Controversial Islamic encyclopaedia puts Kerala government in hot water

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

The arrest of Professor Parappurath Koya in connection with the publication of an Islamic encyclopaedia, allegedly containing some anti-Indian references, has raised several eyebrows in Kerala. Social and human rights activists are extremely agitated over the timing of the arrest.

Koya, the editor of the controversial encyclopaedia, was arrested on May 29 while the case against him and others involved in the project was registered way back in November 1994. Although Koya was arrested under non-bailable sections (125 and 153) of the Indian Penal Code, the Kozhikode sessions court allowed him bail. Koya returned to Kozhikode to a hero's welcome.

The case against him and two others was registered and the book banned by the previous Congress-led United Democratic Front government after the Bharatiya Janata Party raised a hue and cry against the book and filed a writ petition in the Kerala high court. The charges included sedition, publishing of articles of an inflammatory nature and misrepresenting national boundaries.

Many human rights activists did not understand the justification of the arrest as the case related to an incident which occurred nearly three years ago. The Kerala civil liberties committee and the Co-ordination Committee of Human Rights organisations have termed the arrest as an unconstitutional attack on the individual's freedom of expression.

Co-ordination Committee convenor Mukundan C Menon felt the arrest was politically motivated. He told Rediff On The NeT that Koya's link with the National Development Front, a non-political Muslim social organisation formed immediately after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, seemed to be the immediate provocation. In fact, the arrest came a mere 20 days after the NDF organised a massive rally (attended by about 150,000 persons) against atrocities on women, India's mounting foreign debts, misuse of TADA and rise of Hindu facist forces in the country.

Koya, a member of the NDF's supreme council, has been actively associated with the organisation. Its popularity in Muslim-dominated north Kerala has put several political parties, including the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist, in a quandary.

Besides, the NDF has attracted a large number of the youth from different parties. Various Muslim organisations, representing different political parties, have already started a consolidation campaign which branded the NDF as another version of the fundamental Islamic Sewak Sangh, which was banned by the Government of India six years ago.

Indian Union Muslim League general secretary Korambayil Ahmed Haji termed the NDF as a terrorist outfit. He admitted that the organisation had been able to lure Muslim youth, particularly from the rural areas, and asserted that his party would campaign tirelessly to expose the NDF.

Even Chief Minister E K Nayanar has been talking about the emergence of several extremist organisations in the state with the active support of foreign countries. But the human rights activists insist that the NDF is a social and human rights organisation wedded to the protection of national interests through democratic means.

Meanwhile, a memorandum submitted to the chief minister on behalf of the Kerala Civil Liberties Committee and the confederation of human rights organisations in Kerala, has strongly refuted the charges levelled against the editor and publisher of the encyclopaedia. It rubbishes as baseless the charge that the map published in the encyclopedia had showed Kashmir outside Indian Union.

'The map was only a demographic sketch in which different colours were used to show varying percentage-wise Muslim population around the globe. The green colour was used to show places where Muslims formed more than 50 per cent of the population and it was in this context that Kashmir, with more than 77 per cent Muslim population, was shown green,' the memorandum said.

It pointed out that the border of Kashmir was clearly demarcated in black. 'Such a demographic sketch can never be treated by any country as contrary to its national interest and integrity,' the memorandum said, adding that the arrest was a fall-out of the communal colour given to the incident by the BJP in 1994.

The encyclopaedia, the memorandum said, described Kashmir as a samsthanam (Indian state) in the opening paragraph itself; the same reference was repeated throughout the article. The memorandum also said the article discussing the post-Independence era was highly critical of the Pakistani intruders.

'By no stretch of imagination can this be termed as anti-national or said to wound the so-called sentiments of other religions to the extent that it would warrant a blanket ban on the book.' The memorandum charged the former United Democratic Front government of banning the book and slapping cases against its printer and publisher only to appease the Hindutva forces. It urged the Communist-led government to withdraw the ban.

The BJP, however, insists that the book contained several anti-national references. BJP state secretary Sreedharan Pillai said the home ministry, which had perused the book, accepted the allegations made against the encyclopaedia by his party and directed the Kerala government to ban it.

He said that, besides showing Kashmir as part of Pakistan in the map, the book termed the struggle, organised during Jagmohan's term as governor of Jammu and Kashmir, as a freedom struggle. Pillai said the book was also highly critical of the elections held in the state after Independence. According to him, the book said only the 1997 election was fair and independent.

The BJP leader also alleged that the NDF, an organisation that the book's editor was involved in, had links with Pakistan. Keeping the national interest in mind, he urged the government to investigate the matter and take action to check the organisation's activities.