Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams, Chapter 406
Palash Biswas
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Aboriginal History
www.globalonenessproject.org Interview with Aborigine Bob Randal Watch and Download Video for Free
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Aboriginal Resistance
A timeline of Aboriginal resistance to European invasion, compiled as a contribution to the Reconciliation process.
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New Socialist: Colonialism and Aboriginal resistance in Canada
It thus became more urgent than ever to find ways to eliminate Aboriginal resistance, and assimilation was seen as the most efficient and cost-effective ...
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Yagan: an Aboriginal resistance hero. By Craig Cormick. It is tragic that it has taken a struggle over the skull of Noongar warrior Yagan to bring him to ...
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Aboriginal Resistance Heroes. As the colonial frontiers advanced, some Aboriginal people became prominent in their violent resistance. ...
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by Henry Reynolds - 2007 - History - 245 pages
The publication of this book in 1981 profoundly changed the way in which we understand the history of relations between indigenous Australians and European ...
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A shared history - Aboriginal perspectives in HSIE K-6 Aboriginal ...
Aboriginal Australians were unable to restrain – though in places they did delay – the tide of European settlement; although resistance in one form or ...
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Shared History - Aboriginal Perspectives - Aboriginal Resistance
Aboriginal resistance did not occur in isolation from British colonisation but was a consequence of it; therefore it should be taught as part of this topic. ...
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Pemulwy, one of the first Aborigines to organize armed resistance to the European settlement, lead Aboriginal resistance to invasion. ...
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Anarchist celebrate Aboriginal resistance - [Divergences, Revue ...
Photos by Takver Joseph TOSCANO marked the 187th anniversary of the execution of Bushranger Ned Kelly with a commemoration ceremony.
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Our friend, Anil Chamaria, a Professor in Varha university has written an excellent article in the Hindi Jansatta edit page today to highlight Aboriginal Resistance culture Targeted by the Hegemony which confirms our outlook that the Maoist Menace Hype is all about an EXCUSE to Eliminate Aboriginal Indigenous Black Untouchable Negroids just to capture the natural resources. Linking Development to Maoismis a MYTH created to enhance Economic Reforms while Military OptionandZero Tolerance are the Methods OPTED.
One of the UNKNOWN Maoist Ideologue from Dantewada has objected my report on Lalgarh published in SAMAYANTAR alleging that I do defend the Marxist Brahaminical Hegemony! My readers may judge it. But the Maoists have no Explaination that their subvertive activities help the Corporate India , MNCs and India Incs to execute Ethnic Cleansing. The Maoist Strike against the State power but nowhere they HARM the Corporate Interest.
Chamadia has traced the historical outlines of Aboriginal Resistance Culture ,thanks!
A pall of gloom has descended on the Palipattu village in Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu after 32 people were killed and three others injured in a blaze at a firecracker shop Friday evening.
An official of Thiruvallur collectorate on the accident spot told IANS: "Thirty two charred bodies have been recovered after the blaze. The dead include shop workers as well as firecracker shoppers."
The Thiruvallur police have arrested the building owner Jaishankar and the person who ran the shop Anandakumar.
According to him, 12 people from Andhra Pradesh and four from Tamil Nadu have been employed in the shop.
The cracker shop was functioning out of a godown located behind a rice mill in Palipattu village, some 90 km from Chennai, where many people had gathered to buy crackers on the eve of Diwali.
Suddenly fire started and gutted down the cracker shop, killing and injuring several people.
Two fire tenders doused the fire.
The Pallipattu police are investigating the cause of the accident as well as whether the shop has been licensed to sell firecrackers.
Thiruvallur District Collector V. Palanikumar and top police officials are on the spot overseeing the rescue operations.
The charred bodies have been taken to the government hospital in Tiruttani. The injured have been sent to the same hospital.
The terror attack came during the Diwali festivities akin to similar attacks that have occured in Delhi & elsewhere, earlier blamed on the usual suspects. Also the blasts have been timed to counter the Indian vote in favour of the Golsdtone Report, that haactivated the Israeli propaganda machinery & it's terrorists assets & infrastructure.
Thanks & Regards
Feroze & Kishore
Awami Bharat
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Red alert in Goa after blast, police search Sanatan Saunstha office
Two persons were detained on Saturday in connection with the explosion in Margao town in Goa in which a member of a right-wing Hindu group allegedly linked to Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh was killed and another critically injured.
The blast took place at around 9.30 pm on Friday night when explosives kept in a scooter went off on a busy street in the heart of the town, 30 kms from here.
Goa Home Minister Ravi Naik said police were probing the links of right-wing group Sanatan Saunstha with the blast. .
"The scooter which was carrying the explosives belongs to Saunstha's disciple Nishad Bakle," he said.
A man named Melgunda Patil was killed in the blast while another, identified as Yogesh Naik, is undergoing treatment at the Goa Medical College hospital. Police said both belonged to the Saunstha, which is allegedly linked to Pragya Singh.
The Sanatan Saunstha headquarters at Ramnathi in Ponda, 20 kms from Margao, was raided on Friday night following the blast and two persons have been detained from that town in the wee hours of the day, police said. Further details about the detained persons were still awaited.
The blast, which occurred a few metres away from the site of 'Narkasur' effigy competition, a ritual held on the eve of Diwali, gutted three vehicles. Police have also found a bag containing a watch and an electric circuit about 20 kms from the explosion site.
AdivasiAdivasis is an umbrella term for a heterogeneous set of ethnic and tribal groups believed to be the aboriginal population of India. They comprise a substantial indigenous minority of the population of India.Adivasi societies are particularly present in the Indian states of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Mizoram and other north-eastern states, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Many smaller tribal groups are quite sensitive to ecological degradation caused by modernization. Both commercial forestry and intensive agriculture have proved destructive to the forests that had endured Sweden agriculture for many centuries. Adivasi LifeOfficially recognized by the Indian government as "Scheduled Tribes" in the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of India, they are often grouped together with scheduled castes in the category "Scheduled Castes and Tribes", which is eligible for certain affirmative action.Adivasi HistoryAdivasi populations suffer disproportionately from India's modernization. Many depend on India's forests for their livelihood, and they have suffered from both the destruction of these forests as well as state efforts to preserve the forests which often fail to account for the populations that live within them (for instance, b y preventing them from selling materials they collect from the forest to anyone but the government, keeping their earnings artificially low). They are increasingly becoming migrant laborers, a process which tears at the social fabric of their communities. | |||||||||
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The condition of Adivasi populations varies quite considerably from one state to the next. National law gives states considerable power over defining who counts as a "Scheduled Tribe" and who does not. As a result, the same group might be considered a Scheduled Tribe in one state, but not in the neighboring state. This affects what kinds of scholarships, benefits, and affirmative action programs are available to members of that community. Despite their marginal position, Adivasis have contributed greatly to Indian history and society. Over time, many Adivasi traditions were incorporated into Hinduism and Buddhism. Adivasi CultureIn various parts of India Adivasis were incorporated into local states. In some cases they became the ruling families, in others the untouchable lower castes. Some were hired to fight wars for Indian kings, and under British rule they offered some of the fiercest resistance.Little is known about the relationship between the Adivasis and non-Adivasi communities during the Hindu and Muslim rules. There are stray references to wars and alliances between the Rajput kings and tribal chieftains in middle India and in the North-East between the Ahom Kings of Brahmaputra valley and the hill Nagas. They are considered to be ati-sudra meaning lower than the untouchable castes. Even today, the upper caste people refer to these peoples as jangli, a derogatory term meaning "those who are like wild animals" - uncivilised or sub-humans. The Adivasis have few food taboos, rather fluid cultural practices and minimal occupational specialization, while on the other hand, the mainstream population of the plains have extensive food taboos, more rigid cultural practices and considerable caste-based occupational specialisation. In the Hindu caste system, the Adivasis have no place. The so-called mainstream society of India has evolved as an agglomeration of thousands of small-scale social groups whose identities within the larger society are preserved by not allowing them to marry outside their social groups. The subjugated groups became castes forced to perform less desirable menial jobs like sweeping, cleaning of excreta, removal of dead bodies, leather works etc - the untouchables. Some of the earliest small-scale societies dependent on hunting and gathering, and traditional agriculture seem to have remained outside this process of agglomeration. These are the Adivasis of present day. Their autonomous existence outside the mainstream led to the preservation of their socio-religious and cultural practices, most of them retaining also their distinctive languages. Widow burning, enslavement, occupational differentiation, hierarchical social ordering etc are generally not there. Though there were trade between the Adivasis and the mainstream society, any form of social intercourse was discouraged. Caste India did not consciously attempt to draw them into the orbit of caste society. But in the process of economic, cultural and ecological change, Adivasis have attached themselves to caste groups in a peripheral manner, and the process of de-tribalisation is a continuous one. Many of the Hindu communities have absorbed the cultural practices of the Adivasis. Although Hinduism could be seen as one unifying thread running through the country as a whole, it is not homogenous but in reality a conglomeration of centuries old traditions and shaped by several religious and social traditions which are more cultural in their essence (and including elements of Adivasi socio-religious culture). | |||||||||
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PUCL Bulletin, February 2003
The Adivasis of India -
A History of Discrimination, Conflict, and Resistance
-- By C.R. Bijoy, Core Committee of the All India Coordinating Forum of Adivasis/Indigenous Peoples
The 67.7 million people belonging to "Scheduled Tribes" in India are generally considered to be 'Adivasis', literally meaning 'indigenous people' or 'original inhabitants', though the term 'Scheduled Tribes' (STs) is not coterminous with the term 'Adivasis'. Scheduled Tribes is an administrative term used for purposes of 'administering' certain specific constitutional privileges, protection and benefits for specific sections of peoples considered historically disadvantaged and 'backward'.
However, this administrative term does not exactly match all the peoples called 'Adivasis'. Out of the 5653 distinct communities in India, 635 are considered to be 'tribes' or 'Adivasis'. In comparison, one finds that the estimated number of STs varies from 250 to 593.
For practical purposes, the United Nations and multilateral agencies generally consider the STs as 'indigenous peoples'. With the ST population making up 8.08% (as of 1991) of the total population of India, it is the nation with the highest concentration of 'indigenous peoples' in the world!
The Constitution of India, which came into existence on 26 January 1950, prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth (Article 15) and it provides the right to equality (Article 14), to freedom of religion (Articles 25-28) and to culture and education (Articles 29-30). STs are supposedly addressed by as many as 209 Articles and 2 special schedules of the Constitution - Articles and special schedules which are protective and paternalistic.
Article 341 and 342 provides for classification of Scheduled Castes (the untouchable lower castes) and STs, while Articles 330, 332 and 334 provides for reservation of seats in Parliament and Assemblies. For purposes of specific focus on the development of STs, the government has adopted a package of programmes, which is administered in specific geographical areas with considerable ST population, and it covers 69% of the tribal population.
Despite this, and after the largest "modern democracy" of the world has existed for more than half a century, the struggles for survival of Adivasis - for livelihood and existence as peoples - have today intensified and spread as never before in history.
Over centuries, the Adivasis have evolved an intricate convivial-custodial mode of living. Adivasis belong to their territories, which are the essence of their existence; the abode of the spirits and their dead and the source of their science, technology, way of life, their religion and culture.
Back in history, the Adivasis were in effect self-governing 'first nations'. In general and in most parts of the pre-colonial period, they were notionally part of the 'unknown frontier' of the respective states where the rule of the reign in fact did not extend, and the Adivasis governed themselves outside of the influence of the particular ruler.
The introduction of the alien concept of private property began with the Permanent Settlement of the British in 1793 and the establishment of the "Zamindari" system that conferred control over vast territories, including Adivasi territories, to designated feudal lords for the purpose of revenue collection by the British. This drastically commenced the forced restructuring of the relationship of Adivasis to their territories as well as the power relationship between Adivasis and 'others'. The predominant external caste-based religion sanctioned and practiced a rigid and highly discriminatory hierarchical ordering with a strong cultural mooring.
This became the natural basis for the altered perception of Adivasis by the 'others' in determining the social, and hence, the economic and political space in the emerging larger society that is the Indian diaspora. Relegating the Adivasis to the lowest rung in the social ladder was but natural and formed the basis of social and political decision making by the largely upper caste controlled mainstream. The ancient Indian scriptures, scripted by the upper castes, also further provided legitimacy to this.
The subjugated peoples have been relegated to low status and isolated, instead of either being eliminated or absorbed. Entry of Europeans and subsequent colonisation of Asia transformed the relationship between the mainstream communities and tribal communities of this region. Introduction of capitalism, private property and the creation of a countrywide market broke the traditional economy based on use value and hereditary professions.
All tribal communities are not alike. They are products of different historical and social conditions. They belong to four different language families, and several different racial stocks and religious moulds. They have kept themselves apart from feudal states and brahminical hierarchies for thousands of years.
In the Indian epics such as Ramayana, Mahabharata and Puranas (folklores) there are many references to interactions and wars between the forest or hill tribes and the Hindus.
Eminent historians who have done detailed research on the epic Ramayana (200 B.C to 500 B.C) have concluded that 'Lanka', the kingdom of the demonic king Ravana and 'Kishkinda', the homeland of the Vanaras (depicted as monkeys) were places situated south of Chitrakuta hill and north of Narmada river in middle India. Accordingly, Ravana and his demons were an aboriginal tribe, most probably the Gond, and the Vanaras, like Hanuman in the epic, belonged to the Savara and Korku tribes whose descendants still inhabit the central Indian forest belt. Even today, the Gond holds Ravana, the villain of Ramayana, in high esteem as a chief. Rama, the hero of Ramayana, is also known for slaughtering the Rakshasas (demons) in the forests!
The epic of Mahabharata refers to the death of Krishna at the hands of a Bhil Jaratha. In the ancient scriptures, considered to be sacred by the upper castes, various terms are used depicting Adivasis as almost non-humans. The epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata, the Puranas, Samhitas and other so-called 'sacred books' refer to Adivasis as Rakshasa (demons), Vanara (monkeys), Jambuvan (boar men), Naga (serpents), Bhusundi Kaka (crow), Garuda (King of Eagles) etc. In medieval India, they were called derogatorily as Kolla, Villa, Kirata, Nishada, and those who surrendered or were subjugated were termed as Dasa (slave) and those who refused to accept the bondage of slavery were termed as Dasyu (a hostile robber).
Ekalavya, one of their archers was so skillful that the hero of the Aryans, Arjuna, could not stand before him. But they assaulted him, cutting his thumb and destroying his ability to fight - and then fashioned a story in which he accepted Drona as his Guru and surrendered his thumb as an offering to the master! The renowned writer Maheshwata Devi points out that Adivasis predated Hinduism and Aryanism, that Siva was not an Aryan god and that in the 8th century, the tribal forest goddess or harvest goddess was absorbed and adapted as Siva's wife. Goddess Kali, the goddess of hunters, has definitely had a tribal origin.
