Assam: NSI Solidarity Statement to Anti-Communalism Convention by Artists and Intellectuals

Below is the text of NSI solidarity statement (in Assamese and English) that was read out in the Assam state level convention of artists and intellectuals against communalism and increasing 'culture' of intolerance in India in general and Assam in particular, held on 22nd November at Laxmiram Barua Sadan, Guwahati, Assam. 

We would like to express our gratitude to Comrade Biswajit Bora for translating this short statement.

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Photo courtesy: Comrade Zamser Ali

প্ৰথমতেই আমি এই মানবীয় মূল্যবোধৰ হকে, সাম্প্ৰদায়িকতাৰ বিৰুদ্ধে ৰাজ্যিক অভিবৰ্তনখনৰ আয়োজক আৰু অংশগ্ৰহণকাৰীসকলৰ প্ৰতি আমাৰ সংহতি প্ৰকাশ কৰিছো।

ভাৰত অতি খৰতকীয়াকৈ অসহিষ্ণুতাৰ এখন উত্তপ্ত কেৰাহীলৈ পৰিণত হোৱাৰ পথত আগবাঢ়িছে য’ত ঘৃণা আৰু বহিষ্কৰণৰ জুয়ে দেখাত বিক্ষিপ্ত কিন্তু প্ৰকৃতাৰ্থত নিৰ্বাচিত কিছুসংখ্যকৰ বিৰুদ্ধে এক পৰিকল্পিত হিংসাৰ জন্ম দিছে। আমি যিকোনো গণতন্ত্ৰৰে নাগৰিকৰ মৌলিক অধিকাৰৰ ওপৰত হোৱা একাগ্ৰ আক্ৰমণৰ সন্মূখীন হৈছো – তেওঁলোকৰ নিজস্ব ধৰণেৰে থকাৰ বা যি বিচাৰে তাকে হোৱাৰ অধিকাৰৰ ওপৰত। এয়া হৈছে ধৰ্ম বা বৰ্ণ বা লিংগ বা শ্ৰেণী বা জাতিৰ ভিত্তিত দেশৰ সকলো প্ৰান্তীয়কৃত লোকৰ ওপৰত এক আক্ৰমণ। এই আক্ৰমণ হৈছে দেশৰ সংখ্যাগুৰুবাদী এক প্ৰকল্পৰ আওঁতাত নপৰা যিকোনো সামাজিক গোষ্ঠীৰ ওপৰত। এই আক্ৰমণ হৈছে দেশৰ জনগণৰ নাগৰিকৰ আলোচনা, সমালোচনা, তৰ্ক-বিতৰ্ক কৰা তথা বিৰোধিতা আৰু বিক্ষোভ প্ৰদৰ্শন কৰাৰ অধিকাৰৰ ওপৰত। ধৰ্মীয় উন্মাদনাৰ বিৰুদ্ধে মাত মতা তিনিজন বিশিষ্ট নাগৰিক, ডঃ দাভোলকাৰ, কমৰেড পানছাৰে আৰু প্ৰফেছাৰ কালবুৰ্গিক দিন দুপৰতে হত্যা কৰা হ’ল। অস্ত্ৰধাৰী ধৰ্মান্ধৰ দলে উদ্ধতালি মাৰি নিজকে সমাজৰ নৈতিক প্ৰতিৰক্ষী সজাই বলপূৰ্বকভাবে নিষেধাজ্ঞাৰ সংস্কৃতি প্ৰতিষ্ঠা কৰিছে; ভাৰতীয়ই কি খাব, কি পিন্ধিব, কি পঢ়িব বা কি চাব নিৰ্ধাৰণ কৰিছে। সবাতোকৈ বিপদজনক কথাতো হৈছে যে এই দলবোৰ কেৱল সমাজত সক্ৰিয় হৈ থকাই নহয়, কেন্দ্ৰ আৰু বহুতো ৰাজ্য চৰকাৰৰ ক্ষমতাৰ আঁৰত সুৰক্ষিত হৈ আছে। কেন্দ্ৰ আৰু বহুতো ৰাজ্যৰ হিন্দুত্ব চৰকাৰ আক্ৰমণাত্মকঅসহিষ্ণুতাৰ এই সংস্কৃতিৰ প্ৰসাৰত চকু মুদা কুলি হৈ থকাই নহয়, লগতে ইয়াত উদগণিহে জনাইছে। হিন্দুত্ব চৰকাৰে প্ৰণালীগতভাবে শিক্ষাব্যৱস্থা, আমোলাতন্ত্ৰ, পুলিচ, আৰু ন্যায়ব্যৱস্থাকে ধৰি ৰাষ্ট্ৰৰ প্ৰতিষ্ঠানসমূহত সাম্প্ৰদায়িকতাৰ বিষবাষ্প ঘনীভূত কৰি তুলিছে।

অৱশ্যে এইটোও উল্লেখনীয় যে স্বাধীনতা আৰু যুক্তিৰ ওপৰত হোৱা এই আক্ৰমণ হৈছে আমাৰ সমাজৰ এক গভীৰ অসুস্থতাৰ লক্ষণ। ৰাষ্ট্ৰীয় সুৰক্ষা বা ধৰ্মীয় আৰু বৰ্ণবাদী অনুভূতি তুষ্ট কৰাৰ নামত অন্যমত পোষণ কৰা বা মতপ্ৰকাশৰ স্বাধীনতা খৰ্ব কৰাতো দেশৰ প্ৰায়বোৰ ৰাজনৈতিক দল আৰু চৰকাৰৰ দীৰ্ঘদিনীয়া পৰম্পৰাত পৰিণত হৈছে। আমি লগতে সমাজত দ’লৈকে শিপাই থকা জনপ্ৰিয় ভাবাদৰ্শ যিবোৰে অন্ধবিশ্বাস, পুৰুষতন্ত্ৰ, বৰ্ণবাদী বিশেষাধিকাৰ আৰু হিংসাৰ প্ৰকাশ্য প্ৰয়োগক মহিমান্বিত কৰি তোলে সেইবোৰৰ ওপৰতো মনোনিৱেশ কৰাতো প্ৰয়োজনীয়। নিজৰ প্ৰতিষ্ঠানসমূহক প্ৰশ্ন কৰিবলৈ সাজু নোহোৱা এখন সমাজত গণতন্ত্ৰ কদাপি সফল হ’ব নোৱাৰে। অযুক্তিকৰ পৰম্পৰাত বন্দী এখন সমাজত স্বাধীনতাৰ নিজৰা ব’ব নোৱাৰে।

তথাকথিত মূলসূঁতিৰ ভাৰত ৰাষ্ট্ৰৰ প্ৰান্তত হৈছে অসম মুলুক। ভাৰতৰ আন কোনো ৰাজ্য বা অঞ্চলতে ইমান ধৰ্মীয়, সাংস্কৃতিক তথা জাতিগত বৈচিত্ৰ নাই। অসমতো দাংগা, নৈতিক ব্যাখ্যাকৃত হিংসা আৰু ধৰ্মীয় আৰু জাতিগত সংখ্যালঘুৰ উপৰত হোৱা আক্ৰমণৰ ইতিহাস আছে। হিন্দুত্ব ৰাজনীতিয়ে ইয়াৰ বিশেষ সাম্প্ৰদায়িক বিষবাষ্প ইতিমধ্যেই সমস্যাৰে জৰ্জৰিত অসমৰ সমাজ-ব্যৱস্থাত বিয়পাব খুজিছে। ইয়াৰ পৰিণাম হ’ব ভয়ংকৰ, যদিহে অসমৰ গণতান্ত্ৰিক আৰু প্ৰগতিশীল কণ্ঠ এই আক্ৰমণৰ বিৰুদ্ধে একত্ৰ আৰু প্ৰবল প্ৰতিৰোধ কৰিবলৈ আগবাঢ়ি নাহে।

এই অভিবৰ্তনখন হৈছে এক আৱশ্যকীয় হস্তক্ষেপ, আৰু এনে এক সন্ধিক্ষণত য’ত ভাৰতবৰ্ষৰ কেৱল ধৰ্মনিৰপেক্ষ অংগসমূহৰেই নহয়, এখন ধৰ্মনিৰপেক্ষ ভাৰতবৰ্ষৰ সামগ্ৰিক ধাৰণাটোৰেই অস্তিত্ব হেৰুওৱাৰ পথত। আমি পুনৰবাৰ এই অভিবৰ্তনখনৰ আয়োজক আৰু অংশগ্ৰহণকাৰীসকলৰ প্ৰতি আমাৰ গভীৰ সংহতি প্ৰকাশ কৰিছো।

এয়া এনে এক সময় যেতিয়া আমি একগোট হৈ থিয় দি ৰবীন্দ্ৰনাথৰ এই শক্তিশালী পংক্তি আঁওৰোৱা উচিত:

“চিত্ত য’ত ভয়হীন, উচ্চ য’ত শিৰ

জ্ঞান য’ত মুক্ত, য’ত ঘৰৰ দেৱালে

নিজৰ প্ৰাংগণত নকৰে ধৰিত্ৰী খণ্ড-বিখণ্ড . . .

