NEIGHBOUR Against Dictatorship
www.southasia.com.pk January 2019 INSIDE PAKISTAN INDIA BANGLADESH VENEZUELA Israel Policy Justice Denied The Radical Angle Migration Crisis
Modi’s Mission Modi’s BJP will stop at nothing to forward its Hindutva ideology. The face of India will have greatly changed by the elections as India is veering off its secular stance.
Contents 14 The Name Changing Spree India wants to be a future Hindu state.
Islamabad Kabul Batting For A Solution It seems new peace moves 39 concerning Afghanistan are bearing fruit. 31The Struggle Continues Women in Pakistan want more rights.
Malé Towards a New Agenda 41 Solih too has a 100-day 36 agenda. New Delhi Arms Race Fever India aims to be the arms leader in South Asia.
4 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 REGULAR FEATURES Editor’s Mail 8 On Record 9 Briefs 10 COVER STORY The Name Changing Spree 14 Directionless Development 15 In The Name of Ram 17 More to the Mania 18 No Walkover 20 End of Secularism 21 Towards the Ram Mandir 23 The Contest 24 Interview: Lt. Gen. Zameer Uddin Shah 25 REGION Islamabad 44 Future of SAARC 30 International Islamabad A Growing Crisis The Struggle Continues 31 Key problems are rocking Venezuela. Islamabad Revisiting No-No Land 32 Islamabad Recovering The Money 34 Gwadar The Gender Front 35 New Delhi Arms Race Fever 36 Kabul & Islamabad Harbingers of Peace 38 49 Kabul Neighbour Batting For A Solution 39 Church Split Malé Christianity faces a crisis of its own. Towards a New Agenda 41 INTERNATIONAL A Growing Crisis 44 Trade Winds 45 NEIGHBOUR Defiant Rap 48 Church Split 49 Storm in the Gulf 51 57 FEATURES Chittagong Islamabad The Radical Angle A Dark Day 54 Radical groups are New Delhi coming together in Crisis of Cleanliness 55 Bangladesh. Chittagong The Radical Angle 57 Jaffna The War Widows 58 Laya Celebrating Highland Culture 60 Jaffna BOOK REVIEW The War Widows Women’s Politics in Contemporary Sri Lanka faces a problem Palestine 61 58 left over from its civil war. The Music Too 62
SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 5
COMMENT
Towards Rule of Law wo individuals who have played a primary role in Pakistan’s political journey are Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari. Nawaz Sharif JANUARY 2019 VOL.23 ISSUE 1 Thas served as Prime Minister of Pakistan three times while Asif Zardari has completed a successful five-year term as President of Pakistan. Both PRESIDENT & EDITOR IN CHIEF have now been charged with money laundering through corruption. Prime Syed Jawaid Iqbal Minister Imran Khan has declared in very clear terms that he will carry out BUSINESS UNIT HEAD accountability under all circumstances. A banking court has extended interim Syed Ovais Akhtar bail of former President and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chairman, EDITOR Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur till January 7, 2019. They are Javed Ansari required to account for the money they are alleged to have laundered and the rule of law will apply to them with the same equitability as it has been ASSISTANT EDITORS Faizan Usmani done to Nawaz Sharif. The latter was handed down a verdict on Monday, Syeda Areeba Rasheed December 24, 2018 in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption reference by an accountability court. The sentence comprises seven years in jail and a CONTRIBUTING EDITOR fine of $2.5 million. Sharif has been acquitted in the Flagship Investments S. G. Jilanee reference. His plea of transfer from Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi to Kot Lakhpat CONTRIBUTORS Jail in Lahore was also accepted by the learned court. Abdul Basit – Ali Raza – Aneela Shahzad The influence of law in society depicts the level of fairness and justice Anish Mishra – Awais Anwer Khawaja by which every individual is treated, regardless of the person’s standing. Dr Muhammad Babar Chohan – Dr. Arshad Syed Karim Rule of law in a healthy society places a constraint on individual and Dr. Moonis Ahmar – Dr. Raza Khan – Dr. Sanghmitra S Acharya Humza Irfan – Inamullah Marwat – Irshad Ahmad institutional behaviour. It does not matter what office an individual holds. Khalid Hussain Mir – Mahrukh A. Mughal – Manish Rai It is the principle under which all members of society (including those in Mohammad Jamil – Nadil Shah – Nadya Chishty-Mujahid government) are considered equally subject to. Accountability of each Osama Rizvi – Pervez Hoodbhoy – S. Mubashir Noor individual is very important in this regard and all individuals and institutions, S.G. Jilanee – S.R.H. Hashmi – Saima Mirza Saleem Qamar Butt – Senator Rehman Malik – Taha Kehar whether belonging to the government or in the private sector, are accountable under the law. It needs to be reemphasized that Pakistan was established as GRAPHICS & LAYOUT a welfare state where rights of all citizens were to be wholly protected and Kamran Ghulam Nabi where the rule of law would be implemented in letter and spirit. Haroon Rasheed The main objective of a welfare state is to create social and economic Riaz Masih equality and to ensure fair standards of living, fair access to justice, freedom of CIRCULATION & COORDINATOR Aqam-ud-Din Khan faith, complete transparency in decision-making of the judiciary and respect of human rights. It is clear that in Pakistan’s seven decades of independence, EDITORIAL & BUSINESS OFFICE none of this has ever been followed. A human rights commission report 20-C, Lane 12, off Khayaban-e-Ittehad, Phase II published in 2015 provides a shocking situation of human rights in the Extension, DHA, Karachi - 75500, Pakistan country. The people of Pakistan suffer from continuous and serious human Phones: 92-21- 35313821-24 Fax: 92-21-35313832 rights violations but they have never had access to speedy justice. The Website: www.southasia.com.pk summary courts established during the various martial laws did provide Email: [email protected] speedy justice to some extent but this did not continue for very long. An independent and properly functioning judiciary in Pakistan has always been MIDDLE EAST a prerequisite for the rule of law but it had to be backed up by a just legal REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE system and the right of every individual to a fair hearing. In the present Pirana Advertising JLT PO Box 486207, 1704, Level 17, HDS Tower, times, this seems to have been ensured by the incumbent judiciary which Jumeirah Lake Towers Cluster F, Dubai, UAE is acting independently and it is for this reason that many people having Phone: +97-14- 4508309 held the highest offices in the land are now facing the courts. The Pakistan Fax: +97-14-3688487 government also needs to revisit the legal system. It must ensure adequate Email: [email protected] legal representation, effective legislation, open court trials, transparent rules of procedure, and rule of law. It is hoped that in the coming times, courts in Pakistan will be well on SouthAsia is published every month their way towards inculcating merit and public interest in dispensation of by Syed Jawaid Iqbal for and on behalf of their judgments – and that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government will JAWZ Communications (Pvt.) Ltd. stand by its commitment to fight corruption. and printed by Union Graphics, Karachi.
Views expressed by the contributors are not necessarily shared by the editors.
Published since 1977 as Thirdworld, the magazine was re-launched in 1997 as SouthAsia. Syed Jawaid Iqbal Editor in Chief EDITOR’S MAIL
idea that was envisaged by Paradise Lost the founding fathers. Reforming the Tax System Syed Mehboob Rabbani, Karachi, Pakistan. The PTI government is taking a number of corrective measures to Brexit reform the country’s ailing Countdown tax system. There is no doubt about the sincerity behind According to Arnold J. these reform measures. Toynbee, a British historian, However, the way they are the negotiations with the every civilisation is subject being undertaken shows the Taliban should be continued to both rise and fall. More immaturity of the Ministry in the new year as well. than an outcome of man- of Finance which seems to Since the US-led Afghan made disasters, it tends to be operating on a trial and forces have utilised almost be a naturally and gradually error mode. The ministry has all military options under occurring phenomenon separated the task of revenue their sleeves to stabilize that leads to a civilisation’s collection from tax policy the long-troubled country downfall, despite its all formulation. As a result, the by defeating the Taliban grandeur and shining glory Federal Board of Revenue forces, the international and history is witness to such is now only responsible community must pressurise occurrences time and again. for tax collection and the Trump administration to The breakup of the British administration. Seemingly, now resort to some peaceful Empire is the most recent the move is a major one, means to end the stalemate. example that corroborates but it is still not sufficient Such reconciliation efforts Toynbee’s theory and also to improve tax collection with the Taliban should This is with reference exposes the vulnerability in the country. In the past, not be taken as an act of to last month’s cover story of human expansionism similar moves were made cowardice and anything that on ‘Jinnah’s Pakistan.’ A that has to surrender to in the electricity and gas could bring peace to the separate Muslim state based unseen powers. As the Brexit sectors, but no significant country would always be a on the two nation theory, deadline is approaching, the improvements were noted better option than fighting a Pakistan soon emerged erstwhile global powerhouse in the overall functionality deadly war with no end in as a classic example of a seems to be at a loss to and operations of the sight. dream which went wrong sectors. Instead of resorting after its inception. Contrary to cosmetic measures, the Shahzad Qadar, to the vision envisaged by finance ministry should find Kabul, Afghanistan. Quaid-e-Azam, the country some sustainable directions lost its direction as soon to reform the tax system. as its founder died. Called Anti- ‘Jinnah’s Pakistan,’ the Bina Ilahi, encroachment country ideally belonged to Hyderabad, Pakistan. the suppressed minority of Drive the sub-continent, but soon after the Quaid’s demise, Talking with the The on-going anti- it saw its foundations Taliban encroachment drive in shaken to the core when decide which direction Pakistan has shaken the its successive leaderships it should choose to stay In November last year, the whole nation. Where many divided the ‘Land of the afloat. From expansionism Russian Federation hosted are happy, the concerned Pure’ into ‘East Pakistan’ and to isolationism, this is a meeting in Moscow with victims are questioning the ‘West Pakistan.’ The break- perhaps the most crucial era the Taliban to bring nearly law for looting them all up of the country in 1971 in the history of the United a two decade-long war in these years. As businesses was not enough to safeguard Kingdom, where both unity Afghanistan to its end. Many are not being compensated its founding ideals as rise of and kingdom is found in a such countries as Pakistan, or re-allocated, there seems provincialism and ethnicity- threatened state. China, India and the US were to be no logic in depriving based politics turned the also invited to sit together to people of their livelihood country into a truly a multi- Mark Kimberly, forge a path to peace in the without providing them nation state. The need of the Washington, D.C. war-torn region. I think it is any alternatives. I agree hour is to revert to the basic a major development and that Pakistan needs a deep
8 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 ON RECORDSLUG
“Remember that “Say goodbye mindsets cannot to the IMF once be changed and for all as the through force IMF’s conditions and coercion. No enrich the rich and idea can ever be impoverish the forcibly thrust upon anyone.” poor.” Pervez Musharraf, Imran Khan, former President of Pakistan Prime Minister of Pakistan
“Unlike India, which has a long- cherished tradition “Good gover- of democratic nance with good principles, we had intentions is the suffered frequently hallmark of our from armed coups and that had government.” slowed down the process of devel- Narendra Modi, Hats off to SouthAsia opment.” Prime Minister Monthly SouthAsia is one magazine I look Sheikh Hasina Wajid, of India forward to reading every month. I enjoy how it Prime Minister of Bangladesh enlightens me about everything from politics, to entertainment, to the economy at large. The graphics of this magazine are exceptional and “This is an issue it leads me to read more about the political between those “The criminal happenings taking place all over the world. No who believe in for- economy poses doubt the magazine is visually appealing and is eign thinking and a huge challenge at par with leading international publications. Its those who respect to security, stabil- title exactly speaks about the main subject being local values.” ity and inclusive covered. I am impressed by your graphics and Maithripala Sirisena, growth.” layout team, as their relentless hard work has President of Sri Lanka Ashraf Ghani, made SouthAsia one of my favourites for the last President of Afghanistan couple of years. Hats off to monthly SouthAsia! “A republic is a Pardev Sami, form of govern- Narayanganj, Bangladesh. ment run by the citizens in “There is no use which decisions of the economic are made with progress the dignified and country makes peaceful debate.” if its people are Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, divided.” President-elect of the Maldives Dr Lotay Tshering, Prime Minister of Bhutan
“Nepal wants to develop friendly relations with neighbouring “Since Pakistan countries on the continues to basis of equality harbour terrorists, and justice.” US should not K.P. Sharma Oli, give it even one Prime Minister of Nepal dollar.’” Nikki Haley, US Ambassador to the UN “Muslims in India remain absent from cleanse, but detaining shopkeepers and uprooting on- public discourse ground businesses is an act that must be condemned. The despite their “The Republican anti-encroachment spree has left businesses in a tragic poverty, educational Party has become trauma. According to one estimate, nearly 50,000 families and economic a ‘personality cult’ have been affected mostly in urban areas of the country. backwardness and under President That is a huge number. I feel faulty planning is turning the persistent political onslaught from the Trump.” anti-encroachment drive into a catastrophe. Something Hindutva forces.” George Conway, must be done to stop this. Zakia Soman, American Indian women’s rights activist attorney Naveeda Shah, Lahore, Pakistan.
SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 9 BRIEFS
INDIA Kids Robot iko 2,’ a personal robot for children, has been launched in India. Created by the Indian ‘MInstitute of Technology (IIT), the robot is operated by wi-fi and has been designed to help parents in the early education of their children by engaging them in playful learning. It can teach and directly communicate with children. Available at Rs. 25,000, ‘Miko 2’ is powered by an emotional intelligence engine, which enables it to identify and adapt according to the child’s mood. It has loads of such built-in features as games, riddles, fun facts, rhymes, music, etc. and can be reloaded with new content. PAKIST AN Shelter Homes he Pakistan government is establishing shelter homes for homeless people across the country. Under the Tinitiative of the Social Welfare Department, five shelter homes have been set up in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while more homes would be set up in other provinces soon. The shelter home will be equipped with water geysers, UPS, electricity and health care facilities. Trained staff will be available to look after the inmates who will be provided free food and transport. The move is in line with the government’s policy to provide housing facilities to the needy.
INDIA Engine-less Train he Indian Railways is introducing the country’s first engine-less high speed train called "Train 18." TThe 16-coach train has been built at a cost of Rs 100 crore per rake with 80 per cent locally produced components. Driven by a self-propulsion module, the fully air-conditioned train will also be the fastest train in India. ‘Train-18’ comprises two executive compartments in the middle with 52 seats each. Belonging to the next generation aluminium-bodied sleeper class trains, it is equipped with such modern features as CCTV cameras, diffused lighting system, GPS-based passenger information system and automatic doors and footsteps.
PAKIST AN Sin Tax he Pakistan government is imposing a 'Sin Tax' on cigarettes and beverages. Consumers will now pay Tan extra Rs. 10 on each packet of 20 cigarettes and Rs. 1 on a beverage bottle. According to the Federal Board of Revenue, the move will generate Rs. 50 billion. The tax money will be utilised for the treatment of patients suffering from smoking-induced diseases and will also be used under the national health insurance programme. In Pakistan, some 1,500 people start smoking every day, while tobacco causes some 108,800 deaths every year, i.e. 298 per day.
10 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 SLUG
BANGLADESH THE MALDIVES More Remittances Back to the angladesh has been recognized as the world’s ninth highest Commonwealth recipient of remittances. According to a recent World Bank report, BBangladesh received remittances worth $15.9 billion, an all-time he People’s Majlis of the Maldives high, in 2018. In its latest Migration and Development Brief, the World has voted in favour of rejoining the Bank says in Bangladesh, after a steep decline in 2016, remittances were TCommonwealth. Endorsing President flat in 2017, but they showed a brisk uptick in 2018. According to the Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s decision, 62 global lender, the top remittance-receiving countries are India ($79.5 members of the newly elected parliament billion), followed by China ($67 billion), Mexico and the Philippines voted in favour of the country rejoining ($34 billion each) and Egypt ($26 billion). the organization. The Maldives left the Commonwealth in October 2016 during former President Abdulla Yameen’s administration, which accused the Commonwealth of interfering in the domestic affairs of the archipelago. The move came after a warning by the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, to suspend the country’s commonwealth membership over corruption and deteriorating human rights situation in the Maldives. Rejoining the Commonwealth was also a part of President Solih’s 100-day agenda.
SRI LANKA Steel Coins he Central Bank of Sri Lanka has issued new coins of different denominations. These coins are made of stainless steel that BHUTAN is less expensive than other metals and more durable than Texisting plated coins. Different edges are incorporated for easy Fish Database identification of coins by visually impaired people. The weight of the coins is reduced to give more portability and the diameter he Government of Bhutan has initiated and thickness of coins have been resized to maintain a progressive the country’s first ever fish fauna survey. pattern. The coin’s head side depicts the Armorial Ensign of Sri Lanka TFunded by the Bhutan Trust Fund for with the word “Sri Lanka” written in Tamil, Sinhala and English at Environmental Conservation, the survey is the periphery of the coins. being carried out in the eastern and central parts of the country to formulate a fish database and to find fish diversity and composition in different water systems of the country. It will help in planning and coordinating development activities without affecting the aquatic biodiversity of the country. Between 2013 and 2016, a similar study was carried out in Bhutan’s western water systems, discovering over 100 fish species in the Amochu, Wangchu and Punatshangchu basins.
