“My husband was in Phool Sawangi, hundreds of miles away from Malegaon when the blasts took place in Malegaon a year before. The whole village is witness to this fact. Tell me, how can he plant a bomb in Malegaon when he was miles away?” asks Salma Bano, a resident of Phool Sawangi near Nanded and wife of Zahid Akhter. Zahid is one of the accused in Malegaon September Blasts case. With sheer helplessness written large in her eyes and almost bewailed, she adds, “No way! But he is still lingering into the jail.”
Ironically, this is not an aberration in the country; the Muslims have been at the receiving end from the Police Department and other Government officials in India ever since the Independence. Whenever something happens in any part of the country, finger of suspicions are immediately raised towards the Muslims without taking into account the impact of such attitude on the community, “This is nothing but a mental torture and it looks sort of state sponsored pestering through the machinery”, says Altaf Ansari, an activist. And once this is done, the Muslims are now lucky if they can avoid indiscriminate detentions of their educated youngsters.
Very recently, the same thing was observed after the Makkah Masjid Blasts in Hyderabad as well. Like in Malegaon, as soon as the blasts took place, the speculations of the Muslim involvement started circulating even before any investigation actually took place.
God forbid saying, the State Machinery is working on some pre-planned strategy to nab the Muslims. However, a close study of the Sachar Committee Report confirms this notion to some extent. It is worth recalling what the report says about the trauma, to which the Muslims are subjected to, when such things make rounds in the society.
Report Brief
The Prime Minster of India constituted a High Level Committee led by Justice Rajendra Sachar for assessing the Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslims in India. After an extension of few months, the Committee ultimately handed its report to the Prime Minister in November last.
And the report! It was as if, someone has counted the bleeding wounds of an injured body! Beyond doubt, first time after the independence, any report has succeeded in addressing the actual grievances of a beleaguered community on official level in such a comprehensive manner! The grievances, which were cleverly kept hidden from the world till now!
As expected, it was a near storm everywhere in the country when the report was made public. And after the dust settled down, it became clearly known to everyone that the Muslims in India are far behind, in almost every field, in comparison with their fellow countrymen. Worst, they are forced to live under the dilemma of being treated as Anti-National.
The burden (or price?) of loyalty
Along with many other torments the community is forced to live with, the report has highlighted ‘the mental torture’ by the media and the agencies that keep on questioning the loyalty of the Muslims towards the country. The Report has observed, “They carry a double burden of being labeled as “anti-national” and as being “appeased” at the same time. While Muslims need to prove on a daily basis that they are not “anti-national” and “terrorists”, it is not recognized that the alleged “appeasement” has not resulted in the desired level of socio-economic development of the Community.”
It further says, “Concern was expressed over police highhandedness in dealing with Muslims. Muslims live with an inferiority complex as ‘every bearded man is considered an ISI agent’, ‘whenever any incident occurs Muslim boys are picked up by the police’ and fake encounters are common. In fact, people argued that police presence in Muslim localities is more common than the presence of schools, industry, public hospitals and banks.”
The report goes on to add, “Communal tension or any untoward incident in any part of the country is enough to make Muslims fear for their safety and security. The lackadaisical attitude of the government and the political mileage sought whenever communal riots occur has been very painful for the Community.”
Now the most awful act on the part of the Government! The Muslims had expected from the Government that it would have taken some immediate corrective measures at least in this regard. However, very unfortunate to state that one really fails to find anything the Government has done in this regard.
Is the Government really serious over the Report?
Not a single day is passed when a leader, however small or big, forgets to reiterate the Government’s seriousness over the Sachar Committee Report and its concern for the revival of the Muslim Community. Some even suggest, backdoor high-level activities are underway and some thing good for the community will definitely come out of it. They even advice to hold on for sometimes as the Government policies take time for implementation.
True, the Government initiatives, schemes and policies take time and if they are related to the Muslims, they take even more time. However, the Muslims wish to know what steps the Government has taken for easing out the “burden of suspected loyalty” from the beleaguered community. What the Government has done to counter the malicious propaganda against the Muslim community and what it has done about the alleged atrocities against the Muslims.
Just in case you are listening dear Prime Minister
Lately, we have seen some statements by the Prime Minister and other ministers urging the concerned departments for restrain and when the Prime Minister said, he had not slept for the whole night after watching the TV images of Glasgow accused’s parents, it was really mother of all statements in this regard. Nonetheless, one is sorry to say that the attitude of the officials and various departments towards the Muslims remain the same and ceases to show any kind of reversal. Otherwise my dear PM, why is Zahid still behind the bars when Haneef is enjoying into the free air? Why is Salma still away when Firdous Arshiya has found her love?
And it is here that the suspicion comes into one’s mind about the sincerity of the Government over the report. It is high time for the Government to realize at least now that, more than bread and butter, what the Muslims in India need today is a better peace of mind. Enough of the rhetoric, it is time for the action now.
It is really interesting to recall what Hasan Kamal, a senior journalist and activist had said in a recent meeting on ‘Islam and terrorism’, “Give us TEN years of peace, I just ask TEN years of peace for the Muslims, then you would see, to what height we take this country to.”
By Aleem Faizee
Showing posts with label Matters of Minorities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Matters of Minorities. Show all posts
Monday, 10 September 2007
Muslims In Gujarat: Victims Of A conspiring State
Nafisa Bi lost her eyesight three years back after three of her sons were arrested under the notorious Prevention of Atrocities & Terrorist Act (POTA) after the Sabarmati Express, was burnt by the miscreants in Godhara railway station in February 2002. Today, Nafisa, 60 is completely blinded in her isolated home, which used to have a bakery. There are 11 such families living in Rehmat Nagar area of Godhara who have lost everything after their male members were arrested and kept in prison. Charges have not been framed yet, said Rehana Bi whose husband Shabir Hussein was a conductor in a private bus and was randomly arrested along with other 'conspirators' for their alleged role in the incident. The meager earning were not enough to sustain their family of four. Her younger daughter Shamim Bano was not born yet and has not seen her father so far. Rehana does not have any other members to support and is earning her livelihood through domesticated work at the houses of nearby Muslim locality of Boharas. " I go at 8 in the morning and return at 12 pm. They give me the left over food, which I eat and bring for my children. In cash, I just get Rs 250/-. My husband was getting Rs 1,200/- as monthly salary. How can my family survive in a meager Rs 250/-, she asks. No body comes here to ask us about our problems. A few social work organizations were here for some year but now they too have left leaving us in lurch. We have no clue about when our people will be released from the jail, despite the fact that we are informed that Supreme Court has ordered them bail, she explains. Gujarat has witnessed systematic isolation of the Muslims in the past 10 years. Their movements are traced and livelihood shattered. It is very difficult for them to get even the work in the Hindu households. Even if the community wants to restart its life forgetting the past, there is no certainty whether the product that they make would sale in the market or not. Efforts were made by many NGOs, which failed because of the un written economic blockade by the powerful group of the Hindutva brigade. In fact, the tribal and Dalits face the same wrath in the village if they ally with any likeminded organizations which talks of their identity and rights.
The pain of Nafisa bi needs to be understood in terms of the ailing Gujarati society and the crisis Muslim women face in Gujarat. With most of the male members gone behind the bar, these women today face the uphill task of reviving their lives in a deeply polarized and hostile atmosphere. Rehmat Nagar area reflects the mood of the state government and their zeal to isolate Muslim further. There is no activity in the area, which is completely cut off from the main high way. No link road and if it rains then perhaps it would become nearly impossible for these women to go to earn. Most of the women are surviving on the alms which their employer give them apart from a salary of Rs 250/- per family per month.
Activists come and promise that our people would be released soon as the Supreme Court has ordered, said Rehana Bi. But Nafisa Bi seems to be resigned to her fate. 'It is more than three years that I saw my sons. Now even if they come, I would not be able to see them.' Neighbors inform that Nafisa weeps all the time. Her husband divorced her long back without caring their children. Fortunately, her sons were hardworking and earned their livelihood well to take care of her. Today, she is thoroughly dejected at the plight of her sons who she alleges were beaten up mercilessly in the police lock up. Her son Shabir Anwar Ansari have three sons and one daughter while Alauddin, the other son got married the same year. The locality is about 5 kilometers away from the railway station where the Sabarmati Express's coach were burnt. ' The police came in the evening with their face covered and asked the male members to accompany them to their bosses office', say Rehana. She further added that there were no women police personnel when they came. They were all men showering the choices abuse on us.
Fakharuddin Yusuf was a Bus driver. He was arrested as soon as he returned from his trip. He was put in Sabarmati jail where he died one year later. He was beaten up mercilessly in the police lock up. Obviously, the Gujarat police whose track record is worst while tackling with the minorities cannot escape the blame. Many young children who were born after their father was arrested often ask their mothers when would their father return.
The police and administration has become so nasty that it does not even allow the detainees to meet their ailing parents even when they were waiting for a peaceful death. Rehana's mother in law died weeping and crying to see her son who could not come to see her before her death. Payroll was granted to Rehana's husband three days later after his mother was cremated. Mother and son did not see each other for three years says Rehana wiping her moisted eyes. When the Gujarat police come here they do not bring any women constables and on our defiance we are beaten up. She was arrested for one day. Rehana is outspoken when I ask about who burnt the train. " we did not know about the burning of train before the police came and started arresting the people. They informed that all the male members would be required to go to SP sahib but once they were put in the police vehicles they never returned and families only came to know about the whereabouts of their male members about three months later when they started writing to them.
' I too was arrested but they released me the very next day but my father was kept up in the lock up for six days', she says. Her moist eyes narrate the innocence inside her ', we do not burn even the dead, why would we burnt people alive?'
A total of nearly 100 families are charged under POTA in Godhara. The eleven families whose male wards have been arrested immediately after the train was burnt hail from this locality of Rehmat Nagar which is located on right hand side of the Godhara-Badodara high way. There is no connectivity road to this locality and one has to take off from the vehicle to reach here. The narrow muddy lane is the only way for you to reach the place. None of the man in the area has any work. In fact, they do not get any work outside. Tragedy is that Nafisa and like her many women's pains and agonies are compounded with the fact that with in their own community they have lot of resistance. When there is no work, man have no work to do and mere domesticated work in nearby locality of the Bohras cannot make them survive. It is ironical that many of the women are being pushed in the flash trade since there is virtually a crisis of survival. Immediately after the riots, many NGOs started working among the victims but two-three years after the incident when they are faced with a hostile state administration which is hell bent on keeping the Muslims in particular and minorities in general out of the mainstream, organizations winded up their charity work. Of course, some of them are still working creating awareness in an otherwise thoroughly communalized atmosphere of Gujarat.
The Modi government kept quiet and even the press has not been able to follow up all the cases. How long the select few would come every day to expose a government, which has been corrupted at every level. The water in Rehmat Nagar area is totally contaminated, as there are factories in the area, which release chemical waste every day and therefore have turned the ground water totally undrinkable. The families go to fetch water from high way, nearly half a kilometer away from the area. Most of the families, which lived here before February 27 th, 2002, have now left for other areas leaving 11 of the families here in complete isolation.
Rehana's mother in law died. When she was on bed, her husband applied for a payroll but was denied. He came to see his mother three days after her death. That is the tragedy of the entire incident. Says Rehana,' Narendra Modi is not a married man. Had he been married and had some children, he would have been sensitive to the issues of family, pain of a mother or anguish of a wife or cry of the children who miss their father. How would he explain to a mother who died crying without seeing her son?
In the global war on terror, it is very clear that it is the educated elite, which is now becoming a tool in the hands of the deeply religious fanatics. Poor were actually never were part of it. They might be looked down upon as 'fundamentalists' but never as 'terrorists'. In this age when war are psychological as well as more so on modern techniques, a look at the profile of 11 POTA victims would tell how government was hell bent on making the innocent as terrorists.
Shabbir Hussain was bus conductor with a happily married life with children has been arrested. Shabbir Anwar Ansari and Alauddin Ansari were brothers with their families. Both were with their mother and running a bakery shop. Sadiq Khan Sultan Khan was a painter. Shamsher Khan is brother of Sadiq Khan. Yusuf Khan used to make bamboo Pinjara while Feroj Khan was working with Yasin Habib in a hotel. Feroj Khan was working in a steal company and Jabir Binyamin was working with a dairy. Fakhruddin Yusuf was working as a driver and was not even in the town. He returned in the evening only. The work profile of all these people may not suggest whether they had time to conspire against people. He has six daughters and 2 sons. Now all of them have left this place, as there was no security of life and livelihood for them. Jabir's wife Jainab informs how her two children miss their father. Daughter Saima Bano 4 and son Shehjad 5 have not got their fathers live as he is in jail. In fact Saima was born after her father was in jail.
Jabir's brother Ramjani was a rikshawpullar with a school. He was arrested from school where he was taking school children. Ramjani has six children with the eldest daughter Naseem Bano aged 12 and the youngest son Sarfaraj aged 5. Another brother Habib is also arrested. He has two children Shamir and Ferhan. The families are virtually living in despair and starvation. All the women are working as domestic servants in the relatively middle class Muslim households and get a maximum of Rs 250/- added with left over food. Irony is that the children are looked after at home by the neighbors or elders like Nafisa bi and other elderly women who cannot work. Some of the children go to a nearby school but majority of them dropped out.
Now Gujarat will face elections and the government of Narendra Modi has started divising methods, which can create communal wage. Dalits are being charged in false cases. Inter caste and inter religious marriages are being blown out of proportion. The state administration is thoroughly Hinduised. Even inside the booking windows of the railway stations one can find the pictures of Hindu Gods and Goddesses, which is against our secular ethics. Cases are not registered for Muslims. Take the case of Jatun Bibi whose house was burnt by the rioters in village Mirapuri which is about 13 kilometer from Godhara. They have a total of 12 acres of land in the family of six yet even 5 years after the riots Jatun can not go back to her village. She now stays in the slums of Rehmat Nagar on a rented house along with her husband. Jatun Bibi filed a case against Sarpanch and won at the session court. The case was challenged in the high court where she lost. She does not even know about the case and files. It was never challenged later. Her husband says that they will never go back to the village as the village Sarpanch and his goons would kill them. Today, Jatun Bibi lives on rent in a small one-room house at Rehmat Nagar. She pays Rs 200/- per month as rent. Her husband is a labour. She used to own a Kirana shop in the village. Both husband and wife worked on the shop and had a big house for them along with others in the family. The three relatives (brothers and sisters) lived together but now they are not ready to return. Her husband expresses his fears that if they return to village, the Sarpanch would kill them. Police does not help in these matters. In fact, a BJP MLA has been supporting the sarpanch.
