Remembering Noakhali

Noakhali is a forgotten chapter in Indian history – the land now belongs to B’desh and its memories have been systematically purged.

The days before partition were marred with incidences of communal riots but the massacre at Noakhali stands out among them all on account of the sheer barbarity.The ‘direct action day’ and the subsequent Kolkata and id-ul-fitr riots fanned the flames of hatred . The violence that started on10th  Oct 1946, which was incidentally Kojhagari Lakshmi puja day, went on for a month. The  Hindus,who were a minority in Noakhali bore the brunt of communal hatred. Around 5000 Hindus were killed, thousands of women were gangraped and abducted. Forced religious conversion and marriages were the order of the day. Shops and establishments run by Hindus were looted and their homes torched with impunity. The communal governor of Bengal and blatantly partisan police sided with the rioters . The British refused to intervene, whereas “right wing” and “left wing” volunteers pitched in to help the victims.

Gandhiji appealed for peace but the blood-lusty mob paid no heed to it.  The principle of non-violence emasculated many a community leader and innocents paid the price.

Outrageous instances of violence have been detailed in the following articles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noakhali_genocide

http://voi.org/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=449 

http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/6560

http://folks.co.in/blog/2011/08/28/tales-on-dividing-india/

http://books.google.co.in/books?id=UObqiyKJMNkC&pg=PA242&lpg=PA242&dq=noakhali+massacre&source=bl&ots=_HOjQ53rtp&sig=Jd5QZ5_po4lEdpCms5PgTnM6GqY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ga0oUNa1HInNrQfG1YGgCg&ved=0CEwQ6AEwBTgo#v=onepage&q=noakhali%20massacre&f=false

Breath

Why do I feel so asphyxiated even though I was born free?

A name was given to me and an invisible cloth plastered across my mouth.

That cloth of tradition covered my whole being like cancer, and the first thing it killed was my individuality.

It absorbed my tears the minute they welled in my eyes, lest they trickle down and make my ‘loved ones’ guilty.

The cloth maintains peace wherever I go, it keeps my mouth shut lest my ‘loved ones’ raise their brow.

Silence is Golden, silence is divine, the cloth masks the storm in my mind.

Man is a social animal so be one, embrace your extended family even though they make your esteem burn.

 

Macbeth- Words by Shakespeare

MACBETH

     She should have died hereafter.

There would have been a time for such a word.

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

To the last syllable of recorded time,

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

Honey

He sat near the blooming roses and watched her work, the song she sang while working had brought his attention to her. She loves flowers and he knew that too, she was dark but he that she was an angel with beautiful wings. He was unemployed whereas she was a hard worker, suddenly he  sensed an opportunity and decided to follow her home .He saw that she had a large family and tricking them all is going to be difficult. He thought a lot about it and finally decided to get what he wanted by gifting them a stone. The gift enraged her family and they attacked him, he ran for his life but they caught up and assaulted him.  He was badly bitten by the savages. He walked a few yards before a passerby commented -“That idler was interested in living off the money he got by selling his loot, he didn’t know the consequence of messing with bees”. He knew that because his skin was pink- he was stung.

Delhi: on the path towards becoming Pyongyang

A few years ago our learned PM promised to make Mumbai another Shanghai , while that promise remains unfulfilled the Government looks all set to make our nation another North Korea . The change will not be a sudden one, it will be done in a phased manner and might span over over a decade.

The Government is already spying on its citizens like DPRK. The real extent of phone-tapping is not really known and now websites are being arm-twisted by the Government into accepting its terms.  The pre-screening of  ‘objectionable’ contents is a ruse for eliminating any content that doesn’t please our rulers.  Political satire and caricature are present in every democracy and the web serves as an outlet for people’s views and discontent. Even our courts threaten them with a  ban -the Chinese style, such things look out of place in a democracy but in our temple of democracy, China and its satellites like  DPRK are the presiding deities.

