Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 163
The Fatwa and the Shulamite Taslima Nasrin. I was told that the location [of our meeting] was not to be ... which was lauded by Hindus but resulted in her first fatwah from the Muslims. ..... ISLAMABAD - Thousands of veiled women who support a Pakistani orthodox Islamic ... Unholy alliance West's new allies include vitriolic anti-Americans, ...
www.dhushara.com/book/zulu/zulu.htm -
WLUML: Publications -Taslima Nasrin, an anaesthetist who started to write letters to editors at an ... spur of a moment to depict the plight of the Hindu minorities in Bangladesh, ... that orthodox religious leaders had played a retrogressive role for women. ... an anti-imperialist role and have voiced protest over colonial oppression, ...
www.wluml.org/english/pubsfulltxt.shtml?cmd%5B87%5D=i-87-36656 - 28k -
Sales pitch by global biggies, 'desi' companies mark Aero India
Hindu - 2 hours ago
Bangalore (PTI): The five-day Aero India 2009, during which Global aviation majors and national firms displayed flying prowess of their machines, concluded at the Yelahanka Airbase here on Sunday.
India will press the US to sustain pressure on Pakistan to do more to bring the Mumbai terrorists to justice, when US envoy Richard Holbrooke meets Indian officials on Monday!
Savoring his first big victory in Congress, President Barack Obama on Saturday celebrated the newly passed $787 billion economic stimulus bill as a "major milestone on our road to recovery!
The War against Terrorism continues to engage the latest WAR ZONE , the Indian Ocean! Global RECESSION helps the DESI ILLUMINATI in making to escalate the KILLING Fields day by day and the WASHINGTON planted Anti National Anti People Impostors have adopted an Agenda of Mass destruction and ETHNIC CLEANSING. Non Issues have been focused as the main issues and ISSUES involving the life and death of the Indigenous aboriginal Minority Communities and even the privileged class like those working in PSUS have been DILUTED with an unprecedented EXERCISE of Mind Control and Brain Washing as DEPICTED very well in the VALENTINE DAY updates!
’Feminism in a neo-liberal age’
‘Women around the world are organizing in a common effort to end poverty and violence against women. What could be more important?’ Judy Rebick, Canada.
Hindus & Jews Press Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew to Advocate! However, Hindus have a few women priests, ... and non-orthodox Judaism has allowed women to be rabbis, chair assemblies of rabbis and so on. ...!
Hindus and Jews have jointly asked Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew to wholeheartedly and urgently come out in support of the long suffering Roma populace of Europe, who reportedly live under apartheid.
Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed and prominent Rabbi Jonathan B. Freirich, in a joint statement in Nevada (USA) on january 19, 2009, said that since Patriarch Bartholomew enjoyed considerable influence in many parts of Europe where Roma lived, his support for the Roma cause would prove very effective in their upliftment, inclusion and integration, and bringing them at par with rest of European population.Zed and Rabbi Freirich argued that there was reportedly brazen structural discrimination of Roma in education, housing access, property rights, etc., in Europe. Anti-Roma attitude even showed sometimes in official speeches. According to an estimate, less than one percent of Roma children attended postsecondary education.As one of the leading religious figures of the world, it was Patriarch Bartholomew's moral obligation to work to stop human rights violations regularly suffered by this distinct ethnic and cultural group of Roma whose maltreatment was outside even the European Union norms, Zed and Rabbi Freirich pointed out.
Rajan Zed, who is the president of Universal Society of Hinduism, said that religions could not stay apathetic to societal truths. He stressed that it was not moral to remain unconcerned when fellow human beings were facing blatant injustice and discrimination right under our nose in Europe, and urged Patriarch Bartholomew and other world religions and religious leaders to show strong will, courage, and commitment in support of Roma cause.
His All Holiness, Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch is the 270th successor to the Apostle Andrew and spiritual leader of about 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide. Hinduism, the oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about one billion followers and moksha (liberation) is its ultimate goal. Judaism is a monotheistic religion of world's about 14 million Jews whose most sacred text is Torah.
The CHADDI media in India has prescribed a DIFFERENT Liberation in COMMODITY and RETAIL Identity supported by the Marxists, I am afraid to opine! the interrelation of Indian religions and Woman may be defined as the women of India are an epitome of oppression and exploitation in the name of ... status -- a status methodically imposed by the Hindu orthodox and social ... on the status and role of Indian women were in fact quite anti-progressive ...!
Thirty-five percent of orthodox Hindu women believed that sati was a scriptur- ally sanctioned act for the salvation of a woman's soul.And see, how they happen to be crazy for the VALENTINE Day celebration which was never a part of Indian Culture or History. This is LOVE and SEX iconised to BOOST Business and strengthen the Desi ILLUMINATI in making. We know well that despite ideological Hypocrisy the Marxist Kayastha Brahims do stand behind India Incs and MNCs rock solid. The Disinvestment Policy and strategy episode exposes the so called Marxists more than enough! involvement of House Wives apart from the youth and teenagers in Valentine day celebrations, media Coverage of the Public Nuisense as SACRED RITUAL highlight the RETAIL CULTURE which makes the most of the Flase recession and Clash of civilisation. Interestingly, the Zionist and Hindutva stance on Woman Lib remains the same! Neither Hindutva nor the Zionism allow Woman Free. EVEN the Religion professed as EQUALITY and Justice and FRATERNITY, the most modern on scripted mostly on Social contract basis, ISLAM denies the Woman her Human and civil rights in this DIVIDED Bleeding Geopolitics. The Miserable WOMAN`s PLIGHT and sufferings all over the Third World and even in Black brotherhood remains identical. What a same. But the amusement of the Ruling Class is that the WOMEN LIB movement turns to end in BUSINESS Mobilisation at their will as well as a potential DIVERSION from the basic issues and necessities of day to day life!
Pink Chaddi yellow BUDDY is the slogan! The GENERATION NEXT is AXED or engaged to be FAIR with fairness meter. Anti Woman Orthodoxy is being practised by the Fascist RSS HINDUTVA forces which help Media as well as the Open Market to make the CRAZE of FREESEX iconised as CELEBRITE Fucking culture. The Marxists mobilise its Cadres as well as top guns to gear up in support of Capitalist market and retail chain in a FALSE RECESSION Environment . while Kerala witnesses an UNPRECEDENTED Marxist ideological Acrobatics and the second Marxist ruled state West Bengal lives on BORROW and pay culture. While the INDIA INCs balance sheet lodge profit to get more waivers and sops unconstitutional. The GROWTH MACHINE works full time round the clock with KILLING INSTINCT and Indian killing Fields cry for respite in Death and food Insecurity. Displacement, De industrialisation, Disinvestment, DEPRIVE and DEATH have been destined for everyone out of the Affluent Shining FREEsensex India under Post Modern Manusmriti Apartheid Zionist Rule!
Discovering Orthodoxy was like discovering the pearl of great price! the PEARL is status which the Indian and south Asian Woman folk are most Habitual of , it ensures the celestial Enslavement as the Women are SHUDRA and in accordance with our friend Taslima Nasrin, there won`t be any Human right, any CIVIL right, any liberty or so called democracy ensuring dalit Liberation or Woman Lib, until the RELIGION exists. the Progressive Marxists do everything to sustain religion and Brahaminical hegemony but speak aloud on Dalit liberation and Woman lib not to mention the RSS HINDUTVA stance!
In Hyderabad [A.P] Taslima was attacked three Muslim MLAs of MIM party an extremest political party. Taslima has written several books on prose and poetry. One of her famous book is Shame. She was there to unveil Hindi version of her book. When she was addressing in Press Club she was attacked by these persons. It is shameful act. India recognises freedom of speech . This is democratic nation and every one has a right and freedom to speak. She did not commit breach of the same.These MLAs had no write to assault.The police did not intervene in the matter and a formal arrest was made.
She is living in India since fleeing her mother land in 1994 after radical Muslims described her writings as blasphemous and demanding execution. She is exiled Bangladesh writer and should be protected so long as she is in India. Since she oppose the fundamentalist Muslims and Congress does not want to lose minority votes therefore she is not being given Indian Citizenship. If all things remain the same she should be given citizenship.
P.S. To day on 14 th August 2007 Siv Sena activists attacked 'Outlook' magazine office in protest of some thing writtened against Suprimo Bal Thackery. Is it proper for Siv Sena? Are we Indian have no liberty to express our views? Who are they to dictect others what to write and what not? Very bad and I condemn in the above reference.
Kerala Acrobatics!
Remember the FATE of DALIT CPIM ICONN Gauri Amma who was never allowed to be the CM of kerala and at last ousted from the party to ensure the BRAHAMINICAL Hold on the party SUSTAIN! It would help to understand Kerala Acrobatics!Brushing aside Chief Minister V S Achutanandan's reservations on the issue, the CPM on Saturday strongly backed its Kerala leader Pinarayi Vijayan, who faces corruptions in a CBI case on the Lavalin scam, saying it was ‘politically motivated’. "Since the case is political motivated, it is unfortunate that the CBI is not not immune from political pressure in the hands of the ruling party at the Centre," the party Politburo said in a statement at the end of the meeting. The statement issued by CPM general secretary Prakash Karat after the meeting, which was attended by Achutanandan and his rival Vijayan, said the party has always been of the view that any person holding public office should step down if prosecution is launched by the CBI.
"This does not not apply to Comrade Vijayan as he is not not a minister or holding any public office. We will fight the case politically and legally if it comes up in court," it said. While the party feels it is a politically motivated case against Vijayan, the Chief Minister has refused to toe the line saying as a person in constitutional office he cannot take such a view.
The country's top 10 firms added over Rs 31,000 crore to their combined market valuation in the past week, which witnessed an uptrend in the stock market, even as Infosys and ITC suffered losses. At the end of Friday's trade, the total market value of the 10 most valued firms, comprising six public sector and four private sector entities, stood at Rs 10,75,484 crore, up from Rs 10,44,468.72 crore a week-ago. Ironically,Projecting that the Indian economy is likely to slow down further and grow by below seven per cent in the second half of this fiscal, industry chamber CII has asked the Government to announce further stimuli to prop up growth. In a report on State of the Economy, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) also asked the RBI to signal more cut in interest rates, given subdued prices which may fall further during 2009-10. While the premium club gained Rs 31,014 crore in their valuation last week, Infosys and ITC together lost Rs 3,162.39 crore. Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries gained the most and added Rs 7,468 crore, taking its market capitalization (M-Cap) to Rs 2,18,907 crore. Meanwhile,Giving some hope to crisis-ridden Satyam, the World Bank has said it could review the eight-year ban imposed on the company provided the software exporter takes ‘corrective action’. A World Bank official said Satyam has to show it has again become a responsible vendor to do business with, when asked whether the multilateral lending agency would relax the ban on the software exporter.
On the other hand, US firms are getting 'very restless' over procedural delays in implementing a civilian nuclear deal with India when the United States is gripped by a severe economic crisis, the American ambassador to India said on Friday. Last year's multi-billion dollar deal has got bogged down by issues such as accident liability protection for US companies which have lobbied hard for a slice of India's lucrative nuclear market.
How the world is run by Zionism, latest updates from Middle east would clear that where an ultra-Orthodox Jewish party run by an octogenarian rabbi who has said Hurricane Katrina was divine punishment emerged Thursday as the kingmaker in forming the next Israeli government.
Having won a fight to be leader of the ruling Kadima Party, Tzipi Livni now will likely need Shas as a partner to become prime minister. But Shas opposes any compromise on occupied Jerusalem, and including it in a coalition could tie her hands in peace talks with the Palestinians. Livni's narrow victory in a party primary Wednesday to replace corruption-tainted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as Kadima's chairman means she can become prime minister if she can put together a coalition government of her own. Livni, now the foreign minister, has said she would like to keep the current four-party coalition intact.
Two of Kadima's partners, Labor and the Pensioners, aren't expected to balk. But Shas and its spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yossef, are wild cards. The party holds 12 of parliament's 120 seats, enough to make or break the current majority bloc of 67 lawmakers.
Livni had barely declared victory Thursday morning when Shas laid down its demands.
"If it's clear Jerusalem is on the negotiating table and social-economic needs are not taken into consideration, then we won't be part of the coalition," Shas spokesman Roi Lachmanovitch said.
Formal coalition negotiations won't begin until Olmert officially resigns and President Shimon Peres assigns Livni the task of forming a new government, which could happen next week.
But Livni said she would begin informal coalition negotiations immediately. In one of her first acts as Kadima leader, she scheduled a meeting with Shas leaders late Thursday. Shas leader Eli Yishai said they discussed setting up a coalition.
If Livni can't keep the coalition intact, elections would likely be called for early next year — some 18 months ahead of schedule. In either case, Olmert will remain as a caretaker leader until a new Cabinet is approved.
With opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu and his hard-line Likud Party polling well, Livni is under heavy pressure to keep the 67-seat coalition intact and avoid elections.
Shaul Mofaz, the ex-defense minister and military chief who lost to Livni in the Kadima primary, called a news conference to announce plans to leave politics.
He did not say whether he planned to resign now or just not to seek another term in parliament.
Israeli politicians traditionally have been willing to meet Shas' spending demands.
But declaring a moratorium on Jerusalem negotiations would be tough for Livni. As Israel's lead peace negotiator, she is committed to discussing all issues with the Palestinians. The future of occupied Jerusalem, taken by Israel in its 1967 war against its Arab neighbours, is at the heart of the conflict.
Menachem Friedman, an expert on Jewish religious society in Israel, said Shas ultimately wants to stay in the government. He said Shas realizes any agreement with the Palestinians is a long way off.
"Jerusalem is a matter of wording," Friedman said. He thinks Shas will be more intransigent about its budget demands because the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sector, where most men shun work for religious study, is in desperate need of resources.
With Yossef at the helm, Shas burst onto Israel's political scene in the 1990s, appealing to the resentment of Sephardim — Israelis of Middle Eastern and North African descent — who were long snubbed by Israel's European-born ruling elite.
Yossef a former chief rabbi of Israel, who was born in Iraq, enjoys a papal-like authority among his followers, who revere him for his religious scholarship and his devotion to empowering the disenfranchised Sephardim.
But in wider Israeli society, Yossef — known as much for his sunglasses, turban and gold-embroidered robes as his sometimes outrageous pronouncements — is highly controversial.
He he did not support the 1990s peace agreements with the Palestinians and denounced Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
In one speech, Yossef said the Old City of Jerusalem, home to shrines sacred to Judaism, Islam and Christianity, was "swarming" with Palestinians "like ants", even though the Palestinians were the original inhabitants of the land.
"They should go to hell — and the Messiah shall speed them on their way," he said.
On another occasion, Yossef castigated then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza pullout, then implored: "May God strike him down."
Yossef also stirred controversy by describing the Holocaust as God's retribution against the reincarnated souls of Jewish sinners. He said Katrina was punishment for godlessness in New Orleans and US support for the Gaza pullout. And he once said that "walking between two women is like walking between two donkeys or between two camels."
Former US President George Bush signed the agreement with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the face of domestic critics who said it violated the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The deal, which will give India access to high-end technology and nuclear fuel for its reactors, brought India out of 30 years of nuclear isolation. But the Indian government has so far only allocated sites for the construction of nuclear installations to France and Russia.
Both those governments shield their companies from liability for an industrial accident, unlike the United States, and American companies want New Delhi to help lift the burden.
"Two other countries have already been given sites and the American industry is getting very restless about the delay because they're anxious to get going," Ambassador David Mulford said at a conference in New Delhi.
Mulford made the case for a speedy implementation of the deal saying it would not only help India meet its growing energy needs but help the United States economy create jobs at a time when it was "suffering very, very severely".
The overwhelming services sector, which remained buoyant despite global crisis, may be hit by decline in overall business prospects. "However, as business opportunities dry up in sectors such as banking and finance, real estate, trade, hotels and transportation, there is a potential for further slowdown in the services sector," the chamber said.
It further said that only social and personal services are likely to remain buoyant, as it would be driven by the Government spending.
On growth in investment, CII said recession is likely to result into further deceleration, while the government and private consumption would remain less affected.
During the week, shares of RIL gained 1.42 per cent to Rs 1,390.95. The jump in the scrip pulled up its valuation from Rs 2,11,440 crore in the week-ago period.
IT bellwether Infosys witnessed an erosion of Rs 1,861 crore in its valuation in the previous week and dropped to seventh position from last week's fifth. At the end of Friday's trade, its M-Cap stood at Rs 71,849 crore.
Also diversified conglomerate ITC saw its valuation declining to Rs 67,536 crore, a drop of Rs 1,301 crore. It also slipped one place in the top 10 club to ninth position.
Ambani among Forbes' Powerful Billionaires!
