Call To All Secular & Democratic People in Karnataka

The twin menace of Communalism & Terrorism is getting deep into the minds of Indian youths. The print and electronics medias fuel negative feelings, e-mail campaigning's instigate delusive ideas which nurture the reactionary tendencies of these younger people.

IT industry which employs a considerable section of these youth from the middle & upper classes is now becoming susceptible for the spread of Communal and Fundamentalist ideas by the continuous involvement of Communal groups in various forms. RSS and its affiliates are in the forefront of this divisive campaigning and are organising themselves in the IT Sector. These targeted youth, though mostly apolitical and socially unaware are falling into the traps of these Communal and Fundamentalist forces that indirectly become very useful for the political progress of the latter whether in terms of Volunteering activities or in case of fund mobilisation. Chunk of other white collar professionals too are increasingly falling into this trap. The different NGO type of activities and charity activities being largely carried out by these forces are attracting more and more youth into their folds. This is causing the youth in the minority community also getting snared by the communal forces such as NDF and terror groups such as SIMI, Lashkar-E-Toiba, etc in search of security or retaliate against the open Terrorism done by the majority fanatics. The fanatics among the minority groups utilize these youth to fulfill their vested interests. Both the majority and minority terror groups hence nurture each other and require each other for their existence.

In such a situation it becomes imperative for the progressive individuals in IT Industry with Secular and Democratic values to create awareness against Communalism & Terrorism and to uphold the Secular Democratic traditions of our country and to maintain Unity & Fraternity. Bangalore, the IT hub of India has seen a rise of Communalism in the recent period especially after the BJP Government assumes power for the first time in Karnataka. The State government is using all its power to spread their hatred campaign and providing suitable environment for RSS and its affiliate organisations to proliferate and reach out to every sections of the society and instigate venom in the minds of the youth. This is helping their twin terror groups of the minority community to recruit more people showing these acts of violence and instigating hatred in the young minds. Now this is getting rapidly spreading into the IT professionals who are getting divided on these religious lines leading to a very dangerous situation.

We request all the Secular minded and Peace loving Indians to join the campaign against the spreading of Communalism and to create the awareness on Secular and Democratic values in the society. We also request all the youths to unite & create a strong and counter balance against global terrorist and imperialist leaders, the USA and Israel. We deem every religious fundamental organization which promote communalism and terrorism, either national or international, is equally danger for Indian society irrespective of their religious identity. Terrorism has no religion and no language and no nationality.

Quoting a poem originally from that by Pastor Martin Niemöller written against Fascism and adapted to the present situation in India

"They came first for the Communists,
And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Muslims
And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Muslim.

Then they came for the Christians,
And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Christian.

Then they came for the Dalits,
And I didn't speak up because I was a Hindu.

Then they came for me,
And there was no one left to speak up ..."

LET US JOIN OUR HANDS TOGETHER TO FIGHT AGAINST COMMUNALISM & TERRORISM

Politicization of Students in Karnataka - Hindutuva is NOT Hinduism : Part 2

Unemployment rate is rising in alarming rate, jobs are retrenched and prices of essential commodities are touching the sky; the economy is struggling because of low consumption, the RBI is projecting lower GDP growth and daily life of an ordinary Indian become stressful because the world and Indian economy is stumbling. Every Indian is expecting the state and the union government to do something to stabilize the economy. With this prevailing condition, in Gujarat, Minister of State for Women's Welfare Mayaben Kodnani and State Vishwa Hindu Parishad general secretary Jaideep Patel seeking anticipatory bail for the case in which 90 Indians were burned alive in 2002 and in Karnataka, on January 24th, young Ram sena activists attacked innocent girls in pub in the name of moral policing. Muslims, Christians, people from socially and economically lower classes and women are attacked in various contexts BUT the charge is same; they are demoralizing the Indian society, they are traitors. Who are attacking the above mentioned Indians? Are the Hindus attacking them? No, they are NOT Hindus, they are Sangh Parivar and whose ideology is Hindutuva.

Hindutuva is NOT Hinduism. Hindutuva is a political ideology of Sangh Parivar. The term Hindutuva was coined by Veer Savarkar in 1920s in the pamphlet, Hindutva: Who is a Hindu? Veer Savarkar was the president of Hindu Mahasabha. The Hindu Mahasabha was founded in 1915. The RSS has been formed out of Hindu Mahasabha in 1925 and Bharatiya Jana Sangh(known as Jana Sangh) was formed as political wing of the RSS in 1951. The Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) is formed out of Jana Sangh in 1980 since the Jana Sangh was NOT able to show any electoral results. The present president of Hindu Mahasabha is Himani Savarkar, the daughter of Gopal Godse and niece of Nathuram Godse(the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi). She is married to the late Ashok Savarkar, nephew of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Now, the RSS, the VHP and the BJP are represented as Sangh Parivar. They have many fraternal organizations such as Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena , Ram Sena Rashtrawadi, Sriram Sena, Bharatiya Jana Paksham et al. The list is in fact very long.

