LETTERS

India and Pakistan

The Cover Story "Dialogue prospects" (June 6) was informative and instructive. It illustrated how the subcontinent can fulfil its desire for prosperity if there is peace between India and Pakistan. The responsibility has now been thrust on India to take the first step in this direction, at a time when the relations between India and Pakistan have hit a new low. India needs to pick its way carefully up the peace summit. The Vajpayee peace initiative reminds one of Winston Churchill's words: in war resolution, in peace goodwill, in victory magnanimity, in defeat defiance.

R. Ramasami
Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu

The prospects of dialogue between India and Pakistan are bright if they do not look at themselves as two different countries but as one people. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have many things in common.

It would be good if a new beginning is made, with steps taken to hold the issue of Kashmir in abeyance for at least 25 years; to open the borders within Kashmir for all people of Kashmiri origin on both sides; to restrict the armed forces of both countries to their respective cantonments in Jammu, Leh, Muzaffarabad and so on; to make the Kashmir Valley a non-military zone; to share foreign affairs, travel and tourism, trade and commerce of Kashmir within the subcontinent and abroad between India and Pakistan by rotation or as mutually agreed upon; to give complete internal autonomy for both parts of Kashmir, held by India and Pakistan; and to share the deficit in the budgets of both regions of Kashmir evenly or proportionately. These steps would go a long way in not only solving the problem of Kashmir but bringing India and Pakistan closer to each other.

A.T.M. Anwar
Hyderabad

It is highly appreciable that Prime Minister Vajpayee has made another effort to make peace with Pakistan, which for its part has responded positively. But we must remember that Kashmir is the only `bone of contention' between the two countries and Pakistan will surely take it up during the dialogue process. A breakthrough in this direction has been elusive. The people of both sides can only pray and hope for the best.

Siddhartha Rajguha
Jabalpur, M.P.

Your Cover Story has dealt with the dialogue process from various angles. There is a need for talks at all levels, people-to-people contacts, and improvement in trade. A honourable settlement may be to have the LoC as the international border, and a sort of autonomy for the people of Kashmir.

A. Jacob Sahayam
Thiruvananthapuram

Politics of trishul

K.M. Shrimali's "Trident stridency" (June 6) is indeed a scholarly and well-researched dissertation on the weaponisation of deities in the Hindu pantheon which, philosophically speaking, was necessary to protect the good and the virtuous, destroy the evil, and uphold dharma. But Krishna is different. His constant companion is the flute, a symbol of love and harmony. The VHP would have received better publicity if it had chosen the flute for mass distribution instead of the trishul.

In any case, why should ordinary mortals like present-day sadhus wield a trishul which, besides looking menacing, consumes a lot of metal (unless, of course, the idea is to help out a sunset industry such as the iron and steel companies of India)? If the trishul is meant to be used only as a symbol of `resurgent Hinduism' and not for any display of militancy, as the VHP claims, it would be worthwhile to make it in plastic, which is better suited for mass-manufacture at much lower costs, besides being harmless.

Kangayam R. Rangaswamy
Wisconsin, U.S.

Bush and terrorism

The prophecy of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that "the Iraq war, if it takes place, will only produce hundreds of Osama bin Ladens", now seems to be coming true ("Blasts of terror", June 6). The recent low-intensity bomb blasts on 16 Shell outlets in Karachi (Pakistan), followed by the massive ones at Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Chechnya (Russia), and Casablanca (Morocco) and another low-intensity blast at Ankara (Turkey), only prove that bin Laden's dreaded terrorist outfit, Al Qaeda, is not a spent force as claimed by U.S. President George W. Bush. The terrorist attacks by Islamic fundamentalists, on Western targets in Muslim countries, especially in Saudi Arabia, the land that is sacred to Islam and is home to bin Laden, prove that the terrorists are not committed to any religion and that terrorism knows no boundaries.

President Bush is right in saying that "the only religion of these terrorists is hate". If a true assessment is made, one would certainly agree that the root cause of this feeling of hate is the `occupation' of their `sacred' (read Muslim) soil by Western (read American) forces ever since the start of Gulf War I.

Now that the footprints of the Al Qaeda have been found in Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Turkey, and with Iran being accused of having sheltered some Al Qaeda fugitives, will President Bush continue with his task of `liberating' these countries from the Al Qaeda as well? If his liberation spree continues, instead of making friends around the Muslim world he will only be creating a wall of enemies against himself. Therefore, instead of trying to `police' the whole world, Bush should now stop interfering in the internal affairs of these countries and withdraw his forces from their soil as soon as possible.

S. Balakrishnan
Jamshedpur

Mediocrity and religion

It is difficult to agree with the ideas of Bhaskar Ghose ("Settling for mediocrity", June 6) who attributes the devotion of Hindus to their underperformance. How many of our atheists could rise above this level? I think when a society declines, it does so on all fronts, be it technology, religion or politics. This article clearly shows that the intellectual class in India is refusing to learn anything from history and always settles for "quick conclusions" directed by their ideology. Here lies the problem.