Indian-born steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and Reliance Industries' Chairman Mukesh Ambani are among the 20 most powerful billionaires in the world, as they possess not only the riches but also economic dominance as well as political clout, says Forbes.
The Indian steel baron and the head of India's largest private sector company were included in the list of "The World's Most Powerful Billionaires" and according to Forbes "(they) have tremendous sway over the world's markets, workers -- and, in some cases, armies."
Lakshmi Mittal, who controls the world's largest steel firm, ArcelorMittal, has been ranked third on the list "despite his fortune falling USD 24.5 billion between March and November 2008".
Elaborating his power quotient, Forbes says, Mittal's political clout often incites controversy. "In 2002, then British Prime Minister Tony Blair reportedly wrote a letter to the Romanian prime minister hinting a sale of the country's steel company to Mittal would facilitate its entrance into the European Union," the US business magazine said.
Ambani, head of Reliance Industries, India's largest company by market cap, was ranked seventh on the coveted list.
"(The company) produces oil, gas, petrochemicals and textiles.
Personally funding construction of a 27-story home in Mumbai that could cost USD two billion," Forbes says.
US stimulus bill to hit Indians, H1-B visa holders
The US Congress has barred firms receiving government bailout from hiring Indians and other foreign workers through the skilled worker visa (H1-B) programme, if they are replacing American workers.
The bar comes even as IT firms in the US and India are demanding an increase in the H1-B visa, which is capped at 65,000 a year now.
Indians account for a majority of those with H1-B visa, issued to non-immigrant skilled workers for up to six years.
Restricting hiring of H1-B visa holders forms part of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, widely known as the stimulus bill, that was passed by the Congress on Friday.
With thousands of jobs being cut by US companies almost daily over the past few months, there have been widespread apprehensions that these positions could go to low-cost foreign workers or might be outsourced to places like India.
The government data for 2008 shows that about 5.7 lakh Indians were issued H1-B and other non-immigrant visas.
Experts believe the Congress' move would certainly impact hiring of H1-B visa holders, thus affecting in a big way the engagement of Indian techies in the US, but might not affect outsourcing of jobs to places like India.
About two years ago, the US had cut down the H1-B visa limit to 65,000, from 1,95,000 a year previously.
IT firms, both Indian and American, have been asking to raise the cap to allow the companies in the US greater access to the growing talent pool across the world.
Senator Bernie Sanders, who along with another Senator Charles Grassley had moved the proposal for such restrictions, said that about a dozen banks which are getting over USD 150 billion as the bailout money have sought visas for over 21,800 foreign workers in past six years to replace sacked Americans.
These banks have announced at least one lakh job cuts in the recent months, Sanders noted.
Earlier this month, India-born international economist Jagdish Bhagwati also argued that the provision to restrict hiring of H1-B visaholders would deprive the US of the best global talent which comes in the form of highly trained and talented people.
"In terms of broader considerations like the people who are coming in on H1-B visas -- they're frequently highly trained and talented people and a lot of our progress and prosperity depend on having such people," Bhagwati, Professor of Economics at the Columbia University had said.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association, which also has been opposing the measure, described the Congress approval as ‘disappointing’ and argued that this would prove to be counterproductive as it prevents the US companies to hire the best available global talent.
The amended stimulus bill would require the banks receiving the bailout money to hire only Americans for two years unless they could prove they were not replacing laid-off Americans with guest workers, Sanders had said.
"With thousands of financial services workers unemployed, it is absurd for banks to claim they can't find qualified American workers," Sanders said.
"While we are suffering through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the very least we can do is to make sure that banks receiving a taxpayer bailout are not allowed to import cheaper labour from overseas while they are throwing American workers out on the street," he said.
In addition to banks, the Sanders-Grassley provision also restricts hiring of guest workers at any other firm that receives funds under the Troubled Asset Relief Programme or from emergency loans made by the Federal Reserve.
Indian ADRs lose $2.5 bn in a week
Indian stocks trading on American bourses witnessed a value erosion of 2.5 billion dollars, with IT bellwether Infosys shedding as much as 1.35 billion dollars in one week.
The 16 Indian entities listed as American Depository Receipts (ADRs) saw their collective market capitalization tumble 2.5 billion dollars for the week ending February 13.
Infosys emerged as the biggest loser for the week, as its valuation plunged by 1.35 billion dollars, while another software exporter Wipro's market-cap dropped by 743 million dollars.
Besides, leading private sector lenders HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank together lost 340 million dollars. The valuations of HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank fell by 227 million dollars and 117 million dollars, respectively.
However, bucking the trend, telecom entity Tata Communications managed to additions to its market-cap. The entity gained 107 million dollars during the week, which saw highly volatile trading sessions in the American bourses.
Crisis-ridden Satyam Computer Services saw its market value increase marginally by 24 million dollars. Hit by a massive accounting fraud, the new board of the software exporter is looking at various options, including possible sale to revive the company's battered fortune.
On the other hand, for the week ending February 6, the ADRs had added 4.4 billion dollars to their total valuation.
Among the 16 Indian ADRs trading on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, auto maker Tata Motors, pharma major Dr Reddy's Laboratories and outsourcing firm Genpact too recorded declines in their valuations.
While Tata Motors' market-cap decreased by 73 million dollars, that of Dr Reddy's slid by 69 million dollars.
Further, Genpact shed 62 million dollars.
During the week, telecom company Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd and copper producer Sterlite Industries witnessed their valuations rise by 41 million dollars and 35 million dollars respectively. BPO entity WNS too ended with a gain of 3.4 million dollars in its market-cap.
Software exporter Patni Computer Systems, BPO company EXLService, internet firms Rediff.com and Sify Technologies saw a market value erosion in the range of 2-25 million dollars.
Last week, the much-awaited stimulus package worth nearly 800 billion dollars was passed by the US Congress. The new plan proposed by the Obama administration is aimed at reviving the American economy and is expected to create about four million jobs in the coming months.
Bengal in borrow & pay |
| JAYANTA ROY CHOWDHURY |
New Delhi, Feb. 14: Is Bengal borrowing from Paul to pay Partho? Maybe yes, say insiders in the Planning Commission, which the state government consulted before finalising its finances for the coming year. The Bengal government plans to borrow Rs 19,677 crore during 2009-10 which, it believes, will help partly fund the Rs 22,513 crore it needs to pay interest on loans besides pensions and salaries. The outgo, officials said, was around Rs 8,350 crore more than the annual plan of Rs 14,150 crore finalised by chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and his finance minister Asim Dasgupta in discussions with Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Bengal wants to use the plan amount for development work to fight the economic slowdown through a “New Deal” package of direct jobs for the poor in road, irrigation and other infrastructure projects. The Centre will fund 23 per cent of this amount. Plan panel advisers say the “fight” could have been more “impressive” had the state government not been in a situation where it is borrowing far more than what it spends on development work. “And that, too, much of it to pay interest on debts,” said one official. Of the Rs 19,677 crore, the government plans to borrow Rs 450 crore from the state provident fund, Rs 3,000 crore from small savings, Rs 14,000 crore from the market and take Rs 1,600 crore in negotiated loans from financial institutions like Nabard and IDBI. Sources said the problem for Bengal — where 14 lakh employees and pensioners were already reaching for calculators after the state pay commission on Thursday recommended a 30-36 per cent pay hike with effect from April 2008 — was its mounting debt. The debt now tops Rs 1,40,000 crore or around 40 per cent of the state’s GDP. Around Rs 13,123 crore will have to be paid out as interest. According to statistics published by the RBI, Bengal is the country’s third-most indebted state after Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. Moreover, Bengal’s balance from current revenues — the difference between revenue income and revenue expenditure — is a negative Rs 6,023 crore. Which is why it has to borrow to just pay salaries, pensions and interest. “This is a case of near bankruptcy,” said former plan panel member S.P. Gupta. “The Centre has also borrowed heavily, around Rs 1,50,000 crore from the market this fiscal. But the Centre’s revenues are far higher and it can hope to manage this.... I don’t know how the state will.” Bengal, possibly, realises it, too. While discussing the state plan, Bhattacharjee asked Ahluwalia to consider an extra Rs 20,000 crore as grant to states to help them cope with the slowdown. The states may get it too, but central sources said the grants would be linked to actual expenditure on infrastructure projects, not for writing off past debt. “If states are willing to work on infrastructure projects, perhaps the Centre would look into this,” said Suresh Tendulkar, chairman of the Economic Advisory Council. |
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090215/jsp/nation/story_10537918.jsp
I couldn't help but be cheered by the story that a group of Indian women are planning to retaliate against violent fundamentalist Hindus by posting them pink underwear on Valentine's Day.
The gloriously named "Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women" are responding to a militant group which attacked women for drinking in a bar in Bangalore last month. The hard-liners accused them of "loose morality", presumably because having a cold beer after work is that much worse than punching an innocent woman in the face.
Physical assaults are no laughing matter, of course, but when confronted with the poe-faced indignation of moral fundamentalists, ridicule is a powerful weapon.
NEW DELHI — A mob attack on women drinking in a college-town bar has set off the latest battle in the great Indian culture wars, uncorking a national debate over moral policing and its political repercussions, and laying bare the limits of freedom for young Indian women.
Members of the group Sri Ram Sena attacked customers at a bar in Mangalore, India, on Jan. 24.
The latest Old versus New India hubbub began one Saturday last month when an obscure Hindu organization, which calls itself Sri Ram Sena, or the Army of Ram, a Hindu god, attacked several women at a bar in the southern Indian college town of Mangalore and accused them of being un-Indian for being out drinking and dancing with men.
The Sena had television news crews in tow, so its attack on the women at the bar, called Amnesia — the Lounge, was swiftly broadcast nationwide.
The video, broadcast repeatedly since then, showed some women being pushed to the ground and others cowering and shielding their faces. It was unclear whether they were trying to protect themselves from their assailants’ fists or the television cameras or both. None of them have come out publicly since then, and it is unclear whether anyone was seriously hurt.
Eventually, more than 10 members of the Sena were arrested, only to be released on bail in a week. Since then, they have promised to campaign against Valentine’s Day, which they criticized as a foreign conspiracy to dilute Indian culture, and they said they did not disapprove of men drinking at bars.
The conflict surrounding so-called pub culture in India set off nearly two weeks of shouting matches on television talk shows and editorial pages. Politicians have also jumped into the fray.
At first, some lawmakers with the governing Congress Party seized on the Mangalore attack to denounce their political rival, the Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., for its loose affiliations with a variety of Hindu radical groups. But the B.J.P., which governs the state of Karnataka, where Mangalore is located, instantly condemned the violence. And soon enough, others allied with the governing coalition, while condemning violence, joined the finger-wagging.
One official denounced shopping malls, too, calling them havens of hand-holding. The health minister, Anbumani Ramadoss, promised a national alcohol law to curb drinking, without which, he told reporters, “India will not progress.”
B. P. Singhal, a former member of Parliament who was with the B.J.P. and who has been making the rounds of television talk shows, rued that men acted irresponsibly in the company of women at bars. A Sena leader appeared on television to say his group was stepping in to enforce morality because the government had failed.
The women and child development minister, Renuka Chowdhury, has been one of the few politicians to openly criticize the Sena, calling its methods “Talibanization.”
The debate comes as a new generation of Indian women steps out of the home for work or play in a rapidly expanding economy and finds itself having to negotiate old social boundaries, harassment and, sometimes, outright violence. New Delhi is among the most notorious for this; among big cities in India, it has logged the highest number of reported cases of rape and molestation for the last decade.
On a recent night at Cafe Morrison, a deafening rock ’n’ roll bar, the national stir over pub culture inspired irritation, dismay and soul-searching.
“It’s pathetic,” said Kirat Rawel, 23, a college student who was spending the evening at the bar here in the capital with her younger sister, Nimrit, 21. “It is basically for the vote bank. It has nothing to do with culture.”
The sisters said their parents, who live in a small town more than five hours from here by car, had no problem with their going to a bar and having a drink.
The sisters also know that even in New Delhi, one of India’s most seemingly modern cities, they are not immune to attacks like the one in Mangalore and that they are surrounded by other Indians who, in their hearts, do not approve of young women who go out at night and drink in the company of strangers. They suspected that there was quiet approval among many Indians of the Sena mob that assaulted the women in Mangalore.
“Urban India may criticize it,” Kirat Rawel said, “but there is a certain section of India that believes in it.”
By 10 p.m., most of the women, who were a minority at Cafe Morrison anyway, had begun to clear out. The Rawel sisters, like many single women in this city, said they worried most about how to get home safely.
Sanah Galgotia, 21, nursed a beer and recalled this story: She had been walking home around midafternoon recently when a car full of men slowly followed behind. Furious, she turned around, shouted and banged on the car window, only to have the driver try to run her over. She escaped and ran home. When she got there and recounted her ordeal, her mother asked why she had pursued the aggressors.
To Ms. Galgotia, the episode demonstrated the “schizophrenic” attitude of Indian women — alternating between being assertive and subservient and then judging others for tilting one way or the other. She is guilty of it, too, she said. When she sees a woman who smokes in public, she sizes her up instantly.
“In India, no matter how modern you are, you’re still in this schizophrenic nonmodern thing,” she said, straining to be heard as the D.J. blasted Pearl Jam.
She looked around and wondered aloud whether she and her friends were simply “trying to ape the West.” That set off an argument.
Her friend Murphy John, 21, shook his head. “I’m wearing a jacket, not a dhoti-kurta,” he said, referring to the traditional Indian draped pantaloon and tunic, “because I like wearing a jacket. It’s globalization.”
“We are globalized in our lifestyle,” Ms. Galgotia responded, “but very Indian at heart. I know I am.”
Another friend at the table, Sandesh Moses, 22, said he thought the Sena had probably accomplished its goal.
“They don’t want women to go out,” he said. “I can guarantee a lot of people will be supporting them.”
Shiv Sena terrorises couples
Rahi Gaikwad
Protests against Valentine’s Day in five places in Maharashtra
Mumbai: True to its call for protests on Valentine’s Day, the Shiv Sena went on the rampage terrorising couples, beating, threatening and humiliating them. Several incidents took place in as many as five places across Maharashtra. The State machinery, meanwhile, remained clueless and utterly ineffective.
The worst case of intimidation bordering on violence took place in Pune. Around 2.15 p.m., a group of Sena members entered the Peshwe Park. With their saffron flags, they beat up a youth and chased a couple. A police officer, who went to take stock of the situation, later said, “The area has greenery. A couple was chatting there when Sena members came to chase the two away. The girl asked them what right they had to command them. She then threw their flag, which they were brandishing at her. This angered the miscreants. The boy was beaten up.”
By evening, one Sena member was reportedly arrested in connection with the incident.
In another incident at Chowpatty in Pune, a couple was forcibly made to garland each other as in a wedding, a police source said. He spoke of another incident at an area known as ‘Love Point,’ where couples were chased away by Sena men. No case was registered in connection with these incidents as there were no complaints.
While blatant infringement of individual freedom went on in Pune, its Police Commissioner remained unreachable. Officers at the control room said Saturday was a holiday.
In Miraj village in Sangli district, a youth was made to “marry” a donkey, said a police source, who did not wish to be named. While the incident took place between 11.30 a.m. and 12 p.m. no case had been registered by 7.30 p.m.
Sena “protests” were also registered in Aurangabad where a youth’s face was reportedly blackened by members of the party’s student wing, the Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena. Kolhapur and Nanded also saw Sena resistance. Sena members burnt greeting cards in Nanded, said Superintendent of Police R.K. Singhal.
The Nanded police took action against four Sena men under the Bombay Police Act.
Despite the Sena’s well-known disposition for creating a ruckus on Valentine’s Day, the police department was caught on the back foot on Saturday. None of the police control rooms in the districts where the incidents occurred had any information on them.
A local television channel ran footage of assault cases across the State. After around five incidents were televised for hours together, an official at the State police department’s control room said, “The situation is normal. No cases have been registered.”
On the eve of Valentine’s Day, Sena MP Sanjay Raut had told The Hindu, “We won’t do what the Ram Sene has done.” A day later, nothing was different.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan was reported as saying strict action would be taken against the perpetrators of the acts.
The day passed off peacefully in Mumbai.
http://www.hindu.com/2009/02/15/stories/2009021560861400.htm
"Her lap is a sacrificial altar; her hairs, the sacrificial grass; her skin, the soma-press. The two labia*(lips) of the vulva are the fire in the middle." [Brhad-Âranyaka Upanisad, 6.4.3]
"This man (ama) am I; that woman (sâ), thou!
That woman, thou; this man am I!
I am the Sâman; thou, the Rig!
I am the heaven; thou, the earth!
Come, let us two together clasp!
