Earthquake and Mega-Dams in Arunachal Pradesh: Is our Survival on the threshold?

The Honolulu Workshop, May 1978 identifies Northeast India as one of the six most earthquake prone zone. The other five being Mexico, Taiwan, California, Japan and Turkey. Northeast Region fall in the Zone V which is VERY HIGH RISK ZONE and can have earthquakes of magnitude 8 and greater. The Shillong Earthquake of 1897 was of 8.7 on the Richter scale. It was one of the worlds largest earthquake and devastated the thriving Shillong town then. The next major earth quake that rocked Northeast India was in 1950 which measured 8.5 on the Richter scale. Sadiya, the thriving town was washed away during this period. Apart from these two major earthquakes recorded, everyone in Northeast India knows of the uncountable minor earthquakes in the region.

In this context, can the people of Arunachal Pradesh wake up from their deep slumber? Is the construction of more than 100 Dams feasible for our sustenance? What lies ahead in the future for us? Can we learn something from the 8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan, though the corrupted few have forgotten our own experiences? The people of Arunachal Pradesh have to think seriously about it. Its a question of our own survival.

The Indian Government have problem with construction of a single Dam over Xiang River on the Tibetan Plateau but what about Dams that counts more than a hundred that's coming up in Arunachal Pradesh?This is a clear example of the nuances of the so called Indian democracy. For a single Dam across the border, the Indian Government as well its media and also the people who do not know about the region makes a puss out of it. Is the Indian Media on a sojourn when it comes to the Indian side of the border or it does not have any concern for its own people's existence? It usually does so.

Kudos to Adisu and also the Mishmi students for being far-sighted on Mega-Dam issues. Our state is going to be a Watershed, an innovative Indian model of Rain Harvesting which the Government of India should patent. I'm not Nostradamus but I can say that the impact of these Mega Dams and an earthquake with magnitude higher than 8 on the Richter scale can flatten the hills and mountain. What will be the landscape in which we will dwell after such an incident? Obviously, we will be plain people. But that comes with an exception-if we survive. Not to forget that the Himalayas are the youngest mountain ranges of the world.

With deep sympathy and my prayers for the people of Japan, can we Arunachalees open our eyes? A persons eye which cannot see the unseen, is worse than a blind man. So, before its too late, can the policy makers ponder about the parroted word"Development."

Beauty Queens from India

Miss Universe

Sushmita Sen : She was the first Indian woman to be crowned Miss Universe in 1994. In 1994, at the age of eighteen, Sushmita won the title of Femina Miss India beating Aishwarya Rai, who was the runner up. Sen represented India at the 1994 Miss Universe Pageant, held in Manila, Philippines and won. Sen was born in a Bengali family. Her father, Shubeer Sen, was a former Indian Air Force Wing Commander and her mother, Subhra Sen, was as a fashion artist and jewelry designer. She was born in St.Theresa's hospital on 19 November 1975 in Hyderabad, India but grew up in New Delhi. She attended school at the Air Force Golden Jubilee Institute and graduated from Maitreyi College, Delhi. In 2000, she adopted a daughter, named Renee. Later on 13 January 2010 she adopted a three month old girl and named her Alisah.

Lara Dutta: She was born in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. Her father is Wing Commander L.K. Dutta (retired) and her mother is Jennifer Dutta. The Dutta family moved to Bangalore in 1981 where she completed high school from St.Francis Xavier Girls High School. Lara graduated in economics with a minor in communications from University of Mumbai. At Miss Universe 2000 in Cyprus, she was crowned Miss Universe which led to her appointment as a UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador in 2001.

Miss World

Reita Faria: Reita Faria was the first Indian to be crowned Miss World in 1966. Reita could make it to the top during those conservative times. Even today, India, the land of Kamasutra is filled with hypocrites.

Aishwarya Rai: After a long break, a gorgeous lady emerged in the fashion scene, popularly called as Ash. Ash made India proud in the year 1994 at Sun City, when she confidentially went on to claim the Miss World title. She was born in the South Indian state of Karnataka in Mangalore on 1 November 1973. She studied Architecture but simultaneously did modeling assignments also. Ash became a household name with the Pepsi ad campaign with Amir Khan. After winning Femina Miss India, she won the Miss World crown. Presently, she is married to Abhishek Bachchan and is a part of the prestigious Bachchan family of Bollywood.

Diana Hayden: After Aishwarya, Diana Hayden claimed the Miss World crown in 1997. She was born in 1973 in Hyderabad and comes from an Anglo-Indian family. Diana completed her schooling from the St Anns High School, Secunderabad. She graduated from the Osmania University in Hyderabad and started her career as a model.

Yukta Mookhey: She won the Miss World crown for India in 1999. Born on 7 October 1979 and has a degree in Zoology from VG Vaze College, Mulund. She also studied Fine Arts for 3 years. She had also been a student of classical music since she was 11 years old. She is married to Prince Tuli, a financial analyst and Director of the Tuli Group which has a chain of Hotels, Resorts, Malls and Educational institutions in Central India.

Priyanka Chopra: Priyanka Chopra made the country proud in 2000, when she won the coveted Miss World title. Born on 18 July 1982 to Capt. Ashok Chopra and Madhu Chopra. As such Priyanka comes from an army background. She started her education from La Martiniere Girls College in Lucknow and studied for a short while at Maria Goretti College in Bareilly. She completed her 10th from Boston, USA. After returning from Boston she received a call to participate in the Femina Miss India Pageant. She won the contest and went on to win the Miss World Beauty pageant.

History of People without History

The Art of not being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia by James C. Scott; Orient Blackswan Pvt. Ltd. Hyderabad-500029. Rs.799.

Reviewed by V. Suryanarayan, “History of People without History,” The Hindu, 29 June 2010.

James Scott, the well-known anthropologist associated with the Agrarian Studies Programme in Yale University, has adopted a novel approach to the study of the history of modern Southeast Asia, and he calls it anarchist. He cites with approval this statement of French anthropologist and ethnographer, Pierre Clastres, known for his field work among Guayaki in Paraguay and his off-beat theory of stateless societies: “It is said that the history of peoples who have a history is the history of class struggle. It might be said, with at least as much truthfulness, that the history of peoples without history is a history of their struggle against the state.”

