South Asia Citizens Web

Over the past twenty years or so the politicization of religion has made considerable headway in India but it has not overwhelmed secular politics. Nonetheless, the Hindu right has demonstrated an enormous capacity to mobilize women. Hindu women’s activism provides a compelling example of the instrumentalization of female constituencies in the service of the political goals of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar. The most important issue is not the growth of religious politics per se, but the inordinate play of identity politics in public life which has resulted in paradoxes such as the protection of conservatism among Muslims. This is the effect of a secularism that envisages state intervention in the affairs of the majority religion, but endorses strict non-intervention in minority religions, thus paradoxically empowering religious conservatives in the name of secularism.

The range of problems faced by activists this year is a measure of the state’s hostility to civil society. The situation has been aggravated by the media’s indifference to them.

Bangladesh is historically and traditionally a highly patriarchal society. All the processes, values and institutions that are associated with the construction of the country are gendered. The institutions and values of this gendered state always privilege masculinity. Women in Bangladesh have to fight with gender boundaries that assign them a subordinate position within patriarchal ideology, the essential feature of which is domination and supremacy of men and powerlessness and invisibility of women in almost all spheres of their lives.

Arundhati Roy’s reaction to the 27 November 2010 court order directing the Delhi Police to file an FIR against her for waging war against the state: Perhaps they should posthumously file a charge against Jawaharlal Nehru too. Here is what he said about Kashmir: . . .

Free exchange of ideas is one of the most basic human rights and values of all academic communities. Freedom of travel is one of the most important avenues for furthering such exchange among academic colleagues. Recognizing this, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which India has ratified, protects freedom of expression, right to travel and scientific exchange.

Public reports that Professor Shapiro (a US citizen and the Chair of the Anthropology Department at the California Institute of Integral Studies) was denied without reason permission to enter India to accompany his wife as she pursues academic work there suggests that these rights have not been respected. Moreover, in the absence of any publicly expressed, legitimate grounds for doing so, the apparent restricting of Professor Shapiro’s entry despite his possession of a valid visa and entry stamp raises uncertainty not only about his ability to engage with colleagues in his field in India, but also about the ability of other scholars to plan for and undertake visits and research in India.