History of the Adivasis
Little is known about the relationship between the Adivasis and non-Adivasi communities during the Hindu and Muslim rules. There are stray references to wars and alliances between the Rajput kings and tribal chieftains in middle India and in the North-East between the Ahom Kings of Brahmaputra valley and the hill Nagas. They are considered to be ati-sudra meaning lower than the untouchable castes. Even today, the upper caste people refer to these peoples as jangli, a derogatory term meaning "those who are like wild animals" - uncivilised or sub-humans.
The Adivasis have few food taboos, rather fluid cultural practices and minimal occupational specialization, while on the other hand, the mainstream population of the plains have extensive food taboos, more rigid cultural practices and considerable caste-based occupational specialisation. In the Hindu caste system, the Adivasis have no place. The so-called mainstream society of India has evolved as an agglomeration of thousands of small-scale social groups whose identities within the larger society are preserved by not allowing them to marry outside their social groups.
The subjugated groups became castes forced to perform less desirable menial jobs like sweeping, cleaning of excreta, removal of dead bodies, leather works etc - the untouchables. Some of the earliest small-scale societies dependent on hunting and gathering, and traditional agriculture seem to have remained outside this process of agglomeration. These are the Adivasis of present day. Their autonomous existence outside the mainstream led to the preservation of their socio-religious and cultural practices, most of them retaining also their distinctive languages. Widow burning, enslavement, occupational differentiation, hierarchical social ordering etc are generally not there. Though there were trade between the Adivasis and the mainstream society, any form of social intercourse was discouraged. Caste India did not consciously attempt to draw them into the orbit of caste society.
But in the process of economic, cultural and ecological change, Adivasis have attached themselves to caste groups in a peripheral manner, and the process of de-tribalisation is a continuous one. Many of the Hindu communities have absorbed the cultural practices of the Adivasis. Although Hinduism could be seen as one unifying thread running through the country as a whole, it is not homogenous but in reality a conglomeration of centuries old traditions and shaped by several religious and social traditions which are more cultural in their essence (and including elements of Adivasi socio-religious culture).
Adivasis at the lowest rung of the ladder
Adivasis are not, as a general rule, regarded as unclean by caste Hindus in the same way as Dalits are. But they continue to face prejudice (as lesser humans), they are socially distanced and often face violence from society. They are at the lowest point in every socioeconomic indicator. Today the majority of the population regards them as primitive and aims at decimating them as peoples or at best integrating them with the mainstream at the lowest rung in the ladder. This is especially so with the rise of the fascist Hindutva forces.
None of the brave Adivasi fights against the British have been treated as part of the "national" struggle for independence. From the Malpahariya uprising in 1772 to Lakshman Naik's revolt in Orissa in 1942, the Adivasis repeatedly rebelled against the British in the north-eastern, eastern and central Indian belt. In many of the rebellions, the Adivasis could not be subdued, but terminated the struggle only because the British acceded to their immediate demands, as in the case of the Bhil revolt of 1809 and the Naik revolt of 1838 in Gujarat. Heroes like Birsa Munda, Kanhu Santhal, Khazya Naik, Tantya Bhil, Lakshman Naik, Kuvar Vasava, Rupa Naik, Thamal Dora, Ambul Reddi, Thalakkal Chandu etc are remembered in the songs and stories of the Adivasis but ignored in the official text books.
The British Crown's dominions in India consisted of four political arrangements:
- the Presidency Areas where the Crown was supreme,
- the Residency Areas where the British Crown was present through the Resident and the Ruler of the realm was subservient to the Crown,
- the Agency (Tribal) areas where the Agent governed in the name of the Crown but left the local self-governing institutions untouched and
- the Excluded Areas (north-east) where the representatives of the Crown were a figure head.
After the transfer of power, the rulers of the Residency Areas signed the "Deed of Accession" on behalf of the ruled on exchange they were offered privy purse. No deed was however signed with most of the independent Adivasi states. They were assumed to have joined the Union. The government rode rough shod on independent Adivasi nations and they were merged with the Indian Union. This happened even by means of state violence as in the case of Adivasi uprising in the Nizam's State of Hyderabad and Nagalim.
While this aspect did not enter the consciousness of the Adivasis at large in the central part of India where they were preoccupied with their own survival, the picture was different in the north-east because of the historic and material conditions. Historically the north-east was never a part of mainland India. The colonial incorporation of north-east took place much later than the rest of the Indian subcontinent. While Assam ruled by the Ahoms came under the control of British in 1826, neighbouring Bengal was annexed in 1765. Garo Hills were annexed in 1873, Naga Hills in 1879 and Mizoram under the Chin-Lushai Expeditions in 1881-90. Consequently, the struggles for self-determination took various forms as independence to greater autonomy.
A process of marginalization today, the total forest cover in India is reported to be 765.21 thousand sq. kms. of which 71% are Adivasi areas. Of these 416.52 and 223.30 thousand sq. kms. are categorised as reserved and protected forests respectively. About 23% of these are further declared as Wild Life Sanctuaries and National Parks which alone has displaced some half a million Adivasis. By the process of colonisation of the forests that began formally with the Forest Act of 1864 and finally the Indian Forest Act of 1927, the rights of Adivasis were reduced to mere privileges conferred by the state.
This was in acknowledgement of their dependence on the forests for survival and it was politically forced upon the rulers by the glorious struggles that the Adivasis waged persistently against the British. The Forest Policy of 1952, the Wild Life Protection Act of 1972 and the Forest Conservation Act of 1980 downgraded these privileges of the peoples to concessions of the state in the post-colonial period.
With globalisation, there are now further attempts to change these paternalistic concessions to being excluded as indicated by the draft "Conservation of Forests and Natural Ecosystems Act" that is to replace the forest act and the amendments proposed to the Land Acquisition Act and Schedule V of the constitution. In 1991, 23.03% of STs were literate as against 42.83% among the general population. The Government's Eighth Plan document mentions that nearly 52% of STs live below the poverty line as against 30% of the general population.
In a study on Kerala, a state considered to be unique for having developed a more egalitarian society with a high quality of life index comparable to that of only the 'developed' countries, paradoxically shows that for STs the below poverty line population was 64.5% while for Scheduled Castes it was 47% and others 41%. About 95% of Adivasis live in rural areas, less than 10% are itinerant hunter-gatherers but more than half depend upon forest produce. Very commonly, police, forest guards and officials bully and intimidate Adivasis and large numbers are routinely arrested and jailed, often for petty offences.
Only a few Adivasi communities which are forest dwellers have not been displaced and continue to live in forests, away from the mainstream development activities, such as in parts of Bastar in Madhya Pradesh, Koraput, Phulbani and Mayurbanj in Orissa and of Andaman Islands.
Thousands of Korku children below the age of six died in the 1990s due to malnutrition and starvation in the Melghat Tiger Reserve of Maharashtra due to the denial of access to their life sustaining resource base. Adivasis of Kalahandi-Bolangir in Orissa and of Palamu in south Bihar have reported severe food shortage. According to the Central Planning Committee of the Government of India, nearly 41 districts with significant Adivasi populations are prone to deaths due to starvation, which are not normally reported as such.
Invasion of Adivasi territories The "Land Acquisition Act" of 1894 concretised the supremacy of the sovereign to allow for total colonisation of any territory in the name of 'public interest' which in most cases are not community notions of common good. This is so especially for the Adivasis. The colonial juristic concept of res nullius (that which has not been conferred by the sovereign belongs to the sovereign) and terra nullius (land that belongs to none) bulldozed traditional political and social entities beginning the wanton destruction of traditional forms of self-governance.
The invasion of Adivasi territories, which for the most part commenced during the colonial period, intensified in the post-colonial period. Most of the Adivasi territories were claimed by the state. Over 10 million Adivasis have been displaced to make way for development projects such as dams, mining, industries, roads, protected areas etc. Though most of the dams (over 3000) are located in Adivasi areas, only 19.9% (1980-81) of Adivasi land holdings are irrigated as compared to 45.9% of all holdings of the general population. India produces as many as 52 principal, 3 fuel, 11 metallic, 38 non-metallic and a number of minor minerals.
Of these 45 major minerals (coal, iron ore, magnetite, manganese, bauxite, graphite, limestone, dolomite, uranium etc) are found in Adivasi areas contributing some 56% of the national total mineral earnings in terms of value. Of the 4,175 working mines reported by the Indian Bureau of Mines in 1991-92, approximately 3500 could be assumed to be in Adivasi areas. Income to the government from forests rose from Rs.5.6 million in 1869-70 to more than Rs.13 billions in the 1970s. The bulk of the nation's productive wealth lay in the Adivasi territories. Yet the Adivasi has been driven out, marginalised and robbed of dignity by the very process of 'national development'.
The systematic opening up of Adivasi territories, the development projects and the 'tribal development projects' make them conducive for waves of immigrants. In the rich mineral belt of Jharkhand, the Adivasi population has dropped from around 60% in 1911 to 27.67% in 1991. These developments have in turn driven out vast numbers of Adivasis to eke out a living in the urban areas and in far-flung places in slums. According to a rough estimate, there are more than 40,000 tribal domestic working women in Delhi alone! In some places, development induced migration of Adivasis to other Adivasi areas has also led to fierce conflicts as between the Santhali and the Bodo in Assam.
Internal colonialism Constitutional privileges and welfare measures benefit only a small minority of the Adivasis. These privileges and welfare measures are denied to the majority of the Adivasis and they are appropriated by more powerful groups in the caste order. The steep increase of STs in Maharashtra in real terms by 148% in the two decades since 1971 is mainly due to questionable inclusion, for political gains, of a number of economically advanced groups among the backwards in the list of STs.
The increase in numbers, while it distorts the demographic picture, has more disastrous effects. The real tribes are irretrievably pushed down in the 'access or claim ladder' with these new entrants cornering the lion's share of both resources and opportunities for education, social and economic advancement.
Despite the Bonded Labour Abolition Act of 1976, Adivasis still form a substantial percentage of bonded labour in the country.
Despite positive political, institutional and financial commitment to tribal development, there is presently a large scale displacement and biological decline of Adivasi communities, a growing loss of genetic and cultural diversity and destruction of a rich resource base leading to rising trends of shrinking forests, crumbling fisheries, increasing unemployment, hunger and conflicts. The Adivasis have preserved 90% of the country's bio-cultural diversity protecting the polyvalent, precolonial, biodiversity friendly Indian identity from bio-cultural pathogens. Excessive and indiscriminate demands of the urban market have reduced Adivasis to raw material collectors and providers.
It is a cruel joke that people who can produce some of India's most exquisite handicrafts, who can distinguish hundreds of species of plants and animals, who can survive off the forests, the lands and the streams sustainably with no need to go to the market to buy food, are labeled as 'unskilled'. Equally critical are the paths of resistance that many Adivasi areas are displaying: Koel Karo, Bodh Ghat, Inchampalli, Bhopalpatnam, Rathong Chu ... big dams that were proposed by the enlightened planners and which were halted by the mass movements.
Such a situation has risen because of the discriminatory and predatory approach of the mainstream society on Adivasis and their territories. The moral legitimacy for the process of internal colonisation of Adivasi territories and the deliberate disregard and violations of constitutional protection of STs has its basis in the culturally ingrained hierarchical caste social order and consciousness that pervades the entire politico-administrative and judicial system. This pervasive mindset is also a historical construct that got reinforced during colonial and post-colonial India.
The term 'Criminal Tribe' was concocted by the British rulers and entered into the public vocabulary through the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 under which a list of some 150 communities including Adivasis, were mischievously declared as (naturally) 'criminal'. Though this shameful act itself was repealed in 1952, the specter of the so-called 'criminal tribes' continue to haunt these 'denotified tribes' - the Sansi, Pardhi, Kanjar, Gujjar, Bawaria, Banjara and others. They are considered as the first natural suspects of all petty and sundry crimes except that they are now hauled up under the Habitual Offenders Act that replaced the British Act! Stereotyping of numerous communities has reinforced past discriminatory attitudes of the dominant mainstream in an institutionalised form.
There is a whole history of legislation, both during the pre-independence as well as post-independence period, which was supposed to protect the rights of the Adivasis. As early as 1879, the "Bombay Province Land Revenue Code" prohibited transfer of land from a tribal to a non-tribal without the permission of the authorities. The 1908 "Chotanagpur Tenancy Act" in Bihar, the 1949 "Santhal Pargana Tenancy (Supplementary) Act", the 1969 "Bihar Scheduled Areas Regulations", the 1955 "Rajasthan Tenancy Act" as amended in 1956, the 1959 "MPLP Code of Madhya Pradesh", the 1959 "Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Areas Land Transfer Regulation" and amendment of 1970, the 1960 "Tripura Land Revenue Regulation Act", the 1970 "Assam Land and Revenue Act", the 1975 "Kerala Scheduled Tribes (Restriction of Transfer of Lands and Restoration of Alienated Lands) Act" etc. are state legislations to protect Adivasi land rights.
In Andhra for example, enquiries on land transfer violations were made in 57,150 cases involving 245,581 acres of land, but only about 28% of lands were restored despite persistent militant struggles. While in the case of Kerala, out of a total claim for 9909.4522 hectares made by 8754 applicants, only 5.5% of the claims have been restored. And this is happening in spite of favourable judicial orders - orders which the state governments are circumventing by attempting to dismantle the very protective legislation itself.
The callous and casual manner with which mainstream India approaches the fulfillment of the constitutional obligations with reference to the tribes, and the persistent attempts by the politico-administrative system to subvert the constitution by deliberate acts of omission and commission, and the enormous judicial tolerance towards this speak volumes on the discriminatory approach that permeates the society with regard to the legal rights of the Adivasis.
Race, religion and language
The absence of neat classifications of Adivasis as a homogenous social-cultural category and the intensely fluid nature of non-Adivasis are evident in the insuperable difficulty in arriving at a clear anthropological definition of a tribal in India, be it in terms of ethnicity, race, language, social forms or modes of livelihood.
The major waves of ingress into India divide the tribal communities into Veddids, similar to the Australian aborigines, and the Paleamongoloid Austro-Asiatic from the north-east. The third were the Greco-Indians who spread across Gujarat, Rajasthan and Pakistan from Central Asia. The fourth is the Negrito group of the Andaman Islands - the Great Andamanese, the Onge, the Jarawa and the Sentinelese who flourished in these parts for some 20,000 years but who could well become extinct soon. The Great Andamanese have been wiped out as a viable community with about only 30 persons alive as are the Onges who are less than a 100.
In the mid-Indian region, the Gond who number over 5 million, are the descendants of the dark skinned Kolarian or Dravidian tribes and speak dialects of Austric language family as are the Santhal who number 4 million. The Negrito and Austroloid people belong to the Mundari family of Munda, Santhal, Ho, Ashur, Kharia, Paniya, Saora etc. The Dravidian groups include the Gond, Oraon, Khond, Malto, Bhil, Mina, Garasia, Pradhan etc. and speak Austric or Dravidian family of languages. The Gujjar and Bakarwal descend from the Greco Indians and are interrelated with the Gujjar of Gujarat and the tribes settled around Gujranwala in Pakistan.