Together let us semen mix,
A male, a son for to procure!" [Brhad-Âranyaka Upanisad, 6.4.20]1
Whenever the issue of Love, Nudity, Sex and Hinduism comes into picture, we usually get any one of the following reactions-
1] The Westerners in general and Western scholars doing South Asian studies [for example RISA2] in particular, and their Indian counterparts who consider Hinduism to be mix of voodoo and pornography.
2] The Hindu orthodox which thinks sex is a taboo.
Now I will examine, how valid is both of these perspective.
Hindu Purusharthas:
Purusharthas means objectives of a human being. They are the canonical four ends or aims of human life. They serve as pointers in the life. The four Purusharthas from lowest to highest-
? Kama - pleasure or desire3
? Artha - wealth
? Dharma - righteousness or morality
? Moksha - liberation from the cycle of reincarnation
According to Kama Sutra, "IN the beginning, the Lord of Beings created men and women, and in the form of commandments in one hundred thousand chapters laid down rules for regulating their existence with regard to Dharma, Artha, and Kama." 4 Further it says- "MAN, the period of whose life is one hundred years, should practise Dharma, Artha and Kama at different times and in such a manner that they may harmonize together and not clash in any way. He should acquire learning in his childhood, in his youth and middle age he should attend to Artha and Kama, and in his old age he should perform Dharma, and thus seek to gain Moksha, i.e. release from further transmigration.."5
So, according to Hindu scheme of thing, even though Enlightment is the ultimate goal of life, it encourages people to enjoy everything and fulfill all material desires. Moksha is a long process. It can be achieved only when all material desires are quenched. And hence, Hindu religion prescribes 2 methods, the path of renounciates, the path of householder. There is one more less popular but more maligned path of within "Tantras" which accept everything material, everything condemned as taboo and hence aims to rise above the animalistic desires.
Sex as Yajna:
Yajna or sacrifice is derived from root word "Yaj". It means Worship or offering an oblation.
Max Muller defines Yajna is an act by which we surrender something for the sake of gods"6.
Sex is worship. It is an act by which the couples surrender their ego, in order to gain pleasure, progeny, eventually even enlightment.
"Her lap is a sacrificial altar; her hairs, the sacrificial grass; her skin, the soma-press. The two labia of the vulva are the fire in the middle. Verily, indeed, as great as is the world of him who sacrifices with the Vâjapeya ("Strength-libation") sacrifice, so great is the world of him who practises sexual intercourse"7 (Brhad-Âranyaka Upanisad)
These verses clearly shows that, sex was treated as a form of worship, an act to not only fulfill one"s desires and gain pleasures, but also as an act of sacredness.
Sex as Meditation:
In Vigyana Bhairava Tantra8, during a conversation between Shiva and Shakti,
Devi Asks:
O Shiva, what is your reality?
What is this wonder-filled universe?
What consttutes seed?
Who centers the universal wheel?
What is this life beyond form pervading forms?
How may we enter it fully,
above space and time,
names and descriptions?
Let my doubts be cleared!
So, Shiva explains her 112 methods of meditation to attain enlightment. He says-
At the start of sexual union
Keep attentive on the fire in the beginning,
And so continuing,
Avoid the embers in the end.
When in such embrace your senses are shaken as leaves,
Enter this shaking.
Even remembering union,
Without the embrace.
These verses clearly indicate how sexual act can be utilized for achieving enlightment. Enlightment is a state, when all egos vanish. As in a sexual act, the couple leaves behind their ego and unites with each other and achieves sexual ecstasy. This very thing can be utilized to achieve spiritual ecstasy.
Kamashastra:
It is the study of "Sixty Four9" arts like- Singing, Playing on musical instruments, Dancing, Union of dancing, singing, and playing instrumental music, Writing and drawing, Tattooing, etc. "Kamasutra" or the "art of lovemaking" only a part of this Shastra.
Is Hinduism pornography and Tantra a sex manual?
The straight answer is a simple No. It is Victorian mentality which condemns any depiction of sex. Hinduism recognizes the role of sexual desires in human lives. The sexual depictions in some of the temples were mean to not only educate the people, but also to help those who were involved in sexual sadhanas for enlightment. There is a difference between Nudity and expression of beauty and pornography. What appears in Hindu puranas and Itihasas are the expressions of genuine beauty and not pornography.
"Tantra" is a much maligned word. "Tantra" actually refers to vast body of literatures called "Agamas" which are practical manuals for meditation. There are many Shaiva, Shaktha, Pancharatra Agamas. Using sex for meditation is prescribed in only few of the so many different paths described in Agamas. So, it is very wrong in equating Tantra with Sex.
Some Social Issues:
Sex Education: Sex education had always been present in Hindu history. Vatsayana says, both men and women should learn Kamashastra10.
Pre-Marital Sex and Love Marriages: In Hindu society sex was always considered to be individual choices. There are many instances in our history and scriptures depicting pre-marital sex and love marriages. So, crying out against them as being anti-Hindu is not quite proper. Manusmrithi recognizes 8 kinds of marriages of which "Gandharva Marriage11" is one of them. It is the voluntary union of a maiden and her lover, which arises from desire and sexual intercourse for its purpose.
The same can be said about extra marital affairs. As they are personal affairs, we should let individuals to decide about it. Hindu society has always given this much freedom to its people.
Conclusion:
In Hindu society sex is neither a taboo nor pornography. Sex is sacred. Sex is recognized as human desire which should be satisfied and which can be used to attain the ultimate goal of enlightment.
References & Notes:
1 Brhad-Âranyaka Upanisad forms part of the Satapatha-brâhmana. The verses are taken from chapter titled "Incantations and ceremonies for procreation"
http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15098.htm
2 Religions In South Asia (RISA), a department under the American Academy of Religion (AAR), has been sponsoring studies for years now to deride Hinduism. Our gods and goddesses like Ganesha, Shiva, Parvati, Laxmi and Kali, our rituals like Upanayana our saints like Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa and scriptures, Mahabharata, Ramayana and Gita all have come under such distasteful sexual connotation and nauseating voyeurism that one begins to wonder if it can at all be called academics.
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=195&page=2
3 Kama in general means material desires and pleasures- Physical, Emotional, Sexual, Psychological.
According to Kama Sutra of Vatsayana- "Kama is the enjoyment of appropriate objects by the five senses of hearing, feeling, seeing, tasting and smelling, assisted by the mind together with the soul. The ingredient in this is a peculiar contact between the organ of sense and its object, and the consciousness of pleasure which arises from that contact is called Kama."
http://www.sacred-texts.com/sex/kama/kama102.htm
4 Chapter 1, Preface, The Kama Sutra of Vatsayayana, Translated by Sir Richard Burton.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/sex/kama/kama101.htm
5 Chapter 2, Observations on the Three Worldly Attainments of Virtue, Wealth, and Love, The Kama Sutra of Vatsayayana, Translated by Sir Richard Burton.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/sex/kama/kama102.htm
6 Max Muller, Sacred Books of East series.
7 Brhad-Âranyaka Upanisad
8 Vigyana Bhairava Tantra.
http://www.escapefromwatchtower.com/vigyan.html
9,10 Chapter III. On the Study of the Sixty-Four Arts, The Kama Sutra of Vatsayayana, Translated by Sir Richard Burton.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/sex/kama/kama103.htm
11 http://hinduism.about.com/library/weekly/extra/bl-wed-types.htm
The Paradox Of Taslima Nasreen
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
29 November, 2007
Countercurrents.org
In an interview to the Indian Express, Delhi on November 24th, noted Bengali author Taslima Nasreen said, "Nothing happens to MF Hussain, who has done so many things, while everybody is after my life'. It is ironical that the statement comes from a person who has been 'wronged' by the Muslim clergy in Bangladesh and whose issue rocked Indian parliament as well as has exposed the hypocrisy of our society and so-called 'liberal' values.
It is more than shocking that the issue cropped up at a time when the self style custodian of the secular values in India were exposed to the outside world on the issue of the socio-economic conditions of Muslims in West Bengal. Their own intellectuals, artists started questioning the take over of Nandigram and communalization of West Bengal. The seer hypocrisy of the Government of West Bengal was visible as the CPI(M)'s cadre went back to 'annex' Nandigram and the victory day celebrations took place there. The red flags were hoisted as if Nandigram was an alien territory and great nationalist forces of the left have won.
A fortnight ago when some of the intellectuals and political activists from Kolkata came to Delhi for a meeting, the issue of emergence of some outstanding Muslim leaders also came into focus. It was said that the Muslim Dalit combination is set to win over West Bengal and future of the West Bengal politics would always be in the secular hands and not to a Bhadralok politician. I thought it was rare that Muslim political leadership would raise the issue of the concern of Muslim Samaj, which is mainly socio-economical and not religious. The literacy rate is very low; there are no health centers in Muslim localities, no government jobs for them and virtually no benefit of land reforms for them. West Bengal's government was already targeting many of them in the name of Bangladeshi's infiltrators. Yet, what happened in the streets of Kolkata November 21 st was not only shameful deviation from the real issues of Muslims in West Bengal but it gave the CPM's government as much waited relief to hide in the shade of Taslima Nasreen. How come Taslima become the main issue of the community which is fighting for its survival in Nandigram ? It is another matter that many of the Muslim leaders from Bengal are blaming the CPM for the current crisis. They charge that these riots were engineered by the CPM to save themselves from further charges of anti Muslim rhetoric. Not to be left behind in this exercise, West Bengal's ruling party's spokesperson Biman Bose retorted that Taslima was unwelcome in Kolkata, a city which prided itself in giving shelter to a hapless Muslim tailor of Ahmedabad in Gujarat who became face of terrorized Muslim community in Gujarat.
It is unfortunate that Muslim leadership everywhere joined hand and started protesting against Taslima ignoring the vital fact that the more they would protest against her, the bigger would be the damage done to the community. A community which is living in marginalization in India, where the brahmanical supremacy is working over time to marginalized communities, Muslim political leadership has completely failed and betrayed their community. The west takes it a chance to target Islam in further isolating the Muslims. It is not the Islam but the Mullahs who are in danger. Taslima is no Salman Rushdie. She has projected the face of fundamentalist Muslims in Bangladesh in the aftermath of the Babari demolition. It might have been the genuine grievances of the minority community in Bangladesh and the same is true about the Muslims in India who are living on the margins. And more importantly same is true about both the communities and their treatment to Dalits in all our South Asian societies including Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and India. Poor Nasreen perhaps does not know the plight except the plight of a bhadralok Bengali upper caste Hindu in Bangladesh.
While any one is free to ignore Taslima's writings which many of the scholars term as blasphemous. That she has no right to live in India is the case point that every one of them has been making. She has hurt the sentiments of Islam, they said. Nobody has a right to hurt religious sentiments, said Pranab Mukherjee, Indian foreign minister, in Parliament. One does not know how sentiments are hurt. If ask for a ban on Kumbha fair, it hurts the sentiments of Hindus. If we say that the roads which are closed for nearly a fortnight between Delhi and Hardwar for ensuring that Hindu pilgrims walks on the road freely despite all other problems for commuters and travelers, during Savan, its appeasement. Again when we speak against susidy provided to Haz pilgrims, it is appeasement says, Hindu right wing while seculars keep quiet and Muslims are happy. That makes things easier for the Hindu right wing and they make it point to explain it their constituency and others through media. Therefore when M.F.Hussain paints something and the Hindu right wing are up in arms against him for hurting their sentiments. Actually the Hindu fundamentalists also want to have a 'right to take life' or threat to issue 'fatwa' like their Islamic friends in India and elsewhere. And that way, the Jamayate Islami in Bangldesh has been of great help to Sangh Parivar here for threatening Taslima Nasreen. Now she is more than welcome in India by them. And unfortunately, Ms Nasreen seems to have played in their hand when she said that nothing happens to M F Hussain. What do you want to be done to Hussain, Ms Nasreen? Should we hang him, beat him to equate ourselves with the Bangladeshi Mullahs or Talibani thugs?
Taslima should not let down all those who stood for her. All those who stood for her are fighting the case against the Hindu fundamentalists in India. These fundamentalists who do not want any dissent in this country. Who want brahmanical hegemony at all cost? Narendra Modi invited her to Gujarat, the other day saying that a woman and that too an 'intellectual' of Taslima's stature should be welcomed. He used the same Bangladeshi refugee card in his speeches. Modi, who tells us that 'scavenging' is a spiritual experience, and that every time the questions about his sincerity towards the Muslim population of Gujarat are raised, he comes back to his pet old thesis. In the last election it was Mia Musharraf and this time, it seems, he want Taslima to be in Gujarat. Modi's Gujarat shines at the cost of Dalits and tribals and Muslims and Christians are the hunting ground for him. Many leaders of the Hindutva brigade have already given Taslima the status which she never had. Her victimization story might be true but there is nothing new what she says. The fact of the matter is that the oppression of women and marginalized is not an Islam Centric thing. It is everywhere in religion which have become our daily routine. They are also part of cultural values and have mixed up with religion in different parts of the world. Many people try to explain religion in a different way to make it more inclusive while others go in to every word written there. There is another stream which feel every word written in these texts need to be challenged and questioned.
It is equally baffling that the secular voices remained mute in this entire exercise and the support to Taslima came from the right wing Hindu fundamentalists. And to the discomfiture of secularists as well as humanists, as Taslima claims herself to be, she has linked her problems with that of M.F.Hussain. There are two different issues involved here and one commonality between them. First the common point is that attack on both of them is an assault on freedom of artistic expression and freedom of conscience. Hussain is facing many charges against him in the courts filed by various Sangh Parivar outfits. The officially he is not debarred from India but at this age of 90 he is running here and there. Secondly, Hussain actually has not defamed the Hindu Gods and Goddesses but celebrate them. A large number of his paintings are bought by the Hindus themselves. He celebrates Madhuri Dixit and her 'Naritva', an ideal Indian womanhood. I am sure Taslima would agree that any such concept is not only derogatory in nature but stereotype the women in general.
Taslima's main problem emanates from her one sided writings. Surely, she is not an activist hence can take liberty to so-called freedom of conscience even if there are riots and mayhem caused by them. Her writings are one way passage to demonize Islam. It is no doubt that she faced victimization in Bangladesh. That such feudal outlook is not confined to Islam and Bangladesh only. Such situation exists in our part of the world also and elsewhere too. Women were always used in religion and considered subservient to man. Taslima can speak to a Shankaracharya and a Christian clergy who would never say that they are equal. Ofcouse, an enlightened and politically mature religious leader would always say that they are equal. Unfortunately, like many others, she also feels that her best security in Indian would come from the Hindu fundamentalist. That approach is dangerous and self defeating. Taslima should understand that Muslims in India live in utter fear and are even more marginalized than the Dalits as far as participation in the governance is concerned. All those who support here from the Hindu rightwing organizations target M.F.Hussain for denigrating the Hindu Gods. What happens when these rituals and practices denigrates the 170 million Dalits in India. Yes, as I mentioned and hopefully Taslima would also be reading that, Narendra Modi, the chief Minister of Gujarat, who presided over a regime that butchered innocent Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 and further isolated them till this date, consider scavenging as a 'spiritual' experience. Yes, one can only hope that Modi and his generations would leave politics and adopt this 'noble' profession of cleaning shit of others so that their sins are washed.
I would also like to remind Taslima that she seems to be ignorant of the vast anti caste movement in India. One is not sure whether she ever read the work of Ambedkar, Phule and Periyar, she would not have uttered the word against M.F.Hussain and his creative work. Much before Taslima and Salman Rushdie could think of challenging the religious orthodoxy, I am not sure whether they ever challenged it or just narrated to us their own 'experiences'. Ambedkar wrote 'Riddles of Hinduism' and Periyar wrote his own explanation of 'Ramayana'. Phule condemned Brahmanical values and many others fought against the brahmanical social order and hegemonistic concept of the brahmanical values. When Ambedkar's riddles were published, the government banned it buckling under the pressure of the Hindu right wing elements. Thanks to the strong Dalit protest against this proscription that government had to lift ban over it. If Taslima think that Ambedkar and Periyar would not have allowed to live after all they wrote much more against brahmanical values than Taslima could think of writing against Islam. Yes, it was the power of the people. Ambedkar, Periyar, Phule were not just philosophers and writers but responsible social revolutionaries. When they were targeting against rituals and religious values, they were enlightening another group of people who were denied basic human rights by the same religion. And Taslima, I hope would remember how Dalits have been living in India, and how their untouchability had got religious sanction. Yet, these great revolutionaries changed the mindset of the people and their power was understood. Today, Dalits are a powerful political force in India despite all disabilities attached to their birth and caste. A majority of Muslims and Christians got converted overtly or covertly to escape from the tyranny of the brahmanical system in India.
