South Asia Citizens Wire | 20-21 September, 2004 via: www.sacw.net
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[1] India - Pakistan: How to become good neighbours - Nukes are a major hurdle (M. B. Naqvi)
[2] Bangladesh: The blasts' their fall-outs (A.H. Jaffor Ullah)
[3] India: Hey Ram! - an open letter to the RSS (RK Anand)
[4] India: RSS, Godse and Savarkar
(i) "Only Dr. Hedgewar is your equal" (Jyotirmaya Sharma)
(ii) Savarkar and Sangh : a muddled equation (Subhash Gatade)
[5] India: 'Alternative Nobel' for Agnivesh, Engineer
[6] India: IIC and Anhad seminar 'Towards An Agenda For Secular Education' (N Delhi - Sept.29, 2004)
[7] insaf Bulletin [29], September, 2004
[8] IHEU's 16th World Congress "Separation of Religion and State" (Paris, 5 July - 7 July 2005)
[9] Call For Papers Conference on : Migration, religion and secularism (Paris, June 17 - 18, 2005)
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[1]
The Tribune September 20, 2004
HOW TO BECOME GOOD NEIGHBOURS Remove roadblocks and move ahead M. B. Naqvi writes from Karachi
The Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan met on September 5 and 6 after many years. Their agenda virtually dated back to 1997 when eight subjects were identified by the two countries' Foreign Secretaries for negotiations. There was little progress between 1997 and January 6 this year. After January, when fresh negotiations began, the dialogue has gone on as planned. The Foreign Minister-level talks did not make any breakthrough. However, the two countries agreed on 14 confidence-building measures and sending back the rest of the items on the agenda to the committees that had first debated them. There is advice to be patient.
This is fair enough. But some questions arise. Granted that it is a long, arduous journey, one is entitled to ask whether there is any agreement on the destination. Is there a common goal? The stated purpose is normal, good neighbourly relations. But this can encompass a wide range of possibilities. Take Germany and Poland. They had almost normal relations until last year, but now they have a much closer relationship as European Union members. An inspiring goal is needed for faster progress. The Foreign Ministers' Delhi encounter has disappointed many in Pakistan because of the slow pace of the dialogue.
A common vision of where the two countries want to go is necessary: the nature of domestic policy change and the desired dispensation in the external sphere should be spelled out. This is crucial as merely "normal" relations carry no urgency for a change in one's priorities and purposes. The question is: Where does Mr Natwar Singh want to take Pakistan, or what does he require from it? The same is true for Mr Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri. What would he want India to do or be, besides agreeing to act in Kashmir the way his government wants? There is complete silence on these questions.
The accepted goal of most Indians is to see their country emerging on the international stage as a great power. India's military capabilities, including its nuclear weapons - the currency of power and influence - are calculated to achieve national grandeur. The goal should now be more specific after the decision to lock India to a strategic relationship with the US.
There is no certainty regarding Pakistan's goal. Every ruler - mostly military dictators over long stretches of time - used Islamic rhetoric but acted as America's henchman, making the country a US satellite. It still is. The national cause used to be the "liberation of Kashmir from Indian occupation". Today another military strongman is impatient for a negotiated solution of Kashmir - one that India can live with. He has given India the choice from a notional menu of possible solutions. He has given up Pakistan's old stance of a UN-supervised plebiscite. He is anxious for a solution acceptable to India, but it should come about quickly.
Pakistan realistically lives in the present, taking one tactical move vis-�-vis India after another. But it has no independent vision for the country and the people - not even an Islamic vision. Factually, Pakistan has always tried to cut India down to size and acquire protection and aid from Uncle Sam. But India kicked at Pakistan's crutches by making New Delhi a "strategic" ally of Washington. The US has now apparently ordained peace in South Asia. That may be an explanation for President Musharraf's eagerness for any kind of settlement on Kashmir.
