Lecture Notes: Women in times of Conflict. By Nivedita Menon at IIPM, via Open Space.

“Where order is injustice, disorder is the beginning of justice.”

The term ‘hegemony’ means obedience through consent. All our actions are controlled by a hegemonic, internalized system of policing (………the internal policeperson inside our head……). Peace and order are not always ‘just’. The hegemonic order is maintained through a range of coercive controls. Law plays a very important role in exercising this control.

* FAMILY

The institution of ‘family’ was taken up to illustrate how this control is exercised. The popular understanding of family is always explained in terms of ‘love’, ‘solidarity’ etc. The image of family is essentially that of a ‘patriarchal’, ’heterosexual’ (nuclear) family. Legal and extra legal institutions work to maintain this essential image.

A 1984, Delhi High Court judgment observed that fundamental rights are not applicable in family. There are two ways of approaching this verdict –Dismiss the verdict and voice your contempt or understand, that letting fundamental rights into the family would be like letting a bull into a china shop! Fundamental rights such as freedom and equality would collapse the premise of ‘family’.

The next question that comes to ones mind is – why is it important to protect the ‘family’?

The institution of family is established on a patriarchal hierarchy (which is based on gender and age). Gender- based (unequal) division of labor is very important to maintain this patriarchal order. Reproduction of labor is always the domain of women. Sexual division of labor has key implication on the economy, thus the maintenance of patriarchal institution! (Just imagine … women demanding payment for their domestic work!) The primary responsibility of women is towards their homes (personal) though women also work in the public. This perception undermines the contribution made by women to the larger political economy. Thus, feminists have coined the slogan ‘personal is political!’

But is this socio-cultural formation that we see in our families, natural? No, this is not natural. The order is based on ‘upper caste north Indian norms’. We can find different (matriarchal/matrilineal) socio-cultural order among the Nair communities of Kerala, Khasi community in the north- east etc. But this heterogeneity is hardly accepted or appreciated. The accepted order is ‘heteronormative’ which is a family that consists of a man his wife and his children (……… Yeh kiska bacha hain?)

Control over women’s sexuality: Sexual double standard.

Controlling women’s sexuality is very important to maintain the above mentioned heteronormative order. Female sexuality is viewed as a threat to the popularly perceived ideas of ‘manhood’. It is interesting to note at this point that, motherhood is a biological fact and fatherhood is a ‘sociological’ construct. Among the nairs in Kerala, till the recent past, it was not important to know who the father of the child was. Heterosexuality is not natural. Heterosexual norms are made compulsory to secure the dominant order in the caste system, property rights, religious ethos etc.

Thus the above example of family helps us in delinking ‘order’ and ‘justice’.

CONFLICT AND WOMEN

The last decade of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century have seen acts of land acquisition by the state. Communities are getting displaced and dispossessed from their commonly owned resources. Commonly owned resources are increasingly turning into private properties of corporates. The notorious Armed Forces Special Powers Act implemented in Jammu & Kashmir and the north-eastern states is an example of ‘Internal Imperialism of the state’.

At every level there is conflict. Conflict resolution is not possible without removing inequalities. Thus conflict should be seen as an effort for a new order.

There is a general assumption, which stems from the unquestioned sexual division of labor, that women have a ‘special’ role to play is peace building, which is not true.

In conflict zones women could either be victims/survivors of violence, combatants or peace activists. As peace activists there are examples where women have ‘used’ their normative portrayal. The example of mother’s front, a grass root movement against violence, in Sri Lanka amply proves this point. Mother’s front ‘used’ domesticity and maternal suffering of women to gain strength as a movement and at the same time subverted these portrayals by marching on the streets.

There are many examples where ‘maternalism’ and ‘normative portrayals’ are used ‘creatively’. Eco feminism mostly draws from sexual division of labor. Vandana Shiva conceptualizes ‘the pre dominance of masculine order to control nature and women to harness the productive capacities of both’. (…….forest by itself is not considered productive, commercial plantation in forests would make it productive!)

CONCLUSION

Thus women in conflict zones have been constantly negotiating violence and even participating in violence. Women cannot be seen as a ‘homogenous’ category.

This can be further explained with four different images of women in conflict zones-

* Hindu lower middle – class Gujarati women, making bombs in their terrace using local materials.
* A tribal Maoist woman with a gun. (…….comrade Kamala)
* Manipuri women rallying naked to protest the rape of Manorama by army personals.
* Irom Sharmila who has been fasting for the past ten years to repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. She is under arrest for charges against suicide.

Interaction…….

o Feminism is a process of constantly occupying the marginal position, recognizing that we need to move from the position of marginality. The crux is to dissent all kinds of inequalities.
o There is need to ‘demystify’ marriage and rape.

-N. Shobhana.

