Fourteen prominent women’s organisations and over 20 women academics from universities across the United Kingdom have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is due to visit the U.K. in November, expressing their alarm at the rise in gender violence in India.
The signatories to the letter have also expressed their concern at the Prime Minister’s relationship with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which they describe as a “paramilitary organisation modelled on the Italian fascist and German Nazi parties, known, along with its allied groups, for its violent misogyny openly displayed in the pronouncements of its leaders.”
Citing newspaper and other media evidence, they have named persons responsible for violence against women, and have called upon Mr. Modi to render justice.
“Babu Bajrangi, a leader of the Bajrang Dal, a sister organisation of the RSS, was caught on camera, in 2007, boasting of the rapes and murders he had committed in Gujarat in 2002. Bajrangi has been charged for these terrible crimes but he is continually out on bail and like many others who were involved in the rapes and murders during the 2002 pogrom, he is effectively free,” their letter notes.
‘Dismiss Amit Shah’
Mr. Modi’s own Cabinet “includes a number of Ministers against whom criminal cases, including rape, are pending (Sanjeev Baliyan the Minister of Agriculture is one example). We urge you to dismiss these men and also dismiss your adviser, Amit Shah (an RSS cadre and president of your party the BJP) who directly incited rape during your election campaign in April 2014 calling on Hindus to “take revenge” on “those who have been ill-treating our mothers and sisters.”
The letter notes that the British Charity Commission is currently investigating the U.K. wing of the RSS for allegedly teaching children below the age of 13 to “hate Christians and Muslims.”
“Surely these are not organisations by which a Prime Minister of democratic and secular India should be guided, or held accountable,” they state, adding in conclusion, “We urge you Prime Minister Modi to make your position clear. Do you approve of the hate crimes, patriarchal violence and misogyny perpetrated by the RSS and its affiliated organisations? If not, we urge you to openly condemn these organisations.”
Among the signatories to the petition are Ila Patel, director, Asha Projects, London; Zlakha Ahmed, director, Apna Haq, Rotherham; Shaminder Ubhi, director, Ashiana Network London; Sarbjit Ganger, director, Asian Women’s Resource Centre, London; Mwenya Chimba, director, Black Association of Women Step Out, Cardiff; Priya Chopra, director, Saheli, Manchester; and Pragna Patel, on behalf of Southall Black Sisters, London.
Full text and signatories of the letter
To
The Prime Minister of India,
7 Race Course Road,
New Delhi
Dear Prime Minister Modi,
Recently, you, along with top ministers of your cabinet, reported to an unconstitutional authority, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), who have called you to account for your actions.
As women concerned with combating violence against South Asian, Black and Minority Ethnic women and girls, we find this extremely disturbing because the RSS is a paramilitary organisation modeled on the Italian Fascist and German Nazi parties and is known, along with its allied groups, for its violent misogyny openly displayed in the pronouncements of its leaders.
RSS Chief, Mohan Bhagwat, for example, declared in 2013 that rape happens only to westernised women.
Revered RSS ideologue V.D. Savarkar exhorted Hindu men to prove their masculinity by raping non-Hindu women, who are seen as ‘symbols’ of the ‘enemy culture’. The public condemnation of this aspect of Savarkar's ideology by you is, we feel, particularly important, because it was under your watch as Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2002, that this 'theory' was put into practice with countless Muslim women raped, mutilated and murdered.
Few of those responsible for the rapes and murders during the pogrom >have been brought to justice .
Babu Bajrangi, a leader of the Bajrang Dal, sister organisation of the RSS, was caught on camera, in 2007, boasting of the rapes and murders he had committed in Gujarat in 2002 and recounting how he attacked nine month pregnant Kauser Bano. Her belly was torn open and her foetus wrenched out, held aloft on the tip of a sword, then dashed to the ground and flung into a fire. Bajrangi has been charged for these terrible crimes but he is continually out on bail and like many others who were involved in the rapes and murders during the 2002 pogrom, he is effectively free.
