Myths and Dreams: Hindutva Nationalism and the Indian Diaspora

another one from the 1950`s. I have never seen this resignation letter before - but it does makes sense given the events. Read on - it was from the law minister of pakistan in the 1950s and gives its reasons. A must read for Mantolives.....


Pakistan`s First Law & Labour Minister`s Resignation Letter


Full TEXT OF THE RESIGNATION LETTER BY:

Mr. J.N. Mandal,
Minister for Law and Labour,
Government of Pakistan
On 8th October, 1950


My Dear Prime Minister,
It is with a heavy heart and a sense of utter frustration at the failure of my life-long mission to uplift the backward Hindu masses of East Bengal that I feel compelled to tender resignation of my membership of your Cabinet. It is proper that I should set forth in detail the reasons, which have prompted me to take this decision in this important juncture of the history of Indo-Pakistan Sub-continent.

( 1 ) Before I narrate the remote and immediate causes of my resignation, it may be useful to give a short background of important events that have taken place during the period of my co-operation with the League, Having been approached by a few prominent League leaders of Bengal in February 1943, I agreed to work with them in the Bengal Legislative Assembly. After the fall of the Fazlul Haque Ministry in March 1943, with a party of 21 Scheduled Caste M.L.As, I agreed to co-operate with Khwaja Nazimuddin, the then leader of the Muslim League Parliamentary party who formed the Cabinet in April 1943. Our co-operation was conditional on some specific terms in the such as the inclusion of three Scheduled Caste Ministers in the Cabinet, sanctioning of a sum of Rupees five lakhs (Rs. 500,000) as annual recurring grant for the education of the Scheduled Castes, and unqualified implementation of the communal ratio rules in the matter of appointment to Government services.

( 2 ) Apart from those terms, the principal objectives that prompted me to work in co-operation with Muslim League was, first that the economic interests of the Muslim in Bengal generally were identical with those of the Scheduled Castes. Muslims were mostly cultivators and labourers, so were members of the Scheduled Castes. One section of Muslims was fishermen, so was a section of Scheduled Castes as well and, secondly, that the Scheduled Castes and Muslims were both educationally backward. I was persuaded that my co-operation with the League and its Ministry would lead to the undertaking on a wide scale of legislative and administrative measures which, while promoting the mutual welfare of the vast bulk of Bengal`s population and undermining the foundations of vested interest and privilege, would further the cause of communal peace and harmony. It may be mentioned here that Khwaja Nazimuddin took three Scheduled Caste Ministers in this Cabinet and appointed three Parliamentary Secretaries from amongst the members of my community.


SUHRAWARDY MINISTRY

( 3 ) After the general election held in March 1946, Mr. H.S. Suhrawardy became the leader of the League Parliamentary Party and formed the League Ministry in April 1946. I was the only Scheduled Caste member returned to the Federation ticket. I was included in Mr. Suhrawardy`s cabinet. The 16th day of August of that year was observed as ``The Direct Action Day`` by the Muslim League. It resulted, in a holocaust.. Hindus demanded my resignation from the League ministry. My life was in peril. I began to receive threatening letters almost every day. But I remained steadfast to my policy. Moreover, I issued an appeal through our journal ``Jagaran`` to the Scheduled Caste people to keep themselves aloof from the bloody feud between the Congress and the Muslim League even at the risk of my life. I cannot but gratefully acknowledge the fact that I was saved from the wrath of infuriated Hindu mobs by my Caste Hindu neighbours. The ``Noakhali Riot`` followed the Calcutta carnage in October 1946. There, Hindus including Scheduled Castes were killed and hundreds were converted to Islam. Hindu women were raped and abducted. Members of my community also suffered loss of life and property. Immediately after these happenings, I visited Tipperah and Feni and saw some riot-affected areas. The terrible sufferings of Hindus overwhelmed me with grief, but still I continued the policy of co-operation with the Muslim League. Immediately after the massive Calcutta Killing, a no-confidence motion was moved against the Suhrawardy Ministry. It was only due to my efforts that the support of four Anglo-Indian Members and four Scheduled Caste members of the Assembly who had hitherto been with the Congress could be secured, but for which the Ministry would have been defeated.

( 4 ) In October 1946, most unexpectedly came to me through Mr. Suhrawardy the offer of a seat in the Interim Government of India. After a good deal of hesitation and being given only one hour`s time to take my final decision, I consented to accept the offer subject to the condition only that I should be permitted to resign if my leader, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar disapproved of my action. Fortunately, however, I received his approval in a telegram sent from London. Before I left for Delhi to take over as Law Member, I persuaded Mr. Suhrawardy, the then Chief Minister of Bengal, to agree to take two Ministers in his Cabinet in my place and to appoint two Parliamentary Secretaries from the Scheduled Caste Federation Group.

( 5 ) I joined the Interim Government on November 1, 1946. After about a month when I paid a visit to Calcutta, Mr. Suhrawardy apprised me of the communal tension in some parts of East Bengal, especially in Gopalganj Sub-division, where the Namasudras were in majority, being very high. He requested me to visit those areas and address meetings of Muslims and Namasudras. The fact was that Namasudras in those areas had made preparations for retaliation. I addressed about a dozen of largely attended meetings. The result was that Namasudras gave up the idea of retaliation. Thus an inevitable dangerous communal disturbance was averted.

( 6 ) After a few months, the British Government made their June 3 Statement (1947) embodying certain proposals for the partition of India. The whole country, especially the entire non-Muslim India, was startled. For the sake of truth I must admit that I had always considered the demand of Pakistan by the Muslim League as a bargaining counter. Although I honestly felt that in the context India as a whole Muslims had legitimate cause for grievance against upper class Hindu chauvinism, I held the view very strongly indeed that the creation of Pakistan would never solve the communal problem. On the contrary, it would aggravate communal hatred and bitterness. Besides, I maintained that it would not ameliorate the condition of Muslims in Pakistan. The inevitable result of the partition of the country would be to prolong, if not perpetuate, the poverty, illiteracy and miserable condition of the toiling masses of both the States. I further apprehended that Pakistan might turn to be one of the most backward and undeveloped countries of the South East Asia region.


LAHORE RESOLLUTION

( 7 ) I must make it clear that I have thought that an attempt would be made, as is being done at present, to develop Pakistan as a purely `Islamic` State based on the Shariat and the injunctions and formularies of Islam. I presumed that it would be set up in all essentials after the pattern contemplated in the Muslim League resolution adopted at Lahore on March 23, 1940. That resolution stated inter alia that (1) ``geographically contiguous areas are demarcated into regions which should be constituted with such territorial readjustments as may be necessary, that the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in majority as in the north- Western and eastern zones of India, should be grouped to constitute independent States in which the Constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign `` and (2) `` adequate, effective and mandatory safeguards should be specifically provided in the Constitution for minorities in these units and in these regions for the protection of their religious, cultural, economic, political, administrative and other rights and interests in consultation with them.`` Implicit in this formula were (a) that North western and eastern Muslim zones should be constituted into two Independent States, (b) that the constituent units of these States should be autonomous and sovereign, (c) that minorities guarantee should be in respect of rights as well as of interest and extend to every sphere of their lives, and (d) that Constitutional provisions should be made in these regards in consultation with the minorities themselves. I was fortified in my faith in this resolution and the professions of the League Leadership by the statement Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jonah was pleased to make on the 11th August 1947 as the President of the Constituent Assembly giving solemn assurance of equal treatment for Hindus & Muslims alike and calling upon them to remember that they were all Pakistanis. There was then no question of dividing the people on the basis of religion into full- fledged Muslim citizens and gummies being under the perpetual custody of the Islamic State and its Muslim citizens. Every one of these pledges is being flagrantly violated apparently to your knowledge and with your approval in complete disregard of the Quaid-e-Azam`s wishes and sentiments and to the detriment and humiliation of the minorities.


PARTITION OF BENGAL

( 8 ) It may also be mentioned in this connection that I was opposed to the partition of Bengal. In launching a campaign in this regard I had to face not only tremendous resistance from all quarters but also unspeakable abuse, insult and dishonour. With great regret, I recollect those days when 32 crores of Hinduism opposed my cations, but I remained undaunted and unmoved in my loyalty to Pakistan. It is a matter of gratitude that my appeal to 7 million Scheduled Caste people of Pakistan evoked a ready and enthusiastic response from them. They lent me their unstinted support sympathy and encouragement.

( 9 ) After the establishment of Pakistan on August 14, 1947 you formed the Cabinet, in which I was included and Khwaja Nazimuddin formed a provisional Cabinet for East Bengal. On August 10, I had spoken to Khwaja Nazimuddin at Karachi and requested him to take 2 Scheduled Caste Ministers in the East Bengal Cabinet. He promised to do the same sometime later.

What happened subsequently in this regard was a record of unpleasant and disappointing negotiations with you, Khwaja Nazimuddin and Mr. Nurul Amin, the present Chief Minister of East Bengal. When I realised that Khwaja Nazimuddin was avoiding the issue on this or that excuse, I became almost impatient and exasperated, I further discussed the matter with the Presidents of the Pakistan Muslim League and its East Bengal Branch. Ultimately, I brought the matter to your notice. You were pleased to discuss the subject with Khwaja Nazimuddin in my presence at your residence. Khwaja Nazimuddin agreed to take one Scheduled Caste Minister on his return to Dacca. As I had already become skeptic about the assurance of Khwaja Nazimuddin, I wanted to be definite about the time limit. I insisted that he must act in this regard within a month, failing which I should be at liberty to resign. Both you and Khwaja Nazimuddin agreed to the condition. But, alas! You did not perhaps mean what you said. Khwaja Nazimuddin did not keep his promise. After Mr. Nurul Amin had become the Chief Minister of East Bengal, I again took up the matter with him. He also followed the same old familiar tactics of evasion. When I again called your attention to his matter prior to your visit to Dance in 1949, you were pleased to assure me that a Minority Minister would be appointed in East Bengal, and you asked 2-3 names from me for consideration. In stat deference to your wish, I sent you a note stating the Federation Group in the East Bengal Assembly and suggesting three names. When I made enquiries as to what had happened on your return from Dacca, you appeared to be very cold and only remarked: ``Let Nurul Amin return from Delhi``. After a few days I again pressed the matter.


