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THE RADICAL HUMANISTRs. 20 / monthVol. 75 No 9 DECEMBER 2011
Founder Editor: M.N. Roy
(Since April 1949)
Formerly : Independent India (April 1937- March 1949)
501
An Independent Judiciary?
Arab Spring and Role of Women
Is God the Source of Morality?
A Kashmiri pundit mother’s appeal
for peace in Kashmir- Part 2
India’s Capital – A Century After
Radical Humanism waning?
—Ruma Pal
—Asghar Ali Engineer
—Bill Cooke
—Asha Kachru
Book Review:
—Dipavali Sen
From From the Editor’s Desk:
—Rekha Saraswat
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
The Radical Humanist
Monthly journal of the Indian Renaissance
Institute
Devoted to the development of the Renaissance
Movement; and for promotion of human rights,
scientific-temper, rational thinking and a humanist
view of life.
Founder Editor:
M.N. Roy
Editor:
Dr. Rekha Saraswat
Contributory Editors:
Prof. A.F. Salahuddin Ahmed, Dr. R.M. Pal, Professor
Rama Kundu
Publisher:
Mr. N.D. Pancholi
Printer:
Mr. N.D. Pancholi
Send articles to: Dr. Rekha Saraswat, C-8, Defence
Colony, Meerut, 250001, U.P., India, Ph.
91-121-2620690, 09719333011,
E-mail articles at: [email protected]
Send Subscription / Donation Cheques in favour of
‘The Radical Humanist’to:
Mr. Narottam Vyas (Advocate), Chamber Number
111 (Near Post Office), Supreme Court of India, New
Delhi, 110001, India [email protected]
Ph. 91-11-22712434, 91-11-23782836, 09811944600
Please Note: Authors will bear sole accountability
for corroborating the facts that they give in their
write-ups. Neither IRI / the Publisher nor the Editor
of this journal will be responsible for testing the
validity and authenticity of statements &
information cited by the authors. Also, sometimes
some articles published in this journal may carry
opinions not similar to the Radical Humanist
philosophy; but they would be entertained here if the
need is felt to debate and discuss upon them.
—Rekha Saraswat
Vol. 75 Number 9 December 2011
Download and read the journal at
www.theradicalhumanist.com
- Contents -
1. From the Editor’s Desk:
Radical Humanism waning?
—Rekha Saraswat 1
2. From the Writings of Laxmanshastri Joshi:
Spiritual Materialism: A case for Atheism 2
3. Guests’ Section:
An Independent Judiciary?
—Ruma Pal 6
Arab Spring and Role of Women
—Asghar Ali Engineer 16
Is God the Source of Morality?
—Bill Cooke 18
A Kashmiri pundit mother’s appeal
for peace in Kashmir- Part 2
—Asha Kachru 20
4. Responses to M.N. Roy Centenary
Memorial Lecture Video
delivered by the German Philosopher,
Late Prof. Agehananda Bharti
—B.P. Rath 26
—Amitabha Chakrabarti 27
5. IRI / IRHA Members’ Section:
PUCL’s History of Struggle
—Mahipal Singh 28
6. Teachers’ & Research Scholars’ Section:
Changing Trends in Indo-Nepal Relations
—Pravesh Kumari 32
7. Book Review Section:
India’s Capital – A Century After
—Dipavali Sen 36
8. Humanist News Section 38
From The Editor’s Desk:
Radical Humanism Waning?
Any social, cultural or political
movement needs certain
primary resources not only to grow but
even to survive.
First and foremost are the people who
honestly aspire to see it move; honesty not
only in their desire but also in their efforts,
in their actions and in their words!
Clarity in their minds about the ideology,
philosophy and basic principles of the thought that
governs the movement which they follow is the
next most important requirement!
What are the ways and means to carry the
movement forward is also a basic necessity in
promoting it.
Precision in all their decisions and actions without
confusion makes it easier for them to take their
mission forward.
Things become a little difficult and ambiguous
when the movement involves all the three aspects
in one, the cultural, the social and the political.
People of all hues and shades are needed to cope
with its requirements.
How these people are coming into the fold is
another point of necessary consideration.
What is their thought pattern i.e. what do they think
about the philosophy of the movement and how do
they define their purpose of association i.e. how
will they be helpful in fulfilling its purpose of
existence needs to be discussed and analyzed by
themselves first and then by others in the
association.
If we try to add a prefix of the word ‘renaissance’
before a movement matters become all the more
complicated and intricate because now the people
involved need to have a particular intellectual
competence and maturity to work for it. The
renaissance has to occur in the minds of the people
before bringing it out in the social and
political network.
Most of the times, the situation
becomes too much to handle for those
simple supporters who are suddenly
expected to lead and not follow when
their leader, their ideal passes away.
They were attracted towards a
movement because of the gigantic
persona of their mentor, now how to develop this
personality in themselves, all of a sudden,
artificially becomes too much of a task to handle for
them.
As a natural result the cohesiveness becomes
inconsistent. Each begins to accuse the other for
lack of sincerity and faithfulness towards the goal,
while the fact is that each is utterly confused and
disheveled and incompetent in handling the
orphaned movement.
Is the picture placed here too dismal? Is the Cross
becoming too heavy for the shoulders and knees of
its carters?
Is the radical humanist movement fading? No, it is
not! And it by no means can! It will never wither
away because there is a silver lining in the very
content of its ideology! Its philosophy relies solely
upon the consequences of modern science!!
It needs no particular men to take it forward. It does
not rely upon the mercy of an organization or
institution. It has no boundaries.
It is coming into effect each day in every part of this
world wherever and whenever any human-action is
based upon a forward-looking rational and
scientific attitude and behaviour. It is actually,
radical humanism in action.
Let anyone take the credit - any person at any place
or in any institution. They are all radical humanists
with variegated hues and colours!! Let us just do
our little bit according to our capabilities without
any self-misconceptions and be happy!
I am confident about the future of Radical
Humanism!! Aren’t you??
1
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
Rekha Saraswat
From The Writings of Laxmanshastri Joshi:
Spiritual Materialism – A casefor Atheism
Translated by —Arundhati Khandkar
[The book Spiritual Materialism – A case for
Atheism, A New Interpretation of the
Philosophy of Materialism written by
Tarkateertha Laxmanshastri Joshi has been
translated by his daughter, Arundhati
Khandkar, who was formerly Professor of
Philosophy at S.I.E.S. College, University of
Mumbai, India. He passed away many decades
ago but his contribution in building up the
philosophical base of Radical Humanism has
been no less. Roy acknowledged it in his life time
and the followers of the philosophy continue to do
so. I had requested Ms. Khandkar to translate her
father’s major works from to Marathi to English
for the benefit of the contemporary readers of RH.
And to our pleasant surprise she informed that
there is already the above mentioned book in
English done by her. It is being serialised in The
Radical Humanist June 2010 onwards. She has
also promised to send us in English, gradually,
more of his Marathi literature.
Laxmanshastri wrote this essay with the title
Materialism or Atheism in 1941. How
meaningful and necessary it is, even now, 70
years later, can be understood by the following
paragraph given on the cover page of the book.
—Rekha Saraswat]
“That religion more often than not tends to
perpetuate the existing social structure rather than
being reformist and that it benefits the upper
classes. They perpetrate the illusions and are used
for impressing the weaker sections of the society.
Many taboos which might have had some
beneficial effects are given a permanent sanction
and these put a fetter on further progress. The
argument that religion promotes social stability and
social harmony is examined and rejected. Without
the dubious benefit of religion various secular
worldly values have been developed and they have
benefited mankind more than the vaunted religious
values. With no sops of religion men have laboured
hard and the finest admirable qualities of men’s
spirit have been developed inspite of religious
influence – the scientists and the reformers are
examples. The humility that should force itself in
the presence of the infinite and the unknown is
more to be seen with the scientist, the philosopher
than the religious leaders and often this drives them
to fathom the depths of thought in the quest for
truth. Rarely does religion explain the how and
why. These have become the preoccupations of
people in secular fields. With a sense of
self-reliance and self-confidence guiding him, man
has dropped the earlier props of religion. In India
too, the social order was seen as embodying moral
values.”
Contd. from the previous issue............
Critique of Logical Proofs for Existence of God
Philosophers have formulated eight logical proofs
for establishing God’s existence. We will review
them in this essay one by one.
We will offer the best defence for the logical
propositions in their favour. Then we will give
counter arguments. If irreconcilable differences
exist between pros and cons, we will attempt
logical reconciliation using Occam’s razor. Here is
the list of the eight proofs:
1) Design of the Universe
2) Prime Mover
2
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
Laxman S. Joshi
3) Prior Intent
4) Knower and Knowable
5) Beautiful God
6) Giver of Moral Law
7) Religious Experience
8) Word of a Rishi
Design of the Universe
The first proof:
“No rationale even for the design is no inference” is
a famous aphorism of the Bharatiya philosopher
Adya Shankaracharya valid for our quest in the
origin of this proof, which is described in one of the
Shat Darshana meaning in one of the Six Visionary
Philosophical Systems of India.
Organisation or the design of the universe is the
evidence for this proof. (36) This organisation or
the design or the design of the universe must have
come into being as a product of a supremely skilled
intellect. The one who possesses such an intellect is
god. We see in this universe everywhere, an empire
bounded by rules or governed by laws.
Organisation, harmony or design is the nature of all
things. The science of astronomy gives testimony
to the character of non-exceptionality and subtlety
of the laws of motion of the sun, stars and planets. If
any person doubts that there is something wrong or
some irregularity exists with the motion of the
planets, the Wanderers of the Zodiac Belt, then let it
be known for sure that, that person is verily wrong
in his understanding. Laws of physics such as the
law of conversation and the law of transformation
of energy, apply to every object in the world
beginning with the elementary particles, atoms, etc.
all the way to the solar system, and pervade objects
beginning from just a blade of grass, all the way to
the intelligent human being. We understand that the
laws of mathematics are utterly irrefutable. We also
are sure that formulation and consistency of the
concepts in mathematics possess ultimate purity.
The more the knowledge of the world grows, the
more the constituents and the events of the world
will be expressed in mathematical language.
Sciences tell us that understanding of an object
does not acquire clarity without its formulation in
mathematical terminology. What we observe is that
every object fits in the mould of causality. The
entire universe is just like a machine. Such a project
or regulated organisation or law governed system,
cannot come into existence without an architect
with intelligence fit for the project. Construction of
objects, such as a machine, a temple in exquisite
proportions, etc requires a planning genius. In his
absence, no organisation will function and only
confusion will reign. This universe has no disorder
or disorganisation anywhere. Therefore, it looks
like it has been created by someone with
exceptional forethought. That someone is god.
Only at face value is this argument plausible. Here
it should be understood that the functional
necessity for instruments of intelligence or
consciousness or knowledge is only for specific
and limited purposes. Living organisms of certain
species do need these functional instruments in
their daily activities of life. It is true that for an
animal like a human being, intelligence is essential
in the conduct of his practical life.
Limited Purpose of Intelligence
Based on this reasoning, we can ascertain that
intelligence is not necessary for the universe, in
respect of its construction, destruction, and
evolution. Man does not need intelligence for all
regular activities. Living organisms carry on
number of activities functions bodily unhindered,
without consciousness. Functions such as
digestion, blood circulation, foetal growth etc no
matter how complex, continue with automated
regularity.
In the highly evolved species of animals,
intelligence or mind has arisen as an instrument of
specific activities. Intelligence is necessary for
building a house or weaving cloth. The
corresponding brain and nerve fibres for such
activities are also a necessity. Therefore it seems
that we are required now to say that the brain and
the nerve fibres are needed for the whole
3
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
construction project of the universe, because
without them the attributes of such intelligence and
thought cannot exist. Well, the plants do grow in
the world and countless inanimate substances come
into existence ceaselessly in the universe! Does the
nervous system composed of brain and nerve fibres
exist at all in these locations? In this example, just
as there is no need either for the brain or the nerve
fibres, so too there is no need either for intellect or
thought!
We will easily understand how erroneous the first
proof for god’s existence is if we examine the
meaning of the following statement. “If a thought is
mistaken or attention if there is lack of attention,
chaos occurs or confusion reigns. Also when
thought is accurate, there is no chaos, and when
mind is cautious there is no confusion.” Let us
continue further. We say when the dinner that is
served is bad, “It is the chef that has made an error
because he had no knowledge or he paid no
attention while cooking.” Here the error in cooking
the food is not an error from the point of view of
physics or chemistry; it is only an error from the
point of view of the culinary art. Here the chaos or
confusion in the kitchen has only to do with the
state undesired by humans. This is what is meant
here by confusion or disorganisation. Badly cooked
dinner does not contain, in principle any
disorganisation from the point of view of the
sciences. The exception-free operation of the laws
of causality operate when the dinner is messed up
by the cook. Here the disorder in the quality of the
dinner is nothing but the result of the error-free
operation of the laws of science. That type of
disorder is only an order!
Order or orgaisation obeying the laws of physics is
the nature of the universe. This universe is not
imposed from outside. If this nature of an object is
not inherent, we will be required to say that the very
object does not exist!
Prime Mover
The second proof:
For the existence of god, evidence is as follows. It is
expected that motion needs a mover. In the
universe, motion is observed everywhere among all
the objects including atoms and elementary
particles. The one who set them first in motion is
truly god. Like a charioteer who drives the horses,
one who sets and directs similarly the motion of
these fundamental elementary substances is god.
Paradigms of Science
The second proof also does not stand the test of
reason. Not every motion needs an independent
mover. There are two reasons for our assertion.
1) Firstly, in every object there exists energy for
inherent motion expressed as the principle of
mass-energy equivalence in the theory of relativity,
(Einstein’s Equation, E = m.c (squared)). In
quantum mechanics (qm) there exists Zero point
energy, A) in the vacuum of quantum
electromagnetic field, wherein the unified theory
treats the radiation field and an elementary particle
as one and the same object, B) in an atom acting as a
harmonic oscillator, and C) in a free particle in a
potential well. Zero point energy is the lowest
energy greater than zero. Therefore, there exists an
irremovable energy in objects small or big.
In classical mechanics, an object can cause another
object to move. For these reasons, an independent
mover is not needed. Now think of a moving
railway train in which the boxcars move bumping
one into another! One boxcar already in motion
bumps into the second, pushing it forward; the
second again bumps into the third, causing it to
move on and so on, the motion continues. In the
universe, motion related laws of causality operate
in this manner. Even some scientists say that the
one that gave the impetus to the original substance,
the first time, is god. The time constraint, The First
Time itself is erroneous. There is no such thing as
the beginning of the universe. Consider the steady
state cosmological paradigm of the universe. This
universe is here accordingly since times
immemorial. It has come down to us in successive
oscillatory stages with no beginning. It changes
every moment. The very concept that there was a
4
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
time when there was no change in the universe and
that it was totally static is a concept ridden with
logical and cosmological fallacies.
2) The latest cosmological paradigm of the
universe is “The Big Bang”. It also gives no support
to the concept of either “The Prime Mover” or “The
First Time”. The concept, The First Time, meaning
Time Zero, has been made inaccessible by the
principle of uncertainty formulated in qm by
Heisenberg who made physics unavailable for such
ideas by defining the earliest time as the
Planck-time which is >0.
The Zero time is truly a speculative land for both
the theists and the scientists!
Prior Intent
The third proof:
There is a third evidence for the existence of god.
This is based upon the concepts of purpose, volition
or motive. The argument runs as follows: Nothing
can happen in this world without purpose. Every
object must have come into being for a purpose.
Therefore, the one in whose mind such a purpose
resides must be god. Consider the following
example in support of this proof for god. Where
there is no water, there is no animal or plant. It
seems that the relationship between animal and
water is planned with prior intent. The blood
circulation system of the heart is of a similar type. It
is not possible that such a system is formed without
any prior intent, a system: 1) in which, blood after
purification should circulate in the body, 2) in
which it should supply all the organs with the
necessary vital elements, and 3) in which,
thereafter the impure blood should return for
repurification. Food here on the earth is created
because the animals need it. To find food, animals
developed eyes. If eyes would not have been
acquired, search for food would have been difficult
and as a result, animals would have been
annihilated. Therefore, eyes were designed with
intent. There exists a lot of support for the
statement that this is the way with prior intent, each
organ has been created during the formation of the
animal body. The nature of the construction of the
universe is no different from that of animal body!