Equally worrying is the fact that your own cabinet includes a number of ministers against whom criminal cases, including rape, are pending (Sanjeev Baliyan the Minister of Agriculture is one example). We urge you to dismiss these men and also dismiss your advisor, Amit Shah (an RSS cadre and President of your party the BJP) who directly incited rape during your election campaign in April 2014 calling on Hindus to ‘take revenge’ on 'those who have been ill treating our mothers and sisters'.
After the brutal rape and murder of two young oppressed caste women in Uttar Pradesh in 2014you did not condemn the culture where such rapes and murders of Dalit and oppressed caste women are commonplace or do anything to prevent such brutality taking place again.
Instead you declared that 'honouring women and protecting them should be the top-most priority of the government’ despite the fact that such concepts of 'honour' and 'protection' are routinely used to justify violence against women. Again, after a nun was raped in May this year, in West Bengal, you did not condemn the rapists or launch an investigation into the right-wing Hindu organisations which support them.
These organisations are also responsible for vicious 'moral policing' which has led to murderous attacks on couples who cross religious and caste boundaries. Your silence sends them a message of approval.
A number of laws directly contribute to gender violence, for example, the >Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which allow the police and armed forces to perpetrate horrific sexual violence (effectively with impunity) in Kashmir and the North Eastern States of India the law which permits marital rape; and the homophobic section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises LGBT people. But despite popular campaigns against these laws you have chosen to retain them. What does this say about your attitude to gender violence?
We would also like to point out that the overseas wing of the RSS is currently being investigated by the British Charity Commission for hate speech against Christians and Muslims.
Surely these are not organisations by which a Prime Minister of democratic and secular India should be guided, or held accountable.
We urge you Prime Minister Modi to make your position clear. Do you approve of the hate crimes, patriarchal violence and misogyny perpetrated by the RSS and its affiliated organisations? If not, we urge you to openly condemn these organisations.
Zlakha Ahmed, Director, Apna Haq, Rotherham
Ila Patel, Director, Asha Projects, London
Shaminder Ubhi, Director, Ashiana Network, London
Sarbjit Ganger, Director, Asian Women's Resource Centre, London
Mwenya Chimba, Director, Black Association of Women Step Out, Cardiff
Anjona Roy, Director, Dostiyo, Northampton
Camille Kumar, on behalf of Freedom Without Fear Platform, London
Firoza Mohmed, Director, Humraaz, Blackburn
Marai Larasi, Director, Imkaan
Carolina Gottardo, Director, Latin American Women's Rights Services, London
Baljit Banga, Director, Newham Asian Women's Project, London
Priya Chopra, Director, Saheli, Manchester
Pragna Patel, on behalf of Southall Black Sisters
Sanjeevini Dutta, on behalf of Kadam Asian Dance and Music
Dr Camilla Bassi, Sheffield Hallam University
Dr Brenna Bhandar, SOAS
Professor Gargi Bhattacharyya, University of East London
Dr Sukhwant Dhaliwal University of Bedfordshire
Dr Meena Dhanda, University of Wolverhampton
Dr Aisha Gill, University of Roehampton
Dr Marsha Henry, London School of Economics
Dr Rubina Jasani, University of Manchester
Dr Nisha Kapoor, University of York
Dr Sneha Krishnan, University of Oxford
Dr Sumi Madhok, London School of Economics
Dr Sarita Malik, Brunel University
Dr Suryia Nayak, University of Salford
Dr Goldie Osuri, University of Warwick
Dr Navtej Purewal, SOAS
Professor Shirin Rai, University of Warwick,
Dr Anandi Ramamurthy, Sheffield Hallam University
Dr Parvathi Raman, SOAS
Dr Ravi Thiara, University of Warwick
Dr Rashmi Varma, University of Warwick
Dr Kalpana Wilson, London School of Economics
