9/11’s legacy: How anti-terrorism laws have become anti-human rights laws

BY KGALALELO GAEBEE & DAVID KODE

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Across Africa and much of the world, laws passed in the wake of the US attacks have been misused to silence dissent.

Since 9/11, there has been a marked increase in restrictions on civil society across Africa. Credit: GCIS.

As the global community commemorates the two decades since the abhorrent attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, it should also be time to reflect on the impact of what followed on human rights and rule of law in Africa. One of the legacies of 9/11 has been government’s use of counter-terrorism laws to target human rights defenders, opposition politicians, and others who express views contrary to those in power.

Between 2001 and 2018, over 140 states around the world – including a majority of African countries – followed the US and others in passing counter-terrorism or security-related laws. Driven by former President George Bush’s dictum that “either you are with us or against us”, scores of governments promulgated new laws to supposedly forestall future attacks, respond to real or perceived threats, and conform to international requirements.

However, many countries in Africa and across the world have used these laws as a pretext to criminalise dissent. Since 2001, there has been a marked increase in restrictions on civil society across Africa, directly correlated to the actions taken by states in the aftermath of the 9/11. Terrorism is typically broadly or vaguely defined in these counter-terrorism bills, and their provisions are frequently misused.

For example, two laws recently approved by Senegal’s Parliament in response to threats in the Sahel define terrorist acts to include “criminal association”, “seriously disturbing public order”, and “offences linked to information and communications technologies”. Civil society is concerned these laws could be used to target trade union activities, human rights defenders, and online freedoms. The vagueness in laws across Africa makes it easy for states to subjectively interpret them and use them disproportionately.

Take Eswatini members of parliament Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube. They have been in jail since July 2021 and will next appear in court in October to face terrorism charges under the country’s notorious Suppression of Terrorism Act. Their only crime was to call for democracy in a country where other activists have been jailed on similar charges for simply wearing t-shirts emblazoned with pro-democracy slogans.

Like Eswatini, many states in Africa justify measures against activists through vague interpretations of counter-terrorism laws which, in most cases, are not consistent with the scale of the threat or the approaches needed to address it. Since 2013, for instance, Egyptian authorities have weaponised the anti-terrorism and terrorist entities law to target large numbers of human rights defenders. Many are subjected to pre-trial detention and lengthy jail terms for their peaceful activities.

Several African states don’t just target individuals but the civil society organisations they represent. Authorities in Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and Tunisia have used anti-terrorism laws to restrict the operations of non-governmental organisations on the grounds that they support terrorist groups. In September 2019, Nigerian authorities closed the offices of international humanitarian organisation Action Against Hunger in Maiduguri without prior notification, accusing it of aiding and abetting Boko Haram.

Restrictions on peaceful assembly

Where formal spaces for citizens to engage in decision-making processes have closed, citizens across Africa are making their voices heard through peaceful protests. But African states are also restricting these spaces through anti-terror laws or security-related public order acts.

In Algeria in May 2018, human rights defender Kaddour Chouicha and 12 others were charged with participating in a terrorist organisation and conspiracy against the state after taking part in peaceful protests. Many of them are members of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights, part of the Hirak Movement, a network that has been using protests to call for political change since 2019. In January 2017, Cameroonian human rights defender Abor Balla was arrested and charged with eight counts under the country’s anti-terrorism law for leading a protest calling for reforms in the educational and judicial systems in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions.

In Uganda and Zimbabwe, legislation passed to police protests in the name of protecting public order has been used to pre-empt and violently repress demonstrations. Following protests in Zimbabwe in 2020, Zimbabwean authorities accused the Zimbabwean National Trade Union of being a terrorist organisation.

Due to the use of anti-terrorism laws to charge protesters, activists and journalists are often tried in military courts, for example in Cameroon and Egypt. Often authorities flaunt due process by preventing human rights defenders from accessing legal representatives or by subjecting them to impromptu court appearances without giving them enough time to prepare for their cases.

What is the way forward?

From the September 11 atrocity in 2001 to more recent attacks in the Sahel, Kenya and Mozambique, terrorism denies people rights, disrupts economies, and derails efforts to achieve the sustainable development goals. But civil society is not a threat and should not be the target in tackling terrorism.

