LETTERS

Issn 0012-9976
Ever since the first issue in 1966,
EPW has been India’s premier journal for In Defence of Liu Xiaobo aiming at the protection of millions of Chi-
comment on current affairs
nese unjustly deprived of their lands or their
and research in the social sciences.
It succeeded Economic Weekly (1949-1965),
which was launched and shepherded
by Sachin Chaudhuri,
who was also the founder-editor of EPW.
I n “Advocate of ‘Humanitarian Imperial-
ism’ ” (EPW, 18 December 2010) Liu
Xiaobo, the Chinese human rights defender
homes by a nominally “socialist” regime.
(A very good English translation made by
the authoritative China scholar, Perry Link,
As editor for thirty-five years (1969-2004)
and the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize laureate is had been published by the New York Review
Krishna Raj
gave EPW the reputation it now enjoys. depicted as “a classic comprador intellec- of Books and is still available to the public:
editor
tual” suffering from “one-sidedness” and http://www.nybooks.com/articles/
C Rammanohar Reddy “myopia of the brand of human rights dis- archives/2009/jan/15/chinas-charter-08/.)
Deputy Editor course that he has picked up from his The Universal Declaration of Human
Bernard D’Mello imperialist masters”. Rights acclaimed by Liu Xiaobo in Charter 08,
web Editor Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin was co-written by a Chinese man, Zhang
subhash rai
Wall and the Tiananmen Square massacre, Pengchun (also known as P C Chang),
Senior Assistant Editors
Lina Mathias one would have expected a more critical vice-chairman of the Roosevelt Commission.
aniket Alam sense and scientific rigour. The clichés China is a party to the vast majority of United
Srinivasan ramani
ashima sood presented to the reader reflect a profound Nations conventions on human rights. For
Bharati Bhargava misunderstanding of the case of Liu Xiaobo, nearly 30 years, it has been undertaking a
Editorial Staff as also an ignorance of the complexity of remarkable modernisation work of its laws.
Prabha Pillai
jyoti shetty the current Chinese political situation. Travelling from one system to the other,
Born in 1955, Liu Xiaobo is a man of 20th norms and concepts are “sinicized” and so
Editorial Assistants
P S Leela century China. He believed in the hopes the reflect the Chinese reality, as also political
Tanya Sethi revolution could offer and has crossed its tensions. The number of court cases based on
Editorial Consultant unexpected turpitudes, armed with the human rights in their different expressions
Gautam Navlakha
strength of his commitments and those of (social rights, environmental rights, right
production
u raghunathan his sufferings. Humanist with a cause, he to privacy, etc) have increased steadily
s lesline corera participated in the Tiananmen protests and and, despite the flaws of a judicial system
suneethi nair
is known for having saved lives in persuading that is still subject to state arbitrariness,
Circulation
Gauraang Pradhan Manager demonstrators to leave the Square peaceful- the Chinese judge is also involved in the
B S Sharma ly. He was arrested in 1989 and again in justiciability of human rights. On the in-
Advertisement Manager 1995-96, and had already had long experi- ternet, the city streets or the countryside,
Kamal G Fanibanda ence of Chinese prisons and “re-education Chinese civil society is consistently demon-
General Manager & Publisher through labour camps”. He was monitored strating its opposition to an unjust regime
K Vijayakumar
by the Chinese police and regularly put with an unprecedented creativity.
editorial
edit@epw.in under house arrest when not in prison, but All these developments are finally un-
Circulation Liu never stopped writing and his work has derstood in a historical perspective em-
circulation@epw.in
been supported by a variety of organisations phasised by Liu Xiaobo himself in the first
Advertising
advt@epw.in outside and also inside mainland China, and lines of his manifesto: 2008 does not only
Economic and Political Weekly in Hong Kong where he received several correspond to the 60th anniversary of the
320-321, A to Z Industrial Estate human rights press awards. As co-drafter Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Ganpatrao Kadam Marg, Lower Parel
Mumbai 400 013 and signatory of Charter 08, Liu was once but also the centennial of the Chinese
Phone: (022) 4063 8282 again arrested in December 2008 and even- constitution, the 30th anniversary of the
FAX: (022) 2493 4515
tually sentenced in December 2009 to 11 “Democracy Wall” and the 10th anniver-
EPW Research Foundation years of prison after a parody of court trial. sary of the signing by China of the as yet
EPW Research Foundation, established in 1993, conducts Inspired by the Chater 77 movement, unratified United Nations International
research on financial and macro-economic issues in India.
Chater 08 was calling, in non-aggressive Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Director
k kanagasabapathy terms, for political freedom and constitu- Before being Chinese, Liu Xiaobo is a
C 212, Akurli Industrial Estate tional democracy in putting these claims into man. The Chinese Party-State clearly
Kandivali (East), Mumbai 400 101
Phones: (022) 2887 3038/41 a historical perspective. It took all human understands the revolutionary force and
Fax: (022) 2887 3038 rights into consideration, paid special atten- thus destabilising strength of this single
epwrf@vsnl.com
tion to the rights of rural Chinese and the statement. So no need for the west to
Printed by K Vijayakumar at Modern Arts and Industries,
151, A-Z Industrial Estate, Ganpatrao Kadam Marg,
need for a genuine social security system and impose human rights on China as it has
Lower Parel, Mumbai-400 013 and was absolutely not pitching for “wholesale already deeply integrated them!
published by him on behalf of Sameeksha Trust
from 320-321, A-Z Industrial Estate,
privatisation of public enterprises and farm- Leïla Choukroune
Ganpatrao Kadam Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai-400 013. land in China”. When referring to the need Maastricht University Law Faculty
Editor: C Rammanohar Reddy.
to respect private property, the Charter was The Netherlands

