Bad ideas

It is not about BEEF any longer, it is about life: Gaurav Jain

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Guest Post By Gaurav Jain
Respected Supreme Court of India,
It’s time you take a firm stand. You must decide whether you would continue giving ammunition to the communal elements to kill Akhlaqs, Nomans and Zahids in the name of “religious sentiments” or would you stand firmly and unambiguously by the side of fundamental rights of its citizens.
When the highest court of the country holds the beef-ban laws operational in various states as “Constitutional”, it almost validates the highly contorted views of these Hindu-Supremacists that the cow is a divine animal which must be protected. A view which is extrapolated to – whosoever tries to slaughter mother-cow or eat its meat deserves to be killed.
It’s not just about Beef any longer. The way people are being mob-lynched on mere suspicion of eating beef or smuggling cows, It has encroached upon our fundamental right to life and personal liberty guaranteed by the Constitution of India under Article 21. Right to food and freedom to choose what you want to eat – including Beef – is very well covered under it.

Continue reading It is not about BEEF any longer, it is about life: Gaurav Jain →

Empire/ Imperialism, Identities, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Palestinian Women from Occupied East Jerusalem Call for Protection: Jerusalemite Women ’s Coalition

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A Statement by the JERUSALEMITE WOMEN’S COALITION

We women of occupied East Jerusalem call for immediate protection as we witness and suffer the widespread and serious violations of Palestinian human rights, including physical attacks and injuries, severe psychological threats, and persecution by the Israeli settler-colonial state and settler entities.

We urge the international community to act and defend the rights of Palestinian children, women, and men, including the right to a safe life amidst the constant attacks, excessive and indiscriminate use of force used by the Israeli oppressive apparatus, acts of violence and daily terror committed by Israeli Jewish civilians, including settlers. This brutality is intimidating our lives, provoking our youth, willfully causing death and bodily and psychological harm, and disabling and injuring of our community members.

We, a group of Palestinian women, mothers, sisters, daughters and youth—and in the name of the “Jerusalemite Women’s Coalition”—call upon the international community to protect our families, community, and children. We are calling for the protection of our bodily safety and security when in our homes, walking in our neighborhood, reaching schools, clinics, work places, and worships venues. Continue reading Palestinian Women from Occupied East Jerusalem Call for Protection: Jerusalemite Women ’s Coalition →

Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

When I see them, I see us

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Received via LINDA GORDON

Produced by Black Palestinian Solidarity

Education, Movements, Right watch

Statement From Teachers And Researchers In Support Of ‘Occupy UGC’ in Delhi

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Statement in support of students protesting against the UGC’s proposal to scrap the Non-NET fellowship for research scholars, and in condemnation of the police crackdown on agitating students in Delhi on October 23, 2015

This is to express our complete solidarity with, and extend our full support to, students from universities across Delhi as well as other locations in the country who are protesting against the UGC’s decision to scrap Non-NET Fellowships for MPhil and PhD research scholars, and demanding an increase in the fellowship amounts. In particular, we condemn strongly the violent police action upon the peacefully protesting students on October 23, 2015, after the students had spent close to 48 hours in a sit-in at the UGC office in New Delhi protesting the failure of  the UGC authorities to extend a hearing to their grievances. We are shocked by the rapid escalation in aggression demonstrated by the UGC authorities against the students. At 6 am on Friday, 23rd October, about a hundred protesting students were forcefully evicted from the UGC premises and taken across the city to be detained for one whole day in the police station at C block, Rajiv Nagar, Bhalaswa Dairy.

As pressure from students and the public mounted, the police were obliged to let the students go at the end of the day. Meanwhile at the UGC a police lathi-charge grievously injured students who had gathered again to protest there, and from reports at least two students needed to be hospitalized. Continue reading Statement From Teachers And Researchers In Support Of ‘Occupy UGC’ in Delhi →

Bad ideas, Countryside, Everyday Life, Frontiers

What the Sunped Atrocity Tells Us About Caste in Haryana: Tanvi Ahuja

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Guest Post by Tanvi Ahuja

The recent Dalit atrocity in Sunped, Ballabgarh is a stark reminder of how caste continues to shape our society and our very existence and dignity. Yes, it was an atrocity and any attempts to hide the same in the garb of personal dispute or family feud are not only misleading but a great disservice to the lived experiences of Dalits in this country.