R. Srivatsan
received on e-mail

Secular Kerala?

The Marad incident (June 6) is an eye-opener to all those who believe that Kerala is still a haven of secularism. From Thiruvananthapuram in the south to Kasargod in the north, a number of districts in Kerala have witnessed communal clashes in the past. Interestingly, districts such as Malappuram, Kottayam and Idukki, where either Muslims or Christians form the majority population, have not contributed to major communal clashes so far.

The Congress(I)-led UDF government, and Chief Minister A.K. Antony in particular, has been trying to appease Hindu as well as Muslim hardliners. The CPI(M)'s inability to check the communal polarisation in the State has led to Kerala plunging into the state of, as Swami Vivekananda once put it, a mental asylum.

Ammar T.
Areacode, Kerala

Bihar

Congratulations to Frontline on the thorough and penetrating Cover Story on Bihar ("Battle cry in Bihar", May 23) . V. Krishna Ananth deserves praise for his analytical presentation and revealing remarks. The authentic report will help people to know the reality of the politico-social situation in the State.

The sorry state of affairs that afflicts Bihar today is an outcome of the inability of Opposition parties to provide a meaningful alternative government. A crippled bureaucracy does not heed the call of conscience and duty and colludes with the politicians. It is clear that the land of the Buddha, Jayaprakash Narayan and Rajendra Prasad is being taken for a ride by the politicians of the State.

Sheojee Singh
Chandigarh

Swaraj

The article "A tribute to a fighter" by S. Viswanathan (May 23) was an excellent one.

However, there was a statement in the article that the film Swaraj: The Little Republic was made by the National Film Development Corporation with a grant of Rs.35 lakhs. This is incorrect.

The Institute of Social Sciences approached several government agencies for funding, but they declined to support the film. Then the Institute went to the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC). They supported this project wholeheartedly. The project, costing Rs.50 lakhs was made possible by SIDA and SDC with the resources of the Institute.

George Mathew
Director, Institute of Social Sciences
New Delhi

A letter of protest Following is the text of a letter of protest by scholars and intellectuals against the Hindu right-wing attack on Romila Thapar [17 May 2003]: We are shocked at the letter of protest that is circulating on the Internet against the appointment of Professor Romila Thapar as First Holder of the Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the South at the Library of Congress, USA. Professor Thapar has been undoubtedly one of the most eminent Indian historians, whose prolific scholarly contribution has opened up new ways of looking at India's past. The petition shows an amazing lack of familiarity with Professor Thapar's writings. Since the 1960s Professor Thapar has written powerfully against the colonial stereotypes that India had no past, no sense of time, and no historical consciousness. The petitioners attribute to her precisely those ideas that she has spent a lifetime battling against. But clearly the problem is that Professor Thapar's conception of Indian past is different from that of the petitioners. Professor Thapar has looked at a variety of cultural traditions in the making of ancient India. To the petitioners Indian past is monolithic, unified and unmistakably only Hindu. Those who disagree with this notion are accused of committing cultural genocide. This is not just a shocking intolerance of perceptual differences. It is a politics that seeks to silence critique, and battles for a notion of the past that is homogeneously Hindu. It is part of a wider attack that we are witnessing in India today against intellectual and artistic freedom, and against cultural plurality. In a political milieu where dissent is being regularly repressed through intimidation, this petition against Professor Thapar and the hate mails that accompany it, become a particular cause of concern. We strongly protest against this attack on Professor Thapar. Signatories: Professor Hermann Kulke Chair of Asian History Kiel University, Germany Dr. Philip Lutgendorf Associate Professor of Religion and of Asian Languages and Literatures University of Iowa Professor Sumit Sarkar Department of History University of Delhi Professor Gyanendra Pandey Department of Anthropology and History Johns Hopkins University Francis Robinson Professor of the History of South Asia in the University of London Royal Holloway Professor David Washbrook St. Antony's College University of Oxford Professor Jayati Ghosh Centre for Economic Studies Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi Professor Abhijit Sen Centre for Economic Studies Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi Professor C.P. Chandrashekhar Centre for Economic Studies Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi Professor V.K. Ramachandran Indian Statistical Institute Kolkata, India Dr. David Hardiman Department of History University of Warwick Dr. Vijay Prashad Vijay.Prashad@trincoll.edu Professor Barbara Harriss-White Queen Elizabeth House Oxford Professor Neeladri Bhattacharya Centre for Historical Studies Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi Professor Mushirul Hasan Department of History Jamia Milia Islamia New Delhi Professor R. Champakalakshmi Chennai Professor Sudharshan Seneviratne Sri Lanka and more than 200 others (For more details on the Hindu right-wing campaign against Professor Thapar's appointment to the Kluge Chair, see http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex/Alerts/IDRT300403.html www.mnet.fr/aiindex/Alerts/ProtestLetter17052003.html)

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