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Riots In India
<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Apr 1 2007, 08:59 PM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Apr 1 2007, 08:59 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Here comes Shia Sunni riots in Lucknow - Iraq effect
[url=http://www.hindustantimes.in/news/181_1962323,000600030007.htm]
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Here is why people refer to Indian English language media as a dorky media:

It fails to identify the instigator of the violence. See the excerpt below:
<i>An angry mob belonging to a particular sect set two shops afire and damaged a shopping complex owned by a cleric in the old city.</i>

Here this article blames the police instead of rioters. See the excerpt below:
<i>Laxity on part of the district administration and the police led to the violence as the officials allegedly failed to deploy adequate force taking note of past incidents.</i>

Even after reading the entire article, reader is left with no factual knowledge of the incident.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Here this article blames the police instead of rioters. See the excerpt below:
Laxity on part of the district administration and the police led to the violence as the officials allegedly failed to deploy adequate force taking note of past incidents.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->HT- Congress mouthpiece is blaming Mullahyadav admin.
Media is very selective when it comes to chose community for punching bag. If you check in this thread or previous part, one will find who start riots in India and when it comes to Hindu, they attach Hindutava and when it comes to Muslim its just a sect.
<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Apr 1 2007, 10:23 PM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Apr 1 2007, 10:23 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Here this article blames the police instead of rioters. See the excerpt below:
Laxity on part of the district administration and the police led to the violence as the officials allegedly failed to deploy adequate force taking note of past incidents.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->HT- Congress mouthpiece is blaming Mullahyadav admin.
Media is very selective when it comes to chose community for punching bag. If you check in this thread or previous part, one will find who start riots in India and when it comes to Hindu, they attach Hindutava and when it comes to Muslim its just a sect.
[right][snapback]66433[/snapback][/right]
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Of course, there is a reason why there is so much religious tension in India. It is primarily due communal nerds in Indian media and congress.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>लखनऊ में शिया-सुन्नी संघर्ष</span>

<img src='http://img.jagran.com/news/010407/up2t.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

लखनऊ। बारावफात के मौके पर सुन्नी समुदाय के मदहे सहाबा जुलूस को लेकर आज ठाकुरगंज और चौक के कई इलाकों में शिया-सुन्नी संघर्ष हुआ। पथराव के साथ कई राउंड फायरिंग भी की गई। उपद्रवियों ने करीब एक दर्जन मकानों और दुकानों में तोड़फोड़ और आगजनी के साथ लूटपाट भी की। उन पर काबू पाने के लिए लाठीचार्ज के बाद पुलिस को फायरिंग करनी पड़ी। संघर्ष में करीब डेढ़ दर्जन लोगों को गंभीर चोटें आईं, जिन्हें अलग-अलग अस्पतालों में भर्ती कराया गया। तनाव को देखते हुए ठाकुरगंज और चौक थाना क्षेत्रों में क‌र्फ्यू तथा बाजारखाला में धारा 144 लगा दी गई।

