Terrorism & Communalism: The Third Session of the OS Book Tasting Club

Hebrew poet Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000)

Urdu poet Anwar Nadeem (b. 1937)

Hindi novelist Vibhuti Narayan Rai (b. 1950)

The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimeters
and the diameter of its effective range about seven metres,
with four dead and eleven wounded.
And around these in a larger circle
of pain and time, two hospitals are scattered
and one graveyard. But the young woman
who was buried in the city she came from ,
at a distance of more than a hundred kilometres,
enlarges the circle considerably,
and the solitary man mourning her death
at the distant shores of a country far across the sea
includes the entire world in the circle.
And I won't even mention the crying of orphans
that reaches up to the throne of God and
beyond, making
a circle with no end and no God.

(Translated from Hebrew by Chana Bloch)

तीस सेंटीमीटर था बम का व्यास
और इसका प्रभाव पड़ता था सात मीटर तक
चार लोग मारे गए, ग्यारह घायल हुए
लेकिन वह जवान औरत जो दफनाई गयी शहर में
वह रहने वाली थी सौ किलोमीटर से आगे कहीं की
वह बना देती है घेरे को और भी बड़ा
और वह अकेला शख्स जो समुन्दर पर किसी देश के सुदूर किनारों पर
उसकी मृत्यु का शोक कर रहा था -
समूचे संसार को ले लेता है इस घेरे में

और मैं अनाथ बच्चों के उस रुदन का ज़िक्र तक नहीं करूंगा
जो पहुंचता है ऊपर ईश्वर के सिंहासन तक
और उससे भी आगे
और जो एक घेरा बनाता है
बिना अंत और बिना ईश्वर का।

(अशोक पांडे एवं शिरीष कुमार मौर्य, अनुवादक, धरती जानती है, प्रथम संस्करण, संवाद प्रकाशन, मेरठ, २००६, पृष्ठ १७)

The poem quoted above, "The Diameter of the Bomb", is one of the three poems of the great Hebrew poet from Israel, Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000), that were recited at the third session of the Open Space Book Tasting Club on the theme "Communalism and Terrorism", held at the Academy of Mass Communication, Lucknow on 27th September, 2008. The event was also a commemoration of the emancipation of the Jews of France, which took place in 1791 on this very date, 27th September. While this poem made the people conscious of the magnitude and scale of loss as a result of terrorist attacks, the other poem "Half the People in the World", pointed out the aimless hatred that divides the world and makes peace so elusive:

Half the people in the world love the other half, half the people hate the other half.
Must I , because of this half and that, go and wander and ceaselessly change, like rain in its cycle, and sleep among rocks and become rugged like the trunks of olive trees, and hear the moon bark at me, and camouflage my love with worries, and grow like frightened grass between the railroad tracks, and live underground like a mole, and be with roots and not with branches, and not rest my cheek upon the cheek of angels, and make love in the first of the caves, and marry my wife beneath a canopy of beams that support the earth, and act out my death , unto the last breath and the last words, always and without understanding , and put flagpoles atop my house and a bomb shelter underneath. And set forth on those roads made only for returning , and go through all the terrifying stations - cat, stick, fire, water, butcher - between the kid and the Angel of Death?

Half the people love, half the people hate. And where is my place between these well-matched halves? And through what crack shall I see the white housing projects of my dreams, and the runners barefoot on the sands or, at least, the flutter of the girl's kerchief, by the hill?

(Translated from Hebrew by Joshua Cohen)

दुनिया के आधे लोग

दुनिया के आधे लोग बाकी आधे लोगों से प्यार करते हैं
आधे लोग बाकी आधों से नफरत करते हैं
क्या इस आधे और उस आधे के कारण मुझे घूमंतू बने रहना होगा
और बदलते रहना होगा वृश्तिच्क्र की तरह अनवरत क्या मुझे सोना ही होगा
चट्टानों के साथ और बनना होगा
जैतून के पेड़ के ताने जैसा रूखा
और सुनना होगा चाँद को जो भौंकता है मुझ पर
और ढांपना होगा अपने प्यार को चिंताओं की मदद से
और फूटना होगा रेल की पटरियों के बीच की भयभीत घास की तरह
और जीवित रहना होगा चूहे की तरह भूमिगत होकर
और रहना होगा जड़ के तरह बिना शाखाओं के
और क्या कभी महसूस नहीं करना होगा फरिश्तों के गालों पर
अपने गालों को और प्यार करना होगा पहली कन्दरा में
और ब्याह करना होगा धरती को सहारा देने वाली बल्लियों के
शामियाने के नीचे और अभिनीत करनी होगी अपनी मृत्यु
अन्तिम सांस और अन्तिम शब्द तक , कभी भी उसका अर्थ समझे बिना
और ऊंचा फहराना होगा अपने घर के ऊपर झंडा
और नीचे बनाना होगा बमों से बचना को तहखाना
और उन सड़कों पर जाना होगा जो केवल लौटने के लिए बनी हैं
और गुज़रना होगा उन डरावने स्टेशनों से - बिल्ली, लाठी, आग, पानी,
कसाई, बच्चे और मौत के फ़रिश्ते के बीच से होकर

