A passionate humanist and secularist, a dog lover, an opponent of nuclear energy, a promoter for peace and solidarity among south asians, former diplomat, artist, writer, and philanthropist, Madanjeet Singh, 88, a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador since 2000, passed away in Beaulieu-sur-Mer in the south of France on Sunday following a stroke.
Madanjeet Singh will be sorely missed across South Asia and by all who knew him.
Given below is URL for one of his articles that appeared in The Hindu:
A threat to multilayered secular cultures (October 31, 2011)
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/article2583781.ece
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Showing posts with label peace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label peace. Show all posts
January 07, 2013
December 25, 2008
Christmas for Orissa: Send Your Greetings
CHRISTMAS FOR ORISSA CAMPAIGN
PRAY FOR PEACE, FIGHT FOR JUSTICE, SAVE CHRISTMAS IN ORISSASend a greeting card to the people in power, urging them to act in favour of peace and justice!!!
Orissa Concerns
All you need to do:
1. Forward this mail, putting all email addresses of authorities (pl see appended).
2. Delete the portions which are above and below the dotted lines.
3. Add a line or two of your own message, if you like.
4. Send it.
5. Forward this appeal to your friends.
-----------------
Dear Friends,
The Christmas of 2008, traditionally an occasion for joy and hope, threatens to be a dark and fearful day for the people of Orissa.
While the bandh on Christmas Day has been called off by the VHP, the lack of any substantive serious change in the condition of those living in refugee camps and the constant sense of fear of further violence around Christmas remains to be a cause of concern. It was on Christmas Day last year that the attacks, organised by the VHP, Bajrang Dal, RSS and other Hindutva extremist groups, were launched.
In renewed violence since late August this year over 60 people have been killed, several women including nuns raped, over 4,400 houses and 151 churches destroyed and more than 18,000 people injured. Even as we write this there are over 50,000 people homeless and living in the most atrocious conditions unable to return to their homes due to fear and lack of state protection.
We sincerely appeal to people of all religions in Orissa, the rest of India and indeed all over the world to join the Christmas for Orissa Campaign to:
· Defeat the politics of hate indulged in by extremist organisations;
· Prevent the recurrence of further violence in the state;
· Preserve the spirit of Christmas; and
· Prevail upon the Indian and Orissa governments to protect the lives and livelihood of innocent citizens.
This Christmas for Orissa Campaign is part of already ongoing efforts in Orissa and elsewhere with similar objectives. In an effort to make Peace and Justice in Orissa the theme of this year's Christmas all over the world, send this Christmas/New Year greeting card (attached) to Indian government officials and VHP/RSS/BJP leaders. Below are some people you could mail Christmas greetings to:
Chief Minister (Orissa), Chair - National Human Rights Commission, Chief Justice (High Court) - Dr. Balbir Singh Chauhan, Chief Justice (Supreme Court), Prime Minister - Manmohan Singh, President - Pratibha Patil, L.K. Advani (BJP) - Leader of the Opposition, President (Bharatiya Janata Party) - Rajnath Singh,Vishwa Hindu Parishad (New Delhi)
You can cut/paste the email addresses as below to send the greeting -
cmo@ori.nic.in, covdnhrc@nic.in, highcour@ori.nic.in, supremecourt@nic.in, manmohan@sansad.nic.in, presidentofindia@rb.nic.in, advanilk@sansad.nic.in, bjpco@bjp.org, jaishriram@vsnl.in
Do spread the word.
For updates on Orissa you can visit http://blog.
All those interested in joining or contributing to the campaign are requested to contact:
christmasfororissa@gmail.com 
December 23, 2008
Jingle Bells Redux
Orissa Concerns Blog
Breaking every law
The mobs came asking blood
O'er the fields we ran
And very few got away
The police stood and watched
While Bajrang Dalis torched
Our houses by the night
And people by the day
Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
It's no fun to be a minority
In Orissa today
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
All we want is the Sangh Parivar
Would let us live and pray
Not so long ago
We thought we would be fine
But soon these Sanghi goons
Came and stole the shine
The plot was mean and dark
A swamiji was shot
We were blamed for it
And a massacre we got
Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
It's no fun to be a minority
In Orissa today
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
All we want is the government
To ensure some fair play
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what future do we have
In Orissa today
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
We will fight and we will win
And keep the fascists AWAY!!
