Session on the Growing Racial, Ethnic and Nationalistic Intolerance

Katherine Kressman Taylor (1903-1996)

Open Space held a session on the growing racial, ethnic and nationalistic intolerance on Wednesday, 3rd February at the Academy of Mass Communication, during which Katherine Kressman Taylor's story Address Unknown (1938) was read out. The reading was followed by a discussion around it and on the theme of the session.

When it first appeared in Story magazine in 1938, Address Unknown became an immediate social phenomenon and literary sensation. Published in book form a year later and banned in Nazi Germany, it garnered high praise in the United States and much of Europe.

A series of fictional letters between a Jewish art dealer living in San Francisco and his former business partner, who has returned to Germany, Address Unknown is a haunting tale of enormous power and enduring impact.

As Published Weekly rightly reviewed, "Address Unknown serves not only as a reminder of Nazi horrors but as a cautionary tale in light of current racial, ethnic, and nationalistic intolerance."

The story's review that appeared in Time on 30th September, 2002 can be read over here.

Screening of BEING OSAMA on International Migrants Day

Open Space
screened the documentary
Being Osama
on
International Migrants Day

Friday, 18th December, 2009
at
Open Space - Lucknow Office


It was on 18th December in 1774 when Jews were expelled from Prague, Bohemia, and Moravia.

Jointly made by a Jew and a Muslim and recipient of a number of international awards, Being Osama details the lives of six Montreal men, all with the first name Osama, in the wake of 9/11.

Screening of THE ROMANY TRAIL on International Human Rights Day

Open Space
drew attention to the plight of the Romani,
who have Indian origin,
by screening the documentary
The Romany Trail - Part I
on
International Human Rights Day
Thursday, 10th December, 2009
at
Open Space - Lucknow Office

The people popularly known as gypsies are shrouded in mystery : migratory tribes of Indian origin, with their own language and a lifestyle that has kept them apart from tha mainstream of most the societies in which they have settled. To the Romani people, music is a life force and a medium to tell of their history and suffering. They are the victims of ignorance and prejudice, who have suffered much, and their experiences are expressed in their music and dance across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

The Romany Trail - Part One takes us on a search for the lost Romani tribes of Egypt, up to the Nile to the ancient town of Luxor in the shadw of the great Pharaoh's tomb. Along the way, from the markets of Cairo to the temple of Karnak, we meet dancing girls and acrobats, magicians, fortune-tellers and even mystics performing an exorcism. The programme culminates in the rythms of Flamenco, in the gypsy caves of the Alhambra, where some of Spain's foremost gypsy families celebrate their history.

A Week of Stories from Nazi Concentration Camps

Tadeusz Borowski (1922-1951)

Yogendra Krishna

Open Space
organised
"A Week of Stories from Nazi Concentration Camps"
from 7th to 12th December, 2009
at
Open Space - Lucknow Office,
during which
Yogendra Krishna's Hindi translations of
Tadeusz Borowski's Polish stories
from his collection
This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen
(गैस चेंबर के लिए कृप्या इस तरफ़)
were read out.

Human Rights in South Asia and the Fight Against Terrorism and Communalism

The greatest challenge facing any free society in a time of war - which is what this is - always has been remaining a free society while effectively fighting that war. Too often, today's free societies seem hopelessly split between the extremes of craven appeasement and blatant communalism. Neither option is anything other than a prescription for disaster," said Dr. Richard L. Benkin, a Jewish Human Rights Activist, while delivering a lecture on "The Fight Against Terrorism and Communalism" on Friday, 13th March, 2009, at the Department of Ancient Indian History and Archaeology, University of Lucknow, under the auspices of Open Space - Lucknow.

Owner and Founder of Inter-Faith Strength and Member of Islam-Israel Fellowship Council, Dr. Benkin said, "Free societies have a difficult time demonizing any faith, and rightly so. But this also casts those who are ready to fight the radicals as extremists and communalists. Extremists cannot win this war; those who are too timid even to name our foe cannot even fight it. That must change and change quickly."

Dr. Benkin concluded by saying,"The good news is that it can. It is not even that difficult, but it will take a core group of committed activists from all communities who agree to take the necessary actions together."

A report on the event can be read on The Pioneer website.

"From the perspective of a knowledgeable outsider, South Asia presents a picture of a region with nations that use the language of human rights extensively but remain silent at arguably the most extensive record of accepted major human rights abuses in the world. We have numerous examples of inter-communal violence perpetrated against Muslims in Gujarat, Hindus in Kashmir and Ahmadiya in Bangladesh, just to name three. Radical Islamist terrorism has been targeting non-Muslims with growing frequency in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur and elsewhere. Ethnic cleansing is being practised against Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh with government complicity; and in Bhutan by the government. Even the region's tiny Jewish population has been victimized with Christians in Northeast India preventing the B'nei Menashe from emigrating to Israel.

"Because South Asia is home to the world's second, third, and fourth largest Muslim populations, more than 95 per cent of the world's Hindus, and close to one in four people on the planet; this phenomenon is frightening not only for South Asia but for the entire world, " said Dr. Richard L. Benkin the next day, i.e. Saturday, 14th March, 2009, while giving a talk on "The Frightening Phenomenon of Human Rights Violations in South Asia", jointly organised by Open Space - Lucknow and Circle for Child and Youth Research Cooperation in India, at the Academic Staff College, University of Lucknow.

Author of a monograph on Bangladeshi Hindus, titled A Quiet Case of Ethnic Cleansing, Dr. Benkin drew attention particularly to the plight of Hindus in Bangladesh. He said, "Governments and populations alike seem paralysed to take effective action. The thing most likely to galvanize both is a specific issue behind which every moral individual and entity can get. The wanton destruction of Bangladeshi Hindus is one such issue. From almost one in five Bangladeshis to less than one in ten today; Bangladeshi Hindus have been murdered and raped in ritual fashion and had their property legally plundered, while lower level official participated in the carnage and successive governments remained passive. Moreover, the world remained silent. Where was the government of the United States? The UN or the Human Rights NGOs such as Amnesty International? When we talk to leaders about it, they either plead ignorance or offer some excuse about why inaction was better than action. If one objects that it should not matter that the victims are Hindu; realize that it matters only because the perpetrators have made it matter. These atrocities occured because the victims were Hindu. And perhaps the world is silent for the same reason." Dr. Benkin received "Special US Congressional Recognition in 2005 and was nominated for Lorenzo Natali Prize for Journalism in 2006.