   ठाकुरगंज के अहमदनगर पजावा में बिलाली मस्जिद से सुन्नी समुदाय के लोगों को निकलकर आज सुबह साढ़े आठ बजे झंडेवाला पार्क अमीनाबाद में एकत्र होना था। प्रशासन के निर्देश थे कि सुन्नी समुदाय अपने झंडे समेट कर शांतिपूर्वक अमीनाबाद जाएगा और मुख्य जुलूस में शामिल होगा। <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>निर्देशों को दरकिनार कर सुन्नी समुदाय ने अहमदनगर पजावा स्थित शियों के 'बहिश्ते जहरा कब्रिस्तान' के पास ही झंडे खोल नारेबाजी शुरू कर दी। शियाओं ने विरोध किया तो दोनों पक्ष के लोग आमने सामने आ गए और पथराव शुरू हो गया। कुछ शरारती लोगों ने कब्रिस्तान में लगे चांदी के अलम को उखाड़ लिया। इस पर शिया भड़क गए और देखते ही देखते दोनों समुदायों के बीच संघर्ष शुरू हो गया।</span> उपद्रवियों ने एक गिफ्ट सेंटर में तोड़फोड़ के बाद लूटपाट की और एक साइकिल दुकान में आग लगा दी। जुलूस में शामिल लोगों ने तमंचे से गोलियां चलाई, जिससे सलमान व एक अन्य युवक घायल हो गया। उपद्रवियों ने थानाध्यक्ष ठाकुरगंज वीर प्रताप पाण्डे की भी पिटाई कर दी। खबर पाते ही आईजी जोन दयाशंकर सिंह, डीआईजी सुभाषचंद्र व एसएसपी ज्योतिनारायण मौके पर पहुंचे व आरएएफ और पीएसी समेत सभी थानों की पुलिस को फौरन वहां पहुंचने के निर्देश दिए गए। पुलिस और प्रशासन के अधिकारियों ने मंत्रणा के बाद साढ़े ग्यारह बजे एक बार फिर सुन्नी समुदाय को जुलूस तक जाने की इजाजत दी लेकिन कब्रिस्तान तक पहुंचते ही एक बार फिर शिया समुदाय की ओर से पथराव शुरू हो गया। जवाबी पथराव के बाद दोनों ओर से फायरिंग और नारेबाजी होने लगी। उपद्रवियों ने एक फल विक्रेता के घर में भी लूटपाट की तथा मुमताज के अब्बास मंजिल को आग के हवाले कर दिया। उपद्रव में चौक कोतवाली प्रभारी रामानंद यादव, उपनिरीक्षक पन्नालाल, आजमगढ़ की 20 वीं वाहिनी पीएसी के प्लाटून कमांडर लल्लन सिंह समेत कई सुरक्षाकर्मी घायल हो गए। पुलिस ने दो दर्जन दंगाइयों को गिरफ्तार किया। हालात काबू हो पाते, तभी एक अन्य इलाके सज्जादबाग में भी संघर्ष शुरू हो गया। उपद्रवियों ने एक मस्जिद के बाहर बने पीसीओ, मेडिकल स्टोर व इलेक्ट्रॉनिक उपकरण की दुकान में लूटपाट के बाद आग लगा दी। पुलिस को यहां हवाई फायरिंग कर आंसू गैस के गोले छोड़ने पड़े। अकबरी गेट में भी दोनों पक्ष सड़क पर नारेबाजी करने लगे। थोड़ी ही देर में यहां भी तोड़फोड़, आगजनी और हवाई फायरिंग शुरू हो गई। उपद्रवियों ने नक्खास चौराहे पर अवध पॉइंट बिल्डिंग पर ईट-पत्थर चलाए और एक मारुति वैन को आग के हवाले कर दिया।

http://www.jagran.com/news/statenews.aspx?stateid=1

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Thorough Shia - Sunni affair. Blame is with Sunnis. They even did not spare a mosque complex. But anyways injured are PAC men. I love Jagran.

But in the meanwhile Mullas are blaming BJP for the riots!!!

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->भाजपा ने कराया शिया सुन्नी संघर्ष: कल्बे जवाद

लखनऊ। जुलूस-ए-मदहे सहाबा के दौरान हुए संघर्ष को लेकर मौलाना कल्बे जवाद ने पुलिस जुल्म और प्रशासन की लापरवाही को लेकर अपने आवास पर पत्रकार वार्ता की। मौलाना ने संघर्ष के लिए भाजपा को जिम्मेदार ठहराते हुए कहा कि पार्टी ने सुबह से ही अपने एजेंट सक्रिय कर दिये थे ताकि दंगा हो।

http://www.jagran.com/news/statenews.aspx?...46022&stateid=1
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-Bodhi+Apr 2 2007, 05:08 AM-->QUOTE(Bodhi @ Apr 2 2007, 05:08 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>लखनऊ में शिया-सुन्नी संघर्ष</span>

