Quarterly E - Magazine from Citizens for Peace

PeaceWordsIssue 1 Aug 2010 - Jan 2011

Conversations to promote peace

RememberingPartition

Students from India andPakistan join hands

across the border

What will it take to build a truly dynamic, plural and secular

culture in 21st Century India?Read our Secular Re-think Document

2

Welcome

Dear Friends

Citizens for Peace has been involved in some very exciting initiatives recently and we thought it would be nice to send you our E magazine to keep you updated. Looking forward to your comments, feedback, opinions and ideas.

Warm regards, Priyesha K. Nair Programme Coordinator Citizens for Peace

About Citizens For Peace

Citizens for Peace (CfP), a volunteer group based in Mumbai, is a non-political organization that was formed after the communal violence in Mumbai in 1992-93.

We came together to re-affirm Mumbai’s cosmopoli-tan ethos and liberal tradition. We believe that while there will always be differences between people of class, culture, language, religion etc., the only way to live with these differences is through dialogue and repect for the rule of law.

3

We believe in differences. We believe in living with them.

We believe in the hard work of respect and peace. We believe that’s what bridges divides.

We believe in compassion, but unflinching justice.

Members of CfP Advisory Board Anu Aga - Executive Director, Thermax (retd.) BG Deshmukh - Former Cabinet Secretary to the Government of India Cyrus Guzder - Chairman & Managing Director, Airfreight

Julio Ribeiro - Former Mumbai Police Commissioner; former Indian Ambassador to Romania Sudhir Kakar - Psychoanalyst and writer Shyam Benegal - Film maker Yogendra Yadav - Senior Fellow, Centre for the Centre for the Study of Developing Societ-ies (CSDS) and Co-Director of Lokniti CfP Trustees Devieka Bhojwani - CEO, Brite Ideas; Vice President, Women’s Cancer Initiatives, Tata Memorial Hospital Dilip D‘Souza - Writer; journalist Dolly Thakore - Theatre actor, Social Activist and Communications Consultant

Gulan Kripalani - Development communications professional; film maker (from September) Rajni Bakshi - Journalist and author Rina Kamath - Legal practitioner KMS Ahluwalia - Founder, MARG; former CEO, ORG-MARG AC Nielsen Pervin Varma - Former CEO of Child Rights & You (CRY) Tariq Ansari - Managing Director, Mid-Day Group (till November)

Programme Coordinator Priyesha K. Nair

www.peacetalkscfp.org4

5

PeaceTalks is a part of CfP’s Secular Rethink project - a dialogue-based process of asking how we as Indians can live our lives peacefully alongside others who eat, speak, think or pray differently from us. India struggles with problems of inequality and separatism. Violent conflicts around caste, class, region, gender and religion are reported as sensational news but seldom addressed in a thoughtful manner, with the intention of finding peaceful solutions. PeaceTalks is designed to address these issues. To find creative answers and share examples of what has worked. The initiative seeks to explore innovative, sustainable solutions to the violence around us and to promote conversations that help in resolving these is-sues peacefully. We are inviting some of the best minds in the country to speak on a range of issues that affect us all. We want to create a space for intelligent discussion and thoughtful exchange of ideas for constructive action. On a regular basis, a speaker (or speakers) are invited to present a talk on a theme relevant to our times before a small live audience. CfP is inviting outstanding thinkers, writers, sociologists, political scientists, philosophers and activists to these sessions.

About PeaceTalks

6

Citizens for Peace inaugurated its PeaceTalks initiative on Monday August 9th 2010. With an insightful talk by Sushoba Barve, Director of the Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation, who has been working to resolve conflicts for several decades. Ms. Barve was in conversation with noted actor Mr. Farooque Shaikh.

The Kashmir IssuePeaceTalks Session 1

When people of a region or a community are angry and frustrated, said Ms. Barve. The first thing they need is to be heard. The justification for their anger, and the merit of their demands can be addressed later. But we have to begin by creating spaces where anger, grief and tensions can be expressed in a safe and non-confrontational manner. In this respect, she made two interesting distinctions: Between debate, where participants score points, and dialogue, where participants seek to understand other viewpoints. Between the need for justice and the need for reconciliation. Her talk was topical because for the last ten years the focus of her work has been in Jammu and Kashmir; and as she said, over the last few weeks “Kashmir has been in the news for all the wrong reasons”, with a few dozen Kashmiris shot dead by security forces. Yes, the problems of the Kashmir valley are complex but at present they are compounded by the feeling of young Kashmiris that civil society in the rest of India does not care what happens to them. This is why, said Ms Barve, it is imperative that people across India show the people of Kashmir some empathy about the loss of young lives.

Political disagreements about how to resolve the problems of Kashmir need not prevent us from reaching out to the people there at a purely human level. This very act itself is far more powerful than we imagine. Still, such initiatives from citizens are a necessary but insufficient condition for peace.