Jatun Bibi lost her mother in the childhood. She has four sisters and one brother. The one brother, according to her, has turned out to be an anti social element who would not share his parental property with the sisters. Tragically, Jatun Bibi has no sources to challenge the high court order. One does not know what her lawyers are doing at the moment. The condition of rule of law in Gujarat is that Muslims do not come out in open; you have to prove to them that you really care for their issues. Such things may shock people outside Gujarat but this unjust peace in Gujarat must be opposed. Peace building groups are roaming around but how can there be peace in Gujarat if the second majority of Gujarat lives in abject poverty, isolation and complete fear. Can such peace be supported which prohibit people to speak against injustice?
It is not that only Muslims are being targeted in Gujarat. The Dalits and tribals are used against the Muslims and are intimidated if they do not cooperate. Recently, a tribal leader of a social movement who was fighting for the forest rights of the tribals was barred from entering into four districts by the administration. The wife of a well respected Muslim doctor in Godhara was disturbed so much in the aftermath of Godhara that she shifted from Gujarat along with her children as safety of the children was paramount to her.
Gujarat is on the verge of history today. Gujarati's enjoyed the fruits of globalisation. People greeted them everywhere from Africa to America and England where they went for their business and succeeded. Today, the same Gujarati's particularly the Non-resident Indian variety are conspicuously silent on the functioning of the governance, which want to weed the fellow Gujarati Muslims out from the state. Often, Gujarati's use Mahatma Gandhi and his message of social reconciliation for their own benefits abroad particularly in Africa, it is time, they realize that Bapu's dream of reconciliation hold true for their own state also. In the so-called war against terror we should not forget that it also call for a just government. It also calls for justice against those who are terrorists but not Muslims. They too are terrorists who kill innocent people, rape their women and publicly support killing and humiliation of human being who happens to be Muslims. War against terror should not only be against the terrorists who happen to be Muslims but all those also who kill Muslim selectively. If this so-called war has to be won against the evil designs of all those then those in power or those who wish to come to power must show their resolve in providing governance and protecting all those who are citizens of state. One hope our governments in the Center and states listen to those cries of the victims of the mass killing in Mumbai after the demolition of Babari Masjid or those killed in Hashimpura, Bhagalpur, Kanpur and elsewhere. Not only war against terror, we will need to define genocide in present day term and its linkages to fundamentalist ideologies supported by the state. All those ideological dictators need to be brought to book for abetting the riots, supporting the killing or threatening them with dire consequences. Unfortunately, deeply prejudiced mindset cannot change. Gujarat needs a strong civil society as well as a strong rainbow coalition of the Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, Christians and OBCs to tackle fascist onslaught on people's right and livelihood. The real target of the saffron forces in Gujarat is actually not Muslims but Dalits and Adivasis as we only talks of Gujarat issue in terms of Muslims but not in terms of socio political issues, which have threatened the very basis of this government. Adivasis are threatened from their livelihood as Modi goes abroad inviting big industrialists to suck the blood of poor Adivasis and Dalits. All Dalits and Adivasis who are trying to assert are boycotted and pitched against Muslims and Christians. Public land in Gujarat is being given to private companies and nothing has been done to eliminate poverty. The only thing Gujarat has these days is rabid Hinduisation or I would simply say, brahminsation process. It is sickening to see such ritualistic symbols present in everyday life from posters in railway stations to Panchayat Bhavans, you will find not one or two Gods but large number of Godmen. Nowhere, in India such naked neglect of the secular laws of the country. Why should railways allow a picture of Hanuman in its reservation counters or why should the schools and Panchayat buildings have Asha Ram Bapu or Murari Bapu. If you love so much your Gods please do allow the other gods also. And definitely, then will have to put a Mao and a Marx also to satisfy the nonbelievers. This hypocrisy must be challenged. Gujarat is communalized very systematically and the disease is spreading like a virus.
The answer lies in strong ties of real Gujaratis who do not have golden plates in their homes or who do not have NRIs in their family. Yes, Gujarat could be saved by a strong people's movement involving every segment of the marginalized sections of our society including Muslims and all those victims of Narendra Modi's rabid anti Dalit, anti tribal and anti farmer policies. It is also time to take these religious lunatics head on otherwise they will deny every one a right to live with dignity and freedom to express.
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Visit his blog atwww.manukhsi.blogspot.com
The pain of Nafisa bi needs to be understood in terms of the ailing Gujarati society and the crisis Muslim women face in Gujarat. With most of the male members gone behind the bar, these women today face the uphill task of reviving their lives in a deeply polarized and hostile atmosphere. Rehmat Nagar area reflects the mood of the state government and their zeal to isolate Muslim further. There is no activity in the area, which is completely cut off from the main high way. No link road and if it rains then perhaps it would become nearly impossible for these women to go to earn. Most of the women are surviving on the alms which their employer give them apart from a salary of Rs 250/- per family per month.
Activists come and promise that our people would be released soon as the Supreme Court has ordered, said Rehana Bi. But Nafisa Bi seems to be resigned to her fate. 'It is more than three years that I saw my sons. Now even if they come, I would not be able to see them.' Neighbors inform that Nafisa weeps all the time. Her husband divorced her long back without caring their children. Fortunately, her sons were hardworking and earned their livelihood well to take care of her. Today, she is thoroughly dejected at the plight of her sons who she alleges were beaten up mercilessly in the police lock up. Her son Shabir Anwar Ansari have three sons and one daughter while Alauddin, the other son got married the same year. The locality is about 5 kilometers away from the railway station where the Sabarmati Express's coach were burnt. ' The police came in the evening with their face covered and asked the male members to accompany them to their bosses office', say Rehana. She further added that there were no women police personnel when they came. They were all men showering the choices abuse on us.
Fakharuddin Yusuf was a Bus driver. He was arrested as soon as he returned from his trip. He was put in Sabarmati jail where he died one year later. He was beaten up mercilessly in the police lock up. Obviously, the Gujarat police whose track record is worst while tackling with the minorities cannot escape the blame. Many young children who were born after their father was arrested often ask their mothers when would their father return.
The police and administration has become so nasty that it does not even allow the detainees to meet their ailing parents even when they were waiting for a peaceful death. Rehana's mother in law died weeping and crying to see her son who could not come to see her before her death. Payroll was granted to Rehana's husband three days later after his mother was cremated. Mother and son did not see each other for three years says Rehana wiping her moisted eyes. When the Gujarat police come here they do not bring any women constables and on our defiance we are beaten up. She was arrested for one day. Rehana is outspoken when I ask about who burnt the train. " we did not know about the burning of train before the police came and started arresting the people. They informed that all the male members would be required to go to SP sahib but once they were put in the police vehicles they never returned and families only came to know about the whereabouts of their male members about three months later when they started writing to them.
' I too was arrested but they released me the very next day but my father was kept up in the lock up for six days', she says. Her moist eyes narrate the innocence inside her ', we do not burn even the dead, why would we burnt people alive?'
A total of nearly 100 families are charged under POTA in Godhara. The eleven families whose male wards have been arrested immediately after the train was burnt hail from this locality of Rehmat Nagar which is located on right hand side of the Godhara-Badodara high way. There is no connectivity road to this locality and one has to take off from the vehicle to reach here. The narrow muddy lane is the only way for you to reach the place. None of the man in the area has any work. In fact, they do not get any work outside. Tragedy is that Nafisa and like her many women's pains and agonies are compounded with the fact that with in their own community they have lot of resistance. When there is no work, man have no work to do and mere domesticated work in nearby locality of the Bohras cannot make them survive. It is ironical that many of the women are being pushed in the flash trade since there is virtually a crisis of survival. Immediately after the riots, many NGOs started working among the victims but two-three years after the incident when they are faced with a hostile state administration which is hell bent on keeping the Muslims in particular and minorities in general out of the mainstream, organizations winded up their charity work. Of course, some of them are still working creating awareness in an otherwise thoroughly communalized atmosphere of Gujarat.
The Modi government kept quiet and even the press has not been able to follow up all the cases. How long the select few would come every day to expose a government, which has been corrupted at every level. The water in Rehmat Nagar area is totally contaminated, as there are factories in the area, which release chemical waste every day and therefore have turned the ground water totally undrinkable. The families go to fetch water from high way, nearly half a kilometer away from the area. Most of the families, which lived here before February 27 th, 2002, have now left for other areas leaving 11 of the families here in complete isolation.
Rehana's mother in law died. When she was on bed, her husband applied for a payroll but was denied. He came to see his mother three days after her death. That is the tragedy of the entire incident. Says Rehana,' Narendra Modi is not a married man. Had he been married and had some children, he would have been sensitive to the issues of family, pain of a mother or anguish of a wife or cry of the children who miss their father. How would he explain to a mother who died crying without seeing her son?
In the global war on terror, it is very clear that it is the educated elite, which is now becoming a tool in the hands of the deeply religious fanatics. Poor were actually never were part of it. They might be looked down upon as 'fundamentalists' but never as 'terrorists'. In this age when war are psychological as well as more so on modern techniques, a look at the profile of 11 POTA victims would tell how government was hell bent on making the innocent as terrorists.
Shabbir Hussain was bus conductor with a happily married life with children has been arrested. Shabbir Anwar Ansari and Alauddin Ansari were brothers with their families. Both were with their mother and running a bakery shop. Sadiq Khan Sultan Khan was a painter. Shamsher Khan is brother of Sadiq Khan. Yusuf Khan used to make bamboo Pinjara while Feroj Khan was working with Yasin Habib in a hotel. Feroj Khan was working in a steal company and Jabir Binyamin was working with a dairy. Fakhruddin Yusuf was working as a driver and was not even in the town. He returned in the evening only. The work profile of all these people may not suggest whether they had time to conspire against people. He has six daughters and 2 sons. Now all of them have left this place, as there was no security of life and livelihood for them. Jabir's wife Jainab informs how her two children miss their father. Daughter Saima Bano 4 and son Shehjad 5 have not got their fathers live as he is in jail. In fact Saima was born after her father was in jail.
Jabir's brother Ramjani was a rikshawpullar with a school. He was arrested from school where he was taking school children. Ramjani has six children with the eldest daughter Naseem Bano aged 12 and the youngest son Sarfaraj aged 5. Another brother Habib is also arrested. He has two children Shamir and Ferhan. The families are virtually living in despair and starvation. All the women are working as domestic servants in the relatively middle class Muslim households and get a maximum of Rs 250/- added with left over food. Irony is that the children are looked after at home by the neighbors or elders like Nafisa bi and other elderly women who cannot work. Some of the children go to a nearby school but majority of them dropped out.
Now Gujarat will face elections and the government of Narendra Modi has started divising methods, which can create communal wage. Dalits are being charged in false cases. Inter caste and inter religious marriages are being blown out of proportion. The state administration is thoroughly Hinduised. Even inside the booking windows of the railway stations one can find the pictures of Hindu Gods and Goddesses, which is against our secular ethics. Cases are not registered for Muslims. Take the case of Jatun Bibi whose house was burnt by the rioters in village Mirapuri which is about 13 kilometer from Godhara. They have a total of 12 acres of land in the family of six yet even 5 years after the riots Jatun can not go back to her village. She now stays in the slums of Rehmat Nagar on a rented house along with her husband. Jatun Bibi filed a case against Sarpanch and won at the session court. The case was challenged in the high court where she lost. She does not even know about the case and files. It was never challenged later. Her husband says that they will never go back to the village as the village Sarpanch and his goons would kill them. Today, Jatun Bibi lives on rent in a small one-room house at Rehmat Nagar. She pays Rs 200/- per month as rent. Her husband is a labour. She used to own a Kirana shop in the village. Both husband and wife worked on the shop and had a big house for them along with others in the family. The three relatives (brothers and sisters) lived together but now they are not ready to return. Her husband expresses his fears that if they return to village, the Sarpanch would kill them. Police does not help in these matters. In fact, a BJP MLA has been supporting the sarpanch.
Jatun Bibi lost her mother in the childhood. She has four sisters and one brother. The one brother, according to her, has turned out to be an anti social element who would not share his parental property with the sisters. Tragically, Jatun Bibi has no sources to challenge the high court order. One does not know what her lawyers are doing at the moment. The condition of rule of law in Gujarat is that Muslims do not come out in open; you have to prove to them that you really care for their issues. Such things may shock people outside Gujarat but this unjust peace in Gujarat must be opposed. Peace building groups are roaming around but how can there be peace in Gujarat if the second majority of Gujarat lives in abject poverty, isolation and complete fear. Can such peace be supported which prohibit people to speak against injustice?
It is not that only Muslims are being targeted in Gujarat. The Dalits and tribals are used against the Muslims and are intimidated if they do not cooperate. Recently, a tribal leader of a social movement who was fighting for the forest rights of the tribals was barred from entering into four districts by the administration. The wife of a well respected Muslim doctor in Godhara was disturbed so much in the aftermath of Godhara that she shifted from Gujarat along with her children as safety of the children was paramount to her.