ANTI-HINDU POLICY

( 10 ) When the question of partition of Bengal arose, the Scheduled Caste people were alarmed at the anticipated dangerous result of partition. Representation on their behalf were made to Mr. Suhrawardy, the then Chief Minister of Bengal who was pleased to issue a statement to the press declaring that none of the rights and privileges hitherto enjoyed by the Scheduled Caste people would be curtailed after partition and that they would not only continue to enjoy the existing rights and privileges but also receive additional advantages. This assurance was given by Mr. Suhrawardy not only in his personal capacity but also in his capacity as a Chief Minister of the League Ministry. To my utter regret it is to be stated that after partition, particularly after the death of Quaid-e-Azam, the Scheduled Castes have not received a fair deal in any matter. You will recollect that from time to time I brought the grievances of the Scheduled Castes to your notice. I explained to you on several occasions the nature of inefficient administration in East Bengal. I made serious charges against the police administration. I brought to your notice incidents of barbarous atrocities perpetrated by the police on frivolous grounds. I did not hesitate to bring to your notice the anti-Hindu policy pursued by the East Bengal government especially the police administration and a section of Muslim League leaders.


SOME INCIDENTS

( 11 ) The first incident that shocked me took place at a village called Digharkul near Gopalganj where on the false complaint of a Muslim, brutal atrocities were committed on the local Namasudras. The fact was that a Muslim who was going in a boat attempted to throw his net to catch fish. A Namasudra who was already there for the same purpose opposed to throwing of the net in his front. This was followed by some altercations and the Muslim got annoyed who went to a nearby Muslim village and made a false complaint that he and a woman in his boat had been assaulted by the Namasudras. At the time, the S.D.O. of Gopalganj was passing in a boat through the canal who without making any enquiry accepted the complaint as true and sent armed police to the spot to punish the Namasudra. The armed police came and the local Muslims also joined them. They not only raided some houses of the Namasudras but mercilessly beat both men and women, destroyed their properties and took away valuables. The merciless beating of a pregnant woman resulted in abortion on the spot. This brutal action on the part of the local authority created panic over a large area.

( 12 ) The second incident of police repression took place in early part of 1949 under P.S. Gournadi in the district of Barisal. Here a quarrel took place between two groups of members of a Union Board. One Group which was in the good book of the Police conspired to punish the opponents on the plea of attack on the Police Station, the O.C., Gournadi requisitioned armed forces from headquarters. The Police, helped by the armed forces, then raided a large number of houses in the area, took away valuable properties, even from the houses of absentee-owners who were never in politics, far less in the Communist Party. A large number of students of many High English Schools were Communist suspects and unnecessarily harassed. This area being very near to my native village, I was informed of the incident. I wrote to the District Magistrate and the S.P. for an enquiry. A section of the local people also prayed for an enquiry by the S.D.O. But no enquiry was held. Even my letters to the District authorities were not acknowledged. I then brought this matter to the notice of the highest Authority in Pakistan, including yourself but to no avail.


WOMEN FOR MILITARY

( 13 ) The atrocities perpetrated by the police and military on the innocent Hindus, especially the Scheduled Caste of Harbinger in the Dist. of Sleet deserve description. Innocent men and women were brutally tortured, some women ravished, their houses raided and properties looted by the police and the local Muslims. Military pickets were posted in the area. The military not only oppressed these people and took away stuffs forcibly from Hindus houses, but also forced Hindus to send their women-folk at night to the camp to satisfy the carnal desire of the military. This fact also I brought to your notice. You assured me of a report on the matter, but unfortunately no report was forthcoming.

( 14 ) Then occurred the incident at Nachole in the District of Rajshahi where in the name of suppression of Communists not only the police but also the local Muslims in collaboration with the police oppressed the Hindus and looted their properties. The Santhals then crossed the border and came over to West Bengal. They narrated the stories of atrocities wantonly committed by the Muslims and the police.

( 15 ) An instance of callous and cold-blooded brutality is furnished by the incident that took place on December 20, 1949 in Kalshira under P.S. Mollarhat in the District of Khulna. What happened was that late at night four constables raided the house of one Joydev Brahma in village Kalshira in search of some alleged Communists. At the scent of the police, half a dozen of young men, some of whom might have been Communists, escaped from the house. The police constable entered into the house and assaulted the wife of Joydev Brahma whose cry attracted her husband and a few companions who escaped from the house. They became desperate, re-entered the house, found 4 constables with one gun only. That perhaps might have encouraged the young men who struck a blow on an armed constable who died on the spot. The young men then attacked another constable when the other two ran away and raised alarm which attracted some neighbouring people who came to their rescue. As the incident took place before sunrise when it was dark, the assailants fled with dead body before the villagers could come. The S.P. of Khulna with a contingent of military and armed police appeared on the scene in the afternoon of the following day. In the meantime, the assailants fled and the intelligent neighbours also fled away. But the bulk of the villagers remained in their houses, as they were absolutely innocent and failed to realise the consequence of the happening. Subsequently the innocents of the entire village encouraged the neighbouring Muslims to take away their properties. A number of persons were killed and men and women were forcibly converted. House- hold deities were broken and places of worship desecrated and destroyed. Several women were raped by the police, military and local Muslims. Thus a veritable hell was let loose not only in the village of Kalshira which is half miles in length with a large population, but also in a number of neighbouring Namasudra villages. The village Kalshira was never suspected by the authority to be a place of Communist activities. Another village called Jhalardanga, which was at a distance of 3 miles from Kalshira, was known to be a centre of Communist activities. This village was raided by a large contingent of police on that day for hunt of the alleged Communists, a number of whom fled away and took shelter in the aforesaid house of village Kalshira which was considered to be a safe place for them.

( 16 ) I visited Kalashira and one or two neighboring villages on the 28th February 1950. The S.P., Khulna and some of the prominent League leaders of the district were with me. When I came to the village Kalshira, I found the place desolate and in ruins. I was told in the presence of S.P.that there were 350 homesteads in this village; of these, only three had been spared and the rest had been demolished. Country boats and heads of cattle belonging to the Namasudras had been all taken away. I reported these facts to the Chief Minster, Chief Secretary and Inspector General of Police of East Bengal and to you.

( 17 ) It may be mentioned in this connection that the news of this incident was published in West Bengal Press and this created some unrest among the Hindus there. A number of sufferers of Kalshira, both men and women, homeless and destitute had also come to Calcutta and narrated the stories of their sufferings which resulted in some communal disturbances in West Bengal in the last part of January.


CAUSES OF THE FEBRUARY DISTURBANCE

( 18 ) It must be noted that stories of a few incidents of communal disturbance that took place in West Bengal as a sort of repercussion of the incidents at Kalshira were published in exaggerated form in the east Bengal press. In the second week of February 1950 when the Budget Session of the East Bengal Assembly commenced, the Congress Members sought permission to move two-adjournment motion to discuss the situation created at Kalshira and Nachole. But the motions were disallowed. The congress Member walked out of the Assembly in protest. This action of the Hindu Members of the Assembly annoyed and enraged not only the Ministers but also the Muslim leaders and officials of the Province. This was perhaps one of the principal reasons for Dacca and East Bengal riots in February 1950.

( 19 ) It is significant that on February 10, 1950 at about 10 O`clock in the morning a woman was painted with red to show that her breast was cut off in Calcutta riot, and was taken round that East Bengal Secretariat at Dacca. Immediately, the Government servants of the Secretariat struck work and came out in procession raising slogans of revenge against the Hindus. The procession began to swell as it passed over a distance of more than a mile. It ended in a meeting at Victoria Park at about 12O`clock in the noon where violent speeches against the Hindus were delivered by several speakers, including officials. The fun of the whole show was that while the employees of the Secretariat went out in procession, the chief Secretary of the East Bengal Government was holding a conference with his West Bengal counterpart in the same building to find out ways and means to stop communal disturbances in the two Bengals.


OFFICIALS HELPED LOOTERS

( 20 ) The riot started at about 1 p.m. simultaneously all over the city. Arson, looting of Hindu shops and houses and killing of Hindus, wherever they were found, commenced in full swing in all parts of the city. I got evidence even from the Muslims that arson and looting were committed even in the presence of high police officials. Jewellery shops belonging to the Hindus were looted in the presence of police officers. They not only did not attempt to stop loot, but also helped the looters with advice and direction. Unfortunately for me, I reached Dacca at 5 O`clock in the afternoon on the same day, in Feb.10,1950.To my utter dismay, I had occasion to see and know things from close quarters. What I saw and learnt from first hand information was simply staggering and heart-rending.


BACKGROUND OF THE RIOT

( 21 ) The reasons for the Dacca riot were mainly five:

(i) To punish the Hindus for the daring action of their representatives in the Assembly in their expression of protest by walking out of the Assembly when two adjournment motions on Kashira and Nachole affairs were disallowed;

(ii) Dissensions and difference between the Suhrawardy Group and the Nazimuddin in the Parliamentary Party were becoming acute;

(iii) Apprehension of launching of a movement for re-union of East and West Bengal by both Hindu and Muslim leaders made the East Bengal Ministry and the Muslim League nervous. They wanted to prevent such a move. They thought that any large scale communal riot in East Bengal was sure to produce reactions in West Bengal were Muslims might be killed. The result of such riot in both East and East Bengal, it was believed, would prevent any movement for re-union of Bengals.