Taslima love Bengal. It is natural. She says Kolkata was a secular place. Yes, in that secular space there was no space for Muslim voices, no space for dissent. During the partition days, Kolkata saw the worst ever communal riots. In the 1990s, the bhadralok public did not allow a new comer ' Srilankan' to win against India in the world cup semi finals. Yes, in this entire jargon of secularism in India only powerful upper elite of every religion participated, others were votary of secularism but not leaders of it. The secular debate came from those whose ancestors created this caste divide. Taslima is a proud member of this elite club today. She is a welcome guest and must speak out openly against all forms of oppression. I am sure the day she will open her mouth against the Hindu fundamentalism, the same voices of 'sanity' will ask for her head.
Voices of dissent have to be careful in their criticism. After all for whom are they working? As I mentioned earlier, India had the history of voices of dissent right from Carvaka to Buddha and in this age in the form of Ambedkar, Phule and Periyar. They dissented and lived a life for their people and today they are loved and respected. Not only that, Ambedkar is supremely respected and worshipped by the millions of Dalits all over the world for his unrelenting and uncompromising struggle against brahmanical supremacy. The problem of Islamic fundamentalism in the subcontinent lies in the same. They need an enemy to retain their upper elite hegemony. In India, already, there are voices of the down trodden Muslims asking for their share in power structure and for the socio-economic benefit of the community. Lot of work is being done at the grassroots and people are protesting. Ofcourse, not every one will leave the religion. Ambedkar and Phule were working for the communities and hence they fought and had the courage to tell the Dalits to reject the brahmanical Hinduism and embrace radical Buddhism. Taslima is an individual hence perhaps can not even tell any one to do what Ambedkar and Periyar could ask for?
As far as the Islamic zealots are concerned, the least said about them is better. They have no work except the religious issues. It is strange how they use democracy for their own purposes. They need liberal voices from other religions, from secularists, from atheists when the community faces music from the right wing Hindus but they are not ready to change. They are unable to understand that in the 21 st century a lot of things have to be changed. The socio-economic-cultural paradigms are changing. Muslim women will come out and work in the offices, do PhDs, and join films and sports. As the economic independence knock at their doors, women's can not be expected to remain mute on violence against them. They will speak and they will have to speak. There is no other alternative against violence and hegemony. Religions have been a male hegemony and modernity demand equal rights for all. The power of religion would not allow this power equation to change. But as their time is coming closure so will be the targets. They would attack all those who challenge them because it is the threat from with in that seems powerful and not from outside. Both the Hindu Fundamentalists and the Muslim fundamentalists know it well. For a Narendra Modi, Taslima is the best to demonize Islam and deviate from the assertive OBCs, Dalits and tribals who are asking him where is Gujarat shining, for the Muslim fanatic groups, since they have done very little work to gain the faith of the Muslim masses, Taslima gives them hope to revive their dirty agenda. As usual the Muslim intelligentsia is submissive and does not have the courage to stand on its own.
The only answer to both these fundamentalist groups could be the forces of change with in the communities. Yes, the Dalit Muslims are now asking their share in power and will not succumb to these tactics and a broader alliance with the Dalits, tribals and OBCs will not only throw away their own middlemen leaders but ultimately pave the way for a humanist society where every one can live in harmony and where criticism is constructive and aimed at resolving the crisis and not to further it. One sincerely hopes that good sense will prevail to Kolkata's Muslims and they will ally with other secular Dalit groups in opposing the socio-economic marginalization of their community people in Nandigram. Taslima is not an issue. Let her live in peace otherwise she will become fodder for those who have demonize Muslims in India. For Taslima, it would be good if she continue her writing without any prejudice and should not become another Francis Goutier, who has today become the soldier of Sangh Parivar. One hopes that all those opposing Taslima will understand that her withdrawal from Kolkata and West Bengal does not solve the crisis of the people of Nandigram. In fact, it will unnecessarily divide forces who stand with the displaced people of Nandigram and salute their heroic struggle against the land acquisition in the name of Developing an SEZ in Nandigram.
http://www.countercurrents.org/rawat291107.htm
Cynicism of 'Secular' Parties
Helps Hindu, Muslim Extremists
by Amulya Ganguli
As if to show that Hindu extremism too is alive and well, the Shiv Sena of Mumbai followed up the Islamic fundamentalist Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen's (MIM) attack on Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen by ransacking the offices of Outlook magazine for depicting Sena chief Bal Thackeray as a villain.
The purpose of both the Muslim and the Hindu hooligans was the same: to terrorize their critics into silence by taking the law into their own hands. In doing so, they were merely following the example of those of their ilk who had recently vandalized an art gallery in Vadodara for displaying a painting that allegedly offended the religious sentiments of both Hindus and Christians.
The leading role in the Vadodara outrage was played by supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its affiliates like the Bajrang Dal, whose earlier attacks on galleries showing M.F. Husain's paintings have forced the celebrated artist to flee India and live in exile in London.
Taslima Nasreen too is living in exile in India because of the threats to her life by fanatical Muslims in Bangladesh.
If organizations such as the MIM, Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal and others have remained unrepentant about their violence, the reason is the tacit support they receive from the supposedly 'secular' parties.
For example, one of the first acts of the Congress government of Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy in Andhra Pradesh was to book the Bangladeshi author for outraging the sentiments of her co-religionists even as her assailants were roaming free in Hyderabad.
The reason for this curious act of punishing the victim in lieu of the culprits was the Congress' apparent belief that the average Muslim man-in-the-street was angry with the controversial writer for her comments on the plight Muslim women.
An allied reason was the Congress's reluctance to offend the MIM, which has a few pockets of support among the orthodox Muslims. It is evident that with the intensification of political competition in the present age of coalitions, no party can afford to alienate even a marginal outfit like the MIM.
That even the Left is not immune to this phenomenon of appeasement is evident from its reluctance to press the central government to accept Taslima Nasreen's request for Indian citizenship. The reason is the Salman Rushdie-type fatwa issued against her by a mullah (Muslim cleric) in Kolkata.
It is not surprising that in this atmosphere of capitulation to bigotry and militancy, one of the first comments of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad was his condemnation of both Taslima Nasreen and her assailants.
Even though some of the assailants were finally arrested before being released on bail, it is a safe bet that their cases, apart from dragging on for years, are unlikely to end in a conviction simply because witnesses to the incident will either not be unavailable or will turn 'hostile' by retracting their statements, obviously under political and police pressure.
The same story is expected to be repeated in Mumbai as well. And even if some of the Shiv Sena activists are arrested and even convicted, the masterminds behind the scene will remain untouched.
Such a course of events can be predicted because of the signs that the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which is an ally of the Congress, are not quite the inveterate enemies they pretend to be. Not long ago, none other than Thackeray expressed the view that he wouldn't mind if NCP leader Sharad Pawar, the agriculture minister in the Manmohan Singh government, became prime minister.
Besides such evidences of coziness, it is possible to guess from Thackeray's virtually unassailable position, despite his reputation as godfather and references to his complicity in the Mumbai riots of 1991-92 in the Srikrishna Commission report, that no government, whether the Shiv Sena's and the BJP's in the mid-90s, or the Congress's and the NCP's at present, can dare to touch him.
While the turning of a blind eye to such violations of the law could have been expected from a Shiv Sena-BJP government, the virtually identical stance of the Congress and the NCP suggests that these two 'secular' parties are equally unwilling to nab him for fear of offending the Hindus.
There is little doubt that such cynical acquiescence in the lawlessness of the extremists is responsible for making the anti-social elements believe in their invulnerability.
Interestingly, while the Shiv Sena and the BJP can be expected to act against the Muslim goons, given the anti-minority world-view of these two parties, the Congress (and the NCP) will hesitate to act against either the Muslim or the Hindu miscreants.
It is only now, a decade and a half after the event, that the Maharashtra government of the Congress and the NCP has reluctantly bestirred itself after being prodded by the Supreme Court to implement the recommendations of the Srikrishna Commission against the police officers guilty of inaction during the riots or connivance with the rioters.
Again, the similarity between what happened in Maharashtra under the Congress and the NCP and in Narendra Modi's Gujarat after the 2002 riots is obvious.
Yet, the Maharashtra government was far more active in the matter of banning a book on Shivaji by James W. Laine after an attack by Sambhaji brigade, a Marathi Hindu group, on the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune, where the American scholar had conducted his research.
The government's response was in line with the attitude of the fundamentalists. There was no sign of this 'secular' administration demonstrating the spirit of liberalism and intellectual freedom.
As long as the distinction between the 'secular' parties like the Congress and 'communal' parties like the BJP remains hazy, extremists of all hues will have little to fear.
(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. He can be reached at aganguli@mail.com)
One Brave Woman vs. Religious Fundamentalism
An Interview With Taslima Nasrin
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The following article is from Free Inquiry magazine, Volume 19, Number 1.
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The following interview was conducted by Matt Cherry and Warren Allen Smith in the months before Taslima Nasrin's return to Bangladesh. — Eds.
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Free Inquiry: Tell us something of your background.
Taslima Nasrin: I was born into a middle-class Muslim family in a small town called Myonenningh in a northern part of Bangladesh in 1962. My father was a physician, my mother a housewife. I have two elder brothers and one younger sister. All of them received a liberal education in schools and colleges. I studied in a medical college and qualified myself as a medical graduate.
FI: When did you start writing?
Nasrin: I have been writing poetry since 1975. My first poetry book was published in 1986. Since 1989 I have written columns in daily newspapers and periodicals as well. I wrote about women who were being unfairly oppressed and other such subjects. I got support from liberal and secular people and hatred from fundamentalists and conservatives for my articles.
FI: Could you describe the fundamentalist reaction to your writings in more detail?
Nasrin: The Muslim fundamentalists filed several cases against me in court. They attacked me physically. They demanded my execution by hanging. They declared me an apostate and made frequent demonstrations against me. They broke into newspaper offices where I had written columns and filed cases against my editors and publishers. They demanded the banning of all my books.
Because the fundamentalists are so powerful, the Bengali government banned one of my books and filed a criminal case against me on charges of hurting the religious feelings of the people. In 1994 when the arrest warrant was issued against me I went into hiding because prison was not safe for me. Political murder is not rare in Bangladesh prisons.
FI: Was your life in danger?
Nasrin: Yes. They called a general strike all over the country for several days to protest my writings. No political party came to my support except one or two small leftist parties. People are afraid of fundamentalists because they can kill people whenever they want in Bangladesh. The fundamentalists came together and made demonstrations of over 300,000 religious people and openly announced that they must kill me.
In desperation I had to leave my country with the help of some democratic governments of Europe and the United States, the international literary organization PEN, and women's and humanist organizations.
FI: Do you still have police protection?
Nasrin: Mainly when I speak to large groups. At Nottingham in England, Islamic students attacked me. At Concordia in Canada I had to stop speaking because of Muslim demonstrations. Police were on hand when I spoke at Michigan and at Harvard. Hundreds of French gendarmes have been on duty when I spoke. When I first was hiding in Sweden, as many as a hundred policemen and policewomen were my guards. Once, when I slipped out of my apartment and bought flowers from some Bengalis, I was scolded and told never to do that again.
FI: Tell us about some of your other experiences in hiding.
Nasrin: Well, at one point PEN arranged a peaceful place near the Gulf of Bothnia for me. A great place for privacy and writing! I had a wonderful neighbor, an English lady with many cats, who helped with my pronunciation of English words. But one night when the wind rose and branches touched my roof, I became really alarmed. The police, who had been positioned in a house nearby, were quick to come. One of the policewomen, in fact, kindly spent the night. Only if you have a fatwa on your head and are alone far from home could you possibly understand what I was feeling.
FI: What originally prompted you to become so outspoken in your opposition to Islam?
Nasrin: When I began to study the Koran, the holy book of Islam, I found many unreasonable ideas. The women in the Koran were treated as slaves. They were nothing but sexual objects.
Naturally I set aside the Koran and looked around me. I found religion equally oppressive in real life. And I realized that religious oppression and injustices are only increasing, especially in Muslim countries. The religious terrorists are everywhere. But if I criticized Muslim fundamentalists and mullahs in particular, it is because I saw them from close quarters. They took advantage of people's ignorance and oppressed them. They considered women as chattel slaves and treated them no better than the slaves of the ancient world.
So one day I had to take up my pen and start writing against the various misdeeds committed by religion, against all the injustice, unreason, and prejudice sanctioned by religious institutions. I began to try to expose the crimes of religion, particularly the injustice and oppression against women.
FI: But you were harder on fundamentalists?
Nasrin: I criticized fundamentalists as well as religion in general. I don't find any difference between Islam and Islamic fundamentalists. I believe religion is the root, and from the root fundamentalism grows as a poisonous stem. If we remove fundamentalism and keep religion, then one day or another fundamentalism will grow again. I need to say that because some liberals always defend Islam and blame fundamentalists for creating problems. But Islam itself oppresses women. Islam itself doesn't permit democracy and it violates human rights.
And because Islam itself is causing injustices, so it is our duty to make people alert. It is our responsibility to wake people up, to make them understand that religious scriptures come from a particular period in time and a particular place.
FI: What are you presently working on? Are there new projects, new perspectives that have occurred to you as a result of your experience?
Nasrin: I would like to write about my experience. I already wrote a few articles in European newspapers, such as Le Monde in France. I will write more. Though I have been far from my country and my own people for years now, I still remain true to my own ideals. I still have confidence in myself.
FI: Free Inquiry is very proud to have you as a Senior Editor. What made you accept this role?
Nasrin: I think Free Inquiry is the best magazine in the world - at least in the field of ideas. I say this because I think the issues FI addresses and the ideas it promotes - the principles of secular humanism - are fundamental to the cause of human freedom and progress. Free Inquiry deserves more recognition and influence, and I am delighted to do whatever I can to support it. I tell everyone I meet at conferences and human rights events to read it.
FI: When and why did you become a secular humanist?
Nasrin: When I was young, I was forced to practice religion. I had to read the Koran in Arabic without knowing the meaning. I said to my mother several times: "I don't have any interest in reading something I don't understand. I want to know the meaning of the verses." My mother said, "We don't need to know the meaning. We should read because these are the verses written by God. If you read these, God will forgive you and send you to heaven."
When I was 14 or 15 years old, I found the Bengali translation of the Koran, and I learned what God says in the verses. I was surprised to read wrong information about the solar system in the Koran - for example, that the sun is moving around the earth and the earth is not moving but standing still because of the support of the mountains.
The inequalities and injustices against women and the people of different faiths in the Koran made me angry. If any religion allows the persecution of the people of different faiths, if any religion keeps women in slavery and keeps people in ignorance, then I cannot accept that religion. As an individual, I wanted to serve people irrespective of religion, race, and gender. And instead of having irrational blind faith, I preferred to have a rational logical mind. In short, I became a secular humanist. To me humanity is the ultimate.
FI: Do you find religion to be inherently divisive?
Nasrin: It does not often teach people to love one another. On the contrary, it often teaches them to hate people of a different faith. Religion also leads people to depend on fate and thus lose self-confidence. It unnecessarily glorifies poverty and sacrifice and thus serves the vested interests of the wealthy few.
In all countries and through all ages, conscientious people have exposed these unethical aspects of religion and educated people to see religion with the eyes of reason and logic.
FI: The eternal conflict ...
Nasrin: Yes. Let me give as an example the philosophers of the Lokayata tradition, the materialists of ancient India. Three thousand years ago, they raised many questions about religion, questions that appear simple but are actually very subtle. These materialists did not believe in reincarnation, they did not believe in heaven and hell. They were quite vocal against the dominance of the priests.
According to scholars, the organized resistance of these priests did not allow the materialists to make much progress. Even their texts have been almost obliterated. There remain only some fragmentary references to what they preached. But some believe that they had a big influence on the common people. Hence perhaps their name, Lokayata, which really means the opinion or philosophy of the common people.
Today we are still carrying on the same fight against unreason and prejudice. The rise of fundamentalism all over the world shows that the battle remains urgently necessary. In a discussion at Harvard University on the rise of religious fundamentalism, I said that after the end of the cold war the world faces a new battle, and it is between secularism and fundamentalism.
FI: Do you think there is also a clash of civilizations between East and West?
Nasrin: No. I don't agree with those who think that the conflict is simply between two religions, namely Christianity and Islam. Nor do I think that this is a conflict between East and West. To me, the key conflict is between irrational blind faith and rational, logical minds. Or between modernity and anti-modernity. While some people want to go forward, others are trying to go backward. It is a conflict between the future and the past, between innovation and tradition, between those who value freedom and those who do not.
FI: Why do you think there has been a resurgence of religious fundamentalism in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa?
Nasrin: The question of fundamentalism is a complex and deep one. In short, I should say it is the failure of Western democracy and free-market economy on the one hand and the failure of socialist economy on the other that has made the fundamentalists' rapid advance possible in the developing world. They are trying to present a religious substitute to modern Western ideologies. Disillusioned and hopeless people are now seeking salvation in the blind forces of faith. Beaten by science, overwhelmed by other civilizations, Islam is now in search of "roots." And, as always, there is an element of fear in the search.