Gujarat is on the verge of history today. Gujarati's enjoyed the fruits of globalisation. People greeted them everywhere from Africa to America and England where they went for their business and succeeded. Today, the same Gujarati's particularly the Non-resident Indian variety are conspicuously silent on the functioning of the governance, which want to weed the fellow Gujarati Muslims out from the state. Often, Gujarati's use Mahatma Gandhi and his message of social reconciliation for their own benefits abroad particularly in Africa, it is time, they realize that Bapu's dream of reconciliation hold true for their own state also. In the so-called war against terror we should not forget that it also call for a just government. It also calls for justice against those who are terrorists but not Muslims. They too are terrorists who kill innocent people, rape their women and publicly support killing and humiliation of human being who happens to be Muslims. War against terror should not only be against the terrorists who happen to be Muslims but all those also who kill Muslim selectively. If this so-called war has to be won against the evil designs of all those then those in power or those who wish to come to power must show their resolve in providing governance and protecting all those who are citizens of state. One hope our governments in the Center and states listen to those cries of the victims of the mass killing in Mumbai after the demolition of Babari Masjid or those killed in Hashimpura, Bhagalpur, Kanpur and elsewhere. Not only war against terror, we will need to define genocide in present day term and its linkages to fundamentalist ideologies supported by the state. All those ideological dictators need to be brought to book for abetting the riots, supporting the killing or threatening them with dire consequences. Unfortunately, deeply prejudiced mindset cannot change. Gujarat needs a strong civil society as well as a strong rainbow coalition of the Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, Christians and OBCs to tackle fascist onslaught on people's right and livelihood. The real target of the saffron forces in Gujarat is actually not Muslims but Dalits and Adivasis as we only talks of Gujarat issue in terms of Muslims but not in terms of socio political issues, which have threatened the very basis of this government. Adivasis are threatened from their livelihood as Modi goes abroad inviting big industrialists to suck the blood of poor Adivasis and Dalits. All Dalits and Adivasis who are trying to assert are boycotted and pitched against Muslims and Christians. Public land in Gujarat is being given to private companies and nothing has been done to eliminate poverty. The only thing Gujarat has these days is rabid Hinduisation or I would simply say, brahminsation process. It is sickening to see such ritualistic symbols present in everyday life from posters in railway stations to Panchayat Bhavans, you will find not one or two Gods but large number of Godmen. Nowhere, in India such naked neglect of the secular laws of the country. Why should railways allow a picture of Hanuman in its reservation counters or why should the schools and Panchayat buildings have Asha Ram Bapu or Murari Bapu. If you love so much your Gods please do allow the other gods also. And definitely, then will have to put a Mao and a Marx also to satisfy the nonbelievers. This hypocrisy must be challenged. Gujarat is communalized very systematically and the disease is spreading like a virus.
The answer lies in strong ties of real Gujaratis who do not have golden plates in their homes or who do not have NRIs in their family. Yes, Gujarat could be saved by a strong people's movement involving every segment of the marginalized sections of our society including Muslims and all those victims of Narendra Modi's rabid anti Dalit, anti tribal and anti farmer policies. It is also time to take these religious lunatics head on otherwise they will deny every one a right to live with dignity and freedom to express.
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Visit his blog atwww.manukhsi.blogspot.com
Sunday, 26 August 2007
The Shrinking Space For Dissent
A couple of weeks back, I received an invitation to hear writer Taslima Nasreen speak at Allahabad University . However, in the aftermath of the hooliganism following her book release at Hyderabad Press club, the University Administraion issued a statement canceling the speaking engagement, on grounds of maintaining peace on campus. Once again, the right wing fundamentalist faction seemed to have won. Only this time it was muslim MLAs belonging to the Majlis-e-Ittihadul Muslimeen (MIM). But the question remains, the MIM won at what? The Hyderabad incident accorded yet another victory to Taslima in the worlds’ eyes and plummeted the global perception of muslims as an intolerant, violent, and reactionary community a notch or two lower than it already is.
I hang my head in shame because Indian and South Asian muslims are resigned to accepting the leadership of men like the Owaisis. Where is the alternative, enlightened, egalitarian leadership for muslims? I don’t see much outrage or mass-scale protest at the daily abuse of basic rights of muslim women from these same men who are ready to behead Taslima because she is rightly critical of patriarchal practices among muslims.
We have to wonder who has the welfare of the muslim community in mind? Especially the upliftment of muslim women. If the muslim leaders cared about how muslim women’s rights are being trampled upon, why aren’t they protesting against the treatment meted out to Muslim women by Muslim men? Why aren’t they staging protests for the scores of muslim women victims of domestic violence and women whose triple Talaqs are pronounced over the phone and by SMS? Why aren’t they flinging furniture and abuses at maulvis who pronounce ludicrous fatwas, e.g. in the Imrana case in Uttar Pradesh, where Imrana was decalared the wife of her rapist father-in-law and ordered to leave her husband? Or at the unprecedented increase in the totally unIslamic practice of dowry in the muslim community? Or at the powerlessness of muslim women to choose their spouses or lay down their right to divorce in their nikahnama? Or at the virtual lack of inheritance rights for muslim girls? These rights have been granted to muslim women by Islam but nowhere in the Muslim world have then been fully implemented to ensure Muslim women gender equity.
Can we muslims please took a hard, honest look at ourselves? Can we come out of our collective silence so that we can silence the likes of Owaisi? It’s about time we stopped being psychologically and emotionally manipulated by self-proclaimed protectors of Islam. It’s about time we stopped getting brainwashed into thinking that the gravest threat to our religion is a book called Satanic Verses, or a Danish cartoon lampooning the prophet, or a woman writer who is allegedly defaming Islam. The real threat to Islam’s survival in the modern world is the inability of muslims to self-reflect, and to promote an open-minded and enlightened dialogue on how to establish ideal muslim communities based on the principles of justice, equality, and truth.
It’s tough to do the work of uplifting a community out of poverty and ignorance, but so much easier and lucrative to use sensational tactics to divert attention from the community’s real issues. It’s politically expedient to convince a community that what one woman has to say about the discrimination muslim women face in the muslim community is threatening the imminent demise of the religion. It’s easy to pontificate on how muslim women need to protect themselves from the immorality of women like Taslima but so difficult to acknowledge how impoverished muslim women are due to gender-based discrimination, very often from muslim men. Discrimination which manifests as lack of education, employment, inheritance rights, decision-making powers, adequate health care etc. It takes time, patience, vision and a fundamental belief in justice to establish more schools, more hospitals, more job training programmes for a community’s women. But it only takes a few hours and a team of hired goondas to storm a public gathering and put an allegedly immoral woman in her place. And you get so much attention in the media for doing so little!
Where are the modern muslim intellectual’s voices in the media? I need to hear them more. The muslim community has to find the courage to speak its mind. If we don’t, we leave the field wide open for the likes of Owaisi and his team to propagate their version of politicized Islam for their own political power gains. But at the same time, the media too, has to create and nurture the space for dissenting muslim voices. I’m so tired of watching and reading the demeaning portrayal of muslim men as terrorists and muslim women as the most oppressed bunch of humans in the world. But how can we hope to enlarge the circle of dissent when alternative muslim voices are muffled by the kind of frenzied attention the media pays to the antics of Owaisi and his cabal?
Dissent is an unsafe practice. Without dissent there can be no hope of nurturing a democracy or challenging the socio-cultural status quo. There’s a depressing silence and apathy within the muslim community on muslim women’s issues. So as a muslim woman if I insist that Taslima is right on some issues like Pardah (See her personal webpage at http://taslimanasrin.com to read more about her views) and she has the right to speak her mind, then I’m insulting Islam. If I say that those who oppose her also have the right to protest but must do so respectfully, within the bounds of decency, as it should be done in a secular democracry, then too, I run the risk of pandering to the majority view and demonizing muslims. Many muslims may not agree with some or all of Taslima’s views, but does that mean we take away her right to speak?
Let’s turn to history for some valuable lessons in tolerance and acceptance of religio-cultural diversity. Akbar’s great grandson, Dara Shikoh, in the 17th century was the first to translate the Upanishads into Persian. It was Dara’s work, which when translated from Persian into Latin, in early 19th century, introduced Hindu mysticism for the first time to the Europeans. Dara would have made an ideal king but he was murdered by his younger brother, Aurangzeb, who coveted the throne himself. Besides, Dara would have been too much of a religious radical, and therefore, a threat to the established religious orthodoxy of both the muslims and the Hindus. Much before that, the 10th century sufi saint, Mansur Hallaj was put to death by the vizier of his land for claiming “ana’l Haqq” or “I’m the absolute Truth” which later became distorted to “I’m God”. Hallaj was ostensibly punished for committing the sin of shirk but in reality, he too, was a threat to the prevailing orthodoxy of the Iraqi rulers of his time. Hallaj propagated dissent, by claiming that the citizens had a right to a more just government. And dissent always runs the risk of being squashed: Hallaj’s limbs were cut off and he was put on the gallows. But the world is richer today due to the cultural influence of courageous rebels like Dara Shikoh and mystics like Hallaj.
Islam gained acceptance in the subcontinent not due to forced conversions at the point of the sword but largely due to the arduous work of sufis whose gentleness, modesty and generosity of spirit won people over. Annemarie Schimmel, in her magnificent treatise on Sufism, “The Mystical Dimensions of Islam”, comments on the political motivations behind Hallaj’s assassination:
“The idea of converting the hearts of all muslims and teaching them the secret of personal sanctification and not just blind acceptance would certainly have been dangerous for a society whose religious and political leaders lived in a state of
stagnation with neither the strength nor the intention to revitalize the Muslim community.” (p.68)
Ms Schimmel, passed away some years ago, but she might have been disappointed, or perhaps not, to learn that the morally bankrupt muslim leaders of the subcontinent are as devoid of motivation and strength to revitalize their communities as they were in 10th century Iraq . The onus now rests ever more heavily on ordinary muslims to shed the mantle of blind acceptance, of the fatwas and dogmas enshrouding their vision.
Reference: Schimmel, Annemarie (2007): The Mystical Dimensions of Islam. Available from Yoda Press, Delhi , India . www.yodapress.com
By Nighat Gandhi
(Nighat Gandhi is a writer and a mental health counsellor.)
Courtsey Countercurrents.org
I hang my head in shame because Indian and South Asian muslims are resigned to accepting the leadership of men like the Owaisis. Where is the alternative, enlightened, egalitarian leadership for muslims? I don’t see much outrage or mass-scale protest at the daily abuse of basic rights of muslim women from these same men who are ready to behead Taslima because she is rightly critical of patriarchal practices among muslims.
We have to wonder who has the welfare of the muslim community in mind? Especially the upliftment of muslim women. If the muslim leaders cared about how muslim women’s rights are being trampled upon, why aren’t they protesting against the treatment meted out to Muslim women by Muslim men? Why aren’t they staging protests for the scores of muslim women victims of domestic violence and women whose triple Talaqs are pronounced over the phone and by SMS? Why aren’t they flinging furniture and abuses at maulvis who pronounce ludicrous fatwas, e.g. in the Imrana case in Uttar Pradesh, where Imrana was decalared the wife of her rapist father-in-law and ordered to leave her husband? Or at the unprecedented increase in the totally unIslamic practice of dowry in the muslim community? Or at the powerlessness of muslim women to choose their spouses or lay down their right to divorce in their nikahnama? Or at the virtual lack of inheritance rights for muslim girls? These rights have been granted to muslim women by Islam but nowhere in the Muslim world have then been fully implemented to ensure Muslim women gender equity.
Can we muslims please took a hard, honest look at ourselves? Can we come out of our collective silence so that we can silence the likes of Owaisi? It’s about time we stopped being psychologically and emotionally manipulated by self-proclaimed protectors of Islam. It’s about time we stopped getting brainwashed into thinking that the gravest threat to our religion is a book called Satanic Verses, or a Danish cartoon lampooning the prophet, or a woman writer who is allegedly defaming Islam. The real threat to Islam’s survival in the modern world is the inability of muslims to self-reflect, and to promote an open-minded and enlightened dialogue on how to establish ideal muslim communities based on the principles of justice, equality, and truth.
It’s tough to do the work of uplifting a community out of poverty and ignorance, but so much easier and lucrative to use sensational tactics to divert attention from the community’s real issues. It’s politically expedient to convince a community that what one woman has to say about the discrimination muslim women face in the muslim community is threatening the imminent demise of the religion. It’s easy to pontificate on how muslim women need to protect themselves from the immorality of women like Taslima but so difficult to acknowledge how impoverished muslim women are due to gender-based discrimination, very often from muslim men. Discrimination which manifests as lack of education, employment, inheritance rights, decision-making powers, adequate health care etc. It takes time, patience, vision and a fundamental belief in justice to establish more schools, more hospitals, more job training programmes for a community’s women. But it only takes a few hours and a team of hired goondas to storm a public gathering and put an allegedly immoral woman in her place. And you get so much attention in the media for doing so little!
Where are the modern muslim intellectual’s voices in the media? I need to hear them more. The muslim community has to find the courage to speak its mind. If we don’t, we leave the field wide open for the likes of Owaisi and his team to propagate their version of politicized Islam for their own political power gains. But at the same time, the media too, has to create and nurture the space for dissenting muslim voices. I’m so tired of watching and reading the demeaning portrayal of muslim men as terrorists and muslim women as the most oppressed bunch of humans in the world. But how can we hope to enlarge the circle of dissent when alternative muslim voices are muffled by the kind of frenzied attention the media pays to the antics of Owaisi and his cabal?
Dissent is an unsafe practice. Without dissent there can be no hope of nurturing a democracy or challenging the socio-cultural status quo. There’s a depressing silence and apathy within the muslim community on muslim women’s issues. So as a muslim woman if I insist that Taslima is right on some issues like Pardah (See her personal webpage at http://taslimanasrin.com to read more about her views) and she has the right to speak her mind, then I’m insulting Islam. If I say that those who oppose her also have the right to protest but must do so respectfully, within the bounds of decency, as it should be done in a secular democracry, then too, I run the risk of pandering to the majority view and demonizing muslims. Many muslims may not agree with some or all of Taslima’s views, but does that mean we take away her right to speak?
Let’s turn to history for some valuable lessons in tolerance and acceptance of religio-cultural diversity. Akbar’s great grandson, Dara Shikoh, in the 17th century was the first to translate the Upanishads into Persian. It was Dara’s work, which when translated from Persian into Latin, in early 19th century, introduced Hindu mysticism for the first time to the Europeans. Dara would have made an ideal king but he was murdered by his younger brother, Aurangzeb, who coveted the throne himself. Besides, Dara would have been too much of a religious radical, and therefore, a threat to the established religious orthodoxy of both the muslims and the Hindus. Much before that, the 10th century sufi saint, Mansur Hallaj was put to death by the vizier of his land for claiming “ana’l Haqq” or “I’m the absolute Truth” which later became distorted to “I’m God”. Hallaj was ostensibly punished for committing the sin of shirk but in reality, he too, was a threat to the prevailing orthodoxy of the Iraqi rulers of his time. Hallaj propagated dissent, by claiming that the citizens had a right to a more just government. And dissent always runs the risk of being squashed: Hallaj’s limbs were cut off and he was put on the gallows. But the world is richer today due to the cultural influence of courageous rebels like Dara Shikoh and mystics like Hallaj.
