THE RADICAL CONTENTS : Page No. Editorial : HUMANIST The Indian Taliban is at it Again 4 Mahi Pal Singh Vol. 82 Number 1, April 2018 Articles and Features : Can statue breakers and skull breakers ever 7 dream of achieving these things! Monthly journal of the Indian Renaissance Institute Sankara Narayanan Devoted to the development of the Renaissance Movement and to the promotion of human Both Nehru and Patel were 8 rights, scientific temper, rational thinking and a the need of hour in 1947-48; humanist view of life. Justice (Retd.) Rajindar Sachar Is a federal party possible? 10 Founder Editor: Kuldip Nayar M.N. Roy BJP Ideology and Future of 12 Scientific Enterprise in India Advisor: Ram Puniyani Dr. Narisetti Innaiah Charles Darwin Editor: 14 Vinod Jain Mahi Pal Singh Why Modi has forgotten the middle class 15 Editorial Board: Shekhar Gupta Ramesh Awasthi, Rekha Saraswat, “We, the sovereign people of India” and 18 N.D. Pancholi, Dipavali Sen Our Elected Representatives K. Pratap Reddy Printer and Publisher: Bhanubhai’s Charred Body Is Proof 19 Satish Chandra Varma That Casteism Remains a Burning Issue Anirban Bhattacharya Send articles and reports to: Against Deification Mahi Pal Singh at E-21/5-6, 22 Maryam Hussain Sector 3, Rohini, Delhi- 110085. (M) 09312206414, 09015020456, 07042548234 IHEU Board member Gulalai Ismail accused of 25 ‘blasphemy’, takes accuser to court for or E-mail them to: “Criminal Intimidation” [email protected] or IHEU Admin [email protected] “Unsure Israel Seeks Peace with Palestinians” 27 Jawaharlal Jasthi Please send Subscription/Donation Why is the West praising Malala, but ignoring Ahed? 29 Cheques in favour of Shenila Khoja-Moolji Where Canvas is Human Value - 1 The Radical Humanist to: 31 Dr. Ashok K. Choudhury Satish Chandra Varma, Treasurer IRI, A-1/103, Satyam Apartments, Vasundhra Students’ and Researchers’ Section: Enclave, Delhi- 110096. (M) 9811587576. Marital Rape 35 Email ID: [email protected] Nipun Laroia Book Review Section: Please Note: Authors will bear sole accountability Fair and Unfair 36 for corroborating the facts that they give in their Dipavali Debroy write-ups. Neither the IRI/the Publisher, nor the RHA instead of LPG 38 Editor of this journal will be responsible for Dipavali Sen testing the validity and authenticity of statements Sharm Inko Magar Nahin Aati: Yet They Do Not Feel Ashamed 40 & information cited by the authors. Also, 1. You value a rape at Rs 6,500? SC rebukes Madhya Pradesh over ‘charity’ sometimes some articles published in this journal 2. Indian Minister challenges Darwin's theory at an official function! may carry opinions not similar to the Radical 'Eddie' via Bharat Chintan Humanist philosophy; but they would be 3. Caught on Camera: BJP MLA, son thrash toll plaza employee entertained here if the need is felt to debate and discuss them. Rationalist and Humanist Activities: Andhra Pradesh 42

April 2018 THE RADICAL HUMANIST 3 Editorial : Mahi Pal Singh The Indian Taliban is at it Again When vandals of the Bharatiya Janata Party burn offices and properties but they cannot kill (BJP), the Shiv Sena and the Vishwa Hindu thoughts and ideologies. We may disagree with Parishad entered the premises of the Babri what great leaders like Lenin thought and did, Masjid at Ayodhya, climbed on top of its domes but we cannot erase them from history and the armed with heavy iron rods and hammers in minds of the people. But it is too much to expect hundreds and demolished it on 6th of December street goons to know that the thoughts of Lenin 1992 their act was no different from the act of had inspired the spirit of revolt against repression the Taliban in Afghanistan when it demolished and servitude and to be masters of their own the two giant Buddha statues carved into the destinies in crores of people belonging to half hillside nearly 2,000 years ago, busy erasing all the world. They have proved that they really traces of a rich pre-Islamic past, first with tank belong to the BJP and the RSS which represent shells, and when even they did not have much the forces not of creation but destruction. They effect, by tying explosives on the bodies of the are destroying democratic institutions by statues and blowing it with remote control. The subverting them and imposing their own ideology valley, visited by Buddhist pilgrims for hundreds on the educational, literary and cultural of years, was closed to foreigners a month institutions by stuffing them with ignorant but before this demolition. In both the cases the loyal followers of the Hindutva ideology of the vandals erased historical structures which did RSS; killing constitutional values of secularism not fit into their plan and ideology, completely by inciting communalism; scientific and rational disrespecting those who considered them thinking by introducing and promoting subjects important and holy. The two incidents also like astrology in place of astronomy. The list of reflected intolerance of the ruling dispensation BJP’s failures, broken promises, retrograde of everything belonging to and held in esteem steps and anti-people policies is long, too long. by ‘others’. In Tamil Nadu the followers of the BJP/RSS The uneducated vandals of the B.J.P. were started damaging the statues of E.V. Ramasami again at their destructive best when they pulled Periyar, who promoted the principles of down the statues of Lenin with the help of bull- rationalism, self-respect, women’s rights and dozers at Belonia and Sabroom in Tripura in the eradication of caste and in Muzaffarnagar in wake of the results of the Tripura Legislative U.P. and elsewhere, those of Dr. B.R. Assembly elections declared on 3rd March 2018 Ambedkar, one of the most respected Dalit icon, showed that the BJP had won the election by who inspired the Dalit Buddhist Movement and 43 seats against the tally of 16 won by the left, campaigned against social discrimination against dislodging the 25 years old rule of the CPI (M). Dalits, while also supporting the rights of women Celebrating an election victory is wholly justified and labour. There was instant reaction and for any political party, but the BJP goons went expression of outrage not only from their on a rampage throughout the state attacking followers belonging to the Scheduled Castes but people, their houses, burning CPI (M) offices also from intellectuals and Dalit and Human etc. These rampaging crowds do not know that Rights activists. In the case of Tripura they can pull down statues of great icons and demolition and burning incidents, the top BJP

4 THE RADICAL HUMANIST April 2018 leadership did not issue any statement of that can happen to it, the SP and the BSP have condemnation, but in the latter case fearing large decided to fight it together in U.P. If they had scale reaction and backlash from Dalits and joined hands against the BJP in 2014, the party consequent vote loss for the party, both the BJP would have lost more than half the seats it won. president, Amit Shah and Prime Minister, Given the disenchantment of the people with it, Narendra Modi, came out with statements the BJP will not be able to win more than 20-25 advising their workers not to indulge in such seats at its best in 2019. And in view of its likely incidents. The move was, obviously, aimed at loss in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, it will damage control. not be able to reach a tally of even 150 seats. However, the irreparable damage had been Mamata Banerjee is trying to bring together done. The BJP’s utter negligence of the various parties ruling in states and form a federal Scheduled Castes and other marginalised front to challenge the BJP in a concerted sections, including the minorities, accentuated manner. That should further worry the BJP by incidents of their beating and lynching, was party bosses. It is quite possible that they are already turning these sections against the BJP. seeing the shape of things to come in 2019 but Vandalizing the statues of their icons further pretending to be self confident, which is nothing exposed the real character of the saffron brigade more than self-deceit. and added to their anger. This anger found its So far as their poll performance in various expression in the coming together of the Socialist state elections are concerned, in many of them Party led by Akhilesh Yadav and the Bahujan they have been able to come to power through Samaj Party led by Ms. Mayawati which manipulations. In Tripura they have had a resulted in BJP’s crushing defeat in the U.P. resounding victory. The verdict of the people bye-elections for the Phulpur and Gorakhpur must be honoured. Now the people of Tripura Parliamentary constituencies held in March have given themselves a BJP government. 2018, the latter which was earlier held by Yogi Whether they have taken a wise step by Adityanath, the present Chief Minister, who had defeating an honest and performing government won from there five times, by a margin of 21,916 led by a thoroughly honest person as Chief and the former held earlier and vacated by Minister will be known after a few years. They Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, deserve the government which they have by a margin of nearly 60,000 votes. elected, good or bad in the same manner as the The defeats of the Bharatiya Janata Party people of the country deserved the BJP in all the parliamentary bye-elections one after government led by Prime Minister Narendra another from Alwar and Ajmer in Rajasthan, Modi, even though they gave him only 31 % Araria in Bihar and the two VIP seats in Uttar votes in 2014. The discontentment of the Pradesh in 2018 should have brought down the farmers, workers, students, the unemployed BJP to the reality of its unfulfilled poll promises youth, the small factory and business owners, but it seems that the party is not ready to learn the Scheduled Castes and the minorities etc. any lessons from these poll debacles. It is in the shows that they are sorry for their decision in same mood in which the Atal Bihari Vajpayee 2014, even a year before the next general government was when it felt that under its rule elections due in 2019 after waiting for four long ‘India’ was ‘shining’ and later lost the 2004 years for something good to happen, as much parliamentary elections. Sensing defeat of the as they have been sorry during the last four NDA and its main constituent the BJP, its allies years. Against the promises of ‘acche din’ are deserting it one by one. However, the worst (good times), and ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’

April 2018 THE RADICAL HUMANIST 5 (prosperity and development for all) they have to other countries, allegedly after tip offs from only seen farmer suicides, increased people in the ruling circles, just days before arrest unemployment and scamsters running away warrants were issued against them. from the country with public money taken from But now enough is enough. Sensing the banks one after another – Lalit Modi in June mood of the people, non-BJP parties and their 2015 with ¹ 5,000 crores, Vijay Mallya in March leaders are making efforts to come together to 2016 with ¹ 9,000 crores, Mehul Choksi on 5 defeat the fascist forces ruling the country. November 2015 with ¹ 11,600 crores and Neerav When the people decide, they have the power Modi on 1 January 2018 with ¹ 11,000 crores. to throw off even the most powerful politicians. Bhupesh Jain of Gujarat has also run away with The country will see it again in 2019. The events ¹ 854 crores taken from the State Bank of India and political formations taking shape at present and 14 other banks. Almost all of them ran away are pointers to that inevitable.

A News Item in The Hindustan Times, 6 March 2018 Tripura: Two Lenin statues toppled amid violence, BJP-CPM in blame game A couple of Lenin statues were toppled in the post-poll violence that hit Tripura after the assembly election results, declared on Saturday, brought in a BJP majority in the state. A couple of statues of communist icon spokesperson Subrata Chakraborty said Vladimir Lenin were pulled down in and denied that party workers have a hand Tripura, police said on Tuesday, even as in the demolition. authorities struggled to contain the The CPI (M) wrote of attacks by post-poll violence after the BJP swept to “BJP?goons” on party offices and power on March 3 and ended 25 years of members across Tripura in a letter to leftist rule in the state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing According to police, a Lenin statue was his party of inciting violence after its demolished with a payloader in Belonia victory in the assembly polls held this and another one was razed to the ground February. at Sabroom — both in the state’s South Politburo member M Salim sought district. Modi’s “immediate intervention” in the “People in the area wanted statues of matter. “These goons have unleashed a national heroes such as Swami reign of terror. 514 individuals were Vivekananda, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, injured, 1,539 houses were attacked, 196 and Mother Teresa instead of Lenin houses were set on fire, 134 CPI (M) since long. Whatever happened in Belonia offices were attacked and 208 party is the outcome of public fury,” BJP offices were captured,” he said.

6 THE RADICAL HUMANIST April 2018 Can statue breakers and skull breakers ever dream of achieving these things Sankara Narayanan 1) I was in Agartala in 2007 on a govt mission, given to education. Well made football grounds but could not travel into the districts- insurgency. in villages. Well maintained roads. 10 years later I travelled to the interiors of 3) Tops the country in recognising the forest Tripura with no security at all. How Tripura has rights of the Adivasi people and thus reversing overcome insurgency without resorting to State their virtual disenfranchisement (while CPIM repression is a lesson for the whole of India, ruled Kerala performs the worst in FRA and the world to learn. The landmark repeal of implementation), people gain tangible benefits the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, or from the forests and protect it in a state with AFSPA, in 2015 in the State was an outstanding 65% forest cover. A powerful panchatati raj symbol of success. system, tribal autonomy throgh the Autonomous 2) Tripura has changed (unlike what CPIM Distt. Councils. Kokborok, an Adivasi language did to Bengal in its 3 decades of rule). Tripura made an official language.... is in the top bracket for all social indices. Poverty 4) There is little doubt that the Left in Tripura has been nearly banished, access to drinking governed with sincerity. It is one of the states water better than most other states, literacy with almost no corruption. The Chief Minister close to 95%, population growth stabilised as a Manik Sarkar is famously known as the poorest result of social improvement, the best primary head of government in India. The Left’s health care in the country. The infant mortality Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) rate ‘almost halved between 2005-06 and 2014- had little wealth amongst them. These are 15 declining from 51 per thousand live births to people who care about their state and care to 20 per thousand’. There are more numbers to put forward a left agenda for the people. look at – the sex ratio, the child mortality rate, Corruption scandals are unknown and no scandal and so on. In each of these, over the course of of any kind wrecked the government. the past sixty years, Tripura has done better than Sources: i) ‘The Tripura model’ by Madhura any other comparable state and indeed better Swaminathan & V.K. Ramachandran, The than most states in India. Beautiful looking Hindu, NOV 15, 2017. school buildings in villages tell of the importance ii) Dr. Faizi, an ecologist from Kerala. Jawaharlal Nehru on M.N. Roy I am attracted to him (M.N. Roy) by his remarkable intellectual capacity; I was also attracted to him because he seemed such a lonely figure deserted by everybody. The British Government was naturally after him; nationalist India was not yet interested in him and those who called themselves Communists in India condemned him as a traitor to the cause. I knew that after many years’ residence in Russia and close cooperation with the Comintern, he had parted with them, or, perhaps, been made to part. Jawaharlal Nehru (Nehru: An Autobiography – London: Bodly Head, 1955, p. 268)