(iv) Feeling of Antagonism between the Bengalee Muslim and non-Bengalee Muslim in East Bengal was gaining ground. This could only be prevented by creating hatred between Hindus and Muslims of East Bengal. The language question was also connected with it and

(v) The consequences of non-devaluation and Indo-Pakistan trade deadlock to the economy of East Bengal were being felt most acutely first in urban and rural areas and the Muslim League members and officials wanted to divert the attention of the Muslim masses from the impending economic breakdown by some sort of jehad against Hindus.


STAGGERING DETAILS - NEARLY 10,000 KILLED

( 22 ) During my nine days` stay at Dacca , I visited most of the riot-affected areas of the city and suburbs. I visited Mirpur also under P.S.Tejgaon. The news of the killing of hundreds of innocent Hindus in trains, on railway lines between Dacca and Narayanganj, and Dacca and Chittagong gave me the rudest shock. on the second day of Dacca riot, I met the Chief Minister of east Bengal and requested him to issue immediate instructions to the District authorities to take all precautionary measures to prevent spreading of the riot in district towns and rural areas. On the 20th February 1950, I reached Barisal town and was astounded to know of the happenings in Barisal. In the District of Hindus killed. I visited almost all riot-affected areas in the District. I was simply puzzled to find the havoc wrought by the Muslim rioters even at places like Kasipur, Madhabpasha and Lakutia, which were within a radius of six miles from the District town and were connected with motor able roads. At the Madhabpasha Zaminder`s house, about 200 people were killed and 40 injured. A Place, called Muladi, witnessed a dreadful hell. At Muladi Bandar alone, the number killed would total more than three hundred, as was reported tome by the local Muslims including some officers. I visited Muladi village also, where I found skeletons of dead bodies at some places. I found dogs and vultures eating corpses on the riverside. I got the information there that after the whole-scale killing of all adult males, all the young girls were distributed among the ringleaders of the miscreants. At a place told Kaibartakhali under P.S. Rajapur, 63 persons were killed. Hindu houses within a stone`s throw distance from the said Thana office were looted, burnt and inmates killed. All Hindu shops of Babuganj Bazar were looted and then burnt and a large number of Hindus were killed. From detailed information received, the conservative estimate of casualties was placed at 2,500 killed in the District of Barisal alone. Total casualties of Dacca and East Bengal riot were estimated to be in the neighbourhood of 10,000 killed. I was really overwhelmed with grief. The lamentation of women and children who had lost their all including near and dear ones melted my hearts. I only asked myself. ``What was coming to Pakistan in the name of lslam``.


NO EARNEST DESIRE TO IMPLEMENT DELHI PACT

( 23 ) The large-scale exodus of Hindus from Bengal commenced in the latter part of March. It appeared that within a short time all the Hindus would migrate to India. Aware cry was raised in India. The situation became extremely critical. A national calamity appeared to be inevitable. The apprehended disaster, however, was avoided by the Delhi Agreement of April 8. With a view to reviving the already lost morale of the panicky Hindus, I undertook an extensive tour of East Bengal. I visited a number of places in the districts of Dacca, Barisal, Faridpur, Khulna and Jessore. I addressed dozens of largely attended meeting and asked the Hindus to take courage and not to leave their ancestral hearths and homes. I had this expectation that the East Bengal Govt. and Muslim League leaders would implement the terms of the Delhi Agreement. But with the lapse of time, I began to realise that neither the East Bengal Govt. nor the Muslim League leaders were really earnest in the matter of implementation of the Delhi Agreement. The East Bengal Govt. was not only much to set up a machinery as envisaged in the Delhi Agreement, but also was not willing it take effective steps for the purpose. A number of Hindus who returned to native village immediately after the Delhi Agreement were not given possession of their homes and lands, which were occupied in the meantime by the Muslims.


MOULANA AKRAM KHAN`S INCITATIONS

( 24 ) My suspicion about the intention of League leaders was confirmed when I read editorial comments by Moulana Akram Khan, the President of the Provincial Muslim League in the ``Baisak`` issue of a monthly journal called Mahammadi. In commenting on the first radio-broadcast of Dr. A.M. Malik, Minister for Minority Affairs of Pakistan, from Dacca Radio Station, wherein he said, ``Even Prophet Mahammed had given religious freedom to the Jews in Arabia``, Moulana Akram Khan said, ``Dr. Malik would have done well had he not made any reference in his speech to the Jews of Arabia. It is true that Jews in Arabia had been given religious freedom by Prophet Mahammed; but it was the first chapter of the history. The last chapter contains the definite direction of prophet Mahammed which runs as follows :-``Drive away all the Jews out of Arabia``. Even despite this editorial comment of a person who held a very high position in the political, social and spiritual life of the Muslim community, I entertained some expectation that the Nurul Amin Ministry might not be so insincere. But that expectation of mine was totally shattered when Mr. Nurul Amin selected D.N. Barari as a Minister to represent the minorities in terms of the Delhi Agreement which clearly states that to restore confidence in the mind of the minorities one of their representatives will be taken in the Ministry of East Bengal and West Bengal Govt.


NURUL AMIN GOVT`S. INSINCERITY

( 25 ) In one of my public statement , I expressed the view that appointment of D.N. Barari as a Minister representing the minorities not only did not help restore any confidence, but, on the contrary, destroyed all expectations or illusion, if there was any in the minds of the minorities about the sincerity of Mr. Nurul Amin Govt. my own reaction was that Mr. Nurul Amin`s Govt. was not only insincere but also wanted to defeat the principal objectives of the Delhi Agreement. I again repeat that D.N. Barari does not represent anybody except himself. He was returned to the Bengal Legislative Assembly on the Congress ticket with the money and organisation of the Congress. He opposed the Scheduled Caste Federation candidates. Some time after his election, he betrayed the Congress and joined the Federation. When he was appointed a Minister he had ceased to be a member of the Federation too. I know that East Bengal Hindus agree with me that by antecedents, character and intellectual attainments Barari is not qualified to hold the position of a Minister as envisaged in the Delhi Agreement.

( 26 ) I recommended three names to Mr. Nurul Amin for this office. One of the persons I recommended was an M.A., LL.B., Advocate, Dacca High Court. He was Minister for more than 4 years in the first Fazlul Huq Ministry in Bengal. He was chairman of the Coal Mines Stowing Board, Calcutta, for about 6 years. He was the senior Vice-President of the Scheduled Caste Federation. My second nominee was a B.A.,LL.B. He was a member of the Legislative Council for 7 years in the pre-reform regime. I would like to know what earthly reasons there might be for Mr. Nurul Amin in not selecting any of these two gentlemen and appointing instead a person whose appointment as Minister I strongly objected to for very rightly considerations. Without any fear of contradiction I can say that this action of Mr. Nurul Amin in selecting Barari as a Minister in terms of the Delhi Agreement is conclusive proof that East Bengal Govt. was neither serious nor sincere in its profession about the terms of the Delhi Agreement whose main purpose is to create such conditions as would enable the Hindus to continue to live in East Bengal with a sense of security to their life, property, honour and religion.


GOVT. PLAN TO SOUEEZE OUT HINDUS

( 27 ) I would like to reiterate in this connection my firm conviction that East Bengal Govt. is still following the well-planned policy of squeezing Hindus out of the Province. In my discussion with you on more than one occasion, I gave expression to this view of mine. I must say that this policy of driving out Hindus from Pakistan has succeeded completely in West Pakistan and is nearing completion in East Pakistan too. The appointment of D.N. Barari as a Minister and the East Bengal Government`s unceremonious objection to my recommendation in this regard strictly conform to name of what they call an Islamic State. Pakistan has not given the Hindus entire satisfaction and a full sense of security. They now want to get rid of the Hindu intelligentsia so that the political, economic and social life of Pakistan may not in any way be influenced by them.


EVASIVE TACTICS TO SHELVE JOINT ELECTORATE

( 28 ) I have failed to understand why the question of electorate has not yet been decided. It is now three years that the minority Sub-Committee has been appointed. It sat on three occasions. The question of having joint or separate electorate came up for consideration at a meeting of the Committee held in December last when all the representatives of recognised minorities in Pakistan expressed their view in support of joint Electorate with reservation of seats for backward minorities. We, on behalf of the Scheduled Castes think this matter again came up for consideration at a meeting called in August last. But without any discussion whatsoever on this point, the meeting was adjourned sine die. It is not difficult to understand what the motive is behind this kind of evasive tactics in regard to such a vital matter on the part of Pakistan`s rulers.


DISMAL FUTURE FOR HINDUS

( 29 ) Coming now to the present condition and the future of Hindus in East Bengal as a result of the Delhi Agreement, I should say that the present condition is not only unsatisfactory but absolutely hopeless and that the future completely dark and dismal Confidence of Hindus in East Bengal has not been restored in the least. The Agreement is treated as a mere scrap of paper alike by the East Bengal Government and the Muslim League.
That a pretty large number of Hindu migrants, mostly Scheduled Caste cultivators are returning to East Bengal is no indication that confidence has been restored. It only indicates that their stay and rehabilitation in West Bengal, or elsewhere in the Indian Union have not been possible. The sufferings of refugee life are compelling them to go back to their homes. Besides, many of them are going back to bring movable articles and settle or dispose of immovable properties. That no serious communal disturbance has recently taken place in East Bengal is not to be attributed to the Delhi Agreement. It could not simply continue even if there were no Agreement or Pact.

( 30 ) It must be admitted that the Delhi Pact was not an end in itself. It was intended that such conditions would be created as might effectively help resolve so many disputes and conflict existing between India and Pakistan. But during this period of six months after the Agreement, no dispute or conflict has readily been resolved. On the contrary, communal propaganda and anti-India propaganda by Pakistan both at home and abroad are continuing in full swing. The observance of Kashmir Day by the Muslim League all over Pakistan is an eloquent proof of communal anti-India propaganda by Pakistan. The recent speech of the Governor of Punjab (Pak) saying that Pakistan needed a strong Army for the security of Indian Muslims has betrayed the real attitude of Pakistan towards India. It will only increase the tensions between the two countries.