Anyway, India and Pakistan have to live together. Most Pakistani moves in Kashmir, including the armed insurgency called jihad, have failed. Pakistan has nothing much to fall back upon; Islamic rhetoric was useful to dictators, and the western world did not mind it. But after 9/11 General Musharraf had to make a U-turn on the Taliban and militant Islam. He is forced to propagate "enlightened and moderate" Islam. But he has also given a slogan: "Pakistan first".
This can be stretched into a philosophy of making humane economic development the first priority and purpose. General Musharraf appears to be going down this lane. For, it will involve demilitarisation of Pakistani society and economy. Anyway, Pakistan is in difficulties. India has rendered the relationship with the US non-exclusive, and India's value to the US is much greater. Its Kashmir policy having ended in a blind alley, Pakistan has to find a role as a second-class power sans cold crutches. Playing an independent world role is beyond it; not even Britain or France can sustain it. The change in Sino-Indian relations has deprived Pakistan of the exclusiveness of its relationship with China. Hence a profound confusion over a role.
The Pakistanis have so far displayed two contradictory traits. Basically they feel insecure vis-�-vis India. And yet, they are proud to be the inheritors of the Indo-Persian civilisation - that is shared with India. All these 57 years of being a US satellite and a failed democracy have profoundly shaken the Pakistani intelligentsia. The rise of militant Islam as also terrorism are the symptoms of falling back on whatever they can lay their hands on. They need a new role or paradigm for domestic and external policies.
A people-to-people reconciliation with India, in accordance with the Franco-German model, involving close political and economic cooperation, should revive their spirits. A wide-ranging India-Pakistan relationship, preferably within the SAARC framework, can be a potent factor. It will be going back to one's civilisational roots. It can release their energies for all-round economic and cultural enrichment.
In short, what India will have done is to help Pakistan - and one dares to say the same about Bangladesh - acquire a new paradigm, poise and purpose.
This may sound utopian. Perhaps, it is. One wishes to make it even more utopian by recommending a European Union-like India-Pakistan partnership. Nuclear weapons are a major hurdle. They are a big destabilising factor; for they create a profound mistrust among the rivals. While the purpose of Indian nukes remains theoretically vague, Pakistan's are aimed at only India. So long as these nukes are there, it is impossible for India and Pakistan to trust each other. This problem has to be tackled head on and made a part of the reconciliation and partnership programme. When this is done, the door to a relaxed and self-confident friendship and cooperation will open. It will also last.
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[2]
The New Nation - Aug 25, 2004, 13:15
[Bangladesh] THE BLASTS' THEIR FALL-OUTS By Dr. A.H. Jaffor Ullah
On August 21, 2004, hand grenades were lobbed in an opposition rally in Dhaka in which at least 18 attendees were killed and an estimated 300 or more party workers and bystanders were badly injured.
This vicious incident was widely reported in the Internet news sites by various news agencies such as BBC, Reuters, AP, etc. The present government of Bangladesh, which includes two sworn Islamists, is so finicky about the 'good' outwardly image of the nation that it always cry out saying some elements of the Bangladesh society are bent on marring the 'good' image of our peace-loving tranquil nation.
But the Prime Minister and her trusted lieutenants give a blind eye to the fact that the incidences of grenade blasting like the one that just happened on Saturday (August 21, 2004) give the credence to the fact that Bangladesh has become one of the most dangerous places on earth to live. Thanks to the growing trend of religious fanaticism and the rise in obscurantism for transforming an otherwise peaceful agrarian society into an outright violent one.
The spate of throwing homemade bombs and hand grenades among the gatherings of opposition politicians, cultural soirees, Bangla New Year's party, Christian Church, Sufi Shrines, etc., had risen dramatically in the last 5-6 years. From a cursory look, it follows that Islamists do these blasts following their carefully wrought plan. I am yet to hear any incidence of grenade attack or bomb blast in a meeting or a rally organized by Jamaat, Islamic Oikyo Jote, or even by BNP. These days, Khaleda Zia's party, BNP, is in cahoots with the Islamic parties in managing the day-to-day affair of the impoverished nation. The grenade throwers know who are their enemy. It has not escaped the rapt attention of many Bangladesh citizens that only secularists and diplomats of the countries that aided George Bush to wage war against Iraq are at the receiving end of the grenade blasts.
