By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: How government machinery in India, irrespective of political parties that are at the helm of affair in the Centre or states, is shamelessly lethargic in implementing minority welfare programs is evident from centrally-run mega scholarship schemes meant for minority students and so running much behind schedule.
August 30 was the last date for states to send their list of candidates to the Central Government for scholarship schemes – pre-matric, post-matric and merit-cum-means – for the year 2009-2010 but, according to the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs which is running the schemes, by September 30 majority of 35 states/Union Territories could not send the list.
19 states which could not send their list of recommended candidates for pre-matric scholarships include Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka (ruled by BJP) and Delhi, Haryana and Jammu & Kashmir (ruled by Congress). The list also includes states that are run by regional political parties like Orissa (ruled by Biju Janata Dal). Rest of 19 states include Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Tripura and Uttarakhand. The list brings home another important point: systemic and structural apathy towards minorities is a pan-India phenomenon.
Some states failed to send in time the list of candidates for pre-matric scholarships but they did not repeat the mistake for other two schemes. In this category are Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Tripura and Uttarakhand. But some failed in both pre-matric and post-matric schemes. They are Delhi (run by Congress and where a Muslim-dominated district is in the list of 90 minority-concentration districts) and Punjab.
The worst performers (those who could not send their list for any of the three mega scholarship schemes) are Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Orissa, Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu and Lakshadweep.
States that didn’t send list of candidates to centre
Pre-matric
Post-matric
Arunachal Pradesh
4180
1330
Goa
5390
1715
Jammu & Kashmir
82830
26355
Jharkhand
57090
18165
Madhya Pradesh
50820
16170
Nagaland
21230
6755
Orissa
19690
6265
Chandigarh
2200
700
Dadra &Nagar
Haveli
220
70
Daman & Diu
220
70
Lakshadweep
660
210
The top performers (the states which sent in time lists of candidates for all three scholarship schemes and funds have been sanctioned to them) are just three: Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
There are some other states which probably sent all three lists a little late and so their cases are still under process at the Union Minority Affairs Ministry. They are Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra3, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, Sikkim and Uttar Pradesh.
For the year 2009-2010 the Central Government had fixed a target of total 30 lakh scholarships under these three schemes, of which 22 lakh were for pre-matric students while 7 lakh for post-matric students. Under merit-cum-means scheme 12230 scholarships are to be distributed.
Link:
http://minorityaffairs.gov.in/newsite/schemes/schemes.asp
Thursday, October 08, 2009
SDPI vows to become a pan-India political party
By Shafee Ahmed Ko, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Newly-launched Social Democratic Party of India has again vowed to become a national party as it is taking all sections of the society in its fold and has already set up its branches in 10 states.
High on the agenda of SDPI are national integration, religious harmony, alleviation of poverty, welfare and development of the underprivileged, protection of dalits and tribals’ well being, establishment of civil rights, socialism and democracy, said K.K. Mohammad Dehlan Baqavi, Tamil Nadu president of SDPI. He was addressing a press conference today at Press Club in Chennai.
SDPI has already set up its branch in 10 states and expects nearly 1000 branches to be established in a short while.
Among the Tamil Nadu office bearers of the party who attended the meet included Bilal Hajiar, state Vice President, Mohamed Hussain, Chennai District President, Haji S.A Ameer, Chennai District General Secretary, Z.M Thahir, Secretary, M M K Jamaal, S. Mohamed Mubarak, General Secretaries, and SM Rafiq Ahamed, Treasurer.
New Delhi: Newly-launched Social Democratic Party of India has again vowed to become a national party as it is taking all sections of the society in its fold and has already set up its branches in 10 states.
High on the agenda of SDPI are national integration, religious harmony, alleviation of poverty, welfare and development of the underprivileged, protection of dalits and tribals’ well being, establishment of civil rights, socialism and democracy, said K.K. Mohammad Dehlan Baqavi, Tamil Nadu president of SDPI. He was addressing a press conference today at Press Club in Chennai.
SDPI has already set up its branch in 10 states and expects nearly 1000 branches to be established in a short while.
Among the Tamil Nadu office bearers of the party who attended the meet included Bilal Hajiar, state Vice President, Mohamed Hussain, Chennai District President, Haji S.A Ameer, Chennai District General Secretary, Z.M Thahir, Secretary, M M K Jamaal, S. Mohamed Mubarak, General Secretaries, and SM Rafiq Ahamed, Treasurer.
