In a major blow to the prosecution in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, a special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court on Friday dropped charges under MCOCA against all the 11 accused in the case, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit.
On the prosecution’s plea, the court has granted a stay of four weeks for it to appeal against this order in the Bombay High Court. The order came in response to bail applications of Purohit and accused Ajay Rahirkar who had also argued about the non-applicability of MCOCA in this case.
The court directed the accused who had filed bail applications to move the Nashik sessions court instead as the case will not be tried in the special MCOCA court in Mumbai. Prasad’s lawyer Shrikant Shivade, and Rahirkar’s lawyer Vijay Tulpule argued that for MCOCA to be applied, the accused or co-accused should have two or more chargesheets filed against them. At the time of their arrest in October 2008, none of the accused had any.
In November last, two chargesheets were filed against accused Rakesh Dhawade in the 2003 Parbhani blast and 2004 Jalna blast. Both involve alleged members of Rashtriya Seva Sangh (RSS) and Bajrang Dal. In both cases, the magistrate had not taken cognisance of the chargesheets before November 20, when MCOCA was invoked.
“The chargesheets were filed in record time so as to comply with the two- chargesheet requirement. The manner in which they were filed shows malafide of the Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) to unjustifiably invoke MCOCA,” said Shivade.
New Delhi, July 26 (IANS). Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab was captured in a chilling photograph and now he has confessed his role in the Mumbai terrorist attacks, but he remains a ‘gunman’, rather than a ‘terrorist’, for the New York Times and other leading American newspapers. And with a reason.
After his surprising and dramatic confession before a special court in Mumbai Monday, Kasab is hogging headlines in the American media that is revisiting the semantic-ethical issue of which attacker qualifies as terrorist.
For the New York Times and the Washington Post, Kasab is strictly a gunman.
‘Mumbai Gunman Enters Plea Of Guilty’, the Post headline read a day later, and the 428 words of the report from New Delhi do not include ‘terrorist’ — not even to qualify the ‘attack’.
Kasab is ‘one of the 10 gunmen who laid siege to India’s financial capital for three days last November’, Lashkar-e-Taiba is ‘outlawed, Pakistan-based group’ and the attack that claimed more than 170 lives is ‘the deadly carnage’.
The NYT report with the headline ‘Suspect Stirs Mumbai Court by Confessing’ has 1,050 words, but terrorist is not among them. Kasab is ‘suspect’, ‘gunman’ and ‘attacker’.
The Wall Street Journal calls the incidents ‘terrorist attacks’, but those behind them were ’10 suspected gunmen’. For the Los Angeles Times, the 21-year-old Pakistani is ‘the only suspected gunman’.
This is, of course, no different from the terminology the American media used in reporting those ghastly events on Nov 26-29 last year.
Why is, so to say, one man’s ‘terrorist’ another man’s ‘assailant’?
The answer was given by the NYT’s public editor Clark Hoyt.
Writing in December when those gory images were still fresh in memory, Hoyt noted that the ’10 young men’ who ‘went on a rampage with machine guns and grenades, taking hostages, setting fires and murdering men, women and children’ were described in The Times by many labels.
‘They were ‘militants’, ‘gunmen’, ‘attackers’ and ‘assailants’. Their actions, which left bodies strewn in the city’s largest train station, five-star hotels, a synagogue, a cafe and a hospital — were described as ‘coordinated terrorist attacks’. But the men themselves were not called terrorists.’
He reprinted a comment posted on the newspaper’s website by a reader: ‘I am so offended as to why the NY Times and a number of other news organisations are calling the perpetrators ‘militants’. ‘Murderers, or terrorists perhaps but militants? Is your PC going to get so absurd that you will refer to them as ‘freedom fighters?”
Hoyt noted that the Mumbai terror attacks ‘posed a familiar semantic issue for Times editors: what to call people who pursue political, religious, territorial, or unidentifiable goals through violence on civilians’.
He referred to a two-page memo written by James Bennet, the Times’s Jerusalem bureau chief during 2001-04 and now the editor of the Atlantic, on the use of ‘terrorism’ and ‘terrorist’.
The memo, still cited by NYT editors though the newspaper has ‘no formal policy on the terms’, says it was easy to call certain egregious acts terrorism ‘and have the whole world agree with you’.
‘The problem, he said, was where to stop before every stone-throwing Palestinian was called a terrorist and the paper was making a political statement,’ noted Hoyt.
‘I do not think it is possible to write a set of hard and fast rules for the T-words, and I think The Times is both thoughtful about them and maybe a bit more conservative in their use than I would be.
‘My own broad guideline: If it looks as if it was intended to sow terror and it shocks the conscience, whether it is planes flying into the World Trade Center, gunmen shooting up Mumbai, or a political killer in a little girl’s bedroom, I’d call it terrorism — by terrorists.’
But the NYT and others seem to be waiting for more evidence as far as the Nov 26 attacks are concerned.
A probe is not a probe unless the outcome is favorable to the Congress. Such was the case in the famous Mangalore pub attack. Congress is unhappy and dissatisfied when minorities are blamed by probes – be it SIMI,Afzal Guru or Abdul Nasser Madani. They are excited if the possibility of Hindus as terrorist is raised as is theMalegaon blast case. Off course nothing excites them as much as the possibilitiy of cornering Narendra Modi for the Gujarat riot.
Lucknow, Jul 26 : The Congress is likely to ask for another round of probe by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)after the aggrieved parties blamed that their views were not taken during investigation.
”I have been conveyed that the NHRC probe did not take the views of the aggrieved family members, which is a very serious matter”, said Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh here today.
Talking to reporters here, he said the party was not satisfied with the NHRC probe and would certainly take up the issue with concerned people and there was possibility that the probe could be re-done.
Recently, the NHRC probe vindicated the encounter by the Delhi Police in the Batala House area where the family members of the deceased blamed that it was a clear cut murder.
In another issue, Mr Singh appealed to all the secular parties to continue their support to the UPA government to prevent the communal forces from gaining any ground.
His appeal was on the reaction to the threat of the Samajwadi Party to withdraw their support from the Centre.
The Congress leader strongly refuted the charges that the party was going slow against the BSP government or he was closely attached to Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh.
”We never believe in match fixing,” was the only comments he made on these charges.
[Jabez Sunderland, 1842-1936, an American Unitarian minister who was born in England launched the first major indictment of British imperialism in India. His attack appeared in 1908 in an Atlantic Monthly magazine article disclosing “The New Nationalistic Movement in India.” ….. His book India in Bondage was suppressed in India but hailed in America by Time magazine. Jabez Sunderland was the first American to participate in the new Indian National Congress. Sunderland’s two journeys to India encouraged an alliance between the British and American Unitarian associations and the Brahmo Samaj religious and social reform Hindu movement in India.]