आधे लोग प्यार करते हैं, आधे नफरत
एक-दूसरे के लिए बने इन दो आधों के बीच कहाँ है मेरी जगह?
और कौन सी दरार से देख सकूंगा मैं
अपने सपनों के वे उजले हाऊसिंग-प्रोजेक्ट
और बालू पर नंगे पाँव दौड़ते धावक या कम-से-कम टीले की बगल में
लहराता हुआ लडकी का रूमाल।

(अशोक पांडे एवं शिरीष कुमार मौर्य, अनुवादक, धरती जानती है, प्रथम संस्करण, संवाद प्रकाशन, मेरठ, २००६, पृष्ठ ११५-११६)

The third poem of Yehuda Amichai, "The Tourists" was read out to make the students realise that nothing is more important than human life. The poem was as follows:

Once I sat on the steps by a gate at David's Tower and placed my two heavy baskets at my side.
A group of tourists was standing around their guide and I became their target marker.
"You see that man with the baskets? Just right of his head there's an arch from thr Roman period. Just right of his head."
"But he's moving, he's moving!"
I said to myself: redemption will come only if their guide tells them, "You see that arch from the Roman period? It's not important, but next to it, left and down a bit, there sits a man who's bought fruit and vegetables for his family."

(Translated from Hebrew by Glenda Abramson and Tudor Parfitt)

सैलानी

एक बार मैं डेविड के किले के प्रवेश द्वार के पास सीढियों पर बैठा था ।
अपनी दो भारी टोकरियाँ मैंने नीचे रख दी थीं बगल में। वहीं, अपने गाइड के साथ खडा था सैलानियों का एक झुंड । और मैं उनके लिए एक सन्दर्भ बिन्दु बन गया - "वहाँ देख रहे हैं आप वह आदमी जो टोकरियों के साथ बैठा है? उसके सर के दाईं तरफ़ रोमन काल का मेहराब है, वो उसके सर के थोड़ा दाईं तरफ़। "लेकिन वह आदमी तो हिल रहा है , हिल रहा है वह।" मैंने ख़ुद से कहा : मुक्ति तब मिलेगी जब उन्हें बताया जायेगा - देख रहे हैं वहाँ जो रोमन काल का मेहराब है ? वो कोई ख़ास नहीं, उसके पास, थोडा बाईं तरफ़ और ज़रा सा नीचे एक आदमी बैठा है, अभी-अभी अपने परिवार के लिए उसने फल और सब्जियां ख़रीदी हैं।

(अशोक पांडे एवं शिरीष कुमार मौर्य, अनुवादक, धरती जानती है, प्रथम संस्करण, संवाद प्रकाशन, मेरठ, २००६, पृष्ठ १४०-१४१)

All the above mentioned poems were read in Hindi from the Hindi translation of a selection of Amichai's poems: Ashok Pandey and Sirish Kumar Maurya, Dharti Jaanti Hai, First Edition, Samvaad Prakashan, Meerut, 2006.

An Urdu poem "Ek Buree Surat-e-Haal", taken from Anwar Nadeem's collection of poems Jai Shri Ram!, Humlog Publishers, Lucknow, 1993, was also read out to draw attention to the the rise of communalism in India:

दो चार नहीं, सैकडों
बहुत बुरी बातें हो गयीं
फिर भी कुछ लोग
यही समझ के बैठ रहे
अब कुछ नहीं हो सकता !

मालूम नहीं फिर किसने उकसाया
नमाजें पढने लगे
और अपने दीन को समझने की
संजीदा कोशिशों में
एक दूसरे से
दूर होते गए !!

Poetry recitation was followed by the reading out of excerpts from Vibhuti Narayan Rai's Hindi novel शहर में कर्फियु (Curfew in the City), First Edition, Sambhavna Prakashan, Hapur, 1988.

After the reading there was a lively discussion with the students on Terrorism and Communalism.

