Vol. 75
No 9
DECEMBER 2011
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THE RADICAL HUMANIST (Since April 1949) Formerly : Independent India (April 1937- March 1949)
An Independent Judiciary? —Ruma Pal Arab Spring and Role of Women —Asghar Ali Engineer Is God the Source of Morality? —Bill Cooke A Kashmiri pundit mother’s appeal for peace in Kashmir- Part 2 —Asha Kachru
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Book Review: India’s Capital – A Century After —Dipavali Sen From From the Editor’s Desk: Radical Humanism waning? —Rekha Saraswat
Founder Editor: M.N. Roy
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The Radical Humanist
Download and read the journal at www.theradicalhumanist.com
Vol. 75 Number 9 December 2011
- Contents -
Monthly journal of the Indian Renaissance Institute
1. From the Editor’s Desk: Radical Humanism waning? —Rekha Saraswat 1 2. From the Writings of Laxmanshastri Joshi: Spiritual Materialism: A case for Atheism 2 3. Guests’ Section: An Independent Judiciary? —Ruma Pal 6 Arab Spring and Role of Women —Asghar Ali Engineer 16 Is God the Source of Morality? —Bill Cooke 18 A Kashmiri pundit mother’s appeal for peace in Kashmir- Part 2 —Asha Kachru 20 4. Responses to M.N. Roy Centenary Memorial Lecture Video delivered by the German Philosopher, Late Prof. Agehananda Bharti —B.P. Rath 26 —Amitabha Chakrabarti 27 5. IRI / IRHA Members’ Section: PUCL’s History of Struggle —Mahipal Singh 28 6. Teachers’ & Research Scholars’ Section: Changing Trends in Indo-Nepal Relations —Pravesh Kumari 32 7. Book Review Section: India’s Capital – A Century After —Dipavali Sen 36 8. Humanist News Section 38
Devoted to the development of the Renaissance Movement; and for promotion of human rights, scientific-temper, rational thinking and a humanist view of life. Founder Editor: M.N. Roy Editor: Dr. Rekha Saraswat Contributory Editors: Prof. A.F. Salahuddin Ahmed, Dr. R.M. Pal, Professor Rama Kundu Publisher: Mr. N.D. Pancholi Printer: Mr. N.D. Pancholi Send articles to: Dr. Rekha Saraswat, C-8, Defence Colony, Meerut, 250001, U.P., India, Ph. 91-121-2620690, 09719333011, E-mail articles at: rheditor@gmail.com Send Subscription / Donation Cheques in favour of ‘The Radical Humanist’to: Mr. Narottam Vyas (Advocate), Chamber Number 111 (Near Post Office), Supreme Court of India, New Delhi, 110001, India n.vyas@snr.net.in Ph. 91-11-22712434, 91-11-23782836, 09811944600
Please Note: Authors will bear sole accountability for corroborating the facts that they give in their write-ups. Neither IRI / the Publisher nor the Editor of this journal will be responsible for testing the validity and authenticity of statements & information cited by the authors. Also, sometimes some articles published in this journal may carry opinions not similar to the Radical Humanist philosophy; but they would be entertained here if the need is felt to debate and discuss upon them. —Rekha Saraswat
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before bringing it out in the social and political network. Radical Humanism Waning? Most of the times, the situation ny social, cultural or political becomes too much to handle for those movement needs certain simple supporters who are suddenly primary resources not only to grow but expected to lead and not follow when even to survive. their leader, their ideal passes away. First and foremost are the people who Rekha Saraswat They were attracted towards a honestly aspire to see it move; honesty not movement because of the gigantic only in their desire but also in their efforts, persona of their mentor, now how to develop this in their actions and in their words! personality in themselves, all of a sudden, Clarity in their minds about the ideology, artificially becomes too much of a task to handle for philosophy and basic principles of the thought that them. governs the movement which they follow is the As a natural result the cohesiveness becomes next most important requirement! inconsistent. Each begins to accuse the other for What are the ways and means to carry the lack of sincerity and faithfulness towards the goal, movement forward is also a basic necessity in while the fact is that each is utterly confused and promoting it. disheveled and incompetent in handling the Precision in all their decisions and actions without orphaned movement. confusion makes it easier for them to take their Is the picture placed here too dismal? Is the Cross mission forward. becoming too heavy for the shoulders and knees of Things become a little difficult and ambiguous its carters? when the movement involves all the three aspects Is the radical humanist movement fading? No, it is in one, the cultural, the social and the political. not! And it by no means can! It will never wither People of all hues and shades are needed to cope away because there is a silver lining in the very with its requirements. content of its ideology! Its philosophy relies solely How these people are coming into the fold is upon the consequences of modern science!! another point of necessary consideration. It needs no particular men to take it forward. It does What is their thought pattern i.e. what do they think not rely upon the mercy of an organization or about the philosophy of the movement and how do institution. It has no boundaries. they define their purpose of association i.e. how It is coming into effect each day in every part of this will they be helpful in fulfilling its purpose of world wherever and whenever any human-action is existence needs to be discussed and analyzed by based upon a forward-looking rational and themselves first and then by others in the scientific attitude and behaviour. It is actually, association. radical humanism in action. If we try to add a prefix of the word ‘renaissance’ Let anyone take the credit - any person at any place before a movement matters become all the more or in any institution. They are all radical humanists complicated and intricate because now the people with variegated hues and colours!! Let us just do involved need to have a particular intellectual our little bit according to our capabilities without competence and maturity to work for it. The any self-misconceptions and be happy! renaissance has to occur in the minds of the people I am confident about the future of Radical Humanism!! Aren’t you??
From The Editor’s Desk:
A
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From The Writings of Laxmanshastri Joshi: perpetuate the existing social structure rather than being reformist and that it benefits the upper classes. They perpetrate the illusions and are used for impressing the weaker sections of the society. Many taboos which might have had some beneficial effects are given a permanent sanction and these put a fetter on further progress. The argument that religion promotes social stability and social harmony is examined and rejected. Without the dubious benefit of religion various secular Laxman S. Joshi worldly values have been developed and they have benefited mankind more than the vaunted religious Spiritual Materialism – A case values. With no sops of religion men have laboured hard and the finest admirable qualities of men’s for Atheism Translated by —Arundhati Khandkar spirit have been developed inspite of religious influence – the scientists and the reformers are [The book Spiritual Materialism – A case for examples. The humility that should force itself in Atheism, A New Interpretation of the the presence of the infinite and the unknown is Philosophy of Materialism written by more to be seen with the scientist, the philosopher Tarkateertha Laxmanshastri Joshi has been than the religious leaders and often this drives them translated by his daughter, Arundhati to fathom the depths of thought in the quest for Khandkar, who was formerly Professor of truth. Rarely does religion explain the how and Philosophy at S.I.E.S. College, University of why. These have become the preoccupations of Mumbai, India. He passed away many decades people in secular fields. With a sense of ago but his contribution in building up the self-reliance and self-confidence guiding him, man philosophical base of Radical Humanism has has dropped the earlier props of religion. In India been no less. Roy acknowledged it in his life time too, the social order was seen as embodying moral and the followers of the philosophy continue to do values.” so. I had requested Ms. Khandkar to translate her father’s major works from to Marathi to English Contd. from the previous issue............ for the benefit of the contemporary readers of RH. And to our pleasant surprise she informed that Critique of Logical Proofs for Existence of God there is already the above mentioned book in English done by her. It is being serialised in The Philosophers have formulated eight logical proofs Radical Humanist June 2010 onwards. She has for establishing God’s existence. We will review also promised to send us in English, gradually, them in this essay one by one. more of his Marathi literature. We will offer the best defence for the logical Laxmanshastri wrote this essay with the title propositions in their favour. Then we will give Materialism or Atheism in 1941. How counter arguments. If irreconcilable differences meaningful and necessary it is, even now, 70 exist between pros and cons, we will attempt years later, can be understood by the following logical reconciliation using Occam’s razor. Here is paragraph given on the cover page of the book. the list of the eight proofs: —Rekha Saraswat] 1) Design of the Universe “That religion more often than not tends to 2) Prime Mover 2
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3) Prior Intent 4) Knower and Knowable 5) Beautiful God 6) Giver of Moral Law 7) Religious Experience 8) Word of a Rishi Design of the Universe The first proof: “No rationale even for the design is no inference� is a famous aphorism of the Bharatiya philosopher Adya Shankaracharya valid for our quest in the origin of this proof, which is described in one of the Shat Darshana meaning in one of the Six Visionary Philosophical Systems of India. Organisation or the design of the universe is the evidence for this proof. (36) This organisation or the design or the design of the universe must have come into being as a product of a supremely skilled intellect. The one who possesses such an intellect is god. We see in this universe everywhere, an empire bounded by rules or governed by laws. Organisation, harmony or design is the nature of all things. The science of astronomy gives testimony to the character of non-exceptionality and subtlety of the laws of motion of the sun, stars and planets. If any person doubts that there is something wrong or some irregularity exists with the motion of the planets, the Wanderers of the Zodiac Belt, then let it be known for sure that, that person is verily wrong in his understanding. Laws of physics such as the law of conversation and the law of transformation of energy, apply to every object in the world beginning with the elementary particles, atoms, etc. all the way to the solar system, and pervade objects beginning from just a blade of grass, all the way to the intelligent human being. We understand that the laws of mathematics are utterly irrefutable. We also are sure that formulation and consistency of the concepts in mathematics possess ultimate purity. The more the knowledge of the world grows, the more the constituents and the events of the world will be expressed in mathematical language.
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Sciences tell us that understanding of an object does not acquire clarity without its formulation in mathematical terminology. What we observe is that every object fits in the mould of causality. The entire universe is just like a machine. Such a project or regulated organisation or law governed system, cannot come into existence without an architect with intelligence fit for the project. Construction of objects, such as a machine, a temple in exquisite proportions, etc requires a planning genius. In his absence, no organisation will function and only confusion will reign. This universe has no disorder or disorganisation anywhere. Therefore, it looks like it has been created by someone with exceptional forethought. That someone is god. Only at face value is this argument plausible. Here it should be understood that the functional necessity for instruments of intelligence or consciousness or knowledge is only for specific and limited purposes. Living organisms of certain species do need these functional instruments in their daily activities of life. It is true that for an animal like a human being, intelligence is essential in the conduct of his practical life. Limited Purpose of Intelligence Based on this reasoning, we can ascertain that intelligence is not necessary for the universe, in respect of its construction, destruction, and evolution. Man does not need intelligence for all regular activities. Living organisms carry on number of activities functions bodily unhindered, without consciousness. Functions such as digestion, blood circulation, foetal growth etc no matter how complex, continue with automated regularity. In the highly evolved species of animals, intelligence or mind has arisen as an instrument of specific activities. Intelligence is necessary for building a house or weaving cloth. The corresponding brain and nerve fibres for such activities are also a necessity. Therefore it seems that we are required now to say that the brain and the nerve fibres are needed for the whole
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construction project of the universe, because without them the attributes of such intelligence and thought cannot exist. Well, the plants do grow in the world and countless inanimate substances come into existence ceaselessly in the universe! Does the nervous system composed of brain and nerve fibres exist at all in these locations? In this example, just as there is no need either for the brain or the nerve fibres, so too there is no need either for intellect or thought! We will easily understand how erroneous the first proof for god’s existence is if we examine the meaning of the following statement. “If a thought is mistaken or attention if there is lack of attention, chaos occurs or confusion reigns. Also when thought is accurate, there is no chaos, and when mind is cautious there is no confusion.” Let us continue further. We say when the dinner that is served is bad, “It is the chef that has made an error because he had no knowledge or he paid no attention while cooking.” Here the error in cooking the food is not an error from the point of view of physics or chemistry; it is only an error from the point of view of the culinary art. Here the chaos or confusion in the kitchen has only to do with the state undesired by humans. This is what is meant here by confusion or disorganisation. Badly cooked dinner does not contain, in principle any disorganisation from the point of view of the sciences. The exception-free operation of the laws of causality operate when the dinner is messed up by the cook. Here the disorder in the quality of the dinner is nothing but the result of the error-free operation of the laws of science. That type of disorder is only an order! Order or orgaisation obeying the laws of physics is the nature of the universe. This universe is not imposed from outside. If this nature of an object is not inherent, we will be required to say that the very object does not exist! Prime Mover The second proof: For the existence of god, evidence is as follows. It is
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expected that motion needs a mover. In the universe, motion is observed everywhere among all the objects including atoms and elementary particles. The one who set them first in motion is truly god. Like a charioteer who drives the horses, one who sets and directs similarly the motion of these fundamental elementary substances is god. Paradigms of Science The second proof also does not stand the test of reason. Not every motion needs an independent mover. There are two reasons for our assertion. 1) Firstly, in every object there exists energy for inherent motion expressed as the principle of mass-energy equivalence in the theory of relativity, (Einstein’s Equation, E = m.c (squared)). In quantum mechanics (qm) there exists Zero point energy, A) in the vacuum of quantum electromagnetic field, wherein the unified theory treats the radiation field and an elementary particle as one and the same object, B) in an atom acting as a harmonic oscillator, and C) in a free particle in a potential well. Zero point energy is the lowest energy greater than zero. Therefore, there exists an irremovable energy in objects small or big. In classical mechanics, an object can cause another object to move. For these reasons, an independent mover is not needed. Now think of a moving railway train in which the boxcars move bumping one into another! One boxcar already in motion bumps into the second, pushing it forward; the second again bumps into the third, causing it to move on and so on, the motion continues. In the universe, motion related laws of causality operate in this manner. Even some scientists say that the one that gave the impetus to the original substance, the first time, is god. The time constraint, The First Time itself is erroneous. There is no such thing as the beginning of the universe. Consider the steady state cosmological paradigm of the universe. This universe is here accordingly since times immemorial. It has come down to us in successive oscillatory stages with no beginning. It changes every moment. The very concept that there was a
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time when there was no change in the universe and that it was totally static is a concept ridden with logical and cosmological fallacies. 2) The latest cosmological paradigm of the universe is “The Big Bang”. It also gives no support to the concept of either “The Prime Mover” or “The First Time”. The concept, The First Time, meaning Time Zero, has been made inaccessible by the principle of uncertainty formulated in qm by Heisenberg who made physics unavailable for such ideas by defining the earliest time as the Planck-time which is >0. The Zero time is truly a speculative land for both the theists and the scientists! Prior Intent The third proof: There is a third evidence for the existence of god. This is based upon the concepts of purpose, volition or motive. The argument runs as follows: Nothing can happen in this world without purpose. Every object must have come into being for a purpose. Therefore, the one in whose mind such a purpose resides must be god. Consider the following example in support of this proof for god. Where there is no water, there is no animal or plant. It seems that the relationship between animal and water is planned with prior intent. The blood circulation system of the heart is of a similar type. It is not possible that such a system is formed without any prior intent, a system: 1) in which, blood after purification should circulate in the body, 2) in which it should supply all the organs with the necessary vital elements, and 3) in which, thereafter the impure blood should return for repurification. Food here on the earth is created because the animals need it. To find food, animals developed eyes. If eyes would not have been acquired, search for food would have been difficult and as a result, animals would have been annihilated. Therefore, eyes were designed with intent. There exists a lot of support for the
statement that this is the way with prior intent, each organ has been created during the formation of the animal body. The nature of the construction of the universe is no different from that of animal body! The above reasoning can be easily refuted in the following manner. Purpose or intent is a mental trait. Purpose means desire or will. Desire such as something should be done for someone in a certain manner is termed purpose. From the statement that god has such a desire, one infers that god is unfulfilled and is imperfect. If this is so, then one is compelled to say that this god is not god. We desire what we do not possess and we know that there exists an object outside our domain. Similarly, it needs to be pointed out that if god has a purpose it means there is an object that is not in his domain of power or within himself. We must also say that what god does not have exists in the other object. This proves that god is not omnipotent. Take for instance, a human male who desires food or a female. This means, if there is want of food or a female, he does not possess within his reach these separate independent objects that will satisfy him. That is why a human male desires food or a female. Here is catch-22. If god, like humans, has desire, it means he is incomplete or at least partially lacks capacity. If god has no desire, it definitely means that in him, there is neither volition, nor purpose nor intent. Volition or causality There is no need to insist that the organisation or the order as a whole observed, either in the animal body or the universe needs volition. It is true that there is a kind of partial organ-wise volition, which is responsible for the organisation and the harmony of life belonging either to animal or man. We can demonstrate, however, nothing more than the operation of laws of causality in the total design of the universe. Continued in the next issue.................
