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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. ACHA BULLETIN 12/02/98 (Next issue due on 12/16/98) CONTENTS About ACHA
ABOUT ACHA: PAST AND CURRENT ACTIVITIES AND FUTURE PLANS *Past Activities 10-02-1993 Mahatma Gandhi's Birthday with a screening of Garam Hawa,
an Indian Movie, at Portland State University, Portland, OR 1994 Peace
and Communal Harmony in South Asia, an essay contest
*Current & Continuing Activities Since 1995, we have been celebrating WOMEN'S DAY every year, to express our appreciation of the important role women play in our lives. The main part of the celebration is a pot-luck dinner consisting of dishes prepared/assembled by men. In 1997, we provided financial support to the NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF PAKISTAN-INDIA PEOPLE'S FORUM FOR PEACE & DEMOCRACY, held on May 31, and June 1, in Mumbai. Also, in 1997, we had three ACHA one-minute announcements by Dr. Qayum, Dr. Rohila, and Dr. Sabri on the local radio program, Sada-i-Watan. They were designed to promote peace and communal harmony among South Asian listeners. We used to publish Harmony News. Starting this year, ACHA BULLETIN, an email Bulletin is sent out every other Wednesday to about 400 people in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Since August 1998, we have been conducting a CULTURAL AND ECONOMIC SURVEY of South Asians community in Portland-Vancouver area. We are currently working on starting a SOUTH ASIA CULTURAL & RESOURCE CENTER IN PORTLAND. Conceived as a Folk University or People's Institute, its objective is to preserve and promote South Asian arts, music, dance, crafts and languages in Portland-Vancouver area. Future Plans In April 1999, we plan to organize "SOUTH ASIAN ENTREPRENEUR" a conference designed to support South Asian individuals who already are in business for themselves or planning to start one. OPINION *A Kashmir agenda for Mr Clinton By M.P. Bhandara (From Dawn, 12/1/98) How does one eat an elephant? The answer is simple: one bite at a time. Among current regional disputes Kashmir has elephantine proportions. But it was not always so. For over five years India recognized the disputed status of Kashmir then, citing the excuse of a military cooperation agreement between Pakistan and the United States as having disturbed the political equilibrium of the subcontinent, India decreed that an "election" it held in the early fifties in Indian-held Kashmir, was in fact a "referendum" which determined the wishes of the Kashmiri people in favour of joining India. India never cared to explain then or afterwards as to how the question was "decided" without it being "put" to a hapless electorate. Never mind that those deemed to be Kashmiris in the wide spaces of Gilgit, Baltistan and other areas of Kashmir under Pakistan control were not eligible to vote in the so-called "referendum." Might is right excepting that the reasons given by the mighty "righteous" are often ridiculous. The witches chant as they lie in wait for Macbeth sums up India's Kashmir problem. One is reminded of another latter-day legerdemain: if you are pro-Islam (declared a shabbily worded referendum question), "then I shall deem to have been elected as president of Pakistan for five years." At which point in the memorable telecast General Zia-ul-Haq raised the palm of his hand and stretched five fingers towards a bewildered audience as if to indicate the length of the mandate which he had awarded to himself. Indeed the air between India and Pakistan has been filthy, now, for over half a century; but even intractable problems have a life cycle; they are not eternal. The Kashmir knot is less complex than Palestine. The indigenous people have not been expelled, en masse from their habitat by a foreign people. It is not more complex than the Irish problem. Yet we see some little light at the end of the Palestine and Ireland tunnels. Why? Because, there exists a critical mass of public opinion that sees no alternative to a rational compromise. Such a critical mass of opinion does not currently prevail in the subcontinent. May be it takes another five years, maybe ten, may be it does not occur in our lifetime; but if some sort compromise is a medium or a long-range objective, then one must review options and policy. The road to be traversed is troublesome and trying, but let us accept the wisdom of Confucius that one must travel hopefully. A brief recapitulation of some perceptions is necessary. India's major gain as victor of