Some Thoughts on Rape, Sexual Violence and Protest: Responding to Responses

- Devika Narayan

Rarely does a city experience the sort of upheaval that Delhi is witnessing. Everyone is talking about it. Everyone has an opinion. It is impossible to walk down the street without overhearing snatches of conversation. Issues that usually find brief mention in some obscure corner of the newspaper are now being subject to analysis by every passer-by. A rickshaw driver refuses to take any money when he realises I am on my way to a protest. I remember the old man at a photocopy shop who had looked up and asked to no one in particular: do you think she will die? The receptionist at the doctor’s clinic is distraught, providing waiting patients her explanation for the recent events. Men huddled around tiny fires littered across the foggy city carp on about the state of politics, the police and the government. Everyone is invested in this moment of reckoning. 

An opportunity, in the most brutal manner, has been thrust upon us to challenge, critique and reconstruct unjust social relations. This is an opportunity to pledge our commitment to a vision of a gender just society. Unless we assert in powerful ways that women are autonomous beings and equal citizens it will not end. Unless this moment is taken seriously, unless it is used to interrogate normative structures which insist that women are things to be owned, exchanged and damaged either by the individual, community, state or family the violence will not end. And yet at the same time these incidents also offer themselves as an opportunity for the proprietors of Indian Culture to reclaim their ownership of women. These Ambassadors of Tradition declare that it is precisely because women attempt to assert their independent will by walking the streets alone, by choosing their companions, by dressing differently, that they invite violence. Their agenda is to herd women back into the home and purify Indian Society of dangerous ‘external influences’ that might give women the absurd notion that they possess an autonomous agency. However this time given that the raped and murdered woman was not emerging from a pub, alone, or found trespassing the night at an ungodly hour, these voices have been relatively muted. Finally the commander-in-chief of the Embrace-Ancient-Indian-Culture-or-Be-Raped club has spoken up. Mohan Bhagwat the head of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) recently said: 

"A husband and wife are involved in a contract under which the husband has said that you should take care of my house and I will take care of all your needs. I will keep you safe. So, the husband follows the contract terms. Till the time, the wife follows the contract, the husband stays with her, if the wife violates the contract, he can disown her. Crimes against women happening in urban India are shameful. But such crimes won't happen in Bharat or the rural areas of the country. You go to villages and forests of the country and there will be no such incidents of gangrape or sex crimes. Besides new legislations, Indian ethos and attitude towards women should be revisited in the context of ancient Indian values. Where Bharat becomes 'India' with the influence of western culture, these types of incidents happen.” 

[Mohan Bhagwat speaking in Silchar, Assam]

यौनिक हिंसा के परे, मर्दानगी के घेरे।

- प्रवीन वर्मा 

सन्दर्भ एक: 

एक दोस्त जो सोमवार को इंडिया गेट पर विरोध प्रदर्शन का हिस्सा होने आ रही थी, को मोटरसाइकिल सवार युवकों ने घूरा (या फिर मर्दों की भाषा में 'देख ही तो रहे हैं की माफ़िक) और आगे बढ गए, इस कृत्य ने इस महिला मित्र को थोडा असहज कर दिया, बहरहाल यह मोटरसाइकिल सवार आगे बढ कर एक आइसक्रीम वाले से इंडिया गेट का रास्ता पूछते हैं, पूछने पर वे उससे बताते है की वह 16 तारीख को हुए गैंगरेप के विरोध प्रदर्शन के लिए जा रहे हैं 

सन्दर्भ दो:

जंतर मंतर पर बहसा- बहसी में एक युवक ने अपनी जांघों की तरफ़ इशारा करके कहा कि इतने छोटे- छोटे कपड़े पहनोगी तो ऐसा ही होगा (उसका इशारा 16 तारीख के बर्बर काण्ड की तरफ था !), इस पर वह महिला भड़क गई, लेकिन वो आदमी कुछ सुनने को ही तैयार नहीं था! जब महिला ने उसकी माँ, बहन का उदहारण दिया तो वह गुस्सा हो गया और गाली- ग़लोच करने लगा! आस-पास खड़े लोग देखते रहे, किसी तरह बीच-बचाव किया गया और उस आदमी को वहा से हटाया गया! 

सन्दर्भ तीन: 

जंतर मंतर पर काफी जमावडे थे, कोई फाँसी- फाँसी चिल्ला रहा था, कोई दोषियों को नपुंसक बनाने की बात कर रहा था, कोई उनके टुकड़े-टुकड़े करने, सरे-आम गोली मारने, सऊदी अरब भेजने की बात कर रहा था, एक तबका ऐसा भी था जो पुरजोर तरीके से कह रहा था कि फाँसी कोई हल नहीं, बलात्कार की इस घटना को पुरुषवादी समाज के बड़े दायरे में देखने की ज़रूरत हैं! कह रहे थे कि सिर्फ 'दामिनी' ही मुद्दा नहीं है; एक लाख से ज्यादा केसेस सड़ रहे है न्याय की आस में और जहा तक न्यायालय तक पहुचने का सवाल है उसका अनुपात हैं 100 में से महज़ 26! खैर कुछ महिला संगठन यहाँ अपनी बात रखने, नारे लगाने साथ देने आये थे, इनमें से कुछ ने जब नारा लगाना चाहा तो आम आदमी पार्टी के एक स्वयंभू वरिष्ठ (घायल) नेता ने उन्हें ऐसा करने से रोका और साथ ही साथ अपने समर्थको को इन नारों में साथ देने को मना किया, इस स्वयम्भू नेता ने कहा कि, आप नारे मत लगाइए, सिर्फ गाना गाइये! 