Of course, the responsibility for inciting fundamentalism should not be laid fully on the so-called secular leaders of the ex-colonies who have used fundamentalism to serve their own interests. The responsibility should be shared by the democratic and secular states of the developed world. They have also made a lot of compromises with the fundamentalist forces.
We have seen how the so-called secular political parties of Bangladesh use the religious sentiments of the people to get votes. But similar instances of rank opportunism have been seen in India and elsewhere.
FI: What role have Western governments played in this?
Nasrin: We have also seen how the powerful Western nations have declared protecting human rights to be one of their supreme objectives and then patronized fundamentalism, overtly or covertly. Democratic governments recognize military dictatorships for short-run political interests. Secular states make friends with autocracies as well as theocracies. They tolerate even completely inhuman behavior of fundamentalists. Such double standards practiced by so-called democratic and secular states at home and abroad give the fundamentalists a sort of legitimacy.
FI: Do you think the fundamentalists will continue to gain and hold power in these developing areas?
Nasrin: The fundamentalist prescription for all ills of society is severely questionable. Obviously they cannot go far. Even if they assume power here and there they cannot run a state on just religious rules, and I am sure they will also be challenged by the people after some time.
Fundamentalism is an ideology that diverts people from the path of natural development of consciousness and individuality, and undermines their personal rights. I find it impossible to accept fundamentalism as an alternative to secular ideas. My first reason is the insistence of the fundamentalists on divine justification for human laws. Second is the insistence of fundamentalists upon the superior authority of faith, as opposed to reason. Third is the insistence of fundamentalists that the individual does not count, that the individual is immaterial. Group loyalty over individual rights and personal achievements is a peculiar feature of fundamentalism. Fundamentalists believe in a particular way of life; they want to put everybody in their particular straight jacket and dictate what an individual should eat, what an individual should wear, how an individual should live everyday life - everything would be determined by the fundamentalist authority.
Finally, though they proclaim themselves a moral force, their language is hatred and violence. Is it possible for a rationalist and humanist to accept this sort of terrible repression?
FI: What hope is there for secularism and for human rights and women's rights in the Islamic world?
Nasrin: Nothing will be achieved by reforming Muslim scriptural tenets. What is needed is a change of the sharia, the code of laws based on the Koran. I want a uniform civil code that is equally applicable to men and women.
FI: How can we protect ourselves against the resurgence of fundamentalism?
Nasrin: To get rid of fundamentalism, people should be educated; especially they should receive a secular education. And the secular humanists should unite and fight fundamentalists without any compromise.
FI: So you will continue to fight, despite the risk, despite fatwas and alienation?
Nasrin: Yes, I can assure you that my ideological fight against religious fundamentalism will continue. I am an atheist. I do not believe in prayers, I believe in work. And my work is that of an author. My pen is my weapon.
http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/nasrin_19_1.html
Mainstream, Vol XLVI, No 13
What is Fundamentalism?
by From NC’s Writings, 16 March 2008
Fundamentalism has become a much-used term today—in politics and in the academia. And there are in vogue various types of the so-called fundamentalists—political, religious and cultural.
But before cataloguing these various tribes of fundamentalists, it is important to clarify what precisely is meant by fundamentalism. The Oxford English Dictionary says the term, fundamental, pertains to “the basis or groundwork, going to the root of the matter”. But the word “fundamentalism” has a particularly Christian connotation which, according to the dictionary, is:
The strict maintenance of traditional orthodox religious beliefs or doctrines especially belief in the inerrancy of Scripture and literal acceptance of the creeds as fundamentals of Protestant Christianity.
The BBC English Dictionary is more to the point:
Fundamentalism is belief in the original form of a religion, without accepting any later ideas.
The context in which the term has been coined is, therefore, specially Christian. Following this interpretation, an orthodox group in any religion is today dubbed as fundamentalist—the conservative no-changers, the orthodox as opposed to the liberal within any religion—which amounts to promoting intolerance and bigotry. Within Christianity, however, the fundamentalists suffered the first setback when Martin Luther raised his voice of dissent in the fifteenth century—out of which was born the Protestant sect within the Catholic Church. Since then many other dissident streams flowed within Christianity, while orthodoxy was reinforced by Jesuit militancy.
Projecting the same format, the orthodox extremists in Islam are branded as fundamentalists—those who have asked for Salman Rushdie’s head and are now clamouring for Taslima Nasreen’s. Bigotry is their acknowledged badge, the mentality that would brook no liberal trend nor any special reforms within the Muslim society. Obviously, such Islamic fundamentalists never favoured Sufism which had blossomed in Kashmir—a conflict which manifests itself even today within the militants’ camp in Kashmir between the Pakistan-backed Hizbul fundamentalist group and the JKLF which stands for the independence of Kashmir, carrying the banner of Sufism. In the rest of Muslim India, there is some stirrings for social reforms—witness the latest stand of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, acknowledgedly an authoritative body, which in its recent meeting has called upon the Muslim community for a campaign against alcoholism, gambling and dowry—the last item, if seriously carried out, is bound to impinge on the Muslim marriage customs as they prevail at present.
Modernist trends within Islam are noticed in many countries of the Muslim world stretching from Iran to Indonesia. There was at one time an intellectual trend, mainly on the Mediterranean coast, which sought to equal Islam with Marxism. However, a peculiar feature in the Indian subcontinent has been that the liberal elements among the Muslims have bothered little to raise the consciousness of the Muslim community as a whole. They seem to have preferred a liberal island of their own leaving the community as a whole to the dead-hand grip of the orthodox elements. Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasreen certainly deserve the support of all those who stand for basic human rights; at the same time it would not be incorrect to say that by their downright stand, they have emerged individually as emancipated souls, while leaving the field clear for the mullahs to malign them as anti-Islam. A reform movement has to start from the level of consciousness of the people for whom it is meant; otherwise there is the danger of isolating oneself from the target segment of the community and thereby reinforce the reactionary wing itself. It is this alienation of the forward-looking elements like Rushdie and Nasreen which strengthens bigotry instead of effectively fighting it.
This has proved true in the case of the Hindu community as well. The early reform movements like the Brahmo Samaj and the Arya Samaj combated some of the pernicious features of the Hindu society, particularly the iniquitous caste system, the dowry and women’s deprived status. However, these trends have practically expended themselves as their programmes have by and large been absorbed by the community as a whole at least at the formal level. In the present-day conditions, they look ineffective in raising another reform movement within the community. As in the Muslim community, here also the orthodox bigotry has been practically left untouched, despite the fact that many movements of social emancipation from Narayan Guru to the Dalits have appeared, claiming considerable following.
It is precisely because of this fact of the conservative orthodox core having escaped the onslaught of modern liberal trend in both the Hindu and Muslim societies that it appears as the real boss of both the communities, and thereby attract the attention of the political elements who look upon them as guarantors for vote-banks at the election time. This writer recalls the life-style of Shyamaprasad Mukherji, the founder of the Jana Sangh. He was certainly a devout Hindu, but was no adherent of all the rituals that the Hindu orthodoxy have stood for. He was certainly no brown sahib but by conscious preference a desi leader who could hardly be demarcated from a Congress leader of corresponding standing. Those of us who have personally known Shyamaprasad Babu from our university days can vouch for his liberal outlook on many issues, social and cultural. He was at home with Congress leaders like B.C. Roy, Sarat Bose and Kiran Shankar Roy. As for his criticism of Gandhiji, this was mainly over the question of separate electorate for the Muslim community (which Gandhiji had also disapproved in principle but could do nothing to change it as he did in the case of the Scheduled Castes). There were critics of Gandhiji on this score within the Congress as well such as Madanmohan Malviya and Ramananda Chattopadhyay and even Meher Chand Khanna, apart from Dr Moonje and Jagat Narain Lal. This is perhaps equally true of the present generation of BJP leaders like Advani and Vajpayee—not to speak of the late-comers and new-comers like Jaswant Singh, T.N. Chaturvedi or for that matter, General Candeth, whose father incidentally was a distinguished figure in the Brahmo Samaj.
The point to note is that the political leaders of the Jana Sangh and the BJP chose to take within the camp the more aggressive militant elements—the bigoted fringe like the VHP or the individual stars like Sadhavi Rithambara and Uma Bharati—for the purpose of mobilising votes. It is this alliance which has posed a problem for the BJP today, and the more astute leadership of the party would have to decide whether it should let the militants wreck the prospects of the party in the arena of parliamentary politics, or delink itself from them. This was the quandary of the Akali leadership ten years ago, and by evading to face it, mature leaders like Prakash Singh Badal found themselves in political wilderness. In contrast, the CPI-M leadership made short-shrift of their militant fundamentalists symbolised by Naxalism, and threw them out of the party and even took police action against the extremists when they first raised their head in the sixties. From all this one has to draw the conclusion that a political party to make any headway along the road of parliamentary politics, has to abjure and combat fundamentalism. Somehow fundamentalism is a total misfit in the parlour of parliamentary politics.
There are of course other variants of fundamentalism—some of these rather bizarre. A recent example is Namboodiripad’s sudden outburst against Gandhiji as having been a fundamentalist. Knowing as one does Namboodiripad’s past views on Gandhiji—he even wrote a mild-mannered critique of Gandhiji’s politics and philosophy—it came as a surprise that he should brand him as a fundamentalist. This was no doubt embarrassing for the CPI-M leadership which has promptly disowned the views of this reverend elder brother. What may be said by way of explanation—not attenuation—of Namboodiripad’s latest views on Gandhiji, is that he is mixing up fundamentalism with devout attachment to any religious belief on the individual plane. Within the Communist hierarchy, Namboodiripad, as the present writer has long known, could be regarded as a moderate in contrast to a rigid doctrinaire Marxist like B.T. Ranadive. One recalls Ranadive’s personal view that nobody could be eligible for membership of the Communist Party unless and until one became an atheist. Lenin, on the other hand, had said in one of his writings that even a practising priest could apply for Party membership if he had supported a workers’ strike struggle.
(Mainstream, August 20, 1994)
About Judy Rebick
Judy Rebick is one of the best-known feminist socialists in Canada. She is a regular broadcaster for the Canada public broadcaster, the CBC. For years, she co-hosted a daily CBC television show called 'Face-off' (a hockey term): a half-hour of debate between leftists and rightists on current events. She is best known for her commentary on the status of women, and on alternatives to economic rationalism in Canada. Currently she publishes the web-based news service – ‘Rabble’ – a lively forum of critical politics. The magazine brings together a range of columnists, including Naomi Klien and Michele Landsberg, challenging mainstream media.
Rebick was previously President of NAC, the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, when it was a vibrant umbrella group of over 600 women's organizations. She came to the NAC from the pro-choice movement , working with medical doctors, some jailed for their efforts, to establish abortion clinics in Canada.
Judy Rebick is also an academic. She lectures on Women's Studies at the University of Toronto and in 2002 became the first CAW Sam Gindin Professor of Social Justice at Ryerson University, Toronto - a professorship funded by the Canadian Auto Workers trade union and named in honour of the economist and activist Sam Gindin.
In her book, Imagine Democracy, she draws on her experience in activism and politics to show how a democratic society can work. She analyses globalization's assault on democracy, the feminization of politics, the media and politics, the loss of idealism among activists, and a truly democratic electoral system. She is currently working on an anecdotal history of feminism in Canada.
On the new feminism
Rebick’s CBC contributions often address feminist issues. Analysing the upsurge against corporate globalization, in Seattle in 1999 and since, she finds a ‘fire of youth rebellion’ ‘now raging around the world’. Women are at the centre of that rebellion. Against claims in the mainstream media that feminism is dead, ‘that the women's movement has two feet in the grave’, she speaks of a ‘new wave’ of feminist organizing and action. Rebick sees women on the march the world over. This unprecedented wave of feminism reflects a worldwide feminisation of poverty.
For her, neo-liberalism is the prime culprit. Government cut-backs and privatization directly attack the status of women. As she argues, ‘What women have gained in legal rights over the last 20 years, they are losing through ham-fisted economic and social policy. The gap between rich and poor is growing and the face of the poor is overwhelmingly female. Cuts to health care, education and public services hit women hardest as they are the majority of workers in most sectors as well as the unpaid workers who take up the slack when public services fail. Cutbacks to shelters and rape crisis centres, as well as the cuts to social supports, are making it more difficult for women to leave violent situations.’
The story is familiar, and shared across many contexts. She highlights the resulting feminization of poverty, in Canada and worldwide, ensuring that women now make up two-thirds of the poorest of the poor.
For Rebick, the solution is in the hands of women. In Canada, the womens movement improved the lot of middle class women, but had little impact on poor women. The ‘new wave’ of womens movements, she argues, is focused on poverty.
The Women's March Against Poverty, which took place in Quebec in 1995, was a source of inspiration. Organised by the Quebec Women's Federation, ‘850 women marched for 10 days from Montreal to Quebec City to win nine demands related to economic justice. Fifteen-thousand people greeted them at the end of the march.’ The Quebec march inspired the World March for Women, held in 2000, which saw the Canadian Labour Congress and the NAC marching with the Quebec Women's Federation to the national capital in Ottawa. The World March culminated at the UN building in New York, a highly symbolic action by over 3000 womens organisations from 145 countries, demanding an end to womens poverty.
For Rebick, the World March invigorated feminist politics, creating ‘an enthusiasm and energy that I haven't seen for 20 years in the women's movement’. At the time she quoted Gloria Steinem saying that ‘Seattle is the women's movement’, arguing the World March of Women bore this out. For her, the March signaled ‘a global struggle to put the brakes on a system of savage capitalism that is leaving the vast majority of women and children of the world in its wake.’
On fundamentalism
With the ‘War on Terror’, Rebick has made a direct connection between opposing corporate globalisation and opposing fundamentalism. In her ZNet article, ‘Anti-Globalization | Anti-Fundamentalism’, she refuses the choice between corporate globalization and fundamentalism. She argues both are ‘devastating for women’, charting ‘a third path, based on equality, democracy and respect for diversity’ – demanded by women in 1995 at the UN conference on women in Beijing.
For her, neo-liberal globalisation creates the preconditions for fundamentalism. It removes economic stability and undermines cultural autonomy. Markets and Westernisation are confronted by theocracy and Fundamentalism, ‘whether Moslem, Hindu or Christian’. One anti-Women orthodoxy replaces another.
The third option though, is also on the agenda, brought alive by anti-globalisation movements ‘in the belly of beast’, and by the World Social Forum (WSF) process in Porto Alegre, Brazil. As the WSF addresses poverty feminisation, reproductive rights and violence against women, it becomes a vehicle for this agenda.
Yet the alternative path is fraught with dangers. The media abuse that confronted Sunera Thobani – former NAC president – when she criticized US foreign policy post-September 11, shows how the new strong-arm politics has closed down the possibility of dissent, especially for women, but most especially for women of colour. But this is also a sign of possibilities. As Rebick notes: ‘The vitriol aimed against Thobani was a sign of how dangerous an anti-fundamentalist, anti-neoliberal women's movement, integrated with the anti-globalization movement, is for the powers that be.’
A vision for our times
Perhaps the best example of Rebick’s vision is her article on International Womens Day that appeared in Rabble in 2003. Railing against the new militarism, she offers a feminist vision for today.
‘Disarming won't be enough. We need a regime change. Men have held on to the levers of power long enough. Their continuing monopoly on power is the biggest threat to world peace, environmental sustainability and, in fact, the survival of the planet. There is no alternative. We will not relent until they step down so that women can take over.
‘The feminist movement set its sites on overthrowing the patriarchy back in the 1960s. We understood that the rule of men over women may have been maintained by economic domination and myths of romantic love and male superiority but, ultimately, it was held in place by the threat and the reality of violence. The same violence, economic domination and myths of racism maintained the rule of European countries over their colonies. All domination is rooted in violence and the threat of violence. That is why war is fundamentally a feminist issue…
‘On this International Women's Day, let's celebrate the centuries-old women's struggle for peace and against male domination. And let's make sure this anti-war movement practices the politics of non-domination and anti-oppression. Because as long as any of our relationships are based on domination, we will never end the most extreme form that domination can take and the one that lies beneath all the others.’
Sources
ZNet:
CBC:
Rabble:
Summary by James Goodman, Research Initiative on International Activism, UTS. Judy Rebick is also speaking at an ALP forum, on 'Reclaiming Democracy', with Doug Cameron from the Australian Manufacturers Workers Union, at the LHMU, 187 Thomas Street, Haymarket.
http://72.14.235.132/search?q=cache:5iURhSrHVIkJ:www.international.activism.uts.edu.au/conferences/rebick/+Anti+Woman+orthodoxy&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=11&gl=in
Where women bear the brunt...