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SOUTHASIA JANUARY 2019 COVER STORY
PG 14 PG 15 PG 17 THE NAME CHANGING DIRECTIONLESS IN THE NAME OF RAM SPREE DEVELOPMENT The Indian Supreme Court is delaying hearing of the Ayodhya The need to change names of There is a fever in India to Case. various places has acquired an pursue temple politics. By S.G. Jilanee urgency in India. By Dr. Sanghmitra S Acharya By Pervez Hoodbhoy
PG 18 PG 20 PG 21 MORE TO THE MANIA NO WALKOVER END OF SECULARISM Modi is trying different vote- The 2019 general elections will be The BJP government is renaming catching gimmicks to come out no cake-walk for Narendra Modi. Indian cities to acquire the as a leader in the next elections. identity of a Hindu state. By Abdul Basit By S.R.H. Hashmi By Dr. Moonis Ahmar
PG 23 PG 24 PG 25 TOWARDS THE RAM THE CONTEST ‘WHILE GUJARAT MANDIR There is a tug-of-war between WAS BURNING…’ Is the BJP headed towards secularism and Hindutva in India. During the 2002 Gujarat riots, .political hegemony? By Dr. Arshad Syed Karim Narendra Modi delayed the By Aneela Shahzad deployment of army troops in troubled areas. COVER STORY
institutions of governance that were essentially secular and gave India its most magnificent architecture. Although first generation Mughals THE NAME were invaders from Uzbekistan, subsequent emperors were born in India. Over time they absorbed local traditions, producing today’s delicate cultural CHANGING mosaic. Muslims of the subcontinent were Indianized centuries ago and developed habits and ways of thinking SPREE that were plainly distinct from the Arabs, Persians, and Central Asians. Moreover, whatever the Mughals “looted” was not The need to change names of various places has acquired taken elsewhere (as with the British); an urgency in India. The BJP’s rapid exercise, especially everything remained within India. Questioning their “Indianness” is absurd ahead of the 2019 General Elections, is acquiring a hue that since every human’s ancestors came is distinctly akin to saffron. from elsewhere, most probably Africa. But the BJP’s war is not just against By Pervez Hoodbhoy Muslims, it is squarely directed against the concept of Jawaharlal Nehru’s India as a secular, pluralist entity. With llahabad is now Prayagraj. Muslim rulers. Bit by bit, India’s cultural Gandhi’s help, Nehru had managed to Mughalsarai Junction Railway landscape and education system is keep at bay fanatical RSS ideologues AStation has been officially being altered to exalt an imaginary like S.V. Savarkar and M.S. Golwalkar. renamed as Deen Dayal Upadhyaya past of a pure Bharat Mata defiled RSS always feared and hated Nehru Junction. Three years earlier, the signs for by invaders. In 2014, Prime Minister for this, and has never forgiven him for Aurangzeb Road in Delhi were painted Narenda Modi said India is troubled by banning it after Gandhi’s murder and for over to bear a new name – APJ Abdul “1200 years of slave mentality”. Dinesh fiercely opposing a Hindu rashtra. One Kalam Road (after India’s missile hero). Sharma, Yogi Adiyanath’s deputy, says RSS activist wistfully writes that had More changes lie ahead. About two it still more bluntly: “Mughals were Nehru handed over charge of India after dozen or so Indian cities allegedly owe not our ancestors, they were actually independence to the deserving sanghis, their names to Babur ki auladain (sons of plunderers. They looted the country. India would have “attained ram rajya Babur) of which a few are Ahmadabad, This is not our history.” by now, with a hundred crore people Karimnagar, Jamalpur, Faridpur, Hajipur, These utterances suggest loss chanting hanuman chalisa a dozen Moradabad and Secunderabad. They of balance. Whether good or bad, times a day”. too might disappear from the map of Muslims and Mughals are solidly part How things have changed! These India and emerge reincarnated with and parcel of India’s history. As a link days Nehru is accused of having a Hindu names. of the historical chain leading to the “Pakistani mentality” – a surprise to most Renaming cities and roads is just emergence of modern India, for the very Pakistanis who have known him only as one part of Hindutva’s larger agenda first time Mughal rulers had created a Hindu adversary of Jinnah, implacably to glorify the Vedic era and vilify a consolidated political entity, made opposed to making Pakistan. None cared
14 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 that Nehru was an atheist by belief, not a kind of smug satisfaction because forbidden or abandoned in recent Hindu. His insistence that India was to the heinous acts of Hindutva groups decades. Even “Hindu trees” like be liberal and syncretic, and its strength are seen as validating Savarkar’s and banyan, neem, and pipal have been would derive from religious diversity, Jinnah’s two-nation theory. Some right- punished – far fewer can be seen today was openly disbelieved and mocked. All wing Urdu columnists trumpet that at in comparison to earlier times. In the this was written off as mere sloganeering, long last Hindus are showing their true posh E-7 area of Islamabad, one can see justifying Hindu majoritarianism under colours. For them, the BJP’s aspiration the charred remains of a 200 year old the cloak of democracy. The Congress- to create a Hindu rashtra reinforces the graceful banyan, the victim of a jihad by RSS enmity was dismissed as cosmetic, moral justification for Pakistan to be students from a nearby madrassa. a petty domestic issue. an Islamic state. Further, it rationalizes The bottom line: Hindu But now that ram rajya appears closer the appalling mistreatment of Pakistan’s majoritarianism and Muslim than ever before, and Nehru has long non-Muslims and the near obliteration of majoritarianism are equally ugly been in the dog house, a few opinions Hindu religious and cultural symbols. and repulsive. Instead, a rational within Pakistan are changing. India’s Significantly, Pakistan has not outlook would be to recognize that all retreat from secularism – albeit flawed attempted to take up India’s crimes countries and their people are products secularism – is strongly impacting its against its religious minorities at any of peculiar historical circumstances religious minorities. India’s Muslims, international forum. Surely the pot beyond anybody’s control. Should one Christians, and Parsis had once fully cannot call the kettle black. Further, simply surrender to the blind forces that bought into the Indian inclusive identity preceding Hindutva’s recent emergence, have created our present identities? Or but find that their patriotism is now being rejection of pluralism is written into can we dare to move ahead and work frequently questioned. Whether secular Pakistan’s 1973 constitution. Xenophobic towards creating genuinely pluralistic or religiously observant, more and more distortions injected in the 1980s by societies that value and encourage Muslims have become victims of hate General Zia-ul-Haq have helped create religious diversity? Willingness to work crimes such as cow-vigilantism and so- an alternate reality depicting all history out the answers shall determine whether called love jihad. Their perpetrators are as battles between virtuous Muslims India and Pakistan will eventually not just encouraged but also rewarded and cunning Hindus. School textbooks become civilized countries by those in power. contain the absurd notion that Pakistan some day. One might have expected that dates to 712 AD when Muhammad bin within Pakistan the targeting of fellow Qasim conquered Sindh. The author is an academic Muslims across the border would have Deemed as corrupting Hindu who teaches in Lahore generated angry protests. In fact there influences, the celebration of cultural and Islamabad. He can be have been none. Even commentary events such as Baisakhi and Basant, as reached at hoodbhoy@mit. has been sparse. By and large one sees well as kite flying, have been gradually edu
ising oil prices, dearth of jobs, farmers’ suicides and rural Directionless Rdistress, broadening inequality - both economic and social and the aftermath of demonetization Development and levying of GST - all have been serious issues waiting to be addressed sincerely. But the political outfits There is a fever in India to pursue temple politics. and the persons at the helm, who However, the many promises of development (vikas) that have been democratically elected to were made to the masses are nowhere in sight. their respective offices, have kept the people of India busy with the politics By Dr. Sanghmitra S Acharya of religion - albeit in the garb of religiosity. Different parts of the country have hoardings and slogans ordaining temples - and the ‘Ram Nam’ pops up spontaneously submerging all issues. Now with a series of showdown in the by-elections and with the general elections round the corner, desperate efforts are being made to divert the people’s attention from these issues as they have become major threats to the ruling party. Promises made on these issues - of providing jobs to the jobless and relief to the farmers, for instance, are far from being fulfilled. The state leaders have left no stone unturned to establish that the consequences of demonetization have benefited everyone, with the Prasar Bharati -
SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 15 COVER STORY
the national radio, showcasing the evidence in the form of audio clips from ‘beneficiaries’ across the country. The common man, however, is yet to recuperate and make sense of it. The ruling party rode the high wave of doubling the income of the farmers by 2022. To materialize this promise, India’s agriculture sector needs to grow by 30% annually. The reality, however, is that according to the Economic Survey 2017-18 which was tabled in the Parliament in January 2018, it grew at a lowly 2.1 per cent during 2017-18. Several new initiatives like Soil Health Card, Input Management, Per Drop More Crop, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY) and Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) have been hyped as saviours of the farmers. A reality check suggests that during 2013-14, the insurance It is fairly well-established that the Babri companies made profit worth INR 15794 crores when the average Masjid demolition was a criminal act and a income of the farmer hovered around INR 20000/- per month during 2015- court verdict on the matter is awaited. 16. More than 300,000 farmers have committed suicide since 1998. The ruling party has blamed the water, which was more than any other We are reeling in times when Congress for purporting the delay in country. you question the government, or its the case. They have even gone ahead Harping about bringing the Indian prescriptions and you can be labelled to pose themselves as the ‘aggrieved’ rupee to the European stock market as anti-national and charged with party that ‘deserves justice’. The Chief and raising the prestige of the country, sedition. But when the politicians Minister of the State where the temple assumed benefits of demonetization defy the Supreme Court ruling and is located has proclaimed that the and distorted growth in the GDP are not proclaim on public platforms that youth is eager to ‘do or die’ for the enough to ensure vikas – development it took only 17-18 minutes to raze construction of the temple. A morally - the electioneering vehicle on which the Babri Masjid to the ground on 6 strong Chief Minister would have they rode to success. December 1992 - at the behest of the dissuaded the youth if they had actually The Hindutva ideology fostered right wing leaders, no action is taken. decided as claimed. As the head of by the present government will not An artefact of architectural endeavour one of the states, his responsibility is go very far if the real issues are not - which was constructed in years, was to provide employment to the youth as confronted and addressed. Temple demolished without an iota of remorse promised by his party and to ensure politics can vehemently contribute to evident in the perpetrators. On the peace and harmony. On the contrary, a Godhra, a Muzaffarpur and lynching contrary, delay in judicial proceedings there is a conscious effort to drive of individuals on illogical assumptions is being questioned by posing the attention away from basic issues like of possessing a certain kind of meat. It query ‘how long should it take to unemployment among youth, access can also resurrect the ‘science’ in the ‘write a paper’ (of judgement)?’ It is to clean drinking water, proper health mythological narratives and the epics fairly well-established that the Babri facilities, affordable health care, right (airplanes in the times of Ramayana, Masjid demolition was a criminal act nutrition, and dependable supply for instance). But it will fail to deliver and a court verdict on the matter is of electricity, proper roads, quality the promises made to the people of awaited. Despite video clips which schools and colleges. secular India. The government needs have captured the identifiable pictures As is evident from the reply to a to focus on the real vikas and leave of the participants in the mob frenzy, question asked in the Rajya Sabha the temple issue to the Supreme Court. no one has yet been penalized. Many (upper house of the Indian parliament) Otherwise, the proverbial ‘good days’ members of the ruling party have stated this year, 61.2% of primary health promised by the government will not that the majority religious group - the centres in the country have only one only continue to remain elusive, but Hindus are ‘losing patience…’ because doctor while 7.69% of them do not will bring no laurels in the forthcoming the court has taken too long to give a even have a single doctor. India has elections as well. decision on the issue. Therefore, ‘what 50% of the undernourished children will happen if they lose patience…?’ in the world, yet spends only 1.02% The writer is a Professor at the Centre In effect, it was the mosque which of its gross domestic product on of Social Medicine and was demolished by some differently health and more than 300 crores in Community Health, inclined members of the majority constructing the statue of a statesman, School of Social community. So, the patience has been who himself would have admonished Sciences, Jawaharlal actually shown by the largest minority this extravagance of the government. Nehru University, New community - the Muslims. The delay in According to the 2017 report of Delhi. She can be judicial proceedings should be ‘testing WaterAid, rural India had 63.4 million reached at sanghmitra. their patience’ instead! people living without access to clean [email protected]
16 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 In The Name Of Ram The Supreme Court has touched a raw nerve of the BJP by delaying hearing of the Ayodhya Case.
By S.G. Jilanee
t was in 1992, when some Hindu It destroyed India’s image as a tolerant, succeeded in the suit. zealots serendipitously discovered pluralistic nation.” (The Turbulent Years: There was a possibility that a verdict Ithat the pulpit of the mosque built 1980-96”) of the Supreme Court would be out by the Mughal Emperor, Babur at Meanwhile, to the utter shock of by October. But this did not happen. Ayodhya, a.k.a. the Babri Masjid, was the perpetrators of the reckless act, the Meanwhile, Chief Justice Deepak Misra the exact spot where King Dasrath’s first prize had eluded their grasp. Starting went into retirement. His place has been queen, Kaushilya, delivered her son, construction of their cherished Ram taken by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi. Ram. The discovery ignited a wave of Mandir, any time too soon was out of A three-judge Bench of the Supreme religious fervour and extremist Hindu the question. All they had achieved was Court, led by the Chief Justice, has since organisations - religious and political, a major dent to India’s proud secular posted the title suit appeals in January exploited the situation to push their image, besides opening the doors to before an appropriate Bench to fix a communal agenda. a protracted litigation that has, since, date for hearing the case. The goal was to demolish the mosque entered its twenty-sixth year and yet, The new bench will have the huge and construct a temple in its place, there is no end in sight. task of going through volumes of dedicated to Ram. BJP stalwart, Lal Before any construction could start documents of evidence and statements Krishna Advani, undertook a rath yatra the primary issue to be settled was of witnesses. The Ayodhya case file from Somnath in western India, across about who owned the land on which the has over 9,000 pages of evidence the country, to Ayodhya. People enlisted mosque had stood. This led to a title suit sourced from scriptures like Ramayana, in hordes as kar sevaks (volunteer in the Allahabad High Court, to which, Ramacharitamanasa, Mahabharat, manual workers). Other leaders roused a host of organizations and individuals the Holy Quran, and texts from the passions with their incendiary speeches. became party. medieval ages. The statements of the Ultimately, on December 6, 1992, a In 2010, the Allahabad High Court witnesses are contained in over 90,000 riotous mob of zealots demolished the divided the land, equally, among three pages. The documents are in different mosque, while the Sangh Parivar leaders parties; Rama Lalla (the infant Lord languages including Sanskrit, Awadhi, watched with unsuppressed glee. Rama), the Nirmohi Akhara (the principal Arabic, Persian and Pali. However, commenting on the challenger) and the Sunni Waqf Board Counting on using the verdict to incident, India’s former president, (fighting for Babri Masjid). inflame passions and garner votes, the Pranab Mukherjee observed, “The Appeals against the Allahabad BJP has been insisting for hearing before demolition of Babri Masjid was an act High Court ruling took the case to the the upcoming general elections. In fact, of absolute perfidy...It was the senseless, Supreme Court., which made it clear the ruling BJP has made the Ayodhya wanton destruction of a religious that the government was only a receiver Ram Temple issue an important poll structure, purely to serve political ends. of the land it had acquired in Ayodhya; plank. The Ram temple issue also figures It deeply wounded the sentiments of the and that it held the land in trust, only in the party's election manifesto. Muslim community in India and abroad. to be handed over to the party that Meanwhile, the Chief Justice
SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 17 COVER STORY
rejected an urgent hearing as the Uttar Pradesh government argued that it was a 100-year-old dispute that should be taken up on priority basis, saying, "We have our own priorities." By declining to fix until January 2019 MORE TO a date for hearing the case, though, the Supreme Court has judiciously pushed back the prospect of any judgment in the run-up to the polls. The decision of a Bench THE MANIA headed by the Chief Justice to put off even the exercise of fixing a date for the final hearing is quite pragmatic. Modi is trying different vote-catching gimmicks to come Besides there is a precedent for the out as a leader in the next general elections. Changing Supreme Court’s decision to defer the Ayodhya case hearing. In the past, the names of roads and cities is one of them. Supreme Court deferred the hearing on Article 35A after the Centre and the By S.R.H. Hashmi Jammu and Kashmir government sought adjournment, saying that a ruling might disrupt peace in the Kashmir Valley and t is really surprising that while facing so many pressing issues like pose a challenge in the conduct of local creating more livelihood opportunities for the poor, ensuring that they body elections in the state. Ihave better access to health care and helping the youth and so on, why The same argument may be used by are some Indian state governments engaged in an unproductive renaming the petitioners citing past instances when spree?. political parties tried to seek votes in the It is probably assumed by the BJP that in conditions where religio- name of a Ram temple at Ayodhya that led nationalism has firmly gripped the country, any attempt to erase Mughal/ to communal violence. Muslim connections in India would win the Modi government some extra However, those set upon building a votes. Moreover, the exercise is easy as compared to the difficult task of temple at the disputed site, are visibly solving real problems of the country. miffed. Some BJP leaders as well as hard By the way, the renaming mania is not been peculiar to India. For line Hindu affiliates are now clamouring for example, in Lahore, Minto Park was renamed Iqbal Park and Lawrence an ordinance or a special order to facilitate Gardens was renamed as Bagh-e-Jinnah. However, there was no election building a Ram temple at the site, the RSS frenzy behind it and neither was it driven by an over-riding bias. being the most vocal. But such a step to It is also true that in 1989, the ruling military junta changed the name of bypass the Supreme Court would be highly Burma to Myanmar while the country's largest city Rangoon was renamed injudicious and fraught with unpleasant consequences. Moreover, the Congress and other parties are opposed to the ordinance route. Hyderabad lawmaker Asaduddin Owaisi, the chief of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad- ul Muslimeen (AIMIM), has even dared the government to bring forth an ordinance "if it had the courage." Such confrontation would be very undesirable and should be avoided. The Supreme Court has only postponed the hearing till after the elections, which has deprived the BJP of the opportunity to exploit the verdict to seek votes. The heavens have not fallen. A verdict before elections might have boosted the BJP’s position in the polls, but the party would certainly not be contesting the elections on the Ayodhya verdict. Therefore, instead of fretting and fuming, and talking of ordinances, the BJP jingoists should wait for the Supreme Court’s verdict. The case has been going on for 26 years, so another few months should not make any difference.
The writer is a senior political analyst and former editor of SouthAsia. He can be reached at ghulamjil@ outlook.com
18 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 Yangon. Siam too switched names back and forth, but finally settled for Thailand. If Modi wins, India is expected to tone As for the renaming 'revolution' in India, despite being clearly anti- down its rhetoric as well as its aggressive Muslim, the Indian government did try to create an impression that the military posture towards Pakistan. campaign was not designed against Muslims but was only an attempt to rid the country of names associated with invaders, which is why while renaming Indian forces on Pakistani civilians might behind India, the US will use Aurangzeb Road in Delhi, the new living near the border, are likely to India against China - much like it had name chosen was A.P.J. Abdul Kalam continue or even escalate between earlier used Pakistan against the Soviet Road. now and the elections. Union - and then dominate the much- Renaming places is not the only The same sentiment is behind the weakened India and China. Indian vote-catching gimmick. It has very reluctant acceptance by India of With this realization of Modi, there been reported that soon Indian Prime Pakistan's offer for opening the Kartarpur will be an opportunity for Pakistan to Minister Narindra Modi will make corridor which was translated by India try to improve relations with India. a decision about the future of the as a dirty political move and not as a To make that happen, Pakistan will religious site of Ayodhya, which housed friendly, humanitarian gesture. India have to accept the bitter reality that the 16th century Babri Masjid until said the attempt left the country no both India and Pakistan must remain it was demolished by Hindu fanatics choice but to accept it, since rejecting contented with those parts of Kashmir belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party it would have greatly angered the Sikhs. that they already have and that in the (BJP). It is such extremist thinking that may absence of any pressure on India from These attempts by Modi to use cost the BJP the next elections the international community - which religion to gain political advantage However, even if Modi wins, India has become completely disinterested are no worse than Gen. Ziaul Haq's is expected to tone down its rhetoric as in Kashmir and limits its role to use of religion to maintain, strengthen well as its aggressive military posture merely issuing moralistic, non-biting and prolong his illegal grab of power towards Pakistan, thus opening a statements - there is no way India will in Pakistan. window of opportunity for attempts let go the part of Kashmir which is in its By the look of it, such measures to improve relations between the two clutches. All that is possible is to take as well as the 'tough' anti-Pakistan estranged neighbours which, given a measures that improve the conditions statements by Indian civilian and bit of goodwill and tolerance, could of the Kashmiris and enable them military leaders, accompanied by complement each other for the benefit to lead near-normal lives, while still cowardly, cross-border attacks by of both the countries and the region. remaining under Indian rule. We have seen how arrogant As for Pakistan, it has to tone down and belligerent Donald Trump was its rhetoric and stop taking measures who thought that as the head of a like issuing commemorative stamps on superpower, he could do what he liked the martyrdom of Burhan Wani, which to the rest of the world. However, over only encourage the Kashmiris to rise time, he has begun to realize the limits against India and suffer even greater of his power as demonstrated by his atrocities, while irritating India and exempting Iran of sanctions by certain further spoiling the chances of decent important countries and softening relations between the two nuclear- of his stance towards China. After a armed neighbours, which would be befitting response from Prime Minister just short of building a permanent wall Imran Khan, Trump has realized that he of mutual hatred. cannot threaten and bully Pakistan into Pakistan is on record for having submission and make it do his bidding. abandoned its own citizens to suffer He has now adopted a somewhat a terrible fate in Bangladesh. Only a re-conciliatory approach towards small number of them were brought Pakistan. to Pakistan and were settled in Punjab, Much like Trump, Modi is also which clearly meant that Pakistan had beginning to see the limits to his power. accepted the legal responsibility for There was a time when the Indians these people. In this scenario, Pakistan were boasting about their capability of hardly sounds convincing when it fighting a two-front war - with China as starts moralizing and grieving about well as Pakistan - and Modi was even the plight of Muslims in Indian-held hoping to eclipse China with the help Kashmir or even in India. of the United States. There were reports in the The writer is a free-lance international media sometime back that contributor with a keen both India and Japan are now trying interest in regional, South to mend fences with China instead of Asian and international joining the United States against it. affairs. He can be It seems Modi is beginning to realize reached at hashmi_srh@ that instead of putting its full military hotmail.com
SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 19 COVER STORY
heartland though this dominance seems to have been broken by the INC for the time being. The BJP needs a major shift in strategy, along with cultivating more electoral alliances and shoring up the existing ones. When the BJP swept to power in 2014, winning 282 of the 543 seats, it became the first political party in thirty years to win an outright majority in India. Since then, the BJP has enjoyed political dominance across India, particularly in north, west, central, east and northeast India. Its defeat in the Hindi heartland is a major setback for the party and this is likely to resonate in the 2019 elections if proper course-correction is not exercised. Over the last four and a half years, Narendra Modi’s popularity and the BJP President Amit Shah’s electoral strategies have been central to BJP’s dream run. But, it seems that the Amit Shah electoral model has run its course and it is not delivering the same results anymore. No Walkover The results of state elections in India have heralded the political revival of Considering the results of the recent state elections in the INC and is a turning point in Rahul India, the 2019 general elections will be no cake-walk for Gandhi’s political career. The INC has Narendra Modi and his BJP. gained a much-needed momentum ahead of the 2019 elections. Moreover, By Abdul Basit after this impressive electoral performance, the party will get more space in the media, the main engine s Indian democracy has Narendra Modi. There could also that shapes Indian public opinion. evolved, the voting patterns be a miraculous return of the Indian The INC also provides a potential Aand behaviours in India have National Congress (INC) under Rahul centre of gravity for other like-minded also transformed. The advent of social Gandhi as the elections in some states opposition parties to form an electoral media, rise of populism and the have thrown a major spanner in the coalition with the singular objective of challenges posed by globalization works. dethroning the BJP from New Delhi. have reshaped voters’ choices and The INC has thrashed the BJP in The kind of strategic regional alliances preferences. The local socio-economic the Hindi heartland states of Madhya that the INC will stitch up and sustain and political issues have contributed Pradesh (114 out of 230 seats), in different states will be critical in equally to shifting voting patterns in Rajasthan (99 out of 200 seats) and next year’s elections. India. Chhattisgarh (68 out 90 seats). These The anti-incumbency factor has As a result, elections have thrown account for 65 seats in the Lok Sabha cost the BJP big time in the state up unexpected outcomes that have (the lower house of India’s bicameral elections. The party could not live up defied predictions of political pundits parliament). In the 2014 general to the hype and over-expectations of and projections of pre-poll surveys. elections, the BJP won 62 of these 65 its voters. The grandiose promises of The elections have also shown that the seats but the road to Delhi in 2019 job creation for the youth, increasing actual voting trends have evolved in a has become all the more difficult farmers’ income and development for certain direction while our approach for the BJP. The 2019 election will all have begun to bite. For instance, to analysing the voting patterns be a referendum of Mr Modi and his the farmers are angry for not getting still remains socially deterministic. government. the prices they wanted for their Moreover, the West-oriented elite The results of the state elections produce. Almost 55 % of India’s no longer leads India but a more have, in some ways, restored the 1.25 billion population is affiliated vernacular elite leads it and the voters balance of power in the Indian with the agricultural sector, directly have elected this local elite whom democracy and have thrown the 2019 or indirectly and forms an important they consider closer to their roots. elections well and truly open. Though voting bloc. In recent weeks, there The results of the recent Indian the BJP would still enter the polls as a have been large-scale protests by the state election epitomize the voting favourite, it will not be a walk in the farmers in India over falling prices and trends. Contrary to the traditional park for the Modi Sarkar. The BJP will natural disasters. political punditry of the 2019 have to go back to the drawing board Similarly, traders are unhappy with elections, there would be a ritual to and re-strategize its election approach. the BJP for the slow economic progress, re-elect the incumbent Prime Minister The BJP will need to win the Hindi a controversial demonetisation policy
20 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 and institutionalization of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Likewise, the lack of jobs and growing unemployment has END OF left the youth disillusioned. Meanwhile, moderate voters feel alienated because of the party’s heavy reliance on the Hindutva rhetoric that has pushed SECULARISM religious polarization to dangerous levels. The BJP government is renaming Indian cities as a part The minorities, particularly the of its drive to move the country away from secularism Muslims, are full of resentment due to and acquire the identity of a Hindu state. the growing trend of Islamophobia in India. There is an emergence of cow- By Dr. Moonis Ahmar vigilante groups that have tortured Muslims on allegations of eating and trading beef. The so-called “love-jihad” he campaign to erase the legacy of more than 1,000 years of Muslim narratives which peddle conspiracy rule in India got an impetus when Narendra Modi, a Hindu extremist theories that Muslims are dating Hindu Tbecame Prime Minister under the BJP government in 2014. Not women to convert them to Islam have concealing his drive to rename Muslim/Urdu named cities and symbols disenfranchised the Muslim electorate. in India and replacing them with Hindu names, Modi in 2014 said “India Meanwhile, the Hindu nationalists was troubled by 1,200 years of slave mentality”. Out of Modi’s 1,200 years are unhappy with the BJP for delaying of slave mentality syndrome, 1,000 years belonged to Muslim rulers and the construction of a temple at Ayodhya, the remaining 200 years to British rule. where a 16th century mosque was Augmenting feelings of religious extremism and intolerance, the BJP demolished by Hindu mobs in 1992. and other Hindu communal groups realize a valuable opportunity to The right-wing Hindu extremist groups reclaim what they describe as the “Hindu glory” which existed before the have demanded that the BJP government Muslim invasion and conquest of the bulk of the Indian sub-continent. proceed with the construction of the Erasing symbols of Muslim rule in India has now become state policy temple despite the Indian Supreme which is being carried out by renaming the names of Indian cities and Court’s verdict to the contrary. towns having a semblance of a Muslim or Urdu background. However, the INC must realise that a The names of cities, airports and railway stations in India having win in state elections in no guarantee for Muslim/Urdu names are a profound target of the BJP government. For a victory in the 2019 general elections. instance, the state of Uttar Pradesh, which has the largest concentration The state and national elections are of Muslims, has proposed to rename the airports of Bareilly as Nath Nagri qualitatively different electoral exercises and Agra airport after the Hindutva ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhaya. in their scope and agendas. The results Likewise, Aurangabad, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad will also be renamed. of the recent state elections underscore The famous road in Delhi called Aurangzeb Road is also a target of the fall of the BJP, instead of the rise of the BJP which, like other right wing Hindu extremist groups, considers the INC. Five months is a lot of time Aurangzeb Alamgir, a controversial Mughal ruler who ruled for around 50 and the BJP is quite capable of staging years and was responsible for destroying several mandirs and imposing a comeback. The INC cannot afford to the Islamic way of life on the majority population which happened to be lower its guard and take the wins in state election for granted, while the BJP needs to re-think its election strategy and try to win back its alienated voters. The regional and sub-national parties are the X-factor. They would be the kingmakers who will be critical in determining who forms the next government? The next Indian elections are likely to throw up a divided mandate, but a hung parliament is unlikely. Notwithstanding its poor electoral performance so far, the BJP would still emerge as the single largest party though it may not gain an outright majority to form the government singlehandedly. In most likelihood, it would be a BJP-led coalition government.