New Humanism proclaims the sovereignty of man on the authority of modern science—M.N. Roy
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Guests’ Section:
Ruma Pal [Justice Ruma Pal, Former Judge Supreme Court of India, delivered the following V.M. Tarkunde Memorial Lecture in IIC, New Delhi on 10th November 2011]
An Independent Judiciary usual platitudes are inadequate to Thedescribe the honour conferred on me today by asking me to deliver a talk in memory of such an outstanding and multi-faceted personality as Justice V.M. Tarkunde. Unfortunately I never knew him personally but by all accounts his life reflected his deep commitment to ethical values: a commitment which he brought into every role he played in his life including those of a judge and a lawyer. In keeping with his strong principles, in 1981 he fought for the independence of the judiciary (as a petitioner before the Supreme Court1 on behalf of 3 Additional Judges of the Delhi High Court. Incidentally one of those judges, Justice S.B. Wad, was my professor when I read for a law degree at Nagpur. This however is not the reason for my choosing to speak on an Independent Judiciary and what it means today. I chose the topic for several reasons: the issue is one which was close to Mr. Tarkunde’s heart, it is of topical interest and it is also a subject which has bothered me greatly both during my career as a lawyer and as a judge. So I welcome this opportunity to speak my mind on the subject from the safe haven of retirement. Independence:
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In writing of India’s chances of ascending the international rankings in the coming years, Edward Luce in his book ‘In spite of the Gods’ says: “India also possesses institutional advantages that have convinced some people that the Indian tortoise will eventually overtake the Chinese hare. As India’s economy develops, these ‘soft’ advantages, such as an independent judiciary and a free media, are likely to generate ever-greater returns2. But is the judiciary in India really independent? A complete answer to the question warrants a doctoral thesis and a short discourse like of today is necessarily selective and therefore incomplete. I have tried to maintain a balance between legalistic and lay approaches while making it clear which side of the fence I stand. Any attempt at an answer must be prefaced with two questions both of which I seek to briefly answer: The first question is: Who do we include within the term “judiciary”? Is it limited to Constitutional Courts or does it also include those tribunals which decide rights and have the trappings of a court? Second: What does ‘independent’ mean? I will answer the second question first. Different dictionaries have given as many as 12 different meanings to the word ‘independent’. Of the twelve I have chosen three-‘Freedom from outside control’; ‘Not influenced or affected by others; ‘impartial’ and ‘capable’ of thinking or acting for oneself. Independence in all these senses must be complete, unimpaired and uncorrupted and that means first-that independence is antithetical to corruption and second-that it is ensured by accountability. The Chief Justice of India has recently spoken of “institutional integrity”3 and he drew a distinction between personal and institutional integrity. I would like to borrow that phrase and draw a distinction between the institutional independence of the judiciary and the independence of a judge. Institutional Independence: The independence of the judiciary which, to use the
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language of the Supreme Court, the Constitution so ‘copiously’ protects4, is institutional independence with institutional immunity, insulation and autonomy [primarily from the Executive] guaranteed under the Constitution5. It is a facet of the separation of powers which underlies the Constitution and is a part of its basic structure6. To ensure freedom from Executive and Legislative control, the pay and pension due to judges in the superior courts are charged on the Consolidated Funds of the States in the case of High Court judges7 and the Consolidated Fund of India in the case of Supreme Court judges8 and are not subject to the vote of the Legislative Assembly9 in the case of the former or Parliament in the latter case10. Salaries are specified in the Second Schedule to the Constitution and cannot be varied without an amendment of the Constitution. No discussion can take place in the legislature of a State with respect to the conduct of any Judge of a High Court in the discharge of his duties11. Nevertheless the Constitution apparently allowed a serious inroad into this freedom by virtually giving the Executive the final say in the appointment12, transfer13 and promotion of a judge as the Chief Justice of a State High Court or as the Chief Justice of India. All that is required of the Executive is to exercise the power in consultation with the Chief Justice and such judges of the Supreme Court or High Courts as the President thinks necessary. In practice the opinion of the Chief Justice of India on the suitability for appointment was given weight but not finality. Political considerations would on occasion trump merit. For the first 25 years after Independence apart from some aberrations the Executive left the judiciary alone in the matter of appointments to the judiciary. Again although there is no Constitutional provision prescribing the mode of appointment of the Chief Justice either of a High Court or of the Supreme Court there was a convention that the senior most would become the Chief Justice. This state of affairs continued till the seventies when the Executive began a sustained campaign to weaken the judiciary because judgments delivered by the 7
judges did not suit the party then in power at the Centre and because of the growing perception of the Executive that the Judiciary was an ‘impediment’ to its political functioning. It has been said of Britain by a British Judge that “the reputation of the judiciary for independence and impartiality is a national asset of such richness that one government after another tries to plunder it”14. The same could be said of the Indian Judiciary. The first assault as far as the Supreme Court was concerned, was the supersession of senior judges and the ‘rewarding’ of the dissenter with the high office of the Chief Justice of India. The superseded judges resigned in protest. In 1975 Emergency was declared when the powers of judicial review were severely curtailed. In 1976, 16 High Court judges were transferred to other High Courts by the Executive ostensibly with a view to strengthening national integration. The reason was rejected by the Supreme Court saying: “It is indeed strange that the Government of India should have selected for transfer, by and large, those High Court Judges who had decided cases against the Government during the emergency”15. In 1977 the Executive again used the ‘punishment’ of supersession to bypass the then senior-most judge in the Supreme Court, Justice H.R. Khanna, a politically ‘inconvenient’ judge, for appointment as the Chief Justice of India. Justice Khanna resigned. The year 1976 also saw the Executive deliver what they must have perceived as the coup de grace against a stubbornly independent judiciary, by the enactment of the 42nd Constitutional Amendment which introduced Articles 323-A and 323-B. Article 323-A authorizes Parliament and Article 323-B the State Legislatures to create tribunals to which the power of adjudication of disputes on various subjects can be transferred while excluding the jurisdiction of the courts in respect of those Subjects. The power of adjudication so transferred included the power of judicial review which allows judges of the higher courts to determine the legality of executive action and the validity of legislation passed by the legislature. These two Articles were
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intended to allow and in fact did allow the Executive to take over the powers of adjudication from the courts because an independent judiciary was perceived as a thorn in the flesh of political parties in power. Both Parliament and several States have been prompt in enacting legislation setting up Tribunals manned by members of the Executive to deal with a variety of subjects normally within the jurisdiction of the High Courts. Incidentally before the Amendment was carried out Justice Tarkunde formed the People’s Union for Civil Liberties to stem the political onslaughts on the judiciary and ‘to strive for the restoration and strengthening of civil liberties and democratic rights’ which the 42nd Amendment sought to affect16. Unfortunately like King Canute he was not successful in stopping the political tide then. Fortunes changed after there was a change in government and the Emergency was lifted. Many of the changes brought about by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment including the restrictions on the jurisdictions of the judiciary were done away with. However Articles 323A and B were retained. With a second change of Government coercive steps to curb the judiciary were again resorted to in the matter of the transfer of newly appointed judges17. Small wonder then that after this, a battered judiciary (after an initial regrettable hiccup in the form of the decision in S.P. Gupta’s case18) picked itself up and with all the interpretative tools at its command -termed by many as an unacceptable feat of judicial activism-by a composite judgment in several public interest litigations19 virtually wrested the powers of appointment, confirmation and transfer of judges from the Executive. Their reason for doing so was to secure the independence of the judiciary from Executive control or interference. Procedural norms were judicially prescribed for transfer and appointn1ent of judges. At present every proposal for appointment or transfer of a judge can only be initiated by a collegium of senior judges together with the Chief Justice of the High Court or Supreme Court as the case may be. From
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being a mere consultant, the Chief Justice of India and the Supreme Court collegium now have the final word. As the Supreme Court put it “No appointment of any Judge to the Supreme Court or any High Court can be made, unless it is in conformity with the opinion of the Chief Justice of India” and “The opinion of the Chief Justice of India has not mere primacy, but is determinative in the matter of transfers of High Court Judges/Chief Justices.” The insulation of the judiciary from executive interference in the matter of appointment and transfer of judges is now almost complete. But the question remains, has this almost complete insulation achieved the object for which the constitutional interpretation was strained to an extent never witnessed before or after? In my opinion it has not. It has just changed the actors without any change either in the roles or the method of acting. One of the criticisms of the earlier law, to quote the Supreme Court was: “The mystique of this process (of appointments) is kept secret and confidential between just a few individuals, not more than two or four as the case may be, and the possibility cannot therefore be ruled out that howsoever highly placed may be these individuals, the process may on occasions (sic) result in making of wrong appointments and transfers and may also at times, though fortunately very rare, lend itself to nepotism, political as well as personal and even trade-off”. The same criticism may be made with equal justification of the present procedure for appointments and transfer of judges. As I have said elsewhere ‘the process by which a judge is appointed to a superior court is one of the best kept secrets in this country’20. The very secrecy of the process leads to an inadequate input of information as to the abilities and suitability of a possible candidate for appointment as a judge. A chance remark, a rumour or even third-hand information may be sufficient to damn a judge’s prospects. Contrariwise a personal friendship or unspoken
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obligation may colour a recommendation. Consensus within the collegium is sometimes resolved through a trade-off resulting in dubious appointments with disastrous consequences for the litigants and the credibility of the judicial system. Besides, institutional independence has also been compromised by growing sycophancy and ‘lobbying’ within the system. The solution as I see it lies not in a reversal to a status quo ante but in the setting up of a judicial commission with all the powers now vested with the Chief Justice of India and the collegium of Supreme Court judges. This is at present the subject matter of intense public debate but the suggestion is not new. In 1981 the Supreme Court itself after noting the setting up of judicial Commissions by Australia and New Zealand to consider all judicial appointments including appointments of High Court Judges said: “This is a matter which may well receive serious attention of the Government of India.”21. In 1987 the Law Commission in its 121st Report suggested the setting up of a National Judicial Commission and suggested its composition22. The National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution in its Report submitted in 2002 was also of the opinion that a National Judicial Commission should be set up for recon1mending appointments of all judges of High Courts and the Supreme Court with a composition different from that proposed by the Law Commission23. Others including retired judges have expressed the need for such a Commission but have differed as to its composition24. Whatever the composition, unless there are non-partisan members, well-defined objective criteria, with the possibility of choosing judges from a wider source than at present and that proceedings are open or at least recorded—the likelihood of not getting the best as judges and of arbitrariness in making judicial appointments will remain. And now to answer the first question posed by me at the outset as to who composes the “judiciary”. Historically and semantically all bodies form part of the judiciary which are vested (a) with the power 9
of resolving disputes between litigants, (b) empowered to oversee the application and implementation of the law by the Executive and (c) empowered to determine whether executive and legislative actions are constitutionally valid. This definition includes in particular those tribunals who have, post the 42nd Constitutional Amendment, been vested with the jurisdiction earlier exercised by courts. Although the Supreme Court intrepidly asserted the independence of the judiciary to justify virtually excluding the Executive from having any real say in the appointment of judges, it was timorous in defending the same independence when it was most needed namely in answering the question whether the powers of adjudication can be shared with the Executive. Under the Constitutional scheme in keeping with the separation of powers judicial functions are to be performed by the judiciary alone and not by the Executive. The Supreme Court declared that “The competence of Parliament to make a law creating tribunals to deal with disputes arising under or relating to a particular statute or statutes cannot be disputed”.25 If the Tribunals are manned by judicial officers one could have no quarrel with the declaration. In my view, the curtailment and transfer of judicial powers of a particular court by Parliament or a State legislature can only be to another judicial forum whether called a Tribunal or by any other name. This was the situation prior to the 42nd Amendment. There were Rent Tribunals, Labour Courts, Motor Claims Tribunals which were all manned by judges or former judges. It was for the first time post 1976 that the jurisdiction of the judiciary was sought to be curtailed by transferring the powers of court to the Executive. In a Kalidas-like action of cutting the branch of the Constitutional tree on which the judiciary is sitting and what in less picturesque language one can describe as a judicial sell-out to the Executive, the Supreme Court has upheld the legislations establishing tribunals in a number of decisions26 subject to certain ‘adjustments’ in the law which
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are more in the nature of sops to the concept of judicial independence rather than an assertion of it.27 To maintain the ‘independence’ of the judicial process needed to be followed by these tribunals to reach a decision, the Supreme Court has insisted on the appointment of ‘judicial officers’ such as former judges to head the tribunals. Judicial independence has also been the reason for excluding executive power in the matter of the appointment of even former judges as heads of tribunals28.The exclusion of the High Courts’ powers of judicial review has also been held to be unconstitutional and decisions of Tribunals have been made subject to “scrutiny by the High Courts”29. Decisions taken by the Executive Members in Tribunals are required to be taken ‘in a judicial manner’ or like a judge i.e. impartially. All this is not enough. To borrow the language of the United States Supreme Court: “the legitimacy of the judicial branch depends on its reputation for impartiality and non-partisanship. That reputation may not be borrowed by the political branches to cloak their work in the neutral colours of judicial action”. Nevertheless these Tribunals continue to have members of the Executive discharging judicial functions and all members including the judicial members remain subject to the administrative and financial control of the Executive. A recent judgment of the Supreme Court says “The constitutional trade-off for independence is that judges must restrain themselves from the areas reserved to the other separate branches”30. That being so then why or indeed how, having regard to the principle of separation of powers, can the power of adjudication be shared with or be transferred to or be subject to the control of the Executive which is what tribunalisation has come to mean in this country? Besides it would be too much to expect a Government Official who has represented and been and in some cases continues to be part of the
Executive machinery and who has been committed to give effect to the policies framed by his/her political masters throughout his/her career (as every good Government official is expected to do), to suddenly be asked to discharge judicial functions which often requires a decision to be taken against the Government. Why is this at all necessary? Delay, arrears of cases, specialized knowledge etc. have been usually cited as reasons for the creation of such tribunals. If the work of the judiciary is being hampered because of the litigation explosion, the Constitution envisages more judges being appointed and courts set up which can function with all the safeguards of insulation, independence and autonomy as part of the judicial system. The Constitution also allows the appointment of additional and acting judges to deal with an increase in the business or the arrears of work of the High Courts and the Supreme Court3l. It was not envisaged under the constitution as originally framed that the lacunae, if any, in the functioning of the judiciary at whichever level, would be filled by the Executive. As Chief Justice Subba Rao speaking for a Bench of 5 judges said in 196632: “It is unreasonable to attribute to the makers of the Constitution) who had so carefully provided for the independence of the judiciary) an intention to destroy the same by an indirect method. What can be more deleterious to the good name of the judiciary than to permit at the level of district Judges (and now at the level of High Court judges), recruitment from the executive departments?” But according to a recent pronouncement of the Supreme Court “The presence of a technical member ensures the availability of expertise and experience related to the field of adjudication for which the special Tribunal is created, thereby improving the quality of adjudication and decision making”33. By that token all courts should have technical members to improve the ‘quality of decision making’. Traditionally if technical expertise is required it is open to courts to seek the opinion of an expert as a witness but not as a colleague on the Bench. To have technical
