Is technology undermining the much-vaunted community values of Millennials and creating a generation of semi-activists clicking for change on their computers, but ultimately disconnected and disempowered from each other and from the levers of real social change? This is the thesis posited by Sally Kohn, the director of the Movement Vision Lab at the Center for Community Change in an op-ed published in the Christian Science Monitor last week:

On their own, for example, none of the activists in the civil rights movement had sufficient power and influence to end segregation. Coming together in local committees, led mainly by young people, they used the tools of face-to-face community organizing, developing shared strategies to address shared problems. And they took shared action; in sit-ins and Freedom Rides, they formed groups that were more than the sum of individual parts.
By contrast, Internet activism is individualistic. It’s great for a sense of interconnectedness, but the Internet does not bind individuals in shared struggle as the face-to-face activism of the 1960s and ’70s did. It allows us to channel our individual power for good, but it stops there.

This is great for signing a petition to Congress or donating to a cause. But the real challenges in our society – the growing gap between rich and poor, the intransigence of racism and discrimination, the abuses from Iraq to Burma (Myanmar) – won’t politely go away with a few clicks of a mouse. Or even a million.

Over at Daily Kos, Georgia10 has already written an eloquent rebuttal highlighting the failures of the old activism models of the 60s in today’s political and media environment, and the recent successes enjoyed by Millennials engaged in online activism. I won’t rehash all that now. What I do want to point out is that this is not an either/or proposition, and to frame this as a zero-sum game between the old activism and the new creates a false dichotomy and friction where none needs to exist. There is no hard evidence showing that internet activism decreases offline activism. More mouse clicks does not equal fewer door knocks. In fact, the opposite is true.

According to a 2006 report by CIRCLE (pdf) on youth civic engagement (emphasis mine):

Internet Use and Civic Engagement
We separately asked about the frequency with which people go online, whether for news or other purposes. According to our survey, 69% of young people reported using the Internet at least a few times per week, and 41% reported using it daily. In general, those who use the Internet at least a few times per week are more engaged than those who never use it, while those who use it daily are the most engaged. For example, among those who do not use the Internet regularly, 72% are disengaged, and 23% have not participated in any civic engagement activities we measure. In contrast, among those who use the Internet daily, only 49% are disengaged, and only 10% have not engaged in any civic activities. That remains true even when we take into account the effects of education.

Statistics aside, there is hard evidence all around us that online engagement can produce just the sort of on-the-ground, community activism that Kohn desires. In 2006, tens of thousands of young immigrants and second generation Americans took to the streets to protest harsh, anti-immigrant legislation in Congress. Those mass protests, which received national attention in the media (and undoubtedly played a role in beating back the Sensenbrenner Bill), were organized primarily via MySpace and text messages. In 2007, at least 10,000 protestors descended on the small town of Jena, Louisiana to protest the unequal treatment six african-american students received at the hands of the local justice system. This protest, too, was primarily organized online via blog bloggers and the rising new - and internet savvy - organization Color of Change.

Without the internet, two of the most successful protests in our recent history - and ones that did not cater to an issue of great concern to the white upper-middle class elites who are normally associated with the netroots - would not have occurred. And in both instances, traditional community organizing groups, lauded by Kohn in her piece, found themselves playing catchup to the more agile internet organizers.

Today, one need only look to the campaign of Barack Obama to see that this trend is alive and well. Young Obama supporters are not just running successful campaigns on Facebook, they are finding each other online and building the social capital to change their local communities.

In a rebuttal to the post by Georgia10, Kohn states that she did not mean her piece to be taken as offering an either/or proposition - merely to highlight that the internet cannot achieve long-term radical change in our society by itself. With that, I agree wholeheartedly, but in saying so, Kohn defangs her entire thesis. Only the most starry-eyed techno-utopians believe that the internet can supplant all other forms of activism to change our world. Every serious person involved in the use and discussion of technology in politics recognizes that the internet is but one tool among many; that it does not replace older forms of activism, but rather compliments and strengthens them. In the end, Kohn seems to be fighting a straw-man of her own devising. The kids are alright. And so is the internet. In fact, they’re better than ever.

(The Nation)

In places of conflict, it is important that we stand up to what are called ‘human rights violations’ - violence against innocent people who might not be representing either the State or the Terorrist, for individuals who see their lives as being more than just one of the two elements of a binary. But even more steadfastly should we stand up to protest intimidation, coercion and violence against the very defenders of human rights, individuals who spend their time and often their lives standing up for the ordinary citizen.

The Indian media and civil society generaly do take note, if only in passing, of such attacks on human rights actvists. So while many have suffered the fate of Binayak Sen in Chattisgarh, Sen’s story has got some attention partly because he was responsible for bringing out the stories of those many people, because the doctor was a PUCL activist.

But when it comes to Kashmir, the Delhi media usually has silence to offer: it is a conspiracy of silence that seeks to mainatin the great consensus of not seeing Kashmir from any perspective but the one that makes the Valley an Integral Part of India. The Integral Part rhetoric is so deeply ingrained in most journalists and editors that they are loathe to even take note that most residents of this Integral Part see themselves as being chained to a body they don’t belong to.

The greatest casualty of the media’s decision to align itself with the establishment on the ‘question’/'dispute’/'issue’ of Kashmir is the truth about human rights. A free, liberal press should by now have exposed each and every unaccounted, secret, unnamed grave in Kashmir, which the security establishment claims are of foreign militants killed in encounters, but locals say they are of innocent individuals who just ‘disappeared’, and, in custodial death, won some soldier a bravery medal, some cash reward or a promotion. Or just the kick of killing someone from a place whose people don’t see themselves as part of India.

Having failed to look beyond the vale in Kashmir, the least that the Indian media could do is take note of those who are finding such graves, documenting them despite being trailed and intimidated by the security establishment which does not want the buried secrets out. In the big black mark on democracy and freedom, a small dot is the Delhi press’ failure to take note of the recent incident at the house of human rights advocate Parvez Imroz.

Imroz is a member of the Jammu & Kashmir Coalition for Civil Society which is involved in the International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice, which is conducting what its name suggests in the Indian part of kashmir. Their work has just begun, and the report they brought out on 900 unaccounted graves they have documented from just two districts - Baramulla and Kupwara - was not taken note of by most of the Delhi media. 29 skeleteons in Noida’s Nithari village had the Delhi media on edge for two months, but 900 unknown graves in Kashmir didn’t merit a mention. Some lives are more important than others; it depends on whether you died for sex or organ trade or for national integration.

One of the Tribunal’s members, Angana Chatterji, writes:

Dirt, rubble, thick grass, hillside and flatland, crowded with graves. Signifiers of military and paramilitary terror, masked from the world. Constructed by institutions of state to conceal massacre. Placed next to homes, fields, schools, an army practise range. Unknown, unmarked. Over 940 graves in a segment of Baramulla district alone. Some containing more than one cadaver. Dug by locals, coerced by the police, on village land. Bodies dragged through the night, some tortured, burnt, desecrated. Circulating mythology claims these graves uniformly house ‘foreign militants’. Exhumation and identification have not occurred in most cases. When undertaken, in sizable instances, records prove the dead to be local people, ordinary citizens, killed in fake encounters. In instances where bodies have been identified as local, non-militant and militant, it demystifies state rhetoric that rumours these persons to be ‘foreign militants’, propagating misrepresentation that the demand for self-determination is prevailingly external. Mourned, cared for, by locals, as ‘farz’/duty, as part of an obligation, stated repeatedly, to ‘azadi’. ‘Azadi’/freedom to determine self and future. [Full article on the tribunal website - PDF] [Reproduced in Etalaat]

The eloquence of the first paragraph betrays the matter-of-fact way in which the tribunals’ discovery of the mass graves is narrated. Much the same way as Kashmir’s touristy beauty hides the pain of an eternirty of ‘conflict’.

Chatterji also writes about being trailed and intimidated for this work:

On 04 July, sitting on a plane at Delhi International Airport, waiting to take-off, I received a phone call on my India mobile, caller ‘Unknown’: “Madam, we know you’re leaving. Think wisely before coming back”.

And the actualisation of such threats for other members of the tribunal:

On 01 July, we met at Khurram Parvez’s home before addressing a press conference. Outside, jeeps with plainclothes men continued their observation, accompanied by a jeep with armed men in uniform. Later, Advocate Imroz, Khurram Parvez, Advocate Mihir Desai, and I went to the police station to lodge a First Information Report. We were not permitted to do so. For security reasons, Parvez Imroz is not staying at home. Khurram Parvez remains under surveillance. I must allow for distance before revisiting the graves.

And that this is nothing new:

Advocate Imroz, Khurram Parvez, other members of the Tribunal team, have long experienced injustices for their extraordinary work as human rights defenders. A lauded human rights lawyer, Parvez Imroz has survived two, now three, assassination attempts, the first from militants. Since 2005, his passport has been denied. Khurram Parvez lost his leg in a landmine incident. Gautam Navlakha and Zahir-Ud-Din have been intimidated and threatened, as has Mihir Desai, in their larger work.