The above reasoning can be easily refuted in the
following manner. Purpose or intent is a mental
trait. Purpose means desire or will. Desire such as
something should be done for someone in a certain
manner is termed purpose. From the statement that
god has such a desire, one infers that god is
unfulfilled and is imperfect. If this is so, then one is
compelled to say that this god is not god. We desire
what we do not possess and we know that there
exists an object outside our domain. Similarly, it
needs to be pointed out that if god has a purpose it
means there is an object that is not in his domain of
power or within himself. We must also say that
what god does not have exists in the other object.
This proves that god is not omnipotent. Take for
instance, a human male who desires food or a
female. This means, if there is want of food or a
female, he does not possess within his reach these
separate independent objects that will satisfy him.
That is why a human male desires food or a female.
Here is catch-22. If god, like humans, has desire, it
means he is incomplete or at least partially lacks
capacity. If god has no desire, it definitely means
that in him, there is neither volition, nor purpose
nor intent.
Volition or causality
There is no need to insist that the organisation or the
order as a whole observed, either in the animal
body or the universe needs volition. It is true that
there is a kind of partial organ-wise volition, which
is responsible for the organisation and the harmony
of life belonging either to animal or man. We can
demonstrate, however, nothing more than the
operation of laws of causality in the total design of
the universe.
Continued in the next issue.................
5
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
New Humanism proclaims the sovereignty of man on the authority of modern science—M.N. Roy
Guests’ Section:
[Justice Ruma Pal, Former Judge Supreme Court
of India, delivered the following V.M. Tarkunde
Memorial Lecture in IIC, New Delhi on 10th
November 2011]
An Independent Judiciary
The usual platitudes are inadequate to
describe the honour conferred on me
today by asking me to deliver a talk in memory of
such an outstanding and multi-faceted personality
as Justice V.M. Tarkunde. Unfortunately I never
knew him personally but by all accounts his life
reflected his deep commitment to ethical values: a
commitment which he brought into every role he
played in his life including those of a judge and a
lawyer. In keeping with his strong principles, in
1981 he fought for the independence of the
judiciary (as a petitioner before the Supreme Court1
on behalf of 3 Additional Judges of the Delhi High
Court. Incidentally one of those judges, Justice S.B.
Wad, was my professor when I read for a law
degree at Nagpur. This however is not the reason
for my choosing to speak on an Independent
Judiciary and what it means today. I chose the topic
for several reasons: the issue is one which was close
to Mr. Tarkunde’s heart, it is of topical interest and
it is also a subject which has bothered me greatly
both during my career as a lawyer and as a judge.
So I welcome this opportunity to speak my mind on
the subject from the safe haven of retirement.
Independence:
In writing of India’s chances of ascending the
international rankings in the coming years, Edward
Luce in his book ‘In spite of the Gods’ says: “India
also possesses institutional advantages that have
convinced some people that the Indian tortoise will
eventually overtake the Chinese hare. As India’s
economy develops, these ‘soft’ advantages, such as
an independent judiciary and a free media, are
likely to generate ever-greater returns2. But is the
judiciary in India really independent? A complete
answer to the question warrants a doctoral thesis
and a short discourse like of today is necessarily
selective and therefore incomplete. I have tried to
maintain a balance between legalistic and lay
approaches while making it clear which side of the
fence I stand.
Any attempt at an answer must be prefaced with
two questions both of which I seek to briefly
answer: The first question is: Who do we include
within the term “judiciary”? Is it limited to
Constitutional Courts or does it also include those
tribunals which decide rights and have the
trappings of a court? Second: What does
‘independent’ mean? I will answer the second
question first.
Different dictionaries have given as many as 12
different meanings to the word ‘independent’. Of
the twelve I have chosen three-‘Freedom from
outside control’; ‘Not influenced or affected by
others; ‘impartial’ and ‘capable’ of thinking or
acting for oneself. Independence in all these senses
must be complete, unimpaired and uncorrupted and
that means first-that independence is antithetical to
corruption and second-that it is ensured by
accountability. The Chief Justice of India has
recently spoken of “institutional integrity”3 and he
drew a distinction between personal and
institutional integrity. I would like to borrow that
phrase and draw a distinction between the
institutional independence of the judiciary and the
independence of a judge.
Institutional Independence:
The independence of the judiciary which, to use the
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
6
Ruma Pal
language of the Supreme Court, the Constitution so
‘copiously’ protects4, is institutional independence
with institutional immunity, insulation and
autonomy [primarily from the Executive]
guaranteed under the Constitution5. It is a facet of
the separation of powers which underlies the
Constitution and is a part of its basic structure6. To
ensure freedom from Executive and Legislative
control, the pay and pension due to judges in the
superior courts are charged on the Consolidated
Funds of the States in the case of High Court
judges7 and the Consolidated Fund of India in the
case of Supreme Court judges8 and are not subject
to the vote of the Legislative Assembly9 in the case
of the former or Parliament in the latter case10.
Salaries are specified in the Second Schedule to the
Constitution and cannot be varied without an
amendment of the Constitution. No discussion can
take place in the legislature of a State with respect
to the conduct of any Judge of a High Court in the
discharge of his duties11. Nevertheless the
Constitution apparently allowed a serious inroad
into this freedom by virtually giving the Executive
the final say in the appointment12, transfer13 and
promotion of a judge as the Chief Justice of a State
High Court or as the Chief Justice of India. All that
is required of the Executive is to exercise the power
in consultation with the Chief Justice and such
judges of the Supreme Court or High Courts as the
President thinks necessary. In practice the opinion
of the Chief Justice of India on the suitability for
appointment was given weight but not finality.
Political considerations would on occasion trump
merit. For the first 25 years after Independence
apart from some aberrations the Executive left the
judiciary alone in the matter of appointments to the
judiciary. Again although there is no Constitutional
provision prescribing the mode of appointment of
the Chief Justice either of a High Court or of the
Supreme Court there was a convention that the
senior most would become the Chief Justice. This
state of affairs continued till the seventies when the
Executive began a sustained campaign to weaken
the judiciary because judgments delivered by the
judges did not suit the party then in power at the
Centre and because of the growing perception of
the Executive that the Judiciary was an
‘impediment’ to its political functioning.
It has been said of Britain by a British Judge that
“the reputation of the judiciary for independence
and impartiality is a national asset of such richness
that one government after another tries to plunder
it”14. The same could be said of the Indian
Judiciary. The first assault as far as the Supreme
Court was concerned, was the supersession of
senior judges and the ‘rewarding’ of the dissenter
with the high office of the Chief Justice of India.
The superseded judges resigned in protest. In 1975
Emergency was declared when the powers of
judicial review were severely curtailed. In 1976, 16
High Court judges were transferred to other High
Courts by the Executive ostensibly with a view to
strengthening national integration. The reason was
rejected by the Supreme Court saying: “It is indeed
strange that the Government of India should have
selected for transfer, by and large, those High
Court Judges who had decided cases against the
Government during the emergency”15. In 1977 the
Executive again used the ‘punishment’ of
supersession to bypass the then senior-most judge
in the Supreme Court, Justice H.R. Khanna, a
politically ‘inconvenient’ judge, for appointment as
the Chief Justice of India. Justice Khanna resigned.
The year 1976 also saw the Executive deliver what
they must have perceived as the coup de grace
against a stubbornly independent judiciary, by the
enactment of the 42nd Constitutional Amendment
which introduced Articles 323-A and 323-B.
Article 323-A authorizes Parliament and Article
323-B the State Legislatures to create tribunals to
which the power of adjudication of disputes on
various subjects can be transferred while excluding
the jurisdiction of the courts in respect of those
Subjects. The power of adjudication so transferred
included the power of judicial review which allows
judges of the higher courts to determine the legality
of executive action and the validity of legislation
passed by the legislature. These two Articles were
7
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
intended to allow and in fact did allow the
Executive to take over the powers of adjudication
from the courts because an independent judiciary
was perceived as a thorn in the flesh of political
parties in power. Both Parliament and several
States have been prompt in enacting legislation
setting up Tribunals manned by members of the
Executive to deal with a variety of subjects
normally within the jurisdiction of the High Courts.
Incidentally before the Amendment was carried out
Justice Tarkunde formed the People’s Union for
Civil Liberties to stem the political onslaughts on
the judiciary and ‘to strive for the restoration and
strengthening of civil liberties and democratic
rights’ which the 42nd Amendment sought to
affect16. Unfortunately like King Canute he was not
successful in stopping the political tide then.
Fortunes changed after there was a change in
government and the Emergency was lifted. Many
of the changes brought about by the 42nd
Constitutional Amendment including the
restrictions on the jurisdictions of the judiciary
were done away with. However Articles 323A and
B were retained. With a second change of
Government coercive steps to curb the judiciary
were again resorted to in the matter of the transfer
of newly appointed judges17.
Small wonder then that after this, a battered
judiciary (after an initial regrettable hiccup in the
form of the decision in S.P. Gupta’s case18) picked
itself up and with all the interpretative tools at its
command -termed by many as an unacceptable feat
of judicial activism-by a composite judgment in
several public interest litigations19 virtually wrested
the powers of appointment, confirmation and
transfer of judges from the Executive. Their reason
for doing so was to secure the independence of the
judiciary from Executive control or interference.
Procedural norms were judicially prescribed for
transfer and appointn1ent of judges. At present
every proposal for appointment or transfer of a
judge can only be initiated by a collegium of senior
judges together with the Chief Justice of the High
Court or Supreme Court as the case may be. From
being a mere consultant, the Chief Justice of India
and the Supreme Court collegium now have the
final word. As the Supreme Court put it “No
appointment of any Judge to the Supreme Court or
any High Court can be made, unless it is in
conformity with the opinion of the Chief Justice of
India” and “The opinion of the Chief Justice of
India has not mere primacy, but is determinative in
the matter of transfers of High Court Judges/Chief
Justices.”
The insulation of the judiciary from executive
interference in the matter of appointment and
transfer of judges is now almost complete. But the
question remains, has this almost complete
insulation achieved the object for which the
constitutional interpretation was strained to an
extent never witnessed before or after? In my
opinion it has not. It has just changed the actors
without any change either in the roles or the method
of acting. One of the criticisms of the earlier law, to
quote the Supreme Court was:
“The mystique of this process (of appointments) is
kept secret and confidential between just a few
individuals, not more than two or four as the case
may be, and the possibility cannot therefore be
ruled out that howsoever highly placed may be
these individuals, the process may on occasions
(sic) result in making of wrong appointments and
transfers and may also at times, though fortunately
very rare, lend itself to nepotism, political as well
as personal and even trade-off”.
The same criticism may be made with equal
justification of the present procedure for
appointments and transfer of judges. As I have said
elsewhere ‘the process by which a judge is
appointed to a superior court is one of the best kept
secrets in this country’20. The very secrecy of the
process leads to an inadequate input of information
as to the abilities and suitability of a possible
candidate for appointment as a judge. A chance
remark, a rumour or even third-hand information
may be sufficient to damn a judge’s prospects.
Contrariwise a personal friendship or unspoken
8
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
obligation may colour a recommendation.
Consensus within the collegium is sometimes
resolved through a trade-off resulting in dubious
appointments with disastrous consequences for the
litigants and the credibility of the judicial system.
Besides, institutional independence has also been
compromised by growing sycophancy and
‘lobbying’ within the system.
The solution as I see it lies not in a reversal to a
status quo ante but in the setting up of a judicial
commission with all the powers now vested with
the Chief Justice of India and the collegium of
Supreme Court judges. This is at present the subject
matter of intense public debate but the suggestion is
not new. In 1981 the Supreme Court itself after
noting the setting up of judicial Commissions by
Australia and New Zealand to consider all judicial
appointments including appointments of High
Court Judges said: “This is a matter which may well
receive serious attention of the Government of
India.”21. In 1987 the Law Commission in its 121st
Report suggested the setting up of a National
Judicial Commission and suggested its
composition22. The National Commission to
Review the Working of the Constitution in its
Report submitted in 2002 was also of the opinion
that a National Judicial Commission should be set
up for recon1mending appointments of all judges
of High Courts and the Supreme Court with a
composition different from that proposed by the
Law Commission23. Others including retired judges
have expressed the need for such a Commission but
have differed as to its composition24. Whatever the
composition, unless there are non-partisan
members, well-defined objective criteria, with the
possibility of choosing judges from a wider source
than at present and that proceedings are open or at
least recorded—the likelihood of not getting the
best as judges and of arbitrariness in making
judicial appointments will remain.
And now to answer the first question posed by me
at the outset as to who composes the “judiciary”.
Historically and semantically all bodies form part
of the judiciary which are vested (a) with the power
of resolving disputes between litigants, (b)
empowered to oversee the application and
implementation of the law by the Executive and (c)
empowered to determine whether executive and
legislative actions are constitutionally valid. This
definition includes in particular those tribunals who
have, post the 42nd Constitutional Amendment,
been vested with the jurisdiction earlier exercised
by courts.
Although the Supreme Court intrepidly asserted the
independence of the judiciary to justify virtually
excluding the Executive from having any real say
in the appointment of judges, it was timorous in
defending the same independence when it was most
needed namely in answering the question whether
the powers of adjudication can be shared with the
Executive. Under the Constitutional scheme in
keeping with the separation of powers judicial
functions are to be performed by the judiciary alone
and not by the Executive. The Supreme Court
declared that “The competence of Parliament to
make a law creating tribunals to deal with disputes
arising under or relating to a particular statute or
statutes cannot be disputed”.25 If the Tribunals are
manned by judicial officers one could have no
quarrel with the declaration. In my view, the
curtailment and transfer of judicial powers of a
particular court by Parliament or a State legislature
can only be to another judicial forum whether
called a Tribunal or by any other name. This was
the situation prior to the 42nd Amendment. There
were Rent Tribunals, Labour Courts, Motor Claims
Tribunals which were all manned by judges or
former judges. It was for the first time post 1976
that the jurisdiction of the judiciary was sought to
be curtailed by transferring the powers of court to
the Executive.
In a Kalidas-like action of cutting the branch of the
Constitutional tree on which the judiciary is sitting
and what in less picturesque language one can
describe as a judicial sell-out to the Executive, the
Supreme Court has upheld the legislations
establishing tribunals in a number of decisions26
subject to certain ‘adjustments’ in the law which
9
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
are more in the nature of sops to the concept of
judicial independence rather than an assertion of
it.27
To maintain the ‘independence’ of the judicial
process needed to be followed by these tribunals to
reach a decision, the Supreme Court has insisted on
the appointment of ‘judicial officers’ such as
former judges to head the tribunals. Judicial
independence has also been the reason for
excluding executive power in the matter of the
appointment of even former judges as heads of
tribunals28.The exclusion of the High Courts’
powers of judicial review has also been held to be
unconstitutional and decisions of Tribunals have
been made subject to “scrutiny by the High
Courts”29. Decisions taken by the Executive
Members in Tribunals are required to be taken ‘in a
judicial manner’ or like a judge i.e. impartially. All
this is not enough. To borrow the language of the
United States Supreme Court: “the legitimacy of
the judicial branch depends on its reputation for
impartiality and non-partisanship. That reputation
may not be borrowed by the political branches to
cloak their work in the neutral colours of judicial
action”. Nevertheless these Tribunals continue to
have members of the Executive discharging
judicial functions and all members including the
judicial members remain subject to the
administrative and financial control of the
Executive.
A recent judgment of the Supreme Court says “The
constitutional trade-off for independence is that
judges must restrain themselves from the areas
reserved to the other separate branches”30. That
being so then why or indeed how, having regard to
the principle of separation of powers, can the power
of adjudication be shared with or be transferred to
or be subject to the control of the Executive which
is what tribunalisation has come to mean in this
country?
Besides it would be too much to expect a
Government Official who has represented and been
and in some cases continues to be part of the
Executive machinery and who has been committed
to give effect to the policies framed by his/her
political masters throughout his/her career (as
every good Government official is expected to do),
to suddenly be asked to discharge judicial functions
which often requires a decision to be taken against
the Government.
Why is this at all necessary? Delay, arrears of cases,
specialized knowledge etc. have been usually cited
as reasons for the creation of such tribunals. If the
work of the judiciary is being hampered because of
the litigation explosion, the Constitution envisages
more judges being appointed and courts set up
which can function with all the safeguards of
insulation, independence and autonomy as part of
the judicial system. The Constitution also allows
the appointment of additional and acting judges to
deal with an increase in the business or the arrears
of work of the High Courts and the Supreme
Court3l. It was not envisaged under the constitution
as originally framed that the lacunae, if any, in the
functioning of the judiciary at whichever level,
would be filled by the Executive. As Chief Justice
Subba Rao speaking for a Bench of 5 judges said in
196632: “It is unreasonable to attribute to the
makers of the Constitution) who had so carefully
provided for the independence of the judiciary) an
intention to destroy the same by an indirect method.
