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DELHI THE HINDU
FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 201912EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
CMYK
A ND-NDE
EDITORIAL
Farahnaz Ispahani
Barely two weeks after Pakistani Christian Asia Naureen(usually referred to as Asia
Bibi), whose ordeal over false blasphemy charges attracted international attention, was allowed toleave the country, Pakistan’s blasphemy laws claimed new victims.
In MirpurkhasA Hindu veterinary doctor, Ramesh Kumar, was arrested inSindh province on May 27 after alocal cleric fi��led a police complaintaccusing him of committing blasphemy. Mr. Kumar’s village Phulhadiyon, in Mirpurkhas district,has a population of about 7,000people, the majority of whom areHindus. As is often the case whenblasphemy allegations are made inPakistan, riots broke out in thearea and an angry mob burntdown Mr. Kumar’s establishmentas well as other property belonging to him and his family. The mobalso tried to attack the police station and caused some damage inthe process. Although six suspectswere soon taken into custody forrioting and damaging the vet’sproperty, it is Mr. Kumar’s familythat will now be living in fear whilehis prosecution meanders throughPakistan’s judicial system.
Ms. Bibi’s experience highlightsthe diffi��cult path ahead for Mr. Kumar. Her relocation to Canadadoes not refl��ect substantive
change in the persecuted state ofPakistan’s religious minorities. Pakistan’s draconian blasphemy lawsremain in force, and there is nosign that the authorities plan todrop prosecution of hundreds ofblasphemy cases.
Between 1987 and 2012, Pakistani authorities prosecuted 1,170 people for blasphemy. That numberhas only increased over the years.The Pakistani legal system off��erslittle protection to someonecharged with blasphemy and mereaccusation is tantamount to punishment. Judges and lawyers fearreligious vigilantes who violentlyattack anyone they deem to besupporting a blasphemer.
Salmaan Taseer, Governor ofPakistan’s Punjab province, waskilled by his own bodyguard in2011 for supporting reconsideration of blasphemy laws; the judgewho convicted his murderer hadto fl��ee the country; and a shrinewas built for the assassin after hisexecution.
Ms. Bibi’s case attracted international attention. She was an unlettered berrypicker convicted bya Pakistani court of insulting Prophet Mohammed after beingframed by neighbours who objected to her, as a Christian, drinkingwater from the same glass as them.She was sentenced to death for hercomments in response to herneighbours’ mistreatment. Support from churchgoers and human rights defenders around theworld meant that the U.S. government and the Pope paid attentionto her case. Parallel eff��orts wereinitiated by the EU’s Special Envoyfor Freedom of Religion or Beliefto secure her release.
Last year Pakistan’s Supreme
Court decided to hear her appealafter having ignored it for years.She had spent more than eightyears in solitary confi��nement before being acquitted by the Supreme Court in October 2018. ButIslamist groups took to the streetsto protest that decision, and a review petition against her releasewas put in to block the SupremeCourt’s decision. Even after the review petition was dismissed, Ms.Bibi remained under ‘protectivecustody’ at an unknown location.Eventually, pressure from Westerngovernments and the Vatican, coupled with threats of EU sanctionsat a time when Pakistan sought itsthirteenth bailout from the International Monetary Fund in threedecades, worked.
Pakistan’s allpowerful militaryand the civilian government installed last year are obsessed withimproving Pakistan’s internationalimage, without really changing itsreality. They wanted Ms. Bibi’sfl��ight to safety to be projected asrefl��ecting a change in Pakistan’streatment of its minorities. It isnothing of the sort, as the persecution of Mr. Kumar amply indicates.
Lonely struggle?Unlike Ms. Bibi, Mr. Kumar is unlikely to have the support of West
ern governments and the Vatican.Any action by Hindu organisationsin India or abroad on his behalfwill only be misrepresented in Pakistan’s offi��cially directed media aspart of the ‘ongoing conspiracies’against the country that are usedas an excuse to maintain Pakistan’s semiauthoritarian powerstructure.
Ms. Bibi was eventually smuggled out of Pakistan. Those whofought for her freedom for overeight years rejoiced in a way usually reserved for a member of one’sown family. We all hope that shemay know peace and happinessfor her remaining life abroad. Butwe must not forget that, withoutmajor reform in its legal and political environment, Pakistan continues to have one of the worst trackrecords in protecting its religiousminorities.
Christians, Hindus, and AhmadiMuslims continue to face persecution and the country’s blasphemylaws, under which Ms. Bibi wastargeted, enable that repression.Blasphemy charges are fi��led routinely by Islamist extremists forpolitical gain, by neighbours forrevenge over a slight, and sometimes even by corrupt landlordsfor advantage in property disputes.
