[Reader-list] nandigram taslima and identity politics-an appeal

[Asit asitreds]

dear friends and comrades

the grim communalization of events at Calcutta has deflected  and
disoriented the issue of dispossession of peasants in proposed sezs the
present neoliberal offensive and the process of recolonisation

both the organized left and right are increasingly becoming susceptible to
fringe and lunatic communal out fits of all denominations this should be
seen in the context of the ghastly carnage of Gujarat in the year 2002 the
ram Janmbhumi and ram setu controversy where the entire country is held
hostage to the diabolical designs of the Hindu fasict forces led by the
sangh parivar while the trauma of communal violence can be backed to the
partition with a long string of communal violence from jabbalpur tatanagar
bhagalpur Varanasi Meerut Bombay and so on the politics of fascist rabid
hindutva politics is obvious this hoever doesnt exonerate the soft hindutva
poltics of congress giving issues to the sangh parivar on a
platter.Thenandigram issue was about the dispossession of peasants and
in the
subsequent events the human rights violation the burning of houses sexual
assaults on women and so on and these were very serious issues and demanded
serious attention,the all india minority forum by demanding the expulsion of
taslima from calcutta has put the issue of neoliberal depradtion and
resulting dispossesion of peasantry on the back burner severly deflecting
the bread and butter issues of the toiling workesrs and peasants by
communalising the issue and seriously curtailing the burning issue of gender
justice and right to expression in South Asia.

               Without falling in to the trap of Islamophobia and the
discourse of so called one sided war on terror by US imperialism and it's
NATO allies. One should   seriously look at the issue of gender oppression
and minority rights to expression etc in South Asia. This should be looked
in the context of the incompleteness of democratic tasks and incomplete and
fractured modernity in third world societies where the rulling elites have
seriously compromised with medival,   obscurantists, patrichial ,
Brahminical, revivalist  feudal forces on the other hand  opening of the
countries for imperialist loot .

  It is really unfortunate that comrade Biman Bose asking Taslima nasreen to
leave Calcutta though he reformulated his statement a day later. This is
like playing in to the hand of revivalist,obscurantists ,muslim
fundamentalist forces .the case of Taslima Nasreen is not only the issue of
right to expression but the entire gamut gender justice in south
asia.Taslima Nasreen has been articulating the medival oppression and
centuries of suffering of Muslim women in Bangladesh & south asia and she
has been hounted out of her own country.It is incumbent on the progressive
democratic forces and especially the women's movement in his country to
stand by her and demand that the government of India provides her residence
and protection. The entire Taslima episode has to seen in the light of
Muslim women in the country loosing thier grounds vis-a-vis   the long
pending gender justice and equal rights. Both the congress and the BJP have
played a dirty game to deny democratic rights to Muslim women communal sing
the issue and indulging in to the vote bank politics. Rajiv Gandhi seriuosly
curtailed the rights of the muslim women in the wake of the Shah bano
judgement of supreme court by passing the muslim women's bill playing in to
the hands of muslim funadmentalist thus rolling back the issue of gender
justice in muslim societies by decades.It has became a tough battle now.

The BJP in equally opperrtunist communal stance has tried always in the
troubled waters by demanding uniform civil code and now demanding
citizenship rights for Taslima Nasreen on the other hand it shamelessly
demand the expulsion of poor bangaladeshi workers and terrorising the entire
muslim community in the country in to the second class citizenship and
keeping them in the state of perpetual fear and insecurity . It is needless
to repeat the horrifying tales of rape and murder in the communal riots the
hands of sangh parivar is dripping with blood of innocent muslim man .women
and childern.The gruesome blood bath in Gujrat 2002 is the blackest spot
inpost independent Indiawhich has forced  us to hang out heads in shame.

 It is high time the progressive ,democratic and the women's movement in
India to look at the Taslima Nasreen incident and the issue of gender
justice of muslim women in right earnest. In this context one should
properly look at the issue of minority and majority communalism in proper
perspective. Both minority communalism and majority communalism are two
sides of the same coin. they seek to role back all the achivements of
democratic movement and represent absolutely oppressive mediaval ,
revivalist ,obscurantist , patrichial forces wanting to recreate mediaval
barbarism and slavery. Both hindu and muslim talibanism are extremely anti
women and anti democratic. I

  in the light of the above we should look at identity politics in proper
perspective, their are identities and identities : caste, gender,religeous,
national, racial , sexual orientation and so on. Some are oppressed ,some
are oppressors . There is democratic   content in the liberation struggles
of the oppressed identities like women, dalits , gays and lesbians , ethnic
religeous and linguistic and national minorities and they should be firmly
supported by the progressive and democratic movement while opposing the
fasicist identity politics of hindutva represented by the sangh parivar ,
nazism, zionsism, white racism homophobia   and so on.



        Therefore we appeal to all the progressive,democratic and women's
orgnizations to stand by taslima nasreen and the struggle for equal rights
of muslim women in south asia and give a decisive rebuff to obscrantist,
revivalist , brahminical , communal,mediaval feudal forces .



  with revolutionary greetings.



Asit