Sunped is just another Jat- dominated village in the caste underbelly of the state of Haryana, famous for the Mirchpur atrocity that saw a 70- year old Dalit and his daughter burnt alive in 2010. Jitender’s is one of the approximately 80 Dalit families in Sunped, comprising the Chamaars and Balmikis. His immediate family and relatives are an educated lot; many of them employed in stable private sector jobs. The family also has a strong political lineage- Jitender’s grandfather and brother, Jagmal have held the office of Sarpanch in the last two decades, except in 2005-10 when the wife of the main accused Balwant became the Sarpanch on the reserved seat for women. It was Balwant however who called the shots throughout his wife’s term. Continue reading What the Sunped Atrocity Tells Us About Caste in Haryana: Tanvi Ahuja →

Bad ideas, Culture, Identities, Law, Mirror Worlds

Lessons in Religious Bigotry from Pakistan and America: Fatima Tassadiq

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Guest Post by Fatima Tassadiq

The last few months have been quite intense for Muslims in the US. The Syrian refugee crisis gave us gems like ‘hey, these people have smart phones! They cant possibly be fleeing a deadly war’ from twitter analysts. Then Donald Trump, the rising Republican star, informed us that some serious TV watching had led him to conclude that the presence of more men than women in the televised images of the refugees was ground for suspicion.

It took a heart-breaking picture of a dead Syrian toddler on a beach to compel conservatives to tone down their rabid xenophobia. And then there was the Ahmad Muhammad episode. The reaction to the arrest of the 14 year old for bringing a home made clock to school showed the best and worst of America. While many public figures including the president supported the teen, Atheist and Christian crusaders like Bill Maher and Bobby Jindal thanked the police for keeping them safe from a high school student. Continue reading Lessons in Religious Bigotry from Pakistan and America: Fatima Tassadiq →

Education, Movements

Statement from South African academics supporting Student Struggle in South Africa

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Statement posted on Amandla.mobi

Transformation_is_rising_(1)

Statement to Vice-Chancellors, Minister of Higher Education & Training, Blade Nzimande, and the Minister of Finance, Nhlanhla Nene.

We the undersigned, as academics in South African institutions of higher education, and allies in South Africa and overseas, stand with students in their fight for the democratisation of our universities. The current student protests that have erupted across the country are historic. They demonstrate a younger generation willing to take up the struggle against inequality, and to insist on the principle of education for all. Our students are leading the national debate on education, and we insist that they deserve our respect and attention.

We have witnessed students act with extraordinary discipline, tactical skill and moral purpose. This commitment and self-control has gone unseen by many university managers, government leaders and the media who have misrepresented students as uninformed, irresponsible or irrational. Protesting students have faced and overcome potentially divisive tensions within their ranks, and have shown maturity in their intellectual arguments and political interventions. Above all, they have required us to confront a grievous national problem: the persistent exclusion of those who are black and poor from higher education, and from the opportunities that higher education makes possible. Continue reading Statement from South African academics supporting Student Struggle in South Africa →

Education, Movements

South African student protests and re-emergence of people’s power: Camalita Naicker

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Guest Post by CAMALITA NAICKER

Students at University of the Western Cape Photo cred - Musaed Abrahams

Students at University of the Western Cape (Photo cred – Musaed Abrahams)

The #nationalshutdown of all major universities in South Africa continues, even after a historic victory yesterday, when, after several days of mass mobilisation by students and workers President Jacob Zuma was forced to concede a zero-percent fee increase in university tuition fees next year. Yet, it was bittersweet for the more than twelve thousand people who marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria who were, once again, tear-gassed and shot at with rubber bullets and stun grenades. The police turned violent when students began demanding, after waiting for several hours, that the President address them. Instead, Zuma chose to speak to the media in a press briefing and leave the students to the police. In Cape Town, students marched to the airport to show their solidarity with those in Pretoria; there too police fired rubber bullets, tear gas, and stun-grenades even as students fled into the neighbouring residential areas. For many, the victory it is only a partial one, a short-term solution deferring the problem to another day. It does not resolve the issue of unaffordable education nor does it address other important issues that the national action has been tied to like the outsourcing of labour on university campuses or the general discontents of the lack of transformation at higher education institutions in the country. Continue reading South African student protests and re-emergence of people’s power: Camalita Naicker →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Debates, Education, Government

Students Occupy UGC to Defend the Right to Research in Universities Across India: Sucheta De

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Guest Post by Sucheta De.

