Zofeen Ebrahim

TEARS streaming down his face, Abdul Karim, 40, stepped onto Pakistan soil for the first time in almost two years. He has just been released from prison for the crime of encroaching on India’s waters. Karim was one of 31 fishermen released one cold, foggy midnight by Indian authorities as a reciprocal gesture that came a week after Pakistan released 100 Indian fishermen last Christmas Day.

"It was a very emotional scene," said Hafiz Faisal, 26, a volunteer worker for the non-governmental Edhi Foundation’s centre in the eastern city of Lahore, in Punjab province.

Faisal, along with 14 other volunteers of the region’s biggest charity network, was on hand to welcome the freed fishermen on their return to Pakistan from Wagah in India, the border between the two South Asian countries. "With tears rolling down their eyes, all of them bent down to kiss the soil," he said.

The fishermen, who, with the exception of one, hail from Sindh province, were sent to Bhuj prison in the Indian state of Gujarat.

On Jan. 15, 2008, 24 of the 31 fishermen were arrested while fishing on Sir Creek – a 96-kilometre strip of water in the Rann of Kutch marshlands, which separate the Indian state of Gujarat from Pakistan’s Sindh province. From Wagah, the Foundation brought them to its centre, where they washed up, shaved, had haircuts, put on new clothes and enjoyed a warm meal, said Faisal.

"We looked like savages when we came," said Karim.

Faisal has witnessed prisoner exchanges between the two countries a number of times. "When ours come home, most look unkempt and scruffy, are usually barefoot and narrate to us the inhuman condition they had been living under," he said in an interview with IPS.

Later in the night, accompanied by Edhi volunteers, the Pakistani fishermen proceeded on a 17-hour journey toward the southern port city of Karachi, where they were given a resounding welcome by their relatives.

"For a whole month, after I was captured, I was tortured and beaten up. They (the prison authorities) kept telling me I was a terrorist and plotting an attack," narrated Karim in a phone interview with IPS from his village, Goth Haji Yusuf Katiar, in Thatta district of Sindh province. He insisted he had not trespassed into the Indian territory. He was among the 24 who were apprehended from his village.

Fourteen-year-old Ameer Buksh said he often found insects in his food. "They would often hit me and call me names and tell me I was a militant."

At Katiar village, a massive celebration greeted the long-awaited homecoming of its 24 sons, including Buksh. There was song and dance for the newly arrived as flags flew over the entire community.

"I’m jubilant," enthused Nazeer Ahmed, one of three brothers who were among the released fisherman. The jollity will continue for a few more days, "and then it is back to reality," he said.

"While my three sons were away, we had no means of livelihood," said Ahmed’s father, Abdul Ghani, 70. "I’m elated that they are back, he said.

But something else bothered him. "There is a niggling feeling at the back of my mind. I can’t help but worry about the vessel that remains impounded," the village elder said. This is casting a shadow over what could have been a happy ending to a sordid episode.

A boat costs an equivalent of 3,000 to 3,600 U.S. dollars, said Mohammad Ali Shah, who heads the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF), a non-governmental organisation working for the rights of indigenous fishing communities.

"We bought those boats on installments and are still paying off the loan," lamented Ghani. Yet he remains optimistic. "If the government can return our sons, they will also help us get our boats back."

But Shah is not too sure. "Our experience has been that while fishermen are exchanged, boats are never returned by either side," he said. Without a boat, there is no fish to catch, and entire families are pushed deeper into poverty. According to a 2008 study carried out by the PFF, in the last 20 years, a total of 4,516 Indian fishermen and 729 boats had been apprehended by Pakistan.

Ghani has yet to disclose to his sons that while they were away, he had to borrow money from the villagers. "We had no other means of livelihood and I’m too old to feed 18 mouths. There were days when we didn’t have anything to eat and I had to literally beg," he recounted.

Neither has he told his sons that to celebrate their release, he had to sell his wife’s gold jewelry.

The maritime boundary between India and Pakistan remains disputed even after 62 years of partition between the two countries. This issue was well on its way to being resolved by May 2009, the deadline set by the two countries 10 years ago. Then the Mumbai terrorist attacks happened on Nov. 26, 2008, after which the Composite Dialogue series (aimed at confidence-building measures) between the two countries, which began in February 2004, stalled.