The grenade throwers have waged their jihad against the saner element of Bangladesh society because they know that these folks (read secularists) would resist any move by the obscurantists to take the nation to the path of religious extremism. On January 1, 2001, I read news in Dhaka's English newspaper that Bangladesh's High Court gave their verdict to ban all kinds of fatwas. No sooner had the two High Court Judges offer their verdict, a handful of Islamists belonging to Islamic Oikyo Jote, the member of Khaleda Zia's political alliance, had offered fatwa declaring the two judges a murtaad or apostate.
In Islam, apostates are easy prey to religious killers. Things for sure are out of kilter in Bangladesh. Or else, how dare a bunch of obscure mullahs offer their fatwa against three very bright professors of Dhaka University? It is an insult to every sensible citizens of this impoverished nation of 140 million. The good sense has taken the back seat, undoubtedly. Now, we hear that several powerful hand grenades were lobbed from tall buildings near the venue where Sheikh Hasina was holding a protest meeting with her party members.
According to several news reports, as Sheikh Hasina finished her speech and were descending from the truck, which served as the podium, several hand grenades were lobbed aimed at her. Lucky for Sheikh Hasina that she came out alive from the grenade attack but at the cost of 18 of her party followers who took the brunt of the blast. Her followers formed a body shield to protect her and in the process, several Awami League activists had succumbed to death.
This is not the first time that Sheikh Hasina was targeted for assassination. The way things are shaping up, I am afraid it is only a matter of time when Hasina will sustain a mortal grenade attack. And when that happens, we will know who is behind all this. I am yet to hear any kind words of wisdom from Mrs. Zia, the sitting Prime Minister. She knows darn well, who are the grenade throwers at Awami League rally, or in Sufi Shrine in Sylhet. But her reticence to save the Islamic extremists is very noticeable.
For a long time, Bangladesh's people thought homemade bombs were blasted at political rally or at cultural soirees. But ever since the Scotland Yard made an investigation at Sylhet's Sufi Shrine in the aftermath of May 21 blast in Shahjalal shrine in 2004 in which the newly appointed British High Commissioner Anwar Chowdhury was injured, the investigative teamed had opined that military grade hand grenades were lobbed at the diplomat. The questions that naturally arise are 1. Who knows the technique of throwing military grade grenade with precision? 2. Where are these grenades coming from?
In early 1980s, when the Soviet army was invading Afghanistan, a deluge of Mujaheedin (jihadists) flocked to Afghanistan to fight a holy war against godless communists. It is now widely believed that many Islamists from Bangladesh had joined the Mujaheedin brigade. There, they learned the art of throwing grenades. The proverbial chickens have finally come home to roost. These Afghan War veterans have trained many jihadi madrassah students the art of grenade lobbing to maim and kill people who they deemed are theirs enemy. That is precisely why we now hear the incidences of grenade blasts in political rally or in Sufi shrine. One does not have to be a rocket scientists to figure out that these episodes of grenade blasts are the works of bigots whose numbers are increasing by the day in Bangladesh albeit by leaps and bounds.
Will there be any reprieve from grenade lobbing incidents? The answer is a simple one. No, there won't be any break in the activity as long as any ideology that promotes hatred amongst people are on the rise. The i Islamists are now bent on capturing the mosque or jamaatkhana of minority sect Ahmadiyya. That is not all. The fundamentalists are urging the government to declare the Ahmadiyyas as non-Muslims. These are telltale signs of religious sectarianism and obscurantism peaking in Bangladesh. The nation of 140 million impoverish people is now in the slippery slope of religious extremism and there is no reprieve from it. Where will all these end?
