SACW | 22 Feb -01 March 2005

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire   | 22 Feb -01 March,  2005
via:  www.sacw.net

[1]  Reports on the 7th Pakistan-India Peoples' Forum meeting
[2]  The recent visit of the India-Pakistan Youth Forum for Peace 
(IPYFP), to India (Joe Athialy)
[3]  USA-India: Coalition Against Genocide Launched - Demands 
Revocation of Invitation to Indian Politician Accused of Gujarat 
Pogrom
[4]  India:  Re-victimising the victim - S.A.R. Geelani's trial by 
the media (Praful Bidwai)
[5]  India:  Letter to the Editor (Mukul Dube)
[6]  India - Film Review: Simmering Silences  (Kumkum Sangari)
[7]  Upcoming Events:
(i)   The First Sachin Chaudhuri Centennial Memorial Lecture 
-'Decolonising the Past: History Writing in the Time of Sachin - and 
Beyond' by Romila Thapar  (Bombay, March 15, 2005)
(ii) 'Expressions In Freedom' - a festival of films by Asian women 
filmmakers (Delhi, 8-10 March)


--------------

[1]


The Hindu
Feb 26, 2005

New Delhi
PAKISTAN-INDIA PEOPLES' FORUM MEETING TO FOCUS ON YOUTH

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, FEB. 25. Adding a new dimension to the ongoing 
Indo-Pakistan peace process, the Seventh Joint Convention of the 
Pakistan-India Peoples' Forum for Peace and Democracy began here 
today. Bringing people-to-people interaction to the forefront, the 
three-day convention this time will concentrate on the youth to take 
forward the process.

"In 1994, it was with great difficulty that we could get 100 visas 
from the Indian Government. But last month the Indian High Commission 
issued 11,000 visas. What started as a trickle has opened the 
floodgates. This Forum is the principal voice of the people of India 
and Pakistan for peace and democracy,'' said former Pakistan Finance 
Minister Mubashir Hasan, a member of the Forum.

Besides longstanding objectives including facilitation of 
people-to-people interaction, initiation of disarmament in the 
sub-continent and commitment to democracy among others, this time it 
will be the youth and the global scenario that would be the focal 
points of deliberation.

"It is the youth on whom the future will rest. They are the ones 
without any baggage, positive or negative. They see India and 
Pakistan as two different countries and it is up to them to take this 
forward. Also, we cannot even begin to see the relationship between 
the two countries without looking at the global scenario. The 
convention will be looking at the issues such a globalisation and the 
impact on women, children, environment and the Indo-Pak economic 
relations,'' said Nighat Said Khan, Dean of Studies at the Institute 
of Women's Studies in Lahore. To encourage youth participation, a 
special `Youth Assembly' has also been organised on February 27. 
Several students from institutions like Jawaharlal Nehru University, 
Jamia Millia Islamia, Lady Shri Ram College and Ramjas College in 
Delhi and University of Management Sciences and Punjab University in 
Pakistan will be participating in the Convention. "Last time in 
Karachi, there were about 1,000 students who participated. They even 
put forth an impromptu performance. This time, we expect more 
participation,'' said the general secretary of the India Chapter, 
Tapan Bose. Of the 350 delegates crossing the border, many would be 
students, he added.

  o o o

The Telegraph - February 27, 2005

THE OTHER VOICE OF PAKISTAN

Ayswaria Venugopal

Pakistani ghazal singer Farida Khanum performs at the convention on 
Saturday. Picture by Prem Singh
New Delhi, Feb. 26: Listen, the other Pakistan is speaking.

"We can get attacked for speaking in favour of the peace process 
(with India), violence against women or interpreting Islam as a 
redundant and oppressive religion which we believe it is not or 
speaking in favour of the working classes," said Omar Malik, a youth 
who works for a multinational company.

Liberals and peaceniks can get beaten up for being too vocal, agreed 
Imam Shamil, who, along with Omar, is part of a 25-member group of 
Pakistani youths in India for a Pakistan-India People's Forum for 
Peace and Democracy convention.

They claimed they were bringing the voice of Pakistan's silent 
majority to play in the peace initiatives that so far has been 
dominated by the "voice of the establishment" piped out by students 
of elitist institutions that breed the top brass.

Imam, who works with an NGO fighting on issues like violence against 
women, wants the forum to give voice to a lesser-known Pakistan.

"There are two Pakistans - one is elitist, (including those) who come 
for the civil initiatives of peace, and the other, extremely poor and 
oblivious to what is happening around the world. Its only worry is 
roti, kapda and makan," said Imam.

"A peace initiative will not be successful unless it addresses the 
downtrodden and the youth," added Omar.

Ten years after the establishment of the forum, the likes of Imam, 
Omar and Nusrat from Islamabad and Lady Sri Ram College students 
Shraddha Bhandari and Divya Ratan are putting their heads together to 
organise its first youth chapter.

This is the forum's first attempt at giving a voice to the 
post-Independence generations in both countries that do not carry the 
baggage of Partition.

Laying the foundation of the youth chapter will be the first youth 
assembly in New Delhi tomorrow.

Initiation of joint projects related to culture, education and 
globalisation for the youth are on the agenda of the assembly.

"We are going to start with small projects just for a beginning," 
said Nusrat, busy planning out the schedule for the assembly.

The relatively small group of 25 youths who managed to obtain visas 
to India would be complemented by Indian students from Delhi 
University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jamia Millia Islamia and 
other institutions at the assembly.

Shraddha has chosen to set the tone at the convention with two movies 
- the Oscar-nominated (in the short film category) Little Terrorist 
by young Indian filmmaker Ashvin Kumar and Pakistani pop band 
Junoon's lead guitarist Salman Ahmad's film, The Rock Star and the 
Mullah.