Earlier on, in 2007, when relations between the two Asian neighbours – which had been in a long, drawn-out conflict – showed signs of improving, the two governments formed a joint judicial committee, comprising four judges from each country, to look into the release of prisoners from both sides.

As a first step, it was decided that they would exchange prisoner lists languishing in each country’s jails, to be followed by efforts to expedite the release of prisoners who had completed their terms, and women and children who had violated visa restrictions and had overstayed. It took two years before one of them – Pakistan – made the first move when it released Indian fishermen.

When Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ordered the release of 100 Pakistani fishermen last month, he also said that the long inactive judicial committee would be revived. But Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid, one of the committee members, has not received a formal notification. "I don’t know if the committee exists as I’ve not received any intimation so far," he said.

"The (purported) concern shown by both countries remains on paper only," said Zahid, who accused the two states’ foreign ministries of apathy. "They are least bothered and do not take human misery into consideration," he said, adding that unfair arrests are "dealt with as routine matters."

In March 2006, one of 100 Indian fishermen set free from a Pakistani prison, 50-year old Sugghan Soma, died of cancer on the day of his release. "How come the Pakistani government did not free the ailing man sooner so he could be with his loved ones?" Zahid asked. "It’s sheer humanitarian indifference!

He further asked: "Why should our government insist that we would only release the Indian fisherman on reciprocity basis? Why don’t we just do what is right and release those who have completed their terms?" [Courtesy IPS]

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Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Islam and non-violence

Ishtiaq Ahmed

ABDUL Ghaffar Khan was a man of peace. He approached Islam in the hope of finding a complementary message to Gandhi’s interpretation of Hinduism as Ram Raj and ahimsa (non-violence) and he found it.

A question that keeps popping up in discussions on violence, terrorism and the Taliban is the following: is the use of force and violence intrinsic to Pakhtun culture? Superficially it seems that it must be so because the Pakhtuns, known as Pathans in the rest of the South Asian subcontinent, have been bearing firearms since a long time. They were producing firearms much before the Afghan jihad started. Many invasions of India were launched from the north-western mountain passes by the Afghans belonging to Pakhtun tribes and clans. Therefore, in popular memory a proclivity towards violence has been associated with the Pakhtuns. This, however, is a myth derived from an essentialist understanding of any culture.

Against such ‘evidence’ is the fact that apart from the mass civil disobedience movement that Mahatma Gandhi started from 1919 onwards, the most organised movement of peaceful resistance to colonial rule was put forth by the Pakhtun leader Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1890-1988) and his Khudai Khidmatgars or Red Shirts. In Pakistani official narrative Abdul Ghaffar has been portrayed as a traitor because of his close association with the Indian National Congress. Such association found him opposed to the partition of India, and later when the partition did take place, he and the Khudai Khidmatgars came under a cloud. They were incarcerated for demanding Pakhtunistan — an entity that was conceived from complete independence to substantial autonomy. The problem was further complicated by the fact that the Pakhtuns did not recognise the Durand Line as an international border dividing the Pakhtun tribes between Afghanistan and Pakistan. That problem remained unresolved even when the Taliban were in power in Afghanistan (1996-2001). It is still a sticking point between the Karzai and Pakistani governments.

Here, we are not interested in the politics that drove the Khudai Khidmatgars and the Muslim League away from each other, except to note that in 1929 Abdul Ghafffar Khan approached both the Muslim League and the Indian National Congress for closer relations. However, while Gandhi responded to his overtures with warmth and sympathy, the Muslim League rebuffed him. The reason was that the Muslim League was opposed to mass-based politics till at least 1937, and even when it became a mass-based party, it was never involved in any anti-colonial agitation. Only on January 24, 1947, the Punjab Muslim League resisted inspection by the police of its office in Laxmi Building, Lahore, and some of their leaders were arrested for a few days.

On the other hand, the story of the Khudai Khidmatgars was entirely different. They were constantly getting into trouble with the British for protests and agitations that were carried out in the NWFP in coordination with similar initiatives of the Congress. Civil disobedience remained peaceful, but police repression against the Khudai Khidmatgars was severe. Torture was often employed against the leaders and cadres who bore the pain and humiliation with great dignity and stoicism.

