How Hatred Muslim Campaign Continues with Media Hype!RUSDIE Misused as Anti Muslim Zihad Super Icon!The Jaipur Literature Festival ended without any participation from writer Salman Rushdie. A video chat scheduled for 3.45 pm was called off by the organizers of the event and the owners of the venue.Salman Rushdie on Tuesday described as a 'awful' the cancellation of his video address to Jaipur Literature Festival, claiming that threat from Muslim groups stifled free speech.
Mamata says no to all-party MLA team probe into farmers' deaths!Governor counters Mamata on farmer suicides!
Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and
How Hatred Muslim Campaign Continues with Media Hype!RUSDIE Misused as Anti Muslim Zihad Super Icon!The Jaipur Literature Festival ended without any participation from writer Salman Rushdie. A video chat scheduled for 3.45 pm was called off by the organizers of the event and the owners of the venue.Salman Rushdie on Tuesday described as a 'awful' the cancellation of his video address to Jaipur Literature Festival, claiming that threat from Muslim groups stifled free speech.
"A Cabinet Committee will take a view on the Unique Identification Authority of India's (UIDAI) proposal for expanding its mandate to enroll the entire population," a source said.
The Planning Commission and the Home Ministry are locked in a hard tussle over the unique identification number project and both of them had taken the issue to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a solution.
The government, the source said, will have to take a decision as UIDAI is likely to complete the mandate of enrolling 200 million residents even before the deadline of March 31 this year.
According to sources, the Finance Ministry is not opposed to the UIDAI proposal but it does not want the duplication of work.
However, Telecom and HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, sources said, is supporting the Home Ministry proposal to create a digital data base of the entire population which will be called the National Population Register (NPR).
At the centre of the controversy is the collection of bio-metric data of all residents.
While the Home Ministry has maintained that the Registrar General of India (RGI) under it has been mandated to collect the data through the NPR, the Nandan Nilekani-led UIDAI has also been authorised to gather the information.
Home Minister P Chidambaram has sought clarity on the status on who will capture bio-metric data -- RGI or UIDAI. The Home Ministry feels the data collected by UIDAI was not secure as it is not verified by a government servant.
The data collection by UIDAI has been done by hired organisations which is a cause of concern for the Home Minister.
UIDAI has already enrolled 170 million residents.
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has thrown his full weight behind the UIDAI saying the project should continue.
According to the Home Ministry proposal, chip-based smart cards will be issued to all residents on the basis of the record maintained by the NPR-- a digital database under construction.
On concerns over duplication of work and extra burden on exchequer, Ahulwalia had stated that the project is well worth it. The Commission wants more resources for the authority for continuation of its work.
Author Salman Rushdie poses for a photograph in central London, in this file photo. (Reuters)
Author Salman Rushdie on Tuesday said that "Indian politicians are in bed with extremist groups", reacting angrily to the cancellation of his visit to India and video address for the Jaipur Literature Festival. "There is a lot of personal disappointment, but overwhelmingly for India,
Blaming the upcoming assembly elections for the controversy, he said that he has visited India, including Jaipur, many times in last 8-9 years but is "at a loss to understand why it has happened now."
"While I've been cast as enemy of Islam, which is ludicrous, the real enemies of Islam are maulvis, extremists, because they reiterate the image of Islam as intolerant," he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the writer said that the authorities had been "awful" by cancelling his video link for the Jaipur Literature Festival. The author posted his reaction on Twitter.
"#JLF Videolink cancellation: awful. Just did long interview w @BDUTT for NDTV. I feel a lot better now I've had my say. I hope it airs soon," Rushdie tweeted.
"Threat of violence by Muslim groups stifled free speech today. In a true democracy all get to speak, not just the ones making threats," he further posted on the social networking site.
Rushdie's video conference at the Jaipur Literature Festival was called off finally after much flip flop over it in Jaipur. A dejected and hurt Sanjoy Roy, the festival organiser, said it's unfortunate that once again we are being bullied and have to step down, before leaving the stage in tears.
Rushdie had called off his visit to Jaipur citing threats to his life from "paid assassins". But later he accused Rajasthan Police of hatching a plot about hitmen to keep him away from the festival where he was expected to be the star attraction. Some Muslim groups had also protested his proposed visit. But then the festival organisers said he would address the festival through a video link.
The data released in December 2010 confirms a rising trend, with at least 17,368 farmers killing themselves in India in 2009, up by 1,172 from 2008.Though the number of farmers' suicides in Maharashtra registered a fall of 930 in 2009, the state with 2,872 suicides continued to be the worst in the country, 10th year in a row, according to the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data.
At least 1,27,151 people in the country lost their lives by committing suicide in 2009, indicating an increase of 1.7% over the previous year's figure (1,25,017). The rate of farmers' suicides was thus higher at more than 7% over the previous year, and over four times the general suicides rate, the data reveals. This means that among all professionals, farmers remain most vulnerable.
Forty-eight out of 348 suicide deaths in the country every day, the data shows, were of farmers. On an average, around 47 farmers
killed themselves every day since 2004, from when the numbers spiked. This comes to one farmer suicide every 30 minutes.
Maharashtra's figure of farmers' suicides was 590 more than that registered in Karnataka, the second worst. Experts say the trend, despite the existence of special packages in some states, is disturbing given that it is but one indication of the several that there is no let-up, whatsoever, in the agrarian distress.
Between 2003 and 2007, Maharashtra breached the 4,000 mark in farmer suicides thrice. Over 12,000 farmers committed suicide in the state in this period.
The 2009 data in the NCRB's annual report on 'Accidental deaths and suicides' released last month brings the all-India tally since 1997 to a staggering 2,16,500. Add the incomplete data of 1995 and 1996 reported by a few states - 24,449 suicides; the total soars to 240949 - or about a quarter of a million.
An institution within the Union home ministry, the NCRB is tracking farmer suicides data since 1995, but it was in 1997 that all the states began reporting the figure of suicides among farmers.
The data, however, does not desegregate the region-wise situation, so how many farmers in Vidarbha killed themselves in 2009 can't be known.
But a recent note by the divisional commissioner to the chief minister of Maharashtra says that 1,004 farmers committed suicide in the six worst-affected districts of western Vidarbha that year, a marginal decline over the previous few years, but still a third of the state's actual figure. Of that, only 263 suicides were due to agrarian distress, the note says.
That is, only about a fourth of the total suicides were due to indebtedness, where the debts were from formal sources like the banks or the primary agriculture societies. The government does not take into account private debts. In the region, 55% farmers do not fall in the formal credit network; they borrow from private sources.
The note mentions that despite special packages - the CM's Rs1,075-crore package announced in 2005 and the PM's Rs3,750-crore package in 2006 besides the Centre's loan waiver scheme - the suicides show only a marginal decline. In 2010, western Vidarbha logged in 1,060 suicides, of which 213 cases were due to agrarian crisis. The note says that 7,104 farmers committed suicide in the six districts between 2001 and 2010, and 2,429 or a third were found eligible cases for the Rs1 lakh ex-gratia to the family members. The figure excludes suicides by women farmers.
The six districts have a very high SMR (suicide mortality rate or the number of suicides per 1 lakh population) of between 30 and 60 as against the state's average of 13.2 and 10.9 for the country.
Though 18 of 28 states reported higher farmer suicide numbers in 2009, some, like Jammu & Kashmir or Uttarakhand, saw a negligible rise. But the share of big five states that have been reporting a very high farmer suicides rate for nearly a
decade now - Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh - continued to be high, with 10,765 suicides or 62% of the total.
Maharashtra has seen 44,276 farmer suicides since 1997, or over a fifth of the total suicides. This year it's logged 2,872 suicides, down by 930 compared to 2008. Karnataka, with 2,282 in 2009, saw the highest rise of 545 of all states. Andhra Pradesh recorded 2,414, 309 more than the previous year's tally, while Madhya Pradesh, 1,395, and Chhattisgarh, 1,802, saw a marginal increase. Inaddition to these states, Tamil Nadu's tally almost doubled from 512 in 2008 to 1,060 in 2009.
Members of the Indian Muslim community and visitors wait for the announcement cancelling Salman Rushdie's video link session during JLF in Jaipur - AFP
Farmer suicides: Maharastra continues to be worst-affected 10th year in a row
Mamata says no to all-party MLA team probe into farmers' deaths!Governor counters Mamata on farmer suicides!
Cabinet may take final call on future of UIDAI on Wednesday
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Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and
Time - SEVEN HUNDRED NINETY
Palash Biswashttp://indianliberationnews.com/
http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/
http://basantipurtimes.blogspot.com/
Smita Narula on Report: Every 30 Minutes: Farmer Suicides, Human ... | |
 *► 7:41► 7:41 | www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql0mo-5jPbc11 May 2011 - 8 min - Uploaded by mediagrrl9 Democracy Now! speaks with Smita Narula, the co-author of the new report, " Every Thirty Minutes: Farmer ... |
How Hatred Muslim Campaign Continues with Media Hype!RUSDIE Misused as Anti Muslim Zihad Super Icon!The Jaipur Literature Festival ended without any participation from writer Salman Rushdie. A video chat scheduled for 3.45 pm was called off by the organizers of the event and the owners of the venue.Salman Rushdie on Tuesday described as a 'awful' the cancellation of his video address to Jaipur Literature Festival, claiming that threat from Muslim groups stifled free speech.
Cabinet may take final call on future of UIDAI on Wednesday
The government is likely to take the final decision tomorrow on the proposal to give statutory powers to Nandan Nilekani-led UIDAI to issue national identity cards to the entire population instead of the mandated 200 million."A Cabinet Committee will take a view on the Unique Identification Authority of India's (UIDAI) proposal for expanding its mandate to enroll the entire population," a source said.
The Planning Commission and the Home Ministry are locked in a hard tussle over the unique identification number project and both of them had taken the issue to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a solution.
The government, the source said, will have to take a decision as UIDAI is likely to complete the mandate of enrolling 200 million residents even before the deadline of March 31 this year.
According to sources, the Finance Ministry is not opposed to the UIDAI proposal but it does not want the duplication of work.
However, Telecom and HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, sources said, is supporting the Home Ministry proposal to create a digital data base of the entire population which will be called the National Population Register (NPR).
At the centre of the controversy is the collection of bio-metric data of all residents.
While the Home Ministry has maintained that the Registrar General of India (RGI) under it has been mandated to collect the data through the NPR, the Nandan Nilekani-led UIDAI has also been authorised to gather the information.
Home Minister P Chidambaram has sought clarity on the status on who will capture bio-metric data -- RGI or UIDAI. The Home Ministry feels the data collected by UIDAI was not secure as it is not verified by a government servant.
The data collection by UIDAI has been done by hired organisations which is a cause of concern for the Home Minister.
UIDAI has already enrolled 170 million residents.
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has thrown his full weight behind the UIDAI saying the project should continue.
According to the Home Ministry proposal, chip-based smart cards will be issued to all residents on the basis of the record maintained by the NPR-- a digital database under construction.
On concerns over duplication of work and extra burden on exchequer, Ahulwalia had stated that the project is well worth it. The Commission wants more resources for the authority for continuation of its work.
Author Salman Rushdie poses for a photograph in central London, in this file photo. (Reuters)
Author Salman Rushdie on Tuesday said that "Indian politicians are in bed with extremist groups", reacting angrily to the cancellation of his visit to India and video address for the Jaipur Literature Festival. "There is a lot of personal disappointment, but overwhelmingly for India,
related stories
Blaming the upcoming assembly elections for the controversy, he said that he has visited India, including Jaipur, many times in last 8-9 years but is "at a loss to understand why it has happened now."
