Some old writing....
An article that was published in the New Indian Express on May 5, 2005
INDIAN CIVILISATION, AN OXYMORON?
By Asma
Is India a civilised country? The question needs to be asked. And, the disquieting answer is that it
is not. Is there any prospect of it becoming civilised in the foreseeable future? Negative.
What brings on this morbid line of reflection at this moment? The girls who dance for a living in the
dance bars of Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra. More than 100,000 of them are to be rendered
unemployed overnight. Along with them 1,000,000 workers connected with these bars. We will not
speak of the rights of the owners of these bars for the moment.
Over a million legitimate citizens of the Sovereign Democratic Nation State of India. The
Fundamental Rights promised to them in the Constitution of the country, to earn their livelihood by
legitimate employment, is in the process of being denied. This is being done by the Authority of the
State itself. The force behind the move to violate their civil rights is none other than the Chief
Minister and Home Minister of Maharashtra.
The incumbents to these chairs have been democratically elected by the people of the state.
Obviously, it is ironical that it is actually their responsibility, (and, yes, duty), to protect the civil
rights and human dignity of all the citizens under their jurisdiction. If any private agency were to
violate their human rights, it would be the government that they could turn to for protection. When
the state becomes the aggressor who do you turn to?
There is the judiciary. It is true that in this instance the Dance Bar Association and the Indian Bar
Girls Union have approached the local courts to stay the directives of the government. It is possible
that they may win. It is possible that public opinion may be generated to the extent that the
government is forced to rescind its orders.
In this context, pause for a moment, to think of the 90,000 families whose homes were demolished
by the same government less than 100 days back. It is true that the slums that they lived in were
‘illegal structures’. But, can you honestly say that they were committing a crime by living in them?
On the other hand, the police were well within the law to demolish those slums. But, could there be
any doubt that what they did was a crime?
How many more examples do you need? A few months ago, the Government of Kerala deprived
3.5 lakh vendors of their livelihoods when it banned the lottery. Couple of years ago the same
government had driven a thousand tribal families out of the Wayanad forests, with the aid of
extreme police terror.
Then there are the pogroms - New Delhi, ’84; Mumbai, ’93; Gujarat, ’02. Is any minority community
safe in this country? What about the innumerable instances of organised violence against the
‘lower castes’? Can there ever be any hope of justice in any of these cases? The record till date
would indicate the contrary. Don’t forget that retributive punishment does not undo the damage that
is done to the lives of individuals, families and communities. In a civilized country these state
sponsored/supported violations of human rights should not/ would not have happened in the first
place.
The number of instances where the state has failed is depressingly long, in our great and glorious
land. In Bhopal, 20,000 people died and 150,000 were crippled for life. You know how. Twenty
years later the victims have not been compensated, even to the pitiful extent that the government
has agreed to. Do you know that possibly as many as 50 million people have been displaced by
what is called development, since 1947? Rest assured, they have not been compensated. What
passes off in the name of rehabilitation is another story in itself.
It is not always in the form of huge, anonymous numbers. Sometimes we can put a face to them.
Shah Bano, Bhanwari Devi, Qutubuddin Ansari. There are many more that can be named. And
millions, who are faceless. But they are all victims of the Indian State.
It could be you. Do not live in a fools’ paradise that the victim is always going to be the next man. In
a State where even a single individual is not safe, nobody is. Don’t imagine that your money can
save you. His money did not save Rajan Pillai.
There are more than two lakh undertrials in this country languishing in jails for years. Often they
are not even charged with anything. Many of them are minors. Many of them have already been in
prison longer than they would have had to, even if convicted!
It has been estimated that the court houses in India need 250 years to clear all the cases which are
with them already. When that is the case, what redressal can you expect for violations of human
rights?
This article has an 800-word limit. 80,000 words will not suffice to list the everyday injustices that
we live with in this country. Mera Bharat Mahan. Indeed!