What can be more deleterious to the good name of
the judiciary than to permit at the level of district
Judges (and now at the level of High Court judges),
recruitment from the executive departments?”
But according to a recent pronouncement of the
Supreme Court “The presence of a technical
member ensures the availability of expertise and
experience related to the field of adjudication for
which the special Tribunal is created, thereby
improving the quality of adjudication and decision
making”33. By that token all courts should have
technical members to improve the ‘quality of
decision making’. Traditionally if technical
expertise is required it is open to courts to seek the
opinion of an expert as a witness but not as a
colleague on the Bench. To have technical
10
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
members (meaning officers of the Executive) on a
Tribunal is as repugnant to the independence of the
judiciary as, for example, having the Secretary of
the Ministry of Finance sitting on a Bench of the
Supreme Court or High Court to decide income-tax
matters. A more serious in-road into institutional
judicial independence would be hard to find.
Besides the ‘tribunalisation’ of justice has not
worked in India. In 1997 the Supreme Court
acknowledged “Tribunals have been functioning
inefficiently ... The situation at present is that
different tribunals constituted under different
enactments are administered by different
administrative departments of the Central and the
State Governments. The problem is compounded by
the fact that some tribunals have been created
pursuant to the Central legislations and some
others have been created by State legislations.”
More than a decade later, if one is to go by the
Report of the Chairperson of the Intellectual
Property Appellate Board submitted to the Madras
High Court recently, the situation has not
improved34.
The litigant, in whose apparent interest
tribunalisation has and is taking place has been the
worst sufferer. When most of the rights are claimed
by citizens against the Government how can people
have faith in a body if even one member is
perceived as being part of the Government? The
credibility of the judicial process “comes from the
office of the judge and his or her individual and
institutional reputation for independence”.35
Additionally every decision of a tribunal is subject
either to appeal before the High Court or Supreme
Court and subject to judicial review. This has only
meant further delay and expense for a litigant
because of additional rounds of litigation. Several
brave High Court judges have tried with faultless
reasoning to set right this Constitutional anomaly in
their decisions36 but have unfortunately failed to
convince the Supreme Court up till now.
There is another seemingly minor exception to
judicial independence contained in the Foreign
Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976. Apart from
other restrictions, the Act initially forbade, except
with the permission of the Central Government, the
acceptance of foreign hospitality by members of
Legislatures, office bearers of political parties and
employees of corporations37.
In 1985, when the Law Ministry was headed by an
eminent lawyer, the Act was amended to include
judges (thus proving my theory that sometimes the
worst enemies of Judges are those lawyers who
while being members of the Bar also serve in the
capacity of politicians). At present no judge,
whether of the Supreme Court or the High Courts
can accept any invitation from any foreign person
or organization or indeed even visit a foreign
country out of his/her personal funds, unless an
application is made to the State and Central
Governments with the approval of the Chief Justice
two months ahead of the date of departure and the
application is vetted by different Ministries and
ultimately allowed or disallowed by an executive
order which may or may not be received before the
date fixed for leaving! Even if permission is
granted by the Government to accept an invitation
it is subject to the air-fare being agreed to be paid
by the Government. Clearly the Government
considers that being accommodated, wined and
dined by a foreigner do not come within the word
‘hospitality’! It also overlooks the fact that a judge
would be obliged to various Joint Secretaries of the
Government for exercising their discretion in
favour of the judge not only in granting permission
but also agreeing to bear the air-fare—a dangerous
situation since the largest litigant before any court
is the Government. Besides if the Chief Justice as
the administrative head of the judiciary in each
High Court and the Chief Justice of India in the
Supreme Court approve, to subject the judge to
Executive control does, in my opinion, interfere
with the institutional independence of the judiciary.
To complete the insulation of the judiciary the
mischief created in 1985 must be undone.
An Independent Judge:
11
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
The independence of the judiciary and of the
judicial system of course ultimately depends on the
personal integrity of each judge. It goes without
saying and I do not intend to dwell on the fact that
judges have to be above corruption in the monetary
sense. But it needs restating just as it needed stating
in 1988 when judges of 37 countries gathered in
Bangalore and formulated what have come to be
known as the Bangalore Principles. The principles
are intended to establish standards for the ethical
conduct of judges. Detailed guidelines have been
classified under 6 heads termed ‘values’:
Independence, Integrity, Impartiality, Propriety,
Equality, Competence and Diligence. In fact all six
values are facets of the first and cardinal one of
‘independence’. Judges are fierce in using the word
as a sword to take action in contempt against critics.
But the word is also used as a shield to cover a
multitude of sins some venial and others not so
venial. Any lawyer practising before a court will I
am sure have a rather long list of these. I have
chosen seven.
The first is the sin of “brushing under the carpet” or
turning a Nelsonian eye. Many judges are aware of
injudicious conduct of a colleague but have either
ignored it or refused to confront the judge
concerned and suppressed any public discussion on
the issue often through the great silencer-The Law
of Contempt.38
The second sin is that of “hypocrisy”. A favourite
rather pompous phrase in judgments is “Be you
ever so high, the law is above you” 39 or words to
similar effect. And yet judges who enforce the law
for others often break that law with impunity. This
includes traffic regulations and any other
regulation to which the “ordinary” citizens are
subject. Some in fact get offended if their cars are
held up by the police at all while controlling the
flow of traffic-the feeling of offence sometimes
being translated into action by issuance of a rule of
contempt against the hapless police constable40 all
in the name of judicial independence41.
The third sin is that of secrecy. The normal
response of Courts to any enquiry as to its
functioning is to temporize, stone-wall and
prevaricate. As I have said elsewhere that the
process by which a judge is appointed to the High
Court or elevated to the Supreme Court is one of the
best-kept secrets in the country. The issue whether
the records relating to appointments of judges to the
Supreme Court can be directed to be produced
under the Right to Information Act is now pending
decision before the Supreme Court42 after which
perhaps we will come to learn of the logical
connection between judicial independence and
secrecy.
If ‘independence’ is taken to mean ‘capable of
thinking for oneself’ then the fourth sin is
plagiarism and prolixity. I club the two together
because the root cause is often the same namely the
prolific and often unnecessary use of passages from
text-books and decisions of other judges-without
acknowledgment in the first case and with
acknowledgment in the latter. Many judgments are
in fact mere compendia or digests of decisions on a
particular issue with very little original reasoning in
support of the conclusion.
Often judges misconstrue judicial independence as
judicial and administrative indiscipline. Both of
these in fact stem from judicial arrogance as to
one’s intellectual ability and status. A judge’s
status like other holders of public posts is derived
from the office or the chair. One has to merely
occupy that chair during one’s tenure with dignity
and remember that each time a lawyer bows and
says “Deeply obliged” —the bow is addressed to
the office and not to the person. The Supreme Court
has laid down standards of judicial behaviour for
the sub-ordinate judiciary such as “He should be
conscientious, studious, thorough, courteous,
patient, punctual, just, impartial, and fearless of
public clamour, regardless of public praise43 but
sadly some members of the higher judiciary exempt
themselves from the need to comply with these
standards.
Intellectual arrogance or what some may call
12
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
intellectual dishonesty is manifest when judges
decide without being bound by principles of stare
decisis or precedent44. Independence no doubt
connotes freedom to decide but the freedom is not
absolute. It is bound to be in accordance with law.
Otherwise we have lawyers and the sub-ordinate
judiciary baffled while “mastering the lawless
science of our law” faced with “that codeless
myriad of precedent, that wilderness of single
instances.”45 Independence implies discipline to
decide objectively and with intellectual integrity
and as the judicial oath of office requires, without
fear, favour, affection or ill will. Most importantly
judges must be perceived as so deciding or to use
Lord Hewart’s classic dicta that “Justice should not
only be done, but should manifestly and
undoubtedly be seen to be done,”46 because the
belief of corruption is as damaging to the credibility
in the independence of the judiciary as the act of
corruption.
This brings me to the seventh and final sin of
nepotism or what the oath of office calls ‘favour’
and ‘affection’. What is required of a judge is a
degree of aloofness and reclusiveness not only vis a
vis litigants but also vis a vis lawyers. Litigants
include the Executive. Injudicious conduct
includes known examples such as judges using a
guesthouse of a Private Company or a Public Sector
Undertaking for a holiday or accepting benefits like
the allocation of land from the discretionary quota
of a Chief Minister.
I can only emphasise again that nothing destroys a
judge’s credibility more than a perception that
he/she decides according to closeness to one of the
parties to the litigation or what has come to be
described in the corridors of courts as ‘face value’.
As the Bangalore Principles succinctly puts it: “A
judge shall not ...convey or permit others to convey
the impression that anyone is in a special position
improperly to influence the judge in the
performance of judicial duties”47.
And here I would like to pay tribute to the great
majority of judges who are to quote N.A.
Palkhiwala men (and women) of integrity,
combining character with calibre48 who are holding
the fort against ‘enemies’ both within and outside
the system by discharging their duties with courage
and independence.
I will conclude with the most important facet of
judicial independence. Judicial independence
cannot exist without accountability. At present the
only disciplinary power over judges is vested in
Parliament which provides for the extreme
punishment of removal for acts of proven
misbehaviour by or incapacity of a judge49.
Disciplinary methods include the Chief Justice
advising a dishonest judge to resign or
recommending a judge’s name to the Chief Justice
of India for transfer to another High Court.
Deprivation of jurisdiction or the non-allocation of
work to a dishonest judge was resorted to by Chief
Justice Sabyasachi Mukharji-when the
impeachment of Justice V. Ramaswamy failed for
political reasons. Sometimes Chief Justices control
a recalcitrant judge by ensuring that the judge
concerned sits with the Chief Justice or with a
‘strong’ judge until he or she retires.
The situation becomes more difficult if the
allegations are against the Chief Justice. Solutions
evolved have proved inadequate and ad hoc. There
is a need for an effective mechanism for enforcing
judicial accountability50. The Judicial Standards
and Accountability Bill 2010 now under
consideration before Parliament provides for a
mechanism for enforcing judicial discipline under a
National Judicial Oversight Committee. But I
would add a Caveat using the language of a
Resource Document for the establishment of
judicial accountability mechanisms in South
Africa51: that “accountability mechanisms” [must
be] “embedded in the judiciary and satisfy the
appropriate standards for judicial autonomy,
respect the separation of powers framework, and
are transparent and publicly known”. This would
be in keeping with that “independence” which as I
13
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
said at the outset the Constitution so ‘copiously’
protects.
References:
1.S.P. Gupta v. Union oflndia,1981 Supp SCC 87
2.P. 358
3.Centre for PIL v. Union of India,(201 J) 4 SCC J,
at page 23
4.Union of India v. Sankalchand Himatlal Sheth,
(1977) 4 SCC 193, at page 2 J3
5.Union of India v. Sankalchand Himatlal Sheth,
(1977) 4 SCC 193
6.Registrar (Admn.), High Court of Orissa v. Sisir
Kania Satapathy, (1999) 7 SCC 725, at page 728
7.Article 202 (3) (d)
8.Art. 112 (3) (d) (iii)
9.Article 203 (l)
10. Article 113 (I).See Union of India v.
Sankalchand Himatlal Sheth, (1977) 4 SCC J93, at
page 217
11. Article 21 I
12. Art 124 (2) in case of Supreme Court judges and
Art. 217 in the case of High Court judges
13. Art. 222
14. Quoted in “Should Judges Conduct Public
Inquiries?” by Jack Beatson: LQR Vol 121 p.235
15. Union of India v. Sankalchand Himatlal Sheth,
(1977) 4 see 193, at page 234
16. See Granville Austin: Working a Democratic
Constitution p.384
17. See N.A. Palkhiwala: Second Chimanla1
Setalvad Memorial Lecture, 1982; Granville
Austin: The Supreme Court and Custody of the
Constitution: Supreme but not Infallible.
18. S.P. Gupta v. Union of India, 1981 Supp see 87
19. S.C. Advocates-on-Record Assn v. Union of
India (1993) 4 see 441; Special Reference No.1 of
1998: (1998) 7 see 739
20. “Information and Fundamental Rights”: Sarat
Bose Memorial Lecture, 2009
21. S.P. Gupta v. Union of India, 1981 Supp SCC
87, at page 298. Since then several countries
including England and Wales have set up a Judicial
Appointments Commission to appoint High Court
judges.
22. The Chief Justice of India (Chairman), three
senior most judges of the Supreme Court; the
retiring Chief Justice of India, three senior Chief
Justices of High Courts, the Minister of Law and
Justice, Government of India, the Attorney General
and an outstanding law academic.
23. The Vice President of India, the Chief Justice of
India, two senior most judges of the Supreme
Court, the Chief Justice of the High Court when
considering an appointment to that court and the
Minister of Law and Justice.
24. V.R. Krishna Iyer, J: The Hindu: 20th October
2003; Rajinder Sachar, J.: The Hindu: 28th March
2003, PUCL Bulletin, February 2005
25. Union of India v. R. Gandhi, President, Madras
Bar Association, (20 I 0) II see I, at page 49
26. S.P. Sam path Kumar v. Union of India, (1987)
I SCC 124; L. Chandra Kumar v. Union of India,
(1997) 3 SCC 261; Union of India v. R. Gandhi,
President, Madras Bar Association, (2010) 11 SCC
I
27. They were readily conceded by the Executive
without any reference to Parliament. S.P. Sampath
Kumar Y. Union of India, (1987) I SCC 124; L.
Chandra Kumar v. Union of India, (1997) 3 SCC
261
28. State of Haryana v. National Consumer
Awareness Group, (2005) 5 SCC 284, at page 292
29. L. Chandra Kumar v. Union of India, (1997) 3
SCC 261, at page 311
30. State of U.P. v. Jeet S. Bisht, (2007) 6 SCC 586,
at page 612 : per Katju, J:
31. Articles J28 and 224( 1)
32. Chandra Mohan v. State of UP :AIR 1966 SC
1987
33. Union of India v. R. Gandhi, President, Madras
Bar Association, (20 I 0) II see I, at page 40
34. See in this connection Report submitted by the
14
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
Chairperson, IPAB to the Madras High Court in
Shamnad Basheer v. Union of India (W.P.12S6
of20 II)
35. Jack Beatson: Should Judges Conduct Public
Inquiries: Vol. 121 LQR 221, 243
36. Sakinala Hari Nath v. State of A.P.:( (993) 2 An
WR 484; See further L. Chandra Kuma v. Union of
India (1997) 3 SCC 261,284 paras 37, 38
37. Section 9
38. See for example Surya Prakash Khetri v.
Madhu Trehan 200I Cr. LJ. 3476
39. See for example: S.P. Gupta v. Union of India,
1981 Supp see 87, at page 223; Arundhati Roy, In
Re, (2002) 3 see 343; Bangalore Medical Trust v.
B.S. Muddappa, (1991) 4 see 54, al page 92:
40. See for example: Biman Basu v. Kallol Guha
Thakurta, (20 I 0) 8 SCC 673
41. Red Lights on the Cars 0 f the Hon’ble Judges
of the High Court v. State of U.P. 1988 Cr. L.J.
4212
42. Central Public Information Officer, Supreme
Court of India v. Subhash Chandra Agrawal,
(2011) 1 SCC 496
43. High Court of Judicature at Bombay v.
Shirishkumar Rangrao Patil, (1997) 6 sec 339, at
page 355
44. See for example State of U.P. v. Jeet S. Bisht,
(2007) 6 sec 586, at page 623
45. Alfred Tennyson
46. R. v. Sussex JJ, ex p McCarthy: (1924) I KB
256
47. Clause 4_9
48. N.A. Palkbiwala: We, the Nation: Crisis of
Public Faith in the Judiciary at page223
49. Article 124(4), Article 217 (I) (b)
50. See in this connection Mechanism for Judicial
Accountability by J. S. Verma, Former Chief
Justice of India
IDASA: March 2
15
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
[Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer, is a reformist-writer
and activist. Internationally known for his work
on liberation theology in Islam, he leads the
Progressive Dawoodi Bohra movement. The
focus of his work is on (and action against)
communalism and communal and ethnic violence
in India and South Asia. He is an advocate of a
culture of peace, non-violence and communal
harmony, and has lectured all over the world. He
is presently the head of the ‘Institute of Islamic
Studies’ and the ‘Centre for Study of Society and
Secularism’, both of which he founded in 1980
and 1993 respectively. He currently contributes
to The God Contention, a website comparing and
contrasting various worldviews.He may be
contacted at Centre for Study of Society and
Secularism, 9B, Himalaya Apts.,1st Floor, 6th
Road, TPS III, Opp. Dena Bank, Santacruz (E),
Mumbai-400055, India]
Arab Spring and Role ofWomen
The Arab world saw great political turmoil
in the beginning of 2011. The Tunisian
dictator Zen el-Abidin was overthrown before
January 2011 ended. Then a similar turmoil began
in Egypt and hundreds of thousands of people
poured in Tahrir square to protest against Hasni
Mubarak, another long serving dictator who was
forced to go and then Libya, Syria, Yemen and
Bahrain. Now all this has been much written about
and need not be repeated but what concerns us here
is about the role of women in these revolutionary
changes in These Arab countries.
