Arundhati Roy’s Statement in YJL Confrence

I would like to caution us all against looking at this issue, in particular the issue of Taslima Nasrin, through the single lens of a battle between religious fundamentalism and secular liberalism. Taslima Nasrin herself sometimes contributes to that view. On her website, she says: “Humankind is facing an uncertain future.” In particular, the conflict is between two different ideas, secularism and fundamentalism.” To me, this conflict is basically between modern, rational, logical thinking and irrational, blind faith. It is a conflict between the future and the past, between innovation and tradition, between those who value freedom and those who do not.”

How strange it is then, that it was the West Bengal Government - led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), a party that sees itself as the vanguard of secularism, modern, logical, and rational thinking - that banned Nasrin’s autobiographical novel Dwikhandita, not once, but twice. Twice the ban was successfully challenged in the Calcutta High Court. The book was published, and for four years people in Bengal read it and Taslima Nasrin lived in Calcutta. And there the matter remained - without incident.

Then Nandigram happened. Muslims and Dalits bore the brunt of the government’s attack. The CPI(M) began to worry about losing the “Muslim vote.” So it played the Taslima card. A report by Mohammed Safi Samsi in the Indian Express (December 1, 2007) tells the story.

The government launched its operation to “recapture” Nandigram at the end of October 2007:

On November 1, Path Sanket a CPI(M) magazine published an anonymous letter supporting Taslima Nasrin, adding some gratuitous insults of its own against Prophet Mohammed. On the November 8, the government banned the magazine and a member of the editorial team called printing the letter a “historic blunder.” But, of course, vernacular newspapers republished the letter. Photocopies of the letter were then distributed in Muslim-dominated localities.

On November 21 - a week after more than 60,000 people marched on the streets protesting the government’s actions in Nandigram - the little-known All India Minority Forum organized a protest that then “erupted” in violence. The army was called in. The government deported Taslima Nasrin from West Bengal.

And today, on February 13, we are all gathered here to discuss “free speech.” Not the recapturing of Nandigram or the continuing terrorizing, humiliation, and rape of the people who live there.

It seems pretty clear that the threat to free speech comes as much from chemical hubs and iron ore mines - and from the project of land grab, enclosure, and mass displacement - as it does from religious fundamentalism. To not see this is to fall into a trap that has been cleverly laid for us.

Religious fundamentalists, especially those from minority communities, are often inadvertently playing out a script that has been written for them. Their outrage, genuine though it may be, has become a dependable, predictable, and an extremely useful political device to further the agendas of others.

The principle of free speech and expression has to negotiate many, many fundamentalisms. Religious fundamentalism, ultranationalist fundamentalism, market fundamentalism, among others. Sometimes they are intertwined in the strangest ways.

Liberals often make the mistake of believing that free speech is a fundamental right given to us by the Indian constitution - and that when it is curbed either by the state or by vigilante militias and thugs, the constitution is being subverted. This is not true. Free speech is not our constitutional right. It is a contained right, beset with caveats, caveats that are always used by the powerful to control and dominate those who are powerless.

Now, we have a slew of new laws that make not just free speech but freedom itself in India a pathetic joke, a distant dream. There is the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), which incorporates some of the worst provisions of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) and Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA). There is the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act, the Madhya Pradesh Control of Organized Crime Act, and the utterly draconian Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act (CSPSA). Some of these laws contain provisions whose sole purpose seems to be to criminalize everybody and then leave the government free to decide at leisure whom to imprison. Under the CSPSA and the UAPA, for example, the government is free to arbitrarily ban any organization without giving any specific reason for placing the ban.

Here is how the CSPA defines an organization: ” ‘Organization’ means any combination, body or group of persons whether known by any distinctive name or not and whether registered under any relevant law or not and whether governed by any written constitution or not.”

Remember, the vaguer the provisions in the law, the wider the net it casts, the greater the threat to civil and democratic rights.

Here is how the CSPSA defines an “unlawful activity”: “Any action taken by such [banned] individual or organization whether by committing an act or by words either spoken or written or by signs or by visible representation or otherwise.”