The Nationalist Movement in India may well interest Americans. Lovers of progress and humanity cannot become acquainted with it without discovering that it has large significance, not only to India and Great Britain, but to the world. That the movement is attracting much attention in England (as well as awakening some anxiety there, because of England’s connection with India) is well known to all who read the British periodical press, or follow the debates of Parliament, or note the public utterances from time to time of Mr. John Morley (now Lord Morley), the British Secretary of State for India.
What is this new Indian movement? What has brought it into existence? What is its justification, if it has a justification? What does it portend as to the future of India, and the future relations between India and Great Britain?
In order to find answers to these questions we must first of all get clearly in mind the fact that India is a subject land. She is a dependency of Great Britain, not a colony. Britain has both colonies and dependencies. Many persons suppose them to be identical; but they are not. Britain’s free colonies, like Canada and Australia, though nominally governed by the mother country, are really self-ruling in everything except their relations to foreign powers. Not so with dependencies like India. These are granted no self-government, no representation; they are ruled absolutely by Great Britain, which is not their “mother” country, but their conqueror and master.
As the result of a pretty wide acquaintance in England, and a residence of some years in Canada, I am disposed to believe that nowhere in the world can be found governments that are more free, that better embody the intelligent will of their people, or that better serve their people’s many-sided interests and wants, than those of the self-ruling colonies of Great Britain. I do not see but that these colonies are in every essential way as free as if they were full republics. Probably they are not any more free than the people of the United States, but it is no exaggeration to say that they are as free. Their connection with England, their mother country, is not one of coercion; it is one of choice; it is one of reverence and affection. That the British Government insures such liberty in its colonies, is a matter for congratulation and honorable pride. In this respect it stands on a moral elevation certainly equal to that of any government in the world.
Turn now from Britain’s colonies to her dependencies. Here we find something for which there does not seem to be a natural place among British political institutions. Britons call their flag the flag of freedom. They speak of the British Constitution, largely unwritten though it is, as a constitution which guarantees freedom to every British subject in the world. Magna Charta meant self-government for the English people. Cromwell wrote on the statute books of the English Parliament, “All just powers under God are derived from the consent of the people.” Since Cromwell’s day this principle has been fundamental, central, undisputed, in British home politics. It took a little longer to get it recognized in colonial matters. The American Colonies in 1776 took their stand upon it. “Just government must be based on the consent of the governed.” “There should be no taxation without representation.” These were their affirmations. Burke and Pitt and Fox and the broaderminded leaders of public opinion in England were in sympathy with their American brethren. If Britain had been true to her principle of freedom and self-rule she would have kept her American colonies. But she was not true to it, and so she lost them. Later she came very near losing Canada in the same way. But her eyes were opened in time, and she gave Canada freedom and self-government. This prevented revolt, and fastened Canada to her with hooks of steel. Since this experience with Canada it has been a settled principle in connection with British colonial as well as home politics, that there is no just power except that which is based upon the consent of the governed.
But what are we to do with this principle when we come to dependencies? Is another and different principle to be adopted here? Are there peoples whom it is just to rule without their consent? Is justice one thing in England and Canada,and another in India? It was the belief that what is justice in England and Canada is justice everywhere that made Froude declare, “Free nations cannot govern subject provinces.”
Why is England in India at all?Why did she go there at first, and why does she remain? If India had been a comparatively empty land, as America was when it was discovered, so that Englishmen had wanted to settle there and make homes, the reason would have been plain. But it was a full land; and, as a fact, no British emigrants have ever gone to India to settle and make homes. If the Indian people had been savages or barbarians, there might have seemed more reason for England’s conquering and ruling them. But they were peoples with highly organized governments far older than that of Great Britain, and with a civilization that had risen to a splendid height before England’s was born. Said Lord Curzon, the late Viceroy of India, in an address delivered at the great Delhi Durbar in 1901: “Powerful Empires existed and flourished here [in India] while Englishmen were still wandering painted in the woods, and while the British Colonies were a wilderness and a jungle. India has left a deeper mark upon the history, the philosophy, and the religion of mankind, than any other terrestrial unit in the universe.” It is such a land that England has conquered and is holding as a dependency. It is such a people that she is ruling without giving them any voice whatever in the shaping of their own destiny. The honored Canadian Premier, Sir Wilfred Laurier, at the Colonial Conference held in London in connection with the coronation of King Edward, declared, “The Empire of Rome was composed of slave states; the British Empire is a galaxy of free nations.” But is India a free nation?At that London Colonial Conference which was called together for consultation about the interests of the entire Empire, was any representative invited to be present from India ? Not one. Yet Lord Curzon declared in his Durbar address in Delhi, that the “principal condition of the strength of the British throne is the possession of the Indian Empire, and the faithful attachment and service of the Indian people.” British statesmen never tire of boasting of “our Indian Empire,” and of speaking of India as “the brightest jewel in the British crown.” Do they reflect that it is virtually a slave empire of which they are so proud; and that this so-called brightest jewel reflects no light of political freedom?
Perhaps there is nothing so dangerous, or so evil in its effects, as irresponsible power. That is what Great Britain exercises in connection with India — absolute power, with no one to call her to account. I do not think any nation is able to endure such an ordeal better than Britain, but it is an ordeal to which neither rulers of nations nor private men should ever be subjected; the risks are too great. England avoids it in connection with her own rulers by making them strictly responsible to the English people. Canada avoids it in connection with hers by making them responsible to the Canadian people. Every free nation safeguards alike its people and its rulers by making its rulers in everything answerable to those whom they govern. Here is the anomaly of the British rule of India. Britain through her Indian government rules India, but she does not acknowledge responsibility in any degree whatever to the Indian people.
What is the result? Are the interests and the rights of India protected? Is it possible for the rights of any people to be protected without self-rule?
I invite my readers to go with me to India and see. What we find will go far toward furnishing us a key to the meaning of the present Indian Nationalist Movement. Crossing over from this side to London, we sail from there to India in a magnificent steamer. On board is a most interesting company of people, made up of merchants, travelers, and especially Englishmen who are either officials connected with the Indian Government or officers in the Indian army, who have been home on furlough with their families and are now returning. We land in Bombay, a city that reminds us of Paris or London or New York or Washington. Our hotel is conducted in English style. We go to the railway station, one of the most magnificent buildings of the kind in the world, to take the train for Calcutta, the capital, some fifteen hundred miles away. Arrived at Calcutta we hear it called the City of Palaces; nor do we wonder at the name. Who owns the steamship line by which we came to India? The British. Who built that splendid railway station in Bombay? The British. Who built the railway on which we rode to Calcutta? The British.