The author is an Associate Research Fellow (ARF) at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Singapore. He can be reached at isabasit@ntu. edu.sg
SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 21 COVER STORY
non-Muslim. The transformation of secular India as a Hindu state has been going some time. Even Congress governments, which were termed as secular, failed to prevent communal riots in post- partition India and gave space to the right wing Hindu nationalist groups such as Jang Sang, RSS, Shiv Sena, Sangpariwar and Bajrang Dal. The failure of the Congress government of Prime Minister Narsimha Rao to prevent demolition of the 16th century Babri Mosque on December 6, 1992 by fanatic Hindu groups led by BJP leader L. K. Advani, rendered a major blow to Indian secularism. Consequently, the world. over as Prime Minister is sufficient to it is correct to say that the process of There are other names having prove that India is no more a secular ‘Hinduization’ of India began during Muslim/Urdu names that are in the state. The slogans and ideology of the era of the Congress and reached its process of being changed by the BJP, Hindutva are owned by the Indian state, peak when the former Chief Minister The Mughalserai Railway Station in thus causing widespread insecurity in of Gujarat, Narendra Modi who was northern India near Allahabad is now the religious minorities. responsible for the bloodbath of named after Deendyal Upadhya, who The damage done during the Muslims in the communal riots of was an associate of the ultra-Hindu right- Modi regime to Indian democracy February 2002, became the Prime wing party, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak and secularism is almost irreparable. Minister of India. Singh (RSS). The city of Faizabad, which Even if the BJP is defeated in the next Can erasing of 1,000 years of is 160 kilometres north of Allahabad, general elections, the new government Muslim legacy in the Indian sub- has been renamed as Ayodhya, a name will have to take damage control continent undo the magnificent associated with the birthplace of Rama, measures in order to rehabilitate the contributions of Muslim rulers in one of the Hindu gods. The BJP is also image of India as a functional secular architecture, calligraphy, cuisine and bent upon changing the name of city democracy. The BJP has suffered defeat gardening? Unlike the British who Muzaffarnagar to Laxmi Nagar. The in recent state elections in the key Hindi massively exploited India during their north Indian city of Allahabad, which belt of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and 90 years of direct rule and Nadir Shah was named in the 17th century during Chattisgarh, where the Congress (I) has who looted and plundered Delhi and the Mughal rule, has been renamed as been able to claim victory. This means, took looted wealth to Iran, the Delhi Prayagraj, which, according to folklore voters in the three states have spoken Sultanate and the Mughal Empire is the place where the four-faced Hindu against Modi’s communal politics. owned India and made every effort creator Brahma offered his first sacrifice Amidst the pessimism and gloom to spend resources in that country. after making the world. prevailing in India as far as the future The reign of Sher Shah Suri, a Pathan There is no way the BJP, which has of democracy and secularism is ruler of India, is remembered for the now been taken over by the extremist concerned, there is still light at the end construction of the Grand Trunk Road and fanatic Hindu mindset, will ever of tunnel. The majority of the people of from Peshawar to Bengal and for his regret its policy to erase the Muslim India do not support religious bigotry magnificent administrative system. In legacy from the Indian sub-continent and the BJP-led drive to transform India its essence, the Muslim rule in India because of its clear vision that India as a Hindu state; they will certainly under the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal should be a Hindu state. For that matter, speak their voice in the next general Empire cannot be termed as colonial all such names and symbols which are elections. But, by changing the names of and it will be a great injustice on the a reminder of Muslim achievements cities and public places having Muslim/ part of the present Indian government and legacy are being removed. Urdu semblance, the Modi regime has to distort facts. There are two major ramifications crossed the red line because the stigma The symbols of Muslim rule in of the BJP’s anti-minority, particularly of communal and religious intolerance India can be found all over the sub- anti-Muslim drive. First, the image of put forward by the Modi regime continent and their removal by the India as a secular democracy will he cannot be easily undone by future BJP government will be like undoing shattered not only in India but in the governments. If the BJP government is major historical facts. If the drive world. The world’s largest democracy, trying to obliterate the Muslim legacy in of name changing continues, it will which was proud of its colours and the India, it is also challenging the face have serious implications on the two diversity, will be reduced to an inward, of India as a democracy and a secular major Muslim countries of South retrogressive, racist and chauvinist state. Merely by following a parochial Asia, Bangladesh and Pakistan where country with a high level of intolerance approach, the BJP regime has badly Islamists will demand the cities, towns vis-à-vis religious minorities, damaged the image of India as a secular and other places having Hindi names particularly against the 200 million- democracy. be replaced. There is no end to the strong Muslim community. Second, the insane and senseless drive because surge of Hindu nationalism will be a The writer is Meritorious the biggest historical symbol of love major challenge to the secular face of Professor of International built during the reign of Shahjehan, India as, in the preamble of the Indian Relations at the University the Taj Mahal, is a world heritage site Constitution, India has been declared a of Karachi and can be recognized by UNESCO. Its renaming secular country. What has been going reached at amoonis@ could make India a laughing stock in on in India since Narendra Modi took hotmail.com
22 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 TOWARDS THE RAM MANDIR Is the BJP headed towards political hegemony? With the coming 2019 elections and the growing ideology of Hindu dominance, it looks like India is bidding goodbye to its secular image.
By Aneela Shahzad
Vali Gujarati, the grandfather of Urdu poetry. He said the mobs had ‘thrown bricks at Persian inscriptions, and set fire to old Korans’. Now, that the BJP is finally in power, the ‘troubling’ is only boiling to a point of explosion as the elections arrive in 2019. Names of Allahabad city and the Mughalsarai railway station have been changed; a UNESCO world heritage site, Taj Mahal has been dropped from the tourism booklet of the UP government and the pursuit for the Rambhoomi has been stepped- up. In March 2017, Chief Justice of India, J.S. Khehar advised contenders to make an out-of-court settlement on the issue – knowing perhaps well how the BJP would behave outside the court and also of the amount of pressure the Muslims of UP must be feeling for the impending BJP wrath in the matter. Increased rhetoric by BJP leaders lately – like Sushil Modi, Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister, saying that ‘a mosque can be built anywhere, but a Ram temple hen Prime Minister Narendra invasion. Only, this clashes with the can only be built at the birthplace of Modi, in his maiden speech Nehruvian ideal of a ‘socialist, secular, the Lord Ram’; Union Minister Giriraj Wto the Lok Sabha in 2014 democratic republic’, an ideal despised Singh saying that Muslims should help said that the ‘slave mentality of 1,200 by many of his friends, including Dr construct a Ram temple in Ayodhya years is troubling us’, he had perhaps SP Mukherjee, who later founded the because they are ‘descendants of Lord calculated from the day Muhammad Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1951, that Ram and not Mughal Emperor Babur’ Bin Qasim entered the region in 711 evolved into the Bharatiya Janata Party and later adding that ‘If Hindus run AD – even though the areas conquered in 1980. The BJP rose from a mere two out of patience, they will take over by Bin Qasim were in present-day seats in the 1984 to India’s largest party Mathura, Ayodhya and Kashi’ – all add Pakistan, not India. in the 1996 elections. This popularity to the heat in the province. It is no secret though that the BJP is came from its being a proponent of the But why did Giriraj mention all really troubled – but only with all the Ram Janmabhoomi Movement, that three ‘Mathura, Ayodhya and Kashi’? symbols that are reminder of invaders culminated in the demolition of the This takes us to why Babar made the within a millennium. Of course, the Babri Babri Mosque in Ayodhya in the first Aryans who came at around 1500 The state of Gujrat, from where place, when his throne was in Delhi? BC, crushing the thriving indigenous the BJP leader LK Advani mounted the Babar was of Mongol decent and he civilizations in Harappa, Mohenjo- chariot of ‘rath yatra’ headed for the had brought only the last Muslim Daro and Lothal, and labelled the Babri Mosque in 1990, was symbolic, dynastic rule to the subcontinent. locals as ‘scheduled’ and ‘other as it was the state of the Somnath Before him, the five dynasties of the backward castes’, of which PM Modi’s Mandir that had been raided several Delhi Sultanate were all of Afghan or ancestors have been a part – have been times by Muslim invaders – and was Turkic decent – making the north of the flushed away from memory and cause the same state where, in 2002, the subcontinent a receptacle for Islamic no trouble! then Chief Minister of Gujrat, N Modi influence. This turned the whole belt of Perhaps because the symbols of allowed the massacre of over 2000 northern states, UP, Bihar, Bengal and the slave mentality that the Aryans left, Muslims, perhaps dissipating some of even Assam, into states of considerable are an exhibit only in the anatomy of the ‘trouble’. Muslim concentration. the Hindu mindset, later symbols like A Guardian journalist who was The fertile highlands have many the Babri Masjid and the Taj Mahal there after the incident reported the features of troubling Muslim heritage. are tangible and invite the stalwarts destruction of 230 unique Islamic For instance, the Rohilkhand, a large of Hinduism to break these idols of monuments, including the tomb of region in UP has been the home of
SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 23 COVER STORY
The assumed ‘enemy’ that has to be heroically destroyed by the BJP to win the Hindu vote, is not just the Muslims.
Rohilla Afghans who have served as the backbone for many Muslim Sultans in Delhi. They were instrumental in the Maratha Wars and were the only contingent that came to secure Delhi when it was going to be sacked by the British. Another heritage is the Aligarh Muslim University, which to this day holds its Islamic emblem and is managed by an all-Muslim panel and accommodates most of the scholarships for Kashmiri students from IOK. So, Mathura, Ayodhya and Kashi represent a triangle encircling several The Contest Muslim concentrations areas – a potential civil war in the making. There is a tug-of-war between secularism and Hindutva, Yet, the assumed ‘enemy’ that has to be which aims to build India into a strong, unified state heroically destroyed by the BJP to win the fashioned on Hindu values. Hindu vote, is not just the Muslims. The Ghar Wapsi has also targeted those whose By Dr. Arshad Syed Karim ancestors had converted to Christianity. BJP leader and UP’s Chief Minister Yogi t looks like religion is now leading politics in India though the country Adityanath has said, ‘this campaign will has been known to be a secular state for a long time. continue unless conversions to other I It must be said in any case that the role of religion in politics is religions are banned altogether in the an old phenomenon. The treaty of Westphalia (1648) was the outcome country’. So much for secular tolerance. of intervening of politics and religion. In case of the history of Indo-Pak The BJP, though it has a great subcontinent during the reign of Akbar the Great, religion was taken as a international outlook and makes efforts serious question in his court which led to his religious policy and Din-e- to bring India closer to global players, is Ilahi. In the modern history of India, after the fall of the Great Mughals with practically crushing the secular, inclusive, the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, the British used the policy of divide and democratic spirit inside the country. rule between the Hindus and Muslims. This led to the continuation of the Such politics of hate and revenge will socio-economic and political downfall of the Muslims throughout the 17th only yield hate and revenge. On the Taj century up to first half of the 19th century. Mahal exclusion last year, Laxmi Narayan, The War of Independence of 1857 further detoriated the Muslim minister of religious affairs of UP said, community. The second half of the 19th century saw the rise of the Hindu the UP government was “rashtravadi community in India’s socio-economic life, bringing them more in the (nationalist)” and runs on “dharam niti forefront with the establishment of the Indian National Congress (INC) in (religious policy).’ Later in 2018, RSS chief 1885. It was in 1906 when the Muslims, as a minor religious group in the Mohan Bhagwat redefined nationalism, subcontinent established the All India Muslim League for socio-economic when he said, ‘everyone who lives in India and political development. So religion continued to exist in the politics is Hindu by identity’. This leaves no livable of the subcontinent for centuries. The ruling class, whether the Mughals, space for over the 250 million minorities the British or the Hindus, always perpetuated their central role over the of India. Indian political system. Consequently, the other religious classes used Yet, it does not seem viable that BJP religious teachings and messages against injustice and oppression and this would risk inciting the 250 million inside maintained continuity between religion and politics in the state system. India. The voters would want a reassurance The British initiated the principle of electoral representation and of Hindutva-love from the BJP and not this made communalism an integral part of politics of the subcontinent. another round of blood and batons. So, Communalism was a deeply-rooted element in the British Indian national the BJP’s election formula would be a low independence movement. level of incitement at the most, like adding The INC was dominated by MK Gandhi after he came from South Africa cow-vigilante killings every now and then, in 1915. Prior to that, the Hindu-Muslim controversy had already risen after only to remind the Muslims that they are a the partition of Bengal in 1905. separate nation, after all. Politically speaking, the Nehru family who were moderate Brahmins took over charge of INC with Motilal Nehru as its President and his son The writer is a geopolitical Jawaharlal Nehru as its Secretary. They prepared the famous report called analyst with interest in history, Nehru Report in 1927 which highly smelled of communal bias, favouring a philosophy and anthropology. Hindu Raj in the subcontinent. This led the All India Muslim League leader She can be reached at aneela. Muhammad Ali Jinnah to offer his famous 14 points in 1928 in reply to the [email protected] Nehru Report. The National Movement history further focussed on religion
24 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 and politics in the subcontinent till the emerged and challenged the INC’s The contest of strength is between independence of India and foundation political strength was the Bharatiya the BJP, led by Narendra Modi and the of Pakistan in 1947. Janata Party (BJP) which acquired Congress, led by Rahul Gandhi. The latter The Nehru dynasty-led INC political authority and removed the is based on dynastic politics, as alleged continued after India’s independence INC from national leadership when by the BJP leadership. The BJP claims to rule India with a moderate religious Atal Behari Vajpayee was the Prime that dynastic politics is like a return to attitude, making the country a secular Minister. He was a Hindu nationalist absolute monarchy which is a threat to state as per its constitution. After but was a moderate political leader. For democracy. The Congress leadership Nehru, his daughter Indra Gandhi, then four decades of its independence, India believes in Indian nationalism, merging her son Rajeev Gandhi, continued to posed a danger to secularism in matters religion, the caste system, regionalism keep India in a moderate religious and of state policy. The situation changed and ethnicity. The coming elections will political environment. When Sonia with the arrival of BJP as the ruling party. be a contest between the Hindutva-led Gandhi took over the Presidency of the The BJP came with its background of BJP and the secularism of the Indian INC after her husband Rajev Gandhi’s Rashritriya Swagamsevak Sangh (RSS) National Congress. assassination, she brought in a Muslim and Bharitiya Jana Sangh (BJS) and it set President, Abul Kalam, a Sikh Prime about to rebuild India as a strong and The writer was a professor and Minister, Manmohan Singh and being a unified Hindu state with Hindu values, Chairman of the Department of Political Christian herself, remained as chief of generally called Hindutva. The present Science at the University the ruling party. Her son Rahul Gandhi BJP, under the leadership of Narendra of Karachi. He was also as a Congress leader called himself a Modi, inherited the BJS mission, basing a Fulbright Distinguished Hindustani encompassing all religious the Indian state system on Hindutva. Professor at the New groups as a united force for the INC This has considerably weakened York State University. in the general elections of 2019 and secularism; the Indian electorate is now He can be reached at presenting India as a real secular state. propagating Hindu nationalism and drarshadkarim@yahoo. The other political group that discarding secularism. com
INTERVIEW magistrates, police guides and, most importantly, cell phones as the army’s phones only work when they are in ‘While Gujarat direct line of sight. I met Brigadier Mehra, who was my course mates. I asked him where the vehicles were. He said the state Was Burning…’ government would provide them and that he himself did not know much about that. I asked him where the During the 2002 Gujarat riots, Narendra Modi, the then chief chief secretary was as I wanted to minister of Gujarat, delayed the deployment of army troops in speak with him. He said that the chief secretary was abroad and that another troubled areas to immediately stop the Hindu-Muslim riots that IAS officer was officiating. resulted in the killing of over 1500 Muslims in Ahmedabad. George Fernandes (India’s defence Zameer Uddin Shah, a retired lieutenant general of the Indian minister) met us there. He expressed Army, makes interesting revelations. happiness that the army had arrived. I said we were yet to be provided vehicles, etc. I had a map and we rfa Khanum Sherwani of the division was the Strike Corps and we plotted the trouble spots on that map. Indian TV channel, The Wire, were deployed in the Jaisalmer area. At the airfield, we waited for the Ainterviewed Indian Lieutenant On the 28th of February, I went for an vehicles to arrive. Next morning, at General (retired) Zameer Uddin Shah exercise and came back at around 6:30 around 10 or 11 am, George Fernandez about how the Indian army lost crucial pm. The Chief of Army Staff General came to the airfield alone. I told him hours on the day communal violence Padmanabhan called me. I felt that that nothing had been arranged. began in Gujarat (western India). Lt. there must be something important AS: No action had been taken from Gen. Zameer Uddin Shah, who was as the chief had called directly. All he 10 pm the previous night to 10 am the sent to control the Gujarat riots, waited said was to take as many troops as I following day? for vehicles at the Gujarat airfield to could and put a stop to the riots taking ZS: Right, no vehicles were sent. take his troops into the city and made place in Ahmedabad. We could not have gone by foot. The repeated requests to the then Gujarat I reached the Ahmedabad airfield airfield was quite far from the city. chief minister Narendra Modi, but at 10 pm on the night of February 28. That night I went to the CM’s house. none arrived. There were two brigades. It took 40 I saw that the rioters had surrounded Arfa Khanum Sherwani: During flights to bring them all to Ahmedabad. the areas where the minorities lived the 2002 Gujarat riots, had Narendra When we were flying over Ahmedabad, and that the police was firing into Modi, then the chief minister, taken I saw that the entire city was burning. houses through the windows. I asked the right steps at the right time, could There were fires raging everywhere them what they were doing. They said there have been fewer lives lost? in the city. We were told that upon they were trying to bring the rioters Gen. Zameer Uddin Shah: My arrival we would receive vehicles, under control. I responded that in that
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case, the police should be father on the assumption firing at the rioters and not that he would push forth into houses. They became the government’s agenda. ashamed after hearing me So I had heard the term say that. I noticed moreover already in my childhood. that the police did not seem People would say Mr Shah to be doing much. is a sarkari mussalman, and AS: In the sensitive few what they meant was that he hours of the night between was a government stooge. February 28 and March 1, When I was a second a lot of lives could have lieutenant, I met some been saved but nothing horse-riders in a hotel in was done? Mussoorie. I found out ZS: Not even the next George Fernandes Narendra Modi that it was the Aligarh day. The vehicles only Muslim University riding arrived on March 2. We team which had come to went to the city after they arrived. was utterly parochial and one-sided. participate in an event at the Indian AS: The night of the 28th and the AS: Who do you hold more Military Academy. I spoke to them entire day of the 1st went to waste? responsible, the then defence minister about the dignity and prosperity that You only got into the city on the 2nd, George Fernandes or the current PM a job in the military offered. When I after which you tried to control the and then CM Narendra Modi? The did an informal poll to see who was situation? latter has been accused many times interested in joining, none of them ZS: Yes, we were on the airfield the since of not having fulfilled his chief raised their hand. They said to me that I entire day of the 1st. ministerial duty and of having failed am a sarkari mussalman, a government AS: Many questions have been as an administrator. stooge, and so there was no reason to raised regarding the fact that some ZS: There was an administrative trust what I said. police officers had joined the rioters failure. There was no chief secretary. AS: What kind of sarkari mussalman and were ganging up against the The officiating chief secretary failed were you? minorities and the consequent to take action. The police was largely ZS: I played by the rules. Yes, failure of the police in fulfilling its non-committal. All its action was one- there is another kind of sarkari responsibility. sided. And that administrative failure mussalman. They are those who ZS: The Home Guards had joined was the direct cause of the extent of possess a discriminatory attitude the rioters. Most of the Home Guard the riots. towards their own community. They commanders were members of right- AS: The title of your book is 'The make a big show of being secular and wing organizations. They were totally Sarkari Mussalman.' This is very openly say that they do not support complicit in the riots. The police did interesting. Why did you call the book Muslims. So there is a reaction. And not take any action against the rioters. The Sarkari Mussalman? Usually, they take action against members of Wherever a mob of rioters appeared, we see that term used for highly their own community. I have written the police excused themselves by placed Muslims who are considered in my book that Salman Rushdie and saying they had work in another area government stooges. The term is used Taslima Nasrin are taking advantage and left everything to the army. They derisively. of this phenomenon. They were born never confronted the rioters directly. ZS: My father was posted in as Muslims but now they write against The homes of the few police officers Nainital, but he was transferred to Islam. So this was partly the reason who belonged to minority communities Ajmer and asked to deal with the behind the title. And my publisher said were also burned. That took place in Dargah Sharif. The Khuddam of the that the title was catchy. the Police Lines area. The police action Dargah was displeased with my AS: Given what is going on at
26 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 the Aligarh Muslim University, with attacks by right-wing organisations like Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad, do you think that the Modi government, the NDA government, is specifically targeting the Aligarh Muslim University? ZS: Every government has targeted the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). The previous government appointed someone very unsuitable to the executive council, someone responsible for a fake movement. I wrote a letter to the HRD ministry urging them to not appoint that person to the executive council. Despite this, he was nominated. I have always said that Aligarh Muslim University and Banaras Hindu University are at par with each other. But the latter gets twice as much grant those who lack the opportunities for ZS: I tried a lot at Aligarh Muslim money. Jamia Millia Islamia is one- education and training, of which the University. I tried to train students third the size of AMU, yet it receives two largest groups are Dalits and to join the military. I used to tell more grant money. Muslims. Since they are less qualified, students that if they wished to ensure AS: How do you see the attack on who will give them jobs? their own security and the security the students of AMU? They were asked AS: But the better-educated of their families, they should join the to prove their love for the country Muslims were not spared in the military. and their nationalism. How do you Gujarat riots? see this entire incident? ZS: True, even the well-educated ZS: When I was VC of AMU, the Muslims were killed in the riots. The member of parliament of the district most dangerous thing is that even wrote to me saying that AMU students middle-class Muslims who were living were ‘anti-national’ because they in localities and flats were driven out criticized the government. I wrote of there and killed. back saying that our students were AS: Given the violent politics of free to criticize whoever they wanted, the time and the fact that some select but ‘anti-national’ activities would groups have arrogated to themselves not be tolerated by the university the right to decide what constitutes administration. AMU is a modern, patriotism, is education enough to rid secular university. Muslims of the discrimination they AS: I want to know your opinion are facing? on the picture of (Muhammad Ali) ZS: Yes, I am convinced that it Jinnah that hangs in Aligarh Muslim will. University. Should the university AS: You are saying that Muslims remove that picture or do they not should focus on education at any need to do that? cost? ZS: The picture cannot be removed ZS: Yes, and make sure the by force or under duress. There are a education does not take place in hundred pictures hanging there. My ghettoised schools. own picture hangs there. Jinnah was AS: But given that RSS talks about Zameer Uddin Shah is a made an honorary member at a time making India a Hindu country, and retired Lieutenant General when he was staunchly pro-Congress. the BJP is closely allied with the RSS, of the Indian Army. He last The students at AMU have decided what place do you see for Muslims? served as the Deputy Chief that the picture will remain there. They ZS: If they are educated and make are also saying that there is a portrait progress, there will be no choice but of Army Staff (Personnel of Jinnah in the parliament as well. to accept them. This is what I used to & Systems), in the Indian Should that not be removed also? tell my students at AMU, that if they Army. After retirement, he AS: Now that it has been nearly are more qualified and skilled than served for some time as five years and the country is heading their competitors, they will no doubt an administrative member towards elections, how do you receive job offers. evaluate the last five years? How do AS: You have also said many on the bench of the Armed you evaluate the tenure of Narendra times that people should join the Forces Tribunal. He was also Modi from the perspective of India’s military and that especially Muslims the Vice Chancellor of Aligarh largest minority, the Muslims? should. Whether joining the military Muslim University and is the ZS: I am completely certain that is the best way to be patriotic is an brother of noted Indian actor discrimination is not based on religion. issue that is often discussed. But you I think discrimination is against recommend it. Naseeruddin Shah.