"While I've been cast as enemy of Islam, which is ludicrous, the real enemies of Islam are maulvis, extremists, because they reiterate the image of Islam as intolerant," he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the writer said that the authorities had been "awful" by cancelling his video link for the Jaipur Literature Festival. The author posted his reaction on Twitter.
"#JLF Videolink cancellation: awful. Just did long interview w @BDUTT for NDTV. I feel a lot better now I've had my say. I hope it airs soon," Rushdie tweeted.
"Threat of violence by Muslim groups stifled free speech today. In a true democracy all get to speak, not just the ones making threats," he further posted on the social networking site.
Rushdie's video conference at the Jaipur Literature Festival was called off finally after much flip flop over it in Jaipur. A dejected and hurt Sanjoy Roy, the festival organiser, said it's unfortunate that once again we are being bullied and have to step down, before leaving the stage in tears.
Rushdie had called off his visit to Jaipur citing threats to his life from "paid assassins". But later he accused Rajasthan Police of hatching a plot about hitmen to keep him away from the festival where he was expected to be the star attraction. Some Muslim groups had also protested his proposed visit. But then the festival organisers said he would address the festival through a video link.
Meanwhile,the West Bengal State Human Rights Commission has decided to intervene into what has become a political issue from a local affair. The Human Rights Commission called for a report from the chief secretary on the suicide of farmers in the state.Justice Narayan Chandra Sil, chairperson of the commission, said that an order was issued to the chief secretary to file a report within a month on the issue of suicide of farmers. A source in the commission said that the authorities had noticed several incidents of farmers' suicide in the media. After going through the media reports, the commission took cognizance on this issue and asked the chief secretary to file a report on the same.In the past two months, more than 20 farmers committed suicide in different districts, allegedly for not getting adequate prices for their produce of paddy and potato. The farmers cultivated paddy after taking loans from money lenders, but the bumper crops of paddy this year led to fall in prices across the state. Also, it was alleged that the state did not procure enough paddy from the farmers. Administration claimed that farmers committed suicide due to family problems.
The data released in December 2010 confirms a rising trend, with at least 17,368 farmers killing themselves in India in 2009, up by 1,172 from 2008.Though the number of farmers' suicides in Maharashtra registered a fall of 930 in 2009, the state with 2,872 suicides continued to be the worst in the country, 10th year in a row, according to the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data.
At least 1,27,151 people in the country lost their lives by committing suicide in 2009, indicating an increase of 1.7% over the previous year's figure (1,25,017). The rate of farmers' suicides was thus higher at more than 7% over the previous year, and over four times the general suicides rate, the data reveals. This means that among all professionals, farmers remain most vulnerable.
Forty-eight out of 348 suicide deaths in the country every day, the data shows, were of farmers. On an average, around 47 farmers
killed themselves every day since 2004, from when the numbers spiked. This comes to one farmer suicide every 30 minutes.
Maharashtra's figure of farmers' suicides was 590 more than that registered in Karnataka, the second worst. Experts say the trend, despite the existence of special packages in some states, is disturbing given that it is but one indication of the several that there is no let-up, whatsoever, in the agrarian distress.
Between 2003 and 2007, Maharashtra breached the 4,000 mark in farmer suicides thrice. Over 12,000 farmers committed suicide in the state in this period.
The 2009 data in the NCRB's annual report on 'Accidental deaths and suicides' released last month brings the all-India tally since 1997 to a staggering 2,16,500. Add the incomplete data of 1995 and 1996 reported by a few states - 24,449 suicides; the total soars to 240949 - or about a quarter of a million.
An institution within the Union home ministry, the NCRB is tracking farmer suicides data since 1995, but it was in 1997 that all the states began reporting the figure of suicides among farmers.
The data, however, does not desegregate the region-wise situation, so how many farmers in Vidarbha killed themselves in 2009 can't be known.
But a recent note by the divisional commissioner to the chief minister of Maharashtra says that 1,004 farmers committed suicide in the six worst-affected districts of western Vidarbha that year, a marginal decline over the previous few years, but still a third of the state's actual figure. Of that, only 263 suicides were due to agrarian distress, the note says.
That is, only about a fourth of the total suicides were due to indebtedness, where the debts were from formal sources like the banks or the primary agriculture societies. The government does not take into account private debts. In the region, 55% farmers do not fall in the formal credit network; they borrow from private sources.
The note mentions that despite special packages - the CM's Rs1,075-crore package announced in 2005 and the PM's Rs3,750-crore package in 2006 besides the Centre's loan waiver scheme - the suicides show only a marginal decline. In 2010, western Vidarbha logged in 1,060 suicides, of which 213 cases were due to agrarian crisis. The note says that 7,104 farmers committed suicide in the six districts between 2001 and 2010, and 2,429 or a third were found eligible cases for the Rs1 lakh ex-gratia to the family members. The figure excludes suicides by women farmers.
The six districts have a very high SMR (suicide mortality rate or the number of suicides per 1 lakh population) of between 30 and 60 as against the state's average of 13.2 and 10.9 for the country.
Though 18 of 28 states reported higher farmer suicide numbers in 2009, some, like Jammu & Kashmir or Uttarakhand, saw a negligible rise. But the share of big five states that have been reporting a very high farmer suicides rate for nearly a
decade now - Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh - continued to be high, with 10,765 suicides or 62% of the total.
Maharashtra has seen 44,276 farmer suicides since 1997, or over a fifth of the total suicides. This year it's logged 2,872 suicides, down by 930 compared to 2008. Karnataka, with 2,282 in 2009, saw the highest rise of 545 of all states. Andhra Pradesh recorded 2,414, 309 more than the previous year's tally, while Madhya Pradesh, 1,395, and Chhattisgarh, 1,802, saw a marginal increase. Inaddition to these states, Tamil Nadu's tally almost doubled from 512 in 2008 to 1,060 in 2009.
Members of the Indian Muslim community and visitors wait for the announcement cancelling Salman Rushdie's video link session during JLF in Jaipur - AFP
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Asia's largest literature festival cancelled a televised speech by Salman Rushdie minutes before it was scheduled to begin on Tuesday, amid death threats to its organizer and fears of violent protests at the event by Muslim groups.Indian Brahamin Bania Media intensify hate Campaign against Muslims and Polarise Excluded Coomunities SC, ST and OBC, Hinduising them to defend the Manusmriti Rule.
As we all know,there are a lot of issues facing Indian Muslims, as depicted earlier by Gopal Singh Committee and now by Sachar Committee report which clearly depicts the Muslims of India as the most marginalized community compared to other communities. Official figures available, portray the Muslim standard graph as the lowest whether in terms of per-capita income, literacy or living standard. There is under-representation of Muslims in all kinds of Government jobs. Prevalence of communal feelings against them is a common problem. There is no magic wand to change this grim situation in a few moments but the main priority as of now that reservations must be extended to Muslims as recommended by Mishra Commission as it is an assured way to fight this discrimination.
We also know, Sachar Commmitte report was misused to manipulate Mandate in defence of economic ethnic Cleasning. But the report is NOT to be Implemented as the Mishra Commision report is predestined in the same way.
Indian media is manufacturing hate against Muslims on the basis of rumours and baseless reports spread by communal elements. We have just heard about the explosion in Margao, Goa, in which Malgonda Patil, a Sangli-based Sanatan Sanstha member was killed. He was going to explode bombs on the eve of Diwali and then as usual accuse Muslims for the same. The Sanathan Sanstha office has been raided by the police and it was found that the place is used for manufacturing bombs. This ground-breaking revelation has been blacked out by the electronic media. The media is concentrating on terrorism in Pakistan and Afghanistan or the Taliban threat while ignoring these types of real domestic threats. The media kills Muslim stories or buries them somewhere inside where nobody will read them while on the front page they create the myth of Muslim terrorism. This labeling of Muslims as terrorists got a boost after 9/11 when President George W Bush used the word "Crusade" for his war against Muslims and this western label was lapped up by our journalists here to malign Muslims who have nothing to do with terrorism or Taliban.
While the Jaipur Literature Festival organisers were busy discussing the pros and cons of linking writer Salman Rushdie to the festival audience via video, more than six criminal complaints were filed in different courts in Jaipur and Ajmer against Rushdie, and against other authors for reading out from his book The Satanic Verses, which is banned in India.
Muslim - Hindu Riots In India: speech by Waman Meshram: Bamcef ...
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► 9:08► 9:08www.youtube.com/watch?v=t19Pz4EUNwA8 May 2010 - 9 min - Uploaded by bamcefvideo
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In Jaipur, six criminal complaints were filed, including one by BJP minority cell leader Daulat Khan, against the authors, for hurting sentiments by allegedly reading passages from Satanic Verses. His complaint will come up for hearing Tuesday.
The Milli Council's Abdul Latif Arco had filed a complaint against those who read out passages. Social worker Ashok Kumar was the first, filing a complaint against the writers and organisers under IPC Sections 153A, 295A and 124.
Muslim Mahasabha's Nasir Zahid, and two others, Mohammed Naim and Nasim Khan, moved separate complaints in the same way.
'Awful,' the controversial author of Satanic Verses tweeted hours after organisers called off the video address.
"Threat of violence by Muslim groups stifled free speech today. In a true democracy all get to speak, not just the ones making threats," he said.
He also re-tweeted the terming of the entire episode as a 'black farce'. The much-anticipated video address by Rushdie at the ongoing JLF was cancelled at the last moment today because of fears of violence as Muslim organisations staged protests.
The decision to call off the video address by the 'Satanic Verses' author came after a meeting festival organisers had with leaders of Muslim organisations. 'Satanic Verses' has been banned in India for allegedly hurting the sentiments of the Muslim community.
The book cast a shadow on the Festival when four authors read out passages from it leading to complaints against them and the organisers in courts in Jaipur and Ajmer.
Sanjoy Roy, a director of the literature festival, told journalists Monday evening that the session with Salman Rushdie is scheduled for 3.45 pm Tuesday via a video link.
Mr Roy said the organisers are in touch with the Jaipur police, having sent a formal note informing them about the session, but that they had not heard anything from the officials yet. The discussion, he said, will be on Midnight's Children and its adaptation for a film being directed by Deepa Mehta.
Senior police officers, many of whom have been attending festival sessions, have been telling journalists, off the record, that the session with Rushdie on Tuesday will not take place.
The much-anticipated video address by controversial writer Salman Rushdie was cancelled at the last moment on Tuesday because of fears of violence as Muslim organisations staged protests.
The decision to call off the video address by the Satanic Verses writer came after a meeting festival organisers had with leaders of Muslim organisations during which the protesters told them 'even seeing his face is intolerable'.
Announcing the cancellation of Rushdie's address, one of the organisers Sanjay Roy said police had told them that people had got inside the venue to 'disrupt proceedings' and cause violence.
"Some organisations have threatened violence. This is unfortunate, but necessary to avoid violence. It is a fairly iditoic situation. We are once again stepping down from the fight for freedom of expression. We have been pushed to the wall again," Roy said.
"It is unfortunate that we are being bullied again and we had to step down...We had no other way but to listen to save the people here, our children and everyone here," he added.
