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ACHA is an non-profit, non-political organization, which is dedicated to promote peace and harmony among South Asians regardless of where they live. Current Board Members are Pritam Rohila (President), Jagdish Grewal (Secretary), Dr. Abdul Qayum (Treasurer), Dr. Kanak R. Ravel, Gulzar Ahmed, Ishvar Patel and Susheela Hoefer. Dharam Yadav is the Honorary Financial Advisor. For more information about ACHA and comments about ACHA Bulletin, please contact us at by telephone at 503-362- 4635, or 503-658-4715, or by email at pritamr@open.org, or visit our Web Page at http://ecumene.org/ACHA/ACHA.htm . The Web Page is maintained by Dr. Ingrid H. Shafer, Professor of Philosophy, Religion & Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Science and Arts, Chickasha, OK. ( The Web Page used to be maintained by Dr. Sunil Khanna of OSU at http://osu.orst.edu/groups/acha/.)
This Bulletin is being relayed as a part of ACHA's South Asian community service program. Currently, it is being sent out every other Wednesday to about 300 individuals in Africa, Canada, India, New Zealand,Pakistan, U.K., and USA. Please let us know (pritamr@open.org), if you want to have your name removed from our email distribution list. Also, please let us know if someone should be added to the list. Comments, letters to editor, and short articles are also welcome and can be sent to the same address. CONTENTS
DIWALI GREETINGS HAPPY DIWALI! NAYA SAL MUBARAK! ABOUT ACHA *Acha Leadership Conference on the 'South Asian Entrepreneur' The theme of the conference will be the 'South Asian Entrepreneur'. We plan to invite representatives from South Asian Consulates, the local Chamber of Commerce, government and private agencies which assist and guide the local entrepreneurs as well as panels of the local South Asian men and women in business and industry. Since we are now quite preoccupied with our current projects, we are thinking of postponing the conference to the next Spring. *South Asian Cultural Survey We need volunteers to help us by having their local South Asian friends and acquaintances to complete the questionnaires. Please let us know, if you can help. Questionnaires are available also from India Direct, India Emporium, Srider's and Taj Mahal. Also, they can be obtained electrically by mailing a request to pritamr@open.org, or by copying from our Web Page at <http://osu.orst.edu/groups/acha/> (Click Activities Current at the bottom of the home page). PEACE NEWS *Pakistan and India Agree to Sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Conditionally September 23 & 24, United Nations, NY, USA: "Pakistan isàprepared to adhere to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty," Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly session Wednesday. The next day, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee declared, "We are prepared to bring these discussions to a successful conclusion, so that the entry into force of the CTBT is not delayed beyond September 1999." Sharif linked his country's acceptance on Wednesday to the waiving of U.S. economic sanctions and of a freeze loans by international financial institutions. Vajpayee said India expected that other countries would adhere to the treaty unconditionally. *Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan Meet Face to Face September 23, New York, NY: Sharif and Vajpayee met for nearly two hours Wednesday, at the New York Palace Hotel. According to the joint statement issued afterwards, "Their discussions covered the whole range of bilateral relations...They reaffirmed their common belief that an environment of durable peace and security was in the supreme interest of both India and Pakistan, and of the region as a whole...They expressed their determination to renew and reinvigorate efforts to secure such an environment. They agreed that the peaceful settlement of all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, was essential for this purpose." A meeting of the representatives of the two governments is scheduled to be held October 15 in Islamabad. *UNESCO Non-Violence Prizes Shared by a Pakistani Organization and an Indian September 24, Paris, France: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization awarded its $40,000 Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence jointly to India's Narayan Desai and Paksitan's Joint Action Committee for People's Rights. *President & Prime Minister of Bangladesh Greet Hindus October 1, Dhaka, Bangladesh: Greeting Hindus on the holy occasion of Durga Puja, the President Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed said the people of Bangladesh have been performing their religion in great harmony from the ancient age. "The Constitution of the country ensured the religious rights of all the communities," he said and called upon all to strengthen the communal harmony in the country. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday visited puja mandaps at Dhakeshwari Mandir and Ramkrishna Mission and Math and exchanged greetings with the members of the Hindu community on the occasion of Durga Puja, the greatest religious festival of the community. In her brief address at these places, the Prime Minister said there was no room for communal politics in the country. "We always pursue a non-communal principle which was also the guiding force in our great War of Liberation,'' she said. "This land is a unique place of communal harmony and amity," she added. *China signs the Human Rights Covenant October 5, United Nations, New York, USA: China signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. But, the other covenant, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, signed by China earlier, has not been ratified so far. *US is Attempting to Resolve the Mideast Issues October 5, Washington, D.C., USA: US secretary of state Madeleine headed to Middle East today hoping to put together a deal to be signed by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at their mid-October meeting with President Clinton. ACHA SPECIAL 1947 Partition of India: Correspondence with a Pakistani Young Man *September 10, 1998 Dear Dr. Rohila: Hi! I was just sent some information about your Organization by a friend from University. of Bradford (UK). I am doing my PhD at University of Kent, and my Dissertation is on the issues of 'Nation, Memory, Dislocation, Women and Violence in the Partition Literature of Pakistan and India'. And I feel that both of us could benefit from the work that each of us is doing. I am visiting my brother in Dallas, Texas..and will be going back to UK in less than two weeks time. but I hope that we will be in touch and I would be interested to know if you have any 'chapter' of your organization in the UK? Looking forward to hearing from you. Bye. Furrukh Khan, Centre for Colonial and Post-colonial Studies, Rutherford College, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, UK. *September 11, 1998 Dear Mr. Furrukh Khan: I am delighted to hear from you. I wish you success in your endeavors. I have lived through the Partition in Indian Punjab. Also, I have seen thousands of Hindus and Sikhs coming as refugees to our area from Pakistan, after having lost their relatives, property, and in some cases their honor. Besides, I have witnessed thousands of Muslims in our area having to leave their homes in the middle of a meal. Hundreds of them were slaughtered a few miles down the road on their way to Pakistan. Finally, I have been impressed by the writings on the Partition of such Urdu writers as Saadat Hassan Manto. But, unfortunately, many in the younger generations do not know much about what had happened at that time. I have always been interested in doing something personally about it, so that Indians and Pakistanis never forget these experiences, and do their utmost to prevent their repetition in the Indian Subcontinent as well as throughout the world. For example, I have thought of video-recording of personal accounts of people who have lived through the Partition. Also, would it not be nice to build a memorial on India-Pak border to the hundreds and thousands of innocent people who were victimized by the human beasts on both sides of the border. Anyway, I will be happy to assist you in your project in any way I reasonably can. Let me know more details about it. Also, I would like to know more about you. Why not come and visit us, if you can, before you leave for UK. Regarding information about our organization, you may want to visit our Web Page at http://osu.orst.edu/groups/acha/ Let me know, if you have questions. We have two chapters in India, but not yet any in UK. But, would like to start one. May be you can help us in this regard. Do convey my greetings to your friend at University of Bradford. Let us keep in touch. Pritam Rohila, President, Association for Communal Harmony in Asia *September 14, 1998 Dear Dr. Rohila: Hi! It is a great pleasure to hear back from you, and please let me say from the outset that I agree entirely with the sentiments you have expressed in your message. Well, something about myself. I was born in a small village right on the border with India. The only thing which divides us from the 'other side' is the Ravi. Both my parents' families come from that area. It is in the District of Shakargarh, about thirty miles from Narowal (and I think that one of the Directors of your organization is from that area as well. I have lived most of my life outside Pakistan. My father teaches math, and we were able to travel around with him and I did some traveling on my own when I was studying (which I still am!!!). We were in Nigeria for about ten years. I did my O-Levels there. Then I came to Paksitan and did my A-levels there. Then I came to the USA in 1989 to do my undergraduate studies, and after completing that, I went to Brunei and taught there for over one year. Then went to UK in 1995-96 to do my MA. (I did my dissertation on Bapsi Sidhwa, in whose novels the theme of Partition is always a telling factor). Now I am doing my PhD there as well. So, in a nut-shell, that is my story! The reason I took the theme of Partition was because as growing up, I had heard many stories about what people had experienced. But for a long time, they remained as if they had happened in another time...to someone else. It was not until the time of my MA dissertation that I decided that I needed to move away from the beaten track of Western literature, to attempt to do something which dealt with the literature which was concerned about 'Us' and about what had happened to us. So I chose Partition. After MA, I felt that I had just scratched the surface of this deep and painful wound and then I started looking at this issue a bit more broadly. And here I am!!! I was in Pakistan last year to carry out research for my chapter on the oral