A Million Mutinies

New research reveals that the 1857 uprising encompassed not only the entire Indian subcontinent but also several castes, communities and classes. Bahadur Shah Zafar’s August 1857 Delhi manifesto is path-breaking. It has separate sections dealing with material benefits accruing to peasants, landlords, merchants, public servants, artisans as well as pundits, fakirs and other learned persons. The attempt to move beyond religion and caste is clear. A proclamation issued in Lucknow in Birjees Qadar’s name is even more tantalising — it goes on to claim incredibly that “persons of a lower order such as sweeper, Chumar, Dhanook or Passee” can claim equality with upper castes. The geographical breadth of the uprising is equally spectacular. It is commonly believed that Sikhs, incensed by the Poorabia sepoys’ pro-British role during the two Anglo-Sikh wars in the 1840s helped the colonial rulers in crushing the Delhi and Lucknow rebellions. However, documents in the Patna archives reveal that there was a plan even in the 1840s of a Poorabia sepoy mutiny in conjunction with the Khalsa army. By 1857, the Khalsa army stood disbanded — Sikh soldiers sent to fight against Bahadur Shah’s army all came from the pro-British cis-Sutlej areas. Nineteenth century Ropar district records state that Mohar Singh, an ex-Khalsa army veteran, proclaimed in 1857 a Khalsa Raj, with express instructions of overall fidelity to Bahadur Shah. Then in Varanasi and Jaunpur, the Ludhiana Regiment revolted; ex-Khalsa soldiers were active in several Punjab ‘mutinies’, especially in Sialkot, Peshawar and Lahore. Punjabi Muslims and Pathans, said to be antagonistic both to Sikhs and Poorabias, actually undertook anti-British military action.From 1857 to 1860, in Narinji and Murree near Peshawar, Pathan revolutionaries fought the British in an organised manner. Pathan action resonated as far as Jammu, Kashmir and Himachal — Mian Jamiat, step-brother of the pro-British Jammu Raja, was captured and killed. Gohar Aman, the ruler of Yasin in present-day PoK, came down with his army to affect a junction with mutinous 55th Bengal Native Infantry (BNI) sepoys soon after the ‘mutiny’ of Gurkha Sepoys in Juteg and Kasauli, a ‘rebel’ ruler carrying Bahadur Shah’s firmaan appeared in Kangra. By 1858, even cis-Sutlej states reported widespread restlessness, leading the 10th Punjab Infantry, posted at Dera Ismail Khan in present-day Pakistan, to actually rebel in August 1858. Well-off Jat peasants of Haryana and western UP, said to constitute ‘pillars of the British Raj’, also threw off the foreign yoke. Even after Delhi’s fall, the entire Rohtak-Sirsa-Hissar-Gurgaon tract remained free of British rule — Jats, Gujjars, Ranghars and Mewatis supported the Saharanpur-Muzaffarnagar jehad-e-Shamli set in motion by Muslims who were followers of Shah Waliullah, a radical 18th century Delhi cleric. Mewatis, Bhils and Meenas supported the revolutionary Awa (Marwar), Kota and Tonk movements in Rajasthan. Even as Jodhpur, Jaipur and Udaipur rulers tilted towards the British, the anti-British movement took on a decided anti-royalty stance. The anti-British Bhil impulse spilled over to Malwa in central India and Khandesh in present-day Maharashtra. On June 14, 1857, the Aurangabad rising woke the British to the possibility of the uprising affecting Bombay, Madras and various loyalist armies like the Nizam’s Hyderabad Contingent. Satara followed with Rango Bapoji, the Satara raja’s secretary, organised a Ramoshi-Koli-Maratha Kunbi militia in the Western Ghats. In July 1857, the Hyderabad rising saw anti-Nizam Rohilla Pathans collaborating with Hadhrami Arab warrior/traders and Hindu Kayasthas. On July 31, 1857, the 27th Bombay Infantry mutinied in Kolha-pur and headed straight to Ratnagiri and Savant-vaadi, two old centres of Maratha resistance. From 1858 to 1860, a regular guerilla war spearheaded by Mahar, Maratha and Poorabia sepoys, as well as Konkan Bhandaris and Chitpavan Brahmins, raged all along the Indian west coast in the Raigad-Mangalore belt. Further south in Malabar, Moplah Muslim and Nambuthiri Brahmin agitators were arrested for unleashing anti-British propaganda. In Madras Presidency areas, seditious pamphlets urging sepoys to mutiny were found in every military station from Arcot to Madurai. In September 1857, the 8th Madras Cavalry mutinied in Vaniyambadi, a place near Salem. The Madras army turbulence saw several desertions and major conspiracies to incite 12th and 37th Madras Infantry troops in Singapore, Hong Kong and China. A major civil rising along the east coast, in the Godavari-Andhra region, saw Girijan adivasis collaborating with anti-British Reddy landlords. Every Andhra-Telangana district was affected — in Vidarbha and Madhya Pradesh, the Gond movement enveloped the entire Chandrapur-Mandla-Raipur tract. In Karachi and Shikapur, the 21st Bombay Infantry revolted and in Gujarat, there were risings along the entire north-south stretch from Patan to Surat. Godhra, Dahod, Idar and Rajpipla remained free from British control for months. In Saurashtra, the Okhamandal-Dwarika area produced the only instance of anti-British naval resistance, which continued till the 1860s. In Assam, Mani Ram Dewan, a major tea entrepreneur, was implicated in an anti-British conspiracy to install Ahom chief Kandar-peshwar Singha on the throne with help from Assam Infantry sepoys. After mutinying at Chitta-gong, 34th BNI sepoys moved to Silchar, Cachar and Manipur to seek help from Narendrajit Singh, the Manipur ruler’s brother. Naga and Meghalaya warriors also extended help. In sum, there was no part of India that was unaffected by the uprising.

The SIMI Question: The Underlying Farce

 

          Shri Yogendra Yadav has responded to my article `The SIMI Question: Indian democracy‘s acid test‘ with a plea for a debate on the issue: what should be our stand on SIMI? I do welcome a debate on this issue and there is no doubt in my mind about Yogendra Yadav‘s integrity or his genuine concern for secularism.   

          However I would like to raise a counter question: is this question relevant at this juncture? In my previous article I made it clear that one can disagree vehemently with SIMI‘s ideology—but is disagreement enough for physical persecution of Muslims or even SIMI? Can one persecute for a crime under IPC sections someone who merely discusses, in private meetings, some abstract jihad, or says things like `secularism: NO; nationalism: NO‘? By that measure all Left parties can be taken to task for advocating at some point or the other overthrow of the Indian ruling classes or the Indian State.

          Application of constitutional law is not based on utterances—to persecute someone, first a charge has to be fixed. Like in the 1993 Mumbai I discovered a legal monstrosity—apparently the Mumbai Police had booked several individuals who had the intention of taking revenge for the 1992-93 riots. But these individuals were not responsible even by the police‘s own charge-sheet of executing the bomb blasts on 12^th March 1993. Legally, you cannot book someone for expressing the `intent‘, or `imagining‘ a crime.

          Let me give an example: there were four or five different conspiracies to kill Mahatama Gandhi; but only Nathuram Ghodse committed the act of pulling the trigger—were all other individuals involved in other conspiracies booked for that one particular act of Nathuram Ghodse? Of course not—booking others for expressing the intent of doing what Ghodse‘s did would be a legal joke.

          But the same legal joke was played on Muslims arrested for the 1993 blasts—several were tortured; their lives were destroyed. Later, even the TADA court found `fantastic‘ Mumbai Police‘s attempt to create several `chains‘ that led to the blasts—the TADA court questioned that how could people involved in `other chains‘, who were unable to even execute their `designs‘ were booked for a crime committed by a different `chain‘?

          Sorry to say this—but Javed Anand‘s comments and observations are plainly silly—and this is not a personal comment. It is a political comment—in all examples given by Javed Anand there is not one, I repeat not one, instance where SIMI members are seen or heard by eye witnesses as planning specific bomb blasts or terror attacks. Eyewitnesses, merely record SIMI members as praising Bin Laden or vowing revenge for Gujarat—but since when has this become a crime in India—where is the evidence that these utterances led to specific terror incidents?

          Javed Anand has failed to cite one instance of specific evidence for a specific act. One is really amazed at his naivety or deliberate attempt to mislead people when he writes that “are the blasts after blasts, in city after city of India in recent years, part of the “jihad” espoused by SIMI? The investigating agencies obviously believe this to be the case. Why else would SIMI activists be routinely detained, arrested, interrogated, charge-sheeted and put on trial? Admittedly, they have yet to establish the terrorism charge against SIMI activists before any court of law in any of the blast cases“.

          Note the lines I have underlined—here Javed Anand is actually making a case that Indian agencies should be trusted– Why else would SIMI activists be routinely detained, arrested, interrogated, charge-sheeted and put on trial? He writes…

          Javed Anand would have retained some credibility had he at least distanced himself from security agencies. Even the Government of India is skeptical about the `secularism‘ of its security forces—only the RSS and the BJP and the Sangh Parivar hail security agencies—known for persecuting, killing and torturing Muslims in particular—as `heroes. So where, in which camp, does such a statement take Javed Anand?   

          Shri Yogendra Yadav‘s plea for a debate on SIMI‘s ideology shall have to wait for the right time—or it can be done in private gatherings—it cannot be made into a public issue by Indian patriots and secularists not because it will `weaken the fight against Muslim persecution‘. I am not in favor of such arguments. SIMI‘s ideology should not be made an issue simply because it is a non issue. A person is dying on the street—are we going to determine ideology before trying to save him or her?

          Another thing: the RSS would have been harmless if it had just spoken about Hindu Rashtra and the like—but since its inception, then in 1947 and then now, the RSS has worked to kill people systematically. The RSS stands in a league different from SIMI. Those disagreeing with SIMI‘s ideology must understand this—SIMI cannot be compared with Bajrang Dal.  Javed Anand writes that “the first ban was slapped on SIMI in 2001, the chief ministers of Maharashtra, MP and Rajasthan made a strong case before the NDA for a simultaneous ban on SIMI and the Bajrang Dal. And rightly so…”

          SIMI‘s utterances are verbal and defensive in nature; Bajrang Dal has killed women and children and boasted about this—can they be placed at par?

          Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru categorically said that “while Hindu communalism is dangerous and on the offensive, Muslim communalism is defensive in nature“. Here the father of Indian secularism is clearly stating that both cannot be placed at par.

          It is the issue of placing Bajrang Dal and SIMI on one platform that is disquieting. This is not only a legal travesty but a political travesty as well. The RSS since its inception as been opposed to the creation of a secular India—they are the number one force responsible for partition. New research, recently declassified British secret records and documents reveal that in 1947, the `communal‘ riots of Delhi, in which tens of thousands of Muslims were massacred, was not a riot at all—it was an armed uprising staged by the RSS to kill the new Indian nation-State in its infancy and proclaim a Hindu Rashtra. The Indian army with the active backing of Nehru was used to crush this revolt.

          Now see the pattern of recent actions against SIMI activists for the Ahmedabad Blasts and the so-called `cracking of the case by Gujarat Police and Narendra Modi‘: in March 2008, Safdar Nagori, the supposed `head‘ of SIMI organization is arrested by the Madhya Pradesh Police—note that the BJP is in power in Madhya Pradesh. Nagori `confesses‘ to the existence of armed camps in Gujarat. Amongst others, he `gives‘ the names of Zahid Sheikh and Usman Agarbattiwala as SIMI associates to the MP Police.

          Now, according to a pro-Modi report written for rediff.com by some Sheela Bhatt, and corroborated by other reports in the Times of India and the Indian Express, after the July 2008 Bangalore and Ahmedabad blasts   “the Gujarat police’s databank of SIMI members in Ahmedabad had some names including that of Zahid Sheikh. They picked him up and started interrogating him extensively.

`He is a fanatic. He is not a Gujarati, he is not an Indian. He claims he is merely a soldier of Islam. These accused don’t belong to even their own families,’ said a source in the police.

`You will have to understand the identity of the perpetrators of the bomb blasts’. Their `transnational identity itself is an anti-national act’, says one of the interrogators”.

          Just note the pattern here—the Gujarat Police just picks up the databank they have on SIMI members and arrest Zahid Sheikh because his name was given by Safdar Nagori during his March interrogation! Just that! No other evidence! Sheikh is presumed guilty and `transnational’ only because he says `he says that he is a soldier of Islam’!

          Similarly, a Baroda officer of the Gujarat Police   “got from the databank a file on SIMI activists living in Baroda. The blue file had a professionally prepared dossier on SIMI activists, and the opening page featured Usman Agarbattiwala complete with his photograph.

Asthana went through the accompanying details like Agarbattiwala’s telephone numbers, his work, background and the names of all his relatives that were in the dossier.

Immediately, details of Agarbattiwala’s telephone calls, both made and received, were procured. It took relentless work through day and night to make the chart of the most frequently made calls from his phone. They were then narrowed down and owners of those numbers were detected and, in turn, the printouts of those phone calls were procured. A professional hard work done with the help of computers in the police headquarters in Kothi area yielded fantastic results.

Asthana’s team created a cluster of cell phone movement among select persons. These movements were finally narrowed down to Agarbattiwala, Kayamuddin Kapadia, Imran Sheikh and Iqbal Sheikh. In no time Agarbattiwala, Imran and Iqbal were picked up. Along with others Joint Commissioner of Police Pravin Kumar Sinha and inspector Karimbhai Polra played an important role in Asthana’s team.

The first copy of the interrogation report was sent to the Ahmedabad team which was narrowing down on local SIMI activists including Zahid Sheikh. Agarbattiwala’s cracking proved very crucial. Bhatia and Chudasama cracked Zahid Sheikh as much as they could. In Baroda, Iqbal was a new entrant to SIMI ranks but some of the detainees were tough nuts to crack who had undergone special training to withstand police methods. On the basis of the early lead provided by the interrogations in Baroda and Ahmedabad, teams of Gujarat police travelled to Kerala, Mumbai, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka to collect a variety of documentary evidence.

By August 8-9, Modi knew his state police was just days away from success that has eluded the police in other Indian states wracked by terrorism”.

          This fawning, pro-Modi article, a farce in the name of journalism, lets the cat out of the bag. In every case, Police officers just had to check the SIMI databank or connect phonecalls and presto—they had their culprit! How much more ridiculous can you get? The fact remains that even Safdar Nagori’s confession to the MP police is suspect—Nagori was tortured and his appeal is lying before the courts. So how can the police arrest Zahid and Agarbattiwala?

          Then the Gujarat Police goes to UP—and picks up Abu Bashar—because he too is linked with SIMI! And now Abu Bashar is the mastermind!

          The kind of story the Gujarat Police has made up makes one’s head spin—the Maharashtra Police did the same thing after the 1993 blasts and several blasts hence. They have not been able to prove even one, repeat even one, of their stories in a court of law.

          Now while Muslims are being picked up in SIMI’s name, the lead shown by the email sent through Ken Haywood’s email is allowed to go cold—in fact the Gujarat Police says that SIMI activists hacked into Haywood’s system!    

          Who is this Haywood? The mail sent by `Indian Mujheedin’ claiming responsibility for the Ahmedabad blasts, came from his computer. The investigative agencies knew of this on 26^th July—what was the need to give a clean chit to Haywood? Why was he allowed to flee India? Why was his passport not impounded?

Here is a profile of Haywood’s background and that of his Company, issued by an American website: “Campbell White is the name of the Company…Campbell White’s MD is pastor Dan Rubianes, the head of the Door Christian Centre…a church with origins in Arizona in the US but relatively new to India. Door Christian Centre is a part of the Pentecostal Christian Fellowship Ministries, also known as the Potter’s House. Haywood is a functionary of the Potter’s House in Mumbai”.

Moreover, the Indian Express found that the Mumbai office of the MNC is located in two small adjoining rented rooms on the ground floor of Sanpada railway station complex in Navi Mumbai. The two rooms also serve as prayer rooms on Sundays and Thursdays for the Potter’s House. A notice pasted on the wall says the community service has been cancelled until further notice and is signed by Haywood.

The Express continued, explaining that “physical and Internet-based checks on other past and present employees of Campbell White like Scott Grabowska, a former Mumbai-based international protocol trainer, David Curwen-Walker, a senior operations manager, and Jonathan Heimberg, a senior information services manager, both in Bangalore, have shown links to the church. For instance, Curwen-Walker and Heimberg head the Door churches at Kammanahalli and Koramangala in Bangalore.”

The American website asks: “this is all very good stuff, but if the Indian press had been doing its job it could have circulated this information on the day that Haywood was linked to the Ahmedabad bombs. Still, the American press has been even worse, with the only coverage of Haywood’s curious case being a short piece in the Kingman Daily Miner“.

          I would ask Shri Yogendra Yadav—what is all this? Is it not becoming apparent that there is a dubious company with a dubious foreign-Christian-evangelist-American background somewhere linked to the terror attacks? Now in India things have come to this—that Indian Muslims will be persecuted on imaginary links with SIMI but foreign nationals will be let off! The Haywood angle at least ought to have been investigated.

          By saying that despite disagreeing with SIMI, the organization cannot be put at par with the RSS or the Bajrang Dal, I think I have made my position clear on a vital issue on which Mr. Yogendra Yadav wanted some discussion; but what about Haywood and the ridiculous manner in which Zahid Sheikh, or Agarbattiwala or Abu Bashar were picked up?

          It would be of great service to the nation if Shri Yogendra Yadav picks up his pen or his laptop, and conducts his own investigations to write a detailed story of the ongoing `SIMI being terrorist’ farce in any one of India’s national newspapers or magazines

Who killed India’s 1857 legacy?

Human Resources Department Minister Arjun Singh’s statement on 1857’s 150th anniversary celebrations is a huge letdown — it has confirmed what scholars and intellectuals working on 1857 feared — that the so-called ’secular’ United Progressive Alliance government will backtrack on its promise of really honouring India’s First War of Independence.

By stating that Bahadur Shah Zafar’s remains will not be brought to India, Singh has admitted publicly what he has been saying in private — namely, that there is pressure on him, by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, to ‘go slow’ on 1857.

Coming from a formation that prides itself on Indian nationalism, this pressure exposes not only the narrow RSS vision of Indian nationhood — it also reveals how the RSS, to use the old Leftist jargon, is a pro-imperialist force.

This goes down well with the perception that the RSS-Sangh Parivar men avoided participating in the Freedom Struggle. Even the RSS would concede that 1857 presents a shining example of patriotism and Hindu-Muslim solidarity. Why then can the remains of Bahadur Shah Zafar — the leader of that struggle in which thousands and perhaps millions of Hindus perished fighting for a ‘Muslim’ king, and the latter, in deference to Hindu sentiments, banned cow slaughter — not be brought to India?

The answer is complex, though obvious. If brought to India, Zafar’s remains would be turned into a memorial, which, it is possible, might turn into a pilgrimage site for millions of Hindus and Muslims.

Harking back to the Sufi Indian tradition, Zafar’s mazaar would heal the Hindu-Muslim divide — for the RSS, this is indeed a nightmare situation. Zafar himself was a Sufi — he wrote verses, in which he described his visits to a Hindu temple, with qashqa (tilak) on the forehead and zunnar (sacred thread) around his neck.

While writing fiction in the name of history, British authors like William Dalrymple conveniently ignore this piece of information.

In 1857, Zafar did nothing extraordinary — he merely followed the Indian subcontinent’s tradition, where a king, whether Hindu or Muslim, looked upon his praja (people) as belonging to one category, irrespective of religion. In 1857, orthodox Chitpavan Brahmin leaders like Nana Saheb opened their proclamations with Islamic invocations.

Begum Hazrat Mahal and Khan Bahadur Khan issued direct appeals to Hindus in the name of Lord Ram and Krishna — all this was done without pretension, or a pseudo-secular attitude.

Ahmad Kharral, the leader of the Gugera-Multan-Rawalpindi insurrection, the major anti-British, 1857 rising in present-day Pakistan, had Sikh soldiers as his lieutenants.

