"Intervention, Religious Fanaticism, and Fascism in South Asia"
report on the public forum presented on the 4th anniversary of the Gujarat Massacre,
by the South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD)
on Febr. 26, 2006 in West Hastings, Canada
On February 28, 2002 in the State of Gujarat in western India,
approximately two to three thousand Muslim men, women and children
were systematically massacred by armed mobs with the support of the
state. There were horrendous atrocities, thousands of homes and
businesses were burnt down, and about a hundred and fifty thousand
citizens became refugees in their own land. This was the culmination of a
developing crisis of the nation in India and a forecast of intensifying
struggle for the redefinition of nation and citizenship. Gujarat was
declared a "Laboratory of Hindu Rashtra" providing the formula for
remaking the pluricultural and multi-religious Indian nation-state that
was created in 1947 into a homogenous nation-state of "Hindus", while the
ancient diversity of Hinduism itself is put into the straitjacket of a
newly constructed homogeneity.
SANSAD's forum, "Intervention, Religious Fanaticism and Fascism in
South Asia" held at Simon Fraser University's Harbour Centre campus
was a commemoration of the Gujarat massacre of exactly four years
ago, and an examination of the current situation in the rest of the
country (with a special focus on the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan and
Orissa) in regard to the development toward a Hindu-fascist state in
India. The forum also examined the crisis of the nation in Pakistan, where
40,000 military personnel stationed in Baluchistan are engaged in a
ruthless battle against the Baloch people seeking autonomy and just
control over their resources.
GUJARAT, FOUR YEARS LATER
Dr. Hari Sharma, Professor Emeritus at Simon Fraser University and
president of SANSAD, who finally managed to get a visa to travel to
India, recently returned from a visit to the country. While there, he
spent many days in Gujarat and also visited several districts in
Rajasthan.
Gujarat, Dr. Sharma said, remains a highly divided and polarized
society, four years after the genocide. The wedge between the Muslim and
Hindu communities is very deep. He cited an example of a very senior
university professor whose house was totally destroyed by a mob. The
university allotted the homeless professor a flat, but as soon as he moved
in, everyone else in that block of university houses instantly moved out.
"After losing everything, I live now a life with not even neighbours",
lamented the professor. Sharma said that he met several Muslim people who
had lived in comfortable middle class neighbourhoods, but after the
Feb-March, 2002 genocide had to move out; not only in big cities like
Ahmedabad and Vadodara, but also in mid-size towns. There are villages in
many parts of Gujarat with a signboard at the entrance, "Welcome to the
Hindu Rashtra". No Muslim families live there anymore. In one Taluka
(Kalol) of Panchmahal district, out of a total of 80 villages, there are
now only nine, which still have some Muslim population.
This ghettoization of the minority community was most apparent in the
large Johapura area of Ahmedabad. Spread over about 20 sq. kilometers, and
home to half a million Muslims, the entire neighbourhood (called
"Mini-Pakistan" in the mainstream society) was reported to have not a
single branch of a bank, or of post office. Even the city buses were
reported to be not running through the area. No ordinary non-Muslim would
venture into the locality.
