vol. 2 No.

New Delhi 20 January - 5 February 1987

Rupee!iTwo

Ex-Judges Establish
Human Rights Tribunal
Concern Over Undemocratic Laws,
Violations by State
Gazelle News Service
path breaking event took
place on 10th January,
1987 when the Indian
Peoples Human Rights Commloolon was inaugurated at
New Delhi's Press Club. Five of
the Commission 's founding
members were present on the
occasion : Prof. A.R. Desai, Prof.
Ramila Thapar, Mr. V.M. Tar
kunde and Mr Bhagwan Dass.
The other members of the
Commission are Mr. Asghar Ali
Engineer, Mr. Shyam Benegal,
Mr. Om Puri, Mr Samar Sen and
Mahasweta Devi .

The first act uf the Co mmis

sian has been to set up the
Indian People" Human Rights
Tribunal, consisting of forme r
judges of the Supreme Court
and High Courts. The Commis
sion will receive petitions and
complaints conceming violation
of human right s by the State,
cnnduct preliminary investiga
tion and Ihen forward them to
the Tribunal.
The Tribunal, a high powered
nongovemment
body, will
include:
V.R. Krishna Iyer, fomler judge
of the Supreme Court (Chair
man of the Tribunali P.S. Poti,
former Chief .Justice, Gujarat
High Court, T.V . Mehta, former
Chief Justice, Himachal Pradesh
High Court, BJ. Dewan, former
Chief Justice, Andhra Pradesh
High Court, Shanna Sarkar, fo r
mer judge of Calcutta High
Court, Hanhar Mohapatra, for
mer judge of Orissa High CoU/1,
Jyotinnoy Nag, fornler judge of
Calculla High Cou rt, D.P. Desai.
former judge of Gujarat High
Court, and CJ.R. Paul fanner
judge of Madras High Ccurt.

'Ibe iIrol issue thaI the

Tribunal will take up will be
the legalily of the police liring
at ArwaI In BU.ar on the 19th
of April, 1986. A large number
of landless and poor peasants
were ldIIed In the I1ring but
the BIhar State Govemment

has 80 far not ordered a judi

cial enquiry Into the Incident.
Sri P.S. Poti, Sri T.U. Mehta
and Sri Shann. Sarkar will
inquire Into this IncidenL The
dates of the sittings will be

announced in due course.

Expanse of Government
Lawlessness
In his inaugural remarks, Prof.
AR. Desai explained that the
commission had been fanned
in response to the "growing
expanse of government lawlessness" Mr. V.M. Tarkunde point
ed out that when human rights
were violated by the State itself,
there was no body or investiga t
ing agen cy to go in to such via
lations. "As people begin to
understand and demand their
rights, Sta te te rrorism was
bound to grow", warned th e
form er judge of th e Bombay
High Court .
Prof. Romila Tltapar of Jawa
har Lal Nehru University said
that in a democracy it was
t:!ssential to have watchdog in5titutions just as it was important
to buil d up a moral authority in

the larger public interest.

Also see story on p age 14.

/\,./t.A.- --

~---- ---

..

-.

Mail Censorship
The President Bnd the PM. A mBtter 01
returning censored /ettere. Look out for
B Special Report In the next Issue

Cease Fire, Hold Talks, Restore Politics

Khalistan Not The Issue
Unique Delhi Dialogue on Punjab
Gazelle News Service
hi le the goveT11ment in
Delhi contin ues to gape
vacan tly at Punjab, and
the Punjab government itself
persists with playi ng a suppuca
tory role vis-a-vis the centre, a
group of citizens in Delhi went
ahead with organising a break
through round table dialogue
on the crisis in the troubled
state.
The round table meeting held
on Thursday January 15 at the
India International Cen tre was
spearheaded by Dr. I.K. Gujral
of the Punjab Group.

The meeting la full report of

which is carried on page 891
was one of the most unique to
be held since the Punjab ctisis
went into flames with the anny
assault on the Golden Temple
in June 1984. Its uniqueness lay
in the fact that it was able to get

individuals and groups from a

broad spectrum of viewpoints
to sit around the same table for

a full day to excbange views

without being uncontrollably in
tolerant of one another's point
of view.

Wide Range
A wide range of opinion from
the Congress\ to the Damadami
Taksal was represented at the
round table, which included
members of the CPI, CPM,
Janata, BJP, the Uni ted Akali
Dal, both factions of the Akali
Dal. re tired senior civi l servants, retired police and mil
itary officers, serving editors of

major newspapers, academics

and members of leading civil
liberties organisations.
Unanimous Call
Inder Gulrlll: S"","'lIl1dlng II
break through dllliogue.

The meeting gave a unanim

ous call for a cease fire or
moratorium to the government

and a ll groups involved in via

le nt incidents in Punjab. It also
called for a restoration of the
stalled political dialogue in the
Punjab during the proposed 3
mo nt h moralOrium from Republic Day onwards.
All the participants at the
meeting agreed that it was not
only possible, but also desirable,
for political talks to be initiated
with all parties and groups
concerned wi th the crisis, barring those based across the
international border.
As regards the question of
secession, the overwhelming
opinion around the table was
that to a large extent the
'demand ' for Khallstan was
more cry of anger and allenation than a general desire for
political seperation from the

rest of the counlly.

F8rum

_M_ema__W_a_re_h_____________________ Gazel~

The Call of the Republic

AN ANALYSIS OF HOW THE PRESS HAS IGNORED THE FACTS, MISUNDERSTOOD THE
PROBLEM AND FOCUSSED ON THE WRONG ISSUE, CONCERNING THE SO-CALLED
'BOYCOTT' OF REPUBLIC DAY
Premlnder Singh
The public generally remained
cool. Nobody would have noti
ced the absence of a few thou
sand muslims at the Republic
Day Para de and since the Presi
de nt hadn 't bothered to call us
to his party there was no way
we co uld 'not participa te ' in the
fes tivi ties. Hut the Press was
seriously afflicted by h)'steria
and jingoistic fervour - spe
cially editors, colu mnists and
political commentators. So were
muslim
intellectuals
and
politicians.
Their collective wisdom can
be briefly simplified, summa
rised and 'unpompified' as
follows.
Our Republic has been insu
lted - what do you expect
from Ihe Muslims anyway?
Muslims betler behave or
some Hindus may get anSlY
and retaliaie.
Shahabuddin is communal,
anti-national and ambitious.
'Send him packing'.
~ Why doesn 't the Janata Party
do something? Chandra Shek
har is too tolerant of his pro
tege. He better watch it him
self if the Jal'ata Party is to
win elections.
Let's not cry over spilt milk.
We .11 know that no govern
ment can win an election on

Muslim votes.

Republic Insulted
"Muslims have every right to
protest". but those wbo would
conver1 this right into a chal
lenge to revered national
symbol are indulging in mischief
". please ignore this call. Pro
test a day before if you wi ll ;
protest a day later if you must.
Protest against the government,
if you want. But do not protest
against the nation ' " this is not
only extremely dangerous but
positively anti national .. , has
everyo ne lost all sense of
balance all respect for the coun
try . " . Islam does not teach
treachery to the nation . ... The

:The
FOrum

Gazette
;\11 Ekta Trust Publication
Pallel o(ColIslll l itl~ Editors
Justice \ '. fI . Krishna I~'CI"
I.K. Gujral. Madhu Kishwjlr.
Khushwant Singh . Iaya .I<lilly,
Rajni Kodlari , Amrik Sin&ll ,
Kuldip Nayar
ChaimJao, Board of editors
Lt. Gen. Jagjit Sin b..... Aurora !refd.)
Managing Editor
Balj;. Malik
Editors
Ha rii Malik, G.S. Sandhu,
A.S. Narang,

Associate Editor
AVIar Singh Judge
Circulation
IL Col. Manohar Singh lreld.)

Business Manager
Jatinder Kaur LaD
Ediroriai (Campi OtIice
4 Bhagwan Das Road
New OeIhi-llOOOl.
Phone:~O, ~

'Ih: 315220 HULK FOR GAZBTTB

20 Jen.-5 Feb. 1987

The first 3 weeks of this year witnessed an outbreak of patriotism not seen in
India since the Chinese war in 1962. The cause of this virulent outbreak was a
caU given by the All India Babari Masjid Conference from New Delhi to the
Muslims "not to participate in or associate themselves with the observance of
the Republic Day on 26th January, 1987, except those individuals who are on
official duty!' (Declaration of 22nd December) Convened by Janata Party
Me mber of Parliament Syed Shahabuddin the conferen ce e xpressed its
"deep sense of anguish a nd regret at the continued occupation of the historic
Babari Masjid, Ayodhya, since 23rd Dece mber 1949 a nd the regular
pe rfo r mance ofPuja and Darshan in the Masjid itself since 1st Febr uary '86".
Indian Union Muslim League is
indulging in subterfuge
the
dispute it now says must be
resolved by August 15. In other
words another national day has
been converted into a deadline.
The first challenge was both to
the co nstitution and the Repub
li c, next time will these gen tle
men reject our freedom itself?
". it is time for all of us to
stand up and make it very clear
that no one has a right to
threaten the ideological basis of
the Modern India n State". we
would appeal to the muslims to
fly the flag proudly on Republic
Day (Telegraph (TELl 25 & 31
Dec. '86, 6 &. I t Jan '871.

persisting \vith the call. It could

provide the antimuslim elements among the Hindus one
more argume nt in support of
the ir' attitude" ITimes of Indial
(TOI 3, 10 &, 14 JANI.
"Ii' is for the Muslims to
firm ly reject these cyn.'cal efforts
arousing communal passions for
in the final analYSiS, they can
only provide further ammun i
tion to Hindu communalists"

. Muslims Better Behave

muslim grievances without farm

ing communal passions".
.... It is clear that Mr .
Shahabuddin stands isolated
from the national political
mainstream. The choice before
the Janata National executive is
clear. It will only discredit itself
if it fails to send Mr. Shahabud
din packing".ITOI Jan 141.
Arun Shourie (IE Jan 231 not
only denationalises him but de
personalises him as well. He is
changed from a proper noun to
a common plural "". And for
Shahabuddins it It he calli has
been doubly successful; it has
helped them further their claim
to speak on behalf of the mus
lims ". and (rousedl the ir'C of
the increasingly assertive sec
tions among Hindus " , a reaction that fortifies th e leadership
of the Shahabuddins ". by boy
cotting the Republic Day they
wan t Muslims .. , qua Muslims
to announce that to them, reli
gion is 'more important than
anything else'. The latter ternl is
.urely comprehensive enough
to incl ude the coun try".
Is this the same Arun Shouriel
the excrusader for truth and
justice?

"The refusal of even some

muslims to participate in an
occasion which celebrates the
country's unity will only lend
MONTHLY
credibility to thsoe who accuse
JOURNAL
OF
them of not being a part of the
/'
RESEARCH
OOCUMEN,'AT10N
national mainstream .. , for if a
AND
section of muslims believes that
OEFERENCE
its religious identity is in peril, a
section of Hindus increasi ngly IStatesman 7 Jan!.
feel s that it has been taken [or
Shahabuddin Is A Trallor;
granted and is uniting in milSend Him Packing
ilant organisations ... what the
He is "The worst culprit in
pedlars of dangerou s sectarian
Janata Party Do Something
ism are after is a dubious politi this sordid affair ... the a uthor
cal objective. (THEY ARE ONLY and chief protagonist of, th e
''The Janata par1y is in a
NOMINALLY LOYAL TO THIS boycott plan. Mr. Shahabuddin's quandry. Although the or-ganisa
COUNTRY" (Italics minel (Indian conduct should dispe l all iIIu tion lives pemlanen tly in a state
Expr'Css IIEI 3, 10 &, 14 JANI.
sions abo ut his being vaguely of crisis, and to that extent th is
The musiim leaders .. , an~ secular or only mildly commu is just one more manifestation
ei ther guilty of utter indiffer nal. The kind of politicians he of its poli tical incoherence (itl is
ence to na tional sentiments or has associated h imself with and left wi th no other alternative
are wi lfully engaging in dangel'- the very language he has used except to expel its' former gene
ous brinkmanship ... (thisl entire ". make it plain th at Mr. Shaha ""I secretary an d one time pro
ly gratituous boycott call can buddin prefers the company of tege of Mr. Chandra Shekhar.
give a fillip to the antimuslim communalists such as Mr. Ibra Mr. Shahabuddin has evidently
sentiment among certain ele- him Su laiman Sait to secular decided that he has extrac ted
ments . . . "nothing is gained bj' politics or an effort to redress whatever he could from a secu
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;:;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;_;;;;;'

Matter of Facts
1. Ram .Ianam Bhoomi is a
Chabutra (platformI 17' x '21'.
2. About a hundred paces
away is the Masj id built by Bab
ar's Gov,ernor Mir B.qui in 1528.
3, No historical reference exists
about either the precise spot of
Ramchandraji's birth or the exis
tence of any temple on this site.
4. In 1885 the Mahan t of the
Chabutra was refu sed permi s'
sion by the local authorities to
construct a temple on the Cha
butra. His appeals to Sub Judge,
IFaizabadl Hari Kishan as well
as to the district court were
dismissed.
5. A railing was constructed

separating the Chabutra from

the masj id to prevent commu
nal trouble.
6. In 1949 a violent an ti mus
lim mob occu pied th e masjid
and installed stat ues of Sri Ra m
Chandra. A stay was gra nt ed
but the statues remained inside
and a lock was put on the mas
jid preventing muslim worship
that had been going on for over
400 years.
7. On Jan 25, 1986 a Hindu
advocat e of Faizabad filed a n
appeal asking for permission for
the Hindus to worship - not
on the Chabutra but in the
masjid,
8. One week later on Feb 1

Dis trict Judge IFaizabadl K.M.

Pandey gave permission to reo
open the Masjid and all ow
Hind u worship. No t only is this
one of the fas test decisions in
Indian juri sprudence but it
bro ke all possible legal norms,
including the fac t that a 37 year
old stay order was vacated
\\; thout hearing any individual
muslim or the Sunni Wakf
board tha' owns the Masjid.
The consequences are truly
frightening. "A historic mosque
built more than 450 years ago
has thus been converted into a
Hindu temple, in free India by a

judicial writ".

lar platform, including a seat in

the Lok Sabha, and has no
further use for ttje Janata Party"
IStatesman 7 Jan.l.
" It is a little mtriguing that
the Janata Party leadership
seems always to develop cold
feet in acti ng against an erring
Mr. Shahabuddin, although his
emergence as a m uslim com
munal leader has often com
promised his party's larger interests" ". Can it be that in order
to strengthen his personal hold
on the muslim masses, he is
willing to jeopardise their posi
tion in Indian Society? The
nation can do without such self
appointed crusaders. (HT 5 &. 13
Jan .1.
"Mill1Y Janata leaders had
been sharply critical of the late
Indira Gandhi for not taking
timely action agai nst Jamail
Singh Bhindranwale and there
by allowing th e Punjab si tuation
to get out of hand. What do
they have to say about Syed
Shahabuddin?" liE Jan 141.
Surely the Editor of the Indian
Express couldn 't already have
forgotten that it was the same
Mrs. Gandhi who built up the
Sant' and tried to use him to
destabilise the Akali dominated
Ministly in Punjab in the eight
ies. And while Bhindrdnwale
was imposing a justice of his
own, Shahabuddin is merely
asking for it.. ., "Sincerely and in
a spiJit of Iratemal co-existence
and mutual goodwill appeals to
th e Hindu community not to be
mi sled by the propaganda of
the chauvinist elements, try t'll
appreciate the agony and mear.
sure the bittemess generated by
forcible occupa tion of a historic
place of worship, and in the
interests of the nation persuade,
even pressurise the intransigien t
elements to restore the Babri
Masjid to the Muslim commun
ity" (22 Dec. Declarationl.

No Crying OYer Split Milk

But "One thing that is obvious
is that the status quo ante can
not be restored. The small
platfOim has become a major
centre of Hindu pilgrimage as
would be evident from the
number of people who were
crushed to death (501 in the
mel ee on Nov. 9, 1986, Like cow
slaughter this issue has come to
arouse the deepest emotions
amongst the Hindus, A continuo
ing agitation by the muslims
can only strengthen these emo
tions." (TO! 10 Jan!.
"The Babari Masjid Committee
is coming into conmct with th e
most deeply held religious sen
ti ments of the Hindus. No
governmen t that must face an
electi on in likely to take a stand
that will alienate large numbers
of Hind us to sec ure the votes of
the muslims,"

What Was Left Out

Eve n more important than
what- was said was what was
left out. Wi th the single excel"
tion of Nikhil Chakravarty (TOI
Continued on page 4 col 5

F_O_I_tlll....:;:gh'----tF_o_C_US_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

F8rum ______________
GaZCttC

Brahmpura: CRPF Harassed Non-Sikhs Also

REPORT OF THE ENQUIRY COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY THE
INDIAN MINORITIES & DALIT FRONT
Despite an attempt by the C.R.P. Force to terrarise
the residents of village Brahmpura, at mid-night of
December 27, 1986, the villagers looked deliant and
charged with emotion when they took part in a
massive gathering at Brahampur3, on January 7. It
will be recalled that the para-military men went on
the rampage in a delayed action response to nab a
proclainled terrorist. The incident itself, widely
reported in the press led to a demand for the
withdrawal of the CRPF from Punjab.

