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ACHA PEACE BULLETIN
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http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ACHAPeaceBulletin
A publication of
Association for Communal Harmony in
www.asiapeace.org & www.indiapakistanpeace.org
Editor: Pritam K. Rohila, PhD pritam@open.org
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is free.
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Volume X, No. 9,
Editor’s Note: I will be on
vacation. Therefore, the next issue will be sent out on October 3, instead of
October 15, and there will be no November issue. Normal publication will resume
effective December 15.
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
*Terrorism - Terror + Peace =
Peace-ism, Pritam Kumar Rohila, Ph.D.
PEACE & HARMONY NEWS
ARTICLE OF THE MONTH
*100
Yrs of Satyagraha: Gandhi, a
Second Coming, Sheela Reddy,
OUTLOOKIndia.com Magazine,
BOOKS
*The State in Islam: Nature and Scope,
Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer
LECTURES &
PUBLIC MEETINGS
*September 16,
POLICY PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
*September 20,
PEACE EVENTS
*September 15 to 17,
*September 21: PEACE ONE DAY
*September 23.
*October 02-06,
*October 28-29,
BHARAT -
RESEARCH
*IssueLab
WORKSHOPS
*November 18-20,
YOUR LETTERS
*Ashok
*Nizamuddin Nizamani
Peace
is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at
that goal.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
EDITORIAL
*Terrorism - Terror + Peace = Peace-ism, Pritam Kumar Rohila, Ph.D.
While terrorist activity has
subsided in
Violence does not resolve any problem. It may make the problem seem to disappear for a while, but eventually it re-emerges in one form or the other. Also, even if, for any reason, terrorists achieve their objective of bringing the opposition to its knees, some other opponents will soon make their appearance.
Therefore, nonviolent ways of protesting and negotiating are far superior in their overall effectiveness.
Let us resolve to defeat the nefarious aims of terrorists. Let us not allow them to terrorize us. In spite of the great personal loss some of us have experienced, we should continue going about our usual daily business.
Even a more important step we must take is to not allow terrorism to drive a wedge between different communities. Rather, whatever keeps the different communities apart must be bridged with understanding, tolerance, compassion and friendship.
We salute people of Ayodhya,
We admire the courageous people of these communities, who aided the victims, helped transport them to hospitals, and donated blood for them, regardless of their religion.
We encourage people everywhere to defeat terrorism by extending a hand of friendship to the members of other religious communities in their neighborhoods and at their places of work.
Let us come together to take the terror out of terrorism and replace it with peace. Let us wage Peace-ism instead.
PEACE & HARMONY NEWS
Muslim
children sing Vande Mataram, marking the centenary year of the national song,
in Kolkata.
Photograph: Deshakalyan Chowdhury/AFP/Getty Images
*Pakistan-Afghanistan
road opened DAILY TIMES |
*
*SAARC
meet on drugs smuggling begins THE HIMALAYAN TIMES |
*S
Asian forum for education proposed NEWAGE BD |Wednesday,
*
*Kolkata
to get a slice of Bangladesh MUMBAI MIRROR |Wednesday,
*Indian envoy meets PM Koirala THE HIMALAYAN TIMES |Wednesday, September 13, http://www.southasianmedia.net/index_story.cfm?id=324485&category=Frontend&Country=MAIN
*‘Gandhi’s non-violence
still holds true’ DAILY TIMES |Wednesday,
*Borders are connectors, says
*
*
*Afghan President Hamid Karzai (L) speaks to
his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf in 
*Karzai assures
*Singh will meet with Musharraf in Cuba THE HINDU |Friday,
*India, Pak, BD discuss education issues TRIBUNE INDIA |Friday,
*
*
*Left to support Singh on peace talks INDIAN EXPRESS |
*ADB ups S Asian GDP
outlook to 7.8 pc NEPAL NEWS |
*
*Nepal
ratifies SAARC conventions PEOPLE'S DAILY |Thursday,
*
*Arms
swapped in
*'UNP for peaceful solution to problems' Thursday,
*Govt
extends truce with Ulfa THE TIMES OF INDIA |Thursday,
*Fight
terrorism, not Muslims: PM Hindustan Times |Wednesday,
*N
*Sinhalese
prefer
*Indo-Lanka trade
balloons to $ 2 billion DAILY NEWS |
*SAARC body on standards to be set up DAILY TIMES |Tuesday,
*
*
*Clerics issue fatwa for
polio drops DAILY TIMES |Monday,
*‘Peace
in interest of
*
*
*
*Indo-Pak border
security officials meet DAILY TIMES |Friday,
*Musharraf
to visit