Islam gained acceptance in the subcontinent not due to forced conversions at the point of the sword but largely due to the arduous work of sufis whose gentleness, modesty and generosity of spirit won people over. Annemarie Schimmel, in her magnificent treatise on Sufism, “The Mystical Dimensions of Islam”, comments on the political motivations behind Hallaj’s assassination:
“The idea of converting the hearts of all muslims and teaching them the secret of personal sanctification and not just blind acceptance would certainly have been dangerous for a society whose religious and political leaders lived in a state of
stagnation with neither the strength nor the intention to revitalize the Muslim community.” (p.68)
Ms Schimmel, passed away some years ago, but she might have been disappointed, or perhaps not, to learn that the morally bankrupt muslim leaders of the subcontinent are as devoid of motivation and strength to revitalize their communities as they were in 10th century Iraq . The onus now rests ever more heavily on ordinary muslims to shed the mantle of blind acceptance, of the fatwas and dogmas enshrouding their vision.
Reference: Schimmel, Annemarie (2007): The Mystical Dimensions of Islam. Available from Yoda Press, Delhi , India . www.yodapress.com
By Nighat Gandhi
(Nighat Gandhi is a writer and a mental health counsellor.)
Courtsey Countercurrents.org
Wednesday, 4 July 2007
Notes on Indian Muslim Women
Since Independence, India has achieved significant growth and development. It has also been successful in reducing poverty and improving crucial human development indicators such as levels of literacy, education and health. There are indications, however, that not all religious community and social groups (henceforth socio-religious communities – SRCs) have shared equally the benefits of the growth process. Among these, the Muslims, the largest minority community in the country, constituting 13.4 per cent of the population, is seriously lagging behind in terms of most of the human development indicators. However, one cannot explain the development of Muslims from the prism of homogenization. Indian Muslim community is very much heterogeneous and divided along the caste, class, and sectoral line. This essay will focus on the socio-economic condition of the Muslim women, who constitutes 48.35 percent of total Muslim population.
In Indian context, the question of Muslim women has been largely moves around the issues of marriage, triple talak, and maintenance aftermath. The obsessive focus on select cases of Muslim women passionately discussed in the media results in identifying the Islam as the sole locus of gender injustice in the Community. Consequently, the civil society and the State locate Muslim women’s deprivation not in terms of the ‘objective’ reality of societal discrimination and faulty development policies, but in the religious-community space. This allows the State to shift the blame to the Community and to absolve itself of neglect. Consequently, an oblivious silence over the real issues like employment, health, education, security has been maintained by all the political and social actors.
Recently, Sachar Committee report draws our attention towards the deplorable condition of Muslims in general and women in particular. At the educational level, the literacy rate among rural Muslim women is 43 percent, which is below the national average of 46 percent, whereas, in urban area, Muslim women are 10 percent behind the national average of 73 percent. The major external factors, as pointed out by Sachar Committee, are poverty, lack of schools and educational institutions in the Muslims majority areas. This, in effect, produces bleak job opportunities for women in regular salaried jobs or high paid private jobs.
Against the stereotype notion that Muslim women are confined to their household following Islamic injunction - which is anyway nothing to do with it - 25.2 percent of all Muslim women population age group between 15-64 years are involved in various types of works in 2004-05. Out of that 50.7 percent women are involved in agriculture, hunting and related service activities, 11.9 percent are employed in tobacco industry, 9.9 percent and 4.7 percent Muslim women are further employed in textile and apparel industries respectively. Their work conditions are characterized by low income, poor work conditions, absence of toilet and crèche facilities, lack of social security benefits like health insurance and the absence of bargaining power. In several states, home-based industry has virtually collapsed due to the negative impact of economic reform, leaving poor Muslim women spiraling downwards to penury. The distinct pattern of Muslim women’s employment in home-based work is in part due to discrimination in formal employment. In part, it is due to the vicious cycle of poverty, lack of education and technical skills, leading to low-skilled, low income work, and back again to poverty. Muslim women are unable to bargain for better work conditions because much of the work they do is sub-contracted. This restriction of mobility (based on social and cultural factors) restricts their employment opportunities and wages. They do not have independent access to credit facilities, opportunities for skill up-gradation, or access to markets. There is active discrimination in giving Muslim women credit facilities it was pointed out. The increasing ghettoisation of poor Muslims leads to the seclusion of home-based female workers, cutting them off from channels of communication and hindering their ability to organize into collectives. Many home-based workers are so low down in the assembly line of production that they operate entirely through middlemen and do not even know who their employer is. Muslim women have minimal participation in Government micro-finance programmes such as Self Help Groups (SHGs), Watershed Programmes and Panchayati Raj.
On the issue of health too, Muslim women have not done well. As reported by Sachar Committee about the encouraging record on sex-ratio, Muslim women have nothing to be proud of. Their problems of health is directly linked to poverty and the absence of basic services like clean drinking water and sanitation - leading to malnutrition, anemia, a variety of diseases and poor life expectancy. In conflict prone areas there is alarming evidence of a host of psychosocial problems, including stress, depression, and post-traumatic disorders among women. At some places, higher than average incidence of TB was reported amongst the Muslim women. This was partly due to the nature of their work but largely owing to poor sanitation. TB amongst Muslim women affects the entire family as there is no awareness amongst them regarding the disease. Lack of any other facilities in Muslims’ ghettoisation, government and local authorities have shown little or no interest in providing health services too.
On the hand, they face violence within their community by their male counterpart, on the other side, always targeted by offenders during communal riots. Latest instance was the Gujarat riot, where women were consciously targeted to terrorize and abuse the honour of the Muslims.
While concluding this essay, I can suggest that the multiple approaches should be applied to discuss the factor/s responsible for bad condition of Muslim women. Social, cultural, religious, legal, economic and political reasons are broad areas, which are generally talked about. But, far more vital is the analysis of those areas and emerging trends which can be worked out in providing more choices, freedom of action and operational space to Indian women in general and Muslim women in particular. Muslim women are not the exclusive agent; they share operational space with all other sections of Indian society. They should be taken as part of Indian women folk, who have multiple roles to play in different capacities as economic, social, cultural and political actor. She is participant in all processes and suffers of all ills. She is to be taken beyond marriage, divorce and guardianship syndrome.
By Manzoor Ali
(Manzoor Ali is doing his research study in Jawaharlal Nehru Universiy, New Delhi. His research topic is around the same issue tackled in this article)
In Indian context, the question of Muslim women has been largely moves around the issues of marriage, triple talak, and maintenance aftermath. The obsessive focus on select cases of Muslim women passionately discussed in the media results in identifying the Islam as the sole locus of gender injustice in the Community. Consequently, the civil society and the State locate Muslim women’s deprivation not in terms of the ‘objective’ reality of societal discrimination and faulty development policies, but in the religious-community space. This allows the State to shift the blame to the Community and to absolve itself of neglect. Consequently, an oblivious silence over the real issues like employment, health, education, security has been maintained by all the political and social actors.
Recently, Sachar Committee report draws our attention towards the deplorable condition of Muslims in general and women in particular. At the educational level, the literacy rate among rural Muslim women is 43 percent, which is below the national average of 46 percent, whereas, in urban area, Muslim women are 10 percent behind the national average of 73 percent. The major external factors, as pointed out by Sachar Committee, are poverty, lack of schools and educational institutions in the Muslims majority areas. This, in effect, produces bleak job opportunities for women in regular salaried jobs or high paid private jobs.
Against the stereotype notion that Muslim women are confined to their household following Islamic injunction - which is anyway nothing to do with it - 25.2 percent of all Muslim women population age group between 15-64 years are involved in various types of works in 2004-05. Out of that 50.7 percent women are involved in agriculture, hunting and related service activities, 11.9 percent are employed in tobacco industry, 9.9 percent and 4.7 percent Muslim women are further employed in textile and apparel industries respectively. Their work conditions are characterized by low income, poor work conditions, absence of toilet and crèche facilities, lack of social security benefits like health insurance and the absence of bargaining power. In several states, home-based industry has virtually collapsed due to the negative impact of economic reform, leaving poor Muslim women spiraling downwards to penury. The distinct pattern of Muslim women’s employment in home-based work is in part due to discrimination in formal employment. In part, it is due to the vicious cycle of poverty, lack of education and technical skills, leading to low-skilled, low income work, and back again to poverty. Muslim women are unable to bargain for better work conditions because much of the work they do is sub-contracted. This restriction of mobility (based on social and cultural factors) restricts their employment opportunities and wages. They do not have independent access to credit facilities, opportunities for skill up-gradation, or access to markets. There is active discrimination in giving Muslim women credit facilities it was pointed out. The increasing ghettoisation of poor Muslims leads to the seclusion of home-based female workers, cutting them off from channels of communication and hindering their ability to organize into collectives. Many home-based workers are so low down in the assembly line of production that they operate entirely through middlemen and do not even know who their employer is. Muslim women have minimal participation in Government micro-finance programmes such as Self Help Groups (SHGs), Watershed Programmes and Panchayati Raj.
On the issue of health too, Muslim women have not done well. As reported by Sachar Committee about the encouraging record on sex-ratio, Muslim women have nothing to be proud of. Their problems of health is directly linked to poverty and the absence of basic services like clean drinking water and sanitation - leading to malnutrition, anemia, a variety of diseases and poor life expectancy. In conflict prone areas there is alarming evidence of a host of psychosocial problems, including stress, depression, and post-traumatic disorders among women. At some places, higher than average incidence of TB was reported amongst the Muslim women. This was partly due to the nature of their work but largely owing to poor sanitation. TB amongst Muslim women affects the entire family as there is no awareness amongst them regarding the disease. Lack of any other facilities in Muslims’ ghettoisation, government and local authorities have shown little or no interest in providing health services too.
On the hand, they face violence within their community by their male counterpart, on the other side, always targeted by offenders during communal riots. Latest instance was the Gujarat riot, where women were consciously targeted to terrorize and abuse the honour of the Muslims.
While concluding this essay, I can suggest that the multiple approaches should be applied to discuss the factor/s responsible for bad condition of Muslim women. Social, cultural, religious, legal, economic and political reasons are broad areas, which are generally talked about. But, far more vital is the analysis of those areas and emerging trends which can be worked out in providing more choices, freedom of action and operational space to Indian women in general and Muslim women in particular. Muslim women are not the exclusive agent; they share operational space with all other sections of Indian society. They should be taken as part of Indian women folk, who have multiple roles to play in different capacities as economic, social, cultural and political actor. She is participant in all processes and suffers of all ills. She is to be taken beyond marriage, divorce and guardianship syndrome.
By Manzoor Ali
(Manzoor Ali is doing his research study in Jawaharlal Nehru Universiy, New Delhi. His research topic is around the same issue tackled in this article)
Tuesday, 5 June 2007
Indian Muslims And The Media
The sudden wave of interest in Islam across the world seemed to commence just after September 11, 2001. The Indian as well as the Western media, television as well as print, devoted reams of paper and time slots to report incidents ranging from stories of conversion to Islam and the booming sales of copies of the Quran. Somewhere along this line, Muslims and the media became a hot topic of discussion at various forums.
In this context of growing media attention given to Islam and Muslims, a critical issue is that of the role that the media plays in reinforcing certain negative stereotypical images of the community. Of particular importance also is the role that the Indian Muslim media is playing, and can play, in both combating these negative stereotypes and disinformation about Islam and Muslims in the 'mainstream' media, as well as helping in the process of the overall empowerment of the Muslim community.
Muslim representation in the Indian media is dismal, while Muslims' share in media ownership is even more pathetic. Muslims do not have any considerable hold over the media. In northern India, several Urdu newspapers owned by Muslims have gradually closed down or rapidly lost circulation. In contrast, Urdu dailies from centres like Mumbai, Hyderabad, Aurangabad, Kolkata and even Bangalore are doing well and look professional. Muslims are yet to have any major presence in TVchannel ownership, though the two or three that exist today devote a large share of time to religious issues, rather than on other social-economic issues facing the community. Some success stories of Muslim-owned newspapers in languages other than Urdu and English are the daily Madhyamam in Malayalam, Gujarat Today in Gujarati and Vaartha Bharti in Kannada, published from Mangalore. Madhyamam started in 1991 from Kozhikode and is now published from eight centres, including two in the Gulf. Gujarat Today started nearly 20 years ago and has now achieved a circulation of around 30,000. Vaartha Bharati is three years old, and is now going in for its second edition from Bangalore. Another publication called Tejas from Kerala is believed to be making waves and has acquired popularity within a year of its launch. As for news and features agencies, some attempts were made in the past and FANA (Features and News Alliance) from New Delhi seemed like a trend-setter, but it unfortunately wound up.
There exist just a few Muslim magazines in English, but their circulation is small and they are read almost entirely by Muslims only. Several Muslim-owned magazines exist in languages like Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Urdu, Hindi, Gujarati, Kannada, and Bengali. As an Associate Editor with an English-language Muslim monthly magazine that is based in Bangalore, my desk was often flooded with newsletters and tabloids in these languages. From a remote corner of Bihar to the crowded Muslim-dominated locality of Shivajinagar in Bangalore, editors of these tabloids were making efforts in their own way to convey the message of Islam or even social issues related to the community.
The launch of an Urdu service of UNI, the Urdu channel of Doordarshan on August 15, 2006, and completion of six years of the Urdu channel 'ETV Urdu' from Hyderabad are distinct milestones of success as regards the Indian Muslim media. Urdu journalism courses have been started in the Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Millia Islamia, in New Delhi and the Osmania University, Hyderabad.
The quality of Urdu journalism improved in Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Aurangabad from the late 1980s and the survival of magazines like Urdu Mein Science, Shayar, Gagan, Sanaat-o-Harafat from Kolkata and Khatoon-e-Mashriq from Delhi is worth mentioning. Islamic Voice, Radiance, Milli Gazette, Nation and the World, Afkar-e-Milli and Al-Harmony are a few English magazines known nationally and run by Muslims.
Muslims often complain that the national media is biased in its coverage of issues and events pertaining to the community. The word "journalism" or "journalist" used to raise quite a few eyebrows some years ago in the Muslim community. Choosing not to take up a course like tourism or medicine or engineering after my graduation, I took up Mass Communications from Bangalore University. I was the only Muslim in my class of 30. I had to spend hours explaining to curious well-wishers in the community as to why I had chosen this field and what my job profile was. I relate this to express the disdain with which large sections of the community looked upon journalism and journalists in those days, way back in the late 90s. But I feel the scene has changed now to a certain extent, with many young Muslim girls and boys taking to journalism and the mass media, but still the "buts' remain.
