A Cannibal Time. Editor: Anjum Katyal. Guest Editor: Sudhanva Deshpande
On 27 February 2002, bogies of the Sabarmati Express were set ablaze near the railway station at Godhra in Gujarat, claiming 58 lives. On the following day began the longest continuous bout of mass violence in recent history. This violence, which has officially claimed more than a thousand lives—unofficial figures are at least three times that number-lasted more than 75 days. Its implications will be with us for much, much longer. The carnage got called by the routine name that all such violence is given: communal riot. In actual fact, it was nothing of the sort. Gujarat was a one-sided attack, a carnage. It was, to put it bluntly, genocide: 'the deliberate and systematic extermination of an ethnic or national group'. [. . .] This issue of STQ is a special issue on Gujarat. Not on Gujarati theatre, not on the bhavai, not on the dandy. But Gujarat. The mayhem, the killings, the carnage. It is an attempt to understand what actually happened in Gujarat, so that, hopefully, we can begin to start thinking about how to fight it. Not just on the streets with demonstrations and dharnas, but also at the creative level, through plays and performances. In other words, this issue of STQ provides material that may help us think through our responses, creative and political, in the present circumstances. [from Sudhanva Deshpande. Why this issue: editorial]
CONTENTS Why this issue: editorial Sudhanva Deshpande A background JANAM Communalism after Gujarat Aijaz Ahmed Globalization and culture Malini Bhattacharya Communalism and globalization Prabir Purkayastha Genocide in Gujarat Brinda Karat 'Where do we go from here?' INTERVIEW WITH TRIDIP SUHRUD 'We cannot tell what will happen tomorrow' INTERVIEW WITH ACHUTH 'A very difficult battle' INTERVIEW WITH RAJINDER SAIWAL 'Nothing could be saved' INTERVIEW WITH MANMOHAN 'Brotherhood is not enough' INTERVIEW WITH ASHISH CHATTERJEE 'Art alone will not do' INTERVIEW WITH HABIB TANVIR 'We still don't know the enemy' INTERVIEW WITH C. P. DESHPANDE Resolution What the Left can do 'It needed questioning...' INTERVIEW WITH SUMAN MUKHERJEE Reading Mephisto Ayan Gangopadhyay The Tiger: an extract Sisir Kumar Das Waste and void Naveen Kishore Download the complete issue here