Vol. 75
No 10
JANUARY 2012
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THE RADICAL HUMANIST (Since April 1949) Formerly : Independent India (April 1937- March 1949)
502 Spiritual Materialism: A case for Atheism —Laxmanshastri Joshi Shroud of Turin: Redux —Daniel Loxton A Kashmiri pundit mother’s appeal for peace in Kashmir- Part 2 —Asha Kachru No Walmart Please; Lokpal Legislation Debate Requires Calmer Consideration —Rajindar Sachar Heavy Reading —Dipavali Sen The ‘Peace-Mediator’ Rests in ‘Peace’ (Indira Goswami: 1942-2011) —Ashok K. Choudhury From the Editor’s Desk: The Cardinal Principle of Radical Humanism —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 10 January 2012
- Contents -
Monthly journal of the Indian Renaissance Institute
1. From the Editor’s Desk: The Cardinal Principle of Radical Humanism —Rekha Saraswat 1 2. From the Writings of Laxmanshastri Joshi: Spiritual Materialism: A case for Atheism 2 3. Guests’ Section: Shroud of Turin: Redux —Daniel Loxton 7 A Kashmiri pundit mother’s appeal for peace in Kashmir- Part 2 —Asha Kachru 9 4. Current Affairs’ Section: No Walmart Please; Lokpal Legislation Debate Requires Calmer Consideration —Rajindar Sachar 17 U.S. withdrawal from Iraq; Swami’s actions; Mallaperiyar Project; Threat of fast by Anna Hazare; Devanand —N.K. Acharya 21 5. IRI / IRHA Members’ Section: PUCL’s History of Struggle —Mahipal Singh 24 6. Teachers’ & Research Scholars’ Section: The ‘Peace-Mediator’ Rests in ‘Peace’ (Indira Goswami: 1942-2011) —Ashok K. Choudhury 28 7. Book Review Section: Heavy Reading —Dipavali Sen 33 8. Humanist News Section 35
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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economic man is bound to be a slave or a From the Editor’s Desk: The Cardinal slave-holder.” Principle of Radical Humanism 10.“The alternative to parliamentary The cardinal principle of Radical democracy is not dictatorship; it is Humanism as I see it is the belief in the organized democracy in place of the infinite capability of man. That is why the formal democracy of powerless atomized philosophy of Radical Humanism is fiercely individual citizens.” protective against any kind of control over man’s potential to develop. It is Rekha Saraswat 11.“The function of a revolutionary and apprehensive of all types of collective liberating social philosophy is to lay powers which continuously try to influence him in the emphasis on the basic fact of history that man is the process of his becoming aware of his being as an maker of his world – man as a thinking being – and he individual self. can be so only as an individual.” If we take the basic point underlying most of the 12.“Radical democracy presupposes economic theses of New Humanism, it summarizes as under: reorganization of society so as to eliminate the 1. “Man is the archetype of society…the development possibility of exploitation of man by man.” of the individual is the measure of social progress.” 13.“The new society, being founded on reason and 2. “Increasing knowledge of nature enables man to be science, will necessarily be planned. But it will be a progressively free from the tyranny of natural planning with the freedom of the individual as its main purpose.” phenomena, and social environments….” 3. “Freedom is the progressive disappearance of all 14.“The ideal of Radical Democracy will be attained restrictions on the unfolding of the potentialities of through the collective efforts of spiritually free men individuals, as human beings, and not as cogs in the united in the determination of creating a world of freedom.” wheels of a mechanical social organism.” 4.“Ideation is a physiological process-” (Ideas are 15.“Education of the citizen is the condition for such a formed individually and not collectively in a man’s reorganization of society as will be conducive to mind) “-resulting from the awareness of common progress and prosperity without encroaching upon the freedom of the individual.” environments.” 5. “A political system and an economic experiment 16.Radicalism integrates science into social which subordinates the man of flesh and blood to an organization and reconciles individuality with imaginary collective ego, be it the nation or a class, collective life: it gives freedom a moral, intellectual as cannot possibly be the suitable means for the well as social content…” attainment of the goal of freedom…” 17.“Radicalism starts from the dictum that “man is the 6.“Planning of production for use is possible on the measure of everything” (Protagoras) or “man is the basis of political democracy and individual freedom.” root of mankind” (Marx) and advocates 7.“Planned economy under political dictatorship reconstruction of the world as a commonwealth and disregards individual freedom on pleas of efficiency, fraternity of free men, by the collective endeavour of spiritually emancipated moral men.” collective effort and social progress…..” 8.“Atomized individual citizens-” (in Parliamentary These are such self-explanatory selected lines from Democracy) “- are powerless for all practical the 22 theses of Radical Humanist philosophy directly picked up as quotes to prove that this philosophy for purposes, and most of the times.” the first time in the world’s history tries to evolve a 9.“The doctrine of Laissez faire only provides the balance between the chaos and confusion of legal sanction to the exploitation of man by man. The collectivism and the ultimate natural need and demand of individualism.
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From The Writings of Laxmanshastri Joshi: “That religion more often than not tends to 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 Laxman S. Joshi the dubious benefit of religion various secular worldly values have been developed and they have Spiritual Materialism – A case benefited mankind more than the vaunted religious values. With no sops of religion men have laboured for Atheism Translated by —Arundhati Khandkar hard and the finest admirable qualities of men’s 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 Contd. from the previous issue............ father’s major works from to Marathi to English for the benefit of the contemporary readers of RH. Senseless Terrestrial Life And to our pleasant surprise she informed that It is true that the preferred world is taken as the there is already the above mentioned book in world of order. Preference involves human English done by her. It is being serialised in The expectation. It cannot be asserted at all, that the Radical Humanist June 2010 onwards. She has design of the universe is according to the also promised to send us in English, gradually, preference of man or animal. When we study the history of the interior of the earth or of the various more of his Marathi literature. Laxmanshastri wrote this essay with the title strata of the earth, it means we study geology or Materialism or Atheism in 1941. How archaeology. Along with the study of history of the meaningful and necessary it is, even now, 70 various species of dead organisms, we realise that it years later, can be understood by the following is replete with the history of destruction of paragraph given on the cover page of the book. innumerable species during their struggle for existence. They suffered decimation as a result of —Rekha Saraswat] 2
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countless terrible events of cataclysmic proportions. The proportion of annihilation over survival is infinitely large. The living species have somehow managed to survive the onslaught of the perennial clash among the forces of nature. Why one would hold on to the doctrine that there exists here on earth a kind of order or harmony? That is why philosophers of India from antiquity have been calling that life here on earth as senseless or as a market place of sorrow. If there exists heaven or nirvana or moksha, it resides only in the figment of the imagination! According to the poet saints of India, “Pleasure is as big as a pea while sorrow is as big as a mountain.” This is their reality-check! It is only in very recent times, however, than man is seeing a dim vision of some progress on the distant horizon in his quest for happiness. It is man’s faint hope that life on earth can be happy! Causality or Divinity Man is set on a journey from chaos towards order and from discord towards harmony. Although he misses his proper path thousand times, he does also find occasionally a right one. This passage is crooked, difficult and untrodden. He is, however, making progress for sure. The organisation or order that exists in the world has something to do with logic, or science, or with the laws causality, or with the laws of mathematics. It has little to do with god’s volition or purpose. We can infer neither volition nor purpose from the concept of organisation or order in the world. On the contrary, we infer only the absence of his volition or purpose. This is because, the order is physical and mechanical. There is no necessity of god for the operation of these laws, physical or mechanical. Moreover, the operation of these laws proves on the other hand, the very absence of god. It has been discovered that there are hundreds of animals in the substrata of the earth which give testimony to the fact that the very form of their bodies has been frequently responsible for their destruction. The antelopes do get entangled by their
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horns in the woods and become the victims of the trappers. If the animal body design would have been structured perfectly compatible with the environment, it would not have been destroyed by the attack of virulent diseases and germs. There exist very few bodies of humans that can survive diseases such as plague, cholera, meningitis, cancer, etc. Well, there exists a much larger body of evidence for the proposition that the structure of an animal body is not the result of god’s volition, than there is for the contrary proposition that the body design is the result of god’s volition! Knower and Knowable The fourth proof: Here is presented the fourth evidence for god’s existence. It is as follows: Whatsoever is seen by us, is sensed by our sensory organs, is understood by our intellect or becomes the object of our imagination, each of these things is dependent upon the observer. Every known object has its existence in the domain of a knower. If the very knower or the subject is absent, how can we say that the object or the knowable thing is present? Knowledge exists because the knower exists! How can we say that ‘The horse is white,’ if there is no eye to see whiteness. If there is neither eye nor hand as sense organs for vision or touch, how can we say that ‘The horse is tall?’ The proof for the knowledge that we have sense organs is also dependent on having an ability to experience. Without our experience, how can we say that these sense organs exist? Exactly in the same way we should treat this whole universe! We can say that the universe does exist even if all the animals go to sleep which means, the world exists even when there is nobody, meaning that no subject is experiencing it. ‘The world even then exists’ is a statement about the world whose all attributes are dependent on the experience of a subject, i.e. a knower. Therefore, there has to be such a knower and that one alone is god. He is aware of, or conscious of, and he has experience of, the universe. He experiences the universe, which at a time none of us is
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experiencing. The time at which none among the living beings experiences the world, is the time at which there exists that being who experiences it. That one, upon whose experience the universe depends, is the supreme being, he and he alone is the supreme seer, the omniscient, the Purushottama, the god. Object Real or Imaginary The above reasoning for the existence of god can be dealt with easily. The very statement ‘existence of any object depends on its knowledge’ is by itself not true. On the contrary, we should say that knowledge is object dependent. When we assert that an object is real or true, it means it is real in spite of the absence of its awareness by any person in particular or a knower or a subject. If we say that the existence of an object is dependent on its awareness by a subject or a knower, then we are required to infer that the object is not real or that it is only an illusion. The object that exists only when someone is aware of it and the object that does not exist when someone is unaware of it, has to be imaginary or unreal. - As mentioned earlier in the first part of this book on materialism, quantum mechanics (qm) does pose some paradoxes experimentally or otherwise on this topic in the study of objects such as elementary particles. In this essay, there is no scope for the discussion of qm paradoxes. There is an ongoing discussion among philosophers and scientists in this matter. We only note here that qm replaces even some laws of the classical logic in the formulation of particle physics. Our position, however, in the current discussion is as follows. No real object needs awareness for its existence. The existence of an object does not depend on the evidence. Smoke is the evidence for the fire. That does not mean at all, that a proof has been established for the statement, “If there is no smoke there is no fire.” The mountain that I see in front of me has not come into existence because of my awareness. My awareness is not the reason for the existence of the mountain. It exists before and I
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become aware of it later. Experience does not cause an object to come into existence. Such is also the case for the whole universe. Even if no one is there experiencing the universe, it does exist. God is supposed to experience the universe. If he is absent, however, its existence is not threatened. When I do not experience my house during a certain period of my absence from it, nothing should threaten its existence. Experience or lack of it alone does not affect an existing house. Experience is object dependent. An object is the reason for its knowledge. Knowledge, however, is not the reason for the object. Beautiful God The fifth proof: -Infinite power of imagination inherent in god, is synonymous with his existence. This is the core argument of the aesthetic proof to follow. Here we go for the exploration of the fifth evidence for the existence of god. Some say the following. In this world, one discovers continuously, beauty which is enchanting, propitious, limitless and amazing. One cannot rest without inferring that such beauty must have at its roots, a genius, that is, pure, tasteful, unfathomable, and connoisseur of countless arts. From this, we not only infer, but also state with certitude, that there must exist a universal divine power which inspires imagination and creativity in men such as great poets, painters, architects, and specialists of various arts. Even an infinitesimal imitation of this divine power by an individual, enable him to reach the highest state of artisitic creation. Any human who obtains even an iota of mental power as a graceful gift from the ocean of this divine inspiration, becomes famous in their world. At times, we come across something that is ugly, condemnable, worthy of abandonment, contemptible, and unholy, which causes pain in us. This is also part of his creation that inspires literary genius. Which is the part of our life or of the world, that is, mean, deformed and ugly that has not been transformed into a pleasing experience by Art?
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Which is an event in the world or in our mundane existence that is inconsistent with tasteful artistic creation? It is said that philosophers meditate on knowable or unknowable objects. Philosophical contemplation is all encompassing. All the principles, which philosophers or philosophies study, also can be comprehended by artistic intellect. The whole universe is the subject of artistic talent. Now, if the entire universe is an artistic production, then such an extraterrestrial creation with the universe at its soul must be the celebration of a creative genius that must exist! That someone really beyond imagination and measurement is the foundation of virtues, limitless and full of grace. He is god! Counter Argument The above aesthetic evidence in support of the inference that god exists is also flawed. This is because, it cannot be said that the universe is nothing other than beauty incarnate. Moreover, there is no evidence here for the existence of a power, endowed with thought and imagination that has constructed this universe. Beauty or ugliness in the universe depends on the exposure of a human being either to pleasure or pain during his life. Man obtains basically two kinds of life experiences, pain and pleasure. We will explore their influence on the answer to the question. Is the universe beautiful? World of sorrow This universe is burning in the fire of sorrow and it is like an eternal crematorium. This has been described in the writings of many saints. There is no dearth of poets as well as philosophers in India who talk about the futility of life and the sorrowfulness of the world. The great men of knowledge and experience and the trail-blazing leaders, such as Buddha, Kanada, Vyasa, etc. have said the same thing. There are also some who have argued on the opposite side. The essence of both these views is that the experience of beauty and ugliness or happiness and sorrow in this world, depends on the environment and the acitivities of human beings. When the situation of men
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deteriorates ad inequality and lawlessness reign, they feel that life or the world is ugly, sorrowful and hellish. Consequently, rescue from it is like salvation or moksha. It means, release from the bonds of the world. Moksha is considered to be the highest human achievement, the Paramartha in Indian tradition. World of Joy In contrast, when society is so well organised that there develops the possibility of progress and good conditions of livelihood for all, then people feel life is worth living and the world is full of hope. This leads to the prospect of well being in this life now and nirvana thereafter. Universe Beautiful or Not Experience of beauty is relative to situation. So the statement that the world is beautiful cannot be held to be true categorically. The statement that the ‘Universe is in reality nothing but beautiful’ cannot be made without taking into account the situation of men. The only thing that becomes evident is that ‘The universe is neither beautiful nor ugly.’ The decision regarding the beauty or ugliness of the world is to be made in relation to man’s emotional experience and his surrounding world. Beauty is neither objective nor subjective. Proof for the universe being beautiful or ugly is to be obtained from the interactions between the subject, the experiencer, and the object, the universe, that is experienceable. A Set of Beauty Postulates Even it is accepted that the universe is exclusively beautiful by itself, still it does not provide enough ground for drawing the inference that “Far out there, must exist a power of artistic imagination that creates beauty.” We deny the existence of such a power, because there is no justification for making the following statements: A)Beauty is the character of the universe. B)Beauty, is the everlasting character.