Pakistan’s blasphemy laws,which date back to the militarydictatorship of General ZiaulHaq,have only encouraged the unleashing of extremist religious frenzy.According to an Amnesty International report, the mere accusationof blasphemy is tantamount topunishment. Several cases illustrate that point.
Junaid Hafeez, a visiting lecturer of English at Bahauddin Zakaria
University in Multan, has been inprison for the last six years afterbeing accused of blasphemy by Islamist student activists. He wascharged because he invited aspeaker to a seminar who had allegedly “penned blasphemouspassages in her book”.
His lawyer dropped him as aclient after being mobbed by over200 fellow lawyers; when humanrights defender Rashid Rehmantook up his case, he was shot deadin his offi��ce. The killer has neverbeen apprehended and judges donot want to hear the case, whichhas been transferred from onecourt since 2013.
For Pakistan’s religious minorities to feel safe, Pakistan’s blasphemy laws must be tackled, amended or removed as a crucial fi��rststep. After that, or alongside, mustbegin the decadeslong process ofremoving the seed of hatredsowed soon after the death of Pakistan’s founder Muhammad AliJinnah. That would involve an effort of mammoth proportionsstarting with the defanging of terrorist groups, changing school curriculum, and banning hate speechin all public venues. Political andreligious leaders as well as themass media must become a partner in confronting hate. So far, itseems that they would rather benefi��t from spreading the poison ofcommunal hatred than confronting it.
Farahnaz Ispahani, a former member of
Pakistan’s Parliament, is author of
‘Purifying The Land of the Pure:
Pakistan’s Religious Minorities’. She is
Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson
Center in Washington, DC and Senior
Fellow of the Religious Freedom Institute
Pakistan’s blasphemy ordeal Just the accusation of blasphemy can be punishment for the accused and their defenders
AF
P
more letters online:
www.hindu.com/opinion/letters/
corrections & clarifications: The report headlined “Studying Olive Ridleys” (some editions, June 6, 2019) had erroneouslyreferred to them as endangered marine turtles. They should havebeen described as vulnerable.
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Language makes us human.During the process of naturalevolution, the human brain
acquired the ability to engage withthe world primarily through linguistic transactions. Language,therefore, has become the modeof knowing for Homo sapiens. Being the foundation of knowledge,language plays a pivotal role in formal institutions of knowledge. It isas necessary for thought andknowledge to exist as are air andwater for the survival of life.
Scientifi��c evidence shows thathumans came to use language, asemiotic system made of verbalicons, some 70,000 years ago. Thespecies continued to develop thebrain’s linguistic ability as well asthe semantic complexity of languages in use throughout thesemillennia. The intermittent prolonged spells of the ice ages didnot deter the species in its language pursuit. We are now at astage when a newborn manages tolearn the entire language capability of the brain developed over thelast 70,000 years.
By the time a child entersschool, she already has the language competence that schoolspromise to give her. This is not toundermine the importance of formal education. Schooling can indeed bring a greater selfawareness of the language one uses. It
can, under ideal conditions, helpthe learner in acquiring a greaterease in processing abstraction andjudgment, the two highest cognitive abilities that the human brainhas developed. It is now established beyond doubt that if achild receives formal instructionin the language of its home environ, the ease of doing cognitivetransactions is enhanced.
The second language As one tries to understand the nature of the language controversythat erupted last week, it shouldbe instructive to ask how manylanguages children in most othercountries are required to learn.The answer to this question canleave us ashamed and angry. InEngland, Germany and most European Union countries, childrenare required to study only one language in primary school andanother language of their choice inmiddle school. In the U.S., it is English and Spanish or some otherlanguage as a ‘second language’.In Japan, it is Japanese and Englishfrom the primary level. In HongKong, it is primarily English, butalso Mandarin and, if childrenwish, some Cantonese. In Egypt,Arabic is the primary language ofinstruction with a sixyear stint inEnglish as a ‘second language’. Almost all over the world, with theexception of some former colonies, children are required to study primarily one language andanother one as a ‘second language’. In India they are asked totackle three languages, and if theirhome language happens to haveno formal status, they are facedwith the daunting task of having to
cope with four languages.The UNESCO Institute for Statis
tics and Global Education Monitoring had reported in 2016 that therewere 47 million dropouts by the10th standard in India. Of course,gender discrimination, absence oftoilets for girls, economic marginalisation, poor infrastructure, inadequate teacher training and lackof employment at the end of highschool education contribute to the‘expulsion’ of young learners fromschools. But equally crucial a reason is the language challenge. Ifwe have to bring this great injustice to an end, sooner or later India will have to accept the scientific premise that education in themother tongue is the key to the lifeof the mind. ‘Mother tongue’ doesnot, however, mean the languagedetermined by the state as a desirable ‘fi��rst’ language but a languagethat parents think will give thechild the ease of learning.