And then there are some sub-clauses that widen the net:

(i) which constitutes a danger or menace to public order, peace or tranquility

(ii) which interferes or tends to interfere with maintenance of public order

And, remarkably

(vi) of encouraging or preaching disobedience to established law and its institutions.

In Section 8(5) it says that “Whoever commits or abets or attempts to commit or abet or plans to commit any unlawful activity shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years.”
So now they have mind readers in the Chattisgarh government, as well as seers.

How can there be even the pretense of free speech or freedom under laws like these? All over the country, not just journalists and writers, but anybody who disagrees with the government’s plans is being arrested, tortured, and imprisoned. Sometimes murdered.

Govind Kutty, the editor of People’s March, a publication banned for being sympathetic to Maoist ideology, has been arrested and imprisoned. The Maoists have as much right to the freedom of expression, as much right to place their ideology - however abhorrent the government or anybody else may believe it to be - in the public domain, in the so-called marketplace of ideas as anybody else does.

I believe that the ban on People’s March should be lifted immediately and its editor unconditionally released.

Finally, I would like to say that the battle for free speech must not turn into a battle that limits itself to the freedom of writers, journalists, and artists alone. We are not the only ones who deserve this right. A friend from Chattisgarh recently told me of a doctor who had been arrested because a prescription of his had been found in some “Naxalite kit,” whatever that means.

In Chattisgarh, 644 villages have been evacuated of their inhabitants. That’s more than 300,000 people - displacement on a mass scale, which is eventually intended to clear space for corporate mining interests. Fifty thousand people have been moved into police camps and have become recruits for the dreaded Salwa Judum (the supposedly anti-Maoist “people’s militia” created and funded by the state government). Tens of thousands of people have fled to neighboring states to escape the horror. Nobody is allowed to go back to their villages or to cultivate their land. What is freedom of expression for a farmer? The buzz in town is that a new law is on the anvil which says that if farmland has not been cultivated for two years, it can be diverted for non-agricultural purposes.

Every form of resistance, peaceful or otherwise, is being shut down by the state. Of all the cases on the anvil, the goldfish in a bowl, the dire, menacing warning to us all and to anybody who may be entertaining the idea “of encouraging or preaching disobedience to established law and its institutions” is the continued imprisonment of Dr. Binayak Sen under false charges, underpinned by blatantly fabricated evidence.

Dr. Binayak Sen, who has worked as a civil rights activist with the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and a doctor in the area for more than 30 years, was arrested last May, charged under the CSPSA, the UAPA, and the Indian Penal Code (IPC). He has been in prison for eight months, denied bail even by the Supreme Court.

By imprisoning someone like Binayak Sen, the government is trying to close out the option of peaceful resistance, of democratic space. It is creating a polarization along the lines of the Bush Doctrine - “If you are not with us, you are with the terrorists” - in which people only have the choice between succumbing to displacement and destitution or resisting by going underground and taking up arms. This is the beginning of either civil war or the annihilation of the poor. Once that genie is out of the bottle, it won’t go back. There are reports that the Chhattisgarh state government has asked for 70 battalions of paramilitary forces beyond the 17 battalions that are already there. A fourfold increase. I fear the worst.

And so, from this platform I would like to ask for the granting of citizenship to Taslima Nasrin, for the immediate and unconditional release of Binayak Sen, Govind Kutty, and the other journalists whose names have been mentioned at this press conference, experienced journalists and peaceful activists who understand that reporting the realities of these situations is the only hope of righting this ship that is tilting dangerously and about to tip over. If it does tip over, everybody will suffer, the poor definitely, but the rich too. There will be no hiding place. I urge those present here to pay keen attention to the specter that is looming before us. And to begin a campaign demanding the repeal of these very frightening new laws that do not merely threaten free speech, but freedom itself.

The Walking Paradox

by Eduardo Galeano


Every day,
reading newspapers,
I attend a history class.
Newspapers teach me
by what they say
and by what they don’t say.

History is a walking paradox. Contradiction moves its legs. Perhaps for that reason its silences say more than its words and its words reveal the truth frequently through lying.