দেশৰ সেই স্বৰ্গ, পিতা, কৰো জাগৰিত।”

সংহতিৰে,

ৰাষ্ট্ৰীয় কাৰ্যবাহী সমিতি, নিউ ছ’ছিয়েলিষ্ট ইনিচিয়েটিভ (এন. এছ. আই.)ৰ হৈ,

সুভাষ গাতাড়ে, আম্ৰপালী বসুমতাৰী, নবীন চন্দেৰ আৰু বনজিত হুছেইন

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At the very outset we would like to extend our solidarity to the organizers and participants of this convention “For Humane Values, and Against Communalism”. 

India is fast turning into a pit field of intolerance where an ethos of hatred, and exclusion is giving rise to seemingly sporadic, but actually very methodical violence against selected targets. We are facing a concentrated attack on the first right of citizens in any democracy; their right to be simply what they are, or what they want to be. This is an assault on all marginalised groups in the country, whether based on religion, caste, gender, class or ethnicity. Any social group whose very existence does not fit into a majoritarian schema for India is under attack. Also under attack is the right of citizens to discuss, debate, criticize, dissent and protest. Three prominent voices against religious obscurantism, Dr. Dabholkar, Comrade Pansare and Prof. Kalburgi have been murdered in broad day light. Hordes of armed zealots, arrogating to themselves the right to be the moral police of society, are forcing a culture of bans; deciding what Indians can eat, wear, read or see. What is extremely worrying is that these groups are no longer active only in society, but are also now safely ensconced in state power at center and in many states. Hindutva governments in Center and states are not only complicit in the culture of aggressive intolerance, but are also encouraging it. These governments are systematically communalising institutions of state; institutions of learning and education, bureaucracy, police, and judiciary. 

However, it also needs to be emphasised that the Hindutva assault on freedom and reason itself is a symptom of deeper malaise in our society. Attack on dissent or freedom of expression in the name of national security, or for appeasement of religious and casteist sentiments, has been a longstanding tradition of most political parties and governments in the country. We also need to address the deeply rooted popular ideologies which valorise superstitions, patriarchy, caste privileges and public use of violence. Democracy can not thrive in a society which is not ready to question its institutions. Streams of freedom can not flow in a society which is shackled to irrational traditions. 

Assam lies at the margins of the so called mainstream India. No other state and region in India has as much religious, cultural and ethnic diversity. Assam has its own history of riots, moralizing violence and attacks on religious and ethnic minorities. Hinduvta politics is trying to spread its specifically communal poison in the already strained social fabric of Assam. Its consequences will be devastating; unless democratic and progressive voices of Assam offer a united and powerful resistance to this onslaught. 

This Convention comes as a necessary intervention, and at a time when not only the secular elements of the Indian state, but the very existence of the idea of secular India is under serious threat. Once again we extend our deep solidarity with the organizers and the participants of this Convention. 

This is a time when we should together in solidarity remind ourselves the powerful words of Tagore: 

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high 

Where knowledge is free 

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments … 

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake”. 

In solidarity, 

Subhash Gatade , Amrapali Basumatary, Naveen Chander and Bonojit Hussain 

On behalf of the NSI Executive Committee, 

New Socialist Initiative (NSI)

Photo courtesy: Comrade Zamser Ali

Davids Versus Goliath – How Yogi Adityanath had to ‘Go Back’ to …..(err not Pakistan but) Gorakhpur

- Subhash Gatade

The Pandal was ready.

The Sainiks with their saffron bandanas – who were scattered here and there – were eagerly waiting to listen to another fiery call from their Senapati.

Time was already running out but the ‘Star Speaker’ was nowhere to be seen.

Little did they knew that their Senapati had already made an about turn and was headed back home as the district administration had ‘advised’ him against entering the district and was told that he would face ‘legal action if he dares to do so.’

For Yogi Adityanath, the firebrand MP of BJP, who is widely known for his controversial statements as well as acts and who every other day asks dissenters to ‘go to Pakistan’ , it was his comeuppance moment when he was rather forced to ‘go back’ to Gorakhpur. And all his plans to be the star speaker at the inaugural function of Students Union of Allahabad University – once called ‘Oxford of the East’ – lay shattered.

The Saffron Parivar had made elaborate preparations for Yogi’s welcome to the city taking advantage of the fact that its student wing – namely Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad – had bagged four seats in the elections held for the Student Union. Excepting the President, rest of the posts had gone to their candidates and they felt that for them it was a golden opportunity to generate conversation around their politics which would further polarise the people in this part of Eastern Uttar Pradesh. Perhaps then they could raise their off repeated slogan at a higher pitch ‘Purvanchal Me Rehna Hoga, To Yogi-Yogi Kehna Hoga’ ( If you want to live in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, You will have to say Yogi-Yogi)

The only ‘hindrance’ to their well thought out plan was the President of the Union – a student leader named Richa Singh, the first female President in the 128 year old history of the University – who had won on an independent platform duly supported by various left and democratic forces. The university rules mandated that without the consent of the President no such inauguration of the students union can take place and she resisted their proposal to invite Yogi.

In an interview to Indian Express she made her stand clear :

“Yogi Adiyanath is a controversial leader who speaks on communal lines against Muslims. Here we have Muslim students too in the university. If any riot-like situation occurred after his speech on the campus, who will be responsible? ABVP members invited Adityanath without consulting me and that is against the AUSU (Allahabad University Students Union) constitution,” She said any educationist or Union minister was supposed to be invited to the event as “Adityanath has no contribution in the field of education”.

Why its Difficult to See Eye to Eye

- Vikramaditya Sahai

[Editors' Note: This article was published in CRITIQUE Magazine (Vol: 3, No: 2, March-August 2015) brought out by the Delhi University chapter of New Socialist Initiative.]

Photo: Author's facebook page

“Does the university, today, have a raison d'etre?,” asked Derrida in 1983 at Cornell University. Derrida asks of the view of the university and from the university from Cornell, at once located in the romantic sublime on a hill, fenced from a gorge that may provoke suicides. The fence gives the university, he argues, a diaphragm so central to human sight, rather to lower or close our eyes when trying to learn. In the lecture, Derrida asks to be beware of both the gorge and the abyss. If the university was to be a supplementary body to society, to both emancipate and control; the university should, or perhaps could, turn the time of reflection back on the very conditions of reflection to view viewing itself or give time for thought.

The precarity of the university is not only 'topolitical,' as Derrida shows us, it is also with regard to its student body. The student in the university is imagined as in a liminal state between the child and the legal rational adult. This liminality provokes a desire to control not only the student body but also the effects of the university and the affects of its public-ity. The student is to be trained into adulthood, proper – proper today to neoliberalism. The Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) or its now three year avatar seeks to produce subjects for globalising capital and data. The developmentality of the university continues the work of the anti-politics machine by seeking to check and limit the invasion of counter-politics and the proliferation of counter-publics that may challenge its reproductivity and inevitability, all in responsibility to this liminality. The neoliberal university justifies itself by producing forces that will reproduce - capital and child. The child is the innocent hope of the future. This, however, is not limited to the university alone. 

Counter-politics, too, seems to be haunted by the spectre of the child. The child shapes, as Lee Edelman puts it, the logic within which the political must be thought. The child as the utopian future of heterosexual sex collapses the gap between the real and the symbolic. Queerness, but, aims outside the logic of reproductive futurism. The queer in this framework with its association with the death drive, is future-negating and can only enter the political by shifting the burden of queerness to someone else. 

In the anti-FYUP protests, the image for whom the battle was being faught was often the student of the future who would naively come to the university and be manipulated by its programme. But if this seems too far fetched, let me give you another example. We have witnessed another horror on December 16, 2014 – the killings in Peshawar. Counterpublics condemned the killings of 'innocent children,' much like they had done of the 'innocent women and children of Gaza' earlier that year. Fair enough, but not to this future negating subject. I am not saying that one must not condone these acts in queer solidarity but only pointing to the difficulty of building solidarities. After the Supreme Court judgment striking down the decriminalisation of 'non-normative' sexualities, and because of one's association with the Gender Studies Group of Delhi University, one became some sort of icon within a certain university space. This space would like to believe itself to be liberal-progressive. Due to my gender queer visibility, a lot of folks eager to win brownie points for their liberal-progressive attitudes and often out of well meaning intentions come to me “to talk.” In such conversations either they would complement me - “Oh Vikram! What a beautiful sari!” “Oh Vikram! No one looks better in a sari than you!" - or completely ignore what I was wearing and talk to me as they would to any “normal” man or woman. It is this which manifests in the easy solidarity of identifying LGBT people, which more often than not are gay men, and extending support to them by joining in their protests, inviting them to speak in yours, asking them to write for you, and other such representation, but seldom does the queer figure as central to the thinking through of politics itself, or as critique.

Com. Kislay and Shubham Arrested by Goa Police - Glory to the Struggle of FTII Students!

Courtesy: goanews.com

Ultimately the roaring voice of the FTII students reached the IFFI (International Film Festival of India) inaugural held at Panaji, Goa.