"M

r. Sudarshan Singh, a
warder in the Central
Jail, Amritsar, another resident of Brahampura, was also
beaten in his house and his
identity card tom to pieces. Mr.
Sudarshan Singh described how
hi s brothel'-i n-Iaw, Mr. Gurmit
Singh, a lance naik in the army.
who had come to visil him was

y father was bea ten

mercilessly. The humi
li ation was unberable
for the old man and he died a day
after the incident" said Mr. Jagjit
Singh, an educated lamler of the
vi llage. Mr. Jagjil Singh abou t 40,

is a heart patient whereas his

father Mr. Gurdit Singh Shah at
th e age of65 was hale and hearty.

r. Gurcharan Singh's house which is on the outskirts of the village was

the first to be raided by the furiOlls C.RP.F. men. After breaking
open his dOOl', they shot dead the
dog which barked at them. The
raiding party dragged GurchaJ'an
Singh out 01 his bed and asked
him the whereabouts of Dtahma
Singh IAvlar Singh Srahmal, the
Man they were after. They started
bealing Gurcharar. Singh right
and len with rille bulls when he
iold them Iha! he knew nol who
Bra hm a Singh was. Joginder
Singh, Gureha,,"n. son, was also
taken to task when he !li ed 10
, save his father. Mrs. Gurcharan
Singh was also manhandled when
she cried for help. The EnquilY
Commitlee could see the signs of
beating on the body of ~tr. Gu,'charan Singh even on january 7.

"T

down and trampled over i!.

"They shou ted at us" said Buta
Singh, "Jaan ehahie to Brahma
Singh IAvlar Singh Brahmal ko
pesh karo," Ilf you want to save
your life, then produce Avlar
Singh Brahmal.

Suhagwanti, an old women,

wife of the village shopkeeper
Mr. Mukand La! a Hindu was
also mal-treated by the
C.R.P.F. men. Her husband

became unconscious when

the gate of their house was
broken. Suhagwanti i. a hilter

woman today and complains

against the brutal behaviour
of the C.H.P.F. She told the

enquiry committee that their

family had been living in the
village s ince ages and had
n ever been threatened by the
Sikh . They had
faith in
the Sikhs of the village.

run

encounter with the C. R.P.F.

Mr. Jawahar La\, another Hindu resident of the village was
with the Sarpanch of the village
w hen he heard Avlar Singh
Brahma on the loud-speaker it
was about 9.30 p .m. S. Daljit
Singh. sarpanch of the village
advised Jawaharla l to sleep in
his house that nigh!. At about
10.30 or 10.45 the doors were
broken open and armed C.R.P.F.
men started beating everyone in
ihe house. Mr. Jawaharlal disclosed his iden tity an d pleaded
with the C. R.P.F. men not to
bea t the Sarpanch, an old noble
soul. But no t on ly was he
!lawaharlall bea ten ,vith rifle
bullS, he was also dubbed a
traitor for t!)'ing to defend
"Ihose who ki ll ed Hindus. Mr.
lawaharlal explained that there
was no communal tension in

used foul words against Guru

Gran th Sahib but also fired at
the Holy Book. The Sarpanch
then lost his temper and asked
them to kill him instead of
insulting his Guru in his presence. An angry CRP man fired
but missed him.
S. Daljit Singh told the Enquiry Commillee in the presence of many other villagers
that five women were raped
Ihat night by ' the C.RP.F. men
and many young girls were
molested. The story of rape and
molestation was also con firmed
by a few ladies who didn 't wish
to be identified in the press.
Avlar Singh Brahma accompanied by hi s two associates
ca me to the hou se of Gurdial
Singh, a t abo ut 9. 15 p.m . on
Dec. 27 and asked him and his
brot her Bhag Singh to instal the

I
I
I

hey beat us "ith rifle

butts and aboui ~E'nty

persons were maue to

sit in the 'verandah ' in the
chilly night withou t any walm
clothing. All were d ragged out
of lhei~ beds at 1l in Ihe night
and were not allowed to wear
proper clothes" said Mr. Buta
Singh.
.

Mr. Buta Singh'. uncle

is an inspector in the 66th

Battalion of C.R.P.F. He .h"wed hi. uncle's photograph in
unifor m but to no avad. The
C.H.P.F. men told BUIa Singh
tha i his un.;!e Aji! Singh may
be an Insp-"clor but they
were s ure tha t all Sikhs were

terrorists. While corroborating

the version given by Mr. Bu la
Singh, Mr. Gulbagh Singh told
his woefu l tale to the enqu iry
commitl ee. Mr. Gulbagh Singh,
himself a constable in Ihe
C. R.P.F. had come on leave and
showed hi s identity card 10 the
C,R.P.F. men conducting the
search in the village but it
didn 't serve any purpose. "They
threw down my identity card
and started bealing me with
rifle bu lls. They also charged
me with trai ning the villagers in
the use of arms and helping the
telTOrist s", said Mr. Gulbagh
Singh.

1. Prof. Dsrshan Singh Ragi, the Akal Takht Jathedar, addressing the gathering at Brshmpura 2. Dal/It Singh - Sarpanch of
Brahmpura 3. Father of Avtar Singh Brahma who provoked the CRP at B,ahmpura
4. A view of the protest gathering at Brahmpura
,

sleeping in his !'Oom. Bu t the

C.R.P.F. men not only gave him
a severe beating but also shollted at him that he had no business to be in the village. Mr.
Gurmil Singh, swearing by his
GUI'U, pleaded that he had
come to enqui re about th e welfare of hi s sister Mrs. Surdarshan Singh. The C.R.P.F. men
abu sed th e Sikh Gurus fo!' hav
ing created a problem fo r the
country. They said all SikhGurus were also terrorists. One
of them picked from the mantl e
piece a photograph of Guru
Gobind Singh and th rew it

When qu esti oned h ow

Brahma provoked the C. R.P.F.
men. on Ihe vill age loud speaker
a nd brought havoc to the village. she said. that the boy
didn 't say a nything un pleasa nl;
rathel' he asked the CRPF men
not to harass the ,;Uagel's because of him. Jagj it Singh said
tha t Avlar Singh Brahma kept
on repea ling hi s own name on
the loud-speaker for abo ut 15
minutes. challenging the CR PF
men to arrest him. He also
advised all the villagers not to
open th eir doors as at any
moment there cou ld be an

the village and all the three Hindu

I" milics of the village felt very
sale. He blamed the C. R.P.F. fo r
creating com mu nal tension and
misbehaving with the ,;\Iage
people. Mr. Dalj it Singh, the
Sarpanch, was made to accompany the C. RP.F. men to the
gU l'dwara as the security perso nnel thought the a nnouncements had been made from
there. The C.R.P.F. people, u si ng
abusive lan~ua~e, searched the
gurdwara with their shoes on.
When the Sarpanch protested
against the saCrilege of Guru
Granth Sahib. they not only

loud-speaker. They obeyed his

comma nd and Brahma then
addres sed the villagers on the
mi cro-phone. He advised the
Hindu shop-keepers not to sell
cigarett es and bidis in futu re.
He warned the C. RP.F. stat io ned in the Girls School in the
village to desist from harassing
people on the pretext of arres ting him. He a lso warned th e
police that if atrocities on the
vi llagers were not stopped, they
wou ld be taught a lesson. He
intimidated the soldiers by
Continued on page 5 coi l

20 Jan.-5 Feb. 1987

~-----------------------------

Computers and Human Rights

A.G. Noorani

ndia is mindlessly racing

into the computer age with
little public awareness , of
even the concept of 'computer
crimes', In the US computers
have created a veritable national
data bank containing substantial personal infonnation about
most Americans, The Office of
Technology Assessment prepared for the US Congress a
15Z-page report recommending
legislation to protect the citizen's privacy and for resolution
of conflicts that were bound to
increase as government agencies tumed to computerised
record surveillance, The report
was prepared at the request of
the Senate Govemmental Affairs
Committee and the House Judiciary Committee,
More than a decade ago Congress rejected the idea of a
National Oata Centre containing
computer records in one place.
But what has come into being is
what Los Angeles Times called
a "de fa cto national data base"
crea ted from "hundreds of separate computerised record systems that ca n be reached over
tele phone lines by computers
vir tually anywhere in the
coun try",
Comput erised files that are
open to electronic inspection by
govern me nt agencies "range

from federal tax records to

social security files, from state
drivers' licence records to private bank account statements".
It is possible for the US
govemment, by searching out
infonnation through a variety of
these computerised data banks,
to prepare electronic dossiers
on millions of citizens. In welfare and law enforcement programmes computerised information is widely used,
It is difficult for a citizen to
know lal whether and what files
concerning him exist and where,
Ibl whether the information in
the computerised files is accurate, and (cl whether the information acquired and stored by
one agency is being used by
another for a different purpose,
In 1974 the US Congress
enacted the Privacy Ac t which
provides some safeguards, But a
lot has happe ned since to render th em inadequate , The
A'l'erican Civil Liberties Union
set up a Privacy and Technology Project, Its Director, Jerry
Bennan, has pointed ou t the
dangers unde rlying the present
sys tem as exposed in the Co ngressional Report : "If Congress
tried to introduce a Bill to
establish a cen tral tile nil every
citizen, it would go down to
defeat. but this rcp0l1 shows

that what couldn't be done

frontally has happened incrementally",
How many Indians are aware
of this creeping danger? Few
indeed,
In 1976 a Committee of Experts was set up by the Department of Electronics under the
chainnanship of Maj-Gen lretd l
a Balasubramanian. It recom mended guidelines for "physical
security in a computer environment", On August 12, a national symposium on "Security of
Computerised Infonnation " at
Madras recommended to the
government of India that it
should "reconsider" these guidelines in view of the changed
circumstances and bring rorward legislation to protect data
privacy, It also recommended
that a committee be establish ed
to study the whole gamut of
com:Juter crimes and sugges
appropriate remedial measures
aga inst them,
A hooklet published bv the
UN en titled "Human Right's and
Scientific and Technological Developments" co ntains a ~tlml11arv
of the main points of the slli
dies prepa red by the UN secretary-general on some aspects of
th e problem. One of them is the
"uses of electmn ics wh ich may
clttpct the Iighl s of the person

By R

20 Jen.-5 Feb. 1987

and the limits which should be

placed on such uses in a
democratic society. "
The UN study recommends
protecti ve legislation embodying
proper safeguards, The barest
minimum is that, first , "only the
perso nal infonnation strictly necessary for the purposes of the
respective system should be collec ted ", Secondly, "the individual should be notified that
infonnalion is being gathered
about him and his agreement
sho uld be obtained before the
information is stored". The exception is infomlation gathered
and compiled by agencies concerned with national security
and law and order and other
such bodies as may be specified
by law, "subject to appropriate
safegurds for human rights",
On September 3, 1985, Subhas
Kirpekar of The Times of India
re ported that our PM "is taking
keen interest in selling up a
computerised data bank for nearly 600 Congress MPs in both
Houses of Parliament. 1\\10 of
the five computers have already
arrived, A lengthy profonna to
be filled in by party MPs has
been already circuclated", Gandhi asked members to submit
the forms by the end of
September,
Subhas Kirpekar 's report
quoted extracts from a backgrounder circulated with the
questionnaire and set out the
details of the nature of the
infonnation sought, On September 4, The Times of India
sharply attacked the move in an
editorial entitled "Computer
Watch", It remarked 'The computer is going to be the Big
Brother in the coming years,
And like the infamous Big Brother in Stalinist Russia it will be
fed by those who hate those
over whom they are keeping a
vigil ",
On September 9 Kirpekar reported, once again, that the
Congress1I1 MLAs and MLCs
will also be asked to come
under "computer watch".
But the PM had underestimated the resourcefulness of
the animal who becomes a
Congress1I1 legislator, The very
instinct for self-preservation
which makes him servile also
impels him to evade a fiat
which might one day lead to
his undoing,
On February 9, Indian E~pl'ess
carried a report by P' Haman
whi ch said that th e PM 's plans
had gone <IINT)' "thanks to the
non-cooperation from his followers", Thus "without the full
li sts, the computer technicians
could not start the process of
programming so far",
It onl \' remain s 10 add that
on March 16, Indiall xpmss
Magazine. camed an article bv P
Raman listing the sordi d deeds
of Congress-fII men, "Corn puler
el1'Ol' has been compounded by
the I1e\V leaders' ineffectiveness
in dea ling ",,;th such incidents,
if some prominent examples are
all.\1hing to go by", he remarked,
Information is not knowledge
and cleve. ness is miles apart
from judgement. In this whole
affa ir th e human rights aspect
was completely, but charac teristically, overlooked,

The Call of
The Republic

Continued from page 2 col 5

11 Janl not one joumalist mentioned the background to the
case, The Telegraph 25 Dec,
says "we accept thai the muslims have a case on the Babari
Masjid issue and an extremely
good one" The H,T, 113 Janl
Concedes "In our view the
Babari Masjid action romminee
does have a legitimate case
when it claims that the decision
to reopen for worship the adjoining piece of land (claimed to be
Shri Rama's birthplacel .. ' while
keeping the mosque itself closed
is discriminatory" (HT doesn't
know that the mosque has been
made into a templeJ.
But Sunday (25 to 31 Janl
does a cover story without once
mentioning that the Chabutra is
an area distinct from the mosque, In fact the opposite, "By an
order of the district judge, the
gates of the Ram Janam BhoonU
or Babari Masjid were thrown
open for Hindus to offer worship to Rama's portrait placed
in the mosque's inner sanctum", Or that the muslims have
worshipped in that mosque for
over 400 years and that the
communalism that exists has
been provoked by the Hindus
condoned by the Govemrnent of
UP, with the Central Govt, as an
apathetic collaborator,
Not only 'Sunday' but the
entire National Press has failed
both its readers and the country in not
the true
dimension

Prem Bhatia (Tribune 10

sums up the confusion - both
his and that of the press, "The
controversy over the Babari Masjid arose over a dispute about
ownership between two religious communities involving
deep sentiments which had no
relevance to a national festival",
That is not true_ The dispute
arose because a district court
passed an arbitraJy, unjust and
partisan order, The State
Govemment condoned the illegality, the Central Govemment
pretends to be a helpless spectator, and the press hounds the
wrong communalists. No it is
not a dispute between two religious comm unities, It is a dispute about justice, About truth,
About fair play, whether major
or minority, About the abuse of
the law and the violation of the
constitution in order to win
eJections and stay in power.
"Muslim India shall survive
the loss of the Babari Masjid"
said Syed Shahabuddin (Muslim
India March '861, '
"But - ShaD the India ofGandhi
and Nehru Sun1ve?
Shall the democratic survive?
Shall the rule of law survive?
Men in power, History shall
no forgive you for your short
sightedness for your silence, for
your
apathy,
for
your
insensitivity."

_O_~_TIm_'
__
es_____________________

The imposing structure that

as the focal point of milling crowds radiating in differen t directions is the police
thalli)
of Paharganj. Lei me
begi n my slory here since olhe""se all slories end here.