In all these countries women played very
significant role right from Tunisia to the Yemen.
No one can underestimate their role. Both in Egypt
and Yemen women initiatives played most crucial
role. In fact the Tahrir Square mobilization was due
mainly to a young girl’s appeal on the face-book.
As everyone knows the social media as face book is
called played important role in mobilization in the
Islamic world against kings and dictators.
In fact the role of women in political mobilization
was so crucial that it was being expected that Nobel
for Peace this year would be given to three women
from Arab countries i.e. Tunis, Egypt and Yemen
but instead it went to women from Africa and
Yemen, the later a Muslim woman who also played
crucial role in protection of human rights and
political mobilization for overthrow of President
Salih though there still remains stalemate in
Yemen.
What is most important to note is the role of women
in political mobilization in the3se countries and
secondly it shatters the myth that Muslim women
merely sit at home and are worth nothing more than
domestic workers and house makers. Muslim
women have proved once again that they can
mobilize people far more efficiently and
purposefully. It is also interesting to note that many
women in Tunisia and Egypt were quite active in
trade unions and used their experience gained in
trade unions to proper use and brought about
change in political structure.
But post-revolution a shadow of doubt hangs over
them? What this democratic revolution will give
them? Or will it take over the rights they had gained
under dictatorships. There is lot of truth in this as
much as there is possibility of Islamic laws, as they
are, being reimposed in these countries. In Tunisia
Ennehda Party has won elections which describes
itself a moderate Islamic party. But fortunately
Ennahda leader Ghanushi has declared that there
16
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
Asghar A. Engineer
will be no change in gender laws which clearly
means polygamy will not be re-imposed.
However, Libyan women are not so fortunate. The
Libyan leader who is projected as the new Prime
Minister after ousting Ghaddafi has already
announced that Islamic laws will be the only laws
imposed and polygamy will be reintroduced and
there will be no more restrictions on it. Ghaddafi,
undoubtedly a dictator and had to go, had done lot
of good in introducing and consolidating gender
justice in Libya. He had given equal rights to
women as provided for in Qur’an. He abolished
polygamy and gave women important role in public
life.
He even maintained that to confine women at home
is an imperialist conspiracy to paralyse half the
population in the Islamic world. He, therefore, even
created special force for women in the army and
assigned them duties of body guards. It was
undoubtedly a revolutionary step. Now all this is
likely to be reversed and the Libyan leader
specifically was mentioning polygamy. It will of
course remain debatable if the Shari’ah laws as
evolved during medieval ages when patriarchy
reigned supreme should be re-imposed as it is or
suitable changes in keeping with spirit of Qur’anic
values be reformulated?
To say that polygamy is permitted by Qur’an and
hence must be reintroduced is really injuring the
spirit of Qur’an. At best it is half truth. Polygamy
has been allowed in Qur’an but in specific context
and with rigorous conditions. Anyone who reads
the two verses in Qur’an on polygamy i.e. 4:3 and
4:129 would see that for Qur’an justice is more
central than multiple wives. And if justice is so
important can polygamy be made rule?
In early seventies whenever a dictator declared his
country to be an Islamic state, he would introduce
Hudud laws (Islamic punishments for theft,
adultery etc. as if these punishments were more
central than what factors motivated a person to
commit these crimes or punishing is more
important than reforming a person. Similarly today
when dictatorial regimes end a declaration is made
that family laws will be introduced and polygamy
will be permissible.
As this writer has always maintained gender justice
is very central to the Qur’an provided Qur’an is
read in proper context and today with greater and
greater role being played by women in public life it
is all the more important that gender justice be
made equally central in the Shari’ah laws through
contextual and normative understanding of
Qur’anic verses and shari’ah laws being based on
such an interpretation of the Qur’anic verses.
The present Shari’ah laws will not be acceptable to
women as education and awareness among them
increases and pressure for change will continue to
gather momentum. In fact Qur’an unambiguously
stands for gender justice and equipped women with
all the rights men were given. We are surprised how
male interpreters missed this and equally surprising
is that Muslim women submitted to these
interpretations.
17
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
PLEASE DO NOT SEND ARTICLES BEYOND 1500-2000 WORDS.
Dear Friends, Also, inform me whether they have been published elsewhere.
And, please try to email them at [email protected] instead of sending them by post.
You may post them (only if email is not possible) at C-8 Defence Colony, Meerut, 250001, U.P., India.
Do also email your passport size photographs as separate attachments (in JPG format) as well as your
small introduction, if you are contributing for the first time. Please feel free to contact me at
91-9719333011 for any other querry. —Rekha Saraswat
[Mr. Bill Cooke was editor of the Open Society
from 1992 until 2008. His next book is A Wealth
of Insights: Humanist Thought Since the
Enlightenment.]
Is God the Source of Morality?
To non-religious people, the answer to this
question is obvious. But for thousands of
religiously-minded people, it is still valid to
wonder how one can be moral without a God to
direct and punish. And some fundamentalists go
even further when they insist that one cannot
actually be moral at all unless one is religious, by
which they almost always mean their own religion.
Either way, it was the topic for the latest
high-profile debate between religious and
non-religious people on important issues. This
debate went under the banner of the Evangelical
Union and a newish grouping on Auckland
University called the Reason and Science Society.
The Christian protagonist was Matthew Flannagan,
sometime Christian
Heritage Party activist, now lecturer at what used to
be called the Bible College out in Henderson. Dr
Flannagan writes a column for Ian Wishart’s
Investigate magazine and runs a blog on
evangelical themes. And up against him was our
very own Ray Bradley, Emeritus Professor of
Philosophy at Simon Fraser University in Canada
and Honorary Associate of the NZARH. The
debate was chaired very ably, once again, by
Professor John Bishop, head of the Philosophy
Department at Auckland University.
Ray Bradley spoke first and went energetically
about his task. Supported by a generous sprinkling
of Old Testament passages, Bradley accused God
as understood by in the Judaeo-Christian tradition
of four serious charges:
A. Crimes against humanity
B. War crimes.
C. Licensing mayhem and murder.
D. Torture, including the torment of hell.
As most rationalists know, there is no shortage of
blood-curdling passages where God does all these
things. To be found guilty of any one of these
crimes, Bradley argued, would prove that God
could not possibly be the source of morality, let
alone all four.
Bradley then outlined five propositions which
theists believe about God.
1. God proposes things for us to believe and do.
2. God says he has caused, committed and
condoned all the actions listed in A, B, C and D.
3. It is morally wrong to commit A, B, C or D.
4. God is omnipotent, omniscient, all loving (and
all the rest of it).
5. A morally perfect being would not do anything
that is morally wrong.
Theists, at various stages, believe all five of these,
despite their blatantly contradicting each other.
From this, Bradley concluded, God cannot possibly
be a source of morality.
It was then Matthew Flannagan’s turn to give his
main address. Now I know that, as an atheist and
friend of Ray Bradley, I’m bound to say that
Flannagan’s argument failed, or was unconvincing.
But it really was, honestly. The main problem with
his address was not that the argument was unsound,
but that he didn’t actually have an argument. All he
did was attempting to refute Bradley’s argument.
We were told before the debate began that Bradley
and Flannagan had shown each other their main
argument. This, apparently, was an attempt to
ensure that they addressed the moot of the debate.
18
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
Bill Cooke
This was probably in response to my refusal to
engage William Lane Craig on the terms he so
imperiously dictated. But where I then set out an
argument explaining my action and offering a rival
account, all Flannagan did was refute Bradley. At
no time did he actually put an argument forward to
demonstrate that God was the source of morality.
When one questioner pointed this out, there was a
spontaneous round of applause, suggesting it was a
widely-held view. The closest Flannagan got to
outlining his views on the subject was when he
declared himself a supporter of divine command
theory, one of the arguments used by the new
generation of hard-line Christian apologists. Divine
command theory is a form of moral
foundationalism that argues all moral rules or
requirements emanate from God’s commands.
Flannagan didn’t give any rundown of
the theory, he just nodded in its direction. Just as
well really, since the divine command theory has
been on the back foot ever since Plato wrote the
Euthyphro about 2400 years ago.
So was Flannagan’s refutation of Bradley in any
way convincing? He claimed that Bradley’s
criticisms didn’t address the issue of God’s
greatness. I would have thought that convicting
God of crimes A, B, C and D would be a pretty clear
indication of lacking an element of greatness. Even
odder was Flannagan’s attempt to explain all the
barbaric passages of the Bible away with the
sleight-of-hand known as context. None of the
Bible passages Bradley quoted, Flannagan assured
us, are commands to us. They need to be read in
context. And they shouldn’t be taken literally; they
were metaphors, allegories, and all the rest of it.
And some were disfigured by hyperbole. And in
this way Bradley’s argument was said to have
missed the point because it was an argument
against biblical inerrancy, not against the goodness
of God.
Perhaps the most shocking admission from
Flannagan was his claim that there must have been
some overriding reason to justify God’s actions in
the Old Testament, some higher good being
pursued we were/are unaware of. How God could
be the sole legitimate source of morality when he
can justify his many crimes in the Old Testament in
the name of some greater good escapes me. And it
probably escaped Flannagan as well, as we were
not given any examples of such big-picture
benevolence. And as Bradley was quick to note,
even if some examples could be offered, the God
being apologized for in that context would be too
repugnant to contemplate. What greater good could
possibly justify the crimes of A, B, C or D, no
matter how watered down?
A lot of the audience was unimpressed by
Flannagan’s evasions. I was unconvinced that
Flannagan was not doing what apologists so often
do; explaining away the nasty bits of the Bible in
the hope of preserving the credibility of the bits
they like. I asked him if we should look to context
and be aware of genre, metaphor and a tendency to
hyperbole in, for instance, the Ten
Commandments. He didn’t answer that. I also
asked would Jesus not be rather cross with him in
the light of Matthew 5:17, which says ‘think not
that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I
am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.’ Flannagan’s
answer was extraordinary. Oh no, he assured the
audience, Jesus’ words don’t apply to us because he
was speaking at that time to a Jewish audience.
What? Has he really thought that through? When
was Jesus or Rabbi Yeshua as we should properly
address him, not talking to a Jewish audience? If
nothing he addressed to a Jewish audience applies
to us, then we can safely close the New Testament
in the knowledge that none of it applies to us. So,
from now on, every time a fundamentalist tells you
that Jesus has a message for you, you can assure the
emissary that the message was only intended for a
Jewish audience. When they harrumph that that
sounds like secular humanism, you can assure them
that, oh no, this comes from Matthew Flannagan,
evangelical Christian and apologist for divine
command theory.
19
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
It seems, then, that Flannagan is behaving as
apologists the world over have done: explain away
biblical passages when they are inconvenient to his
own needs. And in such blatant disobedience not
only Jesus but also to the Law Jesus himself said he
was coming to fulfill.
Look, for instance, at Deuteronomy 12:32 which
say: ‘Observe everything I command, taking
nothing away and adding nothing.’
Another problem with Flannagan’s approach was
that it makes it next to impossible to reliably gauge
what God’s commands actually are. If the Bible is a
hodge-podge of context, metaphor and allegory
written by people of their times for their Jewish
contemporaries, how are we then, in the
twenty-first century, supposed to discern the
content of God’s divine commands? Is it not
reasonable to suppose that if God is so uniformly
excellent, he should have arranged for us a clear
manual to guide us lesser beings? Apparently not.
Presumably it leaves that vital role to the very few
chosen ones who can correctly tell which bits of the
Bible are to be read in context and which are God’s
divine commands. People like Matthew Flannagan.
It’s fair to conclude that Ray Bradley got the better
of this debate. He actually addressed the question
and presented a serious argument why God could
not be any positive source of morality. Flannagan,
by contrast, was content merely to try and discredit
that argument, but offered no account why we
should consider God is in fact the sole source of
morality. And Flannagan’s attempts to discredit
Bradley’s argument either missed the point or
raised even more serious objections.
Having said all this, there remains the question of
what is gained by this twelve-rounds-of boxing
style debate. I was determined not to present to
William Lane Craig the identikit Richard Dawkins
account for him to knock around. I wanted to call
into question Craig’s claim to be giving the one and
only viable account of what it means to be
Christian. There are never only two
equally-opposed viewpoints to any one question,
and yet the debate format entrenches precisely this
model. I would still prefer a less adversarial style of
discussion of our various beliefs. At the end of this
account many readers will go away thinking,
“Gosh, what a fool Matthew Flannagan must be.”
Just as, I have no doubt, people will think of Ray
Bradley after reading accounts of the debate from
Flannagan’s supporters.
But are we better off if this is the outcome of the
debate? I don’t think so. At the end of the debate
Bradley pleaded with the audience to go away and
think the issues through themselves. Quite right
too. But maybe what’s needed now is not another
debate designed in this zero-sum way. Continuing
with debates structured in this way gives fuel to
moderate-minded people of all persuasions who
suspect that all that’s happening is two equally
entrenched positions slugging it out with no-one
actually listening to each other. What is needed
now is a dialogue. Perhaps a theist and an atheist
should come together and give an account of why
they believe as they do and what they consider the
implications of that belief to be. A dialogue of this
sort would try to keep point-scoring and criticism
of the opposing viewpoint to a minimum, focusing
instead on outlining positively their own beliefs.
Who’s up for that?
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
20
“New Humanism proclaims the sovereignty of man on the authority of modern science, which
has dispelled all mystery about the essence of man. It maintains that a rational and moral
society is possible because man, by nature, is rational and therefore, can be moral, not under
any compulsion, but voluntarily: that the sanction of morality is embedded in human nature.”
—M.N. Roy
[Ms. Asha Kachru lives in a remote village in
Medak district of the South indian state Andhra
Pradesh since 1992. Her primary occupation,
besides being a resource person for gender in
agriculture issues, she has been mediating
between the rural poor and the Indian
bureaucracy and promoting organic agricultural
lifestyle. Before this she was in Germany for 22
years as a scientific officer in the German
Research Center now called Max Planck Institute
for Mathematics and Data-processing. She went
to Germany as an exchange scholar after
finishing post graduate studies in Pure
Mathematics from Delhi University. She was the
first South Asian woman to become a City
Councillor (for the GREEN faction) in a
European city (Bonn, the then capital) from
1984-1987. She lives at Katakeri, Kohir village,
Medak District, Andhra Pradesh 502210.
A Kashmiri pundit mother’sappeal for peace in Kashmir-
Part 2
This is the report of my second visit to the
state of Jammu and Kashmir, 13 Sept to
2nd October 2011.
Last year I went to Jammu and Kashmir in June it
was the stone pelting period. I went to Jammu for a
marriage and then to Kashmir valley and
surroundings, particularly to visit my birthplace
Anantnaag, 50 km from Kashmir valley. The report
was published in Radical Humanist in October
2010 and in Sarvodaya Talisman, Nov.-Dec. 2010
issues resp. This report of my second visit from
13.9 to 2.10.2011 is in continuation of the first.
It has been an overall pleasant experience both last
year as well as this year. Last year it was in
tumultuous stone pelting times and I could not visit
the hospital in Anantnaag where I was born,
because of some porno videos found in one
shopkeeper’s store and the youth was out stoning
the police, this year most of the cordoned fencing
was removed and generally peaceful environment
prevailing both in valley as well as outside.
However some incidents of infiltration at the
border and also in some villages did take place.