Just when the inaugural had formally ended, chief guest had spoken and the administration was on the cusp of heaving a sigh of relief for a ‘trouble free beginning’ and was contemplating to ‘pat its own back’ for managing to save its ‘image’ the precincts of the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium reverberated with slogans in favour of the historic FTII struggle.

This struggle, which had continued for around five months since 12th June, a struggle against political appointments at one of the most prestigious institutions of India which was also a wake up call at the systematic attempts underway since the ascendance of the Modi regime at centre to undermine the academic autonomy of universities and educational institutions, as everybody knows has received tremendous national-international support.

Slogans were loud enough that all the celebrities and dignitaries who had gathered there heard them:

"It was heard by Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley, his state minister Rajyawardhan Rathore, defence minister Manohar Parrikar and all the I & B ministry officials. The two students found an empty block on top, where they were seated silently till the whole inaugural ceremony ended." - Goa News

Security people who were present there in large numbers pounced on the two of them – Comrade Kislay, a young film director, an alumni of FTII, who has received critical acclaim for his very first film and Shubham, another alumni of FTII – and according to a post on FTII Wisdom Tree facebook page -

both of them have been badly beaten by the Goan police for showing the placards and shouting slogans… They are still under the police custody and being interrogated. 

As of now they have been detained in Agassaim Police Station (Phone no. 0832-2218000) and would be presented before the magistrate. It is also learnt that they are being ‘charged with serious offences’ 

It is important to note that the authorities at various levels went out of way just to ensure that the voice of FTII students does not reach the IFFI. It ‘ensured’ that this year the festival would not screen a single film by students of the prestigious FTII whereas in recent years, at least five FTII entries could make it to the screening of this annual fest. 

As opposed to its regular practice of paying for the conveyance and accommodation of its students who had enrolled for the same, the FTII administration took an ad-hoc decision and told the students to bear their own expenses. 

But despite all their attempts to intimidate the students into silence the voice did reach IFFI. It is definitely a victory of sorts – albeit of a symbolic kind. 

There is no doubt that this struggle of the FTII students would continue to receive the support which it has received from artists, intellectuals, film personalities and all those people who believe are opposed to the dumbing down of society under all pretexts. 

If possible contact the Goa police – especially its higher officials – and ensure that the two are not further harmed and released immediately without any charges. 

Glory to the struggle of FTII students!

Subhash Gatade

New Socialist Initiative

21st November, 2015

गांधी को गोली, गोडसे की गूंज रही बोली: आज़ाद भारत का पहला आतंकवादी

[A detailed article by Subhash Gatade in English on glorification of Nathuram Godse by the Hindutva Supremacist forces is available here] 

- सुभाष गाताडे

पिछले दिनों हिन्दु महासभा ने महात्मा गांधी के हत्यारे नाथुराम गोडसे को जिस दिन फांसी दी गयी थी, उस दिन को /15 नवम्बर 2015/ ‘बलिदान दिवस’ के रूप में मनाया और इस आतंकी के जीवन पर एक वेबसाइट भी शुरू की। महासभा के एक नेता ने बताया कि उन्होंने देश में सौ से अधिक स्थानों पर इसे मनाया और दिल्ली में गोडसे के जीवन पर एक किताब भी जारी की।

रेखांकित करनेवाली बात यही है कि डेढ साल पहले जबसे मोदी सरकार बनी है तबसे इस शख्स का - जिसे समूची दुनिया आज़ाद भारत का पहला आतंकवादी के तौर पर जानती है - महिमामण्डन बढ़ता ही गया है। अभी पिछले ही साल संसद के पटल पर भाजपा के सांसद साक्षी महाराज ने गोडसे को ‘देशभक्त’ के तौर पर संबोधित किया था। इतनाही नहीं संघ के मल्याली भाषा के मुखपत्रा ‘केसरी’ में लोकसभा चुनाव में चालाकुडी मतदाता संघ से चुनाव लड़े भाजपा के बी गोपालक्रष्णन ने यह लेख लिख कर खलबली मचा दी थी कि ‘गोडसे ने गलत निशाना साधा था उसे गांधी को नहीं बल्कि नेहरू को मारना चाहिए था। (http://www.firstpost.com/politics/nathuram-godse-should-have-killed-nehru-instead-of-gandhi-rss-mouthpiece-1771037.html) जैसी कि उम्मीद की जा सकती है, भाजपा - जो कुछ समय से गांधी का भी गुणगान करती रहती है - ने अपने इन दो ‘होनहारों’ के खिलाफ कोई कार्रवाई नहीं की।

ध्यान रहे कि हिन्दुत्ववादी संगठनों की तरफ से गोडसे को ‘शहीद’ साबित करने, उसके मानवद्रोही कारनामे को वैधता प्रदान करने के प्रयास लम्बे समय से चलते रहे हैं। 

याद करें पिछले साल जबकि अभी मोदी सत्तासीन नहीं हुए थे, जब 30 जनवरी को महात्मा गांधी की हत्या के 66 साल पूरे होने के अवसर पर देश भर में कार्यक्रमों का आयोजन हो रहा था, उस दिन गांधी के हत्यारे नाथुराम गोडसे की ‘आवाज़’ मंे एक आडियो वाटस अप पर मोबाइल के जरिए लोगों तक पहुंचाया गया था। इस मेसेज में उस खतरनाक आतंकी का महिमामण्डन करने की और निरपराधों को मारने की अपनी कार्रवाई को औचित्य प्रदान करने की कोशिश दिखाई दे रही थी। एक अग्रणी अख़बार के मुताबिक ऐसा मैसेज उन लोगों के मोबाइल तक पहुंच चुका था, जो एक ‘बड़ी पार्टी से ताल्लुक रखते हैं और वही लोग इसे आगे भेज रहे हैं।’ मेसेज की अन्तर्वस्तु गोडसे के स्पष्टतः महिमामण्डन की दिख रही थी, जिसमें आज़ादी के आन्दोलन के कर्णधार महात्मा गांधी की हत्या जैसे इन्सानदुश्मन कार्रवाई को औचित्य प्रदान करने की कोशिश की गयी थी। इतनाही नहीं एक तो इस हत्या के पीछे जो लम्बी चौड़ी सााजिश चली थी, उसे भी दफनाने का तथा इस हत्या को देश को बचाने के लिए उठाए गए कदम के तौर पर प्रस्तुत करने की कोशिश की गयी थी। निश्चित ही यह कोई पहला मौका नहीं है कि पुणे का रहनेवाला आतंकी नाथुराम विनायक गोडसे, जो महात्मा गांधी की हत्या के वक्त हिन्दु महासभा से सम्बद्ध था, जिसने अपने राजनीतिक जीवन की शुरूआत राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ से की थी और जो संघ के प्रथम सुप्रीमो हेडगेवार की यात्राओं के वक्त उनके साथ जाया करता था, उसके महिमामण्डन की कोशिशें सामने आयी हैं। महाराष्ट्र एवं पश्चिमी भारत के कई हिस्सों से 15 नवम्बर के दिन - जिस दिन नाथुराम को फांसी दी गयी थी- हर साल उसका ‘शहादत दिवस’ मनाने के समाचार मिलते रहते हैं। मुंबई एवं पुणे जैसे शहरों में तो नाथुराम गोडसे के ‘सम्मान’ में सार्वजनिक कार्यक्रम भी होते हैं। लोगों को यह भी याद होगा कि वर्ष 2006 के अप्रैल में महाराष्ट्र के नांदेड में बम बनाते मारे गए हिमांशु पानसे और राजीव राजकोंडवार के मामले की तफ्तीश के दौरान ही पुलिस को यह समाचार मिला था कि किस तरह हिन्दुत्ववादी संगठनों के वरिष्ठ नेता उनके सम्पर्क में थे और आतंकियों का यह समूह हर साल ‘नाथुराम हौतात्म्य दिन’ मनाता था। गोडसे का महिमामण्डन करते हुए ‘मी नाथुराम बोलतोय’ शीर्षक से एक नाटक का मंचन भी कई साल से हो रहा है।

Mexico’s 43 Missing Students: We won't Be Silenced!

- Meztli Yoalli Rodríguez Aguilera

[Editors' Note: This article was published in CRITIQUE Magazine (Vol: 3, No: 2, March-August 2015) brought out by the Delhi University chapter of New Socialist Initiative. a shorter version of the article was also published at www.latinorebels.org]

“They took them alive, we want them back alive!” 

This is the chant resonating across Mexico and even around the world these days. More than 40 days have passed since 43 students disappeared from the town of Iguala in the southern state of Guerrero, Mexico. On September 26, these students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Normal School went from Ayotzinapa (where they live and study) to the city of Iguala. They were fundraising to attend the commemoration ceremony of October 2, 1968, a day when Mexican students were killed, tortured and incarcerated by the Mexican government during the massive student mobilisations, a phenomenon seen across the world.