[ Videos by V. Arun, Om Prasad, Akhil Kumar, with Facebook Post Updates by Shehla Rashid and Akhil Kumar ]

 

#SaveNonNETfellowship: A movement for ensuring democratic, inclusive and pluralistic research in India

“The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force.”

― Karl Marx, The German Ideology

JNUSU vice president Shehla Rashid addressing protestors at UGC
JNUSU vice president Shehla Rashid addressing protestors at UGC HQ, Delhi

On the afternoon of 21st October, students from several universities in Delhi began ‘Occupying’ the Delhi premises of the head-office of University Grants Commission (UGC) –  the government mandated body under the Ministry of Human Resources that is supposed to govern the functioning of universities across the country.  The occupation continued through the night of the 21st, the day of the 22nd, and is still currently in process. The students occupying the UGC premises have decided, as of now, not to let the UGC function. Goons from the BJP aligned students organization Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) have now reached the UGC and are continuously harassing and abusing the student activists who are in ‘occupation’ of UGC. There is heavy police presence. There is a state of near siege at the UGC head quarters near ITO Chowk in Delhi.

Continue reading Students Occupy UGC to Defend the Right to Research in Universities Across India: Sucheta De →

Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Low Intensity, High Impact Communalism Targeting better off Muslims: Janhastakshep Report on Dadri killing

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See also another fact-finding report earlier published on Kafila.

National Minorities Commission report on Dadri killing here.

JANHASTAKSHEP REPORT:

On 2nd October 2015 a team of Janhastakshep comprising of academics, journalists and a student went to Basehada village in Dadri tehsil of Gautam Buddh Nagar District to investigate the incidence of communal lynching of a Muslim man Akhlaq and attack on his son Danish (who is battling for life) on the 28th of September for allegedly killing a calf and eating beef. The team comprised of academics Dr Vikas Bajpai from Jawaharlal Nehru University and Prof Ish Mishra from Hindu College, Delhi University; journalists – Anil Dubey, Rajesh Kumar and Parthiv and student activist of Hindu college, Delhi University, Sheetal.

The Context

It is noteworthy that the incident at Bishara village comes in wake of uninterrupted controversies and communal tensions that have been kept alive around the issue of cow slaughter / ban on beef in different parts of the country; as also several incidents of communal violence; intimidation and killing of intellectuals who have opposed the Sangh parivar’s communal designs and its retrogressive sociopolitical agenda. i

It is in this context that the present incident of communal lynching at Bishara village cannot but be seen as another link in the chain of above mentioned developments.

Bishara Village

The village itself has a long existence in time that was claimed to date back to at least four to five centuries. It is a big village with as many as 9,500 votes corresponding to a population of around 15,000 and up to 2,500 families approximately. The village is part of a satta i.e. a grouping of seven villages dominated by Rajputs. Apart from the Rajputs the other Hindu castes are the Brahmins, the Lohars (blacksmiths), the Kumhars (earthen ware artisans), the Jatavs (leather workers), Dhimars (a caste of fishermen and palanquin bearers) and the Balmikis (the sweepers). Along with these there are between 35 to 40 Muslim families in the village. Continue reading Low Intensity, High Impact Communalism Targeting better off Muslims: Janhastakshep Report on Dadri killing →

Bad ideas

शांति अौर सद्भाव ही सबसे बड़ा विकास है: गांधीजनों का सार्वजनिक वक्तव्य

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This statement in Hindi is followed by an English statement.

हम पहले की बातें भूल भी जाएं फिर भी राजधानी दिल्ली के निकट के दादरी गांव में 29 सितंबर को मुहम्मद अखलाक की पीट-पीट कर की गई वहशियाना हत्या से ले कर 16 अक्तूबर को हिमाचल प्रदेश में पीट-पीट कर मारे गये नोमन अख्तर की हत्या तक जैसे जहरीली हवा बहाई जा रही है, उन सबसे हम बेहद व्यथित अौर शर्मिंदा हैं. अौर इस अाग में प्रधानमंत्री अौर उनकी सरकार अौर पार्टी के लोगों ने जिस तरह घी डालने का काम किया है, वह किसी अपशकुन की तरह दिखाई देता है. मुंबई में सुधींद्र कुलकर्णी के चेहरे पर पोती गई काली स्याही फैलती हुई कश्मीर तक पहुंच रही है अौर अंधेरा गहरा रहा है. हम पूरी जिम्मेवारी से कहना चाहते हैं कि ये घटनाएं अफवाहों से उन्मादित भीड़ का पागलपन नहीं है बल्कि देश के सांप्रदायिक माहौल को बिगाड़ने की योजनाबद्ध कोशिशें हैं. इन सबसे देश में एक ऐसा माहौल बनता दिखाई दे रहा है जिसमें कानून, संविधान अौर इन सबसे ऊपर भारतीय समाज की समन्वयकारी संस्कृति पर लगातार चोट पड़ रही है.