But have we seen all? Is there no other side? Have we discovered the deepest and most important that exists? If there are signs of prosperity, is it the prosperity of the Indian people, or only of their English masters? If the English are living in ease and luxury, how are the people of the land living? If there are railways and splendid buildings, who pay for them? and who get profits out of them? Have we been away from the beaten tracks of travel ? Have we been out among the Indian people themselves, in country as well as in city? Nearly nine-tenths of the people are ryots, or small farmers, who derive their sustenance directly from the land. Have we found out how they live? Do we know whether they are growing better off, or poorer? Especially have we looked into the causes of those famines, the most terrible known to the modern world, which have swept like a besom of death over the land year after year, and which drag after them another scourge scarcely less dreadful, the plague, their black shadow, their hideous child? Here is a side of India which we must acquaint ourselves with, as well as the other, if we would understand the real Indian situation.
The great, disturbing, portentous, all-overshadowing fact connected with the history of India in recent years is the succession of famines. What do these famines mean ? Here is a picture from a recent book, written by a distinguished British civilian who has had long service in India and knows the Indian situation from the inside. Since he is an Englishman we may safely count upon his prejudices, if he has any, being not upon the side of the Indian people, but upon that of his own countrymen.
To whom do these palatial buildings belong? Mostly to the British. We find that Calcutta and Bombay have a large commerce. To whom does it belong? Mainly to the British. We find that the Indian Government, that is, British rule in India, has directly or indirectly built in the land some 29,000 miles of railway; has created good postal and telegraph systems, reaching nearly everywhere; has established or assisted in establishing many schools, colleges, hospitals, and other institutions of public benefit; has promoted sanitation, founded law courts after the English pattern, and done much else to bring India into line with the civilization of Europe. It is not strange if we soon begin to exclaim, “How much are the British doing for India! How great a benefit to the Indian people is British rule!” And in an important degree we are right in what we say. British rule has done much for India, and much for which India itself is profoundly grateful.
Mr. W. S. Lilly, in his India and Its Problems,writes as follows: —nurtured — they haunt me still.” Every one who has gone much about India in famine times knows how true to life is this picture.
“During the first eighty years of the nineteenth century, 18,000,000 of people perished of famine. In one year alone — the year when her late Majesty assumed the title of Empress — 5,000,000 of the people in Southern India were starved to death. In the District of Bellary, with which I am personally acquainted, — a region twice the size of Wales, — one-fourth of the population perished in the famine of 1816-77. I shall never forget my own famine experiences: how, as I rode out on horseback, morning after morning, I passed crowds of wandering skeletons, and saw human corpses by the roadside, unburied, uncared for, and half devoured by dogs and vultures; how, sadder sight still, children, ‘the joy of the world,’ as the old Greeks deemed, had become its ineffable sorrow, and were forsaken by the very women who had borne them, wolfish hunger killing even the maternal instinct. Those children, their bright eyes shining from hollow sockets, their nesh utterly wasted away, and only gristle and sinew and cold shivering skin remaining, their heads mere skulls, their puny frames full of loathsome diseases, engendered by the starvation in which they had been conceived and born and
Mr. Lilly estimates the number of deaths in the first eight decades of the last century at 18,000,000. This is nothing less than appalling, — within a little more than two generations as many persons perishing by starvation in a single country as the whole population of Canada, New England, and the city and state of New York, or nearly half as many as the total population of France! But the most startling aspect of the case appears in the fact that the famines increased in number and severity as the century went on. Suppose we divide the past century into quarters, or periods of twenty-five years each. In the first quarter there were five famines, with an estimated loss of life of 1,000,000. During the second quarter of the century there were two famines, with an estimated mortality of 500,000. During the third quarter there were six famines, with a recorded loss of life of 5,000,000. During the last quarter of the century, what? Eighteen famines, with an estimated mortality reaching the awful totals of from 15,000,000 to 26,000,000. And this does not include the many more millions (over 6,000,000 in a single year) barely kept alive by government doles.
What is the cause of these famines, and this appalling increase in their number and destructiveness? The common answer is, the failure of the rains. But there seems to be no evidence that the rains fail worse now than they did a hundred years ago. Moreover, why should failure of rains bring famine? The rains have never failed over areas so extensive as to prevent the raising of enough food in the land to supply the needs of the entire population. Why then have people starved? Not because there was lack of food. Not because there was lack of food in the famine areas, brought by railways or otherwise within easy reach of all. There has always been plenty of food, even in the worst famine years, for those who have had money to buy it with, and generally food at moderate prices. Why, then, have all these millions of people perished? Because they were so indescribably poor. All candid and thorough investigation into the causes of the famines of India has shown that the chief and fundamental cause has been and is the poverty of the people, — a poverty so severe and terrible that it keeps the majority of the entire population on the very verge of starvation even in years of greatest plenty, prevents them from laying up anything against times of extremity, and hence leaves them, when their crops fail, absolutely undone — with nothing between them and death, unless some form of charity comes to their aid. Says Sir Charles Elliott long the Chief Commissioner of Assam, “Half the agricultural population do not know from one halfyear’s end to another what it is to have a full meal.”
Says the Honorable G. K. Gokhale, of the Viceroy’s Council,”From 60,000,000 to 70,000,000 of the people of India do not know what it is to have their hunger satisfied even once in a year.”
And the people are growing poorer and poorer. The late Mr. William Digby, of London, long an Indian resident, in his recent book entitled “Prosperous” India, shows from official estimates and Parliamentary and Indian Blue Books, that, whereas the average daily income of the people of India in the year 1850 was estimated as four cents per person (a pittance on which one wonders that any human being can live), in 1882 it had fallen to three cents per person, and in 1900 actually to less than two cents per person. Is it any wonder that people reduced to such extremities as this can lay up nothing? Is it any wonder that when the rains do not come, and the crops of a single season fail, they are lost? And where is this to end? If the impoverishment of the people is to go on, what is there before them but growing hardship, multiplying famines, and increasing loss of life?
Here we get a glimpse of the real India. It is not the India which the traveler sees, following the usual routes of travel, stopping at the leading hotels conducted after the manner of London or Paris, and mingling with the English lords of the country. It is not the India which the British “point to with pride,” and tell us about in their books of description and their official reports. This is India from the inside, the India of the people, of the men, women, and children, who were born there and die there, who bear the burdens and pay the taxes, and support the costly government carried on by foreigners, and do the starving when the famines come.
