clarifying an error in the earlier mail ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Murali karnam <[email protected]> Date: Sat, 17 Oct 2009 15:16:12 +0530 Subject: Re: English translation of HRF pamphlete brought out on the occasion of Balagopal memorial meet To: suneetha achyuta <[email protected]> Cc: krishna vs <[email protected]>, Jeevan Kumar <[email protected]>, "Burra Ramulu (HRF)" <[email protected]>, [email protected], mohan mohan <[email protected]>, madhavi putrevu <[email protected]>, Madhoo N <[email protected]>, [email protected], sudha kavuri <[email protected]>, [email protected], satyapal pds <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], khurram parvez <[email protected]>, [email protected], indira <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], debasar11 <[email protected]>, "Dr. V. S. Sreedhara" <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], k balagopal <[email protected]>, "S.N. Sahu" <[email protected]>, narsimha rao <[email protected]>, vasu n <[email protected]>, bhanutej n <[email protected]>, Medha Patkar <[email protected]>, Nagraj Adve <[email protected]>, Shweta Narayan <[email protected]>, Naseer Khora1 <[email protected]>, [email protected], Chakri <[email protected]>, [email protected], prakash jarugumilli <[email protected]>, [email protected], jagan jyothy <[email protected]>, Joe Xavier <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], Joseph Hmar <[email protected]>, [email protected], saagar <[email protected]>, Sri kanth <[email protected]>, sandhya kanneganti <[email protected]>, "G. S. Ramamohan" <[email protected]>, sruthi <[email protected]>, sudeshanandc <[email protected]>, Kaliappa Manoharan <[email protected]>, sambasiva Rao <[email protected]>, sireesha gottipati <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], subbu subrags <[email protected]>, sumit <[email protected]>, SUMIT BHATTACHARJEE <[email protected]>, Sujato Badro <[email protected]>, sunithi goday <[email protected]>, sugi sathyaraj <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], "Dr. Anand Teltumbde" <[email protected]>, Anthony Debburma <[email protected]>, Amit Sengupta <[email protected]>, Zaheer Din <[email protected]>, Madhumita Dutta <[email protected]>, Eline de Groot <[email protected]>, arun <[email protected]>, Raghu P <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], rupa vedhanbhatla <[email protected]>, Sridhar Ramachandra <[email protected]>, geetha v <[email protected]>, gayatri vkl <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], gauri lankesh <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], Manshi Asher <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], mannam brahmaiah <[email protected]>, [email protected], chris chekuri uncle <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], uma kanti <[email protected]>, Amit Upadhyay <[email protected]>, seethalakshmi usha <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], eas <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], pasala ambedkar <[email protected]>, opdr ap <[email protected]>, [email protected], christopher-b burchell <[email protected]>, [email protected], "C.R Bijoy" <[email protected]>, chris chekuri uncle <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], bela <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], Ajantha Attaluri <[email protected]>, Ajantha <[email protected]>, [email protected], Patrik Oskarsson <[email protected]>, sanjoy <[email protected]>, Santosh Patnaik <[email protected]>, Prabhu Mohapatra <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], vimala <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], Aruna Kashyap <[email protected]>, Priyanca Mathur Velath <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], shabnam patel <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], velugusaagar <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], Ravi Nair <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], Babu Sundara <[email protected]>, Babloo <[email protected]>, Sanjana <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], vasantha <[email protected]>
Dear Friends, Please note the correction to the mail sent earlier by Suneetha. Dr. Balagopal died of Lung Aspiration following a bleeding Stomach Ulcer but not peptic ulcer. In case you forwarded earlier mail to your friends, we also request you forward this mail too. Murali K Human Rights Forum Hyderabad 9866479775 On Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 11:33 AM, suneetha achyuta <[email protected]>wrote: > Friends, please find below a translation of HRF pamphlete brought out on > the occasion of memorial meeting conducted on 12th October in Hyderabad. I > thought it captured Balagopal's unique work in the human rigths > movement very well and therefore needed wider circulation to non-Telugu > readership. > > > *Remembering K.Balagopal * > > * – a Campaigner for the Human Rights Movement* > > > > K.Balagopal, *the* synonym for the human rights movement in Andhra Pradesh > is no more. He passed away suddenly on October 8th at 10.00 PM of a peptic > ulcer. His death at the age of 57 has left everyone associated with human > rights and democratic movements in a state of shock. Activists and > supporters of the human rights movement are still