Feminism in Modern India: Film-Screening and Discussion

A clipping from Unlimited Girls

Paromita Vohra, the Director of the documentary-film Unlimited Girls, Sakshi, 2004
Photo courtesy: www.hindonnet.com

Open Space
organised the screening of the documentary-film
Unlimited Girls
and a discussion following it
on
Feminism in Modern India
on
Tuesday, 23rd September, 2008
at
the premises of the NGO Saajhi Duniya, Lucknow

Workshop on Dalit Issues

Photo courtesy: www. pratirodh.blogspot.com

आसमानों से कहो अब तो ज़मीं को देखें
ये ज़मीं करवटें लेती है की बेदार है आज!
(अनवर नदीम)

Open Space organised a workshop on Dalit issues on 20th September, 2008 at Nari Shiksha Niketan Post Graduate College (an affiliate college of the University of Lucknow), which was conducted by Parul Jaitly, Fellow, Indian Council for Historical Research and Guest Faculty, University of Lucknow, who spoke on the emergence of the term 'Dalit' and then presented a slide show on the condition of Dalits in modern India. After which she indulged in a lively discusion with the students on the issues concerning Dalits, with the aim of making them conscious of how they discriminate against Dalits in their daily lives , quite often unknowingly. Dalit literally means "crushed" or "ground down", and was first used in its present sense in the 30s to refer to the oppressed sections of Indian society, as a Marathi and Hindi translation for the English term "Depressed Classes", used by the British in India for these people. These people are also called Scheduled Castes, Ex-Untouchables (that is what they have been in the evil traditional caste order) and Harijan. but Dalit remains the mostly widely accepted of all, though not uncontested. The term Dalit emerged in the '70s as a symbol of the new militant movement of the oppressed, with the formation of the Dalit Panthers in Maharashtra, the Dalit Sangharsh Samiti in Karnataka, and many others. It certainly is shameful for a country that is proud of being the world's largest democracy that a section of its population , the Dalits continue to be oppressed and discriminate against, even if on a smaler scale , in spite of all kinds of laws for the protection of their rights. The workshop was attended by about one hundred and fifty students. Many faculty members were also present on the occasion, viz., Dr. Sunita Singh of the Department of Education, Dr. Vandana Upreti of the Department of Political Science and Dr. Meena Kala of the Department of Economics.

Dialogue between Indian and Afghan Students

بنی آدم اعضای یک پیکرندکه در آفرينش ز یک گوهرند
چو عضوى به درد آورد روزگاردگر عضوها را نماند قرار
تو کز محنت دیگران بی غمینشاید که نامت نهند آدمی

Humans are parts of each other, one
All humans in creation share one origin
If a member allots pangs and pains
No ease for other member then remains
If you are unaware of others’ grief then
Thou are not worthy of name of man

This verse by the great Persian poet Saadi (circa 1184-1292 CE) was recited by an Afghan student at a workshop titled “Perspectives on Personal & Political Themes” organised by Open Space as part of its series Diversity Dialogue at the Department of Philosophy, University of Lucknow on Thursday, 4th September 2008, at which fifteen of the forty-two Afghan students enrolled at the University of Lucknow indulged in an inter-cultural dialogue with the Indian students of the university, belonging to different departments. Some of the interesting responses to the many questions asked were as follows:

Were you ever taught about Afghanistan’s pre-Islamic history?
Of course, Afghanistan was called Ariana or Bakhtar (according to Will Durant), which was one of the seven very first civilisations of the East. Zartosht (Zoroastrianism) as a religion, founded by its prophet in the city of Balkh, which is believed to be the place to later have the first Zartoshti (Zoroastrian) government with King Goshtaasb. Also it is said to be the first ever government with a strong control over the whole wide region of Ariana. Later, we had the first ever Buddhist government in Taksila, which had control over the whole territory of modern Afghanistan. The tall Buddha statues in Bamiyan were memorials of that age. The Buddhist phase was a golden age for Afghanistan, when the Chinese monks and scholars used to come to Bamiyan to pursue their studies. According to my Indian history teacher, the first ever university of the world was established in Baluchistan – Afghanistan.

Why has peace eluded Afghanistan for so long?
There are many reasons behind it, from my point of view. The very first is that the Afghans are not united, and this disunity comes from the intrusions of foreign powers like the USA, Pakistan, Russia, Iran and maybe some others. These intruders fund their groups in Afghanistan and every single one of them seeks benefits out of conflicts. For example, Iran doesn’t want the Salma Dam to be built so that it does not curtail the supply of water from Afghanistan to Iran.

Are you happy with India’s role in the development of post-war Afghanistan?
India is one of the largest countries helping and supporting Afghanistan in the post-war period. India is active in the development and reconstruction of my country. India has done many projects in the past and still doing many, such as building of roads, dams, construction of government buildings, and educational projects. We are happy with India’s role in Afghanistan.

Is your opinion of Indians now, after having stayed here as student, any different from what you had before you came to India?
I did not know much about Indians. And when I came to India I met different people, who were all so kind and honest. And I made a number of good friends, helped by the close relationship Indians and Afghans enjoy.

