SACW | 17 March 2004
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Tue Mar 16 16:52:27 CST 2004
South Asia Citizens Wire | 17 March, 2004
via: www.sacw.net
[1] Pakistan: Debating education reform-I (A H Nayyar)
[2] Hamid's Message to the World: A Kashmiri Cry for Sanity (Yoginder Sikand)
[3] India: The Congress's problem is that it has
no alternative vision (Achin Vanaik)
[4] India: Announcement re resources, events and activities (ANHAD)
[5] India: Words of Women - March 2004
[6] Publications Announcement: 'Across The Wagah:
An Indian's Sojourn In Pakistan'
--------------
[1]
The News International [Pakistan]
March 16, 2004
Debating education reform-I
A H Nayyar
Shireen Mazari used her column in these pages on Wednesday 10 March to
unleash a bitter attack on a recent report by a group of scholars,
teachers and educationists about the many problems with the national
curriculum and textbooks used in our public schools. She blasted away at
the report, its authors, some NGOs, an eminent Pakistani scientist (who
she does not name, but is clearly Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy). She sees
shadowy conspiracies everywhere. In her mind, education reform is
connected to nuclear weapons, a documentary film and a 1991 book, and
fungus in Australian wheat. She clearly feels embattled.
Mazari's article would not deserve a response were it not for her
serious accusations about the authors of the report. She alleges that
the authors of the report "wish to undermine the existence of the state
of Pakistan itself" and that "this is part of a well-orchestrated
campaign" that "seeks to undermine the state of Pakistan". There is no
reasoned way to debate paranoia, and simple decency forbids joining in a
childish bout of name-calling. Instead, as one of the coordinators and
authors of the report under attack, I would like to explain to readers
the reasons for our report, the conclusions we have come to, and why we
believe there needs to be a real debate about educational reform and the
kind of country we want to be.
Our report is entitled "The Subtle Subversion: The State of Curricula
and Text-books in Pakistan - Urdu, English, Social Studies and Civics."
It is available in full from the Sustainable Policy Development
Institute (SDPI), in Islamabad (and on the web at www.sdpi.org). As the
report explains, our study started in June 2002 when SDPI on its own
initiative invited 30 leading experts on Pakistan's education system to
examine and report on the problems of the national curriculum and
textbooks. The participants in the project, men and women, included
professors, scholars and educationists, people from private schools, and
from NGOs from Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta,
Hyderabad, Larkana and Muzzafarabad. They included Professors of
History, Pakistan Studies, Psychology, Linguistics, and Physics from our
leading universities and research centres. And, recognising that there
are Muslim and Christian and Hindu citizens of Pakistan, with children
who are supposed to go to school, we tried to ensure there was some
religious diversity among the participants. The goal of the study was to
understand how the education system was contributing to creating a
culture of sectarianism, religious intolerance, and violence. We hoped
it would help inform a national debate on education reform.
The people involved in this report are not alone in being concerned
about the dangers of sectarianism, religious intolerance and violence in
Pakistan. There is no hidden agenda. It is quite explicit. Our report
begins by noting that in his August 14, 2002, independence day speech to
the nation, President General Pervez Musharraf identified 'sectarianism,
religious intolerance and violence' as a major crisis facing Pakistan.
He explained that there is an "insignificant minority (that) has held
the entire nation hostage to their misconceived views of Islam and
fanatical acts of terrorism. They are spreading the malice of
sectarianism laced with poison of religious intolerance and violence."
We need recall only the terrible massacre of 43 Shias in Quetta earlier
this month to be reminded of how awful, tragic and persistent this
violence is and how urgent and desperate is the need to deal with it.
In his speech, President Musharraf argued, rightly we believe, that
"there are no quick fix solutions to the problem of sectarianism and
extremism, they are to be tackled in a systematic and methodical
manner." The first task is to understand where the roots of the problem
lie. It is impossible to believe that, as a nation, we Pakistanis are
born with violence and religious bigotry and sectarianism in our hearts.
We are not born murderers. As our report makes clear, we see these
problems in large part as the result of our children being educated into
ways of thinking that makes them susceptible to these things. Some
children take these lessons to heart in ways that have terrible
consequences when they are adults. If we are right, then there is a
critical need to reform the educational system that produces this
worldview.
