=====================================================================

ACHA PEACE BULLETIN

http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ACHAPeaceBulletin

=====================================================================

A publication of Association for Communal Harmony in Asia (ACHA)

www.asiapeace.org  &  www.indiapakistanpeace.org

Editor:  Pritam K. Rohila, PhD           asiapeace@comcast.net

Subscription is free.

To SUBSCRIBE, email a request to ACHAPeaceBulletin-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

To UNSUBSCRIBE, email the request to ACHAPeaceBulletin-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com 

 

Volume XII, No. 6: June 15, 2008, Next Issue, July 15, 2008

______________________________________________________________________________

CONTENTS

EDITORIAL

*Peace, harmony and conflict, Pritam K. Rohila, Ph.D.

BOOKS

*Empires of the Indus: the Story of a River, Alice Albinia, 2008

EDUCATION & TRAINING

*August 14 & 15, Blue Ash, Ohio, USA: SCHOOL CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

EVENT REPORTS

*’Nuclear arms race has led to distortions in socioeconomic progress’

*Praise showered on Indian peace activist

* NCJP’s workshop on "Peace Education

*Bread, not Bomb: a peace rally at Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan

EVENTS

*July 3-6, Dallas, TX, USA:   SINDHI ASSOCIATION CONVENTION

*July 5 & 6, New York, NY, NON RESIDENT PAKISTAN (NRP) SUMMIT 2008

*October 4-7, Koach, Kerala, India: SPIRITUALITY AND ENVIRONMENT

*December 3-9, 2009, Melbourne, Australia: Parliament of the World’s

MEMBERS CORNER

PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM INDIA & PAKISTAN

PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM SOUTH ASIA

TRIBUTES

*The illustrious Gandhian legacy, Praful Bidwai

UPDATE: KASHMIR

UPDATE: PAKISTAN

UPDATE: SRI LANKA

*Safeguarding civilians is primary calling of both parties, Jehan Perera

_____________________________________________________________________________

EDITORIAL

*Peace, harmony and conflict, Pritam K. Rohila, Ph.D.

 

Some people equate peace and harmony with absence of conflicts. Accordingly they shy away from expressing their opinions, and shun arguments.

But conflicts are a part of nature. They characterize all relationships, human, and animal.

Conflicts allow us to learn about others as well as things about ourselves that only others can see. Also at times they can reveal personal and social issues, which were hidden from us before. If handled properly they can foster personal growth, and facilitate strengthening of relationships between nations as well as between individuals. Thus conflicts play an essential role in human relationships. Absence of conflicts is neither possible nor desirable.

Strength of a relationship is indicated not by absence of conflicts, but by how they are dealt with.

In wholesome relationships all sides are committed to a peaceful resolution of conflicts. They avoid name calling, blaming, attribution of motives, violence and threats of violence. Instead they listen to each other patiently and with empathy. They take responsibility for their actions, use explanation, persuasion and compromise to resolve their conflicts and disagreements. They avoid rehashing historical details, and focus on how things now are and how they can be improved for all concerned.

BOOKS

*Empires of the Indus: the Story of a River, Alice Albinia, John Murray Publishers, 2008, Hardback, ISBN 9780719560033

Review, “Watering the Indus Valley” by Peter Parker, Telegraph, May 17, 2008  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/05/17/boalb117.xml

The River Indus rises in Tibet and flows west through northern India before turning south through Pakistan to the Arabian Sea. Like many rivers, it has often acted as a border, marking off Baluchistan from Sindh and the North West Frontier Province from the Punjab, or halting the progress of invaders from the West.

A rather more arbitrary border was created in 1947 by Partition, which among other things left the "heartland" of the Rig Veda, one of Hinduism's most sacred texts, in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

The Indus, however, is also a place where syncretism survives, and the confluence of its waters sometimes seems like a metaphor running through Alice Albinia's impressive and original first book. Unlike the Ganges, which is sacred only to the Hindus, the Indus has spiritual and historical significance for Muslims, Buddhists and Sikhs.

At one point, Albinia looks out from the militarised zone to where the lethally disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir "opens up like the wings of a green and yellow butterfly on a dull brown rock".

This intensifies her sense, present throughout the book, that with Partition, "the citizens of India and Pakistan have suffered the stifling of their mutual history, and the loss of access to lands, languages and faces that were once part of their shared vocabulary".

Albinia travels back along the Indus from its delta to its source, but also travels backwards in history, from "1947" to "50 million years ago" as the chapters' subtitles have it, describing the many civilisations that have flourished in the Indus Valley.

