Five years ago this past week Gujarat burned while its CM Modi played the fiddle, figuratively. Various historians doubt that Nero actually played the fiddle, yet stories abound about his use of human torches to light his parties. There were certainly quite a few human torches in Modi's pogrom. To quite Amnesty reports:

The violence [in Gujarat] left over 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, dead. Several hundred girls and women were stripped naked, raped or gang-raped, had their wombs slashed and were thrown into fires, some while still alive...

..Bilqis Yakoob Rasool, herself a victim of gang-rape who lost 14 family members reported: "They started molesting the girls and tore off their clothes. Our naked girls were raped in front of the crowd. They killed Shamin's baby who was two days old. They killed my maternal uncle and my father's sister and her husband too. After raping the women they killed all of them... They killed my baby too. They threw her in the air and she hit a rock. After raping me, one of the men kept a foot on my neck and hit me.
During the attacks, police stood by or even joined in the violence. When victims tried to file complaints, police often did not record them properly and failed to carry out investigations. In Bilqis Yakoob Rasool's case, police closed the investigation, stating they could not find out who the rapists and murderers were despite the fact that she had named them earlier

..officials of the state government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claimed that a fire on a train on 27 February 2002 was planned and caused by Muslims. It then took no steps to prevent or stop the widespread and systematic attacks by Hindu mobs on members of the Muslim minority which followed, and indeed many party and state officials were seen to participate. In many cases, these human rights abuses constitute crimes against humanity. The central government (until May 2004 also led by the BJP) failed to censure the government of Gujarat during and after the violence...

The images of the pogrom horrified many at the time, there was a many poem and column written, yet a lot of us forgot.. As Mike Marqusee notes in the Guardian:

Five years on, Muslims in Gujarat still live in fear. About 50,000 remain in refugee camps. Most of the cases filed by victims of the violence have never been investigated. Witnesses have been intimidated. No more than a dozen low-level culprits have been convicted. None of the major conspirators has been brought before the courts.

...Modi remains chief minister and has become not only the BJP's most popular figurehead, but also a poster boy for big business, foreign and domestic. Gujarat, which contains 5% of India's population, now boasts 18% of its investment and 21% of its exports. At this year's Vibrant Gujarat conclave, the showpiece of the BJP regime, the great names of Indian capitalism - Ambani, Birla, Tata - sang Modi's praises, echoed by delegations from Singapore, Europe and the US. Anxieties about dealing with a politician accused of genocide have been allayed by the appeal of Gujarat's corporation-friendly environment, not least its labour laws, which give employers hire-and-fire rights unique in India.

Yeah yeah, the issue has been much commented on, but as long as bigotry lives we will continue to fight it..

Tags: hindutva, politics

To say that cricket is followed with a passion in South Asia is stating the bleeding obvious, devotion comes closer than passion at describing the fervour the beautiful game inpires across the subcontinent. India may be a country of many different castes, religions, tongues, cuisines but cricket is one of the few threads that binds us all together. I have written before about the particular joys of test match cricket, and over the past ten years or so of test cricket watching, had come to admire one Rahul Dravid.

The elegance of his strokeplay drove enthusiasts to raptures, but we rooted for him for showing us that aggression did not have to be of the in the face sort to be mightily effective, and for remaining throughout it all a seemingly nice bloke. I was a little disappointed then to read that he (Dravid) inaugurated a RSS programme in Nagpur, supposedly a part of the birth centenary celebrations of the RSS idealogue Golwalkar, lighting a lamp before the man's picture. The captain of the Indian cricket team is a prize catch indeed for our fascist friends. Mr Golwalkar was one of the defining Sangh ideologues, a man who was openly supportive of Nazi ideologies, and was very clear that India was to be a Hindu Nation, a charming man in short. [some quotes here] Of course India's a free country where even genocidal a*holes like Mr. Modi win elections so India's cricket captain should be free to even garland fascists if he were so choose, but somehow methinks that fervour will be missing from my end the next time Dravid walks out to bat..

I know it's only a game, etc. and Dravid's politics certainly don't detract from his sporting exploits, but damn it falls from grace are always a little disppointing..

Tags: cricket, hindutva, politcs, sport
Current Music: The beatles - Obladi, Oblada

How many of the folks here are on orkut? I ended up spending a fair bit of time online last week, thanks to a virulent cold, it's been a while since i was on orkut. I was surprised and shocked at the amount of invective out there on orkut, there are numerous "I Hate XYZ" communities (India, Pakistan, Backward Castes you name it). The India community is filled with raving rabid Hindutvadis, with periodic exhortations for nuclear war with Pakistan.

