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India - Pakistan Reconciliation School
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India - Pakistan Reconciliation School
India - Pakistan Reconciliation School. Still coming more.
International Center for Bigotry Studies
Center for Bigotry Studies.....
School for Politicians
This is school for politicians....
School for Life Studies
Here u can find titles like Conflict Resolution, Futures Visioning, Human
Rights, Non Violence, Diversity & Existence ....
Foresee India
The widespread communalization of our polity, perpetuation of casteism,
capitulation to capitalist globalization, and the naïve political trend of
choosing either centripetalism....
Communalism Watch and Governance Monitor
The BJP Government Watch.
Movement Against Nuclear Power
This leads to movement against Nuclear Power.
Green Party of India
What do you do when "all roads lead to doom" and not travelling is not an
option? The answer is, of course, pave a new road! A road that avoids the
pitfalls of the existing roads, a road that takes us to bloom instead of doom!
SACCER ACTION TRUST
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Retrieving the Values for the Resurgent Nation!
Reinventing the Concept for the Globalizing World!!
S. P. Udayakumar
January 6, 2001
The widespread communalization of our polity, perpetuation of casteism,
capitulation to capitalist globalization, and the naïve political trend of
choosing either centripetalism (centralization), or centrifugalism
(secessionism) rather than pantyhose
free their healthy mix should make every Indian feel
concerned.
When the BJP --and by extension, the RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal and the rest of them-
managed to capture state power in early 1998, I proposed to establish an
informal group of intellectuals and activists called "BJP Government Watch" to
keep an eye on the commissions and the omissions of the BJP-led government. Only
one person, N. Ram, editor of
pantyhose photos Frontline, supported the idea and gave me the
strength to proceed further. The BGW was renamed as "Communalism Watch and
Governance Monitor" (CWGM) when the Vajpayee regime fell down in April 1999. It
was an interesting coincidence that N. Ram was in Minneapolis that time giving
the keynote speech in the two-day symposium I organized on "India-Pakistan
Relations: What Lies Ahead."
The CWGM Digest has grown substantially and it has been a vibrant network of
like-minded people who feel strongly about the growth of communalism and bigotry
in India. I, for one, have definitely enjoyed being part of this network.
However, I have always had a sense of frustration that the CWGM Digests have
been more like preaching to the converted. There is also a tinge of
self-deception in this keyboard activism that gives us a false satisfaction that
brazil shemales we have done something. Of course, we do spread the word around and that is an
important task in itself, but we rarely manage to change anything significantly.
While many people contributed to the CWGM network with such commitment and
passion and used the material in their own research and writings, the
unconnected "ordinary" folks did not matter much in our network. Most of these
people are not even aware of the existence of email, internet and the
information superhighway. At the same time, they are relentlessly targeted by
communalists, casteists, profiteering globalizers, and other depraved forces.
Even a cursory look at the Indian situation today should reveal scores of
pressing issues that torment our national society and highlight the urgent need
to foresee an India that is free from these evils. Perhaps most of these issues
begin with a "C" in order to make us "see" the depressing present and then
"foresee" a future without them:
Social Issues: Communalism, Casteism
Cultural Issues: Chauvinism (Male & Adult), Colonialism, Copycatism (in national
development, science and technology etc.)
Economic Issues: Capitalism (Globalization), Child-servitude, Cancer(Nuke)Power
Political Issues: Centripetalism (Centralization), Centrifugalism
(Secessionism), Corruption, Criminalization, Cannibalism (weapons of mass
destruction) etc.
The response of the political parties, media and most of the civil society in
general has been reactive rather than proactive. Even those reactive responses
are hardly coherent or constructive with credible alternatives. Many
well-meaning individuals and groups issue statements, sign petitions, fax
letters to authorities but there is rarely any
shemale free systematic preparation,
distribution and administration of some antidote to the poisons that are
afflicting our bodypolitic.
It is high time Indian intellectuals, activists, artists, and others come
together and retrieve the core values for the nation retaining the good and
rejecting the bad. Such a group should move beyond internet, English language
and esoteric discussions; go into our cities, villages and slums; and offer
interactive seminars, workshops, and hands-on training on some of the
aforementioned issues from five different angles:
Diagnosis-Prognosis-Therapy Analysis*
Human Rights
Conflict Resolution*
Nonviolence
Futures Visioning
(* DPA is one of Johan Galtung's analytical methods. Focussing more on
therapies, we could consider Preventive, Curative and Alternative remedies. In
Conflict Resolution, we could focus on Galtung's Transcend method; see
www.transcend.org).