SC"ICS

A few yards away from Ihe

thana lives a family. Bul if a
family doesn 't have a name of
its own, il will be like Paharganj
wilhoul a thana. So let's name
Ihem. Call Ihem Sandhu's family, Sardar Gurusharan Singh
Sandhu 's family. He came 10
scllie here in the forties. No, not
d uri ng the pa rtitio n. But seven
years before it. And nol from
Plinjab eilher bll l from Dallo ngunj Bihar. As New Delhi slalion
developed, Ihe lane became a
busy Ihoroughfare. All kinds of
Ihings are served 10 all kinds of
visitors here. Lodges {cheap sir
cheap, jusl das rupayya for one
nighll, dhablJas where dressed
chickens are hung like criminals
in medieval limes, sighlseei ng
buses wilh opaque glass panes,
charas, ganja, liquor and, of
course women. In this flourishing business flourished our
Sandhu.
Bul le i us be fair 10 him. He
WilS never involved in liq uor,
drugs and wo men. He l'espects
bOlh hi s religion, an d Ihe law of
Ihe la nd. A piolls man engaged
in re ligious activi ti es, it is ru mou red tha t he even became a
consensus candidate ror the
Gurudwar-d Prabhandak Commi li ce in the fifties. In course of

~m ___________________________
GazeLtc

single incident destroyed the

cl'edibility of the Governmen t's
dlive to restore peace through
police action in Punjab, and
fru strated its attempt to isolate
the terrori sts from th~ ordinary
Sikhs. From then onwards more
and more Sikhs have become
convinced, rightly or wrongly,
that in the name of restoring
orger, a small war is being
waged against their youth. The
Brahmapura episode cannot
have failed to deepen this conviction, It is not en tirely a coin
cidence that the rate of terrorist
killings in Punjab has gone up
sharply in the last one mo nth,
as indeed it did after the Dera
Baba Nanak incident described
above.
Thus, It is not merely our
concern for upholding the
rule of law but also a deep
foreboding about the future
of Punjab that prompts us to
urge the Central Govemment
riot to allow the offenders In
the Brahmapura incident to
get off scot free. Both political
theory and practice followed
In other countries endorses
the >lew that there should be
a special body of administrative law to deal with infractions committed by oiliclaIs of
the State In the course of
their duty. But In india, as
things stand, there Is no such
corpus of law. As a result,
every policemen, jawsn or
ta>: collector Is above the law.
From every point of >lew,
therefore, the right course of
action for the Centre Is to
institute an Inquiry Into what
happened In Brahmapura and
to take 8evere action against
anyone found gouty. [Bmphasis added).

rOnly the names and location s have been changed l

C.V. Subbarao
lime, as they say for everyt hing
which they ca nnot to ascri be to
anything else. he sired three
sons. Two of them grew lip to
become part ners in business.
The family has now divCl'Sified
into timber tradi ng across the
lane. II was the thi rd son,
Cho tll as they call him, who
became a problem fo r the family as he refused to join Ihe business. Graduating in commerce
lrom Kha lsa Co!lege, he developed hi s own queer ideas
abollt life a nd living. Quite an
interesting character our Chot u
was and is. In fac t he wo uld
have become a hero of our
story, but for Pahargun j than .
Anyhow he went off in search
of 'service', the nondescript term
that describes everything ot her
than business in the linguaf.... nca of Pahargu nj. Finally he
settled as a small accountan t in
a big firm at Lucknow. II was
there, way back in the seventi es,
that our young man fe lLi n love
vvith his "",lik 's daughter. That's
all light si nce love is permissa'
hi e both in law and in re ligion .
But then the girl was a Muslim.
So there began a bailie myal
that almost threatened to tum
into a typical Hindi film scenario. Our Chotu nearly lost hi s
job. But he co nverted to Islam

and gained the girl. But lost hi s

tamily. For Sandhu chucked
him out for renounci ng the fam
i1y l'eligion.
But a few ycars later passions
cooled and he was . accepted
back in the family. Blood they
say is th icker than religion.
Sandhu however imposed the
condi tion; Chotu co uld not bring his ,vife home. So he often
commut ed between Lucknow
and New Delhi. between Shah
nawaz Khan and Mahinder Singh Sandhu. He li ved like that
until recen tly w hen the West
Asian fortune of his wifc's mama
in tervened othClwise.
An engineer in a con tractor's
co mpany in Saudi Arabia, the
old man managed to create a
vacancy lor 3n accountant. A.
job in the Gulf, or at least th e
illusion of it, is part of Ihe
Islamic existence that Cho w
ca me to accept . So he readily
jumped a t it, and came to Delh i
to make a passport in his name.
The nam e of course by now
was 5hahnawaz Khan.
But meanwhil e Oelhi changed
and vvith it the thalla a l Pahar
gunj too, at leas t technologica lly. No more rit ual raids on
small time drug peddlers and
endless traffi c jams. It's now
wan ted terrorists and mind less

The Hindustan Times Says It All

~T here is mountIng I Government refuses to The Hindustan Times
dence that a good hold impartial undoctored editorial (Saturday JanevJ-

enquiries into such incidents. As a result even the

authority of the elected
government in the state
eroded, as does its credibiJity with the people.

CRPF Harassed Non-Sikhs Also

Continued from page 3 col 5
shouting full-throatedly : "O !
C. R.P.F. men ! Your Son-i n-law is
now present in the village; if
you have ihe courage, you may
arrest him."
Mr. Bhag Singh told the Enquiry Commillee that Avtar Singh Bra~ma kept o n repea ting
the warning for about fifteen
minut es and shot a few' rounds
in the air. fie then asked him
IBhag Singhl to prepare a cup of
tea for them . After tea he
shou ted again on the loudspeaker that his men had taken
positions a t every tum of the
village lane and they would
fight a real battle with the
C.R.P.F. men if they came to
arrest him. He repeated the
warning to the villagers to keep
their doors closed to avoid any
mishap. According to Mr. Bhag
Singh, Avtar Singh Brahma and
his associates left the village at
about 9.35 p.m . whereas the
C. R.P.F. me n struck the village
only after 10.30 p.m .
The committee was informed

hold a Press conference and

apologise to the people of Punjab for what had happened in
Brahmapura. The Centre, too,
apparently felt that some action
was n ece~sal)' because it su's pended the local commandant
of the CRPF, and allowed the
CRPF con tingent to be with drawn from the village. But
needless to say that this is no
substitute for a proper inquiry
into what happened and the
punishment to those who were
guilty of excesses whether against women, property or religion.
As matter stands, the Central
Government's inaction cannot
fail to increase the alienation of
the Sikhs in Punjab. Only fou r
months ago, 10 persons returning from Pakistan were shot
dead by the BSF inside the Punjab bonjer. The Akali Dal lBadall
and other more radical elements among the Sikhs immediately proclaime d that these
"boys" had been shot in cold
blood, an d that thi s was a part
of a genocidal operation launched against Sikh youth belonging to a certain age-group, in
the border districts. If reports
emanating from inside the Punjab Government are to be be-,
lieved, the post mortem on the
victims bore they had been shot
in cold blood from close range,
although it is true that at least
fiye of them were known terrorists. To make matters worse
even as the Punjab Government
was asking for action to be taken
against the offenders, the Home
Ministry endorsed the action
and announced that those who
had been killed were terrorists
and had been shot in an
encounter. Close observers of
the Punjab scene feel that this

A TRUE LIFE STORY

Brahmpura:

deal of 'terrorist' violence is fuelled by lawlessness on the part of the

security' forces operating
in Punjab. Yet, for reasons
of its own, the Central

kl II i ngs. At least that's w hat the

news papers say. 50 someone
who reads his newspa per ever
yday infonlled the SI that a
mona sardar' was getting a
passport made for himself in
the name of a Muslim. Th us our
Cho tu reached one of the convel'ted roo ms of that focal structu re at Pahargunj.
Sandhu fo r the first tim e in
the half-a-cen tury of his liIe at
Pahargunj we nt to the thim3
himself. Religiou sly he nan'a ted
the an tics of his son, his job in
Lucknow, his co nversion marraige an d th e olfer of a job in
Sa udi Arabia. All in vain. II
doesn't matter, the 51 seems 10
have told him till you pay Rs.
10000. Sand hu l'eturned home
with fear and money writ large
on his mind,
Meanwhil e, informed by Ihe
eldest son, Mrs. Shahnawaz
Khan herself anived from Luck
now. Havi ng had more education tha n many sma ll time trad
ers 01 Pahargunj, she dec ided
she m ust meet the S.H.O. him
self, This time the pleading was
in Engli sh. The S.H.O. a vmy
kind man lInderstands English
s peaking people bellel'. He told
her politely, "Madam, you pay
Rs. 25000 only and I'll sct yo ur
hllsbill1d fl'ee by Ihis eve ning."

But our lady decided Inawabi

blood, Sandhu saysl that she
was not going to pay a single
pie. She also instructed the
Sa ndhu family not to pay. tnstead she traced an MP Irom up,
in his South Avenue apa r1me nt.
They say he is a religious fundamentalis\. He listened to her
story and pl'Omised he lp. A very
ex pensive liberal lawyer from
th e Supreme Co urt wa s
arranged.
After a week of detention,
Shahnawaz Khan alias Mohinder
Singh Sandhu a lias Cho tu was
produced in the magistrate COli'
rts at Tis Hazari, charged undcr
Section 41t r of the Terrorist and
Disruptive Activities (Prevention)
Act, 1985. Our lawyer from the
Supreme Court in one of his
rare appearances at Tis Hazan,
recount ed the story of hi s client
apd pleaded fo r bail. The peti
ti on was rejected and the ac
cused was remanded tor Judicial clistody fo r a fortnight.
Actually there was no need for
it. Whe"" the li beral lawyer
htiled, the fund amenta list MP
see ms to have succeeded. The
policc with drew the case the
nex t day.
So th at's it. A man from a
religiou lt family renoun ces his
I'C ligion 101' th e sake of a secu lar
love. Then the secular sta te
acc llses him of being a com
mllnal te n'Orisl. And then a
fundamentalist intervenes to resc lie him back for secularism.
Thi s th en is th e tragedy and
farce of secularism over which
presides every where a police
th alJil . Lik e th e one
in
Pa hargu l1 j.

by a few victims of the traumalic incident of December 27

that they were rescued by S.
Darshan Singh Mann, S.H.O. of
Sarhali Police Station on the
morning of December 28. The
persons who were made to sit
the whole night in the chilly
weather heard an exchange of
hot words between the S.H.O.
and the C.R.P.F. men. The victim s could hear Mr. Mann 's
shout s protesting agains! the
sacrilege of Sri Guru Grant h
Sahib committed by the raiding
party. 1\ was only on hi s interven tion that the captives were
released.
" II was an awful night. Remembering the attrocities committed by the C.R.P.F. men our
blood boils even at the sight of
a soldier, said Mr. Jagjit Singh.
"If the C. R.P.F. is not withdrawn
from the villages, the situation
is sure to worsen further" was
the collective view of the persons interviewed by the enquiry
committee.

uary 24) is a pithy comment on the law and

order agencies and their
need to be subjected to
law and order themselves.

Deep Foreboding
The Union Home Ministry may
be technically right when it says
that there is no legal provision
under which members of the
CRPF or other para-military forces can be prosecuted by the
State Government under the
criminal code, when they are
deployed in an area on official
duty. But this is only a technicality and does not exonerate
the Home Ministry from the
responSibility of taking departmental action against members
of the paramilitary forces when
they break the laws of the land.
This is clearly what New Delhi
should be doing in the case of
the CRPF personnel who were
involve d in the Brahmapura
incident in Punjab last month.
The"" is an abundance of prima
facie evidence to s uggest that
the CRPF jawans ran amuck in
the village, broke open doors
and molested women. Some
reports suggest that they may
also have committe d sacrilege
in the local gurdwara. There
seems to have been enough
truth in these charges to haye
provoked Mr. Ribeiro, the
Oirector-Genel'a1 of Police, to

20 Jan,-S Feb. 1987

F8rum

R_e_"_e_w_s_a_n_d_R_e_fl_e_c_n_on_s________________ Clazet~

'~

-, ,

Theju>taposition
of. th e

easily-dis-

cemible
classical
line with hints of complex Cubist
distortion creates an intense
sense of mystery in many of the
graphics. The com plexity ca n
~ ',

POETICAL IMAGES

even become overpowering, as in

the more abstrac t drawings of
Picasso's later period luntitled
works 55, 581. But the artist held
very clear views on the subject of
cri ti cs attempting to "explain " his
works : "Why not try to understand the songs of a bird" he was
once to exclaim - "In the case of
a painting, people have to understand
. people who try to
ex plain pictures are u.sually
barking up the wrong tree."
I must confess that while
vi ewing his works, I was not really
co ncern ed with how they "signifi ed the fears and aspirations of
mankind, iaced with the spec tre
of confli ct and mass destruction,"
as our esteemed vice-president
Mr. R. Venkataraman had declared in his speech opening the
exhibition. Far from it. On the
con trary, one felt transported to a
far more perfect and permanent
world, a region of constant beauty
and nobility _ Images of th e
Minotaur, lovely classicaJ faces,
artists with their models, POI'

By SrI matiLal

The lirst-ever exhibition in India of originals by

Picasso, which was on at the National Gallery of
Modern Art till Jan. 20, was an exciting event. Sixty
significant graphics on display provided a valuable
insight into the techniques, recurring motifs and
images, and intelectual development of one of our
cen tury's major creative geniuses. Between 1899
and 1972, Picasso (1881-1973) produced about three
thousand dra\vings in a wide variety of techniques
and a stylistic compass ranging from pure Classicism to Cubism, the 20th century form which he
evolved together with his peel', Braque. The important stages of this development were dramatically
visible in the selection of graphics on that were on
view from the collection of Spanish National Gallery of Modern Art.
traits of Rembrandt and Degas,
fantasy landscapes, doves of
peace taking night over rainbows
-- all these were from some magic
dream. This was art as legend -

true art that could help the spirit

take wings and soar above mundane reality: the art that Camus
spoke of when he said, "No artist
tolerates reality'.

QualIty 01 ExIra-Real
"The essen tial thing in our

period of weak morale is to create

a knol ill lhe Hair, Dying Minolaur

and Young Sculplol' al work that
are purely classical, necessitated
for the artist the creation of and
mastery over a new form :one th,
belter represented and symbo
lised his own epoch. It is when
one views the angular, non-conforming and protestful Cubist
images that one is struck by the
qu ality of historicity in Picasso's

enthusiasm. How many people

have actually read Homer' All the
same the whole world talks of
him. In this way the Homeric
Legend is crea ted . The only thing
tha I's importan t is the legend
created by a p icture
. not
whether it continu es to exist itself," Picasso himself explai ns, vision. Contemporaneity is im"'th a brilliant, insightful humi- mediately conveyed by the jagged
li ty_ This quality of the exlrd-real, e dges and frantic rhythms of this
of 'legend', is what strikes one new fonn a nd vision. yet a Guernica does notl and cannotl exist in
most about Picasso's images.
Technically, of course, the artist this graphical world of the artist's,
is completely brazen, confronting that is essentially wistful delicate
forcibly, upon a single callvas, and fanciful : " th e st uff that
one historical period with another dreams are made on".

far removed in time; one mood or

/:.'>- "

_.- -- .

rasa and another Ithe tragic, the

classical, with the comic sa tiri cal,
the romantic); one medium with
another li nk treated for special
effects with sugar, with resins,
with acids; or the impact of blackand-white starkly juxtaposed with
vivid primary colours, as in Flying
Dove Over Ihe Rainbow). All of this
co ntributes to the final effect of
the dream in drawings 55 and 58,
in the Rembrandl portraits, in the
dazzlingly abstract and semi-ori-

ental coloured linocuts Fauns

INDIAN COUNCIL FOR CULTURAL RELATtONS
&

NATIONAL GALLERY OF MODERN ART

PRESENT
AN EXHIBmON OF GRAPHICS BY

PABLO PICASSO
AT THE JEHANGIR NICHOLSON MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
NA nONAl CENTRE FOR THE PERfORMING ARTS
NARlMAN POINT, BOMBAY-400021
FROM 3RD TO 15TH FEBRUARY 1987. 10.00 AM TO 7.00 PM DAllY

20 Jen.-S Feb. 1987

and Head and Before Ihe Lance,

and the artist-with-model studies.
And an effortless finesse of line,
strung with a piercing kind of
sharpness, gives the picture a
quality of music; carefully plannc:l and fi n ely orchestrated .

A New Form
It is evident that the sheer per-

fection of Picasso's lines, the complete, harmonious mastery as

seen in works like Francoise wilh

" If the lines and fonn rhyme

and become animated, it's like a
poem , To achieve it it is not
necessary to use many words _..

sometimes there is much more

poetry in two or three lines than
in the longest of poems," says
Pica~so, in an attempt to explain
the exquisite stylization and precision of his drawings. The magic

of the artist's visions lies in the

achievement of this poetry. II is
pointless to try and 'explain' this
magic further. Picasso had a
maniacal distrust of over--acade-

mic art critics and theorists :

"Ciitics mathematicians scieni

tists and busybodies want to classify everything, marking boundaries and limits, making one thing
prevail over another; when, in reality, two statements can exist at
the same time. In art, there is
room for all possibilities, , ,"
'Picasso's own statements taken
from Picasso all Arl by Dore
Ashton)

Reviews and Reflections _____ GF8rum

____
azcUc _-;---_ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
~==-

(A
/\

~b

"

n~W
",'\

,~

"

Untllled/ ll,3.1970
45.3 x 56.B em. mounting
31.6 x 42 em. plat"

Dying Mlnotaur/ 30.5. 1933/ (Sulte Vollard 90)

34.2 x 44.5 em. mounting
19.5 x 27 em. pl.te

Untltled/ fB.B.I968
2B x 35.2 em. mounting
15 x 20.7 em. plat.

