The Forgotten Genocide

I am 26 yrs old and in 26 yrs I don't remember hearing about Nellie or the massacre that struck it. I don't know if its a sign of my awareness (or lack of it), but I some how feel that many of my age don't know what happened in Nellie, Assam on 18th Feb 1983.  The lines below are taken from The Hindu's article yesterday on the tragedy that shamed, angered and made me feel helpless when I read it. I feel its my duty to share it to you who sees my blog. 

Nellie: India’s forgotten massacre

HARSH MANDER

A weak and partisan State leaves each of its citizens weak and vulnerable, as the Mumbai attacks and the gruesome Nellie massacres demonstrate…

A lifetime is much too short to forget.

It was November 26, 2008, the day that was to become etched in India’s history for the audacious and traumatic terrorist commando attack on the country’s commercial capital Mumbai. I happened to be on that day at a location as distant as possible from Mumbai — psychologically, politically and socially — at Nellie in Assam, the site of one of free India’s most brutal forgotten massacres in 1983. I had been invited by the survivors to sit with them as they recalled and commemorated the events that had unfolded in this distant impoverished corner of the country 25 years earlier.

Journey into the past

We gathered in the soft sunshine of early winter in an open courtyard. A crowd quickly gathered: the older men with checked lungis and beards could easily be distinguished as people of East Bengali Muslim origin. The women and younger men dressed like anyone from an Assamese village. There were the initial courtesies of traditional welcome, as they offered us customary white Assamese scarves with exquisite red embroidery.

Senior officials of the State government who accompanied me had gently dissuaded me from the visit, questioning the wisdom of re-opening wounds of painful events of such a distant past. People have moved on long ago, they assured me. What purpose then would our visit serve? It would only revive memories that have long been buried. The same advice came from many non-official friends who worked in development organisations in the State. They added that the visit would stir issues that were too bitterly contested in the region. But the survivors persisted in their resolve that they wanted to be heard. It was impossible for me to refuse them.

Enormous suffering

On February 18, 1983, in the genocidal massacre organised in Nellie, just 40 km from Guwahati , 2,191 Muslim settlers originally from Bangladesh were slaughtered, leaving 370 children orphaned and their homes in 16 villages destroyed. As the survivors spoke one by one before our gathering a quarter century later, all of us who heard them — including officials, academics, social workers — were completely stunned, and shamed, by the enormity and immediacy of their suffering today, which retained an urgency as though they had only very recently suffered the unspeakable cruelties that they gave words to, not 25 years earlier. The bodies of many were twisted and deformed by inadequately treated injuries from the assaults by machetes and daggers; others pulled back their clothes to expose frightening scars of the attacks of a generation earlier.

Hazara Khatun, with scars of a dagger attack on her face that she survived in 1983, sat on the ground before us and pointed to her empty lap. “I was cradling my child here”, she said in a low voice. “They chopped him into two, down the middle”. Another widow Alekjaan Biwi, was far less calm. Her body was twisted, and we could all see that she had lost her psychological equilibrium. Eleven members of her family were slaughtered in the massacre, and she acted out for us how the mob had attacked them, how she had cowered and hidden herself, how she was discovered and wounded, and how she survived even though scarred and deformed for life. “I have no one in the world,” she concluded quietly.

Deluge of grief

In his early thirties, Mohammed Monoruddin began to cry inconsolably as soon as he sat before us. “My brothers, sisters were all killed, hacked into pieces,” he recalled. “I was seven years old then. I saw my parents slaughtered in front of me. I saw another woman being killed and her child snatched from her hands and thrown in fire. I wept in terror all day. The CRPF came in the evening and rescued me. Later we came to know that our house was torched. Nothing was left. All our belongings and stores of rice were gone in the fire. My elder brother, who was in Nagaon, brought me up. But I feel so lonely.”

Many others spoke of their loneliness. Noon Nahar Begum was 10 years old, and when the killings started, she tried to run away but was attacked and badly wounded. She was hospitalised for two months, and her mother and four siblings were murdered. “They were butchered here in the place where we are standing today,” she said, adding: “I have found no peace of mind for the last 25 years. I need justice for my peace. Justice is important because it was such a terrible crime. I feel lonely and miss my family…” Babool Ahmad, a tailor, was two years old when he lost his parents. He was brought up by his grandparents, whereas his sisters were raised in an SOS village.

And so the stories flowed, like a deluge of muddied waters of grief — long unaddressed and denied — gushing from a breached dam. The forgotten massacre in Nellie in 1983 established a bloody trail of open State complicity in repeated traumatic bouts of ethnic cleansing and massacres both in Assam and in India. It was followed by similar State-enabled carnages, in Delhi in 1984, Bhagalpur in 1989, Mumbai in 1993 and climaxed in Gujarat in 2002.

