Violence masquerading as nationalism alarms activists

Nationalism is sadly measured by an individual's capacity to inflict violence in the name of the country, well-known human rights activist Achin Vanaik said on Thursday.

He was speaking at Haq, a week-long festival on human rights.

The festival drew to a close with a panel discussion on 'Nationalism, Militarism and Suppression of Dissent' at Christ College.

Vanaik began by reflecting on the links between 'militarism' and 'nationalism'.

'An individual's capacity to exercise great violence to further the cause of the nation' is the dominant ideology of nationalism building, Vaniak reflected. He lamented the advent of a modern surveillance state "leading to a clampdown on individual privacy and freedoms" and self-censorship.

The session was moderated by Aakar Patel, executive director of Amnesty International India.

Activists Sandhya Raju and Babloo Loitongbam were also on the panel.

A human rights lawyer, Sandhya urged students to think of injustices prevalent in India today.

Freedom to think

"Freedom to think is the outcome of larger struggles," she said in the context of cow-related violence, the killing of rationalists and journalists, and sexual harassment at the workplace.

Loitongbam focused on the genesis of the Armed Forces Special Provisions Act (AFSPA) and extra-judicial killings in the north-eastern states.

Families of fake encounter victims are not eligible for compensation as the army and the government rarely admit to wrongdoing, he rued.

Loitongbam said 90 of 1,528 cases of extra-judicial killings had been investigated by the CBI. The matter is expected to be listed in the Supreme Court in the third week of January.

While the lectures of Sandhya and Loitongbam were well received by students, Vanaik's address not only received a thunderous applause, but also drew the most questions.

Martyrdom question

On a number of occasions, soldiers and members of the armed forces die for the country and its people, well-known writer and activist Achin Vanaik said.

But sometimes they die not for the country, but the government, and there is a profound difference between the two, he observed.