· 2019-08-30 · relevant for: indian society | topic: structure of indian society incl. caste...

In hate crime fight, a voice still feeble 2

Taking on the mob: On Rajasthan law against mob lynching 5

The monk who shaped India’s secularism 7

The future lies in cities, but the transition will be tricky 10

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Source : www.thehindu.com Date : 2019-08-01

IN HATE CRIME FIGHT, A VOICE STILL FEEBLERelevant for: Indian Society | Topic: Regionalism, Communalism & Secularism

At a time when India is reeling under hate lynching, it is sobering to remember that it took theUnited States Senate 100 years to approve a bill to make lynching a federal crime. Over 200anti-lynching bills were introduced in the U.S. Congress since 1918, but all were voted downuntil the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act of 2018 introduced by three Senators of African-American descent including Kamala Harris was approved unanimously in the winter of 2018.

The U.S. bill describes lynching as “the ultimate expression of racism in the United States”.Senator Cory Booker said the bill recognised lynching for what it is: “a bias-motivated act ofterror”. When will Parliament here recognise, similarly, that lynching is “a bias-motivated act ofterror” and “the ultimate expression of communal hatred in India”?

Some may dispute this description, citing the relatively small numbers of such mob crimes. Theymiss the point that hate lynching is designed as an act to terrorise an entire community. Thenumber of lynch murders in the U.S. mentioned in the bill averages around 55 annually, butdespite these small numbers, these performative acts of violence succeeded in instilling intensefear among all African-Americans for decades.

The same purpose is being served by lynching in India; again performative acts of hate violence,but now using modern technology, video-graphing of mob lynching, widely circulating theseimages through social media, and celebrating these as acts of nationalist valour. These havesimilarly instilled a pervasive sense of everyday normalised fear in the hearts of every Indianfrom the targeted minority community. It is this which indeed makes lynching an ultimate act ofterror.

The Supreme Court of India recently asked the Union government and all the major States toexplain what action has been taken to prevent these growing incidents of lynching, includingpassing a special law to instil a sense of fear for law amongst vigilantes and mobsters. KunwarDanish Ali, a first term Bahujan Samaj Party MP from Amroha, raised the same question inParliament, describing mob lynching as “an assault on democracy”. His inquiry was met withnoisy disruptions, but he got no answer.

The Uttar Pradesh Law Commission (UPLC) earlier last month took the initiative, unprompted bythe Uttar Pradesh government, to recommend a draft anti-lynching law. It commends a lawwhich closely follows in almost every major detail the first law against lynching passed in thiscountry, a remarkable ordinance introduced by the Manipur government late last year, indeedthe most significant statute against religious hate crimes in the country.

A noteworthy observation in the text of the United States bill is that it records that at least 4,742people were lynched in the U.S. between 1882 and 1968, but 99% of all perpetrators remainunpunished. It is significant to remember that the first anti-lynching legislation proposed as farback as in 1918 in the U.S. targeted state officials for failing to provide equal protection underthe laws to anyone victimised by a mob. Impunity characterises lynching in India as well.Addressing this squarely, both the Manipur statute and the UPLC draft create a new crime ofdereliction of duty by police officials, holding a police officer guilty of this crime if he or she “omitsto exercise lawful authority vested in them under law, without reasonable cause, and therebyfails to prevent lynching”. Dereliction also includes the failure to provide protection to a victim oflynching; failure to act upon apprehended lynching; and refusing to record any informationrelating to the commission of lynching. This crime carries the penalty of one to three years and a

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fine. The UPLC goes further to include also a new crime of dereliction of duty by DistrictMagistrates.

The creation of this new crime was also the key recommendation of the Prevention ofCommunal & Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, proposed by theNational Advisory Council of the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance government (fulldisclosure: Farah Naqvi and I were co-convenors of the working group which drafted thisproposed bill, which however was never even introduced in Parliament). We were convincedthat it is only the creation of such a crime that will compel public officials to perform their dutywith fairness, in conformity with their constitutional and legal duties, to ensure equal protection toall persons, regardless of their faith and caste.

Both the Manipur law and UPLC recommendations also lay down elaborate duties of policeofficials in the event of lynching. These include taking all reasonable steps to prevent any act oflynching including its incitement and commission; to that end making all possible efforts toidentify instances of dissemination of offensive material or any other means employed in order toincite or promote lynching of a particular person or group of persons; and making all possibleefforts to prevent the creation of a hostile environment against a person or group of persons.

