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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
Subscription is free.
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Volume XI, No. 6, June15, 2007, Next Issue,
______________________________________________________________________________
CONTENTS
Please
note our new Email Address: asiapeace@comcast.net
EDITORIAL
*Regrets for the Partition-related Violence,
Pritam K. Rohila, Ph.D
CROSS BORDER TRAVEL
EXPERIENCES OF INDIANS & PAKISTANIS
*From
Zaidi, with love, K.M. Sahni
PEACE & HARMONY BOOKS
*Gandhi
and Beyond: Nonviolence for an Age of Terrorism, David Cortright,
PEACE & HARMONY
EVENTS
*June
19,
*June
23-24,
*June 24,
*June
29 - July 2,
*August
12-15,
*December
1-2,
PEACE & HARMONY
EDUCATION & TRAINING
*Strengthening Today’s Leaders to Build
Peace
*July
9-August 27: TRANSCEND
PEACE & HARMONY
NEWS
SRI LANKA UPDATE
______________________________________________________________________________
EDITORIAL
*Regrets for the Partition-related Violence, Pritam K. Rohila, Ph.D., asiapeace@comcast.net
The
independence of
The Partition was perhaps the darkest period in the history of the region. In the frenzy of communal violence, about 15 million people were forced to leave their homes. Many of them could not withstand the rigors of the forced migration.
One-half to one million individuals lost their lives. Most were massacred. Many women committed suicide to protect their honor or due to shame of their dishonor.
Yet no one has so far accepted responsibility for these heinous crimes against humanity. No one has been prosecuted for these acts of naked violence.
The least we can do is to express our sympathy and regrets to the victims of the Partition-related violence and their families.
For this purpose, in the next few days, the Association for Communal Harmony in Asia (ACHA) will initiate a petition.
Also, ACHA is collecting stories about Partition-related experiences of people. Some of them have already been posted on our website www.asiapeace.org .
CROSS BORDER TRAVEL EXPERIENCES OF INDIANS
& PAKISTANIS
*From Zaidi, with
love, K.M. Sahni
The author is a former Secretary,
Government of
We went to
Suddenly, I had an idea. Why not drop in at 7,
On day 2, my wife and I went over to Zaidi’s, a
famous photographer located at 23,
We were met by his shagird, one Mr. Yunus, who surprised
us by rolling out the old records and, voile, there was my dad’s name in one of
his registers which showed that the photograph adorning our drawing room in New
Delhi was clicked by Zaidi’s in Mall Road, Lahore, on March12, 1945, a month
and a half after their wedding in Hardwar.
Here I was examining it under under a lamp, on
On Thursday, my wife went and selected the print
of our photograph at Zaidi’s, with the promise to pick it up on Friday at
At 5 we were back to Zaidi’s. Yunus Saheb gave
us our framed photograph, and when we asked how much, he said it was
complimentary, “on instructions of Shahid Sahib”. I then requested him to connect me to
his owner in Gulberg, and when he came on the line, I thanked him for his
gesture, and told him I was leaving a token of my feelings for him-an Indian
silk tie and a packet of
I also told him that, may be, a day would come
when my daughter would land up at his establishment on the Mall with her
husband, for yet another takeaway to
complete the picture, if that is the expression.
Thank you, Shahid Saheb, for rekindling my past,
and for holding an opportunity for my daughter in the future.”
PEACE & HARMONY BOOKS
*Gandhi
and Beyond: Nonviolence for an Age of Terrorism, David Cortright, Paradigm
Publishers, 2006
Review “Gandhi, King, Chavez and Day: The
footsteps of Giants,” by Kerry Bassett, The Peaceworker
www.oregonpeaceworks.org, February 2007, p. 18.
In
fewer than 300 pages, Cortright guides the reader through a compassionate,
honest history 0f nonviolence, its successes and failures, its problems and its
promise. This book is history and hope; trials and tools; critique and celebration.
