Avijit Roy Assassinated: Avijit Stands For Humanity - By Countercurrents.org

Avijit Roy, a humanist author, an advocate of free expression, scientific ideas and secularism, and a prominent Bangladeshi-American blogger known for speaking out against religious extremism was hacked to death in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. The assassination was carried out on the night of February 26, 2015.

Thousands of people including authors, teachers, students, cultural activists, political activists and leaders and ordinary people joined in mourning and protest rallies on Friday and Saturday near the site of the attack. They carried banners reading “We want justice” and “Down with fundamentalism”. They asked the government to move hard against militancy and communalism. Protest rallies and processions were also held in other cities. Scores of organizations across the country condemned the attack.

A BBC report said:

After his death tributes were paid to Avijit Roy from around the world. The US-based Center for Inquiry said it was heartbroken by his brutal murder, describing him as "an eloquent defender of reason, science, and free expression in a country where those values have been under heavy attack".

A Bangladeshi friend in the US told the BBC that Mr.. Roy would be remembered for his courage and warmth.

"He was a wonderful man who through his website encouraged many free-thinking Bangladeshis to challenge conventional religious orthodoxy," the friend said.

"His death shows just how dangerous it is for anybody in the country to speak out without being targeted by the hardliners."

Reports by scores of international media including AP, BBC, CNN, and newspapers and news portals in Bangladesh, France, Germany, India, Japan, the U.K., U.S.A. including The Guardian, Huffington Post, Miami Herald, Irish Independent, Irish Times and Herald Sun said:

The attack on Avijit Roy occurred on a crowded sidewalk as he and his wife, Rafida Ahmed, were returning from a book fair at Dhaka University. Ahmed, also a blogger, was critically injured.

At least two of the attackers hit the couple with meat cleavers. They were on a rickshaw returning from the Amar Ekushey Book Fair when two attackers stopped the rickshaw, dragged them onto the footpath and started hacking them. Dropping their weapons, the attackers ran away, disappearing into the crowds.

They were rushed to the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital where doctors declared Avijit dead during an emergency surgery.

Avijit had suffered three deep gashes on his head, one on the upper part of shoulder, one on eye during the assault, and Bonya lost a finger and suffered deep cut on head and hand.

The assassination, latest in a series of attacks on secular writers in Bangladesh in recent years, occurred in the backdrop of on-going political disturbance carried by the opponents of Sheikh Hasina government as her government publicly announced its policy of zero-tolerance to religious extremism, and is strong handedly trying to weed out the religious extremists. 

There have been a series of similar attacks in recent years blamed on the Islamic militants. 

There is an increasingly visible divide between the secular forces and conservative Islamic groups, which are often covertly connected with Islamist parties. The secularists are urging authorities to ban religion-based politics. Sheikh Hasina has repeatedly said she will not give in to religious extremism, and is carrying out trial of the war criminals for genocide and crimes against humanity. Roy’s killing comes amid a crackdown on hardline Islamist groups, which have increased activities in recent years in the South Asian nation. In 2013, religious militants targeted several secular bloggers who had demanded capital punishment for Islamist leaders convicted of war crimes during Bangladesh's war for independence.

Citing a police official a Dhaka-datelined AP report said:

A previously unknown militant group, Ansar Bangla 7, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Roy, 42, “was the target because of his crime against Islam,” the group said on Twitter.

Roy, a prominent voice against religious intolerance, had been threatened for his writings.

Citing a police official the AP report added:

Roy, an engineer by training, had founded a popular Bengali-language blog Mukto-mona or Free Mind, which featured articles on scientific reasoning and religion.

The blogger's father, Ajay Roy, a retired professor of physics at the Dhaka University, told Avijit had received threatening messages over email and on social media from individuals who were unhappy with his writing. Anujit Roy, his younger brother, said Roy had returned to the country earlier this month from the US and was planning to go back in March. His was living in Georgia.

A BBC report said:

Avijit’s writings on religion angered Islamist hardliners.

Mukto-mona website on Friday bore the message in Bengali "we are grieving but we shall overcome" against a black background.

Ajay Roy said "This Bangladesh which was built by the blood-sacrifice of the martyrs has now turned into a den of militants," he said.

Avijit earlier said he received threats from Islamist hardliners in Bangladesh last year when his book, The Virus of Faith, was released at a book fair.

"The death threats started flowing to my e-mail inbox on a regular basis," he wrote.

"I suddenly found myself a target of militant Islamists and terrorists. A well-known extremist... openly issued death threats to me through his numerous Facebook entries.

"In one widely circulated status, he writes, 'Avijit Roy lives in America and so, it is not possible to kill him right now. But he will be murdered when he comes back.'"

The killing in early 2013 of another secular blogger, Ahmed Rajib Haider, which was blamed on religious hardliners, sparked protests from free-speech supporters and counter-protests from Islamists.

The police say the attack on Mr. Roy was similar to the 2013 murder.

Death threats against atheist writers and bloggers are nothing new in Bangladesh.

Prominent writer Taslima Nasreen had to leave Bangladesh after she received death threats from hard-line Islamists in the mid-1990s.

She wrote on her blog: "Avijit Roy has been killed the way other free thinker writers were killed in Bangladesh. No free thinker is safe in Bangladesh.

"Islamic terrorists can do whatever they like. They can kill people with no qualms whatsoever."

Roy rose to prominence though his prolific writing on his self-founded site, Mukto-Mona - an internet gathering of mostly South Asia free-thinkers, ratio-nalists, skeptics and humanists founded in 2000. Around a dozen books by Avijit, mostly about science, philosophy and materialism, have so far been published.

Some of the last books Avijit wrote, Obisshahser Dorshon (The Philosophy of Disbelief) and Biswasher Virus (The Virus of Faith), were critically well received around the world.

In the Virus of Faith he argues that "faith-based terrorism will wreak havoc on society in epidemic proportions".

In one of his last published articles in the Free Inquiry magazine, Avijit wrote: "To me, religious extremism is like a highly contagious virus. My own recent experiences in this regard verify the horrific reality that such religious extremism is a virus of faith."

He said in the article that a book he published last year "hit the cranial nerve of Islamic fundamentalists" and led to him being targeted by militant Islamists and terrorists.