What causes this awful and growing impoverishment of the Indian people? Said John Bright, “If a country be found possessing a most fertile soil, and capable of bearing every variety of production, and, notwithstanding, the people are in a state of extreme destitution and suffering, the chances are there is some fundamental error in the government of that country.”
One cause of India’s impoverishment is heavy taxation.Taxation in England and Scotland is high, so high that Englishmen and Scotchmen complain bitterly.But the people of India are taxed more than twice as heavily as the people of England and three times as heavily as those of Scotland. According to the latest statistics at hand, those of 1905, the annual average income per person in India is about $6.00, and the annual tax per person about $2.00. Think of taxing the American people to the extent of one-third their total income! Yet such taxation here, unbearable as it would be, would not create a tithe of the suffering that it does in India, because incomes here are so immensely larger than there. Here it would cause great hardship, there it creates starvation.
Notice the single item of salt-taxation. Salt is an absolute necessity to the people, to the very poorest; they must have it or die. But the tax upon it which for many years they have been compelled to pay has been much greater than the cost value of the salt. Under this taxation the quantity of salt consumed has been reduced actually to one-half the quantity declared by medical authorities to be absolutely necessary for health. The mere suggestion in England of a tax on wheat sufficient to raise the price of bread by even a half-penny on the loaf, creates such a protest as to threaten the overthrow of ministries. Lately the salt-tax in India has been reduced, but it still remains well-nigh prohibitive to the poorer classes. With such facts as these before us, we do not wonder at Herbert Spencer’s indignant protest against the “grievous salt-monopoly” of the Indian Government, and “the pitiless taxation which wrings from poor ryob nearly half the products of the soil.”
Another cause of India’s impoverishment is the destruction of her manufactures, as the result of British rule. When the British first appeared on the scene, India was one of the richest countries of the world; indeed it was her great riches that attracted the British to her shores. The source of her wealth was largely her splendid manufactures. Her cotton goods, silk goods, shawls, muslins of Dacca, brocades of Ahmedabad, rugs, pottery of Scind, jewelry, metal work, lapidary work, were famed not only all over Asia but in all the leading markets of Northern Africa and of Europe.What has become of those manufactures? For the most part they are gone, destroyed. Hundreds of villages and towns of India in which they were carried on are now largely or wholly depopulated, and millions of the people who were supported by them have been scattered and driven back on the land, to share the already too scanty living of the poor ryot.What is the explanation? Great Britain wanted India’s markets. She could not find entrance for British manufactures so long as India was supplied with manufactures of her own. So those of India must be sacrificed. England had all power in her hands, and so she proceeded to pass tariff and excise laws that ruined the manufactures of India and secured the market for her own goods.India would have protected herself if she had been able, by enacting tariff laws favorable to Indian interests, but she had no power, she was at the mercy of her conqueror.
A third cause of India’s impoverishment is the enormous and wholly unnecessary cost of her government. Writers in discussing the financial situation in India have often pointed out the fact that her government is the most expensive in the world. Of course the reason why is plain: it is because it is a government carried on not by the people of the soil, but by men from a distant country. These foreigners, having all power in their own hands, including power to create such offices as they choose and to attach to them such salaries and pensions as they see fit, naturally do not err on the side of making the offices too few or the salaries and pensions too small. Nearly all the higher officials throughout India are British. To be sure, the Civil Service is nominally open to Indians. But it is hedged about with so many restrictions (among others, Indian young men being required to make the journey of seven thousand miles from India to London to take their examinations) that they are able for the most part to secure only the lowest and poorest places. The amount of money which the Indian people are required to pay as salaries to this great army of foreign civil servants and appointed higher officials, and then, later, as pensions for the same, after they have served a given number of years in India, is very large. That in three-fourths if not nine-tenths of the positions quite as good service could be obtained for the government at a fraction of the present cost, by employing educated and competent Indians, who much better understand the wants of the country, is quite true. But that would not serve the purpose of England, who wants these lucrative offices for her sons. Hence poor Indian ryots must sweat and go hungry, and if need be starve, that an ever-growing army of foreign officials may have large salaries and fat pensions. And of course much of the money paid for these salaries, and practically all paid for the pensions, goes permanently out of India.
Another burden upon the people of India which they ought not to be compelled to bear, and which does much to increase their poverty, is the enormously heavy military expenses of the government. I am not complaining of the maintenance of such an army as may be necessary for the defense of the country. But the Indian army is kept at a strength much beyond what the defense of the country requires. India is made a sort of general rendezvous and training camp for the Empire, from which soldiers may at any time be drawn for service in distant lands. If such an imperial training camp and rendezvous is needed, a part at least of the heavy expense of it ought to come out of the Imperial Treasury. But no, India is helpless, she can be compelled to pay it, she is compelled to pay it. Many English statesmen recognize this as wrong, and condemn it; yet it goes right on. Said the late Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman: “Justice demands that England should pay a portion of the cost of the great Indian army maintained in India for Imperial rather than Indian purposes. This has not yet been done, and famine-stricken India is being bled for the maintenance of England’s worldwide empire.”But there is still worse than this. Numerous wars and campaigns are carried on outside of India, the expenses of which, wholly or in part, India is compelled to bear. For such foreign wars and campaigns — campaigns and wars in which the Indian people had no concern, and for which they received no benefit, the aim of which was solely conquest and the extension of British power — India was required to pay during the last century the enormous total of more than $460,000,000. How many such burdens as these can the millions of India, who live on the average income of $6 a year, bear without being crushed?
Perhaps the greatest of all the causes of the impoverishment of the Indian people is the steady and enormous drain of wealth from India to England, which has been going on ever since the East India Company first set foot in the land, three hundred years ago, and is going on still with steadily increasing volume. England claims that India pays her no “tribute.” Technically, this is true; but, eally, it is very far from true. In the form of salaries spent in England, pensions sent to England, interest drawn in England on investments made in India, business profits made in India and sent to England, and various kinds of exploitation carried on in India for England’s benefit, a vast stream of wealth (“tribute” in effect) is constantly pouring into England from India. Says Mr. R. C. Dutt, author of the Economic History of India (and there is no higher authority), “A sum reckoned at twenty millions of English money, or a hundred millions of American money [some other authorities put it much higher], which it should be borne in mind is equal to half the net revenues of India, is remitted annually from this country [India] to England, without a direct equivalent. Think of it! One-half of what we [in India] pay as taxes goes out of the country, and does not come back to the people. No other country on earth suffers like this at the present day; and no country on earth could bear such an annual drain without increasing impoverishment and repeated famines. We denounce ancient Rome for impoverishing Gaul and Egypt, Sicily and Palestine, to enrich herself. We denounce Spain for robbing the New World and the Netherlands to amass wealth. England is following exactly the same practice in India. Is it strange that she is converting India into a land of poverty and famine?”