Two former chief ministers flay Modi
By IANS,
Gandhinagar: Within a day of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi completing a record eight years in office, two former chief ministers of the state, Shankersinh Vaghela and Suresh Mehta, came together to take up cudgels against his government.
Addressing mediapersons in Ahmedabad Thursday, the two announced the formation of a citizens front aimed at "articulating the problems of the large mass of suppressed government employees who have been rendered speechless by a repressive government".
"The Prabuddh Nagrik Shakti Manch is a non-political citizens forum which has been formed in response to an overwhelming demand for justice from sections of the government's own employees," said Mehta.
"The gross mismanagement, repressive and wasteful ways of the present establishment needs to be exposed, and following representations in this regard we have decided to take up these problems," said Congress leader and former union textiles minister Shankersinh Vaghela.
The two pointed out that the plight of teachers, who were the worst exploited in the present regime, would be the first issue that the manch proposed to take up.
Mehta said there were major disparities in the salaries and facilities given to a large mass of teachers who had been recruited as 'vidya sahayaks' and were being paid a mere Rs.2,500 to Rs.3,500 per month as against the Rs.15,000 to Rs.20,000 wages of regular teachers.
"The ad hoc teachers were additionally being utilized to perform 14 other administrative tasks by the manpower-short local administration leaving them little time to devote to their primary work of teaching children. This grave administrative anomaly bordering on exploitation, which was causing social tension besides unrest in the ranks of the employees, would be the first issue that we propose to take up," said Mehta.
There is considerable discontent prevailing among the adhoc employees who have been recruited on a large scale during Modi's rule.
Elections to the key municipal corporations of Gujarat-Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Surat, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar are slated to be held next year, followed by those to other local self government bodies.
The Manch, according to political analysts, is intended to dent the urban vote bank of Modi in a bid to set the tone for elections to other local self government bodies to follow.
While Shankersinh Vaghela suffered a setback after he was defeated in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, he had contested from Godhra, Mehta quit the BJP in the run up to the last Vidhan Sabha elections in the state.
Gandhinagar: Within a day of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi completing a record eight years in office, two former chief ministers of the state, Shankersinh Vaghela and Suresh Mehta, came together to take up cudgels against his government.
Addressing mediapersons in Ahmedabad Thursday, the two announced the formation of a citizens front aimed at "articulating the problems of the large mass of suppressed government employees who have been rendered speechless by a repressive government".
"The Prabuddh Nagrik Shakti Manch is a non-political citizens forum which has been formed in response to an overwhelming demand for justice from sections of the government's own employees," said Mehta.
"The gross mismanagement, repressive and wasteful ways of the present establishment needs to be exposed, and following representations in this regard we have decided to take up these problems," said Congress leader and former union textiles minister Shankersinh Vaghela.
The two pointed out that the plight of teachers, who were the worst exploited in the present regime, would be the first issue that the manch proposed to take up.
Mehta said there were major disparities in the salaries and facilities given to a large mass of teachers who had been recruited as 'vidya sahayaks' and were being paid a mere Rs.2,500 to Rs.3,500 per month as against the Rs.15,000 to Rs.20,000 wages of regular teachers.
"The ad hoc teachers were additionally being utilized to perform 14 other administrative tasks by the manpower-short local administration leaving them little time to devote to their primary work of teaching children. This grave administrative anomaly bordering on exploitation, which was causing social tension besides unrest in the ranks of the employees, would be the first issue that we propose to take up," said Mehta.
There is considerable discontent prevailing among the adhoc employees who have been recruited on a large scale during Modi's rule.
Elections to the key municipal corporations of Gujarat-Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Surat, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar are slated to be held next year, followed by those to other local self government bodies.
The Manch, according to political analysts, is intended to dent the urban vote bank of Modi in a bid to set the tone for elections to other local self government bodies to follow.
While Shankersinh Vaghela suffered a setback after he was defeated in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, he had contested from Godhra, Mehta quit the BJP in the run up to the last Vidhan Sabha elections in the state.