And how it is not just the security establishment that threatens them:

It is noteworthy that the Government of India is adding intimidation to the death and rape threats delivered me by Hindu extremists for human rights work.

The Tribunal’s mandate is simple:

Its mandate, in documenting Kashmir’s present, is to chronicle the fabric of militarisation, status of human rights, and legal, political, militaristic ’states of exception’. The Tribunal’s work will continue through the coming months.

By just talking to people, such are the oral histories that the Tribunal seems to be documenting, just like the 68,000 patients who visited a single psychiatric hospital last year in Srinagar to ask how they could live with the unspeakable stories of their own lives.

Torture survivors, non-militants and former militants, that I met with testified to the sadism of the forces. Reportedly, a man, hung upside down, had petrol injected through his anus. Water-boarding, mutilation, rape of women, children, and men, starvation, psychological torture. Brutalised, ‘healed’, to be brutalised again. An eagle tattoo on the arm of a man was reportedly identified by an army officer as a symbol of Pakistan-held Azad Kashmir, even as the man clarified the tattoo was from his childhood. The skin containing it was burned. The officer, the man stated, said: “When you look at this, think of azadi”. A mother, reportedly asked to watch her daughter’s rape by army personnel, pleaded for her release. They refused. She pleaded that she could not watch, asking to be sent out of the room or be killed. We were told that the soldier pointed a gun to her forehead, stating he would grant her wish, and shot her before they proceeded to rape the daughter. We also spoke with persons violated by militants.

The solidarity that the tribunal has won from the people in Kashmir is unsurprising, but it is disturbing to think the the number of people outside Kashmir who empathise with a project like this can be counted in one hand.

When she writes, “Each life in Kashmir has a story to tell,” you wonder why nobody is telling these stories, why some stories must remain untold, like a patient who does not want to know of gangrene in an integral part of his body.

You cannot but agree with her when she writes, “The work of the Tribunal is an act of conscience and accountability, fraught with the charge of complex and violent histories.”The word conscience in the midst of the restrained academic prose evokes guilt. It asks the gatekeepers of national integration, jinhe naz hain hind par woh kahan hain?

Dear All,

I find it sad that all those who live in India are being sent headlong into a period of turbulence following the unilateral  decision by the so-called Left parties in response to the Indo-US  Nuclear Deal to withdraw support from the UPA government. This decision is not a response to basic issues like the rising cost of living, but in support of the chimera of ’sovereignty’ in military affairs. It is shameful that parties that continue to call themselves communist should feel no embarassment at all in exhibiting the worst and most pahetic form of militarist nationalism, premised on the maintainance of an obscene Nuclear military policy. In all likelihood, if the government of the day fails  to pass the test of numbers on the floor of parliament, India will head straight for early elections.It will do so entirely because of the ‘Patriots’ on the so called ‘Left’.

The likely beneficiary of this  process will be the Bharatiya Janata Party, and if, going by the extensive coverage that  the Hindu, usually the mainstream media mouthpiece of the so called Communist Party of India (Marxist) has given to L.K. Advani (the billowing PM in waiting of the BJP), then, it needs to be read as a  sign of things to come. A covert entente cordiale between the so-called Left and the Right in Indian politics.

Or, in other words, Prakash Karat handing L.K. Advani the prime-ministership on a  platter. A decade or so ago, while Harkrishen Singh Surjeet was  ‘managing’ the Congress on behalf of the CPI(M), a similar covert  entente cordiale between the so called Left and the Congress (which  matured into a full fledged partnership) was as unthinkable, as what  augurs, when the ‘Patriots’ of the Left and the Right begin dancing their secret tango.

In this entire episode, everyone has come out in glorious colours,  the Congress with its pathetic kow-towing to US interests under the stewardship of George Bush, the Left with its myopic Nuclear  patriotism and its abdication of any responsibility towards developing a coherent political programme that is in any way critical of the Indian state’s military Nuclear ambitions, the BJP with its sabre rattling, the Socialists (Samajwadi Party) with their usual cynical opportunism.

And so ends the brief humid Weimar of the Indian Republic. Let us celebrate its demise by recalling how pallid and banal it has already become.I guess we should all now get accustomed to the idea of  Narendra Modi as a possible Union Minister of the Interior in the forthcoming  years.

best
Shuddha

(Apologies for cross posting a post substantially similar to one already posted by me on the Reader-List.)

Since Gay is in, currently, for the Indian media, Sonali Gulati, film-maker, out lesbian and gay rights activist, knows what it is to be hotly pursued for sound-bites. She has posted on youtube a recorded conversation with a reporter from IBN 7 pressing her for her take on a “lesbian” issue. Her quiet , insistent questioning reduces him to confused gibberish, but more importantly, makes the point that “lesbians” are no more and no less newsworthy than straight people - At one point she asks him, “Agar yeh ek heterosexual couple ke saath ho jaata, tab aap kis se comment lete?”

(If this had happened with a heterosexual couple, then to whom would you have gone for comments?)

Meaning of course, that any and every heterosexual would not be considered “expert” enough to comment on any and every heterosexual issue. The bemused reporter starts all over again with his insane drivel - he simply does not get it. Can she really be giving up an opportunity to appear on television? Naaah.

But go on - listen to Sonali.

Five years ago, in an article called “Srinagar, Four Years Later,” Suvir Kaul wrote:

A Ram Mandir is being built at the site of the ancient sun temple at Martand (Mattan). This is not simply an addition to what is already there - it is a deliberate refashioning of Kashmiri Hindu worship to obey the dictates of Hindutva practice. But worst of all are the excessive displays put on ostensibly for the benefit of the Amarnath yatris, but which actually function as a warning to local Kashmiris: all along the route past Pahalgam, and to some extent on the Baltal route, banners and wall-slogans sponsored by the CRPF and the BSF (and occasionally, the Jammu and Kashmir police) welcome the yatris. These units also make available tea and snacks, and announce them as prasad. There is no constitutional separation of temple and state to be found here - the yatris, and those who guard them, are equally, and aggressively, Hindu. [Link]

“It is forbidden to sit with your boyfriend and claim he is your brother”

My sister sent me this one…

It is really difficult to believe how an organisation which supposedly ‘aims to present religious mysticism in a scientific language for the curious and to guide seekers’ and which ‘conducts weekly spiritual meetings, discourses, child guidance classes, workshops on spirituality, training in self-defense and campaigns to create awareness of righteousness’ to further these aims can double up as an organisation which can invite prosecution under ‘laws meant for unlawful and terrorist organisations’.

But any impartial observer of the activities of ‘Sanatan Sanstha’ and ‘Hindu Janjagruti Samiti’ would concur with the view that these organisations need not be allowed to spread their venomous agenda among innocent people any further. The recent bomb blasts in Maharashtra where members of these organisations have been found to be involved is another reminder about the danger which these organisations present before the communal harmony situation in our country.

It is definitely no Kafkasquean scenario where one fine morning someone experiences metamorphosis of a different kind.

It is a real world, world which talks of ’spiritual salvation’ and ‘awareness of righteousness’, a world which supposedly ‘aims to present religious mysticism in a scientific language for the curious and to guide seekers’, which ‘conducts weekly spiritual meetings, discourses, child guidance classes, workshops on spirituality etc.’ but this is just one part of the whole story.

The other part of the story is that here ‘destruction of evildoers’ is an integral part of ’spiritual practice’. And this ‘destruction’ is to be done at ‘physical and psychological level’. Interestingly to facilitate this ‘Dharm Kranti’ (religious revolution) the seekers are also provided with training in arms - rifles, trishuls, lathis and other weapons.

Enter the world of Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu Janjagruti Samiti, which recently reached national headlines for completely non-spiritual reasons, when its activists/members were arrested by Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra state for recent bomb blasts in Maharashtra. It was sheer coincidence that these terrorists belonging to these organisations could be nabbed and for the first time a possibility emerged about tracing the real culprits behind many unexplained bomb blasts in this part of Western India.

In fact the bomb blasts at theatres in Vashi ( Visnudas Bhave Auditorium, 31 st May) and Thane ( Gadkari Rangayatan Auditorium, 4 th June) which fortunately did not kill anyone, would have similarly joined many such blasts where real culprits could never be identified, if the ATS had followed the oftbeaten track of stigmatising particular community and thus restricting the scope of investigation. One crucial link which the police already had was that the play which was to be staged in these two auditoriums named “Amhi Pachpute” had evoked a strong reaction from the members of the Hindu Jangagruti Samiti (HJS) and Sanatan Sanstha (SS) earlier. The HJS and SS members had even held joint protest to register their protest about the manner in which ‘hindu mythological figures had been shown in poor light’ in the drama. Interestingly HJS members had similarly held violent protests earlier when another play by the same author ‘Yada Kadachit’ was staged.