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members (meaning officers of the Executive) on a Tribunal is as repugnant to the independence of the judiciary as, for example, having the Secretary of the Ministry of Finance sitting on a Bench of the Supreme Court or High Court to decide income-tax matters. A more serious in-road into institutional judicial independence would be hard to find. Besides the ‘tribunalisation’ of justice has not worked in India. In 1997 the Supreme Court acknowledged “Tribunals have been functioning inefficiently ... The situation at present is that different tribunals constituted under different enactments are administered by different administrative departments of the Central and the State Governments. The problem is compounded by the fact that some tribunals have been created pursuant to the Central legislations and some others have been created by State legislations.” More than a decade later, if one is to go by the Report of the Chairperson of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board submitted to the Madras High Court recently, the situation has not improved34. The litigant, in whose apparent interest tribunalisation has and is taking place has been the worst sufferer. When most of the rights are claimed by citizens against the Government how can people have faith in a body if even one member is perceived as being part of the Government? The credibility of the judicial process “comes from the office of the judge and his or her individual and institutional reputation for independence”.35 Additionally every decision of a tribunal is subject either to appeal before the High Court or Supreme Court and subject to judicial review. This has only meant further delay and expense for a litigant because of additional rounds of litigation. Several brave High Court judges have tried with faultless reasoning to set right this Constitutional anomaly in their decisions36 but have unfortunately failed to convince the Supreme Court up till now. There is another seemingly minor exception to judicial independence contained in the Foreign
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Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976. Apart from other restrictions, the Act initially forbade, except with the permission of the Central Government, the acceptance of foreign hospitality by members of Legislatures, office bearers of political parties and employees of corporations37. In 1985, when the Law Ministry was headed by an eminent lawyer, the Act was amended to include judges (thus proving my theory that sometimes the worst enemies of Judges are those lawyers who while being members of the Bar also serve in the capacity of politicians). At present no judge, whether of the Supreme Court or the High Courts can accept any invitation from any foreign person or organization or indeed even visit a foreign country out of his/her personal funds, unless an application is made to the State and Central Governments with the approval of the Chief Justice two months ahead of the date of departure and the application is vetted by different Ministries and ultimately allowed or disallowed by an executive order which may or may not be received before the date fixed for leaving! Even if permission is granted by the Government to accept an invitation it is subject to the air-fare being agreed to be paid by the Government. Clearly the Government considers that being accommodated, wined and dined by a foreigner do not come within the word ‘hospitality’! It also overlooks the fact that a judge would be obliged to various Joint Secretaries of the Government for exercising their discretion in favour of the judge not only in granting permission but also agreeing to bear the air-fare—a dangerous situation since the largest litigant before any court is the Government. Besides if the Chief Justice as the administrative head of the judiciary in each High Court and the Chief Justice of India in the Supreme Court approve, to subject the judge to Executive control does, in my opinion, interfere with the institutional independence of the judiciary. To complete the insulation of the judiciary the mischief created in 1985 must be undone. An Independent Judge:
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The independence of the judiciary and of the judicial system of course ultimately depends on the personal integrity of each judge. It goes without saying and I do not intend to dwell on the fact that judges have to be above corruption in the monetary sense. But it needs restating just as it needed stating in 1988 when judges of 37 countries gathered in Bangalore and formulated what have come to be known as the Bangalore Principles. The principles are intended to establish standards for the ethical conduct of judges. Detailed guidelines have been classified under 6 heads termed ‘values’: Independence, Integrity, Impartiality, Propriety, Equality, Competence and Diligence. In fact all six values are facets of the first and cardinal one of ‘independence’. Judges are fierce in using the word as a sword to take action in contempt against critics. But the word is also used as a shield to cover a multitude of sins some venial and others not so venial. Any lawyer practising before a court will I am sure have a rather long list of these. I have chosen seven. The first is the sin of “brushing under the carpet” or turning a Nelsonian eye. Many judges are aware of injudicious conduct of a colleague but have either ignored it or refused to confront the judge concerned and suppressed any public discussion on the issue often through the great silencer-The Law of Contempt.38 The second sin is that of “hypocrisy”. A favourite rather pompous phrase in judgments is “Be you ever so high, the law is above you” 39 or words to similar effect. And yet judges who enforce the law for others often break that law with impunity. This includes traffic regulations and any other regulation to which the “ordinary” citizens are subject. Some in fact get offended if their cars are held up by the police at all while controlling the flow of traffic-the feeling of offence sometimes being translated into action by issuance of a rule of contempt against the hapless police constable40 all in the name of judicial independence41. The third sin is that of secrecy. The normal
response of Courts to any enquiry as to its functioning is to temporize, stone-wall and prevaricate. As I have said elsewhere that the process by which a judge is appointed to the High Court or elevated to the Supreme Court is one of the best-kept secrets in the country. The issue whether the records relating to appointments of judges to the Supreme Court can be directed to be produced under the Right to Information Act is now pending decision before the Supreme Court42 after which perhaps we will come to learn of the logical connection between judicial independence and secrecy. If ‘independence’ is taken to mean ‘capable of thinking for oneself’ then the fourth sin is plagiarism and prolixity. I club the two together because the root cause is often the same namely the prolific and often unnecessary use of passages from text-books and decisions of other judges-without acknowledgment in the first case and with acknowledgment in the latter. Many judgments are in fact mere compendia or digests of decisions on a particular issue with very little original reasoning in support of the conclusion. Often judges misconstrue judicial independence as judicial and administrative indiscipline. Both of these in fact stem from judicial arrogance as to one’s intellectual ability and status. A judge’s status like other holders of public posts is derived from the office or the chair. One has to merely occupy that chair during one’s tenure with dignity and remember that each time a lawyer bows and says “Deeply obliged” —the bow is addressed to the office and not to the person. The Supreme Court has laid down standards of judicial behaviour for the sub-ordinate judiciary such as “He should be conscientious, studious, thorough, courteous, patient, punctual, just, impartial, and fearless of public clamour, regardless of public praise43 but sadly some members of the higher judiciary exempt themselves from the need to comply with these standards. Intellectual arrogance or what some may call
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intellectual dishonesty is manifest when judges decide without being bound by principles of stare decisis or precedent44. Independence no doubt connotes freedom to decide but the freedom is not absolute. It is bound to be in accordance with law. Otherwise we have lawyers and the sub-ordinate judiciary baffled while “mastering the lawless science of our law” faced with “that codeless myriad of precedent, that wilderness of single instances.”45 Independence implies discipline to decide objectively and with intellectual integrity and as the judicial oath of office requires, without fear, favour, affection or ill will. Most importantly judges must be perceived as so deciding or to use Lord Hewart’s classic dicta that “Justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done,”46 because the belief of corruption is as damaging to the credibility in the independence of the judiciary as the act of corruption. This brings me to the seventh and final sin of nepotism or what the oath of office calls ‘favour’ and ‘affection’. What is required of a judge is a degree of aloofness and reclusiveness not only vis a vis litigants but also vis a vis lawyers. Litigants include the Executive. Injudicious conduct includes known examples such as judges using a guesthouse of a Private Company or a Public Sector Undertaking for a holiday or accepting benefits like the allocation of land from the discretionary quota of a Chief Minister. I can only emphasise again that nothing destroys a judge’s credibility more than a perception that he/she decides according to closeness to one of the parties to the litigation or what has come to be described in the corridors of courts as ‘face value’. As the Bangalore Principles succinctly puts it: “A judge shall not ...convey or permit others to convey the impression that anyone is in a special position improperly to influence the judge in the performance of judicial duties”47. And here I would like to pay tribute to the great majority of judges who are to quote N.A.
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Palkhiwala men (and women) of integrity, combining character with calibre48 who are holding the fort against ‘enemies’ both within and outside the system by discharging their duties with courage and independence. I will conclude with the most important facet of judicial independence. Judicial independence cannot exist without accountability. At present the only disciplinary power over judges is vested in Parliament which provides for the extreme punishment of removal for acts of proven misbehaviour by or incapacity of a judge49. Disciplinary methods include the Chief Justice advising a dishonest judge to resign or recommending a judge’s name to the Chief Justice of India for transfer to another High Court. Deprivation of jurisdiction or the non-allocation of work to a dishonest judge was resorted to by Chief Justice Sabyasachi Mukharji-when the impeachment of Justice V. Ramaswamy failed for political reasons. Sometimes Chief Justices control a recalcitrant judge by ensuring that the judge concerned sits with the Chief Justice or with a ‘strong’ judge until he or she retires. The situation becomes more difficult if the allegations are against the Chief Justice. Solutions evolved have proved inadequate and ad hoc. There is a need for an effective mechanism for enforcing judicial accountability50. The Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill 2010 now under consideration before Parliament provides for a mechanism for enforcing judicial discipline under a National Judicial Oversight Committee. But I would add a Caveat using the language of a Resource Document for the establishment of judicial accountability mechanisms in South Africa51: that “accountability mechanisms” [must be] “embedded in the judiciary and satisfy the appropriate standards for judicial autonomy, respect the separation of powers framework, and are transparent and publicly known”. This would be in keeping with that “independence” which as I
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said at the outset the Constitution so ‘copiously’ protects. References: 1.S.P. Gupta v. Union oflndia,1981 Supp SCC 87 2.P. 358 3.Centre for PIL v. Union of India,(201 J) 4 SCC J, at page 23 4.Union of India v. Sankalchand Himatlal Sheth, (1977) 4 SCC 193, at page 2 J3 5.Union of India v. Sankalchand Himatlal Sheth, (1977) 4 SCC 193 6.Registrar (Admn.), High Court of Orissa v. Sisir Kania Satapathy, (1999) 7 SCC 725, at page 728 7.Article 202 (3) (d) 8.Art. 112 (3) (d) (iii) 9.Article 203 (l) 10. Article 113 (I).See Union of India v. Sankalchand Himatlal Sheth, (1977) 4 SCC J93, at page 217 11. Article 21 I 12. Art 124 (2) in case of Supreme Court judges and Art. 217 in the case of High Court judges 13. Art. 222 14. Quoted in “Should Judges Conduct Public Inquiries?” by Jack Beatson: LQR Vol 121 p.235 15. Union of India v. Sankalchand Himatlal Sheth, (1977) 4 see 193, at page 234 16. See Granville Austin: Working a Democratic Constitution p.384 17. See N.A. Palkhiwala: Second Chimanla1 Setalvad Memorial Lecture, 1982; Granville Austin: The Supreme Court and Custody of the Constitution: Supreme but not Infallible. 18. S.P. Gupta v. Union of India, 1981 Supp see 87 19. S.C. Advocates-on-Record Assn v. Union of India (1993) 4 see 441; Special Reference No.1 of 1998: (1998) 7 see 739 20. “Information and Fundamental Rights”: Sarat Bose Memorial Lecture, 2009 21. S.P. Gupta v. Union of India, 1981 Supp SCC
87, at page 298. Since then several countries including England and Wales have set up a Judicial Appointments Commission to appoint High Court judges. 22. The Chief Justice of India (Chairman), three senior most judges of the Supreme Court; the retiring Chief Justice of India, three senior Chief Justices of High Courts, the Minister of Law and Justice, Government of India, the Attorney General and an outstanding law academic. 23. The Vice President of India, the Chief Justice of India, two senior most judges of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice of the High Court when considering an appointment to that court and the Minister of Law and Justice. 24. V.R. Krishna Iyer, J: The Hindu: 20th October 2003; Rajinder Sachar, J.: The Hindu: 28th March 2003, PUCL Bulletin, February 2005 25. Union of India v. R. Gandhi, President, Madras Bar Association, (20 I 0) II see I, at page 49 26. S.P. Sam path Kumar v. Union of India, (1987) I SCC 124; L. Chandra Kumar v. Union of India, (1997) 3 SCC 261; Union of India v. R. Gandhi, President, Madras Bar Association, (2010) 11 SCC I 27. They were readily conceded by the Executive without any reference to Parliament. S.P. Sampath Kumar Y. Union of India, (1987) I SCC 124; L. Chandra Kumar v. Union of India, (1997) 3 SCC 261 28. State of Haryana v. National Consumer Awareness Group, (2005) 5 SCC 284, at page 292 29. L. Chandra Kumar v. Union of India, (1997) 3 SCC 261, at page 311 30. State of U.P. v. Jeet S. Bisht, (2007) 6 SCC 586, at page 612 : per Katju, J: 31. Articles J28 and 224( 1) 32. Chandra Mohan v. State of UP :AIR 1966 SC 1987 33. Union of India v. R. Gandhi, President, Madras Bar Association, (20 I 0) II see I, at page 40 34. See in this connection Report submitted by the
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Chairperson, IPAB to the Madras High Court in Shamnad Basheer v. Union of India (W.P.12S6 of20 II) 35. Jack Beatson: Should Judges Conduct Public Inquiries: Vol. 121 LQR 221, 243 36. Sakinala Hari Nath v. State of A.P.:( (993) 2 An WR 484; See further L. Chandra Kuma v. Union of India (1997) 3 SCC 261,284 paras 37, 38 37. Section 9 38. See for example Surya Prakash Khetri v. Madhu Trehan 200I Cr. LJ. 3476 39. See for example: S.P. Gupta v. Union of India, 1981 Supp see 87, at page 223; Arundhati Roy, In Re, (2002) 3 see 343; Bangalore Medical Trust v. B.S. Muddappa, (1991) 4 see 54, al page 92: 40. See for example: Biman Basu v. Kallol Guha Thakurta, (20 I 0) 8 SCC 673 41. Red Lights on the Cars 0 f the Hon’ble Judges of the High Court v. State of U.P. 1988 Cr. L.J. 4212
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42. Central Public Information Officer, Supreme Court of India v. Subhash Chandra Agrawal, (2011) 1 SCC 496 43. High Court of Judicature at Bombay v. Shirishkumar Rangrao Patil, (1997) 6 sec 339, at page 355 44. See for example State of U.P. v. Jeet S. Bisht, (2007) 6 sec 586, at page 623 45. Alfred Tennyson 46. R. v. Sussex JJ, ex p McCarthy: (1924) I KB 256 47. Clause 4_9 48. N.A. Palkbiwala: We, the Nation: Crisis of Public Faith in the Judiciary at page223 49. Article 124(4), Article 217 (I) (b) 50. See in this connection Mechanism for Judicial Accountability by J. S. Verma, Former Chief Justice of India IDASA: March 2
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Asghar A. Engineer
[Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer, is a reformist-writer and activist. Internationally known for his work on liberation theology in Islam, he leads the Progressive Dawoodi Bohra movement. The focus of his work is on (and action against) communalism and communal and ethnic violence in India and South Asia. He is an advocate of a culture of peace, non-violence and communal harmony, and has lectured all over the world. He is presently the head of the ‘Institute of Islamic Studies’ and the ‘Centre for Study of Society and Secularism’, both of which he founded in 1980 and 1993 respectively. He currently contributes to The God Contention, a website comparing and contrasting various worldviews.He may be contacted at Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, 9B, Himalaya Apts.,1st Floor, 6th Road, TPS III, Opp. Dena Bank, Santacruz (E), Mumbai-400055, India] Arab Spring and Role of Women Arab world saw great political turmoil Thein the beginning of 2011. The Tunisian dictator Zen el-Abidin was overthrown before January 2011 ended. Then a similar turmoil began in Egypt and hundreds of thousands of people poured in Tahrir square to protest against Hasni Mubarak, another long serving dictator who was forced to go and then Libya, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain. Now all this has been much written about