For some of us, this is not a new concern. In 1984, Pervez Hoodbhoy and
I researched and wrote an essay for a book, edited by Air Marshal Asghar
Khan, in which we outlined how, as part of an effort to "Islamise"
Pakistan, the military regime of General Ziaul Haq, supported by the
United States of America, was then engaged in a massive and systematic
effort to transform our education system and our national identity. We
showed how school history books were being rewritten to foster a
particular militant Islamic sensibility and warned that this would have
profound consequences for our society and our politics. We worried that
the full impact would be felt at the turn of the century as the children
growing up in the 1980s became adults. Some of our worst fears have been
realised.
It is clear to us that the identity and value system of children is
strongly shaped by the national curriculum and textbooks. Among the key
subjects are Social Studies, English, Urdu and Civics. This is where our
children are taught about who they are, how to think about society and
about relationships, how to understand their fellow citizens in
different parts of the country and those with different religions, and
about the rest of the world. Our report used the official curriculum and
the contents of the officially sanctioned text books actually in use to
show how, instead of values of mutual respect, equality, justice and
peace that can contribute towards a just, peaceful and democratic
Pakistan, day after day, year after year, our children are taught to
despise and hate peoples of other faiths and nations, to accept bias
against women and minorities, to glorify violence and to celebrate jehad
and shahadat.
We give our evidence by quoting line by line, section after section,
chapter after chapter, book after book. It is there for everyone to
read. And, even Shireen Mazari is willing to agree with us that "there
is much amiss with the prevailing state of curricula and text books in
Pakistan". She further admits that this is a "faulty curricula" and that
"some of the texts denigrate Hindus." She asks whether history is
"distorted" in the current curriculum and acknowledges that "it most
certainly is in a most infantile manner". Nonetheless, she finds it
"absolutely astonishing" that the Ministry of Education should respond
to our study by setting up a committee to review the report, evaluate
the textbooks and make recommendations.
We, on the other hand, are grateful that the Ministry of Education has
taken up the issue and has set up a committee to look into these issues.
Tragically, too many scholars, educationists, teachers and education
department officials and their ministers failed to confront the
appalling and dangerous ideas that were force-fed to an entire
generation of young Pakistanis as education in the public schools. Much
damage has been done. But we believe the rot can and must be stopped.
To make progress, however, we need a serious national debate about what
kind of education and what kind of values to offer our children. This
debate will inevitably revolve around the question of what kind of
society we are and we seek to be. We can choose to embrace the vision
laid out by Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah as President of the
Constituent Assembly on 11 August 1947, where he declared, "Everyone of
you, no matter to what community he belongs, no matter what relations he
had with you in the past, no matter what is his colour, caste or creed,
is first, second and last a citizen of this State with equal rights,
privileges, and obligations".
Or do we want to keep pushing the so-called "Ideology of Pakistan", a
term and a set of ideas that were never used or supported by those who
struggled to found our nation, but was created and forced on us by
General Ziaul Haq's regime and the Islamist political groups that
supported him? This means making religion not just the business but the
very purpose of the state.
For Mazari, it is this ideology of Pakistan that must be defended. We
are very clear that these ideas that have been propagated since the
eighties have created serious problems in our society. We find the
growing religious fanaticism and sectarian violence in Pakistan to be an
inevitable outcome of these ideas. We believe these ideas and this
violence need to be challenged. Readers must make their choice.
To be concluded
The writer teaches physics at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, and is
also a visiting fellow at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute
nayyar at sdpi.org
_____
[2]
Hamid's Message to the World: A Kashmiri Cry for Sanity
Yoginder Sikand
Some months ago I received a long email message
from someone whom I shall call Hamid. He had come
across an article I had written on Kashmiri
Sufism that was posted on a website, from which
he had obtained my email address.