This time I could visit the Christian Bishops
hospital in which I was born. I was surprised to note
that some doctors and nurses from Andhra Pradesh
were running the hospital. What a coincidence I
thought. I am a Kashmiri pundit born in Anantnaag,
studied and worked in Delhi and Germany, now
living and working with rural poor in Andhra
Pradesh, since last 20 years and here in my
birthplace it is the Andhrite health professionals
looking after my brothers and sisters, the
Kashmiris. It gave me a nice feeling of Vasudev
Kutumbam and again a reminder that after all we
are all a family of human beings with human needs,
whether in Germany, Andhra Pradesh and/or
Kashmir. Religion, caste, class and race are of
secondary importance. Unfortunately some people
create problems by dividing humanity on the lines
of these very categories of religion, caste, class and
race. More on that later!
Let me first give an overview of who all I met and
what all I discussed:
1. Attended 20th anniversary of Black Day get
together of KP’s (Kashmiri Pundit’s) “reclaim of
our ancestral land in Kashmir” by Panun Kashmir
on 14th Sept 2011 and Amar Shaheed Yagya in
memory of KP’s killed by Militants in Kashmir.
21
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
Asha Kachru
2. Visited KP’s in camps (Purkhoo, Jagati, Nagotra,
Muthi etc.) in Jammu.
3. Discussed with young students from Doda,
Jammu, Poonch of YAKHJAY-Jammu group.
4. Visited my one and only family members in
Karannagar, Srinagar.
5. Visited Yasin Malik and Geelani’s residences
and the famous Mosque at Hazratbal, from which
the famous announcement for kp’s to leave valley,
but leave their women behind, was made by the
militants.
6. Revisited Sufi poet Zareef Ahmad Zareef saheb
and his family at his residence near the shrine of the
famous saint Maqdoom Saheb.
7. Discussed with the young students from Kashmir
University, of the Yakhjay group in Srinagar and
also with some members of the Association of
Social Workers JKASW.
8. Attended UN Peace Day celebration on 21st Sept
at the Samad Island of peace in Nagin Lake, with
contributions from many school children from
Srinagar
9. Discussed with counselor Dr. Arif Khan of the
HELPLINE Foundation, counseling all Kashmiris
(KM’s and KP’s) in distress.
10. Attended the one day workshop to promote a
young writers group at the women’s college in
Srinagar.
11. Visited a small private school in Mirguna
village in Khanabal near the hospital I was born
in, in District Anantnaag.
12. Visited and discussed situation of adolescent
girls and involvement of women in decision
making in Humanity Welfare NGO working
with mentally challenged children in Bijhebara,
near Ananntnaag
13. Discussed with head of Youth Parliament and
environment lawyer Nadeem Quadri at Pampore
near Srinagar, on Dal Lakes legal environmental
and women’s issues.
14. Discussed with Libel Nisa, a young Human
Rights Lawyer on women’s situation in valley and
on formation of a Women’s Group in the valley.
15. Attended the open forum discussion by women
leaders from POK, Jammu and Srinagar valley on
“an Intra Kashmir women’s dialogue”, Broadway
Hotel.
16. Discussed with Ms. Khemlata Wakhlu, ex
MLA and present chairperson of the State Social
Welfare Board on situation in Kashmir from KP’s
perspective. She invited me to speak to the state’s
one day conference for the adolescent girls. Gave
lecture on empowerment of adolescent girls at the
State Social Welfare Board meet at SKICC,
Srinagar and discussed with young girls of both,
Hindu and Muslim communities about their current
problems.
Let me now go one by one.
1.When I arrived at the Press Club in Jammu on
14th Sept., to take part in the Panun Kashmir get
together, “Black Day for KPs”, sensitizing public
on how kp’s had to flee from their homeland 21
years back on this day and even after 21 years of
exile they still do not have a home land in Kashmir,
I saw many women and man with Anna Hazare like
caps on, with “Panun Kashmir, homeland for
displaced Kashmiris” written on them. They were
shouting slogans “chyon Kashmir, myon Kashmir;
aisi chu watun panun Kashmir” (translated: YOUR
Kashmir, MY Kashmir; we want to reach OUR
Kashmir). Suneel Kulkarni, a human rights lawyer
from Gujarat joined me. He is teaching human
rights at the Saurashtra University and he is writing
a thesis on “human rights of displaced Kashmiris”.
It was good for me, walking with my stick that
Suneel, himself offered to carry my bags with
papers and books. So I could use – thanks to
Suneel- my video camera, with which I was making
a documentary of my trip to J&K. many vocative
leaders and representatives of various groups of
KP’s spoke about their situation, particularly that of
the ones living in camps. They spoke of the utter
indifference and irresponsible behavior of the
Govt. and the general ignorance of Indians on the
Kashmir issue.
22
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
Suneel and I decided to visit the camps. We took
addresses from some of the participants there. Then
we attended the Amar Balidan Society’s Shaheed
Yagnya on the same day and had a lovely Prasad
with many typical vegetarian Kashmiri dishes, the
delicacy Lotusstem, Dumaloo, Kashmiri Paneer
and Rajma, closing with walnuts and Kashmiri
Kheer with saffron flavour. We were made to
remember KP martyrs like Tika Lal Taploo and
Lassa Kaul, who were good leaders and loved by
many ordinary Hindus and Muslims. Yet they were
attacked by the militants and shot dead in their
backs. One Kashmiri Pundit woman, I have been
now told by many, was the first KP attacked and her
body dissected with the carpenter’s saw, but she
was strangely not remembered. We visited the
exhibition showing the many men/women and
children, who were murdered and/or harassed by
the militants.
2.We first visited Purkhoo camp or what has
remained of it. 25 families are still living there,
waiting for a flat in Jagati camp, which is one of the
latest camps built by the Jammu Municipality. We
heard the residents mention so many problems due
to the fake quality of materials used, like cement
with sand.
We met the family of Dileep kumar dhar and Rohin
Raina. Their parents, sisters with children and
married brothers with wives and children were all
living in a one room flat since the last 22 years. The
municipality has stopped providing them with
water and sanitation facilities, because they have
already started destroying the whole place to make
something new and are not bothered about the few
who have to stay on till they get an alternative. It
gives one a feeling about the total disinterest on the
part of the officials, from the state as well as the
central Govt. in the lives of the displaced KP’s, who
have had to live for so long in such inhuman,
congested one-room homes. Keeping in mind that
they lived decently in their houses in Kashmir and
had enough land to sustain them from, one can
understand the anger amongst their youth. Jagati
camp is one of the latest camps.
We went to the Jagati camp the next day. The
condition of the flats, the walls and the so-called
parks was abysmal. Because sand has been used in
place of cement, the walls are disintegrating all
over, though the complex is only 4 months old. The
parks are not parks, but septic tanks covered with
grass here and there. No effluence arrangements
make it unbearable to stay there longer. Many were
complaining that this was a planned attempt on the
part of the local and state govt. to get rid of them.
The residents were saying that Jagati camp is the
biggest example of corruption by bureaucrats in
India and that they want a CBI inquiry be made.
They have been told that though app. 15 lacs per
flat have been allotted by the administration, it is
only 4-5 lacs invested in one flat. There are around
4000 flats, so the amount of corruption can be
envisaged. No electricity for 18 hrs per day, the
sewage system is a fiasco, it is all stinking and soon
many diseases can start. The children can’t play in
the parks.
One Deepak Bhatt, who dared approach the Human
Rights Commission, was telling us, how he is being
harassed by various sources, because of his alleged
involvement in the Amarnath Yatra fiasco last year.
He showed us a copy of his litigation and Suneel
gave some suggestions to him.
Girls and women –even after being well educated
with degrees- can’t take up jobs in the city, app. 40
km away, because of safety reasons, due to non
availability of electricity. It gets dark by the time
they return and then it becomes unsafe for them, as
it is a forlorn place. We visited the school for their
children and were shocked to observe the scarcity
of teachers. Also children are not able to study due
to shortage of light. They were complaining about
having to drink hot water from tanks and this too in
hot season, due to missing electricity.
We saw cow shed like remains of the once Muthi
camp.
Pyarelal Raina, a school teacher, who is also a
leader of the KP’s, explained to us in detail that
Manmohan Singh’s packet for the KP’s is not one,
23
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
which shows empathy for their situation. Why has
the govt. put issues concerning stay and
employment together? The KP’s have a right to
their homeland, irrespective of being employed in
valley or not. He said the KP’s did not run away due
to employment problems, then why is the Govt.
putting such conditions on them? Why should they
have to accept employment alternatives provided
by the Govt. this is particularly problematic in case
of young unmarried women, who are offered jobs
in unsafe places, where cases of militant attacks
have been reported. Again the fear of rape was
evident.
He pointed at the efficient and appropriate help
offered to KP’s by Mr. Jagmohan, during his tenure
as the governor of J&K. Jagmohan is seen as
someone who really brought relief for them. I
thought of the anti- BJP and anti Jagmohan news in
India during his tenure. I feel our secularist friends
in India are too quick to label anything in favor of
Hindus as an RSS, BJP or Shivsena work. The KP’s
are happy with anyone, who offers them a durable
solution and one in which their safety is assured.
It is worth noting here what Sunil told us, that Mr.
Modi has offered free education for girls in his state
and KP girls have taken advantage of this fact and
many joined and passed from engineering colleges
in Gujarat and have good jobs in different Indian
states now.
3.Next we met the Yakjay Jammu youth group
initiated by Ashima Kaul and Pradeep Dutta. It was
a pleasure meeting these youngsters from Doda,
Poonch, Jammu and Ladhak. Ashima was out of
station and so Pradeep introduced the group, telling
us that some people from J&K got together, first
with children, later only youth and wanted to work
on transformation and information issues. For
example people were informed about funds from
the central govt. provided for them. They used
theater as a means of communication. When
Pradeep mentioned that too many Human Rights
groups are only adding fuel to fire, Suneel
mentioned that Human Rights concerns have to be
dealt with between the Govt. and the public and not
others. I think he was referring to the intervention
of too many human rights groups from abroad.
Yakjay ideology seems to be to look inside and first
understand your own self and then go out to create
peace around you. Create positive images around.
Yousuf, the young Muslim guy from Doda said he
wants to help bring the various regions in J&K
together, people from Jammu don’t know anything
about those from Poonch or Doda or Ladhak etc.
and he even mentioned that he later wants to
sensitize the political leaders in his area on such
issues.
Dorje from Ladhak told us a bit about his region
and the fact that they suffer because they are cut off
from the main cities of J&K. the Ladhak Hill
Council is a good example of autonomy within the
Indian borders.
Sunandhini Sharma from Jammu told us about the
difficulties she had to be able to attend the Yakjay
meet in Delhi; her parents were worried about her
safety. She managed to convince her parents that
she can handle life and she was very happy about
how much she learnt about each other in the group,
particularly those women and men from far off
regions. She and many others are law students.
After talking about the gender issue, one young
man from the group even asked me to assist him in
getting to literature on gender issues, because in his
law course study he wants to take up this issue as a
specialization.
4.When I reached Srinagar the next day, I decided
to stay in a hotel room near the Dal lake boulevard,
instead of going to the residence of my niece Titli.
Her whole family, starting with father in law, Mr.
Vishen, her husband Suneel, brother in law, Vijay
as well as herself is into teaching and educational
issues. She is the Principal of the Nund Rishi
College of education as well as of Walden School.
According to Indian rules one is not supposed to
disturb a girl’s in-laws family and so I enjoyed the
freedom to do things according to my own
priorities, staying in guesthouses and hotels. I did
24
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
spend 1-2 days with them later on.
One evening I got to know from the family
members that their first school building, Cassette
school, was totally burnt and even the big library
was burnt by the militants, but they put in all sorts
of efforts to start the school again as well as rebuilt
the library. In between Titli with mother in law, did
leave their house for a year or so, though the father
in law, Mr. Vishen did stay on and had to undergo
horrible suffering (ironing of his legs by the
militants!) but soon the family reunited and are now
running not only 2 schools but a number of
Colleges too. They have built boys and girl’s
hostels in their old (my great-aunt’s home) and new
homes resp. and students from Rajasthan and other
places in India get degrees from their educational
institutions.
Mr. Vishen told me that it was actually a KP, Ram
Chander Kak, who was the first one to ask for
Azadi from the Indian govt. Sheikh Abdullah
wanted J&K to be with India. He also mentioned
that since Pakistan never took back its forces,
China intruded, the refugees from across the border
never returned, the UN resolution could never be
applied. Also he said that the president of UNO,
Ban Kin Moon has taken the stand last year that
since the last assembly and Panchayat elections
were well visited (over 80%), the matter of
plebiscite is treated as already closed.
However the model of development for Kashmir
for the Vishens seemed different from that of mine.
I was telling them all the negativities of the present
globalization all over India, my appreciation of my
rural lifestyle, no big roads and no such
dependency on cash as these days to be seen in
cities of India. Though I was being opposed by the
Vishen family members, most of the men later on
showed romantic appreciation for my rural
lifestyle, but I am sure it is not meant seriously.
They too will never visit me in the village. One
young girl Rachana, who graduated from Titli’s
college is staying with them, because she is an
orphan and so was offered to stay with them.
Rachana told us that in Himachal Pradesh, where
she comes from; there is a village, called Malana
near Kullu district, which is totally autonomous. I
too know of a village in UP (name I am forgetting),
which has its own currency too and has a totally
autonomous way of living. But this is not what the
separatists want either. I have invited Rachana to
come and stay with me for some time.
Mr. Vijay, who runs a computer college, said that
the central Govt. has offered them scholarships for
SC students, but because the Muslims do not want
to accept caste (by saying it is contradictory to
Islam), he cannot avail of these. This is harming the
poor Muslims in the valley, the sweeper class the
most. He says that the upper caste Muslims avail of
all the benefits and do not care about the situation of
the Sheikhs (which when used in the beginning of a
Muslim name is an indication, that he is upper caste
but when used as the last part of a name, it means an
SC caste). There are lots of sweepers and
shoemakers to be seen on the roads in Srinagar and
Vijay was feeling sorry that not one child of their
caste has been able to avail of the educational
facilities, which he can provide them with the help
of the funds from the Indian Govt. Another
interesting fact Mr. Vishen informed me about was
that the sex-ratio has gone considerably down in the
valley. He is of the impression that it is due to the
KP’s not producing as many children as their
Muslim brothers and sisters.
Continued in the next issue.................
25
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
“In so far as it shows a way out of the crisis of our time, New Humanism is a social philosophy.
But as such, it is deduced from a general philosophy of nature, including the world of matter and
the world of mind. Its metaphysics is physical- realist, and its cosmology is mechanistic.
Conceptual thought and sense perceptions are harmonised in its epistemology. It merges
psychology into physiology, and relates the latter to physics through chemistry.” —M.N. Roy
Responses to the M.N. RoyCentenary Memorial Lecture Video
delivered by the GermanPhilosopher, Late Prof. Agehananda
Bharti(uploaded on the RH Web Portal:
http://www.theradicalhumanist.com/index.php
?option=com_radical&controller=article&Item
id=56&cid=416&task=single)
I
Respected Madam,
I thank you for the
October-11 editorial of the
R.H. It is fully realistic,
reflecting ‘pessimism of
intellect’. There are other
editorials of yours that
show, ‘optimism of will’. In
these hard days, no one can
do better.
I cannot amply thank you for the speech and the
article sent by you. As my computer failed to serve
the purpose, I had to go to a cyber café to get them. I
listened to the speech which is an exciting and
informative one. I shall have to go to the cyber café
again because the café closed after giving me the
video version of the speech. I shall write to you
after reading the article.,
Agehananda Bharati’s lecture highlights the
differences between philosophy and Darsan with a
passing reference to Anwikshiki. He is right to say
that Darsan is not philosophy. I agree with his
higher estimation of Dasgupta in comparison with
the eminent philosopher Radha Krishnan. His
explanation of the fallibility principle and his
questioner’s doubts about its applicability to
modern science can be appreciated unequivocally.
He is right in denying ‘philosophy’ stature to the
Upanishads. P. Edgerton, a leading philosopher of
the U.S, puts them under the rubric ‘Magic’.
Saibaba whose name cropped up in his speech and
discussions is a powerful magician and
philanthropist. The presence of eminent scientists
in his camp show that modern sciences, flaunting
the uncertainty principle, are vulnerable to
superstitious concepts because relativity and
pluralism reign supreme in their Wuthering heights
of thought. More scientific discoveries may lead to
better results.
Indian Gurus using scientific terms to explain the
glory of Hindu theology are justly criticized by
Bharatiji. What I cannot stomach is his cavalierly
conventional approach to Anwikshiki India’s
greatest gift to human civilization is Anwikshiki.
Anwikshiki is a product of a gather’s society.