Hindutuva is a political ideology of Sangh Parivar which says India is a monolithic society; nationalism and Hinduism are one same. It exhorts the Indian nationalism and the Hindu nationalism are one and the same. They are doing everything in the name of Hinduism NOT for the Hindus BUT to achieve political power. It's NOT necessary to do something good to the Hindus by destroying Muslims, Christians, other low caste people. Until, 1980s these outfits were NOT able to show any electoral gains so they honey coated their agenda which is popularly known as 'Hidden Agenda'. In later 1980s and early 1990s when India was facing touch time in economy in which inflation was out of control and rupee started losing it's value, these Sangh Parivar outfits raised Ram temple issue and carried out Rath yatra in Japanese made vehicle. People across India were killed as result of this temple issue. L.K.Advani used the Rath yatra as ruse to counter then the Prime Minister V.P. Singh's proposal to implement Mandal commission's recommendations. Mandalization has the potential to divide the Hindus vertically between upper caste and other backward classes and it'll damage the BJP's Hindu (backward class) vote bank. The BJP provided the outside support to the V.P.Singn government. In 1992, these very outfits destroyed the Babri Majid and responsible for communal riots followed by that. It's NOT something new; that these outfits ignore the need of the country and peruse their lines to distort the common national goal. When the Indians were fighting against British imperialism these outfits betrayed the Indian national movement and supported the British. The British were NOT traitors of Indian society!

Toiling working class, starving farmers and despondent unorganized masses expressed their angry and voted the congress out of power in 1998. In 1998, the second Hinduva government was installed in the centre as a coalition government; the first government which took power in 1996 is last for 13 days. It's mainly because of then the congress government failed to perform and the Hindutuva forces were able to mobilize the people easily since the opponent was weak. In 2004, the BJP led NDA government was voted out of the office since they also failed to perform. Rampant corruption, inhuman atrocities against Muslims, Christians and other minorities, the US prone foreign policy were examples of the mismanagement. The BJP intruded the Indian military and educational institutes. The BJP used Kargil heroes for election campaigns.

India is a multi cultural, multi religious, multi linguistic plural society. We have a common goal to make our nation prosperous. We have to provide employment to everyone and to eradicate the poverty. We've to provide world class education and health care. We've to industrialize the nation by large scale industrialization and to encourage entrepreneurship. The Sangh Parivar is always against such national goals and exports the feeling of rage and goad communal riots among the Indian people and make their political benefit.

The students have to reject these pseudo nationalists. The collapse of Sangh Parivar is NOT automatic. The people and students have to organize themselves to reject such anti-indain ideology, Hindutuva and stood for the plural and secular Indian society. It's the time for the students of Karnataka to be aware of Hindu terrorism and extremism which is based on Hindutuva and to reject them. The students have to organize themselves under secular and democratic political forces and fight against religious terrorism.

Report of awareness campaign against Communalism & Terrorism

People for Secular Democracy conducted an Awareness campaign against Communalism & Terrorism in Bangalore on Feb 7th. Around 150 people from different sections from Bangalore participated and the program was enlightened by the talks of High Court Justice Nag Mohandas & Professor for Astrophysics Dr. Sabyasachi Chatterjee. The program also had Cultural Programs by various groups, documentary show of "Ram ke Nam" & distribution of the book "The Real Face of Terrorism in India" published by People for Secular Democracy. Those who want the hard copies of the book "The Real Face of Terrorism in India" please contact seculardemocracy@gmail.com. (it is absolutely free of cost).

Shri Ramsena – Hooliganism of Hindutva

Activists from the ultra-conservative Hindutwa group Sri Ram Sena (Ram's Army) released a serious of vicious attack against women in Mangalore on different occasions. The camera footage shows women happened to be in pub were slapped, kicked and pushed to the ground and in some cases attempted to strip them by dozens of men. In another incident, a PUC II student and daughter of an MLA in Mangalore was kidnapped and harassed for talking to a muslim boy who is her brother's friend in a bus. The boy was later brutally assaulted. Suicide committed by a school going girl of age 15 years due to these anti social elements' harassment and public humiliation is the latest event in the whole episode. These reports show how gravely these groups are talibanizing our society. As Valentine’s day is nearing, Hindutva groups announced to oppose the same at any cost, as it is not part of the ‘culture’. They went ahead to warn such a way that if they see any two girl and boy together, they would make sure that they would marry each other!

These attacks and warnings were to protect Hindu morality and traditional Indian culture!! It does not end there, Pramod Muthalik - head of Shri Ram Sena justifies the attempt and informs whoever has done this did a good job and girls doing these activities are not acceptable.

India is a vastly diversified country and a multi cultural society with people speaking different languages, have different ways of life, different food culture, has belief in different religions, different identities etc. It was and is not a homogenous entity. Society is always going through pain staking evolution for betterment. It always created new thoughts, culture, morals etc for a better collaboration of people among the society in search of a stable political and economical setup which gives happy and equality among the people. India also was not an exception from the above process, and again History confirms same.

The question of progressive nature of the evolving culture and further validations are not coming under the scope of this write up, This is an attempt to portray the Sanghparivar’s ideological bankruptcy and their political aim; we are trying to answer an important question “Why Indian culture’s proprietary ownership is taken up by SanghParivar and other Hindutwa organizations?”