Earlier, Assistant Commissioner of Police Virendra Jhala said the owners of the venue had conveyed to them they will not allow the video address fearing repercussions. After their meeting with organisers, the protesters also offered namaz at the venue.
The Rushdie session - Midnight's Child - was planned for 3.45 pm where the 65-year-old India-born author was to discuss his childhood, his work, problems faced in the past years and the adaptation of his novel Midnight's Children into a film.
"Salman on screen was an issue. Even seeing his face was intolerable," said Roy quoting the protesters.
Ram Pratap Singh, owner of the venue, said, "I have taken a decision to not allow this video link to go ahead on the advice of the Rajasthan police who are monitoring the situation which is rapidly evolving around us".
"There are large number of people who are averse to this video link and they are actually inside the property. A lot of them have gathered in and around the property...and they have threatened violence" if the video link takes place, he said.
"This is unfortunate but necessary to avoid harm to the property, to all of you, to my children and all the youngsters who are here," he said.
Earlier in the day, the organisers had said that the video address by Rusdhie will take place as scheduled and that there was no need to get permission.
As the video address got cancelled, the organisers went ahead with a panel discussion with Javed Akthar, Tarun Tejpal and Ashok Vajpayee.
Roy said that the police told them that if they wanted to go ahead with the programme, they would provide adequate security.
"We are very very sad...we feel hurt, disgraced," he added. Rushdie's 'Satanic Verses' has been banned in India for allegedly hurting the sentiments of the Muslim community. The book cast a shadow on the Festival when four authors read out passages from it leading to complaints against them and the organisers in courts in Jaipur and Ajmer.
Rushdie had on Sunday took to Twitter to vent his anger on Rajasthan Police's claims that his visit had some security concerns.
"Rajasthan police invented plot to keep away Rushdie' I've investigated, and believe that I was indeed lied to. I am outraged and very angry," he had tweeted. Rushdie said he does not know if the false intelligence information was given by Rajasthan police under instructions from someone.
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Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie is a British Indian novelist and essayist. His second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981. Much of his ...
The Satanic Verses - The Satanic Verses controversy - Midnight's Children - Fatwā
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Jaipur festival cancels Salman Rushdie video link | Books | The ...
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Rushdie row: Serving IPS officer calls Indian police cowards
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BBC News - Salman Rushdie video-link to India festival cancelled
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Mamata says no to all-party MLA team probe into farmers' deaths!Governor counters Mamata on farmer suicides!Agrarian Distress and Farmers' Suicides in Maharashtra (Srijit ...
- igidr.academia.edu/.../Agrarian_Distress_and_Farmers_Suicides_in_...
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Stone, Biotechnology and Suicide in India
- artsci.wustl.edu/~anthro/research/biotech_suicide.html
- Suicide by Farmers in Karnataka: Agrarian Distress and Possible Alleviatory Steps. Economic and Political Weekly 37:2601-2610. FARMERS' VIEW. 1999.
Agriculture - Centre for Environment and Food Security
- www.cefsindia.org/agriculture.html
- The issue of agrarian distress and farmers' suicides is on the top of CEFS agenda. Apart from doing desk research on this issue, we have prepared a dossier on ...
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1 Globalization, Liberalization and Agrarian Distress: A Study of ...
- www.global-labour-university.org/.../51._Globalisation__Liberalisati...
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- 1. Paper for VI. Global Labour University Conference, Berlin. Globalization, Liberalization and Agrarian Distress: A Study of Suicides among Farmers in India ...
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Action Plan to Address Agrarian Distress in India
- www.nabard.org/pdf/final_report_website.pdf
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111124 farmer suicides presentation
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- 24 Nov 2011 – FARMER SUICIDES AND AGRARIAN DISTRESS Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture.
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- www.indianexpress.com/news/Farmer-distress--Deserted.../888506/
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- 10 Nov 2011 – Farm distress in Andhra Pradesh has forced 90 farmers to commitsuicide in Andhra Pradesh in the last few weeks, Raitu Swarajya Vedika and ...
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday ruled out a probe by a team of MLAs belonging to all political parties into reports offarmers' deaths in West Bengal, terming them as incorrect. On the other hand,Governor counters Mamata on farmer suicides!
Her statement came a day after governor M K Narayanan said such incidents were "unfortunately" taking place in the state.
The chief minister rejected the suggestion made by CPI MP from Midnapore and general secretary of the party's peasant wing Probodh Panda when he met her at the state secretariat, seeking her intervention.
The privatisation of the earth's resources is a recipe for famine and desertification, violence against women, hunger, and, as happens in India, the suicide of farmers, writes Vandana Shiva, author and international campaigner for women and the environment.
In this analysis, Shiva writes that until recently water and biodiversity have been commons. Women have been the seed keepers and water keepers in communities. This is the system that privatisation is threatening.
Common access to seed is being destroyed by laws that make it illegal for farmers to manage seeds as a commons and grant the state the power to approve and license varieties and force farmers to seek state approval through "compulsory" registration laws. The result is the destruction of high-quality, reliable, open-pollinated varieties bred and developed by farmers.
Although the links between the growing problem of farmer suicides and their growing dependence on costly purchased external inputs are clear, the Indian government's only response has been to offer more consumer credit to purchase more external inputs. Women are experts in internal input agriculture, an approach that works with the products of the land to create soil fertility and requires no external.
A permanent agriculture can only be based on the permanence of rights – the rights of the farmers, and the people, not private corporations.
"The chief minister told us that she had inquired into the incidents and found out that the 'campaign' that farmers were committing suicide was not correct. Untrue reports are being published in the media in this regard," Panda said.
"When there is no truth in it, where is the need then for sending such a team?" the CPI leader quoted Banerjee as telling the delegation led by him.
Panda said the delegation members tried to convince the chief minister of the need to form an all-party MLA team, referring to the concern voiced by Narayanan.
"We told her it should be ascertained whether such suicides were due to the distress sale of paddy and other agricultural produce by the farmers in different parts of the state," Panda said.
He said the delegation submitted a nine-point memorandum to her and pointed out that prices of potatoes and other agricultural produce have come down in the markets across the state as the peasants were making distress sale of them.
Panda said they requested Banerjee to provide an economic package to the affected marginal farmers and families of the peasants, who reportedly committed suicide, should also be given compensation and that agricultural debts of the farmers be waived.
"Farmers' suicide is an issue engaging the attention of both the Centre and the state government. Such incidents are unfortunately taking place ... We have to find a way to ensure that this does not happen," Narayanan had told reporters on Monday on the sidelines of an event.
Governor M K Narayanan on Sunday broke his silence on farmer suicides in Bengal and linked the deaths to debt. This runs contrary to chief minister Mamata Banerjee's claims that the suicides were due to personal reasons.
"Many of them, I suppose, were deeply in debt. You have to ask Jairam Ramesh what can be done about this because he is in charge of rural programmes," the governor said. As many as 26 farmers have committed suicide in the last four months, allegedly because they could not sell their harvest and were deep in debt. "Farmer suicide is an issue engaging the attention of both the Centre and the state government. Such incidents are unfortunate, and a way has to be found to ensure that this does not happen," the governor said after a programme to mark the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
Hours after his statement, the chief minister acknowledged only a "single farmer death" but stuck to her "conspiracy" theory. "People who have run into debt for the past four to five years and end their life are being branded as farmers. This is a conspiracy. People are being told that if a post-mortem will be conducted and a case lodged anyway, why not claim he is a farmer. These are lies," Mamata said at the inauguration of Subhas Mela at Kankurgachi.
A few days ago, after three back-toback farmer suicides in Burdwan, Mamata had said that the deaths were due to personal problems and not because of falling crop prices and the consequent debt.
On January 19, Mamata had said: "Not a single farmer has died due to falling prices. The deaths of 12 persons were due to personal problems with their personal debts running into crores." Mamata also tried to draw her defence from the farmer deaths during the Left Front rule, claiming that 378 farmers had committed suicide between 2008 and 2010.
Governor M K Narayanan is also annoyed with the rising number of crib deaths in Bengal's hospitals, but defended the government on Monday. "There was no belittling of the issue. I know the state government is deeply concerned and the chief minister is personally looking into it. We need to improve the facilities and that is something which cannot be changed overnight," Narayanan said.
Narayanan has made it clear by now that he is not willing to go down as a "rubber stamp". He has intervened on crucial issues in his own way, sometimes coming out in the open or at times taking up matter with the respective departments.
On campus violence, for instance, he had written to education minister Bratya Basu seeking a clarification on the government's plans to curb the violence. As chancellor, the Governor has often put across his views on doing away with dalatantra (political nepotism).
The Congress in West Bengal on Saturday slammed the state government aboutfarmer suicides. State Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya said chief minister Mamata Banerjee was not briefed properly about the plight of farmers in the state. Officials were trying to downplay the crisis.
Earlier, Left Front chairman Biman Bose had criticized the state government and said leader of the opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra will lead teams to districts where farmers have committed suicide. Bhattacharya, too, said the Congress will send fact-finding teams to the affected districts to find out why they are committing suicide.
"Some officers are trying to downplay the malaise and trying to project that farmers killed themselves due to depression. They are claiming this when 24 farmers have committed suicide. What's the harm in facing the ground reality? Falling prices of crops, piling debt, lack of supply of fertiliser and seeds are leading to depression and death," he said. Bhattacharya said the CM needs to make efforts to gather information from sources other than the officials.
Bhattacharya also demanded compensation for the victims' families. But, he said, "I have no plan to embarrass the government. I am concerned with the plight of the farmers that has been reported in the media."
Bhattacharya's comments came a day after Congress high command allowed Congress minister Manoj Chakrabarty to quit Mamata's ministry.
13/7: Home Ministry plays down rift between Delhi police, Mumbai ATS
The Union Home Ministry on Tuesday acknowledged that there was a lack of co-ordination between Delhi police and Maharashtra ATS in the probe into last year's serial blasts in Mumbai but downplayed the rift between them.
Union Home Secretary RK Singh at the same time said he was very happy that the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) had cracked the 13/7 blast case. He also said there is a need for a standard operating procedure for inter-state anti-terror operations.
A day after ATS announced a breakthrough, Singh said it had worked out the case on the basis of evidence which will be put through legal procedure.
Singh said in order to bring synergy between various forces, Government has set up the National Counter terrorism Centre(NCTC), which will be made operational soon.
"Besides this we, will call Directors General of Police of various state police forces for drafting a standard operating procedure for such kind of operations," he added.
Singh was answering questions from reporters regarding the arrest of two persons including Naquee Ahmed in connection with 13/7 blasts in which 27 people were killed.
When asked whether competitive politics came in the way of arrest of top terrorists keeping in view the kind of information obtained, Singh said "I had a detailed discussion with ATS Chief (Rakesh Maria) on Saturday. He briefed me about his investigations and the Delhi Police and the IB had already briefed me about their operation, we will get some additional reports."
But, he said the Home Ministry would like to ensure a system whereby different agencies work together rather than separately when they are operating in a particular area.
Naquee Ahmed was an informer for Delhi Police and Intelligence Bureau and was helping them in nabbing the two 13/7 bombers Waqas and Tabrez besides a prize catch Yaseen Bhatkal.
About the rift, he said "It is true that IB and Delhi police were running an operation where he was the informer but the fact is that he was an informer in particular operation in which he was supposed to lead these people to a location. He led them to a location where some people were going to come, that is separate.
"That does not protude the fact that he could have been or was involved in the bomb blast. The ATS had come to that conclusion after investigations and the ATS had briefed me about it on Saturday," he added.