The media is considered a struggling profession with not particularly lucrative monetary returns. Most high-scoring students choose engineering, medicine, management, etc. as careers. Media and journalism are not on top of their mind. There are not enough takers for media scholarships among Muslim students.
In my career as a writer/journalist for over 10 years now with the Muslim run-media, I had the privilege of attending scores of forums, conferences and get-togethers where discussions about launching a national English daily from several centres in India was the most common topic. Participants in these discussions bemoaned the fact that although the Indian Muslims are more than 150 million strong, they have hardly any English-language periodicals of their own, which can reflect their concerns, views and aspirations. Yet, despite the widespread recognition of the need for an Indian Muslim English-language newspaper, this has failed to materialize. Some experiments were undertaken in this regard, but these generally closed down a few years after. A recent Report (June 2006) by Anil Chamaria, Freelance Journalist; Jitendra Kumar, Independent Researcher; Yogendra Yadav, Senior Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi, recently examined the social profile of media-persons working in 40 media organizations. These findings are based on a survey of the social background of 315 key decision makers from these media organizations. Its key findings reflect the sources of bias:
1. India's 'national' media lacks social diversity—It does not reflect the country's social profile
2. Hindu 'upper' caste men dominate the media. They are about 8 % of India's population but among the key decision makers of the national media their share is as high as 71 %.
3. Gender bias rules: only 17 % of the key decision makers in the media are women. Their representation is better in the English Electronic media (32 %).
4. The media's caste profile is equally unrepresentative. 'Twice born' Hindus (dwijas or 'twice-born' 'upper' caste Hindus, comprising Brahmins, Kayasths, Rajputs, Vaishyas and Khatris) are about 16 % of India's population, but they are about 86 % of the key media decision makers in this survey. Brahmins (including Bhumihars and Tyagis) alone constitute 49% of the key media personnel.
5. Dalits and Adivasis are conspicuous by their absence among the decision makers in the media. Not even one of the 315 key decision makers belonged to the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes.
6. The proportion of OBCs is abysmally low among the key decision makers in the national media: they are only 4 % compared to their population of around 40 % in the country.
7. Muslims are severely under-represented in the national media: they are only 3 % among the key decision makers, compared to 13.4% in the country's population.
8. Social groups that suffer 'double disadvantage' are also nearly absent among the key decision makers: there are no women among the few OBC decision makers and negligible 'backwards' among the Muslims and Christians.
Another most often-discussed topic in Muslim media circles is how to correct or combat the media distortion of or disinformation on Muslims and Islam in the Indian or Western media. What role can the Muslim media, as well as other Muslim community organizations, play in addressing this very serious issue?
On December 7, 1986, the Deccan Herald, based in Bangalore, published a defamatory story on the Prophet (p.b.u.h.). The Muslim reaction to this began with a 10,000 strong crowd protesting before the office of Deccan Herald and this gradually took a violent turn. It can be asked whether this was an appropriate way for us to register our protest. Whenever the media indulges in disinformation or demonstrates bias, a careful, systematic approach should be adopted:
1-The media people should be known beforehand. Their names, background, qualification, caste, community, family, orientation, training, career should be known. Files of their writings should be documented.
2-The source of the story and information should be identified.
3-Rapport should be built with the media persons.
4-Calls can be made if there are minor oversights or distortions.
5-Letters should be written if there is gross distortion of facts. Positive information must be supplied.
6-If there is persistent distortion of facts, delegations should call upon the editor.
In order to enable the Muslim media to play a more effective role in empowering the community, the following suggestions could be seriously considered:
1- Career counseling of Muslim students should be arranged by Muslim community organizations, seeking to attract them to take up a career in the media.
2- More media scholarships should be instituted by Muslim community organizations and business houses.
3- Centres for media documentation should be set up in different parts of the country, where special emphasis should be placed on documenting material related to Muslims and Islam that appears in the press. These institutions can play a vital role as resource centres for the Muslim press and for scholars and journalists writing on Muslim or Islamic issues as well as for social activists.
4- Efforts should be made to place trained Muslim journalists in key places through a network of contacts.
5- Adequate and immediate responses should be developed to issues that the biased press uses to malign Muslims. Myths about Islam and Muslims should be debunked by a variety of means. This requires proper research..
6- Efforts should be made to seek a fair representation of Muslims, and other marginalized communities, in the already established media. This requires lobbying with agencies of the state, with social movements and with NGOs.
7-Orientation workshops should be held frequently to develop informed discussion on a range of issues, from new media technologies to issues relating specifically to Muslims. Invitees can be both Muslim and non-Muslim media persons.
8. Muslims writers and journalists who write on Islam and community-related issues should be encouraged and appreciated by the community, though the fact remains that most of them write for the cause for the community and do not really crave for fame or glory. Awards recognizing the contribution of Muslim journalists can go a long way in motivating them.
9. A network of Muslim journalists and writers in different parts of India should be formed—a forum where writers can share views, exchange ideas, plan collective efforts, etc.. This can take various forms, from a simple online discussion group to a website to a more formal organization, like an All-India Muslim Journalists' Association that holds an annual meeting, publishes a newsletter, etc..
9. Muslim organizations need to develop proper media policies. As of now, this vital issue is woefully neglected. Often, media cells in the few Muslim organizations that have them are limited in their work to culling out articles from newspapers and filing and documenting them. Muslim organizations need to be professional in their public relations, something that few of them actually are. They need to have staff who are able to properly interact with non-Muslim media organizations and present them a proper and convincing Muslim perspective on a range of issues. The intention should be to interact cordially with the 'mainline' media and thereby help articulate the Muslim voice and to counter anti-Muslim stereotypes and disinformation.
10. Frequent meetings of leaders of Muslim community organizations with the editorial chiefs of non-Muslim newspapers and television channels will help develop a healthy rapport with them. It is often the case that whenever a Muslim group organizes a press meet, it is only Muslim journalists who are invited, leaving out the non-Muslim journalists. This ghetto mentality has to be changed.
11. Publications owned by Muslims often tend to focus more on issues pertaining to the elites or the middle-classes in the community as most of their correspondents are based in the metros. It is important to explore and report on sensitive issues and problems of Muslims in remote villages and rural areas, as well as those Muslims who live in urban slums. After all, this is where the bulk of the Muslims of India live. Sometimes, publications focus only on the metros, leaving out even major states like North-East India altogether, although some of these states have a very high proportion of Muslims. Again, a strong network of reporters in these areas is the need of the hour. Reporters need to supply news and stories not just relating to the cities and larger towns (as is often the case) but also to include within their ambit issues pertaining to the marginalized sections within the Muslim community.
12. Muslim organizations must consider establishing news and features agencies in different parts of the country. These agencies can commission articles on Muslim-related issues, which can be translated into various languages and sent to newspapers and magazines that subscribe to the services of these agencies. Care should be taken to ensure that these subscribing publications are not just Muslim-owned. Instead, it is vital that these stories and news reports appear in non-Muslim-owned publications as well, so that the Muslim voice is heard beyond the limits of the community. Generally, the non-Muslim media reports on Muslims only in cases of some or the other sensational event, real or imaginary. Few positive stories about Muslims appear in the non-Muslim media. It is as if for large sections of the non-Muslim media, Muslims are a perpetual 'problem'. In this way, negative stereotypes about Muslims are greatly reinforced. Muslim news and features agencies can focus not just on rebutting anti-Muslim propaganda but also on disseminating positive news and stories relating to the community. This would not only help improve the image of the community, but would also give inspiration to members of the community to emulate Muslim trend-setters who could be highlighted in this manner.
13. There is a desperate need for Muslim media groups to be research-oriented. They, along with other Muslim community organizations, could commission projects on various social issues relating to the community. Articles generated out of such research projects can be sent to various newspapers. Muslim community organizations must seriously consider establishing research centres that specialize in social science research on the Indian Muslims, something that is woefully lacking today. This research can then be made more publicly accessible through the mass media.
A few years ago, an English Muslim monthly had plans to conduct a research project on readership of newspapers in Muslim urban households. However, it had to be put on hold due to lack of adequate human resources to complete the field work! This shows that Muslim community organizations simply do not give this sort of work the attention that it deserves. Further, there is also a distinct apathy as well as lack of qualified young Muslims who can do, or are interested in doing, such work. Muslim community organizations must seriously address this issue.
14. A directory of Muslim-owned newspapers, magazines and television channels across India should be compiled. Names and contact details of Muslim journalists can be included in this. This will help promote co-ordination between Muslim media persons in different parts of the country. The Millat Directory from Bangalore is a good beginning. Apart from a collection of data on different Muslim organizations, schools, banks, etc., the Directory also has a listing of Muslim-owned newspapers and magazines.
I also wish to highlight the fact that ups and downs have been part of the Muslim-run media organizations. A publication I worked with was launched amidst grand fanfare from Bangalore. It positioned itself as the "Voice of the Voiceless." Packed with original stories filed by reporters spread across India, the magazine truly represented the plight of not just the Muslims, but even the Dalits and the Christians. The initial years saw a spurt in the subscription levels of the magazine as it comprised articles sent in by Muslims and non-Muslims.
Marketing has to be an important part of any publication. But this was where this magazine faltered miserably. Confined to a closed group of readers concentrated in certain regions in India, the circulation was stagnant. This affected the status of the magazine, ultimately came the sad day when the magazine was "carried off" to God's own Country….. Kerala! The last I heard, it had suspended publication.
As the above instance suggests, marketing and publicity strategies of Muslim-owned publications deserve serious thought as they cannot depend simply on the emotions and goodwill of the community to survive in the long-run. A marketing-savvy executive should be part of the team of any Muslim publication or channel. In other words, Muslim publications need to be much more professional than they now are.
Most Muslim-run publications circulate within the Muslims. They never reach the corridors of power, probably because they do not resort to aggressive marketing. They are also hardly read by non-Muslims, which means that the Muslim point of view is hardly ever heard outside the community. This is a crucial issue that needs to be seriously addressed. It is clear that the Muslim opinion or voice must indeed be heard outside the community as well, by influential non-Muslim opinion-makers, agencies of the state and by the wider, including non-Muslim, society at large.
It is often said that Muslim-run publications do not offer fancy and attractive remuneration to writers. This does dampen the motivation of some prospective writers to contribute articles. But most Muslim writers offer their articles to Muslim-run publications out of their own will, with the passion to do something for the community. I have felt considerable uneasiness while coordinating with writers for the publication I edit when they offer brilliant original articles, but our hands are tied as they cannot be paid the remuneration they deserve. So it is back to recycled stuff downloaded from the Internet!
The community must open its eyes to the changing trends in technology, and use television and the print and digital media wisely with a balanced professional approach, rather than taking up the attitude of simply countering or challenging the Western media or anti-Muslim sections of the Indian media, although this, too, is important. A " Times of Muslims" or a "CNN of Muslims" will see the light of day when the community stops looking inward and opens its arms out to non-Muslims, other marginalized minorities and communities, and talks and writes about them whenever issues pertaining to them arise.
By Nigar Ataulla
(Nigar Ataulla is the Associate Editor of the Bangalore-based monthly 'Islamic Voice' (http://www.islamicvoice.com/). She can be contacted on nigs3@yahoo.co.in)
In this context of growing media attention given to Islam and Muslims, a critical issue is that of the role that the media plays in reinforcing certain negative stereotypical images of the community. Of particular importance also is the role that the Indian Muslim media is playing, and can play, in both combating these negative stereotypes and disinformation about Islam and Muslims in the 'mainstream' media, as well as helping in the process of the overall empowerment of the Muslim community.
Muslim representation in the Indian media is dismal, while Muslims' share in media ownership is even more pathetic. Muslims do not have any considerable hold over the media. In northern India, several Urdu newspapers owned by Muslims have gradually closed down or rapidly lost circulation. In contrast, Urdu dailies from centres like Mumbai, Hyderabad, Aurangabad, Kolkata and even Bangalore are doing well and look professional. Muslims are yet to have any major presence in TVchannel ownership, though the two or three that exist today devote a large share of time to religious issues, rather than on other social-economic issues facing the community. Some success stories of Muslim-owned newspapers in languages other than Urdu and English are the daily Madhyamam in Malayalam, Gujarat Today in Gujarati and Vaartha Bharti in Kannada, published from Mangalore. Madhyamam started in 1991 from Kozhikode and is now published from eight centres, including two in the Gulf. Gujarat Today started nearly 20 years ago and has now achieved a circulation of around 30,000. Vaartha Bharati is three years old, and is now going in for its second edition from Bangalore. Another publication called Tejas from Kerala is believed to be making waves and has acquired popularity within a year of its launch. As for news and features agencies, some attempts were made in the past and FANA (Features and News Alliance) from New Delhi seemed like a trend-setter, but it unfortunately wound up.
There exist just a few Muslim magazines in English, but their circulation is small and they are read almost entirely by Muslims only. Several Muslim-owned magazines exist in languages like Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Urdu, Hindi, Gujarati, Kannada, and Bengali. As an Associate Editor with an English-language Muslim monthly magazine that is based in Bangalore, my desk was often flooded with newsletters and tabloids in these languages. From a remote corner of Bihar to the crowded Muslim-dominated locality of Shivajinagar in Bangalore, editors of these tabloids were making efforts in their own way to convey the message of Islam or even social issues related to the community.
The launch of an Urdu service of UNI, the Urdu channel of Doordarshan on August 15, 2006, and completion of six years of the Urdu channel 'ETV Urdu' from Hyderabad are distinct milestones of success as regards the Indian Muslim media. Urdu journalism courses have been started in the Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Millia Islamia, in New Delhi and the Osmania University, Hyderabad.
The quality of Urdu journalism improved in Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Aurangabad from the late 1980s and the survival of magazines like Urdu Mein Science, Shayar, Gagan, Sanaat-o-Harafat from Kolkata and Khatoon-e-Mashriq from Delhi is worth mentioning. Islamic Voice, Radiance, Milli Gazette, Nation and the World, Afkar-e-Milli and Al-Harmony are a few English magazines known nationally and run by Muslims.