Struggle

The people without history on whom Scott has focussed in this book reside in Zomia, a region as big as Europe that straddles southern China and several mainland Southeast Asian countries. Their habitat is spread over four provinces of southern China — Yunnan, Guizhow, Gwangxi and (parts of) Sichuan — and parts of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar, extending up to Northeastern India. The area covers 25 million square kilometres and is populated by 100 million people belonging to minority groups. They represent a bewildering ethnic and linguistic diversity. For social scientists brought up in state-centric traditions, these people are yet to be fully incorporated into nation states; they are yet to be governed, taxed and “civilised”. From a long-term perspective, their days may be numbered.

However, if one looks from the “other side”, the people of Zomia have been relentlessly struggling against the tyranny of the nation state. They are fugitives. The strong arm of the state reaches out to them in the form of enslavement, conscription, taxes, corvee labour, and so on. Scott calls their settlements “shatter zones” and “zones of refuge.”

The people of Zomia cling to their ways of life with passion and fervour. Their livelihood patterns, social organisation, ideologies, and oral traditions are intended to keep the state at arm's length. Their physical dispersal over rugged terrains, their mobility, kinship structures, changing ethnic identities, and devotion to prophetic millenarian leaders militate against their incorporation into the state system. For the upholders of the state system, those outside the political orbit are all barbarians.

The history of China testifies that, under the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were continuous forcible attempts to ‘sinicise' the barbarians. Millions of them were rendered fugitives. The hill people have also been resisting, unsuccessfully though, the military expeditions of the Thai and the Burmese rulers. The people who want to escape the state system use the mountains as a refuge.

Universal

James Scott develops the idea of “friction of terrain, which is a new way of understanding political space and the difficulties of state-making in pre-modern societies.” The encounter between “expanding state” and “self-governing peoples” is not restricted to southern China and mainland Southeast Asia. It is a universal phenomenon and the history of the world is replete with several such instances.

The histories of Rome, of Han China, of British imperialism, and of white settlers in the United States, Canada, Australia, and South Africa are full of annihilation and absorption of indigenous people into the modern state system. The author characterises this phenomenon as an encounter between “the raw and the cooked, the wild and the tamed, the hill/forest people and the valley/cleared land peoples, upstream and downstream, the barbarian and the civilised, the backward and the modern, the free and the bound, the people without history and the people with history.”

This creative, compassionate, and sensitive book is the outcome of years of painstaking research. It provides a lucid account, imbued with humanity, and is full of cultural insights. There is hardly any work that looks at history from the victim's viewpoint. This book deserves to be read and understood by all students of contemporary Southeast Asia.

Manipur Song

The documentary film “Manipur Song” set in Manipur is directed by Pankaj Butalia. The film seeks to foreground a state that exists on the periphery of the Indian imagination. As with other North Eastern states, culturally and ethnically Manipur has remained estranged from the dominant Indian culture and has repeatedly sought to assert its identity through insurgency.

The Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958 gives complete immunity to the army and led to killings and rapes. The situation got so bad that in August 2004 a group of women disrobed in front of the army barracks holding banners saying “Indian Army Rape Us”.

Irom Chanu Sharmila, also known as the Iron Lady of Manipur is on fast since 2 November 2000 for the removal of AFSPA 1958. Deepti Priya Mehrotra has written a book titled Burning Bright: Irom Sharmila and the Struggle for Peace in Manipur on the Iron lady. It was published by Penguin Books, India in July 2009.

The land of Gandhi is mute to his principle. The Indian Government no longer understands the Mahatmas way of struggle. Until people pick up a Klasnikov, the Indian Government does not dare to listen to its own citizen.

The Manipuris have contributed to the Indian state enough when it comes to sports.There are many footballers who have and is representing the national team. Or for that matter, name any game, you find a Manipuri. Until someone is good in cricket, who cares...This is the greatness of Indian democracy. It is nothing better than a totalitarian state. The film looks at the consequences of this violence on ordinary people.

Watch the documentary at NDTV

http://www.ndtv.com/news/videos/video_player.php?id=1090323

James Cameron’s "Avatar" relates to the exploitation of Indigenous People of the world and India

How James Cameron’s Avatar relates to the exploitation of Indigenous People of the world and India
By Rohini Hensman

With forced expulsion and violence on their homeland, persecuted outsider-advocates, and commercial mining interest driving it all, James Cameron’s Avatar has striking parallels to events on the ground in India.

The plot of Avatar is relatively simple. In the year 2154, a colony of humans has been set up by RDA corporation on Pandora, an exotic planet inhospitable to humans but rich in a rare and incredibly valuable mineral, ironically named unobtanium. RDA is keen on exploiting this natural resource but the indigenous inhabitants, the Na’vi, are an obstacle to this goal, since the unobtanium lies beneath the forest they inhabit, with the biggest deposit beneath their ancestral Hometree. In a science fiction flourish, the humans interact with the natives through the Avatar programme, which blends the DNA of individual human beings with that of the Na’vi to create Na’vi avatars which can be controlled by the mind of the human. Through this, they can establish contact with the Na’vi, find out about them and their habitat, and try to persuade them to cooperate with the company. But should they fail, the military wing is poised to remove them by force. Our heroes, including Jake, a paraplegic ex-marine, who adopts his deceased twin brother’s avatar (which represents a sizable investment by the corporation) connect with the natives and learn to appreciate their culture. When the powers-that-be get impatient and give Jake and his colleagues an hour to convince the Na’vi to vacate their habitat, they rebel against their paymasters in an attempt to protect the Na’vi from ecological ruin and genocide.

