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Saturday, December 19, 2009

[ALOCHONA] Border killings continue despite BSF assurance of tolerance



Border killings continue despite BSF assurance of tolerance: FS

 
 

Foreign Secretary Mijarul Quayes on Saturday said Bangladesh expects progress in the long running issue of sharing waters of the Teesta River during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to New Delhi next month.(UNB, Dhaka)

Hasina's visit deferred due to the Copenhagen climate change summit is likely to take place on January 11. The visit was scheduled on December 19 but both Hasina and Indian PM Dr Manmohan Singh were engaged in Copenhagen.

During the planned visit several agreements and Memorandum of Understandings are likely to be signed to facilitate transportation of India's Over Dimensional Consignments (ODC) for Palatana power project in Tripura, strengthening Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institute to remove the hassle of certification of Bangladeshi export goods, facilitating Bangladesh -Nepal and Bangladesh-Bhutan connectivity through India.

To arrive at a mandate from the Hasina-Manmohan summit, Dhaka sought a date from Delhi to hold ministerial-level Joint River Commission (JRC) meeting before the PM's visit. The Indian side has not yet responded to the Bangladesh's intention.

In reply to a question the Foreign Secretary said giving facility to India to transport its ODCs through Ashuganj Port is not a transit.

Asked about the killing of Bangladeshi citizens by Indian BSF, Quayes said the Bangladesh side keeps sustained pressure on the Indian side to stop the killing. Despite assurance from India to show maximum tolerance by BSF, incidents of killing are taking place along the border. "We're keeping pressure and we're trying to find out other ways to address the problem," he said.

On Bangladesh-Myanmar, Quayes said the Foreign Secretary level consultations will be held here this month where existing issues like border trade, banking facility, repatriation of Rohingya refugees, maritime boundary, etc will be discussed.

However, he said a technical level meeting between Bangladesh and Myanmar on maritime boundary issue will be held in Dhaka on January 8. He said regular engagement with Myanmar will help address the issues between the two countries.

TBT Report adds: One Bangladeshi National was killed and eight other received bullet injuries as Indian Border Security Force (BSF) opened fire on unarmed Bangladeshis in last one week as three more Bangladeshis were wounded shot by BSF along Thakurgaon border on Wednesday morning.

The latest victims along Thakurgaon border were identified as Azizul Islam, 25, son of Wasu Mohammad, Biplop, 25, son of Ratan and Srikant, 30, son of Monindra of Deurjhari village under the Sadar upazilla of Thakurgaon.

Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) sources said a group of local cattle traders were returning home with cattle from India at around 4.00 am. When they reached near the pillar number 388/3-S, BSF of Hatkhola camp opened fire on them, leaving the three injured.

Earlier, on November 14 BSF killed a Bangladeshi cattle trader along Hapania border Sapahar upazila in Naogaon and injured five Bangladeshis as they were shot by BSF along Chapainawabgonj and Lalmonirhat border.

Meanwhile, the total number of Bangladeshis killed by BSF during the period from January 1 to Novem-ber 14 rose to 84.

http://www.thebangladeshtoday.com/leading%20news.htm



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[ALOCHONA] Peenuk says...



India has no intention of diverting water
 
The outgoing Indian High Commissioner, Mr. Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, was interviewed by Syed Fahim Munaim and Rezaul Karim of The Daily Star.

Excerpts:
Daily Star (DS): Today is your last day as the high commissioner to Bangladesh. It is almost three years that you have been here. Tell us about your feelings, and about your achievements.

Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty (PRC): I am a Bengali and so is my wife, and we have spent in total six and a half years in Bangladesh. So, our interest in Bangladesh is not merely diplomatic, it is also personal. We naturally have a large circle of friends here.

I am very satisfied, and my only regret is that I am not able to stay on for the visit of your honourable prime minister to India. Now my successor who is coming here on the 26th will have the honour, and I shall surely watch with great interest from Bangkok, my next mission.

DS: How would you describe the bilateral relations between Bangladesh and India? What do you think are the roadblocks on the way to better relations between the two neighbours? What are the areas that you think should be explored?
PRC: I think Indo-Bangla relations are breaking new ground thanks to the two new governments. There is a renewed commitment to try to find innovative solutions to the problems. I have tried very hard to see how we can settle some very old issues. I think that a mutually accommodating attitude and the will to solve them are present now.

For example, take the issue of land boundary and enclaves. We are working on very innovative things. What do the people in the enclaves want? For example, there are Bangladeshi farmers who live in the Bangladesh side of the border but have to go to the Indian side for cultivation. We checked this during a joint visit, and we found that the people don't want to leave the land on which they have settled, worked, and have farms. My solution has been generally accepted in the sense that it is doable, and we feel that it is a new way of doing things. We suggested a redrawing of the international border. A Bangladeshi farmer has to go across the border everyday and runs the gamut of officialdom -- BDR, BSF. Of course, he has a permit to do it. Similarly for the Indian farmers who have to cross the international border into Bangladesh to cultivate land. These pieces of land are all contiguous. So, there is a possibility that we can redraw the international border and finish this problem once and for all. Of course, we will need a joint survey, which we will start doing soon after the PM's visit.

DS: Will it come up during the PM's visit?
PRC: I am sure this will be discussed. The last point about the land boundary is that 6.2 kilometers are un-demarcated. People tend to see these three little segments, and forget that there are 4096 kilometers of border, which we have demarcated. So, it is a question of how you look at the glass, as half full or half-empty. My suggestion, which seems to be generally acceptable, is to draw the line along the status quo. Though these three segments are not in a position of strategic importance, let us finish it off.

DS: Has any progress been made in this regard?


PRC: I think this issue has been discussed at the highest level. But it needs to be implemented now and will naturally need redrawing of the borders. You need constitutional amendment. You have to get people on board, and carry out a survey. Only the operational details need to be settled. By and large there is agreement in principle.

DS: This is Sheikh Hasina's first visit after coming to power. There are a lot of issues in the public domain. Many say that Hasina and Manmohan Singh will resolve and clarify them. How do you view all these things?


PRC: I am very optimistic, because I know what kind of discussions we had between the officials at the higher levels. Our prime ministers have actually met twice, once in the NAM summit and then in Trinidad and Tobago in the Commonwealth summit. So, a dialogue has started. I look at the visit as culmination of this dialogue. We hope there will be a joint declaration. All the issues of bilateral significance will be covered. Let me say that we will surprise you with what will happen.

DS: Yes, it is in the air that something dramatic will come up out of this discussion.
PRC: No, nothing dramatic. I mean there will be no earth-shaking event, but there will be solutions. We will break some new ground. For example, in the power sector, we have promised 100 MW of power. India is not a power surplus country, yet we realise that this is an important area, and that is why this offer of 100MW power. I think the grid connectivity work will start soon after the agreement.

DS: Any other areas on where you would have agreements?
PRC: I think another important area would be transit for Bangladesh to Nepal and Bhutan. We are looking at railway transit, and we have agreed to Rohanpur-Singala. We are looking at the other route, which is through Holdibari-Jhilaihati. We hope that a motor vehicle agreement will be signed, or at least work will start, immediately after the visit so that Bangladeshi trucks can go to Bhutan and Nepal. And vice versa, Indian trucks can come up to certain points to offload goods.