Hindutva groups and Ramsena’s attempts of equating culture with a polished predefined monolithic form is a vicious attempt and let us see what they are indented to do. Hindutwa groups’ version of ‘culture’ has two fold. First one is - it should be according to medieval dharmashastra book “Manusmruthi” and different other manuscripts (and traditional law books) which told us “No woman deserves freedom”, “Shoodra has no rights to study Veda (sacred books), If he does, his tongue has to be pulled off”, "Animals, drums, illiterates, low castes, and women are worthy of being beaten", etc. Society in subcontinent was subjected to social stratification and social restrictions in which social classes are defined by thousands of hereditary groups, often termed as jatis or castes. Society was completely ruled and constructed and based on Chathurvarnyam. The top cast – Brahmins, and Kshatriyas enjoyed power and benefit of work of masses – shoodras and Vaishyas. It was exposed to numerous kinds of anacharas and was evidently male dominant. Sati, child marriage, non allowance of widow marriages, multiple interpretation of law to different caste and genders were part of that Dark Age. Majority of people were suppressed under the worst form of casteism.

Second one is that, only they should be part of the new economic liberalization process, so the profit and business would be accumulated on them to attain a super class stature in current society. All front runners of the hindutwa’s cultural and political offshoots are part of this run. In short, they require a society which is in compliance with Manusmruthi, which would satisfy their economical/ political aspirations. Continuous involvement of Cultural arena is aimed to attain this target.

This is not first time Hindutwa splinter groups are showing this rowdyism and moral policing (for achieving above said political target). Attack against M.F Hussain the world acclaimed painter (it would be good to remember the murals and sculptures in Khaguraho and other part of India which portray different aspect of the society that had been prevailed in Indian subcontinent.), attack aginst Deepa Mehtah’s film screening, attacks against Sahmath groups activities are other examples of this aspect.

Apart from this, their interpretation of tradition and culture does not allow to live people who does not believe in their interpretations and thoughts. Especially other religions do not have any rights to live this sacred land, as they are not ‘indigenous’ in this land!! Gujarat pogroms, Babri Masjid demolition, attacks against Christian missionaries in different states are products of this stand.

It is shocking but not surprising that organizations like the Sri Ram Sene now act with complete impunity. The State Government which views their criminal acts with benign unconcern is responsible for this state of affairs in which hooligans acting in the name of 'culture' and 'tradition' are allowed not only to trample upon the rights and dignity of young women but now to abduct them at will. This has to counter. We should not allow Sanghparivar and other Hindutva groups’ attempt to wrap up culture in a room. This is the very fascist ideology to capture power by invasion of cultural and historical arena of our country. Let us understand this and unite against this agenda. We request all readers to speak out and uphold the democratic rights and dignity of women and minorities.

The Real Face of Terrorism in India

Politicization of Students in Karnataka - A Positive Step : Part I

Karthikeyan S

The BJP has proposed and implemented students awareness program against terrorism with a caption to 'Wipe Out Terrorism'. The political parties term this program as the BJP's hidden agenda to inflict the young minds with communal feelings or sowing the seeds of communal ism in the name of awareness campaign or predicting more and more communal pogrom is sequel to this student's program. My scope in this write up is NOT to discuss about the nature and outcome of this students program BUT to share my positive view about this program. I feel such programs will create political awareness among the students who are pillars of next generation India.

So far; mostly Indian students were left outside the political sphere except the states in which Left is ruling. Students in some premier educational institutes and some universities involved in politics. Now the BJP has made a very good attempt in Karnataka to include students from schools and colleges in getting political awareness. Politics is the science and arts of governance. Students can't get awareness about terrorism without understanding politics and polices of the government. Also it's necessary for the students to get some understanding about Terrorism in India.

Terrorism in India can be divided as internal and external(cross border) terrorism and internal terrorism can be further classified as internal terrorism based on regional chauvinism and another based on religious fundamentalism/extremism or communalism. These internal groups are abetted by external groups or countries. Internal communal based outfits and region based outfits coordinated with external groups. Internal region based outfits are operating in various Indian states. The aim of all these terrorists groups are one and same that to disturb India's peace and break India into pieces.

As for as the region based outfits are concerned, in Jammu and Kashmir, such outfits are All Parties Hurriyat Conference, the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front(JKLF), Lashkar-e-Toiba(LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed(JeM). Besides J&K, north eastern states are enclaved by separatist outfits such as The United Liberation Front of Asom(ULFA) and The National Democratic Front of Bodoland(NDFB) in Assam, Peoples Liberation Army(PLA), The United National Liberation Front(UNLF) and People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak(PREPAK) in Manipur , The NationalSocialist Council of Nagaland(NSCN) and The National Socialist Council of Nagaland—Khaplang(NSCN-K) in Nagaland , National Liberation Front of Tripura(NLFT) and All Tripura Tiger Force(ATTF) in Tripura , the Achik National Volunteer Council(ANVC) and the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council(HNLC) in Meghalaya & Hmar People's Convention-Democracy (HPC-D) in Mizoram. Most of these outfits are emerged after 1970s.

Khalistan Movement in Punjab is an another example of region based chauvinism. Mostly people of these movement are pushed to underground . Then-Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto shared very useful intelligence material concerning Punjab militancy to the Indian government. Still some traces of the movement are left in the Punjab society. In 1995, Punjab Chief Minister, Beant Singh was assassinated by Separatist group Babbar Khalsa. These separatist group has wide spread support in the UK and Canada. The LTTE was active in Tamilnadu. After the former prime ministerRajiv Gandhi's assassination these outfit has been banned and their activities are controlled to a great extend. The PWG of Andhra Pradesh is another example of regional chauvinism where most of its leaders split and some where underground.