The arrested terrorists namely Ramesh Hanumant Gadkari ( 50), Mangesh Dinkar Nikam ( 34), Vikram Bhave (26), Santosh Sitaram Angre (26)and Dr Hemant Chalke provided many crucial details to the ATS team. It was the same group which was involved in bomb explosion at Panvel Cinema Hall in February when Jodhaa Akbar was screened. They had also planted a bomb outside a mosque/dargah on the Pen Highway last Diwali. It was worth noting that these terrorists who owed their allegiance with HJS and Sanatan Sanstha did not regret their act. They reportedly told the investigators that ” We are proud of what we did to deter those who were trying to show our gods and goddesses in poor light.”

The aggressive statements by the culprits emphasised the arrival of Hindutva terrorism in India - a charge which was already in air but never conceded by anyone. Not to be left behind, Bal Thackeray, the Supremo of Shiv Sena praised these ‘brave Hindus’ but chided them for using improvised techniques and exhorted Hindus to form ’suicide squads’ to tackle the ‘menace of Islamic terrorism’.

2.

( Mumbai, June 20 Detonators, gelatin sticks, circuits, remote controls recovered from 3 locations; one detained, says ATS

The state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Friday recovered a sizeable cache of gelatin sticks, detonators, circuits, remote controls and batteries from three locations — two in Pen and another in Satara. The recoveries were made on information provide by the two people arrested earlier this week in connection with the recent blasts and planting of explosives in auditoriums in Thane, Vashi and Panvel.

Blast accused guide police to hidden explosives, Express News Service, Posted online: Saturday , June 21, 2008 at 01:05:56, Updated: Saturday , June 21, 2008 at 01:05:56)

The arrest of these five Hindu terrorists belonging to Hindu Janjagruti Samiti and Sanatan Sanstha and the blowing of lid over the operations of these organisations was followed by demand from different quarters of society to ban these fanatic hindu organisations.Apart from Nationalist Congress Party, (NCP), Samajwadi Party (SP) or Jamiat Ulema e Hindi many other organisations/individuals raised their voice in unison.

Recently a Dharana was held at Azad Maidan, Bombay on 20 th June under the aegis of Maharashtra unit of Movement for Peace and Justice (MPJ) to condemn the involvement of activists of Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu Jan Jagruti Samiti in recent bombings in Thane and Vashi. Organisations .like Mumbai Catholic sabha, India Center, Maharashtra manav Adhikar Sanrakshak Samiti, Yuva Sarkar, Indian Republic Party, Bahujan Mahasangh, Muslim Front, catholic Secular Front, Senior Citizen of Royal College, Awami Bharat, Vidyarthi Bharati, Hindu Vikasini etc.have supported MPJO.A massive dharana of various social-cultural and political organisations held under the aegis of Maharashtra unit of Movement for Peace and Justice (MPJ) on Azad Maidan (20 th June).

Looking at the fact that it is for the first time that organised involvement of Hindutva terrorist groups in bomb blasts in India is being clearly seen, secular organisations have underlined the need to have a fresh look at terror attacks in India and toning up central and state agencies to look for real culprits. It is also being pointed out that barring the 1993 Bombay bomb blasts which have been investigated, investigations in most of the other bomb blasts in the country have reached dead end. Security agencies following a preconceived path and focussing on one possibility has led to a situation whose end product has been demonization of Muslim community and the rise of Islamophobia in India.In fact it has become a usual pattern which has been well imbibed by the police and security agencies, where blast anywhere in the country would be claimed as the handiwork of ‘Islamic terrorist organisations’ , sketches would be prepared and innocent people would be arrested without any proper proof and would be put to endless torture. The recent Jaipur bomb blasts saw police releasing skethches of suspects at least twice without any valid explanation about the withdrawal of the earlier sketches of drawings. If there is intervention at the level of human rights activists or at any other higher level all such ‘culprits’ would be released with a warning that they do not disclose anything to anyone. And if the near and dear ones of the innocent people are not able to gather enough support from any quarter, they would be booked under various trumped up charges and sent to jail.(Politicization of terror, Tarique Anwar on 19 June 2008 - 8:06pm. www.twocircles.net)

Although the chief minister of Maharashtra has pointed out that these investigations have exposed the myth that only particular community is involved in terror attacks, and has advised to maintain balance in investigations, activists have pointed out the double standard adopted by the same police in arresting the culprits. It is being said that police has said that these accused can’t be arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) because these acts of terror were not done by “an organised terrorist group.” It is true that any democracy loving person would never support such a law which itself is a grave attack on human rights, but the moot question arises is that how can police adopt ‘double standard” that the secular organisations are completely against. They have rightly raised the question, if the arrested terrorists would have been Muslim, whether police would have given similar explanation.“How can one differentiate between the Hindutva terrorism and the so called Islamic terrorism? And more importantly, does terrorism has any religion?”

3.

A writeup in Indian Express (June 23, 2008) titled ‘Quietly, hardline Hindu Outfits build a network across Maharashtra, Goa’ explains the working of these organisations which ‘work like wheels within wheels’ and mobilise Hindus on ‘a cocktail of Ramrajya, Hindu Dharma, and “dharamkranti ‘ religious revolution”. A notable feature of HJS and SS is while there is no formal membership and funding is through donations, satsangs/religious gatherings are an important feature of mobilisation of people. Apart from many centres in different parts of India, they have centres in New Jersey, Brisbane, Melbourne, Dubai and many other places. It also provides details of the newly launched outfit “Dharamshakti Sena” pictures of whose inaugural rally show young men dressed in military fatigues. The “Sena” was established in 16 districts of Maharashtra towns and cities on Gudi :Padwa day this April.

Dharamshakti Sena chief Vinay Panvalkar has travelled extensively across Maharashtra after establishment of the outfit and is reported to have delivered inflammatory speeches. In a meeting held in Pune he is quoted as saying “Hindus are cornered from all sides, but there is no retaliation from them.” In another meeting in Thane he says “The war in future will be a Dharamyudh and Dharamshakti Sena will be the guiding force”.

As has been already reported the arrested Hindu terrorists have claimed that they were working on their own initiative, and the leadership of Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu Janjagruti Samiti has also categorically denied any role in there acts. Interestingly, in one of their own publications they have also condemned the act albeit sympathised with their grievances.But any close watcher of the whole situation knows that it would not be possible for the leadership of Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu Janjagruti Samiti to hide behind formal explanations for long.

Apart from the trysts of the terrorists with bombs and violence police is rather baffled with the recovery of explosives from different parts of Maharashtra at the behest of the arrested activists :

“According to ATS officials, while 19 gelatin sticks, two circuits with remote controls, a circuit without a remote and 20 detonators were found buried in the ground at a spot in Varsai village near Pen, three circuits with remote controls, a circuit without a remote, 12 batteries, a timer and a voltmeter were recovered from the bed of a stream in Pen. Another recovery of similar objects was made from a location in Satara.

“The recoveries in Pen were made on details obtained during the interrogation of Vikram Bhave (26), while that in Satara was based on information provided by Mangesh Nikam (34),” said Additional Commissioner of Police, ATS, Parambeer Singh.

- Express News Service, Posted online: Saturday , June 21, 2008

A senior officer of the Anti Terrorism Squad has told the media that the meticulous planning which has gone into organising the bomb blasts shows that it cannot be initiative of few persons only and they have all the options yet open before them. According to him various members of these organisations are being questioned. If there role is found in the planning or the execution of these incidents, ATS would write to the central government and seek that they be banned.

Apart from interrogation of different associates of these Hindu terrorists the ATS also needs to take a close look at the plethora of literature published by Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu Janjagruti Samiti and different issues of their regular newspaper and magazines and other material. A close look at the functioning of the organisations and the methods of their indoctrination which place the “Guru” (teacher) at a supreme level, makes it clear that it would not be difficult for the ATS to nab the people who ‘remote control’ the activities of their gullible followers.

It need be told that apart from the ‘magnum opus’ of the founder of SS and HJS, Jayant Athavale which is called “Science of Spirituality’ - which is book of 21 volumes - and other texts about ‘Divine Kingdom’, ‘Arts for God Realisation’ and ‘Spiritual Experiences of Seekers’ etc. a very important text in the training of the seekers is Texts on Defence where seekers of divine kingdom are also imparted training with air rifles ( Vol 3 H - Self Defence Training, Chapter 6, Page 108-109)

It would be opportune to discuss a portion from this text which trains the seeker in ‘Firing’ . In 7 a. it trains the seeker in standing stance (kada pavitra) [shooting in the standing posture] in section 7 b. it discusses Sitting Stance (baitha pavitra) [shooting in the sitting stance]. It also shows the photograph of Vinay Panvalkar wearing a hat showing the different positions.

