Our Struggle for Peace
I thank the organisers for giving me the opportunity to speak here at the Faiz Peace Festival. While South Asia has had many great poets, the choice of Faiz as the symbol of South Asian Peoples’ Unity, can only be applauded. Often considered the greatest poet of the subcontinent for an entire era, Faiz was born in undivided India, a communist and internationalist, a Pakistani who fought for democratic rights, against India-Pakistan war, and against Pakistan’s violence connected to the Bangladesh freedom struggle. He is particularly relevant today when our mornings start with the fear of terror attacks, war and ‘war on terror’ and our evenings shatter our dreams to live in a world free of violence and hunger, in a greener earth where social justice and pluralities are not things of the past. The recent terror attacks in Mumbai and Lahore, along with the Sri Lankan government’s murderous war on the Tamils, have destabilised our conscience and shaken our confidence and faith in human dignity.
Ever since Pokhran and Chaghai (1998), we have lived under the shadow, no longer merely of war, but of India-Pakistan nuclear conflict. On one hand, we have the Pakistani regime, where enormous funds of US imperialism helped it to develop a bloated military apparatus to oppose forces that threaten US interests, like the Soviet-backed Afghan regime earlier, or “fundamentalists” now. But naturally, Pakistan also used this for its own interests like building its nuclear arsenal. Pakistan also intervened systematically in Kashmir, not really for the independence of Kashmir, but hoping to annex Kashmir to Pakistan. On the other hand we have India, a country that never signed the NPT, a country that was an initiator of the CTBT but backed out at a convenient moment, the first country in the sub-continent to test nuclear weapons, now being rewarded through the Indo-US nuclear deal, a deal that on one hand strengthens India’s subservience to US foreign policy, and on the other hand shows how hollow is the US claim about eliminating weapons of mass destruction. India is of course, also the country which seeks to establish regional domination over Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal alike, while using its military powers to also violate civil liberties inside the country, from Kashmir to the North-East. In recent times, it has been getting a good deal of US support, whether over so-called anti-terrorism, or Kashmir. The struggle for peace must therefore be a peoples’ struggle, and it must also encompass anti-imperialism, anti-fundamentalism/anti-communalism.
I want to share our experiences of struggle, particularly the experiences of Maitree, the West Bengal based women’s network, as well as of other women struggles for peace, communal harmony, and the struggle for an end to nuclearisation of the sub-continent. Maitree came into existence in 1996, within two decades after the Left Front regime’s rule. This was significant, as our constituents were mostly leftists, and we had begun with much greater expectations from the Left Front, but were forced to move away from it as it used large scale violence despite its claims about democratisation and as there is very little space for plurality and dissent. While distancing ourselves from the provincial ruling party, we also looked at issues of national importance, including violence unleashed by war, militarization, neo-liberal development agenda, as well as the growth of fascistic formations. We campaigned over the mega dams (Narmada Dam), SEZs, over nuclear weaponisation and nuclear power development in West Bengal.
The first major campaign that we conducted for peace was the long campaign over the nuclear weapons tests. Our anti-nuke tests demonstration on 16th May culminated in a major initiative to coordinate a meeting of all the anti-war and anti-nuke groups of West Bengal, a campaign committee entitled Paramanu Astra Birodhi Abhiyan (Campaign against Nuclear Weapons) was formed and eventually we took a leading role in organizing a united demonstration on August 6, 1998, Hiroshima Day, through this Committee. It was endorsed by over 110 organizations and a large number or prominent intellectuals, including Sujoy Basu, a leading engineer working on alternative energy, Arun Mitra, a well known poet from the 1940s, and Gautam Chattopadhyay, a communist historian. We did fail to convince the CPI(M) that a mass rally should permit every participant to bring her or his own poster or banner, instead of dictating a uniform and rigid set of slogans. We called for ‘A Nuclear Weapon-Free World’ ‘NO to Nuclear Weapons – Neither in India nor in Pakistan’. Our demonstration mobilized over 25,000 people, bringing together a diversity of voices on that occasion, from Gandhians to revolutionary Marxists, from science movement activists to feminists along with sex workers, and with songs, tableaux, and colourful posters. The CANW would later play some role also in setting up the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace at an all India level.
