Javed Anand (born ca. 1950) is an Indian journalist and civil rights activist who founded the Mumbai-based
Sabrang Communications
Sabrang Communications is an organization founded in 1993 that publishes the monthly '' Communalism Combat'' magazine and that operates KHOJ, a secular education program, in schools in Mumbai, India.
''Communalism Combat'' is edited by Javed Anand ...
in 1993. He is married to
Teesta Setalvad
Teesta Setalvad (born 9 February 1962) is an Indian civil rights activist and journalist. She is the secretary of ''Citizens for Justice and Peace'' (CJP), an organisation formed to advocate for the victims of 2002 Gujarat riots.
Personal life
...
and they co-edit the monthly ''
Communalism Combat
''Communalism Combat'' is a monthly magazine published by Sabrang Communications since August 1993. The magazine is edited by husband wife team of Javed Anand and Teesta Setalvad.
History
Javed Anand and Teesta Setalvad left their jobs as Bomba ...
''.
Early years
Javed Anand attended the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, graduating with a degree in metallurgical engineering in 1971.
He worked for the Front for Rapid Economic Development of India, a social action group, then in 1971 became a writer for ''The Daily'', a Mumbai-based tabloid newspaper in 1971. In 1983 he met
Teesta Setalvad
Teesta Setalvad (born 9 February 1962) is an Indian civil rights activist and journalist. She is the secretary of ''Citizens for Justice and Peace'' (CJP), an organisation formed to advocate for the victims of 2002 Gujarat riots.
Personal life
...
, who had just joined ''The Daily'', and they married four years later.
Sabrang Communications
Shortly after the
Bombay riots
In the Bombay riots in December 1992 and January 1993, an estimated 900 people died. The riots were mainly due to escalations of hostilities after large scale protests by Muslims in reaction to the 1992 Babri Masjid Demolition by Hindu Karsev ...
of 1992–93 that followed the demolition of
Babri Mosque
Babri Masjid (IAST: Bābarī Masjid; meaning ''Mosque of Babur'') was a mosque in Ayodhya, India, at a site believed by many Hindus to be the birthplace of Hindu deity Rama. It has been a focus of dispute between the Hindu and Muslim communi ...
in December 1992,
Teesta Setalvad
Teesta Setalvad (born 9 February 1962) is an Indian civil rights activist and journalist. She is the secretary of ''Citizens for Justice and Peace'' (CJP), an organisation formed to advocate for the victims of 2002 Gujarat riots.
Personal life
...
and Anand left their jobs with mainstream newspapers and launched ''
Communalism Combat
''Communalism Combat'' is a monthly magazine published by Sabrang Communications since August 1993. The magazine is edited by husband wife team of Javed Anand and Teesta Setalvad.
History
Javed Anand and Teesta Setalvad left their jobs as Bomba ...
'', a magazine dedicated to fighting the divisive forces that had led to the riots. They started
Sabrang Communications
Sabrang Communications is an organization founded in 1993 that publishes the monthly '' Communalism Combat'' magazine and that operates KHOJ, a secular education program, in schools in Mumbai, India.
''Communalism Combat'' is edited by Javed Anand ...
to generate revenue to sustain ''Communalism Combat'', which they foresaw as not being viable on its own strength. They started working for the magazine in mid-1993 and the first issue was published in August 1993.
The magazine struggled at first, with friends pitching in. The couple did occasional assignments. A show of
Tumhari Amrita and some regular ads supported them. In the run-up to 1999 Lok Sabha elections, ''Communalism Combat'' created an ad campaign featuring 18 fact sheets/backgrounders pitched against the Sangh Parivar. This campaign was funded by the Congress, CPI, CPM and about 10 prominent individuals. BJP and RSS unsuccessfully petitioned to the Election Commission against this ad campaign.
By 2003 the magazine was printing up to 10,000 copies monthly.
Sabrang Communications has published various widely discussed reports. In 1998 Sabrang published ''Damning Verdict: Report of the Srikrishna Commission'' on the riots in Mumbai in December 1992 and January 1993, and 12 March 1993 bomb blasts. Following ongoing communal violence in
Gujarat
Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...
, in 2000 Sabrang published ''Saffron on the rampage: Gujarat's Muslims pay for the Lashkar's deeds''. In 2002, Sabrang and South Asia Citizens Web published ''The Foreign Exchange of Hate: IDRF and the American Funding of Hindutva'', which investigated how funding raised by the
India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) in the USA was being distributed in India.