"Dear Brother", the letter began, "Allow me to
introduce myself". Hamid then went on to explain
who he was and why he was writing to me. He
hailed, he said, from a town in the
Indian-administered part of Kashmir, and was the
only son of his parents. More than ten years ago,
at the height of the militant movement in
Kashmir, he had been contacted by a certain
militant outfit, and had been lured across the
border into Pakistan for military training. He
was told that India would soon be forced out of
Kashmir by dint of so-called 'jihad'. An
'Islamic' state would be established, which would
bring all the Muslims of the world under its
ambit. The 'unbelieving' 'enemies of Islam' would
be trampled upon, and Muslims would finally
regain their lost glory. He was inspired to
believe that if he were to sacrifice his life in
'jihad' against India he would inherit a vast
mansion in paradise and be tended upon by a train
of virgin houris.
Hamid was then an impressionable youth in his
late teens. He had seen several of his fellow
Kashmiris being killed by Indian soldiers. He had
himself been once beaten by an Indian soldier for
no reason whatsoever when Indian troops launched
a crackdown in his locality searching for a
militant. Crossing over to Pakistan to receive
armed training and then going back to India to
wage 'jihad' against India appeared to him as the
only way to extract revenge for the humiliation
that his people had suffered. Accordingly, he
willingly signed up to join a band of youth from
his town heading across the treacherous mountain
passes of Kupwara into Pakistani-administered
Kashmir.
Hamid spent three months at a training camp
located in a remote area near the North-West
Frontier Province run by a particularly hardline
Islamist group. There, he was taught to handle
various weapons and was also fed with a steady
diet of fiery jihadist rhetoric. Every evening
the trainees would gather at the mosque, where a
maulvi owing allegiance to the ultra fanatic
Lashkar-i Tayyeba ('The Army of the Pure') would
deliver impassioned speeches railing against
India, branding all Hindus as 'enemies of Islam'.
'Islam has come to rule the world, and not to be
ruled', the maulvi asserted. All non-Muslims, he
claimed, were engaged in a sinister plot to wipe
out Islam from off the face of the earth.
Somewhere towards the end of his training period,
serious doubts began haunting Hamid. Although he
had been vehemently opposed to the Indian army,
he never had any hatred for Hindus as such.
Several of his closest friends at school back in
Kashmir had been Hindus. His favourite teacher
was a Pundit, who had treated him as his own son.
Often, his Hindu friends would accompany him to
the shrine of Kashmirís patron saint, the Sufi
Hazrat Nuruddin Nurani or Nund Rishi, who,
although a devout Muslim, was widely revered by
Kashmiri Hindus as well. He could, therefore,
hardly believe that all Hindus were all involved
in a grand conspiracy against Islam. Every
evening his mother would read the Quran to him
and then recite some verses of Nund Rishi. They
spoke of love and concern for all, irrespective
of caste and creed. Nund Rishiís Islam, Hamid
began to realise, seemed to have nothing in
common with the doctrine of hatred and terror
that the maulvi was so passionately peddling.
Not only did the maulvi insist that all
non-Muslims were 'enemies of God' and 'friends of
the Devil', but he also declared that Muslims who
did not subscribe to his own hardline version of
Islam were Muslims in name alone, and, for all
practical purposes, infidels. Much of the
maulvi's ire was directed at Sufism, which he
branded as a 'conspiracy' allegedly hatched by
the 'enemies' of the faith to dampen Muslims'
fervour of armed jihad and thereby destroy Islam
from within. He equated Sufism with 'wrongful'
innovation (bidëat) and polytheism (shirk),
insisting that Muslims who followed the Sufis
were doomed to eternal perdition in hell. He made
it amply clear that after the mujahidin had
managed to 'liberate' Kashmir from India they
would launch a second jihad, this time to cleanse
Kashmir of all vestiges of Sufism.
The maulvi's bitter harangue against the Sufis
struck Hamid as particularly obnoxious. Most
Kashmiri Muslims held the Sufis in deep
reverence, and Hamid could not imagine that God
would ever send his own people to hell for their
love of the gentle mystics of Islam. After all,
he knew, it was the Sufis who had brought Islam
to Kashmir. It was they, and not people like the
maulvi, who had spread Islam in the region, by
winning the hearts of the Kashmiris with their
message of love, justice and equality. He
shuddered at the thought of the likes of the
maulvi taking over Kashmir and violently
destroying the hallowed shrines of the Sufis, as
the Wahhabis had done in Saudi Arabia a century
ago.
