P.N.BENJAMIN: February 2008

A FREELANCER’S WORLD- WRITINGS BY P.N.BENJAMIN
IN DECCAN HERALD, THE HINDU & VIJAY TIMES

THE HINDU
28 August 2001

Dalits as NGOs' cannon fodder
I AM provoked to write this after reading several articles and statements of well known writers and intellectuals and representatives of NGOs — call them, dalit warriors — in The Hindu for some time now, criticising the Indian Government's alleged attempts to thwart a debate on caste-based discrimination in the coming United Nations World Conference against Racism in Durban.
"The great men, who in France prepared men's minds for the coming revolution, were themselves extreme revolutionaries. They recognised not external authority of any kind whatever. Religion, natural science, society, political institutions — everything was subjected to the most unsparing criticism. Everything must justify its existence before the judgment-seat of reason or give up its existence''. (Frederick Engels in Socialism: Utopian and Science.)
Engels wrote the above lines while defining the social context of pre-revolution France. We know that the French Revolution was preceded by stages of renaissance and reformation. We also know that any intellectual who could be even remotely described as "progressive'' then, had targeted Church as the fountainhead of obscurantism. Without dismantling the Church's regulatory authority, the French Revolution, one of the most celebrated events in world history, may have remained meaningless.
In our country, regulatory authority of caste or varna institutions is even more decisive than the Church could ever exercise. But can we recall any phase in our history, comparable with Renaissance or Reformation? Barring the dalits, what is the track record of intellectuals on the question of caste division and dominance? Further, most societies that can claim to be modern today have had at least one rupture or a revolution that decisively negated value systems and institutions of the past. We cannot cite even one such event in India's long history.
A milestone
For dalits, January 26, 1950 is the only such event that, although not a revolution, was definitely a sort of rupture in our country's history. Adoption of a Constitution that officially abolished untouchability and caste discriminations, and directs the state to reorganise Indian society along democratic lines, is a milestone. Lest ambiguity should become a tool to browbeat constitutional verdict, as spelt out in its Preamble, the Indian state is directed to accord due representation to out-castes and tribals, in every branch of the state and complement it with various socio-educational-economic measures.
Despite the well-defined notion of state in the constitution and categorical directive to the Republic regarding dalits, representation in all walks of life, successive governments have mocked at the constitutional verdict. The Congress Governments confined dalits' representation to legislative bodies and the executive. They ruled out dalit participation in the country's economic activities, public institutions, academics in particular, and areas of mass communications. As a result, the Indian state under the Congress stood as a mute witness to the continued subversion of its own ideals spelt out clearly in the Constitution. The situation is not different today. So, why do the NGOs and `intellectuals' indulge in bashing the NDA Government alone for its "upper-caste bias" and for "throttling any move to raise the (dalit) issue in the U.N. conference?''
By definition, any organisation outside the government, registered or unregistered, that seeks to address issues of society is an NGO. What we understand by the term "NGO'' (Non- Governmental Organisation) today are those organisations, registered under the Societies Registration Act, which seek funds from corporate houses, Government or foreign agencies. Then there are the foundations or trusts, which do not directly undertake issues themselves, but create a fund only to support "deserving'' NGOs, which do "good" work. The money involved in NGO operations is huge. For example, it is said that the New Delhi office of Ford Foundation alone has sanctioned around U.S. $ 300 millions to various organisations since 1952.
The NGO concept revolves around the basic premise that the state, by virtue of being "state", cannot be `sensitive' and `imaginative' enough to understand and address people's problems. And another assumption is that the `civil society', by definition, is more `imaginative' and more forward looking than the state. Both these assumptions do not hold good in the Indian context.
Pertinent questions
Some pertinent questions could be asked at this stage. What is the social vision of NGOs? Or, to be precise, what is NGOs' perception of the Indian Republic and society? Where do dalits stand today vis-`-vis institutions of the state, and institutions that are outside the state? Is there any institution or NGOs other than the Indian State that make specific provision of representation to dalits? What is the proportion of dalits in the corporate-like offices of the NGOs? What is the position of dalits in their workforce and what percentage of the money funding agencies granted has been utilised for the upliftment of dalits? An individual's or organisation's social doctrine is best reflected by its actions. If an organisation, as against the constitutional verdict of 22.5 per cent representation to the dalits, is not prepared to accord at least one per cent representation, it has no legal sanctity to exist. If NGOs cannot give representation to dalits, what is the guarantee that they are not working against the interests of the dalits? The NGOs thrive on state bashing but can we recall one major NGO, which has produced a worthwhile critique of the varna or caste order?
NGOs have slowly but steadily not only robbed the state, corporate houses, and foreign funding agencies but also robbed space available to social movements. If every institution in India must justify its existence before the judgment seat of the Constitution, can the NGOs which are only legitimising dalits' exclusion and questioning the state's sovereign authority, and that too from a higher `moral' pedestal, be permitted to go scot free?
Be that as it may, the tragedy of the dalits is that Dr. Ambedkar's legacy, which ought to operate outside Hindu religion, has also not succeeded in breaking the status quo. Dr. Ambedkar felt that organisation, education and agitation would enable the dalits to reverse caste prejudices. As it has turned out, dalit political groups are totally disorganised. Education has only led to the emergence of a dalit elite class, which has slowly distanced itself from agitational dalit politics. Dalit movements have either been absorbed within mainstream parties or else have degenerated into negative militancy. The deification of Dr. Ambedkar by building statues in every village appears to have taken precedence over any fight for equal rights.
Self-seeking status quoists.
Dalit activists 20 or 30 years ago may have been expected to launch agitations to create public awareness against atrocities against them in various parts of the country. Today, caught up in factional politics, and bereft of any ideology, these very leaders appear unwilling to disturb the existing caste equations. These self-seeking status quoists have only aided in pushing the outcastes out of our society, out of the mainstream. Dalit politicians holding very high political posts have in practice proved to be "Uncle Toms" because of the compulsions of Indian polity.
What the dalits need today is an effective and sagacious leadership and not raising their problems in the UN World Conference against Racism. What Dr. Ambedkar said long ago about the dalit leaders being `selfish' and quarrelsome on `petty matters' is still true. There is however no reason to be despondent because there are still many far-sighted and levelheaded leaders among them who can guide the dalit community to achieve its aims.
The real protection of the dalits as also of other underprivileged sections in the community lies in their being organised and led in active mass movement committed to awaken and activate them in defence of their interests. This is a task which has always been the primary responsibility of political parties committed to socio-economic transformation of our present set-up. Here lies the failure of the Indian Left. In their blind craze for parliamentary democracy the Left parties have forgotten their primary duty to mobilise and organise the masses against all forms of vested interests. Rather, one witnesses today the strange spectacle of the parties of the Left ganging up with those very forces, which are the political representatives of gun-wielding rural rich.
P. N. BENJAMIN
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Oct 9, 2001

Who's afraid of dialogue?
NINAN KOSHY'S article, "Towards accommodation with the RSS' (Open Page, Sept. 11) is a classic example of some Christian leaders crying wolf against parleys between leaders of the RSS and the Catholic and Protestant churches in India. They feel left out, marginalised and sidelined by major church formations like the National Christian Council of India (NCCI) and the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI), which represent the majority of the Indian Christians.
Christians form not more than 3 per cent of the Indian population. Very often they have to depend not so much on their rights as on the goodwill and generosity of powerful majority Hindu community. Christians in India are dependent in a double sense, on the goodwill of the Hindus and on the churches in the West whose fellowship sustains them and whose affluence often supports them. Judging from numbers there is hardly any equality in relationship. But Christians in India can play a creative and critical role in the life of our nation.
The RSS and other Hindutva organisations question the loyalty of the Christian to this country "because during the colonial era Indian Christians were not particularly noted for their patriotism or participation in the struggle for Independence, by contrast to the Christians in Indonesia. Indian Christians as a community are not spiritually rooted in their own culture. As long as this continues — and as long as Western churches promote this dependence — the burden of proving their Indianness and their wholehearted commitment to the life of this nation is very much on the Indian Christians. Dialogue, properly understood and responsibly carried out, might help both Christians and their Hindu neighbours to examine critically the process of Westernisation and its effects on their minds and hearts" (Courage for Dialogue — Stanley Samartha).
Statistical approach
Terms such as "evangelistic campaign," "missionary strategy", "campus crusade," "occupying non-Christian areas," a "blitzkrieg" of missionaries, and sending "reinforcements" sound more appropriate to military enterprises than to Christian witness to God's redeeming love in Jesus Christ. The statistical approach implied in the words "the unreached millions" is derogatory to neighbours of other faiths. "Unreached" by whom? When Indian Christians themselves use these phrases, which have originated outside the country, to describe their neighbours living next door to them in the community, Christians should not be surprised if the neighbours are offended.
"The attitudes Indian Christians have inherited towards neighbours of other faiths were very largely shaped in the colonial era, with Europe dominated history, church-centred theology, and unexamined assumptions of Western superiority in race, culture, and religion. The church in India should give up this posture and should have the courage to reject past errors and seek new ways of relationships with their neighbours. The right to profess, practise and propagate one's faith should be used faithfully and responsibly, not in an aggressive and flamboyant style. Highly organised missionary activities, supported by vast sums of money from abroad, using expensive mass advertising techniques, loudly proclaiming the word to large crowds, quite often by preachers from outside whose knowledge of the people's religion and culture is limited — do these constitute the way of Christ? Our neighbours in the community should be regarded not as statistics but as persons, not as potential recruits to the kingdom but as partners in common enterprises in the community."
Christianity in today's India with a renascent Hinduism faces an unprecedented crisis. If it is alive to the situation and sensitive to the signs of time, it has to rethink itself, reorient itself and rediscover its basic substance and interpret that in terms acceptable to the Indian mind and genius. The CBCI and NCCI have put the right foot forward in this direction by accepting to dialogue with the Hindutva organisations.
To promote dialogue and to encourage reflection on the social, political and religious issues that arise in such encounters we must first of all remove doubts, overcome reluctance and make clear each other's motives.
Undoubtedly, within any religious community, the web of relationship between the human and the divine, between individual freedom and social discipline, between a partial recognition of the meaning of life and a humble acknowledgement of the mystery of existence, is complex, delicate, and fragile.
"Religious commitments go much deeper than intellectual explanations. They touch the total life of the individual and the collective personality of the community. One must tread gently on hallowed ground and be careful not to offend the sensitivities or hurt the emotions of people. The obstacle to dialogue is not so much the absence of a theology of dialogue as a lack of courage to meet partners of other faiths and ideological convictions freely and openly in a climate of openness and freedom." (Samartha).
This is true not just of Christians but of neighbours of other faiths as well. It is the fear of losing one's identity, of being confronted with and perhaps compelled to acknowledge the truth in another camp, of recognising that the stranger at the gate might after all turn out to be a fellow pilgrim — these are the factors, often unconscious or hidden, that prevent many Christians and their neighbours from moving out of a sterile coexistence to a more joyful cooperation with each other.
A brilliant Danish Professor in the United Theological College, Bangalore, made history when he said: "Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists should never give up their religion to join the Christian Church." On the other hand the Church should humble itself and find ways of identifying itself with other groups, taking Christ with them. Christ, he said, was not the chairman of the Christian party. If God is the Lord of the Universe he will work through every culture and religion. We must give up the crusading spirit of the colonial era and stop singing weird hymns like "Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war." This will lead to Hindu Christianity or Buddhist Christianity.
It must involve the disappearance of the Indian Christian community, but he reminded us "a grain of wheat remains a solitary grain unless it falls to the ground and dies." Needless to say that the Indian Christians were furious. He left the College, the Church and the mission and took refuge with the Danish Foreign Service! He later returned to India as his country's Ambassador and died in harness in 1988.
Aggressive evangelising
The real source of danger to the Indian Christian community is not the handful of Hindu extremists. Most of the violent incidents have been due to aggressive evangelising. Other than this there have been few attacks on Christians. Finally the sensitive and sensible Christians must realise that acts of certain "born-again" varieties of Christian evangelists who denigrate Hindu gods and abuse Hindu rituals as barbaric are the root cause of tension between Christian and Hindu communities. Christian leaders known for their erudition, equipoise and empathy should come out in the open to disown such acts of intolerance.
Rev. Valson Thampu, an ordained pastor of the Church of North India and Professor at St. Stephen's College, New Delhi, had suggested a `unilateral interim moratorium' on conversion to Christianity to end "the mindless competitive communalism" between different communities.
Most Hindus stand for a secular, liberal India, keeping with their heritage, in-built catholicity of their religion and its basic outlook of live and let live. This situation may not last indefinitely if certain unhealthy trends continue to gain ascendancy. It is very well for the vested interests to play communal card. But this will not pay. Communalism of the minority communities will only make some Hindus more fanatic. Undoubtedly, no quarter should be given to Hindu communalism. At the same time secularism cannot be regarded as a one-way street. Each community must respect the sentiments of others.
By and large, a Hindu is today accepted as secular only if he is pro-Muslim and pro-Christian and pro-other communities. He is lauded as `genuinely secular' if he is critical of Hinduism and enthusiastically condemns his fellow Hindus with or without reason ignoring the doings of rabid fanatics in other communities. The parleys between RSS leaders and Christian leaders will help to rid the Christians of the fake they see around them, to separate the wheat from the chaff. The dialogue must go on regardless of protests from vested interests.
P. N. BENJAMIN
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DECCAN HERALD

Oct. 7, 2003
Religious dialogue need of the hour It is time to stop religious crusades of all hues and start celebrating the religious diversity of the country
By P N Benjamin
The terrible events in our country in recent years have shown how religion can be used to fuel mindless violence and aggression. In the wake of the growing use of religion to exacerbate violence, can faith traditions offer resources for peace? How do religious identities impact conflict resolution processes? How might various actors – conflict transformation practitioners, political elite, trauma counsellors etc. – act in unison with religious leaders and prevent ethno-religious violence? Can we put an end to negative perceptions, images and stereotypes of Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and other religions?The point has certainly been reached when the religious ‘crusaders’ should be told ‘enough is enough’. It is time to celebrate the variety in religious expressions in our country. The situation in the country today calls for the urgent need for revitalising dialogue between religions in India. Historically, there has been no lack of interest in dialogue between adherents of different faiths in our country. Indian civilisation has been in continuous relationships with other religions, cultures and civilisations. They underlined the high degree of spiritual affinity with other religions and, in the course of their encounters, they discovered the congruence of the basic tenets of all religions.Civilised dissent
We live in a multicultural and multi-religious society and it is important to reiterate our faith in shared values and the commonality of our religious traditions. We also need to cultivate a deep sense of inter-faith trust. Doubtless, we belong to different faiths, follow different religious traditions and worship according to different rites. Still, we can and should develop a civilised framework for disagreement. The disagreement can be overcome easily if we follow Gadhiji’s dictum: "Show a little humility and a little diffidence about the correctness of one’s conduct and a little receptiveness".According to Dr Stanley Samartha, known as the ‘Christian prophet of religious pluralism’, "genuine dialogue demands humility and love. Dialogue is both an expression of faith and a sign of hope… Dialogue does not accept the gulf between religions as permanent, and asks people of each tradition to re-tread the path they have travelled in history. Inter-religious dialogues can eliminate religious conflicts and intolerance. It will be easier for one to understand the best in another religion when one understands the best in one’s own religion. Thus, true loyalty to the best in one’s religion is hardly ever in conflict with the best in other religions…"The only alternative to dialogue is more dialogue. What we need is an expanded tolerance in our approach to different religions and our understanding of their ways. "No statement about a religion is valid unless it can be acknowledged by that religion’s believers", stated W C Smith, a powerful proponent of dialogue among religions. In these radically changed circumstances, old rivalries cannot be renewed and the past battles cannot be fought on a modern turf.No truth monopolies
Amidst the conflicting claims made on behalf of different religions, there is an urgent need among followers of different religions for a full and free exchange of their differing religious experiences, in a spirit of mutual respect, appreciation and sympathy. And, such an interchange of experiences will lead to an enrichment of one another’s religious life; mutual respect, understanding and tolerance; and co-operation in purifying and strengthening the religious attitude of mind as against the irreligious or materialistic attitude from which our personal, social and national problems have to be tackled.There is also the urgent need for sharing our deepest convictions with one another: Sharing them on a basis of equality, of genuine respect for and acceptance of the validity of each other’s faith. Such a sharing demands earnestness, both in holding one’s own faith and in seeking to understand another’s. For we get nowhere if we meet on a basis of indifference to all faiths.There will be an element of newness in the relationship between religions when we unreservedly assert that there is no monopoly in religious truth, that the followers of the different religions can help each other best by each being true to his/her understanding of the Truth. We all can, thus, grow together into an ever deepening and widening understanding of, and approximation to, Truth. We must realise that any attempt to weaken the hold of the truth of any religion upon mankind is to weaken religion itself. Therefore we must strive not to weaken but to strengthen each other by mutual respect, trust and co-operation. We must also seek to help one another more fully to understand and live up to the best in all religions.People of all faiths must learn to share through the richness of their various religious traditions and experiences in this adventure of spirit and support of one another in the struggle for social justice, identifying themselves as closely as they are able with the oppressed and the disinherited, and treating all human beings as brothers and sisters.
(END)

July 27, 2003
War veteran
Tughlaq, the aging horse of the Indian Military Academy has been saved from being put to sleep by the President’s intervention. P N BENJAMIN is reminded of the tale of another famous animal, the Grey Mule, the regimental mascot of The Madras Sappers
Since time immemorial, animals – yaks, horses, oxen, goats, camels – have been used for carrying heavy stores for the operational role and sustenance of armies. Of these, mules continue to be pressed into service even today. Special mules, called ‘mountain artillery mules’, carry heavy pieces of artillery whereas GS (general services) are used in hills and jungles for carrying rations, ammunitions, small arms and even battle casualties. No army could be put to field without the support of mules and considerable effort has been made to convey them to the battle zone.
The Grey Mule, which is the Regimental Mascot of the present Madras Engineer Group joined the Queen's Own Madras Sappers & Miners in 1891 and saw 31 years of service. During its life time, spanning over forty seven years, it was undoubtedly the most travelled mule in the world, accompanying the army units to Chitrral (1895), Tirah and Malakand in the North West Frontier Agency (1897), Tibet (1903) and Abhor in Iraq (1911). From 1915 to 1918 it was in Egypt and Palestine.Just before the Expeditionary Force was to return to India in 1921, the Force Commander, Sir Philip Chetwode, issued orders that several thousands of mules under his command be sold to the Egyptians. However, Col. Bassett, then Officer Commanding (OC) of the 10 Field Company (Field Coy), pleaded on behalf of the Grey Mule and obtained special permission from the Commander to take the old Grey Mule back with the 10 Coy to India.
On its arrival in Bangalore in 1922, the Grey Mule was pensioned off and given the freedom of the Lines and was fed and cared for by whichever Field Troop was stationed there. This gentle, quiet creature wandered around, never leaving the neighbourhood of the lines, as an honoured war veteran, pensioner and guest.
At the 150th Anniversary Reunion of the Madras Sappers in 1930, the Grey Mule was the cynosure of all eyes as it headed the march past of the pensioners, wearing its campaign ribbons on its browband, accompanied by the same Sapper Driver Muniswamy who, as a young man, had led him up Malakand in 1897. The spectators in the stands and on the benches stood up and lustily cheered the column as it went past them and paid their tribute. It turned out to be the Grey Mule’s last parade.
The Grey Mule died in 1933. It was buried with full military honours within the Regimental Centre at Bangalore. And the Monument still exists. Its hooves were turned into four inkstands. Two of them are preserved in Bangalore – one in the MEG Officers’ Mess on Promenade Road and the other in the Monkey House, the headquarter of Madras Sappers. And the other two, one each, in 4 Engineer Regiment and Officers’ Mess and the Royal School of Military Engineers, Chatham (UK). After the Grey Mule's faithful tenure, there has been no other Regimental Mascot.

October 5, 2004
If love was our religion...If everyone would make love their religion, this world would be a lot better place, says VIJAYALAKSHMI K P N
They are a small group of people working towards a peaceful world marked by religious tolerance, understanding and pluralism. And they call themselves pilgrims on an inter-faith voyage of discovery. The Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue (BIRD) was born in 2001 with the aim of promoting inter-religious dialogue to diffuse the recurring tension between religious groups and communities. "There was a lot of religious unrest in 2001, when there were attacks on Christian missionaries and other such activities. That was when we decided to start BIRD, for we believed that a dialogue would be the first step towards peaceful resolution of any issue, however heated it may be," says Mr P N Benjamin, Co-ordinator of BIRD. "And in any such dialogues there is need for a full and free exchange of our differing religious experiences, in a spirit of mutual respect, appreciation and sympathy," he adds.
And who better to pick as role model than Rev Dr Stanley Samartha, the first director of the Dialogue Programme in the World Council of Churches who is also known as ‘the Christian prophet of religious pluralism to carry its message. Since then, BIRD has been organising the Stanley Samartha Memorial lecture every year in October to coincide with the birthday of Dr Samartha.
Initially it was just a small group of Christians spreading the message of religious tolerance and inter-religious dialogue but as days went by, BIRD members won support from various outfits including the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Temple of Understanding, YMCA, Senior Citizens Forum, Indian Heritage Academy, Institute of Universal Consciousness and Islamic Voice in Bangalore and others across Karnataka to promote peace and communal amity.
Three years down the lane, BIRD wants to take its message further and grow into a full-fledged organisation, thereby extending support to various issues, including social causes. "Till now we have been spending from our pockets. Now that we plan to extend our base and activity, we would need more funds to give us the necessary financial support and to take our message forward," says Mr Benjamin. "Dr Samartha had said that he was an Indian by citizenship, Hindu by culture, Christian by faith and ecumenical by choice. And this is the kind of message we want to take forward too — one of religious
brotherhood and tolerance," says Mr Benjamin. For more details contact Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue (BIRD) Ph: 080 25800647; mail: benjaminpn@hotmail.com
August 2, 2004
The battle against social evilsMost politicians will be out of business if the caste system and superstitions are done away withBY P N BENJAMIN
Mahatma Gandhi regarded untouchability as a sin and described it as "a snake with a thousand mouths through each of which it shows its poisonous fangs." And to fight it he even went on a 12,500-mile tour of India in 1935 giving up his four-anna membership of the Congress Party in pursuit of his goal. He was not always a welcome guest in some places. In Pune an angry citizen threw a bomb at his motorcade. He received angry mail from sanatanists. But nothing deterred him. He carried on a crusade against untouchability with all the force at his command. And, he succeeded in exposing that ancient social sore.At the height of Gandhi’s valiant crusade against untouchability, C Rajagopalachari, who was one of the front-ranking nationalist leaders of the time, in an article entitled ‘The Revolution is Over’ wrote: "What remains is but the removal of the debris." He wrote too soon. The debris continues to exist. Our political leaders would not like to see it removed lest along with the debris they too are swept away. A social crusader
Gandhi was as much a crusader for social reform as he was a committed politician. The scene today is totally different. The politician-social reformer is an extinct species now. Social reform is of no one’s concern. What is worse, caste has been turned into a political base. Many politicians would be out of business were caste to become irrelevant. It is they who are keeping it alive in order to cash in on the system. They would probably fight tooth and nail to prevent the abolition of the caste system, which today gives them political power.
"The castes are a handicap, they are no sin," wrote Mahatma Gandhi in Young India, June 1931. It is no longer considered a brave thing to fight casteism, or for that matter, even communalism. The point is that caste and casteism are no longer considered something basically offensive. Practically all political parties are guilty of condoning the system.
One has only to read the advertisements in the matrimonial columns of our national newspapers to realise how all pervading, deep-seated and exclusive is our caste system. But, why should one think strictly in terms of caste? Aren’t there enough rituals and customs that call for change? Journals are full of reports of dowry deaths. The custom of demanding dowries cuts across all castes, creeds and communities. It needs to be fought. There are many similar obscenities which go under the rubric of custom or convention.Cynicism pervades our society. As one intellectual said after reading a report of a sati: "So what? How many cases of suicides are there every year? At least this woman decided to die as a matter of principle." A new culture has taken root in place of the old. The so-called ‘market culture’ is dictating social changes which were once the prerogative of the committed social reformers.
Depths of depravityThe reports about farmers’ wives ploughing land in the nude to propitiate the rain gods some time ago hardly evoked any public outrage or comment. But, why should it, when nudes feature every day in our newspaper pages? Are we not selling our souls to models who bare their navels? It is to such depths of depravity that we as a people have come.Last year at a temple in Tamil Nadu several children were "buried" for a minute as part of a ritual. Some time ago, defying rules that restrict animal sacrifice in the name of ritual, around 51 buffaloes and 200 goats were sacrificed during an ongoing 5-day Kariyamma festival in Karnataka. One villager literally bit a goat into pieces and threw the limbs of that unfortunate animal around supposedly to appease the Goddess. Child marriage is fairly common even to this day and age in many parts of India. Hardly any protest is raised. It is taken as just another fact of life that is best ignored.In our country there are ‘gurus’ and ‘miracle’ men and women of every religion by the dozens but have we heard of any one of them fasting to stop animal sacrifice or child marriage or the dowry system? One reason for this calculated indifference lies in the belief that technology and the advance of science will take care of religious indecencies with the passing of the years. As standards of living rise, goes the argument, so do standards of culture. And there are enough grounds to concede that that is true. But if we let time take care of our religious infirmity, we will probably have to wait for generations to come. That reflects poorly on our concepts of social responsibilities. (END)