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SOUTHASIA JANUARY 2019 REGION
PG 30 PG 31 PG 32 ISLAMABAD ISLAMABAD ISLAMABAD Future of SAARC The Struggle Continues Revisiting No-No Land By Senator Rehman Malik By Saima Mirza By Saleem Qamar Butt
PG 34 PG 35 PG 36 ISLAMABAD GWADAR NEW DELHI Recovering The Money The Gender Front Arms Race Fever By Dr Muhammad Babar Chohan By Nadil Shah By Ali Raza
Strategic Rethink Quest for an Identity Quest for an Identity
PG 38 PG 39 PG 41 KABUL & ISLAMABAD KABUL MALÉ Harbingers of Peace Batting For A Solution Towards a New Agenda By Awais Anwer Khawaja By Anish Mishra By Dr. Raza Khan REGION
ISLAMABAD FUTURE OF SAARC What could make SAARC more effective is its positive role in regional security and development as well as global peace and stability.
By Senator Rehman Malik, Sitara-e-Shujaat, Nishan-e-Imtiaz
AARC (South it was decided Asian Association unanimously that no Sfor Regional bilateral issue would be Cooperation) was discussed at this forum established in 1985 but these issues have by the nations of the always dominantly South Asia region that emerged, affecting the includes Pakistan, India, performance of SAARC. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, The blame games and Nepal, Bhutan and the the inter-states conflicts Maldives. Afghanistan amongst the member joined later. On creation countries have caused of SAARC, each country further harm to the agreed to cooperate foundations of SAARC. in the formation of It is unfortunate that a trade bloc and to instead of dealing with perform together for the the problems jointly, economic and political the member states are development of the blaming each other for region. However, SAARC SAARC Meeting of Experts on the the terrorism, violence, is losing its importance by every passing implementation of the SAARC Regional extremism and sectarianism occurring year though it was established with a Convention on Suppression of Terrorism in the region. great doable charter for its member in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1990. My The inclusion of Afghanistan, back countries. proposal for establishing SAARC-POL in 2005, is said to be a calculated South Asia has multiple issues (like INTERPOL), despite approval, move by India to undermine Pakistan’s due to certain bilateral-complicated could not materialise. As part of the position in SAARC. The increasing ties problems and these lead to political SAARC Charter, the signatory countries between India and Afghanistan and divisions. This is one of the backward agreed on the following five areas of India’s financial support to Afghanistan and underdeveloped regions in the cooperation: is a clear signal that both are willing to world and there is a dire need for • Agriculture and Rural Development destabilize Pakistan. development and a higher rate of • Telecommunications, Science, The region has further encountered economic growth in all the member Technology and Meteorology many unresolved border and maritime countries, but no favourable steps have • Health and Population activities issues, including terrorism by the Afghan been taken by the members to fulfil the • Transport Taliban, refugee crisis, smuggling, need. • Human Resource Development narco-trade, Kashmir dispute, disputes The region hosts 24.78 per cent of between India and Sri Lanka over the world’s population but accounts for As a keen observer of development nationality of Tamilians, India and only $11.64 trillion of the world’s GDP in this region, I regret to note that there Nepal issue over their border, disputes (at PPP). Factors like poverty, illiteracy, has been no notable achievement between India and Bangladesh over inequality, unemployment, low made by SAARC so far. SAFTA (South Chittagong refugees, etc. productivity and malnourishment are Asian Free Trade Area) was formulated I would like to say that over a period haunting the population of the region. by SAARC and it came into force on the of time, India has developed a high It is pity that the forum has fallen victim first day of 2006 but the agreement has level of influence on the Maldives, Sri to regional politics and could not grow never been implemented. Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and to the expectations of the people as Other fields of cooperation were Afghanistan as it occupies 70% area the member states have not been able also established, like environment, amongst all SAARC countries. Also, the to strengthen their economic ties to economic development, energy and small countries do not share borders a significant extent to work together sharing data of criminals, but again, with each other except for Pakistan- towards the development of the region. none of this has proved to be fruitful. Afghanistan. These countries have There is a need for collaboration for SAPTA, the South Asia Preferential become like satellites of India. On many developing their industrial and social Trading Agreement, was also formed occasions, India either by itself or by sectors and improving their political in 1995 to promote trade amongst the using another member country, cancels ties. member countries. the meetings of SAARC. Pakistan tried I represented Pakistan at the At the time of creation of SAARC, to hold and host the meetings twice
30 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 in the past but India has not let it happen because of the number game to block a meeting. The details of these two incidents have damaged the credibility of SAARC. The continuous time to time delay in different SAARC summits, following various pretexts, particularly at the behest of India, have paralyzed the organization. It can never function independently and effectively unless it gets out of the clutches of India. Due to its assumed dominant position in the region, India plays a hegemonic role, creating a sense of insecurity among other members of the association. ISLAMABAD In 1988, at the conclusion of three-day summit, then Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto addressed the summit of the SAARC. It was attended by the premiers of seven member states: Prime Minister of The Struggle India Rajiv Gandhi, Sri Lankan President Junius Jayewardene, President Hussain Mohammad Ershad of Bangladesh, King Birendra of Nepal, King Sigme Wanchuk Continues of Bhutan and the Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. Benazir Bhutto In order to win their rights, Pakistani women need to be was the elected chairperson of SAARC for at the forefront of the struggle themselves. the next year at the inaugural session of the summit. It was the fourth such conference By Saima Mirza since the association was founded in Dhaka in 1985. In her address to the delegates, she enerally, the struggle for women’s rights in Pakistan is seen as a said: consequence of the Western feminist movement. People in power 'Mutual suspicions and rivalries have Gand religious fundamentalists term the struggle as unnecessary. divided our countries in the past and They say it has been borrowed from the West and is an attempt to uproot kept them from coming together whole- existing social values as an agenda of the West. However, these critics are heartedly in joint endeavours for the unaware of the historic struggle of women in the sub-continent. A close good of all our peoples,’ 'Some of us are look reveals that the era of awakening of women’s consciousness in the spending too great a proportion of our east and west is almost the same. Some may agree that women in this part national resources on defence, maintaining of the world raised their voice against patriarchy and gender discrimination large military forces that face each other. much earlier than the modern Western feminism, which was organized into The truth is that our people face the same a consolidated movement in 1960s. Literary writings of Rashid Jahan, Ismat common problems - poverty, disease, slums Chughtai, Amrita Pritam, etc. in the earlier half of 20th century are evidence and ignorance -- and it is to the vanquishing of this fact. of these enemies that we should direct all There was a political awakening among women in the pre-Partition our efforts.' period and Muslim women practically supported the Pakistan Movement It was an idea to become one economic under the leadership of Ms. Fatima Jinnah and other prominent figures. strong block in the interest of the citizens Sadly, after the creation of Pakistan, inclusion of women in all spheres of of each country. national life remained a dream. Women are still striving for their rightful Let us confess that the SAARC has failed place in public life despite the assurance of Article 34 of the Constitution to achieve its original targets. I propose of Pakistan. Though women are being educated and coming into various that the veto power must be done away fields of life, they are deprived of significant decision-making powers in with. What happened in the Maldives personal as well as public affairs. Women representation in the parliament at the behest of its neighbouring country has increased but most women legislators are mainly elected through is a matter of record. Nepal continues to reserved quotas rather than by general election. These quota-based elected be terrorized by India and has become a women mostly belong to powerful ruling classes or are related to politicians subservient nation to it. in one way or the other. They usually follow their party line which makes It would have been a historic them powerless in legislating for women in general. Pakistan is a signatory achievement if SAARC had played its role to several international human rights conventions but its parliament has not to resolve the issues between Pakistan and been able to legislate and implement accordingly. An example is rejection Afghanistan or Pakistan and India. I have of The Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill, 2017 which was aimed hardly seen even a single effort to resolve at protecting child girls’ rights. these pressing issues. Harassment is a normal occurrence that women face in offices, universities and colleges or on roads. For this, the responsibility is entirely The writer is chairman of the think put on the women regardless of their age. It is either directed towards their tank "Global Eye" and former Interior dress or the way they talk or walk. Dowry related violence, rape, domestic Minister of Pakistan. He can be reached at abuse and honour killings are also prevalent. According to the Human Rights [email protected] Watch Report of 2017, almost 1000 girls are killed in Pakistan in the name
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of honour annually. A United Nations report points out multi-faceted barriers depriving women from obtaining decision-making ISLAMABAD powers and has emphasized on the need of appointing women at key administrative positions. The World Employment Social Outlook-Trend 2018 has termed Pakistan as the worst country for women employment Revisiting opportunities in South Asia. Similarly, on the gender parity index, Pakistan is ranked 143rd out of 144 countries, only ahead of Yemen. The same is the case in the education sector No-No Land where Pakistan is the second worst country in the world in terms of out-of-school girls, Geopolitics is not an emotional activity. Pakistan must ahead of Afghanistan. Though there have been some women skillfully pursue its national interests and revisit its Israel who have achieved glory, in general, policy. women face serious problems and are left behind. Striving for the best is a natural By Saleem Qamar Butt human tendency and western women certainly enjoy more freedom. Freedom of speech, job, marriage and higher education he recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel and the decision are still considered privileges which are to shift the US embassy there by US President Trump have been not thinkable for women in this part of the Tvery controversial moves. There is also a strange warming up of world yet though they attract women across relations between the KSA and Israel, since both consider Iran as a the globe. This is the result of the long and common foe in the Middle East. The situation has remained a puzzle for tiring women rights struggle in the West. It is Pakistan foreign policy strategists for decades. The emotional attachment this struggle that enabled Jemima Khan, the of the Pakistanis with the Palestine issue notwithstanding, the majority former wife of Prime Minister Imran Khan, in Pakistan is ignorant about the details. Therefore, in order to develop to support him publicly even after decades a cogent response to the riddle, a brief overview of the Palestine-Israel of separation. Imran Khan’s Party, Pakistan conundrum is considered imperative. Tehreek-E-Insaf itself emerged as a sign of Israel is the world's only Jewish state, located just east of the hope for women and women equally played Mediterranean Sea. The Palestinians, who are the Arab population that a vital role in PTI’s jalsas for which they often hails from the land Israel now controls, refer to the territory as Palestine, got immoral titles, mainly by male members and want to establish a state by that name on all or part of the same of rival parties. land. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is over who gets what land and In its manifesto, PTI promised inclusion how it is controlled. Though both Jews and Arab Muslims date their of women on key positions in all main claims to the land back a couple of thousand years, the current political institutions, along with improvement in conflict began in the early 20th century. Jews fleeing persecution in education, health, etc. In practical terms, the government of ‘Naya Pakistan’ seems to have chosen to follow its predecessors. Only 4 women are included in the federal cabinet of 30 members and the 30 members’ parliamentary committee to probe election fraud has just 1 woman while the Economic Advisory Council does not include women at all. Though Imran Khan’s government is in its early days, but it is disappointing for women who strove hard for PTI’s win. Women can prove a strong factor in overcoming economic and political challenges if they are given rights as well as significant decision power. There is a need to acknowledge that women in Pakistan have real issues both at work and at home and these must be addressed. The perception needs to be cleared that the call for rights of Pakistani women is not based on Western norms but to protect these women against various cultural and unconstitutional traditions. It seems that Pakistani women must continue to strive for their rights to make their conditions better.
The writer is pursuing a PhD in Political Science at the University of Gujrat. She can be reached at [email protected]
32 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 Europe wanted to establish a national homeland in what was then an Arab and Muslim-majority territory in the A fresh cost-benefit analysis will result Ottoman and later British Empire. After the Arab Palestinian in favour of Pakistan revisiting its economy collapsed and 250,000 Israel policy. Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled, on 14 May 1948, the day before the expiration of the British most important regional states in the politically division between Fatah Mandate, David Ben-Gurion, the conflict are Iran, Turkey, and Saudi and Hamas and the challenge to head of the Jewish Agency, declared Arabia. Though American support for initiate a serious dialogue due to "the establishment of a Jewish state Israel is massive, including billions of extreme positions on both Israeli and in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the dollars in aid and reliable diplomatic Palestinian sides has also marred a State of Israel”. The Arabs resisted, backing (the US has given Israel breakthrough. seeing the land as rightfully theirs. $118 billion in aid over the years or Despite available precedence An early United Nations plan to give about $3 billion per year). Half of all of some meek behind-the-scene each group part of the land failed American UN Security Council vetoes diplomatic engagements with Israel and Israel and the surrounding Arab have blocked resolutions critical of in 2005, even a fresh deliberate cost- nations fought several wars over the Israel). The main reasons for Israel benefit analysis will result in favour territory. Today's lines largely reflect being a darling of the USA include of Pakistan revisiting its Israel policy. the outcomes of two of these wars, the influence of the pro-Israel lobby The incumbent political government one waged in 1948 and another in (thanks to AIPAC and now Jarred in Pakistan may find it an exceedingly 1967. The West Bank is a chunk Kushner, as an influential Jew son-in- bizarre diplomatic gamble to reach of land east of Israel. It is home to law in the White House), considering out to Israel in any way due to an 2.6 million Palestinians and would Israel a stable democracy and a key expected political backlash from make up the heart of any Palestinian buffer against Soviet influence in the the opposition as well as from state. Israel took control of it in 1967 Middle East during the Cold War. ultra-hyper religious bigots aspiring (Israel fought a war with Egypt, Syria, Now Israel is regarded by the USA for a political lifeline in Pakistan. and Jordan) and has allowed Jewish as a partner for fighting terrorism. Nevertheless, like all other state settlers to move in, but Palestinians Some 83% of the world's countries and policies, foreign policy also needs to (and most of the international almost every country that isn't Arab be dynamic in nature and demands community) consider it illegally or has a Muslim majority recognizes sustained updating, considering all occupied Palestinian land. Jerusalem Israel's legitimacy and maintains internal, external, politico-economic is a city that straddles the border diplomatic relations with it. But most realities and security interests, which between Israel and the West Bank. countries are critical of Israel's brutal should be debated in both houses of It is home to some of the holiest treatment of the Palestinians, gross the parliament rather than precious sites in both Judaism and Islam and human rights violations and ongoing time being wasted on trivialities. so both Israel and Palestine want to occupation of the West Bank. Global Pakistan must continue to make it their capital. How to split public opinion at present is generally engage all Muslim and other the city fairly remains one of the more sympathetic to the Palestinian friendly countries to support the fundamental issues dividing the cause, creating real concern among Palestinian cause for a just and Israelis and the Palestinians. Gaza is the Israelis that an international peaceful resolution, which has so a densely populated strip of land that boycott movement, called BDS, many similarities with the bleeding is mostly surrounded by Israel and could pick up some support. Israel is Kashmir issue. Farsighted prudence is peopled almost exclusively by the quite unpopular worldwide. In one demands that no such step be taken Palestinians but it is currently under BBC poll of 22 countries, Israel was that dilutes Pakistan’s principled Israeli blockade. the fourth-most-disliked nation. stand in line with UN resolutions Settlements of Jews in West Bank The 1993 Oslo Accords kicked both with regard to the Palestine since 1967 are generally considered off a peace process is an ongoing and Kashmir causes. Recognition of to be a major impediment to peace American-mediated effort to broker Israel’s legitimacy should preferably and considered a usurpation and a peace treaty between the Israelis be decided at the OIC level rather colonization of Palestinian land by and Palestinians. It aims at "final than as an individual state’s decision the world at large, including Pakistan. status agreement," which would and be linked with resolution of the The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is establish a Palestinian state in Gaza Palestine issue as per UN resolutions, a huge issue in the region. Israel and the West Bank in exchange for cessation of atrocities by Israel and has fought multiple wars with each Palestinians agreeing to permanently its abandoning of settlements since of its four neighbours, all of whom end attacks on Israeli targets. Any 1967, with continued support to the nominally support the Palestinian successful peace initiative would Oslo Accord efforts towards a two- national cause. Today, it has peace need to resolve the four core issues state solution if acceptable to the treaties with Egypt and Jordan, but its that have plagued the peace process: Palestinian people. relations with its other neighbours, West Bank borders/settlements, Israeli Syria and Lebanon, are fraught. There security, Palestinian refugees and The writer is a senior retired Army are large, mistreated Palestinian Jerusalem. So far there has been little officer with rich experience in refugee communities in all of Israel's success mainly due to the continued military and intelligence diplomacy neighbours except Egypt. Outside expansion of Israeli settlements in and strategic analysis. He can be its immediate neighbours, the three the West Bank. The Palestinians’ reached at [email protected]
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ISLAMABAD
Recovering The Money Thehe new government in Pakistan is paying a lot of attention to money laundering. It must also adopt e-solutions and new technologies to further facilitate the process.