Soon a book of mine will be published, titled Espejos [Mirrors]. It’s just like a universal history — pardon my audacity. “I can resist everything except the temptation,” Oscar Wilde said, and I confess that I have succumbed to the temptation to recount some episodes of human adventure in the world, from the point of view of those who have not appeared in the picture.

In other words, it’s about little known facts.

Here I sum up some of them, just a few.

- - -

When they were expelled from Paradise, Adam and Eve moved to Africa, not to Paris.

Some time later, after their children had already embarked upon the ways of the world, writing was invented. In Iraq, not in Texas.

Algebra, too, was invented in Iraq. It was founded by Muhammad Al-Khwarizmi, one thousand two hundred years ago, and the words algorithm and guarismo [numeral] derive from his name.

Names usually do not correspond to what they name. In the British Museum, for example, the sculptures of the Parthenon are called “Elgin marbles,” but they are marbles of Phidias. Elgin was the name of the Englishman who sold them to the museum.

The three novelties that made the European Renaissance possible, the compass, gunpowder, and the printing press, had been invented by the Chinese, who also invented just about everything that Europe reinvented.

The Ancient Indians had known before everybody that the Earth was round and the Mayans had created the most exact calendar of all times.

- - -

In 1493, the Vatican gave America to Spain and granted Africa to Portugal, “so that barbarous nations be reduced to the Catholic faith.” At that time, America had fifteen times more inhabitants than Spain, and Black Africa one hundred times more than Portugal.

Just as the Pope had commanded, barbarous nations were reduced. Very much.

- - -

Water made Tenochtitlán, the center of the Aztec Empire. Hernán Cortés demolished the city, stone by stone, and with its rubble he filled the canals where two hundred thousand canoes sailed. This was the first water war in America. Now Tenochtitlán is called Mexico City. Where water once ran, now run cars.

- - -

The highest monument of Argentina has been erected in tribute to General Roca, who in the nineteenth century exterminated the Indians of Patagonia.

The longest avenue of Uruguay takes the name of General Rivera, who in the nineteenth century exterminated the last Charrúa Indians.

- - -

John Locke, the philosopher of freedom, was a shareholder of the Royal African Company, which bought and sold slaves.

When the eighteenth century was born, the first of the Bourbons, Felipe V, abdicated his throne signing a contract with his cousin, the King of France, that the French Guinea Company would sell Blacks in America. Each monarch took 25 percent of the profits.

Names of some slave ships: Voltaire, Rousseau, Jesus, Hope, Equality, Friendship.

Two of the Founding Fathers of the United States vanished in the fog of official history. Nobody remembers Robert Carter or Gouverneur Morris. Amnesia was the reward of their deeds. Carter was the only independence leader who emancipated his slaves. Morris, drafter of the Constitution, objected to the clause that established that a slave was equal to three fifths of a person. …………

आखिर मेरा कसूर ही क्या है?

तसलीमा नसरीन

मैंने ऐसा कुछ भी नहीं किया जो गलत हो. इसके बावजूद चार महीने तक मुझे कोलकाता में नज़रबंद रखा गया. मुझे घर से बाहर जाने की इजाज़त नहीं थी. सरकार बार-बार मुझसे देश या फिर राज्य छोड़ने के लिए कहती रही, कहती रही कि यहां से कहीं और चली जाओ. मगर मैंने कोलकाता छोड़ने से इनकार कर दिया. उस घर को छोड़ने से इनकार कर दिया जिसे मैंने बड़ी मेहनत से बसाया था. मैंने इनकार किया क्योंकि मुझे इसे छोड़ने की कोई वजह नजर नहीं आयी. मैं ये यकीन ही नहीं कर पा रही थी कि मेरी वजह से शहर में दंगे भी हो सकते हैं. मुझे इस बात पर विश्वास ही नहीं होता था कि मेरी वजह से शहर में लोगों की जानें जा सकती हैं. मैं इस शहर में पूरी तरह से सुरक्षित महसूस करती हूं. कोलकाता की सड़कों पर मैं बिना किसी डर के घूमी हूं, एक भी सुरक्षाकर्मी के बगैर. एक भी कट्टरपंथी से मेरा सामना नहीं हुआ. जो भी मेरे नज़दीक आया उसने ऐसा सिर्फ इसलिए किया क्योंकि वो मुझे चाहता था. एक दो मुस्लिम नेताओं ने जरूर कभी-कभी मेरे खिलाफ बयान दिये क्योंकि इससे उनके कुछ राजनीतिक स्वार्थ पूरे होते थे. इसलिए नहीं कि इसका उनकी धार्मिक भावनाओं से कुछ लेना-देना था.