Join us! Express your views, get involved in discussions on Facebook! www.facebook.com/peacetalkscfp

For there to be peace in Jammu and Kashmir, Ms Barve said there must be, among other things:1. Accountability (of the security forces and of the government), and moregenerally, better governance in J&K2. Forces to be trained in better methods of crowd control3. A resumption of the dialogue with Pakistan4. But perhaps above all, sincere and persistent efforts to settle the political issue of Kashmir. Duringthe communal riots that struck Mumbai in 1993

Ms. Barve led a team of social activists who worked for harmony in Dharavi where some of the worst acts of violence had taken place. When Hindus and Muslims were brought together for a dialogue in Dharavi the gathering at first seemed explosive. Muslims lashed out in anger since they had borne the brunt of the violence. But once the anger and hurt had been expressed and heard with some degree of empathy, spaces for dialogue opened up. In due course leaders of both communities collaborated and Hindus stood guard to ensure that the Friday namaaz at the local mosque took place smoothly. In return Muslims worked to restore normalcy in Hindu dominated areas. Ms Barve reminded the audience that communal riots are entirely different from the situation in Kashmir.Yet it is her experience after the riots in Mumbai, the examples she mentioned to us, that she draws on in her work in Kashmir.

7

Join us! Express your views, get involved in discussions on Facebook! www.facebook.com/peacetalkscfp

www.peacetalkscfp.org

Himanshu Kumar, a committed Gandhian, and a human rights activist (who has been working in the Dantewada region of Chattisgarh for 18 years) was in conversation with Sudeep Chakravarti, a writer of narrative non-fiction and fiction; an independent analyst of socio-political and security issues in South Asia, a columnist, and consultant to media, corporations and think-tanks. The theme of the discussion was Tribal Rights and Naxal violence.

Tribal Struggle and Naxal Violence Can there be peace without justice?PeaceTalks Session 2

9

Progress as Peace - Changing ParadigmsPeaceTalks Session 3

The premise of the Peace Talks series is that true peace is not absence of violence but sustained well-being of the entire population. This session of Peace Talks explored how the concept and practice of ‘Progress’ may need to be re-examined and redefined in order to ensure well-being. Find us on

Youtube! Click below

www.youtube.com/peacetalkscfp

Ravi Chopra, the Founder and Director of the People’s Science Institute (PSI) which is a non-profit research and development organization based in Dehradoon was in conversation with Sanjeev Sanyal, a former bank-er and also a co-founder of the Green India States Trust, a pioneer in the field of Green Accounting, as well as a Honorary

If you live in Mumbai and wish to attend PeaceTalks please write to info@citizensforpeace.in

What would it take to build a truly dynamic plural and secular culture in 21st Century India? PeaceTalks Session 4

Peace Talks is a platform for rigorous reflection and introspection – from a forward-looking perspective. The underlying premise of Peace Talks is that peace is not merely absence of physical violence but well-being based on justice, equity and respect for all. Most Indians are familiar with the sharp, opposing and sometimes bitter, responses that the term ‘secularism’ evokes. Some people say that India is already a richly plural and secular country – and this heritage must simply be reaffirmed and protected. Others argue that ‘secularism’ has become a farce, a political ploy, which should now be either abandoned or redefined to ensure unity rather than diversity. The space between these extreme views is rife with powerful and conflicting emotions which, over the last two decades, have bitterly divided not only communities but families and friends within each community. How do we address these realities in the wake of the Allahabad High Court’s judgment on the Ayodhya dispute? The judgment has evoked sharp and differing reactions from within those who stand for secularism. Some feel that this judgment paves the way for the much needed reconciliation. But others believe that this path to reconciliation evades harsh truths and sets a ques-tionable precedent. How does this impact the search for a truly plural and secular culture in the 21st Century?

This session of Peace Talks was aimed at exploring the best ways of working for truth and reconciliation with Mr. K N Govin-dacharya, Mr. Yogendra Yadav and Mr. Zaffar Saifullah in conversation.

Language and Culture: Tribal Struggles and Indian DemocracyPeaceTalks Session 5

Languages don’t die out, they are killed. As Dr Devy has pointed out, India’s 1961 census listed 1652 mother-tongues. By 1971, we grew enlightened enough to assume that we should only list those languages spoken by more than 10000 people; therefore, only 108 mother-tongues were listed. What happens to the speakers of the other 1500+ tongues? Dr Devy argues that this amounts to killing those languages. If a language is not so listed, the state cannot support education in it, and its speakers are effectively silenced. This has profound implications for India as a democracy. For it undermines the ultimate promise of democracy: that everybody feels like they have been heard. How will these tribes be heard if they have lost their voice - in the form of their language - and nobody listens to them? How will they participate effectively in the process of democracy? How can democracy exist if it kills diversity? And indeed, there is a case to be made that tribal communities across this country have not been heard by the great engine of Indian democracy. For years after Independence, they lost their lands to and were easily displaced by the markers of “development”: dams, power plants, the need for timber and mineral resources, etc. The country never slowed to listen to their demands and concerns. Perhaps only in the last 20-25 years has this process of “develop-ment” been questioned, though it is still not clear that these communities are being treated substantially better in practice than they were before. But is there a case to be made further from here? Does the rise of the Maoist movement, and the support for it across such a large belt of India, have roots in the way we have paid little attention to the voices of these communities? The conviction and punishment of Binayak Sen raises fundamental questions about democracy and justice in India. We cannot shy away from asking them and then trying to answer them. Dr Devy’s work does exactly this.