______


[2]

Magazine Section / The Hindu
Feb 27, 2005
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2005/02/27/stories/2005022700340200.htm


Connecting

The recent visit of the India-Pakistan Youth Forum for Peace (IPYFP), 
to India, helped clear misconceptions, writes JOE ATHIALY.

... strengthening ties.

THE people of India and Pakistan are not just witnesses to the peace 
initiatives. They are trying to be a part of the process. And over 
the years, people advocating peace and better understanding between 
the countries have taken to visiting the "other" country and meet the 
common people.

In a similar move recently, the India-Pakistan Youth Forum for Peace 
(IPYFP), Pakistan chapter, was in India during the second week of 
February. A 12-member youth team from different parts of Pakistan 
visited Delhi, Mumbai and Pune. In Delhi, Act Now for Harmony and 
Democracy (ANHAD) and World Youth Peace Summit organised the 
programmes, while in Pune, it was by the Centre for Youth Development 
and Activities (CYDA).

"The IPYFP has emerged after the fourth World Social Forum (2004) 
held in Mumbai. The IPYFP in Pakistan is not a non-government 
organisation, but a consortium of 45 youth organisations from all 
provinces of Pakistan," said Billal Ahmed Rana, IPYFP coordinator in 
Pakistan.

The Mumbai visit

During the visit to Mumbai, the team interacted with the 
intelligentsia, college students and civil society activists. 
Filmmakers Anand Patwardhan and K.P. Sasi, former president of Bombay 
Union of Journalists Jatin Desai and the director of "Shwas" (the 
Oscar nominated film) Sandeep Sawant were a few among them.

The delegates from Pakisan were from diverse backgrounds and 
teachers, business leaders, corporate employees, students and 
activists.

The contentious issue of Kashmir was discussed between the youths of 
the countries without any animosity.

They felt that the dialogue should not be confined between just the 
governments but should include people of the two countries, 
especially the people of Kashmir.

Faculty member of Institute for Development Studies and Practices, 
Quetta-Pakistan, Samia Gul, said, "Both the countries have a peace 
ethos in our culture. We do not want the United Nations or the United 
States to establish peace."

Member of the IPYFP, India, Maju Varghese, said, "We are interested 
in not just peace, but peace and justice. We need to hold our hands 
together in the common struggle against WTO, globalisation and 
religious fundamentalism."

The delegation said that Indian films are well received and 
acknowledged in Pakistan. "Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh and Aamir Khan 
are big stars in Pakistan," Samia said. "We love Indian films, but 
Pakistan bashing in some films will not help restore peace and 
understanding. We liked `Veer-Zara' because it did not have any such 
bashing, though it is a film on India and Pakistan."

Members of the IPYFP in Mumbai comprise mostly students in Mumbai and 
some peace activists. Coordinator of IPYFP, Mumbai, Priyanka Josson, 
said, "About 10 youth organisations and students from Mumbai form the 
IPYFP in Mumbai."

Nandita Bhavlani of another initiative between the two countries, the 
Pakistan-India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) said, 
"There are a few parallel processes going on between the two 
countries for peace. It would be good if there was more coordination 
between these processes. The PIPFPD is the more politically oriented 
among them. However, it is important for the other processes also to 
continue so that more new people and not just activists and the 
converted will become a part of the peace process."

Magsaysay Award winners Admiral L. Ramdas, former Chief of the Indian 
Navy, and leading Pakistan peace activist and journalist Ibn Abdul 
Rehman are chairpersons of the PIPFPD.

Rana said, "The IPYFP does not want to address political issues at 
this stage. We are still in the early days of this process. We will 
take up those issues as we grow." However in the programmes in 
Mumbai, the IPYFP took up a number of political issues for discussion.

Priyanka said, "The visit of the Pakistani delegation has helped to 
remove the perception from a large number of students that Pakistan 
is an enemy. The delegates could reach out to a large number of 
students in Mumbai."

The IPYFP has its priorities set out. Priyanka said, "A team from 
India would be reciprocating the visit to Pakistan a few months from 
now. Our focus is on strengthening the IPYFP in Mumbai by reaching 
out to more students."

A cultural evening was organised at the end, where 400 students from 
different colleges expressed their desire for a better South Asia.

______


[3]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 20, 2005

Contact person:
Dr. Ashwini K. Rao

COALITION AGAINST GENOCIDE LAUNCHED
Demands Revocation of Invitation to Indian Politician Accused of Gujarat Pogrom

The Asian American Hotel Owner Association's (AAHOA) has created a 
storm in US by inviting a militant, anti-minority Indian politician 
to its annual convention. AAHOA will be honoring Narendra Modi, the 
Chief executive of the Indian state of Gujarat who is accused of 
sharing responsibility in the massacres, sexual mutilations and rapes 
of Muslims and persecution of Christians, indigenous tribes and 
moderate Hindus.

Narendra Modi has been indicted by various Indian and International 
human rights organizations for his role in the pogroms directed at 
the Muslim community in Gujarat in 2002. He was criticized by the 
Supreme Court of India as a modern day Nero for his actions during 
the 2002 massacres and has two cases lodged against him in the State 
of Gujarat.

The AAHOA's membership predominantly consists of immigrants from 
Modi's home state. Its decision to honor Modi in its convention and 
trade fair on March 24 - 26 has been controversial in the 
organization itself. AAHOA's decision to invite Modi raises the 
speculation that Indian American Professional Organizations are being 
infiltrated by sectarian ultra-nationalists and have become conduits 
for their fundraising and political support in US.