हम जानते हैं कि इससे पहले भी सरकारें, पुलिस-व्यवस्था अादि अपने कर्तव्यपालन में विफल होती रही हैं अौर समाज का सांप्रदायिक सद्भाव टूटता रहा है. लेकिन हम जिसे चिंता व अाशंका से देख रहे हैं वह तो वह माहौल है जिसमें अल्पसंख्यकों को लगातार असुरक्षा की तरफ धकेला जा रहा है अौर इस माहौल से लोगों को अागाह करने वाले लेखकों-बुद्धिजीवियों को मारने व अपमानित करने का सिलसिला चलाया जा रहा है. लेखकों-संस्कृतिकर्मियों ने सरकारी सम्मानों-पुरस्कारों को वापस लौटाने का जो सिलसिला चलाया है, वह असहमति की उनकी बेहद रचनात्मक कोशिश है. उसका सम्मान करने अौर उनकी पीड़ा को समझने की जगह उनका उपहास किया जा रहा है अौर उन पर बदनीयती का अारोप लगाया जा रहा है. हम केंद्र सरकार को सावधान करते हैं कि उसकी सदाशयता पर देश भर में गंभीर सवाल खड़े हो रहे हैं. इसकी अनदेखी उसे भी अौर समाज को भी भारी पड़ेगी. पार्टियां अौर सरकारें नहीं, हमारी चिंता के केंद्र में भारतीय समाज की वह संरचना है जो इस राष्ट्र की अात्मा है अौर जिससे खेलने की इजाजत हम किसी को नहीं दे सकते.

इस दुर्भाग्यपूर्ण घटनाक्रम से सरकार क्या सबक लेती है अौर इस चेतावनी को वह कैसे कबूल करती है, इस पर हमारी भी अौर सारे देश की भी नजर रहेगी. गांधी-परिवार के हम प्रतिनिधि उन सबसे क्षमा मांगते हैं जिनके घर-परिवार का नुकसान हुअा है अौर हम हर हिंदुस्तानी से कहना चाहते हैं कि अाज शांति अौर सद्भाव ही सबसे बड़ा अौर बेशकीमती विकास है.

गोपीनाथन नायर, अध्यक्ष                                               कुमार प्रशांत, अध्यक्ष

     रामचंद्र राही, मंत्री                                                     अनुपम मिश्र, संपादक ‘ गांधी मार्ग’                          

 गांधी स्मारक निधि, नई दिल्ली                                          गांधी शांति प्रतिष्ठान, नई दिल्ली 

Press Release 

Peace and harmony is the real ‘development’

Public statement of Senior Gandhians  

Even if we were to forget the past, the recent events, vitiating the communal harmony in the country, are extremely painful and disturbing. On 29th September, a violent mob lynched 52 years old Muhmmad Akhlaq in Dadri in Uttar Pradesh. Since then the discord has spread over the country and on 16th October Noman Akhtar was beaten to death in Himachal Pradesh.  The Prime Minister, his government and his party have only added fuel to the fire in these past weeks. This is a bad omen. The black ink thrown on Sudheendra Kularni’s face has now reached Kashmir and the smugness is spreading. With full responsibility, we would like to say that these events are not random and do not merely result of rumours. This is a systematic effort to create communal tensions in the nation. It is not just a matter of law and order, the environment thus created is hurting the core of Indian culture.

We are aware that the previous governments and the police did not have any better record on the matter and that the communal tensions have been erupting time and again. But it is the direction and the intent of the recent events that has made us suspicious and worried. There is a constant attempt to push the minorities to the corner. Intellectuals and literary personalities raising their voice against this intolerance, they are being victimised and insulted. Authors and cultural personalities have been returning the awards and honours given to them in the past. It is a very positive way of showing their dissent. Instead of respecting their opinion and understanding their pains, they are being made a laughing stock. We would like to caution the government that its intentions are under a cloud of suspicion. Brushing the matter under the carpet will make the whole society, including them, pay for it. Parties and governments are irrelevant here. We are more worried about the tried and tested inclusive structure of Indian society. It is the soul of Indian society and we cannot allow anyone to play with it.