*Saarc states to form flour mills body DAWN |
*
*BIMSTEC ministers sign tourism pact THE HIMALAYAN TIMES |
*Indo-Pak ties on course: Pak envoy to US
DAILY TIMES | August 30,2006 http://www.southasianmedia.net/index_story.cfm?id=321260&category=Frontend&Country=MAIN
*‘More votaries of Indo-Pak
peace now' DAILY INDIA |Saturday, August 26,2006 http://www.southasianmedia.net/index_story.cfm?id=320313&category=Frontend&Country=MAIN
*
*
*Bhutan simplifies trade with Bangladesh' APFA NEWS |Friday,
*
*
*S Asian
telecommunications meet begins BBS |Thursday,
*BD port team on
*South
*Police
save woman from vani in Mianwali DAWN |Monday,
*Pak
asks
*
*
*Manmohan's assurance
to Muslims The Hindu |Tuesday,
*
*Pakistanis ‘candle of peace’ in Lucknow DAILY TIMES |
*
*S Asian games open
amidst high security THE HINDU |Saturday,
*Indian, Pak troops to honour truce TRIBUNE INDIA |Saturday,
*
*ULFA announces cessation of
hostilities (in
* A
Buddhist monk, member of the National Anti War Front, participates in a peace
rally on Thursday in
*
*Students of the Anjuman Islam school, Mumbai celebrate
|
|
*
* Members of SAFMA delegation from
*BDR, BSF start pullout THE DAILY STAR |Tuesday,
*Pak journalists join candlelight vigil The
Tribune |Monday,
ARTICLE OF THE MONTH
100
YRS OF SATYAGRAHA
Gandhi,
A Second Coming, SHEELA REDDY,
OUTLOOKIndia.com Magazine,
A100 years
after he conceived the satyagraha, a breed of neo-Gandhians goes beyond the
khadi and charkha to coopt Bapu in whole new ways
"The art of
living and dying" is how Mohandas Gandhi described his unique tool of
resistance, perhaps
Oddly, while the government has
yet to wake up to the significance of this event—apart from setting up one of
those inevitable committees that has yet to meet—Gandhian youth organisations
that have sprung up recently across the country are wresting the initiative
away from the usual custodians of the Mahatma in a bid to reach the young.
Plans are on to launch their year-long centenary celebrations in fresh, new
ways that tie contemporary issues to the reawakened interest in a man who has
so far been interred in textbooks and in marigold-engulfed statues. The new-age
satyagrahis—a word that they wish to avoid like the politicians in Gandhi
topis—will go on peace runs, bicycle yatras for communal harmony, motorbike
rallies for Indo-Pak peace and against female foeticide; take Gandhi films and
discussion groups to professional colleges, radio programmes and wall
newspapers to slums and villages; hold comicbook workshops and roundtable
discussions with leaders of all political hues, including advocates of
terrorism, "because everyone 
deserves
to be heard".
And it's not just in
|
Satyagraha 1913: Gandhi adopts the dress of Tamil indentured labour
during his satyagraha in |
question: what shall I do with my
life?" And, suddenly, it's the
Mahatma that fits the bill.
Agrees A. Annamalai of Chennai's
Satyagraha 2006: Aruna Roy, Sandeep Dwivedi et al protest dilution of RTI Act
A national survey earlier this
month by The Hindu-CNN-IBN bears this out. ill-served by everyone,
including the Gandhians," agrees historian Mushirul Hasan. "They
deified him and buried him in institutions, which is ironical, considering how
uncomfortable Gandhi was with institutions. He was conveniently portrayed as a
saint so that they wouldn't be threatened by his ideology."
But the worst disservice done to Gandhi, according to Gopal Gandhi, is how
"a vital, witty, disturbing, admonitory, inconvenient, caring, touchstone
of a man" was turned into the "one thing he was not: a bore".
Even someone who came to Gandhi through the Marxist route like Aruna Roy is
dismayed at how "a very modern, rational, interesting man with a fantastic
sense of humour like Gandhi was turned into a fuddy-duddy crashing bore.
By turning him into the Father of
the Nation, we could ignore him apart from putting up ugly statues at every
crossing and garlanding him on October 2". Whereas,
It is this conviction about
Gandhi's potential to engage a new generation that's driving attempts to repackage
Bapu as their man for the 21st century. "We have to reach out to the
young," says Santosh Kumar Dwivedi, national secretary of the Rashtriya
Yuva
The maulvi and the mahant at Tulsighat in Benares In these communally-tense
times, Gandhi still holds relevance
Sangathan (RYS), a Gandhian youth
organisation set up 12 years ago. "If we want to set up a non-violent
society, what other option is there before us?" But youth, as Dwivedi is
the first to admit, aren't exactly enamoured with the fusty, faddist lot of old
Gandhians.