By Dr Muhammad Babar Chohan
rime Minister Imran Khan and officials may not be able to suggest is to adopt a multi-pronged strategy the Chief Justice of Pakistan have robust AML solutions because of lack aimed at adopting both short-term and Pseparately vowed to bring back of capacity on the simultaneous fronts long-term measures. the nation’s looted money stashed of law, institutions and technology. For In the short run, the loose screws overseas. While the government this purpose, technical people from in the legal, institutional and technical and the judiciary appear to be the private sector need to be hired. areas should be tightened with a view to determined, much more needs to be Institutional fragmentation is strengthening the internal AML regime done on the legal, institutional, and indeed a big challenge in containing along with fulfilling the commitments technological fronts. A technically the illicit money outflows. Bringing made with the Paris-based Financial feeble legal framework, insufficiencies administrative harmony among Action Task Force (FATF) and the Asia- in the institutional arrangements and institutions such as the State Bank of Pacific Group (APG) before September rapid technological advancements Pakistan, Federal Board of Revenue, 2019 – the deadline for avoiding the remain major challenges before the banks, Federal Investigation Agency, notorious ‘grey list’. It may be recalled government to recover the plundered Securities and Exchange Commission that during their visit to Pakistan, the money. of Pakistan and other financial bodies, FATF and APG teams had expressed As far as laws are concerned, the requires intelligent data-sharing. dissatisfaction over many weak areas Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010 Pakistan’s current legal regime is a of the AML regime, such as a ‘deficient requires major surgery to effectively scattered one, comprising federal, legal assistance system’, ‘absence of a cope with the offences relating to provincial and local institutions. Such criterion for new technology risks’ and illicit outflows. The PM has recently fragmentation is a big hurdle in bringing ‘identification of transaction originators called for a new legislation that about harmony and administrative by the financial institutions’. These could strengthen the current laws to cohesion among government areas require immediate attention for effectively control ‘hundi’, ‘hawala’ institutions at different tiers. identifying the e-variants necessary for and other illicit forms of outflows It is not only weird but also linking institutions. with negative repercussions for the naïve not to share data within the As a long term measure, immediate economy. The task forces constituted government departments. Apart from research work needs to be initiated, at the federal and provincial levels for unavailability of a legal framework for in collaboration with the educational identifying the administrative and legal such data sharing, there is also a lack and research institutions, so that an lacunas in the current anti-money of technological capacity to share and e-system of institutions’ integration laundering regime and suggesting integrate data at the federal, provincial could be devised. This is the real eradicative measures, need to be and local levels. Unless institutions are challenging area. I have already highly skilled. In particular, the team e-integrated through well-researched suggested using Blockchain Technology members must be well-versed in legal, IT interventions, the task forces will (BCT) for this purpose. The BCT is a institutional and technical aspects remain hostage to traditional ways and sort of ‘distributed public ledger’ that of the AML framework, with a deep means to handle the money laundering can hold immutable data through understanding of its consequences, menace. The expected outcome may encrypted ways, making unalterable both at the national and international depict a ‘garbage in – garbage out’ transactions. level. This suggests that a team kind of solution because of lack of It is reiterated that the BCT has comprising traditional government research. The real job of the task forces the potential to effectively integrate
34 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 The Anti-Money GWADAR Laundering Act 2010 requires major surgery to cope with the The Gender offences relating to illicit outflows. Front institutions with a specialized focus on In Pakistan, women are often prevented from advancing revamping the current AML regime. The economically, due to social restrictions on their e-integration of SBP, FBR, FIA, SECP, banks and other institutions will indeed movement and gender mixing, as well as due to low provide multiple dimensions of data from education. CPEC is an opportunity to change all that. all over the country that can be analyzed for purposeful AML analyses. Currently, By Nadil Shah the task forces are expected to submit monthly reports on their performance to ender has become prominent in today’s political, social, the Prime Minister’s Office. It is very much economic and intellectual discourse because of the imbalance a manual job which is hardly needed Gin opportunities. The discriminatory approach has stiffened the once smart IT interventions are made. intensity of gender inequality in the world. Unequal distribution of the The system can indeed generate such economy is considered the most important factor for perpetuating gender reports automatically along with gauging discrimination because most of it is occupied by men. Women are mostly individual and collective performances of involved in unpaid domestic work. The intensity and nature of gender team members. A robustly devised system inequality varies across societies, countries and regions. may not need any task forces at all. The real Gender equality is very weak in the South Asian countries. A recent issue is to immediately start research work survey by the Thomson Reuters Foundation ranked India on top in terms on the innovative project of institutions’ of sexual violence and women being forced into slave labour while integration through modern tools such as Afghanistan and Pakistan were rated second and sixth, respectively. Lack the BCT. Technological interventions may of an agency for women with an ability to make decisions independently, also be based on BCT. is one of the main causes of gender inequality. There needs to be economic As a long-term measure, the federal independence and equal opportunities in this regard. Regrettably, the and provincial task forces need to analyze contribution of women is systematically denied and there is a dearth of practical case studies in finalizing their economic opportunities for females in the South Asian countries generally recommendations rather than focusing and in Pakistan particularly. on models adopted by other countries. In Pakistan, women’s participation in the labour force is 25 percent Such case studies can be extracted from which is very low because of the restricted social structure while for men, current investigation cases before various it is 86 percent. In the Global Gender Gap Report of 2017, Pakistan was agencies such as FBR, FIA and other ranked 144th out of 148 countries in terms of gender disparity and ranked federal, provincial and local agencies. 143rd out of 144 countries in gender economic participation. This is also The cases pertaining to irregular financial considered one of the main factors for the low GDP in Pakistan. transactions, white collar crimes, tax The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is believed to be a game evasion, huge real estate investments and changer and would bring economic prosperity to the region, especially tax frauds must be given top priority. This is because such case studies inherently carry intertwined data that could be helpful in identifying the e-variants necessary for developing inter-institutional data-sharing linkages through purposefully defined e-sieving. The determination of the PM and the CJP to recover the illicit money stashed overseas undoubtedly deserves accolades. However, there is always a marked difference between ‘ambition’ and ‘reality’. While ‘ambition’ is the first step towards achieving targets, it is indeed rightly directed and rigorous efforts that can transform it into a reality.
The writer is Additional Commissioner, FBR, holding a PhD in Economic Planning from the Massey University, New Zealand. He can be reached at babarchohan21@ gmail.com
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to Pakistan. With a worth of $62 also says that economic development empowerment of women. CPEC is an billion, bilateral agreements between and empowerment of women has a opportunity for Pakistan to mainstream China and Pakistan will link Kashgar to significant relationship which needs to its female population and give Gwadar. Most of these projects pertain be explored. Rana Liaquat Ali Khan said extensive opportunities to women in to infrastructural development. that women, like men, have important the decision-making process. The Asian They include energy, roads, Gwadar roles in the development of a society Development Bank has acknowledged city development, rail-based mass if they are given equal opportunities. that CPEC has the capacity to promote transit, special economic zones, social Despite this, women in Pakistan have Pakistan from a low to a middle-income sector development and the western been neglected in the development country, if balanced policies are made route, etc. Moreover, social sector sectors. both for men and women. projects comprise people exchange The absence of women in Pakistan can start by even programs, transferring knowledge development projects would not be launching separate projects for to various sectors, establishment of an issue if there was a change in the women empowerment. It should also an academy of social sciences and psychology and attitude of the public address issues of women working in promotion of the education sector regarding women’s role in economic public and private domains. In China, through a consortium of business development. In the pre-industrial era, economic opportunities were provided schools. All these projects deal with women were oppressed in China, like to women as well as protection and business and construction – tasks that Pakistan today, but the country changed facilities such as healthcare services. are generally not performed by women its policies. For eliminating oppression In the 1970s, the Communist Party in Pakistan. or women, China recognized their gave educational opportunities to all Women are restricted to cooking, importance for the development of the women and empowered them so that cleaning and child-rearing. In case, a country and created equal opportunities they could contribute to the economic woman works in the public sphere, she for them. They mainstreamed and development of the country. is a receptionist, a doctor or a teacher empowered women by providing them The policymakers in Pakistan should because these jobs seem to have a sense of equality. There was political focus on comprehensive plans and make become predetermined for females opposition but since, like Pakistan, an evidence-based decision-making owing to ‘Pardha’. Such jobs have no China lacked technical manpower, process for gender mainstreaming connection to CPEC as they are less educational institutions, technical and economic development. After all, involved in the decision and policy- equipment and capital investment, it women comprise half the population of making process and are categorized worked on female literacy, resisted Pakistan and must contribute to nation- as a disadvantaged group for various religious biases, widened landholding, building in a more effective manner. projects. changed customs and traditional CPEC could be a good starting point. The Australian High Commissioner views about women, abolished job Margaret Adamson says that there are discrimination on the basis of gender The writer is pursuing an M.Phil in many development projects, including and reformed the entire social fabric. Sociology at the University of Karachi CPEC, in Pakistan but women should It is widely believed that reforming and is a DRI Research Fellow at the be given enough space and economic the family system, prohibiting forced National Commission for Human opportunities to be engaged in and early marriages and the patriarchal Rights, Pakistan. He can be reached at development activities. Dr. Fouzia Saeed mindset, would enhance the [email protected]
NEW DELHI ARMS RACE FEVER The launch of the Indian nuclear submarine, the INS Arihant, is a threat to strategic stability in South Asia.
By Ali Raza
fter staying in a denial mode and missiles. km. Reportedly, the sea trials of INS about the existence of an It is reported that INS Arihant Arihant began in December 2014 and AIndian nuclear submarine for a is India’s first indigenous nuclear in February 2016, it was declared fit number of years, the Prime Minister submarine. The INS Arihant project for operations. It is also claimed by of India has finally announced that it was launched by India in July 2009. Indian officials that INS Arihant can has completed its nuclear triad after Gursharan Kaur, the wife of the remain under the surface for a number completion of its first deterrence patrol former Prime Minister of India Dr. of months at one go. on November 5, 2018. Manmohan Singh, did the honours. It is said that the crew, comprising A nuclear triad is a three-pronged It is said that INS Arihant is equipped some 100 persons, is trained by military force structure that consists with K-4 submarine launched ballistic Russian specialists. It is also being of land-launched nuclear missiles, missiles, which have a range of 3500 claimed that now India would be nuclear-missile-armed submarines and km. It is also loaded with twelve K-15 capable of launching nuclear strikes strategic aircraft with nuclear bombs missiles which have a range of 750 deep inside China. India is also said
36 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 to be planning on building six nuclear attack submarines, which would The completion of a nuclear triad by India is contain the Brahmos missile. The cost would be more than 90,000 crores. The another treacherous design to attain regional Indian Vice Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral P Murugesan has said, “The hegemony. government has given approvals for six new SSNs (nuclear attack submarines) earlier this year. We have started work spiral in the growth of their nuclear responsible powers of the world must but still are at the pen to paper stage". weapons arsenals. This could become take measures that could put a restraint Negotiations between India and Russia a mindless race, driven by mutual on Indian aspirations of building more for lease of nuclear attack submarines suspicion, rather than the actual needs and more nuclear weapons under are also in final stages. of deterrence and stability.” Similarly, the garb of strengthening security. The completion of a nuclear triad Richard Weitz thinks that the most Such steps would not strengthen the by India is another treacherous design dangerous aspect of security in South strategic security environment of the of India to attain regional hegemony. Asia “is almost certainly the nuclear region and would only expose the The world may see that just like arms race between India and Pakistan. region to a more dangerous situation. the nuclear explosions of Pokhran ”The dynamics of armament in South In addition, India must realize that the (which were conducted despite India’s Asia are based by experts on non- huge amount that is being spent on repeated proclamations that nuclear proliferation and nuclear energy and making advanced nuclear weapons technology for peaceful purposes are considered as far more complex could be used for the prosperity and would never be diverted for making than a classic race. India is exclusively wellbeing of its people. It should put nuclear weapons) the country has responsible for the complex situation. a full stop to acts that could trigger an announced that it has successfully In the past, the Pakistan foreign arms race at the cost of peace in the completed deterrence patrol and has office has also raised concerns on sub-continent. been successful in achieving a nuclear the efforts of India to make a ballistic Pakistan has never wanted to triad after a long abstinence from missiles system. Pakistan viewed it engage in an arms race and has building a nuclear submarine. as an element that could destabilize always encouraged peace initiatives. This has gravely endangered the deterrence and invited India to The ground breaking ceremony of the strategic environment in the region and resolve the issue through a Composite Kartarpur corridor on November 28 is has the potential of triggering an arms Dialogue Process, but India turned a a message of peace, brotherhood and race in South Asia. These concerns deaf ear to the requests. It can now tolerance from Pakistan but India is have also been raised in the past by be anticipated that in reaction to the viewing the action with negativity. many security specialists and analysts. Indian announcement of completion The Indian Admiral Arun Prakash is of a nuclear triad, Pakistan would be The writer is a visiting faculty member of the view that “India and Pakistan compelled to take measures that could at Air University, Islamabad. He can are edging dangerously close to a ensure maintenance of deterrence. The be reached at [email protected]
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and dispute resolution are not at the KABUL & ISLAMABAD centre of relations between SAARC member states. International law, substantiated by multilateral treaties, aims at striking a balance between smaller and bigger Harbingers of states, particularly amongst the likes of Nepal and India. Peter Frankopan, a British historian, in his prescient 2015 book ‘The Silk Roads’ foresees the shift Peace of economic power and global trade towards the Central, Far Eastern and As energy demand is on the rise around the world, South Asian countries in the coming times. The natural resources-rich Caspian better energy gathering, transmission and distribution Basin will eventually be amphibiously infrastructures need to be constructed in the SAARC region linked with the South Asian states. The and beyond. Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan- India (TAPI) pipeline project is making By Awais Anwer Khawaja tailwinds in the emerging energy cornucopia. Impediments manifested in political instability and security epal witnessed an economic various states of Eurasia. The treaty is a disorder will trounce in due course of and humanitarian crisis due to legally binding instrument encapsulating time. TAPI envisages 1700 MMCFD Nits economic blockade by India various facets, including investment of gas molecules flowing to South in September, 2015. The allegations of promotion and protection, trade, transit, Asia member states, which translates economic blockade are refuted by India. energy efficiency, third party access, into billions of USD annual trade. Instead it holds Madheshi protesters quality standardization and dispute Historically, energy interdependence responsible for the crisis. Being a resolution, among its member states. between the states incentivize peace in landlocked nation, the quotidian imports Pakistan has not ratified the treaty the respective regions. Energy starved of petroleum products from India to yet. However, it enjoys observer status Pakistan and India cannot rule out the Nepal numbered 300 trucks daily at the ECT. Failure to join the ECT has potential economic benefits that will which tanked significantly to as low as partly blocked FDI in the energy sector stem from the flow of energy from the 5 to 10 during the crisis. Earthquake in Pakistan, mainly from the EU and Caspian Basin as compared to the flow devastations, coupled with the blockade, Japan. Benefits such as scaling down of energy from the South Pars field/North caused a double whammy for the nation of power losses are also hamstrung by Dome condensate. of 29.3 million in 2015. not joining the ECT. Even though there Some also hold the view that TAPI Energy treaties have a significant is a concept of an ‘Energy Ring’ among is nothing more than a figment of the role in today’s geo-political sphere. The SAARC member states, nevertheless imagination as there are misgivings warring European nations learnt the there is no legally binding instrument between Pakistan and Afghanistan and importance of multilateral cooperation that exists between SAARC countries. Pakistan and India. These are accentuated treaties following the cold war. Energy In the absence of any legally binding by the absence of US interest in the Charter Treaty (ECT) is an international instrument, the seminal cardinals project in the backdrop of Turkmenistan treaty which lays the foundation for concerning sustainable supplies, transit, refusing US corporations ownership trans-border energy trade between third party access, investment protection of the gas reserves of Galkynysh/
38 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 Daulatabad gas field and this makes the gas. Houston-based Cheniere Energy the region. The economic benefits in whole project impractical. has already started exports of LNG, the shape of anticipated transit fee from An article published in ‘The gathered from natural gas of Eagle Ford India and cheaper gas molecules are Diplomat’ in April 2018 authored by an Shale, Permian Basin and other sources not exclusive to Pakistan alone. Other Afghan national contends that Pakistan to Europe and other destinations. The participating member states will also cannot stand the economic benefits to US-based ExxonMobil has also taken 25 benefit from the laying of the pipeline. be derived by Afghanistan and India % stake in offshore drilling in Pakistan. India needs to satiate its industry’s energy from TAPI owing to its policy of ‘strategic Energy penetration has long been the demand. There has been a breach of depth’ which contemplates subservience bedrock of the US ‘security perimeter’ in terms by Petronet of India of its agreement of Afghanistan to Pakistan. It sees the Middle Eastern region. with Qatar for supply of LNG to India Afghanistan as its backyard in the event Pipelines are usually perceived as by refusing to off-take LNG from Qatar. of India capturing Pakistan’s territories. In harbingers of peace. Within the Gulf, the As a result, there has been an unfurling other words, the author concludes that ‘Dolphin Project’, transiting from Qatar of a conflict between both the states in TAPI is an antithesis of Pakistan’s policy of to UAE, has brought about resolution 2015 and has exposed India’s appetite for ‘strategic depth’. The conclusions of the to the border disputes between the cheap energy. Unlike India, high value author are unsubstantiated as Pakistan’s UAE and Oman and between Qatar addition economies, for example, Japan security paradigm has largely changed and Saudi Arab. In a similar vein, the and South Korea, can afford to buy costly in the aftermath of acquiring a nuclear Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline is a energy from Qatar and other energy arsenal. 1,768 kilometers long crude oil pipeline producing countries. On the contrary, Moreover, transition of a pipeline emanating from the Azeri-Chirag- Pakistan’s and India’s best-case scenario passing through Pakistan’s territory into Gunashli oil field in the Caspian Sea is competitive supplies from TAPI and Indian territory will give some political and veering to the Mediterranean Sea. other Central Asian countries. leverage to Pakistan over India. So far, It is largely viewed as a counterbalance Multilateral energy treaties among as US interests in TAPI are concerned, to Russian and Iranian dominance in the South Asian countries and between although Turkmenistan has refused to region. South Asian and Central Asian countries confer ownership of gas reserves to The TAPI pipeline will also ease are vital to peace in the region. An energy US corporations but the US is still a pressure on Pakistan which is presently treaty on the lines of ECT between SAARC proponent of the five states’ Lapis Lazuli confronted with depletion of domestic member states is imminent to this end. Corridor Agreement which envisages resources of gas that will partly sidestep transition of Afghan goods directly to the significance of the Iran-Pakistan (IP) The writer is an expert on energy law. European markets. The US also wants less project. The possible development will He can be reached at awais_anwer1@ reliance of European markets on Russian be in consonance with US interests in hotmail.com
KABUL he Moscow Format is a six-party mechanism for consultations Tbetween Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, China and Iran. Its main objective is to achieve a peaceful Batting For A settlement in Afghanistan. The first round of consultations under the Moscow Format took place in April 2017. The Russian government had Solution originally scheduled the second round of consultations with representation The Moscow format of talks on Afghanistan sought to unite of the political office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban) in all sections of society for a political solution to the Afghan Qatar invited to Moscow in September quagmire. 2018. Due to Kabul’s objection of what it perceived to be a Russian-led peace By Anish Mishra process, the talks could not take place in September 2018. On November 9, 2018, Russia successfully hosted the second round of the Moscow Format attended by the six-parties mentioned earlier as well as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. India had made it clear that its participation in the November talks was only as an observer. The United States also attended the second round of the Moscow Format as an observer. Kabul did not provide political representation. However, it deployed the Afghan High Peace Council in Moscow. Representatives of the Taliban political office in Qatar
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were also present in Moscow though having a warm water port in South Asia the Geneva accords as they wanted to the Taliban had reiterated their stance after conquering Afghanistan. Today withdraw from Afghanistan anyway. that they will only negotiate with Pakistan has promised the Russians As the Soviet Union’s Mikhail Washington and not Kabul as they view access to Gwadar Port. Sino-Russian Gorbachev had expected, Pakistan the Afghan government as a puppet of relations have also turned warm over and the United States continued to foreign occupation. The Moscow talks the last few years. Russia has an interest fund the Afghan Mujahideen to topple marked the first participation of the in being on the side of the China- the Soviet backed government of Dr Taliban in an international conference Pakistan Economic Corridor in its bid Najibullah. When the Soviet Union since the US invasion of Afghanistan18 to keep Central Asia under the Russian disintegrated in 1991, Dr Najibullah years ago. sphere of influence. As such, Russia was left without foreign support and There can be no doubt that the enjoys strategic and balanced relations was not able to provide resistance ability of hosting the Moscow talks with both India and Pakistan. against the Mujahideen forces. In with attendance of the Taliban in From Donald Trump’s policy on 1996, Dr Najibullah and his brother a multilateral setting was a grand Afghanistan it is evident that the was abducted while under protection achievement of Russian diplomacy. United States commits many follies of the United Nations, executed and Moreover, attention should also be in its dealing with Afghanistan. After their bodies were hanged in public for paid to the efforts that Russia had made having spent 18 years and $1 trillion display. This led to the establishment between September and November fighting in Afghanistan, the United of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan 2018, which brought those parties to States has been unable to establish a (Taliban rule) until the American the table who were not willing to sit peaceful Afghan State. The Americans invasion in 2001. together just two months before the don’t want Afghanistan to become its If the United States and NATO forces talks. It must be recognised that Russia Vietnam of the 21st century. Therefore suddenly decide to withdraw from is uniquely positioned for playing the they will not exit Afghanistan in Afghanistan, given that the Americans role of a facilitator of the Afghan peace defeat and have a grave adjacent to are well-known for their policy flip- process. The Russians have a decade of the Soviet Union. The United State’s flops whenever the administration experience battling Afghanistan from current reluctance to withdraw from changes, then there is a genuine risk that 1979 to 1989. Having tasted defeat at Afghanistan can be understood by at the rate the Taliban are expanding, the hands of the Afghan Mujahideen, the concept of behavioural economist the current Afghan state constructed the erstwhile Soviet Union has earned Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky through the Bonn Conference, is itself a grave in the graveyard of of a “sunk cost fallacy”. If the United bound to collapse if there is no peace empires. States keeps thinking in terms of its past settlement in Afghanistan. There are As Habiba Sarabi, the deputy investments in Afghanistan, it will only many parallels that can be drawn chair of the Afghan Peace Council and end up prolonging its presence there between Dr Najibullah’s government only woman representative present at and further burn American taxpayers’ and the present Afghan government. the Moscow talks, said, “Russia has dollars in bombarding the cave- Also, without negotiations the Afghan the experience of war. If it gains the dwelling Taliban. civil war could possibly continue experience of peace, we welcome it.” It is also ridiculous that a superpower indefinitely. It is an open secret that Russia had like the United States holds Pakistan The United States must wake up developed close and cordial relations responsible for not being able to be from its deep slumber and start acting with the Taliban in recent years to victorious in Afghanistan. The people of in a rational manner. If President the extent that it faces allegations of Pakistan have made countless sacrifices Trump really desires to save American supporting the Taliban. Despite living supporting the “American War on taxpayer dollars, then America must in a multipolar world, the Russians Terror”. They have gained the wrath of create favourable conditions for an and Americans have not emerged from radical Islamic terrorist groups that have Afghan peace process. It is unfortunate their cold war mentality. Drunk on their taken thousands of innocent civilian that Afghanistan has become a superpower status in the former world lives, including young children of the battleground for proxy wars between order, it will still take them time to Army Public School in Peshawar. It is major powers. Conflicting and vested wake up from their hangover of power the duty of Pakistani diplomats all over interests have always been preferred in the present world disorder. the world to counter America’s attempts and the welfare of the innocent Afghan Russia is also especially positioned to present Pakistan as a scapegoat for civilians demanding their basic natural in its relations between Pakistan and its failures in Afghanistan. rights that form the foundation of India in a way which no other major The Pakistani mantra of “Afghan human civilisation is put on the back- power can possibly maintain in the owned, Afghan led” has been adopted burner. present day. The Russian arms industry internationally as the way forward for Though the Moscow talks did not is heavily dependent on Indian a final solution in Afghanistan. The yield any concrete solutions, the event defence procurement. India’s fierce United States have much to learn from was widely viewed as an icebreaker non-alignment and historical relations the experiences of the Soviet Union. that would create positive dividends with Russia makes it an indispensable Following the Geneva Accords in 1988, for future negotiations. A peaceful partner that Russia cannot afford to the Soviet Union agreed to withdrawal and stable Afghanistan could possibly offend; India also places high value on from Afghanistan leaving behind a create great opportunities for all the its relations with Russia. In recent times crony Afghan government led by Dr people of South and Central Asia. relations between Russia and Pakistan Najibullah Ahmadzai. On paper it was has also become very cozy. The Russian also agreed that the United States and The writer is an analyst on Pakistan’s and Pakistan armies have participated Pakistan would cut off weapons funding domestic politics and foreign policy. in numerous military exercises in to the Afghan Mujahidin and respect He is studying at the South Asia the Gilgit-Baltistan. Russia had once Dr Najibullah’s government. Though Institute, University of Heidelberg. He supported insurgent separatist elements the Soviets knew very well that this can be contacted at anishmisrasg@ in Balochistan to fulfil its dream of would never happen, they still signed hotmail.com
40 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 MALÉ TOWARDS A NEW AGENDA The new president of the Maldives, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, has announced an ambitious 100-day agenda for his country. Is he moving in the right direction?