There are some 200 indigenous peoples in the north-east. The Boro, Khasi, Jantia, Naga, Garo and Tripiri belong to the Mongoloid stock like the Naga, Mikir, Apatani, Boro, Khasi, Garo, Kuki, Karbi etc. and speak languages of the Tibeto-Burman language groups and the Mon Khmer. The Adi, Aka, Apatani, Dafla, Gallong, Khamti, Monpa, Nocte, Sherdukpen, Singpho, Tangsa, Wancho etc of Arunachal Pradesh and the Garo of Meghalaya are of Tibeto-Burman stock while the Khasi of Meghalaya belong to the Mon Khmer group. In the southern region, the Malayali, Irula, Paniya, Adiya, Sholaga, Kurumba etc belong to the proto-Australoid racial stock speaking dialects of the Dravidian family.
The Census of India 1991 records 63 different denominations as "other" of over 5.7 million people of which most are Adivasi religions. Though the Constitution recognises them as a distinct cultural group, yet when it comes to religion those who do not identify as Christians, Muslims or Buddhists are compelled to register themselves as Hindus. Hindus and Christians have interacted with Adivasis to civilize them, which has been defined as sanscritisation and westernisation. However, as reflected during the 1981 census it is significant that about 5% of the Adivasis registered their religion by the names of their respective tribes or the names adopted by them. In 1991 the corresponding figure rose to about 10% indicating the rising consciousness and assertion of identity!
Though Article 350A of the Constitution requires primary education to be imparted in mother tongue, in general this has not been imparted except in areas where the Adivasis have been assertive. NCERT, the state owned premier education research centre has not shown any interest. With the neglect of Adivasi languages, the State and the dominant social order aspire to culturally and socially emasculate the Adivasis subdued by the dominant cultures. The Anthropological Survey of India reported a loss of more than two-thirds of the spoken languages, most of them tribal.
Fragmentation Some of the ST peoples of Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, W. Bengal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram have their counterparts across the border in China (including Tibet), Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh. The political aspirations of these trans-border tribes who find themselves living in different countries as a result of artificial demarcation of boundaries by erstwhile colonial rulers continue to be ignored despite the spread and proliferation of militancy, especially in the north east, making it into a conflict zone.
The Adivasi territories have been divided amongst the states formed on the basis of primarily the languages of the mainstream caste society, ignoring the validity of applying the same principle of language for the Adivasis in the formation of states. Jharkhand has been divided amongst Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa though the Bihar part of Jharkhand has now become a separate state after decades of struggle. The Gond region has been divided amongst Orissa, Andhra, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Similarly the Bhil region has been divided amongst Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan.
In the north-east, for example, the Naga in addition are divided into Nagaland, Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Further administrative sub-divisions within the states into districts, talukas and panchayats have been organised in such a way that the tribal concentration is broken up which furthers their marginalisation both physically and politically.
The 1874 "Scheduled District Act", the 1919 "Government of India Act" and later the "Government of India Act" of 1935 classified the hill areas as excluded and partially excluded areas where the provincial legislature had no jurisdiction. These formed the basis for the Article 244 under which two separate schedules viz. the V Schedule and the VI Schedule were incorporated for provision of a certain degree of self-governance in designated tribal majority areas. However, in effect this remained a non-starter. However, the recent legislation of the Panchayat Raj (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act of 1996 has raised hope of a radical redefinition of self-governance.
By not applying the same yard stick and norms for Adivasis as for the upper caste dominated mainstream, by not genuinely recognizing the Adivasis' traditional self-governing systems and by not being serious about devolving autonomy, the Indian State and society indicates a racist and imperialist attitude.
The call for a socially homogenous country, particularly in the Hindi Hindu paradigm have suppressed tribal languages, defiled cultures and destroyed civilisations.
The struggle for the future, the conceptual vocabulary used to understand the place of Adivasis in the modern world has been constructed on the feudal, colonial and imperialistic notions which combines traditional and historical constructs with the modern construct based on notions of linear scientific and technological progress.
Historically the Adivasis, as explained earlier, are at best perceived as sub-humans to be kept in isolation, or as 'primitives' living in remote and backward regions who should be "civilized". None of them have a rational basis. Consequently, the official and popular perception of Adivasis is merely that of isolation in forest, tribal dialect, animism, primitive occupation, carnivorous diet, naked or semi-naked, nomadic habits, love, drink and dance. Contrast this with the self-perception of Adivasis as casteless, classless and egalitarian in nature, community-based economic systems, symbiotic with nature, democratic according to the demands of the times, accommodative history and people-oriented art and literature.
The significance of their sustainable subsistence economy in the midst of a profit oriented economy is not recognised in the political discourse, and the negative stereotyping of the sustainable subsistence economy of Adivasi societies is based on the wrong premise that the production of surplus is more progressive than the process of social reproduction in co-existence with nature.
The source of the conflicts arises from these unresolved contradictions. With globalisation, the hitherto expropriation of rights as an outcome of development has developed into expropriation of rights as a precondition for development. In response, the struggles for the rights of the Adivasis have moved towards the struggles for power and a redefinition of the contours of state, governance and progress.
http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Dalit-tribal/2003/adivasi.htm
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"This is the Whiteman's Law": Aboriginal resistance, bureaucratic change and the Census of Canada, 1830–2006 |
Census information of some form has been collected in Canada since the 1611 census of New France. Aboriginal people, identified or not, have been included in these enumerations. The collection of this information has had a profound impact on Aboriginal people and has been an element that has shaped their relationship with the dominant society. In response, Canadian Aboriginal people have often resisted and refused to co-operate with census takers and their masters. This article is an examination of this phenomenon focused on the censuses conducted in the post-Confederation period to the present. A census is made to collect information on populations and individuals that can then be used to configure and shape social and political relations between those being enumerated and the creators of the census. However, the human objects of the census are not just passive integers and they have resisted its creation in a number of ways, including being "missing" when the census is taken, refusing to answer the questions posed by enumerators or even driving them off Aboriginal territory. A census identifies elements of the social order and attempts to set them in their "proper" place and those who do not wish to be part of that order may refuse to take part. Archivists and historians must understand that the knowledge gained in a census is bound with the conditions of own creation. This has been noted by contemporary Aboriginal researchers who often state that the archival record of their people often distorts history and reflects the ideas and superficial observations of their Euro-Canadian creators. Changes to the Census of Canada since 1981, have increased the participation rate and therefore changed the nature of the record.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/t67t91j831485813/
Adivasi Contributions to Indian Culture and Civilization
Adivasi traditions and practices pervade all aspects of Indian culture and civilization, yet this awareness is often lacking in popular consciousness, and the extent and import of Adivasi contributions to Indian philosophy, language and custom have often gone unrecognized, or been underrated by historians and social scientists.
Although popular myths about Buddhism have obscured the original source and inspiration for it's humanist doctrine, it is to India's ancient tribal (or Adivasi) societies that Gautam Buddha looked for a model for the kind of society he wished to advocate. Repulsed by how greed for private property was instrumental in causing poverty, social exploitation and unending warfare - he saw hope for human society in the tribal republics that had not yet come under the sway of authoritarian rule and caste discrimination. The early Buddhist Sanghas were modelled on the tribal pattern of social interaction that stressed gender equality, and respect for all members. Members of the Sanghas sought to emulate their egalitarian outlook and democratic functioning
At that time, the tribal republics retained many aspects of social equality that can still be found in some Adivasi societies that have somehow escaped the ill-effects of commercial plunder and exploitation. Adivasi society was built on a foundation of equality with respect for all life forms including plants and trees. There was a deep recognition of mutual dependence in nature and human society. People were given respect and status according to their contribution to social needs but only while they were performing that particular function. A priest could be treated with great respect during a religious ceremony or a doctor revered during a medical consultation, but once such duties had been performed, the priest or doctor became equal to everyone else. The possession of highly valued skills or knowledge did not lead to a permanent rise in status. This meant that no individual or small group could engage in overlordship of any kind, or enjoy hereditary rights.
Such a value-system was sustainable as long as the Adivasi community was non-acquisitive and all the products of society were shared. Although division of labor did take place, the work of society was performed on a cooperative and co-equal basis - without prejudice or disrespect for any form of work.
It was the simplicity, the love of nature, the absence of coveting the goods and wealth of others, and the social harmony of tribal society that attracted Gautam Buddha, and had a profound impact on the ethical core of his teachings.
(To this day, sharing is a vital and integral part of the philosophy of the Mullakurumba Adivasis of South India. When the Mullakurumbas go hunting a share is given to every family in the village, even those who may be absent, sick or cannot participate for any other reason. An extra portion is added for any guest in the village and even a non-tribal passersby will be offered a share. Not sharing is something they find difficult to comprehend.)
Nevertheless, tribal societies were under constant pressure as the money economy grew and made traditional forms of barter less difficult to sustain. In matters of trade, the Adivasis followed a highly evolved system of honour. All agreements that they entered into were honoured, often the entire tribe chipping in to honor an agreement made by an individual member of the tribe. Individual dishonesty or deceit were punished severely by the tribe. An individual who acted in a manner that violated the honor of the tribe faced potential banishment and family members lost the right to participate in community events during the period of punishment. But often, tribal integrity was undermined because the non-tribals who traded with the Adivasis reneged on their promises and took advantage of the sincerity and honesty of most members of the tribe.
Tribal societies came under stress due to several factors. The extension of commerce, military incursions on tribal land, and the resettling of Brahmins amidst tribal populations had an impact, as did ideological coercion or persuasion to attract key members of the tribe into "mainstream" Hindu society. This led to many tribal communities becoming integrated into Hindu society as jatis (or castes) while others who resisted were pushed into the hilly or forested areas, or remote tracks that had not yet been settled. In the worst case, defeated Adivasi tribes were pushed to the margins of settled society and became discriminated as outcastes and "untouchables".
But spontaneous differentiation within tribal societies also took place over time, which propelled these now unequal tribal communities into integrating into Hindu society without external violence or coercion. In Central India, ruling dynasties emerged from within the ranks of tribal society.
In any case, the end result was that throughout India, tribal deities and customs, creation myths and a variety of religious rites and ceremonies came to absorbed into the broad stream of "Hindu" society. In the Adivasi traditions, ancestor worship, worship of fertility gods and goddesses (as well as male and female fertility symbols), totemic worship - all played a role. And they all found their way into the practice of what is now considered Hinduism. The widespread Indian practice of keeping 'vratas', i.e. fasting for wish-fulfillment or moral cleansing also has Adivasi origins
Mahashweta Devi has shown that both Shiva and Kali have tribal origins as do Krishna and Ganesh. In the 8th century, the tribal forest goddess or harvest goddess was absorbed and adapted as Siva's wife. Ganesh owes it's origins to a powerful tribe of elephant trainers whose incorporation into Hindu society was achieved through the deification of their elephant totem. In his study of Brahmin lineages in Maharashtra, Kosambi points to how many Brahmin gotras (such as Kashyapa) arose from tribal totems such as Kachhapa (tortoise). In Rajasthan, Rajput rulers recognised the Adivasi Bhil chiefs as allies and Bhils acquired a central role in some Rajput coronation ceremonies.
India's regional languages such as Oriya, Marathi or Bengali developed as a result of the fusion of tribal languages with Sanskrit or Pali and virtually all the Indian languages have incorporated words from the vocabulary of Adivasi languages.
Adivasis who developed an intimate knowledge of various plants and their medicinal uses played an invaluable role in the development of Ayurvedic medicines. In a recent study, the All India Coordinated Research Project credits Adivasi communities with the knowledge of 9000 plant species - 7500 used for human healing and veterinary health care. Dental care products like datun, roots and condiments like turmeric used in cooking and ointments are also Adivasi discoveries, as are many fruit trees and vines. Ayurvedic cures for arthritis and night blindness owe their origin to Adivasi knowledge.
Adivasis also played an important role in the development of agricultural practices - such as rotational cropping, fertility maintenance through alternating the cultivation of grains with leaving land fallow or using it for pasture. Adivasis of Orissa were instrumental in developing a variety of strains of rice.
Adivasi musical instruments such as the bansuri (flute) and dhol (drum), folk-tales, dances and seasonal celebrations also found their way into Indian traditions as did their art and metallurgical skills.
In India's central belt, Adivasi communities rose to considerable prominence and developed their own ruling clans. The earliest Gond kingdom appears to date from the 10th C and the Gond Rajas were able to maintain a relatively independent existence until the 18th C., although they were compelled to offer nominal allegiance to the Mughal empire. The Garha-Mandla kingdom in the north extended control over most of the upper Narmada valley and the adjacent forest areas. The Deogarh-Nagpur kingdom dominated much of the upper Wainganga valley, while Chanda-Sirpur in the south consisted of territory around Wardha and the confluences of the Wainganga with the Penganga.
Jabalpur was one of the major centers of the Garha-Mandla kingdom and like other major dynastic capitals had a large fort and palace. Temples and palaces with extremely fine carvings and erotic sculptures came up throughout the Gond kingdoms. The Gond ruling clans enjoyed close ties with the Chandella ruling clans and both dynasties attempted to maintain their independence from Mughal rule through tactical alliances. Rani Durgavati of Jabalpur (of Chandella-Gond heritage) acquired a reputation of legendary proportions when she died in battle defending against Mughal incursions. The city of Nagpur was founded by a Gond Raja in the early 18th century.
Adivasis and the Freedom Movement
As soon as the British took over Eastern India tribal revolts broke out to challenge alien rule. In the early years of colonization, no other community in India offered such heroic resistance to British rule or faced such tragic consequences as did the numerous Adivasi communities of now Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Orissa and Bengal. In 1772, the Paharia revolt broke out which was followed by a five year uprising led by Tilka Manjhi who was hanged in Bhagalpur in 1785. The Tamar and Munda revolts followed. In the next two decades, revolts took place in Singhbhum, Gumla, Birbhum, Bankura, Manbhoom and Palamau, followed by the great Kol Risings of 1832 and the Khewar and Bhumij revolts (1832-34). In 1855, the Santhals waged war against the permanent settlement of Lord Cornwallis, and a year later, numerous adivasi leaders played key roles in the 1857 war of independence.
But the defeat of 1858 only intensified British exploitation of national wealth and resources. A forest regulation passed in 1865 empowered the British government to declare any land covered with trees or brushwood as government forest and to make rules to manage it under terms of it's own choosing. The act made no provision regarding the rights of the Adivasi users. A more comprehensive Indian Forest Act was passed in 1878, which imposed severe restrictions upon Adivasi rights over forest land and produce in the protected and reserved forests. The act radically changed the nature of the traditional common property of the Adivasi communities and made it state property.