Both sensitively and expansively lay down official duties to protect victims and witnesses. Theystate that a victim shall have the right to reasonable, accurate, and timely notice of any courtproceeding and shall be entitled to be heard at any proceeding in respect of bail, discharge,release, parole, conviction or sentence of an accused, and to file written submissions onconviction, acquittal or sentencing. They also explicitly require the Superintendent of Police toinform the victim in writing of the progress in the investigation. The victim shall have the right toreceive a copy of any statement of the witness recorded during investigation or inquiry and acopy of all statements and documents.

Where the UPLC goes further than the Manipur statute is in laying down the right tocompensation. It places the duty squarely on the Chief Secretary to provide compensation tovictims of lynching within 30 days of the incident. It states that while computing compensation,the State government must give due regard to bodily, psychological and material injuries andloss of earnings, including loss of opportunity of employment and education, expenses incurredon account of legal and medical assistance. It also lays down a floor of 25 lakh in case lynchingcauses death.

The Congress government of Madhya Pradesh has announced its resolve to pass legalprovisions against lynching. It chooses curiously to not do this by an anti-lynching law, butinstead by amendments to the Madhya Pradesh Cow Progeny Slaughter Prevention Act 2004(which would effectively limit its scope only to cow-related lynching, and not lynching triggeredby other charges).

Its proposed amendments do not include any provisions to punish dereliction of duty, protectvictim rights or secure compensation. All that it proposes is punishment for any act by a mobwhich indulges in violence in the name of cow vigilantism from six months to three years ofimprisonment and a fine. It is unclear what deterrence such amendments would instil, sinceexisting laws contain much greater punishments for murder and aggravated attacks. In itspresent form, it appears a weak, half-hearted and poorly thought-out measure. The AshokGehlot-led government in Rajasthan has also tabled an anti-lynching bill. This prescribes higherpunishments, investigation by senior police officers, and mandatory compensation but not thecritical elements of dereliction of duty or victim rights. Without these, they will make littledifference on the ground.

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Home Minister Amit Shah now heads a committee to propose action against lynching. Thequestion remains: do we expect Mr. Shah, or indeed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister YogiAdityanath to propose a law against lynching which punishes public officials who fail in theirduties, protects victims and witnesses, and ensures comprehensive reparation, as proposed bythe UPLC and provided in the Manipur statute?

“Someone is finally recognising our pain,” said the great-granddaughter of Anthony Crawford, anAfrican American, who was lynched in 1916. I wonder how long survivors of lynching who losttheir loved ones to merciless mob hate in India will have to wait for a government which willrecognise their pain.

Harsh Mander is a human rights worker, writer and teacher

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TAKING ON THE MOB: ON RAJASTHAN LAW AGAINSTMOB LYNCHING

Relevant for: Indian Society | Topic: Structure of Indian Society incl. Caste system

It is possible to argue that there is no need to create new criminal offences for ‘lynching’ and‘honour killing’ because they remain plain murders. These are already punishable with death orlife imprisonment. Yet, mob lynching and murderous attacks on young couples in the name ofpreserving family or community honour have emerged as preponderant social evils. It is butinevitable that societies come up with new ways of combating such hate crimes. Rajasthan hasmade bold to grapple with these two crimes by passing special penal laws. Vigilante mobs haveunleashed a wave of crimes in the name of cow protection and preventing the sale of beef ortransport of cattle; the spread of rumour and attempts to establish sectarian dominance havealso contributed to this disturbing phenomenon. The Supreme Court zeroed in on the nub of thetrend when it spoke of “rising intolerance and growing polarisation” in a judgment last year. Italso mooted a special law to criminalise it and “instil a sense of fear” among those too quick toform a lynch mob. The passage of the Protection from Lynching Bill, 2019, makes Rajasthan thesecond State, after Manipur, to implement the suggestion. A positive feature is that it closelyresembles the Manipur law in the way “lynching” is defined. It covers any act of violence,whether spontaneous or planned, by a mob on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, place ofbirth, language, dietary practices, sexual orientation, political affiliation or ethnicity. And twopersons are enough to constitute a ‘mob’.