finding it difficult to > accept the reality of his death. > > > > In a short span of two days after his death, it is impossible to come to a > comprehensive assessment of his life, three decades of his rights activism > and its characteristics. Our attempt here is therefore only tentative. He > was the fifth child of Kandala Parthanatha Sarma and Nagamani. Due to his > father’s frequent transfers he studied at different places in A.P, from > Nellore to Srikakulam. He did his PUC in Kavali and B.Sc in Tirupathi. After > completing M.Sc and Ph.D in Mathematics at the Regional Engineering College > in Warangal, he joined Indian Statistical Institute at New Delhi for > research. Dissatisfied with life there, he came back to Warangal to be with > the democratic movements and joined the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties > Committee. After joining Kakatiya University as a lecturer in Maths, he > started taking a much more active role in the rights movement. > > > > He was an exceptionally brilliant student and a recipient of several gold > medals. He was also an opening batsman for the cricket team of Venkateswara > University. While pursuing Ph.D he became a member of the editorial > committee of a renowned international journal of mathematics. His task was > to review complex research in mathematics and explain the same to the > readers in a simple style. > > > > He was elected to the post of the General Secretary of APCLC in 1985 and > carried out that responsibility for 15 years. He took up the leadership of > the organization when the repression on the Naxalite movement had just > begun. In the process of exposing fake encounters he visited every nook and > corner of the state. He expanded the organization from its confined location > in a few cities to every small town in the state. Inspired by his activist > practice, numerous young people were attracted to the organization. In order > to inculcate the consciousness of human rights in muffasil areas he > identified issues that are specific to each district and worked through > them. By enabling the district activists to articulate the local rights > issues, he shaped the organization in such a way that wherever a violation > of rights took place, they would raise their voice against it. Even though > many civil liberties leaders such as Gopi Rajanna, Dr.Ramanatham, Jaapa > Lakshma Reddy and Narra Prabhakar Reddy were killed, he did not lose heart. > Instead, he tried to infuse courage among the fellow activists. He remained > unfazed in the face of direct repression too. Arrested under TADA, he spent > three months in Warangal prison but always believed that it is quite natural > for activists to be arrested or imprisoned. His response to attacks on his > person exemplified his democratic temperament. When he was attacked by ABVP > activists in 1984, kidnapped by the Khammam police in 1989, fatally attacked > in Kottagudem in 1992 and even mauled in the presence of National Human > Rights Commission in 1993, he refused to pause even for a day. Speaking to > the media after he was released by his kidnappers, he suggested that they > should focus more on the repression of the rural youth, rather than on him. > > > > Balagopal’s success lay in making the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties > Committee stand by the people of Andhra Pradesh, especially in opposing the > repression unleashed by the state government in the name of containing > naxalism. His efforts in developing APCLC into a pioneering organization in > opposing state violence in India are unparalleled. Working relentlessly, he > sought to extend the civil liberties activism and practice from the confines > of urban intellectual debates onto a much broader basis. When Dalits were > attacked during the initial years of Telugu Desam regime, his was one of the > first democratic voices to be raised. During the anti-Mandal agitation he > wrote the first analytical essay in support of reservations for backward > castes from a human rights perspective and thereby widened the horizons the > human rights movements. > > > > Under Balagopal’s leadership the perspective and practice of human rights > movement grew to become interdependent and began to draw strength from each > other. He strongly believed that the priorities and perspective of the > movement should be reconfigured through practice, while practice needed to > move in step with changes in perspective. In this process of reflection he > came to recognize that the absence of rights did not arise solely from class > dominance but also from other modes of dominance and oppressive practices > therein. As all forms of institutionalized dominance impede enjoyment of > rights, human rights movement should desist from choosing one kind of > violations as its priority, he cautioned. Raising the issue of undemocratic > activities of various movements for a critical discussion, he argued that a > human rights movement need not support every action that other movements do > in the name of struggle. > > > > He thought that there was much that the human rights movement could learn > from every democratic movement against different forms of dominance. The > task for the human rights movement is to articulate the aspirations and > demands of these movements in the