In the case of superstitious practices in India, a reassertion of orthodoxy appears to be, first, exclusively focussed on women, and women of the most vulnerable castes and classes, writes Supriya RoyChowdhury.
Burying reason.
IT IS not at all clear how one should categorise belief systems, and structures of action based on those beliefs. Travelling across the Atlantic this year around the 4th of July was a unique experience. As the anniversary of American independence drew closer, there was heightened expectation of terrorist attacks, and security at international airports in the United States and in Europe was tightened even more than what has been in place after 9/11.
As I went through several airports around this date, it became quite clear that persons of colour were being singled out, for questioning and physical checks. The physical checking took the form of asking us to stand in particular postures, arms spread out, take our shoes off, have the soles of our shoes and our ankles examined closely, take off all jewellery, and finally, in my case, I was asked to take off my dupatta. All this was happening as fellow white passengers were smoothly walking in after casual security checks. The acts of singling out bodies and partial disrobing had all the flavour of an oppressive ritual.
The rationality of tightening security in airports can hardly be contested. When the structure of that arrangement becomes based on an irrational belief system, tied to a racial stereotype, the structure of a highly modernised international transportation system begins to look as ludicrous as an ancient ritual of marking criminals' bodies, or even witch hunting. The instant sense of fear, typically expressed by a white woman if she finds herself alone in an elevator with a black man, the reported experience of a large number of black men, is also a superstition.
Insofar, therefore, as superstitions are necessary to create, justify and sustain unequal social structures, in any context, such belief systems are not the trademarks only of so-called traditional societies. Nevertheless, the tension between modernity and tradition is the most defining element in the discourse on superstitions, whether it emerges from academia or social activists.
The perspective of 19th century social reformers, armed with Western Enlightenment rationality, going about eradicating social superstitions with the objective of bringing about a rationalised social system, is now all but gone. The more nuanced perspective now is that superstitions are embedded deeply in a community's history and psyche, and must be understood in terms of that totality, rather than be made a target of immediate attack and elimination. Implicit in this view, of course, is the critique of modernisation as a universalistic prescription which assumes to ride roughshod over local cultures where these are discordant with modernisation's rationalist premises.
Where does that leave us when looking at such practices as the Devdasi system, or nude worship, or the resurgence of sati? These practices, arguably, are not only rooted in structures of caste and gender inequality, but represent the tightening hold of a world view that defines communities in terms of exclusivist religious identities. Would it then be justifiable to bring the state as well as a modernist intelligentsia, however insensitive to local culture, to bear on the forceful elimination of these practices? The ways in which state agencies, social activists, intellectuals, as well as protagonists of these practices themselves, have interfaced, and in the process, have transformed the domain in which these practices now take place, provide an arena where some of the central tensions of our social system are being played out.
The element of economic need which sustains some of these practices, and which is built into the social structure in which many communities live out their lives, is typically conceived as part of the larger framework of public policy issues, involving questions of education, employment and gender. But the connection between the ritualistic marking of women's bodies and their commodification in the market in a context of economic hardship, can hardly be wished away.
Many social activists feel that as long as the larger issues of poverty remain unaddressed, and in fact are intensified in a period of rapid marketisation, efforts to eradicate superstitious practices such as sati or the Devadasi system are unreal. In Chandragutti, a village in Shimoga district, every year in March men and women offer nude worship to a goddess in fulfilment of a vow. This practice has been banned by a State Government order, but like many similar laws, remains incomplete in implementation. A central objection to this practice, of course, is that the presentation of nude women invariably is a prelude to their enticement into prostitution. NGOs working in the field have, however, questioned the efficacy of law in preventing prostitution in a context where the flesh trade is driven by the economic needs of uneducated, low caste women. A particular NGO, involved for the last 23 years in women's issues in these areas, was of the opinion that both the state and social activists have selectively criminalised specific acts of traditional worship such as nude worship.
While part of the objective of law, and of social activism, is to prevent the initiation of vulnerable young women into prostitution, nothing is being done to criminalise the role of pimps, and other agents, who continue to be able to induct poor rural women into the urban flesh market, regardless of whether nude worship is carried on or not.
A somewhat different perspective on this question emerges from the resurgence of sati, and of the growing popularity of sati shrines and temples in northern India. The recent incident of a poor village woman of Madhya Pradesh burning to death on her husband's funeral pyre has caught much media attention. Interestingly, there are many more cases of widows who would want to commit sati and are prevented from doing so; they then become local deities, living goddesses, with temples or shrines growing around them. While a Supreme Court order has stopped the holding of fairs and festivals in Sati temples, worship at these shrines continues in many parts of Rajasthan. In July of this year, a young woman in Indore was forced by her husband and his family to undergo the ritual of "agni pariksha", whereby she had to walk several paces, holding red hot irons in her fist, to prove her purity and chastity. The sati, as well as the Devdasi, are endowed with a certain mystical power, as also with ritual status, insofar as they transcend the powerlessness of widowhood. This aura of sanctified woman power is being used in the sustained practice of these rituals. The resurgence of these practices may, hypothetically, represent many factors.
One could relate these to the general tendency towards a fundamentalist world view, propelled by a religious/communal definition of majoritarian politics. In such a perspective, traditional representations of religious sanctity can arguably help create and sustain symbols of orthodoxy, which would strongly anchor the actions of communal political groups. At another level, one could see this resurgence of superstitious practices as part, perhaps, of a broader anti-western, anti-modernist movement, of which Islamic fundamentalism could provide a parallel. Islamic fundamentalism, with its highly restrictive overtones for women, is also, pronouncedly a pan-cultural movement involving the rejection, for example, of western patterns of consumerism, of dress, and other modes of behaviour, and has the flavour of a civilisational conflict.
However, in the case of superstitious practices in India, a reassertion of orthodoxy appears to be, first, exclusively focussed on women, and women of the most vulnerable castes and classes, and second, is not obviously connected to any anti-western, anti-modern paradigm or theory. In fact, the attack on women's bodies in these practices is paralleled by a growing incidence of dowry deaths in India's cities, which represent similar attacks in urbanised spaces.
The interface of these two domains, the traditional and the modern, in their dual, if not orchestrated, attack on women's bodies, would raise many questions over the appropriate context in which a substantive challenge can be mounted against superstitious practices.
(With inputs from Ravi Reddy in Nizamabad and D. Srinivasulu in Kurnool.)
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/09/08/stories/2002090801251600.htm
June 20, 2007
Fury as presidential hopeful urges women to throw off ‘veil of invader’
Jeremy Page in Delhi
The woman nominated by India’s ruling Congress party to become the country’s first female president was at the centre of a national furore yesterday after she urged Muslims to throw away their veils.
Pratabha Patil appeared relatively uncontroversial when she was put forward by Congress last week for the largely ceremonial but symbolically important post. Seen as a moderate Hindu, the only criticism levelled at the 72-year-old governor of Rajasthan was that she lacked national stature.
By yesterday, however, Mrs Patil’s name was on the lips of Muslim leaders, who accused her of insulting Islam. Outraged by her comment that the veil has been imported to India by Muslim invaders, they are calling on Congress to ditch her and choose a more secular presidential candidate.
The controversy so far seems unlikely to spark the sort of violence between Hindus and Muslims that has so often racked India since it won independence from Britain in 1947. It shows, however, how sensitive such issues remain and it threatens to derail the Congress-led coalition Government’s plans to install its candidate in Rashtrapati Bhawan, the presidential palace in Delhi.
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Anniversary of the bloody Delhi mutiny carries hopes of a new unity
The president, who is elected by the national and state legislatures, has few actual powers — although he or she is supreme commander of the armed forces and can declare a state of emergency.
However, this year’s poll on July 19 is regarded as the big test of Congress’s apparently waning popularity before the next general election in 2009.
Mrs Patil, who is a member of Congress, made her remarks about the veil, or “purdah”, at a conference in Udaipur over the weekend. “Women have always been respected in the Indian culture. The purdah system was introduced to protect them from the Muslim invaders. However, times have changed. India is now independent and hence, the systems should also change,” she said.
“Now that women are progressing in every field, we should morally support and encourage them by leaving such practices behind.” Muslims make up nearly 14 per cent of India’s 1.1 billion people and many Indian Muslim women still wear headscarves and veils. Orthodox Hindu women also cover their faces before elderly male relatives although it is not an obligation of their religion.
Maulana Khalid Rashid, a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said God had asked women to wear the veil and that the tradition was enshrined in the Koran.
Yahya Bukhari, a member of the consultative committee of the Jama Masjid, Delhi’s largest mosque, called Mrs Patil’s remarks “anti-Muslim”.
“It is a purely religious matter and she has no right to interfere in matters of any religion,” he said. “Pratibha Patil is an educated woman but her statement reeks of ignorance.”
Maulana Mehmood Madani, general secretary of Ulema-i-Hind, another Muslim organisation, accused her of trying to rewrite history. “She must apologise and withdraw her observations,” The Times of India quoted him as saying.
Historians also criticised Mrs Patil, saying that Indian women started wearing the veil long before the Muslim Mughals invaded in the early 16th century, led by the Timurid prince, Babur. Satish Chandra, in his book Medieval India, said that the practice became widespread in the 13th century.
B. P. Sahu, a historian at Delhi University, said: “People are not historically aware that the veil existed in early Indian society.
“It was a way to show respect to the elders. But the idea that the ‘purdah’ system started as a result of the invasion by the Mughals is one of the stereotypical ideas that have been taken from the works of British historians.”
Congress leaders said that Mrs Patil was simply expressing her concern for all women in India. Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born Congress leader, and Manmohan Singh, the Sikh Prime Minister, confirmed yesterday that Mrs Patil was still their nominee.
Opposition leaders, meanwhile, tried to exploit the opportunity to promote their candidates as more secular alternatives. They remain divided, however, with some backing A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the current President, and others promoting Bhairon Singh Shekawat, the Vice-President.
Mrs Patil would be India’s first female president but the country has already had a woman Prime Minister in Indira Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1984.
Role of religion
85% of India’s Muslim men believe women should wear the purdah
83% of Muslim women share that view
41% of Indian Muslims believe religion is more important than nationality, compared with 33% of Hindus
4% of Indian Muslims consider attacks on their religious freedom to be their most serious problem
29% of India’s Muslims believe that they face a great deal of discrimination in religious matters
Source: Centre for the Study of Developing Societies State of the Nation Survey 2006
Have your say
Mr. Zakria's defense of the veil as a means of protecting women from being made 'sex objects' is laughable. If they require protection of this sort, they may certainly adopt such means as they see fit, they do not require misogynist 'honour killing' men to protect them. Wear the veil yourself, sir, to protect yourself from being made a 'sex object.' What utter nonsense. Perhaps we should all be made to walk about draped in sheets as if we were ghosts. What rubbish.
Indra, Mumbai, In
Why must women always take all social responsibility for "safeguarding" themselves, submitting to the denial of thier own sexuality and pleasure, and preventing molestation by such barbarity as sexual mutilation, sequestering themselves from life and wearing ridiculously oppressive clothing?! Why can't the men in these societies simply control themselves, follow thier own required cultural, secular, and religious laws and rules, respect "no," and take responsiblity for thier own behavior?!
mb, Washington DC, USA
Yeah, the veil is right up there with the bikini isn't it. I cannot believe some of the nonsensical comments here! The purpose of the veil is to safeguard women from becoming sexual objects. The fact that a woman can go about her business without the fear of molestation means that she will be liberated.
SR Zakria, Burton-Upon-Trent, UK
In most enlightened Western states women can walk around wearing as little as they would like and are free to not worry about molestation.
Compare to some Arab states where the veil has so repressed Man's sexual desire that you have women being gang-raped in the streets (as was seen in Egypt in the past year) or harassed by passersby (in Saudi).
The veil is about control and repression.
Ethan, Tampa, FL, USA
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article1957758.ece
Magazine Article Excerpt
Women in South Asia: the Raj and after
by Tanika Sarkar
The fiftieth year of Indian independence lends itself to various kinds of stocktaking. It seems almost natural that the history of modern Indian women should be an essential part of this exercise, so when and why did the condition of women become an index to measure the nation's progress?
The nineteenth century started with extensive and anxious debates about the state of gender relations in Indian traditions. The new print culture, journalism and other forms of vernacular prose took up discussions about `private' family matters and `intimate' subjects concerning women and the household: suttee or widow immolation, age and forms of marriage, the possibility of divorce, of widow remarriage, education and male polygamy and so on. Social and religious reform associations spent a great deal of time arguing about such matters. Later, with the deepening of popular anti-colonial protest, the possibility of womens' participation in this widened the area of discussion still further.
All this was very new. Not only were the issues of debate unprecedented, so was the amount of talk expended on them. Prior to this...
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http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=JYsJ2HmwgcCnJKQ4bVR0vxr3CLyPTmdsGpQQ2YTpQlGXWhJfT27t!-165377178!2064305130?docId=5000480123
Marxist court kills Hindu labourer for marrying Muslim woman
September 6, 2008
Bhadrapad Shuddha Saptami
Are we living in any Muslim-majority country like Bangladesh or Pakistan? If Muslim man marries Hindu women, no one dares to say anything about it ; But when Hindu man marries a Muslim girl, then Muslims do not accept it! If same rule is to be followed for Hindus in India then many Muslims should be hanged who marry a Hindu girl!
Behrampore (West Bengal): A 30-year-old Hindu labourer was beheaded after a kangaroo court in a Murshidabad village decided he must die because he had married a girl from Muslim community and the couple had hidden his religion from her family.
The young father, who was visiting his in-laws with his wife and 10 month-old son, was murdered in Lakshmanpur village, 210 km from Kolkata, on July 14.
His beheaded body was found in a jute field outside the village on July 17 but was identified only after his wife, a 25-year-old, who has been working as a maid in Mumbai for three years, went to police on July 27 after learning of the shalishi (kangaroo court) verdict.
“After about six months in Mumbai, I met my future husband, who worked there as a construction labourer. We got married at a Marriage Registrar’s Office but I did not tell my father that my husband belonged to a different community. At the end of 2006, I brought my husband home to Lakshmanpur. He came under an assumed name as the village is very orthodox. We stayed for 12 days and there was no problem,” she said.
The village is so dogmatic that a shalishi meeting had fined her father Rs 200 for sending his daughter to work in Mumbai. “My father had become old and could not work. The family used to run on the meagre income of my brother, who worked as an agricultural labourer. So, three years ago, I was compelled to go to Mumbai to work as a maid,” the woman said.
She and her husband returned to Lakshmanpur on July 1 this year, this time with their son. On July 14, while watching a ritual along with other villagers, the man softly muttered a cry that was a dead giveaway of his religion.
His father-in-law overheard him and the same afternoon went to village elders to tell them of his suspicion.
“A shalishi meeting was arranged in the compound of the village primary school the same evening, where my father took my husband. From that night, my husband was missing,” she said.
The young wife initially thought he had panicked and fled to Mumbai. But soon word spread in the village and she got to hear of how the villagers had used force to find out her husband’s religion.
“When they found he belonged to a different community, they severely beat him up. Then the shalishi gave its verdict that the punishment for my husband was death as he had suppressed his religions and that he must be beheaded,” she said.
Her brother said their father knew all along that his son-in-law had been murdered but kept it secret from his wife and children. “We learnt that almost everyone in the village knew about my brother-in-law’s fate. On July 27, three of us (the siblings and their mother) went to Behrampore police,” he said.
Arun Das, the Inspector incharge of Behrampore police station said when the complaint was filed, they realised that the body they had recovered on July 17 must be his.
“We received a complaint against 10 persons, launched an interrogation and raided the village. We arrested three persons who had participated in the shalishi. They confessed to their crime. Interrogating the arrested persons, we came to know that four villagers had carried out the killing,” Shri Das said.
Another officer said they confessed that the victim’s hands and feet were tied and he was gagged. Then he was carried inside the jute field by four villagers and beheaded.
Before making the arrests last night, Shri Das took the young widow and her brother to the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Behrampore and recorded their statements.
The rest of the villagers who were part of the shalishi and the father-in-law had fled on July 28, when the police raided Lakshmanpur the first time.
Source: The Organiser
Gujarat and majority women
By Nonica Datta
The participation of women activists in the movement in favour of Ram's temple in Ayodhya, and in Hindu right-wing organisations is an enduring legacy of the communalisation of Hindu women in colonial India.
"I DO not find anything wrong here" was the reaction of a young middle-class gynaecologist who drove through the roads of Ahmedabad littered with bodies burning all around. She was not stirred by the brutal savagery to which she was a witness on the first day of the Gujarat carnage. She was indifferent to the public brutalisation of Muslim women. Yet, her perception was not unusual. Many Gujarati Hindu women in fact shared it; they showed little inclination to soothe the pain of the victims and survivors. In fact, many of them either remained silent on the rape of Muslim women or justified it. Above all, many women were actively involved in looting, arson and destruction. Surely, their endorsement of the recent genocide is a testimony to their growing communal consciousness. And yet, one shudders to think how, why and to what extent has the Hindu woman become so communalised.