Relief and Rehabilitation: What happened to the approximate 150,000
people who had to leave behind their homes and hearth, their cattle, land,
livelihood and tools, and run for life, and had become refugees in a
matter of days? About a hundred makeshift relief camps had sprung up
instantly, primarily through the efforts of the Muslim community itself,
and also with generous help from several civil society and NGO
organizations. Narendra Modi shut them all down, back in June 2002. "What
shall we do? Run relief camps for them? Do we want to open baby producing
centres?" Modi publicly stated on September 9, 2002 while on his 'gaurava'
yatra. Today, tens of thousands of internally displaced people cannot be
traced at all; they most likely drifted to other parts of India. A few
certainly went back to their villages or neighbourhoods. Others have tried
to locate themselves in newly constructed "colonies". In Ahmedabad city
itself, there are 14 of them, housing 920 families. Across Gujarat, in
nine districts, there are 48 colonies, where 4,387 small houses have been
built. These rows and rows of single-room abodes were built, partly by
victims' own scarce resources, but also hugely aided by numerous
philanthropic organizations. The Government of the "Hindu Rashtra", true
to its predictable disposition, not only didn't come forward with any
assistance it actually created every conceivable obstacle in the building
of these homes. In the several such colonies Sharma said he visited, there
was no proper access road built, no electricity connection, no water
supply, no drainage or sanitation, no primary health facility, no access
to even primary education for the children. People were simply left to
fend for themselves. On the contrary, the local district and taluka level
administration kept imposing restrictions for the building process to
continue. In the village of Baria, hundreds of people had to literally
gherao the office of the District Magistrate, one Mr, Pandhor, before he
allowed them to put the roof slabs on the 74 unfinished house-shells, as
long it was done within the next three days! In Rajgarh village, Sharma
said he saw 26 out the 46 homes still without roof, because the district
administration would not let them continue, citing one bureaucratic hassle
or the other.
Then, there is the widespread economic and social boycott. Those who
survived the genocide could not easily rehabilitate themselves
economically. Drivers of auto-rickshaws could not drive them now. The
owners would not lease their rickshaws to Muslim drivers. In Boru village,
Kalol Taluka, the driven out Muslims eventually came back. Many of the men
were experienced masons, making about 150 rupees a day. Now, four years
later, they were sitting idle, willing to go and work for 50-60 rupees. No
building contractor (who all happened to be Hindus) would hire them. Men
and women who worked as agricultural labourers and earned about 70-80
rupees a day were all there in the village in the middle of the day,
willing to go and work if anyone would give them even twenty rupees for a
day's work.
The harassment of the victims of genocide continues in a variety of
ways. Sharma said that he visited the town of Godhra, where the
tragic Sabarmati Express fire took place on Feb. 27, 2002. The entire
neighbourhood close to the railway station, all the way to Signal Falia
(where the coach was burnt), is exclusively a Muslim neighborhood. The
City of Godhra has re-wired the electricity distribution system in a way
that anytime it wanted it could shut down the power in that area. And this
was done on a daily basis, several times a day; and at times for days in a
row. It caused major inconvenience for everyone who lived there, but
especially to those whose small businesses entirely depended upon a steady
supply of electric power (restaurants with refrigerators, auto mechanic
shops using power tools, etc.) The owner of an auto-repair shop on the
busy business street of the neighborhood said that his major client used
to be the Godhra Railway Station (servicing and repairing their vehicles).
He did not get that business anymore.
The worst harassment came in the form of frightening intimidation:
odd hour visits by men in uniform to take away unsuspecting Muslim
men, for interrogation, for indefinite detentions. The draconian POTA Act
may have been repealed by the Central government, but since it was not
revoked retroactively, it was still invoked in Gujarat to book new persons
in the already existing POTA cases. According to a very knowledgeable
source, Sharma said, there were about 3000 people in Gujarat languishing
in jails. How many of them were under POTA was uncertain; no proper
documentation was maintained, he was told. But Sharma said that he visited
three different areas, two in the town of Godhra and one in Kalol, and met
scores of mothers, wives, fathers, brothers and little children of those
who were picked up and were kept, without bail, under POTA; some for as
long as almost four years.
Invariably, the Muslim POTA detainees in Gujarat are "booked" in
connection with the massively constructed conspiracy theory that the fire
that took place on the train on February 27 was a result of a well-planned
attack by Muslims; a well-orchestrated, hyped-up, notion that became the
basis for the organized genocide starting the next day. To Modi, it does
not seem to matter if it was true or not. The Banerjee Commission in its
Interim Report already concluded that the fire was not deliberately caused
but was a result of an accident (further confirmed by the Commission's
final report released only a few days ago); but the Modi government seems
to be adamant not to heed to these findings. A Central Government Panel
ruled several months ago that POTA could not apply to the Godhra train
accident; but this ruling was subverted by a stay order of the Gujarat
High Court. Those detained continue to languish; families outside continue
to wait.