language of rights so that they attain > universal validity. The agenda that he outlined for human rights movements > was: to work for the institutionalization of already recognized rights, to > struggle for the recognition of un-recognized ones, and most importantly, to > cultivate democratic values and culture in the spheres of law, > administration and societal thinking. He envisaged a broad based and > autonomous human rights movement which would be accountable to the people. > Due to the differences of opinion emerging from such a reflection, he left > APCLC to form Human Rights Forum (HRF) with a few comrades. Over the last > ten years, HRF’s growth from 32 member organization to an active and > energetic 300 member strong organization owes a lot to the untiring efforts > of Balagopal. His vision lay in creative alignment of human rights theory > with practice and in cultivating among common people a spirit of commitment > to social responsibility and faith in democratic values. > > > > After joining the civil liberties movement Balagopal wrote numerous > analytical commentaries on various social and political phenomenon in Andhra > Pradesh. In the last ten years, all the anonymous essays published in the > ten Human Rights Bulletins (Journal of HRF) were authored by him. His book > on D.D.Kosambi, introducing Kosambi’s new thinking on historiography to > Telugu readership remains till today, a standard textbook for Telugu medium > students in History Departments. For intellectuals outside Andhra Pradesh, > his essays in Economic and Political Weekly remained the most important > source to understand what was happening in the state. Many economists of > yesteryears recall with admiration his reviews of Cambridge University > publications in economics. His essay on the Chintapalli incident where the > police burnt thousands of tribal houses in Visakhapatnam district won the > national award for journalism given by PUCL. To conduct public inquiries > into human rights violations all over the country, he established Indian > People’s Human Rights Commission along with Nandita Haksar and Sebastian. In > a sense, it served as the basis for the establishment of the National Human > Rights Commission. Balagopal is known to people of Kashmir, Manipur, > Chattisgarh, Tamilnadu and Karnataka which saw extensive human rights > violations in recent times. He visited these states many times with other > civil liberties organizations and brought out several reports. > > > > Despite rising to immense heights in the human rights movement he chose to > live a simple and ordinary life. He practiced what he believed in his > everyday life. He did not have any life outside the movement. From 1981 till > his last breath, he used all his energies in struggles for justice for poor > people and protecting their rights. For rural people his name is synonymous > with ‘rights’. Intellectuals consider him as a thinker who advocated human > rights norms to evaluate the democratic quotient of any social and political > phenomenon. He stood out as an intensely committed lawyer in a profession > increasingly beset with corruption. He not only provided a moral compass to > peoples’ lives but also diligently carried out the responsibility of warning > them about impending threats to public interest. > > > > Balagopal was deeply disturbed by the opportunism displayed by the > intellectuals in the state after the death of Y.S.Rajasekhar Reddy. His > caution to the members of Human Rights Forum on the eve of its third State > conference on 2nd and 3rd October would well be heeded by these > intellectuals too, “This (Human Rights Forum) is a new experiment in the > history of peoples’ movements in our state. If we do not sustain it, it is > not only a defeat for us but also a blow to the democratic belief that > ideals can bring people together. If we sustain it and take it forward > successfully, we would have strengthened the spirit of democracy itself”. > > > > Explaining the philosophy of Narendranath, his long standing friend in the > human rights movement, who passed away in July this year, Balagopal said, > “As long as people are suffering, one cannot rest in peace”. These words > describe Balagopal’s philosophy of life too. > > > > Inviting you all to work towards the fulfillment of such a democratic > vision…. > > > > > > *Human Rights Forum* > > > > *Translated by A.Suneetha * > > > > > > > > > > > > > On Sun, Oct 11, 2009 at 7:45 AM, krishna vs <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Dear friends, >> Our colleague and friend K Balagopal passed away at about 10 pm on October >> 8 in a hospital at Hyderabad.. His demise was due to lung aspiration >> following a bleeding stomach ulcer. A memorial meet is being held on monday >> evening in Hyderabad. >> >> *REMEMBERING BALAGOPAL* >> ** >> *Memorial meet at 4 pm on October 12, Monday* >> *at Sundarayya Vignan Kendram, * >> *Baghlingampalli, Hyderabad* >> ** >> *Human Rights Forum* >> >> > > > > -- > A.Suneetha > Fellow and Coordinator > Anveshi Research Centre for Women's Studies > 2-2-18/49 Durgabai Deshmukh Colony > Hyderabad 500 013 > Phone: +91 40 27423690 > Fax: +91 40 27423168 > -- Murali Karnam 9866479775 -- Bobby Kunhu http://community.eldis.org/myshkin/Blog/ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