Muslims often complain that the national media is biased in its coverage of issues and events pertaining to the community. The word "journalism" or "journalist" used to raise quite a few eyebrows some years ago in the Muslim community. Choosing not to take up a course like tourism or medicine or engineering after my graduation, I took up Mass Communications from Bangalore University. I was the only Muslim in my class of 30. I had to spend hours explaining to curious well-wishers in the community as to why I had chosen this field and what my job profile was. I relate this to express the disdain with which large sections of the community looked upon journalism and journalists in those days, way back in the late 90s. But I feel the scene has changed now to a certain extent, with many young Muslim girls and boys taking to journalism and the mass media, but still the "buts' remain.
The media is considered a struggling profession with not particularly lucrative monetary returns. Most high-scoring students choose engineering, medicine, management, etc. as careers. Media and journalism are not on top of their mind. There are not enough takers for media scholarships among Muslim students.
In my career as a writer/journalist for over 10 years now with the Muslim run-media, I had the privilege of attending scores of forums, conferences and get-togethers where discussions about launching a national English daily from several centres in India was the most common topic. Participants in these discussions bemoaned the fact that although the Indian Muslims are more than 150 million strong, they have hardly any English-language periodicals of their own, which can reflect their concerns, views and aspirations. Yet, despite the widespread recognition of the need for an Indian Muslim English-language newspaper, this has failed to materialize. Some experiments were undertaken in this regard, but these generally closed down a few years after. A recent Report (June 2006) by Anil Chamaria, Freelance Journalist; Jitendra Kumar, Independent Researcher; Yogendra Yadav, Senior Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi, recently examined the social profile of media-persons working in 40 media organizations. These findings are based on a survey of the social background of 315 key decision makers from these media organizations. Its key findings reflect the sources of bias:
1. India's 'national' media lacks social diversity—It does not reflect the country's social profile
2. Hindu 'upper' caste men dominate the media. They are about 8 % of India's population but among the key decision makers of the national media their share is as high as 71 %.
3. Gender bias rules: only 17 % of the key decision makers in the media are women. Their representation is better in the English Electronic media (32 %).
4. The media's caste profile is equally unrepresentative. 'Twice born' Hindus (dwijas or 'twice-born' 'upper' caste Hindus, comprising Brahmins, Kayasths, Rajputs, Vaishyas and Khatris) are about 16 % of India's population, but they are about 86 % of the key media decision makers in this survey. Brahmins (including Bhumihars and Tyagis) alone constitute 49% of the key media personnel.
5. Dalits and Adivasis are conspicuous by their absence among the decision makers in the media. Not even one of the 315 key decision makers belonged to the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes.
6. The proportion of OBCs is abysmally low among the key decision makers in the national media: they are only 4 % compared to their population of around 40 % in the country.
7. Muslims are severely under-represented in the national media: they are only 3 % among the key decision makers, compared to 13.4% in the country's population.
8. Social groups that suffer 'double disadvantage' are also nearly absent among the key decision makers: there are no women among the few OBC decision makers and negligible 'backwards' among the Muslims and Christians.
Another most often-discussed topic in Muslim media circles is how to correct or combat the media distortion of or disinformation on Muslims and Islam in the Indian or Western media. What role can the Muslim media, as well as other Muslim community organizations, play in addressing this very serious issue?
On December 7, 1986, the Deccan Herald, based in Bangalore, published a defamatory story on the Prophet (p.b.u.h.). The Muslim reaction to this began with a 10,000 strong crowd protesting before the office of Deccan Herald and this gradually took a violent turn. It can be asked whether this was an appropriate way for us to register our protest. Whenever the media indulges in disinformation or demonstrates bias, a careful, systematic approach should be adopted:
1-The media people should be known beforehand. Their names, background, qualification, caste, community, family, orientation, training, career should be known. Files of their writings should be documented.
2-The source of the story and information should be identified.
3-Rapport should be built with the media persons.
4-Calls can be made if there are minor oversights or distortions.
5-Letters should be written if there is gross distortion of facts. Positive information must be supplied.
6-If there is persistent distortion of facts, delegations should call upon the editor.
In order to enable the Muslim media to play a more effective role in empowering the community, the following suggestions could be seriously considered:
1- Career counseling of Muslim students should be arranged by Muslim community organizations, seeking to attract them to take up a career in the media.
2- More media scholarships should be instituted by Muslim community organizations and business houses.
3- Centres for media documentation should be set up in different parts of the country, where special emphasis should be placed on documenting material related to Muslims and Islam that appears in the press. These institutions can play a vital role as resource centres for the Muslim press and for scholars and journalists writing on Muslim or Islamic issues as well as for social activists.
4- Efforts should be made to place trained Muslim journalists in key places through a network of contacts.
5- Adequate and immediate responses should be developed to issues that the biased press uses to malign Muslims. Myths about Islam and Muslims should be debunked by a variety of means. This requires proper research..
6- Efforts should be made to seek a fair representation of Muslims, and other marginalized communities, in the already established media. This requires lobbying with agencies of the state, with social movements and with NGOs.
7-Orientation workshops should be held frequently to develop informed discussion on a range of issues, from new media technologies to issues relating specifically to Muslims. Invitees can be both Muslim and non-Muslim media persons.
8. Muslims writers and journalists who write on Islam and community-related issues should be encouraged and appreciated by the community, though the fact remains that most of them write for the cause for the community and do not really crave for fame or glory. Awards recognizing the contribution of Muslim journalists can go a long way in motivating them.
9. A network of Muslim journalists and writers in different parts of India should be formed—a forum where writers can share views, exchange ideas, plan collective efforts, etc.. This can take various forms, from a simple online discussion group to a website to a more formal organization, like an All-India Muslim Journalists' Association that holds an annual meeting, publishes a newsletter, etc..
9. Muslim organizations need to develop proper media policies. As of now, this vital issue is woefully neglected. Often, media cells in the few Muslim organizations that have them are limited in their work to culling out articles from newspapers and filing and documenting them. Muslim organizations need to be professional in their public relations, something that few of them actually are. They need to have staff who are able to properly interact with non-Muslim media organizations and present them a proper and convincing Muslim perspective on a range of issues. The intention should be to interact cordially with the 'mainline' media and thereby help articulate the Muslim voice and to counter anti-Muslim stereotypes and disinformation.
10. Frequent meetings of leaders of Muslim community organizations with the editorial chiefs of non-Muslim newspapers and television channels will help develop a healthy rapport with them. It is often the case that whenever a Muslim group organizes a press meet, it is only Muslim journalists who are invited, leaving out the non-Muslim journalists. This ghetto mentality has to be changed.
11. Publications owned by Muslims often tend to focus more on issues pertaining to the elites or the middle-classes in the community as most of their correspondents are based in the metros. It is important to explore and report on sensitive issues and problems of Muslims in remote villages and rural areas, as well as those Muslims who live in urban slums. After all, this is where the bulk of the Muslims of India live. Sometimes, publications focus only on the metros, leaving out even major states like North-East India altogether, although some of these states have a very high proportion of Muslims. Again, a strong network of reporters in these areas is the need of the hour. Reporters need to supply news and stories not just relating to the cities and larger towns (as is often the case) but also to include within their ambit issues pertaining to the marginalized sections within the Muslim community.
12. Muslim organizations must consider establishing news and features agencies in different parts of the country. These agencies can commission articles on Muslim-related issues, which can be translated into various languages and sent to newspapers and magazines that subscribe to the services of these agencies. Care should be taken to ensure that these subscribing publications are not just Muslim-owned. Instead, it is vital that these stories and news reports appear in non-Muslim-owned publications as well, so that the Muslim voice is heard beyond the limits of the community. Generally, the non-Muslim media reports on Muslims only in cases of some or the other sensational event, real or imaginary. Few positive stories about Muslims appear in the non-Muslim media. It is as if for large sections of the non-Muslim media, Muslims are a perpetual 'problem'. In this way, negative stereotypes about Muslims are greatly reinforced. Muslim news and features agencies can focus not just on rebutting anti-Muslim propaganda but also on disseminating positive news and stories relating to the community. This would not only help improve the image of the community, but would also give inspiration to members of the community to emulate Muslim trend-setters who could be highlighted in this manner.
13. There is a desperate need for Muslim media groups to be research-oriented. They, along with other Muslim community organizations, could commission projects on various social issues relating to the community. Articles generated out of such research projects can be sent to various newspapers. Muslim community organizations must seriously consider establishing research centres that specialize in social science research on the Indian Muslims, something that is woefully lacking today. This research can then be made more publicly accessible through the mass media.
A few years ago, an English Muslim monthly had plans to conduct a research project on readership of newspapers in Muslim urban households. However, it had to be put on hold due to lack of adequate human resources to complete the field work! This shows that Muslim community organizations simply do not give this sort of work the attention that it deserves. Further, there is also a distinct apathy as well as lack of qualified young Muslims who can do, or are interested in doing, such work. Muslim community organizations must seriously address this issue.
14. A directory of Muslim-owned newspapers, magazines and television channels across India should be compiled. Names and contact details of Muslim journalists can be included in this. This will help promote co-ordination between Muslim media persons in different parts of the country. The Millat Directory from Bangalore is a good beginning. Apart from a collection of data on different Muslim organizations, schools, banks, etc., the Directory also has a listing of Muslim-owned newspapers and magazines.
I also wish to highlight the fact that ups and downs have been part of the Muslim-run media organizations. A publication I worked with was launched amidst grand fanfare from Bangalore. It positioned itself as the "Voice of the Voiceless." Packed with original stories filed by reporters spread across India, the magazine truly represented the plight of not just the Muslims, but even the Dalits and the Christians. The initial years saw a spurt in the subscription levels of the magazine as it comprised articles sent in by Muslims and non-Muslims.
Marketing has to be an important part of any publication. But this was where this magazine faltered miserably. Confined to a closed group of readers concentrated in certain regions in India, the circulation was stagnant. This affected the status of the magazine, ultimately came the sad day when the magazine was "carried off" to God's own Country….. Kerala! The last I heard, it had suspended publication.
As the above instance suggests, marketing and publicity strategies of Muslim-owned publications deserve serious thought as they cannot depend simply on the emotions and goodwill of the community to survive in the long-run. A marketing-savvy executive should be part of the team of any Muslim publication or channel. In other words, Muslim publications need to be much more professional than they now are.
Most Muslim-run publications circulate within the Muslims. They never reach the corridors of power, probably because they do not resort to aggressive marketing. They are also hardly read by non-Muslims, which means that the Muslim point of view is hardly ever heard outside the community. This is a crucial issue that needs to be seriously addressed. It is clear that the Muslim opinion or voice must indeed be heard outside the community as well, by influential non-Muslim opinion-makers, agencies of the state and by the wider, including non-Muslim, society at large.
It is often said that Muslim-run publications do not offer fancy and attractive remuneration to writers. This does dampen the motivation of some prospective writers to contribute articles. But most Muslim writers offer their articles to Muslim-run publications out of their own will, with the passion to do something for the community. I have felt considerable uneasiness while coordinating with writers for the publication I edit when they offer brilliant original articles, but our hands are tied as they cannot be paid the remuneration they deserve. So it is back to recycled stuff downloaded from the Internet!
The community must open its eyes to the changing trends in technology, and use television and the print and digital media wisely with a balanced professional approach, rather than taking up the attitude of simply countering or challenging the Western media or anti-Muslim sections of the Indian media, although this, too, is important. A " Times of Muslims" or a "CNN of Muslims" will see the light of day when the community stops looking inward and opens its arms out to non-Muslims, other marginalized minorities and communities, and talks and writes about them whenever issues pertaining to them arise.
By Nigar Ataulla
(Nigar Ataulla is the Associate Editor of the Bangalore-based monthly 'Islamic Voice' (http://www.islamicvoice.com/). She can be contacted on nigs3@yahoo.co.in)
Monday, 21 May 2007
The Search Goes On
Pain of separation turn Hajra Bhanu restless, increase in its intensity worsens her condition to the extent that she wishes to dig a graveyard for herself, which she believes would relieve her of her “subtle but torturous” pains and a perplexed situation.
Finding herself “ruined”, Hajra, in her mid seventies, recollects the “good old” days when her four sons used to live happily with her. Narrating her woeful tale in nutshell, she said, “Akye waqt asas bae chouran shuraen hinz moej, wane chhum ni kahaen”, (there was a time when I was mother of four sons but today I yearn for a support).
Aged Hajra and her husband live alone in Wanigam village of Bandipora district in Kashmir. Left to fend on their own, the couple hardly finds any one to share their agonies and trauma. “There is no one with whom we could share our pains and sufferings. We had two daughters who are married now and they seldom visit us. At times, our agonies turn unbearable and we wish to end our lives. I wish to dig a graveyard for myself at least that would relieve me from this perplexed situation,” lamented Hajra.
One of the Hajra’s sons is missing for the last 11 years and other three have been killed. Living a hard and miserable life, her agonies have adversely affected her. She finds no words to explain her situation. Tears gushing through her eyes narrate the untold part. Hajra’s husband is ailing and too weak to earn. In their old age they are left to support each other.
Despite all this Hajra mustered courage and filed a case in State Human Rights Commission (SHRC). However, she is not satisfied with the pace of work there and is doubtful in getting a verdict in her favour from the commission. “For the last three years I have been going to State Human Rights Commission to seek justice but till date my efforts have borne no fruits. There is no one except Almighty who might come to our rescue, rest is all turning tail”, feebly commented
Hajra.
Disappearance of her son has added to the mental agonies of Taja Bano again from the same village. Taja fails to understand as how could an “illiterate and helpless” mother (as in almost every case of disappearance) trace her son in this land of conflict where every moment of life adds to their bruises. “Where to look for him since the whole matter seems so confusing and complicated. Exhumations in the Ganderbal fake encounter cases have worried us more with the apprehensions hogging our minds that our dear ones might have faced the same fate,” narrated Taja.
Missing her “disappeared” son badly she feels as if her life has come to a sudden halt. Failing to comply with this trauma her husband had a nervous breakdown. Consequently, she was left to feed and support her family that she at times finds cumbersome. Posing a volley of queries she asked, “What is the alternative left for mothers in such grave situations? Who would take the trouble of providing us with the necessities of life? We are all a helpless, hapless and ignored
lot who are left to fend for themselves,” she quipped leaving rest to be conveyed by her abrupt silence.
Misra Bhanu went into depressive fits and finally lost her life. Obsessed to trace the whereabouts of her son, Shabir Ahmad, who went missing since 22 January 2001 Misra failed to bear the separation and bid farewell to the world. Residing at Boatman Colony-Bemina, Srinagar Ghulam Nabi, husband of Misra said that he first lost his son (whose whereabouts he is still tracing. He does not even know whether he is dead or alive) and then his wife.