As punishment for Adivasi resistance to British rule, "The Criminal Tribes Act" was passed by the British Government in 1871 arbitrarily stigmatizing groups such as the Adivasis (who were perceived as most hostile to British interests) as congenital criminals.
Adivasi uprisings in the Jharkhand belt were quelled by the British through massive deployment of troops across the region. The Kherwar uprising and the Birsa Munda movement were the most important of the late-18th century struggles against British rule and their local agents. The long struggle led by Birsa Munda was directed at British policies that allowed the zamindars (landowners) and money-lenders to harshly exploit the Adivasis. In 1914 Jatra Oraon started what is called the Tana Movement (which drew the participation of over 25,500 Adivasis). The Tana movement joined the nation-wide Satyagrah Movement in 1920 and stopped the payment of land-taxes to the colonial Government.
During British rule, several revolts also took place in Orissa which naturally drew participation from the Adivasis. The significant ones included the Paik Rebellion of 1817, the Ghumsar uprisings of 1836-1856, and the Sambhalpur revolt of 1857-1864.
In the hill tribal tracts of Andhra Pradesh a revolt broke out in August 1922. Led by Alluri Ramachandra Raju (better known as Sitarama Raju), the Adivasis of the Andhra hills succeeded in drawing the British into a full-scale guerrilla war. Unable to cope, the British brought in the Malabar Special Force to crush it and only prevailed when Alluri Raju died.
As the freedom movement widened, it drew Adivasis into all aspects of the struggle. Many landless and deeply oppressed Adivasis joined in with upper-caste freedom fighters expecting that the defeat of the British would usher in a new democratic era.
Unfortunately, even fifty years after independence, Dalits and Adivasis have benefited least from the advent of freedom. Although independence has brought widespread gains for the vast majority of the Indian population, Dalits and Adivasis have often been left out, and new problems have arisen for the nation's Adivasi populations. With the tripling of the population since 1947, pressures on land resources, especially demands on forested tracks, mines and water resources have played havoc on the lives of the Adivasis. A disproportionate number of Adivasis have been displaced from their traditional lands while many have seen access to traditional resources undercut by forest mafias and corrupt officials who have signed irregular commercial leases that conflict with rights granted to the Adivasis by the Indian constitution.
It remains to be seen if the the grant of statehood for Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh ameliorates the conditions for India's Adivasis. However, it is imperative that all Adivasi districts receive special attention from the Central government in terms of investment in schools, research institutes, participatory forest management and preservation schemes, non-polluting industries, and opportunities for the Adivasi communities to document and preserve their rich heritage. Adivasis must have special access to educational, cultural and economic opportunities so as to reverse the effects of colonization and earlier injustices experienced by the Adivasi communities.
At the same time, the country can learn much from the beauty of Adivasi social practices, their culture of sharing and respect for all - their deep humility and love of nature - and most of all - their deep devotion to social equality and civic harmony.
Notes
Abhishek Sheetal from the Munda tribe in Jharkhand wrote to us emphasizing how traditionally tribal societies valued gender equality, respect for nature and equality of all trades. This Munda fable is particularly illustrative:
There was a king who lost a war with Munda tribals. He sent a messenger to the king of Mundas. The messenger looked around but could not find the king or his palace. He asked one farmer as to where to find the king. The farmer replied, "He was here a while ago, let me see (he looks around)....Oh there he is (pointing to a man plowing his fields with his bullocks)... He is working there."
References:
1. What is Living and What is Dead in Indian Philosophy - Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya1b. Stcherbasky: Buddhist Logic (New York, 1962), Papers of Stcherbasky - (Calcutta - 1969,71)
2. The Indian Historical Review, Vol. 16:1,2 Baidyanath Saraswati's review of P.K Maity, Folk-Rituals of Eastern India
3. Bulletins of the ICHR (Indian Council of Historical Research)
4. Studies in the History of Science in India (Edited by Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya)
5. Adivasi: A symbiotic Bond - Mari and Stan Thekaekara (Hindu Folio, July 16, 2000)
Note: The term Adivasi has been used broadly to represent those classified as Scheduled Tribe under the Indian constitution. Roughly speaking, the term translates as aboriginal or native people (or native dwellers).
Some Dalit activists now prefer to also be characterized as Adivasis. Others seek to bring all of India's oppressed groupings under the 'Bahujan Samaj' umbrella. While the term Harijan is largely out of favour, there are some who simply identify with the government designated terms ST (scheduled tribe) and SC (scheduled caste).
Although, districts with large Adivasi populations are to be found almost throughout India, the majority of India's Adivasis hail from Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh and Orissa. Tripura, Arunachal, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland also have large Adivasi populations. There are also districts in Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra and Tamil Nadu with sizeable Adivasi populations.
Also see: Adivasi and other Revolts, Unsung Heroes of the Indian Freedom Struggle
Related Articles:
Buddhist Ethics and Social Criticism
History of Social Relations in India
Key Landmarks in the Indian Freedom Struggle
Also see Topics in Indian History
http://india_resource.tripod.com/adivasi.html
Colonialism, Culture, and Resistance Book Description
How did resistance to colonialism form a source of alternative modernity in India? Why did the process fail to strike roots? Building upon four decades of serious research, this unique collection discusses different forms of resistance to colonialism and their role in the formation of alternative modernity. It also provides an engaging account of the development of political and cultural consciousness in the subcontinent.
Investigating three areas of resistance - armed uprising, intellectual dissent, and cultural protest - K.N. Panikkar argues that these were informed by a vision of a condition beyond colonialism in which tradition and modernity selectively, but creatively, came together. This had manifestations in several fields of cultural and intellectual concern - social ideas, cultural practices, scientific enquiries, and literary and artistic creativity.
According to the author a creative dialogue between tradition and modernity was crowded out of public space by the dual pressures of revivalism and colonial modernity. The void thus created was filled either by the culture of the capitalist west intially provided by colonial modernity or by the obscurantism of tradition, currently being elaborated and advocated by Hindutva. The failure of alternative modernity has also led to an uncritical acceptance of globalization and sympathetic response to cultural revivalism. Based on a variety of sources, in both English and regional languages, this volume provides a new interpretation of the intellectual and cultural history of colonial India.
Emeritus Professorr of History, Jawaharlal Nehru University
In a fast-changing intellectual climate, K.N. Panikkar has stood his ground with remarkable tenacity. He is our foremost historian who has, for well over four decades, explored the social histories of South India from a Marxian perspective. This volume bears testimony, if it were ever needed, to his scholarship. - Mushirul Hasan,
Vice Chancellor and Professor of Modern Indian History, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
http://www.infibeam.com/Books/info/K-N-Panikkar/Colonialism-Culture-and-Resistance/0195681533.html
Indian fireworks blaze 'kills 30'
 Firecrackers are widely used during the Hindu festival of Diwali |
At least 30 people have been killed and 10 injured in a fire at a fireworks warehouse in south-east India, the Press Trust of India says.
Police said 30 charred bodies had been pulled from the warehouse at Pallipat, near Chennai, according to the report.
Most of the victims were reported to be traders buying up fireworks ahead of the Diwali festival on Saturday.
It was not immediately clear how the fire started. Accidental explosions are common at Indian fireworks factories.
Many such factories are illegal, providing fireworks for weddings, festivals and other ceremonies.
In July at least 16 people were killed after an explosion and fire at another fireworks factory in Tamil Nadu state, of which Chennai is the capital.
Fireworks celebrations are an important part of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8311901.stm
Pakistan begins Taliban assault
 Hakimullah Mehsud is the new leader of the Pakistan Taliban |
Fierce fighting has broken out as Pakistan's army launched an air and ground offensive against Taliban militants in the South Waziristan area.
Officials said 30,000 troops, backed by artillery, had moved into the region where Pakistan Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud is based.
Militants were reported to be offering stiff resistance as troops advanced from the north, east, and west.
A curfew was imposed in the region before the offensive began.
There have been several co-ordinated Taliban attacks in recent days, killing more than 150 people in cities across Pakistan.
Pakistan's top army spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas confirmed that a fully-fledged assault had begun and said that an offensive could last up to two months.
"The objective is to clear this terrorist organisation from the area, who has taken over the area, turned these state institutions, organisations out and has taken the entire population hostage," he told the BBC.
He added that intense fighting was expected during the course of the operation.
Dozens of casualties have already been reported by local officials as both sides used heavy weapons.
The bodies of three Pakistan soldiers were taken to the northern town of Razmak. There have also been unconfirmed reports of militant deaths.
Nearly all communications in the region were down after the Taliban destroyed a telecommunications tower at Tiarza, local officials said.
Reports from the area are sketchy as it is difficult and dangerous for foreign or Pakistani journalists to operate inside South Waziristan.
Air attack
Aerial bombardments in the the Makeen area, a stronghold of the Mehsud tribe and a key army target, were also reported by local officials and witnesses.
| FORCES IN WAZIRISTAN Pakistan army: Two divisions totalling 28,000 soldiers Frontier Corp: Paramilitary forces from tribal areas likely to support army Taliban militants: Estimated between 10,000 and 20,000 Uzbek fighters supporting Taliban: Estimates widely vary between 500-5,000  |
One resident of Makeen town described the onset of fighting.
"We heard the sounds of planes and helicopters early Saturday. Then we heard blasts. We are also hearing gunshots and it seems the army is exchanging fire with Taliban," Ajmal Khan told the Associated Press news agency by telephone.
The ground operation comes after weeks of air and artillery strikes against militant targets in the region, which lies close to the Afghan border.
Thousands of civilians have fled South Waziristan in anticipation of the offensive.
Aid agencies say that many more are expected to flee but the tough terrain and the Taliban's grip on the area will present difficulties.
Transport has been difficult as roads have been blocked by the military.
There is a huge army presence on the road between Tank and Dera Ismail Khan, says the BBC's Islamabad correspondent Shoaib Hasan, near South Waziristan.
On his way to South Waziristan, he passed several army convoys on the road.
There has been no comment from the Pakistan military yet.
The mobilisation came a day after Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani held a meeting of the country's senior political and military leadership.
Lengthy planning
Recent militant attacks were seen as an attempt to divide public opinion, but they appear to have strengthened the resolve of the government, which says the Taliban must now be eliminated, our correspondent added.
 Pakistanis have fled the Afghan border region as troops move in |
The army has been massing troops near the militants' stronghold for months - ever since the governor of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province announced a ground offensive in South Waziristan on 15 June.
Pakistan's government has been under considerable pressure from the US to tackle militancy there.
North and South Waziristan form a lethal militant belt from where insurgents have launched attacks across north-west Pakistan as well as into parts of eastern Afghanistan.
South Waziristan is considered to be the first significant sanctuary for Islamic militants outside Afghanistan since 9/11.
It also has numerous training camps for suicide bombers.
Are you currently in South Waziristan? Have you left your home due to the prospect of a military attack? Have you seen army convoys? Send us your stories using the form below.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8311927.stm
Middle East |
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 | | Iraq's cabinet ratifies a deal with two foreign energy companies to develop the giant southern oilfield in Rumaila. |
| The UN Human Rights Council backs a report into Israel's Gaza offensive accusing both Israel and Hamas of war crimes. | | A Saudi camel owner sues oil giant Saudi Aramco for $250,000 after a prized beast falls into a hole in the desert. |
| Iraqis terrorised by recent spate of child kidnappings | | Hamas-Fatah feud played out in West Bank town | | Park bench romance in Iranian capital Tehran | |
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| MORE FROM MIDDLE EAST BUSINESS MEDIA ROUND-UP | | YOUR PERSPECTIVE FEATURES A GUIDE TO THE MIDDLE EAST
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| Gaza's scarred children struggle for an education | | Is Russia moving closer to the US on the issue of Iran? | | Lack of peace deepens Middle East water crisis |
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Colonialism and cultural resistance
20 May 1992
Whitefella comin': Aboriginal Responses to Colonialism in Northern Australia
By David S. Trigger
Cambridge University Press, 1992. 250 pp. $45 (hb)
Reviewed by Andrew Honey
Trigger's book focuses on Doomadgee, a mission settlement on the Nicholson River in the Queensland gulf country 80 km west of Burketown, established by Open Brethren in 1936. It is an interpretation of social life up to 1983 based on original research.
After pastoralists drove Aborigines off their land, the northern Protector regularly issued rations in the 1890s, which "engendered a form of accommodation" to state coercion and land dispossession and led to the pauperisation of the Aborigines.
However, only with the establishment of Doomadgee have Aborigines been subject to "forces of hegemonic domination". It is this part of Trigger's study that breaks new ground.
The missionaries saw the poor physical conditions combined with "moral danger": At Burketown "no little girl is really safe, such is the depraved condition of the people here", whereas at Doomadgee there was the "pure, clean atmosphere of a Christian home".
The "girls" (some were 24 years old!) were locked up overnight and forbidden to leave the mission unaccompanied during the day.
Social distance
There was a physical division between the "mission", which contained the houses of the white staff, the school and the clinic, and the "village", which contained Aboriginal housing and none of the service facilities.
This physical separation and the retention of services in the white domain is reproduced in many places where there appear to be two separate towns, for example Toomelah and Boggabilla in northern NSW.
Trigger argues that Aborigines seem more committed than whites to maintaining this social distance. He believes Aborigines exclude whites as part of a "defence against constant administrative intrusiveness and attitudinal ethnocentrism".
The internal politics of the "village", he concludes,
involved the "attribution of social status" in a manner totally different to that of non-Aboriginal society, centring on language, country and kin.
A valuable aspect of Trigger's study is his discussion of conflict, which he describes as quite common, and its resolution independent of the "village" administration. This reinforces the interpretation of Aboriginal "dispute processing" advanced by Marcia Langton in "Medicine Square" (1988).
Trigger attempts to ascertain the extent to which Aborigines have imbibed the racial ideology shared by the missionaries and the racist governments of Queensland and the Northern Territory.
This was that "mixed-race" children on cattle stations and in fringe camps should be separated from "full-bloods" because they were more assimilable into white society.
At Doomadgee, Aborigines referred to those of mixed descent as "half-caste", "quarter-caste" and "Yellafella" and considered them a separate social group.
The attribution of "Yellafella" status depended on a person's skin colour, knowledge of their parents and grandparents and their general behaviour and usual associates.
Trigger found that persons attributed "Yellafella" status were twice as likely to be in employment, more than six times as likely to have access to a vehicle and were favoured in obtaining newer housing.
Trigger believes that Aboriginal thought has not embraced the white ideology that attributes inherent characteristics to skin colour or ancestry, but rather that it emphasises the "importance of mixed-descent people having been provided with different opportunities by the world of white officialdom and employers".
Christianity
Did Christianity legitimate the domination over Aboriginal society or provide a basis for resistance?