African states need to rethink the way they view human rights defenders and civil society groups and see them for what they are: contributors to development and democracy. Governments need to make a clear distinction between those who wilfully attack communities on the one hand, and human rights defenders, journalists and protesters who peacefully call for reforms and raise concerns over issues affecting citizens on the other.

Evidence from the last two decades shows that restrictions on civil society do nothing to counter threats posed and executed by terrorist groups. If states want to show they are taking terrorist threats seriously, they should stop attacking civil society.

#ENDSANCTIONS

Iran-IAEA deal

Editorial

DAWN.COM

Published September 14, 2021 - 

ONE of the major factors poisoning relations between Iran and the Western bloc is deep mistrust over Tehran’s nuclear programme. This mistrust developed into a wide gulf after the Trump administration unilaterally withdrew from the meticulously crafted nuclear deal in 2018. Efforts had again picked up pace to revive the deal after new governments were formed in Washington and Tehran, yet as of now there appears to be a deadlock over the issue. However, one small step in moving negotiations forward was taken when the head of the IAEA visited Tehran on Sunday. The UN’s atomic agency and Iran said they had agreed on a surveillance deal to monitor the Islamic Republic’s nuclear activity, hailing in a joint statement the “spirit of cooperation and mutual trust”. It is hoped that this cooperation is built on at the wider talks in Vienna and progress is made in reviving the JCPOA.

However, it must be said that for the nuclear deal to be revived and for it to succeed, Iran needs to see tangible economic benefits. After the JCPOA was signed in 2015, there were wide expectations in Tehran that foreign investment would flow in, helping lift Iran’s sputtering economy. This did not materialise, as major foreign players were afraid of attracting America’s ire by trading with Iran and violating other US sanctions. Moreover, after the US withdrew from the deal, America further tightened the financial noose around Iran, practically crippling its economy. These moves naturally undermined moderate voices in Iran, as the conservative establishment slammed the Rouhani government for being ‘weak’ and ‘gullible’ in trusting the Americans. With Joe Biden’s arrival in the White House, hopes for a revival of the JCPOA were strengthened, though the US and the deal’s other signatories would now have to convince a conservative, sceptical government led by Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran. To reiterate, there must be give and take in this scenario for the deal to succeed. Tehran should allow the UN to access all its sites and cooperate with the IAEA. On the other hand, Iran must be able to freely sell its petrochemicals to international buyers, while foreign parties should be allowed to trade with Tehran without fear of attracting sanctions of any sort. The small breakthrough over the weekend can be worked on to build confidence between both sides, while those looking to play spoiler must be ignored by the international community.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2021

 

The first to be laid off

Hadia Majid | Karin Astrid Siegmann Published September 14, 2021 - Updated about 12 hours ago

Facebook Count

Twitter Share

   

AS per the Pakista n government, the GDP growth rate for FY2021 stood at about four per cent. Many find this hard to believe and have done their own calculations to show that the actual figure is much lower. Although the GDP is an important metric and calculating it correctly is indeed an important exercise, it is not an end in itself. Rather, we must consider what the GDP helps the economy achieve.

The GDP, which is the average income in the economy, is an instrument for accomplishing a higher quality of life. One of the ways it allows citizens to do so, is through employment generation. This in turn enables people to afford both their needs and wants. However, the dividends of growth are not always equally distributed. Development literature highlights that the rich tend to gain disproportionately during periods of economic growth while the poor get left behind.

Similarly, gendered analyses show that growth may not always result in equitable access to employment but may well see one gender gain at the expense of the other. So, what does GDP growth mean for employment for women versus men in the Pakistani context? And, how do we square this with the Covid experience?

In a recently published study The Effects of Growth on Women’s Employment in Pakistan, we examine employment responses to growth for men and women from 1985 to 2018. Dividing our analysis across agriculture, industry and services, we find that not only does women’s employment respond more strongly to growth impulses but that, often, women find it much easier to enter some sectors, like agriculture, during periods of positive growth. Is that good news for women? Not necessarily. During boom periods, men often leave agriculture to seize better opportunities in the cities. The jobs women farmworkers are left behind with are precarious, poorly paid or not paid at all.

Who receives the employment benefits of growth?