In response to these disturbing developments, a wide spectrum of 
organizations based in US have come together to form a coalition - 
Coalition Against Genocide (CAG). The member organizations in CAG 
have diverse backgrounds including community-based groups, 
developmental groups, human rights groups and academic experts that 
have been coordinating their efforts against the spread of religious 
hatred in India. CAG asserts that its stand is a just and moral stand 
and is in the best interest of the US society, the Indian Diaspora 
and India.

CAG will adopt a multi pronged strategy to expose and marginalize the 
extremists and will work towards safeguarding the pluralist ethos of 
India and the economic well being of the Indian Diaspora in US.

The Coalition has demanded that AAHOA rescind its invitation to 
Narendra Modi. CAG has brought to attention the fact that Modi's 
party has been glorifying Hitler and his genocidal policies in the 
state run schools. Modi is in close alliance with and promotes the 
extreme right-wing Hindutva movement that is supremacist and 
anti-minority and whose members were responsible for the 
assassination of Gandhi. This movement was formed on the model of 
Mussolini's Fascist party in the 1920s and has been glorifying Hitler 
since the 1930s.

CAG is hopeful that AAHOA members will take these facts into account 
and force its Board to rescind the invitation given to Mr. Modi.

Copy of CAG's letter to AAHOA:

February 19, 2005

To
The President and Board
Asian American Hotel Owners Association
66 Lenox Pointe N.E, Atlanta Georgia 30324.

Dear Sir:

We represent a coalition of national and local organizations in the 
U.S. and are writing to express our moral outrage at your invitation 
to Narendra Modi to speak at your convention in Ft. Lauderdale, 
Florida on March 24-26, 2005.

As you must know, Mr.Modi has been indicted by all reputable Indian 
and International human rights organizations for his role in the 
ethnic cleansing and pogroms against the Muslim community in Gujarat, 
India in 2002, in addition to having two cases lodged against him in 
the state of Gujarat.

In the state-sponsored pogrom in Gujarat, thousands of people were 
killed and made refugees, hundreds of women and young girls were 
brutally raped and tortured, religious places of worship were defiled 
and destroyed, and property loss and damage ran to millions of 
dollars. These heinous crimes were not only committed under Gujarat 
Chief Minister Modi's watch, but also condoned by him. The Supreme 
Court of India has rebuked the State Government of Gujarat for its 
faulty and discriminatory handling of more than 2000 cases that were 
never even properly investigated let alone tried. The Gujarat State 
government under Mr. Modi continues to discriminate against Muslim 
and Christian minorities to this day.

By honoring Mr. Modi at the AAHOA Meeting, you dishonor the victims 
of the Gujarat pogrom, and insult the moral dignity of all Indians 
and world citizens. Your decision to invite Mr. Modi brings shame to 
the Indian-American community, which takes pride in upholding secular 
principles.

Apart from the fact that your decision to invite Mr. Modi is morally 
repugnant, it is also economically unwise as it will negatively 
influence the patronage of AAHOA member hotels by a vast majority of 
peace loving (Indian and non-Indian alike) residents of the US.

We are perturbed that a service-based industry such as the hotel 
industry would put its reputation and financial well-being on the 
line by endorsing a man like Mr. Modi who is being tried for his 
complicity in crimes against humanity in India.

We demand that you rescind your invitation to Mr. Modi so as to 
repair the damage done by your association. If the invitation is not 
rescinded by 5PM Monday, February 21st we will be forced to launch a 
public campaign on this issue.

Sincerely,

Mr. George Abraham, Dr. Angana Chatterjee, Ms. Sapna Gupta, Dr. 
Ashwini Rao, Dr. Shaik Ubaid
On behalf of Coalition Against Genocide

Coalition Against Genocide, 8480 Baltimore National Pike 
#286,Ellicott City, MD 21043

______


[4]

The News International, February 26, 2005

RE-VICTIMISING THE VICTIM

S.A.R. Geelani's trial by the media at the behest of the Delhi police 
speaks poorly of India's justice delivery system

by Praful Bidwai

No matter how much they differ on the issue of democratic governance, 
the countries of South Asia are all fairly similar when it comes to 
the rule of law and fair treatment of people accused of crimes, with 
full respect for their fundamental rights. India has a more mature 
democracy than most of its neighbours, but it's hard to describe it 
as a rule-of-law society, where the criminal justice system works 
with reasonable integrity.

There could be no more striking proof of this than the case of the 
terrorist attack on India's Parliament House on December 13, 2001, 
and the treatment by the police of one of the principal accused - 
Syed Abdul Rehman Geelani, the soft-spoken Kashmiri and Delhi 
University professor, who was exonerated by the Delhi High Court of 
all charges.

The police's handling of the parliament attack case has been 
extraordinarily shabby right from the beginning. They were quick to 
blame the attack on Pakistan-backed militant jihadis, but they still 
haven't established the identity of the five 'terrorists' they killed.

Their accounts of the accused's arrests and their mutual links don't 
match. They rely on telephone records as evidence, which India's 
controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act permits. But the case was 
filed before POTA came into force!

The High Court acquitted Geelani because there was no credible 
evidence against him. But the Delhi police didn't leave him alone. 
Its anti-'terrorist' Special Cell has been tailing him for months. 
Geelani has long been complaining of constant harassment.

Then, on February 8, an unknown gunman pumped bullets into him when 
he was about to visit his lawyer, Nandita Haksar, in Southwestern 
Delhi, to plan his legal strategy. Two weeks on, the Delhi police 
haven't identified the assailant. Instead, they are slandering 
Geelani and his supporters. They are trying to shift the onus of 
proof upon the victim!

This is a disgraceful attempt to discredit Geelani and suggest that 
he was attacked for sectarian reasons linked to Kashmiri separatism, 
in which he was complicit. The police have been planting all kinds of 
stories in the media, where callow or compromised reporters are only 
too happy to play them up.