Compared to Charvak, Socrates is a superstitious
(Russell), statusquo - supporting philosopher of a
slave- keeping society Charvak, the lone
philosopher of a gatherer’s society is, contrary to
Bharati opinion of his being a writer of only six
existing verses, lives is many pages of the original
Mahabharata ‘Jaya’. There are Lokayatic verses
(slokas) in the Mahabharata that strongly condemn
the Vedic priests and astrologers. Bharatiji’s
remarks on Yogic meditation which he calls
scientific are acceptable. But the real grandeur of
Yoga lies in its non-scientific unique value aspect
(YAMA), which is illustrated in the Gita- saying
“Yoga and Samkhya are the same”. Euro-centric
thinking that dichotomizes mind and matter (Even
Marx is not free from it) is repudiated in ancient
Samkhya (mind and matter make a composite
whole — ASTADHA - PRIUKRUTI — GITA). To
call Charvak hedonistic is the height of
Madhwacharyan Adwaitic hatred. Madhwacharya
forgot that in Charvak’s days, the most coveted
food item was not ghee but the tender meat of a calf.
Yagnabalkya was craving for it. (The Vedic Age-
Habib). A perspectival shift of attitude of the
scholars only can do justice to Lokayat. Lokayata
was Anwikshiki’s popular visage. To understand
Anwikshiki’s great stature, we have to peruse
Arthasastra Anwikshiki dominated India’s thought
horizon till 100 B. C. (Radha Krishanan). The first
26
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
B.P. Rath
millennium BC was the most fertile period of
India’s freely contending thought -systems.
Bharatiji’s lecture stimulated my mind. His critical
altitude and his explanation of the therapeutic
effect of Darsana and Yoga are illuminating.
I thank you for sending me this speech.
With preformed regard,
Sincerely yours,
—Bhagwat Prashad
II
Dear Rekha,
From what I could listen to
of Agehananda’s talk I had
the impression that he
seems to limit the use of the
terminology “philosophy”
to analysis of our use of
language in Wittgenstein
and more recent
contributions in that
domain. I agree that “darshan” is quite different
from that. But, we all know, that the terms
“philosophy” and “philosopher” are used
concerning all that preceeds srtictly language
analysis. Pre-Socratics, Plato (writing about
images on the wall of cave), Kant asserting “Moral
Law” as a categorical imperative, even, say,
Bentham, Mill and others wtiting about good
orgaznization of human societies are all considered
as “philosophers”. They were not analysing our
user of words, but talking about (whay they
considered to be) essential for understanding
existence, individual and social. Indians started
their exchange with European “philosophy” long
before Wittgenstein and others started writing
about use of language. Even the Arabs, in the
Middle Age, borrowed the term “philosophy”
calling it “Falsifa” or something like it (I do not
remember exactly at the moment). All this is very
well known.
So saying imperiously to Indians that you use the
word “philosophy” for “darshan” because you are
ignorant is strange. I am, personally, interestd in the
analytical aspect rather than “noble and profound”
flights of fancy and peremptory assertions about
immortal soul, the Creator and so on. I do
appreciate Buddhist Logic (Dignaga, Dharmakirti ,
Sri Harsha,....). But all that is different from
asserting that the word “Philosophy” is relevant
only to recent school of analysis of use of language.
—Amitabha Chakrabarti
27
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
Amitabha Chakrabarti
“ New Humanism bases ethics on rationalism, and traces the roots of reason in the orderliness of
nature and harmony of the physical Universe.
By tracing will and reason, emotion and intelligence, to their common biological origin, New
Humanism recopnciles the romantic doctrine of revolution that man makes history, with the
rationslist notion of orderly social progress. History being the record of human endeavour, and
man being an integral part of the law-governed Universe, history is not a chiotic conglomeration
of fortuitous events. Social evolution is a determined process.
But New Humanism rejects Economic Determinism, which is deduced from a wrong
interpretation of the materialist philosophy.
Human will is the motive force of social evolution. It is, indeed, the most powrrful determining
factor of history. Otherwise, there would be no place for revolutions in a rationally determined
process of social evolution. A revolution is acceleration in the tempo of the evolutionary process,
brought about by the will of a minority of men. But human will, as well as ideas, can seldom be
referred directly to economic incentives.” —M.N. Roy
IRHM Members’ Section:
[Mr. Mahi Pal Singh is the President of IndianRadical Humanist Association (IRHA) of theDelhi Unit and National Secretary of Peoples’Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), C-105, D.D.A.Flats, Sindhora kalan, Delhi-110 [email protected]]
PUCL: Its History of Struggle inFighting the Structures
Continued from the previous issue.........
Anti-democratic Draconian Laws in the
Garb of Public Order Laws: In the
name of bringing under control various terrorist
and disruptive activities, the state of India has
brought about various legislations and Acts ever
since the country got independence in 1947. While
it is true that various groups in different parts of the
country took to arms or indulged in
unconstitutional methods to press their demands,
the methods adopted by the state to bring them into
the mainstream have also been dubious. While
nobody having a faith in the rule of law can and
should support the use of arms to press any
demands, however legitimate they might be, it is
also equally true that a serious attempt has never
been made to understand their problems, or to find
out the compelling reasons which might have made
them take to arms against the state. Poor, deprived
people who had hoped to get a better deal at the
hands of local rulers after attaining independence
from foreign rulers, felt neglected and cheated
when nothing was done to improve their conditions
and they continued to suffer from starvation and
disease. Their appeals of SOS continued to go
unheeded and unheard and when they tried to
organize themselves into a movement to force the
powers that be to listen to their voices they got
bullets in reply. When out of desperation they took
to arms, they got Maintenance of Internal Security
Act (MISA), Terrorist and Disruptive Activities
(Prevention) Act (TADA), National Security Act
(NSA), Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act
(AFSPA) and Prevention of Terrorist Act (POTA).
While it is true that all these special Acts came into
being with the purported intention of bringing
under control only those few who were thought to
be uncontrollable otherwise, and that too for a
limited time and purpose, the fact remains that all
such people could well have been brought under
control under the ordinary criminal law, under
sections 121 to 130, 153A, 294 and 295 of IPC.
Another fact that cannot be contradicted is that all
of them have invariably been used for a much
longer period than they were originally planned to
exist for. And the most dangerous common factor
amongst them is that all of them have been used
against the most innocent people to deprive them of
their life and liberty, when these hapless people
have tried to voice their grievances and that too for
excruciatingly long periods. Those in power, to
subvert democracy, which they professed to
protect, have misused all of them. All of them have
been used ruthlessly against the people they were
supposed to protect, to silence the voice of dissent,
to crush the right to demonstrate against injustice
and to decimate political opposition. For example,
TADA, which came into existence a decade after
the imposition of Emergency in June 1975,
following the assassination of Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi which in turn was followed by a
ruthless collective massacre of the members of the
Sikh community, is still considered by the Sikh
community as an Act which was brought into force
as a measure of continuing vengeance against
28
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
Mahi Pal Singh
Punjab. It was later extended to Kashmir, Andhra
Pradesh, Assam, and LTTE Tamils in Tamil Nadu
and against Muslims after the demolition of Babri
Masjid. This Act has been perhaps the most
criticized law ever since independence. It was also
one of the most ‘lawless’ laws along with the
Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and N.S.A. It
gave wide powers to the police to arrest and to
detain people without trial under its custody for
periods, which could run up to one year and
confessions made before a senior police officer
were admissible as evidence before the court of
law. The Act thus made a mockery of civil liberties
and the fundamental rights of the people as laid
down in the Constitution of India, and in fact, of
democracy itself.
The following statistics prove beyond any doubt
how this law was misused against the so-called
‘terrorists’: “This law was abused in almost every
state for silencing activists and political opponents.
According to the NHRC 165 men above the age of
75 years, 160 women, and 43 children below the
age of 15 years were detained under this Act until
the end of 1994, and the oldest detainee was an 83
years old woman in Gujarat,” (‘Open Letter to the
Prime Minister for the Repeal of TADA’ by K.G.
Kannabiran – PUCL Bulletin, May, 1995.) Within
a short period of its passage by the Parliament,
POTA also achieved the same notoriety, which was
earlier enjoyed by TADA, and the list of those
arrested under it in a short period in Chhattisgarh
alone read like the list given above. Its misuse to
silence the opposition is exemplified by the
detention of Vaiko, a prominent opposition leader
in Tamil Nadu, by J. Jaylalita’s government, and
his release by the POTA court under the directions
of the Supreme Court, as the charges framed
against him were not found tenable under the
POTA. The very fact that of the 76,166 persons
arrested under the TADA till 1995, when the Act
was allowed to lapse, only 843 (that is only 1.11 per
cent) were convicted, as per Union Home
Ministry’s own statistics, is enough to show how
widely and wildly the Act was misused to deprive
people of their right to life and liberty by various
governments. After 26/11 of the year 2008 when
Mumbai came under the terror attack by terrorists
sent from across the border killing more than a
hundred people and injuring about 400 at several
prominent places, the Central government came out
with a new avatar of the POTA in the garb of
Unlawful Activities Prevention (Amendment) Act
[UAPA] which has the same kind of draconian
Sections as the POTA, particularly Sections 38, 39
and 40 as they lay the onus of proving ‘not guilty’
on the accused which is against the very tenet of
justice: ‘innocent till proved guilty’. This Act has
also been used so far against innocent persons or
those human rights activists who raise the issues of
the most deprived sections of our society,
especially the tribal people of Chhattisgarh,
Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal and Andhra
Pradesh where the government has waged a war
against them in the name of fighting the Maoists
because that is a very convenient way of doing
away with them and silencing the voices which go
against the interests of the political class for which
awarding mining contracts in these mineral rich
regions has been a source of big corruption for
which it has gained unprecedented notoriety in
recent years. While PUCL strongly opposes this
model of exclusive development, it supports and
demands inclusive development in which the tribal
owners of the land and resources are equal partners
in development and the whole process is
transparent and corruption free.
Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, a Tool
to Subvert Democracy in the Northeastern States:
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act [AFPSA]
which has been in force for fifty two years since
1958 is in clear violation of the letter and spirit of
the Constitution and has led to an undeclared
Emergency and Martial law in the North-Eastern
states of the country. The AFSPA has been
responsible for the untold misery, death, rape and
torture and the denial of civil and political rights to
the people of Nagaland, Manipur and Assam.
Extra-judicial killings have become the order of the
29
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
day there and people are denied their civil and
political rights because the armed forces there
enjoy unfettered powers over areas declared as
‘disturbed area’ prohibiting the assembly of five or
more people. The citizen is wholly dependent upon
the whimsical and subjective satisfaction of a
warrant officer or a non-commissioned officer who
becomes the ultimate officer to define “order” and
determines the steps to be taken to maintain
“order”. Under Section 4(a) of the Act if the
concerned officer is of the opinion that it is
necessary to maintain public order, after giving
such due warning as he may consider necessary
“fire upon, or use such force, even to the causing of
death,” and under sub-section (c) arrest any person
without warrant who has, or is likely to commit a
cognizable offence; and under sub-section (d)
enter, and search without warrant any premises to
make such arrest.” Article 21 of the Indian
Constitution guarantees the right to life to all
people. It reads, “No person shall be deprived of his
life or personal liberty except according to
procedure established by law.” Judicial
interpretation that “procedure established by law”
means a “fair, just and reasonable law” has been
part of Indian jurisprudence since the 1978 case of
Maneka Gandhi. This decision overrules the 1950
A.K. Gopalan case, which had found that any law
enacted by Parliament, met the requirement of
“procedure established by law”. Under section 4(a)
of the AFSPA, which grants armed forces
personnel the power to shoot to kill, the
constitutional right to life is violated. This law is
not fair, just or reasonable because it allows the
armed forces to use an excessive amount of force.
Justice requires that the use of force be justified by
a need for self-defense and a minimum level of
proportionality. As pointed out by the UN Human
Rights Commission, since “assembly” is not
defined, it could well be a lawful assembly, such as
a family gathering, and since “weapon” is not
defined it could include a stone. This shows how
wide the interpretation of the offences may be,
illustrating that the use of force is disproportionate
and irrational. Explaining the AFSPA bill in the
Lok Sabha in 1958, the Union Home Minister had
stated that the Act was subject to the provisions of
the Constitution and the Cr.P.C. He said, “These
persons (military personnel) have the authority to
act only within the limits that have been prescribed
generally in the Cr.P.C. or in the Constitution.” If
this is the case, then why was the AFSPA not
drafted to say “use of minimum force” as done in
the Cr.P.C.? If the government truly means to have
the armed forces comply with criminal procedure,
than the AFSPA should have a specific clause
making this compliance mandatory. Further it
should also train the armed forces in this procedure.
Sections 130 and 131 of Chapter X of the Cr.P.C.
sets out the conditions under which the armed
forces may be called in to disperse an assembly.
These two sections have several safeguards, which
are lacking in the Act. Under section 130, the armed
forces officers are to follow the directives of the
Magistrate and use as little force as necessary in
doing so. Under Section 131, when no Executive
Magistrate can be contacted, the armed forces may
disperse the assembly but if it becomes possible to
contact an Executive Magistrate at any point, the
armed forces must do so. Section 131 only gives the
armed forces the power to arrest and confine.
Moreover, it is only commissioned or gazetted
officers who may give the command to disperse
such an assembly, whereas in the AFSPA even
non-commissioned officers are given this power.
The AFSPA grants wider powers than the Cr.P.C.
for dispersal of an assembly. Moreover, dispersal
of assemblies under Chapter X of the Cr.P.C. is
slightly more justifiable than dispersal under
Section 4(a) of the AFSPA. Sections 129-131 refer
to the unlawful assemblies as ones which
“manifestly endanger” public security. Under the
AFSPA the assembly is only classified as
“unlawful” leaving open the possibility that even
peaceful assemblies can be dispersed by use of
force. However, the worst part of it all is that to take
action under Section 4(a) of the Act the officer
needs no permission from a superior and is not
30
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
answerable to anyone. Under Section 197 of the
Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.P.C.) no court can
take cognizance of an offence alleged to have been
committed by a public servant or member of the
Armed Forces while acting or purporting to act in
the discharge of his official duty except with the
previous sanction of the central or state government
whereas the permission of the central government
has to be obtained to prosecute a military officer
under Section 7 of the Armed Forces (Special
Powers) Act, which practically means that people
have no right to approach the court and launch
prosecution for atrocities committed by any such
officer. Even various commissions of enquiry
appointed by the government have found security
forces guilty of gross human rights violations but in
most of the cases the guilty officials have not been
prosecuted for the offences committed by them.
Several incidents show how the Border Security
Force (BSF) and army personnel abuse their
powers in the North East. In April 1995, a villager
in West Tripura was riding near a border outpost
when a soldier asked him to stop. The villager did
not stop and the soldier shot him dead. Even more
grotesque were the killings in Kohima on 5 March
1995. The Rashtriya Rifles (National Rifles)
mistook the sound of a tyre burst from their own
convoy as a bomb attack and began firing
indiscriminately in the town. The Assam Rifles and
the CRPF who were camped two kilometers away
heard the gunshots and also began firing.
The firing lasted for more than one hour, resulting
in the death of seven innocent civilians. 22 persons
were also seriously injured. Among those killed
were two girls aged three and a half and eight years
old. The injured also included 7 minors. Mortars
were used even though using mortars in a civilian
area is prohibited even under army rules. In
Manipur, where AFSPA was extended 33 years ago
in the name of fighting militancy, successive
governments have retained it and there have been
complaints of military excesses from the people. A
30 years old woman, Thangjam Manorama, was
arrested on 11 July 2004 and allegedly gang raped
and killed by 17 Assam Rifles personnel. Students
supported by many NGOs and human rights
organizations there have been agitating for action
against the guilty as well as for the repeal of
AFSPA which has become a tool in the hands of
rifle wielding criminals to perpetrate such crimes.
A Judicial Enquiry Commission headed by C.
Upendra, the District and Sessions Court judge was
instituted which submitted its report long ago but
the Assam Rifles moved the Gauhati High Court
challenging the legality of the Commission because
Section 5 of the AFSPA says that the State
government cannot prosecute the personnel of the
armed forces without a prior permission from the
Union government. The shows the highhanded
impunity enjoyed by the personnel of the armed
forces even against the most horrible kind of human
rights violation. The saving grace, however, came
on 31 August 2010 when the High Court directed
the Manipur government that it was at liberty to act
on the report of the C. Upendra Judicial Inquiry
Commission. However, it was a lone case in which
the Judicial Commission was established and such
Commissions are not ordered in all such cases. As a
result, most of the cases, even of the gravest nature
of human rights violation, go unreported,
un-enquired and unpunished. In the wake of more
than a hundred agitating young men having been
killed in police and para-military forces’ firing in
the last one month in Kashmir, now even the Chief
Minister of the State, Omar Abdullah, has
demanded amendment in AFSPA or its partial
withdrawal from the State on 8 September 2010.