Untltled/19 and 20.4. 1970

50.5 x 65.5 em. mounting
36.B x 4B.9 em. plate

20 Jln.-5 Feti. 1987

:The

v._I_ew
__p_om
__
t ______________________

G~~~------------------------~--

Call for 'Cease Fire', Moratorium on Violence

Delhi Declaration on Punjab
Reported by B.G. Verghese
Former Edltor-in-Chlef Indian Express

A hint of possible overtures and opportunity for a

settlemen't despite escalating violence in Punjab
emerged from a Dialogue on Punjab in Delhi on
Thul'Sday January 15 at which all points of view
including some reflecting the sentiments of
extremist groups were represented.
It was agreed that the unity and integrity of India
was not in question and that Khalistan is a cry of
frustration of a limited number of angry and alienated youth with only a few hard core elements
committed to it.
Violence tium every quar
tel' was unanimously con
demned as abhorrent espe
cially against innocent per
sons, particularly women
and children, and seen as
achieving nothing. The
meeting raised its voice
against terrorism as well
as torture, excesses and
indignities by security
fo rces. No one is above
the law and uniformed
forces must be visibly
accountable for their
ac tions.
A suggestion that mel
with wide approval was
that there should be an
all-I"Ound moratorium on
all types of violence lvith
effect from January 26.
There should be no terrorist killings while the
Gove ...nment; for its part,
should redeploy its forces, suspend search and
seizure operations, and
avoid repression.
The object would 'Ie to
create conditions favoura
ble to the initiation of dia
logue and the implemen
tation of measures calculated to restore credibility,
confidence, community relations and the political
process.
The emo tional and psychological fac tors leading
to anger and alienation
were seen as key elements

in the situation. The causative factors must be removed. It was also pointed out that the emotional
factor was important on
both sides.
Among those attending
the Dialogue, convened by
a grou p of concerned citizens, were Mr Balwant
Singh, Finance Minister of
Punjab, Capt Amarinder
Singh, (Aka Ii Dal Badal
Group); Jathedar Harcharan Singh (Secretary UAD,
and SGPC); Major (retd)
Jagjit Singh (Taksal group);
Baba Amte; Dinesh Singh
(Congress-II; Harkishen Singh Surjeet (CPJ-M ); Avtar
Singh Ma lhotra (CPIJ; Prof
G.S. Shergill (Principal Khalsa College, Amritsar); Krishan Kant ; Rajinder Sachar; Rani Jethmalani; Rajni Kothal;; Prem Shankar
Jha; MJ Akbar; Sukhjit
Singh; Pai Panandiker; N.K.
Mukarji ; Bhabani Sengupta; K F Rustamji; P
Rosha; Lt Gen J.S. Aurora
(Retd); Air Chief Marshal
Arjan Singh (Retd); Chandan Mitra; Balwant Singh
Ramoowalia, M.P.; Guizar
Singh Sandhu; Avtar Singh
Hit (Secretary Akali DalBadal / DGPC); Bhuvnesh
Chaturvedi, M.P.; Radhakrishna (Gandhi Peace Foundation ); Bhagwant Singh
Dilawari; H.S. Bhanwar;

F8rum

GazeUe

Minority Rights
Civil Liberties
Equality for Women
Democratic Values
Environmental Protection

20 Jan.-S Feb. 1987

Viren Shah; Rajendra Sareen; Shaminder Singh,

M.P.; Baljit Malik; Pran
Chopra; Harji Malik; Baljit
Singh; M.K. Rasgotra; Gurbachan Singh; Kuldip Nayar; Narinder Singh; Trilochan Singh; R.S. Narula;
Anita Singh; Javid Laiq;
Jagjit Singh Anand, Eric
Gonsalves; Col Thanwar
Singh; Amrik Singh; and
B.G. verghese.
Inder Gujral and Patwant Singh moderated the
discussion.
Removal of Causes
of Violence
It was agreed that violerice could be ended only
by l'Cmoving its causes.
Among other things this
would entail restoring a
sense of dignity, honour
safety and justice among
all minorities vvithin and
outside Punjab - a task
for both governments and
society. Those reponsible for the November
1984 killings must be
identified and punished.
The many innocent held
in detention in Jodhpur
and elsewhere, including political prisoners,
should be immediately
released. Others should
be permitted to be interviewed in their places
of detention so that their
minds could be known.
It was said that many or
most de tenus wanted to
end terrorism and were
lvilling or could be persuaded to give assurances that would be found
generally acceptable to
the nation.
If the Prime Minister
were to s ignal that the
Government lvill respond to such assurances,
steps could be initiated
to set such a constructive process in motion
and commence a meaningful dialogue.
While some felt that the
Pu njab Accord had outlived its utility as its nonimplementation by the Centre had led to a serious
erosion of credibility, and
others suggested a new
accord, the general view
was that the Accord still
has validity and provides
some anchorage which
shou ld be strengthened.
Continued on page 9 cot 1

Perceptions From .....

The Dellii Dialogue on Punjab
~~The current struggle in Punjab is to resrore the han

our of the Sikhs?"

"If Sikll youth in Punjab and Sikhs elsewhere cannot
protect themselves and their families, how can they
Akali Activist
help to defend the country."
"Sikh masses must beactivised against extremism. This
should be the task of all political parties."
"Any futu/'C agreement on Punjab should not bypass
the accord. "
- CPM Memher
"The nation is travelling down the wrong mad in
Punjab."
"The violence is designed from outside to destmy
India."
"The accord must be implemented. "
- A Senior Editor
"There appears to be more response from the government to 'Khalistan ' than all the real pending pl'Oblems
in the state."
- Social worker in Baba Amtes Group
"The guilty men of 1984 must be punished." .
"Barnala misjudged the June 30, 1986 police action in
the Golden Temple. He should have stoud up to
pressure from the Centre."
- BJP M.P.
"The killing must stop, the political pmcess reactivated
and a 3 month long ceasefire should be announced. "
"A new accord should be hammered out in a spirit of
forgive and forget. "
- Political Scientist and Leading Columnist.
"The' struggle in Punjab is against the zulum (wrongl
done to the Sikhs."
"The accord was arrived at in too much huny. The
youth I'llill have to be involved. Come to the taksal, talk
10 the boys."
- Sikh Activist
"It is still not too late. The nation must conscript its
consciense for Punjab. In seeking a solution, the truth
cannot be accompanied by a bodyguard of lies. "
- Baba Amte

"A climate is being created that terrorists can only be

dealt with by stepping out of the law. This is extremely
- Ex In spector General of Police
dangemus.
"Buta Singh is the greatest disaster for resolving the
Punjab crisis."
"There must be immediate talks with the y outh; even
with those who are in Jodhpur Jail." Simranjeet Singh
Mann should be released.
He can be a key figure to work out a political settlement.
- Supreme Court Lawyer,
"The first step: Punish the guilty of 1984." "The nation
feels let down by disunity in Akali ranks. Akali unity is
essential for any settlement. "
- Civil Liberties Leader

F&ume
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Gazett
Delhi Declaration
Continued from page 8 col 3

Various suggestions were

made on the specific issues of Chandigarh and
water but there was unanimity that time should not
be lost by waiting for the
Haryana poll to be over.
Politically partisan action
must be avoided. None
would really gain by such
tactics; India would certainly lose.

Restore Communal Amity

Another matter that the
gathering felt required urgent and concerted attention was that of restoring
communal amity in the
true religious tradition of
Punjab and in consonance with the bonds of
common culture. The game of mass killings to
provoke fear, migration
and a backlash must be
exposed and countered.
Role of Media
In these tasks the media, it was said, could
playa constructive role by
exercising restraint, avoiding sensationalism and by
reporting matters objectively after due verification.
There must be no censorship. Positive developments must be reported
and published with some
prominence. Threats to
the media and magistracy
in discharging their resonsibilities fairly were
equally deplored.
Restore Political Process
There was consensus
on the imperative need to
restore the political process by all parties and at
all levels; to secure united
action in fulfillment of
these urgent national goals; to undertake mass
mobilisation; and to win
over the youth of Punjab.
Akali unity was seen as of
great importance and an
appeal was made to all
the Akali factions to close
ranks and work together.
President's rule and calling out . the Army for
security duties in Punjab
were strongly disfavoured
by most as steps liable to

exacerbate the situation.

Law and order and other
administrative measures
must be accompanied by
political initiatives. Economic uncertainty and discontent must also be countered, and the youth
given a vision of the future
through the unfolding of a
policy to build a New
Punjab.

The Other Side of

Hindu-Sikh Amity

yoti Punwanl writes from

Bombay that there is a
trend in the city for Sikhs
to appeal for cooperation and
security from avowedly communal and chauvainist sections
of the dominant Hindu majority, such as the R.S.S. and the
Shiv Sena. If this process develops further, even in the name
External Factor
of Hindu-Sikh amity, it would be
The external factor in setting a dangerous precedent
the Punjab situation was for cooperation on a communal
noted, with people mov- basis.
Since Operation Blue Star, the
ing both ways across the divide between Hindus and
border with Pakistan, in- Sikhs has grown. With it have
cluding heroin peddlars, also grown efforts to preserve
smugglers and other crim- and maintain the historic traditional relations between the
inal elements. However, communities.
These efforts were
some felt that the prop- most evident during the antiosal to seal the border Sikh violence in Delhi in
was not feasible while November 84, which culminated
others . argued that mass in the formation and coalition
voluntary groups determined
mobilisation and political of
not ' to fall in line with what
action in Punjab render seemed to be the official line of
external influences in- allowing Sikhs to become alienated from the national maineffective.
stream. Many of the groups
Expression of Regret
which' came into existense and
joined hands, were entirely seThe idea of a morato- cular
in outlook. The best examrium on violence on all ple being the Nagrik Ekta Manch
sides, referred to earlier, in Delhi and various civil liberwas accompanied by 'a ties and democratic rights
suggestion that this could organisations.
Following the November '84
perhaps be set out with a violence,
various
sectarian
preamble giving assurance and/ or communal (as against
of restoration of honour community-based) organisations
and dignity to all and an also became active in efforts to
expression of regret at the project Hindu-Sikh unity. One
such organisation is the
turn events had taken.
Bombay-based Rashtriya Ekjoot,
The meeting conclud- which has of late been forging
ed with an appeal to all ties with the city's Sikhs.
However, the motivations and
parties and groups to go
to Punjab to undertake origin of this group reveal a
controversial side of attempts to
mass mobilisation, con- forge
Hindu-Sikh unity. Rashtact the youth, revive triya Iligoot was formed in the
the political process and wake of the Centre's decision to
work for peace and enact the Muslim Women (procommunal amity. All we- tection of Rights on Divorce)
Bill, with the express aim of
re agreed that time is opposing
the Bill. I! held demrunning out and urgent onstrations against the Bill outaction is necessary, side Cong III MPs ' hom e in
building on positive ele- Bombay, publicly burnt copies
ments in the situation of the Bill, and also sat in a
at Hutalma Chowk, dewhich is otherwise cau- chama
manding a common civil code.
sing deep concern to
HoWever, unlike other groups
all.
who opposed the Bill, Rashtriya
Despite the expression Ekjoot's objections were based
of many divergent views, on the fear that the Bill snacked
of "separatist tendencies" and
the discussion was con- went
against the country 's
ducted without recrimina- "unity and integrity". I! is for
tion' or rancour and in a the same reason of 'unity and
spirit of shared concern integrity' that Ekjoot demands a
for the common good and common civil code, according
to advocate S.S. Desai, the Genethe national interest.
- ral Secretary.

NEWSHOUND
.. AND ALSO TO
1H~ OPPOSITION

t'ARTlfS I

The President of Rashtriya

Ill<joot Is VKlyadhar Gokhale,
well-known Marathi writer
and journalist, equaUy weliknown for his RSS views.

RSS Front

According to his line of thinking i-t is obvious that whereas

Sikhs should be taken as being
part of the Hindu tradition,
other religions like Islam and
Christianity should be treated
differently as minority religions.
I! is no coincidence that
EKjoot's favourite term of reference, the words "unity and
integrity", are being used to
whip up a Hindu patriotic frenzy. Again, not surprisingly, Rashtriya Ekjoot believes that singing
the national anthem must be
made compulsory.

At the time of its formation,

Ekjoot was judged as no more
than a BJP-front; more correctly
Dangerous Tr~nd
an RSS-front. But Desai insists
The
danger in this kind of
that none of its activists are
involved in political parties. The approach to Hindu-Sikh unity
leading luminaries in Ekjoot, comes from its intention : it is
like Desai, Gokhle and AIVind Hindus and Sikhs against MusGodbole reject the notion of . Iims ; indeed, not just Hindus
Semitic influence on the Sikh and Sikhs, but Hindus-i.e., Sikhs,
religion. They point out ihat the Buddhists, Jains, against the
teachings of the Sikh gurus "alien" religions of Islam and
were derived from the Vedas, Christianity.
When the ruling party is
not and not from Semitic traditions. They cite the very word doing its best to sustain a
'guru' to 'prove' their point that Hindu chauvinist mood whipped up since Operation Blue
Sikhism is a part of Hinduism.
While Ekjoot has shown en- . Star, and minorities are at the
thusiasm to extend its solidarity receiving end, this sort of unity
to the Sikhs in the interests of plays into the hands of those
'unity and integrity', it has not who have little sympathy for the
taken the initiative to allay the rights of minorities. Communal
fears of the Muslims. General amity and cooperation can sureSecretary Desai is firm in his ly not be furthered through
views about minorities. He be- appeals to chauvanist organisalieves that "the more conces- tions who think that patriotism
sions you give them, the more and nationalism are their
monopoly.

separatist they become

DoouWantA
Bonded Press?
The Prime Minister's Deputy Information Adviser, Mani
Shankar Aiyar, has written an angry letter to the editol'in-chief of the Indian Express. Aiyar did not like the way
in which the Indian Express criticised the 5 crore
cultural extravaganza called 'Apna UIsa,' held recendy
in Delhi. He has called the press reporters 'Iumpens' and
said the press lacks credibility. Aiyar'sletter has serious
implica.tions on press freedom. Should Indian press be a
copy book of AIR and Doordarshan? Should the PM's
secretariat prescribe as to how the press should conduct
itself - what to write and what not to write?
Madhu Dandavate wrole to the prime minister, strongly
protesting against Mani Shankar ~yar's letter. Dandavate sees this action of PM's adviser as an attempt to
browbeat various forces sustaining democracy. The text
of the letter:he full text of a letter
written by your Deputy
Press Adviser, Mani
Shankar Aiyar, to Sumen Dubey,
Editor-in-Chief of the Indian
Express on November 26, t986
has been published in sections
of the Press.
He seems to be very much
disturbed by the criticism in the
press about the 'Apna Vstav. In
his anxiety and enthusiasm to
defend the 'Apna Vtsav' organised by the Government he
has carried on a tirade against
press and has alleged that it
lacks "credibili ty". He has lashed
out at the reporters as "Iumpen"
because they showed the temerity to express their lack of
appreciation of 'Apna Vtsav'.
Casting aspersions on the
Press, Mani Shanker Aiyar, in
his letter, has commented that
"collectively the Press establishment's hackles rose when
the Prime Minister complained
of the whiners and graoners at
the 'Hitavada' function last
month".
Your Deputy Advisor may

honestly differ with the assessment of the Press about the

Apna Vtsava, but using his official position he has no business
to make such sweeping and
derogatory remarks against the
journalists and have the arrogance to teach them ethics.
Mani Shanker Aiyar forgets
that ours is supposed to be a
free society endowed with a
free press. Do you want it to be
replaced by a 'bonded' Press
that will dance to the tune of
the Government and offer an
orchestrated appreciation of the
festivals
organised
by
Government?
In a democracy conscious
people, vigilant Parliament, independent iudiciary and a fearless
Press provide the cheeks and
balances of democracy. An attempt to brow-bea t anyone of
them is an attempt to subvert
democracy itself.
I only hope that your concept
of press relations is not based
on intimidation but on freedom
of Press.
Madhu Dandawte, M.P.

20 Jan.-S Feb. 1987

F8rum ____________
____________ Gazcuc

The Man Who Founded A Great Newspaper

HOW THE HINDUSTAN TIMES WAS BORN IN AMRITSAR
Udy.
or the majority of living
Indians today it will be a
matter of great StlJllrise
to learn that there was a time
earlier in this century when the
capital of India, Delhi, had no
English language newspaper. It
was indeed a major lacunae for
the freedom struggle which was
gaining momentum and com
munication through media was
an absolute necessity. Such a
situation prevailed since no one
had the enterprise to start an
El1I!Iish language newspaper; nor
did the British attach enough
importance to launch a paper
to promote their own interests.
It was a1io a time Sikh issues
and politics were hotting up
and their growing interests naturally fostered an ambition to
start a newspaper. Sardar
Manga) SIngh, who was then
the President of the Gurudwara
Committee in Amritsar, thought
up the idea-of starting an English language newspaper. But as
expected,. he and his friends
wanted it from Amritsar, the
holy city of the Sikhs.
AkaJi politics were day by day
getting stronger during the early
twenties. The urgency of starting the proposed paper was
being felt in concerned circles
of the AkaJi Dal. Eventually they
found a man who could translate their idea into reality. The
man was no other than 8ardar
K.M_ PanIldcar. Panikkar visited
Arnritsar on a special mission
on behalf of Gandhiji. It was
during this visit that he had a

meeting with Sardar Mangal

Singh.

time the British Resident was

CHS Cotton who had a reputation for unduly interfering in
the administration. Hindustan
Times correspondents reported
the news, and after. ascertaining
the facts, the story -was published in the paper under the
headline "Cotton Epidemic in
Travancore". An official inquiry
was. underway. The publication
of the story attracted adverse
comment from a seclion of the
Nair community, which was
pro-cotlon ... put the paper did
not retract from its position.