सन्दर्भ चार: 

कुछ महिलाएं जंतर मंतर पर पोस्टर लेकर घूम रही थी, जिस पर लिखा था "रेप इस नोट कूल, इन नीड प्लीज कॉल 100 और 1091"! आदमियों की एक भीड़ 2-3 महिलाओ को घेर उन पर टूट पड़ीं, कि तुम पुलिस की/ शीला दीक्षित की/ कांग्रेस की दलाल हो! महिलाओ ने पूछा क्यों? सभी मर्दों ने एक आवाज़ में कहा क्योकि तुम्हारे पोस्टर पर पुलिस से मदद मांगना लिखा हैं, तुम इसे यहाँ (जंतर मंतर) पर इस्तेमाल नहीं कर सकती!! पुलिस को इन सबसे दूर रखो! देखते ही देखते जो-जो लोग ये पोस्टर लिए दिखे उन-उन से छीन- छीन कर फाड़े गए और फिर जलाये गए! जंतर मंतर पर लोग तरह-तरह के पोस्टर लिए घूम रहे थे और ऐसा ज़रूरी नहीं था सब एक- दूसरे से सहमत हो, फिर इन महिलाओं से ऐसा बर्ताव क्यों? जिस आक्रामक प्रचंडता के साथ ये मर्द बर्ताव कर रहे थे वह महिलाओं के हितों में तो कतई नहीं था! इसी गहमा-गहमी तनाव घुलने लगा जब ये सभी मर्द एकजुटता से 'भारत माता की जय' के नारे लगाने लगे और महिलाओं को विरोध स्थल से खदेड़ने लगे! इस बीच पुलिस आई और चली गयी! 

इस बीच किसी ने कहा कि, "मैडम अगर लेडीज ही ऐसा कहेंगी तो बाकि का क्या होगा?" एक दूसरे मर्द ने पुछा कि क्या हुआ? तो पहले वाले ने जवाब दिया, "कि ये औरतें कह रही है कि रेप हो रहा हो तो पुलिस को बुला लो, दोनों हँसे और दूसरी तरफ मुड़कर भारत माता की जय के नारे लगाने लगे!

Photo: Reuters

आखिर कब तक : स्त्रियों पर बढ़ता यौन उत्पीड़न और घटता न्याय

दोस्तों

देश की राजधानी की बस में तेईस साल की युवती के साथ हुए सामूहिक बलात्कार के खिलाफ उठे आन्दोलन की प्रतिक्रिया हर तरफ देखी गयी है। इस युवती के हक में और साथ साथ ही बलात्कार के तमाम मामलों में पीड़िताओं को जल्द से जल्द इन्साफ दिलाने के लिए देश के तमाम हिस्सों में भी प्रदर्शन हुए हैं। यह सरगर्मी गली मुहल्ले में भी देखी गयी है जहां लोग लड़कियों-स्त्रियों की स्थायी सुरक्षा के मुद्दे पर स्थायी समाधान किस तरह निकले इसे लेकर चिन्तित दिखे हैं। 

अक्सर बलात्कार की घटना के बाद पीड़िता को ही दोषी ठहराने की जिस रीति का बोलबाला हमारे समाज में है, उसके विपरीत इस बार यह एक सकारात्मक बात दिखी है कि लोग खुद कह रहे हैं कि सुरक्षा के लिए हम अपनी लड़कियों को घर में कैद नहीं कर सकते, न ही हर सार्वजनिक स्थल पर या लड़की जहां जाए वहां परिवारवालों की निगरानी में रख सकते हैं। आखिर लड़की होने का खामियाजा वे कब तक भुगतती रहेंगी, इसलिए सुरक्षित समाज तो उन्हें चाहिए ही।

दूसरी तरफ, बलात्कार के मामलों में पुलिसिया जांच में बरती जानेवाली सुस्ती, मुकदमों के बोझ के नाम पर ऐसे मामलों में देरी से होने वाले फैसले, आदि सभी मामलों को लेकर लोगों का आक्रोश दिखाई दिया है। जानकारों के मुताबिक इन विरोध प्रदर्शनों ने मथुरा बलात्कार काण्ड के खिलाफ हुए देशव्यापी आन्दोलन की याद ताजा की है। (1978) मालूम हो कि मथुरा नामक आदिवासी युवती के साथ पुलिस कस्टडी में हुए बलात्कार को लेकर सर्वोच्च न्यायालय का जो अपमानजनक फैसला आया था, उसका जबरदस्त विरोध हुआ था और सरकार को बलात्कार सम्बन्धी कानून में बदलाव करने पड़े थे।