The contemporary relevance of this film derives from the fact that, as the recent UN Report on the State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (United Nations 2010) reminds us, there are still 370 million indigenous people in the world. Many are still being subjected to displacement and dispossession, and suffer physical abuse, imprisonment, torture and even death if they try to assert their rights. Nowhere is this more true than in India’s forest belt, where the Adivasis are being displaced from their traditional habitats by the pursuit of ‘development’, of late driven mainly by commercial interests including mining. As an official report notes, ‘As tribal areas are also rich in mineral resources, the mining projects proposed such as in Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh threaten the very existence of tribal people’ (Government of India 2008).

Indeed, the heart-breaking moment in Avatar when the ancestral Hometree of the Na’vi is destroyed, and many are killed while the rest are displaced, could well be a metaphor for what is happening in the state of Chhattisgarh in Central India, where the security forces of a fascist state government, together with a state-sponsored, largely tribal militia (Salwa Judum), have driven tens of thousands of Adivasis out of their villages and destroyed them. In the process, many have been injured, tortured, raped and killed. One non-tribal activist fighting against these injustices, renowned Dr Binayak Sen, was arrested and kept behind bars for over two years on false charges; another, Himanshu Kumar, had his Gandhian ashram destroyed, and has suffered continuous harassment. Journalists and human rights activists trying to investigate and report on the situation have been assaulted physically and kept out. Inordinate effort was needed to get Sodhi Sambho, a young Adivasi woman who was witness to a massacre, the medical treatment she needed for her bullet-shattered leg; yet even in hospital she remained a virtual captive of the state police, effectively cut off from journalists and even from her lawyer in the case pertaining to the massacre. Three other witnesses were detained by the police, who are the alleged perpetrators: the very opposite of a witness-protection programme (Jha 2010; Iqbal 2010;Sethi 2010).

Some Adivasis have joined the Communist Party of India (Maoist) (also known as ‘Maoists’ or ‘Naxalites’) in order to fight the state security forces, even though the goal of the CPI(Maoist) (capturing state power) and its methods (destruction of schools and infrastructure, recruitment of child soldiers, summary execution of those labelled as informers, etc.) are inimical to the welfare of the Adivasis and their own demands (Human Rights Watch 2008). The central government is supporting a military attack on the Maoists, despite the fact that many unaffiliated Adivasis will be caught in the crossfire, even though its own report makes it clear that so long as unchecked violations of the legal and constitutional rights of Adivasis continue, they will continue to be pushed into the ranks of the Maoists. It is probably in recognition of this fact that the government is considering legislation that will restrict mining by private sector companies in tribal areas, and take into consideration constitutional provisions for the protection of tribal communities and their rights. Mining companies are already lobbyingagainst this proposed restriction of their access to our earthly equivalents of unobtanium. Unless there is even stronger counter-lobbying by tribal rights, human rights and environmentalist groups, it is unlikely that this legislation will ever make it to the statute books. Poor implementation of the otherwise laudable Forest Rights Act (2007) demonstrates that pressure for implementation is equally important.

The bows and arrows of the Adivasis are as ineffective against the firepower of the invaders as they are in Avatar. Yet they do have weapons that were not available to the Na’vi: legal and constitutional rights, environmental laws, international law, greater knowledge of the devastating environmental impact of deforestation and militarism, and modern information and communication technologies. Struggles in the real world are more complicated and messy than the clearcut fight between good and evil in the world of Avatar: the invaders are not necessarily White; some of the indigenous people may collaborate with them while others may join groups like the Maoists whose interests clash with their own; indigenous people belonging to different tribes may fight each other for control over the same territory; some tribal customs may be extremely oppressive, especially to women; for many indigenous people, their biggest problem may be the discrimination and exclusion they face in mainstream society; and all these actors have to share the same planet, in some cases the same country. But despite these over-simplifications, the happy ending of Avatarencourages us to hope that the surviving indigenous people of the world, including the Adivasis of India, can win sufficient control over their lives and habitats to secure freedom from poverty, indignity and violent abuse.

Rohini Hensman is a researcher and writer active in the women’s liberation, trade union, human-rights and anti-war movements in India and Sri Lanka.

Source: http://himalmag.com/blogs/blog/2010/01/28/of-avatar-and-adivasis/

Seperate Time Zone for India's Northeast

Staff Reporter, “Stress on separate time zone for region”, The Assam Tribune, 23 January 2010.

GUWAHATI, Jan 23 – The Northeast has for long been held hostage by adherence to a standard time that has adversely affected its people. It is imperative that a separate time zone was created for the region so that both quality of life and economic productivity could take off after decades of economic doldrums.

This was underlined in speeches delivered by noted filmmaker Jahnu Baruah and some others in an open discussion on ‘Separate Time Zone for Northeast’ organised by KC Das Commerce College in the city’s ITA Centre for Performing Arts.

Baruah pointed out that residents of the region, especially office-goers, had a bad deal when it came to use of daylight hours as they had to follow a standard time based on a longitude much to their west. While in summer they had to start their days rather late, in winter they had to work till dark.

Consequently, apart from the people having to work against the biological clock, much daylight and time was wasted every day. Loss of daylight hours also resulted in a cascading effect in productivity, energy use, and social behaviour and attitudes, he mentioned.

He reasoned that the Northeast has lost a “minimum average of 2 to 3 hours of productivity every day” by sticking to the Indian Standard Time, which in 62 years after Independence amounted to nearly 55,800 hours. In the area of energy use costs combining homes, establishments and offices, the total wastage could be as high as Rs 94,900 crore.

In order to alter the situation he favoured a new standard time based on the longitude 105 degree East and seven hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time.

The award winning filmmaker who had for two decades studied the situation in Northeast made a comparative study of lifestyles in Kohima and Mumbai stating that in a range of daily activities, people in Kohima or any other North-eastern settlement were disadvantaged for following a standard time that was actually much behind.

Referring to Bangladesh, Singapore, and several other countries Baruah asserted that all those have advanced their standard times so that people and productivity could both gain from having more daylight hours at their disposal. While productivity in Singapore has been very high, it has also gone up in Bangladesh after it adopted the new time standard.

It was also pointed out that countries with wide longitudinal extent had several time zones for the benefit of the population. The US has six time zones, Canada has seven, while Russia is divided into 11 time zones.