Like the river itself, and indeed history, her narrative is not as linear as this might suggest, and much of the most fascinating material is found in its tributaries.

In Sindh we meet the Sheedi, dark-skinned Muslims with tightly curled hair. They are supposedly descended from an Ethiopian slave who became not only one of the Prophet's first converts but also his first muezzin because of his "sonorous voice".

We also learn about the "socialist Sufi" Shah Inayat, a landowner who in the early 18th century founded a short-lived and violently suppressed agricultural commune, inviting indentured peasants to farm his land for free.

Among the "river saints" is the highly unorthodox figure of Sarmad, a 17th-century Persian-Jewish merchant who converted to Islam, took a 14-year-old Hindu boy as his lover, and wandered India naked like a sadhu, writing poetry. Although he was eventually executed for blasphemy, he is buried near the Jama Masjid in Delhi, where his tomb is visited by Hindus and Muslims alike.

A similar coming together of often bitterly divided people can be observed at the tomb of Sindh's most famous Sufi poet and saint, Shah Abdul Latif (1689-1752). His collected verse retells "the stories and legends that have been recounted along the banks of the Indus for generations" and exemplifies "the easy spiritual interaction" of different faiths. Hindus and both Sunni and Shia Muslims all descend on Bhitshah in Pakistan to celebrate his urs or death-anniversary in dance and song.

In the course of her long journey, Albinia encounters all kinds of danger, and at times her courage tips into foolhardiness. A lone woman, her passport unstamped, she crosses the Pakistani-Afghan border illegally; she relies on a Tibetan town drunk to lead her on a gruelling journey to the remote source of the Indus; she imagines she is going to die after consuming majoon that contains not only "a liberal dollop of hashish butter" but (among other things) warthog testicles, sparrow's brain and lapis lazuli. This, however, is the behaviour we expect of the best kind of travel writer.

Empires of the Indus is in part an elegy, its final chapter titled "The Disappearing River". When Albinia arrives at the upper reaches of the Indus at Ali in Tibet, she stands on its banks wondering whether she can be in the right place: "There is a blue boot and a bicycle tyre where the water should be; Chinese instant-noodle packets are scattered about like flowers - but where is the water?"

The water, it transpires, is behind a vast new dam built by the Chinese. Elsewhere along its course, the river has been irresponsibly bled for irrigation.

She concludes by imagining a future in which the Indus, "which once 'encircled Paradise', bringing forth civilisations, species, languages and religions", is reduced by mankind's ecological profligacy to "nothing but dry riverbeds and dust".

EDUCATION & TRAINING

*August 14 & 15, Blue Ash, Ohio, USA: SCHOOL CONFLICT MANAGEMENT TRAINING FOR TEACHERS is an offering of the Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management in partnership with Wilmington College Peace Resource Center and the Ohio Resource Network to help “create a school environment that fosters prevention and de-escalation of conflicts and that establishes procedures for the effective, nonviolent resolution of conflicts that occur in school settings,” at 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., at Wilmington College Cincinnati Branch.  The cost including a 500+ page Curriculum Guide on CD-ROM and lunch both days is             $30. More information is available from Sue Ellen Hodgson at 1.800.341.9318 ext. 365 and at shodgson@wilmington.edu.

 

EVENT REPORTS

 

*’Nuclear arms race has led to distortions in socioeconomic progress’, The News, May 12,08

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=112082


Speakers at a seminar titled “impacts of nuclearisation on social development” organised Sunday at the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) office by the Pakistan Peace Coalition (PPC) urged the adoption of people-focused policies. The nuclear arms race, coupled with militarization, has led to distortions in socioeconomic development and has undermined the democratic process, they said.

Dr Syed Jafer Ahmed, Professor of Karachi University, said the arms race in South Asia had distorted the socio-economic policies. It also led to negative nationalism based on hatred instead of developing identity on self-assertion and good within the country. Same sort of nationalism had also developed in India where the BJP’s emphasis on culture also contained imperial design.

Stressing a need for changing the curriculum to promote healthy worldview about things, Dr Ahmed said arms procurement was also largely responsible for violence, extremism and aggression in the society as the people think that they can get anything through use of brute force. He believed that nuclear ambitions had also caused destruction of democracy by ensuring dominance of ambitious military generals on politics. He said less significant role of civilians in decision-making was also visible from the fact that among around “15 phases” of “nuclear command and control”, the prime minister is supposed to be consulted in one phase only.

He said the USA was using Pakistan’s nuclear programme for black-mailing the government to continue support for its War on Terror.

