South Asia Citizens Web

The decision by the UK to resume contact with him [Narendra Modi] is seen as a cruel blow to the causes of justice for the massacre’s victims (which included three British citizens), and of non-discrimination against India’s 180 million non-Hindus.

Freedoms and rights have to be fought for and zealously guarded. Accidental historical events rarely lead to the gaining of democracy and human rights. The right of girls and young women in Pakistan to education will have to be earned and asserted by the people of Pakistan irrespective of the fate of Malala Yousafzai and that of two other young girls who were shot with her.

When British India was partitioned amidst massive violence, the conception of mutually assured security – that minorities would be safe because attacks on them would risk retribution by their majority co-religionists elsewhere — was blown to smithereens. Macabre minority-less zones were created in vast stretches of the Punjab, Sindh and Rajputana. In Bengal, the story was different. Except events in Kolkata, Noakhali and Barisal, mass-blood letting was not as prominent as feature as it was in the west. But there was migration of epic proportions – with more Hindus moving into the Indian Union than Muslims moving to Pakistan. This, in part, indicated the difference in security and threat-perception of minorities. The migration of persecuted minorities from East to West Bengal still continues. East Bengal (as East Pakistan and later PRB ) has recorded a continuous decade on decade decrease in the percentage of its Hindu and Buddhist minority population since 1951 – a matter of no small shame.

Generations of politicians have used the khaps and other feudal systems to happily harvest votes. Centuries-old violent feudal systems are less risky than democratic choice. So, for decades, we have sacrificed democratic values at the altar of populism. We humour khaps, even though we know that they go against the freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution. So sheer muscle power enforce traditions that have no legal standing. Administrators, politicians, even judges are reluctant to go against popular sentiment. Add to it the slowness of our justice delivery mechanism. With the civil courts out of reach, the disempowered villager falls back on “samaj”. Instead of justice, one settles for social sanction. If we had the guts to be loyal to the Constitution khaps would die.

We urge you to reconsider the decision to supply uranium to India. This uranium will fuel the massive expansion of nuclear power programme that the Indian government is undemocratically pushing on poor people of India, criminally overlooking the concerns of safety, environment, livelihoods of surrounding populations and the financial implications.