Action Alerts
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Nuernberg Human Rights AwardTeesta Setalvad’s acceptance speech
Nuremberg,
September 14, 2003 Can lessons from history, honestly learnt, and remembered, prevent unspeakable cruelties in the present and deeper schisms between man and man in the future? Nuremberg
and Germany have had the courage to face their history, a history
that not merely for the German people but for all of humanity raised
then, and raises still, raw and brutal questions of the minds and
hearts of men and women. And the darkness that can reside within. Yet
we must have faith. This faith gets reaffirmed in the myriad or
million small deeds and thoughts of a majority of one billion
Indians and a third more of South Asians who dream and aspire to a
belly fool of food; for fair access to quality learning for their
young; to medical care against starvation and other epidemics;
protection against flood, cyclone and drought. For
the kind of existence that about 60 per cent of their people already
have. Indiscriminate policies of globalisation and liberalization
that are resulting in the withdrawal of the State from sectors of
education, health and social security, do not believe in the dignity
and protection of labour and the marginalized sections of the third
world. Marginalised by caste, community and gender. But
even as the bare existence of a third to forty per cent of our
people in South Asia –in India alone this would mean 400 million
people--is seriously under assault from a callous and irresponsible
political, social and economic elite, the right to dream of a land
free of bitter hatreds has over the past two decades slowly but
surely been snatched away. Today with justice to the victims of
perpetrated pogroms seeming distant, if not impossible, the now
every day threat of mindless targeted violence has become a
terrifying reality. We
are faced in India with the threat of hatred and division impinging
on every aspect of public discourse and life. Caste has been an
unfortunate historic factor that has denied dignity and access,
apart from perpetrating brutal violence on 25 per cent of Indians in
the past. Today a more blatant use of hate speech and writing against
sections of Indians, on grounds of religious affiliation, has become
the norm that precedes, and creates the climate for mass pogroms.
Such discourse goes unchallenged by authorities though we remain a
political democracy wedded to the rule of law. For
human rights defenders engaged in the struggle for a more equitous
system, through our engagements with, and challenges to, the
institutions of the judiciary, police, parliament and bureaucracy
–the lofty mandate contained in the words ‘We The People...’
in the Preamble to our Constitution, often seem reduced to a
banality on a piece of parchment paper. This extreme right wing politics, shockingly and painfully
models itself on the ways of Mussolini and Hitler, and under
democratic India executes and then celebrates pogroms against
children, women and men of a particular faith. A
stable, democratic and secular India –which means an India that
can hold its head high ---as we once could, when, though ‘poor’,
we led the Non Aligned Movement in the world and did an honest job
of assuring safety and security to all Indians ---is vital for
peace, for growth and yes, for the prosperity of the whole South
Asian region. Our
sheer size and pre-dominance demands this. Pivotal to this peace is
a resolution of the Kashmir conflict after calling people from the
Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh region to the negotiation table. It is a
shame that instead of leading a discourse within the region on
peace, on sanity, on tolerance, India today takes a part in
articulating shrill noises against neighbours. We even led the
sub-continent on its deplorable road towards turning nuclear. I
would like to, at this stage, congratulate my co-recipient of the
Nuremberg International Human Rights award for 2003, Mr. Rehman a
Pakistani and a colleague in this struggle for the rights of all,
albeit across the border. The
history of the division of the sub-continent on religious lines took
nearly one million lives and caused the forced migration of 15
million people. Lasting durable peace within the region, thanks to
this history, is linked critically to peace within the countries of
the region and their castes and communities. Those struggling for
the rights of minorities across national borders have a need to link
and sustain each other’s struggles. And they know it. Yet,
despite all of this, we must carry on, firm in our belief that
things must and will change. And the struggle for that glorious
change if pre-determined by its duration is no struggle at all. The
demands that such an indeterminate struggle, in time terms, makes on
us, as individuals, as colleagues, as parents is enormous and the
stake and cost, are high. On this precious occasion, I would like
especially to remember our two children, Tamara and Jibran who have
sacrificed much and lost so much time with us in their growing up
years due to this engagement. I hope and pray to a God that I do not
believe in, that they have learnt some and much more importantly,
that they understand. My
work in the past decade, that coincides with the decade of
publication of our journal, Communalism Combat, would simply
have been inconceivable but for the camaraderie and passion shared
in this cause with my husband-colleague, Javed. As strength, as
inspiration, as learning, this togetherness has made the work
possible. I am thrilled that he is here with me to share the moment
of glory of receiving particularly this award, which has a resonance
and meaning far exceeding any other. I know that he has put up with
the pressure of my own temperament and zeal for this work that
catapults him and our wonderful team at Sabrang into sometimes
impossible directions. The
India of old has irretrievably changed and the secure foundations of
glory in a shared past, in our literature, music and culture that we
grew up with are not available for our children. Streaks of insanity
and noises of hate impinge in the classroom and at school ominously
making distinctions between the legitimate ‘us’ and the
traitorous ‘them.’ History is being surreptitiously distorted to
support the politics of exclusion and hate. The infamous Nuremberg
laws that forbade marriage between sections of one people have not
been forcibly enacted yet but Geetabehn, a Hindu, happily married to
Salim, a Muslim, in Gujarat until April 4, 2002 last year was
stripped and mutilated in public before being butchered alive on the
streets of Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s
leading commercial centre. Victims of the Gujarat carnage, or
Genocide as we have called it face exclusion in jobs and have been
denied dignified return to their agricultural lands much less have
they got justice. The
language of fascism and its glorification of violence and
extermination have deeply
disfigured Indian public life. We struggle today against it reaching
a crescendo. In that struggle we try among other things to, in
Martin Luther King Junior’s word, to break the silence of the good
people who we believe are still numerically stronger than the wicked
people who execute evil deeds. Thank
You Nuremberg. Thank You Germany. For giving us hope that all in the
faraway self-centred First World –and I refer here to the stance
of the German foreign minister on the abhorrent war against
Iraq—are not the same. The feeling, commitment and content of the
speeches delivered today are refreshers for us who strive to make
the Indian political class sensitive to human rights. Thank you for
today. The outstanding music, the flower and chilly arrangements. Dr
Maly, the Nuremberg City Office and Dr Hesselmann. For today and
hopes for tomorrow Thank
you, All.
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