Frustrated Ghulam Nabi, a fruit vendor by profession has no other source to sustain his family that includes his daughter-in-law and two grandsons. “Now they are my responsibility but how long can I support them. Where will my daughter-in-law go? She has no other source to support her life. Only Allah knows what will happen to her and her siblings. I have reached that stage of life where I myself need a support,” he argued.
Though his case too lies with the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) and the High Court but that is not where his struggle ends. So far, he has received no assistance in the form of cash. He added that he has to shoulder the responsibility of the family till he reaches the end of his life.
Getting emotional about his young daughter-in-law and grandsons, Ghulam Nabi pleaded for some sort of assistance for these children keeping into consideration his own limitations, the age factor in particular. “They do not have a secure future. What will they do when I will be no more, this thought sends shivers down my spine and haunts me all along but what to do as I am absolutely helpless,” he asked.
In a bid to catch a glimpse of her son, Fazi Begum (75), makes it all the way to the Saddar Court,
Srinagar irrespective of time, money involved and the type of weather. Being aware of the fact that her son would be brought to the court for hearing, she left no stone unturned to make it to that place.
Rehti Jan, in her late sixties, often walks down the riverside to share her tears with the gushing stream flowing by. She lost her son to the ongoing insurgency in the state. Her son was the lone bread earner of the family and they lived a happy life. Immediately after his death their family went in the grip of miseries and pains. “Life has turned miserable for us and we are living from hand to mouth,” exclaimed Rehti.
Mukhta Bano, a middle-aged woman, remembers her last meeting with her son. Down the memory lane, she recollects the memories of the day when she was waiting for her son only to find that the wait would turn endless. Her eyes always look for that “familiar” face in the crowd. “All my efforts fail to trace him. Now it seems an endless search still I will never give up,” reiterated Mukhta.
Another middle-aged woman, Zainab Begum still waits for her son who is believed to be dead. “I have not seen his dead body or for that mater his grave. How can I believe that he is no more? Show me either his dead body or grave only then I will believe your words. Till then I would continue my struggle the way I can,” insisted the mother.
Sara Begum, a young mother, finds solace the moment she happens to pass by the graveyard of her son. “He is safe here. At least, I know he is lying here and nobody can harm him,” she uttered.
To trace the whereabouts of her only son, Fatima Bi, an elderly woman wishes to get tossed from post to pillar hoping that someday she might locate her son or get any information pertaining to him. “Only then I can die in peace,” she stated.
The wait, however, seems unending for Zoona Akthar, a widow and mother of five children, who have put in all her energy, efforts and other resources to find out her son missing for years together now.
Age seems not to be a barrier for Mala Jan (70), who moves from jail to jail to look for her son and to know about his well-being. “Back home I have to look after his family as well as there is no other source of income. I try to eke out a small living by doing petty jobs,” she said.
“Stop disappearances and stop crimes against humanity,” plead the family members of the disappeared persons whenever they assemble and carry out silent protest demonstration in Srinagar. “Hamaray bachoun ko azad karo, La pata bachoun ko riha karo” (release our missing children, set them free and provide us their whereabouts), are the slogans that they usually raise. Finally, tears and shrieks give vent to their feelings.
The Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) is an organization of families of victims of enforced disappearances in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and has been campaigning against phenomenon of enforced or involuntary disappearances since its formation in 1994.
Pertinent to mention, at the very beginning of this year the Association got split into two factions for the reasons best known to them. One faction continues to be the sister organization of the J&K Coalition of Civil Society (J&KCCS) and the other being headed by Parveena Ahangar (earlier President of APDP), independently.
Last year, on the occasion of the International Day of the Disappeared (August 30), APDP came out with a paper that contained contradictory statements of the ministers as well as chief ministers issued from time to time about the number of the persons disappeared in the state since 1989.
The document while quoting the statement made by Khalid Najeeb Suharwardy, Minister of State (MOS) for Home during the National Conference rule on July 18, 2002 said that 3,184 persons disappeared from 1989 to July 2002. Then the document while quoting the former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said that 3744 persons were missing during the year 2000, 2001 and
2002. The statement that was made in the Legislative Assembly at Jammu on February 25, 2003 said that 1,553 persons disappeared in 2000; 1,586 in 2001 and 605 in 2002. On March 25, 2003 former Law & Parliamentary affairs minister Muzaffar Hussain Beigh had said that out of 3,744 persons missing during the period 2000-2002, 135 have been declared dead up to June 2002.
The document revealed a U-turn approach taken by the former Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed who during a joint press conference with former Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee at Srinagar airport, in April 2003, declared that only 60 persons have disappeared since the inception of militancy in the state. Later, the document said that Mufti while giving the statement on June 11, 2003 said that 3,744 persons are reported missing from 1990 till 31st December 2002. Ten days later, the then Minister of State (MOS) Home, Abdul Rehman Veeri said that 3,931 persons have disappeared from 1989 to June 2003.
The chairman of National Panthers Party (NPP) Prof. Bhim Singh on October 7, 2004 said that 4000 disappeared persons are lodged in Jammu jails. The document further quoted various statements made by the chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and the former deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Beigh about the custodial disappearances that have taken place from time to time.
The document while quoting Azad, during the question hour of the state legislature during February-March 2006 session at Jammu said that 693 disappearance cases have been registered, so far. In the same session he made a statement that four cases of custodial disappearances were recorded between 1-1-2004 and 15-2-2006.
The document while quoting the then deputy Chief Minister on August 1, 2006 said that there were 60 cases of disappearances during the National Conference (NC) rule. Later the document while quoting the statement of Azad made in the legislative council said that that there were 12 cases of custodial disappearances from 2003 to July 28, 2006. The document added that the Chief Minister on the floor of the house during the same session said that there have been 33 custodial disappearances during 1990-1996 in the state. He added that 60 cases of custodial disappearances have come to the forefront during the period 1995-2002, the document added.
The chief minister while making a mention in the state legislature said that 15 custodial disappearances have taken place during 2003-2005 and that a single case of custodial disappearance has occurred from November 2, 2005 to August 5, 2006, as per the document. It added that Azad in the house said that during the Governor’s rule and NC regime 33 and 60 cases of the custodial disappearances were reported respectively.
The APDP believed that in Jammu and Kashmir the successive governments have not even acknowledged the phenomenon of enforced disappearances and it is imperative that the cases are investigated. The question of identifying the perpetrators and bringing them to justice, according to the Association, seems to be a remote possibility.
Since 1989, APDP records that 8000 to 10,000 people have been subjected to enforced disappearances during different regimes. According to them, 122 people were subjected to enforced disappearance from November 2, 2002 to November 2, 2005. The Congress government led by Ghulam Nabi Azad has been no different and more than 42 cases of enforced disappearances have been reported from November 2, 2005 to this date revealed the Association.
Parveena Ahangar, former president, Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) and currently heading one of the APDP factions reiterates to continue the struggle, till the last breath.
“We won’t rest till we know the truth,” she stressed. She was of the opinion that even courts have failed them. “Courts have failed to provide us the justice. We have been asking about the setting up of a Commission under the Commission of Inquiries Act with a mandate to probe into all the disappearances taken place since the insurgency, here. But that did not happen. We asked them to stop such violations. Contrary to that, cases of disappearances keep pouring in,” she maintained. The Association, according to her, is persistently campaigning against phenomenon of enforced or involuntary disappearances since its formation in 1994.
She however, reiterated that they do not want relief, job or compensation making it clear that they simply want their children back. “What more can a mother’s heart urge for and what else would children demand. No one can gauge the pains and sufferings of a widow,” she said. She went to the extent of saying that if they are sincerely told that their “missing” relatives are no more, they are ready to take that as well. “At least, we will stop looking for them and stop spending everything we have in trying to trace them. But, it appears as if no one is moved by the pains we are undergoing,” she advocated.
Either show us their dead bodies or let the international agencies intervene, she maintained. “How long shall we continue like this?” Parveena asked. “I can understand the pains of a mother, a sister or a wife who has lost her son, brother or husband. I have gone through all this and I am fighting for this for the last so many years,” she reinforced. Parveena’s son is missing since the last 16 years.
Lashing out on the government, a relative of a disappeared youth asked the government to show them the dead bodies of their dear ones. “You talk about resolving Kashmir issue, what about our issues. Return us our children”, he asked. Questioning further, he said which provision in the Constitution authorizes the government to take away their children not to be returned. “Tell them their crime, punish them, but at least show them to us. This is a grave injustice done to us,” he submitted.
Pervez Imroz patron J&K Coalition of Civil Society (CCS) stated that this situation is confronted by 3, 00,000 family members. He added that the government has been too insensitive to this issue. “We are planning for the international pressure because we feel only that works. We want to expose this indifference to the whole world. More shocking is the indifferent attitude of the civil society groups especially the women activists (elitist women group) who are observing silence over this grave issue,” Imroz explained.
”Since 12 years of the formation of APDP we have been fighting against disappearances in the state. We want the perpetrators to be brought to book,” he stressed. “Disappearance is a crime against humanity. Government is answerable for the disappearances,” emphasized Pervez Imroz.
Parveena Ahangar too demanded to make government answerable for the disappearances. “One hundred sixty four people have disappeared during Mufti’s government, 44 during Azad’s regime so far and about 35,000 during Farooq Abdullah’s time. How come Mufti led a delegation to United Nations General Assembly? Was there no one to question him about the disappearances during his regime,” Parveena asked.
Other members of the Association added, “Day in and day out we hear that both India and Pakistan want to solve the Kashmir issue, but there is no one who would stand up and mention about the disappearance of our kids. We are not against peace but at the same time we want that the whereabouts of our wards are known to us. If they are no more in this world then hand over
the bodies to us so that our mental agony comes to an end”.
Afsana Rashid
(Charkha Features)
Finding herself “ruined”, Hajra, in her mid seventies, recollects the “good old” days when her four sons used to live happily with her. Narrating her woeful tale in nutshell, she said, “Akye waqt asas bae chouran shuraen hinz moej, wane chhum ni kahaen”, (there was a time when I was mother of four sons but today I yearn for a support).
Aged Hajra and her husband live alone in Wanigam village of Bandipora district in Kashmir. Left to fend on their own, the couple hardly finds any one to share their agonies and trauma. “There is no one with whom we could share our pains and sufferings. We had two daughters who are married now and they seldom visit us. At times, our agonies turn unbearable and we wish to end our lives. I wish to dig a graveyard for myself at least that would relieve me from this perplexed situation,” lamented Hajra.
One of the Hajra’s sons is missing for the last 11 years and other three have been killed. Living a hard and miserable life, her agonies have adversely affected her. She finds no words to explain her situation. Tears gushing through her eyes narrate the untold part. Hajra’s husband is ailing and too weak to earn. In their old age they are left to support each other.
Despite all this Hajra mustered courage and filed a case in State Human Rights Commission (SHRC). However, she is not satisfied with the pace of work there and is doubtful in getting a verdict in her favour from the commission. “For the last three years I have been going to State Human Rights Commission to seek justice but till date my efforts have borne no fruits. There is no one except Almighty who might come to our rescue, rest is all turning tail”, feebly commented
Hajra.
Disappearance of her son has added to the mental agonies of Taja Bano again from the same village. Taja fails to understand as how could an “illiterate and helpless” mother (as in almost every case of disappearance) trace her son in this land of conflict where every moment of life adds to their bruises. “Where to look for him since the whole matter seems so confusing and complicated. Exhumations in the Ganderbal fake encounter cases have worried us more with the apprehensions hogging our minds that our dear ones might have faced the same fate,” narrated Taja.
Missing her “disappeared” son badly she feels as if her life has come to a sudden halt. Failing to comply with this trauma her husband had a nervous breakdown. Consequently, she was left to feed and support her family that she at times finds cumbersome. Posing a volley of queries she asked, “What is the alternative left for mothers in such grave situations? Who would take the trouble of providing us with the necessities of life? We are all a helpless, hapless and ignored
lot who are left to fend for themselves,” she quipped leaving rest to be conveyed by her abrupt silence.
Misra Bhanu went into depressive fits and finally lost her life. Obsessed to trace the whereabouts of her son, Shabir Ahmad, who went missing since 22 January 2001 Misra failed to bear the separation and bid farewell to the world. Residing at Boatman Colony-Bemina, Srinagar Ghulam Nabi, husband of Misra said that he first lost his son (whose whereabouts he is still tracing. He does not even know whether he is dead or alive) and then his wife.
Frustrated Ghulam Nabi, a fruit vendor by profession has no other source to sustain his family that includes his daughter-in-law and two grandsons. “Now they are my responsibility but how long can I support them. Where will my daughter-in-law go? She has no other source to support her life. Only Allah knows what will happen to her and her siblings. I have reached that stage of life where I myself need a support,” he argued.
Though his case too lies with the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) and the High Court but that is not where his struggle ends. So far, he has received no assistance in the form of cash. He added that he has to shoulder the responsibility of the family till he reaches the end of his life.
Getting emotional about his young daughter-in-law and grandsons, Ghulam Nabi pleaded for some sort of assistance for these children keeping into consideration his own limitations, the age factor in particular. “They do not have a secure future. What will they do when I will be no more, this thought sends shivers down my spine and haunts me all along but what to do as I am absolutely helpless,” he asked.
In a bid to catch a glimpse of her son, Fazi Begum (75), makes it all the way to the Saddar Court,
Srinagar irrespective of time, money involved and the type of weather. Being aware of the fact that her son would be brought to the court for hearing, she left no stone unturned to make it to that place.
Rehti Jan, in her late sixties, often walks down the riverside to share her tears with the gushing stream flowing by. She lost her son to the ongoing insurgency in the state. Her son was the lone bread earner of the family and they lived a happy life. Immediately after his death their family went in the grip of miseries and pains. “Life has turned miserable for us and we are living from hand to mouth,” exclaimed Rehti.
Mukhta Bano, a middle-aged woman, remembers her last meeting with her son. Down the memory lane, she recollects the memories of the day when she was waiting for her son only to find that the wait would turn endless. Her eyes always look for that “familiar” face in the crowd. “All my efforts fail to trace him. Now it seems an endless search still I will never give up,” reiterated Mukhta.