April 2018 THE RADICAL HUMANIST 7 Both Nehru and Patel were the need of hour in 1947-48 Prime Minister Modi while speaking on were deep. I was Budget made one grievance that Congress did a small fry in part not make Patel the Prime Minister. Unfortunately of that milieu. But no one had advised Modi that Nehru was Gandhi I told my father Ji’s choice. He had equal respect for both Nehru that I will not be at and Patel. the breakfast table There was no rivalry between Nehru and to receive Nehru. Patel as both realized that India can only prosper My father and I if there was good relation and mutual respect had a beautiful for each other. Patel even when he could muster understanding and Justice (Retd.) majority in parliament did not try to supplant respected each Rajindar Sachar Nehru. Let me give some instances of the other’s view. He respect which Nehru and Patel showed to each realized my reluctance but mentioned that I was other. being childish. In 1952, the Congress returned to power with I went to my office before Nehru arrived a clear majority in the Punjab Assembly because I could not think of being at home and elections. My father became the Chief Minister be rude by not joining him for breakfast. Of of Punjab, which then comprised of present- course, we received Nehru with all the dignity day Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. and deference due to him when he came to the I had in 1946 become an active member of High Court for inauguration. Socialist party founded by J.P. and Dr. Lohia Now I laugh at my presumptuousness — a and others. I myself had a personal experience chit of boy, whom Nehru will not even notice in 1955 when I was the chairperson of the beating his chest by not attending and denying Socialist Party (Punjab) and the general himself a rare close breakfast meeting with one secretary of the Punjab High Court Bar of the greatest of leaders of India and who had Association. In 1955, the Punjab High Court been a hero of our time. One may laugh now, but was shifting from Simla to Chandigarh. It was one does not demean conduct because at that to be inaugurated by Nehru and he had come to time it represented what I like to feel was a Chandigarh the evening before. My father, who youthful, genuine and unshakeable faith in was then the Chief Minister of Punjab, invited socialism – which fortunately, I have still not lost. Nehru for an informal breakfast at our Whatever little was left of democracy residence. I was staying with my father though vanished when Indira Gandhi imposed my office was in another sector. It was a rare Emergency and stifled the press violating occasion for a young man like me, who had Nehru’s warning, My father an old congressman admired Nehru a lot during the freedom straggle. wrote a letter to Indira Gandhi during But, I had grown up by then. Our party was Emergency of what Nehru had said namely; convinced (rightly or wrongly), time alone will “To my mind, the freedom of the tell that Nehru, who had shown the vision of press is not just a slogan from the larger socialism to us, had not kept that pace following point of view but it is an essential wrong policies. Our differences with his policies attribute of the democratic process. I

8 THE RADICAL HUMANIST April 2018 have no doubt that even if the took peace. Government dislikes the liberties taken Another important event concerned the by the Press and considers them accession of Hyderabad. It is well known that dangerous it is wrong to interfere with while Patel was for taking strong action against the freedom of the Press. By imposing Nizam of Hyderabad who was wanting to restriction you do not change anything; remain Independent and not accede to India you merely suppress the public (even when his boundaries had no direct linkage manifestation of certain things, thereby with Pakistan). Nehru was still against Military causing the idea and thought underlying action, but finding that the conditions would them to spread further. Therefore, I become irredeemable Patel decided on his own would rather have a completely free to send security forces. Press with all the dangers involved in While the security forces were moving in, the wrong use of that freedom than a Nehru came to know about it and telephoned suppressed or regulated Press.” N.V. Gadgil, Minister of State for home and told Let me give a few instances where even him that he immediately wants to talk to Patel when they differed on State policy Nehru and about this action, Gadgil then phoned Patel and Patel accepted the others point of view. In 1947 told him about what Nehru had said, Patel Maharaja J & K after tribal attack from naturally sensed that Nehru would want to stop Pakistan realized that it was no longer possible action against Nizam. So he told Gadgil that he to remain Independent. So he sent his Prime should tell Nehru that he has not been able to Minister Justice Mahajan with a letter to Pt. contact Patel. The result was that security Nehru of acceding of J & K to India so that forces moved, in and Nizam immediately signed military assistance could be sent to J & K. the latter of accession to India. Mahajan was finding it difficult to convince Nizam realized and understood the working Nehru about immediate acceptance of of Nehru and Patel. This is shown by the fact accession of Kashmir, though Patel agreed with that soon after Nehru went to Hyderabad Nizam Mahajan. Heated debate was going but Nehru did not show the courtesy of receiving him at still showing reluctance. At this time Sheikh the airport. But soon after Patel went to Abdullah who was listening to this debate came Hyderabad he realized the consequence of out from the adjacent room to tell Nehru to repeating his foolishness and quietly went to accept the view of Patel and Mahajan. It was Airport to receive Patel, which was the correct in these circumstances of mutual respect for protocol. each other that accession of J & K to India New Delhi: 21.2.2018 (Justice Rajindar Sachar has been Chief Justice, High Court of Delhi and President, PUCL, India. [email protected]; [email protected])

The Radical Humanist on Website ‘The Radical Humanist’ is now available at http://www.lohiatoday.com/ on Periodicals page, thanks to Manohar Ravela who administers the site on Ram Manohar Lohia, the great socialist leader of India. Some of Roy’s important books are also available at that site. - Mahi Pal Singh

April 2018 THE RADICAL HUMANIST 9 Is a federal party possible?

WHEN former Congress President Sonia for that matter, Mamata Gandhi said that they would not allow the Banerjee, has to take a leaf Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) to return to power, out of the book of the Janata she hinted at a joint action on the part of the Party and learn to work to- Opposition. It also means that she does not want gether. The moot question Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rule for the would be who among the second term. On its own, the Congress does leaders has enough support not have the numbers to pose any threat to the to be the Prime Minister. Kuldip Nayar BJP-run government or Modi. Once this question is settled, In all probability, as things stand today, Modi things will fall into place and the federal struc- looks good enough to returning to power. The ture could survive. three reverses in recent by-elections to the Lok The question the country faces today is that Sabha and state assemblies notwithstanding, the if pluralism, the nation’s ethos, is defeated which BJP is capturing power in state after state and forces would come to power. The BJP is deter- spreading its tentacles slowly but surely. Yet, mined to divide the people. They have been try- 2019 general elections are some way to go and ing for a pro-Hindu government in some shape the impending state election in Karnataka and or the other. The RSS, which is the mentor of the subsequent ones in other states later this year the BJP, is playing its role to perfection to help would be the real test to assess Modi’s strengths realize the dreams of Modi. and weaknesses. This is where the new federal combination West Bengal chief minister Mamata has to be careful about. It is better they come Banerjee has taken the initiative to get the non- up with a Minimum Common Programme with BJP parties together for a federal structure to all parties endorsing the views and aspirations contest against the BJP in 2019. To underline of all leaders. This is just one important issue the Congress cooperation, Mamata has said that which the top leaders of non-BJP have to ad- she is daily in touch with Sonia Gandhi. In fact, dress as the people’s interests should be above the leaders from other non-BJP ruled states are everything else. constantly in touch with each other to see the For the idea of India, which is founded on possibility of a federal structure. secularism and democracy, the parties based on If you recall, the Janata Party was a federal religion or castes should have no place in the structure. It did not last its course and fell be- federal structure. The danger is that the various cause the then leaders, particularly the top ones elements would try to pull in different directions like Morarji Desai and Chanran Singh, quarrel- to corner power. Even individual leaders should ling in public all the time, much to the exaspera- keep the country’s unity ahead of personal or tion of the people. Then the Jana Sangh wielded their party interests. power because the opponents were a divided If they learn to live together, the warning lot. Once the non-Jana Sangh parties came to- about their disarray would be repulsed. Secu- gether, the Jana Sangh government was reduced larism would have gone through the fire to prove to a minority. its intrinsic strength. With coalition politics in- The federal structure that would come up, evitable in India, the best possible way to defeat courtesy the top leaders like Sonia Gandhi or, the idea of BJP or, for that matter, Modi and his

10 THE RADICAL HUMANIST April 2018 cohorts is stay together and learn in the process up and said that he would not listen to the Quran. to rule together. At the meeting all the three scriptures—the Gita, The BJP cannot defeat the ideas of Mahatma the Quran and the Bible—were read. Gandhi Gandhi, unity in diversity. In fact, what it has said that there would be no meeting until the done is to prove Gandhi right. Unity of India could objector withdrew his dissent. For days, there face the danger of separatism. Pakistan whom I was no prayer congregation. It was resumed only wish well is the fallout of the mistrust in the Hindu after the person finally withdrew his objection. majority. Qaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Today, when the fanatic RSS guides the who was an apostle of Hindu-Muslim unity, said government in appointment of teachers, librarians that he could not trust the majority, the Hindus. and heads of academic institutions, there is little This mistrust is the reason why people left their hope for merit to take over. Under the circum- homes after partition. One million were killed on stances, how can a federal party fight against such both sides and Hindus and Muslims went apart elements? The danger to the nation is from those further. who think that since the country has 80 percent The RSS looks like copying the idea of divi- of Hindu population, they have the right to rule. sion. Its philosophy is nothing but making a mock- Leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar ery of Gandhi’s preaching. The RSS elements Patel saw to it that there would be no Hindutva. did not succeed as the communal forces could They converted the then assembly into a con- not silence Gandhi. They had to ultimately kill stituent assembly to have a constitution. India is him so that the same voice which the people ruled today not by the 80 percent but by the con- heard and respected could be silenced. I had seen stitution which assures one vote to one individual. the letter which Nathuram Godse wrote in de- Even when the Hindus are in a majority, they fence of what he did. He avowed respect to cannot subvert the idea of India because the Gandhiji but argued that the country would suf- constitution is supreme. fer if the Mahatma had lived longer. (Kuldip Nayar is a veteran syndicated col- I recall one incident from his prayer meet- umnist catering to around 80 newspapers and ings. I was present when, before the Mahatma journals in 14 languages in India & abroad. started his meeting, one person from Punjab got [email protected]) Power Hedged by Safeguards It is useless to trust in the virtue of some individual or set of individuals. There must be power, either that of governments, or even ordinary criminals. But if human life is to be, for the mass of mankind, anything better than a dull misery punctuated with moments of sharp horror, there must be as little naked power as possible. The exercise of power, if it is to be something better than the infliction of wanton torture, must be hedged round by safeguards of law and custom, permitted only after due deliberation, and entrusted to men who are closely supervised in the interests of those who are subjected to them. Bertrand Russel in Power

April 2018 THE RADICAL HUMANIST 11 BJP Ideology and Future of Scientific Enterprise in India Ram Puniyani With Indian independence and coming of wrong as our ancestors did not mention that they Indian Constitution; the foundations for progress saw ape turning into man in our scriptures. He in the society were laid. This was to be for an all was duly backed up by the RSS ideologue turned out progress and the basis of this was the BJP leader Ram Madhav. principles of scientific temper. This process was He himself a while ago he had stated that guided by the architect of modern India, Wright brothers were not the first one’s to Jawaharlal Nehru. We saw the surge of the discover aero plane, it was and Indian, Shivkar institutions which contributed to the progress of Bapuji Talpade who had discovered it. He the country; with great contributions of Indian emphasized that such books should be taught in scientists. There were flaws and weaknesses, the schools which highlight the likes of Talpade. of course, but the direction was a rational, Theory of evolution has been one of the turning direction was that of scientific approach. This point discoveries of science, based on the fulfilled the clause of the Article 51a of the Indian painfully collected evidence by Darwin for a constitution which enjoins upon citizens the period of decades. As science is not based on “fundamental duty” to develop “the scientific faith there is always a scope to fill the gaps of temper”. knowledge of the original discoverer, and that’s The Bharatiya Janata Party and its leaders, how science develops. In contrast to the methods who are currently ruling and dictating the of science, the fundamentalists harp that all direction of scientific research and development, knowledge is already there in the Holy Scriptures, seem to have different ideas. While we have the word of almighty. Singh-Joshi-Ram Madhav good foundations in all round areas of science clone is not the only ones’ in this retrograde and technology be it the area of basic science thinking. The Christian fundamentalists went on and technology, health, atomic energy, space to counter the theory of Darwin by putting science and what have you, it seems that together ‘Creation science’ and similarly Islamic currently direction being pursued by ruling fundamentalists like Zakir Naik also dismiss this dispensation is putting the things in the reverse theory on frivolous grounds. gear. Singh’s statement has been very disturbing During last seventy odd years the way our for the scientific community in India. A large institutions have developed we can see their number of them expressed their anguish in a massive all round contribution in most areas of letter, which they sent to the Minister. The letter science and technology, though one can add, says that the minister’s statement was simplistic things could have been better. The inkling of this and misleading. “There is plentiful and undeniable retrograde direction began with the previous BJP scientific evidence to the fact that humans and led NDA Government when Murali Manohar the other great apes and monkeys had a common Joshi, the then MHRD minister introduced ancestor.” The letter further says that the courses like astrology and Paurohitya (rituals) minister’s claim that the Vedas contain answers in Universities. In continuation with this pattern to all questions is exaggerated and “is an insult Dr. Satya Pal Singh, who is currently minster in to the genuine research work on history of Indian MHRD, recently stated that Darwin’s theory is scientific traditions”.

