ACHA PEACE BULLETIN
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ACHAPeaceBulletin
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A publication of Association for Communal
Harmony in Asia (ACHA)
www.asiapeace.org & www.indiapakistanpeace.org
Editor:
Pritam K. Rohila,
PhD asiapeace@comcast.net
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Volume XII, No. 2,
______________________________________________________________________________
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
*Rekindling hope in our hearts, Pritam K. Rohila, Ph.D.
GUEST
EDITORIALS
*Rays
of hope in
LETTERS
*Now
it is time to share & care with each other, Eng. Mehmood
BOOKS
*People
Power and Protest Since 1945: A Bibliography of
Nonviolent Action
*Housmans Peace Diary 2008 with World Peace
Directory
*The Tribute to the Strugglers: Tuhfat al-Mujahidin, Shaykh Zainuddin Makhdum
*Fault
Lines: Stories of 1971, Niaz Zaman
& Asif Farrukhi (Eds)
*Communalism: Illustrated Primer, Ram Puniyani
*Turning the Pot,
Tilling the Land: Dignity of Labor in our Times, Kancha Iliah
EVENTS
*
*April
2008,
*October
4-7, Koach,
*
PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM
PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM
POSTERS
*Terrorism
UPDATE:
UPDATE:
UPDATE:
UPDATE:
______________________________________________________________________________
EDITORIAL
*Rekindling hope in our hearts, Pritam K. Rohila, Ph.D.
For
quite some time, we have been bombarded with the news of one horrific happening
after another, in various parts of
Not
a single day passes without one or more reports of violence, conflict,
minority-bashing, suppression of the human and civil rights of people, or
disregard for the rule of law. It seems as if many parts of
Under the circumstances, it is hard for one not to lose hope – hope about our and our children’s future as well as hope for the future of the South Asian nations. Yet, hope we must have, if we at all wish to get out of this hole.
We must hope, because, if we don’t, we quit trying to do even what we can, to improve our lot. Also our ability to think clearly and to reason logically is compromised. Further our capacity to perform meaningful, purposeful acts to get out of the hole is undermined.
Therefore, it is very important that we muster all the energy we can access to do all we can do, individually and in cooperation with other like-minded people, to improve our and our nations’ future.
Let us then commit ourselves to do the best each one of us can do to meet the challenges we face.
And let us not forget that, in the long term, no one will be able to prosper without peace in our minds, in our families, in our neighborhoods, and yes, even with our “enemies.”
GUEST
EDITORIALS
*Rays of hope in
Dr.
Khan heads a
In February 1977 a very lively election campaign
was going on in
The situation has worsened so much that the
world media now is only flashing bad news about
Before enumerating the signs of hope let me
remind the readers that the apparent situation can many times be terribly
misleading like
The biggest sign of optimism is that the level
of awareness has improved enormously among the Pakistanis and an average person
is much better informed than many residents of the first world. Nations who are
not aware of their actual heroes and villains are doomed as the Pakistanis were
when many actually hoped for good coming out of military dictators. Significant
if not substantial segment of population considered the constitution breaking
generals their deliverers and the elected officials the villains. Religious
political leaders were revered and fighting foreign wars was considered good
and patriotic thing to do. This made situation much easy for the imperialists and
their local partners, the unscrupulous generals, to exploit and mess up
everything including our most cherished heritage of being the only democratic
Islamic country. Now all the current and old supporters and facilitators
of dictators are on the run everywhere and supporting dictatorships has become
socially unacceptable.
A bit of comparison with the past clarifies the
difference. When Gen Zia ruthlessly hanged Bhutto after a dubious trial, the
reaction was a fraction of what we saw after BBs tragic assassination. Bhutto's
assassination, or maybe we should call cold-blooded legal murder, was
celebrated by many but BBs was condoled by all without exception. This despite
the fact that in spite of BBs stature, Bhutto was still a greater leader, tells a lot about the progress of our collective
wisdom and awareness. Our courts repeatedly yielded to the dictators who always
extracted their much-needed legitimacy from them but now they are resisting.
Scores of judges refused to legitimize the extra constitutional acts and are
paying dearly for their beliefs. This very mature, dignified, bold and graceful
behavior was unimaginable an year ago.