WHAT IS HAPPENING IN E. BENGAL TODAY

( 31 ) What is to the condition in East Bengal? About fifty lakhs of Hindus have left since the partition of the country. Apart from the East Bengal riot of last February, the reasons for such a large-scale exodus of Hindus are many. The boycott by the Muslims of Hindu lawyers, medical practitioners, shopkeepers, traders and merchants has compelled Hindus to migrate to West Bengal in search of their means of livelihood. Wholesale requisition of Hindu houses even without following due process of law in many and non-payment of any rent whatsoever to the owners have compelled them to seek for Indian Shelter, Payments rent to Hindu landlords was stopped long before. Beside, the Ansars against whom I received complaints all over are a standing menace to the safety and security of Hindus. Interference in matters of education and methods adopted by the Educational Authority for Islamisation frightened the teaching staff of Secondary Schools and Colleges out of their old familiar moorings. They have left East Bengal. As a result, most of the educational institutions ago the Educational Authority issued circular to Secondary Schools enjoining compulsory participation of teachers and student of all communities in recitation from the Holy Koran before the school work commenced, Another circular requires Headmasters of schools to name the different blocks of the premises after 12 distinguished Muslims, such as, Jinnah, Iqbal, Liaquat Ali, Nazimuddin, etc. Only very recently in an educational conference held at Dacca, the President disclosed that out of 1,500 High English Schools in East Bengal, only 500 were working. Owing to the migration of medical practitioners there is hardly any means of proper treatment of patients. Almost all the priests who used to worship the household deities at Hindu houses have left. Important places of worship have been abandoned. The result is that the Hindus of East Bengal have got now hardly any means to follow religious pursuits and perform social ceremonies like marriage where the services of a priest are essential. Artisans who made images of goddesses have also left. Muslims have replaced Hindu Presidents of Union Boards by coercive measures with the active help and connivance of the police and Circle Officers. Muslims have replaced Hindu Headmasters and Secretaries of Schools. The life of the few Hindu Govt. servants has been made extremely miserable as many of them have either been superseded by junior Muslims or dismissed without sufficient or any cause. Only very recently a Hindu Public Prosecutor of Chittagong was arbitrarily removed from service as has been made clear in a statement made by Srijukta Nellie Sengupta against whom at least no charge of anti-Muslim bias prejudice or malice can be leveled.


HINDUS VIRTUALLY OUTLAWED

( 32 ) Commission of thefts and dacoities even with murder is going on as before. Thana office seldom record half the complaints made by the Hindus. That the abduction and rape of Hindu girls have been reduced to a certain extent is due only to the fact that there is no Caste Hindu girl between the ages of 12 and 30 living in East Bengal at present. The few depressed class girls who live in rural areas with their parents are not even spared by Muslim goondas. I have received information about a number of incidents of rape of Scheduled Castes Girls by Muslims.
Full payment is seldom made by Muslim buyers for the price of jute and other agricultural commodities sold by Hindus in market places. As a matter of fact, there is no operation of law, justice or fair play in Pakistan, so far as Hindus are concerned.


FORCED CONVERSIONS IN WEST PAKISTAN

( 33 ) Leaving aside the question of East Pakistan, let me now refer to west Pakistan, especially Sind. The West Punjab had after partition about a lakh of Scheduled Castes people. It may be noted that a large number of them were converted to Islam. Only 4 out of a dozen Scheduled Castes girls abducted by Muslims have yet been recovered in spite of repeated petitions to the Authority. Names of those girls with names of their abductors were supplied to the government. The last reply recently given by the office-in-Charge of recovery of abducted girls said that ``his function was to recover Hindu girls and stat ``Achuts`` (Scheduled Castes) were not Hindus``. The condition of the small number of Hindus that are still living in Sind and Karachi, the capital of Pakistan, is simply deplorable. I have got a list of 363 Hindu temples and gurudwaras of Karachi and Sind (which is by no means an exhaustive list) which are still in possession of Muslims. Some of the temples have been converted into cobbler`s shops, slaughterhouses and hotels. None of the Hindus has got back.

Possession of their landed properties were taken away from them without any notice and disturbed amongst refugees and local Muslims. I personally know that the Custodian declared 200 to 300 Hindus non-evacuees a pretty long time ago. But up till now properties have not been restored to any one of them. Even the possession of Karachi Pinjra Pole has not been restored to the trustees, although it was declared non-evacuee property some time ago. In Karachi I had received petitions from many unfortunate fathers and husbands of abducted Hindu girls, mostly Scheduled Castes. I Drew the attention of the 2nd Provisional Government to this fact. There was little or no effect. To my extreme regret I received information that a large number of Scheduled Castes who are still living in Sind have been forcibly converted to Islam.


PAKISTAN `ACCURSED` FOR HINDUS

( 34 ) Now this being in brief the overall picture of Pakistan so far as the Hindus are concerned, I shall not be unjustified in stating that Hindus of Pakistan have to all intents and purposes been rendered `` Stateless `` in their own houses. They have no other fault than that they profess Hindu religion. Muslim League leaders that Pakistan is and shall be an Islamic State are repeatedly making declarations. Islam is being offered as the sovereign remedy for all earthly evils. In the matchless dialectics of capitalism and socialism you present the exhilarating democratic synthesis of Islamic equality and fraternity. In that grand setting of the Shariat Muslims alone are rulers while Hindus and other minorities are jimmies who are entitled to protection at a price, and you know more than anybody else Mr. Prime Minister, what that price is. After anxious and prolonged struggle I have come to the conclusion that Pakistan is no place for Hindus to live in and that their future is darkened by the ominous shadow of conversion or liquidation. The bulk of the upper class Hindus and politically conscious scheduled castes have left East Bengal. Those Hindus who will continue to stay accursed promise and for that matter in Pakistan will, I am afraid, by gradual stages and in a planned manner be either converted to Islam or completely exterminated. It is really amazing that a man of your education, culture and experience should be an exponent of a doctrine fraught with so great a danger to humanity and subversive of all principles of equality and good sense. I may tell you and your fellow workers that Hindus will allow themselves, whatever the threat or temptation, to be treated as Jimmies in the land of their birth. Today they may, as indeed many of them have already done, abandon their hearths and home in sorrow but in panic. Tomorrow they strive for their rightful place in the economy of life. Who knows what is in the womb of the future? When I am convinced that my continuance in office in the Pakistan Central Government is not of any help to Hindus I should not with a clear conscience, create the false impression in the minds of the Hindus of Pakistan and peoples abroad that Hindus can live there with honour and with a sense of security in respect of their life, property and religion. This is about Hindus.


NO CIVIL LIBERTY EVEN FOR MUSLIMS

( 35 ) And what about the Muslims who are outside the charmed circle of the League rulers and their corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy? There is hardly anything called civil liberty in Pakistan. Witness for example, the fate of Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan then whom a more devout Muslim had not walked this earth for many years and of his gallant patriotic brother Dr. Khan Sahib. A large number of erstwhile League leaders of the Northwest and also of the Eastern belt of Pakistan are in detention without trial. Mr. Suhrawardy to whom is due in a large measure the League`s triumph in Bengal is for practical purposes a Pakistan prisoner who has to move under permit and can`t open his lips under orders. Mr. Fazzul Huq, that dearly loved grand old man of Bengal, who was the author of that now famous Lahore resolution, is ploughing his lonely furrow in the precincts of the Dacca High Court of Judicature, and the so called Islamic planning is as ruthless as it is complete. About the East Bengal Muslims generally, the less said the better. They were promised at Lahore of an independent State. They were promised of autonomous and sovereign units of the independent State. What have they got instead? East Bengal has been transformed into a colony of the western belt of Pakistan, although it contained a population, which is larger than that of all the units of Pakistan put together. It is a pale ineffective adjunct of Karachi doing the latte`s bidding and carrying out its orders. East Bengal Muslims in their enthusiasm wanted bread and they have by the mysterious working of the Islamic state and the Shariat got stone instead from the arid deserts of Sind and the Punjab.


MY OWN SAD AND BITTER EXPERIENCE

( 36 ) Leaving aside the overall picture of Pakistan and the callous and cruel injustice done to others, my own personal experience is no less sad, bitter and revealing. You used your position as the Prime Minister and leader of the Parliamentary Party to ask me to issue a statement, which I did on the 8th September last. You know that I was not willing to make a statement containing untruths and half-truths, which were worse those untruths. It was not possible for me to reject your request so long as I was there working as a Minister with you and under your leadership. But I can no longer afford to carry this load of false pretensions and untruth on my conscience and I have decided to offer my resignation as your Minister, which I am hereby placing in your hands and which, I hope, you will accept without delay. You are of course at liberty to dispense with that office or dispose of it in such a manner as may suit adequately and effectively the objectives of your Islamic State.

8th Oct. 1950

Yours Sincerely,




J. N. Mandal

from the bbc - it was there sometime back you can check it out....i did and found it there...



Hindus protest at `Muslim abduction`

Wednesday, July 02 2003

#75 by Saminasha on August 27, 2003 7:13am PT
Bharatvaasi,

I hope one day to learn about the stellar prof and personal reputations of all the interactors on this board. Care to share?

Or is that whole trick only applicable to non rightwingers?

Since this seems to be a board with lots of full articles - I am posting this. It makes interesting reading. Rather than talk of hindu stuff and indian stuff let us talk about pakistan.....anyway here is something I am into and have doen a little bit of work on. I wish there were many more around here.....

from Amnesty International

AI INDEX: ASA 33/018/1999 1 September 1999 Printer friendly
Printer friendly PDF

PAKISTAN
Honour killings of girls and women



Introduction

``The right to life of women in Pakistan is conditional on their obeying social norms and traditions.``
Hina Jilani, lawyer and human rights activist

Women in Pakistan live in fear. They face death by shooting, burning or killing with axes if they are deemed to have brought shame on the family. They are killed for supposed `illicit` relationships, for marrying men of their choice, for divorcing abusive husbands. They are even murdered by their kin if they are raped as they are thereby deemed to have brought shame on their family. The truth of the suspicion does not matter -- merely the allegation is enough to bring dishonour on the family and therefore justifies the slaying.