7 B. Sitting Stance (baitha pavitra) [shooting in the sitting stance]

1. Load the rifle according to steps ‘A to F’ of point 6. Loading the rifle.’ Then proceed as given below.

2. Ready to fire - one ( fire ke liye sajja -ek) :

Once this command is given touch the right knee to the ground. Bending the toes of the right foot support the foot on its ball. At that time the left knee should be bent and kept in front of the right one. ….

Another writeup in ‘Goan Observer’ also displays seven photographs of Vinay Panvalkar which have appeared in another of Sanatan Sanstha’s publication ['Swasaunrakshan Prashikshan' (Self Defence Training)] While four photographs show training by rifle, two photographs show how to attack someone with a long Trishul and the last one is the usual fight with hands. The same writeup makes an interesting point vis-a-vis HJS/SS and RSS/VHP/Bajrang Dal.

According to the writeup

..It would appear that these hardline organisations have come up because of the disillusion meant amongst hardcore fanatic Hindus that the BJP and the RSS have compromised their core values for political gains. In fact though the Sansthan boasted of over two lakh members when it started in 1999, many members were expelled because they were proved to be ‘corrupt’. Unlike the RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal activists the activists of the Sanstha maintain a very low profile which makes it difficult to combat their mischief .

The same page carries a photograph of Jayant Athavale, founder of HJS, and SS, in military fatigue exhorting people to ‘Become Hindu Naxalites to combat the Naxalites who are the biggest enemies of Dharamrajya’.

Jayant Athavale’s magnum opus ‘Science of Spirituality’ in its chapter ‘Spiritual Practice of Protecting Seekers and Destroying Evildoers’ ( Vol I, E, Page 64-65) underlines the importance of Guru to undertake spiritual practice’. It clearly absolves the seeker from any act of destroying evildoers.

It says

B 2. One chanting continuously : The action of destroying evildoers becomes a non-action only if done along with chanting the Lord’s name, as then it becomes a mere act (Kriya). Then the Law of Karma (Action) does not apply.

B 3. One who is permitted by saints or Gurus to undertake this spiritual practice: Destroy evildoers if you have been advised by saints or Gurus to do so. Then these acts are not registered in your name.

According to the book

Timetable of the spiritual practice

a. Year 1997-1999 A.D. ( 3 Years) : Impressing upon the mind that ‘destruction of evildoers’ is a part of the spiritual nature.

b. Year 2000-2006 A.D. ( 7 years) : Actual destruction of evildoers at physical, psychological and spiritual levels.

c. Year 2007-2022 A.D. ( 16 Years ) : Generating the potential to run the kingdom of the Absolute truth

d. Year 2023 - 2025 A.D. ( 3 Years) : Commencement of the regime of Absolute Truth ( divine kingdom)

In Vol 4 of the book ‘Texts about the Divine Kingdom’ which focusses itself on Social Upliftment, National Security it measures someone’s ’spiritual progress’ when he is compelled to ‘kill someone.’ (Page 48-49)

6 C 4. Test of Spiritual Progress : One will perceive how much spiritual progress one has made only when he is compelled to kill someon. It is easy to make statements like ‘everything is Brahman’ (God)’ When actually performing the act of killing, if the mind remains steady and does not waver at all like Arjun’s did, only then can one say that one has realised Brahman.

It also presents its ideas about who would ‘bring about a revolution’

6 D. Only warrior seekers (Kshatravir) can bring about a revolution.

6 D 1. Warrior seekers who have an unparalleled combination of a selfless attitude, unity, intense motivation to undertake the mission and faith in it The Lord. It is not an easy task to oust evil politicians. To achieve this, one will have to combat their ruffian party workers, the police force and the army under their command. Therefore, this is certainly not the work of selfish politicians. The people have experienced in the last 54 years after independence that despite granting opportunity to various parties to assume power, replacement of one politician by another does not bring about any change in society.

Apart from valorising violence through its literature and actions, the organisations have achieved notoriety for abusing other religions and their prophets. e.g In one of its issues of ‘Sanatan Prabhat’ ( 9 th Dec 2005) - a newspaper brought out by it from many districts in Maharashtra and Goa, it ‘exposes the real nature of Bible’ by calling it a ‘manual for teaching immorality’ which discusses in detail ‘ the rape of a sister by a brother’. It is part of its usual practice to show a Pastor with horns whose sole agenda is proselytisation. Its humiliation of Islam and Prophet Muhammad nearly created a riot like situationi in Miraj ( First week of November 2005)

4.

It is for everyone to see that organisations like Hindu Janjagruti Samiti, Sanatan Sanstha and Dharamshakti Sena and their open espousal of violence against ‘evildoers’ under the garb of ’spiritual practice’ cannot be allowed to continue any further.

Whatever might be the claims of the likes of Gadkari, Nikam, Angre and others - the accused in the bomb blasts - that the whole operation was their own initiative, it is clear to any layperson that their organisations can never escape the blame for preparing the conditions so that ’seekers’ unleash violence against religious minorities for the espousal of spirituality. A cursory glance at the writings and speeches of the leaders of SS, HJS makes it clear that in a democratic setup they need to pay for their hatefilled speeches and for promoting division of society on communal lines. For all its talk of spirituality it is becoming extremely clear that the likes of Jayant Athavale are essentially zealots for the formation of Hindu Rashtra in secular India. In one of his exhortations (Sanatan Prabhat, 16 th August 2005) talks of ‘ Inevitability of the building of Hindu Rashtra to avoid braking of India at the hands of the irreligious’. It was only last year that HJS had organised a photo exhibition in different parts of Goa and Maharashtra to present their version of the ‘attaks on Hindus in Kashmir and Bangladesh’ This particular exhibition evoked a strong reaction from wide cross-section of people with its one-sided pictorisation of events. The said exhibition had been prepared by Frank Gautier, a saffron sympathiser from Europe

It is high tmie that measures are taken at the polity level so that the likes of Jayant Athavaale and Vinay Panwalkar and all their comrades are restrained from taking up any cause which could ‘provide fresh impetus to forces of exclusion and hope.’

It is possible that the government dithers over taking up any action against leaders of HJS , SS or for that matter Dharamshakti Sena then one will have to get ready for a protracted struggle against these forces. People conversant with law or its different statues can tell you what sort of clauses from Indian Penal Code would apply in case of the hatefilled propaganda by them. If convicted they will have to spend at least three years in any Indian jail.

Question remains who will gather enough courage to ‘bell the cat’?

“Right there, right there!”
“Where? I can’t see the damn station. Where is it?”
“Right there, you walk past that little lane, you will hit the station.”
Grudgingly, I walked through the lane and lo and behold! I was at the platform of Govandi railway station. It just took me a little row of settlements and some open drains running by them to get to that wretched Govandi station (not to forget to mention, passing by some of the children playing around and that sole bhaiyya woman sitting idly).
Did I say wretched? Yes, wretched is the feeling I get when I am at Govandi station. Perhaps in my life, I must have been to Govandi station exactly six times. Of the four of those six times, I have traveled in the east of Govandi, towards the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). But the last two times, I have actually experienced the wretchedness of Govandi station, when I have had to get off platform number 1 and then go past all the squatter settlements, till I eventually get to the infamously famous Lallubhai Compound.

Wretched, Unpleasant …
Wretched, that wretched Govandi area! Yes, I can feel the skin on me … I can feel the anger and irritation rising in me, a feeling that I have rarely gotten as I have traveled the insides of some of the squatter settlements in Mumbai. It is not the squalor that produces that feeling of unpleasantness in me. Yes, there is squalor and squalor of the worst form that can be seen and experienced. The proximity of the squatter settlements to the city’s only functional garbage dump and to the city’s only abattoir makes the open drains and sewage in these slums the worst of their kind and nothing compared with the reasonably better off sewage facilities in most of the other slums in the city.
Squalor, yes! Squalor! But that is not the cause of the unpleasantness within me. Then, what is it?

Cut to Lallubhai Compound, between Govandi and Mankhurd:
Lallubhai Compound, here it is, or should I say there it is. Yeah, there it is, so much of what I was trying to imagine it to be and so much of the reality that I could see and tried to fathom. I was not sure what I should feel when I see the rows of cement buildings that make up this Compound. Housed in these rows of buildings are slum dwellers from various parts of Mumbai City – those whole lived near the railway stations of Kurla terminus, Chembur and Matunga; those who once had dwellings along the pavements of the famous P. D’Mello road near VT station; people from Byculla, Dadar, Parel, you name it – they are all housed here.

“That minister Nawab Malik got us to come here. He said that if we did not move here, we would even lose this house. Hence we came here.”
“We were living near the railway lines. Government decided to expand the railway lines and so, we moved here.”
“It was crazy when we first moved here. Felt like we had come to a village. My family was shunted out of Matunga and then we were made to live in the transit camps in Mankhurd for five long years till we eventually came here. There was initially a hill here. People went up on the hill and jumped off. They could not tolerate the loneliness. Only now, more people have come to live here and there seems to be some development.”