the 1971 war was that the Kashmir issue was removed from the international agenda to a bilateral one by the Simla agreement of 1972. Between 1972 and 1989, we acquiesced in this understanding. In 1989 civil eruptions occurred in Kashmir which started off as a genuine cry for freedom and democracy, but unfortunately this movement was overtaken by armed militancy. Pakistan's attempts in recent years to have the Kashmir dispute reinstated on the international agenda have not met with much success. Soon after the Indian nuclear blast last May, the Americans signaled an offer to us. If Pakistan refrained from atomic tests and joined CTBT etc., the US would consider supporting moves towards the re-internationalization of the Kashmir dispute, reinstate massive economic aid (including the wipe-off of US loans) resume the arms flow (including the F-16s) and provide a umbrella to Pakistan. The offer was not accepted. The involvement of foreigners has sullied the Kashmir freedom struggle. These foreigners are not mercenaries but perceive themselves to be holy warriors. Being practised, trained and highly weaponized, they are the ones who usually escape the Indian army dragnet in the valley; Indian retaliation falls on the bodies of women (rape), lives of Kashmiri men and the destruction of their homes. No wonder, the united prioritization of all Kashmiri political organizations in India-held seeking freedom is no longer plebiscite or the implementation of the UN resolutions but, to negotiate an end to Indian army terror; termination of alleged foreign involvement and the right of Kashmiri political parties to sit at the table in any bilateral process. There is apparently some truth in the observation that in the past two decades Pakistan ran a dual-track foreign policy in respect of its immediate neighbours. One track was run by the foreign office; and the other by the ISI - the covert wing of the 'inner' establishment. The dual track ran almost as parallel lines which seldom converged. The ISI's success in sponsoring an Afghan guerilla war in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan was total. This was mainly due to two factors: 99.9% of Afghan people and the broadest range of international opinion opposed the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. India, the then traditional champion of international morality, was equivocal. The other factor was the covert but unlimited arms and financial backing of the US. The defeat of the USSR was a conspicuous victory for the ISI. But hubris followed. There was debacle in our support to the Sikh insurgency in Indian Punjab, and to all sane minds our (ISI) success in empowering the Taliban in Afghanistan has all the makings of a great tragedy, Afghanistan and its neighbours. In occupied Kashmir itself today the belligerents include a number of Afghan and Pakistani fighters. Armed militancy has never won a great cause especially when pitted against an organized, well trained army. In recent years the Palestinians, the Irish extremists and the Sikhs appear to have reached this conclusion in their own ways. An institution such as the National Security Council might have had the wisdom and clout to integrate the dichotomy in our neighbourhood policy' but alas, this prudent move was not to be. One knows not how and why major decisions are are left for the ISI to take. One may only assume that the enormous covert funding the ISI receives has created a heavy vested interest - a symbiosis between coffers of the state and the covert agency. In groping towards some understanding with India, it would be unrealistic to think of a final Kashmir settlement at the present time. But it should not be unrealistic to move in the direction of an interim settlement. There should not be any real dispute as to where Gilgit, Baltistan, Ladakh, Jammu and Azad Kashmir belong; these vast territories with scattered populations are already in the possession of India and Pakistan and integrated peacefully within the two countries. Any disturbance of the existing status will almost certainly lead to a nuclear war between India and Pakistan. A mechanism is to be found to cut through the legal tangle, and find a way to award, by mutual and international consent, Jammu and Ladakh to India, and Azad Kashmir, Gilgit and Baltistan to Pakistan. The dispute proper should be narrowed down to the vale of Kashmir. Over 80% of the territorial dispute will have been thus resolved on the basis of status quo. So bold an attempt towards an interim settlement must also