AID News for Dec 30 2003
aid...@aidindia.org
AID News for Tue Dec 30 2003
AID News for Tue Dec 30, 2003
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AID News for Tue Dec 30, 2003
Today's Headlines
1) Action/Research group on Water with focus on Interlinking
Rivers
2) Earthquake in Narmada Valley
3) Events
4) Interesting Headlines
Today's News
1) Action/Research group on Water with focus on Interlinking Rivers
Dear AIDers,
Over the last 2 years, many of us in AID have realized the
importance of focusing on water as an issue of development and
empowerment. Particularly, we have listened to and discussed with
excellent grassroots workers (also active at policy level) like
Rajendra Singh, Nafisaben, Medha Patkar in various forums including
the water sessions in the last two conferences.
Some volunteers at individual and chapter level have made some
progress on action/research on water issues, but there is need for
more concerted action. The issue of interlinking rivers provides the
immediate urgency and context for putting an action group together.
Please write to me if you would like to join the group. It will be
primarily an action group consisting of people who energetically
pursue this issue, and make concrete progress on:
(1) researching and developing understanding of the issues
(2) making a website that is informative as well as a
campaign base
(3) organizing campaigns in the US as well as supporting
those in India
So, if you have the interest, motivation and energy, please jump in!
Kiran
-- Kirankumar Vissa <kiran...@aid.teamon.com>
2) Earthquake in Narmada Valley
The Narmada valley was rocked with yet another earthquake of the
intensity of 4 on Richter scale on Wednesday, December 24, 2003. The
epicenter lays between the dam site of the Sardar Sarovar Project
(SSP) and the Toranmal hills in Satpuda ranges, barely 100 kms. From
the dam. This is yet another warning for the dam builders as it
closely follows another earthquake of the intensity of 4.5 on
Richter scale on July 27, 2003, whose epicenter was between the dam
and the Dhadgaon in the in Nandurbar district in Maharashtra.
http://www.narmada.org/nba-press-releases/december-2003/quake.html
-- Narmada mailing list
3) Event :
a) India's Muslims: Their Prospects in Hindu Nationalist India
Tuesday, January 20, 2004, 12:00-2:30pm
South Asia Program
Ethics and Public Policy Center
1015 15th Street, NW Suite 900
Washington, DC 20005
Please join us for a discussion with Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer and
Dr. Paul R. Brass on the position of the Muslim community in the
world's largest democracy. The second largest Muslim population in
the world, Indian Muslims form an integral and significant part of
India's social and political life. However, with the political rise
of Hindu nationalist forces, Muslims in India are an increasingly
vulnerable and arguably disenfranchised, as demonstrated most
starkly by the violence in Gujarat (2002), which left almost two
thousand Muslims dead. Furthermore, terrorist bombings in Mumbai
(Bombay) in August suggest that elements of India's Muslim community
are being radicalized by this kind of political pressure. The
insecurity of India's Muslim community has critical ramifications
for the condition of Indian democracy and secularism and the
stability of the region.
In light of the recent Mumbai bombings, it is especially urgent to
discuss the state of Indian Islam (and its adherents) and the
implications for India's secular democracy. Is a serious erosion of
secularism under way, at the hands of Hindu nationalists? Might this
result in the radicalization of India's Muslims, as Pankaj Mishra
(New York Times, September 15, 2003) and others have suggested?
Some of the questions to be explored in the seminar include:
1) What are the prospects for reform within the Muslim community,
particularly in the context of rising communalism and religious
tensions?
2) How is the Muslim leadership in India responding to this crisis
in the state's commitment to pluralism?
3) How much does rising Hindu nationalism threaten a normatively
appropriate and politically viable Indian secularism? Can India's
secular political traditions remain credible and survive the
challenge of Hindu extremism?
4) If not, what will be the likely response of India's religious
minorities, especially its Muslims? How credible is the danger of
growing internal Muslim insurgency?
5) Do Indian Muslims still feel protected by and invested in Indian
democracy?
ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER is a renowned Indian scholar and activist. In
over forty years of exhaustive fieldwork, he has investigated and
documented nearly every riot in post-independence India. Dr.
Engineer has written extensively on Indian Muslims and Indian
communalism in countless articles, weekly newsletters and books. He
has forty-five books to his credit, both on communalism and Islam,
and is currently the director of the Center for the Study of Society
and Secularism (CSSS) and the Institute of Islamic Studies, both in
Mumbai, India.
Paul R. Brass is Professor (Emeritus) of Political Science and
International Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle. He
has published fourteen books and numerous articles on comparative
and South Asian politics, ethnic politics, and collective violence.
His work has been based on extensive field research in India during
numerous visits since 1961. His most recent books are The
Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India (2003),
Theft of an Idol: Text and Context in the Representation of
Collective Violence (1997); Riots and Pogroms (1996); and The
Politics of India Since Independence, 2nd ed. (1994).
We will begin at 12:00 pm on Tuesday, January 20th with a catered
lunch at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, 1015 Fifteenth Street,
N.W. Suite 900. Dr. Engineer and Dr. Brass will give their
presentations at approximately 12:30 pm, with a discussion to
follow.
RSVP to Sarah Mehta by phone, 202-216-0855 x226, or e-mail, sme...@eppc.org
-- Contributed by Siva Digavalli <sivarao_...@yahoo.com>
4) Interesting Headlines
a) ``How to Save the World? Treat It Like a Business'' - By Emily Eakin
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/20/arts/20SOCI.html?ex=107293320...@india.com>
Thats all for today
Sid
Make a difference this holiday season. Visit
http://www.OneForIndia.org
where every One counts
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