Come Frolic with Me in the Streets of Delhi

- Amrapali  Basumatary (Tara)

It was 31st December 2012, city-Delhi, the same Delhi which has gained the infamy of being the Rape-Capital of a country called India, a nation whose ‘dignity’ has been maligned by the increasing cases of sexual assault on women. Around three hours before the clock struck the decisive moment of New Year, many of us gathered at the PVR Anupam complex in Saket to “take back the night”, back from the shackles of misogyny, sexual assault, patriarchy and above all from the banal and real fear of being subjected to crimes meted out by multifarious forms of male-supremacy and power. It was a night when ‘dented and painted’ females as well as males were showing that ‘denting and painting’ are not reasons that ‘invite’ rape or sexual assault and those ‘hormone driven gazes’. 

When we first gathered, the numbers were not so great and most of them were familiar faces. While it was heart warming to see so many familiar faces, yet one part of me did not fail to notice that the numbers of new faces was not so many. Not seeing new faces sometimes hurts because one can possibly feel a sense of pessimism that our struggles have not permeated deep and wide, despite incessant protests and rallies for more than half a month now, despite so many decades of movements for women’s rights and gender-just world. After all the core of such movements lie in the fact that the struggle for gender-just society must reach out to the whole of the society, at least the majority of the society, that we make new friends while walking along with old friends, that it is not a struggle of a few for a few privileges. Also I had the personal desire, or you may call it my hope or expectation that it will be one of the nights that would be remembered by many, of a 31st December night when we partied in the streets of Delhi, a night when we did the unthinkable, when we danced and sang songs of love and protest, of freedom and equality, at the same time when crowds were gathered in front of the Birstol Hotel in Gurgaon awaiting Yo Yo Honey Singh, the epitome of this society’s tendentious agreement and complicity to uphold and celebrate sex as an act of violence, of disempowering the other, of taking away people’s dignity and right to live free of fear and violations. I initially felt a little disheartened to see how we, the protesters, were refraining from expressing our will and desire to sing and dance, this was supposed to be taking back the night our own way, with creating spaces for revelry, a new way of celebrating the new year. There was desire and expectation in the air, held back only by our sustained and long lived culture of propriety, of being ‘respectable’ in the streets, by a continuum of absence of street culture. 

Run with Gender, Hunt with Class:Curious Ways of Indian Democracy from India Gate to the Slum Habitat

- Prachee Sinha

It has taken a horrific tragedy and a precious young life to stir the conscience of a nation. Or so one would like to believe! Reality may not still cater to our wishes. Our grand old civilization is also a culture of billion brutalities on its women and countless other victims. One can only hope that it changes for the better, even if a little, after what it has witnessed through the last fifteen days of the last year. Greater probability, however, is for such hopes to be belied yet again. It may take a lot more to lift the weight of an age-old way of life. After all, one would not have expected that rapes and molestations would be reported from across the country, and even from Delhi itself, right in the middle of anger, sorrow and protests that seemed to engulf the country. One would expect that the rapists and the criminals would lie low for a while till the situation returns to normal. Least of all would have one expected that women would be harassed, and one or two would even be molested, during those very protests that were taking place at the India Gate and Jantar Mantar.

The battered body of the nameless and faceless brave heart has now been consigned to flames and returned to earth. From the little that we know about her ordeal in the bus, she fought the goons, without any fear that it could invite the brutalisation she was subjected to, when they first attacked her friend. She remained undefeated in her spirits even as her organs failed. Likes of the person, who reportedly expressed the opinion that she should have submitted to rape to be spared the brutalisation, shall never understand the meaning and the value of courage and dignity.

Protest Diary: 29th December, 2012, Jantar Mantar

- Vasundhara Jairath

While the day began with a deep sense of distress at the news of the death of the young 23-year-old who had been brutally assaulted and gang-raped in a moving private bus running illegally on that route, each of us tried to channel our energies so as to bolster, and not demoralize, the struggle for gender justice. I do not believe she was a martyr as some have claimed. A martyr is one who gives her life for a cause. And she wanted to live. Given the brutality of the assault and related trauma, she fought hard for 12 long days. She is not a martyr. She was murdered to death. I do believe she wanted to live, and began to believe she will live. And then came the news of her death. While many have derided this explosion of Delhi’s citizenry on the streets as a middle class reaction or right wing, Narendra Modi supporters making fascist demands for denying any process of law and demanding execution, this was much more. It was an accumulated rage of the rape culture in the city. Apolitical individuals coming out in the streets for the first time did express their rage in demands for death penalty. But what was important to recognize was the rage. What was important to engage with, therefore, was the rage. And engage we did. And while we at least temporarily ‘converted’ some, we fought with others.