We, along with the whole nation, are closely watching the steps and initiatives taken by the government in response to the unfortunate incidences in various parts of the country. On behalf of the Gandhian family, we ask for forgiveness from the families who have lost their near and dear ones, and homes. We also want to convey to every Indian that peace and harmony are the biggest and priceless ‘development’ that any country can have.

Gopinanathan Nayar : President                                                         Kumar Prashant: President

Ramchandra Rahi : Secretary                             Anupam Mishra: Editor ‘ Gandhi Marg’ 

Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, New Delhi                             Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi

Bad ideas, Everyday Life, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Protest Demonstration Against Burning of Dalit House and Children in Haryana

The endless violence that has always been part of Dalit life is now acquiring new dimensions as Dalits refuse to carry out upper caste diktat and confront aggressive upper castes emboldened by the Hindutva brigade.

Citizens call for demonstration
Citizens call for demonstration
Bad ideas, Everyday Life, Government, Politics, Right watch

You are wrong Mr Prime Minister – It was not a fight, but plain murder : Sanjay Kumar

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Guest Post by Sanjay Kumar 

In an election rally in Bihar on 8 October, country’s Prime Minister exhorted his audience with a homily pretty standard in India’s secular discourse. He asked Hindus and Muslims to decide whether they want to fight each other, or fight poverty together. His call against communal strife had come ten days after a Muslim man was lynched by a mob in Bisada, a village near the mofussil town of Dadri, 50 km from the national capital. There was no reference to events in Bisada in Mr Modi’s speech, yet ‘PM has spoken on Dadri lynching’ became the prime news on TV, and headline news in every newspaper the next day. If nations are imagined communities, then the media in the neo-liberal era imagines itself to be the prime mover and shaker of national imagination. And, when the ‘national leadership’ had remained silent on an important national news for more than a week, a subtle disquiet had indeed settled; as if, the story maker was not getting suitable yarn to complete the web and tie open leads. This may explain media’s eagerness to combine Mr Modi’s election rally remarks with Dadri lynching, about which he actually said nothing. Perhaps the media is expecting too much, and has a rather pompous self image. The women of Bisada had assaulted reporters and TV crews on 3 October, accusing them of presenting only one side of the story, bringing a bad name to their village and disrupting normal life. We have a Prime Minister who is pained even when a pup is killed under a motor car. Is not it unjust to expect him to express his anguish publicly every time some one is murdered in this  huge country of ours? The PM has declared many times that his one motivation and project is to build a strong and vibrant India. Should not his country men and women be content with the nation’s highest elected official using his exemplary social media skills for projecting a happy and confident mood. Would not shouting from the roof top on issues about which he is genuinely worried tarnish the very image he has been so painstakingly trying to build? Continue reading You are wrong Mr Prime Minister – It was not a fight, but plain murder : Sanjay Kumar →

Bad ideas, Education, Law, Metropolis, Movements, Politics, Scams

The Fiction of Fact Finding: Harassment of Delhi University Teachers Union President

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PLEASE JOIN PROTEST AGAINST SHAMEFUL HARASSMENT OF DR. NANDITA NARAIN – MONDAY THE 19TH OF OCTOBER, VICEREGAL LODGE, DELHI UNIVERSITY 10.30 AM- 1.30 PM.

 

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Dr. Nandita Narain, President of the Delhi University Teachers Association.

With apologies to Manoj Mitta’s excellent book on 2002 by the same name, it appears that yet another fact-finding commission has made a mockery of the process of law, not to mention truth and justice. Dr. Nandita Narain – yes that blood-curdling, fearsome figure in the picture above – has been accused of disrupting the work of 3 colleges in Delhi University and asked to appear before a fact finding committee appointed by the University, 10 days before the term of the current Vice Chancellor Professor Dinesh Singh ends. For those not acquainted with Dr. Narain, she is the popular President of the Delhi University Teachers Association, beloved Mathematics professor in St. Stephens’ College and a brilliant scholar in her own right. Having contested and won the recent Delhi University Teachers Association elections against the V.C’s relentless pressure tactics and a blitzkrieg of campaigning and publicity by other parties including the government-friendly National Democratic Teachers’ Front, Dr. Narain has evidently had nothing but her enormous personal integrity going for her.