Another middle-aged woman, Zainab Begum still waits for her son who is believed to be dead. “I have not seen his dead body or for that mater his grave. How can I believe that he is no more? Show me either his dead body or grave only then I will believe your words. Till then I would continue my struggle the way I can,” insisted the mother.
Sara Begum, a young mother, finds solace the moment she happens to pass by the graveyard of her son. “He is safe here. At least, I know he is lying here and nobody can harm him,” she uttered.
To trace the whereabouts of her only son, Fatima Bi, an elderly woman wishes to get tossed from post to pillar hoping that someday she might locate her son or get any information pertaining to him. “Only then I can die in peace,” she stated.
The wait, however, seems unending for Zoona Akthar, a widow and mother of five children, who have put in all her energy, efforts and other resources to find out her son missing for years together now.
Age seems not to be a barrier for Mala Jan (70), who moves from jail to jail to look for her son and to know about his well-being. “Back home I have to look after his family as well as there is no other source of income. I try to eke out a small living by doing petty jobs,” she said.
“Stop disappearances and stop crimes against humanity,” plead the family members of the disappeared persons whenever they assemble and carry out silent protest demonstration in Srinagar. “Hamaray bachoun ko azad karo, La pata bachoun ko riha karo” (release our missing children, set them free and provide us their whereabouts), are the slogans that they usually raise. Finally, tears and shrieks give vent to their feelings.
The Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) is an organization of families of victims of enforced disappearances in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and has been campaigning against phenomenon of enforced or involuntary disappearances since its formation in 1994.
Pertinent to mention, at the very beginning of this year the Association got split into two factions for the reasons best known to them. One faction continues to be the sister organization of the J&K Coalition of Civil Society (J&KCCS) and the other being headed by Parveena Ahangar (earlier President of APDP), independently.
Last year, on the occasion of the International Day of the Disappeared (August 30), APDP came out with a paper that contained contradictory statements of the ministers as well as chief ministers issued from time to time about the number of the persons disappeared in the state since 1989.
The document while quoting the statement made by Khalid Najeeb Suharwardy, Minister of State (MOS) for Home during the National Conference rule on July 18, 2002 said that 3,184 persons disappeared from 1989 to July 2002. Then the document while quoting the former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said that 3744 persons were missing during the year 2000, 2001 and
2002. The statement that was made in the Legislative Assembly at Jammu on February 25, 2003 said that 1,553 persons disappeared in 2000; 1,586 in 2001 and 605 in 2002. On March 25, 2003 former Law & Parliamentary affairs minister Muzaffar Hussain Beigh had said that out of 3,744 persons missing during the period 2000-2002, 135 have been declared dead up to June 2002.
The document revealed a U-turn approach taken by the former Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed who during a joint press conference with former Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee at Srinagar airport, in April 2003, declared that only 60 persons have disappeared since the inception of militancy in the state. Later, the document said that Mufti while giving the statement on June 11, 2003 said that 3,744 persons are reported missing from 1990 till 31st December 2002. Ten days later, the then Minister of State (MOS) Home, Abdul Rehman Veeri said that 3,931 persons have disappeared from 1989 to June 2003.
The chairman of National Panthers Party (NPP) Prof. Bhim Singh on October 7, 2004 said that 4000 disappeared persons are lodged in Jammu jails. The document further quoted various statements made by the chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and the former deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Beigh about the custodial disappearances that have taken place from time to time.
The document while quoting Azad, during the question hour of the state legislature during February-March 2006 session at Jammu said that 693 disappearance cases have been registered, so far. In the same session he made a statement that four cases of custodial disappearances were recorded between 1-1-2004 and 15-2-2006.
The document while quoting the then deputy Chief Minister on August 1, 2006 said that there were 60 cases of disappearances during the National Conference (NC) rule. Later the document while quoting the statement of Azad made in the legislative council said that that there were 12 cases of custodial disappearances from 2003 to July 28, 2006. The document added that the Chief Minister on the floor of the house during the same session said that there have been 33 custodial disappearances during 1990-1996 in the state. He added that 60 cases of custodial disappearances have come to the forefront during the period 1995-2002, the document added.
The chief minister while making a mention in the state legislature said that 15 custodial disappearances have taken place during 2003-2005 and that a single case of custodial disappearance has occurred from November 2, 2005 to August 5, 2006, as per the document. It added that Azad in the house said that during the Governor’s rule and NC regime 33 and 60 cases of the custodial disappearances were reported respectively.
The APDP believed that in Jammu and Kashmir the successive governments have not even acknowledged the phenomenon of enforced disappearances and it is imperative that the cases are investigated. The question of identifying the perpetrators and bringing them to justice, according to the Association, seems to be a remote possibility.
Since 1989, APDP records that 8000 to 10,000 people have been subjected to enforced disappearances during different regimes. According to them, 122 people were subjected to enforced disappearance from November 2, 2002 to November 2, 2005. The Congress government led by Ghulam Nabi Azad has been no different and more than 42 cases of enforced disappearances have been reported from November 2, 2005 to this date revealed the Association.
Parveena Ahangar, former president, Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) and currently heading one of the APDP factions reiterates to continue the struggle, till the last breath.
“We won’t rest till we know the truth,” she stressed. She was of the opinion that even courts have failed them. “Courts have failed to provide us the justice. We have been asking about the setting up of a Commission under the Commission of Inquiries Act with a mandate to probe into all the disappearances taken place since the insurgency, here. But that did not happen. We asked them to stop such violations. Contrary to that, cases of disappearances keep pouring in,” she maintained. The Association, according to her, is persistently campaigning against phenomenon of enforced or involuntary disappearances since its formation in 1994.
She however, reiterated that they do not want relief, job or compensation making it clear that they simply want their children back. “What more can a mother’s heart urge for and what else would children demand. No one can gauge the pains and sufferings of a widow,” she said. She went to the extent of saying that if they are sincerely told that their “missing” relatives are no more, they are ready to take that as well. “At least, we will stop looking for them and stop spending everything we have in trying to trace them. But, it appears as if no one is moved by the pains we are undergoing,” she advocated.
Either show us their dead bodies or let the international agencies intervene, she maintained. “How long shall we continue like this?” Parveena asked. “I can understand the pains of a mother, a sister or a wife who has lost her son, brother or husband. I have gone through all this and I am fighting for this for the last so many years,” she reinforced. Parveena’s son is missing since the last 16 years.
Lashing out on the government, a relative of a disappeared youth asked the government to show them the dead bodies of their dear ones. “You talk about resolving Kashmir issue, what about our issues. Return us our children”, he asked. Questioning further, he said which provision in the Constitution authorizes the government to take away their children not to be returned. “Tell them their crime, punish them, but at least show them to us. This is a grave injustice done to us,” he submitted.
Pervez Imroz patron J&K Coalition of Civil Society (CCS) stated that this situation is confronted by 3, 00,000 family members. He added that the government has been too insensitive to this issue. “We are planning for the international pressure because we feel only that works. We want to expose this indifference to the whole world. More shocking is the indifferent attitude of the civil society groups especially the women activists (elitist women group) who are observing silence over this grave issue,” Imroz explained.
”Since 12 years of the formation of APDP we have been fighting against disappearances in the state. We want the perpetrators to be brought to book,” he stressed. “Disappearance is a crime against humanity. Government is answerable for the disappearances,” emphasized Pervez Imroz.
Parveena Ahangar too demanded to make government answerable for the disappearances. “One hundred sixty four people have disappeared during Mufti’s government, 44 during Azad’s regime so far and about 35,000 during Farooq Abdullah’s time. How come Mufti led a delegation to United Nations General Assembly? Was there no one to question him about the disappearances during his regime,” Parveena asked.
Other members of the Association added, “Day in and day out we hear that both India and Pakistan want to solve the Kashmir issue, but there is no one who would stand up and mention about the disappearance of our kids. We are not against peace but at the same time we want that the whereabouts of our wards are known to us. If they are no more in this world then hand over
the bodies to us so that our mental agony comes to an end”.
Afsana Rashid
(Charkha Features)
Mizoram’s Jews – the lost tribe of Israel
It has been a long-standing contention of a section of Mizos that the people of Mizoram are descendants of the Menashe, one of the lost tribes of Israel. But the claims were quashed several times by Israel where, by the law of return, anyone with proof of Jewish roots can go and settle. It is difficult to ignore the similarities. Till the early 20th century, (when they were converted from head hunters to Christianity by missionaries), the Mizos sacrificed animals on a hillock to Pathian (Jehova) at a sacrificial altar on which a cross, similar to David’s star, was drawn. The Jewish Sabbath starts when the stars appear on a Friday evening and ends with the same on a Saturday evening. During the Cawngpuisial, Mizo villagers are restricted from going out of the village and strangers from entering it, after the stars appear on a Friday. The curfew is lifted on Saturday only after the stars appear. Even the burial rituals are similar. Mizos have a symbolic circumcision ceremony in which no actual cuts are made, a festival similar to Passover in which they eat unleavened bread.
One organisation that backs these Mizo claims, is the Israeli Jewish group Amishav, which has a permanent mission in Mizoram to assist Mizos practising Judaism. In the last 20 years more than 800 have migrated to the Jewish homeland, swapping thatched villages in the steamy tropical hills of North East India for concrete settlements on the West Bank and Gaza or service in the Israeli Defence Force. Right-wing Jewish groups have mostly welcomed them, but some left-wing Israelis question their fervour to return; reasoning that Israel’s comparatively higher standard of living attracts the Mizos. Allenby Sela, principal of the Amishav Hebrew Center in Aizawl, who was one of the 900 Mizos to convert to Judaism and settle down in the Gaza Strip, scoffs in disbelief. He returned to Mizoram to make his people aware of their history. “Faith can’t be proved through blood tests, it is a spiritual thing. Israel recognised the Black Jews of Ethiopia and the Fallasahs of South Africa as lost tribes without any tests (a Y-chromosome genetic marker is found across the Jewish diaspora). Although people from perhaps 100 countries settled in Israel since it was founded, they have not been asked to prove their race scientifically, This is nonsense. We believe firmly in our faith and our roots. “
Fortunately, a recent DNA study has validated the claim. Bhaswar Maity, a research scholar at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Kolkata, confirmed their Jewish descent. There are also historical pointers to this claim. Zaithanchhungi, a scholar studying the Mizo claim for over 20 years, is convinced that all Mizos are descendants of the Menashe. “The Menashe were enslaved by the Assyrians and taken to Assyria when Jerusalem fell and migrated to Afghanistan. During Alexander’s invasion they were driven through Kashmir and the Tibet plateau into the Chhinlung region of China and only entered Mizoram about 300 years ago via Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Burma.”
A stroll through Aizawl’s streets with signs like Moses Snack Centre, Nazareth Medical, Israel Stores, Zion Street shows how well assimilated they are. Intermarriages are quite common. The Jewish area in Aizawl, boasts a couple of synagogues, where Mizo men wearing skull caps and orthodox Jewish clothes stitched at Zion Tailors pray. Some got themselves circumcised without anaesthetic to demonstrate their fervour. . All Jew children learn Hebrew; either at the Holy Land High School or through correspondence courses. It has not been easy. The Indian security forces are suspicious of the motives and loyalties of the Mizo Jews in a sensitive border region. No kosher meat is available and pork is the much relished staple among 90% of the local population which is Christian, and treats Judaism more like a passing fad. But the Mizo Jews know otherwise. “The Torah (the Jewish Bible) prophesised that there shall be one Holy Land in the west and one in the east. If you include all the Chhinlung people of Jewish descent spread over Mizoram, Manipur and Burma, you will find the prophecy has come true” says a Jewish man awaiting his visa to the Promised Land.
Rachana Rana Bhattacharya
(Charkha Features)
One organisation that backs these Mizo claims, is the Israeli Jewish group Amishav, which has a permanent mission in Mizoram to assist Mizos practising Judaism. In the last 20 years more than 800 have migrated to the Jewish homeland, swapping thatched villages in the steamy tropical hills of North East India for concrete settlements on the West Bank and Gaza or service in the Israeli Defence Force. Right-wing Jewish groups have mostly welcomed them, but some left-wing Israelis question their fervour to return; reasoning that Israel’s comparatively higher standard of living attracts the Mizos. Allenby Sela, principal of the Amishav Hebrew Center in Aizawl, who was one of the 900 Mizos to convert to Judaism and settle down in the Gaza Strip, scoffs in disbelief. He returned to Mizoram to make his people aware of their history. “Faith can’t be proved through blood tests, it is a spiritual thing. Israel recognised the Black Jews of Ethiopia and the Fallasahs of South Africa as lost tribes without any tests (a Y-chromosome genetic marker is found across the Jewish diaspora). Although people from perhaps 100 countries settled in Israel since it was founded, they have not been asked to prove their race scientifically, This is nonsense. We believe firmly in our faith and our roots. “
Fortunately, a recent DNA study has validated the claim. Bhaswar Maity, a research scholar at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Kolkata, confirmed their Jewish descent. There are also historical pointers to this claim. Zaithanchhungi, a scholar studying the Mizo claim for over 20 years, is convinced that all Mizos are descendants of the Menashe. “The Menashe were enslaved by the Assyrians and taken to Assyria when Jerusalem fell and migrated to Afghanistan. During Alexander’s invasion they were driven through Kashmir and the Tibet plateau into the Chhinlung region of China and only entered Mizoram about 300 years ago via Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Burma.”
A stroll through Aizawl’s streets with signs like Moses Snack Centre, Nazareth Medical, Israel Stores, Zion Street shows how well assimilated they are. Intermarriages are quite common. The Jewish area in Aizawl, boasts a couple of synagogues, where Mizo men wearing skull caps and orthodox Jewish clothes stitched at Zion Tailors pray. Some got themselves circumcised without anaesthetic to demonstrate their fervour. . All Jew children learn Hebrew; either at the Holy Land High School or through correspondence courses. It has not been easy. The Indian security forces are suspicious of the motives and loyalties of the Mizo Jews in a sensitive border region. No kosher meat is available and pork is the much relished staple among 90% of the local population which is Christian, and treats Judaism more like a passing fad. But the Mizo Jews know otherwise. “The Torah (the Jewish Bible) prophesised that there shall be one Holy Land in the west and one in the east. If you include all the Chhinlung people of Jewish descent spread over Mizoram, Manipur and Burma, you will find the prophecy has come true” says a Jewish man awaiting his visa to the Promised Land.
Rachana Rana Bhattacharya
(Charkha Features)
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