He said there was need to go beyond confidence building measures between India and Pakistan with focus on people’s oriented policies, which could address the masses problems. He said the Kashmir dispute still remained unresolved because of lack of people’s focus policies as its debate was restricted at foreign offices of both the countries.

He also regretted that efforts of NGOs lack linkage and urged coordinated efforts among them. Dr Ahmed also underlined the importance of creating culture of debate and discussion at academic institutes for demilitarisation of minds.

Karamat Ali of the PPC said possession of nuclear arms instead of decreasing demand for conventional weapons had in fact increased it for five times recently. He said South Asia topped in arms procurement in the world while number of the poor was also high there. He said 76 per cent poor live in India while 70 per cent poor live in Pakistan. He said nuclearisation and militarisation had not only put economic burden in both countries but it had also weakened democratic institutes. He claimed that now the Indian army was also determining certain policies there. He cited the Indian army chief’s intrusive role to bl ock the agreement between India and Pakistan for making Siachin as the world’s biggest peace park in 2004 in this regard.

Zahida Hina talking about US’s interference in Pakistan’s politics since 1947 said that the situation had now come to such pass that Richard Boucher, US official was deciding matters between leaders of two mainstream parties in London.

She said since last over eight years, the people of Pakistan had been suffering and now their hopes from the present government were also fading.

Abdullah Baloch, a Baloch activist, said nuclear tests in Balochistan’s “Rast Koh” (straight hills) had brought devastated consequences there. He claimed that underground water had decreased from 60 feet to over 400 feet. He said prior to nuclear tests, there used to be rains in each year but since then, no rains had occurred there, leading to drought.

B M Kutti of Piler; Osman Baloch, Adam Malik, Aijaz Malik, Prof Salman and others also spoke.

*Praise showered on Indian peace activist, DAILY TIMES | May 15,2008 http://www.southasianmedia.net/index_story.cfm?id=498260&category=Frontend&Country=MAIN

ISLAMABAD: Intellectuals, writers, civil society members and peace activists on Wednesday lauded the efforts of leading Indian peace activist Nirmala Desh Pande for promoting peace between Pakistan and India.

They said Didi, as Pande was popularly known, worked tirelessly to bring together not only the peoples of Pakistan and India but also the entire South Asian region by reducing conflicts and increasing people-to-people contacts.

The tribute was paid to Pande at a function jointly organised by Pakistan India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) and South Asian Policy Analysis Network (SAPANA) here at the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) offices.

Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Mathur’s wife Sridevi Nair Paul represented the Indian High Commission on the occasion.

Former PPP parliamentarian Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmad said that Didi was had impeccable record as peace interlocutor between divided Pakistani and Indian people.

“Didi was acceptable to both the nations due to her credibility, which helped bring them together,” said Ahmad, who was part of the country’s official delegation, which attended the great Indian peace activist’s last rites.

He said people from different faiths turned up at Pande’s funeral rituals and even Pakistani delegates were allowed to recite Holy Quran on the occasion.

He suggested instituting an award in the name of Pande to be given to people promoting her mission.

Leading peace activist IA Rehman said that Didi’s efforts contributed a lot towards bringing the people of two countries together. “The way death of Pande was mourned in Pakistan showed that she remained successful in making remarkable changes in attitudes of both the nations towards each other,” he said.

Poetess and writer Kishwar Naheed said that Pande wanted Pakistan and India to use defence spending on education but her dream had yet to come true. She said it was vital to work for ideals of Nirmala Pande.

Tahira Abdullah gave s short presentation on life and achievements of Pande. She said that Nirmala Pande had been a member of Indian Rajya Sabha since 1997 and was widely respected by all political parties in India.

At the end of the function, the participants observed one-minute silence in the honour and grief of Pande’s death. The organisers also announced to immerse part of ashes of Pande in the Indus River near Sukkur on May 17.

* NCJP’s workshop on "Peace Education", Minorities’ Concern Pakistan, No. 26, May 2008

 LAHORE (By Yousaf Benjamin) – Catholic Church’s National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) organized three-day training workshop on "Peace Education" on April 25 – 27, 2008 in Lahore. The training was focused to introduce philosophies of Peace and non-violence to the individuals of different faiths and walks of life. Thirty-four participants (24 men, 10 women - 24 Christians and 10 Muslims) took part in the training from 16 districts of NWFP, Punjab and Sindh provinces.                                                                                

      Fr. Emmanuel Yousaf, National Director NCJP launched the project and emphasized on working for peace. 