The steps to become a Christian were first to approach a church elder and make a "profession of faith" or be "saved", then to be baptised and finally to live an "authentic Christian life".
Only a few of the large number of Aborigines who had been "saved" and baptised were in fellowship at any one time,
in 1982 constituting 30 or 40 out of 260 adults.
In an aspect that Trigger does not explore further, there seems to be a female bias in the numbers of both those baptised (59%) and those attending Brethren meetings (67%). This seems to call for further explanation, given that women could not speak at church meetings or become elders.
Many Christian Aborigines opposed initiation ceremonies because they regarded Aboriginal law as dangerous "in some spiritual sense". As a result, there was considerable tension between Christians and those committed to Aboriginal law.
Trigger argues that Aborigines have not kept the two traditions "intellectually separate". That a number of law experts have over the years been baptised and that "square up" rituals followed the deaths of Aborigines, including church elders, are cited as examples of the considerable tolerance of aspects of Christian belief among the broad group of Aborigines not in fellowship.
In material terms, those who were regular churchgoers were four times more likely to be living in newer housing than irregular churchgoers, and all churchgoers were three times more likely than non-churchgoers to be living in newer housing.
Overall, Trigger finds that among converts, "Christianity has operated as a powerful legitimating ideology for White authority". But after 50 years, the Aboriginal domain and the distinctly Aboriginal form of politics still formed part of a "culture of resistance". The tactical management of social distance, the failure of the evangelical endeavour to embrace more than a minority of Aborigines and the failure of the management ethos to convince most Aborigines of its legitimacy are evidence of this.
The great merit of Trigger's book is not simply to have moved away from interpreting Aborigines as mere victims, but to have explored, following Genovese and others in Afro-American history, original material on different forms of resistance and accommodation. He has given both an original account and a unique interpretation.
http://www.greenleft.org.au/1992/56/3232
Culture Wars Counter Attack: Remembering Aboriginal Resistance to the Invasion
by Joseph Toscano Friday January 27, 2006 at 12:25 AM
Repost from Anarchist Age Weekly Review 676
The 30 or so people who gathered at the corner of Bowen and Franklin Streets in Melbourne last Saturday to mark the 164th anniversary of the execution of the indigenous freedom fighters Tunnerminnerwait and Peevay, decided to appoint a Steering Committee to examine the possibility of ongoing action.
Australia has been involved in a viscous culture war over the past 2 decades that has been conducted by a small but influential clique of reactionary historical revisionists who enjoy a great deal of support in the Federal Cabinet and Murdoch's flagship in Australia - The Australian. This war has been fought to undermine gains made by indigenous Australians, the trade union and community based orgnisations. They have succeeded in their efforts to undermine the gains made by people who have been oppressed for generations.
Ironically, while historical revisionists that deny the Holocaust occurred are correctly marginalised and ridiculed, those in Australia who deny the reality of the colonisation process in this country are lauded, are given a voice by both the Federal government and influential sections of the corporate media. The formation of a group that is willing to take these historical and cultural revisionists head on, is long overdue.
The best way to tackle the lies and misinformation that is currently doing the rounds, is by publicly commemorating significant events in our past, by erecting memorials, plaques and statues to physically mark these events, by putting pressure on local councils to establish and maintain these memorials and encouraging them to hold seminars and information days to inform the residents of their municipalities about these significant events and to put pressure on the government of the day to ensure that these important stories are told in the National Museum, the National Library, the National Art Gallery and most importantly of all, the story about the indigenous resistance to white colonisation is told in the Canberra War Memorial.
If you are interested in joining and supporting the 'CULTURE WARS COUNTERATTACK', keep reading the Anarchist Age Weekly Review and listening to the Anarchist World This Week [3CR Wednesdays 10am] to find out what is planned for the rest of the year.
PERSONAL OBSERVATION
I first came across the story of Tunnerminnerwait and Peevay in a second hand bookshop 4 or 5 years ago. I'd heard about the first executions that had occurred in Victoria in the early 1840's, but knew nothing about them. It was one of those fortuitous meetings that happen once in a while. In the bottom shelf of the Australian History section was a copy of Jack of Cape Grimm which has been written by Jan Roberts as a bicentenary subject. She wanted to do a TV series, nothing came of it, now her book, like the bones of Tunnerminnerwait and Peevay rotting underneath the Queen Victoria Market, have joined the community's collective unconsciousness.
I've been thinking about organising something to mark their execution for 2 to 3 years. It was only late last year after a little bit of prodding from a friend - Bill, that the Anarchist Media Institute organised a commemoration. Even if 3 or 4 turned up, the event would stir up a few leaves in the collective amnesia of the city of Melbourne.
Saturday was the hottest day for over a year, temperatures soared around 40degrees. The spot - corner Franklin & Bowen Streets is bare asphalt, workmen were trying to get in and out of RMIT in their utes. About 30 of us made a circle, a few talked about the significance of the events, for an hour we remembered, we had blown life into this city's forgotten history. Although the media had been invited, no one came, no one called. I didn't expect anybody to bother; they had bigger fish to fry - what was happening at Ramsey Street, the cricket and 101 other meaningless events to cover.
It doesn't matter, we have started a tradition which will grow and grow, a Steering Committee was appointed - 'THE CUTURE WARS COUNTER ATTACK' was born kicking and screaming. It is amazing what happens when we try to make the ideas in our heads a reality. Tunnerminnerwait and Peevay's deaths are not forgotten. People had tears in their eyes as I recounted their stories. A bunch of flowers, an A3 poster and a leaflet were taped around a tree, someone else will come across their story, maybe, just maybe, they will take the trouble like you to join us next year.
AUSTRALIAN RADICAL HISTORY WHO? (from Anarchist Age No 643)
Every Australian knows about the Ned Kelly gang, how many Australians are familiar with the story of PLANOBEENA, PYTERRUNNER, TRUCANNINI, TUNNERMINNERWAIT and PEEVAY - Fanny, Matilda, Truganni, Jack and Robert - 5 indigenous Tasmanians who fought an effective campaign against the invading European settlers on the Eastern outskirts of Melbourne in the late 1841.
Their exploits rival those of the Ned Kelly gang. One group has been ignored and forgotten, the other immortalised in Australia folklore Three military expeditions were launched against 5 of the 17 Tasmanian Aborigines that had been brought across from Tasmania by the Aboriginal �protector� Robinson - for the purpose of aiding in the civilisation of the Aborigines of Australia Felix-the remnants of the Tasmania tribes who had fought a 34 year battle against the invasion of Tasmania by European settlers were once again conducting war against the invaders, this time in Victoria.
All 5 were familiar with firearms and the ways of European settlers. The invaders held no fear for them and they were able to evade 3 military expeditions that were sent to kill them.
They raided station after station from Dandenong to Cape Paterson. They stole firearms and burnt down stations, trying to avoid unnecessary deaths and gunfights. They killed 2 whalers, Cook and Yankee, wounded 5 settlers, burnt down numerous farmhouses and evaded capture for 8 weeks. Although they set out to drive the settlers from the bush, they didn�t harm women or children and only fired at those that fired at them. Considering the outrages that had been perpetrated on them and their families in Tasmania, it�s extraordinary that they didn�t kill many more settlers when they had the opportunity to even up the score.
They were finally captured near Anderson�s Inlet, not far from Cape Patterson, after an exchange of gunfire with an overwhelming party of soldiers, police, settlers and black trackers, who were used to pinpoint their position in the bush. In 8 weeks, this small band had sent a shiver down the spine of the 15,000 Europeans who were living in Melbourne and its environs in late 1841.
The Aboriginal prisoners arrived in Melbourne 6 days after they were captured in chains and under military escort on the 21st November 1841. All the defendants were charged with murder, they appeared in court on the 20th December 1841. Mr. Redmond Barry, the standing Defence Counsel for Aborigines who represented the 5 in court, was the same man who presided over the trial of some of the miners who were involved in the Eureka rebellion in 1854 and the judge who sentenced Ned Kelly to hang in 1880.
Barry conducted a very skilful defence, Robinson gave character evidence for the fire, and later the same evening the jury took half an hour to reach a verdict. The men were found guilty of murder, the women were found not guilty. The jury made a very strong plea for clemency for the men �on account of general good character and the peculiar circumstances under which they are placed�.
The next day Judge Willis sentenced the 2 men to death and the 3 women were discharged into Robinson�s care. The jury�s plea for mercy was rejected by the Executive Council of New South Wales. There had never been an execution in Melbourne since it was founded in 1836.
It�s ironic that the first 2 executions were of indigenous resistance fighters. The execution was carried out on the site of the current Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology on the 20th January 1842. 5000 people, a quarter of Victoria�s white population turned up for Melbourne�s first public executions.
Tunnerminnerwait faced the execution calmly, Peevy was terror struck and had to be dragged up to the gallows. The gallows were poorly built, the execution had no previous experience, the trap doors opened, both men only partially fell, �the 2 twisted and writhed convulsively in a manner that horrified even the most hardened�. A spectator kicked the piece of timber holding the trapdoor partially opened, Robert slowly choked to death.
Jack and Robert were buried outside the Melbourne cemetery (under the current Victoria Market). Aboriginal armed resistance continued in Victoria till the 1850�s.
SOURCE OF MATERIAL FOR ARTICLE: Jack of Cape Grim by Jan Roberts, Greenhouse Publications 1986, ISBN 086436007X
Archive for the 'subaltern agency' Category
Slide-show of Resistance at the West-Bank
Stellan Vinthagen April 29th, 2009
At the next Resistance Studies Seminar at Gothenburg University on the 7th May we will have the opportunity to learn first hand of the resistance done in the everyday and in actions by Palestinians.
Jonathan Pye shares his experiences from the West Bank as an activist with the International Solidarity Movement. Beginning with last years olive harvest via the struggle against settler theft of property and against the wall, to the solidarity demonstrations with the people in Gaza during the massacre. A slide-show from the activities is presented in order to give a personal view rather than a macro-political analysis. An example of what activism in Palestine can be like for the curious about the current situation and those who themselves consider going there.
The seminar happens in Room 403. Seminars happen as usual every second Thursday at 15:15-17:00, Annedalsseminariet, School of Global Studies. Post-seminar at 17-, Restaurant Gyllene Prag. (RSN Work Group Meetings at same place at 14) (You find the seminar text one week before and more information above on "Seminars"). Are you interested to present at a seminar or have ideas? Email Stellan Vinthagen (write "stellan.vinthagen" and then add "@resistancestudies.org")
Resistance studies seminar on Anti-privatisation struggles in India
Stellan Vinthagen April 19th, 2009
On Thursday we have the next resistance studies seminar in Gothenburg. We are honoured to have PhD Katrin Uba from Department of Government, Uppsala University who will present her research on resistance against privatisation in India. Her PhD; "Do Protests Make a Difference?: The impact of anti-privatisation mobilisation in India and Peru", was presented 2007.
In order to get a good discussion at the seminar we urge all participants to read parts of her thesis beforehand. Of course it is not necessary to read it all, but some of it, in order to get the critical discussion going forward.
Katrin Uba suggest that participants of the seminar read the thesis in one of the two ways - depending on the main interests of the reader: (1) In case of the interest in labour movement India – read introduction and the 1st essay (2) In case of the interest in outcomes of social movement mobilisation – read introduction and 3rd essay.
This time we also get an introductory lecture between 13-15 from Katrin, before the seminar (room 403). And as always, we gather for the seminar between 15 and 17, and then for the post-seminar session at restaurant Gyllene Prag from 17 and onwards. (More practical information you will find at the link "Seminars" above).
All welcome!
Art and Resistance?!
Stellan Vinthagen March 20th, 2009
This Wednesday I did a talk on Resistance Studies at the art exhibition hall Magasin 3 in Stockholm, Sweden. The talk was in connection to an ongoing exhibition by the artist Santiago Sierra (info in Swedish about this exhibition or the official site of Santiago Sierra in English). I outlined what "resistance studies" is and talked especially on everyday resistance and constructive resistance, and towards the end I did show loads of photos of examples of strong symbolic expressions of constructive resistance.
In the discussion afterwards several people asked me what I tink of the art of Sierra and if art can be part of resistance. I am convinced that art is possible as resistance but I am not convinced about Sierra I must admit. Some of the things he does seems more like an act of repeating the repression than the resistance to the repression…
I am more impressed by our old hero Banksy who does (at least) two things different to Sierra; he acts in the public space, and he display hopefull/humouristic resistance to power.
Of course, I am able to see that Sierra is upset and against repression, I like that. But is that enough? Does not the artist also have a responsibility to do more than show how ugly the world is? What happens when you show the oppression of the "castless"/untouchables (Dalits) in India by, like Sierra, letting them for free make art of their work with human shit, and then that art is sold by Sierra for a lot of money to art-collectors? No money goes to the Dalits…Of course it shows how twisted the world is, how sick the art industry is, and I am convinced Sierra want to show that problem, and expose the art industry, but, still, what about the Dalits? What about Sierra's role in repeating the repression?
I would love to get to know what more people think about the art of Sierra. Feel welcome to contribute your thoughts.
Creating histories of authenticity and resistance: Race, ethnicity and the right to land in Brazil
Stellan Vinthagen December 16th, 2008
Next RESISTANCE STUDIES SEMINAR Dec 18 (15-17 at Annedalsseminariet, see above at "Seminars") is with Post-Doc Patricia Lorenzoni. You are all welcome! This is her handout for the seminar:
Dear Seminar attendees,
My research concerns the relation between claims on land, ethnic minorities and history in Brazil. Working with readings of legislative and other official documents, I am exploring how the understanding of the historical relationship between the State and different minority groups sets a framework for the negotiations of rights.
Below is a series of translated passages from four different documents. The first is the Estatuto do Índio, the main legislative document regulating the relation between the Brazilian state and the indigenous minorities. Although this document from 1973 is on several points incongruent with the current constitution from 1988, due to the impossibility to reach an agreement in all necessary instances on a new legislation, the Estatuto do Índio is still in force. The second document is the democratic constitution from 1988.
Following these documents are excerpts from Programa Brasil Quilombola, a booklet published in 2004 by the government special secretariat on promoting politics of racial equality (Seppir). The publication is an explanation of the government program with the same name and launched the same year. This program aims at the recognition and non-assimilationist integration of descendants of quilombos, or maroon societies (i.e., descendants of fugitive slaves). Quoted is also from the regulations of Incra (the government authority for land reform) on the definition of a quilombo.
A note on the translations: I have kept certain Portuguese terms in the texts (such as quilombo, negro and índio) since they carry connotations that are not easily translatable into other languages and contexts. My presentation will revolve around the quotations below, and also around these terms and how they are used.
1. Estatuto do Índio, 1973, article 1:
This law regulates the legal situation of índios or silvícolas and of indigenous communities, with the purpose of preserving their culture and integrate them, progressive and harmoniously, into the national communion.
