Vol. 73 No 7
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THERADICALHUMANIST (Since April 1949)
OCTOBER 2009 Formerly : Independent India (April 1937- March 1949)
Founder Editor: M.N. Roy
475 Evolutionary Feminism & Anarchism The Saviour of the Living World
-B.P. Rath Three Phases ofJinnah’s Political Life
-Balraj Puri Police & Investigation
-R.A. Jahagirdar The Chief Justices’ Conference: 2009
-Rajindar Sachar India’s Largest Democracy without a Rule of Law?
-Iqbal A. Ansari In paying Homage to M.N. Roy: Three Poems
-Swarajbrata Sengupta
-RADICAL HUMANISTS ON THE MOVEMr. Vinod Jain, President, IRHA, speaking on Caste System at SS. Jain Subodh P.G. College, Humanist Youth Forum, Jaipur
Mr. Ugamraj Mohnot, Veteran Radical Humanist, (in grey suit) leading a Mukti Andolan Yatra, in Jaipur, Rajasthan
Mr. Innaiah Narisetti, Veteran Radical Humanist, delivering key note address at the Rationalist Conference, Hyderabad, A.P.
THE RADICAL HUMANIST
OCTOBER 2009
—Contents—
The Radical Humanist Vol. 73
Number 7 October 2009
Monthly journal of the Indian Renaissance Institute Devoted to the development of the Renaissance Movement; and for promotion of human rights, scientific-temper, rational thinking and a humanist view of life. Founder Editor: M.N. Roy Contributory Editors: Professor Amlan Datta Professor A.F. Salahuddin Ahmed Justice R.A. Jahagirdar (Retd.) Dr. R.M. Pal Professor Rama Kundu Editor: Dr. Rekha Saraswat Publisher: Mr. N.D. Pancholi Printer: Mr. N.D. Pancholi Send articles to: Dr. Rekha Saraswat C-8, Defence Colony Meerut, 250001, U.P., India Ph. 91-121-2620690, 09719333011 E-mail articles at: rheditor@gmail.com Send Subscription / Donation Cheques to: Mr. Narottam Vyas (Advocate), n.vyas@snr.net.in Chamber Number 111 (Near Post Office) Supreme Court of India, New Delhi, 110001, India Ph. 91-11-22712434, 91-11-23782836, 09811944600 In favour of: ‘The Radical Humanist’ Sometimes some articles published in this journal may carry opinions not similar to the radical humanist philosophy; but they would be entertained here if the need is felt to debate and discuss upon them. —Rekha 1
1. From the Editor’s Desk: The travesty of those who believe in something!! —Rekha Saraswat 1 2. Contributory Editors’ Section: Police And Investigation —R.A. Jahagirdar 3 3. Guests’ Section: Evolutionary Feminism and Anarchism: The Saviour of the Living World —B.P. Rath 5 4. Current Affairs: The Chief Justices’ Conference 2009 —Rajindar Sachar 12 India: Largest Democracy without Rule of Law? —Iqbal A. Ansari 14 Three Phases of Jinnah’s Political Life —Balraj Puri 15 5. IRI / IRHA Members’ Section: Three Poems: In paying Homage to M.N. Roy —Swarajbrata Sengupta 18 A Review of the NHRC Annual Report: 2004-2005 —Mahi Pal Singh 20 6. Students’ & Research Scholars’ Section: Media, Photography and Art: Visual and Intellectual Picture —Alka Chaddha 27 7. Book Review: The Globalizing World Needs the Genius of India —Dipavali Sen 30 8. Humanist News: 32 9. Obituaries for: Late Mr. Dhanpat Singh Tyagi 38 —Rekha Saraswat Late Shri Haribhai Shah —Prof Jayanti Patel 39
THE RADICAL HUMANIST
OCTOBER 2009
From the Editor’s Desk:
The travesty of those who believe in something!! are various types of believers. We’ll There discuss their quandary in two steps. Step one—The theoretical predicament: Those who believe in something and want others to believe in it, too; which means, they want others to see the light of the day through their logic without wanting others to apply their own sense of reasoning. These are the dictators! We need to maintain a respectable distance from them. Those who believe in something and frantically want others to agree with them; worrying that unless they act fast, they will lose the glow of their belief and it will be lost into the wilderness. These are the uncertain idolaters. We need to run away from them lest their insecurities demoralise us too. Those who believe in something and wonder why others don’t seem to realise the sanctity of their belief! These are the skeptics. We should leave them alone with their confusions and not co-operate with them in their dilemma of life. Those who believe in something but are regularly worried that what they believe in may not be true. These are the brooding loners who nurture half-baked theories of life and are themselves not sure whether they are right in what they follow or not. We should pity them but never enter into any discussion or dialogue with them lest we ourselves get baffled and perplexed with the vagaries of their convictions. Step two—The empirical aftermath: Then comes the aspect of putting their belief to practice!! Here too, we find many types of performers! Those who believe in something, are not able to put it to practice in their lives; and are always frustrated about it.
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We need to beware of them! These are the pessimists who always spread despair around them. Those who believe in something, are not able to put it to practice in their own lives; but they insist upon others to, somehow, do so. We shouldn’t let them shove us around! These are the repentants, franctically wanting to re-live their lives through our life-spans. Those who believe in something, want to put it to practice, but do not know how to do so; and are desperate about it. We need not commit the blunder of taking lessons from them. They are themselves those perpetual beginners who spend their lives in regularly searching for mentors. Those who believe in something, are not able to put it to practice in their lives but continuously preach upon others to do. We should be wary of such procrastinators! They keep preying for easy targets on whom they can implement and test their theories of belief. They make no trials upon themselves in fear of errors and are never able to take life on its face value. Most precariously, there are those who believe in something, clandestinely follow it, find its flaws; but do not warn others that it is harmful to do so. They are the most dangerous myth creators, the charlatans of society. They try to bridge the gap between their redundant belief and the farce of its practice by inviting others to indulge in their follies. Ironically, we are mostly surrounded by this variety from all sides. We need to tread steady steps while passing by them because they make such palatable victuals that almost all of us get allured to the aroma of their servings. All we need to do to save ourselves from them is to locate those who believe in something and live up to it too; that is, those who believe in the perfect-ness of their belief and know that sooner or later others will follow suit. They coolly wait for others to do so. These are the rationalists who have spent a lot of time in collecting facts and in testing them and they are ready to provide the logical proofs of their belief if asked for! We need to find solace in their reasoning and bask in the glory of their findings. And they are no less in numbers, believe me. For example, you’ll find them in loads in the pages of the RH journal and on the RH website. Just keep in touch. They are waiting!!
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Contributory Editors’ Section:
R.A. Jahagirdar
[Justice R.A. Jahagirdar (Retd.), former President of Indian Radical Humanist Association and former Editor of ‘The Radical Humanist’ is now one of the members of the Contributing Editorial Board of The Radical Humanist.]
Police And Investigation murder and the ensuing investigation Arushi’s by the U.P. Police and C.B.I. occupied the space of electronic media for long. Almost every day electronic news channels telecast what was going on in the case. Everyday the police – both U.P. and CID – were giving interviews to the television channels and the stage of investigation. On a couple of days, I remember, one TV news channel (name withheld) devoted its entire time on Arushi episode. The news channels gave not only news but their views as well on the incident. Some of them even held some persons guilty basing their views on the garbled version of the case given by the investigating agencies. Suddenly, with CBI conceding that there was no evidence against Dr. Rajeev Talwar, the unfortunate father of the girl, he was released and the news channels went dumb. The enormous national interest in the case was due to the fact that a teenage girl was involved and her father, a dentist, was arrested and was in custody for 50 days. The ham-handed approach of the U.P. Police and more particularly of the Noida police throws up several points for discussion. First, the police giving interviews to the media every day disclosing the stage of investigation. Secondly, the remarks made by the Inspector General of Police of U.P. on the character of the victim was not only 3
unwarranted but was also in bad taste. Naturally, the Central Minister of Child Welfare took strong objection to those remarks. In the initial stages of investigation, the U.P. Police showed rank incompetence. First they neglected in not guarding the place of offence. Secondly, they suspected the domestic help who himself was found murdered at the same time and place. His body was found on the terrace of the building in which Dr. Talwar resided. The first principle of investigation, namely preparing a Panchanama of the place, was ignored. If they had done so, the body of the domestic help would have been found. The investigation was contaminated by this and some other factors. The U.P. Government in a sense washed its hands and entrusted the case to CBI. The case was, may be, complex; may be a difficult one. But it was not an inter-State offence nor was it an offence against a Central law. Why should the CBI take such a case? In any case, the CBI has not come out with flying colours. Since the news channels are silent till going to the press, it is not possible to know the present stage of investigation. Initially no search of the weapon of offence was done. It is an elementary principle of investigation that the weapon of offence must be found out. Secondly, the investigating officers, whether of the U.P. Police or of the CBI, went on telling of ‘confessions’ or statements of various persons. Such confessions or statements made to the police are inadmissible in evidence (See Sections 25 and 26 of the Indian Evidence Act). It is easier to tell the public of evidence (not inadmissible in Courts) of the guilt of the person arrested and then blame the Courts for letting off the person. The police, in the instant case, resorted to narco tests in order to know the lines of investigation. Briefly, let us see the various methods by which truth is sought to be detected. The one is the polygraph. It is sometimes erroneously known as a lie detector. It is a non-invasive test. The underlying theory is that when people lie they become nervous and give all sorts of replies. The suspect is asked about the case and from his answers some inference is drawn. However, the replies do not come within the ambit of evidence. The suspect is not even touched physically. It is essentially a question and answer session.
THE RADICAL HUMANIST Polygraph or P-320 is another method. It involves brain mapping. The person involved is directly asked questions relating to the offence. In two stages the questions are asked. In the first stage, innocuous questions are asked. In the second stage, questions directly related to the case are asked. The encephalograph shows certain changes. It should be remembered that it is an invasive test. The brain does not speak. The investigator can only guess whether the person concerned is telling the truth or not. Though the test is invasive and is handled by experts, it does not lead to truth. Both the above two tests have not been used in India or at least in Courts, to the writer’s knowledge. Narco analysis test is the most controversial test. It is an invasive method in as much as the person under analysis is given an injection and is made half-conscious. It is being used under anesthesia. The test is conducted by administering 3 grams of sodium pentothal dissolved in 3000 millilitre of water. This solution is administered intravenously under the care and supervision of a qualified doctor. Less than 3 grams of sodium pentothal might keep the person awake; more of the solution might make him unconscious, unable to respond to any question, thus making the test ineffective. History behind the test is worth knowing. A lady was administered anesthesia. But the doctor required an article. She alone knew where it had been kept in the house and she told her husband. Thus it was realized that a person who is half-conscious tells what is in his or her mind. This is tantamount to psychotherapy and in the writer’s opinion it is a third degree method. The person concerned is not telling anything willingly or consciously. The administration of injection amounts to harm as understood in Indian Criminal law. It amounts to an offence under Section 323 of Indian Penal Code. That is why the police always take the permission of the Court. There is no Supreme Court decision on the validity of the test. However, the Bombay High Court has held it valid. The usefulness of the test depends upon its validity. Moreover, what is the value of the test? The person under test is unconsciously or half-consciously giving
OCTOBER 2009 information which is heard by the doctor administering the test. The information is not given voluntarily or consciously. Has it any value? If a police officer is also present during the test, any statement made to him is inadmissible in evidence. May be, the information given by the person may be a clue to the police while conducting investigation. This is a very crude method of conducting investigation. Investigation is an art and the police should be properly trained in it. It is easy for a police officer to sit in an easy chair and conduct investigation by third degree method. Information collected in this manner and given in Court, however, fails and acquittals result. That is why so many acquittals are taking place in the country. Recently, the Mumbai police are relying on a new test. It is called Brain Electrical Oscillation Signature (BEOS). In this test, electrodes are applied to different parts of the brain to detect activation of the brain. The person is then made to wear a cap with 32 electrodes. The answers given are then recorded in a computer. Criticism of narco-analysis made earlier applies to this test also. Answers are not voluntary. It is not evidence as required by the Indian Evidence Act. It is invasive. Its legality has not been tested even by the Bombay High Court. The usefulness of revelations made in such a test depends ultimately on their acceptance in evidence by the Court. The police in India must be properly taught the methods of investigation. Sir James Stephens writing as long ago as in 1883 had made adverse remarks on the third degree methods of Indian police. It is far pleasanter to sit in the shade rubbing red pepper on a poor devil’s eye than to go about in the sun ‘hunting for evidence’. Questioning of witnesses is an art that requires great patience and involving hours of work which the police in India are not able to do or not willing to do. Proper and adequate training should be given to the police to acquire this skill. The Courts must be made to believe that investigation is conducted fairly and the evidence is collected properly. That way, alone, the number of acquittals can be reduced.