There is no telling. In the meantime, the bloody episodes of grenade lobbing directed towards the main opposition party, other secularists, moviegoers, cultural soiree attendees, etc., will be on the rise. Nothing what we say or write publicly could efface the dark side of Bangladesh's growing fundamentalism. The government party is aiding and abating the fundamentalist force, which eventually will come home to roost.
-SAN-Feature Service
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[3]
Communalism Combat 11th Anniversary August 2004 Cover Story
HEY RAM!
In an open letter to the RSS, parliamentarian RK Anand asks them to refute his conclusions based on hard facts that the RSS was implicated in Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, that the RSS is a political, not a cultural, body which along with the Hindu Mahasabha staunchly opposed the Quit India movement and whose activists have been indicted by several commissions of inquiry for their role in major communal riots
Shri KS Sudershan RSS Sarsanghchalak Sanskriti Bhavan, DB Gupta Road, New Delhi
Shri Ram Madhav RSS Spokesperson Sanskriti Bhavan, DB Gupta Road, New Delhi
Alot of hue and cry is being raised and threat of legal action is being extended by the RSS for various allegations made against them that their members were involved in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.
As a citizen of the country, after reading various periodicals, books and documents, I wish to form the following opinion:
(1) That the RSS and its workers/activists were involved in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi;
(2) The RSS is no longer a cultural organisation, its activities are political in nature;
(3) The RSS and its activists have been involved in various riots committed in various parts of the country;
(4) The RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha opposed the Quit India Movement which was launched by Mahatma Gandhi in August 1942.
My point-wise viewpoint and conclusions on the above are based on the following facts:
[ Full Text at: http://www.sabrang.com/cc/archive/2004/aug04/cover.html ]
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[4] [ India: RSS, Godse and Savarkar]
(i)
The Hindu - September 21, 2004 "ONLY DR. HEDGEWAR IS YOUR EQUAL"
By Jyotirmaya Sharma
PUNE, SEPT. 20. In his deposition before the Court in the Gandhi murder trial, Nathuram Godse made attempts to distance himself from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as well as from Savarkar. Subsequent statements by the assassin's brother and co-conspirator, Gopal Godse, told a quite different story (Frontline, January 28, 1994).
Five hitherto inaccessible letters obtained by The Hindu cast new light on the tireless efforts of Nathuram to bring the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha on a common platform, with a common programme, working towards the goal of creating a Hindu Rashtra.
As early as February 1938, Godse pleads with Savarkar to assume the leadership of the Hindus by aligning with the RSS and drawing on its strengths. In a letter dated February 28, 1938 (the letter was cited in a recent issue of Outlook, although not this particular excerpt), he says: "Sir, your goal is the achievement of the Hindu Rashtra. There are 50,000 disciplined RSS cadres who carry the same aspiration in their hearts. These swayamsevaks are spread from Punjab to Karnataka. What they lack is your leadership and guidance and are waiting for it."
He writes to Savarkar again on July 10, 1938. The tone of the letter is less reverential, even impatient and insistent. "I need to discuss here many matters of great importance," it begins and moves on to delineating an agenda for the Hindu Mahasabha. "The current leadership of the Hindu Mahasabha is not conscious enough of the strength of the organisation," complains Godse. He tells Savarkar that the organisation ought to take concrete steps to increase its numbers and have a "parinaamkaarak karyakram" ("result-oriented programme"). In the absence of this, he says, people will not be able to gauge the "upayuktataa" ("usefulness, worth") of the Hindu Mahasabha.
In his deposition during the Gandhi murder trial, Godse refers to his growing impatience with the Hindu Mahasabha and its indifference to a more militant stance advocated by younger members of the organisation (Godse, Why I Assassinated Gandhi, p. 54). There is ample evidence in the 1938 letter to suggest the future killer's barely concealed impatience with the lack of greater aggression on the part of the Mahasabha - "jor laagnaar" or push more is how he implores Savarkar in this letter.