Manipur poll: India seeks Myanmar's help in curbing insurgents
India has sought the help of Myanmar in reining in north-east insurgent groups which are planning "large scale" disturbances in the upcoming Manipur Assembly polls.
Home Secretary RK Singh, who led the country's delegation at the 17th National Level Meeting between India and Myanmar last week, mentioned the camps and training facilities of Indian insurgent groups on Myanmar soil and sought its cooperation in dealing with them.
"The Home Secretary especially mentioned that Indian insurgent groups are planning largescale disturbances in the forthcoming elections in Manipur. The leader of Myanmar delegation (Deputy Home Minister Brig Gen Kya Zan Myint) assured that Myanmar would never allow insurgents to use its territory to engage in any hostile activities against its neighbour India," the Home Ministry said in a statement here.
During the meeting, both sides agreed to maintain closer interaction between the nodal points and respective commanding officers of border guarding forces of the two countries for sharing real time intelligence.
India also requested Myanmar to share interrogation reports of arms smugglers arrested by Myanmar security forces to trace recipients of arms smuggling in the country which was agreed to by leader of the Myanmar delegation.
"Both the sides expressed satisfaction over decline in drug trafficking and agreed to regular interaction between drug control agencies of both countries at DG level and DDG level to eliminate the menace of drug trafficking. India offered training and any other support that Myanmar may require to combat drug trafficking," the Home Ministry said.
The two sides agreed to maintain closer interaction between nodal points and respective commanding officers of border guarding forces of the two countries for sharing real time intelligence.
"Both sides expressed satisfaction at the meetings of the Border Liaison Offices (BLOs) at DC/SP level at Moreh/Tamu and Zowakhatar/Rhi to discuss measures for combating arms smuggling, drug trafficking, smuggling of wildlife parts and other issues and it was decided that BLO meetings be held more frequently," the statement said.
It was agreed that a new BLO would be opened at Ukhrul in Manipur and Somra in Myanmar. The Indian side agreed to provide the requisite communication facilities for the additional BLO and Commanding officers level interactions at the border.
India offered its help in training and other expertise to control drug trafficking as both the sides expressed satisfaction over decline in illicit trade and agreed to regular interaction between drug control agencies of both countries at DG level and DDG level to eliminate the menace, the Ministry said.
Both the sides discussed illegal wildlife trafficking, tourism cooperation, training of Myanmar security forces in India and repatriation issues of Myanmar fishermen in Indian prisons and Indian prisoners in Myanmar.
"India offered all possible support to assist Myanmar in its pursuit for better connectivity and overall development," the statement said.
The Indian delegation also called on the Myanmar Minister of Home Affairs and the first Vice President, Myanmar, it said.
Non Stop Death Dance in Nizamabad
Posted by Ramoo on August 30, 2009
NIZAMABAD: Despite chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy asserting a few days ago that the government would ensure that no farmer would commit suicide due to crop failure or mounting debts, 15 ryots have committed suicide in Nizamabad district in the last 22 days alone. And in many of these instances, erratic power supply was stated as the reason for them taking the extreme step.
"Unable to come to terms with the drying up of standing crops, the farmers who sowed the crops by borrowing huge loans from private moneylenders are resorting to suicide," farm expert Ch Krishnamurthy said. Though it rained for a couple of days in Nizamabad town, the prolonged dry spell has hit the district farmers badly. Nearly 30 out of 36 mandals have recorded deficit rainfall in the last two months, officials said.
The heavy rainfall the district has been receiving in the last few days has come as too late for many farmers. Pokala Sailoo, 45, of Mudhelli village in Gandhari mandal and Toorpu Gopal, 48, of Gandhari, were the latest who ended lives on Wednesday.
If clearing the mounting debts was hanging like a sword of Damocles, the farmers were also crippled by withered crops and erratic power supply. "Do I have any other option? It (suicide) is the only alternative for us to run away from the debts," said Kalali Srihari Goud of Devunipalli village in Machareddy mandal. Holding back the tears, Goud said besides the paddy seedlings, his maize crop sown in one acre had dried up at the budding stage itself due to lack of rainfall.
Taking a dig at the government, Goud, who recently borrowed Rs 2 lakh to perform his daughter's marriage and dig borewells, said: "Will the real YSR please come to our rescue?" And Goud is no small farmer — he owns five acres of agriculture land!
It was Nenawat Govind, 25, who set the alarm bells ringing by hanging himself on August 6 at Piskalgutta thanda in Gandhari unable to clear the Rs 2 lakh debt. Debt-ridden Poshatti of Nagepur in Navipet mandal and Bhumanna in Donchanda of Morthad followed Govind and soon it became a death dance.
Three more farmers — Anantha Reddy of Borgam, Beerappa of Nyalkal and Krishana of Mudakpalli of Nizamabad mandal — also ended their lives due to distress. In the intervening period, Macha Karrenna of Gadkol in Sirikonda mandal, Chandu of Madnoor, Gaddam Saireddy of Darpalli, Ramulu and Sailu of Pitlam mandal have committed suicide.
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Posted in Andhra Pradesh, Data, Farmers Suicides | Leave a Comment »
Farmers suicides in Karnataka
Posted by Ramoo on August 30, 2009
BANGALORE, AUGUST 29: Like other states, Karnataka too showing signs of severe agrarian distress in the current financial year. More than 50 farmers committed suicides in less than five months in the current fiscal year.
The BJP government has already declared 86 taluks in 20 districts as drought hit. Standing crops on 16 lakh hectares got damaged on account of deficit rains since June 1. The crop loss in rainfed areas has been estimated at Rs. 720.20 crore and horticultural crops on over 60,000 hectares have been ruined due to scanty rains. In fact, more than 3/4th of lands in the state is rainfed. Only 23 per cent the sowing was depended on irrigation facilities in Karnataka.
Standing food crops and commercial crops got withered in 20 districts following scanty rainfall. The central team visited to the state to said the state's demand for Rs. 394 crore relief is realistic demand.
According to sources in the Government, as on July end, the highest number of suicide cases has been reported from Shimoga (7), followed by Tumkur – six cases, Belgaum and Hassan – five each, Chikmagalur, Bidar, Davangere, and Bijapur – three each, Chitradurga, Dakshina Kannada – two each and Mysore district – one.
Out of the last nine years, the State has experienced droughts for seve
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n years and this is one of the major reasons for farmers taking extreme step. A large number of farmers committed suicide during the drought period from 2000-01 to 2003-04. As many as 337 suicide cases have been reported in 2008-09.
Despite several steps taken by the State government, farmers suicides continued over the years. Cooperatives have been disbursed loans at three per cent rate of interest. To learn new farming methods, the Government sent 633 farmers to China at a cost of Rs. 423.79 lakhs. The government had given Rs. 1,000 each to small and marginal farmers who are dependent on dry lands farming, officials said.
Posted in Data, Farmers Suicides, Karnataka | Leave a Comment »
Farmer couple writes to president, demands mercy killing of four sons
Posted by Ramoo on August 28, 2009
Ani
August 28th, 2009
NEW DELHI – The farmer couple Jeetnarayan and wife of Prabhawati living in Bashi village of Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh have written to the President of India seeking permission for mercy killing of their four sons aged between 10 and 16 years.
The brothers are suffering from an affliction caused by muscular dystrophy, leaving them to lead a life in a vegetative state.
The four children, Durgesh, 16, Sarvesh, 14, Brijesh, 11, and Suresh, 10, were afflicted with the disease when they turned five.
Children cannot even stand on their feet, move their body below the neck, and have to rely on their parents' for every daily activity.
Jeetnarayan has sold everything of financial value in his house to foot the hefty sums spent for the children's treatment.
"Now we are very tired as we just take care of them day and night. There is no time to work even to earn our living. Then we submitted an application to the Prime Minister and also chief of the state. But there was no hearing to our plight. No one came to our door. It's better for the entire family to die rather than live in such a miserable state," said Jeetnarayan
"We wanted treatment to be done. But it's not happening anywhere. We don't have any other option, we are very poor and there is no way to go. We wanted them to be treated but that's not happening anywhere and no treatment can be done. So it's better that we die," said Prabhawati.
Indian laws do no permit euthanasia or mercy killing. (ANI)
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Posted in Farmers Suicides, Orissa | Leave a Comment »
Kisan Incorporated
Posted by Ramoo on August 28, 2009
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/op-ed/kisan-incorporated-414
August 28th, 2009
By G.V. Ramanjaneyulu & Kavitha Kuruganti
Some recent developments in India's agri-related laws might make former finance minister P. Chidambaram's infamous dream of seeing "only 15 per cent of Indians in villages" come true much faster than anyone thought possible. Moves are afoot to ensure large-scale displacement of farmers and agricultural workers — the most blatant move is already underway in Andhra Pradesh, under Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy. An experiment under the garb of "farmers cooperative" was approved by the state Cabinet recently, not very different from what his rival N. Chandrababu Naidu attempted some years ago. The arguments too are old: Small holdings lead to low productivity, low income, low investments and, this vicious cycle goes on.
This argument ignores the fact that more than 900 scientists from 110 countries have recently concluded an international process, called the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), pointing out that small-holding ecological farming is the way forward. We are also familiar with the subsidies that prop up intensive, large-scale models of farming elsewhere, despite claims of efficiency. Numerous studies have confirmed the inverse relationship between the size of farms and the amount of crops they produce per unit.
A study from Turkey shows that farms less than a hectare are 20 times more productive than farms that are over 10 hectares! But why should anyone be looking at such data when the sizes of land holdings and their alleged low productivity is used as an excuse to grab land?
This is what the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister is proposing: Get farmers to pool their land into a cooperative/society/company. Farmers sell their land to the new entity in return for some shares, which will then take up all agricultural operations and pay dividends. Farmers can exit by selling their share to existing members and, if there are no takers, government will buy the shares at a pre-determined market price. Land cannot be obtained back. Though many questions remain unanswered — what will happen to the farmers and how will they take part in any decision-making? What will tenant farmers and agricultural workers do? Why will land not be returned to the farmers? — the state Cabinet has decided to take up a pilot project in 50 villages by investing Rs 5,000 crore and there are moves to introduce a new legislation along these lines.
To begin with, the entire reasoning that bashes small holdings is faulty. Two, an experiment taken up by Mr Naidu some years ago along these lines ("Kuppam Project") failed in delivering the promised benefits and had environmental repercussions. Most importantly, this move will take away land permanently from farmers and is truly an exit mechanism.
Incidentally, it is in Andhra Pradesh that the world's largest ecological farming project is unfolding, supported by the state's rural development department, which is proving that farming can indeed be made viable through alternative technologies and people's organisations.
This programme, yielding results on more than 20 lakh acres, all small and marginal holdings, has attracted great attention already. Is it by design that the state government chose to ignore such vastly successful models and set about "to make farming viable" through proven-to-have-failed models?
While this is happening in Andhra Pradesh, in neighbouring Tamil Nadu a bill was introduced in the Assembly and supposedly passed on a day when 30 bills were passed without much discussion. This new legislation, called Tamil Nadu State Agricultural Council Act 2009, is about setting up a council that will be empowered to inspect agricultural institutions, courses of study, examinations etcetera, all to ensure that standards are conformed to.