By Dr. Raza Khan
he newly-installed head of the Maldivian state, President TIbrahim Mohamed Solih, soon after assuming power announced a 100-day plan for an economic turnaround, restoration of normalcy and putting the country on the path of development. In his inaugural speech, President Solih set out his 100-day agenda. The programme includes reduction in the prices of electricity, covering tuition fees for undergraduate students, provision of free breakfast to school students, ceasing the issuance of fishing permits for foreigners and elimination of import duties levied on agricultural capital. In his first speech, he also said that his administration would allow pension funds to be utilized by Hajj pilgrims. He also promised that an equitable housing programme would be established. In the first 100 days, an air ambulance the country since 2013 before he the present situation of the economy, service would also be launched across was defeated by Solih. Both Gayoom it would be quite difficult to reduce the Maldives to accelerate emergency and Yameen, during their respective electricity rates significantly. response. tenure, were involved in large scale Free breakfast for students at Insofar as the 100-day agenda of human rights violations, especially schools is another key step by President President Ibrahim Solih is concerned, against political opponents. Solih’s government. The Maldives is a it is not very comprehensive but Like most South Asian countries, the poor country where people cannot touches on the key issues faced by the Maldives is an energy-deficient state. afford education of their children so Maldivians. The most important aspect President Solih’s programme to reduce if education is provided free of cost it of the 100-day plan is free education prices of electricity is a significant could be a great pull factor for parents till the undergraduate level. Education policy priority. The economic to send their children to school. Free is the single most important factor development of the Maldives depends breakfast would be another incentive for the development of the state. If to a large extent on the availability of for people to put their children in the president is able to put in place cheap energy. Sizable infrastructure schools and this would lead to a rise in a system of free education, it would development, which took place in literacy rates. The success of this policy go a long way in giving the Maldives the country during the administration would depend on how effectively it progress and stability. Since its of President Yameen with the help of is implemented and how funds on independence, the Maldives has been China, also increased the demand sustainable basis are provided. suffering from political instability and for electricity. If prices of electricity Establishing an equitable housing chaos. Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, ran are reduced by the new president, it program for poor Maldivians is another the country autocratically for three would be a significant step towards important promise of President Solih. decades until the archipelago's first- economic stability as well as easing However, it would require huge sums ever democratic elections in 2008, the lives of the common Maldivians. of money which may not be easily won by Mr Nasheed. Soon Gayoom However, it remains to be seen how available. It would be quite a daunting was jailed and, subsequently, much President Solih would be able to task for the new president to establish Gayoom’s half-brother Yameen ruled reduce the prices of electricity. Given a housing program and deliver on a
SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 41 REGION
sustainable basis. How will the government utilize pension funds of the government for Hajj is quite elusive. A realistic look at the 100-day agenda reveals that implementation on most of the items may not be possible in just three and half months. In this period, groundwork could be carried out but the agenda seems to be a message on part of the president of his earnestness to start a new chapter in the history of the country. In that context, some other important On the external relations front, would infuriate another neighbour, aspects of the first policy speech of President Solih said the foreign policy China. Beijing and Delhi have been the new president also need to seen. of the Maldives will fundamentally vying for influence in the Maldives and In his first speech, the new hinge on advancing policies that have the island has been a virtual sphere of president said that his administration a stake in the progress and welfare of influence under India before former would work to consolidate its position the country. Highlighting the foreign President Yameen invited China as a global leader in climate action policy priorities of his government, to invest in infrastructure projects. in the Small Island Developing States President Solih said that human rights, President Solih would have been platform and will strive to become the democracy, and climate diplomacy shrewd to have announced that the leading advocate for the cause. He would be the cornerstones of his Maldives would expand its relations also said that the revenue received foreign policy. with both India and China instead of from green-tax would be utilized A very important policy priority merely mentioning India. This shows solely for environmental protection which President Solih announced that his government has made up its programmes. The Maldives is a big was that he would strengthen existing mind that it would completely fall exponent of global efforts for reversing ties which the Maldives has had with back on Delhi for financial, political climate change. The fundamental India and other regional countries and and military support. reason is that gradual climate change said that the Maldives will uphold its and the resultant melting of oceans shared role to retain enduring peace The writer is a political analyst and and rising sea levels have threatened and harmony of the Indian Ocean. a public policy expert. He can be the very existence of the Indian This is the most controversial policy reached at razakhan80@hotmail. Ocean nation. area of President Solih as the stance com
42 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 SOUTHASIA JANUARY 2019 INTERNATIONAL
PG 44 PG 44 PG 45 Caracas MEXICO CITY A Growing Crisis Trade Winds By S. Mubashir Noor By Osama Rizvi INTERNATIONAL
regime change in 2017 in the shape of nationwide riots to replace the socialist government with pro-Washington puppets. The death toll from these riots soared over 100 after law enforcement used lethal force on the protesters. Though Maduro has tried damage- control by introducing a new currency pegged to Venezuela’s commodity reserves in the hope that inflation will reverse course, financial experts believe this measure is a house of cards, given that it does not address the underlying structural issues that surfaced from socialist policies. And this is why international lending agencies, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have refused to bail out Maduro’s regime until it can prove the means to pay off the massive debt it has accumulated on interest payments. Maduro’s supporters, however, counter that American coercion prevents these lending agencies from coming to Venezuela’s aid. All things considered, Venezuela’s CARACASCARACAS present economic turmoil arose from the cumulative toxicity of bad leadership, socialism itself and American intervention. First, there is the underdog nature of A Growing welfare-state socialism in a capitalistic world. Big government spending only works when the vast majority of citizens pay their taxes, when the population-to- Crisis resources ratio is low as in Scandinavia, and most importantly, when democratic Venezuela is facing a rapidly deepening economic and checks and balances ensure that no humanitarian void marked by growing scarcity of food and one branch of government gets too big for its boots. medicines. Oil production is declining while hyperinflation is Regrettably none of these growing. The country faces a mass exodus of population. conditions apply to Venezuela, where the ruling party has routinely violated By S. Mubashir Noor the constitution in cahoots with a politicized judiciary and where nepotism and cronyism are a way of he United Nations High Crime rates have also hockey- life. Commissioner for Refugees curved upwards, while basic sanitation Next, the nationalization of key T(UNHCR) in early October and health-care services have crashed. state industries, such as oil giant PDVSA sounded the alarm on a migration Many are fleeing to get the medical in Venezuela’s case, while providing crisis that has for years taken a attention they need or simply to feed employment to citizens and ensuring backseat to the one in Syria, but now their starving children. foreign companies do not strip-mine threatens to snowball into a continental This, then, is a classic chicken national resources, has the huge emergency. and egg situation: did socialism sink downsides of inefficiency, wastage and According to the UNCHR, nearly Venezuela or did bad leadership sink lack of competitiveness. two million Venezuelans have left the socialism? Still, while oil prices were at record country since 2015, and an average There are many takes on the crisis. levels a few years ago, the profits of 5,000 are departing every day to Supporters of socialist President Nicolas managed to gloss over the myriad seek asylum in neighbouring South Maduro blame Washington’s sustained problems of governance, chiefly the American states like Colombia. sanctions regime for the country’s fiscal government’s criminal inability to What happened? woes. These sanctions have crippled create a robust sovereign fund to Venezuela has the world’s largest Venezuela’s economy after a sharp weather economic downturns. proven reserves of crude oil. It was once plummet in oil prices four years ago Maduro’s typically populist solution a wealthy country, yet today runaway ran its export revenues aground. Oil to quell revolt was by raising wages inflation has climbed to 200,000 sales accounted for 95 percent of in the double-digit percentages. This percent and it is easier to flatten tree export revenues. naturally required printing more money, barks into toilet paper than buy a roll Moreover, Maduro partisans and had the entire foreseeable effect of in the market. accuse the US of attempting covert decimating the value of Venezuela’s
44 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 currency to the point where people needed wheelbarrows to buy bread. MAXICO CITY Finally, we have the deep animus between Washington and Caracas that started when the socialists led by firebrand leftist Hugo Chavez came to power in Trade Winds 1999. To that point, US-Venezuela relations had been amicable, driven primarily by President Trump wants to make America great again and American thirst for cheap, reliable oil. Former president Chavez, however, when he talks trade with his immediate neighbours, he upended the status quo by pursuing a only cares about his own country getting the best deals. broad nationalization agenda under a new constitution that appropriated many By Osama Rizvi American business interests. It was all downhill from there, and certainly not helped by the fact that Chavez became good rump, ever since he came into office, has fulfilled much of his pals with two of Washington’s long-standing campaign promises: repealing of Joint Comprehensive Action nemeses, Iran and Cuba. TPlan, informally known as the Iran Deal and starting a trade Alas, as is often the case, ordinary war with China, all in the cause of making “America Great Again”. citizens paid the price for decisions that However, much to his chagrin, a cursory observation of the country’s were made far above their pay grade. The standing manifests a vivid fall in its global standing and growing rifts Venezuelan migrant crisis for now shows no with its allies. The recent achievement of what is called US-Mexico- signs of flagging. Canada Agreement (hereinafter USMCA) cannot compensate the loss Moving on to potential solutions, a larger the incumbent administration has by alienating itself from Transpacific and coordinated humanitarian response in Partnership, let alone save the international trade system which has neighbouring countries where the refugees been shocked by a full-blown trade war initiated by the US (read are headed is imperative. Trump). Beyond that, a recent policy paper by Here are a few details about USMC and what is new in it: USMCA the renowned think-tank, the Brookings covers a region with more than $1 trillion in trade per annum. The new Institution titled “Venezuela – a path out of deal provides US dairy producers more access to the tightly control misery” urged the UN to create coalitions at market of Canada; the latter will have to face more competition now. home and abroad against Maduro’s regime The auto-content quotas have been revised a tad bit and Mexico to maximize two-way pressure on the stands to lose while Canada seems to be positive regarding the deals President to step down. effects on the auto industry. US has reduced its own threshold for Yet, short of an invasion or a grand buying online goods from Canada without import tax and increased awakening of Maduro’s conscience, it is Canada’s—a boon for the Canadians and also for online business in hard to see him exiting quietly, not least because he likely fears the next government, plausibly pro-US, will prosecute him for crimes both real and fabricated. This is why Venezuela may increasingly turn to China and Russia for help in the hope they value Maduro as a fellow antagonist to the White House. The Kremlin has already signaled its intent to support Maduro by sending a team of technical advisers to help stem Venezuela’s economic implosion. It had also last year rescheduled some $3 billion in loans. China has similarly agreed to lend $5 billion that will plausibly be paid back in oil, and has signed a gold prospecting deal with the cash-strapped socialist state. That said, it is hard to imagine this crisis drawing out indefinitely like the Syrian one as Washington has a strong distaste for disorder in the Americas. And it would also surprise no one if the solution Trump cooks up to restore balance involves some manner of limited military engagement in Venezuela, either directly by American forces or through allies Brazil and Colombia.
The writer is an Islamabad-based freelance journalist. He can be reached at cras. [email protected]
SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 45 INTERNATIONAL
the US. The Intellectual Property and says much about the extent of peril the COP21 shows. Patent terms have been increased. international trade system is in than If Trump wants to be save the While NAFTA, the precursor of the successful negotiation of a trade international rules-based trading USMCA, was taken as a word with deal affecting only three countries. US system in its true form, then he would “negative connotations,” the latter and China are now engaged in an all- have to shed the delusion that a deal does not change much if we tend to out trade war with tariffs of as much like the USMCA will do so. He has juxtapose the effort with a rules-based as $250 bn imposed by US and $60 to work, first of all, in tandem with international trading system which bn by China. At the time of writing international organizations like the Trump has challenged in all forms. The the global economy is considered WTO and if there is a grievance, to Trans-pacific Partnership (hereinafter to be in a dangerous position with follow a proper and designated way TPP), in this regard, is instructive. the IMF revising down its estimated for dispute settlement. Moreover, the The deal covers 12 countries located global growth for 2019 and 2019 to trade war needs to be put to an absolute on what is called the Pacific Rim, 3.7 percent. The recent stock market halt. The international trading system namely Australia, Canada, Chile, routs triggered in the US and spreadi can never be safe when there are such Japan, Mexico, New Zealand and to Japan, China and other bourses. protectionist clouds hovering over the others. TPP covers 40 percent of the They also serve as a testament to what top two economies in the world with world’ economy with more than 800 are justified concerns of the global no signs of a clear sky. In fact, with million people. The most important community regarding the future. the recent success of the Democrats feature of this deal was, as Obama Trump has opened up many fronts: in the mid-term elections, chances of said, US’ “pivot to Asia” and that Iran and the cancelation of the Iranian the USMCA faltering are now high. they would not let anyone else deal has caused a rally in oil prices Canada’s Prime Minister Trudeau, has (China) write the rules in the Asia- which only cooled down recently; remarked that if steel tariffs remain Pacific region. The importance of tariffs are, as mentioned, spreading the country might “ratify the deal”. the region, as highlighted recently fear and the relationship of the US Trump should realize that his by Peter Frankopan in his book Silk with its European allies are not good country, which played an enormous Roads, behooved a superpower like not to mention the Kashoggi case and role in shaping the current trade US to have a strong influence in the possible rift between the Kingdom regime, stands to benefit the most region. However, due to Trump’s of Saudi Arabia and the US - its from a stable global trading system. characteristic indifference towards main ally in Middle-East. It is safe to diplomatic affairs, he opted to pull say that Trump has not been able to The writer is a geopolitical and out of the deal. compensate for these actions as the energy analyst. He can be reached Moreover, the recent trade war deliberate exclusion from TPP and at [email protected]
46 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 SOUTHASIA JANUARY 2019 NEIGHBOURS
PG 48 PG 49 BANGKOK MOSCOW Defiant Rap Church Split By Inamullah Marwat By Khalid Hussain Mir
PG 51 MANAMA Storm in the Gulf By Manish Rai
SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 47 NEIGHBOUR
BANGKOK DEFIANT RAP A music video that criticizes Thailand’s military government has become a big hit in the country, indicating that public frustration with more than four years of military rule is mounting ahead of the coming elections.