Sensing a reluctance on Savarkar's part to talk to other Hindu leaders and bring them under a single organisational umbrella, Godse asks him to unite all Hindu leaders and give them direction. This would be especially useful in attracting the young and creating a stir in Maharashtra. "The only organisation in Maharashtra as well as in all Hindustan that is capable of uniting the Hindus," Godse observes in his letter, "is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh." Its leaders, he adds, are capable, it is efficient, and it has the following of the youth. Godse wants Savarkar to make common cause with the RSS.
In dramatic fashion, Godse tells Savarkar: "There is only one leader who is your equal and peer, and that is Dr. Hedgewar." He suggests that if only Savarkar can speak to Dr. Keshavram Baliram Hedgewar, the RSS founder, a lot can be achieved in realising the goal of Hindu unity. Once this is done, there will be a social and political upheaval in Maharashtra.
In a daring gesture - hardly the act of an ordinary worker with a nodding acquaintance with Savarkar, as is suggested by Nathuram in his testimony - Godse goes on to suggest names for a revamp of the Hindu Mahasabha leadership. These names, he asserts, will enhance the organisation's strength ("bal vaadhnaar"); without these names the revival of the Mahasabha will not be possible.
The Hyderabad question and the agitation against the rule of the Nizam were for Godse the opportunity to revive the Mahasabha. He asks Savarkar to take the lead in this and head a satyagraha there. He even suggests an early date for starting the agitation. "I hope and expect that you will lead the agitation from Maharashtra on August 1 and give it direction," is how Godse signs off the letter.
Letters written on February 9 and February 25, 1941 amply demonstrate Godse's ongoing involvement with Savarkar and the Hindu Mahasabha. The letter of February 9 mentions Godse's plans to hold a public meeting for Savarkar in Pune after March. In the letter of February 25, Godse complains that Dr. Varadaraju Naidu, who had only the previous year organised in Madras a public meeting at which Savarkar spoke on the politics of Shivaji, is now singing praises of Gandhi ("Gandhichi khupachh stuti tyani keli ahey"). Godse further cautions Savarkar against giving too much importance to Vishvasrao Dabre of the Varnashram Samaj. Dabre, Nathuram alleges, is misusing the letters written to him by Savarkar.
There is direct evidence in Nathuram's 1938-1946 letters of the warmth of his feelings, and his ideological closeness, towards both Savarkar and the RSS.
o o o o
(ii)
Open Page | The Hindu - September 21, 2004
SAVARKAR AND SANGH : A MUDDLED EQUATION
THE SANGH Parivar which never enjoyed a smooth relationship with Vinayak Damodar Savarkar when alive now wants us to believe that it is the true and the only heir to his legacy.
The flurry of activities taken by its leaders at the national level in the aftermath of the `plaque removal incident' or the recent decision by the leader of the BJP in Maharashtra Mr. Gopinath Munde to take out a `Savarkar Yatra' to avenge the alleged insult to the freedom fighter has proved beyond doubt its determination about the same.
Different priorities
Incidentally the callousness with which the `Parivar' itself views this claim of legacy was not lost on the common people when they noticed that when on the one hand, the BJP-Shiv Sena members were making a noise about the plaque removal incident inside the parliament, the spokesperson of the RSS Mr. Ram Madhav was releasing a letter to the press purportedly written by Sardar Patel, which, while `absolving the RSS from the charges of assassination of Gandhi' had clearly stated that Savarkar was involved in the conspiracy to kill Gandhi.
Even a cursory glance at the trajectory of the Hindu Mahasabha under the leadership of Savarkar or the way in which the RSS unfolded itself during those days makes it quite clear that the differences in priorities between the two organisations were already visible from the day Savarkar was elected president of the Hindu Mahasabha after his release from jail in1937.