मुझे पूरा यकीन है कि 21 नवंबर को हुई हिंसा का मेरे साहित्य से कोई लेना-देना नहीं था. अगर ऐसा होता तो ‘द्विखंडिता’ से विवादित अंशों को हटाने के बाद मेरा कोलकाता लौट पाना मुमकिन हो जाता. मैं जानती हूं कि 21 नवंबर को जिन लोगों ने सड़कों पर उत्पात मचाया वो मेरे साहित्य के बारे में पूरी तरह से अनजान थे. जिस नफ़रत और नाराज़गी का प्रदर्शन करते हुए उन्होंने पुलिस पर पथराव किया वो किसी दूसरी वजह से उपजी थी. वो शहर में मेरे रहने को लेकर नाराज़ नहीं थे.

मुझे राज्य से बाहर भेजने की साज़िश तो काफी लंबे समय से चल रही थी. मगर 22 नवंबर को किसी तरह से इसकी परिणति कर दी गई. मगर मेरा कसूर क्या था? मैंने क्या अपराध किया था कि कोलकाता में मुझे अपने ही घर में कैद कर दिया गया. किस गुनाह के लिए मुझे कोलकाता से निकाला गया? क्या कसूर है मेरा जिसके लिए मुझे दिल्ली में इस अनजान जगह पर एक कमरे में कैद रहने की सज़ा भुगतनी पड़ रही है. ऐसा कमरा जिसके बाहर जाने की मुझे इजाजत नहीं है और न ही इसमें मेरा कोई दोस्त और रिश्तेदार ही मुझसे मिलने आ सकता है. क्यूं मैं अनिश्चितता, निराशा और अकेलेपन का जीवन जीने को मजबूर हूं? मुझे ऐसे माहौल में क्यूं रखा गया है जिसमें मेरा सांस तक लेना दूभर है? मेरा कसूर आखिर है क्या?

केंद्र सरकार कह रही है कि वह मुझे सुरक्षा दे रही है. मगर ये किस तरह की सुरक्षा है? क्या किसी को कैद रखकर भी कोई सुरक्षा दी जाती है? जेल में भी कम से कम मिलने का तो तय समय होता है. यहां तो वो भी नहीं. जेल में रहने वाले अपराधियों को कम से कम ये तो पता होता है कि उनकी रिहाई कब होगी. मुझे तो पता ही नहीं कि कब मुझे इस असहनीय अकेलेपन, अनिश्चितता और जानलेवा खामोशी से आज़ादी मिलेगी.

मुझे कोलकाता छोड़ने को मजबूर किया गया. कहा गया कि कहीं भी जाओ, किसी भी दूसरे देश या राज्य में. इस अनजान जगह पर मुझे कैद रखने का मकसद तो मुझे यही लग रहा है कि मैं परेशान होकर देश छोड़ दूं. अगर ऐसा नहीं है तो मुझे इन ज़ंजीरों से क्यों जकड़ा जा रहा है? मुझे कोलकाता वापस जाने की इजाज़त क्यों नहीं दी जा रही.