Women’s stronger responses to growth may also imply job losses. We find evidence that periods of lower growth see negative responses for women, but not for men. This means that women are the first to be laid off when conditions get tough. This suggests a ‘survival’ nature of women’s jobs: supplementing household income rather than ‘careers’ in their own right.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the informal sector and SMEs have been hit especially hard, with women-owned businesses being among the hardest hit. Women’s non-agricultural work tends to be concentrated in these sectors because of the lower capital requirements, the more flexible work arrangements, and crucially, the ability to work from within the home allowing women to balance their productive and reproductive responsibilities.

A recent study conducted across Pakistan found that women-headed businesses were eight times more likely to completely shut down when compared to those headed by men. Moreover, lockdowns and prolonged school closures have increased women’s burden vis-à-vis household tasks resulting in less time available for paid employment, education or training. Thus, we will likely see not just detrimental effects on women’s employment in the short and medium term, but possibly long-run effects on their ability to effectively participate in the labour market.

One of the key indicators that has been lauded as exhibiting improved performance is the export sector. In our work, we find that women’s industrial employment reacts positively to growth induced by trade liberalisation. What does this preference for women workers in export-oriented employment imply? A closer look reveals that increased employment for women in export industries has largely been driven by their lower average wages of around 70pc of men’s. This way, a gender wage gap that has widened over time has made cost reductions possible, enabling exp­o­rters of, for instance, textiles and garm­e­nts to weather downward pressure on export prices.

So, what is the way forward? Our analysis provides two crucial takeaways. One is the role of literacy and the other is of Pakistan’s patriarchal gender order. Specifically, we find that as society puts mechanisms in place that bring women at par with men, whether that is in education or health, their ability to take advantage of growth-induced employment opportunities improves. While Pakistan has been increasingly focusing on reducing gender gaps in health and education access and outcomes, the pandemic has highlighted the fact that we need to think carefully about the care economy too. It is only once we start valuing reproductive labour and ensure gender equality in care responsibilities that we will see more equitable gender representation in productive work too.

Hadia Majid is associate professor economics and director, Saida Waheed Gender Initiative at Lums.

Karin Astrid Siegmann is associate professor in labour and gender economics at the International Institute of Social Studies at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2021

Ex-Indian army officer shares picture from movie set as 'truth' about Pakistan Army's presence in Panjshir

Former Indian major general believes picture showing Pakistani actors Shaan Shahid and Umair Jaswal is of soldiers in Afghanistan.

Dawn.com

A retired Indian army officer became the butt of a joke on Twitter after he mistook a photo from a Pakistani military-themed film as showing Pakistani soldiers who he falsely claimed were martyred in Afghanistan's Panjshir valley.

The apparent confusion started after another former Indian army officer, Maj Gen GD Bakshi, posted a tweet claiming that the Pakistan Army had "suffered very heavy casualties" in Panjshir, where the Taliban and resistance fighters engaged in heavy fighting earlier this month.

Without sharing any evidence, Bakhsi tweeted that dozens of Pakistani soldiers had lost their lives and many others were wounded while supporting the Taliban in Panjshir. He wrote that a certain "Maj Gen Adil Rehmani has come back to organise discreet funerals in [the] dead of night." Even though the account is not verified by Twitter, Bakshi's tweets have been carried by Indian media on multiple occasions in the past.

Bakshi, who had a long career in the Indian army and holds a PhD in military history, is known for peddling fake news and rhetoric on Indian TV. An article by Indian publication The Print last year referred to him as the "shrillest warmonger in the media".

Responding to his latest claims about Pakistani soldiers, a Pakistani account with the handle @Fauji_Doctor shared a picture from the set of the 2017 Pakistani movie *Yalghaar* — ostensibly to poke fun at the Indian ex-officer, and wrote: "My class fellow from school days Maj Aijaj 2nd from left and Capt Jufar 1st from left embraced martyrdom in Panjshir. They were buried yesterday in Peshawar. ISPR is trying to hide these casualties. They fought bravely and should be honoured as such. This is injustice by Pak Army."

In fact, the two uniformed men he referred to are renowned Pakistani actors Shaan Shahid and Umair Jaswal - neither of whom are members of the armed forces.



Unaware of this and apparently without having done any investigation, former Indian Maj Gen Harsha Kakar shared a screenshot of @Fauji_Doctor's reply to Bakshi as "the truth on #PanjshirValley and Pak casualties".