The Rural Normal Schools or Normales Rurales emerged as a political project of the post-revolutionary Mexican state in the 1920s as part of education reforms to modernise education and make it accessible to the countryside. They were established to train students from within rural communities to become teachers and subsequently serve their communities. One of the conditions for being admitted to the Normales Rurales was to be part of rural poor communities. These schools have since played an important role in Mexico in the struggles for social and political transformation and several important voices of dissent and rebellion have emerged from these schools. Two important figures who graduated from Ayotzinapa’s Normal School were Lucio Cabañas Barrientos and Genaro Vázquez Rojas, both important guerrilleros or revolutionaries in Mexican history. In the case of Lucio, after graduating from Ayotzinapa as a teacher, he returned to his village of Atoyac to teach in the local school. Besides the work in the school, he also organised farmworkers, causing tension with the government. In the 1970s, following persecution by the government, he went underground in the mountain region of Guerrero and founded and led an armed group called the Party of the Poor. In 1974 he died in an ambush by the army. Similarly, Genaro Vázquez was fired from his teaching position due to his political activity and later arrested by the state police. After escaping from prison he fled to mountains to form what later came to be known as the National Revolutionary Civic Association, an organisation that worked with and to unite several guerilla groups not just across the state but across the country.

Photo: Erika Lozano. Courtesy: masde131.com

This tradition of dissident voices has continued to this day, despite several attempts by the Mexican government to try and squash them. During the Lázaro Cárdenas government (1934-1940), one of the last terms where the Normales Rurales still had great support from the government, community teachers and schools contextualised learning to local conditions, for example, to the predominantly agrarian context of the countryside. In 1945, however, funding for the schools was minimized and there was a standardisation of the teaching programs ordered by the Federal Secretary of Education (SEP), so their particularities were erased. Today, of the 29 original Normales Rurales, only 17 exist. On September 26, while the students of Ayotzinapa were in Iguala, police cars opened fire on them with no provocation, killing six people. Another 43 students were put in police cars, and that was the last time they were seen. Their present whereabouts are unknown.

White-washing the Paints on the Wall : A reflection on Racism in India

- Amrapali Basumatary

[Editors' Note: This article was published in CRITIQUE Magazine (Vol: 3, No: 2, March-August 2015) brought out by the Delhi University chapter of New Socialist Initiative.]

One day a very young child who had just learnt to speak, probably only a year or little more ago saw me, as she was walking in the campus with her mother and others, and pointed her tiny finger at me and said aloud Nepali. The innocence and the intelligence of the child was amazing, but I will end this story here itself. Similarly, a friend who is dark skinned and from the Southern parts of India, once told how kids in the lanes pelted stones at her calling her names because she was dark. The place was Delhi. 

I begin by telling these personal stories from amongst the countless stories of racism, racism as lived experience, in the same lines of narrative that marginalized, exploited, and dominated sections of humanity have spoken about itself, about themselves, like the women, the slaves, the Jews, the workers and the Negroes, the natives and the tribals, although underlining the refusal of victimization even while standing subjected within the “matrix of domination”[1]. In that sense, this piece will be of repetition, of influence, and thereby of building and identifying connections between different categories of narratives that one is already so familiar with. Like women, workers and slave narratives, mine also will be mooring through lived clichés. But, I believe telling stories is a way to begin, a way to ‘start an idea’, a conversation and eventually a debate and subsequently indicate a possible construction of radical politics around it. The narratives though personal, like in instances I have charted above, to make a tall claim, will resonate with representationality of the people who ‘suffer’ similar experiences.

Taller than tales: Life in Delhi

It begins more than a decade back, new to this city and in the privileged environment of a university hostel, one day me and my Naga friend from Manipur, wanted to go somewhere in the university neighbourhood, so we were about to take a rickshaw in front of the hostel gate. Even before we could ask any one of the rickshawallahs, one of them asked if we wanted to go to Majnu ka Tila[2]. Suddenly I found my friend in an indescribable rage, shouting at the rickshawallah, only an inch short of slapping him. I asked her to cool down, but frankly speaking as I realized later, only because I was new and had not yet understood what had triggered my friend’s rage. It took me only a couple of weeks to understand that rage, and believe me it did not demand any serious philosophical, intellectual meditations. It just required the everyday stepping out of the hostel premises, sometimes even less, within the hostel. 

It was in Delhi that I first came across a black person, I mean physically close. I was ten years old then. I remember staring at him, so different he looked, his skin was shining in blackness. But I felt embarrassed to look at him, till then I had not been told about any black person anytime by any adult and I had not asked anyone, ‘negro’ was not understood as a slur. I wonder what he felt like to be stared at by a 10 year old girl, he did smile back. Ten years later when I came to stay in Delhi, I did not notice any blacks, I mean they did not invite my open-mouthed ignorant gaze. I guess I had seen enough Hollywood “guilty of slavery/racism trying to redeem itself” films by then. The literatures about slavery and racism somehow reduced the possible propensity to otherise blacks. But what I began to notice was that we in university hardly had any black friends, there were whites though. The blacks somehow were socially invisible. 

In 2010 some our friends conducted a survey on racism, talking to some African students in the university. While generally and theoretically knowing that they are discriminated on the basis of their skin, when we actually heard their stories, it brutalized me further. Their situation was worse than that of the mongoloid Indians. But this shared brutalization, apart from general political and humanitarian concerns, sprung from similar predicaments of living in ‘India’. Kevin and Boniface (names changed) told bone chilling experiences of how they face India, in Delhi. They are denied milk by shopkeepers, typists refuse to type their thesis, rickshaw-pullers and auto-drivers refuse to take them and also jeer at them, people in the streets not only stare at them but also call them names like kala bandar (black monkey); the equivalent abuse for northeasterners is safeed bandar (White monkey).

One day as one African student was walking, a Delhite woman who was taking a stroll with her pet dog saw him, the habshi, and commanded her pet to bite him. The pet obeyed. The closest hospital was a charitable hospital. He went there for the anti-rabbies shot, but was charged some monstrous amount, making it impossible for him to get the shot which is supposed to come for free, especially in a charitable hospital. After the infamous Khirkhi-village incident, followed by Nido Taniam’s death, some of us had organized a public talk on racism in India, wherein the panel was shared by Africans and northeasterners. The testimonies of the Africans about their experiences in Delhi felt like drop of icy chill and hot metal running down one’s spine, bit by bit, one after another. Bruce (name changed) was beaten up by a gang of autowallahs (over a small matter of overcharged autofare) which put him into a state of unconsciousness for 3 months, and one day when he finally opened his eyes in the hospital, he could not recognize himself, his skull was bruised and stitched up, face distorted, eyes battered, he lost everything – money, education, and currently he can’t go back home. And of course, the hospital charged a sum which drove him and his family into near bankruptcy. 

For most northeasterners, including Nepalese, Burmese and Tibetans[3], most often their first venture into Hindi speaking heartland of India, which we call mainstream, will be of being marked out as different, different in terms of bodily and facial features, and immediately being slotted as an outsider, an ‘alien’, of being reminded that they are different, unequal. In my own case , like many of my friends coming from the NE region, I began to feel this ‘outstanding’ difference in the university streets, rickshaw pullers asking if I wanted to be taken to Majnu ka Tila, cars slowing down to ‘give me lift’ suggestively, being interrogated in hotels during visits to friends who were staying there despite my university I-card, meaningful smiles in the Pahar Ganj[4] lanes, being charged higher rates by auto drivers, harassed by police because of hindi-language issues, being asked ‘innocent’ and ‘ignorant’ questions of exotica – between the jungles and gun totting terror of NE, how life is in those ‘inaccessible to civilisation’ jungles and villages in NE, why we have such beautiful hair and hairless bodies, do Indians need passports to go into NE, do we eat dogs, snakes, rotten smelly food, and if we still do head-hunting and so on. The list of racial profilisation was just beginning in these questions. And here I am not even mentioning the regularity of racial slurs – Chinki, Nepali, Chinese Maal, Made in China, Chou-Mao China wapas jao .Very soon, as you begin to interact with the city more and live it out there, questions turn into opinions, into typifications and eventually into statements crystalised in clear terms of us and them. Such stories when lived surely can’t be contained merely in narratives, or normalized as given reality.

क्या जाति का उन्मूलन संभव है ?

- सतीश देशपाण्डे

[Editors' Note: This is the text of a speech which Prof. Satish Despande delivered in a public meeting - "Can Caste be Swept Away" - organised by New socialist Initiative. Later, it was published in CRITIQUE Magazine (Vol: 3, No: 2, March-August 2015) brought out by the Delhi University chapter of New Socialist Initiative.] 