It also led, he said, to a man openly issuing death threats against him on Facebook.

"Avijit Roy lives in America and so it is not possible to kill him right now," Mr. Roy quoted one threat against him as saying, "but he will be murdered when he gets back."

Born in 1972, Avijit Roy studied microbiology as a graduate and post-graduate at Dhaka University before emigrating to the US city of Atlanta where he was employed as an engineer.

Roy told the Daily Star, Dhaka in February 2007 that the aim of Mukto-mona was to build a society which will not be "bound by the dictates of arbitrary authority, comfortable superstition, stifling tradition, or suffocating orthodoxy - but would rather be based on reason, compassion, humanity, equality and science".

In the interview, he identified illiteracy as an obstacle to "free thinking" in the sub-continent: "South Asia has a major problem of illiteracy, which makes it easy for fundamentalists from outside the region to spread hatred and false propaganda," he said.

"When people cannot read critical texts questioning this propaganda they are more easily deluded by preachers of hatred." 

Two of his recent titles had been launched at the ongoing Ekushey Book Fair.

His writing and blogging had evoked the ire of fanatics and he had been regularly threatened.

Thursday’s attack bore a striking similarity to the one on legendary writer and professor at the Dhaka University Humayun Azad in February 2004.

Azad was also returning to home from the Ekushey Book Fair when he was hacked with machetes by radical militants. He later died in Germany while undergoing treatment.

Militants also hacked blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider to death in a similar attack near his home at Dhaka’s Mirpur in February 2013.

That was barely 10 days after the secular platform Ganajagaran Mancha started its Shahbagh-based agitation.

Islamist radicals had attacked other secular bloggers like Ashraful Alam and Asif Mohiuddin after the Shahbagh agitation polarized opinions in Bangladesh.

They were demanding capital punishment for war criminals and a ban on communal parties like the Jamaat-e-Islami.

A bdnews24.com report [published: 2015-03-01 updated: 2015-03-01] said:

“After paying tributes to the blogger, a friend of Avijit’s father, writer-journalist Shahriar Kabir, blamed militants for the murder and feared Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina might be killed by them. ‘Sheikh Hasina is on the top of their (hit) list. Mukto-Mona bloggers and I follow her in the list. If they (militants) are not identified, Sheikh Hasina will be murdered one day,’ he said.”

Ahmedur Rashid Tutul, publisher of most of the blogger’s books, had also received threats two days after Avijit was murdered.

A Reuters report said:

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Bangladesh’s anti-terrorism unit, arrested on Monday Farabi Shafiur Rahman, the main suspect in the killing of Avijit Roy. Farabi Shafiur Rahman was previously jailed for his ties to the extremist Hizbut Tahrir Islamist group.

A RAB spokesman said Farabi had confessed to threatening to kill blogger Avijit Roy.

Last year, Farabi posted on Facebook: "It's a holy duty of Bangalee Muslims to kill Avijit".

The United Nations, the United States, and the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) have condemned the attack.

The U.N. has condemned the attack on Avijit and demanded a fast trial of the killers.

The U.S. has termed the incident as “a cowardly assault” and offered assistance in the investigation. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki described it as an assault on Bangladesh’s proud tradition of free intellectual and religious speech.

In 2013, Islamist groups called for the execution of bloggers they said had committed blasphemy, according to news reports quoted by CPJ.

Avijit had reported receiving death threats from Islamists to his friends and family and to the UK-based human rights organisation, the International Humanist and Ethical Union, CPJ said;

A bdnews24.com report (“Threat takes book out of list”, 2014-03-16) said:

An online outlet has ‘taken a book off its list’ after a fundamentalist blogger threatened to attack its office on Saturday.

The office of rokomari.com will be attacked if ‘Bishwaser Virus’ authored by Avijit is not taken off its selling list, says Blogger Farabi Shafiur Rahman.

‘Allah’ and His ‘Rasul’ (Prophet Muhammad) had been sarcastically treated in the book, says Farabi, who had been detained for threatening the Imam of Shahbagh movement activist Ahmed Rajib Haider’s funeral prayers.

The rokomari.com does not keep any book of Syed Abul Moksud and Faruk Wasif on the home page, but it does keep Roy’s books including ‘Bishwaser Virus’ (Virus of Belief), Farabi added.

Answering back, rokomari.com’s Chief Executive Officer Mahmudul Hasan Sohagh says Farabi had better rate the book and give his opinion in a review.

As Farabi could not be appeased with this, Avijit’s books were kept on the website as ‘out of print’.

Protesting rokomari.com’s move, Avijit Roy says in a facebook post, “rokomari.com should be unwavering in keeping writers’ liberty. My books have not been banned by the State or the Court.”

“Rather, Farabi faces a lawsuit, in which charges have been pressed against him (over issuing a threat to the Imam, who administered Rajib’s namaz-e-janaza),” he said. Farabi is out on bail since Aug 21 last year.

“We do not ask for taking any religion-based book from the book list. Many books on religions, jihad, written by razakars, are available at the rokomari.com.”

March 2, 2015
Countercurrents.org

The forgotten king of Pulayanarkotta - The Hindu

The forgotten king of Pulayanarkotta - The Hindu

A hoarding in the city announcing the 152nd anniversary celebration of Ayyankali, the messiah of the Pulaya community of Kerala, describes him as a ‘Raja’. Mahatma Gandhi had also called the social reformer as Pulaya Raja. This status is also related to the connection of Pulayas with Chera dynasty (hence the name Cheramar).

The history of the Pulaya community is scantly recorded. The story of the downtrodden was never a topic of interest for historians until the 20th century. Therefore, it is not surprising that the life of a king of the Pulaya community, who lived some 200 years ago in the city, never got recorded, authentically. But the memory of Kalipulayan, the last Pulaya Raja of Pulayanarkotta, nevertheless remains through fables. A shrine dedicated to him has also surprisingly survived the ravages of time and remains tucked away, right in the middle of the city, in Attakkulangara.

There are several indications that the Pulaya community had a glorious past. T. K. Velu Pillai, in theTravancore State Manual, opines that such a past remained till 700 CE. Bishop Caldwell remarks: “Perhaps the best representatives at present of the earliest race of inhabitants are those long oppressed tribes, now considered the lowest in the social scale”.