narratives of Partition, to speak with the 'subalterns,' those left by the wayside in the State's meta-narrative, and to allow them to tell their own stories through their words and memories rather than having someone speak for them. I did what you also propose in your message, and that is that, I videotaped them. I had also wanted to go to India, but as I have a Pakistani Passport, the red-tape of the subcontinent prevailed. I was unsuccessful in going there. At the moment I am working on the material I had gathered in Pakistan, and there are a few people interested in publishing it. I have published a few other articles and would be happy to send you copies if you are interested, or send you their references. About starting a chapter of ACHA in the UK, I think that it sounds like a great idea and we should see what can be done on it. Please do include me on your e-mail list. A friend of mine at Cambridge is thinking of having a semi-formal conference of people working on this topic. I will let you know what happens. I am also hoping to set up a web-page with a bulletin board for people working on Partition ( Well, that will come after I have overcome my fear of the computer technology!!!!!).. About coming to see you and your organization, that is a wonderfully tempting offer. But you know how financially secure or should I say insecure students are. At this moment I am still dependent on the generosity of my parents and my brother for my expenses. So, just for that reason, I would have to postpone my visit. But, 'zindagi rahi to phir milen gae'!!!! It is so great that we have been able to get in touch and I am sure that just good things will come out of it. Just can't resist a shair: Chal way Bulleah othay chal-li-ay Jithay saray unnay Hoo Na koi saadi zaat pehchanai Na koi sanno mannay Hoo. Please take care and keep in touch. Very sincerely Yours, Furrukh September 14, 1998 *Dear Mr. Khan: I received your 9/12 email. Thank you. Can I use part of our correspondence for an article for our fortnightly email ACHA Bulletin? Also, I would like to know if you already have produced some videos of personal accounts of the Partition? If yes, are they available for review? It would have been nice to include personal accounts of some Indians also. It is too bad that you could not travel to India. Did you try talking to some Indians in UK or USA? Pritam Rohila *September 15, 1998 Dear Dr. Rohila: Hi! Thanks for your message. Please use whatever you can from our correspondence. Regarding the videos, well, at the moment I have not really had the time or the facilities to compile them in any organized manner. It is something that I hope to pursue (just as interviewing more Pakistanis and Indians in the UK and USA), after my studies. As I said, that I am hoping to start a 'Bulletin Board' and E-mail List on issues related to the Partition, in which people's academic as well as personal views can be brought forth into the 'public' domain, for these are the stories which, for too long, have been confined to the privacy of victims' community. Though this process may have helped the victims, it has perpetuated the myth that the vilians belong to just the other community. This approach has prevented the establishment of a significant dialogue between the communities. Such a forum will also help in bringing down belief that the 'Evil/Badmaash/Goondas/Outsiders' belong only to the 'Other' community. I guess, our job is to better conceptualize the whole issue of victims vs. vilians, for it is only through such means that we can even start to understand the catastrophe which seems to have gone un-acknowledged for such a long time. What is quintessentially needed is the acknowledgment of the harsh truth that once any form of violence is perpetuated on someone, that person's religion, ethnic identity, economic and social standing doesn't really matter. The pain and suffering of everyone is the same. Similar questions need to be addressed to the actions of those who carried out these crimes. Why is it that in both countries, after the Partition, there was hardly any trial of these criminal? Why, these criminals were so easily re-integrated into their respective societies, and allowed to cover themselves with the garb of respectability, while their victims have been left to themselves to deal with the emotional scars to this day? We continue hero-worship our own national leaders, and demonize those of the 'other.' Yet, the 'real' people, who suffered most, continue to suffer their ignominious disenfranchisement from the public sphere. As we continue to name endless public buildings after the 'leaders' of our country, the true heroes are relegated to the margins of the public and state's conscience. There is next to no public monument which acknowledges the pain and suffering of the victims of the Partition. Only these places can allow us to truly gauge the morality of our society, and not the fancy air works, public parades, or the nuclear explosions. Along with these points there are various other factors which should be discussed (some of which I have already looked at in some of the papers that I have done) and there are others that I am very much interested in, things like the video archives which should be open to those researching this event. Well, I hope that I have not bored you too much with all my flippancy. I just feel that it is up to my generation to stand up and acknowledge these facts