It offers a means of coping with, and resolving, personal and organizational
conflict. Activists struggling to create peace are deeply and forever connected
to those who walked before us: Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day,
Caesar Chavez, the American Veterans of the Vietnam Insurgence, the hundreds of
thousands who have taken to streets, organized and walked picket lines in the
name of human rights. For us, this book is a profound tool.
Cortright
weaves a tapestry, a magic carpet of sorts, on which one can sit and travel
through the heart and soul of the peace movement. He reveals the wonders and
the warts of our nonviolent leaders and gently judges their actions in order to
learn how to make it work even more effectively.
PEACE & HARMONY EVENTS
*June
19, Portland, OR, USA: CHALLENGING & QUESTIONING PACIFISM: PANEL
DISCUSSION featuring Steven Bailey, David Bean, Joy Ellison, , Ezra Ereckson,
Ron Mock, 7-9 P.M., at Blackfish Gallery, 420 NW Ninth Ave.
*June
23-24, Bithur, Kanpur, Faizabad and Lucknow, UP, India: 150 YEARS OF
INDEPENDENT STRUGGLE AND COMMEMORATION OF 250 YEARS OF BATTLE OF PALASSEY, a
presentation of the Bharat chapter of Bangladesh Bharat Pakistan Peoples Forum (BBPPF). More info from Manik
Samajdar, Convener (Bharat), Bangladesh-Bharat-Pakistan
People's Forum & Hindu Muslim Friendship Association, N. Delhi
*June 24,
The
Foundation for Pluralism is committed to promoting understanding between
peoples of different religious affiliations. "We believe knowledge leads
to understanding and understanding to acceptance and appreciation of another
point of view". Confirm attendance
at ConfirmAttendance@gmail.com. More info from Mike
Ghouse at (214) 325-1916, MikeGhouse@gmail.com or www.FoundationforPluralism.com
*June
29 - July 2, Seabeck, WA: ACROSS THE GENERATIONS: THE CHALLENGE OF
RECONCILIATION & THE FUN OF FELLOWSHIP is the theme of the Fellowship of
Reconciliation’s 49th Seabeck Conference featuring Kathy Kelly and
Mark C. Johnson as keynote speakers, at Seabeck Conference Center on the Hood
Canal. Conference fee is $55 plus room & board and’or day use fee. More
info from www.scn.org/wwfor/forseabeck07.html or 206.789.5565
*August 12-15,
#4, Vasanttara, Above
Udhyam Vikas Sahkari Bank, Next to Surya Hotel, Off
*December 1-2, Islamabad, Pakistan: INDIA-PAKISTAN RELATIONS: PROSPECTS
AND CHALLENGES aims to analyze the significant issue pertaining to peace
building in South Asia, with particular reference to the on-going peace dialogue
between India and Pakistan, at Preston
University, Islamabad. Registration fee is Rs. 1,000. More info from Dr. Sohail Mahmood, Preston University, 85, Street 3, H-8/1,
Islamabad - 44000, Pakistan, Phone: +92 51 111-707-808 (office); Fax: 092-
051-4430648, Cell: +92 345 511 79 21, E-Mail: mahmood.sohail@gmail.com
PEACE & HARMONY EDUCATION & TRAINING
*
This is a professional
development program through which up to 30 participants embark on three months
of intensive study. More info from Jenn
Weidman, Rotary Peace and Conflict Studies Program Specialist, at jenn.weidman@rotary.org or
847-866-3374 and http://www.rotary.org/foundation/educational/rpcsp/index.html.
*July
9-August 27: TRANSCEND PEACE UNIVERSITY will offer the following online
courses this summer.
- Conflict Care and
Reconciliation, by Prof. S.P. Udayakumar;
- Gender and Militarism,
by Prof. Gal Harmat;
- Peace Journalism,
by Prof. Jake Lynch;
- Non-violent Tools and
Philosophy, by Prof. Jorgen Johansen;
- Peace Zones,
by Prof. Christophe Barbey;
- Peace and Literature,
by Prof. Marisa Antonaya;
- Dialogue, Negotiation
and Mediation, by Prof. S.P. Udayakumar;
- Non-violent Political
Institutions, by Prof. Christophe Barbey.