The other major issue is transportation of containers overland from India and Bangladesh to each others' territories. I think the train route and waterways are viable for container movement. Once containers start coming and going, the cost of trade will go down.

DS: Can you tell us about the issue of harbouring of insurgents or wanted criminals, which has been on top of the agenda of both the countries for quite some time?
PRC: You know we have a very long border between us. Sometimes what happens is that people who are wanted in one country escape to the other and seek refuge. This issue is bigger than that because there are insurgent leaders, and there are terrorists. They do not believe in borders. So, when we have information, we pass it on. I am very happy to say that our cooperation in this field is expanding. I am very happy that the Bangladesh government is very sensitive. Every Bangladesh government had promised that your territory would not be used for any insurgency or terrorism against India. We have always accepted that assurance. I am happy to say that we are working very closely. Let me say that India is not interested in any Bangladeshi who is wanted here and we will not give refuge to anybody. We will be happy to hand them over to Bangladesh. I am confident that it is already happening. I am sure this will send a huge message to those who want to disturb the peace and destabilise the region, and that Bangladesh and India are not the places where they can get away with it. We will naturally pursue it vigorously because we think security is essential to our development, to our well-being and to our future prospects.

DS: What kind of cooperation are you getting from the government?PRC: I think exchange of information and intelligence is now an established fact. We are exchanging information. Sometimes what happens is that I may want Mr X, but he cannot be found. It is always a possibility. But, Mr Y can be found. You know that way it can be done. So, we do exchange information for this kind of thing and we do believe that this is working in the sense that they have got the message. They are, in fact, on the run. And when they run into India, we will catch them.

DS: There has been a lot of news about Ulfa in the media. Are there any specific persons in Bangladesh who you think belong to that group and should be handed over to you?
PRC: Yes, there are some people who we know are here and we hope that some kind of arrangement can be worked out so that they can surrender to the Indian authority.

DS: You know that the trial of Bangabandhu murder has come to a close. There have been efforts by our government to bring back the convicted killers absconding abroad. Some say some of them may be in India. What is your view about it? There are some media reports that two convicted killers are in jail in India.


PRC: I think there is some confusion about it. I can confirm that the two people who are in jail in Tihar are two brothers who were involved in the August 21, 2005, grenade attack on an Awami League rally. These two gentlemen were later on caught in India in connection with terrorist attack in Varanasi and perhaps in Hyderabad. I think they are members of Huji. Hence they are in our jail facing a case that has been lodged against them. It was discovered only later that they were also wanted in Bangladesh. There is a judicial process that is going on in India. We will have to see how we can work this out. But, I think there is will be no hesitation in the government of India if the government of Bangladesh wants them back to prosecute them for the crimes they committed, or alleged to have committed, in Bangladesh. We will certainly hand them over if necessary.

About the convicted killers of Bangabandhu, I think there is no confirmation about that. I think that is simply a speculative report. Let me say in principle, if such people are found in India we will certainly hand them over. But, I personally have doubts as to whether the convicted killers are hiding in India because I think they will not feel comfortable there. The two in jail are also very young. I think the media are confused about the two issues.

DS: There is a huge trade gap between India and Bangladesh. How can India help Bangladesh in this regard?
PRC: I don't think India is the only country that Bangladesh has adverse trade balance with. However, we do take on board Bangladesh's concern about trade imbalance. We have tried to see what kind of concessions we can give. In January 2008, the government of India provided duty-free entry of Bangladeshi products to India under Safta. Bangladesh as an LDC is already enjoying this duty-free access into the Indian market -- except for, what we call under Safta, the negative list. The negative list has also been reduced from about 700 plus to about 400. Bangladesh provided the list of 101 items which they would like India to consider for duty-free entry. I think more than 50 percent of that has been included. Where we have not been able to provide duty-free entry we have used tariff free quota system. We have provided duty-free market access to 8 million pieces readymade garments, of which I think you have not used 60 percent or so yet. Among the trade concessions, these are the two major issues.

Apart from that, people talk of barriers. Trade can be facilitated if you remove congestion and go for containerised transportation. I don't think removal of trade imbalance will happen in the near future. You must understand that the two economies are entirely different. India being the larger economy certainly has a bigger market. And, Bangladesh has goods that it can manufacture and sell. I think that Bangladeshi exporters and producers of goods need to go to the Indian market and do a lot more advertising. If people do not know what Bangladesh is making, then there is a problem. There is a communication gap. I think this is a very important factor.

Individuals, groups or the Export Promotion Bureau can do it. A combination of all these will help Bangladeshi exports. We have also talked of opening up more border trade stations, for example in Tripura and Mizoram. Mizoram actually needs goods from Bangladesh. That is how Bangladesh's market can expand in India. There is an element of infrastructure and official support which needs to be looked at also.

DS: Regarding obtaining visas for India, there seem to be a lot of hassles. How do you think getting visas could be made easier so that people of both the countries can have more people to people contacts?
PRC: India is the only country that gives the Bangladeshis the maximum number of visas, over half a million a year. The point is that the demand is much more. Now we have gone electronic. When someone wants to go to India, he has to log on to the website and then get an e-token with date and time. But, of course, emergency cases for medical reasons are handled differently. I can assure you that if you have a genuine reason, and you have an e-token that is scheduled for 15 or 20 days later, but you need to travel in two to three days, we are here to entertain those visas.

DS: How do you want to dispel the concerns of Bangladeshis people on Tipaimukh Dam and water sharing treaty?
PRC: India has no intention of diverting water from Bangladesh. Bangladesh will continue to get what it ought to get legitimately. We have more than 54 common rivers. The only agreement that we have is the Ganges Water Treaty, which is working well. You will be happy to know that Bangladesh got more water than its share. Whatever people might say, I am not going to listen to any argument because I have all the facts and figures, and we got them jointly. But, the other major issue is a Teesta water treaty. Technical people will have to do a hydrological study so that we can address the issue quickly. There are other issues related to water. There are some border rivers which need dredging. If you don't dredge them the banks break, so we need river-bank protection, we need drinking water and minor irrigation schemes on the border rivers. These are all held up because of lack of technical agreements. I am sure that the Teesta water treaty will come up during your prime minister's visit.

DS: Has any hydrological study started?
PRC: Well, we have started a study on Teesta. Other rivers will be taken up one by one. It depends on the two sides coming to an agreement. Now, you talk about Tipaimukh. Actually, nothing has happened yet. But there are a few issues that people should know. Number one, it is not a water diversion project. It was essentially a flood control project. Later on, we felt that we could also produce electricity. You would be surprised to know that the concept of having reservoirs in the upstream actually emanated from Bangladeshi experts in the '80s, when we were discussing flood action programmes or the Brahmmaputra-Ganga link channel. Bangladesh proposed that we should actually build reservoirs in the upstream. Tipaimukh is part of that concept so that some water can be pulled back during the rainy season and released during the lean season. This is the concept which was pioneered by the Bangladeshi experts and it is there black and white in the in the Flood Action Programme. If you read the account of the parliamentary committee, you will find the concepts were developed during that era. I think it is regrettable that people have tried to politicise it.