"At present, there is no law to provide for the regulation of agricultural practice… it's been considered necessary to regulate agricultural practice and registration of agricultural practi-tioners…" states the object of the legislation. Sounds inane enough? However, the law says that no one can render agricultural services unless his/her name is registered in the "Tamil Nadu Agricultural Practitioners Register" with a formal agricultural qualification from Tamil Nadu (outsiders can register within 90 days of their entry!).
In a country which has always had a rich tradition of farming based on an oral and experiential knowledge and in a state where paddy productivity levels are recorded to have been up to 13 tonnes per hectare (in 1807 in Coimbatore) without qualified agriculture scientists, this move is an outright rejection of the vast untapped knowledge of our farm women and men.
Worse, in the name of regulating agricultural services, this seems to be a way of controlling the farmer-to-farmer spread of ecological farming in the state, which is led by farmers themselves, their networks and other civil society groups. Tamil Nadu is also the state where the anti-genetically modified protests against Tamil Nadu Agriculture University's unthinking capitulation to agro-MNCs like Monsanto are running at a high-pitched level. A connection between the resistance movement and this new law cannot be ruled out.
This new regulation of "agriculture services" will effectively provide more and more markets for particular kinds of technologies at the expense of farmers, as the advisories will be driven by the mindsets that prevail in the agriculture education/ research system in the country and the commercial interests of the agri-services to be set up. This route of a "qualified" advisory system will obviously facilitate conflicting interests and help in improving exclusivity of "markets" by reducing competition, while ignoring the causes for the current agrarian crisis. While a law of this kind should regulate services provided by agricultural research and agri-business bodies to ensure accountability for their services, especially in relation to economic, environmental and social viability and sustainability of farming, it should not be used as a weapon to penalise farmers and civil society
Technorati Tags: Farmers Cooperatives,Land grabbing
groups which are trying to promote sustainable farming.
These two initiatives in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are not to be seen as isolated attempts to create more markets for agri-businesses, but as an orchestrated move towards an unwritten "exit policy" for farmers.
These two moves will set a bad precedent for the rest of the country.
Given that agriculture is contributing a lower and lower share in the country's gross domestic product, its importance in the mainstream economic development model might be diminishing for many policymakers. However, this is a question of livelihood for millions of Indians — without ensuring access and control over basic productive resources and without moving towards sustainable production technologies, the current saga of agrarian distress, including suicides, will only increase.
Such legislations and programmes cannot be brought in without comprehensive debates and without the government clearly stating its vision for farming livelihoods and how they would be liable when things go wrong.
* Dr G.V. Ramanjaneyulu is the executive director of Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Hyderabad, and Kavitha Kuruganti is a trustee of Kheti Virasat Mission, Punjab.
Posted in Agri-Science, Agroecological farming, Andhra Pradesh, Govt. Initiatives, Land question, Opinion pieces | Leave a Comment »
Seed of the crisis
Posted by Ramoo on August 28, 2009
Kavitha Kuruganti
Monday, July 27, 2009 20:42 IST
The US and India are back at it again. This time around, it is not the spectre of a looming famine in Bihar that is expected to kill thousands through starvation but global hunger and malnutrition, for which India and USA will collaborate to provide leadership in agriculture to raise crop yields.
Never mind that intensive agriculture models led to more farmers killing themselves than the projected numbers of starvation before the Green Revolution was ushered in or that Punjab for example, the seat of the Green Revolution in India, is reeling under a severe environmental health crisis quite closely connected to agricultural technologies deployed in the name of increasing yields.
The first time around, they said that they were trying to get away from the ship to mouth existence that is being imposed by the Americans on us through PL 480 food aid programmes — and whose help did they take to get away from the American intrusions? The Americans themselves!
It is interesting to see how American leaders make it a point to include agriculture into their agenda during their India visits. George W Bush decided to stop over at the agriculture university in Hyderabad and Hillary Clinton at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa. For a country which has only 1.9 per cent of its labour force working in agriculture and a mere 0.7 per cent of total GDP contributed by agriculture (2002), why this American interest in Indian agriculture?
The answer possibly lies in potential huge markets held in the seeds and food processing sectors. In India, this market is emerging in an impressive fashion. In the global seed market estimated at $30 bn, India already has a large market worth $1 bn. The domestic seed market, especially of hybrid seeds, is expected to grow at an impressive growth rate of 13 per cent at least. In the food processing and retail sector, the Indian urban food market is expected to form a major chunk of the $50-bn-mark retail market in India in the near future.
Clinton's speech at Pusa Institute made a clear mention of seeds and food processing as the sectors where investment will go. Interestingly, the second green revolution in this country, with the help of the Indo-US Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture (KIA) is supposed to be ushered in under the guidance of corporations like Monsanto and Wal-Mart which are on the KIA board. How investment on food processing would increase productivity of our food grains is an unanswered question, of course.
There is also mention of "cutting edge technologies" to raise crop yields and Clinton affirmed with authority that crop productivity was the 'root' of the problem of world hunger.
No mention at all of food lands going for bio-fuels, no mention about food grains being used for cattle feed and building inefficient food chains, no mention of the shocking wastage of food in the developed world not at the grain level but of processed foods, which would have already consumed much energy in their processing and packaging.
Nor any mention of overflowing granaries in India continuing to mock at the poor in the country who cannot access such food.
While Clinton is reported to have avoided the use of "GM" as the frontier tec
hnology, given the vast controversy over it, our agriculture minister was more forthright. He opined that collaboration in frontier areas like biotechnology would make a significant contribution to the world!
What our leaders don't seem to realise is that there are vast differences not just in conditions of farming in the USA and in India but in the very philosophies and outlook towards agriculture. India for instance opposes patents on life forms in international forums while the USA and its corporations seek to patent everything that they can.
The rigid patent regimes in the USA have led to hundreds of farmers sued and/or jailed for doing something that they have done for millennia — saving their seed! Who is India listening to, on world hunger and the way out?
It would be extremely unwise for our leaders to provide ready platforms and markets for profit-hungry US corporations in the name of food crisis, world hunger, second green revolution and climate change.
If the government is keen on tackling the food crisis, it would do well to evolve a deeper understanding of both food production and access related issues, take up a comprehensive analysis of the Green Revolution and then chart out an Indian course of action. In this hundredth year of "Hind Swaraj", our modern day leaders would do well to revisit Gandhiji's vision.
Technorati Tags: KIA,USA,Second Green Revolution
Posted in Agri-Science, Indo US Knowledge Initiative, Opinion pieces, Policies | Leave a Comment »
States asked to limit BPL beneficiaries
Posted by Ramoo on August 21, 2009
Technorati Tags: Food Security,NFSA
Gargi Parsai
NEW DELHI: Even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has promised that "nobody will go hungry" in the country, the Centre is asking the States to put a ceiling on the number of Below Poverty Line (BPL) beneficiaries under the Targeted Public Distribution System for the purpose of the National Food Security Bill that is in the making.
Poverty estimates
The Union government wants to limit the "targeted" BPL beneficiaries to 5.91 crore as per 2009 population estimates, instead of the present 6.52 crore. The majority of the States have disputed the Centre's poverty estimates and demanded "food for all" under the Bill.
Against the allocation of foodgrains to 6.52 crore BPL families, the BPL cards issued by the States are 11.03 crore. They also do not want the present monthly entitlement of 35 kg subsidised foodgrains per BPL cardholder reduced.
The Congress, in its election manifesto, had promised to give, by law, every BPL family 25 kg of wheat or rice a month at Rs. 3 a kg. However, it seems that not only is the entitlement likely to get truncated but even the number of beneficiaries is going to be reduced.
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Islamophobia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about discrimination. For criticism of Islam, see Criticism of Islam. For criticism of political Islam, see Criticism of Islamism
- Islam is seen as a monolithic bloc, static and unresponsive to change.
- It is seen as separate and "other." It does not have values in common with other cultures, is not affected by them and does not influence them.
- It is seen as inferior to the West. It is seen as barbaric, irrational, primitive, and sexist.
- It is seen as violent, aggressive, threatening, supportive of terrorism, and engaged in a clash of civilizations.
- It is seen as a political ideology, used for political or military advantage.
- Criticisms made of "the West" by Muslims are rejected out of hand.
- Hostility towards Islam is used to justify discriminatory practices towards Muslims and exclusion of Muslims from mainstream society.
- Anti-Muslim hostility is seen as natural and normal.[20]
- The takeover, meaning that a minority will overrun Western countries by means of international underground networks, high birthrates, and asserting that existing minorities will act as a fifth column.
- Institutions at risk, meaning that defining institutions of Western society, such as the Church, the family, the monarchy (historically), secularisation, freedom of the individual and gender equality within the family, are perceived to be in immediate danger of subversion by minorities.
- The naïve left, referring to left wing policies aimed at integration.
- Hate commanded by God, where the minority is portrayed as unable to draw a distinction between religious identity and the real world. The minority's religious identity is essential and universal, or always the most prominent. Minority religions are claimed to be exclusionist and inherently political.
- The sexualized man, referring to plays on gender, essentializing sexual crime and the minority's ability to adapt to the mainstream ideals of manlihood.
- Treatment of women and children, referring to treatment of minority women in constructing one's own group identity, suppositions about the minority children's education, and portrayal of women and children in a passive manner.
- Using history, linking negative incidents in the minority's history to present-day practices, and portraying one's own history as a result of contrasting positive achievements, commonly involving major distortions.
- Lack of will to integrate, not only related to takeover-conspiracies, but referring to innate barriers making integration impossible, frequently claiming enforced intracultural marriage and the wilful creation of parallel societies.
- Absence of humanism, portraying the minority as either uncontrollably irrational or calculating and manipulative, downplaying cultural achievements and masking intolerance in the celebration of Western Enlightenment.
- Something must be done, emphasizing purportedly regaining control, by passing laws that limit the freedoms solely of specific groups, commonly while paradoxically claiming to maintain Western liberties and freedoms.
- ^ See also Sam Harris' views on Islam.
- ^ "Teaching the Global Dimension" David Hick, Cathie Holden (2007). P.140.
- ^
- Sandra Fredman, Discrimination and Human Rights, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-924603-3, p.121.
- Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, Muslims in the West: From Sojourners to Citizens, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-514806-1, p.19
- Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All, Runnymede Trust, 1997, p. 1, cited in Quraishi, Muzammil. Muslims and Crime: A Comparative Study, Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2005, p. 60. ISBN 0-7546-4233-X. Early in 1997, the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia, at that time part of the Runnymede Trust, issued a consultative document on Islamophobia under the chairmanship of Professor Gordon Conway, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex. The final report,Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All, was launched in November 1997 by Home Secretary Jack Straw
- ^ Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All, Runnymede Trust, 1997, p. 1, cited in Quraishi, Muzammil. Muslims and Crime: A Comparative Study, Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2005, p. 60; Annan, Kofi. "Secretary-General, addressing headquarters seminar on confronting Islamophobia", United Nations press release, December 7, 2004.
- ^
- Casciani, Dominic. "Islamophobia pervades UK – report", BBC News, June 2, 2004.
- Rima Berns McGowan writes in Muslims in the Diaspora(University of Toronto Press, 1991, p. 268) that the term "Islamophobia" was first used in an unnamed American periodical in 1991.
- ^ Runnymede 1997, p. 5, cited in Quraishi 2005, p. 60.
- ^ Roald, Anne Sophie (2004). New Muslims in the European Context: The Experience of Scandinavian Converts. Brill. p. 53.ISBN 9004136797.
- ^ "Conference Two: Combating Intolerance". Chancellery of the Government of Sweden. Retrieved 19 November 2011.