Do you consider India to be a friend of Afghanistan?
The answer to this question could simply be positive. The course of history answers this question very clearly. India and Afghanistan have enjoyed a very friendly relationship for a long time, except the short period of Taliban: 1996-2001. There are numerous reasons for this close and friendly relationship, viz., political, economical, cultural and many more.
Political: Considering the Indo-Pak disputes, India’s needs to have a close relationship with Afghanistan, who is a neighbour to Pakistan.

Economical: Afghanistan has attracted India’s attention because of its strategic location, testified by the great importance the country has enjoyed as a destination on the famous Silk Route in history.
Cultural: During the course of history, for a long time, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India were united as one. If you look at the recent history, large parts of today’s northern India, including Kashmir and Pakistan were ruled by Afghanistan and were parts of Afghanistan. Relations between the two countries have left cultural commonalities between the two, testified by some historical monuments left by Afghans in India and also by India’s interest in Afghanistan today.

Are you aware of the age-old Indo-Afghan ties?
Of course yes. Most of the time the relationship was very cohesive, cooperative and integrative type in nature, but some fundamentalist forces want to spoil this relationship, which is just contrary to the real feelings of Indians and Afghans for each other. Old Indo-Afghan ties were basically based on the spread of Buddhism which finally led to a secular relationship between the two countries.

What opinion do you have of Taliban?
PUBLIC ENEMY # 1!
Taliban are enemies of Afghanistan. Taliban were created by the CIA to fight against the former USSR. After the disintegration of the USSR, Afghans became the victims of the fundamentalist Taliban. We are still suffering from the wrong policies of the world powers – I mean the Big Brothers!!!

Would you like the Pashtun inhabited Federally Administered Tribal Areas of the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan to:
Merge with Afghanistan
Emerge as an independent Pashtunistan
Remain with Pakistan
Although this question is a very big issue in today’s Afghanistan’s policy, yet what I think is that Pashtuns living in Pakistan should be given the right to decide whether they want independence or want to be part of Pakistan. As a neighbour to Afghanistan, we want them in peace with stability, since their instability effects Afghanistan to a great extent.

Do you think Pashtuns have dominated Afghanistan for far too long and it is high time they took a backseat?
This is a very tough question to answer. I think there is no ethnic discrimination in my mind. The president of Afghanistan can belong to any of the Afghan ethnicities; what really matters is the personality, not the ethnicity. What matters is the way he works. Does he work for the welfare of the people of the country or not? This is the question which really matters for me.

Do you find any discrimination against non-Pashtuns in Afghanistan?
No, there is no discrimination against non-Pashtuns in Afghanistan, because both, Pashtuns as well as non-Pashtuns are Afghanis. In Afghanistan there are two great nations – Pashtuns and Tajiks. And they live together in one home (Afghanistan) with peace and unity.

Do you think the foreign military presence in Afghanistan is justified?
This is a difficult question. I honestly can’t answer this without analysis. But today due to some reasons Afghanistan needs the international forces.

How do you perceive Pakistan’s policy towards Afghanistan?
Pakistan is playing a double game with Afghanistan. It has always tried to instigate conflicts by taking the side of one group or the other. Pakistan does so because of the area called Pashtunistan, which receives donations from the international community, fear of Indian friendship with Afghanistan and of peaceful Afghanistan. The war in Afghanistan that is going on now is completely supported by Pakistan. They always support the terrorists oming to Afghanistan from their borders.

Are you aware of the fact that the pre-Islamic Afghanistan was largely Buddhist?
Yes, Afghanistan was a Buddhist country before Islam came. Ashoka was a Buddhist king who established the first Buddhist government in Afghanistan. He chose Taxila (now in Pakistan) as the capital of his Buddhist government.

Which cinema do you enjoy the most: Hollywood, Bollywood or Irani, and why?
Hollywood. The good thing about Hollywood is that they make realistic movies.

How do you respond to Afghan students?
I personally know most of the Afghan students since a year, and my experience with them has been better than my experience with most of my Indian friends. They are very hospitable and co-operative, and whatever prejudice I had about Afghans was counteracted.

What do you think of Miss Afghanistan Vida Samadzai?
Actually she doesn’t represent Afghanistan because she is a British citizen and in Afghanistan we don’t have such contests; so how could she represent Afghanistan?

Which of your traditions do you like the most?
In my point of view the most favourite tradition is our hospitality. The way an Afghan treats his or her guests is really great.

Would you like Afghanistan to remain an Islamic State or would you like it to become Secularist?
A lot of people think religiously, but I personally vote for a secular Afghanistan!