2. Estatuto do Índio, 1973, art 11:
Through decree by the President of the Republic, the emancipation of the indigenous community and its members can be declared, from the tutelary regime established by law, to the full integration into the national communion, this if it is demanded by the majority in the group and proven in inquiry realized by a competent federal organ.
3. The Constitution of Brazil, 1988, art 231, §§1-2:
For the índios are recognized their social organization, habits, languages, beliefs and traditions, and the original right to the lands that they traditionally occupy, falling on the Union to demarcate them, protect and make respected all of their goods. Lands traditionally occupied by índios are those where they live in permanent character, those used for their productive activities, those that are indispensable for the preservation of the environmental recourses necessary for their well-being and those necessary for their physical and cultural reproduction, according to their habits and traditions.
4. The Constitution of Brazil, 1988, art 232:
The Índios, their communities and organizations are legitimate parts to enter into court to defend their rights and interests.
5. Programa Brasil Quilombola, 2004, p. 9:
It is more plausible to affirm that the connection to the past [in the quilombo] resides in the maintenance of practices of resistance and reproduction of one's way of life in a determined locality where the collectivization of material and immaterial goods remain. In this way, communities remnants of quilombos are social groups whose ethnic identity distinguish them from the rest of society.
6. Programa Brasil Quilombola, 2004, p. 10:
The ethnic identity of a group is the base for its form of organization, its relation to other groups and for its political action.
7. Instrução normativa no 16, Incra, 2004:
The characteristics of remnants of quilombola communities should be attested through auto-definition of the community. Auto-definition should be demonstrated through a simple written declaration from the interested community, with specifications of negro ancestry, historical trajectory, resistance against oppression, cults and habits.
People Power 3?
jj February 22nd, 2008
The Philippines had a peaceful political revolution in 1986. Led by Corazon Aquino the opposition organised huge demonstrations against the fraudulent election Marcos arranged in January the same year. The name People Power became widely known and inspired other people around the world. In 2001 president Estrada was forced out of office in what was labelled the "sms-revolution".
Hundreds of thousands of civil society activists was several times mobilised to meet at a specific place and time via sms communication in this "People Power 2". This "high tech" means of organising has been copied by others several places worldwide.
In recent weeks a new wave of sms's has been calling for a "People Power 3" and yesterday (February 21) stating that the militaries will soon withdraw their support for the present president, Gloria Arroyo. This coming Monday is the 22nd anniversary of People Power1 and could be an important day for new non-violent actions to resist the present regime.
Take Action! 83 Ways to Change the World!
Stellan Vinthagen January 31st, 2008
The Museum of World Culture in Gothenburg recently started an exhibition on activism, displaying various forms of activism which people around in the world use in order to change their worlds. 83 different action forms are shown: e.g. violent rebellion, civil disobedience, clown armies, guerilla-gardening, knitting, seed-banks, remaking of IKEA-furniture, etc.
Confrontations with power relations as well as creative re-making of established structures and systems for own purposes (DIY, i.e. do it yourself or direct action) are part of the approaches. And much more…
The exhibition is a result of collaboration between a number of researchers within a research project around "Underground", funded by Museion, Gothenburg University and the Museum of World Culture. Major parts of the actions displayed are building on the work by Karl Palmås & Otto von Busch (on Hacktivism) and Stellan Vinthagen (on Political Undergrounds).
The exhibition goes on for 1,5 years and integrates with community events by various activist groups and open lectures on the theme of resistance and activism. Go and see it! Tell others about it!
The Gothenburg Resistance Seminar: Next on Everyday Resistance
Stellan Vinthagen January 25th, 2008
Safaa Daoud will present a paper on Everyday Resistance next Thursday (the 31st of Jan) and by that start this semester's Gothenburg Resistance Studies Seminar. Her paper discusses how everyday political acts are possible to understand as relevant resistance in the line of James Scott's classic study.
With this seminar we at the Resistance Studies Network hope to initiate a discussion on resistance which highlights forms of resistance that are not often understood as "resistance", forms which everyone is doing in their "private" life and which acctually might be a lot more important than the occasional dramatic public forms of resistance.
The paper is possible to download at the link to "Seminars" above on this site, or directly here.
Hope to see you at the seminar!
Antistrategic resistance according to Foucault
Per Herngren July 19th, 2007
I am working with the notion of antistrategic resistance and found this interresting quote from Michel Foucault:
"If someone ask me what it is I think I am doing, I would answer: if the strategist is a man who says "what importance does a particular death, a particular cry, a particular uprising have in relation to the great necessity of the whole, and of what importance to me is such-and-such a general principle in the specific situation in which we find ourselves?" then it is indifferent to me whether the strategist is a politician, a historian, a revolutionary, someone who supports the Shah or the ayatollah. My theoretical morality is the opposite. It is "antistrategic": be respectful when singularity rises up, and intransigent when power infringes on the universal."
Source: "Is it useless to revolt?" (Inutile de se soulever?). Quoted here from Foucauldian Reflections. Who quoted from Eribon, Michel Foucault, (pp. 290-91).
The "Righteous": Individual Resistance of Great Importance
Stellan Vinthagen July 8th, 2007
Resistance is, when it is studied, regularly understood firstly as a collective project; within a movement, a organisation or a "mass" of people. Secondly resistance is connected to dramatic and public confrontations. That might be because such resistance makes more noice, more headlines and through its very nature; disturbance on the public streets of urban environments. Both these assumptions might be wrong. James Scott has in his now classic work on resistance shown that resistance is, at least in severe oppressive situations (like serfdom, slavery, small farming in the country side in the Global South, in the cast system in India, or generally in authoritarian or totalitarian states) more likely to be hidden and disguised.
A strong statement showing how resistance might be entirely individual, yet massive in its scale, is the book by Martin Gilbert (www.martingilbert.com): The Righteous - The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust (2002) (Bye for about $13 at Amazon). In it Gilbert vividly describe the stories of individual brave actors who, while risking their own life, saved Jews during the Nazi occupations in various European countries. He describe the general phenomenon of "the righteous" in the introductory and concluding chapters, and between them he goes through various stories structured according to the situation in various countries, like Poland, Germany and Hungary.
An amazing number of today 21 758 (see the list at Wikipedia) non-Jewish individuals have already been formally recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations" (hasidei umot haolam) by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. And a lot more candidates are on the way being recognized (only in Lithuania another 2 000 individuals), while others don't want to be public about their brave contributions (e.g. in Denmark the underground resistance movement has asked the whole collective to be named, not individual heroes).
I think about my own grand father, Gustaf Nilsson, who was a soldier in Sweden during the war and who ended up in a military prison after letting Jews who had arrived in a small boat (probably from Denmark) and walked through his guard at the South border of Sweden. He never talked about it, at least my my father and grand-mother never talked about it, even though my grand-father was a trade union activist and thus an out-spoken political individual. I just found out about it when I cleared out the house of my grand mother after she died. Then I found the court papers of the military. I guess there are a lot of people like him, people who for various reasons did not talk about it, people we probably never will know of, who made a life saving act but didn't see it as much in the light of the war, the Holocaust and all the suffering that happened.
It is interesting to see that these brave individuals come from all kinds of social sectors (clergy, organized support groups, farmers, work camp guards, SS-soldiers, German supervisors, etc…). And it looks like more or less equal division between those who knew and had a good relation before the war/occupation to the Jews they saved, and those who saved strangers who just knocked on their door or were in a dangerous situation. (For more information check the website Holocaust Heroes).
The high number of individuals and their mainly isolated decision to risk torture, death and danger for their own family by helping people, without having anything to gain from it, is impressive and demands our interest. The thousands that did help become even more interesting to understand when we think about all the millions who did not make such brave acts, the many million Jews that were exterminated and tortured without getting any help…These "islands of exception" becomes a challenge to explain since even though six million Jews were murded, tens of thousands were saved.
Major Helmrich and his wife who helped Jews in Poland explained it by saying: "we decided that it would be better for our children to have dead parents than cowards as parents" (p. 526).
Gilbert presents a number of reasons given by the "righteous" themselves but no clear common denominator seems to surface. Not Christian values, earlier friendship, opposition to the Nazi occupation or ideology, contempt for prejudice, a value for justice or any other reason seem to explain it fully. The almost universal "explanation" from the righteous was in the line of what a Lithuanian couple said: "We did the only thing a decent person would do…" (p. 525), does not explain it either. And maybe there is no single factor, or even a common combination of factors that unite the individuals who faced death while helping those who suffered and risked even more just because they happend to be Jews. Maybe individual resistance demands individual explanation?
But some interesting tendencis exist, e.g. the difference of numbers who helped in the various countries. In Bulgaria (where relatively few Jews where murded) only 17 individuals have been recognized, but in Poland (where a lot of Jews where murded and a general anti-Semitic sentiments existed, even before the Nazi occupation) there are at least 6 004 individual resisters (see Yad Vashem, and Gilbert p. 550).
So, when we do resistance studies it needs to recognize the extremly individual and hidden nature of some forms of resistance. Resistance studies need to investigate such resistance as well since it do matters; for each saved person or particular reduced oppression it means a lot, at least for those concerned, and, it might, taken together represent a massive resistance activity which in its effects actually seriously undermines oppressive structures. The difficult question, though, is HOW do we study such individualized and hidden resistance?
Kathy Ferguson video keynote
Christopher Kullenberg June 18th, 2007
On the Resistance Studies Network inauguration Kathy Ferguson spoke on resistance toward the military expansion, colonialism and appropriation in Hawaii. The video-streams are ready to be watched in four parts. Just click on the numbers to be redirected to Youtube: Part 1, 2, 3, 4.
Biggest wave of Egyptian workers resistance since WWII
Stellan Vinthagen May 21st, 2007
After my blog entry on the 1st of May (see the archive), in which I was pessimistic about the role of trade unions in workers resistance, I am happy to report that some parts of the workers movement are very vital. Several hundreds textile workers, mainly female emploees, some with their children, occupy their factory, the Mansoura Spanish Garment Factory in the Nile Delta since April 21. They are demanding a living wage and payment of the with-held bonuses since 1999 (!). The factory is also under a contested sale which endanger the workers livelyhood.
Since 2006 Egypt have seen its biggest wave of workers resistance since the second world war, this time also in the private sector industry (according to the Middle East Report Online). It all started in the textile industry but has spread to other sectors. "In March, the Egyptian daily al-Masri al-Yawn estimated that around 222 sit-in strikes, work stoppages, hunger strikes and demonstrations had occured during 2006. In the first five months of 2007, the paper reported a new labour action nearly every day. The citizen group Egyptian Workers and Trade Union Watch documented 56 incidents during the month of April and another 15 during the first week of May.", according to a report by Harvey Thompson (18th May 2007).
These strikes are typically "illegal" since the state-controlled (so called "yellow") General Federation of Trade Unions is not authorizing the actions.
Similar to what seems to be the case in other countries, the militant workers organisations are mainly the newly organised workers within non-established trade unions. It is probably also not a coincidence that it all started in a female worker sector, the textile industry.
Resisting history
Stellan Vinthagen May 14th, 2007
Everytime someone experience oppression somekind of trace, damage or traumatic experience is created. That is then an effect of the destructive power relation that sort of "lives" on, maybe many years after. If that person then learns how to live with that experience, to go on with a life afterwards, with the help other peoples care, theraputic treatment, own healing, forgeting or phsycological surpression - then, arguably, that is possible to understand as "resistance". Resistance against an oppressive experience, against the continuation of that domination over ones own life and everyday. By learning how to live with or heal, to overcome the physical, social, emotional or pshycological damage of oppression we might actually do resistance, resistance against the continuing effects of the oppression.
If that is correct, then it is possible to do resistance even to that power relation which no longer is a relation, which no longer exists, as long as the effects of it exists, as long as power is remembered, relived in our lives and surivive in its social consequences. Power is only power as long as it is treated as power, remembered, feared, refered to. And, even when it did win, did dominate and oppress - it might, still, be defeated, undermined, destabilised, deconstructed or abolished, even "after the battle".
Thus, it is never to late to overcome oppression, to conquer the seemingly victorious and powerful power. Well, that, if something, gives hope. History is not yet completed.
The State of Workers Resistance
Stellan Vinthagen May 1st, 2007
Since it is the first of May it might be appropriate to reflect on workers resistance. Is it growing or decreasing? What forms of workers resistance exists?
I come from a country (Sweden) where the 1st of May is a holiday, the government has been a "workers government" (Social democrat) basically since the 1930s, longer than most other places in the world (interupted by cautious bourgoius coalitions some few shorter periods, the latest with a conservative party branding itself a new "workers party"!), a country where about 80 % of the work-force are organised in a union, thousands of workers and social democrat party members demonstrate on the 1st of May even when the social democrats are in the government… Still, it is a country where we have seen, since the 1990s, the common trend towards liberalisation of the market, privatisation, opening up of global finance flows and dismantling of the welfare-state, like in other countries in the world, responding to neo-liberal globalisation. Yet, the big union-organised workers strikes have been lower than ever. That is strange since workers has been under attack the last two decades and they are organised at a degree which workers could just dream of when they started about 150 years ago…Instead we have even seen how the main union in Sweden, LO, during an economic crisis in the 1990s agreed on forbidding strikes…
It is, generally speaking, a world trend that unions are organising less workers and unions are organising less strikes, see ILO-statistics. But the differences are vast. In the global South, e.g. in India, a lot more strikes are happening and new unions are created. Still, the trend is gowing down anyhow, towards less strikes, even in India.
The variation in different countries in the West (see the OECD-comparison) is still important (e.g. are strikes more frequent in Denmark, Canada, Iceland and Norway)and depending on how you compare strikes (size, frequency, intensity or duration) you get differnt results which means that more specific and theoretically informed research needs to be done on the development of strikes (se IALHI-research project).
But so far I have only talked about strikes, and then, official strikes, those who enters the statistics. Smaller wild-cat strikes are often not part of the official statistics. But more importantly, the class-struggle is not only expressed through recognised unions' publicly declared strikes…We have all other kinds of methods which workers use: sabotage, go-slow, pretending to be sick, theft and other kinds of everyday resistance at the work-place. Until we have an overall picture of all that kind of resistance it is not possible to say if workers resistance are diminishing or growing. And, by its very nature, hidden forms of resistance is not easy to bring into statistical graphs…
The American Database Bank (which is a company involved in the emplyment screening and background history industry) estimates that about one third of all work places experience employee thefts and that US work-places loose about $ 120 billion each year because of workers thefts. Employee theft are rising every year by 15 % according to the commerce professors and authors of the 1991 book "Reducing Employee Theft". That seems to be a trend that continues: the food retailers in the US claim 17 % increase of thefts from 2001 to 2002, according to the Food Marketing Institute. According to a survey 2002 by the retail industry in the US employee theft costs $ 15 billion per year, while shoplifting costs 10 billion, and both kind of thefts are on the rise.