involve internationally acceptable guarantees for an end to intervention in the valley, the withdrawal of the bulk of the Indian army from the vale, normalization of trade, travel, tourism and cultural exchange in the subcontinent, and an agreement to freeze the core dispute, at least, till such time as the interim agreement is fully realized. An interim agreement on Kashmir is an unthinkable proposition for the hardliners of the subcontinent. They have neither the courage nor the vision to think beyond total and permanent confrontation and nuclear sabre-rattling. The only colours they recognize are black and white: the poetry of colour that ranges in between is invisible to them. In their blindness what matters to them not Kashmiris, but the real estate value of Kashmir. No doubt, Kashmir will figure in the talks this week between Mr Nawaz Sharif and Mr Clinton. More international disputes have been successfully brokered by the Clinton administration than by any previous US administration. The US has the clout to refocus the dispute; this proposal is one new among others. But the process must start .. one bite at a time, to resolve an problem. * In sloppy style By Brahma Chellaney (From Hindustan Times, 12/2/98) In the modern world, the outcome of very few wars is decided on the battlefield. The outcome is decided, as military historian Michael Howard has observed, at the negotiating table. Force is only one component of national security planning; the other elements include diplomacy and psychological and economic levers. Decisive victory on the battlefield cannot by itself bring peace. The 1971 Indo-Pak war is a classic case. Indira Gandhi won the war but lost the peace. India gave away at the negotiating table its military gains. The price for failing to resolve the Kashmir problem at Simla has been inestimable and interminable There has been Pakistan-aided internal subversion of India, destabilising the whole country. Effective national security as much on the work of diplomats as on the achievements of soldiers. Diplomacy, however, can deliver desired results only if it is backed by two key factors: "Firm, realistic statecraft with specific aims", as stated by Brian Bond in his matchless study, the Pursuit of Victory; and national will to relentlessly pursue those aims. In its half a century as an independent state, India has lacked both. Nor has it consciously sought to build those elements. There can be no effective diplomacy if it is not underpinned by national tenacity leverage-building. In India's case, schmaltzy romanticism, idealism and emotionalism have substituted for hard-headedness, pragmatism and realism. Shifting, personality-driven aims have superseded national goals. Bluster and exaggeration of capabilities have come in place of modesty and downplaying of capabilities. In the absence of institutionalised long-term thinking, the maudlin Indians have often been sweet-talked into making concessions or they have on their own made concessions in a vain search for international credit. It was Nehru who rushed to the United Nations, thinking it was some sort of an international policing agency rather than an institution of power politics, and accepted cease-fire and plebiscite on Kashmir before Indian forces could terminate the Pakistani aggression. Again, Nehru refused to believe that China, having freed itself from the yoke of imperialism, would straightaway assume the mantle of imperialism itself and gobble up independent Tibet and then encroach on Indian territories. The ignoble 1954 agreement, with no quid pro quo attached (not even the Chinese acceptance of the Indo-Tibetan border), amounted to India winking at Tibet's annexation. Despite the enduring core problems with Pakistan and China bequeathed to the nation by Nehruvian diplomacy, India's losses at the negotiating table have continued under every Prime Minister involved in diplomatic deal-making. While Shastri returned Haji Pir at Tashkent even as Ayub Khan snubbed the Shastri-acquiesced Soviet suggestion to resolve the Kashmir issue by making the cease-fire line the de jure border, Mrs Gandhi got outfoxed by Bhutto at Simla. The wily Narasimha Rao signed a "historic" pact with China to maintain "peace and tranquillity" along a line of actual control that does not exist in Chinese eyes! To make matters worse, 'humble farmer' Deve Gowda signed a follow-up pact with Jiang Zemin that prohibits warplane flights within 10 km of that non-existent line and firing and blasting within 2 kms! By courageously carrying