We felt that the oppressed including most certainly women bear the brunt of violence and authoritarianism legitimised by war. The NDA government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, was whipping up aggressive nationalism by emphasizing anti-Pakistan militarization. Indeed, building India’s nuclear weapons capacity had been the stated Jan Sangh/BJP policy since 1951. Our political focus was on the need to oppose jingoistic nationalism, which is used as a flag to attack the struggles of the exploited, and the oppressed for any sort of social justice and which is also used for Hindutva mobilisation. Soon after, at the time of the Kargil war, L. K. Advani (then Home Minister, now the BJP’s Prime Minister in the waiting) and George Fernandes (then the Minister of Defence) were both in favour of deepening the war.
We were therefore deeply concerned that two irresponsible and reactionary regimes were willing to play havoc with the lives of millions of people by their willingness to go to war. Many of the constituents of the CANW, along with the Pakistan-India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy, came together to call for an anti-war demonstration on July 15, 1999. Our slogans included, Stop War Hysteria, Build a lasting peace; Oppose imperialist intervention in Indo-Pakistan debates; Stop Spreading Communal Hysteria under the Plea of War; The Kashmir Problem Must be Solved only through respecting the aspirations of the entire people of Kashmir.
But the Kargil war brought out the crucial weakness within the left. No left party in India is hawkish, no left party calls for war on Pakistan, but the mainstream left is weak on the nationality question and the right to self determination. As a result, much of the left is absolutely committed to the territorial integrity of India, and top down contribution of some financial benefits for Kashmiris are about the only support to Kashmir they can think of. Even the CPI(ML) Liberation did not see fit to include the people of Kashmir as a separate category in dialogues between the peoples of India and Pakistan. Within Maitree, we had the same debates appearing. So the Kargil war stirred up a powerful debate. But if it did not lead to a firm position being taken by the entire network, it did compel the left wing of Maitree to come out in defence of the democratic rights of the people of Kashmir.
Nor did we ignore wars elsewhere. A major initiative was taken during the Kosova crisis and NATO’s invasion of Yugoslavia. Our leaflet of June 1999 declared, sarcastically, Congratulations Humanitarianism! The central slogan of our demonstration of 10 June was NATO/US aggressors hands off Yugoslavia.
An intense agitation was organised against West Bengal Government’s attempts to set up a nuclear power station in the Sunderbans in 2000. We argued that nuclear power stations were sought, not primarily to generate power, but to develop weapons grade fuels. Secondly, we argued that nuclear power is neither clean, nor cheap; and that locating a power station of this kind in the worlds’ largest mangrove forest would be an environmental disaster. On 9 August 2000, Nagasaki Day, our demonstration raised the slogan of a Nuclear Free World, and opposed aggressive patriarchal values of militaristic nationalism. We were confronted by police, who beat us up, tore our posters, took away microphones, and arrested 47 people. Male police arrested a number of women.
Some of our campaigns have been solidarity campaigns with women elsewhere, as after the Nude protest, when, on July 15, 2004, a number of women protested the arrest, rape and murder of Thangjam Manorama by the Assam Rifles in Manipur. This crime, committed with impunity, is the result of half a century of army rule in much of North East India, through the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (1958). Such militarization and state action to eliminate terrorism in fact contribute to concentration of power in the hands of the state and especially its armed wings. This leads to violence on women. We took out a leaflet and campaigned extensively, including by organizing mass signatures and by also campaigning in support of Irom Sharmila. We expressed our admiration for this Manipuri woman who has been on hunger strike since 2001, kept alive by repeated force feeding by the army, which tantamounts to continuous state violence.
Throughout 2005, especially during the International Fortnight Against Violence on Women, we campaigned against the US occupation of Iraq, and against Indian collaboration with the USA in military exercises. We were also vocal against so-called peacekeeping forces in India using large-scale violence on common people, including taking away their property, sexually harassing women and occasionally even killing people, like the case of Kiranbala, when a BSF jawan, Pravin Kumar, tried to rape her, and shot and killed her as she attempted to escape, in North 24 Parganas in May 2005. Women in the border districts feel unsafe because of continuous harassment by BSF personnel.