About 1.5 kilometers away from Govandi station is situated Lallubhai Compound, that infamously famous rehabilitation colony. For a moment, I almost think of the chawls in Parel area when I see the built environment here. The same noise, running around, tamashas on the street, shops below the buildings – it’s just so much Parel. And yet, it is not Parel. There is hustle and bustle, lot of activity on the roads, but it seems like Lallubhai can only be a world within its own self (but for now!). Unlike Parel where the self of the chawl is intermingled with the multiple selves of the city that manifest in various forms – the industrial estates, the media offices, the traffic, the locality of Lalbagh – in stark comparison to all of this, Lallubhai is isolated, despite being so close to the row houses just across the bridge which house the wealthier residents of Govandi.

“Lallubhai is a clear instance of the US housing projects for the poor. The poor were evicted from the city areas and placed at the outskirts of the city. Complete ghettoization.”

Could I say that Lallubhai is an instance of ghettoization, another import from the Americas into the urbs prima indis? Undoubtedly, Lallubhai is a ghetto, almost like people are being brought from the city and thrown away into some form of confinement. And yet, I would be condemned and damned if I were to say that people have been confined. Ground floor houses have been converted into shops, beauty parlors, English teaching classes and STD-PCO booths. People go back to the older neighbourhoods for work and for reaching their children to schools. Some of the residents have given up their homes for rent and have begun to live in the nearby squatter settlements or in and around their original places of residence.

I walk around the area. A thriving women’s hawker market has come up on the roads. I am told this is an “illegal” market because it is not certified by the municipality. The drains and rats between the buildings remind you of the house-gully situation in Null Bazaar where the settlers are harassed by the overflowing sewage between two buildings.
There are groups of unemployed boys loafing around the area. I am told that these have become frequent lately.
The rickshaw drivers make their killing each day – five rupees a seat for a one-way ride between Govandi station and Lallubhai. The local autorickshaw fellas seem like another socio-political group emerging in the area, they being camped around the naka which is their adda.
Then there are the various forms of groups and organizations that abound within Lallubhai – the women’s savings group, the hawkers’ federation, National Slum Dwellers’ Federation-Mahila Milan-SPARC – all housed within the same office premises of what is mentioned in bold as the Public Information Center.
There are financial networks woven within the social and political fabric of the area – the grain merchants, the jewellery shops which double up as lending and borrowing institutions, you name it.
There are social and political organizations that I am unaware of but which likely exist – the very networks that existed in the squatter settlements and that formed an important aspect of the everyday practice of a slum.
Isolated – ghettoized – confinement – sorry to disappoint, but the space of Lallubhai is only unfolding with time. The self is emerging …

Rethinking the Idea and Practice of a Slum …

“It’s good that people have been moved into these flats. They will learn to live in a sanitized environment. They will learn to live with dignity and respect.”

“They get more space than what they had in their little slums. This rehabilitation is benefiting the people.”

“It will take a while for the slum dwellers to learn to live here. They are not used to the vertical way of living.”

“The community has to learn to accept one and all. The lepers’ rehabilitation colony in Oshiwara is placed away from the rest of the rehab housing. People don’t want other groups to live around them. The community will have to learn.”

“Now, there are a lot of Muslims coming into this area as tenants. The Maharahstrians are reducing in numbers.”

By now, I have been going to all those areas in the city that I did not ever venture into while I lived here for 25 odd years. There are times when I pass through those unevenly lined row houses and I ask myself – why is this labeled a slum? By what standards are these well furnished houses within this apparently uneven settlement classed as slums?
It would be highly banal on my end to state that the idea of a slum is quite different from its practice. But let me state what I felt as I experienced Lallubhai compound. That visit to Lallubhai has made it clear to me a slum is not merely a physical structure as it might be projected in policy and media. The slum is a network and simultaneously many networks and several circuits – all these networks and circuits connected with the space of the city, with the locality and meshed into numerous scales of statedom and nationdom and globaldom. When people are “rehabilitated” into flats and built structures, some of the circuits and networks are severed but at the same time, other connections become stronger and some connections become even more oppressive than they previously were.
Consistently, I also hear remarks of how the slum dwellers had occupied the lands and have now gotten flats in return for free, that they are now living in sanitized conditions and their lives will improve and that they should learn to live in the flats rather than escape from there. The stories in Lallubhai betray all these notions. While some of the more upwardly mobile among this misleading category of “urban poor” benefit with the receipt of the house, for many other individuals and families, the receipt of the home could not be a greater curse. These have been families that have been in the bottom rung among the poor and that the house in Lallubhai for them is a liability more than an asset. For these groups, the monthly payment of electricity bills and maintenance fees coupled with increased transportation costs and the loss of their jobs or the lack of increase in salaries but rise in expenses, all of these factors lead us to rethink whether the house is truly a marker of improvement in their lives. And then there are several among those who never made it to Lallubhai despite living among the same populations who were to be ‘rehoused’ – the process of rehabilitation and the political dynamics are in no way equal for all – some get the house, some decide to move out, some are deprived, and much more than what I can know and tell … And as for the sanitized living, the more seen, the better – the poor garbage lifting facilities, the overflowing drains between the buildings, the lack of water until water is fought for as an entitlement, and the teeming rats – yes certainly, sanity and sanitation have to be rethought as much as the idea and practice of the slum have to be reconsidered.

Beyond …
That pervasive feeling of wretchedness and disgust continues within me until I reach Govandi station. It persists beyond as I pass Wadala, Chunnabhatti, Sewri, Dockyard and even further, into the passing days … It travels within me and beyond me. I am still thinking what the city is and how the city is continuously accessed, both symbolically and physically, from time to time …

If you are in Kolkata between 27 June and 2 July, you may do well to visit the Seagull Arts and Media Resource Centre, Kolkata, for an exhibition of photographs of Singur. There will also be a panel discussion and a film festival.

This information comes to Kafila from Trina Banerji of the Citizens’ Initiative which blogs at Development Dialogues.

Programme details:

Photo exhibition: The photographs will remain mounted for viewing everyday from 2 to 8 pm at the Seagull Arts and Media Resource Centre, Kolkata.

Panel discussion and open forum
Friday 27 June, 4:30 pm: ‘On the Representation of Displacement and Development’

Speakers:
- Professor Samik Bandyopadhyay (Senior Film Critic and Scholar)
- Dr Kavita Panjabi (Professor, Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University)
- Dr Rajarshi Dasgupta (Fellow in Political Science, CSSSC)
- Dr Paromita Chakravarti (Senior Lecturer, Department of English, Jadavpur University)

Film festival

Saturday 28 June 2008

11.00 am: Bombay: Our City – Anand Patwardhan (India: 1985, 82 min)
2.00 pm: Mahua Memoirs – Vinod Raja (India: 2007, 80 min)
4.30 pm: Czech Dream – Vit Klusak and Felip Remunda (Czechoslovakia: 2004, 90 min)
6.00 pm: An Aura of Development – Shubhasree Bhattacharyya and Sumantra Roy (India: 2008, 65 min)
7.00 pm: Unnayan - Banduker Nole – Pramod Gupta (India: 2007, 44 min)

Sunday 29 July 2008

11.00 am: A Narmada Diary – Anand Patwardhan (India: 1996, 60 min)
2.00 pm: Still Life – Zhang ke Jia (Hong Kong: 2006, 111 min)
4.30 pm: Mahua Memoirs – Vinod Raja (India: 2007, 80 min)
6.00 pm: Teardrops of Karnaphuli – Tanvir Mokammel (Bangladesh: 2006, 60 min)

About Citizens’ Initiative:

We at The Citizens’ Initiative are trying to organize a continuing open discussion on the paradigms of development and the relationship, in this context, between politics and ethics. These issues, we feel, are extremely important given the kind of state-sponsored violence that people are facing all over India and particularly in West Bengal.

The group of students, researchers, and teachers that is the CI started out in February 2007 to debate and question the cost of development and the growing schism between ethics and contemporary political culture. Questions have also begun to arise on the naive equation of the ‘partisan’ with the ‘political’, and the brushing aside of any non-partisan civil political action as not just irrelevant, but, as in some circles it is fashionable to say, ‘anti-political.’ The role of the civil society in a democracy is a subject of critical re-examination now, and it is the disregard for non-partisan opinion and the consequences of it that have led us to discuss and take more concrete actions.

We launched this initiative with a one-day seminar on 16 February 2008 on ‘Development and Ethics’, where the speakers were Dr Dilip Simeon and Dr Aseem Shrivastava. Dr Dilip Simeon taught history at Delhi University for several years and is currently a Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi. Dr Aseem Shrivastava has a doctorate in Economics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He has taught Economics at various universities in the US and India, and Philosophy at Nordic College in Norway. He is an independent writer who writes on various contemporary themes like globalisation, human rights and US foreign policy. At the seminar, Dr Simeon spoke on ‘Ethics and Contemporary Political Culture’, and Dr Shrivastava’s talk was titled ‘SEZ and the Cost of Development’.