Four years have gone by. There is no remorse, no rapprochement on the part
of the Gujarat government. On the contrary, Modi continues to gloat in
"gaurav" (pride); and seems to have entrenched himself in the position of
power, as reflected in the last Municipal elections in which he not only
routed the Congress Party, but also his own rivals in the BJP.
In this gloomy, rather depressing, overall situation there were
heartening things too. And these were the heroic efforts of a large
number of people in the cities, towns and villages of Gujarat. Sharma said
that he met very many of them: lawyers, journalists, human rights and
social activists, grass-root workers, as individuals and as part of
organizations. When the State failed to do what it was supposed to do for
its citizens, efforts of these people have been trying to undo the damage;
to restore lives and confidence. Building homes, running schools where
none exist, tending to sick and wounded, providing special care to widows
and orphans, creating income-earning capacities - are some of the things
being done.
A most significant part of all this was to legally pursue the cases
for the crimes that were committed in 2002. It has not been an easy
process. Narendra Modi had stacked up the entire judicial system to
ensure that none was convicted. Special courts were established with
judges known to be RSS-VHP followers/sympathisers. Prosecutors were
assigned who acted more like defense lawyers than prosecutors. FIRs (First
Information Reports) were filed in a manner that technically prevented the
cases to go forward. Consequently out of a total of about 4,200 cases that
were filed, 2,020 were closed right away, due to faulty/inadequate FIRs.
In about 800 cases, the accused were quickly acquitted. Even then, very
many cases have been followed diligently, with competent lawyers providing
proper help. At times cases already closed by the courts in Gujarat had to
be reopened by going to the Supreme Court and getting its intervention.
The biggest challenge has been to identify, consolidate and protect
impeccable witnesses to the crime; people who would not be frightened
away, or easily bought over and turned hostile. This required protracted
confidence building for the potential witnesses, and also sustaining an
extensive support system in the immediate family, community and
neighbourhoods. Even then, it has not been an easy process. In one case
(Pandarwada village), at the time of the "identification parade", the
office of the Executive Magistrate of the area (where the parade was
taking place) was surrounded by thousands of BJP/RSS supporters, to
intimidate the witnesses. Even the presiding Magistrate was reported to
have warned the witnesses as to what would happen to them when they go out
of the building after identifying the guilty!
The process continues. Trials in approximately 600 cases are in
process. Many successes have already been achieved. The recent
verdict by a court in Maharashtra in the famous Best Bakery case has been
justly hailed as a great victory, as a restoration of confidence in the
judicial system. It indeed was a great achievement. But convictions of the
guilty have been achieved in 13 other cases in Gujarat, prior to the Best
Bakery case. Dozens of people are already in jail on ten-years or
life-term imprisonment, including not only prominent local level
BJP-VHP-RSS leaders and activists, but also police officers and
constables. As recently as December 14 last year, eleven people were given
life, and three a ten-year, rigorous imprisonment for the murders and rape
they committed in the Anjanwada case; all the accused were known activists
of the VHP and other Sangh Parivar outfits.
With the direct order from the Supreme Court last year to re-open the
hurriedly closed cases (2,020 of them), hopefully many more convictions of
the killers and rapists might come. This would certainly require diligent
and patient work on each case at a time.
But the fact remains that Modi and his entire Hindutava brigade would not
shed any tears for a few hundred of their own supporters ending up paying
a price for the 2002 crimes. The Sangh Parivar is capable of abandoning
some of their foot soldiers, as they are openly called in Gujarat. The
flag of Hindu Rashtra is still flying high there, as was amply witnessed
at the massive mobilization of Hindutava forces in Dang, where they
re-wrote the Hindu mythology by creating a fifth site for the Kumbh Mela.