The impact of abiding by the Indian Standard time was felt in different spheres in the Northeast, and according to Baruah, it could be linked to some social problems like alcoholism as in the present situation youths could find ample time to indulge in drinking.

Speaking on the occasion, BM Saikia, an engineer with the Assam State Electricity Board highlighted the issue of Daylight Saving Time with regard to energy consumption in the Northeast. He quoted Benjamin Franklin who advocated DST with the adage ‘early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise’.

He was of the opinion that changes in the standard time were affected with two motives – to shift human activity and to make better use of daylight.

Today’s discussions resulted in adoption of two resolutions – submission of a memorandum to the Union Government and all MPs of Northeast, and holding similar discussions across the region to create public opinion.

If China takes a little action, the so-called Great Indian Federation can be broken up

Zhan Lue, a Chinese strategist contends that Beijing should break up India into 20-30 independent states with the help of "friendly countries" like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. Written in Chinese, the article, "If China takes a little action, the so-called Great Indian Federation can be broken up" is published in the new edition of the website of the China International Institute for Strategic Studies (CIISS), an influential think tank that advises Beijing on global and strategic issues.

According to D.S. Rajan, Director of the Chennai Centre for China Studies, Chennai, Zhan Lue, the author of the article, argues that the "so-called" Indian nation cannot be considered as one having existed in history as it relies primarily on Hindu religion for unity. The article says that India could only be termed a "Hindu religious state" that is based on caste exploitation and which is coming in the way of modernisation.

The writer goes on to argue that with these caste cleavages in mind, China in its own interest and the progress of whole of Asia should join forces with "different nationalities" like Assamese, Tamils and Kashmiris and support them in establishing independent nation states of their own. In particular, the article asks Beijing to support the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) to achieve independence for Assam from India.

Furthermore, the article suggests that China can give political support to Bangladesh to encourage ethnic Bengalis in India get rid of "Indian control" and unite with Bangladesh as one Bengali nation. If this is not possible, the creation of at least another free Bengali nation state as a friendly neighbour of Bangladesh would be desirable for the purpose of weakening India's expansion and threat aimed at forming a "unified South Asia", the article argues.

The article recommends India's break up into 20-30 nation-states like in Europe and contends that if the consciousness of "nationalities" in India could be aroused, social reforms in South Asia can be achieved, the caste system can be eradicated and the region can march towards prosperity.

The Chinese strategist suggests that to split India, China can seek support of friendly countries including Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan. China should encourage Bangladesh to give a push to the independence of West Bengal and recover the 90,000 sq km territory in Arunachal Pradesh, which China calls Southern Tibet, says Rajan who has analysed the article for the Chennai-based think tank.

What is G8?

The G8 is not an international organisation, nor does it have an administrative staff with a permanent secretariat. It is rather a process that culminates in an annual Summit at which the Heads of State and Government of the member countries hold talks with a view to finding solutions to the main world issues, which are summed up in the “Final Statement".
The G8’s membership comprises the main industrialised countries. Its members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The European Commission attends as well.
The group’s first meeting was held in Rambouillet, France in 1975 at the invitation of then President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.The last G8 Summit was held in Italy, the city of L'Aquila from 8 to 10 July 2009.The Major Economies Forum (MEF) on Energy and Climate was also held alongside the Summit. Since 2007, besides the G8, the Summit has included the five Outreach Countries (the G5) comprising Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa. The MEF consist of 17 members which are the G8, the G5 and Australia, the European Union, Indonesia and South Korea.

The G8 Presidency

The G8 Presidency works to define the topics to be placed on the agenda and the priorities for action, and to identify the fresh goals and sectors of intervention. It holds responsibility for hosting and organising the preparatory meetings needed to lead up to the Summit, at which the Heads of State and Government will be meeting. The Presidency also holds responsibility for speaking on behalf of the G8 and for holding talks with other countries, international organisations and civil society.
The Presidency rotates in the following order: France, United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada. The European Union-via the European Commission-attends the G8, but neither chair nor host the G8 Summit.

Understanding Iran's Turmoil

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's hotly contested victory in Iran's 12 June 2009 Presidential Election has led to protests of a size and nature not seen since the 1979 Islamic revolution. His main challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, charged the election was a fraud and insists he is the true winner. Abbas Milani, an expert on Iran, agrees with it by saying that “Ayatollah Khamenei, his son, and the senior leadership of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) planned and orchestrated the stolen election”. So, was there a Gerrymandering ?

An Election for Rationality

Whether there was gerrymandering or not, it is a debatable question. Keeping it aside, however,the election seems to be a "struggle for rationality".Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the former Prime Minister and the leading opposition candidate’s campaign slogan was to “return to stability, return to rationality.” “Return to rationality” has been an attack on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s denial of the Holocaust. It resembles how the Hindutva forces during the NDA Government led by the BJP tried to re-write the Indian history.

In this movement, Neda Agha-Soltani has become a symbol whereas the face of Iranian revolutionaries 30 years ago were bearded middle aged men. The image of the present movement is Neda-young, educated, female-who symbolizes the face of the new Iran which aspires to be.

“In the aftermath of the elections the opposition has grown bolder, seeking to fundamentally change the system of government by abolishing or seriously weakening unelected leadership positions, including that of the Supreme Leader, whose authority has never been challenged before” observes Karim Sajdadpour, an expert on Iran.

Thus, the present turmoil in Iran is nothing but a struggle for rationality.

India No Stranger to Racism

India No Stranger to Racism by David Buhril.