Continue reading The Fiction of Fact Finding: Harassment of Delhi University Teachers Union President →

Bad ideas

हिंदू राष्ट्र बरास्ते गोरक्षा

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पाकिस्तान में कोई भी अल्पसंख्यक सुरक्षित महसूस नहीं करता.यह बात पहले कही जाती थी. धीरे-धीरे हालात ऐसे हुए कि अब कहा जाता है कि वहाँ  मुसलमान भी सुरक्षित नहीं.अल्पसंख्यकों की असुरक्षा का एक बड़ा स्रोत पाकिस्तान का धार्मिक-दूषण संबंधी कानून है.मूलतः यह कानून अविभाजित भारत में अंग्रजों के द्वारा लाया लागू किया गया था. इस क़ानून में किसी भी धर्म से जुड़े पवित्र स्थल, या पवित्र मानी जाने वाली वस्तु, आदि की क्षति करने या उसका अपमान करने पर दंड का प्रावधान है. यह धर्म के आधार पर भेदभाव नहीं करता. यह भारत में आज भी लागू है. भारत में अक्सर इसका उपयोग लेखकों या कलाकारों के खिलाफ किया गया है.आरोप लगानेवालों में हिंदू,मुस्लिम, ईसाई नामों पर बने संगठन और उनकी इज्जत की हिफाजत के लिए परेशान लोग हैं . Continue reading हिंदू राष्ट्र बरास्ते गोरक्षा →

Bad ideas

सम्मान वापसी पर कवि-चिन्तक मनमोहन का वक्तव्य

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Guest Post by Manmohan

Displaying Manmohan- Hindi poet.jpg(

(हिंदी के वरिष्ठ कवि-चिंतक मनमोहन ने हरियाणा साहित्य अकादमी से 2007-08
में मिला `महाकवि सूर सम्मान` और उसके साथ मिली एक लाख रुपये की राशि
अकादमी को वापस भेज दी है। उन्होंने मौजूदा हालात और रचनाकारों के
प्रतिवाद को लेकर यह वक्तव्य भी जारी किया है।)

देश के हालात अच्छे नहीं हैं। जिन्हें अभी नहीं लगता, शायद कुछ दिन बाद
सोचें। जिन लोगों ने नागरिक समाज का ख़याल छोड़ा नहीं है और जिनके लिए
मानवीय गरिमा और न्याय के प्रश्न बिल्कुल व्यर्थ नहीं हो गए हैं, उन्हें
यह समझने में ज्यादा कठिनाई नहीं होगी कि परिस्थिति असामान्य रूप से
चिन्ताजनक है। Continue reading सम्मान वापसी पर कवि-चिन्तक मनमोहन का वक्तव्य →

Government, Politics, Right watch

Neoliberalism, Hindutva Supremacism and Challenges before Revolutionary Movement

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Dear Comrades

I feel honoured to be here to be part of the sixth conference of Human Rights Forum*. Many thanks are due to the organisers to invite a left activist like me to this deliberations and giving me an opportunity to share my ideas.

For me it was a belated realisation that the conference is taking place around sixth death anniversary of the legendary activist for human rights and for justice late K Balgopal, who played a key role in the formation of the Forum. It does not need underlining that late K Balagopal was a rare combination of a scholar – mathematician by passion and lawyer by commitment – and activist who not only broke new grounds in the discourse around civil liberties and human rights but did not hesitate to raise uncomfortable questions when the time came. One can still imagine the loss you all must have felt when he suddenly left six years ago. As rightly mentioned by the late K G Kannabiran in his obituary then, how he was ‘one in a century rights activist’ who brought on agenda ‘jurisprudence of insurgence’. Continue reading Neoliberalism, Hindutva Supremacism and Challenges before Revolutionary Movement →

Culture, Government, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

A Letter to Modi from a Former Supporter: Bhawni Mehrotra

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Guest post by BHAWNI MEHROTRA

Dear Modiji,

I’m glad you spoke. Even though it was devoid of any personal remorse and limited to calling the Dadri lynching an “unfortunate and unwarranted” incident at Sasaram. Even though it was to cash in on ‘communal harmony’ during an election rally in Bihar. Even though it was a mere paraphrasing of the President’s quote once before at Nawada (we know of your limited vocabulary beyond acronyms and your “may-the-force-be-with-you” love for quoting). Still, I’m glad that you managed something! However, the one thing that you have failed miserably to manage (and let’s leave the ambling economy and your familial relations out of this) is the ‘fringe elements’ that come as part of the ‘BJP family pack’ offer.  Sadly, under your ‘good governance’, the fringe has been asserting itself as the mainstream. Even sadder is that under ‘you’, the fringe is the mainstream.