In a sympathetic study of the RSS "The Brotherhood in Saffron, The RSS and The Hindu Revivalism," the authors Andersen and Damle clearly explain (pg 40, Vistaar, 1986, Delhi) that in fact Savarkar's emphasis was on turning the Mahasabha into a political party in opposition to the Congress when Hedgewar had already decided to insulate the RSS from any active politics and concentrate on `cultural work'.
Hedgewar and later Golwalkar also neither wanted to be associated with a formation whose confrontational activities would place the RSS in direct opposition to the Congress. There were apprehensions regarding each other's role in the Hindu Unification Movement. The souring of relations between the two organisations is visible in an angry letter issued by Savarkar's office in 1940 advising that "when there is such a serious conflict at a particular locality between any of the branches of the Sangh, the RSS and the Hindu Sabhaites that actual preaching is carried out against the Hindu Mahasabha, then the Hindu Sabhaites should better leave the Sangh ...and start their own Hindu Sabha volunteer corps (letter from V.D.Savarkar to S.L.Mishra, 3 March 1943)."
In fact the earlier Hindu Mahasabha leaders prior to Savarkar were expecting that the RSS would work as a `youth organisation' of the `parent body'. But that plan did not materialise and then the Hindu Mahasabha under Savarkar's leadership was forced to form the Ram Sena in its place.
The chequered course
It is now history how in 1942 when the Britishers were engaged in World War II and the Congress's call for `Quit India' reverberated throughout India, thousands of people engaged in government jobs including police and military left their jobs to protest against the continuation of the British regime. It is interesting that the mass upsurge of the Indian people once again could not compel both these organisations to chart a unified path. Of course there was one commonality and it was their refusal to join the anti colonial mass upsurge. And thus while the RSS preferred to keep itself aloof from the `Quit India Movement' and concentrate on its `cultural' agenda, Savarkar went one step further. At that time he preferred to tour India asking Hindu youth to join the military with a call `Militarise the Hindus, Hinduise the nation'.
The advent of independence also could not bring about any qualitative improvement in the relationships between Savarkar and the rest of the RSS led by Golwalkar. In fact the killing of the Mahatma as part of a deep conspiracy hatched by the forces of Hindutva and the consequent government crackdown on the RSS as well as the Hindu Mahasabha and the long winding court proceedings further soured the relations between the two.
The RSS's vainglorious attempts to save itself from the aftermath, Golwalkar's petitions to Sardar Patel for lifting the ban on the RSS coupled with its inaction as far as the court case against Savarkar and his other comrades was concerned proved to be the last straw.
The Fifties saw the RSS's attempts to build a mass political party of its own in the form of the Jan Sangh with a senior ex-Hindu Mahasabha leader Shyama Prasad Mukherjee in its leading position. It was a time when both the Jan Sangh and the Hindu Mahasabha contested for the same political space in an ambience that was not conducive for either of them. It was clear to even a layperson that the RSS as well as the Jan Sangh were maintaining a distance from Savarkar.
In fact Savarkar died a lonely man abhorred by the very people who once called him the pioneer theoretician of the project of the Hindu Rashtra. It seems really ironic that these are the very people who are today engaged in an exercise to show that they are the real heirs to his legacy.
Vikram Savarkar, a nephew of Savarkar and a leader of the Hindu Mahasabha, in a recent interview to the press clearly exposed the hypocrisy involved in these attempts. According to him he very well knows that the BJP and the RSS did not appreciate his (Savarkar's) philosophy. In fact for him the BJP's sudden love for the legend is an eyewash. It is an effort to woo voters for the Assembly elections in Maharashtra.
SUBHASH GATADE
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[5]
Mid Day - September 21, 2004
'ALTERNATIVE NOBEL' FOR AGNIVESH, ENGINEER
By: PTI
September 20, 2004
Hyderabad: Renowned social worker Swami Agnivesh and Muslim scholar Asghar Ali Engineer have been chosen for the honorary 'Right Livelihood Award' -- considered as the 'alternative Nobel prizes' -- for their 'strong commitment to promote values of co-existence and tolerance'.
