:::The Desi Flavor:::

Fighting for Identity

Ethnic Indians in Malaysia demand for a fair share of the nation's wealth:

Malaysian Tamils, descendants of 19th-century indentured labourers from Tamil Nadu, last showed their anger in 1941 when thousands of rubber plantation workers downed their tools in the district of Klang, some 30 km east of the capital Kuala Lumpur, to protest against hardship and low wages.

Now nearly seven decades later, an estimated 20,000 Tamils protested in a big way again on November 25, condemning official discrimination, inhumane treatment and demanding a fair share of the nation’s wealth. “Official discrimination and neglect has severely marginalised us,” says Uthayakumar Ponnusamy, a lawyer and the man behind the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), the organiser of the protest.

Swastika Ban Debated

From  Hindus Oppose  for Swastika Ban in Europe:

Hindus in Europe are stood together to oppose Germany’s calls for a law in European Union to ban the display of Nazi symbols. Nazi symbol is actually stolen by Hitler, the actual name of this symbol is Swastika, which according to Hindus stands for peace and not for hate. Germany has recently taken the presidency of European Union and it has been told that it has planned to launch an initiative which could lead to common laws all over in Europe to apply it as a crime if someone denies the genocide and displays Nazi symbols.

From Cronaca:

Hindus in Europe have joined forces against a German proposal to ban the display of the swastika across the European Union, a Hindu leader said. Ramesh Kallidai of the Hindu Forum of Britain said the swastika had been a symbol of peace for thousands of years before the Nazis adopted it. He said a ban on the symbol would discriminate against Hindus. Germany, holder of the EU presidency, wants to make Holocaust denial and the display of Nazi symbols a crime. . . The swastika is already banned in Germany. A previous attempt to ban it across the EU in early 2005 failed after objections from several governments, including the British.

From the BBC. The debate over the last ban attempt had also encompassed the proposal to include Communist symbols as well.

Smoking ban to hit UK shisha clubs

Smoking ban will hit shisha clubs - The UK government has released plans for a partial smoking ban effecting clubs and pubs that serve food.

Such a ban would hit Asian club owners. In particular, shisha club owners, who took advantage of sudden demand from Asian teenagers in the past couple of years. It will hit Muslims worst of all because they use shisha as alternative to drinking alcohol which is forbidden in Islam. And it will ruin the cultural appeal of Asian and Arab areas of Britain.

The partial smoking ban is not in practice as yet, though Spain became the first EU country this year to ban smoking in public places - restaurants, community centers, shopping malls.

A Week in the Life of India

I haven't talked much about the Indian Elections, however the Globalist has a series of articles on the recent political scene.

: Part 1 - How did Sonia Gandhi manage to keep India and the world in suspense?

: Part II - Will India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh continue necessary economic reforms?

Asian Centre for Human Rights

Jay Gohil

Asian Centre of Humans Rights, established in March 2003 has dedicated it's efforts to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in the Asian region. The centre has produced interesting publications. Here are some examples:

: The Status of Children in India

There are sections on juvenile justice, torture, education, anti-terror laws, children in armed conflict situations, refugee and internally displaced children, child labour, minority children, and concluding recommendations. Immensely important for every defender of human rights in India and the world

: Starvation, Rape and Killing of Indigenous Jumma children

In June 2003, Asian Centre for Human Rights submitted its alternate report, The status of indigenous and minority children in Bangladesh. This update has been necessitated by increased racial discrimination and other human rights violations against the indigenous Jumma peoples…

: 4th EU-India Summit: Human rights must form part of dialogue

Promotion of hatred through education in Gujrat

Jay Gohil

The Asian Centre for Human Rights has prepared a report on the education in India. The report discusses the promotion of hatred against minority religious communities through history textbooks, focusing on textbooks prepared by both the Gujarat State Board and the Central Board that promote disrespect for tribals and Sikhs, among others:

The Class 12 students sitting for their board examinations in Gujarat on April 22, 2002 were put to a grammar test. The English paper asked them to remove the word “if” and rewrite the sentence, “If you don’t like people, kill them”. This was followed by another question asking students to rewrite a short passage as a single sentence. The passage read:

“There are two solutions. One of them is the Nazi solution. If you don’t like people, kill them, segregate them. Then strut up and down. Proclaim that you are the salt of the earth”.