That afternoon we joined a silent march from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar as part of a joint call from women’s organizations. On arriving at Jantar Mantar, the left remained divided into two groups. The rally moved to one corner while another group had already occupied the centre of Jantar Mantar since morning. One on this side of the barricade and one on the other. While some of us made a small attempt at building a human chain between the two gheras (circles), a laughable attempt for some, a few of us moved to the centre of Jantar Mantar at the site of one ghera. While Left unity would have served as a powerful voice in demanding broader and substantive gender justice, focusing on the entire gamut of patriarchal norms and structures in society rather than just sticking to this case alone (as many demanding death penalty were doing), this was lost and divided in the fragmented demonstration. 

Notes from a Night Walk in Delhi University

- shuddhabrata Sengupta

[ Black & White pictures, courtesy Chandan Gomes. Colour pictures and cell phone video footage, courtesy, Bonojit Hussain, New Socialist Initiative ]

Dear young women and men of Delhi,

I am writing to you again because I have been listening to you. This is a strange time, when everybody is talking, and everybody is listening, and the unknown citizen, who could have been any one of you, has transformed us all.

I was with you last night, from five thirty in the evening to around nine at night, while we walked together from the Vishwavidyalaya (University) Metro Station to Vijay Nagar, Kamla Nagar and the North Campus of Delhi University. There were around twelve hundred of you. Several of you held candles. You made yourselves into a moving blur of light. As the shopkeepers of Vijay Nagar, as the rent collecting aunties of paying guest accommodations, as the men and boys and girls and women on the streets and in the verandahs looked at you in wonder, you looked back at them, many of you smiled and waved. I could see some people in the crowd lip-synch with your Hallabols.

[ video of the night march near Delhi University ]

People's March for Freedom from Fear

DEATH PENALTY IS NOT THE SOLUTION

PEOPLE'S MARCH FOR FREEDOM

Delhi University Metro Station, Sunday 30th December, 5 pm

We Demand:

1. Massive Expansion of secure, regular and accountable public transport.
2.  Take over of private buses by State corporations.
3. Ensure speedy delivery of justice in more than 100,000 cases of violence against women.
4. Enact provisions for formation of anti-sexual harassment committees at all work places, colleges, schools, and other institutions. Constitute a democratic, effective and accountable body to ensure justice in cases of sexual harassment cases in Delhi University. Bring out regular reports cases and actions taken.
5. Institute an independent tribunal to enquire and punish police, paramilitary and armed forces personnel accused of sexual violence. Install CCTV cameras inside police stations. 
6. Repeal archaic provisions of Article 66A of IT Act and Article 144 which snatches from us our right to protest and express our democratic dissent. sack Delhi Police Commissioner for violently suppressing protesters. Remove Delhi University Vice-Chancellor for muzzling our protest. 

Call for the Freedom March has been given by many students, teachers, other people's organizations including New Socialist Initiative (NSI)

Statement by Women’s and Progressive Groups and Individuals Condemning Sexual Violence and Opposing Death Penalty

DECEMBER 24, 2012

On 16 December, 2012, a 23-year old woman and her friend hailed a bus at a crossing in South Delhi. In the bus, they were both brutally attacked by a group of men who claimed to be out on a ‘joy-ride’. The woman was gang raped and the man beaten up; after several hours, they were both stripped and dumped on the road. While the young woman is still in hospital, bravely battling for her life, her friend has been discharged and is helping identify the men responsible for the heinous crime.

We, the undersigned, women’s, students’ and progressive groups and concerned citizens from around the country, are outraged at this incident and, in very strong terms, condemn her gang rape and the physical and sexual assault.

As our protests spill over to the streets all across the country, our demands for justice are strengthened by knowing that there are countless others who share this anger. We assert that rape and other forms of sexual violence are not just a women’s issue, but a political one that should concern every citizen. We strongly demand that justice is done in this and all other cases and the perpetrators are punished. 

This incident is not an isolated one; sexual assault occurs with frightening regularity in this country. Adivasi and dalit women and those working in the unorganised sector, women with disabilities, hijras, kothis, trans people and sex workers are especially targeted with impunity – it is well known that the complaints of sexual assault they file are simply disregarded. We urge that the wheels of justice turn not only to incidents such as the Delhi bus case, but to the epidemic of sexual violence that threatens all of us. We need to evolve punishments that act as true deterrents to the very large number of men who commit these crimes. Our stance is not anti-punishment but against the State executing the death penalty. The fact that cases of rape have a conviction rate of as low as 26% shows that perpetrators of sexual violence enjoy a high degree of impunity, including being freed of charges.

Silent witnesses to everyday forms of sexual assault such as leering, groping, passing comments, stalking and whistling are equally responsible for rape being embedded in our culture and hence being so prevalent today. We, therefore, also condemn the culture of silence and tolerance for sexual assault and the culture of valorising this kind of violence.

Response to "[Delhi gang rape] Lest we forget and move on, yet again"

A response to Prachee Sinha's piece "Lest we forget and move on, yet again" which was published on this blog yesterday.