By Inamullah Marwat
hailand lost its democratic put the government in a reactionary threatened to prosecute anyone government in 2014 to a mode as it has expressed the people’s involved in its release or sharing it. Tmilitary coup, led by General latent anguish against the incumbent Government functionaries threatened Prayut Chan-o-cha. The political crisis government. Now the question worth to act under the Computer Crimes came in the wake of a polls boycott considering is whether the general Act on the pretext that the video by leaders of the umbrella anti- elections pledged by the military could provoke unrest. A government government movement, including the government for February 2019 can spokesperson said the song’s lyrics main opposition party, the Democratic really become a springboard for true were objectionable. However, better Party, for reform before elections and democracy in Thailand? counsels prevailed and the government replacement of the government led After the video became viral on backed off from the idea of prosecution by the then Prime Minister Yingluck social media, it caught the incumbent later as the Deputy Police Chief Srivara Shinawatra, with a “reform council”. government off guard and provoked it Ransibrahmanakul said that the lyrics As per the latest statement made to go hard through prosecution under were insufficient evidence to launch a by junta leader and Prime Minister, the Computer Crimes Act against those prosecution and people were allowed Prayut Chan-o-cha, in a statement in releasing and sharing it. to sing and share the song. March 2018 like the past, general Prathet Ku Mee hit hard against the Interestingly, the government came elections in Thailand are expected military for playing with the political up with its own rap song entitled to be held in February 2019 and it is spectrum and playing on the woes of “Government Thailand 4.0 Rap Video” expected that the pledges made this corruption and censorship through in which a mixture of lyrics from the time will see the light of day. It seems severe actions against those who said national anthem were used by the Thailand is on its way to acquiring a no to the government. The video also government to plead with the masses democratic government in the wake features the 1976 massacre by the to be supportive of its actions. Some of elections under a military regime. police. of the lyrics from the government’s This has become more alive and In its first week, the video gained rap song in reply to Prathet Ku Mee palpable in light of the government’s a lot of traction and its views crossed were, “There are many talented Thais, initial reaction, though it began with 25 million since it was posted on if we work together, we'd be stronger, high-handedness in reaction to the October 22. The government initially stronger" and "Gen M, Gen Z, Gen release of a music whatever, if you all agree, it'd be video titled “Prathet easier, easier." Ku Mee” (Which is my Release of country?) on YouTube. Prathet Ku Mee and In the video, young what followed bares rappers from the the murky course group 'Rap Against that democracy Dictatorship' have will take after the voiced their angst, 2019 elections. The something which government initially is pervasive among threatened to go hard Thais regarding the against the rappers army’s interference via prosecution in politics, shrinking under the guise of space for political the allegation of opinion and rampant provoking unrest. corruption, besides It now seems there the long delay in will be a more tamed elections. transition from Prathet Ku Mee military government has resonated with to a soft democracy. the masses. It has In the elections, those
48 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 Prathet Ku Mee’s release and its aftermath have exposed the fault lines of the realities of Thailand. expected to call the shots will not be the real champions of democracy but representatives of the status quo, namely the military. The Thai people have a long way the unhealed wounds of the past. today. to go to reach the ideals of democracy A real democracy involves all the The writer holds an M.Phil. degree with – a setup in which the government is stakeholders. Prathet Ku Mee’s release a major in International Relations. He responsive to the woes of the public and its aftermath have exposed the can be reached at uinam39@gmail. and does not shy away from visiting fault lines of the realities of Thailand com
MOSCOW n October 11, 2018 the Ecumenical Patriarchate of OConstantinople, a religious body headquarterEd in Constantinople Church Split (Istanbul) that supervises Orthodox Christianity, acknowledged the independence of the Ukrainian Ukraine has gained permission to establish an independent Orthodox Church. The Church had church. This is a vital step forward but the Russian clergy remained obedient and submissive fiercely opposes the biggest split in Christianity for a to Russia in the past. The leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church, thousand years. Bartholomew of Constantinople, took the monumental decision to recognize By Khalid Hussain Mir the full independence of the Ukrainian
SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 49 NEIGHBOUR
Orthodox Church after a three-day to Constantinople and they would Synod. also boycott joint Orthodox Church The initiatives for independence ceremonies. There is a possibility of of the church started on April 7, 2018 serious conflict because Ukraine has with an announcement by Ukraine’s an extremely diverse religious life President, Petro Poroshenko. He said and Ukraine's Orthodox believers are that the Russian Church's decision to divided among three Churches: the cut ties with Ecumenical Patriarchate Ukrainian Orthodox Church based on of Constantinople led to a path of self- the Moscow Patriarchate, the Orthodox isolation and conflict with the entire Church of the Kiev Patriarchate and international orthodoxy. The declaration the small Ukrainian Autocephalous also detached the traditional right of the Orthodox Church. Many analysts Russian Patriarch to ordain Metropolitan consider the Russian Orthodox Church Kiev. The breakup is considered to be a tool for spreading Russia's influence the biggest split in the Orthodox Church and entails the promotion of Russian in a thousand years and a difficult issue nationalist and imperialist ambitions. for many Orthodox Churches in Eastern Ukraine is grappling with internal Europe. The split is also seen as having disturbances as well. Ukrainian a deep political significance. President Petro Poroshenko has been The Russian Orthodox Church, involved in many problems and which is one of the most influential controversial issues during his tenure. churches in the Orthodox world He has fallen flat in his promises that and has 150 million adherents, has church is part of our pro-European and he made with the people and has emerged as a politically powerful pro-Ukrainian policies that we have suffered a humiliating defeat against body due to its influential nature. The been consistently pursuing over the last the separatists in the Donbas region. Russian Orthodox Church declared four years." His economic policies have remained that it could no longer continue being As the chief spokesman for the untrustworthy and his fight against in "Eucharistic communion" with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the corruption has gotten nowhere. It has Constantinople religious body which Kyivan Patriarchate, Archbishop resulted in an economic crisis in the means that Russian Orthodox believers Yevstratiy said that the Russian synod’s country and in 2018 Ukraine became can no longer have close associations decision was a move towards self- the poorest country in Europe. with people from other branches of the isolation. Similarly, in the absence of a large Church. The Church further argued that For more than three centuries, voluntary defection from the Moscow- the recognition of the Ukraine Church Ukraine and Russia have been united aligned Ukrainian Orthodox Church went against historical truth and in the Russian Orthodox Church. After Moscow Patriarchate, it is not clear made accusations that the Ukrainian the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, what kind of steps the authorities will Nationalists frequently attacked its Ukraine endeavoured to establish take next. New laws are yet to be passed churches. The Russian Orthodox religious independence and established and in such devastating conditions Church, which claims customary and an Orthodox Church of the Kiev this might lead to forceful changes authorized rights over the Orthodox Patriarchate. From the post-90s era, the of affiliation and potentially bloody community in Ukraine, clearly denied Ukrainian nationalists were demanding conflicts over church properties. all accusations directed against it for to set their church free from Russian All such challenges and conditions taking political sides in the conflict. control, which dates back to 1686, have raised a serious question about It justified that it had worked for when the Constantinople patriarch had Ukraine’s future. Ukraine is traditionally peace in eastern Ukraine. The Church signed an agreement to give religious a diverse religious but balanced society. also argued that the Constantinople leaders in Moscow authority over the But the recent events have changed patriarchate’s actions could deepen Orthodox Church in Ukraine. The the scenario. New policies might religious divides in Ukraine and inspire initiatives for Ukrainian Orthodox help to strengthen the Ukrainian state breakaway branches to take over church independence intensified in 2014 when by creating a consolidated identity buildings. Russia annexed Crimea. Russia also by force, but at the same time it will The recent decision is seen as the said it had to protect ethnic Russians weaken it by alienating Ukraine’s large biggest schism in orthodox Christianity ahead of its military intervention in minority groups. It will be interesting and is termed as a major blow for the Ukraine in 2014. to see what kind of foreign policy power of Russian President Vladimir Many Ukrainians perceive the will Russia now frame for its future Putin. As per reports, the Ukrainian Moscow branch of the Ukrainian relationship with Ukraine and what President Petro Poroshenko has said Orthodox Church as a tool of the will be Poroshenko’s status as he will that it is an issue of Ukrainian national Kremlin. But the Moscow Patriarchates face re-election in 2019? Similarly, security and an issue of statehood. He argue that they have legal authority the relationship between the Russian also claimed that the Constantinople over the Ukrainian Church. Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Patriarchates decision is a great victory President Petro Poroshenko accused that Orthodox Church might play a vital for the devoted Ukrainian nation the Kremlin was trying to encourage a role in the future contexts of these over the Moscow demons. Moscow religious war and warned that Russian countries. has claimed that they are spiritually agents could try to take hold of church inseparable from Ukraine and are in property. The writer is a Doctoral Fellow of favour of Ukraine’s independence. The In response to Ukraine’s approach Islamic Studies at the Baba Ghulam President described it as a victory of the Moscow Patriarchate also warned Shah Badshah University in Rajouri, good over evil and light over darkness. its worshippers not to attend any Jammu & Kashmir. He can be reached He said, "The independence of our services conducted by clergy loyal at [email protected]
50 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 he recent Bahrain elections have been declared a major success Tstory by the Bahraini government as the highest number of females were elected to the parliament. The voter turnout is claimed to be 67%. The Al Khalifa royals have tried to showcase the elections as the beginning of a new chapter in the march to democratic development in the island kingdom. The elections are the second ballot since 2011 when mostly Shia protesters took to the streets demanding more democracy. Courts in Bahrain, where the United States Navy’s Fifth Fleet is MANAMA based, dissolved the al-Wefaq main Shia opposition party and National Democratic Action Society (Waad) which was seen as a secular movement in 2017. It was accused of helping to Storm in the Gulf foster violence and terrorism. In return al-Wefaq boycotted the elections. Because of the close relationship between the Bahraini Moreover, Bahrain barred members of people and Iran, the encouragement of sectarian divisions has the dissolved opposition groups from running in parliamentary elections been a primary tool for sustaining a power structure that is even in their personal capacity. In favourable to Western corporate and strategic interests. addition to this, Bahrain’s electoral infrastructure inherently disadvantages By Manish Rai the political opposition. There is no independent electoral commission and the Bahraini government does not Khalifa rulers so that Manama always times. To start with, a goodwill gesture permit either domestic or international remains in their orbit. The Saudis and is needed to create an atmosphere of observers. Hence the credibility of the the Emiratis have considered Bahrain a reconciliation with the Shia opposition polls was highly questionable as they bulwark against Iran as it is unique in groups. The Bahraini government excluded a large section of Bahraini the Gulf because it is home to a Shia should set aside the life sentence of society and opposition groups. majority ruled by a Sunni monarchy. Sheikh Ali Salman, secretary general The majority of Bahrain's 1.4 For all intents and purposes, of the opposition al-Wefaq group and million people are Shia, but the Bahrain has become a Saudi vassal Sheikh Hassan Sultan and Ali Alaswad, Sunni Al Khalifa family has ruled the state, politically and economically, members of the same group. country since the late 1700s. The and has toed the Saudi line on every Going forward, more detailed talks country's Shia population has long regional issue. The Bahraini royal can be organised over the opposition’s complained about discrimination. family is just taking instructions from key demands, such as electoral Following the 2011 Arab Spring, they Riyadh and oppressing its fellow Shia redistricting, a more empowered launched demonstrations and the countrymen. All the pomp and show parliament, judicial independence, kingdom promised reforms, but little of democracy doesn’t help at all to recognition of the freedom of has been done since then. Right after strengthen the democratic institutions. press, speech, and assembly, etc. A independence in 1971, the late Emir The election only extends to the meaningful national reconciliation Isa bin Salman wisely concluded that powerless lower house of Bahrain’s process has to be launched by the domestic peace in Bahrain can only be parliament as membership of the upper rulers of Bahrain to address widespread attained through a partnership between house is decided by the King. Once political marginalisation rather than the Sunni minority and the Shia thought to be the Gulf state that was creating a sham electoral process majority. He promulgated a constitution most likely to accept reform, Bahrain which serves no purpose. Bahraini following lengthy consultations among now resembles a miniature model of politics will remain fragile and Sunni and Shia representatives who its master state Saudi Arabia a little exclusionary, if the government fails were freely elected by their respective more with every passing day. Like its to address these fundamental issues. communities and who were members powerful neighbour and benefactor, The country is divided deeply along of both the Constituent Assembly in it is revealing itself to be a volatile sectarian lines where the majority Shia 1972-73 and the National Assembly in repressive state instead of a mature find themselves living in what amounts 1974. and stable one that promotes inclusive to a police state. The trust deficit in Currently Bahrain, which used to politics and where grievances can be society is huge; hence policymakers defend the constitution under the late safely aired and addressed. have to start looking for a common Emir Isa bin Salman, has moved away It’s high time the Bahrain rulers ground for reconciliation. from his vision and values and is quickly realise that a gulf between them and the turning into an apartheid regime in majority of the population is growing The writer is a columnist for the which the majority has no rights or and the split may increase social Middle East and Af-Pak region and freedoms. Even the close allies of tensions and exacerbate the long- editor of the geo-political news Bahrain, that is Saudi Arabia and UAE, standing structural issues that may lead agency ViewsAround. He can be just want to focus on protecting the Al to wider social unrest in the coming reached at [email protected]
SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 51
SOUTHASIA JANUARY 2019 FEATURES
PG 54 PG 55 PG 57 ISLAMABAD NEW DELHI CHITTAGONG A Dark Day Crisis of Cleanliness The Radical Angle By Humza Irfan By Taha Kehar By Mohammad Jamil
PG 58 PG 60 JAFFNA LAYA The War Widows Celebrating Highland By Irshad Ahmad Culture By Mahrukh A. Mughal FEATURE
Center for Philanthropy (PCP), a ISLAMABAD staggering 98% of households donate in one form or the other. The annual figure amounts to nearly 1% of Pakistan’s GDP which is comparable to some of the most developed countries in the world, including the A DARK DAY United Kingdom and Canada where the counterpart figure is 1.3% and 1.2%, respectively. Many prominent Pakistan is a major charity-giving country. It can move further Pakistanis are also world leading down the path by organizing the non-profit sector to reach out philanthropists. Pakistani cricketer, Shahid Afridi is hailed as 20th most to areas that remain unexplored so far. charitable athlete in the world. Prime Minister and former cricketer Imran By Humza Irfan Khan is also recognized for setting some of the most exemplary nonprofits in the country. There are an estimated e all have a guardian angel now there was a void that could not 100,000 to 150,000 nonprofit and it is not the stuff of be filled. Scaling down was not an organizations currently operating. Wmyths and legends. Rather it option. Too many lives depended Today Pakistan is at a crossroads is a bundle of ideas, an enactment of a on the fate of the foundation. The where it is juggling a multitude of vision, and a mass of goodwill. But it question lingered, “How to perpetuate challenges amidst the rapidly evolving remains largely invisible and seldom Edhi’s compassionate spirit?” global landscape. While there are appreciated until it is gone. On July Most nonprofit organizations in ample nonprofit organizations in the 8, 2016, Pakistan and the world Pakistan go through similar experiences. country, many such organizations bid farewell to Abdul Sattar Edhi, But their survivability is the key to are facing their own challenges. a humanitarian whose compassion uplifting Pakistan and in helping For the most part, giving has not touched millions. It was a dark day it traverse through unfathomable been institutionalized. According and it went darker. challenges. Charity organizations are to the PCP, most people donate to Nonprofit organizations are often made on the promise of change. In individuals rather than institutions or the extensions of their founders. They fact, they are on the cusp of change. nonprofit organizations. While there are an outgrowth of the compassionate They have a special role in society. is nothing inherently wrong with human spirit and there is always They fill voids left by public institutes making charitable contributions to a central character that fashions and corporations. They are mission- poor individuals, there is always a benevolence into something we can driven and value-oriented. And, most risk that these contributions will not admire, see and touch. Edhi had truly importantly, they channel compassion lead to the desired outcomes. Only created a philanthropic empire and of the entire populace towards areas nonprofit organizations can lead reigned over it for half a century. Today, which are of critical importance. In sustained change. There is a great the Edhi Foundation provides services essence, nonprofit organizations turn need to formalize giving so that one for relief and alleviation of misery that human feelings of benevolence into can better monitor use of resources. covers the entire human life cycle, observable change. The informal giving pattern may only from birth till death. It is most well- Pakistan is known for its textile lead to short-term improvement in the known as the operator of the largest businesses, its cricket stars, its lives of a few people. Organizations fleet of ambulances in the world, which football industry and breathtaking can use the same resources for includes airborne vehicles and rescue natural beauty. It is also home to the developing facilities, providing boats. But in July 2016, everything magnificent Himalayas, the world’s vocational training, and relief against was at stake. Shortly after the demise largest mountain range. Nothing of the empire’s leader, monthly rivals these towering peaks, except donations fell sharply. Many people Pakistan’s adoration for altruism. who donated to the foundation did The country is one of the most so because of Edhi himself and charitable nations in the world and, according to the Pakistan
54 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 illness. People are also inclined to donate to madrasas (religious schools) which are NEW DELHI characterized by absence of monitoring and evaluation systems. Many nonprofit organizations themselves are part of the informal Crisis of network. Madrasas are prime examples of such institutions. According to a survey done in 2000 by the Aga Khan Foundation and Johns Hopkins University, 30% of all charity organizations are in fact religious Cleanliness schools. Of course, a lot has changed since then. But so far very little research India’s ‘ambassadors of cleanliness’, have promoted has been done to identify the nonprofit landscape. Perhaps this should be the indoor plumbing and community approaches to starting point in reinvigorating charity sanitation at the village level. institutes. There is also a growing cynical By Taha Kehar distrust of nonprofit organizations. Apart from a few prominent players, many organizations struggle to win the trust of the public. When celebrities open their own charities, they experience immediate brand loyalty. But when the founder is a commoner, they struggle to get their message across. Popular nonprofit organizations in Pakistan almost always revolve around prominent personalities. However, when such personalities fade away, these organizations experience dwindling support. Perhaps charity is not the solution. Nonprofit organizations should embrace the social enterprise model. Such entities often make profits but they do so while working for social impact. In Pakistan there are rarely such organizations as they fear that making profits will derail them from their mission and they might end up losing their nonprofit status. Such organizations can introduce new products that contribute to their economic viability. For example, an organization can provide training to disabled citizens in creating handicrafts and it can then sell the products made by trainees, thereby earning profits which can then be used to fund more such educational programs. Organizations need to think of ways on how they can be more sustainable. They can also reach out to Pakistani expatriates. According to research by the PCP, Pakistanis living in the USA donate $1 billion annually. This represents hrough an incisive editorial comment published in The Hindu on great potential. Additionally, nonprofit October 4, India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) was put under organizations can harness social media Tclose scrutiny. The initiative, which prioritizes the country’s for outreach and increase their digital sanitation needs, was critiqued for its narrow purview and seemingly presence to improve their visibility. More myopic interpretation of ‘cleanliness’. visibility translates into greater inflow of Criticism levelled against the nationwide campaign isn’t entirely donations. unwarranted. Although the SBM -- which began in 2014 and is slated Nonprofit organizations should be to last until 2019 -- has drawn accolades across the globe for ensuring appreciated for the impact they are access to toilets at home to approximately 60% of India’s rural populace creating. They are, after all, our guardian in 2014, it has been deemed problematic on many counts. angels. On many levels, the initiative is based on Mahatma Gandhi’s vision to eradicate India’s burgeoning national or social sanitation woes. The writer is a freelance contributor. He However, the SBM seems to have taken on a saffronized bent in tackling can be reached at humzairfan@gmail. the country’s sanitation crisis and putting an end to open-defecation in the com rural belt. For many analysts, this is an unsurprising development as the
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Swachh movement was spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014. While the campaign’s genesis and overall premise sought work for to Gandhi’s vision, its implementation has revealed that any endeavour to bring about a social transformation is bound to have its pitfalls in an inherently unequal, caste-bound society like India. Even four years of aggressively pursuing the SBM and waxing eloquent about its achievements has done little to alter this reality. The Swachh movement has been a pivotal project for the BJP administration at the centre. The central government even raised INR 16,400 crore between 2015 and 2018 as cess to finance sanitation schemes across the country. If news reports are to serve as a gauge, a report tabled in the Indian parliament by the Comptroller and Auditor General pointed out in December 2017 that nearly 25% of the collected amount has remained outside the remit of the dedicated fund. In addition, the Sanitation cannot be used as a slogan fund hasn’t been utilized for the to pump in financial resources for an desired purpose. These findings raise Waste management initiative that will inevitably fuel the doubts about the efficacy of the BJP same schisms and dilemmas. government’s attempts to ensure that remains a crisis in As per the editorial comment the SBM reaches fruition. published in The Hindu, the BJP-led Earlier this year, the SBM’s Gramin central government has kept an 87% wing also announced that it had both rural and urban target for urban toilet coverage. But successfully constructed 86.7 million these developments cannot be viewed individual household latrines. The centres across India. in isolation. Waste management wing proudly professed that access to remains a crisis in both rural and sanitation has burgeoned to 94 percent urban centres across India. Laws on in rural areas and open defecation has to be operating in a vacuum. The pollution control and preserving water been eradicated from 507,369 villages initiative struggles to tackle the uneasy resources have been swept under the in the country through consistent relationship between sanitation and carpet. Amid these challenges, it is efforts to build toilets. At first glance, the country’s centuries-old caste difficult to envisage an India where these come across as admirable discrimination. As indicated in the public health outcomes are upheld. achievements from a government editorial published in The Hindu, If the lack of tangible progress made that has repeatedly attracted censure “traditionally oppressed communities under the SBM is viewed in the global for showing its flavour of fascism. continue to manually remove filth context, the matter is likely to take on However, according to a recent from dry latrines used by the upper an even more perilous dimension. India analysis by the Centre for Science and castes” in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh played a critical role in formulating Environment, building toilets is little and Madhya Pradesh. This serves as the Sustainable Development Goals more than an initial step in alleviating a cogent reminder that the SBM’s and it is widely believed that the open defecation. It is simplistic to achievements are dangerously hollow. country’s national development goals assume that people will opt for toilets They are also a glaring testament of the have been embodied in this global and almost instinctively unlearn the BJP government’s failures in achieving framework. The country’s inability to generations-old practice in villages to its avowed sanitation goals. prevent manual scavenging by lower- defecate in the open. In a similar vein, At this critical juncture, the caste Indians and focus on surface- there is no palpable strategy on the outcomes of the Swachh mission level accomplishments might raise government’s part to deal with the solid need to be carefully appraised to questions about whether India is and liquid waste generated through ensure that they don’t reinforce the meaningfully striving to fulfill its SDG these toilet facilities. Skeptics have marginalisation that has characterised commitments. This will reflect poorly argued that the inability to dispose India’s socio-political milieu for on the BJP’s governance structure. of this waste could be detrimental centuries. If the BJP government wants in producing a clean and healthy to fulfill Gandhi’s vision of eliminating The writer is a journalist and author. environment in India. the country’s sanitation woes, it must He analyses international issues. He If independent analyses are set wider parameters and have the can reached at tahakehar2@gmail. anything to go by, the SBM seems courage to tread uncharted territory. com