Instead of understanding such employee theft as "shoplifting addiction" it is possible to understand it as a class struggle and "proletarian shoplifting", i.e. as workers (and ordinary consumers) leveling of capital owners profits, increased "pay" for their work or reduced "price" for their life-essentials.
But the question is if it is an effective strategy for class struggle? Of course capital owners will increase the price of their goods according to estimates of what they loose by theft and general production losses. The ordinary consumers, those who don't steal or don't steal enough…will have to pay the price of the theft of others (an average family of four pay about $ 440 more per year because of thefts). This kind of class struggle thus might be more of an individualised profit and/or survival strategy in a time of a defensive union and strike strategy, less of a collective anti-capitalist resistance strategy.
Obviously the picture of workers resistance is not so obvious as it might look at the first glance ("decreasing workers militancy globally"). There are a number of factors to take into account and differences among workers and countries. The need for research is clear. One of those trying to understand the changing forms of workers resistance is Curtis Price, e.g. in his "Fragile Prosperity, Fragile Social Peace" (in Swedish by the journal Riff-Raff which is dedicated to understanding changing capitalist resistance among workers).
The Suffering of Suppression and of Resistance
Stellan Vinthagen April 3rd, 2007
I just watched a very good play movie on MK, Umkonto We Sizwe, the armed wing of ANC in South Africa during apartheid; "Catch a fire" (2006). It was, according to my judgement, an unusual movie. It showed how the brutal and general oppression of white supremacy forced apolitical blacks in South Africa into making resistance during the 1980s. But more importantly, it showed the tensions and suffering created on families - both from apartheid itself (by being a suspected "terrorist" by being black) and from doing armed resistance. The film shows the human difficulties in this situation, and in a very unusual sensitive way, how the "freedom fighters" were ordinary, and sometimes very weak persons, yet brave and risk-taking. It showed how ordinary secrets and unsurity in a love relationship where used by the security branch, and how one of the more difficult things necessary to forgive was the betrayal by friends, loved ones and comrades. I must say that this is one of the most honest films of armed resistance I have seen, of the human weakness and greatness involved in fighting for that dignity you - by the circumstances - are kind of forced to do. That is probably since Shawn Slovo, the director of the movie, is the son of Joe Slovo, one of the creators of MK, killed in the 1990s.
To me personally, it is, even after interviewing MK soldiers (1994) in South Africa, hard to understand the personal risks they were taking, how they dared to resist, even though they risked torture, life in prison, degradation, being murded, or even worse - seeing their family tortured and degraded….During my research in South Africa, that was the repeated question: How did you dare to take the risks to fight? And, mostly, the answer was: I did not have a choice, I had to do it, it became a part of my life, how it was.
This film, better than anything I have seen, portray that, that choice to resist; a choice which is forced, which is desperate, yet hopefull - weak and broken, yet strong and unbeatable - filled with human fear and fault, yet a respons of dignity.
By the way, the film also shows, in a beautiful scene, hidden everyday resistance, how the workers waiting in a line to get into their work at a power plant - after a sabotage action by MK - sing a freedom fighter song in their own language, while being searched by the apartheid security guards, but pretending for the guards to sing about beautiful girls…
I strongly recommend people to download, bye or borrow the film: Catch a fire.
Creating Empowerment Through Resistance
Stellan Vinthagen March 13th, 2007
Five researchers - at the time of writing - connected to the still continuing Empowerment Network at Stockholm University (ENSU), published 2004 a very interesting article about "Validation, Techniques and Counter Strategies: Methods for Dealing with Power Structures and Changing Social Climates". (Reference info exists at Diana Amnéus' page). Their starting point is the classic "Master Suppression Techniques" discussed by Berit Ås (1978), various techniques in which normally women are made invisible by men (e.g. by ridiculing or withholding information) but also, as Berti Ås later explains, by techniques of objectification and threats & violence. A group of female PhD students at Stockholm University learned about the theory of Berit Ås and recognized these "ruler techniques" of suppression from their own experience and started to discuss how resistance would be possible. In 2004 they wrote a text about it and just recently - some days ago - that text became available on the Internet.
In their text they suggest a number of corresponding techniques for each of the ruler techniques; one validation technique (which confirms and supports the person suppressed, validating the human value of that person, thus changing also the group climate) and one counter strategy (i.e. a way to do resistance to the suppression). For example is the ruler technique "invisibilizing" countered by "taking up space" and validated by "visibilizing". Each of these counter strategies and validation techniques are then discussed.
The work by this cross-disciplinary group of authors: Diana Amnéus (Public International Law), Ditte Eile, former Jonasson (Pedagogy), Ulrika Flock (Biochemistry), Pernilla Rosell Steuer (German) and Gunnel Testad (Literature Studies) - is a major break-through, since the "suppression techniques" have been discussed and used within mainly the feminist movement (but also within other power critical groups) without resulting in a clear strategy of how to counter these forms of everyday "herrschaft" or suppression. Women experience these forms of suppression regularly but not only women. More rulers than men are using the techniques, as is pointed out by the authors. This kind of suppression of others exists at universities in which those higher in rank at seminars are able to suppress those with lower rank with the help of e.g. ridiculing. Ruler techniques can be used in corporations, by parents against children, in the military, etc. I would argue that all unjust hierarchies not only keep its hierarchy with formal rule behaviour but also with informal ruler techniques, i.e. suppression. That is a way to protect injustice and discourage resistance.
We at the Resistance Studies Network are interested in cooperation with the authors of this important text and with the new active members of the Empowerment Network. It would therefore be helpful if our readers contributed with comments to this resistance relevant text by writing at our blog. Even if you happen to agree totally with the authors about their suggestions there are a lot more to say and discuss. We are e.g. looking for empirical illustrations, case-studies or further techniques that could shed some light on these important forms of everyday resistance.
Enjoy the reading and let me know what you think!
History of Aboriginal Resistance in Australia
Stellan Vinthagen March 7th, 2007
There has been a myth of white settlers populating an nearly empthy Australia with aboriginal tribes too weak, primitive and submissive to make any resistance. One website have compiled a historic table telling the various major resistance acts done by aboriginal people since 1790 until some years ago, a list that shows that the myth is not right, that an impressive level of aboriginal resistance have existed more than 200 years and with very varied expressions. The list builds on historic literature from the 1980s.
Check it out: aboriginal resistance time line.
Reflections on subaltern agency.
Christopher Kullenberg February 7th, 2007
This monday an interesting seminar on post-colonial theory took place, where a majority of the resistance studies network attended. As I had to run off early to attend another seminar on Heidegger's Sein und Zeit, I did not have time to answer an important question that Stellan asked me. Now, I have given it a bit of thought, and decided to write it down.
The seminar departed in a text by John Beverly which addresses the problem of subaltern politics, resistance and agency (which are tightly interwoven with each other). To put it briefly, it is impossible for the subaltern position to remain intact in order to represent itself or be represented, as Spivak argues in the famous text Can the subaltern speak?. Now, the text by Beverly takes this problem onto a political level and asks the question whether collective political projects can ever include the subaltern position, since the nature of politics and the state are necessarily hegemonic, and forces inclusion (often by transforming, hierachization and opression) or exclusion (which preserves the status quo for subaltern agency). This is indeed very interesting, and reminds me of Deleuze & Guattari's nomadology, where nomad agency is necessarily opposed to the State-apparatus, and can never reach the monstrous political power of the State without transforming its entire conditions. When outlining this problem, which has no solution, Stellan asked me for one, and at the time I did not have an answer… why not? Well, because there are many obstacles involved. Here are a few:
1. Subjecting the world's population to a politics of domination: As global politics is centered around liberal democratic values, narratives to which one has to conform to in order to be heard, it would require the subaltern position either to be transformed (sameness) or excluded with silence or violence (difference). Politics is in this sense binary, requiring either homogenization for participation (sometimes occuring in the nationalist left), or representation (which puts us back to Spivaks dilemma).
2. The impossibility of the local when things are global: Coca-Cola, the ozone-layer, capital and the Internet(s) are all circulating globally but produce effects locally, even if realized very unevenly. To face them with political agency, there is no hope for subaltern agency since "smooth space will not suffice". It took Empires to build these problems, and it takes collective action to undo their bad side-effects.
For a solution, I do not know what to propose, since there is no way of putting it in a singular shape. But Michel Serres has, I believe, found the proto-shapes of a way of not thinking difference or dualisms about these problems. Since the production of the global condition is ever-present and shapes the lives of everyone, there is however one thing that unites (but is often the source of conflicts) - the object. Be it particles in the air leading to global heating, weapons, or medicine. These are concerns for everyone which ties all of us together for good and worse, and requires a morality expressed in third-person. When we make the atomic bomb, we must undo it. This undoing of evil then, needs to focus on the problems that we are all facing. Only then can the problem of representation be resolved and terminated once we see that today we create global misery. This position is one of heterogenous dialogue, where the object precedes culture, gender, ethnicity, religion et cetera.
http://resistancestudies.org/?cat=23
Adivasis, Culture and Modes of Production in India
Journal article by Gail Omvedt; Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, Vol. 12, 1980
Journal Article Excerpt
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(179), but also, for all of Hindu/Indian culture they represent an |
United Nations Day of Shame
Those who think that the United Nations will protect human rights, must believe that the fox will guard the hen house.
United Nations Conspiracy (Hardcover) by Robert W. Lee
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0882792369?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn= jperna12
Imagine the same things that The United Nations is doing, in other countries, HAPPENING RIGHT HERE:
IMAGINE: That you wake up tomorrow morning, and learn that The United Nations has declared your country to be a "no fly zone". The airport is closed. There are no more flights in or out. IMAGINE: That you head out for work, and you find foreign troops in your streets. These foreign troops have set up "check points". You car is searched, and all weapons are taken from you. All political or religious literature is taken from you. Hopefully you are not arrested. If you ARE arrested you will be held without a trial. IMAGINE: That you learn that some of your fellow citizens organized a protest demonstration, and were shot down in the street. The February 12th 1999 New York Times accused UN personnel of executing children, suspected of being rebels, and a score of patients at Connaught Hospital in Freetown on January 12th. Other reports described the summary detention of civilians, brutal body searches, "whipping, beating, varying types of public humiliation" of detainees including children and acts of sexual assault committed by "peacekeepers." IMAGINE: That The United Nations changes your President as they recently did in Haiti. Changing Commands:
The Betrayal of America's Military by John F. McManus
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/188191903X?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
The United Nations is creating a world government.
United Nations Conspiracy (Hardcover) by Robert W. Lee
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0882792369?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn= jperna12
Imagine the same things that The United Nations is doing, in other countries, HAPPENING RIGHT HERE:
IMAGINE: That you wake up tomorrow morning, and learn that The United Nations has declared your country to be a "no fly zone". The airport is closed. There are no more flights in or out. IMAGINE: That you head out for work, and you find foreign troops in your streets. These foreign troops have set up "check points". You car is searched, and all weapons are taken from you. All political or religious literature is taken from you. Hopefully you are not arrested. If you ARE arrested you will be held without a trial. IMAGINE: That you learn that some of your fellow citizens organized a protest demonstration, and were shot down in the street. The February 12th 1999 New York Times accused UN personnel of executing children, suspected of being rebels, and a score of patients at Connaught Hospital in Freetown on January 12th. Other reports described the summary detention of civilians, brutal body searches, "whipping, beating, varying types of public humiliation" of detainees including children and acts of sexual assault committed by "peacekeepers." IMAGINE: That The United Nations changes your President as they recently did in Haiti. Changing Commands:
The Betrayal of America's Military by John F. McManus
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/188191903X?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
Changing Commands:
The Betrayal of America's Military by John F. McManus
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/188191903X?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0882791354?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
Would a United Nations world government respect freedom of religion?
Freedom on the altar: The U.N.'s crusade against God & family by William Norman Grigg
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006F585G?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
Would a United Nations world government respect the right to keep and bear arms?
Global Gun Grab by William Norman Grigg
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1881919056?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
Who created the United Nations?
The Fearful Master: A Second Look At the United Nations (Paperback) by G. Edward Griffin (Author)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GT17KC?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
Of the 17 individuals identified by the US State Department as having helped shape US policy leading to the creation of the United Nations, all
but one were later identified as secret members of the Communist Party USA. The secretary-general of the United Nations Conference was Alger Hiss, who subsequently served time in prison for perjury about spying.
Inside the United Nations by Steve Bonta (Paperback - 2003) 
Videos and Books Galore United Nations Exposed - Part 1 The United Nations Exposed (Paperback) by William F. Jasper http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1881919048?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
United Nations Exposed - Part 2
46 Angry Men: The 46 Civilian Doctors of Elisabethville Denounce U. N. O. Violations in (Paperback) by The Civilian Doctors of Elizabethville http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000K6TN5M?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
United Nations Conspiracy by Robert W. Lee
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0882792369?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
United Nations Exposed - Part 3 The Shadows of Power: The Council on Foreign Relations and the American Decline (Paperback) by James Perloff
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0882791346?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
The Insiders (Mass Market Paperback) by John F. McManus
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1881919099?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
Global Gun Grab (Paperback) by William Norman Grigg http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1881919056?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
United Nations Exposed - Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9qgLnTOxKk&NR=1
Trashing the Planet: How Science Can Help Us Deal with Acid Rain, Depletion of The (Hardcover) by Dixy Lee Ray and Lou Guzzo
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0882791354?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
Would a United Nations world government respect freedom of religion?
Freedom on the altar: The U.N.'s crusade against God & family by William Norman Grigg
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006F585G?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
Would a United Nations world government respect the right to keep and bear arms?
Global Gun Grab by William Norman Grigg
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1881919056?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
Who created the United Nations?
The Fearful Master: A Second Look At the United Nations (Paperback) by G. Edward Griffin (Author)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GT17KC?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
Of the 17 individuals identified by the US State Department as having helped shape US policy leading to the creation of the United Nations, all
but one were later identified as secret members of the Communist Party USA. The secretary-general of the United Nations Conference was Alger Hiss, who subsequently served time in prison for perjury about spying.
Inside the United Nations by Steve Bonta (Paperback - 2003)
Videos and Books Galore United Nations Exposed - Part 1 The United Nations Exposed (Paperback) by William F. Jasper http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1881919048?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
United Nations Exposed - Part 2
46 Angry Men: The 46 Civilian Doctors of Elisabethville Denounce U. N. O. Violations in (Paperback) by The Civilian Doctors of Elizabethville http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000K6TN5M?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
United Nations Conspiracy by Robert W. Lee
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0882792369?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
United Nations Exposed - Part 3 The Shadows of Power: The Council on Foreign Relations and the American Decline (Paperback) by James Perloff
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0882791346?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
The Insiders (Mass Market Paperback) by John F. McManus
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1881919099?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
Global Gun Grab (Paperback) by William Norman Grigg http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1881919056?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
United Nations Exposed - Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9qgLnTOxKk&NR=1
Trashing the Planet: How Science Can Help Us Deal with Acid Rain, Depletion of The (Hardcover) by Dixy Lee Ray and Lou Guzzo
The Fearful Master: A Second Look At the United Nations (Paperback) by G. Edward Griffin (Author)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GT17KC?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
Of the 17 individuals identified by the US State Department as having helped shape US policy leading to the creation of the United Nations, all
but one were later identified as secret members of the Communist Party USA. The secretary-general of the United Nations Conference was Alger Hiss, who subsequently served time in prison for perjury about spying.
