Articles by Christophe Jaffrelot

The Right to Information activists and whistle-blowers in India constantly face risk of harassment, assault, and even murder. The attacks on them are explored, with a special focus on Gujarat, by taking into consideration the nature of the cases they have filed. Who the RTI activists are and the role that non-governmental organisations have played in popularising the RTI is looked at as a tool to question the state in the distant villages of Gujarat, and also among the marginalised—women, Dalits, and Adivasis. The most common issues raised by the activists, the lack of institutional support and follow-up in protecting the activists, and other issues that are eroding the effectiveness of the RTI Act are highlighted.

The recent revelations by Lt Col Shrikant Purohit about the Malegaon case are making things more complicated, but they also clarify the general picture by giving clear indications of the involvement of army men and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leaders.

Ten years after the 2002 violence, the results of judicial proceedings have been very few in Gujarat. While the heaviest sentences have been handed down in cases where Hindus in Godhra had been victims of violence, a very large number of cases have been closed before prosecution and many others remain pending, with only a handful completed or near completion. The reasons for this failure of the rule of law - whose magnitude will have to be qualified since proceedings are still under way - lie in the grip that Hindu nationalism (as an ideology and a political movement) holds over the state machinery (including the police and the judiciary) in Gujarat and the central authority's relative powerlessness (both at the executive and judicial level) to counteract it. This is so despite the repeated attempts that the Supreme Court has made (including the appointment of the Special Investigation Team), and the activism of non-governmental organisations and some mediapersons.

In recent years, some Hindutva-minded people have created or joined new militias, which have actually turned out to be terrorist groups whose main aim is to take revenge on Indian Muslims for past acts of terrorism that some Islamists have carried out. This new development became clear during the inquiry regarding the Malegaon blast of 2008. The Hindu militants who were allegedly responsible for this attack were all members of a new group, Abhinav Bharat, which resorted to violent action to resist the Islamists by emulating them. This article is based on the police report on the Malegaon case, a very interesting source for two reasons. One, it provides rich pieces of factual information regarding the actors of the plot and their motivations. Two, it presents us with the discourse of the Hindu nationalists when they speak between themselves since these excerpts include the transcripts of secret meetings they held in 2007-08 that one of the participants recorded.

Vishva Hindu Parishad and Indian Politics by Manjari Katju; Orient Longman, Hyderabad, 2003; pp viii + 186, Rs 350.