Delhi Gang Rape: A Political Response

- Sumandro (Riju)

Sharing a few thoughts about your note. I believe you have keen observations — empirical and theoretical — to make about the relations between revolutionary politics and women’s liberation (especially about the failures of the former to seriously address the latter). and I share my thoughts expecting that they will be clarified from your responses.

# You never mention ‘capital’. Not that all pieces of writing always must have that word, but it seemed quite pertinent a category for the event you wrote about. While sexual assault in particular and violence against women in general is surely shaped by feudal-patriarchal social structures that you mention, the everyday economic exploitation also create the underlying context of such violences. You do mention the term ‘justice’. but the piece does not explain what you mean by ‘justice’, neither does it explain the nature of the ‘onus’ to ensure justice. As you do not mention ‘capital’, and neither ‘state’, it becomes rather difficult to begin to define such a justice — not because such a justice must be delivered by capital and state, but because the social-material context of delivering such a justice is shaped by capital and state. Especially in the context of the event concerned — what would count as justice to this girl and her friend? As we write, the students of JNU Students’ Union blocks the road in front of the Vasant Vihar police station, Home Minister promise swift justice (five fast track court and all), and politicians across parties express their shame and explain how capital punishment is the answer to women’s freedom. As you say that the onus to ensure that violence against women becomes an ‘intolerable’ and ‘inexcusable’ act is upon all of us, it worries me how easily your statement would suit the purpose of such reactionary political responses. To clarify, I use the term ‘reactionary’ not as an abuse but a technical term that describes an act that restrengthens the liberal-democratic order.

# A key question that the event (of the girl being gang raped in the bus and his friend is beaten up, and both then thrown off the bus) raises is that of the political response. All responses I have heard of till now are reactionary, as they point out the failures of the capitalist state. the differences lie in how they define justice (capital punishment or not) and appropriate police intervention (CCTV and civilian-supported patrolling). Interestingly there is a convergent appeal to both the ‘sovereign’ (punish the unruly) and ‘pastoral’ (discipline and securitise the public spaces) modes of statecraft (ref: Michel Foucault).

[Delhi Gang rape] Lest we forget and move on, yet again

- Prachee Sinha

A 23 year old young woman battles for her life in a hospital in Delhi. She was raped by a group of men, brutalized, beaten mercilessly and thrown out of a moving bus on Sunday night. Her fault: she was a woman in the wrong place at the wrong time; she dared to be in a public space at night; and she was with a young man with whom she had just finished watching a movie. According to some media reports, she was in fact taunted by the rapists about being out with a male friend late at night. This young woman is fighting to stay alive as we speak, and she may not make it, but if she does and decides to fight for justice, there will be an entire society, an entire system standing against her, blaming her for what happened to her, scrutinizing and judging her entire life, her choices, and her very existence.

This crime is particularly brutal, with horrific details emerging about what this woman has endured and the damage her body has suffered. I for one have no complain about the talk and interest that this case is generating. Even though I do think that putting the CCTV footage of the rape in the public domain is frankly disrespectful and offensive. It should be used as evidence in court and not as fodder for public consumption. Anyhow, media is making the case a headline, the police and government are acting fast under pressure of the public opinion, and everybody who is anybody is decrying it as a heinous crime, which it indeed is. And now the political parties have also jumped in with the BJP starting to make demands, the Aam Aadmi party starting to make comments. There is uproar in the parliament. The politicking and slugfest has just commenced. The girl is still critical and the police are still investigating and all the criminals are still not in jail.

The Ashes of Dharampuri

- Subhash Gatade

Rajamma, a resident of Natham, looks at her burnt house with vacant eyes. The more she looks at it, the harder the tears fall. Every part of her house — each brick painstakingly collected — is a small fountain of memories for her, reminding her of the backbreaking work done by her late husband at the local landlord’s house.

Now, all that is in the past.

Three weeks ago hordes of dominant caste people armed to the teeth launched a pre-meditated attack on their colony, supposedly to avenge the ‘humiliation’ caused by the marriage of one of their girls to a boy from her community.

Like many others in the colony, Rajamma is a dalit. The perpetrators belonged to the powerful Vanniar caste. She knows that she was saved only because a youth from the colony alerted them about the attack allowing some people to rush into the nearby fields.

Burned houses, smashed household items, bicycles, motorbikes, television sets. Torn schoolbooks, records, certificates and ration cards. This was the scene immediately after the attack on the three dalit colonies of Natham, Kondampatti and Annanagar in Naikkankottai, Dharmapuri district, Tamil Nadu. Of the 500 houses in the three colonies, over 268 were damaged/burnt.

The attack was brought on by the suicide of a caste Hindu over the elopement of his daughter. The mob, armed with deadly weapons and petrol bombs, indulged in a four-hour-long rampage. They broke cupboards, stole gold jewellery and cash before setting the houses on fire.

