aditya kumar's weblog

Months ago, I came across an article written by Col Athale(retd) at rediff.com. I have read Athale’s writings earlier and I have always found myself disagreeing with most of what he has to say. This article too, had a conclusion in the title itself — Peace with Pakistan: Chasing a mirage. But it did raise a very important point which made a very lasting impression about what the future could hold with regard to our western neighbor.

Colonel Anil Athale, in his article, indirectly points out that it was under Zia-ul-haq that Pakistan took a stance of radical Islam as a state policy. As a part of Zia’s adoption of Wahhabism, a very conservative and almost radical form of Islam, textbooks were changed in schools to accommodate religion as the basis of the state’s existence. In effect, what Zia’s textbooks of social studies, speculated to be still in effect, are seeking is “to create practicing Muslims rather than democratic citizens” (2), to put it mildly.

The author of the article should also be credited to taking this up with Prof. Abdul Hameed Nayyar, a prominent Pakistani physicist who is probably more famous as Pakistan’s man of peace. Professor Nayyar was, at that time in 1998, working on what was being preached out of Pakistani schoolbooks. In 2003, Nayyar went on to author a paper that created ripples in the country. “The Subtle Subversion: The State of Curricula and Textbooks in Pakistan” (1) clearly stated that what Pakistan was offering to its school going children was a very flawed version of history, among other things and facts, which were conveniently changed to nurture hatred for any non-Muslim, specially Hindus.

Not only that, the report mentioned that in the post-Independence days of Pakistan, the textbooks offered a much “real” version of history and even had admiration for Hindus. Chapters on MK Gandhi were a part of the curriculum while teachings of Ramayana and Mahabharata were also mentioned. This was contrasting because this text existed after the bloody experience of partition that both the countries went through and two gory wars.

What happened after Zia took over was a very systematic conversion of Pakistan from a democratic state to a country that based everything on religion. There have been many papers published since Nayyar’s, authored by Pakistani nationals and others, who have confirmed and validated the claims made by Prof. Nayyar. The textbooks have time and again mentioned the western powers and India specifically as sworn enemies of the state while endorsing the involvement of military forces in day to day governance of the state.

In his paper titled: “Islam, Democracy and Citizenship Education: An Examination of the Social Studies Curriculum in Pakistan”, professor Iftekhar Ahmad of Long Island University raises another important point that could very well be another branch of the concerns raised by Colonel Anil Athale: Could it be that it is this model of civic and citizenship education that is now hurting Pakistan the most?

Athale continues to say that If the texts of these books were changed for the better, it would still take a good two decades before we see any change coming out. There is no doubt in my mind about the validity of his statement.

Just a day ago, the Indian diplomat, SM Krishna, on his visit to Islamabad raised the issue of anti-India speeches made by LeT chief there in Pakistan. There is no doubt that the hate rhetoric coming out on the streets when Hafiz Saeed gives his speech should be objectionable to people in the Indian Government. What worries me is that the Textbooks of Pakistan, with their unending tirade against India, do not appear to be bothering much to the Indian administration.

References:
1. Islamisation of Curricula – A. H. Nayyar, link here.
2. Islam, Democracy and Citizenship Education – An Examination of the Social Studies Curriculum in Pakistan – Iftikhar Ahmad, link here.
3. Peace with Pakistan: Chasing a Mirage – Anil K Athale, link here.

In what was thought to be a verdict of far reaching consequence, back in 1997, the Supreme Court of India had upheld the verdict of the Kerala high court which said that bandhs are illegal and violate the Indian constitution. It was of the view, just like the bench in the Kerala High Court, that bandhs basically “interfere with the exercise of the fundamental freedoms of (other) citizens” while causing economical loss to the nation. If you are interested, you can read the judgment, here.

There was more to come. In 2002, hartals were declared illegal by the Supreme Court of India. In 2004, Shiv Sena was asked to pay a fine for organizing a bandh protesting the Bombay blasts. In 2004 the Calcutta High Court, in 2006 the Kerala High Court and in 2007 the Supreme Court again, have reiterated the verdict that these bandhs are illegal and not constitutional.

Yet, our political parties continue to organize bandhs from time to time. Today being the latest one. It is 9 am as I write this and Shiv Sena has already pelted stones to buses in Mumbai. 84 flights from Mumbai alone stand canceled. Calcutta airport is shut down. Bangalore is shut down. Shiv Sainiks are beating the auto drivers in the streets of Mumbai.

And these are the people who aspire to lead us.

