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Re: Fwd: A Must Read: Brillinat article on the Indian situation by an Indian IAS OfficeR! by Trich Ganesh 25 March 2002 21:58 UTC |
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I have thought and felt the same too: the land called India is almost beyond all recognition. India is becoming the despair of its children. Part of the problem is the money for these operations, which I think are financed in no small part by non-resident Hindus who work and live abroad, and who regularly send money to fund the pogrom-ers. It is an everlasting shame, and it cuts me to the quick, and it makes be horribly ashamed of being born a Hindu. Issac Deutscher once wrote a book called "The Non-Jewish Jew", where he identifies Marx, Spinoza, Trotsky, among others, as non- Jewish Jews. Is it not time for all Hindus everywhere, who have the least amount of self-respect and who wish to be contradiction-free (as if that were possible!) to declare their allegiance against all these rotten-to-the core-Hindus, who are the most shameless, most atrocious, most hateful of all the nether-forces that stalk today a periphery subject to the unevenly exploitative domination of US capital? I thank you again for bringing this article to my attention. TKG. Date sent: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 13:15:00 +0500 (PKT) Subject: Fwd: A Must Read: Brillinat article on the Indian situation by an Indian IAS OfficeR! From: "Saima Alvi" <saimaa@lums.edu.pk> To: wsn@csf.colorado.edu Copies to: bsc2001@yahoogroups.com Send reply to: saimaa@lums.edu.pk > Posted from www.ncasindia.org > > (a website of National Centre for Advocacy Studies located at Serenity > Complex, Ramnagar Colony, Pashan, Pune 411 021, India. Tel.: 91+020- > 2952003/4) > > p.s. in case u dont want to read the entire article, then read from fifth > para onwards. > > > CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY > ======================== > Reflections on the Gujarat massacre > > By Harsh Mander > > (The writer, is a serving IAS Officer, who is working on deputation with a > development organisation) > > Numbed with disgust and horror, I return from Gujarat ten days after the > terror and massacre that convulsed the state. My heart is sickened, my > soul wearied, my shoulders aching with the burdens of guilt and shame. As > you walk through the camps of riot survivors in Ahmedabad, in which an > estimated 53,000 women, men, and children are huddled in 29 temporary > settlements, displays of overt grief are unusual. People clutch small > bundles of relief materials, all that they now own in the world, with dry > and glassy eyes. Some talk in low voices, others busy themselves with the > tasks of everyday living in these most basic of shelters, looking for > food and milk for children, tending the wounds of the injured. But once > you sit anywhere in these camps, people begin to speak and their words > are like masses of pus released by slitting large festering wounds. The > horrors that they speak of are so macabre, that my pen falters in the > writing. The pitiless brutality against women and small children by > organised bands of armed young men is more savage than anything witnessed > in the riots that have shamed this nation from time to time during the > past century. > > I force myself to write a small fraction of all that I heard and saw, > because it is important that we all know. Or maybe also because I need to > share my own burdens. > > What can you say about a woman eight months pregnant who begged to be > spared? Her assailants instead slit open her stomach, pulled out her > foetus and slaughtered it before her eyes. What can you say about a > family of nineteen being killed by flooding their house with water and > then electrocuting them with high-tension electricity? > > What can you say? A small boy of six in Juhapara camp described how his > mother and six brothers and sisters were battered to death before his > eyes. He survived only because he fell unconscious, and was taken for > dead. A family escaping from Naroda-Patiya, one of the worst-hit > settlements in Ahmedabad, spoke of losing a young woman and her three > month old son, because a police constable directed her to `safety' and > she found herself instead surrounded by a mob which doused her with > kerosene and set her and her baby on fire. I have never known a riot > which has used the sexual subjugation of women so widely as an instrument > of violence in the recent mass barbarity in Gujarat. There are reports > every where of gang-rape, of young girls and women, often in the presence > of members of their families, followed by their murder by burning alive, > or by bludgeoning with a hammer and in one case with a screw driver. > Women in the Aman Chowk shelter told appalling stories about how armed > men disrobed themselves in front of a group of terrified women to cower > them down further. > > In Ahmedabad, most people I met - social workers,journalists, survivors - > agree that what Gujarat witnessed was not a riot, but a terrorist attack > followed by a systematic, planned massacre, a pogrom. Everyone spoke of the > pillage and plunder, being organised like a military operation against an > external armed enemy. An initial truck would arrive broadcasting > inflammatory slogans, soon followed by more trucks which disgorged young > men, mostly in khaki shorts and saffron sashes. They were armed with > sophisticated explosive materials, country weapons, daggers and trishuls. > They also carried water bottles, to sustain them in their exertions. The > leaders were seen communicating on mobile telephones from the riot venues, > receiving instructions from and reporting back to a co-ordinating centre. > Some were seen with documents and computer sheets listing Muslim families > and their properties. They had detailed precise knowledge about buildings > and businesses held by members of the minority community, such as who were > partners say in a restaurant business, or which Muslim homes had Hindu > spouses who should be spared in the violence. > > This was not a spontaneous upsurge of mass anger. It was a carefully > planned pogrom. > > The trucks carried quantities of gas cylinders. Rich Muslim homes and > business establishments were first systematically looted, stripped down > of all their valuables, then cooking gas was released from cylinders into > the buildings for several minutes. A trained member of the group then lit > the flame which efficiently engulfed the building. In some cases, > acetylene gas which is used for welding steel, was employed