<img src='http://img.jagran.com/news/010407/up2t.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

लखनऊ। बारावफात के मौके पर सुन्नी समुदाय के मदहे सहाबा जुलूस को लेकर आज ठाकुरगंज और चौक के कई इलाकों में शिया-सुन्नी संघर्ष हुआ। पथराव के साथ कई राउंड फायरिंग भी की गई। उपद्रवियों ने करीब एक दर्जन मकानों और दुकानों में तोड़फोड़ और आगजनी के साथ लूटपाट भी की। उन पर काबू पाने के लिए लाठीचार्ज के बाद पुलिस को फायरिंग करनी पड़ी। संघर्ष में करीब डेढ़ दर्जन लोगों को गंभीर चोटें आईं, जिन्हें अलग-अलग अस्पतालों में भर्ती कराया गया। तनाव को देखते हुए ठाकुरगंज और चौक थाना क्षेत्रों में क‌र्फ्यू तथा बाजारखाला में धारा 144 लगा दी गई।

  ठाकुरगंज के अहमदनगर पजावा में बिलाली मस्जिद से सुन्नी समुदाय के लोगों को निकलकर आज सुबह साढ़े आठ बजे झंडेवाला पार्क अमीनाबाद में एकत्र होना था। प्रशासन के निर्देश थे कि सुन्नी समुदाय अपने झंडे समेट कर शांतिपूर्वक अमीनाबाद जाएगा और मुख्य जुलूस में शामिल होगा। <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>निर्देशों को दरकिनार कर सुन्नी समुदाय ने अहमदनगर पजावा स्थित शियों के 'बहिश्ते जहरा कब्रिस्तान' के पास ही झंडे खोल नारेबाजी शुरू कर दी। शियाओं ने विरोध किया तो दोनों पक्ष के लोग आमने सामने आ गए और पथराव शुरू हो गया। कुछ शरारती लोगों ने कब्रिस्तान में लगे चांदी के अलम को उखाड़ लिया। इस पर शिया भड़क गए और देखते ही देखते दोनों समुदायों के बीच संघर्ष शुरू हो गया।</span> उपद्रवियों ने एक गिफ्ट सेंटर में तोड़फोड़ के बाद लूटपाट की और एक साइकिल दुकान में आग लगा दी। जुलूस में शामिल लोगों ने तमंचे से गोलियां चलाई, जिससे सलमान व एक अन्य युवक घायल हो गया। उपद्रवियों ने थानाध्यक्ष ठाकुरगंज वीर प्रताप पाण्डे की भी पिटाई कर दी। खबर पाते ही आईजी जोन दयाशंकर सिंह, डीआईजी सुभाषचंद्र व एसएसपी ज्योतिनारायण मौके पर पहुंचे व आरएएफ और पीएसी समेत सभी थानों की पुलिस को फौरन वहां पहुंचने के निर्देश दिए गए। पुलिस और प्रशासन के अधिकारियों ने मंत्रणा के बाद साढ़े ग्यारह बजे एक बार फिर सुन्नी समुदाय को जुलूस तक जाने की इजाजत दी लेकिन कब्रिस्तान तक पहुंचते ही एक बार फिर शिया समुदाय की ओर से पथराव शुरू हो गया। जवाबी पथराव के बाद दोनों ओर से फायरिंग और नारेबाजी होने लगी। उपद्रवियों ने एक फल विक्रेता के घर में भी लूटपाट की तथा मुमताज के अब्बास मंजिल को आग के हवाले कर दिया। उपद्रव में चौक कोतवाली प्रभारी रामानंद यादव, उपनिरीक्षक पन्नालाल, आजमगढ़ की 20 वीं वाहिनी पीएसी के प्लाटून कमांडर लल्लन सिंह समेत कई सुरक्षाकर्मी घायल हो गए। पुलिस ने दो दर्जन दंगाइयों को गिरफ्तार किया। हालात काबू हो पाते, तभी एक अन्य इलाके सज्जादबाग में भी संघर्ष शुरू हो गया। उपद्रवियों ने एक मस्जिद के बाहर बने पीसीओ, मेडिकल स्टोर व इलेक्ट्रॉनिक उपकरण की दुकान में लूटपाट के बाद आग लगा दी। पुलिस को यहां हवाई फायरिंग कर आंसू गैस के गोले छोड़ने पड़े। अकबरी गेट में भी दोनों पक्ष सड़क पर नारेबाजी करने लगे। थोड़ी ही देर में यहां भी तोड़फोड़, आगजनी और हवाई फायरिंग शुरू हो गई। उपद्रवियों ने नक्खास चौराहे पर अवध पॉइंट बिल्डिंग पर ईट-पत्थर चलाए और एक मारुति वैन को आग के हवाले कर दिया।