12 THE RADICAL HUMANIST April 2018 “When a minister working for the human based on figments of imagination. Huge top level resource development in the country makes such funding has recently been announced for claims, it harms the scientific community’s efforts Panchgavya, a mixture of cow urine, dung, ghee, to propagate scientific thoughts and rationality curd and milk. The efforts to prove that Ram through critical education and modern scientific Setu (Adam’s bridge), bridge between India and research,” reads the letter. “It also diminishes Srilanka was for real and was built by Lord Ram the image of the country at the global level and with the help of Monkey army; are also on. In reduces faith of the international historical matters of History efforts are on to prove the research community in the genuine research by existence of River Sarswati, to prove historicity the Indian researchers.” of the epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata At another level there are claims that are among the few of them. Kauravas were born through the techniques The twin processes involved here are to claim mentioned in our holy scripture based on which that all the knowledge is already there in our Balkrishan Ganpat Matapurkar has patented the scriptures and that science-technology research technique for body part generation, inspired by and development should be along those lines. Gandhari’s giving birth to 100 sons and Karna Second is to claim that all discoveries have their taking birth from ear of Kunti. At equally roots here in India, more so in India before the interesting level is the understanding of the Chief coming of Christians and Muslims. This seems of Indian Council of Historical Research, Y. to be running in parallel with identifying India Sudarshan. As per him reading of the Hindu epic with Hindus and Hinduism alone. One does feel Mahabharata can make us infer that the weapons that already during last many decades good described in them were the result of atomic foundation of scientific enterprises has been laid, fission and/or fusion. He also claims that stem the question is whether this community of cell research was there in Iron Age India. scientists and Indian society at large will be able It is not difficult to imagine that with this to resist these impositions on the march of pattern of thinking among policy makers our direction of our science? Will our next science policy will get a strong jolt. Currently on generations be able to benefit from the rational most of issues the policy has been to encourage thinking and achievements of science in coming research and funding on topics, which are purely times? Articles/Reports for The Radical Humanist Dear Friends, Please mail your articles/reports for publication in the RH to: [email protected], or [email protected] or post them to: E-21/5-6, Sector- 3, Rohini, Delhi- 110085. Please send your digital passport size photograph and your brief resume if it is being sent for the first time to the RH. A note whether it has also been published elsewhere or is being sent exclusively for the RH should also be attached with it. - Mahi Pal Singh, Editor, The Radical Humanist

April 2018 THE RADICAL HUMANIST 13 Charles Darwin Vinod Jain Asto ma sad gamaya, tamaso ma He was author of On the Origin of Species by jyotirgamaya. Means of Natural Selection (1859); and The O mother guide me from falsehood to truth Descent of Man (1871). The amount of data and from darkness to light. So said a hymn in collected and used by Darwin to support his thesis our ancient Rig Veda. was so huge that nobody could raise a finger of Middle ages (476-1453 A.D.) was that doubt against his work even in that era. period of European history which was Darwin’s historical importance is tremendous. characterized by a feudal social and economic He was a great scientific Pioneer and his ideas organisation as well as dominance of the Roman affected the nineteenth and twentieth century’s Catholic Church. faith in universal and continued progress. The people had no option but to believe the Just as the discoveries of Copernicus, Kepler view of the Church — that man was created by and Galileo showed that this world of ours is God in His own image and that his abode, the not God governed but a law governed one, earth, was the centre of the universe around Darwin’s discoveries also placed before us a which everything, including the Sun, revolved. fundamental picture. The Roman Catholic At the end of the Middle Ages, a Polish Church has been telling people that man as well astronomer, Copernicus (1473- 1543) with the as other living beings are God’s creation. help of simple instruments found out that it is the Darwin’s searches showed that man and other sun around which the earth, as well as the planets, living beings are not a result of creation but of revolved. It was a huge challenge to the views evolution. of the Church as well as to the dominance of the It was a period of Renaissance: A period of Church. These findings were further reinforced transition from the medieval world to the modern, by Kepler (1571-1630) and Galileo (1564- from feudalism to democracy, from ignorance 1642). The challenge to the Church, as also to to enlightenment, from illiteracy to knowledge, the feudal system was tremendous. from poverty to prosperity. But the Church kept claiming that man (a Some people who want to deny the historical biological being) is a different category. contribution of Darwin seem to be unwittingly Charles Darwin (1809-1882) was an English making a mockery of Rig Veda. They seem to naturalist. He participated as a naturalist in the be preparing to write a new hymn which would surveying expedition on the Beagle (ship) to say “O mother guide me from the truth to South America and Australasia (1831-1836). falsehood, and from light to darkness.” Swami Vivekananda on sectarianism, bigotry and fanaticism “Sectarianism, bigotry and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful Earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization, and sent whole nations to despair.” Swami Vivekananda, Chicago, Sept 11, 1893.

14 THE RADICAL HUMANIST April 2018 Why Modi has forgotten the middle class Shekhar Gupta ‘The middle class you can hurt anytime. For revenues, politics, pleasure, anything,’ notes Shekhar Gupta. Since Casablanca’s cult transcends lives in the Bharatiya Janata Party manifestos generations, you could easily use one of its until the summer of 2019. But it was kept alive immortal lines to describe what the National by the carnage on the stock and bond markets. Democratic Alliance government’s last budget As immediately market-destructive budgets has done to India’s middle class: Round up the go, this was in the category of ‘dada’ Pranab usual suspects, as good-for-nothing cop Captain Mukherjee’s retrospective Vodafone Renault had said after an incident at ‘Rick’s amendment. Café americain’. So toxic, two finance ministers after him, So anytime our government is short of through six Budget years, haven’t dared touch money, because of profligacy or the political it even with surgical gloves and forceps. need to throw money for votes, it catches the Three of P Chidambaram’s Budgets too had hapless middle class, predominantly those in elements that shook the markets, including the salaried employment. Banking Cash Transaction Tax, Securities You can strangle them as much as you wish. Transaction Tax, and a complete rewrite of They don’t have a voice, a constituency, and a employee stock options taxation. common identity. Just grab their neck, a kick in This Budget’s assault on the one refuge the butt, and they will cough up. There will be middle-class savings had found over the past no political fallout. decade, an avenue promoted through sarkari If anything, the louder they complain, the advertising, equity-linked mutual funds, better it will be, as it will give the poor vicarious compares well with any in the past in its ability satisfaction. to damage the markets in the short run, and In current times, we can call it the confidence, going ahead. ‘demonetisation’ model of politics. It has also left the middle class nowhere to Do something dramatic that enables you to go. go tell the poor while they might be hurting, I write this sobered by the fact that T N please bear with me, you have no idea how Ninan, chairman of Business Standard Ltd and badly the wretched rich are hit. India’s most respected commentator on the It is a different matter that the rich never economy, had made a strong call for bringing really hurt. back the long-term capital gains tax on equities. The poor do, but they are in a perpetual mess Ninan had argued that if the finance minister anyway. wanted to minimise the deficit, he had no choice The middle class you can hurt anytime. For but to tax equity profits. revenues, politics, pleasure, anything. The finance minister obviously found his This Budget would have disappeared from advice sound and valuable, and its economic our minds latest by the morning after. Or, let us logic for minimising the deficit is formidable. qualify. It wasn’t particularly newsworthy I am addressing this from a different vantage immediately. point. Large parts of it will come back into our First there is a question. Can a government

April 2018 THE RADICAL HUMANIST 15 do whatever it wants to fund its electoral politics, For the middle class, which voted for you unmindful of fiscal consequences and tax its overwhelmingly, you have other compensations: way out of this? Yoga, cow protection, and sorting out the Muslim I am not complaining about the subsidies and ‘problem’ in its entirety, from triple talaq to Haj what are called as pro-poor schemes subsidies to ‘love jihad’. (expenditure is up on these). Some data points are embedded in our But what about a bizarre idea like popular discourse. One of these is that only 1.7 demonetisation, which shaved off wealth worth per cent of Indians pay the income tax, according 1 to 2 per cent from an entire year’s GDP, to the official data for assessment year 2015- besides destroying many jobs and small 16. businesses? It sounds awful in a country of 1.3 billion The economic proposition behind it was that with a large middle class, much larger than this it would yank millions out of the informal, cash 1.7 per cent, irrespective of whether you believe economy into formal, banking channels, and the estimates of the NITI Aayog or Economist greatly increase India’s taxpayer base and magazine. collections. But you can frame that question differently. Nearly one-and-a-half years after that, that Isn’t it doubly awful that only 1.7 per cent dividend is missing. Indians pay 100 per cent of its income tax? Economist Kaushik Basu picked out a It follows that a great government would do nugget from the Economic Survey as an something to greatly expand that 1.7 per cent. admission of the failure of demonetisation — Demonetisation was supposed to be the first ‘It is good to see India’s Economic Survey 2017- ‘jhatka’ solution, followed by the goods and 18 admit to the big mistake that was services tax, the ‘halal’. demonetisation, by explaining the economy’s Where is that increase? current slowdown in terms of the ‘dissipating The fact is all governments have failed in effects of earlier policy actions’,’ he tweeted. this one single objective. As a result, failing to You are, on the other hand, padding your catch the wholesale tax evaders, or the untaxed bottom line by taxing dividends on equity-linked crores, they keep attacking the ones that have mutual funds. The claim that you were going to nowhere to hide. get tens of millions more taxpayers has proven Where do the salaried take their savings to be fiction. now? You are, therefore, left with no choice but to Because they do not have cash, property has go and play Captain Renault again, and round tough entry barriers and it has also lost value up the usual suspects. steeply in the NDA’s four years. The second argument is political. The reason Banks, even government savings with governments (all of them, not just the BJP’s) administered rates, have been paying diminishing are able to treat the middle class so rudely is interest — while the same banks haven’t that it has no lobby, no electoral power. accordingly cut lending rates so EMIs haven’t A Budget like this may be positive for your fallen accordingly. politics. Like the governments, the leaky, greedy You need to convince the poor they have lakhs banks also know the only people they can cream of crores coming their way, in this life or the next, to shore up the balance sheets destroyed by large tell the farmers you will throw money to address defaulters are the middle-class depositors and their distress because they have the votes. borrowers, for housing, vehicles, or education.

16 THE RADICAL HUMANIST April 2018 Where will these savers take their money That Budget went through many corrections now? To gold? and much damage control. So should this one. When P Chidambaram’s 2004 Budget led to India’s middle class is mostly urban, and still an immediate fall in the markets, he had said strongly committed to Narendra D Modi, as the same thing finance ministers often say in evidenced in the Gujarat elections. such situations: Do I make a budget for the It is so loyal to him that it even swallowed farmer or the broker? the fact that over nearly four years his I had then written a comment saying in government has refused to pass on the benefits modern economies it could no longer be the of lower oil prices to it and folded the increased farmer versus the broker. It should be the farmer excise collections into the fisc. and the broker. Because even agriculture and This blow to the one refuge for their savings financial markets were no longer quarantined will leave a deeper scar. from each other. Courtesy Rediff.com, February 27, 2018

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April 2018 THE RADICAL HUMANIST 17 “We, the sovereign people of India” and Our Elected Representatives K. Pratap Reddy The founding fathers of our Constitution very Parliamentary (Lok Sabha) Constituency. To proudly and hopefully declared in the Preamble put it more directly, the elected members of our of the Constitution as “WE, THE PEOPLE OF Sovereign Democratic country don’t even INDIA”, having solemnly resolved to constitute appear to be realizing the fact that they are not India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST only representing to a Parliamentary SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and constituency of India, that is Bharat, but also to secure all citizens etc., with fond hope that representing the whole country with about half our elected representatives will realize the of the members of comity of nations. meaning of the word “SOVEREIGNITY” and I am a keen observer of the proceedings of as elected representatives of “SOVEREIGN both the houses of the Parliament (Lok Sabha DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC” will understand and Rajya Sabha) and I am very much and realize their duties to secure all its citizens disappointed by the conduct, lack of not only the guarantees in PART III of the understanding and realization of the duties of Constitution but also the implementation of our our elected representatives. Many a time, my directive principles in PART IV thereof, and also friends and more particularly, members of my implement and secure in the realistic form of all family laugh and jeer at me why I am wasting other provisions of the Constitution. But, alas! my time in observing the sessions of both the even after 67 years of implementation of the houses. In spite of such remarks of my friends Constitution and after 16 elections held and family members, I continue to observe the thereafter, the elected representatives of our proceedings of both the houses with a firm belief SOVEREIGNITY appear not even to have that someday the sense of responsibility will understood their importance of duty and dawn on our elected members of our Sovereign obligation to their masters, that is the Sovereign Democratic country. people of India. The same thing applies to the proceedings Firstly, out of 365 days of a year, both the of Legislatures and States. The members of houses of the Parliament, i.e., Lok Sabha and the State legislature don’t appear to be realising Rajya Sabha, don’t work even for the 1/3rd of the fact that the extent and population of each 365 days of a year. Even during the limited of their Assembly constituency is almost equal, period of session, when they are supposed to if not larger than each one of the Parliamentary work, it doesn’t appear to be realising much less constituency (House of Commons) of United understanding their duties and much less the Kingdom. dignity of the office they hold selected What is more thwarting and disappointing representatives of a SOVEREIGN SECULAR the fact that even the members of “RAJYA DEMOCRATIC COUNTRY. SABHA” supposing to be council of elders and A look at the number of nations in the comity purporting to be representing the states and the of nations show to us that out of 193 Sovereign interest of the states which elect them to Rajya independent countries of the comity of united Sabha. nations, about half of such Sovereign countries Many a time, it appears that an elected of united nations less than the population of our representative’s understanding is that their duty

18 THE RADICAL HUMANIST April 2018 is to disrupt the proceedings of the houses and representatives, it appears to be a thing not to allow any business of the Sovereign manifested by their leaders more than their Democratic Republic of India. More often, it endurance and responsibilities as elected appears that our elected representatives feel representatives of a Sovereign Democratic that their duty is to disrupt the proceedings of county. the house and the solemnity of the house and I am writing this article with an earnest belief don’t appear to be realising the fact that they that the elected representatives of a Sovereign are the law makers of the country. They don’t Democratic Republic will understand their role appear to be realising the fact that no authority and responsibilities as representatives of of the state shall function without proper law Sovereign Democratic country and more being made. particularly realise the meaning of solemnity of To continue the conduct of an elected both the houses. Bhanubhai’s Charred Body Is Proof That Casteism Remains a Burning Issue Anirban Bhattacharya Bhanubhai Vankar died protesting the rampant injustice and apathy that continues against Dalits in broad day-light, re-packaged and marketed as the ‘Gujarat model’.