For the Adivasi Christians and for Muslims, life in Gujarat is still
filled with fear, isolation, discrimination, ghettoization and everything
else that characterizes a second-class citizenship.
If and when Narendra Modi himself is tried and convicted for crimes
of genocide, and crimes against humanity, for which he is a most
suitable candidate, things might change in Gujarat. Till then,
Gujarat will remain a bastion of Hindu Rashtra.
NEW "GUJARATS" IN THE MAKING
Gujarat has only been a laboratory. The goal of Hindu Rashtra is the whole
country; if not "Akhand Bharat" incorporating Pakistan and Bangladesh, and
maybe more. And they have been busy at it all over India; especially where
the BJP is ruling the state (Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh,
Orissa and Rajasthan).
Rajasthan:
Hari Sharma briefly reported on the growth of Hindutava forces in
Rajasthan too, on the basis of his visit to several districts in the
province. The already entrenched and well-organized forces of the Sangh
Parivar in Rajasthan received a powerful impetus immediately after the
Gujarat massacres of 2002; and more so after the BJP came back in power in
2003. Along with the many stalwarts of the Sangh Parivar, Narendra Modi
himself extensively campaigned during the Assembly elections in Rajasthan,
openly encouraging people to follow the Gujarat example. "Muslims are like
mosquitoes; crush them", he was reported to have said in his public
speeches in the province. In Bhilwara district, he publicly extolled a
local BJP candidate for his leadership in the total demolition of a
centuries-old mosque in the village of Karjalia.
But Modi or no Modi, the BJP government of Vasundhara Raje is
seemingly doing a good job, especially with the help of her Minister of
Home Affairs, Kataria. An ordinary murderous feud (something quite common
in the countryside of India), which involves the death of a Hindu, is
suddenly turned into an anti-Muslim frenzy, mobilizing at times thousands
of Sangh Parivar activists in the area. The Home Minister with his
law-and-order machinery ensures that the cases are "properly" filed and
followed. It does not have to be a Hindu victim of the murder. In village
Musakhera of Alwar district a common feud between two families in which
three Sikhs died, was instantly whipped up and turned into a Muslim-Sikh
issue. Practically all the Meo-Muslims living in the village were rounded
up, arrested and booked. Tens of thousands of Sikhs from all over
Rajasthan, Punjab and Delhi, as well as RSS-VHP-BJP leaders and cadre,
descended on the village, significantly, on December 6 (Babri Masjid
anniversary) last year, filling up the large Muslim population in the area
with terror.
December 6, a day of much shame for the people who value the
pluralistic and composite civilization of India, is in fact
celebrated throughout Rajasthan as a "Samman Divas" (Day of
Self-respect), and Chief Minister Raje obliges at least one of the
locations with her presence, to expand and consolidate the hold of
Hindutava in the region. Trishul distribution ceremonies are
organized with much pomp and show, and although banned under the
previous regime have been started again. Throughout the province,
"Hindu Mata" Temples are coming up in the name of this non-existent
Goddess of the Hindu pantheon. These become ominous when they are
built right in the proximity of a Church, as it happens in very many areas
of Banswara district in southern Rajasthan. Bordering on Gujarat and
Madhya Pradesh, the district's population is predominantly tribal (85%),
many of whom had converted to Christianity long time ago. Like everywhere
else in India, the Christian community in Rajasthan has been a target of
ruthless and systematic attacks and intimidation; especially since 1995.
Churches have been burnt, desecrated. Nuns have been attacked and
assaulted. October 2005 was particularly bad, since it marked the
conclusion of the Eucharistic Year Catholics all over the world celebrate.