The lives of millions of women in Pakistan are circumscribed by traditions which enforce extreme seclusion and submission to men. Male relatives virtually own them and punish contraventions of their proprietary control with violence. For the most part, women bear traditional male control over every aspect of their bodies, speech and behaviour with stoicism, as part of their fate, but exposure to media, the work of women`s groups and a greater degree of mobility have seen the beginnings of women`s rights awareness seep into the secluded world of women. But if women begin to assert their rights, however tentatively, the response is harsh and immediate: the curve of honour killings has risen parallel to the rise in awareness of rights.

Every year hundreds of women are known to die as a result of honour killings. Many more cases go unreported and almost all go unpunished. The isolation and fear of women living under such threats are compounded by state indifference to and complicity in women`s oppression. Police almost invariably take the man`s side in honour killings or domestic murders, and rarely prosecute the killers. Even when the men are convicted, the judiciary ensures that they usually receive a light sentence, reinforcing the view that men can kill their female relatives with virtual impunity. Specific laws hamper redress as they discriminate against women.

The isolation of women is completed by the almost total absence of anywhere to hide. There are few women`s shelters, and any woman attempting to travel on her own is a target for abuse by police, strangers or male relatives hunting for her. For some women suicide appears the only means of escape.

Abuses by private actors such as honour killings are crimes under the country`s criminal laws. However, systematic failure by the state to prevent and to investigate them and to punish perpetrators leads to international responsibility of the state. The Government of Pakistan has taken no measures to end honour killings and to hold perpetrators to account. It has failed to train police and judges to be gender neutral and to amend discriminatory laws. It has ignored Article 5 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which it ratified in 1996, which obliges states to ``modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women`` to eliminate prejudice and discriminatory traditions.

Some apologists claim that traditional practices as genuine manifestations of a community`s culture may not be subjected to scrutiny from the perspective of rights contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Against this, the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action stated: ``All human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated`` and asserted the duty of states ``to promote all human rights and fundamental freedoms``. The United Nations General Assembly in 1993 adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women which urges states not to ``invoke custom, tradition or religious consideration to avoid their obligation`` to eliminate discriminatory treatment of women.

While recognizing the importance of cultural diversity, Amnesty International stands resolutely in defence of the universality of human rights, particularly the most fundamental rights to life and freedom from torture and ill-treatment. The role of the state is to ensure the full protection of these rights, where necessary mediating `tradition` through education and the law.

This report is the fourth in a series issued by Amnesty International on the rights of women in Pakistan; it is the first to look at abuses of women`s rights by private actors.

Killings in the name of honour

Ghazala was set on fire by her brother in Joharabad, Punjab province, on 6 January 1999. According to reports, she was murdered because her family suspected she was having an `illicit` relationship with a neighbour. Her burned and naked body reportedly lay unattended on the street for two hours as nobody wanted to have anything to do with it.

Ghazala was burned to death in the name of honour. Hundreds of other women and girls suffer a similar fate every year amid general public support and little or no action by the authorities. In fact, there is every sign that the number of honour killings is on the rise as the perception of what constitutes honour -- and what damages it -- widens, and as more murders take on the guise of honour killings on the correct assumption that they are rarely punished.

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 3

Often, honour killings are carried out on the flimsiest of grounds, such as by a man who said he had dreamt that his wife had betrayed him. State institutions -- the law enforcement apparatus and the judiciary -- deal with these crimes against women with extraordinary leniency and the law provides many loopholes for murderers in the name of honour to kill without punishment. As a result, the tradition remains unbroken.

The methods of honour killings vary. In Sindh, a kari (literally a `black woman`) and a karo (`a black man`) are hacked to pieces by axe and hatchets, often with the complicity of the community. In Punjab, the killings, usually by shooting, are more often based on individual decisions and carried out in private. In most cases, husbands, fathers or brothers of the woman concerned commit the killings. In some cases, jirgas (tribal councils) decide that the woman should be killed and send men to carry out the deed.

The victims range from pre-pubescent girls to grandmothers. They are usually killed on the mere allegation of having entered `illicit` sexual relationships. They are never given an opportunity to give their version of the allegation as there is no point in doing so -- the allegation alone is enough to defile a man`s honour and therefore enough to justify the killing of the woman.

According to the non-governmental Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), 286 women were reported to have been killed for reasons of honour in 1998 in the Punjab alone. The Special Task Force for Sindh of the HRCP received reports of 196 cases of karo-kari killings in Sindh in 1998, involving 255 deaths. The real number of such killings is vastly greater than those reported.

Pakistani women abroad do not escape the threat of honour killings. The Nottingham crown court in the United Kingdom in May 1999 sentenced a Pakistani woman and her grown-up son to life imprisonment for murdering the woman`s daughter, Rukhsana Naz, a pregnant mother of two children. Rukhsana was perceived to have brought shame on the family by having a sexual relationship outside marriage. Her brother reportedly strangled Rukhsana, while her mother held her down.

Two main factors contribute to violence against women: women`s commodification and conceptions of honour. The concept of women as a commodity, not human beings endowed with dignity and rights equal to those of men, is deeply rooted in tribal culture. Dr Tahira Shahid Khan of Shirkatgah, a woman`s resource centre worker, explains: ``Women are considered the property of the males in their family irrespective of their class, ethnic or religious group. The owner of the property has the right to decide its fate. The concept of ownership has turned women into a commodity which can be exchanged, bought and sold...`` [1].

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards each other in a spirit of brotherhood.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1

Ownership rights are at stake when women are to be married, almost always in Pakistan by their parents. A major consideration is the property or assets that the young woman has a right to inherit one day. A woman is handed over to her spouse against payment of a bride price to her father; sometimes that bride price includes another woman given to the father as a new wife. Some men accept a low bride price on condition that the as yet unborn daughter of the couple will be returned to them to be married off for another bride price. The commodification of women is also the basis of the tradition of khoon baha (blood money) when a woman is handed over to an adversary to settle a conflict.

Women are seen to embody the honour of the men to whom they `belong`, as such they must guard their virginity and chastity. By being perceived to enter an `illicit` sexual relationship, a woman defiles the honour of her guardian and his family. She becomes kari and forfeits the right to life.

In most communities there is no other punishment for a kari but death. A man`s ability to protect his honour is judged by his family and neighbours. He must publicly demonstrate his power to safeguard his honour by killing those who damaged it and thereby restore it. Honour killings consequently are often performed openly.

The perception of what defiles honour has become very loose. Male control extends not just to a woman`s body and her sexual behaviour, but to all of her behaviour, including her movements and language. In any of these areas, defiance by women translates into undermining male honour. Severe punishments are reported for bringing food late, for answering back, for undertaking forbidden family visits. Standards of honour and chastity are not applied equally to men and women, even though they are supposed to. Surveys conducted in the North West Frontier Province and in Balochistan found that men often go unpunished for `illicit` relationships whereas women are killed on the merest rumour of `impropriety`.

A man`s honour, defiled by a woman`s alleged or real sexual misdemeanour or other defiance, is only partly restored by killing her. He also has to kill the man allegedly involved. Since a kari is murdered first, the karo often hears about it and flees.

To settle the issue, a faislo (agreement, meeting) or jirga is set up if both sides - the man whose honour is defiled and the escaped karo - agree; it is attended by representatives of both sides and headed by the local tribal chief (sardar), his subordinate or a local landlord. The tribal justice dispensed by the jirga or faislo is not intended to elicit truth and punish the culprit. Justice means restoring the balance by compensation for damage. The karo who gets away has to pay compensation in order for his life to be spared. Compensation can be in the form of money or the transfer of a woman or both.

Official claims that women`s rights are not understood in backward rural areas ignore the fact that there are many urban honour killings and considerable support for them among the educated. For example, Samia Sarwar`s mother, a doctor, facilitated the honour killing of her daughter in Lahore in April 1999 when Samia sought divorce from an abusive husband (see below). Shahtaj Qisalbash, a witness during the killing, reported that Samia`s mother was ``cool and collected during the getaway, walking away from the murder of her daughter as though the woman slumped in her own blood was a stranger.``

The frequency of karo-kari killings and the unexpectedness with which women are targeted contributes to an atmosphere of fear among young women. The poet Attiya Dawood quoted a pubescent girl in a small Sindhi village: ``My brother`s eyes forever follow me. My father`s gaze guards me all the time, stern, angry... We stand accused and condemned to be declared kari and murdered.`` [2].

International support for women fleeing abroad when they fear for their lives from their families` death threats has been hesitant. The threat to the lives of women who refuse to accept their fathers` decision relating to their marriages has only recently been recognized as grounds for granting asylum to such women [3].

Honour killings for choosing a marriage partner

Expressing a desire to choose a spouse and marrying a partner of one`s choice are seen as major acts of defiance in a society where most marriages are arranged by fathers. They are seen to damage the honour of the man who negotiates the marriage and who can expect a bride price in return for handing her over to a spouse.

Frequently fathers bring charges of zina (unlawful sexual relations) against daughters who have married men of their choice, alleging that they are not validly married. But even when such complaints are before the courts, some men resort to private justice. According to local press reports, Sher Bano, for example, was murdered outside a court in Peshawar. She had earlier eloped with a man she wanted to marry but was arrested on charges of zina. On 6 August 1997, when she emerged under police guard from the court room after submitting her bail application, her brother shot her dead.