क्यों मुझे दिल्ली में भी एक आम जिंदगी जीने से रोका जा रहा है? दिल्ली में तो किसी ने मेरे खिलाफ प्रदर्शन नहीं किए. न ही मुझे जान से मारने की धमकियां मिलीं. बल्कि यहां तो समाज के उदार और जागरूक लोगों ने मेरे समर्थन में आवाज़ भी उठाई. कई बुद्धिजीवी मेरे अभिव्यक्ति के अधिकार का बचाव करते हुए मेरी आज़ादी के लिए अधिकारियों को पत्र लिख रहे हैं. इसके बावजूद मुझे क्यों सलाखों के पीछे ज़िंदगी गुज़ारनी पड़ रही है? जब किसी को धमकी मिलती है तो उसे सुरक्षा इसलिए दी जाती है कि वो अपनी जिंदगी बिना किसी दिक्कत के जी सके. क्या जिस किसी को भी कोई धमकी मिलती है उसे किसी अनजान जगह पर छिपाकर उसकी आवाजाही पर रोक लगा देनी जाहिए?

मैं इस देश को छोड़कर कहीं नहीं जाऊंगी क्योंकि दुनिया में कोई ऐसा दूसरा देश नहीं है जिसे मैं अपना घर कह सकूं. इस देश में सबसे ज़्यादा खतरा मेरी जान को ही नहीं है. किसी भी देश में कोई भी किसी को धमकी दे सकता है. पिछले 13 सालों में मुझे लगातार एक देश से दूसरे देश में भटकना पड़ा है. ऐसा कट्टपंथियों की धमकियों की वजह से नहीं बल्कि कट्टरपंथियों से अपने स्वार्थ पूरे करने वाली राजनीति की वजह से हुआ है. 1994 में बांग्लादेश से मुझे कट्टरपंथियों ने नहीं बल्कि वहां की सरकार ने निकाला था. आज भी मुझे अपने देश में वापस लौटने की इजाज़त नहीं है. ये आदेश कट्टरपंथियों की ओर से नहीं बल्कि सरकार की तरफ से है. मुझे नहीं लगता कि सरकार मेरी सुरक्षा को लेकर चिंतित है. बांग्लादेश की सरकार को तो सिर्फ अपनी सुरक्षा की ही चिंता है.

मैं ये सोचना ही नहीं चाहती कि भारत दूसरा बांग्लादेश है. मुझे पूरा विश्वास है कि जो थोड़ी-बहुत सुरक्षा की जरूरत है, उसे देकर भारत सरकार मुझे सामान्य जिंदगी देने की इजाज़त दे सकती है. क्या मेरी वजह से दंगे हो जाएंगे, क्या मेरे कारण लोगों की जानें जाएंगी? इस तरह के डर बेबुनियाद हैं. मेरी वजह से कहीं भी कोई दंगा नहीं हुआ. एक लेखक के कारण दंगे नहीं होते. किताब पर प्रतिबंध लगने से पहले और हाईकोर्ट द्वारा प्रतिबंध हटाए जाने के बाद किताब की बिक्री बिना किसी बाधा के हुई है. किसी ने किताब के खिलाफ प्रदर्शन नहीं किया. लेकिन मुझे कई बार दंगों का डर दिखाया गया. मुझे डराकर इस देश से बाहर भेजने की कोशिशें हुईं.

मैं सीधे-सीधे ये कहना चाहती हूं कि मैं दोषी नहीं हूं. मैं ये भी कह चुकी हूं कि मैंने कभी भी किसी की भावनाओं को चोट पहुंचाने के लिए नहीं लिखा. मैंने क्या गलत किया है? मैं हर किसी को, चाहे वो हिंदू हो या मुसलमान या बौद्ध या ईसाई, एक इंसान की तरह देखती हूं. क्या ऐसा करना गलत है? मैं चाहती हूं कि सबके साथ समानता का व्यवहार हो. मैं लगातार मानवता और मानवाधिकारों के समर्थन में लिखती रही हूं. कुछ कट्टरपंथी, रुढ़वादी और संकीर्ण विचारों वाले लोग मुझे बुरा साबित करने पर तुले हैं. लेकिन उनका ऐसा करना मुझे कभी भी इंसानों और इंसानियत के बारे में लिखने से नहीं रोक पाया. उन इंसानों के बारे में जो गरीब हैं और शिक्षा और स्वास्थ्य सुविधाओं से वंचित हैं. जिनके अधिकारों पर सिर्फ इसलिए चोट की जाती है क्योंकि वे एक भिन्न आस्था में यकीन रखते हैं. मैं जिस तरह से बांग्लादेश के अल्पसंख्यक हिंदुओं के साथ हूं उसी तरह से भारत के मुसलमानों के भी साथ हूं. मुस्लिम हितों की आड़ में गंदी राजनीति करने वाले कट्टरपंथी, भारत के मुसलमानों के सच्चे प्रतिनिधि नहीं हैं.