I feel that as social scientists we should be trying to do more with Indian languages in the social sciences, and while it is very difficult and long process to do it in our formal curriculum, we should try to take advantage of informal occasions like this whenever we can. तो इसलिए मैं अपनी बात हिन्दी में ही कहूंगा। हालांकि मुझसे किसी ने नहीं कहा कि मैं हिन्दी में बोलूं। मैं अपनी मर्जी से बोल रहा हूं। मेरे लिए यह थोड़ा असुविधाजनक जरूर है लेकिन मेरा मानना है कि जब तक हम भारतीय भाषाओं में समाज विज्ञान को विकसित नहीं करते हमारा समाज विज्ञान जहां है वहीं रहेगा और इस तरह के प्रयास में यह एक बहुत छोटा सा कदम है, असुविधा कोई बड़ी कीमत नहीं है। इसलिए मैं हिन्दी में बोलने का प्रयास कर रहा हूं और आशा करता हूं कि आप मेरा साथ देंगे। यहां मेरा एक मकसद यह भी है कि भारतीय भाषाओं को कई बार समाज विज्ञान के लायक नहीं समझा जाता। यानि भारतीय भाषाओं को किसी आम भाषा में कम पढे़-लिखे लोगों को भाषण देने लायक समझा जाता है, या फिर इन्हें साहित्य और कला की भाषा समझा जाता है, लेकिन समाज विज्ञान के लायक नहीं समझा जाता है। इसलिए मैं आजकल हिन्दी में लिखने-बोलने की कोशिश करता हूं ताकि हमारे सामूहिक प्रयासों से किसी दिन भारतीय भाषाएं भी हमारे सोच विचार की और खासकर समाज विज्ञान की भाषाएं बनें। भाषा पर इतना ही, इस पर मैं और कुछ नहीं बोलूंगा।

मैं आज के फौरी मुद्दे से-यानी इस झाड़ू प्रकरण या प्रधानमंत्री के स्वच्छता अभियान से कुछ हटकर बोलना चाहता हूं। हमारे विषय या अनुशासन का सौभाग्य या दुर्भाग्य, आप जो भी मानें- है कि जाति नामक विषय हमारे पाले में डाल दिया गया है, या इसका अधिकांश भाग हमारे पाले में है। इस खास जिम्मेदारी से हम दबे हुए रहते हैं। इसलिए मेरा फर्ज बनता है कि मैं जाति पर एक समाजशास्त्री की हैसियत से कुछ बोलूं और मैं जिस विषय पर बोलना चाहता हूं, वह लगभग शब्दशः आज के शीर्षक में दिया गया है। मेरा प्रश्न भी वही है जो शीर्षक में दिया गया है। ‘क्या जाति का उन्मूलन संभव है़’, वैसे तो हर भारतीय नागरिक का कर्तव्य है- खासकर अब जब हम एक “महाशक्ति” बनने जा रहे हैं- कि हम इस सवाल का जवाब हां में दें, कि हां, इसका उन्मूलन हो सकता है। लेकिन साथ ही साथ हम यह भी जानते हैं कि जाति जैसी चीज का उन्मूलन कोई आसान काम नहीं है यह बहुत ही पेचीदा और जटिल है। यह पेचीदा और जटिल क्यों है - मैं आपके संग इसका जवाब ढूंढ़ना चाहूंगा।

संक्षेप में कहें तो समाजशास्त्रीय परिप्रेक्ष्य से जाति उन्मूलन की जटिलता का जो मुख्य कारण नजर आता है, वो यह है कि जाति एक ऐसा संस्थान है जो बुनियादी तौर पर पारस्परिक है। Caste is fundamentally a relationship, it a relational institution. यह कोई तत्व या गुण नहीं है। Caste is not a thing or a quality, it is a relationship. चूंकि यह परस्पर है तो जाहिर है कि इसके दो छोर होंगे ही और जाति के उन्मूलन में इन दोनों छोरों का शरीक होना अनिवार्य है। इसके बिना जाति का उन्मूलन संभव नहीं है। यह तो पहला कारण हुआ और यह कारण भी अपने आप में पेचीदा क्यों है, इसलिए कि जाति एक ऐसा संस्थान है जो अप्रतिसम है। जैसे आईने में जो छवि आपको दिखती है वो पल्टा हुआ उल्टा होता है। लेकिन उल्टा होने के बावजूद वह प्रतिसम (symmetrical) होता है- दाहिने तरफ जो है वो बाएं नजर आता है और बाएं तरफ जो है वो दाहिनी तरफ नजर आता है, लेकिन दाएं व बाएं का अनुपात नहीं बदलता और इस तरह आईने की छवि प्रतिसम ही रहती है। जाति ऐसा संस्थान है जिसके दो छोर अप्रतिसम हैं और इसके वजह से दोनों छोरों को उन्मूलन प्रक्रिया में एक साथ शरीक करना बहुत मुश्किल हो जाता है। यह क्यों होता है दोनों छोर समान रूप से उन्मूलन प्रक्रिया में क्यों शरीक नहीं हो पाते, क्यों हम दोनेां को एक साझा न्यौता नहीं दे पाते या उस न्यौते को दोनों छोर स्वीकार नहीं पाते, यह अप्रतिसमता के नतीजों से जुड़ा सवाल है। 

सबसे पहला मुद्दा यह है कि उच्च जातीय कोण या परिप्रेक्ष्य और निम्न जातीय कोण या परिप्रेक्ष्य अप्रतिसम तो है ही, लेकिन ये एक दूसरे से भिन्न भी हैं। क्योंकि आजादी के बाद हमारे सामने एक तरह की दुविधा थी, जाति को लेकर, किसी भी आधुनिक कहलाने वाले समाज के आगे यही दुविधा रहती है। जाति एक ऐसी व्यवस्था है जिसके बारे में एक प्रकार की सतही सर्वसम्मति आजादी से पहले ही बन गई कि इसमें काम की कोई चीज नहीं है, यह पूरी तरह से नकारे जाने के लायक है और इसके प्रति हमारा सार्वजनिक फैसला यही है कि हम इसका उन्मूलन चाहते हैं। यह उन्मूलन कैसे संपन्न होगा, यह तो बराबरी के साथ ही हो सकता है और बराबरी का मतलब एक ऐसी आदर्श स्थिति है जहां जातिभेद की कोई प्रासंगिकता न रह जाए, उसके कोई मायने न रह जाएं और जातिभेद निरर्थक हो जाए। यानि, अगर दर्शनशास्त्र की भाषा में कहें तो हम सार्वभौम की तरफ बढ़ना चाहते हैं। The annihilation of caste is a move towards the universal. तो हम जाति को जड़ से उखाड़ फेंकना चाहते हैं क्योंकि हम एक आदर्श सार्वभौम की तरफ बढ़ना चाहते हैं। यह हमारा रास्ट्रीय आदर्श है, लक्ष्य है। और तात्कालिक तौर पर जहां हम खडे़ थे, वहां से हमें ऐसा लगने लगा कि सार्वभौम की ओर बढ़ने के लिए जरूरी है कि हम जातिभेदों की ओर ध्यान न दें। यानि हम जाति के प्रति अंधे हो जाएं। स्वतंत्रता के बाद हमारे राज्य ने यही फैसला लिया कि वह जाति के प्रति अंधी हो जाएगी। जैसे कहते हैं कि कानून अंधा होता है, उसी प्रकार जाति के प्र्रति राज्य अंधा हो गया। तो यह जाति उन्मूलन का एक पहलू है।

Editorial: Critique Magazine [3:2, March-August, 2015] Confronting Discrimination

- Critique Collective

Baltimore Uprising, 2015. Photo: Devin Allen

Modernity exhorts humans to be free; free to choose, think, express, associate, earn a living, or simply to be. Liberal democracy proclaims that under its rule all humans enjoy these freedoms equally. Market capitalism tempts humans with its promise of consumptive freedom. Old bondages of direct community control are facing new challenges. A khap panchayat of Jat caste confederacy in Haryana cannot control young women and men in shopping malls and MNC workplaces. Deep and far reaching social changes is in the air, mediated by technological revolutions in mobility and communication, new forms of employment, entertainment and mores. An unprecedented social mix is the immediate product. A place like the Delhi University now has Dalit students, first from their families to have post-school education; young women students from the North-East of the country, hijab wearing students from Kashmir, bright students who do not cover up their alternate sexuality, and many more, some as much, and others not so noticeable. Exhortations, proclamations, and temptations, do fashion all of us, in our hopes, aspirations and dreams, yet they also mask, or simply do not register a big part of social life. The freedom actually experienced by a significant number of human is also brutally stamped by discrimination. The two are closely associated. It is only because of the possibility of freedom that discrimination is recognized and challenged.

This issue of Critique is centered on discrimination in the current world, from the cities of the US where African American young men face regular racial violence from police and civil vigilantes, to the villages of Madhya Pradesh, where Dalits oppressed for millennia in the Hindu caste society are not free to change their religion. The experience of discrimination is singular piercing, yet it is done in such an atmosphere of normality that the ones of who discriminate often are not even aware that they have done something odd. Such is the racism among the majority of the so called mainstream Indians. ‘White-washing the Paints on the Wall’ by Amrapali Basumatary provides an insight into the racism experienced by people from the ‘North-East’ and by immigrant African students. Stereotyping is a gross understatement of the aggressive ridicule and violence that these people face in the national capital. Visible facial differences and skin colour are surface excuses for racism. Its roots are ancient in the hegemonic Aryan culture.