As for as the communal groups are concerned, India has Hindu militancy and Muslim militancy. Predominantly Muslim militancy in J&K has been connected with the J&K separatist elements and their activities are well known. They have NOT confined their attacks within the Jammu and Kashmir but spread all across India. There is another form of Muslim militancy which is NOT connected with J&K separatism, these Islamic communal forces mainly involve in disturbing civic life in India by restoring to terrorist activities. Another communal terrorism is Hindu extremism. The Malegaon blast investigation has exposed Hindu militancy and their terror network. Popular Hindu militant groups are Sanatan Sanstha which is linked to the Hindu Jan Jagran Samiti. It's alleged these militant outfits has close links with Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh and the Bajrang Dal. The Hindu militant outfits are responsible for the blast in Parbhani in November 2003, Jalna in August 2004, Purna in August 2004, Nanded in April 2006, Thane in January 2008 and Malegaon in September 2008. Hindu and Muslim communal elements fed each other. These development shows communalism and terrorism fed each other. Terrorism has no religion, no region.

During cold war the J&K separatist outfits were abetted by the USA for it's imperialist agenda is well known. Terrorism, Communalism and imperialism are inextricably coupled. They have to be collectively crushed and defeated. What are origin and how they are handled now and they should be handled we'll see in coming parts.

Israel Aggression - Continuing attack of Imperialism on Humanity

Krishnaprasad

Israel’s aggression of war on Palestine, especially on Gaza strip is a pogrom conducted with high degree of efficiency. In the recent military assault more than 1000 civilians including 300 children have been killed, left with thousands injured. Israel’s ground forces have constructed a cast iron ring around the Gaza strip. Arial strikes have pounded on Palestine’s historical places, government & public buildings, Schools to rubble. The monumental example of Israel’s complete disregard to the world society was the bombing of United Nations compound despite the presence of UN secretary general Ban-Ki-Moon in the neighborhood.

The grinding urban battle unfolding in the densely populated Gaza strip is a war of new tactics, quick adaptation and lethal tricks. Though the world condemned the excessive use of force, a strong backing from the US bolstered the Israel to launch the ground offensive in Gaza. Adding to the pain is the silence from the different Arab governments. Iran is busy in proving its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, While Saudi Arabia and Egypt are supping with Washington, some are busy to ward off the US hyped ‘Economic Recession’ proving a reality that Palestine has no one to turn to. Even after the protest of ordinary people in many countries over the Israel’s attack on Palestine, nothing had been achieved more than the bad publicity of administration of Israel. Nothing was done by the International community than the rhetoric speeches and helpless momentarily rise of shoulders.

Nevertheless to say the Israel aggression was attributed by Hamas rocket attacks,
the question of the hour is what prompted Hamas to fire country rocket at Israel? The 18 month ceasefire siege which restricted even the barest essential is the answer. Thousands died at the hospital for want of basic medicines. World requested Israel to lift the siege in an attempt to avoid the human massacre is brutally ignored by Israel’s authority. Undoubtedly, the Israel authorities perceived aim of wipe out of Hamas has so far met with her militaries sledge hammer approach over Hamas mosquito bite.

Gazans facing with critical shortage of essential goods had to deal with Israel army in their own house. The new approach of Israelis entering the building by breaking through the walls rather than going in front and inhuman killings has turned the city into debris. Even the elected powerful Security council of the world, UN has not been able to stop Israeli pounding of Gaza rather became a bystander, in this case.

Trace of route cause of the conflict between the Israel and Palestinians point finger to the foundation of Israel in 1940. Bertrand Russell once said ‘The tragedy
Of Palestine is that the country has given by foreign power, Britain to other people
(Jews) ,for the creation of a state called ISRAEL. Zionism – the call for a ‘home land’
- In Palestine emerged as a movement in 19th century as a response to growing Anti - Semitism (a general belief of Jews being little loyal to the country they lived in).Zionists claimed Palestine being, ‘a land without people for people without a land’. Zionist movement was slow to start. At the end of First World War there were only 7% (most of them are fraudulently acquired) of the Jews compared to one million Arabs. Zionist leaders looked up to the imperial powers to help them to take over the land from the outset .After the first world war it was the turn of British which ran the Palestine as its colony and after second world war it was meant the turn of US.

In the late 19th century Britain occupied Egypt and controlled the Suez Canal which was,
a key artery for the military and economic power of the British Empire. The First World War helped British to capture Egypt’s northern border and to ward off the fear off growing national resistance movement in the Arab world. In 1917, when British marched troops to Jerusalem, foreign secretary Arthur Balfour linked hands with Zionist leaders to
Turn the Palestine into a colonial outpost of empire and declared Israel as the watch dog of west in a sea of hostile Arabism. When US replaced Britain as the super power, Israel
Duly switched their allegiance .The relationship has become more and more imperative, since the Iran revolution in 1979 and the present US invasion of IRAQ. Every Israel action has had US interest in mind. As the anger heats up in Arab World, US needs Israel as their ‘Watch dog’ in the Middle East.

