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Dec 29, 2004
Sankalp - Tsunami relief fund
Posted at 02:04 pm by sankalp-isu
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Nov 15, 2004
Invited Lectures - Study Abroad program - Summary
Here's the summary of discussion (during the meeting on 11/12/2004) with the students who visited India during Summer 2004 as part of Study Abroad program.
Nina, 19, is a junior in Sociology, Anthropology and Psychology.
Matt, 26, is junior in Cutural Anthropology and History.
Age group of the students visitng India was roughly 19-34 years. They were not very well acquainted before they started the journey together.
Nina wants to focus on Asia, plans to study in HongKong. was impressed specifically with Elango's village.
Matt was also impressed with Elango because of the fact that
- Elango was working with grass-root NGO
- He was giving a lot of things to do what he is doing right now
They also visited M S Swaminathan Research Center and were very impressed with it. Both, Nina and Matt, described the difficulty in describing India in just a few sentences. According to them, it cannot and should be categorized as one thing or another. It is one complete experience. Matt felt that more and more students going to places like India will encourage cultural exchange. Nina did not like having servants. She also mentioned that she didnot like
being categorized as "American". During her stay, she took the maids for dinner and got into trouble with the organizers for crossing the status barrier. She said they visited a lot of temples which she did not like that much. She said that instead she would liked to know the people more and talk to them.Matt said that he was particularly disturbed to see so many beggers asking for money. He said that he realized that by just giving money, he would be encouraging them to beg. But found it very difficult not to give anything to them.
Both of them found Indian food really tasty. So much so that now they feel that the food they eat daily is very bland. However, during their stay in India, they could not eat at the roadside restaurants because many of their fellow students felt sick during the trip.They saw two Bollywood movies and enjoyed it. One of the movies didnot even have any subtitles, but they could roughly follow the stoty. They were particularly amazed at the number of songs each of the movies had, and found it peculiar that the story would digress to include some songs. They said they enjoyed the whole movie experience. Infact, Nina has written a paper on Bollywood and says that she is addicted to Bollywood. They visited one of the call centers in Bangalore and were surprised to know that the people working there had learned different accents catering to different parts of USA. They said that visit to the call center was their most favorite part of the visit. They also realized the difference in the relationship between a teacher and student in USA and in India. Similarly, the relationship between the parents and children in the USA and in India.
Throughout this discussion, both of them were asking our reaction on various topics. However, for the time constraints, we had to stop somewhere !
Posted at 08:05 am by sankalp-isu
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Nov 1, 2004
Posted at 11:47 am by sankalp-isu
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Oct 18, 2004
Suggestion to petitioners
The Americans know better than the petitioners who oppose screening 'Final Solution'. Why do you think so many advanced technology jobs are being outsourced to India - is it because we plunder and rape.
The Indian students at ISU are more representative of India (than a documentary film) and the Americans who know them and see them can make out better things about India. If these students oppose the screening of the film, what impression will the Americans get.
The Gujarat riots have been well-publicised and many people across the world are aware of them. This does not mean they look down upon Indians. This film has already been shown and will be shown in major university campuses (Illinois, Duke, Madison, Iowa etc). By inviting the filmmaker here, we are creating an environment for a debate or civilised discussion, which is good.
In fact the Hindi films shown by ISA create a much worse impression about India.
A suggestion to those who signed the petition against screening 'Final Solution'. The RSS spokesman Ram Madhav is currently on a tour of university campuses in the US. The petitioners can invite him and he will come free of cost.
Posted at 10:19 am by sankalp-isu
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My first objection is to share this movie with not-so-informed American Audience. I want this movie to be screened in front of selected audience (Lecture comittee, Sankalp and ISA members) before it goes public. Now read on: Very first doubt about this movie: why it is banned by both BJP and Congress government? I am already a snake-charmer and third-world ass. I do not want to be a train-burner or rapist. Can we present a counter-view of this movie? A slide, a disclaimer can not replace a 2 hr visual of burning home, raped girls, amputated limbs, burnt bodies. I agree those happened. Yes, it did. It happened the same way our parents “quarrel” , our fathers take bribes, our sisters come back from disco at 2 am. So are we going to tell everybody that these happened? No, I am not. These are our shames. I want to hide them. It may
be wrong. But I want to do that.
We become train-burners, muslim-killers. So becomes your father, even if you are muslim, since you are brown skinned. Put your ego behind. Do not screw your country to save your face.
This movie may be impartial. It may not. In general impartial movies do not get banned and get awards abroad. If it is not impartial, then what happens to our country image?
I know it is not going to stop the movie. It’s a question of face-saving for the organizers. So you will go ahead in screening the movie. Now if you go ahead with your plan, you place you before your
country.
Prepare a good speech to explain the Americans, why we burn trains and rape girls and how common are those in India. They will not believe you when you will say that it is not common. They do not want to believe that. And you help them not believing that.
A part of a reviews: I do not know whether you want to see and show these things on screen with American audience.
Just read the bold parts:
Part 1, Pride and Genocide, dealt with the genocidal violence against Muslims in Gujarat in February 2002 and its immediate aftermath. It probes the patterns of pre-planned violence by right-wing Hindu cadres which was state-supported and sponsored. Many of the happenings are well-documented in NGO fact-finding reports as well as human rights group reports such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch; instances such as the horrifying method of killing, the sexual violence, the targeting of women, etc.
But to witness the direct involvement of institutionalized members of society such as the police was incredibly infuriating…and scary. Policemen, those that are there to protect and serve the civilian populace regardless of their backgrounds, were in front of the Hindu mobs in an organized fashion, firing at helpless Muslims, deliberately leading Muslims begging to be spared towards the mobs, actively joining in on the raping, burning and looting. This is something that is not novel to the region.
Posted at 10:18 am by sankalp-isu
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Medium of conversation during meetings
Medium of Conversation during meetings
Sankalp is composed of volunteers from different parts of India each of which have their own native language. During meeting, it often happens that people from a particular region start converstaions in their native language . This may which lead to misconception among people who can't understand the language (say e.g groupism). Do you feel we should enforce the fact that during the time of meeting everybody should talk in English or is taking to far.
Posted at 10:12 am by sankalp-isu
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Patriotic duty to present india in favorable light
A couple of weeks back when we were making posters for the octagon art festival, the initial version had some facts about India which were true but not flattering (e.g. largest no. of illiterates in the world). Some people though that we should not present this information on the flyers as it does not present india in favorable light while thought that we should stand by the facts. The question that arise is the following
Is it righ to highlight the facts that do NOT show our country in favorable light. Is it our patriotic duty to show only an shining india (particularly to an international audience). Or is it being insidious in disregarding the dirt linen and highlighting just the good points.
Should we present the facts as they are even if they are nor flattering. Do we have an obligation to truth in its entirity. Is accepting the facts the first step in trying to rectify them.
So, should we not show the dirty laundary or should we wash the dirty linen
Posted at 10:11 am by sankalp-isu
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