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C)Beauty, the character has been created by someone. Fallacy of Infinite Regress in the Beautifier Series If we, however, accept A,B,C to be true, we have to admit that the universe was ugly before and that beauty was created later. Now, what is the proof for the existence of the prior ugly universe? Besides, we need to ask more questions. Is the designer of the beautiful universe beautiful? Is the one who produced the universal beauty, also beautiful? All the devotees of God tell us that ‘He is beautiful!’ If he is beautiful, who created his unending beauty? If we accept that someone created god’s beauty, who is it that created the beauty of god’s beautifier? Such a series of questions is without end. Therefore, there exists much more logical sense in the assertion that ‘Beauty of the universe is intrinsic and there is no one else who has created it.’
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Paradox in Creation Series If it is maintained conversely, ‘God, the architect of the universe, is not beautiful’, then the primary supposition, ‘The universe is exclusively beautiful!’ which in effect says, ‘Any object whatsoever, in the universe is beautiful,’ is false. If the premise is false, meaning thereby ‘Some objects in the universe are non-beautiful,’ we enter into a paradox, since we are compelled to assert simultaneously the following two propositions: ‘God does not create non beautiful objects,’ and ‘All objects whatsoever, have been created by God.’ Therefore it is proper to maintain that ‘God being an object must have been created by someone else!’ An assertion such as this does not, however, put an end to the Creation Series. In conclusion, it is better to end the paradox and the fallacy of infinite regress and say, No one has created the universe or its beautiful features. Continued in the next issue................
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Guests’ Section:
Shroud of Turin: Redux
thinking publications including Skeptic, Skeptical Briefs, eSkeptic and the Skeptical Inquirer, and contributed cover art to Skeptic, Yes mag, and Free Inquiry. In a previous career, Daniel was a silvicultural shepherd for ten years (working mostly along the BC side of the Alaska panhandle).] keptics sometimes express impatience with discussion of seemingly quaint paranormal claims. (“What, Bigfoot—again?”) But the great lesson of paranormal history is that it is a wheel: no matter how passé or fringe a claim may sound, it is almost guaranteed to come ‘round again, in the same form or in some novel mutation. In the last few days, global headlines have resurrected a nostalgic case from my childhood, just in time for Christmas: “The Shroud of Turin Wasn’t Faked, Italian Experts Say.” The cutting edge of yesterday—today! Even in my youth, this mystery was centuries old. The Shroud of Turin is a 14-foot length of linen cloth that bears a stylized picture of a bearded man. Legend holds the Shroud to be a burial cloth wrapped around the Biblical Jesus following his execution. This linen was allegedly flash-imprinted with an image of Jesus during his miraculous resurrection, presumably by an intense burst of energy released under such circumstances. The case for fraud has been strong since the 14th century, but enthusiasts insist on rolling that wheel ‘round again. According to news reports this week, Italian scientists used an infrared CO2 laser to scorch images onto cloth and “conducted dozens of hours of tests with X-rays and ultraviolet lights” in an effort to prove that the image could be created by a burst of electromagnetic energy. What is the wavelength of a resurrection miracle? If there is one, the scientists were unable to discover what it might be. They learned that “no laser existed to date that could replicate the singular nature of markings on the shroud.” All this business with lasers is neither here nor there. I’m reminded of magician James Randi’s line
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Daniel Loxton [Daniel Loxton is the Editor of Junior Skeptic (the 10-page kids’ science section bound withinSkeptic magazine). He is the author and illustrator of the national award-winning kids’ science book Evolution: How We And All Living Things Came to Be (translated into Slovenian, Korean, Norwegian, and, in a modified form as the separate book Evolução, Portuguese). Evolution won the 2010 Lane Anderson Award recognizing the best Canadian science book for young readers. It has also been named a finalist for the Norma Fleck Award (recognizing the best Canadian nonfiction book for young readers) and the Ontario Library Association’s prestigious Silver Birch Award. Daniel is also the author and illustrator (with Jim W. W. Smith) of Ankylosaur Attack, a paleofiction storybook for ages four and up. This is the first book in the “Tales of Prehistoric Life” series from Kids Can Press. Daniel has written for critical 7
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from Flim-Flam! about the pseudoscience technique of the Provocative Fact. The same technique was used by the Gellerites when they assured us that at no time did Uri Geller use laser beams, magnets, or chemicals to bend spoons. This was quite true. It is also quite true that he had no eggbeaters, asbestos insulation, or powdered aspirin in his pockets either. So what? Turns out it’s hard to make a Shroud copy using lasers. That’s hardly surprising, but neither is it relevant. There was never a good reason to think the Shroud was created by anything but the tools and artistry of a painter. Failed attempts to replicate the Shroud image using lasers only underline the argument skeptics have made for decades: the object is a medieval fake. The bottom line on the Shroud remains the same: the Shroud continues to fail several key practical tests, as discussed by skeptical investigator Joe Nickell in his classic work on the subject, Looking for a Miracle: · Provenance: there is no sign that this object existed before the 14th century; · Art history: the Shroud fits into art history as part of a genre of artistic depictions and recreations of burial cloths of Christ; · Style: the image upon the shroud looks like a manufactured illustration consistent with 14th century religious iconography, not like a real human being; · Circumstance: a 14th century Catholic bishop determined that the Shroud was a “cunningly painted” fraud—and discovered the artist who confessed to creating it; · Chemistry: the Shroud contains red ochre and other paint pigments; · Radiometric dating: carbon-14 dating tests showed in 1988 that the Shroud was likely created between 1260 and 1390 CE. In 2008, the hypothesis that this date was distorted by carbon monoxide contamination was tested—and results of the original tests confirmed.
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Overturning the robustly supported conclusion that the Shroud was manufactured by a medieval artist would take extraordinary levels of evidence in favor of some alternate explanation. The current media hype carries no such breakthrough news. The opposite is true, in fact: the Italian researchers concede (as quoted by Vatican Insider) that their “inability to repeat (and therefore falsify) the image on the Shroud makes it impossible to formulate a reliable hypothesis on how the impression was made.” After decades of controversy, the real shame is not merely the miasma of pseudoscience surrounding the relic (that’s a fog skeptics are happy enough to cut through) but the blurring of the lines between science and metaphysics—or if you like, between science and faith. The Shroud’s popularity seems to stem from the hope that it could deliver tangible evidence for the divine, but that hope is misplaced. Even if Shroud researchers were to prove their (exceptionally unlikely) speculation that the Shroud image was imprinted by “a short and intense burst of VUV directional radiation,” this would in no way confirm the existence of God, only of a unique printing process—a process enthusiasts have thus far been unable to demonstrate. The truth is that the tools and methods of empirical science would remain powerless to confirm the existence of a transcendent metaphysical God even in the event that such a being existed. It’s just not the sort of question science can answer. Pressing science into the service of metaphysics may do harm to religion—I’ll leave it to the religious to say if that is so—but it cuts out the heart of the scientific enterprise. And that is a Christmas present that none of us should want. References: 1.Randi, James. Flim-Flam! (Prometheus Books: Amherst, New York, 1982.) p. 129 2.Nickell, Joe. Looking for a Miracle (Prometheus Books: Amherst, New York, 1998.) pp. 22–29 ArticleSource: eSkeptic http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/11-12-28/ 8
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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 Cntinued from the previous issue........ 5. Mushtaq, Titli’s clerk in school helped me in the initial stages to get a hotel room in Srinagar. He on his own offered me an appointment with Yasin Malik of JKLF as well as Geelani sahib of APHRC. I was surprised, I was not keen to meet any political/religious leader, but I thought I must take
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advantage of this opportunity and meet these prominent leaders asking for independence from the Indian state. Ashima kaul, when told about this appointment, warned me, saying they are not into peaceful alternatives. When I asked Mushtaq, what he thinks of Yasin and Geelani, he said he was not for separation and he is happy with Titli and his work in her office. Mushtaq took me to Yasin Malik’s office. I had prepared a set of questions regarding his views/concerns about the KP’s and why he wants to separate Kashmir from India. When I went up the old building with narrow stairs to a dingy room, there were 5 men drinking the Kashmiri salt tea called Sheerchai by Hindus and Noonchai by Muslims. I was offered and I enjoyed drinking it along with the typical Kashmiri toast bread. Yasin was not present, he was accompanying the visiting ex-prime minister of POK, who was visiting the valley these days and had gone to the martyr’s graveyards. So I just had a small talk with one Mr. Dar, Yasin’s assistant on what Azadi means to them and he, very confidently and smilingly, told me “you can say/do whatever you want, this is our concept of Azadi”. Meanwhile Mushtaq wanted me to visit Geelani sahib, with whom he had also made an appointment for me on phone. We went there, a big house in the lanes, secured by Police and Security officials, we had to give our details, had to leave the camera etc. outside, only to be told at the ironed entrance that there was no appointment given to us. Sometime later another young man came and let us in, but again we were only offered tea and biscuits and made to wait outside in the lounge. They again told us an important meeting is in process and we should come again in 2-3 days. Geelani was under house arrest for his infuriating statements to the public and he was adamant on his ways, even if it meant that he could not attend his grandson’s marriage the statements, even though it meant staying away from his grandson’s marriage the same evening. The inside house atmosphere made a
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very sad impression on me and I asked myself, why do these men behave so rigid? We went back to Yasin’s office. He looked exhausted, but one could note that he is a handsome man. His body language was very negative towards me and soon asked me the reason of my visit. When I introduced myself as a kp, he seemed annoyed, saying it can be anybody asking him questions and made a gesture for me to proceed further. When I was finished with my first question about why he wanted Azadi, he quickly took my copy book from my hand and wrote his email address on it and guided me to send him my questions via email. That was the end of it. (I have sent him some questions after my return and it is about a week, no reply yet.) 6. I made an appointment with the elderly Zareef Ahmad Zareef sahib, a well known poet and intellectual in the valley, also because I wanted to see how he behaves towards me, after we have had a rather unpleasant exchange of emails on women’s role in Islam and I told him to “agree to disagree”. He is doing family business with Kashmiri handicrafts too and I bought quite some items from him last time. It has always been a pleasure visiting him and his family. And this time too, inspite of the email exchange. He offered me food and Kashmiri Noonchai etc. his wife and daughter in law were more visible in the drawing room this time. Last time they were sitting in the kitchen all the time. This time he even mentioned once to me about how lucky he is with the services the two provide to him. May be this was an outcome of my raising certain questions about the over protection of women in Islam, the traditional sexual division of labour, from which the men benefit and not working women like me. Zareef sahib invited me to a couple of interesting events in Srinagar like the young writer’s day at the women’s college, in which he presented his satirical poetry on the Kashmir situation. Everybody was thoroughly enjoying his poetry, laughing loudly. I was even more impressed by his personality. Once he invited me to a marriage of the son of one of his friends, a rich man 10
like the one last year too. Zareefsaheb wants me to taste their Wazwan food. I did like witnessing the Muslim marriage culture, but I was not so impressed by 2 facts. One is the huge amount of meat consumed in marriages, called Wazwan. I was told nearly a kg of meat per person is offered, along with bags for the guests to take away the remains. Secondly the women have to wait till evening till they get their lunch, men get it first! Also the amount of gold and silk with golden embroidery on Muslim women’s bodies was just immense. I was told that the women’s 3 piece dresses can cost up to a lac of rupees! And some are again even using a traditional horse to take the bridegroom to the bride’s place and it costs app. Seventy thousand rupees per day. In each family there are as many cars as adults etc. etc., an autorikshaw wala told me. Suraiyya, Zareefsaheb’s daughter in law, was again and again pointing women to me, who had acquired Crores of rupees of property, for example from sale and export of saffron. Since the Europeans are conscious of the health dimension of organic products, now the Kashmiris are shifting to organic saffron and this can bring them even greater revenue. Many of these Muslims have become Crorepatis overnight, from sale of land and property bought from KP’s at distress sale prices and sold for much more. The Punjabi manager of the hotel I was staying in said repeatedly ‘nothing will change here. You KP’s will not be able to come back. I know it I have survived the militancy; I know what they can be like. If you remove the security forces for a week, you will see how it will again be like then. I am still living in fear. I hate my Indian Govt. for not having helped us here during the militancy and I ask myself what use was my life as an army officer. Nobody cares for us here.” He used to get angry at my daily efforts to go and meet the Muslims in the valley. 7. My friend Ashima Kaul, who has been working on peace issues in delhi at WISCOMP, started the Yakhjay (means together in Kashmiri) and she wanted me to attend the Yakhjay group meet in
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Srinagar, having attended the Jammu group meet earlier. So I went to meet the young students and social workers, 6 women and 2 men at the premises of the J&K association of social workers. Ashfaq introduced us to the work of J&KASW, presently on child rights issues. He asked the Yakhjay women about how they are going to contribute to the society after they have undergone training of Yakhjay on transformation and information, peace and reconciliation issues. I intervened to say that first the girls have to develop their personality to be able to deal with the system around. Khairunissa started the discussion on how safe one feels as a woman in the security forces ridden state of affairs in the valley. She said she has no problems except with men of the security forces, who are always eveteasing her. Ashfaq even mentioned about how free and secure Muslim women in the valley were, as opposed to their protected Muslim sisters in India. I was surprised to hear this and so I informed them about many Muslim women in India going out of their homes for jobs and not always having to wear burqas, particularly in cities. A discussion started on the situation of women in general in the valley and soon all sorts of examples were acknowledged about violence towards women in households, rape etc. being common in the valley too. And the internalized belief by the women, that they are anyway vulnerable to male violence. At the end of the discussion it was realized that more sensitization work need to be done to make women more active in the promotion of social justice issues in the valley. 8. I read a few daily newspapers, Greater Kashmir, Rising Kashmir etc. on 20th Sept I found an advertisement of a function called Peace Day celebrations at the Sanad Island of peace in Nagin Lake. When I rang up Zareef sahib to find out about the whereabouts of this island, he guided me and said Mr. Habib who is organizing this festival cum workshop is his friend and he was invited by him, but unable to go and wanted me to attend it. I said I wanted to anyway and so I made my way through.