- ^ Benn, Jawad (2004) p. 111
- ^ a b c d Steven Vertovec, "Islamophobia and Muslim Recognition in Britain"; in Haddad (2002) pp. 32–33
- ^ See:
- Greaves (2004) p. 133
- Allen, Chris; Nielsen, Jorgen S.; Summary report on Islamophobia in the EU after 11 September 2001 (May 2002), EUMC.
- ^ a b Encyclopedia of Race and Ethics, p. 215
- ^ Corrina Balash Kerr (2007-11-20). "Faculty, Alumnus Discuss Concept of "Islamophobia" in Co-Authored Book". Wesleyan University Newsletter. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
- ^ "Images of Muslims: Discussing Islamophobia with Peter Gottschalk". Political Affairs.. 2007-11-19. Archived from the original on 2007-12-06. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
- ^ Dinet, Alphonse Étienne; ben Ibrahim, Sliman (1918). La Vie de Mohammed, Prophète d'Allah. Paris. cited from Otterbeck, Jonas; Bevelander, Pieter (2006) (in Swedish) (PDF), Islamofobi - en studie av begreppet, ungdomars attityder och unga muslimars utsatthet, Stockholm: Forum för levande historia, ISBN 91-976073-6-3, retrieved 23 November 2011, ""modern orientalists [are partially] influenced by an islamofobia, which is poorly reconciled with science and hardly worthy of our time""
- ^ a b c Allen, Christopher (2010). Islamophobia. Ashgate Publishing. pp. 5–6.
- ^ Ezzerhouni, Dahou. "L'islamophobie, un racisme apparu avec les colonisations", Algerie-Focus, February 3, 2010. "Le mot serai ainsi apparu pour la première fois dans quelques ouvrages du début du XXème siècle. On peut citer entre autre « La politique musulmane dans l'Afrique Occidentale Française » d'Alain Quellien publié en 1910, suivi de quelques citations dans la Revue du Monde Musulman en 1912 et 1918, la Revue du Mercure de France en 1912, « Haut-Sénégal-Niger » de Maurice Delafosse en 1912 et dans le Journal of Theological Studies en 1924. L'année suivante, Etienne Dinet et Slimane Ben Brahim, employaient ce terme qui «conduit à l'aberration » dans leur ouvrage « L'Orient vu par l'Occident »."
- ^ a b Richardson, Robin (December 2009). "Islamophobia or anti-muslim racism – or what?"PDF (119 KB), Insted website. Accessed December 30, 2011.
- ^ Otterbeck, Jonas; Bevelander, Pieter (2006) (in Swedish),Islamofobi - en studie av begreppet, ungdomars attityder och unga muslimars utsatthet, Stockholm: Forum för levande historia,ISBN 91-976073-6-3, retrieved 23 November 2011
- ^ Annan, Kofi. "Secretary-General, addressing headquarters seminar Wed Confronting Islamophobia", United Nations, press release, December 7, 2004.
- ^ "Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All"PDF (69.7 KB),Runnymede Trust, 1997.
- ^ Benn; Jawad (2004) p. 162
- ^ a b Benn; Jawad (2004) p. 165
- ^ a b c d Døving, Cora Alexa (2010). "Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia: A Comparison of Imposed Group Identities"(PDF). Tidsskrift for Islamforskning (Forum for Islamforskning) (2): 52–76. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
- ^ a b Bhandar, Davina (2010). "Cultural politics: disciplining citizenship". Citizenship Studies 14 (3): 331–343.doi:10.1080/13621021003731963.
- ^ See:
- Encyclopedia of Race and Ethnic studies, p. 216
- Miles; Brown (2003) p. 163
- ^ Miles; Brown (2003) p. 163, 164
- ^ a b Miles; Brown (2003) p. 163
- ^ Miles; Brown (2003) p. 166
- ^ Mepschen, Paul; Duyvendak, Jan Willem; Tonkens, Evelien H. (2010). "Sexual Politics, Orientalism and Multicultural Citizenship in the Netherlands". Sociology 44 (5): 962–979.doi:10.1177/0038038510375740 url=http://soc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/long/44/5/962.
- ^ Ho, Christina (2007). "Muslim women's new defenders: Women's rights, nationalism and Islamophobia in contemporary Australia". Women's Studies International Forum 30 (4): 290–298.doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2007.05.002.
- ^ Scott Poynting, Victoria Mason (2007). "The resistible rise of Islamophobia". Journal of Sociology 43 (1): 61–86.doi:10.1177/1440783307073935.
- ^ The Times: Fascism fears: John Denham speaks out over clashes
- ^ SvD: Reinfeldt: Kärnan i partiets idé
- ^ SvD: Sverigedemokrat till hårt angrepp mot muslimsk ideologi i tal
- ^ VG: Erna Solberg mener muslimer hetses som jødene på 30-tallet
- ^ Bunzl, Matti (2007). Anti-semitism and Islamophobia: hatreds old and new in Europe. Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press. p. 13.ISBN 9780976147589. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
- ^ Benbassa, Esther (2007). "Xenophobia, Anti-Semitism, and Racism" (PDF). Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia: Hatred Old and New in Europe. Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press. p. 86f.ISBN 9780976147589. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
- ^ Johnson; Soydan; Williams (1998) p. 182
- ^ Johnson; Soydan; Williams (1998) p. xxii
- ^ Edward W.Said, Orientalism, Pantheon Books, New York 1978 pp.27–28
- ^ Edward W. Said, 'Orientalism Reconsidered' in Francis Barker, Peter Hulme, Margaret Iversen, Diana Loxley (eds), Literature, Politics, and Theory, Methuen & Co, London 1986 pp.210–229, pp.220f.
- ^ Bryan Stanley Turner, introd. to Bryan S. Turner (ed.) Orientalism: Early Sources, (Vol 1, Readings in Orientalism), Routledge, London (2000) reprint 2002 p.12
- ^ Encyclopedia of Race and Ethnic studies p. 218, Routledge 2003. Routledge. 2003. p. 218. "The Runnymede Trust has been successful in that the term Islamophobia is now widely recognized and used, though many right-wing commentators either reject its existence or argue that it is justified."
- ^ Shryock, Andrew (2010). Islamophobia/Islamophilia: Beyond the Politics of Enemy and Friend. Indiana University Press. p. 3.
- ^ Bleich, Erik (December 2011). "What Is Islamophobia and How Much Is There? Theorizing and Measuring an Emerging Comparative Concept", American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 55 no. 12, pp. 1581-1600.
- ^ Kandel, Johannes (August 2006). Islamophobia – On the Career of a Controversial TermPDF (118 KB), Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
- ^ He writes: While Islamophobia Watch talk about defending Muslims, they end up defending the nastiest and most right-wing part of the Muslim community – the ones who are oppressing and killing the rest."- Hari, Johann. "Don't call me an Islamophobe", June 6, 2006.
- ^ Bodi, Faisal (2004-01-12). "Islamophobia should be as unacceptable as racism". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2010-05-05.
- ^ Aldridge, Alan (February 1, 2000). Religion in the Contemporary World: A Sociological Introduction. Polity Press. p. 138. ISBN 978-0745620831.
- ^ Miles; Brown (2003) pp. 165–166
- ^ Encyclopedia of Race and Ethnic Studies (2003)p. 219
- ^ "We refuse to renounce our critical spirit out of fear of being accused of "Islamophobia", a wretched concept that confuses criticism of Islam as a religion and stigmatisation of those who believe in it." Rushdie, Salman et al. "Writers' statement on cartoons", BBC News, March 1, 2006.
- ^ Rushdie, Salman et al. "Writers' statement on cartoons", BBC News, March 1, 2006.
- ^ Pipes, Daniel (2005-10-25). "Islamophobia?". New York Sun.
- ^ "On Islamophobia-phobia".
- ^ Kimball, Roger. "After the suicide of the West", January 2006.
- ^ Harris, Sam (August 13, 2010). "What Obama Got Wrong About the Mosque". The Daily Beast.
- ^ Encyclopedia of Race and Ethnic studies, p. 217
- ^ See Egorova; Tudor (2003) pp. 2–3, which cites the conclusions of Marquina and Rebolledo in: "A. Marquina, V. G. Rebolledo, 'The Dialogue between the European Union and the Islamic World' in Interreligious Dialogues: Christians, Jews, Muslims, Annals of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, v. 24, no. 10, Austria, 2000, pp. 166–8. "
- ^ Steve Rendall and Isabel Macdonald, Making Islamophobia Mainstream; How Muslim-bashers broadcast their bigotry, summary of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting report, at its website, November/December 2008.
- ^ Encyclopedia of Race and Ethnic studies, p. 218
- ^ Benn; Jawad (2004) p. 111
- ^ Naina Patel, Beth Humphries and Don Naik, "The 3 Rs in social work; Religion,'race' and racism in Europe", in Johnson; Soydan; Williams (1998) pp. 197–198
- ^ Imam Dr Abduljalil Sajid. "Islamophobia: A new word for an old fear". Retrieved 2007-08-17.
- ^ 1st OIC Observatory Report on Islamophobia[dead link]
- ^ Fighting Islamophobia: A Response to Critics – Deepa Kumar, MRZine, February 2006
- ^ a b "The next holocaust", New Statesman, 5 December 2005.
- ^ "Belgian Establishment Fears Crack-Up"[dead link], The Flemish Republic.org newsletter, April–June 2006.
- ^ "EUMC presents reports on Discrimination and Islamophobia in the EU". "European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia media release". 2006-12-18.
- ^ a b c Allen, Chris and Nielsen, Jorgen S. "Summary report on Islamophobia in the EU after 11 September 2001", EUMC, May, 2002.
- ^ EUMC website – Publications . Retrieved 2007-11-17.
- Cashmore, E, ed (2003). Encyclopedia of Race and Ethnic Studies. Routledge.
- Benn, T.; Jawad, H. (2004). Muslim Women in the United Kingdom and Beyond: Experiences and Images. Brill Publishers.ISBN 9004125817.
- Egorova, Y.; Parfitt, T. (2003). Jews, Muslims, and Mass Media: Mediating the 'Other'. London: Routledge Curzon. ISBN 0415318394.
- Haddad, Y. (2002). Muslims in the West: From Sojourners to Citizens. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195148053.
- Johnson, M. R. D.; Soydan, H; Williams, C. (1998). Social Work and Minorities: European Perspectives. London; New York: Routledge.ISBN 0415169623.
- Miles, R.; Brown, M. (2003). Racism. London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415296765.
- Allen, Chris. Islamophobia (Ashgate Publishing Company; 2011)
- Abbas, Tahir (2005). Muslim Britain: Communities Under Pressure. Zed. ISBN 978-1842774496.
- van Driel, B. (2004). Confronting Islamophobia In Educational Practice. Trentham Books. ISBN 1858563402.
- Gottschalk, P.; Greenberg, G. (2007). Islamophobia: Making Muslims the Enemy. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield publishers. ISBN 978-0742552869.
- Greaves, R. (2004). Islam and the West Post 9/11. Ashgate publishing Ltd. ISBN 0754650057.
- Kaplan, Jeffrey (2006). Islamophobia in America?: September 11 and Islamophobic Hate Crime, Terrorism and Political Violence (Routledge), 18:1, 1–33.
- Kincheloe, Joe L. and Shirley R. Steinberg (2004).The Miseducation of the West: How the Schools and Media Distort Our Understanding of Islam. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Press. (Arabic Edition, 2005).