Lecture Notes: ‘Teaching Peace’ by Prof. Linda Hess at Open Space

Most violent events in history involve ordinary people, and not just criminals, lunatics or sociopaths. Witnessing and experiencing violence of some or the other kind in and around us, we ask ourselves “How can people do such things?” “Could we also do such things under similar circumstances?” “How could we prepare ourselves not to behave that way?”
During a crisp two-hour interactive session with the youth, educators, activists, artistes, media professionals at Open Space, Dr. Linda Hess tried to explore such questions. Dr Linda Hess is a scholar, writer, and a lover of Kabir. She has been studying and translating the poetry of Kabir since the 1970s.She has also been an advisor to The Kabir Project since 2003. Dr. Linda mainly focussed on the relevance of our education system to learn ways of dealing with conflict. She began with telling us about the story of the inception of the course on peace that she now teaches her students at The University of Stanford.
Dr. Linda had started this course in India in 2000. The course was earlier named “Hindus and Muslims in S.E. Asia” She also started a course on “Gandhi and non-violence” due to her personal interest in the life and work of M.K. Gandhi. This particular lecture was an outcome of these two thought provoking experiences.
She started off with this simple story which laid the groundwork for her talk on the importance of education in order to deal with violence. She also stressed on the importance of the medium and form in which this education is delivered. On one of those days during this course, Dr. Linda had given notes about India’s partition to her students. They just read them, mechanically and got done with it. Later, Dr. Linda gave them “The other side of silence” which is an account of oral histories, personal stories of the victims of partition by Urvashi Butalia. The students had more animated responses this time. She also made them watch the film, Earth-1947.
Very recently, I watched the film, Earth-1947. That film changed the meaning of Independence Day for me. As a kid I always wondered, (considering the constructed negative connotation of partition), that, was partition really a good thing? Was it a wise thing to do? Are we better off now, as two separate nations? At that time, I did not know of the intensity of the violence, yet, it made me think. And I am still thinking. I just have a few more insights now; I am more sure about the power of love. Now, Independence Day would not be a day for me to celebrate but it will be a day which will constantly remind me of the ruthless and uprooting partition violence and of the horrors of hatred. It will remind me of the innocent people who were massacred and burnt alive. Can love so easily be translated into hate? The film made me think what is it in us that could have the possibility to turn us to such violence. And we pondered over the same question during the session. We then started thinking of different reasons for violence. A few of the responses were that, it’s like a fire, or an ‘animal’ instinct. Violence is also due to insecurities on personal as well as larger levels. A very important factor is our education system and the violence that we teach our children at home. Also the social constructions we have about different communities and identities.

A question then arose, “Are we capable of doing it?” and the answer was, “yes”. But are we prepared for it? One of Dr. Linda’s students expressed that academic study is irrelevant to transform us into the kind of humans that wouldn’t turn to violence in moments of insanity or when we are provoked.
Recently again, I was sitting with a few friends at an eatery and our conversation shifted to Pakistan. One of my friends started abusing the people of Pakistan and labelling them all as ‘terrorists’, and holding them responsible for ‘our ruined state. ’ And justifying the assassination of M.K.Gandhi. The friend didn’t seem to have a problem with Islam but with Pakistan only. I wasn’t angry at this friend as much as I was angry at his notion. But when he started using abusive language, and not seeming to listen to me, I started raising my voice. I came back home and I reflected upon my own behaviour. And I wondered where did the raised voice come from? Why did ‘I’ shout? Was it just because he did? And that is when I related it to the violence that happens on a larger scale. After all, he is my friend; he does comprehend me, so indeed it could have been dealt with in another way. And then I thought, is it so difficult then, the doctrine of love? Even after claiming to believe in it, at times, even I fail to apply it. And is it so easy, to consider people as belonging to a ‘rival’ religion, or an alien region, or a competitive linguistic group, rather than first considering them as humans, normal mortals like me and you? I was disappointed with myself and the hatred that breeds inside people. And suddenly the basic action of spreading love and involving love in all that I do didn’t seem to make a difference. And I exasperatedly wondered, what do I do? Where do I begin? And the answer surfaced, I begin from myself. I instigate peace within me.
And this is where I link one of the reasons of violence and ways of dealing with it, that we came up with as a group activity in the lecture. It was a concluding activity wherein we were sitting into groups of 5-6 people and asked to jot down what came to our minds when we think about (non)violence. David, a senior participant said that when we consider ourselves as being ‘separate’ from each other that makes it easier for us to resort to violence against someone. Hotakshi, another senior member of our group said that it leads to the coincidence of violent thoughts translating into violent actions. Vipul mentioned that it is our animal instinct which comes out as a result of a disconnection from our conscience. That leads to insensitivity. Sudhir, another member said that violence manifests itself when there is a disruption of our comfort level. I feel that it is due to insecurity incorporating every corpuscle of ours. And that insecurity comes from an inability to trust or have faith in ourselves as well as ‘others’. A girl from Israel, who was present at the session, said that she had been a part of many peace camps organised in Israel. She recalled one incident where she was talking to Israeli kids at a peace camp; and one of the children was extremely shocked and bewildered to know that she had an Arab friend. For the child, it was almost impossible for an Israeli to have an Arab friend. This child’s disbelief had this fact talks a lot about the degree to which we have internalised notions of hate. Dr. Linda finally ended the session with a couplet by Kabir, which said that a little note of music inside my heart which is now growing and suddenly, the entire universe is resonating with the melody.
Thus, the session enabled us to investigate the connections between inner and outer worlds, the personal and socio-political roots of (non)violence and encouraged us to take steps, as participants in history, toward recognizing and transforming violence in ourselves.

Ayushi Rawat

Poetry And Music with Open Space

We started with the song Janane Ka Haq, and poetry recitations and music followed from many participants. Three of the poems recited at the event our given along with the lyrics of the Janane Ka Hap song.

mere sapnon ka janne ka huk re My dreams have a right to know
kyun sadiyon se toot rahe hai why they have been shattering for years
inko sajne ka naam nahin like they do not want to get fulfilled

mere haathon ko janne ka huk re My hands have the right to know
kyun barson se khali pade re why they have been empty for years
inhein aaj bhi kaam nahi hai they till today do not have a job

mere pairon ko yeh janne ka huk re My legs have the right to know
kyon gaon gaon chalna pade re why they walk from village to village
kyon bus ka nishan nahi why there is no trace of a bus

meri bhUkh ko yeh janne ka huk re My hunger has the right to know
kyon godamon mein sadte hain daane why are foodgrains rotting in the godowns
mujhe mutthi bhar dhan nahi (paddy) I dont even have a handful of grain.