The autorikshaw-wala did not know about the place but somehow and after having a shikara ride for app. half an hour in the Nagin Lake and that too through wild lotus and Lily plants all over, I reached a big Hotel situated on an island and there was an announcement UN Peace Day 21st September. Mr Basheer welcomed me and I met the young lawyer and social worker, Nadeem Quadri, grandson of the formulator of the J&K state’s constitution and a well know Congress worker. Nadeem told me that he started this day celebration in Kashmir and it was the only place in the world, where this day was being celebrated!? It was based on a film made by one Jeremy Gilly, known to him! I was surprised to meet my old friend Shirali Kishwar, with whom I was once a researcher on a mental health of women, an Asian project, from Kishtwar along with her friend Nighat Khan, head of a Helpline Foundation in the valley. So it was a pleasant surprise for me. Later I heard the many young girls and boys give their speeches on what Peace means to them on a personal, national and international level. One girl from Islamia School and one from the Kashmir Harvard School! They spoke very good English and were very self confident too. I feel there has been a vital change in the situation of education of girls in the valley. These young girls pointed at some eye opening facts. They said that Muslims can and should defend themselves not by being offensive. Jihad is an important thing in Islam and means to strive. And that educated Muslims have created the present violent image of Islam! This wise statement along with pointing at the importance of Gandhiji’s non-violent method of resistance kept me thinking about the maturity of these young students and their teachers. I took two Green flags distributed there, with the Islamic Green colour Chenar leaf and a half moon sign on it and “Peace in Kashmir” written on them. 9. On suggestion from Ashima Kaul, I met Dr. Arif Khan, who is also a counselor in an organization called Helpline in the city. He expressed concern at
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the situation in Kashmir and said: Islam propagated today in valley is not indigenous. It is an imported ideology since 1947. He also said, again there are all sorts of changes taking place. Kashmiris are again going to shrines and Sufism is being propagated. There are only 4 out of every girl student, who is wearing burqua. He said too much damage has been done in the past and so many are in need of psychiatric help. In the last 2 months alone he has had 900 calls from Kashmiris, sometimes even Kashmiri Pundits call. They want to just speak to someone in their mother tongue Kashmiri. Most young and educated youth in the valley have employment problems. He said suicide rates are rising from 0.1 % to 16 % and the valley ranks third in India, after Maharashtra and Orissa. Three times as many women commit suicide as men in valley. Though drug addiction is well known in valley youth, there are only 2 drug centers, one run by Police and one by an NGO. He said it was drug abusers who took to stone pelting and is even today getting paid, 500-1000 rupees or even Cannabis from those, who want to keep the valley to be in turmoil. A Child soldier is a concept imported from abroad and Pakistan is exploiting the situation in the valley, providing cannabis and arms and ammunition. He said that Anantnaag district has most of the cannabis growing in its fields and also most of the patients who come to him are from the same area. I could not visit their office, but will do so next time. 10. Zareefsaheb invited me to the Mushaira on girl child, organized by the Women’s college. He along with 2 others was invited to the happening as judges. A few young girls and boys read out their poems and stories, mostly in Kashmiri. Zareefsaheb invited me also for the reason that I could interact with Dr. Neerja Matoo and Dr. Girija Dhar, 2 prominent Kashmiri Pundit women in Academia in the valley. One young girl Afroza read out a story emphasizing the fact that women do not even have a persistent name. It gets changed when they marry. This invited fury from one of the judges Mazroom saheb, who criticized the feminist 12
influence and the need to “keep one’s own reality in mind”. Dr Neerja told him that he is in deep trouble and so it happened. The female staff of the college strongly protested this outlook. I was stunned to see some Muslim ladies speak so loudly and so self confidently to a judge! Then there was a story called CHAANDAW (means search) in which one young girl named Dheeba Nazir projected the feelings of someone searching for his/her home and all those little things of relevance in one’s home and one’s society. I was very moved and had tears in my eyes and could not stop them, only when I saw Neerja too wiping her eyes did I realize that it is our story, put so empathetically by a young Muslim girl. 11. At last I could fulfill my dream of visiting the place I was born in. Mushtaq brought me to the bus stop in Srinagar from where I could take a Tata Sumo to Anantnaag. I had already informed Aadil about my visit and he had organized a room in one of the only 2 hotels in Khanabal, near Anantnaag. Aadil came with a copy of Tehelka and said he will come the next day to take me to the hospital. In its article “simmering discontent in the valley”, writes its editor Zahoor Ahmad Malik and its editor-in-chief Rashid Ahmad, rather in a threatening way: “…now there is a class of leaders, who have the potential to channelize the anger of the Kashmiri youth into a massive campaign. Syed Geelani has already warned the Govt. of mass agitation, if it continues with its ‘repressive mindset’.” I could not prevent thinking whether it is the self fulfilling policy, which makes Zahoor and Rashid think the way they do. There are many others in the valley, who think differently, though they may be a lesser percentage. But then if I think of what Dr. Arif Khan said, namely “if they say openly what wrong is happening in the valley, their houses will be pelted” and many others have told me that they can’t come out openly against the separatists in the valley. When we went to the hospital next day, we had to wait long because it was Sunday and they were in their church, performing prayers and listening to
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the priest. I found out that it was all Andhrite Christians, who were doing both a doctor’s nurses as well as a priest’s job. The Muslim women and men as well as other people from Punjab and Rajasthan, who had found some work in the hospital were singing and praying Jesus Christ. I asked the doctor to help me get the birth certificate from the hospital. Later I was informed that the documents are too old and not available. So my efforts to obtain a birth certificate did not materialise but I got to know the People there and I took part in the mass. I accepted the Prasad given by the Andhra sisters and doctors, but Aadil refused to take it. He told me later that he is going to file an RTI against them for eventually converting the young Kashmiri girls, who are undergoing a nurse training with them, into Christians. I now understood the reason for his not accepting the Prasad. But I also thought of all the conversions the Muslim rulers did on Kashmiri Hindus. Wonder what Aadil thinks of that. Aadil left me near the Martand sun temple on way towards Amarnath cave. I visited the temple as well as the small gurudwara nearby. I was pleased to read that Guru Nanak ji had stayed for 13 days in that place and had advised the learned Brahman Brahmdas: “all the book knowledge you have is nothing in relation to knowledge about HIM”. On hearing this saint Brahmdas as well as Faqir Kamal were so impressed, that they converted to Sikhism! I also read on one of the tables put up in the Gurudwara, that when KP’s approached the saint Tejbahadur, complaining about atrocities done by Moghul kings on them, he sent his sons to the Moghul rulers, who were treated most inhumanly, but the Sikh leaders did not bow. It reminded me of the intermediary role Sikhs have played between the Hindus and the Moslems. It also made me skeptical about Aadil’s remark that the Bandipora killing of 33 Sikhs was in fact a plan of Hindus and Indian Govt. to create distrust between the Sikhs and the Muslims.
Some other remarks of Aadil that India does not want peace in the valley, because then the people will ask for Azadi. He said the Pakistani and the Indian police and security forces are benefitting from the dispute between Kashmiris and Indians, both are bribing the other side to keep the conflict going and survive themselves. He said the killings of innocent Sikhs was not a work of militants, but that of the Indian security forces to create distrust between Musims and Sikhs and the rapes on the 3oo women in a village was of course the work of the security forces. This solidarity with the militants is very conspicuous amongst the Kashmiri Muslims. Is it the Quran connection Aijaz mentioned last year? I cannot take this version of Aadil and some other Muslims I met in the valley. It seems these are all self fulfilling prophecies of those who side with the separatists. 12. In the hotel I stayed at, an interesting exchange took place with the young manager Fayyaz. He told me about the bad situation in schools in the villages. He was interested in his daughter’s education, because as he said, she is very intelligent. He wants her to go to a very good school. He wanted me to visit the villages and so he took me to one Mirguna village, where his daughter Muskaan goes to school I was not surprised to witness the inadequate situation in rural schools, the missing teachers, the large number of students in congested classes. The principal and the young teacher I spoke gave me an impression of that. The principal, who is a sportsman himself, told me that he is happy about the various exchange schemes for scouts between Indian school children and those from the valley schools. This gave them the rural children some exposure, but the facilities at the school are very bad, as they don’t have the funds. The Govt. school opposite to their school has only seven children and three teachers! And the crores that the state gets from the center for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) vanish into air and never reach their destination. Aadil was also complaining about the forty some crores allotted to the Anantnaag district, of which
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his NGO working with disabled children did not receive a penny. Fayyaz took me to his house, which was on way to the school. I met his young mother and aunt and father too. They are a big family living together happily. All joint family members have their individual houses next to each other. His mother has never been to school, but his father is a respected Muslim Maulvi. I was surprised and happy to hear him say that his father does not believe in reading Namaz five times a day and going for Haj, his understanding of Islam is serving others as Prophet Mohammad did. He gives different types of medicines to people, I think Unani medicine. Afterwards I took a Tata Sumo taxi to Pahalgam, which was just 50 km away and I took pictures of the breathtaking scenery of this beautiful Kashmiri town. I went for a walk, talked to some Gujjars, who live there in the hills and are pastorals, very innocent and non intrusive, as some small town people get, on seeing a strange lady walking alone with a rucksack and a stick in her hand and returned by the evening to my hotel. Fayyaz helped me buy some nice cassettes and CDs and I had a lovely Kashmiri dinner with non-veg. dishes and the noonchai at the end. Two things I want to mention here adding, just to amplify the fact that you experience trust and good behavior if you can trust others. Fayyaz has a backache problem at this young age and he told me about it in front of his mother, his wife had gone for some paper work to the city and I showed him some yoga exercises which have helped me over the years and I also gave him the address of the Ayurvedicc hospital in Kalpetta in Wynad district of Kerala, where I just had very good massages, which have even helped me get rid of my knee pains. Another thing I find worth mentioning here is the experience that Fayyaz asked me whether I had the money to pay the bill, at the end of my stay there. Such things don’t happen in a big city! 13. On way back to the valley I visited Aadils NGO Humanity Welfare in Bijhebara, working with disabled children, some due to militancy. They are 14
one the very few such organizations in Kashmir. I spoke to Sajjad, the director, for long about the need to do special sensitization programs for and with women. They were telling me about parents who bring their disabled girl children and are fearful about them getting raped! Sajjad was also talking about the low sex ratio in the valley. I was happy to find out that due to their interventions at the national level, some rights of the disabled are incorporated in our system: wheelchair provision at the airports, separate roads for disabled in governmental institutions. Sajjad told me that there is only one Govt. institution for such children, Abhinandan Home in Barazulla and that too is not functioning! He told about his personal experience of low sex ratio in the valley and Muslims too making use of the sex selection clinics. 14. On way back from Anantnaag I stopped at Sopore to meet Nadeem Quadri, whom I met at the UN peace day celebration on 21st Sept. I was interested in knowing about the activities undertaken by any NGO to save the ecologically degraded Dal Lake. Nadeem is a very enterprising young Kashmiri Muslim handling many different positions, besides being a lawyer. He told me that he is dealing with legal issues of environment and ecology in Kashmir. He said 300 truckloads of chemical fertilizers are thrown away at the fringes of the Dal Lake and that the Dachgan National Park being very important from the water source perspective, needs being attended to equally seriously as the Dal Lake issue. The Ministry of Environment and Forests is spending Crores of rupees on conservation of Dal Lake, but protecting Wetlands of Kashmir and the Wular Lake in Sopore is equally important. Secondly he, interestingly, mentioned about non-sensitivity towards women’s issues in the valley. He said the case of rape of 300 village women in Kunun Poshpora of Kupwara district by security forces is still not closed inspite of justice Kirwani and justice Basheeruddin of Human Rights Commission’s interventions. He said that though there are 4.500 NGO’s, primarily in the valley, not one deals with women’s rights
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issues explicitly. He wanted me to talk to young Human Rights lawyers Libul Nissa and Nargis on women’s rights and if possible to start a women’s group too. Being one of the coordinators of the Youth Parliament group in J&K, he was complaining about the disinterest shown by the present Government in Kashmir on listening to the demands of the youth. 15. The next person I wanted to meet was Libul Nissa and as per her suggestion we met in Café Arabica, a café on the styles of the modern café’s in the world. All sorts of cakes and bakery plus a book shop as reading room was available. We discussed about the non existing women’s group and how we could start one. She mentioned how in the villages, when she talks to women, they behave so helpless saying yes they are beaten up by their frustrated husbands but as women what can they do, they have to near with it and so on. Libel was not available, as she was attending the cross border women leaders meet in Gulmarg. Libel and I tried hard to get to that meet, but we were not able to do so, also because nobody could tell us where it is and whether anyone could attend it. Later with the help of Neerja Mattoo and Zaheerfsaheb, we got to know that they have planned an open discussion at the end of the 2 day meet at the Broadyaw Hotel, a very elite place for an ordinary woman to come to. Libel fell ill and I went there alone and was disheartened to not to see even a single KP woman in the audience, besides of course Neerja Matto, who along with Sushobhaji of Center for Dialog and Reconciliation from Delhi was an organizer. These meetings are being held since a couple of years on the Indian side, but none yet on the other side, smacks again of appeasement policies of the Indian Govt.! I thought it proper to inform the mostly upper class and professionals from POK, Gilgit Baltistan, Poonch, Jammu and valley, who were had tears in their eyes and very emotional about how they felt being in places where they had spent their childhood, about how the KP women feel in camps
in Jammu and the like. They were also complaining about the long routes they had to undertake to come to Gulmarg and hence one of their demands was to keep the line, but remove the control. They were not requesting and showing signs of victimhood, they were rather demanding that women be part of the future talks between the 2 countries. I made friends with interesting women from the different parts of that region. I was totally shocked when at the end of the meeting one rather stout Muslim lady came up to me and more or less threatened me with her ugly body language for having said what I did. She refused to accept the very fact that I was born in Anantnaag, saying she had never seen me there. I was told later that she has been in Tihar jail for long and has written a book “100 days in jail” but nobody could tell me her name and she just turned away, when I asked her to tell me her name. This was my ONLY ugly experience in the valley! 16. Lastly I want to mention that since Ms. Hemlata Wakhlu, chairperson of the J&K Social Welfare Board and 3 times ex Legislative Assembly member, invited me to speak to the adolescent girls on their one day conference on “Need for education and empowerment of adolescent girls in J&K” , I had this opportunity to address the dignitaries Prof. Saifuddin Soz, MP; Home and technical education Ministers of State, Jenab Nasir Aslam Wani and Jenab RS Chib, about the importance of change in the mind sets of elders, parents and religious leaders besides of course of the Govt. policy makers. I took the challenge to highlight the role of rape and sexual violence as well as prostitution and sex-work prevalent in the valley for the lives of young girls and women. My paper is attached. I was all too happy to be addressed to by a few young girls at the end of the meet, who informed me about their problems: Nikhat who is 22 years old and a M.Sc. from Bangalore said she doesn’t like to be friends with the guys in the valley, because of their being so abusive to her likes. She told me of her personal experience, how her sister’s
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friend was killed by the guy who was so angry at her having refused friendship with him. She even said that any men anywhere outside the valley have never spoken so rudely to her for her being an independent type. Her mother and father support her in this and I congratulated her mother, who was accompanying her. A few girls from Kargil wanted to tell their stories, but I was asked to come for lunch. I asked for their numbers and emails, but I
have yet not been able to approach them. Lastly one Amrita Razdan, a KP girl, was complaining about the failing scholarships for young KP students like her, though her counterparts the KM students can avail of these. She asked me for help. I had to direct her to Khemlata. I have not been able to approach her either, due to the SMS and mobile call facility being so restricted in J&K.