Our prime minister has told your prime minister that India is not going to take any steps if there is any evidence that it will cause harm to Bangladesh.

DS: Coming to the issue of Asian Highway, there is a perception that India is reluctant about Bangladesh's proposal to have a route through Cox's Bazar connecting Myanmar. Some have the perception that India has become a barrier for Bangladesh regarding Asian Highway. How would you comment on that?
This is funny. People are using misinformation only to create confusion and fear of India. And some are planting in the minds of people that India is against this thing and India does not want Bangladesh to do this and that. This, I think, is a legacy of the past. I maintain that there is no future in anti-India and India fear politics. I look forward to the new generations, the internet generation.

Having said that I would say that Bangladesh could have joined the treaty, but it chose not. Unless you are a member you cannot decide which route you would want to take. If Bangladesh prefers a certain route, it should have joined the treaty and then could say look we want this route. But it did not. Whatever routes were discussed at that time have been approved. Bangladesh is now seeking a route to Myanmar, let there be another route to Myanmar. We have no problem. But, yes we are interested in transit. It is not a state secret. This issue has been written down in the treaty signed by Bangladesh and India in 1974, and has been renewed every time needed. It is, in fact, called the Trade and Transit Treaty, but we have not been able to implement it. I think that anybody who says transit is against Bangladesh's interests, that it will destroy Bangladesh's sovereignty and security, needs to rethink because in today's world there are transits everywhere -- transit is an economy. And, we are not going to do anything without the consent of Bangladesh, without actually agreeing to arrange for transit. Let me put it like this, if we sign a motor vehicle agreement, Bangladeshi trucks can go to Kathmandu to pick up goods. Is there anything wrong with it? But, your objection is that Indian trucks should not come. If that is to the advantage of Bangladesh, then where is the problem? If Indian trucks come to Bangladesh, not to Dhaka but to Benapole, where there is big yard to offload goods and things can be distributed from there, will it destroy Bangladesh's sovereignty?

DS: Is there anything happening on transit?
PRC: No, there is no agreement on transit. We are discussing a motor vehicle agreement, which is road transit. We already have waterway transit, what we are now looking at is how we can expand that agreement to include, for example, Ashuganj water port where goods could be offloaded and then taken by road to Agartala.We requested transit for the turbines that will go from India to Agartala for Balakhana power project. We have invited Bangladesh to take part in the project, and we can offer some electricity. Two grids, Bheramara in your side and in Binodpur on our side, are very close, and we will connect it there. And, there will be a very high-level technical feasibility study. Once the grid is connected, the switching arrangements will be on the Bangladeshi side. There will be joint efforts to do that.

DS: You know Bangladesh does not have that much of infrastructure, especially in the railway sector. Does India have any plan to invest in this sector?
PRC: We are discussing a range of projects in the railway sector, including rehabilitation of certain old structures, lines etc., building of railway bridges, connecting certain points like Agartala and Akhaura, and reopening of certain routes we had traditionally, but have not been used. All of these are being examined. In addition to that there is a railway workshop in Parbotipur. We have offered to modernize it to build coaches, or at least assemble them. We are thinking of meeting Bangladesh's requirements of coaches and locomotives. There are some technical issues there, which are going to be resolved. For this the government of India will give lighter credit and for dredging. A lot of discussion is going on about dredging, for which India will be happy to give a lighter credit or grants for example. I think there are a lot of things that can be done.

DS: Maritime boundary has been the other issue. Bangladesh has gone for arbitration. Do you think there is a different way of handling it?
PRC: Well, there are only two ways of handling it. One is the bilateral and the other is arbitration. It is well laid out in the international agreement to which we all are party. We all have to follow the rules. Bangladesh has decided to do so.

DS: Were there any efforts at bilateral level?
There were efforts, but not very sustained. Because Bangladesh and India never talked for twenty five years on this issue. Only in the last one year that have we had two meetings. Clearly, there is difference of opinion on the claims and on offshore drilling and other issues where each country thinks along its line. So, I call it an overlapping area when we have some difference. And, I think let us go through the arbitration that has been initiated. We already have nominated arbitrators. We have to have some common arbitrators and names have been exchanged. So, the process is on.

The issue will come up during the PM's visit. We don't have any restricted agenda between India and Bangladesh. We will discuss everything that is relevant.
 



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[ALOCHONA] ‘Smoking gun abused for smokescreen’



 
by Rahnuma Ahmed 
 

AS A New Age columnist, I was thinking of writing about the controversy surrounding the Tibet exhibition (Into Exile. Tibet 1949-2009, November 1-7) for my next column. My dear Maobadi friend, Tarek Chowdhury's piece, which he was kind enough to forward me, had meanwhile been published in Samakal ('Tibboter odekha chobigulo onek kotha boley', November 13). Since some of our political concerns and perspectives are shared, since I benefited from his piece as I did from that of other writers who had trodden the path before me, who have extensively researched and written on China, Tibet and US imperialism, who have carefully built up their arguments and critiques based on a close scrutiny of facts and figures and have thereby helped deepen our understanding of imperialism, I drew on them. Unflinchingly. Unreservedly. Of course, I was careful to credit ideas as I went along (but not all. For instance, although I learned a lot from reading pieces by authors such as Michel Chossudovsky, F William Engdahl and others, they were not named since I had not directly cited them. For an ex-academic like me, the space constraints of column-writing have been a learning experience).


   In `Smoking Gun Abused for Smokescreen' (December 13) Tarek assumes that what I wrote in my column ('China-US politics over exhibiting Tibet. In Dhaka', November 23) was a 'response' to his Samakal op-ed. But if I had felt obliged to pen a response, surely I would have written it up as that, and sent it off to Samakal?


   I wrote as a columnist, not as Drik's spokesperson. I have never done thus, because I do not see myself in that role. Neither, I think, do my readers (nor Shahidul Alam, or anyone else at Drik for that matter, but that's beside the point). Secondly, I do not think my task is to pass judgement ('we don't see Rahnuma draw any judgement about the SFT—the real "area of contention" between us'). Not on the SFT (Students for a Free Tibet), nor on anything else. That work, I think, is best left to judges. As a writer, I work towards contributing in, and in opening up further, spaces of critical thinking. Hence, I map out fields of debate, I position myself within the debate, often bringing into the discussion issues which have escaped the attention of other writers (in this case, 'neat fit', Guantanamo, which I will go into later). I constantly seek to clarify why I think and believe what I do, as I do. Readers are intelligent people; in my view, they are both capable of, and also free to, reach their own conclusions which may, or may not, be in agreement with mine. To try and persuade, yes. To argue, yes. To pass judgement, no.


   And hence, what I wrote in my column was obviously framed by my concerns (which would not have been the case if I was writing a 'response'). After briefly describing what had happened (a visit by Chinese embassy officials, followed by Bangladesh intelligence, eventually a lock-up of Drik's premises by the police), I wrote about what Tarek had written in his Samakal piece: the SFT, its funding sources, his suspicion about the timing of the exhibition, CIA funding of the Tibet movement through NED (National Endowment for Democracy). I then drew on the work of others who have researched on the SFT/NED/CIA nexus to elaborate on Tarek's argument, and to offer my readers additional evidence: NED's Reagan-ite origins, the roles of the (present) Dalai Lama's brothers in the Tibet resistance movement during the 1950s in which the CIA had been active, had trained guerrilla units
   etc, etc.