and need not be repeated but what concerns us here is about the role of women in these revolutionary changes in These Arab countries. In all these countries women played very significant role right from Tunisia to the Yemen. No one can underestimate their role. Both in Egypt and Yemen women initiatives played most crucial role. In fact the Tahrir Square mobilization was due mainly to a young girl’s appeal on the face-book. As everyone knows the social media as face book is called played important role in mobilization in the Islamic world against kings and dictators. In fact the role of women in political mobilization was so crucial that it was being expected that Nobel for Peace this year would be given to three women from Arab countries i.e. Tunis, Egypt and Yemen but instead it went to women from Africa and Yemen, the later a Muslim woman who also played crucial role in protection of human rights and political mobilization for overthrow of President Salih though there still remains stalemate in Yemen. What is most important to note is the role of women in political mobilization in the3se countries and secondly it shatters the myth that Muslim women merely sit at home and are worth nothing more than domestic workers and house makers. Muslim women have proved once again that they can mobilize people far more efficiently and purposefully. It is also interesting to note that many women in Tunisia and Egypt were quite active in trade unions and used their experience gained in trade unions to proper use and brought about change in political structure. But post-revolution a shadow of doubt hangs over them? What this democratic revolution will give them? Or will it take over the rights they had gained under dictatorships. There is lot of truth in this as much as there is possibility of Islamic laws, as they are, being reimposed in these countries. In Tunisia Ennehda Party has won elections which describes itself a moderate Islamic party. But fortunately Ennahda leader Ghanushi has declared that there
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will be no change in gender laws which clearly means polygamy will not be re-imposed. However, Libyan women are not so fortunate. The Libyan leader who is projected as the new Prime Minister after ousting Ghaddafi has already announced that Islamic laws will be the only laws imposed and polygamy will be reintroduced and there will be no more restrictions on it. Ghaddafi, undoubtedly a dictator and had to go, had done lot of good in introducing and consolidating gender justice in Libya. He had given equal rights to women as provided for in Qur’an. He abolished polygamy and gave women important role in public life. He even maintained that to confine women at home is an imperialist conspiracy to paralyse half the population in the Islamic world. He, therefore, even created special force for women in the army and assigned them duties of body guards. It was undoubtedly a revolutionary step. Now all this is likely to be reversed and the Libyan leader specifically was mentioning polygamy. It will of course remain debatable if the Shari’ah laws as evolved during medieval ages when patriarchy reigned supreme should be re-imposed as it is or suitable changes in keeping with spirit of Qur’anic values be reformulated? To say that polygamy is permitted by Qur’an and hence must be reintroduced is really injuring the spirit of Qur’an. At best it is half truth. Polygamy has been allowed in Qur’an but in specific context and with rigorous conditions. Anyone who reads
the two verses in Qur’an on polygamy i.e. 4:3 and 4:129 would see that for Qur’an justice is more central than multiple wives. And if justice is so important can polygamy be made rule? In early seventies whenever a dictator declared his country to be an Islamic state, he would introduce Hudud laws (Islamic punishments for theft, adultery etc. as if these punishments were more central than what factors motivated a person to commit these crimes or punishing is more important than reforming a person. Similarly today when dictatorial regimes end a declaration is made that family laws will be introduced and polygamy will be permissible. As this writer has always maintained gender justice is very central to the Qur’an provided Qur’an is read in proper context and today with greater and greater role being played by women in public life it is all the more important that gender justice be made equally central in the Shari’ah laws through contextual and normative understanding of Qur’anic verses and shari’ah laws being based on such an interpretation of the Qur’anic verses. The present Shari’ah laws will not be acceptable to women as education and awareness among them increases and pressure for change will continue to gather momentum. In fact Qur’an unambiguously stands for gender justice and equipped women with all the rights men were given. We are surprised how male interpreters missed this and equally surprising is that Muslim women submitted to these interpretations.
PLEASE DO NOT SEND ARTICLES BEYOND 1500-2000 WORDS. Dear Friends, Also, inform me whether they have been published elsewhere.
And, please try to email them at rheditor@gmail.com instead of sending them by post. You may post them (only if email is not possible) at C-8 Defence Colony, Meerut, 250001, U.P., India.
Do also email your passport size photographs as separate attachments (in JPG format) as well as your small introduction, if you are contributing for the first time. Please feel free to contact me at 91-9719333011 for any other querry. —Rekha Saraswat 17
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Bill Cooke [Mr. Bill Cooke was editor of the Open Society
from 1992 until 2008. His next book is A Wealth of Insights: Humanist Thought Since the Enlightenment.]
Is God the Source of Morality? non-religious people, the answer to this Toquestion is obvious. But for thousands of religiously-minded people, it is still valid to wonder how one can be moral without a God to direct and punish. And some fundamentalists go even further when they insist that one cannot actually be moral at all unless one is religious, by which they almost always mean their own religion. Either way, it was the topic for the latest high-profile debate between religious and non-religious people on important issues. This debate went under the banner of the Evangelical Union and a newish grouping on Auckland University called the Reason and Science Society. The Christian protagonist was Matthew Flannagan, sometime Christian Heritage Party activist, now lecturer at what used to be called the Bible College out in Henderson. Dr Flannagan writes a column for Ian Wishart’s Investigate magazine and runs a blog on evangelical themes. And up against him was our very own Ray Bradley, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Simon Fraser University in Canada and Honorary Associate of the NZARH. The debate was chaired very ably, once again, by Professor John Bishop, head of the Philosophy
Department at Auckland University. Ray Bradley spoke first and went energetically about his task. Supported by a generous sprinkling of Old Testament passages, Bradley accused God as understood by in the Judaeo-Christian tradition of four serious charges: A. Crimes against humanity B. War crimes. C. Licensing mayhem and murder. D. Torture, including the torment of hell. As most rationalists know, there is no shortage of blood-curdling passages where God does all these things. To be found guilty of any one of these crimes, Bradley argued, would prove that God could not possibly be the source of morality, let alone all four. Bradley then outlined five propositions which theists believe about God. 1. God proposes things for us to believe and do. 2. God says he has caused, committed and condoned all the actions listed in A, B, C and D. 3. It is morally wrong to commit A, B, C or D. 4. God is omnipotent, omniscient, all loving (and all the rest of it). 5. A morally perfect being would not do anything that is morally wrong. Theists, at various stages, believe all five of these, despite their blatantly contradicting each other. From this, Bradley concluded, God cannot possibly be a source of morality. It was then Matthew Flannagan’s turn to give his main address. Now I know that, as an atheist and friend of Ray Bradley, I’m bound to say that Flannagan’s argument failed, or was unconvincing. But it really was, honestly. The main problem with his address was not that the argument was unsound, but that he didn’t actually have an argument. All he did was attempting to refute Bradley’s argument. We were told before the debate began that Bradley and Flannagan had shown each other their main argument. This, apparently, was an attempt to ensure that they addressed the moot of the debate.
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This was probably in response to my refusal to engage William Lane Craig on the terms he so imperiously dictated. But where I then set out an argument explaining my action and offering a rival account, all Flannagan did was refute Bradley. At no time did he actually put an argument forward to demonstrate that God was the source of morality. When one questioner pointed this out, there was a spontaneous round of applause, suggesting it was a widely-held view. The closest Flannagan got to outlining his views on the subject was when he declared himself a supporter of divine command theory, one of the arguments used by the new generation of hard-line Christian apologists. Divine command theory is a form of moral foundationalism that argues all moral rules or requirements emanate from God’s commands. Flannagan didn’t give any rundown of the theory, he just nodded in its direction. Just as well really, since the divine command theory has been on the back foot ever since Plato wrote the Euthyphro about 2400 years ago. So was Flannagan’s refutation of Bradley in any way convincing? He claimed that Bradley’s criticisms didn’t address the issue of God’s greatness. I would have thought that convicting God of crimes A, B, C and D would be a pretty clear indication of lacking an element of greatness. Even odder was Flannagan’s attempt to explain all the barbaric passages of the Bible away with the sleight-of-hand known as context. None of the Bible passages Bradley quoted, Flannagan assured us, are commands to us. They need to be read in context. And they shouldn’t be taken literally; they were metaphors, allegories, and all the rest of it. And some were disfigured by hyperbole. And in this way Bradley’s argument was said to have missed the point because it was an argument against biblical inerrancy, not against the goodness of God. Perhaps the most shocking admission from Flannagan was his claim that there must have been some overriding reason to justify God’s actions in
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the Old Testament, some higher good being pursued we were/are unaware of. How God could be the sole legitimate source of morality when he can justify his many crimes in the Old Testament in the name of some greater good escapes me. And it probably escaped Flannagan as well, as we were not given any examples of such big-picture benevolence. And as Bradley was quick to note, even if some examples could be offered, the God being apologized for in that context would be too repugnant to contemplate. What greater good could possibly justify the crimes of A, B, C or D, no matter how watered down? A lot of the audience was unimpressed by Flannagan’s evasions. I was unconvinced that Flannagan was not doing what apologists so often do; explaining away the nasty bits of the Bible in the hope of preserving the credibility of the bits they like. I asked him if we should look to context and be aware of genre, metaphor and a tendency to hyperbole in, for instance, the Ten Commandments. He didn’t answer that. I also asked would Jesus not be rather cross with him in the light of Matthew 5:17, which says ‘think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.’ Flannagan’s answer was extraordinary. Oh no, he assured the audience, Jesus’ words don’t apply to us because he was speaking at that time to a Jewish audience. What? Has he really thought that through? When was Jesus or Rabbi Yeshua as we should properly address him, not talking to a Jewish audience? If nothing he addressed to a Jewish audience applies to us, then we can safely close the New Testament in the knowledge that none of it applies to us. So, from now on, every time a fundamentalist tells you that Jesus has a message for you, you can assure the emissary that the message was only intended for a Jewish audience. When they harrumph that that sounds like secular humanism, you can assure them that, oh no, this comes from Matthew Flannagan, evangelical Christian and apologist for divine command theory.
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It seems, then, that Flannagan is behaving as apologists the world over have done: explain away biblical passages when they are inconvenient to his own needs. And in such blatant disobedience not only Jesus but also to the Law Jesus himself said he was coming to fulfill. Look, for instance, at Deuteronomy 12:32 which say: ‘Observe everything I command, taking nothing away and adding nothing.’ Another problem with Flannagan’s approach was that it makes it next to impossible to reliably gauge what God’s commands actually are. If the Bible is a hodge-podge of context, metaphor and allegory written by people of their times for their Jewish contemporaries, how are we then, in the twenty-first century, supposed to discern the content of God’s divine commands? Is it not reasonable to suppose that if God is so uniformly excellent, he should have arranged for us a clear manual to guide us lesser beings? Apparently not. Presumably it leaves that vital role to the very few chosen ones who can correctly tell which bits of the Bible are to be read in context and which are God’s divine commands. People like Matthew Flannagan. It’s fair to conclude that Ray Bradley got the better of this debate. He actually addressed the question and presented a serious argument why God could not be any positive source of morality. Flannagan, by contrast, was content merely to try and discredit that argument, but offered no account why we should consider God is in fact the sole source of morality. And Flannagan’s attempts to discredit Bradley’s argument either missed the point or raised even more serious objections. Having said all this, there remains the question of
what is gained by this twelve-rounds-of boxing style debate. I was determined not to present to William Lane Craig the identikit Richard Dawkins account for him to knock around. I wanted to call into question Craig’s claim to be giving the one and only viable account of what it means to be Christian. There are never only two equally-opposed viewpoints to any one question, and yet the debate format entrenches precisely this model. I would still prefer a less adversarial style of discussion of our various beliefs. At the end of this account many readers will go away thinking, “Gosh, what a fool Matthew Flannagan must be.” Just as, I have no doubt, people will think of Ray Bradley after reading accounts of the debate from Flannagan’s supporters. But are we better off if this is the outcome of the debate? I don’t think so. At the end of the debate Bradley pleaded with the audience to go away and think the issues through themselves. Quite right too. But maybe what’s needed now is not another debate designed in this zero-sum way. Continuing with debates structured in this way gives fuel to moderate-minded people of all persuasions who suspect that all that’s happening is two equally entrenched positions slugging it out with no-one actually listening to each other. What is needed now is a dialogue. Perhaps a theist and an atheist should come together and give an account of why they believe as they do and what they consider the implications of that belief to be. A dialogue of this sort would try to keep point-scoring and criticism of the opposing viewpoint to a minimum, focusing instead on outlining positively their own beliefs. Who’s up for that?
“New Humanism proclaims the sovereignty of man on the authority of modern science, which has dispelled all mystery about the essence of man. It maintains that a rational and moral society is possible because man, by nature, is rational and therefore, can be moral, not under any compulsion, but voluntarily: that the sanction of morality is embedded in human nature.”
—M.N. Roy
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Asha Kachru [Ms. Asha Kachru lives in a remote village in
Medak district of the South indian state Andhra Pradesh since 1992. Her primary occupation, besides being a resource person for gender in agriculture issues, she has been mediating between the rural poor and the Indian bureaucracy and promoting organic agricultural lifestyle. Before this she was in Germany for 22 years as a scientific officer in the German Research Center now called Max Planck Institute for Mathematics and Data-processing. She went to Germany as an exchange scholar after finishing post graduate studies in Pure Mathematics from Delhi University. She was the first South Asian woman to become a City Councillor (for the GREEN faction) in a European city (Bonn, the then capital) from 1984-1987. She lives at Katakeri, Kohir village, Medak District, Andhra Pradesh 502210. Ashakachru@gmail.com]
A Kashmiri pundit mother’s appeal for peace in KashmirPart 2 is the report of my second visit to the This state of Jammu and Kashmir, 13 Sept to 2nd October 2011. Last year I went to Jammu and Kashmir in June it was the stone pelting period. I went to Jammu for a marriage and then to Kashmir valley and surroundings, particularly to visit my birthplace 21
Anantnaag, 50 km from Kashmir valley. The report was published in Radical Humanist in October 2010 and in Sarvodaya Talisman, Nov.-Dec. 2010 issues resp. This report of my second visit from 13.9 to 2.10.2011 is in continuation of the first. It has been an overall pleasant experience both last year as well as this year. Last year it was in tumultuous stone pelting times and I could not visit the hospital in Anantnaag where I was born, because of some porno videos found in one shopkeeper’s store and the youth was out stoning the police, this year most of the cordoned fencing was removed and generally peaceful environment prevailing both in valley as well as outside. However some incidents of infiltration at the border and also in some villages did take place. This time I could visit the Christian Bishops hospital in which I was born. I was surprised to note that some doctors and nurses from Andhra Pradesh were running the hospital. What a coincidence I thought. I am a Kashmiri pundit born in Anantnaag, studied and worked in Delhi and Germany, now living and working with rural poor in Andhra Pradesh, since last 20 years and here in my birthplace it is the Andhrite health professionals looking after my brothers and sisters, the Kashmiris. It gave me a nice feeling of Vasudev Kutumbam and again a reminder that after all we are all a family of human beings with human needs, whether in Germany, Andhra Pradesh and/or Kashmir. Religion, caste, class and race are of secondary importance. Unfortunately some people create problems by dividing humanity on the lines of these very categories of religion, caste, class and race. More on that later! Let me first give an overview of who all I met and what all I discussed: 1. Attended 20th anniversary of Black Day get together of KP’s (Kashmiri Pundit’s) “reclaim of our ancestral land in Kashmir” by Panun Kashmir on 14th Sept 2011 and Amar Shaheed Yagya in memory of KP’s killed by Militants in Kashmir.