The Struggle of Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians for scheduled caste status
By Franklin Caesar Thomas
For announcing the Constitution Scheduled Castes Order 1950, paragraph 3 as ultra virus and ultra motive against the secularism of our esteemed Indian constitution, Centre for Public Interest Litigation ( Represented by former Law Minister of India and eminent Advocate Mr. Shanthi Bhushan and Advocate Mr. Prashant Bhushan ) and Franklin Caesar Thomas had collectively filed the civil writ petition in the supreme court of India on 22.03.2004. This petition was filed by CPIL for getting the Scheduled Castes status to convert Christian, Muslim members of the enumerated castes people of India.
Concerned with the above said civil writ petition: 180, year 2004, Union of India had referred this matter to National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities. NCRLM had positively recommended to Union of India for granting Scheduled Castes status to the above said people by deleting the paragraph 3 ( as per the media report ). After agreeing in the Supreme Court, based up on the NCRLM Report, Ministry of Social Justice had asked the National Commission for Scheduled Castes to give comment regarding the extension of Scheduled Castes privileges to these people by giving one set of the NCRLM report to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes.
By accepting the Social, educational, economical and cultural backwardness of the Christians and Muslims of the Scheduled Castes origin people, Scheduled Castes Commission had asked the Union of India for granting them the Scheduled Castes status. As per the constitutional power of the Indian Constitution Article 338, sub division 9, National Commission for Scheduled Castes had accepted and recommended to grant Scheduled Castes status to these people.
As per the above said recommendation, the above said Dalit Muslim and Dalit Chirtian people are facing and affected by the traditional practice of untouchability in the major civil society and in their religious society.
As per the revised modalities of the Union of India for getting Scheduled Castes status to a particular communities, state Governments should recommend to Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Then Census Commissioner and the Registrar General of India should give recommendations for these communities to be treated as Scheduled Castes. Then finally, National Scheduled Castes Commission for Scheduled Castes should give positive recommendation regarding the proposal. Then the Group of Ministers or the Cabinet should pass resolution to bring bill in Parliament.
In our issue, up to this time twelve state Governments and Union Territories had recommended to Union of India for granting the SC status to these people ( In the year 2000, Bihar State Assembly had passed resolution for granting SC status to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims; in the year 2006 Uttar Pradesh State Assembly had passed resolution in the state assembly for granting the SC status to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims, in the year 2009, Andra Pradesh state Government had passed resolution in its assembly for granting the SC status to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims . With out referring the matter to the Registrar General of India, directly Union of India had asked the National Commission for Scheduled Castes to give comments, as per the Government's desire, NCSC had asked the Union of India to grant SC status to these people. Scheduled Castes Commission's entire recommendation was submitted in the Apex Court of India by the Additional Solicitor of India concerned with the above said Civil Writ petition No: 180, year 2004. On 23.01.2008, the Additional Solicitor General of India had asked the Apex Court to grant eight weeks time to take a decision in the Cabinet, Group of Ministers meeting for bringing reply to the Apex Court of India. But still Union of India did not file any reply in the Supreme Court of India as per their Commitment.
With out proper evidences, materials, Union of India had granted Scheduled Castes status to Dalit Sikhs and Dalit Buddhist. If question is raised for granting the Scheduled Castes status to Dalit Buddhist and Dalit Sikhs, it is told that Sikhism and the Buddhism are the off shoot of Hinduism. If it was so, in the year 1950 itself these people would have been treated as Scheduled Castes, why did the Union of India separately added Sikhism in the year 1956 and the Buddhism in the year 1990, particularly in the Presidential Order 1950, paragraph 3.
As per the National Commission of Minorities Act 1993, Buddhism and Sikhism are the seperate religions from Hinduism. When the Sikhism and Buddhism do not recognize the untouchability and casteism, they had been given the Scheduled Castes status.
For proving the social, educational, economical and cultural backwardness of Dalit Christians par with Dalit Hindus, Union of India is having the Mandal Commission's Recommendation, NCRLM Recommendation, National Commission for Minorities Recommendation, National Commission for Scheduled Castes recommendation, Detailed study done by Delhi University's Professor Dr. Satish Despande ( Financed by Union of India's National Commission for Minorities ), Sachar Committee ( High Power Committee of the Prime Minister of India ) Recommendations regarding the extension of Scheduled Castes privileges to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims, Cabinet Note of the Year 1996 for granting the Scheduled Castes status to Christians of Scheduled Castes Origin and various state Governments' state commission recommendations. The above said Commission Reports prove the traditional practice of untouchability which are faced by Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims in the civil society and in their religious society par with Hindu Scheduled Castes. Untouchability is a professional oriented discrimination in the society.