Our judiciary is not alone in this tirade as it
is being fully supported by the legal community and the civil society
comprising of doctors, academics, engineers and people from all segments of
society specially the media. Only yesterday I had the privilege of attending a
meeting of civil society activists belonging to the socioeconomic class that
was always blamed for its apathy and indifference towards national issues.
These people are now willing to leave their comfortable surroundings to
struggle for civil rights in a military dominated country fully aware of the
risks involved for collective good. We see people young and octogenarians
alike, struggling on streets and getting beaten who very well could have been
beneficiaries of the dictatorships. This has acquired proportions where it has
become nearly impossible to find someone talking favorably for the current dictator.
Our civil society has certainly come a long way in realizing its national
obligations.
Pakistanis were raised with a few myths crafted
to serve the interests of some at the expense of the nation. The most damaging
myth was that an enemy nation existed in the neighborhood justifying funneling
of most national resources towards buying of arms neglecting the people. Then
they were told that
To succeed in any contest correct analysis of
the rival is important and we can easily see major cracks in the ranks of
undemocratic forces of
Then the biggest hope for
To recount a few other blessings we have
wonderful fertile land, rivers, seasons, mountains and everything a nation can
wish making it potentially an affluent and desirable country. On top of all
this its special strategic position puts it in a very advantageous position. By
supplying energy to
Despite these very hopeful signs everything will
not be easy as the local beneficiaries of the rotten system or the foreign
benefactors using
Pakistanis will have to keep on struggling until
they achieve the desired results. Nothing worthwhile is ever achieved without
patience, labor and disappointment and we will need them too. This transition
towards democracy and empowerment of people might be painful but it has to be
endured. Only Pakistanis can fight and win this struggle for
So we see there is hope for
LETTERS
*Now it is time to share
& care with each other, Eng. Mehmood,
ksc687@yahoo.com
Kashmire brotherhood was a guideline for whole world
but sorry to say Jag mohan & some immatured elements for their ill desires were involve to break this deep rooted relation.
It was the Muslim majority
As one main fundamental of
Hinduism is AHANSA & the spirit of ISLAM is HUMANITY, how can any Hidu or Muslim can
justify, if anyone among them is involve in innocent killing
wheather in Gujrat or
In many pious places of Muslims incharg for calling people are Pandits.
Also in many Hindu pious places even at Amarnath
pious Gopha Muslims are member of its managment. While going Amarnanth
I am eye witness of such brotherhood,which
we cant observe in any other country that while
carrying disable pilgram to Amar Nanth pious place by Muslims
on their shoulders were saying LAELA HA EL ALLAH.
To describe this is untolerable for me as I cant
control my tears that my Hindu sister Nancy refused to go with her bride till
my arrival to her wedding function.My own blood
sister failed to wait for me but my Pandit sister
prefer me than her nears & dears.
Sorry & sorry I was at Delhi for treatment so failed to avoid detain her, even
failed to be with solution with so many Pandit nears
& dears .I do feel guilty though I contribute in detention & share with
some Pandit brothers & sisters.
How can we deny this fact that in development of our Education & awarness there is vital role of Pandits,this realty I have mentioned in past also via print
media & other sources also.
I do remember my Pandit teachers always provide me
proper guideline & often used to visit my home for encourage.On
my success in first division in matric respected Jawaher & Mehraj came my home
for congrulations before my close relatives.
No doubt in addition to Jag Mohan there were & are
some immature elements in both communities who only for their self desires are
busy to break this brotherhood. Resulting mass migration of Pandits & many Muslims.
Only spirit of both religions & Kashmeryat can
provide guideline to both communities to realise pain
of eachother.For charging this brotherhood Pandits should plead the case of oppresed
Muslims,who are continously victim of atrosties
via In dian forces & other elements &
Muslims should realise the miserable condition of Pandits,who are in miserable condition in camps.Whose standard of life was high because of their
education & geans.
Seperation of these two communities is itself part of
problem for freedom struggle. As freedom struggle is againist occupied forces not with country men.
There are many Hindus in some areas of Pakistan living peacefully with all facalities even big tycoon businessmen Hindu in the capital
of Pakistan Islamabad.And a large number of Muslims
even well setteled Muslims with all facalities in all famious cities
of India.