A colonial legacyThe question of language education as well as that of the languagefor education has three importantfacets — linguistic (including neurological and pedagogical), political and administrative. Since Independence, we have laid adisproportionately high emphasison the administrative side of this
question. For purely administrative considerations we have keptoscillating between one positionand another, bringing in its trailbitterly fought language battles.The colonial legacy of English as alanguage of modernity and knowledge has made it diffi��cult for us tobring the vacillations to any rational conclusion. The nation appearsto have forgotten the violent language movements in the past inTelangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka; now the draft National Education Policy (NEP) has opened afestering wound once again.
The face of the controversystoked through the draft is of a political nature. During the last twodecades, NEPs have become anold habit with us, though none ofthem resulted in any genuinelyfresh breakthrough in education.The new NEP draft comes at a timewhen the nation is sharply divided, thanks to the noholdsbarredabusive rhetoric during the recentelection. It is not surprising thatwhat was posthaste deleted cameto be seen as imposition of Hindiin violation of the linguistic sovereignty of the States guaranteed bythe Constitution.
The BJP’s zealThe zeal of the BJP to spread Hindiin nonHindi States is based ondeeply fl��awed premises. To beginwith, the government does nothave any authentic data on the linguistic composition of the country. The 2011 Census data on languages, published last year, washeavily doctored. It presents Hindias the ‘mother tongue’ of over 52crore people by subsuming morethan 5 crore claimants of Bhojpuri
and more than 9 crore speakers ofnearly 61 other languages —claimed as ‘other’ by their speechcommunities — from Rajasthan,Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand,Haryana, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. ‘TheHindi’ is probably spoken by notmore than 30% of the population,but it is not the mother tongue forthe remaining 70%. Knowinglycausing risk to any indigenous language has been described by theUNESCO as ‘an act amounting togenocide’. I will use the term ‘phonocide’ to describe the expansionist aspirations in the name of nationalism. The aspirations are notto be attributed to the speakers ofHindi, but to the politics of thepseudonationalists who have nopatience with the cultural diversity of India, so sensitively enshrined in the Constitution.
The sharp reaction that cameup refl��ects democratic aspirationsof the nonHindi languages. Thesparks that fl��ew — before the controversy was hurriedly doused,probably temporarily so — foretellthe larger political narrative forthe coming years. In numerousways, it is likely to be a confl��ict between the pseudonationalists andthe constitutional democrats, aconfl��ict over culture, language,knowledge, faith, history, worldviews and approaches to modernity. One hopes it does not take theform of a north against south confl��ict. Language, being the foundation of both civilisation and knowledge, has naturally become theopening move in what is to come.
G.N. Devy is Chairman, the People’s
Linguistic Survey of India
Language, the opening moveThe ‘Hindi’ controversy foretells the larger political narrative for the coming years
G.N. Devy
SP
EC
IAL A
RR
AN
GE
ME
NT
Slow growthWith the World Bankforecasting slow globalgrowth, it is necessary forthe government to takeproactive economicmeasures (“PM to headcommittee in economicgrowth,” June 6). With thebalance sheets ofcorporates and banksdeteriorating, there isconcern about the fi��scalpolicies that are beingpursued by thegovernment. Apart fromthis, data transparency isfound wanting, as seen inthe delay in releasingfi��gures on unemployment.There should be a properbriefi��ng on thedeliberations of thesecommittees so that citizens
can distinguish betweenrhetoric and reality.V. Subramanian,
Chennai
After suggesting that all iswell through his pakodaexample and refusing totalk about unemploymentin his election campaign,the Prime Minister has nowconstituted a Cabinetcommittee to look into theproblem. Problems likethese cannot be solvedovernight. If sincere eff��ortsare taken now, it may yieldresults after three or fouryears, perhaps to enhanceconfi��dence in the campaignfor the next generalelection. A.G. Rajmohan,
Anantapur
Language problemsThe main argument ofthose advocating Hindi isthat it would help innational integration (“Hindior English, comparingapples and oranges”, June6). India is already a wellintegrated country. In fact,it is the fear of impositionof Hindi by the Centralgovernment that is seen asdiscriminatory and that iscausing disquiet in nonHindi speaking regions. Ourlanguage policy’s primaryobjective of replacingEnglish with Hindi will becounterproductive in aglobalised world. It wouldbe in the larger nationalinterest if English isadopted as a compulsorysecond language in all
schools and colleges. Hindimay be off��ered as anoptional subject forstudents who wish to learna third language.Kosaraju Chandramouli,
Hyderabad