We do not want reservation to the elite people among Christians and Muslims. But we want the Scheduled Castes reservation to the people whose castes names are there in the Schedule of the Union of India who are socially, educationally, economically and culturally backward par with Dalit Hindus. The only stumbling block, paragraph three of the Constitution Scheduled Castes Order 1950 should be deleted or amended to take the religious ban ( by bringing bill in Parliament ) Or it should be striked by the Apex Court of India as unconstitutional one.
United Nations Human Rights Council’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination had strongly recommended to Union of India in the year 2007, March for granting the Scheduled Castes status to these people. United Nations Socio Economic Council and the Special Rapporteur on Religious Tolerance of U N Human Rights Council had stressed the Union of India for granting the Scheduled Castes status to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims based up on violation of Human Rights basis.
Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims are not living in their worshipping places, but they dwell in the society where casteism prevails. Upper strata of the Christian, Muslim and Hindu high castes people are treating these people as untouchables, so Scheduled Castes reservation should be extended to these people forthwith.
We are pleased to request Union of India to file reply in the Apex Court of India as soon as possible based up on the above said Union of India's own documents.
(Franklin Caesar Thomas could be contacted at franklincaesar@rediffmail.com)
For announcing the Constitution Scheduled Castes Order 1950, paragraph 3 as ultra virus and ultra motive against the secularism of our esteemed Indian constitution, Centre for Public Interest Litigation ( Represented by former Law Minister of India and eminent Advocate Mr. Shanthi Bhushan and Advocate Mr. Prashant Bhushan ) and Franklin Caesar Thomas had collectively filed the civil writ petition in the supreme court of India on 22.03.2004. This petition was filed by CPIL for getting the Scheduled Castes status to convert Christian, Muslim members of the enumerated castes people of India.
Concerned with the above said civil writ petition: 180, year 2004, Union of India had referred this matter to National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities. NCRLM had positively recommended to Union of India for granting Scheduled Castes status to the above said people by deleting the paragraph 3 ( as per the media report ). After agreeing in the Supreme Court, based up on the NCRLM Report, Ministry of Social Justice had asked the National Commission for Scheduled Castes to give comment regarding the extension of Scheduled Castes privileges to these people by giving one set of the NCRLM report to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes.
By accepting the Social, educational, economical and cultural backwardness of the Christians and Muslims of the Scheduled Castes origin people, Scheduled Castes Commission had asked the Union of India for granting them the Scheduled Castes status. As per the constitutional power of the Indian Constitution Article 338, sub division 9, National Commission for Scheduled Castes had accepted and recommended to grant Scheduled Castes status to these people.
As per the above said recommendation, the above said Dalit Muslim and Dalit Chirtian people are facing and affected by the traditional practice of untouchability in the major civil society and in their religious society.
As per the revised modalities of the Union of India for getting Scheduled Castes status to a particular communities, state Governments should recommend to Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Then Census Commissioner and the Registrar General of India should give recommendations for these communities to be treated as Scheduled Castes. Then finally, National Scheduled Castes Commission for Scheduled Castes should give positive recommendation regarding the proposal. Then the Group of Ministers or the Cabinet should pass resolution to bring bill in Parliament.
In our issue, up to this time twelve state Governments and Union Territories had recommended to Union of India for granting the SC status to these people ( In the year 2000, Bihar State Assembly had passed resolution for granting SC status to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims; in the year 2006 Uttar Pradesh State Assembly had passed resolution in the state assembly for granting the SC status to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims, in the year 2009, Andra Pradesh state Government had passed resolution in its assembly for granting the SC status to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims . With out referring the matter to the Registrar General of India, directly Union of India had asked the National Commission for Scheduled Castes to give comments, as per the Government's desire, NCSC had asked the Union of India to grant SC status to these people. Scheduled Castes Commission's entire recommendation was submitted in the Apex Court of India by the Additional Solicitor of India concerned with the above said Civil Writ petition No: 180, year 2004. On 23.01.2008, the Additional Solicitor General of India had asked the Apex Court to grant eight weeks time to take a decision in the Cabinet, Group of Ministers meeting for bringing reply to the Apex Court of India. But still Union of India did not file any reply in the Supreme Court of India as per their Commitment.
