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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
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Volume
XII, No. 10:
______________________________________________________________________________
CONTENTS
Last issue of this
year; will resume publication
EDITORIAL
*2008
Peace Pilgrimage to
APOLOGY PETITION TO
VICTIMS OF
VIRTUAL MEMORIAL FOR
VICTIMS OF
MINORITIES & COMMUNAL HARMONY IN
Four Views From
People Who Know
*1. Hindu fundamentals are under attack, Shashi
Tharoor, Times of India, 28 Sep 08
*2.
Conversion business, Khushwant Singh, Deccan.com,
*3. The Insider-II: No time to complain, time to be
wise, Ishtiyaque Danish,
*4. Deep inside India, secularism is a way of life,
M J Akbar,
EVENTS
*October 17,
*November 29-30, Ambala Cantt,
*
Religions
*December
20-21,
FELLOWSHIPS FOR
JOURNALISTS FROM
*March 15 -
INNOVATIONS FOR RURAL
JOBS, INTERNSHIPS &
VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS (FOR THE COMMON GOOD)
PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM
PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM
PEACE EDUCATION &
RESOURCES
PEACE PETITIONS
UPDATE:
*Time
for a fresh start, Prem Shankar Jha, domain-b.com,
UPDATE:
UPDATE:
*Government
has duty to provide adequate protection, Jehan Perera
EDITORIAL
*2008 Peace
Pilgrimage to
Later
this year, my wife, Kundan, and I will visit
During
this visit, we would like to meet and to get know better as many of you as
possible. If you can join us at any of
our meetings, please let the nearest local host/coordinator know. For some
places, dates of our visits, and names and contact information about gracious
local host-coordinators who have kindly made this project possible, appear at
the end of this note.
Currently
Also
we will discuss strategies which can help improve the effectiveness of the
local peace and harmony organizations and to make peace movement more
meaningful to the Aam Admi.
We
are eagerly looking forward to meet at least some of you.
October 22-24,
October 26,
October 27-28,
October 29-30,
November 24,
November 25,
November 26, Haiderabad, Sindh Aslam Khawja lathrolak@yahoo.com
November 29, Sadiqabad,
mubashir.mirza@cydapakistan.org
November 30,
December 1, Toba Tek Singh, Pb Ashfaq Fateh, 46-2515018 Cell 346-4871967,
December 2,
December 3 & 4,
awaissheikhadvocate@hotmail.com
Saeeda Diep, 0300-844-5072
December 5 & 6, Islamabad Dr. A. H. Nayyar, 051- 229-6699, nayyar@sdpi.org
APOLOGY
PETITION TO VICTIMS OF
http://indiapakistanpeace.org/petition_2007.html
VIRTUAL
MEMORIAL FOR VICTIMS OF
http://noosphere.typepad.com/virtual_memorial/
MINORITIES & COMMUNAL HARMONY IN
Four Views From People Who Know
*1. Hindu
fundamentals are under attack (in
There are basically
two kinds of politics in our country: the politics of division and the politics
of unity. The former is by far the more popular, as politicians seek to slice
and dice the electorate into ever-smaller configurations of caste, language and
religion, the better to appeal to such particularist identities in the quest
for votes. But what has happened in recent weeks in Orissa, and then in parts
of Karnataka, and that threatens to be unleashed again in tribal districts of
We must not let either set of terrorists prevail.
The murderous mobs of Orissa sought to kill Christians and destroy their homes
and places of worship, both to terrorise the people and to send the message
'you do not belong here'. What have we come to that a land that has been a
haven of tolerance for religious minorities throughout its history should have
sunk so low?
As a believing Hindu, I am ashamed of what is being done by people claiming to
be acting in the name of my faith. I have always prided myself on belonging to
a religion of astonishing breadth and range of belief; a religion that
acknowledges all ways of worshipping God as equally valid - indeed, the only major
religion in the world that does not claim to be the only true religion. Hindu fundamentalism is a contradiction in terms, since
Hinduism is a religion without fundamentals; there is no such thing as a Hindu
heresy. How dare a bunch of goondas shrink the soaring majesty of the Vedas and
the Upanishads to the petty bigotry of their brand of identity politics?
Why should any Hindu
allow them to diminish Hinduism to the raucous self-glorification of the
football hooligan, to take a religion of awe-inspiring tolerance and reduce it
to a chauvinist rampage?