Anantha Krishna Iyer in Cochin Tribe & Castes (1909) refers to a Pulaya chieftain called Aikkara Yajamanan. Krishna Iyer C.A. in Travancore Tribes and Castes (1939) mentions that a Pulaya princess named Kotha is said to have ruled over Kokkothamangalam in Nedumangad.

Pulayanarkotta on the banks of the Akkulam lake was also, arguably, home to a Pulaya chieftain. ‘Pulayanarkotta’ literally means ‘the fort of the Pulayas chief or king’; the “nar” at the end of Pulayanar indicates some kind of superior social status.

Samuel Mateer in his Native Life of Travancore (1883) is one of the scholars who refer to Pulayanarkotta. He first sketches the social condition of Pulayas. “They belong to the very lowest grades in caste, having been formerly slaves and still deeply degraded as education and civilization have not yet largely affected them, and their former masters do not wish them to rise to independence or full liberty. Their customs and usages are of the deepest interest to the ethnologist, while their social condition calls for the profoundest sympathy of the philanthropist”.

He then goes on to make his remarks about, Pulayanarkotta. “In the neighbourhood of Trivandrum, Pulayars are accustomed to boast of having once had a chieftain or rajah of their own, who resided in a fort not far off. There certainly are some remains on the summit of a hill near Vely of a mud wall and ditch, some 60 or 70 feet square, enclosing a small level plot of ground now overgrown with shrub and having a deep well inside. This is commonly called Pulayanar Kotta, and a Sudra family in the neighbourhood are called by their fellows “the Pulayan’s Accountants,” and freely admit that their ancestors did hold that office. As Head Pulayars were appointed by the Travancore Government to be responsible for the others in all matters of business, there may have been one chief of all near the capital, to whom, as a politic means of ruling the others, some special privileges, and a small mud walled fort might have been allowed. But it seems impossible to believe that any of this unfortunate race could have been within the last few centuries in possession of independent authority.”

Historian Pattom G. Ramachandran Nair has also recorded oral history about Pulaya Raja of Pulayanarkotta. He also points to the oral tradition that Anayara was once the elephant stables of the Pulaya king.

There is no clear indication about the period of reign of the last Pulaya Raja, we can only infer that he lived during the late 18th century or earlier. The fable that remains today about Kalipulayan comes to us through the members of the Viswakarma community, the community which traditionally worked as carpenters, blacksmith, goldsmith, sculptors and so on. Parameswaran Achari, a member of the community, who has been running a goldsmith shop for almost half a century in Puthen Road junction in Vanchiyoor holds the story of Kalipulayan close to his heart. Parameswaran’s fable has obvious elements of fantasy in it, but hidden somewhere is an indication that, much like Ayyankali who forced entry into a ‘Vidyalaya” (school), Kalipulayan sacrificed himself by entering a ‘Devalaya’ (temple), in an attempt to declare his equality with the Maharaja of erstwhile Travancore.

Kalipulayan and his wife are believed to have reigned over Pulayanarkotta and they were well known for their magical powers. In a fit to reassure the pride of his community, the Pulaya Raja is said to have declared that he being a king, he was entitled to enter the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple. The Pulaya connection of the temple is well known.

Samuel Mateer, in his work titled ‘Land of Charity’ (1870) refers to it as follows: “The place where Trivandrum now stands was formerly a jungle, called Ananta Kadu. In the centre of this desert dwelt a Pulayan and his wife, who obtained a livelihood by cultivating a large rice-field, near to their hut. One day, as the Pulayan’s wife was weeding her grounds, she heard the cry of a babe close to her, and on search, found it so beautiful that she supposed it was a divine infant, and was at first afraid to touch it.

However, after washing herself, she fed the babe with milk, and left it again under the shade of a large tree. As soon as she had retired a five headed cobra came, removed the infant to a hole in the tree, and sheltered it from the sun with its hood. It was an incarnation of the god Vishnu. While there, the Pulayan and his wife used to make offerings to the babe of milk and conjee in a coconut shell. Tidings of these things reaching the ears of the sovereign of Travancore, orders were issued for the erection of a temple At the place. The natives add that the cocoa-nut shell used by the Pulayan is still preserved in the royal pagoda at Trivandrum.”

Today, the small shrine for Kalipulayan inside the Attakkulangara Dharmasastha temple is kept in a corner. Here Kalipulayan and Kalipulayi are symbolically represented by two tiny pyramids.

Even now we can find settlements of Viswakarma community in Attakkulangara area. Only one shop remains in the area – Chembonippura in Aryasala that still makes brass pieces. All other brass making units have either vanished or morphed into shops which sell brass items brought from elsewhere.

S. N. Sadasivan in A Social History Of India gives a different account of the fate of the last Pulaya Raja. He mentions that Pulayas had a colony in Karamana, with their chief having a fortress and palace in Pulayanarkotta. He had a prominent Ezhava as his minister and a Nair as his accountant (the latter also confirmed by Samuel Mateer).

Chittira, the beautiful daughter of the king was sought by the king of Venad as his concubine, and the demand being spurned by her, the Venad king along with his Marava regiment attacked Pulayanarkotta and killed the king, his daughter and razed the fort to ground.

Today, scenic Pulayanarkotta, which overlooks the city and the lake, has no trace left of the Pulaya King, his mud fort or his kingdom.

The fable of Kalipulayan

Kalipulayan was aware of the practical difficulties of demonstrating his equality by entering the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple, as in those days the evils of the caste system ensured that members of the Pulaya community could not even come near members of the so called upper caste, let alone a temple run by Brahmins. Kalipulayan had a way out. He invoked his magical powers and produced an oil called ‘Unni thailam’, which was said to have the powers to make people invisible. Kalipulayan applied oil on his forehead and boldly walked into the temple. Not only did he enter the temple and offer prayers, due to his sense of being equal to the Maharaja, he walked into the room in the temple complex where the Maharaja was having his supper. He sat beside the Maharaja and shared the rice porridge (kanji) that the Maharaja was having.