BOOKS BY M.N. ROY PUBLISHED by RENAISSANCE PUBLISHERS, INDIAN RENAISSANCE INSTITUTE, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS and OTHERS 1. POLITICS POWER AND PARTIES 2. SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY
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4. THE HISTORICAL ROLE OF ISLAM
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Current Affairs’ Section:
Rajindar Sachar
[Justice Rajindar Sachar is Retd. Chief Justice of High Court of Delhi, New Delhi. He is UN Special Rapportuer on Housing, Ex. Member, U.N. Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities and Ex-President, Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) India] I
No Walmart Please the combined opposition had sat down for Ifweeks so as to find an issue to embarrass the UPA Government and make it a laughing stock before the whole country, they could not have thought of a better issue than the free gift presented to it initially by the UPA Government by insisting that it had decided irrevocably to allow the entry of multi brand retail leader super stores like Walmart, USA and then within a few days, with a whimper withdrawing the proposal. As it is even initially this decision defied logic in view of the Punjab and UP elections and further known strong views against it of BJP / left and many states who had all the time opposed the entry of Walmart which would affect the lives of millions in the country. Retail business in India is estimated to be a 400 billion dollars but the share of the corporate sector
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is only 5%. There are 50 million retailers in India including hawkers and pavement sellers. This comes to one retailer serving 8 Indians. In China it is 1 for 100 Chinese. Food is 63% of the retail trade, according to the information given out even by FICCI. The claim by the Government that Walmart intrusion will not result in the closure of small retailers is a deliberate mis-statement. IOWA State University study in USA has shown that in the first decade after Walmart arrived in IOWA the state lost 555 grocery stores, 298 hardware stores, 293 building supply stores, 161 variety stores, 158 women apparels stores and 153 shoe stores, 116 drug stores and 111 men and boys apparels stores. Why would it be different in India with lesser capacity for resilience by the small traders? The fact is that during 15 years of Walmart entering the market, 31 super market chains sought bankruptcy in 15 years. Of the 1.6 million employees of Walmart only 1.2% makes a living above the poverty level. The Bureau of Labour Statistics, USA is on record with its conclusion that Walmart’s prices are not lower than anyone else when compared to a typical family’s weekly purchases. In Thailand supermarkets led to 14% reduction in the share of ‘mom and pop’ stores within four years of FDI permission. In India, 33-60 percent of the traditional fruit and vegetable retailers reported 15-30 percent decline in footfalls, 10-30 percent decline in sales and 20-30 percent decline in incomes across cities of Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Chandigarh, the largest impact being in Bangalore, which is one of the most supermarket-penetrated cities in India. The average size of the Walmart stores in the United States is about 10,800 sq. feet employing only 225 people. In that view is not the Government’s claim of increase in employment a canard. Governments attempt to soften the blow by emphasizing that Walmart is being allowed only
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51% in investment upto US$ 100 million. Prima facie the argument may seem attractive. But is Walmart management so stupid that when its present turnover of retails is 400 Billion Dollars it would settle for such small gain? No, obviously, Walmart is proceeding on a maxim of the camel being allowed to put its head inside a tent and the occupant finding thereafter that he is being driven out of it by the camel occupying the whole of the tent space. One may substitute Walmart to the camel in order to understand the danger to our millions of retailers. The Government’s tongue-in-cheek argument of allowing Walmart to set up its business in India as it would lead to fall in prices and increase in employment is unproven. A 2004 Report of a Committee of US House of Representatives concluded that “Walmart’s success has meant downward pressures on wages and benefits, rampant violations of basic workers’ rights and threats to the standard of living in communities across the country.” By what logic does the Government say that in India the effect will be the opposite? The only explanation could be that it is a deliberate mis-statement to help the multinationals. Similar anti consumer effects have happened by the working of another Super Market enterprise namely Tesco of Britain. A study carried out by Sunday Times shows that Tesco has almost total control of the food market of 108 of Britain’s coastal areas i.e. 7.4% of the country. The Super Markets like Walmart and Tesco have a compulsion to move from the territory from England and USA because their markets are saturated and they are looking for countries with larger population and low super market presence according to David Hogues, Professor of Agri Business at the Centre for Food Chain Research at Imperial Collage, London, because they have got nowhere else to go and their home markets are already full. Similarly a Professor of Michigan State University has pointed out that retail revolution causes serious risks for developing
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country farmers who traditionally supply to the local street market. In Thailand, Tesco the foreign owned super market controls more than half the Thai market. Though Tesco when it moved into Thailand promised to employ local people but it is openly being accused of unfair trading practices and conflict with local businesses. As for the claim that these super market dealers will buy local products is belied because in a case filed against Tesco in July 2002 the Court found them charging slotting fees to carry manufacturers products, charging entry fee of suppliers. In Bangkok, Grocery Stores’ sales declined by more than half since Tesco opened a store only four years earlier. In Malaysia seeing the damage done by the super market Tesco since January 2004 a freeze on the building of any new super markets was imposed in three major cities and this when Tesco had only gone to Malaysia in 2002. It is worth noting that 92% of everything Walmart sells comes from Chinese owned companies. Indian market is already flooded with Chinese goods which are capturing the Indian market with cheap goods and traders are already crying foul because of the deplorable labour practices adopted by China. Can in all fairness, Indian Government still persist in keeping retail market open to foreign enterprises and thus endangering the earnings and occupation of millions of our countrymen and women. II
Lokpal Legislation Debate Requires Calmer Consideration debate in Parliament on the proposed TheLokpal legislation has unfortunately touched a low nadir; instead of discussing the legislation in a sober atmosphere and with conscious effort to arrive at as much consensus as
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possible, the parties instead indulged in mutual attacks. Government’s furtive slip in of various quotas including the minorities was a deliberate ploy with on eye on U.P. Elections, notwithstanding the doubt on legality of it expressed by former Supreme Court Judges and jurists. Could even any one imagine that the selection committee of Prime Minister, leader of opposition, irrespective of their party affiliation and non political Chief Justice of India that they would not include as members from the amongst Muslims, and women, when any number of them are available on their own merit. Why this non issue was loud mouthed unless it is a device to stall the Lokpal legislation? Let us not forget that these Mulayam / Lalu groups were the ones who sabotaged women Reservation bill by wantonly insisting a sub quota in Women Reservation Bill thus embarrassing Sonia Gandhi and Sushma Swaraj who had earlier without any embarrassment embraced and congratulated each other at their victory in Lok Sabha, but had to beat a retreat in Rajya Sabha. The suggestion that if there are any allegations against the Prime Minister they would be decoratively pigeon holed and brought out after he had remitted office (which may be even 5 years later) does not make any sense, Are we living in a democracy or under a kingship who was supposed to be a representative of Divine. Recently a sitting Prime Minister of Italy who was forced to resign on corruption charge proved against him by a court magistrate. Similarly Chirac, Prime minister of France has been sentenced to 7 years and the President of Israel being sent to jail on the grounds of moral impropriety. The most contentious matter of C.B.I. remains unresolved. His appointment should be by a joint committee consisting of Lokpal and the standing committee of Parliament. Give C.B.I. director a fixed tenure for say five or 10 years. He should
have full administrative control over the staff of C.B.I. and earmarked funds from the consolidated fund. There would be no interference with his day to day working from the Central Government or Lokpal. However Lokpal would be entitled to ask or/and receive reports from him at regular intervals and also be authorized to convey its decisions on such matters. He shall not be removed from service except in the manner and on like grounds as a judge of the Supreme Court – the same manner of removal applies to the removal of Chief Election Commissioner. I for one would not limit the choice necessarily to a police official and it could even be from outside the service. If it is decided to have a Chief Vigilance Commissioner, the same conditions and procedure will apply as applicable to Director of C.B.I. Surprisingly not withstanding bitter wrangling on other aspects all members of the Parliament are unanimously agreeing to keep themselves immune from the ambit of Lokpal or even Directors C.B.I. for their corrupt actions and bribery if it is done inside the Parliament. To me this is scandalous and unacceptable. In their defence Members of parliament invoke Article 105 of the Constitution, and the widely criticized majority judgment of (3 against 2) in Narsimma Rao case (1999) (I believe the matter is referred to a larger bench). The minority Judgment however warned that this interpretation could lead to charter for corruption so as to elevate Members of Parliament as “super-citizens, immune from criminal responsibility”. It would indeed be ironic if a claim for immunity from prosecution founded on the need to ensure the independence of Members of parliament in exercising their right to speak or cast their vote in Parliament, could be put forward by a Member who has bartered away his independence by agreeing to speak or vote in a particular manner in lieu of illegal gratification that has been paid or promised. By claiming the immunity such a Member would only be seeking a license to indulge
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in such corrupt conduct. In other countries such a conduct of MPs is treated as criminal, since 1875 in Australia. To invoke Article 253 of the constitution for enacting Lok Ayukat is of doubtful legality and imperishable in our federal set up. Surely no state can resist the public sentiment built for Lok Ayukat. The matter of Lokpal is too important and needs to be discussed more seriously and not under pressure of forth coming elections in Punjab and especially of U.P. Also the panicky reaction of Central government to Anna Hazare threat of fast compounded by the opposition wanting to cash on it when they went to Anna Hazare sit in to show closeness to him. Their puerile excuse that they wanted to explain their point of view is unacceptable. Political Parties hold their own meetings to explain their position to the public. We go to Jantar Mantar to show our solidarity with the victims of forced displacement, and the illegal actions of the government on the deprived poor. The parties do not go to the sit in of a person they
now want to deride and ridicule. Of course I agree that Anna Hazare has full rights to muster support and arouse masses and exercise his democratic rights – and to put pressure on the government and even the parliament, to pass a particular law because the ultimate sovereign is the people. But there is a caveat that this discussion requires a calmer atmosphere. Could the parties unanimously agree to adjourn the discussions to be after the pressure of U.P. Elections is over with a pledge to pass the legislation as first item when it begins the next session? As a measure of his genuine concern for strong Lokpal Anna Hazare, on his part, one hopes, would reciprocate by not going on fast. He can rest assured that peoples’ determination to have a strong Lokpal is not so weak, as to let government avoid its solemn pledge to pass the bill in the next session of the parliament – if the government further prevaricates it most know that consequences could be monumental and no government can remain in permanent confrontation with its real masters, the people of India.