Inside the United Nations by Steve Bonta (Paperback - 2003)
Videos and Books Galore United Nations Exposed - Part 1 The United Nations Exposed (Paperback) by William F. Jasper http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1881919048?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
United Nations Exposed - Part 2
46 Angry Men: The 46 Civilian Doctors of Elisabethville Denounce U. N. O. Violations in (Paperback) by The Civilian Doctors of Elizabethville http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000K6TN5M?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
United Nations Conspiracy by Robert W. Lee
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0882792369?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
United Nations Exposed - Part 3 The Shadows of Power: The Council on Foreign Relations and the American Decline (Paperback) by James Perloff
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0882791346?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
The Insiders (Mass Market Paperback) by John F. McManus
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1881919099?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
Global Gun Grab (Paperback) by William Norman Grigg http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1881919056?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
United Nations Exposed - Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9qgLnTOxKk&NR=1
Trashing the Planet: How Science Can Help Us Deal with Acid Rain, Depletion of The (Hardcover) by Dixy Lee Ray and Lou Guzzo
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1881919048?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
United Nations Exposed - Part 2
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000K6TN5M?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
United Nations Conspiracy by Robert W. Lee
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0882792369?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
United Nations Exposed - Part 3 The Shadows of Power: The Council on Foreign Relations and the American Decline (Paperback) by James Perloff
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0882791346?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
The Insiders (Mass Market Paperback) by John F. McManus
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1881919099?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
Global Gun Grab (Paperback) by William Norman Grigg http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1881919056?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
United Nations Exposed - Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9qgLnTOxKk&NR=1
Trashing the Planet: How Science Can Help Us Deal with Acid Rain, Depletion of The (Hardcover) by Dixy Lee Ray and Lou Guzzo
United Nations Conspiracy by Robert W. Lee
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0882792369?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
United Nations Exposed - Part 3 The Shadows of Power: The Council on Foreign Relations and the American Decline (Paperback) by James Perloff
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0882791346?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
The Insiders (Mass Market Paperback) by John F. McManus
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1881919099?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
Global Gun Grab (Paperback) by William Norman Grigg http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1881919056?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
United Nations Exposed - Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9qgLnTOxKk&NR=1
Trashing the Planet: How Science Can Help Us Deal with Acid Rain, Depletion of The (Hardcover) by Dixy Lee Ray and Lou Guzzo
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0882792369?ie=UTF8&seller=A1AVPSERX4QF0E&sn=jperna12
The Shadows of Power: The Council on Foreign Relations and the American Decline (Paperback) by James Perloff
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Dear All,
This is great news. Finally the UNHRC has adopted the Resolution wherein the vote on the Goldstone Report has been passed, much to the consternation of Obama (the guy who got the Nobel . . . some award), as well as the Netanyahu's & the Gordon Brown's & the Sarkaozy's.
The good news is that those who voted for the resolution included China, Russia, Egypt, India, Jordan, Pakistan, South Africa, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ghana, Indonesia, Djibouti, Liberia, Qatar, Senegal, Brazil, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Nigeria and Palestine.
Six countries voted against the report, including US, Italy, Holland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Ukraine.
Among those that abstained were Bosnia, Burkina-Faso, Cameron, Gabon, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Belgium, South Korea, Slovenia and Uruguay. Madagascar and Kyrgyzstan were not present during the vote.
Also the statement by Navanethem Pillay - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights included below is very clear it it's condemnation of the Israeli Genocidal war & the blockade on Gaza & the Settlements both in the West Bank & East Jerusalem. Ms. N. Pillay has also spoken out against the threat that Israel poses to the Al Aqsa Mosque & the fact that Israel has been debarring Palestinians from even praying at the Mosque .
For me personally the fact that India has voted for the resolution has come as a very pleasant surprise & is a breakthrough for the Palestine solidarity movement in our country & we need to build on this victory. It is very important that we organize a series of meetings across the country to highlight the findings & observations of the 'Goldstone Report'.
The immediate Israeli reaction to the Indian vote was a spate of terror warning that are currently being issued as 'Breaking News' on our TV screens. Israel expects it's synagogues in India to be attacked now. There was also a minor scooter-bomb attack (ala Abhinav Bharat-Mossad) in Goa, where as we all know is a haunt for Israeli soldiers, the Mossad & the Israeli druglords.
This sort of news is only meant to counter the pathbreaking Indian vote at the UN. Also Israel's Mossad is very capable of staging false flag terror attacks on the Synagogues (Iraq 1948), especially the 7 of them which are in Bombay, some of which till date have been looked after by the Muslims of Bombay, as the Jewish community began to leave for Israel. As we approach the 'first anniversary of the 26/11 terror attacks', of which undoubtedly (even by the admission of certain senior police officials in their private conversations) Israel was the biggest beneficiary, this will only become more pronounced.
But for now, we need to focus on the Goldstone Report which has been accepted by the International community, barring the ones that have recieved & conferred the Nobel Peace Prize.
In Solidarity with the International Intifada.
A HAPPY DIWALI TO YOU ALL.
Feroze Mithiborwala
Awami Bharat (National President) / Free Gaza India (National Co-ordinator)
==============================
UN Human Rights Council endorses Goldstone report
The council is made up of 47 members and requires a majority of votes to pass a resolution.
The Palestinian envoy to Geneva, Ibrahim Kraishi, had demanded the UN body pursue criminals "wherever they are and whoever they are."
"The occupying power wants to make it look like it's doing the right thing," he said. "It wants the international community to look as if it's mistaken. But it's not logical. It's not possible for everybody to be wrong at the expense of one power."
"My people will not forgive the international community," Kraishi concluded, if it cannot see fit to pursue investigations against the crimes in Gaza.
The Israeli representative called the report's adoption "a setback for the efforts to revive peace," and said the move to pass the resolution would be "rewarded by terrorism." He reiterated Israel's right to defend itself.
The few Western states that spoke showed concern about why the special session was being called when the report had been on the agenda just two weeks earlier during a regular session of the Human Rights Council.
Deputy US Ambassador to the United Nations Alejandro Wolff called the resolution "regrettable," and said it went "beyond the scope of the Goldstone report." He said the resolution contained elements that should be "discussed within a final-status agreement," including Jerusalem.
Wolff said the report failed to deal adequately with the asymmetrical nature of the confrontation, and the adoption of the resolution could only postpone a lasting peace and deepen the divide between Israel and Palestine.
Six countries voted against the report, including US, Italy, Holland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Ukraine.
Among those that abstained were Bosnia, Burkina-Faso, Cameron, Gabon, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Belgium, South Korea, Slovenia and Uruguay. Madagascar and Kyrgyzstan were not present during the vote.
Those voting yes included China, Russia, Egypt, India, Jordan, Pakistan, South Africa, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ghana, Indonesia, Djibouti, Liberia, Qatar, Senegal, Brazil, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Nigeria and Palestine.
The voting was postponed for several hours before the session started. Following the delay, more than 20 states and 30 nongovernmental organizations, including the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Al-Dameer and Adalah addressed the council.
Delay and preambles
The French requested first a short delay for consultations and then a longer two-hour delay, to which Egypt, one of the sponsors of the resolution, objected. Although stating immediately after the Egyptian objection that he heard "no objections" to the French request, the Belgian president said that council would then proceed to a vote.
Finally opening the Friday morning session, the League of Arab States lamented what it termed the continuing violations of human rights and aggression by the government of Israel against the people of Palestine.
Syria, Iran, and Libya associated themselves with the Arab statement and emphasized the necessity, in the Libyan delegate's words, of "continuing to discuss the Goldstone report and look into its recommendations."
The Libyan delegate, whose country had raised the report in the Security Council session held this past Wednesday, also called for the matter to be considered and acted upon by the UN General Assembly.
The Libyan delegate called the draft resolution a "a litmus test" that would prove whether international human rights law creates legal obligations or are mere "slogans that are misused" to accomplish political ends.
A spokesperson for UN Watch, a pro-Israel NGO, claimed Israel had done more than the US or the UK in Iraq or Afghanistan to "safeguard the rights of civilians in the war zone" in Gaza.
A former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Col. Richard Kemp addressed the UN session and said that based on his knowledge and experience, Israel "did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare."
This was immediately followed by a statement from the Israeli NGO, the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, stating that based on its long and extensive experience in the Israeli courts, these courts have failed to adequately deal with violations of law by Israeli soldiers. She went on to enumerate the laws and some examples of cases that evidence the failure of the Israel judicial and legislative bodies.
Mustapha Barghouti, speaking for the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, recounted the international crimes that he had witnessed as a doctor in Palestine. He called the Goldstone report a test of the integrity of the UN's concern for human rights and respect for the rule of law.
The deputy permanent representative of Pakistan, speaking on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference , then introduced the resolution with an oral amendment for a new paragraph "condemning all targeting of civilians and stressing the urgent need to ensure accountability for all violations of the international human rights law and international humanitarian law to prevent future violations."
The president of council then gave the permanent representative of Israel the floor as a concerned country, who quoted Justice Goldstone as expressing his concern that the draft resolution was too harsh on Israel, stating "this time Justice Goldstone is correct." He continued that Israel, however, did not agree with what Justice Goldstone had said in the report. He ended with an implicit threat by his government to stop cooperating with the council and to sabotage the Middle East peace process.
The Palestinian ambassador then spoke, saying that he "would not use the rostrum of the council to condemn either Hamas or Israel," and plead that "all we want is to ensure that criminals everywhere do not enjoy impunity."
He ended by requesting consensus in the council on the resolution.
The United States made a statement before the vote lamenting the council, for dealing with the report as an urgent manner, instead hoping that the council would delay action on the report. As in his statement delivered during the general debate on the resolution, the US delegate again recalled that more than six months should be given to Israel to investigate the allegations of international crimes.
He did not address the statements by several Israel officials that unequivocally stated that "no Israeli soldier" would be prosecuted because of the allegations made in the report. The US also called for a vote on the resolution stating that it would vote no and calling on other states to join them.
Also speaking before the vote Chile, Brazil, and Argentina generally spoke in support of the resolution , although most expressed dissatisfaction with the way this session had been convened.
Slovenia, Uruguay, Norway, and Mexico stated that while they could not support the draft resolution and would abstain. Several of these states also reiterated their support for the Goldstone report and the human rights of the Palestinian people.
No state joined the United States in announcing it would vote against the resolution.
The resolution
The three-part resolution calls for Israel to cease settlements in East Jerusalem, to allow unhindered access to the Al-Asqa Mosque and for the council to refer the report of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict to the General Assembly. The omnibus resolution also called for the High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to report on the situation of human rights in Palestine.
When the vote was finally taken in recorded form at the request of the United States, 25 states voted for the resolution, six voted against, and eleven abstained.
After the resolution was passed, about a dozen states elaborated on their votes. The HRC president then stated he would transmit the resolution "urgently" to the General Assembly.
Finally, the Algerian ambassador challenged the US ambassador to back his oral commitment to making the Human Rights Council a real body of action, by ending the armed conflict in Palestine and taking meaningful action on violations of human rights in Palestine.
Curtis Doebbler contributed to this report.
| xxxxxxxxxx | Statement by Ms. Navanethem Pillay United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights at the 12th Human Rights Council Special Session | xxxxxxxxxx |
Mr. President,
Distinguished Members of the Human Rights Council,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory (the OPT) remains of grave concern. There is strong evidence indicating that all parties to the conflict—in different ways and with different effects—have committed and continue to commit serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Many of these violations have been documented in my report to your last regular session, which I also submit today for your consideration.
Allow me to discuss two issues that require all our attention, namely the situation in East Jerusalem and the continuing blockade of Gaza.
In the past weeks, there have been numerous clashes in and around the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The stringent restrictions imposed by Israel on Palestinians wishing to enter this Mosque must be lifted in order for members of the Palestinian community to exercise their right to worship.
In East Jerusalem home demolitions continue. My Office has called for an immediate halt to the recent wave of eviction orders and demolitions of Palestinian houses in the occupied territory. OHCHR views these practices as violations of both international humanitarian law and of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Despite condemnation expressed by the international community, the tragedy of losing their homes continues to be inflicted on many Palestinian families.
Excellencies,
Turning now to the situation in Gaza, I wish to express once again my dismay at the continuing blockade that severely undermines the rights and welfare of the population there. The living conditions of Gazans keep deteriorating as a result of restrictions on the import of services and goods, including basic food and fuel supplies. The blockade prevents the delivery of essential building materials and thus hampers the reconstruction of homes and infrastructure destroyed during Israeli military attacks in December 2008 and January 2009. It constitutes collective punishment of the Gaza population, in violation of international law. It must be lifted. Israel must allow the free movement of goods and people into and out of Gaza and between Gaza and the West Bank.
A culture of impunity continues to prevail in the occupied territories and in Israel in relation to violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. I have pointed this out in my report to this Council. The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, led by Justice Goldstone, made a similar assessment.
Let me take this opportunity to reiterate my support for the recommendations of the Fact Finding Mission, including its call for urgent action to counter impunity. I encourage the Council and the broader international community to give full consideration to the Fact Finding Mission's report. I also wish to underscore the necessity for all parties to carry out impartial, independent, prompt, and effective investigations into reported violations of human rights and humanitarian law in compliance with international standards.
For those in detention, the widespread recourse to military justice systems, which do not meet international standards of due process, remains of grave concern. Due process and the rights of those in any form of detention must be respected at all times.
Mr. President,
Accountability for breaches of international humanitarian law and for human rights violations, as well as respect for human rights, are not obstacles to peace, but rather the preconditions on which trust and, ultimately, a durable peace can be built.
The reactions from victims and concerned people and organizations to the postponement by this Council of its deliberations are compelling evidence that addressing impunity for human rights and international humanitarian law violations is essential to preventing further violence and shoring up the peace process. I encourage all Members to have a constructive role in supporting accountability for serious violations.
In seeking a political solution to the decades-long conflict, the international community must anchor its efforts in international law, in particular international human rights and humanitarian law.
To conclude, all human rights are equal for all human beings, and no party can claim that, in defending or supporting its own population, it is allowed to disavow the rights of others. All parties have an obligation to respect the human rights of their own people, of their own neighbours, of all.
Let me reiterate that respect for human rights is an imperative in building a solid foundation for both justice and peace. I hope you will emphasize this basic principle in your deliberations.
Thank you.
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