To think that all this has been done to protest against the fuel price hike just does not add up. You do not need to be an economist to figure out that if the demands exceeds the supply, the price will rise. So, it is not congress that is responsible for the price increase in Petrol but the overall demand supply equation. The concept comes into play regardless of the party in power. But from where I see, our politicians cannot be made to understand this.

Thousands of crores of rupees are lost when a bandh like this cripples the country. Buses are stoned, rail coaches are torched. There is no regard for the law. These political figures who take constitutional oaths should be ashamed of themselves.

This is an exploitation of democracy. Its like raping the idea of it. And you know whats worse? These people could be leading us tomorrow.

And that reminds me of something. A few years ago, a journalist friend of mine (a reader of this blog) who is not from India asked me a question which meant something like- In India, do you vote and hope for a better leadership or do you vote for the less worse political party. The question came out of the blue but the answer was clear.

And this is the exact problem with our Democracy. Or whatever it is anyway.

Years back, when rediff.com was yet to be degraded and more often than not carried articles of substance, I remember reading a detailed story about Shoaib Malik’s Indian wife on the website. Of course, as we all know, Shoaib Malik has been in a state of denial since then but it is a strange cover-up (if it is one), especially since the whole Pakistani team had been treated to a gala dinner in Hyderabad. What adds more credibility to the rediff article is that it claims the source of the news to be Reuters.

The article is still online. If you are interested, it can be found here.

Then today evening, I read the news on another news portal that hits a new low every now and then. Timesofindia.com has Bal Thackeray fuming over Sania’s wedding plans — “Had her heart been Indian, it wouldn’t have beaten for a Pakistani”. I read that and wondered for a moment. What is wrong with Sania marrying a Pakistani? Would the supremo had said that if her prospective husband was of any other nationality or religion? Her heart is human and it is beating for a fellow human but then again, how can one expect Thackeray to understand things that involve human nature?

I am not a fan of Sania Mirza and I would be happy if she went ahead and proved me wrong because I believe that her best is behind her. And personally, I think there is a chance that she may miss the freedom she enjoys as a Muslim lady in India but these matters, I think, should be left for the individual to decide upon.

How very unreasonable we all have been in quietly discarding her choice of a beau. Who are we to judge and who gave us that right? Would there be such noise if Shoaib Malik was not from our hostile western neighbour?

One of the candidates for the BBMP election to be held today — I won’t name her, sent leaflets to her prospective voters through newspapers. One such leaflet made its way to me. While I must insist that the Candidate’s usage of English grammar (or the lack of it) should have nothing to do with deciding who to vote for, I am still reproducing here the contents of the leaflet, as is:

Dear Respected Voters

I know you have hopes from New Carporator, Who want order in every thing, Voters who have some issues which they want to be sorted out by the new Carporator, to do and facilities by solving Civic problem. Like Garbage, Drain or Rajakaluve cleaning specially in the rainy season, Mosquito problem in summer and they want health security, chain snatching incidents are also not uncommon, and they create a cascading psychological fear among women. We hope that Ward No.174 voters will give me one opportunity to show my civic championship I will work for their safety, healthy, security & welfare. I would like to show qualities in practical not by writing in serial one by one many school’s and colleges around the place and this will be an immense requirement of students is bigger stadium 1. water facility 2. swimming pool 3. government school conditions 4. road conditions 5. day to day theft door lock break problem 6. water pipe damages 7. free legal services to senior citizen and physical handicraft 8. Street dog bite problems specially for vehicle drivers by doing many other work want to make the HSR Layout is the pride of Bangalore, I COMMIT FOR HUMBLE, HONESTY AND HARD WORK.

No excuses for a month long hiatus but lots of things happening with Sports:

India’s Hockey team goes on a ‘strike’ because they are not paid their dues by Hockey India. This is how we treat those who are the best players of our National game.

And then, India’s first individual Olympic Gold Medalist says he wants to quit the game because of, none other than, the National Shooting Federation.

Is this because of our obsession with Cricket? If you ask me, I don’t think so. You can’t blame Cricket for the mismanagement and apathy towards other sports shown by Government Sports bodies.

In tennis, Sania Mirza would be quitting tennis soon. No, she is not unhappy with All India Tennis Association, as you may be guessing by now but she thinks it would be the right thing to do after marriage.

Meanwhile, The Big daddy of Marathi Manoos Inc, has issued a latest threat — Australian cricketers won’t be allowed to play in Maharashtra. How can they be allowed to play here when in Australia, Indians are being stabbed on an almost daily basis? Very considerate about Indians. What happened to this nationalism when his party ‘workers’ thrashed non-marathis on a regular basis?