Letters to the Editor: Dear Rékhâ, Received issue No. 500 with an impressive cover and, among other stimulating topics, the reprint from Ellen Roy’s writings. Also received issue No. 501: An excellent way to keep Radical Humanism alive is what you are doing with flashes of most timely quotations from the Founder Editor. Warm regards. —Prithwindra-dâ ****************
Dear Madam, Arab Spring and Role of Women by Dr. Asgar Ali in the December 2011 issue was a very interesting and informative article. Also, A Kashmiri Pandit Mother’s Appeal for Peace in Kashmir Part 2 was equally appealing. ‘Kashmiri Pandit’ – is a major issue in India but not a single politician is ready to work and try to solve this problem. All other issues even of tiny magnitude are ready to explode in the media. —Atul K. Raval, 7, Muktimangal Tenaments, Thaltej, Ahmedabad 380054
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Peace Keeping Force intended to restore peace in Sri Lanka at the instance of that Government which latter on withdrew. This one led Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka to withdraw from its undertaking unceremoniously. Those apart, certain unexpected consequences followed in the middle-east as a consequence of American intervention in Iraq. A mass movement for popular rule arose in several countries in the middle-east. In Egypt and in Libya, people took to streets and replaced the existing autocratic regimes. It has yet to be seen whether popular democratic systems take route in those countries.
N.K. Acharya [Sri N.K. Acharya is an advocate, columnist and
author of several books on law. He was formerly Secretary of Indian Rationalist Association and had edited the Indian Rationalist, then published from Hyderabad on behalf of the Association prior to its transfer to Madras.]
II
I
Swami’s actions
U.S. withdrawal from Iraq of American forces from Iraq Withdrawal has achieved its purpose viz., replacement of dictatorship in that country, even though its other purpose of seeking surrender of atomic weapons failed because it is found that Iraq had none of them. This process took nine years. During this period, one important issue of International Law was decided. That was about the right of the country which is directed by the United Nations to take action against the offending country, to continue action even after U.N. ordered cessation of operations. America asserted that it had power to continue the operations so long as it found the need to continue them. American decision prevailed notwithstanding some of the other participating countries who preferred to withdraw their forces. Now, a further question may arise in future in which the American precedence may be quoted in the matter of United Nations Resolutions sanctioning Peace Keeping Forces to maintain peace either internally or between fighting States. This question is important in the context of what happened in the case of Indian
was a very old story. It has been told that ItM.Ps by reason of their influence over the Central Secretariat have been tempting officials to show them the office files and later on disclosing their contents in Parliament. But on surface the appearance shows as if they themselves have conducted some investigation and research on the subjects. In fact, one of such M.Ps, who was a famous editor of a Vernacular daily used to proclaim that almost all the M.Ps were following the same route. Swami’s depositions in 2-G Spectrum case illustrates this practice because he quoted not only the facts alleged to have taken place but also the case numbers and the dates of letters said to have been exchanged between the Ministries. The Court, however, directed Mr. Swami to produce certified copies of the references. In this connection, it is not inappropriate to quote, the practices which prevail in several High Courts. Previously, when any party produced a private copy of the Orders of the Government or of the Internal Correspondence, the Court was refusing to look into them. Subsequently, the Court began
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directing the Government Pleader to produce the originals of their proceedings. That is why, the Right to Information Act made a specific provision that the copies of any document provided by the Public Information Officer shall not be treated as either a certified copy nor they may be used as evidence in Court.
is mostly a product of mere apprehensions, shall be decided by mutual consultations assisted by the Union. There is no other go than to follow the dictates of consensus. Inter-state river projects are always treated as National Projects. They are invariably dedicated to the nation. If it is an irrigation project, it benefits several riparian states; if it is a power project, it helps the nation as a whole because a substantial III part of electricity produced is added to the central grid. Whatever be the dispute the work on the Mallaperiyar Project repairs to the project as well as the additional constructions to be built for Mallaperiyar Project allaperiyar Project is located in Kerala should not be stalled and must proceed as planned State. It is a very ancient project. It is an within the time schedule fixed. irrigation project. It serves two states, the state of Tamil Nadu and the state of Kerala. The project IV now requires repairs which are long overdue. While repairing the project, Kerala wants to increase the dam height. Tamil Nadu suspects that the repairs Threat of fast by Anna Hazare and raise of height may adversely affect the interest of the people of Tamil Nadu. Several objections veryone in India now knows that the which are neither new nor special are being raised threat of fast is an empty threat, for it is by Tamil Nadu. Local people of Kerala are raising either withdrawn or forced to give up. The Courts high degree of demonstrations protesting against have sanctioned forced feeding. That is why some the objections of Tamil Nadu. of the leaders are announcing fasts for a few days or Inter-state river projects have been subjects of symbolic fasts for one day. disputes between and among several states. There is only one fast in the history of India which According to the Constitution of India, they have to can be held to have achieved its purpose. ‘That was be referred to the Commissions specially set up by a fast- unto-death undertaken by Mahatma Gandhi the Central Government. The decisions of the against creation of separate electorates for Commissions are final and binding on all the states Harijans. It was given up after what was called involved. The decisions of the Commissions shall Ambedkar-Gandhi pact. After the fast, Mahatma be implemented by the Union Government. undertook a full year programme of touring the Past experiences have been very happy. The entire country propagating the need for Harijan Commissions which inquired into the disputes have uplift. The other fast which ended in tragedy was by been very helpful and seeking unanimity almost in Potti Sraramulu who passed away demanding every case. Though, the proceedings appear to be separation of Andhra region from Madras province. adversarial, they are mostly in the nature of The present threat of Anna Hazare is preceded by negotiations between the parties and it is only when three earlier fasts. Questioned as to what is the consensus is arrived at, the Commissions are giving purpose of the one day fast proposed in the last awards. Such being the case, as regards, inter-state week of December, he said it was only a test which disputes on river waters, the present dispute which will be followed by an indefinite fast subsequently.
M
E
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The declared objective of these tests is to achieve effective Lokpal. Whether as envisaged under Anna Hazare’s draft or under the Government draft, the Lokpal remains an advisory body. So long as Lokpal remains a mere advisory body, it cannot be effective unless it is invested with a power to punish the corrupt. What all that is contemplated under either of the drafts is what all the Lokpal can do is to give a direction to the disciplinary authorities to take action against the corrupt or itself file a complaint before anti-corruption Court. The current disputes between Anna Hazare and the Government are centered on three matters. 1. Bringing Prime Minister within the jurisdiction of Lokpal 2. Bringing Central Bureau of Investigation within the scope of inquiry by Lokpal and 3. Bringing Class “C” and “D” Officers subject to the Lokpal. But the Government would agree in a form and manner it suits their purpose on all the three issues.
V
Devanand What was characteristic of Devanand was his gait. Had it been treated as his weakness he would not have become the hero. But, his gait, gesture and mannerisms had gained the recognition and attracted the approval of the audience. An actor becomes popular for his expressions suitable to the situations. Facial expressions and physical movements contribute to his eminence. There were instances where such characteristics were noted as typical expressions, such as the way the character handles his hand stick or they handle their heroines. Devanand was an all-rounder. He acted frivolous characters with as much ease as he handled the serious ones. He acted with competence with every heroine of his times spread over half a century. He moved the hearts of three successive younger generations. He was very fortunate in passing away in sleep at 88 without suffering any illness. It was reported that he had been engaged in finalizing scripts for his forthcoming productions. That is the way a creative person lives and sets examples for others. Devanand died in London and his obsequies took place in London only.
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IRI/IRHA 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-110052. Mahipalsinghrh@gmail.com] Continued from the previous issue...................... the Courts Provide any Relief? The CanConstitution of India has laid down the responsibility of protecting the fundamental rights of the people, as guaranteed under the Constitution, on the shoulders of the Supreme Court of India and the various High Courts. In individual cases these courts have given some historical judgments thereby extending the scope of some of the fundamental rights. The Right to free and compulsory Education as a fundamental right emanated from the judgment of the Supreme Court in 1993 in Unni Krishanan’s case (AIR 1993 SC 2178) wherein the Court observed that the ‘Right to Education’ is also a right to life, which is implicit as it flows from the right to life guaranteed by Article 21, though it had been present in the Constitution of India as a Directive Principle of the State Policy under Article 45 ever since the adoption of the Constitution in 1949 without being considered a fundamental right by any government before that. Right to know and information have also emanated from the interpretations of Articles 19 and 21 of the Constitution by the apex Court. However, in the
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matter of such draconian laws as the TADA, the POTA and the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, the courts have somehow failed to fulfill their responsibility as the protectors of the Fundamental Rights of the people as assigned to them by the Constitution and as recognized by themselves as such, when, in the Keshvanand Bharti case, otherwise known as Fundamental Rights case (AIR 1973 SC 1461) the apex Court observed that the democratic form of government and the fundamental rights are some of the basic structures and framework of our Constitution and they cannot be abrogated or whittled down even by the Parliament in exercise of its plenary powers of amending the Constitution. Yet the Court has gone against its self-assigned, and constitutionally mandated, duty again and again. On the allegations of “administrative liquidation” of two men by personnel of the Manipur police, the Supreme Court had ordered a district and sessions judge to conduct an investigation on a public interest petition filed by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) in 1992. The Court, however, gave orders only for monetary compensation, in its judgment on February 6, 1997, to the relatives of the victims. It did not exercise its authority to refer the matter to the trial court for the criminal prosecution of the perpetrators of the crime. When the necessity to examine the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act arose as a result of a letter-petition addressed to the Court in 1982, it was converted into a petition under Article 32 of the Constitution. The judgment came after 14 long years and the Court ruled that none of the provisions of the Act can be characterized as arbitrary. Though utterly bizarre such judgments might seem, they are in perfect consonance with the status-quoits character of the establishment, be it the legislature, the executive or the judiciary. Otherwise how does one view the judgment of the apex court, during the Emergency in 1976, where in the Habeas Corpus Case, which came to be known as ADM (Jabalpur) Case, (AIR 1976 SC 597) the majority of the four Judges headed by Chief Justice A.N. Ray (Justice
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Khanna alone differing and paying the price for it) ruled that “Article 21 is the sole repository of the right to life and liberty and that since that right was suspended, Habeas Corpus petitions were not even maintainable,” which practically meant that the Government had a right to kill a person without the authority of law and, in fact, contrary to the rule of law. The National Human Rights Commission is even prevented by Clause 19 of the Protection of Human Rights Act from investigating directly complaints of human rights violations against the armed forces. How Can an Atmosphere Conducive to Human Rights be secured? The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Sh. Atal Behari Vajpayee could not find time to pass the Women’s Reservation bill to empower women during its six year rule because, as it claimed, it wanted to bring about a consensus on the issue. The same government passed the POTA within no time by calling a joint session of Parliament when it realized that it would not be able to get the bill through in the Rajya Sabha where it did not enjoy a majority. The same Congress party, which was opposing the move then, and later declared that it would abolish the Act as soon as it came to power, took a lot of time to do so, although, if Justice Rajindar Sachar, a retired Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court and expert in legal matters, is to be believed, the Act could be abolished overnight by an ordinance issued by the President. Not only that, the Congress led government at the centre is now planning to invoke Article 355 of the Constitution to keep the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in place in Manipur, where the people in large numbers have come out in favour of repealing the Act, in view of its gross misuse by the security forces. Article 355 permits the Centre to intervene in the state affairs without the consent of the state government in the interest of protecting the state from external aggression or internal security threat. What kind of threat from ‘external aggression’ or ‘internal security threat’ the government perceives is hard to comprehend. On
the issue of keeping Manipur designated as a “disturbed area”, there is a consensus in the political parties of all hues supporting the government, including the Left parties, who have otherwise been opponents of such black laws. The stand of the Congress party on continuing the AFSPA to remain in force in Nagaland and the other North Eastern states can well be taken as a foregone conclusion. Situation in Maoist infested areas: With the entry of Multi National Corporations (MNCs) in the country in the name of globalization, the government at the center declared a new development policy by setting up of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the country providing special incentives and facilities to the MNCs to establish enterprises for exploitation of the mineral wealth of the country, more for their own benefits (and the benefits of the politicians, if the example of Madhu Koda, who was caught with 4,000 Crores of Rupees of unaccounted wealth, is an example) than for the benefits of the people who own lands and resources of the targeted SEZs. When the various State governments started usurping their lands, mostly in tribal areas of central India like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh etc., at throwaway prices to be handed over to these MNCs, dispossessing the people of not only their lands but also of their only source of sustenance, the people arose in revolt. This gave chance to the Naxalites/Maoists to gain their sympathies and promote their ideological influence by supporting their cause against the various State governments. As a result there were violent protests against forcible land acquisitions resulting into ruthless suppression of these protests by police and para-military forces which resorted to large scale violation of human rights, rapes, burning of their houses, disappearances and extra judicial killings. Nandigram in West Bengal saw large-scale violence and the entire tribal belt of Lalgarh became alive with Maoist activities where, for a long time, no Naxalite activity was observed. Posco and Tata projects faced strong protests in Orissa. Almost the whole of the mineral rich tribal belts of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand became the epicenter
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of Maoists activities. But instead of listening to the genuine grievances of the poorest tribal population of these areas, the government at the center and the States resorted to the policy of suppression named ‘Operation Green Hunt’, on the face value against the Maoists but in truth against the tribals. Human rights activists working among the masses in their areas for their education, medical services etc. were also targeted. The arrest of Dr. Binayak Sen, a human rights activist and well-known doctor who had been working to provide medical services to the people in those areas for the last 25 years, was in effect a declaration of war by the State against all those who raised the voice of concern for the life, liberty and rights of these tribals. The State today is bent upon pursuing a model of development, which seeks to promote the interests of big capital and MNCs to the detriment of the poor farmers and the tribal population of the country. Accordingly, anyone who espouses the cause of the tribals is labeled ‘Maoist sympathizer’ and put behind the bars. It is precisely for this reason that the PUCL has been named in the Kobad Ghandi charge sheet as a front organization of the Maoists, in spite of the fact that the PUCL has from its very inception denounced violence by any individual, political group and the State alike. In a press statement published in the newspapers in June 2010 the Union Home Ministry threatened to use Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 for arresting those who criticize the policy of the home department of the Govt. of India in dealing with the tribal Maoist problem. It shows the stringent character of the provisions of this Act on the one hand and the blatant act of intimidation to suppress the right of every citizen to unrestrainedly criticize the wrong policies of the government under the right to freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under the Constitution on the other. The PUCL condemned this statement in strong words demanding immediate withdrawal of the statement. Emergency-like situation in the country: Situation in the country today is no better than during the Emergency regime. In fact, it is worse. In such a scenario, in which none of the three branches of the State seem to care for the human
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rights of the people, in spite of their commitment to them under the Constitution of the country, the United Nation’s Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that followed the Declaration, to which the country is a signatory, the people of the country are left with no other alternative except to organize themselves into a movement against such draconian laws which act as an instrument of depriving them not only of their civil liberties but also of their right to life with impunity. As Justice P.B. Sawant (Retd.) observed in the Twenty-third JP Memorial Lecture organized under the auspices of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Pune, on March 23, 2003, “A citizenry well-empowered to assert itself, sufficiently well-informed to take proper decisions on public issues, active enough to participate in the day-to-day affairs of the state, and always alert to call the governors to account for their acts of omission and commission – these are the minimum prerequisites of a successful democracy.” The people have to be vigilant because, to quote him again, the powerful people “are in a position to control all the key institutions – the media, the bureaucracy, the police etc. and manipulate and corrupt them, manufacture consent in their favour, and sabotage not only the will of the people, but also the law of the land.” (Human Rights in Retreat: P.B. Sawant, Mainstream, June 28 and July 5, 2003). If the people of the country are to be saved from the onslaught of inhuman laws and not to be pushed against the wall by them into taking to arms, which, in any case, are no solution of the problems facing them and the country, they must organize themselves into a strong people’s movement to oppose such laws. Human Rights groups and other NGOs engaged in securing the rights of the people should lend full support to their peaceful efforts directed to this end. Some organizations from Nagaland, including some people engaged in the protection of human rights and civil liberties there, had approached PUCL, PUDR etc. some time ago to get their support for the movement to repeal Armed Forces (Special
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Powers) Act. It was decided to co-ordinate the efforts of various human rights groups in this regard and form an all India Committee to take up this cause. In this connection a convention was organized at the Constitution Club in New Delhi and a resolution was passed there. Another convention was organized at Gandhi Peace Foundation in which PUCL-Delhi played a very significant role. At the latter meeting, an action plan was also passed – including contacting various political groups and also individual MPs to muster their support for the cause. It was also decided to form sub-committees or regional committees,
which can take up the matter with the governments and political parties at the level of various states where this law is in force. An awareness campaign about human rights education should also be started among the people so that the State can be pressurized to tackle such political issues politically through talks with all concerned groups instead of resorting to the use of armed forces which are best kept confined to their barracks except in times of external aggression. Continued in the next issue...........................