KanglaOnline-http://www.kanglaonline.com/index.php?template=kshow&kid=796

As a person from the North East of India, bearing Mongoloid stature, feature and colour I cannot help but say that my personal experiences in Delhi, the capital city of India, have witnessed numerous slurs of racist fork. They were not soft ones. I am not alone to be subjected to such indignities.
Everyone from the region has his or her own stories and experiences, which have been rather silently buried. I know such vocal attacks have, on many occasions, resulted in violent anger, arguments and fights between the so-called “mainstream” people and the people from the North East. Mother, they are racist lot. Unfortunately, I have actually accepted the inhumane practice as a part of the culture of the “mainstream” people. A culture cultivated by the “sink of localism and den of ignorance”. But that doesn’t mean I accept racism.
The outrage explosion over the “racist attacks” on one Bollywood actress, Shilpa Shetty by her white housemates on British reality TV show are an exaggerated one, even when racism ought to be condemned everywhere. The drama that has been unfolding for about two weeks made it obvious that Indians are ready to talk about Indians being racially discriminated outside India. But what about the equally serious condemnable racial discrimination within India?
Did we ever care to raise the issue and put a question to ourselves? Are we blind to it because we practise it indignantly? If Shilpa Shetty was called a “Paki” by her white’s housemates, the Indian citizens from the North East states are still called “Chinese”, “Chinky”, “Japanese”, “Koreans” or “Nepalese.” If Shilpa Shetty was poked for her poor chicken cooking style, the North Easterners are poked for their “dirty”, “foul smell”, “stinking”, and “junglee” food habits. There were times when North East students living in the Capital city of India had to actually ask their landlords or hostel warden, “What smell is allowed to cook and what is not?”
Through all these years, it was not an easy ride. I realised that it resulted out of the much-celebrated diversity of India, which is quenched by ignorance and chauvinism. As culture clash, the ride demanded tolerance and understanding, which was not an easy one. I have accepted the discrimination that is, otherwise, getting negatively popular in the ancient city. Day in and day out, friends, acquaintances or people who are new to the city would narrate their experiences, which are more than enough to put the nation to shame. I was lately wishing there was some sort of reactive internal ministry, like the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) that reacted immediately for Shilpa Shetty, to look into the disturbing situation of racial discrimination in India.
I wonder if the media, general public who overflow with sympathy and empathy for Shilpa Shetty, or the authorities in the government are aware about the pubs, restaurants and discotheques in Delhi showing no entry to people from the North East of India? The grim situation does not care even if you have money. They care about your colour. That’s how they made the judgement and decision. You bear the Mongoloid look and the door is closed before you. So don’t be surprised when those bouncers did not let you in. India’s democracy has too big a space that it grows racism too.
When I was first told about these public places and their sick practise in Delhi some four years back, I was taken aback. Shocked actually. But I said to myself who cares when I will never be seeking comfort or chilling out at these places even if I have money for the purpose. On the other hand, my second thought resulted in anger, desperation and helplessness over such harsh inhumane practice. It is still alive and going strong. For me it is not about these places, but the racial discrimination practised in these places, which is getting more popular than before. It affects me as I also bear the same colour, feature and stature, which are used to judge a person. If you don’t fit into their scheme of colour, you cannot be a customer. In the growing urban Indian market the password is defined by the colour of your skin. I thought it would be colourblind. I thought it would be race-blind.
So I asked how they made their options. They told me that they have to find a place that accept and admit them despite the colour of their skin. Even then, how can we enter, eat, sit, and dance away as if we never care? As if it is nothing. Is this a surrender to racial discrimination? When we learn to accept that one cannot enter that place, eat there, dance there, or sit there because the colour of one’s skin is different, we realized that the other Indian is much alive. The others in the village.
The situation is grimmer for the girls and women from the North East. Due to the colour of their skin, they were popularly believed and supposed to be an “easy” and “cheap” sex prey. They were victimized lot. Delhi is a living witness to that. Asked them? Everyone has a story. A story untold. A story filled with shame and anger. They represent the silent untold stories. My cousin’s white husband was shocked and surprised when he found that his wife and her friends, all from the North East of India, were not allowed to enter to eat and dance in one of the city’s public places during one of their visit to Delhi recently. The reason was out of a judgement where the colour of their skin was already used to decide them to be a customer or not. Delhi never seems to care as places like these multiply with inhumane norms and rules defined by race and colour.
I am not talking about stray or isolated incident. This is about everyday life and struggle in Delhi. Shilpa Shetty’s experiences and the feelings and sympathy that we have, as concerned citizens, exported to England should be immediately imported back to Delhi to understand and redress the racial bruises of the other Indians. They are being discriminated more than what Shilpa Shetty could imagine. Worst, they are not paid for it. It is beyond the MEA’s jurisdiction to talk about the racial discrimination that is seriously taking place in India. But on moral and humanitarian ground, it could if it is so concerned about racial discrimination and not just Shilpa Shetty. If not, authorities of the several internal ministries, media, NGO’s and concerned activists should immediately step in to kill the colourful game that has already become shamelessly popular and dirty. The celebration of diversity has no meaning if the nation remains silent to the domestic realities of racial abuse and discrimination. India is no stranger to racism.

Racism in India

Aparna Pallavi (2006), "Racism in India", 10 September2006.

Online web-http://www.boloji.com/wfs5/wfs677.htm

As an undergraduate student at Delhi University in the early 1990s, Dr Renu (Gupta) Naidu took little notice when her friends routinely referred to students from the Northeast as 'Chinkies' or hurled obscenities or racial insults at them.
"Any Northeastern student entering a college campus earns the epithet 'Chinky' on day one, and has to live with being looked at as, at the very least, an oddity, for the rest of her or his stay," says Naidu. "Students told me about being asked questions like whether they eat rats." This racial hostility comes unbidden from the non-Northeastern student community.

Naidu had herself faced discrimination as a "non-Marathi" student during her post-graduation at Nagpur, and it dawned on her that Northeastern students, with their distinctive 'non-plainspeople' epicanthic features, behavior and dress habits, were in all likelihood confronting far more discrimination than she had. In June 2006, Naidu was awarded a PhD for her work on the lives of Northeastern tribal girl students in Delhi, with her research based on interviews with 200 students from 10 colleges in Delhi University's North Campus.

The first disturbing fact - statistics compiled from official records of various colleges in the city - that Naidu's study has uncovered is that the dropout rates of Northeastern students touches 50 per cent, with more girls dropping out than boys. The reasons for this trend, according to Naidu, lie in the intense socio-cultural conflict, and the resultant stress, that impact all aspects of the lives of students from the Northeast.