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2. Visited KP’s in camps (Purkhoo, Jagati, Nagotra, Muthi etc.) in Jammu. 3. Discussed with young students from Doda, Jammu, Poonch of YAKHJAY-Jammu group. 4. Visited my one and only family members in Karannagar, Srinagar. 5. Visited Yasin Malik and Geelani’s residences and the famous Mosque at Hazratbal, from which the famous announcement for kp’s to leave valley, but leave their women behind, was made by the militants. 6. Revisited Sufi poet Zareef Ahmad Zareef saheb and his family at his residence near the shrine of the famous saint Maqdoom Saheb. 7. Discussed with the young students from Kashmir University, of the Yakhjay group in Srinagar and also with some members of the Association of Social Workers JKASW. 8. Attended UN Peace Day celebration on 21st Sept at the Samad Island of peace in Nagin Lake, with contributions from many school children from Srinagar 9. Discussed with counselor Dr. Arif Khan of the HELPLINE Foundation, counseling all Kashmiris (KM’s and KP’s) in distress. 10. Attended the one day workshop to promote a young writers group at the women’s college in Srinagar. 11. Visited a small private school in Mirguna village in Khanabal near the hospital I was born in, in District Anantnaag. 12. Visited and discussed situation of adolescent girls and involvement of women in decision making in Humanity Welfare NGO working with mentally challenged children in Bijhebara, near Ananntnaag 13. Discussed with head of Youth Parliament and environment lawyer Nadeem Quadri at Pampore near Srinagar, on Dal Lakes legal environmental and women’s issues. 14. Discussed with Libel Nisa, a young Human Rights Lawyer on women’s situation in valley and
on formation of a Women’s Group in the valley. 15. Attended the open forum discussion by women leaders from POK, Jammu and Srinagar valley on “an Intra Kashmir women’s dialogue”, Broadway Hotel. 16. Discussed with Ms. Khemlata Wakhlu, ex MLA and present chairperson of the State Social Welfare Board on situation in Kashmir from KP’s perspective. She invited me to speak to the state’s one day conference for the adolescent girls. Gave lecture on empowerment of adolescent girls at the State Social Welfare Board meet at SKICC, Srinagar and discussed with young girls of both, Hindu and Muslim communities about their current problems. Let me now go one by one. 1.When I arrived at the Press Club in Jammu on 14th Sept., to take part in the Panun Kashmir get together, “Black Day for KPs”, sensitizing public on how kp’s had to flee from their homeland 21 years back on this day and even after 21 years of exile they still do not have a home land in Kashmir, I saw many women and man with Anna Hazare like caps on, with “Panun Kashmir, homeland for displaced Kashmiris” written on them. They were shouting slogans “chyon Kashmir, myon Kashmir; aisi chu watun panun Kashmir” (translated: YOUR Kashmir, MY Kashmir; we want to reach OUR Kashmir). Suneel Kulkarni, a human rights lawyer from Gujarat joined me. He is teaching human rights at the Saurashtra University and he is writing a thesis on “human rights of displaced Kashmiris”. It was good for me, walking with my stick that Suneel, himself offered to carry my bags with papers and books. So I could use – thanks to Suneel- my video camera, with which I was making a documentary of my trip to J&K. many vocative leaders and representatives of various groups of KP’s spoke about their situation, particularly that of the ones living in camps. They spoke of the utter indifference and irresponsible behavior of the Govt. and the general ignorance of Indians on the Kashmir issue.
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Suneel and I decided to visit the camps. We took addresses from some of the participants there. Then we attended the Amar Balidan Society’s Shaheed Yagnya on the same day and had a lovely Prasad with many typical vegetarian Kashmiri dishes, the delicacy Lotusstem, Dumaloo, Kashmiri Paneer and Rajma, closing with walnuts and Kashmiri Kheer with saffron flavour. We were made to remember KP martyrs like Tika Lal Taploo and Lassa Kaul, who were good leaders and loved by many ordinary Hindus and Muslims. Yet they were attacked by the militants and shot dead in their backs. One Kashmiri Pundit woman, I have been now told by many, was the first KP attacked and her body dissected with the carpenter’s saw, but she was strangely not remembered. We visited the exhibition showing the many men/women and children, who were murdered and/or harassed by the militants. 2.We first visited Purkhoo camp or what has remained of it. 25 families are still living there, waiting for a flat in Jagati camp, which is one of the latest camps built by the Jammu Municipality. We heard the residents mention so many problems due to the fake quality of materials used, like cement with sand. We met the family of Dileep kumar dhar and Rohin Raina. Their parents, sisters with children and married brothers with wives and children were all living in a one room flat since the last 22 years. The municipality has stopped providing them with water and sanitation facilities, because they have already started destroying the whole place to make something new and are not bothered about the few who have to stay on till they get an alternative. It gives one a feeling about the total disinterest on the part of the officials, from the state as well as the central Govt. in the lives of the displaced KP’s, who have had to live for so long in such inhuman, congested one-room homes. Keeping in mind that they lived decently in their houses in Kashmir and had enough land to sustain them from, one can understand the anger amongst their youth. Jagati camp is one of the latest camps. 23
We went to the Jagati camp the next day. The condition of the flats, the walls and the so-called parks was abysmal. Because sand has been used in place of cement, the walls are disintegrating all over, though the complex is only 4 months old. The parks are not parks, but septic tanks covered with grass here and there. No effluence arrangements make it unbearable to stay there longer. Many were complaining that this was a planned attempt on the part of the local and state govt. to get rid of them. The residents were saying that Jagati camp is the biggest example of corruption by bureaucrats in India and that they want a CBI inquiry be made. They have been told that though app. 15 lacs per flat have been allotted by the administration, it is only 4-5 lacs invested in one flat. There are around 4000 flats, so the amount of corruption can be envisaged. No electricity for 18 hrs per day, the sewage system is a fiasco, it is all stinking and soon many diseases can start. The children can’t play in the parks. One Deepak Bhatt, who dared approach the Human Rights Commission, was telling us, how he is being harassed by various sources, because of his alleged involvement in the Amarnath Yatra fiasco last year. He showed us a copy of his litigation and Suneel gave some suggestions to him. Girls and women –even after being well educated with degrees- can’t take up jobs in the city, app. 40 km away, because of safety reasons, due to non availability of electricity. It gets dark by the time they return and then it becomes unsafe for them, as it is a forlorn place. We visited the school for their children and were shocked to observe the scarcity of teachers. Also children are not able to study due to shortage of light. They were complaining about having to drink hot water from tanks and this too in hot season, due to missing electricity. We saw cow shed like remains of the once Muthi camp. Pyarelal Raina, a school teacher, who is also a leader of the KP’s, explained to us in detail that Manmohan Singh’s packet for the KP’s is not one,
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which shows empathy for their situation. Why has the govt. put issues concerning stay and employment together? The KP’s have a right to their homeland, irrespective of being employed in valley or not. He said the KP’s did not run away due to employment problems, then why is the Govt. putting such conditions on them? Why should they have to accept employment alternatives provided by the Govt. this is particularly problematic in case of young unmarried women, who are offered jobs in unsafe places, where cases of militant attacks have been reported. Again the fear of rape was evident. He pointed at the efficient and appropriate help offered to KP’s by Mr. Jagmohan, during his tenure as the governor of J&K. Jagmohan is seen as someone who really brought relief for them. I thought of the anti- BJP and anti Jagmohan news in India during his tenure. I feel our secularist friends in India are too quick to label anything in favor of Hindus as an RSS, BJP or Shivsena work. The KP’s are happy with anyone, who offers them a durable solution and one in which their safety is assured. It is worth noting here what Sunil told us, that Mr. Modi has offered free education for girls in his state and KP girls have taken advantage of this fact and many joined and passed from engineering colleges in Gujarat and have good jobs in different Indian states now. 3.Next we met the Yakjay Jammu youth group initiated by Ashima Kaul and Pradeep Dutta. It was a pleasure meeting these youngsters from Doda, Poonch, Jammu and Ladhak. Ashima was out of station and so Pradeep introduced the group, telling us that some people from J&K got together, first with children, later only youth and wanted to work on transformation and information issues. For example people were informed about funds from the central govt. provided for them. They used theater as a means of communication. When Pradeep mentioned that too many Human Rights groups are only adding fuel to fire, Suneel mentioned that Human Rights concerns have to be
dealt with between the Govt. and the public and not others. I think he was referring to the intervention of too many human rights groups from abroad. Yakjay ideology seems to be to look inside and first understand your own self and then go out to create peace around you. Create positive images around. Yousuf, the young Muslim guy from Doda said he wants to help bring the various regions in J&K together, people from Jammu don’t know anything about those from Poonch or Doda or Ladhak etc. and he even mentioned that he later wants to sensitize the political leaders in his area on such issues. Dorje from Ladhak told us a bit about his region and the fact that they suffer because they are cut off from the main cities of J&K. the Ladhak Hill Council is a good example of autonomy within the Indian borders. Sunandhini Sharma from Jammu told us about the difficulties she had to be able to attend the Yakjay meet in Delhi; her parents were worried about her safety. She managed to convince her parents that she can handle life and she was very happy about how much she learnt about each other in the group, particularly those women and men from far off regions. She and many others are law students. After talking about the gender issue, one young man from the group even asked me to assist him in getting to literature on gender issues, because in his law course study he wants to take up this issue as a specialization. 4.When I reached Srinagar the next day, I decided to stay in a hotel room near the Dal lake boulevard, instead of going to the residence of my niece Titli. Her whole family, starting with father in law, Mr. Vishen, her husband Suneel, brother in law, Vijay as well as herself is into teaching and educational issues. She is the Principal of the Nund Rishi College of education as well as of Walden School. According to Indian rules one is not supposed to disturb a girl’s in-laws family and so I enjoyed the freedom to do things according to my own priorities, staying in guesthouses and hotels. I did
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spend 1-2 days with them later on. One evening I got to know from the family members that their first school building, Cassette school, was totally burnt and even the big library was burnt by the militants, but they put in all sorts of efforts to start the school again as well as rebuilt the library. In between Titli with mother in law, did leave their house for a year or so, though the father in law, Mr. Vishen did stay on and had to undergo horrible suffering (ironing of his legs by the militants!) but soon the family reunited and are now running not only 2 schools but a number of Colleges too. They have built boys and girl’s hostels in their old (my great-aunt’s home) and new homes resp. and students from Rajasthan and other places in India get degrees from their educational institutions. Mr. Vishen told me that it was actually a KP, Ram Chander Kak, who was the first one to ask for Azadi from the Indian govt. Sheikh Abdullah wanted J&K to be with India. He also mentioned that since Pakistan never took back its forces, China intruded, the refugees from across the border never returned, the UN resolution could never be applied. Also he said that the president of UNO, Ban Kin Moon has taken the stand last year that since the last assembly and Panchayat elections were well visited (over 80%), the matter of plebiscite is treated as already closed. However the model of development for Kashmir for the Vishens seemed different from that of mine. I was telling them all the negativities of the present globalization all over India, my appreciation of my rural lifestyle, no big roads and no such dependency on cash as these days to be seen in cities of India. Though I was being opposed by the Vishen family members, most of the men later on
showed romantic appreciation for my rural lifestyle, but I am sure it is not meant seriously. They too will never visit me in the village. One young girl Rachana, who graduated from Titli’s college is staying with them, because she is an orphan and so was offered to stay with them. Rachana told us that in Himachal Pradesh, where she comes from; there is a village, called Malana near Kullu district, which is totally autonomous. I too know of a village in UP (name I am forgetting), which has its own currency too and has a totally autonomous way of living. But this is not what the separatists want either. I have invited Rachana to come and stay with me for some time. Mr. Vijay, who runs a computer college, said that the central Govt. has offered them scholarships for SC students, but because the Muslims do not want to accept caste (by saying it is contradictory to Islam), he cannot avail of these. This is harming the poor Muslims in the valley, the sweeper class the most. He says that the upper caste Muslims avail of all the benefits and do not care about the situation of the Sheikhs (which when used in the beginning of a Muslim name is an indication, that he is upper caste but when used as the last part of a name, it means an SC caste). There are lots of sweepers and shoemakers to be seen on the roads in Srinagar and Vijay was feeling sorry that not one child of their caste has been able to avail of the educational facilities, which he can provide them with the help of the funds from the Indian Govt. Another interesting fact Mr. Vishen informed me about was that the sex-ratio has gone considerably down in the valley. He is of the impression that it is due to the KP’s not producing as many children as their Muslim brothers and sisters. Continued in the next issue.................
“In so far as it shows a way out of the crisis of our time, New Humanism is a social philosophy. But as such, it is deduced from a general philosophy of nature, including the world of matter and the world of mind. Its metaphysics is physical- realist, and its cosmology is mechanistic. Conceptual thought and sense perceptions are harmonised in its epistemology. It merges psychology into physiology, and relates the latter to physics through chemistry.” —M.N. Roy 25
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Responses to the M.N. Roy Centenary Memorial Lecture Video delivered by the German Philosopher, Late Prof. Agehananda Bharti (uploaded on the RH Web Portal: http://www.theradicalhumanist.com/index.php ?option=com_radical&controller=article&Item id=56&cid=416&task=single) I Respected Madam, I thank you for the October-11 editorial of the R.H. It is fully realistic, reflecting ‘pessimism of intellect’. There are other editorials of yours that show, ‘optimism of will’. In B.P. Rath these hard days, no one can do better. I cannot amply thank you for the speech and the article sent by you. As my computer failed to serve the purpose, I had to go to a cyber café to get them. I listened to the speech which is an exciting and informative one. I shall have to go to the cyber café again because the café closed after giving me the video version of the speech. I shall write to you after reading the article., Agehananda Bharati’s lecture highlights the differences between philosophy and Darsan with a passing reference to Anwikshiki. He is right to say that Darsan is not philosophy. I agree with his higher estimation of Dasgupta in comparison with the eminent philosopher Radha Krishnan. His explanation of the fallibility principle and his questioner’s doubts about its applicability to modern science can be appreciated unequivocally. He is right in denying ‘philosophy’ stature to the Upanishads. P. Edgerton, a leading philosopher of the U.S, puts them under the rubric ‘Magic’.