But it is only a part of the wrong done to India that she is impoverished. Quite as great an injustice is her loss of liberty, — the fact that she is allowed no part in shaping her own political destiny. As we have seen, Canada and Australia are free and self-governing. India is kept in absolute subjection. Yet her people are largely of Aryan blood, the finest race in Asia. There are not wanting men among them, men in numbers, who are the equals of their British masters, in knowledge, in ability, in trustworthiness, in every high quality. It is not strange that many Englishmen are waking up to the fact that such treatment of such a people, of any people, is tyranny: it is a violation of those ideals of freedom and justice which have been England’s greatest glory. It is also short-sighted as regards Britain’s own interests.
It is the kind of policy which cost her her American Colonies, and later came near costing her Canada. If persisted in, it may cost her India.
What is the remedy for the evils and burdens under which the Indian people are suffering? How may the people be relieved from their abject and growing poverty? How can they be given prosperity, happiness, and content?
Many answers are suggested. One is, make the taxes lighter. This is doubtless important. But how can it be effected so long as the people have no voice in their own government? Another is, enact such legislation and set on foot such measures as may be found necessary to restore as far as possible the native industries which have been destroyed. This is good; but will an alien government, and one which has itself destroyed these industries for its own advantage, ever do this? Another is, reduce the unnecessary and illegitimate military expenses. This is easy to say, and it is most reasonable. But how can it be brought about, so long as the government favors such expenses, and the people have no power? Another thing urged is, stop the drain of wealth to England. But what steps can be taken looking in this direction so long ns India has no power to protect herself? It all comes back to this: the fundamental difficulty, the fundamental evil, the fundamental wrong, lies in the fact that the Indian people are permitted to have no voice in their own government. Thus they are unable to guard their own interests, unable to protect themselves against unjust laws, unable to inaugurate those measures for their own advancement which must always come from those immediately concerned.
It is hard to conceive of a government farther removed from the people in spirit or sympathy than is that of India. There has been a marked change for the worse in this respect within the past twenty-five years, since the vice-regal term of Lord Ripon. The whole spirit of the government has become reactionary, increasingly so, reaching its culmination in the recent administration of Lord Curzon. The present Indian Secretary, Lord Morley, has promised improvement; but, so far, the promise has had no realization. Instead of improvement, the situation has been made in important respects worse. There have been tyrannies within the past two years, within the past three months, which even Lord Curzon would have shrunk from. There is no space here to enumerate them.
Fifty years ago the people were consulted and conciliated in ways that would not now be thought of. Then the government did not hesitate to hold before the people the ideal of increasing political privileges, responsibilities, and advantages. It was freely given out that the purpose of the government was to prepare the people for self-rule. Now no promise or intimation of anything of the kind is ever heard from any one in authority. Everywhere in India one finds Englishmen — officials and others — with few exceptions — regarding this kind of talk as little better than treason. The Civil Service of India is reasonably efficient, and to a gratifying degree free from peculation and corruption. But the government is as complete a bureaucracy as that of Russia. Indeed it is no exaggeration to say that, as a bureaucracy, it is as autocratic, as arbitrary in its methods, as reactionary in its spirit, as far removed from sympathy with the people, as determined to keep all power in its own hands, as unwilling to consult the popular wishes, or to listen to the voice of the most enlightened portion of the nation, even when expressed through the great and widely representative Indian National Congress, as is the Russian bureaucracy. Proof of this can be furnished to any amount.
It is said that India is incapable of ruling herself. If so, what an indictment is this against England! She was not incapable of ruling herself before England came. Have one hundred and fifty years of English tutelage produced in her such deterioration? As we have seen, she was possessed of a high civilization and of developed governments long before England or any part of Europe had emerged from barbarism. For three thousand years before England’s arrival, Indian kingdoms and empires had held leading places in Asia. Some of the ablest rulers, statesmen, and financiers of the world have been of India’s production.How is it, then, that she loses her ability to govern herself as soon as England appears upon the scene? To be sure, at that time she was in a peculiarly disorganized and unsettled state; for it should be remembered that the Mogul Empire was just breaking up, and new political adjustments were everywhere just being made, — a fact which accounts for England’s being able to gain a political foothold in India. But everything indicates that if India had not been interfered with by European powers, she would soon have been under competent governments of her own again.
A further answer to the assertion that India cannot govern herself — and surely one that should be conclusive — is the fact that, in parts, she is governing herself now, and governing herself well. It is notorious that the very best government in India to-day is not that carried on by the British, but that of several of the native states, notably Baroda and Mysore. In these states, particularly Baroda, the people are more free, more prosperous, more contented, and are making more progress, than in any other part of India. Note the superiority of both these states in the important matter of popular education. Mysore is spending on education more than three times as much per capita as is British India, while Baroda has made her education free and compulsory. Both of these states, but especially Baroda, which has thus placed herself in line with the leading nations of Europe and America by making provision for the education of all her children, may well be contrasted with British India, which provides education, even of the poorest kind, for only one boy in ten and one girl in one hundred and forty-four.
The truth is, not one single fact can be cited that goes to show that India cannot govern herself, — reasonably well at first, excellently well later, — if only given a chance. It would not be difficult to form an Indian Parliament to-day, composed of men as able and of as high character as those that constitute the fine Parliament of Japan, or as those that will be certain to constitute the not less able national Parliament of China when the new constitutional government of that nation comes into operation. This is only another way of saying that among the leaders in the various states and provinces of India there is abundance of material to form an Indian National Parliament not inferior in intellectual ability or in moral worth to the parliaments of the Western world.
We have now before us the data for understanding, at least in a measure, the meaning of the “New National Movement in India.” It is the awakening and the protest of a subject people. It is the effort of a nation, once illustrious, and still conscious of its inherent superiority, to rise from the dust, to stand once more on its feet, to shake off fetters which have become unendurable. It is the effort of the Indian people to get for themselves again a country which shall be in some true sense their own, instead of remaining, as for a century and a half it has been, a mere preserve of a foreign power, — in John Stuart Mill’s words, England’s “cattle farm.” The people of India want the freedom which is their right, — freedom to shape their own institutions, their own industries, their own national life.This does not necessarily mean separation from Great Britain; but it does mean, if retaining a connection with the British Empire, becoming citizens, and not remaining forever helpless subjects in the hands of irresponsible masters. It does mean a demand that India shall be given a place in the Empire essentially like that of Canada or Australia, with such autonomy and home rule as are enjoyed by these free, self-governing colonies. Is not this demand just? Not only the people of India, but many of the best Englishmen, answer unequivocally, Yes! In the arduous struggle upon which India has entered to attain this end (arduous indeed her struggle must be, for holders of autocratic and irresponsible power seldom in this world surrender their power without being compelled) surely she should have the sympathy of the enlightened and liberty-loving men and women of all nations.