Politicians surrounded by their cronies have zero tolerance for any sort of criticism. Opponents are hounded in exactly the same way as it is done in  an autocracy. In TN when DMK is in power it creates problems for AIADMK and vice versa. The situation in West Bengal is also the same. Settling scores by misusing Government machinery is not endemic to Africa, it happens here too but in this age of paid news one can’t expect the media to highlight all this. All this vendetta has got the blessings of the central Government.

Elections are held under repressive regimes too but everyone knows that they are an eyewash. Our leaders have gained experience in pampering certain sections in order to get their continued support to win elections, they are following the path laid down by numerous despots like Robert Mugabe and Idi Amin.

North Korea has a personality cult, the members of the Kim family are holy cows, they are to be revered as super-humans and their flaws are to be glossed over. The presidency is hereditary and the country doesn’t pretend to be a democracy but ironically in the world’s largest democracy certain families enjoy similar benefits (though not officially). If anybody criticizes the demi-gods here then, that man will spend a lifetime fighting cases of libel and defamation foisted on him. The lower judiciary is corrupt and the higher courts are also showing some signs of it. One former CJI is known to be involved in acts of favouritism and nepotism.

While institutions are made handmaidens of the rulers, politicians routinely try to push their limits. When powers that be talk about look east policy they mean look at north east asia and borrow ideas from the Kims. Long live propaganda.

 

Jai Mahakali, Ayo Gorkhali

Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw  said – “If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or is a Gorkha.Manekshaw preferred calling himself Sam ‘Bahadur’ as a sign of respect for the brave Gorkha soldiers.  Hitler called Gorkhas  ‘black devils’ and opined that if he had Gorkhas then he would conquer the world with them.

The valour of Gurkha soldiers is well recorded in the annals of history. These indefatigable men from the hills have displayed amazing courage ,discipline and fighting spirit even in the face of death. The war cry of the Gorkhas  ‘Jai Mahakali, Ayo Gorkhali ‘ (which means victory to Goddess Mahakali, the Gorkhas are coming) is enough to frighten the most valiant opponent. These brave-hearts have served the British army in world wars and were deployed the world over.

Under a tripartite agreement signed between India, Nepal and Britain in 1947, Gorkhas from Nepal were allowed to work in the British and Indian armies. The Gorkha regiments of the erstwhile British Indian army were divided among India and Britain  and many soldiers chose India over Britain. An article on Gorkhas, published in the Time magazine gives the following piece of information about the tripartite agreement

“Each soldier swears allegiance to a foreign flag and a foreign government, promising to obey his foreign officers and fight their enemies. But there is one exception–a Gurkha soldier cannot take up arms if the enemy is Hindu, a caveat Nepal’s government imposed in 1947 when Britain and a newly independent India carved up the imperial Indian army’s 10 Gurkha regiments. (Text quoted from Time magazine)

There are two types of Gorkhas in the Indian Army – those hailing from the Terai region of India (who have migrated from Nepal long ago) and the N.E India, and the others from Nepal. Currently, nearly 40,000 Nepalese Gorkhas are employed in the Indian Army. The Indian Army treats soldiers from Nepal on par with its own citizens and an officer from Nepal can rise to the highest rank in the Indian Army . Gorkhas have played an important  role in India’s wars with Pakistan (1947-48, 1965 , 1971& Kargil) and during the India-China conflict in 1962. A Gorkha battalion served as part of the Indian Army contingent in the UNPKO in Congo in the 1960s. The valour shown by Gorkha Rifles (comprising of Indians and Nepalese ) in the Kargil war is etched in the glorious  history of the India army. 19 Gorkha hailing from Nepal were killed in operation Vijay.

The chief of army staff General Kapoor said

The Gorkha Regiment of the Indian Army, comprising mostly of Nepalese and India’s northeasterner citizens as the bravest of all, and described their combative skills as unique.