With out proper evidences, materials, Union of India had granted Scheduled Castes status to Dalit Sikhs and Dalit Buddhist. If question is raised for granting the Scheduled Castes status to Dalit Buddhist and Dalit Sikhs, it is told that Sikhism and the Buddhism are the off shoot of Hinduism. If it was so, in the year 1950 itself these people would have been treated as Scheduled Castes, why did the Union of India separately added Sikhism in the year 1956 and the Buddhism in the year 1990, particularly in the Presidential Order 1950, paragraph 3.
As per the National Commission of Minorities Act 1993, Buddhism and Sikhism are the seperate religions from Hinduism. When the Sikhism and Buddhism do not recognize the untouchability and casteism, they had been given the Scheduled Castes status.
For proving the social, educational, economical and cultural backwardness of Dalit Christians par with Dalit Hindus, Union of India is having the Mandal Commission's Recommendation, NCRLM Recommendation, National Commission for Minorities Recommendation, National Commission for Scheduled Castes recommendation, Detailed study done by Delhi University's Professor Dr. Satish Despande ( Financed by Union of India's National Commission for Minorities ), Sachar Committee ( High Power Committee of the Prime Minister of India ) Recommendations regarding the extension of Scheduled Castes privileges to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims, Cabinet Note of the Year 1996 for granting the Scheduled Castes status to Christians of Scheduled Castes Origin and various state Governments' state commission recommendations. The above said Commission Reports prove the traditional practice of untouchability which are faced by Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims in the civil society and in their religious society par with Hindu Scheduled Castes. Untouchability is a professional oriented discrimination in the society.
We do not want reservation to the elite people among Christians and Muslims. But we want the Scheduled Castes reservation to the people whose castes names are there in the Schedule of the Union of India who are socially, educationally, economically and culturally backward par with Dalit Hindus. The only stumbling block, paragraph three of the Constitution Scheduled Castes Order 1950 should be deleted or amended to take the religious ban ( by bringing bill in Parliament ) Or it should be striked by the Apex Court of India as unconstitutional one.
United Nations Human Rights Council’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination had strongly recommended to Union of India in the year 2007, March for granting the Scheduled Castes status to these people. United Nations Socio Economic Council and the Special Rapporteur on Religious Tolerance of U N Human Rights Council had stressed the Union of India for granting the Scheduled Castes status to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims based up on violation of Human Rights basis.
Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims are not living in their worshipping places, but they dwell in the society where casteism prevails. Upper strata of the Christian, Muslim and Hindu high castes people are treating these people as untouchables, so Scheduled Castes reservation should be extended to these people forthwith.
We are pleased to request Union of India to file reply in the Apex Court of India as soon as possible based up on the above said Union of India's own documents.
(Franklin Caesar Thomas could be contacted at franklincaesar@rediffmail.com)
RSS and Minorities
By Ram Puniyani
The new RSS Sarsanghchalak, Mr. Mohan Bhagawat told Minorities (Sept 20, 2009) that they should join RSS and see that ‘our intentions are clear and our behavior is good’. As per him all Muslims in India were Hindus in the past. They have only changed their way of worship, and if they accept this fact there will be no clashes. He told Christians that they should not convert people, as that creates communal violence.
Mr. Bhagwat is partly correct in saying that Muslims have Hindu ancestry. Islam spread in India, by various ways, major being the attempt of Shudras to escape the tyranny of Landlord Brahmin, to quote Swami Vivekananda, "Why amongst the poor of India so many are Mohammedans? It is nonsense to say that they were converted by the sword. It was to gain liberty from Zamindars and Priests..." (Collected Works-Vol 8-Page330). These conversions took place as dalits were not permitted to enter temples so they were visiting the shrines of Sufi saints and under the influence of the Humanistic aspect of Islam they took to Islam. There were other reasons like, anticipation of reward, interaction with Muslims, the least important factor being fear of Muslim kings. So he is partly right that most Muslims have local ancestry.
But is the change of religion mere change of mode of worship or is it a total change in religious belief system? We do recognize that syncretic traditions of Hinduism and Islam have drawn a lot from each other. But as far as Holy book, belief in one God, Allah, belief in Mohammad as the prophet, this is not just a change in mode of worship, it is much broader than that.