out multiple tests and declaring India a nuclear-weapons state, Prime Minister Vajpayee signalled a change from the past. But not only have the gains from the tests dissipated, New Delhi has during the negotiations with the United States been subjected to international indignity, with the Americans blackballing scores of leading Indian private and state-run enterprises and many of their affiliates, restoring Pakistan's but not India's access to long-term development loans from the World Bank, vowing not to recognise India's nuclear-weapons status "even by implication" and publishing a long list of humiliating demands. How does India react to such affronts? It meekly keeps its date at Rome and invites the Americans to New Delhi for yet another round of discussions! The US negotiating strategy has been to drag on the negotiations, and meantime dissuade New Delhi from undertaking follow-up action, in the belief that the shaky Vajpayee-led coalition will be replaced by a more pliable government. Yet, Indian negotiators have played into American hands. Clinton can tell his Congress that he is seeking to dissuade New Delhi from "creating operational nuclear forces" because he knows that the Indians, despite bragging about their "credible minimal deterrent", have not taken even the first steps to put a deterrent in operation. Clinton also knows that he and his officials can get away by making outrageous demands because India has yet to define its negotiating bottom line to its own citizens. Just as intellect without fearlessness means little, courage on the ground without negotiating wisdom and skill cannot bring security. Rulers reflect only the mindset of the ruled. India's biggest obstacle to becoming a prosperous, secure nation is its colonially-inherited subservient mindset. While the previous government headed by Gujral was seen as mushy and soft, the present BJP-led government is said to be the country's "tough face". In reality, little separates the two in diplomacy. While Gujral was flailed for his Pakistan fetish, the current ruling coalition has done more than any other government in the 1990s to reinforce the international pairing of India with Pakistan. The Americans have even engaged it in deep discussions on their regional nuclear-restraint proposals, not one of which is outside the Indo-Pak framework. The nuclear tests should have translated into greater national self-confidence and helped boost national resolve and commitment. Since economic and additional technology sanctions were anticipated, the tests should have been used to launch much-needed austerity measures. Belt-tightening measures would have been accepted by citizens as the price for going nuclear. But the country shied away from fiscal discipline to tackle a worsening economic slowdown that began much before the tests. Nor did it use the tests to build up national spirit. Instead, it rushed into negotiations with the world's sole surviving superpower, without a clear set of aims and a firm, realistic strategy. The tests amounted to a declaration of war on the US-led nonproliferation regime, which holds nuclear weapons to be legitimate instruments of security only for five nations. But no sooner had India declared war than it called for truce, offering substantial cooperation to that very regime on the basis of demands that have continued to shrink since then. Without realistic, goal-oriented statecraft, the use of diplomacy would amount to the relinquishment of diplomacy. And India would continue to lose at the negotiating table what it has gained on the ground. Like a real elephant that has teeth for show but separate teeth for biting, "elephant" India should understand that a state should put its desire for friendship with neighbours and major powers on public display while continuing to sharpen its capacity to deter aggression. India's main failing has been that it has always wanted to be a state that is liked, not a state that is respected. Respect can come only if a state knows the ways and means to secure well-defined interests and acts determinedly. PEACE NEWS *November 21, Jammu, India: INDIA-PAK BORDER GUARDS AGREED not to target each other's civilian areas along the border in this region, according to a Reuters report. The farmers will be permitted to cultivate and harvest their fields right up to the border. *November 28, Paris, France: CEASE-FIRE AGREEMENT WAS REACHED here by the countries fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to an Associated Press report published in San Jose