Important Announcement
Encyclopedia of the Radical Humanists To be loaded on the RH Website (http://www.theradicalhumanist.com) Dear Friends, This is to request you to send in your personal details, contact numbers etc. (along with your passport size photographs) as well as a brief account of how you got associated with M.N. Roy/Radical Democratic Party/Radical Humanist Movement directly or indirectly through the philosophy of New Humanism. This is also a request to all those friends, whose deceased parent/parents were involved in or were sympathetic with Radical Humanism and its Movement, to send in accounts of their parent’s/parents’ association (as much as they can recollect and recount). This will be a loving and emotional tribute to their memories from your side. All this effort is being made to form an encyclopedia of the Radical Humanists right from the days of the beginning of M.N. Roy’s social and political activities in India and abroad. All this information will be uploaded and permanently stored on the RH Website in the Profile section for everyone to read and come in contact with one another. This will be a historical check-list to connect with all the crusaders who worked or are still working for the human cause on the humanist lines. —Rekha Saraswat
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Research Scholars’ & Teachers’ Section:
Ashok K.Chaudhury
The ‘Peace-Mediator’ Rests in ‘Peace’ (Indira Goswami: 1942-2011) Assamese litterateur, academic, Eminent Ramayana-scholar, and solo mediator between Ulfa, the banned secessionist group of Assam, and the Central Government, Mamoni Raisom Goswami, popularly known as Indira Goswami, lovingly called Mamoni Baideo, passed away on 29th November 2011, barely three weeks after death of Bhupen Hazarike, an acclaimed singer and music director of Assam, at Guwahati Medical College after prolonged illness. Her passing will not only leave a void in Assamese and Indian literature but also in the hearts of all those who knew her. She was the first Indian to receive the 60 lakh Principal Prince Claus Award (2008), named in honour of Prince Clause of The Netherland; Goswami donated the entire prize money to the Assam Government to build a hospital in her ancestral village Amranga in Kamrup district. Mamoni was the winner of 36th Jnanpith Award for the year 2000 for her contribution to the enrichment of Indian literature through her creative writing between 1978-99. She brought for second time the prestigious award for the State of Assam after two decades after Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya who won in 1979 for his novel Mrityunjay, written 28
against the backdrop of Independence struggle in Assam. Rendering yeoman service to the cause of literature, she enriched the genre with her translation of short stories from different parts of the country. By receiving this all India literary prize, Mamoni established herself as one of the best writers of India. “I am much elated at being given this honor though I was not expecting it as I was nominated for it several times earlier. This will definitely help me in going ahead with my future literary endeavor”, Mamoni had remarked after receiving the award. Assam government accorded the writer-crusader a lofty slot in the annals of State by tendering her unique honor of being the maiden honored guest at the Independence Day Celebration of Judge’s Field in Guwahati in 2001. “Writing is my life, dharma, writing is my soul”, observed Goswami while addressing a gathering at a function organized by the Guwahati Press Club to felicitate her at the Press Club premises. She was also the recipient of several prestigious literary awards including the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983 for her novel Mamare Dhara Tarowal (Rusted Sword) that depicts the experience of building an aqueduct over the San in Rai Bareilly district. It is considered as an outstanding contribution to Assamese literature for its deep insight into social tensions, abhorrence of the exploitation of man-by-man, sympathy with the toiling masses and for its gripping style. It exposes brilliantly the hypocrisy, deceit and selfishness that masquerade as respectability. All the characters in this novel come to life with a rare brilliance and reality. Starting writing from the tender age of thirteen, Goswami earned an exalted position in the pantheon of fiction writers of India. She was first recognized by Kirtinath Hazarika, a leading editor in that time Natun Asomiya. It was he who encouraged in her early literary efforts and published all her stories. At a ‘Meet the Author’ program arranged by Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi on 1st November 1992 she declared that writing was an obsession with her. In the course of her
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interesting talk she admitted writing helped her cope with many of her personal tragedies. Christened Indira Goswami, the somewhat intrepid girl began her tryst with destiny since her birth on November 14, 1942. A priest of Kamakhya temple while preparing her horoscope advised her mother Ambika Devi, that this girl’s stars are so bad that she would do well to cut her up in two pieces and throw her into the Brahmputra to do away with omen connected with the birth. On the issues, which move her, were her childhood days. She had seen widowhood from very close quarters, when she was a companion to her paternal aunt who became widow at the age of twelve. Her aunt spent her entire life worshipping the pair of Kharam (wooden foot wear) of her dead husband. Widowed in less than eighteen months of her marriage to a Tamil engineer, Madhavan Raisom Iyenger, a Kannadiga lyengar, she was able to add herself to the list of characters that she created. The untimely death of her father Umakanta Goswami was a great blow to her. She also witnessed an act of suffocating a he-goat, in the name of a community feast. Then there is the case of organizing a religious function to exorcise the evils that were supposed to be dominating her destiny. But possessed of an indomitable nature, Goswami came out after each tragedy as if “baptized by fire.” Her writings touch upon diverse themes ranging from the sordid to the sublime. The canvas of Goswami is indeed vast and includes impression of life and people in their spectacular variety and richness. Her gallery of characters is constituted with those people who live on the fringes of the society. Using very few stylistic devices to mar the flow of her pen, she weaved, fascinating tales against a backdrop of human deprivation and exploitation and an authentic feel of the locale in her stories. The woes and travails of man and woman are mirrored in all her novels, short stories. Her autobiography finds ardent appeal across the globe.
Goswami wrote short stories for two decades before emerging as a powerful novelist. Moved by the plight of widows, Goswami wrote her first novel Chenavar Srota (As the Cherish Flows, 1972). The picture of the poor workers engaged in construction of a bridge as projected in the novel is exactly what she personally saw at the bridge site. It is a work marked by vivid realism, penetrating insight and a deep poetic sensibility. Nilakantha Braja, her second novel in 1976, translated into English as The Shadow of a Dark God, is mostly a tale of three love-lorn damsels: Saudamini, a young widow; Mrinalini, a spinster; and the helpless Sashi, another spinster. This novel is the outcome of studying the lives of the over 3000 widows at Vrindavan where she lived for two years in a temple room. She narrated what she had actually seen - the pathetic life of the widows and spinsters, their sorrow and agony, their desires and frustrations. Abandoned by their relatives, these helpless women are often driven to prostitution for their living. The bestiality in men was for the first time viewed by her from very close quarters in this holly land of Krishna. Pulsating with the life and inviting the reader’s participation in it, Goswami without being too obviously feministic, deftly portrayed the anguish of these women and lashed out against in her typical humanistic fashion. Goswami drew parallel in her delineation of circumstance and protagonists from the working class in the Kashmir valley and the dam sites in Madhya Pradesh. While in Madhya Pradesh, she saw herself the work of an aqueduct project. Her close contact with the workers and her experience of their way of life gave the basic material to build the story of her novel Ahiron. Highly readable, it is a message of hope in a world marred by grief and brutality. Datal Haatir Uye Khawa (The Worm-eaten Howda of Tuskar), translated into English as A Saga or South Kamrup, portrays an undiluted and vivid pictures of the ‘statra’ (a religious monastery) at where she had spent most of her childhood days. Goswami said that there was a pressure from her
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relatives on the publisher not to publish the novel. She exposed the wretched life of three widows of a rural orthodox family. Inspired by the real life cases in her own family, she showed widows of different ages, where the eldest one is resigned to her hapless plight as conditioned by the cruel society; the second one, helped by relative affluence, is able to make space for her little words; the third one, young Giribala, cannot make herself submit to the human reality. She forgot everything realism and rituals, wisdom or restraint. She takes meat, interacts without any qualms. There are flickers of rebellion in the young widow who is deprived of the traits of life by a set of cruel customs. The Assamese film version of the novel, Adajya, which is considered a claasic, won two international awards after competing with Train to Pakistan and Hazar Chaurasi Ki Ma. As well, the Assam Sahitya Sabha honoured her with the Basanti Devi Memorial Award in 1988. Animal sacrifice custom in the state is one of the primary concerns in her creative work. Her novel Chinnamastar Manuhto focuses on buffalo sacrifice in the Kamakhya temple. This grotesque ritual provoked her to shake the foundations of the society. The book aroused protest from among the priestly classes. There were threats to kill the editor of the magazine, which serialized the novel, and one person was beaten up. But nothing was going to stop her from opposing such practices. And what egged her on was the fact that she was being supported by the youth of the State. Chinnamastar… moved the young generation on whose opinion, the future would be molded. She elaborated; stating about 15 per cent of the masses had supported her with the majority from the youth section. Militancy in the state was her next major project as she wanted first to closely observes the ultras’ activities and their philosophies prior to taking up the task, though she was criticized by some people for not writing more on militancy in the state. But she had decided. Everyone speaks about her
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boldness. She unhesitatingly exposed those realities, which the elitist mind is either afraid of or ‘ashamed’ of looking into. Apart from her novels, her autobiography Adha Lekha Dastavej (Unfinished Autobiography, 1983) is a powerful testimony in this regard. She frankly revealed her own story. This autobiography covers some events and incidents of her life up to 1970. Adopting a technique of presentation that keeps the reader spellbound, she sized up the events and characters and people she came across in her own life with a clarity that must be the envy of many a biographer. The rare courage with which she faced life, which has not been too kind to her, came out powerfully in this book. Her deep observation of the life and locale wherever she happened to be was also evident throughout. In fact it has all the making of what an autobiography should be and leaves the reader eager for a sequel. The much acclaimed autobiography, which she penned, “it is not just for the heck of it. You know. I dare to touch a subject only after it moves my inner being. The feelings of the disposed must be a felt experience”. Goswami said, “What is in me to hide? How can I depict the stories about others’ lives if I am not true to myself? I have never tried to sermonize. I have alienated my writings from my life”. In a letter to Goswami in November 1990, Mulk Raj Anand remarked, “I read one third of your autobiography in one go and think you to be a sensitive and truthful person, who has revealed her feelings, uncertainties, disappointments and lapses with a candor not shown by many contemporaries”. Amita Mallik, on reading the autobiography, said, “Mamoni’s writing is spontaneous, like conversation. But it is heart-felt, and moving. I can only salute Mamoni for the truly heroic saga that is her life”. Amrita Pritiam, who has written a ‘Foreword’ to its English translation, Life is No Bargain, an Unfinished Autobiography, a part of her life story, which could be described as “life is no bargain. Indira Goswami is one of those rare souls who have been able to get an insight into the great power which is working behind this
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universe”. Her autobiography has also been translated into Hindi as Zindagi Sauda Nahi. Besides, Budhasagar Dhushar Geisha Aru Md Musa, Sanskar Udaybhanur Charitra Etyati, Jakhmi Jatri, Tez Aru Dhulira Dhusharita Prishta, Uparryash Samagra are some of her other novels. Goswami was a competent short story writer. Author of eighteen novels, three hundred short stories and an autobiography, quite a few of her short stories have been translated into English and other Indian languages. Almost all her novels and short stories revolve around young widows, who never achieve either sexual fulfillment or independence. Equating her writing to activism, Goswami expressed, “it is enough for me to show the rebellion. I want to tell the women that they should fight even if they do not succeed”. In each successive novel, she unfolded tragedy, and then raised voices of protest against the traditions and social norms. Her novels are not just about literature, they are emotion ridden outpourings about her own life as a widow, an experience that continues to colour every word that she writes. Goswami’s narrative has a distinction of its own. Her specialty is the picture she brought forth through her prose. Her writing is marked by a vigorous style, bold treatment and insight into social tensions. Replying to a question on what makes her characters so appealing, Goswami said, “I intensely study the themes of the stories before penned them. I have not written anything without experiencing it. I pick my characters from real life. Readers take interest in my language”. Navakanta Baura said, “Mamoni can paint pictures with words. And she drew these pictures from experiments”. She pointed out that the purpose of the endeavor was to ensure that sense prevails, facades peel off, crass materialism gave way to the solace of spiritualism and the derailed society is brought back to the tracks. Commenting on the novels of Goswami, the noted writer Vishnu Prabhakar once observed: “In her writings even dead characters are galvanized and come alive at the touch of her magical pen”.