“Gorkha regiment commandos have set a unique example of bravery and dedication towards the motherland for the world to see,”

The Gorkhas armed with their life-long companion ‘Khukri’  have set the standard for bravery in the battlefield. Just like how the  story of  India’s post-independence journey is incomplete without a reference to the bravado of our soldiers, in the same way the chronicles of Indian army’s victories is incomplete without a reference to its Gorkha soldiers. I salute all the soldiers whose untiring efforts have helped India in preserving its independence. This article is my tribute to the Nepalese  who died while protecting us.

Please stop donning the blue helmet

Indian association with UN peace keeping is a long one, it began with the mission to Korea and continues till date in Liberia and other countries. We have 8,000 troops deployed around the world .Nearly half the contribution of troops in UNPKO [ 2007] is from India , Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal . The developed world’s contribution is very insignificant. The developing nations send their troops on such assignments with motives which could range from showing a greater international presence to the financial rewards.

The Indian Government is proud of  this fact and harps it every international fora.  However, India can neither afford these operations any longer nor is it in its interest to continue with them. India has no dearth of conflicts where it has deployed either its army or paramilitary forces. Soldiers are deployed in areas far away from home and sometimes far away from civilization too. They live a hard life protecting the nation. India has fought bitter wars with Pakistan and China in which thousands of soldiers became martyrs. Special forces play with their lives while dealing with terrorists and Maoists. The death of soldiers in Kashmir is almost a daily occurrence . The armed forces are having a tough life as it is so let us not lad them with the thankless task of being peacekeepers.

India hopes that its wholehearted support to the peacekeeping forces will win it accolades and the powers that be will reward it with a permanent seat in the UNSC.  The UN et al will also try to keep this hope alive so that it gets its steady supply of troops . In 2010,  India expressed concern on the manner in which UN peace keeping operations are conducted, saying such missions are given “unrealistic and confusing mandates” . The unarmed or under-armed troops are sitting ducks for militia, warring tribes and criminal gangs.

Indian troops in Africa have also become mired in controversies .Indian troops in Congo have been accused of corruption, sexual misconduct ,falling short in their obligation to protect civilians from violent militias and favoritism toward anti-government rebels. Verbal vitriol was thrown on the Indian troops and the Congolese  government officials paid crowds to hurl stones at the Indian peacekeepers  India had a bad experience in Sierra Leone too, there Indian  General Jetley’s relations with other troop contributors, including  Nigeria, have been extremely fraught. Such malicious allegations do a lasting damage to our nation’s image even though it is disproved at a later stage.

It is definitely not worthwhile to imperil our soldiers for peace in a far off country which doesn’t appreciate its efforts. Indian foreign policy unlike that of many nations , doesn’t forment trouble in foreign lands , so India needn’t bend over backwards in an effort to bring about peace in a war-torn faraway land . It has contributed enough and should now focus on its internal conflicts.

Bhagat’s Brutus

Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were sentenced to death in the Lahore conspiracy case and ordered to be hanged on 24 March 1931. The British authorities advanced the date of execution and the trio were hanged a day before.  Jail authorities cremated them secretly and threw their ash in Sutlej river.

The whole nation was sympathetic to them, in fact the deputy jail superintendent Khan Sahib Mohammad Akbar Khan broke down after the trio became martyrs. He was suspended and the title of Khan Sahib was withdrawn by the British. While Khan lost a lot due to his sympathies, a few companions turned approvers and were lavishly rewarded by the British. Their treachery is unpardonable and it is very difficult to dissect their psyche, so let me begin by naming a few  .

Hans Raj Vohra -He was a  member of the HSRA and he later turned approver in the Lahore conspiracy case. Vohra later became a journalist and worked for The Statesman in Delhi and The Times of India and Deccan Chronicle in Washington, claimed that he turned approver once he learnt that Sukhdev, his guru, had let him down by “divulging every secret of the party” to the police. His defense is laughable . It is worth observing that Sukhdev was hanged and Vohra was  rewarded, so anybody can guess who sang like a canary.