Jignesh Mevani, Hardik Patel and Alpesh Thakor meet relatives of Dalit activist Bhanubhai Vankar Another soldier has given his life at the border. draws in the heart of our society – in every Bhanubhai Vankar. But unlike the deaths at the village and every neighbourhood. Borders that western front that make decibels in the casteist segregate, that humiliate, that discriminate, that corridors of corporate media, the border where deny or determine access to land or resources. Bhanubhai fought and died is different. But he After committing an entire life to the struggle too had been a dedicated soldier for 40 years. against such borders, he also dedicated his He fought against the borders that casteism death to the same.

April 2018 THE RADICAL HUMANIST 19 Bhanubhai, a retired revenue clerk and a one landless Dalit farm member of the Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch, labourer, but also was fighting for the rights of a landless Dalit farm against this model that labourer – an old woman named Hemaben has been built on the Vankar, living in Dudkha village in Sami tehsil in denial to thousands Patan district. For years he had been helping the others. Dalit villagers of Dudhka with the documentation Gujarat for long has process. He even visited the state capital regularly been projected by to press their legitimate demands. Prime Minister Despite the revenue department regularising Narendra Modi, the it and the requisite fee of Rs 22,236 being paid Bhanubhai Vankar media and the market years ago, the authorities were refusing to register nexus as the ideal state, a state to be emulated or allot a piece of land to the Dalit family. This and replicated across the country. It is where even after multiple rounds of appeals. Finally, last the projects of Brahmanical Hindutva and month, he submitted a letter to the newly re- corporate capital come together in their crudest elected chief minister, Vijay Rupani from the BJP, form to make a deadly cocktail. warning him that he, along with Hema and Rama What Hindutva has entailed is that the Muslim Chamar, would perform an agnisnan (fire bath) minorities post the 2002 pogrom have been if the land is not allotted to Dalits in Dudhka systematically turned into second-class citizens. village. While the model of “development” has meant “On February 7, Vankar had given a “ease of business” for corporate giants, for the memorandum to Patan collector urging him to Dalits and other marginalised, it has meant a regularise the land of Dudkha village in Sami harder reality taluka of Patan. Vankar had also warned of self- It has meant favours worth billions for Adanis immolation on February 15 if their demands were and Ambanis, and easier land grab from farmers not met by Tuesday,” said Ratilal Makwana, a and fisherfolk, destroying livelihoods. close relative of Bhanubhai. And that is exactly Problem of landlessness what he did on February 15 inside the Patan For the Dalits and tribals, the promise of land district collectorate compound in broad daylight. distribution has been like a mirage in Kutch. While the share of tribals in total households in Gujarat is a substantial 24.66%, their share in landownership is just 13.57%. The Dalits constitute a mere 7.75% of the population in Gujarat and their share in landownership is a mere 2.61%. Being thinly scattered across the state, they have hardly had an avenue to express themselves in unison until recently. So effectively, the over-hyped Gujarat model Bhanubhai Vankar as he immolated himself. has been one where the diktats of the market It was an act of protest against the rampant and the edicts of Manu have propped each other. injustice and apathy that continues in broad It is model wherein, as per a study by daylight, which then is packaged and marketed Navsarjan, in 98.4% of the villages surveyed, as the ‘Gujarat model of development’. His inter-caste marriage was prohibited and inter- protest was not just against the denial of land to caste couples subjected to violence. In 98.1% of

20 THE RADICAL HUMANIST April 2018 the villages, a Dalit could not rent a house in a 1% of the land. Even in the national capital, non-Dalit locality. In 97.6% of the villages, Dalits 41.6% of the Dalit households own 7.4% of the touching the water pots or utensils of non-Dalits land. And whatever little is in the possession of was considered defilement. This is the reality that the Dalits, 58% of it has no irrigation facility. the likes of Bhanubhai have been up against in Finally, if one were to speak of the land Gujarat. reforms or redistribution that was supposed to Not that the conditions in the rest of the benefit the landless Dalits, studies reveal that country are any better. By the Ministry of Rural the share of land redistributed was limited to Development’s own admission, in 2013, the start with and remained mostly a promise on pattern of land distribution across the country paper with no real efforts towards its neatly dovetails the existing socio-economic implementation. The cultivable wastes thereby hierarchies in the society. continue to be under the grip of the dominant “While large landowners invariably belong to caste landowners while the proposed Dalit the upper-castes, the cultivators belong to the allottees are either forcefully evicted or not even middle-castes, and the agricultural workers are allowed to take possession with active collusion largely Dalits and tribals,” a report reads. Data of state functionaries, bureaucrats and the feudal released this month by the Census of India dominant caste groups with political clout. confirm that 71% of Dalits in India work as Dalit agitation agricultural labourers. Beyond a few states with This, in fact, had been one of the areas of a larger tribal population, in rest of the country, struggles of activists like Bhanubhai, Jignesh the Dalits are more likely to be agricultural Mevani and others in the Rashtriya Dalit labourers than cultivators. Particularly in Bihar, Adhikar Manch. In 2016, Mevani explained that Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil there are two provisions of land allotment in the Nadu and Kerala, nearly all Dalit farmers are Gujarat, the Land Ceiling Act – whereby surplus agricultural labourers with the figure being above land taken from feudal landlords in the past were 90% in most of the districts. to be distributed among landless; and the A cursory glance at some of the data compiled Agricultural Land Ceiling Act, whereby in the India Exclusion Report 2016 more than wasteland were to be distributed. illustrates the cause Bhanubhai was fighting for. But the acreage allotted to the Dalits under Dalits by far are the highest in filling the ranks of both these Acts remained only on paper. The the landless in agriculture – 57.30%. process of measurement and sanad had not Only 2.08% Dalit households own more than been initiated anywhere and hence there was two hectares of land. Among the large land no actual possession of land by the rightful holders who have more than ten hectares of land, owner across the state. In a series of affidavits, 95% are OBC or belong to another category, the district administration had accepted more and a mere 3% are Dalits. than once that the allotted land for Dalits Out of the total households in rural India, remains illegally occupied by the dominant 20.2% of Dalit households own only 8.95% of castes. But, as Mevani pointed out, not a single the total productive land. If one looks at the two FIR had been lodged against such states that boasted of Green Revolution, they, encroachments under the Atrocity Act. Across in fact, fare the worst in this respect. the state of Gujarat, this is a matter of a rightful For instance, in Punjab, 39.8% Dalit allotment of more than 50,000 acres of land to households own only 2.6% of land and in landless Dalits and tribes. Haryana, 17.5% Dalit households own less than Courtesy The Wire, on 21/02/2018

April 2018 THE RADICAL HUMANIST 21 Against Deification Maryam Hussain The progressives are mourning the passing whenever we hear Ye Tana Bana Badle Ga, of Asma Jahangir. For many the loss is personal, there is an instant memory of reedy tuneless a friend has gone. It follows the loss of Lala Rukh singing, the aunts and the new faces, not middle and Nigar Ahmed last year and brings home once class, and deeply unfamiliar in this country of again, the enormity of losing Shehla Zia over a class divides. decade ago. Though Asma was more visible, and Somewhere in the middle of growing up Zia, her fame undeniable, the connections are clear. we also grew up feminist. Not just feminist, but These were the women who took on Zia, these with an education that the schools did not provide. were the women who carved out a framework For many of us, the children, we went away to for Pakistani feminism as we recognize it today. study, we came back, and saw the changes and They parted ways with APWA to become the shifts within the same groups. We worked something else, the times required something else. with some as adults, and saw first-hand the cracks For a small group of us who were teenagers in and the flaws, and the conflicts of interest the 80s they were the ‘aunts’, irascible, sarcastic, alongside the broad strokes of the importance of argumentative, horribly unconventional, but solidly work being undertaken. We saw the NGOization there. It was a strange group then, the divorcees of activism, the corporatization of the NGOs and with children, the working women with families, also the demise of something essential. We saw the single women, short haired, khaddar wearing, the friendships remain and strengthen, but also unbejewelled, these women were different. So how these connections translated into an elite unlike the other mothers lined up outside school capture of a different kind as many ideals fell in at the end of the day; because they were not essence by the wayside to the greater endurance ‘normal’, we the children perforce were also not, of interpersonal memory and connection, and at and this was not a comfortable thing especially times to the lure of power and the benefits of when two worlds moving in opposite directions being established and establishment within new ideologically and performatively collided at the paradigms of cultural resistance. We saw how school gates. We were the children who attended rhetoric can be separable from personal purpose the meetings after school, who were taken to and action in real terms. These were in effect, the protests; we listened with half an ear to the our parents, and as our parents, they became debates, the arguments, and the stories, still in fallible. Our motley crew of rag tag aunts had our sticky end of the day school uniforms. While grown in stature, and with that many had our friends were learning other things, we learned succumbed to the pitfalls of stature. how to make banners and placards, we learned Yet, despite all this, something critical endures how to be careful with the words we used, and and lights the way; nothing can compare to the to understand their importance. We learned that enormous privilege of being witness to their as individuals we were still inescapably part of a strength, and nothing can compare to the greater whole, that we carried public protection they provided and continue to provide. responsibility, and that our actions mattered, Nothing can compare to their relentless energy. everywhere and all the time. We were there One by one, they leave us, and we are no less when the songs emerged- not many of them could orphaned for being adults in our own landscapes sing, but they did anyway. There is a smirk some of impossibility. As things grow darker today, in of us exchange, now tinged with nostalgia, many ways darker than we could have imagined

22 THE RADICAL HUMANIST April 2018 in the 80s, many of these are still the people who these women and men stand for and have stood can be relied on to be there at protests against for all their lives. What we are doing is dangerous. the violation of rights, they are still the people When we say Asma was arrested in 1983, or who will take on the cases that no one else will that she was lathi-charged, or that she was the touch, these are still the people who will be there only voice that dared, when we imply that Asma in court, these are still the people that can provide was her own phenomenon, when we imply that the most solid advice when our friends are her courage was an anomaly, when we say that disappeared, and when our generation is called she was the sole embodiment of our ideals we to action; they are still the people who have the misrepresent the truth, we undermine historical capacity to instinctively and methodologically be fact, and we dismember the collective. When on the side of human rights and citizens rights we say ‘ab koi nahi raha’ (there is no one now), when the chips are down. These are still the we remove hope from all those who have been people who think nothing of danger and personal disappeared, from all those who are vulnerable, risk. These are still the people who will stare and those who are disenfranchised today; we down the mullahs and the army when others also remove our own responsibility to act and weigh the consequences. These are still the people speak. All of what we say may indeed be true, who have experience, direct experience of cause for a particular value of truth, but in our grief, we and effect, and deep knowledge of the history should also remember that we are still alive, and that we are all living today. I speak now not only that we should not strengthen the hands that of the aunts but also of the men. People like IA would silence us by saying that we are no more; Rehman now 86 years old and heartbroken at that without Asma we no longer exist. We should the loss of one more of his ‘children’. These are not undermine what Asma came to symbolize. still the people who are solid and solidly there, We all understand the danger of reductionism, for me and for many others these are still the the danger of the absence of real analysis, we ones who have answers and clarity born of a understand the enormous potential of fiction to lifetime of resistance. These are still the people remove the ground on which we stand. Our who have scored pathways across class divides, historical landscape, the one constructed by the across gender, across religious and ethnic divides, state, is populated in equal measure by heroes and allowed us see that it is possible in Pakistan and villains, each one two dimensional, our Jinnahs to be human, first and foremost. are transparent, cardboard cut outs, Our debt to them as a country is enormous, representative now of a history that never without them, we would have perhaps only one happened. Our mythological landscape of gods frame of reference. We would perhaps be and demons, shadows and silhouettes has completely engulfed by the right and the far right, removed our capacity to engage with the real, we would perhaps be possessed in body and mind we as a Nation seek two dimensionality, this is entirely. where we are most comfortable. We deify, and In the midst of eulogies for Asma Jahangir, then we defend our gods, irrationally, loudly and well deserved and well earned, I am reminded in essence ineffectively; we police the border strongly of the teachings of those we now seek of blasphemy and treason even when we define to remember and honour, and those who are still the parameters of what these words mean here. In our desire to honour a woman who many ourselves. We of the left also have a tendency knew as a person and as a symbol, we should to become the spectacle and the worshipful not reduce her, or what indeed she stood for. We mass beneath an Olympus of our own creation, are mythmaking, and that is antithetical to what we have our own doctrine of signatures.