- Konrad, Felix: From the "Turkish Menace" to Exoticism and Orientalism: Islam as Antithesis of Europe (1453–1914)?, European History Online, Mainz: Institute of European History, 2011, retrieved: June 22, 2011.
- Pynting, Scott; Mason, Victoria (2007). The resistible rise of Islamophobia: Anti-Muslim racism in the UK and Australia before 11 September 2001. Journal of Sociology, The Australian Sociological Association. 43(1): 61–86.
- Richardson, John E. (2004). (Mis)representing Islam: the racism and rhetoric of British broadsheet newspapers. John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 9027226997
- Shryock, Andrew, ed. Islamophobia/Islamophilia: Beyond the Politics of Enemy and Friend (Indiana University Press; 2010) 250 pages; essays on Islamophobia past and present; topics include the "neo-Orientalism" of three Muslim commentators today: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Reza Aslan, and Irshad Manji.
- Tausch, Arno with Christian Bischof, Tomaz Kastrun and Karl Mueller (2007), ''Against Islamophobia: Muslim Communities, Social Exclusion and the Lisbon Process in Europe'' Hauppauge, N.Y.: Nova Science Publishers
- Tausch, Arno with Christian Bischof, and Karl Mueller (2007), "Muslim Calvinism", internal security and the Lisbon process in Europe Amsterdam: Rozenberg Publishers
- Tausch, Arno (2007), Against Islamophobia. Quantitative analyses of global terrorism, world political cycles and center periphery structures Hauppauge, N.Y.: Nova Science Publishers
- Quraishi, M. (2005). Muslims and Crime: A Comparative Study. Ashgate publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-7546-4233-X.
- Ramadan, T. (2004). Western Muslims and the Future of Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-517111-X.
- Zuquete, Jose Pedro (2008), The European extreme-right and Islam: New directions, [Journal of Political Ideologies]
- Islamophobia.org
- Among U.S. Religious Groups, Muslims Seen as Facing More Discrimination
- "Islamophobia", Islamicawareness.net
- Islamophobia Watch
- Smearcasters
- "From Aladdin to Lost Ark, Muslims get angry at 'bad guy' film images" -The Guardian, 25 January 2007
- Speech against Islamophobia and racism at CUPE National Conference in Vancouver, Canada
- Muslims and Islam in European History Textbooks
- "Rally against incitement and Islamophobia in London", Eyetopic.co.uk, February 11, 2006.
- Allen, Chris Islamophobia resources: writing, articles & publications
- Dr. Louay Safi's Articles on Islamophobia
- Brooks, James. "Deep roots of Islamophobia" Islamonline.net.
- Deane, Claudia and Fears, Darryl. Negative Perception Of Islam Increasing, The Washington Post, March 9, 2006.
- El Fadl, Khaled Abou. "On revising bigotry", chapter from The Conference on the Books: The Search for Beauty in Islam, Scholars of the House.
- Gray, Muriel. "How can we have respect for Islam when we are too fearful to criticise it?", The Glasgow Herald, February 5, 2006.
- Hassan, Fardusa. "Beauty queen enters Islamophobia debate", The Guardian, August 31, 2006.
- Hassan, Ghali. The Road to the Muslim Holocaust, Globalresearch.ca, February 7, 2006.
- Khan, Ali. The Essentialist Terrorist (how puritanical Islam is portrayed as essentially violent).
- Lamont, Norman. "Down with multiculturalism, book-burning and fatwas", The Daily Telegraph, May 8, 2002.
- Marud, Abdal-Hakim. "Muslims and the European Right", Masud.co.uk, first delivered as a lecture on April 30, 2000.
- Nacos, Brigitte L., Fueling Our Fears: Stereotyping, Media Coverage, and Public Opinion of Muslim Americans. 2006
- O'Keefe, Derrick. Maclean's magazine goes over-the-top with racist cover story, Seven Oaks Magazine, October 27, 2006.
- Pipes, Daniel. "Islamophobia?", New York Sun, October 25, 2005.
- Ramji, Rubina. "From Navy Seals to The Siege: Getting to Know the Muslim Terrorist, Hollywood Style" The Journal of Religion and Film, Vol. 9, No.2, October 2005
- Riyanto, Geger. "The Genealogy of today's Islamophobia"[dead link], The Jakarta Post, October 27, 2006.
- Walter Laqueur. The Origins of Fascism: Islamic Fascism, Islamophobia, Antisemitism, Oxford University Press blog.
- Barry Van, Confronting Islamophobia in Educational Practice ISBN 1-85856-340-2
- Castle, Stephen. "Islamophobia takes a grip across Europe", The Independent, December 18, 2006.
- Responses to Islamophobia: www.rissc.jo
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Categories:
Anti-Muslim Sentiment
*
Part of a series on Islam
Issues
Specific incidents
Organisations
Blogs
Opposition
Islamophobia describes prejudice against, hatred or irrational fear of Islam or Muslims[1][2] The term dates back to the late 1980s or early 1990s,[3] but came into common usage after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.[4]
In 1997, the British Runnymede Trust defined Islamophobia as the "dread or hatred of Islam and therefore, to the fear and dislike of all Muslims," stating that it also refers to the practice ofdiscriminating against Muslims by excluding them from the economic, social, and public life of the nation. It includes the perception that Islam has no values in common with other cultures, is inferior to the West and is a violent political ideology rather than a religion.[5]
Professor in History of Religion, Anne Sophie Roald, states that Islamophobia was recognized as a form of intolerance alongside Xenophobia and Antisemitism at the "Stockholm International Forum on Combating Intolerance".[6] The conference, attended by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, the OSCE Secretary General Ján Kubis and representatives of the European Union and Council of Europe, adopted a declaration to combat "genocide, ethnic cleansing, racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia and xenophobia, and to combat all forms of racial discrimination and intolerance related to it." [7]
A perceived trend of increasing Islamophobia during the 2000s has been attributed by some commentators to the September 11 attacks,[8] while others associate it with the rapidly growing Muslim populations in the Western world, especially in Western Europe, due to both immigrationand high fertility rate.[9] In May 2002, the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), a European Union watchdog, released a report entitled "Summary report on Islamophobia in the EU after 11 September 2001", which described an increase in Islamophobia-related incidents in European member states post-9/11.[10] Although the term is widely recognized and used, both the term and the concept have been criticized.Contents
[hide]
Definitions
The word Islamophobia is a neologism formed from Islam and -phobia. The compound form Islamo- contains the thematic vowel -o-, and is found in earlier coinages such as Islamo-Christian from the 19th century.
In 1996, the Runnymede Trust established the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia, chaired by Professor Gordon Conway, the vice-chancellor of the University of Sussex. Their report, Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All, was launched in November 1997 by the Home Secretary, Jack Straw. In the Runnymede report, Islamophobia was defined by the trust as "an outlook or world-view involving an unfounded dread and dislike of Muslims, which results in practices of exclusion and discrimination."[11]
As opposed to being a psychological or individualistic phobia, according to professor of religion Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, "Islamophobia" connotes a social anxiety about Islam and Muslims.[12][13]
Origins and causes
History of the term
One early use cited as the term's first use is by the painter Alphonse Étienne Dinet and Algerian intellectual Sliman ben Ibrahim in their 1918 biography of Islam's prophet Muhammad.[14][15] Writing in French, they used the term islamophobie. Robin Richardson writes that in the English version of the book the word was not translated as "islamophobia", but rather as "feelings inimical to Islam". Dahou Ezzerhouni has cited several other uses in French as early as 1910, and from 1912 to 1918.[16] These early uses of the term did not, according to Christopher Allen, have the same meaning as in contemporary usage, as they described a fear of Islam by Muslims, rather than a fear or dislike/hatred of Muslims by non-Muslims.[15]
Richardson states that the first English print usage was Edward Said's 1985 article "Orientalism Reconsidered".[17] Another early documented use of the word was by the American news magazine Insight on the News in 1991, used to describe Russian activities inAfghanistan,[11] and this is the usage listed by the Oxford English Dictionary.[15] The term entered into common usage with the publication of the Runnymede Trust's report in 1997.[18] Kofi Annan asserted at a 2004 conference entitled "Confronting Islamophobia" that the word Islamophobia had to be coined in order to "take account of increasingly widespread bigotry".[19]
Contrasting views on Islam
The Runnymede report contrasted "open" and "closed" views of Islam, and stated that the following eight "closed" views are equated with Islamophobia:
These "closed" views are contrasted, in the report, with "open" views on Islam which, while founded on respect for Islam, permit legitimate disagreement, dialogue and critique.[21] According to Benn and Jawad, The Runnymede Trust notes that anti-Muslim discourse is increasingly seen as respectable, providing examples on how hostility towards Islam and Muslims is accepted as normal, even among those who may actively challenge other prevalent forms of discrimination.[22]
Identity politics
It has been suggested that islamophobia is closely related to identity politics, and gives its adherents the perceived benefit of constructing their identity in opposition to a negative, essentialized image of Muslims. This occurs in the form of self-righteousness, assignment of blame and key identity markers.[23] Davina Bhandar writes that:[24]
[...] the term 'cultural' has become synonymous with the category of the ethnic or minority (...). It views culture as an entity that is highly abstracted from the practices of daily life and therefore represents the illusion that there exists a spirit of the people. This formulation leads to the homogenisation of cultural identity and the ascription of particular values and proclivities onto minority cultural groups.
She views this as an ontological trap that hinders the perception of culture as something "materially situated in the living practices of the everyday, situated in time-space and not based in abstract projections of what constitutes either a particular tradition or culture."
In some societies, Islamophobia has materialized due to the portrayal of Islam and Muslims as the national "Other", where exclusion and discrimination occurs on the basis of their religion and civilization which differs with national tradition and identity. Examples include Pakistani and Algerian migrants in Britain and France respectively.[25] This sentiment, according to Malcolm Brown and Robert Miles, significantly interacts with racism, although Islamophobia itself is not racism.[26]
Brown and Miles write that another feature of Islamophobic discourse is to amalgamate nationality (i.e. Arab), religion (Islam), and politics (terrorism, fundamentalism) — while most other religions are not associated with terrorism, or even "ethnic or national distinctiveness."[27]They feel that "many of the stereotypes and misinformation that contribute to the articulation of Islamophobia are rooted in a particular perception of Islam", such as the notion that Islam promotes terrorism; especially prevalent after the September 11, 2001 attacks.[28]
The two-way stereotyping resulting from islamophobia has in some instances resulted in mainstreaming of earlier controversial discourses, such as liberal attitudes towards gender equality[23][24] and homosexuals.[29] Christina Ho has warned against framing of such mainstreaming of gender equality in a colonial, paternal discourse, arguing that this may undermine minority women's ability to speak out about their concerns.[30]
Links to other ideologies
A 2007 article in Journal of Sociology defines Islamophobia as anti-Muslim racism and a continuation of anti-Asian and anti-Arab racism.[31]Similarly, John Denham has drawn parallels between modern Islamophobia and the antisemitism of the 1930s,[32] so have Maud Olofsson,[33]and Jan Hjärpe, among others.[34][35]
Senior scientist at the Norwegian Center for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities, Cora Alexa Døving, argues that there are significant similarities between islamophobic discourse and European pre-nazi antisemitism.[23] She has suggested a common typology of notions:
Matti Bunzl has argued that there are important differences between islamophobia and antisemitism. While antisemitism was a phenomenon closely connected to European nation-building processes, he sees islamophobia as having the concern of European civilization as its focal point.[36] Døving, on the other hand, maintains that, at least in Norway, the islamophobic discourse has a clear national element.[23] In a reply to Bunzl, French scholar of Jewish history, Esther Benbassa, agrees with him in that he draws a clear connection between modern hostile and essentializing sentiments towards Muslims and historical antisemitism. However, she argues against the use of the term islamophobia, since, in her opinion, it attracts unwarranted attention to an underlying racist current.[37]
The publication "Social Work and Minorities: European Perspectives" describes Islamophobia as the new form of racism in Europe,[38]arguing that "Islamophobia is as much a form of racism as anti-semitism, a term more commonly encountered in Europe as a sibling of racism, xenophobia and Intolerance."[39] Edward Said considers Islamophobia as it is evinced in Orientalism to be a trend in a more general antisemitic Western tradition.[40][41][42]
Criticism
Although the term is widely recognized and used,[43] the use of the term, its construction and the concept itself have been criticized.