Goswami is considered an authority on the Ramayana, and here is her account as to what propelled her to select the epic as her research project. One of her latest projects was on Ravana, the King of Lanka. It is sort of a corollary to her research work A Comparative Study of the Ramayana of Madhav Kandali and Goswami Tulsidas”. The litterateur felt her research work was her most enduring contribution to literature. She said that a detailed study of this epic has opened a new vista in her life. She travelled to several south-east Asian countries for participating in deliberations on this epic. She participated as coordinator in the International Seminar on Ramayana Literature at Trinidad in Spain. In 1973 she was awarded Ph.D. from the Institute of Oriental Philosophy, Vrindavan, for her thesis on the Ramayana, which was published in 1996. She also produced voluminous work on Tulsi Ramayana and Assamese Ramayana of Madhava Kandali and has contributed articles on the theme in Indian and foreign journals. As an eminent translator, Goswami translated Mrityunjay into English in just 15 days at the insistence of the then Jnanpith Executive Member Lakhiprasad Jain. Besides, she also contributed research papers in numerous research journals and she presented papers in national and international seminars. Goswami introduced Premchand to Assamese readers by some of his stories into Assamese. Goswami was associated herself with a number of learned and literary bodies: Association of Authors; the Central Board of Secondary Education; the Assam Lekhak Sambhai; the Board of Studies (Assamese), Benaras Hindu University; K.K. Birla Foundation; Committee for Assamese, National Book Trust, Delhi, etc. She was Coordinator of the Meeting of the 2nd Anniversary of Mirza Ghalib, under the joint aegis of Sahitya Aakademi, and Urdu Akademi; Coordinator at the International Meet in Hindi at the India International Centre, New Delhi; Member of the Advisory Board (1983 to 1988), Sahitya Akademi,
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and also as a Member of its Executive Board, (1998-2002). Apart from Jnanpith and Sahitya Akademi awards, her great contributions rightfully brought her a number of prestigious awards including: Basanti Devi Memorial Award of Assam Sahitya Sabha (1988), Bharat Nirman Award (1989), Sauhard Samman of U.P. Hindi Sansthan (1992), Katha Award (1993), Kamal Kumari Foundation Award (1996), Joimoti Kunwari Award by Ahom Royal Council of Assam, Guwahati (2003). An alumnus of Cotton College, Guwahati, Goswami was the Professor, Modern Indian Literature and Language Studies Department, University of Delhi. Throughout her career, she
was a champion of the oppressed, humiliated, downtrodden, particularly widows of Vrindavan, and the victims of Partition. Goswami was always ready to serve the poorer, leprosy and cancer patients, and was keen to see lasting peace in the Northeast. She dedicated her time and energy to the upliftment of her mother tongue. Hiren Gohain, a noted critic and scholar from Assam, says, “Mamoni is the most extraordinary thing to have happened to Assamese literature in recent years. There cannot be any doubt that she is a major author from whom great things can be expected”. Now the great things are only to be dreamt. Dr. Ashok K. Choudhury, a postdoctoral scholar & lit critic, is with Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi.
M.N. Roy Literature on RH Web portal: www.theradicalhumanist.com Dear friends, Kindly go through the following published material on the RH Web Portal in its ‘Literature’ section on the following URL: http://www.theradicalhumanist.com/index.php?option=com_radical&controller=literatures&I temid=61 The books already uploaded are: New Orientation; New Humanism; M.N. Roy’s letters to Dr. Reddy; Roy’s Writings on Georgi Dmitrov; M.N. Roy’s write-up on Leon Trotsky and Ellen Roy’s letters to Warren Allen Smith (1, 2 3); Men I Met; Politics, Power and Parties; From the Communist Manifesto to Radical Humanism; Historical Role of Islam; The Russian Revolution and Tragedy of Communism; Revolution and Counter-Revolution in China. We will be gradually uploading all the other major works of M.N. Roy. We are getting very favourable responses from friends telling us that this is a historical feat as it is allowing Roy’s Literature to come alive once again to newer and wider readership. —Rekha Saraswat
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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]
Heavy Reading [INDIA The Ultimate Sights, Places, and Experiences, by Abraham Eraly, Yasmin Khan, George Mitchell, and Mitali Saran; published by DK, a Penguin company, London; 2008; price not indicated.hardcover, 12” x 10 “, pp 376.] book is a guide to the essence of India. This It contains more than 700 specially commissioned photographs with accompanying text and notes. It takes us through the fascinating land that India is. . A `coffee table book’ it may be, but as I pick it up, I realize it is of solid worth. This book is in six sections. LANDSCAPE INDIA’S HORIZON provides the readers a “visual journey” in. terms of beautiful photographs in colour, coupled with appropriate
quotes.E.g., on pp24-25, there is the greenery of Meghalaya, and the lines: “When you meet the forest Your desires become the seasons. Your smiles turn into brooks. Thorn and brush drag at your feet .And the hills stop you on your way.” (‘Coincidence’, Jyotsna Das). HISTORY THE STORY OF INDIA spans prehistoric times to modern. Seals and pottery of the early Aryans are photographed with useful notes. There are mementoes from every period, ranging from Ganjifa playing cards (p 93) to Tipu’s tiger (p 99). The third section is PEOPLE A DAY IN THE LIFE. It follows 14 individuals from all walks of life. The Hindu priest offers his prayers from the banks of the Ganga at Varanasi. The Aptani tribeswoman works in the fields, doing a little dance to press the earth flat. A nobleman enjoys a sumptuous breakfast in his fort. A `langar’ cook makes lentil for 150,000 people, and so on…All the photographs are accompanied by little notes. Particularly interesting are the spread of Indian toys (pp174-5) and the display of Indian musical instruments (pp190-1). CULTURE THE SPIRIT OF INDIA captures the intangible but powerful entity called culture in terms of exquisite photographs. The two-page display of Naga sadhus is (p2330 is as remarkable as that of young Budddhists (p 238). Rajajasthani folk dance ( p 250-1) or Madhubani folk art ( p262-3). Classical literature is also discussed, with the help of rare depictions of the Mahabharata, the Panchatantra etc. No aspect has quite been left out, not even Indian cuisine. India has an astounding variety of architectural styles, as presented in the next section, ARCHITECTURE BUILDING A NATION. The elaborate stepwell of Adalaj in Gujarat is beautifully portrayed (pp 278-283) along with the Anoop Talau of Fatehpur Sikri (p 307). Padmanabhapuram, the wooden royal palace of Tamil Nadu (pp310 – 317) forms an interesting contrast to the Amber Fort (p 318-323). The Taj
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Mahal and the Meenakshi temple are represented from unusual angles and great detail (pp324- 337). The sixth and last section, TRAVEL EXPLORING INDIA, is a listing of important tourist spots, with illustrated information on hotels, shops, eating places, travel and communications. This is followed by an INDEX (in somewhat small lettering). The photographs in the book are by Christopher Pillitz and Gary Ombler, both very well-known. It is they who bring the book alive. Abraham Early
and Yasmin Khan are historians. George Mitchell is an architect who has also studied archaeology.Mitali Saran is a free-lance travel-writer and columnist.The combination of talents has produced a faultlessly detailed volume, brilliantly attractive. But it has also made the book thick and difficult to handle. I almost sprained my wrists in doing so. Despite its delightful content, INDIA makes heavy reading!
Please register yourself on the RH Website http://www.theradicalhumanist.com ¨Please log in to it to give your comments on the articles and humanist news which are uploaded from the world over on the Website almost daily. ¨You may also send in news and write-ups from your part of the land for uploading on the Website. ¨Please send in your views and participate on the topics of debate given in the debate section. You yourself may also begin a debate on any topic of your choice in this section. ¨Please suggest themes for the coming issues of The Radical Humanist, discuss them in the Themes Section of the Website; the content of which may be later published in the RH journal. ¨It is your own inter-active portal formed with a purpose of social interaction amongst all Radical Humanists as well as Rationalists and Humanists from different forums also. ¨Do make it a practice to click on the RH Website http://www.theradicalhumanist.com URL daily, ceremoniously. ¨Please utilise the RH Website to come closer for the common cause of ushering in a renaissance in our country. —Rekha Saraswat, (Editor & Administrator, RH Website)
Letter to the Editor: Dear Editor, In my article Changing trends in Indo-Nepal Relations published in the ‘Research Scholar’s Section’ of December 2011 issue of RH kindly announce the following corrections, if possible, and oblige. The year mentioned in the second line may be read as 1950 and not 1900. And, in the seventh line the correct year was 1950 instead of 1980. Sorry for the inconvenience caused to the readers.—Pravesh Kumari 34
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Humanist Views and News Section: I Letter to the Editor: Fragments: Dear Rekha, I looked up the Arab word for philosophy I referred to in my mail to you: falasifa (with a diacritic bar, I cannot place, on the second ‘a’ indicating that it should be pronounced as our second vowel the other two ‘a’s being like our first vowel). In the eleventh and the twelfth century they were already using it. I read it in a book on Ibn Rushd (known as Averroes in Europe). The Arabs had thus adopted the Greek word meaning “love of knowledge” which philosophy was supposed to be. In the nineteenth century Indian culture and philosophy was very much à la mode in Germany. Chateaubriand, during a visit, as ambassador, noted with wry amusement that in certain circles the conversation at dinner table seemed to be mostly in Sanskrit. That, say the Upanishads were “apaurasheya” did not prevent them from being referred to as Indian philosophy. All this is, of course, history. You analyze well, in your editorial, the problems of succeeding generations in keeping alive and propagating the ideas of charismatic pioneers of humanism. You place your faith and hope in science. I have no clear idea about the role of science in such domains. I hope that you are right. That would be so much the better. Talking about science, Laxmanshashtri’s notes include a passage stating “The latest cosmological paradigm of the universe is “The Big Bang”.” He wrote it, I suppose, sometime ago. Now there are other proposals. Loop quantum gravity models (originating in a paper of Abhay Ashtekar with whom I had friendly relations some years ago) propose periodic expansions and contractions there being no true initial singularity. After a period of
contraction, before reaching a true singularity, there is a “big bounce” and the whole periodic process starts over again. There are, according to this theory, no first or last moments in the evolution of the universe. —Amitabha Chakrabarti Chakrabarti.amitabha@neuf.fr II News from CFI: CFI Mourns the Death of Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens died Thursday (on 16th December 2011) of complications from esophageal cancer. He was 62. “Christopher Hitchens was a gifted writer and polemicist, with razor-sharp wit and an acute intellect, who was also a steadfast champion for secularism,” said Ronald A. Lindsay, president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry (CFI). “We are deeply saddened by his death.” Hitchens was prolific, writing on a number of topics through his varied career as an author and journalist. His works covered topics as diverse as the Elgin marbles, Mother Teresa, and the equivocations of Bill Clinton. Fortunately for those concerned about the influence of religion, Hitchens also turned his wide-ranging intellect to religion. His 2007 book, God Is Not
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Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, became a best seller, and Hitchens became a well-known debater on the topic of religion. In the last several years, he was a fixture as a speaker for many secular organizations, including CFI and the Council for Secular Humanism. Hitchens was a long-time columnist for Free Inquiry. Hitchens left us many words of wisdom. But perhaps one quote stands out. In God Is Not Great, Hitchens wrote, “Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it.” In this concise, insightful observation, Hitchens captures all that needs to be said about the independence of morality from religion. Hitchens has left humanists and atheists a rich legacy of logic, fearless advocacy, and wit. It’s up to us to make good use of it. (The Radical Humanists Join CFI in their grief and send condolences for Christopher Hitchens) III N. Innaiah remembers Christopher Hitchens: Mr. Christopher Hitchens the best seller writer of God Is Not Great died on 16th December 2011. His book is translated by me into Telugu. He is great popular, controversial journalist and humanist. I express my deep sorrow for his demise which is a great loss for the secular humanists. I know him personally and discussed with him on issues. Christopher Hitchens, a sharp-witted provocateur who used his formidable learning, biting wit and muscular prose style to skewer what he considered high-placed hypocrites, craven lackeys of the right and left, “Islamic fascists” and religious faith of any kind, died Dec. 15 at a hospital in Houston. He was 62. He had pneumonia and complications from esophageal cancer, according to a statement from 36
Vanity Fair, the magazine for which Mr. Hitchens worked. IV All India Campaign against Sedition and other Repressive Laws: A daylong meeting was convened by the PUCL on the 16th of December to discuss and plan the launch of an All Indian Campaign against Sedition Laws. This was a follow up to the meeting held on the 7th and 8th May, 2011, in which members from various branches of the PUCL, and representatives of several democratic rights organizations like the PUDR, APDR, CPDR, CDRO, APCLC, Masum, Human Rights Alert, Manipur, NAPM, participated and it was decided that a million signatures should be collected and presented to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha demanding the repeal of sec. 124A IPC and sec. 2(o) (iii) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967 and other anti-sedition laws provisions in other legislations. The follow up meeting on 16th December, 2011 was held at Gandhi Peace Foundation, Delhi. It had over 40 people participating which included members from the PUCL state branches of Rajasthan, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, UP, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and the national executive of the PUCL along with members from and other democratic, human rights and people’s organizations like the PUDR, New Socialist Initiative, INSAF, Human Rights Law Network, People’s Democratic Front of India, CDRO, Agriculture Workers Union, Karnataka, CHRI, NAPM, Right to Food and Work Campaign, Rajasthan along with several free lance media persons among others. The decisions taken are as follows: 1.To launch the `All India Campaign against Sedition and other repressive Laws’ as a collective campaign of all democratic rights and human rights organisations, mass movements, rights bodies, professionals and concerned citizens. This campaign should be launched on the 31st of