   After this, I broached the issue of cultural and political activism, seeking Shahidul's response: an 'opportunity to see rare photos', 'we have faced pressure before', even 'progressive institutions' have wanted us to practise 'self-censorship'; this I juxtaposed with Barker's argument, namely, that progressive activists, both Tibetan and foreign, should first and foremost cast a critical eye over the 'antidemocratic' funders of Tibetan groups, or else, a progressive solution to the Tibetan problem, a 'more thoroughgoing democratisation of [Tibetan] social life' will not be generated. But Shahidul had said that Drik was not above criticism, that it was welcomed, and I expected readers to remember that. For me, the obvious implication of what he'd said was, whether Drik's decision to co-host the exhibition was right or wrong should be a matter of public debate. It would give Drik the opportunity of critically appraising itself.


   As for what I had written, it's implication was much sharper. If formulated as a question it would stand thus: should Drik, as a progressive institution, have agreed to partner an exhibition with the Bangladeshi chapter of the SFT, since the latter (the parent organisation) receives funding from NED, which now does what was covertly done by the CIA 25 years ago, even though the exhibition gives members of the public an opportunity to see a collection of rare photographs? This clearly was a matter for public debate (not a matter of my passing a 'judgement'). I was certain that intelligent people/readers would clearly see what I was driving at.


   I then returned to Barker's argument. I wanted to tease it out further, not to minimise the importance of what he had said, but because I think (as probably Barker and many others do too) that there is no 'neat fit' between the different movements for freedom that different activists may, and do, simultaneously support. In other words, there is no 'single' list of freedom movements that will satisfy everyone critical of US imperialism. To illustrate my point, I drew on Mairead Corrigan Maguire, the Irish Nobel Peace laureate, who is a strong defender of both the Palestinian, and the Tibetan, cause. I pointed to the recently-launched 'Thank You Tibet!' campaign to which Mairead belongs, which extends support to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the people of Tibet, claiming that they are a 'model for all of us.'


   In 'Smoking Gun', Tarek points out that I had failed to mention Maguire's connection to the ICT (she's a member of the International Campaign for Tibet's International Counsel of Advisers). Also, that she's an adviser to the Points of Peace Foundation (a media and human rights foundation located in Norway with 'a mandate to support Nobel Peace Prize Laureates in urgent need of media, dialogue and communication assistance in their home countries and internationally'), and the founder of the Voice of Tibet radio station (a PPF project aided by NED; the radio station, from what I gather, was founded by three Norwegian NGOs and not Maguire, as Tarek states, but it's a slight error which is not crucial to our discussion). However, these additional facts provided by Tarek only serve to substantiate my point that there is 'no neat fit'.

Does Maguire's support for the Dalai Lama, her ICT membership, and being a PPF advisor weaken her credibility as a progressive activist? Does it imply that she is, let's say, not genuinely concerned with promoting freedom and democracy in Tibet, or elsewhere, like Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq? Even though Maguire has strongly criticised Israel, 'an allegedly democratic country with a sham justice system', and the Bush administration for 'increasing nuclearism, ongoing wars, and the ignoring of international treaties and laws' in articles published in CounterPunch, USA's best known left newsletter (which has also published articles critical of 'anti-Chinese frenzy in the West, pursued in the guise of pro-Tibetan... human rights activism,' John V Whitbeck)? (CounterPunch has published articles critical of CIA, US imperialism, too countless to mention).


   Maguire's support for the Dalai Lama, interestingly enough, does not appear to have prevented US immigration officials from detaining and harassing her at Houston airport (May 2009). 'They questioned me about my nonviolent protests in USA against the Afghanistan invasion and Iraqi war.' She added, 'They insisted I must tick the box in the Immigration form admitting to criminal activities.' Detained for two hours, grilled, fingerprinted, photographed, then grilled again, Maguire was released only after the Nobel Women's Initiative, an organisation she helped found, raised a hue and cry.


   There are 'strings attached' to Maguire's 'compassion for Tibet', says Tarek. I am not clear what he means by this phrase, and much less so, by this sentence which follows soon after, 'True beauty of any actor can only be judged when the audience gets the chance to take a glance at the greenroom' — except that it seems to imply that something sinister lies behind Maguire's activism. If Tarek means that support for the Tibetan cause is per se suspect, then what is one to make of Archbishop Desmond Tutu's recent decision to pull out of a peace conference meeting linked to the 2010 Football World Cup because the South African government had denied Dalai Lama a visa? (Reportedly, as a result of Chinese pressure). Further, what is one to make of Archbishop Tutu's statement on behalf of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, human rights leaders and concerned individuals which tells the Dalai Lama, 'we stand with you. You define non-violence and compassion and goodness.' How does one view this?

 

As naïveté on the archbishop's part, because he does not seem to be aware of the Dalai Lama administration's acknowledgement (1998) that it had annually received $1.7 million in the 1960s from the CIA, spent partly on paying for guerrilla operations against the Chinese, a fact which critics say, puts His Holiness's commitment to non-violence, as being a public face? Or, should we be looking for a 'strings attached' answer? Or do we interpret it to mean that Archbishop Tutu's opposition to apartheid and/or his subsequent defence of human rights and commitment to campaigning for the oppressed is not genuine, but a mere rhetorical device? Or, do we re-think some of the issues, while reminding ourselves in the process that premier Chou-en-Lai had lent his support to the Pakistani military dictatorship in 1971 when it had unleashed a genocidal campaign against the people of East Pakistan because it was in communist China's national interest?


   Tarek writes, 'Mistakenly she has equated Parenti's strong criticism of China of "dazzling 8 percent economic growth rate" (does this apply to pre-1978 period or when HH fled to India?) with the China which "stood up" in October 1949 under the leadership of Mao and misled her readers grossly by misrepresenting Parenti's views.'


   What I wrote was: 'One area of contention [with Tarek] is an old one, centring on whether Tibet is better or worse off, under Chinese communism. As Michael Parenti, severely critical of the Hollywood "Shangri-La" myth puts it, old Tibet, in reality, was not a Paradise Lost. But if Tibet's future is to be positioned somewhere within China's emerging free market paradise—with its deepening gulf between rich and poor, the risk of losing jobs, being beaten and imprisoned if workers try to form unions in corporate dominated "business zones", the pollution resulting from billions of tons of industrial emissions and untreated human waste dumped into its rivers and lakes—the old Tibet, he says, may start looking better than it actually was.'


   Now, if I were to list out the different periods and their characteristics that are packed together in this passage, this is how it would look:
   1. Old Tibet/pre-Communism, was not Shangri-la/paradise lost
   2. New Tibet=part of Communist China:
   (a) earlier/pre free-market paradise
   (b) present/emerging free-market paradise: deepening gulf between rich and poor, risk of losing jobs in corporate-owned zones, pollution, untreated human waste


   As should be obvious to intelligent people/readers who know that chairman Mao was not an advocate of free market enterprise — even to in-attentive readers because of the word 'emerging' — the sentence incorporates the assumption that the deepening gulf between rich and poor, risk of losing jobs in corporate-owned zones, pollution, untreated human waste etc, etc – was unbeknownst in the New Tibet which precedes the present pre free-market paradise, in other words, it was unknown in Mao's China.