Note to self: Never take online fora seriously, can only imagine the impression on a naive user who stumbles on that India community. There are something like 97000 + members of that community, so I'm guessing at least 40,000 of those would be genuine users. With a community that size, you'd expect some sort of representation of middle class India's views at least, but I guess it goes to show that numbers don't really mean didley-squat..

India decision to block blogs on blogspot.com, has come in for some deserved ridicule, but there's so much hate and deeply offensive crap out there, find myself rather ambivalent on this whole freedom of speech thing.. What do folks think?

Tags: freedom, hindutva

But, a small step towards justice nonetheless.. Someday maybe Modi will stand trial for crimes against humanity, yeah I know and pigs might fly..

Tags: genocide, hindutva

Sloth can get boring – 'tis true, didn't really think I'd see the day when the traditionally lazy Bangalorean would get bored of inaction.. There's Indo-Pak cricket to look forward to, something to turn the idiot box on for..

For now, there's a proliferation of religious channels on the telly. There's an evangelical Christian channel called simply "God", any number of so-called spiritual channels.. Found one of my all-time favourite God-men – Double Sri on last night. Dressed in all his silk finery he was expounding the virtues of a simple life, and of One-consciousness (one consciousness and one Ram temple at Ayodhya, wink, wink).

He was followed by testimonials from his enraptured devotees – one of whom was recounting her first meeting with the great man. The great man apparently asked her how she was planning to get home, and upon being told that it involved taking the evening's Lucknow Mail, with a piercing look told her it was unsafe and that she should take the next day's train home. Being the trusting soul she dutifully obliged and called the doubting hubby the next morning to tell him of the change – to find him all tearfully apologetic for having questioned Double Sri's infinite wisdom, as the previous night's Mail train had an accident and the very bogie that the woman was supposed to be on derailed.. Let's leave the veracity of this testimonial alone for a moment, what I want to know is why the Prescient One kept his counsel to his devotees given that he his self-declared penchant for "seeing the goodness in every human being" ?(a statement made specifically in refence to that sterling human being Narendra Modi) .

My real issue with Double Sri lies with his tacit support of Sangh-Parivar politics, just thought that incident was too funny not too share.. Pseudo-Spirituality ("pseudo-secular"'s lefitist cousin) is good business these days, and Double Sri is certainly a savvy marketer, who's cleverly packaged his (patented) brand of sprituality to suit the yuppie lifestyle. To paraphrase Shakespeare:

Upon what meat does this our Dbl Sri feed
That he is grown so great?
How ill-informed is B'lore, how gullible and how naive,
When it serves as the base-matter to illuminate so ordinary a person as Dbl-Sri?

I know he has a biggish fan following amongst middle-class Indians, indeed perhaps even amongst some readers of this post. Perhaps they're too taken in by his aura to question his politics, or perhaps they share his political views. I'd like to think it's the former, but then again what do I know – after all in the words of the great man himself, yours truly is "anti-Hindu" and "unreasonable".. Of course, this is presenting but one side of the man and his organisation, the "other" side has already had reams of newsprint, and many hundreds of html pages, it isn't going to get more than this sentence in this space..
Needless to say, this is intended to criticise the man and his politics, not his followers – misguided though they maybe..

Tags: cynicism, hindutva, politics

Hindu nationalism was born many decades ago, but it was thirteen years ago today, that it really forcefully thrust itself on India's consciousness... A moment of silence for all the victims of the mindless violence of Hindu Nationalism. It's sad to see so many rational level-headed folks get so stirred up with nationalistic fervour, there probably was a time for nationalism - pre-independence, but even my mom was born in Independent India, so certainly for this new generation, that time is long gone. I'm sure there are numerous theories for the rise of nationalism in post-colonial societies, but seriously folks history is littered with too many examples of rulers of various hues rousing nationalistic passions for exploitative gain. Will end with a quote from Nehru:

"When a country is under foreign domination, nationalism is a strengthening and unifying force. But a stage arrives when it might well have a narrowing influence.

"Sometimes, as in Europe, it becomes aggressive and chauvinistic and wants to impose itself on other countries and other people. Every people suffers from the strange delusion that they are the elect and better than all others.

"When they become strong and powerful, they try to impose themselves and their ways on others. In their attempt to do so, sometime or other, they overreach themselves, stumble and fall." [link]

Tags: hindutva, nationalism, politics
Current Music: Woody Guthrie - Pretty boy Floyd

I'm always thinking of Russia
I can't keep her out of my head.
I don't give a damn for Uncle Sham.
I'm a left wing radical Red.