New research is revealing astounding facts — the entire view that Sikhs sided with the British in 1857 is false. Patiala, Nabha, Jind and Kapurthala — the cis-Sutlej Sikhs — who sent soldiers against Zafar to Delhi, were even anti-Ranjit Singh. They sided with the British both during Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s lifetime, and the two Punjab wars.

After Ranjit Singh’s death in 1840, his Khalsa army actually took over the control of the Lahore Durbar — like Bengal army sepoys, Khalsa army soldiers too were ‘peasants in uniform’.

After being disbanded in 1849, they fanned out into the Punjab countryside — during 1857, Mohar Singh, a Khalsa army veteran, declared openly in Bahadur Shah Zafar’s favour, going so far as to declare a Khalsa-Mughal Raj in Ropar.

So, it was only the cis-Sutlej Sikhs that supported the British; but, here too, in 1858, at Dera Ismail Khan, in present-day Pakistan, the 10th Sikh Infantry revolted — British officers and Patiala, Nabha, Jind rulers state on record that they could not trust their soldiers, and that even cis-Sutlej Sikhs were ‘getting excited by news from Awadh and the Hindustani areas.’

This is sensational stuff, for the entire 10th Sikh Infantry revolt news has been suppressed — students of history are simply unaware of the major, pro-Bahadur Shah Zafar role, which included the Benaras-Jaunpur centred revolt of the Ludhiana regiment, Sikhs played during the Independence war. Zafar’s proclamations and the 1857 ‘national song’ mentions Sikhs naturally, along with Hindus and Muslims, as patriotic Indians.

No less revealing is the Bombay army role, and the Maharashtra-Gujarat-Karnataka risings — Bombay army infantry and cavalry units revolted in Kolhapur, Satara, Karachi, Bombay, Aurangabad, Nasirabad, and Ahmedabad. No one knows that Bombay infantry sepoys, one Hindu and one Muslim, were blown apart from a cannon’s mouth, in what today, stands as Mumbai’s Azad Maidan.

During the 1858 Konkan-West Coast guerrilla fight, which stretched from Raigad and Ratnagiri to Savantwadi, and then onto Udupi and Mangalore, Mahar, Maratha, Kannada and Tulu warriors fought shoulder to shoulder. Nearly every Indian district, whether in the UP-Bihar-MP belt, or Orissa, or Assam-Bengal, or West India, showcases an amazing pattern of ‘one Hindu, one Muslim’ martyr.

In Jharkhand, a plaque in Chatra even today, commemorates Jaimangal Pandey and Sheikh Nadir Ali.

In Maharashtra, Pathans and Arabs figure prominently in the 1857 Khandesh (Nasik-Jalgaon-Dhule) struggles launched by Bhils and Kolis. In Karnataka, the Gulbarga, Dharwar, Raichur risings saw Lingayat-Ramoshi-Maratha-Muslim participation.

Above all, in Ayodhya, at the site where the Babri Masjid was demolished, Mahant Ramdas and Maulavi Amir Ali, as well as Shambhu Prasad Shukla and Achchan Khan, two religious Hindus and two religious Muslims, were hanged side by side.

It is commonly believed and propagated that the Madras army and the Madras Presidency was bereft of risings — yet in Madras, at a place called Vaniyambadi, full of Labbai Muslims, the 8th Madras Cavalry rose — elsewhere, led by Thevar-Vellala sepoys, several the 37th Madras infantry men deserted. Then in Vellore, in 1858, Madras army sepoys killed their British officers.

In the Andhra-Telangana country, Girijan tribes of the coastal-Godavery belt rose under a Reddi leader and a Muslim-Pathan ex-soldier; in Adibalad and Warangal, and Cuddapah and Nellore in Rayalseema, Pathans and Sheikhs formed a small army with Gond and Kapu help.

In Kerala, Moplah agitators, helped by Ezhavas, the Kerala scheduled castes, and Namboodri Brahmins, staged risings in the Malabar region.

The India that 1857 represents is not the India where a Hindu police officer from Gujarat kills a Muslim in a fake, fascist, communal encounter. To confirm this, one only has to hark back to the May 12, 1857, speech given by Henry Lawrence, the Chief Commissioner of Oudh (Awadh) in Lucknow. Lawrence enumerated all the false, communal arguments, including that of ‘Hindu persecution under Muslim hands’, used even today by the RSS.

The similarity is striking and sickening — only one conclusion is possible –that, before 1857, India was a different land with a different culture. Plainly and simply, ‘modern’ caste and community differences are all British creations.

In the post-1857 period, it was not just the RSS that killed the 1857 legacy. A large Parsi-Marwari-Bania section, which supported the British in 1857, and dominated the Congress led Freedom Struggle, ensured the rollback of the 1857 Kshatriya-Pathan peasant-warrior India. It was this very Bania mentality that allowed India’s Partition.

India’s Bania secularism also failed to prevent the Babri mosque’s demolition, and India’s arm-twisting on the nuclear deal, and Muslim persecution, in effect, the maltreatment of the very forces that fought against the British in 1857. It is this India that refuses to honour its national heroes.

This article is based on the book War of Civilizations: India, South Asia, Europe and the World — 1857-1857, by Amaresh Misra, to be published soon by Rupa & Co.

An Open letter to the National Integration Council

Subject: The continuing Muslim and minority persecution in India                                               

 

 

           

Dear senior members of the NIC,        

 

You all know me as a historian and the author of `War of Civilizations: India 1857 AD’, the two volume authoritative work on 1857, India’s first war of Independence. I have been instrumental in making the world aware that India fought a great anti-colonial battle in the 19^th century and that 10 million Indians were killed by rampaging British troops during the 1857 wars.

          1857 offers a shining example of national integration. There is no place from Gilgit to Tamil Nadu and Manipur to Maharashtra which was not affected by the great war of the Indian people. Hindus and Muslims fought as brothers. Kattar Hindu Sepoys or peasant soldiers went to Delhi to install, Bahadur Shah Zafar as India’s Emperor. When Rani Lakshmi Bai died she had only 250 Pathan-Muslim soldiers with her—all of whom perished in the fatal battle with the British. In Ayodhya, right near the spot where the Babari Masjid was demolished, Maulavis and Pundits were hanged together side by side. There was no distinction—Hindus and Muslims were one.

          Who can deny this history? I am a firm believer in policies and programs of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister. But some elements in our society, represented by the RSS are hell bent upon in negating the Nehruvian legacy, secular-Sanatani Hindu ethos and the Muslim contribution to Indian history. Sadly, present-day secular forces seemed to have surrendered before them—how else you all, esteemed members of the NIC, can define the Batla House encounter? During this encounter, the Home Minister of a secular government was sitting in the control room of the Delhi Police supervising the suspect encounter of two Muslim boys in the Jamia Nagar area. Is this democracy? Even if we accept the police version that the boys were masterminds or something of the blasts that rocked Delhi on 12^th September who has the right to kill them in full public view? Isn’t this unconstitutional?

   During my travels to the US I unearthed a widespread plot to destabilize India.  What is the long-term design of the American-Israeli plot? It is to butcher Indian Muslims, sound a death knell to Indian nationalism, and erode India’s sovereignty.  The bomb blasts that have rocked India since July 2008 have all been planned by the Home Ministry to effect Muslim persecution and communal polarization and destroy Indian nationalism. The reason: for Shivraj Patil, Narendra Modi and Ratan Tata, and the Indian corporate lobby, the current world economic crisis presents a dilemma. These forces want to rule the world through neo-liberal economic policies, which are failing even in America.  

It is clear that that impoverished masses of India, the vast majority of minorities, Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs are restless. India wants a more pro-people, anti-corporate house economic policy. People want more empowerment, progress and prosperity. They are dissatisfied not only with the Modi-Tata economic policies, which have  made even the rich amongst OBCs, Dalits and minorities poor, but also with the entire ideology of fake Brahminism, which has been used since the British era to suppress minorities and Dalits.

 

  From the American right wing perspective, a fascist Indian government which can curb nationalist and democratic elements is the best government.

It is clear that this fascist government can never come to power through votes. So the American game-plan is to organize bomb blasts, destabilize India, divert the attention of people from their real issues and then have a communal-fascist government assume power through largely undemocratic means in the name of `national security’.  

What national security can Modi or Shivraj Patil provide India—they are already sold out to American interests. Who is India’s Home Secretary—he is the same anti-national figure who was the District Magistrate of Faizabad when the Babari Masjid was demolished.

 

                 The recent Bomb Blast phenomenon stinks, from top to bottom. In March 2008 the Madhya Pradesh Police arrests Safdar Nagori, an alleged SIMI activist—then the Police of various states make a data bank of SIMI based on his confession. In India give any one, even Shivraj Patil, the home Minister to the police and in 24 hours the police will have even his confession as a the most dreaded terrorist of the country!

          What kind of a mockery is the Indian Mujahideen (IM)? We, the common people of India, know that the IM is a creation of the Home Ministry—Muslim boys being picked up from Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, UP and several other areas are all innocent victims.   

          There is something clearly something very wrong here—Muslim boys are being picked up, while Ken Haywood, the American citizen form whose computer in Navi Mumbai the email sent by the IM was traced is let off! There is not even a police investigation! And no one makes it an issue!

          Suddenly beginning from July 2008 we see pattern in which bomb blasts rock India with regularity, the media starts demonizing Muslims with impunity, and then the RSS-BJP-VHP-Bajrang Dal, the entire saffron brigade goes on a rampage in Orissa, Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra killing Christians and Muslims? In Orissa women are raped—a similar thing happens in Dhulia where a pregnant women were raped—all this shows that Gujarat 2002 is repeating itself. Only this time, the communal elements have the protection of the Indian state.

          In Assam, the VHP is spreading false stories that Muslims are attacking Hindus. The RSS has openly challenged the Indian State. RSS chief Sudarshan has openly exhorted his cadres to attack minorities in Orissa—I am attaching this statement: “Dear Hindus, In the rule of Congress Hindus, Hindu Saints and Hindu leaders are attacked. Hindus sentiments are hurt on the issues like Amarnath Pilgrim, Ram Setu etc. For these we should start praying and chanting for 10 minutes not only for the defeat of Congress in the coming election but also to destroy anti-Hindu and anti-nation Congress, Communist, anti-Hindus and pseudo Hindus”.