April 2018 THE RADICAL HUMANIST 23 So I will say this. Each time Asma was Goliaths are multiplying. We need our Davids to arrested, dozens more were also arrested, each also now face off against the newly minted time Asma spoke, she was a voice among many Davids of the far right, the Mumtaz Qadris of others, her voice may have been loudest but she this world. But we also have to remember that was part of a susurration, each time Asma was here and now, our personal responses to the loss in court as a lawyer, dozens stood with her, we of Asma are simultaneously also political and should not forget that Asma was part of a chorus. public. We must take the present moment into That thousands have stood, and marched, and account but also recognize that we are making spoken over the decades, that many have been history when we speak, that we are constructing dispossessed, tortured and murdered for their narratives and truths which will be of great refusal. Asma did not happen in a vacuum, she importance to those coming after who will like was not sans context, she was not a prophet or us be seeking a firm place to stand somewhere an anomaly. She was one of many. down the line in their darkest hours. At the time The Women’s Action Forum is and was when our loss is most palpable we have to against leaders and icons, in fact there has never remember that firm places to stand are born not been a director, a single representative at any from myths, from superhumans, or from gods, time in this group’s history. Each person within it but from the historical truth of flawed human contributes her skills, each one has responsibility beings living in less than perfect times. in equal measure. This was a decision taken for It is a balancing act, so we must choose our a reason. Whereas we do at times need a face, words carefully. We need our Asmas to remain a tangible thing around which our collective real in memory because we need to learn from concerns can coalesce, we need at times an their mistakes and failings as well as their object that anchors our empty signifiers to the successes and strengths. We need to be able to real and makes action, any action, possible, there criticize that which we love, and continue to love are also pitfalls that come with the assigning of a that which we can criticize. With Asma there is single face to a cause. Icons also diminish the enough there to acknowledge her contribution real, leaders, especially enduring ones reduce and her worth without resorting to fictions and debate and growth, they remove the necessity tropes. We do not need more gods, we do not for individual thought and responsibility, leaders need more hyperbole, we do not need to make become corrupt, leaders die and in doing so make more effigies. movements instantly ghosts. When we enable So, today I raise a glass to the streets. To the our ideals and purpose to be embodied in a single ideologies- to pluralism, to fundamental rights, to person outside of ourselves, we are instantly equal citizenship, to freedom from fear and from protected and instantly devolved of personal violence, to freedom of speech and thought, to the responsibility. We become like the proverbial idea that some of us should have a little less so Djinns who keep themselves safe by keeping their that all can have a little more. Today I acknowledge life force elsewhere. We become entirely my gratitude to all the Asmas both living and dead, vulnerable when that object is threatened. male and female. Today I acknowledge that the Our imaginary needs our heroes and our only place I will ever feel at home is on the Mall, saviours, we do. We here need our Ches, our under the Peepal trees, in the middle of a failed Bacha Khans, our Mandelas our Gandhis, our revolution but armed with the idea that it matters larger than life creatures who can challenge those that we try, it matters that we stand, it matters larger than life constructs on the other side. We that we speak, and it matters that we speak the need increasingly the possibility of Davids when truth no matter how unpalatable.

24 THE RADICAL HUMANIST April 2018 IHEU Board member Gulalai Ismail accused of ‘blasphemy’, takes accuser to court for “Criminal Intimidation” IHEU Admin In an unusual and courageous step, human rights campaigner Gulalai Ismail has responded to a ‘blasphemy’ accusation in Pakistan by taking legal action against the man who accused her. Gulalai Ismail is co-founder of Aware Girls, the threat to their own lives in the aftermath. which works to empower and educate women Mashal Khan’s family wait for justice and girls on rights and leadership in rural Khyber without protection, security and a lawyer. https:/ Pakhtunkhwa. She was elected to the Board of /t.co/JAkA62KgPG the International Humanist and Ethical Union — Gulalai_Ismail (@Gulalai_Ismail) (IHEU) in August 2017. September 12, 2017 ‘Blasphemy’ accusations in Pakistan are Following the video incitement, Gulalai Ismail frequently devastating. The accused can lodged a first information report (FIR) against become embroiled in years of trials while Hamza Khan. Khan was charged under sections imprisoned, and face a possible death sentence. of the penal code relating to “Punishment for There is also a serious risk of extrajudicial killing Criminal Intimidation” and “Causing at the hands of radical Islamists or enraged Annoyance” under the Telegraph Act. Hamza mobs. Last year humanist student Mashal Khan Khan has since been released on bail. was murdered by several of his peers on a Gulalai’s counsel, Fazle Wahid, argued before campus in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. the court that Bilal’s video constituted incitement The accusation against Gulalai Ismail to violence and that he made death threats came from Hamza Khan, 23, also a student in against her. He related that even after the FIR Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. In a 12- was filed, the accused staged a protest outside minute video uploaded to his Facebook page the Peshawar Press Club on January 16 against on 20 November 2017, Hamza Khan, who Gulalai Ismail and again inciting hatred or claims to be president of Mardan Youth violence, as if he was trying to spark Parliament, reportedly called for a mob to another incident such as the murder of Mashal attack Gulalai for her alleged “blasphemy” in Khan. defending others accused of blasphemy! He Hamza Khan apparently denies posting the told his social media follows that Ismail was video message, though in court a police “insulting religion and Pashtun culture” through investigation officer produced a record of her work and organizations, including her Khan’s Facebook account and the video campaigning for justice in the Mashal Khan message itself. case. Gulalai Ismail, who has won various awards Gulalai was among many who reacted with for her human rights work, including the 2014 horror at the killing of Mashal Khan last year, International Humanist Award from the IHEU, and Gulalai continued to follow the case, has had to relocate since the incitement for her highlighting how – many months after the security. murder – his family were still struggling with Even in the midst of a media storm around

April 2018 THE RADICAL HUMANIST 25 the accusation and her counter action, Gulalai stance for girls’ rights. Those who threaten her has continued to champion other human rights are the criminals.https://t.co/ulPTt7000E causes: — Andrew Copson (@andrewcopson) End to the regime of enforced February 5, 2018 disappearances in Pakhtunkhwa, Fata and rest On behalf of the IHEU, he adds: of Pakistan, an end to the land mines, “For years observers have asked ‘Why don’t #JusticeForNaqeeb and rehabilitation of the the malicious accusers face justice over these destroyed infrastructure in Fata are the mindless accusations which put people in so legitimate demands of #PashtunsIsbdDharna. much danger?’ Now, our Board member, Gulalai #PashtunLongMarch https://t.co/4YfAd8Izhu Ismail, is pioneering the way: taking the fight — Gulalai_Ismail (@Gulalai_Ismail) back to the accuser. In Pakistan, even to criticise February 3, 2018 a particular use of the ‘blasphemy’ laws is often Gulalai comments: “I wanted to set a branded an act of ‘blasphemy’ itself! So this is precedent so that other human rights activists a courageous step. and other young women can speak out and can “IHEU objects to the use of all ‘blasphemy’ use their right to freedom of expression without laws as a matter of principle, because people the fear of being silenced in the name of must be free to talk about religion and to criticise religion.” Academics and activists have ideas. Pakistan’s ‘blasphemy’ laws not only welcomed Ismail’s counter-charge as a vital step impinge on freedom of expression, they support in resisting malicious ‘blasphemy’ accusations a culture of violent outrage against those who and letting those who abuse and make death are accused, even on the flimsiest of evidence threats know that there may be consequences. or malicious rumours. The idea that it is holy or President of the IHEU, Andrew Copson, pious to scream ‘blasphemy’ at other human tweeted support this morning: beings, and even to commit murder in the name “I will not be silenced. I am not afraid of of defending ‘blasphemy’, has profoundly these cowards. I will fight against them and damaged the social fabric of Pakistan and prove them wrong” Gulalai’s actions will be applauded by all who Very proud of our @iheu Board member value reason and freedom.” from Pakistan @Gulalai_Ismail in her brave Courtesy IHEU website, 5.2.2018 M.N. Roy in Russia: Crossing Verbal Swords With Lenin Roy so ably argued his theory that Lenin was impressed and decided that both his and Roy’s theses should be placed together before the Second International. Later, both these theses were unanimously adopted. (In this case) Roy showed original mind of high order. This is a landmark in the history of Indian political thought and Roy’s contribution to it is all that India can take pride in. Lenin has a place by the side of Marx and Engels, Roy has a place by their side. B.N. Dasgupta [Prof. B.N. Dasgupta: M.N. Roy: Quest for Freedom (Calcutta: Firma K.L. Mukhopadhya, n.y.) p. 12.]

26 THE RADICAL HUMANIST April 2018 “Unsure Israel Seeks Peace With Palestinians” Jawaharlal Jasthi

This is the statement of President Trump against Israel, it was vetoed by the US stating that has adorned the headline of News Today. that the resolution condemns only Israel leaving It was a report of an interview Trump gave to the Palestinians. That, while it was clear that an Israel daily “Israel Hayom”. Israel is the aggressor and the Palestine only The interview is significant in many ways. a victim. In acting as a mediator, you have to It is well known that the foreign policy of the maintain balance between the parties even United States depends entirely on the when one of them is the culprit. While President. The policy has been consistent in condemning the culprit you have also to spare supporting Israel for whatever they do. There some blame on to the other party. Otherwise have been murmurs now and then but never you will be condemned as partisan. The same any loud protests against Israel. Barack Obama logic is being followed even by Trump. That is tried to stand up to Israel on occasions. But why he said that even Palestinians were not could not stand long. But in regard to the serious about peace. Not that he believes it. agreement with Iran about nuclear activities, He cannot afford to displease Israel. He he could show his mettle but only because the says that US-Israel relations are great, but stand is supported by other European powers peace with Palestinians will make it a lot better. who formed part of the agreement. He knows that Israel building settlements on Donald Trump is made of different stuff. Palestine land is complicating the issue. The By the way he behaves and talks we cannot ambassador of US to Israel, a staunch classify him as a true politician. He is very supporter of Israel, was forced to state that undiplomatic in expressing himself. He does “The settlements are something that very much not camouflage his thoughts to suit the tastes complicates and always complicated making of others. All his predecessors have also peace. So I think Israel has to be very careful supported Israel on every occasion but none with the settlements.” What does that mean? of them have gone to the extent of announcing Why didn’t he say that Israel should stop that the US embassy will shift its base to construction of settlements? Jerusalem. He said it and is persisting on it. It Trump declared that “it is very foolish of made him the savior of Israel but an enemy of Palestinians and I also think it would be very Palestinians. Everybody, including his western foolish for the Israelis, if they don’t make the allies who danced to the tunes of US as far as deal.” It is true that it would be foolish of Israel policy is concerned, has criticized the Palestinians not to come to peace with Israel decision. But none of them gathered wits to as every day they are losing some land and say that Israel is not serious about agreement every day their people are suffering in every with Palestinians. It is again Trump that could respect under the military occupation. There say that. is no reason to say they do not want a deal. Simultaneously along with that he has also They are anxious for peace. stated that Palestinians also are not serious But we cannot say the same of Israel. about peace. It may be noted that whenever a Every day of occupation is an advantage to resolution was passed in the Security Council them. If there is peace the first condition would

April 2018 THE RADICAL HUMANIST 27 be that they stop building settlements, if not to coating. He is his own man and he is the vacate the same. As long as there is no deal President of the lone super power with the they continue to extend their settlements most economic and lethal power at his nibbling the land that is expected to belong to command. If he takes a stand and when it is the state of Palestine as and when it forms. ethical and also legal, all others will necessarily Naturally Israel tries to delay and if possible come around him. On the other hand it would to avoid forever the coming of peace to the be more unjust to bring pressure on area. It is so obvious a matter that everybody Palestinians by refusing the funds to the knows it in the heart of hearts. But they do not UNRWA. They are already under duress and say that openly as they are more diplomatic subjected to coercion. than Trump. Even Trump, being so It is obvious that Trump knows where justice undiplomatic, has stopped at that point. He is lies. He is the one who can speak out without the only President of US that came to the stage fear of any retaliation. If he fails to solve the of saying that Israel is not willing to make problem of Palestinians no other President of peace. He too did not say that Israel should US in future, whether Democrat or Republican, stop construction of settlements. When George would ever venture to solve it. And unless the Bush said it, the then Prime Minister of Israel, US President takes the initiative, the problem Ariel Sharon dodged stating that Israel did not would never be solved. Israel knows it well. start construction of settlements with approval That is what Anwar Sadat has said a long time of America nor would they stop it at their back:the trump cards for the problem are with behest. the US. Now Trump is himself the US. If he But Trump is a different man. He is neither fails to stand to his real convictions, the only a Republican nor a Democrat in the strict possibility is that there would be no Palestine sense. You may not like his ideas about women as time passes on as no land would be there and American superiority. He speaks out his left for them to claim as their own. Palestine mind and he is honest in that regard. No sugar passes into history.

