Human Chain For Secularism Gets Big Support In Kolkata
KOLKATA, India, November 19, 2008--This eastern Indian city came to a halt for 10 minutes on Nov. 16, when thousands of Christians, Hindus and Muslims stood joining hands on its busiest road.
More than 5,000 people including Catholic and Protestant bishops, and Missionaries of Charity superior general Sister Nirmala Joshi formed a chain 1.5 kilometers long, stretching from Esplanade to Park Street, at 4:30 p.m.
Seven weeks of violence against Christians that started in late August in Orissa state prompted the action in Kolkata (Calcutta), capital of neighboring West Bengal state, 1,460 kilometers southeast of New Delhi.
Father George Pattery, organizing committee president, claimed "great success" in garnering public support for their campaign against sectarianism. The head of the Jesuits' Calcutta province told UCA News the human chain showed people would support peaceful programs for social causes.
Retired Archbishop Henry D'Souza of Calcutta told UCA News many people made "great sacrifices" to fast and demonstrate their commitment "so that the country may live in peace and harmony."
Other Catholic prelates who also formed links in the chain were Bishops Cyprian Monis of Asansol and Thomas D'Souza of Bagdogra. Church of North India Bishop Ashok Biswas of Calcutta and his predecessor, retired Bishop P.S.P. Raju, also joined took part.
People's response was "simply incredible," enthused Sunil Lucas, organizing committee secretary. Kolkata has not seen Christians in public in such a large number, declared the state president of SIGNIS, a world association for Catholic communicators. Organizers received "wholehearted" support from the administration and the state's leftist government, he added.
Sister Christine Coutinho, who supervised the registration for the fast and human chain, said more than 10,000 people joined the fast. About 25 percent were Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary nun told UCA News. Women outnumbered men, as in the human chain too.
About 1,500 people began fasting at 9 a.m. that morning at the city's Metro Corridor, under the aegis of Calcutta Catholic archdiocese. A 40-meter backdrop on the dais read, "From the darkness of violence to the light of freedom, let my country awake: To protest mob and bomb terror."
On the dais' right stood a cloth banner with the pictures of Rajni Majhi, a Hindu woman who was burned alive in Orissa, and Father Bernard Digal, an Orissa priest who succumbed to his wounds on Oct. 28. The caption read, "In tribute to the 59 persons who were martyred in the senseless violence in Orissa since August 2008."
At the launch, Muslim leader Mazrul Rahman recited Qur'an verses extolling the virtue of service to others. People who harm others are worse than Satan and need to be corrected, not tolerated, he asserted.
Students from Morning Star College, a regional major seminary, led the fast at night. On the first two days, the seminarians recited on their knees the Divine Mercy chaplet, short prayers that correspond to the beads on a rosary, for the victims of sectarian violence.
According to Father Ignatius P. Sarto, secretary of the All Bengal Coordinators for Development, 73 seminarians and 25 Religious chanted and prayed during the vigil. Some seminary professors and Bishop Clement Tirkey of Jalpaiguri joined them.
Sadhana Korali, a schoolteacher in the human chain, told UCA News Christianity has contributed a lot to India, but only a few acknowledge it. The 38-year-old woman suggested Christians make their services more well-known.
In the view of Dorothy Das, 37, another Catholic woman, mobilizing public support for India's secular constitution is "the need of the hour." She said all people in her parish volunteered for the fast when the parish priest announced it in church, and she took a day's leave to join on Nov. 14
Police inspector Bhaskar Majumdar, who was in charge of security for the fast program, told UCA News the peaceful effort impressed him greatly.
NGOs that supported the programs included Seva Kendra Kolkata, the archdiocese's social-service center, the Calcutta Jesuits' Udayani Social Action Forum and the ecumenical Paschim Banga Christiya Parisheba (West Bengal Christian services). (UCAN)
MNLF supports peace caravan; calls for “dialogue” on both parties
DAVAO CITY, November 28, 2008—The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) leadership has expressed all out support to the on-going peace activities for the Mindanao Week of Peace (MWOP) including the peace caravan that started in Baguio City and will culminate in Cotabato City today.
