Over two lakh persons are still housed in relief camps in Dhubri, Chirang and Kokrajhar districts of Lower Assam, in the wake of a series of violent clashes. This is down to about half the peak of nearly five lakh people in camps, making it one of the largest humanitarian emergencies in independent India. All these internally displaced persons fled from their villages in fear of violence, and many because their homes were torched and belongings looted. There is little hope that everyone will be able to return home in the immediate future.
We reiterate that this is a very small modest effort, and is not suggesting that this is contributing to any solution of a very complex and old problem. It is just intended as a very small gesture of collective caring. We have set a target to raise at least around 20 lakh rupees initially, to make a small tangible contribution.
With best wishes, For Aman Biradari
For further details, please contact Jeevika Shiv (9899572770, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or Ankita Aggarwal (9818603009, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
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Name of A/c: Aman Biradari Trust Bank Name: IDBI Bank Limited Branch: 1/6, Siri Fort Institution Area, Khel Gaon Marg, New Delhi 110049, India A/c No: 010104000156950, IFSC Code: IBKL0000010, BSR Code: 110259002
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Name of Organization: Centre for Equity Studies A/c Number: 4114000100539095, Swift Code: PUNBINBBISB, IFS Code: PUNB0411400 Name of Bank: Punjab National Bank Branch Address: Plot No.7, C-1, Nelson Mandella Road, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi 110070
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All donations exempted u/s 80G of the I. T. Act, 1961 vide Letter No. DIT(E)/2011-12/C-693/3069 Dated 17 Oct 20122 issued by the Directorate of Income Tax Act (Exemption), Delhi for the period 1 April 2011 onwards
-- Aman Biradari, 105/6-A, Adhchini,Aurobindo Marg, Opposite Cafe Coffee Day, New Delhi - 110017 26535961/62 www.dilsecampaign.blogspot.com Facebook - Dil Se Campaign Facebook - Aman Biradari
_______________________________________________________________________ Highway 39 - Journeys through a fractured land
The book sees the author take the road that travels 436kms to Assam, Manipur, along the border of Myanmar, and weave around it a narrative that tries to understand the turbulence Nagaland and Manipur.
Dilip D'Souza, author and award-winning columnist moderated the discussion with Sudeep Chakravarti, author, Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia Director, Human Rights Watch, and Samrat Choudhury, author and editor at Asian Age.
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Citizens for Peace stands opposed to all forms of violence. We condemn the recent ethnic violence in Assam which has caused tragic loss of life and rendered lakhs of people homeless. In the same spirit we endorse the following statement by various concerned citizens. Condemnation of Attack on Media in Mumbai We strongly and unequivocally condemn the attack on media in Mumbai by a section of people gathered at the Azad maidan to protest the violence in Assam and Burma. Using violence in a protest against violence is an insult to the suffering victims in whose support the protest was purportedly organised. There are many non violent and democratic ways to communicate and protest any grievances, including against the media. This mindless and shameful action by a few misguided individuals discredits protest and becomes a disservice to a cause.
We offer our solidarity with media; sympathy with all those injured and wish for their quick recovery.
We urge the government to take immediate and exemplary action against the guilty. We also appeal to all citizens not to get swayed by this isolated and dastardly incidence and allow the situation to become a cause of conflict. Any communalisation of the situation will be harmful for everyone and totally against the interests of the nation. Lalita Ramdas- Alibagh
Mazher Hussain – Hyderabad
Admiral L. Ramdas- Alibagh
Mahesh Bhatt- Mumbai
Ram Punyani- Mumbai
Kamla Bhasin- Delhi
Sandeep Panday- Lucknow
Jatin Desai- Mumbai
________________________________________________________________________ Assam Riots - A Plea for Help (Photograph by Daniel Jamang) Dear Friends, Centre for Study of Society and Secularism
____________________________________________________________________ PeaceMedia Media's power is no secret. Its consumption around the world grows every day, for better or for worse. PeaceMedia is a site that provides a vast collection of media resources that we believe help promote peace.
Their database is extensive, and continues to grow every day. Within seconds, you might find a heartfelt documentary on Afghan and Iraq war veterans saved by flyfishing, poignant and telling photos of conflicts across the world, or a challenging game that places you in the role of African subsistence farmer. There are resources that raise awareness, arouse empathy and inspire action, and help us to better understand the drivers of current conflicts. The goal is to share media that inspires and enables viewers to promote peace and mutual understanding across the globe.