Today's communalised woman in Gujarat, and her ilk elsewhere, is produced by her forerunner in colonial India. With the strengthening of Brahmanic Hinduism and orthodox traditions, the Hindu woman's role within the family and community was redefined in the late 19th century. Hindu reformist organisations prescribed new rules for the role and status of women. Religio-communitarian forces and tenets shaped the everyday life of Hindu women, belonging to diverse caste and class backgrounds. In the process, women strengthened their position as mothers, daughters, wives, reformers, and professionals. With their limited access to political circles and institutional structures, they came to acquire a new position within the Hindu family and society. Their experience, shared by Hindu men, contributed to the growth of sectarian identities and Hindu nationalisms.
Women's participation in communal movements in contemporary India is widely recognised. However, little is known about women in localities who fortified caste identities, promoted communal tendencies, and forged their identities within a religio-communitarian context in colonial India. Consider the testimony of Subhashini, an 88-year-old Jat woman. She talks about the virtues of her Arya Samaj upbringing in rural Haryana. Educated at Kanya Gurukul Dehradun, in the 1920s, she committed herself to rural women's Arya Samaji education by establishing a Kanya Gurukul in Khanpur village in 1942. Though exposed to Gandhi's nationalist struggle in the 1930s, she was principally committed to the notion of a Hinduised Jat identity. She actively supported shuddhi (reconversion), sangathan (organisation), Ved-prachar (proselytisation) and cow-protection campaigns. Many of her pupils and teachers remained brahmacharinis (celibate), for the purpose of serving the Hindu community and nurturing patriotism.
Central to Subhashini's worldview was her obsessive fear of Muslims. She trained her girls in self-defence techniques, including the use of arms, as protection against imaginary Muslim attacks. She emphasised the threat of Hindu women's abduction by Muslims, but justified the reality of Muslim women being abducted by Jat men in the 1930s and 1940s. She celebrated Partition violence as a providential moment in which the Hindu Jats wiped out Muslims from her part of Punjab (now Haryana). The Partition was a final resolution of a long-standing conflict between her Jat community and Muslims. Her land was cleansed of the Muslims' presence. Her fear of Muslim menace vanished. She and her pupils felt safe, secure and liberated, and their sense of Jat identity fused with a supra-Hindu identity in the aftermath of India's partition.
But Subhashini was not alone in holding such beliefs. There were many women like her, in other parts of the country, who were active agents of a Hindu communitarian agenda and anti-Muslim sentiments. It was primarily through their adherence to religious orthodoxies that they came to occupy a respectable position within the Hindu family, community and society. This sort of space was neither available to women participating in anti-colonial nationalist struggles, nor to those subscribing to radical, secular traditions. Hindu communal organisations and leaders supported women's anxieties against Muslims, and co-opted their concerns into the broader Hindutva movement.
Women's agency was a critical factor in the shaping of a Hindu identity. Their agency worked subtly, and, at times, invisibly. Their agency drew boundaries between Hindus and Muslims in ways in which the homes of Hindus were closed to Muslims and their touch was seen as polluting. Their agency functioned in a way that they could not transcend or cross their family and caste-community boundaries to identify with their Muslim counterparts. Instead, they often identified themselves as vulnerable Hindu women threatened by the `sexually predatory Muslim male'. This stereotyping justified Hindus' violence against Muslims, for communal riots were often triggered by rumours of the sexual assault of Hindu women by Muslim men in pre-Independence India.
Today, the BJP draws on the same exclusivist language. The imaginary suspicion of the Muslim as an aggressor and a sexual predator continues to haunt the Hindu nationalist's psyche. Little wonder then that the Sangh Parivar has now circulated rumours about the abduction of Hindu and Adivasi women by Muslim men to mobilise diverse communities to attack Muslims, and to extend its base in rural and urban areas in Gujarat.
The participation of women activists in the movement in favour of Ram's temple in Ayodhya, and in Hindu right-wing organisations is an enduring legacy of the communalisation of Hindu women in colonial India. Indeed, the brahmacharinis of the past are turned into the sanyasins and sadhvis of today. This explains the prominent BJP women leaders' indifference to the rape and humiliation of Muslim women, and their refusal to take a gender-sensitive stand on the State Government's brutal attitude and the calculated inaction of the police forces in Gujarat.
The Gujarat carnage demonstrates the most horrifying divide between the majority and minority women — the majority women have emerged as tormentors, while the minority women appear as vulnerable victims. Everyday reactions of many ordinary Hindu women show how they, like their predecessors, continue to identify with majoritarianism, rather than empathise with the sorrow, fear and insecurity of minority women. This explains the refusal of the young gynaecologist and many like her to join the angst of the `other' in Gujarat. What they want is a `Hinduised society', what they desire is a sense of `Gujaratiness' deriving from an aggressive Hindu identity. Surely, most of them derive their ideological sustenance from their communalist inheritance. The BJP will continue to take advantage of their moorings. It is time that such women discarded their communal baggage, evaluated their historical legacy, and spoke the language of courage, sanity and personal freedom. If they change the way they think, they may blur the boundaries between Hindu and Muslim women — us and them — and forge a new kind of `us'.
(The writer teaches History at Miranda House, University of Delhi)
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/06/15/stories/2002061501511000.htm
Orissa: Hindu-right atrocities
October 19, 2008
HINDU RIGHT LEADS FORCED CONVERSIONS OF UNTOUCHABLE CHRISTIANS IN ORISSA
Convert or we will kill you, Hindu lynch mobs tell fleeing Christians (Guardian (UK))
"The wave of forced conversions marks a dramatic escalation in a two-month orgy of sectarian violence which has left at least 59 people dead, 50,000 homeless and thousands of houses and churches burnt to the ground. As neighbour has turned on neighbour, thousands more Christians have sought sanctuary in refugee camps, unable to return to the wreckage of their homes unless they, too, agree to abandon their faith.
"Last week, in the worst-affected Kandhamal district, The Observer encountered compelling evidence of the scale of the violence employed in a conversion programme apparently sanctioned by members of one of the most powerful Hindu groups in India, the 6.8-million member Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) - the World Hindu Council."
See also anti-caste: ANOTHER MASS ATROCITY LED BY HINDU RIGHT AGAINST UNTOUCHABLE CHRISTIANS IN ORISSA
Posted at 04:53 AM in atrocities (untouchable lynchings), Christians, dalits (untouchables), Hindu right, Orissa: Hindu-right atrocities | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 02, 2008
ANOTHER MASS ATROCITY LED BY HINDU RIGHT AGAINST UNTOUCHABLE CHRISTIANS IN ORISSA
Christians cower from Hindu backlash in India's east (Reuters)
"The mob poured kerosene on the thatched rooftops of the village homes, then threw matches. Church spires were hacked down.
"The Hindu part of the village was untouched. For four days Digal and his stricken Christian neighbors hid in the teak forests, before being herded to a government-run relief camp.
"The violence replicated itself in village after village, as the rural Kandhamal district of Orissa convulsed from some of the worst anti-Christian attacks in India.
"At least 16 people, mostly Christians were killed, churches destroyed and 10,000 Christians were forced to flee their homes as violence spread.
"Christians responded with some -- not proportionate -- violence. Almost all the villages Reuters visited bore evidence of attacks on Christians."
See anti-caste: HINDU RIGHT LEADS MASS ATROCITY AGAINST UNTOUCHABLE CHRISTIANS IN ORISSA (January 1, 2008)
See also:
Orissa: The sangh parivar’s reach for a Hindu state by Angana Chatterji (Communalism Combat)
Interim Report on Orissa: Concerned Citizens’ Independent Fact-Finding Mission, Sept 25, 2008
Posted at 04:33 AM in atrocities (untouchable lynchings), Christians, dalits (untouchables), Hindu right, Orissa: Hindu-right atrocities | Permalink | Comments (0)
January 01, 2008
HINDU RIGHT LEADS MASS ATROCITY AGAINST CHRISTIAN UNTOUCHABLES IN ORISSA
Christians in India are, with almost no exceptions, untouchables or oppressed tribals. They take Christianity at least in part in order to escape their outcaste status, if only in name.
The Hindu right has been on a campaign since the late 1990s to intimidate and forcibly convert this small, vulnerable religious minority. The pattern of violence includes incidents of murder, rape, and arson. In one widely reported case in 1999 an Australian missionary and his two young sons were burned to death while sleeping in their camper.
That was in Orissa, and it is in that backward state, where nearly half the people live below the official poverty line, that the worst attacks ever against Christians in India were carried out last week. They took place in the district of Kandhamal, where Hindu-right activists have been organizing among the majority Kandha tribals, encouraging them to take up orthodox Hindu practices and exploiting their petty rivalry with the untouchable Panas, ninety-five percent of whom are Christians.
In Kandhamal's Bharakama village on the days leading up to Christmas celebrations, Hindu-right activists staged provocations against Christians and vandalized decorations. On Christmas Day a Hindu-right mob of thousands systematically destroyed Christian homes, churches, and institutions, killing several people and leaving thousands more homeless.
See:
Charting the history of sangh parivar violence in Orissa by Angana Chatterji (Communalism Combat)
See also:
Fact Finding Report by All India Christian Council Orissa Chapter
India: Stop Hindu-Christian Violence in Orissa (Human Rights Watch, December 27, 2007)
A dangerous mix by Soumyajit Pattnaik (Hindustan Times)
And for background on the Hindu right's anti-Christian campaign:
Anti-Christian Violence in India by Vinjay Lal
Anti-Christian Violence on the Rise in India (Human Rights Watch, September 29, 1999)
Posted at 03:57 AM in atrocities (untouchable lynchings), Christians, dalits (untouchables), Hindu right, Orissa: Hindu-right atrocities, tribals / adavasis | Permalink | Comments (0)
http://72.14.235.132/search?q=cache:E89SnXfmmpQJ:www.anti-caste.org/orissa-hindu-right-atrocities/+Anti+Woman+Hindu+Orthodoxy&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=7&gl=in
Divorce under Hindu law
HINDUISM AND DIVORCE - Volumes I and II: Haridev Kohli; D. K. Printworld Pvt. Ltd., `Srikunj', F-52, Bali Nagar, New Delhi- 110015. Rs. 1,200 per set.
EXCELLENCE IN presentation, erudition in doctoral dissertation, orthodoxy which defies modernity, even social reality and jettisoning gender justice as a necessity for matrimonial stability and integrity of the polity - this odd folio of values constitutes the bulk of two volumes titled ``Hinduism and Divorce'' authored by Dr. H. D. Kohli. Exhaustively informative about the dharmasastras, Kohli's work is good as a reference book. He gives details of statutes bearing on divorce under Hindu law and the reviewer is inclined to compliment him for his critical study, enriched by copious references to leading cases. But he will find the reviewer a critic of his fundamental stand that divorce destabilises and the Hindu woman in her matrimonial chains is better off, than when empowered by the liberty to break off from the bondage when inequality and injustice victimise her as a commodity sans personality.
His advocacy against dissolution (until death do us part) forgets the meaning of the glorious quotation he cites in the opening page from Robert Ingersoll: ``No nation founded upon injustice can stand. From the sand enshrouded Egypt, from the marble wilderness of Athens and from every fallen crumbling stone of the once mighty Rome, comes a wail as it were the cry that no nation founded upon injustice can permanently stand.'' Injustice to women, if long continued, will bring down empires and cultures.
If the Hindu orthodoxy is deaf to ``the cry (from unhappy Hindu wives) that no nation founded upon injustice can permanently stand'' the destiny of myopic manhood will be a case of decline and fall. Times change, ethos evolves and the rule of law must run close to the rule of life. Human rights cannot be nullified by quoting the Sastraic epics, Papal edicts and Quoranic distortions. Progressive hermeneutics can harmonise values old and produce gender egalite in the social order. Listen to Manu's mandate directing the wife to regard the husband as ``the lord and master of his wife'' and cruelly commands: ``Though destitute of virtue or seeking pleasure (elsewhere) a husband must be constantly worshipped as a god by a faithful wife.'' Small wonder the best of Hindu women, if they are human, dismiss Manu as bete noire. If Dharma law means dehumanisation of women such a misogynic perception must vanish.
Dr. Kohli argues that divorce is borrowed from the West and is therefore evil. You sell your soul to the dollar culture and push the women into the sati pyre calling it dharma - such a proposition has a dog's chance in civilised jurisprudence. The learned author contends: ``Whether it is to aim to aid the society in its changing outlook to keep pace, harmoniously, and as such whether it was needed or it was brought in, due to contemplation that since Matrimonial Law all over the world is undergoing change so there must also be a change in Hindu Matrimonial Law, immaterial whether it suits or not, whether it is beneficial or suicidal.''
Kohli, the Sanskrit scholar, has overpowered Kohli, the profound law teacher. The reviewer prefers the latter. He is at his best in the chapter dealing with the emerging global perspective. He is fair to the Holy Prophet which Hindutva faddists must read. The family law in other systems is presented justly. Islamic fundamentalists have to realise how progressive the Muslim matrimonial law is and how distorted it is at the hands of reactionaries.
Dr. Kohli, the reviewer suspects, has in his subconscious, an anti-divorce strain. In his critical appraisal he concludes with two quotes. Greavson says: ``For the present we may, perhaps, rejoice in the opportunities for easier divorce as one of the outstanding features of a progressive society in the past century. But we cannot forget that if the divorce is no longer a disgrace, it remains a tragedy. Ten per cent is a high morality rate for marriage. The victory of emancipation has its shadow of Greek tragedy. For emancipation, insofar as it connotes easy divorce, carries in its train disintegration of family as a unit of the society and so ultimately of the society itself.
Not satisfied, he cites Lord Evershed, since law Lords are the last word for Indian legal pundits: ``If men and women of a hundred years ago had been told that in the enlightened days of their great grandchildren, 30,000 marriages would be dissolved by the Civil Courts in each year - in majority of cases upon the petition of the wife - they would, I do not doubt, have been greatly shocked. And if they have asked the natural question what becomes of the tens of thousands of innocent children of those marriages, they would have raised one of the most important and most perplexing problems that is now presented to us.''
Kohli condemns divorce in his final verdict: ``Divorce is an escape route and the higher plane is that marriage is the foundation of the society and its integrity is not jeoparadised. Adjustment and not confrontation should be the motto for the happiness of the family.''
Scholars sit in ivory towers even as judges are cocooned in their robes. Liberation from wedlock, when matrimonial manacles drive an utterly incompatible partner to suicide, starvation, victimisation from torture or inhibition of development of personality, is social justice.
Not flippant or licentious snap of solemn matrimony but the right to mutual respect and sharing of life's joys and sorrows together, and farewell when, only when, marital form remains but the value of conjugal bliss is robbed, this is the value and wonder of temporal love and spiritual consummation absent which, with total breakdown, divorce is the social remedy in the pharmacopoeia of family happiness.
Let the reviewer plainly present his perspective on divorce, Hindu or other. He views as a social disease, the escalating cases of divorce, not with consternation but with distress.
Las Vegas paradigm of buying divorce after a day's sojourn in that gambling city, makes marriage a tragedy and farce or both. But he does stand for a legal provision enabling divorce in case of total rupture, breakdown or utter incompatibility beyond reconciliation. Frivolous or fraudulent divorce - no, never. But real serious or grave reasons which make matrimony meaningless - yes; let law permit what life has made a painful reality.
V. R. KRISHNA IYER
http://www.hindu.com/2001/01/02/stories/13020178.htm
Bangladesh showing the way
By Asghar Ali Engineer
MUSLIM WOMEN, like other women, have been suffering for long for lack of empowerment in a male-dominated society. Pakistan and Bangladesh, once part of India, have been no different in this respect. The women there suffered as much as in India for lack of rights. However, some changes were enacted in the Muslim personal law in Pakistan in 1961 during Ayub Khan's regime under intense pressure from women's organisations.
Triple divorce in one sitting was abolished and the Quranic concept of arbitration introduced as indicated in verse 4:35 under which women too have a right to appoint arbitrators to take care of their interests in the matter of divorce. Also, for polygamy, the Muslim family ordinance promulgated by Ayub Khan in 1961 made it obligatory on a man taking a second wife to notify the first wife, obtain her approval and also convince a court of law why a second wife is needed. This was a great relief for Muslim women of Pakistan. Bangladesh then was still part of Pakistan. This amended law continued in Bangladesh even after it seceded from Pakistan. Even in Pakistan, despite pressures from the orthodox, these amendments to Muslim personal law could not be withdrawn. They are still valid in both countries.