Plnlkklr'1 Advice
Panikkar advised Mangal Singh
of the futility of starting an English daily from a district centre
like Amritsar, even though it
was the holiest of holy places
for the Sikh community. The
Sardar' from Travancore promised them all help, but only if
the paper was published from
Delhi instead of Amritsar. However/ Panikkar's suggestion was
not accepted initially. Mangal
Singh and his associates argued
that the paper could represent
the Sikh community only if it
was published from Amritsar. In
reality Delhi was most suited to
support a daily newspaper and
ultimately Panikkar's sound
suggestion was accepted.
Thus the premier daily,
Hindus tan Time., was founded under the editorship of
Samar K.M_ PanIldcar with
Sardar Manga) Singh as its
first owner and pubUsher_
Panikkar also made it clear
that the paper as a national
daily would deal with national
politics and not be used as a
vehicle for the partisan interests
of a particular community or a
group within a community.

Teething Troubles
Mangal Singh and Panikkar
had to overcome many problems. Delhi, in those days, had
very few compositors to cope
with . English types. There was

Change 01 Ownership
Sardar Manga/ Singh, who
and first published
the Hlndustan Times
also no press foreman who
could efficiently run a large press.
Panikkar started with two
assistants, G.S. Raghavan and
Dr. Ambadi Krishna Menon.
Raghavan was competen t in
every department of a newspaper from composing and
selecting types to writing leading articles. He took a salary of
Rs. 500/ - and side by side borrowed from everyone to lead an
extravagant life. He loved the
good things of life, and had
them with bonuwed money!
Mangal Singh, despite difficulties, put his energy and resowces into the paper and the Hindustan Times made good
progress.
The first issue was inaugurated by Gandhiji in 19Z4 and it

carried articles by Motilal Nehru,

Maulana Mohammad Ali, Jawaharlal Nehru and other leading
lights of the freedom movement.
Being the only English language newspaper, it soon attracted wide attention with its high
standard of journalism.

'Cotton Epidemic' In Travancore

There is an interesting example of how the paper got
involved in a controversy in its
early years, but emerged from it
with a reputation for fearless,
unbiased journalism . In th e
erstwhile princely State of Travancore, th e Maharajah Sri
Mulam Thirunal passed away.
Hi s successor Maharani Sri
Sethu Lakshmi Bai took over the
reigns of government. At that

In Pakistan with Khushwant Singh

landed in L.1hore I found my
pictu rc on the front page of
The Jang, Pakistan s leading
newspaper. They had published
extracts lium an article I had
wrillen on the falsification of
history - as to how Indian history had been moulded so as to
foml . an anti-muslim bias. In
fac t, that article proved to be
my passport to Pakistani hospilality. Almost Ihe entire village
in Hadali ga thered-to give me a
rousing reception. They were
aU flattered when I caUed my
,;sit my Haj and Humra. I was
Excerpts From The Interview. the n taken to my ancestral
home which is occ~p ied by
What was the purpose of Muslim refugees tium Rohalak.
your recent visit .to Paldstan? . All in all, Indians don 't give visI had been invited to a wed- iting Pakistanis the same kind of
ding in Lahore. In fact that was gra nd treatment.
an exc use to make a trip down
You said you last visited
memory lane-to my ancestral Pakistan some years ago. Hahome in Hadali beyond Sar- ve things changed since then?
god ha, as I am working on my
Yes, I was there the day they
autobiography and I wanted to hanged Bhullo. I was the only
refresh my memory of my child- Indian journalisl in Islamabad.
hood days.
He had not become a legend
How long would you take to and there were hardly any
linish the autobiography?
demonstrations or violence. PeoI have just begun to work on ple seemed so grief-stricken
it . I"ve finished writing about over his death that they just
the days when I was c1ose to couldn t react. I wen t to Karachi
the Nehru-Gandhi family. About the following day expecting trouNehru, Sanjay and the stonny ble but nothing happened. the
relations between Maneka the resurgence of the Bhutto mysbahu and the saas.
tique came about only a q'ew
How do you describe your years ago. He is now regarded
as a folk hero and a champion
vioit?
The enonnous welcome a of the poor. But one must
Sikh gets there is fantastic. For- remember that today Zia-ul-Haq
tunately for me, the day I may not be loved but he is not

Khulhwant Singh recently returned Irom a

" trip down memory
lane" to Pakistan, which he
last visited on the day Bhullo
was a..aaslnated.
Speaking to LAKHtNDER
VOHRA on his Impressions 01
Pakistan today, he thought
that the time was not yet ripe
lor a 'revolution' Ihere and
that Benazlr hardly posed any
threat to the military dictatorship.

10

20 J8n_-5 Feb. 1987

hated. He is respected. He is a
dictator but is considered to be
a pious man. His personal life is
above reproach and there is not
even a b'"eath of scandal about
him 01" any of his family metnbel'S. So I don 't see any serious
Ihreat to his leadership.
About the recent riots in
Karachi, the so-called resignations, etc, How did the
people react?
The reactions have been quite
sha'l'. The liashpoint ca me aftel"
tlUuble had been . brewing in
Karachi for so me time between
Ihe Afghan l"efugees and the
Biha'; Muslims. In faci Ihe
Afgha ns who look refuge on the
pretext of training to fight the
Ru ssians, have over the years
settl ed down to a comfortable
life. To a la rge ex tent. an an ti
Afghani feeling has developed
among the people who hold the
l"efugees l"esponsible for all the
illegal trade in drugs, anns, etc.
MOI"eover, the Nghanis being
aggresive in 'nature, the clashes
became inevitable. The people
in Karachi and elsewhere have
reacted ,vith a sense of shame
10 all this but they feel that th e
Afghanis should go back to their
own co untry and fight.
Please comment on Benaz.
irIs position, vi~a vis Zia.. Can
she overthrow him?
She lacks the kind of support
Zia seems to have among the
masses. People do come in
large numbers to listen to her,
young men are crili cal of the

The negoliati ons between the

Government and Sikhs were
completed by the end of February the same year. But the settlement had a negative effect on
the newspaper. The Sikhs were
losing interest in the Hindustan
Times and wanted to sell the
paper either to Motilal Nehru or
to Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya. Panikkar put up a proposition to Sardar Mangal Singh
that in case the paper had to
change hands, it should be sold
to MotHal Nehru. But it was too
late. In March that year Mangal
Singh had already sold the
paper to Malaviyaji. Malaviyaji
and Lala Lajpat Rai jointly took
over the manage ment of the
Hindustan Times. Thus ended
the Sikh control of the first English daily founded by them in
Delhi and also the brilliant editorship of the paper by Sardar
K.M . Panikkar.
in th eir media. Even the PM '
re marks waming Pakistan not I
medd le in our acti\~ties received
hu nt-page headlines.
But do you think such a
feeling is justilied?
Well, if I was a Pakistani, I
wou ld feel the same way. EveIybod'y in Pakistan seems to
have Ihis belief that as soon as
the Punjab problem is felt to go
ou t of control this Indian go\lemme nt "viii launch a mil italY
attack on them.
And how do they react to

government and do want a

change but the feeling is not yet
so strong as to overthrow Zia,
In lact, the traditionalists fiercely oppose Benazir, especially
during her mammoth rallies.
They are notorious for their
anti- Benazir slogans. As I am
told, some. of the them go like
this: 8ahiya sharam ""ro, Apni
behn da vyaah karao; Zia nahin
Ie Junejo naal Nikaah karao. the
extremist
issue
in
!Brethren, have shame. Get your general?
sister married. If not Zia, then
There is a sneaking sympathy
for Ihe Khalistani. Largely beget her mamed to Junejo.l
Coming to the Punjab prob- cause th ey feel that the Hindus
lem, to what extent do the had been victimising Muslims
Pakistanis admit they ai", and that now th e situation had
involved?
co me 10 be the same for the
They fl atly deny any li nks . Sikhs. In fac t, they are happy to
with the ex tremists. Most of see a di scontented India. When
Ihem feel th at if there was an we have trouble they highlight
element of tl"uth in the I"e p0l1ed il as we do their throubl es in
allegations of our governmen t, our media. "'he n Muslims are
something concrete would have ki lled hel"e, like in the BangalOl"e
come up. by now. Eyen th e liots recen tly, Pakistani papers
Somayya Committee which re- screamed-'Gyarah Mussalman
ce ntly went to Pakistan proved Shahecd' III Muslims martyred l.
to be a flop. They had video
How has Pakistan reacted
tapes and some other miscel- to the entire concept of
laneous evidence to prove the Islamisation?
involvemen t. But as I am lold,
The only evidence of Islamitheir evidence was not co nclu- sation i~ Pakistan are the newlysive enough.
built mosques and an enor-To what extent does a fear mous amount of propaganda.
psychosis of a military attack Other than that hard liquor is
from India exist in Pakistan?
easily available. Conuption is
They are obsessed with it. rampant, drug trafficking is
They know that India is strong common, and there are (ewer
and with the Ru ssians round burkha-clad women on the strethe comer, they are haunted by ets. Most surprisingly, this time
this fear. And that's why Gorba- I found many women dressed
chevs visit featured prominently in saris at social gatherings.

F8rum

H
__
eM_'m_g~e_a_n_d_H_i_st_ory~________________(3azette

Patiala, of 36 gentlemen which

was to recommend ways and
means for the beHer manageme nt of the gurdwaras. This
was interpreted by the Sikhs as
an undue interference in their
religous affairs by the Govemment So some of their leaders
constituted a committee consisting of 175 members !O be
known as the Shil'Omani Gurdwara Prabandhak Commillee
IS.G.P.C.I for the management of
all Sikh shtines.
The S.G.P.C decided to acquire
contl'Ol over the gurdwara at
Na nkana Sahib which at that
time was under the possession
of mahant Narain Das who did
not bear a good moral reputati on. The committee announced
a 'diwan ' to be held on February 20, 1921 at a place near
Nankana Sahib. The mahant
employed a number of bad
characters in order to resist the

Gandhi and the Punjab*

S.L. Malhotra

ikhs belong to the martial

races of the Punjab. During the war their number
in the army I'Ose from 35,000 at
th e beginning of 1915 to ovel'
100,000 by the end of the war.
So Ihey were considered incapab le of carrying on a non-violent
struggle. Gandh i was even advised by some of his ftiends to
refrain from pulling the idea of
non-coopera tion before the Sikhs. But their performance in
the norHriolent non-cooperation
belied all such fears. Lajpat Rai
W!'Qte to Gandhi, "The Sikh noncooperators have set a noble
example ... The Sikh commu nity has so far kept its temper
admirably well in spite of the

pr'OvDcations given

Golden Temple, the temples at

Nankana and Panja Sahib; had
large jagil's attached to them.
The management of the Golden
Temple at Amtitsar was in the
hands of the head priest who
was under th e contl'Ol and
supervision of the Deputy
Commissioner.
Before th e formation of the

despite latter's efforts to appease

them. A new organisation of the
Sikhs known as the Sikh League
was formed . Its leaders clecided
to acquire control over the
Golden Temple. The radical
elements among the Sikhs organised a semi-military corps of
volun teers known as the Akali
Dal larmy of immortals.l It was

. Our

, Sikh ftiends deserve all the

praise one can bestow on bldve,
noble sufferers in the cause of
trulh." In reply, Gandhi observed, 'Their resolute behaviour,
their religious fervour, their
calmness and their suffeting
command my highest admiration .. ." Similar was th e finding
of the Civil Disobedience Enquiry Commillee_ Answeting the
4uestion as to why the movement had remained more or
less free from violence, the
I" POrt of the CommiHee says,
"The answer, clear and conclusive, is given by the outstanding
feature of the situation that it is
the martial races of Northem
India, both in the Punjab and
the United Pmvinces, who, while
smarting uncler brutal treatment,
have maintained th e most wonderful self-restraint."
The training that the Sikhs
l'eceived' in the use of the new
weapon added a new chapter
to the history of their community in the Punjab. They made
use of the new technique in
refonning theil' religious and
social institutions. They applied
the method of non-\10Ient struggle in establishing the contl'Ol of
their community over their religious shrines known as 'gurdwaras' which had been under
the contl'Ol of individuals known
as 'mahants', some of whom did
not bear a good reputation. In a
large number of cases the lands
and the pl'Operties attached to
the 'gurdwaras' were entered in
their names. Some, like the

attempts of the Akalis to take

possession of the gurdwara. In
the early moming hours of the
sched uled date, a jatha (band)
consisting of 150 or 130 Akalis
led by Lachhman Singh Dhal'Ova!i en tered the gu rdwara. The
gates of the shtine were then
closed and all the volunleers
were brutally murdered by men
employed by Narain Das.
The news of the outrage
raised a stann in the province.
Gandhi was in the Punjab a t
that time. He told his ftiends
that the tragedy received his full
attention. Since no man from
the party of Lachhman Singh,
that entered the gurdwara, survived to tell the dreadful tale,
Gandhi could not obtain true
facts abou t the conduct of Sikh
vol unteers at the time of attack
on their lives. Still he was
inclined to believe that the
conduct of the Akalis was nonviolent. The greater possibility,

GandhlJi In pre-partition
Punjab
Sikh League, the Singh Sabha
made some efforts to gain contl'Ol over the gurdwaras but
being loyal to the Govel'l)ment it
was hardly in a position to take
any direct action against Ihe
Governmen t. Its endeavours to
achieve its e nd thl'Ough petitions and redress from courts
did not yield any significant
success. This pl'Oduced resentment and consternation in the
community. An incident at Delhi
in 19 12 created a stir among
Sikhs in the Punjab. In the
co urse of building of the new
capital the Govemment acquired
land attached to gurdwara Rikab
Ganj and demolished an old
boundry wall. Radical elements
among the Sikhs challenged the
mahanl's tight to alienate gurdwara pl'Operty and condemned
the demolition of the wall as
sactilegious. But the clash between the Govemment and Sikhs
was averted as a result of the
commencement of the War. But
on the restoration of peace in
1918, the agitation against the
contl'Ol of gurdwaras by individuals reappeared with greater
vigour which bl'Ought the Sikhs
in conflict with the Govemment

to raise and train men for

ac tion ' in laking over th e gurdwaras from recalcitrant mahants.
In pursuance of their aim of
freeing the Golden Temple from
the official contl'Ol, some of the
Akali volunteers bl'Oke a timeold tradition maintained by the
'mahants' by accepting the
'karah parshad offetings' from
the untouchable-baptised Sikhs
and prese nted it before the
Granth Sahib against the wishes
of the ptiests. The latter left the
temple in pl'Otest. The Akalis
immediately took contl'Ol of the
temple. The Govemmen t ttied
to assert its authotity over the
temple by constituting . a committee, thl'Ough the Maharaja of

according 10 him, was that the

party entered the gllrdwara as
wol'hsippers and on being attacked they did not retaliate and
willingly died under a vow not
to usc violence in connection
with the gurdwara movement.
In that case, he added, "the
mal1yrs showed courage and
resignation of the martyrs-order
of which the Sikhs; India and
the whole wodd had every reason to be pl'Oud." He, therefore,
designated their deeds as an act
of national bravery.
According to Girdhati Lal, a
Congress leader of Lahore, "the
members of the latha truly followed their leader and did not
use their kirpans at all but

hel'Oically and valiantly sactificed their lives for their faith. If

they had' acted othervvise, there
must have been greater casualttes amongs t the mahant 's
people."
The Govemment ttied to pacify the Sikhs by taking action
against the culptits. Twentynine persons were arrested. The
management was handed over
to the Khalsa Panth. The Governor, accompanied by a number
of officials, visited the place of
the tragedy. The Sikh leaders,
on the other hand, made use of
the inflamed sen timents of the
people for extending their contl'Ol over all the gurdwaras. Aptil
5, 1921 was fixed as the Nankana Sahib Martyrs' Day. The
Sikhs were asked to wear black
turbans in memory of the martyrs of Nanka na Sahib. Sikh
leadership now passed into the
hands of those who favoured
opposi tion to the Govemment.
Gandhi's non-cooperation moveme nt held great appeal for
them. Kharak Singh, a follower
of Gan dhi, was elected presidenl of the Shil'Omani Gurdwara
Prabandhak Committee. The
Government turned hostile to
the office-bearers of the Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee on
account of their avowed connection with the non-cooperaion
movement: In order to take
con tl'Ol ou t of the hands of the
new Committee, the Deputy
Commissioner of Amritsar took
the keys of the treasury of the
Golden Temple and planned to
hand them over to his own
nominee. This led to an agitation by the S.G.P.C which resulted in the afTCst and conviction
of about 198 pel'Sons, including
three successive presidents, four
successive secretaries and practically the whole of the Working
Committee of the S.G.P.C. Despite grave pl'Ovocations by the
Government and its agents the
agitation remained non-violent
that made Gandhi remark,
"When bom fighters become
non-violent, they exhibit courage of the highest order.
Ultimately the Govemment
was co mpe lled to seek a compl'Omise. Ii offered to retum the
keys of the Go lden Temple on
certain conditions. But the ShiI'Omani Gurdwara Prabandhak
Committee insisted on unconditional release of all the prisoners as the first condition of a
se ttlement. Without even waiting for all th e terms of a settlement, the Government announced its decision to release all
Sikh plisoners. But the S.G.P.c.
insisted on the release of non-