The struggle for peace, in the case of India, has to include the struggle against oppression of minorities. Their bodies often become the core site of fascist Hindutva communal attacks. This was what happened in Gujarat, in 2002. For six months women had to live through slaughter and sexual violence, mass rapes, gang rapes, rape followed by murder in most cruel ways, and eventually, not less than 2000 Muslims had been killed and over 100,000 being forced into involuntary exile or dwelling in camps. We campaigned against this right from the start, with our first demonstration coming out on March 5. We carried out a several month-long anti-fascist, anti-communal campaign, calling for peace and saying at the same time that peace did not mean lying down and accepting fascist violence. At one point, our public rally on May 1 was accosted by right wing forces, who accused us of being in the pay of the ISI (the Pakistani secret service) for circulating a leaflet with the title, Who Wants to Fool Us in the names of Ram and Rahim? We had consciously chosen May 1, saying that communal violence was being used to assert the supremacy of community identity over class. We had also argued, that a slogan like Hindus and Muslims unite, was inappropriate, as it seemed to suggest that Hindus and Muslims were both committing more or less the same kind of violence and should desist from it. This was followed by a special bulletin, with a section entitled Ten Ways to Combat Hate, along with campaigns aimed at school children. We also organized the launch of the Peoples’ Union of Civil Liberty’s report on the Gujarat violence through a mass meeting. Two of us edited a number of reports on the Gujarat events, provided two introductions, and published a Bengali book (Garbhaghati Gujarat — Gujarat: Slayer of Wombs) that ran into two editions of about 6000 copies in all. Our campaigns against Hindu communalism and its politics of hate and violence also led us to a campaign over the violence in Kandhamal, Orissa, where masses of Christians are under threat. We demonstrated in front of Utkal Bhavan (the office of the Orissa Government in Calcutta). Our aim is to hit back wherever the Hindutva forces campaign, whether it is in Bangalore or in coastal Karnataka, attacking people for beef eating or imposing very gendered moral codes on women. It is not just by voting against them every five years, but by resisting them actively, that we can get our autonomy. Even today, in the 21st century, we are told what to wear (no jeans!), where to go (not to a pub).
One thing is clear to us. The struggle for sub-continental peace has to be international in scope, and has to be linked to the struggle for communal harmony. Communal violence is routinely linked to cross country conflicts. And certainly, elite political forces in all the countries are involved in promoting such conflicts. The hounding of Taslima Nasreen, for example, has been a sub-continental affair. Muslim communalists forced her out of Bangladesh. Her shelter in India became increasingly precarious as Muslim communalist groups started offering money for her head, and finally, after a small but determined group, the All India Minority Forum, held up half of Calcutta in November 2007, the Left Front government did not hesitate for a moment to throw her out in the name security. Why did the government fail to provide her security? Just because she does not a have a single vote while Muslim fundamentalists will fetch it a lots of votes? Is this government really concerned about the rights of minorities or allows itself to appease the community patriarchs? She was eventually forced to leave India in March, 2008, after being kept almost as a high security prisoner rather than a seeker of political asylum. It is a travesty of justice, democracy and human rights. And the one group that hypocritically jumped up for her was the Hindutva brigade who grabbed the opportunity of Muslim bashing. Maitree has consistently stood by her on the issues of freedom of speech and women’s rights as human rights. We rejected the claims that she was anti-Islamic, saying that she was championing women’s equality. We have taken out demonstrations before the Bangladesh High Commission in Calcutta earlier. In the IFVAW, 2007 we formed a human chain in a busy junction of South Calcutta in support of Taslima.
The Mumbai incident tragically reminded us yet again, there is no uniform Muslim sentiment. One can have Muslim communalists provoking extreme violence, including the murder of around 162 people. One can also have Muslims being typecast and arrested just because they are Muslims. All you need to see are some of comments of hate and pro-military rule in Indian sms, or in the media. Against such calls for war on Pakistan, we organised a silent candlelight demonstration on December 10, Human Rights Day, condemning the killings in Mumbai, but opposing any war drive or any call for a military dictatorship in India.
If Indians and Pakistanis cannot work together for peace, if Indians and Bangladeshis cannot fight together for communal harmony and freedom of speech, then communal forces will gain ground in every country. Without belittling in any way the danger from the Hindutva forces, therefore, I want to emphasize that peace in South Asia cannot be durable unless we have a clear agenda, calling for
- A South Asian Nuclear Weapons Free Zone
- A more open border. Turn SAARC into a real South Asian cooperation and allow free movement of people. Allow freedom of movement across Kashmir.
- A forthright opposition to militarization in all the countries
- Oppose all shades of communalism, and stand up for minority rights.
- Oppose imperialist intervention in the sub-continent, whether dressed as peacekeeping or as war on terror.
- A people to people approach.
Let me end by quoting the 8th March slogan prepared by women’s groups in Vadodara, Gujarat, this year
“Silence is the language of complicity…
Speaking out is the language of change”
Raise your voice and lend your hand
to make this society free from violence