   Tarek further writes, 'To make her public response to my views and questions...' which seems to imply that my 'private' response to his 'Tibboter odekha chobigulo…' (Samakal had published its own slashed-down version) had been very different. But this is how I had responded privately:


   2009/11/9 Rahnuma Ahmed rahnumaa@gmail.com (translated to English)
   
Dear Tarek
   Many thanks for writing this article, and for selecting me to be the first reader. My chief comments are:
   (a) the issue of China-Tibet-US politics, and its analysis from a geo-strategic perspective, is undoubtedly interesting, and important. But when this perspective is utilised to analyse the politics of culture, it is necessary to be extra-cautious, since our conceptual tools have been developed to analyse geo-strategic politics, on the assumption that it is primary.
   (b) I have felt that you view politics and political struggles conspiratorially, this diminishes the significance of your piece, for instance, you seem to view people as conspirators. To push my point further, I have felt that you did not subject the Chinese government/state to the same critical eye as you did the US and Tibet/Dalai Lama.
   (c) while it is true that the US and China are opposed forces, that their political systems and ideologies are different etc., I do find their alliance in some areas — and here I am not talking of trade relations — very interesting. For instance, the recent Uighur/ Guantanamo incident. And it is incidents such as these which remind me that it is no longer possible to view China from a 1960s perspective, as a beacon of light amidst darkness. If one sticks to the dichotomy that China is 'good' and the US is 'evil' – one has to turn a blind eye to too many things, I believe this will hinder our attempts to understand the state as a historical phenomenon.
   We will/must continue to argue and debate. lal salam/r


   And toward the end of my column, I spoke of the Uighur/Guantanamo incident, of how Chinese interrogators had gone to Guantanamo and grilled Uighurs (a Muslim minority from the autonomous region Xinjiang, in western China), how they had been actively assisted by US military personnel to soften them up. But in hindsight, it is my second point, about a conspiratorial view of politics, that now seems almost-prophetic. Even though, I must admit, it doesn't answer why Tarek has chosen to ignore the long response which I posted on Shahidul's blog (December 4) in response to questions and comments on my column 'Exhibiting Tibet'. I had forwarded him the link http: // www.shahidulnews.com/2009/11/china-us-politics- over-exhibiting-tibet-in-dhaka /#comment-1473 he himself had posted two comments after mine. Probably, an acknowledgement would have made writing 'Smoking Gun', with all its allegations and accusations, difficult.


   When Tarek writes, 'Personally, I won't be surprised to see the SFTBD's Bangladeshi national director (it has quite a corporate style organisational structure), the young devoted lady who 'breathes her time equally between Dharamshala … and Bangladesh' rewarded soon by some heavyweight promoter for her superb service" (italics mine), his gaze is undoubtedly male. It is directed at male readers, written to incite their curiosity on gendered lines.


   Maybe if Tarek had been less melodramatic, less into 'actors', 'greenrooms', 'make-up', 'choreography', 'media event', 'orchestrated propaganda', 'dress rehearsals', 'TV shows', 'anchors', he would have digressed less. Maybe if he had steered clear of metaphors that have become associated with an imperial mentalite — Condoleezza Rice's declaration, 'We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud' — he would not have barked up the wrong tree. Maybe, if he had been less 'judgement'-al, he could have meaningfully contributed to the debate.


   But who knows?

 

http://www.newagebd.com/2009/dec/20/oped.html




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[mukto-mona] Read Farhad Mazhar's article on Awami facist threat



 


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[mukto-mona] নিউজ বাংলাকে উকিল নোটিশ





নিউজ বাংলাকে উকিল নোটিশ
নিউজ বাংলা প্রতিবেদন   
শুক্রবার, ১৮ ডিসেম্বর ২০০৯
নিউজ বাংলাতে প্রকাশিত "বাংলাদেশের যুদ্ধাপরাধী, ১৯৭১ সালে বুদ্ধিজীবী হত্যাকান্ডের অন্যতম নায়ক, আলবদর কমান্ডার আশরাফউজ্জামান খানের বিরুদ্ধে যুক্তরাষ্ট্র সরকারের বিচার বিভাগের তদন্ত" শীর্ষক "সংবাদ" পত্রিকার প্রতিবেদনটি পুন:প্রকাশের কারণে গত ১১ই ডিসেম্বর নিউজ বাংলা কর্তৃপক্ষকে আশরাফউজ্জামানের নিউইয়র্কস্থ আইনজীবি একটি উকিল নোটিশ দিয়েছে। এই নোটিশে আশরাফউজ্জামানের যুদ্ধাপরাধ সংক্রান্ত তথ্য বাদ দেওয়ার দাবী জানিয়েছে তার আইনজীবি। নিউজ বাংলা ইতিমধ্যে ভার্জিনিয়ায় একটি স্বনামধন্য আইনী প্রতিষ্ঠানকে নিয়োগ দিয়ে আইনী ব্যবস্থা গ্রহণ করেছে। নিউজ বাংলা গত দু'বছর থেকে ওয়াশিংটন ডিসি মেট্রো থেকে বাংলা ও ইংরেজীতে অন-লাইন পত্রিকা প্রকাশ করে আসছে। স্বাধীনতার ৩৮ বছর পরও যুদ্ধাপরাধীদের বিচার সম্পন্ন না হওয়ার কারণে তাদের ঔদ্ধত্য বেড়েই চলেছে এই ঘটনায় তা আবারও প্রমাণিত হলো। তিরিশ লক্ষ শহীদদের যে রক্তাত্ব আত্মত্যাগে আমরা স্বাধীন হয়েছি সেই শহীদদের সম্মানে ও সাহসী মুক্তিযোদ্ধাদের ত্যাগের চেতনায় উজ্জীবিত নিউজ বাংলা পরিবার কোন আইনী হুমকির মুখে মাথা নোয়াবে না বলে প্রতিশ্রুতিবদ্ধ।
নিউজ বাংলা'র পাঠক ও শুভানুধ্যায়ীদের কাছ থেকে সাহায্যের আশ্বাসের জন্য আমরা তাদের সকলের প্রতি গভীর কৃতজ্ঞতা জানাচ্ছি। এই মূহুর্ত্বে আপনাদের নৈতিক সমর্থন ছাড়া অন্য কোন বৈষয়িক সাহায্য আমরা চাই না। আমরা আশা করি, আপনাদের সকলের সহযোগিতায় যুদ্ধাপরাধীদের বিচার তরান্বিত হবে। কোন ভয়-ভীতি বা হুমকির কাছে মাথা নত না করে আমরা এগিয়ে যাব সত্য ও ন্যায়বিচারের পথে- আমাদের এই সামস্টিক দায়বদ্ধতার মধ্যে রয়েছে নিউজ বাংলার অস্তিত্বের অঙ্গীকার।



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[ALOCHONA] 1974 FAMINE? Muijib's corruption!