According to the State’s Parliamentary Affairs Minister, 86% of mob lynching incidents reportedin India after 2014 were in Rajasthan. The Bill says that when a mob attack ends in death, it ispunishable with life imprisonment and a fine of up to 5 lakh. There are lesser terms for causinginjuries. As directed by the Supreme Court, the Bill provides for appointment of a nodal officer toprevent lynching and for district police chiefs to act as coordinators. It ensures compensation tovictims and rehabilitation measures for those displaced. The opposition BJP, on expected lines,contended that the Bill was being brought in a hurry to please a community. However, it is a factthat Muslims have been prime targets of lynch mobs. The party’s fulmination against the otherBill that prohibits interference in the “freedom of matrimonial alliances in the name of honour andtradition” was equally bereft of substance, as it cited societal norms and cultural practice tooppose the progressive law. In effect, it was batting for khap panchayats that seek to interdictinter-caste marriages. The Bill provides for both death and life imprisonment for killing in thename of honour, but it is doubtful if courts will look at all such murders as among the ‘rarest ofrare cases’ that warrant the resort to the death penalty.



Pakistan must recognise India’s resolve in securing the safety of Jadhav






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THE MONK WHO SHAPED INDIA’S SECULARISMRelevant for: Indian Society | Topic: Regionalism, Communalism & Secularism

Swami Vivekananda believed in the philosophy of sarva dharma sama bhava (all religions leadto the same goal). | Photo Credit: SRR

Has Indian nationalism turned utterly exclusivist? What would one of the icons of nationalism,Swami Vivekananda, have to say about this shift? Nationalism, after all, is a battle for the mythsthat create a nation.

The practice of Indian secularism, despite its pitfalls, has distinguished the country from many ofits neighbours. India is the nation with the third-highest number of Muslims in the world. Its abilityto consolidate democracy amidst unprecedented diversity could teach a lesson or two even toadvanced industrial economies that have operated along the lines of a classic monoculturalnation. The country’s secular ideals have their roots in its Constitution, promulgated by itspeople, a majority of whom are Hindus. Would this state of affairs change because a differentmorality, Hindu nationalism, has surreptitiously overtaken India’s tryst with secular nationalism?

Indian secularism has always attempted, however imperfectly, to respect the credo of sarvadharma sama bhava (all religions lead to the same goal), which translates to an equal respectfor all religions. However, the early-day Hindu nationalists were clearly at odds with the idea.This was the reason Nathuram Godse assassinated one of its strongest proponents, MahatmaGandhi.

For the likes of Godse, a corollary of the two-nation theory was that independent India wasprimarily a land for Hindus. More than 70 years after Independence, this notion has gainedprominence as never before in India’s post-colonial history. This is evident when the Centralgovernment says it will consider all Hindus in neighbouring countries as potential Indian citizens.The most recent example of this is the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir, the country’s onlyMuslim-majority State, into two Union Territories, with all special provisions taken away from theerstwhile State’s residents.

Not only were Kashmiris not consulted, they were made to suffer an information blackout. Doesthis kind of Hindu nationalism align with the cosmopolitan nature of India’s millennial traditions?

Another question that needs to be asked is: Is it fair to appropriate Swami Vivekananda, anotherfollower of the sarva dharma sama bhava philosophy whom Prime Minister Narendra Modikeeps citing, as a Hindutva icon?

Here, it is necessary to understand what Vivekananda’s life and world view said about Indiannationalism. His Chicago lectures (1893) marked the beginning of a mission that would interpretIndia’s millennial tradition in order to reform it and he later spent about two years in New York,establishing the first Vedanta Society in 1894. He travelled widely across Europe and engagedIndologists such as Max Mueller and Paul Deussen. He even debated with eminent scientistssuch as Nicola Tesla before embarking on his reformist mission in India.

One of the key elements of his message, based on the experiments of his spiritual mentor SriRamakrishna Paramahansa, was that all religions lead to the same goal. Paramahansa isunique in the annals of mysticism as one whose spiritual practices reflect the belief that theideas of personal god and that of an impersonal god as well as spiritual practices in Christianityand in Islam all lead to the same realisation.

https://www.thehindu.com/profile/photographers/SRR/

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While in Chicago, Vivekananda stressed three important and novel facets of Hindu life. First, hesaid that Indian tradition believed “not only in toleration” but in acceptance of “all religions astrue”. Second, he stressed in no uncertain terms that Hinduism was incomplete withoutBuddhism, and vice versa.

Finally, at the last meeting he proclaimed: “[I]f anybody dreams [of] the exclusive survival of hisown religion and the destruction of others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart, and point outto him that upon the banner of every religion will soon be written, in spite of resistance: ‘Helpand not fight’; ‘Assimilation and not destruction’, and ‘Harmony and peace and not dissension’.

Vivekananda’s interpretation of India’s past was radical and, when he returned from the West,he had with him a large number of American and European followers. These women and menstood behind his project of establishing the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897.