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The Atlantic Monthly; October, 1908; The New Nationalist Movementin India; Volume 102, No. 4; pages 526-535
When Narendra Modi won the 2007 state election in Gujarat, the media focused on Hindu-Muslim issues. Some journalists highlighted rapid industrial development that had made Gujarat India’s fastest-growing state. I mentioned Gujarat’s successful port-led development.
However, an excellent new study suggests that the secret of Modi’s success lay in agriculture, an area completely neglected by political analysts. Ashok Gulati, Tushaar Shah and Ganga Sreedhar have written an IFPRI paper, ‘Agricultural Performance in Gujarat Since 2000’, which highlights something few people know — that Gujarat’s agricultural performance is by far the best in India.
Between 2000-01 and 2007-08 agricultural value added grew at a phenomenal 9.6% per year (despite a major drought in 2002). This is more than double India’s agricultural growth rate, and much faster than Punjab’s farm growth in the green revolution heyday. Indeed, 9.6% agricultural growth is among the fastest rates recorded anywhere in the world. That drives home the magnitude of Gujarat’s performance.
Since the bulk of Gujarat’s population is still rural, this mega-boom in agriculture must have created millions of satisfied voters. Hence it must have played a major role in Modi’s victory. Yet I did not see a single media analyst mention it.
Gujarat is drought prone, with 70% of its area classified as semi-arid and arid. Although journalists focus on the Sardar Sarovar Project, its canal network is hopelessly incomplete, and currently irrigates only 0.1 million hectares. No less than 82% of irrigation in the state comes from tubewells, which have depleted groundwater. By the mid-1990s, groundwater extraction exceeded natural recharge in 31 talukas, and 90% of the safe extraction yield in another 12 talukas.
In the 1990s, the state along with grass-roots organisations embarked on decentralised water harvesting. This included the building of check dams, village tanks, and bori-bunds(built with gunny sacks stuffed with mud). During the 2007 election campaign, the Congress slogan was ‘chak de, chak de Gujarat’. I heard Modi say at a rally that his reply was “check dam, check dam Gujarat.” I did not realise at the time how significant this really was.
The IFPRI study says that 10,700 check dams were built up to 2000, and helped drought-proof 32,000 hectares.That sounds a lot.But subsequently, under Modi, Gujarat has built ten times as many check dams! He could well say ‘chak de, check dam’. These have played a big role in the agricultural growth of Saurashtra and Kutch (aided, it must be said, by bountiful monsoons in the last five years). Better water availability has also increased milk and livestock production.
Gujarat has promoted drip irrigation, badly needed to conserve water in semi-arid districts. Like other states, Gujarat offers subsidies and loans, but it also fast-tracks and simplifies procedures. Farmers contribute 5% initially. Then a state-owned company provides 50% as subsidy, and arranges a bank loan for the balance of 45%. One lakh acres have been covered by drip irrigation so far. Like the Sardar Sarovar Project, drip irrigation’s total irrigation potential is far higher.
Research shows that rural roads are the most important investment for agriculture. Gujarat has one of the best rural road networks in India, and 98.7% of villages are connected by pukka roads.
Modi’s Jyotigram scheme for power has provided regular, high-quality electricity to villages, greatly helping farming. Jyotigram provides separate electric feeders for domestic use and pump-sets. This permits the state to supply round-the-clock domestic supply, while limiting agricultural supply to eight hours a day (which is continuous and of constant voltage).
This has facilitated a switch to high-value crops like mango, banana and wheat, which need assured water. Constant voltage has protected farmers from damage to pump-sets earlier caused by fluctuating voltage. Continuous power for non-agricultural uses has spurred diversification into non-farm activities, vital for rural growth.
The irrigated area has expanded at the rate of 4.4% per year. The fastest growth in crops has been in wheat, followed by cotton and fruits and vegetables.
Private seed companies have brought in new technology for several crops, ranging from bajra to castor, but above all in Bt cotton. More than 20 Bt cotton varieties are now produced by 30 seed companies. In his election campaign, Modi waxed eloquent about Gujarat’s success in cotton.
He declared that Gujarat was now famous in China as the producer and exporter of Bt cotton, and he said this was a source of Gujarati pride. (Let me add that this is a great improvement on his earlier notion of Hindu pride, exemplified in his ‘gaurav yatra’ after Godhra).
Gujarat has only 26% of India’s cotton area, but 35.5% of its production, thanks to high yields. Rising world prices have also helped, and been buttressed by a huge jump in the minimum, support price for cotton.
New institutional arrangements like contract farming have helped improve marketing. Gujarat’s famous dairy co-operatives (everybody loves Amul) have provided a stable basis for milk and livestock development. But the private sector is emerging as an important player too. Corporates have entered agro-exports, agro-processing, organised food retail, and rural infrastructure development.
Vimal Dairy and Vadilal Industries have entered the dairy sector. Agrocel has taken up organic farming of cotton and sesame seeds. Atreyas Agro and Godrej Agrovel plan contract cultivation of jatropha and palm oil respectively. Food retail chains like Food Bazaar, Reliance Fresh and Spencer have sprung up in Gujarat’s cities, sourcing produce from farmers directly.
The state has helped catalyse production, notably in water harvesting. It has worked with NGOs and companies to bring the best technology to farmers. Gujarat Agricultural University has been split into four separate universities, helping strengthen R&D.
Can this be replicated in other states? Much of it can. Jyotigram looks least likely to be replicated because it abandons the free-but-unreliable rural power that politicians regard as vote-winners in most states. Many states also prefer large irrigation projects to small water-harvesting ones, since bigger projects translate into bigger kickbacks. Yet Modi’s electoral success points to a new way of winning rural votes. Others should sit up and take notice.
So this is the kind of special news about a special person that our special correspondent of an esteemed English language newspaper has for its not-so-special aam aadmi.
The ‘ projected future PM’ of this ‘god forsaken’ country has nothing much going on to put his name on the headlines these days. No new Dalit house visited, no further attempt to ‘discover India’by visiting tribal areas. The birthday celebration is over – alas, it comes only once a year.
So what can the media do, other than describing details of Rahul baba’s lunch menu and his longing for specially made phulkas. And of course the media did not miss describing that Rahul baba ‘did ask for the bill’ and did ‘thrust a few hundreds’ into the steward’s hand.