Aslam you need to stop your chauvinistic lies. Enough is enough!br>
Mujib is responsible for Femine in 1974, hunger suffered by millions of Bangladeshi. It was Mujib's wish to join communist block, as he followed Indira Gandhi. Under PL-480, Mujib got food aid from US and other contries, but his dearest cousin, kombolchora Gazi Golum Mostafa steal the food distribution, only Mujibkhors were given food ration, everyone else need to die out of hunger. There was enough time and resource to take the country out of famine 74. Stop lying!

Since Mujib followed Indira, and India was in the grand alliance with Soviet Union, why Russia and Indira did not help Mujib in those days? BAKSALIs are blaming Kissinger for calling Mujib's Bangladesh an 'bottomless Basket'. But, it was Mujib and his relatives who killed millions by hunger in 1974. Indira spent millions of $$ to free Bangladesh from Pakis, why Indira Gandhi did not help Bangladesh in famine '74 with some food?

Bangladesh will never forget tyrant Mujib, a corrupt Mujib. From 72-75, Muijib ruled the country as Nero. Mujib was not a hero, he is a our bangla Nero. When Rome was burning, Nero was singing. When hunger was killing people, Mujib was looking in the mirror..








--- On Fri, 12/18/09, Syed Aslam <Syed.Aslam3@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Syed Aslam <Syed.Aslam3@gmail.com>
Subject: [khabor.com] WHAT WAS IT ABOUT THE 1974 FAMINE?
To: khabor@yahoogroups.com, chottala@yahoogroups.com, "Sonar Bangladesh" <SonarBangladesh@yahoogroups.com>, "Amra Bangladesi" <amra-bangladesi@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Friday, December 18, 2009, 7:43 PM





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[ALOCHONA] Daily Amar Desh threatened: BAKSALis are coming ...






looks like we are going back to BAKSALI era.

Mujib used the same technique to silence his opponents by forming BAKSAL. In January 1975, Mujib declared a state of emergency and later assumed the presidency, after the Awami League dominated parliament decided to switch from parliamentary to a presidential form of government. Sheikh Mujib renamed the League the "Bangladesh Farmers and Workers Awami League (Bangladesh Krishok Sramik Awami League, BAKSAL), and banned all other parties. BAKSAL became the strong arm of what had turned into a dictatorship, with Sheikh Mujib becoming the lifetime president. Many opposition political workers, mostly revolutionary communist elements, were jailed after three Members of Parliament were killed by the communist insurgency. The crackdown on opposition was aided by the elite paramilitary force Rakkhi Bahini.


আমার দেশ সম্পাদককে আ'লীগ নেতাদের হুমকি : মাহমুদুর রহমানকে রাস্তায় চলতে দেয়া হবে না, জনতার কাঠগড়ায় বিচার করা হবে

স্টাফ রিপোর্টার
প্রধানমন্ত্রী শেখ হাসিনার ছেলে সজীব ওয়াজেদ জয়ের ঘুষ নেয়ার অভিযোগ সম্পর্কে রিপোর্ট প্রকাশ করায় দৈনিক আমার দেশ সম্পাদককে হুমকি দিয়েছেন ক্ষমতাসীন আওয়ামী লীগ নেতারা। গতকাল দলের উদ্যোগে বিজয় দিবসের আলোচনা সভায় আওয়ামী লীগ ও সরকারের একাধিক কর্তাব্যক্তি আমার দেশ সম্পাদক মাহমুদুর রহমানের নাম উচ্চারণ করে বলেন, একটা কাগজ বানিয়ে যাচ্ছেতাই লিখে আমাদের ধৈর্যের বাঁধ ভাঙবেন না। মানুষ প্রতিহত করলে আপনি রাস্তায় বের হতে পারবেন না। আমরা আপনাকে চলতে দেব না। জয়ের বিরুদ্ধে অভিযোগ সত্য প্রমাণ না হলে মাহমুদুর রহমানকে বিচারের কাঠগড়ায় দাঁড় করানো হবে বলেও আওয়ামী লীগ নেতারা হুশিয়ারি উচ্চারণ করেন।


--- On Sat, 12/19/09, Isha Khan <bd_mailer@yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Isha Khan <bd_mailer@yahoo.com>
Subject: [khabor.com] Fw: RE: Daily Amar Desh threatened
To: "Dhaka Mails" <dhakamails@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Saturday, December 19, 2009, 2:42 AM

 



--- On Fri, 12/18/09, Zoglul Husain <zoglul@hotmail. co.uk> wrote:
The threat against Mahmudur Rahman tantamount to a serious, mean and ugly threat against the freedom of press. It reminds of the BKSAL days when all the newspapers, except for four compliant ones, were banned and any aspiration of democracy was brutally strangled. During Mujib's reign of terror, between 1972 and 1975, more than 30 thousand patriots, according to many, were killed, BAL's plunder, as well as that of India, went on reckless and unabated and it created the man-made famine of 1974, which claimed, according to reports, 3 to 5 hundred-thousand lives. Mujib's rule was totally controlled by India, and he was helpless about it. He was in office, but not in power, as the power was in India's hands. 
 
The present government was brought in power by India with support from the US and its allies, including their rubber stamp, the UN, only to serve India and its present allies. As the Amar Desh published a report of plunder through bribery, the government immediately took resort to intimidation. But this only exposes the government more.
 
Below is Khaleda's response to the threat:
http://www.bdnews24 .com/details. php?cid=3&id=149158&hb=3
 

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:35:04 -0800
From: bd_mailer@yahoo. com
Subject: Daily Amar Desh threatened
To: dhakamails@yahoogro ups.com

Daily Amar Desh threatened
 



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[mukto-mona] Plot price in Krishibid Group is up 40% from January 2010 [2 Attachments]

[Attachment(s) from Abu Zofar Moslehuddin included below]

Assalamualaikum.

You might have heard about Krishibid Group (http://www.krishibidgroup.com/) – a group of companies established and run by some Agriculturists of Bangladesh.

They are producing egg, salt, milk, meat, fish and seedlings, selling plots and flats and preparing for selling fish and poultry feed, and automobiles, share and manpower businesses.

Krishibid Group also consists of a NGO type organization Krishi Foundation to do charitable works. Zakat money from all companies is going there to do such works.

 

Also publication of a bimonthly agro-based magazine Krishibarta (started in 2001 and a scientific journal (from December 2003) of a half-yearly journal "The Agriculturists" is done by Krishi Foundation. 

The land business is being carried out by Glorious Lands and Developments Limited (GLDL) – a sister concern of Krishibid Group.

GLDL made a project named Krishibid WestView for selling plots. The area is about 700 bigha comprising 1056 plots. So far, 650 plots have been booked (350 of those are already given registered to the buyers) by people including Agriculturists (about 40 BAU teachers, 80% of SAU teachers booked plot over there).

 

The location of Krishibid WestView is in between Savar, Mirpur and Ashulia.

 

The price of the plots in Krishibid WestView is going to be increased by 40% from January 2010. If you (or anyone around you) have interest, you can book a plot within December 2009.

 

Attached is a tentative location of the plot area and a price list of current and of January 2010.