          What kind of poison is this—what is the Government of India doing about this? This is the same language Hitler used against Jews and Communists in the 1930s—is it part of the anti-national plan of Modi, Patil and the RSS to turn India into another Germany of the 1930s?

 

Maharashtra: The Crisis within

 

 

          The attack by NCP related Shiv Sangram activists on Kumar Ketkar, the eminent Marathi editor and intellectual, is only the latest instance of the decadent chauvinism afflicting the province of Maharashtra. It is essential to take a broader look at the phenomenon as it is full of important implications for culture and politics in Maharashtra and Center-State relations.      

            Throughout the history of present-day Maharashtra, Marathi identity overshadowed Maratha identity. Marathas are the name given to particular Marathi, non-Brahminical forward castes. During the start of Shivaji’s 17^th century movement, which was inspired by the Bhakti movement of the Marathi speaking areas and even beyond, Marathas came to the forefront, adopting an anti-Brahminical position. Marathi Brahmins were seen as part of the oppressive status quo. Shivaji united Marathas with Marathi OBCs and Dalits. Then in the 18^th century, the rise of Marathi Brahmins with the Peshwas did not entail a backlash of Brahminical powers. It reflected more  the inclusion of Brahmins in the wider unity and assertion of Marathis as a national force. Between the end of Mughal influence and the rise of the British, Marathi warriors and Confederacy was seen as the ruling power, not of Maharashtrian regions, but India as a whole.

It was the British who first called Marathi Confederacy, a pure Maratha Confederacy. The modern caste system of Mahrashtra is mostly a 19^th century, British creation. Since Marathis were seen as the immediate challengers to British rule, successive British officers made it a point not only to divide Marathis on a caste basis but also to dismember the region, its identity and its culture into several parts. Thus after 1818, the year of the last `Anglo-Maratha’ war, the distant Hyderabad Nizam was given Marathwada;  Vidarbha was placed under the Bhonsle house;  Scindias and Gaekwads were given Central India and Gujarat respectively, away from their home base; the Konkan, western Maharashtra and Khandesh came under direct British rule. Here, a new Brahminical-Maratha landed gentry, with a distinct anti-OBC, and anti-Koli slant was invented and placed in a position of power.

Thus the broadly inclusive Marathi-Maratha identity of the Shivaji and the Peshwa period got badly fragmented and repressed during the British era. Yet, the impact of the Bhakti movement, Shivaji’s era and the 18^th century churning was such that the post-1857 Marathi renaissance was remarkable. Unlike Bengal, Marathi renaissance tackled the caste question early on; it is significant that Jyotiba Phule, a major 19^th century renaissance figure was an OBC; Shahu Maharaj, the reformist Raja of Kolhapur was a pro-OBC, pro-Dalit, pro-reservation Maratha; Pandita Ramabai, the eminent 19^th-20^th century reform personality was a woman; and BR Ambedkar, virtually the last Marathi Renaissance man, was a Dalit.

Unlike other parts of India, where modern cosmopolitanism appeared mainly under upper caste leadership, Marathi modernity and cosmopolitanism had a strong OBC-Dalit-woman component. This is the reason why the movement for a separate State of Maharashtra, perhaps was one of the most non-sectarian and progressive quasi-regional movement anywhere in India. 

 It could come as a surprise for people today, but several 20^th century Marathis like Madhu Limaye actually got elected from Bihar; communist Marathis like Ranadive and Dange were known for their international vision. VD Savarkar of course wrote the first history of 1857. Even RSS minded Marathis like Golwalkar and Hedgewar, eschewed regional chauvinism. In UP, amongst the three fathers of Hindi journalism, two—Laxmi Narayan Gerde and Baburam Paradkar—are Marathis. North India classical music too was codified by Paluskar and Bhatkhande, Marathis living in Allahabad and Lucknow respectively.  

          It was only in the 1960s, with the rise of the Shiv Sena, that Maratha chauvinism raised its head; but even Sena in its early days was not exclusivist.  The Shiv Sena was used mostly against the Communists, who enjoyed the support of vast, Marathi speaking OBCs. But the theory that Shiv Sena ended the Communist movement in Maharashtra is a myth.

Shiv Sena itself was unable to make a dent in the Marathi middle classes and OBCs till the 1990s. By that time, a new phenomenon had emerged—the rise of the Maratha sugar lobby; by consolidating hold over the cooperative rural banking and cooperative societies, Maratha forward castes emerged as a regional bourgeoisie of sorts.

This, neo-rich, ruling class was highly insecure and unstable—it carried the burden of cultural fragmentation, and repression of the British era. It thus carried seeds of a virulent, reactionary chauvinism. It was also largely rural but with a strong agro-business bent, and an ability to savor `petty interest’ mind-set. Earlier it had worked as part of the progressive Marathi identity—now, however it sought to suppress any sort of OBC assertion. Shiv Sena’s victory in the 1995 assembly elections, was in a way, a major compromise effected by the rich Maratha lobby with the Thackareys and a section of old Marathi Brahmin elite, in which the Sena, which had the OBC as its base, was seen as the being the most effective in camouflaging and protecting the true class interests of the Maratha and the Brahminical lobby.

          The Sena had one-third OBCs as MLAs in 1995; but its record was abysmal. OBC reservation quota was not fulfilled in any of the years when the Shiv Sena was in power. Dhangars, OBCs demanding the ST status, were undermined. Malis were systematically humiliated, leading ultimately to Chagan Bhujbal moving away towards the Congress.

          When the Congress-NCP came to power in 1999, the same Maratha lobby, which had effectively undermined Shiv Sena’s OBC base, re-asserted itself with the Muslim-Mahar-Maratha combination. The OBCs were at least paid lip service during the Sena phase—now they lost even the minimum political latitude. Between 2004 and 2006, OBC quota fulfillments fell below 50%. The compromise with the Shiv Sena continued—the Congress-NCP was unable to implement the Srikrishna Report chiefly because Maratha lobby needed the Shiv Sena and its brand of politics.

          The Muslim element was a major component of the Marathi Bhakti movement, Shivaji’s era and the Peshwa period. But it was the missing,  only sore point, of the 19^th Century Marathi Renaissance. Urdu influenced Marathi and developed even after Independence in Mumbai and other centers. But the official history of modern Marathi literature records hardly any Muslim name.   That is why Marathi secular culture when it nosedived into Marathi chauvinism, became virulent anti-Muslim. This was in marked contrast to UP, where even through the rise of Hindi chauvinism, Urdu continued to be shared by many Hindus and culture as such, remained composite.  

          Thus despite drawing upon Marathi history, Marashtrian chauvinism is a modern phenomenon, a distorted result of what the British did to the region and the manner in which an insecure, caste-semi-colonial-rural elite came to hold power in the post-1818 and post-Independence period.  

Fascism emerges in conditions when certain class-ethnic ruling class force, in this case the Maratha lobby, cannot give even minimum liberal concessions to members of its own polity. The Maratha lobby, with its dreams of dealing directly with the MNCs, its ties with world finance-corporate capital has entered a dangerous zone; in this, the constraints of the Indian constitution are coming in its way of a more brazen `corporatization’ of Marathi society and `globalization’ of the region’s economy. Sadly, perhaps unwittingly, the basis for a new clash, detrimental to India’s interests as a whole are being laid—Shivaji and other authentic Marathi leaders would have balked at such a phenomenon. It presents an inversion of their progressive visions.     

 

              

                                     

Bal Thackeray and the new phenomenon of `Hindu Terrorism’

 

          The recent comments by Bal Thackeray, about Hindus forming suicide squads to bomb Muslim areas, has once again drawn attention to the criminal neglect of constitutional propriety in Maharashtra. For more than a decade, at least since 192-93 riots, and 1993 Bomb Blasts, Maharashtra has witnessed round after round of anti-Muslim pogroms, communal statements and actions. Muslim youths have been arrested, tortured or even killed in fake encounters. No one is even aware of the fate of the little known accused of the 1998 Mumbai serial blasts, all of them poor Muslims, convicted by regular sessions court, even after the only witness, the government approver took back his testimony.

The Khwaja Yunus case and the flip flop of the Maharashtra Government’s legal machinery over its issues is well known; so also, is the open legal apathy to prosecute the perpetrators of the 1992-93 riots, named in the Srikrishna Report. This, when the accused in the 93’ blasts, which as per the position of the Maharashtra State happened because of the riots, have been given stiff sentences. Things have reached such a passé, that even in Malegaon, where bombs hit a Muslim area, people arrested were Muslims; the Muslim accused of the 2006 Mumbai blasts have gone on legal record against their illegal torture, and the open anti-Muslim biases of the Maharashtra State machinery.

Of late the anti-Muslim tirade has taken an anti-North Indian slant. But both phenomena are two sides of the same coin. The current case of Thane where Hindu outfits were found by the police, perhaps for the first time, to have planted bombs, and which prompted Bal Thackeray to advocate `Hindu terrorism’, is only another episode of a hidden process at work since a long time.  

Two years back, while investigating a bomb blast in Bajrang Dal’s office at Nanded in Central Maharashtra, the Maharashtra Police stumbled upon evidence that Bajrang Dal activists were themselves making bombs. Ammonium Nitrate, a substance found in the 2006 July blasts, in the Malegaon blasts, and even in the Hyderabad Mecca Masjid blast, was discovered from Bajrang Dal premises.  

Then a `terrorist’ attack on the RSS’ national Headquarters at Nagpur turned out to be no attack at all, but `encounter’ deaths, unleashed by Central agencies and some underground Hindu fundamentalist organizations. The Nagpur Police which had supposedly stopped the terrorists from attacking the RSS HQ was not even aware of its own action. A report compiled by Justice Kondse Patil on the issue, showed that the entire thing was a set-up.  

  Lately, Hindu Munaani activists were found by the Tamil Nadu police to be involved in the attack on the RSS state-level headquarters at Tenkasi. The afore-mentioned pattern shows that the new phenomenon of `Hindu Terrorism’ is more a pseudo-terrorism, where anti-Muslim, mainstream Hindu organizations, seek the cooperation of fringe Hindu groups to stage manage attacks, which can later be blamed on Muslims.