April 15, 2004
A long road lies ahead of DalitsConsidering the fact that oppressed Dalits cannot hope for support from others, they have to fight for their own rightsBY P N BENJAMINAt the beginning of the 21st century, caste in India is as significant in understanding the social matrix as it was a century ago. The birth anniversary of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar signifies the need for a continued struggle against caste oppression in Indian society today.Dalit children are being segregated from the children of other caste backgrounds in schools.Dalits are fined by village elders for violating caste norms by entering a temple. And Dalits are denied burial grounds. The Dalit can be killed, his mother and sisters raped and murdered. But the state, society and intellectuals and NGOs who fight for Dalit rights hardly struggle to uproot the causes that breed it.Shameful situationThe enormous pain and frustrations suffered by the Dalit population in our country must make every sensitive citizen to hang his head in shame. The tragedy is that not only have we not eradicated untouchability during the last five decade despite the good intentions of the founding fathers of independent India, but also have created newer and subtler forms of untouchability. India is as far away from being a civilised casteless society as ever.Long ago, Tolstoy acidly observed: "The abolition of slavery has gone on for a long time. Rome abolished slavery. America abolished and we did, but only the words were abolished, not the thing." We in India have performed a similar feat of verbalism vis a vis the Dalit victims. The colonial masters called this social proletariat ‘depressed classes’ and Gandhiji called them ‘Harijans’, a Sanskritic, sophistic substitute to upgrade at least in name this subhumanised category. Their status substantially remained the same and "Harijan" became a blend of the pejorative and the sanctimonious, without the higher castes integrating them, with egalitarian passion, into a casteless Hindu fold.Dr Ambedkar, himself a Dalit, fought this malignant degradation and tried his best to set his brethren free as equal members of the Indian society. He battled and wrote into the Constitution purposeful provisions to prevent caste victimisation and promote the Dalits’ socio-economic status. Dr Ambedkar was a human catalyst of social action against injustice to the suppressed sector of the Indian people – the Dalits. He was a dynamic figure who devoted himself to the cause of justice, freedom and dignity to the lowliest, the lost and the last in the socio-economic hierarchy. He rightly believed that political democracy without social and economic democracy is a double deception.Ambedkar’s legacy has not succeeded in breaking the status quo. He had felt that organisation, education and agitation would enable the Dalits to reverse caste prejudices. As it has turned out, Dalit political groups are totally disorganised. Education has only led to the emergence of an elite class, which has slowly distanced itself from agitational Dalit politics. Dalit movements have either been absorbed into mainstream parties or have degenerated into negative militancy.Activists bereft of any ideology are unwilling to disturb the existing caste equations.Almost all Dalit political leaders have showered only lip sympathy to the blood, sweat and tears of the Dalits, in order to get their votes, but with no intention of doing anything to ameliorate their conditions. These leaders and the elite among Dalits swallow the few jobs in the government and admissions to professional courses. Dalit politicians and leaders holding very high political posts have in practice proved to be "Uncle Toms" because of the compulsions of Indian polity. These self-seeking status quoits have only aided in pushing the outcasts out of our society, out of the mainstream.Ambedkar’s truthWhat Dr Ambedkar said long ago about the Dalit leaders being ‘selfish’ and quarrelsome on ‘petty matters’ is still true. Dalit activists 30 or 40 years ago may have been expected to launch agitations to create public awareness against atrocities against them in various parts of the country. The deification of Dr Ambedkar by building Ambedkar Bhavans and statues in every village appears to have taken precedence over any fight for equal rights. The real protection of the Dalits and other underprivileged sections in the community lies in their being organised and led in active mass movement committed to awaken them in defence of their interests. Guts at the political level and a willingness of the Dalit leaders to dirty their hands while organising the wretched of the Indian earth offer the only valid answer to the plight of Dalits in this country.Given the developing trend, the Dalits should stand up and fight for their rights. It would be futile to expect others to give them support with real change of heart. This can only be achieved by following intelligently Ambedkar’s exhortation: Educate, organise and agitate. A long, tortuous road lies ahead of the Dalits of India. And it is not an easy road either

Sept. 7, 2003
King and his dream
‘I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed...’ P N BENJAMIN recollects from this historic speech of Martin Luther King Jr

MARTIN Luther King Jr., a champion of human rights, was out against the hypocrisy of life in the US in the 1950s and 60s when the "American Negro was still sadly crippled by the manacle of segregation and the chains of discrimination". His leadership to the civil rights movements in the US changed the course of history, brought a new dimension of dignity to human life, and a new hope for freedom and peace.King’s civil rights campaigns had led to his arrest on numerous occasions. His campaigns had mixed success, but the protest he led in 1963 brought him worldwide attention. "I have a dream…" was how he prefaced each para of his famous speech delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C, after the Civil Rights March, on August 28, 1963. It electrified an inter-racial crowd of about 250,000. It is one of the most profound speeches of the last millennium. It culminates with the famous quote, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!"
"I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon of hope to millions of slaves, who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the coloured America is still not free. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition…This sweltering summer of the coloured people's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end but a beginning. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends; so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed - we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal…I have a dream that one day… the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.....I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.....I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by their character…I have a dream that one day … little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers....I have a dream that one day every valley shall be engulfed, every hill shall be exalted and every mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.This is our hope. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to climb up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning; "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father's died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!"So let freedom ring from every hill and molehill and every mountainside, let freedom ring! And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."Martin Luther King Jr. was a man who had hoped to be a Baptist preacher. The turning point in his thinking about how to reconcile his Christian pacifism with getting things done came while he was at the seminary in early 1950s, when he had learned about Mahatma Gandhi. King wrote in "Stride Toward Freedom: "Gandhi was probably the first person in history to lift the love ethic of Jesus above mere interaction between individuals to a powerful and effective social force on a large scale…It was in this Gandhian emphasis on love and non violence that I discovered the method for social reform that I had been seeking for so many months."By the time he was killed on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. had led millions of people into shattering forever the American system of segregation of the races. He had fashioned a mass black electorate that eliminated overt racism from political campaigns and accumulated political power for blacks beyond any they had ever possessed in the United States. Above all, he brought a new and higher
dimension of human dignity to black people’s lives.
Martin Luther King Jr. always pleaded for positive, constructive action. The triple evils of poverty, racism, and war were his concerns wherever they were found in the world. He devoted his life to the process of uprooting them. By reaching into and beyond ourselves and tapping the transcendent ethic of love, we, in India too, can overcome these evils in our society. Love, truth, and the courage to do what’s right should be our own guideposts on this lifelong journey

4 June 2004
It’s sixty years since the ‘longest day’On the 60th anniversary of the Normandy landing, today, P N BENJAMIN narrates the sequence of events that tilted the balance of power in the continent on that fateful day, which came to be known forever as ‘D-Day’.
"Believe me Lang, the first twenty-four hours of the invasion will be decisive…the fate of Germany depends on the outcome. For the Allies as well as Germany, it will be the longest day." Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, to his aide on April 22, 1944.‘Operation Overlord’, the Allied invasion of Europe, began at precisely 15 minutes past midnight on June 6, 1944 – in the first hour of a day that would be forever known as ‘D-Day’. At that moment, a few specially-chosen men from the American and British Airborne divisions stepped out of their planes into the moonlit night over Normandy. These were the pathfinders, the men who were to light the drop zones for the paratroops and glider-borne infantry that were soon to follow.The Allied airborne armies clearly marked the extreme limits of the Normandy battlefield. Between them and along the French coastline lay five invasion beaches: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. Through the hours before dawn, as paratroopers fought in the dark hedgerows of Normandy, the greatest armada the world had ever known began to assemble off those beaches – almost 5,000 ships carrying more than two lakh soldiers, sailors and coastguardsmen. Beginning at 6.30 am and preceded by a massive naval and air bombardment, a few thousand of these men waded ashore in the first wave of the invasion to regain a foothold on a terrorised and devastated Continent. The invasion of Normandy is considered the decisive battle of the war in Western Europe. Before this battle, the German Army still firmly occupied France and the Low Countries, the Nazi government still had access to the raw materials and industrial capacity of Western Europe, and local resistance to Nazi rule was disorganised and not very effective. After the successful invasion of France and the expansion of the initial beachheads, the Allied armies moved over to the offensive. ‘Overlord’ proved a psychological and physical blow to German military fortunes from which they would never recover.By late 1943, detailed planning for the invasion had taken place and significant forces and material had been gathered in Britain. The naval component of the operation, code named ‘Operation Neptune’, comprised a large number of warships, auxiliaries and landing craft. In all, Britain, Canada, and the United States, as well as the navies-in-exile of France, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Greece, supplied 1,213 warships for the invasion. Their main task was to provide shore bombardment firepower for the troops going ashore, to guard the transports, and to conduct minesweeping and antisubmarine patrols on the flanks of the invasion corridor. The initial assault from landing ships and craft was on a five-division front between the Orne River and the Cotentin Peninsula. The region was divided into five landing beaches. The first two beaches were assigned to the largely American-manned Western Task Force and the other three were the responsibility of the British-dominated Eastern Task Force. Although the Allies faced impressive German defenses, which were heavily fortified with concrete, wire, and other outworks, they knew from experience that an initial lodgment was impossible to prevent. The overall battle itself, however, would be decided by the ability of the Allies to reinforce their initially-weak beachhead by sea as compared to the easier movement of German reinforcements by land. The Allies believed they would have the advantage in such a race since they enjoyed superior concentration of force on the beaches --provided by the guns of the mobile warships-- and virtually dominated the air over northern France.
On June 5, 1944, the thousands of ships and craft taking part in ‘Operation Neptune’ put to sea and began gathering in assembly areas southeast of the Isle of Wight. From there, many passed through the channels swept through the German defensive minefields and moved into their respective waiting areas before dawn on June 6. Hundreds of antisubmarine escorts and patrol planes protected the flanks of these assault convoys. Between 05:30 and 05:50, the Allied gunfire support task groups began bombarding prearranged targets along the beaches.The landing at Utah beach began at 06:30 and the US fourth division advanced rapidly toward its initial objectives. There was stiff German resistance at Omaha beach. It took a combination of short-range destroyer gunnery support, aerial bombardment and desperate infantry assaults to break the German defenses. It was not until noon that the US First and 29th divisions crossed the beach line in force. The British sector proceeded more smoothly. The landings at Sword and Juno beaches which began at 07:30 and 07:35 respectively, proceeded apace and the British Third and Canadian Third divisions moved inland by early afternoon. It wasn’t until nightfall that the Gold beach was secured.After overrunning the German beach defenses, the Allies rapidly expanded the individual beachheads, and the workhorse amphibious craft quickly reinforced the lodgment with new troops, munitions and supplies. Superior Allied naval and shore-based artillery then helped defeat the initial German counter-attacks at the same time that Allied dominance of the air hindered the transportation of German reinforcements to the region. By July 25, the Allies were strong enough to launch ‘Operation Cobra’ and begin the liberation of France.In a larger strategic sense, the successful Allied landing in France was a psychological blow to the German occupation of Europe. It called into question the German Army’s ability to control western Europe, dramatically increased partisan activity against enemy occupation, and heartened the spirits of all those fighting against Nazi tyranny. The balance of power on the continent, already weakened by Soviet offensives into Poland, was decisively tipped into the Allied’s favour. From that point on, the Allies would begin the drive into Germany that ultimately destroyed the Nazi regime on May 7, 1945

He walked humbly with God
Rev Stanley Samartha was a Christian priest who believed in religious pluralism and the need for inter-faith dialogue, writes P N BENJAMIN
REV Dr Stanley Samartha, who died on July 22, 2001, was, as he himself boldly stated, "a Hindu by culture, Christian by faith, Indian by citizenship and ecumenical by choice". He was an instrument of peace, a channel and an avenue through which Jesus’ love and compassion flowed out to others, and sought in every endeavour to encounter his living God.
He was an ordained priest of the Church of South India for over fifty years. He was the Principal of the Karnataka Theological College, Mangalore and later of the Serampore College, West Bengal. He was also a professor at the United Theological College, Bangalore. Dr Samartha was the first director of the Inter-Faith Dialogue Programme of the World Council of Churches in Geneva from 1970 to 1981.To gather a few strands about the life and philosophy of Samartha is a daunting task. He was an original thinker and a scholar par excellence. His critical studies led him to write extensively scholarly works on a gamut of contemporary issues, like the need for inter-faith dialogue, religious pluralism, communalism, culture etc., in addition to Christian theology.
Some of his major works are: The Hindu Response to the Unbound Christ, Courage for Dialogue, One Christ – Many Religions, The Pilgrim Christ, The Other Side of the River, The Search for New Hermeneutics in Asian Christian Theology and Between Two Cultures.
Samartha was a "Christian prophet of religious pluralism". In a religiously plural world, wrote Stanley Samartha, "a plurality of scriptures is to be expected. But, several questions arise in this connection. In a multi-religious community there are different scriptures which are accepted as authoritative by their respective adherents. But can the authority of one scripture be extended to operate over other communities of faith who have their own scriptures? Who decides?"
According to Samartha, "the search for understanding among people of differing faiths is the need of the hour. The role of different religious communities in a common search for justice and peace and in unfolding their theological and spiritual resources will enable followers of different religions to enter into dialogue with integrity and hope. It is not only intellectual understanding that is required of those who encounter neighbours of other faiths but also a need for the courage to be free and open in such meetings. It is a challenge to all of us who live in a country of religious pluralism. It is a call to overcome the fear of losing one’s identity, of being shaken in one’s comfortable beliefs, of being confronted with and perhaps compelled to acknowledge the truth in another camp, of recognising that the stranger at the gate might turn out to be a fellow pilgrim".
To Samartha "genuine dialogue demands humility and love. Dialogue is both an expression of faith and a sign of hope. Dialogue also demands a level of consciousness that refuses to take an easy course to the spiritual and so waits for answers, however tentative they may turn out to be. Dialogue does not accept the gulf between religions as permanent, and asks people of each tradition to re-tread the path they have travelled in history". He believed: "Inter-religious dialogues can eliminate religious conflicts and intolerances. It will be easier for one to understand the best in another religion when one understands the best in one's own religion.
Thus, true loyalty to the best in one’s religion is hardly ever in conflict with the best in other religions…"
He was deeply concerned about the wounded humanity, torn apart by many conflicts, and also the challenge of preserving the cultural diversities against the background of aggressive mission or evangelisation. He always reminded his fellow pilgrims in the inter-faith journey: "Too often, religious communities themselves are part of the problem. Unless this is recognised they cannot provide any answer to the problem." He warned against the violent, oppressive structures that play the hide and seek game during communal conflicts. "Preaching sermons on salvation or peace or moksha is of little use to starving and oppressed people of our country or elsewhere".Samartha was a bold pioneer who opened new paths for Christian belief and action. He believed that a rigid interpretation of orthodox Christological doctrines is an obstacle to dialogue with persons of other faiths.
Sensitive to charges of sentiments of racial and cultural superiority that stem from Christians believing themselves as "uniquely authorised agents of God", he challenged Christians to admit the truth of these accusations, and to revise their understanding of Jesus. "Without such Christological revisions Christianity may cease to be Christian, may become enfeebled in the pursuit of justice for the oppressed, alienated from the deeper challenges of Jesus, sealed off from the truths of other religions, and ultimately, may be barred from experiencing the rich and mysterious encounter of God".On the question of conversion, Stanley Samartha affirmed: "If it is recognised that real conversion is not from one religion to another but from unbelief to God, and that ‘mission’ is not the church's work but God's, then the implications of this in the context of religious pluralism must be more openly acknowledged."In another occasion he made the point still more explicit: "In a religiously plural world the mission of the church is not to make other people Christian but to invite people to enter the Kingdom of God". He explained that "the Kingdom is present wherever people are being transformed by Jesus Christ, showing the marks of love and self-sacrifice in their commitment of human liberation", even if for many in countries such as India, such transformation does not lead to baptised membership of the institutional church. According to Samartha, "Christ's call to conversion as a turning towards God stands; what it need not imply is conversion to Christianity".Deeds and words of righteousness are what make a good and godly man. And these were the stuff of Dr Samartha’s life. His life was a humble walk with God in the difficult journey on the path of interfaith dialogue along with his fellow-pilgrims - seldom visible to people, even to himself. Yes, his was a life not lived to be visible, approved and applauded. It is not a subject to our pietistic judgement but thrives upon its simplicity and straightforwardness, even dispensing with the culturally prescribed norms of social behaviour. Its deceptive lack of visibility makes for depth and a hidden richness. (July 20, 2003)

Prelude to Partition (15 Aug. 2004)P N BENJAMIN retells the story of the single largest episode of uprooting of people in modern history that saw around 14 million leaving their homes.
The summer of 1947 was not like other Indian summers. Even the weather had a different feel in India that year. It was hotter than usual, and drier and dustier. And the summer was longer. No one could remember when the monsoon had been so late. For weeks, the sparse clouds cast only shadows. There was no rain. People began to say that God was punishing them for their sins.Some of them had a good reason to feel that they had sinned. The summer before, communal riots, precipitated by reports of the proposed division of the country into a Hindu India and a Muslim Pakistan, had broken out in Calcutta, and within a few months the death toll had mounted to several thousands. Muslims said the Hindus had planned and started the killing. According to the Hindus, the Muslims were to blame. The fact is, both sides killed. Both shot and stabbed and speared and clubbed. Both tortured. Both raped.By the summer of 1947, when the creation of the new state of Pakistan was formally announced, ten million people – Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs – were in flight. By the time the monsoon broke, almost a million of them were dead. And all of northern India was in arms, in terror, or in hiding. The only remaining oases of peace were a scatter of little villages lost in the remote reaches of the frontier.At dawn on August 16, 1946, in Calcutta, Muslim mobs howling in a quasi-religious fervour came bursting from their slums, waving clubs, iron bars, shovels, any instrument capable of smashing a human skull. They came to answer the call issued by Muslim League, proclaiming August 16 "Direct Action Day", to prove to Britain and the Congress Party that India’s Muslims were prepared "to get Pakistan for themselves by ‘Direct Action’ if necessary. They savagely beat to a pulp any Hindu in their path and left the bodies in the city’s open gutters.Later, the Hindu mobs came storming out of their neighbourhood, looking for defenceless Muslims to slaughter. Never, in all its violent history, had Calcutta known twenty-four hours as savage, as packed with human viciousness. Like water-soaked logs, scores of bloated cadavers bobbed down the Hoogly river toward the sea. Other corpses, savagely mutilated, littered the city’s streets. Everywhere, the weak and the helpless suffered most. Calcutta killingsBy the time the slaughter was over, Calcutta belonged to the vultures. In filthy grey packs they scudded across the sky, tumbling down to gorge themselves on the bodies of the city’s 6000 dead. The Great Calcutta’s Killings, as they became known, changed the course of India’s history. Mullahs roamed the Punjab and the Frontier Province with boxes of human skulls said to be those of Muslims killed in Bihar. Hundreds of thousands of Hindus and Sikhs who had lived for centuries on the Northwest Frontier abandoned their homes and fled towards the protection of the predominantly Sikh and Hindu communities in the east. They travelled on foot, in bullock carts, crammed into lorries, clinging to the sides and roofs of trains. Along the way – at fords, at crossroads, at railroad stations – they collided with panicky swarms of Muslims fleeing to the safety of the west. The riots had become a routine.Civil warThe threat that the Muslims had been uttering for years, their warnings that a cataclysm would overtake India if they were denied their state, took on a terrifying reality. Suddenly India was confronted by the awful vision that had sickened Gandhi and sent him into the jungles of Noakhali: Civil war. To Jinnah, that prospect now became the tool with which to pry India apart. In August 1946 itself Jinnah, flinging the gauntlet down to Congress and to the British, had vowed: "We shall have India divided or we shall have India destroyed."Could the Partition have been avoided? What led to the Partition? Was it necessary to concede the demand for Pakistan? Was so much bloodshed avoidable? How did British administration and Indian communal politicians manipulate people towards such a hideous end? These questions have troubled many, in the sub-continent, since 1947. Based on extensive research on official documents and other material many have come to the conclusion – it was unnecessary.The Congress Party leadership, especially, Nehru and Patel, are held to be culpable along with Jinnah, Mountbatten and many British civil and military officials. "If Nehru had followed the lead of Mahatma Gandhi and Maulana Azad a united India would have resulted. The latter favoured the British Cabinet Mission’s proposal based on a confederation. He suggests that Nehru was overtly influenced by the Hindu business community who feared their economic dominance would be diluted. However, it is not easy to dismiss the fears of Balkanisation of India under the Cabinet Mission plan, which had been articulated even by an outsider like Ambedkar.By August 1947 Jinnah and the Muslim League could not have settled for anything less than Pakistan. Once the communal carnage had been let loose, their ability to compromise evaporated. Nehru and many of his contemporaries in India did believe that the Partition was temporary. But the series of Indo-Pak conflicts, the decision of Bangladesh to retain separate identity and the present level of sectarian passion prevalent in the sub-continent indicate that this was unduly optimistic.Down to the present day, the partition remains the single largest episode of the uprooting of people in modern history, as between 12 to 14 million left their home to take up residence across the border. The estimates of how many people died vary immensely, generally hovering in the 500,000 to 1.5 million range.

