:: Saturday, October 05, 2002 ::

A Public Service Announcement from SAALT:

Below is a blurb I received from South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow (SAALT). I am deeply suspicious of any organization that seeks to obtain corporate sponsorship for a public service event associated with the name of M.K. Gandhi. It is also odd to see the way in which this "day of service" appears to coopt Gandhi's experiments with truth to a generalized pity for unfortunate and impoverished segments of the community. Gandhi was a "radical saint" and a revolutionary political philosopher, he was not Mother Teresa or someone who merely wanted to aid and comfort the poor. Gandhi embraced poverty as part of a radical program of self-discipline that would enable him to break free of the chains of personal desire. Poverty or self-discipline was a means to swaraj or self-rule and as a consequence it would also promote a new kind of national freedom. His ideas were a direct challenge to the modern capitalist state/market nexus. What would Gandhi think if he were told that JP Morgan Chase, and ChevronTexaco, and tshirts.com were sponsoring a day of service in his name? (Come on tshirts.com! Can't they see the irony in having a sponsor for Gandhi Day that manufactures machine made garments?!?) Gandhi did take money from wealthy supports to finance Tolstoy Farm and his public campaigns, but he never compromised or diluted the spirit of his philosophy. All this being said, I do think that the overall gesture of this organization is well intentioned if slightly misguided by American capitalism and selective appropriation of South Asian history.

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STRENGTHENING AMERICA THROUGH SERVICE: Thousands Commemorate Gandhi & September 11th through Volunteerism

WASHINGTON, DC – On October 5, 2002, 7500 volunteers from close to 200 organizations throughout the country will collectively contribute 50,000 hours of their time to community service in a unique homage to Mahatma Gandhi and the victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks. Now in its fourth year, the National Gandhi Day of Service is the largest national community service campaign organized by the South Asian American community. The event is organized by South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow (SAALT), a national nonprofit group that aims to increase civic participation and leadership among South Asians in the U.S.

Drawing on Gandhi’s famous quote, “You must become the change you wish to see in the world,” the National Gandhi Day of Service aims to instill the spirit of unity between South Asians and their fellow Americans by encouraging volunteerism – contributing to societal cohesion, trust and reciprocity.

“National Gandhi Day of Service is a vehicle to foster unity and understanding between Americans,” says National Gandhi Day of Service Co-Chair and SAALT board member Ankur Agarwal. “Through this event, South Asians draw from our homeland – the life and philosophy of Gandhi – while demonstrating our commitment to improving this country. In the wake of September 11th, it’s very important to build stronger ties with our fellow Americans.”

Pooja Kapadia, National co-chair and long-time Gandhi Day organizer agrees, pointing out that “this year’s event has special significance because we’ve taken Gandhi Day from its strong foundation in student volunteerism and expanded it to include professional organizations, community-based organizations, corporations, and even a group of firefighters. Gandhi Day is on its way to becoming a national event for all Americans to participate.”

In addition to its traditional base of student organizations, SAALT has developed national partnerships with several community-based and professional organizations including NetIP North America (Network of Indian Professionals), Delta Phi Omega, AAPI (American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin), and Project Impact; while securing sponsorship from JP Morgan Chase, ChevronTexaco, Indian Express, and T-Shirts.com.

As in past years, volunteers will join together this year to provide assistance to local nonprofit and governmental agencies that serve the public. Volunteers will clean up local parks, refurbish low-income housing units, feed the homeless, visit with the elderly, sick, and underprivleged, among other activities.

“Gandhi understood the value of serving others – we hope that participants will also recognize the value inherent in service and continue to volunteer in their communities throughout the year. The framework of serving others is a important characteristic of leadership – we see Gandhi Day as a stepping stone to creating leaders who serve the public’s good,” says Debasish Mishra, co-founder of National Gandhi Day of Service and SAALT board member.

For more information about the National Gandhi Day of Service, please visit www.gandhiday.org. South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow is a national nonprofit organization that fosters leadership and civic engagement within the South Asian community in the United States.