Conservative thinkers like Dumont have found Hindu caste system to be the ideal form of hierarchy. Sinthujan Varathararajah’s ‘Sikke Ke Do Pahlu Hain’ is a reflection on the unsaid agony and confusion of being a child of a mixed Dalit and caste Hindu parentage in Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora. Protective parents of such children are forced by histories to teach them to tell lies about their family origins, even while in far off countries. Despite all efforts, when at the age of twenty two, their child, now a young man writes his first poem on experience of caste, all they can say while crying is that ‘You too could not escape from it!’. ‘Discomfort or an Identity’ by Zaara Wakeel and Hafsa Sayeed is about the experiences of being a Muslim and a hijab wearing young woman in a country whose dominant culture has turned virulently Hindutva recently. Everyday life for them requires an ever present caution for security, as for a Muslim seller of rolls near the university who has put up a Hindu religious sign on his shop. Hijab, a mere dress, is seen as the full identity. It does not matter what she is; as if her interests, thinking and feelings do not exist, she is just a walking hijab. However, whenever possible her Kashmiri identity too is immediately seized upon, with comments and jokes about terrorism.

New Issue of Critique Magazine: Challenging Precarity/असुरक्षा के निज़ाम को चुनौती

New Issue of Critique "Challenging Precarity/असुरक्षा के निज़ाम को चुनौती" is out. Critique Magazine, September-December, 2015, Volume: 3 Issue: 3. Pg. 64. Rs. 30 /-. Critique is brought out by Delhi University chapter of New Socialist Initiative. Sharing below the cover of this issue and the content list.

Content

1. Editorial: Challenging Precarity

2. संपादकीय : असुरक्षा के निज़ाम को चुनौती 

3. I am not Meosum (slave); I am Masum, the Worker - Maniruzzaman Masum

4. बेलगाम पूंजी का पहिया - विकास कुमार

5. An Introduction and Invitation to Delhi University Theka Mazdoor Manch - DUTMM

6. Ragpickers of Delhi: Workers of Swachh Bharat - Critique Collective

7. San Quintin and the Anger We Hold - Neo Lopez 

8. Decoding the Labour Law Code in India - Anamitra Roychowdhary

9. मज़दूर कानूनों में सुधार : मर्ज़ बढ़ता ही गया जितनी दवा की - प्रभु महापात्रा [अनुवाद : योगेन्द्र दत्त ]

10. [Photo Essay] Of Hands and Faces - Wazirpur Workers Strike, June 2014 - Ayan Mrinal

11. The Real Estate Greed and Poverty of Imagination in India's Latest State Capital - Critique Collective

12. The Making of a Migrant Workers Movement in Korea - Bonojit Hussain

13. Finance Capital: The New Masters of Today's Social World - Sanjay Kumar

14. Reflections on a Media Internship - Aliza Bakht

15. Cities of Sleep: A Conversation with Shaunak Sen - Malay Firoz

16. हेडगेवार - गोवलकर बनाम अम्बेडकर - सुभाष गताड़े 

17. कला स्वतंत्रता और प्रतिरोध : FTII संघर्ष की ओर - शुभम 

18. 'Bure' Students in the times of 'Achhe Din' - Shardul Bhardwaj and Ketaki Prabhu

19. Silencing the Scholarship: A Tribute to Prof. M.M Kalburgi - M.K Madhavi

20. Basavanna the Bhandari (Treasurer) - Prof. M.M Kalburgi [Translator: Sudheer]

21. हिंदी , हिन्दू , हिंदुस्तान - जावेद अनीस 

22. एक लपकता हुआ शोला, इक चलती हुई तलवार - रूपाली सिन्हा 

23. The Rojava Revolution, Democratic Autonomy, and the (Re)Institution of Fragmented Sovereignty in Kurdistan - Hanifi Baris

24. Does the State have the Right to Kill? - Radhika Chitkara and Megha Bahl

25. The Crisis of Left Solidarity in EU, Austerity and the 'Greece Problem' - Jakob Graf

26. The 'Refugee/Migrant' Crisis in Europe: Time for an "Instability Tax"? - I. Almond

27. On the Farcical Implementation of the CGPA Grading System in Delhi University - Saumyajit Bhattacharya

28. एक गौभक्त से भेंट - हरिशंकर परसाई

Knowledge and Innovation for a Better Society

- Ravi Sinha

An Address to the Students of Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune, India

It should be a matter of no small comfort if, in today’s world and in today’s India, any discussion takes place anywhere about the relationship between knowledge and innovation on the one hand and the prospects for a good society on the other. It is greatly more satisfying and reassuring if this topic interests talented young minds such as present here, who, I hope, also nurse hopes for a better future, not only for themselves but also for the entire society and civilization. Yours is an esteemed institution with such a long history of cultivating and disseminating knowledge about society – about politics, economics and other related disciplines. I am sure this issue has been a core concern right from the inception of this institute, and I doubt if I will be able to bring in anything of added value. But, as I said, this is always a welcome topic for discussion. I am very happy for this opportunity to share some of my thoughts with you.

Today if one mentions these two words – knowledge and innovation – together, it is very likely that the image of a Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs or Bill Gates will come to mind, even if such an association is not obvious to everyone. I, for one, often need to tell myself that I should not complain. After all, these gentlemen are symbols of one of the greatest technological revolutions humanity has experienced and we are living through. It has changed the way humanity works, communicates and lives, and it is not over yet. Unrealized potentials far outweigh the realized ones and far greater changes are in the pipeline. Physicists have recently discovered that the Universe now expands at an accelerated rate, but when it comes to accelerated expansion into the unknown, the Universe appears to be no match for technology.

For many the technological explosion is a cause for unadulterated excitement and a source of unbounded hope. For many others it is a cause for grave concern. There are yet others for whom it presents a mixed picture. In times of rapid and radical transformations, it is not unusual for many to have a sense of unease. Humanity has always innovated and created new ways and forms of life, and it has always found it difficult to adjust to its own innovations and creations. But the capacity to adjust improves with time. If the sense of unease or consternation appears widespread despite a greatly improved capacity for adjusting to the new, part of the reason lies in the break-neck speed of the current change.

But it is not solely a matter of adjustment in the relatively superficial sense of adjusting to a changed mode of daily living. One cannot simply hope that, with time, one will be able to adjust and the worries will melt away. One may adjust and yet all the worries may not disappear. If I have to remind myself that I should not complain, it is not because I am slow in befriending the gadgets. Slow I am, despite my training as a physicist. I do not use a smart-phone, have no experience with the apps, and depend on my daughter to book a cab. But that is the least of my worries. People of my vintage have at times a kind of philosophical-attitudinal unease. It is an anxiety about losing the depth dimension of knowledge and culture. As if the vertical axis of the world is being obliterated and all that matters now is merely horizontal. I would not call it easy or superficial. I know that this new world is very complex, very dense and extremely dynamic. It is created by very smart people and requires considerable smartness to cope with it. But the fact remains that writing software for a new app is far more consequential than finding the Higgs boson or measuring the weight of the neutrino. Google labs harbor far more lucrative discoveries than the Large Hadron Collider. Anticipating consumer preferences or figuring out the hydraulics of the financial market is far more rewarding than discovering the deeper laws of Nature or of history.

It is possible that such philosophical-attitudinal anxieties are just that – they are philosophical and attitudinal. They may arise largely from a certain state of mind. And this is not happening for the first time. It is an old debate whether knowledge is valuable in itself or it is valuable only in the measure of what difference can it make to the worldly affairs. Furthermore, it is not the case that discoveries of supposedly fundamental nature have slowed down. This apparently horizontal world hasn’t forgotten about the depth dimension. New and deeper knowledge is being gained in all fields – whether about the workings of Nature, or of society or of the human mind.

You are wrong Mr Prime Minister – It was not a fight, but plain murder!

- Sanjay Kumar

The house of the lynched in  Bisada, Dadri.

In an election rally in Bihar on 8 October, country’s Prime Minister exhorted his audience with a homily pretty standard in India’s secular discourse. He asked Hindus and Muslims to decide whether they want to fight each other, or fight poverty together. His call against communal strife had come ten days after a Muslim man was lynched by a mob in Bisada, a village near the mofussil town of Dadri, 50 km from the national capital. There was no reference to events in Bisada in Mr Modi’s speech, yet ‘PM has spoken on Dadri lynching’ became the prime news on TV, and headline news in every newspaper the next day. If nations are imagined communities, then the media in the neo-liberal era imagines itself to be the prime mover and shaker of national imagination. And, when the ‘national leadership’ had remained silent on an important national news for more than a week, a subtle disquiet had indeed settled; as if, the story maker was not getting suitable yarn to complete the web and tie open leads. This may explain media’s eagerness to combine Mr Modi’s election rally remarks with Dadri lynching, about which he actually said nothing. Perhaps the media is expecting too much, and has a rather pompous self image. The women of Bisada had assaulted reporters and TV crews on 3 October, accusing them of presenting only one side of the story, bringing a bad name to their village and disrupting normal life. We have a Prime Minister who is pained even when a pup is killed under a motor car. Is not it unjust to expect him to express his anguish publicly every time some one is murdered in this huge country of ours? The PM has declared many times that his one motivation and project is to build a strong and vibrant India. Should not his country men and women be content with the nation’s highest elected official using his exemplary social media skills for projecting a happy and confident mood. Would not shouting from the roof top on issues about which he is genuinely worried tarnish the very image he has been so painstakingly trying to build?