Kindly, email articles and write ups alongwith your scanned passport size coloured photograph and a small introduction about yourself at rheditor@gmail.com or post them to me at C-8, Defence Colony, Meerut, 250001, U.P., India. Please do not forget to post your introduction and coloured photograph alongwith it. My contact number is 91-9719333011—Rekha Saraswat 4
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Guests’ Section:
B.P. Rath [Mr.Bagwat Prashad Rath, who calls himself a heretic, is a Gandhian socialist. He built educational institutions, got elected as a chairman of a Panchayet Samiti, resigned and worked as a lecturer in English. A believer in Lokayata philosophy, he is an editor of journals—Vigil-English, Sarvodaya-Oriya. He is also a writer of several novels, poems (in Oriya) and essays (in Oriya and English). He has often been subjected to police harassment, false cases and threats from anti-socials due to his association with people’s movements and connection with human rights organizations. Presently, he is researching upon the works and literature on ancient Indian culture. Bagwat_prashad@rediffmail.com Ph.06856-235092 (]
Evolutionary Feminism and Anarchism: The Saviour of the Living World society is dependent on the proper Human working of many systems. The ecological systems, the economic systems, the political systems, the religious systems, the social systems: all have failed thus leading to human misery, destitution and mental depression. Why have human thinkers failed to devise ways to build happy and prosperous human societies by correctly understanding these complex entities? The gap between human thought and reality consisting of complex systems has become unbridgeable because science which progresses using the process of reductionism for unraveling the secrets of simple entities has entranced the thinkers in various fields and dazzled
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the world by making many inventions and discoveries. Our thinkers who formulate theories for these complex systems still remain confined to the reductionist path and so we go on missing the bus. Modern discoveries in the fields of Physics and Biology are scaling new heights. Reductionist thought processes can not fathom the dimensions of complex systems amongst which the foremost are evolution and the human brain Prof. Paul Davies advocates ‘The Synthetic Path’ instead of the reductionist Path for the understanding of complex phenomena. In the essay ‘The Synthetic path’ Paul Davies writes”, “We can’t avail some anthropic component in our science, which is interesting, because, after three hundred years, we finally realize that we do matter. Our vantage point in the universe is relevant-to 1 our science.” He confines the anthropic element only to the selective process. He denies it any causative role. Man chooses one phenomenon amongst many existing in nature. Stephen Hawking in his famous speech in 1979 predicted the reaching of the end in theoretical physics. Prof. Davies confines this prediction only to that science which is the product of the reductionist paths. Research on the complex systems is only at the beginning stage. “It is (complex systems are) more than just a large number of simple systems, coming together in conjunction. Complex systems really do have their own 2 laws, principles and their own internal logic.” John ‘Brockmann writes in a similar manner “……simple entities work together to produce some complex thing that transcends them. The implications 3 for biology, engineering and physics are enormous”. Nobel-prize winner M. Gell-Mann desired a new way to cover diverse fields: simple as well as complex ones: simple rules and complex entities. He calls this “PLECTICS” (a new word coined by him). Nobel winner, physicist M. Gell-Mann throws light on complexity thus, “In each case, the complexity of a thing is context- dependent…. Not only is the thing being described, but also on who or what is doing the 4 describing… that is a task that I have undertaken.” More discussion of the difficulty and limitations of theory- building in the field of complexity is necessary in view of the importance of the subject. Almost all theorists come from either the Western society or the Orient under the Western system of education. Their own-theory craze comes out in the writings of Nobel
THE RADICAL HUMANIST Prize winner in the field of particle physics, Richard Feynman. “I fell deeply in love with it (theory). And like falling in love with a woman ….. you cannot see her faults…. I was held to this theory, in spite of all the 5 difficulties, by my youthful enthusiasm.” This infatuation with a theory prejudices the selective principle. A number of scientists and biologists are Hobbesians, believing in violence and racial superiority. Again Richard Feynman writes, “Psychologically we must keep all the theories in our head and every theoretical physicist who is any good knows six or seven different theoretical representations for exactly the same physics. He knows that they are all equivalent …… he keeps them in his head, hoping that they will give 6 different ideas for guessing.” We need many theories so that the anthropic principle (selective principle) helps in guessing the most appropriate theory for understanding any complex phenomenon. Nobel winner Murray Gell-Mann explains, “… much mischief has been done in the world by exaggerating the role of scientific metaphor in human affairs. The science of economics provides an example: people have tried to apply a stripped-down version of economics to human affairs, omitting a great many values, a great many things of importance. By stressing the need of competition and greed in human affairs, economist theoreticians have done great harm. No wonder the system has collapsed in the present decade bringing immense misery to the global population.”(7) The Indian philosophy of Samkhya denounces greed in society by calling it a Rajasic value (Kama Esa Krodha Esa… Bairinam) which meant - treat greed and violence as two great enemies having Rajasic character (Guna). 8 They are enemies to be shunned. Murray Gell-Mann speaks, “Each of the human beings for example, is the product of an enormously long sequence of accidents, any of which could have turned out differently… each of us, individuals, have genes that result from a long sequence of accidental mutations and 9 chance meetings, as well as natural selection.” Which accidents / accident, led to the rise of Mahenjodaro Harappa civilization, the only advanced non-violent – civilization in the world. The other leading civilizations of the ancient world were violent and slave-based. The Chinese civilization, though founded on war, was somewhat different because it laid stress not
OCTOBER 2009 on warrior kings but sage-kings, and placed scholars at a higher level than the soldiers. S. Abid Husain writes. “…Geographical factors, especially the climate of the country, have given to Indians a general out look and temperament and helped to mould their thought and action… For the moment all your feelings and desires, your cognition and will, in fact your whole self is steeped in something which can be called contemplation or meditation. The intellect…. think of all creation as one, and imagination, which is free from the bothers of sense and perception, visualizes 10 this unity.” Contemplation or meditation enabled Indian thinkers to discover proper methods for controlling and directing the mind. The other accident which in combination with the first enabled India to have different types of thinkers from the rest of the world also finds mention in the same article. S. Abid Husain again writes… “The warm, in some parts moderately hot climate of the country, the fertility of the soil and the abundance of water made India suitable for agriculture… As a rule, communities which took to agriculture are matriarchal and have a deep and strong feeling for family and social life…They are more peace-loving and human than in communities 11 which were originally nomadic”. Bolstering the ideas of S.A. Hussain, Shereen Ratnagar, ex-Professor of JNU writes, “…. In Asia there are very few early farming settlements like Jericho where 12 defensive structures occur”. She also writes, “In contrast with central Asia and Africa, we don’t have vast stretches of grassland in South Asia which would have provided habitats for large and consolidated pastoral groups… Our pastoral people…..are fringe groups, without economic or 13 military might. Modern Anthropologists, mostly, do not accept the existence of matriarchy in any part of the world in any period. Writes Gail Omvedt, “what is wrong with the theory, however, is that it lacks support from accepted 14 historical and anthropological evidence….” Gail Omvedt also writes, “Even the strongest Marxist feminist anthropologists argue for the equality of men and women in ancient pre-class hunter-gatherer or horticultural societies, not for the dominance of 15 women.” Mahabharata echoes the same sentiment in describing the war-free, sexually-free happy anarchic society of the
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Uttara kurus. “There is no greed (Niskama), no violence (Ahimsavegetarians all), nor punishment (Danda) in Uttara Kuru region. Their minds are always calm. There is no jealousy in that country. Women and men have absolute 16 sexual freedom.” Women’s equal position in society and her sexual freedom led to many one-parent families Many Vedic Rishis are simply introduced as the sons of their mothers only. Meditating women, known as Yoginis, discovered the importance of supreme values like non-violence, truth, minimizing wants tendency (Aparigraha) and Asteya. Asteya, the motherly attitude (caring for the other members of society before you satisfy your needs) is a part of the Yogic Yama. Meditation made the Yoginis discover that only a calm mind, neither disturbed by calamities nor pleasure, can lead to a balanced happy personality. This was the Shhama portion of Yoga. At the later phase, sophisticated physical exercises were added as another item to the practice of Yoga. Archeologists discovered a lot of seals in MahenjodaroHarappa society which they interpreted as the figures of goddesses. As Mahenjodaro- Harappa culture was atheistic in character, the figures were evidently those of Yoginis. Among so many Yoginis, we find only one male Yogi, the figure of proto-Siva. Even today, in the Nuapada District of Orissa in Rampur Jharial area, there are sixty four Yoginis and one Yogi, Siva (the physical postures of Yoga must have been a later addition as they do not form the essential part of Yoga. They might have been added by the male Yogis). After the Asians came to India, the fusion of earlier Yogi Siva and Yoginis took place with the god Rudra and goddesses worshipped by the indigenous communities and the Vedic Aryans. Thus non-violent Gods and Goddesses turned into violent ones because of the fusion of pre-Vedic, indigenous and Vedic Aryan gods and goddesses. The identification of Durga with Parvati is the result of such a fusion. The Yoginis changed into indigenous Goddesses, before whom animals were sacrificed. Mahadev Chakravati writes in his thesis that Rudra, “in the Rig-Veda represented the ruthlessness of nature, the only god who is feared and held in awe by the Vedic bards, the healing aspect of the deity is reflected in the 17 beneficent rains loosened by the storm”
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Scientists agree that human brain is a complex entity that is responsible for all our creative and cognitive activities. Human brain is a product of million years of evolution, a process that defies simple explanation. “You are your brain”, says Eric Kendal, a Nobel-prize winner. Man is different from the animal world only because of his brain. Much of our present misery is due to our lack of understanding the process of evolution and the human brain. “Nobel Prize- winning Biologist, S.E. Luria, points to the misuse of science in attributing violent behaviors to the genes. Moving away from genetic determinism and its inevitability (as too often interpreted, the insatiability of war and death), Luria says that biologists have a nobler role for the future to explore “the most intriguing feature, the creativity of the 18 human spirit”. Creativity may follow three paths: the path of constructive activity, the path of destructive activity or the path of the arts, which is a separate but joy-giving domain. Science, ethics: each is a product of the human brain. The greatest gift of creativity to mankind is ‘love’. This ‘love’ may play havoc with human societies if it remains confined to groups and the creative capacity is utilized against other groups. The path of evolution for humanity is constant increase of ‘sociality, another name for the love of one’s own group which becomes bigger and bigger. Had evolution been allowed to proceed, sociality or love would have embraced the whole of humanity. As the evolution process is very slow, such growth would have required a long period. “Aiello and Dunbar have recently reported robust and important co-relation among primates between neo-cortex size and group size. Projected into an evolutionary past, these factors suggest that large group size and increasing importance of pro-social affiliation were a decisive selective force in the evolution of The Human Language.” Culture and Cooperation in Human Evolution: Encyclopedia of Anthropology Vol.-I (Peace). The immense range and extent of human creativity has made group rivalries terribly dangerous for human beings. The cosmic destructive potential of human societies not only pose a danger to human groups, combined with greed, the power of destruction leads to extinction of hundreds of animal, reptile and bird species. An experiment conducted by Prof. Andrew
THE RADICAL HUMANIST Newburg in the Neurological Department of Pennsylvania University on the brain of a Tibetan Yogi, M. T. Baime, proved that a Buddhist compassion-aiming Yogi’s mind is full of cosmic love i.e. love for the whole of creation and such a mind is the most creative one in the positive sense of creativity. What became possible in pre-Vedic India because of the right type of culture developed due to the free exercise of the female brain could have happened in the whole world through the process of evolution; but for its having been hijacked by the nomadic violent male brain ten thousand years ago. Evolution, a complex phenomenon needs discussion, based on the evidence available from science. The process of Yoga must have been a discovery of the female brain as the supreme value ‘non-violence’ is not likely to be the discovery of the male mind. The fossils of Australopithecus (Lucy) which are 3.5 million years old indicate that the bi-pedal creature (the initial stage of the human species) had a brain not much different from the ape’s brain (375-500 CC). 2,30,000 years back, human brain reached the present size i.e. 1300-1500 CC. How and why did this occur? In what way human living style differed from that of the apes, so that this crucial change in the size of the human brain occurred? The process of natural selection works on all the species; the apes, and the humans. Darwin wrote about another process also: the process of sexual selection. The big size of the antler’s horn and the big and beautiful size of the peacock’s tail occurred because of sexual selection, in spite of the fact, that these processes led to a diminishment of the survival capacity of the males. Nature has made the males and females of most of the species different so that sexual selection has a role. In addition to survival adaptation, females had the duty of caring for the young. In the case of the human species, 3.5 million years back, “The males Australopithecus Afarensis were almost twice the size of females. Such big differences in sizes are quite common between males 19 and females of the same species in apes.” Within millions of years male and female sizes became the same. The book ‘The Mating Mind’ (Miller) asserts that the growth of the human brain occurred due to sexual selection process. The great anarchist scholar, Jobn Zerzan, also advocates the same process. The growth of the human brain and its increase in complexity
OCTOBER 2009 led to an increase of human ‘sociality’ and ‘creativity’. The females of the human species preferred the caring male to the ferocious strong male because, as the brain size of the human young started increasing, the care of the young required longer periods Most of the brain- size growth in the case of the human being took place outside the human fetus because of the limitations of the female pelvis “A long period of post-natal brain development entailed a long childhood. …….. This meant that there was time and opportunity for interdependent communication between parents and child. This allowed 20 for the evolution of language and culture”. Female’s selection of caring male as life partner with occasional mating with genetically-rich other males was the specialty of human females according to evolutionary psychologists ‘Thornhill and Gangestad’ (The Evolutionary Biology of Human Female Sexuality) write that when fertile, they (women) choose a mate with cues indicating high genetic quality, and when non-fertile (phases of the menstrual circle), they adopt strategies to adopt a male partner from whom they may 21 obtain some material benefits.” “Women may employ multiple strategies, choosing a feminized face for a long-term partner; but finding a masculine face attractive for short-term extra pair 22 computations. The Mahabharata legend of Swetaketu where his father Uddalaka says that his mother’s freedom to choose a sexual partner other than her husband temporarily, is the 23 age - old (Sanatana) custom. Acceptance of Khetraj children indicates the acceptance of this dual sexuality by the thinkers of ancient India. “In the case of Guerrillas, polygyny led to big and fierce male growth and the existence of single male-harems, consisting of a number of females. In the case of Chimpanzees, there was multi-mating system. The strongest social bonds are among males, not females. Males hunt together. Gibbons are monogamous, egalitarian. Among Bonbons, females are socially-bonded, not males. Mother’s bond is almost 24 ever-lasting for her children”. In human societies, violent and fierce males could not dominate because of the social bonds among females. Deprived of sex, their genes could not be passed on to the next generation. Males and females, who care for the young, develop smaller bodies because the brain uses several times the energy of any other similar- sized
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organ. In the case of the bird species called ‘Phalarope’; the female is larger than the male because the male takes care of the young, not the female. Since female sexual selection acted as the dominating force in the evolution of the human brain, it becomes necessary to make a comparative study of the male and female brain. Female brain acted as the motor in the growth of the human brain, writes J.W. Prescott, Asst. Clinical Professor of the University of California. “….. the human female brain is wired differently for greater neuro-integrative brain processes than the human male brain which is reflected in the gender difference of nurturance, compassion, love and spirituality that have been so noted throughout history. ……there is greater neural interconnectivity between the cerebellum, limbic system and the frontal lobes in the human female brain 25 than in the human male brain.” Ashley Montague, a famous Anthropologist writes, “…..woman knows true love, let her not be tempted from has knowledge by the false idols man has created for her to worship. Women must stand firm and be true to her own nature. To yield to the prevailing false conception of love, of unloving love, is to abdicate her great evolutionary role to keep human beings true to themselves, to keep them from violence to their inner nature, to help them to realize their potentialities for 26 being loving and co-operative. John Cartwright writes, “Kappelman (1996) for example gives an E Q for women of 4.64 and of 4.32. (EQ is Encephalization quotient, the measurer of intelligence) 27 for men.” Professor Semir Zeki (Neuro-Biology) writes “…women do many things better than men, precisely because they use both hemispheres and are thus more 28 engaged with the task” Constant increase in ‘sociality’ and ‘creativity’ was the defining characteristic of growing human brain during the huge gathering period (not hunting) of the human species. Creativity occurs because as increase in the neurone population led to, “greater richness of analysis and combination expressed in modifiable and insightful 29 behavior” “As Devore remarks in summary of the available material, “Primates have literally social brain. Thus well before it was influenced by cultural forces as such, the
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evolution of what eventually developed into the human 30 nervous system was positively shaped by social ones”. Great personalities of history who have influenced human societies through the ages: men like the Buddha, Christ, Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther king and many others, had more female qualities than male ones. “It seems that whoever bore the burden of infant care lives the longest and this is probably because the survival of their valuable infant depends upon ensuring 31 their own survival.” Prof. A Campbell quotes Neihoff, “the continuous serotonergic back ground of females suppresses activity in target cells of the cortex and limbic system that prevents excessive reactions to sensory information” she also writes, “… The chemical that holds us back from 32 aggression is serotonin.” Like serotonin, males have the chemical ‘Testosterone’ which has been implicated principally in status–seeking and in aggression, as a route to that end. (Mazoor & Borther-1998). Incest became taboo in the remote past because women wanted it. This paved the way for the preservation and growth of families and societies. “On average, ninety percent of violence of our planet is committed by men.” 33
The female mind acting as the motor slowly changed the human brain by developing the neo-cortex, the seat of creativity based on sociality, acting as the regnant part (Greetz) directing all other parts of the brain. Brain scientist, V.S. Ramachandran, interviewed by the Indian Sunday Express Magazine (14.09.2003) calls neo-cortex as the ‘central executive structure’. In the hunting phase, human species started running in the track of ruin because violence dominated his activities and became the principal tool of the man-made evolution. Writes Cornelia Dean “Stone age humans wiped out many animal species in places as varied as the mountains of New-Zealand and the plains of North America. “Hunter-gatherers with fairly simple technology were actively degrading some marine eco-systems tens of thousands years ago “says Torben C. Rick, of the National Museum of Human History (Smithsonian Institution). C Dean quotes from the journal ‘Nature’ and anthropologists of repute in her article (2009 New 34 York Times News Service).