Saibaba whose name cropped up in his speech and discussions is a powerful magician and philanthropist. The presence of eminent scientists in his camp show that modern sciences, flaunting the uncertainty principle, are vulnerable to superstitious concepts because relativity and pluralism reign supreme in their Wuthering heights of thought. More scientific discoveries may lead to better results. Indian Gurus using scientific terms to explain the glory of Hindu theology are justly criticized by Bharatiji. What I cannot stomach is his cavalierly conventional approach to Anwikshiki India’s greatest gift to human civilization is Anwikshiki. Anwikshiki is a product of a gather’s society. Compared to Charvak, Socrates is a superstitious (Russell), statusquo - supporting philosopher of a slave- keeping society Charvak, the lone philosopher of a gatherer’s society is, contrary to Bharati opinion of his being a writer of only six existing verses, lives is many pages of the original Mahabharata ‘Jaya’. There are Lokayatic verses (slokas) in the Mahabharata that strongly condemn the Vedic priests and astrologers. Bharatiji’s remarks on Yogic meditation which he calls scientific are acceptable. But the real grandeur of Yoga lies in its non-scientific unique value aspect (YAMA), which is illustrated in the Gita- saying “Yoga and Samkhya are the same”. Euro-centric thinking that dichotomizes mind and matter (Even Marx is not free from it) is repudiated in ancient Samkhya (mind and matter make a composite whole — ASTADHA - PRIUKRUTI — GITA). To call Charvak hedonistic is the height of Madhwacharyan Adwaitic hatred. Madhwacharya forgot that in Charvak’s days, the most coveted food item was not ghee but the tender meat of a calf. Yagnabalkya was craving for it. (The Vedic AgeHabib). A perspectival shift of attitude of the scholars only can do justice to Lokayat. Lokayata was Anwikshiki’s popular visage. To understand Anwikshiki’s great stature, we have to peruse Arthasastra Anwikshiki dominated India’s thought horizon till 100 B. C. (Radha Krishanan). The first
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millennium BC was the most fertile period of India’s freely contending thought -systems. Bharatiji’s lecture stimulated my mind. His critical altitude and his explanation of the therapeutic effect of Darsana and Yoga are illuminating. I thank you for sending me this speech. With preformed regard, Sincerely yours, —Bhagwat Prashad Bagwat_prashad@rediffmail.com II
Amitabha Chakrabarti
domain. I agree that from that. But, we “philosophy” and concerning all that
Dear Rekha, From what I could listen to of Agehananda’s talk I had the impression that he seems to limit the use of the terminology “philosophy” to analysis of our use of language in Wittgenstein and more recent contributions in that “darshan” is quite different all know, that the terms “philosopher” are used preceeds srtictly language
analysis. Pre-Socratics, Plato (writing about images on the wall of cave), Kant asserting “Moral Law” as a categorical imperative, even, say, Bentham, Mill and others wtiting about good orgaznization of human societies are all considered as “philosophers”. They were not analysing our user of words, but talking about (whay they considered to be) essential for understanding existence, individual and social. Indians started their exchange with European “philosophy” long before Wittgenstein and others started writing about use of language. Even the Arabs, in the Middle Age, borrowed the term “philosophy” calling it “Falsifa” or something like it (I do not remember exactly at the moment). All this is very well known. So saying imperiously to Indians that you use the word “philosophy” for “darshan” because you are ignorant is strange. I am, personally, interestd in the analytical aspect rather than “noble and profound” flights of fancy and peremptory assertions about immortal soul, the Creator and so on. I do appreciate Buddhist Logic (Dignaga, Dharmakirti , Sri Harsha,....). But all that is different from asserting that the word “Philosophy” is relevant only to recent school of analysis of use of language. —Amitabha Chakrabarti Amitabha.Chakrabarti@cpht.polytechnique.fr
“ New Humanism bases ethics on rationalism, and traces the roots of reason in the orderliness of nature and harmony of the physical Universe. By tracing will and reason, emotion and intelligence, to their common biological origin, New Humanism recopnciles the romantic doctrine of revolution that man makes history, with the rationslist notion of orderly social progress. History being the record of human endeavour, and man being an integral part of the law-governed Universe, history is not a chiotic conglomeration of fortuitous events. Social evolution is a determined process. But New Humanism rejects Economic Determinism, which is deduced from a wrong interpretation of the materialist philosophy. Human will is the motive force of social evolution. It is, indeed, the most powrrful determining factor of history. Otherwise, there would be no place for revolutions in a rationally determined process of social evolution. A revolution is acceleration in the tempo of the evolutionary process, brought about by the will of a minority of men. But human will, as well as ideas, can seldom be referred directly to economic incentives.” —M.N. Roy 27
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IRHM Members’ Section:
Mahi Pal Singh [Mr. Mahi Pal Singh is the President of Indian Radical Humanist Association (IRHA) of the Delhi Unit and National Secretary of Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), C-105, D.D.A. Flats, Sindhora kalan, Delhi-110 052. mahipalsinghrh@gmail.com]
PUCL: Its History of Struggle in Fighting the Structures Continued from the previous issue......... Draconian Laws in the Anti-democratic Garb of Public Order Laws: In the name of bringing under control various terrorist and disruptive activities, the state of India has brought about various legislations and Acts ever since the country got independence in 1947. While it is true that various groups in different parts of the country took to arms or indulged in unconstitutional methods to press their demands, the methods adopted by the state to bring them into the mainstream have also been dubious. While nobody having a faith in the rule of law can and should support the use of arms to press any demands, however legitimate they might be, it is also equally true that a serious attempt has never been made to understand their problems, or to find out the compelling reasons which might have made them take to arms against the state. Poor, deprived people who had hoped to get a better deal at the hands of local rulers after attaining independence
from foreign rulers, felt neglected and cheated when nothing was done to improve their conditions and they continued to suffer from starvation and disease. Their appeals of SOS continued to go unheeded and unheard and when they tried to organize themselves into a movement to force the powers that be to listen to their voices they got bullets in reply. When out of desperation they took to arms, they got Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA), Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), National Security Act (NSA), Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) and Prevention of Terrorist Act (POTA). While it is true that all these special Acts came into being with the purported intention of bringing under control only those few who were thought to be uncontrollable otherwise, and that too for a limited time and purpose, the fact remains that all such people could well have been brought under control under the ordinary criminal law, under sections 121 to 130, 153A, 294 and 295 of IPC. Another fact that cannot be contradicted is that all of them have invariably been used for a much longer period than they were originally planned to exist for. And the most dangerous common factor amongst them is that all of them have been used against the most innocent people to deprive them of their life and liberty, when these hapless people have tried to voice their grievances and that too for excruciatingly long periods. Those in power, to subvert democracy, which they professed to protect, have misused all of them. All of them have been used ruthlessly against the people they were supposed to protect, to silence the voice of dissent, to crush the right to demonstrate against injustice and to decimate political opposition. For example, TADA, which came into existence a decade after the imposition of Emergency in June 1975, following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi which in turn was followed by a ruthless collective massacre of the members of the Sikh community, is still considered by the Sikh community as an Act which was brought into force as a measure of continuing vengeance against
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Punjab. It was later extended to Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, and LTTE Tamils in Tamil Nadu and against Muslims after the demolition of Babri Masjid. This Act has been perhaps the most criticized law ever since independence. It was also one of the most ‘lawless’ laws along with the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and N.S.A. It gave wide powers to the police to arrest and to detain people without trial under its custody for periods, which could run up to one year and confessions made before a senior police officer were admissible as evidence before the court of law. The Act thus made a mockery of civil liberties and the fundamental rights of the people as laid down in the Constitution of India, and in fact, of democracy itself. The following statistics prove beyond any doubt how this law was misused against the so-called ‘terrorists’: “This law was abused in almost every state for silencing activists and political opponents. According to the NHRC 165 men above the age of 75 years, 160 women, and 43 children below the age of 15 years were detained under this Act until the end of 1994, and the oldest detainee was an 83 years old woman in Gujarat,” (‘Open Letter to the Prime Minister for the Repeal of TADA’ by K.G. Kannabiran – PUCL Bulletin, May, 1995.) Within a short period of its passage by the Parliament, POTA also achieved the same notoriety, which was earlier enjoyed by TADA, and the list of those arrested under it in a short period in Chhattisgarh alone read like the list given above. Its misuse to silence the opposition is exemplified by the detention of Vaiko, a prominent opposition leader in Tamil Nadu, by J. Jaylalita’s government, and his release by the POTA court under the directions of the Supreme Court, as the charges framed against him were not found tenable under the POTA. The very fact that of the 76,166 persons arrested under the TADA till 1995, when the Act was allowed to lapse, only 843 (that is only 1.11 per cent) were convicted, as per Union Home Ministry’s own statistics, is enough to show how widely and wildly the Act was misused to deprive 29
people of their right to life and liberty by various governments. After 26/11 of the year 2008 when Mumbai came under the terror attack by terrorists sent from across the border killing more than a hundred people and injuring about 400 at several prominent places, the Central government came out with a new avatar of the POTA in the garb of Unlawful Activities Prevention (Amendment) Act [UAPA] which has the same kind of draconian Sections as the POTA, particularly Sections 38, 39 and 40 as they lay the onus of proving ‘not guilty’ on the accused which is against the very tenet of justice: ‘innocent till proved guilty’. This Act has also been used so far against innocent persons or those human rights activists who raise the issues of the most deprived sections of our society, especially the tribal people of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh where the government has waged a war against them in the name of fighting the Maoists because that is a very convenient way of doing away with them and silencing the voices which go against the interests of the political class for which awarding mining contracts in these mineral rich regions has been a source of big corruption for which it has gained unprecedented notoriety in recent years. While PUCL strongly opposes this model of exclusive development, it supports and demands inclusive development in which the tribal owners of the land and resources are equal partners in development and the whole process is transparent and corruption free. Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, a Tool to Subvert Democracy in the Northeastern States: The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act [AFPSA] which has been in force for fifty two years since 1958 is in clear violation of the letter and spirit of the Constitution and has led to an undeclared Emergency and Martial law in the North-Eastern states of the country. The AFSPA has been responsible for the untold misery, death, rape and torture and the denial of civil and political rights to the people of Nagaland, Manipur and Assam. Extra-judicial killings have become the order of the
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day there and people are denied their civil and political rights because the armed forces there enjoy unfettered powers over areas declared as ‘disturbed area’ prohibiting the assembly of five or more people. The citizen is wholly dependent upon the whimsical and subjective satisfaction of a warrant officer or a non-commissioned officer who becomes the ultimate officer to define “order” and determines the steps to be taken to maintain “order”. Under Section 4(a) of the Act if the concerned officer is of the opinion that it is necessary to maintain public order, after giving such due warning as he may consider necessary “fire upon, or use such force, even to the causing of death,” and under sub-section (c) arrest any person without warrant who has, or is likely to commit a cognizable offence; and under sub-section (d) enter, and search without warrant any premises to make such arrest.” Article 21 of the Indian Constitution guarantees the right to life to all people. It reads, “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.” Judicial interpretation that “procedure established by law” means a “fair, just and reasonable law” has been part of Indian jurisprudence since the 1978 case of Maneka Gandhi. This decision overrules the 1950 A.K. Gopalan case, which had found that any law enacted by Parliament, met the requirement of “procedure established by law”. Under section 4(a) of the AFSPA, which grants armed forces personnel the power to shoot to kill, the constitutional right to life is violated. This law is not fair, just or reasonable because it allows the armed forces to use an excessive amount of force. Justice requires that the use of force be justified by a need for self-defense and a minimum level of proportionality. As pointed out by the UN Human Rights Commission, since “assembly” is not defined, it could well be a lawful assembly, such as a family gathering, and since “weapon” is not defined it could include a stone. This shows how wide the interpretation of the offences may be, illustrating that the use of force is disproportionate
and irrational. Explaining the AFSPA bill in the Lok Sabha in 1958, the Union Home Minister had stated that the Act was subject to the provisions of the Constitution and the Cr.P.C. He said, “These persons (military personnel) have the authority to act only within the limits that have been prescribed generally in the Cr.P.C. or in the Constitution.” If this is the case, then why was the AFSPA not drafted to say “use of minimum force” as done in the Cr.P.C.? If the government truly means to have the armed forces comply with criminal procedure, than the AFSPA should have a specific clause making this compliance mandatory. Further it should also train the armed forces in this procedure. Sections 130 and 131 of Chapter X of the Cr.P.C. sets out the conditions under which the armed forces may be called in to disperse an assembly. These two sections have several safeguards, which are lacking in the Act. Under section 130, the armed forces officers are to follow the directives of the Magistrate and use as little force as necessary in doing so. Under Section 131, when no Executive Magistrate can be contacted, the armed forces may disperse the assembly but if it becomes possible to contact an Executive Magistrate at any point, the armed forces must do so. Section 131 only gives the armed forces the power to arrest and confine. Moreover, it is only commissioned or gazetted officers who may give the command to disperse such an assembly, whereas in the AFSPA even non-commissioned officers are given this power. The AFSPA grants wider powers than the Cr.P.C. for dispersal of an assembly. Moreover, dispersal of assemblies under Chapter X of the Cr.P.C. is slightly more justifiable than dispersal under Section 4(a) of the AFSPA. Sections 129-131 refer to the unlawful assemblies as ones which “manifestly endanger” public security. Under the AFSPA the assembly is only classified as “unlawful” leaving open the possibility that even peaceful assemblies can be dispersed by use of force. However, the worst part of it all is that to take action under Section 4(a) of the Act the officer needs no permission from a superior and is not
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answerable to anyone. Under Section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.P.C.) no court can take cognizance of an offence alleged to have been committed by a public servant or member of the Armed Forces while acting or purporting to act in the discharge of his official duty except with the previous sanction of the central or state government whereas the permission of the central government has to be obtained to prosecute a military officer under Section 7 of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, which practically means that people have no right to approach the court and launch prosecution for atrocities committed by any such officer. Even various commissions of enquiry appointed by the government have found security forces guilty of gross human rights violations but in most of the cases the guilty officials have not been prosecuted for the offences committed by them. Several incidents show how the Border Security Force (BSF) and army personnel abuse their powers in the North East. In April 1995, a villager in West Tripura was riding near a border outpost when a soldier asked him to stop. The villager did not stop and the soldier shot him dead. Even more grotesque were the killings in Kohima on 5 March 1995. The Rashtriya Rifles (National Rifles) mistook the sound of a tyre burst from their own convoy as a bomb attack and began firing indiscriminately in the town. The Assam Rifles and the CRPF who were camped two kilometers away heard the gunshots and also began firing. The firing lasted for more than one hour, resulting in the death of seven innocent civilians. 22 persons were also seriously injured. Among those killed were two girls aged three and a half and eight years old. The injured also included 7 minors. Mortars were used even though using mortars in a civilian area is prohibited even under army rules. In Manipur, where AFSPA was extended 33 years ago
in the name of fighting militancy, successive governments have retained it and there have been complaints of military excesses from the people. A 30 years old woman, Thangjam Manorama, was arrested on 11 July 2004 and allegedly gang raped and killed by 17 Assam Rifles personnel. Students supported by many NGOs and human rights organizations there have been agitating for action against the guilty as well as for the repeal of AFSPA which has become a tool in the hands of rifle wielding criminals to perpetrate such crimes. A Judicial Enquiry Commission headed by C. Upendra, the District and Sessions Court judge was instituted which submitted its report long ago but the Assam Rifles moved the Gauhati High Court challenging the legality of the Commission because Section 5 of the AFSPA says that the State government cannot prosecute the personnel of the armed forces without a prior permission from the Union government. The shows the highhanded impunity enjoyed by the personnel of the armed forces even against the most horrible kind of human rights violation. The saving grace, however, came on 31 August 2010 when the High Court directed the Manipur government that it was at liberty to act on the report of the C. Upendra Judicial Inquiry Commission. However, it was a lone case in which the Judicial Commission was established and such Commissions are not ordered in all such cases. As a result, most of the cases, even of the gravest nature of human rights violation, go unreported, un-enquired and unpunished. In the wake of more than a hundred agitating young men having been killed in police and para-military forces’ firing in the last one month in Kashmir, now even the Chief Minister of the State, Omar Abdullah, has demanded amendment in AFSPA or its partial withdrawal from the State on 8 September 2010. Continued in the next issue.............................