Take, for instance, Communalism, and the "Foresee India" group would look at it
from the above five different angles. The interactive seminars, workshops, and
hands-on training sessions would be along the following lines:
Shedding Bigotry and Celebrating Diversity
Communalism as a Human Rights Violation (Focussing on Early Warning, Monitoring,
Safeguarding, Follow-up tasks etc.)
Transcending Communal Situations through Creative Conflict Resolution Methods
Nonviolence Theories and Techniques to Confront Communalism
Envisioning Futures without Communalism and Hatred.
The "Foresee India" group can have broader commissions and smaller committees on
specific issues and develop material and methods from the five different angles
that are identified above. Eventually, the group could develop training manuals
on these topics in English and Indian languages and disseminate them widely both
online and offline. Colleges, schools, community organizations, women's
movements, youth groups, trade unions and others could use the material in their
own way for their own purposes.
The "Foresee India" group also needs to have tens of thousands of
seminar-leaders, workshop-providers and trainers offering services both online
and onsite around the country in all Indian languages and make Indians,
especially young Indians think, feel and act for themselves.
As we retrieve India's core values for the resurgent nation, we also need to
reinvent the concept of India for the globalizing world. After all, India is not
just a country; it is a concept, a concept of multiracial, multicultural,
multireligious, multilingual coexistence and growth.
Our inferiority-complex-stricken ruling elites are craving for recognition from
their Northern counterparts by trying to speak the latter's destructive language
such as nuclear weapons, missile defense, massive dams, Security Council seat
and so forth.
But the world has always known India for something more original, more creative,
and more liberating. For the celebration of diversity, reverence for life,
sustainable development, alternative technologies, nonviolence heritage,
Panchshila principles, nonaligned politics, and independence of thought and
action!
When India is attracting more and more attention around the world, those
individuals and groups who are working hard in their our own respective spheres
should join hands and begin foreseeing a new India!
Green Party Of India
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S. P. Udayakumar
September 8, 2000
What do you do when "all roads lead to doom" and not travelling is not an
option? The answer is, of course, pave a new road! A road that avoids the
pitfalls of the existing roads, a road that takes us to bloom instead of doom!
This is how many Indians feel about the contemporary Indian politics which
comprises three major forces and a fourth offshoot: rightists, leftists,
centrists and opportunists. The communal elements with their "back to the
(medieval) future" politics have managed to occupy the center stage in Indian
politics for the first time. Quite thankfully, however, the past two general
elections have demonstrated that the Hindutva rightists have reached their
saturation point and are unlikely to be the overwhelming choice of Indian
voters. More and more Hindu-Indians do realize now that if we embrace the Sangh
Parivar's hateful and divisive politics, all our collective national futures
will be doomed. The cunning and insincere "flesh and blood" rhetoric of the
former BJP president Bangaru Laxman (who later stepped down when he was caught
on camera taking bribes) with regards to Indian Muslims only alarmed the Muslims
and other minorities further. So the future of the rightist politics in India is
not bright.
On the other end of the spectrum are the confused comrades. Progressive and
well-meaning as they maybe, Indian Communists have been rendered clueless by
today's complex politics. Ever since the grand scheme of Communist globalization
fell by the wayside, the Communists have offered neither an alternative to the
cut-throat global market nor a credible program to resist it forcefully. Their
socioeconomic salvation scheme is quite identical to the Western 'Holy Trinity'
paradigm of nation-statism, scientism and developmentalism. The Indian
Communists uphold high principles in politics with all the tainted and
totalitarian leaders and parties. Bereft of the revolutionary fire and passion
for justice, they try to survive by "press release" politics.
The centrists, as their name suggests, are neither here nor there. They are
anything but centered. The major actor, Congress party, has done enough damage
to the secular fabric of our nation, its governance, and its credibility as a
world leader. With no vision or mission, they are still wallowing in their
dynastic buffoonery fantasizing that Priyanka or her child will one day come to
their political rescue. While the Congress is dying a slow and agonizing natural
death (with occasional bouts of hopes here and there), other centrists such as
the Janata Dals, Lok Shakti, Samata Party and others are all trying harder than
ever to strangle each other to death.
The TDPs, the DMKs, the AIADMKs and the like bend leftwards or rightwards
depending on the political winds of the day. Even worse, they adjust their
principles and politics depending upon what their arch rival does.
When all is said and done, the bottom line of Indian politics today is this:
none of the existing political parties and leaders seems to have a coherent
vision and a credible program for the socioeconomic-political salvation of the
country. None of them seems to have the political will or moral strength to
challenge the status quo and change the nature of our polity.