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Human interference led to many undesirable consequences, Evolution became more rapid, leading to a genetic change of 7% within a short period. Many species of plants and animals became extinct. As nomadic pastoralists established kingdoms based on the slavery of the males and females of the weaker human groups, patriarchy got firmly established. The male brain started working as the motor of the new human-directed evolution. Human character got degraded as millenniums passed. Military, feudal and capitalist societies valorized violence and greed. Rape was unknown among hunter gathers. Modern educated people accept rape as a normal phenomenon in times of war. In India, communal riots are engineered more by the educated than the illiterate. The communist army of Russia was as fond of rape as the armies of the capitalist West. Torturing other human beings is commonly accepted as normal by the police and the military of the so-called most civilized nations like the US. Ethnocide gains legitimacy and religious terrorisms are no longer rare phenomena. Demonisation of humanity, because of the reign of greed and violence in the human brain, is gaining ground in all societies. No wonder, a group of prestigious scientists like Constance Lorenz, Betzig, Chignon, A.O Wilson and many social Darwinians have a pessimistic view of human nature. Many members of rich families in America and military personnel fighting wars suffer from bouts of depression because they flout the norms favoured by the evolution’s greatest gift, the neo-cortex. Rationalist Yoga of compassion is the only method to have a fully contented, calm neo-cortex as the laboratory tests in the U S confirm. No surprise the Mahenjodaro Harappa society was the only non-violent island of civilization in the third millennium B.C. Sarad Patil’s book’ Das-Sudra Slavery (chapter-XV)” provides evidence to establish Yoga, Samkhya and Lokayat (the philosophies of Pre-Vedic India) as the products of the female brain. Like Einstein, a lover of knowledge, beauty and love; Bertrand Russell tells us that his quest is for knowledge and love. Ashish Nandy writes that Russell’s faults as a family man stemmed from his failure to base his rationalism on love. Evolution teaches us that ‘sociality’ or ‘love’ comes first and creativity or knowledge should be based on it. The rationalist Yoga system (Arthasastra) confirms the message of evolution by basing its structure on YAMA values (Non-violence truth Asteya and
Aparigraha). The patriarchal value of ‘Brahmacharya’ was not included as a value in ancient Yoga. Brahmacharya was not accepted in ancient Jaina religion as a value. Yogis like Vasista and five other Rishis of Saptarshi fame (Viswamitra was from the patriarchal culture and is not included among them) were known as sons of their mothers only. They lived with their wives in hermitages. Human brain stopped growing at the hunting stage. Human beings started killing a large number of animals because their creative brain which helped them to devise weapons for self-defense discovered and developed powerful destructive weapons which no animal could resist. Sexual selection came to a halt. The process of evolution is very slow. Human interference quickened the process of the manmade evolution and wrought havoc in the entire eco-system. The availability of meat in the hunter phase brought a stop to the process of sexual selection by women. Lured by the taste of meat, women preferred hunting men to caring men. The evolution process of nature got reversed with the dominance of the hunter. The seeds of Patriarchy were sown in the hunter phase of human life. No wonder, the human brain, a product of sociality, stopped evolving at this stage. This happened before human migration from Africa occurred. So, today, scientists find that all Humans beings of the world have almost the same innate brain capabilities. Racism as a myth has been exploded by the scientists. The hunter-gatherer society was a peaceful society. Of the more than one hundred nomadic hunting and gathering cultures that have been reported ethnographically, in all, but a few, people were able to congregate in bands large enough to contain unrelated families. (C. Boehme). This society was egalitarian and anarachic. In the hunting and the later domestication-of-animals phase, women’s subordinate status became more and more visible. What was female choice in the hunting phase became female compulsion in the domestication-of-animals phase because of group raids and wars. Maria Mies, a leading feminist, writes that male supremacy, far from being a consequence of men’s superior economic contribution, “….was a result of the development and control of destructive tools (bows and arrows and spears) through which they controlled women, nature and other men.” (38) The Origin of
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Patriarchy’ from ‘What is Patriarchy’? By Kamala Bhasin To quote from the editorial of the Radican Humanist of August-2009, “He (Michael Jackson) said, “…..love is the human family’s most precious legacy, its richest bequest, its golden inheritance.” To repeat, Kautilya described rationalist Yoga (Arthasastra) (Not Patanjali’s miracle or Siddhi –providing Yoga) as the only way to redeem humanity from its menacing legacy of destruction and greed-based psychic tendencies. The Mahenjodaro-Harappa civilization values nurtured personalities like Buddha and Gandhi. They are the true legatees of the Yogic culture. Buddha was a rationalist; Gandhi had faith in both rationalism and to some extent in humanist mysticism from occasion to occasion. I agree with Tagore who points out a loving accusing finger at the great man’s occasional irrational outbursts like his remarks on the Bihar earthquake. The compulsion of attracting the Purana- nurtured huge Hindu community to the path of Satyagraha might have influenced Gandhi to introduce irrational elements in his sayings and activities either consciously or unconsciously. Fallibility made him more human-like. Rationalist Buddha and Satyagrahi (non-violent fighter) Gandhi make a perfect combination of a role –model for ushering in a democratic socialist society, where Yogic Yama values permeate the whole society (not the Niyama values which got added to Yoga during the Vedic period). Ancient Yoga and Samkhya (Both atheistic and rational) together provide a perfect system of guidance for future mankind. To limit Yoga to physical postures or psychiatric methods used for the systemic-evil victims, though productive, do not do justice to the great system of Anwikshiki (Yoga, Samkhya and Lokayat), in praise of which Kautilya in Arthasathra spared no words. Mahenjodaro Harappa civilization reached great heights because of the acceptance of Anwikshiki by its noblest daughters and sons, enjoying equal status in society. The message of evolution had its true incarnation in Anwikshiki culture. In this anarchic society, Yogis (anwikshikians) had the highest status (Megasthenes), but they shunned power, wealth and honour. Reference::1). The Third Culture. 2). The Synthetic Path: Paul Davies The Third Culture. 3). The Third Culture’ Editorial.
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4). Plectics: The Third Culture. 5). ‘Falling in love’: The Emotional Machine written by Mervin Minsky. 6). ‘Falling in Love”: The Emotional Machine written by M. Minsky. 7). Plectics: The Third Culture. 8). II. Canto –GITA9). Plectics: The Third Culture. 10). The Bases of Indian Culture from The National Culture of India. 11). Ibid. 12). Hunter gatherer and Early Hunter gatherer and Early Agriculture: The Other Indians: 13). Ibid. 14). Feminist concept (Matriarchy and patriarchy) Research centre for women’s studies. Series No.7. 15). Ibid. 16). (Gitapress) Mahabharata-Volume-VI Canto-102. 17). Rudra and Rudra Siva: The concept of Rudra-Siva. 18). Violence and Human Nature – Howard Zinn. 19). Apes that walked: The Story of Man by Biman Basu. 20). Development of the Human Brain: Gentle Bridges Edited by – J.W. Hayward and F. J. Varela. 21). Prof. Powlowski, polish Academy of sciences in his book review. 22). Human Mate choice: Evolution and Human Behaviour: John Cartwright. 23). ‘Looking for a Hindu identity: D. N. Jha: Indian History Congress: 66th lecture. 24). Scientific American -2009 July-07 special issue on Mind. 25). P-172 spring 1996, Pre-and Prenatal Psychology journal. 26). The Natural superiority of women Rev. Edn. 1974. 27). Evolutionary Biology and Sexism from ‘Evolution and Human Behaviour’ 28). Prof. Zeki’s Musings. 29). Prof. Clifford Greetz : Growth of culture and the Evolution of Human Mind: The Interpretation of Cultures. 30). Ibid. 31). ‘High Stakes and Low Risks: Women and Aggression’ from ‘A Mind of her Own’ by Anne Campbell, Department of Psychology, Durham University. 32). Ibid. 33). Ibid. 34). The Hindu 22.08.09.
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Current Affairs:
Rajindar Sachar [Justice Rajindar Sachar is Retd.Chief Justice of High Court of Delhi, New Delhi. He is UN Special Rappoetuer on Housing, Ex.Member, U.N. Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities and Ex-President, Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) India.]
The Chief Justices’ Conference 2009 ‘My Lord’ the Chief Justice of India (or No,should it be ‘your Honour’ reiterating 1971 decision by the present Supreme court) – the judiciary does not “impliedly obey” the law passed by parliament – the judiciary owes allegiance only to the Constitution of India and to their own conscience. That is why I am somewhat sad that CJI should have indirectly suggested that judges are not willing on their own to file the statement of assets and the same to be made available to public – especially when the judges do so in USA, England and other common wealth Countries. I can appreciate the anxiety to have some provision to prevent vexatious or scandalous accusations by mischievous persons (though it must be remembered that these hazards are common to all public officials whether in the executive or legislature). Of course the self patting by the legislators that they disclose their assets at the time of filing nominations, is conveniently side tracked by the fact that it was only under the Supreme Court directions in PUCL case that this requirement is now being followed reluctantly. Of course a question may well be raised, not by the
judiciary because it does not enter into public debate but by electorate namely as to what percentage of legislators including the members of parliament have filed or are filing their statement of assets regularly and whether such information will be available under Right to Information Act. Some may even embarrass the legislators by making a polite enquiry about the fate of Lok Pal Bill which has been promised by different party governments for over last 30 years. Is it that legislators’ accountability is less urgent than judicial accountability? It must be emphasized that overwhelming members of the bar and members of the judiciary themselves are in favour of a law on judicial accountability by a panel which will not only have an in-house membership but will also include a representative from outside jointly selected by the Prime Minister and Leader of the opposition. Let judiciary or legislature not try to score points against each other. Both are integral and essential to our democratic polity – only demarcation of the functions of each are to be recognized and respected. It is a heartening gesture that the conference has advised High Courts to increase their work period from the present 210 to 220 days, but this seems to have been watered down by suggesting an alternative of increasing half an hour extra, every day. In my humble opinion straightaway increase of 10 days is the only correct method – increase of half an hour will be merely cosmetic. May I also venture to suggest that on the same parity of reasoning the Supreme Court will also increase its work period to at least 200 days and full working day on Monday and Friday. Let me hasten to add however that at least 70% of 52 Saturdays are utilized by judges in completing judgments and orders unlike the executive who have all 52 Saturdays either as a holiday or on a foreign jaunt. Similarly, I hope the executive will also work out the days it works. On a rough pattern 104 (Saturday/Sunday non working days plus 30 days leave with pay plus 10 casual holidays, plus at least 12 Gazetted holidays makes a total of (365 – 156) only 209 working days. So why pick on the judiciary alone. Parliament, even according to the Vice President and former Speaker Mr. Chatterjee has much to answer – the sittings of the parliament are becoming less and less and
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actual work the minimal. Let us in all humility remember what the great Saint Kabir said “I went out to search a bad person, but could not find anyone but when I looked within myself, I realized that none was worse than myself” – To be honest we all are in the embarrassing position of an en emperor proudly standing in a bath tub but none pointed out till an innocent child shouted “the emperor has no clothes” – so none can point a fingure at the other excepting the real sovereign under our constitution – the people of India. The conference rightly did not approve the constitution of All India Judicial Service. The whole idea is ludicrous – this was rejected as far back as 1985 chief justices conference. It is well known that in the court proceedings up to district level are carried out in the language of the State. Thus only in Hindi speaking states of UP, MP, Bihar, persons selected from these states could be transferred within. In all other states, i.e. Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Punjab, it is impossible to post a person from outside the state because of his non familiarity with the state language. The illustration given of All India Judicial Services like IAS, IPS is completely off the mark. The requirement of their being familiar with state language is rudimentary and only minimal – at a higher level they use English in the administration. Judgments of the courts are a serious business requiring a deep knowledge of state language. Also at present the High Court is the final controlling and disciplinary authority over subordinate judiciary. But if you have All India Judicial Service then will the disciplinary authority change every time a judge is transferred from one state to another? And also in an All
India Administrative Service the authority of central government is supreme with limited powers given to the state governments. Who then will be the ultimate Authority? The Supreme Court obviously can not take the load. So will the central govt. by this invidiously tactic claim to be the ultimate disciplinary authority? This impinging by the executive would be the surest way to strike at the independence of judiciary. It is regrettable that chief justices conference did not decide that in the interest of continuity and familiarly with the working of state judiciary, a local chief justice is a must – the present practice of appointing chief justices outside their parent courts and many a time for as short a period as 3 months or 6 months has dealt a severe blow to the prestige, harmonious working of the High and serious laxity in the supervision of lower judiciary. As for uncle – nephew nexus, a chief justice of a High Court had effectively enforced an order that the cases of relations of judges will not be posted before any other judge whose relations are also practicing in the same High Court. Another embarrassing reflection on the judiciary is the misdemeanor cases pending for a long time against High Court Judges being discussed publicly because the Supreme Court is not taking a final decision. I may sound harsh but let me put in a caveat by invoking. Justice Holmes of USA Supreme Court who said, “I trust that no one will understand me to be speaking with disrespect of the law, because I criticize it so freely………but one may criticize even what one reveres……. And I should show less than devotion, if I did not do what in me lies to improve it.”