After the three month training course got over,
Hamid was instructed to slip across the Line of
Control and return to Indian-administered Kashmir
to carry out 'operations' against the Indian
armed forces. However, he refused, and one day he
slipped out of the camp and travelled to a
distant town. By this time, he was firmly
convinced that the Pakistani jihadists had
actually little or no concern for the plight of
the Kashmiri Muslims. He had heard numerous
stories of self-styled jihadists raping women and
murdering innocent people, Hindus as well as
Muslims, back home in Kashmir. He had seen
several jihadist leaders in Pakistan who had
accumulated vast amounts of money from the public
in the name of jihad, with which they had built
fancy bungalows for themselves. Many of them sent
their own children to posh schools, while at the
same time exhorting poor families to send their
children to die in the killing fields of Kashmir.
Many jihadists were in reality nothing more than
brutal mercenaries who were paid to work for
various groups and the Pakistani intelligence
agencies. He had even heard of some militants,
mainly Punjabi and Pathan, who believed that
Muslim women belonging to non-Wahhabi families
could be enslaved as virtual sex objects.
Moreover, the widespread corruption that he saw
all around him in Pakistan, what he called the
hypocrisy of its religious and political elites,
the pathetic state of education in the country
and the lack of many basic freedoms, convinced
him that joining Pakistan would spell doom for
his own people. Pakistan was certainly not the
'land of the pure' that he was earlier given to
believe.
Hamid now manages to survive on a meagre two
thousand rupees a month that some kind soul
provides him with. He desperately wants to leave
Pakistan, he says. He has not seen his parents
ever since he slipped out of his house one night
ten years ago and crossed over to Pakistan.
Memories of home and of his land continue to
haunt him, and the very thought that he might
never see his family again is terrifying, he
says. Ideally, he would like to return to his
home to 'serve' his parents, as he says, and to
lead a quiet life. But then that might mean death
for him, whether at the hands of the ISI, or
militant outfits or even the Indian armed forces.
He has thought of migrating to a third country,
in the hope that he might arrange to meet his
parents some day. But he has no passport or legal
travel documents, and even if he did, which
country would accept a refugee from Pakistan, he
asks, given the notoriety that the country has
earned as a breeding ground for terrorists?
Hamid today has no illusions about Pakistan.
Militancy is not the way out, he insists, and
says that violence can only be counterproductive
for the Kashmiris themselves. "If only our youth
back in the Valley could see the reality of
Pakistan for themselves they would realise the
criminal folly of supporting the militants", he
writes. Yet, he does not absolve India of its
share of the blame either. He cannot forget, he
says, the scores of innocent people who have lost
their lives in Kashmir, many at the hands of the
Indian army. Hindu militancy is only making the
problem more intractable, he says. The recent
anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat has further
hardened anti-Indian feelings in Kashmir, and he
shudders to imagine what would happen in the
future. 'Hindutvawadis', he argues, "are, along
with Islamist radicals, the greatest enemies of
Indian unity and Hindu-Muslim amityí. I could
hardly disagree. ëHow can the Hindutva-walas
expect to win the hearts of the Kashmiris if they
carry on with their anti-Muslim crusade?", he
very rightly asks. Yet, he also adds that the
best realistic option for the Kashmiris is to
remain with India not a Hindutva-ruled India but
an India that is genuinely secular and accepting
of people of all faiths and ethnicities.
Hamid ends his letter with the following lines:
"My dear brother. The reason that I am writing to
you is to tell you that for the sake of all
people in our part of the world, and particularly
for the Kashmiris, we have to struggle against
all forms of fascism parading in the guise of
religion, Hindu as well as Muslim. Terrorism in a
religious garb is the grossest insult to God and
true religion imaginable, as I have myself learnt
the hard way. I hope you will reflect on what I
have said, and will convey this message to your
friends and to the world at large.
Khuda Hafiz and Namastey. May God bless and guide us all.
Your brother-in-humanity
Hamid K."
I wonder if he will read this article, but if he
does I must tell him, ëYes, brother Hamid, I am
doing your bidding in my own small wayí.
