Peace Vigil

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSQClLnDbQE

जगाओ न बापू को नींद आ गयी है - गांधी जी की हत्या के दिन लिखा शमीम कराहनी का गीत ये गीत शमीम कराहनी ने 30 जनवरी 1948 को लिखा, जिस दिन गाँधी की हत्या की गयी. शमीम कराहनी भारत के स्वतंत्रता आंदोलन के कवि थ...

Good things happen too! Zohran Mamdani from the perspective of peace.

Zohran Kwame Mamdani - election - What it means for peace? New York has a new mayor - Zohran Kwame Mamdani. A lot has been said about the election and what it means. Most of the commentary is about his identity and i...

Is there a new Gandhi?

Greetings of peace on MK Gandhi’s birth anniversary. In my three decades of work as a peace educator, it is not uncommon to come across the sigh of “wish there was a Gandhi today”.

When senseless violence, especially in the name of religion, grips society, one cannot help but think of Gandhi who brought people together and stood as a rock against hate and prejudice.

But I do not hear of Gandhi often when gross injustice is talked about. The fault lies as much in the teaching of Gandhi by activists as the description of the man by those who gain from oppression in society.

Gandhi is talked about in terms of peace; not in terms of justice.

This is not only a huge disservice to Gandhi’s lived teachings but to peace itself which cannot exist without justice.

I write to you today, on October 2, for a momentous reason – not because Gandhi was born today but because his legacy has never been so splendidly upheld!

Global Sumud Flotilla

I am talking of the brave 500 people from 57 countries on the Global Sumud Flotilla who have dared to directly and non-violently confront the unbelievably brutal and sadistic military occupiers of Gaza. Sumud Flotilla is the biggest ever act of organized international non-violent civil resistance in recorded history. It is a coordinated fleet of over 40, mostly small vessels, sailing to break Israel’s illegal siege on Gaza.

As I write this, Israeli army which has the full support and backing of the US, has illegally intercepted about half of the boats and abducted many activists. But two dozen boats are still sailing towards Gaza to break the siege and one has actually managed to enter the territorial waters of Gaza.

The flotilla continues to sail to accomplish what it set out to do – break the aid blockade of Gaza. Israel is killing and starving Palestinians and is not allowing help to reach them.

Would Gandhi have approved?

My study of Gandhi’s lived teachings tells me that he would not only have approved but joined the flotilla. Let us look at these specifics:

1. The flotilla is the initiative of civil society. It does have the support of some governments and even has some parliamentarians but the initiative is not of any government. It is planned and coordinated by several “common” people who have come together and organized this. It is also the latest in a long line of such attempts – on different scales of course. The first was in 2008 when two boats from the Free Gaza Movement successfully reached Gaza.

It is clear, both in South Africa and India, that Gandhi’s campaigns and struggles were civil society based. Not that he had a choice! Afterall, the struggles were against unjust laws so obviously the governments wouldn’t have helped. But he set many precedents on how to organize civil society. For example, forming connections with the Chinese community in Johannesburg for joint protests against the Asiatic Registration Act of 1906. The Act forced the Indians and Chinese to register with the government, provide fingerprints, and carry identification certificates at all times.

Despite language barriers and having no prior connections with the community, Gandhi was able to organize with them. This was also true in Durban where he organized with the Tamil and Telugu speaking communities - he and most of his initial contacts were Gujarati speaking.

There was also a huge difference in class (Passenger Indians and Indentured Indians). He quickly realized that his efforts to protect the small group of relatively well-to-do Indians in Natal had to be replaced with a much bigger struggle against laws designed to keep all Indians subservient. He was able to bring both classes of Indians together to fight this injustice.

2. Satyagrah: Often translated as non-violent resistance is often misunderstood or understood only partially. It is my endeavour that every time I explain this word, I must make it clear that it does not mean passive resistance. Let us remember these fundamental points:

A. Satya is truth. As Gandhi explains, “it is derived from Sat, which means ‘being’”. In other words, satya is life. Anything that harms life is untrue. All injustice is the opposite of truth.

B. Agrah means to insist.

Satyagrah is therefore the insistence on truth. It means that you stand up to protect life. Anything that destroys life – in the case of Gandhi, colonialism – must be fought. But you don’t fight it with violence because violence is also against life. Therefore the struggle is non-violent.

The “agrah” in Satyagrah means it is forceful. It is a strong resistance to injustice. It means that one stops/blocks injustice from happening. More often than not, it involves physical action of putting yourself in front of the oppressor and preventing him/her from conducting injustice. It is therefore dangerous and the ones who truly pursue it are extremely brave because while their opponents will use physical force, they will not. Yet, they decide to resist in the way they do.

The Global Sumud Flotilla fits the definition of Satyagrah to the T!

3. Last but equally important is the idea of collective responsibility. The more known faces of the Flotilla have been abducted. This includes Greta Thunberg. But the rest continue. Perhaps only a handful of boats will reach Gaza. Perhaps none will. But the point is that the effort continues.

There are scores of examples of this from Gandhi’s life. Let me share with you one of the earlier ones. In 1913, Gandhi led what came to be called the Great March of 1913 from Natal to Transvaal in South Africa. Gandhi was arrested. The march continued. He was released on bail and rejoined the march. He was arrested again. The march again continued.

