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Global Fundamentalist Wars By Gary Corseri 19 March, 2007 Countercurrents.org A review of The Gujarat Genocide. Garda Ghista, Author House, Bloomington, Indiana, U.S.A. 175 pages Garda Ghista dedicates The Gujarat Genocide to “the innocent victims of fundamentalist and communal violence everywhere.” The fundamentalisms that beset our over-trodden world today take many forms, including corporatism, militant “democracy,” Zionism, Islamic jihadism, Evangelicalism. Ms. Ghista, a long-time resident of India, now in the United States, focuses upon an extremism she has observed closely: that of right-wing Hindus; in particular, her book accounts and analyzes the horrific events of February and March, 2002 when riotous mobs in the state of Gujarat, spurred by leaders of the Sangh Parivar nationalist Hindu party, slaughtered between 2,000 and 5,000 Muslims. An additional 150,000 Muslims were rendered homeless and destitute. “Even after the initial 72 hours, the violence continued with the active support and collaboration of local police,” Ms. Ghista notes. About that time, Arundhati Roy wrote: “We’re sipping from a poisoned chalice—a flawed democracy laced with religious fascism … Gujarat has been the petri dish in which Hindu fascism has been fomenting an elaborate political experiment.” The massacre was precipitated by the burning of a train in Gujarat returning from the demolished Babri Masjid site where Hindu volunteers had gone to help construct a temple on top of a demolished Muslim mosque. “Fifty-nine men and women perished in the fire,” Ghista writes. It was not known how the fire started, nor by whom. Despite the lack of evidence, within hours, Muslim communities across Gujarat were under assault. The Hindu mobs were well armed with trishuls (tridents), inflammable fuel, gas cylinders and acidic powders, and thoroughly indoctrinated with the xenophobic racism and other-hatred of Sangh Parivar. How has our "modern" world come to such a fix in which tribal hatreds festering for centuries or millennia explode with virulence upon a canvas of hope and progress? Hope and progress were themes sounded briefly at the end of the Cold War when George H.W. Bush spoke beneficently of a “peace dividend” for the world. Hope and progress are catchwords in articles on India in recent issues of the Financial Times, Time or Newsweek magazines, etc. The Indian miracle is touted daily, second only to the Chinese miracle, but we read little about the dark side of the transformations taking place in both of these ancient, miraculous lands. Ghista’s book is a sensible corrective for restoring a fuller perspective. And the book will not only better our understanding of Mother India, but help us to put our own struggles into high relief. As Ghista writes, “With the rise of Jewish and Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East and Christian fundamentalism in the US, the Gujarat genocide looms large in a scenario of global fundamentalist wars. It is a story that reverberates in every corner of the globe where the wolves of religious fundamentalism howl at the gates of power. How are we to face this juggernaut of religious fascism, presently manifest in all major world religions?” Ghista aims her book at “those who cherish human freedom from dogma and hatred.” It is well-aimed. Garda Ghista created World Prout Assembly to educate people to fight for economic democracy. She can be reached at editor@worldproutassembly.org. Gary Corseri's work has appeared at CounterCurrents, ThomasPaine'sCorner, Dissident Voice, CounterPunch, CommonDreams and elsewhere. He can be contacted at corseri@verizon.net. http://countercurrents.org/guj-corseri190307.htm --------------- From: "I. K. Shukla" Date: Mon Mar 19, 2007 9 Subject: FW: [SouthAsiaContact] Confirm’d in full stupidity From: "Syed Ali Mujtaba" <syedalimujtaba@yahoo.com> Reply-To: SouthAsiaContact@yahoogroups.com Confirm'd in full stupidity By Ejaz Haider This column is never about politics, even though the more finicky would say that everything is political; indeed, that politics, like decrepit age, is tied to us as to a dog's tail. But while I may eschew politics, stupidity I can't let slip by without a comment. Indeed, rank stupidity it is that I want to write about because there is no other way to describe the events of the past several days, flout as they do the accepted norms of regular stupidity. A friend once commented that everything, including ibtizaal (roughly, vulgarity, obscenity and low-brow behaviour), should have some standards; this is equally true of himaqat. The GOP, not the Grand Old Party but the Government of Pakistan, is traditionally given to shooting itself in the foot; as regularly as