Breaking every law
The mobs came asking blood
O'er the fields we ran
And very few got away
The police stood and watched
While Bajrang Dalis torched
Our houses by the night
And people by the day
Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
It's no fun to be a minority
In Orissa today
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
All we want is the Sangh Parivar
Would let us live and pray
Not so long ago
We thought we would be fine
But soon these Sanghi goons
Came and stole the shine
The plot was mean and dark
A swamiji was shot
We were blamed for it
And a massacre we got
Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
It's no fun to be a minority
In Orissa today
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
All we want is the government
To ensure some fair play
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what future do we have
In Orissa today
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
We will fight and we will win
And keep the fascists AWAY!!
December 03, 2008
Say No to Terror! - Join "Human Chain" in Mumbai, December 12, 2008
MUMBAI FOR PEACE: a campaign of Mumbai based organizations is Calling all Citizens of Mumbai!
Hold Hands in Unity!
Join "Human Chain" in Mumbai
12 00 noon December 12
SAY NO TO TERROR!
SAY NO TO VIOLENCE!!
We, the people of Mumbai, from all walks of life, of all faiths, all linguistic groups, all ages - traumatized and fearful after the attack on its spirit by criminals who are without a shred of humanity or conscience - will express our commitment to peace, and our condemnation of terror and violence in any form, by coming out on the streets on the coming Dec. 12.
We demand:
1. Government must take responsibility and map out long term and short term strategies, and take action on them.
2. Joint action between India and Pakistan governments to curb religious extremism of all shades in both countries.
3. Better coordination amongst various security and intelligence agencies to deal with terror; and sharing of intelligence and information.
4. Punishment of those responsible for attacks on minorities, which are also an attack on the majority and the multi-cultural body politic of India.
5. Swift, transparent and credible trial and punishment for all those involved in terror, whatever the religion they may profess,
6. A comprehensive Communal Violence Bill in place of the one pending in Parliament.
7. Immediate implementation of Police reforms, providing equipment and training, basic service conditions to police personnel and state security forces. Active facilitation of community participation in security and intelligence gathering..
8. Ensuring moderation and sensitivity in media reporting of violence whether terrorist or any other form, through self-regulation or fiat.
9. Evolve a policy for legal action against hate speech and demonization of any religion or community.
NO MORE SILENCE! WE MUST SPEAK OUT!
Hold Hands in Unity!
Join "Human Chain" in Mumbai
12 00 noon December 12
SAY NO TO TERROR!
SAY NO TO VIOLENCE!!
We, the people of Mumbai, from all walks of life, of all faiths, all linguistic groups, all ages - traumatized and fearful after the attack on its spirit by criminals who are without a shred of humanity or conscience - will express our commitment to peace, and our condemnation of terror and violence in any form, by coming out on the streets on the coming Dec. 12.
We demand:
1. Government must take responsibility and map out long term and short term strategies, and take action on them.
2. Joint action between India and Pakistan governments to curb religious extremism of all shades in both countries.
3. Better coordination amongst various security and intelligence agencies to deal with terror; and sharing of intelligence and information.
4. Punishment of those responsible for attacks on minorities, which are also an attack on the majority and the multi-cultural body politic of India.
5. Swift, transparent and credible trial and punishment for all those involved in terror, whatever the religion they may profess,
6. A comprehensive Communal Violence Bill in place of the one pending in Parliament.
7. Immediate implementation of Police reforms, providing equipment and training, basic service conditions to police personnel and state security forces. Active facilitation of community participation in security and intelligence gathering..
8. Ensuring moderation and sensitivity in media reporting of violence whether terrorist or any other form, through self-regulation or fiat.
9. Evolve a policy for legal action against hate speech and demonization of any religion or community.
NO MORE SILENCE! WE MUST SPEAK OUT!
July 21, 2008
A documentary film on a proposed memorial to victims of communal violence
The Survivors Lines - A Ten Minute Documentary on the proposed the Gulberg Museum of Resistance.
(A note from Sabrang with credits and acknowledgement to those who have helped so with the film and its broadcast)
To support the idea and more information please contact:
The Sabrang Trust
c/o Sabrang Communications,
December 06, 2007
Peace with honour? Or peace of the grave?
Indian Express
The professor must tell Gujarat’s Muslims...
Posted online: Thursday, December 06, 2007 at 0000 hrs
Peace with honour? Or peace of the grave?
I have been reading Professor Bandukwala’s comments and the readers’ responses to them. The professor must be lauded for his sentiments that Muslims in Gujarat must stand up and forgive their tormentors. At one level, this is the right and proper thing to do. But it is as well to recall that good as he is and as gentle as he is, he is just one of the 500,000 Muslims affected by the riots.