The police accuse Haksar and her husband of not informing them of the 
attack for an hour. But the couple's priority was to take the wounded 
man to hospital, where a medico-legal case would be registered before 
admission. Hints were dropped that Haksar's husband, a Naga, is 
involved with shady pro-autonomy Northeastern outfits. But the Indian 
government is talking at the highest level to an openly secessionist 
Naga movement!

The police tom-tommed their 'discovery', four days after the assault, 
of the sweater Geelani was wearing when attacked. But it's normal for 
doctors to remove a patient's clothing before emergency surgery and 
for relatives to take it home.

Most perniciously, the police have been feeding reporters salacious 
and fanciful theories about how Geelani was the wily mastermind 
behind the parliament attack; he was acquitted on purely technical 
grounds; but "we know that, like most Kashmiris, he has sympathies 
for extremism."

In 2001-02 too, the police organised Geelani's first trial by the 
media. On December 20, 2001, their Special Cell invited TV channels 
to broadcast the 'confessions' of co-accused Mohammed Afzal. A year 
later, just days before the trial court judgement, Zee News telecast 
a film based on the Special Cell's allegations that Geelani was the 
brain behind the parliament attack - without a shred of evidence. 
This was unethical and aimed at creating prejudice against him.

Geelani was tortured, but refused to make a false confession. In 
prison, he was also attacked with a knife. After his release, he has 
had to face hostility and humiliation. For months, nobody would sell 
him a second-hand car for fear the police would question them. A film 
on his case was prevented from being screened in Delhi University. At 
Jawaharlal Nehru University, the sangh parivar wouldn't let him speak.

Underlying this demonisation is the presumption of Geelani's guilt. 
Geelani's Kashmir-Muslim identity is like a red rag to the sangh 
parivar.

But large numbers of people -- including human rights activists, 
university teachers and students from Geelani's college -- have all 
sprung to his defence. They have all made one point effectively.

The point is simple. Civilised societies must recognise the need to 
defend those presumed guilty. Every accused person has the right to 
defence. As a jurist (Ronald P. Sokol) has argued: "Guilt is not an 
empirical fact; it is a legal concept that includes elements beyond 
the act itself. Yes, he murdered the intruder, but he acted in 
self-defence. Yes, she burned down her house, but she was insane when 
she did so... In each case the act was committed; in none is the 
accused guilty." Neither guilt nor severity of punishment can be 
judged without such defence.

The Indian state, like other South Asian states, has often subverted 
rights of the accused, especially in cases of 'terrorism' and 
secessionism. But a civilised democracy should grant even Osama bin 
Laden or Velupillai Prabhakaran the right to be proved guilty beyond 
doubt.

There is a deeper purpose behind the police's instigation of the 
media to put Geelani on trial. This helps the police to mask its 
incompetence, communal bias and its Special Cell's appalling human 
rights record. The so-called 'anti-terrorist' cell has become a law 
unto itself. It has over 30 'encounter' deaths to its credit, 
including the Diwali 2002 Ansal Plaza episode discussed in this 
column.

These cases must be reopened by a neutral agency. The culture of the 
Delhi police has been greatly corroded. Corruption is integral to it. 
It's impossible to land a constable's job or keep a lucrative posting 
in the force without paying enormous bribes. On February 18, traffic 
police sub-inspector Mahesh Kumar Yadav hung himself apparently 
because he couldn't bear the insults of his boss, who would demand 
Rs2,000 in daily bribes. Often, the Delhi police won't even register 
or investigate a complaint unless bribed. Bribes are routinely used 
to prevent the occupation of property by its owners.

What's growing is a culture of impunity, which ensures that there 
shall be no punishment for grave misdeeds. Draconian laws like POTA 
give the police enormous power and make things worse. Once impunity 
prevails, the police needn't conduct careful investigation or avoid 
human rights transgressions. They no longer need to respect the rule 
of law.

India's National Police Commission has found that nearly 60 percent 
of arrests by the police are either unnecessary or unjustified. As 
former Punjab DGP Julio Ribeiro says: "'Encounters' have become a 
common phenomenon ... [T]his blatantly illegal and morally degrading 
practice ... has the potential of making criminals of policemen."

The Delhi police must be reined in. The Geelani assault case should 
be handed over to a credible central agency for further 
investigation. The National Human Rights Commission should inquire 
into all recent disappearances and 'encounters'. And Delhi's Special 
Cell must be dissolved. It has brought dishonour upon the police. 
Only thus can India evolve towards a rule-of-law society that 
respects justice.

____



[5]  [Letter to the Editor]


D-504 Purvasha
Mayur Vihar 1
Delhi 110091

26 February 2005

The Home Minister of Rajasthan, Gulab Chand Kataria, said recently
that "we" would not permit "conversions of poor and illiterate
persons, carried out with the help of allurements and money...."
Do "they" not object to the far more common phenomenon of people's
being bribed to become "witnesses" and give false testimony in
courts of law? Does the Religious Affairs Minister deal with that?

Mukul Dube

_______


[6]

Frontline
Volume 22 - Issue 05, Feb. 26 - Mar. 11, 2005

SIMMERING SILENCES

Kumkum Sangari

In Kaya Taran, Sashi Kumar explores the consequences of the 1984 
anti-Sikh riots at the individual and social levels through the prism 
of Gujarat 2002.

FEATURE films and documentaries are fairly distinct genres, yet the 
desire to document and understand the agencies involved in communal 
violence can produce a creative overlap between the two. Sashi Kumar, 
a noted print and television journalist as well as a film and media 
critic, has scripted and directed many docu-features on regional and 
international themes. His first feature film, Kaya Taran, based on 
N.S. Madhavan's short story, 'When Big Trees Fall', seems to be 
impelled by the same concern for uncovering the truth that 
underwrites documentaries on communalism.