"As expected [National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf] lied and Pak disowned its dead," he alleged.



Pakistanis were amused by the Indian ex-officer's apparent naivete, with Shaan himself replying to Bakshi's original tweet with posters from Yalghaar. "Hello from the other side," he wrote with the pictures.


Jaswal too found the mix-up hilarious, responding to Bakshi with a picture of him in commando gear and writing: "Hello dear [laughing emoji] from Pakistan."

Jumping at the opportunity, other Pakistani users also shared spoof images of Pakistani actors in uniform to add to the joke.

Fake news about Pakistan's military involvement in Afghanistan surfaced as the Taliban said on Monday they had taken control of Panjshir province north of Kabul, the last holdout of anti-Taliban forces in the country and the only province the Taliban had not seized during their blitz across the country last month.

The anti-Taliban forces had been led by the former vice president, Amrullah Saleh, and Ahmad Massoud, whose father was killed just days before the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US.

With Taliban fighters advancing into Panjshir, Indian media outlets during the previous week ran unverified claims of Pakistan Air Force planes hovering over Panjshir valley and dropping bombs on resistance fighters in support of the Taliban.

At least two Indian TV channels shared footage that they claimed showed Pakistani drones attacking anti-Taliban fighters in Panjshir. But fact-check website Boom found that the viral clip was taken from a longer video recording of the video game Arma-3, and was not from the military conflict in Afghanistan.

Some Twitter users also shared a picture of a fighter jet claiming it showed a PAF plane that was shot down by resistance fighters in Panjshir, but a fact check by Dawn.com and independent journalists showed the picture is actually from 2018 in the United States.

An 'equal rights for women' Met Gala outfit can't hide US politician Carolyn Maloney's biased feminism

She once wore a burqa in the House of Representatives to argue in favour of the invasion of Afghanistan.

IMAGES STAFF
DESK REPORT

Dawn.com

American politician and NY Representative Carolyn Maloney was praised after attending the 2021 Met Gala fundraiser in a dress that had 'equal rights for women' written on it. However, many people aren't impressed with her because they remember when Maloney used her position of power to propagate negative stereotypes about Muslim women in the wake of 9/11.

Maloney showed up at the 2021 Met Gala wearing a dress emblazoned with the words 'equal rights for women' on it. Her dress also included purple, white and gold; colours used by suffragette groups who fought for women's rights, including the right to vote, in the West. Maloney's dress was a call for the passing of the Equal Rights Amendment, a proposed amendment to the US constitution that will ensure equal rights for all American citizens regardless of their gender.

"Across the country, women’s rights are under attack," Maloney posted on Twitter along with a picture of her dress. "I have long used fashion as a force for change. As the Met Costume Institute reopens with their inaugural exhibit celebrating American designers, I am calling for the certification of the Equal Rights Amendment so women can be equal once and for all," she wrote

While Maloney's look was widely praised on social media, one Twitter user took the opportunity to remind netizens about a damning speech Maloney gave in the United States House of Representatives in 2001 shortly after the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre. "'I have long used fashion as a force for change,' says the member of Congress who dressed up in a burqa to deliver a speech in support of the invasion of Afghanistan," the user tweeted.

The user shared a clip of the speech Maloney delivered while wearing the burqa. "I salute the Bush administration for balancing war with compassion. For dropping food as well as bombs. Even in war we are showing a regard for human life and human rights," she said.

The politician faced severe backlash against the stunt. US entrepreneur and activist Rana Abdelhamid said Maloney's speech fed into a negative narrative against Muslim women. "I was 9 years old when I watched my Congresswoman wear a burqa in Congress to justify the invasion of Afghanistan," she tweeted. "For the rest of my life, I knew that as a Muslim woman my identity would be weaponised to justify American wars."

Abdelhamid's comment came in the wake of US' military withdrawal from Afghanistan nearly 20 years after it had invaded the country in the wake of the 9/11 attacks

According to a local US channel NY1, Maloney defended wearing the burqa, arguing sometimes “you have to be dramatic” to raise awareness about an issue. "I was making a point," she said.