_____
[3]
The Telegraph [India]
March 16, 2004
SWING HIGH OR LOW
- The Congress's problem is that it has no alternative vision
ACHIN VANAIK
The author is a political scientist, and has
recently published the book, Communalism
Contested: Religion, Modernity and Secularization
The coming elections are of crucial importance
not because of what they will reveal about the
Bharatiya Janata Party or the National Democratic
Alliance but because of what they will reveal
about the Congress. In that sense they could mark
a crucial turning point. Either the Congress will
no longer be a national party or it will have
bought some time for itself to tackle its deeper
longer term maladies but with no guarantee that
it will successfully do so.
The issue can be posed simply enough. The outcome
of these coming elections will give an answer to
three questions. Will the Congress be able to
come back to power as the hub of an alternative
ruling coalition? Or will it at least improve its
tally of seats from what it currently holds to
around 130 or more, which would probably also
mean a decline of BJP seats from 180 to around
160 or less? Or will the Congress tally remain
roughly where it now is (113 seats) or even go
below 100?
Should the last of these three possible scenarios
emerge, then not only will the Congress not form
the nucleus of an alternative ruling coalition
but we can also expect the final collapse of it
as a national political-electoral force.
The party will not disappear but one can fully
expect it to suffer defections, crossovers by
some of its pre-poll electoral allies to the
BJP-led winning coalition, and even breakaways in
the form of regional party formations. It is
important to note that for 50 years after
independence (upto 1997) every single breakaway
from the Congress rapidly faded into oblivion.
This was so even when such breakaways were led by
leaders of great stature whose reputations were
forged during the pre-independence freedom
movement, such as the Congress (O) of Morarji
Desai. After 1997 however, two such split-offs
have stabilized themselves as regional political
forces that are, moreover, not afraid to do
business with the BJP. One has in mind here first
the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and then
the National Congress Party of Maharashtra,
although the latter is currently aligned with the
Congress.
Should the Congress fail in these April elections
then one should not be surprised if the likes of
a Digvijay Singh, an Ashok Gehlot, or others, who
see little prospect of capturing the main party
of the Congress, were to set up separate regional
parties. After all, the principal glue that holds
the Congress together is neither ideological
coherence or commitment (there isn't any) nor
organizational solidity but simply the lure of
governance at the Centre.
Over the last two decades and more, we have all
been witness to the process of progressive
ideological-political decay of the Congress. It
has no stable electoral social base, having been
deserted for the BJP by upper castes and Brahmins
in the north, by Dalits in the north and west,
and is now witnessing (as the last assembly
elections in December 2003 showed) a severe
erosion among central Indian adivasis.
Programmatically, it follows a softer version of
Hindutva and has only minor differences in regard
to the BJP-NDA's economic reforms and its
alignment with the United States of America in
foreign policy.
To be sure, one must not make the drastic mistake
of thinking there is no qualitative difference
between the Congress and the BJP. There most
certainly is and this should reflect itself in
the electoral choices made by those most worried
about the grave peril that Indian democracy and
secularism have been faced with. The Congress
does not have the huge cadre base of the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or the cohort
organizations of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and
Bajrang Dal. Nor does it have the same
ideological commitment to bringing about a Hindu
rashtra. One must distinguish between the
"Hindutva-ization" of Congress policies and the
behaviour and determined pursuit of Hindutva and
Hindu rashtra by the sangh. But it does mean that
Congress activists and members will have little
difficulty in shifting towards the BJP and the
NDA if circumstances change. The pragmatic search
for a share in the fruits of power and the
absence of serious ideological hostility to
Hindutva means this prospect is very much there
if the Congress does badly in the polls.
Such a development - the BJP emerging as the sole
national political-electoral force and the
"normalized" party of rule - carries momentous
implications for the future, even if for some
time its political ambitions remain disciplined
by the pressures of being part of a governing
coalition.
If, however, the Congress can up its tally to
around 130 and the BJP suffers a fall from its
present total, the situation becomes different.
Most analysts, perceiving the fact that the BJP
and the NDA would seem to have peaked last time
in the number of seats obtained, do not see how
either can improve their tally except perhaps in
places like Uttar Pradesh. But any increase
there, as our poll pundits would have it, must
surely be compensated for by declines in the
BJP-NDA tally elsewhere. It is difficult to see
how the BJP can go beyond its current position.