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28 THE RADICAL HUMANIST April 2018 Opinion/Palestine : Why is the West praising Malala, but ignoring Ahed? Shenila Khoja-Moolji

different. Gordon Brown, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, issued a petition entitled “I am Malala.” The UNESCO launched “Stand Up For Malala.” Malala was invited to meet then President Barack Obama, as well as the then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and addressed Palestinian activist Ahed with the UN General Assembly. She received her mother Nariman numerous accolades from being named one of the 100 Most Influential People by Time Ahed Tamimi, a 16-year-old Palestinian girl, magazine and Woman of the Year by Glamour was recently arrested in a night-time raid on magazine to being nominated for the Nobel her home. The Israeli authorities accuse her of Peace Prize in 2013, and again in 2014 when “assaulting” an Israeli soldier and an officer. A she won. day earlier she had confronted Israeli soldiers State representatives such as Hillary Clinton who had entered her family’s backyard. The and Julia Gillard as well as prominent journalists incident happened shortly after a soldier shot such as Nicholas Kristof spoke up in support of her 14-year-old cousin in the head with a rubber her. There is even a Malala Day! bullet, and fired tear-gas canisters directly at But we see no #IamAhed or their home, breaking windows. #StandUpForAhed campaigns making Her mother and cousin were arrested later headlines. None of the usual feminist and rights as well. All three remain in detention. groups or political figures has issued statements There has been a curious lack of support supporting her or reprimanding the Israeli state. for Ahed from Western feminist groups, human No one has declared an Ahed Day. In fact, the rights advocates and state officials who US in the past has even denied her a visa for a otherwise present themselves as the purveyors speaking tour. of human rights and champions of girls’ Ahed, like Malala, has a substantial history empowerment. of standing up against injustices. She has been Ahed, like Malala, has a substantial protesting the theft of land and water by Israeli history of standing up against injustices. settlers. She has endured personal sacrifice, having lost an uncle and a cousin to the Their campaigns on empowering girls in the occupation. Her parents and brother have been global South are innumerable: Girl Up, Girl arrested time and again. Her mother has been Rising, G(irls)20 Summit, Because I am a Girl, shot in the leg. Two years ago, another video Let Girls Learn, Girl Declaration. featuring her went viral - this time she was trying When 15-year-old Pakistani activist Malala to protect her little brother from being taken by Yousafzai was shot in the head by a member of a soldier. Tehrik-e-Taliban, the reaction was starkly Why isn’t Ahed a beneficiary of the same

April 2018 THE RADICAL HUMANIST 29 international outcry as Malala? Why has the the exception, but the rule, and hence are reaction to Ahed been so different? disqualified.” There are multiple reasons for this deafening Issues of unemployment, hunger, threat of silence. First among them is the widespread violence, police brutality, and denigration of acceptance of state-sanctioned violence as cultures are thus often not considered deserving legitimate. Whereas hostile actions of non-state of humanitarian intervention. Such forms of actors such as the Taliban or Boko Haram suffering are seen as necessary and even fighters are viewed as unlawful, similar inevitable. Ahed, therefore, does not fit the ideal aggression by the state is often deemed victim-subject for transnational advocacy. appropriate. Relatedly, girls like Ahed who critique settler This not only includes overt forms of violence colonialism and articulate visions of communal such as drone attacks, unlawful arrests, and care are not the empowered femininity that the police brutality, but also less obvious assaults West wants to valourise. She seeks justice such as the allocation of resources, including against oppression, rather than empowerment land and water. The state justifies these actions that benefits only herself. by presenting the victims of its injustices as a Her feminism is political, rather than one threat to the functioning of the state. centred on commodities and sex. Her girl power Once declared a threat, the individual is easily threatens to reveal the ugly face of settler- reduced to bare life - a life without political colonialism, and hence is marked as value. Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben has “dangerous”. Her courage and fearlessness described this as a time/place sanctioned by vividly render all that is wrong with this sovereign power where laws can be suspended; occupation. this individual can therefore now be made a Ahed’s plight should prompt us to interrogate target of sovereign violence. Terrorists often fall our selective humanitarianism. Individuals who within this category. Thus, the execution of are victims of state violence, whose activism suspected terrorists through drone attacks unveils the viciousness of power, or whose rights without due judicial process ensues without advocacy centres communal care, deserve to much public uproar. be included in our vision of justice. Even if we don’t launch campaigns for Ahed, it is impossible for us to escape her call to witness the mass debilitation, displacement and dispossession of her people. As Nelson Mandela said, “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” ABOUT 11-year-old Ahed cries during the THE AUTHOR funeral of her relative Rushdi Tamimi, Shenila who was shot by Israeli forces during a Khoja-Moolji protest in November 2012 is a scholar of gen- Such a notion of suffering normalises der, Islam, and labouring and exploited bodies: “these are not youth studies.

30 THE RADICAL HUMANIST April 2018 Where Canvas is Human Value - 2 (Krishna Sobti: b1925) Dr. Ashok K. Choudhury Continued from the last issue... The classic translated into English retaining caste identities are often codified. the same title Zindaginama by Neer Kanwal Kashi contends that these differences have Mani and Moyan Mazumdar, published by no values. The most compelling characters of Harper Collins, appears almost four decades the volume are the women of the household. after the original, is not a novel in the Chachi Mehri, a widow who left her wealthy conventional sense. It’s an ‘abridged Sikh in-laws to marry a Saha, only to be Mahabharata’, as Ashok Vajpeyi, a Hindi poet- widowed again without bearing a child, is the scholar, remarks. He adds, “Zindaginama’s heartbreaking example of unfulfilled yearning subject is not merely the lives of individual in a society where women are judged only on characters but life itself as it was lived and their ability to produce sons. Sahji’s wife is understood the Gujarat region of undivided eventually successful in this regard. The Punjab in the early 20th century. The volume driving force behind writing the powerful novel emerges a life pattern in its totality. There is no is the partition and its pain of being thrown out story, but a mass fables and anecdotes. There of the homeland. It’s a powerful reminder that are no characters in particular, but the life of denying women the pursuit of happiness means entire region of people, and the natural suppressing female sexuality and desire, not environment, folk songs and dances, folk tales, eliminating it. The Akademi in its Award Citation dialects, idioms and proverbs. The portrayal is reads: “Zindaginama is considered an so impressive that the entire culture of the region outstanding contribution to Hindi literature for and its habits comes alive in Zindaginama. the epic treatment of its theme, powerful yet It centers within three bands: the outermost sensitive narration, and a remarkable band the Shahpur village of the north Gujarat acquaintance with life of the common folk and district in western Punjab, now in Pakistan, in its reboust language and style”. Even as it is the Chaj Doab where members of different the novel is “simply the greatest thing to have castes and religions live happily side by side, happened to Hindi fiction” as critic Jaidev rightly but is dominated by Sahji’s Hindu Khatri family, remarks. and above all Sahji himself, a landowner, and Her 1991 novel Ai Ladki (Oh Girl, Listen), a moneylender and the patriarchal axis of the short-classic, just written after her mother’s village society. Sahji and his younger brother death, is a conversion between a tough, Kashi take the responsibility for resolving pragmatic, undemonstrative, yet sensitive old community issues and maintain social economic woman who is about to die, nourished by her order. But Kashi, a kind of Sufi mystic, is unable daughter. Acknowledged as her most acclaim to endorse their materialism and enforcement novel, it explores the meaning of women’s of traditional social hierarchies. The Sahas experience. The volume spins an absorbing tale reflect the religious syncretism of pre-Partition of love, the distances between a single daughter Punjab, a place where God is known to Hindu, and her old ailing mother, the indescribable Muslim and Sikh alike as Rabb. Sahji often closeness. The essence of friendship in every reminds us that under British Rule, religious and mother daughter relationship catches a deep

April 2018 THE RADICAL HUMANIST 31 story in Ai Ladki. Sobti’s devotion to linguistic explicate on attendant issues of creativity, economy leads her to pare away virtually all language and style, eroticism and pornography, description, so that the readers concentrate ethical accountability and creative license, the solely on the mother and daughter just as the state of Hindi publishing industry, the politics and mother and daughter, circumscribed by the poetics of movements like globalization, oppressive routine of the sickroom, find their feminism and dalit writing. The conversation also world limited to one another. Projected herself includes on their writing habits, idiosyncrasies as the protagonist, the daughter of the story, she and preferences such as choice of the paper to poignantly depicts the last hour togetherness of write on, the issues of calligraphy or the state mother and daughter. Katha, in its first Krishna of their mind and daily routine at the time of Sobti Series, brought out its English version in creativity. 2002, translated by Shiv Nath, the Dogri scholar- Each of her works evidences a distinctive writer, with exquisitely the same flavor. use of Hindi steeped with the flavours of the Her heart-rending novel Dil-O-Danish (The region the story is set in. Sobti is quintessential Heart and Mind) set in ‘Dilli’, narrates the real writer, with a writer’s enjoyment of variety, lives of joint family members and how so many change, and ability to interact different people member lives under the same roof with no ego at their own levels. And for this she writes under clashes and no greed. Here she explores the pen name ‘Hasmat’, ‘not merely a pen-name use of language spoken on the streets of old but of a spiritual double’, as she rightly observes Delhi. The Heart Has Its Reasons, translated both have different identities. Under ‘Hasmat’ by Reema Anand and Meenakshi Swami, vied she published Ham Hasmat, a compilation of for the prestigious the Hutch Crossword Book portrays of writers and friends, which includes Award in 2005 in the Indian Language Fiction Bhisham Sahni, Nirmal Varma, Srikant Varma, and Translation Category. “Actually the Namwar Singh, La Bohem and many more. Her translators deserve more than me. I wrote it new projects include Gujarat se Gujarat, long back. They have made it reach those who based on the riots and on her experiences as don’t know Hindi”, says Sobti. Her 2000 volume the governess to Tej Singh, and Hello Server. Samay Sargam, a story of old age, is about the In Gujarat se Gujarat the pain of Partition is lives of two lonely senior citizens, their vividly explained as there was nobody there to friendship, and the problem faced by them in a give shoulder and no one here to wipe the tears. fast changing world. Samay Sargam has been It’s a spreading incident of her own life. selected for Vyas Samman in 2008. Earlier she also worked on Par of Attorney, The transcript of her conversation with her based on the happenings in the state. In her contemporary Krishna Baldev Vaid, chiefly on recent autobiographical-novel Gujarat life and works of both, as well, trends in Hindi Pakistan se Gujarat Hindustan Taq Sobti literature is anthologized in Sobti-Vaid Samvad: focuses on her childhood days spent in Lekhan Aur Lekhak (2007), an outcome of Pakistan’s rural Gujarat, first walking in the during ‘90s when she was a National Fellow at fields of Shimla as a child, horse rode along with Observatory Hill of the IIAS, Shimla, published her mother, the Mall Road and the Lower Bazar by Rajkamal. The long conversationsbetween with the British walking on it, and secondly the the two giants on various issues ushers in a Partition which brought of unwanted memories- novel critical genre within the domain of Hindi leaving her birthplace Gujarat and Lahore, criticism. Sobti-Vaid tals about one’s own and Krishna Sobti says, ‘Remember, we have left each other’s writings and in the process here.’ This is enough to remind you to

32 THE RADICAL HUMANIST April 2018 remember. Sobti vividly recalls the horses she she was the first Indian writer to return the rode in her childhood days in Gujarat along the Sahitya Akademi Award protesting against banks of the Chenab, and also recalls her ‘intolerance’ in 2015 as the present regime is friends, the books she read in her 20s. She also “leading the country to a new Partition as she explains how she reached Delhi with this final feels”. The assault on creative freedom and the farewell and how the Hindustan Gujarat gives disregard for writers are unprecedented. She him a voice and he piles his memories of Gujarat says, “Perhaps, writers are also to be blamed in Pakistan and returns to Sirohi for the first as they wanted to be seen with the job. The tales of this are published by Rajkamal. establishment”. Sobti appeals writers to maintain The new novel is an integral part of those rugged their independence, as well, fears that the and inferior people. It answers to step by step country is leading to a new Partition, the terrible questions: What does it mean to be evicted? event that were long healed or were gradually And so on. After Partition, people arrived in their getting healed. own free country as they had been displaced The celebrated writer, born in Gujarat, West refugees, carrying their grief tears on their Punjab, now in Pakistan on 18 February 1925, shoulders. They have been trying to build a new had her early education in Delhi, Shimla, and identity which is struggling with all the Lahore. Initially began her higher education in contradictions. at Fatehchand College in Lahore, she returned Sobti has lectured in various parts of India on to India when the Partition took place. She used contemporary Hindi writers. She wrote ‘Prince to spend her summer holidays at her ancestral of Peace’ (on Buddha) in 1957 for the new haveli in Gujarat and enjoys the lives of the reading public in the course of a UNESCO Punjabi peasants in all its elemental vigour, seminar in Burma. Received a prize in which she explored in her works, particularly in Hindustan Times International short story Dar Se Biuhudi. As Partition put a rude end to competition for ‘Dadi Ama’ in 1954, Sobti is a her studies, her immediate job was to be in winner of many accolades including the Rajasthan. Instead of her Masters, she was Shiromani Award (1981), Hindi Akademi Award compelled to take up a post as a directress of a (1982), Shalaka Award of Hindi Akademi, Shishu Shala and later as a governess to His Maithilisharan Gupta Samman, the first recipient Highness Tej Singh, the Maharaja of Sirohi, of Katha Chudamani Award (1999) for lifetime Mount Abu, Rajasthan in 1948. After two years literary achievement, Sadbhavana Puraskar, she returned to Delhi and worked as Editor, Vyas Samman of K K Birla Foundation in 2008, Adult Literacy under Delhi Administration. She besides a number of fellowships including the also worked for a year as Principal, Army Shimla and Punjab University Fellowship and Officer’s Children’s School, Delhi, which she Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in 1996. Sobti also resigned and devoted her for fulltime writing. served as a consultant for ‘Buniyaad’, a tele- Married to Shiv Nath, a Dogri writer, at the serial on Partition. She was the Writer- in- age of 70, who passed away in 2014, Sobti lives Residence at Nirala Srijan Peeth, Bhopal. Sobti in her 5th floor apartment in Mayur Vihar in East was offered Padma Bhushan, the second Delhi with reams of old manuscripts and highest civilian award, by the Government of unpublished papers that could be notes for a India in 2010, which she declined, saying that biography. Dressed in garaara, a flowing long she had to keep a distance from the skirt, a ceremonial dress in Punjab, not a symbol establishment. ‘Governmental honours affect a of rebellion, rather a statement of originality, her writer’s conscience’, reiterates Sobti. Besides, trademark, her head covered with a blue