meri budhi maa ko janne ka huk re My old mother has the right to know
kyon goli nahi sui davakhane why are there no medicines in the clinics

patti tanke ka saman nahi why there are no bandages or stiching aid.

mere kheton ko yeh janne ka huk re my fields have the right to know
kyon bandh bane re bade bade why are there big dams being built for water,
To bhi faslon mein jaan nahi and still there is no life in my crops.

mere jungalon ko yeh janne ka huk re My woods have a right to know
kahan daliyan woh patte tane mitti where are the branches, leaves and earth
kyon jharno ka nam nahi why there is no trace of springs.

meri nadiyon ko janne ka huk re My rivers have the right to know
kyon zeher milaye karkhane why are the factories poisoning the rivers
jaise nadiyoon mein jaan nahi as though the rivers dont have life.

mere gaon ko jaan ne ka huk re My villages have the right to know
kyon bijli na sadke na pani why there is no electricity, road or water supply
khuli ration ki dukan nahi Nor ration shopopen

mere voton ko ye jann ne ka huk re My vote has the right to know
kyon ek din bade bade vaade Why one day we hear big promises
fir panch saal kam nahi And for five years, no work

mere raam ko janne ka huk re My god has the right to know
rehman ko ye jannne ka huk re why there is bloodshed on the streets
kyon khoon bahe re sadkon pe as though we are not human beings.
kya sab insaan nahi

meri zindagi ko janne ka hak re My life has a right to know
ab hak ke bina bhi kya jeena if my life is worthy of living without promises
yeh jeene ke samaan nahin is it even equivalent to living.

SAFETY- Alia Farooqui

Safety:

A mother is hiding beneath her bed,

Wishing her children don’t cry,

There isn’t any Safety;

the rioters are here at the foot of the bed.

A brother is hiding just behind the window sill,

He doesn’t want to die the way his sister did,

There isn’t any Safety;

caught between bullets that’s how she was killed.

A daughter is hiding in the fields,

She assumed she could choose the partner she wanted,

There isn’t any Safety;

her family will be ready, to make her feel haunted.

A father is hiding alone in his house,

The land he loved isn’t his anymore,

There isn’t any Safety;

the Developers will chase him out, like a cat chases a mouse.

The mother is crying now,

Her lament is like a tortured bird’s song.

The rioters found her children,

They knew where they were all along.

Firdaus Soni

PASSIVE
“Coming” her voice
sails over the buzz of activity.
We are going to the bazzar.
The scent of talcum and Mogra
Lingers in the air
Doors swinging
Feet moving
A ceremony is happening
The family is going to the bazzar.

Her aging eyes savor the sight
As they follow her wrinkled fingers
Feeling the maroon Mysore silk
She wraps it around
In a practiced grace
I exclaim and inwardly smile.

“Looks good?” she asks
I adjust the mogra in her plait
“Sexy” I wink.
She eyes my levis in disdain
A sigh escapes
A mutual understanding, it’s in vain.

Sparkling eyes, she walks out
to see if others are done.
Secretly awaiting
his adoring reply.

“What a gaudy color!!”
“Are you going to wear this?”
Eyes downcast
Heart melting from
disappointment to guilt.

Oblivious to the hurt, he points out
to a light blue sari.
“that’s so much better simple and elegant”
“wear that”.

Realization dawns
Responsibility beckons.
I know I have to defend.
Words fidget to form.
A knot constricts my throat.
Appalled at my own failure
Conscience throbs
A mute witness
I see her unfold the blue
Replace the maroon.
She gazes in the mirror
Reassurance takes over resentment.
“he is right, the maroon is too gaudy
and the silk too royal.”
A sigh escapes …again.

Words solid in my throat
Melt in my eyes.
I gasp at his indifferent back
Trying to voice the right words
I throw a pleading look at her
“this is how it is”
My defeat is
reflected in her eyes.
The knot tightens
Strangles
Conscience throbs
Maybe next time
Yes, next time for sure.

Firdaus soni

TONIGHT- Rajashree Gandhi

Roman historian Tacitus writes about “Nero and the burning of Rome”.
People believed Nero had set Rome on fire. So, Nero had to do something to distract the population of Rome. He decided to hold the biggest party ever held in the history of the Roman Empire. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle. The problem was how to provide nightly illumination for the party to which the entire Roman elite was invited. The intelligentsia, the artists, the gossip columnists, certainly the political correspondents, anybody who mattered in Rome was at that party. So
they solved the problem, writes Tacitus, by bringing the wretched
criminals and prisoners from the jails, and burning them alive at stake around the garden! Their pyre-fire would lighten the party.

In one of his talks, P. Sainath (A rural reporter, due to whose efforts the issue of ‘farmer suicides’ in India was brought to the forefront) wonders, how the issue is not Nero.
The issue is Nero’s guests. Who were the guests at that party? What sort of sensibility did it require to pop another fig into your mouth as one more human being went up in flames nearby to serve as ‘a nightly illumination?’ What was the mindset required to take a sip from a goblet, as someone burnt alive? For the party to go on, singing and dancing, as the spectacle unfolded? These were people who were the intellect of
Rome, the best and the finest. In today’s context, who’s the ‘Nero’s guest’?
This poem strives to search an answer.

Tonight.

This is the dress I’ll wear tonight
From the fanciest of boutiques,
woven of exclusive strands of insensitivity,
smeared with the lustre of carelessness.
Made of less cotton, and more of green suicides.

This is the goblet I’ll hold tonight
What the goblet shall hold, is a surprise.
Perhaps less grapes, and more of red spilled
from slaughtered voices,
and squished rights of the little people.

