‘Piety’ and ‘rights abuse’ cannot live and grow together; moral crimes will most definitely lead to violation of rights. Reminders of this moral position in India should not have invited extra attention, but now for some years it strangely does. We have been a nation of many humanist ideas and philosophies. Mahavira and Buddha, besides countless other rishis and wise men of the past, taught non-violence and respect for human life here. India is globally applauded even to this day for such history and heritage, as millions of tourists visit her for embarking on and culminating their spiritual journeys. However, the merciless abuse of human and women’s rights, denial of the rights of the poor and minorities seen in the last two decades have altered the picture that many have had of India.
On the other hand, we have been fortunate enough to have, during these decades, the voice of the weekly reminding India of her humanism. Opinions finding place in Radiance suggest, just as the larger Indian audience would agree, that Bhakti and Sufi movements in medieval India were mighty civilizations of their time and alongside their teachings of submissiveness they preached not just devotion to the Almighty, but also love, brotherhood, equality, charity to the needy and respect to humanity.
We can safely conclude that India achieved newer heights of moral, spiritual and social integration in those years because the misleading lessons of Marxism to let ‘materialism’ take precedence in life were contained at every stage. Bloodshed in pursuit of power, as seen in the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, was avoided in India; until the Maoists picked hammers, sickles and guns, sometimes in the name of protecting human life, sometimes not, after some non-religious radicals delivered ‘academic’ lessons in communism.
Though India has other parallel examples of warfare for territorial plunder by the petty kingdoms in the south as well as by mighty kings like Ashoka, India also boasts of famous examples of kings and princes giving up worldly pleasures to seek spiritual guidance and right path in religion. Gautama Buddha never sought to go back to his old pompous life after he discovered the truth, nor did King Ashoka. One may call it the ‘marching together’ of human rights and Indian politico-religious leadership and this surely prevented the ever-imminent bursting asunder of the bond between religion and power. This helped India and her people preserve the ‘relevance’ of religion against any pressing and domineering influence of power (as a proverb says, “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”).
Whatever the course of such events was, God knows them better. The question is: “Has it all changed”? Radiance’s past coverage of human rights issues and prisoners of war answers this question. Radiance, besides having an eye on ideological soundness, also shows constant dedication and commitment about human rights issues – its perspective is capable of providing focus for political actors in this respect. Protection of human rights, notice on rights issues, rights violation and social abuse, women’s exploitation, child safety and safeguarding interests of minorities, all are brought in focus by Radiance special issues; with special focus in the Indian subcontinent, though it goes cross borders to invaded nations like Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya and invading NATO allies.
Radiance produced, in the last four decades, valuable writings on abuse in Indian jails and American prisons, illegal trials and tortures, illegitimate detentions and denial of fair trials. The Radiance issue of 14 November 2004 had a cover story entitled “Civil Liberties in US, Three Years after 9/11” by Elaine Cassel. The article denounces the erosion of liberty, subversion of justice, and violations of basic freedoms, all in the name of War on Terror. At the same level Radiance also provided coverage for Jamaat-e-Islami’s nationwide campaign creating awareness about violation of human rights in India, which among other demands, called upon Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to address Muslims’ issues seriously. In the cover story of 11 October 2009 issue, police brutality against certain Muslim inmates of Jaipur jail was revealed, as was the communal mindset of jail authorities.
Radiance shed light on at least a dozen critical cases of Prisoners of Wars (PoWs) in the aftermath of 9/11. In the 30 October 2010 issue, Radiance briefed its readers about burning cases of human rights violations in the world’s oldest democracy. The case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui found place in an editorial, for it deserved nothing less. Aafia Siddiqui, Pakistani neuroscientist and mother of three, was sentenced to 86 years on five charges by Judge Berman in a Manhattan courtroom on 23 September. Not only did the alleged crime happen in another country, but Ms Siddiqui was renditioned without formal extradition papers and without correct consular access according to official US records. No other citizen, from anywhere else in the world, has ever been put on trial in a US criminal court for the ‘attempted murder’ of US soldiers. On the other hand US demanded Pakistan to free one of her citizens who was charged of double murder in Pakistan. Though Davis is an ordinary American citizen, the US government, most brazenly, insisted that Davis enjoys diplomatic immunity and should be released, and threatened Pakistan that it would break diplomatic ties if Davis was not to be released. Raymond Davis murdered two Pakistani citizens in a busy locality of Lahore in broad daylight, with scores of persons witnessing it.
Radiance has never accepted the illegal detention of Muslim youth passively. Dr. Syed Ausaf Saied Vasfi repeatedly brought attention to rights issues in umpteen feature and cover issues of the weekly. In the issue dated 3 April 2011 he questioned how long the innocent Muslim youth will rot in jails, under concocted charges, for crimes they never committed. He demanded Supreme Court’s intervention in their cases. A staff reporter contributed a report on Muslims becoming victims of ‘state terrorism’ in issue dated 23 September 2012. The report also detailed Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (Delhi & Haryana) organising a Jan Sunwai (Mass Hearing) programme where the victims of illegal and unconstitutional arrests unveiled harrowing tales of atrocities and brutal torture they met at the hands of police.