 

 

Zofar

--
Dr Abu Zofar Md Moslehuddin
Professor, Dept of Soil Science
Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh
Phone: 880-91-61375; 880-1712-220033 (C); fax: 880-91-55810
E-mail:abunazia@yahoo.com

Attachment(s) from Abu Zofar Moslehuddin

2 of 2 File(s)


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[mukto-mona] RE: My Bangladeshi friend denied Indian visa



Chanchal,
 
I agree with you that all governments are responsible for visa problems. But, this is a bizarre case. He was in Kolkata last year, and because he is a Bangladeshi muslim, he was asked to report routinely to the Kolkata police station. At no time did the Kolkata police bring any charge against him. Now he has been told that he is a "suspected" person without any specific evidence! And what an irony, he was so moved by Kolkata cultural life, he keeps advising every Bangladeshi he knows in London to visit Kolkata. At a birthday ceremony of Shri Ramakrishna this year in London he recited from Kathamrita!!! He organised at the Mahatma Gandhi Hall in London a joint festival of Bijoya and Eid.
 
When he told me on the telephone completely brokenhearted about this visa debacle: "Dada, this is because I am a Muslim", I could only curse the Brahminic Indian society.
 
 
 
Tushar,
London
 
Tushar,
London
 


Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 15:53:30 +0530
Subject: Re: My Bangladeshi friend denied Indian visa
From: ckchakrabarti@gmail.com
To: tusharsarkar90@hotmail.com
CC: aneek64@gmail.com; editor@aneek.org; bip@cal.vsnl.net.in; biplav.basu@alcoa.com; devnarayan@worldnet.att.net; id14@rediffmail.com; jghosh1952@yahoo.co.in; mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com; contact@nanditadasonline.com; purnendu_sen@yahoo.com; sauravsarkar2000@yahoo.com; sauravsarkar2000@gmail.com; ssengupta@vsnl.net; sxghosh@hotmail.com; banerjeetk43@yahoo.co.in; tkm1946@yahoo.com; tkb_200420012000@yahoo.com; ghoshs@castleton.edu; tusharmaitra@hotmail.com; vijaysingh1917@yahoo.com; basu@indiana.edu; anilgeol@yahoo.co.in; anjan.k.chatterjee@gmail.com; banerjas@vsnl.net; dibganin@yahoo.com; chakrabarti.malay@rediffmail.com; mukherjik@sympatico.ca; paromitabanerjee@rediffmail.com; pramitabanerjee@yahoo.com; pkpranab1@gmail.com; priyageo@rediffmail.com; subhash_bhattacharyya@yahoo.com; sunilb_kolkata@yahoo.com; skdeb@susanta.freeserve.co.uk; skrc1812@rediffmail.com; hcd31@rediffmail.com

Dear All,
I faced a lot of problems in obtaining visa for Saudi Arabia.  I learn many Indians are denied visa for U.K.!  Nevertheless, for a democratic India it is not good to deny visa to a 'respected person'.
Shame on all governments who deny visa?
Chanchal Kolkata
On 12/18/09, tushar sarkar <tusharsarkar90@hotmail.com> wrote:
Dear All,
 
Sometime ago, I told you about a unique programme, 'My Country'; the only Bangladeshi participant and central recitationist, Samir Khan, has been denied entry visa for India!!!!! He has ben told that he is a 'suspected' person. Bangladeshi High Commission in London stood for him, but that did not make any difference.
 
The hall and some local additional artistes have been paid for. A lot of publicity has been done. Now the Kolkata organisers are trying to save the programme by alternative support.
 
Shame on the Indian government.
 
Tushar,
London


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[mukto-mona] Educational Revolution Among Meo Muslims of Mewat (part 1)




Educational Revolution Among Meo Muslims of Mewat (part 1)
 
By Yoginder Sikand (TwoCircles.net)

 

Lying to the immediate south of Delhi, straddling the rocky outcrops of the Aravalli range, is the region known as Mewat, named after the Meo Muslims, the principal community living in the area. Mewat covers large parts of the Gurgaon and Faridabad districts in Haryana and Alwar and Bharatpur in Rajasthan. Recently, a separate district was carved out of the Meo-dominated parts of Haryana and also given the name of 'Mewat'.

Two decades ago I used to regularly visit Mewat—for my Ph.D. dissertation, which was about the history of the global Islamic revivalist Tablighi Jamaat, now the world's largest such movement, which had its roots in the humble hamlets of Mewat in the 1920s. It was the Tablighi Jamaat that put Mewat on the map of the world. Some months ago, I returned to Mewat, after a gap of fifteen years, curious to learn how much, if at all, the region had changed in this period.


Despite its proximity to Delhi, Gurgaon and Jaipur, Mewat is one of the most impoverished regions in northern India. When I did fieldwork in the region in the 1990s, the literacy rate among the Meos, more than a million-strong community, was estimated at less than 10 per cent, and that of Meo females at lower than 5 per cent. This was attributed to extreme poverty (most Meos being small peasants) as well as the influence of the ultra-conservative Tablighi Jamaat, which was seen as being opposed to education imparted in regular schools, particularly for girls, believing that this would lead the Meos astray from Islam.

Two decades later, the Mewat is still characterized by endemic poverty. The villages and towns I visited this time seem to have hardly changed in terms of looks since I saw them last. But for a couple of recently-constructed large, brightly-painted mansions and a few new shops (only a few of which were Meo-owned), Nuh and Ferozepur-Jhirka, the two largest towns in Mewat, seemed to be no different from what I remembered of them from my earlier visits. In fact, they only seemed to have become even more filthy and chaotic. The villages I travelled to seemed to have remained frozen in time—the same squalid mud huts, the same visible signs of neglect by the state, the same scene of Meo women labouring in the fields while their menfolk squatted on cots sunning themselves or sucking away at their hukkahs at roadside eateries. But one change struck me forcefully throughout my trip: a distinct thirst on the part of many younger Meos for 'modern' education—nothing short of a revolution in terms of demands, hopes, and expectations.

Meos breaking shackles to get education

This was quite in contrast to what I had witnessed on my first visit to Mewat, in the late 1980s, when there was not a single Meo-run school, when there were hardly a dozen or so Meo girls in government-run schools throughout the region, and when many local ulema or Muslim clerics, mostly affiliated to the Tablighi Jamaat, openly condemned 'modern' schools as dens of irreligiousness and licentiousness, insisting that the Meos should send their children only to madrasas instead. Today, however, literally dozens of 'modern' schools run by Meos have mushroomed all over Mewat; girls are enrolling in these and in government-run schools in rapidly increasing numbers; many ulema are in the forefront of promoting 'modern', in addition to religious, education among the Meos; and scores of madrasas have begun teaching English and Hindi, with some of them having actually transformed themselves into regular schools.

Located on the outskirts of Ferozepur Jhirka town is the sprawling 15-acre campus of the recently-established English-medium Aravalli Public School, the largest Meo-run school in Mewat. Founded by a retired Meo engineer, Muhammad Israil, this residential school has some 600 students on its rolls, 60% of whom are Meos, and roughly 10% Muslims from other parts of India, the rest being from other religious communities. 60 of the school's 70 girl students are Meos. The costs of studying here are exorbitant by average Meo standards, but tuition fees are waved for girls in order to encourage more Meo girls, whose overall literacy rate is less than 15%, to enroll. The schools' principal is a Hindu. Most teachers are non-Meos, including Muslims from other parts of India as well as non-Muslims from Mewat.