Our next event was a workshop on the legal possibilities of the common citizen’s redress of wrongs. Mr Sabir Ahamed of the RTI Mancha spoke on the Right to Information and Mr Sujato Bhadra of Association for Protection of Democratic Rights spoke on Public Interest Litigations.
We have visited Singur six times since February 2008. A full report of our findings is to be released shortly, and a brief interim report is now ready for dissemination. In the last few months, we have carried relief – in the form of clothes, rice and pulses – to Dobandi in Singur (in March 2008), and organized a medical camp there (on 18 May 2008) with the help of the Centre for Care of Torture Victims. But neither of these efforts reflects our primary objectives. Our most ardent wish is to everywhere induce long-term reflection on models – and ethics – of development, and to contribute to reconstructive thought and efforts in the areas already adversely affected by the present political take on development. We have extensively photographed life in Singur and how it has been affected by the fencing-off of the land for the Tata Motors factory. Very few people in Kolkata have any idea of what Singur looks like, and press photographs can perhaps tell only a minuscule portion of the story. Our photographs are aimed at covering this invisible distance between the affected village and the urban centre – to put it simply, to show what development looks like in reality.

However, we should stress that we have not been to Singur as unaffected photographers who are there to snatch images and leave. We wish to be able to propose/introduce alternative means of livelihood for people who have for generations been based in agriculture. Unhappily, the government’s promises that alternative training and employment shall be the norm rather than the exception among all peoples displaced from land and/or livelihood, have been resoundingly empty. In even our limited ways, we hope that we shall, in a few months, be able to organize in Singur training workshops on certain alternative means of livelihood like machine knitting, embroidery, machine embroidery, and even cultivation of mushrooms.

citizensinitiativecal@gmail.com

I

What is common between Kathmandu - the capital of Nepal ; Thane, Vashi which happen to lie in Maharashtra; Tenkasi, which is part of Tamilnadu and Indore, which lies in Madhya Pradesh? Aprops there seem to be no commonality, although a close look at stray sounding incidents in these places brings forth a pattern which has serious import for the manner in which (non-state) terrorism is viewed in this country. It is disturbing that media which calls itself ‘watchdog of democracy’ and which has no qualms in stigmatising the minority community on unfounded allegations of ‘terrorist acts’ has suddenly gone mute since the perpetrators of terrorist acts in all these cases belong to the majority community.

It need be told that Kathmandu - capital of the newest Republic of Nepal- witnessed bomb explosions outside the Birendra International Centre where newly elected members of the constituent assembly had assembled for the oath taking ceremony. Although nobody was killed and only few faced minor injuries, it was a clear signal that elements opposed to the momentous changes in the Nepalese polity were involved in the attack The local police immediately blamed Hindu fanatics for this cowardly attack.

Close watchers of the Nepal situation did not lose sight of the fact that promonarchy Hindutva forces had even resolved to take up arms for the restoration of Hindu Rashtra. This meeting was held in the immediate aftermath of elections to the constituent assembly and was attended by sympathetic elements from both the countries. It had been organised under the aegis of Vishwa Hindu Mahasangh an international organisation of Hindus, in Balrampur ( India) which was presided over by the ‘firebrand’ BJP M.P Yogi Adityanath.

If Kathmandu witnessed bomb explosions as a violent reaction to the victory of the the Republican forces in Nepal, Indore - the erstwhile capital of the Holkars - witnessed firing by activists of Hindu organisations in full public view. They had assembled there after a rally as a part of celebrations to commemorate the coronation of Chhatrapati Shivaji. Shivaji Maharaj as he is popularly known was a great secular ruler of 17 th century in Western India who fought with the Mughals. The firing incident which was covered by the media took place under the watchful eyes of the local police itself which remained a mute spectator and did not even deem it necessary to file a report on this thoroughly unlawful act. The brazenness of the participants in this celebrations was evident also from the fact that they even handed over the guns to the kids present there who also fired in the air.

Ofcourse it was not for the first time that such firing incidents had taken place. Few months ago marches (Path Sanchalan) were organised in different parts of M.P. under the aegis of different Hindu organisations which owe their allegiance to RSS . These path sanchalans were also marked by firings at the culmination of the rallies. And as expected there were no police complaints. Nobody questioned how the lathi wielding swayamsevaks have suddenly metamorphosed into gun wielding Machos out to silence ‘anti-nationals.’ Looking at the fact that many areas in M.P. especially Malwa have always maintained a strong presence of Hindutva forces, one can understand the rationale behind such ’spontaneous sounding’ firing incidents.

A press conference held in Indore city itself (23 rd April 2008) which was addressed by the former chief minister of M.P. and Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh himself had rightly underlined the precarious communal harmony situation in the state. He had even demanded that ‘..[l]ike SIMI, Bajrang Dal should also be banned because this RSS outfit, alongwith some other allied organisations, indulges in bomb making and giving training in making of bombs.He said that he still sticks to his earlier accusation of making of bombs by Bajrang Dal. He said that RSS has retreated after they accused him of slander.” ( The Milli Gazette, 1-15 June 2008).

Perhaps the former Chief Minister was alluding to the discovery of a bomb making factory in Nanded (Maharashtra) at the house of old RSS activist which saw deaths of two Bajrang Dal / RSS workers ( April 2006). Five other members of the terrorist group were also arrested by the police. The most disturbing part of the whole episode revealed how a well-thought out plan to start a communal riot was on the anvil. Apart from maps of mosques in the area police had discovered fake beards or dresses normally worn by Muslims in the area. Further interrogation of the other accused in the case had also made it clear that the same group was also responsible for a few other incidents - namely Parbhani, Jalna, Purna - in Maharashtra where Muslims had come under mysterious attack at the time of friday prayers.

It is a different matter that despite a formally secular government in power in the state, and the police did not deem it necessary to unearth the wider gameplan hatched by the top echleons of the Hindutva brigade. It is common knowledge that the 80 plus year ‘cultural organisation’ and its affiliated organisations maintain strict hierarchy and any such violent action plan on part of its local activists would not have been possible without the involvement of the top bosses of the ‘Parivar’. Neither police used any strong law to apprehend the real culprits nor it tried oppose the bail applications moved by the other members of the Hindu terrorist module.

And today according to informed sources the whole issue of bomb making factory and bursting of a Hindu terrorist module lies buried under the hubris of government apathy and connivance of a section of the bureaucracy.

II

The arrest of sevaks of the Sanatan Sanstha, a religious group that is behind the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti for planting bombs in theatres at Thane and Vashi brings a new dimension to terrorism. Seven people were injured when one of the bombs the sevaks planted exploded in the parking lot of Thane’s Gadkari Rangayatan theatre on 4 June.

Ramesh Hanumant Gadkari, Mangesh Nikam, Santosh Angre and Vikram Bhave, the four bombers, are all full-time activists of the Sanatan Sanstha, living in ashrams run by the organisation…… ..

Police say that they had planted a bomb outside a mosque or dargah on the Pen highway last Diwali, to check its intensity, but it did not explode. Nikam had earlier set off a bomb in the house of a family in Ratnagiri that had converted to Christianity, and was on bail awaiting trial.

(Terror’s new face, Herald, Panjim, 19 June 2008 )

Whether westen India - especially Maharashtra, Goa - has slowly and silently emerged as a epicentre of a different sort of terrorism ? Bomb explosion in Nanded in April 2006 at the house of a RSS activist and busting of a Hindutva terrorist module and a repeat of similar explosion in Feb 2007 in the same city which also witnessed two deaths could be said to be two major incidents to mark the emergence of homegrown Hindutva terrorism. It is no mere coincidence that three major stalwarts of the idea of Hindutva - Savarkar, Hedgewar-Golwalkar and Bal Thackeray - hail from this area only. And the dilly-dallying adopted by the powers that be vis-a-vis these explosions in Nanded was a clear signal to these forces that they can move ahead with impunity.

And recent events in Thane, Panvel and Vashi rather demonstrate that hardline Hindutva groups which have secretly and surreptiously built a wide network of active and sleeper cells are ready to go to any extent to make their voice heard. Far away from the scrutiny of the police and the intelligence establishment, many such new outfits have sprung up which are indoctrinating a gullible citizenry about their agenda of hate and exclusion under the cover of ’spiritual gatherings’ and distribution of spiritual literature .(’Quitely, hardline Hindu outfits build a network across Maharashtra, Goa’ (Indian Express, June 23, 2008)’ Terrorist acts committed by these groups in the above mentioned places and their capacity to indulge in similar acts elsewhere are an indicator that unless they are dealt with firmly they would be able to spread their tentacles elsewhere as well. And the day would not be far of when Hindutva terrorist network can reach nook and corners of the country rivalling the Jihadi terrorists.

Date 31 st May 2008. Venue : Vishnudas Bhave auditorium, Vashi, Maharashtra.

The show of the muchdebated drama ‘Amhi Pachpute’ was already on. Little could the organisers of the drama had imagined that show of another kind was unfolding outside the hall.

