India After Gandhi

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India After Gandhi Page 111

by Ramachandra Guha


  50

  Sunday, 27 August–2 September 1989; India Today, 15 September 1989; Business India, 26 June–9 July 1989.

  51

  Sunday, 25–31 January 1987 and 28 August–3 September 1988.

  52

  Shekhar Gupta, ’Punjab Extremists: Calling the Shots’, India Today, 28 February 1986.

  53

  See India Today, issues of 30 April 1986 and 15 September 1988; Sunday, 3–9 January 1986. The violation of human rights by the police in Punjab throughout the 1980s and 1990s is extensively documented in Ram Narayan Kumar et al., Reduced to Ashes: The Insurgency and Human Rights in Punjab (Kathmandu: South Asia Forum for Human Rights, 2003).

  54

  Reports in Sunday,19–25 May 1985, 19–25 July 1987 and 20–26 March and 1–7 June 1988 and in India Today, 15 June and 31 December 1986.

  55

  Shekhar Gupta and Vipin Mudgal, ‘Operation Black Thunder: A Dramatic Success’, India Today, 15 June 1988.

  56

  Interview in India Today, 30 November 1986.

  57

  Sten Widmalm, ‘The Rise and Fall of Democracy in Jammu and Kashmir, 1975–1989’, in Amrita Basu and Atul Kohli, eds, Community Conflicts and the State in India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1988), pp. 167ff.

  58

  Sunday, 9–15 July 1989.

  59

  For which see, among other works, A. Jeyaratnam Wilson, Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism: Its Origins and Development in the19th and 20th Centuries (London: C. Hurst and Co., 2000); Sankaran Krishna, Postcolonial Insecurities: India, Sri Lanka, and the Question of Nationhood (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000).

  60

  Shekhar Gupta, ‘Operation Pawan: In a Rush to Vanquish’, India Today, 31 January 1988.

  61

  Lt. Gen. S. C. Sardeshpande, Assignment Jaffna (New Delhi: Lancer, 1992), preface.

  62

  Krishna, Postcolonial Insecurities, p. 154 and passim.

  63

  See Gill, Dynasty, pp. 474–7.

  64

  See report in India Today, 15 June 1989.

  65

  Cover storyon ‘TheUgly Indian’, Sunday, 12–18 July 1987.

  66

  See report in Sunday, 28 September–4 October 1988.

  67

  Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, The Demolition: India at the Crossroads (New Delhi: HarperCollins India, 1994), pp. 260–2; Christophe Jaffrelot, The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics, 1925 to the 1990s (New Delhi: Penguin India, 1999), pp. 383ff.

  68

  See People’s Union for Democratic Rights, Bhagalpur Riots (New Delhi: PUDR, 1990).

  69

  Chitra Subramaniam, Bofors: The Story Behind the News (New Delhi: Viking, 1993).

  70

  India Today,31March and 15 October 1988; Sunday, 30 October–5 November 1988.

  71

  This ‘Defamation Bill’ is discussed in M. V. Desai, ‘The Indian Media’, in Marshall M. Bouton and Philip Oldenburg, eds, India Briefing, 1989 (Boulder: Westview Press, 1989).

  72

  India Today, 15 January 1989.

  73

  Sunday, 12–18 March 1989.

  74

  Indranil Banerjie, ‘Mera Dynasty Mahan’, Sunday,1–7October 1989.

  75

  See India Today, 31 October 1989; Sunday, 12–18 November 1989.

  76

  Vir Sanghvi, ‘A Vote for Change’, Sunday, 3—9 December 1989.

  77

  Sunday, 16—22 June 1985.

  78

  Kewal Varma, ‘The Politics of V. P. Singh’, Sunday, 19–25 April 1987.

  79

  T. S. Murty, Assam, The Difficult Years: A Study of Political Developments in 1979–83 (New Delhi: Himalayan Books, 1983), p. vi.

  80

  Lt. Gen. K. S. Brar, Operation Blue Star: The True Story (New Delhi: UBS Publishers, 1987), p. 4.

  26. RIGHTS

  1

  M. N. Srinivas, ‘Caste in Modern India’, Presidential Address to the Section of Anthropology and Archaeology, in Proceedings of the Indian Science Congress, Calcutta, 1957, part II, pp. 123–42.

  2

  The press reactions to his talk are discussed in M. N. Srinivas, Caste in Modern India and Other Essays (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1962), Introduction.

  3

  Cf. André Béteille, Society and Politics in Modern India (London: The Athlone Press, 1991), and ‘Caste and Colonial Rule’, The Hindu, 4 March 2002.

