Mumbai Commemorates Ten Years of Gujarat Massacre: Commemoration to be held at St Xavier's College, February 27 Monday, 6-8pm
Dolphy Dsouza
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>> Dear Friend,
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>> Genteel Reminder.
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>> You need to at St Xaviers College on Feb 27 at 6.00 p.m along with your
>> friends in solidarity.
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>> For wide circulation and publicity
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>> 'Ten years of the Gujarat Genocide'
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>> Invitation to a Commemoration Meeting in Mumbai:
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>> 'Justice for Victims of 2002 Genocide'
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>> Day/Date: Monday, February 27, 2012; 6-8 pm. (Meeting starts at 6 pm
>> sharp)
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>> Venue: St. Xaviers College Main auditorium, Next to Rang Bhavan,
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>> 5, Mahapalika Marg, Mumbai. (Phone: 22620661)
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>> Key note speakers for the event: Super Cop , Mr. Julio Rebeiro and Mr.
>> Rahul Bose and welcome address by Fr. Frazer Mascarenhas, Principal, St
>> Xavier's College.
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>> Cultural items and documentaries which will impact you.
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>> Event will be compered by Ms Dolly Thakore.
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>> Dolphy D'souza
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>> Co-Convenor Cell: 9820226227
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>>> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Memories-of-a-massacre/articleshow/12039136.cms
>>>
>>> Memories of a massacre
>>> Mohammed Wajihuddin | Feb 26, 2012, 04.58AM IST
>>>
>>> Truth and reconciliation could be effective panaceas of grief. But
>>> reconciliation is impossible without justice. It is this premise that
>>> has compelled a group of civil society members to commemorate the 10th
>>> anniversary of the 2002 post-Godhra carnage in Gujarat. While
>>> Ahmedabad's Gulbarg Society, where over 60 people were killed by a
>>> riotous mob, remains the epicenter of the memorial event, Mumbai will
>>> pay homage in its own way. On February 27, at St. Xavier's College,
>>> dozens of peace activists, poets, singers and theatre persons will
>>> congregate for an initiative called 'Memorial to Genocide'.
>>>
>>> Poet-lyricist Nida Fazli will recite the poem he penned when Gujarat
>>> burned, in which he mourns the lives lost to revenge. He pictures
>>> Hindus and Muslims fighting over a body in the morgue. ''The morgue
>>> has no religion. The barbarity on the streets loses its identity at a
>>> morgue's door. The point is not whether Hindus or Muslims died. The
>>> point is that innocent humans lost their lives in that avoidable
>>> madness," says Fazli.
>>>
>>> When it comes to challenging religious fundamentalism, few can match
>>> medieval Sufi poet Kabir. So, armed with Kabir's Sufi kalam, famous
>>> vocalist Neela Bhagwat will sing the mystic's poems: Sadho dekho jag
>>> baorana (Saint, see the world is wayward), Main na mandir mein, main
>>> na Kaabe mein (I am neither inside the temple nor inside the Kaaba).
>>> ''Evoking Kabir is like seeking peace. And peace is established
>>> through justice and compassion. This is what is needed in Gujarat,"
>>> comments Bhagwat.
>>>
>>> Few arts capture the poignancy of tragedy more powerfully than
>>> theatre. And it through his presentation of Shah Alam Camp Ki Roohein
>>> (Spirits from the Shah Alam Camp), a monologue by Asghar Wajahat, that
>>> playwright and theatre director Iqbal Niyazi will revisit that fateful
>>> event. Shah Alam Camp was set up in Ahmedabad to shelter hundreds of
>>> riot victims soon after the riots. ''The dead talk of their travails.
>>> It is a long play but I have compressed it into a short monologue,"
>>> says Niyazi.
>>>
>>> Allahabad-based poet Anshu Malviya will also attend the commemoration
>>> and read out his wrenching poem, Kausar Bano Ki Ajanmi Bitiya Ki Or Se
>>> (From the unborn daughter of Kausar Bano), which speaks of the horror
>>> of rioters slicing open a pregnant Bano's abdomen and savagely
>>> flinging her child into a fire. Rakesh Sharma's award-winning
>>> documentary Final Solution will also be shown.
>>>
>>> Although its intentions are worthy, would the commemoration not
>>> invariably reopen old wounds? ''You have no right to suppose that
>>> wounds have healed when thousands of affected people have still not
>>> got justice," retorts retired judge of Bombay High Court Justice
>>> Hosbet Suresh, who was part of the Concerned Citizens' Tribunal which
>>> investigated the Gujarat pogrom. ''In October 2002 we submitted our
>>> voluminous report called Crime Against Humanity. But the
>>> government-appointed Nanavati Commission is yet to submit its report.
>>> If it's not injustice, what is?" says Suresh, who had also
>>> investigated the Mumbai riots of December 1992 and January 2003.
>>> ''After we prepared our report called People's Verdict, Justice
>>> Srikrishna submitted his report. It was never implemented, but, unlike
>>> Gujarat, the Maharashtra government at least released the commission
>>> report," he says.
>>>
>>> Time may not have dimmed memory, but it has mitigated public outrage
>>> against Gujarat CM Narendra Modi. Some quarters now argue for a
>>> leniency in dealing with him for the prosperity he has brought the
>>> state. But activist Javed Anand, convener of the memorial at St.
>>> Xavier's, vetoes any sort of clemency: ''The so-called progress under
>>> Modi's leadership cannot wash away his crime. A murder doesn't get
>>> absolved of his crime even if he turns into a saint. He must be
>>> brought to justice," he points out.
>>>
>>> Some would assume a decade is enough to heal the memories of a
>>> massacre. But, civil society wants to remind people that healing does
>>> not imply forgetting.
>>>
>>> (Commemoration to be held at St Xavier's College, February 27, 6-8pm)
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Peace Is Doable
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mutt...@yahoo.com
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