     This situation cannot be allowed to continue—the Congress-NCP combine has by now established a history of kneeling down before anti-constitutional forces. Why wasn’t the Hindu Terrorist angle explored in the July 11 2006 Mumbai blast? Why were Nanded and Nagpur cases hushed up? Why have Bal or Raj Thackeray not been arrested when they have openly violated Section 14, 15 and 16, 19 and 21 of the Indian constitution. Under Indian laws, any violation of constitutional laws is deemed as sedition. The Supreme Court has made this clear time and time again while pronouncing its judgments. So what is stopping the Maharashtra Government from acting against anti-national elements?

The inaction of the Government on this issue will be fatal. Other forces will be encouraged to go against the constitution. It is laughable when someone cites `political compulsions’ as reason enough for appeasing Thackerays; countries, and democracies are not made out of political compulsions. Democracy itself is premised upon articles of a written constitution. A democratically elected Government loses its right to exist if it violates the constitution. The élan with which Narendra Modi has dared the center to arrest him for blatant secessionist statements is possible only in a scenario where such utterances are considered common. It is pathetic to see Congressmen pleading their own Government to take action against Modi.

Things have come to such a pass that if you claim a majority-Hindu sanction then you can get away with anything. This is not an assertion of Hindu identity. It is the assertion of fascism, an ideology which does not recognize nation-states, or even Hindu religion, which invents abstract entities like race, cultural nationalism and places them above political, economic and religious nationalism.

Right now the very institutions built by Jawahar Lal Nehru and Baba Bhimrao Ambedkar are under threat, the very idea of India as we knew it, in severe jeopardy. Parliamentarians are either unaware or being foolhardy—the minimization of the authority of the Center, ultimately leads to the erosion of the sovereignty vested by the Constitution on the Parliament.  The Muslim issue in Maharashtra and India is not a Muslim issue at all—it is a constitutional issue.

Providing justice to Muslims is only the first step towards restoring the legitimacy of Nehruvian and Ambedkarite institutions. If this theme is not tackled with the required urgency, then a situation might develop when little fascists will start demanding little nations of their own. Then the question will arise—if the Indian army can go into Kashmir or the North-East, why can’t it go to Gujarat or Maharashtra?  Only because the former are minority areas and latter majority ones—then why not declare India a Hindu Rashtra? Irrespective of whether someone speaks up or takes action at this juncture, the iron laws of politics will take care, sooner or later, of the situation thrown up by regional leaders creating their own anti-constitutional, anti-national chauvinistic fiefdoms in different parts of India. Either one forgets we have a constitution or act as per its articles. There is no third way out.            

 

ALL INDIA PATRIOTIC FORUM

                   

 

 

I am happy to announce the formation of All India Patriotic Forum. This will be a new kind of a roving, internet based, activist civil rights-political platform. The Forum has been formed by several prominent constituent organizations who feel that Indians have to be empowered in civil rights first—there can be no modern, democratic society without civil empowerment. Civil empowerment is the first step towards social and political empowerment.

While there are parties and organizations fighting for social and political empowerment of minorities and weaker sections, there is no organization fighting consistently for civil empowerment of the Indian underprivileged. In their individual and collective capacity, human rights groups are doing great work. But they often get bogged down in firefighting, responding to threats on issue by issue basis. In any case, human right groups are involved basically in fighting against human rights abuses. The need of the hour however is also to form a long-term, strategic  perspective—especially about human and civil rights issues in India.

The fact is that in India, the concept of civil society and citizens with civil rights protected by law is weak. The influence of  penal-bureaucratic-Statist mindset is overwhelming—this mindset reduces the concept of civil society to a society protected merely by penal laws, which are to be enforced by law enforcement agencies. Besides giving enormous power to State agencies, this mindset militates against any concept of individual and community rights vis-à-vis the State, the concept that not just violation of human life, but violation of human dignity of individuals and communities constitutes a crime.

It is because of this reason that there are no laws in India against say, using abusive-racist-communal language against communities and persecuting community and individual groups. When Bal Thackeray called Muslims `Laandiya’, he could be booked at most under Indian Penal Code (IPC) laws which are very general and do not mention or take into account, such specific communal and racist abuses. If a police officer tortures an under-trial, then that under-trial has no law or section to file a case against the police officer. The most he can do is to file a writ petition or register FIR. Even if a FIR is registered, it will be under section 307 (attempt to murder)—because there are actually no laws that specifically constitute a section where a crime like torture in custody is punishable by law.

India functions as per a written constitution, where Articles 14, 15, 16, 19 and 21 guarantee equality before law, fundamental right to life, and non-discrimination on the basis of caste, community or religion. So India has a secular constitution and a secular penal law—but there are no specific guarantees to see to it that the articles of constitution are implemented in letter and in spirit.

America offers a good example where despite a written constitution which promised that all men born are equal, that no discrimination ought to be made on the basis of race of color, a civil war had to fought, to protect the constitution. Further, a civil rights bill was enacted in the 1960s, almost a hundred years after the civil war, which guaranteed the rights of blacks and minorities and the end of segregation through separate laws.

The lack of civil laws leads to unchecked statism and power to the state—at the same it weakens the state as society does not have strong civil laws and rights which promote adherence to the state. In fact, this is the dialectics of the situation—statism flourishes on denying individual rights—but it is only and only those rights that actually guarantee the development of a citizen of a civil society of a nation. And a national entity with a strong civil society will always have more nationalism and loyalty to the State. The State which denies civil rights to its citizens, despite appearing `strong’, is actually a weak state as it does not command the natural loyalty of its citizens, many of whom have been denied the full benefits of peaceful existence protected by civil laws and individual rights.

In India, right before our eyes we are witness to the phenomenon of the strong Indian state failing to act against challenges to Indian sovereignty in Maharashtra and Gujarat, mounted by self serving regional players. Civil rights are the nut and bolts of any society, nation and State power. Without civil rights, a State remains a porous State however strong are the postures that it takes.

Hence, in India we see a situation where a `hard’ Indian State in Kashmir and the North-East ultimately fails to act against communal and fascist forces by and large. This situation is a direct result of lack of civil rights in Kashmir and the North-East—the existence of these rights would have stopped human rights abuses, knitted the two regions closer to the all India fabric and helped the Indian State concentrate on the real challenges.

 

It is also the case that legal awareness about even available legal redress is very weak. This can be seen in several cases where Muslim boys in particular have been picked up at random by the Police after bomb blasts; often they have been let off; but in at least 8 cases out to 10 those boys and their families have not sought legal redress. There is no actually legal cell in India working consistently to bring legal relief to victims of communal persecution.

 

Lack of civil rights is an invitation to fascism and colonialism in India. As the strong state in form, becomes weak in practice, fascist elements will gain control in the name of order and more power to the center and this will alienate further the Indian people from the Indian state. Ultimately a foreign power will start knocking at India’s door.

 

It is to make people realize these dangers and fight against them, that AIPF has been formed. The sad case in our country is that a whole battery of well meaning secular intellectuals have little concept of civil nationalism; perhaps, this is because India is a young state. Either ways, it is the bounden duty of activists, patriots and intellectuals to address this problem.

In India several political formation including those of the third front emerge from time to time and they do come to power also for short periods. But these forces and the Left movement at large, which have fought several battles for justice and sovereignty in India, have failed to articulate the problem of ensuring civil rights to its citizens, and building a civil-composite nationalism where all people and communities feel that they are part of a single whole.                  

    As India slowly slides towards Fascism, liberal individuals/formations, democratic and Left forces lack information and feedback about Human Rights abuses and Muslim persecution. These forces, despite their genuine efforts on several fronts, have failed in pinpointing the role of security forces in profiling minorities, especially Muslims and in inventing the whole specter of Muslim terrorism, especially organizations like SIMI and the Indian Mujahideen (IM).

          In India what we are seeing today, as witnessed in several incidents from Batala House encounter to Assam bomb blasts a twin process—the institutionalization of fascist Muslim persecution through democratic institutions and slow coming to the fore, over-ground one may add, of majority-Hindutva-fascist-terrorism which is openly justifying bomb blasts in Muslim areas. The phenomenon of Saadhvi Pragya Singh and the whole conspiracy that is slowly being unearthed in the Malegaon Blast case speaks precisely about this aspect of the present crisis. The Raj Thackeray affair in Mumbai shows that there is a final conspiracy to break the Indian nation and state, by playing, along with the communal card the regional card as well.

Aims and Objectives

         

         

The AIPF shall pursue the following aims:

 

1.    Create Civil rights awareness and Civil Empowerment Forums all over India through workshops, seminars etc.

2.    Collect a proper data base for Civil rights and Civil Rights abuses in India, for different castes and communities in India, as per the specificity of the Indian situation.

3.     Work as a liaison Forum between different secular forces, NGOs and other organizations and form adjunct organizations concerning civil rights as and when the need arises   

4.    Create special awareness about minority rights and the concept of civil-composite-democratic nationalism as opposed to fascist nationalism and nationalistic chauvinism.  

5.    Working politically to act as an open Forum to bring together different political forces, especially of the Third Front and the Left on several issues, especially those concerning civil rights. Helping those political forces in particular who make the implementation of civil rights laws in India.

6.    Act as a global Forum for peace, harmony and civil rights awareness, working with similar Civil Rights organizations all over the world, especially in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

7.    Facilitate a sense of history where the role of minorities in the history of nations, like the role of Muslims in the Indian freedom struggle is highlighted. This point makes the AIPF a research center as well. The AIPF will sponsor research and other activities in this field.

8.    To make special use of the audio-visual medium, especially films and theater, to spread civil rights awareness and civil-composite nationalism. This will involve making films and creating works of art that will spread the message of unity in diversity and communal harmony and would focus especially on changing the sense of history, from a communal to a secular one, with a special emphasis on themes like 1857, the first war of Indian Independence, which presents a shining example of civil-composite nationalism wherein all castes, communities and religions of India participated with equal vigor.     

9.    To organize social and political actions for the implementation of civil rights and against violation of human and Civil rights.

10.                       To form legal cells all over India to protect the legal rights of minorities and oppressed sections.

 

The AIPF will have a loose structure; anyone (individual or group) wishing to contribute to the above aims in whatever capacity is welcome to work for it, irrespective of whether they belong to some party or formation. This is not a NGO or civil rights organization in the conventional sense.        