It is these so-called Gandhians who killed his spirit, says Leeladhar Manik
Gada, a former timber merchant who now employs youth to work for social change
in the
"They want young people to
follow Gandhi with closed eyes. These Gandhians haven't come out of their
compounds and seen the world, nor have they made any attempt to understand
today's problems. They demand that the young follow Gandhi like they do."
Leeladhar, who says he's proud to call himself a Gandhian, belongs among the
new Gandhians, although he's 68. "There are plenty of young people who
want to contribute to society. Many of them are graduates of rural studies
without a job. Their work is worth much more than we can ever pay them. But if
you ask them to wear khadi and discard technology, they won't want to do this
kind of work. What does it matter if a young man wears pants-shirt, uses a
motorbike rather than walk, so long as he gets the work done?" Agrees
Dwivedi, "There is youth power that can be tapped out there, and we
weren't doing it," pointing out that's why the RYS has discarded the old
Gandhian symbols. Of course, there was resistance from the older lot but, as
Dwivedi says, "Khadi and charkha are outdated symbols. We need to now
climb on Gandhi's shoulders and look ahead".
The new approach worked: the new Gandhian youth movement has now spread across
10 states, with young volunteers involved in issues like promoting communal
harmony, agitating for the land rights of dispossessed tribals in Madhya
Pradesh and Orissa, and holding camps and workshops for college students and
young professionals like themselves.
Little Gandhis: Schoolchildren dressed the part on October 2
It's youth in the cities that is
the focus of people like Dwivedi "In the villages people haven't forgotten
their Gandhi Baba," says the 36-year-old who works in Madhya Pradesh's
Umariya district, organising tribals to fight for their land rights through
Gandhi's methods. But the hardest part, agrees this new breed of Gandhians, is
not so much seducing the young into reading Gandhi as disabusing them of the
misconceptions that have spread unhindered in the last 50 years. Each of the
open sessions in the summer camps that are now a yearly feature in many cities
across
But it's well worth the effort, says Dwivedi, pointing out that the RYS has
probably recruited more young volunteers in 12 years than most Gandhian
organisations have been able to do over six decades. It's not hard to
understand why. To many, aware that globalisation is "the kiss of death"
for many of their ideals, and in search of a way to be socially effective, the
package they're offering seems an irresistible one: a choice of alternative
lifestyles, a chance to contribute to society, a challenging learning
experience and, more important, no rigid ideology. "We just let everyone
coopt Gandhi in their own way," as an RYS founder, Kumar Prashant, says.
All agree, however, that the efforts to woo the young for the Gandhian cause
are still too small and splintered. "A faint voice," as one young
Gandhian activist, Prerna Desai, puts it, "but distinctly beginning to be
heard." Swiss reporter Bernard Imhasly affirms this. Last year, he
followed in the footsteps of the Mahatma, searching for his spirit in the usual
places. What he saw there changed his mind. The book was to be called Goodbye
to Gandhi—Travels Through
BOOKS
*The State in Islam: Nature and Scope, Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer, Hope India Publications
(85, Sector 23, Gurgaon 122017, Haryana , India
The author argues that Islam basically
is religion of peace, compassion and justice. There are enough verses in the
Qura’n to prove this. Violence is allowed only for defence, never for
aggression. Moreover, it is incidental,
not ideological. In principle, it is peace and it is duty of all Muslims to
promote and establish peace.
The author hopes that this book would help generate a fresh debate on this sensitive subject in a much more informed manner. Also those Muslims who desire to establish Islamic state should know that the Qur’an does not refer to any such concept. It only desires to establish a just society free of injustices, exploitation and oppression whatever form the state takes. What is called khilafat-e-rashidah was also based on historical context. The form today Islamic state takes will depend on today’s context. There is no standard from available to emulate.
LECTURES & PUBLIC MEETINGS
*September 16, Portland, OR: AFTERMATH OF 9/11, FIVE YEARS LATER: US
POLICY PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE, a forum consisting of feature two
panels, 6:30-9 PM, at First Unitarian
Church, 1011 SW 12th.
The
first half will focus on " Aftermath of 9/11:
The second panel will begin at roughly
The event is free and open to the public but donations are strongly encouraged. More info from Peace and Justice Works at 503-236-3065 or iraq@pjw.info.
*September 20, Portland, OR: WAR AND PEACE IN SRI LANKA, a talk by Sharif Abdullah of the local Commonway Institute www.commonway.org, who will present the latest events, insights and opportunities for peace in that region based on his experiences during the six weeks he recently spent in Sri Lanka, 7 to 9 p.m., at Koru House 1704 SE 22nd Ave. (southeast corner of Market and 22nd, one block south of Hawthorne). Admission is free, but donations will be gratefully accepted.