Hinduism, with its openness, its respect for variety, its acceptance of all
other faiths, is one religion which has always been able to assert itself
without threatening others. But this is not the Hindutva spewed in hate-filled
diatribes by communal politicians. It is, instead, the Hinduism of Swami
Vivekananda, who, at
Vivekananda made no distinction between the actions of Hindus as a people (the
grant of asylum, for instance) and their actions as a religious community
(tolerance of other faiths): for him, the distinction was irrelevant because
Hinduism was as much a civilisation as a set of religious beliefs. "The
Hindus have their faults," Vivekananda added, but "they are always
for punishing their own bodies, and never for cutting the throats of their
neighbours. If the Hindu fanatic burns himself on the pyre, he never lights the
fire of Inquisition."
It is sad that this assertion of Vivekananda's is being contradicted in the
streets by those who claim to be reviving his faith in his name. "The
Hindu militant," Amartya Sen has observed, presents
*2. Conversion business, Khushwant Singh, Deccan.com,
Recent incidents of violence and
vandalism against Christians and their churches deserve to be condemned
unreservedly. They have blackened the fair face of Mother India and ruined the
reputation of Hindus being the most religiously tolerant people in the world.
At the same time, we must take a closer look at people who convert from one faith
to another. To start with, let it be understood that these days there are no
forced conversions anywhere in the world.
are to be found in
There are also men and women who
convert to the faith of those they wish to marry. We have plenty of cases of
Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Sikh inter-marriages. However, the largest number
of converts come from communities discriminated against. The outstanding
example was that of Dalit leader Bhimrao Ambedkar who led his Mahar community
to embrace Buddhism because they were discriminated against by upper caste
Hindus. This is also true of over 90 per cent of Indian Muslims whose ancestors
being lower caste embraced Islam which gave them equal status. That gives lie
to the often-repeated slander that Islam made converts by the sword.
An equally large number of
people converted out of gratitude. They were neglected, ignorant and poor. When
strangers came to look after them, opened schools and hospitals for them,
taught them, healed them and helped them to stand on their own feet to hold
their heads high, they felt grateful towards their benefactors. Most of them
were Christian missionaries who worked in remote villages and brought hope to
the lives of people who were deprived of hope.
To this day, Christian
missionaries run the best schools, colleges and hospitals in our country. They
are inexpensive and free of corruption. They get converts because of the sense
of gratitude they generate. Can this be called forcible conversion? Why don¢t
the great champions of Hinduism look within their hearts and find out why so
many are disenchanted by their pretensions of piety? Let them first set their
own houses in order, purge the caste system out of Hindu society and welcome
with open arms all those who wish to join them. No one will then convert from
Hinduism to another religion.
*3. The Insider-II:
No time to complain, time to be wise, Ishtiyaque Danish,
Ishtiyaque Danish, a
former founder-member of SIMI who now teaches at
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Abdus Subhan Qureshi
alias Tauqeer Bilal’s mother Zubeida Qureshi was punishing when she said, “Hang
my son in front of me if guilty.” Soon after the Jamia Nagar encounter, accused
Muhammad Saif’s father Shadab contacted a television channel to say,
“If he is involved in such acts, I would prefer not to see his face and if he
ever comes before me, I would shoot him down.” Harsh words from loving parents.
But Zubeida and Shadab are confronted by the ‘reality’ of their sons possibly being
terrorists. They will never have the luxury of living in peace or with honour.
We can only imagine the intensity of their wounded feelings.
The parents’ eagerness to improve their image shows the mental agony of Indian
Muslims who feel called upon to explain their position in the wake of terrorist
attacks. It may be recalled that not too long ago, the Muslim community held rallies and seminars to condemn terrorism as
un-Islamic. There is pressure on Muslims.
Moving to the bigger picture, ‘Incredible India’ has a tendency to become
‘dangerous’ at the slightest provocation, despite its strong social fabric. The
biggest disease among Hindus and Muslims is a shared ignorance about one
another’s religions and cultures.
There is no monolith
What cause damage are the sweeping generalisations. If the Students Islamic
Movement of India (SIMI) is suspected in the recent blasts and is viewed as a
terrorist organisation, nobody, Muslims included, should have any objection.
The problem arises when SIMI’s alleged activities form the basis to assume that
all Muslims support terrorism. Muslims are then seen as ‘the Other’.