     

First Action

 

 

In association with American Federation of Muslims of Indian Origin (AFMI), Tehrik-e-Hind, Vishva Sanatan Dharma Parishad, the All India Muslim Mahaz, and several other organizations, the AIPF is organizing a civil rights march in India in early 2009. The march will have two issues: the enactment of a `atrocities against minorities (prevention)’ act and a `torture and compensation act’. These actions will ensure that calling Muslim a Laandiya, or similar names to Sikhs and Christians, or torturing and picking up Muslim/Sikh/Christian boys for interrogation, or not giving flats on rent or to buy on the basis of religion become punishable offences.

The march will impress upon all secular political parties to include these issues in their programs. The march will also mark the first step towards the civil empowerment of Muslims and other minorities—it will be followed by other measures for other weaker sections like Adivasis and Dalits. The Torture and Compensation act will cover all citizens of India.

For this purpose, the AIPF has invited the AFMI office bearers from the US to come to India and address Muslim and other organizations so that the date, time and tenor of the proposed civil rights can be fixed.

US elections: An Indian Perspective

             

 

 

 

          America and Obama have made history. The impact of the Democratic victory on the wider world, especially countries like Brazil, Russia, India, Pakistan and China will be tremendous, much beyond the wildest dreams of, most Americans.

For one, Obama’s win marks the end of the whole Reagan-economics philosophy that elevated `money supply’, printing of dollars and lack of productive activity into an economic mantra. McCain and the Republican Party have sunk and they have taken with them a whole lot of economists and politicians adhering to World Bank-IMF policies, presented as a fait accompli to the `Third World’ after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

 However, the major, perhaps unseen factor behind Obama’s win should not be overlooked. While conceding defeat, McCain spoke of the consolidation of the African-American vote in Obama’s favor.  This is important—till now, electoral Pundits have relied basically on the traditional theory of both the Democratic and the Republican Party possessing roughly a 37%-37% base vote—and then the 20-26% Independent voter deciding the final outcome.

 Laws of political science inform that the notion of the Independent voter cannot exist in a political vacuum. There has to be some magnetic pull, emerging from the base vote category, which can trigger the decisive slide of the Independent voter towards the winning side: in this scenario, it is unlikely that the phenomenon of hockey moms or even Wal Mart moms, or any other Independent category, voting any which way independently     decided the new American President.

Similar is the case with the impact of the current Wall Street collapse;  growing economic problems shifted media focus away from Sarah Palin;   but, historically, economic uncertainty, unless it is of the Great Depression type with a figure like Roosevelt stimulating a class polarization, leads to less, not more voter participation in the electoral process; moreover, voters tend to vote both right and left in such an atmosphere.

 To understand the invisible specter that made Obama win, one might look towards India, a country where regular elections since 1952 have thrown up what is known as a `base assertion’—as opposed to the `Independent voter assertion’—theory.

 In India, from 1952 and roughly till the late 1980s, the Congress Party was able to win elections after elections because of the assertion of a single bloc: the minority-Muslim voter. Fighting on a socialist plank, Congress always formed a coalition of social forces and got the vote of the vast majority of India’s poor. Yet within that coalition, it was the assertion of the minority-Muslim vote in successive constituencies that provided the resources and the atmospherics for the non-Muslim poor to assert as well.

A quick look at Congress’ electoral graph over the years reveals a startling pattern: the party suffered significant defeats whenever, within the pro-Congress coalition, the minority-Muslim vote dipped by as little as 2-3%; thus in the 1967 General elections, the Congress lost more than 100 seats; in the 1977 General elections, when minority-Muslim support dipped by 10%, the Congress party was for a moment wiped off from the Indian electoral scene.

By the early 1990s, following a series of anti-minority-Muslim measures, most importantly the decision by a sitting Congress Prime Minister Narsimha Rao (who wanted to attract Hindu votes to the party) to allow the demolition of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, a town in the province of Uttar Pradesh (UP), the party lost the minority-Muslim support for the first time over an extended period. Consequently, throughout the 1990s, the Congress was relegated to an unthinkable third position, as the  pseudo-nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and a new secular and Left leaning anti-Congress front of regional parties slugged it out in the electoral arena.

Thus was born the phenomenon of regional secularism, wherein in UP and Bihar, two of India’s most populous states, backward caste, anti-Congress, anti-BJP Hindu leaders stormed to power, mainly on Muslim support. In both UP and Bihar Muslims formed roughly 15% of the total population. But their unprecedented electoral group-base assertion swayed the Independent voter completely in the favor of regional secularists.

A similar phenomenon accompanied the rise of Mayawati, the Dalit leader in UP, in the 1990s; Dalits, or the lowest of the low caste, comprise 22% of UP’s population; earlier, they used to vote for the Congress; but then, their vote was not part of a singular group assertion. Mayawati was able to triumph because the Dalits decided to jettison the Congress and identify with her totally.

In the American elections, the most obvious and simple aspect—the African American black vote in Obama’s favor—proved to be the most relevant in the final count. True, the black vote has traditionally been with the Democratic Party; and often, black assertion was not enough for a Democratic Party victory. But it has to be seen and analyzed as to how many times black assertion was base assertion—it seems that the three times when black assertion was base assertion, with Roosevelt, Kennedy and Clinton, the Democratic Party made history.

In the 2000 and 2004 American elections, Bush was able to defeat the Democrats, because somewhere along black assertion did not approximate in intensity to base assertion. On the other hand, the Christian Right, perhaps for the first time, asserted as a base for Republicans. Interestingly, the white vote, like the Hindu vote in India as such can never form a base assertion vote—it has been seen that in democracies, majority communities are too fragmented along class, regional or ethnic lines, to comprise a base assertion vote. The assertive minority vote has been decisive. 

In America, black assertion in Obama’s favor seems to have crossed the 95% mark; it led to a pro-Democratic swing of Hispanic and white working class voters as well.  In fact, the economic crisis led blacks, the worst hit, to assert more as a group—few will recognize this at the end, but on 4^th November 2008, America’s 12%

minority blacks played the determining role in choosing the next President of their country—and altering the world forever.                    

The Curious/Criminal Case of Sonal Shah…and another instance of RSS involvement in Bomb Blasts in India

 

         The euphoria over Obama’s election is still not over; yet secular Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) in the US are livid over one major transgression committed by President-elect Obama’s transition team. According to news reports, Sonal Shah, a successful US based Indian-Gujarati businesswomen and founder of Indicorps―an organization active in several sectors, facilitating exchanges between Indian and US mainly software professionals―with links to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), two notorious, Hindu supremacist fascist outfits of India, has been appointed as one of the advisers to the new President-elect.

          This might have gone unnoticed were it not for the spirited defense mounted by Sonal Shah’s supporters, mostly RSS and VHP people in India. In fact the Secretary of VHPA (America) has gone on record stating that Sonal Shah was a member of the organization but that her membership has expired. Overlooked by the English media, several statements of RSS leaders have appeared in the Hindi Press. One truly bizarre assertion made by an Indore based RSS leader in the Dainik Bhaskar goes on to “extol Ms. Shah for belonging to that super breed of Hindus who have entered the haloed precincts of the US Government and who now should do all in her power to see to it that minority appeasement ends in the US too!”

          Minority appeasement in the US! Is it not true that America has elected a minority President? So the American electorate has committed the greatest sin―appeasement of minorities! And the RSS leader of Indore is hoping that minority appeasement would end through a Hindu fundamentalist working in the office of―hold your breath―a super-product of minority appeasement!

          Another gem comes from Kota, a small town in Rajasthan. Here in an issue of Rajasthan Patrika, two RSS and VHP leaders have in a joint statement hailed Sonal Shah’s appointment in Obama’s team. They have gone on to state explicitly that “no matter what―let the Indian Congress Government appease minorities. President Obama has shown determination by appointing a proud member of the VHP, the daughter of Ramesh Shah, a very senior VHP leader, in his team. After all, American NRIs have really helped the Hindu cause here by sending us money. In fact during the Ram Mandir movement, they were very generous. Then that Masjid was demolished; which was something very good. Shri Ramesh Shah was in the forefront of rejoicing after the Masjid was demolished. Now his daughter has been anointed and it is good for Hindus the world over”.

          The third `praise’ appears in Dainik Jagran, a rabid Hindi newspaper, known for stoking the fires of bloodthirsty mobs out to kill Muslims right after the December 6^th Babari Masjid demolition; and known also for obliquely supporting Narendra Modi at the height of Gujarat riots. While commenting on the Sonal Shah phenomenon, RSS and VHP leaders have “condemned Muslim groups agitating against the appointment of Sonal Shah. These leaders (Muslim) are all pseudo secularists―they do not know ABC of secularism. They are being joined by pseudo-secular Hindus. The fact is that the Congress Government is arresting Hindus for the Malegaon blasts. The Government arrested Saadhvi Pragya Singh and then they are now questioning Mahant Adityanath, the great BJP leader of Gorakhpur. Sonal Shah’s appointment has sent the right message. In India, Hindus are being persecuted while in America they are being felicitated”.

          However, the same Dainik Jagran issue carries another statement by Swami Omnkaranand, a disciple of Jagadguru Swami Swarupanand, the anti-RSS Shankaracharya of Dwarika and Badrinath. While condemning Saadhvi Pragya Singh and the serving and ex-army officers accused in the Malegaon blasts, Omkaranand has branded `Hindu terrorists’ as irreligious (adharmik) non-Hindus. When asked about Sonal Shah, Swami Omkaranand said that he “did not know much about Sonal Shah―but he knew Ramesh Shah, her father”. When quizzed further, Omkaranand said that “Ramesh Shah had tried to seek an appointment with the Dwarika Shankaracharya―if I remember correctly he was accompanied by his daughter and her name was Sonal Shah. The Dwarika Shankaracharya met them―and the daughter and the father both requested the Shankaracharya to support the VHP. Then the Shankaracharya got angry―he lashed out at them and narrated an incident wherein he (the Shankaracharya) had a debate with Golwalkar, the RSS leader. The argument was about the status of Lord Ram―Golwalkar was saying that he did not consider Ram to be a God, only a  Mahapurush; then the Shankaracharya replied that this is what Ravana used to say―so now in which category is Golwalkar who calls himself a true representative of Hindu interests, has gone on to stand?”