Anand was a founding member of Citizens for Justice and Peace. In October 2003, he was a participant in the first national meeting of "
Muslims for Secular Democracy", and was chosen as General Secretary of the group. He continued to hold this position as of April 2011.
Opinions
Anand writes columns for mainstream newspapers such as ''
The Indian Express
''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split be ...
''. As a columnist for the ''
Asian Age
''The Asian Age'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper with editions published in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. It also prints an "international edition" in London. It was launched in February 1994.
The same publishing company also prod ...
'' he has written a number of articles on Muslim-related topics.
In January 2012 there were growing protests by Muslim organisations against a visit to India by controversial author
Salman Rushdie
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and We ...
. Javed Anand reminded Muslims of the approach taken by Sir
Syed Ahmed Khan
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan KCSI (17 October 1817 – 27 March 1898; also Sayyid Ahmad Khan) was an Indian Muslim reformer, philosopher, and educationist in nineteenth-century British India. Though initially espousing Hindu-Muslim unity, he ...
, founder of
Aligarh Muslim University, in a similar situation. He noted that "
Altaf Hussain Hali, who penned Sir Syed's biography, writes that Sir Syed never favoured hounding a writer who had blasphemed against the Prophet. So Sir Syed wrote a book to refute the charges of
William Muir
Sir William Muir (27 April 1819 – 11 July 1905) was a Scottish Orientalist, and colonial administrator, Principal of the University of Edinburgh and Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Provinces of British India.
Life
He was born at Gl ...
in the latter's blasphemous book ''The Life of Mahomet''".
Talking of violence, he has said: "Put bluntly, do groups and organizations whose rights we defend themselves believe in democratic forms of mass mobilization? Is it ethically right and politically tenable that rights groups focus their entire attention on violations by state personnel but remain mum when 'militants' maim, rape or kill fellow citizens". Speaking of the
2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, Anand said: "They (terrorists) claim to be doing this in the name of Islam. We have to tell them, 'Not in our name'".
Talking of a police probe of radical
Hindutva
Hindutva () is the predominant form of Hindu nationalism in India. The term was formulated as a political ideology by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1923. It is used by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the ...
organisations in November 2008 he said "I can't see a serving IPS officer going after an army officer or saffron outfits unless these is concrete evidence". He has criticized
Students Islamic Movement of India
The Students' Islamic Movement of India (abbreviated SIMI) is a banned terrorist organisation that was formed in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh in April 1977. The stated mission of SIMI is the ‘liberation of India’ by converting it to an Islamic la ...
(SIMI), describing it as an extremist organisation that rejects democracy and secularism and espouses violence as a means to achieve a new Caliphate.
In a November 2009 article for this paper he criticized a UK-based Muslim charity for insisting that only Muslim willing to follow strict Shariah rules could receive their help. Writing in the ''
Deccan Chronicle
''Deccan Chronicle'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded by Rajagopal Mudaliar in the 1930s & currently owned by Samagrah Commercial Pvt Limited. It is published in Hyderabad, Telangana, by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited ...
'' in April 2011 on the proliferation of Muslim parties he said "Ideologically speaking, it means secularism by daylight, Sharia after dark. Politically speaking, at best they'll cancel each other out; eat into votes of mainstream parties that swear by secularism. At worst, they'll provide propaganda fodder to Hindutva, feed Islamophobia".
In September 1998, Setalvad and Anand published a paper on ''Saffron Army Targets People of the Cross'' that documented forced conversions of Christians to Hinduism with the assistance of state agents.
Legal issues
In January 2014 the
Ahmedabad Crime Branch registered a First Information Report that alleged that Anand, his wife Teesta Setalvad and others had embezzled Rs.15 million intended for construction of a memorial for riot victims. They were accused of misusing funds they had collected for making a museum for the Gulbarg society. They denied wrongdoing and said the case had been filed with "ulterior political motive". In March 2014 a local court in Ahmedabad denied the couple anticipatory bail in the case. On 12 February 2015 the Gujarat High Court refused to grant anticipatory bail. Later that day the Supreme Court stayed the arrest of the couple in the alleged misappropriation case.
On 8 July 2015 the
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a case against Setalvad and her organization for accepting foreign funding without first obtaining permission from the Home Ministry, a violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act. The filing also named Javed Anand and Gulam Mohammed Peshimam, both Sabrang directors. Setalvad told reporters she had assured the CBI she would cooperate fully with them, but had not been contacted by the CBI with any requests.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Anand, Javed
Living people
1950s births
Indian civil rights activists
Indian activist journalists
20th-century Indian Muslims
Writers from Mumbai
Journalists from Maharashtra
20th-century Indian journalists
Indian journalists