Some scholars have criticized the term as vague, overly broad or misleading. In his 2010 book Islamophobia/Islamophilia: Beyond the Politics of Enemy and Friend, Andrew Shryock states that applying the term "is an exercise in negative characterization, a fact that makes [it] invaluable for political purposes, but potentially misleading for analytical and interpretive ones".[44] Writing in American Behavioral Scientist, Erik Bleich similarly states "there is no widely accepted definition of Islamophobia that permits systematic comparative and causal analysis".[45] Johannes Kandel writes that it "is a vague term which encompasses every conceivable actual and imagined act of hostility against Muslims".[46] At a 2009 symposium on "Islamophobia and Religious Discrimination", Robin Richardson, an original member of the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia, argued that "the disadvantages of the term Islamophobia are significant" on seven different grounds, including that it implies it is merely a "severe mental illness" affecting "only a tiny minority of people"; that use of the term makes those to whom it is applied "defensive and defiant" and absolves the user of "the responsibility of trying to understand them" or trying to change their views; that it implies that hostility to Muslims is divorced from factors such as skin color, immigrant status, fear of fundamentalism, or political or economic conflicts; that it conflates prejudice against Muslims in one's own country with dislike of Muslims in countries with which the West is in conflict; that it fails to distinguish between people who are against all religion from people who dislike Islam specifically; and that the actual issue being described is hostility to Muslims, "an ethno-religious identity within European countries", rather than hostility to Islam.[17]
Johann Hari of The Independent argues that authentic Islamophobia exists, and consists of the "notion that Islam is a uniquely evil religion, more inherently war-like and fanatical than Christianity or Judaism or the other primitive delusions." However, he criticizes how organizations like Islamophobia Watch use the term, stating that they "talk about defending Muslims, they end up defending the nastiest and most right-wing part of the Muslim community – the ones who are oppressing and killing the rest."[47]
Some critics argue that Islamophobia is real but is just another form of racism and does not require its own category.[48] In a 2008 article in the "Journal of Political Ideologies" Jose P. Zuquete argues that Islamophobia is a catch-all term that should be avoided. Islamophobia places under the broad umbrella of 'fear or hatred of Islam' discourses and criticisms that may have distinct sources, motivations and goals. He argues instead for the use of "anti-Islamic" (because it distinguishes between different discourses about Islam). The concept of Islamophobia as formulated by Runnymede is similarly criticized by professor Fred Halliday on several levels. He writes that the target of hostility in the modern era is not Islam and its tenets as much as it is Muslims, suggesting that a more accurate term would be "Anti-Muslimism." He also states that strains and types of prejudice against Islam and Muslims vary across different nations and cultures, which is not recognized in the Runnymede analysis.[49] Poole responds that many Islamophobic discourses attack what they perceive to be Islam's tenets, while Miles and Brown write that Islamophobia is usually based upon negative stereotypes about Islam which are then translated into attacks on Muslims. They also argue that "the existence of different 'Islamophobias' does not invalidate the concept of Islamophobia any more than the existence of different racisms invalidates the concept of racism."[50][51]
Other critics argue that the term conflates criticism of Islamic totalitarianism with hatred of Muslims. In the wake of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, a group of 12 writers, including novelist Salman Rushdie, signed a manifesto entitled Together facing the new totalitarianism in the French weekly satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, warning against the use of the term Islamophobia to prevent criticism of "Islamic totalitarianism".[52][53] Daniel Pipes says that "'Islamophobia' deceptively conflates two distinct phenomena: fear of Islam and fear of radical Islam."[54] Writing in the New Humanist, philosopher Piers Benn suggests that people who fear the rise of Islamophobia foster an environment "not intellectually or morally healthy", to the point that what he calls "Islamophobia-phobia" can undermine "critical scrutiny of Islam as somehow impolite, or ignorant of the religion's true nature."[55]
Some denounce the concept altogether. The New Criterion editor Roger Kimball argues that the word "Islamophobia" is a misnomer. "A phobia describes an irrational fear, and it is axiomatic that fearing the effects of radical Islam is not irrational, but on the contrary very well-founded indeed, so that if you want to speak of a legitimate phobia... ...we should speak instead of Islamophobia-phobia, the fear of and revulsion towards Islamophobia."[56] Sam Harris[Note 1] has stated that "apologists for Islam have even sought to defend their faith from criticism by inventing a psychological disorder known as 'Islamophobia'." He states that bigotry and racism are "evils" that must be opposed, and that "prejudice against Muslims or Arabs, purely because of the accident of their birth, is despicable", but argues that "it is not a form of bigotry or racism to observe that the specific tenets of the faith pose a special threat to civil society. Nor is it a sign of intolerance to notice when people are simply not being honest about what they and their coreligionists believe."[57]
Media
According to Elizabeth Poole in the Encyclopedia of Race and Ethnic studies, the media has been criticized for perpetrating Islamophobia. She cites a case study examining a sample of articles in the British press from between 1994 and 2004, which concluded that Muslim viewpoints were underrepresented and that issues involving Muslims usually depicted them in a negative light. Such portrayals, according to Poole, include the depiction of Islam and Muslims as a threat to Western security and values.[58] Benn and Jawad write that hostility towards Islam and Muslims are "closely linked to media portrayals of Islam as barbaric, irrational, primitive and sexist."[22] Egorova and Tudor cite European researchers in suggesting that expressions used in the media such as "Islamic terrorism", "Islamic bombs" and "violent Islam" have resulted in a negative perception of Islam.[59]
In 2008 Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting published a study "Smearcasting, How Islamophobes Spread Bigotry, Fear and Misinformation." The report cites several instances where mainstream or close to mainstream journalists, authors and academics have made analyses that essentialize negative traits as an inherent part of Muslims' moral makeup.[60]
The "Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism" (FAIR) was also established, designed to monitor coverage in the media and establish dialogue with media organizations. Following the attacks of September 11, the Islam Awareness Week and the "Best of British Islam Festival" were introduced to improve community relations and raise awareness about Islam.[61]
Trends
Islamophobia has become a topic of increasing sociological and political importance.[27] According to Benn and Jawad, Islamophobia has increased since Ayatollah Khomeini's denouncement of Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" and the September 11 attacks.[62]Anthropologist Steven Vertovec writes that the purported growth in Islamophobia may be associated with increased Muslim presence in society and successes.[9] He suggests a circular model, where increased hostility towards Islam and Muslims results in governmental countermeasures such as institutional guidelines and changes to legislation, which itself may fuel further Islamophobia due to increased accommodation for Muslims in public life. Vertovec concludes: "As the public sphere shifts to provide a more prominent place for Muslims, Islamophobic tendencies may amplify."[9]
A mannequin symbolizing a Muslim in akeffiyeh, strapped to a "Made in the USA" bomb display at a protest of Park51 in New York City.
Patel, Humphries, and Naik claim that "Islamophobia has always been present in Western countries and cultures. In the last two decades, it has become accentuated, explicit and extreme."[63] However, Vertovec states that some have observed that Islamophobia has not necessarily escalated in the past decades, but that there has been increased public scrutiny of it.[9] According to Abduljalil Sajid, one of the members of the Runnymede Trust's Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia, "Islamophobias" have existed in varying strains throughout history, with each version possessing its own distinct features as well as similarities or adaptations from others.[64] An observatory report on Islamophobia by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference similarly states that Islamophobia has existed for as long as Islam itself.[65]
Assistant Professor Deepa Kumar writes that the modern-day demonization of Arabs and Muslims by US politicians and others is racist and Islamophobic, and employed in support of an unjust war. About the public impact of this rhetoric, she says that "One of the consequences of the relentless attacks on Islam and Muslims by politicians and the media is that Islamophobic sentiment is on the rise." She also chides some "people on the left" for using the same "Islamophobic logic as the Bush regime". She concludes with the statement "At times like this, people of conscience need to organize and speak out against Islamophobia."[66]
Ziauddin Sardar, an Islamic scholar, writes in The New Statesman that Islamophobia is a widespread European phenomenon, so widespread that he asks whether Muslims will be victims of the next pogroms.[67] He writes that each country has its extremes, citing Jean-Marie Le Penin France; Pim Fortuyn, who was assassinated (by a non-Muslim), in the Netherlands; and Philippe Van der Sande of Vlaams Blok, aFlemish nationalist party founded in Belgium. Filip Dewinter, the leader of the nationalist Flemish "Vlaams Belang" has said that his party is "Islamophobic." He said: "Yes, we are afraid of Islam. The Islamisation of Europe is a frightening thing."[68]
Sardar argues that Europe is "post-colonial, but ambivalent." Minorities are regarded as acceptable as an underclass of menial workers, but if they want to be upwardly mobile, as Sardar says young Muslims do, the prejudice rises to the surface. Wolfram Richter, professor of economics at Dortmund University of Technology, told Sardar: "I am afraid we have not learned from our history. My main fear is that what we did to Jews we may now do to Muslims. The next holocaust would be against Muslims."[67]
EUMC reports
The largest project monitoring Islamophobia was undertaken following 9/11 by the EU watchdog, European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC). Their May 2002 report "Summary report on Islamophobia in the EU after 11 September 2001", written by Chris Allen and Jorgen S. Nielsen of the University of Birmingham, was based on 75 reports — 15 from each EU member nation.[69][70] The report highlighted the regularity with which ordinary Muslims became targets for abusive and sometimes violent retaliatory attacks after 9/11. Despite localized differences within each member nation, the recurrence of attacks on recognizable and visible traits of Islam and Muslims was the report's most significant finding. Incidents consisted of verbal abuse, blaming all Muslims for terrorism, forcibly removing women's hijabs, spitting on Muslims, calling children "Usama", and random assaults. Muslims have been hospitalized and on one occasion paralyzed.[70] The report also discussed the portrayal of Muslims in the media. Inherent negativity, stereotypical images, fantastical representations, and exaggerated caricatures were all identified. The report concluded that "a greater receptivity towards anti-Muslim and other xenophobic ideas and sentiments has, and may well continue, to become more tolerated."[70]
The EUMC has since released a number of publications related to Islamophobia, including "The Fight against Antisemitism and Islamophobia: Bringing Communities together (European Round Tables Meetings)" (2003) and "Muslims in the European Union: Discrimination and Islamophobia" (2006).[71]
Islamophobic incidents
Main article: List of Islamophobic incidents
See also: Persecution of Muslims
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