http://www.jagran.com/news/statenews.aspx?stateid=1

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Thorough Shia - Sunni affair. Blame is with Sunnis. They even did not spare a mosque complex. But anyways injured are PAC men. I love Jagran.

But in the meanwhile Mullas are blaming BJP for the riots!!!

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->भाजपा ने कराया शिया सुन्नी संघर्ष: कल्बे जवाद

लखनऊ। जुलूस-ए-मदहे सहाबा के दौरान हुए संघर्ष को लेकर मौलाना कल्बे जवाद ने पुलिस जुल्म और प्रशासन की लापरवाही को लेकर अपने आवास पर पत्रकार वार्ता की। मौलाना ने संघर्ष के लिए भाजपा को जिम्मेदार ठहराते हुए कहा कि पार्टी ने सुबह से ही अपने एजेंट सक्रिय कर दिये थे ताकि दंगा हो।

http://www.jagran.com/news/statenews.aspx?...46022&stateid=1
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[right][snapback]66438[/snapback][/right]
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There was so much spelling error in that article that it was hard to make sense at times.
<b>Violence rocks Madhya Pradesh cities, 24 injured</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Two persons were injured in stray incidents of violence on Sunday night as members of a community, who alleged that stones were pelted at their houses, tore flags erected for an Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi procession.

One person was arrested and sent to jail while cases for inciting communal hatred were registered against some eight persons.

<b>Twelve people were injured in Jabalpur as Hindu activists and members of the Christian community clashed last night after allegations of forced religious conversions were made by Hindu groups. </b>

Twenty-five activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Dharam Sena were booked for violence in Dhamapur, while a complaint was filed against members of the Christian community, police said.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Temple demolition: Gangavati tense
[24 Apr, 2007 l 0222 hrs ISTlTIMES NEWS NETWORK]

GANGAVATI (KOPPAL DISTRICT): Tension gripped the town on Monday when the police resorted to lathicharge twice after protesting mob turned violent during Gangavati bandh.

The bandh call was given by the district BJP and Congress leaders to protest the demolition of a place of worship on Anegundi Road.

Trouble started when a few persons broke down the under-construction Ayyappa temple on a 1.26-acre plot in Survey No.

53, allegedly at the behest of labour minister Iqbal Ansari. The land in question was allotted by the tashildar as per the instructions of the then revenue minister Mallikarjun Nagappa.

The local BJP, Congress and pro-Hindu organisations took out a padayatra on Sunday, appealing to the people to make the Gangavati bandh on Monday a success.

The protest, in which about 10,000 activists participated, began from the APMC yard at 11 am. As the procession neared Ansari's hardware shop, the processionists forced it to down the shutters.

When the workers resisted, the mob resorted to stone-throwing. The police brought the situation under control, after a mild lathicharge.