Vohra refused to take monetary benefits. But he was sponsored by the Punjab government and got to study in the prestigious London School of Economics. After a masters in political science, Vohra got a degree in journalism from London University and was the correspondent of the Civil and Military Gazette of Lahore till 1948. Before he died in Washington on September 13, 1985, he wrote a letter to Mathuradas Thapar, brother of Sukhdev, who was hanged along with Bhagat Singh, to explain why he turned an approver. He offers lame excuses and hollow justifications for his deeds.

Jai Gopal – He was a companion of Bhagat Singh. He joined Bhagat Singh in avenging Lala Lajpat Rai’s death. His job was to identify Scott but on that day  Scott was on leave and Jai Gopal, who was to have given the green signal to Bhagat Singh and Rajguru to open fire, mistook Saunders to be Scott. He went turned approver in the case that finally sent Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev to the gallows on March 23, 1931.Jai Gopal while tendering his evidence was twisting his moustache and trying to provoke the accused in the other box.  An angry Sukhdev  wanted to spend some time alone with Jai Gopal after the trial, so that he could strangle him to death.

 Jai Gopal got an award of Rs 20,000 from the British 

Phonindra Nath Ghosh- the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army was  led in Bihar by Phonindra Ghose. He was not a small fry, On the formation of the HSRA, Phanindra Ghose and Man Mohan Banerjee had been invited to represent Bihar, and Ghose was made one of the seven members of its Central Committee . Both the men ended up being police informers and got 50 acres of land each in Champaran district of Bihar (their home district) .

The  plan to kill him was made by his fellow revolutionaries at the Gandhi Ashram at Hazipur, and Baikunth Sukul was selected as the avenger.  Baikunth, along with Chandrama Singh, made a fatal attack on Phanindra Nath and his friend Ganesh Prasad Gupta on November 9, 1932, inside the Mina Bazar at Betia  in the presence of the constable deputed  to guard Ghose after he had turned approver. Ghose did not name anyone in his dying declaration and died on November 17, 1932, and his friend three days later . Baikunth was later caught and executed by the British.

 

Bhagat Singh : The irony of being abandoned by a humanist and defended by a fundamentalist

The British called him a terrorist, Gandhi called him a misguided youth ,a kinder Nehru said he was a young boy full of burning zeal for the country but I choose to call Bhagat Singh a great patriot.

Jallianwala Bagh massacre inspired the young Bhagat to fight for independence, he joined Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement and was greatly disappointed when it was called of . He joined Hindustan Republican Association- an association of men who had revolutionary zeal and exhibited secular spirit. Their party had men from all religious background  and it showed secularism in practice as opposed to the leaders who merely preached about them.

A post- independence India began eulogising Gandhi and Nehru and forgot (or was made to forget) the revolutionaries. The so called secularists support all sorts of shady men while conveniently forgetting the martyr Ashfaqullah Khan. Bhagat Singh wanted the deaf British to hear ,wish he was here now to make blind Indians see.

Gandhi regarded Bhagat Singh’s  militant nationalism, and leftist political activity as  injurious to the cause of Indian independence.Gandhi could have saved Bhagat Singh’s life if he had wished, but regrettably, he didn’t and wouldn’t, and his failure in saving Bhagat Singh’s life from the gallows leaves a black spot on his political career. In the words of A.G Noorani

” Gandhi’s efforts in saving Bhagat Singh’s life were half-hearted because of his failure to make a strenuous appeal to the Viceroy for the commutation of his death sentence to life….Gandhi did not care to see Bhagat Singh when he was on hunger strike in jail and during his conversations with the Viceroy, Gandhi pleaded not for the commutation of Bhagat Singh’s death sentence, but for its suspension. ”

 

V.N Dutta in his book Gandhi and Bhagat Singh writes

“Gandhi’s critics have argued that he could have made the commutation of Bhagat Singh and his comrades’ death sentence a condition for signing the Gandhi-Irwin Pact. But how could he do so since such a course would have been contrary to his own ethics and also to the policy of the Congress? Hence there was no question of his terminating his truce with the Viceroy, nor could he undertake a fast unto death for compelling the government to reduce Bhagat Singh’s death sentence to life imprisonment. Possibly he could have rallied a wide public support for the abolition of capital punishment in principle.”

