Religion, Nationalism, and Terror

BBC NEWS | South Asia | India party reserves women posts, January 29, 2008

Party leader Sushma Swaraj described the move as “historic” and a step towards “empowerment of women”.

The BJP and ruling Congress have backed reservation of a third of parliamentary seats for women since 1999.

The bill has been put forward several times, but has never been passed through parliament.

The proposal to reserve 33% of seats in the federal parliament and state assemblies has met with stiff resistance from several smaller parties.

Analysts say that the BJP and Congress parties’ support for reservation in parliament and state assemblies has also been unconvincing because they did not have enough women in their party positions.

Now the BJP has announced that it will give a third of party positions to women workers and senior party leaders said the party constitution would be amended to allow for the change.

“This [decision] will go down as a historic one … and it will be mentioned in the history of women’s empowerment in India,” BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said.

Women MPs make up only 8% of the present lower house of the Indian parliament.

Indian police shoot three dead, BBC, December 29, 2007

Police in the eastern Indian state of Orissa shot and killed at least three people on Thursday in continuing communal violence, officials say.

Police opened fire on a large crowd of Hindus after a village police station was set on fire.

The crowd had been complaining about a lack of protection after Christians set fire to several Hindu homes.

Christians had retaliated after 19 churches were destroyed in violence that began on Christmas Eve….

Members of the hardline Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) said Christians sparked the violence by attacking one of their leaders, Swami Laxamananda Saraswati, on Monday.

Hindu groups also accuse Christian missionaries of forcing tribal people and low-caste Hindus to convert to Christianity.

But Christians deny the claims and accuse the Hindus of objecting to them celebrating Christmas.

Indian Christians held candles during a demonstration yesterday in New Delhi against the recent violence on Christians and their churches on Christmas in the Indian state of Orissa. (Manish Swarup/Associated Press)

Gavin Rabinowitz, Hindus, Christians torch homes and churches in India, AP, Boston Globe, December 28, 2007

NEW DELHI - Hindu extremists torched nearly a dozen churches and the home of a Christian leader yesterday, defying a curfew imposed to quell three days of religious violence in eastern India. Christians retaliated by setting fire to several homes belonging to Hindus.

Police have been unsuccessful in halting the attacks and the federal government announced it was sending in a paramilitary force.About 19 churches, most of them small mud and thatch buildings, have been razed since violence broke out on Christmas Eve when long-standing tensions between the Hindu majority and the small Christian community erupted over conversions to Christianity.

Hindu groups have long charged Christian missionaries with trying to lure the poor and those who occupy the lowest rungs of Hinduism’s complex caste-system away with promises of money and jobs.

Yesterday, a group of Hindus burned down the house of Radhakant Nayak, a member of India’s upper house of parliament and a Christian leader in the area, Nayak told the CNN-IBN news channel.

Also, 11 churches were ransacked and burned in Kandhamal district of Orissa state, the Press Trust of India quoted unnamed police officials as saying.

Superintendent of Police Narsingh Bhol said several prayer houses were ransacked and some were set on fire, but he did not have the exact number.

Meanwhile, in the village of Brahmangaon, a group of Christians burned down several Hindu homes in an apparent retaliation for the attack on churches. Angry Hindus then burned down the village police station….

Orissa has one of the worst histories of anti-Christian violence. An Australian missionary and his two sons, aged 8 and 10, were burned to death in their car in Orissa following a Bible study class in 1999. Orissa is the only Indian state that has a law requiring people to obtain police permission before they change their religion. The law was intended to counter missionary work.

Ajit Solanki/Associated Press

Bharatiya Janata Party supporters celebrating Sunday in Ahmadabad, India, after the announcement of state election results.

Somini Sengupta, Hindu Radical Is Re-elected in India - New York Times, December 24, 2007

NEW DELHI — He has been likened to the Emperor Nero, who fiddled while Rome burned. He has been denied entry into the United States for violations of religious freedom, yet praised as a business-friendly politician who has allowed private industry to flourish in his state.

On Sunday, voters re-elected the politician, Narendra Modi, arguably India’s most incendiary officeholder, as the chief minister of the western state of Gujarat. His victory, by a wide margin, was a stunning defeat for the country’s governing Congress Party and signaled that Mr. Modi and his charismatic, often pugnacious, brand of Hindu supremacist politics would be a force to be reckoned with in the future.Gujarat is considered a test case for national politics because it is viewed as a laboratory for radical Hindu politics in contemporary India.

Mr. Modi, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, is accused of sanctioning or taking no steps to stop Hindu mobs from massacring at least 1,000 of their Muslim neighbors in February 2002, after a mysterious fire engulfed a train carrying members of a Hindu nationalist organization, killing 59 people on board. Ten months later, voters in Gujarat returned Mr. Modi to power.