Series of incidents

Assam in turn has seen a series of violent ethnic clashes between various oppressed communities, each bitterly and ferociously ranged against other ethnic groups which may be as dispossessed, if not more so. The accord brokered by government with militant Bodos in 1993 assured them autonomous control over regions where their population was in a majority. The government therefore itself laid the foundations for ethnic cleansing. Bengali Muslims were driven out of their settlements by murderous attacks and the torching of their homes in 1993, and this scenario was repeated for Santhal and Munda tribals (called Adivasis) — many of whom are descendants of tea garden labour imported by the British two centuries ago — in 1996. Thousands of them continue to languish today in camps, some for 15 years, as they are still terrified to return home. Assam remains a tinder box of ethnic hatred, with recent attacks on Bihari migrant labour, Jharkhand agitators in Guwahati, bomb explosions and recent clashes between Bodos and Bengali Muslims this year, which left many dead and thousands in camps seething with hate.

The worth of lives

The government gave the survivors of Nellie compensation for each death of as little as 5,000 rupees, contrasted for instance with Rs. 7 lakhs that have been paid to survivors of the Sikh carnage of a year later in 1984. Six hundred and eighty eight criminal cases were filed in connection with Nellie organised massacre and of these 310 cases were charge-sheeted. The remaining 378 cases were closed due to the police claim of “lack of evidence”. But all the 310 charge-sheeted cases were dropped by the AGP government as a part of Assam Accord; therefore not a single person has even had to face trial for the gruesome massacre. Some lives are clearly deemed by the State of being of little worth compared to others.

The Mumbai terrorist attack of 2008 has witnessed an upsurge of understandable public anger, because a partisan and weak State leaves each of us unsafe. But States have long failed abjectly and shamefully to protect ordinary citizens and uphold justice. The lives lost in Mumbai’s Taj Hotel are precious. But the lives extinguished in distant hamlets of Nellie — and indeed the streets of Delhi, Bhagalpur, Gujarat and Malegoan — are no less valuable. A day must come when our rage and our compassion responds equally to each of these tragedies. We can be safe only by standing — and caring — together.

Jurassic Park's creator passes away

First week of November 2008 was expected with bated breath by a variety of people from political commentators to Joe, the plumber (source: John McCain) a symbol of aam aadmi of the U.S. The reason being presidential elections in the world's oldest democracy and biggest economic power the U.S.A. The outcome was historical with Barack Obama elected as 44th President of the great nation. But this over shadowed the passing of a prolific author, movie screen play writer and not-your-normal scientific observer Michael Crichton. Crichton passed away yesterday due to cancer. He was 66 yrs old. 

Pages - on web and paper - have been writted about Obama's presidential journey and I am not going to add to those already well written verses. In stead this is a tribute to one of my favourite authors, one whose novels I grew up with, watching his movies first and then reading his books. The first time I read a Crichton novel was Jurassic Park. I think I was 11-12 yrs old when I read it. Though today I might not be so wowed by the novel, when I read it I must admit I was wowed.  I followed it with many of his books and by the time I was 14-15 yrs old Crichton was my favourite author. 

Today when I saw the newpaper article of his passing, I felt a dash of sadness. Felt like a part of my growing up was lost, forever. You know reading Crichton gives me a feeling of going back 15 yrs and reliving moments that witnessed my first Crichton novel.  Thankfully his novels will be with me forever and I will relive them, with a pain of regret that there will be no more of dinosaurs or multiverses the way Crichton narrated them. 

Past: war for land. Present: war for oil. Future: war for water

This is an interesting article I read which reinforces my belief that future wars will be fought over water. We have already seen several South Indian states fighting over river water sharing. The magnitude of animosity due to emotional significance and strategic importance of water itself will drive nations to war very soon.

"The battles of yesterday were fought over land...... Those of the present center on oil. But those of the future, a future made hotter and dryer by climate change in much of the world, will focus on a much more basic resource: water."

The article
Source: International Herald Tribune
Date: 3 June 2008

FORTUNA, Spain: Lush fields of lettuce and hothouses of tomatoes line the roads. Verdant new developments of plush pastel vacation homes beckon buyers from Britain and Germany. Golf courses - 54 of them, all built in the past decade and most in the past three years - give way to the beach. At last, this hardscrabble corner of southeast Spain is thriving.

There is only one problem with this picture of bounty: This province, Murcia, is running out of water. Spurred on by global warming and poorly planned development, swaths of southeast Spain are steadily turning into desert.

This year in Murcia farmers are fighting developers over water rights. They are fighting each other over who gets to water their crops. And in a sign of their mounting desperation, they are buying and selling water like gold on a burgeoning black market.