If you want to truly use fashion for your political activism, learn to be more respectful, Representative Maloney. You can make your point without using religious garments as a tool of illustration. We too believe in equal rights for women, but that doesn't mean that we mock the burqa or other garments that are often worn for religious purposes.

  

  

US war record not one to boast of: China Daily editorial

chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2021-09-14 

FILE PHOTO: Captain Melvin Cabebe with the US Army's 1-320 Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division stands near a burning M-ATV armored vehicle after it struck an improvised explosive device (IED) near Combat Outpost Nolen in the Arghandab Valley north of Kandahar, Afghanistan, July 23, 2010. [Photo/Agencies]

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was grilled by lawmakers in a contentious hearing on Monday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee over how the administration had mishandled the military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

They called the process "a disaster" and "a disgrace". They tried to seek answers as to why Americans and Afghans who had worked for the US government for years were left behind in total chaos before the military completed its withdrawal on Aug 30. They demanded accountability.

Yet what they forgot or chose not to ask is why the United States had got itself mired in the mess of the "Graveyard of Empires" in the first place. To ensure the US avoids repeating the same mistake in the years to come, they should have taken the opportunity to start a collective soul-searching into why the world's sole superpower is so addicted to wars.

According to National Interest magazine, from 1948 to 1991, the US engaged in 46 military interventions. From 1992 to 2017 the number increased fourfold to 188.

Actually, the US has enjoyed only 16 years of peace in its 242-year history, making the country "the most warlike nation in the history of the world", as former US president Jimmy Carter noted in 2019 when he spoke with then incumbent leader Donald Trump. Carter attributed the penchant for war to the US trying to force other countries to "adopt our American principles".

Wars are costly, and it is US taxpayers who foot the bill. The war on terror that started in 2001, has cost the US an estimated $8 trillion, and claimed over 900,000 lives around the world over the past two decades, according to a report issued recently by the Costs of War Project of Brown University. The war in Afghanistan alone has cost $2.3 trillion. That represents $300 million a day over the 20 years.

Yet despite the high costs, some in the US may still believe the wars that Washington initiates are worth it as they are convinced by the rhetoric that they are launched for noble purposes — to free people from tyranny and repression, or in defense of freedom, democracy and human rights. But the fact is, concerns about US power and influence have risen in many countries around the world. According to a 2017 Pew survey, 39 percent of the respondents across 38 countries consider US influence and power a direct and major threat to their countries.

It is time the US learned the lessons of its failed wars. The world does not want its declaration that "America is back" to be a promise of more wars to come.

Damning evidence

DAWN.COM
Editorial

Published September 14, 2021

FOREIGN MINISTER Shah Mahmood Qureshi has unveiled a dossier that lists in detail how New Delhi has been committing gross violations of human rights in India-held Kashmir. It claims that India has also been facilitating and sponsoring the international militant Islamic State group. Flanked by National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf and Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari, Mr Qureshi dilated upon the comprehensive findings contained in the dossier and demanded that the international community take notice of these abuses.

Of particular note is the evidence presented in the dossier along with the names of those Indian officials involved in perpetrating these crimes. These names include generals, brigadiers and colonels of the Indian army as well as other officials of various security agencies. The dossier also pinpoints the locations of camps that India has apparently established for the IS terror outfit. Pakistan had issued a similar evidence-based dossier last year which had spelt out the Indian state’s involvement in acts of terror inside Pakistan.

Read: European lawmakers urge EU action on 'alarming humanitarian situation' in Indian-occupied Kashmir

It is obvious that India’s ongoing brutal tactics to quell the freedom struggle in Kashmir are being documented in great detail. The evidence pointing to India’s sponsorship of IS is extremely disturbing — and yet perhaps not altogether surprising given New Delhi’s increasing reliance on violence in pursuit of its interests. Under the present BJP government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, state-sponsored brutality against the Kashmiri people as well as minorities in India has increased sharply. However, it is unfortunate that the international community has not expressed the outrage that these acts of state violence deserve. There is greater realisation among the community that Mr Modi’s India has become intolerant, dictatorial and dangerously majoritarian, but the reaction these traits should elicit has yet to materialise.