Sikh prisoners, too, who had

been arrested in connection
with the agitation relating to the
Key Affair. Commending this
attitude of the S.G.P.c., Gandhi
wrote, "The Sikh awakening
seems to be truly wonderful.
Not only has AkaJi party become
a party of effective non-violence
but it is evolving a line code of
honour... .
On the assurance of th e
Govemment ihat the Hindu ptisoners also would be released,
the S.G.P.C agreed to a settlement whereby the keys were
restored to it. Gandhi described
the unconditional retum of the
keys of the Golden Temple as
the "first decisive battle won."
From Gandhi and the Pun-

iab - S.L. Malhotra; Puniab

University - 1970.
20 Jen.-5 Feb. 1987

11

:the

_T~___F_OI_'b_U~gh_t_'8_S_ro_ry~_______________ ~pe

______________________________

wile re lel1'Cd to. In fact, Somrit

was on ly the spotted bitch's
puppy and was born under the

The Peasant
and the White Mati

htl!. His colour was stl 'ange,

Khamslng Srfnawk

he village is no more than and buffalo shed does not mean

20 kilometers to the north he is a special class of peasant .
of Bangkok. lis houses are who does not have to work for
strung along a canal each separ- the name, only that at his age,
ated from the other by a water- no longer having the strength to
filled ditch and a boundaly of wrestle with the soi\' he supersmall trees. Most of them are annuated himself.
The life of true peasants like
low with atop roofs sloping
down almost to the raised earth Khong is uncomplicated, predebeneath. The sleeping platform tennined. When the rains come,
and kitchen are waist high and they plough, then seed, then
their wooden floo rs are wide replant . If the rain is good,
enough to accommodate the thel'C's enough rice left over to
family. What space there is in sell, and if too much, they buy
the house in partitioned by rice with whal condiments,
flower-patterned cotton hang- shrimp paste and fish sauce
ings. In front of each house is a th ey need on credit and wait to
crudely made bench or upend- redeem themselves the followed logs for fiiends to sit on ing year. You can think of it as
when they stop by to chat. in fate or call it, more flatteringly
the dry season, the treadmill, as the townspeople do, herorake and plough are kept under ism, and you would not be far
the raised floor of the sleeping wrong. Khong preferred to reroom; the chickens roost there gard himself as heroic because,
in the rainy season. Close by th ough he had not even a dot
each house is a haystack and a of land of his own, he was still
able to provide for his wife and
buffalo shed.
The house, or more precisely, the many animals that depenhut of Uncle Khong is not much ded on him as well as others
different from the others. The provided for their families. If he
absence, however, of a haystack had had children, he was sure

12

20 Jen_-5 Feb_1987

he could do as well for them. In

this vein, he boasted with Khem,
his girl-mend, bride and now
old woman.
'If we had kids, I could do
right by them, couldn 't \, dear?'
'Yes, yes,' she acknowledged,
busy feeding all their six dogs.
Never failing to give his pride a
fllip, she added, 'even if we had
six,

they wouldn 't eat

mol'C

than this pack. That Somri! of

yours alone eats more than the

both of us together.'
'Khong glanced .at the gangly
puppy, legs spread, belly bloated, slurping rice gr-dvy from a
coconut shell, Being childless
probably explained his fondness
for animals. In his prime, he
kept the lot from buffaloes to
fighting cocks and fish. But as
age advanced and energy declined, l'Calising he could no
longer care for all, he sold
them, even his partner in life,
the buffalo. This did no great
harm, th ough, for his work had
already changed its character.
FOimerly. his aim in gl'Owing
rice was to earn enough to have

extra money to spend and to

donate at least as much as oth
ers to charity. Latcr he was sat-

isfied if enough grew to feed his

fami ly for the year. As his
capacity for heavy work ebbed,
he took to gathering lotus leaves
and stems from the paddy field
ditches for sale to market vendors. This gave him enough for
each day. Later, as he had an
honest and grateful nature, the
gen tleman owner of the land he
lived on was kind enough to ask
him to oversee and collect rents
from the nevvcomers. Bu then,
the buffalo was no longer needed. As Khong 's eyesight grew
poor and his. hair turned grey,
he could no longer defend his
chickens from the WIles of the
new genera tion of children and
he gave up trying to look after
them. They were given away to
whoever asked for them. Six
dogs, four cats and a fevv leftover hens remained.

Khong did not fancy the six

equally; some he kept out of
pity, but the one he really loved
was 'old Somnt', the one his

though not mottled li ke his

mother nOl' dark like his lather
who Khong guessed was Blackie.
Apart from his funny colour, he
differed from the other dogs in
other ways: his ears stuck out
and his eyes were small, like an
elephant's.' The old man had
thought that when he was a little oldel' he would name him
'Elephant'. But he was called
'Somrit' because of an event one

day, three months before. His

landlord when leading a group
of mulli-lingual foreigners in a
boat along the canal had stopped at his hut to exchange
pleasanllies and to give him
ano th er job - to show the
paddy field land and point out
its boundraries to those inter-

ested. He willingly accepted.

Just before lea\;ng, the landlord
noticed Somrit frolicking with a
playmate in front of the house
and exclaimed, 'What an odd
pup! you should call it 'Somrit'
- after all it means brassy-gold.
That's his colour.' All the visitors agl'Ced. When they left,
Khans, feeling he loved the dog
twice as much, clucked him
over and patted his head, and
from then on called him
'Somnt'.
The old man performed his
nevv assignment enthusiastically.
During those days, anyone pass-

FBrum

------------------------Gazet~-----------------------ing down the canal who glanced

at the bank would be apt to
hea~ an old man in an old black

which Ihe soda pop was espe-

cially appealing, But the strongest reason for his affinity for the
shirt silting together wilh his foreigner was the latter's show
dog in the shade of a bamboo of atfection for his dog Somrit.
grove call oul. 'Have you come When his bird watching was
to see my landlord's land" Some over, he would call Somrit over,
said they had, others tittered ruh his back and give him a big

and occasionally the old man

would lalugh at 'himself for mis

takenly addressing one of his
own \1IIagel'S. Those who did
want

to see the land were

shown around with all the alacrity desired by the owner. Hearing new things in his talks with
these peo ple and walking side
by side with persons he thought
were

millionaires

made

him

happy. Occasionally, a nice per

son would give him a cigarette
and even offer to light it .
For several days. Khong
watched with curiosity a smal -

lish boat punted upstream

occupied sometimes by only
one passenger. sometimes by

several. which, as it approached

his perch, would head into the
thicket behind his hut. Though
he thought they might be people coming to look at the land,
to approach them would be
inopportune. If they had come
to see it, they would inevitably
come 10 him for information.

hiscuit. The lriple fri endship

Wew daily. The old man of
Bang Jark Canal sometimes invi ted his new t1iend to visit his
hut hut there always seemed to
he some obstacle,
Later afternoon one day after
t he passage of almost a week,
the white man told him that the
birds they had been observing
with fascination had laid some
eAAs and he would be hack in
five days or so io see them, but
in the meantime he would ask

Khong to keep Ihe local boys

from

disturbing

them

which

Khong willingly agreed 10. Finally, he asked aboul Somril who

did nol accompany them Ihat
day. Khong replied Ihat Somril
was sick tram the previous day,

having so overstuffed himself

with food he couldn't get up. At
Ihis, Ihe foreigner opened his

cal, When hunched over, his

rump high, he bobbed along
among the trees after a bird

call, it was nol easy for Khong

to smother a guffaw, and Ihen.
too, his bird-lover would bring
him new and lasly snacks Of .

house post. 'You just watch.

' Damn~ '

He's not yet finished with this

'No.1 fi'ne enough, Khong.'

Khong cocked his head to

Khong said emphalically.

The follmving day, the lor-

inquiry after Somrit, 'Not yet.

The loreigner hasn't brought

him back yet but the birds are

Well. if he knew whal was

right. he'd be a man not a dog,
th e old man continued to take

Ihe dog's part and his wife

walked away pelulanlly.
The following morning Somnt
was no better. He was moping,
refused to eat, gave a nasty look
at anyone who came near,
snarled and growled. At noon,

one side and munnured, 'Just

like a teacller to know everyIhing.' Then' he spoke to the

dog, 't" know what you're afier,
my Somrit. To please you I'd
like 10 pul your food on a
golden plate. But what to do"
As for my clolhes, these are the
only good ones I have.'
. Before he finished, Somrit
raced 10 Ihe boat landing whimpering happily. When Khong
and the teacher, squinting againsl Ihe sun, recognized the
landlord, Khong followed and
raising his hands, in respectful

called out, 'Has Somrit come

What in the world do they

leach Ihem to be""
They leach them 10 be as

back'! I thought '1 heard him

bark.'
'It's awful. Yawl,' Ihe old man

greeting said, 'You 've come _early

clever as people,' the white man

continued when he saw Khong
appear uneasy,

complained as he walked out to

right'!'
'Yes, Sir'
Well, I see Somrit has

They'll leach him 10 know

city, he's refused to eat lice,

behaves so proud and goes after

his duties, to gUaJ'CI the house,

carry things for his master,

The explanation was lengthy.

'Can Ihey do thal'!'
'Absolutely'- Ihe foreigner

day, he replied 10 his \vile's

foreigner business. Here we

were counting the days to his
return and when he sees us he
growls in our face.'

eigner did come but without

Somrit. He said that he had sent
him to a training school.
Astonished, Khong could only
exclaim, 'What'? A dog school !'
'That's light, ' the foreigner
said,

'Overeating. His belly's so full,

words, he retlected, and manage to get on together whereas

men have thousands of words
but st ill can 't hit it otf.
On r'C turning aller dark one

'Foreigners, bah" The old lady

leaned Ihe paddle against the

gers to call the dog over. The

dog wagged his tail a little but
in a moment started to bark
again.

the white man and the hirds,

'What about Somrit'!' You said
the foreigner would bring him
hack in five 01' six days.'
Take it easy. TomOlT'Ow OJ'
the day aft er. How do \ve know
how sick he was'! The loreigner
said he had to be taken to a
doctor, What a lucky dog he is.

calch theives, and also 10 be

he can't get on his feet. '

Reflecting lor a moment. the
white man asked, 'Can I visit
him'!'

Ihe white man wears off. he'll

be himself again:

which would usually include

eyes wide and questioned,

'What 's wrong with him'!'

The boat appeared in the afiernoon and remained until sunset.

Sometimes the old man saw
'Please do.'
one of its passengers jump onto
Th e foreigner smiled at
the bank - a big man in a grey
shirt wearing a bell-shaped pea- Kho'lg'S eagerness.
Khong guided his important
sant's hat, looking up and looking down and finally disappear- guest along the path beside Ihe
ing into a clump of trees. At the narrow wateIWay to his hut and
beginning of the second week, called oul to his wife, 'Khem,
the man could contain himself Khem dear, the foreigner has
no longer and decided to take a come to visit us.'
The old man called again and
look. With a snap of his fingers,
he got Somrit moving and went again but there was no answer
along by the canal. the dog except for the initial howling of
running ahead. When Somrit Ihe dogs which he stopped
barked loudly, Khong quickened with a sharp word. His compohis pace and heard the dog sure lost, he mumbled aplogetically, 'Not in.'
'lbein~ shooed away and then a
'Who's .not in'!'
'-\t.-isreetmg:
'My wife. Her name is Khem.'
, 'How are you, Uncler.
The white man laughed.
'Hello, eh~ He was surprised
when the owner of the voice ThaI's all right. I came to visit
emerged from the bushes and Somrit.'
'Where's Somrit gone, Khong'!'
turned out to be a tall, heavyset
'It 's you, is it, Mr. Yawl'!'
white man, with several large
and small cases hanging from Khong peered al his friend, the
his shoulders, his broad smile school-teacher, silting under the
canopy of the small boat.
evoking a grin from Khong.
'What are you doing there,
'He was sick so the foreigner
Sir? he asked when he reco- look him to Ihe city for trealment. Where are you going in
vered himself.
Instead of an.wering, the man thai boat'!'
'I'm just getting a ride to
pointed to the line of small
trees ahead of them but seeing school.'
the old man perplexed, added,
Every morning Khong would
sit comfortably al the bank of
by way of explanation, 'Birds.'
'Ah, you've come bird-shoot- the canal under the bamboos in
ing.' whispered Khong spying a ITonl of his house and in the
pair of bulbuls hopping along a afternoon would walk along Ihe
branch. The white man shook bank lurning inlO Ihe path
his head negatively, his pea along the ditch towards Ihe line
of small lrees where he would
sant's hat gyrating on his head.
'Not at all,' he replied, peering busy himself until evening wal
through his binoculars. 'I came ch ing the antics of his pair of
birds hopping and flying ahoul
to do research on birds.'
Khong told Somrit to shut up the trees now festooned with
and the foreigner handed the yellow flowers. II became quite
fields glasses to Khong so he pleasant. Sometimes he would
Ily to imilal e the bird calls and
could take a look.
From Ihen on, Khong so would ca lch himself chirping
enjoyed going with hiS new and peeping even after the
white friend he almosl forgol hirds had disappeared into Ihe
his landlord's assignmenl. The shl1lbs, They have just a lew
foreigner's manner was engaging and his outsize body com i-

still there singing in the evening,'

Khem would smile and shake
her head at Khong 's comments

c1t!an and nol to make messes. '

asserted.
That evening, the villagers
travelling along the canal in

ITont of the hut heard the voice

of the old man chatting inter-

rupted by Ihe sound of Ihin

laughter ITom his wife. Thinking
il over, Khong decided he had
come upon one of the wonders

of Ihe world.
'Lislen dear, city dogs can do
anything. That's why they're so

Ihe leacher, Yawl, paddled uplO

the tronl of the house and

Ihe landing.
'Since he came back from Ihe
Ihe olher dogs.'
'Bul you said he'd been sent
to a training school.'
'Yeah, I don't know whal they
taught him. He's been ruined .'

The teacher mulled over Ihe

problem and advised, 'Maybe he
jusl feels a little strange in these
surroundings or he's learned

new habils. f hear at these dog

schools Ihey train dogs to love
cleanliness, to relieve themselves

in Ihe proper places and not to

accept food from strangers so
as to avoid poisoning.' The
teacher expatiated in the man-

expensive; they cost even more

ner of people who feel they

know a greal deal. Finally, he
asked Khong. 'What did you put

than a full-grown working buf-

his lice in'!'

fillo. If it weren 't our white gentleman who said so, I wouldn 't

believe it .'
Finally the day awaited by
both husband and wife came
but Khong was badly disappointed to see SomMt whining

in the boat refusing to gel oul.

When al last they got him onto
Ihe bank, he snarled at the old
man and struggled to get back
inlo the boat. EmbaITassed, the

'A coconut shell.'

'Thai will never do,' The
teacher was quite positive. 'You

can'l lreat him in the old way

any more. Try putting it on a
plate.'
The old man disappeard complianlly into the kitchen and
emerge a moment later with an

the dog and pushed off leaving

him whimpering on the bank.
Khong and Khem exchanged

enamelled dish full of rice

mixed with fish.
'Somrit, here, Somrit.'
The dog emerged from under
the house, sniffed at the plate
pul down in front of him and
proceeded to lap up the con-

glances.

tents.

white man threw a biscuit to

'Looks like he's forgotlen the

taste of rice gravy

, the

woman spoke first.

'It looks thaI way.- Ihe old
man said regretfully looking at
the dog biscuit with misgh~ ng,

After he had gulped down his

special food, Somlit leaped at
one of the hens, snapping at it
arollnd the house and when it

finally escaped by flying onlo

the roof, Somrit turned on one
of hi s old friends who was wagging its tail to welcome him

back, seized him by the Ihroal

and flung him around. Unable
to s!and it any more, the old

lady seized a paddle and

slapped it sharply down in Ihe
middle of Somri!'s back. Son1li!.
scluealing, siinked olf uder the
house.
'Look at that. You ea t J few
fan cy meals and think yo u're a

What did I tell you?' the

leaheer remarked smugly. 'These
Irained dogs are very 'particular
about cleanliness,'

Somril, finished eating. turned

10 bark at Khong.
'Now, what's bothering him?'
the man asked.
Yawl thought for a moment
Ihen inslructed Khong. 'Ah I
know, put on your best clothes.'
Whal'!'
'Don 'l be stubbom. Play along
with him.'
Khong went inside to change
into a new pair of black pyjamatl'OlISerS, a faded blue shirt,
wound a red cloth around his
waist like a sash and put on a

palm leaf fanner's hat.

