[Reader-list] Statement by the participants at the 'Siting Secularism Conference', 21 April 2002
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Fri Apr 26 11:42:43 IST 2002
Please help disseminate the below statement to publications in the US
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Press Statement Issued by the participants at the 'Siting Secularism
Conference', 21 April 2002, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, USA.
(http://www.oberlin.edu/~shansi/conference/)
We the participants of the Siting secularism conference express our
serious concern at the state sponsored pogrom launched against
Muslims of Gujarat for over 45 days now.
The incident at Godhra shocked us all and was immediately condemned
by various religious and human rights organisations. However, we
unequivocally condemn the cynical use of that incident by the RSS,
BJP, VHP and Bajrang Dal and the Gujarat state machinery to justify
the massacre that followed.
Several fact finding reports have revealed the pre-meditated nature
of the violence and the planned targeting of Muslim lives and
businesses with the full backing and connivance of the police and
state administration. Every government official who took a principled
position has been targeted, harassed and transferred. There is also
no doubt that the VHP and the RSS have been the primary organisors of
the carnage in Gujarat.
We are deeply alarmed by the continued refusal of the Indian
government to take action against the government of of Gujarat
headed by Mr. Narendra Modi and by the recent public pronouncements
of India's Prime Minister Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee describing the
Muslim communities of India and elsewhere as trouble makers.
We are equally concerned at the prospects of elections being held in
the state of Gujarat under the present conditions where the Muslim
community is in a state of siege.
We call upon all Indians to:
- Put pressure on the Prime Minister of India to dismiss the
government of Mr. Narendra Modi and commence criminal proceedings
against the Gujarat government and Sangh parivar organisations.
- Expose the use to which donations to the VHP especially from abroad
are being put
- Build Sub-continental solidarities with others involved in
contesting and fighting religious intolerance and the politics of
religious hatred in South Asia
Signed by:
Partha Chatterjee (Professor of Political Science and Director,
CSSSC, Calcutta, India)
Shyam Benegal (Film maker, Bombay, India)
Nira Benegal (Bombay, India)
Mushirual Hasan (Director, Academy of Third World Studies , Jamia
Milia Islamia, New Delhi)
Kum Kum Sangari (Nehru Memorial Library, New Delhi, India)
Ravi S. Vasudevan (Fellow,Centre for the Study of Developing
Societies, New Delhi, India)
Nivedita Menon (Delhi University, India)
Raveena Agarwal (Assoc. Professor of Anthropology, Smith College, USA)
Rachel Sturman (Asst. Professor of South Asian History; Fellow,
Society of Fellows, University of Michigan, USA)
Upendra Baxi (Professor of Law, University of Warwick, UK)
Akeel Bilgrami (Professor of Philosophy , Columbia University, New York, USA)
Gyan Prakash (Professor of History, Princeton University, New Jersey, USA)
Gyanendra Pandey (Professor of Anthropology and History, Johns
Hopkins University, USA)
Anuradha Dingwaney Needham (Professor, Oberlin College, Ohio, USA)
Tadhg Foley (Professor, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland)
Anupama Rao (Asst. Professor, History, Barnard College, Columbia
University, USA)
Shabnum Tejani (Lecturer, Barnard College, Columbia University, USA)
Tayyab Mahmud (Professor of Law, Cleveland State University, Ohio, USA)
Raza Mir (Professor of Management, Monmouth University, USA)
Ali Mir ( Assoc. Professor of Information Systems, Monmouth University, USA)
Biju Mathew (Prof. of Information Systems, Rider University, USA)
Srimati Basu (Asst. Professor, Anthropology, De Pauw University, Indiana, USA)
Satish Koluri (Pace University, New York)
Zoe Shernin (Asst. Professor Music, University of Oklahoma, USA)
Bhaskar Sarkar ( Asst. Professor, Film Studies, UC Santa Barbara, USA)
Amitava Kumar (Assoc. Professor, English, Penn State University, USA)
Bishnupriya Ghosh (Assistant Professor, English, UC Davis, USA)
Manu Bhagvan, ( Asst. Professor Manchester College, USA)
Suchi Kapila (Asst. Professor, Keynon College, Ohio, USA)
Sanjay Ruparelia (Cambridge University, UK)
Wendy Kazd (Assoc. Professor, Oberlin College, Ohio, USA)
Jennifer Bryan (Asst. Professor, Oberlin College, Ohio, USA)
Ravindran Sriramachandran (Columbia University, New York, USA)
Sivakumar Arumugam (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
Teena Purohit (Columbia University, New York, USA)
Neelam Srivastava ( Student, Oxford University, UK)
Poornima Paidipaty (Columbia University, New York, USA)
Malvika Kasturi (History Dept., Oberlin College, Ohio)
Priya Kumar (Asst. Professor, University of Iowa, USA)
Arvind Rajagopal (Assoc. Professor New York University, USA)
Josna Rege (English Department, Dartmouth College. columia
University, New York)
Rajan Krishnan (Columbia University, New York, USA)
Amardeeep Singh (Lehigh University, USA)
Christi A Merrill (Asst. Professor South Asian Literature, University
of Michigan, USA)
Jyotika Virdi (Asst. Professor, film/media studies, University of
Windsor, Canada)
Harsh Kapoor (South Asia Citizens Web, France)
Dwaipayan Sen (Oberlin College, Ohio, USA)
Shahana Siddiqui (Oberlin College, Ohio, USA)
Rashne Limki (Oberlin College, Ohio, USA)
Pamela de Bourg (Oberlin College, Ohio, USA)
Sarah Green (Oberlin College, Ohio, USA)
Morgon Williams ( Oberlin College, Ohio, USA)
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