Now it is time to share &
care with each other & arrange safe passage to migrants to their soil, as
both religions especially ISLAM gives priorty to
protection of minorties, also our National poet Mahjoors desire was………
NAI TREAYEA MEA THEYEO PAN WEAN
PUZ MUHBAT BEGREAYEA PAN WEAN
ZAT BUTRATH KASHREAN HINZ CHO UW
KUNEA
KHAMA KHA DURAR MEA PEAYEU PAN
WEAN
DUD CHOU MUSLIM HIND CHOU SHAKAR
SAF SAF
DUD TEA BEA SHAKAR REALEAYEA PAN
WEAN
BOOKS
*People
Power and Protest Since 1945: A Bibliography of Nonviolent Action, compiled
by April Carter, Howard Clark, and Michael Randle and published by Housmans Bookshop (Housmans, 5
Caledonian Road, Kings Cross, London NI 9DX, UK, 020-7837 4473, Fax
020-7278b0444, orders@housmans.com), 2006, ISBN 0
85283 262 1, 10 Pounds in Europe, and 12 Pounds or $18 outside Europe.
This annotated
bibliography of almost 1000 itemized sources provides a guide a guide to recent
campaigns as well as to the theory and practice of nonviolent action. The
primary focus is on movements or protests since 1945, but sections also deal
with Gandhi, classic writings on nonviolence, and surveys which refer to many
earlier examples of nonviolent resistance.
The areas
covered include mass popular resistance to oppression and rigged elections;
peace, green, feminist and social justice movements expanding the repertoire of
nonviolent action; and struggles by indigenous people, farmers, workers,
unemployed and the homeless.
*Housmans Peace Diary 2008 with World Peace
Directory, published by Housmans Bookshop (Housmans, 5 Caledonian Road, Kings Cross, London NI 9DX, UK,
020-7837 4473, Fax 020-7278b0444, orders@housmans.com), 2007, ISBN
978 0 85283 266 0, ISSN 0957-0136. 8.95 Pounds worldwide.
The Diary is in
pocket format, with a week to a view, giving notable dates and anniversaries
and weekly quotations. It includes calendars, a forward planner for 2009, space
for notes and a special feature on the international nuclear disarmament
movement.
The 55th
edition lists almost 2000 national and international peace, environmental and
human rights organizations in 150 countries.
*The Tribute
to the Strugglers: Tuhfat al-Mujahidin, by Shaykh Zainuddin Makhdum (translated from Arabic by S. Muhammad Husayn Nainar), 2006, Pages 139.
Published by Islamic book Trust,
Reviewed by Yoginder Sikand
The Tuhfat al-Mujahidin or ‘The Tribute to the Strugglers’ is
one of the earliest extant historical treatises about the southern Indian state
of Kerala. Its author, the sixteenth century's Shaikh
Zainuddin Makhdum, hailed
from the renowned Makhdum family from the town of
Following in
the footsteps of many of his forefathers, Shaikh Zainduddin rose to become a leading Islamic scholar. He
spent ten years studying in
The Tuhfat is one of Shaikh Zainuddin’s several works, and is the best known among
them. A chronicle of the stiff resistance put up by the Muslims of Malabar
against the Portuguese colonialists from 1498, when Vasco Da Gama arrived in
Calicut, to 1583, it describes in considerable detail events, many of which
that the author had himself witnessed and lived through. It was intended, as Shaikh Zainduddin says, as a
means to exhort the Malabar Muslims to launch a struggle or jihad against the
Portuguese invaders. The book thus extols the virtues of jihad against
oppressors, and, at the same time, also provides fascinating details about the
history of Islam in Malabar, the relations between Muslims and Hindus in the
region and the customs and practices of both.
Islam’s first
contact with
Relations
between Muslims and the Hindus of Malabar, Shaikh Zainudin observes, were traditionally cordial. The rulers
of Malabar, all Hindus, treated the Muslims with respect, one reason being that
the Muslims played a vital role in the region’s economy because of their control
of the trading routes linking Malabar to other lands by sea. Hindu rulers even
paid salaries of the muezzins and qazis and allowed
the Muslims to be governed in personal matters by their own laws. Hindus who
converted to Islam were not harassed, and, even if they were of ‘low’ caste
origin, were warmly welcomed into the Muslim community. This was probably one
reason for the rapid spread of Islam in the region.
