‘Democracy? Whose Democracy?’: public meeting in London on the eve of Independence Day

A public meeting held in London on the eve of Independence Day organized by South Asia Solidarity Group discussed the Indian state’s current offensive in Kashmir and its history, the Dalit Asmita Yatra in Gujarat, the background to the rise of Hindutva and other key issues.

Academic, novelist and activist Nitasha Kaul addressed the meeting, titled ‘Democracy? Whose Democracy? India on the 69th Anniversary of Independence’. She said that Kashmiris are facing an existential crisis under Indian army occupation: ‘It is as though there is a hierarchy of lives – for some, many more have to be lost, before people listen’.

She said India’s relationship with Kashmir—the humiliating attitude towards Kashmiris, the killing, injuring and blinding of innocent people including children, intimidating of journalists, and clamping down on the media and shutting down internet and mobile communication – a form of collective punishment — was like Britain’s relationship with India under colonial rule.

Dr Kaul said that the uprising of Kashmiri people has nothing to do either with religion or with Pakistan. Kashmir happens to be a Muslim majority territory and India is using it as a pretext to demonise a people’s uprising as terrorist. In today’s Islamophobic environment it fits well with the broader narrative, she said.

She spoke of India’s oft repeated claim that Kashmir is an ‘integral part of India’ and called it a very ‘imperial’ attitude. ‘Why do you have to keep on repeating it? And why do you have to kill people to keep it integral?’ She said that Kashmir is not like any other Indian state. It has its own history. She stressed that until 1953 when Sheikh Abdullah was arrested by Jawaharlal Nehru, Kashmir had its own flag and own Prime Minister, not a Chief Minister.

Also speaking at the meeting was the editor of Urdu Media Monitor M. Ghazali Khan. He said that every controversy being used and exploited by the BJP, for example the Babri Mosque, Muslim Personal Law, Urdu and the minority character of Aligarh Muslim University, was created by the Congress. During its tenure Congress engineered anti-Muslim riots. The BJP developed and systematized communal violence which is integral to its Hindutva ideology, leading to the “Gujarat Experiment” and adopting new elements such as “Love Jihad”, “Ghar wapsi” and “Gau Raksha” as the situation requires.

Mr Khan added, ‘Soon after the partition a totally false and mischievous premise was created in India that Muslims alone were responsible for that historic blunder and was used and continues to be used as a weapon to victimize them. However, the publication between 1970 and 1983 of secret and official documents (Transfer of Power 1942-47) present a different picture of that period: Gandhi, Nehru and particularly Patel appear to be as much responsible for the partition as was Mohammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan.’ Mr Khan stressed the importance of an alliance between Dalits, Muslims and all other secular forces in India.

Dalit activist and Chair of CasteWatch UK Satpal Muman who was also due to speak could not personally attend the seminar but sent a written speech that was read out by at the meeting. In his message Mr Muman sent his solidarity with the hugely inspiring and significant Dalit Asmita march taking place across Gujarat, to culminate in a mass rally on Independence Day at Una, the scene of the recent brutal attack on Dalits by self-styled Gau Rakshaks which sparked the movement. He added that the “stinking caste system” had followed Indians to the UK and the current British government was acting undemocratically by ignoring legislation passed by parliament safeguarding Dalits from discrimination in the UK.

Kalpana Wilson, chairing the meeting on behalf of South Asia Solidarity Group, also expressed her solidarity with the Dalit movement in India. She said this was a hugely significant moment with the Dalit movement putting forward the agenda of land redistribution as one of its key demands. As one of the leaders of the movement Jignesh Mevani has said, this hits at the base of Hindutva economic policy of unscrupulously handing over land to corporates like Ambani and Adani. She also highlighted the initiatives for unity between Dalits and Muslims which are being taken by the movement, which is taking place in Gujarat, till now known as the ‘laboratory’ for the Hindu right, where the genocidal attacks on the Muslim community had taken place in 2002.

The seminar also heard a powerful narrative on Dalit lives inspired by the Una incident ‘Black and Blue’ written and read out by actor and story writer, Saunvedan Aparanti.

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