"For a student from the Northeast, irrespective of whether she or he is from an urban or tribal background, Delhi is like an alien land," says Naidu. "The language is unfamiliar, the cultural and social terrain is unknown. Even getting a letter of introduction to open a bank account is a mammoth task. What is more, their distinctive physical features immediately mark them out as outsiders among the local populace."

Being cheated as a matter of course is one direct fallout of this situation. Angom*, a Manipuri student at Miranda House told Naidu, "Even rickshaw-pullers, auto-drivers, vegetable vendors and bus conductors cheat us because they know that we are not aware of the price of things here, and are not in a position to drive hard bargains."

For girl students, the situation is worse still: in the conservative Delhi milieu, their Westernized style of dressing and easy camaraderie with the opposite sex - owing in large part to their liberal tribal culture - they are seen as 'fast' or 'of easy virtue'. This imperception exposes girls from the Northeast to the worst sorts of sexual harassment, both within campuses and without. Diana, a Mizo student at Indraprastha college, said, "Delhi men believe that north-eastern girls are easily available. They look at us with only one thing in mind: sex. If we protest, they warn us to clam up, because we are alone and there is no one we can turn to for protection."

The attitude of college authorities and the local police to incidences of sexual harassment and teasing is usually nonchalant. "Incidents of this nature are treated as routine, and often the girls are blamed for them." Furthermore, she says, "Police stations refuse to provide data on the sexual harassment of Northeastern girls." One police official, in fact, told Naidu: "Yeh to in ladkiyon ka roz ka naatak hai, kahan tak complaint darj karien? Aur waise bhi bina chingari ke aag nahi lagti (This is a daily drama these girls play out; how many complaints do we register? Anyway, there's no smoke without a fire)."

The vulnerability of the girls is underscored by the fact that most Northeastern girl students live in rented accommodation. Nine colleges of the 13 (three are women's only colleges) in the North Campus have hostels; only four of these have girls' hostels.

"Rented accommodation exposes girls to different kinds of harassment," says Naidu, "They are subjected to sudden and arbitrary hikes in rent, and threatened with immediate eviction if they don't comply."

Here, too, sexual harassment is omnipresent. During their conversations with Naidu, many Northeastern girls confided to being harassed for sexual favors by landlords and their families. "The son of one landlord's family even offered a rent waiver in return for sexual favors!" exclaims Naidu.

Apart from sexual harassment, Northeastern girl students have to face discrimination at other levels too, and this impacts their education adversely "The general impression is that these students are not good at studies and are [here] just for a good time. The stamp of 'reservation' sticks to them, and the resentment that comes with it has to be faced," says Naidu.

According to her data, of the 200 students interviewed, only 10 per cent said that their classroom participation is high, while around three-quarters registered below average classroom participation. A sizeable proportion felt that teachers' attitude to their classroom participation was either neutral or discouraging. Of the 200 students, 111 said their participation in co-curricular activities was 'minimal'; 107 felt discrimination during co-curricular activities; 58 felt 'isolated'; 167 students registered feelings like helplessness, discouragement, irritation and stress in academic activities.

This overall pressure drives many students to drop out, Naidu feels. Those who stay on find it difficult to meet academic goals burdened with so much stress.
Consequently, most Northeastern tribal girl students are not particularly keen on getting jobs in Delhi after completing their education. "Coming to study in Delhi, for most Northeastern students, is a matter of prestige," says Naidu. "The unstable political situation in the Northeast has caused educational standards to drop, which makes it very easy for Delhi-educated students to get the best jobs once they return. This, coupled with the fact that the atmosphere does not offer much by way of encouragement to reach out and mingle, causes most students to see their student days here as just a stopover."

Students told Naidu that social work interventions, such as the presence of social workers in colleges in enabling and facilitating roles, and steps to fight discrimination and enhance socio-cultural exchange between communities of students, could help alleviate the problems. But the single-most important step that Naidu feels needs to be taken with a sense of urgency is arranging sufficient hostel facilities for Northeastern girl students. "This one step will go a long way in providing stability and security to their lives and help them concentrate on their academic goals," she says.

This is why Naidu is currently working on a policy paper to call attention to the issue of this manner of student discrimination, which she wants to send to the ministries of tribal welfare and social justice. "The problem of Northeastern girl students needs recognition in the right places," she says. "At present, the different kinds of stress that these students have to put up with is impacting their studies seriously, and every effort should be made to ease the situation."

(* Names of all students changed.)

By arrangement with Women's Feature Service.

Climate Change in Northeast India with special reference to Arunachal Pradesh

Mukhim, Patricia (2009) “Climate Change and N-E”, The Arunachal Times, 3 May 2009.

Scientists predict that by the end of this century most of Bangladesh will be under water. The country’s 130 million people who have learnt to survive in a country that has more water than land will spill over into the Northeast with a vengeance. This would make the present migration pattern look quite insignificant in terms of what that major exodus would do to the demographic profile of the region.

Talking about this at a recent conference of women from SAARC countries in New Delhi, Mohammad Yunus said in the inaugural speech, “We know this is happening but we have not worked out any solution to the man-climate confrontation.”

Climate change is an issue that threatens people the world over, but more so the indigenous inhabitants of the polar regions, the tropical rainforests and people living in the mountain areas. Debates on the issue of climate change have gained ground in the last 10 years particularly after Al Gore brought out his book, Earth in the Balance. So serious has the issue become that an indigenous peoples’ global summit on climate change was called in Alaska, USA, from April 20-25, where at least four participants from the Northeast attended, including Meghalaya’s youngest MP Agatha Sangma.

This summit is a preparation for the major climate change conference at Copenhagen scheduled for December this year. The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples, headed by Victoria Taoli Corpuz, has held different regional consultations, to ensure that indigenous people/tribals have a voice to decide how the ill effects of climate change must be reversed or mitigated by some definite action plans which would involve powerful countries taking responsibility for the hundreds of years of irresponsible mining and industrial activities such as power generation and exploitation of resources which have all been commodified and given a value to.