But no doubt one reason why their leaders wish to
plug the "Vajpayee factor" and why Advani is also
embarking on his Ayodhya-reminding rath yatra is
because the BJP seeks to appeal to both
"moderates" and "extremists" in the hope that
this might propel the BJP beyond the 180 seat
mark.
But the NDA probably has better chances of
expanding than does the BJP. This is because, if
the BJP does somewhat worse, as long as the
Congress also does worse than before, or as
badly, and the non-NDA regional parties do
better, there remains the prospect of wooing some
of them over after the polls to form a more
formidable ruling coalition. If the relationship
of forces between regional parties and the BJP
shifts a little towards the former in a new NDA
formation, the BJP can still take comfort in the
fact that as the only national force in the
ruling coalition (as the last five years have
shown) it can still steer the polity in the
direction it basically wants, albeit more
cautiously, and with due attention paid to making
local concessions.
Should the Congress achieve a total of 130-plus
then with a decline of the BJP tally, this will
certainly give it a temporary reprieve even if it
is not able to form the government. There is then
much less reason to leave the Congress or for
other opposition parties to desert it. The
Congress, after all, would have moved upwards
from its last showing, thereby confirming its
general appeal, its national character, and
providing stronger promise of further advance.
When, as in India, the polity has become so
fragmented and segmented electorally speaking,
then pendular swings in the short term between
competing claimants to rule (whether coalitions
or major parties) can be expected. If a
Congress-led coalition triumphs, then, of course,
the Congress reprieve is even stronger. But in
the longer run, the crisis facing it remains. It
has no alternative programmatic and ideological
vision.
Becoming a rightwing but "secular" (where this
only means being anti-BJP) party is not the
answer. When over the next decade, the eruption
against the false promise of neo-liberalism
emerges - and as in Latin America, it will - the
absence of forces capable of promoting a leftwing
populism will allow rightwing populism to
manipulate this upsurge in favour of further
authoritarian involution and further
consolidation of Hindutva politics.
_____
[4]
ANHAD , 4, Windsor Place, new Delhi-110001
Dear friends,
Anhad has completed one year.
1. In Defence of Our Dreams : Docu lecture series
A few experts, creative artists and individuals
who aspire for a secular, democratic and
harmonious Indian society dreamt of the present
project. The lecture covering various aspects of
communalism delivered by eminent intellectuals
were converted into lively documentaries of about
25-minute duration. ANHAD is releasing these on
31st march, 2004 in Delhi. The package contains
the following docu- lectures:
History of RSS -Pralay Kanungo
Civil Society and State: Lessons from Gujarat-Harsh Mander
Caste, Dalits and Fascism-Prof. S.K. Thorat
Gender-Issue, Movement & Interrelation with Communal Politics-Nivedita Menon
Legacy of the Freedom Movement-Mridula Mukherjee
Secularism as a Constitutional Right-Mihir Desai
The Urgency to Resist Fascist Forces- Prof. Bipan Chandra
Media: An Arena for Struggle-Rajdeep Sardesai
Communalisation of Education and History-Rizwan Qaiser
Is Ayodhya Just a Physical Site-Dr. K. M. Shrimali
Cultural Roots of Communalism-Prof. K.N. Panikkar
Facts and Myths-Dr. Ram Puniyani
Communalism, Nationalist Chauvinism & India -Pakistan Hostility
The package also contains : Mahesh Bhatt's Zakhm,
Producer Pooja Bhatt, Final solution- Producer
Rakesh Sharma and Zulmaton ke Daur Main- Producer
Gauhar Raza.
This is the first set of docu-lectures in
English. Hindi lectures would be released later.