The protagonist of the film, Preet, is a young sikh journalist who, 
when confronted with the anti-muslim violence in Gujarat 2002, 
returns to his traumatic childhood escape from the anti-sikh violence 
of 1984. He aligns his own experience of threat with that of other 
beleagured minorities -- muslims subjected to vilification and 
attack, christians accused of conversion -- and learns to reject the 
unselfconscious complacence of hindus and their bland circulation of 
stereotypes.


[Credits and Caption] BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Scenes from Kaya Taran.

Kaya Taran poses a question -- how does one come back to the present 
after returning to the past? -- and sensitively re-nuances the 
classic trope of journalistic discovery so familiar from social 
realism in narrative and cinema, but does so through a more 
contemporaneous emphasis on an individual subjectivity hedged in by 
uncertainty. What the protagonist `discovers' is his own location in 
narratives of fear and recovery, atrocity and succour.

Preet's anxiety about his identity emerges through a sudden attention 
to everyday actions: shaving a beard, seeing a neighbour tying his 
turban, hearing an aggressive communal comment. Self-location takes 
place not in the heroic mode but in the subtle twists and turns of 
the commonplace -- that spacewhich asserts itself, howsoever 
precariously, after grave violence. This culminates in a donning of 
the turban, an act that signifies a palpable shedding of fear, more 
than a mere assertion of sikh `identity'.


If a filmic representation of violence runs the danger of voyeurism 
and sensationalism, then a representation of communal violence 
entails the added difficulty of re-opening wounds or aggravating 
wounds that have never been fully sutured. In a quiet yet poignant 
way, Kaya Taran confronts the making of traumatised generations. If 
the young sikh journalist represents a generation already marked and 
made by 1984, the young boy from Gujarat (represented in the film by 
the same actor who enacts the role of Preet as a child) who recounts 
the violence against his family in 2002 at a Sahmat meeting belongs 
to a new generation of traumatised children. This moving film, 
especially for those who lived through 1984, evokes the bitter relays 
of narrative, the way one act of communal violence triggers a 
reservoir of social and personal memory, one death recalls another, 
in a seemingly inexorable passage from 1947 to 2002.

The reflective, contemplative pace of Kaya Taran, its refusal to be 
hurried, not only sets up a critical contrast with the unshown horror 
of 1984, but resituates filmic and documentary conventions of 
representing communal violence. Relatively small acts of violence, 
such as pursuing motorcycles, knocks on the door, the breaking of a 
window and menacing phone calls begin to represent the large-scale 
killing of sikhs that swept northern India. The fear that congeals 
around a single event and two saved lives in the film is so immense 
that, paradoxically, the very rectitude of the film is able to 
suggest the magnitude of the carnage in 1984 more dramatically than a 
visual display of violent acts.

THE film's understanding of a multireligious country takes shape 
subtly in a number of ways. There is an attempt to recover the 
religious space of worship as a sanctuary for those in distress and 
danger, a space that should be sacrosanct, as well as a reminder of 
the difficulty of doing so now that the hindu communal imagery has 
grotesquely mutated all mosques, gurdwaras and churches into hotbeds 
of terrorists and turned them into objects of hatred and attack. This 
is done by weaving into the narrative a gentle convent in Meerut that 
houses old, retired and often terminally ill nuns, who, even as they 
await their own deaths, save the sikh mother and child from a set of 
bloodthirsty killers. Indeed this convent can be read as a sign of 
the national secular.

The `national' is an understated yet encompassing formation where 
nuns from many regions, cutting a swathe from south to north, come to 
live together, while the `secular' is configured on the more easily 
recognizable Gandhian terrain of reaching out from one religious 
tradition to another: more precisely, reaching out from the body of 
Christ to the kesh of a sikh boy. This vivid engagement between some 
of the corporeal motifs in christianity and sikhism is played out in 
a crucial scene where Jaggi's (Preet's) mother, disguised as a nun, 
begs divine forgiveness for her complicity in the shearing of his 
hair while the nuns seek their rapprochement with the act through the 
symbology of the resurrection of Christ. The religious identity for 
these sikh and christian women resides in an intricate working of 
their values and beliefs which must now be reconfigured in the 
pragmatic interests of survival, and yet somehow also resist and 
stave off the communalisation of these identities.

Finally, the film juxtaposes two notations of mortality. First, 
through its focus on the convent for old nuns, the film displays a 
remarkable ability to linger on diseased and ageing women, to confer 
sympathy, dignity and value on what would be an unglamorous subject 
for conventional cinema. The convent becomes a site for acts of faith 
in both a religious and an existential sense, as well as a source for 
regeneration. Second, a poem by Guru Nanak - `Azrael, the angel of 
death, holds me by the hair and yet unaware am I' -- becomes the 
closing frame of the film and is sung with unforgettable luminosity 
by Madan Gopal Singh. Both these notations of mortality, the gentle 
fading away and the destined death, stand in stark contrast to the 
bestial killings of 1984 and 2002. Indeed it is these human and 
humane intimations of mortality, rather than any form of polemic, 
that situate communal violence as unacceptable.

There are at least two outstanding performances in the film: Seema 
Biswas as Sister Agatha, once an orphaned child and now the nun who 
looks after the convent, and Neelamabri Bhattacharya, who plays 
Jaggi, the seven-year old sikh boy. The dialogues by Madan Gopal 
Singh, in their reticence, and their sparing yet effective use of 
Punjabi, give Kaya Taran its depth and resonance.