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January, 2011 at the Gandhi Peace Foundation in Delhi (originally we had planned 30th January Martyr’s day, but due to the non availability of the hall, the launch has been shifted to the 31st with a press conference in Delhi on the 30th of January, 2011). 2.A Steering group would be formed with representatives of different organisations which had participated in the May and Dec, 2011 meetings, with state level coordination to be undertaken in different states. Even organisations that were unable to attend the 16th December, 2011 meetings would be invited to be part of the Steering Committee. Gautam Navalakha of PUDR and Asish Gupta of CDRO undertook to contact other human rights organisations with the invitation to participate. 3.On behalf of the PUCL, the 4 national Secretaries Kavita, Mahipal Singh, Chittaranjan Singh and Suresh would coordinate with PUCL state units to participate in this effort. Similarly other concerned individuals would also be invited to be part of the campaign. 4.Pushkar Raj, PUCL National Secretary would continue with the coordination of the All India campaign along with the support of the PUCL national secretaries and representatives other member organization till the steering committee is formally launched. 5.The planning meeting for the All India convention will take place at Gandhi Peace Foundation at 4 pm on the 9th of January, 2012 to chart out the strategy and plan for the January 31st, 2012 All India launch. (Pushkar Raj, Kavita Srivastava, Mahipal Singh, Parmajit to coordinate among others) 6.It was felt that the campaign must work in different groups: (a) A group which works on the documentation and research side of the law. On the basis of the format given below, information and case studies should be provided to this committee so that a report could be consolidated and released on the 31st of January,
2011. ( Proposed names Pushkar Raj, V. Suresh and Gautam Navlakha, Venkatesh to coordinate with others) (b) A group will coordinate the public education campaign on the subject with students, farmers, workers, tribals, dalits, minority groups and other human rights workers and members of other organizations, through public meetings and signature campaigns. (Proposed names Chittranjan Singh, Anil Chaudhary, Subhash Gatade among others) (c) Outreach work, especially with the legal fraternity. (Justice Sachar, Usha Ramanthan, Ravi Kiran Jain and others) (d) A group would simultaneously also begin addressing legal support needs with the local organisation which would have identified victims along with it working on the social support and rehabilitation side of the victims. ( Colin Gonsalves, Himanshu, N D Pancholi and others) (e) A media group which through alternative and main stream media, web based and otherwise, would aggressively highlight this issue. ( Ajit Sahi, Anand Panini and others) 7.The All India documentation study of the use and abuse of sedition laws should be on the following parameters: (i) State wise / District wide / Police Station specific list of Cases (FIRs) in which sedition charges u/s 124A IPC and Sec. 2(o)(iii) Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967 were invoked along with other criminal law sections in the last 10 years; (ii) Description of status of each of the cases listed above in terms of (a) still pending investigation; (b) whether a charge sheet has been filed, if so what are the charges; (c) status of trial, and number of years pending; (iv) if trial concluded, whether the accused is/are convicted for offence u/s 124A IPC and UAPA, and other charges with details of sentence; (v) whether appeal filed and pending or decided.
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(iii) Even if it is not possible to get details of all cases described in (ii) above, attempt should be made to collect details in as many cases as possible. (iv) To sub-categorise the list of cases in (i), (ii) and (iii) Above in terms of the following categories of cases where sedition charges were invoked: (a) workers’ strikes, (b) farmers’ agitations, (c) dalit struggles, (iv) tribal rights groups, (v) minority rights issues, (vi) students’ agitations (vii) rights defenders, (viii) women’s movements, (ix) protests against development projects / displacement (x) others. (v) List out the background of the accused in all cases involving sedition charges. (Vi) Prepare case studies of major cases involving sedition charges highlighting the details of (a) glaring absurdity of the case, (b) human interest, (c) political vendetta, (d) impact on families, (e) length of arrest and difficulties in bail, Planning Meeting For The All India Convention Will Take Place At Gandhi Peace Foundation On The 9th January, 2011 (Monday) From 4 Pm To 6 Pm. Please Come On Time. We are, —Pushkar Raj, V. Suresh, Mahipal Singh, Chittranjan Singh , Kavita Srivastava Dated: 26th January, 2011 All queries and emails should be sent to: with copies to and , please mails related to this always write subject: sedition If by post : Pushkar Raj, General Secretary, PUCL, 270-A, Patparganj, Opp. Anandlok Apartments, Mayur Vihar-I, Delhi-110091 V Press Conference against BRAI Bill 2011 by DELHI ALLIANCE FOR SAFE FOOD Humanist Party's stand on the issue:
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The HUMANIST PARTY of INDIA, as part of the DELHI ALLIANCE FOR SAFE FOOD, supports the Campaign for immediate cancellation of the “BIOTECHNOLOGY REGULATORY AUTHORITY OF INDIA BILL 2011", that is proposed to be tabled in the Parliament at any time. The BRAI bill 2011 signifies the blatant nexus between Multinational Seed companies who are pushing their Genetically modified crops in India and our government institutions, and the corrupt Politicians and the bureaucracy. The BRAI bill 2011 is a negative legislation since it is based on “anti-life-manipulation-of-science” - it indeed truly represents CORRUPTION of Ideas acting in the fields of Science, Law, Industry, Politics among others. This corrupt practice of multiple players, being presented to India by Monsanto and its partners in this death-game is unfortunately getting the full support from UPA Government headed by the Prime Minister Shri Manmohan Singh, and deserves full-complete opposition from all life-supporting Indians. The campaign being conducted under the banner of DELHI ALLIANCE FOR SAFE FOOD, formed by a wide cross section of consumers, farmers, traders, civil society, trade union activists, scientists and academics from Delhisupport of hundreds of Organizations representing millions of Indians, urges the Manmohan Singh Government to not only drop the proposed legislation completely but also cancel all the current trials being conducted in different parts of India on different kinds of GM seeds. These trials are not just illegal and immoral but also anti-life, as we have seen deaths of hundreds of thousands of farmers specially in the areas where BT-Cotton has been allowed over the last years. No Government in a true-democracy has the right to sell the security & sovereignty of its people’s lives. If any Government attempts to do that, it will risk facing the strong opposition of people leading to the end of its undemocratic rule.
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Continuation of insisting this bill will only prove the corrupt-violent credentials of the current Government and the people of India, in that case will have no choice but to work for a new Government that will be formed based on the following principals : 1. ACTIVE NON-VIOLENCE: 2. HUMAN BEING AS THE CENTRAL VALUE: 3. CO-OPERATIVE SYSTEM: 4. NON-DISCRIMINATION: 5. PRINCIPLE OF OPTION AND OF NO MONOPOLIES: For THE HUMANIST PARTY OF INDIA Sudhir Gandotra SECRETARY – INTERNATIONAL TEAM. Available for download at : Major concerns with BRAI Bill, 2011 · The fundamental basis of regulation on products of modern biotechnology lies in the risks associated with modern biotechnology. Therefore, there should only be one primary mandate or objective to this statute: to prevent risks to the health and safety of people of India, its socio-economic fabric, its environment and its biological diversity in particular, from the development, handling, transport, use, transfer and release of any living modified organisms. But the preamble of the current proposal gives one a feeling that products of modern biotechnology are a fait accompli and the law is being made to ‘promote’ safe usage. · There is an inherent, objectionable conflict of interest as the BRAI is proposed to be under the Ministry of Science and Technology, which already has a mandate to promote GM crops, a product of modern biotechnolgy which BRAI is supposed to regulate. The very mandate of the BRAI Bill is inappropriate. · There is no intention or mention of independent, long-term and rigorous biosafety assessment of GM crops.
· Centralised and narrow decision-making with no mechanism for consultation with the public or involvement of multiple stakeholders in decision-making is present in the bill, which is against the spirit of democracy and against the Cartagena Protocol, to which India is a signatory. · No mechanism for transparency- Worse yet, the Bill bypasses the citizen’s right to information by overriding the Right to Information Act, 2005, for commercial interests. · The Bill overrides the state governments’ authority over health and agriculture and thereby challenging the federal polity of the country. · It is also objectionable and problematic that this Act will have an over-riding effect over other laws in force, since this Bill is indeed inconsistent with legislations like the Biological Diversity Act. · The Bill has very weak penal clauses and lacks deterrent liability mechanisms to ensure prevention of mishaps and irresponsible actions by GM crop developers and promoters. It also lacks any redressal mechanisms where by stakeholders [farmers, consumers etc] can be compensated for damages [deliberate or otherwise] caused and remediation ensured. · Very importantly, the Bill fails to talk about any needs evaluation, socio-economic assessment and assessment of alternatives, which was also stressed by the Government in its Bt brinjal moratorium decision – and assumes that all biotechnology and GM crops are a fait accompli. More details at: Http://www.facebook.com/groups/antigmfood/ VI News from CFI, New York, U.S.A.: New Online Course Course No. - SCI 221-0112: Course Name - “Was Jesus Resurrected?” Course Duration - January 1 – January 31, 2012 Instructor: Robert M. Price, PhD, author and professor of theology and scriptural studies,
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THE RADICAL HUMANIST
JANUARY 2012
Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary Instructor: John Shook, PhD, CFI director of education. This one-month, four-module course examines Christianity’s claims about the divinity and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Course Topics: Skepticism towards the New Testament The implausibility of Jesus’ resurrection Refuting theological defenders of resurrection The mythical and theological invention of the figure of Jesus Readings: Students will purchase their own copies of Jesus is Dead (American Atheist Press, 2007) by Robert M. Price. Supplemental papers and lectures will be made available online at no extra cost to students. Instructors for SCI 221-0112: Robert M. Price, PhD, is professor of theology and scriptural studies at Johnnie Coleman Theological Seminary, co-host of CFI’s Point of Inquiry podcast, founder and fellow of The Jesus Seminar and The Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion, research fellow at the CFI Institute, and host of The Bible Geek webcasts. His books include Beyond Born Again, The Reason Driven Life, The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man, Inerrant the Wind and The Case Against the Case for Christ. He has written some seventy articles on religion, theology and the Bible for The Christian Century, The Evangelical Quarterly, Christian Scholars Review, The Journal for the Study of The New Testament, The Journal of Psychology and Theology, Religious Studies, The Reformed Journal, Religious Humanism, Playboy, American Rationalist, and others. Dr. Price holds a PhD. in theology as well as a PhD. in the New Testament. John Shook, PhD, is director of education and senior research fellow at the Center for Inquiry, and is also visiting assistant professor of science education at the University at Buffalo, teaching for its Science and the Public online program. From
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2000 to 2006 he was professor of philosophy at Oklahoma State University. Shook publishes on philosophical topics regarding science, the mind, humanist ethics, democracy, secularism, and religion, and has debated the existence of God with leading theologians, including William Lane Craig. His most recent books are The God Debates and as editor, The Essential William James. About CFI Institute Online courses: CFI 200-level courses are taught at an intellectual level equivalent to an introductory college course. We expect students to participate in the class discussion at their own chosen pace, and there are no other writing requirements and no grading. These classes are entirely online — everything for the course except the book is provided on a CFI website. You will read the course lectures, follow links to other web pages, ask your questions, and participate in class discussion with the instructors and other students on our website. There is no specific time that you must be online. There is no “live” part to these courses, and you cannot miss anything even if you can only get online at 6am or 11pm — you can log in and participate anytime, day or night, 24/7. A certificate of course completion is available to students who do participate online (as opposed to only lurking and reading, which is also an unobjectionable option for some students). Completion of eight courses at the Expertise 200-level is rewarded with the Institute’s Certificate of Expertise. This course can also be taken for college credit through the University at Buffalo; contact: Dr. John Shook for details. Course Fees: $60 for general registration; $50 for Friends of the Center; and $10 for college students. Ready to sign up? Register online here. Explore our other educational opportunities at the CFI Education page. Questions? Email a CFI Institute representative or phone (716) 636-4869 ext. 408.
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