'How's Iha!'!' he asked as he
appeared ITom under'the roof.
The teacher pointed 10 the

big foreigner. I'll break you back

hat and motioned him to remove it.

with the paddle in a minute,'

she threatened the dog again.

like

'Layoff him, Khem. He's just

back ITom good food and good
times over there, let him show

oft a little. When Ihe smell of

'II makes you look 100 much

1.1

peasant.'

The man obeyed and slrutled

into the centre of the vard,

slanding Ihere eleganlly. 'Somrit!' He snapped his fin-

to day, Sir.'
'How are you? Everything all

grown

a 101.'
But when he noticed the
yougn dog making a fuss on the
bank. he changed the subject
Khong sighed deeply when
he saw two foreigners sitting in
the boat also eyeing Somrit
'Hello doggie,' one of them
called out.
Somrit increased his whining.
Except to tell the boatman to
move on, the landlord said
nothing more, When the boat
was gone, Khong walked over to
Somrit.
'Henlo, Henlo,' he said t!)'ing
to imitate the. greeting of the
foreigner. He bent down to hug
the dog but the instant he
stroked the dog's back. Somrit
snapped his teeth into Khong's
slloulder.
Khong grabbed a .stick and
brought it down hard on Somrit's head The dog had scurried
under the house, crying. before
he could strike again,
'Bite your own father, will
you?' His voice trembled with
anger.
The commotion brought
Khem and YaW! hunying over,
When Khong pointed to the
wound in his shoulder, they
looked at each other and were
stunned but the teacher, as
usual, recovered quickly,
'He was just doing what he
Ihought would please his
trainers. '

'What should I do with the

animal'!' Khong wondered as he
walked into the hut
'Why ask! It's your dog. Uncle,
You brought him up. You can
do what you like with him',
The teacher got back into the
boat.
The old man went into the
house, set a pillow against one
of the poslS and settled down
against ii, closing his eyes, his
mind wandering off into the
paddy fields. A furious barking
roused him. About ten people
were stauding in front of the
hut.
'Khong, I've agreed to sell this
land 10 these people. They're
going to put up a factory. It's all
right for you to stay on. You

needn'l move until they begin

10 build.'
Khong assented respectfully.
His eyes swept around his
house, and he thought of the
factol'y, the chimneys. His
shoulder throbbed. He thought
of Ihe teacher's words, 'You
brought him up .. .'
e

20 J.n.-5 Feb. '887

13

F8'rum
______________________ Ga~eel~~e-------~_~l
------------

LIONS OF THE

PUNJAB
By Amrlk Singh
Book Review : Richard G. fox,
Lions of the Punjab: Cullure in
the Making. Universily of California Press, PP xvii : 259, I
29.95, Indian edilion Archives
Publishers, 1987, Rs. 200/ Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, and Mahaprabhu Chaitanya, the most outstanding figure in the Vaishnavite ' movement, were contemporari es. It is
believed by so me peo ple tha t
they even had a meeting with
each other on one occasion at
Puri. Whether COI1"ct or otherwise, both of them belonged to
what may be described as the
mainstream of the Bhakti movement which had filled the In
dian society with a certain kind
of ferment for a number of
preceding centuries.
How is it that the Vaishn3\1 te
movement remained a movement of piety and ad ora ti on of
the Lord while Sikhism drdwing
its inspiration from the same
so urce eventually went on to be
mililanI. There can be only two
ex planations for it. One, the different social and political situations in Punjab and Maharash
tra co upled with the different
social fOlmation and outlook of
the people in these two widely
separated areas.
The book takes off from the
middle of Ihe 19th cen tury aner
the annexation of the Pun ajb by
the British a nd comes up to
1925, and investigat es the religious and cultu ral ferment as
also the social and economic
cha nges that took place in the
Punjab during this crucial formative period.
This period condit ioned thp
Sikh mind in such a fundame n
tal way that so much of what is
happeni ng today can be traced
back to what happened du ri ngthe Gurudwara Refoml Move
me nt of 1920-25. Richard fox
ofte rs a rigorous analysis of the
Singh Sabha move ment, the AI)'a
Samaj Movemen!. th e pal ronabe
exlended by Ihe British 10 the
Sikhs in recruiting them into
the anny in large numbers and
in si tuating them in the pristine
lidditon of Sikhism, the conflict
between the pro-Brilish and Ihe
anl i-Brilish alliludes and Ihe
final aCI of defiance in 1925.
\I would be unfair 10 Ihe
author however 10 describe Ihis
book only as a book abou l Ihe
Pun jab. The subtitle of the
book is equally importanl. \I is
called Cullure in the Making. To
use the author's own words,
The puzzle, then, is how
two similar ideological religious identities can come
to d iffer radically in motivating coUectiw poUticaI beha\inur, In the context of

late

nineteenthcentury

Punjab, the questipn becomes why did a refonnist

Sikhism, the Singh Sabha
Morement, . and the new
wrsian of Singh identity it
promulgated, dewlop into
an anticolonial peasant up-

14

20 J.n.-5 Feb, 1987

rising; whereas the Arya

Samaj, a Hindu reform
movement and the new,
em bracing Hindu identity it
put forward, was generally
unsuccessful among the
c uJth'3tors.
The answer to this puzzle
accoluing to Ri chard fox, lies
"in the peculiar histOlical conjuction of mat eJial co nditions
and cultural meanings thai co nsl illlied Ihe polilical economy
o~ Ihe Punjab, into th e firs t
decad es of the 20lh ce nlury'.
The reSi of the book is by a nd
lai'~e an elaboration of th is
The kind of evihe has unearthed

tram varioU!:i sources 1:-. amazing

range and diversity.

lil

Jats and Sikhs

r.on:-;istcnl wi th his overall
ap proach, Fox attaches considera ble impol1ance to the rad
tha i th e jats who constituled
the must positive element in
Punjab eco nomy weI" Sikhs by
"nd I".-ge. As he puts it.
Arc the Punjab Singhs
e quivale nt to the united
Kingdom Celts ? Did the
mos t e co nomically distressed rural area, the central
Punjab, happen 10 ha\..,
h igh concentrations of the
Sikh cultivators'! Was it
therefore only "nahlral" a mechanical outcome of
material conditions - th at
the Singh identity incorporated dleir protest?
Going much beyo nd hypothesis, Fox points out that th e cellSllS ligu l"s from t 88 1 - 1 ~13 1 pm
\~de a clue to wha t was happening. In 188 1, Ihe perce ntage of
Hindu jats was 37.81 and thai of
Sikh jals 53.36. In a period of 50
yea rs, Ihe perce ntage of Hindu
ja!s came down to 9.37 and Ihat
of Sikh jats went up to 79.35.
Clearly, a large number of Sikhs
jats chose to declare Ihemselves
Sikhs and identify Ihemselves
wilh whalever . was happening
in and to the Sikh community
at that time. All kinds of .things
were happe ning, including Ihe
fac t Ihat after World War I there
was recession in the prices of
agricultu ral products. The Al)'a

Samaj Movemen t which was the

other strmig refonnist moveme nt at that ti me had, according to f ox, "never transcended
its OIigins in the Punjab urban
lower middle class'.
In 1911. for instance, only 14
per ce nt of them came f!'Om
among th e jat s a nd the rajput s
and Ihe resl belonged to the
three merch ant castes of khaHis, aroras, and banias. His discussion of the ethnic make up
of Ihe populalion and th e appeal of the two respeclive reform move men ts to different
segment s of the population is
ill uminal ing. Several other schola rs have vvritten on th is theme
but none with such grasp of
del ai l.

Human Rights Tribunal

GIVING SHAPE TO
AN IDEA
"'-

It was on 23rd March, 1986, in Hyderabad that

some civil liberties activists first discussed the idea

of setting up of a people's tribunal to investigate into
and adjudicate on cases of state violence. The need
for such a tribunal was felt in the context of
increasing state violence in several parts of the
country, specially Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and the
North-East. It was decided to discuss the,idea with a
wider group and so a meeting was called on 27th
April, 1986 at New Delhi. At this meeting, which was
attended by activists of the civil liberties and
democratic rights movement from different parts
of the country, it was decided that the tribunal
should consist of retired judges of the Supreme
Court and the High Courts.

Between April and August

retired judges of the Swpreme
Bio logical Determinism
Court and the High Courts were
The second nCM' point whi ch co ntacted and the result was
Fox !lakes out is th c risC" an d that nine judges readily 10 con' pl"ad of what he calls biologi stitute the tribunal.
On 3rd August, 1986 activists
cal dctenninism in \ic loJia n
England. Accol'ding to ii , certai n of civil liberties and democratic
race:-. were !:i upeliol' to o l her~, rights groups met in Bombay to
In term:, of it, thf' BJil ish ca me disc uss how the idea was to be
tu develop the hypo lhesis 01 ~iven a concrete shape an d
mi.ll'tial race!:i a nd no n-mal'lial form. It was decided that the
racE'S, The Sik h ~ and the Pun- tribunal would be called the
jabi Musli ms, more thit n any Ind ian People's Human Rights
other communil\' in nort hcri, Tribunal and it would be set up
India, met the rC4 uimmen ts of' by concerned citizens who will
martial raccs ThiJI b wi1\' the form themselves into the Indian
Bli tbh cho::;r Ie) induct 'them People's Human Rights Comin to the a1TI1." In such large mission.
number:'> According to hb ~dl
cuialloll, the Sil...h strength in
A SMall group of actiVlst iawthe anny wa:-. 20 liml's hit!hel yers was asked to draft a DeclaIlum their popu lation ill the ration and a Con stitu tion for
counll"
Ihe Indian People's Human
r\ I'-eiateo I<letll! \\as the southRights Commission. The group
ward mO\"Cmrnl of RU!:i"liJ 10- met at Ahmedabad on Sep
\\'.,ml:'l Iran allg Alghal1ls1an. As tember 15th a nd 16th, 1986 andstudents at ta le 19th ccnlul' pl"pared the drafts.
Indian h islOl), know, the BusThe drafts were circulated
sian danger loomed much larger among concerned citizens and
in Ihe eyes of Bli li sh impel;al- fi nally adopted on 19th October.
ism th an perh aps wa!:i justifi a- 1986 at Nagpu r.
ble. Bul whether justifiable 01'
nor. the fact ",mains Iha l h is
At Nagpur a secreta/iat conshaped Iheir Ih inking to a gl"at sisti ng of eight persons was
extent.
elected. They are: PA. Sebastian
Quill' :,ome people are aware il'rincipal SecretaryJ, Bombay, K.
of this particu lar di mension of Balagopal,
Hyderdbad,
R.P.
Bri lish im perio I policy at Ihal Shukla, Ahmedabad, Pankaj DUll,
lime but Ihe impar l of Bril ish
Nagpur, DaUp Singh, Bombay,
Ihin ki ng aboul Ihe importance Nandita Haksar, New Delhi,
of heredit y an d Ihe role of Sujato Bhadra, Calcutla,and Vrihuman texonomy as imported
jendra, (Treasurer), Bombay.
from ni netee nth ce ntury Europe
have neither heen referred to bv
Arwal Firing:
ot her scholars in a ny significari t
A
Case
For Investigation
way nor given the same impol'lance as fox does.
The first sitting of the InAll ogeme r, Ihi s book is an d ia n People'. Human Rllfhts
importan t con tributi on for any- Tribunal will in"".ti!?te mto
one who wishes 10 und ers tand the legality of the poUce firing
Punjab. Thai thi s is a n impor- on 19th April 1986 at ArwaI, a
tant book is und er lined by the .mall10wn in Jehanabad Di...
fa ct that it was reviewed fo /' trict of Bihar in which a large
th ree days run ning in th e Times number of people, including
of India in Octobel', 1986. Eilher .maD children , wereldIled, The
the rC\~ewer. Ram Swarup, did meeting upon which the p<>not understand the basic thn_lst lice fired Wa. being held
of the book or, more li kely, he under the leadership of the
cho!:ic to misrepresen t and dis- Mauloor KIsan Sartgram Satort it. This is not the occasion mlti, an organisation o f landto take issue wi lh Ihal particu- les. labourers and poor pea-
lar reviewer but it may not be sanls, The Pre.ident of the
inappropriate to speculale whal MKSS has sent u. a written
wo uld be the reactions of the complaint. Here is an extract:
aUlhor to find himself so c han "In fact it is a barbed wire
ged oul of recognition.
e fence which separates Ihe police

s tation from the Pushtakalaya.

At about 3 p.m. seven to eight
hundred people reached the
place which is sUlTOunded at
three sides by boundary walls.
The meaning was organised by
the MKSS. There was a large
number of women and children
in the meeting. There was a
band party which had come
tram the nearby village to aI/end
the meeting. As the membels of
the band parry were followers
of the MKSS, they h.d come
...1th their band to participate in
the meeting. The meeting was
totally peaceful. After the meeting had gone on for about an
hour, .1 large number of policemen cunslsting mainly of Bihar
militill)' force regiment n o. 1
IVhich cons,sts of Gurkhas, lec;)
41' Cll. Kaman, the 11ewo.appoin ted S.P. of Jehanabad
encircled the meeting. The only
exi' "as sealed by the police
vehicles. Without exchanging a
single IVOrd with the people or
tllP organisers of the meeting,
withoul even telling the people
to disperse, or that the meeti'W,
was megal, the SP shouted "fire '
and the police s tarted firing
indiscriminately with their riOes.
The firing which was premeditated, unprovoked and uncontrolled, resulted in a large number of casualties. Later on, as a
cover up, the p olice made up
the case that an armed crowd
of MKSS extremists al/acked the
police s tation and the police
had 'to resort to firin;( in selfdefence.
Our preliminary investigation
revealed that four independent
enqui ries into the incident,
includin one by Mr. Rajinder
Saehar, nner Chief Justice of
the De i High Court, have
found that the firi ng was unjustified and illegal. The Bihar
Government,' has howeVer, chosen not to order either a magesterial or a judicial enquiry into
the firi ng. Even the investigation
carried out by senior official of
the Revenue Department has
been kept secret.

Mr P.S. Poti, Mr T.V. Mehta

and Mr. Shanna SarI<ar will hear
the case 1t the first sitting of
the Tribunal. The dates will be
announced soon,
_

F8rum
-----------Gazette
Chakmas Struggle for
Continued from page 16 col 5
drive a wedge into tribal
unity. However, this intention
has been beUed a. the tribal.
have worked out agreements
on movement in each others
territories. These agreements
and efforts by the Tripura
Youth Volunteer Anny are
de6nlte mo.... toware. pantribaU.m - a unity of hill
people in dis regard of nadonal boundries. And as any
nal boundaries. And a. any
perceived a. threats to the
o fficially . upported colo nisa
tion proce sse., legitima te political opposition is viewed as
d isruptive a n d de alt with by
the use of the stale forces.
This a pproach ha. defined
most post-I947 poUcy in India,
Pakistan and Bangladesh towa rds de mands for greater
a utonomy, particular ly by
tribals.