New Gandhi

Gandhi will unfortunately not come back. But he gave the world a set of powerful tools from his long life that have informed civil society resistance over the years. He was neither the first nor the last person to use non-violent resistance to fight injustice but his effort was certainly the biggest in scale. He was also a leader of struggles in two different countries and lived a long life. So, he has a lot to offer to all those fighting for justice and peace.

If we look around us, there are many Gandhis today. They look very different from him and may even disagree with him on certain things. But they are insisting on truth and they are doing it fearlessly with everything they have got. They are non-violent but they are not cowards. Just like Gandhi. Each and every brave soul upon those little boats and small ships on the Global Sumud Flotilla is Gandhi. For Gandhi is what Gandhi did. He stood for truth.

Warmly,

Shirin
Peace Vigil

Zakia and Ehsan - the brave don’t die

Zakia Jafri has passed away and joined her husband Ehsan Jafri in a home that they will not be driven away from. The pain of death and displacement will not occur again. And yet, what will forever define them in this world, is their bravery to defend their right to call India their home, be safe in it and stand by those who seek shelter with them.

I met Ehsan Jafri several times in marches for unity and meetings on communalism and how to counter it in the 80s and 90s. I last saw him at a symposium where I was singing and performing in a play on communalism with Nishant Natya Manch in the late 90s. He particularly liked one song I sang and I was honored when he put his hand on my head to say that it was a very powerful song. It was Brijmohan’s, Kisne chaha tha.

I was still a teenager and though politically aware, a bit tongue tied to talk to elders like him. But I remember how politely he would always respond to a hello and how actively he engaged in conversations with people and how well and passionately he spoke. I especially recall him talking about the constitutional provisions that ensure India’s survival as a diverse nation. I only learnt later that he was actually a lawyer too, besides being an elected member of the Indian Parliament and a peace activist.

I also learnt later, through his daughter, Nishrin, that in 1969, in another act of communal violence in Ahmedabad, their home had been burned down. Ehsan, Zakia and their kids were rendered homeless and were forced to find shelter in the Malek Shaban Stadium refugee camp. Later, despite many friends and family advising against it, Ehsan Jafri decided to build a home almost exactly where their burned down home used to be. Such was his faith and hope in an India for all irrespective of their religious background.

In this home, on February 28, 2002, he was hacked to death and then his body parts burned by a murderous mob of Hindutva terrorists who also targeted everyone who had taken refuge in the Jafri home. 69 people were killed.

Zakia was at home but along with a few others survived this ghastly attack. But survive is a strange word for it does not disclose anything else besides the fact that one did not die. The excruciating trauma of Zakia’s life cannot be expressed in words. But one could see it in her eyes. Sameer and I last met her about 15 years after the Gulbarg Society massacre. At this time, she had already been fighting for a substantial period to get justice for her husband and all those who were murdered with him. She fought the Modi regime and Hindutva politics through legal action despite the biggest odds. She fought every single day with bravery and dignity. But in her eyes was an emptiness and pain that even a child could see. Our daughter, who was about eight years old then, turned to me and said, “Mumma, may be Moana (my doll) can make Zakia nani happy. She looks so sad.” We had of course not told our eight-year old what horrors Zakia nani had gone through.

Who would ever want their children to know such things? And yet, there are so many children, much younger even than our daughter was then, who not only know about but have gone through the trauma of communal carnage.

Zakia and Ehsan Jafri dreamed of a world where no child or adult would ever face such a horrible reality. They rebuilt their home because they believed in such a world. Zakia bravely walked into the courts of India after her husband was killed and their home burned down again. Why? Because she believed in a better India where her name would not decide her fate. She mourned her loss and yet decided that she will not let it kill the faith she and her husband had in the Constitution and legacy of India. She fought not just a personal battle but a national one. She fought not just a legal case but a case for the values of secularism, co-existence, unity and peace.

I leave it to you to decide for yourself whether such an India is possible. For me, despite the pain I feel in remembering Zakia on her passing yesterday and the struggle she and her husband endured, I believe in a better India. We will continue to fight for it.
In fond remembrance of Zakia aunty and in hoping earnestly that the home of her and Ehsan uncle’s dream will be rebuilt so strong that no fire can ever burn it down. We recommit ourselves to fighting the fire of hate with the power of justice and love.
Yours,
Shirin for Peace Vigil
Peace Vigil works on peace education. Peace Needs All of Us!

Happy weekend to all. As people interested in a peaceful society, what does reconciliation mean to us? Does it simply mean forgiving and forgetting to arrive at a peaceful present? Or is it something much bigger? Does it mean healing of the victim and society in a way that we become better as a community with better self-governing standards for living with each other? Does it mean that the wrongdoer is held accountable - not in the spirit of punishment but in the spirit of recognition of why something is wrong, who is responsible and how to make amends? Does it mean reparation? All these are important questions. We hope this article helps us to understand this issue further.

‘We were betrayed’: families of apartheid victims sue South African government High court case demands inquiry into 1985 Cradock Four killings and ‘constitutional damages’ worth £7.3m

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“People were cut up, there was a lot of blood on the ground, and body parts and small pieces of worshipers’ bodies were scattered everywhere. We found my father lying on the ground there. We recognized him, and our relatives helped us drag him out of the prayer hall. We found a human head stuck between his feet when we took him out. I was stunned with fear. I have never seen scenes like this in my life. I hope I never see them again.”