With Pakistan now providing substantive evidence of Indian state-sponsored violence and terrorism, it is high time that international organisations and world leaders sat up and took note. As the largest country in the region, India is injecting instability that can lead to unpredictable consequences. In fact, it may perhaps not be inaccurate to say that India has become the most potent factor for instability in the region and if it is not stopped from exporting violence across its borders, and fuelling it in the territory that it illegally occupies, then all stakeholders in the region could become a victim of its belligerence.

Pakistan has done well to proactively expose India’s actions. The foreign minister and the NSA should ensure that the dossier and its contents are not just shared with the international community, but also that policymakers in key capitals are convinced of the veracity of the evidence presented. This will require effective diplomacy and communication. Given the fragile regional situation, there is no time to waste. The press conference should be considered the start of a coordinated attempt in this direction. More evidence should continue to be shared.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2021

President Arif Alvi wants Pakistanis to talk about family planning and we’re here for it

He posted a powerful video on Twitter that urged people to destigmatise talking about family planning and reproduction.

Photo: AFP

President Arif Alvi recently shared a video on Twitter that got a lot of people talking. The video is about family planning and reproduction and urged people to destigmatise these topics for a healthier Pakistan.

"National health has a very deep connection to mother and child health. We should be giving priority to things that are important. Practice family planning for prosperity. Keep a check on the number of children. Make good health a reality. Don’t ignore this topic. Discuss it and spread the message. The informational video covers a range of social issues represented by different characters of the working class who are discouraged and disregarded for their efforts due to the associated stigma around the aforementioned topic of family planning and the wellbeing of individuals involved in the process," he wrote in Urdu.

This isn't the first time President Alvi has spoken about the importance of family planning. In June, he said there is a need to educate people about family planning and monitoring the growing population in the country.

The informational video he shared covers a range of social issues represented by different characters who are discouraged and disregarded for their efforts due to the associated stigma around the topic of family planning and the wellbeing of individuals involved in the process. It illustrates how people often bury their heads in the sand when it comes to conversations about family planning or reproduction. The brown paper bags or khaki lifafey used in the video convey people's embarrassment and shame when it comes to talking about this very important issue.

The video's tagline is "Soch ko khaki lifafey se azaad karo, baat karo [liberate your thoughts from the brown paper bag, talk about it."

There is also a constant reiteration for everyone to be equally present in the discussion whether it is a young girl trying to ask her teacher a question during anatomy class or a wife trying to introduce family planning alternatives to her husband.

There was a lot of support for the initiative and the president's words on Twitter. People hope it will finally ignite a much-needed conversation regarding an issue that is often brushed aside in shame and embarrassment.

We're so glad to see the president using his platform to spread information and awareness about a very important cause. In Pakistan, people often turn the other way when it comes to talking about reproduction and family planning. Most young women in Pakistan are familiar with brown paper bags — we're often told to hide our period products in them, as if they're shameful. But there is no shame in talking about reproduction and health and, as the video says, we need to get rid of the figurative brown paper bags when it comes to important discussions.

The president's support for this campaign comes in the lead up to World Contraception Day on September 26 and despite his message having its fair share of detractors, we hope it starts a conversation among the people who need it most.

Many users said it is important to share this campaign on other popular media platforms besides Twitter as well.

Are Hindu reformers anti-Hindu?

Jawed Naqvi

Published September 14, 2021 -

The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.


LIKE other religions Hinduism has faced challenges from ancient times from within its fold and outside. Hindutva is a modern invention and the idea of a right-wing militarist nation state it panders to would not be possible before the advent of the nation states that came with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. Some Muslim ideologues opposed the movement for Pakistan also on similar lines, saying there was no sanction for a nation state in Islam.

The three-day international conference on ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva’ ended on Sunday with important insights into Hinduism itself, but the discussions also revived memories of the pitfalls of similar projects and criticisms attempted in the recent and distant past.

One takeaway from the conference was that critiquing Hindutva, the militant philosophy that set out to model Hindus on the European fascism of the 1930s (by replacing European Jews with Indian Muslims and Christians as targets of hate) would remain incomplete if B.R. Ambedkar’s call for the destruction of the Hindu caste system remained unheeded. Ambedkar canvassed for equal and secular rights for everyone, starting with the liberation of the Dalits from Hinduism’s Brahminical hold and women from its patriarchal fold.

Read: How to dismantle Hindutva?