Continued in the next issue.............................
31
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
“New Humanism lays emphasis on the basic fact of history that man is the maker of his
world—man as a thinking being , and he can only be so as an individual. The brain is the
instrument of thought, and is individually owned. It cannot be possessed collectively. Revolutions
are heralded by iconoclastic ideas conceived by gifted individuals” M.N. Roy
Teachers’ & Research Scholars’ Section:
Changing Trends inIndo-Nepal Relations
Relations between India
and Nepal have always
been close and have reflected the
historical, geographical, culture
and linguistic links between the
two nations. An open border of
more than 1800 Km. epitomizes this special
relationship which also manifests in the close and
friendly relations at the government level. The
crossing of open borders by the people on both
sides has not only influenced each other’s history,
culture and tradition but also has had an impact on
the political, economic and strategic relations
between the two countries.
The signing of the Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and
Friendship in 1900 established the framework for
the unique ties between the two countries. The
treaty provided for national treatment for matters
related to entry of citizens from both sides and
business. Both share a unique relationship. Nepal
was being ruled by the Rana oligarchy till 1980.
When there was a revolution in which the Nepalese
people and king Tribhuwan participated
succeeding in overthrowing the Ranas and bringing
democracy to the country king Tribhuwan fled to
India and the Indian government supported the
democratic forces in Nepal. Had it not been for the
support from India, it would have been difficult for
the democratic forces in Nepal to succeed in ending
the despotic regime. On 13 March 1955 following
king Tribhuvan’s death King Mahindra occupied
the throne.
This pattern of relations continued till king
Mahindra’s accession to the throne in March 1955.
Unlike King Tribhuwan he did not own his position
to Indian support and wanted a free hand in foreign
policy matters such as diplomatic relations with
China in 1960 and tried to assert its independence
and sovereignty in matters of National
Development also. King Mahendra was very
successful in the realm of foreign affairs as Nepal
was able to assert its independent identity and
reduce its dependence on India. Nepal had
established diplomatic relations with many other
countries, too. During that interval, political
dynamics in Nepal also influenced the making of its
foreign policy with India.
There have been frequent changes in the political
system in Nepal from the rule of the Ranas to the
monarchy, to the Panchayat-democracy and
constitutional-democracy and in every political
change the rulers have looked towards those out of
power with suspicion. Such as when king
Mahendra faced opposition from pre-democracy
political parties like the Nepali Congress and the
Communists, he apprehended Indian support to
them to strangle his monarchy. King Mahendra
tried to diversify relations with extra regional
countries and tried to maintain a distance from
India.
Internal and international compulsions forced that
king Virendra, who succeeded his deceased father
in Jan. 1972, to pursue anti-Indianism with
undiminished vigour. But at the conference of
Non-aligned countries in Algiers in Sep. 1973 king
Virendra propounded the impracticable theory of
equal closeness of Nepal with both India and
China.
In 1975 king Bijendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev
proposed that Nepal be recognized internationally
as a zone of peace. The most important component
of this proposal was that Nepal would conduct its
relations with all countries, especially the
neighbouring countries, on the premises of equality
and respect for each other’s sovereignty and
independence.
Nepal should have also remembered that
sometimes, as in the case of the trade and transit
treaties of 1978 India abandoned its long-held view
point to accommodate Nepal’s the right of transit
that was sacrosanct of Nepal, almost a symbol of its
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
32
Pravesh Kumari
independence. This was not to be mixed up with
issues of official trade and unofficial trade, the
latter often compensating for the lack of balance in
the former. In 1978 India signed two separate
treaties on trade, as also a third one on control of
unlawful trade. Nepal was visibly happy.
In 1988 when the two treaties were up for renewal
Nepal’s refusal to accommodate India’s wishes on
the transit treaty caused India to call for a single
trade and transit treaty. Thereafter, Nepal took a
hard line position that led to a serious crisis in India
Nepal relations. Nepal had purchased anti-aircraft
guns and assault rifles from China in 1988. This
was regarded by India as ‘Provocative’ and a
contravention of 1950 treaty. On 23 March 1989
the treaties of trade and transit lapsed. India
declared a blockade of goods to Nepal after delays
in renewing trade and transit between the two
countries. This caused hardship to the people.
In 1989, a new government, led by Janata Dal came
to power in India. A number of leaders of Janata
Dal were socialists and had class links with leaders
of democratic group of Nepal. Even during
opposition to the monarchy in 1989, socialists, like
Chandrashekhar and communist leaders from India
were present in Kathmandu to extend their support
to the democrats. However, they have to be
differentiated from the official stand taken by the
government of India. The popular movement,
against the Panchayat system gathered momentum
and the king had to dismantle the party-less system
and had to transfer sovereignty to Parliament in
1990.
A democratic government of Prime Minister K.P.
Bhattarai consisting of the Nepali Congress and the
Communist Party of Nepal – United Marxist
Leninist (C.P.N. (UML) took control of power. The
democratic government was responsible in steering
the country towards a radically changed world
polity devoid of clear cut cold war politics and a
defined foreign policy in situations where the
security was threatened from within. The in-stream
government of K.P. Bhattarai declared it would
improve relations with India on a priority basis.
The Nepalese perspective favourably responded to
India and the special security relationship between
New Delhi and Kathmandu was re-established
during the June 1990 New Delhi meeting of Nepal
Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and
Indian Prime Minister V.P. Singh.
Nepal’s multi-party democratic elections were first
held in May 1991, the Nepali Congress Party
(N.C.) led by G.P. Koirala won this election with a
clear majority. He gave primacy to developing
relations with the neighbouring countries. His visit
to India, has first ever visit abroad as a Prime
Minister, from Dec. 5 to 10, 1991 was not only
fruitful in defining relations with India but was also
successful in concluding two separate treaties on
trade and transit for 5 and 7 years respectively and
another economic agreement designed to accord
Nepal additional economic benefits. India also
reduced the domestic content and Labour
requirement on Nepalese goods from 65 to 50
percent to provide duty free access to India.
Prime Minister Man Mohan Adhikari during his
visit in India in April 1995 insisted on a major
review of the 1950 Peace and Friendship Treaty. In
the face of benign statements by his Indian hosts
relating to the treaty, Adhikari sought greater
economic independence for his landlocked nation.
However, his tenure was short-lived. The
government was ousted from power through a
no-confidence motion and the Nepali congress with
the support of the Rashtriya Prajatantra Party and
Nepal Sadhbhavana Party come to power under the
leadership of Sher Bahadur Deuba.
In mid Feb. 1997 Nepal’s Prime Minister, Sher
Bahadur Deuba’s visit to New Delhi and meeting
with Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narsimha Rao
brought the major achievement of finalizing the
Mahakali treaty and electric power trade treaty with
India. It was a significant step towards improving
Nepal’s balance of trade with India. The Mahakali
agreement this was a significant step in developing
positive mutual relations because now both
33
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
countries could meet any shortage in power from
Pancheshwar. Also both the countries had freedom
to enter into an agreement with a third party to
generate resources for exploiting power. By
finalizing the Mahakali treaty and the electric
power trade treaty India took a significant step to
improve Nepal’s balance of trade with India.
The hijacking of an Indian airlines aircraft from
Kathmandu airport and its landing in Kandahar
airport in Taliban ruled Afghanistan was to make
profound changes in India-Nepal relationship.
The beginning of the new millennium also marked
two events, which were to affect Nepal’s foreign
policy profoundly. The first occurred on June 1,
2001 when crown prince Dipendra went on a
shooting spree assassinating members of the royal
family including king Bijendra and queen
Aishwarya before shooting himself. After his death
two days later the king’s surviving brother
Gyanendra was proclaimed to the throne as Nepal
Naresh. The second was growth in Maoist
insurgency in the country. On Ist July 2001 Prime
Minister Girija Prasad Koirala stepped down amid
fears of continuing instability and his government’s
failure to deal with the growing Maoist insurgency.
He was replaced by HC Leader Sher Bhadur
Deuba. In Oct. 2002, King Gyanendra dismissed
Deuba and consolidated his own power for the first
time. From the year 2002 to 2005 the king chose
and subsequently dismissed three Prime Ministers;
finally dismissing Deuba, he proclaimed a state of
emergency for the second time and took over as an
absolute ruler on 1st Feb. 2005. Political leaders,
media personnel, intellectuals, human rights’
activists and student leaders were under house
arrest/detention. India reiterated that the challenges
faced by Nepal could be addressed effectively only
on the basis of national consensus. In this context
India called for a return to democratic processes at
the earliest. India also called for immediate release
of all arrested political leaders, media, personnel,
intellectuals and human rights’ activists. India
continued to support all efforts for the restoration of
political stability and economic prosperity in
Nepal. It was critical of the king’s actions. But the
king overlooked suggestions of India. Following
the Feb. 2005 Royal coup the government of India
showed its annoyance. Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh refused to participate in Dhaka SAARC
summit to be held a few days later, because he did
not want to meet king Gyanendra. And therefore,
after 2005, after king Gyanendra took over,
Nepalese relations with India soured.
After the restoration of democracy in 2008,
Prachanda became the Prime Minister of Nepal. He
spoke about the diminishing of bilateral relation
between two countries. During his first official visit
to New Delhi on 19th Sept. 2008 both sides noted
that the multi-faced and deep-rooted relationship
between the two countries needed further
consolidation and expansion in a forward looking
manner to better reflect the current realities. It was
in this context that the two Prime Ministers agreed
to review adjust and update the 1950 treaty of peace
and friendship and other agreements while giving
due recognition to the special features of the
bilateral relationship. It was also decided that India
would provide a credit line of up to 150 crore
rupees to Nepal to ensure uninterrupted supplies of
petroleum products, as well as lift its bans on the
export of rice, wheat, maize, sugar and sucrose for
quantities agreed with Nepal. India would also
provide 20 crore as immediate flood relief. In
return, Nepal will take measure for the promotion
of investor friendly, enabling business environment
to encourage Indian investments in Nepal.
Furthermore a three-tier mechanism at the
ministerial, secretarial and technical levels will be
built to push forward discussion on the
development resources between the two countries
was also decided. Politically India, acknowledged a
willingness to promote efforts towards peace in
Nepal. India external affairs minister Pranab
Mukherjee promised the Nepal Prime Minister
Prachanda that he would extend all possible help
for peace and development.
In 2009 Maoist government of Nepal formed a new
coalition government. Madhav Kumar Nepal was
34
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
elected the Prime Minister of Nepal. But he soon
resigned due the political differences. Prime
Minister continued to lead the government in the
form of a care taker for over seven month - May
2009 to Feb. 2011. Amid political instability in
Nepal Jhalanath Khanal was elected 34th Prime
Minister of Nepal in Feb. 2011.
In January 2011 visit to Nepal, Indian foreign
secretary Nirupma Rao met with leaders of all the
main political parties, including the Maoists. It was
reported that she asked Maoist Leader Prachanda
about the Maoists’ anti-India stand and that she was
told the Maoist believed that it was time to look at
certain historical issues like treaties in a new
manner. Some Nepalese viewed the treaty as giving
India a disproportionate say in Nepalese affairs.
Just how far the Maoist desire to re-form the 1950
treaty will go in the C.P.N. U.M.L. government
remains to be seen.
Jhalanath Khanal resigned on 14th August 2011.
Nepal’s parliament elected a Maoist leader,
Baburam Bhattari as Prime Minister. Nepal
Parliament chose for the forth time in three year a
new Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai is the
second Maoist Prime Minister after Pushpa Kamal
Dahal Prachanda. He, in his four days’ visit to India
in Oct. 2011, his first foreign trip as Prime Minister
signed two agreements, as a major achievement.
One was on 250 million Line of Credit for Nepal
and another long awaited bilateral investment
promotion and protection agreement (BIPAA). As
is well known, the loan is highly concessional as
Nepal would have to return it to the Indian
government in 20 years. The rate of interests on this
loan is as low 1.75 percent per year. In fact, during
the visit of Nepal President Ram Baran Yadav to
India in Feb. 2010 India had agreed to provide this
facility to Nepal but did not materialize as a formal
signing of the agreement could not be done. In a
key concession Kathmandu finally relented to
address to security worries of Indian investors. The
fact entails granting compensation to investors
whose assets suffer losses due to war, armed
conflict or in a state of national emergency, a long
standing Indian demand. Bhattarai described his
visit to India as successful and stressed that it had
opened a new chapter in the bilateral relationship.
Now Baburam Bhattarai faces major challenges,
people are eager to know what kind of relations he
will develop with the neighbouring country India,
whether he will follow Prachand who has been
continuously accused of maintaining good
relations with China over India. It seems that
Bhattarai is walking on a tight rope. One needs to
wait and watch to see what will be the choice of
Baburam Bhattarai.
References: Indian – Foreign Relations,
1947-2007, Routledge Taylor 8 Francis Group,
New Delhi, 2011.
Sanasam, Sandhyarani Devi – Indian nepal
Relations – Historical, Culture and Political
Perspective, VIJ Book India Pvt. Ltd. (New Delhi)
2011.
Ramesh Trivedi, India’s Relations with How
Neighbours, Usha Book, Delhi 2008.
http://Publishedforsholar.WorldPress.com/2006/1
2/18 INDIA-% E2%/80%/93-Nepal Relations/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics of Nepal
Bhasin, A.S. Documents on Nepal’s Relations with
India and China 1949-66, Academic Book 1979.
Dixit (J.N.) External Affairs.cross Border
Relations, Rali Book 2003.
http://globaledgeMSU.edu/countries/Nepal/Histor
y
India’s is Boddhas Birth Chandni Nepal funes.
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?Newsid+122
2726.
http://News/xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/11/co
ntent_ 10061787.htm
Times of India, 29 August, Hindi Hindustan 29
August.
Internal Conflict in Nepal Transnational
Consequences editor, V.R. Raghavan.
Times of India, Hindustan Times, 2 Oct. 2011.
[Dr. Pravesh Kumari is a PDF (UGC), Dept. of
Political Science, C.C.S. University, Meerut.]
35
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
Book Review Section:
[Ms. Dipavali Sen has been a student of Delhi
School of Economics and Gokhale Institute of
Politics and Economics (Pune). She has taught at
Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, and
various colleges of Delhi University. She is, at
present, teaching at Sri Guru Gobind Singh
College of Commerce, Delhi University. She is a
prolific writer and has written creative pieces and
articles for children as well as adults, both in
English and Bengali. [email protected]]
India’s Capital – A CenturyAfter
[DELHI City of Rainbow Dreams, by Nita
Berry, published in 2010 by Snab Publishers Pvt
Ltd, New Delhi, distributed by Nita Mehta Books,
Illustration, Cover Design and Book Design by
‘flying trees’, printed in Malaysia, hard cover,
20”x16”, pp 95, price Rs 650.]
Rainbow colours being seven in number,
this book on the seven cities of Delhi is
most appropriately titled, especially since Delhi has
such a colourful past, with imperial dreams that
sometimes came true and sometimes got smashed
to smithereens.
The author, Nita Berry, is a “homegrown
Delhiwallah”, though she now resides in Gurgaon.
She is a noted writer of fiction and non-fiction for
children, and has won the prestigious Shankar’s
Medal for her book The Story of Time brought out
by the Children’s Boot Trust (CBT). She is also
editor, freelance journalist, and Executive
Committee member of the Association of Writers
and Illustrators (AWIC) and has been a member of
the Textbook Development Committee of the
National Council of Education, Research and
Training (NCERT).
She unfolds in simple yet mellifluous language the
story of Delhi in its various phases. She begins by
saying:
“They called it Khandavaprastha, or the city of
ruins. Desolate and overgrown, it was a settlement
long forgotten – a veritable ghost city, occupied
only by birds and beasts, and very likely a hideout
for thieves” (p11).
This is what Dhritarashtra had apportioned to the
fatherless sons of his younger brother. This is what
Delhi has at its base. As Nita Berry says at the end,
“...it is probably the world’s oldest capital city” (p
90). It is thus a fascinating blend of the old and the
new, with a skyline of ancient monuments and
modern high-rise buildings.