:: Vikash Yadav 12:20 PM [Permanent Link] :: ::
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Re: Pakistan’s Christians:

Vikash’s post brings out several points which I think are worth emphasising. Firstly, it shows how hollow the phrase “war on terror” is as being pursued by the Bush Administration clearly US policy has had the effect of increasing terror tactics on minorities globally. This does not mean the US is directly fomenting terror but rather that a real war on terror would involve combating terror wherever and whenever it appears and is used as a tactic by armed groups. Pushing these struggles away to the periphery and thinking that as long as they remain there then no damage is done, is a myopic view; the one thing the WTC attacks should have taught us all is that the spatial re-organisation of globalisation has proved it impossible to insulate the effects of terrorist violence in periphery from the core. As Vikash, notes the implicit racial segregation that still belies attitudes to violence outside the US has not yet adjusted to this yet.

Secondly, it also underlines a weakness in the Huntington-esque Clash of Civilisations approach – as we live in the age of globalised religion. Many Christians and Muslims live in “Civilisational zones” outside that belong to their own faith and Huntingtonian analysis is worryingly silent about the fate of these minorities. I was asked by someone, who had read Vikash’s post (a US citizen) why the terrorists in Pakistan couldn’t understand that Pakistani Christians had nothing to do with the US; I replied that this was like saying why many Americans couldn’t understand that many Arab Americans and South Asian US citizens had nothing to do with the attacks on the WTC yet they still faced all sorts of harassment. The interlocutor saw my point and fell silent. It should also be noted that reductionist civilisational approaches ignore the existence of these significant minorities – India for example has over 100 million Muslims; China too has a large Muslim population in its Xinjiang province. With the increased migration of peoples across the globe many centres of growth have attracted immigrants from diverse backgrounds who can be adversely affected by such narrow-minded mindsets.

Lastly, there is the troubling question of religious minorities in South Asia. We have talked extensively about India’s treatment of its minorities but all other South Asian countries have their religious minorities too. Pakistan as seen below has 3 million Christians, Sri Lanka has it’ Tamil Hindu minority and nearly 10% of Bangladesh’s population is Hindu – none of these states has an exemplary record of treating its minorities well. Pakistan and Bangladesh have both been prone to religious Fundamentalism, the demolishing of the Mosque in Ayodhya in 1992 led to retaliation attacks against Hindu temples in Bangladesh the Hindu community there has been victimised by increasing influence of the Islamic fundamentalists. Pakistan, being an Islamic republic is severely hard on its religious minorities and the implementation of General Zia’s Islamic legal system has led to numerous abuses. The stringent blasphemy laws in particular make it very easy for a Muslim ion flimsy grounds to accuse non-Muslims of blasphemy against Islam and obtain a strict sentence from religious court. Christian communities have complained for some time now that such laws have been abused by individuals to settle old scores or for economic gain. The Islamic Constitution of Pakistan though bequeathed by Jinnah who wanted an Islamic, has not fulfilled its original role; as Jinnah envisioned a Pakistan that would be tolerant of all its minorities, yet I suppose the very failure of Jinnah’s hostage theory (i.e. the theory that the Hindus and Muslims living as minorities in Pakistan and India would guarantee the humane treatment of the minorities by the dominant community in that country was dashed by the tragedy of Partition and the mass migration that followed). Indeed, One can argue that Jinnah’s name and his legacy are only paid lip service to today in modern Pakistan and their intent and spirit are ignored. Pakistan’s troubled history with it’s minority goes back further as during the 1960’s and 1970’s at various times the ruling President has come under pressure from Religious groups to declare reformist sects like the Ahmediyyas as non-Muslims. On several occasions to deflect accusations of being Un-Islamic they have given in and the result has been serious rioting. The recent and rising intolerance towards Pakistani Christians is just the culmination of these trends – to my mind this how religious fundamentalism operates – it first targets the internal enemy and purifies the imagined religious community from within before moving on to the external enemy and the figure of the Other. With this in mind it should be recalled that the first Crusade was not against the Muslim kingdoms or invaders of the Holy Land but against the powerful Cathar heresy in southern France – this served as the model for later crusades right from the Papal sanction to the enormous bloodletting and the refusal to spare even non-combatants and the vulnerable from being killed. Again in more recent times the Sikh secessionist movement in the Punjab started with Bhindrinwale attacking first those groups he regarded as non-Sikhs such as the Namdharis (a small reformist Sikh sect) before targeting the Hindu community.