In 1965, as a young boy Ihad participated in theantiHindi agitation only torealise years later themistake of refusing to learnHindi. I got a job in a publicsector undertaking inBombay and in a batch of35 offi��cers, only four of usfrom Tamil Nadu could notunderstand Hindi. This wasa great handicap. Studentsof Tamil Nadu should beprovided an opportunity tolearn Hindi as they onlystand to benefi��t from
government to tackle thisproblem. Citizens mustadopt ecofriendly lifestylesand reduce conspicuousconsumption. Carpooling,using bicycles and retaininga certain percentage ofgreen cover within theirhouses are some measuresthat citizens can take. Y. Meena,
Hyderabad
learning the language. V.J. Singh,
Tirunelveli
Breathing clean airThis year’s theme for WorldEnvironment Day, ‘Beat airpollution’, must be takenseriously by India (“Makeecological problems apolitical issue: Rahul,” June6). It would beirresponsible to completelyput the onus on the
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to [email protected] must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
When Sudanese dictator Omar alBashir was
toppled on April 11 after a monthslong popu
lar uprising, the generals had two options be
fore them. One was the Tunisian model in which the ar
my allowed a smooth transition of power to a civilian
government after Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was removed
from power in 2011. The other was the Egyptian model
in which the army, after losing power to a civilian ruler
following Hosni Mubarak’s ouster as President in 2011,
staged a coup in 2013 and reinstalled itself at the helm.
Unfortunately, the Sudanese generals chose the latter,
setting the stage for a prolonged showdown. The prot
esters had demanded a transfer of power to a transi
tional civilian government, followed by free and fair
elections. But the generals used the crisis to concen
trate more powers in their own hands. They established
a military council which took over governance, while
angry protesters continued a sitin in front of the De
fence Ministry in Khartoum. As talks between prode
mocracy activists and the military rulers collapsed, pa
ramilitary groups unleashed deadly violence this week
to break the sitin, killing at least 100 people and injur
ing hundreds. The Rapid Support Forces, the paramili
tary troops notorious for atrocities committed in the
impoverished western province of Darfur in the early
2000s, reportedly threw the dead into the Nile.
It is evident that the military will not easily give up
power. After the crackdown, Lt. General Abdel Fattah
alBurhan, the military ruler, has off��ered to hold elec
tions in nine months, upturning an earlier plan of a
twoyear transition. But there is no immediate plan to
transfer power to a civilian transitional government, a
key demand of the protesters. Unsurprisingly, they
have rejected the military’s off��er. At present, Sudan’s
generals enjoy regional and international support. The
UN Security Council couldn’t even condemn the vio
lence as China, backed by Russia, blocked the move.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which of
fered fi��nancial aid to the junta as soon as Mr. Bashir was
removed from power, also support the generals. This
gives the military rulers a sense of impunity even when
they unleash murderous paramilitaries on peaceful
protesters. This has to change. Arab countries as well as
the UN should put meaningful pressure on the military
council to pay heed to popular demands and hold those
responsible for the June 3 massacre accountable. There
is no easy solution to the crisis. If the military wants to
keep its grip on power, there could be more bloodshed
as the protesters are defi��ant. It will have to necessarily
build a more oppressive regime, as in Egypt after the
2013 coup. The other, wiser option is to compromise,
resume talks with the protesters and facilitate a quick
and orderly transition to civilian rule. The choice the
generals make will determine the future of Sudan.
Sudan on the brinkThe military rulers must climb down and
transfer power to a civilian government
There were no surprises in the second bimonthly
monetary policy announcement by the Reserve
Bank of India. A 25 basis point (0.25 percentage
point) cut was widely expected, and the RBI delivered
that. Whether a deeper 50 basis point cut was neces
sary, given the sharp slowdown in the economy, is now
a purely scholastic question. With infl��ation well under
the benchmark fi��gure of 4%, the stage was probably set
for the RBI to spring a surprise but it chose to play con
servative. Maybe the idea is to keep the powder dry for
a further rate cut, if needed, in the next policy. If the
economy fails to recover well enough from its slumber
by August, the onus will, after all, shift back to the RBI.
That said, there is enough in the latest policy to indicate
that the RBI’s focus is now on growth. The change of
stance to ‘accommodative’ from ‘neutral’, the state
ments by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das at the press
conference that ensuring systemic liquidity will remain
a priority for the central bank, and the setting up of an
internal working group to review the existing liquidity
management framework, all clearly point to a central
bank that is not only listening to the demands of the key
stakeholders in the economy, but also acting on them.