"Water will be the environmental issue this year," said Barbara Helferrich, spokesman for the European Union's Environment Directorate. "The problem is urgent and immediate."
"If you're already having water shortages in spring, you know it's going to be a really bad summer."

Southern Spain has long been plagued by cyclical drought, but the current crisis reflects a permanent climate change brought on by global warming and it is a harbinger of a new kind of conflict, climate scientists say.
The battles of yesterday were fought over land, they warn. Those of the present center on oil. But those of the future, a future made hotter and dryer by climate change in much of the world, will focus on a much more basic resource: water.

Dozens of world leaders are meeting at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome starting Tuesday to address a global food crisis caused in part by water shortages - in Africa, Australia and here in southern Spain.

Climate change means that creeping deserts may eventually drive 135 million people off their land, the United Nations estimates. Most of them are in the developing world. But southern Europe is experiencing the problem now, its climate drying to the point that it is becoming more like Saharan Africa's, scientists say.
For Murcia, the water crisis has come already. And its arrival has been accelerated by developers and farmers who have hewed to water-hungry ventures hugely unsuited to a dryer, warmer climate: crops like lettuce that need ample irrigation; resorts that promise a swimming pool in the backyard; acres of freshly sodded golf courses that sop up millions of gallons a day.

"I come under a lot of pressure to release water from farmers and also from developers," said Antonio Pérez Gracia, Fortuna's water manager, sipping coffee with farmers in a bar in the town's dusty square on a recent morning. He rued the fact that he can now provide each family with only 30 percent of its water allotment. "I'm not sure what we'll do this summer," he added, shaking his head. "They can complain as much as they want but if there's no more water, there's no more water."

Ruben Vives, a farmer who relies on Pérez's largess, said he could not afford current black market water prices.
"This year, my livelihood is in danger," said Vives, who has farmed low-water crops like lemons here for nearly two decades.

The thousands of wells - most of them illegal - that have in the past temporarily quenched thirst have depleted underground water so much, so fast, that soon pumps will not reach it. Water from northern Spain that was once transferred here has slowed to a trickle, because wetter northern provinces are drying up, too.
The scramble for water has set off scandals. Local officials are in prison for taking payoffs to grant building permits in places where water is inadequate. Chema Gil, a journalist who exposed one such scheme, has been subject to death threats, carries pepper spray and is guarded day and night by the Guardia Civil, Spain's military police force.

"The model of Murcia is completely unsustainable," Gil said. "We consume two and a half times more water than the system can recover. So where do you get it? Import it from elsewhere? Dry up the aquifer? With climate change we're heading into a cul-de-sac. All the water we're using to water lettuce and golf courses will be needed just to drink."

Facing a national crisis, Spain has become something of an unwitting laboratory, sponsoring a European conference on water issues this summer and announcing this year a national action plan to fight desertification. That plan includes a shift to more efficient methods of irrigation and an extensive program of desalinization plants to provide the fresh water than nature does not.

The Spanish Environment Ministry estimates that a third of the country is at risk of turning into desert from a combination of climate change and poor land use.

Still, national officials visibly stiffen when asked about the "Africanization" of Spain's climate - a term now common among scientists.

"We are in much better shape than Africa, but within the EU our situation is serious," said Antonio Serrano Rodríguez, secretary general for land and biodiversity at Spain's Environment Ministry.

Still, Serrano and others acknowledge the broad outlines of the problem. "There will be places that can't be farmed any more, that were marginal and are now useless," Serrano said. "We have parts of the country that are close to the limit." Average surface temperature in Spain has risen 1.5 degrees Celsius (nearly 3 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with 0.8 degrees globally since 1880, temperature records show. Rainfall here is expected to decrease 20 percent by 2020, and 40 percent by 2070, according to United Nations projections.
The changes on the Almarcha family farm in Abanilla over the past three decades are a testament to that hotter, dryer climate here. Until two decades ago, the farm grew wheat and barley watered only by rain. As rainfall dropped, Carlo Almarcha, now 51, switched to growing almonds.

About 10 years ago, he quit almonds and changed to organic peaches and pears, "since they need less water," he explained. Recently he took up olives and figs, "which resist drought and are less sensitive to weather."
Almarcha participates in an official water trading system, started last year, in which farmers pay three times the normal price - 33 cents instead of 12 per cubic meter, or 35 cubic feet - to get extra water. The black market rate is even higher. Still, his outlook is bleak.