This is the necklace I’ll adorn tonight.
It’s made of deluxe diamonds,
those which reflect callously,
the light from burning pyres,
diverting the sin to your eyes.

This is the fork I’ll use tonight.
To chomp off elegantly,
the lives of malnourished children,
between sips of water, from their
mother’s tears or grandmothers’ wells.

This is the pair of shoes I’ll wear tonight.
Specially crafted, so that the
tips always point at someone.
And the heels keep me high above
the Dalit, the BGT victim, the beggar.

This is the purse I’ll carry tonight.
Can fit in all the necessities
for a party like this.
Elite lie lip color, blinding kohl.
But it has no room for a red sponge pump.

This is the smile I’ll wear tonight.
Sphinxlike, designed of human hide.
Engineered to keep smiling,
even in the event of catastrophes,
or tragedies; or serial murders.

I’m Nero’s guest, waiting for tonight.
But tonight could be like 2nd Dec, 1984.
Even if not, what am I?
An ongoing tragedy? Unfolding in slow motion?
Do I even need a gas to kill me?

Or will my breath of indifference be enough?
Or am I just a corpse, faking a life?
I am the perfect Nero’s guest, waiting for tonight.

XxxxxxxxxxX

Notes:

BGT: Bhopal Gas Tragedy
2nd December 1984: When BGT started.

Human Rights Week: Being Ecologically Literate

(Sociology club, Fergusson College, had observed 3rd-10th December 2010 as Human Rights Week. This is an account of the entire ‘making’ process……. from scratch to the final day)

Conceptualizing the theme: Human Rights and Environment.

From the very beginning human beings have been bringing about changes in the environment. Environment, dynamic as it is, could essentially cope up with these changes. However, with the advent of industrial societies, the resilience of environment on the face of stress has been severely dismantled. The present mode of production which focuses on harnessing /exploiting the environment to its maximum limit has further aggravated the problem.

Sociology Club, in many of its formal and informal gatherings had discussed how human beings are increasingly getting disconnected with nature. This ‘divorce’, which is a result of many structural processes, has raised serious environmental concerns. Chief Seattle’s reply to Washington, 1854, considered as one of the best documents ever written on the inter-connectedness of all life on earth, inspired the club. The theme, Human Rights and Environment, was precisely the result of all these thought initiations. In many discussions that followed we comprehended that human rights are intrinsically linked to environment and the realization of basic human rights is possible only in a healthy and clean environment. Supreme Court of India in 1983 interpreted Right to life (Article 21) as Right to wholesome environment.

To further contextualize this ‘linkage’ (in the background of the 26th anniversary of Bhopal Gas Tragedy), we decided to view Bhopal Gas Tragedy primarily as an ‘Environmental Disaster’, pointing at the ‘environmental cost’ of the present model of hegemonic development. Through our posters, street plays and other activities we wanted to address the structural problems related to economic integration and its environmental consequences. We wanted to unravel the complexity/ies of the issue/s. When we further investigated the theme we realized that how the livelihood of certain groups/communities are threatened with increasing environmental degradation. Bhopal Gas tragedy as a disaster is not part of our recent memory. As a group, we realized that the issues that the tragedy has been revealing since the past 26 years are extremely relevant. Bhopal gas tragedy points out at the laxity of the government to protect its citizens, essentially because of the state-corporate collusion among many other reasons.

Prior to ‘Human Rights Week’ Sociology Club had organized a group discussion on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy (with a focus on the judgment given by the special court on the tragedy). Sociology Club had earlier engaged itself with similar topics through its diverse activities.

Thus in short the conceptualization of the theme ‘Human Rights and Environment’ was a result of many interactions which were possible through various activities of Sociology Club.

Process more enjoyable than Product!

Once clear on the certain key ideas of the theme, we started off with the process of implementing them. It was decided that Human Rights Week would be observed from the 3rd of December 2010(marking the 26th anniversary of Bhopal Gas Tragedy) to 10th December 2010 (World Human Rights Day).

We planned out a scheme of activities, for the week. The activities were poster exhibition, street play, film screening and ‘thought- provoking’ games. We also decided to take our posters and street play to other colleges in Pune as well.

Poster Exhibition: Though we started working on the posters from the 25th of November 2010, we had several meetings prior to 25th, where in we finalized many ideas. The most interesting part during these informal meetings and while working was that certain aspects of the theme were becoming clearer while certain other aspects were becoming even more complex! After many brainstorming sessions we decided the broad categories in our poster exhibition. They were- ‘Industries and Environment’,’ Daily Life and Environment’ and ‘Livelihood and Environment’. We were mindful of the fact, that these categories are not ‘air tight’ and that they are intricately over lapping and linked. In ‘Industries and Environment’ we focused on different Industrial-environmental disasters (Bhopal Gas Tragedy, BP oil spill etc). We had informative and critical posters on the same. We had a number of introductory posters on simple but relevant questions such as ‘what are human rights?’, ‘How are Human rights linked to Environment?’Etc. Livelihood and Environment was a section where we tried to unravel several issues such as global inequality, privatization of water and other commonly owned resources and the consequences.

Daily Life and environment primarily focused on the issue of consumerism. Consumerism is a matter of vital importance as we are moving away from our role of ‘producers’ and increasingly becoming ‘only consumers’ there by straining the limited resources. We earnestly worked on posters, aiming at solutions. The solutions depicted in the posters were centered on what one do on an individual level. On one hand we exposed the magnitude of the environmental issues and on the other hand we underlined the fact that individual forms of resistance do make a difference.