The one area where the RBI has some work to do is in
the transmission of rates. By its own admission, only 21
of the cumulative 50 basis points rate cut eff��ected by
the RBI in the February and April policies has been
passed on to borrowers by banks. The excuse from
banks, at least in the last few months, was that liquidity
was tight and so deposit rates could not be cut. Howev
er, liquidity has considerably improved in the last week,
and more so with the new government loosening the
purse strings. There cannot be any more excuses from
banks to not pass on the cuts fully. The RBI’s decision to
do away with its charges on RTGS/ NEFT (Real Time
Gross Settlement System/ National Electronic Funds
Transfer) transactions is welcome provided it can,
again, ensure that banks pass on the benefi��t to custom
ers. The central bank has also proposed measures such
as a reduction in the leverage ratio under Basel norms
for banks, which will increase their lendable resources.
The projected growth rate for this fi��scal has been lo
wered to 7% from the 7.2% projected in April, and the
fi��rsthalf growth is estimated at 6.46.7%, which by itself
appears ambitious given the current trends in the eco
nomy. With the RBI having done its bit, the focus shifts
to the Finance Ministry. There are tremendous expecta
tions from the government over the next round of re
forms, backed as it is by a strong mandate. The onus is
now on the budget, to be presented on July 5, to un
leash the animal spirits again in the economy.
No surprisesThe RBI has played conservative in
announcing a rate cut of just 25 basis points
https://t.me/TheHindu_Zone_official
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THE HINDU DELHI
FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 2019 13EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
CMYK
A ND-NDE
OPED
Doctors and aircraft technicians today [ June 6] puzzled overthe apparently impossible feat of a young Cuban who survivedthe freezing ordeal of an 8hour fl��ight to Spain squeezed in theundercarriage of a DC8 jetliner. The man, an 18yearold welder A. Socarras, hid in the wheel compartment before the aircraft left Havana, and eight hours later tumbled unconsciousand halffrozen onto the runway of Madrid’s Barajas airport.He appears to have survived virtually unscathed after fl��ying5,600 miles at heights of up to 29,000 feet in an unpressurisedand unheated compartment, with temperatures dropping below minus 40°C. One medical theory today was that Socarrasspent the entire fl��ight in a state of frozen hibernation similar tothat induced in patients prior to complicated heart operationsor transplants. This state is produced in operating theatres atminus 28°C. The heart stops, leaving the patient frozen in suspended animation during the operation.
FIFTY YEARS AGO JUNE 7, 1969
Stowaway’s freezing ordeal
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FROM ARCHIVES
The Lord Bishop of Madras yesterday [in Coonoor on June 5]presided at the annual conference of Missionaries in connection with the South Indian Missionary Association at StanesSchool. The Rev. J. M. Baker read the report of the last year’swork. The following resolution was adopted: Believing thatthe consumption of alcohol in India is on the increase and iscausing injury to the Indian people; and believing that in spiteof all regulations the injury is sure to increase unless there isprohibition; and sympathising with the aspirations of Hinduand Mahomedan reformers to make all India dry, the CoonoorConference of the S.I.M.A. records its hearty approval of thisassociation uniting with other bodies throughout the land inthe eff��ort to make India a prohibition country in the fullestsense of that term, and that as a step towards that ultimate goalthe Government should be requested to give a wide extensionin the principle of local option.
A HUNDRED YEARS AGO JUNE 7, 1919.
Prohibition Movement
Every summer, I visit my family home in West Bengal.Summer is the worst time tovisit as it is unbearably hotin eastern India. This summer, however, feels diff��erent. The Lok Sabha election results are out, a newgovernment has beensworn in at the Centre, andthe West Bengal I have re
turned to is deeply polarised.Political consciousness was part of our upbringing. Ani
mated political discussions were the norm at home. I sawmy father regularly disagree with my grandfather. They voted for diff��erent parties. My grandfather would taunt my father before going to vote. These discussions were issue andideologybased. The criticism was primarily based upon theperformance of a candidate or the party she represented.Religion never featured in these discussions. We didn’t evenknow that religion could be an election issue, a site for contestation of the kind we saw in this election.
I don’t want to get into evocations of the ‘intellectual, progressive Bengali’. Having grown up here and then livedaway, I have come to realise that a certain kind of conservatism was always part of the social fabric of the State. Some ofthe literature, music, fi��lms and art of West Bengal helpedcounter that conservatism and aided in the creation of a distinct cultural identity.