Even as Sashi Kumar's exploration of the personal and social 
consequences of the 1984 carnage through the prism of Gujarat 2002 
stays away from a frontal depiction of the brutality of 1984, it 
expands the space of political violence and its effects. The effects 
of communal violence can turn, over time, into small individual 
decisions, into articulate acts of empathy, recognition and 
reconnection. Or they can turn into memories, emotions and 
repressions that live within the silences of social discourse -- 
simmering silences that may be triggered into speech by renewed 
violence, or that may quietly, invisibly, perniciously, shape daily 
life.

Kumkum Sangari is Professorial Fellow at the Centre for Contemporary 
Studies, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi.



_______


[7]  [UPCOMING EVENTS]

(i)

The First Sachin Chaudhuri Centennial Memorial Lecture

'Decolonising the Past: History Writing in the Time of Sachin - and Beyond'

by Romila Thapar

At 6 pm on Tuesday, March 15, 2005 at the
Y B Chavan Centre Auditorium, Mumbai

Organised by the Sameeksha Trust to commemorate the birth centennial 
of Sachin Chaudhuri (1904-1966), founder-editor of Economic Weekly 
and Economic and Political Weekly.


______

(ii)

The IIC Asia Project & the International Association of Women in 
Radio & Television (IAWRT)

invite you to

EXPRESSIONS IN FREEDOM
a festival of films by Asian women filmmakers
8TH | 9TH | 10TH MARCH 2005 at the INDIA INTERNATIONAL CENTRE, DELHI

'Expressions in Freedom' is a festival celebrating documentary films by
Asian women. Launching on the International Women's Day, 8th March, the
festival seeks to open up a space for debate on creative processes enriched
by women's quest for freedoms of expression.

Apart from documentaries, the festival includes animation films, talks and
special presentations. Films will be followed by discussions with the
directors, if present.

IAWRT is a non-profit organization of women working in electronic and allied
media. It seeks to enhance the electronic media by ensuring that women's
views and values become an integral part of programme making.
( <http://www.iawrt.org>www.iawrt.org )

ENTRY TO THE FESTIVAL IS OPEN TO ALL

________________________________



SCHEDULE*: 8th March 2005, Tuesday

10:30 AM INAUGURATION
incl. screening of
LINE OF CONTROL a film by Surekha 3 min / 2003 / India
An ant moves within a boundary. It is a mere pen mark. And yet the ant
hesitates to cross the line of control and come out of the boundary. Will
it, finally? Or wont it? This spontaneous work examines how one behaves when
confronted with imaginary boundaries.

11:30 AM: BREAK

12:00 NOON UNLIMITED GIRLS by Paromita Vohra 94 min / 2002 / India
  Reflective in tone and playful in its form, 'UnLimited Girls' asks
questions about feminism in our lives: why must women lead double lives,
being feminist but not saying they are? How do we make sense of love and
anger, doubt and confusion, the personal and the political in this
enterprise of pushing the boundaries, of being un-limited? The tale is told
through the conversations of a narrator called Fearless who encounters
diverse characters - feminists, yuppies, college kids, a woman cab driver, a
priest, academics - all talking of their engagements with feminism.

01:45 PM: LUNCH

02:30 PM: UNTIL WHEN.  by Dahna Abourahme 76 min / 2004 / Palestine, USA
  Set during the current Intifada, this documentary follows four Palestinian
families living in Dheisheh Refugee Camp near Bethlehem. Fadi, just 13,
cares for his 4 younger brothers; the Hammash family believe in living life
with humour and passion; Sana, a single woman endures long commutes to do
community work; and Emad and Hanan are a young couple trying to shield their
daughter from the harsh realities of the occupation. Through their joys and
sorrows, 'Until When.' paints an intimate portrait of Palestinian lives
today.

03:45 PM: BREAK

04:00 PM MY MOTHER INDIA A film by Safina Uberoi 52 min / 2002 / Australia
  This film tells the story of a mixed marriage set against the tumultuous
backdrop of modern Indian history. It focuses on the filmmaker's own quirky
family: an Indian Sikh father who collects kitsch calendars; an Australian
mother who hangs her knickers out to dry in front of the horrified
neighbours in Delhi; a grandfather who was a self-styled Guru' and a
seething grandmother who grows to despise him. What begins as a quirky and
humorous documentary about an eccentric, multicultural upbringing unfolds
into a complex commentary on the social, political and religious events of
the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 that changed the destinies of the family.

05:00 PM TALK: Uma Chakravarti: Alternative Spaces for Alternatives Texts
(30 min)

05:30 PM: BREAK

06:30 PM LADIES SPECIAL A film by Nidhi Tuli 29 mins / -- / India
  'Ladies Special' travels on a Mumbai train reserved wholly for women. For a
brief while, the camera, crew and viewers become part of the spontaneous
community of women that this train has engendered. With women boarding the
same bogey daily, lives are shared, vegetables are chopped, birth ceremonies
are celebrated, and clothes bought, as the 50 km journey becomes a space
suspended unto itself. Many women speak of the commute as a cherished time
when they can be themselves, instead of wives and mothers and workers and
housewives. Ladies Special is a celebration of their lives.

followed by GIRL SONG A film by Vasudha Joshi 29 min / -- / India
This film enters the life of Anjum Katyal, blues singer, poet and mother,
capturing her voice as she performs the blues in her home city of Kolkata,
as she reads from her journal to her daughter, as she converses with her
mother and her daughter about the multi-religious, multi-cultural heritage
that she so proudly owns to, and as she talks of confronting the climate of
hostility and distrust towards minorities spreading through the country. In
her interactions with her mother and her daughter, we see how a cultural
identity proudly woven from many strands is increasingly under threat from
narrow and exclusionist definitions of identity.

followed by INDIA CABARET A film by Mira Nair 60 min / -- / India
  By focusing on a group of female strippers who work in a nightclub in the
suburbs of Bombay, 'India Cabaret' explores the "respectable" and "corrupt"
stereotypes that typify women in contemporary Indian society. The film tells
their story, relating their hopes and fears while respecting their pride and
resilience.  In the process, it reveals the rules and double standards of a
deeply patriarchal society.