Salma Bibi is another. She asks, “How can I forgive? How can I forget those people from my own village who so enjoyed tearing my family limb from limb and killing them and so enjoyed snatching my baby from my arms before raping me one by one, while all the while I cried and pleaded with them? I said stop, stop, help me please, save me please. Don’t hurt my baby, please. But they killed him even as they raped me. So how can I forgive; why should I forgive?”
There is something beautiful in imagining the victim group rising up collectively, hands outstretched, to embrace the perpetrators and say I forgive you. There’s something ennobling and uplifting in that moment. But who would they go to? To the mass who today spit at them in scorn; who isolate them in stinking ghettos; who watch them live out broken lives each day, without pity or remorse; who won’t let them back into their land and homes and who make sure that every step to justice is subverted and there is agony without end?
What is forgiving really? Does it require giving up the battle for justice? Does it mean there will be no punishment? What a relief that would be for the few who are wriggling hard at court to buy and threaten their way out of getting their just desserts. What a laugh it would be for those who think nothing of telling passing researchers that they have themselves raped, burned and killed — sometimes for the fun of it, sometimes at the behest of others who they knew would protect them to the bitter end, thanks to the thick bonds of guilt that bind them. As thick as the blood on their hands.
There is a chorus of people telling Muslim victims to forgive and forget. The Hindus are telling them, the police is telling them, the courts are telling them, the administration is telling them, their own leaders are telling them, and now we have one more gentle physics professor telling them. People are trying. They have moved on. They have restarted lives. They are settling down. They are trying to move away from their nightmares, to get past the screaming grief and loss. They want peace. Just like Bandukwala.
But there is the peace with honour that justice brings and then there is the peace of the grave. Bandukwala has his beliefs and I have mine.
The writer is director, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
The professor must tell Gujarat’s Muslims...
Posted online: Thursday, December 06, 2007 at 0000 hrs
Peace with honour? Or peace of the grave?
I have been reading Professor Bandukwala’s comments and the readers’ responses to them. The professor must be lauded for his sentiments that Muslims in Gujarat must stand up and forgive their tormentors. At one level, this is the right and proper thing to do. But it is as well to recall that good as he is and as gentle as he is, he is just one of the 500,000 Muslims affected by the riots.
Salma Bibi is another. She asks, “How can I forgive? How can I forget those people from my own village who so enjoyed tearing my family limb from limb and killing them and so enjoyed snatching my baby from my arms before raping me one by one, while all the while I cried and pleaded with them? I said stop, stop, help me please, save me please. Don’t hurt my baby, please. But they killed him even as they raped me. So how can I forgive; why should I forgive?”
There is something beautiful in imagining the victim group rising up collectively, hands outstretched, to embrace the perpetrators and say I forgive you. There’s something ennobling and uplifting in that moment. But who would they go to? To the mass who today spit at them in scorn; who isolate them in stinking ghettos; who watch them live out broken lives each day, without pity or remorse; who won’t let them back into their land and homes and who make sure that every step to justice is subverted and there is agony without end?
What is forgiving really? Does it require giving up the battle for justice? Does it mean there will be no punishment? What a relief that would be for the few who are wriggling hard at court to buy and threaten their way out of getting their just desserts. What a laugh it would be for those who think nothing of telling passing researchers that they have themselves raped, burned and killed — sometimes for the fun of it, sometimes at the behest of others who they knew would protect them to the bitter end, thanks to the thick bonds of guilt that bind them. As thick as the blood on their hands.
There is a chorus of people telling Muslim victims to forgive and forget. The Hindus are telling them, the police is telling them, the courts are telling them, the administration is telling them, their own leaders are telling them, and now we have one more gentle physics professor telling them. People are trying. They have moved on. They have restarted lives. They are settling down. They are trying to move away from their nightmares, to get past the screaming grief and loss. They want peace. Just like Bandukwala.
But there is the peace with honour that justice brings and then there is the peace of the grave. Bandukwala has his beliefs and I have mine.
The writer is director, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
September 23, 2007
Celebrating the International Day of Non-Violence: 2nd October 2007
2nd October is no longer just an important date on the Indian calendar. It is now the day on which people across the globe will observe the United Nations Day of Non-Violence.
On this special day, Citizens for Peace, in partnership with Times of India, is planning a Peace Mela - an evening dedicated to creative expressions of the striving for peace through music, song, poetry, dance, drama, films and more.
The Peace Mela will be held in Mumbai (at the Horniman Circle/Asiatic Library space ) on the evening of 2nd October. It will be a five hour long gathering of well-known performing artists as well as unknown young talent. The youth of Mumbai will be invited to participate through showcasing their creative work -- poems, prose pieces, posters, photographs etc. -- all on the theme of peace. The Horniman Garden area will be used to display poems, photographs and prose pieces that people have sent in.