The Sangh Parivar’s venomous anti-Muslim ideology and campaign are
well-documented. The BJP practises politics of hate and exclusion. The
Parivar’s purpose is communal polarisation. That said, it will be wrong of
Muslims to believe the Sangh Parivar represents all Hindus.
There are many Hindus dead against its exclusionary politics. Most Muslims
realise this. But, at times, Muslims do generalise. They view government or its
institutions, the police for instance, as ‘the Other’. The police force’s track
record during communal riots is not encouraging. Fake encounters have only
contributed to the feeling that the police are biased against Muslims. The
result is a huge trust deficit — the distrust was evident in Jamia Nagar.
The media must highlight examples of Hindu-Muslim cooperation: madrassas with
Hindu teachers and students a case in point. Many Hindu NGOs work for the
better of Muslims. They overcome obstacles with the assistance and cooperation
of Muslim scholars.
A Hindu NGO in Haryana’s Mewat region asked me to address some Muslim notables.
The NGO’s problem was that Muslim parents resisted the idea of wards being
taught by non-Muslims. But their resistance evaporated when they were told that
the Holy Companions had learnt from non-Muslims captured as prisoners during
the Battle of Badr, Muhammad’s first armed clash with the Makkan infidels.
Indian Muslims are educationally backward, economically deprived and
politically marginalised. They tend to focus on the wrongs done to them and
rarely introspect. We complain that our religion is equated with terrorism. The
other view is to blame ourselves for the inability to use the media to
advantage.
Complaining will not work. We must develop capabilities to counter negative
propaganda. To that end, Muslims are realising the importance of education. A
section of the Muslim leadership is working hard towards this. There is a
demand that government provide schools, instead of more police stations.
It is time for Muslims to be wise and not reactionary. We need to understand
the new, emerging
The government is no longer the sole creator and provider of jobs. The private
sector has thrown up opportunities like never before. Here the scope for discrimination and biases is minimal. When an
*4. Deep inside
India, secularism is a way of life, M J Akbar,
On October 2, Gandhi’s
birthday and Eid launched the annual Bengali festive season that will last into
the third week of the month. Eid in
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the Saudis, who check
the sky with technology, celebrated the end of Ramadan a day earlier. Since one
of the many definitions of Indian secularism is proprietary rights over
holidays, some
Sour-brains who rearrange life by the calculus of productivity miss the point.
That is the first gesture after the Eid prayer. I spend Eid at Telinipara, some
30 miles north of
The men of our family walk together to the Chhoti Masjid (Small Mosque) with heads bowed. This is not due to any
excessive humility. We have to avoid stepping on pats of still-wet cow dung.
Early risers have first use of public facilities. The municipality has
sprinkled white disinfectant powder along the drains on either side, a practice
started during the British Raj and followed twice a year, during Eid and
Bakr-Eid. The cows were oblivious of municipal concerns even during British
rule.
The official name of the mosque is the rather grandiloquent Masjid-e-Ibrahim
(Mosque of Abraham); its popular name is more appropriate, although it has become
a bit larger since last Eid. This need has been felt for more than a decade,
with the increasing population of Telinipara, but it became possible only when
the owner of the huts adjoining the mosque sold his property to the mosque.
Like any public institution, the mosque was strapped for cash. The owner gave
it for less than the market value, despite higher offers. He was a Hindu. He
was happy to take less because, in his words, the mosque too was “ Bhagwan
ka ghar (God’s house)”. Five hundred bags of cement came as a gift from a
renowned Calcutta Marwari business family. Neither made the contribution
because they expected their names to appear in
The maulvi leading the prayer was an angry young man. He offered an answer to a
major dilemma of dialectical spiritualism. If Islam was the chosen faith, and
Muslims Allah’s select people, why were they mired in poverty when
non-believers in the West were flooded with riches and comfort? True wealth is
not what you see in this life, but what you will be rewarded with in heaven. He
went on a bit about the pleasures of heaven, not forgetting the heavenly wine
that will not leave you with a headache. And his route to heaven was a trifle
severe, demanding abstinence even from music. But his argument was a placebo, a
calmative for a community bewildered by questions.
Later, around ten, enthusiastic young men of my mohalla took me to their
single-room club, fed me sandesh bought from Bijoy Modak’s excellent shop, and
asked me for “nasihat”. I had no advice to offer, just the essence of some
experience along the road from Telinipara to
The young men were ahead of such advice. They were determined to add a room to
the club, which will serve as a library and a tuition centre for those who show
promise but do not have the means to fulfil their promise.
