of freedom of thought, expression and debate. And yet, the reaction of the administration of the University of Hyderabad (UoH) to a recent event, in an otherwise liberal-tolerant and progressive-leaning campus, leaves much space for thought.

On November 2nd, a group of students organised an event on campus in solidarity with the much discussed “Kiss of Love” protest in Kerala. Titled “UoH Against Moral Policing”, the on-campus event, publicised solely on online social media, was supposed to create a space to discuss issues surrounding moral policing and the chain of Kerala incidents, bring out narratives of moral policing, talk about morality and Indian culture, and recite poetry. Also planned was a symbolic act of kissing on a chart paper, with the slogan “Our lips don’t char”. However, some ABVP and BJYM activists, with the aim of saving the students and the Indian culture from Western “immorality”, barged into campus and tried to attack the student protesters. The Telangana Police and campus security, who had failed to stop the intruders, did later succeed in cordoning them off from the protesting crowd, while insisting that the students call off the protest and disperse.

Unaccustomed to Police chauvinism and empowered enough to insist on their rights, the students managed to continue with their planned activities, although once in a while some right-wing activists managed to break ranks and tried to incite violence. The campus community however showed great restraint and continued protesting peacefully.  In response to such moral policing inside campus, the 250-plus students spontaneously started hugging and kissing each other, before dispersing.  Continue reading A kiss for your thoughts, University of Hyderabad: Anu K Antony, Mohan K Pillai, Sinjini Bhattacharya and Vaikhari Aryat →

Debates, Feminism, Law

Debating Muslim Law after Shah Bano – the Model Nikahnama Initiative: A Suneetha

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Guest Post by A SUNEETHA continuing the discussion on Uniform Civil Code on Kafila.

In popular imagination Muslim women’s unequal position in marriage is symbolized by cases such as Shah Bano or Imrana. It is understood this is the result of the religion-based Muslim personal law and the rigid control of women by the community in general and ulema in particular. Not many are aware that the same religion-based marriage law also offers tools for changing Muslim women’s position in marriage. In the last ten years, an ordinary document that every Muslim couple signs at the time of marriage – nikahnama or marriage contract – has assumed such a role. It has been innovatively used to initiate discussions and push for changes in the community’s thinking about the Muslim women’s position in marriage. In these efforts, a large number of “religious” and “non-religious” Muslim groups got into a conversation and set off a consensus-building process on the issue of a Muslim woman’s “entitlements”.

This discussion assumes importance in the context of the ongoing debate on UCC.  The debate on the UCC entered a new phase when, unhappy with the removal of Muslim women from the ambit of S 125 Crpc that guarantees all divorced women a minimum maintenance and the promulgation of a separate provision for divorced Muslim women called Muslim Women’s Maintenance Act 1986, many women’s groups renewed their demand for a UCC in 1990. Such a Code, it was hoped, would bring marital equality to women of all religions. When the Bharatiya Janata Party hijacked this demand to castigate Muslim men, (as if Hindu men were free of misogynist and patriarchal behaviour), such a hope was irretrievably lost. In the post-Babri Masjid demolition period, when there were pogroms against the Muslim communities, such a law would have found it impossible to garner support from the Muslims, especially if it were made by the BJP dominated Parliament. As anyone familiar with law knows, a consensus is important for law-making so that it is accepted and followed. But the changed situation of unparalleled parliamentary dominance of BJP brings newer challenges to all those working on issues of gender justice in all communities.

Muslim women were caught in this unenviable position since the 1990s – of having to address their own situation – under-age marriages, non-payment of mehr, arbitrary talaq, cruelty in marriage, maintenance after talaq, multiple marriages of men, resistance to women’s employment etc. while taking care that the Muslim men are not vilified further. Continue reading Debating Muslim Law after Shah Bano – the Model Nikahnama Initiative: A Suneetha →

Capitalism, Government, Law

Concerns on proposed meetings of Intellectual Property Owners Association with IPAB and the Delhi High Court: Campaign for Affordable Trastuzumab

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The Campaign for Affordable Trastuzumab was launched in November 2012 and has been endorsed by over 200 Indian and global patient associations, cancer survivors, health movements, women’s rights activists and eminent jurists.

Kalyani Menon-Sen, Leena Menghaney and KM Gopakumar from this campaign express serious concerns about  the intent and purpose of the “Innovation Dialog” being organised in India from November 16-22, 2014 by the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPOA).