Take a look at their collection here http://peacemedia.usip.org/resources
____________________________________________________________________ HYDERABAD: Insulated from the communal score-settling in the Old City are many Muslim traders and artisans who make and sell metal statuettes of Hindu deities for a living. Art and business, they say, are divorced from religion. People in the city are secular and compassionate, these daily-wage earners who are bearing the brunt of the communal conflict point out.
Identity related issues and feelings are often discussed in the context of a conflict. Citizens for Peace (CfP) has been working on the premise that this needs to change. We need to air our thoughts, feelings, dilemmas and questions on all matters relating to Identity in a physical and mental space that is calm and conducive for dialog.
Participants Mohammad Amir Ahmad Khan (Ali) is from Mahmudabad in UP. He graduatedmagna cum laude from Amherst College (USA) with a double major in History and Political Science.Ali is also the co-founder of TheRubricator.com (www.therubricator.com), which is an opinion website that aims to act as a bridge between academia and journalism. Chandan Gowda is a Professor at the Azim Premji University, Bangalore. One of his areas of study is Kannada language activism – its historical origins and contemporary predicament. Chattar Singh Jam is a farmer from Ramgarh village in Jaisalmer District of Rajasthan. He is a veteran social activist who has done extensive work on the traditional water harvesting systems of his area. Farukh Waris is a professor of history and vice principal of Bhurani College, Mumbai. She studied at Aligarh Muslim University and has presented papers at a wide range of conferences in India and abroad. Hemlata Kansotia is a Delhi based activist working on issues of women, dalits and workers in the unorganized sector, particularly construction and sewage workers. G. Manivachagam is Bangalore based and associated with the Dalit Chamber of Commerce, Bangalore. He was earlier in the Indian Revenue Service and retired asAdditional Director General (Audit) Customs, Central Excise & Service Tax. Dr. John Dayal is a journalist, educationist, human rights activist and secretary general of the All India Christian Council. He is a member of the National Integration Council and of the Planning Commission’s Working group on Minorities Empowermen. Secretary General of the All India Christian Council. Prof.Krishnanath is based at Valley School, Bangalore. He is a socialist, a Buddhist scholar and a trustee of the Krishnamurti Foundation India. He is a prolific author of Hindi books and his travelogues of Himalayas have been widely acclaimed. Ovais Sultan Khan is a postgraduate student of social work in the University of Delhi. He has experienced, confronted and questioned different issues of marginalisation in his personal as well as academic and social life. Pervin Varma is a Bangalore based social activist and a Trustee of CfP. Earlier she worked with Child Rights and You (CRY) and served as its CEO till 2004. Pervin is intensively studying the Bible and was part of a group that offered counseling support to women prisoners. Priyesha Nair is a Mumbai based poet and artist. She has been the program coordinator at CfP for the last two years. Rajni Bakshi is a Mumbai based journalist and author. Over the last three decades she has written extensively about struggles for a more humane model of development. Her books include Bazaars, Conversations and Freedom: for a market culture beyond greed and fear and Bapu Kuti: Journeys in Redisovery of Gandhi. She is a Trustee of CfP. Ravindra Sharma fondly called as “Guruji” is an artist and the founder of Kala ashram, at Adilabad, AP.He is an inspiration for hundreds of artisans and artists from all over the country who come to Kala Ashram to learn more about their art. Rohini Nilekani is a Bangalore based journalist, author and philanthropist. She is the founder and chairperson of Arghyam, an organization dedicated to supporting endeavors for water security. She is also Chairperson of Pratham Books. She is the author of a novel, Still Born. Her most recent publication, Uncommon Ground: Dialogues between Business and Social Leaders which is based on the television show she anchored on NDTV. Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche served as the Prime Minister of the Tibetan government in exile from 2001 till 2011. Earlier he was Speaker of the Tibetan parliament, based in Dharamshala. He was the Principal of the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies at Sarnath, from 1971 to 1988 and its Director till 2001. Rinpocheji is also a Trustee of the Krishnamurti Foundation India. Dr. Sanjeev Kelkar is MD in Internal Medicine from Mumbai University, 1980. He is also the Founder Secretary of the Diabetic Foot Society of India. Sanjeev has a long association with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He is the author of Lost Years of the RSS published by SAGE in 2011. Dr. Satish Inamdar practiced medicine before joining the Krishnamurti Foundation. He is currently Director and Secreatary of the KFI’s Bangalore Education Centre. Shail Mayaram is Professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies. She is interested in the subaltern pasts of peasant and pastoral communities, cosmopolitanism and secularity in the non-west and in swaraj of ideas – or decolonizing knowledge. Sudhir Kakar is a psychoanalyst and author based in Goa. Educated in Germany and Austria Sudhir set up a practice as a psychoanalyst in 1975.He has written seventeen books of non-fiction and four of fiction, including The Inner World; Shamans, Mystics and Doctors; Tales of Love, Sex and Danger; The Colors of Violence, Culture and Psyche; The Indians: Portrait of a People; The Crimson Throne. His books have been translated into twenty one languages around the world. Sushma Pandey served in the Indian army and retired as a Major in 2010. She now works as a project officer with the Ramakrishna Mission, Coimbatore. Sushma Inamdar is the Director of The Study at Krishnamurti Foundation, Bangalore. Uma Shankari is a farmer based in Venkatrampuram, a village of Chittoor District. AP. She is closely associated with the farmers movement in AP and has done extensive work on local water systems as well as organic agriculture.