Street Play: Our street play ‘paniless Panipur’ precisely discussed the relevance of individual choices and the difference it could bring about. (……boond boond se hi to samandar bharta hain). In the street play we dealt with the issue of privatization of water. It creatively portrayed the nexus between the State and Corporate and how the state is ready to disrupt the livelihood and survival of the rural poor to safeguard corporate interests. The street play exposes how privatization of commonly owned resources violates basic human rights. Finally we urge the audience to make an ‘environment friendly’ and ‘humane’ decision to quit bottled water.

Thus, explaining the implication of individual choices on the larger process of privatization of water. We also tried to link the lives of ‘rural poor’ and ‘urban dwellers’, pointing at the issue of livelihood.

Thought – provoking games: Games were also a result of our engagement with the theme. We had two games, namely ‘power walk’ and ‘snake and ladder’. Power walk was a game which aimed at transcending ones identity, for example- an urban middle class boy would be given an identity of a Dalit rural woman be briefed on the given identity. Once this was done the participants were asked questions to check their ‘ecological footprints’. According to the answers given they were asked to either move a step ahead or stay where they are. By the end of the game we get a pattern of ‘different identities’ placed at ‘different (unequal) levels’ of consumption.

This game was quite interesting because on one hand it unleashed our inability to transcend our own identity, proving our unawareness and on the other hand it was insightful as it displayed the wide disparity in the consumption of resources. ‘Snake and Ladder’ was a fun game which aimed at spreading environment friendly choices.

Throughout the process we got an opportunity to dwell upon a particular theme for a considerable time period. This helped us in developing a holistic perspective on issues of environmental concerns.

The week: visiting different colleges……

The first and the last day of the week i.e., 3rd December and 10th December, were observed in our college campus. On the 3rd, we thematically displayed posters, staged the street play and organized the above mentioned games. On the 10th we displayed our posters in D.E.S Law College and thereafter observed the final day with poetry and music. The poetry and music session was organized in collaboration with ‘Students for Free Tibet’ and ‘Open Space’. Participants recited poems which dealt with an array of human rights issues such as communalism, hunger, systemic inequality, domestic violence to mention a few. The final day concluded with a group song, popularly known as the RTI anthem.

During the week we visited St. Mira’s College, Camp on the 4th of December with our poster exhibition and street play. On the 7th, 8th & 9th we visited Modern College, B.M.C.C and S.P. College respectively. In all our college visits we were welcome with great hospitality, though the level of curiosity among the students startlingly differed. The entire experience helped us in initiating discussions regarding human rights and environmental concerns (at different levels) among students belonging to varied backgrounds.

On the 6th we organized a screening of a BBC documentary ‘One Night in Bhopal’, based on the Bhopal Gas tragedy. The documentary was a ‘first person’ account of the survivors of the tragedy. The audience was shocked to know the gravity of injustice done to the victims and survivors. After the screening it was unanimously decided to observe two minutes of silence for the victims who were killed and to cherish the courage exhibited by the survivors.

Thus if I were to sum up the entire experience…. I would say it was an ‘engaging’ process which convinced us to appreciate the difference between ‘being literate’ and ‘being ecologically literate’!

