TAXILA, Pakistan — Archaeologists warn that the Taliban are destroying Pakistan's ancient Gandhara heritage and rich Buddhist legacy as pilgrimage and foreign research dries up in the country's northwest.
"Militants are the enemies of culture," said Abdul Nasir Khan, curator of Taxila Museum, one of the premier archaeological collections in Pakistan.
"It is very clear that if the situation carries on like this, it will destroy our culture and will destroy our cultural heritage," he told AFP.
Taxila, a small town around 20 kilometres (13 miles) south of Islamabad, is one of Pakistan's foremost archaeological attractions given its history as a centre of Buddhist learning from the 5th century BC to the 2nd century.
Violence is on the rise in Pakistan as Taliban bombers and gunmen strike with increasing frequency and intensity in the cities of North West Frontier Province and around the capital Islamabad.
"Even in Taxila we don't feel safe. The local administration has warned us about a possible attack on this museum. We have taken some extra security precautions but they aren't sufficient and we lack funds," said Khan.
"For weeks we don't get even a single foreign visitor. If visitors don't come, if sites are not preserved and protected, if research stops, what do you think will be the future of archaeology?" he said.
In March 2001, Taliban militants in neighbouring Afghanistan blew up two 1,500-year-old Bamiyan Buddha statues in defiance of international appeals.
The Islamist militia has since spread into Pakistan. Their opposition to music, art, dance, girls' education and idolatry makes archaeologists fear that Pakistani Buddhist relics are in the eye of the storm.
Italian archaeologists were active in Pakistan's northwest Swat valley from 1956 until they reluctantly discontinued work in 2007 after Taliban fighters led by radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah rose up demanding sharia law.
"It is not planned to carry on any research activity," Luca Olivieri, co-director the Italian archaeological mission in Pakistan, told AFP by email.
After 17 years as curator in Swat, Khan took no risks. With the Taliban killing and bombing their way through the valley, the museum closed in 2008 and he evacuated the most priceless antiquities.
That September, the Taliban twice tried to blow up 7th century Buddhist relics -- damaging a rock engraved with images of Buddha that for centuries had been a pilgrimage site.
This year, the rebels marched to within 100 kilometres (60 miles) of Islamabad, precipitating a major military operation in the northwest district and followed up with a current offensive in South Waziristan.
"This is the worst time for archaeology. Militancy has affected it very badly. There were 15-20 foreign missions working in this field, now this research has completely stopped," Khan told AFP.
He says the army has requisitioned the museum building in Swat's main town of Mingora. Despite the summer offensive, which appears to have flushed out Taliban havens in Swat for now, he doubts life will soon return to normal.
"I don't see any chance in the near future of re-opening the Swat museum. The situation is still not suitable.
"The museum building was badly damaged in a bomb blast. The display cases are broken and the building needs complete renovation," he said.
"There is still fear in people's minds but I hope that the army will succeed in bringing back normalcy," he added.
The situation is not much better further south.
Peshawar, the troubled capital of northwest Pakistan known for its Buddhist heritage and archaeology, used to attract thousands of tourists but security fears and bomb attacks make it a no-go area for foreigners.
Its museum is open, but one gate has been sealed and cement barricades outside the second allow only pedestrians to enter.
"For a year and a half, foreign tourists have completely stopped visiting this part of Pakistan," Qazi Ijaz, an official at Peshawar museum, told AFP.
"The nucleus of the Gandhara civilization in Swat is closed and that was their main interest," he said.
"The tourist companies have closed. Foreign visitors have stopped coming and museums with monuments and other archaeological sites look deserted," he added.
There are about 10 museums in northwest Pakistan, including one under construction to protect Kalash culture in the Chitral valley, where a Greek volunteer was kidnapped in September and reportedly smuggled to Afghanistan.
The fair skin and light eyes of the Kalash inspire academic speculation that they descend from an ancient Middle Eastern population or soldiers of Alexander the Great's army which conquered the area in the fourth century BC.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Dr.Ambedkar Philosophy in Hungary
Ambedkar in Hungary
PARDEEP ATTRI
The Romas, a discriminated minority in Hungary, turn to Ambedkar and Buddhism in their quest for dignity and equality.
Romas constitute one of the biggest minority blocks in Europe and have a history of being constantly… discriminated against, persecuted and stigmatised by white Europeans.
A fight against injustice: Romas protesting at Heroes Square in Budapest.
Lost rights are never regained by appeals to the conscience of the usurpers, but by relentless struggle.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
O n April 14, 2008, when Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's birthday was being commemorated across India, I got an email from an unknown person — Derdák Tibor from Hungary — appreciating my article, “Schools, Toilets or Temples?” which he had read on an e-group. My article had lamented that “at every street corner we have built temples, but not toilets or schools.” Tibor said he was a sociologist, and a former member of the Hungarian Parliament now working for the Roma community (derogatorily referred to as gypsies across Europe). Over endless emails, I gradually learnt about the lives of and the problems faced by the Roma community in Hungary, while I explained to him the conditions of Dalits in India.