Trouble again erupted near the Sarojamma Kalyan Mantap when the police blocked the VHP processionists from proceeding further to hoist a flag on the disputed land. Police resorted to lathicharge for the second time, injuring a boy, Rajesh, in the melee.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/...how/1947114.cms<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-Viren+Aug 23 2005, 05:24 PM-->QUOTE(Viren @ Aug 23 2005, 05:24 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->old news..
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Falwell Remarks Prompt India Riots

Fri Oct 11, 3:20 PM ET

By RAMOLA TALWAR, Associated Press Writer

BOMBAY, India (AP) - <b>Five people were killed Friday in Hindu-Muslim rioting and police gunfire after riots broke out during a general strike to protest the Rev. Jerry Falwell calling the founder of Islam a terrorist. Forty-seven others were injured.</b>

The rioters attacked each other with knives and stones during the strike called to protest what Falwell said on CBS television early this month. Muslim organizations said Falwell's remarks were derogatory and blasphemous.

The conservative Baptist minister told the television network Islam's prophet "was a — a violent man, a man of war."

"Jesus set the example for love, as did Moses," Falwell said. "I think Muhammad set an opposite example."

<b>Two Muslims and one Hindu were killed by police gunfire and one Muslim and Hindu died of stab wounds in Sholapur 225 miles south of Bombay, the capital of western Maharashtra state, said Kirpa Shankar, the junior home minister of Maharashtra state . </b>

The trouble started when a group of Muslims took to the streets and were challenged by Hindus. Some rioters targeted shops, homes and vehicles, police said.

<b>Falwell's remarks had triggered street protests in Indian-controlled Kashmir</b> (news - web sites) on Monday.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...riots&printer=1

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Latest: Falwell no more
http://www.paulbrass.com/


PAUL R. BRASS is Professor (Emeritus) of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle. He has published numerous books and articles on comparative and South Asian politics, ethnic politics, and collective violence.
His work has been based on extensive field research in India during numerous visits since 1961. His most recent books are The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India (2003), Theft of an Idol: Text and Context in the Representation of Collective Violence (1997); Riots and Pogroms (1996); and The Politics of India Since Independence, 2nd ed. (1994).

PUBLICATIONS: BOOKS

2003: The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Pp. 476

2002: Competing Nationalisms in South Asia: Essays for Asghar Ali Engineer. Ed. with Achin Vanaik. Hyderabad: Orient Longman.

1997: Theft of an Idol:Text and Context in the Representation of Collective Violence. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Pp. 298

1996: Riots and Pogroms. London and New York: Macmillan and NYU Press. Pp. 252

1994: The Politics of India Since Independence, 2nd edition, vol. iv:i of the New Cambridge History of
India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 403

1991: Ethnicity and Nationalism: Theory and
Comparison. New Delhi and Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Pp. 358.

1990: The Politics of India Since Independence,
vol. iv:i of the New Cambridge History of India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 357

1987: The Indian National Congress and Indian Society, 1885-1985: Ideology, Social Structure, and Political Dominance (with Francis Robinson). New Delhi: Chanakya Press. Pp. 480.

1985: Ethnic Groups and the State. London: Croom Helm. Pp. 341.

1985: Caste, Faction, and Party in Indian Politics, Vol. II: Election Studies. New Delhi: Chanakya Press. Pp. 325.

1984: Caste, Faction, and Party in Indian Politics, Vol. I: Faction and Party. New Delhi: Chanakya Press. Pp. 339.

1982: Science, Politics, and the Agricultural Revolution in Asia (with Robert S. Anderson, Edwin Levy, and Barrie M. Morrison). Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press. 512 pp.

1974: Language, Religion, and Politics in North India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974. 467 pp.

1973: Radical Politics in South Asia (with Marcus Franda). Cambridge: The MIT Press. 449 pp.

1965: Factional Politics in an Indian State: The Congress Party in Uttar Pradesh. Berkeley, University of California. 262 pp.

SELECTED ARTICLES

2004: "Development of an Institutionalised Riot System in Meerut City, 1961 to 1982," ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY (October 30, 2004), pp. 4839-4848.

2004: "Elite interests, popular passions, and social power in the language politics of India," Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 27 (No. 3) May 2004, pp. 353-375.