The icing on the cake are your own MPs and ministers. Initially, what I thought of as verbal diarrhea on their part is actually proving to be a string of comments that are a part of a larger orchestrated communication message. Each message has a defined audience suited to their language and idioms. They all suffer from a dangerous saffron strain, exactly the kind that has fathered the ISIS, the Taliban and so on. Whether it be Yogi Adityanath’s remark, calling on Hindus to organize themselves; or Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti’s unparalleled comparison between a “Ramzaada” and a “Haramzada”; or Nitin Gadkari’s reminder of the government being one of “Rambhakts”- all seem to be competing for being the most ridiculous. Did you mean “Hindutva First” and not “India First”? I’m sorry that I was so awestruck by your gazillion rupee election campaign (the one thing that you managed brilliantly) that I didn’t read the fine print. Therefore, it is not your failure, it’s mine. Had I voted sensibly, Mohammad Akhlaq wouldn’t be dead today. Continue reading A Letter to Modi from a Former Supporter: Bhawni Mehrotra →

Culture, Debates, Government, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

आज़ादी और विवेक के पक्ष में प्रलेस, जलेस, जसम, दलेस और साहित्य-संवाद का साझा बयान

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देश भर में चल रहे लेखकों व साहित्यकारों  के विरोध के सन्दर्भ में  लेखकों के पांच संगठनों – प्रगतिशील लेखक संघ, जनवादी लेखक संघ, जन संस्कृति मंच, दलित लेखक संघ व साहित्य-संवाद – ने आज दिल्ली में निम्नलिखित बयान जारी किया :  

देश में लगातार बढ़ती हुई हिंसक असहिष्णुता और कट्टरपंथ के ख़िलाफ़ पिछले कुछ समय से जारी लेखकों के प्रतिरोध ने एक ऐतिहासिक रूप ले लिया है. 31 अगस्त को प्रोफेसर मल्लेशप्पा मादिवलप्पा कलबुर्गी की हत्या के बाद यह प्रतिरोध अनेक रूपों में प्रकट हुआ है. धरने-प्रदर्शन, विरोध-मार्च और विरोध-सभाएं जारी हैं. इनके अलावा बड़ी संख्या में लेखकों ने साहित्य अकादमी से मिले अपने पुरस्कार विरोधस्वरूप लौटा दिए हैं. कइयों ने अकादमी की कार्यकारिणी से इस्तीफ़ा दिया है. कुछ ने विरोध-पत्र लिखे हैं. कई और लेखकों ने वक्तव्य दे कर और दीगर तरीक़ों से इस प्रतिरोध में शिरकत की है.

दिल्ली में 5 सितम्बर को 35 संगठनों की सम्मिलित कार्रवाई के रूप में प्रो. कलबुर्गी को याद करते हुए जंतर-मंतर पर एक बड़ी प्रतिरोध-सभा हुई थी. इसे ‘विवेक के हक़ में’ / ‘इन डिफेन्स ऑफ़ रैशनैलिटी’ नाम दिया गया था. आयोजन में भागीदार लेखक-संगठनों – प्रलेस, जलेस, जसम, दलेस और साहित्य-संवाद — ने उसी सिलसिले को आगे बढाते हुए 16 सितम्बर को साहित्य अकादमी के अध्यक्ष विश्वनाथ प्रसाद तिवारी को एक ज्ञापन सौंपा जिसमें उनसे यह मांग की गयी थी कि अकादमी प्रो. कलबुर्गी की याद में दिल्ली में शोक-सभा आयोजित करे. विश्वनाथ त्रिपाठी, मुरली मनोहर प्रसाद सिंह, चंचल चौहान, रेखा अवस्थी, अली जावेद, संजय जोशी और कर्मशील भारती द्वारा अकादमी के अध्यक्ष से मिल कर किये गए इस निवेदन का उत्तर बहुत निराशाजनक था. एक स्वायत्त संस्था के पदाधिकारी सत्ता में बैठे लोगों के खौफ़ को इस रूप में व्यक्त करेंगे और शोक-सभा से साफ़ इनकार कर देंगे, यह अप्रत्याशित तो नहीं, पर अत्यंत दुखद था. अब जबकि अकादमी की इस कायर चुप्पी और केन्द्रीय सत्ता द्वारा हिंसक कट्टरपंथियों को प्रत्यक्ष-परोक्ष तरीके से दिए जा रहे प्रोत्साहन के खिलाफ लेखकों द्वारा पुरस्कार लौटाने से लेकर त्यागपत्र और सार्वजनिक बयान देने जैसी कार्रवाइयां लगातार जारी हैं, यह स्पष्ट हो गया है कि लेखक समाज इन फ़ासीवादी रुझानों के विरोध में एकजुट है. वह उस राजनीतिक वातावरण के ख़िलाफ़ दृढ़ता से अपना मत प्रकट कर रहा है जिसमें बहुसंख्यावाद के नाम पर न केवल वैचारिक असहमति को, बल्कि जीवनशैली की विविधता तक को हिंसा के ज़रिये कुचल देने के इरादों और कार्रवाइयों को ‘सामान्य’ मान लिया गया है. Continue reading आज़ादी और विवेक के पक्ष में प्रलेस, जलेस, जसम, दलेस और साहित्य-संवाद का साझा बयान →