Mercury News. But it was not clear if the pact was supported by Congolese rebel leaders. NEWS *November 12, Amritsar, Punjab, India: GLOBAL GURBANI TELECAST on Punjabi World channel was inaugurated here today by Shirmani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee president G.S. Tohra. Sikhs in 60 Middle East countries will now be able to listen to Gurbani Kirtan from the sanctorum of the Golden Temple. Eventually, programs on Sikh history, religion, traditions, and culture will be broadcast and the program will be extended to other countries of the world, according to the channel chairman Kishore Motiana. *November 18, Hyderabad, AP, India: ORACLE SCHOOL FOR ADVANCED SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY at the Indian Institute of Information Technology was inaugurated Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. This is the third school under IIIT after the IBM School of Enterprise Wide Computing and Metamor School of Excellence in Software Development Methodologies. Oracle is the world's second largest software company with a presence in over 90 countries. *November 21, in London, U.K.: TRAIN TO PAKISTAN, a movie based on Khuswant Singhs novel of the same name, was screened for the first time at Bloomsbury Theater, according to a PTI report published in India West. The 180-minute film, produced and directed by Non-Resident Indian, Pamela Rooks, is about the senseless carnage triggered by the partition of India in 1947. But, the best of the film is reported to be the acts of honor and brotherhood shown by individual Hindu, Muslim and Sikh characters who show courage in adversity and come to the aid of their old neighbors of a different religion. *November 25, Chandigarh, Punjab, India: QUARK INC WILL OPEN R&D CENTER here. Quark is the world leader in developing software for commercial publishing, graphic arts, and multimedia production. *November 26, Islamabad, Pakistan: IMF BAILOUT PACKAGE OF $5.5 BILLION LIKELY. The deal still has to be approved by IMF directors, who will meet in Washington, D.C., next month. *November 30, Bangalore, AP, India: THE FOUNDATION STONE FOR A SIX-LANE EXPRESSWAY FROM KASHMIR TO KANYAKUMARI is laid by Prime Minister a B Vajpayee The highway will covering a distance of 7,000 kilometer. *November 30, New Delhi, India: THE RULING BHARTIYA JANATA PARTY HAS BEEN DEFEATED in the elections held in Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram, according to a Hindustan Times report. The Congress swept the polls even in Delhi and Rajasthan, usually considered BJP strongholds. *December 1, Sydney, Australia: AUSTRALIA PARTIALLY LIFTS SANCTIONS imposed on India following its say nuclear tests and has decided to ease the ban on ministerial and senior officials' visits between the two countries, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said. As a result, Australian Health Minister Michael Wooldridge would be visiting India next week to attend a United Nations AIDS conference. *December 2, Dhaka, Bangladesh: DHAKA-DELHI TRADE TALKS will be held on December 8-9 in Dhaka to discuss the entire gamut of bilateral trade and review the existing trade agreement signed in 1992, according to a news published in the Bangladeshi newspaper, Independent. During that fiscal year until May, Bangladesh's exports to India stood at US$ 65.58 million, while Bangladesh imported commodities worth US$ 847.95 million from India in 1997-98. Bangladesh's major export items to India include raw hides, leather, vegetable fat and textile and goods. The imports from India include textile items, vegetable products, mineral products, base metals, vehicles and consumer items. *December 2, Islamabad, Pakistan: PRIMEMINISTER NAWAZ SHARIF AND US PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON MEET at White House today, according to the Daily Jang. Pakistan intends to underscore the need for greater world attention in resolving the Kashmir dispute. DID YOU KNOW *The first Indian woman got a pilot's license in 1932, according to an India West report. Her name was Urmila Parekh. Today, India has 150 women pilots some of who serve in the Coast Guard and the Indian Air Force. To honor them, on October 5, Maharashtra Governor P.C. Alexander released a special postage stamp to coincide with the first annual general meeting of the Indian Women Pilots Association in Mumbai. *The curiosity about the new electronic voting machines led to higher voting turn out in some areas in the just completed elections of 626 members of four state assemblies