The Radical Humanist—Rates Of Advertisement/Insertion Journal Size:18cm x 24cm-Print Area:15cm x 20cm Ordinary Special Ordinary Second Back Cover Rs. 2,500 Rs. 3,000 Third Back Cover Rs. 2,500 Last Cover Rs. 3,000 Rs. 3,500 Ordinary Page: Full Page Rs. 2,000 Rs. 2,500 Half Page Rs. 1,000 Quarter page Rs. 600 Rs. 900 For One Year 2nd Back Cover Rs. 20,000 Rs. 30,000 3rd Back Cover Rs. 20,000 Last Cover Rs. 25,000 Rs. 30,000 Ordinary Page: Full Page Rs. 15,000 Rs. 20,000 Half Page Rs. 10,000 Quarter Page Rs.6,000 Rs. 9,000
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Iqbal A. Ansari [Professor Iqbal A. Ansari, Professor English, (retired), Aligarh Muslim University, Visiting Professor, Academy of Third World Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, Centre for Advanced Socio-Legal Studies, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi and Centre for Federal Studies, Jamia Hamdard, has written extensively on issues relating to human rights, minorities, communal violence and conflict resolution including Kashmir. iqbalansari2001@hotmail.com]
India: Largest Democracy without Rule of Law? A Secular State without Secular Justice he latest example of the lawlessness of the Indian State is the recent report on fake encounter killing of Ishrat Jahan and three others by police officers in Gujarat in which most damning aspect is the collusive role of the Union Home Ministry. No less harrowing is to recall the media-official collusion in reporting the events as a definite case of L-e-T /J-e-M backed acts of terrorism aimed at enabling one mass murder wear the halo of martyrdom. What does the Union Minister for Law and Justice, Mr. Veerappa Moily mean by stating that revelations in Ishrat Jahan encounter case was a “very serious matter for the country and in any other foreign country Narendra Modi would have been in some other place”? as reported by the Indian Express of 9th Sep 09. It is an obvious admission of absence of rule of law in India, which largely obtains in Western democracies, irrespective of their lawlessness while dealing with others. Why do Advanis, Uma Bharatis, Kalyan Singhs, Bal Thackerays, Singhals and Modis enjoy not only impunity but respectability because even Human Rights
T
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activists swear by Indian Secularism which means equal respect for all religions, not effective equal enjoyment of human rights including equal protection of the law by all, especially vulnerable minorities and weaker sections. Have the human rights groups, like the PUCL, taken any notice of the Special Report on India by the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief released in Feb 09 in which it has warned about repetition of Ayodhya/Mumbai 1992 and Gujarat 2002 if the guilty continue to enjoy impunity? It is time that victims asked senior human rights and peace activists, who unambiguously gave their verdict of genocide/pogrom about Gujarat 2002, why did they not show any perseverance in demanding dismissal of the Modi government by the UPA government soon after its coming into power in 2004, followed by appointment of a special Tribunal for trial of members of the government and officials responsible for mass hate crimes on the additional ground of the Supreme Court’s strictures about systematic subversion of justice in Gujarat and on the ground of its non-compliance of norms and directions on relief operations by the NHRC. The fig leaf of Modi having won popular mandate was too thin to provide any real protection in the Court against exercise of Article 356 by the Union Government if it had the will to punish the guilty and rehabilitate the victims. Whenever Article 356 has been or will be appropriately used, it will be exercised against popularly elected government in the event of serious breakdown of constitutional functioning of the system in the state as was the justification for its recourse in 1992, which got upheld by the Supreme Court. We know why the Government led by Manmohan Singh-Sonia Gandhi, who had stalled the functioning of the Parliament for a number of days in 2002 over their demand for dismissal of the Modi Government, lacked the will to try and punish Modi and company. They must have got terrified by the monster in the mirror, very palpable in 1984 but also by very many others like Nellie 1983, Hashimpura-Maliana 1987, Bhagalpur 1989 etc etc. But why do we not muster courage and perseverance? The question requires us to widen the perspective and raise ethical-philosophical questions like our attitude to pain and suffering of the innocent other.
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Balraj Puri [Mr. Balraj Puri is an authority on Jammu and Kashmir Affairs. He is Director, Institute of Jammu and Kashmir Affairs, Karan Nagar, Jammu-180005 Phone numbers:01912542687,09419102055 Www.humanrightsjournal.com]
Three Phases of Jinnah’s Political Life Singh’s expulsion from the BJP for Jaswant writing a book on Jinnah raises a number of issues. First is the manner in which it was done. He was conveyed the decision by party president Raj Nath Singh on telephone when he arrived at Shimla to attend the Chintan Baithak (deliberation-conference) of the party which he was asked not to attend. Could not this be done before he left Delhi? Or could he not been dropped from attending the meeting like Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shorie? Why were normal courtesies like issuing a show-cause notice not extended to him, even if it might not have made any difference to the eventual decision? The manner in which the decision was made and conveyed to him shows signs of nervousness that has overtaken the BJP leadership. The ban on Jaswant Singh’s book by Modi government is also unjustified. For right to dissent is the essence of democracy. The Gujarat High Court rightly set aside the ban order. Leaving aside how BJP treated Jaswant Singh, his book raises two main questions viz was Jinnah secular and was he solely responsible for the partition of the country. The book does not disclose any new facts but interprets them in its own way which has provoked an unusual
reaction, which no other book on Jinnah - of which number is too large - ever did. In the first phase of his political life when he was a member of the Congress and the Muslim League—which was possible at that time-his professions and practices were fully secular. He could legitimately be called an ambassador of Hindu Muslim unity. He aspired to be a Muslim Gokhle. Gopal Krishna Gokhle was senior to him in profession and politics and one of the few persons whom he respected. There is no need to cite any evidence to prove his secular credentials during this phase. But it is his unique personality and its unique characteristics that provide real clues to his political role till 1930 when he left for London and after he returned in 1934. Apparently, it seemed to be a miracle how a person almost single handedly succeeded in creating the largest Muslim country in the world. According to historian Percival Speer, “alone he did it.” In fact he did it in spite of a number of handicaps. He belonged to the Agha Shahi sect of Shia Muslims who have never played a significant role in the Indian subcontinent. He was one of the loneliest persons in private and public life. His marriage with a Parsi damsel Rittubai turned out to be unhappy and was soon terminated. He had contempt for the personality and practices of Gandhi, for his austere life, half naked public appearance and extra-constitutional methods like Satyagraha and agitation. He could not fit into the Congress culture. In the first session of the party that he attended, he refused to sit on the ground as was the practice and insisted on getting a chair. He opposed Quit India movement launched by Gandhi and his campaign against war effort which must have endeared Jinnah to the British government. He was fond of good things of life and liked the choicest whisky and cigars and was indeed the best dressed man in the public life of the country. He did not know much about precepts and practices of Islam. He did not offer Namaz or observe fast during the holy month of Ramadan. According to his biographer Stanley Wolpert, he did not observe Islamic dietary restrictions. M.C. Chagla, who was his junior, in his memoirs Roses in December, endorses this view. He was for all practical purposes a non-practicing Muslim. He could not speak Urdu and delivered his speeches in
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English. Nor did he have any interest in books, literature, music or art. D. Peel Yates told his official biographer Hector Bolitho that one of his ambitions was to become the president of the Congress. He did not consider anybody in the party to be his senior or even equal and could not function in a team. He, therefore, remained on the margin of Indian politics and left India in disgust to practice law in England in 1930. He returned in 1934 when Liaquat Ali and his newly wedded charming wife, on a honey moon to London, met him and invited him back and offered him life presidentship of the Muslim League and soon acquired the status of Quaide Azam, which he could not dream of getting if he had remained in the Congress. In the first election to the Provincial assemblies in 1937, Muslim League led by him did not cut any ice. Congress swept all seats, including most of the Muslim seats. His opportunity came in 1939 when the elected Congress government in seven states resigned in protest against declaration of war by the British government against axis powers on behalf of India without consulting its leaders. Muslim League led by him organized Deliverance Day in protest against injustices done by the Congress governments to Muslims and the majoritarian trends among some sections of the Congress. Within one year he sought deliverance of Muslims from the majority Hindu rule when India became independent, in carving out a separate Muslim country called Pakistan. And within seven years he achieved it. Having opposed extra-constitutional methods so far, he gave a call for direct action on 16 August 1946 when the pent up sentiments of Muslims got an outlet and at places they violently clashed with Hindus. A chain of action and reaction of communal riots spread in many parts of northern India. It, for the first time, brought the demand of Pakistan to lime light. Muslim sentiment, Jinnah himself had remarked, was like soda water which rose and subsided in no time. He struck when it had risen. In elections to Provincial assemblies in 1946, he got a majority except in Muslim majority provinces. In Frontier Province, Muslim League was no match to Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, in Punjab Unionist Party got majority. In Sindh League could not beat G M Syed and in Kashmir, Sheikh Abdullah was an unmatched hero. In addition Muslims were heads of the government in Assam and Bengal. On the whole the majority that the League got was based on an extremely limited franchise 16
of upper middle class i.e. 10% of Muslim population of which only half voted. In other words League got majority out of 5% Muslims, as Mushtaq Naqvi pointed out in his book on partition. How far - genuine grievances and apprehensions of Muslims, the role of Hindu nationalists and the part played by the British government are together responsible for the creation of Pakistan may be debatable. But it hardly solved any Muslim problem. Pakistan movement was weakest in the parts that now comprise Pakistan. In this context Dr. Iqbal’s letter to Jinnah is very relevant. In his letter he wrote, “Confine the movement for Pakistan to north western parts of India on the basis of common culture apart from being Muslim majority and leave Muslims where they are in a minority to settle their terms with Hindus.” He invited Jinnah to shift to Lahore and concentrate his activities in the region and offered to help him. In between, several alternatives to the Partition were given a trial. Cabinet Mission Plan of dividing the country into Hindu and Muslim majority groups under a loose sovereignty of the centre with a right to secede to each group after ten years was tried. An interim government was formed in which Jinnah insisted and got parity for the Muslim league with the Congress. The experiment did not work as there was clash on every issue in the cabinet. According to Sardar Patel, he could not appoint a peon in his Ministry without the approval of the Finance Minister Liaquat Ali. The breaking point came when Nehru declared that the Constituent Assembly would have a right to amend its constitution. Gandhi tried another alternative. He offered the post of the Prime Minister to Jinnah of the first cabinet of the independent India. The proposal was not acceptable to Nehru and Patel who were by now used to what they considered an authoritarian mind of Jinnah. Moreover threat of Muslim majority provinces asserting their right to secede was not entirely absent. Moreover, the communal tensions and chain of riots made the partition inevitable. The second conclusion of Jaswant Singh, referred to in the beginning, viz that Jinnah was secular seemed to be based on the fact that he never used verses from the holy Quran or Islamic idiom in his campaign for Pakistan. He, as mentioned earlier, never followed precepts and practices of Islam in his personal or public life. By this
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logic most secular Hindu of his time was Vir Savarkar, who too was not a religious person and professed to be an atheist. He had said in 1937, “there are two nations in the main, the Hindus and Muslims in India,” an exact echo of the two nations theory that Jinnah advocated. Their followers were responsible for starting unprecedented massacres and large scale migration from two newly created dominions to the other side and not followers of devout Hindus, like Mahatma Gandhi, and equally devout Muslims like Maulana Azad, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Sheikh Abdullah and the entire class of Islamic Ulema, who had opposed Pakistan and two nations’ theory. The moral of the story of the partition is that identities exclusively based on religion lead to clashes between them. Religious personalities mentioned above, apart from belonging to their religions, equally claimed their Indian or regional loyalties. In fact no single identity can satisfy all human urges but suppresses them and makes its followers fanatic and intolerant. It becomes a threat not only to others but hurts their own interests also. Multiplicity of identities ensures full growth of their
personalities and links them with other communities also. The clash in forties was between supporters of two nation’s theory and those who did not believe that religion alone could be basis of a nation, whether they, followed it in practice or not was immaterial. The third phase of Jinnah’s political career, equally significant, but unfortunately, short lived, was as Governor General of Pakistan. His inaugural address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on 11 August 1947 was an eloquent testimony of his determination to make Pakistan, a truly secular country. It made L K Advani an admirer of Jinnah when he visited Pakistan some years ago. Even before this address, presenting his logic for the creation of Pakistan, he had said, while there was no way out of a division in the present circumstances, if either of the two countries faces an external aggression, we shall fight it like brothers as we are indeed brothers and the blood bond overrides any other bond.” (Shamim in Aina weekly, 26 December, 1976) This is the most relevant part of Jinnah for contemporary India and Pakistan.
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THE RADICAL HUMANIST
OCTOBER 2009 And surrounded by foothills
The IRI / IRHA Members’ Section:
Like a bastion of iron. In front, fields gallop alongside the stream; Close behind, the blue vault of space, An eternal mystery……..
We can see the Mountain from afar It is an unyielding Mountain! Full and beautiful Many a gallant peak towering into the blue
Swarajbrata Sengupta
Sometimes it is draped with dream like clouds [Dr. Swarajbrata Sengupta is a celebrated author,
And presents a wonderful and imposing sight…….
editor and linguist from West Bengal. He is a permanent Fellow, South East Asian, Underdeveloped
We can see the Mountain from afar
Language Communities (Manila). He has authored
Oh, what an astounding Mountain!
many prominent books; some of them being—Modern Science, Man and his Imagination; Science, Society and Secular Humanism; Gathering Fuel; Jean Paul
From this Mountain I understand The inevitable future of history From this Mountain, I come to learn
Sartre. Ph. 91-033-6730398]
Why we march on dauntless, unflinching Towards future…..
Three Poems: In paying Homage to M.N. Roy
From this Mountain, I come to believe
I
We are born to realize the ideal of man;
The Mountain
I understand whence comes the charm Of all our words and deeds And why a glorious goal haunts our life
We can see the Mountain from afar,
From this Mountain, I see the true soul of our
It is a fabulous Mountain,
generation,
So high and strong featured,
Ever spurred on by the unyielding strength of mankind
With towering peaks ranged abreast,
And ever thirsting for fire and freedom.
Its ridge like the vertical stem of a giant tree,
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THE RADICAL HUMANIST
OCTOBER 2009
II
Makes it sough with the harmony of a whole forest!
Prometheus
The wind, sweeping past you, my friend, As you happen to be in wilderness
His quest is unyielding
Flaps your clothes
His endurance sacred
Makes your cheeks ruddy,
And in him revolt is inherent
And raffles your hair—-
But all these are for the sake of freedom;
Making your face yet more handsome,
Then to them he adds smile of wisdom
Your hair more lustrous,
Aimed sternly at vice of ignorance
And your eyes expressive of your strong figure to the
This is all on account of fire—
full!
And fire he gives to mankind
The wind, sweeping away vanity and frailty
Alongwith all other attributes,
Reveals your true colours, lights up your honesty,
Oh slave of disease and darkness
The wind, sweeping away the bleakness of these
What can you do to hurt me?
heights
III
Brings out the peak’s loveliness
The Wind
The desert’s splendour
The wind, sweeping over the mountain,
And teaches the pine tree to play sublime music!