"You used to know this week in spring there will be rain," he said, standing in his work boots on parched soil of an olive grove that was once a wheat field. "Now you never know when or if it will come. Also there's no winter any more and plants need cold to rest. So there's less growth. Sometimes none. Even plants all seem confused."
While Almarcha has gradually moved toward less thirsty crops, many farmers have gone in the opposite direction. Encouraged by the government's previous water transfer schemes, they have shifted to producing a wide range of water-hungry fruits and vegetables that had never been grown in the south. Murcia is traditionally known for figs and date palms.

"You can't grow strawberries naturally in Huelva - it's too hot," said Raquél Montón, a climate specialist at Greenpeace in Madrid, referring to the strawberry capital of Spain. "In Sarragosa, which is a desert, we grow corn, the most water-thirsty crop. It's insane. The only thing that would be more insane is putting up casinos and golf courses."
Which, of course, Murcia has.

In 2001, a new land use law in Murcia made it far easier for local residents to sell land for resort development. Though southern Spain has long had elaborate systems for managing its relatively scarce water, today everyone, it seems, has found ways to get around them.

Grass on golf courses or surrounding villas is sometimes labeled a "crop," making owners eligible for water that would not be allocated to keep leisure space green. Foreign investors plant a few trees and call their holiday homes farms so they are eligible for irrigation water, Pérez Gracia said.

"Once a property owner's got a water allotment, he asks for a change of land use," he said. "Then he's got his property and he's got his water. It's supposed to be for irrigation, but people use it for what they want. No one knows if it goes to a swimming pool."

While he said his "heart goes out to the real farmers," he does not have the manpower to monitor how people use their allotments.

With so much money to be made, officials set aside laws and policies that might encourage sustainable development, said Gil, the journalist. At first, he was vilified in the community when he wrote articles critical of the developments. Recently, as people have discovered that the water is running out, the attitude is shifting.
But even so, people and politicians tend to regard water as limitless resource.

"Politicians think in four-year blocks, so its O.K. as long as it doesn't run out on their watch," Montón of Greenpeace said. "People think about it, but they don't really think about what happens tomorrow. They don't worry until they turn on the tap and nothing flows."

Is today's work atmosphere gender sensitive?

India's most powerful political leader and head of the ruling party is a 'woman'. The most populous state has 'woman' as chief minister. A 'lady' is in contention to lead the Democrats to election in the world's most powerful country. Well, these are certain facts about women acheiving heights. But it would be a terrible mistake if you assume these reflect lives of common women. And we all know it... But what the reasons are.. I fail to understand.

I did not understand this until certain incidents happened. A girl had to repeatedly stay back late at office only because her predominantly male team prefers working late. The male majority stays close to office while the girl stays a good distance away from office. After knowing this I automatically started noticing that gender sensitivity does not exist in our life. My bro, his friend and I were talking about the need for good toilets in public places. Just imagine the plight of a woman who has to use a toilet in a public place. Male and female toilets are equally bad, but often men find a convenient place to relieve themselves, while a women cannot. I mentioned toilet first since I am kind of obsessed with this subject, which is not such a happy thing for others. 'cos I can take off on a tangential direction once a toilet topic is introduced. Another incident I noticed at office today. Once of my female colleagues mentioned that she has not spent even half n hour with her 3 yr old daughter for a week now. The reason: she has been invited to various office parties which she could not miss. Well, these are just a few incidents.. but I am sure that if I was more sensitive I would have noticed many more instances.

I just hope this new born sensitiveness remains with me..

Tata's 'People's Car' Nano

Nano was unveiled at Auto Expo yesterday. Technical specifications of the car have been well documented by both analysts and industry onlookers, but we will have to wait until Diwali this year to experience the drive..

Nano will truly revolutionise travel across the world. This moment marks the Indian auto industry emerging as an innovation hub for low cost solutions. This is very different from what our pharmaceutical and IT services industries have done. Whereas Pharma and IT have primarily served the developed market while using India as a cost effective innovation centre, Tata's Nano finds a market in the entire developing countries' space which is amazing. No wonder Indian industry stalwarts have commended Tata on this achievement. Auto majors like Renault, Ford, Toyota have already announced their intentions to use to propel growth in the low cost segment.. this is great!

It has been reported that Tata is in talks with Thailand government to set up a factory there. The market for Nano is not just the aspiring class, but also high end customers in developed worlds as well. Think about Nano with features such as air bags, ABS, climate control, automatic transmission, traction control, etc. The features might raise the price of the car by a couple of thousand dollars, but would be truly an amazing car to own. Like RNT's take on Merc Smart. Once this happens, it will be less of an irony that (very soon) Jaguar, Land Rover, Indica and Nano all belong to the same stable..

I will wait until Diwali this year. One of my friends already told me that he is going to buy Nano when it hits the road. I know that there are atleast a few million others across the world who will lap this car up when they get the chance..

Great going Tata!!