Vivekananda emphasised that India needed to trade Indian spirituality for the West’s materialand modern culture and was firmly behind India’s scientific modernisation. He supportedJagadish Chandra Bose’s scientific projects. In fact, Vivekananda’s American disciple Sara Bullhelped patent Bose’s discoveries in the U.S. He also invited Irish teacher Margaret Noble, whomhe rechristened ‘Sister Nivedita’, to help uplift the condition of Indian women. When sheinaugurated a girls’ school in Calcutta, Vivekananda even requested his friends to send theirgirls to this school.

Vivekananda also inspired Jamsetji Tata to establish the Indian Institute of Science and the TataIron and Steel Company. India needed a secular monastery from where scientific andtechnological development would uplift India’s material conditions, for which his ideals provideda source of inspiration.

Vivekananda made a remarkable impact on the makers of modern India, who later challengedthe two-nation theory, including Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose.He used the term ‘Daridra Narayan’ to imply that ‘service to the poor is service to god’, manyyears before Gandhiji addressed the socially oppressed as ‘Harijan’ (children of god). TheMahatma in fact opined that his love for India grew thousandfold after reading Vivekananda.

It is for these reasons that the latter’s birthday was declared as the National Youth Day.

Was Vivekananda then a proponent of Hindutva or of the millennial traditions that have survivedmany an invasion and endured to teach the world both “toleration and universal acceptance”?Should Hindu nationalism take his name but forget his fiery modern spirit that rediscovered andreformed India’s past? And shouldn’t India’s secular nationalism also acknowledge its deeplyspiritual roots in the beliefs of pioneers like the reformer?

Rahul Mukherji is Professor, South Asia Institute, at the Centre for Asian and TransculturalStudies, Heidelberg University



How an idea for a ‘perfect Mumbai feature story’ failed to materialise





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Source : www.hindustantimes.com Date : 2019-08-22

THE FUTURE LIES IN CITIES, BUT THE TRANSITIONWILL BE TRICKY

Relevant for: Indian Society | Topic: Urbanization, their problems and their remedies incl. Migration & SmartCities

Aug 21, 2019-Wednesday-°C

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Metro cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata

Other cities - Noida, Gurgaon, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Bhopal , Chandigarh , Dehradun, Indore,Jaipur, Lucknow, Patna, Ranchi

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A report titled India 2030 – Exploring the Future, by the Confederation of Real EstateDevelopers Association of India and global property consultant CBRE has said that India’s futureis urban, but the transition will not be easy. The report is in line with what the census data havebeen showing. According to the 1901 census, the population in urban areas was 11.4%. Thisincreased to 28.53% (2001 census) and 31.16% (2011 census). The urbanisation process willnot be without its own set of challenges in India’s cities: Poverty, lack of affordable housing,traffic congestion and overcrowding, environmental degradation, and air pollution.

However, this is also an opportunity for the country to design a fresh and proactive approach tomitigate the strains that will develop as cities expand, and to maximise the potential economicopportunity that well-managed cities can offer. This is because the choices that India makes tomanage the process of urbanisation will have profound consequences for its people andeconomic future. For starters, India must end the debate whether urbanisation is a positive ornegative phenomenon, and whether the future lies in its villages and cities. This, as a McKinseyreport on urbanisation says correctly, is a false dichotomy because villages and cities areinterdependent and symbiotic.

While India will have its own process of development, it can learn from other cities that havefaced similar challenges. Many countries, the McKinsey report adds, such as United Kingdom,South Africa and China, have turned around their cities in as little as 10 years with properfunding, governance, sectoral policies and planning. India must also be ambitious when it comesto urbanisation because cities are not just about building infrastructure, but also about the qualityof life they provide.

This is what the best cities of the world are focusing on today - Rotterdam in the Netherlands iscreating more public spaces for its citizens; Singapore is wrapping its numerous high rises withvertical gardens and building pocket parks; and China’s building a new green, low rise city ----Xiongan. It will be built on 1,700 square km-stretch of swampy land, including a heavy pollutedlake, around 104 km southwest of Beijing, and will be a model for things to come.

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As India designs its response to urbanisation, it must pick and choose from this wide array ofinspirational choices. Planners have to be thoughtful about shaping cities because they are notjust building a brick-and-mortar habitats, but a legacy.

First Published: Aug 21, 2019 19:37 IST



· 2019-08-30 · relevant for: indian society | topic: structure of indian society incl. caste...

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