Organisers of the conference offered a word of caution. “To equate Hinduism and Hindutva is to fall into the narrow, bigoted, and reductionist fiction that instrumentalises Hinduism by erasing the diverse practices of the religion, the debates within the fold, as well as its conversations with other faiths. If the poet A.K. Ramanujan reminds us about the importance of acknowledging Three Hundred Ramayanas, then Hindutva seeks to obliterate that complexity into a monolithic fascism.”

Hinduism as we know it today has been in ferment since its inception.

A scholarly intervention made a less-discussed argument that underscored many commonality of views between Hindutva practitioners and Zionist settler class Jews in occupied Palestine. Akanksha Mehta particularly focused on the affinities between women activists of Hindutva and Jewish settler women. She introduced a different perspective to the currently overstated comparisons between the Taliban and Hindutva practices. Their colonial project and the economic underpinning of Hindutva and Zionism together with hidebound social and gender iniquities perpetuated within both groups present a remarkable similarity.

Ambedkar had noted the absence of a defining feature of Hinduism other than the caste. There were anti-idolatry Hindu sects and there were worshippers of deities and images and nature. In Bengal, they worship Durga as slayer of evil and protector of her followers. In swaths of Uttar Pradesh the role is given to Hanuman — sankatmochan, who clears the path of personal and social impediments. In Maharashtra, Ganapati is the vighna-haran or remover of obstacles dogging the followers.

Ambedkar listed Hindus who followed Muslim customs, observed circumcision and buried their dead. He pointed to Muslims who called Brahmin and Muslim priests to together preside over their weddings. It is a relic of the mediaeval Bhakti movement that Muslims and Hindus are entwined in the worship of common saints, particularly in Punjab. Atheists and monotheists also came out of the Vedic fold in early Hinduism and its accompanying Brahminical practices. Nastikas took a materialist view of the world and were opposed to Brahminical rituals. They were shunned as a class as were followers of Buddha and Mahavira.

I got a call from a close friend from Mumbai on Friday, a Jain with a modern lens. “I’m calling you to forgive me for any wrong I may have done you,” he said to my complete surprise. It was part of a period of Jain rituals, Sumedh Shah confided. It was observed over several days and ended with the quest for forgiveness from friends and family. The discussion veered around to a Jain belief that they were the original Indian atheists. And since Mahavira was the 24th teerthankar, a contemporary of Buddha around 600 BC, the claim would tend to put the atheism of Jains ahead of the Hindu nastikas.

Be that as it may, the point is that Hinduism as we know it today has been in ferment since its inception, not unlike other religions that branched off from their original purposes of peace and harmony, as Swami Vivekanand observed, into puritanism, mysticism and even bloodletting by acquiring weaponised and sectarian forms.

For close to two centuries in India, Hindu reformers have been trying to tweak Hinduism. Of these the most persistent but not entirely successful lot belonged to the Bengal Renaissance — from Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833) to Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). The question is: were the reformers anti-Hindu or Hindu-phobic, to use the term thrown by many right-wing Hindus at their critics. Supporters of militant Hindu groups in the US and India have used such terms to describe and even threaten rival Hindus against critiquing India’s current tryst with what is otherwise regarded as a great religion of the world.

The Bengal Renaissance canvassed support for banning child marriage, encouraging widow remarriage and scientific education, discouraging superstition and sati — the practice of Hindu widows being forced to sit on their husband’s funeral pyre.

The Bengal effort was, however, a social movement largely aloof from politics. The synthesis of politics and social reforms was to flower with Gandhi. When he arrived on the scene from South Africa, the political churning against colonialism had already spread from Bengal to Maharashtra and Punjab, but it had acquired pronouncedly Hindu motifs. The use of religion for anti-colonial mobilisation also tempted Muslim leaders like Maulana Azad. He applied the Bengal model to unfolding events in Turkey to woo Muslims to the Congress.

Gandhi strove to use religion to bring Hindus and Muslims together, but his attempt at reforming Hinduism was slammed as vacuous by Ambedkar, and as too emasculated for a fascist project by leaders like Savarkar and Golwalkar. It may not be wrong to ask, therefore: if Ambedkar failed to annihilate the Hindu caste system, what’s the chance the virulent Hindutva project could be dismantled with well-meaning intellectual cogitation?

The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.

jawednaqvi@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2021