So, are there clashes because Muslims deny their ancestry, and culture. By no means! As far as culture is concerned for the extremist elements, for the clergy and for those using religion for politics, the culture is just a subset of elitist version of their religion. For average people culture is a broad category, it is affected by regional factors and by some aspects of religion. A large population of Muslims and Hindus both regarded culture as a meeting and mixing point, while elite traditions look down upon the culture of the ‘other’. In India Muslims and Hindus did live in peace, creating different facets of culture, Music, Poetry, clothes and food habits, architecture and religious traditions. We see Ustad Bismillah Khan creating his wonderful work, devoted to Hindu gods and goddesses while sitting on the pavements of Kashi temples, we see Rahim and Raskhan writing beautiful poetry in devotion of Lord Krishna, we see people taking to jalebi, Biryani and other food items coming from Iran and other places from where Muslims came. We also see the intermixing in the customs, festivals. To delineate a Hindu and Muslim component of our culture was difficult at a point of time. We have the lovely tradition of people from both religions following the teachings of Ramdeo Baba Pir and Satya Pir. We have that great Saint Kabir who was loved by both Muslim and Hindus.
The problem begins with the communal historiography, looking at History through the prism of religion, introduced by British to pursue the policy of divide and rule. This version was picked up by the communal streams of Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha-RSS, and aided in the communalization of society and rise of communal violence, more so from the decade of 1940s. To think that clashes are there because Muslims deny their common ancestry is wrong. Also Islam is a religion with its own spirituality and to reduce any religion to just a mode of worship is not correct. In post Independence India the clashes were brewed by this communal thinking, by political motivations not because of religions. Those who deny that Sufis are a part of Indian culture, or Urdu is and Indian language or that the contributions of Muslim Kings, poets, artisans, are the one’s who have created divisiveness leading to clashes. Those who deny that Bhakti tradition was part of tradition which was respected by a section of Muslims, or that celebrating Holi, Divali or Muharram and Id is part of Indian culture are the cause of the political thinking which leads to clashes.
Coming to Christians, it is not they came here with the British. Christian community in India is over 1500 years old. While their may be some aggressive proselytizers, mainly the conversions take place because of social interaction and genuine charity work. If conversions were a forced phenomenon, how to explain that there are merely 2.30% Christians in India toady? How do we explain that during last four decades the all India percentage of Christians has fallen down, 1971-2.60%, 1981-2.44%, 1991-2.34% and 2001-2.30%? One concedes that some dalits taking to Christianity may not be getting registered as Christians to keep availing the job reservations, but surely this cannot tilt the population percentage to a very great extent.
Wadhva Commission, which investigated the burning of Pastor Graham Stains by Bajrang Dal’s Dara Sing and is facing the jail term for that, concluded that Pastor Stains was not involved in any work of conversions and that the percentage of Christians in Keonjhar of Manoharpur district in Orissa, did not go up. Even recently the anti Christian violence was launched on the pretext of murder of Swami Laxmananand. It was a clear pretext to scare the Christian missionaries away from the Adivasi areas, where they are involved in the work of education and health care of Adivasis, something which empowers Adivasis. It was a clear pretext as Maoists had owned the murder of Swami.
Most of the organizations at the core of communal politics are manned on one side by Muslim Communalists and on the other by the RSS trained swayamsevaks working and controlling BJP, VHP, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram or Bajrang Dal. Minorities want a safety, and freedom to follow their own religion. Indian Constitution does give us the liberty to practice and preach our own religion. Also RSS is not the representative of Hindus at large. We have diverse traditions of Hinduism ranging from the one of Gandhi to the other ones which are like those of Bajrang dal etc.