VIJAY TIMES ARTICLES PART
ARTICLES IN VIJAY TIMES
COULD PARTITION HAVE BEEN AVERTED?* (Sunday Vijay Times, June 12, 2005)P.N.BENJAMINThe threat that the Muslims had been uttering for years, their warnings that a cataclysm would overtake India if they were denied their state, took on a terrifying reality. Suddenly India was confronted by the awful vision that had sickened Gandhi and sent him into the jungles of Noakhali: Civil war. To Jinnah, that prospect now became the tool with which to pry India apart. In August 1946 itself Jinnah, flinging the gauntlet down to Congress and to the British, had vowed: "We shall have India divided or we shall have India destroyed."At dawn on August 16, 1946, in Calcutta, Muslim mobs howling in a quasi-religious fervour came bursting from their slums, waving clubs, iron bars, shovels, any instrument capable of smashing a human skull. They came to answer the call issued by Muslim League, proclaiming August 16 "Direct Action Day", to prove to Britain and the Congress Party that India’s Muslims were prepared "to get Pakistan for themselves by ‘Direct Action’ if necessary." They savagely beat to a pulp any Hindu in their path and left the bodies in the city’s open gutters. Soon tall pillars of black smoke stretched up from a score of spots in the city, Hindu bazars in full blaze.Later, the Hindu mobs came storming out of their neighbourhood, looking for defenceless Muslims to slaughter. Never, in all its violent history, had Calcutta known twenty-four hours as savage, as packed with human viciousness. Like water-soaked logs, scores of bloated cadavers bobbed down the Hoogly river toward the sea. Other corpses, savagely mutilated, littered the city’s streets. Everywhere, the weak and the helpless suffered most. At one intersection, a line of Muslim coolies lay beaten to death where a Hindu mob had found them, between the pole of their rickshaws. By the time the slaughter was over, Calcutta belonged to the vultures. In filthy grey packs they scudded across the sky, tumbling down to gorge themselves on the bodies of the city’s six thousand dead. The Great Calcutta’s Killings, as they became known, changed the course of India’s history. They triggered bloodshed in Noakhali, where Gandhi was, in Bihar, and on the other side of the subcontinent, in Bombay.Mullahs roamed the Punjab and the Frontier Province with boxes of human skulls said to be those of Muslims killed in Bihar. Hundreds of thousands of Hindus and Sikhs who had lived for centuries on the Northwest Frontier abandoned their homes and fled towards the protection of the predominantly Sikh and Hindu communities in the east. They travelled on foot, in bullock carts, crammed into lorries, clinging to the sides and roofs of trains. Along the way – at fords, at crossroads, at railroad stations – they collided with panicky swarms of Muslims fleeing to the safety in the west. The riots had become a routine.The summer of 1947 was not like other Indian summers. Even the weather had a different feel in India that year. It was hotter than usual, and drier and dustier. And the summer was longer. No one could remember when the monsoon had been so late. For weeks, the sparse clouds cast only shadows. There was no rain. People began to say that God was punishing them for their sins.Some of them had a good reason to feel that they had sinned. The summer before, communal riots, precipitated by reports of the proposed division of the country into a Hindu India and a Muslim Pakistan, had broken out in Calcutta, and within a few months the death toll had mounted to several thousands. Muslims said the Hindus had planned and started the killing. According to the Hindus, the Muslims were to blame. The fact is that both sides killed. Both shot and stabbed and speared and clubbed. Both tortured. Both raped. By the summer of 1947, when the creation of the new state of Pakistan was formally announced, ten million people – Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs – were in flight. By the time the monsoon broke, almost a million of them were dead. And all of northern India was in arms, in terror, or in hiding. The only remaining oases of peace were a scatter of little villages lost in the remote reaches of the frontier.Could the Partition have been avoided? This question has troubled many in the sub-continent since 1947. What led to the Partition? Was it necessary to concede demand for Pakistan? Was so much bloodshed avoidable? How did British administration and Indian communal politicians manipulate people towards such a hideous end? These questions have troubled many, in the sub-continent, since 1947. Based on extensive research on official documents and other material many have come to the conclusion – it was unnecessary.The Congress Party leadership, especially, Nehru and Patel, are held to be culpable along with Jinnah, Mountbatten and many British civil and military officials. By August 1947 Jinnaha and the Muslim League could not have settled or anything less than Pakistan. Once the communal carnage had been let loose, their ability to compromise evaporated The actions of some departing British and civil and military officials favouring Pakistan because of personal loyalties or because of realpolitik visions of British and Western interests have been well documented and can also possibly be regarded as a conspiracy hatched against India.In retrospect it has been said: "If Nehru had followed the lead of Mahatma Gandhi and Maulana Azad a united India would have resulted. The latter favoured the British Cabinet Mission’s proposal based on a confederation. (Baren Ray: "Partition of India and other related matters"). He suggests that Nehru was overtly influenced by the Hindu business community who feared their economic dominance would be diluted. However, it is not easy to dismiss the fears of Balkanisation of India under the Cabinet Mission plan, which had been articulated even by an outsider like Ambedkar.Nehru and many of his contemporaries in India did believe that the Partition was temporary. But the series of Indo-Pak conflicts, the decision of Bangladesh to retain separate identity and the present level of sectarian passion prevalent in the sub-continent indicate that this was unduly optimistic.Partition is moving into history. We need to study it even more carefully and objectively than was done in the past. It is, therefore, time for us to move away from our old mindset and accept the new realities. That is exactly what Mr. Advani has tried to do in his speeches in Pakistan. But so long as sectarianism and narrow provincialism are allowed to poison the minds of the people, so long as there are ambitious men and women with corruption inside them, seeking power and position, so long will people continue to be deluded and misled, as the Muslim masses were deluded and misled by the Muslim League leaders, and so long will discord and disruption continue to threaten peace and security of millions in the subcontinent.P.N.BENJAMINbenjaminpn@hotmail.comB-1, Lan Castle,186 Wheeler Road Extn.,Bangalore 560 084* Sunday Vijay Times, 12 June 2005

Friday, May 20, 2005

WHY ARE WE STLL IN DARK AGES?
WHY ARE WE STILL IN DARK AGES?(Vijay Times, 18 May 2005)P.N.BENJAMINIndian law sets 18 as the minimum age for a woman to marry and 21 for a man. When Indian Parliament adopted the Child Marriage Restraint Act in 1978, legislators hoped that the statute would curb child marriages and the social ills they perpetuate. Concern focused on an arc of populous northern states where child marriages are most deeply rooted: Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.Child marriage is illegal but many rural children are still forcibly married on Akha Teej, an auspicious Hindu day traditionally used in some rural areas as a date for child marriages. Girls, some as young as six months old, are married to older boys every year during this controversial annual festival held usually in late April or early May. The authorities and various social activists have been trying to stop them for years, but they have been largely unsuccessful. Women's groups and social activists have gone to villages to urge people not to marry off their young daughters. But the efforts appear to have been largely in vain. Now there are attempts to encourage families to delay the date when the married daughters leave home to join their husbands, when the marriages are actually consummated. Recently, in Madhya Pradesh, a social worker Shakuntala Verma had her one hand severed and the other badly wounded in an attack when she was trying to stop child marriages in Bhangarh village.While Shakuntala lay critically wounded in hospital, the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Babulal Gaur responded to the attack by throwing up his hands to high heavens and said: "The law to prevent child marriage is so ancient. But even after so many years of the law coming into being, child marriages continue to take place. We cannot stop it forcefully. What is required is awareness." Why should we criticise him for his supposedly thoughtless and heartless comments? Haven’t we heard such reactions before? Gaur is not the first politician to do so nor would he be the last. Here’s a little history. In 1994 the National Commission for Women urged the Congress government at the Centre, headed by Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, to consolidate the separate marriage laws that exist for each of the major religious communities -- Hindu, Muslim and Christian -- and to include a provision requiring that all marriages be legally registered. That, the Commission reasoned, could be used to bar any under-age marriages. But the government rejected the proposal, as did its successor, the United Front government headed by Prime Minister Deve Gowda, in 1996. "It has been the consistent policy of the government not to interfere in the personal laws of the distinct communities unless the initiative comes from the communities themselves," the government said in a statement then. "The government is of the view that it is only through social and economic upliftment of these sections of the community that the practice can be eradicated." Sociologists trace the origin of child marriages to Muslim invasions that began more than a thousand years ago. The havoc unleashed during Muslim rule led to panic in Hindu society. Through enticement or, more usually, by wielding the sword Muslims started mass conversions of Hindus. Partly in reaction to this desperate situation Hindus started degenerate practices such as child marriage and sati. Legend has it that the invaders raped unmarried Hindu girls or carried them off as booty, prompting Hindu communities to marry off their daughters almost from birth to protect them. Today, the stories have an echo in the local view that any girl reaching puberty without getting married will fall prey to sexual depredations.Tradition has been reinforced by necessity. Securing early marriages for daughters can mean the difference between subsistence and hunger. In many cases documented by sociologists, girls as young as six or seven have been taken away by their husbands' families to begin working as servants or field hands. After all, with the addition of a girl to the household, the in-laws get a laborer, someone who will feed the cattle and clear the house, a servant who comes free of cost.Child marriages contribute to virtually every social problem that keeps India behind in women's rights. The problems include soaring birth rates, grinding poverty and malnutrition, high illiteracy and infant mortality, and low life expectancy, especially among rural women. In Rajasthan, a survey of more than 5,000 women conducted by the government showed that 56 percent had married before they were 15. Of those, 3 percent married before they were 5 and another 14 percent before they were 10. Barely 18 percent were literate, and only 3 percent used any form of birth control other than sterilization. Large families and poor health for children and mothers were among the results. The survey showed that of every 1,000 births, 73 children died in infancy, and 103 were under the age of 5 when they died. Sixty-three percent of children under 4 were found to be severely undernourished. Average life expectancy for women was 58. In every case, the figures were among the worst for any Indian state. Social workers report that many husbands ‘get tired’ of their marriages after the third, fourth or fifth child, when their wives are still teen-agers. Alcoholism contributes to domestic violence, with sometimes fatal beatings. In some cases, husbands sell their wives, and even their unmarried daughters, as sexual partners to other men. In scores of cases every year, village women strike back by killing their husbands, only to face long terms in prison. A few pertinent questions could be asked at this stage. Who are the guilty ones in perpetuating social evils like child marriages? Who has been ruling this country – at the Centre and in States – for the last 58 years? It is the Congress party, which swore to protect the interests of the poor and the oppressed, children, women and men alike. It should be remembered that every single one of the leading protagonists and social reformers in the long-running political drama of musical chairs has been a Congress, or a Communist or a Socialist politician – except for a few years during the BJP-led governments. However, it must be borne in mind that the BJP governments in MP and Rajasthan also seem to have done precious little to cure the villagers of their superstitious beliefs and obscurantism.P.N.BENJAMINbenjaminpn@hotmail.com

Thursday, May 12, 2005

CONVERT TO GOD OR.....?
CONVERT TO GOD OR CHRISTIANITY?P.N. Benjamin* "If the churches were engaged in conversion spree, the whole of India would have been Christianised," claimed one Richard Howell of Evangelical Fellowship of India, writing in a Bangalore daily some time ago. I reacted swiftly and sharply in the same paper three days later, wondering whether the guy wasn’t living in the proverbial fool’s paradise. Wasn’t he touchingly naive and provocative? And I prayed: "Father, forgive him, for he knows not what he is talking."No one can deny that genuine conversions do take place through the influence of one individual on another. In the mid-1970s, a lovely Canadian girl came to Bangalore on a Government of India scholarship to learn Bharata Natyam. (She was staying with the late Dr. Fredrick Mulyil and Mrs. Gladys Mulyil. Dr Mulyil was a Professor at the United Theological College and Mrs. Mulyil, Professor of English Language and Literature at the Central College, Bangalore. I was their neighbour.) Like most of her generation in the West, she was an agnostic. She was U.S. Krishna Rao’s star pupil and made her debut in six months. One day she met Mother Teresa. She fell under her spell. She abandoned dance and donned the robes of a nun. "You are a born artist. How dare you become a nun?"—Krishna Rao raged in vain. She went to Calcutta and later to Mexico where she was working in a slum when I last heard about her. Not even the RSS or the VHP could quarrel with such a conversion. But when a well-organised body financed by foreign money begins to shift a whole herd of people from one caste to another one begins to suspect their motives.Some forty years ago, a brilliant Danish Professor, Dr Kaaj Baggo, in the United Theological College, Bangalore, made history when he said: "Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists should never give up their religion for the Christian Church." On the other hand the Church should humble itself and find ways of identifying with other groups, taking Christ with them Christ, he said, was not the chairman of the Christian party. If God is the Lord of the universe he will work through every culture and religion. We must give up the crusading spirit of the colonial era and stop singing weird hymns like "Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war". This will lead to Hindu Christianity or Buddhist Christianity.It may involve the disappearance of the Indian Christian community, but he reminded us "a grain of wheat remains a solitary grain unless it falls to the ground and dies". Needless to say, the Indian Christians were furious. He left the College, the Church and the mission and took refuge with the Danish Foreign Service! He later returned to India as his country’s Ambassador and died in harness in 1988.About a hundred and fifty years ago England was sending out a very important Anglican Church dignitary as Metropolitan of Calcutta. The Brahmin priests got wind of it. They were perturbed. This foreign religion might become a threat to their own traditions. They must investigate. So, they sent one of their men to assess the situation. He wandered around the city till he came to the Bishop’s residence. It was a vast sprawling opulent mansion. As he stood at the gate, the great man walked down the steps, dressed in his magnificent robes. He stepped into the waiting carriage drawn by two horses with a postillion sitting at the rear. The Brahmin returned to his friends. "Have no fears," he said. "This is not a religion we need to fear." The priests were relieved for the pomp and splendour of organised Christianity holds no appeal for any genuine seeker after truth.The most precious freedom that Indian Christians enjoy is to hold Jesus Christ as their saviour, as the Son of God, as the "only true divinity". It is their absolute right to cherish that belief—and if any Hindu outfit or government tries to impeach upon that liberty, then definitely Indian Christians should fight tooth and nail for their religious privileges. They would be justified to speak about Hindu fundamentalism, saffron brigade or Hindutva. But the moment Christianity tries to impose this belief of only one true God—Jesus Christ—on the world, then it is itself impeaching upon the freedom of others. For this belief of the "onlyness of our God" as the real one and all others are false is at the root of many misunderstandings, wars and terrorism.If "all religions are ultimately for the welfare and salvation of humankind", then conversion is absurd. The Church leaders have miserably failed to take care of the 16 million Dalits converted to Christianity. Besides, indiscriminate conversion has ruined the spirit of Christianity into savagery. Christianity is a path of life paved with suffering and service. Christ said: "If anyone wants to follow me, let him take up the cross and follow me." The Indian Christian leaders want the government to carry the Cross of Dalit Christians!Christians form just about 2.5 per cent of the Indian population. "Very often they have to depend not so much on their rights as on the goodwill and generosity of the powerful majority Hindu community. Christians in India are dependent in a double sense, on the goodwill of the Hindus and on the Churches in the West whose fellowship sustains them and whose affluence often supports them. Judging from numbers there is hardly any equality in relationship. But Christians in India can play a creative and critical role in the life of our nation. What matters most is the quality of their life as Christians and the courage of their faith." (Dr Stanley Samartha, Courage for Dialogue). While Christ’s call to conversion is a turning towards God stands what it need not imply is conversion to Christianity.Christianity in today’s India with a renascent Hinduism faces an unprecedented crisis. If it is alive to the situation and sensitive to the signs of time, it has to rethink itself, reorient itself, and rediscover its basic substance and interpret that in terms acceptable to the Indian mind and genius.P.N.BENJAMINbenjaminpn@hotmail.comVijay Times, May 12, 2005

NORTH EAST COMPLEXITIES
NORTH EAST COMPLEXITIES IN PERSPECTIVE*(Vijay Times, 4 May 2005)By P.N.BENJAMINIn an interview to the BBC World, the general secretary of the National Socialist Council of NagalandSCN, Thuingaleng Muviah has said: " It’s not possible for the Nagas to come within the Indian Union or within the framework of the Indian Constitution. Nagaland was never a part of India. Sovereignty of the Naga people belongs to the Naga people alone." He demanded the integration of all Naga areas outside the present boundaries of Nagaland with the Greater Nagaland within a reasonable time frame. "We do not want our people to live under the Assamese, Manipuris or others. Our areas were forcibly occupied. We want them back to protect and pursue our own culture, our own way of living and our traditions. How can Nagas be ruled by ‘foreigners’?"He added that the slogan "Nagaland for Christ" did not mean that he intended to set up a theocratic state. "Because more than 95 per cent of the population is Christian naturally they have to profess that way.... Nagalim or Greater Nagaland has to be secular. If it is not secular then we will be betraying ourselves." Thus, the eight-year-long negotiations - 41 rounds of dialogue, to be precise, - between the Government of India and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muviah)- the biggest outfit fighting for Naga independence - have hit a major roadblock. The Naga separatists claim that Nagas had never been part of British or post-British India. This might be true. But you cannot hark back to what used to be more than 100 years ago. The Hydaari Agreement of June 27, 1947, which the Nagas accepted, said they would be free to choose for themselves the precise pattern of administration within the Constitution of India. They went back on the undertaking when Constituent Assembly Committee incorporated the conditions of the agreement in the Sixth Schedule for safeguarding the Naga demands. There might be resentments. What should people of India make of the Nagas participating in the assembly and parliament elections and nearly 60 per cent of them turning out to vote? The government in Kohima is that of the Nagas and come through the process of polls.Alteration in the boundaries of any state is a dangerous proposition. No political party or leader has the courage to raise the issue, much less convince a state to part with its territory. If a state were to be touched without its consent, there would be civil strife everywhere. Some boundary disputes, dating back to 1955, are still working against ethnic groups because no state wants to give up its claim on the territory that was once its own. In short, it is important for the Naga secessionists to realise that it is not possible for the Government of India to expand Nagaland at the expense of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal.Yes, many if not most, Nagas would prefer to be independent and sovereign rather than part of India. Should we permit Nagaland to break away, the latent nationalisms in other parts of Indian states could flare up. As Yugoslavia has shown, it does not take much for a supposedly "united" federation to disintegrate into a squabbling congeries of peoples.The reasons for the continued insurgency in Nagaland and elsewhere in the NE are not far to seek. One of them is, of course, lack of development. Then, the insurgent outfits thrive because at one level, existing international borders are porous; at another, liberally buffetted by their friends and benefactors, residing abroad, and politicians playing a double-game at home, the insurgents have had everything going for them. Add to that the combination of terror and sympathy both among the common masses, and we have fairly clear picture of the North East.The insurgents have been recipients of foreign funds and arms in massive quantities. The Indian State can be said to have utterly failed to check the huge largesse. Half-hearted attempts in the shape of legislation cannot obviously work as a useful check, because the funds and arms have now become part of a hard-to-break-established chain. It shows the inability of successive Indian governments to grapple with the problem with a sense of urgency and commitment.In all fairness it must be said that the role of Christian missionaries in the secessionist activities in North East India has not been above reproach. In 1970, in the Rajya Sabha, the late Mr. Joachim Alva had reminded the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi: "foreign money was poured into India’s borders and the Nagaland problem was damaged by the flow of funds from Churches abroad." In the guise of uplifting the backward classes, the fundamentalist Protestant missionaries have been engaged in a massive proselytisation drive for several decades now. Their main targets have been the gullible tribals in the hill regions and other backward classes in the plains of Brahmaputra valley. Although the proselytising activities themselves should be a cause for concern, a more disconcerting aspect of the missionary activity has been their tendency to influence the politics of the North-East region. Delivering the Zakir Hussein Memorial Lecture on "Secularism &Minorities", on 30 November 1979 in Bangalore, the late Prof. V.V.John, the noted educationist had said: "Christians have also an obligation to take note of the circumstances that a section of the Christians of tribal origin in the North-Eastern region adopted secessionist attitude. And some diehards still persist in their original stance. The non-Christian sees in this phenomenon a failure on the part of Christians to keep politics out of religion, as they in their secular moments counsel others to do."The missionaries have been active in the North-East because of the failure on the part of the Centre as well as the state governments to address themselves to the basic problems facing the people. If the idea is to make the Indian State and its measures popular in one of the most neglected parts of the country, step-motherly attitudes should give way to really genuine ones. It is also true that the state governments, central and para military forces have often been guilty of mistaking repression for a remedy to endemic terrorism. Certainly one form of terror cannot be countered by resorting to another; after all, as is well known, the socio-political roots of insurgency need to be understood and eradicated if any lasting peace is to be provided to a region which has seldom had any respite from the cult of the gun.P.N.BENJAMINbenjaminpn@hotmail.com

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

RAPE, AN INCURABLE SOCIAL DISEASE?
RAPE, AN INCURABLE SOCIAL DISEASE?*(*Vijay Times, Bangalore, 27 April 2005)By P.N.BENJAMINRape is the one crime no woman is safe from. All over India, the incidence of this dastardly and damaging crime is steadily creeping up the police graphs. Virtually everyday one hears the ugly word: rape on minors, on children, old women, widows and so on. Every meek and powerless woman is a potential victim of rape. She is a faceless entity in the surge of humanity. Whether she is beautiful, ordinary or ugly, it doesn’t matter. How old is she? Under 10? Over 50? In her twenties? Who cares? What is her profession? Her socio-economic background? Her marital status? Immaterial.Another ghastly aspect of the crime is the growing incidence of rape by policemen. In a chilling incident last week, a sixteen-year old school girl walking on Marine Drive in Bombay along with her friends was taken inside the police outpost by a motorcycle-borne policeman and raped her. The cases are legion, each one more horrifying than the other. Many of them get published in the media. But there are innumerable other atrocities, less extensively written about, which are sad reminders of the increasing venality of a nation. All this is happening in a country, which has always prided itself of having a long tradition of respecting women!Why does this thoroughly degrading crime take place? Ours is a nation where offenders get more smug by the day in the belief that no one can convict them anyway. The core, perhaps, is essentially callous attitude exhibited by many towards rape itself and a general contempt for the second sex, whether overt as in the case of a sex-offender or more subtle like the vast majority of males who steadfastly refuse to accept women as equals. Women are subjected to sexual harassment in the workplace, in the streets - a phenomenon which, despite its increasing crudeness, still goes by the innocuous appellation of ‘eve-teasing’ - and any other place offenders can get access to. The widely-held notion that every rapist is a candidate for the psychiatrist’s couch is a myth that needs to be shattered. The average sex offender is as normal as the man next door is. And, rape for him is merely a calculated, cold-blooded instrument of oppression or revenge, whether on individual women, a caste or class. The mass rape of womenfolk of the rural poor to crush an uprising and the regular brutalisation by policemen of helpless victims will bear out the statement.Numerous studies show that there is a definite relationship between common acceptance of myths justifying violence against women and actual anti-social behaviour against them. The commonly heard myths are: "When a woman says no, she means yes’, ‘She was provocatively dressed for it’, ‘She’s fair game’ etc. The audacious assumption in these attitudes is that women are not individuals, but property on whom it is perfectly admissible to unleash assault if they get ‘out of hand’. Thus, the cold statistics remain that babies of a few months and little girls under ten are regular rape victims; old women get raped. The majority of young victims of rape are not provocatively dressed or inviting sirens as some would have us believe, but they are the meek and the male-fearing ones who are raped simply because they were around.Crime is endemic to the human condition, but a crime specifically directed at women – rape - is the most despicable. It is unfortunately the one crime that is punished the least. Despite amendments in the rape law the official figures of reported rapes are on the increase and the rate of convictions low. With the rape graph spiralling and little interest on the part of law enforcement agencies to pay special attention to the crime, what can be done to contain this extreme form of violence against women?Despite all the hype and hyperbole, the protective laws and action plans, the seminars and speeches, walkathon and ‘women in black’ demonstrations and processions organised by foreign-funded NGOs, the basic patriarchal structures and attitudes have undergone very little change. The majority of women are still second class citizens, their worth measured purely in economic terms; how much work they can do inside and outside the home, how many male children they can bear, how much dowry they will bring.Long ago, the then Chief Justice of India, Mr. Chandrachud had said: "No amount of manipulation of the law by piecemeal amendments can help protect women’s honour, dignity and rights. The reason for rape and other such crimes is more due to moral values of the society than any other apparent reasons." This writer remembers that Justice V.D.Tulzapurkar had even suggested years ago introduction of public flogging as a punishment for rapists. Traumatised and often destroyed by the act itself, a woman has to further bear the strictures of a society that blames her in some way for a crime of which she is the victim, not the perpetrator. With the rape graph spiralling and little interest on the part of law enforcement agencies to pay special attention to the crime, people like this writer helplessly throw up their hands into high heavens and wonder what can be done to contain this extreme form of violence against women.Be that as it may, there is hardly any hope unless we respect our women and give them proper place in our hearts, minds and society. That she deserves this is beyond any doubt. Rape is a sordid crime, which is more than sectarian concern than a personal one. It should be attacked from all angles – legal, social and psychological. Morality too should not be forgotten. P.N.BENJAMINbenjaminpn@hotmail.com