Click here for the rest of the piece from The Telegraph - India

Religious Freedom in India - DOS Report

Jay Gohil

Just last month, the US Department of State (DOS) released it's International Religous Freedom Report for 2003. Regarding India, the report discusses issues such as India's religous demography, legal/policy framework, restrictions on religous freedom, forced conversion, and societal attitudes. The report goes on to discuss the "gradual but continual institutionalization of "Hindutva,"” discussing the spread of anti-conversion laws, the rewriting of history textbooks, and the distribution of trishuls, among other trends. The Department of State report mitigates the role of the state in the Gujarat pogroms, but still warns of impunity for perpetrators of violations of human rights:

The central Government sometimes did not act effectively to counter societal attacks against religious minorities and attempts by state and local governments to limit religious freedom. This failure resulted in part from the legal constraints inherent in the country's federal structure, and in part from the law enforcement and justice systems, which at times were not effective. The ineffective investigation and prosecution of attacks on religious minorities could be seen by some extremists as a signal that such violence may be committed with impunity.

Kashmir conflict - Trauma

Jay Gohil

BBC reports on the staggering increase in stress and trauma cases in the Kashmir Valley. The article explores the exponential rise in cases, as well as the impact of the violence on children:

The hospital saw 1,700 cases in 1989 - but by last year that figure had rocketed to close to 50,000 patients last year…

Dr Hussain says some community surveys reveal that 25% of the people in Kashmir Valley suffer from lifetime depressive disorders.

Recent India-Pakistan relations

Jay Gohil

Fareed Zakaria has written a very interesting piece about the recent warm relations between India and Pakistan, as exemplified by the surprisingly warm spirited face to face meeting between India's Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vaypayee and Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf.

The article looks at the maturation of Musharraf and of Vajpayee, wanting now to leave a legacy as he turns 80. But two-thirds of the way through the article is this wonderfully written passage about why India wants peace now and the challenge Pakistan faces in matching India's pace:

(S)omething...important has happened in South Asia over the past 15 years. India has been transformed by a market revolution. Globalization has come to every part of the country, whether in the form of a call-center job, a Chinese-made toy or American-inspired television shows. Suddenly Indians want to compete. And they are. Last year India's economy was the second fastest growing in the world, at 7.4 percent. Its business leaders speak confidently of becoming global players in their fields. In this Indian future, a continuing cold war with Pakistan is a drag.

During the same period, however, Pakistan went down a different path, one of radical Islam and domestic dysfunction. The results? In 1985, its per capita GDP was 6.5 percent higher than India's; today it's 23 percent lower. Its birth rate is soaring at a frightening 2.8 percent, while India's is 1.7 percent and dropping. Thirty percent of Pakistan's economy is consumed by its military.

Musharraf has broken Pakistan's fall. And he realizes, now, that to modernize Pakistan he needs peace with India. But the country is proving hard to turn around; the rot has set in deep. And yet, as Shekhar Gupta, one of India's smartest pundits, has noted, peace will be a success only when Pakistan is a success.

Here are recent related articles:

: Peace Through Trade? - Alan Oxley, Tech Central Station

: Hope, at last - Economist

Conducting tiger census

Jay Gohil

Sporting work, indeed:

More than 450 game wardens, medical workers and volunteers wearing fiberglass protective vests and carrying nets, ropes and guns set out Wednesday to conduct a tiger census in the Sundarbans delta in eastern India.

The 6,000-square-mile delta, the world's largest mangrove forest, is divided roughly in half between India and Bangladesh. For the next week, 23 teams will scour the forest and collect tiger footprints, traveling mostly by boat and doing their best to avoid attack.

"Tigers here are more aggressive because they have to live in a harsh habitat of water and mud," Predeep Vyas, field director of the Sundarbans tiger reserve, said Wednesday in a telephone interview. "We have to be very careful in doing the work."

The census is part of Project Tiger, a program the Indian government began in 1973 to stem poaching, which had decimated the country's tiger population. Tigers are valued in the booming markets for ancient Chinese folk remedies made from animal parts.

While Indian wildlife groups estimate that as many as 285 tigers died in "unnatural circumstances" from 1994 to 1998, tiger populations have recovered. According to censuses conducted every three to four years, the total number of tigers in India grew to 3,642 in 2001 from 1,817 in 1972. The country now has 27 tiger preserves spanning 15,400 square miles.

This year, Bangladeshi game wardens will take part in the Indian tiger census for the first time, Mr. Vyas said, as Bangladesh hopes to carry out its first tiger census in its half of the delta.

Mr. Vyas said the workers, traveling in boats in teams of 8 to 10, use binoculars to spot tiger tracks. When the boats approach shore, two armed guards jump off first. As medical teams stand by in case of an attack, other workers erect safety nets to prevent tigers from lunging out of the dense underbrush.

From the New York Times.