It did not escape the attention of the king that his kanji was diminishing at a faster rate than he was consuming it. Suspecting that something extraordinary was happening, he sought the advice of his astrologer. The astrologer foresaw that there was someone invisible partaking in the supper. The king asked the astrologer to devise a way of catching the culprit and the astrologer suggested a very simple way. The next day, steaming hot kanji was served. The steam from the kanji made the invisible Kalipulayan sweat, and he took his towel and wiped his face and removed the magical oil on his forehead, making him visible to the Maharaja. The cruelty of caste system in Travancore ensured that Kalipulayan was hanged for breaking the caste rules. It is possible that the settlement in Pulayanarkotta was also consequently demolished.

The fable does not end here. It is said that Kalipulayan’s fight with Maharaja continued from the other world. The spirit of Kalipulayan decided to get even with the Maharaja but he chose a rather meek way of doing it. Kalipulayan blew air into the moulds used for making brass vessels to be supplied to the temple and the palace. Air bubbles created defects in the brass vessels. Hit by the problem, Viswakarma brass smiths turned to astrologers for a solution. The astrologer hypothesised the handiwork of Kalipulayan. He advised the Viswakarma community to appease the spirit of Kalipulayan. They did it in the right earnest, inside the Dharmasastha Temple at Attakkulangara, run by their community. It is said that Kalipulayan gave up his vengeance and never again troubled the brassmiths and thereby the king and temple.

Keywords: Kalipulayan, Pulayanarkotta, Pulaya Raja, Chera dynasty

Release Human Rights Defenders Thushar And Jaison - By Asian Human Rights Commission

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) strongly condemns the arrest of reputed human rights defenders and advocates Thushar Nirmal Sarathy and Jaison C. Cooper under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in Kerala. They, like many others in the state, have been labeled “Maoist sympathizer” and are in jail since 30 January 2015.

Jaison, a well-known blogger has lent his voice to a variety of grassroots struggles of the marginalized and dispossessed sections of society in India and abroad. He was taken into custody on 29 January 2015 from Cochin, while Thushar was arrested after he addressed a press conference in Kozhikode the same day in Nalanda hotel. The police approached him after Thushar finished his conference and asked him to come to the Chemmangad Police Station for some ‘inquiry’ which Thushar complied with. At the station his arrest was recorded and was later transferred to Kochi and is currently in judicial remand.

Their arrests follow a pattern; the government has been targeting human rights defenders and rights activists by labeling them as “Maoist” sympathizers and thereby criminalizing them.

This is despite the Supreme Court order in the Binayak Sen case, which held that mere membership of a banned organization does not make a person criminal. The Bench, comprising Justices Markandeya Markandeya Katju and Gyan Sudha Mishra, stated that:

“In our opinion, Section 3(5) cannot be read literally as otherwise it will violate Articles 19 9(free speech) and 21 (liberty) of the Constitution. It has to be read in the light of our observations made above. Hence, mere membership of a banned organisation will not make a person a criminal unless he resorts to violence or incites people to violence or creates public disorder by violence or incitement to violence.”

The arrests have also followed a series of raids on the residential premises of persons engaged in human rights activities in Kerala. Advocate Thushar is the Secretary of Janakeeya Manushayvakasa Prasthanam (People’s Human Rights Forum), which has fought against human rights violations by the state authorities in Kerala for almost a decade. He has, ironically, also written a book on the draconian UAPA and also produced a short documentary film on the same subject titled U R under Arrest.

He, along with Jaison, had also played a major role in mounting a campaign in Kerala for the release Dr. Binayak Sen, when police, in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, under the same draconian UAPA, arrested the doctor.

Both Thushar and Jaison are actively engaged with peasants’ struggles against land acquisition, illegal rock quarrying, forcible evictions, and the violation of labour rights of migrant workers in Kerala, as well as in struggles against various polluting industries. Thushar, as an advocate, has also offered legal help and counsel to activists targeted by the state machinery. For instance, he stood for Sreekanth and Arun Balan who had been arrested by the police for allegedly carrying out attacks, and had no legal counsel.

Keeping both Thushar and Jaison in captivity, despite raids on their houses not having garnered any incriminating evidence against them makes a mockery of a justice system that is supposed to hold bail and not jail as the norm. Even the initial charge sheet filed by the police seeking their remand carried no evidence other than their possessing pamphlets and Maoist literature of the kind freely available in the public domain.

The right to read and possess literature is a freedom of expression guaranteed under the Constitution of India. To face punishment and jail term for possessing pamphlets and literary material of a political character that is freely available in the public domain shows the extent to which the Kerala police are willing to go on their human rights activist witch-hunt.

The AHRC wishes to emphasize that the UAPA is a travesty of both justice and democracy and has been used mostly for criminalising the Muslim minority and strident human rights activists. As leading Kerala activist B.R.P. Bhaskar noted in 2013, of the 100 people detained under the UAPA, 92 are Muslims and 8 are those accused of being Naxalites or Maoists.

Such a witch-hunt of human rights advocates and activists, under the guise of battling extremism, is unacceptable in a functioning democracy. The AHRC calls upon the government of Kerala to intervene in this case, release Thushar Sarathy and Jaison Cooper unconditionally, and stop the police vendetta against the human rights defenders.

25 February, 2015
AHRC

Kerala's Maoist Question - By Aishik Chanda

“January 26: Sham Republic Day” and “Kick out Yankee monster Obama” were some of the posters stuck to the walls of Tamarind Easy hotel of Kerala Tourism Development Corporation in Thirunelly, Wayanad district in northern Kerala in what is supposed to be the latest Maoist attack in the state on Sunday. This government resort is near to private resort Agraharam that came under similar Maoist attack on November 18.

Naxal activities in the state have seen a steady rise since the last year and a half. In the beginning of this phase, the main agenda of the armed red rebels was to provide shelter to their brethren from Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal. Since then, the Maoists have put up a steady show of attacking resorts, forest outposts, stone crushing units and American retail food outlets. However, most of the fire has been aimed at the resorts, which the Naxals treat as symbols of oppression built on Adivasi lands.

Adivasis in Kerala, who make up less than 3 per cent of the population, are concentrated in the hilly forested regions of Kannur, Mallapuram, Kozhikode and Wayanad and Idukki districts. Activists and researchers claim that Adivasis are the people who have completely been bypassed by the “Kerala model” of development.