After all, the tradition of enmity between Jews and Arab was not born out of history. The roots are very modern, stemming from Zionist colonial movement. But history explains prior to the Zionist movement every Arab capital had Jews playing an important role in the society and living alongside with Muslims and Christian. Hundreds of Jews name have been printed on the memorial to IRAQIS who laid down their lives in fighting
Against British colonialism in 1920.But all this changed once Zionism Movement began to reveal its dreadfulness.

In 1947 the United Nation penciled in a partition plan of Palestine that gave Zionist settlers about 55% of the land when they not even constituted 7% of the total population.
Zionist militant again launched campaign in 1948 to snatch as much as the country they could and ethnically cleansed around 7 lakhs of Arab. The Palestine fled to poverty and oppression in Gaza, the west bank and other countries, while Israel claimed around 80% of the Palestine.

‘Law of Return’ allows anyone of Jewish descent to return to Israel but denied Palestine to return to their home land. These Arab citizens of Israel remained without citizenship under an apartheid system and later granted citizenship in 1968 under the leadership of golda Meir, one of the founders of Israel .By this time Zionist ethnically cleansed most of the palatines the rest were made refugees. It was not possible to make a Jewish state without ethnic cleansing. Arab Jews never been welcomed to the top of Israel society.
Many are still adhered to the Arab culture and holding the dream of returning home one day.

The international community cannot caste a blind eye on the happenings in the land of Palestine. The Israel occupation continues to destroy Palestine society and besiege it, with every ounce of destructive energy which it deemed appropriate, against isolated people who defend its threatened identity and existence. Israel’s latest declaration of Gaza invasion, served the purpose, hopefully will ease the violence.
Streets of other countries will, for a few more weeks spill out in anger. Mean while the helpless Palestine bury their head in the hatchet and wait for the next Israeli invasion.
The confrontation happening at Palestine – a people who has been dispossessed of their land ,ordinary life – is a test of moral stance that will reveal to what extent the values of freedom ,justice and equality have credibility. Those who clamor for humanity should think of the killing of over 300 children in the latest Israel invasion. The lack of concern towards such aggression is reprehensible, to say the least.

As in so many other regions of the world, the division, discord and hatred between people in Middle East are a bitter legacy of western imperialism. Jan 2008 is a major attack after 2003. In terms of death toll 2008 exceeds in folds compare to 2003. The pragmatic way to put pressure on Israel is to isolate Israel and her chief supporter the US at international level. In Jan 08, 2008 when 14 out of 15 Security Council members voted on UN resolution to stop Israel's attack in Palestine, ONLY ONE nation, the USA, abstain from voting and failed the resolution. It's NOT the first time the USA did like there are umpteen such record where the USA exercised her veto in favor of Israel. The only way to isolate Israel is to isolate Israel and the USA together.


It's time for the people of India in expressing solidarity with the people of Palestine. India voted against the UN resolution for creation of new Israel state in 1948 keeping in mind that one day Zionist state will term as rouge state and history has proved it. Nonetheless Indian government is NOT raising strong voice against Israel's inhuman attack; people of India should rise to condemn Israel.

Indian society, goal of majority fundamentalism - Fascism, and the other side of coin

Ravishanker C N

Basically we can start with a question which nation do you identify yourself with? And why? The immediate answer of anybody would be India. Let us have a closer look on this matter. Historically Indian subcontinent is subjected to numerous changes. Historians could able to trace to at least 6000 BC. it was a space where prehistoric man lived. He fought with nature for facing day to day challenges. He started to live together and formed community which lived on a hunt and gather based. The society was much premature and tended to have non-hierarchical, egalitarian social structures. It was more nomadic society where he travelled from one space to another based on the availability of living factors such as food, water, climate etc. They were often grouped together based on similarity and band (or tribe) membership; slowly community developed in to a state such that there are some limited instances of social rank and prestige came in to picture, later division of labour into social classes came to picture. Then civilizations formed.… South Indian and north India subcontinent inscriptions show evidences of large nature of this kind of development of human from very prehistoric to a civilized state. Indus valley civilization which goes back to 3000 BC was very advanced state of the urban civilization in the subcontinent. Inscriptions shows the development of language, scripts etc in that society. Over the centuries, it has been witnessed to numerous migrations from different categories of people who speak different languages, belong to different ethnic groups, races etc, enriching the content or basis of society. Production of commodity and trading of commodities improved by vast as society grew bigger. This gave birth to new collaboration, relationships among the people. Basis of the society got enriched gradually on the production and trading of commodities… For strengthening the binding among the vast section of people, new set of rules, regulations, laws, morals, culture were evolved/formed. Division of labour into social classes based on property ownership where some people live from the labour of others happened. An effective form of class structure or hierarchy evolved. This is called as CASTEISM – It a structure to ensure the production and production relationship across the generations. Society moved from stage to stage. Migration from the western/ middle east has been happening throughout the history. As said earlier, this enriched the culture and thought streams in the subcontinent. Historians points out at least 64 major thought streams existed in the subcontinent. It varies from Vedanta, Vedas -, charvaka – [a stream who were completely aethists], Budhas, Upanishadeyars, Smrith, Jaina, parsi, Vishishtadvaita , Advaitha, Dwaitha, Semitic religions with Indian characteristics etc. Each one was resultant of the contradictions existed in the society/ system. Each one went through a state when further development of production became impossible resulting in overthrowing or suggested to overthrow or tried to reform the existing ruined or outdated system of production and production relationship by replacing with a better one. Historically subcontinent was opened to n number of rules, regulations, laws or culture strips. This highlights the multiple thought the diverse nature of the subcontinent. It was never a monolithic entity. It is very much diversified which includes people of different genres.