It is important to mention that the Khudai Khidmatgar movement started initially as a social reform initiative that sought to promote modern education and opposed tribal vendettas among the various tribes and clans. It was a great success and at one time it had more than 100,000 cadres who were always at hand to carry out social services. The same cadres continued to work in the anti-colonial agitations, courting arrest and punishment.

Abdul Ghaffar Khan derived his inspiration from the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and Islam. He particularly emphasised the formative period in Makkah when the Prophet (PBUH) and his devoted followers had to face persecution but did not hit back at their oppressors. For Abdul Ghaffar Khan, violent confrontation with the British was counterproductive because the colonial state always succeeded in defeating armed resistance. Therefore, peaceful resistance was the only effective method to protest colonial domination.

The question then is: how come the Taliban and al Qaeda interpret Islam as a militant ideology that sanctions the use of naked terror? Are there two Islams? This is the most difficult question to ask but we must try to answer it if ever some new level of awareness is to be achieved. While teaching at Stockholm University, I would often be asked by my students the following question: what is the true or real message of the Quran? The question was being asked in the background of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

I came up with an answer and explanation, which I believe is honest and true. I told them that all religious scriptures are amenable to a variety of interpretations; hence also the Quran and indeed the life of the Prophet (PBUH). Therefore it depends on the enquirer what support he seeks from the sacred sources. For those who are convinced that violence is the way forward for Muslims, they can select those portions of the sacred sources that seem to sanction violence. On the other hand, those who believe in peaceful and civilised ways of conducting their affairs can find plenty of material in the same sources that confirms their standpoint as well.

Abdul Ghaffar Khan was a man of peace. He approached Islam in the hope of finding a complementary message to Gandhi’s interpretation of Hinduism as Ram Raj and ahimsa (non-violence) and he found it. The Taliban and al Qaeda arbitrarily emphasise the wars fought during the lifetime of the Prophet (PBUH) and indeed allusions to the use of violence against non-Muslims in the Quran. Similar things can happen in other religious traditions. I suppose when the Pope ordered the crusades against the Muslims, he surely was not interested in Jesus’ idea of offering the other cheek. Similarly, fundamentalist Jews cannot be serious about the 8th of the 10 Commandments, “You must not steal”, when under one pretext or another they keep confiscating Palestinian land in the occupied territories.

Even secular-minded individuals who do not subordinate their reason and conscience to religious authority have to make a choice. There is secular humanism that accepts all human beings as part of the same family, but there have been secular ideologies justifying racism and ultra-nationalism as well. Ultimately, it is the singer not the song that is important. In the higher court of history, nobody takes notice of the sources and motivations behind actions. It is the deeds that count. In any event, those who want to find practical guidance on the Islamic philosophy of non-violence in contemporary times should study the life of Abdul Ghaffar Khan and the activities of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement.

[Ishtiaq Ahmed is a Visiting Research Professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) and the South Asian Studies Programme at the National University of Singapore. He is also a Professor of Political Science at Stockholm University. He has published extensively on South Asian politics. At ISAS, he is currently working on a book, Is Pakistan a Garrison State? He can be reached at isasia@nus.edu.sg]
[Courtesy http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\01\26\story_26-1-2010_pg3_2]

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EMS NAMBOODIRIPAD and his two important books

Frontline years
Published by Left Word Books, New Delhi.

E.M.S. NAMBOODIRIPAD (1909–1998) was among India’s pioneering Communist leaders and a Marxist theoretician of enormous stature.

He became Chief Minister of Kerala on two occasions, in 1957 at the head of the historic first Communist government, and again in 1967 as head of a seven-party coalition.

He was the author of several books and hundreds of articles and essays.

From 1992 till his death in 1998, EMS wrote a column in the newsmagazine Frontline. The present volume puts together a selection of his Frontline columns.

This volume is a testimony to the variety of his interests, his erudition, and his ability to communicate complex questions of history and theory in simple and elegant prose.

EMS discusses, among other things, the roles and contributions of Congress leaders from Dadabhai Naoroji and Ranade to Gandhi, Subhas Bose and Nehru to Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh; he discusses the thoughts and relevance of Marxist theoreticians including Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg, Mao Tse-tung and Stalin, as well as Nelson Mandela; he writes on religion, philosophy and art; he discusses important questions of the Indian polity including planning and centre-state relations; he comments on the Indian Communist movement (including on the decision not to join the United Front government at the centre in 1996); and he writes about the radical experiments in Kerala.