Thanks to the alertness and presence of mind shown by people present there, a bomb placed by some miscreants was spotted. A bomb squad immediately rushed in which neutralised the bomb and a major disaster could be averted. Of course, the police neither felt the need to interrogate leaders of ‘Hindu Janjagruti Samity’ which had organised spate of protests against the drama supposedly for ‘hurting religious sentiments of Hindus’ nor ventured to move beyond its idea of ‘usual suspects.’ Left to itself it would have preferred to close the file after some time citing ‘lack of any clues’. But it had no idea that what lied in store for them.

Within next four days a similar feat was repeated. Of course the venue had shifted to Thane, another city in Maharashtra and the location was the basement of the ‘Gadkari Rangayatan Auditorium’ where another show of the same drama was on. Unlike Vashi, here bomb explosion could not be averted leading to injuries to few people.

It was clear to even a layperson that an organised group of miscreants was behind these incidents. Looking at the gravity of the situation the ‘Anti Terrorism Squad’ of the Bombay police was given the responsibility of investigating the case and finding the culprits.

The ATS was successful in nabbing Ramesh Hanumant Gadkari ( Age 50 years) and Mangesh Dinkar Nikam ( Age 34 Years) - fulltime activists of ‘Hindu Janjagruti Samity and ‘Sanathan Sanstha’ - from Panvel (15 th June 2008) and the very next day it caught Vikram Bhave and Santosh Sitaram Angre and charged the four with masterminding the bomb explosions in Vashi and Thane. Police also revealed that these terrorists were also involved in another bomb explosion around four months back when the film show of ‘Jodha Akbar’ was going on in Panvel (20 th February 2008).

The Sanstha denied any knowledge of their activities and said that they did it on their own. It is clear that protestations of innocence cannot be taken at face value and the police needs to thoroughly investigate the affairs of the Sanatan Sanstha as well as Hindu Janjagruti Samity which have been registered as charitable organisations in Goa. Definitely they cannot evade responsibility in the act as their literature talks of ‘elimination’ of ‘evildoers’ and claims that it is a’ religious duty’ to combat and counter ‘enemies of Hinduism’.

The editorial in ‘Herald’ further adds that:

“..[S]anatan Sanstha and the Bajrang Dal, two Hindu fundamentalist organisations that are both linked to bomb blasts, are the main constituents of the broad joint front called the Hindu Janajagriti Samiti, which has been holding public meetings all over Goa claiming Hinduism is in danger, and making provocative speeches.”

III

According to a writeup in Indian Express ( June 18, 2008) : “..the arrests were enough for Deshmukh to point fingers at the possibility of Hindu groups being involved in subversive activities too. “Normally, when such incidents take place a particular community is suspected, ” the Chief minister said in a statement late on Monday. “But the arrest of two people belonging to a Hindu organisation proves that such suspicions are baseless. Criminal do not belong to any religion.”

Investigations into the antecedents of these arrested activists have revealed that they have had tryst with bombs and violence in the past. The Chief of the Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad told media persons that “Various members of these organisations are being questioned. If their role is found in the planning or execution of these incidents, we will certainly write to the centre and seek that they are banned.” (Indian Express, 23 rd June 2008).

As of now it is difficult to predict how things would unfold but a notable fallout of these explosions and consequent arrests is that at least there is broader awareness about these Hindu extremist groups which work like wheels within wheels, and are quietly mobilising Hindus on a cocktail of Ramrajya, Hindu Dharma and “dharmakranti” - religious revolution. Hindu Janjagruti Samity and Sanatan Sanstha are both registered in Goa as a charitable organisation, a new outfit Dharmashakti Sena was also floated by them in 16 Maharashtra towns and cities on Gudi Padwa day this April. Pictures of its inaugural rally in April show young men dressed in military fatigues.

Herald further adds that (Panjim, 22 June 2008):

Defence of Hinduism is one of the biggest themes in the literature and meetings of the HJS and the SS. The massive 44-volume compilation titled ‘Science of Spirituality’, published by the Sanatan Bharatiya Sanskruti Sanstha and ‘compiled’ by Dr. Jayant Athavale, founder of the Sanatan Sanstha, Hinduism is consistently portrayed as being under threat from the forces of Christianity and Islam, aided and abetted by the ‘so-called secularists’, who are seen as traitors to Hinduism. The volumes have titles like ‘Protecting Seekers and Destroying Evildoers’ and ‘Reinstatement of the Divine Kingdom’. Defending the faith against the various purported threats by allegedly anti-Hindu forces is stated to be the primary duty of all true believers.

The nature of this ‘defence’ is spelt out in great detail. It involves identifying those who work against ‘dharm’, making lists of such people, and then moving to ‘eliminate’ them. It is claimed that all this is part of ‘spiritual practice’.

Interestingly all talk of Hindu Unity in the worldview of HJS falls at the altar caste and other regressive practices in our society.

Believers are exhorted to guide offenders away from the path of incorrect practice. The volumes in the series support the regressive and obscurantist practices of the past, including the caste system, talking repeatedly about the proper role of various castes in society.

While curbing the activities of these organisations or banning them would demand extra efforts on part of the government, as of now there are very many things which can be done to stop their vicious, hatefilled ideas reach a wider cross-section of society. It’s literature itself provides many clues.

For an organisation which is so ultra-sensitive about the slightest imagined insult to Hinduism — imagined or real — the literature of the Sanatan Sanstha is rife with attacks on other religions. Priests are depicted with horns, indicating that they are devils. There are frequent references to the Bible, alleging that it promotes incest and other immoral practices. In September 2004, ‘Sanatan Prabhat’ carried a statement saying that the body of St. Francis Xavier should be destroyed. It has also carried other scurrilous articles about Goa’s patron saint. In November 2005, ‘Sanatan Prabhat’ published an article, ‘Mohd. Paigambar: An incarnation of Tripurasur [an ‘asur’ or demon]’, which led to rioting in Miraj town of Maharashtra, and the imprisonment of the editor of ‘Sanatan Prabhat’.

After having created an ideological framework which creates a fundamentalist mindset and makes it the ‘duty’ of the true seeker to defend the faith against all those who are projected as attacking it, it is disingenuous of the HJS and the SS to disclaim responsibility for the acts engaged in by their members. Ex-members of these organisations talk about the cult-like atmosphere that is created, with unquestioning obedience being stressed. Members are then brainwashed into believing that Hinduism is under siege. Against this background, and with all the talk about ‘defence’ and ‘elimination of evildoers’, it is hardly surprising that adherents begin to explore ways of taking direct action to defend the faith. In this regard, the philosophy of the HJS and the SS is not all that different from the philosophy of terrorists, whom they claim to oppose.

(Herald , Panjim, 22 June 2008)

Of course, if the government is serious about curbing these extremist organisations, it can start with filing criminal procedings against the ‘bible’ of the HJS itself - namely the ‘Science of Spirituality’ under section 153(a) and (B) and related clauses on the basis that it promotes disaffection and disharmony between different communities.

But would it be proper to say that only Western India is witness to the silent emergence of Hindu terrorism or the phenomenon is slowly acquiring a national identity.

IV

TIRUNELVELI: The special police team, led by Deputy Inspector General of Police, Tirunelveli Range, P Kannappan has arrested three persons in connection with the Tenkasi RSS office bomb blast case.

The investigations revealed that the blasts were planned to provoke a backlash between two groups of different and dominant communities in Tenkasi.Speaking to reporters at Tenkasi on Monday, Inspector General of Police, South Zone, Sanjeev Kumar said on January 24, there was a bomb blast at the RSS office and an auto, parked inside the new bus stand at Tenkasi, was destroyed.

Following this, special teams were formed to nab the accused. Investigations revealed that S Ravi Pandian (42), a cable TV operator, S Kumar (28), an auto driver, both from Tenkasi, and V Narayana Dharma (26) of Sencottai had planted 14 pipe bombs in the office of Ravi Pandian.

…Moreover, the bomb blast inside the new bus stand was planned to divert the police investigation, said Sanjeev Kumar. ..

(3 arrested in Tenkasi bomb blast case, Tuesday February 5 2008 08:12 IST , Express News Service ( Newindian express))

It is for everyone to see that S Ravi Pandian (42), a cable TV operator, S Kumar (28), an auto driver, both from Tenkasi, and V Narayana Sharma (26) of Sencottai today represent the less reported phenomenon of Hindutva terrorism..For all practical purposes till 23 rd January they remained activists of Hindu Munnani - an affiliated organisation of RSS - engaged in what they seem to be a ‘patriotic’ work.

Today they are the new face of ‘terrorism’ unleashed by the Hindutva brigade.

But not only these three ‘musketeers’, one should add names of four more who were apprehended on 5 th February, identified as A. Balamurugan(20), S. Velmurugan (18), A Murugan (24), all hailing from Tenkasi and Maasaanam (20) of Shencottai. They have been arrested for assisting S. Pandian in making bombs and detonating them at the RSS office and town’s new bus stand. According to ‘The Hindu’ ( 6 Feb 2008) the police even recovered bombs and detonators from them.