Sunday, April 17, 2005

HOOCH TRAGEDIES: A SOCIETAL PERSPECTIVE
HOOCH TRAGEDIES: A SOCIETAL PERSPECTIVEBy P.N.BENJAMINTWENTY-four people, men and women, have "officially" died an agonising death last week in Nelamangala, near Bangalore, after consuming illicit liquor or hooch, laced liberally with the deadly chemical, methyl alcohol. Not a voice has been raised against the vendors of death. Not a single minute has been spared for condolences. And this does not seem to be a matter over which our politicians, intellectuals and secularists lose their sleep. But then, why should there be even a whimper over this trivial matter? Haven’t we absorbed greater shocks than this, as far as hooch tragedies are concerned?Nelamangala is not the first, nor will be the last and the worst liquor calamity. In one of the worst tragedies, 323 innocent people perished in Bangalore, in 1981. That was the official figure and all of us who wrote about it then knew that the number was an understatement. Liquor tragedies involving smaller numbers, some reported and some not, are constantly occurring in towns and villages all over the country.A feature common to all these tragedies is that the victims are invariably from the poorer sections of society. Vijay Times rightly pointed out in its report that most of the victims of the Nelamangala tragedy were from Scheduled Castes and were breadwinners of their families. What drives them to drink is their pathetic living and working conditions. Such people chronically ill and weak are poorly placed to resist the poisonous drink. It is a combination of an urgent need to drink – to escape from physical and spiritual discomforts, hard labour and the lack of physical stamina to bear the consequences of such indulgences that drive the victims to certain death.Poverty is the worst crime of all, said Bernard Shaw. It is the poor, the slum-dwellers, workers in cities and mines, fishermen and farm workers who go in for cheaper drink after a hard day’s work or to celebrate a marriage or festival. Exhortations to the poor to give up drinking appear pathetic and particularly sanctimonious when they come from those who are more fortunately placed. The poor have reason enough to know better than their moral exhorters that drinking does no good. The evidence is there all around them. It is there every moment of their lives. And yet, if a poor man takes to drink and persists in the habit even when he knows that every drink carried with it the possibility of blindness, paralysis and death, it is not because he is morally insensitive or degenerate; it is that the conditions of his life and work make it impossible for him to see the day through without the spurious feeling of well-being induced by drinking. But, the task of making the poor not to feel the need to drink to escape from living horrors of their existence is far more difficult than taking executive decisions to deprive people of liquor.Following last week’s tragedy, the Karnataka Government has "swung" into action - ordering a judicial inquiry, announcing compensation to the kith and kin of the victims and thundering declarations made that "stern action" against the offenders would be taken. Some bootleggers are arrested and a few police and excise officials are suspended or transferred, but no one knows the end result. It is obvious that methyl alcohol poisoning is the result of the free hand given to liquor contractors and private traders. The government machinery as well as vested interests are clearly responsible for the trail of horror. Those who have started out as small fry in the liquor business are now billionaires. Some of them have become MLAs and ministers. They are the kingmakers in several states, wielding control of underworld gangsters.As a result of high political connections of the liquor vendors, there is a near absence of will on the part of the authorities to deal "sternly " with them and their henchmen/women in the excise and police departments. Honest police officials will be pulled up for being over-zealous. It is an open secret that the local police are fully aware of the places of manufacture, bottling and selling points, but they choose to ignore them because they are the "gold mines". The big sharks are seldom caught; they have an elaborate system of arranging for the bail, defence and family welfare of their agents who may be caught and jailed! No wonder, the government’s vigilance squads and qualified analysts also have failed to end the activities of the vendors of death who distill, bottle and market the killer brew.All the past judicial inquiries into the liquor poisoning cases have evaporated into thin air with the passage of time. Does any remember the Bangalore tragedy of 1981 and the report of the Commission that inquired into it? Do you know that the Hooch Queen of the 1981-notoriety is today a highly "respected" and sought after politician?In the eyes of the law everything is neat and clear: he or she who has been instrumental in the death of many innocent lives must face the consequences. But the reality is more eloquent than law, and the reality tells us that those who have been guilty of mass murders are given all the facilities and privileges of free citizens. Anticipatory bails have been given galore to the suspected distillers and distributors of the killer brew. Many of them have been forgiven and let off in the past. There is no law by which they can be hauled up – not even to make a thorough inquiry. The inequity of it all cries out to high heaven, showing up the mockery to which we have permitted our democracy to be debased. "O, Justice, thou art fled to brutish beasts and men have lost their reason."P.N.BENJAMINe-mail: benjaminpn@hotmail.com18 April 2005

THE TRAGEDY OF AMBEDKAR’S LEGACY*
THE TRAGEDY OF AMBEDKAR’S LEGACY*By P.N.BENJAMINLONG ago, Tolstoy acidly observed: "The abolition of slavery has gone on for a long time. Rome abolished slavery. America abolished and we did, but only the words were abolished, not the thing."We in India, have performed a similar feat of verbalism vis a vis the Dalit victims. The colonial masters called this social proletariat, many millions in number, ‘depressed classes’ and Gandhiji called them ‘Harijans’, a Sanskritic, sophistic substitute to upgrade at least in name this untouchables and subhumanised category. Their status substantially remained the same and ‘Harijans’ became a blend of the pejorative and the sanctimonious, without the higher castes integrating, with egalitarian passion, these down-trodden species into a casteless Hindu fold.Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, himself a mahar (untouchable caste), fought this malignant degradation with tooth and nail and tried his best to set his brethren free as equal members of the Indian society. He battled and wrote into the Constitution purposeful provisions annihilative of caste victimisation and promotion of their socio-economic status. The Constitution, however, uses the colourless terminology, "Scheduled Castes", which hardly expresses the terrible lot and traumatic humiliation. Were they mere words, or calculated to catalyse a transformation, which would establish a dynamic human solidarity so necessary for a progressive nation on the march? If they were really a summons to action, how far have we succeeded? And if we have failed, what is the diagnosis for this pathological failure? What is the prognosis for a vibrant Dalit egalite?The agenda of action for the future, so that Indians may redeem their constitutional tryst, has been uppermost in the minds of informed thinkers and socialsensitives. " Political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social democracy. What does social democracy mean? It means a way of life, which recognises liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles of life. These principles of liberty, equality and fraternity are not to be treated as separate items in a trinity. They form a union of trinity in the sense that to divorce one from the other is to defeat the very purpose of democracy. Liberty cannot be divorced from equality; equality cannot be divorced from liberty. Nor can liberty and equality be divorced from fraternity. Without equality, liberty would produce the supremacy of the few over the many…Dalit identity, crushed for centuries, now re-asserts its right to be treated as human. No more subaltern submission but a chapter of challenge, battle and goal-oriented democratic march! The marginalised shall no longer surrender but there are two ways of achieving the end. One peaceful, agitational and by converting the majority to their obligation to the lowly minorities: the other is the desperate and violent methodology whereby terrorist operations may be the only means of securing justice.Obviously, in a democracy the peaceful means can win if only there is an inclination to listen and act on the part of those who command public opinion. It requires dissemination of information, presentation of views and appeal to the finer sensibilities of the people as a whole. Leaders with sensitivity of the soul can guide, by their thoughts and writings, the course of history written with the ink of justice.Untouchability is an offence and atrocities on the Dalits are grave offences. But the law in the books has no locomotion unless the bugle of battle demands justice through social movements and judicial action. India can have social stability and claim human justice only if the Dalit sector is guaranteed social and economic status consistent with an egalitarian ethos.The enormous pain, privations and frustrations suffered by the dalit population in our country must make every sensitive citizen to hang his head in shame. The tragedy is that not only have we not eradicated untouchability during the last fifty five years despite the good intentions of the founding fathers of independent India, but also have created newer and subtler forms of untouchability. India is as far away from being a civilised casteless society as ever.Ambedkar rightly believed political democracy without social and economic democracy is a double deception . Almost all Indian political parties have showered only lip sympathy to the plight of the Dalits in order to get their votes, but with no intention of doing anything to ameliorate their conditions. Leaders of Dalits must campaign to liquidate the lowliest castes among them and consolidate themselves into one united Scheduled Caste. Why tolerate sub-castes among "Harijans" themselves? The upper layers among the Harijans and Girijans swallow the few jobs and admissions to professional courses. The ‘pariahs’ among the pariahs are permanent pariahs. This shall not be! Radical socialist-humanist militancy is needed among the dalit themselves.. The tragedy is that Dr. Ambedkar’s legacy, which ought to operate outside Hindu religion, has also not succeeded in breaking the status quo. Dr. Ambedkar felt that organization, education and agitation would enable the Dalits to reverse caste prejudices. As it has turned out, Dalit political groups are totally disorganized. Education has only led to the emergence of a Dalit elite class, which has slowly distanced itself from agitational Dalit politics. Dalit movements have either been absorbed within mainstream parties or else have degenerated into negative militancy. The deification of Dr. Ambedkar by building statues in every village appears to have taken precedence over any fight for equal rights. What shall we do to ‘change this sorry scheme of things entire and remould it nearer to our Heart’s desire?’P.N.BENJAMINe-mail: benjaminpn@hotmail.com*Vijay Times, edit-page main article on Ambedkar’s birth anniversary. 14 April 2005

Saturday, April 09, 2005

CHILD WORKERS
BLIND TO THE CRIME OF CHILD-LABOUR* (Vijay Times, Edit-page article, April, 6, 2005)BY P.N.BENJAMINTUCKED away at an insignificant corner of an inside page of Vijay Times of March 30 there was a heartrending story- in just three sentences. A nine-year-old girl, Nasima Begum, a domestic help in Balasore, Orissa, was subjected to inhuman torture by her employer to extract a confession from her that she had stolen a gold ornament. She sustained multiple burns when her employer stripped her and pressed hot iron on her body. And, the accused has fled the Balasore after the incident! We are not shocked because it is not an isolated brutality that has taken us by shock and surprise. We have been hearing of such brutalities with such monotonous regularity that we shrug our shoulders and ask: "What’s new?" The latest outrage is simply one more step, perhaps a leap forward, in our steady drive towards a state of conscienceless bliss where Satan is on the throne and all’s right with the world. There are hundreds of child-workers like Nasima in our neighbourhood. We have eyes to see, but we don’t see the suffering of the domestic child-workers living and working right amongst us and around us. We have also ears to hear but do not hear their heartrending cries. It is to us, the impotent and passive spectators of the outrage, as it were, that the famous German playwright Bertlot Brecht addressed the following words: "Outside, men scream and you hear them not: outside flames burn and you see them not. Grandfather, when the Day of Judgment arrives, how will you stand"Several studies have highlighted various types of exploitation of domestic child labour, which include physical and sexual abuse. This writer is reminded of the poignant story of the fifteen-year-old Uma, who was rescued by a voluntary organization in Bangalore two or three years ago. It was a story, too deep for tears, proving once again that we are up against a brutal and conscienceless society. Uma was branded with an iron rod on her back, hands and thighs, for allegedly not working properly. Her employer pinched her arms when she complained of being tired and denied food when she woke up late. If she screamed out loud, her ‘Madam’ would stuff her mouth with cloth so that no one could hear Uma screaming! Child labour is an assault on the children’s legitimate rights to education and freedom to grow in an atmosphere of love and care. It is a pity, though, that the Indian law frowns upon child labour yet Indian life freely practises it. Our founding fathers, dreaming of a brave new Bharat and its tryst with destiny, laid down the great testament of the Constitution where the value vision for future generations was projected. Deep concern for the material and moral welfare of the Juvenilia of India is underscored and social injustice is anathematized. Universal primary education is assured. Freedom from labour during the tender age is mandated. Figures do not bring out the magnitude of suffering that has arrived for these millions of already impoverished children. Thousands of children work for almost 15 hours everyday in the most hazardous atmosphere because they have to pay off the loans borrowed by their parents from the employers. They suffer from many physical ailments and thus, these children are unable to mature to their full potential as adults. Commercial sexual exploitation is all pervasive and pernicious. Hunger and destitution have gripped them as never before. Disease and death stalk them. Most of them are undernourished and unhappy as they were in Dickens’ days. However, much more alarming is the callous emotional vacuum that exists in our minds. It does not seem to have touched the nation. For us all, the serried columns of these unfortunate victims of hunger and privation, without homes and hope, bring no tears, not to speak of stirring conscience, if at all we still have an ounce of that precious commodity left within us. The truth is that the iron has entered into our soul. Just as the twilight zone to which most of us escape, forgetting we’ve left these children behind. The curse of the Pied Piper of Hamlin endures! How many of us have taken even a small step in our own way to free children from servitude and enable them to grow and develop in an environment, which we expect for our own children? On the contrary, haven’t many of us employed children below the age of 15 as domestic help? Quite often, the employers of domestic child labour justify it by saying that they provide food, shelter and clothing to those children who would otherwise beg on the streets. A whole spectrum of the sorrows of child-labourers remains to be exposed, a whole saga of their blood, toil, sweat and tears remains to be lived down. The challenge of the child workers points to "the petty done; the undone vast". If the Supreme Court judgement of 1996 banning child labour in hazardous industries and regulating the employment of children in other fields, like domestic labour, has been implemented in letter and spirit, it would have done much to end the brutal exploitation of millions of children in the country. "And, how long, O Lord, how long," will the child of the 21st century have to wait to find himself/herself in that heaven of freedom of which Rabindranath Tagore has spoken in Gitanjali? P.N.BENJAMINE-mail: benjaminpn@hotmail.com

POLITICS OF AGRICULTUAL INCOME TAX*
(Vijay Times, Jan. 18, 2006)
P.N.BENJAMIN
The image of a farmer that conjures up in our mind is that of a poor man in tatters living in a mud house with a large family, heavily indebted and barely able to make both ends meet. But, over the years, and with facilities offered by the government, that image has changed. There are on the contrary, farmers who are not only well off but are wealthier than many businessmen. And yet they do not pay any income tax.
Not that there are no farmers who fit into this description now. And the poor farmer in his tatters, cultivating the small plot of land inherited from his forefathers, is not going to pay any tax in any case. Perhaps, their number was too large and the government of the day may have thought that no worthwhile revenue will come by imposing income tax on agricultural income.
One of the norms of taxation, according to economists, is the ability of the taxpayer to pay. The case for direct taxation of agriculture rests on the fact that this sector of the economy is under-taxed. Economists have empirically demonstrated that the tax burden on the Indian agricultural sector is much lower than that on the non-agricultural sector and that inter-class inequity in tax burdens exists between the two sectors. The disparity becomes yet more glaring when we note that agriculture receives in public expenditures more than it pays in taxes while for the non-agricultural sector as a whole in the situation is quite the reverse.
There are farmers who are not only well off but are wealthier than many businessmen. And yet, they do not pay any income taxes. They get away without paying anything at all. It is partly the absence of tax that has allowed the farmers to get rich at the cost of the exchequer. The exemption of agricultural income from income tax means that the exchequer is deprived of a large chunk of revenue, besides making the tax system inequitable.
A survey made by the National Council of Applied Research some time ago revealed that nearly 80 per cent of the cultivator households are poor and cannot provide any support to the budget. It is the top eight per cent of the household in the agricultural sector that can make all the difference. They are in the upper middle or high- income bracket and their number exceeds 45 lakhs.
The rich agriculturists are not contributing to the national exchequer in the form of income tax. They have enriched themselves by cornering the enormous benefits emanating from the massive doses of infrastructure investments as well as incentives to use fertilisers, to irrigate land, and assured minimum price for his product so that he could plan his crops and derive the maximum benefit from cultivation. The inputs were subsidised and the output was overpriced.
What would be the budget gain if agricultural income were subject to income tax the same way other incomes are? Taxes are paid by households in the high-income bracket. As such, the gain to the budget would be in the same proportion as the number of agricultural households in the high-income bracket. That number is more than 25 per cent. It is the rest 75 per cent that has generated the income tax revenue for the government. With the present rates the exchequer should be able to mop up an estimated additional Rs.1, 00,000 crores after the extension of income taxes to agriculture. Exemption of agricultural income from taxation is thus a heavy loss to the exchequer and a great inequity in the tax system. So much for the economics of agricultural taxation.
Clearly a small section of the agricultural population has the ability to pay taxes. Why does not the government make them pay income tax? This brings us to the politics of agricultural taxation. The problem is not that the government is not convinced that the farmer too must make his contribution to the budget but lacks political will to make the change. The farmer is the biggest vote bank and any government that annoys him is unlikely to be looked upon with sympathy. But the absence of tax has created islands of opulence within the agricultural sector and it is time that someone develops the nerve to initiate a bold programme, which ends discrimination among taxpayers.
Under the Constitution agricultural taxation falls in the State List. It is under the purview of the respective State governments to levy agricultural taxation. Though in some States, attempts have been made in the past to introduce agricultural income tax, the instances are few and far removed.
The governments have not been too eager to introduce agricultural income tax for that would mean alienation of the rural rich who dominate the countryside and have considerable power and sway over the rural ‘vote bank’ against anyone who antagonises them. And the successive governments at the Centre, guided again and again by the same motive, have not been prepared to take the erring States to task.
By not introducing agricultural income tax, our governments are playing to the sectarian interests against the larger interests of society. But then in politics, one has to appease dominant sections, even if the broader interests of society have to be sacrificed. Otherwise one runs the risk of being thrown out of power. And this is a fact not many politicians will compromise with.
Way back in 1972, the government had appointed a committee to inquire into the question of taxing agricultural income. The committee, which was headed by Dr. K.N.Raj, made some very fine recommendations. Then came the Kelkar committee in 2002. It recommended that the big farmers should be included among those paying income tax. Mr. Kelkar said the agricultural income of non-agriculturists was increasingly used as tax shields for laundering funds. To tax these incomes, the states could pass a resolution under Article 252 of the Constitution authorising the Centre to impose tax on agricultural income. All such taxes collected by the Centre could be assigned to the states Needless to add, the government did not act on the recommendations.
P.N.BENJAMIN
benjaminpn@hotmail.com

Silicon plateau@Deccan swamp
(Vijay Times, 26 Oct. 2005)
P.N.BENJAMIN
Bangalore is today known as the ‘Silicon Valley of the East’ because of the number of software and software services companies located here.
However, it is well known that most of the high profile IT companies in Bangalore are not all high tech companies. They do no 'computer science' much less research. They just take on contract jobs for clients and provide cost competitive software services like maintenance and updating.
Companies in the Silicon Valley of the East valley are based on 'know how.' They do the software coding for other companies that have the 'know what.' If you tell them what to do, they know how and will do it for you. These companies do not develop any technologies or products. They provide development services. They have engineers who specialize in programming languages rather than in technologies. They have nothing called R&D. They do not generate any new ideas.
A typical ‘enigineer’ in a Bangalore IT company is a ‘specialist’ in a few languages. He is not concerned about the technology that he is working on and is willing to develop any software with the languages that he knows. His work experience does not teach him any technology. He may be a mechanical engineer currently working for three months on banking software, and then the next three months on shoe retailing software.
Bangalore's software development companies only "provide end-to-end solutions" for e-commerce, banking, telecom or all of them. It means that the IT companies "do the software coding in any of these areas for you. Just tell them what you need.
Here is a sample of some prominent Bangalore software companies with what they specialize in: Tata Consultancy Services (end-to-end solutions), Wipro (end-to-end solutions), Infosys (end-to-end solutions). DSQ Software (end-to-end solutions), Kshema Technologies (end-to-end solutions), Ivega Technologies (end-to-end solutions), MindTree Consulting (end-to-end solutions).
They have a huge mass of engineers who know various programming languages.A typical engineer in these companies has no specialization in any technology. He does not use his engineering knowledge. You could say his body is employed, but his brain is severely under-employed.
IT is acting as brain sink. Much of our IT manpower is underemployed. That is, a large number of people are working beneath their intellect, training and capabilities for the sake of a pay packet, which though small in dollar terms becomes attractive when translated into rupees.
Even IBM in India is bringing software projects for maintenance on which no U.S. educated scientist or engineer would be willing to work. Fresh engineering graduates are hired to do COBOL programming in the Bangalore IT companies! To call it obsolete would be a great understatement. No American would accept such a job. Most of our youngster are drawn by the name of the companies but are soon disillusioned.
This under-employment benefits foreign firms, which outsource petty jobs to India. This may well be the reason for the excessive Western praise heaped on the so-called Indian IT prowess, much to the delight of the appreciation-hungry India. A high tech company in the U.S. wouldn't even bid for such contracts. They amount to what in the trade is called "body shopping", especially in government contracts.
IT companies in Bangalore start with zero risk. They do not bet on their ideas or inventions. Their chief resource is the huge mass of low-cost labour that they have taken the trouble to recruit. The total employment generated by the IT and ITES in Karnataka is around 3 lakhs.
An army of young men and women sweat out their valuable days and nights in business process outsourcing(BPO) firms in Bangalore in activities that do not add value to the society in which they live. Owing to the 10-hour time difference between the Western hemisphere, particularly the United States, and India, almost all Indian back-office operations have to work at shifts typically running from 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. to coincide with the daytime office hours in the United States. This working at nights requires adjusting the biological clock and social practices to a different time is turning out to be a major cause for health-related and social problems.
The data published by a reputed United Kingdom source says that 40 percent of the employees working in BPOs have eye problems. This problem is more acute with the team leaders who need to come in early and go back late.
Digestive disorders are common among employees in BPOs. Studies point out that people who work in the call centre industry are facing the possibility of losing their voice. The problem known earlier as 'the teacher syndrome' is now being found in the young workers of call centres. Some of them may face the acute manifestation of this in the form of permanent loss of voice.

As usual, there are people who come up with counter arguments. They invariably refer to the salary and the perks and take pride that they have brought thousands of jobs to the country.

Apart from the special concessions the IT industry already enjoys, they want the government to give them more sops. They complain about the lack of infrastructure and do not miss an opportunity to take the government to task for traffic snarls, power shortage, pollution and an assortment of other allied ills.
When every other industry is paying taxes, why should one industry be pampered so much? Instead of whining, why shouldn’t the IT industry regulate its own costs by just looking at the fancy salaries/perks of its employees?
IT sector has forgotten its a duty to Karnataka whose infrastructural resources it has used to make huge profit. While no one grudges that, it has a responsibility to plough back some of its earnings to help the State cope with the problems its own growth has caused it. Else it will be pointless to talk of business ethics.
P.N.BENJAMIN
benjaminpn@hotmail.com
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A GLOBAL CAUCUS TO "PROTECT’ DALITS*
(Vijay Times, edit-page main article, Oct. 5, 2005)
P N BENJAMIN
The Dalit Freedom Network (DFN) is organising a two-day international conference in Washington D C on October 5 and 6 to globally raise the issue of reservation for Dalits in the private sector and caste-based discrimination. In this connection, addressing a press conference in New Delhi on 15 September, the chairman of the All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations, Udit Raj, has said: "In the era of globalisation it is imperative to fight certain causes globally".
The meeting will seek to "expose" the Sangh Parivar, sensitise the U.N. for protection of Dalit human rights, and will seek US help to Dalits to get reservation in the Indian private sector. It will also appeal to the United States to provide work opportunities to Dalits. One does not have any quarrel on the fact that Dalits have been and are discriminated but simply because a meeting in the US will give greater focus, one cannot inter-mix social facts. NGOs get enormous funds for Dalit causes. It is perennial money- drawing sources for the NGOs and hence they unite on this to catch the world attention and boost the funding prospect. To my mind, the DFN meeting is not simply an event but a part of an agenda to isolate the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes from the Hindu society and create social disorder in the country.
Caste discrimination, particularly untouchability, in the Hindu society was one of the major concerns of the Government in the post-colonial India. The adoption of a Constitution on 26 January 1950 that officially abolished untouchability and caste discriminations, and directs the State to reorganise Indian society along democratic lines, is a milestone. Lest ambiguity should become a tool to browbeat constitutional verdict, as spelt out in its Preamble, the Indian State is directed to accord due representation to outcastes and tribals, in every branch of the State and complement it with various socio-educational-economic measures.
The Supreme Court, Human Rights Commission and Scheduled Caste Commission have reviewed various laws enacted by India Parliament and reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the governance of the country as well as in educational institutions and a number of other measures adopted by Government.
Instead of educating the discriminated section of Indian population to avail themselves of the opportunity provided by the Government, the Dalit Rights activists work as a tool in the hands of national and international forces of vested political and personal interests. Even the affluent sections from amongst the Dalits come under the influence of the foreign funded NGOs and exploit their own people for their political and personal interests.
Despite the known stand of anthropologists and sociologists that caste cannot be equated with race, the NGOs working for Dalits cause maintain, "caste discrimination is racism". In India there are a number of castes and sub castes belonging to the same race and there has been discrimination even within the various sub sects of Dalits due to various reasons. By lampooning discrimination of the SCs, the discrimination within the SCs sub sects has been largely overlooked. Discrimination, apart from being violation of human rights, is also poignant when one realises that it is by the same race against the same race.
Similarly, the benefits and the concessions given to the SCs are mostly cornered by the upper castes of the SCs. There are several instances of fight within the Dalits for garnering the benefits being provided by the Government to them.
The on-going caste consolidation for sharing political power is another important factor for caste tension in the country, though it has no similarity with the caste discrimination as it was before Independence. Social segregation of different castes and sub castes does not mean any discrimination against each other. It is more or less a segregation of different clans, which is prevalent in some form or other in different parts of the world.
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Raising their voices against caste discrimination from an alien soil is against the concept of national sovereignty. The NGOs are doing it to garner more foreign funds from the international agencies in the name of Dalits cause. With huge amounts of foreign funds at their disposal the main job of the social activists are to alienate the Dalits from the cultural mainstream of the country and provide an opportunity to damn the Hindu organisations.
Outwardly, the activities of the NGOs working for Dalit's cause may look quite rational, but in the absence of any specialized agency at Government level to scrutinize their hidden agenda and the alleged misuse of the huge amount of foreign funds being received by them gives an impression that their intentions are not as pious as they claim to be.
It is well known that these foreign funded NGOs are the safe houses of the lobbyists, who are working for various international agencies engaged in destroying the cultural heritage of the country. Unfortunately, the media has hardly taken any interest to look into the allegations in depth and bring out the truth. The media has not come forward to counter the aggressive voices raised by the NGOs for discussing the domestic issues at international for a. Instead it has always projected the views of the NGOs without any scrutiny. This has created an adverse impact on the credibility of the media.
The NGOs responsible for raking up the on going controversy have only contributed to the rise of social tension without any visible benefits to the Dalits.
Some pertinent questions could be asked at this stage. What is the social vision of NGOs? Or, to be precise, what is NGOs' perception of the Indian Republic and society? Where do Dalits stand today vis-a-vis institutions of the state, and institutions that are outside the state? Is there any institution or NGOs other than the Indian State that make specific provision of representation to Dalits? What is the proportion of Dalits in the corporate-like offices of the NGOs? What is the position of Dalits in their workforce and what percentage of the money funding agencies granted has been utilised for the upliftment of Dalits?
An individual's or organisation's social doctrine is best reflected by its actions. If an organisation, as against the constitutional verdict of 22.5 per cent representation to the Dalits, is not prepared to accord at least one per cent representation, it has no legal sanctity to exist. If NGOs cannot give representation to Dalits, what is the guarantee that they are not working against the interests of the Dalits? The NGOs thrive on Hindu- bashing but can we recall one major NGO, which has produced a worthwhile critique of the Varna or caste order?
NGOs have, slowly but steadily, not only robbed the Indian Republic, corporate houses, and foreign funding agencies but also robbed space available to social movements. If every institution in India must justify its existence before the judgment seat of the Constitution, can the NGOs which are only legitimising Dalits' exclusion and questioning the State's sovereign authority, and that too from a higher `moral' pedestal, be permitted to go scot free?
P.N.BENJAMIN
benjaminpn@hotmail.com