          Swami Omkaranand further elaborated that “the Shankacharya asked Ramesh and Sonal Shah to leave the room as he considers the VHP, BJP and the RSS adharmik who have killed innocent Muslims in Ayodhya and Gujarat. Then Ramesh Shah tried offering some money to the Shankaracharya upon which the situation became very ugly and the Shankaracharya Sevaks would have given a sound thrashing to Ramesh Shah if he had not escaped”.

          When did Sonal and Ramesh go to meet the Dwarika Shankaracharya? The reference to Gujarat riots reveals that it was after that event―so if Swami Omkaranand is to be believed, Sonal Shah visited Dwarika to plead for the VHP, after the infamous riots in which thousands of Muslims were massacred and murdered brutally by VHP backed mobs. This proves that Sonal Shah is lying when she says that she had never been a member of the VHP―here she is trying to plead for the VHP with her father. This also casts a long shadow of doubt on the statement issued by the Shah family that they had condemned Gujarat riots.

          The VHP-RSS-BJP seems to be a hydra headed organization with tentacles everywhere. They are supposed to have infiltrated the Indian and the US administration in a big way―the fact is that Sonal Shah has also been involved Ekal Vidyalas, the RSS run scheme of single teacher schools in tribal areas in India. The Ekal Vidayala has a full functioning unit in the US where they collect money in the name of tribal welfare and then direct it towards VHP activities in Gujarat and the rest of India. A recent UNI Press report categorically states:

 

          “In the run up to the recent arrests of Saadhvi Pragya Singh and serving and ex-army officers in the Malegaon blast case, a whole lot of RSS run or affiliated organizations are under the scanner of the ATS Mumbai. There is an alleged link of several organizations based in the US. The ATS Mumbai has confidential reports on several US based organizations. They are alleged to have sent money to the RSS and VHP during the Gujarat riots. These organizations work under several heads in the US and change their identities frequently. They include `Overseas Friends of the BJP’, the Ekal Vidyalaya, the Hindu American Foundation and the IDRA and several such outfits which keep mushrooming. There is also an allegation that the RSS related groups have ganged up with Christian Right-Wing groups to destabilize the US Government.”             

         

          Despite denying her links with VHP, Sonal Shah has not denied links to Ekal Vidayalayas and other organizations. Her father continues to a leader of the Overseas Friends of the BJP. These organizations are accused to funding riots, pogroms and terror in India. What is her answer to this?

          Then there comes the article from Vijay Prashad, the head of International Studies at Trinity College, Hartford CT. Prashad mentions that “the Asian American Hotel Owner’s Association AAHOA supported Modi in Madison Square Garden with empty chairs. Ms. Sonal Shah is a supporter of and gets support from the same organization”.

          Vijay Prashad goes on to add:

 

“The BJP, the party in power during the Gujarat killings, but also a host of organizations known as the Sangh Parivar… these include groups whose U. S. affiliate drew in Sonal Shah’s parents, and to which she also gave her time and energy. This is not in the distant past. In 2004, while at the CAP, Sonal Shah gave the keynote address in Miami for the Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation of the USA. The Ekal Vidyalaya is an organization given over to`education’ in tribal areas of India. It is the policy of the Ekal Vidyalaya to organize tribal peoples into the “Hindu community” and to eschew the Christianity and animism that many practice. The climate created by the Ekal Vidyalaya and the VHP in the tribal areas of India led to the recent massacres of Indian Christians. Sonal Shah’s father Ramesh is in charge of the Ekal Vidyalaya in the U. S. She didn’t take the time in Miami to raise these concerns. Rather she talked about her Indicorps project, which has sent volunteers to work with groups like Ekal Vidyalaya. The language of social justice and cultural rights work well to cover over the fascism that is otherwise being promoted”.

 

           A new instance of RSS involvement in the recent Assam blasts has come to light:      

 

“ULFA on Tuesday alleged that RSS was behind the deadly October 30 blasts in Assam and ethnic violence in Bodo Territorial Administered Districts (BTAD). The blast claimed 85 lives while 55 people died in the ethnic violence in BTAD areas. In an e-mail statement, ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa further alleged that Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarmah was an agent of RSS and was blaming ULFA to cover up his involvement in the blasts. “Whether Sarmah is in Congress or AGP, he is in reality an RSS agent and to cover up his involvement is making misleading statements like ULFA and Jehadi are the same,” he said. Rajkhowa claimed the ULFA has enough evidence to prove RSS’s involvement in the October 30 blasts in four towns of Assam, including Guwahati. “A few months ago, the ULFA in its mouthpiece Freedom had mentioned about the secret directive sent by RSS to carry out blasts in different parts of the country but the state government took no steps in this direction,” he said. Moreover, the recent blasts in different parts of the country and the subsequent arrests have also proved that RSS and BJP are involved in blasts in states ruled by non-BJP governments, Rajkhowa alleged. He said that ULFA has never targeted indigenous Assamese population and has no links with jehadi or any other religious fundamentalist organization”.

 

A second instance of RSS involvement has surfaced in Kerala as recently as 11 ^th November 2008:

            “In yet another mysterious bomb explosion, two RSS activists were killed near Athyarkavu temple at Cheruvancherry here on Monday morning. Those killed were RSS karyavahak Kanhan Pradeepan, 38, and another worker Lalaveetil Dili alias Dileesh, 35. Pradeepan was an accused in the Ashna murder attempt case. Incidentally, the court had only announced a couple of days ago that the judgment in the Ashna case would be pronounced on November 14. According to the police, the explosion might have taken place while the two were engaged in making bombs. The impact of the blast was such that their bodies were blown to pieces. Burnt human flesh and mutilated organs were strewn in and around a well near the temple. Parts of the body of Pradeepan had to be scooped out of the well. Locals who rushed to the spot could find only the charred remains of the bodies. It was festival time at Athyarkavu and there were devotees at the temple late into Sunday night. The area is supposedly a BJP-RSS stronghold and the temple “under the control” of the latter. Reliable sources say the RSS workers were killed not while making the bombs but while shifting the bombs, kept in a hedge near the temple, to another place. The police sources, however, refused to confirm this version. The incident was as much a shock to the local people as it was startling to the police who are busy investigating terrorists links of youths in the district. Shops and other commercial establishments remained closed in Cheruvancherry town and vehicles kept off the road in the area following the incident. Forensic experts were trying to analyse the cause of the explosion, and police officials were camping in the area”.

 

          South India and West India have emerged as a major experiment ground of the RSS Sangh Parivar. In February 2008 the Tamil Nadu Police arrested activists of the Hindu Munani, a RSS outfit for planting bombs in the RSS Headquarters in Tenkasi:   

 

“The cat is finally out of the bag. In numerous bomb blasts that have taken place in the country, the investigating agencies as well as the media swoop on certain Muslim organisations and brand them as terrorists, who perpetrated the ghastly crime. Irrespective of whether the crime has taken place in a Masjid or Mandir or Market, the same stereotype stories are flashed everywhere. However the Tamilnadu Police have turned the tables and their investigations have turned the tide towards the real perpetrators of such crimes. It has arrested 3 Sangh Parivar activists for triggering blasts in the RSS office at Tenkasi. Tenkasi is a busy town in Tirunelveli District of Tamilnadu. Since its location is close to the famous Courtallam waterfalls it attracts a large number of tourists. Hindus belonging to various castes as well as Muslims and Christians have been living in harmony in this town from time immemorial. Tenkasi means Kasi of South. This town has a famous temple called Kasi Viswanathar Temple. Though the local Sangh Parivar outfit called Hindu Munnani has been long objecting to the renovation of the Bazaar Masjid situated very near to the temple, perfect communal harmony has prevailed in this town. Muslims living in this town are basically involved in various kinds of trade.

The Sangh parivar elements have been trying to communally polarise this town for a long period of time. However their attempts in the past have become futile. But the killing of Kumara Pandian, an activist of Hindu Munnani in December 2006 disturbed the peaceful atmosphere in Tenkasi. Kumara Pandian was murdered by group of Muslim gangsters out of personal animosity. However the Sangh Parivar elements targeted leading Muslim businessmen as well as Tamilnadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK) and alleged they were behind the murder. On March 2, 2007, Mohideen Sait Khan the then District President of TMMK and resident of Tenkasi was brutally attacked by Hindu Munnani activists. He suffered grievous injuries in several parts of his body. However he survived the attack. The police arrested a handful of Hindu Munnani activists in this case.

Tenkasi was now boiling with communal fervour. On 14th August (just a day before the Independence Day Celebrations) 6 persons (3 Hindus and 3 Muslims) were hacked to death in a fight between two groups. These two groups comprised persons who were charged for the Murder of Kumara Pandian and assault on Mohideen Sait Khan and were out on bail. Police clamped down on both sides and arrested a number of persons from both communities. In the aftermath of these incidents, when Tenkasi was limping back to normalcy just two days before the Republic day, on 24th January, there were bomb blasts in the RSS office in Tenkasi and in the Bus Stand around 9 pm. The media carried big stories about the blasts. The Sangh Parivar organised demonstrations in various parts of the state, demanding the arrest of Muslim ‘terrorist’, who according to them have committed the crime. However the Tamilnadu Police did not budge like their counterparts in other states. A special team led by Mr. Kannappan, DIG, Tirunelveli range made a thorough investigation and have arrested so far 3 persons S Ravi Pandian (42), a cable TV operator, S Kumar (28), an auto driver, both from Tenkasi, and V Narayana Sharma (26) of Sencottai, all Sangh Parivar activists. The last name accused had assembled 14 pipe bombs in the office of Ravi Pandian.

Explosive experts were deployed to probe the blasts at the RSS office and the bus-stand. Earlier it was thought that unidentified persons had hurled crude bombs at these places. But now it has been found that low-intensity ‘pipe’ bombs had been placed in these areas, a police official told PTI. The power to the area was disconnected before the incident.