-N. Shobhana

A Visit to Hiware Bazaar

We had heard a lot about Hiware Bazaar. And the small political, sociological and “what is development?” discussions we used to have with our friends somehow led us into visiting this model village situated very close to the ‘far from model’ Pune city. Hiware Bazaar is a small village situated in Ahmadnagar district. Our term-end semester exams had just finished then. Off we went, on our own, not knowing the exact route to the place. Asking here and there for the exact location. It took us close to three and a half hours and 4 different means of transport to actually get to Hiware Bazaar. So, Hiware Bazaar it was.
Now, we had done some research about this place before leaving. So, firstly we would like to share what we read about Hiware Bazaar on the website of India Environment Portal(which is managed by the Centre for Science and Environment and promoted by the National Knowledge Commission) and also from blogs written by people who had visited the village. Hiware Bazaar is situated in the rain shadow region of Maharashtra and faced acute water crisis in the 70’s which led to a crippling agrarian crisis throughout the 80’s. The village had an annual rainfall of about 400-450mm which is nearly half of the district average. There was also a failed dam project close to the village. Agriculture, the primary occupation, was suffering in Hiware Bazaar. This led to villagers migrating to the cities for work. People began to engage themselves in liquor-related activities which led to a socio-moral crisis along with the already deep economic crisis. However, one man had different ideas. Shri Popatrao Pawar, a young MCom graduate then, was elected as Sarpanch of the village in the early 90’s. There were changes. And they were for the better. We would like to list out some of the reforms undertaken by Shri Pawar – (1) Addressing the need of water for irrigation through several means they constructed small bunds using finance from government schemes, passing a resolution to not cultivate water-intensive crops like sugarcane, planting more trees on the hills to let water soak into the ground and hence raising the groundwater levels and also increasing the rainfall amount to some extent. Trees were planted on a large scale. Water conservation structures like contour trenches were built around hills to conserve rainwater. (2) A resolution was passed to avoid green lands being spoiled due to excessive grazing by animals. The resolution also had a clause which allowed people to take in one head load of feed for their animals everyday by paying a nominal fee(the fee, maybe to dispel the notion that everything comes for free). (3) Every villager was made to put in manual labour for bund and pond construction and savings of money hence produced was used to build temples and a mosque (that too for just one Muslim family in the village). This helped in passing on the message that the efforts of people were going in for a noble cause i.e. development. (4) No one was allowed to sell the land to anyone from outside the village. (5) All houses in the villages would have the same façade design to show equality. (6) HIV test was made compulsory before marriage. (7) Ban on liquor and tobacco-related activities in the village. (8) Ban on cutting trees and grazing. Such reforms obviously needed support from the state. The Employment Guarantee Scheme and funds from the Adarsh Gaon Yojana helped in the cause.
This was some research done prior to the visit. We reached the village and were surprised to see concrete roads greeting us. All roads in concrete! There was green cover on the small hills surrounding the village. We got into the Gram Panchayat building and met Mr. Habib Syed who worked at an administrative level in the village under Mr. Pawar. Sadly, and paradoxically, Mr.Popatrao Pawar was in Pune city! Habib’s cousin brother Swaleen, who we met before entering the village was also around. They told us about the work done and also gave some tips to get around the village quickly enough(we were short on time, sadly). So, we were on our own now. Moving around. Observing. All houses actually had nearly similar facade designs. All houses had an attached toilet and a bathroom. There was a primary and secondary school. Solar street lights!! One kirana shop had a notice asking people to bring only cloth bags of their own and avoiding plastic bags. All houses had the names of both the man and the woman of the house. We were moving around and managed to get talking to a few women in the village. It was a Sunday afternoon and the women were threshing grains at the entry points of their houses. Their husbands were away working on the farms. We were talking to one such lady about the development story of the village. She seemed so very happy and satisfied about everything done by the Gram Panchayat. Her kids seemingly were doing well in school. She also stressed about the fact that Shri Pawar had given education a very important position in the village. Students were encouraged to study well. Also, villagers were told to work hard with their lives. She said “Te je boltat, barobar boltat…ani je kahi kelay te changlyasathich kelay” (Whatever the Sarpanch says is correct and whatever is done is for good). Questions were ringing in our mind about the social changes in the village. Is there gender inequality? Caste inequality? “Kaahi nahi”. All was well, she said. Girls have all the opportunities which boys get. Everyone is respected in the village. No one is treated badly. No tobacco. No liquor. Everyone is sane. This seemed ideal. After a short chat about village politics (which she said, did not exist) we took her leave only to end up talking with another woman who was doing a similar chore. From her, we got to know that the backward caste people were actually staying in houses which were away from the main village houses. We also managed to reach to a point from where we could conclude that there is a deeper thread of development running here.
People seemed very happy. They were satisfied. However, the bright conclusions which could be drawn are mostly economic in nature. There are social ones too, but they seem to originate from economic success. One fact we read was – there are 54 millionaires in Hiware Bazaar!! A village of barely a thousand people. But as human beings we try to find faults even in very good things. Same was the case here. This village has done a lot more than most villages in India and it is way ahead on most parameters of development. Still, the buck never stops at something. You have to keep on improving. One thing we felt which was missing here, is the presence of competition and the presence of a formidable political opposition. Too much of satisfaction can be harmful. One tends to get complacent about oneself and one’s decisions. The need for reasoned debate and arguments is something which has existed in the history of India(as pointed out beautifully in an Amartya Sen book – ‘The Argumentative Indian’). There is a need to challenge monotony(and even monarchy). That constant chirping about issues is needed. The constant endeavour to improve the standard of living is crucial. Another fact we observed was the possible neglect to social inequalities and freedom of expression. The reason for this could be the tremendous economic development. The ideal situation would be one where both economic and social development go hand in hand. Here too, socially the village is definitely not backward when compared to the rest of India. But we guess for us, social stability and freedom would exist in a better way in a situation where there are open discussions about social and cultural issues with an open and unbiased mind. The previous sentence would apply to all of India!
Kudos to Shri Popat Pawar for doing such a great job! He along with his villagers have actually set an example in front of all of us about the importance of political will in the development of a region. We enjoyed our short visit to the village. The analysis which we offered is something which we have just attempted. I am sure the analysis is not complete in any way!! After all, how can a few hours spent in a village give a good analysis of the situation in the village? There must be people who can offer insights to us on the issue. But I guess the best way to analyze better would be to spend more time in the village and talk to more people. There were certain things we could not observe during our visit, the absence of which you must have noted till now. The idea was to highlight a situation of developmental success happening right in our neighbouring district and the importance of political will in achieving that level of development, which again I hope you must have noted!!
THANK YOU
• Atul Kotagal & Sudarshan Shinde,
S.Y.B.Sc.

KKPKP Dignity Rally on Gandhi Punyatithi

“Kachara amcha maalkicha , nahi konache bapacha” we voiced these slogans with about 200 other women, clad in green saris , proclaiming their right to dignity and work.
On 30th of January 2010 a peaceful rally for reasserting the dignity and recognizing the importance of waste collectors was organized by KKPKP (kagad kach patra kashtkari panchayat). These waste collectors were dressed in green as green is the colour of the conservancy workers’uniform which also symbolizes the unaccountable contribution made by the rag pickers in conserving the city environment.The day chosen for organizing this rally is also significant as it is the day of Gandhi punyatithi. The rally was a non-violent effort to change the public perception about waste pickers and to accent protest against a press note released by The National Society for Clean Cities which calls for a ban on rag pickers, terming them- ‘thieves’, ‘unreliable’ and ‘unaccountable’!.
It was not very surprising to come across such an approach towards the people belonging to the lower social/economic strata. Our caste and class discrimination are not just limited to the rural scene. It is very much a part of popular prejudice even by the “educated” urban society.
In this context for instance our society not only turned a blind eye to the contribution of rag-pickers in ecological and social aspects but also out rightly banished them from being a part of the society and exercising their right to work and dignity by calling them “thieves”! .
Baba Adhav and Mohan Dhariya inaugurated the rally. The rally started after adorning Mahatma Jotiba Phule’s statue with a garland at Pune Municipal Corporation. We started off , the women (waste workers) and other participants raised slogans with pride and conviction towards their work.The rally passed through Shaniwar Wada, Lal Mahal (where the women garlanded the statue of Jijabai), Kasba Ganpati Mangalwar Peth and Sassoon Hospital, throughout the rally the fervor and zeal remained unswerving. The enthusiasm never dipped even for a minute. We eventually reached Pune railway station.
The rally commenced in the form of a sabha which garlanded Mahatma Gandhi’s statue.
Socio club members actively participated in the rally. People from different walks of life participated in the rally with great vigour and sincerity.
This rally was a pronouncement of rejecting the still prevalent unfair and discriminating social norms and perceptions which not only cause disadvantage to a section of society but also handicap the whole system. It gave us a opportunity to be a part of a constructive social change. Above everything else the rally exemplified the urgency to value and recognize the work of rag-pickers.