The Bodoland (Assam) Violence and the Politics of Explanation

Bonojit Hussain

[Note: This is an expanded version of an article published in SEMINAR Magazine Vol. No-640, December, 2012. This version was first posted on kafila.org]

EVEN though tensions were apparently simmering for many months prior to the outbreak of the violence in the month of July 2012 in the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts (BTAD) area, but the immediate trigger was the killing of two Muslim youths, who were shot dead by unidentified gunmen on 6 July. The needle of suspicion pointed to the former cadres of the disbanded Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT). In retaliation, four former cadres of Bodo Liberation Tigers were hacked to death by a mob in the Muslim dominated village of Joypur near Kokrajhar town. What unfolded after that was the worst humanitarian crisis to have hit Assam in decades. 

During the crisis that unfolded in Kokrajhar and Chirang districts of the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts (BTAD) and the adjoining Dhubri and Bongaigaon districts, Assam witnessed the tragedy of nearly 500,000 people belonging to the Bodo and Muslim communities being forced to take shelter in 273 temporary refugee camps. These people will stand internally displaced, scarred and traumatized for months to come, if not years. An estimated 97 people have lost their lives and around 500 villages were burnt down. The magnitude of this human tragedy is overwhelming considering the short span of one month in which it occurred. 

There was an immediate need for a united humanitarian call to stop the killings and the violence on the part of community leaders and the administration, but the failure to do so created an atmosphere of extreme polarization, with leaders of both the Bodo and the Muslim communities hurling allegations and counter-allegations at each other. To make matters worse, leaders of the Bodo community, large sections of mainstream Assamese society, and a section of the media and the political class took it upon themselves to allege and prove that the responsibility for this human tragedy lies squarely on ‘illegal Bangladeshi migrants’ (often used as a shorthand for Muslims of Bengali origin in Assam) and that the undifferentiated Muslim masses inhabiting western Assam are ‘Bangladeshis’. 

Statement: Shame on Maharashtra Govt for giving State Funeral to a Fascist Demagogue

- Statement Issued by New Socialist Initiative (NSI)

On November 18, 2012, Mr Bal Keshav Thackeray, the founder and leader of Shiv Sena was cremated with full state honours in Mumbai. State Honour in death is meant to pay homage to someone whose work in life contributed to the values espoused by the state. Why did a liberal democratic state proclaiming Gandhi to be ‘Father of the Nation’ give such an honour to a self declared admirer of Adolf Hitler and Nathu Ram Godse? The Constitution of India guarantees freedom and liberty to every citizen, irrespective of religion, caste, gender, place of birth or language. Against this, for nearly 46 years the politics of Mr Thackeray and Shiv Sena were based on selectively targeting communities, openly spreading hatred and perpetrating violence against them. What Shiv Sena calls Thokshahi, its method of doing politics, is brutal use of group muscle power, justified in the name of majority, against vulnerable minorities. Shiv Sena started its political journey with attacking Tamil speaking inhabitants of Bombay in the late sixties. It burnt down their restaurants, because, it argued Tamils were taking jobs away from Marathis. In early seventies it brutally attacked Dalit Panthers, the group of radical anti-castiest dalits who had risen against opportunism of mainstream dalit parties. It was also accused of the murder of Dalit Panther leader Bhagwat Jadhav. With the support of big business and police it attacked left trade unions of Mumbai, and to spread its terror killed the popular trade unionist and sitting CPI MLA Krishna Desai. Mr Thackeray was one of the few Hindutva leader who publicly gloated over the destruction of Babri Mosque in 1992. The pogrom of Muslims in Mumbai during the 1992-93 riots was planned and executed by Shiv Sena. Lately, it and its progeny, the MNS, have started attacking Hindi speaking migrants in Mumbai. It has burnt their taxis and shops. Along with the use of group violence, Mr Thackeray perfected the art of protection money racket, a rank criminality that partially explains the phenomenal growth in the personal wealth of top Shiv Sena leadership.

Demonstration Held Against Increasing Spate of Sexual Violence in Haryana

On Tuesday 16 October New Socialist Initiative (NSI) demonstrated at Haryana Bhawan at Copernicus Marg, New Delhi to condemn the Haryana government’s indifference to the rising cases of rape and other sexual violences against women As a mark of protest a memorandum addressed to the Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda was also submitted.

Apart from New Socialist Initiative (NSI), the memorandum was endorsed by Stree Mukti Sangthan, New Trade Union Initiative, National Alliance for People's Movement, Program for Social Action, People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) and Nirantar amongst others.

A delegation consisting of Anjali Sinha from Stree Mukti Sanghatan, Praveen Kumar from New Socialist Initiative (NSI, Kusum from Jagori and Vikas from PUDR went to hand over the memorandum.

Who is afraid of Copyright Infringement?

On 10th of October a Public Meeting was organised by Campaign to Save D School Photocopy Shop, was held at Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University. This event was a part of the long drawn campaign on the issue of ‘copyright infringement’ provoked by the clamping down on photocopying by the Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Taylor and Francis Group. The public meeting saw the attendance of several authors and people associated with the field of writing and publishing and discussed a range of issues and matters related to authorship, workings of the publishing industry, the Delhi University system of promotion and its nexus with publication houses. The meeting began with an introduction of the campaign and the law suit taken up by the three publishers against Rameshwori Photo Copy Shop on the “course pack”. In spite of the spontaneous nature of the campaign the need to caution against taking this as a stray incident was emphasised by Mr. Usman, a representative of the campaign. 