Adivasi Gothra Mahasabha (AGM), an umbrella organisation of Adivasi groups of the state, claims that Forest Rights Act-2006 has not been implemented in the state fully. The group had, for more than five months, staged Nilpu Samaram or “standing stir” in front of the Kerala Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram, demanding land for the landless Adivasis and stopping privatization of Aralam farmland.

In the protest, more than 50 Adivasis from the northern districts kept standing on the pavements in front of the Secretariat against non-implementation of the promised land distribution during a previous 48-day Kudiletti Samaram protest in 2001, during the tenure of former Congress Chief Minister A.K. Anthony. The “Standing stir” was called off following similar promises by the present government.

AGM leader C.K. Janu had, during the protest, claimed that the previous promises of A.K. Anthony had not only been not implemented but the number of landless Adivasis rose from 35,000 in 2001 to 75,000 in 2014.

C.K. Janu had in 2003 led more than 1,000 Adivasis to illegally occupy a wildlife sanctuary in Wayanad district. The government led its armed police into the region, personnel of which opened fire on the protesters, leading to death of 4 of them. One policeman also died in the confrontation.

Ironically, the reason for the Adivasi struggle in the state – land – has long been distributed among the populace. This shows that one of the first land reforms in the country has completely bypassed its most depressed and deprived population. Lack of land or jobs has also led to innumerous malnutrition deaths in the northern districts over the years.

Banking on this resentment and continual deprivation, Maoists, under the CPI (Maoist) Western Ghats Regional Committee of the People’s Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA), are hoping to make inroads into the Adivasi hamlets of the northern districts of Malabar region of the state. Hence, they are attacking the very signs of oppression on the Adivasis – the stone crushers and the resorts – that have come up on the Adivasi lands, denying them any rights on their lands.

Only one incident of exchange of fire between Thunderbolts, a counter-Naxal commando force of Kerala police, and suspected Maoists was reported in Vellamunda in Wayanad district on December 7 last year. This shows that the Naxals are avoiding direct confrontation with the armed forces as of now.

While the state has responded in increased combing operations in the forested region, activists fear this may lead to more tortures, arrests and harassment of the Adivasis. Previous Naxal experiences in the country have shown that Maoist ranks swell from local recruits following such police harassment and torture. Many Adivasi youth have been arrested in the name of counter-insurgency operations. The government needs to check this or see rise in Maoist ranks in the state.

Murali Kannambali, former secretary of CPI (ML) Naxalbari before the party merged with CPI (Maoist) on May 1 last year, is said to be the tallest Maoist leader in the state. Son of former diplomat Kannambali Karunakara Menon, Murali has been inducted into the central committee of CPI (Maoist) after the merger.

Coming from the group of Naxals that emerged in the state during the initial years of Naxalism in India in the late 60s and early 70s, Murali is said to have spent a year in Paris in 1984 looking after the activities of the Revolutionary International Movement, the international forum of Maoist parties. As a Naxalite leader, Murali was instrumental in turning many engineering students into Naxalites in the mid-70s.

Even as Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala claimed that anti-social elements under the garb of Naxals are behind the attacks and there is “no need to panic” as the Maoist movement in the state does not enjoy popular support, government chief whip P.C. George had called for an end to anti-Naxal operations and spending crores of rupees to nab a “few dozen Maoists”. He said that the state should fight the Maoists with ideology and not with arms and was pulled up by Mr Chennithala for his statement. The Home Minister said that first, the Naxals have to put down arms, only then can the counter-insurgency operations stop.

On the other hand, the Adivasi Gothra Mahasabha has claimed that there has been an effort from both the state and the Maoists to enlarge the story of terror and make sure that the Adivasi areas are left isolated, so that the ganja (marijuana) cultivation and stone quarrying thrives. AGM has claimed that ganja cultivation has grown in areas where the Maoists have stronger presence.

However, many Adivasi activists have claimed that the Maoist story is being propagated larger than what is ground reality. As of now, this story has hampered inflow of tourists in the state, which have gone down by 30-35 per cent since last year.

The state should immediately start considering Adivasis as very-much residents of Kerala. Then Forest Rights Act, Panchayati Raj Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA), distribution of “cultivable land” to Adivasis and reduction of malnutrition deaths will follow automatically.

As far as the Maoists are concerned, experiences of West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh have shown that they can be flushed out of a state, but they will continue returning back till they find fertile grounds for “revolution”.

The writer is pursuing M.A. in Dalit and Tribal Studies and Action at Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai. He was a working journalist at The New Indian Express and Deccan Chronicle in Hyderabad. He continues to write as an independent journalist. He can be reached at chanda.aishik@gmail.com

21 February, 2015
Countercurrents.org

Aam Admi And Dalits By Rahul Sonpimple

Rahul Sonpimple

The recent astonishing emergence of ‘AAP’ in Indian politics has undoubtedly shuddered the political considerations of many after a long time; at least to the extent of reimagining an alternative politics. The AAP emerged as a political outfit from the anti- corruption protest led by Anaa Hazare and other Gandhians. Up till now, it has been effectively benefiting from the shared disappointment of the middleclass with the contemporary form of politics and governance. It is important here to note that, the media and civil society organizations have been very significant in not just in spreading of AAP’s head across but also in forming convincing opinions about the party as a vibrant alternative. With an unexpected success in the Delhi elections, AAP, seem to be finally stepping out from the protective circle of civil society and media.

Recently, the political opponents of AAP, as well as the media and a section of intellectuals have started to raise questions on the approach and methodology of the political party towards real and long standing issues like internal security, budget, policy on Kashmir, problems of SC/STs, minorities, women’s agenda etc. which have been continuing to shape Indian society and politics in unique ways. The euphoria created around AAP during the pre-elections had not allowed a rationalistic assessment of the party’s political manifesto. These concerns did not appear in the spectacle of intellectual assessments or in media discussions. The AAP leaders, in particular party president Mr. Kejriwal and ideologue Mr. Yogendra Yadav emphasized that the party does not embrace any particular ideology; rather it is a political organization of all honest and good people who believe in the problem solving approach which aims to end socio-political problems and corruption in government system.