The closest that Bengal got to experiencing religious fervour was during the Durga Puja festivities. More than religiosity, it was a social occasion for friends and families tomeet. Muslim friends and neighbours did not stay awayfrom the celebrations either. Categories such as ‘them’ and‘us’ didn’t exist. Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti didn’tfeature in the religious calendar of the State until a few yearsago.
Today, I see ‘them’ and ‘us’ as the new narrative of theState. From tea shops to bazaars to metro stations, everybody seems to be talking about how a certain community is being appeased by the current political dispensation in theState, succumbing to votebank politics. The majority feelthreatened because their wishes have been ignored. Theirreligious identity is apparently endangered.
Somebody recently took to social media to complain thattwo recently elected women parliamentarians posing infront of Parliament wearing western outfi��ts were notdressed appropriately, that their behaviour was not fi��tting ofBengalis. The Bengal that I knew and grew up in was inclusive and did not tell people what to wear or eat or how to behave in public. It is that Bengal we ought to restore andpreserve.
The writer teaches literary and cultural studies at FLAME University,Pune
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A new Bengal? We ought to preserve the old Bengalthat was inclusive and did not tellpeople what to wear or eat
Kunal Ray
TW
ITT
ER
/ P
TI
Cultural learningSociology
This refers to how people living in a society learn variousthings from others around them and further spread suchknowledge to more people. Children, for instance, learn newthings by socialising with other children they meet as well aswith adults around them. So the kind of culture into whichthey are born infl��uences the behaviour of people right fromtheir childhood. Many believe that human beings and otherorganisms may be naturally wired to engage in cultural learning as it helps them to better adapt to the environment aroundthem, thus improving their chances of survival.
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CONCEPTUAL
Jungle Jewels: promoting eco-friendly jewellery
http://bit.ly/EcofriendlyJewels
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fi��nger which was freshlymarked with indelible ink.
Next came nervouslaughter. I tried to evadethe question using humour.Then I replied that I was amere observer who wassent to record their reactions; that I had no views ofmy own. The group wouldnot buy any of it. Theywere adamant. In the political war that was playingout across the country,they wanted to know whichside I was on.
I then tried giving vaguereplies about the race inthe Lok Sabha constituency that I voted in. Not satisfi��ed with my response, ayoung man in the group decided for himself my ideology and my political inclination. With the spread offake news on WhatsAppand the derisive use of theterm ‘left liberals’ while referring to the media, I wasan easy target. “If you canask us, why can’t we askyou?” he demanded. A fairrequest, after all.
As reporters sometimes wetake for granted our licenceto probe the political viewsof strangers. We demand toknow their castes as well astheir voting preferences.
I have forgotten thenumber of times I pushedgates, sat crosslegged onverandahs, interrupted teasessions and caught hold ofpeople while they wereworking in the fi��elds in therunup to the recent election. I cajoled them intoconversation and most ofthem obliged.
But what happens whenan interviewee turns the tables on you and asks, “Whodid you vote for? Whichside are you on? What ideology do you subscribe to?Who according to you isthe right candidate thiselection?”
I was speechless whenan insistent group in a village near Ajmer asked methese questions whilepointing at my left index
I defl��ected the questionby asking them about theboard game they were playing. The cement fl��oor had aframe drawn on it withchalk, and rounded greypebbles. The game wascalled charmaar or naukante, they explained. I stilldon’t know anything aboutthe game, but asking aboutit did get me off�� the hook.
Of course, not everyoneis always so persistent. Onthe same trip, I sought outa beautiful Rajasthani woman dressed in a parrotcoloured dupatta, silver bangles, armlets, a necklaceand a nose ring. We did notspeak each other’s language, yet we managed toconverse. In a thick Rajasthani dialect she asked,“You tell me, who should Ivote for?” I redirected theconversation to the everyday rigours of life.
Many respondents askthis question indirectly butpolitely to learn about ajournalist’s views.
From the fi��rst day in the
newsroom, we reportersare told that we are not thestory. We are told that wehave to try to fade into thebackground and imaginethat we are wearing HarryPotter’s invisibility cloakwhile our ears do most ofthe work. We must probe alittle and provoke a little inorder to ensure that theconversation goes on. Weare told to keep a tight lidon our own opinions andnot let the ‘confi��rmationbias’ creep in. We are toldto honestly refl��ect what wehear.
I have started questioning this ageold wisdomthough, especially withTwitter being ablaze withopinions and forcing reporters to pick a side.
Why should journalistsnot be entitled to their ownviews? As a respected journalist recently said, in divisive times you can’t be neutral; you have to beobjective.
I am still looking foranswers.