The irony of the matter is that we cannot scrape along like this for too long.
Scores of "East India Companies" are flooding our economic life. We still have
some 400 million poor people among us who are further oppressed by casteism,
sexism, child servitude and so forth. The unresolved partition as much as the
protracted conflict in Kashmir is taking a heavy toll on our scarce resources
and creative energies. The old-fashioned communalism and hatred is taking over
our identity politics and undermining social harmony. Worst of all, the
India-Pakistan nuclear arms race is hanging over our heads like the sword of
Damocles. Consequently, all our individual and collective futures stand
threatened. In this situation, run-of-the-mill politics is not going to help us
get to our desired destinations.
When the political going gets tough, the politically tough go shopping. For new
roadmaps, new vehicles, new drivers, new dreams! To travel the new roads and
reach the new destinations! We, as a nation, need new politics for the next
century!
This "new" does not necessarily mean that we need to invent something that has
been unknown to us. All it means is that new people should come together, dream
new dreams, identify new ideology, assert new morality, and assume new roles.
Even a cursory look beyond the ugly mainstream political façade that we have
erected at the national level would reveal a marvelous group of individuals and
organizations working tirelessly on their own choice socioeconomic-political
issues with such commitment and results.
Some engage the global market, its development paradigms, its discriminatory
practices, and its future-blind attitude. Others fight against communalism,
hatred, casteism, sexism, and other human rights violations. Yet others oppose
destructive dams, other such gargantuan "development" projects, nuclear weapons,
nuclear power and so forth. There are women's groups, student movements,
employees' associations, Gandhians, journalists, physicians, scientists and
others who subscribe to similar political causes and engage in serious
struggles.
There is a nascent peace movement in India that is steadily gathering strength.
There are numerous periodicals and occasional publications in local languages
all over India seeking to sensitize people to environmental issues, women's
issues, children's issues, Dalit issues and so forth.
There are so many valiant leaders in all these struggles who are injecting hopes
and dreams into the minds and hearts of millions of Indians around the country.
These leaders are fighting out there for the greater common good and not for
personal aggrandizement, power, or popularity. There are clear and strong
commonalities and similarities among most of these groups and leaders who are
confronting globalization, communalism, nationalistic jingoism, nuclearism,
human rights violations, and violence of all sorts.
Despite their shared values, similar visions and programs, and same kind of will
and commitment, most of them remain disjointed. They do highly political work in
their own respective spheres and localities but carefully avoid the political
hot seat. By doing so, they not only fail to fill the huge political vacuum that
exists out there in the Indian society but aggravate it by squandering their own
creative political work and energies.
They want to play shy of electoral politics even though that often neutralizes
all their good work. It is not hard to see why they scorn electoral politics.
But running away from decision-making roles and responsibilities make their
struggles harder, fulfill their missions only partially, leave their
constituencies politically helpless, and render their own good work vulnerable
to the vagaries of self-centered politicos. It is high time these groups and
individuals knitted their struggles, achievements, failures, fears,
frustrations, dreams and hopes together and provided a national political
alternative.
Such a national political alternative should be a platform for environmental
concerns, sustainable development, human rights issues, subaltern struggles,
coexistence ethos, good governance, and moral high ground in public life. It has
to be both peace-oriented and futuristic. It should be guided by norms and
values and not by mindless dogmas and doctrines. That national political
alternative should be an intellectual movement directed by head and heart and
hand for the wellbeing of all Indians. It is all the more useful if such a
national political alternative can identify itself with like-minded people in
the neighboring countries and also be part of a global movement for peace and
justice.
Green politics is a credible candidate for this new politics India is craving
for. This worldwide movement is local, national, regional and global, and
transcends these boundaries easily without undermining the interests of any of
these jurisdictions. Green Party is an entreaty for ecodevelopment, common
security, and new citizenship marked by civil rights, democratic participation,
human rights and protection for the rights of minorities.
The Indian public who have a healthy respect for environment, sustainable
development, appropriate technology, and broader understanding of security and
citizenship must find Green politics quite appealing. Green politics being more
of a life-style than a blind submission to a dogma, or a demagogue, or a foreign
country, it should be quite alluring to the politically unaffiliated
free-thinking Indians, especially our youth and students.
If all the disparate groups and individuals that are fighting for
socioeconomic-political causes outside the political mainstream join hands
together with such a common national vision, program and will, the Green Party
of India will surely energize us and bring about a political renaissance for
India.