May be the next topic will be titled, “Rahul enjoys a cool bath” and we will get to know finally whether Mayabati’s accusation of ‘special foreign soap’ is correct or not.
New Delhi, July 22: Health freak Rahul Gandhi took a break from steamed chicken and vegetables to tuck into red-hot and spicy fried food today at Andhra Pradesh Bhavan, not far from Parliament.
Bhavan regulars, who include MPs from the southern state, were surprised to see a familiar SUV and a posse of security guards drive into the complex this afternoon. They went into a tizzy when they saw Rahul step out, accompanied by Alwar MP and political aide Jitendra Singh. They were told Rahul had come for lunch.
Rahul and Singh, an MP said, looked a “bit lost” because this was the first time they were visiting the Bhavan, a must-visit on every food guide in the capital. The duo were escorted to the air-conditioned dining hall on the first floor that is reserved for politicians, officials and journalists — the last group on request.
The Bhavan’s menu is limited: a standard vegetarian thali with separate non-veg fare on order. Singh, a veggie, stuck to the thali but Rahul also ordered three servings of fried fish, mutton and chicken and a bowl of chicken curry.
He asked for phulkas but was told by the waiter that only pooris were served for lunch. Rahul said it was fine by him but before he was through with his second poori, specially made phulkas arrived from the kitchen. He also dug into the vegetables, which included roasted arbi, steamed spinach, fried kundru and dal with greens. The spoon was abandoned for the finger.
Rahul skipped the biryani and the rice but took a few sips of the rasam that is leavened with spices, including a stiff dose of pepper. He didn’t touch the semiya halwa, nor was he adventurous enough to sample the pickles and chutneys that came with the meal.
After the meal, Rahul asked for the bill, which the steward refused to give. Rahul asked him if he wanted him to visit again, and thrust a few hundreds in his hand.
It happens again and again. Thanks to our irresponsible media, our hapless security forces are regularly demonized by drawing room journalists and columnists. And if it happens to be minority ‘victims’, either Muslims or Christians, due to the prevailing minority-appeasing, divisive politics in the country, the media is also joined by the vote bank oriented politicians and their pseudo-secular right activists friends. They all make their own analyses, select their culprits (if not security forces then must be a Hindu group), and all but hang them without any iota of regards to truth.
Clean chits are given after all the damage has been already done.
But never will a word of apology or regret come out from these media and political personnel.
Just in recent times, we have seen this in Gujarat, Khandamal, Shopian and now the Batla House cases.
Only ‘shame on media’ is not enough. We need stricter accountability laws and its implementation.
New Delhi:National Human Rights Commission(NHRC) on Wednesday gave clean chit to Delhi Police in Batla House encounter case in which two suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists and a decorated police officer were killed last year.
The NHRC, which had conducted inquiry in the case on the direction of the Delhi High Court, said in its report that there has been no violation of human rights by actions of police in which two alleged terrorists were gunned down on September 19, 2008.
“We are clearly of the opinion that having regard to the material placed before us, it cannot be said that there has been any violation of human rights by action of police,” the Commission said in its 30-page report submitted in a sealed envelope to the High Court.
The Commission after conducting the inquiry came to the conclusion that police action was protected by law and there was no human rights violation.
The report filed by the Commission said that the action taken by police in which two persons died “is fully protected by law and there is no need for further inquiry in the case.
“Since there was no violation of human rights, nothing further is required to be done by the Commission,”it said.
“There is ample and sufficient material before us which leads to the conclusion that there was imminent danger to the life of members of police party,” the NHRC said.
The High Court had directed the Commission to conduct he inquiry after questions were raised on the conduct of police in the encounter by some NGOs and social activists.
The Court had on May 21 asked the NHRC to complete within two months its inquiry into the controversial encounter case in which Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, an encounter specialist, had succumbed to bullet injuries.
Will the church and the Christian leaders including the French president and the Vatican Chief apologise? Will the Prime Minister, Mr Manmohan Singh undo his ‘national shame’ statement?
Media and ‘secular’ political parties followed the Church in blaming ‘Hindu groups’ for last year’s violence in Kandhamal district of Orissa. The interim report of the Justice Mohapatra Commission of Inquiry nails this and other lies and exposes the role of evangelists.
Remember Kandhamal? And all the brouhaha created by the media blaming ‘Hindu groups’ for the unrest in the tribal district of Orissa after the killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati? And the TV cameras never noticing the anguish of the shocked children housed in Jaleshpata hermitage that witnessed the murder of the 84-year-old Swami and his four followers on August 23 last year?
Well, the truth is almost out; and it’s official. It virtually vindicates an article published on this page last year (November 11): “The other side of the Kandhamal story: Tribals disinherited.” It had laid threadbare the social and cultural divisions between the Kandha and the Pana communities, and how Christian evangelists were fuelling the violence in Kandhamal.
The Kandhas, who are tribals, were up in arms against the Panas, listed as one of the Scheduled Castes, for trying to usurp their land and corner other benefits with the help of some evangelists.
Recently, the Justice Sarat Chandra Mohapatra Commission, whose remit was to probe the Kandhamal violence, has submitted its interim report to the Home Department of the Orissa Government. The commission, headed by Justice Mohapatra, a former Lok Pal, has attributed the socio-economic problems as the prime provocation for the violence. The report says nothing about the much-touted ‘Hindu-groups’.
“The violence in Kandhamal was the result of concentrated discontentment prevailing among the people since long. They relate to conversion, re-conversion; land-grabbing and non-maintenance of land records; and fake certificate issues,” Justice Mohapatra told this writer. Though he refused to elaborate on who these “discontented” people are, it is obvious that they are the tribals — the Kandhas.
Putting to rest all debate about rampant religious conversion in Kandhamal, Justice Mohapatra says: “In spite of the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, illegal conversions were taking place, which created discontentment.”
It is important here to get an overview of the social and cultural divisions that are understood to be the main reasons of the violence in Kandhamal. The area has two major inhabitants — the tribal Kandhas constitute 52 per cent of the population while the Schedule Caste Panas account for 19 per cent of the population. The rift between the two is nothing new. The Kandhas have a history of vociferous resistance to religious conversion by evangelists. On the other hand, over the years, a majority of the Panas, forced by the evangelists, has embraced Christianity, leading to an increase in the Christian population of the district from a mere 19,128 in 1951 to 1,17,950 in 2001. Of the total Christian population in the district, 60 per cent are converted Panas.
After successfully converting a sizeable section of the Panas, evangelists have long been eying the Kandhas for conversion. They have been trying to convert the tribals through inducement, fraud and force and have succeeded to some extent. They continue to destroy the traditional shrines of the Kandhas, thus instigating anti-Hindu sentiments among the Panas. This has repeatedly led to communal polarisation.