In elections held earlier this month, Mr. Modi’s B.J.P. captured 117 seats in of the 182-member state legislature, falling just short of a two-thirds majority; the Congress Party, which leads the nation’s governing coalition, trailed with 59 seats, while 6 went to other parties. The results were announced Sunday by the Election Commission of India.

Hindu Nationalists Win State Elections - New York Times, December 23, 2007

AHMADABAD, India (AP) — India’s main Hindu nationalist party swept to an impressive election victory Sunday in the western state of Gujarat after a bitter campaign fought in the shadow of deadly 2002 anti-Muslim riots that still scar the state.

The Bharatiya Janata Party won 117 seats in the 182-seat state assembly, according to the election commission. The Congress party, which heads the federal government, won 62, while independents took three seats, it said.

Congress conceded defeat earlier Sunday as early results indicated success for the BJP and its contentious Gujarat leader Narendra Modi, in a poll that many view as a test of party strength ahead of national elections….

While the elections may have national bearing, the campaign was dominated by local issues, particularly the anti-Muslim violence that swept Gujarat in 2002 after 59 Hindus were killed when a train car burst into flames in Godhra, a town in the state. More than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the subsequent riots.Modi, who was in power at the time of the riots, has been accused of not doing enough to stop them. In the last elections, the BJP swept the polls with 128 seats after Modi fought the election on an aggressively anti-Muslim platform in the aftermath of the riots. Congress won 51 seats.

J. Adam Huggins for The International Herald Tribune

Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat State in India, who seeks re-election, has been blamed for failing to stop riots in 2002.

Amelia Gentleman, Bloodshed in ’02 Shadows Indian Politician in Race That Tests Nationalist Party - New York Times, December 11, 2007

AHMEDABAD, India — Five years after more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed as riots swept through the Indian state of Gujarat, the man censured by the courts for failing to stop the violence is in a tight race to keep his job as the state’s chief minister.

The contest is being closely watched as an indicator of the strength of his party, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which is still struggling after its defeat in the 2004 national elections. The local election, which starts Tuesday, could also shape the party if the chief minister, Narendra Modi, is re-elected, increasing his eventual chances of taking over the party’s leadership.

Mr. Modi, 57, is a cult figure to his followers, but a pariah to most outside his party, largely because of the upheaval in Gujarat, one of the worst outbreaks of sectarian violence since the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. The debate about him has only grown in recent weeks after an influential magazine presented evidence suggesting that he may have supported the violence, a contention he has dismissed as politically motivated.

For all the outside scrutiny of the vote and what it says about his party’s view of sectarian tensions, the killings have barely merited a mention from either Mr. Modi or the leadership of the rival Congress Party. Instead, both parties are focusing, at least on the surface, on whether Bharatiya Janata has done enough to further economic development in Gujarat, in western India.

Mr. Modi’s image makers have advised him to concentrate on the economy in an effort to recast himself. When he last sought re-election, in 2002, soon after the riots, he fought on a platform of Hindutva, his party’s trademark Hindu nationalism, which calls for Hindu unity and fans fears about Muslims.

Munson: Although the Hindu nationalist BJP has not controlled the Indian government since 2004, it remains powerful, as do related Hindu nationalist movements.

Smita Narula, “Overlooked Danger: The Security and Rights Implications of Hindu Nationalism in India,” Harvard Human Rights Journal, 2003

As a region, South Asia has gained significant prominence in the eyes of the international community as a focal point for the U.S.-led war against terrorism. So-called Islamic fundamentalism in South Asia and the Middle East is the subject of much debate and analysis and the justification for racially and religiously charged immigration and detention policies in the West. Much overlooked is the dramatic rise of Hindu nationalism in India and the dangerous and even violent policies espoused by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (“BJP”) and its sister organizations—policies that have already resulted in considerable violence against India’s Muslim, Christian, and Dalit, or “untouchable,” minorities.While madrassas, or Islamic schools, have come under scrutiny for their recruitment and training of future jihadis in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and more recently Bangladesh, the mushrooming of hundreds of thousands of shakhas, or Hindu training camps in India, has been dangerously overlooked. India’s shift away from secular democracy and toward the militarization of a growing Hindu nationalist cadre poses a significant threat to the human rights of India’s lower castes and religious minorities and, in a region with two long-term and now nuclear foes, to the security of the region as a whole. If the activities of these groups remain unchecked, violence may spread to other parts of the country. When compounded with the growing political influence of the Islamic right and the military in Pakistan and Bangladesh, Hindu militarization may destabilize the region as a whole.