At this juncture, it would be interesting to give a look on Identity that prevails in the society; Social identity is identity one identifies him as part of social creature. It can include the kind of work he is indulged in to and the subsequent relationship he has been built in to…. Man can have multiple identities depending on kind of activities he is indulged in to. Economical, cultural, religion, regional and other streams are possible inputs to his identities. People in subcontinent's identity are diversified in to numerous streams due to various historical, and socio economical reasons - some of them are mentioned earlier. But the anti-colonialist struggle in the early half of 20th gave almost a single identity about the concept of Country to the members of subcontinent. Formulation of the country [countries in subcontinent] was the result of amazing mass struggles by the people of the subcontinent against the nasty ways of the oppression of the British colonialists, expecting the new formulation is a society which will resolve the exploitation and provide them a right for leading a decent life. [But alas, the political setup is revolving around other values. In reality, it does not believe on the above said rights, it believes on the policies of 'kindness to the poor', it believes on doing 'some adjustments' or in other words, the political setup in reality does not believe the equality of people]. The strong identity feeling about the nation has to strengthen by continuous struggle against the oppression and bringing the different kind of people to the mainstream of society. [This is also a process of internationalization]. This can be happened only by continuous and conscious efforts of comparing nation itself and constant improvisation. This process is against the interests of the communalist and fascist groups that are existed from the period of colonialist struggle itself. The class interests of ruling class did not counter these tendencies stronger resulting on weakening the unification of the nation identity. They grew in to a situation to accept passively the fascist divisive line of thought on the question of nation, national identity, nature or character of the Indian society, etc.

The economic agenda of fascism can be identified from the 20th century European experiences. Now fascists in India are the flagship implementers and supporters of the elite economic policies which would destruct this society. Following are the highlighted policies that they are indented to implement.
New neo-liberal policies which is totally avoiding and taking the space of the traditional sectors where 60-70% of citizen are working and forcing them to quit those jobs without any other alternatives; leading them to the depths of poverty and destitution. Liberalization of labor laws and promotion of contractualisation. Privatization of important public corporations; Implementation of new patent laws, Freeing All Controls On Monopolies, Privatisation of Banks and Finance Sector, etc [we can remember fate of customers of lehman, aig, enron & our own exp. Dhabol, more recent GTB, Satyam, etc]. Allowing them to enter in critical sectors like electricity, water, communication, oil etc on the name of efficiency & competency [on current international context, it is laughable]. In short move backward from spending money for people and allocate that money to big corps. Implement tax reformation, Trade liberalization, allowing of FDI in important sectors, deregulation of market. [Effect of these policies is seen in US recently and is gulping the world. This happened in 90s also – at that time Asian tigers became paper tigers]. Removal of subsidies for improving 'efficiency'. [IEA asked govt to remove subsidies on oil few months ago.]. Speculation for important commodities including food items.[remember recent price rice for commodities]. Complete destruction of PDS

Evidently these policies are adversely affecting common man that included millions of people that belong to different religions, caste, race, ethnic groups of this society. This has to be done very heinously. For achieving these economic targets, Fascism put goal to capture the power. For capturing the power it is working overnight on the different faces of society; political, cultural, history, sociological arena etc all are under the continuous onslaught of their agenda. Fascism's preliminary step for achieving this is to replace the multiple identity of the society [which explained earlier] with a singular monolithic face. According to them the sacred land [which starts from Afghan to Chinese border including Nepal, Burma, sri lanka etc] is an entity with a golden past. The space is entirely immune to migrations over centuries and the developed in to a single entity with highly developed 'culture', with a sacred language 'Sanskrit', and civilization; It consciously working on the identity crisis of middle class; identity is very much important for an individual. Everyone would be on the search of identity for placing oneself in this land which provides him a satisfactorily good position. Communalism works on this space - It falsifies the history. It mixes history with Myths. It glorifies the past and put the middle class in a convenient position. It uses various symbols consciously for invading to the minds of masses. It makes citizens more passive and inject thoughts like from a highly civilized society, the country is ruined in to current degraded level due to invasion of Muslims [another monolithic reference], Christians [again] etc. Sanghparivars are ardent follower of Hitler the German Fascist, and they reuses the Nascist methodologies to large extent and doing experiments their own for invading the mind of Indian middle class. Recent Gujrath progrom, attacks against Christian missionaries, demolition of Babri masjid are coming in to this category. They have hidden their agendas in their anti non Hindu policies; according to them the hardships in this society are due to 'non-democratic' priorities given to non Hindus and existence of other religions;

Considering the global scenario, terrorism, imperialism, globalization, capitalism, fascism... all are moving together by supporting each other. As one of my friend told, "It is a vicious cycle. Greater the number of attacks, greater will be the political mileage for the far-right wingers (Republicans in US and Sangh Parivar in India) and greater the influence of these right-wingers on policy making, greater impetus will the terrorist organizations receive, which will again boost to continue the cycle." Majority fundamentalism is giving oxygen to minority fundamentalism and vice versa. It is the fodder for the identity crisis of the middle class and incarnation of the identity politics... Terrorism is getting food from identity crisis also along with many other factors. Ideological countering of both the majority & minority fundamentalism is required for resolving these identity issues.