************

SCHEDULE* FOR: 9th March 2005, Wednesday

10:30 AM Sri Lankan films from the Reconciliation Series, and a talk with
Sharmini Boyle.
including a scrng. of: RAJESHWARI Sharmini Boyle, Siyangka Nawaz 25 min /
2003 / Sri Lanka
This documentary is part of a television series that explore situations of
conflict and their impact on the lives of the Sri Lankan people. The series,
as the name suggests, promotes reconciliation and peace. 'Rajeshwari' is the
story of the experiences of a woman who was affected by the conflict in Sri
Lanka.
The programme also includes screenings of shorts (5 - 10 mins each) from
other episodes of the series, like:- Women Waging Peace (mothers and war)-
Defiant Art (women and language)

11:30 AM: BREAK

12:00 NOON MANJUBEN TRUCK DRIVER A film by Sherna Dastur 52 min / 2002 /
India
  Manjuben has broken the gender stereotypes that are part of the social
landscape she inhabits. She has created an identity for herself against
social, cultural and economic odds, commanding respect from the community.
This identity is deliberately 'male' - that of a macho trucker, drawn from
several popular notions of maleness. Yet Manjuben defies simple
categorization. Though she lives a free life compared to the other women in
her society, she is just as patriarchal as the next person. In other words,
Manjuben is no crusader.

  OF LOVE & LAND A film by Samina Mishra 24 min / 2001 / India
  Randhir Singh and Darshan Kaur's grandchildren grow up together in a
prosperous home in a village near Amritsar. The children - 3 girls, 3 boys -
go to the same school, eat together and often even play together. Yet there
are borders that demarcate their lives. Set against the backdrop of an
alarming and continuously declining sex ratio in the region, 'Of Love and
Land' examines the boundaries that limit the lives of little girls.

01:45 PM: LUNCH

02:30 PM TALK: Shohini Ghosh: "Documentaries of Self and Sexuality" (30 min)

03:00 PM IN THE FLESH A film by Bishakha Datta 53 min / 2002 / India
  An intimate account of what it is like to be in prostitution, this film
revolves around 3 people: Shabana, a street-smart woman working the dark
highways outside Bombay; Uma, an aging theatre actress who lives in a
brothel in Calcutta where she earlier worked; and Bhaskar, a trans-gendered
person who sells sex to men. We see their lives unfold - their workplaces,
their stories, their daughters, mothers, lovers, passions... We see them as
they pick up customers, fight AIDS in their communities, battle violence
through collective action. We see them as they are - human beings struggling
for a space in society.

04:00 PM: BREAK

04:30 PM GUHYA A film by Kirtana Kumar 55 min / 2000 / India
  Today in India, we live in an aggressively patriarchal time. Modernity is
equated with homogeneity and the complex nature of female sexuality is
offered up at the altar of Nationhood. But thanks to the co-existence of
diverse sexual and socio religious practices, there still exist residual
memories of a past where the Goddess is worshipped, and communities where
the female principle is considered life-affirming. This film asserts that
our attempts to eradicate such practices in the name of development are born
of our essentially patriarchal mores.

followed by ORANGE a film by Geetanjali Rao 4 mins / 2003 / India
  'Orange' is a conversation between two women about love and relationships,
over a drink on a rain drenched evening. The film uses animation in vivid
shades of orange to express moods and feelings.

05:40PM: BREAK

06:30 PM TALK: Patricia Uberoi: "The Family in Media: Shaping our views"
(15 min)

followed by WHEN MOTHER COMES HOME FOR CHRISTMAS A film by Nilita Vachani
109 min / 1995 / India, Greece, Germany
  Josephine Perera is a migrant worker from Sri Lanka who has spent the last
ten years taking care of the families of others. She currently works in
Greece, lavishing care on 2 year-old Isadora whose own mother works in
Paris. Josephine's children meanwhile have been left to relatives and
orphanages - she hasn't seen them in ten years. Finally she has a work visa
and can travel back to them for Christmas. Through her story, we witness the
restructuring of an entire society where women have become the breadwinners
in a foreign land. Ironically it is their gender functions that lead them to
'economic freedom', though never in the context of their own families and
culture.

8:30 PM: CLOSE

**********************

SCHEDULE FOR*: 10th March 2005, Thursday

10:00 AM BORN TO SING by Shikha Jhingan 44 min / 2002 / India
Born to Sing is a musical journey with four Mirasans, who sing life-cycle
songs for their patrons in Punjab. The film explores a rich musical and oral
tradition kept alive by these women across religious boundaries. What is the
nature of their relationship with their land-owning patrons? What happens
when Punjabi pop music takes the entertainment industry by storm? The films
grapples with these concerns faced by women who find themselves shunted out
of their expressive traditions. At another level, the film also evokes
memories of partition and the resilience of the composite culture of the
Malwa region of Punjab.

followed by THE BROKEN SPINE A film by Ein Lall 30 min / 2001 / India
Nalini Malani is one of India's leading painters and installation artist.
Her work is political and gendered, even as it is subtle and layered. This
film portrays the conflicting yet complementary tones in her work. We see
life in the Lohar Chawl where Malani has her studio; we see the people that
power her work; we see what moves her. The film travels from work to work,
from painting to installation to beachside where Malani draws on the
shifting sands. Formally, it creates juxtapositions that draw the viewer
into the inner world of the artist.