Makes all the grass lying weary rise up and dance;
The wind has displayed the charm of this vast
The wind, sweeping over the desert
wasteland,
Whirls waves of sand although this is no sea;
And truly, friend, I love your fine carriage in the wind,
The wind, howling past the peak where stands a lone
Your bold advance through the wilds in the teeth of the
pine
wind!
ABOUT THE RADICAL HUMANIST WEBSITE:—Friends, the RH Website is your forum to interact and convey to each other that you are devoted to the cause of humanism, rationalism and above all to radical humanism. It takes more than a month for the RH journal to reach you. But it takes only an eye’s wink to open the web site and be with your people, with RH, with its articles, its news and news-reviews. Even if you are not computer savvy, the RH Website should be a sufficient temptation and motivation to learn to open it to read it and the most important thing—to comment upon it, to give your own contributions—or at least, to write letters to me about its contents, about yourself and about anything on Earth. The humanists need to keep connected. Should you not use this medium to do so? So don’t delay and register yourself on it. Click on the REGISTRATION sign given on the top right hand corner of the Website. Fill the registration form that opens. Press the SUBMIT sign. Go to your email inbox. You will get a link by email. Click on it and you will become a registered member of the website. You may then enter into debates, write your comments on news, articles, editorials and on each page of the RH journal—dirctly on the journal itself. Your humanist family is just a click away, waiting for you to join it. — rekha saraswat
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Mahi Pal Singh [Mr. Mahi Pal Singh is the President of Indian Radical Humanist Association (IRHA) of the Delhi Unit and Gen. Secy. of People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Delhi-unit. C-105, D.D.A. Flats, Sindhora kalan, Delhi-110 052 Mahi_pal_singh@yahoo.co.uk]
A Review of the National Human Rights Commission, Annual Report: 2004-2005 (Published by NHRC, New Delhi, pp 342) National Human Rights Commission The(NHRC), which was established on 12
th
October, 1993 under the legislative mandate of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, released its twelfth annual report for 2004-05 signed by its Chairperson Justice (Retd.) A.S. Anand, and members Justice (Retd.) Shivraj V. Patil, Justice (Retd.) Y.Bhaskar Rao, R.S. Kalha and P.C. Sharma, covering the period April 1, 2004 to March 31, 2005, on 12th January, 2006. The annual reports of the Commission serve as an essential source of information on the human rights situation in the country. As the report itself points out, in democratic societies fundamental human rights and freedoms are put under the guarantee of law and therefore, their protection becomes an obligation of those who are entrusted with the task of their protection. The rights are broadly classified into civil and political rights on the one hand and economic, social and cultural rights on the other. While the former are more in the nature of injunction against the authority of the State from encroaching upon the inalienable freedoms of an individual, the latter are 20
demands on the State to provide positive conditions to capacitate the individual to exercise these civil and political rights. The object of both sets of rights is to make an individual an effective participant in the affairs of the society. Unless both sets of rights are available, neither full development of human personality can be achieved nor true democracy can be said to exist. The Commission’s purview covers the complete range of civil and political, as well as economic, social ad cultural rights. Areas facing terrorism and insurgency, custodial death, rape and torture, reform of the police, prisons and other institutions such as juvenile homes, mental hospitals and shelters for women have been given adequate attention. The Commission has urged the provision of primary health facilities to ensure maternal and child welfare essential to a life with dignity, basic needs such as drinking water, food and nutrition, and highlighted fundamental questions of equity and justice to the less privileged, namely the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the prevention of atrocities perpetrated against them. Rights of the disabled, access to public services by disabled, displacement of population and especially of tribals by mega projects, food scarcity and allegations of death by starvation, rights of the child, rights of women subjected to violence, sexual harassment and discrimination, and rights of minorities, are rightly claimed to have been the focus of the Commission’s action on numerous occasions. Terrorism, Encounters, Custodial deaths and Disappearances: Terrorism poses a great threat to the life and liberties of people and in most cases of terrorist attacks the victims are innocent people. As such the menace of terrorism has to be fought resolutely and by all sections of society to defeat the objectives of terrorists. Human rights of people and the unity and integrity of the country have to be protected. At the same time it is equally important to ensure that the terrorists, whatever hue they belong to, are not able to harm the social fabric of society, vitiate communal harmony or disturb peace. Because of its multi-dimensional effects on society and individuals, it is too serious a matter to be left completely to the police and the security forces on the one hand and the politicians, who cannot free themselves from biases and communal leanings even in such serious matters because
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of the compulsions of vote-bank politics, on the other. Varied reactions of politicians on the recent incident of police encounter at Batla House at Jamia Nagar, New Delhi, in which two alleged terrorists responsible for the recent Delhi, Ahmedabad and Bangluru bomb blasts were gunned down by the Special Cell of the Delhi police and in which Mohan Chand Sharma, an inspector of Delhi police also sustained bullet injuries and later died in the hospital, and the incidents of rape, vandalism, killings of innocent Christians and burning of Churches and houses of Christians in the states of Orissa and Karnataka by activists of the Bajarang Dal, which amounted to nothing less than (religious) terrorism, are examples of how politicians continue to react keeping in view their electoral politics only. Civil society has to act as a vigilant watchdog if civil liberties and democracy have to be saved. It is necessary to fight terrorism resolutely, at the same time taking care that innocent people do not suffer unnecessarily at the hands of the state machinery acting in a biased manner under the instructions of its political bosses or arbitrarily and in a reckless manner thereby misusing the powers given to it for protecting the life and liberties of people and maintenance of peace in society. The Commission has rightly observed that the menace of terrorism has to be curbed and the war against terrorism has to be fought relentlessly but in doing so, no democratic society can be permitted to chill civil liberties of the citizens. In the fight against terrorism, sensitization level of human rights cannot be allowed to be sacrificed. A terrorist who violates human rights of innocent citizens must be punished but his human rights should not be infringed except in the manner permitted by law. A critical task of striking a fair balance by way of security concerns and human rights is to be performed and the need of proportionality must not be ignored. While fighting war against terrorism relentlessly, the State cannot be permitted to be either selective in its approach or to go over board and in effect declare a war on the civil liberties of people because the rationale of anti-terrorism measures is aimed at protecting human rights and democracy. Counter terrorism measures should, therefore, not undermine democratic values or subvert the rule of law. Keeping this in view, the Commission had recommended an inquiry into the case of five persons who were killed in Patribal by the security forces in the aftermath of the Chittisinghpora
tragedy in the state of J & K, to look into the matter and to fix responsibility on the delinquent public servant for the wrong doing. A CBI enquiry was ultimately instituted to look into the matter. The result of the enquiry later proved that those killed were not terrorists but innocent people. The report states that in the light of the revised guidelines issued by the Commission on 2nd December 2003, 122 intimations were received from the various State Governments about killings in encounters during the year 2004-05. In all these cases, the Commission sought reports through adoption of the procedure prescribed under the guidelines in carrying out investigation of these encounter killings for ascertaining the genuineness or otherwise of the encounters. The Commission disposed of 46 cases after considering the reports received from the State authorities. Although the Commission recognizes the fact that terrorism and the counter measures taken by the State to meet this menace is a matter of great concern because systematic human rights violations for long periods of time are often the root cause of conflicts and terrorism; that tyranny and widespread neglect of human rights and denial of hope of better future provides a fertile ground for breeding discontentment and terrorism; that social, economic and political disparities in a large measure only provide fodder to this discontentment making the situation more acute and bringing in its fold more and more people; and that indiscriminately taken counter measures prove menacingly counter productive, yet the Commission has failed in some important cases to ensure that the matter reaches its logical conclusion. Clarifying the legal position and the circumstances only under which the police could deprive a person of his right to life the Hon’ble Chairperson, Justice A.S. Anand in his letter dated December 2, 2003 to the Chief Ministers of the States observed: “Death during the course of a police action is always a cause of concern to a civil society. It attracts criticism from all quarters like Media, the general public and the NGO sector. The police does not have a right to take away the life of a person. If, by his act, the policeman kills a person, he commits an offence of culpable homicide or not amounting to murder, unless it is established that such killing was not an offence under the law. Under the scheme of criminal law prevailing in
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India, it would not be an offence if the death is caused in exercise of right of private defence. Another provision under which the police officer can justify causing the death of a person, is section 46 of the Criminal Procedure Code. This provision authorizes the police to use reasonable force, even extending up to the causing of death, if found necessary to arrest the person accused of an offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life. Thus, it is evident that death caused in an encounter if not justified would amount to an offence of culpable homicide.” The modified procedure, among other things, as laid down by the NHRC with the letter to the Chief Ministers stated: “D. A Magisterial inquiry must invariably be held in all cases of death, which occur in the course of police action. The next of kin of the deceased must invariably be associated in such inquiry.” These guidelines are rarely followed by the States. It is only after a lot of hue and cry is raised by people, road-blocks are erected, police stations are attacked and the matter is widely reported in the media that enquiries are conducted and in all such cases those claimed to be robbers and terrorists, and killed in encounters; turn out to be innocent people. It is only then that those police officials who are first presented as heroes of the law-protecting force turn out to be villains. What is worrisome is that governments refuse to order magisterial/judicial inquiries into the incidents of encounter deaths on the pretext that such inquiries demoralize the police force. What is worse still is that the NHRC itself starts flouting its own guidelines, as happened in the much talked of Batla House encounter in New Delhi. In which an Inspector of Delhi Police and two young alleged terrorists were killed. In spite of such demand from various quarters, including some human rights organizations, which pointed out many loopholes in the police story, the government of Delhi did not agree for a magisterial inquiry on the same old pretext of the police force getting demoralized. Even the NHRC did not hold an independent inquiry into the incident and accepted as true the whole story as given by the police, and later the Delhi High Court, relying on the report of the NHRC, declined to intervene. It is absolutely inexplicable as to why the NHRC did not adhere to its own guidelines
22
making it mandatory for the government to order a magisterial inquiry thereby putting its own credibility too at stake. by the NHRC’s own guidelines. Transparency cannot be brought about in such matters without the involvement of human rights organizations, NGOs, independent persons as well as media persons in the inquiry in such cases. The NHRC would fail in its mandate if it does not ensure observance of human rights norms by government agencies in such cases. The government should also realize that a demoralized and suspecting citizenry is even more dangerous than a demoralized police force and it ultimately leads to sympathy for terrorist/extremist outfits. Faithlessness in the law enforcing agencies also leads people to resort to street justice including beating and killing of suspected thieves/dacoits, beating of uniformed personnel and stoning/burning of police stations. Resorting to illegal and dubious methods by the law enforcing agencies is one of the biggest hurdles in the attainment of respect for law. It is because of the uniformed men indulging in more fake encounter cases than genuine ones that a five judge bench of the Hon’ble High Court of Andhra Pradesh in its judgment on W.P. No. 15419/2006 filed by the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC), People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and others, dated 6 February, 2009 ruled that in cases of encounter deaths even “a magisterial enquiry (inquest) (u/Ss. 174 to 176 Cr.P.C.) is neither a substitute nor an alternative to the obligation to record the information as FIR and to conduct investigation into the facts and circumstances of the case and if necessary to take measures for the discovery and arrest of the offender(s) (u/Ss. 154(1), 156 and 157 Cr.P.C.),” making it mandatory to record an FIR in all cases of encounters and to investigate the genuineness of the encounter, leading to the arrest of defaulting police officers. The Supreme Court vide its order dated 31.1.2003 referred for further investigation the case of disappearance of Dambarudhar Hazarika after his alleged release from its custody by the army personnel. A spot investigation by a team of its officers was conducted by the NHRC. ‘However, despite the best efforts by the team, the whereabouts of Dambarudhar could not be traced and he continued to be missing. The Commission informed the Apex Court accordingly.’ The report does not mention specifically whether the NHRC team tried to ascertain if he was really released
THE RADICAL HUMANIST
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by the army personnel or it was merely an ‘alleged release’ as the report mentions and that it could have been a case of custodial death, and if so, what action the Commission proposed to be taken in the matter. Vide another order dated 12.12.96 the Supreme Court referred the Punjab Mass Cremation Case relating to 2097 cremations of dead bodies by the Punjab Police in the Police Districts of Amritsar, Majitha and Taran Taran of District Amritsar as unidentified during the period 1984-94 for further investigation. Vide its proceedings dated 11.11.2004 the Commission awarded compensation @ Rs. 2.5 lakh to the next of kin of each of the 110 deceased persons who were ‘admittedly in the custody of Punjab Police at the time of their death.’ Thus some justice was done by way of compensation in nearly 5 % of the total number of cases referred to the Commission. But what action the Commission took in the remaining 95 % cases who had surely been cremated by the Punjab Police and still were not ‘admittedly in the custody of Punjab Police at the time of their death.’ Did the Commission try to find out how those additional 1987 dead bodies fell into the hands of the police and from where? This is no secret that fewer people were shown as taken into custody by the Punjab Police during those days of extremism and terrorism and thousands of innocent people were directly killed in encounters or killed under their custody and shown as killed in encounters, and, worse still, neither shown as taken into custody nor shown as killed in encounters at all. Keeping that in view, as the Commission should have, what action the Commission took in the matter is not mentioned in the report. The report also mentions that during his visit to Central Jail Ambala on 18.10.2003, the Chairperson, NHRC, came to know of the case of a mentally ill prisoner Jai Singh. It appeared that after his admission to jail in case FIR No. 28 dated 3.3.1976 u/s 302/34 IPC he was transferred to mental hospital, Amritsar on 9.5.1979. He was never produced in the trial court in the said case and continued as an under-trial prisoner for over 26 years. The matter was brought to the notice of the Hon’ble High Court of Punjab and Haryana and is under consideration of the High Court for appropriate action now. It is well known that people have remained in judicial custody even for longer periods of time, in one case for 54 years, without trial even prior to this case. Hundreds or even thousands could still be languishing in
jails for want of appropriate action, and no one knows for how long. Providing succor in stray cases is a good sign, but the Commission does not mention what institutional mechanism it proposes to be developed so that a time would come when the country could proudly boast that there was no unattended under-trial in any Indian jail languishing there for any act of omission or commission on the part of jail or judicial staff. Foreign nationals kept in illegal custody in Detention Centres: The report mentions that acting on a complaint in 2003 from four Pakistani Nationals confined for more than one and a half months in Restricted Foreigners Camp Lampur, Delhi on release from Tihar Jail after undergoing imprisonment in connection with different cases under IPC and Foreigners Act for entry in India without valid documents alleging that no action had been taken by the authorities for their deportation to Pakistan, the Commission took up the matter and got them released and repatriated to Pakistan. However, when a team of the Delhi People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) visited the Camp for a Fact-Finding Enquiry on the complaint of a Pakistani National named M.S. Khan detained there under similar circumstances, the team found that many foreigners are still detained there for periods ranging from six months to more than ten years. The team also met a Pakistani National detained there who had been brutally beaten up by the police there only a few days ago and a cut on his head had to be given many stitches. In spite of coming to know about such detentions it is inexplicable as to why the Commission did not send a team to the Camp to know the position of other foreigners detained there. Nor did it initiate any action to evolve a mechanism for monitoring the situation there on a periodic basis, as the report itself mentions, “Since appropriate relief, after intervention by the Commission had been granted to the four Pakistani Nationals, no further action by the Commission was considered necessary and the case was closed on 25.4.2005.” If we are sensitive to the rights of our own nationals living abroad, we cannot be oblivious or insensitive to the human rights of foreign nationals living/detained in our own country. Rights of the Disabled: Regarding the issue of the Rights of the Disabled the Commission itself is of the view that even after ten years
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of the enactment of the Disabilities Act the mechanisms responsible to evolve a disability policy have failed to do so and despite international and domestic action taken the physically and mentally challenged persons in our country continue to face several obstacles in leading their life with dignity. A questionnaire, circulated by the Commission to various government departments and States and Union Territories to ascertain the number of schemes and affirmative action programmes introduced by them to guarantee right to health, housing, assistive devices, education, vocational training, employment and social security benefits did not get the deserved responses and ‘it was difficult to draw any authoritative conclusion, as they were generally evasive, hiding more than revealing.’ The States have been attributing their failure to implement the provisions of the Disabilities Act. 1995 to lack of economic capacity, an alibi put forth by all governments against implementation of all social welfare programmes, thereby continuing, in this case, the exclusion and marginalization of the persons with disabilities. Right to Food: The Commission conducted many hearings on Starvation Death Petition between September 1997 and April 2004, and recommended several long and short term measures in 1998 and 2003, notable among the short term measures being Emergency Feeding Programmes and Old Age pensions and among the long term measures Employment Generation and Land Reform. A meeting on the ‘Right to Food’ was also held in January 2004. From among the nine issues that emerged from the meeting of the Core Group on the ‘Right to Food’, which was constituted under the Chairmanship of the Hon’ble Chairperson, some work was initiated only on the last part of the fourth one which stated: “Purchasing power of the rural people could be increased by rationalizing employment generation programs, increase in minimum wages and taking up food-for-work programs,” through the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. However, because of the unprecedented hike in the prices of food-grains and other essential commodities during the last four-five years, almost complete dislocation of the Public Distribution System in most parts of the country and mismanagement and high degree of corruption in the implementation of NREGA, it is highly doubtful whether the purchasing power of the 24
rural poor and availability of food to them has made any improvement or deteriorated further, making realization of the ‘Right to Food’ a distant dream. A survey conducted in 2006-07, when the NREGA was in force in just 200 districts, at the behest of the Planning Commission, the Institute of Applied Manpower Research (IAMR) conducted a survey of 6,000 beneficiaries from across 20 districts across the country in a bid to evaluate the implementation of the scheme right from the stage of issue of job cards, besides studying its impact on arresting migration and on the quality of life of the households, revealed that it has been able to lift the standard of living of at least some of its beneficiaries living below the poverty line, as reported in The Hindu dated September 6, 2009. However, another report in the same paper paints a grim picture of the scheme in several districts of Bundelkhand, Madhya Pradesh where Bootha Ahirwar, a farmer from Majhora in the Bakswaha block said: “Rozgaar guarantee mein kyun kaam karein? (Why should we work under the scheme?). We have to pay bribes, face intimidation and still wages are never paid on time.” Besides, there are reports from Bundelkhand, U.P. where poverty and starvation is forcing people to sell their wives and daughters. The only conclusion one can draw on the basis of the IAMR report is that programmes like the NREGA can be helpful in the direction of providing food security to the poor, whereas the Bundelkhand reports show how utterly they have failed in the absence of independent monitoring system, resulting only in increased corruption and wastage of public funds. Right to Health: The Commission recognizes the ‘Right to Health’ as enshrined under Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR): “Everyone has a right to standard of living, adequate for the health and well being of himself and of his family including food., clothing, housing and medical care and right to security in the event of sickness and disability,” and Article 12 of the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR): “The right of everyone to the enjoyment of highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.” On the other hand the Commission is also aware of ‘shortcomings in the present health care system’, in the emergency medical care as well as normal medical care.