BJP dismisses Gujarat riot claims, BBC, october 26, 2007

India’s main opposition party has dismissed claims that its government in the state of Gujarat supported violence against Muslims in 2002.

The allegations against the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party BJP were made in secret video recordings by the Tehelka magazine.

They have also been broadcast on local television.

The BJP has described the allegations as a conspiracy hatched by India’s governing Congress party.

Elections are due in Gujarat next month.

According to official figures, more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, died in the 2002 riots. Independent groups placed the figure closer to 2,000.

A spokesman for the BJP, Prakash Javdekar, described the Tehelka report as an election stunt stage-managed by Congress.He said it was a sting operation based on rumours and hearsay.

In the secret video footage, apparently filmed over six months, several hardline Hindu politicians, mostly belonging to the BJP, are seen describing how they carried out the violence against the Muslim community, often with graphic details.

Plan for Sea Canal Puts Hindu Belief In Sharp Relief - washingtonpost.com, September 18, 2007

“Millions of Hindus believe that Ram built that bridge across the sea. Our scriptures and epics mention it,” said Surendra Jain, a leader of the World Hindu Council, a hard-line Hindu group. “We will not let them destroy our religious heritage.”

Hindu hardliners attack magazine, BBC, August 14, 2007

Hardline Hindus have ransacked the office of an Indian news magazine in protest over an article that described their leader as a villain, police say.

An accompanying Outlook cartoon showed Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray dressed as German war leader Adolf Hitler.

Some 12 members of the Shiv Sena party attacked the offices of the Outlook magazine in the financial centre of Mumbai (Bombay), police said.

Report on Hindu god Ram withdrawn, BBC, September 14, 2007

The Indian government has withdrawn a controversial report submitted in court earlier this week which questioned the existence of the Hindu god Ram.

The report was withdrawn after huge protests by opposition parties.

The report was presented to the Supreme Court on Wednesday in connection with a case against a proposed shipping canal project between India and Sri Lanka.

Hindu hardliners say the project will destroy what they say is a bridge built by Ram and his army of monkeys.

Scientists and archaeologists say the Ram Setu (Lord Ram’s bridge) - or Adam’s Bridge as it is sometimes called - is a natural formation of sand and stones….

In their report submitted to the court, the government and the Archaeological Survey of India questioned the belief, saying it was solely based on the Hindu mythological epic Ramayana.

How the World Works: Globalization, Globalization Blogs - Salon.com, September 14, 2007

To this day, as indicated by NASA satellites, there is a detectable ridge running across the Palk strait that separates Sri Lanka from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Known colloquially as Adam’s Bridge, the ridge is held by some faithful Hindus to be Ram Sethu, the actual structure built by Lord Rama’s mighty monkey army. Lord Rama, the epitome of a just and righteous king, an avatar of Vishnu, the Hindu Supreme Being, is one of the most cherished figures in Hindu culture. And his legacy is not to be trifled with. In 1992, Hindu nationalist activists destroyed a 500-year-old Muslim temple originally erected by the Muslim conquerer Babur, on the grounds that it had been sacrilegiously built on the site of an earlier temple to Rama that commemorated his birthplace in the north Indian city of Ayodhya.

But to more secularly-minded fellows, Adam’s Bridge is a barrier composed of sand and coral that must be cleared away in order to create a shipping lane through the Palk Strait that would shorten shipping times between the east and west coasts of India. The Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project, which may have been conceived of as early as 1860 by the British, finally received a go-ahead in June 2005 from the United Progressive Alliance government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But criticism of the project on a number of fronts has continued, and several petitions have been filed with the Supreme Court of India asking that the barrier be kept intact.

There are significant non-religious reasons to oppose the project. Environmentalists believe the massive dredging involved will cause significant damage to marine life, while others are skeptical that saving just the few hours required to circumnavigate Sri Lanka is worth all the trouble. The strait is also considered to be something of a cyclone magnet.

On Wednesday, the long simmering controversy turned into a full-fledged uproar. In a joint filing with the central government, the Archaeological Survey of India filed an affidavit with India’s Supreme Court declaring that there was no historical evidence proving the existence of Lord Rama, and no archeological basis to consider Adam’s Bridge to be the mythological Ram Sethu.

Impasse in India - The New York Review of Books, June 28, 2007
Until 2004 the central government as well as many state governments in India were, as the philosopher Martha Nussbaum puts it in her new book,

increasingly controlled by right-wing Hindu extremists who condone and in some cases actively support violence against minorities, especially the Muslim minority. Many seek fundamental changes in India’s pluralistic democracy.

India: Justice, the victim - Gujarat state fails to protect women from violence - Amnesty International, 2005

Restore India’s Secular Political Culture (Human Rights Watch, 27-2-2003)