  4

  The political assertion of the backward castes during the 1960s and 70s is usefully described in Christophe Jaffrelot, India’s Silent Revolution: The Rise of the Low Castes in North Indian Politics (Delhi: Permanent Black, 2003). See also D. L. Sheth, ‘Secularisation of Caste and Making of New Middle Class’, Economic and Political Weekly, 21–28 August 1999.

  5

  Report of the Backward Classes Commission (Delhi: Controller of Publications, 1980), vol. 1, p. 57.

  6

  Andreé Béteille, ‘Distributive Justice and Institutional Wellbeing’, Economic and Political Weekly, special issue, March 1991; Dharma Kumar, ‘The Affirmative Action Debate in India’, Asian Survey, vol. 32, no. 3, March 1992; Norio Kondo, ‘The Backward Classes Movement and Reservation in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh: A Comparative Perspective’, in Mushirul Hasan and Nariaki Nakazato, eds, The Unfinished Agenda: Nation-Building in South Asia (Delhi: Manohar, 2001).

  7

  Jaffrelot, India’s Silent Revolution, pp. 345–7.

  8

  See Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Shankar Raghuraman, A Time of Coalitions: Divided We Stand (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2004).

  9

  Surendra Malik, comp., Supreme Court Mandal Commission Case, 1992 (Lucknow: Eastern Book Co., 1992), pp. 180, 196, 379, 387, 412, 424 etc.

  10

  ‘In Search of the Messiah’, Sunday, 31 August–6 September 1988.

  11

  Jaffrelot, India’s Silent Revolution, chapter 11.

  12

  Ghanshyam Shah, ed., Dalits and the State (New Delhi: Concept Publishing Co., 2002).

  13

  This account of Kanshi Ram and the rise of the BSP draws upon Sudha Pai, Dalit Assertion and the Unfinished Democratic Revolution: The Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2002); Kanchan Chandra, Why Ethnic Parties Succeed: Patronage and Ethnic Head Counts in India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), chapter 8.

  14

  Badri Narayan, ‘Heroes, Histories and Booklets’, Economic and Political Weekly, 13 October 2001.

  15

  Pai, Dalit Assertion, pp. 95–7; Shikha Trivedy, ‘Mayawati’, essay to be published in a forthcoming volume on Indian women politicians edited by Malavika Singh.

  16

  James Cameron, An Indian Summer (London: Macmillan, 1974), p. 122.

  17

  Andreé Béeteille, ‘The Scheduled Castes: An Inter-Regional Perspective’, Journal of Indian School of Political Economy, vol. 12, nos 3 and 4, 2000.

  18

  Hugo Gorringe, Untouchable Citizens: Dalit Movements and Democratisation in Tamil Nadu (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2005), p. 112.

  19

  The posthumous political importance of Ambedkar awaits a serious scholarly analysis. For clues to how important he is to the Dalit consciousness today see, among other works: Chandra Bhan Prasad, Dalit Diary: 1999–2003 (Chennai: Navayana Publishing, 2004); Fernando Franco, Jyotsna Macwan and Suguna Ramanathan, Journeys to Freedom: Dalit Narratives (Kolkata: Samya, 2004).

  20

  See the reports authored by and collected in S. Viswanathan, Dalits in Dravidian Land (Chennai: Navayana Publishing, 2005). Cf. also Haruka Yanagisawa, A Century of Change: Caste and Irrigated Lands in Tamilnadu, 1860s–1970s (New Delhi: Manohar, 1996), chapter 7.

  21

  People’s Union for Democratic Rights, Jhajhar Dalit Lynching: The Politics of Cow Protec
tion in Haryana (New Delhi: PUDR, 2003).

  22

  Cf. Mark Juergensmeyer, Religion as Social Vision: The Movement against Untouchability in 20th-Century Punjab (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982); Harish K. Puri, ‘Scheduled Castes in Sikh Community: A Historical Perspective’, Economic and Political Weekly, 28 June 2003.

  23

  Ronki Ram, ‘Limits of Untouchability, Dalit Assertion and Caste Violence in Punjab’, in Harish K. Puri, ed., Dalits in Regional Context (Jaipur: Raw at Publications, 2004); Surinder S. Jodhka and Prakash Louis, ‘Caste Tensions in Punjab: Talhan and Beyond’, Economic and Political Weekly, 12 July 2003.

  24

  Shashi Bhushan Singh, ‘Limits to Power: Naxalism and Caste Relations in a South Bihar Village’, Economic and Political Weekly, 16 July 2005.

  25

  Mukul, ‘The Untouchable Present: Everyday Life of Musahars in North Bihar’, Economic and Political Weekly, 4 December 1999.

  26

  Bela Bhatia, ‘The Naxalite Movement in Central Bihar’, unpublished PhD thesis, Faculty of Social and Political Studies, Cambridge University, 2000. Also Bhatia, ‘The Naxalite Movement in Central Bihar’, Economic and Political Weekly, 9 April 2005.