Women who are disowned by a family over a marriage are cut loose from their social moorings and become vulnerable to exploitation. R. [name withheld] told Amnesty International that at the age of 15 or 16 she married a man from another tribe against her family`s wishes. Three years later her husband verbally divorced her. Her family had threatened to kill her for marrying a man of her choice, so she had nowhere to go. She took up begging. Eight years later she married another man but one day was recognized by her first husband who wanted her to work for him as a beggar. He threatened to bring charges of zina against her for living with another man as he denied having divorced her. She was arrested by police. The local wadera (landlord) intervened and had her brought before a magistrate who sent her to the Hyderabad Darul Aman, a government-run women`s shelter. She does not know what will happen to her next.

(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 16

Satta-watta marriages, which involve exchange of siblings, put an additional burden on women to abide by their father`s marriage arrangements. Shaheen was allegedly set on fire by her husband Anwar in Gujjarpura in December 1998 in a satta- watta context. Their marriage had run into trouble. Anwar wanted to send Shaheen back to her parents, Shaheen`s brother, married to Anwar`s sister, refused to send his wife home as well. Anwar found no other way to remove his shame than to kill his wife [4].

Often women choosing a spouse are abducted and not heard of again. At the time of writing this report, the whereabouts of Uzma Talpur who had married Nasir Rajput against her father`s wishes in November 1998 were unknown. Police arrested the couple in November on the charge of Nasir Rajput`s abduction of Uzma and charges of zina [fornication] against both partners despite their being validly married. In December, police handed the young woman over to her family but when her husband filed a constitutional petition in the Sindh High Court for the release of his wife from parental custody, they claimed that she had been abducted by unknown men from the court premises. In June 1999, police stated before the High Court that such an abduction had not taken place. The High Court ordered a general search for her.

Honour killings of women seeking divorce

Women who have sought divorce through the courts have been attacked, injured or killed. Seeking divorce is seen as an act of public defiance that calls for punitive action to restore male honour within the traditional setting.

On 6 April 1999, 29-year-old Samia Sarwar, a mother of two young sons, was shot dead in her lawyer`s office in Lahore. She was murdered apparently because her mother and her husband`s mother are sisters and Samia`s attempt to divorce a husband she described to her lawyer as severely abusive, was seen to shame the family. In the 10 years of her marriage, Samia had suffered high levels of domestic violence. In 1995 she returned to her family home after her husband had thrown her down some stairs when she was pregnant.

Samia fled to Lahore on 26 March 1999, seeking help in the law firm AGHS and taking refuge in the women`s shelter Dastak run by AGHS lawyers. The lawyers included Hina Jilani and Asma Jahangir, who is currently UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, arbitrary and summary executions and then chairperson of the HRCP. On 6 April, when Samia Sarwar was at her lawyer`s office, Samia`s mother arrived accompanied by Samia`s uncle and a driver. The driver shot Samia in the head, killing her instantly.

The fact that the killing was carried out in the presence of well-known lawyers indicates that the perpetrators were convinced they were doing the right thing, were not afraid of publicity and felt no need to hide their identity as they felt sure that the state would not hold them to account. They were right. Despite a First Information Report (FIR, the report filed by the complainants with police which initiates a police investigation) filed the same day, nominating Samia`s father, mother and uncle for murder, no one has yet been arrested.

Newspapers in the North West Frontier Province reported that the public overwhelmingly supported the killing, with many arguing that since it was in accordance with tradition it could not be a crime.

The Chamber of Commerce in Peshawar, of which Samia`s father is President, and several religious organizations demanded that Hina Jilani and Asma Jahangir be dealt with in accordance with ``tribal and Islamic law`` and be arrested for ``misleading women in Pakistan and contributing to the country`s bad image abroad``. Fatwas [religious rulings] were issued against both women and head money was promised to anyone who killed them. In April 1999 Asma Jahangir lodged a FIR with police against those who had threatened her and her sister with death. Simultaneously, she called on the government to set up a judicial inquiry headed by a Supreme Court judge to investigate almost 300 cases of honour killings reported in 1998 in Pakistan. No action is known to have been taken on either issue.

On 11 May, Samia`s father lodged a complaint with Peshawar police accusing the two women lawyers with the abduction and murder of Samia. They obtained bail before arrest. A month later, the Peshawar High Court admitted their petition to quash the case and ordered police not to take any adverse action against the lawyers on the basis on this complaint.

Honour killings for rape

For a woman to be targeted for killing in the name of honour, her consent -- or the lack of consent -- in an action considered shameful is irrelevant to the guardians of honour. Consequently, a woman brings shame on her family if she is raped.

In March 1999 a 16-year-old mentally retarded girl, Lal Jamilla Mandokhel, was reportedly raped several times by a junior clerk of the local government department of agriculture in a hotel in Parachinar, North West Frontier Province. The girl`s uncle filed a complaint about the incident with police who took the accused into protective custody but handed over the girl to her tribe, the Mazuzai in the Kurram Agency. A jirga of Pathan tribesmen decided that she had brought shame to her tribe and that the honour could only be restored by her death. She was shot dead in front of a tribal gathering.

Nafisa Shah reports that women who expose rape and thereby dishonour their men are particularly vulnerable. Arbab Khatoon, raped by three men in a village in Jacobabad district, reportedly lodged a complaint with police. She was murdered seven hours later. According to local residents, she was killed by her relatives for bringing dishonour to the family by going to the police [5].

Fake honour killings

In honour killings, if only the kari is killed and the karo escapes, as is often the case, the karo has to compensate the affected man -- for the damage to honour he inflicted, for the woman`s worth who was killed and to have his own life spared.

This scheme provides many opportunities to make money, obtain a women in compensation or to conceal other crimes, in the near certainty that honour killings if they come to court will be dealt with leniently. Nafisa Shah speaks of an ``honour killing industry`` involving tribes people, police and tribal mediators.

In November 1997 Mussarrat Bibi, a mother of three children, pregnant and married for 11 years, was beaten to death by frenzied villagers in Chehel Khurd near Qilla Deedar Singh in Sheikupura district after rumours of her immoral behaviour spread. Inquiries revealed that the real reason for her death was that she had refused to work for the local landlords without payment. Two people were reported to have been detained briefly.

Reports abound about men who have killed other men in murders not connected with honour issues who then kill a woman of their own family as alleged kari to camouflage the initial murder as an honour killing.

The lure of compensation has in some cases led to publicly known distortions of truth. In Ghotki, a man reportedly vouched for his wife`s innocence after she had been attacked by his brother who alleged that she was guilty of an `illicit` relationship. The husband took her to Karachi for treatment but when told that she would be permanently paralysed from the waist down, he reneged, declared her a kari and took a woman in compensation from the supposed karo`s family.

The fact that women are often given in compensation when illicit relations are alleged has led to further perversions of the honour system. If a woman refuses to marry a man, he may declare a man of her family a karo and demand her in compensation for not killing him. In some cases, he may even kill a woman of his own family to lend weight to the allegation. Attiya Dawood cited an incident in Moorath village, related to her by the sister of the alleged karo. Her brother Amanullah had married a woman who had earlier been fond of her cousin Nazir, a married man with eight children. Unable to obtain her family`s consent to marry her, Nazir murdered Amanullah, then killed his own innocent sister and declared both karo and kari. After a brief prison term, he was given Amanullah`s wife, now a widow, in compensation for the supposed infringement of his honour.

Punitive domestic violence against women

Honour killings are but an extreme form of violence against women. Domestic violence is also frequently intended to punish a woman for any perceived insubordination supposedly impacting on male honour. Sabira Khan, for example, who was married at 16 to a man more than twice her age, was shortly after her wedding in 1991 told by her husband that she must never see her family again. When in December 1993 she tried to break this rule, she said that he and his mother poured kerosene over her and set her on fire. She was three months pregnant. Despite 60 per cent burns she survived, badly scarred. She has fought since then to bring charges against the perpetrators -- so far in vain. The magistrate in Jhelum upheld her husband`s argument that Sabira was insane and had set herself on fire. An appeal is pending in the Rawalpindi High Court bench.

Shahnaz Bokhari of the Progressive Women`s Association in Islamabad says that since March 1994, when the organization was set up, it has monitored 1,600 cases of women burned in their homes in Rawalpindi and Islamabad alone. These are only the reported cases.

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 5

HRCP`s 1998 annual report states bluntly: ``Woman`s subordination remained so routine by custom and traditions, and even putatively by religion, that much of the endemic domestic violence against her was considered normal behaviour... A sample survey showed 82 per cent of women in rural Punjab feared violence resulting from husbands` displeasure over minor matters; in the most developed urban areas 52 per cent admitted being beaten by husbands.``[6].

Few places to hide

Girls and women who fear punishment for alleged breaches of traditional norms of honour have few places to hide. They rarely know their way about in the world outside the home, they are unused to public transport, usually have no money and are vulnerable to further abuse if moving around alone. The high proportion of karis killed in relation to karos also reflects this sheer inability of women to move in the outside world. Many of the women who run are caught and killed.

All are equal before the law and entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of law.
All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 7

One of the few places where a kari is safe is in the home of a tribal sardar, a pir (holy man) or in a religious shrine. Here women can obtain protection against murder. However, they are still expected to abide by strict social roles. In many cases, women remain for years as unpaid servants in the house of the sardars and are sometimes abused.

A few women reach state-run or private shelters of which there are simply too few. These women often seek to pursue their rights through legal channels -- but may not be aware that by approaching the state system they block their return to their communities. Such shelters have recently become targets of attacks.

Unable to escape violence or forced marriage, some women resort to suicide. Police have not paid attention to family members or the community abetting such suicides. No official figures of women`s suicides exist and many women are quietly buried to cover up the possible damage to the family`s honour. Occasionally, however, such cases come to light. On 29 March 1999 an 18-year- old college girl, Qaisrana Bibi, committed suicide in Khanpur when her parents put pressure on her to marry a man she did not want. She lay across a rail track and was crushed by a train.