Touching upon the workings of the publishing industry Mr. Sudhanva Deshpande, Managing Editor, LeftWord Publishing expressed that he also works with the publishing house and emphasised that many from the publishing world are also with the campaign of the students and that the three publishers Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Taylor and Francis group are not representative of them. Appreciating the organising of the public meeting on the issue of ‘copyright infringement’ Mr. Deshpande further stated on the ecosystem that needs to be in place for publishing of books to happen, knowledge is required to be shared and spread widely as possible and it makes sense to have a system where books are read and discussed. 

Mutant Modernities, Socialist Future

- Ravi Sinha

Modernity and socialism can be daunting subjects. Both have had a long history and both have impacted on humanity in ways few other ideas, systems or forms of life have. In a famous incident, perhaps not entirely apocryphal, Chou En Lai, when asked about the impact of the French Revolution on the western civilization by Richard Nixon, is supposed to have answered, “It is too soon to tell.”[1] It seems to me that Chou’s riposte would hold well, and with a far greater force, if the same question were to be asked a few hundred years from now about the impact of modernity or of socialism on the entire human civilization.

One asks for trouble on other counts too when proposing to deal with these topics. They have both been explored and debated endlessly and both remain enormously controversial. In the domain of ideas and theories, they generate intense, sometimes fierce, intellectual passion. In the domain of real life, they give rise to monumental conflicts and struggles even as their influences continue to seep imperceptibly into ever deeper layers of societies and forms of life through pathways that are hard to track. One must have a good reason for raking up, as many might say, a subject where ashes of time find it difficult in any case to settle on an exasperatingly burning fire. Those too, who would like to continue stoking the fire of historical and emancipatory transformations promised by these words, would need a good reason for re-entering the subject. Whether I have one or not should best be left to be judged at the end of the hour, but one must hope to add something useful and meaningful to the debate.

It is not the case, however, that these two words – modernity and socialism – always invite similar reactions or attitudes. That, in fact, would have been surprising. After all, they belong to two different categories of concepts and they have been differently implicated in history during last several centuries. Socialism is supposed to be a system just as capitalism is a system. Or, more accurately, socialism is a transitional system that is supposed to take us beyond the capitalist system. Modernity, on the other hand, remains elusive to all exertions of capturing it as a well defined concept, category or entity. Such is the case even after enormous expenditures of formidable intellectual energy by philosophers, theorists and historians, including the legendary ones[2], across the last three or four centuries.

Among many commonalities and differences in attitudes evoked by these two concepts, one difference is especially noteworthy. More than a decade ago, my friend, Javeed Alam, came out with a book that he interestingly titled – India: Living with Modernity.[3] Given the history of modernity during the past two centuries, and especially the theorizations about it during the latter half of the twentieth century, it seems to me that everyone wants to live with modernity, but no one is willing to sign the papers. A kind of shamefacedness, if not outright concealment, is very commonplace, as is the case, in most societies, with the live-in relationship in its more regular meaning.[4] Societies that have lived with modernity for centuries take the pleasures and the comforts for granted, but there is a growing sense of weariness in the relationship. Other societies, charmed by modernity in more recent times, have entered into a relationship with it, but they keep announcing their being wedded to cultures, traditions and ways of life that would not sit well, in most cases, with the new relationship. Most curious is the case of intellectuals of the postmodern type who come from both kinds of societies. Like the fin-de-siècle artist who would paint ugly portraits of his live-in partner while keeping alive the romance of imagined seductions from the times gone by, these intellectuals draw such caricatures of modernity that pre-modern times begin to look attractive and desirable. Caricaturing appears to be an integral part of the intellectual strategy to facilitate the argument that modernity’s hands are soaked with blood of all the victims of capitalism and colonialism.[5]

Peace vigil held in Delhi against ongoing killings & violence in Assam

In condemnation of the ongoing ethnic violence in Assam, a peace vigil cum public meeting was held at Arts Faculty Gate, Delhi University on 27th July, at 2 pm. The vigil was organized by people from various parts of northeast residing in Delhi, along with concerned individuals, university members and other democratic organisations from Delhi. A press release (signed by 15 organizations and by prominent activists, academic and students) was issued condemning the ongoing killings and violence that has erupted in four districts of Lower Assam. The participants at the vigil demanded that immediate end to the killing and violence is brought about and the Assam government, Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) administration and the Central Government takes full responsibility for the loss of lives and livelihood as a result of the clashes; and that they rehabilitate all those who have been displaced irrespective of ethnicity and religion. It has also appealed to the members of various communities in Assam to play a proactive role in stopping the mayhem. In the peace vigil activists, academics and students also condemned the political use of this tragic moment of violence and mayhem by various groups with vested interests to drive home their demand of deporting 'Bangladeshi immigrants'.