On close look, both majority& minority community organizations are taking religious fundamentalism consciously for supporting their neo-liberal capitalist socio-economic policies and elite class agenda. The head of terrorists groups' exact interest also needed to be considered. Exact result of their work has to be seen in a macro perspective... They should be part of this very globalization-capitalization process, working for better profits. Terrorism should be just another method for keeping the status-quo.

(K.N Panicker, Romila Thapars works on history, and several other readings gave input for above right up.)

Secular Democratic India

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TERRORISM: LESSONS FROM MUMBAI AND MARAD

K Vijayachandran.

Within a month after the terror attack in Mumbai has come the court judgement on what is known as the Marad massacre of Kerala: This judgement will go down in history as a unique piece of judicial investigation on communal terror in our country. The crime was committed five years ago, in the evening of 2nd of May 2003: Nine fishermen were killed on the Marad seashore, some twenty kilometer from Kozhikod: eight were Hindus and one was a Muslim. It was a premeditated attack by a large Muslim crowd, armed to the teeth with conventional weapons, and launched from the nearby mosque. Sixty three of the 147 accused persons were found guilty and seventy six acquitted by the Judge, Shri Babu Mathew P Joseph.

According to the Judge, the prosecution had failed in proving the charge of conspiracy: Now, he is hearing the plea of the sixty three guilty persons, for deciding on the punishment for their crimes. Close to 300 witnesses were examined, the proceedings of this massive trial reportedly run into 5000 pages of documents, hand written by the judge. Statements filed by the 139 accused persons ran in to 2.7 lakh pages and it took more than four years, for the special judge, to complete the trial, which was well supported by the administrative machinery. The district administration had convened a consensus meet of all political parties, religious and caste organisations, and elected representatives of the people so as to preempt an outbreak of communal tension. The so called Marad massacre was the last in a series of communal strifes in the region. However, the four year long trial by a special court, the judgement, elaborate administrative interventions, and above all consensus among local political leaders have now created an atmosphere of lasting communal peace in the region.

The tens of thousands of pages of trial documentation and factual statements filed in the court are sure to serve as rich material for future scholars doing research on communal terrorism. However, the most conspicuous fact about the outcome of the massive trial was its failure or refusal to tackle the conspiracy part of the armed attack by a few hundred people on a small group of unarmed persons, and the use of the mosque premises for the heinous crime. This only means that, there was a local consensus for using the mosque for launching a criminal conspiracy and at least a part of the clergy was hand in glove with the criminals. The conspiracy could have been easily thwarted by simple grass-root level surveillance and resistance. The large volumes of the trial proceedings and the judgement are sure to reveal valuable information on how communal terror was instigated at grass root level in Marad and how it could be effectively countered in future even in other locations by the initiatives of people and administration at the local level.

Now we have a massacre of much larger dimensions at Mumbai, using sophisticated technologies and advanced weapons: Some ten terrorists could murder nearly two hundred people and injure many more. Initial report was that some twenty terrorists had struck Mumbai on that eventful night of 26/11. Their encounter with the local police, armed forces and the NSG had lasted three nights and two days. Though NSG operations against terrorists were held in-camera, electronic media were celebrating the event by broadcasting alive, the macro views of the operations and global commentaries on the terror attack, for more than three full days. TV channels were competing with each other for convincing the viewers about Pakistan's role in the terror conspiracy. There were plenty of contradictory reports, claims and interpretations on the attack and the three day anti-terror operations. As on now, several questions and doubts remain unanswered, including those around the martyrdom of Karkare and other anti-terror veterans of Maharashtra.

Despite the massive coverage, general public know very little about the details of terror strike on Mumbai, which was instantly compared to the US experience of 11/9 by the visual media. No investigations, enquiries or trials were necessary for them for coming to the conclusion that, terrorists had struck Mumbai with the knowledge and involvement of Pakistan. Then, there were several learned debates and discussions on what constituted state terrorism, non-state actors, statehood, citizenship etc etc, with UK and US Governments rushing in with all sorts of proofs and arguments in support of Pakistani involvement. At some point of time, Indian Government was even advised to go for cross-boarder strikes against the terror camps located within Pakistan, as part of a peace initiative with US support! British and American secret agents were even rushed in for helping India's national security. And then, the Parliament was summoned mainly for passing in a jiffy, the new POTA laws in the name of national security, despite serious objections and concerns raised by the Left about this draconian legislation.

There is no reason to believe that, such draconian laws could have helped us to pre-empt the Mumbai terror or to handle the situation a little more gracefully. The way it was was handled by the State and Central Governments was a disgrace to the country: It was nothing but a tragedy of errors from beginning to end, and a clear case of systemic failure in administration. It has ruthlessly exposed the vulnerability and weak spots of Indian society and Indian State. A detailed public enquiry would have helped the country to learn about the dynamics of terrorism, internal, cross-country as well as their diverse ramifications. It would have helped us to learn about the role of local, national and international players as well as the role of ideology, politics and media, in the promotion of terrorism. The new set of laws, engineered as a response to Mumbai terror, is nothing but old wine in new bottle. As in the past, they will not help to contain terrorism, instead it is sure to breed even more terror: Even the proposed federal coordination, at its full throat, is unlikely to catch up with this.