The case of Bangladesh is quite interesting. There are strong secular and ultra-orthodox trends. Bangladeshi culture is a strong influence in contending with orthodoxy which is held up by semi-literate imams and ideologically oriented Jamat-e-Islami elements. A couple of months ago, the Dhaka High Court ruled against triple divorce and also said that any imam giving a fatwa in favour of triple divorce was liable to be prosecuted. This ruling caused a great stir in orthodox circles and a strike call was given by the Jamat-e-Islami which turned into a battle between the secular and progressive elements, on the one hand, and the fundamentalists on the other, resulting in loss of several lives. Similarly, the Dhaka High Court had ruled in 1999 that a divorcee is entitled to maintenance for life or until she remarries. This ruling was based on an interpretation of the Quranic verse 2:241. This judgment was overturned by the Bangladesh Supreme Court.
Thus we see progressive and orthodox forces strongly taking on each other in Bangladesh. The secular forces in that country have been demanding further changes in the Muslim personal law. It is, however, interesting to note that like the Muslim minority in India the Hindu minority in Bangladesh resists any change in its personal law. Thus, Hindu women in Bangladesh are still governed by age-old traditions and laws.
Now the Government of Bangladesh is considering a draft Uniform Family Code which goes much further than the Muslim family ordinance of 1961. This draft has been approved by Opposition leaders, including Begum Khaleda Zia. The code will apply to all and will offer women greater control over their lives. Divorce, according to sources, may no longer be a traumatic experience for women in Bangladesh. The main purpose of enacting the Code seems to be to end discrimination against women and give them equal status whatever their religion. This has been prepared by the Bangladesh Mahila Parishad. This women's organisation has been fighting for women's rights for the last 30 years. Says Ms. Ayesha Khan, BMP general secretary: ``We realised that women are subject to oppression and discrimination in matters relating to personal rights. They are also denied access to opportunities for development, despite the Constitution guaranteeing equality to men and women.''
The first part of the draft Code deals with marriage and divorce. Under it, it will be obligatory to register marriage and divorce. It also lays down that the age of marriage for boys shall be 22 and for girls 18. In Bangladesh many girls, especially in rural areas, are married off as soon as they reach puberty, and sometimes even earlier. These marriages, needless to say, are hardly ever registered. These girls suffer greatly when either they are abandoned or divorced by pronouncing triple divorce. If marriages and divorces are registered, it will give women legal grounds to get what is rightfully theirs, points out Ms. Tania Amir, a prominent lawyer. In India too, the National Women's Commission had recommended compulsory registration of marriages but the orthodoxy opposed it vehemently and this recommendation was never considered by the Government.
The proposed UFC also outlines grounds for divorce both for men and women. While there are eight grounds on which men can obtain divorce, women have ten. Besides the usual grounds such as immorality, impotency, and physical and mental torture for which women can claim divorce, the UFC also puts down dowry demands as a valid ground. Of course dowry has no Islamic sanction but to make it a ground for divorce would be a new concept. Dowry is not prevalent in other Islamic countries but is unfortunately quite common among Muslims of the Indian subcontinent. In a recent seminar of Muslim women held in New Delhi, the Ulema agreed that dowry is an anti-Islamic practice and a campaign should be launched against it.
The Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act of 1939 gives a Muslim women the right to divorce if her husband deserts her for more than four years. The UFC, however, lays down that if a husband does not pay maintenance for two years or is unheard of for the same period, a woman shall be entitled to demand divorce. In fact, even if the husband is addicted to drugs of any sort, a divorce claim would be valid. A man too could demand divorce if his wife is a drug addict. However, according to the draft UFC of Bangladesh, a man will be entitled to divorce if his wife is lesbian, but a woman cannot claim divorce if her husband is gay.
In the second part of the UFC, maintenance is to be made compulsory and uniform transcending religious customs and traditional laws. While laying down the grounds for maintenance, it also lays down the course of action to be taken if it is not paid. Ms. Farida Arif, a woman activist from Bangladesh, says the number of abandoned women is on the rise. Some trusts and NGOs look after the distressed women. Hence a clear line of action for maintenance is very necessary.
The other parts of the UFC provide for appointment of guardians for minors, adoption etc. The Code provides for uniform law of adoption. It simplifies procedure for adoption by married couples but does not make provision for adoption for a single man or woman. The code also provides for a uniform law of inheritance. Property rights are most contentious. Under the UFC, women married or un-married, shall have equal rights to property. Children born out of wedlock have a right to maternal property. This will of course be the most contentious part of the UFC as in the shariat equal rights to property for women does not exist.
Of course, the draft UFC will be opposed by the orthodox sections but women's organisations will put pressure for its enactment. Muslim women in India also are now pressing for change if one goes by the proceedings of the April seminar in New Delhi where a number of women critiqued the legality of triple divorce and polygamy and wanted the Muslim personal law board to de-legislate triple divorce and regulate polygamy.
http://thehindujobs.com/thehindu/2001/05/14/stories/05142523.htm
Coulter’s Anti-Semitism is Evangelical Orthodoxy
by KTK
October 11th, 2007
The right-wing freakshow that is Ann Coulter is back in the news today for offensive remarks about . . . oh, lots of things, including Jews. What no one seems to have noticed is that, this time, Coulter didn’t make up her latest outrage - she was just saying in public what right-wing evangelicals have been saying among themselves, quite explicitly, for decades.
On the CNBC talkshow “The Big Idea”, last Monday, she was asked “what this country would look like” if her “dream” came true. Her answer:
It would look like New York City during the Republican National Convention. In fact, that’s what I think heaven is going to look like. . . .
People were happy. They’re Christian. They’re tolerant. They defend America . . . .
Apparently heaven is comprised of happy, joyful, lily-white Republicans crammed nervously into a single building surrounded by cops, while George Bush screeches about gays and stem cells and the citizens are herded into holding pens and arrested without grounds. I can see why she’d like that, but her Jewish interviewer seemed to think it was odd that she specified they’d all have to be Christian as well. (He didn’t challenge any other part of her statement.)
Coulter went on to helpfully explain that, in her “dream” world, there would be no Jews, because they’d all have been converted to Christianity, and that in fact Christianity itself really is Judaism, just “perfected”.
DEUTSCH: Christian — so we should be Christian? It would be better if we were all Christian?
COULTER: Yes.
DEUTSCH: We should all be Christian?
COULTER: Yes. Would you like to come to church with me, Donny? . . .
DEUTSCH: [Y]ou said I should not — we should just throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians, then, or –
COULTER: Yeah.
DEUTSCH: Really?
COULTER: Well, it’s a lot easier. It’s kind of a fast track.
DEUTSCH: Really?
COULTER: Yeah. You have to obey. . . .
COULTER: No, we think — we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say.
DEUTSCH: Wow, you didn’t really say that, did you?
COULTER: Yes. That is what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express. You have to obey laws. We know we’re all sinners –
DEUTSCH: In my old days, I would have argued — when you say something absurd like that, there’s no –
COULTER: What’s absurd?
DEUTSCH: Jews are going to be perfected. I’m going to go off and try to perfect myself –
COULTER: Well, that’s what the New Testament says.
DEUTSCH: Ann Coulter, author of If Democrats Had Any Brains, They’d Be Republicans, and if Ann Coulter had any brains, she would not say Jews need to be perfected. I’m offended by that personally. And we’ll have more Big Idea when we come back.
[BREAK]
DEUTSCH: Welcome back to The Big Idea. During the break, Ann said she wanted to explain her last comment. So I’m going to give her a chance. So you don’t think that was offensive?
COULTER: No. I’m sorry. It is not intended to be. I don’t think you should take it that way, but that is what Christians consider themselves: perfected Jews. We believe the Old Testament. As you know from the Old Testament, God was constantly getting fed up with humans for not being able to, you know, live up to all the laws. What Christians believe — this is just a statement of what the New Testament is — is that that’s why Christ came and died for our sins. Christians believe the Old Testament. You don’t believe our testament.
DEUTSCH: You said — your exact words were, “Jews need to be perfected.” Those are the words out of your mouth.
COULTER: No, I’m saying that’s what a Christian is.
DEUTSCH: But that’s what you said — don’t you see how hateful, how anti-Semitic –
COULTER: No!
DEUTSCH: How do you not see? You’re an educated woman. How do you not see that?
COULTER: That isn’t hateful at all.
DEUTSCH: But that’s even a scarier thought. OK –
COULTER: No, no, no, no, no. I don’t want you being offended by this. This is what Christians consider themselves, because our testament is the continuation of your testament. You know that. So we think Jews go to heaven. I mean, [Rev. Jerry] Falwell himself said that, but you have to follow laws. Ours is “Christ died for our sins.” We consider ourselves perfected Christians. For me to say that for you to become a Christian is to become a perfected [Jew] is not offensive at all.
It’s been getting a lot of commentary on liberal blogs; the right wing, of course, found nothing to remark on. But the tone of the comments I’ve read is that this is shocking, out of line, and another example of Coulter’s deliberately offensive insanity.
In fact, in this case Coulter’s just stating a position that is perfectly mainstream on the religious right. Seeing Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, evangelical Christians often claim that Christianity is the follow-on to Judaism that Jews have in fact been waiting for for over 6,000 years, and the Jews just don’t realize it. (This is the rationale behind both “Jews for Jesus” - Jewish converts to Christianity, one of whose ad slogans is “Be more Jewish - believe in Jesus”, and the “Messianic Jew” movement, made up of right-wing Christians who expropriate Jewish dress and symbolism, including the use of Torah scrolls and other sacred objects, for use in Christian rituals.) Jews who realize the truth about Jesus as the Messiah will become “perfected” by becoming Christians. During the Apocalypse of the Armageddon of the Final Days of the Last Judgment™, those Jews who haven’t “perfected” themselves will, depending on which evangelical peyote-trip you’re on, either be killed violently and condemned to eternal torment, or just converted to Christianity against their will.
This is all standard stuff - and, as has been widely remarked, the source of evangelical support for Israel, which they defend partly because they believe God commands it, but also because doing so, in their minds, fulfills some sort of prophecy that will hasten the Apocalypse and the final destruction of Judaism and all other non-Christian religions. Again, this is standard among “millenialist” (apocalyptic) evangelicals, who - contrary to popular belief - are only a minority of Christians, but a large one.
Critics also seemed to believe that Coulter’s claim about “perfected Jews” was some sort of implication that real Jews were imperfect. It is, of course, but it’s not a claim she invented. “Perfected Judaism” is a term of art among evangelicals; Coulter was saying nothing new in using it.
The bottom line is that Coulter’s condescending and offensive remarks about Judaism - which she blandly states are “not offensive”, as if the fact that she is comfortable with her own anti-Semitism means it’s OK - are in this case not a product of her own diseased and vicious mind, but are merely ordinary mainstream right-wing Christian theology. The real story is not that Ann Coulter is nasty and crazy - that’s old news. The story is that the religion practiced by George W. Bush and his entire right-wing “base” is just as nasty and crazy as Ann Coulter - which in turn is the reason the right wing is not trying to distance itself from Coulter this time. They can’t. They are her.
UPDATE: Some of the right-wing blogs now are getting into the game, but with predictably self-righteous obliviousness.
Debbie Schlussel not only endorses Coulter’s assessment of Schussel’s own religion, but goes one further to assert that Jews feel just the same about everyone else, too:
[I]t’s abundantly clear what she was talking about. To wit: That we, as Jews, don’t accept the full Christian Bible, and therefore, it’s the Christian belief that we need to be fully accepting of that.
. . . To you far-left Jews and other uber-liberals who want to rush off and call Ann an anti-Semite, that means that we as Jews believe Christians and Hindus (and definitely, Muslims) are not Chosen. Does that make me a religious bigot? Nope. It just means I actually believe in my religion.
It’s not only not bad to say the things Coulter says, it’s good to say them about even more people! If you actually believe in your religion then of course its teachings can’t be bigoted. (With typical tact, she then goes on to assert that Deutsch, of CNBC, was “lying” in claiming to be a “true” Jew himself, and that liberalism is the “real religion” of “Jewish libs”. Ohhhkayyyy . . .)
Charles Johnson, at his “Little Green Footballs” vomitorium (no link, thanks), observes, correctly, that: “From my reading, Coulter was simply stating standard Christian doctrine . . . .” - but he says almost nothing more than this. For him, that in itself is proof that Coulter is being unfairly criticized.
Omri Ceren, at “Mere Rhetoric”, regards the reactions to Coulter as the real story:
Liberals take their own fashionable, spineless disattachment from the world - “believing too much in something is so unsophisticated.” They follow it to its logical conclusion of vapid multiculturalism, where asserting passionate belief is an attack on some incredibly fragile Other - “believing too much in something is intolerant.” And then when they have to deal with a normal, healthy person of faith, their self-righteous myopia triggers everything from shocked offense to a mindboggling inability to even understand what’s at stake. . . .
[Coulter has] got a genuine point. And that’s the intuitive observation that, rather than being in tension with one another, genuine religious tolerance actually requires strong belief. This is certainly where some of the best Jewish theologians have been ending up. It also has the benefit of making sense - if someone’s confident in their beliefs, they don’t take it as an attack when someone else is also confident in their own beliefs. Disagreement is not tantamount to aggression and insult. . . .
Coulter is stating that part of being a Christian is believing that Christianity is true, which has the fortunate side effect of also implying that Jews are saved for believing that Judaism is true. What a bigot!
So, for him, “we should just throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians, then, or – . . . Yeah”, and “we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say . . . That is what Christianity is” is merely “asserting passionate belief” on the part of a “normal, healthy person of faith” who just happens to want another entire religion to disappear in favor of her own. Not only is ”disagreement” not “tantamount to aggression and insult”, but neither is saying an entire religious group should be “perfected” by conversion and cease to exist!
“The Anchoress” is distressed that Coulter has set the right-wing cause back by treading clumsily, but, apparently, for no other reason:
This is going to be the caricature of Christians and conservatives for the next 18 months, (and beyond) and it’s going to stick because people want it to stick and because it’s EASIER to let it stick than to find out what this woman - who is really out of her depths here - was trying to say. . . .
If you don’t like the way Christians are stereotyped these days, well, thank Mrs. Coulter for just making things that much more difficult! . . .
[T]his seems like a pretty dumb, clumsy and inarticulate interview and more importantly, it is a pointless exercise that makes Coulter (and Christians) sound like judgmental automatons who want to walk over you or convert you. This is going to be added to the ever-growing moral equivalence narrative that says “Christians are just like Islamic Fundamentalists!”
The Anchoress doesn’t point out, but does seem to realize, that the things Coulter says that make Christians seem like judgmental automatons who want to walk over or convert you are the things Christians actually believe, expressed in the language Christians actually use.
And that really sums up the right-wing reaction. It is acknowledged that this offensiveness is mainstream Christian dogma - traceable back to the Bible itself (whence the term “perfected”, in this context, originally appears) but largely the meat and potatoes of the evangelical right today. (The Catholic church formally renounced conversion of the Jews under John Paul II, though the current Pope is flirting with it again.) But it is taken for granted by these commentators that pointing out the mainstream acceptance of these beliefs absolves Coulter of offense in stating them. Not one defender questions whether that belief - that there is not only a distinction between Jewish and Christian beliefs, but that Jews ought to or have to abandon their version - is one decent Christians ought to hold; all assume that because this dismissive and offensive position regarding Judaism is one many Christians hold, it is OK to hold it.
But the problem is not, as The Anchoress seems to think, that Coulter didn’t express herself with sufficient gravitas. Though she is, as usual, gleefully indulgent in her offensiveness, the real issue is what she said, not how she said it. (This is often the issue for Coulter, and it often goes overlooked. She is deliberately provocative and also a horrible person, but the former often gets the attention at the expense of the latter. And since she is simply devoid of any concern for other people’s feelings, or normal standards of decency, she is more than happy to let people remark on her offensive manner, while they let her substantive content go unchallenged.) The ideas she espouses are no more congenial for being common, mainstream, or integral with Christianity. And the fact that so many less-crazy Christians hold those ideas is the real story - not that Coulter stripped the veneer of respectability off of them.
The blogger at “Isreallycool” seems to get it, sort of:
Coulter degraded my religion, and this is offensive to me. Does it offend me that most Christians believe what she said? No, because they don’t rub my face in it, like Coulter did.
I am not offended by Coulter because of her Christian beliefs. I am offended because she showed a complete disregard for the feelings of others, those others beings practioners of other religions.
(As he notes, the issue is that her beliefs are offensive - not merely that she stated them offensively. But I can’t help wondering why you wouldn’t be offended by knowing that most religious believers hold offensive opinions about you, as long as they don’t say it out loud. Possibly his point is that Coulter gave offense by openly insulting people, whereas unstated bigoted beliefs are offensive but do not cause distress by direct imposition. But that makes the holders only marginally better people.)
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