Striking similarities
What intrigued me was Derdák Tibor said that he and another Roma leader, Orsós János, had been inspired by the philosophy of social transformation of Dr. Ambedkar and his work among the Dalits, and that they were now trying to deploy Ambedkarite ideas in their struggle for equal rights for the Roma community. How and why Ambedkar? Tibor had chanced upon a book on Babasaheb in Paris and a new world opened up. He immediately could see the similarities between the discrimination faced by Dalits in India and Romas in Europe.
Romas/‘Gypsies' are normally considered to be “members of nomadic people of Europe with dark skin” with a worldwide population of about 12 million, originally from North India. With their eight million population in Europe, they constitute one of the biggest minority blocks in Europe and have a history of being constantly opposed, refused, discriminated against, persecuted and stigmatised by white Europeans. They constitute about seven per cent of Hungary's population.
After discovering Ambedkar, Tibor and János visited Maharashtra in 2005 and 2007. They felt a deep connection with the Dalits of India and with Dr. Ambedkar's emancipatory agenda. After returning to Hungary, in 2007, they founded the Jai Bhim Network, embraced Buddhism and opened three high schools named after Dr. Ambedkar in Sajókaza, Ózd and Hegymeg for Roma children. One of the activities of the Network is to invite young Dalit activists to Hungary and provide them with opportunities to interact with the Roma community. Recently, I was part of one such three-member delegation and lived with the Roma community in the village Sajókaza for almost a month.
Life in Sajókaza
Sajókaza is a beautiful village about 30 km northeast of Miskolc, with a population of 3,300 people, half of them Romas. The majority of the Romas live on the outskirts of the village in ghettos. In their neighbourhood, there is no tap water, no street lighting and no sewage disposal. A few meters away, in the adjoining non-Roma streets, all these basic amenities are provided. There was a time when all the Romas of the village were employed in the nearby mines but now almost all of them are unemployed and live on a monthly dole from the government. During our stay, it became evident that the Romas suffer as much everyday discrimination as Dalits. There are three churches in Sajókaza, but not even a single Roma visits them. It immediately reminded me of the Hindu temples in India where our entry, though guaranteed in law, is prohibited in practice.
The foremost hurdle in the education of Romas in Hungary is the segregation of Roma children, who are forced to sit in separate classes. They attend different schools/classes in dilapidated buildings without basic amenities, whereas Hungarian children attend regular, fully equipped schools. Tibor says there were separate cups and plates for Roma students till 10 years ago. Roma children grow up constantly dehumanised, humiliated, persecuted and rejected. They are declared ‘mentally challenged' and are sent to special schools; so much that about 90 per cent of special school students in Hungary are said to be from this community. Segregation is not limited to schools. In 2003, the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) conducted field research in Hungary and documented 44 cases of so-called “Gypsy rooms” —segregated maternity wards.
Stereotypes are potent tools of hatred. And the Romas suffer from the worst kind of stereotyping by the whites. The ‘Gypsies', for the average white European, are necessarily cheaters, beggars, thieves, pickpockets, nomads, people who live in dirty conditions and don't like to work. It is believed by non-Romas that the Romas cut their forefingers so that they could easily pick pockets; and that ‘ Roma' children wear long clothes to hide the chickens they steal from white farmers' homes. These prejudices are thriving today.
Websites that promote tourism in Europe offer gratuitous advice on ‘Gypsies'. One site, under the heading ‘Personal security in Rome', says: “Gypsy children could surround you, and shamelessly start robbing your belongings, taking advantage of your surprise. They would then pass the belongings to older gypsy women…” The image of ‘Romas' being thieves is so entrenched that they are the first to be rounded up by the police if there is a crime in the neighborhood.
One of the most horrific stories I heard white Hungarians cook up was about pregnant ‘Gypsy' women. In September, Oszkar Molnar, the Mayor of Edeleny in Northeast Hungary, accused Roma women in his town of intentionally harming their unborn babies in order to secure extra child benefits. The Equal Opportunity Authority issued sanctions against Oszkar Molnar, a representative of main opposition party Fidesz, but he has vowed to launch a legal appeal against the Authority.
On October 11, 2009, about 1,500 Romas gathered at Heroes Square in Budapest to protest Mayor Molnar's views, and to demonstrate against segregation in schools and discrimination in everyday life. One slogan caught my attention: “A child's head is not a pot that has to be filled, but a torch that needs to be ignited.” Says János, president of Jai Bhim Network, “After our turn to Ambedkarite Buddhism, people ask, ‘How can you teach Buddhism to gypsies?' What we are doing seems odd since Buddhism in Europe is largely the leisure hobby of the middle classes. But it is easy to answer them: they don't offer effective secondary education for Gypsies, and we do! Whatever people say, we just carry on with our work.”
Email: pardeepattri@gmail.com
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