CHANGE OF FAITH WITHOUT PUSH OR PULL FACTOR*
(Vijay Times, 23 May 2006)
P.N.BENJAMIN
Conversion has always been a sensitive and contentious issue in India. The politics of conversion, which is pure and simple imperialism, is the only intractable issue that divides Hindus and Christians in India.
It is said : "Vatican bullies the weak and acts submissive to strongs like Islam and China." Pope Benedict XVI’s recent remarks regarding "religious intolerance" in India, is the latest example. His comments have come at a time when the Vatican and the World Council of Churches (WCC) are engaged in a three-year joint study project to propose "a code of conduct for religious conversion".
The inter-religious consultation on "Conversion - assessing the reality" held in Lariano (Italy) between May 12-16, 2006, organised by the Vatican and WCC has urged " all practitioners and establishments of all faiths to ensure that conversion by "unethical" means are discouraged and rejected by one and all. There should be transparency in the practice of inviting others to one's faith. No faith organization should take advantage of vulnerable sections of society, such as children and the disabled."
Conversions cause social tensions. Conversions in India have always been highly unethical – that is, using unethical means of conversion- but also that they threaten a whole way of life, erasing centuries of tradition, customs, wisdom, teaching people to despise their own religion and look Westwards to a culture which is alien to them, with disastrous results.
Even as gentle a soul as Gandhi could not contain his disparagement about proselytising, expressing it as graciously as he could. In an interview he said in 1935: "If I had the power and could legislate, I should certainly stop all proselytizing".
"Why ought one at all to tamper with the faith of another is something that beats reason. The preacher’s faith is as unproven and irrational as the victim’s. Both assume that his belief is the best. The only difference, however, is that while the victim considers his faith is best for himself, ungrudgingly leaving others to believe what they want, the preacher feels his faith is the best for ALL without distinction, and actually gets paid for holding and spreading the ludicrous principle."
The anti-conversion laws in the country were first enacted by the Congress-led governments in Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Arunachal Pradesh and not by the "Hindu nationalist BJP" governments. What the Rajasthan government is trying to do today is to enact a similar legislation in that state.
Christians-- like adherents of any other religion in India-- are at perfect liberty under India's constitution, not only to practise but also to propagate their respective faiths. Doubtless, there have been sporadic attacks on Christians in recent years in some parts of the country. Christian evangelists who denigrate Hindu gods and abuse Hindu rituals as barbaric are the root cause of tension between Christian and Hindu communities. But, the Catholic Church in India and its bishops have never distanced themselves from the breast-beating, Bible-thumping "born-again" fanatic fringe of Christians, spewing venom against Hindus and their gods in their campaigns and crusades to "harvest the Hindu souls". Why?
Look at what happened in Sri Lanka. An anti-Christian backlash in that country in January 2004 had led to attacks on Catholic churches, and fuelled demands for a law to ban what some Buddhist monks called "unethical conversions". The Sri Lankan Catholic Bishops’ Conference boldly distanced itself from the evangelical Christian groups for bribing poor people to convert to Christianity and issued a statement."We, the bishops of the Catholic Church of Sri Lanka, are deeply conscious of the social unrest alleged to be caused by certain activities of the fundamentalist Christian sects, particularly by the more radical elements "It must be stated that the Catholic Church is not associated in any way with any of these sects," the statement says. "We do not support any of the measures, such as material enticements or undue pressures that are alleged to be made by these groups in order to carry out so-called unethical conversions."
India is the only Asian country from Jordan running east to Indo-China that allows religious freedom-- freedom to convert and freedom to propagate. Indeed, India has had a Christian presence at least since 52 AD, which is to say it has had a Christian presence far longer than Europe has done so, let alone North America.
Christians in India have enjoyed freedom of conscience far longer than Catholics in the United Kingdom have done so. Many public figures in independent India have been, are, and will continue to be Christians.The vitality of Indian Christianity may be gauged from the fact that almost all strands of mainstream Christianity-- Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicanism, Evangelical Protestantism-- are represented in significant numbers in the various regions of India.
None of the Orthodox churches (Greek, Russian, Coptic, Armenian, Ethiopian etc) engage in proselytisation. Have you ever seen or heard of priests or "evangelists" from any of these churches engaging in proselytization or preaching hellfire and damnation to those who do not agree with their interpretations of the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth? No, because they understand the offensiveness of "in your face Christianity" and have learnt to interpret and live by their faith without having the proselytizing millstones around their necks.
The Church is deeply connected to the political activities of the State in Europe and the US. The Church does not stand alone, but is deeply embedded in the society and politics of its particular imperial home country.
Pope Benedict XVI should adhere to his original agenda of reminding Europe of its Christian roots. Instead of trying to convert the so-called "heathen Hindus" he should devote his energies to saving the souls of Christians of Europe - a continent with a glorious past but now in terminal decline! He should not emulate Pope John Paul II's 'evangelization of Asia'.
There’s a raging Islamic fire in Vatican’s backyard, i.e., all over Europe. Well-informed strategic analysts have been forecasting that in 50/60 years Europe will become a Muslim majority continent. Coming as he does from Germany which country is facing a free fall in population surely the Pope knows it too well.

A time might come, especially in France, Spain and Germany, when the governments of those countries might have to opt for legislation banning conversions to other faiths. They are already enacting laws restricting entry of foreigners, a measure which India has not adopted so far. And better surveillance of Islamic bombers might be in order too since the Vatican is one of their announced targets and they have already caused mayhem in Spain and the UK!
P.N.BENJAMIN
benjaminpn@hotmail.com

THE FLAGRANT & UNETHICAL MISUSE OF MINORITY-ISM*
(Vijay Times, Feb. 22, 2006)
P.N.BENJAMIN
Afflicted by educational backwardness, social stigma, administrative apathy, religious orthodoxy and political expediency, nearly half of the Muslim population in India still lives below the poverty line. For a common Indian Muslim, the basic issues are education, employment and safety.
But, unfortunately the secular politicians in India have turned the Muslims into mere ballot papers. They have cynically used the 120 million Muslims in this country as vote bank for far too long.
The Muslim community is caught in a tweezer-grip. A large chunk of the blame for this must go to the so-called representatives of Muslims. The religious and political leaders of the Muslim community who have been seduced by the secularists to jump into the political fray are poorly versed in the community's problems.
"Muslim leaders also suffer from a complex which makes them think at each step that minority rights have been denied to them. During every election it has been proved that all of them indulge in pernicious vote bank politics. Owing to their obscurantist approach, these leaders are leading the community back to the Dark Ages", wrote the late Dr. Rafiq Zachariah once.
Noted Muslim intellectual, Baharul Islam, had said in his Motilal Nehru Memorial lecture in 1987: "The Muslim intelligentsia are in a dilemma. They do not have sufficient contact with Muslim masses. The latter do not follow them, but are easily misled by the Ulema who talk to them politics in terms of religion. Paradoxically, the Muslim intelligentsia are also not much needed by the political parties unless they are fanatical enough to influence the Muslim masses who constitute the vote bank. The result is that the progressive Muslim leadership is torn between nationalism and communalism, between conscience and convenience".
The Congress has been playing its minorities card with elan for years now. Token measures like banning Salman Rushdie's `Satanic Verses' or declaring Prophet Mohammed's birthday as a national holiday or pushing through a retrograde piece of legislation in the Shah Bano case relating to divorce practices, may have done their bit in making some community leaders happy but little has been done in tackling the crucial problems of lack of literacy and extreme poverty. Close on the heels of the Andhra Government order providing for five per cent reservations for Muslims in educational institutions and public sector jobs through their inclusion in the list of Backward Classes, which was suspended by the High Court, comes news of a survey being undertaken by an official commission on the socio-economic conditions of Muslims, in which even the armed forces are being sucked into the vortex of vote bank politics.
After having reaped the harvest of votes in the wake of the Hindutva campaign in the last few years, the BJP had sobered down so as to be able to run a coalition of diverse parties. But, while its die-hards are talking again of reviving the campaign with an eye on the Hindu vote bank, it too has now started playing the sinister game of political soccer with Muslim vote bank. For example, take a close look at the picture (VT edit-page Feb. 20) of the Muslim supporters of BJP protesting in New Delhi! Not to be left behind, the Communists and the Samajwadi Party are also playing the minorities card, seeking a growing share in the minorities vote pie. When the Ram Janmabhoomi campaign was at its peak, a wily V.P. Singh bared the Mandal card for 27 per cent reservation in Government jobs for backward classes. It was an unabashed step to cultivate a sizeable vote bank. Ironically, while V.P. Singh lost out in the electoral battle, other parties like the BSP in UP and the RJD in Bihar reaped the benefits of the casteist voting trends that he unleashed.India's politicians need to be reminded of the founding fathers intent. Pandit Govind Vallabh Pant, a senior minister in the Nehru Cabinet, said in the Constituent Assembly in 1947: "Do the minorities always want to remain minorities or do they even expect to form an integral part of a great nation and as such to guide its destiny? I think it would be extremely dangerous for them if they were segregated from the rest of the community and kept aloof in an airtight compartment."
He proceeded to advise the minorities: "Your safety lies in making yourselves an integral part of the organic whole, which forms the real genuine State". Is it not revealing that one of the tallest leaders of Congress during the freedom struggle like Pant had used the words 'extremely dangerous' and 'safety'?
The so-called secularist parties stand for the liquidation of others. They believe in the method of producing social co-operation through perpetuating communal disharmony and hatred. Every kind of contradictory satisfaction to every kind of discontented men and women – that is the technique of the pseudo-secularism. Do not lay traps for the poor people. By all means work for secularism. By all means put secularism before the country if you like. But in trying to capture the people’s backing for your policy, do not tell stories, exaggerate and go and work up discontent and hatred and entrap the gullibles.
With religion and casteism taking centre stage in elections over the last few years, real issues of development and governmental performance have taken a back seat. This is an unfortunate course for the country to take. It is time the major political parties sat down to lay down certain ground rules. If democracy is to have any meaning and if people's faith in their elected representatives is to be restored, it is imperative that political parties learn not to sacrifice national interest at the altar of political expediency
Minority-ism should be avoided in and of itself, beyond what is mandated by the Constitution as necessary in the Indian context; especially token minority-ism, because it offends those excluded without delivering anything of consequence to the supposed beneficiaries
P.N.BENJAMIN
DEATH OF JUSTICE AND DECENCY: SOME MILESTONES*
(Vijay Times, 2 March, 2006)
P.N.BENJAMIN
IN the eyes of the law everything is neat and clear; he or she who has been found guilty of violence must face the consequence. But, reality is more eloquent than law and those who have been guilty of unprecedented violence are given all facilities and privileges of free citizens. In a setup, which perpetuates social inequities, justice in the final analysis is a casualty.
The recent verdict acquitting the guilty in the high-profile Jessica Lal murder case is a case in point. Those among us with a conscience bow their heads low, for they mourn the death of justice, of decency and of humanity. There is darkness in their heart- the darkness of shame, and sorrow, and anguish. They are reminded of the ringing tones of Shakespeare: "O, Justice, thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason."
The country has been hearing and reading about such judgements – setting free the accused in cold blooded murders so long and with such monotonous regularity that the ordinary people have come to shrug their collective shoulder and cynically ask: "What’s new?" A sense of helplessness has already set in among them who are too tired even to protest.
Here are three well known and unforgettable cases of ‘acquittals’ that always come to my mind. The first one is the blood-curdling incident at Kilvenmani in Tamil Nadu where 42 Harijans were roasted alive in a hut by the upper caste landlords on the Christmas Day 1968. They included men, women and children. This was not merely a case of social prejudice. It was to wreak vengeance upon the agricultural labourers for demanding higher wages for their labour on the farms of those landlords.
What is more maddening is the fact that not a single person was punished for that mass murder. Although the lower courts had found the accused guilty and sentenced them to life imprisonment, the Madras High Court, probably to remind us all that India is a free country, set them free. The inference can only be that the guardians of law had not been able to bring home the guilt to the presiding judges.
In a similar incident, the Andhra Pradesh High Court acquitted all the accused in what has come to be known as ‘Karamchendu carnage’ in which six Dalits were massacred and 20 injure in an attack by upper caste people. The attack took place on July 17, 1985.
As many as 94 persons were charged with murder and after much procedural wrangling the joint trial commence in 1992 before the session’s judge in Guntur. On October 31, 1994, the district court sentenced five accused to life imprisonment, 53 persons to three years of rigorous imprisonment. Thirty-two were acquitted. But, the High Court in its wisdom set free all the accused in 1997.
The third one. Shankar Guha Niyogi was a cult figure in Chattisgarh. He was known as the "Gandhi of Chattisgarh" to his supporters. While the established – national – trade unions were more interested in unionising the organised and well-paid workers of the Bhilai Steel Plant and ACC unit, Niyogi entered the scene of ill-paid serfs toiling in the ancilliary and supplementary industries. He organised thousands of workers under the banner of the Pragatisheel Shramik Sangh.
In the small industries, workers were mercilessly exploited and labour laws flouted with impunity by circumventing them with the contract labour system. For instance, out of a the 2,000 workers in the seven units of a well-known group, 105 were permanent. The workers were hired and fired at will. Labour contractors were known musclemen of the area.
Niyogi’s union launched a militant agitation against the industrialists. Niyogi’s hard work and total dedication made him the darling of the workers and earned him the sobriquet of "Red terror" from the industrialists. The industrialists were rattled. Niyogi became an eyesore for them. A conspiracy to eliminate him was hatched.
Niyogi was murdered in cold blood on the night of September 28, 1991, when he was asleep at his residence. The FIR named seven top Bhilai industrialist as suspects. Police dragged their feet in taking action against them. The case was entrusted to the CBI after a nation-wide protest in 1992.
A trial court sentenced to death Paltan Mallah - the hired killer. Five others, Navin Shah, Moolchand Shah, Chandrakant Shah, Gyan Prakash Mishra and Avdhesh Rai were awarded life imprisonment. But, the Madhya Pradesh High Court reversed the judgement and acquitted all the accused in 1998.
On appeal, a Supreme Court bench of judges K.G. Balakrishnan and A.R. Lakshmanan Jan 20 , 2005 and awarded life sentence to Paltan Mallah and confirmed the acquittal of others.
Niyogi’s wife filed a review petition in the Supreme Court that sought reconsideration of this judgment. She submitted that the recorded declarations by her husband in a cassette and his diary disclosing that the accused could kill him was not taken into account despite the defence not challenging the veracity of his voice or handwriting. She further charged the investigating agency with not including the name of industrialist Kailashpati Kedia in the charge sheet despite her husband having named him in his declarations before he was shot dead. She pointed out that Mallah had disclosed before the trial court that Kedia financed him. The industrialist was, however, let off without a trial. In view of a wider conspiracy behind the murder and therefore the court should institute a fresh probe into Kedia's role.
But the Supreme Court in its wisdom declined to entertain the petition in September 2005.
While one wholeheartedly supports the TV channels, the print media and political parties for rightly joining the chorus for retrial in model Jessica Lal’s murder, one is intrigued that there has been no such united nation-wide outrage and solidarity expressed against setting free the criminals responsible for the atrocities perpetrated against the wretched of the Indian earth. Unfortunately these high profile TV anchors and politicians are also insensitive to the injustices done to the weaker sections of our society. As long as we know what is happening and do nothing about it, we all are guilty. Let there be no mistake about it. There is blood, the blood of the innocent, everywhere. It cries out for justice. What is urgently required is a national awareness of the dimensions of the degradation which abounds in the country today everywhere.

P.N.BENJAMIN
benjaminpn@hotmail.com

MORAL & IDEOLOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION OF POLITICS*
(Vijay Times, edit page, main article, Sept. 15, 2005)
P.N.BENJAMIN

THOUGHTFUL and sensitive Indians have been expressing their deep concern over many disquieting tendencies and developments on the political scene. In this context, your editorial, "Go back to ideology" (13 Sept) which calls upon the main political parties to bring back the days of "principled politics" is timely and thought-provoking.
Today public debate on basic issues of political ideologies and principles, development and transformation, has fast receded into background and non-issues have assumed exaggerated significance. It is time that the healthy elements of Indian polity to raise the moral question of Indian politics today. They must stand outside the murky waters of politics and uphold the principles of morality in political life. They must also heed to the rising dissatisfaction of the large mass of nameless, ordinary men and women who are shocked by the immoral and unprincipled politics, which has emerged in the country.
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The substitution of issues with non-issues reflects sharply the loss of ideological moorings of the political elite. This loss has contributed considerably towards political disorientation and the resurgence of factionalism based on petty passions and interests. Conflicts arise not over ideas and policies but over trivial issues.
To be concerned about the moral question is one thing and to be able to understand identify the deeper causes of the moral crisis and to find a way out of it is quite another. If the mere preaching of social and political morality was enough to create such a morality, India, having no dearth of sermonisers and preachers ( like this writer ?) , could have solved the moral problem long ago. It may sound irrelevant but it is nevertheless true that the key to the moral question lies outside the moral sphere.
The cause for the drying up of the springs of moral energy lies in the inability of the present political elite to offer a morally electrifying goal to the country. The struggle for freedom gave a moral shake-up to the moribund Indian society in the pre-independence period. It became a moral force because it was not just a struggle for seizure of power by the nationalist elite from foreign hands, but was also the one for a "New Society". Politics can be revitalised as a moral force only if it becomes once again the instrument of the struggle for a new society.
The moral crisis of today can neither be understood nor resolved if it is only interpreted in the vulgar and narrow sense of moral lapses and aberrations of individuals. The struggle for power arouses the basest instincts if it is pursued in isolation of or in opposition to the struggle for a new society. In other words, as Gandhi so aptly summed up: "Power ennobles when it is a means of serving higher ideals. It degenerates when it becomes an end in itself or only a means of fulfilling smaller interests".
Gandhi contributed most to the uplifting of a demoralised nation from a state of passive submission to foreign rule to becoming heroic fighters against tyranny and injustice. He was a moral force because he created the consciousness of great oppression and injustice within the Indian society against the have-nots and the Dalits. It is therefore not his private ideas of moral life which made him a figure of historical significance but his contribution to the basic causes relating to India’s emergence as a new nation and a new society.
It is necessary to be free from the prison of many backward and obscurantist notions of morality if the moral energy of the people is to be released for the great challenges of building a new society. The concept of the "moral" itself has to be redefined in the light of new challenges facing the nation. In the ultimate analysis morality is not above but subordinate to the basic requirements of man’s social existence on a long-term basis. It has to be related to the dynamics of social existence.

Gandhi linked politics with philosophy in terms of such categories that derived from Indian traditions as were intelligible even to the illiterate masses of the country. After Independence, there occurred a decisive shift from ‘politics as social philosophy’ (i.e. politics as expression of evolving social consciousness of the people), to ‘politics as technique’ ( ie. politics as the art and science of acquiring and manipulating the levers of state power). This shift was a sequel to the transition from the era of national struggle to that of running the nation state.
The emergence of politics as a technique and as image-building of political leaders and manipulation of the people’s mind through the mass media has also led to modernising the coercive apparatus of the state on the model provided by advanced nations. Thus, the triumph of politics as a technique resulted in the erosion of the philosophical basis inherited from Gandhi.
The question of further development of the philosophical basis in the light of new challenges has never been put in the centre stage. It is no wonder that in the absence of a social philosophy, politics has put an exaggerated emphasis on skill rather than on motivation and commitment as the basic qualification of men and women supposed to build the new India of Gandhi’s dreams.
The weak moral consciousness of the Indian polity has its roots in the process of recruitment. In fact recruitment into politics does not involve an initiation into definite social philosophy and a code of conduct. The inner life of most political parties and their members is denuded of any interest in the question of social philosophy.
The process of building the new society must begin urgently. Its ideology and values must be brought into the centre of Indian politics. And, here individuals with unshakeable faith in the possibilities of moral reconstruction of Indian politics have an important role to play.
"One person with a belief is a social power equal to ninety nine who have interests". This statement of John Stuart Mill is relevant to the Indian situation today when most men and women dominating the Indian scene have only interests but very few have beliefs. It is the men and women with convictions who hold the key to the future. The struggle for a new society – a new India –calls both for clear definition of the new society and new men and women who can become the agents for the creation of that new society.
P.N.BENJAMIN
e-mail: benjaminpn@hotmail.com

ENDURE CRIMES WITHOUT PUNISHMENT
(Vijay Times, 2 Nov. 2005)
By P.N.BENJAMIN
On the recommendations of the Nanavati Commission, the Central Government last week asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the 1984 anti-Sikh riot complaints against senior Congress leaders, Jagadish Tytler, Dharamdas Shastri and Sajjan Kumar.
In the week following Indira Gandhi’s assassination on 31 October 1984 what Delhi witnessed were manslaughter, arson and loot. Incredible savagery wrought by man on man. The burning alive of people. The wives who watched their husbands and sons beaten up to death and burnt alive, saw their daughters raped, their homes looted and burnt!
The crime itself was horrible. And the powers that be have added injustice to injury. The survivors have remained nowhere people. Cruelly yanked out of quiet life in decent localities by mindless mobs, they were dumped in filthy colonies, reeking of stagnant sewage. And they have had nightmares for company – the frightening vivid images of their dear ones being lynched and burnt alive!
What happened in 1984 was neither India’s first nor, regretfully, its last experience of communal violence, but in terms of sheer scale and intensity, it will find a place in a hall of shame anywhere. Men, women and children – nobody was spared. Age and gender were immaterial. Death and devastation came to many because of their physical profile. Every Sikh became a "terrorist" in the eyes of those who had decided that it was their beholden duty to avenge for one dastardly act by committing a thousand others of the same kind.
Indira Gandhi’s killing was the culmination of Delhi’s political blunders; foremost among them was the Blue Star Operation. The late Prime Minister’s advisers on Punjab were governed by a very narrow vested interest, and it has been subsequently established that many of them had directly or indirectly helped the rise of pro-Khalistani fundamentalism; in fact the elections that followed the assassination and the mayhem saw the Congress return with the most handsome mandate ever given to a party in any election to the Lok Sabha. No wonder, therefore, the seeds of rabid communal polarization that subsequently determined the terms of political discourse, sown in 1984.
For 21 years, the victims of the anti-Sikh riots have been waiting for justice. Instead of providing much needed succour to those who survived the pogrom, successive governments have busied themselves with shielding the culprits. Of course, a number of inquiry commissions have been appointed. Some have been scuttled. Some have submitted their reports. But the law finds itself in a blind alley. Yes, the victims remain where they were, as the administration refuses to administer, the prosecution refuses to prosecute, and the courts close their doors. The Constitution of India, the Parliament, and the judiciary and, in an extended sense, democracy itself have failed them.
Yes, for those who planned, organized and instigated the violence, the charming ambiguities of justice have helped. Many of them were and still are top-flight leaders of the ruling Congress. There are, of course, the seemingly interminable, wheels-within-wheels, processes of justice; the difficulty in obtaining direct evidence and a lack of political will which have all contributed towards a criminal judicial impasse.
Not one person has been punished for the unspeakable horrors perpetrated on an entire community just because a handful of its members were responsible for the assassination. On the other hand most of the accused have been acquitted.
What is more worrying is the continued inability of the Indian state and its remarkably free judiciary to provide justice to even those who become such blatant and innocent victims of sponsored fury and manufactured hate. Commissions of inquiry, as per the norm duly established, are set up. They take a long time to wind up their act, and even when they do that, there is no guarantee that the culprits will finally be made to pay for their misdeeds.
When it comes to dealing with those who have no use for secular values, which are just another name for simple, civilized conduct, the impressive democratic principle becomes a licence to be abused. Every Indian knows what happened in 1984, or on several other occasions elsewhere; unfortunately, even the knowledge of unimaginable atrocities has not led to commensurate action. Why is that so? The secular brigade, which works itself up into just the right kind of outrage after every such carnage, could do with soul-searching on these allied issues.
But can we afford to forget the Delhi riots? Can we afford to forget the way the government in power allowed the killings to continue for days on end? Can we afford to forget the way people were roasted alive or butchered by armed gangs that walked the streets of Delhi openly and defiantly, unafraid of forces of law and order? Or, were they protected, aided and abetted by these same forces? Is there any hope that we can ever solve this problem of communal and caste violence? I don’t think so. Unless we have the will to do so. And not unless we can use every moral weapon in our armoury to make our governments more accountable, our law enforcing agencies more responsible.
Slogans and pretexts have been the secret arms of a callous elite, which has rarely been seriously concerned about the welfare of those over whom it lords. It is this callousness we must fight. Otherwise, many more Delhi will keep occurring. (Haven’t they already occurred during the last 21 years – Gujarat and Marad, for example?) Many, many more people will be killed on the pretext of religion, caste, and community. The violence will grow all around us, while its perpetrators walk the streets as free men, their chests puffed out, and their heads held high.
It is time for us to be ashamed of our silence. It is also time for us to be angry. Angry with the men who commit such heinous crimes. And also with those who stand by and watch them. Watch them maim, murder, loot, burn, destroy. Only our anger may scare them. Only our anger may force the authorities to act. To see that such terrible things are not allowed to happen, again and again.
Time has no discriminatory qualities. It heals even those wounds, which should not be healed. The tears of victims may have dried up with time, even though the residual hurt must have remained. At any rate Sikhs are a phlegmatic enough community that, has taken several hurts and prejudices in its stride. But this particular hurt is too hard to live down.
Even if all the earthly courts or commissions of inquiry were to find these monsters not guilty of any crime and set them free, we can be assured, now and always, that the heavenly court will brand them forever with the curse of God. In case they are still alive, we can be sure, theirs is a life so-called that is a million times worse than death. "There is a higher court than the courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supercedes all other courts"( Mahatma Gandhi).