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In this regard the Commission organized public hearings, suggested measures and advised setting up of various mechanisms for monitoring. However, as the government has been shedding more and more of its social responsibilities into the hands of private players thereby removing the tag of a ‘welfare state’, health care of the people has been becoming more and more costly and day-by-day it has been going out of the reach not only of the poor but also of the middle class people. Primary Health Centres have neither medicines nor competent doctors forcing people to run to the big hospitals in the metropolitan cities, which too fail to cater to the large number of patients. As a result even seriously ill patients are advised to go elsewhere, meaning thereby private hospitals, and most of them who are unable to afford the expenses to go to the big cities again and again and the high cost of medicines are left to the mercy either of cheap, unqualified quacks or abandon themselves and their loved ones at the mercy of nature and destiny, only to be deprived of their right to life in many cases. So long as the government does not focus on the establishment of a welfare state, as mandated by the Directive Principles of State Policy enshrined in the Constitution of India, and assume total responsibility of the health care of its people in a big way, mere hearings and setting up of committees, core groups etc. will remain only cosmetic measures. The Commission has not even touched upon this mandatory aspect of the responsibility of the State in its report. Rights of Women and Children: The report gives an account of various measures initiated by it for stopping trafficking in women and children for commercial sexual exploitation and for the abolition of bonded labour, including employment of children of tender age not only in shops, homes and even hazardous industries. However, the ground reality is that not much success has been achieved in these fields in spite of various laws enacted by the government. A sustained social awareness campaign followed by action and continuous monitoring with the help and active involvement of social activists, NGOs, media persons, elected representatives and police officers needs to be initiated and strengthened. What is even more important is that poverty alleviation and social security measures are undertaken in a big way.
Enactment of laws like the Domestic Violence Act 2005, measures taken for prevention of sexual harassment of women at work place and initiation of efforts by the Commission for the preparation of a Judicial Handbook on Combating Trafficking of Women and Children for Commercial Sexual Exploitation, in consultation with the representatives of the Department of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Home Affairs, National Commission for Women, UNICEF, UNIFEM, Lawyers’ Collective and the Joint Women’s Programme, ‘to sensitize the judicial officers to the overall issue of trafficking and to realize how women and children experience the process of law relating to trafficking and the functioning of related support services so as the enable them to proactively safeguard the rights of victimised women and children through sensitive interpretation of the law’, have strengthened the position of women but so long as they do not get partnership in governance through measures like reservation in legislatures across the country exploitation of women cannot be stopped. A lot will also depend on the implementation of the long awaited and now passed Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, which will go a long way in empowering women and protecting the rights of children, provided it is implemented sincerely and honestly. Human Rights of Scheduled Castes: The Commission recognizes that “Despite elaborate provisions in the Constitution and other laws, it is an unfortunate reality that social injustice and exploitation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and other weaker sections persist. There are reports in the press about atrocities against persons belonging to these groups and the frequency with which they occur is a cause for disquiet.” As such Sh. K.B. Saxena, a senior retired civil servant, was requested to look into this issue. Based on his report the Commission asked the States, among other things, ‘to identify atrocity and untouchability prone areas and prepare a plan of action; give elementary legal training along with sessions on confidence building to self-help groups of Scheduled Caste women and to identify an NGO in each district which can be approached in case of custodial violence or any other atrocity.’ The Commission also states that it ‘proposes to closely monitor the implementation of these recommendations in the coming years.’
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The States have not paid any heed to them and things and the situation remain as grim as they had been at the time when this report was released. What kind of ‘monitoring of the implementation of these recommendations’ has been done by the Commission, remains to be disclosed. Human Rights Education in India: The Commission recognizes the importance of human rights education in the country. Though awareness about human rights has increased in the country, it has remained mostly confined to big cities only and that too because of the efforts of NGOs working in the field of human rights. There has hardly been any effort to start human rights courses at secondary and undergraduate levels by the government in the country. Government agencies, especially those connected with the maintenance of law and order, not only look down upon human rights activists but also project them as anti-national elements working for the protection of Naxalites /Maoists and terrorists. This is also the case with the governments run by those political parties, which perceive members of the minority communities as anti-nationals and sympathizers of terrorists only because of their religious affinity. This attitude of governments and government agencies is the reason why even prominent human rights activists like Dr. Binayak
Sen, whose services for the cause of human rights of the poor and vulnerable sections of society are recognized internationally are incarcerated for years on purely concocted charges and hundreds of such activists are threatened, intimidated and even killed by police. Unless such activists get the place they deserve in society, an atmosphere conducive for the protection and promotion of human rights cannot be created in the country. Here they have to cry for their protection. That is the reason why People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has filed a Petition with the NHRC for initiating steps to develop appropriate jurisprudence for the protection of the human rights of the Human Rights Defenders. Studies and Recommendation: The Commission has launched several studies in various fields of human rights violations and one can only hope that action based on the reports of these studies will improve the situation in the country. The Commission has also recommended ratification of various international instruments and protocols so that they become binding on the State under the International Law. Various annexure and charts given in the report help a reader to have an overview of the human rights situation in the country and the steps taken by the Commission.
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All the information should be sifted through the intellectual sieve keeping in mind its humanist aspect and its rational implications. Media plays a very crucial role in forming a National community by building bonds among dissimilar people and determining the attitudes of man to various challenges he faces in life. It won’t be wrong, if we say that it, in a way, gives birth to a substitute world in which it invites the viewer to break the ice of isolation from his private world, engage his emotions and dwell imaginatively. In other words, it is a fusion of our sensuous, intellectual and technical dimensions. When media has a statement to make, it can use anything that can be effective for its purpose, sometimes remembering and sometimes forgetting its civic duty, through its vibrancy, excitement, contrast of form, aesthetic response, seriousness, agitating patterns – movement, or continuity. But it is also in the hand of the observer how much detached he wants to stay or how he shapes that statement into a personal communication and form a positive correspondence between feeling, form and technique. Today, the world is over flooding with photographs and photographic reproductions, whether reality in itself or reality manipulated. So many possibilities in the field of photography and technology attached to it, have brought it forward as an ‘art work’ itself, enriched with textural explorations, myriad angles, blending of contours, silhouettes and over-lapping. The play of light and shade can create wonders and reflect an illusion and
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mysterious environment to a simple and common thing, along with transcending time and space. Paintings are being influenced by marvelous results of digital photography and are even being juxtaposed with them. This comparison has made one aware of their distinctive aesthetic effects and psychological expression, melting or blurring the wall between science or technology and art. Camera can not only catch the visual facts but has given a new shape and helped in ‘documenting’ the temporary aesthetic experience of the arts like Installation, Assemblages and Performance. It has helped in storing this momentary art form and turning it into permanence, like any other art form like painting or sculpture. The outlook, rare view points and consciousness of a photographer turns his photograph into an art work, by which he can give a new perspective, select a particular moment and distort any form and space to manipulate it into a rare piece by changing what an actual eye sees and what’s seen through the Len’s eye. Photography has the power to compact or stop ‘time’ and present it into a single instant. The aesthetic and psychological dimension is triggered when the spectator enters the door of imagination by fully getting involved in it and tries to solve the mystery of distinct or indistinct, clear or hazy, movement or still moment and gets detached by the present, even though for a second. The trick of camera can make a visible seem invisible and an invisible seem visible by enlarging or reducing the size of visual field. A unique ‘Life’ can be brought forward by composing the reality within a new window, by cropping and re-framing it. How a scene is seen, caught and depicted, lies in the core of technology, where through infinite representations one can visit the ‘real’ world in the ‘reel’ world of undiscovered beauty. Only photographer’s decision-making instinct can turn camera into visual and intellectual equipment. Its reflection can be seen in good advertisements where just
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a ‘suggestion’ can lead to main aim. It can point out to a thin line between social description and satire. It can be an easy medium to highlight some protest, document an event and creatively present an interesting scenario in this era of globalization by extracting the best out of it, with a sense of proper gap between time and space in visual continuity. One can say that photography is an art with stimulated ideas and unlimited images, instinctive use of opportunities by overcoming the limitations. But while critically analyzing it, one must not forget the lineage of technique, quality of thought or feeling and the interaction between the medium and meaning. One has to keep an eye open for “from surface to depth, from optical to tactile, from pattern to idea, from part to whole, from singular to typical and from record to original”4 Only then can a print or a motion photography be called good and then a masterpiece, by orchestration of visual, intellectual or intuitive. But while concluding, it needs to be emphasized that it becomes a moral responsibility of the person who handles the camera to be cautious not to misuse its technology in his desire to explore its application along the lines of his creative imaginations to the extent that it begins to harm the fabric of societal cohesion and co-operation.
References: 1. Read, Herbert, Philosophy of Modern Art, Faber & Faber, London, 1951, p. 94 2. Feldman, Edward Burke, Varities of Visual Experience, Prentice Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffe, New Jersey and Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1992. 3. Ibid, p. 431 4. Ibid, p. 448 Plates: 1. Mark Holthusen (artist), 2. Alka Chadha, The Taj, Bombay, 2009. 3. John Pregulman, The Rebecca Kelly Dance Company, 1985, Feldman, Edward Burke, Varities of Visual Experience, Prentice Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffe, New Jersey and Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1992, p.438 4. Diwan Manna, Photo:I 5. Laszlo Moholy- Nagy, Untitled, 1924. Courtsey: The Art Institute of Chicago. Gift of George Banford, 1968, Feldman, Edward Burke, Varities of Visual Experience, Prentice Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffe, New Jersey and Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1992. Dr. (Ms.) Alka Chadha is Senior Lecturer in R.G. (P.G.) College, Meerut, in the Department of Visual Arts: Drawing & Painting and has edited an art journal.
SUBSCRIPTION FORM The Manager, The Radical Humanist C/o Mr. Narottam Vyas (Treasurer) Chamber No. 111, (Near Post Office) Supreme Court of India New Delhi-110001 Dear Sir, I/We wish to be enrolled as subscriber/s for The Radical Humanist for a period of one year/two years/three years/life. Name........................................................................................................... Address........................................................................................................ Phone No..................................................................................................... E-mail......................................................................................................... Thanking you. Yours faithfully,
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Book Review Section:
Dipavali Sen [Ms. Dipavali Sen has been a student of Delhi School of Economics and Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (Pune). She has taught at Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, and various colleges of Delhi University. She is, at present, teaching at Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce, Delhi University. She is a prolific writer and has written creative pieces and articles for children as well as adults, both in English and Bengali. Dipavali@gmail.com] [BOOK: The Genius of India (written Guy Dorman in French, published in 2000), translated by Asha Puri from French and published in 2008 by Full Circle Global, hardcover, priced Rs 495.]