      Peter Jacob, Executive Secretary of NCJP, Wajahat Masood, a journalist, Mehboob Ahmed Khan advocate from Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Humair Hashmi, a Psychology Professor at Imperial College for Business Studies and Kamran Islam, Coordinator Pak-India Peoples' Forum for Peace and Democracy Pakistan Chapter spoke to the workshop.  

*Bread, not Bomb: a peace rally at Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan, Dr. Haider, Director, Green Rural Development Organization  [GRDO]

To protest against nuclear explosions by India and Pakistan in May 1998, Pakistan Peace Coalition organized a peace rally from Press Club Hyderabad to Hyder Chowk on 27th of May, 2008. The participants carried torches and placards bearing such slogans as "BREAD, NOT BOMB", "NUCLEAR FREE SOUTH ASIA", "MAKE PUBLIC THE DEFFENSE BUDGET". Karamat Ali, Adam Malik, Dr. Haider, Comrade Ramzan Memon, Momin Khan, Akhtar Bhutti, Zain Daodpoto and other Pakistan Peace Coalition leaders were among the participants.
 
EVENTS

*July 3-6, Dallas, TX, USA:  24th ANNUAL SINDHI ASSOCIATION OF NORTH AMERICA (SANA) CONVENTION to be held at Westin City Center Hotel & Resort will feature keynote speech by Justice Rana Bhagwandas on independence of judiciary, supremacy of Constitution and rule of law in Pakistan.

 

Also PTI chief Imran Khan and representatives from PPP and PML-N have been invited to speak on the current situation in Pakistan and answer questions from audience.  More info from http://www.sanalist.org/  and Aziz Narejo, President, SANA at anarejo@yahoo.com

 

*July 5 & 6, New York, NY, NON RESIDENT PAKISTAN (NRP) SUMMIT 2008 to be held at the Hilton Hotel. Established to develop the strategic insight to forge future growth and peaceful progress in Pakistan among NRPs and others interested in Pakistan's growth, it will serve as a platform where all those interested in doing business with Pakistan and in enhancing its growth and progress will meet to identify such opportunities. Register online at www.nrpsummit.org More info from 1-212-685-6243 or info@nrpsummit.org

 

*October 4-7, Koach, Kerala, India: SPIRITUALITY AND ENVIRONMENT is theme of the World Fellowship of Inter-Religious Councils (WFIRC) Assembly 2008, at the Renewal  Centre,Azad Road, Koach-682017 in Kerala, India. Registration fee is Rs.  500 to meet the expenses, in part, of boarding and lodging. More info from Justice P.K.Shamsuddin, President WFIRC, S.R.M.Road, Kochi-682018, Kerala, India, Tel. 0484- 02993/9446572993, pkshamsuddin@rediffmail.com, and Fr. Albert Nambiaparambil cmi,           Secretary General,  WFIRC, Upasana,Thodupuzha-685 584, Kerala, India, Tel 04862-223286/9446131173, upasanadr@dataone.in & Upasana_dr@satyam.net.in  

 

*December 3-9, 2009, Melbourne, Australia: The 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions, will bring together the world’s religious and spiritual communities, their leaders and their followers to a gathering where peace, diversity and sustainability are discussed and explored in the context of interreligious understanding and cooperation.

Parliament participants will work with others and within their own traditions to craft faithful responses to:

  • indigenous reconciliation
  • global poverty and global warming
  • environmental care and degradation
  • education of the young and the challenges of social disengagement
  • voluntary and forced migration
  • artistic expression and spirituality
  • the value of sports
  • ethnic and religious tensions.

More info from http://www.parliamentofreligions2009.org/home.php

MEMBERS CORNER

*Awais Sheikh

Hindi Edition of Samjhota Express, a book authored by Awais Seikh was launched at Delhi on 26th April, 2008.

Former Prime minister I. K Gujral presided over the function. Sheila Dikshit, chief minister Delhi, was the guest of honor. A Pakistani delegation of 20 people, including Ziz Rizvi, former assistant secretary general UNO and Maleeha Humayun, joint secretary of Pak-India Peace Initiatives, also participated. Renowned Indian journalist Mr. Kuldip Nayar and other important personalities spoke on the occasion.

Awais Sheikh can be reached at awaissheikhadvocate@hotmail.com

*Stephen Gill stephengill@cogeco.ca

 

The following books or about Dr. Gill were published recently.

 

1.      FLASHES (trilliums in haiku spirit). Imprint Press, India. Haiku is one of the oldest forms of poetry, originated in Japan. These are the experiments of Stephen Gill with Haiku.

 

2.      THE FLAME.  Vesta Publications, Canada. The author claims that The Flame is the longest poem in English on modern terrorism. University teachers of English have confirmed this claim.