2004: "Muslims in Hindu Nationalist India," Center Conversations (April 2004).

2003: "The Partition of India and Retributive Genocide in the Punjab, 1946-47: Means, Methods, and Purposes," Journal of Genocide Research (2003), 5(1), 71-101.

2003: "Review Article: Rulers of India," Economic Development and Cultural Change, 51: 2 (January 2003), 523-28.

2002: “India, Myron Weiner, and the Political Science of Development,” Economic and Political Weekly, XXXVII, No. 29 (July 20-26, 2002), 3026-40.

2000: “The Strong State and the Fear of Disorder,” in Francine R. Frankel, et al. (eds.), Transforming India: Social and Political Dynamics of Democracy (New Delhi: Oxford University Press). Pp. 60-88

1984: "National Power and Local Politics in India: A Twenty-Year Perspective," Modern Asian Studies, XVIII, No. 1 (February, 1984), 89-118.

1968: "Coalition Politics in North India," The American Political Science Review, LXII (December, 1968), 1174-1191.

BOOK REVIEWS

2003: "The World's Largest Hypocrisies"; Review of The Maverick Republic: Thirty Years of Coverage by Jawid Laiq; Roli Books, New Delhi, 2000.

CONFERENCE PAPERS

2004: Riots, Pogroms, and Genocide in Contemporary India: From Partition to the Present.

Click here for full text of "The Partition of India and retributive genocide in the Punjab, 1946-47: means, methods, and purposes."
Click here for full text of my review, "The World's Largest Hypocrisies."
Click here for full text my review article, "Rulers of India."
Click here for full text of "India, Myron Weiner, and the Political Science of Development."



Selected Works
Articles and Essays
Collective Violence, Human Rights, and the Politics of Curfew
A consideration of the consequences of curfew restrictions for the populations affected by them and the human rights issues raised by extended and punitive curfew restrictions, with special attention to India.
Victims, Heroes, or Martyrs? Partition and the Problem of Memorialization in Contemporary Sikh History
Discusses the problems of memorialization faced by religious/ethnic communities whose members have been subjected to large-scale, traumatic violence.
Review Symposium: The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India by Paul R. Brass
Reviews of my book by Thomas Blom Hansen, A. R. Momin, and Roger Petersen, with my response.
Indian Secularism in Practice
Text of article published in the INDIAN JOURNAL OF SECULARISM, Vol. 9 No. 1 (Jan-Mar 2006)
Biographies of Indian political personalities: Indira Gandhi, Jayaprakash Narayan, Vallabhbhai Patel, and Lal Bahadur Shastri
Biographies of Indira Gandhi, Jayaprakash Narayan, Vallabhbhai Patel, and Lal Bahadur Shastri in the New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Development of an Institutionalised Riot System in Meerut City, 1961 to 1982
Text of article published in the ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY (October 30, 2004).
Elite interests, popular passions, and social power in the language politics of India
Text of article published in Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 27 (No. 3) May 2004, pp. 353-375.
"The Body as Symbol in the Production of Hindu-Muslim violence"
Chapter 1 in Ravinder Kaur (ed.), Religion, Violence and Political Mobilisation in South Asia (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2005), pp. 46-68.
Coalition Politics in North India
Text of article published in The American Political Science Review, Vol. 62, No. 4 (Dec., 1968), 1174-1191.
National Power and Local Politics in India: A Twenty-Year Perspective
Text of article published in Modern Asian Studies, XVIII, No. 1 (February, 1984), 89-118.
Muslims in Hindu Nationalist India
Transcript of a discussion with Asghar Ali Engineer at the Center for Ethics and Public Policy, Washington, D. C., held on January 12, 2004
The Gujarat Pogrom of 2002
Analysis of the killings and destruction in the Indian state of Gujarat after February 27, 2002.
Foucault Steals Political Science
Analysis of Foucault's ideas concerning power, knowledge, governing, and governance.
Books
Forms of Collective Violence: Riots, Pogroms, and Genocide in Modern India
This collection of essays focus on the various forms of collective violence that have occurred in India during the past six decades, which include riots, pogroms, and genocide.
The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India
Explains the persistence of Hindu-Muslim rioting in India.
Theft of an Idol
Narratives of incidents of collective violence.
Riots and Pogroms
Case studies of collective violence in the twentieth century.
The Politics of India Since Independence
Second edition, covering Indian politics and political economy from 1947 to 1992.
Ethnicity and Nationalism: Theory and Comparison
Comparative and theoretical studies of ethnic groups and nationalities in India and the Soviet Union.
Ethnic Groups and the State
Comparative studies in ethnic conflict and the interaction of ethnic identity and the state.
Language, Religion, and Politics in North India
History and analysis of the politics of language and religious movements in northern India,
Factional Politics in an Indian State
The first major study of local politics in post-Independence India.
Conference papers
Corruption and Anti-Corruption on the Eve of Indian Independence
Prepared for the Panel on “Corruption as Practice and Discourse in India” at the Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin, Madison, October 19-22, 2006
Riots, Pogroms, and Genocide in Contemporary India: From Partition to the Present
Prepared for the Hiroshima Peace Institute Conference on Comparative Research into Genocide and Mass Violence, Hiroshima, Japan, March 22-26, 2004)
On the Study of Riots,Pogroms, and Genocide
Methodology and ideology in the analysis of forms of collective violence