Nehru’s sympathies were reined in by Gandhi and the congress chose to follow the infallible man. Historian Irfan Habib writes  some of the young Congress leaders, like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose were not only sympathetic, but willing to help Bhagat Singh but ironically some support came in the form of  the much maligned Jinnah.

Mr. Noorani says Jinnah made no secret of his sympathies for the Lahore prisoners. On the hunger strike by prisoners in Lahore jail, Jinnah said “the man who goes on hunger strike has a soul. He is moved by that soul, and he believes in the justice of his cause. He is no ordinary criminal, who is guilty of cold blooded, sordid wicked crime.”

“… I do not approve of the action of Bhagat Singh… I regret that rightly or wrongly the youth of today is stirred up… however much you deplore them and however much you say they are misguided, it is the system, this damnable system of governance, which is resented by the people,” Jinnah remarked. The House was adjourned but Jinnah continued his speech in the next sitting and pointed out the anomalies that would arise if the trial of Bhagat Singh and others would proceed in their absence.

In an interesting interview with The Tribune historian K.C Yadav says

“The recent times have seen much debate on whether Jinnah was secular or not. The debate continues without being resolved yet history does record the manner in which Jinnah criticised the special ordinance under which Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were tried and sentenced to death as also the deplorable conditions under which they were kept in the Lahore Central Jail. Yadav says, “No other politician worth the name criticised the Ordinance as Jinnah did.”

In his speech delivered in the Central Legislative Assembly on September 12 and 14, 1929, Jinnah took up cudgels against the British by saying that if a large body of people admired or were sympathetic with the accused, sympathy arose because they were victims of the system of government.

Pointing out to the ill-treatment meted out to them in the Lahore jail, Jinnah said: “Why don’t the Punjab Government give them the treatment that they are entitled to, at once, and be done with?” He added that the government was at war against the accused and said that they were pursuing every possible method to send them to gallows and not treat them like decent men.

The last words of the speech were loaded with the sentiments of a people crying out for freedom: “And the last words I wish to address the Government are, try and concentrate your mind on the root cause and the more you concentrate on the root cause, the less difficulties and inconveniences there will be for you to face, and thank Heaven that the money of the taxpayer will not be wasted in prosecuting men, nay citizens, who are fighting and struggling for the freedom of their country.”

Guess Jinnah is a human after all.

Reagan’s heroes

Obama on Gaddhafi’s death

For four decades, the Qaddafi regime ruled the Libyan people with an iron fist. Basic human rights were denied. Innocent civilians were detained, beaten and killed. And Libya’s wealth was squandered. The enormous potential of the Libyan people was held back, and terror was used as a political weapon.

George W Bush says

Any government that supports, protects or harbours terrorists is complicit in the murder of the innocent and equally guilty of terrorist crimes.

Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.

If the words of  Obama and Bush were to be used as the testing criteria then USA under President Reagan was also a sponsor of terror. In midst of the Cold war the myopic president supported many far-right armed groups including the frankenstein monster we now know as Taliban.

 

Reagan praised Afghan Mujahideen to high heavens ,the following extract of Reagan’s speech clearly shows his short-sightedness.

“To watch the courageous Afghan freedom fighters battle modern arsenals with simple hand-held weapons is an inspiration to those who love freedom. Their courage teaches us a great lesson—that there are things in this world worth defending. To the Afghan people, I say on behalf of all Americans that we admire your heroism, your devotion to freedom, and your relentless struggle against your oppressors.”

The clip below shows Reagan dedicating a shuttle to the terrorists

 

The Mujahideen stayed on in Afghanistan even after the end of cold war and formed a deadly network of terrorists which caused problems all over the world. The chicken came home to roost on September 11 2001. The outrageous incidents of 9/11 made US government recognise its folly unfortunately this realisation came at a grave human cost. In the clip shown below, Hillary Clinton admits the mistakes made by USA.

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P.S – An interesting documentary on Taliban