[Reader-list] On Free and Fearless Speech and Listening

[Rahul Asthana]

Shuddha, 
Thanks for continuing this debate. I would like to
quickly mention a few things.
People like Vedavati are no longer an inconsequential
fringe group.They have to be engaged, for the same
reason that they try to engage us.I have found
Islamophobic elements in all stratas of society. So,
before trying to figure out why Ms. Jogi thinks the
way she does,lets give her enough respect and figure
out why I think the way I do.Ashutosh Varshneya's
thesis seems an important starting point. 
This is the url:
http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr101.html 
And these are the conclusions for people in a hurry:
-----------------------------------------------
Quote
-----------------------------------------------------
Conclusions and Recommendations

Deadly ethnic riots are not random, unpredictable
events. They are responses to certain conditions that
can be understood, analyzed, and prevented. 
Governments can reduce the likelihood that ethnic
riots will break out by increasing the perception by
potential rioters that participating in riots is
risky. 
While events at the national or regional level may
spark ethnic violence in India, the response to those
sparks—ranging from increased ethnic tension to deadly
ethnic riots—occurs at the local level. Therefore,
explanations of why some Indian communities respond
violently to ethnic provocations expressed at the
national level while others do not must be found in
factors operating primarily at the local level. 
Inter-ethnic civic associations in India are very
effective in the effort to prevent or reduce violence.
They help dispel inflammatory rumors, identify and
isolate rabble-rousers, hide and protect potential
victims, and assist the police in crowd control and in
their investigations. Inter-ethnic civic associations
also provide pre-established networks of communication
across ethnic lines that can prove invaluable during
the chaotic circumstances that lead to ethnic riots. 
Civic associations in India are effective in stemming
violence only if they promote the mutual interests of
two ethnic groups in concrete ways. Although further
research is needed, it appears that trade unions,
professional groups, opposition political parties, and
other civic associations that represent mutual
political, economic, and social interests across
ethnic lines are more effective in preventing violence
than civil society groups whose primary focus is the
promotion of inter-ethnic dialogue. 
The most common response by citizens seeking to
prevent ethnic violence is to criticize and pressure
the state in an effort to make it accountable for its
failure to take appropriate measures to prevent
violence. While this strategy is important, a
different strategy that focuses on building strong
inter-ethnic civic associations at the community level
may ultimately prove more effective in reducing the
outbreak of violence in India.
-------------------------------------------------------
Unquote
-------------------------------------------------------

This article actually concerns itself with riots, but
I think it can be equally applied to bigotry or
religious fascism. Coming back to figuring out myself,
I come from an area of a city which was muslim
majority,still is.I have difficulty thinking of
Muslims as the other group.Even if I do, I dont have
to borrow muslim  stereotypes from Saudi Arabia or
Pakistan. I can find them closer home, I just have to
knock. Problem is, then they cease to be a stereotype,
but whatever.I think I can sacrifice the luxury of
painting the world in broad strokes.But have I always
been not guilty?What about the time when I visited USA
and held my bag closer to me when I saw an African
American coming from the other end of a dark alley? 
What was I thinking ? All nig*** are criminals?
The assumption that people cannot be behaviourally
classified in a matrix of race,religion is far from
intuitive, in my humble opinion. In fact, the opposite
is true.We tend to make broad generalizations about
groups of people we dont know.Important thing is to
realize that they are just that, broad
generalizations. This is where Ashutosh Varshneya's
point of civic interaction gains importance.
regards
Rahul

--- Shuddhabrata Sengupta <shuddha at sarai.net> wrote:

> Dear All,
> 
> I have been following with some interest the
> exchange occasioned by a 
> posting (an announcement/invitation , actually) that
> called for people 
> to join a demonstration against the oppression of
> Muslim women by extra 
> judicial bodies like 'Shariah Jamaat's' through
> instruments such as 
> Fatwas. The invitation was issued by several
> organizations and groups 
> based in Mumbai (Awaaz-e-Niswaan, Akshara, Forum
> Against Oppression of 
> Women, Hukook-e-Niswaan, Mahila Sanghatana, India
> Centre For Human 
> Rights, PUKAR (Gender & Space project), Special Cell
> for Women and 
> Children, Women's Research and Action Group). The
> posting was made on 
> the 21st of of July, and by the next morning, had
> received a rejoinder 
> from a Ms. Vedavati Ravindra Jogi that responded to
> the posting by 
> stating that as "demonstrations are of no
> use...muslims are not 
> accepting common civil code under the pretext of
> "secularism, pluralism' 
> etc.etc. first ask them to accept the law of the
> land or else pack them 
> off to pakistan or any arab country."
> 
> Vedavati Jogi's posting received several critical
> responses. And she 
> retaliated by pitching the debate a notch higher,
> saying that she wanted 
> 'those muslims who did not obey the rule of the
> land' to be thrown out. 
> and further, that the letters criticizing her,
> betrayed a 'typical 
> muslim mind' and suggested that such people really
> wanted everyone to 
> adopt 'shariah', and went on to state that a comment
> critical of the 
> Indian Army's record (particularly its record of
> rape and violence in 
> Kashmir) showed that the person who had made that
> comment should also be 
> 'thrown out of India'. Finally, she ended by
> offering us the personal 
> revelation that she is a Maharashtrian married to a
> Kasmiri Pandit who 
> has had to leave Kashmir, and finally demanded 'why
> shouldn't we throw 
> you (the person who had made this particular
> comment) out of this country'
> 
> The response to Vedavati's rants has been equally
> interesting. There are 
> three strands, one that chooses to engage with
> Vedavati, one that asks 
> in horror 'Why doe . and a third that asks for
> people to ignore Vedavati 
> and continue with other topics that might be more
> interesting and more 
> relevant to the main purposes of this list.
> 
> But in the middle of all this, the orginal posting
> and it's intent is 
> totally forgotten. Let us remember that the original
> posting was an 
> invitation to demonstrate and take action against
> Islamic 
> fundamentalists, and Muslim patriarchs and their
> oppression of Muslim 
> women, as seen, specifically in the 'Imarana'
> episode. Secandly, let us 
> also remember that the signatories of the invitation
> are a number of 
> individiuals who can be identified as Muslim by
> their names, (they 
> actually outnumber the non-Muslim signatories), and
> that at least two 
> organizations identified as people giving this call
> are Awaaz e Niswan, 
> and Hukook e Niswan has a special interest in the
> question of the rights 
> of Muslim women. So you have several Muslim
> individuals, two 
> organizations especially focused on the realities
> that Muslim women live 
> with calling for an action critical of the
> patriachal tendencies 
> represented by Islamic obscurantist clergy. In
> effect you have, Muslims, 
> calling for criticism and change and transformation
> of the everyday 
> realities that Muslims in India live with (which in
> fact include the 
> Shariah (and its varied interpretations) and its
> application in legal 
> and extra legal contexts in India)
> 
> In response to this, you have a person, who says
> that all that the 
> 'typical Muslim mind wants' is the application of
> the Shariah. And to 
> amputate arms and legs. There is a patent, and
> farcical absurdity in 
> this. If Muslim individuals, or organizations
> identified with the 
> interests of Muslims (after all Muslim women are
> also Muslim) demand a 
> critical attitude to the questions of the way in
> which Islamic tenets 
> are interpreted or practiced. then they can by no
> stretch of imagination 
> be accused of desiring the application of that which
> they explicitly 
> oppose to the general population.
> 
> I am saying this at some length because I think the
> attitude that 
> Vedavati Jogi's postings represents presents us with
> an interesting 
> problem that I have encountered not only amongst
> people who share her 
> 'Hindutva' leanings. And the attitude, if we can
> break it down 
> analytically amounts to this - first identify the
> speakers of a speech 
> act and the issue that the speech act addresses,
> then attack the 
> speakers, and not the speech act, third create a web
> of associations 
> around the issue that can actually obscure the
> content of the speech 
> act. Thus, Vedavati, identifies the speakers as
> Muslims or 'of a muslim 
> mindset', second, she identifies the issue, shariah,
> third she creates a 
> neat identification between the speakers and the
> issue, (Muslims and 
> Shariah) ignoring the fact that the speakers in
> effect are calling for 
> an action to interrogate if not criticize the issue.
> 
> Some Hindus do this when they imply that every
> 'Muslim' must answer for 
> Godhra. Some Muslims  do this when they blow up
> Londoners (including 
> Muslims) in 'response' to what happens in Iraq
> (regardless of the fact 
> that some of those blown up may have been amongst
> the millions who 
> marched against the war in Iraq in London). Some
> Liberal or Leftist 
> Nationalist Secular ideologues do this when they
> igonre the fact that 
> the Indian military kills three children taking part
> in a wedding 
> procession in South Kashmir, (no mention of this
> recent incident in 
> Parliament till date) even as they call the
> (lamentable) Lathi Charge in 
> Gurgaon (in which no one has died, thankfully) a
> 'Jalianwala Bagh'. I 
> have at least heard Yasin Malik, a leader of the
> JKLF, offer a public 
> apology to the Kashmiri Pandit community for the
> conditions that led to 
> their exile. But I am yet to hear of any high
> ranking officer of the  
> Indian Army offering a public apology for the
> atrocities that it has 
> committed in Kashmir, the Punjab and the North
> Eastern states of India. 
> I have not even heard a single politician, or public
> figure committed to 
> Indian nationalism offer that apology, or even a
> simple statement of 
> regret for the death and disappearance of tens of
> thousands in these 
> places.
> 
> Yet, those who suffer violence, must always be asked
> upon to apologize 
> when some amongst their community do violence unto
> others. Of course I 
> wish that Muslim intellectuals and public figures
> (and non Muslim 
> intellectuals and public figures) had the decency to
> speak out more 
> often against the fact that for a long time now, the
> Muslim community is 
> held at ransom by thugs in the garb of maulanas,
> imams and 'community 
> leaders'. But this is as relevent as demanding that
> any intellectual, or 
> public figure, or decent human being who is neither
> an intellectual or a 
> 
=== message truncated ===


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com