Blind Men of Hindustan
Reality of South Asia eludes its leaders
by Rajinder Puri

Last Wednesday an eminent American research scholar and author on South Asia, Mr. Paul Brass, wrote an article in a national daily. His study of over four decades led him to believe that ordinary people were not responsible for riots. Riots according to him emanated from “institutional riot systems”. These riots were in fact pogroms.

However, Mr. Brass went on in his article to write about the riots of 1947:

“Even such a stupendous disaster as the partition of India had been massively distorted in historical writing on the subject and in public consciousness, that it had not been at all recognized, except by a tiny minority of scholars, for what it actually was, namely, a twentieth century form of genocide and ethnic cleansing, but made to appear wholly or mostly spontaneous or blamed upon various easy targets such as Lord Mountbatten or the British policy of ‘divide and rule’.”

Mr. Brass is accurate in the first part. I offered a rationale of the 1947 riots in a book over fifteen years ago. Its views were identical with the views expressed by Mr. Brass except for one huge difference. When Mr. Brass dismisses Lord Mountbatten or the British as “easy targets” one can only wonder if he has done his homework. To consider Lord Mountbatten as an individual is facile. He was Britain’s chosen instrument to preside over policy as the Empire was being dismantled. To reappraise the partition today is not merely academic engagement in a historical dispute. The truth about partition lies at the heart of the Kashmir problem, of the Baluchistan problem, of the Indo-Pakistan discord.

Recently former British foreign minister Mr. Jack Straw regretfully acknowledged that Britain had made serious errors on Kashmir in 1947. He did not elaborate. Was he referring to the seemingly personal decision of a junior British army officer to declare Gilgit as part of Pakistan? Was he referring to Mountbatten’s prevailing over Nehru to move the UN and order a ceasefire before the Indian army occupied the whole of Kashmir, which it was about to? It served Britain to make sure that the partition endured. That was why Britain helped create an intractable Kashmir dispute to make this happen.

What impelled Britain to partition India? It was at that time a rational and sound policy for a departing colonial power to perpetuate its strategic interests. In those days Britain, even though impoverished and crippled by the war it had won, remained miles ahead of America in its understanding of global strategy. Britain’s secret service had thought about partition even before world war started in 1939. The British central intelligence in India wrote to the Secretary of State in London:

“The differences between Hindus and Muslims have reached a point at which there is only one solution: partition. Thus, shortly, a nation of Muslim India should be established.”