The school's well-maintained campus is lined with fine buildings built around a vast playing field. The swank technical training institute was built with aid from the Japanese Embassy, so I am informed by a student who takes me around, and the girls' hostel building that is still under construction is being financed by the Islamic Development Bank.

It is late in the afternoon, and the students pour out of their hostels and onto the playing field, forming teams to play football and cricket. They are dressed in jeans or shorts, and brightly-coloured T-shirts or jackets and sneakers. None of them sports the almost mandatory Tablighi-style beard that almost every Meo male in their fathers' generation does. These students are nearly all Meos—I can hardly believe that at first, for hardly any Meo boys dressed like this when I last visited the area. A dozen girls, Meos all, take a sprint around the playing field, brandishing their badminton rackets. Needless to say, that would have been considered sheer anathema two decades ago.

I stare, dumbstruck, at the students, stunned at what I see before me. When I first visited Mewat, the parents of most of these students would almost all have been un-educated peasants—their fathers dressed in long kurtas, tahmats and ponderous turbans, their mothers, wholly illiterate, kept carefully cloistered in their homes when they were not compelled to work in the fields.

That a major section of Meo youths are today defying deep-rooted traditions by clamoring for 'modern' education is undeniable, and signs of this are today visible all over. I am not sure if this is an entirely positive development, though. Need 'modernisation' necessarily be equated with 'Westernisation'? Does it have to also necessarily imply 'secularisation', in the sense of focusing wholly on worldly knowledge and 'success', consequently trivializing religion and moral values? These crucial questions are being raised by many Meos themselves, who fear that the irrepressible desire on the part of Meo youths for 'modern' education might seriously erode traditional, religious values and promote crass consumerism. This is summed up in a complaint of a maulvi attached to a Deobandi madrasa located adjacent to the Aravalli Public School—'The school has no facility for teaching Islamic Studies. All that they are taught is about this world (duniya)—how to gather more information and degrees so that they can get highly-paid jobs and lead a life of ease and comfort.'

Schools imparting religious and secular education

Devising an educational system that balances the needs of the duniya and the deen or religion has been a longstanding concern for Muslim educationists. When I first visited Mewat, I came across almost ulema who were supportive of, leave alone actively engaged in, promoting 'modern' or 'secular', in addition to religious, education. In contrast, on this trip, I met with numerous maulvis, all graduates of what are commonly considered to be 'orthodox' madrasas, who have set up their own schools that impart a healthy mix of both sorts of learning.

One of these ulema is an old friend of mine, 33 year-old Qari Sirajuddin of Bhadas village near the town of Nuh. The last time I met him was when he was 18 years old. He had just completed his religious education at the Jamia Sanabil, an Ahl-e Hadith madrasa in Delhi, and had returned to his village, where he had started a small maktab in a two-room tenement to provide basic Islamic education to girls. Today, what started off as the Madrasat ul-Banat Ayesha Siddiqa is now the Al-Falah Model Senior Secondary School. Affiliated to the Haryana Educational Board, it provides education till the twelfth standard. It has almost 700 students on its rolls, of whom almost a hundred are non-Muslims. Girl students number some 125, of whom 25 are Hindus, and the rest Meo Muslims. The school supplements the government-approved syllabus for modern subjects with compulsory Islamic Studies, Urdu and Arabic for Muslim students and Sanskrit, for Hindu students.

What, I ask Qari Sirajuddin, made him transform what began as a girls' madrasa into a co-educational secondary school? 'There are scores of madrasas in Mewat', he answers, 'but what we lack are sufficient general schools, for which there is now increasing demand'. Further, he adds, 'I did not want to keep depending on people for donations (chanda), which I would have had to had I continued to run it as a madrasa. As a school it can generate funds for itself through the fees that it charges'.

Several other small madrasas across Mewat might, too, like to make the shift and become regular schools, albeit with provision for Islamic education for their Muslim students, Qari Sirajuddin tells me. However, a major hurdle in this regard are the government's stringent norms for providing recognition to private schools that most such madrasas fail to meet. As per the existing rules, to qualify for official recognition an institution must possess a basic minimum plot of land (half acre for primary schools, one and a half acres for middle schools and two acres for high schools)—which effectively rules out most madrasas. Likewise, an institution must possess a certain number of rooms of a particular size, a library with a basic specified number of books and so on, which many smaller madrasas, that run small budgets based on donations, simply cannot afford. Were the government to lower these requirements in the case of madrasas, Qari Sirajuddin suggests, several small madrasas in Mewat might well transform themselves into regular schools. 'That', he says, 'would be a much less expensive and controversy-free way to modernize madrasas.'

Qari Sirajuddin's own family, whom he introduces me to over a hearty meal at his home, exemplifies the rapid transformation that the Meos are today undergoing in terms of their approach to education.. Although himself a madrasa graduate, none of his children is training to become a traditional alim or Islamic scholar. The first two of his six children, including one girl, study in modern, privately-run 'public' schools, and the rest in his own school. His brother, also a graduate of a traditional Ahl-e Hadith madrasa (the Madrasa Riyaz ul-Ulum, Delhi) has just finished a degree in Social Work from the Jamia Millia Islamia and hopes to join the civil services.

His support for 'modern', in addition to religious, education, Qari Sirajuddin assures me, is something that he shares with increasing numbers of ulema today—not just in Mewat, but across other parts of India, too. 'Even some very conservative Deobandi Meo ulema, who traditionally frowned on modern schools, have opened such institutions, fearful that otherwise Muslim children would study in non-Muslim schools, because of which they might, as they see it, go astray', he tells me. Madrasas throughout Mewat, he says, have now introduced basic English, Hindi and Mathematics in their curriculum, mainly because they realize that this is what parents of most Meo children now also want. At the same time, he laments, few of these madrasas take the teaching of these subjects seriously. 'Some of them claim to be teaching English and other such subjects simply to keep the mouths of their critics shut and to stave off criticism that they are not giving their students a well-rounded education', he says. 'The managers of most madrasas do not know English or other modern subjects themselves, and so are not in a position to prescribe a proper syllabus for these subjects and to supervise the teachers they appoint for teaching them.' Many of them also feel, Qari Sirajuddin goes on, that if they were to deviate from the traditional Deobandi-style curriculum by giving more than just a basic attention to modern subjects they would be criticized by their religious 'elders'. Typically, he says, the staff they employ for teaching these subjects are simple high school graduates, with no training at all, and with a very poor command of these subjects.

Be that as it may, the very fact that Mewat's madrasas, once known for their visceral opposition to what they saw as the baneful influence of 'Western-style' education imparted in schools, are increasingly willing to incorporate these 'Western' subjects into their curriculum is ample proof, Qari Sirajuddin assures me, of the veritable revolution in the demands and expectations of vast numbers of Meo parents as regards the education of their children.

________________________________________________________
Qari Sirajuddin can be contacted on gwfmewat@gmail.com

Yoginder Sikand works with the Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy at the National Law School, Bangalore




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"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
               -Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190




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