P.N.BENJAMIN
B-1, Lan Castle
186 Wheeler Road Extn
Bangalore 560 084
30 Oct. 2004

FAST-UNTO-DEATH: FROM THE MAHATMA TO MEDHA*
(Vijay Times, 19 April 2006)
P.N.BENJAMIN
The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar broke her three week long fast unto death on Monday (April 17) following the Supreme Court order, which while holding that the construction of Narmada Dam could go ahead, warned that it would stop the work on raising it height if the three basin states did not carry out adequate and effective relief and rehabilitation of the displaced people. Medha had gone on fast unto death to stop the Sardar Sarovar dam height being raised from 110.64 m to 121.92 meters and to properly rehabilitate the outsees from the dam site.
On the eighth day of her fast the government removed her to AIIMS, in New Delhi, under protective medical custody to save her life. It was done after a ministerial delegation had vainly implored Patkar to give up her fast on the assurance that everything possible would be done to ensure that all affected families were properly rehabilitated. Moreover, the NBA petition on this very issue was lying before the Supreme Court. It was on this petition that the apex court has now passed aforesaid order.Medha has gone on fast time and time again to get her way. While such self-inflicted suffering arouses concern and sympathy, democratic governments have a wider ineluctable social and political responsibility, and cannot abandon due process in favour of any one set of demands through emotional blackmail.
People like Medha Patkar must realize that their fasts have been hypocritical and not Gandhian. The Mahatma was pitted against constitutionally irresponsible and unrepresentative alien rule. The situation today is very different.
Mahatma Gandhi experimented with truth. Human life was his laboratory, love his instrument and appeal of the heart his language. He knew well the distinction between a devout religionist who spread the fragrance of love and amity and a religious fanatic who fuelled enmity. He fought the tyrannical system, but with no enmity to those who built it. He preached and practised non-violence of the brave, not the coward.
The hunger of his fasts stirred the conscience of the nation and extinguished the fires of hate. As he perfected the technique of satyagraha, the prison gained the glory of a palace; the scars of suffering became the badge of honour. The Mahatma was pitted against constitutionally irresponsible and unrepresentative alien rule.
Mahatma Gandhi viewed "fasting unto death is the last and the most potent weapon in the armoury of Satyagraha. It is a sacred thing. But it must be accepted with all its implication. It is not the fast itself, but what it implies that matters. A Satyagrahi should fast only as a last resort when all other avenues of redress have been explored and have failed.
"Ridiculous fasts spread like plague and are harmful… It is common knowledge that the best of good things are often abused. We see this happening every day. If a man, however popular and great he may be, takes up an improper cause and fasts in defence of the impropriety, it is the duty of his friends and fellow-workers and relatives to let him die rather than that an improper cause should triumph so that he may live. Fairest means cease to be fair when the end sought is unfair.
"Fasting quickens the spirit of prayer, that is to say, the fasting is a spiritual act, and therefore, addressed to God. . Such a fast is undertaken in obedience to the dictates of the inner voice and, therefore, prevents haste. Fasting cannot be undertaken mechanically. It is a powerful thing but a dangerous thing, if handled amateurishly. It requires complete self-purification, much more than what is required in facing death with retaliation even in mind. One such act of perfect sacrifice would suffice for the whole world. Such is held to be Jesus' example."
Medha’s insistence on immediate stoppage of work on the dam was perverse. Work on the SSP dam has been suspended off and on for approximately six or more years at the instance of the NBA. This itself has complicated issues by weakening the oustee’s resolve to move, swelling numbers and preventing rehabilitation, which entails steady emotional adjustment to the new dispensation after the initial phases of relocation and resettlement.

If Medha and her friends who have been demanding rehabilitation of people affected by Sadar Sarovar Project, devoted half as much time to devising viable strategies to resettle the displaced people the problem would have been already solved. The NBA, while guilty of projecting a skewed picture of the Narmada project, is doubly wrong when it has failed to provide concrete alternatives.
Indeed, there is a good case for luring the displaced to the plains, teaching them modern technologies and bringing them gradually into the new society that the nation is trying to build, even if not brilliantly. But, if this happens, the activists will be rendered jobless and they won’t be able to use the tribals as cannon fodder for their selfish ends. These activists must also ask themselves: “How many people would have died in famines since Independence if we hadn’t taken up building the “modern temples of India?” For fifty years, residents of a vast semi-arid belt in Gujarat did not quite believe when they were told that some day, water would come flowing into their villages. Four years ago, the unbelievable did happen. People, many of them for the first time in their lives, saw water flowing into their villages, as the Narmada lifeline finally meandered its way into Kutch and other regions of Gujarat. In Kutch, the Narmada waters hold the promise of alleviating the perennial drinking water problem. Cities like Rajkot and Jamnagar, used to 15 minutes of water supply once every three days, will be better off.

As you have rightly pointed out in your edit, "Damned if your dam?" (VT 8 April) "the new-fangled Gandhians cannot be allowed to obstruct the march of modern scientific and technological advances. Romancing Bapu’s charkha in the age of power looms is a sure-fire recipe for keeping India’s poor poor"
Yes, the dam will change things, but there can be no development without change. At the end of the day those displaced must be at least as well or better off than before. Let us all join hands to achieve that objective.

P.N.BENJAMIN
benjaminpn@hotmail.com
SINCE BANDUNG HOW REALLY NON-ALIGNED ARE WE?*
(Vijay Times, 8 Feb. 2006)
P.N.BENJAMIN

It is rare in history that there is almost total identification between a political figure and a certain policy. The idea of non-alignment, free from power blocs, as distinct from the earlier concept of neutrality or the later pejorative phrase ‘neutralism’, is associated, both in its origin and its evolution, with Jawaharlal Nehru.
He anticipated the needs of the newly independent countries of a world dominated by very powerful systems. Because of the nature of the Indian national movement and his personal ability to articulate embryonic ideas, Nehru was able to champion the cause of non-alignment in a most attractive manner.
In the early period of Indian Independence, Nehru impressed upon the people that great as India had been in the past and hoped to be in the future, we could not exist in isolation as it would be good neither for us nor for the rest of the humanity without which we could not live.
The origins of the Indian policy of non-alignment have been faithfully recorded in the speeches of Nehru and the documents of the Indian National Congress throughout the 1930s. A study of these documents proves how inevitable the policy of non-alignment was after India became independent.
There was no doubt from the very beginning in Nehru’s mind that the essence of independence lay in the ability of the new Indian State to take decisions free from any external influence. He realised that while in internationalism economic relations have to be built, those relations should not in any way take on a character which would condition our political outlook and our foreign policy.
Nehru was totally opposed to any kind of economic co-operation that offended either the dignity or the prospects of independence. That was his definition or understanding of non-alignment in international affairs.
It was not as though he sat down one morning and found out a phrase. As he said: "Foreign policies grow, they will not come out of a box or anything of that kind. Non-alignment, in brief words, is simply the expression of national independence in the sphere of international relations. An independent country has to remain non-aligned. A powerful country seeks allies…but a country like ours, which wants to be independent internally, wants also to be independent externally. It is for us to realise that smaller nations, newer nations, who are non-aligned, have also their ideas of independence".
Nehru realised and recognised that India had "no particular mission in this world, in the sense of trying to tell other people what to do. But at the same time, she had the mission of playing an equal, responsible and significant part in the destinies of the world as any other; and, on account of our size, on account of our importance, to do it as well as possible".
Nehru was the first statesman of the world to recognise the significance of Africa and he was one of those people who anticipated that in far shorter time than even optimists dared to hope that the great continent of Africa would become free.
In 1954, India was the first country to come forward and ask for a standstill agreement in regard to the nuclear bomb. Nehru knew that the stopping of these tests did not mean much. He knew all about its effects not only on his generation but generations to come.
Long before non-alignment figured in the international affairs circuit in the mid-1950s, India had become visibly active in world affairs. The call for an Asian Relations Conference in New Delhi a few months before the actual transfer of power was daring for a government which was yet to find its feet. Nevertheless, it reflected the irrepressible urge of the first country to have broken out of the colonial yoke to play a purposeful role in international affairs.
More significantly, the government-level conference on Indonesia that Nehru called in Delhi in 1949 bears testimony to his interest, urge and determination that independent India should be active in international affairs.
It is not necessary to go into a detailed study of all the steps in the evolution of Nehru’s foreign policy, but the decision to remain in the Commonwealth, the active diplomatic initiatives in Korea and Indo-China and championing the cause of Egypt during the Suez crisis are memorable milestones. Synchronised with these developments, was the continuous process of development of Afro-Asian personality which had its roots in the Asian Relations Conference that culminated in the Bandung Conference in 1955.
The success of Nehru’s policy was due to his cool realistic reassessment of India’s own limited ability to contribute effectively to solutions of problems. Inflated rhetoric without any intention to translate words into reality was repugnant to Nehru’s mind.
An important feature of India’s foreign policy during Nehru’s time was that the Government’s effort to inform and enlighten the people on international issue. And the present Government led by Congress Party has gone off the track laid by Nehru, and there has been no effort on its part to " inform and enlighten the people" on major foreign policy issues like the decision to vote against Iran.
When Nehru stressed the importance of non-alignment, he was stressing the importance of independence in foreign policy, as he believed that independence was indispensable for preserving the country’s hard-won sovereignty. The disappearance of bi-polar system does not in any way detract from the independence in foreign policy. Non-alignment is as important in a world dominated by one superpower as it was when the world was divided into two hostile power blocs and it will be an extremely self-defeating and short-sighted policy if India were to discard non-alignment as irrelevant.
Gandhi and Nehru guided the destiny of India during the turbulent days of the freedom struggle. They represented different facets of a giant nation awakening from a long slumber. Gandhi stressed the spiritual nature of man, while Nehru emphasised unity within the family of man.
Their ideals and endeavours were never in conflict; they were complementary to each other. From this heritage flow the ideals of democracy, socialism and secularism and a foreign policy of peace and non-alignment.
Certain sections of the media and some intellectuals, individuals and political parties may be allergic to the Nehru name, but it will be quite rash on their part to say that the Nehru line has become invalid or irrelevant in present-day India.

P.N.BENJAMIN
benjaminpn@hotmail.com

MEN WHO SACRIFICED EVERYTHING FOR INDIA’S FREEDOM*
(Vijay Times, Feb. 18, 2006)
P.N.BENJAMIN
Today (18 Feb.) marks the 60th anniversary of the historic Royal Indian Naval (RIN) Mutiny of 1946, which changed the course of our freedom struggle and hastened the process of the country’s independence from Britain
Within a few months of the end of World War II, mass discontent surfaced in an unprecedented manner in India. Huge demonstrations in support of Netaji’s Indian National Army (INA) personnel, put on trial by the British, rocked the cities and violent clashes became frequent throughout the winter of 1945-46. The intelligence department of the Government of India had told the authorities that it (the government) could not depend on its armed forces to hold down the people.
Unrest among the naval ratings had been brewing for some time. One of the Indian captains had been held in solitary confinement in Bombay for seventeen days on suspicion of having scribbled, "Quit India" and "Jai Hind", on the deck of HMIS Talwar, a seashore establishment for training wireless operators. Its Ratings were better educated as compared to the other Naval Ratings of R.I.N.
There was also discontent over food. On February 18 came the open defiance when the ratings were served breakfast which was ‘unfit for consumption’. Almost spontaneously they shouted in unison: No food, no work. Added to that was the insulting behaviour of the White commander who was accused of having called the ratings "sons of bitches, coolies and junglees".
"A large number of ratings refused breakfast and declined to fall in line for the parade. The entire establishment was in a state of open mutiny", says the report of the subsequent commission of inquiry set up by the Government. By the evening, all semblance of authority on the ship had collapsed.
On February 19, the nearby shore establishment, Castle Barracks, was affected. The sailors marched on the streets of Bombay and anti-British defiance reached a feverish pitch. By sunset that day, the strike involved about 20,000 ratings from all the ships in Bombay harbour and 11 shore establishments. The Union Jack was hurled down. Soon the strike spread to 74 ships, apart from 20 shore establishments.
A Naval Central Strike Committee was formed with M.S.Khan as President and Madan Singh as Vice President. Not only did they demand equal pay and food of the same quality for White and Indian sailors but also the release of political prisoners and the withdrawal of Indian troops sent by the British Government to Indonesia. They renamed the Royal Indian Navy as the Indian National Navy.
The leaders of the strike were not prepared for a sudden explosion and therefore took some time to set off a fully prepared mutiny. On February 21, fighting broke out in Castle Barracks. Next day the strike spread to naval bases in other parts of the country and even some ships on the high seas were affected. Apart from Bombay, the mutiny had spread to Karachi, Madras, Calcutta, Cochin, Vishakapattinam, Mandapam and the Andamans. Even HMIS India, the naval headquarters in Delhi was not safe.
As tensions rose, some of the ships under the command of mutineers aimed their guns at the exclusively 'European' quarter of the city. In response the Royal Artillery lined up several guns on the front near India Gate and aimed them, not at the mutinous warships but at the predominantly Indian parts of the city.
The solidarity between the sailors and the citizens of Bombay was unforgettable. There were moving scenes of fraternisation by the common people of the city in support of the striking sailors. On February 21, there was a general strike called by the Left Parties. Three lakh workers responded. Clashes between the public and the police continued for two days in which 230 people were killed and over 1,100 wounded.
The mutiny, however, could not be sustained. The British regrouped their forces and the admiral brought bombers to Bombay to destroy ships in revolt.
All this did not move the national leaders. The striking leaders frantically approached the national leaders who were busy negotiating with the British Government for the transfer of power. It must be remembered here that the RIN mutiny immediately led the British Prime Minister to announce the sending of a Cabinet Mission to India.
Sardar Patel advised the strikers on 22 February " to down their arms and go through the formality of surrender" as he thought that the naval mutiny was "setting a bad example for India". It was followed by Jinnah’s message: "I offer my services unreservedly for the cause of the RIN men to see that justice is done to them. I appeal to the men of the RIN to call off the strike." Gandhiji had already disapproved of the revolt.
Nehru, at first, disfavoured the "wild outburst of violence", but later acclaimed the strike for having pulled down the "iron wall" between the armed forces and the people.
On 23 February came the surrender. The surrender, however, was not due to the seamen getting cold feet. They had pinned their hopes on the national leaders. The strike committee sent out the last message to the nation before dissolving itself: "Our strike has been a historic event in the life of our nation. For the first time the blood of men in the services and in the streets flowed together in a common cause. We in the services will never forget this. We also know that you, our brothers and sisters, will not forget this. Long live our great people! Jai Hind".
It is perfectly true that many of India’s leaders did suffer long years of imprisonment for expressing their opposition to colonial government. But they did not bring independence. It came to India not only because of our non-violent freedom struggle but also because of the fact that Britain emerged from the World War II with a shattered economy and a demoralised people who had suffered the horrors of a protracted war. British troops, most of them conscripted, were not willing to remain abroad to garrison the colonies. And
Britain was also neck deep in debt, not only to the US, but also to India, to the tune of over a billion dollars.
Thus, the Naval Mutiny of 1946 clearly indicated that Britain was no longer in position to protect a large country like India. It was then that it dawned on the British to give self-government to India while retaining the British connection.
Those patriotic sailors who unfurled the flag of revolt 60 years ago – the upheaval that undoubtedly forced Britain to leave the Indian shores – were a class apart from the present day run-of-the-mill ‘patriots’.
As the nation goes through dark hours of faded values and dimmed ideals, let us seek strength from the inspiring lives of those sailors of the RIN mutiny because those were the men who sacrificed everything for freedom, our freedom.
P.N.BENJAMIN
benjaminpn@hotmail.com

THE FLAGRANT & UNETHICAL MISUSE OF MINORITY-ISM*
(Vijay Times, Feb. 22, 2006)
P.N.BENJAMIN
Afflicted by educational backwardness, social stigma, administrative apathy, religious orthodoxy and political expediency, nearly half of the Muslim population in India still lives below the poverty line. For a common Indian Muslim, the basic issues are education, employment and safety.
But, unfortunately the secular politicians in India have turned the Muslims into mere ballot papers. They have cynically used the 120 million Muslims in this country as vote bank for far too long.
The Muslim community is caught in a tweezer-grip. A large chunk of the blame for this must go to the so-called representatives of Muslims. The religious and political leaders of the Muslim community who have been seduced by the secularists to jump into the political fray are poorly versed in the community's problems.
"Muslim leaders also suffer from a complex which makes them think at each step that minority rights have been denied to them. During every elections it has been proved that all of them indulge in pernicious vote bank politics. Owing to their obscurantist approach, these leaders are leading the community back to the Dark Ages", wrote the late Dr. Rafiq Zachariah once.
Noted Muslim intellectual, Baharul Islam, had said in his Motilal Nehru Memorial lecture in 1987: "The Muslim intelligentsia are in a dilemma. They do not have sufficient contact with Muslim masses. The latter do not follow them, but are easily misled by the Ulema who talk to them politics in terms of religion. Paradoxically, the Muslim intelligentsia are also not much needed by the political parties unless they are fanatical enough to influence the Muslim masses who constitute the vote bank. The result is that the progressive Muslim leadership is torn between nationalism and communalism, between conscience and convenience".
The Congress has been playing its minorities card with elan for years now. Token measures like banning Salman Rushdie's `Satanic Verses' or declaring Prophet Mohammed's birthday as a national holiday or pushing through a retrograde piece of legislation in the Shah Bano case relating to divorce practices, may have done their bit in making some community leaders happy but little has been done in tackling the crucial problems of lack of literacy and extreme poverty. Close on the heels of the Andhra Government order providing for five per cent reservations for Muslims in educational institutions and public sector jobs through their inclusion in the list of Backward Classes, which was suspended by the High Court, comes news of a survey being undertaken by an official commission on the socio-economic conditions of Muslims, in which even the armed forces are being sucked into the vortex of vote bank politics.
After having reaped the harvest of votes in the wake of the Hindutva campaign in the last few years, the BJP had sobered down so as to be able to run a coalition of diverse parties. But, while its die-hards are talking again of reviving the campaign with an eye on the Hindu vote bank, it too has now started playing the sinister game of political soccer with Muslim vote bank. For example, take a close look at the picture (VT edit-page Feb. 20) of the Muslim supporters of BJP protesting in New Delhi! Not to be left behind, the Communists and the Samajwadi Party are also playing the minorities card, seeking a growing share in the minorities vote pie. When the Ram Janmabhoomi campaign was at its peak, a wily V.P. Singh bared the Mandal card for 27 per cent reservation in Government jobs for backward classes. It was an unabashed step to cultivate a sizeable vote bank. Ironically, while V.P. Singh lost out in the electoral battle, other parties like the BSP in UP and the RJD in Bihar reaped the benefits of the casteist voting trends that he unleashed.India's politicians need to be reminded of the founding fathers intent. Pandit Govind Vallabh Pant, a senior minister in the Nehru Cabinet, said in the Constituent Assembly in 1947: "Do the minorities always want to remain minorities or do they even expect to form an integral part of a great nation and as such to guide its destiny? I think it would be extremely dangerous for them if they were segregated from the rest of the community and kept aloof in an airtight compartment."
He proceeded to advise the minorities: "Your safety lies in making yourselves an integral part of the organic whole, which forms the real genuine State". Is it not revealing that one of the tallest leaders of Congress during the freedom struggle like Pant had used the words 'extremely dangerous' and 'safety'?
The so-called secularist parties stand for the liquidation of others. They believe in the method of producing social co-operation through perpetuating communal disharmony and hatred. Every kind of contradictory satisfaction to every kind of discontented men and women – that is the technique of the pseudo-secularism. Do not lay traps for the poor people. By all means work for secularism. By all means put secularism before the country if you like. But in trying to capture the people’s backing for your policy, do not tell stories, exaggerate and go and work up discontent and hatred and entrap the gullibles.
With religion and casteism taking centre stage in elections over the last few years, real issues of development and governmental performance have taken a back seat. This is an unfortunate course for the country to take. It is time the major political parties sat down to lay down certain ground rules. If democracy is to have any meaning and if people's faith in their elected representatives is to be restored, it is imperative that political parties learn not to sacrifice national interest at the altar of political expediency
Minority-ism should be avoided in and of itself, beyond what is mandated by the Constitution as necessary in the Indian context; especially token minority-ism, because it offends those excluded without delivering anything of consequence to the supposed beneficiaries
P.N.BENJAMIN
benjaminpn@hotmail.com
FROM KILVENMANI TO RAGHOPUR AND BEYOND
(Vijay Times, 4 Jan. 2006)
P.N.BENJAMIN
FROM Raghopur village in Bihar has come the shocking news of an orgy in barbarity. A woman and her five children, belonging to the Extremely Backward Castes, were burnt alive at around 1 a.m. on January, 2006 by a member of the dominant Yadav community and his henchmen, for apparently refusing to withdraw a complaint of theft. These beasts in human form locked all the seven members of the family inside their thatched house and set it on fire. While the six perished in the fire, the father received serious burn injuries and hospitalised.
The country has been hearing of such crimes for so long and with such monotonous regularity that the public has come to shrug its collective shoulder and cynically say: "What’s new?" A sense of helplessness has already set in among the people who are too tired even to protest. Could there be a more eloquent warning about the collapse of the entire system – administrative, judicial, political and social?
The roasting alive of the extremely backward castes did not begin at this Bihar village nor will it end there. The bloody trail is from Kilvenmani to Belchi, Deoli to Karamchedu, Chintamani to Raghopur and goodness knows where else. For years the rural rich have been gunning for the poor belonging to the so-called EBCs and the administration all over the country, especially the police, has almost always been on the side of the rich.
Memories are still fresh in my mind of the gruesome incident at Kilvenmani in Tamil Nadu where 42 Dalits- young and old, women, children and men – were burnt alive in a hut by the upper caste landlords on the Christmas Day 1968. This was not merely a case of social prejudice. It was to wreak vengeance upon the Dalit labourers for demanding higher wages for their labour on the farms of those landlords.
What is more maddening is the fact that not a single person was punished for that mass murder. The Madras High Court, probably to remind us all that India is a free country, set free the accused. The inference can only be that the guardians of law had not been able to bring home the guilt to the presiding judges.
In a similar incident, the Andhra Pradesh High Court acquitted all the accused in what has come to be known as ‘Karamchendu carnage’ in which six Dalits were massacred and 20 injure in an attack by upper caste people. The attack took place on July 17, 1985.
As many as 94 persons were charged with murder and after much procedural wrangling the joint trial commence in 1992 before the session’s judge in Guntur. On October 31, 1994, the district court sentenced five accused to life imprisonment, 53 persons to three years of rigorous imprisonment and four were fined Rs.10, 000. Thirty-two were acquitted. But, the High Court in its wisdom set free all the accused in 1997!
Nearer home, about one hundred kilometers away from Bangalore, at the Kamapalli village, in Chintamani Taluk, on March 11, 2000, in one of the worst caste clashes in Karnataka; seven Dalits were burnt alive after a caste Hindu was fatally stabbed over an old enmity. An irate mob of a particular caste attacked the house of the Dalit, bolted the door from outside, stuffed the chimney with dry hay, poured kerosene and petrol into it and set it afire. While the house began burning inside, the group set the house ablaze from outside too, charring the six inmates to death! As far as this writer knows nobody has so far been punished for this gruesome killings.
What is necessary is a national awareness of the dimensions of the degradation, which abounds in the country. It is no secret that the law enforcement agencies are insensitive to the injustices done to the weaker sections of our society. The National Commission for SCs & STs has said that the oppressed sections are extremely hesitant to prefer complaints with the police. The police are reluctant to register even grave charges. charge-sheets are delayed and those filed are often defective. Thus the accused are usually acquitted by courts.
All this is bad enough. Worse is that the very authorities who are supposed to protect these communities against exploitation turn into willing accomplices to, and even participants, in brazenly illegal acts. Some times the very victims of atrocities find themselves accused of several offences, all foisted by the police at the instance of the vested interests who almost invariably enjoy the support of the right people in the corridors of power.
All these harrowing atrocities committed by vested interests with the help of the guardians of law against the toiling masses proclaim the failure of the social tinkering that has gone under the name of Gandhism, socialism, secularism, liberalisation and globalisation. It proclaims the hollowness of our claim of constitutional progress and of course, the defeat of our so-called democracy. We ought to hang our heads in shame when we witness today such poignant ill-treatment of the lowest and lowliest segment of our people even after 57 years of political independence and fifty-five years after abolishing untouchability.
The latest massacre is a blood-curdling outrage, more than enough to rouse the nation’s conscience once again and prod the state and central governments into swift action not only to punish the guilty whose identity is known but to ensure the safety of the oppressed and other weaker sections of our society all over the country. Our freedom must begin with the lowest strata of the society, the most deprived and the oppressed. And, only then will our freedom be worth preserving.
As long as we know what is happening and do nothing about it, we all are guilty. Let there be no mistake about it. There is blood, the blood of the innocent, everywhere. It cries out for justice. Justice in full measure, here and now.
P.N.BENJAMIN
benjaminpn@hotmail.com