FIRDAUS . SONI

Visual Media by Akash Deshmukh

Green vs Glamour: Efforts for an Eco-Friendly Ganesh Festival

KKPKP and SWaCH had initiated young student volunteers to persuade the people of Pune to immerse their idols in the water tanks provided by the PMC, and to put the ‘nirmaalya’ in special tanks and ‘kalash’(es). The Nirmalya Recycling Project of SWaCH involved: Collection and segregation of nirmalya into various materials– separating biodegradable from non-biodegradable; Transportation to Yerawada jail for further recycling into dried flower products.

Ganesh pooja to Ganesh festival

Ganesh pooja was an age old practice followed by Hindu families. The religious science prescribes idols made of clay, painted with natural colours, and not more than 1.5 mtrs (4.9 feet) tall. Religion believes that the Sea is the all-accepting spirit, which takes in everything and restores it into its place in the natural order of things. So wastes from sacred rites, like flowers etc are generally left into the sea. The philosophy of seeing God in everything should be interpreted as respecting everything in nature. The festival was made public by the initiatives of Tilak to organize people for a nationalist idea.

In today’s date, Ganesh festival is highly glamorized and commercialized. It’s an opportunity to make a status statement. While Tilak wanted people to unite during Ganesh festivals, the glamorization of the festival has had the exact opposite effect, as people are in a class race of who has the bigger, glossier, more glamorous idol. The purpose behind the community idols was to integrate the communities; today, instead of three chawls coming together for one ganpati, there are five ganpatis in the same chawl.

As Plaster of Paris is cheaper, more convenient and easier to use, it is used instead of religiously prescribed clay. Also, the natural color and limited size have gone for a toss since the Ganesh festival lost its motive.

The theory that sea/river water is all accepting is valid as long as the things being discarded did come from a natural origin to be restored into nature. But with plaster-of-paris, plastic and the likes entering stage, the sea has been at a loss to find a place for them.

On the efforts like these:

1) Volunteers:
Volunteers/Activists/Environmentalists like us want to help in some way to prevent further pollution of our rivers and seas. Hence convincing people on the Visarjan day to immerse their idols in artificial tanks and nirmalya is separate kalashes becomes a way to help. In an effort to save the environment they become ‘against religious practices’ in some eyes.

2) Some Religious Groups:
Religious Groups of some kind tend to think that such eco friendly initiatives are actually a conspiracy against them and their religion. The sensitivity of the issue is highlighted when in the same space, volunteers of religious and environment driven groups, fight for the people’s vote. By vote, I mean the decision to either immerse the idol in the river or the tank.

3) People:
Most people are torn between the two voices of convincing. Most others don’t want to listen out any side and just want to get over with their rituals. So overall, most of the people immerse their idols in the river, but a flicker of thought about what is eco-friendly and what is glamour/insecurity-friendly is clearly visible on most faces.

Conclusion:

Being religious myself, it was difficult to be viewed as an enemy of my own religion. But then I got thinking, about when has religion asked us to dump huge masses of non-biodegradable waste into the sea and kill a million life forms. Neither God, nor scriptures asked us to cause so much harm to nature and her children. And which God would like to be remembered with “Sheela ki Jawani” blaring into his ears (Noise pollution is maximum during Ganesh Festival). Originally, religion and patriotism both aspired for a eco-friendly and all-inclusive Ganesh festival, so I am as religious and patriotic as I am an environmental activist.

Talking and convincing people were the best parts of the experience. It gave a little moment of interaction between fellow citizens, and even if they eventually went to the river to immerse their idols, their momentary look of confusion and helplessness to do anything to save the environment gave me a hope for a better situation.

R Gandhi

Roots of Strength: Reviewing ‘Barefoot Gen’, A personal history

Barefoot Gen (1983)
Language: Japanese
Director: Mori Masaki
Genre: Animated War Drama

“Sometimes it takes more courage not to fight than to fight, to not want to kill when everyone around you is calling out for blood”, these are the most hard-hitting words in the movie Barefoot Gen, based on a Japanese manga (anime magazine). Barefoot Gen is the story of a young boy Gen and his survival during the Hiroshima bombing of 1945, recounted by Keiji Nakazawa, a survivor himself. It also draws a larger picture of the
bomb explosion and its aftermath, honestly narrating the worst atrocity of human civilization.

Gen’s father, a pacifist and an anti-war citizen during a very nationalist wartime Japan, is struggling hard to sustain the Nakaoka family through poverty, hunger and helplessness. Gen’s pregnant mother is malnourished like his sister, Eiko. Shinji is Gen’s younger sibling who helps Gen and their father in the wheat field, dreaming of days when they will get to eat again.

On 6th August, American planes drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, in which Gen’s father and siblings burn in the explosion. With the responsibility of the mother and the baby, Gen starts his battle for survival, bumping into scenes of death, radiation poisoning, acid rains, and all the catastrophic tremors the society has to face due to one bomb. He helps his mother deliver the baby daughter, Tomoko, and struggles to find food and milk for her.