Bad ideas

The Man And His Words

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Narendra Modi has finally spoken. More than a fortnight after a Muslim man was lynched in Dadri by a Hindu mob over rumours of storing and eating beef, the prime minister summoned his deepest indignation and employed the strongest adjective he thought befitted the murder: “unfortunate”. “The Dadri incident or the opposition to Pakistani ghazal singer Ghulam Ali are sad and undesirable,” he told the Bengali daily Anandabazar Patrika in an interview.
In Modi’s esteemed view clearly, Dadri shouldn’t be given undue importance. It should be treated like another law and order issue – “regrettable” is all it deserves. In the prime minister’s book, the mob lynching of 50-year-old Mohammad Akhlaq can be clubbed with the cancellation of Ghulam Ali’s concerts in Mumbai and Pune after threats of violence by the Shiv Sena.  Continue reading The Man And His Words →

Culture, Politics, Theory

The Indian Unconscious : Ravi Sinha

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Guest Post by Ravi Sinha

There is yet another head on the political platter of the world’s largest democracy. This head is not metaphorical. It does not signify a disgraced leader or a government that has fallen. It is a literal head dripping with literal blood – battered with bricks that supported a leg-less bed. The bed belonged to one Muhammad Akhlaq who lived in a village called Basehara in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, not too far from the national capital of India. The head too belonged to him.

It has been only a few days but this latest episode in the long-running Indian serial is already well-known to the world. On a late September night it was announced over the loudspeakers of the village temple that there was going to be beef on Akhlaq’s dinner plate. A mob hundreds-strong – some say thousands – gathered within no time. It attacked the family killing Akhlaq on the spot and badly injuring his son, Danish.

In the meantime, meat-loafs confiscated from the family fridge have been sent for forensic examination. The system of justice must check whether it actually was beef, although, as one commentator points out, “…mere possession of beef isn’t illegal in Uttar Pradesh.”[1] Shedding helpful light on feebly lit corners of the Hindu moral universe, a prominent Hindutva ideologue wrote in a national daily, “Lynching a person merely on suspicion is absolutely wrong, the antithesis of all that India stands for and all that Hinduism preaches.”[2] The lynch-mob should have waited till the forensic reports came.

A few suspects have been apprehended for the murder. This has made the village livid with anger. There are protestations that those arrested are innocent. Journalists have been attacked for making such a big thing out of a small matter and bringing a bad name to the village. Cameras have been broken and OB vans damaged. There is a pertinacious wall of angry women guarding the village against any further intrusion by outsiders who can neither understand the village mind nor the Indian culture.

It is not easy to understand the collective mind of an Indian village. Even learned anthropologists are of little help. Their ethnographic techniques of studying a form of life from its internal standpoint are particularly susceptible to the rationalizations of a complex cultural species. If anyone has a chance, it would, perhaps, be a villager who has stepped out – an Archimedean Point created out of the same cultural universe. Ravish Kumar, by now a near iconic journalist and anchor of a prominent Hindi news channel, stood out for this very reason.[3] His eyes could see the natural rhythm and the instinctual response of an Indian village in the immediate aftermath of a collective crime. Nearly everyone had disappeared from the village. Whoever could be found claimed that he was miles away at the time of the incident. The lynch-mob had materialized instantaneously out of thin air. It had as quickly melted away after the job was done. Everyone has now returned to defend the honor of the village and strategize about how to deal with the unwarranted intrusions of modernity including that of the law. Continue reading The Indian Unconscious : Ravi Sinha →

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