RSS has tried to co-opt and win over sections of minorities for enhancing its agenda. RSS progeny BJP keeps doing it, trying to win minorities, so often for electoral purpose. But over all the minorities have experienced at heavy cost of loosing lives, that RSS is like a wolf trying to put on sheep’s clothing. It is unlikely that after what has been done by its pracharks, Swayamsevaks through its progeny, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, Bajrang Dal and vishwa Hindu Parsishad etc. that minorities can ever be fooled by the language being used by Mr. Bhagwat. By now it is also well known that the second Sarsanghchalak of RSS, M. S. Golwalkar had ordained that minorities “the non-Hindu people in Hindustan must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and revere Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but the glorification of Hindu nation i.e. they must not only give up their attitude of intolerance and ingratitude towards this land and its age old traditions, but must also cultivate the positive attitude of love and devotion instead; in one word, they must cease to be foreigners or may stay in this country wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation claiming nothing, deserving no privileges far less any preferential treatment, not even citizen’s rights.(We or our Nationhood Defined, 1938, p. 27)
RSS is no representative of Hindus. It stands for values which are opposed to the human rights of weaker sections of society, Dalits, workers, adivasis, women and minorities. It stands for values of birth based hierarchy of caste and gender as ordained in Manu Smriti. Its primary goal is to establish Hindu nation, i.e. nation with primacy of Hindu elite men, rather than the nation envisaged by the Indian people during the freedom movement, the values which are an amalgam of the principles of Bhagat Singh, Ambedkar and Gandhi. One wishes RSS rather than deceiving others, learns the lessons of freedom movement and makes Gandhi’s Hinduism as its base rather than pursuing Godse’s Hinduism. One knows this is a practical impossibility as RSS is the organization of those who are not elected beings; they are self-appointed guardians of Brahmanical Hinduism, who neither represent Hindus nor the Humanistic aspects of Hinduism. Let’s wish RSS clan can be retrained to think as Indians rather than just as Hindus with Brahmanical values!
(By Ram Puniyani could be contacted on ram.puniyani@gmail.com)
The new RSS Sarsanghchalak, Mr. Mohan Bhagawat told Minorities (Sept 20, 2009) that they should join RSS and see that ‘our intentions are clear and our behavior is good’. As per him all Muslims in India were Hindus in the past. They have only changed their way of worship, and if they accept this fact there will be no clashes. He told Christians that they should not convert people, as that creates communal violence.
Mr. Bhagwat is partly correct in saying that Muslims have Hindu ancestry. Islam spread in India, by various ways, major being the attempt of Shudras to escape the tyranny of Landlord Brahmin, to quote Swami Vivekananda, "Why amongst the poor of India so many are Mohammedans? It is nonsense to say that they were converted by the sword. It was to gain liberty from Zamindars and Priests..." (Collected Works-Vol 8-Page330). These conversions took place as dalits were not permitted to enter temples so they were visiting the shrines of Sufi saints and under the influence of the Humanistic aspect of Islam they took to Islam. There were other reasons like, anticipation of reward, interaction with Muslims, the least important factor being fear of Muslim kings. So he is partly right that most Muslims have local ancestry.
But is the change of religion mere change of mode of worship or is it a total change in religious belief system? We do recognize that syncretic traditions of Hinduism and Islam have drawn a lot from each other. But as far as Holy book, belief in one God, Allah, belief in Mohammad as the prophet, this is not just a change in mode of worship, it is much broader than that.
So, are there clashes because Muslims deny their ancestry, and culture. By no means! As far as culture is concerned for the extremist elements, for the clergy and for those using religion for politics, the culture is just a subset of elitist version of their religion. For average people culture is a broad category, it is affected by regional factors and by some aspects of religion. A large population of Muslims and Hindus both regarded culture as a meeting and mixing point, while elite traditions look down upon the culture of the ‘other’. In India Muslims and Hindus did live in peace, creating different facets of culture, Music, Poetry, clothes and food habits, architecture and religious traditions. We see Ustad Bismillah Khan creating his wonderful work, devoted to Hindu gods and goddesses while sitting on the pavements of Kashi temples, we see Rahim and Raskhan writing beautiful poetry in devotion of Lord Krishna, we see people taking to jalebi, Biryani and other food items coming from Iran and other places from where Muslims came. We also see the intermixing in the customs, festivals. To delineate a Hindu and Muslim component of our culture was difficult at a point of time. We have the lovely tradition of people from both religions following the teachings of Ramdeo Baba Pir and Satya Pir. We have that great Saint Kabir who was loved by both Muslim and Hindus.