 

3.      STEPHEN GILL & HIS WORKS. Authors Press, New Delhi, India. An evaluation of poetry and prose of Stephen Gill by Dr. George Hines and foreword  by Dr. John Robbins, former president of Brandon University, Canada, and ambassador to the Vatican.

 

More information about the books is available at the web site of Stephen Gill www.stephengill.ca

*Syed Akif saaakif@gmail.com

Dr Syed Abul Khair Kashfi, the father of Syed Akif passed away peacefully, on May 15. He was 78.

According to the May 16 issue of Dawn (http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=112823), Dr. Kashfi was an eminent critic, research scholar and former chairman of the Karachi University’s Department of Urdu.

 

*Zaman Khan zk0003@yahoo.com

 

Zaman Khan wrote the following two pieces. The first is an interview with Kuldip Nayar and the second is a report on All India Punjabi Conference recently held at Patiala, Punjab.

 

1. The voice of reason

2. This Punjab and that

PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM INDIA & PAKISTAN

*http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndiaPakistanPeaceDay/

PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM SOUTH ASIA

*http://groups.google.com/group/peace--harmony-news-from-south-asia

TRIBUTES

*The illustrious Gandhian legacy, Praful Bidwai, The News, May 14, 2008 http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=112156

The pro-freedom Tibetans were there. So were stern-looking Chinese diplomats. People from both sides of Kashmir were in mourning. Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Nepalis and Afghans mingled with Indians as her last rites were performed in Delhi--significantly, not by an adult male but by a young girl. From across the border, President Pervez Musharraf conveyed his personal condolences by telephone. And in India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi joined leaders cutting across political parties in recalling the extraordinary personality of the deceased.

With the death of Nirmala "Didi" Deshpande, India has lost its last great Gandhian in the tradition of Vinoba Bhave, Dada Dharmadhikari, R R Diwakar, Thakurdas Bang and Siddharaj Dhadda.

The loss is all of South Asia's. In both her vision and activity, Deshpande was a quintessential South Asian. She was at the centre of the India-Pakistan peace process, and citizen-to-citizen dialogue and solidarity campaigns for human rights and people-centred policies in the region.

"We in Pakistan will miss her especially sorely," said Karamat Ali and B M Kutty, peace activists from the Karachi-based Pakistan Institute for Labour Research and Education, who came for her funeral, along with three political party leaders, including Information Minister Sherry Rehman. Ali and Kutty carried Deshpande's ashes to Pakistan, where they'll be immersed in the Indus--a tribute to South Asia's shared civilisational roots.

Said Ali and Kutty: "Only five Pakistanis could attend the funeral at short notice--because we were privileged to have long-term multiple-entry visas. But if Pakistanis were allowed to drive freely across the border, as Westerners are, more than 5,000 would have come."

Very rarely has an Indian been so deeply loved, admired and respected in Pakistan as Deshpande. The reason for this is Didi's pivotal role in bridging national boundaries, linguistic and cultural barriers, and even emotional divides.

Thus, she could as easily unite soldiers professionally trained to fight one another, or catalyse the Indo-Pakistan Forum of Parliamentarians as organise cross-border visits of schoolchildren. She effortlessly commanded the trust not just of "friendly" competitors, but of viscerally hostile rivals. She could apply the Gandhian healing touch to wounded sentiments and make the most paranoid of people feel comfortable.

It's a pity that Nirmala Deshpande died just days before she was due to visit Nepal to launch what had the potential to become an epochal dialogue between Gandhian and Maoist ideas, similar to the great conversation between communism and Catholicism begun by Pope John XXIII in the 1960s.

Nor did she get to visit Pakistan after the February elections. Indeed, she didn't even live to see the consummation of the clemency process for Sarabjit Singh, which she took up with Musharraf.

If the Indian and Pakistani governments even remotely believe in the praise they lavish upon Deshpande, they must pay a tribute to her by creating a visa-free travel regime in the subcontinent. If India can consider granting visas on arrival to nationals of scores of countries, as it's doing, it should freely give visas to Pakistanis. And vice versa. That would promote understanding and live interaction between the two peoples and help create conditions for a regional union/confederation, an idea Deshpande passionately espoused.

Great as her role in promoting regional dialogue was, Deshpande cannot be reduced to just that. She fought for numerous causes, which are at the heart of popular struggles worldwide. She was uncompromisingly anti-communal and anti-casteist, categorically opposed to capitalist globalisation, totally against nuclear weapons, warmongering and jingoism, and radically critical of profit-maximising technologies that uproot people and destroy livelihoods.