Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1998 18:57:51 -0500
From: Partha Banerjee <partha-AT-capital.net>
Subject: My last letter (perhaps) to the Harvard conference organizers


Friends:

I thought I should let you know about this recent-most communique. Thanks
for reading and acting on it.

-Partha

Sent to: hthakur-AT-shore.net (Himendra B. Thakur) and
witzel-AT-fas.harvard.edu (Dr. Micheal Witzel)
_______________________________________________________

Dear Mr. Thakur,

Thanks for providing me with 2 extra days to submit my paper. I am happy to
see your generosity. However, it still does not give me enough time to
write a paper on this subject specially for this conference. Therefore, I
don't think I will be able to make it.

This is a shame because since attending the first conference in 1995, I
wrote and talked so much on this subject at various forums and conferences
around this country that exclusion of the emotionally involved like me for
this cause in fact excludes the compassionate political liberal/left who
are much more knowledgeable and compassionate about this issue and other
women's issues than the right wing (especially the fascist RSS/VHP kind)
who are the root cause of oppression and atrocities on women.

Therefore, I find it a travesty that they are now championing women's
causes and playing political games around such a delicate and sensitive
issue such as bride burning and dowry deaths in India.

Yes, Mr. Thakur, we have proof that RSS, its offshoot VHP and BJP and other
such organizations such as Shiv Sena have always been against the
emancipation of Indian women.  A lot has been written on this subject and I
find it utterly amazing that you are even asking for this sort of proof.

Don't you know how these fanatics were involved in the Deorala Roop Kanwar
case in Rajasthan where the poor young women was burnt to death only a few
years ago? Don't you know how VHP thugs only very recently went on a
rampage of "witch hunting" of poor adivasi women in Gujarat and beat up
NGOs when they came for the women's rescue? Don't you know how
BJP-sponsored Ranavir Sena killed scores of poor dalits in Bihar in
September 1997, or how the sister organization of RSS, the Shiv Sena,
murdered hundreds of slum dwellers in Bombay a while back?

Further, don't you know how Mrs. Maneka Gandhi (when she was with her late
husband Sanjay Gandhi, the younger son of Indira Gandhi, in the seventies
and eighties) preached for the Congress party and Sanjay Gandhi who broke
up each and every democratic movement in India? Can just changing political
parties change the class character and political color of such "leaders"?

If you do want to know more (and I think you really should know more if you
think you don't know enough on these subjects), then I would strongly ask
you to read some relevant and current literature on this subject. Reading
my recently-out book on RSS and BJP (details given here) might also help
you to understand the problems and their causes regarding women's issues in
South Asia.

Thanks for reading such a long note. I thought I should explain my position
to you and other conference organizers in details. Please help the women
who are suffering and please do not confound the issue by assimilating the
fascists and fanatics and do not invite them to co-opt women's causes.

Best regards,

-Partha Banerjee

Author,

In the Belly of the Beast: The Hindu Supremacist RSS and BJP of India -- An
Insider's Story.  Ajanta Books International, Delhi, India.  165 pages.
1998.