Later, a father brought two teenage daughters and reminded them that they
wanted to tell me something. Their eyes just a trifle hesitant, but growing
with confidence, they said they would be giving their Madhyamik examinations
next year, and were determined to go to college. The father beamed with pride.
Elsewhere a mother was spending what for her was serious money to get her child
into kindergarten in
This is not yet a gender revolution, far from it. But this is the first hint of
a gender insurrection.
When I was in my second year, a student of
More than three decades ago, the Chhoti Masjid had become a refuge for Muslims
seeking shelter from Hindus. It has become a Bari Masjid today, with help from
Hindus who believe that this too is a house of God.
EVENTS
*October
17,
Featured speakers at the October kick-off event include Nobel Prize Winner Dr.
Muhammed Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank; the Honorable Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed,
Chief Advisor, Dr. Kamal Hossain, principal author of the Bangladesh
Constitution; Reema Nanavaty, Director of the Self-Employed
Women's Association (SEWA) in
*November
29-30, Ambala Cantt,
www.writersclubinternational.org More info from
Dev Bhardwaj, Director, India
Inter-Continental Cultural Association, and Editor, Kafla Inter-Continental,
Chandigarh +91-98728-23437 & iicca@live.com
*December 3-9, 2009,
Melbourne, Australia: The 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions, will bring together the world’s religious and spiritual communities,
their leaders and their followers to a gathering where peace, diversity and
sustainability are discussed and explored in the context of interreligious
understanding and cooperation.
Parliament
participants will work with others and within their own traditions to craft
faithful responses to indigenous reconciliation, global poverty and global
warming, environmental care and degradation, education of the young and the
challenges of social disengagement, voluntary and forced migration, artistic expression
and spirituality, the value of sports, ethnic and religious tensions. More
info from http://www.parliamentofreligions2009.org/home.php
*December 20-21,
rajeshwar.ojha@gmail.com, Monica Wahi monica.wahi@gmail.com, Faisal Khan
faisalkj2002@yahoo.co.in, and Ramneek Mohan ramneek.mohan@gmail.com
FELLOWSHIPS
FOR JOURNALISTS FROM
*March 15 -
The 6th Senior
Journalists Seminar is a dialogue-and-travel program for journalists from the
Study Tour for
Asian Journalists:
Study Tour for
American Journalists:
The program
opens and concludes with dialogue among all the participants at the
Who Can
Apply: Working print, broadcast and online journalists with at least 10
years of experience from
Application
Deadline:
Funding:
Roundtrip airfare to travel destinations, all lodging and per diems are
provided. Participants are responsible for their own visa fees and roundtrip
airfare from their home city to
More
information and applications from www.eastwestcenter.org/journalismfellowships,
1-808-944-7176, & journalismfellowships@eastwestcenter.org
The
INNOVATIONS FOR RURAL
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machine, Village fridge without electricity, Paddle operated Washing Machine
and many more interesting, simple, useful and suitable for Rural India as
well as eco-friendly items.
More information at http://www.mkgandhi.org/revivalvillage/new_inno.htm
JOBS,
INTERNSHIPS & VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS (FOR THE COMMON GOOD) *http://www.graduationpledge.org/jobs.html
PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM
*http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndiaPakistanPeaceDay/
PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM
*http://groups.google.com/group/peace--harmony-news-from-south-asia
PEACE
EDUCATION & RESOURCES
http://www.psysr.org/about/committees/peace_education/
PEACE
PETITIONS
Dear World Leaders & Global
Organizations:
Be
advised: We, the ordinary citizens of this Earth will no longer fight, support,
or otherwise engage in war or mortal conflict of any sort.
More
info and signing at http://www.gopetition.co.uk/online/21655.html
UPDATE:
*Time for a fresh start, Prem Shankar Jha,
domain-b.com,
http://www.domain-b.com/people/writers_columnists/prem_shankar_jha/20081008_fresh_start.html
The second imposition of a
valley-wide curfew turned out to be a token affair. By
The Rasputins in
They could not be more wrong. The near-complete absence of violence does not reflect
the Azadi movement's weakness but its strength. Its success in restraining the
violent and unstable youthful fringe of the movement, whose constant taunting
of the Indian forces had provoked the initial crackdown in August, and at the
same time keeping out the mujahideen of the United Jihad Council in
Muzaffarabad, underlines the authority that it now enjoys in the valley. A
large part of the credit for avoiding a confrontation also goes to governor
Vohra and his advisers who have maintained a ceaseless dialogue with the
Hurriyat co-ordination committee and clearly re-established a degree of mutual
trust.