According to Sanjeev Kumar, IG, South Zone, the bomb blast inside the new bus stand was planned to divert the police investigation. DIG of Police Kannappan said the trio tested the capacity of the bombs at Papanasam before executing the plan. Since the bombs contained substances like ammonium nitrate, electric detonators, batteries and timer devices, the explosion was possible within 30 to 40 seconds, said Kannappan.

The Investigation is still going on. The Police said 14 pipe bombs were assembled and the operations began from July last year. The arrested persons have confessed that the trio executed the plan to create a divide between the rival communities and thereby pave way for a backlash and generate sympathy for the family of the four deceased. They have also confessed that in the past they could not generate support from the Hindu community in Tenkasi and thought this blast would give the right impact.

With the Lok Sabha elections approaching, it is reliably learnt that Sangh Parivar outfits want to repeat Coimbatore in Tenkasi to get sympathy votes. The BJP which contested the last Assembly elections alone drew a blank. It is desperate to mobilise the Hindu votes and enacted the pranks in Tenkasi―kudos to Tamilnadu Police who have exposed their nefarious intentions.

The Tirunelveli Police have also indicated that the explosives used in Tenkasi are similar those used in the Makkah Masjid blast at Hyderabad. They have also indicated that these blasts would not have been triggered without the knowledge of the top brass of Sangh Parivar outfits in Tamilnadu.

In the light of the revelations of the Tamilnadu Police, the CBI should reinvestigate the Makkah Masjid Blasts and other Blasts which took place in different parts of the country. In all these blasts, there is a general feeling that mechanically the investigating agencies have blamed certain outfits and booked innocent persons instead of the real accused. Will the CBI and Home Ministry wake up”?

These incidents follow the `terrorist’ attack on Nagpur’s RSS Headquarters, which were branded as fake by the Nagpur Police itself, and the Nanded Blasts, the Modassa incidents and the recent Kanpur blasts where Bajrang Dal members were found to have been making bombs.

A Narco test was conducted on some of the RSS affiliates accused involved in the 2005 Nanded blasts at the Bajrang Dal Headquarters. The results are startling:   

“Hindu terror is here, if investigating agencies are to be believed. The arrest and subsequent interrogation of Sadhvi Pragya Singh, an Army officer and others for their alleged involvement in the Malegaon blasts of 2008 indicate the growing involvement of rightwing Hindu activists in terror acts. While ‘Hindu terror acts’ are made out to be a relatively new concept, the fact remains that the first signs of Hindu terror came to the fore as way back as 2006, when a bomb went off while bding assembled in a Hindu activist’s house in Nanded, Maharashtra.

Confessions by those arrested in that incident, during a narco-analysis test, throw light on how some Hindus decided to execute terror strikes, their modus operandi and the source of funding. Two of the accused have spelt out in detail the reason for them taking the terror path, and investigating officers say the causes are very similar to the one being attached to the recent Malegaon blasts. Manoharrao Pande, one of the accused in the case, said they were trained in handling explosive devices. He also said one of the persons, Himanshu Pande, who died while assembling the explosives, was a master at it. He said all terror attacks that occurred in the Marathwada region, including in Jalna, Purnea and Parbhani, were planned by Himanshu. The explosives, he said, were stored in a gym and the same was brought by Himanshu from Pune.

Fund-raising: While businessmen from Saudi Arabia are believed to pump in funds to sponsor terror by Islamic groups, some Hindu groups mobilised funds from locals. Pande said they had collected Rs 45,000 for making bombs and a minor part of this amount came from the money earned by the gym. He also mentioned that some rightwing Hindu outfits and local political leaders supported them. The motive: Another accused in the same case, Bhanurao Vithalrao Choudhary, during his narco-analysis test spelt out the motive behind carrying out terror strikes in the country. He said the bomb that exploded by accident in Nanded was actually meant to target a mosque at Aurangabad the next day. He, too, mentioned Himanshu, saying the latter was the one who told them they needed to fight Muslim terror.

Choudhary said Himanshu was perturbed by the fact that underworld don Dawood Ibrahim [Images] had got away unpunished and hence revenge had to be exacted. According to Himanshu, Dawood was responsible for the Gateway of India blast in 2003 which killed many. Sanjay said the motive behind the attacks that were planned by them was to safeguard Hindutva by targeting the Muslim population in the country. Aleem Faizee, social activist working for the Malegaon blast victims, said during investigation the police recovered a map depicting the Aurangabad mosque. Worse, the cops also found fake beards and Muslim outfits. The intention was to plant bombs under the guise of a Muslim to mislead investigators into believing that the bombs were planted by Muslims.

Interestingly, the statements given by some of the accused arrested in connection with the recent Delhi blasts mentions that their leader, Riyaz Bhatkal, had told them the blasts were being undertaken only to avenge the Mecca Masjid blasts which, he believed, were undertaken by some Hindu outfits to shift the blame on Muslims. Faizee said the recent developments in the Malegaon case and the revelations by the two accused raised a doubt regarding the perpetrators behind various other blasts that rocked the country”.

While the RSS is almost getting away with murder, the medical center of the All India Insitute of Medical Sciences refused to givethe postmortem reports of the Muslim boys killed in the September 18^thBatala House encounter in Delhi:    

“Petitions filed under the RTI Act in connection with the October 19 encounter in Batla House have generated more controversy than information. Information in the matter was sought from the NHRC, AIIMS, Delhi Police and the Supreme Court by petitioner Afroz Alam Sahil. Afroz Alam wanted information regarding postmortem reports and the doctors involved from AIIMS, and also a copy of the postmortem reports…in a reply, officials from the AIIMS Trauma Centre stated they could not pass on information related to medico legal records under sections 8(1)b and 8(1)h of the RTI. These sections are meant for information expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law or tribunal, or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court.

An irate Afroz Alam states in his blog, Soochna Express: “The denial of information by AIIMS is illogical. In this case, the court has not issued any orders regarding the Batla House case and we are not violating Section 8(1)b of the RTI. They said that information cannot be provided because it would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of the offenders. I want to state that information we sought is not related to any police investigation.”

The Delhi Police and Supreme Court have not replied to the petition till now. “If institutions like the Supreme Court do not take RTI seriously, then what is the use of having such an Act?” Alam asks. The information received from the NHRC states that 2,560 cases of police encounter/alleged fake encounters have come up and it has granted compensation in 16 such cases so far”.

          Finally, a significant section of Indian intellectuals and business leaders have come out in support of Sonal Shah. In signed statement they have distanced themselves from VHP and RSS and said that they believe Sonal is `distanced’ from them. Here is a list  of the signatories: 

Pratap Bhanu Mehta, President, Centre for Policy Research

Tarun Das, Chief Mentor, Confederation of Indian Industry

Devesh Kapur,  Director, Center for Advanced Studies of India, The University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan, Convenor, Lok Satta Party

Ajay G. Piramal, Chairman, Piramal Enterprises Limited

Pankaj Chandra, Director, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore

Reuben Abraham, Professor, Indian School of Business

Roopa Purushothaman, Head, Future Capital Research

Veena Siddharth, Vice President, International Division, Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Former Asia Division Advocacy Director, Human Rights Watch

 

            Amongst these names, Pratap Bhanu Mehta is a respected columnist of Indian Express; but Tarun Das, Devesh Thakur and Ajay Piramal are known to have RSS-VHP links at some point. In fact, Ajay Piramal belongs to the Piramal group of industries which has in the past has donated liberally to the RSS, VHP and several other organizations. Other corporate individuals have all had RSS links at some point or the other. And Veena Siddharth, in her own words stands guilty by association. 

Liberal intellectuals in India have shown an amazing blindness to the fascist threat. In at least two Times of India edit page pieces, written by Yogendra Yadav and Brinda Karat, the Central Committee member of the CPI-M, the line of argument is the same that Muslim communalism must be condemned first; Hindu communalism is basically restricted to a few groups and likewise. Yogendra Yadav performs the unbelievable somersault of actually talking about `Hindu grievances’―he of course has nothing to say about the arrest of Saadhvi Pragya Singh, and the opening of a whole net of worms which day by day is exposing people in the army, members of Parliament of the BJP and top administrators, as terrorists involved in bombing Muslim areas in Malegaon and Hyderabad, incidents in which initially Muslims were arrested!

          The entire conspiracy underway stinks from top to bottom―it seems that the RSS, in keeping with its history of organizing riots, an uprising against the secular Indian nation-State established in 1947 with British help, and pogrom against not only Indian Muslims but the Indian Communist parties as well, has now brought majority communalism to its logical conclusion.  This is what Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru had argued all along―that majority communalism is more dangerous than minority communalism as the latter is defensive while the former has the ability to turn the Indian State into a fascist entity.

          This is what is happening―the Indian State is turning fascist bit by bit―it is not going to survive for long. The latest revelation in the Malegaon incidents has an army officer saying that Muslims helped him in organizing the Malegaon blasts in Muslim areas. Last month the Police Commissioner of Mumbai, Hasan Ghaffoor held a Press Conference in which he states that Muslims helped him in nabbing alleged (Muslim) masterminds of the Delhi-Ahmedabad blasts from Poona!

          What is happening? There is a conspiracy within a conspiracy―something sickening―it seems that Muslims boys angry over the Babari Masjid demolition in December 1992 were detained and tortured by Indian security agencies. A databank was made of these boys and they were allowed to go; then before Gujarat riots, Narendra Modi called a meeting of Muslim leaders, for `educational purposes’ in Gujarat. This meeting was surrounded by Police personals; later, it turned out that the entire affair was set-up masterminded by Modi himself! The Muslims present in the 2001 meeting were all profiled and entered into a database―then their names started cropping up as masterminds of the Indian Mujahideen after the current spate of blasts!

          Now where has Indian Mujahideen gone? The name of a new Muslim organization cropped up in relation to the Assam blasts. But even that name disappeared―now ULFA has come out openly to state that RSS is behind the Assam blasts.

          When respected individuals like Brinda Karat write about BJP’s double standards, they are right. But one gets the feeling that they do not have the full picture at their disposal. Brinda and others have consistently refused to acknowledge at least in print that SIMI and the Indian Mujahideen are basically inventions of the Indian security agencies. Brinda only has to watch the recent American film `Body of Lies’, starring Russell Crow to see how terrorists are invented by security agencies.