Looking at the hierarchial nature of the Sangh Parivar outfits, these blasts would not have been triggered without the knowledge of its top brass in Tamilnadu.

Thanks to the painstaking efforts engaged in by the Mr Kannappan, DIG Tirunelveli range, who did not fell prey to the usual stigmatisation and terrorisation of the religious minorities, and after thorough investigations into the incident (24 th January 2008) which involved bomb blasts at RSS office in Tenkasi and another one at the bus stand apprehended the culprits.

It is now learnt that the Sangh Parivar organisations which fared miserably during the last elections were keen that Tenkasi does a ‘Coimbtore’ and they are able to get few sympathy votes. It may be told that this is the 10 th anniversary of the Coimbtore blasts which had seen deaths of innocents.

A report filed by M.H. Jawahirullah( www.twocircles.net) :

According to Sanjeev Kumar, IG, South Zone, the bomb blast inside the new bus stand was planned to divert the police investigation. DIG of Police Kannappan said the trio tested the capacity of the bombs at Papanasam before executing the plan. Since the bombs contained substances like ammonium nitrate, electric detonators, batteries and timer devices, the explosion was possible within 30 to 40 seconds, said Kannappan.The Investigation is still going on. The Police said 14 pipe bombs were assembled and the operations began from July last year.

There are reports that the Tirunelveli Police have indicated that the explosives used in Tenkasi are similar those used in the Makkah Masjid blast at Hyderabad. It is incumbent that in the light of the revelations in the Tenkasi blasts , the CBI should reinvestigate the Makkah Masjid Blasts and other Blasts which took place in different parts of the country.

V

General Secretary of Congress Party Mr Digvijay Singh has attacked Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and RSS about recovery of arms in Shyampur District Sihore. While releasing a letter to the press which he has written to the Chief Minister Mr Singh categorically stated that members of RSS themselves are engaged in sending swords and knifes to instigate communal violence. The two miscreants from Shyampur who were found to be in possession of arms and were duly apprehended belong to RSS only. The letter specifically mentions that since the accused belong to RSS the chief minister would not take any action in this matter. You are under pressure from RSS also. Mentioning his earlier letter Mr Singh said that Mangilal and Phool Singh were arrested for delivering 24 swords and four knifes at Satyanarayan Bhati’s house on 16 th March. These two persons belong to RSS. Within a few days of the recovery of the arms, minorities in Narsinhgarh and Talen (Rajgarh) came under attack and five people from both the sides lost lives.

The Congress leader mentioned a letter written by Sihore S.P. which says that despite attempts by the police the two accused have refused to divulge the information about the source of these arms. To conclude, the point one would like to emphasise that whether it is possible to link Tenkasi with Vardha or Nanded with Ahmedabad or for that matter Sihore or in our own atomised world view or not ?

(‘Sangh Sends Swords and Knifes’ Bhaskar, Hindi Daily ( 19 July 2007) )

The arrests by Hindu terrorists from Thane and Panvel was followed by a controversial editorial in Saamna - edited by Bal Thackeray - in which he praised Hindu organisations involved in the blast, but asked them to make better “hindu” bombs instead of the low intensity bombs to match those made by “Islamic Terrorists” and explode them in “mini-Pakistans” in India. It also added that to save Hindus, Hindutva organisations need to form suicide squads much on the lines of Islamic terror organisations. According to the editorial, “Islamic terrorism” was “flourishing” in the country and to counter it, “Hindu terrorism” of the same power should be created.

It was quite natural that the provocative utterances received condemnation from a broad spectrum of political opinion - with many parties demanding prosecution of Bal Thackre - but inadvertently or deliberately so it served a dual purpose. On the one hand it helped temporarily deflect the attention of the concerned people from the silent emergence of hindu terrorism and on the other hand it was a tacit acknowledgement of its existence and growth.

Of course looking at the danger it presents before the situation of communal harmony in our country it is high time that apart from strategising against what is known us Jihadi terrorism, we also focus our attention on terrorism which is being unleashed by the majority community namely Hindu terrorism. It is high time that security establishment decides to make a radical rupture from the prevalent understanding vis-a-vis terrorism., polity gathers enough courage to admit its past mistakes and make a fresh beginning and the civil society at large breaks itself free from its community specific prejudices, then only it would be possible to rein in the scourge of of terrorism.

Perhaps few words of advice from a senior journalist like Prem Shankar Jha would be opportune at this moment. In a writeup for Outlook (May 26, 2008) immediately after the Jaipur blasts he said :

..An effective anti-terrorist strategy requires us to look even more deeply into ourselves. The police and security agencies only mirror the prejudices of the majority community and these have become more pronounced in the past two decades. Why has no one in office ever formally expressed regret for the terrible pogroms that have scarred the face of our society—from the ‘93 Mumbai killings to the ‘02 Gujarat massacres. Why are Indian courts suddenly handing out death penalties by the dozen, with a predisposition to singling out minorities? Indeed, so great has been the bias and so quixotic the rulings that it has provoked Amnesty International into making a scathing criticism of the Indian judiciary.

India’s war against terror has just begun. But security forces cannot fight on their own. If our political leaders and the public don’t do their part, we will find ourselves losing.

A balanced approach would enable us to look at facts with an open mind and would also help us look at minor details or minor clues to reach the perpetrators of such acts. Is not it a disturbing thing that while India is witnessing terrorist actions in different parts of the country but most of the cases the security people have not been able to make any headway in the investigations. Forget cathching the real perpetrators of such acts they are being blamed for the manner in which they have targetted specific community en masse. There have been countless stories of violations of human rights of very many people documented by different people/formations.

Take the case of Jaipur blasts, One still remembers the story of one Vijay who was immediately spotted after the Jaipur blasts, who told the police the name of his other (lady) accomplice, who were supposedly responsible for the blasts. Nobody has heard about Vijay after that incident.

Take the case of Malegaon blast. A few victims told the police that a body with a fake beard was recovered from among the dead bodies. Looking at the fact that in Nanded bomb blasts the issue of fake beard had been raised prominently, the security agencies could have finetuned direction of their investigation, but they persisted in the old manner only. And they did not bother to question the hospital people when they flatly denied that any such body was recovered.

It has been around one and half month that the tragic Jaipur blast took place but police does not seem have become any more wiser.According to Times of India ( 27 th June 2008) “..But as days have passed, suspect sketches, clues and leads once touted as vital have proved worthless and loudly proclaimed theories proved thin. Rajasthan police went on a manhunt in the city’s shanties where Bangladeshi immigrants are holed up. They came back empty handed. ” It also adds “Investigators are not ready to name HuJI as a definite suspect any more and only say its role and that of some Pakistan based terror outfits have not been ruled out.”

Similar is the case of other bomb explosions. The Hyderabad Mecca Masjid blast is being probed by CBI. It is almost a year now and nothing concrete has emerged.

Would it be proper to assume that the police or the security establishment have finally decided that after any such incident they would keep moving in circles, leave the issue unresolved and would move to a new issue/incident.

As already stated, perhaps the need of the hour is get out of the stereotyped understanding vis-a-vis terrorism. Perhaps it is necessary that we transcend the habit of stigmatising or criminalising a particular community for all ills of the society. Perhaps it is necessary to ask those questions which were never asked earlier.

It has been quite some time that many Urdu papers have been raising a point about such terrorist acts which merits consideration. It talks of involvement of Israeli-US agents in all such incidents. Looking at the proximity of the Hindutva lobby with Israel, it is also being said that secret Hindu terror organisations are receiving training in Israel. Apparently these Hindu organisations are sending groups of cadres to Israel for agriculture training. But under the cover of this alibi the Israeli special forces are training the Hindutva cadres on bomb handling and fabrication techniques.

The correspondence between a terrorist action and its likely beneficiaries need also be matched. One thing is sure that the more such terrorist actions take place in India, it would further increase communal polarisation ( although it is to the credit of the composite heritage of the country that there have been no communal flareups in any part of the country after such acts, despite provocations from the majoritarian elements) and would help keep India in US ambit. US which has made a mess of itself in mid-east wants to build the US-Israel-India axis to maintain regional hegemony. It frowns upon any regional cooperation of India with its neighbouring countries especially from the mid-east. It is not for nothing that it has consistently opposed Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.

Many commentators have written that Jaipur blasts definitely benefitted BJP in Karnatak elections. Can it then be said that some stray Hindu terrorist group at its own level executed the plan so that another member of the Hindutva family reaps its benefits.

VI

Any peace and justice loving person would admit that the question of (non-state) terrorism needs to be revisited urgently. While our concern about the growing network of Jihadi terrorism is welcome and we should not slacken our struggle against its criminal, anti-people activities/ manifestations, it should be conceded that our approach towards the whole