Apologies for cross posting
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: sujata gothoskar <[email protected]> Date: Wed, Jun 13, 2012 at 4:35 PM Subject: 20 years after the Mumbai pogrom -- how can we act collectively To: sujata gothoskar <[email protected]> Dear friends, These are the brief minutes of the meeting held on the 2nd of June 2012, to discuss what we can collectively do for the 20th year of the Mumbai pogrom. Do go through these and also come for the next meeting on the 23rd of June. Please come with ideas of what we can do. Warm regards and in solidarity. sujata For FAOW *Next meeting on 23rd of June at GRC at 3pm. People to come with ideas. * Minutes of planning meeting - 20 years of Mumbai : Aftermath of Babri Masjid demolition – on 2nd June at GRC, Elphinstone Attended by – FAOW - Meenu, Smriti, Sandhya, Sujata, Sabah, Sangeeta, Sakina, Ammu, Kabi Nirbhay Bano Andolan – Shakil, Shabana, Shabnam FAOW and Akshara – Nandita Shah and Nandita Gandhi LABIA and FAOW- Smrit, Shalini, Chayanika LABIA - Mridul AeN- Fauzia, Heena, Yasmeen Q AeN and FAOW: Hasina Lokraj sanghatan- Suryakant Shinge, Pralhad Aloka, Shilpa (TISS), Lakshmi Menon, Khan Aquila, Nischint (Vacha), Mihir Desai, Sitaram Shelar (YUVA), Pratik, Farukh Maphkar, Namrata Ganneri (SNDT), Javed Anand The meeting began with sharing the background, which had been stated in the invitation letter. *The concerns and suggestions of what the program could be about were - * · *Lack of justice for the victims of ’92-93- *A number of participants felt the need to focus on the lack of justice with a reflection also on what was lacking in our interventions that people still did not get justice. Javed felt that we should raise the issue of the impunity with which justice is denied to mass crimes in the country. Some others felt since this was 20 years to Babri demolition and the subsequent riots, the focus needs to be the polarization of communities that began with Babri demolition and the violence on the Muslim community. · *Continuing violence and everyday exclusions* – Quite a few felt the need to address the issue of continuing violence. Need to present evidence of the exclusions faced by muslims – ghettos that have come up, the demolitions of slums with Muslim population, combing operations, MCOCA, discrimination in housing, employment, etc. If you are Muslim you are not safe. If these issues are not resolved terrorism will rise. · *Need to show possibilities of change – *It was felt that though the scenario seemed depressing because of the lack of justice and the ongoing struggle. Yet it was important to highlight possiblilites of change. We need to state that a lot didn’t happen but also what has changed. That change is possible and desirable. People like Farukh Mhapkar continue to struggle for justice, have not given up hope, many people have been involved in different initiatives, eg. The sadbhavna room in radhabai chawl, Mohalla committees at that time seemed relevant even if they are not considered as important now. Need to think of role-models who can speak of inter-community, harmony, respect. · *What Bombay means to us and shrinking space- *Whose city is this?* *Who the we is, is amorphous. In the next meeting as more people join, their ideas will make this broader. We’ll get more responses to our ideas. A number of participants also felt the need to raise the issue of shrinking spaces for some groups of people. This included moral policing to a clamping down on cruising in certain parks in the name of security post the 92-93 riots with Maheshwari Udyan being one such example. Others felt the reaction to the film Fire, the ban on dance bars too were issues. · *Role of the state* - State repression, its role in denying justice needs to be highlighted. · *Crushing dissent – negation of the right to dissent - *Shrinking spaces of dissent with all protests being pushed/confined to Azad maidaan where we speak to ourselves. The implementation of 144 disallowing assembly or protests. · *Audience –* Who would the audience be? Youth at the time of the riots will have reached middle age now. The youth of today might be unaware of the riots and its impact. The focus of the program for December or January was not completely decided. Most of the participants felt that the program needed to focus on 92 – 93 riots and the aftermath with the denial of justice being the core of the program along with continuing discrimination and violence on the Muslim community. Some others felt the need to make it larger with taking on the changing face of Bombay, the moral policing, the ban on the dance bars, the shrinking spaces for a number of marginalized identities. This would ensure a larger participation. This was contested as taking on too many issues which would deflect from the focus of 92-93. Many felt that since this was program was being organized as 20 years to Babri demolition, the focus ought to be the riots and issues around discrimination of Muslims, else it would be like mini WSF for which 6 months were insufficient to plan. Towards the end, however, there were some attempts made to draw strands in ways that made sure that the focus from the pogrom of 92-93 was not lost and yet there was a connection made with the changing character of the city in particular. One thread that was identified was that of shrinking space (metaphorically used), exclusion, abdication and violence by the State and absence of justice. All of these are connected to the issues emerging from the pogrom and it was suggested that we could look at these as the themes. A second point was about seeing the growth of the right wing forces since 92-93 which is strengthened by the absence of punishment to them and no stopping them in some sense. In the light of their growth what are the implications for the city as such. In the end it seemed like what was emerging was a 5 to 7 days programme in December or January with ongoing things like exhibitions and installations happening throughout and other panels, readings performances happening alongside around the themes: · The mass crimes in Bombay in 92-93 · The failure of the justice delivery system · A recounting of experiences from 92 and 93 and since from survivors and others · The crushing of dissent · Subsequent exclusions · Changing landscapes of the city – ghettoization *Programs that can be planned – * – Some programs could be theatre related. – We put it together on a website that people can access. – Can get students to make films. Have them in colleges. TISS students can make documentaries – Film Screenings - Make a list of films. – Photo exhibition- An exhibition which takes people through this history – Babri and its aftermath. Pamphlets made at that time (some were made by Voice of people awaken). Teesta had photographs from that period from newspapers, which have been misplaced. Can check archives. Can give a call to people for photographs – Cultural expression of that time to be put to people. Centenary of Manto and faiz who have written about this city. – Bringing out myths about marginalized communities. – A bus which goes to various places. Sending out word that something is happening in the city. – Visual of ghettoization from the census data of ’90 and of 2000 to be worked on by Kabi – Podcast of taxi drivers conversations about 92-93 as well as talking to milk distributors at the time of riots for their experiences. – Discussion sessions, spoken word sessions. *Tasks * – Make a list of all available Resources – films, documents, photographs, pamphlets – SNDT – discussing the issue of communal violence with youth. – NBA – will make a list of cases filed and follow up to be done. – Participants will get in touch with other groups who might be interested in joining this process. – Minutes to be sent by forum *Next meeting on 23rd of June at GRC at 3pm. People to come with ideas*. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "humanrights 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/humanrights-movement?hl=en.