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NOTEBOOK
Turning the tables: when respondents ask reporters questions
A dilemma journalists grapple with during election time
Sobhana K. Nair
The BJP’s massive victory in the LokSabha election has thrown the Congress into disarray. With RahulGandhi insisting that he does notwant to continue as the president ofthe party, Mridula Mukherjee andRahul Verma talk about the Congress’s ideology and what couldkeep it afl��oat today. Edited excerptsof a conversation moderated byVarghese K. George:
Is the Congress history?
Mridula Mukherjee: No, the Congress has a long history but it is nothistory. I think it has a future. I thinkwe need the Congress more thanthe Congress needs us at this crucialjuncture, to provide ideological andorganisational leadership to theforces that are now tasked with thejob of defending the basic idea of India, which is in the Constitution. Idon’t think we can aff��ord to let theCongress become history.
Rahul, does the Congress havean ideology and is it relevant?
Rahul Verma: I think that’s the biggest challenge the Congress is facing. It does not have a clear ideological vision. Whenever you questionthem on what their ideological vision is, Congress leaders say theyare focusing on welfare policies andthat the party is going to lift peopleout of poverty. This cannot be anideological vision because no political party is going to take an opposing stand on some of these issues.On the question of social justice andsecularism, the Congress fails to distinguish itself from many of theStatelevel parties. Say, in U.P., howis the Congress diff��erent on the issue of social justice from the BSP?Or the RJD in Bihar?
So, what do you think could bea distinguishing ideologicalcharacter for the Congress,particularly in a societypolarised on religious lines?
RV: See, on many questions relatedto social justice, the Congress hasnot been clear from the beginning.Even the granting of SC/ST reservation happened under historicalcompromise. The Congress did
nothing on OBC reservation for along time. The Kaka Kalelkar Commission was formed, submitted reports in 1955, nothing happened tillIndira Gandhi came to the scene,Emergency happened. The MandalCommission came to the fore. So,the Congress can hang on to issuesof social justice and secularism, butbecause it does not have a clear lineon these questions it fails to distinguish itself from other parties.
On the question of socialjustice, particularly onaccommodating the rights oflower caste movements, theCongress has been very slow, ifat all responsive. Do you thinkthe Congress’s dominance byupper caste groups has led tothe party losing its grip on ruralIndia, particularly in placeswhere lower caste politicsbecame an appealing tool ofmobilisation?
MM: In the struggle for freedom,which is the bedrock of the Congress and I don’t think we can understand it even today without thatbackground, this is not true. Mahatma Gandhi, from the time he tookcharge of the Congress, made themost important issue of untouchability a basic plank of the Congress.Then through the 1920s and ’30s,not only did we have movementssuch as the Vaikom Satyagraha andthe Guruvayur Satyagraha, but alsomany other movements for socialreform. Gandhiji himself devoted almost two years of his life almost exclusively to the issue of caste andthe struggle against caste oppression. He went on a tour, which lasted almost a year, and visited themost remote, rural parts of India.He travelled by train, by foot, andsat in village compounds and argued with village pandits and theupper castes. The point I am tryingto make is, it’s not true that the Congress leadership has not grappledwith the issue of social justice. Obviously Gandhi’s way and the Congress’s way was diff��erent from Ambedkar’s way, but that happens veryoften. A party which is appealing tothe whole electorate cannot take aplank of either a leader of a group ora party which by necessity appeals
only to one section of the electorate.
That’s a fair point. However, alogical question that followsfrom that is regardless of whatGandhi may have done andwhat Nehru may have believed,the fact is that power underCongress regimes wasinvariably in the hands ofupper caste people.
MM: In various parts of the country,the middle caste movements, nonBrahmin movements merged withthe Congress from the late 1930sand threw up many leaders.
But has the party been willingto share power adequately withupper castes and Dalits since1947?
MM: I think the trouble is that weare looking at things from today’slens and essentially a lens that started in the 1980s and ’90s. The earlierperspective was not so much a question of sharing power at individuallevels. It was not a question of representation, it was more a question of programmes and policies.And there, of course, was the Congress perspective, the Nehru perspective, with the focus on economic development and povertyalleviation. Now, you can argue thatit was not right or wrong but thatdoes not mean that there was noperspective.
Rahul, Mridula is saying youshould judge a political partyby the programmes andpolicies it advocates. Do you
think that will be a goodenough case to get backwardcaste and Dalit votes in India?