A film festival on the theme will be held in the Max Mueller Bhavan from 2pm to 7pm.
Some of the artistes who will be participating include:
Musicians - Amaan and Ayaan Ali Khan
Poets and writers - Arundhathi Subramaniam, Atul Tiwari, Javed Akhtar, Jerry Pinto, Menka Shivdasani, Ranjit Hoskote, and others
Singers - Jagjit Singh, Vivienne Pocha & Merlin D' Souza, Suraj Bhoeer, Shekhar Sen, Devieka and Suresh Bhojwani and others
Children's performances: Khoj (Teesta Setalvad's group) and Raell Padamsee's Group
Drama: Monologue from Iqbal Niyazi's play "Yeh kiska lahu hai"
The programme will end with the taking of a Peace Pledge by everyone present.
We look forward to your active participation, and to your ideas and inputs to make this event a great success.
--------------------------------------------------------------
We are planning to 'hang' poems, photographs and prose pieces on the theme of peace and non-violence from a 'Peace Tree' which will be situated in the Horniman Circle lawn.
These are being collected by volunteers, and the details are:
Poems: Max 150 words
Prose pieces: Max 250 words
Photographs (prints): A3 or A4 sizes
Entries to be sent by either email or post.
By email to: meghann@emdiworld.com.
By courier/post to: EMDI, IES Management College, 4th Floor, Opposite Lilavati Hospital, Bandra Reclamation, Mumbai 4000 50. Ph: 26550808/26427171
Please keep copies of whatever you send. Entries will not be returned.
The last date for sending in the entries is 28th Sept.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Citizens for Peace, a volunteer group based in Mumbai, is a non political organization that was formed in response to the violence and anarchy that ravaged Mumbai in 1992-93.We are a group of concerned citizens who came together to reaffirm Mumbai's cosmopolitan ethos and liberal, enlightened tradition. We believe that while there will always be differences between people “of belief, culture, values and religion“ the only way to settle these differences is through open dialogue and respect for the rule of law.
On this special day, Citizens for Peace, in partnership with Times of India, is planning a Peace Mela - an evening dedicated to creative expressions of the striving for peace through music, song, poetry, dance, drama, films and more.
The Peace Mela will be held in Mumbai (at the Horniman Circle/Asiatic Library space ) on the evening of 2nd October. It will be a five hour long gathering of well-known performing artists as well as unknown young talent. The youth of Mumbai will be invited to participate through showcasing their creative work -- poems, prose pieces, posters, photographs etc. -- all on the theme of peace. The Horniman Garden area will be used to display poems, photographs and prose pieces that people have sent in.
A film festival on the theme will be held in the Max Mueller Bhavan from 2pm to 7pm.
Some of the artistes who will be participating include:
Musicians - Amaan and Ayaan Ali Khan
Poets and writers - Arundhathi Subramaniam, Atul Tiwari, Javed Akhtar, Jerry Pinto, Menka Shivdasani, Ranjit Hoskote, and others
Singers - Jagjit Singh, Vivienne Pocha & Merlin D' Souza, Suraj Bhoeer, Shekhar Sen, Devieka and Suresh Bhojwani and others
Children's performances: Khoj (Teesta Setalvad's group) and Raell Padamsee's Group
Drama: Monologue from Iqbal Niyazi's play "Yeh kiska lahu hai"
The programme will end with the taking of a Peace Pledge by everyone present.
We look forward to your active participation, and to your ideas and inputs to make this event a great success.
--------------------------------------------------------------
We are planning to 'hang' poems, photographs and prose pieces on the theme of peace and non-violence from a 'Peace Tree' which will be situated in the Horniman Circle lawn.
These are being collected by volunteers, and the details are:
Poems: Max 150 words
Prose pieces: Max 250 words
Photographs (prints): A3 or A4 sizes
Entries to be sent by either email or post.
By email to: meghann@emdiworld.com.
By courier/post to: EMDI, IES Management College, 4th Floor, Opposite Lilavati Hospital, Bandra Reclamation, Mumbai 4000 50. Ph: 26550808/26427171
Please keep copies of whatever you send. Entries will not be returned.
The last date for sending in the entries is 28th Sept.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Citizens for Peace, a volunteer group based in Mumbai, is a non political organization that was formed in response to the violence and anarchy that ravaged Mumbai in 1992-93.We are a group of concerned citizens who came together to reaffirm Mumbai's cosmopolitan ethos and liberal, enlightened tradition. We believe that while there will always be differences between people “of belief, culture, values and religion“ the only way to settle these differences is through open dialogue and respect for the rule of law.
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