“New Humanism lays emphasis on the basic fact of history that man is the maker of his world—man as a thinking being , and he can only be so as an individual. The brain is the instrument of thought, and is individually owned. It cannot be possessed collectively. Revolutions are heralded by iconoclastic ideas conceived by gifted individuals” M.N. Roy 31
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Teachers’ & Research Scholars’ Section:
Changing Trends in Indo-Nepal Relations between India Relations and Nepal have always been close and have reflected the historical, geographical, culture Pravesh Kumari and linguistic links between the two nations. An open border of more than 1800 Km. epitomizes this special relationship which also manifests in the close and friendly relations at the government level. The crossing of open borders by the people on both sides has not only influenced each other’s history, culture and tradition but also has had an impact on the political, economic and strategic relations between the two countries. The signing of the Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship in 1900 established the framework for the unique ties between the two countries. The treaty provided for national treatment for matters related to entry of citizens from both sides and business. Both share a unique relationship. Nepal was being ruled by the Rana oligarchy till 1980. When there was a revolution in which the Nepalese people and king Tribhuwan participated succeeding in overthrowing the Ranas and bringing democracy to the country king Tribhuwan fled to India and the Indian government supported the democratic forces in Nepal. Had it not been for the support from India, it would have been difficult for the democratic forces in Nepal to succeed in ending the despotic regime. On 13 March 1955 following king Tribhuvan’s death King Mahindra occupied the throne. This pattern of relations continued till king Mahindra’s accession to the throne in March 1955. Unlike King Tribhuwan he did not own his position to Indian support and wanted a free hand in foreign policy matters such as diplomatic relations with China in 1960 and tried to assert its independence
and sovereignty in matters of National Development also. King Mahendra was very successful in the realm of foreign affairs as Nepal was able to assert its independent identity and reduce its dependence on India. Nepal had established diplomatic relations with many other countries, too. During that interval, political dynamics in Nepal also influenced the making of its foreign policy with India. There have been frequent changes in the political system in Nepal from the rule of the Ranas to the monarchy, to the Panchayat-democracy and constitutional-democracy and in every political change the rulers have looked towards those out of power with suspicion. Such as when king Mahendra faced opposition from pre-democracy political parties like the Nepali Congress and the Communists, he apprehended Indian support to them to strangle his monarchy. King Mahendra tried to diversify relations with extra regional countries and tried to maintain a distance from India. Internal and international compulsions forced that king Virendra, who succeeded his deceased father in Jan. 1972, to pursue anti-Indianism with undiminished vigour. But at the conference of Non-aligned countries in Algiers in Sep. 1973 king Virendra propounded the impracticable theory of equal closeness of Nepal with both India and China. In 1975 king Bijendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev proposed that Nepal be recognized internationally as a zone of peace. The most important component of this proposal was that Nepal would conduct its relations with all countries, especially the neighbouring countries, on the premises of equality and respect for each other’s sovereignty and independence. Nepal should have also remembered that sometimes, as in the case of the trade and transit treaties of 1978 India abandoned its long-held view point to accommodate Nepal’s the right of transit that was sacrosanct of Nepal, almost a symbol of its
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independence. This was not to be mixed up with issues of official trade and unofficial trade, the latter often compensating for the lack of balance in the former. In 1978 India signed two separate treaties on trade, as also a third one on control of unlawful trade. Nepal was visibly happy. In 1988 when the two treaties were up for renewal Nepal’s refusal to accommodate India’s wishes on the transit treaty caused India to call for a single trade and transit treaty. Thereafter, Nepal took a hard line position that led to a serious crisis in India Nepal relations. Nepal had purchased anti-aircraft guns and assault rifles from China in 1988. This was regarded by India as ‘Provocative’ and a contravention of 1950 treaty. On 23 March 1989 the treaties of trade and transit lapsed. India declared a blockade of goods to Nepal after delays in renewing trade and transit between the two countries. This caused hardship to the people. In 1989, a new government, led by Janata Dal came to power in India. A number of leaders of Janata Dal were socialists and had class links with leaders of democratic group of Nepal. Even during opposition to the monarchy in 1989, socialists, like Chandrashekhar and communist leaders from India were present in Kathmandu to extend their support to the democrats. However, they have to be differentiated from the official stand taken by the government of India. The popular movement, against the Panchayat system gathered momentum and the king had to dismantle the party-less system and had to transfer sovereignty to Parliament in 1990. A democratic government of Prime Minister K.P. Bhattarai consisting of the Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal – United Marxist Leninist (C.P.N. (UML) took control of power. The democratic government was responsible in steering the country towards a radically changed world polity devoid of clear cut cold war politics and a defined foreign policy in situations where the security was threatened from within. The in-stream government of K.P. Bhattarai declared it would
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improve relations with India on a priority basis. The Nepalese perspective favourably responded to India and the special security relationship between New Delhi and Kathmandu was re-established during the June 1990 New Delhi meeting of Nepal Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and Indian Prime Minister V.P. Singh. Nepal’s multi-party democratic elections were first held in May 1991, the Nepali Congress Party (N.C.) led by G.P. Koirala won this election with a clear majority. He gave primacy to developing relations with the neighbouring countries. His visit to India, has first ever visit abroad as a Prime Minister, from Dec. 5 to 10, 1991 was not only fruitful in defining relations with India but was also successful in concluding two separate treaties on trade and transit for 5 and 7 years respectively and another economic agreement designed to accord Nepal additional economic benefits. India also reduced the domestic content and Labour requirement on Nepalese goods from 65 to 50 percent to provide duty free access to India. Prime Minister Man Mohan Adhikari during his visit in India in April 1995 insisted on a major review of the 1950 Peace and Friendship Treaty. In the face of benign statements by his Indian hosts relating to the treaty, Adhikari sought greater economic independence for his landlocked nation. However, his tenure was short-lived. The government was ousted from power through a no-confidence motion and the Nepali congress with the support of the Rashtriya Prajatantra Party and Nepal Sadhbhavana Party come to power under the leadership of Sher Bahadur Deuba. In mid Feb. 1997 Nepal’s Prime Minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba’s visit to New Delhi and meeting with Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narsimha Rao brought the major achievement of finalizing the Mahakali treaty and electric power trade treaty with India. It was a significant step towards improving Nepal’s balance of trade with India. The Mahakali agreement this was a significant step in developing positive mutual relations because now both
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countries could meet any shortage in power from Pancheshwar. Also both the countries had freedom to enter into an agreement with a third party to generate resources for exploiting power. By finalizing the Mahakali treaty and the electric power trade treaty India took a significant step to improve Nepal’s balance of trade with India. The hijacking of an Indian airlines aircraft from Kathmandu airport and its landing in Kandahar airport in Taliban ruled Afghanistan was to make profound changes in India-Nepal relationship. The beginning of the new millennium also marked two events, which were to affect Nepal’s foreign policy profoundly. The first occurred on June 1, 2001 when crown prince Dipendra went on a shooting spree assassinating members of the royal family including king Bijendra and queen Aishwarya before shooting himself. After his death two days later the king’s surviving brother Gyanendra was proclaimed to the throne as Nepal Naresh. The second was growth in Maoist insurgency in the country. On Ist July 2001 Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala stepped down amid fears of continuing instability and his government’s failure to deal with the growing Maoist insurgency. He was replaced by HC Leader Sher Bhadur Deuba. In Oct. 2002, King Gyanendra dismissed Deuba and consolidated his own power for the first time. From the year 2002 to 2005 the king chose and subsequently dismissed three Prime Ministers; finally dismissing Deuba, he proclaimed a state of emergency for the second time and took over as an absolute ruler on 1st Feb. 2005. Political leaders, media personnel, intellectuals, human rights’ activists and student leaders were under house arrest/detention. India reiterated that the challenges faced by Nepal could be addressed effectively only on the basis of national consensus. In this context India called for a return to democratic processes at the earliest. India also called for immediate release of all arrested political leaders, media, personnel, intellectuals and human rights’ activists. India continued to support all efforts for the restoration of political stability and economic prosperity in
Nepal. It was critical of the king’s actions. But the king overlooked suggestions of India. Following the Feb. 2005 Royal coup the government of India showed its annoyance. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh refused to participate in Dhaka SAARC summit to be held a few days later, because he did not want to meet king Gyanendra. And therefore, after 2005, after king Gyanendra took over, Nepalese relations with India soured. After the restoration of democracy in 2008, Prachanda became the Prime Minister of Nepal. He spoke about the diminishing of bilateral relation between two countries. During his first official visit to New Delhi on 19th Sept. 2008 both sides noted that the multi-faced and deep-rooted relationship between the two countries needed further consolidation and expansion in a forward looking manner to better reflect the current realities. It was in this context that the two Prime Ministers agreed to review adjust and update the 1950 treaty of peace and friendship and other agreements while giving due recognition to the special features of the bilateral relationship. It was also decided that India would provide a credit line of up to 150 crore rupees to Nepal to ensure uninterrupted supplies of petroleum products, as well as lift its bans on the export of rice, wheat, maize, sugar and sucrose for quantities agreed with Nepal. India would also provide 20 crore as immediate flood relief. In return, Nepal will take measure for the promotion of investor friendly, enabling business environment to encourage Indian investments in Nepal. Furthermore a three-tier mechanism at the ministerial, secretarial and technical levels will be built to push forward discussion on the development resources between the two countries was also decided. Politically India, acknowledged a willingness to promote efforts towards peace in Nepal. India external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee promised the Nepal Prime Minister Prachanda that he would extend all possible help for peace and development. In 2009 Maoist government of Nepal formed a new coalition government. Madhav Kumar Nepal was
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elected the Prime Minister of Nepal. But he soon resigned due the political differences. Prime Minister continued to lead the government in the form of a care taker for over seven month - May 2009 to Feb. 2011. Amid political instability in Nepal Jhalanath Khanal was elected 34th Prime Minister of Nepal in Feb. 2011. In January 2011 visit to Nepal, Indian foreign secretary Nirupma Rao met with leaders of all the main political parties, including the Maoists. It was reported that she asked Maoist Leader Prachanda about the Maoists’ anti-India stand and that she was told the Maoist believed that it was time to look at certain historical issues like treaties in a new manner. Some Nepalese viewed the treaty as giving India a disproportionate say in Nepalese affairs. Just how far the Maoist desire to re-form the 1950 treaty will go in the C.P.N. U.M.L. government remains to be seen. Jhalanath Khanal resigned on 14th August 2011. Nepal’s parliament elected a Maoist leader, Baburam Bhattari as Prime Minister. Nepal Parliament chose for the forth time in three year a new Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai is the second Maoist Prime Minister after Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda. He, in his four days’ visit to India in Oct. 2011, his first foreign trip as Prime Minister signed two agreements, as a major achievement. One was on 250 million Line of Credit for Nepal and another long awaited bilateral investment promotion and protection agreement (BIPAA). As is well known, the loan is highly concessional as Nepal would have to return it to the Indian government in 20 years. The rate of interests on this loan is as low 1.75 percent per year. In fact, during the visit of Nepal President Ram Baran Yadav to India in Feb. 2010 India had agreed to provide this facility to Nepal but did not materialize as a formal signing of the agreement could not be done. In a key concession Kathmandu finally relented to address to security worries of Indian investors. The fact entails granting compensation to investors whose assets suffer losses due to war, armed conflict or in a state of national emergency, a long 35
standing Indian demand. Bhattarai described his visit to India as successful and stressed that it had opened a new chapter in the bilateral relationship. Now Baburam Bhattarai faces major challenges, people are eager to know what kind of relations he will develop with the neighbouring country India, whether he will follow Prachand who has been continuously accused of maintaining good relations with China over India. It seems that Bhattarai is walking on a tight rope. One needs to wait and watch to see what will be the choice of Baburam Bhattarai. References: Indian – Foreign Relations, 1947-2007, Routledge Taylor 8 Francis Group, New Delhi, 2011. Sanasam, Sandhyarani Devi – Indian nepal Relations – Historical, Culture and Political Perspective, VIJ Book India Pvt. Ltd. (New Delhi) 2011. Ramesh Trivedi, India’s Relations with How Neighbours, Usha Book, Delhi 2008. http://Publishedforsholar.WorldPress.com/2006/1 2/18 INDIA-% E2%/80%/93-Nepal Relations/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics of Nepal Bhasin, A.S. Documents on Nepal’s Relations with India and China 1949-66, Academic Book 1979. Dixit (J.N.) External Affairs.cross Border Relations, Rali Book 2003. http://globaledgeMSU.edu/countries/Nepal/Histor y India’s is Boddhas Birth Chandni Nepal funes. http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?Newsid+122 2726. http://News/xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/11/co ntent_ 10061787.htm Times of India, 29 August, Hindi Hindustan 29 August. Internal Conflict in Nepal Transnational Consequences editor, V.R. Raghavan. Times of India, Hindustan Times, 2 Oct. 2011. [Dr. Pravesh Kumari is a PDF (UGC), Dept. of Political Science, C.C.S. University, Meerut.]