that, it also puts the injured foot in its mouth. But the Great Leader has to do something different, more in line with the panache he always displays. So, he seems to have decided to shoot himself in the head. That definitely is spectacularly stupid; it leaves no room for survival. In Gujranwala, the other day, the Great Leader thumped his chest and said that no one but he knew the real reasons behind the chief- justice episode: "The issue is sub judice and my lips are sealed. But the day the Supreme Judicial Council gives its verdict, I shall reveal the full details." And I thought he would slink away after March 9. But let's consider the statement. First, he seems to be saying that since he is the only one who knows what the suspended CJP might have done, he was right in summoning the judge to the Army House and asking him to resign. There is also an implication here that other people might not have been consulted on this issue. So this is not team stupidity, thank you. Secondly, the Great Leader has implied that now that the sh** has hit the fan, as it often does when rank stupidity is allowed to run amok, he shall stay quiet. Thirdly, and this is interesting, he shall unseal his lips only when the Council has passed its verdict. What does that mean? Is the Great Leader implying that the Council may impale the suspended CJP on the reference or is he saying that if the Council does not do that he shall then reveal the true nature of things? I am confused. Here's why. Either way the statement does not correspond with his declared reverence for the matter being sub judice. If the Council is to give a verdict against the CJP (one implication) and the Great Leader already knows about it then the Council is compromised and the Great Leader becomes a contemnor for having referred to such an outcome ex ante. On the other hand, if he were to reveal the true details ex post — whatever the verdict may be — then it means the Council (second implication) doesn't have full details on the matter. This again amounts to contempt and raises the question of how the Council can try the respondent judge without having full knowledge of the reference against him — as also the question of why must the Great Leader find it necessary to opine on the issue after the Council has adjudged it. Is he saying the Council is irrelevant to this affair? This is not just being rank stupid, this is rank stupidity at its rankest and most nonsensical. Meanwhile, we have the Great Leader's coxcomb-wearing sidekicks kicking high and low and in the process falling all over the place. Two are worth mentioning. The first is the la-la minister. Were expletives and vulgarity to be given human form, it would come to resemble this gent. He does Punjab proud. The gent is as slow with the use of the head over his shoulders as he is quick with the use of his hands and tongue. That he should formally be the law minister leaves the entire concept up the creek and without a pedal. That's exactly the current location of this government. Which brings me to the other gent, the blah-blah minister. The man, if you ask me, is definitely depriving a village somewhere of an idiot. But in the Realm of Rank Stupidity, he is of course a minister and some village shall continue to suffer his absence until rank stupidity can become a thing of the past and he can be sent back to perform his natural function. Incidentally, he also makes the former blah-blah minister look good. If this government wants to survive, even though it has shown itself to be suicidal, someone needs to put a gag order on the Great Leader and these two minions of the Realm. While I was sitting in front of the television on Friday shaking my head, some instinct forced me to pick up Dryden's Mac Flecknoe. I wish I could reproduce the entire scene from the Realm of Nonsense, but a few lines may be in order. Shear the poem of its specific context and you shall find, dear reader, much affinity with some living characters. So help us God: ...pond'ring which of all his sons was fit To reign, and wage immortal war with wit; Cry'd, `tis resolv'd; for nature pleads that he Should only rule, who most resembles me: Shadwell alone my perfect image bears, Mature in dullness from his tender years. Shadwell alone, of all my sons, is he Who stands confirm'd in full stupidity. The rest to some faint meaning make pretence, But Shadwell never deviates into sense. Some beams of wit on other souls may fall, Strike through and make a lucid interval; But Shadwell's genuine night admits no ray, His rising fogs prevail upon the day... Ejaz Haider is News Editor of The Friday Times and Op-Ed Editor of Daily Times. He can be reached at sapper@dailytimes. com.pk |
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