The Globalizing World Needs the Genius of India French had arrived in India before the TheBritish did. But the French East India Company had never been as successful as the English East India Company. In the Battle of Plessey, the French were supporting Napa Siraj-ud-daula against the English. But it started to rain on that fateful day, and the French failed to cover up their gunpowder while the English did not. The French force thus turned out to be literally a damp squib. Full 350 years later, a Frenchman arrived in India – and that is Guy Sorman. This book is about his re-discovery of India. Guy Sorman (born 1944) is a French professor, columnist, author and public intellectual. He has written 30
about twenty books that uphold human rights and preach the ideals of creativity and modern capitalism. Several of them are International Bestsellers and have got excellent reviews, for example, in Le Monde and Le Point. He has taught economics at the Paris Institute of Political Sciences from 1970 to 2000 and at several other universities all over the world. In 1985, he was a visiting scholar at Stanford, Hoover Institution. He has also held several public offices, including advisor to the prime minister of France (1995-1997), Member of the National Commission for Human Rights and deputy mayor of Boulogne. Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations had been intrigued by the growth experience of India and China. Guy Sorman too is intrigued by these two countries. The New Wealth of Nations and The Empire of Lies: the Truth about China in the Twenty-first Century are two of his brilliant books. In The Genius of India he writes: “Since the eighteenth century, European intellectuals had begun to turn elsewhere for salvation. During the Age of Enlightenment, they first turned to India, then to Russia and China. For a long time, Russia was the darling with Catherine the Great’s benevolent despotism and then the Revolution of 1917. When Stalinism collapsed, Russia fell from grace and was replaced by the shining star of the East, Maoist China. The mystique lasted till China too adopted the prosaic system of liberal democracy. As for India, a complex, amorphous democracy with no revolutionary pretensions, she was dismissed. If at all she was mentioned, it was for her inadequacies: a political assassination, religious riots and so on and so forth. If only we would care to look, we would see that China is a civilization in ruins since the Cultural Revolution of 1966 and has nothing new to offer. India, on the other hand, is the only great civilization not to have been devoured by the West.”(p 14) At the end of the book, Sorman says: “I am not denying our civilization, nor am I idealizing India, real or imaginary. I only believe, like Romain Rolland, that the marriage of India and the West will enrich both, and that through India we will find the East that lies dormant in each one of us.” (p 261) Apart from the Prologue and the Epilogue, the book has five parts, namely: Part I (The Harmonious Anarchy) consists of three lively
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pieces, A Billion Republicans, Arjuna’s Chariot and Two Faces of Islam. Part II (The Caste Spirit) has two pieces: Where Rousseau Went Wrong and Discourse on Inequality. Part III (For an Economy of Dignity) contains: Cholera and the Bomb, It’s not enough to be Liberal, and Internet at Pondicherry. To Each His Guru, In Calcutta sans Romain Rolland, and The Rebel Weaver are the three pieces in Part IV (The Tolerance of the Gods). Part V (The Message of India) has two pieces; The India within Us and The Coming of the Mahatma. After the Epilogue, there are Biographical References – a rather readable section, although, regrettably, there is no Index. With the number of people and subjects the book touches upon, an Index would have been most useful. The printing and the binding are excellent, and the publishers need to be complimented on bringing out an Indian publication of international standards. Guy Sorman writes smoothly and simply. What is more, Asha Puri translates smoothly and simply. One does not get the feeling that one is reading a translated version of a composition in an alien language. This after all is the best test of a translation. Thanks to Asha Puri, this book remains Guy Sorman’s work.
Guy Sorman in this book has spanned Ashoka, Kabir, Gandhi, Sai Baba, the Mother, Nirad C Chaudhuri, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Amiya Bagchi, Ashis Nandy and others. For, this is India - complex, various, diverse, ever-growing and alive. This is the ‘genius’ of India – and Guy Sorman has captured it. Empire-building by Europeans had given way to that by one of their colonies – America. The whites are having to contend with yellow and brown and black – that too of different shades. “People of different origins, confessions and languages are being thrown together with all minorities enjoying the same degree of legitimacy.” (p 238). This multi-culturalism is seemingly a threat to the European identity. It is here that Guy Sorman thinks that India has a lesson to teach. India knows how to have multiple identities and yet hold up an overall ‘Indian’ identity. “. I believe the real message of India is not spiritual. It is temporal and humanitarian in essence. India is a marvellous example of the art of living together at a time when Westerners are apprehensive about the future of their society” (p 238). Guy Sorman has yet to discover Rabindranath Tagore. When he does so, he will find the familiar (to many) phrase “ai Bharater mahamanaber sagarateerey” which would mean “on the shores of the great humanitarian essence that is India”, the concept of globalization may re-discover and re-define itself. More than India needing Globalization, it is the globalizing world that needs the genius of India.
An Appeal By the Centre for the Study of Social Change (CSSC) M.N. Roy Human Development Campus, Mumbai, The CSSC announces the revival of Children’s Dosti Club (CDC) in M.N. Roy Campus at Bandra (East) from 5th September 2009. Children Dosti Club will be open from 4pm to 7pm, six adays a week, for the underprivileged children in the age group of 6 to 12 years. The aim of Children’s Dosti Club is to provide opportunity for physical, intellectual, emotional and social development of underprivileged children. Readers are requested to join hands with the mission by donating books (not text books), non formal and educational material, educational CDs, computers, cheques in the name of CSSC and by suggesting innotative activities / programmes. Shaila Telang 09821130213, hdcssc@bom5.net.in
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OCTOBER 2009 cooperation from their side in making Mukti Andolan (Deliverance Movement) a great success. —news by Ugamraj Mohnot IRHA Unit (Rajasthan)
Humanist News Section: I
Mukti Andolan: (Deliverance Movement)
II
Bigyan Prachar Samiti:
O
n 9th August 09 Mukti Yatra (Deliverance March) in six mini buses was taken from Swatantra Sangram Smriti Bhawan, Jaipur to Azadnagar, a Kachhi Basti of Jaipur. The buses were decorated with banners of the Rajasthan Pradesh Swatantrata Sangram Sainani Sangathan, Jaipur which gave messages like Shanti se Kranti (Revolution with Peace). On reaching the outskirts of Azadpur citizens and Freedom Fighters they started to march on foot and reached the madarsa (school) of the colony. While on their way, they were raising slogans written on placards such as Gandagi Se Mukti (Freedom from Dirt), Ashiksha Se Mukti (Freedom from Illiteracy), Berozgari Se Mukti (Freedom from Unemployment). The Freedom Fighters were greeted and garlanded by Mr. Qureshi, a retired Government Officer, living in the colony and Prof. Salim of Malviya Engineering College, Jaipur. Mr. Ugamraj Mohnot, a freedom fighter and a veteran Radical Humanist explained to the residents of the colony who had assembled there, the purpose of Mukti Andolan. He informed them that it would be an ongoing programme and shall involve scouts from Jaipur and the girl students of Muslim Higher Secondary School, Moti Dungri Road, Jaipur. He requested that co-operation of local people will be vital to pursue the programme. He further informed that a survey of each house will shortly be undertaken to locate those children who are not going to or are not able to go to school. It will also mark the number of adult illiterates and unemployed youth in each house. He announced that medical camps were being organised in near future with the help of Government to dispense free treatment to the deseased persons in the colony. The local residents along with Dr. Wassi, Mr. Qureshi and Prof. Salim assured the Freedom Fighters full
(Council for Spreading Knowledge) Bigyan Prachar Samiti - Bhubaneswar Chapter in collaboration with TRUST organized its “Annual Day Celebration” with a Seminar on “Scientific Temper & Humanism” on 20th Sept., 2009 at Dept. of Zoology, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar in two sessions. The Chief Guest in the first session was Dr Sahadeva Sahoo, IAS (R), Ex-Chief Secy., Orissa, Ex-VC, O.U.A.T. and the Guests of Honour were Mr Babu Gogineni, International Director, IHEU and Sj. Gangadhar Sahoo (OAS), Sub-Collector, Nilagiri. Dr Chittaranjan Mishra, Ex-D.G.M. NALCO and Dr Pratap Ku. Rath, Dept. of Psychology, Utkal University were the main speakers. A talk on “Designer Babies” by was delivered by Dr Jayakrushna Panigrahi, Jayadeva College and by Dr Dhaneswar Sahoo, Former Head, Dept. of Philosophy, B.J.B. College. Then the E -Journal “Here, the Search Begins…” (Our Affair with TRUTH Continues) was launched. On this occasion, ‘Dr Sahadeva Sahoo and Prof. Patitapabana Mishra’ as ‘Kimbadanti Purusa’ (The Legend) were felicitated for their outstanding contributions towards humanity’ Sj. Prasanna Karabar, Ex-Reader in English, Ravenshaw University, Sj. Sasikanta Acharya, Faculty, Krupajal Engineering College and Dr B.C. Guru, Professor, P.G. Dept. of Zoology, Utkal University also spoke in this session. The first session was concluded with a “Dance on Humanism” (Hindu Banega na tu Muslman Banega… Insaan ka Aulad hai tu Insaan Banega) by Ms. Arpita Padhy. In the 2nd Session Dr Sunder Narayan Patro, Working President, Orissa Environmental Society, presided. Dr
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Asutosh Nayak, Former Prof. of Chemistry, Sambalpur University, was the Guest of Honour. The main speakers were Sj. Abhimanyu Mohanta, UGC Research Scholar, Zoology Dept. Utkal University and Sj. Nihar Ranjan Acharya, Founder/Director, TRUST. A Talk was delivered on “GM Food and Future” by Prof. Prafulla K. Mohanty, PG Dept. of Zoology, Utkal University. Then a Film on “Poison on the Platter” by Mahesh Bhatt & Ajaya Kanchan was shown. Special Attractions were “BRUKSHYA BANDHAN” – A Unique Plantation Program and “Science behind Miracles” By Smt. Basanti Acharya, Secy. Service 2 Humanity Foundation. —News by N.R. Acharya, TRUST III
Hyderabad Rationalist Conference: The Hyderabad Rationalist Conference was held on 13 th September 2009 at Press Club, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. Mr Ravipudi Venkatadri, the veteran humanist at the age of 88 presided over the conference-inaugual session. He traced the brief history of Indian Rationalist movement. He remembered how Mr. Paranjpe, Mr. Lokhandwala, Mr. Abraham Solomon, S. Ramanathan, Mr. Avula Gopalakrishna Murthy, Mr. N.K. Acharya, Dr. N. Innaiah, Mr. Suryanarayana did the pioneering work of Rationalist Association while persons like Justice Avula Sambasivarao helped to run the Indian Rationalist journal. Mr. Venkatadri opined that the rationalist movement is an ongoing dynamic idea which is slowly and steadily transforming the society. Mr. C.L.N. Gandhi, chairman of Hyderabad Rationalist Association welcomed the conference and explained the purpose of the 5th annual conference. The key note speech was delivered by Dr N. Innaiah, Chairman, Center for Inquiry, India. He wanted the enactment of legislation to protect children from religious abuse from an early stage. He strongly pleaded that no religious mark should be dubbed on the child. They must be free to develop without any religious superstition and blind belief. Let them grow as free citizens and choose their religion or refuse religion when
they obtain voting age. Dr. N. Innaiah condemned the attitude of Dalai Lama who is spreading the reincarnation ideas which are scientifically not verifiable. Just as child marriages are banned through legislative act, the same way, dubbing children with religious marks should also be banned. Parents should not treat religion as a hereditary right and force their offspring into their belief systems and religions. Parents are perpetuating religions and thus perpetuating the mental backwardness among their children. The early religious prejudices keep influencing them even when they become scientists, technologists and social scientists. He cited the example of former President of India Mr. Kalam who might have prostrated before cult baba Satya Sai and Matha Amritanand mai, due to his childhood habit of believing in divine powers. Such practices get into our subconscious and make us behave in a certain manner without questioning the logic behind them. Mr. G. Veeranna, the vice president of Hyderabad Rationalist Association traced the evolution of the universe and explained how the humans developed rational thought. Mr. Kurra Hanumantharao, secretary, Indain Rationalist Association defined the secular society and remembered with regret Late S. Radhakrishnan’s method of explaining political philosophy and administration through religious explanations. Mr. P.S.R. Raju, president of Rationalist Association, Andhra Pradesh, gave a scathing criticism of people’s religious attitude towards society and humankind. Mr. M. Satyanarayana, managing editor of Hetuvadi monthly explained the process of Evolution and condemned the creationist theory. There was also, an exhibition of humanist literature in the conference. The new executive body of the Rationalist Association was elected with Mr. C.L.N. Gandhi as President and Mr. M. Chandrasekhar as Secretary, Mr. G. Veeranna as Vice President and Mr. Rajeswar as Treasurer. Around 100 delegates participated in the day long conference.