4 january 22, 2011 vol xlvi no 4 EPW Economic & Political Weekly

Blind Praise
T he Indian media’s failings in 2010 did
not end with the unholy alliance
between some editors and the corporate
sharks (“Journalists on Call”, EPW, 4 De-
cember 2010). Late December saw the
Malayalam media going hysterical, forget-
ting that it is more important to be faithful
to history than to shibboleths about not
talking ill of the dead. The TV channels, in
particular, provided a sentimental, sicken-
ingly hagiographic account, full or in
part, of the long final journey of nonage-
narian Congress leader K Karunakaran
from the hospital in Thiruvanthapuram
where he died on 23 December to the
cremation site.
The anchors and reporters often harked
back to the leader’s love of speed (remember
his brisk walk, the breakneck speed of his
plush cars?), his unfailing monthly trips to
the Guruvayur temple, his early morning
puja, his favourite room in the govern-
ment guest house in Thrissur, and so on.
The late leader’s trade union years and
the palmolein import scandal which
haunted him for long did find occasional
mention.
Karunakaran’s much-trumpeted admini-
strative abilities are likely to be contested,
but then, ability, like development, can
mean various things to various people.
Some praised Karunakaran for tackling
the “Naxalite threat” in the 1970s, but
were blind to the fact that as the all-powerful
home minister during the Emergency he
orchestrated the torture of many idealistic
youths in police camps. That engineering
student Rajan’s death in custody led to the
leader’s resignation as chief minister was,
of course, mentioned.
The bulk of the Malayalam visual media
thus sought to thrust greatness on a mas-
ter manipulator who was no respecter of
human rights, whose record in office, de-
spite four terms as chief minister, was
hardly worth writing home about. When
political discourse sinks to such deplorably
low levels, the vulgar and the weird be-
come the cultural norm, even the ideal, as
Carl Bernstein puts it. Small wonder, poli-
tics, like development, gets depoliticised.
And the loser is the common man.
A V Sakthidharan
New Delhi
Economic & Political Weekly EPW january 22, 2011
Census of India, 2011
T he next decennial census of India will
be held in February 2011. The provi-
sional figures will be released by the end
of March 2011. It may be recalled that ever
since 1881, India has conducted a census
every 10 years, without any interruption.
I asked the census commissioner,
C Chandramouli: “What is new in the 2011
Census?” The gist of the discussion with
him and R C Sethi, additional registrar
general (ARG), was:
(1) This time, the census enumerators who
go from house to house to collect data about
each household will have to obtain the sig-
nature or thumb impression (in the case of
illiterate respondents) of the head of the
household on the census questionnaire.
This is an important step towards improv-
ing the quality of data in the 2011 Census.
A literate head of the household will have
an opportunity to go through what the enu-
merator has written about his household
members. He is expected to correct any
wrong entry.
(2) The census questionnaire will be pub-
lished in 18 Indian regional languages. The
census enumerator will carry with him not
only the questionnaire in English but also
in the relevant regional language. This will
facilitate better communication between
the respondent and the enumerator.
(3) A new feature along with the census is
that an annual health survey will be
conducted to assess the impact of the
National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).
The mission is for a duration of seven
years (2005-12). According to R C Sethi,
biometric data including measurement of
blood pressure and sugar level will also
be collected. The enumerators will be
trained at the National Institute of Health
and Family Welfare (NIHFW) and tech-
nical advice from specialised institutions
will be sought. These surveys will be
restricted to Empowered Action Group
(EAG) states covering a population of 1.8
crores. The data will be collected on the
basis of a fairly large sample. The first fact
sheet of the results will be published in
March 2011, when the provisional results
of the 2011 Census will also be published.
I have grave doubts about the quality of
biometric data like blood pressure, etc,
proposed to be collected by the census
vol xlvi no 4
LETTERS
organisation. No matter how well the in-
vestigators are trained during one or two
weeks at NIHFW, I doubt if they can take
correctly the level of blood pressure, etc.
(4) Right from the 1951 Census – the first
census after independence – no question
was asked on caste. In the 35-column
questionnaire for the 2011 Census, there
was a question: are you scheduled caste or
scheduled tribe (which is mandatory as
the Constitution has special programmes
for these disadvantaged persons) and the
codes are 1 for SC, 2 for ST and 3 for all
other castes. The census organisation did
not make any effort to decipher castes
even if the caste data were given. In the
census individual questionnaire there is
no question on caste.
There was a bolt from the blue when
the cabinet secretariat under the prime
minister instructed the census organisa-
tion to collect data on caste. The census
commissioner opposed this on the plea
that it will affect the integrity of the
census. It seems the cabinet had two
rounds of meetings before giving the final
instructions to the census commissioner
to conduct a caste census. However,
they asked the census commissioner to
conduct a separate caste census after the
2011 Census operations were over. The
commissioner Chandramouli commen-
ted: “Even if we collect data on caste, how
shall we classify castes under certain
groups when hundreds of castes and
sub-castes are enumerated? The census
office has no expertise on this subject.” I
do not think the census organisation
should spread its tentacles too far.
Other agencies like the National Sample
Survey Organisation could be asked to do
this work.
I asked the census commissioner of
India about the time when India will
overtake the Chinese population. He
said “It is internationally accepted that
India’s population will overtake China’s
by 2025 or 2030. He, however, felt that
because of the one-child policy there will
be a delayed impact on population
growth. As a result, China’s population
growth rate is much lower than India’s.
India will overtake China’s population
much earlier.”
Ashish Bose
new delhi
5