So much for the sports.

Update: An updated version of the last para above has appeared in today’s edition of DNA in Bangalore. It made its way as a “Letter to the Editor” and talks about Indian Politicians approving of Violence, among a few other related topics.

Yesterday evening, at Reliance Timeout, for launch of Dilip D’souza’s book, “Roadrunner”, there was a very insightful conversation that happened. We had the author along with India’s best historian, Ramachandra Guha and Rahul Dravid talking about India, America, about few of the the many dots that connect the two democracies and how this particular book tries to find answers while attempting to understand America from an Indian’s eyes.

But while at it, I picked up P.Sainath’s, “Everybody Loves A Good Drought”. Sainath is probably the only journalist who has worked extensively in India’s most rural districts and has, time and again, attempted to bring out the causes of the poorest of India’s citizens. I first heard about Sainath when Vidarbha was at boil over farmer suicides (I have written about Vidarbha here). The land is still at a boil and with Telangana’s formation imminent now, they might be justified in asking for a separate state as people at helm of affairs in Maharashtra and people in media have conveniently ignored Vidarbha’s problems. But all this, despite being fodder for thought is another topic altogether.

So Sainath, in the introduction of the book, emphasizes that while India’s hunger “would not make for the dramatic television footage that a Somalia and Ethiopia would do”, that is precisely the challenge before a journalist because, I quote here, “while malnourished kids may look normal, yet lack of food can impair their mental and physical growth in such a way that they suffer its debilitating impact all their lives”.

And then there is the case of the “Number of poor”. Back in 1993, the Government of India set up an expert group to estimate the people living below the poverty line. The group, after arriving at a figure of 39% (people living below the poverty line) also recommended changes in the way the Government used to estimate poverty. In a later survey, discrediting the recommendations and the figure arrived at by the expert group, the Indian Administration came at a figure of 19%. But the story does not end here. In the time that was between these two figures, a few months, the Government of India cried out aloud in the World Summit for Social Development at Copenhagen — they presented a figure of 39.9% of people below poverty line. Why? More poor, more Donors, more money. No rocket science, this.

The year this happened was 1994 but aren’t we dealing with the same problems, 15 years on?

Coming back to the conversation between these three great intellectuals that I witnessed yesterday, there was one question from the audience, regarding India still being a developing nation and not a superpower. As a part of the response to the question, the author questioned back — Why do we need to be a superpower? Ramachandra Guha seemed to agree with it and while reading Sainath’s commentary in the introduction to his book last night, I found the answer in the question — Why can’t we be a better democracy first?

We may be the world’s largest democracy and be proud of it but we are far off from being a good democracy. I think its an obligation to each and every well-wisher who is a citizen of this nation, be it you, me, an ordinary citizen or a politician, to make the world’s largest democracy a better democracy. When that happens, maybe I’ll be much more content drawing parallels between the world’s oldest democracy and the largest one.

One year since the November 26 2008 carnage that happened in Mumbai and we have already found more important things to talk about.

We have, for example, witnessed a “furore in the House” (as promised) when one MLA chose to take his oath in another language but Marathi. We witnessed how a few elected to the office by the people can transform into goondas as and when convenient.

If only all the promises were kept and taken in the same vain by them who were making them, our country would have been a much better place to live in.

We have also witnessed a national hero proclaiming that He is proud to be a Maharashtrian but reinstated that Mumbai is of whole India. As always, he got his priorities right but then we also witnessed the grand old man, the self-proclaimed big daddy of the Marathi Manoos, telling the former that his comments had hurt, no prizes for guessing who, the Marathi Manoos.

Never has the “Proud to be an Indian” comment raised so much controversy.

Then, of course, we also know that calling the city “Bombay” (and not “Mumbai”) can get you thrown out of the city limits.

This is November 26, a year after. Of prime importance, these things.

Postscript: Coming in just now, the political party that owns the goondas who fulfilled the promise mentioned above has put up a hoarding in Mahim paying homage to the martyrs of 26/11. But only the Marathi Manoos among those heroes find a space there. Bangalore’s Major Unnikrishnan and Dehra Dun’s Hawaldar Bisht have been conveniently forgotten — their sins being that they were not the Marathi Manoos. Look at the picture here and you will notice, the political heroes who have put this hoarding up have their own faces enlarged on the poster — larger than the faces of the people they are supposedly paying homage to.