Serious questions have to be asked by religious fundamentalists on both sides of the border – for if Islamic extremists and Hindutva supporters truly support the idea of promoting the welfare of their religious community exclusively then they have to come to terms with the existence of large minorities of co-religionists outside their borders. The attitude of Pakistan to anti-Muslim rioting in India has hardly been particularly constructive and many reports in the media actually reflect a certain Schadenfreude in commenting how it is not possible to Muslims to live in a Hindu majority country rather than empathising with their Muslim brethren in India and criticising the Indian government for failing to protect them. Similarly, the current BJP doesn’t seem to be doing much to protect or improve the plight of Hindus in Bangladesh and has been remarkably silent about the racist treatment being meted out to the Hindu community in Fiji, where a racist constitution prevented an Indian majority in parliament and an Indian Prime Minster and when one was elected he was overthrown. This indicates that what really drives the BJP is acquiring power at the centre and it only poses as the knight in shining armour when it can derive some political mileage out of doing so. Whereas for Pakistan the inability to accommodate the Muslim refugees from partition – the Mohajirs leads one to seriously doubt as to whether religion can provide the cement to hold together a country that has no other basis (the creation of Bangladesh has already delivered a blow to the two-nation theory). One thing is for sure, in the present climate of worsening relations religious minorities will be paying the price for the tough action and stance taken by countries elsewhere.

:: Conrad Barwa 9:23 PM [Permanent Link] :: ::
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Pakistan's Christians:

Thousands of Christians gather outside St. Patrick's Cathedral in Karachi, Pakistan, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2002, for a memorial service for the seven Christians charity workers shot execution-style at their offices last Wednesday. No arrests have been made in the case.(AP Photo/B.K.Bangash)

The most recent group of Pakistani Christian victims all worked at the Institute for Peace & Justice (Idara-e-Amn-o-Insaf). The terrorists (rumored to be members of Harkat ul-Mujahedeen Al-Almi) gained access to the office and made all eight victims sit in chairs, tied them up, and shot them in their heads with a single bullet for each victim. Seven of them died on the spot.

Thousands of mourners gathered at St. Patrick's Cathedral on Sunday to pay their last respects. As the crowd grew, angry mourners began smashing car windows and pelting the police with rocks. Pakistani police ended up firing teargas and baton charging the crowd to restore order.

Christians have accused the Pakistani government of failing to provide adequate protection for minorities and Westerners. They have demanded the resignation of the Interior Minister, Moinuddin Haider. There are 3.8 million Christians in Pakistan, which has a total population 144 million, 96 percent of whom are Muslim. Thirty-six people (including Muslims) have been killed and a hundred injured since Pakistan joined America's "War on Terrorism."

Salim Khursheed Khokhar of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance said,

"It seems that nobody except Muslims will live in Pakistan. Fundamentalism is taking root in Pakistan, and Christians' places of worships and welfare institutes are being targeted one after the other."[*]

Sadly, in order to protect Christian places of worship, Pakistani authorities have been removing signs identifying the location of churches held in private residences. Thus, the authorities have rendered the minority group even more invisible in their own country.

What is most upsetting about these attacks, as noted in the Pakistan Christian Post (New York), is the way in which the Christian community in Pakistan is being tortured for the actions of the US government. It is not surprising that average American Christians seem to show little outrage for these victims -- further revealing the racial segregation within the religion. However, the US government has a moral obligation to the Pakistani Christians, not because the US is a "Christian Nation," but because the US government knows that terrorists will take their revenge on this minority community. At the very least, the US government should pay the Pakistani government to increase the protection of this minority community. The US should not allow Pakistani Christians to bear the brunt of the terrorists' barbarism.

:: Vikash Yadav 8:23 PM [Permanent Link] :: ::
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