Honour killings and the state

The international understanding of state responsibility for human rights violations has significantly widened in recent years to include not only violations of human rights by state agents but also abuses by private actors which the state ignores. If the state fails to act with due diligence to prevent, investigate and punish abuses, including violence against women in the name of honour, it is responsible under international human rights law. This view of state responsibility is established in all the core human rights treaties. The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1993 affirmed that states must ``exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and, in accordance with national legislation, punish acts of violence against women, whether those acts are perpetrated by the State or by private persons``.

The Government of Pakistan has failed to take measures to prevent and end honour killings. It has not sought to eradicate traditions which prescribe honour killings nor ended the virtual impunity of perpetrators of such killings. Discriminatory laws making full redress difficult persist. Police and the judiciary have applied the law in a biased manner as a result of which perpetrators have not been held to account for honour killings and the practice has been perpetuated.

Government indifference to honour killings

The Government of Pakistan has not shown any determination to bring violence against women on grounds of honour to a halt, thus virtually signalling official indifference if not approval of the system.

Government inaction received more public exposure after the honour killing of Samia Sarwar in Hina Jilani`s office in April 1999. A representative of the government condemned the killing before the UN Human Right Commission in Geneva. But in Pakistan, where attitudes need to be changed, the government three weeks after the killing declared it a `dishonourable` act without ensuring that adequate action would be taken. The accused have not been arrested and no action has been taken against those who issued death threats against Asma Jahangir and Hina Jilani for protecting women`s rights.

The government`s disregard for its obligations to take measures to alter public perceptions involving gender bias, to which it committed itself when ratifying the UN Convention on the Elimination on All Forms of Discrimination against Women, is partly responsible for the persistence and indeed increase of honour killings. When the 1998 annual report of the HRCP was released in March 1999, Information Minister Mushahid Hussain reportedly said about allegations of violence against women and of child labour: ``These are a feature of Pakistan feudal society, they are not part of any government policy or a consequence of any law...`` [7].

State Parties shall take all appropriate measures: (a) To modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women.
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Article 5

The present government has taken no effective steps to change gender bias in Pakistan with a view to ensuring equality to all citizens. The comprehensive recommendations made by the Commission of Inquiry for Women set up on the direction of the Senate of Pakistan have not been implemented. As long as such inaction goes on, honour killings and other violent abuse of women will continue.

Gender bias in law

The status of women in Pakistan has been described as defined by the ``interplay of tribal codes, Islamic law, Indo-British judicial traditions and customary traditions ... [which have] created an atmosphere of oppression around women, where any advantage or opportunity offered to women by one law is cancelled out by one or more of the others`` [8]. Traditional norms, Islamic provisions (as interpreted in Pakistan) and statutory law diverge in many areas relevant to women`s lives, including control of assets, inheritance, marriage, divorce, sexual relations, rape and custody. The Government of Pakistan has failed to ensure that women are aware of their legal and constitutional rights and to ensure that these rights and freedoms take precedence over norms which deny women equality. The lives of women who are by and large confined to the private sphere do not benefit from constitutionally secured fundamental rights.

Among statutory laws, it is particularly two laws which disadvantage women in Pakistan, both introduced in the name of the Islamisation of law. The 1990 law of Qisas and Diyat covers offences relating to physical injury, manslaughter and murder. The law reconceptualized the offences in such a way that they are not directed against the legal order of the state but against the victim. A judge in the Supreme Court explained: ``In Islam, the individual victim or his heirs retain from the beginning to the end entire control over the matter including the crime and the criminal. They may not report it, they may not prosecute the offender. They may abandon prosecution of their free will. They may pardon the criminal at any stage before the execution of the sentence. They may accept monetary or other compensation to purge the crime and the criminal. They may compromise. They may accept qisas [punishment equal to the offence] from the criminal. The state cannot impede but must do its best to assist them in achieving their object and in appropriately exercising their rights.`` [9].

This reconceptualization of offences has sent the signal that murders of family members are a family affair and that prosecution and judicial redress are not inevitable but may be negotiated.

The law of Qisas and Diyat prescribes that the death penalty may not be imposed for murder as either qisas [punishment equal to the offence committed] or tazir [discretionary punishment, when the evidence is insufficient to impose qisas] when the wali [heir] of the victim is a direct descendant of the offender. In such cases the court may only impose a maximum of 14 years` imprisonment. Thus, if a man murders his wife with whom he has a child, who then is the victim`s heir and the descendent of the offender, he can at most be sentenced to 14 years` imprisonment.

Men who have killed their wives or daughters for bringing shame on them could also in the past find relief under the provision of ``grave and sudden provocation``. Section 300(1) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) read: ``Culpable homicide is not murder if the offender, whilst deprived of the power of self-control by grave and sudden provocation, causes the death of the person who gave the provocation...`` The punishment for manslaughter is imprisonment, for murder it is death.

In its interpretation by the courts, the law provided men who have killed their wives or daughters for allegedly bringing shame on them with mitigating circumstances not available to women. Courts opined that if the provocation - to a man`s honour - is grave and sudden as when someone tells him that his wife has an `illicit` relationship, he loses all power of self-control and is not fully responsible for his actions.

This provision was omitted when the Qisas and Diyat law was introduced in 1990 but judicial practice still allows such mitigating circumstances (see below).

(1) State Parties shall accord to women equality with men before the law.
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Article 15

The 1979 Zina law has also contributed to restricting women`s rights [10]. The gender discrimination inherent in it sent an affirmative signal to those intent on treating women as second class human beings with fewer rights than men. It has also provided a handy tool with which to detain women who take any initiative with respect to their choice of a spouse, as fathers often bring zina charges against such women.
Gender bias of the police force

Often police act or allow themselves to be used as guardians of tradition and morality rather than impartial enforcers of the law. Frequently, fathers use police to recover or unlawfully arrest and detain their adult daughters who have married men of their choice. Despite numerous judgments asserting that adult women have the right to marry without their male guardians` consent, police continue to register complaints of abduction and zina against women making use of this right, even though police could easily ascertain if couples were married and thus not guilty of either abduction or zina.

When women are seriously injured by their husbands or families, police still discourage them from registering complaints and advise them to seek reconciliation with their husbands or families.

In karo-kari cases, when husbands appear in police stations declaring that they have killed a girl or woman of their family, police often fail to take action, reflecting their unwillingness to enforce the law over custom.

Financial corruption also seems to contribute to police inaction before such crimes. Nafisa Shah quotes villagers in Kashmore as saying around 1993: ``The police in Kashmore charge 7,000 Rupees to keep silent about karo-kari murders... They never record cases and so we have a zero per cent crime rate``. She reports that ``police stations in Jacobabad district are considered goldmines in police circles because of the high incidence of karo-kari murders there. A conservative estimate puts the number of karo-kari murders in Jacobabad at between 55 and 60 a month.`` Given the lucrative aspect of honour killings, police are not interested in ending the practice.

Police also appear to cover up fake honour killings. A housewife, Khadeja, and a bank officer were shot dead on 19 January 1999 in Jampur city, Rajanpur district in southern Punjab by Khadeja`s husband, Ameer Bukhsh. He then turned himself in, acknowledging the killings and alleging the victims` illicit relationship. Khadeja`s brother, Abdul Qadir, registered a complaint of murder against Ameer Bukhsh. Six days later, Abdul Qadir received a copy of the FIR which he said had distorted his complaint. He reported that police threatened to involve him in a murder case if he did not sign a false statement. Abdul Qadir alleged that Ameer Bukhsh had killed the bank officer for some other reason before killing his wife as a cover up and that he had bribed police to distort the complaint.

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunal for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 8

Similarly, burn cases are rarely investigated by police. Of the 183 women reported to have died of burn injuries allegedly caused in cooking accidents in Lahore in 1998, only 21 complaints were registered with police and only three people finally arrested, despite a High Court ruling three years earlier that all burn cases be investigated fully by police. The HRCP report added that at least 70 of the victims were not even cooking when the supposed accident took place.

Gender bias of judges

Pakistan`s judges, particularly at the lower level of the judiciary, tend to reinforce discriminatory customary norms rather than securing constitutionally secured gender equality. For example, women recovered after alleged abductions and women whose marriage to men of their choice was challenged by their fathers are usually placed in the custody of state-run institutions until the courts have decided the issue -- and are treated by the court as ``crime property``. ``Courts have been known to refuse issuance of the writ of habeas corpus seeking the liberty of a woman on the grounds that her right to liberty is subject to conformity to social norms, and any suspicion that she may not abide by the standards of morality can disentitle her from receiving relief in equity.`` [11].

Parts of the judiciary appear convinced that any interference in the patriarchal structure of society will disrupt society and that it is its duty to guard against such upheaval. However, this attitude ignores that the existing structure of society perpetuates a discrimination on gender grounds which deprives one half of the population of basic rights.

In dealing with honour killings, the courts have usually accepted the mitigation contained in section 300(1) of the Pakistan Penal Code (before its removal in 1990), despite the fact that such killings are usually premeditated, not committed under sudden and severe provocation. Moreover, they continue to place a low threshold on what constitutes provocation.

In some cases, courts have found extenuating circumstances even when the murderer did not claim to have been suddenly and severely provoked. Muhammad Younis killed his wife, alleging that he had caught her committing adultery. Although all the circumstances, including medical evidence, spoke against this assertion, the court accepted mitigating circumstances: ``The appellant had two children from his deceased wife and when he took the extreme step of taking her life giving her repeated knife blows on different parts of her body, she must have done something unusual to enrage him to that extent.`` [12].

After 1990, which saw the formal removal of the right to plead mitigating circumstances, the courts have gradually reintroduced this provision in their interpretation of the law and sentenced men charged with crimes of honour to lighter sentences than for similar acts of violence not involving honour.