MNLF Central Committee vice chairman Jimmy Labawan commended the peace making activities even as he urged Mindanaoans to think and act for peace.
“I would like to extend my warmest felicitations to the members of this multi-sectoral peace caravan and may this peace forum come up with concrete resolutions for you to collectively contribute to our aspirations to achieve the lasting peace and freedom for the Bangsamoro people in Mindanao,” said Labawan in a text message sent to CBCPNews yesterday, adding:
“Peace should be attained and not prevented. The involved parties should work jointly toward the conclusion and full implementation of the comprehensive peace agreement.”
Labawan also urged both government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to enter into a dialogue in order to settle the differences and to give peace a chance.
“Should there be any problem that may hamper the implementation of the peace agreement, a dialogue between the parties representative should be convened to resolve the issue to the satisfaction of all concerned,” said Labawan.
He also emphasized that it is about time that Mindanaoans should come together to save peace and to demand to the government and the MILF to resume the peace talks.
“By saving it (peace) we save precious lives and properties. And by saving it, we save humanity and history as well,” Labawan said.
Meanwhile, the peace caravan project of Duyog Mindanao which will end today has gained a positive support from government, church, academe, youth, MNLF and the MILF.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) through its president Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo has earlier signified support to the peace efforts in Mindanao especially Duyog Mindanao.
Duyog Mindanao envisions to generate broad public support to provide humanitarian relief to people in Mindanao affected by the on-going conflict and war. Its purpose is to promote peace by actively campaigning to get all warring forces to a ceasefire towards peaceful resolution to the conflict.
The Duyog Mindanao convernors are: Bishops Ulama Conference, Mindanao Peace Weavers, Initiatives for International Dialogue, Waging Peace Philippines , Generation Peace Network, and the Gaston Z. Ortigas Peace Institute. Co-convenors: La Liga Filipina Policy Institute, CARE for Mindanao, Bangsa Moro Peoples' Solidarity, Anak Mindanao, Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates, Philippine Human Rights Information Center and Balay Rehabilitation Center.
Endorsers of this event include the: Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Bishop Ulama Forum, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process and the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict-Southeast Asia. (Mark S. Ventura)
Review LAJJA By Taslima Nasreen
And the head is held high
where knowledge is free
....
into that heaven of freedom
my Father .. let my country awake "
This poem of Tagore is taught to children worldwide as a part of their prescribed syllabus. This teaches the children the importance of freedom right from a tender age in the faint hope that they will grow up actually believing this idea.
I would like to bring this to the readers’ attention that I am not here writing about how good or bad the book is. I am here to write about the idea of shifting Tasleema to different undisclosed locations in India under house arrest in the name of security til
Her harrasment didn’t stop at cutting her off from those she wantd to see, in the name of security, but as I read she might have also been denied of proper medical aid going by the complaints coming from her and backed by international PEN, the global writer’s organisation.
Information and Broadcasting minister Priyaranjan Dashmunshi, even asked her to bow down and appologise to those she had offended. He had obviously forgotten that India is a secular democracy rather than a theocracy.
The UPA govt and the leftist supporters claim to be the champions of secularism. West Bengal’s left front governement got her to leave Kolkata where she had been staying and wanted to stay. Forcing Taslima out of the country however was a sad day for Secularism.
Secularism of this variety amounts to a game of competitive fundamentalism. Somehow someone claims to be offended on behalf of his community and issues threats. The government in the name of security bans the book, the movie or maybe the writer.
It is equivalent to handing over fundamentalists a remote control for the country’s occurings. They could then press whatever buttons they would like and turn the tide in their favour all the time.
I am glad Tagore isn’t alive to see any of this happening to the country he declined the knighthood for. But atleast it would work for the running Govt in its short term goal of keeping its votebanks in place.
20
th European Conference on Modern South Asian StudiesPanel 9
Bengal Studies
Convenors: William Radice and Kerstin Andersson
List of Abstracts (total papers: 14)
1.