The problem begins with the communal historiography, looking at History through the prism of religion, introduced by British to pursue the policy of divide and rule. This version was picked up by the communal streams of Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha-RSS, and aided in the communalization of society and rise of communal violence, more so from the decade of 1940s. To think that clashes are there because Muslims deny their common ancestry is wrong. Also Islam is a religion with its own spirituality and to reduce any religion to just a mode of worship is not correct. In post Independence India the clashes were brewed by this communal thinking, by political motivations not because of religions. Those who deny that Sufis are a part of Indian culture, or Urdu is and Indian language or that the contributions of Muslim Kings, poets, artisans, are the one’s who have created divisiveness leading to clashes. Those who deny that Bhakti tradition was part of tradition which was respected by a section of Muslims, or that celebrating Holi, Divali or Muharram and Id is part of Indian culture are the cause of the political thinking which leads to clashes.
Coming to Christians, it is not they came here with the British. Christian community in India is over 1500 years old. While their may be some aggressive proselytizers, mainly the conversions take place because of social interaction and genuine charity work. If conversions were a forced phenomenon, how to explain that there are merely 2.30% Christians in India toady? How do we explain that during last four decades the all India percentage of Christians has fallen down, 1971-2.60%, 1981-2.44%, 1991-2.34% and 2001-2.30%? One concedes that some dalits taking to Christianity may not be getting registered as Christians to keep availing the job reservations, but surely this cannot tilt the population percentage to a very great extent.
Wadhva Commission, which investigated the burning of Pastor Graham Stains by Bajrang Dal’s Dara Sing and is facing the jail term for that, concluded that Pastor Stains was not involved in any work of conversions and that the percentage of Christians in Keonjhar of Manoharpur district in Orissa, did not go up. Even recently the anti Christian violence was launched on the pretext of murder of Swami Laxmananand. It was a clear pretext to scare the Christian missionaries away from the Adivasi areas, where they are involved in the work of education and health care of Adivasis, something which empowers Adivasis. It was a clear pretext as Maoists had owned the murder of Swami.
Most of the organizations at the core of communal politics are manned on one side by Muslim Communalists and on the other by the RSS trained swayamsevaks working and controlling BJP, VHP, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram or Bajrang Dal. Minorities want a safety, and freedom to follow their own religion. Indian Constitution does give us the liberty to practice and preach our own religion. Also RSS is not the representative of Hindus at large. We have diverse traditions of Hinduism ranging from the one of Gandhi to the other ones which are like those of Bajrang dal etc.
RSS has tried to co-opt and win over sections of minorities for enhancing its agenda. RSS progeny BJP keeps doing it, trying to win minorities, so often for electoral purpose. But over all the minorities have experienced at heavy cost of loosing lives, that RSS is like a wolf trying to put on sheep’s clothing. It is unlikely that after what has been done by its pracharks, Swayamsevaks through its progeny, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, Bajrang Dal and vishwa Hindu Parsishad etc. that minorities can ever be fooled by the language being used by Mr. Bhagwat. By now it is also well known that the second Sarsanghchalak of RSS, M. S. Golwalkar had ordained that minorities “the non-Hindu people in Hindustan must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and revere Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but the glorification of Hindu nation i.e. they must not only give up their attitude of intolerance and ingratitude towards this land and its age old traditions, but must also cultivate the positive attitude of love and devotion instead; in one word, they must cease to be foreigners or may stay in this country wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation claiming nothing, deserving no privileges far less any preferential treatment, not even citizen’s rights.(We or our Nationhood Defined, 1938, p. 27)
RSS is no representative of Hindus. It stands for values which are opposed to the human rights of weaker sections of society, Dalits, workers, adivasis, women and minorities. It stands for values of birth based hierarchy of caste and gender as ordained in Manu Smriti. Its primary goal is to establish Hindu nation, i.e. nation with primacy of Hindu elite men, rather than the nation envisaged by the Indian people during the freedom movement, the values which are an amalgam of the principles of Bhagat Singh, Ambedkar and Gandhi. One wishes RSS rather than deceiving others, learns the lessons of freedom movement and makes Gandhi’s Hinduism as its base rather than pursuing Godse’s Hinduism. One knows this is a practical impossibility as RSS is the organization of those who are not elected beings; they are self-appointed guardians of Brahmanical Hinduism, who neither represent Hindus nor the Humanistic aspects of Hinduism. Let’s wish RSS clan can be retrained to think as Indians rather than just as Hindus with Brahmanical values!
(By Ram Puniyani could be contacted on ram.puniyani@gmail.com)
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