An article that was published in the New Indian Express on May 5, 2005
INDIAN CIVILISATION, AN OXYMORON?
By Asma
Is India a civilised country? The question needs to be asked. And, the disquieting answer is that it
is not. Is there any prospect of it becoming civilised in the foreseeable future? Negative.
What brings on this morbid line of reflection at this moment? The girls who dance for a living in the
dance bars of Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra. More than 100,000 of them are to be rendered
unemployed overnight. Along with them 1,000,000 workers connected with these bars. We will not
speak of the rights of the owners of these bars for the moment.
Over a million legitimate citizens of the Sovereign Democratic Nation State of India. The
Fundamental Rights promised to them in the Constitution of the country, to earn their livelihood by
legitimate employment, is in the process of being denied. This is being done by the Authority of the
State itself. The force behind the move to violate their civil rights is none other than the Chief
Minister and Home Minister of Maharashtra.
The incumbents to these chairs have been democratically elected by the people of the state.
Obviously, it is ironical that it is actually their responsibility, (and, yes, duty), to protect the civil
rights and human dignity of all the citizens under their jurisdiction. If any private agency were to
violate their human rights, it would be the government that they could turn to for protection. When
the state becomes the aggressor who do you turn to?
There is the judiciary. It is true that in this instance the Dance Bar Association and the Indian Bar
Girls Union have approached the local courts to stay the directives of the government. It is possible
that they may win. It is possible that public opinion may be generated to the extent that the
government is forced to rescind its orders.
In this context, pause for a moment, to think of the 90,000 families whose homes were demolished
by the same government less than 100 days back. It is true that the slums that they lived in were
‘illegal structures’. But, can you honestly say that they were committing a crime by living in them?
On the other hand, the police were well within the law to demolish those slums. But, could there be
any doubt that what they did was a crime?
How many more examples do you need? A few months ago, the Government of Kerala deprived
3.5 lakh vendors of their livelihoods when it banned the lottery. Couple of years ago the same
government had driven a thousand tribal families out of the Wayanad forests, with the aid of
extreme police terror.
Then there are the pogroms - New Delhi, ’84; Mumbai, ’93; Gujarat, ’02. Is any minority community
safe in this country? What about the innumerable instances of organised violence against the
‘lower castes’? Can there ever be any hope of justice in any of these cases? The record till date
would indicate the contrary. Don’t forget that retributive punishment does not undo the damage that
is done to the lives of individuals, families and communities. In a civilized country these state
sponsored/supported violations of human rights should not/ would not have happened in the first
place.
The number of instances where the state has failed is depressingly long, in our great and glorious
land. In Bhopal, 20,000 people died and 150,000 were crippled for life. You know how. Twenty
years later the victims have not been compensated, even to the pitiful extent that the government
has agreed to. Do you know that possibly as many as 50 million people have been displaced by
what is called development, since 1947? Rest assured, they have not been compensated. What
passes off in the name of rehabilitation is another story in itself.
It is not always in the form of huge, anonymous numbers. Sometimes we can put a face to them.
Shah Bano, Bhanwari Devi, Qutubuddin Ansari. There are many more that can be named. And
millions, who are faceless. But they are all victims of the Indian State.
It could be you. Do not live in a fools’ paradise that the victim is always going to be the next man. In
a State where even a single individual is not safe, nobody is. Don’t imagine that your money can
save you. His money did not save Rajan Pillai.
There are more than two lakh undertrials in this country languishing in jails for years. Often they
are not even charged with anything. Many of them are minors. Many of them have already been in
prison longer than they would have had to, even if convicted!
It has been estimated that the court houses in India need 250 years to clear all the cases which are
with them already. When that is the case, what redressal can you expect for violations of human
rights?
This article has an 800-word limit. 80,000 words will not suffice to list the everyday injustices that
we live with in this country. Mera Bharat Mahan. Indeed!
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