The family welcomes Ryuta, a little boy orphaned by the bomb who resembles Shinji and helps Gen in his perseverant efforts for sustenance. They search for a job and land up one where they are paid to take care of a bomb victim named Seiji, in whom they re-instill life and hope. They’re too late to get milk for Tomoko, who dies of malnutrition, and leaves Gen in despair and gloom. When Gen witnesses the growth of wheat and his hair (which he had lost due to radiation effects), he remembers what his father said, and resumes life with hope and enthusiasm.

Gen makes a boat with a candle and as he promised Shinji before the attack, he flows it in the river, which is symbolic of how life goes on in spite of tragedies and death. Another symbol is wheat, which survives in the coldest and the most inhospitable conditions.

The film has some of the goriest visuals of the war effects and burning of people and buildings. Even the image of 6th August on the calendar sets fear in one’s mind. Though animated, they never fail to send a chill down the spine as they reflect the deadly visuals of a nuclear tragedy, and about war’s impact on civilian societies. The film critiques the ruling elite and Japanese militarism, but never finger points. That it does not feel important to comment on the USA’s role at all is a puzzle, which could be interpreted or solved in different ways.

The film carves out lovingly, the relationship between Gen and Shinji, which also continues after Shinji’s death, with Ryuta as Shinji. It gives us some of the best scenes of the movie where one laughs at the love and cries at the tragedy around it. Eiko’s character, shown weak and timid, has little role and dialogue, which is a statement of the position of a girl child in a society, which needs the blood of young men. The mother’s role strikes the most when she frantically shows her newborn daughter the war that killed her family. The father and his messages sustain themselves through out the movie and are something we would want to take home.

The word ‘Gen’, which means ‘the roots’ in Japanese, is an apt name for our protagonist as his story is a root of strength for the coming generations. The view of war as seen through a young boy’s eyes deconstructs the impersonal information about wars as rote written in our textbooks. The film doesn’t limit itself to Japan, but speaks for the act of war and the story of survival everywhere in the world.

-R. Gandhi.

GD on The Bhopal Gas Tragedy- The Unfinished Story

GD on The Bhopal Gas Tragedy- The Unfinished Story

Date- 20th August 2010
Time- 12 PM
Duration-1hr 3o min. max
Venue- Photography Dept.

Following are the pointers which would give you a general idea of the discussion :

1. Relevance: What relevance does this discussion have today?

2. How is it the unfinished story? Exclusivity of this tragedy. How was this different from other disasters?

3. Trivialisation of the issue. Agents of trivialisation: media, education (text-books), inadequate quantitative statistics, judiciary, state: collusion of the state with the corporate.

4. Role of the State: Legislations and collusion- How is the collusion being strengthened? Why does the state collude? – Nuclear liability bill.

5. Predatory drives for profit: disregard of the lives of the people in the third world.

6. Lessons & suggested solutions – For example, Amit Sengupta’s suggestions: specific treatment guidelines, special ration cards for victims of Bhopal Gas Tragedy, regulatory framework for MNCs.
Medical, environmental concerns-what is being done?

7. Conclusion: Summariser- Atul/What they felt.

Moderator: Nidhin

SAMEEKSHA 2010

A watchdog? A mirror? Or a pair of spectacles? What exactly defines Media, the national asset touted as the fourth pillar of democracy in Indian society? These were the questions we unraveled during Sameeksha 2010, the daylong fest organized by the Sociology Dept of Fergusson College.

The lexicon meaning of the word ‘Sameeksha’ is critical analysis, and that’s what we effectuated to the theme of ‘Media and Society’. How the media gets enriched with the differences in opinions, tastes, ideologies and attitudes; how the plurality of our society is reflected by the diversity of our media; how the media designs public perspective with sensitivity, or the lack of it; were the intricate layers of the issue we had undertaken.

As soon as we soaked in the theme into our minds, our creative beings swung into action. Ideas, insights, imagination were exchanged and we imbibed the noble virtue of 3Rs : Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The vastness, variety and vibrance of media as a theme provided a wide continuum of ideas for poster making and street play. We creatively displayed the interplay between the stimulating aspects of media such as sensationalism, lamentable lack of social responsibility, commodification of women, globalization and consumerism through our posters and street play.

The posters were co-created by trained fine artists and diligent amateurs, ensuring the least amount of wastage, minimum material inputs and maximum aesthetic and significant final product. The street play team brainstormed on the script and direction and tried to capture the intriguing relationship between ‘Breaking News’ and its audiences.

After one month of efforts and application of creativity on war footing, the event was one day away. The panic was palpable, trips of tension took over and we were apprehension gripped. But we managed to shed our fears and look forward for one day filled with sociological understanding enrobed with fun and frolic.

27th February arrived. Posters were put up for display, and not only it gained appreciation but also provided a few moments of thought churning to the visitor. Street play, titled ‘Sansani’ was performed near the main circle and the actors, professionals or not, were gifted with heartwarming applause. Activities and games like ‘Remote Control’, ‘Bhaago’, ’10 seconds’ and ‘Treasure Hunt’ kept the young ones engrossed and they participated with pumped up adrenalin and enthusiasm.

The day had achieved its aim. We had lived in the air of the theme of media for one whole month and were successful in imparting what we learned to others on the main day. We learnt from our flaws, our fights and our discussions. We celebrated the spirit of having a sociological perspective and having a healthy interplay with it. The event gifted us a pair of spectacles to view media and society and the fascinating relationship between the two.

Rajashree Gandhi (SYBA)