Why did Britain want partition? It foresaw the need to contain the Soviet Union from expanding to the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. Lord Mountbatten was appointed as Viceroy by the King over Prime Minister Atlee’s head. Mountbatten was Queen Victoria’s great grandson. The British had convinced the Americans that an Islamic crescent encircling the Soviet Union and emerging Red China was the best bet to contain the “Godless communists”.

Less than two months after Mountbatten became Viceroy, US Secretary of State George Marshall sent Ronald A. Hare, head of Division of South Asian Affairs, and Thomas E. Weil, Second Secretary of the US Mission in India, to confer with Jinnah. In that meeting Jinnah echoed Lord Wavell’s views that a Muslim Pakistan would contain the Soviet Union. The American team conveyed this to Secretary of State George Marshall. But for a truly Muslim Pakistan a transfer of populations had to be ensured. There is enough circumstantial evidence to convincingly suggest that the “institutional riot system” which Mr. Brass has discovered was very much under operation by Britain in 1947.

Former Pakistan President Iskandar Mirza’s memoirs, when he served as a deputy commissioner, offer one morsel of evidence. Lord Mountbatten’s inexplicably perverse deployment of police forces, which facilitated instead of curbing riots, offers another. In certain areas the army instigated riots. To imagine that the most experienced world power would not exercise control over a bureaucracy and army created by it would be extremely naive.

The riots, which escalated in Punjab well after the Congress had formally accepted partition, were necessary to bring about a transfer of populations. Ninety per cent people of present Pakistan opposed the partition. The Khan of Kalat, who ruled over most of Baluchistan, remained independent for a year after partition, wanting to join India. Inexplicably, Nehru spurned him. Pakistan annexed Baluchistan through military coercion. Baluch insurgency has waxed and waned for over fifty years. This Sunday Baluchistan’s foremost leader Nawab Akbar Bugti was killed by the Pakistan army. He sought autonomy, not independence as other illustrious self-exiled Baluch leaders did.

The Frontier Gandhi, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, wanting either independence or merger with India, was also abandoned by Gandhi and Nehru. The Nawab of Bahawalpur, ruling a state contiguous to India, was also spurned by Nehru after he wanted to join India. One need not dwell on the betrayal by their top Congress leaders of the thousands who fought for freedom. These leaders were manipulated like pawns when it came to the crunch.

What is germane to the present is the truth that the birth of Pakistan was as controversial as the birth of Israel which was culled from Palestine partitioned by the British a few months after India’s partition. Both Israel and Pakistan were artificially created. Both have survived for six decades. They are a reality. Any realistic solution would have to protect their sovereign identities. Nevertheless, the past cannot be wished away. The problem between India and Pakistan is not Kashmir. It is the partition. Kashmir is the symptom. Its people in all of its five segments spread across India and Pakistan deserve self-determination provided India, Pakistan and Kashmir – whatever its future status – arrive at a special relationship which might later encompass Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

No outside power should be allowed to encroach as an equal on this special relationship. To talk of joint management by India and Pakistan of Kashmir is futile. Kashmir is not a factory requiring joint management. President Musharraf, the Hurriyat leaders, Syed Salahuddin, Mr. Farooq Abdullah and others are busy discussing the peace process. Let them first confront the truth. The basic problem is not Kashmir. The basic problem is the partition. Let them start from that end.

August 30, 2006

<b>Rajasthan: 7 killed in violence; Army called in</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Army was called in on Tuesday, following clashes and police firing during protests by the Gurjar community on the Jaipur-Agra highway in Dausa area of Rajasthan. Seven people were killed and several injured in the violence that also affected Karauli and Bundi.

Twenty-four companies of central para military forces have also been rushed to violence-affected areas.

<b>In a bid to check the protests by the Gurjar action committee demanding that the community, which has been given OBC status, be shifted to the Scheduled Tribe category,</b> the authorities called in the Army to check the protestors from blocking traffic on the highway
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<b>Violence spreads, Army on high alert</b>


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