RV: I don’t know whether policiesand programmes can bring votesfor the Congress. I partially agreewith the argument that one shouldnot judge a political dispensationjust by looking at whether it managed to provide representation togroups or not. But you cannot denythe fact that the making of the Indian Constitution at its very hearthad group representation, and eventhe Congress party was not advocating individual rights during themaking of the Constitution. Representational blockage of certaingroups became the starting point ofthe rise of socialist parties, which insome cases became the backwardcaste parties in the ’60s and ’70s.Even on the question of economicpolicies and programmes, what Ithink is that the Nehruvian era wasin some ways contested. We equateit with the idea of India but even inthose times, in the ’50s and ’60s,the Nehruvian idea was contestedfrom the right as well as from theleft. And what we see is that onceyou stop giving representation to
groups, the left and the right get anopportunity to mobilise groups. So,in the ’30s and ’40s, there was thesocialist left. Once Indira Gandhicame to power, she started movingthe Congress towards the left ofcentre, which opened the space forrightwing parties to coalesce there,and also rightwing groups withinthe Congress started moving out ofthe Congress. You would rememberthat the interim Prime Minister Gulzarilal Nanda was also one of thefounding members of the VishwaHindu Parishad. So, the point I’mtrying to make is, if the model youare building is based on group representation and you fail to providethat in the policies or within the party organisation or in the government, then this is bound to happen.
What should the Congress do toget renewed ideologicalidentity and focus?
MM: I still believe that secularism isat the core of the Congress’s ideology but I, of course, see that there aremany deviations from it and I wouldargue that here you have to get backon fi��rmer ground. One should notget frightened by accusations of appeasement. One must come out very clearly against communalism ofall kinds, whether Sikh or Christianor Muslim or Hindu. And one’s secularism has to be clearly asserted.You can defi��ne it in various ways,you can talk about social harmony,you can talk about love and peace,but secularism has to be at the core.
RV: One needs to understand whatthe ideological space of Indian politics looks like today. The BJP now hasbecome the dominant party. It occupies the space from the centreright to the extreme right. The Congress cannot be playing a little bithere and a little bit there. It has to bevery clear that if it is about the question of inclusivity, diversity and secularism, it needs to have a very clearposition on that. Secularism cannotbe an ideological vision out of compulsion, out of convenience. Theremust be some sort of conviction thatsecularism is the only way to goabout believing in the idea of Indiaor whatever the Congress’s vision ofIndia is.
Second, even on the question ofsocial justice, how do you want toaccommodate various groups intothe body politic? This is a challenge
even the BJP is going to face sooneror later. Once you become an umbrella party, if you fail to give representation to people who are votingfor you, they are going to fi��nd newpolitical entrepreneurs who will bemobilising on the issue of giving exclusive representation.
Do you think there is aCongress without the Gandhis?
MM: In the short run, no, becauseyou cannot displace established political leadership. And this is true forall political parties. No party undergoes this kind of a complete overhaul. There is a certain leadership inplace. It always takes time for an alternative leadership to emerge. So, Ithink going away from Rahul Gandhi’s leadership would not be wise atall today; it would be suicidal for theCongress. They should not comeunder pressure, they should look atthe interests of the party and notwhat others are talking. Every partyin India virtually has dynasty now atits core, but somehow it’s pure forthem and impure for the Congress.
RV: The Congress is in real trouble.The problems are intertwined in away which makes it hard to see. Theparty has an ideological crisis. Itdoes not have an organisation inmost parts of the country. If youlook at the bigger States, it has notbeen in power for 30odd years andthe States are also facing leadershipchallenges. All of this is tied to theidea that they have a dynasty sittingat the national level and in manyStates. Now, you cannot have a newideological vision without a new leadership and you cannot have troopson the ground who can mobiliseand change a party structure fromthe bottom to the top without anideological vision that they are convinced about. So, in a way, I don’tknow what the solution is. But theproblems are intertwined in a waythat there are two ways of goingabout it. Dismantle the whole structure and think afresh, or wait forsome time and think that there willbe some miracle that will change allof these three or four variables. Iagree with this argument that perhaps the Gandhi family has theauthority within the Congress partyto get it to overcome the crisis ofideological vision, but can the dynasty or the fi��rst family think of anew ideological vision for India?
Is this the end of the road for the Congress party?It needs an organisational reboot and a fi��rmideology to diff��erentiate itself from other parties
Rahul Verma is a
political scientist
and coauthor of
‘Ideology and
Identity: The
Changing Party
Systems of India’
MridulaMukherjee is a
historian and
former director of
the Nehru
Memorial Museum
and Library
Scan the QR code tolisten to the fullaudio online
PARLEY
PT
I
<> Secularism cannot be an
ideological vision out of
compulsion or
convenience. There must
be some sort of conviction
that secularism is the only
way to go about believing
in the idea of India or
whatever the Congress’s
vision of India is.
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