History chaptered in Saffron

Hindustan Times - 17/9/09

"The primary objective of a Hindu marriage is following dharma (religion), while the primary objective of the Muslim marriage is to establish sexual relations."

"The Muslim League was formed on the directions of the British government after Muslims developed feelings of suspicion against Hindus."

These are excerpts from two textbooks that class XI and class XII students in Rajasthan have been studying for five years.

Now, after a five-member panel of academics studied the textbooks, Rajasthan's Congress government wants the state education board to delete these references. The panel's 75-page report, made available to HT, pointed to what it called attempts to "nurture a communal ideology among the youth as opposed to the spirit of the Constitution" by the government of former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief minister Vasundhara Raje.

The books were introduced in 2004, when the BJP was in power in the state. The National Democratic Alliance, of which the BJP was the main constituent, between 1998-2004, ordered extensive rewriting of history textbooks when Murali Manohar Joshi headed the Union human resource development ministry.

"The authors have been members or office-bearers of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or affiliated organisations," said the report. "They are making an abhorrent attempt to implement a hidden agenda through education."

"An explanation will be sought from textbook writers who have propagated the RSS' ideology," Education Minister Bhanwar Lal told HT.

The authors of the textbooks are unapologetic. "What I have written in based on facts," said Manroop Singh Meena, one of the authors of the class X social sciences textbook, now used by more than 4,00,000 students.

"Only whores can choose their partners", "Education has contributed to this dirt", "Lovers will be hanged, tortured & nailed to death": Khap Justice

Times of India

Sanghi, like most villages in this prosperous belt, has dark secrets to keep. Here, rape is casual, murder-by-pesticide of teenage daughters acceptable and it is routine to dispose of their bodies by burning them in cattlecarts. Here, young women are routinely threatened, abused and killed.

Girls who survive their mother’s womb are brought up as daughters of the village. Not just Sanghi’s daughters, but of 12 neighbouring villages, says a khap member. All 12 villages form the Khidwali Bara khap, a Jat territorial unit. It decrees that boys and girls within these 12 villages cannot marry. Interestingly, the entire onus of ‘siblinghood’ rests on the girl. She is the keeper of village honour. Exceptions may be made for a boy, if the khap decides, but a girl is never allowed to bend the rules.

If a couple runs away, the women in their families run the risk of being raped, gang-raped, and boycotted. At times, khaps also ‘fine’ the families lakhs of rupees.

Fearing their daughters would go astray, many parents marry them off early. In the government senior secondary school, two Class IX students just got married, some others are engaged.

Squatting on his haunches, dhoti-clad and bare-chested, Mahendra Singh Tikait declares: “We live by a moral code where honour has to be protected at any cost.’’ As the chaudhary of the Baliyan khap, the 79-year-old farmer’s views matter. He presides over a system of justice that is almost medieval and disdains the laws of the Indian state.

Tikait’s moral code is simple. In his own words:

- SAME-GOTRA MARRIAGES ARE INCESTUOUS
- LOVE MARRIAGES ARE DIRTY - “I don’t even want to repeat the word…Only whores can choose their partners.”
- EDUCATION HAS CONTRIBUTED TO “THIS DIRT” - “Recently an educated couple married against the samaj’s (community’s) wishes in Jhajjar. We hail the panchayat’s decision to execute them…The government cannot protect this atyachar (immoral behaviour).”

Those who dare to cross the line must suffer the consequences. Like Radha of Muzaffarnagar’s Fugana village. Three years ago, she was stripped, burnt and hung from a tree. Her crime was to fall in love. Anecdotal accounts say she is one of many.

He scoffs at the laws of the Indian state, calling them “the root of all problems’’. “That’s your Constitution, ours is different.’’ Daryal Singh, one of Tikait’s retainers, adds that “shameless people (lovers) deserve to die.’’ He gives graphic accounts of lovers being “hanged, tortured or nailed to death”. Irked at being equated with the Taliban and kangaroo courts, khap panchayats in Haryana are now determined to get some legal sanction. Soon, they will draw up a set of recommendations for making ‘‘suitable’’ amendments to the Hindu Marriage Act (1955) at the state level so that their rulings become valid under law.

Justice (retd) Devi Singh Teotia, a former judge of the Punjab & Haryana HC, who actively participated in the Sarv Khap Panchayat, said: ‘‘Khap leaders are keepers of Jat tradition and they have lately been facing flak for it. If the amendments come through, there will be no more clashes between tradition and the law, and they (the khap leaders) won’t be maligned.’’

The media guide on 'How to get on Page 3'

Hindustan Times - 1/9/09

- Trick 1:

Get yourself into the guest list of every event or simply gatecrash. One way is to bribe the security. They are the ones who check the invites when you enter the venue. Model Amanpreet Wahi says, "Some 'designers' from Mumbai, wearing glares at night and looking so sidey, gatecrashed at my pre-wedding bash. I was so shocked. Some PR people also came uninvited".

- Trick 2:

Tag along with a page 3 photographer or a journalist friend and get them to pass your pics around. Or simply pose as one of them. PS: Make sure you carry phoney business cards, no one looks too hard at what's written. Once you're in, pose pretty for the cameras.

- Trick 3:

Flaunt a firang accent and hang out with regulars. An accent can get you mistaken for a loaded NRI. You may even be allowed to hang out with the diplomatic crowd. Click! You have your visa card. Talking about this trend, Wahi adds, "I have seen these 35-40 year old men who just get a skimpily clad girl with them and get clicked with her. All they have is a loaded wallet (or the pretence of one) and an arm-candy. That's the way."

- Trick 4:

Pick up a fight, lock lips or do something really crazy. A smooch or a smack works wonders. Also, sport skimpy clothes and crazy tattoos. Designer Rahul Jain says, "People start kissing and touching the moment they see the lensman.These are people who otherwise don't even say Hi to each other. A male designer comes wearing a necklace and another wears something really bizarre"