Nonetheless, their affiliations and actions in the past and present reaffirm the party’s beliefs in Gandhian ideology. Their dream of realizing idea of the Gandhian Swaraj, in principal, does not permit claims towards ideological neutrality. The party rather seems to be seized with dominant thoughts against which the marginalized communities have put up a struggle.

Taking an account of the Dalit and other marginalized community’s perspective on the issues of development, democracy, etc .The ‘AAP’ seems to be representing the common dominant thoughts and daily frustrations of urban caste-Hindus, caused by the constitutional provisions.

The Idea of Aam Admi and Social Hierarchy:

Social stratification in any particular society with its fundamental nature reproduces margins and places certain social groups in the bottom of social ladder. Moreover social mobility for such groups in most of the democratic countries has been a concern for state and civil society and has been ensured through legal and social actions respectively. Caste in its principal has uniquely stratified the Indian society as compared to the other stratified societies in the world. As a result, power and position of an individual is mostly ascribed according to her/his caste. Surprisingly the available data, reports and tangible reality which exists in daily affairs does not allow one, at least morally, to disdain the presence and control of caste rules and norms in defining an individual’s destiny even in today’s modern Indian society. The so called upper caste-class, with help of the media and “civil society”, has succeeded to form an isolated existence of their own, cut off from the existing reality, where caste is no more a reason to define an individual and her/his destiny. The blame for the existing dreadful situation of the country is strapped on solely to the corrupt politicians and government officials. This sharing of distorted reality is peculiar to the urban middle class-upper caste. It often comes into the picture through the demonstrations against modern laws and policies formulated for the protection of rights of Dalit-Bahujans.

A relook at the political upheavals of upper caste-middle classes on the issue of reservations for SC/STS and BCs in the not so distant past, will bring forth the memory of ‘Youth for Equality’ an anti-reservationist organization, within which Kejriwal had emerged as a prominent leader of the anti-reservation movement. With the passage of time, Kejriwal seemed to be little modest on the issue of reservation, with his active participation in politics and in the company of several so called progressive ideologues like Yogendra Yadav. Yet, his recent comments on the reservation policy, reflects the common perceptions about reservation, which underplay the fundamental idea behind reservation for social equity.

Kejriwal and his colleagues have been loosely using the term ‘Aam Admi’, giving it a homogenous essence by positioning entire political class as ‘Khas’ and rest, including oppressor caste-class groups as ‘Aam’. Such a reductionist approach and homogenization not just undermines the existing socio-economical inequality among social groups but also preserves the vested interests of ruling caste. The recent incident with social justice minister K.L Puniya in Odisha where he was barred by the caste-Hindus from entering in a Hindu temple, expose the illusions created by AAP, making us to wonder about the very use of the category of ‘Aam Admi’.

Idea of Swaraj & Ambedkar:

With an intention to realize the Gandhian scheme of Gram Swaraj which Gandhi himself envisaged from the idea of ‘Ram Rajya’, AAP with its Gandhian sympathizers rhetorically endorses the decentralization of power, where the power of governance and rights of democracy will be in the hands of the local people/community. Consequently, the AAP has been experimenting with these ideas in the localities of Delhi, which resulted into adversities for African-women immigrants of the city. The unsettled positions on decentralization and giving of power to the local communities have always been contested within the long standing Gandhi-Ambedkar debate on the Gram Swaraj. Although, Gandhian ideas have always been sustained by the political patronage of the ruing caste-class, Ambedkar’s predictions on Gandhian Gram-Swaraj still find its relevance in the operating violent reality of rural India. For Ambedkar, villages were an oppressors' paradise. "What is a village but a sink of localism, a den of ignorance and narrow-mindedness’’ said Ambedkar. Gandhian concept of Gram Swaraj i.e. Village Republics were a cause of the “ruination of India”. They were nothing but “sink of localism and of ignorance and communalism”. However, Ambedkar’s views on Gram Swaraj have gained little attention in our intellectual tradition and in civil society activism. As a result Gandhi’s unfinished dream of “Ram Rajya” through Gram Swaraj was subsequently institutionalized in the form of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act (1992). Ambedkar’s views can be evoked once again in the light of endless cases of discrimination and oppression against Dalit/women sarpanches by local dominant communities. Yet the celebrator of local culture and self-righteous Gandhian ideals seems to be untouched with such stark reality. Yogendra Yadav is one of those admirers, who with his co-workers in AAP, is struggling to propagate the Gandhian dreams of Gram-Swaraj. In a recent interview with CNN-IBN in Jind, Haryana, while responding on the question on involvement of local community in decision making, he ignorantly differentiated human rights issue of Dalits only with the extreme form of caste discrimination and suggests community involvement should be restricted in those issue while there should be complete involvement of community on infrastructural issues in the community. Ironically, many times Dalits who are sarpanch or members of a gram sabha-panchyata sameeti, are not allowed by local dominant castes to participate in any kind of decision making process. In multiple instances Dalits raising a voice against political exclusion at village level have had to pay heavy prices for their assertion. Surprisingly, Yadav, while endorsing the Gandhian dream of Gram Swaraj, with his aspiration to become Chief Minister of Haryana, seems to be oblivious about the fact that Harayana is one of a most feudal and oppressive state for women and Dalits. The recent protests by Dalits in Jind, against the series of brutal gang rapes of Dalit women in the district, seemed to have skipped the attention of ideologue. All most all political parties headed by upper caste, talk about Dalits but none of them have ever agreed to solutions provided by Dalits themselves and AAP seems to be following in the same lines with its Gandhian agenda of Swaraj.

Fake anarchism and real revolution:

As discussed above, media has not only played an important role in spreading AAP’s head across but in the process it has been actively distorting thoughts and ideologies which have largely been one way or other used by the oppressed communities to reimagine a just society. With the high amount of passion media mostly electronic first named Arvind Kejriwal as a Socialist and is now celebrating his political protest against the Union Home Minister as Anarchism. Interestingly, once again Kejriwal with his self-righteous attitude has labeled himself as an antichrist which is seemingly another strategy to score the image of a martyr for the upcoming general elections. Although, there have been longstanding intellectual engagements on the necessity and compatibility or even fallacy of such ideological armaments, the basic nature of any revolutionary ideological scheme restrains itself within the structural or individual reform of any particular stratified society. While anti-stateism is central, the philosophical arrangements of anarchism considered as the basic foundations of society as constraining the natural development of individuals. In addition, one may notably argue that, the Indian society, marked by the stark caste reality as it’s super and supra structure both, requires to be considered as a solid constrain in the natural development of entire society. Accordingly, labeling Kejriwal as an anarchist would be the mockery of any revolutionary ideology, since Kejriwal and his party’s stand on caste and Dalits is rooted in the Gandhian paradigm which has been opposed and disdained by the most oppressed group- Dalits in the country.