But their efforts would have been in vain had there not been a succession of developments
in the intervening weeks that reassured at least the leaders of the Azadi movement
that New Delhi had not reneged on the commitments it had made to Pervez
Musharraf in April 2005.
The first of these was the end of the economic blockade, which was the chief
cause of anger in the valley. On the surface it seemed that governor Vohra had
been able to do this only by yielding to the Jammu-based Sangharsha Samiti and
the BJP, and cancelling the revocation of the transfer of land by the outgoing
government on 28 July.
But a closer look at the agreement shows that Kashmiris were the real winners
for most of the additional 40 hectares of forest land that the order allows the
Shri Amarnath Shrine Board to use was already being used to house the rising
tide of pilgrims.
The agreement has also made it absolutely clear that the permission is for only
three months in a year and contains no commitment to make any permanent
transfer of the land. It also contains a commitment to restructure the board to
make it an entirely Kashmiri affair with no officials and
members from any other state.
The second, even more important development is the agreement announced by Dr
Manmohan Singh and President Zardari in
powerlessness that had enveloped Kashmir when New Delhi failed to take measures
to decisively break the economic blockade of Kashmir for fear of pushing Hindu
voters into the arms of the BJP.
All of these gains will be lost if
constituency, or boycotting them and risking political obsolescence.
In the last one year, as the mainstream parties, the National Conference and the
PDP, began to compete with each other to appropriate the platform of 'self-rule'
on which the Hurriyat had hoped to strike a compromise with New Delhi, several
observers warned the government that this strategy would fail because it would
force the Hurriyat into the arms of the extreme Islamic
elements in the valley under Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
The shrine board dispute provided the opportunity for the two warring factions
to come together. But the actual charge, that the transfer of the 40 hectares
would usher in an attempt to change the demography of Kashmir was first framed
by the National Conference on 5 June, with the express
purpose of discrediting the PDP which had failed to oppose, and therefore made
itself a party to the original transfer. It took Geelani and the Mirwaiz
another five and seven days to join the chorus.
The events of the last four months have shown that sidelining the Kashmiri nationalists
is not an option. Peace will only be restored in
The only silver lining to the events of the past four months is that they have
created, for the first time in
opportunity to involve the entire Kashmiri ethno-nationalist movement in its search
for lasting peace.
Its right course of action would therefore be to postpone the state assembly
elections till March 2009 and use the time gained to prepare the ground for,
and eventually hold, open talks with the co-ordination committee, to frame a
strategy for implementing the 2005 agreement with
UPDATE:
*Beena Sarwar updates http://groups.yahoo.com/group/beena-issues/
*http://www.teeth.com.pk/blog/
UPDATE:
*Government has duty to provide adequate protection, Jehan
Perera jehanpc@sltnet.lk
(Executive Director, National
Peace Council of Sri Lanka,
The assassination of Opposition
Leader of the
Major General Perera was a former Chief of Staff of the Sri Lanka Army and one
of its most successful officers in the battlefield. Although his period as a
commanding officer in the northern battlezones was critiqued on human rights
grounds, in more recent times he held to a moderate and progressive position on
a political solution to the ethnic conflict. He made several requests to
the government for adequate security. We regret that more action was not
taken to safeguard his life. The National Peace Council calls on the
government, which is responsible for ensuring security to all citizens, to make
a greater and more sincere effort in its responses to the security needs of
politicians and others who need such security, regardless of their political
affiliation.
Suicide bombing has long been the trade mark of the LTTE, which has killed
those who have opposed them even after long periods. Regardless of who is
responsible, the consequences are clear: the bombing indicates both the
deterioration of the law and order situation in the country and the growing
absence of confidence in the integrity of government institutions. The
UNP has highlighted the government’s refusal to provide Major General Perera with
adequate security and also criticized the government's partnership with the
breakaway LTTE group, the TMVP, which has joined the political mainstream as a
government ally while remaining an armed paramilitary group.
This latest act of violence and the further demoralisation of democratic
society in