Hundreds of people from all over the district and beyond were to travel on
October 16 to the Trikeshwar Church in Kushalgarh (the Tehsil Headquarter)
in Banswara district. Road blocks were created to prevent people from
getting to the town. People were pulled out of buses and beaten up. Nuns,
including old ones in their 60's, were beaten up bad. Girls and women
walking on the streets had their blouses ripped to check if they wore a
cross; and if so, publicly humiliated. And all this happened with the full
connivance of the local administration. When charges were laid, not even
FIRs were registered.
Rajasthan, under the BJP government, is definitely moving to turn the
province on the Gujarat model. Vanvasi Kalyan Parishads, Saraswati Shishu
Mandirs, Ekal Vidyalayas, Khel-Kood Samitis, Adarsh Vidya Mandirs, etc.
are among the many educational/social-cultural institutions that have been
set up all over the state to propagate and consolidate the Hindutava
ideology and culture, with the full backing of the state government. In
late December, the government went as far as to issue a Special Circular
allowing MLAs to donate from their discretionary Local Area Development
Fund up to Rs 10 lakh each to Adarsh Vidya Mandir schools run by the Vidya
Bharati of the Sangh Parivar. Promoting development in the state is now
synonymous to promoting Hindutava ideology among he young ones.
Orissa:
Dr. Angana Chatterji of the Department of Social and Cultural
Anthropology at the California Institute of Integral Studies started her
research in Orissa several years ago, essentially to look in the matter of
land rights. During the course of her work, she said, it became obvious
that the Hindutava forces were rising in a rather alarming way. She
traveled to over sixty villages in the province, collected testimonies,
including interviews with even some of the leaders and activists of the
Hindutava organizations.
Dr. Chatterji was a co-Convenor of the recently held Indian People's
Tribunal on "Hindu Communalism in Orissa", whose report is soon to be made
public.
Orissa is definitely shaping as Hindutava's next laboratory, Dr.
Chatterji said. Praveen Togadia, international general secretary of
the VHP, visited Orissa in January and August 2003 to rally Hindu
extremists. He advocated that Orissa join Hindutava in its movement
for a Hindu state in India. 'Ram Rajya', he promised, would come. In a
personal interview Subash Chouhan, state convenor for the Bajrang Dal (the
paramilitary wing of Hindutava), spoke with zeal of current hopes for
'turning' Orissa. Christian missionaries and 'Islam fanatics' are
vigorously converting Adivasis (tribals) to Christianity and Dalits
(erstwhile 'untouchable' castes) to Islam, Chouhan emphasised. He stressed
the imperative to consolidate 'Hindutva shakti' to educate, purify and
strengthen the state.
Dr. Chatterji reported that there are around 30 dominant sangh
organisations in Orissa. The RSS operates 2,500 shakhas with a
1,00,000 strong cadre. The VHP, created in 1964, has a membership of
60,000. The Bajrang Dal has 20,000 members working in 200 akharas.
Membership of the BJP stands at 4,50,000. The Bharatiya Mazdoor sangh
manages 171 trade unions with a cadre of 1,82,000. The 30,000 strong
Bharatiya Kisan sangh functions in 100 blocks. The Akhil Bharatiya
Vidyarthi Parishad, an RSS inspired student body, functions in 299
colleges with 20,000 members. The Rashtriya Sevika Samiti, the RSS women's
wing, has 80 centres. The Durga Vahini, with centres for women's training
and empowerment, has 7,000 outfits in 117 sites. Thousands of schools are
run by these organizations with the financial support from diasporic Hindu
nationalist charities and also the state that teach Hindu mythological
version of the history of the nation, identifying India with Hinduism.
Dr. Chatterji reported that this mobilisation is the largest base of
organised volunteers in the state. Their main target are Christians (about
2.1% of the total population), Adivasis (24%), Muslims (1.98%), Dalits
(17.5%) and other marginalised peoples. In recent years, she said,
churches and homes have been burnt down; nuns raped; missionaries killed.