Christina Nygren, Stockholm UniversityYatra – Popular Theatre Moving with the Wind
The theatre life in India and Bangladesh show a great variety of examples of the significance of
performances for a public at large, in everyday life as well as in religious or secular festivals and
holidays. The popular and commercial performances play a part both as aesthetic experience and
as entertainment. In Indian West Bengal and Bangladesh
yatra has been the most popular andwide spread theatre form for centuries but the original
yatra is now often deprived of its full value,not only by religious fundamentalists but also by intellectuals, the high educated and
representatives for highbrow performing arts. In my paper I shall elaborate on my experiences of
the situation of
yatra as travelling theatre, primarily looking at the context, letting the stage artcome second, and emphasize the ‘common’ rather than the ‘unique’.
2.
Mark Maclean, CambridgeHindu Christmas and the Paradox of Bengali Secularism
Against the oft-cited argument that secularism is an alien imposition, discordant with Indian
spirituality, this paper suggests that the rhetoric of secularism is now an integral part of the religiocultural
landscape of Bhadralok Hinduism. Focusing on a case study of the Christmas
celebrations at Belur Math and intensive interviews with devotees and monks, I show how Sri
Ramakrishna is construed as a ‘secular saint’, characterizing the distinctive power and paradox of
secularism in West Bengal. By investigating secularism in its ‘actually existing’ forms beyond the
formal framework of the state, I demonstrate the complex ways in which this European concept
has been indigenised in postcolonial Bengal.
3.
Afsar Ahmad, Jahangirnagar University, BangladeshThe Oraons in Bangladesh: Identity Crisis and Decaying Culture
Apart from the Bangalis, diverse ethnic groups have been living in Bangladesh for a long time.
These groups, generally known as ‘tribes’, are distinct from each other in ethnological, racial,
religious, and cultural aspects. The Oraons are one of these groups. Scholars hold that the
Oraons living in Bangladesh are descendents of the Proto-Australian race. Their migration from
India to Bangladesh took place much later. They are animist and believers of totem. The ritualistic
activities, festivals and ceremonies of the Oraons are related to agricultural activities. Karama
Fagua, Sarhul, Sohrai are their main festivals. Karama is the most prestigious and grandest
festival for the Oraons. In Bangladesh, this ethnic group has been preserving their thousand-yearold
culture up to recent times. In this paper, I will focus Identity Crisis and Culture of the Oraons in
the light of the brought spectrum of the state of the ethnic minorities living in Bangladesh.
4.
Ana Jelnikar, SOAS, LondonAt Home in the World: Rabindranath Tagore and Sre
èko KosovelWhen Tagore received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913 he became a world celebrity
overnight. Slovenes too participated in the "Tagoreana" from the early days of the poet’s
international reputation. This paper explores the impact of Tagore’s ideas on Slovenes, who
derived a strong sense of identification with the Indian poet out of their own historical predicament
of cultural and political subjugation. Tagore’s answer to the problem of colonization and
imperialism resonated particularly strongly with Slovenia’s foremost modernist poet of the
interwar years, Sre
èko Kosovel (1904-1926). Kosovel integrated much of Tagore’s thinkingavailable to him in translation into his own poetic and intellectual horizon. Both poets-intellectuals
to this day challenge us to think about national identity along more inclusive and dynamic lines,
whereby our local and specific allegiances become a non-conflictual base for reaching out to the
world, surrendering neither, while enriching both.
5.
Hanne-Ruth Thompson, SOAS, LondonIntuition versus Analysis – Tagore’s Linguistic Thinking
From Tagore’s two books ‘Shobdotottvo’ and ‘Bangla bhasha poricoy’ we gain a thorough insight
into his thinking about language. From a linguist’s point of view, much of what he says appears at
first somewhat unstructured and intuitive, but on closer inspection we begin to see his point.
Bengali, more so perhaps than many other languages, lends itself to a more fluid interpretation,
and rigid grammatical analysis will not give us the understanding we seek. In this paper I want to
show how Tagore's thinking can point us to a broader approach and, with examples from his
books, how intuition and analysis can work together to open up the essence of the Bengali
language.