Now, after the media read his election rally remarks as his statement on the Dadri lynching, sections of it have begun criticising him for not saying enough. It would be much fairer to the man to assume that he actually did not say anything about the Dadri incident. But then, are his remarks true about the general state of affairs in the country? Are Hindus and Muslims actually fighting; are at each other’s throat pushing their respective sectarian agendas? Country’s Prime Minister is utterly wrong on this point. Even more worryingly, he has managed to wrap his very dangerous Hindutva agenda under a standard argument of Indian secularism.

A fight involves two groups of people to fight over something. Hatred, animosity, rumours or ignorance are necessary to build frenzy, but they by themselves do not make up a fight, unless there actually is a clash between two groups of people. Mr Mohammad Aflaq Saifi’s lynching in Bisada village was no fight. The man was simply pulled out of his bedroom and murdered. Actually, events that pass off as communalclashes in India’s national imagining and secular discourse, were hardly so. Nellie (1983), Delhi (1984), Bhagalpur (1989), Babri Mosque demolition and accompanying killings (1992), Mumbai (1992-3), Gujarat (2002), and Muzaffarnagar (2013), were not communal clashes. All these were planned violence with well defined political goals against citizens belonging to beleaguered minorities. Even during 1947, while there was a fight between Congress and Muslim League over the future of undivided India, very few communal killings actually took place during fights between two groups of armed men. Cornered and hapless children, women and men were simply butchered. The so called communal clashes in India should better be identified according to their true character as pogroms. Now, what is the point of all this? Humans also fight over principles, ideals, for someone else’s safety and security, and such fighting often involves virtues like courage, conviction and fortitude. Calling an event a fight, while it actually is not, leaves open the possibility for a killer to parade as a warrior. It covers up the inhuman barbarity of real perpetrators. A day before Mr Modi’s advise to Hindus and Muslims, the President of the Republic had reminded his countrymen and women that tolerance and co-existence are the basic tenets of Indian civilisation. How does one tolerate communal barbarity? How does one co-exist with communal killers? The conventional tropes of Indian secularism are misleading and comforting illusions, which do not allow one to face the real, but difficult questions that arise in the face of an organised and successful communal politics.

Neoliberalism, Hindutva Supremacism and Challenges before Revolutionary Movement

Subhash Gatade

Dear Comrades,

I feel honoured to be here to be part of the sixth conference of Human Rights Forum*. Many thanks are due to the organisers to invite a left activist like me to this deliberations and giving me an opportunity to share my ideas.

For me it was a belated realisation that the conference is taking place around sixth death anniversary of the legendary activist for human rights and for justice late K Balgopal, who played a key role in the formation of the Forum. It does not need underlining that late K Balagopal was a rare combination of a scholar – mathematician by passion and lawyer by commitment – and activist who not only broke new grounds in the discourse around civil liberties and human rights but did not hesitate to raise uncomfortable questions when the time came. One can still imagine the loss you all must have felt when he suddenly left six years ago. As rightly mentioned by the late K G Kannabiran in his obituary then, how he was ‘one in a century rights activist’ who brought on agenda ‘jurisprudence of insurgence’.

Standing here, – amongst an august audience of veterans of human rights movement and scholars, intellectuals, grass root level activists – I can easily look at my own limitations of understanding as well as the limited experience I have of actual struggles on the ground. And that’s why I have no hesitation in admitting at the beginning itself that what I plan to share with you today should be considered scribblings of an activist who is himself trying to comprehend things.

1

Politics as the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci argued is always underpinned by hybrid philosophies. Perhaps the best example in our recent memory which bears testimony to this seems to be the present dispensation at the centre which on the one hand still sticks to the

– Exclusivist/majoritarian worldview of Hindutva Supremacism and

– is simultaneously busy furthering the neoliberal agenda under the glib talk of development.

It is abundantly clear that it has no qualms in projecting its relationship with a self-proclaimed cultural organisation called RSS – which openly abhors the pluralist tradition of this part of South Asia, which has been an admirer of the policies and persona of Hitler n Mussolini, which had kept itself aloof from the independence struggle, had opposed making of the constitution under the chairmanship of Dr Ambedkar and had instead proposed that Manusmriti be made into independent India’s constitution and is engaged today in a corporate friendly agenda which is characterised by deregulation of economy, liberalisation of trade and industry, privatisation of state owned enterprises marked by massive tax cuts, reduction of social services and other welfare programes, downsizing of government, tax havens, anti-unionisation drive to ‘boost productivity’, removal of controls on global financial and trade flows.

The grand metamorphosis of Mr Narendra Modi, from a ‘polariser’ to a ‘development man’ seems to symbolise this new juncture in Indian politics. He leads a parliament which has the lowest representation of minorities since independence and a ruling party which does not have a single elected member from the biggest minority in the country. We have been witness to a strange paradox that many members of the ruling party have been found to be valorising Nathuram Godse, the first terrorist of independent India and spewing venon against the minorities on the floor of the august house.

लेखकीय प्रतिरोध की सीमायें और सम्भावनायें

स्वदेश कुमार सिन्हा

’ यदि कोई व्यक्ति सत्य का सामना करने से डरता है तो वह एक घटिया विचारक है, लेकिन इससे घटिया वह है जो सत्य को सामने देखते हुए दुनिया  को बताते हुए डरता है। कि उसने क्या देखा ? सबसे घटिया वह है जो किन्ही ब्यवहारिक फायदो के लिए अपनी दार्शनिक धारणाओ को छिपाता है।

                                      - प्लेखानोव (रूसी माक्र्सवादी विचारक)

5 सितम्बर 2015 को दिल्ली में करीब 25 से 30 जनपक्षधर संगठनो तथा पत्रिकाओ की ओर से कन्नड़ के विद्धान एम0एस0 कुलबुर्गी की हत्या के विरोध में जन्तर मन्तर पर एक सभा का आयोजन हुआ जिसमें कलाकार , लेखक ,बुद्धिजीवी ,सांस्कृतिक कार्मी सभी शामिल थे। मै उन दिनो मै दिल्ली में था तथा अस्वस्थ्य था। एक्टिवस्ट लेखक और विचारक तथा अपने मित्र ’सुभाष गाताडे’ के निमंत्रण पर मै भी उस सभा में भाग लेने पहुंचा । उसी दिन अपनी एक शिष्या से बलात्कार के आरोप में लम्बे समय से जेल में बन्द ’आसाराम बापू’ के समर्थको ने उन्हे छोड़ने की मांग को लेकर जन्तर मन्तर पर एक विशाल प्रदर्शन किया था। उसमें देश भर से करीब 15 से 20 हजार लोग जुटे थे। शाम को 4 बजे जब यह प्रदर्शन समाप्त हो गया तथी हम लोगो की सभा हो सकी। इस सभा में करीब दो सौ से ढाई सौ लोग उपस्थित थे। ज्यादातर छात्र नौजवान तथा सांस्कृतिक कर्मी थे। फादर जान दयाल , सम्पादक और लेखक आनन्द स्वरूप वर्मा, संस्कृतिकर्मी शमशुल इस्लाम और नीलिमा के अलावा युवा कवि ओर लेखक अशोक कुमार पाण्डेय तथा सुभाष गताड़े से ही मेरी मुलाकात हुयी।

आज के दौर में यह आशा करना ब्यर्थ है कि संघ परिवार के फांसीवाद के खिलाफ देश भर से लेखक ,सांस्कृतिक कर्मी तथ सामाजिक कार्यकर्ता दिल्ली में किसी प्रदर्शन में एकत्र होगे। परन्तु दिल्ली में ही कम से कम दो हजार से तीन हजार लोग प्रगतिशील जीवन दृष्टि वाले हैं ही जो चाहे माक्र्सवादी हो अथवा नही परन्तु वे भाजपा संघ परिवार की उन नीतियों के घोर विरोधी हैं , जो वह इतिहास ,साहित्य,कला,सांस्कृति में कर रही है तथा उसके समर्थक खुलेआम विरोधी विचारो के लोगो की हत्याये कर रहे हैं । प्रो0 एम0एस0 कुलबुर्गी की हत्या से पहले 2013 में हिन्दू कट्टरपंथियों ने ’’अन्धश्रद्धा निर्मलम समिति’’ के तर्कशील लेखक नरेन्द्र दोभोलकर को जान से मारने की धमकी दी थी। फिर पुणे में उनकी हत्या भी कर दी गयी। इसी वर्ष महाराष्ट्र में जानेमाने जूझारू वामपंथी कार्यकर्ता गोविन्द पानसारे की हत्या भी इसी सिलसिले की कड़ी है। यह तीनो प्रगतिशील जन पक्षधर और अन्धविश्वास के प्रखर विरोधी थे। तीनो के हत्यारे आज तक पुलिस की पकड़ से दूर हैं । अभी कुछ दिन पूर्व उत्तर प्रदेश के दादरी में एक मुसलमान वृद्ध बढ़ई की इस अफवाह के बाद पीट-पीट कर हत्या कर दी गई कि गोमांस खा रहा था। बकायदा इसकी घोषणा एक मंदिर से लाउडस्पीकर से की गई।

The Indian Unconscious

- Ravi Sinha

There is yet another head on the political platter of the world’s largest democracy. This head is not metaphorical. It does not signify a disgraced leader or a government that has fallen. It is a literal head dripping with literal blood – battered with bricks that supported a leg-less bed. The bed belonged to one Muhammad Akhlaq who lived in a village called Basehara in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, not too far from the national capital of India. The head too belonged to him.