Concluding Remarks:

The governing belief on morality, of what is right and wrong, in India have predominantly been crafted with Brahamnical textures of thinking patterns and hitherto sustained by the caste elites. However, with the introduction of constitutional morality in general and modernity in particular such dominant currents of Hindu morality have also been pushed into the realm of contestation. It is quite evident that caste in the discourse of political morality, neither in the past nor in the present, has ever been a willing choice of any mainstream political party or social organization headed by upper caste, it is rather a pressure created by the Dalit-Bahujan struggle against injustice and oppression. As a result, social justice as a revolutionary concept has been narrowed and limited only to the issue of reservation.

The recent anti-corruption protest by Anna Hazare and his companions and the subsequent emergence of AAP in political arena have been loaded with dominant beliefs of political morality which deem corruption only as a governance phenomenon. They have managed to escape from the fact of social and religious corruption which blatantly exists in the society, imprisoning Dalit-Bhaujans in the water tight compartments of caste. The issues like misuse or lapse of SCP/TSP money by both state and central government, vacant posts of SC/ST quotas in government intuitions, one caste group monopoly on small and big business, caste group holdings important administrative posts, caste group work as a safai karamcharis in government departments, unequal pattern of land holding according to caste, and many other issue related with caste, according to Kejriwal and AAP leaders do not qualify in the category of corruption and moreover fail to be the issues of “Aam Admi”. The rhetoric of Aam Admi by AAP is limited only to urban upper caste-middle class. With such an exclusionary ideology and attitude, AAP and its leaders have already formed a Dalit-Bahujan hostile camp.

Rahul Sonpimple is an Academic Associate, Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA). Gujarat

08 February, 2014
Countercurrents.org

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idaneram: The man from the hut became the film maker

idaneram: The man from the hut became the film maker:

Bhasi

Born the rural lower cast’s colony Irumpanam at Ernakulam District of Kerala State in South India, Irumpanam Bhasi produced debut feature film named Bodhi, Directed by G Ajayan. The film is based on Kerala’s great poet Kumaran Asan’s ‘Chandala Bhishuki’, Rabindra Nath Tagor’s ‘Chandaalika’ , Laxmi Narasu’s ‘Buddha and His Dhamma’ and Dr. B R Ambedkar’s book also.

The story is about the Monk Anantha and Mathangi – the girl from Chandala the out caste- that is taken Jataka Tale of Lord Buddha’s early birth. The film completed in the year 2008, but not yet released.

The name Irumpanam is related with legendary Asura Goddess Hidumbi – not an Aryan Goddess or Dravidian Goddess coming from ‘Mahabharata’. ‘Vanam’ means forrest. The words Hidumbi and Vanam joined, it became’ Hidumbavanam’ and later ‘Irumpanam’. One of the most acclaimed novelist Mr. M M Menon, in his Novel ‘ Jeevaparyantham’ (Lifelong imprisonment) says both legendary and history of this place widely. And there is place in kochi city called Karikkamuri, it is said that the place is made by the inhabitance from Irumpanam. 

The producer Bhasi Irumpanam himself coming from Pulaya caste also an untouchable caste now called Daliths. His parents were agricultural laborers. Father died and mother still alive at the age of sixties. Except Bhasi, only a sister and she is married, now lives with husband and children.

Bhasi’s childhood was difficulties with poverty and caste crises. So he could not complete his school education and discontinue at 8^th standard. And went to daily wages works with parents. Later he joined as a head load worker with CITU (Centre of Indian Trade Unions), conducted by a leftist political party. In that period he associated with Folk Song Parties and sung many occasions and festivals. Until he took goodwill in folk music, and colleagues compelled him to join them ever and leave from as the head load work. Bhasi remembered that he had also political miss opinion to his cadre party; at last he leaved from them. He sung a folk song as background in his own Cinema; create in tribal language Paniya one of the tribe in Kerala.

Scene from 'Bodhi'

Then he joined Prof. Chandradasans drama troup as an actor.   Prof. Chandradasans is well known for his stage presantation of India’s Great Poet Bhasa’s ‘Karnabharam’. The drama performed many of stage countrywide and abroad. The plot of the play ‘Karnabharam’ is also taken from legend ‘Mahabarata’. But Bhasi acted only Shakespearian plays and Greek, directed by Prof. Chandradasan. But, the experience with Prof. Chandradasan is not good remembered, Bhasi says, and after that he leaved from there too. Then he made a solo Written and directed by K R Remesh named ‘The Hen with Red Beard’, it gave Bhasi more fame in theater art.

In Prof. Chandradasan’s camp Bhasi did meet with G Ajayan , who is also an actor with them. Their friendship grew up there and it lead to them to create the movie ‘Bodhi’ .The script and concept of the movie by Ajayan and money by Bhasi. Sold some of his land Bhasi collected money for the movie, even though his hose is in poor condition with clay-tiled roof and damaged wall. This attempt gave Bhasi more wraths from his own people, and he did not mind it. Monitory crisis did stop making of the movie several times, but borrowed money from somewhere, at last they did their dream to realize in the year 2009, but Bhasi became a debtor to others.   

Tilaurakot's claim to fame.

Tilaurakot's clame to Kapilavastu is based mainly on four pieces of evidence. First, according to Buddhist literature, Kapilavastu was situated on a river which they called Bhagirathi. Since there are many Bhagirathis (every community called its fortunate neighbourhood river Bhagurathi which finally was ivested on the Ganga), there can be no end to the dispute."Tilaurakot is situated on the Banganga which is thought to have been called Bhagirathi by the Sakyas", said Prof. Tulsi Ram Baidya, chairman of the Nepal History Association. " there is no river near Piprahava"

Secondaly, a capital town would have been fortified. "We can still see remnants of a moat and walls at the   Tilaurakot site. The walls are 10 feet wide,", said Prof. Baidya. "Unless it was a city, it could not have had walls. The area of Kapilavasthu is around 1,700 feet x 1,300 feet. It was too huge for a monadic complex"

Third, Japanese and Nepalese archaeologists later found painted grey ware in the 3rd century trench that Debala Mitra had dug up. Painted gray ware was as old as 11th century BC in the Indian subcontinent. This means the site could have been occupied as early.