Below is the Press Statement along with the list of signatories:

Statement in condemnation of the ongoing ethnic violence in Assam

We the people from various parts of northeast residing in Delhi, along with concerned individuals, university members, various students’, teachers’, trade union, women’s, civil and human rights organisations from Delhi, strongly condemn the ongoing ethnic conflict with serious communal undertone that has erupted in four districts (Kokrajhar, Dhubri, Chirang and Bongaigaon) of Lower Assam. This has been the most widespread and alarming conflict in the recent history of Assam.

In the last one week we have witnessed the tragedy of nearly 200,000 people belonging to the Bodo and the Muslim communities, being forced to flee from their homes and villages. Currently they stand internally displaced, and are scarred and traumatized. Official figures state that around 41 people have lost their lives so far, while unofficial estimates from the grounds are much higher. More than 400 villages have been torched down until now.

Once There was Hindutva Terror ...?

- Subhash Gatade

Bomb blasts have taken place near the Delhi High Court, in Bombay , Bangalore etc. Within a few hours of such bomb blasts many T V channels started showing news item that Indian Mujahidin or Jaish-e-Mohammed or Harkatul-jihad-e-islam have sent e-mails or SMS claiming responsibility. The names of such alleged organizations will always be Muslim names. Now an e-mail can be sent by any mischievous person, but by showing this on TV channels and next day in the newspapers the tendency is to brand all Muslims in the country as terrorists and bomb throwers...Should the media, wittingly or unwittingly, become part of this policy of divide and rule?

- (Justice (retired) Markandey Katju, Chairman of the Press Council of India, October 10, 2011 at a get-together with mediapersons) 

1. 

Introduction

What is common between the murder of the leader of a private army of landlords at the hands of his own gang members in faraway Bihar over distribution of booty, the felicitation of a terrorist lodged in jail as 'living martyr' ( zinda Shaheed ) in Punjab or the anointment of a hatemonger as the poster boy of the main opposition party ? Formally speaking there are no connections but if one tries to dig further few subterranean linkages become clear. Whether one agrees or not they exhibit the growing legitimacy of authoritarian, fanatic, exclucivist politics in this part of the subcontinent .

It is difficult to believe the manner in which the mass murderer called Brahmeshwar Singh was glorified and the state turning mute spectator to indiscriminate violence unleashed by his supporters (mainly his caste antisocials) or the manner in which two senior leaders of the saffron dispensation - ex Central Cabinet minister C.P. Thakur and Giriraj Singh, a member of Nitish's cabinet - vied with each other to delcare the murderer as another 'Gandhi'.

Not to be rest content the felicitation of the terrorist called Rajoana who had been instrumental in killing of innocents was accompanied by demands from the SGPC (Shiromani Gurudwara Prabadhank Committee) to have a memorial erected inside the precincts of the golden temple itself, in memory of those who were 'martyred' during the 1984 military action to flush out Bhindranwale and his close comrades.

The Kafquasquean metamorphosis of the hatemonger as 'development man' has been discussed for quite some time. With the recent national executive meeting of his party he inched further closer to his long cherished dream. Forget the fact that there have been more than 45 reports prepared by national-international human rights organisations over the bloody developments in the state under his rule and amicus curaie (friend of court) ordering his prosecution for various acts of omission and commission in the 2002 carnage. Forget the fact that thousands of people uprooted during those days are still condemned to live a life of internally displaced persons. Forget the fact that it is 'free for all' as far corruption in the higher echleons of power is concerned.

Call for Papers: "New Cultures of the Left" - First South Asian Historical Materialism Conference (New Delhi 3-4 April 2013)

The Delhi HM Conference “New Cultures of the Left”, the first South Asian Historical Materialism Conference, will be held at the Conference Centre, Delhi University, on 3-4 April 2013. The conference occurs against several backgrounds that make the revival of the left and the reemergence of Marxist and other forms of radical theory and politics imperative. These ‘backgrounds’ include the massive convulsions in the world economy from the financial crash of 2008 onwards; the great uprisings in the Arab world that dominated the whole of 2011 with their remarkable mass-based struggles for democracy; the emergence in the West of spontaneous forms of resistance to Austerity politics and its fierce attacks on the lives of millions of people both in and out of employment.

The background to the Conference also includes the consolidation of powerful capitalist interests in countries like India where big business now shapes public policy without the shackles of ‘socialism’, and government and business have jointly undermined the unions, massively casualised labour markets and accelerated the dispossession of whole communities. The consolidation, likewise, of deeply authoritarian tendencies, both secular and religious, that stand for the eradication of existing constitutional democracies and the rights they offer to the mass of citizens in favour of stronger, more repressive states or states reconstructed on non-secular ‘fundamentalist’ lines. And last but not least, the deep crisis of the Party-controlled left and its inability to debate issues in open, democratic and politically creative ways, much less to attract a new generation of workers and youth to the cause of a radical left politics and culture.