April 2018 THE RADICAL HUMANIST 33 dupatta, she is still razor-shape and remembers infringement case against Amrita Pritam for life lived in and radically different areas. Though violation of using the word ‘Zindaginama’ in the she is tough to translate, as her letters is very title of her book “Hardatta Ka Zindaginama”, a individual, very stylized, very hard to replicate biography of an obscure revolutionary, I knew I in another language, Sobti is the most translated wouldn’t be able to pull it off. When the judge fictionist in Hindi. Katha, the pioneering came to the court, he said, Amrita Pritam is a translation house, has overcome to the challenge great writer, but I have not heard of Krishna by translating most of her works. Sobti”. Her reply was, “In Delhi, who Sobti guards her freedom as writer and as recognizes Hindi writers”. Her own terms and an individual zealously, “You can take liberties has created a niche for herself in Hindi literature with yourself only if you create a large space that is rightfully hers. Several generations of for yourself, a vast sky”. About herself she writers in Hindi looked up to Sobti’s life and admits, “I see in myself a person who takes life work for inspiration as it marks a grand directly and touches life indirectly. I am celebration of life- a prominent figure of committed to myself and to my profession as resistance, a keeper of conscience. a writer. Any genuine writer must have a Sobti never wastes time for writing and keep clear sight and a clear soul. The deepest part of reading and reading unless something stops her a creative writer is his/her honesty and concern to write on that topic. To her writing is a to reach the truth, to look into things, not at conversation with own that takes place in them”. She believes writing is always greater language. She once said: “given the challenges than the writer. For her writer is to live, to that face the writer and the act of writing today, grapple, to confront, to grow, to keep on growing. it’s necessary to reiterate that writing is always It is the main activity of her life, not an greater than the writer. Greater than writing are alternative. Sobti like to live life of her own terms the values that humanity, against all odds, and has created a niche for herself in Hindi struggle to uphold”. Sobti further added: “writer literature that is rightfully hers. has to grow each moment, in all seasons, in any Though never been a part of either the Hindi situation, together with different generations, or the Punjabi literary clique, or not from a family with the wide concerns of life, rather than with steeped in literature, with no mentor or even a compromises”. She turned 92 in February, but supportive editor, she carved her space in the still has no impact on her commitment. In her literary world ‘absolutely’ of her own and still interview with Ashutosh Bhardwaj, published fighting to protect the sanctity of the written in Indian Express on 18th June 2017 what she word. Over the years, she has authored eight repeats my last interview, she says, “it’s novels, two novellas, two works of non-fiction wonderful to be alive in my tenth decade and a collection of short stories. In her sixty witnessing for generations, seeing thousands minutes interview with Rashme Sehgal, a poet- sunset, many colours of springs and autumns novelist appeared in The Hindu on 9th April 2017, all over the beautiful country”. Sobti reiterates, “when I filed a copyright Concluded... Dr. Ashok K. Choudhury, is a post-doctoral fellow, an Independent Lit Critic, based in Delhi. “Information is the currency that every citizen requires to participate in the life and governance of society.” Justice A. P. Shah, former Chief Justice, Delhi and Madras High Courts, (2010)

34 THE RADICAL HUMANIST April 2018 Students’ and Researchers’ Section : Marital Rape Nipun Laroia Want to get away with a rape in India? lawmakers to protect the rights of our women. There’s a simple two step procedure you could One’s wife is not his property nor is she follow- first marry her and then you rape her. inferior to him in any which way. Then with It’s not me who’s given the idea. It’s just the what right and authority does a husband not ask loophole in Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code but demand and when denied, rape his very own that does so by not criminalising marital rape. It wife. A male centric, patriarchal society that furthermore reinstates martial rape as a legal protects and promotes the interest of act by mentioning it as an exception to the crime misogynists is the one that would do okay with of rape. allowing its men to rob women of their dignity Marital Rape has been regarded as violative whenever they wanted just because they are of articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Indian married to each other. To protect these adult Constitution which are the articles that provide married women from their sadistic husbands is persons equality before law, protection against what needs to be done in order to promote happy discrimination and most importantly protection and sacred marriages in our country. of life and personal liberty. A recent verdict of Criminalising marital rape is what needs to be a PIL under Independent Thought vs. Union done to destroy misogyny in our society and give of India laid down by a bench of Justices Madan married women who bear the future of our B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta declared sexual nation in their wombs the right to not indulge in intercourse with minor wife as rape and also sexual intercourse against their willsin spite of allowed for a case to be registered against the being forced by their husbands is something that husband if the wife filed a complaint. The is essential. Supreme Court by declaring this judgment read Women need to be allowed to live with their down Exception 2 of Section 375, hereby, fair share of integrity. In today’s world where protecting the rights of minors but still hasn’t egalitarianism is on the rise and more and more criminalised marital rape against adult wives. Indian women are contributing in running their Today’s married women find themselves in houses, returning home after a hard days’ work situations similar to what, as portrayed in ‘The to get raped is the last thing they need in our Palace of Illusions’ by Chitra Banerjee, Draupadi developing and soon to blossom society. finds herself. She’s frustrated on being used by Answers to questions like “Do we award men for their own benefits. A line from the novel, death penalty as a punishment to rapists or not?” which is the author’s interpretation of the and “Are juveniles who commit rape to be Mahabharat, aptly describes a state of mind we treated as adults or not?” are quintessential as wouldn’t want our women to be but they still are well. But, what differentiates criminalising due to the lacking punishments on marital rape is marital rape from these are that they focus on ‘I thought that if lokas existed at all, good women the punishment aspect of a crime whereas would surely go to one where men were not criminalisation of marital rape focusses on a very allowed so that they could be finally free of male rudimentary question that is the act a crime in demands.’ There is a time gap of thousands of itself. For there cannot be any punishment for years and yet there wasn’t enough time for our acts not even regarded as wrong, let alone

April 2018 THE RADICAL HUMANIST 35 crimes. Effective punishment of criminals choices and decisions for the next seven particularly rapists is definitely an important lifetimes as though one lifetime in hell wouldn’t problem to ponder upon. More importantly, suffice. declaring an act as heinous as rape covered Men; married or single should be provided under the cloak of marriage and protected by no immunity for an act that qualifies as a rape. this very same sacrosanct institution is the Rapists shouldn’t be allowed to stay as safe as primary step in reducing if not completely tortoise’s in their shells when what they deserve getting rid of husbands raping their wives. is to rot in prisons. It’s high time we understand What actually is the promise of marriage? that rape means rape. Marital Rape as a whole To be together and share all the joys and sorrows should be criminalised with no age limits and no of life together for the next seven lifetimes or is exceptions whatsoever. it the promise to be a vicious predator who takes For what good is a husband who lets his lust away the dignity of his partner and bars her of overcome his love? Book Review Section : Fair and Unfair Review by : BEHIND BARS Prison Tales of India’s Most Famous, Dipavali Sen Sunetra Choudhury, Lotus Collection, Roli Books Pvt Ltd, 2017, paperback, cover Sonali Zohra, pp 266, Rs 395 This book is at once ‘un-put-down-able‘ and Young and intrepid off-putting. It horrifies yet makes the reader turn Sunetra Choudhury, one page after another. journalist and television There are well-known books about prison life, anchor, was galvanized into e.g., Jagoree by Satinath Bhaduri which is a writing this book by her fictional account of the last hours of a freedom- encounter with Anca Neascu Verma, the fighter condemned to death by hanging, Tamasi Romanian wife of businessman Sushil Verma, by Jarasandha, a novel on a woman of convicted who had both been chased into prison by the of murder charge. Aurobindo Ghosh, Jawaharlal CBI. Anca revealed to Sunetra that if one had Nehru and Vinoba Bhave too have written from money and/or power, one could lead a fairly cozy behind the bars. Memorable films too have been life in prison. (Introduction, pp ix-xi).After made on this theme, e.g., Bandini, Do Aakhen conducting a TV interview with Anca, Sunetra Bara Haat, Kaalapani. But this book is came out with this set of intimate and perceptive different. The other books on prison life elicited disclosures of prison life where VIPs live life sympathy for the prisoner and perhaps some far more comfortably than the average prisoner anger at the jail authorities. Besides, they were by negotiating with jail inmates and officials and mostly about colonial times. This book is about tapping external sources of powers. contemporary times and elicits a shocked The first story is that of Amar Singh who disgust at prisoners using their affluence and went to Tihar Jail in September 2011, spent just influence with the authorities to make a mockery four days there, then was moved to AIIMS, of their imprisonment, and therefore, a travesty stayed there for months till he got bail. He had of justice. But not all the time. There are times been imprisoned in the better cells but the when the reader identifies with the prisoners, comedown was too much even then. “Use the whatever their case histories are. same mug for your arse and for your mouth”

36 THE RADICAL HUMANIST April 2018 could not be compensated by being allowed to darzee all within the jail premises (p 157). meet his family whenever he chose and even Khushi, the kinnar who was gangraped by the having visitors like a future President of India police, describes her struggles. ‘Pappuji’ who (pp 14,19). “Luxuries and indulgences are all started a VIP ward in Tihar, even a gym, says relative”, Sunetra comments (p 12- 19). that it is reading and sports that kept him positive The second story is about ‘JP’ (the identity for fifteen years in jail (pp 228-9). Aging Khobad being kept secret by request), a ‘Mallu’ Ghandy, a chartered accountant from London, (Malayali), born in Dubai, educated at reveals how he spends his time in jail reading Connecticut University, and running a business and studying psychology (p 233). in Dubai. A drug-related offence in Virginia In the Acknowledgements, Sunetra writes, landed him an Indian prison. He has described “The stories I write about in this book are his ‘black hole’ experience and how bribery gave personal – very intimate accounts of the lowest him respite from it. points of people’s lives. Some of them were The third story is about ‘Tandoor murderer’ raped, sexually abused, beaten, humiliated in Sushil Sharma who has been in Tihar Jail since custody. Most of them don’t want to talk about July 1995. In the “parallel universe” that Tihar it and yet they shared their stories with me. And represents, he is accepted by inmates as “bhale so, I am deeply grateful for the trust they put in aadmi” ( p 47). He has done course after course me, in narrating their experiences..” (p 265). of Kiran Bedi’s introduction, from Vipassana to Each story has its own shocking revelation. computer science. While out of Tihar, he It takes the reader to a different world – the regularly visits the Sai Baba temple and it is in world behind bars. It is not too different from the nearby India Habitat Centre where, sipping the world outside. There is the same inequality coffee at American Diner, that he told his story and corruption, undue influence and to Sunetra. He even mentioned that Charles backstabbing. Sobhraj had offered him his help, that he had We complain of the inequality around us, seen many big names associate in the jail, and inequality that is open and evident. It comes as knew the trick how to go out of jail on the pretext a shock when this book reveals the inequality of visiting hospital OPDs. But Sushil Sharma that is there in the world behind the bars, but professes to stick it out as an exemplary inmate the world that is definitely part of this ‘sovereign hoping for an early release. democratic republic’. Prison reforms are acutely Anca, who inspired the book, comes next. needed in India, but that is just part of the She used to ‘mainain’ a designer wardrobe in requirement. It is the world outside that needs jail, with stiletto heels and fashion sunglasses. a complete overhaul of its connivance with Prisoners with wherewithal often engage other criminals of affluence and connections. prisoners to do their dirty work for them, for Sunetra transcends the level of journalism to example, cleaning toilets. Where others could rise to that of literature. She writes with realism pay Rs 200, Anca would pay “a lavish 2,000 as well as sensitivity. The book does not rupees or more” (p 73). generate unqualified repulsion towards the Nine fascinating accounts follow, those of murderers or tricksters who have told their Rehmana ( the bride of Arif, supposedly the stories. It also rouses a grudging respect for mastermind behind the Red Fort terror attack their resourcefulness and persistence, their of 2000), of A. Raja, Peter Mukerjea, and so mental strength not to lapse into depression but on. Peter Mukerjea, ‘CEO in Jail’ learnt how to to go on living. It is a fair treatment of the get comforts like a savvy barber, a masseuse, a unfairness behind bars.