How did it evolve to this stage? That is what Nita
Berry narrates, taking us through the reigns of
Prithviraj, Tughlak, Shahjahan, George V and
beyond.
The book opens with a gloriously illustrated
double-page Map of Delhi showing its seven cities.
There is a short prologue, followed by:
(1)Before the Dawn of History, (2) Dillika – The
First City,(3)The Second City – Siri is born, (3) A
Glimpse of Tughlakabad – the Third City, (4)
Refuge of the World- Jahanpanah, the Fourth City,
(5) Building the Fifth City – Firozabad, (6) Delhi’s
Darkest Days, (7) New Beginnings at Sher Shahi -
The Sixth City, (8) The Splendour of the Seventh
City – Shahjahanabad, (9) Lutyen’s New Delhi – A
Modern Capital.
There is a historical running through the accounts
of the seven cities, and evocative photographs and
pen-and-inch sketches in colour add a new
36
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
Dipavali Sen
dimension to Nita Berry’s text.
The book ends with a brief Epilogue-about New
Delhi Today, and a short Glossary.
The phenomenon of Imperialsm has left its mark on
Delhi. The British Empire at its zenith decides that
the capital of their most precious colony should be
shifted from Calcutta to Delhi. 1911-12 is the
centenary of that momentous event, and thus the
occasion of the publication of several books on
Delhi as a city. Compared to Calcutta, Delhi has a
shorter history as the capital of British India. In fact
it can be argued that it was a mistake on the part of
the Empire to shift the capital. Bengal was where
the East India Company had won its first territorial
foothold. The Permanent Settlement and the rise of
the zamindari system had steadied that foothold.
With the emergence of the ‘babu’s or the educated
Bengalis, the imperialistic foundations had become
quite unshakeable. In spite of the rise of
Nationalism and its violent manifestations, perhaps
the British would have done better if they had stuck
to old, familiar Calcutta rather than create a ‘New’
Delhi.
But history did not happen that way. Imperialist
rule gifted India with a ‘modern’ capital. It was in a
British-constructed building that the President of
India resides.
Connought Place has been renamed Rajiv Chowk,
but the imperialistic stamp remains. The
Commonwealth Games only carry on that
imperialist tradition.
But under the layers of recent history, the ancient
layers still lie. This book reminds us of that, and
connects Delhi today with the Delhi of
Mahabharata times.
37
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
Useful information regarding the Indian Renaissance Institute All India Study Camp to be held
on 31 December 2011 and 1 January 2012
Venue: Hotel Sagnik, Murshidabad, West Bengal, (Astabal more, Lalbagh, Near State Bank of India, Lalbagh Branch) How to
reach there:Murshidabad, which is about 190 km from Kolkata, could be reached by a 4/5-30 hours journey by train. The
schedules are: Trains from Sealdah to Murshidabad, a) 53175 Lalgola Passenger (departure 12-30, arrival 17-50 provides
second class and non-ac first class), b) 13103 Bhagirathi Express (departure 18-25, arrival 22-05, provides second class and
non-ac and ac chair car), c) 53181 Lalgola Passenger, (departure.23-05, arrival 3-55, provides non AC first class and non AC
second class sleeper, no bed role). Trains from Kolkata to Murshidabad, 13113 Hazarduari Express (departure 6-50, arrival
11-20, provides AC and non AC chair cars). Trains from Murshidabad to Sealdah, a) 53178 Lalgola Passenger (departure 9-25,
arrival 15-15), b) 13104 Bhagirathi Express (departure 6-20, arrival 10-25), c) 53172 Lalgola Passenger, (departure. 22-30,
arrival 4-30).Trains from Murshidabad to Kolkata, 13114 Hazarduari Express (departure 15-40, arrival 21-25).Participants are
advised to check the train schedules. Those who are willing to travel by road might consult the taxi services available at
airport/railway station. Registration fee: Rs 300, Rs 150 (for students and whole-time social workers). Registration fee will
provide meals and snacks from the night of 30 December 2011 to the morning of 2 January 2012 and conference
materials.Accommodation: Charges to be paid by the participants according to the tariff of Hotel Sagnik. Accommodation
preferably sharing basis should be booked by the participants through the organizing committee by sending the necessary
charges, which are as follows (Rs / room/ day). Double bedded 450, three bedded 550, AC double bedded 700, AC three bedded.
950, eight bedded dormitory. 1200. Check in/out time 8 a.m. Participants are advised to come on 30 December 2010 and leave in
the morning of 2 January 2011. Those who are willing to extend the stay are advised to intimate beforehand. The session of the
study camp will start at 9-30 a.m. and terminate at 5 p.m. on both the days. There will be public seminars/cultural programmes
on both the days. Advice regarding clothing etc: Murshidabad will be considerably cool during the period and participants are
advised to bring woolen garments.Murshidabad, situated on the bank of the Ganges is the former capital of Nawab of Bengal,
Bihar and Orissa and is famous for silk and bell metal items. There are many historical places around. The district headquarter is
Baharampur (8 km).Contact through e-mail 1) Najimuddin Sk [email protected] 2) Ajit Bhattacharyya
[email protected] 3) Subhankar Ray [email protected] Participants, who want accommodation, are advised
to bring their photo identity cards.
Humanist News Section:
I
Press Release by All India Forum For
Right To Education (AIF-RTE)
[issued at the end of a 4-day visit of the AIF-RTE
team to the Jammu University campus earlier this
week at the invitation of the Progressive Students
Association (PSA)]
The 3-member team of the ALL INDIA
FORUM FOR RIGHT TO
EDUCATION (AIF-RTE) drawn from Madhya
Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Delhi on a visit to
Jammu University campus earlier this week
participated in a Seminar on “New Recruitment
Policy, Education and Globalisation” organized by
the Progressive Students Association (PSA). After
holding wide-ranging discussions in the city and
visiting schools in the surrounding rural areas, the
AIF-RTE team expresses its deep shock at the
anti-Constitutional, anti-youth and anti-education
character of the New Recruitment Policy recently
declared by the Government of Jammu & Kashmir.
The state government’s decision to deny regular
pay scales to the new recruits in various
non-gazetted cadres w.e.f. November 1, 2011 shall
amount to 5 to 6-fold lower salaries than the present
ones. Expectedly, in a state where the government
employment constitutes the major source of
livelihood for educated youth, the government is
facing increasing popular resistance from various
sections of students and youth.
The new policy violates the established
Constitutional principle of ‘equal wages for equal
work’ under Article 14 and 15 (1) of the
Constitution. Further, the Table of fixed monthly
salaries issued by the state government reveals that
the new recruits under the first two pay bands shall
be paid less than even the Minimum Wages notified
by the government itself. This clearly violates the
Minimum Wages Act and also Articles 41 (Right to
Work) and 43 (Living Wages with decent standard
of life, leisure and social & cultural opportunities)
read in conjunction with Article 21 (Right to Life
with dignity).
That renders the New Recruitment Policy
anti-education also is the fact that it will
significantly downgrade the emoluments of the
teaching and non-teaching staff as well at both
school and college-university levels, thereby
demotivating qualified youth from joining
educational services. In this sense, the new policy
extends the World Bank-promoted ongoing
frivolous Rahabar-e-Talim (Para Teachers)
scheme across all educational levels which is
bound to worsen the quality of teaching in
increasingly discredited government institutions.
Consequently, the pace of privatization and
commercialization of education shall further
accelerate, as mandated by the World Bank.
Clearly, the aforesaid recruitment policy is
designed to promote profiteering of the upcoming
corporate sector by decreasing the bargaining
power of the state’s youth by a factor of almost 5 to
6-fold. This will be in accordance with the World
Bank-dictate under its Structural Adjustment
Programme imposed on Indian economy leading to
further impoverishment, inequality and
discrimination in the state.
The AIF-RTE team is equally disturbed at seeing
how the state government is blatantly pushing the
corporate agenda of crass commercialization in
higher education by initiating a series of
self-financing courses even in public-funded
colleges and universities, including Jammu
University. In its paper entitled, ‘Achievements of
Higher Education Department for 2009-10’, the
state government admits that in order to “boost the
private sector 74 NOCs in respect of MBA, MCA,
BCA, BBA, PGDCA courses have been issued to
various Societies/ Trusts”. This implies that the
youth from low-income groups will be denied
equal opportunities to access higher education and
thus be excluded from participation in the state’s
economy.
We also deplore the flimsy alibi offered by Hon’ble
Chief Minister that the New Recruitment Policy
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
38
will enable his government to offer jobs to more
people, while camouflaging his real agenda of
decreasing the role of the government sector in
favour of the corporate sector. Is the Hon’ble Chief
Minister expecting the youth to accept such
demeaning fixed monthly salaries which are lower
than the Minimum Wages? The hidden agenda of
the policy is to force the educated youth to shift to
the profit-hungry corporate sector with 5 to 6-fold
reduced bargaining power! This is precisely why
the state government has conducted repeated
rounds of arrests of the students and youth
protesting its aforesaid policy, slapped false
charges on them and unleashed a regime of
repression. To make matters worse, during our stay
in Jammu earlier this week, a group of lumpen
youth aligned with the ruling coalition physically
assaulted Progressive Students Association (PSA)
members conducting silent protest at the university
campus, while the university authorities looked
away.
During its visit to rural schools, we were dismayed
to note the lackadaisical quality of teaching and low
levels of achievements in various subjects,
especially languages, science and mathematics,
apart from dismal the state of laboratories and
libraries. We further noted that less than 10% of the
children entering Class I are able to cross Class XII;
this excludes those who never enter schools at all
like those of the Bakharwal and other nomadic
tribes. Thus more than 90% of the children are
denied access to higher education.
The AIF-RTE team, therefore, demands from the
Government of Jammu & Kashmir that,
1. The New Recruitment Policy is withdrawn
unconditionally forthwith and is replaced by a New
Employment and Livelihood Policy in accordance
with the Constitution.
2. A New Education Policy is instituted such that
all children, including those of the nomadic tribes
(e.g. Bakharwals), are guaranteed free education of
equitable quality up to Class XII and enabled to
have equal opportunity to access higher education
courses under Articles 14 and 15 (1) along with
social justice under Article 16 of the Constitution.
3. A fully public-funded Common School System
based on Neighbourhood schools, governed in a
decentralized, participative and democratic mode,
is instituted within a time-bound frame.
4. The present policy of pushing self-financing
courses is replaced by a new policy of promoting
fully public-funded advanced technical and
vocational courses such that even the poorest of the
state’s youth can move forward.
The ruthless repression unleashed on the students
and youth, protesting against the New Recruitment
Policy and demanding a responsible public-funded
education system of equitable quality, is stopped
forthwith and their civil liberties and democratic
rights restored under Articles 19 (1) and 21 of the
Constitution.
—Dr. Anil Sadgopal, Bhopal, Member, Presidium,
All India Forum for Right to Education, & former
Dean, Faculty of Education, University of Delhi
Sh. Trepan Singh Chauhan, Member, National
Executive, All India Forum for Right to Education,
& Leader, Chetna Andolan, Uttarakhand
Ms. Rakhi Gupta, Delhi Shiksha Adhikar Manch,
Delhi
Board of Advisers: Prof. Ramakant Agnihotri, Prof.
Wasi Ahmed, Dr. P.M. Bhargava, Dr. Vashanti V.
Devi, Prof. Sudarshan Iyengar, Dr. G.G.Parikh,
Prof. N.D. Patil, Prof. K. Chakradhar Rao, Dr.B.D.
Sharma, Dr. Banwari Lal Sharma, Sri S.P. Shukla,
Sri Shatrughan, P.D. Singh, Sri Bhai Vaidya, Prof.
Rooprekha Verma
Presidium: Prof. Meher Engineer, Sri Prabhakar
Arade, Prof G. Hargopal, Sri Kedar Nath Pandey,
Ms Madhu Prasad, Prof Anil Sadgopal, Sri Sunil.
Secretariat: Sri D. Ramesh Patnaik; Ms Guddi
S.L.; Dr. Sarwat Ali; Dr. Shaheen Ansari; Ms Geeta
Athreya; Sri Trepan Singh Chauhan; Ms Simantini
Dhuru; Sri Ajit Jha; Dr. Radhika Menon; Dr. V.N.
Sharma.
39
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
II
Rationalist-Humanist, Mr Murahari Rao
Kotapati is no more
Dear Rekha ji
This morning Mr Murahari Rao Kotapati,
rationalist-Humanist died in Hyderabad at the age
of 79. He was in the movement since 4 decades. He
worked for the eradication of child labor. He
developed seeds and propagated healthy seeds for
peasants.
He toured USA and Europe and participated in
Humanist study camps.
He was a philanthropist who financed several
rationalist-humanist publications in Telugu.
He is survived by his wife, three daughters and one
son. His daughter Chandralatha is a popular
humanist writer.
—Innaiah Narisetti
[Mr Murahari Rao is in the middle, rationalist
Mr Narra Kotaiah on the right, Mr Innaiah
Narisetti on the left]
III
News from Baloch Human Rights Council:
Remembering Mir Gul Khan Naseer, ‘The
Poet of Balochistan’, 14 May 1914 – 6
December 1983
Baloch Human Rights Council is organizing a
memorial gathering in memory of Mir Gul Khan
Naseer on Sunday 11
December 2011 at the
University of .
The memorial meeting
is to pay tributes to great
nationalist poet and
political leader of
Balochistan. One of
pioneer revolutionary
and nationalist poet of
Balochistan, Mir Gul
Khan Naseer is
considered to be among
the founding fathers of
contemporary Baloch national struggle in Pakistan.
As a leader of Kalat State National Party (KSNP)
and National Awami Party (NAP), he was the close
associate of Nawab Akbar Bugti, Nawab khair
Bakhsh Marri, Mir Gous Bakhsh Bizanjo and
Sardar Ataullah Mengal. His literacy contribution
includes many books on the history and politics of
Balochistan.
BHRC (UK) requests all Baloch and Balochi
loving persons to join us in paying rich tributes to
revolutionary poet of Balochistan.
Event information:
Venue: Room 2B (2nd Floor), University of
London Union Building, Mallet Street, London
WC1E 7HY
Date and time: Sunday 11 December 2011 (2.00-
6.00 PM)
Nearest Tube Stations: Russell Square, Euston
Square.
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Issued by: Samad Baloch, General Secretary,
Baloch Human Rights Council (UK), London, 19
December 2011
40
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
THE RADICAL HUMANIST DECEMBER 2011
IRI - All India Study Camp at Murshidabad
Dear Friends, If you are planning to participate in the IRI All-India Study Camp to be held on 31
December 2011 and 1 January 2012 at Murshidabad you are requested to kindly fill the following blank
Registration Form and send it to us along with your remittance in the form of a bank draft or A/C Payee
Cheque so as to reach us within 30 November 2011. Registration fee and accommodation charges are
given in the earlier announcement on page no. 8 of this Nov. 2011, issue. With best regards,
Ajit Bhattacharyya, President, Organizing Committee, Najimuddin Sk, Secretary, Organizing
Committee
Registration Format for Participants of the IRI All India Study Camp
1. Name (in block letters)
2. Full postal address and e-mail identity (if any)
3. Whether accommodation required yes/no
4. Amount remitted (cash/cheque/draft no.)
A) Registration
B) Accommodation charges
C) Other charges (if any)
Total Rs.
Dated Signature
Note Bank draft/ account payee cheque should be drawn in favour of ‘Indian Radical Humanist
Association’. For outstation cheques add Rs 50 as service charge. Draft/cheque along with Registration
form duly filled should be either hand delivered to Indian Radical Humanist Association, West Bengal
Unit,15 Bankim Chatterjee Street (second floor), Kolkata 700 073 (see below) or by registered
post/courier to Sri Subhankar Ray 13 Regent Estate, Kolkata 700 092. Participants might directly
deposit the amount to the account of Indian Radical Humanist Association through any State Bank of
India branch having core banking facility (the account numbered 10959204035 is at State Bank of India
Park Street Branch, Kolkata). However participants are requested to confirm this in their respective
bank branch and should send a copy of the deposit receipt. Money orders will not be accepted. Cash
payment could be made only personally either to the treasurer Sri Sushil Chandra Kar or to the office
secretary Sri Arun Bose at the office premises of Indian Radical Humanist Association, West Bengal
Unit, Monday to Thursday, and Saturday (4.30-7.30 p.m.).
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NEW FROM RENAISSANCE
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Between Renaissance and Revolution-Selected Essays: Vol. I- H.C.350.00
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