6.
William Radice, SOAS, LondonPainting the Dust and the Sunlight: Rabindranath Tagore and the Two
GitanjalisWas Tagore essentially
dvaitavadi (dualist) or advaitavadi (non-dualist)? The paper comparesTagore’s own repeated claims that he was a dualist with the capacity that he also had for mystical
or non-dualist religious experience. It then considers the poems and songs of
Gitanjali,distinguishing between the English
Gitanjali for which he won the Nobel Prize from the songsfrom which many of its poems were derived. In these songs, the melody is as important as the
words. A proposal is made for a new method of translating Tagore’s songs: one which preserves
the repetitions when the songs are sung and brings out the four-part musical structure. The
words of the songs are generally dualist in mood and content, but the music reaches out for the
transcendental in a way that is distinctly non-dualist. By combining dualism with non-dualism, his
songs paint both ‘the dust and the sunlight’.
7.
Soumyajit Samanta, North Bengal UniversityThe Bengal Renaissance: an East-West Cultural Symbiosis
Nineteenth century Bengal witnessed an intellectual & cultural revival called Renaissance.
Western critical & historical thinking, European knowledge (esp. philosophy, history, science &
literature), British empiricism, rationalism & education in English language affected an important
segment of Bengali Hindu society & under the impact of British rule the Bengali intellectual
learned to raise questions about life & beliefs. Renaissance minds included Raja Rammohun
Roy, Henry Luies Vivian Derozio & his radical disciples, Debendranath Tagore, Akshay Kumar
Datta, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay
and Swami Vivekananda. The Bengal Renaissance led to the proliferation of modern Bengali
literature, fervent & diverse intellectual enquiry & ultimately fostered an engagement with
rationalism & nationalism & alternately questioned the foreign subjugation of the country. The aim
of this paper will be to illustrate how the Bengal Renaissance can be interpreted as a cultural
symbiosis between the East & the West.
8.
Rosinka Chaudhuri, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, KolkataLiterary Language and the Figuration of Modernity in Bengal (1822-1858)
The formation of a modern literature in Bengal in the first half of the nineteenth century saw
English literary conventions supplant the indigenous inheritance in native literature that is best
epitomised by Bharatchandra. The tradition of Bharatchandra was located in the popular, the
urban, the folk, and the local; a native heritage, often conceived of as immoral, it constituted a
subterranean presence in the high-minded literary/ethical formation of a national culture in the
nineteenth century. This paper explores the tension between English literary practices and
‘authentic’ Bengali convention located in the work of Bharatchandra, whose legacy was the most
contested legacy in literary critical terms, right through to the early twentieth century.
9.
Srilata Chatterjee, Rabindra Bharati University, KolkataSatyagraha and the Ethics of Political Protest in Bengal
Anti colonial popular protest and resistance in India took various forms ranging from pre modern
traditional forms of conflicts to the more modern forms of opposition marked by boycott and
passive resistance. But the brutal state repression of these resistances proved the need for a new
concept of ethical activism, which would remain rooted to the traditions of non-violent political
virtue. Gandhi gave this kind of protest the name Satyagraha. Bengal, a province, where since
the days of Aurobindo the nationalist agitation was rooted to the concept of Passive Resistance
and the ideologies of revolution and boycott, was perhaps rather sceptic about the accepting this
new concept. But as the all India mass Satyagraha movements were launched, Bengal became
one of the storm centres of political action.
10.
Parimal Ghosh, University of CalcuttaLaughing Out Loud: Sibram Chakraborty (1905-80) and a Critique of the Bhadralok
The paper considers three works of the noted Bengali writer Sibram Chakraborti, his two-volume
autobiography, Iswar Prithivi Bhalobasa and Bhalobasa Prithivi Iswar, and a lesser known work
written in the early 1920s, - Chheleboyeshay, and argues that behind his flippant style Sibram
composed a critique of his contemporary Bhadralok society.