April 2018 THE RADICAL HUMANIST 37 RHA instead of LPG Rationalism, Humanism and Atheism in Twentieth Century Indian Thought, by Dr Ramendra in collaboration with Dr Kawaljeet, Buddhiwadi Foundation, Patna, 2015, paperback, pp 320, Rs 250 Dipavali Sen One is a bit tired of hearing about LPG. It and responsibility, secular ethics based on human seems to be as gaseous and inflammatory as needs, and politically “supports human rights, the other item it is an acronym for. Liberalization, democracy and a secular state based on Privatization and Globalization may potentially separation of state and religion ( p 27-28 ). These do much for India but isn’t there a more urgent definitions are supported by references (pp 29- need for RHA? 30.Notes). This book, Rationalism, Humanism and Chapters 2-9 are biographical sketches of Atheism in Twentieth Century Indian eight rationalist, humanist and atheist thinkers Thought is the print version of the Internet of the previous century been who have been edition (2007) of the research work by Dr important and influential all right but not been Ramendra Nath and Dr Kawaljeet Kaur, a studied academically (Preface to the first husband-wife team. Dr Ramendra is a reputed internet edition, p 9). Periyar E.V. Ramasami academic of Patna University, with many (1879-1973) had been against the caste system publications in Philosophy and Ethics. Dr right from childhood. He was Kawaljeet, an author and editor, is also the “uncompromisingly opposed” to `Brahminism’, managing editor of the Buddhiwadi Foundation idol-worship, and indeed, `religion’ in all forms. that has brought this book out, a non-profit He was most opposed to Manusmriti and its educational trust working in the ‘rationalist- treatment of women. The book discusses his humanist direction’( p 7, Foreword). outstanding contribution to Indian thinking and The first chapter ‘Rationalism, Humanism provides a lively account of his life. The third and Atheism’ defines, or at least the sense in article, the one on M.N. Roy (1887-1954), also which these complex concepts are used in this provides a biographical sketch before going on book. “Rationalism is not a closed set of to an analysis of his activities and ideas. M.N. conclusions but a method of arriving at Roy who supported “materialism” was conclusions. As a mental attitude, it gives it gives “opposed to an uncritical and vain glorification supreme importance to reason for understanding of India’s so-called “spiritual” heritage but and solving the problems of life” (p 21).Atheism, “favoured a rational and critical approach in this book, is a ‘wide’ concept, an atheist being towards ancient traditions and thoughts”. This “a person who does not believe in the existence is what he envisaged his Renaissance to of god, irrespective of his reasons for not promote (p 88). After M.N. Roy, it is the turn believing” (p 24). Dr Ramendra states that while of B.R. Ambedkar (1891-1956). After a brief Atheism follows ‘logically’ from Rationalism, outline of his eventful life, the author focuses the reverse is not true”(p 25). As for Humanism, on “his philosophy of religion”. While Ambedkar it is secular, rationalistic, non-religious, this- fought relentlessly against the caste system and worldly. It is based on reason and free inquiry, finally renounced Hinduism, the author holds accepts the scientific method and the results of that he cannot be called a rationalist. For, science. It is atheistic and rejects although he interpreted Buddhism in a rationalist supernaturalism, emphasizes human freedom manner, Buddhism is a religion and he embraced

38 THE RADICAL HUMANIST April 2018 it (p 91).In contrast, Gopraju Ramachandra Rao The loss is especially damaging. For, it is the or Gora (1902-1975) was a declared and loss of the opening of the last and tenth chapter dedicated atheist. He believed that stable titled `Some Critical Comments’ where, after progress can be achieved only if people take to talking about the stalwarts studied individually, `honest theism’. Dr Abraham T. Kovoor (1898- the author puts across his general observations 1978) challenged the occurrence of miracles and on the subject. However the remaining pages supernatural events and strengthened the manage to convey Dr Ramendra’s central idea. rationalist movement in India. A.B.Shah (1920- All of the men he has presented here have, in 81) was a tireless fighter for `secularism’, much their own ways, helped develop whatever inspired by M.N. Roy, who despite his Digambar Rationalism, Humanism and Atheism can be Jain family-background, paid much attention to found in contemporary India. They have helped the problems of Indian Muslims. He called for create “an adequate philosophy of life for all the socio-cultural modernization of especially human beings” ( p 308). In its positive aspect, it among the thinking Indians. Narasingh Narain (a) adopts a logical and scientific way of (1897-1972), a government servant who retired thinking, and (b) supports a rational, secular and early to promote free thinking, scientific human ethics based on basic human needs and approach and tolerant attitude to life and religion, desires. In its negative aspect, it involves a was the founder of Indian Humanist Union rejection of God, soul, afterlife, religion, and (IHU). Chapter 9 is on Ramswaroop Verma rejects the caste system that leads to (1923-1998) who strongly opposed Brahminism untouchability (p 308). and established a humanist association (Arjak The Bibliography is chapter-wise yet Sangh) running from Lucknow. Unfortunately alphabetical. there has been an error in binding the book and Dr Ramendra’s style is easy-flowing and the after p 272, there is a repetition of pp 193- 208, book is an absorbing read, in spite of the mishap followed by p 289 instead of p 273. The last in its binding. And we need RHA more than article is stated in the Contents to be beginning LPG for the development of twenty-first century from p 275. Thus at least 14 pages are missing. Indian thought. Human Rights In the matter of Ram Deo Chauhan @ Rajnath Chauhan vs Bani Kant Das & Ors. [AIR 2011 SC 615] The Supreme Court opined as follows: "53. Human rights are the basic, inherent, immutable and inalienable rights to which a person is entitled simply by virtue of his being born a human. They are such rights which are to be made available as a matter of right. Constitution and Legislations of civilized country recognise them since they are so quintessentially part of every human being. That is why every democratic country committed to rule of Law put into force mechanisms for their enforcement and protection. Human rights are universal in nature. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (hereinafter referred to as UDHR) adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 10th December 1948 recognizes and requires the observance of certain universal rights, articulated therein, to be human rights, and these are acknowledged and accepted as equal and inalienable and necessary for the inherent dignity and development of an individual. Consequently, though the term ‘human rights’ itself has not been defined in UDHR, the nature and content of human rights can be understood from the rights enunciated therein.”

April 2018 THE RADICAL HUMANIST 39 Sharm Inko Magar Nahin Aati: Yet They Do Not Feel Ashamed 1. You value a rape at Rs 6,500? SC same?].These Academies organised a Science rebukes Madhya Pradesh over ‘charity’ Day and invited a Junior Minister Satyapal The state government has drawn the Singh as chief guest. In his speech, Singh largest amount from the Nirbhaya Fund but declared: “Darwin’s theory (of evolution of it told the apex court in an affidavit that it is humans) is scientifically wrong. It needs to paying Rs 6,000 to a rape survivor on an change in school and college curriculum. No average. one has seen an ape turn into a man. Since Taking strong exception to paltry sums man was seen on Earth he has always been a disbursed by the Madhya Pradesh government man.” Is this minister also an educationist? A to rape survivors , the Supreme Court on scholar on evolution? Has he written a scientific Thursday asked the state government if it was paper on the subject? Has he exchanged views “doing charity” by paying such insignificant with specialists in the field? Indians sadly don’t amounts as compensation. proceed that way. They just rattle off as “According to your affidavit, on an average, experts! Officials particularly don’t bother to you are paying Rs 6,000 to a rape victim. Are respect their audience, most of whom are you doing a charity? How can you do so? You probably undistinguished if not outright value a rape at Rs 6,500?” said a bench headed mediocrities.Another Minister (Prakash by Justice Madan Lokur. Javadekar) present objected to Satyapal According to the affidavit filed by Madhya making such comments. On the other hand, Pradesh government, Rs1 crore has been spent BJP Secretary (a semi-literate like Rajnath or by the state to compensate 1,951 rape survivors. Yogi) openly supported Singh. Satyapal was The Madhya Pradesh government has drawn hardly apologetic. He said: “Darwinism is a the largest amount from the Nirbhaya Fund, set myth. I am a man of science, ... I have up by Centre in 2013 after the December 16, completed my Ph.D. in Chemistry from Delhi 2012 gang-rape and murder of a paramedic University.” So one wonders about the quality student in Delhi. The fund is aimed at supporting of Delhi degrees.Several scientists wrote to the initiatives of governments and the NGOs Singh pointing out, “It is factually incorrect working for women’s safety. to state that the evolutionary principle has Courtesy The Hindustan Times, Feb 15, been rejected by the scientific community. 2018 On the contrary, every new discovery adds ------support to Darwin’s insights.”Others said: “Such statements diminish the image of the 2. Indian Minister challenges Darwin’s country at the global level and reduce faith theory at an official function! of the international historical research ‘Eddie’ via Bharat Chintan community in the kind of research This (see below) can only happen in India, undertaken by the Indian researchers.”No with its multiple superstitions, weird rituals and problem. India’s research output is very poor feudal attitudes. It seems that India has an indeed.China was recently reported to Academy of Sciences and also a National have overtaken the US in the number of Science Academy [why two of the published papers.

40 THE RADICAL HUMANIST April 2018 3. Caught on Camera: BJP MLA, son and his son forcefully entering the plaza and thrash toll plaza employee slapping the employee. Further details on this KANPUR: Kanpur Dehat Bharatiya Janata issue are awaited. In a similar incident months Party (BJP) President Rahuldev Agnihotri and ago, Vijay Charel, husband of a Bharatiya his son thrashed a toll plaza employee in Uttar Janata Party (BJP) MLA, was caught Pradesh’s Akbarpur city. The incident took thrashing a toll plaza employee in Ratlam place on February 28, after Agnihotri was district of Madhya Pradesh. Vijay is the trying to cross the toll without paying and the husband of Sangeeta Charel, the BJP MLA employee did not let their vehicle pass through. from Sailana constituency. (ANI) In the CCTV footage one can see, Agnihotri Courtesy The Times of India, Mar 2, 2018

Readers' Comments

Dear Varmaji, thank you so much. Received the latest, February RH and enlightened reading several good articles including the editorial. I wonder whether with the next issue, you can send a copy of December 2017 RH. I had taken it with me to read to LA and somehow lost it in travel. It has some very good articles My warmest regards, Kameshwar, 25.2.2018 ------Dear Shri Mahi Pal Singh, thank you so very much for publishing the photos I sent to you. I am reproducing a quotation of Gandhiji from Gandhi’s ‘India, Unity ln Diversity’ published by National Book Trust 2015 reprint edition. “The Shastras were never intended to supplant reason but to supplement it and never could be pleaded in defence of injustice or untruth.” How very relevant to the present day when scientifically established facts are trashed on grounds of ancient myth and mythology by the biggest in this country. In my view the difference between scamsters under UPA regime and NDA is that the former stayed in India and faced long drawn litigation and comfortable imprisonment sometimes to show all were equal before law whereas in the latter case they fled the country in a well planned manner and with the often denied fact of the blessings of higher ups. Very conve- niently their passports are revoked appearing like punishment but in fact a boon. They will never return. Some in authority might be scared that if they return they may be named as accesso- ries. Now we have the case of murder accused Indrani Mukherji naming Karti Chidambaram. Apart from the NDA loot of the country for satisfying vulture-like rapacity of cronies, demonetisation too was a method in disguise to help another set of cronies to convert black money and fake notes into legal tender. This has also helped many individuals in the banking sector to reap rich harvest. Recently Rahul Gandhi cited the analogy of Kauravas and Pandavas. He should have also compared demonetisation to the disrobing of Draupadi.. P.A.S. Prasad, 26-4-9, NSC Bose Road, Tanuku-534211 (AP)

April 2018 THE RADICAL HUMANIST 41 RATIONALIST AND HUMANIST ACTIVITIES : Andhra Pradesh 87th Annual Conference of Rationalist The following new managing body Association of India, 20th biennial conference was elected for R.A.I. of A. P. Rationalist Association and 27th annual Chairman : Ravipudi Venkatadri conference of Radical Humanist Center, Inkollu Vice-chairman : Sreenipattathanam were held at the Radical Humanist Bhavan, President : Kurra Hanumantharao Inkollu from 9th February to 11th February, 2018 Vice-president : Dr. GummaVeeranna under the supervision of Sri Ravipudi Venkatadri, Vice-president : Dr. P. Raghavan Chairman, Rationalist Association of India. Study General Secretary : Meduri Satyanarayana classes were conducted for three days on Joint Secretary : Simhadri Yellamanda Reddy different subjects. Joint Secretary : Kannan Sivaram On the forenoon of 9th February, 2018 Treasurer : Shaik Babu Sreenipattathanam and Shaik Babu spoke on New managing body for A.P.R.A. the subject Religion and Rationalism. Kari President : Dr. Gumma Veeranna Haribabu and Prakash Mash spoke on Vice president : Kari Haribabu “Geomancy-Yoga-Astrology”. Vice president : Liyakhat Ali 97th birth anniversary function of Ravipudi General Secretary : Shaik Dariyavali Venkatadri was celebrated. He was felicitated Joint Secretary : D. Rajasekhar by many rationalist and humanist friends. Joint Secretary : NandamVenkatashyam Rationalism Part -3, volume -1written by Treasurer : Karanam Ravindra Babu Ravipudi Venkatadri was released by Dr. Gumma Veeranna, president, A.P. Rationalist Association. On 11th February, 2018 Dr. G. Veeranna and In the afternoon session Kurra K. Hanumantharao explained the subject Hanumantharao and Narendrababu delivered “Politics – Power – Parties and Humanism”. their lectures on the subject Secularism and Shaik Dariyavali and M. Satyanarayana spoke Rationalist Research. Meduri Satyanarayana on the subject “Danger of Fundamentalism and and Sadanandam explained the Nature of the Ideological Revolution” Two books “Scientific Universe and Evolution in their lectures. Ideas” and “Origin of Life and Evolution” The book “Secularism – Different Views” written by Meduri Satyanarayana were written by Kurra Hanumantharao and another released by Kurra Hanumantharao and Shaik book “Marxism- Volume -2”written by R. Babu respectively. Venkatadri and translated by Jasthi Jawaharlal In the evening session 27th annual conference into English were released by Meduri of Radical Humanist Center was celebrated. Satyanarayana. Nearly 100 members attended from various In the morning session of 10th February, 2018 states including Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana Dr. G. Veeranna delivered his lecture on and Andhra Pradesh. They are actively Rationalism. T. Padmanabha and K. participated in the discussions. Boarding and Hanumantharao discussed about Humanism. lodging facilities are arranged by the Radical In the afternoon conferences of Rationalist Humanist Center, Inkollu. Association of India and Andhra Pradesh Report by Dr. GummaVeeranna, Photos by Rationalist Association were held. Meduri Satyanarayana

42 THE RADICAL HUMANIST April 2018