Shaikh Zainuddin’s observations about the
Hindus of Malabar are remarkable for their sense of balance and sympathy. Of
the Hindu rulers, he says, ‘There are some who are powerful and some
comparatively weak. But the strong, as a matter of fact, will not attack or
occupy the territory of the weak’. (This, Shaikh Zainuddin suggests, might be a result of the conversion of
one of their kings, referred to earlier, to Islam ‘and of his supplications to
this effect to God’). He also adds, ‘[The] people of Malabar are never
treacherous in their wars’. At the same time, he notes with disapproval the
deeply-rooted caste prejudices among the Malabari
Hindus. So strict is the law of caste, he writes, that any violation of it
results in excommunication, forcing the violator to convert to Islam or
Christianity or become a yogi or mendicant or to be enslaved by the king. Even
such a minor matter as a ‘high’ caste Hindu woman being hit by a stone thrown
by a ‘low’ caste man causes her to lose caste. ‘How many such detestable
customs!”, Shaikh Zainuddin remarks after recounting some of them. ‘Due to
their ignorance and stupidity, they
strictly follow these customs, believing that it is their moral responsibility
to uphold them’, he adds. ‘It was while they were living in these social
conditions that the religion of Islam reached them by the grace of Allah’, he
goes on, ‘[a]nd this was the main reason for their
being easily attracted to Islam’.
Of all the
Hindu rulers of Malabar, the most powerful, and also the most
friendly towards the Muslims, were the Zamorins
of Calicut, who claimed descent from the king who is said to have converted to
Islam and died in
Shaikh Zainuddin is at pains to note the
contrast between the response of the Hindu Zamorins to the plight of the Malabar Muslims with that of
several Muslim Sultans in other parts of
The Portuguese
conquests, resulting in their wresting the monopoly over the Malabar spice trade
from the Muslims, caused a rapid decline in Muslim fortunes, reducing the
community to abject poverty. Shaikh Zainduddin describes the reign of terror unleashed on the Malabari Muslims, by the Portuguese, who were fired with a
hatred of Islam and Muslims—indiscriminate killings of Muslims, rapes of Muslim
women, forcible conversions of Muslims to Christianity, enslaving of hundreds
of Muslims, destroying mosques and building churches in their place and setting
alight Muslim shops and homes.
In appealing to
the Malabari Muslims to launch jihad against the
Portuguese, Shaikh Zainuddin
makes clear that this struggle is purely a defensive one, directed at only the
Portuguese interlopers and not the local Hindus or the Hindu Zamorins, for whom he expresses considerable respect. Nor
is it, he suggests, a call to establish Muslim political supremacy and control.
Jihad, then, for Shaikh Zaiuddin,
was a morally just struggle to restore peace in Malabar and expel foreign
occupiers, to return to a period when Muslims and Hindus in the region lived
together in harmony.
This treatise
is an indispensable source of Malabari history and
would be invaluable to those interested in the history of Islam in
*Fault Lines: Stories of 1971,
Niaz Zaman & Asif Farrukhi (Eds), University Press,
Fault Lines includes 37 stories from
This is probably the first time
that stories from both sides of the divide are presented together and such a
proposition is not without difficulties, as the introduction highlights. The
stories from
selected include such prominent names as Intizar
Husain, Masood Ashar, Asad Mohammed Khan, Hassan Manzar,
Ibrahim Jalees, Masood
Mufti, Amar Jaleel, Umme Umara, Saleem
Akhtar, Tariq Rehman, and
Ahmed Salim among others. The translators include
Muhammad Salim
The stories from
from this perspective of shifting boundaries that he has written his story.
Apart from the hard work and trekking down of stories, the introduction was
particularly difficult and painful to write. After much debate (some of it
rather heated) Niaz Zaman
and I decided to
write our separate versions. We understand that this book may rake up painful
memories on both sides, but we hope that it does more than create
controversies. We hope that there is debate and
discussion leading to a better understanding of not simply the political events
but the stories of the people who were affected by the events.
As you can imagine this has been a tough going but a very interesting one,
which has made me "read" 1971 again and try to look at it with a
fresh or different perspective. (Asif Farrukhi)
*Communalism: Illustrated Primer, Ram Puniyani, (English, Hindi
& Marathi), Pages 116.
The
book deals with the phenomenon of sectarian violence and politics in