Growi ng C<>ncern

The Chakmas of Bangia Desh

By Bhagwan Oas

Anti-Slavery Society, placed a

detailed report before the Uni
te d Nation Co mmi ss ion on
Human Rights. On August 12,
1983, Mr. A1imul Huqua, First
SecretaI)' in the Bangladesh
Mission in Ge neva responded
befo re the Commission stating
that all that the Bangla deshi
government was doing was to
"bring the fruit s of eco nomic
development to the in habitant s
of th ese areas" an d that the
Constit uti on guara ntees equal

uring the last few days

Chakmas have been vel)'
much in the news in
national papers. Some 36,000
ChaklOas, me n, women and
c hildren oppressed and terro
ri sed by th e Be ngla Desh anne d
forces and Moslem fana ti cs,
migrated to the neighboUling
states of Mizoram and Tri p ura
si nce they believe tha t thei r
li ves, property and honour wa u-

In those s tates in which e thnic, religious or

linguistic minorities exis t, p ersons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied
th e righ t, in com m unity with tlJe a ther
members of their group . io enj oy theil' o wn
c ulture, to profess and pl'a f: tise their own
religion, 01' to use their own lan[;uage.

government for not re turning

the Chakma s accordin g to
agreement. On th e other hand
the ChakOla s feel they wou ld be
subjected to tortu re, harass ment
a nd perha ps im plison ment an d
ex tenni na tioll .
Who Are The Chakmas
Ba ngia Desh ha s li ngu isti c
an d ethni c minorities. It has
non-Bengali speakers 1800,247 1,
l!ruu Speakers 13 10,6281, Hi ndi
speakp.rs 1140,84.1 1 a rid Assam iBhutia gro up limguages speakers 1 136A(5 ). It has Christian:-;,
Ango'asian s, Garo tribes, ism(ti lis and Chinese. Among the
m ..ti or re ligiolls group s, it has
Hindus and BlIddh is:s. Buddhist s are divided in to Bal1.]l\,
Chamk.:1, ~'l ogh , Mm. rtc .. groups.
Hl"!rl las do nol fo rnl a gmu ps
an d are fO ll nd in the SOll th

Genesis Of The Problem

So long as the British ruled
India, th e Cha kmas had no
maj or problem and enjoyed a
kind of autonomy. Soon after
the partition of the country in
1947 their problems began. The
political statu s of the Chakma
kingdom was not clear. It met
the same fa te as the small land
loc ked state of Chitra Gilgil.
Wh ile princely sta tes were given
th e op tion to accede to anyone
of the dominions, the Chakmas
worki ng under the delusion
tha t their area al so comprised
{In inde pendent a utonomous
ptincely sta te, the Ch ill ago n
Hill Tract declared itself part of
In di a. The In dian flag was hois
ted on the 15th August and
continued !o fly over th e Ran
gama ti secre taIiat for ni ne days
unt il it ""as fo[,c ibly pulled
clOt\-11 bv t he armed forces of

\ \'r.S { of n an~d a Dpsh . .\1ogh.;;

and ChakInJs are foun d lIi osllv Paki.":lan~
The grO\.ving conc.ern among
Ar ticle 27 , V.i\:. Intfwu.! tionO!i.I CU\I"f~ u an t
111 (il ittagnng Hill {ra elS TI1e
the in ternational human righ ts
This was followed by continon Ci\i) PoUtica.! Li berties
Ch<.i kmas who pro fess Budd- uo us re pression by the anned
cOlll lll un ity w.:::s evidenced b.."
hism . live in i h f. fO J'e~t a l eils. III forces and Moslem fanatics who
5eve rai rep orts in the 19dO~s
the 13th ce na.TV the ir Buddh ist I regarded the Chakmas as a
culmi nat ing tvv'O mo nths ago in access to laws iI1'es peclivc of ld he safe r i~ Ind ia. 'T"hc rc are
a powcrfuily documented report I the reside nce or of [he tribal 5mallr r cf)r. lJ mmiti e~ of the :emples, ~hlines an d chaitYl!s in po tentional source of trouble
of Amnesty In ternational. This , affiliation of its citize ns' . On the l~ h a l.:.m a s id1"1J<'l d y inba!1i!ed in the area were under the cres and bellicemncy.
renor1. cities detail ed eve -\vitne::~ question of the grmving ilTlpov the Swtes of' We:jl B~ rga i , cp nt bv tkhtia r Kl,.lji. Maiw of
Press ure On Bangia Desh
ac'cou lllS of "ll nli:1v..ftll torture cri, hment of the hi ll prople. Mr. i\leghalya, Mizoran: and T, ip" the Uu"ddh isls "vere forciblv conVerte
d
tn
b
lain
.
1
nd
many
more
an d kill ings" of tribal viilage rs. Huque so in!1ocently stal es that ura. The ChakIna refugees fmm
Cnd er press ure from th e
Also cited ,U'C accou n ts. Gf w ide- "such degradati on and t~ co n o
Bitilg:a Desh feel ser; ure Jiving ;~ foll owed the m fo r Sp.cLa{ty. But Buddhis t cOLIn tries the govel'l1spread arbi tral:; ClITeSI S of those mic deprivation is shared by 96 these :;tates. ~"11 ilr~ other state:,; in some hilly areas, people co n- me nt of Bangia !Jesh changed
tinued tu fo il ow Burldhism. its att itude for some time bu t
sus pected of supporting th e mi llion peop le of Bangladesh "! have small pecke ts of Ba ngIa
Chakmas
an d 1\1 o i~hs \':ere two repression wi th greater vengeShan ti Bahini. Amfl est\' cites Further, responding: to the inci- Desll re fugee s. in the sr!1,J1l sta te
cases of p ri soners held
arrny dences of growing colonisation of Tripura, \vhich is reclipg such trihf' s, ever! th ough t he~/ ance start ed agai n. Chakmas
to o could not e ~cil p e the j;l ilu - \vere forced to leave their homes
and paramili ta ry camps bei ng of hill peoples' lann by Bengalis, under pre s~ l il'e and st rai n efTI,]enc(-' and pressure llf Islam.
kepI in pits where b oiling Mr. Huque, in true official char- nati ng from in l1u .'( of large nu mand fin d mfuge in In dia. The
Arcu roing to iJ lpgend prf'val Shant i Bhahini got split in two
wat er is regulariy splinkled O\'CI' ac ter says, "Bangladesh is a ber of Chakl:1<I refi"lge-e, an d
the detain ess. Elect!ic shocks, country wit h a homogenous !ocal insurge ncy, Chi ef Minbler enl all"!ong th e Chakm,!s their ~ro li p S and one of the groups
burni ng vvi th cigarettes and hang- people. How ca n we deny OUl' Nripen Cha kJ'a boi't)' is undt:;]" ancp. sturs !ll\graled from Bha- intensified its insurgency. The
g<llpu r in Bihar and they belorlg- Sta tp. tried all the force at its
pre ssure from th e no n-fribal
ing the detainee upside dow n citizens the right to trt>vel from
ond heating them are other one part of th e ir co u n try t o
com mand to clIrb the insurmet hods of torture adopted. another." This defe~lce goes on
gen cy. Now the 36000 refugees
~o ndem n ing these atrocities,
to even state that, 'Peace and
are bei ng se nt back becau se the
.... . mnesty odds that, "although communal har mony prevails in
All pe ople have the right to self-de termiIl- go,ern ment of India cannot a nd
' the government has a duty to all paJ1s of Bangladesh, incl ud
110t want to aggravate the
ation. By l<irtue of that rig/,t,
freely sidoes
maintain law and order, the I ing the Chiltagong Hill Tracts."
tuation in Trip ura w here most
Bangladesh securi ty forces have . Within the growi ng hreak
determine their political status and fr'eely of them are housed in refugee
systematically engaged in pra c down of comm unicatio n betOn the other hand there
pursue their economic, social an d cultural camps.
tices that have violated fu nda ween the Bangladesh govern
is evel)' likeli hood of many of
mental human rights."
men t a nd the increasingly cor
them being e liminated on some
developmen t.
Amn es ty has reiterated the nered hill people, an d the con
pre text or th e ot her by the state
Article 1, U.N. In .erna tional Cmenan 1
demand ma de bv itself and t!nui ng climate of using State
forces operati ng in the Chitta
O R Civil PoUtical Liberties
other concerned "organisa ti ons migh t to overpower asseJtiom.i
gong Hill Tract.
several times: that an inde- fo!' greater autono my, it is impeThe Chakmas have to fi nd a
pende nt commission be co nsti- rative that further encroachsol u tion wi th in the Sta te of
pressllre groups and the insur- ed to the Mahaya ni school. Bangia Dosh and at the same
tuted to investigate these viola- men ts halted immediatelv and it
tions. As before, there has bee n political
settlement . sought ge ncy let loose by triba l people Aft er the fall of ~ud n h;sm in time it would be in the interest
sile nce fro m t~ e Banglades hi which respect the lan d and led by Tripura National Vol un - Rihar ann L'lIar Pradesh, they of Ba ngia Desh Government to
T.N.\'. One of the loo ked to Burmese and Arn ka find a political solution to the
governme nt.
forest rights and the cultural reel'S
identity of the tribals. A halt to demands of the T.N.v. is to send nese Buddhists fof' gui dan ce prob lem ins tead of aggravating
Weak Defence
to BangIa ilnd ca me un der the influence
the genocide perpetrated on back the refugee s
th e sit uation by resorting to
Theravada school of Buddhi sm . oppressive measures to solve a
There is on e interesting them and their aspiration for [Jesh.
Du ri ng the second week of In 1855 t he Chak.rn a queen Ran i local ethnic problem . Amnesty
development. In 1983, the reo greater self-detellnination must
December 1986 the question of Ka lind i was ba pti sed by Shli
nowne d British organisati on, the become a reality.
international is correct in apprese nding back the refu gees to Sangraj Mahaslhavir and the hending the worst in case the
BangIa Desh was discussed by Chakma kingdom began to fol
re fugees go back to Bangia Desh
An elderly frlbal lVoman I. carrIed by other villagers to j oin those
the then fomign secre taI)' Mr. A. low Theravadi Buddhism.
\-vi thout assurances and guaranhiding In the fo;est.
Venkat eswaran with his cou ntees by the Government of BanThe e ha kOlas enjoyed con
terpJ rt in Bangia Desh . He was
gia Desh . India has sufficient
told tha t aut hori ties in Bangia siderable fre edom and inde
number of !langla Deshi, Afghan,
[Jcsh ha d bee n ab te to ident ity pendence and resisted the for
Tibetans, and Shri Lanka Tanti14,000 refugees J nd they woul d ces of East India Compa ny. The
Iian refugee s and has no desire
be taken back The iden tity of Bti tish, instead of subjugating
to add more fro m Chittagong
IhE' remaining 12,000 was under the belligerent tribes of the area,
Hill Tract.
considera tion . Bangia De sh entered into a kind of comporIn the case of Chakmas the
au thOJities also gave an assll- mise. The area was notifi ed as
international community and
rance that conditions wo ul d be 'Excluded Area ' in 1900 A.D. and
especially the Buddhist councrea ted in the Chillago ng Hill a book to regu la te the affairs of
tries and societies should presTracks which could give confi the area was published un der
surise the Government of Bengla
dence to the ChakOlas about the tille. "Hill Tract Manual". Desh to adopt a saner policy
their sec uri ty in their home- The Chakmas continued to en- and also to ensure the safety
land. Now it seems there are
joy peace and prosperity in ihe
and security of the Chakmas by
some hu rdles in the implemen area ruled by their own kings.
e'llTIestly removing the causes
tation of the programme of As many as 13 conununities
which have compelled them
sending back the refugees. Ban reside in the Chillagong Hill
to leave their home and hearth
gla Desh has accused the Indian Tract.
to seek refuge in India.

a1

me.r

20 Jan.-5 Feb. 1987

15

F8rum

_s_po_ili_gh
__t__________________________ Clazet~--------------------R.-N.-45-7-63_/6_6;_D_{S_El_1_5/H_

Chakmas Struggle for Self-Determination

Smltu Kothari
or the residents of the
Chittagong Hill Tracts, it
has been a brutal story of
systematic economic and cultui'aJ exploitation. The Bangladesh
government has not only en
couraged Bengali settlers to
move in from the plains, it has
also given massive military an d
paramilitary support to facilitate
the aggression. Since the early
seventies, this forcible expropri
ation of their rights to land and
forests has forced many of the
non Bengali inhabitants 1most of
whom are Chakma tribals and
practising Buddhistsl of these
hill tracts to resort to armed
resistance. Many others, unable
to hold their own under syste
matic assualts have migrated
further into the hills or to India.
In the last few years, there
has been an escalation in the
ferocity of the conflict and the
ruthlessness of the ruling autho
rities in Dhaka. There has simu l
taneously 'been a more aggressive assertion by the Benga li
se ttlers of their 'right' to
coloni se.
The Chittagong Hiif' .Tracts
comprise the larges t district in
Bangladesh. Covering roughly
10 per cent of th e land area, it is
also the most sparsely populated part of the country. Until
q uite recently, the rustrict was
populated by 6,00,000 tribespeople who of Sino-Tibetan descent, have historically kept a
di stance from the majority plains popu la tion. They share, in
their lifestyle, language, re ligion
a nd physique a close identification wi th their natural neigh bours in north-east Inrna an d in
Burma. It is only political boun daries which separ81f .neiiC cu lturally interliked peoples.

CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS

INDIA
TAI PURA

r - - - ----,
Intern all ona l Boundary Di str ict Bounda'Y
Riv8fs and Canal s
:::::::<

This led in 1972 to the emer- - armed and trained Shanti Bahini
gence of the Parbottya Cha tta- crossed the Feni river frontier
gram Jana Sanghti Samiti from India".
The demands.of the Shand
IPCJSSI, the Hill Traclli Pe&pIe. Solidlirity Asoociation. By Bahlnl are remarlaobly oImIler
1975, the PCJSS had an armed to the Increaolngly wca1 ....
wing-the Shanti Bahini - with sestions of trIbeopeople aea reported strength of 15,000 ross the Indian border. Large
ocale mlgration from Nepal,
members.
For the last ten years, the BanJCladesh and Bengal has
PCJSS. which believes in a 'peace- resUlted In the hDl people ......
Trlbsl children living In Ihe csmp sl Ksrbuk, nesr Bhegwenlllle
In Indls

BAY OF BENGAL
A likadam

Influ x From Plai ns

\Vhile Bengalis staJ1ed 10 mi grate in small numbers in th e
17th century, il was only in the

1850s Ihat the Chakma Raja,

Dharam Bux Khan and later hi s
successor, Ran i Kohini broughi
Bengali cultiva tors to farm in
the lowlands. The Bri tish were
instrumental in introducing
'settled agriculture ' to the tli bals of the Chittagong fo rest.
During thi s period, only tribal s
owned lan d and u p until independence in 1947, the Bengali
popu lation was only 2 per cellI.
Th e acce lerat io n of CUITen!
co ntl ic ts is evident in the fac t
that in less than 15 veal's after
independence, the 'Olltsider' population was already 17.i per
cent 11961 1 and by 1980, thi s
had become alm ost a thi rd.
Es timat es today place th e Benga li po pulatiun at above 40
percent.
The hill peo ple have under~
stand ab ly resisted this m assive
encroachment. In the 19405 th e
Peoples Organisa tion IPO I \-va s
formed which sought fu ll au tonomy and whic h op posed incorporati on into either Pakistan
or India . These demands \vere
never heeded and in facti in
1948, several leaders of p.o.
were arrested. Ill-conceived development pro jec ts were then to
further the ten sion , In fac t, one
project, the Kaptai dam, dis-

16

20 J a n _-5 Feb. 1987

.;J BAtW!...ADESH
,,;! /

1-"

CHln .. OONG >il LL

I~"'CIS

O,~,u

'b ,

."uG I.< t . .... .

The northern ares of the Chitta g ong H ill Tracts where military
and paramilitary fo r ces cor.()l1c led rBlds In April Bn d MBY '86

placed 1,00,000 tribals and

8ubmerged 40 per cent of the
best agricultural land ill the
disn;c t. Detailed sl udi es have
shmvll th at almost nOlle of
thuse displaced "eeei',red even
dece nt cash compensa tion . Facing th e annihilation of their way
of life, the Chitlagong Hill Tracks
We lfare Associat ion was fOlrucd
in 1966, Little notice was taken
of its demands, and the n in
1~71. civil war broke out in East
Pakistan .
Illusion of Liberalion
Ironically, many tribes peop le
worked for independen ce in the
hope th a I the new stat e \'\-'o uld
allievia te the external aggression
in the ir lives. Thi s hope was not
to be realised. Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman's pri vat e para-military
orga nisation . the Rakhi Bahini

A tribal boy reported to have been killed when soldiers rsided SarboJiya village, near Psnchari,
on 22 April 1986

and th e Mukti Bahini plun- ful resolu ticn' through the polit- ing control over their landa,
dered part of th e arca an d th ere ical process, has initiated nu - forests and over tr ade.
\Veri? even bomhing ra i d~ on merous dialogues with the
NumeroUli .ldnnlohes and
govemment but gradl!a lly, \vi th I ma8sacres have resulted.
tribai villages.
Thes(~ frc sh atrocities led to
th e latter maintaining its bulDhaka has further fuelled
great er politlciati an and in 19:-2., I ldozing tact ics, the cleavage
the volatile situation on the
I, Bangladesh - India borde r
Manobendra Naravan I....aI'llla , I between the tvva has grown.
a Me tn ber of !h{~ Provincial
by giving shelter to the actiBa nglades hi Allegations
vists of the Mizo National
Assem blv and latcr <I member of
Parliament. led a tri bal delegaFront IMNF), perpetuating triIn terestingly, since 198 t. the
tion to Sheik.h :vluj ib, l'vhlji b Bangladesh government ha s albal unrest in Mizoram and
I'cgardcrl the demand fo r regio- leged that Shanli Bahini fight ers
Tripura. One motive for thlo
nal auton omy and for restrict- have been trai ned in India. In
seems to he to precepitate
ing the influ x of Bengali settle rs one well reported incident in
contlict between the MNF and
as unacceptable and ~he persethe Shanti Bahini in o rder to
1982, Peter Niewewand of the
cution of the trihals was all owed Guardian wrote that "that
Continued on page 15 coi l
to grow.
recent attacks came when well

Pnnted and publ ished by A,S Narang for the Ekta Trust, 2126 Sarvaprlya Vlnar New Delhl-l100i 7 DeSigned and produced by WOROTRONI C and pnnteo at Ral Sandhu, New Delhi.