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—news by N. Innaiah
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IV
A Report on the release of - Fear and Forgiveness: The Aftermath of Massacre BOOK by Harsh Mander - Publisher Penguine (2009) Conditions for Reconciliation with Justice Do Not Obtain in Gujarat“The State, including Judiciary & the Civil Society failed the Victims”– Harsh Mander Prof. Irfan Habib’s tribute to Harsh Mander in glowing terms that it was reassuring to know that the country which witnessed massacres like Gujarat has given birth to not only Gandhi, but a person like him, of whom we were all proud, summed up the sentiments of all teachers, students and social workers who had assembled under the Presidentship of the industrialist-philanthropist Mr. Zafar Alam in the forenoon of 16th September in the Arts Faculty Lounge of the A.M.U., Aligarh for the release of his book Fear and Forgiveness: The Aftermath of Massacre published by the Penguin in 2009. Prof. Habib characterized the Gujarat carnage, which constitute the background of the book, as not only an onslaught against Muslims but against the entire nation. The programme started with recitation from Hindu, Muslim Christian, Buddhist, Sikh an Jain scriptures on the theme of sanctity of human life. The book was formally released by Dr. Zakia Siddiqi. It was followed by reading of passages from the book by Dr. Sami Rafiq, Haris and some others. Dr. Sami Rafiq compeered the programme. Welcoming Harsh Mander, Prof. Iqbal A. Ansari, President Citizens For Peace and Human Rights, which organized the programme in collaboration with the Dept. of Political Science of the A.M.U, observed that Harsh Mander combined rare intellectual and moral integrity with compassion, which has made him undertake dedicated work for all marginalized, poor and oppressed
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people. Muslims in his view are not only targets of violence of hate-groups but also suffer daily discrimination and are being treated as second class citizens. Introducing the book, Prof. Ansari said that the book affirms that there cannot be any durable peace without punishing the unrepentant guilty and fully rehabilitating the victims. However going beyond legal retributive justice it explores chances of restorative justice, by a process of healing and reconciliation which required: (i) acknowledgment; (ii) remorse; (iii) reparation; and (iv) justice. The writer feels that none of them were obtained in Gujarat. Instead of even the slightest signs of acknowledgment of guilt, Modi and his gang celebrated the event as Gujarat’s Gaurav (Pride) – in the process Modi became a folk hero. Prof. Ansari referred to passages in the book, which honestly brought out how the State’s institutions, the rights groups and secular intellectual class failed the victim group. However the book also points out that for the first time the efforts of civil society groups supported by the NHRC resulted in the reopening of cases and retrials leading to convictions under the direction of the Supreme Court. Inaugurating the session, the Aligarh industrialist and philanthropist, Mr. Pramod Kumar, pointed out the general state of lawlessness of the police and the law-enforcement system wherein false encounter killings and torture were common – which made situations like Gujarat passively acceptable by the people. In his detailed analysis of the book, Prof. Masoodul Hasan, one of the most distinguished scholars of the A.M.U, observed that the book, written in a superb literary style combining the clinical and the artistic technique and tools, was the outcome of sincere heart searching of one who had a heart of gold. He expressed appreciation of the coinage of the term Nyayagrah (fort of justice) for people’s collective struggle for legal justice. Prof. Hasan also made copious references to Prof. Ansari’s work as an activist and scholar, including his work in the area of communal violence. While complimenting Harsh Mander for his commendable work both as an activist and writer Prof. Hamida Ahmad regretted lack of any progress in the
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accountability of law-enforcement system since early 1960s. She recalled how Subhadra Joshi’s visit after Hashimpura (Meerut) – Maliana massacre by the PAC in 1987 had inspired hope in her as a student, which was never fulfilled. Dealing with reconciliation – the theme of the book – she appreciated that Harsh Mander distinguished between subjugative reconciliation of the oppressed woman to her inferior status and reconciliation with dignity among equals. She made the perceptive observation that there was no question of acknowledgment of guilt by those who planned the carnage pursuing their agenda of hate and revenge. Recalling the oft-made observation including that by Harsh Mander that no riot could continue beyond a few hours, if the law was enforced impartially, she wanted to remove the distinctions caused by labels between ‘riot’ and ‘terror’. Both were the same. She hoped that Indians would remind themselves that they treated Ashoka as ‘the Great’ and Akbar as ‘the Great’ not Alexander ‘the Great’, and would remove the blot of Modi becoming the Great. Prof. Khwaja Shamim Ahmad acknowledged the heart moving narrative of the book, which touched him. He recalled the Aligarh riot of 1978 in which the PAC had done targeted killings of Muslims. Were the rifles scientifically trained to recognise and kill only Muslims? He put the question to Prime Minister Morarji Desai, when he observed that when riots broke out, police would resort to firing. The retired district judge Dharam Sing Ram commended Harsh Mander’s work, to which, he felt, we should extend support so that gross injustice to Muslims and other weaker sections could be removed, without which India’s claim as a law-governed democracy would remain hollow. Dr. Mufti Zahid recalled Harsh Mander’s initial sacrifice by resigning from the administrative service and undertaking the mission of rousing people’s conscience. His sincere dedication to the cause made us regain hope. He felt that the facts of the incident of Ishrat Jahan’s false encounter killing coming to light was a hopeful sign of accountability. Dr. Asim Siddiqi paid tributes to Harsh Mander, whose columns in newspapers he looked forward to reading with interest every week; and was moved by his recent
account of the Nellie massacre of 1983, in the Hindu. It appeared to him that he wrote from the heart. Dr. Shakeel Samdhani recalled how as a mere Additional Collector he got anti-Sikh riot in Indore controlled, by calling the army without seeking permission from any political authority. Paying tributes to him, he observed that we should all seek inspiration from Harsh Mander’s work. Prof. Shamim Ahmad forcefully brought out pervasive injustice to Muslims, who were in a unique situation of victim-hood. He gave a call for trial of Modi under some competent international authority. In his concluding remarks Prof. Ansari pointed out that issues of justice, peace and reconciliation in Gujarat could not be dealt with in isolation. Gujarat 2002 is the outcome of the failure of the judiciary since December 1949 till 1994 in the Ayodhya. Why did Ayodhya happen? It needs to be publicly debated, like the current debate over why Partition happened, fixing responsibility for not only 6 December 1992, but all events since 22-23 December 1949. He further observed that to be able to cope with the post-Ayodhya situation of which Gujarat is an episode required paradigm shift from pre-1947 secular communal polarized public discourse to a more comprehensive model of peace & reconciliation for the entire subcontinent making us rethink our concepts of nation, community, citizen and State in human rights’ perspective. In his response Harsh Mander gave reasons for writing the book based on his experience in Gujarat since 2002 till date – especially the narratives of sufferings of the innocent victims, which needed to be recorded – as he discovered in Nellie (Assam) when he visited the victims of Feb. 1983 carnage, who narrated the 25 year old events as if they had happened in the recent past. Since his idea of India was based on equality of rights of all citizens, especially equal justice for all, he initiated Nyayagraha movement to struggle for securing legal justice while adhering to truth. Apart from the narrative of the pregnant Kausar, whose abdomen was ripped open and foetus smashed, he recalled the effacement of Wali Dakni’s shrine and overnight building of a road over it. However, it should be comforting to know that every night after the traffic comes to a halt Hindu devotees offer floral tribute to the Saint.
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Referring to the findings of Ashish Nandy he expressed satisfaction over the fact that during 1947 holocaust 26 per cent of people on both sides of the Indo-Pak border saved life of the other community as compared to one per cent savers of Jews in the Holocaust in Nazi’s Germany. In his presidential remarks Mr. Zafar Alam, expressed his sense of pride and achievement after meeting Harsh Mander for the first time. He congratulated him as well as other human rights activists who were serving as catalytic agents for an ongoing change, and expressed his conviction that parliamentary democracy in India would be able to bring about structural reform in the model of governance so that recurrence of massacres and pogroms could soon become a thing of the past.
The CDC activity centre will be open for children in the age group of 6 yrs to 12 years, five days a week from 4pm to 7pm. The centre will provide indoor games, non formal educaion, library and computer learning facility, under the guidance of trained and experienced volunteers. —Centre for the Study of Social Change VI Condolence Meeting for late Shri Haribhai Shah at Ahmedabad:
A Condolence Meeting was held on 18/8/09 at Gandhi —news by Iqbal A. Ansari Peace Foundation Center Ahmedabad, presided by Shri Prakash N. Shah a senior Journalist and Gandhian. Speakers from all walks of public life spoke on the V various works done by late Haribhai Shah, particularly during Emergency in 1975. The speakers included Inauguration of Children’s Dosti Club Activity Radical Humanists like Gautam Thaker, Manubhai Centre: Shah, Ramesh Korde, Bhagatsinh Khadia, Jitendrabhai Desai from Navjivan, Political Scientist- Prof. Dineshbhai Shukla, leading journalist Vishnubhai Centre for the Study of Social Change (CSSC) has been Pandya, Trade Union Leader Chidambaram, Advocate working with the underprivileged population in Mumbai Mayur Shah and many others. Shri Prakash Shah suburbs. The CSSC works with children through the remembered the dark days of Emergency in which Children Dosti Club (CDC). The CDC aims at providing Haribhai Shah fought courageously. Haribhai was the opportunity to poor and needy children for physical, first working President of PUCL Gujarat. A condolence intellectual, emotional and social development. For the resolution was passed in the meeting. lats eight years CDC organised summer camps for children during vacations. The camps focused on providing opportunity for recreation and non formal education. The camps also provided a platform to discover and present talent in dance, theatre and music. In collaboration with Forum for Change (a citizen initiative for better society), the CSSC is now going to run the CDC activity centre throughout the year. The cdc activity centre was inaugurated on the occasion of Teacher’s Day on 5th September 2009 at CSSC, M.N. Roy Human Development Campus, Bandra. Eminent theatre personality and puppeteer Mrs. Meena Naik was invited as president and upcoming media personality Ms. Manva Naik inaugurated the CDC activity centre. More than 100 children along with their parents were present on this occasion.
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—Gautam Thaker General Secretary IRHA Gujarat VII Indian Radical Humanist Association, Ahmedabad, Meeting: Indian Radical Humanist Association’s meeting was held at Gandhi Peace Foundation Center Ahmedabad, Gujarat on 18th August 2009. Shri Manubhai B. Shah was elected the President of Gujarat unit of IRHA and Gautam Thaker was elected the General Secretary with
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Akhilesh Dave as Treasurer. It was decided in the meeting that an all India Study Camp of IRHA and a public meeting to celebrate V.M. Tarkunde Centenary year will be held at Ahmedabad, most probably, in the month of December 2009.
—News by Gautam Thaker General Secretary IRHA Gujarat
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THE RADICAL HUMANIST
OCTOBER 2009
Radical Humanist and Freedom Fighter Mr. Dhanpat Singh Tyagi is no more.
Mr. Dhanpat Singh Tyagi breathed his last on 19th September 2009 at the age of 95. His body was wrapped in the Tricolour and was given a tearful farewell with full State Honours. He was born in village Makanpur in district Ghaziabad in 1914. During the National Movement he started his political career idealizing Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Chandra Shekhar. When he was in Class 8th he had tried to unfurl the Tricolour in his school and was rusticated by the Head Master. He joined INC for some time and went to jail for a month in 1940 for taking part in the Independence struggle. But later he came under the influence of M.N. Roy and became a staunch supporter. He joined the Radical Democratic Party. He also contested the State (MLA) election on the RDP ticket, but lost as all others did in the RDP. He was also a very popular Trade Union leader and had successfully established many Trade Unions in sugar mills and factories in and around Meerut, like in the famous Jaswant Sugar Mill and in Meerut Straw Board Factory. He was recognized as a reputed Labour Leader in the whole of Western U.P. He retired as Labour Inspector from Jaswant Sugar Mill, Meerut in 1976. He refused to take Government Pension as a Freedom Fighter, when offered. His wife Mrs. Rajkali Tyagi was always by his side in all his political and social activities. He is survived by his two sons Rajendra and Yogesh and two daughters Rajesh and Bina. He remained a Radical till he breathed his last. He would impatiently wait for the Radical Humanist journal, every month and would not rest unless he would read it from page one to the end, even during the last months of life. The entire Radical Humanist family, conveys its deep condolence to the bereaved family of Mr. Dhanpat Singh Tyagi. It stands by them in their hour of grief. It sincerely hopes that they will follow the foot steps of their father and will carry forward the values of Radical Humanism. —Rekha Saraswat, on behalf of the IRI / IRHA Members
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THE RADICAL HUMANIST
OCTOBER 2009
Late Shri Haribhai Shah
Shri Haribhai Shah was born on 7th March 1925. He took his early education in C.N. Vidyalaya and later he took a Degree of B.Com from H.L. College of Commerce. Thereafter he took a degree of Law from L.A. Shah Law College. He practiced at the Bar in Bombay High Court for a short while and came to Ahmedabad and was practicing at the Bar in Civil Court and Labour. He was closely associated with late Mr. C.T. Daru a labour leader and later became a leading Advocate in the Gujarat High Court. He became a City Civil and Sessions Judge in 1967 and resigned in 1970. Thereafter he was practicing in the Gujarat High Court till 2002. During his short tenure as City Civil and Sessions Judge, he gave a historical order in case of Vadtal Swaminarayan Temple by framing a Scheme of Management. He was a Radical Humanist. He was very active during Emergency and was active in holding many conferences for saving Civil liberties and for revival of democracy during emergency. During emergency he filed a petition challenging seal of Navjivan Press established by Mahatma Gandhi, Father of Indian Nation. He also filed a petition challenging the detention under M.I.S.A of our leading Advocate, Late Shri H.L. Patel. During these days of Emergency, he came in close contacts with prominent personalities like Late Ex-Chief Justice of India, Mr. J.C. Shah, Late Chief Justice of Bombay High Court, Mr. M.C. Chagla, Late Justice Mr. V.M. Tarkunde, Late Mr. Madhu Dandvate, Mr. Soli Sorabjee, Mr. Ram Jethmalani, Mr. Shanti Bhusan and leading journalist, Mr. Arun Shourie. He also wrote books on philosophy of Plato and about Women Rights. He suffered illness during the last six months and breathed his last on 11th August 2009 at about 4-00 p.m. He was 85. He is survived by his wife, son and three daughters. He was President of the Gujarat Unit of IRHA. He has contributed liberally for the development of the movement. He was trustee of Daru memorial Trust. The Radical Humanists convey their heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family. —Prof. Jayanti K. Patel
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THE RADICAL HUMANIST
OCTOBER 2009
RENAISSANCE PUBLISHERS PRIVATE LIMITED 15, Bankim Chatterjee Street (2nd floor), Kolkata: 700 073, Mobile: 9831261725 NEW FROM RENAISSANCE By SIBNARAYAN RAY Between Renaissance and Revolution-Selected Essays: Vol. I H.C.350.00 In Freedom’s Quest: A Study of the Life and Works of M. N. Roy: Vol. Ill Part-1 H.C.250.00 Against the Current H.C.350.00 By M. N. ROY Science and Superstition H.C.125.00 AWAITED OUTSTANDING PUBLICATIONS By RABINDRANATH TAGORE & M. N. ROY Nationalism H.C.150.00 By M. N. ROY The Intellectual Roots of Modern Civilization H.C.150.00 The Russian Revolution P.B.140.00 The Tragedy of Communism H.C.180.00 From the Communist Manifesto P.B.100.00 To Radical Humanism H.C.140.00 Humanism, Revivalism and the Indian Heritage P.B. 140.00 By SIVANATH SASTRI A History of The Renaissance in Bengal—Ramtanu Lahiri: Brahman & Reformer H.C.180.00 By SIBNARAYAN RAY Gandhi, Gandhism and Our Times (Edited) H.C.200.00 The Mask and The Face (Jointly Edited with Marian Maddern) H.C.200.00 Sane Voices for a Disoriented Generation (Edited) P.B. 140.00 From the Broken Nest to Visvabharati P.B.120.00 The Spirit of the Renaissance P.B.150.00 Ripeness is All P.B. 125.00 By ELLEN ROY From the Absurdity to Creative Rationalism P.B. 90.00 By V. M. TARKUNDE Voice of A Great Sentinel H.C.175.00 By SWARAJ SENGUPTA Reflections H.C 150.00 Science, Society and Secular Humanism H.C. 125.00 By DEBALINA BANDOPADHYAY
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Read, a Bimonthly in Hindi
for Humanist & Renascent Thought By U.R. MOHNOT D-98 A, Krishna Marg, Bapu Nagar, Jaipur-15, Ph. 91-141-2621275
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Students participating in a Seminar on Caste System
Organised by Humanist Youth Forum,at S.S. Jain Subodh P.G. College,Jaipur