Viewing the dangerous changes that are happening in India’s Rights scenario, one cannot but conclude that so long as reason and morality travelled together and lived together, communism was rootless, and armed struggles failed many times to cleave apart bonds of humanity, blood and kinship ties. In the end, it was peace that was valued more than comfort and the limits of natural capacities of man were emphasised socially to give human life a spiritual outlook. Individual hastiness was met by collective patience, and it kept the seeds of atheism from taking roots; religion and morality fulfilled their sense of wellbeing. Indeed praiseworthy was any such era in Indian history when memories were valued because they could enable people to remember their pledges, honours and commitments made. Radiance admires and upholds the dream of such a world.
This scribe especially found praiseworthy a report entitled “Bangalore Terror Module Case has a Twist: The ‘mastermind’ is an ‘innocent’ man, court frees him, two others” published on 10 March 2013. Read the following lines from it: (Muthi-ur-Rahman) “Siddiqui, after his release, told media, ‘When I was doing my PG diploma in mass communication, I chose the topic, ‘Media coverage of terrorism suspects’, for my thesis but my supervisor struck down the topic, saying I may get into trouble.’” “What an irony!” reported Syyed Mansoor Agha, adding “trouble hunted him and now he himself has tasted the bitter experience to narrate true story of ‘Media coverage of terrorism suspects’ and ‘Police tactics to earn galore by implicating innocent persons’”. The mainstream Indian media, however, chose to be silent being caught pants down! While this is precisely the violation that Radiance abhors.
“The Death of a Prisoner” is a feature on Prison Reforms, penned by Pachu Menon of Goa and appears in the subsequent issue. “The death shrouded in mystery, where the jail authorities are hard-pressed to furnish any details, further highlights the incompetence of the prison officials when it comes to the monitoring of undertrials,” expresses Menon.
Radiance also has other popular occasional contributors to it on human and gender rights. Ram Puniyani, a former IIT Bombay professor, is one such name. An article by him by title “TARGETING INNOCENTS: State and human Rights of Minorities” made the cover story of the 24 June 2012 issue. “It is high time the human rights groups intensified their campaign to protect the innocent Muslim youth, legal measures need to be strengthened whereby the police cannot exercise its biased attitude in arresting any Muslim youth,” Puniyani says. Other notable features in the issue are “Death, Disappearance and Despair in India” by Aijaz Zaka Syed and “What Went Wrong with Police Machinery” by Shafaq Alam.
To sum up, Radiance has evolved as an admirable space for discussing human rights laws, taking notice of rights violations, protest writings on gender violence, as well as building pressure group upon responsible authorities to make sure concrete and sound rights protection steps are operational.
Radiance is not one of the communal magazines which rise on public money only to discriminate between Hindus and Muslims, or on the lines of language preference and regional biases. It publishes today, as it has published in the past, the issues of Prisoners of Wars without an ill-will towards any nation or community.
In a panoramic view of Rights Activism, Radiance showcases features, editorials, special issues, cover stories, briefs and full page reports, articles and special columns on all pertinent matters of concern. Though Radiance does not publish in its pages any images of women and adolescent girls, it never compromises on giving space to discussion of family rights and other ethical protections and religious favours women enjoy. However, there are some suggestions this writer would like to make:
• Radiance should introduce a regular column on human rights. It could deal with concerns of civil liberties and invite scholarly writings by lawyers of the courts of law, activists and civil society members, comparing India vis-à-vis other nations primarily on rights and abuse.
• A once-a-month piece (at least) by internationally known persons on communal violence, harmony, racial and caste inequality is also expected.
• Space can also be given to rights-watch groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International on a basis of constant agreement or exchange of contributions.
• Although Radiance does not neglect childcare and juvenile issues, these are rather in the passing or one needs to ‘explore’ them in pages. Children’s education and socio-familial subjects, particularly striking child abuse cases can be made more prominent in Radiance. This can be accompanied by attention towards work-place exploitation, corporal punishment in schools, other child safety issues and seriousness of the scenario of girls’ education in India. In short, rather than being a sort of ‘adult’-centric magazine, Radiance could well embrace children’s issues as well. Past issues typically provide more content on social challenges before women than those before children.
• Lastly, Radiance has, (perhaps visibly) not sufficiently given space deserved by the Indian expatriates abroad and “work, visa and living” problems they face across West Asia or even in European nations and America. Radiance can ideologically and on humane grounds accommodate issues of expatriates in its centrefolds. Migrants to India from Bangladesh, Indians in foreign territories need heightened attention.