PEACE EVENTS
*September 15 to 17,
*September 21: PEACE ONE DAY. This year, for the first time in
the history, Peace One Day will attempt to manifest commitments for its
celebration in all 191 member-states of the United Nations. Also
people are urged to join the global effort to observe a minute of silence for
peace at 12-noon on 21 September. More
info from www.peaceoneday.org, or
Jeremy Gilley Founder, Peace One Day, Block D, The Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick
Lane, London E1 6QL, Tel: +44 (0) 207 456 9180, Fax: +44 (0) 207 375 2007,
Email: info@peaceoneday.org
*September 23.
*October 02-06,
Youth
*October 28-29,
RESEARCH
*IssueLab is a recently launched initiative that
brings nonprofit research into focus, giving policy makers, activists,
researchers and librarians easy access to analysis from the third sector.
Please consider listing any research you have with IssueLab http://www.issuelab.com. It's free for
nonprofits to participate.
During September our
"CloseUp" is on the issue of Peace and Conflict resolution. They are looking
for both new and older work from nonprofits. It's a great way to broaden the
audience for your work and/or breathe a second life into older research that is
still relevant. They have some interesting research on the subject listed
already. More info from Gabriela Fitzgabi@think-twice.org
WORKSHOPS
*November 18-20,
Leaders and fundraisers from over 200 non-profit
organisations, NGOs / INGOs from all over
The participants may apply directly for the registration with payment in US$ as specified in details at www.resource-alliance.org .
Since PAIMAN Alumni Trust Fund, with its Head Office at
Islamabad is the partner and focal organization for coordination in Pakistan
for this workshop, Pakistanis may send a copy of registration form to PAIMAN
for record and any assistance for visa and travel. Also Pakistanis may apply
through PAIMAN Alumni Trust Fund, and pay fees in Pak Currency at Rs: 28,000/-
per person. The fee includes three day residency in 5 Star hotel with food (all
meals from dinner on Friday 17th to lunch on Monday 20th Nov 2006, all training
material, Gala Dinner , airport transfers, Certificate of Attendance) It will
also include services by PAIMAN like Pak currency conversion fee, Bank transfer
fee, application/issue of visa, fee for visa, passport handling, NWD/ international
calls and all other necessary coordination/postage service for participants all
over Pakistan. You will not be required to move out of your city for all
necessary formalities. More info from Muhammad Ali Shah, PAIMAN Alumni Trust
Fund at paiman_trust@yahoo.com, paiman_trust@paiman.org, or shafqat_paiman@yahoo.com
YOUR LETTERS
*Dear Mr. Pritam:
You have made a passionate plea to get organized, mobilize public opinion, work more diligently to enlist support of peace organizations and other powers that be to bring home permanent peace and harmony between India and Pakistan. While it is heartening to note that you feel that not enough has been done by the Peace Organizations, yet the real solution to counter the problem remained eluded in your appeal allured to.
The question is:
Are not our Governments sold to the vested interests of the powers that be?
Do we not see a hidden agenda playing the pawns and making the moves?
Is not this true that the diplomatic moves between both countries are driven by the fact that a lot of disinformation, deception, reporting of the facts not as they appear but how the vested interests choose to present before the public, to hoodwink and brainwash entire nation is a daily manipulative game of the Print and Visual Media?
There are many more reasons why people of both countries remain swayed between one thought and the other as the mind of entire human race is like a mint and is so systematically moved by the tirade of confusing and untrue information, not with India Pakistan perspectives and the relations between the two countries, but in view of the Global Agenda set by certain powers.
Picture is far from reassuring
Why the entire global community remains mute even when we know that nations after nations are subjected to untold miseries beyond description and pounded with lethal weapons, ruined beyond repairs? Foreign policy of each and every country is not objective and is laid down and implemented by some remote controls. Everyone knows it all but our leaders choose to keep quiet about it.
In light of above what actions do you propose for peace workers when there is no immunity to peace workers and we often hear they being framed under some false accusation and put behind the bars when authorities fear that they pose a threat to distorted disinformation environment created by the governments or when they know that the masses stand to get alert thereby obstructing the hidden agenda of the country that serves their Masters?. Cindy is a recent example I suppose.
In my opinion, solutions like lobbying, protesting, massive rallies, pamphlets and awakening masses through networking are the things of bygone days. Astute, cleverly balanced, diplomatically designed solutions might however work.
Loveful regards
Ashok
*Dear
Dr Pritam Rohila
I am in receipt of the invitation to join ACHA. I don't know whether this e-mail ha