Anhad is taking advance bookings now. The full
set is available for Rs. 1000/- each. Demand
Drafts favouring Anhad, to be sent to-Anhad, 4,
Windsor Place, New Delhi-110001
2. Jagori, Sangat, V day and Anhad invite you to
an evening of poetry, music, dance and theatre
Women Artists for Justice, Peace and Harmony
Venue: Hamsdhwani Open Air Theatre, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi
Date : March 20, 2004
Time: 6.30pm onwards
Participating artists: Samina Ahmad, Salima
Hashmi, Samina Rehman (Pakistan), Ananya
Chatterjea (US), Jagori collective(India),
Nandita Das (India), Manu Kohli (India), Zehra
Nigaah (Pakistan) , Artists Unlimited (India) ,
Eva Warberg , Eve Ensler ( US)
3. "Meri Awaz Suno" --Proposed Programme –Anhad
is proposing to undertake the programme "Meri
Awaz Suno" (Aman Karwan travels across India),
provided we are able to get enough organizations,
individuals to support this endeavour.
A group of 30-35 young students (15-20 yrs)
propose to travel all over India, connect with
other young people, talk to the media and convey
our message that “ We as young people of this
country believe in love, peace , justice and
harmony. We are the future of India. We dream of
an India, which is free of hate, prejudices,
poverty, where all citizens have equal rights. “
Our proposed travel plans ( there can be slight
rescheduling, exact cities to be worked out) :
Flagging off ceremony: Delhi from Gandhiji’s
Dandi March Statue, 11 Murti- April 3rd, 2004
-4pm
The group travels by train to Trivendrum 4th
morning, reaches on 6th April, 2004.
April 7th, 2004- Press conference at 11 am
Team A Team B
April 7,8- Kerala Tamil Nadu-April 7,8,9
April 9,10,11- Karnataka Andhra Pradesh- April- 10,11,12
April 12- Goa Orissa- April 13, 14
April 13,14,15- Maharashtra Chattisgarh- April 15,16
April 16,17,18-Gujarat Jharkhand- 17,18
April 19,20,21-Madhya Pradesh West Bengal- 19,20,21
April- 22,23,24-U.P. Jharkhand.- April- 22,23
April- 25, 26, 27-Rajasthan Bihar- 24, 25, 26
April 28, 29-Haryana U.P.-27, 28, 29
April-30, May 1, 2-Punjab Uttranchal- April 30, May 1, 2
May 3,4,5-Himachal Himachal- May 3,4,5
May 6-Return to Delhi Delhi- May 6 return to Delhi
Various other people would be joining the teams in different states.
WHAT CAN MAKE THIS HAPPEN ?
1. We require 4 vehicles- qualis cars- each
would travel approximately 8000 kms. Each car
would cost approx rupees 60,000. We would require
the qualis cars on 6th at Trivendrum. (60,000x
4=2,40,000)
1. The train tickets from Delhi to Tvm for
40 persons 40x 700 (ordinary second class
sleeper) –Rs. 28,000
2. Food- 40x100x 35 days= 1,40,000
3. Miscellaneous expenditure- 40,000
4. Stay- local groups to organize
5. Press conference venues and media
mobalisation- local groups to mobalise
6. Participating children- we would be happy
to have children (15-20 yrs) from other states ,
who are vocal and concerned. Contact Anhad-
23327367/ 66 or contact Shabnam Hashmi-
9811807558, <anhadinfo at yahoo.co.in>. The
children will have to reach Delhi on April 2,
2004
We are in the process of contacting different
organizations and individuals for support both
financial and logistical. Would be in a position
to take a firm decision within 10 days.
Anhad would be happy to acknowledge the names of
all organizations supporting the programme. The
travel bills can be directly picked up by various
organizations. We would require donations for the
rest in Indian Rupees. Anhad does not take
foreign funds.
_____
[5]
Dear Friend,
Zubaan and the India Habitat Centre will be
continuing its programme of conversations with
women writers, 'Words of Women". This month we
have two sessions:
1. Pakistani author, Kamila Shamsie (Salt
and saffron, City by the Sea, and Kartography)
who will be in conversation with Shobhana
Bhattacharji on Saturday the 20th of March.
2. Assamese author, Mitra Phukan (House
Above the Cremation Ground, her first novel being
published by Zubaan; has edited two volumes for
Katha on the North East Literature; and is member
of the North East Writers Forum) who will be in
conversation with Preeti Gill on Thursday, the
25th of March.
