In Dark Times

The Holocaust

Babri Mosque Demolition, 1992

Gujarat, 2002

Kandhmal, 2008

Bertolt Brecht

Gauhar Raza

Open Space
screened Gauhar Raza directed documentary-film
ज़ुल्मतों के दौर में (In Dark Times)
on Sunday, 19th April, 2009 at its premises in Lucknow.

Using Bertolt Brecht's poetry and footage from Nazi Germany and contemporary India the film puts together a persuasive argument about the ways in which Fascism grows and takes over society. It shows Hitler's rise to power through electoral process as an example, and subtly draws parallels between the conditions in Germany then and in India currently.

The screening was preceded and followed by discussions.

A Message of Communal Harmony and a Muslim's Search for his Jewish Mother

Soz Malihabadi, a devout Muslim, with his Jewish aunts, Katty alias Khatoon (left) and Ghazala (right) in 1995

From the left in the front row: Maqbool Ahmad Khan, Mahfooz Ahmad Khan 'Soz Malihabadi', Rehana (nee Rahama), Manzoor Ahmad Khan (Soz's elder brother), Katty alias Khatoon and Ghazala

On Friday, 17th April, 2009, Open Space organised a poetry session dedicated to communal harmony, particulary peace between Jews and Muslims, with the Urdu poet Soz Malihabadi , who has been in search of his Jewish mother for fifteen years, at the Academy of Mass Communication, Lucknow. At the session Soz Malihabadi recited his poems and narrated the story of his unceasing search for his Jewish mother, a story that connects three continents (Asia, Europe and North America), five countries (India, Israel, Canada, the United Kingdom and Pakistan) and the two communities that are sadly seen as natural adversaries today, viz., Jews and Muslims.

Urdu poet and Hafiz-e-Qur'an (one who has memorised the entire Qur'an), Mahfooz Ahmad Khan 'Soz Malihabadi' was absolutely ignorant of his Jewish maternal side until he received a letter from his London-based Jewish aunt one day at his modest dwelling in Kakori in Lucknow district. Soz had grown up hearing that his mother passed away when he was very small. The next letter from his aunt proved to be the catalyst that set him on the the search for his mother, Rehana (nee Rahmah), about whom he discovered from the letter that she was still alive and lived in the neighbouring country Pakistan.

Born in a Baghdadi Jewish family resident in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Rehana (nee Rahmah) married a young handsome Pathan, Maqbool Ahmad Khan, in 1947. In 1950, their second child, Mahfooz Ahmad Khan, who later came to be known as Soz Malihabadi, was born to the couple. Soon Maqbool's thriving business failed, reducing him to penny pinching and souring his relations with his wife, who aspired to be a film actor. In 1955 they got divorced and Rehana married a Pakistani Airforce officer and moved to Pakistan, leaving behind her two little sons and two orphan young sisters in her former husband Maqbool's custody. In 1956 Soz Malihabadi's young orphan aunts, Khatoon and Ghazala reached Israel under the Zionist programme of Youth Aliyah (emigration to Israel aimed at the ingathering of Jewish exiles from around the world), while Soz with his father moved to his ancestral village, midway betwen Malihabad and Kakori in Lucknow district.

When Soz met his aunts in Mumbai after an epoch of forty years, he enquired about his mother's whereabouts, but strangely enough they refused to divulge it to him. Not losing hope, Soz made a trip to Karachi, Pakistan, in search of his mother, but to no avail. The posture taken by his aunts absolutely disillusioned him, and he severed all ties with them. The Muslim son is still in search of his Jewish mother.

Religious Harmony

University of Lucknow

University of Lucknow

University of Lucknow

University of Lucknow

University of Lucknow

American Institute of Indian Studies, Lucknow

American Institute of Indian Studies, Lucknow

American Institute of Indian Studies, Lucknow

American Institute of Indian Studies, Lucknow

American Institute of Indian Studies, Lucknow

American Institute of Indian Studies, Lucknow

American Institute of Indian Studies, Lucknow

American Institute of Indian Studies, Lucknow

Open Space
organised a couple of presentations dedicated to
Religious Harmony,
at which
the New York-based Documentary Filmmaker and Writer
Sadia Shepard
read out from her book,
The Girl from Foreign (Penguin 2008),
which is an account of her childhood spent with an American Christian father, Pakistani Muslim mother and Indian Jewish maternal grandmother, and of her quest for her Indian Jewish roots.
She also screened her documentary film based on these experiences of hers,
In Search of the Bene Israel, and spoke about Religious Harmony.
The American Cinematographer and Film-Editor Andreas Burgess was the Chief Guest at the presentations.

Monday, 30th March, 2009
American Institute of Indian Studies,
46/3 Wazir Hasan Road, Lucknow


Tuesday, 31st March, 2009
Department of Ancient Indian History and Archaeology,
University of Lucknow

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.