MALNUTRITION: SLOW AND SILENT DEATH
(Vijay Times, 14 Dec. 2005)
P.N.BENJAMIN
The warning bells are ringing for India once again, if the latest UNICEF statistics are any indication.
Out of the one fifth of the world’s child population, our country has 47 per cent malnourished children among them! Malnutrition is one of the major contributory factors for the fifty per cent of the infant death. While 30 per cent new-borns are significantly underweight, 87 per cent of pregnant women and approximately 60 per cent of young children are anaemic.
53 per cent of under four- year-olds in India are moderately or severely malnourished. They are suffering from Protein Energy Malnutrition (PEM) condition. In fact, PEM is the most widely prevalent form of malnutrition among children. Equally common are deficiencies of micro-nutrients (Vitamins A, B, C, D, iodine and iron). In terms of numbers, this amounts to 60 million children. The proportion of new born babies who fail to achieve normal weight is a "disturbing indicator of the nation’s health".
Poverty-linked malnutrition lies at the base of diseases like diarrhoea, which claims the lives of 1.5 million babies each year in our country. It also takes its toll in terms of deficiency: thousands of Indian babies go blind annually owing to Vitamin A deficiency. Early child malnutrition is also the single greatest cause of mental and physical retardation.
Malnutrition impacts on the future of children and, in turn, the country. Nutrition affects not only the physical growth of the child, but also its mental development. Malnutrition on such scale means money invested in education is not used effectively as hungry children cannot study.
The rates of malnutrition in India are much higher than those in some sub-Saharan countries. While gender bias and poor awareness cause malnutrition, studies have revealed that two common misconceptions also contribute to the high incidence in the country. ``People here believe in eating down during pregnancy and work on the premise that young children require less food per kg weight than adults and do not require additional food before 12 months.''
Malnutrition on such scale is a drag on the national economy. It is costing the Indian economy dearly in terms of lost productivity, illness and death. While poverty is a basic cause for malnutrition in India as is the case in much of the developing world, a major factor here is the low status of women. 60% of women are anaemic. Mothers and sisters often forego food in poor families to give husbands and sons more than their share. ``Unless their status is improved, the chances of nutrition levels improving with successive generations are quite bleak as the ultimate responsibility of bringing up the child in its early years lies with the woman in traditional societies.''
The Integrated Child Development Scheme of the Government has been rightly acclaimed as a model one, but there is a need to make it more focused. A tremendous amount can be achieved if the focus is on a few action areas: care for the mother before, during and after pregnancy; care for the young child; encouraging exclusive breast feeding; and initiating complementary feeding at six months.
According to experts spending money on food subsidies and food supplies may not always be the best approach to fight malnutrition. They say, as a strategy for tackling the problem spending the same amount on community-based approaches to improve nutrition and targeting the food supplements to the most needy can have a greater impact on the nutritional status of the population. "Some families need the food. But for others, helping them to make better use of the resources that they already have will have a greater long-term impact on the nutritional status and productivity of the next generation of Indians."
India has been justifiably proud of its self-sufficiency in food since the green revolution in agriculture in the 1960s and 70s. That the economy produces enough to meet the poor people’s demand, but that the demand is not met is, in fact, a shame. The commercialisation of agriculture and the current obsession with exports have adversely affected poor households.
As Amartya Sen writes: "One of the major blots of the survival (in India) of regular malnutrition – as distinct from acute starvation and famines – in most parts of India…India’s ‘self-sufficiency’ in food has to be assessed in the light of the limited purchasing power of the Indian masses. Their needs may be large, but their ‘entitlements’ are small; that the economy produces enough to meet their market demand is not in itself a gigantic achievement."
Malnutrition is not so much a physical disease as a social and economic one. The existence of vast masses of unfed people in a society claiming significant advances in agriculture is evidence of land in the hands of a few, limited purchasing power, skewed distribution and plain abdication of state’s responsibility towards the poor are the ‘germs’ that infect a society with malnutrition.
In India, the main problem is a certain level what might be called ‘generalised hunger’ as against the outright starvation suffered in certain parts of the world. While Indian hunger is not so acute, it is far more disguised as a major problem and far less likely to be addressed as such. Malnutrition here is often a slow and silent killer. Its basic cause is poverty.
The UNICEF statistics will add to growing feelings of unease that should bestir the government into a new attempt to end hunger once and for all. And it brooks no delay.
P.N.BENJAMIN
benjaminpn@hotmail.com

NATIONAL FLAG, EMBLEM & ANTHEM MISUSED*
(Vijay Times, 26 April 2006)
P.N.BENJAMIN
A reader of Vijay Times has rightly pointed out and expressed his revulsion at the unfortunate incident seen live on TV when "the national flag was not treated with respect and mandatory protocol" and "often bundled up like a used bed sheet" to cover the late Dr. Rajkumar’s body (VT 19 April).
Along with the national anthem, the national flag is always supremely and specially iconic of the nation state. The honour and integrity of the nation are captured by the flag and, as the history of every country shows, the national flag is uniquely capable of enlisting the aid of citizens, giving rise to sentiments of nationalism and evoking the supreme sacrifice of death.
The national flag is, to a considerable degree and certainly in essence, the flag to whose design none other than Mahatma Gandhi lent his hand, and which the Congress Party adopted in 1921. Writing in ‘Young India’ on 13 April 1921, on the second anniversary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, Gandhi had observed that the saffron in the flag represented Hindus, the green stood for Muslims, and that the white represented all other faiths; the spinning wheel in the middle pointed to the oppressed condition of every Indian, just as it evoked the possibility of rejuvenating every Indian household.
Gandhi did not think the matter of the national flag trifling. As he put it: "A flag is a necessity for all nations. Millions have died for it. It is no doubt a kind of idolatry which it would be a sin to destroy."
Gandhi’s flag or the Swaraj flag with some modifications was formally adopted by the Congress in 1931 as the national flag. And this flag in turn became the basis, with the substitution of the wheel on Asoka’s Sarnath pillar for the charkha, for the national flag chosen by the Constituent Assembly in July 1947.
The flag was presented to the nation, on behalf of the women of India, at the midnight session of the Constituent Assembly on 14 August 1947.
That the tricolour uniquely symbolised both the tribulations and aspirations of every Indian is seen from the fact that it adorned almost every publication of the Indian National Army (INA).
It is sad that respect for the national flag is not evident in all walks of life in the country today. There is a "flag code" issued by the Home Ministry to ensure its proper use and display. A Home Ministry communiqué issued on 6 July 1948 declared that India’s national tricolour flag "should not be brought into disrepute by unregulated use". And it laid down certain fundamental rules. The communiqué explained that "it was appropriate to use the national flag on all occasions during the struggle for freedom. Now that freedom has been won, there should be well-defined regulations for its use, as it the practice in other countries befitting the emblem of the nation."
In the early days of the Republic, its first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru wrote to his cabinet colleagues and the chief ministers of states not to fly the national flag from their cars because in the common man’s mind it represented authority and the way they used it was designed to overawe the people. For some time the national flag was used sparingly. But that restraint is over and the national flag is now flaunted senselessly.
The tricolour in many occasions is flown upside down, with the green colour on top and the saffron colour down. It is said that most flagrant violations of the code occur in schools, where, as per the prescription, not only a certain distance has to be maintained between the flagpole and the pupils, but also the head master and the pupil leader have to stand in a particular manner. Likewise, the flag should be flown only in between the sunrise and sunset.
The rules about the use of our national anthem are so restrictive that it is not played (or should not be played) even for the Prime Minister, much less for a cabinet minister who is 18th on the order (warrant) of precedence. Only the President enjoys the privilege and the Vice President if and when he represents the President.
The misuse of national anthem is more common in states. Ministers insist on the national anthem being played to announce their arrival and departure as an exhibition of their power and status. Even commissioners and deputy commissioners have the national anthem played at functions held in their honour. Since they themselves are the protectors of the law they get away with these violations.
The rules on the use of the national emblem – the three lions – are as strict as those for the national flag and anthem. But they have been relaxed in favour of members of parliament and even state legislatures. Why? No one has had an answer so far. It appears that the use of the national emblem makes the user feel that he/she is a part of the ruling establishment! It symbolises authority. At least the so-called Gandhians, Socialists and Communists should revolt against this practice unless their values have changed!
The rationale of the use of the national emblem anywhere and everywhere is beyond comprehension. It is the State emblem adopted by the Government of India. There is no reason why it should be used indiscriminately. All members of parliament and the state legislatures have the seal embossed on the stationery they use; even envelopes have the seal! If it is the question of an elected office, members of the city corporations, the municipalities and the panchayats should also be free to use it. May be, some are already doing so.
Nehru was against officers mentioning their service on the nameplate and had the Home Ministry issue instructions to that effect. For some time even the ICS, once the highpriests of all services, stopped. But it has come back with a vengeance. They have the abbreviations of their service – IAS, IPS, IFS, KAS etc – written on the nameplates dangling outside their offices and residence. They continue to carry the nameplates and letterheads: IAS (Rtd), IPS (Rtd.) etc. One wonders what kick they get out of it!
The national symbols of the country are important as they contribute immensely to harmony in society and unity of the nation. In the cultural and political semiotics of nationhood, the national anthem, the flag and the emblem are bound to occupy an increasingly important place.
P.N.BENJAMIN
benjaminpn@hotmail.com

PAST MISTAKES OVER J & K SHOULD MAKE INDIA WARY
(Vijay Times, 21 Sept. 2005)Edit-page main article
By P.N.BENJAMIN
WHAT has been our experience in the past with outside powers with regard to Kashmir? It is a question well worth asking in the light of US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice asking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to offer some "concessions" on Jammu & Kashmir to Pakistan( Dishonest broker – VT Sept. 20).
India has made many mistakes in the past – like all countries do in their long and short history. The time has now come for us to learn from our past mistakes and not to walk again into the trap being carefully laid for us by Pakistan and the USA.
Here is a piece of history. Recently declassified documents from the period 1947 to 1965 reveal that Britain might have wilfully connived at the Pakistani strategy of seizing Kashmir, which started with the tribal invasion of Jammu and Kashmir backed by Pakistani army. But for the extremely partisan role of the ‘rogue" minister in charge of commonwealth relations in the Atlee cabinet, Philip Noel Baker, Kashmir would not perhaps have become the problem it has today. It was Mr. Baker, according to the documents, who masterminded the perpetuation of Kashmir as a dispute in the United Nations not just in violation of the Indian Independence Act but also in defiance of his own prime minister and cabinet colleagues, not to mention in disagreement with the advice of the then US secretary of state, George Marshall. This pampering of Pakistan by a section of the British establishment, initially, for reasons of geopolitical influence and, later, for cold war expediency – which subsequently found an echo in the US policy – led to a situation where Pakistan was emboldened to even support cross-border terrorism so as to justify its case on Kashmir.
We looked upon the UN as if it were an international court of justice. Actually, the UN members treated the Indian complaint as an item for Great Power diplomacy. At that time, Pakistan had already been earmarked for a strategic role in the American order of power politics, guided at that time by the imperatives of the Cold War to use Pakistan as a powerful base for operations against the then-Soviet Union.
The result was that the Indian case on Kashmir was negated and instead, both Pakistan and India were put on par as two rival neighbouring powers clamouring for a piece of territory called Kashmir. For years, our diplomacy on this score reduced itself to appealing to the western powers that they should listen to us and not to Pakistan.
In any future dialogue with Pakistan, India should not accept the propaganda, which has gone for long that it has violated any commitment to the people of the state or the United Nations. The commitment to the people, as spelt out in the note to the Maharaja from the British Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, was that a reference would be made to them after "law and order have been restored’ and the "state’s soil cleared of invader". The invader is still there, in " Azad Kashmir", and in his later reincarnations as terrorists continue to disturb law and order on the Indian side.
As for violations of UN resolutions, the boot is on the other leg. It is India that accepted them while Pakistan prevaricated, and did so for so long that the UN itself relegated the resolutions to history in 1958.
Here are a few more historical facts. The State of Jammu and Kashmir acceded to India under and in accordance with the same law that partitioned India and created Pakistan, the Indian Independence Act. The accession cannot be questioned without bringing the legal basis of the partition and of Pakistan into question as well.
The state of Jammu and Kashmir had the same authority, like the rulers of other states, to decide his state’s accession. The fact is that, in deciding to accede to India, the Maharaja went further than any other, in the sense that, as required by India, he also obtained the backing of the popularly elected legislature for his decision.
The accession of J&K was no less valid than the accession to Pakistan of the provinces, which constituted it. The latter acceded only on the authority of their already elected representatives, without any direct reference to their people. The accession of J&K not only had the backing of the designated authority, the Maharaja, but also of the elected representatives.
India should never accept any theories of partition, which are inconsistent with the legal foundations of the partition, and these had nothing to do with religion. Therefore, we should not accept any claim occasionally heard from Pakistan that to complete the task of the partition, Kashmir should be handed over to Pakistan, for the reason that is a Muslim majority area, or made an independent sovereign nation.
Yes, many if not most Kashmiris would prefer to be independent rather than part of India. But have we ever paused to consider the consequences of the secession of Kashmir from the Indian Union? Should Kashmir break away, the latent nationalisms of Tamil Nadu, Bengal, Kerala and other Indian states could flare up. As Yugoslavia has shown, it does not take much for a supposedly "united" federation to disintegrate into a squabbling congeries of peoples.
India should not be oblivious to the long-term political cost of allowing the US to gain strategic presence in India’s Pakistan policy. It will be not only unrealistic but also suicidal for India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, considering the US foothold in Indian Ocean, Afghanistan, Pakistan (Jacobabad, with air-conditioned bunkers) and the US military assistance to Nepal to fight insurgency, all indicating a long-term presence in the region.
There is more at stake in Kashmir than merely a piece of territory. Kashmir is the symbol and touchstone of our secular structure. What is involved in Kashmir is the basic right of a country and its people to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity. India would do well to make this abundantly clear to all concerned, especially the US, which is waiting on its wings to be the mediator between Pakistan and India.
Independent India can, by and large, feel justly proud of it its democratic, secular Constitution, and for maintaining and promoting internal peace and co-operation and resolving international questions through dialogue and discussion rather than through the use or threat of force. In the final analysis, it is these principles that can safeguard security and peace and promote international cooperation.
However, we live in an imperfect world, an unjust and unequal world, where economic and military strength still determines a country’s ability to ensure its sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence. So, we must be prepared to defend ourselves, not take things lying down, but warn all powers-that-be, thus far and no further.
India has been patient and peaceful in the face of grave threats and provocations. without losing patience, India must now be clear and firm, and not let others take advantage of her passion for peace. The firmness on principles that India shows will determine her own future and respect for the integrity, sovereignty and independence of other States.

P.N.BENJAMIN

CHANGE OF FAITH WITHOUT PUSH OR PULL FACTOR*
(Vijay Times, 23 May 2006)
P.N.BENJAMIN
Conversion has always been a sensitive and contentious issue in India. The politics of conversion, which is pure and simple imperialism, is the only intractable issue that divides Hindus and Christians in India.
It is said : "Vatican bullies the weak and acts submissive to strongs like Islam and China." Pope Benedict XVI’s recent remarks regarding "religious intolerance" in India, is the latest example. His comments have come at a time when the Vatican and the World Council of Churches (WCC) are engaged in a three-year joint study project to propose "a code of conduct for religious conversion".
The inter-religious consultation on "Conversion - assessing the reality" held in Lariano (Italy) between May 12-16, 2006, organised by the Vatican and WCC has urged " all practitioners and establishments of all faiths to ensure that conversion by "unethical" means are discouraged and rejected by one and all. There should be transparency in the practice of inviting others to one's faith. No faith organization should take advantage of vulnerable sections of society, such as children and the disabled."
Conversions cause social tensions. Conversions in India have always been highly unethical – that is, using unethical means of conversion- but also that they threaten a whole way of life, erasing centuries of tradition, customs, wisdom, teaching people to despise their own religion and look Westwards to a culture which is alien to them, with disastrous results.
Even as gentle a soul as Gandhi could not contain his disparagement about proselytising, expressing it as graciously as he could. In an interview he said in 1935: "If I had the power and could legislate, I should certainly stop all proselytizing".
"Why ought one at all to tamper with the faith of another is something that beats reason. The preacher’s faith is as unproven and irrational as the victim’s. Both assume that his belief is the best. The only difference, however, is that while the victim considers his faith is best for himself, ungrudgingly leaving others to believe what they want, the preacher feels his faith is the best for ALL without distinction, and actually gets paid for holding and spreading the ludicrous principle."
The anti-conversion laws in the country were first enacted by the Congress-led governments in Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Arunachal Pradesh and not by the "Hindu nationalist BJP" governments. What the Rajasthan government is trying to do today is to enact a similar legislation in that state.
Christians-- like adherents of any other religion in India-- are at perfect liberty under India's constitution, not only to practise but also to propagate their respective faiths. Doubtless, there have been sporadic attacks on Christians in recent years in some parts of the country. Christian evangelists who denigrate Hindu gods and abuse Hindu rituals as barbaric are the root cause of tension between Christian and Hindu communities. But, the Catholic Church in India and its bishops have never distanced themselves from the breast-beating, Bible-thumping "born-again" fanatic fringe of Christians, spewing venom against Hindus and their gods in their campaigns and crusades to "harvest the Hindu souls". Why?
Look at what happened in Sri Lanka. An anti-Christian backlash in that country in January 2004 had led to attacks on Catholic churches, and fuelled demands for a law to ban what some Buddhist monks called "unethical conversions". The Sri Lankan Catholic Bishops’ Conference boldly distanced itself from the evangelical Christian groups for bribing poor people to convert to Christianity and issued a statement."We, the bishops of the Catholic Church of Sri Lanka, are deeply conscious of the social unrest alleged to be caused by certain activities of the fundamentalist Christian sects, particularly by the more radical elements "It must be stated that the Catholic Church is not associated in any way with any of these sects," the statement says. "We do not support any of the measures, such as material enticements or undue pressures that are alleged to be made by these groups in order to carry out so-called unethical conversions."
India is the only Asian country from Jordan running east to Indo-China that allows religious freedom-- freedom to convert and freedom to propagate. Indeed, India has had a Christian presence at least since 52 AD, which is to say it has had a Christian presence far longer than Europe has done so, let alone North America.
Christians in India have enjoyed freedom of conscience far longer than Catholics in the United Kingdom have done so. Many public figures in independent India have been, are, and will continue to be Christians.The vitality of Indian Christianity may be gauged from the fact that almost all strands of mainstream Christianity-- Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicanism, Evangelical Protestantism-- are represented in significant numbers in the various regions of India.
None of the Orthodox churches (Greek, Russian, Coptic, Armenian, Ethiopian etc) engage in proselytisation. Have you ever seen or heard of priests or "evangelists" from any of these churches engaging in proselytization or preaching hellfire and damnation to those who do not agree with their interpretations of the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth? No, because they understand the offensiveness of "in your face Christianity" and have learnt to interpret and live by their faith without having the proselytizing millstones around their necks.
The Church is deeply connected to the political activities of the State in Europe and the US. The Church does not stand alone, but is deeply embedded in the society and politics of its particular imperial home country.
Pope Benedict XVI should adhere to his original agenda of reminding Europe of its Christian roots. Instead of trying to convert the so-called "heathen Hindus" he should devote his energies to saving the souls of Christians of Europe - a continent with a glorious past but now in terminal decline! He should not emulate Pope John Paul II's 'evangelization of Asia'.
There’s a raging Islamic fire in Vatican’s backyard, i.e., all over Europe. Well-informed strategic analysts have been forecasting that in 50/60 years Europe will become a Muslim majority continent. Coming as he does from Germany which country is facing a free fall in population surely the Pope knows it too well.