in India. Over-all 58 percent voter turn out has been reported. *Fantasy Goddess of Asia, Mattel's new Barbie doll to be available in December draws protest by Manvi, a South Asian women's organization in New Jersey, USA. According toa spokesperson, the doll has been "obviously designed to satisfy the White male gaze that has promoted trafficking of Asian women by legitimizing industries such as the 'mail order brides'" The doll can be previewed at <www.barbie.com/collectors/pshow/pshow_h/h_20648.html>. Manvi can be reached at <manvi@worldnet.att.net>. *The Indian Overseas Bank, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, has become the first public sector bank in India to offer on-line banking to its customers, according to a India Abroad News Service report published in India West. *Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu has been selected as one of the ministers of the "dream cabinet" for 1998 by the Worldlink, the London-based magazine on world economic forum. Other distinguished leaders selected, include Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair, Iranian President Mohammed Khatami, South Korean President Kim Dae Jung, French Finance Minister Dominique Trauss-Kahn, Singapore Finance Minister Richard Hu, French Minister for Development and Environment Dominique Voynet, South African Minister for Welfare and Population Development Geraldine Eraser, according to a UNI report. HOLIDAYS: December - 25 Guru Gobind Singh's Birthday/Christmas ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT *December 4 & 5, Olympia, WA, USA: THE YOGA OF BODY AND SOUL, an evening of music and dance featuring work by Evergreen Faculty members, Arun Chandra, Meg Hunt, Kabby Mitchell III and Ratna Roy, plus professional dancers who are alumni of Evergreen's Orissi Dance Program at 8:00 p.m. at The Evergreen State College Communications Building Recital Hall. Tickets at $10, ($5.00 for students) in advance at The Evergreen State College Bookstore. More info from 360- 866-6833. *December 11-13, Seattle, WA,USA: 15 OUTSTANDING DOCUMENTARY FILMS (Muktir Gaan and Achin Pakhi from Bangaldesh; The Spirit Doesn't Come Here Anymore from Nepal; Mr. Jinnah: The Making of Pakistan, Nusrat Has Left the Building: But When and Aur Woh Raks Karte Rahi from Pakistan; Dry Days in Dobbagunta from Andgra Pradesh Amrit Beeja from Karnataka, Aan Poove from Kerala, Ashgari Bai from Madhya Pradesh, Marubhumi from Rajasthan, and Ajit from West Bengal in India) will be screened from 7 to 9 p.m. at 911 Media Arts Center Yale Avenue N. Tickets at $4 at the door each 30 minutes before each screening. More info from <sascuw@u.washington.edu> *December 12, Palo Alto, CA: MAYIL ADUMALAGAN, a dance concert by the Abhinaya Dance Company at 4:30 p.m., at Spangenberg Theater, 780 Arastradero. More info from 408-446-9823. OTHER EVENTS * December 6, San Francisco, CA, USA: MYSTICS OF ISLAM, a talk by Dr. V. S. Naravane and organized by the Cultural Integration Fellowship at 11 a.m., at 2650 Fulton St at 3rd Ave. More info from 415-626-2442. *December 6, Los Angeles, CA, USA: SADGURU KABIR: HIS PHILOSOPHY & TEACHINGS, a lecture by Dr. Gunvant Shah at 5 p.m., at Shree Ramkabir Mandir, 530 E 231st St. More info from 310-635-4041. *December 9, New York, NY, USA: TECHNOLOGY & VISION: ENABLING BUSINESS IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY a lecture by Charles B. Wang, Chairman & CEO, Computer Associates International, Inc. in Asia Society's Autumn 1998 CEO Forum series. Tickets at $50 for Asia Society Corporate Members and $65 for non-members. Registration and more info from 212- 327-9276. *December 9, Seattle, WA, USA: TEMPLE DESECRATION AND INDO-MUSLIM STATES, 1206-1760, a talk by Richard Eaton, Professor of History at the University of Arizona, as a part of Humanities Forum organized by The Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities and Comparative Islamic Studies at 7:00 p.m. in the Walker-Ames Room of Kane Hall, University of Washington. More info from <snodgras@u.washington.edu>. *December 12, Portland, OR, USA: KIRTAN by Rehan Sabhai from 10:00 pm to 6:00 am at Guru- dwara Campus Ministries, Portland State University. More infor from <sarabjit1@hotmail.com>. *December 12, La Mirada, CA, USA: WARRIOR PRINCE, a 97-minute animated
film on Ramayana by the Japanese director Yugo Saka will have a special
screening at 8:00 p.m. at Krikorian Theater, 18796 Rosecrans Ave. Tickets
at $30-$100 and info from 909-396-8070.
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