The mechanisms

Developed nations have come up with different mechanisms to offset climate change. One of them is carbon credit rating or carbon sequestration whereby countries which conserve forests would be monetarily compensated for allowing those forests to become the carbon sinks of the developed world.

While such proposals seem attractive at the outset and states like Arunachal Pradesh, which claim to have 81 per cent of their land under forests, have already made plans for claiming green bonuses, the consequences of such mitigating factors are yet not fully known or understood. First of all, the question is who will measure the quantum of carbon that can be dumped. Secondly and most important, who gets the money and how will it be used to create/regenerate deforested areas?

Arunachal claim

Arunachal Pradesh’s claims seem a little out of sync with the realities in that state. This last frontier is one that India looks at as its reservoir for hydel power. Arunachal Pradesh has the capacity to generate 50,000MW of hydro-electricity which would, of course, be pumped into the national grid for use by the country and even for evacuation to neighbouring countries like Bangladesh which are power starved. Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Dorjee Khandu has already signed several power project agreements with the private and public sector.

While public sector units (PSUs) like NEEPCO are being put through very stringent environmental impact assessment (EIA) benchmarks, one is not so sure if similar stringency is adopted for the private sector, which is willing to pay money upfront for quick clearance of the projects. We know how every arm of the government can be made to hasten the process of decision-making when palms are greased. So while the PSUs will have to abide by and adhere to strict environmental guidelines during project implementation, the private sector may not be so circumspect. Ironically, the former can be held accountable for any adverse outcome but the latter may not be around to take responsibility. Moreover, the memoranda of agreement between private parties and the Arunachal Pradesh government are shrouded in secrecy.

While there are demands from various NGOs and anti-dam activists that such MOAs be put in the public domain, those demands very often fizzle out in the absence of a strong network of environmental activists within the region. Very often, NGOs have had to depend on the support of groups like the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi, which have the capacity to provide alternative views which could counter government claims. How much of forestland would have to go under to make way for the big dams? Arunachal is a fragile eco-system located as it is along the lower reaches of the Himalayas. It is one of those regions which determine the rainfall patterns of the entire North Eastern Indian alpines right down to the Arakan mountains of Southeast Asia.

The effect

The decisions taken by the Dorjee Khandu government will affect generations of indigenous peoples/tribals not just in Arunachal Pradesh but the entire region. Eco-systems have no boundaries. They extend from one region into another and one state to the next without any clear-cut demarcation. A heavy cloudburst in a mountainous state like Arunachal could result in major catastrophic floods in downstream areas of Assam. This is a regular phenomenon as rivers breach their banks and change their courses leaving a trail of devastation. Hence it is not a happy situation when individual states sign power production agreements without any concern about the cataclysmic effects on neighbouring states.

Whose benefit

We have always imagined that the role of the North Eastern Council is to create a convergence between state governments so that decisions taken by one can benefit others or at least cause no harm. But such is not the case today. Large tracts of forests in Arunachal Pradesh, including those areas which are a catchment for the Ranganadi and Dikrong projects of Neepco, have been rapidly deforested. It is not that the forests have been cleared only for jhum cultivation because there is no evidence of farming activities. But tract after tract of forestland is seen being burnt. The remains are black bald patches, which suggest very rapid devastation of the environment. It would be a good idea for chief minister Khandu to take the Doimukh trail to Yajuli and see for himself this trail of devastation before making further claims for a “green bonus fund”.

But Arunachal Pradesh is not the only state whose forests are fast depleting. Meghalaya, with its smoke-stacked industries, is using charcoal in unimaginable proportions. This has resulted in rapid depletion of forests, particularly in West Khasi Hills. In the Jaintia Hills, the problem is a more severe one. Irresponsible mining has led to the death of the Lukha river which once was a pristine water body, providing clean drinking water to people living around it. More and more forests are cleared for coal and limestone mining without even a plan for reclaiming and regenerating abandoned mines. These are alarming signs. But politicians of all the seven states seem totally unconcerned about the environment and the climate change impacts which are manifested in delayed monsoons, unseasonal rains and rising temperatures and which have created havoc for the farmers. Politicians can no longer get away with their wealth creation programmes at the cost of the environment. It is time to cry “halt” now or suffer the consequences.

(The writer can be contacted at patricia17@rediffmail.com)

Democracy that is more a monarchy

Narasiah, K.R.A(2009), “Democracy that is more a monarchy: Indian political scene and the American Constitution”, The Hindu, 31 May 2009, p.12.

Once again, the world’s largest democratic exercise is over and the pangs of coalition politics can be seen, where every politician is worried about his/her next generation. Apart from the fact that the spoliation of the democracy is firmly in place, with the coming into play of money and muscle power in spite of the Election Commission’s strict enforcement of the code of conduct, the dangerous trend of dynastic politics is raising its head.

I happened to be in America last year, when the Presidential election was on and had the opportunity to see the process in close quarters. It was true democracy by the best of standards and, when I was wondering how the Americans were avoiding dynastic politics, I came across an erudite description of the American Constitution by an eminent lawyer, Akhil Reed Amir.

True republicanism

What caught my attention was the passage dealing with “America’s First Officer”, which describes the need to have introduced 35 years as the eligible age and the strict adherence to the terms of office for the elected president’s candidature.

“The more likely scenario underlying the age clause involved favourite sons – young men who sprang from famous fathers but had yet to show their own true colours. Instead of being evaluated based on their individual merits and vices, as revealed by a long track record of personal accomplishment and failure, such favourite sons would unfairly benefit from their high birth status and distinguished family name, thus retarding the growth of a truly republican society equally open to meritorious men of humble and middling origin.”

The term of office was necessary as anti-federalist critics then thought that by choosing the dynastic route future American presidents would resemble British Kings, which unfortunately is the case in India! It was pointed out by the critics of that time in America, that, when a man gets the gaddi or gets re-elected from time to time, for life, his greatest object will be to keep it; that is at any cost! Later he would associate his favourite son to take office after him!