and in the process, begin to understand what the previous generation did, so that we can develop a more tolerant and understanding future society. For some, this view of mine has seemed to be too idealistic. But, I believe, if one wants to achieve high standards, one's ambitions have to be even higher. Take care. Bye. Furrukh P.S. Please call me Furrukh for I am probably your children's age. NEWS *September 24, Washington, D.C., USA: House of Representatives passed a bill that would raise the number of H-1B visas issued to skilled foreign workers from the current maximum of 65,000 t0 115,000 for each of the next two fiscal years, and to 107,500 in the year 2001. *September 24, Khatmandu, Nepal: European airlines start direct flights to Vienna and Amsterdam. *September 28, Washington, D.C. USA: A US committee of Senator and Representatives approved an amendment by Senator Sam Brownback that allows sanction on India and Pakistan, imposed after their recent nuclear tests, to be waived for one year. *September 28, Islamabad, Pakistan: Chief of Army Staff, General Karamat denied rumors about imposition of martial in Pakistan. *September 30, New York, USA: Pakistan foreign minister, Sartaj Aziz, said that talks between United States and Pakistan on lifting of sanctions were progressing well, but cautioned against pinning hopes on immediate results. *October 1, Toronto, Canada: Tata Consultancy Service (TCS), India's top software and information technology services company, has opened its first office in Canada. DO YOU KNOW? *University of South Carolina Press is ready to publish the Encyclopedia of Hinduism, a project of the India Heritage Research Foundation. *The number of aged people in India is expected to cross 70 million by 2000, according to a UN- sponsored study. *The entire city of Anandpur Sahib in Punjab, India, where 300 hundred years ago, the 10th Sikh Guru Gobind Singh created Khalsa, will be painted brilliant white, according to Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. *The former Chinese citizens who have lived in India for a long time, will be granted Indian citizenship, according a recent directive from the Central Government. In the aftermath of 1962 Chinese invasion of India, their status had been changed to "foreigners." *Madhya Pradesh has become the first state in India to hook all administration to the Internet. *Bank of America opened on September 23, the US-Asia Banking Center in San Francisco, CA, which is staffed with specialists in cross border transactions, investment management, and international private banking and speak Hindi, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Taiwanese, besides English. HOLIDAYS: October - 8 Karva Chauth, 12 Columbus Day, 19 Diwali, 20 Goverdhan Puja/Vikram Samvat, 22 Bahi Duj, 31 Halloween. ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT *October 9, Portland, OR, USA: LOST SONGS OF THE SILK ROAD, a program of musical poetry by the Ghazal Ensemble consisting of the Persian musician Kayhan Kalhore, accompanied by Indian musicians Sitarist Ustad Hossein Khan, and Tabla player Swapan Choudhuri, starts at 8 p.m., at Scottish Rit Temple, 709 SW 15th. Tickets at $20 from Fred Meyer FASTIXX (503-224-8499). More info from the organizers, Kanoon Andisheh at http://andisheh.org/. *Through October 10, San Jose, CA, USA: SHAKTI: ROOTS OF VISION, an exhibition featuring 8 South Asian artists will be held at 30 North Third St. More info from 408-295-8378. *October 10, San Francisco, CA, USA: DIWALI: THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS, a celebration including seated dinner, entertainment, dancing and a silent auction at Asian Art Museum in Golden Gate Park starting at 6:30 p.m. Balck tie or formal Indian attire required. Tickets at $125. More info from diwali@asianart.org. *October 17-18, San Francisco, CA, USA: THE SPIRIT OF INDIA, a festival of Indian music presenting many artists including Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Swapan Chauduhri, Aashish Khan, Zakir Hussain, Lkshmi Shankar, Sjaat Khan, at the Palace of Fine Arts. Tickets at $25 for one day, and $40 for both days. More info from 415-454-6264. October 23, Portland, OR, USA: AN EVENING OF NORTH INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC featuring Shubhendra Rao on Sitar and Partho Sarthy on Sarod, at 8:00 p.m., in the Grand Ballroom in the north wing of Portland Art Museum. Free to members, and $12/$15s for Non-members. More info from www.kalakendra.org OTHER EVENTS *October 7, New York, USA: THE GREAT HILL STATIONS OF ASIA, a travel narrative of great hill stations in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Burma, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines by the New York Times's United Nations bureau chief Barbara Crossette at 6:30 p.m. Book signing and reception will follow. More info and tickets ( $7 Asia Society members ; $10 nonmembers) from (212) 517-ASIA. *October 7, Hong Kong, PR of China: INDIA, An Asia Society "Members Only" consular update on recent developments in India by Mrs. Veen Sikri, Consul General of India, 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. at the American Club. More info from 852-2868-6765. *October 11, San Leandro, CA, USA: MAHATMA GANDHI PEACE PRAYER along
with bhajans, and an Odissi dance starting at 11 a.m., at 15602 Maubert
Avenue. More information from 510-278-2444.
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