At the PeaceTalks session on the 21st Jan 2011, he was in conversation with Dr Parasuraman, Director of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.Dr Parasuraman is a noted scholar, national and international specialist in human rights, disaster management, global commons and governance. Dr Devy is a scholar and literary critic; he founded the Tribal Academy in Tejgadh in Gujarat.

Ask for our Secular Re-think document!

Write to info@citizensforpeace.in

The judgment on the Ayodhya dispute lends renewed urgency to a critical, life-or-death, question that has been hanging precariously in mid-air for decades. What would it take to build a truly dynamic plural and secular culture in 21st century India?

If we take the Shah Bano case and the village-to-village collection of Ram-shilas, in the late 1980s, as watershed events in the journey of Independent India, it feels as though 20 years have gone by in just fire-fighting struggles to contain the inferno of communal discord.

Some of us who have been activists for communal harmony have gradually grown tired of working in reaction to disturbing events. Rather than asking how to fight communalism it seems much more constructive to ask ourselves — in an open, relaxed and self-critical manner — what can we do to build the immune system of Indian society? What will render us less vulnerable to identity-based prejudices, tensions and violence?

When Citizens for Peace (CfP), a Mumbai-based group, initiated such an endeavour five years ago, we began by acknowledging both the authenticity and diversity of grouses against the actual practice of ‘ secularism’. The next step was to establish non-negotiable parameters for an exploration which, as a creative challenge, we dubbed “A Secular Rethink”. [An extract from the Secular Re-think document]

Secular Re - thinkWe invite your

comments, ideas, views.Please write to

info@citizensforpeace.in

Ask for our Secular Re-think document!

Write to info@citizensforpeace.in

www.rememberingpartition.in

Remembering PartitionCitizens for Peace supported a student initiative called Remembering Partition. The event was entirely conceived and implemented by students from various Mumbai schools. Students interviewed partition survivors on video and planned several discussion ses-sions. Some students from Pakistan also joined the programme to discuss and debate what the partition of the country means to them, and how they expect it to influence their shared future.

Peace Offering by Priyesha K. Nair

The birds they sang,at the break of day

start again, I heard them sayDon’t dwell on what has passed away

or what’s yet to be”

Who could say this but Leonard Cohen and I do not think there could be another song that could ever come close as this one does when it comes to describing the 24th Oct 2010, when the children of two great nations came together to think, discuss and remember what many adults want to escape from.

Remembering Partition was an event organized by a group of Indian students with the help of Citizens for Peace. The guest speakers for the event were seven outstanding students from Pakistan. While many of us live with our own concepts and ideas about partition of India and Pakistan and its reasons and continue to cry and pine for what is lost; these students want to move forward and start again. They want to understand what the reasons for partition were and will it loom over both the countries forever. Well, if someone asked me this question the day before yesterday maybe my answer would be ‘Quite possible’ or ‘It’s difficult to forget what happened’. But today I can say ‘No, it won’t loom over our countries forever’. Because what I witnessed yesterday looks like a very promising new beginning; a stepping stone to something really greater and bigger than just our views and our stories and our loss.

Yesterday I saw the youth ponder over the tragic past and heard them talk about a better future. I saw them bring both the countries together as one in an impromptu skit and make “imag-ine” by John Lennon their national anthem. It was as if Cohen was right there singing

Ring the bells that still can ring

forget your perfect offeringthere is a crack, a crack in everything

that’s how the light gets in...

Remembering Partition by Dinesh Mirchandani

It’s about the power of an idea. When 17-year old Ria Mirchandani asked herself the question: “why do we not have a museum on partition?” she was actually asking: “can we not put this traumatic event to rest and move forward in peace?” On Sunday, Oct 24th, this simple question found huge resonance with an audience of bright, energetic students from a dozen Mumbai schools and one from Islamabad, partition survivors, parents and well-wishers, as they came together to discuss, debate, write, paint, and act their hearts out to explore the issue. During the ice-breaker, our Pakistani visitors spoke about their lives in Islamabad, school, where they hang out, what they wear, what they listen to, and their dreams for the future. It was evident how similar their lives were to their counterparts in Mumbai. These could just as well have been our children … The keynote address by MJ Akbar was brutally honest, shorn of platitudes and rich in historical perspectives. Just what the youth need to hear. In 60 years we have created a huge mess, which we leave behind for you to clean up. You have no memory of it so there is hope. Build bridges above the government roads & potholes and work towards peace. For in the end you are one people, no different from each other. Each of us who were there on Sunday have come away with a better understanding and warmer feeling towards the people of our two countries. Citizens for Peace, provided a platform for this event is committed to propagating the process forward. Perhaps one day, Ria and her many friends from either side of the border will eventually build that mu-seum to remember partition: one part in India and one in Pakistan. Click below to watch a clip http://www.timesnow.tv/Remembering-Indo-Pak-partition/videoshow/4356817.cmsRemembering

We welcome your suggestions, comments and feedback please write to info@citizensforpeace.in

For more information please visit our website www.citizensforpeace.in