A message and an appeal
'I am German, and still waiting for the Germans to come back; they have gone to ground somewhere'
The details of the Pulwama terrorist attack on a CRPF convoy are widely known. What I wish to underline is that the physical and verbal attacks on Kashmiri students and traders in Uttarakhand and elsewhere exemplified the barbaric habits of collective guilt and collective punishment. These practices are examples of Nazism at work. There has also been a calibrated plan to use social media to stoke up communal hysteria; so much so that the CRPF, (to their credit) was forced to issue rebuttals of fake news: Our Men Didn’t Die So Someone Could Spread Communal Hatred: CRPF
see also
Victor Klemperer (1881-1960)
This is a message for my students, old
and recent; for comrades in the struggle against communalism; and fellow citizens. The
message is simple (there is also an appeal below): it is a crime against humanity to attack, intimidate and
vilify entire groups of people, whether defined by religious, regional or any
other identity, for the crimes or wrong-doings (real or imaginary) of a few.
The ascription of collective guilt; and/or the inter-generational transfer of guilt to entire communities, is a poisonous doctrine associated with anti-semitism, Nazism, and communal killings akin to what took place in 1984, 2002, etc. When you punish people not for what they have done, but for what they are, it is an act of pure evil. Qualitatively it is evocative of genocide and death-camps. It is a crying shame that senior religious personages of our deeply religious country can't be bothered to notice and condemn evil when it stalks the land. Shame on our god-forsaken godmen and on this government
The ascription of collective guilt; and/or the inter-generational transfer of guilt to entire communities, is a poisonous doctrine associated with anti-semitism, Nazism, and communal killings akin to what took place in 1984, 2002, etc. When you punish people not for what they have done, but for what they are, it is an act of pure evil. Qualitatively it is evocative of genocide and death-camps. It is a crying shame that senior religious personages of our deeply religious country can't be bothered to notice and condemn evil when it stalks the land. Shame on our god-forsaken godmen and on this government
The partition
massacres that began with the Calcutta Killing of 1946; and numerous mass crimes including the genocidal actions of the Pakistan Army in East Bengal in 1971 are examples of these habits of thought at work in South Asia. Mass murder was let loose in Delhi in 1984; mass transfers of population continued until 1989-91 with the expulsion of Kashmiri Pandits
from their homes in the Valley; in 2002, with the ghetto-fication of Gujarat's Muslims; in 2007, with attacks on Christians in Kandhamal (Odisha); and in 2014, with the mass exodus of Muslim villagers from their
homes around Muzzafarnagar in 2014. The long list of mass crimes in independent India shows that for
all our pride at our civilisation and ‘democratic governance’, our political and ethical culture retains a strong element of barbarism.
This
brutal and cretinous communal ideology is also directed at undermining the rule of law, giving free rein to controlled mobs, and abolishing the distinction
between legal and extra-legal violence.
I have written at length about these
matters, so will not repeat myself - here are some writings:
The details of the Pulwama terrorist attack on a CRPF convoy are widely known. What I wish to underline is that the physical and verbal attacks on Kashmiri students and traders in Uttarakhand and elsewhere exemplified the barbaric habits of collective guilt and collective punishment. These practices are examples of Nazism at work. There has also been a calibrated plan to use social media to stoke up communal hysteria; so much so that the CRPF, (to their credit) was forced to issue rebuttals of fake news: Our Men Didn’t Die So Someone Could Spread Communal Hatred: CRPF
The People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism has called upon the government to ensure the safety of Kashmiri citizens (does the government not consider Kashmiris to be Indian citizens?
Thousands of students who left Kashmir in order to study, placing their faith in the Indian state have been hounded out and terrorised. What will they say when they go home? That no one wants them here, they are not safe? Who has the right to talk of Indian unity when this is how we treat children who come to study? Why did the Prime Minister take a week to condemn the attacks on innocents? Was he unaware of what was happening?)
PADS has also appealed to members of civil society to protect Kashmiris.
Thousands of students who left Kashmir in order to study, placing their faith in the Indian state have been hounded out and terrorised. What will they say when they go home? That no one wants them here, they are not safe? Who has the right to talk of Indian unity when this is how we treat children who come to study? Why did the Prime Minister take a week to condemn the attacks on innocents? Was he unaware of what was happening?)
PADS has also appealed to members of civil society to protect Kashmiris.
The bereaved families of the CRPF officers and men who lost their lives in the line of duty deserve our fullest support and sympathy. However my focus here is on confronting the efforts at instigating mob violence against innocent people. To this end I would like to add a personal suggestion to all my students, regardless of their political and religious beliefs: try and contact those Kashmiris who were forced to leave their places of study or trade; befriend them, find out what they have lost; and make efforts to compensate them for their losses. For example, if students have lost textbooks and study materials, we should try and replace these. We should also ask the educational authorities to withdraw the heinous decision to refuse admission to Kashmiri students; and if they are afraid to return to Dehra Dun, we should make efforts to obtain admission for them elsewhere.
There are many ways of expressing friendship and solidarity, but whatever these may be, it is our duty as human beings to show these traumatised students that no matter what the communal hooligans may have done, we do not share such poisonous prejudices and will do what we can to uphold human values. We are not helpless spectators in a bloody drama directed by ruthless people. This is our country - its time we took it back.
Ramachandra Guha: Why attack young Kashmiris for a crime committed by someone else?
Comrade Satyapal Dang: Lessons of Punjab have Relevance for Kashmir
Comrade Satyapal Dang: Lessons of Punjab have Relevance for Kashmir
A
Brief History of the Sampradayikta Virodhi Andolan (SVA)
CONSTITUTION OF the Sampradayikta Virodhi Andolan 1989
Political Resolution of the Annual Convention of the Sampradayikta Virodhi Andolan, March 1992
SVA Press Statement dtd 24 October 1990, following the arrest of LK Advani
Political Resolution of the Annual Convention of the SVA, Delhi, March 1992
STANISLAV MARKELOV - Patriotism as a diagnosisCONSTITUTION OF the Sampradayikta Virodhi Andolan 1989
Political Resolution of the Annual Convention of the Sampradayikta Virodhi Andolan, March 1992
SVA Press Statement dtd 24 October 1990, following the arrest of LK Advani
Political Resolution of the Annual Convention of the SVA, Delhi, March 1992