to explode > large concrete buildings. Mosques and dargahs were razed, and were > replaced by statues of Hanuman and saffron flags. Some dargahs in > Ahmedabad city crossings have overnight been demolished and their sites > covered with road building material, and bulldozed so efficiently that > these spots are > indistinguishable from the rest of the road. Traffic now plies over these > former dargahs, as though they never existed. > > The unconscionable failures and active connivance of the state police and > administrative machinery is also now widely acknowledged. The police is > known to have misguided people straight into the hands of rioting mobs. > They provided protective shields to crowds bent on pillage, arson, rape > and murder, and were deaf to the pleas of the desperate Muslim victims, > many of them women and children. There have been many reports of police > firing directly mostly at the minority community, which was the target of > most of the mob violence. The large majority of arrests are also from the > same community which was the main victim of the pogrom. > > As one who has served in the Indian Administrative Service for over two > decades, I feel great shame at the abdication of duty of my peers in the > civil and police administration. The law did not require any of them to > await orders from their political supervisors before they organised the > decisive use of force to prevent the brutal escalation of violence, and > to protect vulnerable women and children from the organised, murderous > mobs. The law instead required them to act independently, fearlessly, > impartially, decisively, with courage and compassion. If even one > official had so acted in Ahmedabad, she or he could have deployed the > police forces and called in the army to halt the violence and protect the > people in a matter of hours. No riot can continue beyond a few hours > without the active connivance of the local police and magistracy. The > blood of hundreds of innocents is on the hands of the police and civil > authorities of Gujarat, and by sharing in a conspiracy of silence, on the > entire higher bureaucracy of the country. I have heard senior officials > blame also the communalism of the police constabulary for their > connivance in the violence. This too is a thin and disgraceful alibi. The > same forces have been known to act with impartiality and courage when led > by officers of professionalism and integrity. The failure is clearly of > the leadership of the police and civil services, not of the subordinate > men and women in khaki who are trained to obey their orders. > > Where also, amidst this savagery, injustice, and human suffering is the > `civil society', the Gandhians, the development workers, the NGOs, the > fabled spontaneous Gujarathi philanthropy which was so much in evidence > in the earthquake in Kutch and Ahmedabad? The newspapers reported that at > the peak of the pogrom, the gates of Sabarmati Asram were closed to > protect its properties, it should instead have been the city's major > sanctuary. Which Gandhian leaders, or NGO managers, staked their lives to > halt the death-dealing throngs? It is one more shame that we as citizens of > this country must carry on our already burdened backs, that the camps for > the Muslim riot victims in Ahmedabad are being run almost exclusively by > Muslim organisations. It is as though the monumental pain, loss, betrayal > and injustice suffered by the Muslim people is the concern only of other > Muslim people, and the rest of us have no share in the responsibility to > assuage, to heal and rebuild. The state, which bears the primary > responsibility to extend both protection and relief to its vulnerable > citizens, was nowhere in evidence in any of the camps, to manage, > organise the security, or even to provide the resources that are required > to feed the tens of thousands of defenceless women, men and children > huddled in these camps for safety. > > The only passing moments of pride and hope that I experienced in Gujarat, > were when I saw men like Mujid Ahmed and women like Roshan Bahen who > served in these camps with tireless, dogged humanism amidst the ruins > around them. In the Aman Chowk camp, women blessed the young band of > volunteers who worked from four in the morning until after midnight to > ensure that none of their children went without food or milk, or that > their wounds remained untended. Their leader Mujid Ahmed is a graduate, > his small chemical dyes factory has been burnt down, but he has had no > time to worry about his own loss. Each day he has to find 1600 kilograms > of foodgrain to feed some 5000 people who have taken shelter in the camp. > The challenge is even greater for Roshan Bahen, almost 60, who wipes her > eyes each time she hears the stories of horror by the residents in > Juapara camp. But she too has no time for the luxuries of grief or anger. > She barely sleeps, as her volunteers, mainly working class Muslim women > and men from the humble tenements around the camp, provide temporary > toilets, food and solace to the hundreds who have gathered in the grounds > of a primary school to escape the ferocity of merciless mobs. > > As I walked through the camps, I wondered what Gandhiji would have done > in these dark hours. I recall the story of the Calcutta riots, when > Gandhi was fasting for peace. A Hindu man came to him, to speak of his > young boy who had been killed by Muslim mobs, and of the depth of his > anger and longing for revenge. And Gandhi is said to have replied: If you > really wish to overcome your pain, find a young boy, just as young as > your son, a Muslim boy whose parents have been killed by Hindu mobs. > Bring up that boy like you would your own son, but bring him up with the > Muslim faith to which he was born. Only then will you find that you can > heal your pain, your anger, and your longing for retribution. > > There are no voices like Gandhi's that we hear today. Only discourses on > Newtonian physics, to justify vengeance on innocents. We need to find > these voices within our own hearts, we need to believe enough in justice, > love, tolerance. There is much that the murdering mobs in Gujarat have > robbed from me. One of them is a song I often sang with pride and > conviction. The words of the song are: > > Sare jahan se achha Hindustan hamara… It is a song I will never be able > to sing again. > > -- > Saima Alvi > Research Assistant > Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) > Opposite Sector U, DHA, Lahore-54792 > Tel.: 5722670-79; Ext.: 2165 >
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