Nine months after it was asked to inquire into last year’s violence and the circumstances leading to the killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, the Justice Mohapatra Commission seems to have made some headway.
It is learned that the 28-page report says land is being grabbed illegally by the Panas. It’s a fact that a section of the Panas has encroached upon vast stretches of land which originally belongs to the Kandhas. As per the land regulation law of Orissa, non-tribals can neither buy nor take possession of land from tribal owners.
Besides the issues of conversion and land-grab, Justice Mohapatra’s report also mentions the issue of fake certificates as another cause of the conflict. “There are people who are neither SC nor ST but possess fake certificates claiming to be one. These certificates are being freely issued,” says Justice Mohapatra.
The report has seemingly taken note of harassed Kandhas, whose socio-economic aspirations have been stymied by the politically-backed Panas who also enjoy the backing of evangelists. Sensing the benefits of reservation as well as sops doled out by the evangelists, many Pana Christians, who have lost their SC tag after conversion to Christianity, have managed to secure false caste certificates. Some of the Pana Christians also submit fake tribal certificates for Government jobs and to grab land and reap quota benefits in education.
Several officials and politicians face allegations of issuing these bogus certificates. Reports suggest that there are as many as 600 such allegations which are being investigated. Prominent among those against whom such have been levelled include Rajya Sabha MP and 1962 batch IAS officer Radhakanta Nayak, former BJD MP from Phulbani Sugrib Singh and former DGP of Orissa John Nayak.
The three factors suggested by Justice Mohapatra outline how tribals are being deprived of their fundamental rights in their own land.
Meanwhile, the interim report has triggered differences among Christians. While the evangelists and their followers have rejected the report for its remarks against conversion, the Poor Christian Liberation Movement has said that it considers the reported findings to be serious points of reflection. The PCLM has urged church leaders to study the report carefully rather than rejecting it as “one-sided” and “fictitious”.
The commission has suggested that the Orissa Government should address the problem by taking remedial measures on issues of religious conversion, land disputes and fake SC/ST certificates. The commission has so far examined five witnesses of the Government, a number of local people and received 320 affidavits.
“It will take at least two years to complete the inquiry, but the interim report will help the Government to intervene immediately,” Justice Mohapatra says.
The question remains whether the BJD Government headed by Mr Naveen Patnaik will take the necessary measures.
Author: JAKOB De ROOVER
16 June 2008 – Issue : 786
Jakob De Roover is a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Research Foundation (FWO) at the Research Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap, Ghent University, Belgium
Recently, the European Parliament hosted a meeting on “caste discrimination in South Asia”. At the meeting, participants stated that “India is being ruled by castes not by laws” and that they demanded justice, because there “is one incredible India and one untouchable India.” The EU was urged to come out with a policy statement on the subject. One MEP, referring to the caste system, said that “this barbarism has to end.” This is not the first time. However, before the EU decides to publish policy statements on caste discrimination in India, we would do well to reflect on some simple facts.
First, the dominant conception of the caste system has emerged from the accounts by Christian missionaries, travelers and colonial administrators. Rather than being neutral, these accounts were shaped by a Christian framework. That is, the religion of European visitors to India had informed them beforehand that they would find false religion and devil worship there, and that false religion always manifested itself in social evils. Especially the Protestants rebuked the “evil priests” of Hinduism for imposing the laws of caste in the name of religion. They told the Indians that conversion to Protestantism was a conversion to equality. Thus, Indian souls were to be saved from damnation and caste discrimination.
Second, this Christian account of “the Hindu religion” and its “caste system” informed colonial policies in British India. Building on the theological framework, scholars now wrote “scientific” treatises on Hindu superstition and caste discrimination.
The Christian mission found its secular counterpart in the idea of the civilising mission, which told the West that it had to rescue the natives from the clutches of superstition and caste. One no longer promoted religious conversion, but the colonial educational system harped on “the horrors of Hindu society.”
Third, the colonial educational project had a deep impact on the Indian intelligentsia. Hindu reform and anti-caste movements came into being, which reproduced the Protestant accounts of Hinduism and caste as true descriptions of India.
Their advocates did not adopt these descriptions as passive recipients, but actively deployed them to pursue socioeconomic and political interests. Political parties and caste associations were created to safeguard the interests of the “lower castes.” The elites of these groups united in associations and received financial and moral support from the missionaries and other progressive colonials.
Fourth, the “Dalit” movement of today is the product of these colonial movements. The notion of “Dalits” makes sense only within the colonial account of India, which had postulated the existence of one single group of “outcastes” or “untouchables” that was supposedly exploited by the upper castes. In reality, it concerns a variety of caste groups, with no criteria to unite them besides the claim that they are all “downtrodden.” Indeed, many of these groups are poor and discriminated against by other caste groups. However, their socio-economic interests have been hijacked by some of their western-educated elite members. In the name of the downtrodden, these elites establish NGOs and then travel from conference to conference and country to country in order to reveal the plight of the “Dalits” to eager western audiences and secure funding from donor agencies.
Fifth, when present-day Europeans rebuke Indian society for the “barbarism” of caste discrimination, they are reproducing the old stanzas of the civilising mission. Such a stance of superiority perhaps worked in the context of colonialism. But today, at a time when Indians buy some of the European industrial giants and Europe is in need of more collaboration with India, it is ill-advised to continue this type of civilisational propaganda.
In fact, such propaganda derives its plausibility from a series of assumptionsthat no one would be willing to defend explicitly. It attributes all socioeconomic wrongs of the Indian society to its structure and civilisation.The implication is that there is only one way to get rid of socio-economic wrongs here: one has to eradicate both the social structure and the Hindu civilisation.It is as though one would blame the racism, bingedrinking, pedophilia, poverty, homelessness and domestic violence in the contemporary West on its age-old civilisation.
The times have changed. As Europeans, we need to reflect on our deep-rooted sense of superiority and how this informs our moralising discourse on human rights in other parts of the world. To appreciate the impression we give to Indians with our statements on caste discrimination, just imagine a possible world in which the Indian government regularly castigates the US for its racism against African-Americans and the disproportionate death penalties, and the EU for the treatment of South Asians in England, Turks in Germany, women in Romania, the Basque movement in Spain, gypsies in Italy … just imagine Indian members of parliament consistently blaming the very structure of western societies as the cause of all these wrongs. Europe needs to wake up fast. The time of colonialism is over.If we do not change our attitudes, the irritation towards the EU will grow in countries like India and China. So will the unwillingness to collaborate. In the fast-changing world of the early 21st Century, Europe cannot afford this.
Hindu focus 