Tribals and Dalits have been forcibly reconverted. Muslim and Christian
women have been beaten, Christian women had their head shaved as a sign of
their reconversion and punishment for their original conversion. Muslims
everywhere are threatened and treated as the enemy. Bangladeshi Muslim
refugees are discriminated against and threatened with social and economic
boycotts.
The organizers of the Hindu-fascist organizations openly declare that
there is no place for Muslims and Christians in Orissa and India and they
will take whatever steps necessary to bring this about. They even
threatened the women members of the People's Tribunal, some of whom were
members of the Indian judiciary, with rape.
THE QUESTION OF BALUCHISTAN
Mr. Imran Munir, a senior reporter for a national English daily
newspaper in Pakistan and a Ph.D. candidate at SFU, traced the
history of the betrayal of the Baloch aspirations going back to the
British colonial rule, when the Baloch nation was divided in separate
entities. In 1948, Pakistan annexed Baluchistan against the will of its
people, who wanted an independent state. Armed resistance by the Baluch
people was severely crushed, but it erupted again in 1968, and culminated
in a prolonged war of independence during 1973-77. Using massive ground
and air forces, including gunship helicopters, Pakistani army managed to
crush the Baluchi resistance. Thousands were killed and many more made
destitute by the killing of their cattle. Injustices have continued.
Though Sui in Baluchistan, for example, has been a major source of gas for
Pakistan since the 1950s, the sole city in Baluchistan to have access to
gas is Quetta, the capital, which started receiving it only in 1971
because it became home to a military cantonment. In Southern Baluchistan,
over 500 Chinese engineers and contractors and hundreds of engineers and
workers from Pakistan are developing the mega project of deep sea port at
Gawadar to transport Central Asian oil and facilitate trade. The project
offers no jobs for Baloch people, while the land around the port has been
bought up by Pakistan military personnel and Punjabi businessmen.
The decision by the present military regime of General Musharaf to
allow USA to use air and ground facilities in the province to launch
attack in Afghanistan and to establish army cantonments in Balochistan to
consolidate the military's stronghold in the province, infuriated the
people, who believe that these cantonments will be used to further
colonize the Baloch people.
The continuous exploitation of the Baloch people and their resources
forced them, once again, to take up arms against the federal government.
In last two years, organized forces like Baluchistan Liberation Army,
Baluchistan Liberation Front, and People's Liberation Army have emerged.
They are conducting operations against the government installations, gas
pipelines, and military troops. Despite the massive use of air and ground
power by the Pakistan government, rocket attacks, bomb blasts, and land
mine explosions have become order of the day. The Baloch militant have
also killed seven Chinese engineers. The Musharaf regime is blaming the
Al-Quaida and Indian intelligence agency RAW for the insurgency, a claim
no body takes seriously outside Islamabad.
Mr. Munir pointed out that Baluchistan is used by the US as a base in its
"war on terror" in Afghanistan, that it will be a launching pad for the
impending attack on Iran, and is currently used for commando incursions
into Iran. Several kilometers around the US base are marked off as a
security zone in which Baloch cattle may not graze, causing great hardship
to the people. There is reliable evidence that the Pakistan army is using
chemical weapons against the Baloch, though such weapons are banned by
international conventions to which Pakistan is a signatory.
During the discussion, a member of the small Baloch community in
Vancouver, expressed his appreciation that there was a public forum
where the grievances of his people could be voiced. He pointed out as a
sign of the discrimination the Baloch faced in Pakistan that of the more
than ninety universities in the country only one was located in
Baluchistan and that of the several thousand Pakistanis studying abroad
with scholarships not one was from Baluchistan.
The SANSAD Forum concluded with the sense that remembering oppression and
giving voice to the oppressed were essential steps toward building
resistance against fascistic developments in South Asia.
SANSAD
South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy
Suite 435, 205 - 329 North Road, Coquitlam, BC, Canada. V3K 6Z8
phone : (604) 420-2972; fax: (604) 420-2970
Electronic mail :
sansad@sansad.org
Web site:
www.sansad.org