Virag Pachpore is a Nagpur based writer, journalist and activist. Educated at Nagpur University. He is actively associated with the dialogue process between the Hindus and various other religious groups including Muslims and Christians. He is also Director of the Bhaurao Deoras Human Resources Development and Research Institute, Nagpur. He is a member of the Indian Institute of Peace, Disarmament and Environmental Protection (IIPDEP), Nagpur. Zafarul-Islam Khan is based in New Delhi. He studied in India, Egypt and UK where he obtained a PhD from Manchester University in Islamic Studies. He is director of the Institute of Islamic & Arab Studies, New Delhi since 1988 and editorof Muslim & Arab Perspectives since 1993 and of the Indian Muslims’ leading English publication The Milli Gazette since January 2000. Watch this space for more on PT Identity _______________________________________________________________________________ Art by Hema Upadhyay, February 28, 2002.
(Today it is ten years since the tragic incident in Godhra and the subsequent carnage in many parts of Gujarat. Citizens for Peace mourns all those lost their lives in the senseless violence. We also stand in solidarity with all those who lost their homes and loved ones. We renew our commitment to compassion and justice and good governance that protects everyone from all such violations -- be it riots or other acts of terror.)
A note by Dilip D'Souza, Trustee of CfP. What is special about a ten-year anniversary of a horrific massacre? After all, it has been 19 years and counting since another horrific massacre (in Mumbai in 1992-93), 27 years and counting since still another horrific massacre (in Delhi in 1984). Ordinary Indians, slaughtered in their hundreds in each of those cases. What makes this one unusual?
Artists for Sharmila
As children we all grew up playing with toy guns, watching action movies, safe in our homes; what about children who grow up waking to the sound of gunshots, dodging tear gas shells on the streets that were supposed to be their playground. What happens when the State implements a law such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act?
http://priyeshaknair.blogspot.com/2011/12/artists-for-sharmila.html PeaceTalks - Preventing Communal Violence
Justice and proper rehabilitation have eluded most victims of identity based mass violence ever since Independence. In addition, many communities -- most of all dalits and tribals -- continue to face discrimination, exclusion, and acts of both individual and group violence. Laws and policies adopted by the Indian government provide a strong basis for protection, but are not being faithfully implemented. Why does this situation persist even though there is a National Human Rights Commission, National Commission for Minorities, and an entire department in the central government for the Welfare of SC/ST, OBC and Minorities? This session of PeaceTalks was an attempt to explore how communal violence can be prevented. The speakers examined a combination of factors that has led to the outbreaks of mass violence going unchecked. They also shared positive stories about what has worked and how we can build on these signs of hope. Against the backdrop of the Communal Violence Bill, now under consideration, they explored the best way forward.
Harsh Mander spent over two decades as an officer of the Indian Administrative Service. He has spent the last 10 years working through various social organisations on issues of hate, hunger and homelessness. He is currently a member of the National Advisory Council and a part of the team that has drafted the Communal Violence Bill. Nandita Das is an award-winning film actress and director. She is known for her compelling performances in Fire,Earth, Bawandar, Before the Rains and a number of other significant films in 10 different languages. She was a member of the jury in prestigious festivals like the Cannes.Her directorial debut Firaaq has won several national and international awards. Firaaq is a work of fiction, set a month after the Gujarat carnage in 2002. It is an ensemble film that interweaves multiple stories over a 24 hour period, as the characters from different strata of society grapple with the lingering effects of violence. The film traces the emotional journeys of ordinary people- some of whom were victims, some perpetrators, and some who chose to watch silently. She has been awarded the Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Government of France for her work. Nandita advocated issues of social concern through her talks around the world. She is currently the Chairperson of the Children's Film Society.
Shiv Visvanathan is Professor at the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology in Gandhinagar. Earlier he was a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi and has taught at the Delhi School of Economics. He has held visiting professorships at several universities including Smith, Stanford and Maastrich.
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