  27

  See Labour File, vol. 4, nos 5 and 6, 1998, p. 39.

  28

  Bhatia, ‘The Naxalite Movement’ (thesis), pp. 134, 87 (my translation).

  29

  C. P. Surendran, ‘On the Run with the Ranvir Sena’, Sunday Times of India, 26 February 1999.

  30

  See The Hindu, 14 November 2005.

  31

  People’s Union for Democratic Rights, Satpura ki Ghati: People’s Struggle in Hoshangabad (New Delhi: PUDR, 1992).

  32

  See Rahul, ‘The Bhils: A People Under Threat’, Humanscape, vol. 8, no. 8, September 2001; various issues of Budhan: The Denotified and Nomadic Tribes Rights Action Group Newsletter.

  33

  See Amita Baviskar, In the Belly of the River: Adivasi Battles over ‘Development’ in the Narmada Valley (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995); Jean Drèze, Meera Samson and Satyajit Singh, eds, The Dam and the Nation (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998).

  34

  India Today, 31 December 1999.

  35

  Manoj Joshi, The Lost Rebellion: Kashmir in the Nineties (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 1999), chapters 1 and 2. See also Tavleen Singh, Kashmir: A Tragedy of Errors (New Delhi: Viking, 1995).

  36

  Smita Gupta, ‘The Rise and Rise of Terrorism in Kashmir’, The Telegraph (Kolkata), 21 April 1990.

  37

  Victoria Schofield, Kashmir in Conflict (London: I. B. Tauris, 1999), p. 147.

  38

  These headlines are taken from various news reports filed in the Centre for Education and Documentation, Bangalore.

  39

  The Telegraph (Kolkata), 27 May 1990; Joshi, The Lost Rebellion, pp. 72–3.

  40

  See ‘Urgent Action’ reports of Amnesty International, nos UA 102 and 108 of 1991, copies in the files of the Centre for Education and Documentation, Bangalore.

  41

  V. M. Tarkunde et al., ‘Report on Kashmir Situation’, in Asghar Ali Engineer, ed., Secular Crown on Fire: The Kashmir Problem (Delhi: Ajanta Publications), pp. 210–23.

  42

  For which see Chandana Bhattacharjee, Ethnicity and Autonomy Movement: Case of Bodo-Kacharis of Assam (New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1996); Sudhir Jacob George, ‘The Bodo Movement in Assam: Unrest to Accord’, Asian Survey, vol. 34, no. 10, October 1994.

  43

  Sanjoy Hazarika, Strangers of theNight: Tales of War and Peace from India’s Northeast (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 1995), pp. 167–226. Cf. also Sanjib Baruah, ‘The State and Separatist Militancy in Assam: Winning a Battle and Losing the War?’, Asian Survey, vol. 34, no. 10, October 1994.

  44

  Anindita Dasgupta, ‘Tripura’s Brutal Cul de Sac’, Himal, December 2001.

  45

  Bhagat Oinam, ‘Patterns of Ethnic Conflictin the North-East: A Study on Manipur’, Economic and Political Weekly, 24 May 2003; U. A. Shimray, ‘Sociopolitical Unrest in the Region Called North-East India’, Economic and Political Weekly, 16 October 2004.

  46

  These quotes are from interviews with Muivah in the Times of India, 2 March 2005; and in The Hindu, 29 April 2005.

  47

  See J. B. Lama, ‘Naga Peace: Will the Factions Fall in?’, The Statesman, 18 May 1999.

  48

  Seema Hussain, ‘Manipur: Burning Anger’, The Week, 1 July 2001.

  49

  R. K. Ranjan Singh, ‘Refugee Problem in Manipur: A Smouldering Volcano’, Grassroots Options, November–December 1996; Deepak K. Singh, ‘Stateless Chakmas in Arunachal Pradesh: From “Rejected People” to “Unwanted Migrants"’, Social Sciences Research Journal, vol. 9, no. 1, 2001; Walter Fernandes, ‘IMDT Act and Immigration in North-Eastern India’, Economic and Political Weekly, 23 July 2005.

  50

  Rishang Keishing, quoted in Ved Marwah, Uncivil Wars: Pathology of Terrorism in India (New Delhi: HarperCollins India, 1995), p. 295.

  51

  N. Lokendra ingh, ‘Women, Family, Society and Politics in Manipur (1970–2000)’, Contemporary India, vol. 1, no. 4, 2002.

  52

  People’s Union for Democratic Rights, Why the AFSPA Must Go (New Delhi: PUDR, 2005); front-page photographs in The Telegraph (Kolkata), 16 July 2004; Sushanta Talukdar, ‘Manipur on Fire’, Frontline, 10 September 2004.