Fourth, a huge hoard of coins has been found at Tilaurakot. Unless it was a palace, there cannot be so many coins.

Then what was Piprahawa ? Nepalese experts say that it could have been part of the Sakya republic and the site of a monastery. They argue that the structural complex excavated by K M Srivastava in Piprahawa have small rooms which are indicative of monk's dwelling units. In the centre there is a platform, perhaps to keep the sacred image.

The area around Tilaurakot is choc-a-block with unexcavated or partly excavated Buddhist sites."There are 65 archaeological sites identified", said Prof.Prof. Baidya . Added Birendra K Yadav, project manager of Lumbini Development Trust: "We want to develop at least seven of them."

The first, of course is Tilaurakot, the site of Kapilavastu. The others are Gotihawa, Kudan, Nigihawa, Arouarakot, Sagarhawa and Sisania. Each place has both archaeological and religious importance.

Gotihawa, four miles from Tilaurakot, has a nine-foot-tall brick stupa is 68 feet in diameter. Close to it has been found headless pillar of Asokan style.Gen. Khadga Shamsher, who worked with archaeologist Dr Alois Anton Fuhrer in the late 19th century, wrote that this could be the Napeakea of the two Chinese travellers, the birth place of Krakuchehunda Buddha, a relative of Goutama. "The distance, 50 li from the city.... tallies with it." wrote the general. Gotihawa, the general thought, is derived from Goshtri, meaning relatives.

Kudan is a village near Tilaurakot where four mounds whre excavated in 1962. the northernmost appeared to be a 30-foot-tall brick stupa. The other mound relieved a compound wall and some terracotta elephants and horses. The third mound had walls of room. The fourth had a brick structure on which a temple had been later built. Buddhists believes this was the place where Suddhodana met the enlightened Gautama.

Niglihawa is of great archaeological, and religious importance. There are many who believes that Buddhism predators Gautama. Kanakamuni Buddha, one of Gautama's predecessors, is believed to have been born here. Asoka visited the place as is clear from a stupa he created here, which was found by Further and Major Waddle in the 19th century. The stupa was found broken, with the bottom part still stuck on the ground and the top peace lying nearby. Villagers used to call it Bhimasena-kinigali or Bimasena's smoking pipe. The pillar also had two peacocks on top. That it was a place of worship till the medieval period is clear from an inscription on the Asokan pillar left by a Malla king in the 12th century. It is also believed that the pillar was removed from its original site in the medieval period just as Feroz Shah brought an Asokan pillar from Meerut to Delhi.

A rectangular fort has been excavated at Araurakot, some 1,500 feet south-east of Nigalihawa. The fort was protected by a ditch, with additional protection to the south and the east which indicated the existence of a citadel. There is a mound indicating the existence of an ancient temple.

The tale of an unsung hero - The Hindu

Simon Sundararaj’s most memorable moment in life is a paradox. What perhaps is the proudest moment of his life – scoring a goal for India against Peru in the 1960 Rome Olympics-- it is both a hark back to Indian football’s pinnacle of glory and a reminder of the nation’s failure to distinguish itself in world’s favourite sport.

Olympian Simon Sundararaj is a forgotten hero but he would be remembered as the last Indian who scored a goal at the Olympics and the man who coached Kerala team to its first ever Santosh Trophy victory. Though much water has flown under the bridge – half a century later India is yet to qualify for the Olympics.

Hailing from Thanjavur, Simon was the first to represent Tamil Nadu in national team. The footballer pursued his passion in what can be dubbed as Indian football’s golden era and rubbed shoulders with Indian football giants.

“I am proud that I played for India. . Making it to the Olympics was an achievement in itself,” says Simon with a visible glint of pride. “But truth is we have gained nothing.”

Simon did not expect a hero’s welcome. Neither did he expect any ‘reward’ from South Indian Railways, the team he represented at the national level. It came in the form of loss of pay for the four months Simon spent in preparatory camps and at the Games.

“All we got was coca-cola. No promotion, recognition, awards, nothing. We did not play for money, but neither did we have the incentive to play on,” says the footballer who worked as a railway guard for six years.

“How do you expect sports to flourish when sportspersons are not recognized or encouraged?” he asks, reminding of the pathetic conditions in which fellow Olympian Yusuf Khan succumbed for want of care and aid.

The tale of an unsung hero - The Hindu

UP Gang Rape: Two Constables Sacked, Accused Arrested

UP Gang Rape: Two Constables Sacked, Accused Arrested

As outrage spread over the horrific gangrape of two Dalit sisters in the district, authorities today sacked two constables in connection with the crime even as police arrested another accused in the case.

The action came three days after the girls were gangraped and their bodies were found hanging from a tree. SP Atul Kumar Saxena said the services of two constables Chhatrapal Yadav and Sarvesh Yadav have been terminated.

"One more accused Awadhesh Yadav has been arrested by the police," he said.

Of the seven wanted in the case, three (policeman Sarvesh Yadav and brothers Pappu and Awadhesh Yadav) have been arrested so far, he said. Sarvesh and Pappu were arrested yesterday.

Four others Urvesh Yadav (brother of Pappu and Awadhesh), policeman Chhatrapal Yadav and two unidentified persons are at large.

The two girls, who were cousins and aged 14 and 15, went missing from their house on the night of May 27 and their bodies were found hanging from a mango tree in the village in Ushait area the next morning.

The incident had triggered protests in the area with villagers alleging police apathy, following which an FIR was registered against seven persons. The postmortem report of the two girls confirmed that they were raped before murder, Saxena had said.

Sarvesh and Chhatrpal have been booked under section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC, while the three brothers --Pappu, Awadhesh and Urvesh-- and two others have been booked under Section 302 (murder) and 376 (rape) of IPC.