11:30 AM: BREAK

12:00 NOON  A FEW THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER A film by Anjali Panjabi 30 min /
2002 / India
  Mirabai, a sixteenth century poetess is a cultural icon in India. Her
images and stories swamp our popular culture. She was a princess who
rebelled. Her poems versed in a religious idiom speak of personal choices
and questioned the social hierarchies of her time. The conflicts expressed
in her poetry however, do not tally with popular notions that choose to see
her only as a pious saint. The film explores some of these contradictions.
It travels through the towns and villages and vast deserts of Rajasthan in
search of Mira. On the journey, it discovers the many ways in which Mirabai
still sings to us.

followed by  THREE WOMEN AND A CAMERA by Sabeena Gadihoke 56 min / 1998 /
India
  Homai Vyarawalla is India's first professional woman photographer, whose
career spanned three decades from the 1930s; Sheba Chhachhi and Dayanita
Singh are contemporary photographers who started work in the 1980s.
Vyarawalla's work underscores the euphoria of the birth of a nation, while
Chhachhi and Singh grapple with the complexities and undelivered promises of
the post independence era. This film debates the shifts in their concerns
regarding representation and subject-camera relationships. It seeks to
contextualise their work through their photographs and explores how their
identity as women shapes this work in turn.

01:45 PM: LUNCH

2:30 PM HINA A film by Beena Sarwar 8 min / 2004 / Pakistan
  Hina is the first girl in her family to attend college and contemplate a
career rather than marriage. But this apparent freedom has come at a
terrible cost: it was the death of Hina's father (the family's sole
breadwinner) that forced her mother to take charge of her own life and
family in a society which frowns upon women stepping outside the home even
for education. The conflicts that 17 year-old Hina faces as her horizons
expand lend poignancy to her aspirations. She is determined to not only to
become self reliant but also to care for her ailing mother once her 4 older
sisters marry and leave.

followed by  DAUGHTERS OF EVEREST By Ramyata Limbu, Sapana Sakya 56 min /
2004 / Nepal, USA
  In 2000, the first ever expedition of Nepalese women to climb the Everest
was organised. Although the Sherpa people of Nepal are legendary for their
unmatched skills in mountaineering, Sherpa women are discouraged from
climbing, relegated instead to the support roles in the climbing industry.
Told from a women's perspective, rarely seen on Everest or off it, this film
gives a close-up account of the expedition and its impact on the lives of
the women - not just the climbers but the women of Nepal.

03:35 PM: BREAK

04:00 PM PRESENTATION: Women of Deccan Development Society - Community Media
Trust (Idpapally Mollamma and Edakupalli Sooremma): A case for autonomous
community media.
including the screening of
TEN WOMEN & A CAMERA By the women of DDS - CMT 9 mins / 2003 / India
  The Deccan Development Society's Community Media Trust has been training
rural women to use video to articulate their concerns. Making a film thus
becomes a process of learning to speak up, to be heard, be counted. Made by
the women themselves, this film looks how the act of making films for over
six years and this process of filmmaking itself has impacted on them and
their lives.
  This presentation by the women of DDS will also include clips from their
other works, like:- Sangam Shot, BT Cotton, and other excerpts

05:00 PM WHO WILL MEND MY FUTURE : Plan India + a team of 12 year olds -
Hemlata and Savita 10 min / -- / India
  During adolescence, young girls are denied the information they need to
understand the changes in their bodies. When she is experiencing acute
confusion, the teenage girl is fed a steady diet of mumbo jumbo. Instead of
information, all she gets is stony silence from her teachers. Instead of
counsel, all she gets from her mother is yet more restrictions on her scarce
freedoms. This film shows how such attitudes wreak havoc in the lives of
teenage girls, especially those living in conservative communities. An
animation film, it has been directed by 12 year old girls as part of a
workshop.
The film will be accompanied by an informal presentation where the young
filmmakers and representatives from PLAN India will share their experiences
on making and screening this film.

05:30PM: BREAK

06:30 PM YEH GULISTAN HAMARA A film by Fareeda Mehta 30 min / 2003 / India
  The film looks at communities that live 'behind walls', and the possible
cultural, political and economic reasons for doing so. Within 'mixed
societies' people may be united by economic necessity but prejudices often
run deeper than the words uttered in interviews. The film works with images
from a small town magic show and from 'video' to build a narrative of
longing and a socially constructed amnesia that feeds on jingoistic
patriotism.

followed by  I LOVE MY INDIA Directed by Tejal Shah 10 min / 2003 / India
  After the Godhra incident in February 2002, India witnessed the killing of
over 3000 Muslims in Gujarat. A year after the genocide, this film takes
place at a popular public recreation space - a balloon-target shooting
stall. Dark and bitterly funny, it uses the opinion poll format to satirise
our generalised understanding of social and political injustices; and
critiques the practice of electoral democracy in India by employing the
metaphor of random target practice.

followed by  SOMETHING LIKE A WAR A film by Deepa Dhanraj 53 min/ -- / India
Launched in 1952, India's family planning programme was formulated in
collaboration with Western population control experts. It is based on the
assumption that irresponsible, anti-national breeding by the poor is the
main cause of the nation's backwardness and that population control is the
magic key to success. Despite brutal coercion, the programme has failed in
its objective of drastically reducing the birth rate. The film traces the
history of the programme, exposing the cynicism, corruption and brutality
that characterise its implementation. It questions the programme from the
perspective of women, who are its primary victims.

8:30 PM: CLOSE
*****************
* schedule subject to changes; please confirm at venue.


_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

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