  53

  Nirmala Ganapathy, ‘Billionth baby put through hell’, New Indian Express, 12 May 2000.

  54

  Mahendra K. Premi, ‘The Missing Girl Child’, Economic and Political Weekly, 26 May 2001; P. N. Mari Bhatt, ‘On the Trail of “Missing” Indian Females’ (in two parts), Economic and Political Weekly, 21 and 28 December 2002.

  55

  Ravinder Kaur, ‘Across-Region Marriages: Poverty, Female Migration and the Sex Ratio’, Economic and Political Weekly, 19 June 2004; Prem Chowdhry, ‘Crisis of Masculinity in Haryana: The Unmarried, the Unemployed, and the Aged’, Economic and Political Weekly, 3 December 2005.

  56

  See the data collated and analysed in Preet Rustogi, ‘Significance of Gender-Related Development Indicators: An Analysis of Indian States’, Indian Journal of Gender Studies, vol. 11, no. 3, 2004.

  57

  Although it was published more than a decade ago, Radha Kumar’s A History of Doing: An Illustrated Account of Movements for Women’s Rights and Feminism in India, 1860–1990 (New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1993) remains the best single guide to the history of the Indian women’s movement. But one must also mention the work of the magazine Manushi, now thirty years old, and of the publishing house Kali for Women, which has produced more than a hundred books on themes as varied as the law, the environment, social protest, and the economy.

  58

  Quoted in the New Indian Express, 30 August 2005. See also Bina Agarwal, A Field of One’s Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994); Asha Nayar-Basu, ‘Of Fathers and Sons’, The Telegraph (Kolkata), 11 October 2005.

  59

  Anon., ‘A Blueprint for Mizoram’, Grassroots Options, monsoon 1999; Sudipta Bhattacharjee, ‘How to be Thirteenth Time Lucky’, The Telegraph (Kolkata), 30 June 1999; Nitin Gokhale, ‘Meghna Naidu in Aizawl’, Tehelka, 9 October 2004.

  60

  Sarabjit Singh, Operation Black Thunder: An Eyewitness Account of Terrorism in Punjab (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2002), esp. chapters 22–30.

  61

  See Anne Vaugier-Chatterjee, ‘Strains on Punjab Governance: An Assessment of the Badal Government (1997–1999)’, International Journal of Punjab Studies, vol. 7, no. 1, 2000.

  62

  See ‘The Dynamic Sikhs’, cover story in Outlook, 29 March 1999.

  63

  Singh, Operation Black
Thunder, p. 338.

  27. RIOTS

  1

  Guru Golwalkar, ‘Total Prohibition of Cow-Slaughter’, Hitavada, 26 October 1952, emphasis in original.

  2

  Richard H. Davis, ‘The Iconography of Rama’s Chariot’, in David Ludden, ed., Making India Hindu: Religion, Community, and the Politics of Democracy in India, 2nd edn (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996).

  3

  Ibid., p. 46.

  4

  Christophe Jaffrelot, The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics, 1925 to the 1990s (New Delhi: Penguin India, 1999), pp. 420–2.

  5

  See Paul Brass, The Production of Hindu–Muslim Violence in Contemporary India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 110-23.

  6

  See Manjari Katju, Vishva Hindu Parishad and Indian Politics (Hyderabad: Orient Longman, 2003), p. 65.

  7

  Madhav Godbole, Unfinished Innings: Recollections and Reflections of a Civil Servant (Hyderabad: Orient Longman, 1996), pp. 344–53.

  8

  See P. V. Narasimha Rao, Ayodhya: 6 December 1992 (New Delhi: Viking, 2006), pp. 99–100.

  9

  Godbole, Unfinished Innings, p. 363.

  10

  Quoted in Sunday, 6–12 December 1992.

  11

  This account of the demolition of the Babri Masjid is based, in the main, on Dilip Awasthi, ‘A Nation’s Shame’, India Today, 31 December 1992. But see also Harinder Baweja, ‘Today, 10 Years Ago: What Really Happened’, Asian Age, 6 December 2002.

  12

  The conversation was reported in Sunday, 13–19 December 1992.

  13

  K. R. Malkani, The Politics of Ayodhya and Hindu–Muslim Relations (New Delhi: Har-Anand Publications, 1993), pp. 3–4.

  14

  Quoted in Venkitesh Ramakrishnan, ‘The Wrecking Crew’, Frontline, 1 January 1993.

  15

  Arun Shourie, ‘The Buckling State’, in Jitendra Bajaj, ed., Ayodhya and the Future India (Madras: Centre for Policy Studies, 1993), pp. 47–70.

  16

  Francine R. Frankel, India’s Political Economy, 1947–2004: The Gradual Revolution, 2nd edn (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 714–15.

  17

  ‘Bloody Aftermath’, India Today, 31 December 1992.

 

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