To: Hon’ble Justice Mr. H.L. Dattu (Hon’ble Chief Justice of India); Hon’ble Justice Smt. G. Rohini, (Chief Justice, Delhi High Court); Hon’ble Justice K.N. Basha (Chair, Intellectual Property Appellate Board)

Dear Hon’ble Justice Dattu, Hon’ble Justice Rohini and Hon’ble Justice K.N. Basha,

We write to you on behalf of the Campaign for Affordable Trastuzumab, a network of treatment activists, patients and public interest lawyers committed to making the breast cancer drug – trastuzumab – affordable in India. We have closely followed the misuse of patent rights and more recently the vexatious litigation of the Swiss pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd in India to maintain control over the market for the life–saving drug (trastuzumab), thus blocking access to treatment for thousands of women with HER2+ breast cancer.

This letter is to express our grave concern about the intent and purpose of the “Innovation Dialog” being organised in India from November 16-22, 2014 by the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPOA).

The IPOA is a US-based group consisting of large corporations and law firms which has been aggressively lobbying on issues of intellectual property standards and enforcement in India and pushing a pro-corporate agenda. The biased and unbalanced position taken by the IPOA is especially troubling when it concerns medicines, where the use of intellectual property protections have restricted access to affordable treatment and blocked competition.
 Continue reading Concerns on proposed meetings of Intellectual Property Owners Association with IPAB and the Delhi High Court: Campaign for Affordable Trastuzumab →

Capitalism, Debates, Right watch

Whatever happened to the great debate? Ankita Anand

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Guest Post by ANKITA ANAND

On 6 November 2014 BBC World invited three panellists from different sectors to debate on ‘A New India: Free, Fair and Prosperous’ as part of the World Economic Forum. Issues of content and objectivity apart, one still has high expectations of a group like BBC when it comes to setting high standards of form. But this ‘debate’ fell flat on its face on all counts.

No rules of the game

One would think that in a discussion like this all three panellists would bring in varied viewpoints due to their specialization in their individual sectors. However, if one wants to quote either the minister or the corporate voice in the debate, it would require constant rechecking to distinguish who said what. Of course businnesses and governments need not always be in conflict with each other. But this smooth overlapping can be dangerous if those who are to be at the receiving end of this coalition between corporate bodies and governing bodies get completely left out. So for all practical purposes, instead of having three distinct voices, the format of the session (to keep calling it a debate would be to perpetuate technical erroneousness) was two against one. The yesmanship resulting out of this format naturally dulled the sparkling energy any debate worth its salt should have. Continue reading Whatever happened to the great debate? Ankita Anand →

Education, Feminism, Genders

Aligarh Muslim University women should not back down just because BJP has taken up their cause: Asiya Islam

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ASIYA ISLAM argues on Scroll.in that AMU’s women students demanding library access have always been warned not to wash the institution’s dirty linen in public, for fear of providing fodder for Hindutva forces.

Things must have changed since I studied at Aligarh Muslim University for three years until 2009. This week, the vice chancellor of the university, Lieutenant General (retd) Zameeruddin Shah, justified the policy of not allowing undergraduate women to use the main Maulana Azad Library. If more women are allowed, the vice chancellor said, the number of men in the library would swell by at least four times. Somehow, I just do not remember hordes of studious men at AMU.

It is worth noting that the vice chancellor has only upheld a ban that has always existed and articulated his reasons for doing so. The issue is not new. It just seems to surface periodically – the media gets interested, makes a bit of noise, after some time it all dies down, and sadly nothing changes…

In this current political climate, we need to realise that inequalities are multifarious. But demands for gender equality do not compete with other social justice issues at hand – rather, they are complementary. We cannot excuse continued discrimination against women while asking for minority rights. Therefore, we should question the government’s and media’s sudden concern with gender equality in AMU (this is after all a deeply conservative government), but let us not discount the gravity of the library issue for women who study and work there.

Read the whole article here.

Everyday Life, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

There is hatred in the air yet again: Preeti Chauhan

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Guest Post by PREETI CHAUHAN on the recent communal tension in Noor e Illahi area of Delhi.

It was around 9 pm on Tuesday, November 11th, I was heading to my parents’ home to go with my sister for an interview the next morning, when my cellphone rang, my sister was asking me frantically where I was. I replied a bit anxiously but with irritation, ‘Kya hai? Pahunch jaaungi thodi der mein’. She said don’t come, turn back. I asked why, ‘yahan dange hone waale hain, saari dukaanein band ho rahin hain’, my sister replied. In those two-three seconds my heart skipped many beats, a strange fear about the safety of my family gripped me. I could for the first time feel what it is to live in fear of communal riots. I called up my close relatives who were out of home to ask where they are. There was such an uncertainty as to how will my sister go for the interview tomorrow? Would I be able to reach home tomorrow morning? Would my vehicle be attacked if I decide to go home now?