It has been only a few days but this latest episode in the long-running Indian serial is already well-known to the world. On a late September night it was announced over the loudspeakers of the village temple that there was going to be beef on Akhlaq’s dinner plate. A mob hundreds-strong – some say thousands – gathered within no time. It attacked the family killing Akhlaq on the spot and badly injuring his son, Danish.

In the meantime, meat-loafs confiscated from the family fridge have been sent for forensic examination. The system of justice must check whether it actually was beef, although, as one commentator points out, “…mere possession of beef isn’t illegal in Uttar Pradesh.”[1] Shedding helpful light on feebly lit corners of the Hindu moral universe, a prominent Hindutva ideologue wrote in a national daily, “Lynching a person merely on suspicion is absolutely wrong, the antithesis of all that India stands for and all that Hinduism preaches.”[2] The lynch-mob should have waited till the forensic reports came.

A few suspects have been apprehended for the murder. This has made the village livid with anger. There are protestations that those arrested are innocent. Journalists have been attacked for making such a big thing out of a small matter and bringing a bad name to the village. Cameras have been broken and OB vans damaged. There is a pertinacious wall of angry women guarding the village against any further intrusion by outsiders who can neither understand the village mind nor the Indian culture.

It is not easy to understand the collective mind of an Indian village. Even learned anthropologists are of little help. Their ethnographic techniques of studying a form of life from its internal standpoint are particularly susceptible to the rationalizations of a complex cultural species. If anyone has a chance, it would, perhaps, be a villager who has stepped out – an Archimedean Point created out of the same cultural universe. Ravish Kumar, by now a near iconic journalist and anchor of a prominent Hindi news channel, stood out for this very reason.[3] His eyes could see the natural rhythm and the instinctual response of an Indian village in the immediate aftermath of a collective crime. Nearly everyone had disappeared from the village. Whoever could be found claimed that he was miles away at the time of the incident. The lynch-mob had materialized instantaneously out of thin air. It had as quickly melted away after the job was done. Everyone has now returned to defend the honor of the village and strategize about how to deal with the unwarranted intrusions of modernity including that of the law.

Predictably, the lynching has been linked to politics, and rightly so. I would not have described the platter as political if Akhlaq’s head on it was not an offering to a new goddess called Indian democracy. Contemporary India, much like its new Prime Minister, is always high on elections. At any given time there is an election around the corner – elections to one state assembly or another, or else, local elections to the village Panchayats and urban local bodies. There is nothing local, however, about these local elections. All these battles feed into the perpetual war for Delhi. And, in an increasingly vigorous democracy in a society such as India’s, nothing is more efficacious in winning elections than inciting a lynch mob or fomenting a riot. Commentators have seen links between Dadri lynching and Bihar elections, and it may not be far-fetched. As everyone knows, it is not just Bihar that is at stake in the Bihar elections. At such times the nation may keenly watch what is on Akhlaq’s dinner plate.

I will not dwell further on the details of Dadri lynching. My concern, primarily, is with what lies underneath. I intend to deal with a phenomenon that, borrowing from the term Depth Psychology, I callDepth Politics. It arises when a modern political and economic system arrives in a land and a civilization that has existed for centuries and millennia without much help from or engagement with modernity. Invariably it is a tumultuous affair and requires wide-ranging adjustments on both sides of the modern-ancient divide. By the time things begin to settle down, neither the actually existing modernity nor the still living antiquity are recognizable to an eye accustomed to their canonical forms.

All this occasions a great deal of controversy. There are worries about modernity not taking roots in the society in question, or getting mutated into something spurious or disagreeable. There are complaints from the other side about a pristine culture being disfigured and an indigenous form of life being colonized. I will not join the controversy here, although I will not make any special effort to conceal my dispositions. My objective is to make some sense of the phenomenon itself, and my premise is that existing explanations are not satisfactory. In particular, my concern is with that set which attempts to understand the intricacies and the vicissitudes of Indian politics through concepts such as false consciousness, ideology, hegemony or superstructure-lagging-the-base. I do not entirely reject any of these explanations, but, in my reckoning, they do not seem to suffice.

Another disclaimer may be in order. I will proceed with my argument in a largely hand-waving manner, making use of analogies, metaphors and conceptual borrowings, and often relying on that ever popular criterion of plausibility. A rigorous mode of presenting the case may require a different kind of writing which will be attempted elsewhere.

Walzer’s Paradox

Two prominent philosopher-theorists have, very recently, written two little books that are remarkable for their depth and sweep. India figures in both of them, although their concerns are not confined to it. One is a book called The Indian Ideology by Perry Anderson which is basically a collection of three articles on India published in the London Review of Books.[4] I will come to it a little later. The other is a book by Michael Walzer, The Paradox of Liberation – Secular Revolutions and Religious Counterrevolutions, which contains the text of his Henry L. Stimson Lectures at Yale.[5] I start with Walzer because he poses the problem through an insightful observation and in a manner that is particularly helpful to the purpose behind my own argument.

Dadri Beef Rumour Lynching: Observations after a visit to Bisara village on 3rd October, 2015

New Delhi, 05/10/2015

Team members: Bonojit Hussain (New Socialist Initiative), Deepti Sharma (Saheli), Kiran Shaheen (writer and activist), Naveen Chander (New Socialist Initiative), Sanjay Kumar (People's Alliance for Democracy and Secularism and New Socialist Initiative) and Sanjeev Kumar (Delhi Solidarity Group)

On the night of 28 September, in a heinous instance of hate crime Mohammad Akhlaq a resident of Bisara village of Dadri in western Uttar Pradesh was lynched to death and his son Danish brutally assaulted by a mob of villager over a rumour that Mr. Akhlaq and his family had slaughtered a calf and consumed its meat. Just before the lynching, an announcement was made from the local temple to spread the rumour, within moments a mob constituted itself and attacked Mr. Akhlaq resulting in his lynching. Mr. Akhlaq’s son Danish has been in hospital since that night and despite undergoing two brain surgeries his condition is still said to be critical. 

We, a six member team of activists, went to Bisara village in Dadri on 03 October 2015, the day when there were news reports that a thousand women have been mobilized to prevent the media from entering the village. The women pelted stones at media personnel and OB vans because of the alleged 'disrepute’ they were bringing to the village and for disrupting ‘normal’ life.

We arrived in the afternoon and encountered some media OB vans on the road leading up to the village. As we proceeded towards the village, the visibility of police presence kept increasing. At one point we stopped to talk to the police about the situation in the village and we were told very clearly that the villagers were very angry about outsiders coming in and they can’t really tell us what kind of reactions we might face from the villagers. The police strongly advised us to not go in to the village and also told us that if something were to happen then it would not be their responsibility.

We managed to proceed to the village after speaking on the phone to the village Pradhan, Sanjeev Rana, who sent someone to ‘safely’ escort us to his house, where we met him and some other men from the village. After that, we visited Mohammad Akhlaq’s house and met his family. We also briefly attended a meeting of village elders called by the District Magistrate who upon figuring out that we are not from the village requested us to leave saying they are trying to resolve issues internally. In addition, there was some interaction with men who were around.

1. Some Facts about Bisara Village

Bisara is a large village in Western UP. It has an inter-college, a market and the presence of many industrial plants in the surrounding areas. A canal runs close to the village. The village appeared to have a thriving agricultural economy. However, we were told that a substantial number of men also work outside the village. The area has recently been re-categorized from rural to an urban zone. It now comes under Greater Noida urban administrative zone, due to which it is not going to have village panchayat elections again.

The numbers for the total population we got varied from 15000 to 18000 people. 300 were reported to be Muslim. Rajputs (who mainly use the Rana surname) are the dominant caste, owning most of the land. We were told that there are also over 100 Jatav families, and approximately similar numbers of Valmiki families. Muslims appear to belargely landless artisans. 

Mohammad Akhlaq owned a shop in front of the village inter-college where he repaired iron implements. Three Muslim households live in the main part of the village, in a narrow lane behind village pradhan's house. Akhlaq's house is one of these. All other Muslim families live in another part of the village. The village apparently has an old mosque (approximately 70-80 years old) and an Idgah. It is possible that before 1947 it was home to a substantial number of Muslim Rajputs, who migrated out to Pakistan. We were told that the Muslims now living there are Saifis (a caste of Muslim ironsmiths or Lohars).