A time might come, especially in France, Spain and Germany, when the governments of those countries might have to opt for legislation banning conversions to other faiths. They are already enacting laws restricting entry of foreigners, a measure which India has not adopted so far. And better surveillance of Islamic bombers might be in order too since the Vatican is one of their announced targets and they have already caused mayhem in Spain and the UK!
P.N.BENJAMIN
benjaminpn@hotmail.com
RETURN TO A MYSTICAL PAST FOR A BRIGHT FUTURE!*
(Vijay Times, 3 May 2006)
P.N.BENJAMIN

Norman Borlaug, who had helped create the hybrid technology that brought about our Green Revolution, wrote as follows in a letter on April 12, 2002 to M.S.Swaminathan, B.G.Verghese, and a few others.
"Approval of Bt. Cotton has been a long, slow, painful process, effectively delayed, I assume, by the lobbying of Vandana Shiva and her crowd. Now that the door has been opened for the use of transgenic biotechnology on one crop. I hope it’ll soon be approved for other crops. The recent tactics in the use of the ‘precautionary principle’ is a dangerous game plan, especially when a country is under heavy population pressure. As an enthusiastic friend of India, I have been dismayed to see it lagging behind in the approval of transgenic crops while China forges ahead.
"I was very supportive of the environmental movement when it began in the 1960s. However, in recent years, the movement has evolved more and more towards an anti-science, anti-technology reactionary force. Too many of its leaders are opposed to high-yield crop production technology. Let us remember the courageous decision made by C. Subramaniam ignited the Green Revolution in 1966. Thank God, Subramaniam was not paralysed by the ‘precautionary principle’. Look at the results – a six-fold increase in wheat production and a three-fold increase in rice production over the past 40 years. How would 500 million additional Indians have been fed without this great transformation?"
Borlaug’s words are relevant even today when the hyperactive environmentalists are undermining the future of millions of Indians by their opposition to major dam projects in India. Displacement of people, loss of cultural or historic sites and submergence of forests or scenic landscapes due to dam construction are a small price to pay for development. These problems pale into insignificance when viewed in the broader context of the tangible and intangible benefits that the major dam projects in India would bring to millions of people when completed.
However, the authorities concerned should address the concomitant environmental and human problems, specially the problem of resettlement of the displaced people immediately.
Environmentalists often depict themselves as folk heroes and rebels, fighting a mighty anti-Green establishment.
What we today call 'environmentalism' is based on a fear of change. It's based upon a fear of the outcome of human action. And therefore it's not surprising that when you look at the more xenophobic right-wing movements in Europe in the 19th century, including German fascism, it quite often had a very strong environmentalist dynamic to it.
Environmentalists are often portrayed as left-wing radicals, battling against a backward-looking establishment. But they are in fact part of a long tradition of conservatism that idealises nature and the past. These conservative instincts motivated the 19th-century figures such as Nietzsche and Wagner, and movements such as the Romantics, who were horrified by England's 'dark satanic mills' (as William Blake described them) and dreamt of returning to a mythical past of medieval knights and maidens, and even the Boy Scout movement, which in its origins combined a mystical affinity with nature, Right-wing nationalism and a hatred of degenerate modern life.
The most notorious environmentalists in history were the German Nazis. The Nazis ordered soldiers to plant more trees. They were the first Europeans to establish nature reserves and order the protection of hedgerows and other wildlife habitats. And they were horrified at the idea of hydroelectric dams on the Rhine. Adolf Hitler and other leading Nazis were vegetarian and they passed numerous laws on animal rights.
The enviro-wackos are either rootless idealists or willful populists who do precious little to mobilize the ordinary people for the required resistance against government policies. They organize seminars and conventions and protest marches in an effort to corner the estimated Rs.250 crores of donor funds flowing into the country annually for voluntary work in the field of environment. Many of them have become regular fixtures on the international seminar circuit, or after notching up more air miles on their travels to exotic locales are winning frequent flier freebies in the bargain. They are marching out of seminar rooms and dam sites, waving flags; any flag except the national flag, of salvation.
They manipulate the media and get extensive publicity for their activities. They have thus a proud feeling of elation. Most of the environmentalists claim to be specialists and experts on any subjects.
Nicholas Murray Butler had defined an expert as one "who knows more and more about less and less". But experts are multiplying in number and barging into new pastures where their presence was not thought necessary earlier. Interminable debates and hair-splitting go on, and various ‘experts’ offer solutions many of which stink of biases.
"Trust one who has proved it", said Francois Villion, but in the environmental field such people are in short supply, and second-rate ‘experts’ seize the chance to jump a rung or two when no one is looking!
The attempt by man to understand and to conquer nature was at the heart of Enlightenment thinking. A scientific, rational understanding of the physical world was a means of changing nature to serve our needs and desires better. But these Enlightenment ideas of rationalism and progress have been called into question by environmentalists.
Gregg Easterbrook, author of A Moment on the Earth, a critique of environmental thinking, argues that the idealisation of nature common in the environmental movement is a modern luxury that has, paradoxically, been made possible by development."
There have been many attempts in the past to block social and economic progress. But few have been as successful as today's environmentalist movement, which uses the threat of a global ecological crisis to override the wishes of those people who most need the benefits of progress. Many resent the interference and hypocrisy of these environmentalists, who have all the benefits and comforts of development.
It's easy to become indignant, even enraged, with those who oppose development projects without basing their opinions on science and technology. People today face many difficulties: poverty and squalor, ignorance and disease. But the battle against these evils cannot be won by returning to nature or some mythical past. Instead, we must go forward to a better future with confidence in our ability to understand and change the world. Only through the appliance of science and technology can people's aspirations be realised even at the most elementary level.
As Vaclav Havel argued in many of his essays, the power of dissent is the power of ‘living within the truth’. It is a ‘tension between the aims of life and the aims of the system’. For the professional dissidents, environmentalism has become the new text of the post-Communist utopia. The gulf between their cause and their verbal position is so wide that it doesn’t fail to make a pastiche of the tradition of the word against the received wisdom of the state.
P.N.BENJAMIN
benjaminpn@hotmail.com

BLESSED BE FOR DWELLING IN UNITY*
(Vijay Times, Edit-page, 12 Oct. 2005)
P.N.BENJAMIN

India is the homeland of four world religions — Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. The ancient sages of Sanatana Dharma have from time to time formulated different perceptions of the Almighty, thus giving rise to its three other religious offshoots. However, almost all the non-Indian religions also set foot on the Indian soil right from their very beginning, starting with the Jewish faith in Cochin.
Even while in their own lands of origin, Christianity and Islam faced stiff opposition in the battle for survival, their co-existence on the southwest coast of India prevailed. In India, these two religions received hospitality. So, did a later arrival, Zoroastrianism. The mainsprings of India’s emotional unity did not arise from its religions, but from its very cultural base. The cultural superstructure was supremely capable of containing all religious systems in all their genuine fullness and grandeur. The modern India is a land, not of one religion, but of diverse religions. The state does not sponsor any one religion but appears to falter at times in not being able to accord its majority faith of Hinduism some of the same privileges that it accords to minority faiths, such as autonomy in the management of the latter’s houses of worship and oversight as well as disbursal of their financial assets. Though it is done to reassure the even-handedness of the Indian State to remain as a secular nation, it leads to complaints of disparate treatment of the legitimate religious interests of the Hindu majority.
Perhaps, one may argue that this is in keeping with the genius of India, which through the ages has followed the path, not of mere tolerance, but of abundance of acceptance of diversities of creed and practice. Of course, if this process of assimilation is to go on continuously in a nation which has become increasingly literate and assertive in all matters inclusive of religious orientation, the Indian State must either adopt total indifference to all religions or treat all religions equally in every way.
There have been periods when Hinduism has been mainly on the defensive, building up walls, developing distorted forms of varna leading to birth-assigned caste regulations, either to protect itself from the inroads of other faiths or perpetuate monopolistic control of goods, services and power. But there have also been glorious periods when at least creative Hindu seers who cast aside protective shells entered into faithful intercourse with other faiths, resulting in significant mutations and advances in redefining Hinduism and thereby the nation’s culture and its progress. Kabir, the inspired weaver of northern India, declared that there was neither Hindu nor Muslim, but only man as the embodiment of the Divine. There have been other efforts at reconciliation or assimilation in modern times — like the reformulations of Hinduism and its Sanatana Dharma through the expositions of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Vivekanananda, Brahmo Samaj, Theosophical Movement, etc. But the efforts at such religious reconciliations have to be continually made at fresh levels. A decadent India under foreign rule failed to work out a faith-based creative synthesis under modern conditions and has paid dearly for that failure. The vivisection of India on the basis of religion has been a sad consequence of our failure to embody the peculiar genius of our country in terms of modern thoughts and needs. But the partition has not, as we know, removed the challenges of rival faiths co-existing in this country. In this situation inter-religious dialogue has become an indispensable tool for meeting the challenges of rival faiths - overcoming alienation and halting the march towards a one nation under one God who is sought by all. Dialogue presupposes differences and disagreements. At the same time, dialogue must stand on the willingness, on both sides, to respect each other’s vision of truth and discern the points of convergence within every kernel of truth."Genuine dialogue demands humility and love. Dialogue is both an expression of faith and a sign of hope. Dialogue also demands a level of consciousness that refuses to take an easy course to the spiritual and so waits for answers, however tentative they may turn out to be. Dialogue does not accept the gulf between religions as permanent, and asks people of each tradition to re-tread the path they have travelled in history". (Stanley Samartha, Courage for Dialogue). The alternative to dialogue is coercion. At a time when technology has sharpened the edges of aggression and the erosion of our sense of fellow-humanity has removed all inhibitions, it is imperative that we talk to each other – to our enemies and friends alike. But we must dialogue not just because of the likelihood, otherwise, of hurting or getting hurt. We must dialogue because of our commitment to spread goodwill and to break the spell of misunderstanding. Dialogue is basic to the dynamics of peace. But, we must be ready to accept the risks and costs implicit in peace making. "Inter-religious dialogues can eliminate religious conflicts and intolerances. Essentials as between the different religions are few and simple and it is possible to conceive and state these in the broadest spirit so as to exclude no one. It will be easier for one to understand the best in another religion when one understands the best in one's own religion. Thus true loyalty to the best in one’s religion is hardly ever in conflict with the best in other religions. Emphasis more on spiritual and ethical values, as distinct from rituals, dogmas or doctrines, will tend to bring devotees of different religions closer together.
"Undoubtedly, within any religious community, the web of relationships between the human and the divine, between individual freedom and social discipline, between a partial recognition of the meaning of life and a humble acknowledgement of the mystery of existence, is complex, delicate, and fragile. Religious commitments go much deeper than intellectual explanations. They touch the total life of the individual and the collective personality of the community. One must tread gently on hallowed ground and be careful not to offend the sensitivities or hurt the emotions of people. The obstacle to dialogue is not so much the absence of a theology of dialogue as a lack of courage to meet partners of other faiths and ideological convictions freely and openly in a climate of openness and freedom".(Samartha). In a multi-religious setting such as India, when negative statements are made by one religion against the other, it leads to a politicization of religions. The politicization of religions has a tendency to tear the fabric of society. Dialogue will help to bring harmony and peace among religions and also enable people to establish harmony with one another in addressing human needs. Such dialogue should be carried out without any fear of converting one to another’s faith. True religion should be understood as a constant and continuous quest for an ever-increasing comprehension of God and Truth. When such spiritual quests go on actively, differences and discords will tend to disappear among all such seekers of God and Truth. Gandhiji made that even more explicit by saying that truth is God. A deep and incisive understanding of one’s religion is a prerequisite to promote religious harmony. Every one who digs deeply into one’s own faith will realize that unconditional love of one’s fellow humanbeing and seeing the virtues of God in the other and in all sentient beings is the core value of the Indic tradition and its culture. Let us therefore accept diversity as the basic ingredient of community and so celebrate diversity.
Let us, at the same time, strive to reconcile our theological differences. Let us hold on to mutual respect of each other’s faith as the prime means to reconciliation and justice (dharma) as the binding threads necessary for a strong and united society. Let us recognize that we belong to a plurality of religious communities. But, our loyalties to our respective faiths should not prevent us from transcending the brittle pettiness of absolutism which was unfortunately introduced into the western variants of the two monotheistic faiths, namely Christianity and Islam.
And, while we continue to dialogue our religious differences let us explore, expand and strengthen the shared spaces of Indian culture which unite us as one people and one nation. Thus may we experience the blessedness that comes when brothers and sisters of different faiths dwell together in unity. P.N.BENJAMIN
benjaminpn@hotmail.com

IF ONLY V.K. KRISHNA MENON WERE AROUND*
(Vijay Times, edit-page main article, 27 Sept. 2005)
P.N.BENJAMIN
AS early as 1964, V.K.Krishna Menon had testily told Michael Brecher: "We swallow other people’s propaganda and their terminology often without thinking about it. These are the things that happen to subservient people. I am not questioning your sincerity or honesty. What I am saying is that erroneous ideas gain currency and even we, not to speak of our friends, become victims."
How prophetically valid is Krishna Menon’s diagnosis even today can be seen from the easy, unthinking, almost joyful way India has succumbed to the US blackmail and voted with the US and EU to refer Iran’s nuclear programme to the UN Security Council. While most non-aligned countries like South Africa, Brazil, Mexico and Sri Lanka abstained from the vote, India has yielded to US pressure and gone back on its stated stand.
Washington has stolen the brain-power and cast a spell on the collective capacity of Indian foreign policy makers. They have surrendered India’s independent foreign policy to the US and made this country a "client state of America". By aligning with the US, Indian leaders have gone against our consistent position that issues related to Iran’s nuclear programme should be resolved through dialogue and consensus, not confrontation.
Why has this happened? The reasons are not far to seek. It is because, there is nobody in the present Indian government, like that dark, tall, gaunt, sickly man who instilled the fear of God into the North Americans and Europeans at the United Nations and other world for a in the 1950s and early 60s. The US State Department and the US Congress hated him, "the ogre with the walking stick who subsisted on tea and little else." While Menon stalked the stage solo and the vocabulary of anti-imperialism and Afro-Asian solidarity rolled off the corner of his contorted mouth, his successors worked overtime to sell their plans down the drain.
In the absence of such a person at the helm of affairs things are different today in the absence of such a person to guide the foreign policy. So, Condoleeza Rice or a minion of the US State Department can mock at us and get away with it. They can poke their dirty nose into our internal affairs and tell us what we should do and should not do.
Here are some nostalgic memories about the halcyon days of our foreign policy. Presenting the Kashmir issue in a new light, in 1957, Menon made a marathon speech in the Security Council arguing that Kashmir’s accession to India was final and irrevocable and that the offer of a plebiscite was no longer applicable because of the changed circumstances.
The Kashmir speech was a performance that brought out the great faculties of the man – his penetrating intellect, his quick wit, his mastery of Parliamentary procedures, his withering sarcasm, his ability to marshal facts and his sheer power of endurance.
The leaders of the West realised the tremendous implications of what Krishna Menon had achieved through the Kashmir debate. He had stood up to pressure tactics, the like of which the UN had seldom witnessed before. He had shown an amazing capacity to fight his way through past mistakes. He had displayed a political toughness, which had no parallel among other non-Western delegates.
Kashmir was no longer India’s political graveyard: Kashmir was now a glaring example of Western perfidy towards India. Menon showed that he was a match for their combined might.
We should remember Krishna Menon today for his able advocacy of India’s causes in the world forums. His diplomatic career began when he was sent as representative of the Indian National Congress to various international congresses starting from 1936. It was this that brought him in close touch with Jawaharlal Nehru whose ideals and views he shared.
At the UN and other international forums, Menon won respect for India even from those who thought only in terms of military might. His advocacy of non-alignment was both analytical and consistent. He was the most brilliant champion of the anti-imperialist and anti-colonial stand and it was through his persistent efforts that Afro-Asian groups became a force to reckon with. He made the Super Powers realize that the "Afro-Asian nations are no more ready top be run down or sat upon".
Menon represented India at the UN General assembly at Lake Success in 1946. After Independence, he was special representative of Government of India. He made preliminary arrangements for establishing diplomatic ties between India and Britain and several European countries. Through his ingenuity India’s membership in the Commonwealth was made acceptable. In the process the British Commonwealth also underwent a change.
Menon led the Indian delegation to UN General Assembly from 1952 to1962. He became a legendary figure at the world body with his fiery speeches, critical of colonialism. He was the chief spokes-man of India in world platform. With a rapier sharp mind, bitter tongue and an awareness bordering on arrogance of his own intellectual eminence, Menon seldom evoked affection but often created enemies while in power. He was acknowledged to be a "phenomenon that inspires few, infuriates many and embarrasses all". Some hated him, some feared him but all respected him.
Aldous Huxley takes Krishna Menon as the original for his portrayal of an Indian revolutionary in "Point Counter Point". That was why Englishmen in general looked upon Menon as "the symbol of rebellious India". The relationship between Nehru and Menon was that of between equals. Menon’s intellect complemented Nehru’s instinctive judgements. It has been said that Nehru was the only person whom Menon could accept as a superior.
Even if nothing else of Krishna Menon’s achievements is remembered, the world will not forget its debt to him for his pioneering role in the "paper-back revolution". His greatest triumph in publishing was the bringing out of the Penguin and Pelican books in 1935 which captured the English reading public the world over.
Krishna Menon, "thou shouldst be living at this hour, India hath need of thee",
P.N.BENJAMIN
benjaminpn@hotmail.com

WHEN THE HEARTHS WENT COLD*
(Vijay Times, 30 Jan. 2006)
P.N.BENJAMIN
Precisely at six o’clock, on January 30, 1948, All India Radio announced: "Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in New Delhi at twenty minutes past five this afternoon. His assassin was a Hindu."
The Mahatma was shot in the gardens of Birla Mandir, in the presence of about one thousand of his followers whom he was leading to make his daily evening devotions. Dressed, as always, in his khadi dhoti and leaning heavily on a stout walking stick, Mahatma Gandhi was only a few feet from the Mandir when the shots were fired. He crumbled instantly, putting his hands to his forehead in the Hindu gesture of forgiveness to his assassin. Three bullets penetrated his body, one in the upper right thigh, one in the abdomen, and one in the chest.
India was plunged into sorrow. All over India the news spread like wildfire. Minutes later, in Bombay rioting broke out. In Delhi, in the fast-gathering gloom of the night, the news set the people on the march. They walked slowly down the avenues and out of the squalid bazzars, converging on Birla House. Thereby the thousands they stood weeping silently, moaning and wailing.
Above the vast plains, the fields, the cluttered slums, writhing jungles, the air was crystal clear. The mantle of India’s night, the fine haze of the cow-dung fires burning in a hundred millions hearths, had disappeared. To mourn the Mahatma, those hearths were cold.
From the beautiful mansion to the wretched slums, the people wept. Calcutta’s great maidan was almost empty. Through its streets a barefoot sadhu, his face smeared with ashes walked crying: "The Mahatma is dead. When comes another such as he?"
There were grave fears, heightened by the savage outbreaks in Bombay, that without her saint to hold passions in check, all India might be whirled into strife.
In New Delhi, a heartbroken man found in the depths of his sorrow the words that he had despaired of finding. Jawaharlal Nehru’s eyes were filled with tears as he stepped before the microphone of the All India Radio. The words he was about to utter were spontaneous, but they glowed with unforgettable beauty.
"The light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere", he said. (Perhaps, an unconscious imitation of Homer’s: "The sun has perished out of the heavens"). "The light has gone out, I said, and yet I was wrong. For the light that shone in this country was no ordinary light".
"In a thousand years", Nehru predicted, "that light will still be seen…the world will see it and it will give solace to innumerable hearts. For that light represented something more than the immediate present; it represented the living, the eternal truths, reminding us of the right path, drawing us from error, taking this ancient country to freedom."
The light whose disappearance Nehru mourned belonged to the rest of the world, too. Messages of condolence poured in from every corner of a shocked globe. Mahatma Gandhi’s first political rival, Field Marshal Smuts, sent a simple tribute: "A prince among us has passed". At Vatican, the Pope Pius XII paid tribute to the Mahatma as "an apostle of peace".
It was the irony of fate that one whose life was directed against violence should be snuffed out by the forces of violence. "It shows how dangerous it is to be good", was George Bernard Shaw’s reaction to the news of the assassination.
"Just an old man in loin cloth in distant India", commented Louis Fischer. "Yet, when he died, humanity wept"
In a moving editorial the New York Times wrote: "…the saint who will be remembered, not only on the plains and in the hills of India but all over the world. He strove for perfection as other men strive for power and professions. He pitied those to whom wrong was done: the East Indian labourers in South Africa, the untouchable ‘children of God’ of the lowest caste in India, but he schooled himself not to hate the wrongdoer…Now he belongs to the ages".
Appropriately in the vast outpourings of tributes, Indian newspapers themselves produced the most memorable testimonial of all. For example, the editorial page of the Hindustan Times was left blank, ringed by a black border. At its centre was a single paragraph set in bold face type: "Gandhiji has been killed by his own people for whose redemption he live. This second crucifixion in the history of Friday – the same day Jesus was done to death one thousand nine hundred and fifteen years ago. Father, forgive us".
Godse assassinated Mahatma Gandhi on 30 January 1948 and he was tried and executed. But almost everyone, who holds authority now in India, speaks untruths, is a co-assassin with Godse, though not tried and convicted. Everyone in power who misleads the country away from freedom – political, economic, cultural and social – for which Gandhiji stood all his life, is an uncovicted abettor of Godse. Every dishonest man, either in business or in government, is a co-assassin with Godse. Everyone who utilises power for personal or party advantage is a Godse. Everyone who gives or receives a bribe is an unconvicted Godse. Every hypocrite in public life puts a knife into Gandhiji’s side.
Let us not delude ourselves into self-satisfaction by the cant of hypocrisy, which is the worst of all cants, as well as most tormenting. Gandhiji was great. Indeed, he was a miracle, but parties and powers that rule prefer to do without him. We have strayed into the wrong road and must get back from the slough we have been led into.
"Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom, lead thou us on…"
P.N.BENJAMIN
benjaminpn@hotmail.com

STOP THE "RIOT ENTERPRENURS" IN THEIR TRACKS
(Vijay Times, 15 March 2006)
P.N.BENJAMIN
Life is returning to normal in the Holy City of Varanasi, after the March 7 twin bomb blasts that killed 20 persons and injured 125. It is basically because of the remarkable restraint and control of the people of Varanasi shown in such a provocative situation. The city today presents a model of communal harmony. How did it happen?
After the terrorist killings, an uneasy calm descended on the city where in a show of solidarity, all sections, cutting across religious and social affiliations, observed a bandh and took out peace marches. In a spontaneous move, Benares Hindu University (BHU) students marched to the Sankat Mochan temple, where a deadly blast occurred. They reiterated their resolve to fight terrorism. Hindu and Muslim women joined hands and took out marches for communal harmony through the busy streets. So did many other organisations. They carried placards and raised slogans of Hindu-Muslim-Sikh-Christian unity and brotherhood.
Hundreds of BHU students and volunteers of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) participated in blood donation camps. There was no shortage of blood in the hospitals where the people injured in the blasts are being treated.
Abdul Batin Nomani, Mufti-e-Banaras, a respected cleric, issued appeals for maintaining peace and communal harmony. He appealed to all sections of the people and political leaders to "refrain from making our city the boxing arena for settling political scores and deriving political mileage from such tragic incidents. Hindus and Muslims here are dependent on each other. Both communities have lived in perfect harmony and enjoyed cordial relations. If weavers are Muslims, traders are Hindus. Their economic bonds are very strong and they share a remarkable trust. This fabric should not be harmed by anyone."
Similar sentiments were expressed by Sankat Mochan Temple Foundation's chief priest, Veerbhadra Mishra, who lamented the loss of lives in the terror attack. He said such attacks would change the security scenario, and even religious places would be turned into police strongholds, restricting the free movement of devotees.
Indeed, a miracle seems to have occurred in Varanasi. It once again proves Ashutosh Varshney’s deceptively simple thesis that "the greater the patterns of inter-communal civic engagement in a city, the lower the likelihood of violent conflict and communal riots." (Ethnic Conflict & Civic Life). For example, "the Hindus of Varanasi would not attack the Muslim artisans who make the masks and effigies for the annual Ram Lila, even if an irresponsible and bigoted politician egged them on to do so."
In many parts of India, Hindus and Muslims engage with each other in strong associational forms of civic life, from political parties and non-religious movements for social justice or land reform, to trade unions and business groups. In some places, caste is a more important divider than religion. Such networks of civic engagements bring Hindu and Muslim urban communities together. These networks may take the form of associational interaction or they be everyday forms of engagement. Both forms, if inter-communal, promote peace but the capacity of associational forms to withstand events is substantially higher. Vigorous and communally integrated associational life can serve as an agent of peace by restraining those, including politicians, who would polarise Hindus and Muslims along communal lines.
Varshney's central insight is invaluable, and its buttressing with an impressive array of facts and figures from over seven years of research means that it is solidly grounded. Varshney has no illusions about how communal riots are instigated and manipulated: whatever the proximate trigger for violence, there is always a politician with an axe to grind, pulling the strings, inflaming passions, exploiting the victims for purely political ends. But the chances for success of such politicians (the breed of "riot-entrepreneurs") would be remarkably lower if there is vigorous and communally-integrated civic life, not just through everyday casual contact but through formal associations that consolidate the mutual engagement of the two communities.
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The Varanasi miracle will have to be properly nurtured and strengthened. One hopes that politicians, in their zeal to obtain votes in the forthcoming elections, do not revive communal vengeance, which has done so much harm to communal harmony and peace in the country. Hindu-Muslim civic engagement should be an urgent priority for the politicians and policemen who make public policy and in whose hands lie the safety of our fellow citizens the next when a riot is instigated.
It is relevant to remember today how Gandhi poured out his soul during the dark happenings in the wake of Partition. On October 2, 1947, which was his birthday, while he was struggling to bring peace to riot-torn Calcutta, he asked one of his disciples, Nandita Kripalani, the grand-niece of Rabindranath Tagore, to sing the following poem, which is so relevant even today:
When the heart is hard and parched up/come upon me with a shower of mercy/ When grace is lost from life, /come with a burst of song. /When tumultuous work raises its din on all sides shutting me out/come to me, my Lord of silence with Thy peace and rest/ When my beggarly heart sit crouched, shut up in a corner, break/open the door, /My king and come with Thy regalities, /When desire blinds the mind with delusion and dust, O Thou holy/one, thou wakeful, come with Thy light and Thy thunder.

P.N.BENJAMIN
benjaminpn@hotmail.com

P.N.BENJAMIN

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Economist article: The cross they bear & a response

Saturday, February 9, 2008

A FREELANCER'S WORLD

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