For more than a hundred years Bengali politics, culture and social norms have been determined
by a certain understanding of bhadrolokiana. The socially established and the upwardly mobile
decided the code by which life should be lived by this understanding of bhadrolokiana. A certain
image of the Bhadralok helped them to take life’s decisions, an image which is now, of late,
increasingly coming under pressure as a consequence of the assertion of the chhotolok, the
people down under, the historical counterpart of the Bhadralok.
11.
W. L. Smith, Uppsala University, SwedenTunnel of Love, The Origins of the Kalika Mangal
Themes in the genre of Mangal Kavya or Mangal Literature are usually based on the myths of
regional deities like Manasa or Dharma. The Kalika Mangal, in contrast, is a love story which tells
the story of prince Sundar who falls in love with the princess Vidya, digs a tunnel to her quarters,
and enjoys an illicit love affair with her. The goddess Kali herself plays only an offstage role in the
story. Odder still is the fact that this story is based upon a Sanskrit biography of the Kashmiri poet
Bilhana. The paper will discuss the origins of the Kalika Mangal and the remarkable
transformation of a poet’s biography into a eulogy of the goddess Kali.
12.
Monjita Palit, SOAS, LondonAmar Apon Ghorer Chabi Porer Hathey: Criminality, Colonialism and the Home in Early-
Colonial Rural Bengal
In the Baul songs of early colonial rural Bengal, the metaphor of the
bhanga ghor emerges as oneof the most frequently deployed metaphors of the human body. Baul scholars have long sought to
understand the metaphor in terms of the complex religious beliefs and rituals of the Bauls, and
have thus located the Bauls' notion of physical and/or spiritual immortality as the point of
similitude in the metaphor. However, this paper argues that the same metaphor could also be
read as being socio-culturally produced and deployed in a crucial phase of the social history of
Bengal. A closer look at the image of the threat implicit in the metaphor would enable us to read
the metaphor of the
bhanga ghor as shaped by the Bauls' specific perceptions of and responsesto the hazardous impacts of the changing social, economic and political forces in late 18th—early
19
th century Bengal.13.
Abu Musa Mohammad Arif Billah, SOAS, LondonSyncretism, Mysticism and Artistry in Alaol’s and Jayasi’s Padm
avati: a ComparativeStudy
Alaol contributed a lot in the promotion of the late medieval Bengali literature. His narrative Sufi
romance Padm
avati written in Bengali is, originally, a transformation of a Hindi poem of the sametitle by Malik Muhammad Jayasi. As a Sufi, Jayasi embellishes his Padm
avati by Persian Sufitradition, especially by Attar’s -TairMantiq u’t, the speech of birds. Alaol’s transfigures the
structure, symbolism, metaphor and exemplification of the poem immensely by his creative
imagination and by, to some extend, his own way of Sufi interpretations – well reflected in the
final part of his poem. He demonstrates his prolific Sufi idea, extending Jayasi’s fan
a, i.e.annihilation, to his baq
a, i.e. subsistence, concept by illustrating an imaginary relationshipbetween the two child princesses of Ratan Sen and Sultan Alauddin of Delhi. This paper attempts
to draw the quality, significance, syncretism, and mysticism of Alaol’s Padm
avati with necessarycitations and textual evaluation.
14.
Kerstin Andersson, University of Gothenburg, SwedenNavya Nyaya and its Social Implications in Bengal
This paper will deal with the Navya-Nyaya philosophy, one of the orthodox Indian philosophical
systems. The Navya-Nyaya proliferated in Bengal in the 11
th century with the reintroductionorthodox Hinduism by the Sena kings. The Navya-Nyaya is an elaboration of the Nyaya-
Vaisesika system, related to the Upanishads, and focused on epistemology and the pramana
theory. Logical argumentation and rational thinking comprise the correct device to obtain true
knowledge and moksha. This paper concerns the position of the Navya-Nyaya philosophy in the
wider context of Bengali history, tradition, culture and its possible expressions in contemporary
society. I will suggest that the doctrine don’t constitute a hermetically closed system separated
from the wider society. It is formed in the society and in interaction with social, cultural, political
and economic factors. I will take use of the concept of tradition put forward in anthropological
theories to frame the problem.
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