More
info and application form are available at http://www.transcend.org/tpu and from. Should you have any questions,
comments or suggestions do not hesitate to contact us at tpu@transcend.org
PEACE & HARMONY NEWS
*Muslims perform last rites of Kashmiri Pandit poet, Rediff.com,
http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/may/16poet.htm
Keeping the centuries-old tradition of 'Kashmiriyat' alive,
hundreds of Muslims came forward to perform the last rites of a 130-year-old
Kashmiri Pandit poet.
Samsar Chand breathed his last on Tuesday at Achan village
in south
Chand was the lone Kashmiri Pandit residing in the village
as his entire family and other fellow community members had migrated to various
parts of the country following the outbreak of violence in the Valley in 1989.
After hearing the news of his death, hundreds of Muslims
gathered at his residence to perform his last rites.
*A Hindu's love for an ancient Sufi shrine, New Kerala,
http://www.newkerala.com/news5.php?action=fullnews&id=33322
For
eight long years, a 65-year-old Hindu man has been managing with care and
devotion a Sufi shrine after Muslims hit hard by the 1989 communal violence
gave it up. Suresh Bhagat, who has virtually deserted his family in the
process, says he enjoys every minute he spends at the 300-year-old shrine of
Bazid Dargah Pahalwan, a revered Muslim preacher, in Amapur village some 20 km
away. The last of the Muslim families left the village in 1999, a decade after
Bhagat
sleeps on an elevated platform supported by bamboo poles near the shrine, close
to a cremation site on the bank of the
The
villagers decided to take care of the historical shrine after Kamo Miyan, the
last Muslim caretaker of the dargah, shifted to
Bhagat
does not know how to follow Muslim rituals. He knows how to put the ceremonial
'chadar' on the 'mazaar'. He offers the remains of burnt incense sticks to
Hindu and Muslim devotees who throng the shrine from Ekchari,
Every
evening, Anil, the rickshaw puller son of Bhagat, comes to see his father at
the shrine and hands over a lunch box to him. Bhagat has one dream: "I
wish there is such love among Hindus and Muslims that when Hindus fast, Ramzan
should fall on the very day." Says Wasi Alam, a Muslim resident of
*Pak keeping
Gurdwaras well: Indian Sikhs DAILY
TIMES |
*
*Pak condemns
attack on Karzai NATION |
*Irish
peacemakers reject
*No unilateral demilitarisation along LoC:
http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/jun/11pak.htm
*More
*Lanka to open
Mission in Afghanistan DAILY MIRROR |
*
*Indo-Pak
pursuit for track-II solution THE NEWS |
*Guru Dev Day:
Indian Sikhs in Pak DAILY
TIMES |
*Indo-Bangla
team inspects border NEW
NATION |
*
*
*Major
developments likely on
*Pak not
interested in arms race: Aziz ASIAN
AGE |
*
*
*
*Pak Army vet offers to trace
Indians' graves ASIAN
AGE |
*11 Hizbul militants surrender in J&K, PTI,
*
*Pak crisis not
to affect peace process DAILY
TIMES |
*SAARC delegates hail peace process HINDU
|
*
*S
*Musharraf wants peaceful
*
*Call for
bond among poets of two Bengals NEW AGE |
*Families of
missing Indian ‘PoWs’ in Pak ZEE
NEWS |
*
*Pak-Afghan
Jirga for an end to terrorism THE NEWS
*Pak offers
*Indian TV
dramas set new trend in Pak DAILY
TIMES |
*Pak to expand
ties with B'desh: Expert THE
NEW NATION |
http://www.southasianmedia.net/index_story.cfm?id=392803&category=Frontend&Country=MAIN
*
*Nepal
assistance to be tripled: India KANTIPUR ONLINE |
*
*
*Kasuri,
Pranab to push peace process DAILY
TIMES |
*No
military solution to J&K: Manmohan HINDU
|
*SAARC
Youth Camp-2007 in BD this year NEW AGE |
*Pak- Afghan inks rail track accord THE POST |
*Delhi
& Dhaka: True neighbours at last TELEGRAPH INDIA |,