In those three- four minutes the world seemed to have taken a terrifying turn for me. Mundane, everyday things, everyday routes suddenly turned hostile and suspicious. I could feel the agony and fear so very close. Then there was a sudden burst of anger that I felt against the communal forces that are so hell bent on creating communal trouble everywhere in Delhi. I had not read the newspaper the whole day yesterday and hadn’t watched TV but just before I was leaving home my spouse told me that my native place is in the news and it was then that I had read about the communal tension and curfew in Noore-illahi. It’s the area, the vicinity of my childhood, adolescence and my adulthood too. It’s the area of the weekly bazaar for us, the Eid bazaar as well from which we had returned at 1 am at times. Noor Chicken is where Noor Jahan furniture once stood if I remember correctly; it belonged to the family of one of my classmates in school. I hear today that Noor Chicken’s owner and his son was badly beaten and the son is rumored to have succumbed to injuries. I shudder to think if he is my primary school classmate Shahnawaaz… Continue reading There is hatred in the air yet again: Preeti Chauhan →

Everyday Life, Feminism, Sex, Violence/Conflict

Crime and Consent: Vrinda Grover

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VRINDA GROVER analyses the recent Delhi High Court judgement on the rape and consequent death of a 65 year old woman, acquitting the accused because the woman was ‘menopausal’ and making a curious distinction between ‘forceful’  and ‘forcible’ intercourse.

In a recent judgment in Achey Lal vs State Govt of NCT Delhi, the Delhi High Court on October 30 set aside the conviction of the appellant for rape and murder. What has provoked discussion are the observations, inferences and conclusions of the court. Briefly, the facts as reported in the judgment are: on December 31 2010, a house maid, aged about 65-70 years, was found dead, with her clothes disheveled to expose her body. The accused, Achey Lal, 45 years old, was present in the room in an intoxicated condition. The husband of the deceased deposed that the accused had come at 8 am that day to his house with a quarter bottle of alcohol and when it finished, the husband left, while the accused stayed on with his deceased wife. The cause of death, according to the doctor who conducted the post mortem, “was asphyxia due to aspiration of gastric contents consequent upon forceful sexual intercourse, which was sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature”.

Read the rest of the article in The Indian Express.

Centre watch, Everyday Life, Feminism

Statement On Sterilsation deaths in Chattisgarh by Public Health groups

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The Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, Sama Resource Group for Women and Health, Commonhealth and National Alliance for Maternal Health and Human Rights are shocked at the death of 11 women and the critical condition of 50 other women due to the callous negligence of the Health Department, Government of Chhattisgarh. The deaths and morbidities are a result of a botched-up sterilization operation camp organized by a private hospital under the National Family Planning Programme in Takhatpur Block of Bilaspur District on 8 November 2014. Horrifically, during this camp, 83 women were subject to surgeries in a short span of 5 to 6 hours. Amongst those who have died are Dalits, tribals and Other Backward Classes, leaving behind shattered families and young children. This has resulted in gross violation of the reproductive and health rights of the women.

This tragedy raises grave questions about the unsafe, unhygienic conditions and the slipshod attitude under which these operations were conducted. Moreover, the women who are presently critical continue to get treatment in dismal conditions exposing them to further risks and danger.The surgeries were conducted in complete violation of the Supreme Court orders (Ramakant Rai Vs Govt. of India, 2005 and Devika Biswas Vs Govt. of India, 2012). These orders instruct that a maximum of 30 operations can be conducted in a day with 2 separate laparoscopes only in government facilities. Also, one doctor cannot do more than 10 sterilizations in one day.  Despite this, the surgeon in Chhattisgarh performed about three times the permissible number of surgeries (83) in less than 6 hours in a private hospital which has reportedly remained closed for 15 years. This is evidence of how these operations were not done under standard protocols.

Continue reading Statement On Sterilsation deaths in Chattisgarh by Public Health groups →

Bad ideas, Culture, Everyday Life, Politics

Oh Darling, Kiss is India! Parodevi Pictures

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Do you know more words for “kiss” in an Indian language? Send them to Parodevi Pictures.

 

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