56 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 occupation, whereas Hefazat espouses CHITTAGONG what secularists say is intolerant ideology. It is a matter of record that the Hefazat was opposed to Al Qaeda as well as Harkat-al-Mujahedin. Its founder Shah Ahmad Shafi had neither The Radical supported military action in 1972 nor was it opposed to independence of Bangladesh; hence the Hefazat is a breed apart. Ahmad Shafi wanted Bangladesh Angle to be run totally on Islamist precepts and should put an end to secularism. In 2009, Ahmad Shafi, along with Allama The Hefazat-e-Islam Party in Bangladesh has taken advantage Azizul Haque, in a joint statement to the of the prevailing conditions to pull together a series of long- Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, condemned terrorism and militancy established radical political groups and organizations that have committed in the name of Islam. never displayed much unity before. The Hefazat emerged after it had opposed the 2009 Women Development By Mohammad Jamil Policy draft, which gave women equal rights by inheritance. In the face of fierce protests by groups in 2013, efazat-e-Islam is a fundamentalist (Hefazat), Ahl-i-Hadith Bangladesh especially by Hefazat, the parliament Islamic group, which was (AHAB) and Tablighi Jama’at are the passed a watered-down draft, giving Hformed in 2010 to protest three primary movements that stand greater rights to women on acquired against the secular education policy for Islamic revivalism but have different property. Among the 13 demands put of the Bangladesh government. Unlike strategies. The Hasina-led government forth by the Hefazat was a ban on the other outfits that operate in the capital, believes that the Bangladesh Nationalist public mixing of the sexes. In 2017, a the Hefazat group is headquartered Party, Jamaat-e-Islami and Hefazat-e- press release signed by Moulana Munir in Chittagong, where hundreds of Islam are the same, unleashing a reign Ahmed, the press secretary of the Amir madrassas draw tens of thousands of of terror by torching and vandalising (chief) of the organisation, Shah Ahmed young Muslims for schooling. Many of political party offices, vehicles and Shafi, said that the government having these madrassas teach only Islam, using public properties. The question is what realised the gravity and sensitivity of the Arabic as the medium of instruction and is the Hefazat-e-Islam movement all issue decided to go for some positive have produced the Hifazat's leaders and about? changes in the textbooks. The Awami activists, who have become a force to In July 2018, Ahmad Shafi lambasted League government had drawn flak from reckon with. Of course, Hefazat-e-Islam Jama’at-i-Islami and Tablighi Jama’at, civil society and academia for changing and said the latter would be doomed textbooks and recognizing Qaumi like the Jama’at-e-Islami. Can Hefazat be madrassa degrees following demands referred to as the Bangladeshi Taliban? by Hefazat, who believed that it was The answer is certainly no. For one, there a grave mistake to appease religious is no comparison with the Taliban, as outfits for the sake of votes. Taliban militants There are others who are fighting to dub the Awami League as end foreign a fascist organization
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and hold it responsible for the genocide also boycotted the election. He was party’s deep frustration, saying “it was a in Bangladesh. Prime Minister Hasina “detained” as part of the government’s politically motivated verdict and a naked Wajed and the Awami League are efforts to force him to participate in the expression of political vengeance”. meticulously trying to weaken or January 5 polls, but he remained firm However, Law Minister Anisul Huq said eliminate their opponents. In May 2016, in his decision of an election boycott. Khaleda Zia’s son Tarique Rahman, the the head of the banned Jamaat-e-Islam, Jama’at-e-Islami was already out of the mastermind of the attack, deserved a Motiur Rahman Nizami was executed field, as it was banned and not allowed death sentence. for so-called war crimes committed to participate in the elections on the The Awami League government is during, what they say, the 1971 war grounds that its religious character basking now in the glow of a vibrant of independence, after the Supreme breached Bangladesh’s secular and strong economy, which has created Court had rejected his final plea against constitution. The Awami League and its job opportunities and alleviated poverty. a death sentence handed down by a leadership appear to have created an Of course, the credit also goes to the special tribunal. Phil Robertson, deputy atmosphere of harassment for opposition competent bureaucracy in Bangladesh director of Human Rights Watch's Asia parties, yet pressed hard to ensure as, without their help, the economic division, had said: “Nizami's trial was participation of all political parties in miracle would not have been possible. neither free nor fair, as the tribunal cut the upcoming elections for the sake of Bangladesh has been lucky that loss corners on fair-trial standards.” Motiur legitimacy. of life and property in the country in Rahman Nizami was the fifth senior In February 2018, the BNP terror-related cases has been minimal official from the opposition parties to Chairperson Khaleda Zia was sentenced as compared to Pakistan or even India. have been executed since 2013 for to 5 years on charges of corruption. Between January 2005 and December alleged war crimes during the 1971 war. In November 2018, Tarique Rahman, 2017, some 746 people died in terrorist Five opposition politicians, including the fugitive son of Khaleda Zia, was attacks, including 339 alleged terrorists; four Jamaat-i-Islami leaders, had been sentenced to life and 19 others were of those attacks, 91 percent took place executed since late 2013 after being given death sentence by a court in since 2013. The Islamic State and al- convicted by the tribunal. Dhaka over the 2004 grenade attack that Qaeda Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) Sheikh Hasina continued with the killed 24 people and injured 500 others. had claimed responsibility for many of policy of hatred and revenge against her According to reports and investigations, these attacks, which meant that other opponents. Even before the elections the attack on an Awami League rally local radical religious groups did not in 2013, more than 500 people were on August 21, 2004, targeted Hasina participate in the terror acts. killed in political violence. Former Wajed, who was the opposition leader military dictator Hussein Muhammad at that time. Hasina survived the attack The writer is a senior journalist and Ershad, who led the country’s third with partial hearing loss. Commenting former editor of an English daily. He can largest party, Jatiyo Party, a key ally of on the verdict, BNP secretary general be reached at mjamil1938@hotmail. the Awami League grand alliance, had Fakhrul Islam Alamgir had expressed the com
JAFFNA he month of September was very depressing when Juan TPablo Bohoslavsky, presented his worrisome fact-finding report before the United Nations Human The War Widows Rights Council (UNHRC). He was the UN expert on the effects of foreign The wounds of the civil war still fester in Sri Lanka and the debt and other related international worst affected are the war widows who need strong economic, financial obligations of states on the educational and psychological support. full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and By Irshad Ahmad cultural rights, and his report was on Sri Lanka. Prior to this, he visited Sri Lanka for 9 days for fact finding. His report recalled the atrocities of the civil war days. His report was also a reminder of the many physical, emotional and psychological wounds of war that have remained unhealed in the ninth year of peace. Among the countless damage, there were around 90 thousand war widows in Sri Lanka. Through his important report, Bohoslavsky reported he found a large number of borrower women in areas that are poor and were affected by the war. They are being specially targeted by microfinance lenders who charge up to 220 per cent interest rates on loans and apply compound interest.
58 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 He described this as a form of extreme exploitation. Bohoslavsky reported ‘the mechanism has been designed to make huge profits for the lenders and put a very heavy burden on the shoulders of the largely poor female borrowers’. The UNHRC was informed that in Sri Lanka ‘it is common to see women with three or four outstanding loans from different lenders at the same time, while some others borrow more to avoid defaulting on the loans they already have. Meanwhile, the collectors go to borrowers’ houses to collect the instalments due, sometimes on a daily basis. Some stay at the family home for hours until they are repaid. Women are at times exposed to psychological and physical violence by these collectors and, in some cases; they were pressured by collectors to exchange ‘sexual favours’ for outstanding instalments. In some cases, borrowers have tried to sell their kidneys for money to repay loans’! He requested the Sri Lankan government to make an assessment of the human rights impact of both its economic reform policies and infrastructure projects. ’The Sri Lankan legal framework state party to take steps, individually does not establish the obligation to There were around 90 and through international assistance conduct a comprehensive human and co-operation, especially economic rights impact assessment of such thousand war widows and technical, to the maximum of infrastructure projects before they its available resources, with a view are started’, he noted. For a durable in Sri Lanka. to achieving progressively the full solution, he advised the government realization of the rights recognized in to pass robust and comprehensive the ICESCR by all appropriate means, laws on the issues based on existing and again made several important including particularly the adoption of international human rights standards. commitments, at various international legislative measures (Article 2). The He also stressed that ‘human rights forums, for protection and promotion ICESCR further undertakes to ensure must be at the centre of measures of human rights. The Convention the equal right of men and women to by Sri Lanka to promote economic on the Elimination of all Forms of the enjoyment of all economic, social growth that would include everyone’. Discrimination Against Women and cultural rights (Article 3). He was concerned about the number, (CEDAW), to which Sri Lanka is a state Sri Lanka should honour its national frequency and seriousness of abuses party, makes it compulsory for all the and international responsibilities and by lenders and called for urgent states to take in all fields, in particular should enact proper legislation to measures. in the political, social, economic curb the victimization of war widows. Bohoslavsky urged the government and cultural fields, all appropriate It should seriously consider and ‘to establish an interest rate cap measures, including legislation, to implement Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky’s for these institutions and also to ensure the full development and report in totality by bringing all its pass and implement robust and advancement of women, for the national laws in line with its national strict regulations”. He underlined purpose of guaranteeing them the and international obligations since it is that there should be guidelines in exercise and enjoyment of human a party to the various UN conventions line with human rights standards rights and fundamental freedoms on a for the promotion and protection on how microcredit lenders should basis of equality with men (Article 3). of human rights. The Sri Lankan assess credit risks. He also urged the It further makes it obligatory to take government and national human rights government to declare a moratorium all appropriate measures, including institutions should also play their due on the debts, until the legislation is legislation, to suppress all forms of role in investigating the issue, finding passed, in order to prevent groups in traffic in women and exploitation of the responsible elements and bringing situations of vulnerability. prostitution of women (Article 6). them to justice. Sri Lanka as a country is party to Similarly, Sri Lanka is also state many important UN conventions. party to the International Covenant on The writer is a Peshawar-based It has acknowledged various Economic, Social and Cultural Rights lawyer. He can be reached at special procedures and has time (ICESCR), which stresses upon each [email protected]
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he Royal Highland Festival in Bhutan Thighlights the richness and spirituality of the country’s highland culture and traditions, while allowing visitors to get a glimpse of the awesome yet harsh high- altitude landscapes of the country. The heart of the festival celebrates the highlanders’ unique and beautiful clothing, dance, music, handicrafts, food, and intangible forms of culture. Bhutan celebrated the Third Royal Highland LAYALAYA Festival and the Laya Run on October 23 and 24 with anticipation and excitement. In this age of globalization, most nations have ceased their cultural celebrations and become a part of Celebrating western civilization. Bhutan‘s Royal Highland Festival takes place every year for the purpose of subjective amalgamation and enhancing spiritual Highland values within the state and amongst the people. The purpose entrenched in the teachings of Lord Buddha and their eternal truth were brought down Culture from the Tibetan mountains and the Highland Festival further accentuates The Royal Highland Festival in Bhutan was a colourful display these teachings. of the country’s unique traditions, lifestyle and culture. As a philosopher said, “Culture lies not in objects or monuments but in By Mahrukh A. Mughal the mind and compassion towards all sentient beings". The Highland Festival of Bhutan includes diverse activities reached Laya. The festival is gaining popularity which attract tourists from across the The Royal Festival is a landmark among locals and visitors alike. country and overseas. At the Third activity of Gasa Dzongkhag. Gasa Despite the fact it takes place at over Highland Festival and Laya Run, there Dzongdag Dorji Dradhul said the 3000 metres above the sea level, the was great excitement and enthusiasm festival is driven by the goal of making festival is emerging to be a crowd- in Bhutan. Highland culture offers the Highlands a vibrant and thriving puller. great enrichment in art, drama, dance, economy. The event included games and sport music, handicrafts, food and aspects The festival aims to promote the events. It was a good way to promote the of culture and the Festival focused on sustainable livelihood of highlanders, beauty of Bhutan. The highland region these areas. showcase highlander’s innovation, of Bhutan is home to many travelers The small settlement of Laya in and exhibit the highlands as a pride and pastoral communities. The festival northern Bhutan is one of the most of Bhutan. The festival also brings helped to show that nomadic people remote places on the planet. Laya was together highlanders from other need to rejuvenate their unique ways turned into a hub of celebration as parts of Bhutan to exchange values, of life. It contributed to the country’s the festival got underway. More than knowledge, skills and best practices Gross National Happiness index, a thousand people, including tourists, related to highlands and yak farming. and special prominence was given attended the two-day festival. People from eight districts took part in to cultural values and environmental Not only is it the northern-most the festival this time. conservation. The event also brought settlement in the Last Himalayan The Royal Highland Festival was first out the significance of climate change Kingdom, it´s also the highest introduced on 16th of October 2016 and presented a good opportunity to permanent town at 3800m (12,467ft) to mark the celebration of the Birth the people to find ways to fight this in Bhutan. The whole settlement has of His Royal Highness The Gyalsey, global menace. Socially, the cultural about 110 houses. 400 years of Zhabdrung’s arrival in celebration was galvanized by social Laya is accessible only by a two- the country and the Rabjung (60-year orientation and the unique customs of day hike from the closest town, Gasa. cycle) birth year of Guru Rinpoche. Bhutan. However, this is changing fast. A The festival showcases the beauty and jeep road is being constructed and is wonders of Gasa Dzongkhag through The writer is a free-lance contributor. scheduled to reach Laya within the its nature, history and age old culture She can be reached at mahrukh. next 3 years. Electricity has recently and tradition. [email protected]
60 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 BOOK REVIEW
Women’s Politics Book Title: Women’s Political Activism in Palestine Author: Sophie Richter-Devroe in Contemporary Publisher: University of Illinois Press Palestine ISBN: 9780252083525 A forceful critique of mainstream conflict resolution methods practices. In some respects, this section and failed woman-to-woman peacebuilding projects. of the book is a suitable buffer that prepares readers for a radical departure By Taha Kehar from the accepted norms of academic discourse on this subject. ophie Richter-Devroe ought to be they rely on the unproven assumption The author presents a diverse menu commended for her methodological that women are ‘natural peacemakers’. of informal practices and strategies Schoices and focused analysis in In addition, these peacemaking ventures that enable women to demonstrate Women’s Political Activism in Palestine: are merely an attempt to tame, rather political resistance and survive in a Peacebuilding, Resistance and Survival. than foster, women’s political activism battle-hardened region. For scholars Her work systemically deviates from in Palestine. The author doesn’t shy away who choose to remain prisoners to mainstream theoretical discourse that from identifying the vacuum that these orthodoxy, these tactics are largely offers a top-down view of political dubious methods have created. As a apolitical because they don’t fall neatly resistance. Through a concise and consequence, the narrative never pulls into rigid categories. But Richter-Devroe well-structured analysis of political its punches and presents the flaws in tactfully defies these preconceived activism among women in conflict- these tactics with precision. It even refers notions and examines how these riddled Palestine, Richter-Devroe to them as “mere marketing products” practices allow Palestinian women to doesn’t scrutinize the larger struggles without any reservations. become “frontliners” at the intangible for social change in the public sphere. By pouring scorn on these ineffective or ideational level. This shows that Her emphasis remains on exploring mechanisms, Richter-Devroe paves physical violence is not the only vehicle seemingly mundane practices and the way for an alternative approach. of political activism. Richter-Devroe’s actions that symbolize dissent and the She recognizes the significance of emphasis on everyday resistance comes spirit of confrontation – even if it takes day-to-day interactions in fueling the across as somewhat refreshing as it her into the neglected private sphere. spirit of resistance to occupation. reflects the lived realities of Palestinian Breaking away from this narrow This makes it easier for us to consider women. purview, Women’s Political Activism indirect, informal modes of behaviour Overall, Women’s Political Activism in Palestine: Peacebuilding, Resistance and action that are far more effective in Palestine: Peacebuilding, Resistance and Survival delves into the ground in strengthening women’s activism. It and Survival does not opt for a simplistic realities in Palestine amid the long years is difficult to discredit this approach analysis that panders to Western ideals. of Israeli occupation. The skillful use of as it permits scholars to look beyond No attempt is made to glorify the liberal an ethnographic approach, peppered predefined parameters and investigate peace paradigm. Instead, Richter- with detailed interviews and participant practices that aren’t peddled by an Devroe’s account elbows away these observations, allows the author to probe external agenda. approaches and focuses on establishing and pursue some challenging questions In her attempt to identify the pitfalls a locally-motivated conversation from within the system. of donor-sponsored peacemaking on resistance and peace building in However, it would be incorrect to initiatives that are driven by a desire Palestine. The result is a narrative that is assume that Sophie Richter-Devroe has to discipline women, Richter-Devroe’s rich with fresh insights and enlightening relied on state narratives to develop her book offers a glimpse of the popular anecdotes, and affords a cluster of new analysis. The author’s interactions with resistance and activism in Palestine solutions to old problems. women in Palestine form the basis of her since the Oslo Accords. It fleshes out observations. The blinkered view of an the impact of women’s involvement in outsider is conveniently edged out of the often ‘gendered’ politics. Through this debate from the very first sentence. As a approach, the author skillfully treads result, the insights appear to be authentic into a new terrain that steers and devoid of any Western biases. away from orthodoxy and Richter-Devroe’s academic treatise cultivates a new direction offers a layered analysis that tackles for scholarly discourses on complex problems in a methodical Palestine, women and the sense. It begins with a critical essence of political activism. appraisal of joint peace-building and The chapter on popular dialogue initiatives between Israeli resistance allows for a convenient and Palestinian women. While these transition from Richter-Devroe’s mechanisms have gained widespread condemnation of orthodox ideas to her support among international donors, assertive attempts to push for a radical they are intrinsically flawed because approach that accounts for informal
SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019 61 BOOK REVIEW
teachings are devotedly honoured The Music Too and nurtured to this very day, and help to bind the community together By Nadya Chishty-Mujahid as well as integrate newcomers into the ecovillage’s way of life. The pace of life in our lthough this is being postmodern world is so hectic and marketed as a coffee-table frantic that people often overlook Abook, Ecovillages Around Book Title: Ecovillages Around such endeavours at best, or laugh the World, is far less frivolous than at them at worst. On reading this many books of this genre. Styled as the World book, one begins to appreciate what a tribute to Hildur Jackson, who co- a mistake that is, especially since founded and headed the Gaia Trust Authors: Frederica Miller given climate change and global with her husband Ross Jackson, the warming (not to mention nuclear text puts together portraits of twenty Publisher: Findhorn Press warfare), there may come a time in notable environmentally-friendly the not-so-distant future when such ecovillages, ranging in location from Price: $18.35 villages become the only places places as diverse as Iceland to India. where humanity can truly thrive and The strongest representation is found ISBN: 9781844097432 survive. Until I read this book I was in countries such as Denmark, Italy, under the belief that the term ‘tree- and Australia that boast two villages hugger’ is derogatory. However, each in this remarkable collection. others, such as Auroville in India, I was shamed into realizing that Arranged in chronological order, take justified pride in the fact that appreciating trees actually provides the villages rank from the oldest, virtually every building is a work of believers with a sense of genuine established in Solheimer, Iceland art in itself. Words cannot do justice empowerment and, in fact, there is a in 1930 to Permatopia, Denmark to the beauty of the pictures used in photograph in the text of individuals in 2017. This fact indicates to the the book, and one can only imagine actually embracing a tree! reader how many decades have been how glorious some of these locations This is not to say that ecovillages spent by a few dedicated individuals might be in reality. An especially are not besieged by challenges. in creating havens of peaceful, striking image portrayed is that of Growing entirely organic crops environmentally-friendly coexistence the flower park in Lilleoru, Estonia without the assistance of pesticides all over the globe. Without which (as its name connotes) is quite is by no means an easy task, and exception, these are all places of literally a park laid out in the shape conserving energy sounds good culture, pacifism, and humanitarian of a symmetrical flower of six even on paper but can be notoriously tolerance. While religion is not petals. difficult in practice, especially when exactly a major lynchpin of such Credit must be given to one is faced with adverse factors endeavours, almost all these venues philanthropists as well as supportive related to climate and location. The possess a unique personal spirituality governments for enabling the founders villages are not necessarily situated which is aptly encapsulated by the of these areas to actualize their in ideal geographical venues; one numerous photographs of temples, dreams. Some of the founders were of them is located in the Amazonian gatherings, and community centres true visionaries, such as Mira Alfassa jungle! Naturally the inhabitants strewn throughout the book. who founded Auroville about fifty of ecovillages take their respective On a more practical level, several years ago and based her overarching belief systems very seriously, but they of the cities are careful, occasionally concepts on the teachings of the realize that they cannot compromise to the point of necessary neuroticism, revered sage Sri Aurobindo. These on matters such as healthcare and about how they conserve water and the education of children. energy. Human waste is invariably Nevertheless, these communities used as manure to fertilize plants, are admirably self-sufficient — a and water has to be recycled and couple of them even sport their own purified for the purpose of irrigation. brand of currency! Such a move Some cities focus on utilizing solar gives them a sense of autonomy panels for energy, while others and independence much valued by have ensured that their homes their inhabitants, and respected by utilize available energy in a manner tourists and visitors. In spite of the whereby its usage and efficiency is rosy picture presented by means of maximized. the writing and photographs, one What makes this book a true cannot help but feel humbled at the delight to peruse is the boundless immense amount of work that has creativity demonstrated by the gone into setting up these havens of inhabitants of ecovillages. Indeed, peace. They may be different, often the village of Huehuecoyotl was diametrically opposed, to some of originally established entirely for the great urban centres of the world, those individuals who wished to use but to quote the poet John Keats ecology as a form of art. But even “they have their music too.”
62 SOUTHASIA • JANUARY 2019