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Book Review Section:
Dipavali Sen [Ms. Dipavali Sen has been a student of Delhi
School of Economics and Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (Pune). She has taught at Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, and various colleges of Delhi University. She is, at present, teaching at Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce, Delhi University. She is a prolific writer and has written creative pieces and articles for children as well as adults, both in English and Bengali. Dipavali@gmail.com]
India’s Capital – A Century After [DELHI City of Rainbow Dreams, by Nita Berry, published in 2010 by Snab Publishers Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, distributed by Nita Mehta Books, Illustration, Cover Design and Book Design by ‘flying trees’, printed in Malaysia, hard cover, 20”x16”, pp 95, price Rs 650.] colours being seven in number, Rainbow this book on the seven cities of Delhi is most appropriately titled, especially since Delhi has such a colourful past, with imperial dreams that sometimes came true and sometimes got smashed to smithereens. The author, Nita Berry, is a “homegrown Delhiwallah”, though she now resides in Gurgaon. She is a noted writer of fiction and non-fiction for
children, and has won the prestigious Shankar’s Medal for her book The Story of Time brought out by the Children’s Boot Trust (CBT). She is also editor, freelance journalist, and Executive Committee member of the Association of Writers and Illustrators (AWIC) and has been a member of the Textbook Development Committee of the National Council of Education, Research and Training (NCERT). She unfolds in simple yet mellifluous language the story of Delhi in its various phases. She begins by saying: “They called it Khandavaprastha, or the city of ruins. Desolate and overgrown, it was a settlement long forgotten – a veritable ghost city, occupied only by birds and beasts, and very likely a hideout for thieves” (p11). This is what Dhritarashtra had apportioned to the fatherless sons of his younger brother. This is what Delhi has at its base. As Nita Berry says at the end, “...it is probably the world’s oldest capital city” (p 90). It is thus a fascinating blend of the old and the new, with a skyline of ancient monuments and modern high-rise buildings. How did it evolve to this stage? That is what Nita Berry narrates, taking us through the reigns of Prithviraj, Tughlak, Shahjahan, George V and beyond. The book opens with a gloriously illustrated double-page Map of Delhi showing its seven cities. There is a short prologue, followed by: (1)Before the Dawn of History, (2) Dillika – The First City,(3)The Second City – Siri is born, (3) A Glimpse of Tughlakabad – the Third City, (4) Refuge of the World- Jahanpanah, the Fourth City, (5) Building the Fifth City – Firozabad, (6) Delhi’s Darkest Days, (7) New Beginnings at Sher Shahi The Sixth City, (8) The Splendour of the Seventh City – Shahjahanabad, (9) Lutyen’s New Delhi – A Modern Capital. There is a historical running through the accounts of the seven cities, and evocative photographs and pen-and-inch sketches in colour add a new
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dimension to Nita Berry’s text. The book ends with a brief Epilogue-about New Delhi Today, and a short Glossary. The phenomenon of Imperialsm has left its mark on Delhi. The British Empire at its zenith decides that the capital of their most precious colony should be shifted from Calcutta to Delhi. 1911-12 is the centenary of that momentous event, and thus the occasion of the publication of several books on Delhi as a city. Compared to Calcutta, Delhi has a shorter history as the capital of British India. In fact it can be argued that it was a mistake on the part of the Empire to shift the capital. Bengal was where the East India Company had won its first territorial foothold. The Permanent Settlement and the rise of the zamindari system had steadied that foothold. With the emergence of the ‘babu’s or the educated
Bengalis, the imperialistic foundations had become quite unshakeable. In spite of the rise of Nationalism and its violent manifestations, perhaps the British would have done better if they had stuck to old, familiar Calcutta rather than create a ‘New’ Delhi. But history did not happen that way. Imperialist rule gifted India with a ‘modern’ capital. It was in a British-constructed building that the President of India resides. Connought Place has been renamed Rajiv Chowk, but the imperialistic stamp remains. The Commonwealth Games only carry on that imperialist tradition. But under the layers of recent history, the ancient layers still lie. This book reminds us of that, and connects Delhi today with the Delhi of Mahabharata times.
Useful information regarding the Indian Renaissance Institute All India Study Camp to be held on 31 December 2011 and 1 January 2012 Venue: Hotel Sagnik, Murshidabad, West Bengal, (Astabal more, Lalbagh, Near State Bank of India, Lalbagh Branch) How to reach there:Murshidabad, which is about 190 km from Kolkata, could be reached by a 4/5-30 hours journey by train. The schedules are: Trains from Sealdah to Murshidabad, a) 53175 Lalgola Passenger (departure 12-30, arrival 17-50 provides second class and non-ac first class), b) 13103 Bhagirathi Express (departure 18-25, arrival 22-05, provides second class and non-ac and ac chair car), c) 53181 Lalgola Passenger, (departure.23-05, arrival 3-55, provides non AC first class and non AC second class sleeper, no bed role). Trains from Kolkata to Murshidabad, 13113 Hazarduari Express (departure 6-50, arrival 11-20, provides AC and non AC chair cars). Trains from Murshidabad to Sealdah, a) 53178 Lalgola Passenger (departure 9-25, arrival 15-15), b) 13104 Bhagirathi Express (departure 6-20, arrival 10-25), c) 53172 Lalgola Passenger, (departure. 22-30, arrival 4-30).Trains from Murshidabad to Kolkata, 13114 Hazarduari Express (departure 15-40, arrival 21-25).Participants are advised to check the train schedules. Those who are willing to travel by road might consult the taxi services available at airport/railway station. Registration fee: Rs 300, Rs 150 (for students and whole-time social workers). Registration fee will provide meals and snacks from the night of 30 December 2011 to the morning of 2 January 2012 and conference materials.Accommodation: Charges to be paid by the participants according to the tariff of Hotel Sagnik. Accommodation preferably sharing basis should be booked by the participants through the organizing committee by sending the necessary charges, which are as follows (Rs / room/ day). Double bedded 450, three bedded 550, AC double bedded 700, AC three bedded. 950, eight bedded dormitory. 1200. Check in/out time 8 a.m. Participants are advised to come on 30 December 2010 and leave in the morning of 2 January 2011. Those who are willing to extend the stay are advised to intimate beforehand. The session of the study camp will start at 9-30 a.m. and terminate at 5 p.m. on both the days. There will be public seminars/cultural programmes on both the days. Advice regarding clothing etc: Murshidabad will be considerably cool during the period and participants are advised to bring woolen garments.Murshidabad, situated on the bank of the Ganges is the former capital of Nawab of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa and is famous for silk and bell metal items. There are many historical places around. The district headquarter is Baharampur (8 km).Contact through e-mail 1) Najimuddin Sk rhnazim@gmail.com 2) Ajit Bhattacharyya bhattacharyyaajit@yahoo.com 3) Subhankar Ray subhankarr@gmail.com Participants, who want accommodation, are advised to bring their photo identity cards.
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Humanist News Section: I Press Release by All India Forum For Right To Education (AIF-RTE) [issued at the end of a 4-day visit of the AIF-RTE team to the Jammu University campus earlier this week at the invitation of the Progressive Students Association (PSA)] he 3-member team of the ALL INDIA FORUM FOR RIGHT TO EDUCATION (AIF-RTE) drawn from Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Delhi on a visit to Jammu University campus earlier this week participated in a Seminar on “New Recruitment Policy, Education and Globalisation” organized by the Progressive Students Association (PSA). After holding wide-ranging discussions in the city and visiting schools in the surrounding rural areas, the AIF-RTE team expresses its deep shock at the anti-Constitutional, anti-youth and anti-education character of the New Recruitment Policy recently declared by the Government of Jammu & Kashmir. The state government’s decision to deny regular pay scales to the new recruits in various non-gazetted cadres w.e.f. November 1, 2011 shall amount to 5 to 6-fold lower salaries than the present ones. Expectedly, in a state where the government employment constitutes the major source of livelihood for educated youth, the government is facing increasing popular resistance from various sections of students and youth. The new policy violates the established Constitutional principle of ‘equal wages for equal work’ under Article 14 and 15 (1) of the Constitution. Further, the Table of fixed monthly salaries issued by the state government reveals that the new recruits under the first two pay bands shall be paid less than even the Minimum Wages notified by the government itself. This clearly violates the Minimum Wages Act and also Articles 41 (Right to Work) and 43 (Living Wages with decent standard of life, leisure and social & cultural opportunities) read in conjunction with Article 21 (Right to Life
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with dignity). That renders the New Recruitment Policy anti-education also is the fact that it will significantly downgrade the emoluments of the teaching and non-teaching staff as well at both school and college-university levels, thereby demotivating qualified youth from joining educational services. In this sense, the new policy extends the World Bank-promoted ongoing frivolous Rahabar-e-Talim (Para Teachers) scheme across all educational levels which is bound to worsen the quality of teaching in increasingly discredited government institutions. Consequently, the pace of privatization and commercialization of education shall further accelerate, as mandated by the World Bank. Clearly, the aforesaid recruitment policy is designed to promote profiteering of the upcoming corporate sector by decreasing the bargaining power of the state’s youth by a factor of almost 5 to 6-fold. This will be in accordance with the World Bank-dictate under its Structural Adjustment Programme imposed on Indian economy leading to further impoverishment, inequality and discrimination in the state. The AIF-RTE team is equally disturbed at seeing how the state government is blatantly pushing the corporate agenda of crass commercialization in higher education by initiating a series of self-financing courses even in public-funded colleges and universities, including Jammu University. In its paper entitled, ‘Achievements of Higher Education Department for 2009-10’, the state government admits that in order to “boost the private sector 74 NOCs in respect of MBA, MCA, BCA, BBA, PGDCA courses have been issued to various Societies/ Trusts”. This implies that the youth from low-income groups will be denied equal opportunities to access higher education and thus be excluded from participation in the state’s economy. We also deplore the flimsy alibi offered by Hon’ble Chief Minister that the New Recruitment Policy
THE RADICAL HUMANIST
DECEMBER 2011
will enable his government to offer jobs to more people, while camouflaging his real agenda of decreasing the role of the government sector in favour of the corporate sector. Is the Hon’ble Chief Minister expecting the youth to accept such demeaning fixed monthly salaries which are lower than the Minimum Wages? The hidden agenda of the policy is to force the educated youth to shift to the profit-hungry corporate sector with 5 to 6-fold reduced bargaining power! This is precisely why the state government has conducted repeated rounds of arrests of the students and youth protesting its aforesaid policy, slapped false charges on them and unleashed a regime of repression. To make matters worse, during our stay in Jammu earlier this week, a group of lumpen youth aligned with the ruling coalition physically assaulted Progressive Students Association (PSA) members conducting silent protest at the university campus, while the university authorities looked away. During its visit to rural schools, we were dismayed to note the lackadaisical quality of teaching and low levels of achievements in various subjects, especially languages, science and mathematics, apart from dismal the state of laboratories and libraries. We further noted that less than 10% of the children entering Class I are able to cross Class XII; this excludes those who never enter schools at all like those of the Bakharwal and other nomadic tribes. Thus more than 90% of the children are denied access to higher education. The AIF-RTE team, therefore, demands from the Government of Jammu & Kashmir that, 1. The New Recruitment Policy is withdrawn unconditionally forthwith and is replaced by a New Employment and Livelihood Policy in accordance with the Constitution. 2. A New Education Policy is instituted such that all children, including those of the nomadic tribes (e.g. Bakharwals), are guaranteed free education of equitable quality up to Class XII and enabled to have equal opportunity to access higher education
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courses under Articles 14 and 15 (1) along with social justice under Article 16 of the Constitution. 3. A fully public-funded Common School System based on Neighbourhood schools, governed in a decentralized, participative and democratic mode, is instituted within a time-bound frame. 4. The present policy of pushing self-financing courses is replaced by a new policy of promoting fully public-funded advanced technical and vocational courses such that even the poorest of the state’s youth can move forward. The ruthless repression unleashed on the students and youth, protesting against the New Recruitment Policy and demanding a responsible public-funded education system of equitable quality, is stopped forthwith and their civil liberties and democratic rights restored under Articles 19 (1) and 21 of the Constitution. —Dr. Anil Sadgopal, Bhopal, Member, Presidium, All India Forum for Right to Education, & former Dean, Faculty of Education, University of Delhi anilsadgopal@yahoo.com Sh. Trepan Singh Chauhan, Member, National Executive, All India Forum for Right to Education, & Leader, Chetna Andolan, Uttarakhand Ms. Rakhi Gupta, Delhi Shiksha Adhikar Manch, Delhi Board of Advisers: Prof. Ramakant Agnihotri, Prof. Wasi Ahmed, Dr. P.M. Bhargava, Dr. Vashanti V. Devi, Prof. Sudarshan Iyengar, Dr. G.G.Parikh, Prof. N.D. Patil, Prof. K. Chakradhar Rao, Dr.B.D. Sharma, Dr. Banwari Lal Sharma, Sri S.P. Shukla, Sri Shatrughan, P.D. Singh, Sri Bhai Vaidya, Prof. Rooprekha Verma Presidium: Prof. Meher Engineer, Sri Prabhakar Arade, Prof G. Hargopal, Sri Kedar Nath Pandey, Ms Madhu Prasad, Prof Anil Sadgopal, Sri Sunil. Secretariat: Sri D. Ramesh Patnaik; Ms Guddi S.L.; Dr. Sarwat Ali; Dr. Shaheen Ansari; Ms Geeta Athreya; Sri Trepan Singh Chauhan; Ms Simantini Dhuru; Sri Ajit Jha; Dr. Radhika Menon; Dr. V.N. Sharma.
THE RADICAL HUMANIST
DECEMBER 2011
II Rationalist-Humanist, Mr Murahari Rao Kotapati is no more Dear Rekha ji
This morning Mr Murahari Rao Kotapati, rationalist-Humanist died in Hyderabad at the age of 79. He was in the movement since 4 decades. He worked for the eradication of child labor. He developed seeds and propagated healthy seeds for peasants. He toured USA and Europe and participated in Humanist study camps. He was a philanthropist who financed several rationalist-humanist publications in Telugu. He is survived by his wife, three daughters and one son. His daughter Chandralatha is a popular humanist writer. —Innaiah Narisetti
[Mr Murahari Rao is in the middle, rationalist
Mr Narra Kotaiah on the right, Mr Innaiah Narisetti on the left]
III News from Baloch Human Rights Council:
Remembering Mir Gul Khan Naseer, ‘The Poet of Balochistan’, 14 May 1914 – 6 December 1983
Baloch Human Rights Council is organizing a memorial gathering in memory of Mir Gul Khan Naseer on Sunday 11 December 2011 at the University of . The memorial meeting is to pay tributes to great nationalist poet and political leader of Balochistan. One of pioneer revolutionary and nationalist poet of Balochistan, Mir Gul Khan Naseer is considered to be among the founding fathers of contemporary Baloch national struggle in Pakistan. As a leader of Kalat State National Party (KSNP) and National Awami Party (NAP), he was the close associate of Nawab Akbar Bugti, Nawab khair Bakhsh Marri, Mir Gous Bakhsh Bizanjo and Sardar Ataullah Mengal. His literacy contribution includes many books on the history and politics of Balochistan. BHRC (UK) requests all Baloch and Balochi loving persons to join us in paying rich tributes to revolutionary poet of Balochistan. Event information: Venue: Room 2B (2nd Floor), University of London Union Building, Mallet Street, London WC1E 7HY Date and time: Sunday 11 December 2011 (2.006.00 PM) Nearest Tube Stations: Russell Square, Euston Square. For more news and detail of this pr pls visit: http://balochistanhcr.blogspot.com www.bhrc.tk Issued by: Samad Baloch, General Secretary, Baloch Human Rights Council (UK), London, 19 December 2011
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THE RADICAL HUMANIST
DECEMBER 2011
IRI - All India Study Camp at Murshidabad Dear Friends, If you are planning to participate in the IRI All-India Study Camp to be held on 31 December 2011 and 1 January 2012 at Murshidabad you are requested to kindly fill the following blank Registration Form and send it to us along with your remittance in the form of a bank draft or A/C Payee Cheque so as to reach us within 30 November 2011. Registration fee and accommodation charges are given in the earlier announcement on page no. 8 of this Nov. 2011, issue. With best regards, Ajit Bhattacharyya, President, Organizing Committee, Najimuddin Sk, Secretary, Organizing Committee Registration Format for Participants of the IRI All India Study Camp 1. Name
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