The Right Livelihood Awards 2004 were announced by the Right Livelihood Award Foundation's founder and chairman Jakob Von Uexkull on Monday.
It is for the first time that the meeting of the international jury of the Foundation was held outside Swedish capital Stockholm.
The three recepients of the Right Livelihood cash award, totalling two million Swedish Kronor (220,000 US Dollar), are: the Russian human rights organisation 'Memorial', Nicaraguan human rights activist and environmentalist Bianca Jagger and Argentanian scientist and environmentalist Raul Montenegro.
The annual Right Livelihood Awards, to be presented on December nine in the Swedish Parliament, are given in recognition of dedicated work at community level in Development, Human Rights, Ecology, Renewable Energy and Gender Empowerment.
Established 25 years ago by Uexkull, a Swedish-German philatelic expert, who sold his valuable collection of postage stamps to provide the original endowment, the Right Livelihood Award honours people who dare to throw off the straitjacket of conventional ideas and work for empowering local communities.
"The selection of the two distinguished Indian religious figures for the honorary award shows that we have much more to learn from India. They have worked unceasingly for social justice and communal harmony for more than two decades," Uexkull told a press conference where the list of awardees was announced.
Swami Agnivesh and Asghar Ali Engineer have been chosen for their strong commitment and cooperation for many years to promote the values of co-existence, tolerance and understanding in India and between the countries in South Asia, Uexkull said.
"Together, these two distinguished religious leaders represent a holy work and a true spiritual essence of their religions," he said.
The administrative director of the Foundation Kerstin Bennet and Indian member of the internal jury Dr Vithal Rajan were also present at the press conference.
The jury held its eight-day meeting here to select the winners from among 102 nominations.
Asked about Hyderabad being chosen as the venue for the Foundation's first meeting outside Sweden, Uexkull said, "Hyderabad is a fascinating city encompassing the whole world".
Agnivesh, an Arya Samaj leader known for his long struggle against bonded labour, founded the Bandhua Mukti Morcha (BMM) in 1981 and also took up several social issues including campaign against the practice of `Sati' and female infanticide.
He was thrice elected as the chairman of United Nations Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery.
Asghar Ali Engineer, an Islamic scholar who has published 47 books mainly focussing on Islam and communal violence in India, has founded the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS) aimed at promoting communal harmony and organising inter-faith dialogues.
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[6]
Date: September 29, 2004
India International Centre and Anhad invite you to a seminar
TOWARDS AN AGENDA FOR SECULAR EDUCATION
9.30: Welcome by Harsh Mander on behalf of Anhad
Moderator : Prof. Mridula Mukherjee
10.00-10.20: Key Note Address Prof. Satish Chandra
10.20-10.40- Secular Values and Curriculum: Prof Arjun Dev
10.40-11.00-The Assault on Institutions of Learning and Tasks Ahead: Prof. Mushirul Hasan
11.00-11.40- Erosion of Democratic Expression in Institutions
of Higher Learning � Prof Rizwan Qaiser, Aditya Nigam, Apoorvanand
11.40-12.00- TEA BREAK
12.00-12.20 Text Books and Pedagogy- Prof. Krishan Kumar
12.20-12.50- Assault on Science Education and the
Tasks Ahead-Prof. T Jayaraman12.50- Vote of Thanks: Gauhar Raza on behalf of Anhad
Venue: Main Auditorium, IIC, Max Mueller Road, New Delhi-110001 Time: 9.30am- 1.30pm Date: September 29, 2004
Anhad, 4, windsor place, new delhi-110001, tel- 23327366/ 67
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[7]
insaf Bulletin [29], September, 2004
International South Asia Forum
Postal address: Box 272, Westmount Stn., QC, Canada H3Z 2T2 (Tel. 514 346-9477)
(e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit our website http://www.insaf.net)
Editors, Daya Varma (Montreal) and Vinod Mubayi (New York). Editorial Board: Yumna Siddiqi (Middlebury), Anwar Pasha (Montreal); circulation/website: Ramya Chellappa (New York).