President-elect Washington had understood the problem of dynastic power and had drafted for his first Inaugural address: Divine Providence hath not seen fit, that my blood should be transmitted or my name perpetuated by the endearing, though sometimes seducing channel of immediate offspring. I have no child for whom I could wish to make a provision — no family to build in greatness upon my country’s ruins...[No] earthly consideration beyond the hope of rendering some little service to our parent Country...could have persuaded me to accept this appointment.”

Striking contrast

How our political leaders differ from this man’s lofty ideal! No Indian political leader would leave the office, sticking to the principle, ‘till death do us part’ and ensure in the process that his/her offspring do get established in their lifetime into positions that will guarantee them the top post in future. Had our founding fathers of the Constitution thought of this, they would also have invoked such clauses as terms of office for the high political posts.

But, unfortunately, we have inherited a democracy that is no lesser than a monarchy, where the sons automatically become the next power in the event of the incumbent ceasing to be so due to natural causes! It is also worth noting that none of the first seven presidents of America wanted to stand even for re-election! They also had no biological heir. Rutherford B. Hayes had a son, but declined to stand for re-election and simply walked away after finishing his term! Can this happen in India? Our politicians are seeking cabinet posts for their offspring in the name of democracy and want to establish a dynastic rule. So how can we call our election a true democratic affair?

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu

India-China face-off worsens over ADB loan for Arunachal

China wants to join Navy initiative on I... Now China objects to Prez Patil’s visit ... Indian submarine spooked warship: Chines...

New Delhi: India and China are headed for a major confrontation in the Asian Development Bank with Beijing digging its heels in and not giving its consent to the $2.9-billion India development plan unless the mention of Arunachal Pradesh is removed from the document.

A sum of $60 million is marked for a watershed development project, including flood management, for Arunachal Pradesh.

China considers the state “disputed territory” and wants it to be removed from the document.

The Bank has asked India to resolve the matter bilaterally provoking a strong reaction from New Delhi. While a board meeting has been scheduled for June 2, India has let it be known that it would rather withdraw the entire plan than remove Arunachal Pradesh for the sake of financial approval.

In March, as first reported by The Indian Express, China successfully obtained a postponement of a decision on the plan at the ADB Board meeting but India had hoped that the ADB would resolve the matter in due course. However, New Delhi was taken by surprise when the ADB wrote to the government recently that it should use bilateral channels to find a way out.

It’s learnt that India has asked the ADB not to indulge China on bilateral issues. In the run-up to the June 2 meeting, India will look to lobby hard with other board members to ensure that the Chinese objection is overruled. If the conflict isn’t resolved, official sources said, the government may look for alternative funding.

Part of the problem emerges from the fact that ADB does not have a policy for projects in disputed areas. Being the largest donor after US and Japan to the Bank, China is clearly using its clout. India, which is only next to China, will have to lean on the US and Japan along with South Korea to get its way.

By Pranab Dhal Samanta (2009) “India-China face-off worsens over ADB loan for Arunachal”, Express India, 15 May 2009. Link-http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/IndiaChina-faceoff-worsens-over-ADB-loan-for-Arunachal/459910/

Genocide in Sri Lanka

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) is not a Terrorist Organisation. Equating it with terrorist organisations like the Al Queda cannot be justified. It is rather a struggle for freedom from discrimination and oppression of the Sinhalese majority. What is going on in the Northeast of Sri Lanka is nothing less than a Genocide of the Tamils. It is an act towards making Sri Lanka "Tamil Free".

The Sri Lankan security establishment which compose of "mono-ethnic Sinhalese" is given the duty to wipe out the Tamils from Sri Lanka under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Sarath Fonseka, the Sri Lankan Army commander. Fonseka in an interview to the Sri Lankan National Newspaper Daily News on 19 July 2009 said "I don't think the people in the North and East are subjected to any injustice...In any democratic country the majority should rule the country. This country will be ruled by the Sinhalese community which is the majority representing 74 percent of the population". This shows the mentality of the Sinhalese majority who have discriminated the Tamils as Second Class Citizens for long time.

Thus, the Tamils have every right to determine their destiny. Equating the LTTE as a terrorist organisation is undigestible for me. It is rather fighting for the dignity of the Tamils to live as human beings, as other humans live elsewhere in the world. The International Committe of the Red Cross has called the situation "nothing short of catastrophic", for me, it is "nothing short of Genocide".

For further details check out-
International Crisis Group-
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=6070&l=1

May Day: Its Relevance in India

"The worker becomes poorer the more wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and extent. The worker becomes an ever cheaper commodity the more commodities he produces. The devaluation of the human world grows in direct proportion to the increase in value of the world of things".-Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, 1844.

On May Day, we commemorate not only the achievements of the workers movement but also its many struggles and sacrifices. The facts are well known: In 1886, the police fired on demonstrators in Hay market square where workers had gathered during a general strike raising the demand for an eight-hour work day. The first Congress of the Second International meeting decided to mark this day with international demonstrations and protests. So widespread was the responses to this call that ever since Ist May i.e. May Day has been recognized as the International Workers' Day.

Relevance in India

In the face of this historical legacy, is the silence that pervades the ruling establishment on the occasion of this day. This is particularly the case in India where we have been following a policy that emphasizes development at the costs of people's rights. The new age cities that are developing around us bear the neo-liberal impress of further marginalizing the poor from our gleaming cities. Away from the cities, the narratives are those of displacement: of workers faced with unemployment, tribal’s evicted from their lands, farmers struggling with debt and confronting the prospect of suicide.

Resistance is met with repression. This is nowhere more evident than in the Special Economic Zones mushrooming across the country which have become the nightmares where labour regulations do not employ. The state has long forgotten its responsibility towards the rights of workers.

The Way Forward

The current financial crises have hit hardest on the working class. Yet governments seem more concerned at providing sops to flagging corporates. As the neoliberal ideology continues to rear its head, we need to reassert the importance of May Day in the history of the workers struggle. To do so would be to jar memory, to shake the establishment from its platitudes, to reassert the international spirit of the movement, uniting workers everywhere. As we know, this is a process beset by difficulties.

THE WORKER'S UNITED WILL ALWAYS BE VICTORIOUS