Association for Communal Harmony in Asia (ACHA)
www.asiapeace.org    &  www.indiapakistanpeace.org
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Peace & Harmony Stories from South Asia

For the last many years, we have been featuring peace & harmony news in the ACHA Peace Bulletin, our monthly electronic newsletter. Also, from time to time, we publicize them through our electronic discussion forums namely, Asiapeace, Kashmir Solutions Forum, and India Pakistan Peace Day.

We strongly believe that these stories help us counter the myths about the prevalence of conflict propagated by the popular media. These myths in turn help engender a climate suitable for growth of discrimination, hatred and violence against people.

In this spirit, with the help of Dr. Ingrid Shafer, our Director of Communications Systems, we have decided to create this special section for these stories on our website asipaeace.org.

Best wishes,

Pritam Rohila, Ph. D.

Executive Director

pritamr@open.org

CONTENTS

*Hindu-Muslim Muharram Procession, India West, February 17, 2006

*A Varanasi Madarsa seeks to impart modern education, Girish Kumar Dubey, New Kerala, January 26, 2006

*Brides to steal show at police station, Times of India, Jan. 28 2006

* With love, from India to Pakistan, Sumit Bhattacharya, Rediff.com, January 11, 2006

*Hindu-Muslim Muharram Procession, India West, February 17, 2006

KADEGAON, Maharashtra (PTI): Hindus and Muslims took out a joint procession to mark Muharram here in Sangli district February 9. The Muslim festival was marked peacefully all over India. (see attached picture)

*A Varanasi Madarsa seeks to impart modern education, Girish Kumar Dubey, New Kerala, January 26, 2006 http://newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=95369

Varanasi: Madarsas, or the Islamic schools, have long been known for their religious syllabus around the world. But, a Madarsa in Varanasi , is offering lessons in patriotism and modern education to its students.

As India celebrates its 57th Republic Day, the loud voice of students in a Madarsa singing “Sare Jahan Se Achha” and “Vande Matram” makes one stop for a moment and take notice of the transformation taking place in the modern India.

“The best thing about this place is that members of both communities—Muslim and Hindu—are taking care of this Madarsa. Kids are being taught here about social and communal harmony,” says Dr. Rajni Kant, Director, Human Welfare Association.

This Madarsa intends to prepare students who are able to compete with students of other schools of the country. Thus, it is not only teaching students national songs but also giving them modern education.

Interestingly, Hindus and Muslims are together running this Madarsa. Guardians are happy with the concept of Madarsa and they are confident that one day their kids will set an example to others.

“Our concentration is on to give modern education to children, according to the norms set by the Central and Uttar Pradesh Government. We want our children to become like A.P.J Abdul Kalam, who first became a scientist and then the President of the country, “says Mohammad Shakir Hussain, a parent.

“I wish to become a Doctor and want to serve my country. I have seen people dying of deadly diseases, I want to cure them,” says Soni Bano, a student.

Madarasas are traditional educational institutions for the children of Muslims, especially for the poor children who can not afford to go to other schools.

But, in general, the main problem with Madarasa education has been that the students of these institutions cannot compete for mainstream jobs due to their obsolete study curriculum. All they can do is to aspire for jobs of imams and clerks in Wakf-run bodies.

*Brides to steal show at police station, Times of India, Jan. 28 2006
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1390737.cms

Rumana Sheikh (20) is excited. She will say 'kubool hai' on Monday at a place she could never have imagined — the Dariapur police station. Sheikh is no criminal.

But a critical part of the confidencebuilding measure taken up by the Dariapur cops in a desperate bid to refurbish the police image after the post-Godhra riots.

Sheikh and 19 other Hindu and Muslim women from underprivileged families of the locality will exchange vows with boys from their respective communities inside the Dariapur police station, which has been decked up as a wedding mandap for the Hindu and Islamic rituals.

..."The whole function is organised as a step to ease tension between the two communities," said Dariapur police inspector VD Vanaar who has donated Rs 11,000.

...Says Sheikh, "During riots many houses in my locality were set on fire and somehow it felt that police are not doing its duty. But today I might not have been able to get married in such a grand fashion but for the cops."

*With love, from India to Pakistan, Sumit Bhattacharya, Rediff.com, January 11, 2006 http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/jan/11sumit.htm 

Imagine. A gigantic letter -- 240 by 360 feet, to be exact -- signed by thousands of Indian schoolchildren, to their friends across the border in Pakistan. With the message of love, peace and brotherhood.

 

Imagine a Guinness Book of World Record entry for the largest letter, from India to Pakistan.

 

No need to imagine, actually. Because on January 16, in Bangalore's Chinnaswamy Stadium, that's exactly what is going to be unveiled.

 

Designed by artist John Devaraj -– students of whose Born Free Art School are putting the letter together at the St Joseph School ground's tennis court -– the project is the brainchild of two Americans.

 

And those two Americans -- John Silliphant and Mark Peters -- came to India with friends, initially just for a year.

 

"We came with no real plans," says Silliphant, 35, who used to design web sites, and was "mostly into volunteer work" in the US. "We came to look for something to do, because every moment there is an opportunity to be of service. We just wanted to look around for those opportunities."

 

After working in Ahmedabad with slum children and on environmental issues, the time came for the philanthropist friends to leave India to renew their visas.

 

"We thought it would be a wonderful thing to do -– to carry letters from schoolchildren in India to their friends in Pakistan," says Silliphant, whose partner in charity Peters runs a small software business and a transport firm in America.

 

But when in just two days they collected 3,000 letters, the scale of things changed. "The kids just lit up at the prospect of the assignment."

 

No thoughts of rivalry and enmity in the fledgling minds? "Not at all," says Silliphant.

 

"Those mindsets, you sort of grow into them. You adopt them. Kids just want to be friends. They know kids in Pakistan are just like them -– they just want to play cricket, be friends. That's what's amazing about it."

 

"Every child we come into contact with, without exception, they all love it. They all have the same innocence and hope and positivity."

 

"If you can just connect to that purity and make those connections. Then a whole generation grows up and takes over -– that has those connections."

 

To connect with that purity, Silliphant, Peters and friends travelled to Delhi, Chandigarh, Ajmer, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Pondicherry.

 

In most places, friends and connections helped their cause. In Chandigarh, for instance, the organisation Yuvsatta set up their appointments with the little ambassadors of peace.

 

"In three days, we went to 20 schools and met 20,000 students -– all on bicycles!"

 

In the capital, Silliphant, Peters and friends, who call themselves (www.friendswithoutborders.org), had no such help. They physically "went to the school gates, asked to see the principal."

 

But Silliphant is quick to add that be it parents, teachers or school authorities, everyone helped their cause, everyone encouraged what they were trying to do.

 

The Friends Without Borders campaign marched on from city to city -- battling only a bad bout of jaundice that struck Silliphant -- "empowering the children to be the change."

 

"It really is going to change the world because you have such an extraordinary outpouring of goodwill. I don't think the world has seen anything like it."

 

With a documentary by Mumbai-based filmmaker Gopa Desai on the anvil and a bigger Mumbai event -– "with some Bollywood celebrities and even more children" -- planned a week after the Bangalore unveiling, the outpouring of goodwill continues.

 

Friends Without Borders describe themselves as '99 per cent children and some grown-ups who are working to let the children's voices be heard'.

 

Are the powers that be in New Delhi and Islamabad listening?