Started last year, this programme, entitled
'Words of Women', has so far featured Mahashweta
Devi, Indira Goswami, Githa Hariharan, Mridula
Garg, Manjula Padmanabhan, Mrinal Pande and we
hope to include many more other women writers in
the months to come.
We'd be delighted to welcome you to this
discussion. The venue is Casurina at the Habitat
Centre [New Delhi] at 7 pm.
The programme usually lasts just over an hour.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Jaya Bhattacharji
[Zubaan Books - New Delhi]
_____
[6]
PROMILLA & CO., PUBLISHERS
&
BIBLIOPHILE SOUTH ASIA
announces its new title
ACROSS THE WAGAH
AN INDIAN'S SOJOURN IN PAKISTAN
by Maneesha Tikekar
Hardback / 360pp / 17 b/w photos / 2 maps
ISBN 81-85002-34-7 / Rs. 750.00
INDIA'S obsessive interest in Pakistan is defined
by the political and security issues and is
conditioned by history. The pain and despair at
the vivisection of the motherland is obviously
far from over. There is nostalgia for the land
that suddenly became distant and inaccessible
almost overnight, and negative feelings for the
people who occupied that land. This book is not
about Indo-Pak relations, nor does it discuss the
Kashmir issue. It is about the people of
Pakistan, their cities and history, their complex
social fabric and their search for harmonised
cultural identity from an Indian's perspective.
Pakistani society is at once plural and
monolithic. Its biradaries, tribes and tribal
codes of conduct, ethnic groups and languages,
and racial mixtures make the Pakistani society an
anthropologist's delight. The bulldozer of Islam
makes it difficult for an outsider to understand
its social intricacies. The book makes two valid
points: firstly, we must learn to distinguish
between people, nation and state, and secondly,
territorial boundaries and cultural frontiers do
not necessarily coincide. The book is a landmark
contribution to sociological and cultural studies
of South Asia in general and the subcontinent in
particular. It offers a different point of view
about Pakistan, and politics of Islam in Pakistan
to academicians of South Asia apart from
satisfying the lay readers' curiosity in the
subject. Based on the author's five-month stay in
Pakistan and written in a style that deftly
combines the narrative of a travelogue and the
seriousness of academic research, the book is a
must read for general readers and specialists
alike.
* * * * * * * *
MANEESHA TIKEKAR is Reader in Politics at SIES
College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Mumbai.
She has been a recipient of a number of
international fellowships and awards including
the Fulbright Post Doctoral Fellowship and ASIA
Fellowship. Her publications include
Constitution, Polity and Society : A Study of the
Indian Political System, co-authored, Indian
Socialism : Past and Present, co-edited; and a
number of research papers and articles. Her book
in Marathi Kumpanapalikadala Desh : Pakistan is
widely acclaimed as it is said to have changed
the common perception of Marathi readers about
Pakistan. The book is already in its second
edition within a year and has won two literary
awards in 2003.
Contents
· Preface
· Tapestry of Pakistan
o Islamabad - A Beautiful City Without Soul
o Lahore - A Punjabi El Dorado
o Peshawar - A City from the Arabian Nights
o Karachi - The Mega City of Pakistan
o Takshshila - And the Time Stood Still
o Last Days in Pakistan
· Chessboard of Politics
o Five Decades in Search of Political Stability
o Movers and Shakers of Pakistani Politics
· Contours of the Society
o Social Kaleidoscope
o Cultural Dilemmas
o Pakistani Perceptions of India
· Select Bibliography
· Index
· 2 Maps
· 17 Photos
PROMILLA & CO., PUBLISHERS
in association with
BIBLIOPHILE SOUTH ASIA
NEW DELHI l NEW JERSEY
Headquarters : C-127 Sarvodaya Enclave, New Delhi - 110 017, INDIA
Phones : 91-11-26864124, 51829329
Fax : 91-11-26853894
Email : abutani at biblioasia.com
URL: www.biblioasia.com
Overseas Office : 9 Adams St., Morganville, NJ 07751, U.S.A.
Phone : 1-732-972-3695
Email : tulsi04 at aol.com
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
citizens wire service run since 1998 by South
Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/
The complete SACW archive is available at:
bridget.jatol.com/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/
See also associated site: www.s-asians-against-nukes.org
DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.
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