- Harold Harwell (H. H.) Lewis (c. 1932)

Amusing little ditty - I like the "left wing radical red" tag, it fits well.. Have spent the better part of this fine Saturday evening removing some particularly execrable passages from different Wikipedia articles relating to the Sangh, for an "alternative" view from the radical Hindu-right do check out Hindutva.org (that's the first and last Hindu supremacist link on this space). A small sample of the excised passages, emphasis mine:

"Also the incident happened just after the afternoon prayers on a Friday, globally recognized to be an islamic prime time for terrorist attacks."

"National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India which is also known to be a bastion of communist anti-Hindus. "

"who had converted to Christianity and hated Hindus to the core" - speaking of former president K.R. Narayanan.

Hope you, dear reader have had a more productive Saturday night..

Tags: hindutva, poetry, politics
Current Music: Joan Baez- And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda

Terrorists yesterday attacked the Ayodhya site ramming a Jeep stock full of explosives into the compound barricade. Considering that it's one of India's most heavily guarded sites, they didn't get very far. Of course, that's not to stop the Sanghis from calling a nationwide bandh, with Advani personally leading the protests. Where were the protests on the "saddest day" your life (supposedly the day the Babri Masjid came down), Mr. Advani? Or were you too busy celebrating to see India burn? Ever the protector of the (Hindu) citizenry, Narendra Modi was quick to announce a reward for the brave jawans, and demand the return of POTA to deal with the terrorists, and disrupters of law and order. What were you doing mr Modi, when your goons led the organised slaughter of Muslims on the streets of Gujarat? Did you play the fiddle when the trishul wielding Hindutvadis were busy lynching and assaulting women - did you? A few terrorists attack a shrine compound and there's instant reward for the police, hundreds of Hindu extremists attempt to ethnically cleanse Gujarat and they're lauded for their "admirable restraint in the face of grave provocation" - there's justice for you, Modi shtyle. An excellent introduction to the Gujarat pogrom can be found here, and one to the Sangh's brand of extemism here.
( Comeuppance for Modi and other fantasies )
All terrorist attacks are definitely worthy of opprobrium as senseless acts of violence, but surely this is a time for unity, not discord, for quiet but determined resolve, not more hate-mongering.. I started writing this to decry violence in the name of religion or any other name, and it turned into a Hindutva tirade - oh well, hope you enjoyed the rant. :)

Tags: hindutva, politics
Current Mood: still awake..

Arch hawk while in power, vehemently pro-nuclear, and all for the Hindu-state, Mr Advani was quite the belligerent #2.. Now as leader of the Opposition Advani goes to Pakistan and suddenly discovers his roots, making statements like:

"But when the country one is visiting is Pakistan... ... how can that experience be described?

Pleasure? Great pleasure? Delight?" - that from his speech in Karachi, which you can find here. This is accompanied by some wishy-washy statements describing the demolition of the Babri Masjid as the "saddest day of my life" - this is no acceptance of culpability, just a watered down expression of grief. He proceeds to get the Sanghis all hot and bothered by describing Jinnah as "secular", comes home - dramatically resigns, and then retracts his resignation after the miffed Sangh is suitably placated - what a farce.. The BJP resolution states:

"..the state [Mr Jinnah] founded is theocratic and non-secular, the very idea of Hindus and Muslims being separate nations is repugnant to [the BJP]...

...there can be no revisiting the reality that Jinnah led a communal agitation to achieve his goal of Pakistan, which devoured thousands of innocent people in its wake and dispossessed millions of their homes and livelihood " - that from here.. And they top it all by saying " The BJP has always condemned the division of India on communal lines and continues to steadfastly reject the two-nation theory championed by Jinnah and endorsed by British colonialists" - that quote from here

At the risk of being branded "pseudo-secular" and maybe even an "Anti-India Marxist individual" - just how does a party of a such a despicable character as Narendra Modi, make statements like this with a straight face? Do they really think India's a nation of morons?
( More on Jinnah and Hindutva )
Big Brother still very much calls the shots at the BJP - once a Sanghi, always a Sanghi.. This whole fracas to me conjures up of images of a school head-master punishing an errant pupil with a rap on the knuckles, and making him kneel with a finger on his lips, imagery helped in no small part by the Sanghs penchant for khaki knicker-boxers.. :) Should probably use this opportunity to learn more about Partition - evidently a tumultuous and controversial time in India's history, shall put that on the to-do list..

Tags: hindutva, politics
Current Music: John Lennon and Yoko Ono- Give Peace a Chance