Precious lives were lost in large number in Mumbai terror, several times more compared to the so called Marad massacre of Kerala. And, every body has his own pet theories on who did it really, and for what purpose? But, we all know, the immediate victims are Indo-Pak relation and the process of peace initiative; India is now getting over-loaded with British and American evidence for Pakistani role in the terror attack on Mumbai. As a result, military and the ISI are targeted to regain their upper hand in Pakistani politics. On the domestic front we have now an anti-terror law that is even more draconian than the earlier POTA, which was withdrawn under popular pressure. The new laws will lead to further alienation of Muslim population and the newly introduced federal policing would substantially compromise on the autonomy of Indian states, which could further weaken the foundations of our Union Republic. The political impact of Mumbai terror on the Indian subcontinent could turn out to be substantial.

India's ruling elites and Hindu chauvinists were itching, all these days, for an open alliance with Bush, Rice & Co, in their global war against Islam, their fundamental strategy for global hegemony. They hardly feel the need for an open enquiry into the total failure of the Indian State at Mumbai and want the people to believe that, India will be safer under US umbrella and a more rigorous POTA Raj designed to contain people's dissent. It is a strange coincidence that, the very same session of Indian Parliament, which was called for seeking a vote of confidence in Government, in the specific context of US nuclear deal, was asked to pass this anti-people legislation, in the name of national security.

30th Dec 2008

Violence in the Name of GODs - Do they support this?

Nidhin

The identity being created enormously through polarisation in the name of religion and the violence occurring as a result of these is reaching dangerous proportions. Are these acts of violence in the name of Gods were supported by GODs? Is Religion a political weapon of GODs to create various sections of people as their political/religious followers and hence to spread their hegemony in earth? Are GODS so powerless that they need their own creations to fight for them in the earth and to portray them as Omnipotents? These questions might come up in the minds of any individual who cannot justify the violence occurring in the name of religion. Religion came up as a relief to the suffering and exploited people and the various principles mentioned in each religion promotes peace and love between people. The violence happening today and those happened in the name of religion are all against the ethos of any Religion.
The Communal pogroms carried on by certain political sections of the majority Hindu religion and the mass murders carried on by various Islamic terror groups never could justify the underlying principles of their religion and infact everyone who gets polarised on these angles should first stop and realise that the above mentioned groups are the biggest anti-religious sections. Dividing people on religious lines has always been on the agenda of the vested interests and had been carried on slowly for some time, but becomes intense when they are able to fabricate instances or use the faults in the systems to carry on their agenda. While one group does the polarisation in the name of safeguarding their cultural values and portraying the others as foreigners, the other group polarises the people in the name of avenging the violence done to them and spreading the insecurity factor. In both groups creation of fear and insecurity plays a major factor by citing various superficial instances coupled with their lively issues such as job, poverty blaming the other group as problem of all their woes. While the minority groups have full rights to use all the weapons in a democratic setup such as protests, campaignings, using media etc. to get justice and also be secure from the majority communal violence which even appeared as State sponsored pogrom, there is no justification for them to resort to violence or massacre on large scale. The violence carried covertly by various minority terror groups have always resulted in the death of many individuals from the minority communities and also those from the majorities who are innocent people. The violence by either group only creates more suffering for the poor sections of the society as they would be the people who are easily targeted in any instance. The polarisation done by them and the activities done by them never gave any solution to the hungry millions of our country in any religion.

The violence carried by both the groups where innocent people are targeted is terrorism and the belief that only that carried out by minority groups covertly is only terrorism is nothing but distortion of the entire picture and legitimising the violence carried out by the majority terror groups. This underlying factor that many tend to forget is the politics played by the leaders of both the majority and minority groups. If you analyse deeply you can find that violence by both the groups have become cyclical and this would continue as long as both the groups are equally termed as terrorist groups. If one doesn’t exist, the other wouldn’t have any significance for existence. In such a situation one group definitely wants the other also to exist and hence both feed each other for their political growths. In this politics many young people become pawns in the hands of vested interests of the different religious groups by involving in the execution of violence in the name of safe-guarding their religion and people in their religion. These young people are organised differently based on the type of category to which they belong. Each of them are organised using their weaknesses and made use through their strengths. Some might be anti-social elements, who are allured with money, and other beguiling ways, some might be the victims or the close ones of the victims of the violence carried over by the other groups and easily instigated by mentioning the need to avenge for the ruthlessness done to him. There are some, who might be spirited and idealistic individuals who are taught the religion in a misleading way and given the wrong interpretation of historic facts entrusting them with the duty to safe guard their religion and the people of their religion. The well planned strategy used by the groups would be such that any idealistic person who is committed to a cause but narrow minded or made to analyse in a narrow minded way could easily be carried over by such polarisation tactics.

In such a situation where these discordant forces divide the entire society on Communal lines, one should introspect whether such division on communal lines is in agreement with the basic principles of Religion. All these people who believe in GOD and are religious should first understand whether their belief has place for any type of violence against innocent people. The view that the other has started the problems and hence we should also retaliate in the same coin is just the antagonistic view of the basic principles of Religion. Instead of such a view, religious and God fearing people should consider the violence by the other group and its own group both as violation of the basic principles of their belief. For this one should consider other as a human first before identifying him with religion, region, caste, creed or any man made boundaries.