The Lahore High Court in 1994, while hearing the bail application of Liaqat Ali who had gravely injured his sister and stabbed to death a man he allegedly found with her, was told by the petitioner`s counsel that in an Islamic society a person found to indulge in zina in public deserved to be ``finished`` there and then. Indeed, such murder was more of a religious duty than an offence. The judge is reported to have said: ``Prima facie, I am inclined to agree with the counsel.``

Marriages contracted by women against the wishes of their fathers are perceived by many courts to impact on the father`s honour and to justify a man losing control and killing the offender. Mohammad Riaz and Mohammad Feroze were sentenced to life imprisonment for killing their sister who had married a man of her choice. The Lahore High Court reduced the sentence to the imprisonment already undergone -- 18 months -- saying that ``in our society nobody forgives a person who marries his sister or daughter without the consent of parents or near relatives.`` [13].

State Parties shall....undertake: ....
(c) to establish legal protection of the rights women on an equal basis with men to ensure through competent national tribunal and other public institutions the effective protection of women against any sort of discrimination; ......
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Article 2

Amnesty International believes that penal sanctions commensurate with the gravity of the offence should apply to honour crimes. However, it opposes unconditionally the imposition of the death penalty, which it regards as a violation of the right to life and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. Accordingly, Amnesty International does not think that men murdering female relatives should be sentenced to death but welcomes all commutations of death sentences. At the same time, it is concerned at the message the judiciary sends when it treats such murders as less serious than other murders. The acceptance of family honour as a mitigating circumstance by judges in Pakistan leading to reduced sentencing of perpetrator of honour killings is by many observers in Pakistan seen to contribute to an increase of such crimes.

Amnesty International`s recommendations to the Government of Pakistan

Amnesty International calls on the Government of Pakistan to take urgent measures in the following three areas in fulfilment of its obligation to provide effective protection to women against violence perpetrated in the name of honour and to end the impunity currently enjoyed by its perpetrators.

1. Legal measures

Undertake a review of criminal laws to ensure equal protection of law to women.
Adopt legislation which makes domestic violence in all its manifestations a criminal offence. The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women developed a framework for model legislation on domestic violence [14] which Amnesty International recommends be used when drafting legislation against such crimes.
Make the sale of women and girls, the giving of women in marriage against financial consideration and as a form of compensation in lieu of a fine or imprisonment a criminal offence.
Provide women victims of violence with access to the mechanisms of justice and to just and effective remedies for the harm they have suffered.
Ensure that the provincial home departments, commissioners, deputy commissioners and senior police staff take notice of all reports of honour killings and ensure that every single case is investigated and brought to prosecution.
Abolish the death penalty and commute all death sentences.

2. Preventive measures

Undertake wide-ranging public awareness programs through the media, the education system and public announcements to inform both men and women of women`s equal rights.
In particular, provide gender-sensitization training to law enforcement and judicial personnel to enable them to impartially address complaints of violence in the name of honour.
Ensure that data and statistics are collected in a manner that makes the problem visible.

3. Protective measures

Ensure that activists, lawyers and women`s groups can pursue their legitimate activities without harassment or fear for their safety by providing adequate police protection and pursue all such threats with a view to punishment.
Expand victim support services provided by the state or non-governmental organizations; they should be run as places of voluntary recourse for women and their purpose should be only protective; they should be available all over the country, adequately resourced, and linked to legal aid, vocational training and with adequate provisions for children.

****
(1) Tahira Shahid Khan: ``Chained to custom`` in: The Review, 4-10 March 1999, p.9.
(2) Attiya Dawood, ``Karo-kari: A question of honour, but whose honour?``, in: Feminista, 2 (3/4), April 1999.
(3) See a recent Canadian decision: CRDD M97- 06821et al., Michnick, Arvanitakis, July 14, 1998.
(4) Dawn, 16 December 1998.
(5) Nafisa Shah: A story in black: Karo-kari killings in upper Sindh, Reuter Foundation Paper 100, Oxford, 1998, p. 56.
(6) The State of Human Rights in 1998, 1999, p.216 and p.10.
(7) Reuter, 10 March 1999.
(8) Simi Kamal, Asma Khan: A study of the interplay of formal and customary laws on women, vol.I, 1997, p.ii.
(9) Federation of Pakistan through Secr. Min. of Law vs. S. Gul Hassan Khan, PLD 1989 SC 633
(10) For a detailed discussion see: Women in Pakistan: Disadvantaged and denied their rights, AI Index: ASA 33/23/95.
(11) Hina Jilani, Human rights and democratic development in Pakistan, Lahore, 1998, p.143-144.
(12) Muhammad Younis vs. the State, 1989 Pcr LJ 1747.
(13) Mohammad Riaz and Mohammad Feroze vs. the State, Lahore High Court, 1998.
(14) E/CN.4/1996/53/Add.2
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AI INDEX: ASA 33/018/1999 1 September 1999 Printer friendly
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(ASA 33/031/2002) Pakistan: Targeted killing of health professionals: Medical Action.
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Bharatvaasi,

I hope one day to learn about the stellar prof and personal reputations of all the interactors on this board. Care to share?

Or is that whole trick only applicable to non rightwingers?

Saminashah: ``Amitabh Pal is Managing Editor of The Progressive`` Before I go on - have you followed Pal`s career and his articles/writings.

But on the (w)hole another interesting joke after that ``sacred literature (e.g. the Kama Sutra). ``

I miss 12 heads. He must have given us a true and accurate picture with his balanced and unbiased approach.

Ah...I see...chapter and text responses from the most deceptive media machine of the Bush Administration.

I`ve been looking at Amrita Basu`s essay `Hindu Women`s Activism in India and the Questions It Raises`. Dr. Basu is a prof. of poli sci and women`s and gender studies at Amherst College. She is the editor of `The Challenge of Local Feminisms: Women`s Movements on Global Perspectives.` And reading her essay is so funny..because, like, its like she had ANTICIPATED every patriarchical response that showed up after I posted Nussbaum`s text and those articles. Which leads me to the conclusion that there are interactors on this board who apparently have not done any research on this issue or read any pieces contrary to their own positions, and yet here they are DENYING the validity of what stares them in the face.

Boys, your agendas arent the be all end all. Either be willing to do the work or step off.

``...you can say that again...they are more willing to listen to criticism from people like mj akbar than pscyhos like roy and vijay prasad.... ``

EXACTLY. Criticism from a well meaning Muslim is much more acceptable to Middle class India compared to atheist leftists with a twisted agenda.

``...you can say that again...they are more willing to listen to criticism from people like mj akbar than pscyhos like roy and vijay prasad.... ``

EXACTLY. Criticism from a well meaning Muslim is much more acceptable to Middle class India compared to atheist leftists with a twisted agenda.

FerozeK:

``Whether the author is Bengali or not, whether the author is a communist or not makes no difference. ``

Her being Bengali is irrelevant. Hher being a Leftist very much is. The leftist paradigm approaches India from a viewpoint that is existentially hostile to the nation-state.

``The point of disagreement is not the ethnic or political background background of the author, but the message of the article. ``

Yes. And it is the message itself that is biased. She criticizes Modi...well and good..but then ties it together to empowerment of Adivasis and calls their material development ``cultural genocide``. This article is not anti Iindia. It is specifically anti Hindu.

What is unfortunate is that an article like this brings forth comments like .....(maybe she is married to a christian or a muslim)..which is plain ridiculous. This author, and her ilk, are not religious fundamentalists who are targetting fundamentalists of a different creed. They are Marxist Leninists who want to change the very face of India.

Regardless of Indo-Soviet alliance during the cold war, communist ideology per se has been inmical to the conception of India. In fact, after the Chinese-Soviet split, Indian Marxist-Leninists became Maoist sympathisers. The Leftists look at Indian nationalism as an enemy to their ideology. With the Sangh Parivar, they find a convenient and acceptable target, but then tie it to their own agenda of anti-westernism, anti-militarism, anti-consumerism, anti-globalization and the like.

If the author had restricted herself to criticizing Gujarat, or had demanded enforcement of the law in communal situations, how many Indians would have reacted with hositiliy? Barring a few, none. But that would not have served the author`s agenda. Thier criticism of Modi is valid.

It is as valid as Stalin criticizing Hitler about Human Rights.

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#56 - Nussbaum is also a colleague of wendy donniger or somebody who has been discredited and indeed if you follow any of the goings on in the indology maillists you will find this to be true. It is also true that most of these indologists have a large following in India amongst the marxists rabble found in secure sinecures of JNU and it is always these marxist ideologues (who for their own perverse reasons run down India and things indian) who are considered by them as serious people.


In any event the moment some one says ``other sacred literature (e.g. the Kama Sutra).`` you can question not only their scholarship but their sanity as well. Kama Sutra is not scared literature. It is scared only in the minds of the western indologists. I have never come across this particular phrase before.

Manto # 53

As I understand your point of view is that ``As historians like Aysha Jalal have put it, Muslims and Hindus of South Asia could not live togather in peace. Therefore, Jinnah and Muslim Leauge had not choice but to ask for a separate homeland for Muslims. But now that Pakistan has come into being, it should be secular and democratic``

I totally agree with you to the extent that now that Pakistan has come into being, it should be secular and democratic.

My disagreement with you is at an academic level. I feel that creating nationhoods on the basis of religion, race or ethnicity are fraught with instability. It was a political failure of the politicians of the time to break India into two. Religion was used by Muslim leauge to popularize itself. Muslims and Hindus have co-existed togather for centuries in India.

It is not only my viewpoint. Prominent political personalities of time like Azad, Ghaffar Khan, Uninionist party, even the Islamic parties of the time felt the same way. Jinnah was human being and could falter. Muslim leauge was a political animal with all its faults. Since partition, Muslim leauge has continued to play a destructive role in Pakistan. It is the only party which joins every military ruler. Creation of Pakistan hasn`t helped the poor man. In fact now different sects are in conflict with each other. Sipah Sahaba calls Shias `Kafir`.

The way forward for Pakistan is to live in peace with itself and its neighbours. That can be done realistically if history is clearly seen and not adjusted to justify the ends.

I will read Aysha Jalal. May I suggest you read Will Durant`s `Lessons of History`.

So, for the present, let us agree to disagree on this issue. I respect your point of view.