Manipur: The shame of India Diaspora launches Petition for repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act
Is UPA the same as NDA? by Daya Varma
The US and Kashmir by Maharaj Kaul The state of Child illiteracy and labor in South Asia and more
for a fully formatted copy in word of the Insaf bulletin - sept., 2004 write to : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
August issues of the bulletin is available at: http://insaf.net/central/bulletins/200408bull.html
[A non formatted plain text version of the Insaf Bulletin for September 2004 (52k), is available via sacw; for copy write to : <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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[8]
IHEU'S 16TH WORLD CONGRESS
SEPARATION OF RELIGION AND STATE
Paris, Tuesday 5 July - Thursday 7 July 2005
Inaugural Session at UNESCO Headquarters; Plenary Sessions, Parallel Sessions and Workshops
Associated events: IHEU General Assembly, International IHEYO Youth Conference and World Congress of Freethinkers
Pre-register now for the Congress at http://www.librepenseefrance.ouvaton.org/iheu/congres_16.htm.
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[10]
CALL FOR PAPERS
Conference on : Migration, religion and secularism - a comparative approach (Europe and North America)
Paris, June 17 - 18, 2005
University of Paris 1 - Sorbonne and Ecole Normale Sup�rieure The University of Paris 1 - Sorbonne and the Ecole Normale Sup�rieure are presently pursuing a comparative study on the impact of 'new' migration on the 'old' models and practices of seculari-zation in Europe and North America.
The project will end with a conference in Paris, on June 17 - 18, 2005 on the Centennial of the French Law of 1905 instituting the separation of the Church and State.
Over the last two centuries, a general process of secularization marked the West and beyond. This process produced a certain separation between the State and religion, pushing the latter into a private or "social" sphere, distinct from public affairs. Yet the principle of separation took on different forms: the "separation of the Church and State" in France, German "secularization," American "civil religion," which are strongly embedded in nations' identities. Today, these forms are increasingly challenged, in their daily practices if not in their theoretical foundations, by other models of religious prac-tices and conduct. What are those models and how do they differ in the way they set up the relationship between the State, religious groups and the individual? How do national "models" and practices interact, when the need arises, with the religious or cultural claims of new citizens? These questions are not only rele-vant for the engagement with the large Muslim communities that have developed in almost all western countries, but also for new Catholic populations in the United States, and Jews and Buddhists in Europe. In addition to an analysis of the current situation, the study of past practices seems important. For example, a re-examination of the place given to Jewish and Christian immigrants before the Second World War - in Europe and in North America - in order to compare their cases to the contemporary situation of "Latinos" in the United States and Russian Jews in Germany. How did 'old' countries of immigration manage to integrate new religions and identities in the past? What can be learned from the implementation of secularization models in former colonies, for example, Algeria in the case of France? Finally, an investigation into the different traditions and practices concerning the relationship of State and religion in the migrants' home countries (Morocco, Turkey, Mexico, or Senegal for example) is relevant.
The conference is organized by Jean-Claude Monod (CNRS-Ecole Normale Sup�rieure) and Patrick Weil (CNRS-University of Paris 1-Sorbonne) with Nilufer Gole (EHESS), Baptiste Coulmont (University of Paris 8) and Romain Garbaye (University of Paris 4). It will be a workshop format, with papers distributed in advance. Sessions will begin with brief presentations by the papers' authors and will focus on discussion. A selection of papers from each panel will also be prepared for publication. For the conference, we invite paper proposals in English or French from scholars of all disciplines. Proposals should include a title, 1-2 page description of the proposed paper, and a curriculum vitae. We request one printed copy of all materials to be sent to one of the postal addresses below and an email attachment containing your materials to the following email address:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] . The deadline for the material is December 1, 2004. Julian von Fumetti, assistant scientifique
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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