क्या ये बताने का समय नहीं आ गया है कि कौन समाज के शत्रु हैं और कौन नहीं? क्या अब भी वक्त नहीं आया है कि इस अनचाही कैद से मुझे आज़ादी मिले? क्या इंसानियत या विचारों की आज़ादी के लिए लिखकर मैंने गलती की है? भारत सरकार मुझे किस जुर्म की सज़ा दे रही है? क्या भारत के लोग इस बात को देखेंगे कि मैं कैसे दर्द, कैसी निराशा और कैसे खालीपन के साथ जी रही हूं? कैसे लोगों की नज़रों से दूर मैं इस अंधेरे में मर रही हूं? कैसे मैं एक देश, घर, दोस्त और समाज के बिना जीने को अभिशप्त हूं? मैंने ऐसा कौन सा गुनाह किया था जो इस धर्मनिरपेक्ष लोकतंत्र में मुझे ये सज़ा मिल रही है?

मेरा राजनीति से कोई लेना-देना नहीं रहा. मैं प्रार्थना करती हूं कि लेखकों पर राजनीति होना बंद हो. एक लेखक को सोचने और लिखने के लिए अनुकूल माहौल मिले, वो बिना किसी डर के लिख सकें. यही मेरी विनम्र प्रार्थना है. मैं बस यही इस देश से मांगना चाहती हूं. हज़ारों सालों से भारत उन सभी लोगों को गले लगाता रहा है जिन्होंने यहां शरण मांगी. मुझे भी इस महान परंपरा पर गर्व है. कुछ ऐसा कीजिये कि इस लेखिका का ये गर्व सारी ज़िंदगी बना रहे.

तसलीमा नसरीन
साभार : तहलका हिन्दी

What the Superstar is selling Today?

Amit Sengupta Delhi
Hardnews

Okay, Kajrare was fabulous, and for once, even an eternally clinical, antiseptic, refrigerated Aishwarya Rai actually titillated with salty sensuality — but what was the Samajwadi Party’s B family doing with Ash at Varanasi’s Sankat Mochan Mandir? Were they appeasing the pre-wedding Madhushala gods? Or were they sending the message that all Manglik women are pre and post-condemned, that only multiple rituals performed by an army of Brahmin priests can save them? At least the media gave this message: since the rituals were documented in great detail by the genius reporters of our English dailies with photo-ops of a demure Bharatiya nari, that is, Ash the antiseptic, dutifully following her in-laws etc through the maze of Manglik cleansing ceremonies.

Indeed, if there was one classic case of a best-selling brand, and a best-selling brand family, selling the most mindless, anti-woman, anti-scientific, anti-rationality, anti-modernity message, it was this incredible Sankat Mochan exercise. If the ‘Indian of the year’ (how, why, on what ground, if not only pure commerce?) is a role model, like his son, and Ash, then what is the message to the nation? That all Manglik women are pre-ordained in their immaculate misconception to be condemned?

In any case, Amitabh Bachchan, who started of as a thin and lean anti-establishment icon with that hungry look in the angry 1970s of the failed idealism of a failed democracy, ended up as a failed tycoon who genuinely missed the abc of authentic greatness, until Amar Singh fixed his debt-ridden resurrection with KBC. So what is the Big B doing these days? Selling, selling, selling – perhaps except for sanitary napkins this man is selling every product on earth. Last reported, he had donated a few crores worth for a crown for a cash-rich south Indian temple, that’s great philanthropy no doubt. But how is he a role model for the nation if he is only making hordes of money for himself and his family and for obscenely prosperous gods? ……………