Second book
History, Society and Land Relations
Published by Left Word Books, New Delhi.

The present volume puts together his essays spanning six decades, from 1937 to 1996. Included in the volume are classic essays such as ‘The Question of Land Tenure in Malabar’, ‘A Short History of the Peasant Movement in Kerala’, ‘Caste Conflict versus Growing Unity of Popular Democratic Forces’, ‘Marxism, Leninism and Bourgeois Judiciary’, ‘Adi Shankara and his Philosophy: A Marxist View’, ‘The Class Character of the Nineteenth Century Renaissance in India’ and ‘The Marxist Theory of Ground Rent: Relevance to the Study of the Agrarian Question in India’.

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The joys of walking

Sonia G Handa

“WHAT a joy it is to feel the soft, springy earth under my feet once more, to follow grassy roads that lead to ferny brooks where I can bathe my fingers in a cataract of rippling notes, or to clamber over a stone wall into green fields that tumble and roll and climb in riotous gladness!” Helen Keler.

How true! I started enjoying walking as a child each year during my summer vacations in the hills. It gave us tremendous joy being with the trees and listen to the happy chirping birds. At that age we never understood the benefits and never bothered about these. It was just sheer joy of walking, discovering places, seeing birds and folks. The seeds were sown then and I still reap the benefits as I love to walk anywhere and anytime of the day.

If one wants to enjoy the nature in its true glory then it can be done best while walking. One can get pleasure from the varied colours of the sky, the greenery of the trees and shrubs, beauty of flowers and grandeur of mountains best by walking.

Apart from pure joy of walking, it slows aging process. It prevents the commencement of lifestyle diseases and helps an individual recuperate from diseases. From catching cold to an array of everyday life diseases, walking is one remedy for all. Hippocrates rightly said, “Walking is a man’s best medicine.” There are so many ways of exercising but walking is the simplest, cheapest and easiest way for an individual at any age and it can be done anywhere and anytime.Walking helps one achieve higher levels of fitness, leading to greater endurance and stamina. Muscles achieve greater definition, joints are lubricated and lung ability expands. To make the most of the walk, one should warm up and stretch at the beginning and end of the routine, wear comfortable shoes and choose a path with hills for a cardio boost.

A number of studies have confirm the benefits of low intensity and high intensity walking. It helps in lowering bad cholesterol (LDL), raising good cholesterol (HDL), lowering blood pressure, reducing the risk or managing type 2 diabetes; reduces the debilitating effects of degenerative joint disease; managing one’s weight; improving one’s mood and helping one become strong and fit. Walking increases the strength and density of bones and also prevents osteoporosis as it is a weight bearing exercise. To burn fat and in turn lose weight, regular walking at a steady pace for an extended period of time is the best way.

Famous greek [p philosopher Plato found walking in this manner: “Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it.”

Mental health also benefits from walking along with the physical health. By mental health we mean emotional as well as spiritual strength along with absence of mental illness. Walking is linked to better cognitive function amongst individuals and also helps in keeping the brain young. Walking assists a person to deal with stress, anxiety and depression more effectively. It is a sure cure for short temper and to learn patience. This in turn improves one’s self worth and mood. Frequent walkers experience an enhanced level of buoyancy with the surge of dopamine, a chemical that induces feelings of happiness and contentment.

It is calming to stroll with friends and enjoying nature and its wonders. One also sleeps better which helps energy to soar and freshens up an individual and prepares him to face the challenges of modern life. John Muir has suggested: “I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown; for going out, I found, I was really going in.”

Last year one major gain I discovered recently when I got gastric reflux problem. Walking benefits me more than the medicine and keeps me fresh.

“All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking,” Wrote philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

Creative process of any kind is enhanced by walking. The creative juices, be it for music, art dance or writing, start flowing after a good walk and one can reap the benefits immediately.

And listen the advice rendered by novelist Charles Dickens, “The sum of the whole is this: walk and be happy; walk and be healthy. The best way to lengthen out our days is to walk steadily and with a purpose.”

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